Can't Stop (more 'an just a read through!)

Now you don't have to look at garlics anymore!

I've given this thing a new look, to revive the spirit of blogging, something like that. Blogging was getting a bit boring.

Seeing that I'm in the whole Chili Peppers craze right now, the theme pretty darned obviously went around my favourite Chili Peppers song.

It started out of frustration, of realizing the entire piece of add math homework I've been working on for the past half hour had been solved wrongly, and then you grab a pen and you scribble all over it, and you grab a camera and you take a photo of it.

And you make a layout out of it.

You've got the lyrics to the song pretty much almost everywhere.

What's important is, a certain friend of mine can no longer say my blog looks like a kitchen recipe website, it no longer has pictures of garlic.

'Cause now it looks like a Chili Peppers' fan site.

Sooner or later I'mma get over this craze and realize how stupid this is, but for now, I'm enjoying everything Chili Peppers!

My player hasn't had anything but Chili Peppers' cds in it for the past 3 weeks. I'm surprised I haven't gotten bored of them already.

This post serves nothing more than to tell you that if anyone happens to have wads of cash you have no place to stash, you could do the 'benevolent philanthropist' thing and sponsor me a trip to Japan to watch the Red Hot Chili Peppers live in concert in July.

Also kind of a warm up post. The blogging enthusiasm has gone down quite a bit recently.

Stadium Arcadium. I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I couldn't be happier!

I just got Stadium Arcadium. I've been streaming the entire album from mp3.com everyday last week, so of course I'm happy.

The first thing you notice when you listen to the album is that it doesn't have much funk in it. I'd go so far as to say some songs don't even sound like the Chili Peppers. Like the title track, 'Stadium Arcadium', which is a lot less like Red Hot Chili Peppers and whole lot more like, probably, All American Rejects, or something.

It's like, they've gone from funk/rock group, to just rock group.

The wonderful thing about RHCP is that after a certain number of listens, you (or I guess, I) just tend to tune out the vocals and sometimes even the guitar parts, and just listen to the bass parts. They've got some funky bass lines in a lot of their older songs, like in 'Give It Away', or 'Can't Stop'.
But I guess, it doesn't happen a whole lot in this album. Pro'lly on a few songs.

But it's got some real good guitar parts throughout the entire album. So it's still real good.

Secara tuntasnya (new word I learned!), it's a real nice album that is worth the money. I'd recomend it to... anybody whose music tastes are like Chooiyen's.

Two-disc album, 24 tracks, around two hours' worth of real good listening material, definitely worth it.

It's pretty amazing, for a band to have started out years before we were born, to still be able to make good music that we like some 20+ years later.

If they decide to go to Singapore, and decide to leave out Malaysia, like all the bands do, I'd scream and say "I don't care!" and go watch them live in Sing. Because I like Anthony.

* * * * *

Good luck to everybody in the remaining days of exams, I guess.

I haven't been doing any studying at all, I think I expect myself to remember everything I read two weeks ago.

* * * * *

Yeah, that's about it.

Just so I could get a new post in, I guess. *shrug*

They look almost like triplets!

Ah, finally!

All this talk about Johnny Depp has helped me finally figure out that this guy



who is Anthoy Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in the 'Otherside' video, (photo slightly blurry 'cause I used the "print-screen" method)

looks a LOT like this guy



who is (pretty obviously) Johnny Depp from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean 2'.

No wonder Anthony Kiedis looked so good in that video, he lookd just exactly like Johnny Depp! If you looked like Johnny Depp, you cannot help but look good.

Every time I watch that video, and I see Kiedis, I always think, "He looks like someone! But just who?" And it really irked me so, because I don't like it when I'm on the verge of figuring something out, but am not quite succeeding yet.

And, because after you've overcome the first obstacle, everything else just comes about pretty easily, so then I went on and realized that Anthony looked a lot more ( A LOT more) like this guy



who is Marty Casey, a contestant from Rockstar INXS.

I did say that Marty is good looking, didn't I?

Cheeeh, how could I not have seen this earlier? *Slaps forehead*
And all this while I've had question marks while watching the 'Otherside' video.

They're not exactly good looking in the typical sense, but they're pretty attractive.

Well then. Now you know what my idea of good looking is!

How long, how looooong...
Will I slide..
Seperate my si-i-i-ide..

RHCP!

* * * * *

Here's a good song you could listen to - Peterpan's "Mungkin Nanti".

They're from Indonesia, yeah, and you might've already heard of the song, or you might not, in which case you really should give it a try, 'cause it's real good.

You could click on the link for the download, but there might be an interruption at the end. Or you could just download it yourself.

(This is particularly directed at Li-Ann. I dunno, I just have a feeling she'd like it.)

* * * * *

What significant thing have I done during the past week?

Why, nothing, of course.

Movies, can I have more please?

Paul Bettany is a pretty good actor. He played my favourite character from one of my favourite movies (the imaginery friend from A Beautiful Mind), and him, being Silas, saved the DaVince Code from being a disaster.

Yeah, I finally watched the DVC, and all I can say about the movie is, it's not as good as the book.

All that stuff about Jesus and Mary Magdalene and the Church, by watching the movie/reading the book, it doesn't mean you take all that as the truth.

You know, it is pretty interesting to note that Malaysia has chosen to show The DVC, which presents very controversial and pretty much distorted Christianity truths, and 'The Omen', that anti-christ movie (see the upside-down cross on the posters), but has also chosen to ban movies like 'Passion Of The Christ' and 'Prince Of Egypt'.
I mean, at least those two don't hold lies (okay, twisted truths).

I recall reading that 'Prince Of Egypt' was banned because messengers of God are very much revered, and should not be portrayed, or something lah.
And 'Passion Of The Christ' was deemed unsuitable, with one of the reasons being the very violent scenes, leading to Christ's crucification.

Cow dung, I say.

They choose to show Damien, the offspring of Satan, but they think portraying Moses is wrong.
And if you watched Passion Of The Christ, and you watched Final Destination 3 (which is rated 'Umum'), you'd realize that the scenes from Passion is no more violent than the death scenes from Final Destination. (Heads impaled by nails, people crushed to death by gym machinery, all that blood and gore, eww.)

They happily show movies of the devil and all (i.e Exorcism of Emily Rose), yet they ban all the proper Christian movies.
It's not about being evangelistic, it's about being more open-minded.

Let's hope that by the next few decades, intelligent people would take over the cencorship board.

* * * * *

I think I've mentioned, I finally found the Nightmare Before Christmas DVD! There it was, lying amongst a stack of old DVDs, in a store in SS2, looking dusty and forlorn.

Oh it was nice, you know, listening to those songs again.
"Kidnap the Sandy Clause,
beat him with a stick,
lock him up for 90 years,
see what makes him tick!"

Weeeeeeell. I have got to say, Tim Burton is pretty much a genius. Look at all the movies he's worked in.

I used to like this movie and that movie, all of which are from the 80's and 90's, without realizing until much later that Tim Burton had a hand in all of them.

'Nightmare Before Christmas' would be a prime example. I had no idea it was Burton was involved in its production. And another favourite, 'PeeWee's Big Adventure'. It was a pretty weird movie, and it was funny, and I loved it. 'Beetlejuice'. 'Edward Siscorhands'. (How do you spell siscors?) 'Sleepy Hollow'.

He also did short films, which were pretty dark. Like 'Franenweenie', in which this kid's dog was killed in a car crash, and this kid was pretty upset over it. He learned from science class that electricity could reanimate ex-living things, so the kid dug up his dead dog, and ressurected it from the dead. The dog died once more in a fire, and the kid brought him back to life once more.

We were going "Yer... why so creepy one?" throughout the film. But I absolutely like!

Okay, so now you have one of the greatest film makers ever.

Moving on, the greatest actor ever.

Johnny Depp!

Captain Jack Sparrow and Mr. Willy Wonka are both a little eccentric, but their characters are really pretty mcuh worlds apart, but a good GREAT actor like Johnny Depp shouldn't have a problem carrying out those roles wth perfection.

He's not good looking at all, but the guy's pretty attractive, don't you think?

* * * * *

So, besides getting the Nightmare Before Christmas DVD, I also bought Scary Movie 4, which I've only watched the first 15 minutes and I've already lost interest in it, and also The Exorcist.

Yes, the original Exorcist, the on starring Linda Blaire, the one said to be the most scary movie ever, the one my father said got him so frightened when he watched it when he was younger.

My mom was pretty reluctant when I decided to buy that DVD, because she thinks it was very frightening too.

So yeah, I went ahead and bought it. But I haven't watched it yet.

* * * * *

I'm not a huge fan of TV shows, and I especially dislike Korean/Japanese/Cantonese drama serials.

But I have to admit, I absolutely adore old-ish movies. You know, movies from the 80's and the early 90's. Probably because I used to watch them with my brother and sister, and things like that don't just go away without leaving fond memories. Yeah, I'm always in search of old titles in VCD/DVD stores.

I watched Pirates of the Carribean again today, and I think I fell in like with Capt. Jack Sparrow all over again!

5 hours, my first step to driving-hood

They say a day you didn't laugh, is a day wasted.

Just so you wouldn't waste your day, here, clicky clicky - I Want It That Way

It's two chinese dudes doing a Backstreet Boys song. Gawd it was funny!

My sister found it, and we had a whole lot of laughs watching it.

Look at the guys' faces, such pained expressions - like "damn heartbreak, damn sad".

Then there's them doing a chinese song.

Also, them again, doing BSB's As Long As You Love Me.
But by the time I got here, it was getting boring. 'Cause this one is a bit... deliberate lah. The first one was more natural.

I think the skinny guy looks like someone from Catholic High, but I can't quite tell who.

Ahah. What's funny to us might be pretty lame to you lah.

* * * * *

Aiyoh, every once in a while, I get the urge to click the delete button.

Why do I write such crap and post it online. Embarrassing myself only lah, honestly.

People everywhere have such nice-looking blogs with awesome contents.

Yesterday's post was done early in the morning lah. It does sound a bit stupid now lah.

You guys DO know I wasn't referring to anyone in particular.

* * * * *

Someone asked me one day while in class, "Eh, when's your birthday?"

And I answered, "January 16th."

And that person replied, "WAH. Then that makes you the oldest in our class!"

And someone else heard us, and says, "So? She until now also still haven't go take driving exam!"

I have been talking about taking classes since, when? Oh, end of last year, I think. See, once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator.

Weeeeeell. I finally attended the 5 hour talk.

What took me so long, eh? To quote a guy I met today (whose birthday is in February), "Must manage to pujuk father first mah."

You know, I hear people talk about how boring it is all the time. Someone advised me to bring along an MP3 player. Another person said I must, must go with a friend. I think someone also mentioned doing cross-stitching there.

Then you get people sending SMS-es that go, "Eh, bored lah. Am attending the undang talk now."

See, with all of that, I naturally thought it would be very, very boring.

But, I think I got lucky. It wasn't boring, at all. Quite on the contrary. We were laughing every few minutes, not snigger-snigger, but more laugh-out-loud, and this went on throughtout the entire 5 hour talk.

The chief trainer was a funny guy, he made the talk pretty interesting.

The guy sitting next to me actually brought the DaVinci Code along for reading during the talk, but he didn't take it out once, except during breaks. At one point he even went, "Eh? I thought people say very boring one?"

You know, even if I do finally get my 'P' license, I wouldn't really wanna drive anybody, 'cept myself lah. My sister asked if I'd drive her to the malls. I said no. I mean, what if I crash, one life lost is better than a handful of lives gone mah. And, girls are not very good drivers anyway.

ZiHui was going on about how her dad took her driving, illegally lah, but it was a car-less, people-less place, so it was pretty safe.

So during dinner one night, I asked my parents IF I were to ask whether they'd let me drive, illegally, before I get my license, what would they say. I only asked IF I were to ask.

My mom always gives the most boring answers. "Cannot lah! So dangerous."

My dad, however, actually said he'd let me drive, 'cause 'driving is easy'. So yes, I can drive soon! (If I ask nicely enough lah of course).

Oh I can no longer celebrate Children's Day, 'cause I'm Old Enough now!

* * * * *

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* * * * *

What with spending so much time with my head buried in books last week, I told myself that I'd totally be completely lazy this first week of holidays and not do anything at all.

You know, not think about school, or classmates, or homework, not chat on MSN Messenger, not SMS anyone, not reply SMSes so much , not read blogs, not blog... you know, disconnect myself from the world, just completely drop off the radar, just have a whole lot of 'me' time, and none of 'other-people' time.

Okay, so, I haven't been completely disconnected. I try to not reply SMSes, but you get that occassional message that you cannot just ignore without feeling guilty. But on a few accounts, it took me 3 days to reply a message. I dunno, I just got lazy.

So this brings on the whole 'lazy to communicate, lazy to interact' thing that I'm in for the past few months. Yes I get lazy when it comes to SMS-ing people. There are so many times when I just completely ignore a message, because I was too lazy to reply. I don't even sign into MSN during the day anymore. I bet you haven't seen me online for the past 2 months (until today la). Utter laziness.

That's one thing. Another thing I've realized is how much time us teens spend on stupid stuff, you know, like Friendster, or chatting on MSN, or typing on the cellphone, or MySpace or whatever is the rage right now.

Tech junkies my ass. Teens just think it's an indication of teen-coolness, of being In, not Out.

Yeah okay, lemme explain how I got to conclusions like that.

I did say I didn't spend a whole lot of time 'communicating with people'. And because of that, I had a lot more time doing what should be the real pleasures of life.

Like baking a cake with my sister, then celebrating mom's birthday at night, like watching The Nightmare Before Christmas on DVD (yes I finally found it!) with my family, like spending my nights cozied up in bed, reading about the mysteries of the universe and how it came to be, and stopping only when people are almost ready to get up, like spending hours sitting on the floor, just listening to amazing music (it's funny how few people actually listen to music as a sole activity), like reading your notebook journal from years ago, and adding new entries to it. It obviously is very different from writing in a blog.

Oh, and also lying on my bed, thinking. They sometimes come all at once, but the important ones come one at a time, and I do a bit of reflecting on the Chooiyen as of May 2006.

But that's not important. What's important is, I've realized that I can live without MSN, without the internet, without my cellphone, without being a busybody and reading other people's blogs.

After days of being detached to things like that, I come online again. And someone tells me about a photo someone else uploads onto Friendster. And I actually think, 'how sad for her'.

It is pretty sad, you know, on one hand there are people who have totally gotten over the Friendster craze, deleted their accounts even, and on the other hand there are some other people, still spending hours surfing other people's profiles, going through their photos and testimonials. (It's also very sad how some poeple think the testimonial count is a measure of their popularity. How sad to keep asking for testimoials.)

I signed into MSN today, my first time in months, and already I had someone talk to me about how XX did something for the sake of beauty, and how YY and ZZ wants to be doing the same, too.
I think it's perfectly fine for one person to do something, you know, to make herself look better, but problems arise when a whole bunch of people want to start doing it to look beautiful, too. And when I say 'do it', I mean taking away what is natural and turning it into man-made beauty. That is probably not going to last long.

You know, we are chest-deep in this now, it's prety hard to get out. You read about the teenagers who spend hours and hours SMS-ing on the cellphone, but you don't think "cool dude" or "Ms. Popularity", instead you go, "how sad, how pathetic, what a waste of time".

You read about them in the papers, but don't think people like these don't live among us. These are the people who spend a whole lotta RM's on phone bills, these are the people who leave their MSN status on "Away" for hours instead of just switching the computer off, these are the people who goes through people's Friendster profiles and photos all the time, these are the people who look at other people's 'This' and 'That' and compare those with their own, these are the people who think all of this is just a measure of popularity.

And I think, at some point or other, we have all been one of 'these people'. So, I urge you, take up the 'Isolation Scheme', see that life really isn't about how up-to-date you are with your friends.
Spend time with yourself and do some serious thinking about where you're heading, and if it's some place you don't fancy, you better stop right there.
I sure as heck wouldn't want to remember my teenage years as time spent in front of an MSN chat window.


P.S. Thank you LOADS for sticking with me till the end of the post. I know this post is pretty boring, but it's kind of a reality-check, you know. Look how much time we've spent doing the usual 'teen stuff' that really is stupid when you think about it. A small dose is okay la, of course, but big portions would be stupid.

P.P.S. I know the whole Isolation Scheme 02062006 advertisemet is pretty (okay, very) lame, but it just came to me, you know? And when something like this comes, you just don't stop it.

Thanks for reading, and if I offended you in anyway, well, I really didn't mean to, you see?

Have a very special day. Ciao!