It has been 1 year and 9 months since I ORD-ed. During that time, I broke up with a girl who in hindsight forced me to make some painful choices. I have gotten together with a girl that is beautiful and respects me for who I am.

I have to remember what I was aiming for. It is now less that 18 hours before my COM231 exam and I have not studied adequately for it. I wanted to aim high for my degree. Unfortunately, I am now aiming for the equivalent of a third class honors and get done over with it.

I promised myself I would get fit and pass my ippt. I did it. Now, I promised myself I would get fit and work out to sculpt a better body, and aim for silver. I have to get started soon. My body is not young anymore, and my knee is giving me problems.

I have a lovely girlfriend who does everything with me. I forgone drinking, clubbing, and staying late nights for a single-minded conviction to my health and body. I am now veering from my path, and I need to keep myself on track.

During this 1 year and 9 months, I have found friends and missed friends. My heart feels slightly sore at how things have turned out with people whom I thought were my closest friends, and how others have treated me. I shall remain resolute; only trust whom I trust, and take the rest with a grain of salt.

Lastly, I need to get started on my novel. Write something.

Songs to Learn:

Jet: Look what you've done

Driver's High

Muse: Hysteria

The Killers: When we were young

Smoke on the Water

Only God Knows Why

Ignorance

I spent 40 mins trying to remember and looking and pressing funny stuff on my remote for my dvd player. So i'm gonna write it here.

For my dvd player region free unlock:
Power On
Open the tray
Push 0 four times
Push Pause button

I'm not that bad.

I have better standards.

I still have hope.

I'm not that condemned.

I still have dreams.

I still have principles.

I'm not slipping.

I'm not losing control.

I'm not deceiving myself.

Am I?

Am I?

I was just skimming through the Life & Arts section of The Business Times when I saw the caption on an article :"Face the virtual music".

Underneath it has the statement "Tune in to an orchestral concert from your computer and experience the quality and drama of a live performance".

I strongly disagree.

True, the internet can and has spread the accessibility of music as a whole. Lyrics, tabs, music videos, scores, the music itself and every other whatchamacallit are all available online, legal or otherwise. Even classical music.

The size and cost of maintaining an orchestra is very high, and it might mean that present day orchestras are struggling with funding and support.

In this regard, the internet might spread awareness and support, which might mean an increase in more people to orchestral listening in digital form.

However, I still think nothing can change the magic of a live act, especially an orchestral performance.

The history of each and every instrument in the orchestra and how it is maintained and played affects the sound of the orchestra.

How each individual player draws within him/herself the vibe off each other and the conductor after dedicated practice to finally perform to his/her best on this special evening, every evening.

How your inner soul is set on fire when a soloist pulls off his piece flawlessly, with flair and feeling.

The chill down your spine when the conductor flails his baton for that beautifully broiling crescendo.

The simple acoustics of the venue and where you are sitting affects the sound.

To me, an orchestral performance is, first and foremost, appreciation of the sound. But being able to be there when the magic happens and looking at all the performers doing their best, for you, the audience, makes it much more personal.

So many more things add to the enhancement and enjoyment of an orchestral performance.

Besides, the orchestra (which in its essential form is a group of people playing music for other people) dates back to before any recordings of any type was technologically available. The orchestra is meant to be played in front of a live audience.

I feel plugging in headphones, no matter how expensive and how well it works, cheapens the experience.

Maybe I've lost sight of what makes me me.

Maybe being forcibly mixed with people uncouth, rude and dastardly has altered my internal disposition towards life.

I have to grow this shell to protect myself. To at least survive for another year.

Maybe I've lost sight of what I really want.

Let's make this clear now. I want to experience the world. As much of it as I can, for myself.

I want to go mountain skiing at the Alps, swim in the (still blue) Mediterraneans, find the world's best oysters.

I want to find Tokyo's best underground undiscovered rock band. I want to find America's most famous band not on TV.

I want to go to Dance Valley in the Netherlands, and Creamfields in England. I really, really want (and I will do this next year) to go to Fuji Rock in Japan, Big Day Out in Australia, and Rock in Rio.

I want to run along the sheer slope of a cliff overlooking the ocean. I want to sleep in a house on stilts, in the middle of the sea.

I want to have hot sweaty sex with a Japanese babe I picked up from Shinjuku. I want to make love with the girl of my dreams in Paris, overlooking the Eiffel Tower.

I want to sit down at a cafe in Madrid and discuss nothing with my best friends.

A courtship that isn't a chore. A wedding that isn't grand and presumptuous.

I want to go shopping in Harajuku (again, in summer this time). I want to trawl Hong Kong and Taiwan and Japan and Korea and New York looking for the most awesome streetwear.

I want to pray at the Bodhi Tree in India, at the Wailing Wall (or just look at it, if it's possible) in Jerusalem, at the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City, and visit the Kabaa (I think it's banned for non-muslims to enter though).

I want to talk to Banksy and see how he works. I want to find the Alexamenos Graffito. I want to listen to Yo Yo Ma, and touch a real Stradivarius.

I want to write a trilogy.

I will need to not lose sight of my goals. I will need lots and lots of money.

Most importantly, I need to remember myself, and not hate people.

Let it be known that I said this: Feuds and pettiness cloud the mind; time spent retaliating and scheming is better spent appreciating the world for what it has.

One more year and I'm free.

For all you say about what types of stuff I buy and how it looks like you can get it for $30, you should remember the little details.

My wallet costs more that your shirt, jeans, shoes, bag and underwear.

Up yours, dude.

Travis Fucking Barker

God-like.

Just when i feel i'm improving in my drumming, Travis Barker breaks a hand and teaches me again how to rock.

Awesoem

Okay I gotta load this video up.

Super Mario Meets Vadrum:

Local Talent

What do you think about local talent?

Apart from the local TV shows like Campus Superstar (which i hate) and Superband (which i hate) and Singapore Idol (oh god), I'm happily surprised to find lots of real talent in the little red dot.

Ling86 seems to be popular:

Apart from the tempo changes which need to be done more naturally and less self-consciously and a few very careless errors, she's pretty good! I haven't gone into listening her lyrics yet.

Yeah I listen to the whole song first. I don't really process the lyrics. Too busy surfing/stoning/gaming to care. But she's got some inspiration from some poet called Larkin, so if I ever get to listen for the lyrics I guess i would appreciate her more.

But listening more and more I get more tired of her. It wears off. It's just a simple ditty.

She's good but I'd want to see her composing other styles of songs rather than "simple melody + chords = slightly intelligent yet pleasing". Only when you start mixing and matching from little genres then your work will be unique, mah.

Cover of Radiohead's Black Star:


Pretty good while it lasts. Going out of tune alot tho. Why no solo ah? Take it simple ah? Or I deaf?

Some Band Covering Aaron Kwok's Ai3:


I put in only cos the bassist is nice. 7 string bass siol. Power leh. But that's about it. He don even fucking use 5 strings.

Is it really that hard to compose a song that will be easy to listen and yet memorable? Like Terra Naomi's Up Here(i prefer it to Say It's Possible).

Hmm. Something that comes to mind is A Vacant Affair. Sarah intro me one! Their track How About Enough (which I like the most) is rerecorded one. The drums were much suckier. Seems they changed drummer or something. Now their new drummer suits their emocore sound. The Departure goes from being screamo to some kinda post-punk pseudo Good!

Plain Sunset is good also. Their River Song is original, catchy in the indie-rock way.

Sian, I wanna hear more. I say so much, but I know its really hard to play as a band in Singapore and make good nice music, let along making it big.

"Idols" on tv have no talent other than looking good and singing well. Their songs aren't self-composed; they're groomed to appear as good(read:artificial) as they can on TV. So much more to ramble here but there you go.

Local singers and bands playing self-composed music in Singapore deserve more support, for so many reasons. But the most important (and decidedly corny) is that those guys are forming music history in Singapore.

Ahhh I dunno. I end with my own band covering Sweet Child of Mine with Peter as guest:

A very interesting article written in 1995(that's 12 years ago) on one of Britain's richest men, Felix Dennis.

P.S. Page 5-and-a-half onwards seems to be a totally unrelated article caused by faulty programming. So there. Like you're gonna read it anyway ~_~

He made his millions in namely 2 things: Publishing computer magazines at the right time, and Micro Warehouse ($2billion, NASDAQ listed).

He aims to spend a few hours of every day writing poetry.

My father bought his book, How to Get Rich. Normally I would never touch such a book, but this guy was formally a hippie, who made a rags to riches story come true, in true blue 1970s style.

As you might have guessed the 1970s in Britain and USA interest me greatly. Many great bands (Led Zeppelin, The Who are my favourites) composed many timeless songs that fascinated me so much. So I thought it was pretty interesting to read the writings of a person who made it rich in the 1970s.

So this guy who sang a duet with John Lennon for charity (how many can make that claim? I dunno what song tho), who once was jailed for obscenity charges in a magazine, of which he was given a less severe sentence than by the judge for being 'less intelligent' than his fellow accused, is rich.

So what?

It's just so interesting to read such a character, especially from his own writing. He doesn't go into graphs or statistics or stuff like that. He simply assumes you are gonna be able to process those figures yourself, and gets on with what and how he made it. It reads pretty much like an informal book. The way he writes is pretty straightforward, doesn't make any pretensions except for the poetry quotes, but perhaps poetry is simply not my taste.

Basically it contains a few pointers on lessons he learnt while getting rich, but I like the small links it contains to the 1970s culture. Richard Branson is also another one(more connected, as he once owned Virgin Records), but I might never ever start reading about him.

So there.

Development Hell

Development Hell. The two words that a programmer will never ever admit to having.

Which points us to this article on Duke Nukem Forever.

A few quotes on the milestones that have happened since Duke Nukem Forever was announced on April 28th, 2007:

"The Identity of Deep Throat has been revealed."

"Team Fortress 2"

I lol'd.

Hmmm

I've always liked chinese music in the back of my mind. They're songs you can hum to. Really good melodies.

What I'm talking about is not the Twins trash(Sorry monkey) and Jolin shit you cheena fuckers are listening to today.

Ah Mei and Jacky Cheung:

The first part is boring. I've uploaded the 2nd part only. Some singaporean guy recorded to his VCR (channel 8 old logo lol). Brings back memories when my grandma house was still crowded with so many uncles and aunties.

Ah Mei:

She power la. Love her.

Ah Mei and Harlem Yu:

Hehehe fried rice. Chinese singers pronounce English so much better than Japanese. Ugh.

As always in every attempt at classification there are exceptions to the general rule. Cao ge and stefanie sun as pointed out by Ryan are awesome. Jay chou is massively talented, but he needs to widen his horizons.

One observation is that the taiwanese and hongkong mainstream music scene is(mainland china is far, far away.) idol oriented. And commercialized, but what isn't, let's carry on. The band takes backstage, and emphasis is on the singer, 100%. Guitar solos are subtle, and drums are loleasy. That's not to say that it's boring. If sung by awesome singers like above, its good. But with people who cant hold a fucking note and are just acting cute, it sucks. Examples are everywhere, not gonna name any.

Songs are also usually NOT composed by the singers, and the music and music video industry is every bit as polished as their western counterparts.

America and Britain have a strong share of idol singers, but a large portion of the music scene is made up of bands. Emo, punk, scream, thrash, death, whatever, the instrument players and the music itself plays a larger role in their music. A good guitar riff is as appreciated as a good wailing. Vast majority of bands also compose their own poison. A good thing about this is that their styles are not dictated then by their song composers (dictated by many other less obvious things). They are allowed creative control of their songs.

Why is it so? I got no idea, I didnt research this shit. Beyond, Mayday, uh.. Shin and F.I.R, thats about it?

Oh One Night in Beijing by some band at the Esplanade:

5 Stars to the old man. AHAHAHA

2 singaporean 'stars' singing one night in beijing:

I didnt know that guy could sing. The one who's singing the falsetto can sing, tho his career fails lol.

Japanese babe singing one night in beijing:


CHINA IDOL SINGING ONE NIGHT IN BEIJING:

She's NOT BAD leh. rough as hell tho. And low key.

I love that song lar. shaddup.

And still the world spins. Gently. Off about 23 degrees. Spinning.