Adding to the nooooise!

So here's my theory.

If you have been listening to a band for a gazillion years, and have never seen them live, when they finally do come, you obviously get super-excited, BUT! it just isn't the same.

Catching a band live when you've just bought their latest album no more than a year ago is damn exciting.

Catching a band live when you have listened to their old songs years ago, but have not listened to their latest album much, is not as exciting.

So, catching Switchfoot live was very anti-climatic. Not that they were any bad though, 'cause they pretty awesome.

Jon, with his somewhat effeminate gestures and long hair all over his face and his staggering around the stage, looked like a drunkard. A drunkard that rocks out on the guitar and preaches.

Yeashhh, I have never been to a concert where the band's front man actually preaches (morals, not gospel). But you cannot expect anything different from a band like Switchfoot.

Anwyay. I think I kind of over-listened to their songs since form 3, to the point where the songs are killed a little. (Much like how songs that are overplayed on the radio start losing their appeal.)

I mean, I remember coming home from school and putting them on repeat while I play volleyball against myself (err, the wall). I particularly remember "Learning To Breathe" being repeated a little too often. And then they play it during the show and it somehow falls flat. So the moral is, music players' repeat mode kills songs. Like, really.

And here comes the part where I complain about inconsiderate people at concerts.

There isn't a single live show I've been to that doesn't have signs prohibiting the usage of recording devices.

But. There isn't a single live show I've been to that doesn't have people trying to record the entire show.

It is completely fine if you want you whip out your camera for a few snapshots (even though it clearly isn't allowed), but it is not fine when you have your camera up, video-recording the entire damn show!

It is annoying as heck! I didn't pay more than RM300 (in the case of the MCR show) to stand close to the stage, only to have my view blocked by your hand and camera!

Everyone would be jumping to the music, and there your hand will be the entire time, blocking, obstructing, basically being a nuisance and annoying the heck out of people beside and behind you.

And there wouldn't be just one of such people. There would always be quite a number, which basically means if you are unfortunate enough, all you see are hands and cameras.

So there will be times when I just give up and resort to looking at the band from the view screen of cameras.

I don't get it though. Doesn't it ruin their whole concert experience, to have their arms raised the whole time, and not being able to move/jump just to keep their cameras steady? There was this Malay girl whose right hand got tired I guess, so she was supporting it with her left hand. Tsk.

And again, all this while large signs were pasted outside "strictly" prohibiting recording the show. Sure, if strict means turning a blind eye. You'd wonder what the security were looking for when they go through their bags before letting them in, because they sure didn't confiscate recording devices like they threatened to on the signs.

Tee-pee-cal Malaysians. Tsk.

Anyway, I feel obliged to leave you with something from my favourite Switchfoot song.

Where's your treasure, where's your hope
if you get the world and lose your soul?

Where indeed.

I recall reading something like this from the Bible. But it doesn't matter, it serves as a pretty good reminder to everyone.

You know, for a band whose songs contain words such as "decadence" and "entropy", and so often sings about moral degeneration, Switchfoot is a pretty upbeat band, the kind of band that serves you wake-up calls and make you re-evaluate yourself and what you stand for.

Niiiiiiice.

(They didn't perform this post's namesake though. I was so hoping they would.)

* * * * *

Interview tomorrow. Weirdly, at an Indian mamak.

Ciao!

foot. switch.

Why is it that when you're lying in bed at night, and you're having these (relatively) profound thoughts swimming in your head, and you figure those would be cool things to write and blog about, but when you finally sit down and try to write them out, everything just leaves you?

They abandon you so that all you can do when that "create post" page is open is rave about the wonders of (insert favourite thing) and bitch about one thing or another.


This being one of those times, I'll just go on to say that for the past week I've been counting down the days to ----- SWITCHFOOT concert!

Gah I've never been more excited!

Given the nature of their songs (inspirational lyrics, beautiful music, not-too-loud sort of rock), I think it's the perfect chance to recharge and re-discover yourself. Even better is the fact that it'll be held in Hall 4 at the KL Convention Centre, which means it's small and perhaps it'd feel more personal.

I love Switchfoot. I forgot how amazing they can be.

Their music is one of the most inspirational, not a la Joey McIntyre "Stay The Same" kind of way (which is cheesy when you listen to it at the wrong time of the day), but more of the U2 "Beautiful Day" way.

Their songs aren't as distracting (and not as bashing loud), which made them my most played during those horrid long hours of study during PMR.



And you know what else is exciting? Chinese New Year!

The most most most most exciting time of the year!

You go to any mall right now and the there'd be all the red decorations up and all that dong-dong-chiang songs would be playing.

They'd have all these modernized versions of that "mei tiao da jie xiao xiang" or that "he xin nian, zhu xin nian" song playing. The other day I was at 1U, if I remember correctly, and they played this weird song that was really an English song and a Chinese song merged together.

They forget, of course, that most times, the original remains the best.


Obviously I haven't got a whole lot of things in my life to particularly excited over right now.


Er right I'll go off now, to have a bit of doughnut.

Adding to the noooooiiiise!

I mentioned My Chemical Romance played "Dessert Song" and the crowd was silent the whole time? I actually meant they played "Desert Song". LOL I think MCR is hardly the kind of band to sing about sweets and dessert.


I realized something.

I realize what we had were VIP tickets.

We kind of assumed that all Red Zone tickets were VIP tickets (you know, had "VIP" printed on them to layan you a bit), and went in through the same gate.

They actually had a VIP entrance! We should've entered that!

Would easily have been at the first two rows then!

*heartache*



During the show, these huge orange lights started flashing, right, and people around me had their hands raised and moving synchronously to the beats.

I got this deja vu feeling, and I later realize it was exactly like this -



Can you see it?



Exactly like that! LOL it was like art coming to life, or something. Pretty cool.

The Black Parade is a pretty epic-y album, actually. Not that it is an Epic Album in itself, just that the songs have an epic feel to them, very ideal for stadium shows.

For some reason, I feel that stadiums and bright lights and large, enthusiastic crowds cheering have a very Heroic and Epic atmosphere.

That was the 'feel' I wanted to portray in the class page anyway. 5S6 with drive and motivation of epic proportions, ahah. ("We soar!")



Anyway I went to MTV Asia, it's always a good source of information on who's coming to Asia and which band is performing.

And - Switchfoot is playing in Singapore in January!

That band that got me through my hell-ish PMR days.

(PMR was a tough period for me, I have no idea why. It was SPM and SAM mashed together, plus a dash of tears and a whole load of stress. But I was only 15 then!)

"More than fiii-ine, more than bent on getting by, more than just oh-kay!"

And they're not playing in KL?

* * * * *

Results out next week. One minute I'm excited, the next minute I'm nervous / worried as heck. I have no idea how I did, you know. It could go both ways.

Best Friend back from that land far, far away!

Parade at the Padang

RED Zone bay-beh!

We were right up front!

Right up front!!

The My Chemical Romance concert, if you are wondering.

It was waay awesome, 'cause it was drizzling, so everyone was wet, and when the show started, people started moshing a bit, so basically we were all jumping, screaming, and squashed into slimy wet people.

Like I said, it was awesome.


Then this mat salleh guy in front of me started head banging, and the water droplets were flying off his hair and into my face.

But it was awesome.


They didn't play 'Heaven Help Us', they didn't play 'Disenchanted' (a lot of people were waiting for that), but it was still awesome.


I have to say it again - I was right up front!

OHHHH-SUUUM!


I actually spent more than 400 Ringgit for that Red Zone ticket.


My parents bought Green Zone (cheapest) tickets initially, but my sister and I wanted better seats, so we sold those to Isabel and bought Blue Zone tickets.

Then I figured, heck this is my sister's favourite band. No point standing so far away from the stage.

So we sold off the Blue Zone tickets for RM90 each (we bought them at RM163 unfortunately), and got the Red Zone tickets.


I have to say, the best thing about the most expensive tickets in any concert, is that it filters off the non-fans and the lukewarm-fans, and what you get are the hardcore (or somewhat hardcore) fans right up front.

And that means being in a totally CRAZY crowd.

In the words of Gerard Way, it was "effin' awesome"!

Not the best concert I've been to (that title is reserved for Linkin Park - LP!), but definitely very good.


Songs that induced monster reactions from the crowd were 'Teenagers' and 'Welcome to the Black Parade' (duh!). Oh, and 'I'm Not Okay'. My gosh, the crowd went WILD then!

It was kind of funny, the band then played 'Dessert Song', and the crowd was SO quiet!

I imagine only crazy-obsessed fans like my sister will know the words to that song. This girl paid RM200 for the special edition Black Parade album, RM100 for the 'Life at the Murder Scene' DVD, and had the first album (never sold in Malaysia) sent to her from U.S.

Oddly enough, she was actually contented with the cheap ticket. Until I nudged her into buying a better ticket (and offered to pay for her, urgh).


You know, even my parents enjoyed themselves.

My mom (who was at the seats, way behind) said she saw "kids" down at the field (where I was) being totally crazy, and said she was thankful she wasn't there. She don't know what she missin'.


So. Was it worth the RM323 price tag?

Nope. No 1.5 hours can be worth that much. But do I regret paying?

Heck no!

All I can say is, you guys should have went!

I tried selling off my tickets to people who listen and like MCR, but none of them wanted to buy unless I sold off at some ridiculously low price (isn't RM70 off low enough already?), or if they get the ticket for free.

You guys, you dunno what you missed!

Moral of the story?

Pay to watch a band you like, p'haps you'd learn first hand how drugs make you feel - absolutely high.

(I'm grateful for the rain, actually. Totally added to the "rock concert" atmosphere!)

SUM 41 / Chevelle please please please come to Malaysia! Someone said if (if!) I were to go off to the US, I'd probably have a good amount of chance to catch them live. (SUM 41 played near my bro's university last year - unfairrrr!)

But no! I want to hear them go "Hello Malaysia / KL!" 'cause I'd know they were playing for MY home crowd! Much cooler, no?

Thankyou for reading and goodbye!

Looking back.

I just bought Underclass Hero!

So that's another RM46.50 gone. And just when I've managed to save a bit of money.

I was told that you could get the Malaysian edition of it for RM29.90.

But the way I see it, what's the point?

I mean, the best thing about buying/getting a new album is being able to flip through the booklet while you play the CD for the first time.

It's all very exciting.

(It's somewhat like having the very first bite off a solid chunk of chocolate. Nothing tastes better!)

Anyway, that's not the point.

While I was paying for the CD, my mom very loudly went, "I thought you don't like them anymore? You said you duwanna buy their CD....."

I then had to explain it was Linkin Park's CD I didn't like.

(Every time I get a new CD, she'd ask what band it was, and I'd say the name, and she'd go, "Never hear before wan?". But that's only 'cause all she knows is Linkin Park and SUM 41.)

I told her the only reason I hadn't gotten any SUM 41 albums lately was because they hadn't released any albums, up until now.

Which brings me to the point of this post.

How time flies.

I mean, the last time SUM 41 had their album out, I was in Form 3.

Form 3!

I would be going through the PMR Geography paper (which I thought was waaaaay hard), and I'd be staring at questions I didn't know the answer to, but my mind was doing its own countdown till the day the album would be out.

It was something like October 12th or 15th.

It could be that PMR was over on the 12th, and the album release was on the 15th.
Something like that.

See? I remember.

(I don't remember where you can find petroleum in Malaysia, or where lada hitam is planted, but I remember Chuck's release date.)

Oh, I digressed.

Lu had a recent post on her blog, and she was talking about the night all of us were in Morib.

It's very contradictory, actually.

If you think about the things we've done,
like lying under the stars, singing songs, talking about everything and nothing in particular,
or like waltzing the night away to a rock song on a special friend's birthday,
like going completely crazy in our hotel rooms during trips year after year,
or going ang pao hunting and being followed by an Indian man (either that, or we were just being paranoid)....
feels like they happened just last year.



But if you think about the amazing time we've had,
the friendship that grew and was nurtured into something extra-ly special,
the utter confidence (without the least bit of doubt) that these people will be there if ever you should falter ,
the comfort we have in each other's company,
the silence we have learnt to revel in (and sometimes, the silence proves more meaningful than words could be)...
and you think, 'What? It's only been 4.5 years?!'


It seemed so much longer.


Like I said, contradictory.




It takes you a moment to realize that we've all grown up now.

Back then, college seemed like a very very distant future. It'd take forever until we graduate from high school.

But "forever" has come and gone, all in the span of four years.


We're no longer the bunch of kids who talked so much, Pn. Ng Hui Gek had to put each of us in different corners of the classroom.

No longer are we the bunch of kids who would lock ourselves in the store room during free periods, so we could dance and play air guitars and do bad boyband imitations.

We're no longer the bunch that buys coloured paper, asks for cardboard from the canteen uncle, then goes and create a group diary detailing the little "encounters" we had with our crushes (we were so young then!)


The little feuds we had seemed so naive and insignificant now.

Till now, Fui and I still occasionally talk about that time when she had a birthday party, but didn't invite me, and I thought she was mad at me.

In fact, she didn't invite me only because she thought I was mad at her.

Form 1 kids, sigh. -Shakes head-

It makes me very proud to think of where we are now.

The celebration three years ago, after getting our PMR results, going to the CHS / Kasturi award ceremony.

The celebration few months ago, after getting our SPM results, going to the CHS / Kasturi award ceremony. Though in my case, only a half-celebration =(

SPM was like THE GOAL we were working towards, the only thing we were gearing up for the whole time we were at high school.

So getting good results, was like finally getting there.

(Though if you think about it, if it was all like the working world, and SPM results were our careers, then if we all got together later, I'd be like the housewife burdened with kids and bills, while the others are CEOs and Chief-of-Surgery's and rich investment bankers.)

Okay, bad and confusing analogy. Forget that.


Now one is a JPA scholar, on the way to become a dentist (and back then I thought JPA scholars we not human, like they're a whole step above us normal people),
one is a future psychologist in the making,
another is in Taiwan, also a future dentist......


Back then, three things scared me the most (and I mean the 'scared' that makes you have nightmares).

One, growing up.

Two, family members 'leaving'.

Three, the bunch of us being strangers one day.


Number three worried me a lot.


But we're all grown up now.

We no longer have 3-hour phone conversations going on into midnight.

We don't sit around and giggle about things like crushes, like we did when we were 13.

And once we move on to universities in some country or other next year, I wouldn't be recieving SMS-es going, "Eh, wanna go watch movie?".

Or if I were feeling weird slash sad, I wouldn't be able to call someone and have her say, "I'll be over in 10 minutes", and the next thing you know, she'd standing outside of your porch, ready to hear whatever gripe you have.


Which scares me a lot.

'Cause I wonder if I'd ever find a bunch like them again.


There was once when I was deeeep in the pits for a brief period, I was very unmotivated and had a lot of "What's the point?" kind of questions, and I looked in my mail box one day and found a handmade card inside.

A smiley-faced handmade card.

And there was a poem.


If you ever feel that you can't go on
When your life just becomes too hard
And the dreams you thought were within your reach
Suddenly seem so far
When the world is on your case
And you don't have a place to run
No matter what's bothering you
WE will be by your side
WE will be the rock that you can lean on
WE will be your guide
Like a fairy tale come true
Just reach for us
WE WILL rescue you


And when I got to the end, I was completely floored.

I felt like the luckiest person in the world then, and I wanted to slap myself for having thought otherwise.

If someone asked me how my adolescent years were, I'd answer with full conviction that it couldn't have been better.

So much more than wonderful.




Thanks for everything, you guys.

When people have nothing better to do.

... they make up rumours.

When they really have nothing better to do, they read rumour sites, and if they're gullible enough, believe everything they read.

C'mon la, Marilyn Manson did not remove his ribs so he could perform autofellatio.

I mean, you don't ever read about the surgery actually being performed, do you?

Professional sites always include, somewhere in the lines of text, "Some believe..", or "Rumours have it.."

Only amateur-looking sites go, "MARILYN MANSON removed his ribs so he could suck his own penis!!!!!!!!!!%&**(*^!!!"

Which is never the kind of site you want to get accurate information from.

Here, in case you're like Linggesh and you want "proof".

Urban legends - Getting waisted

Ribbed for his pleasure



Or do you believe Manson slaughtered puppies at his show?


Methinks people should give the man a break.

He's one of the most talented artists right now, if you look beyond his eccentricities and weird, creepy indulgences, well he's more sane than a lot of people out there.

He wouldn't send soldiers off to war, he wouldn't wield a blade and cut people up in 11 pieces, or slash the next person he sees on the road with a parang.

He just makes music.

He drinks, but he's not the only rock artist who does.

He wears make-up, but if you think that wrong just because he isn't female, then you're a sexist. That's your problem, not his.

So, friends from high school and college, Marilyn Manson is not a freak. At least, not by your definition of freak being 'someone who removes his ribs to pleasure himself'.

And contrary to belief, listening to Manson doesn't make you a stupid, naive, angsty teen, neither does it make you (and I quote classmate) "develop your inner demons".

(Would you believe me if I told you listening to Manson can actually inspire you?)


Thankyou and goodbye!

To the point of buying just about any random album

Heyyyy so I've not written in this for two weeks, 'cause Week One I was too busy with exams, Week Two I was too busy with holidays.

Actually, I'm seeing less reasons to keep a blog than ever before. But nevermind that.

* * * * *

You know, since the beginning of this year, I'd been pretty excited to get to mid-year. 'Cause four of my favourite bands will be releasing new material.

But now semester one is gone, and semester two is about to start.

The disappointing thing is, I find there isn't much to be excited about after all.



Linkin Park has their new album out, and boy is it boring.

This, the band whose music I'd rush home after school to listen to, whose concert was the best concert I've been to so far, whom used to write VERY good stuff.

Their latest single is like a watered down version of what you might've gotten from Meteora.

I just skip it when it comes on in my music player. It's that bad.



Then we have SUM 41, whose latest album seems to be in the same vein as their first album, only a little more political. But it's pretty much the same, really.

It's the same "This is a mess, I don't have to take this shit from you, I'mma stand up and I'm going to be different from what you want from me" attitude. Underclass Hero, they say.

It seems a tad immature now, y'know? I mean, "Fcuk the leaders, We don’t need this, We’re the leaders of disarray"?

It's definitely nice enough to listen to if you've not listened to them much before, but if you've been listening to their old albums just a little over Many-Many-Times, it loses its appeal.

My once most-favouritest-band, mannnnnnnn! This is utterly disappointing.



Then Marilyn Manson has got a few new singles out.

It grows on you the more you listen to it, and while they sound very different from his previous material, they sound very similar to each other.

One of Manson's appeal is that he has different voices to convey different emotions, and the songs end up being very dynamic, like an actual story, instead of being Just Another Song.

Like soft whispers at the beginning, then loud, angsty screams in the middle, and some weird kind of voice during the bridge, and ends with soft whispers again.

But on the new singles he sounds the same throughout. Maybe that's what he wanted, but the songs lose their Big Climax.



Fortunately there's that redeeming band, Chevelle.

They're still churning out songs that leave you out of breath by the time you're done with them.

They're a little less cryptic with their lyrics this time, which is a good thing. My most played band, this.

Unfortunately, they don't sell their CDs here.

I had to pay more than the usual CD price for their old album because it was 'imported', and you couldn't even get them if you tried now, 'cause they're no longer being sold.
Or at least, not a single CD store I've visited has them.

My own theory is that they imported a certain number, and they've since been sold off.


Mehhh. I need something else to look forward to.

* * * * *

Off to Singapore later. Back next Thursday.

This time, I'll make sure we visit the discovery centre.

My mom was going on and on about how we wasted money because we spent an entire day cycling at the beach.

She asks why we couldn't have just went and cycled in Malaysia.

Come to think of it, why couldn't we have cycled in Malaysia?

Ciao!


(Do I need to post photos in my blog? Of myself and fellow cam whoring comrades? Do I need to tell the world what deep dark secrets I have? Or maybe what social events I've been to? Do I? Do I?

No I don't.

Call my blog boring. I still won't.)

In anticipation of - Good Charlotte!

This is only one step short of being completely crazy.

Because the Good Charlotte concert is an invite-only event, a lot of people are trying so hard to get their hands on the invites. Which DiGi and radio stations are giving out for free.

People who managed to get them (for free, of course) are selling them at an exorbitant price. One person even went as far as selling 3 tickets for RM400. Which some people are completely willing to pay for.

A couple of classmates and I went to Times Square today, and guess what, got our hands on free tickets.

It's crazy. To think, we could sell them for a hundred bucks each.

It's a bit like exploitation, I think. They're not fans at all, but they go ahead and get the tickets anyway, so they could sell them off and get some quick cash.

Anyway. It was a pretty good evening for me.

My friend was driving us home from KL at night, so it had that kind of atmosphere in the car, and they started talking about God and Christianity. Not the hypocritical type of talk, not the kind of talk where they tell you what they believe in, then try to impose their values on you, like so many people have done before.

It was the kind that makes you think. It was the kind that comforts you. It was the kind that changes you, in a not-so-big way, but it changes you nonetheless.

I got home at 9 something, and ended up leaving my cellphone in her car.

So much for quarantining myself at home in preparation of the common tests next week.

Good Charlotte, here we come!

Musique.

It's surprising how Vena Sera was released just yesterday, and the entire album can already be downloaded off the net.

Anyway. I just downloaded the whole thing (don't worry I buy albums I downloaded and liked), and urggghhhh it's wonderful!

Speaking of newly released albums, I'm getting all excited over Linkin Park's Minutes To Midnight.

Marvi SMS-ed me and I could tell she was excited too. My LP buddy!

Back in Form 2, I made my brother drive out at night just to get two copies of Meteora (one for Marvi, one for myself) the very day it was released.

And he actually did go out, despite him having his assignment due the next day. The things demanding brats make their brothers do.

I took out all my copies of LP's previous albums, and had a listen to them all over again, and realized that despite not having listened to them for the past year or two, I could still sing along word for word.

But ask me to do Malaysian Studies (which is pretty much basic form 5 sejarah), and I go completely blank.

And Good Charlotte's playing here! -Excited squeals-

Wanted to dig out their Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous album for a listen (that's what I do, get wind about artist, get excited, dig out artist's previous albums, get even more excited), but ahhhhh the CD is missing from it's jewel casing. The booklet's there, the CD isn't.

I think I lent it to someone. During Form 4.

Now if you're having it and you're reading this, appreciate if you could return it.

Anggit promised she'd go with me, but then we realized it was just before our Biology common test. I could whine about how school work makes life a lot less interesting, but I've already done that countless times before.

Eat Me, Drink Me will be released in May.

One more thing to look forward to during the mid year holidays!




(I know how disorganized this post is, but I am too excited about too many things to be organized.)

(No, newly released albums alone don't get me this excited.)

(Cameras get me excited. I'm still having debates with myself. The part that makes it pointless though, is that it's not like I ever feel good enough to show people my stuff. And boy do I have a lot of Stuff.)

NOFX.

You have got, got, got to see this!

NOFX Tour Dates

Only about a month ago, this thread came up in Lowyat.Net saying that the day they come to Malaysia, is the day it snows in this country, or something to that effect.

Well it hasn't snowed yet, but they're coming!!

'Surprised' doesn't even begin to describe me.

I'm hating myself for not getting the tickets to Muse earlier, (darn you friend-who-keeps-stalling-in-giving-me-an-answer-but-eventually-decides-not-to-go), so here's a chance for me to un-hate myself again!

Digression - Did you know the official world tour shirts they were selling at the gig last night costed more than a good sum of the tickets themselves?
I was having lunch at Asia Cafe (where else, sigh) when this guy walked past my table and he was wearing it.

Rich kids have everything they want. =(

But April 19th!

By the way, what's TBA?

"The idiots have taken over!"

* * * * *

I'm doing all the sciences for school yeah, but here I am, pouring over a huge pile of books on law and human rights.

I have no idea why I thought freedom of expression in the United States ("in the US" insisted by Dr. Santa) would be a good topic for the Investigative Study, because I realize now there aren't a whole lot of books on that.

Even if there were, I'd have to go through 15 pages just to get ONE page of relevant information.

Come May, I'd probably know more about the First Amendment to the United States Constitution than I ever thought I will.

Or more than I ever want to, for that matter.

So while my classmates have piles of books on their topics like global warming or terrorism or alcoholism, I have to discard a whole load of books because they were about the BRITISH law.

You have no idea how boring it can be, having to read about the United States Bill of Rights without even being an American.

Annotated Bibliography due tomorrow!

I've got this classmate who has this ingenious way of doing his annotated bibliography.

Search for a book on Amazon.com (whether or not he could actually get his hands on the book later on), then copy and paste the synopsis straight into his Word document.

Which worked fine until he was told that we have to photocopy pages of the book and highlight the relevant parts before handing it in.

Bah plagiarism, he says!

I Am A Rock

I am perhaps more familiar with the music of Simon and Garfunkel than I had thought I was.

Their records have been played in my house for years and years, and like the music of all the other "oldie" bands, I never really payed much attention to them, much less learned to appreciate them.

I could remember random parts of the lyrics, but I was never sure which words came in where.

But you know, over the past year I have kind of taken a liking to oldish music. (Anything before the 1990's is old to me!)

I must say, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel are amazing lyricists.

One of my favourite S&G songs -


I Am A Rock

A winter's day
In a deep and dark December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I've built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Don't talk of love,
Well, I've heard the word before.
It's sleeping in my memory.
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.







"The loneliest people in the world are those that cannot share their loneliness, through fear, pride or anger. And the ache builds walls, fear populates their dreams and pride is then the jailer of the soul."

A rock feels no pain. An island never cries.

Lovely.

It reminds me of The Fragile,
"We'll find the perfect place to go where we can run and hide
I'll build a wall and we can keep them on the other side"

For the wierdest reasons, I have a fascination for songs with themes of isolation and solitary confinement (um, not the prison punishment kind).

I'm not all closed-up-and-keep-things-bottled kind myself, in fact I readily open up to a few people, but sometimes it feels nice to pretend you don't have to bother about things.

Wierdly, it also feels nice to pretend to be angry at the world once in a while.

Nothing to do with being immatured and being pissed at everything.

It's a bit like (for a short while) blaming something else for the wrongs in your life, pretend it's not all your fault, feel better in the process of it, and when it's all done, take back all your responsibilities and continue life where you left off.

You'd probably handle things better, without feeling too upset and worthless.

Anyway. Go listen to the song, download it, it's especially lovely when they get to the end.


(By the way, in case I sound emo-ish, I jolly well am not. Sometimes music makes you feel things that you don't understand the what's and why's. That's the beauty of it.)

Artsy-fartsy I am not.

Yeah, so this is the most recent revelation, that is both dissapointing and... well, it's just plain dissappointing. And deppressing.

I, Chooiyen, am music illiterate, I am not "up-there" enough to appreciate classical music, and I suck at musical instruments.

Yeah-huh.

And it doesn't help that my own brother is one of the artsy-fartsiest person I've ever known.

I shall now proceed to publish my rare Full-Of-Photos Post, because a picture is worth a thousand words (or whatever it is they would say). In any case, at least it saves me from having to write a few thousand words (which I'm too lazy to write anyway).

So here they are, reasons why I am the music illiterate I am now.



These, are the CDs of music that I never appreciated. They pretty much consist of chamber music, instrumental music, classical music, opera and a bunch of other stuff.

They aren't the only ones though, because my brother asked for most of them to be sent to Hawaii, which my mom so obediently lovingly obliged.
(He's studying Art Education in Hawaii, where he's doing sculptures and paintings and all that artsy stuff.)

I used to think him weird, 'cause when he listens to his CDs, he'd get so into it that he'd swing his arms around, à la orchestra-conductor.

And, he's the only person I know who can ever appreciate something like this...



That's cello music. My mom likened it to the background music for when some psycho in the movies is trying to torture a cat / innocent people / himself.

Yes, I never learned to appreciate fine music.

My brother knew the music and history of Bach and Dvorak by heart.

I, on the other hand, knew the lyrics to these by heart.



"Because you don't know us at all,
we laugh when old people fall,
but what would you expect with a conscience so small?"

Yeah, matured.

I feel so small now.

Moving on,



these, are the taugeh music words that I never learned to read.

The one on the left is my brother's classical guitar exam pieces.
The one on the right is the book given to me by my first guitar instructer, which I happily discarded to the back of the closet when I switched teachers.

My second instructer, hahaha how can I put it, was funny. Both haha-funny and weird-funny.

He had HUGE fingers, they reminded me of sausages, with the ends slightly squared instead of round, which makes barring frets pretty easy for him. Heck, his one finger could have covered two whole frets (okay exaggerate just a bit), but his fingers were really THAT wide.

So me, being 15 and having skinny + short fingers, found barring pretty difficult.

It was irritating 'cause he'd always, always go, "Huh? Very hard meh? What's so hard? Very hard meh??" and proceed to give me that I AM SO CONFUSED, WHY CAN YOU NOT PLAY PROPERLY, VERY HARD MEHHH kind of look.
(Haha, ChuanLing would be nodding her head if she was reading this.)

Anyway, it has been a long time since I last picked up the guitar.

Now I can only read tabs, not taugeh words. HOW SAD IS THAT.

Then, we have this..



This, is the piano that I never learned how to play.

I don't know of anybody who has lived with a piano in the house ever since she was young, and is not able to play it.

That was bought for my brother, by the way. See, it's always him.

I so so so so so regret not taking lessons. How I wish I could play a proper song on it.

It is not very girly-like to not be able to play the piano, or any sort of keyboard instrument for that matter. I mean, more than three quarters of the girls I know can play a tune on it.

Don't laugh okay, but I am kind of thinking of picking it up after The Exams.

Mostly because I read this on the net.

"We sit down to eat and (Sidney Corbett) starts telling me about his transition from a self-taught guitarist and music illiterate at age 17 to a PhD composition graduate from Yale at 25. Although he always doubted his musical abilities, he seemed to breeze through exams and was even awarded the Fulbright scholarship to go to the Hamburg University for Music."

Weeell. Maybe I could make the transition too, hur hur hur! Anyhow.

Moving on.



These, are the brochures from orchestras that I never learned to enjoy.

Yes, those were my brother's. Told you he was the artsy one in the family. No one else I knew would pay to go to an orchestra. A rock concert, yes, but not an orchestra.

The earlist brochures thingie I found amongst the stack were a few from the 99/00 season. Which meant my brother started donning suits and ties and paying to go to the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 15. And he goes pretty often too, hence the large stack of brochure thingies.

FIFTEEN!

At 14, I was getting high during a Linkin Park concert.

At 16, I suffered from extreme humidity and being in close (CLOSE!) proximity to the other fellow concert-goers (touch here touch there, eww) during a Simple Plan show.

But I never went to an orchestra show before.

(Is the orchestra the band of musicians, or is that what the entire show is called? Or is it what the compositions are called? Is it it all of them?)

Nevermind.

Now we have this.



This, is the drum solo that I was never good enough to be able to play.

I was too lazy to stick around long enough to be able to play and wow people. I guess you could say, I was never the patient, ever-ready-to-learn student that I should've been.

Even during guitar lessons, my teacher would have me go home and practice on a piece.

I'd come back the next week, still screwing up parts that I shouldn't be screwing up anymore.

"You got practice or not?"

(Sheepish smile) "Eheh, no wor. No time la."

GAAH.

But then again, I might have been more motivated to practice if only my AMPS weren't so CACAT-ED.



See that amplifier? See that red wire there?

It has a life of its own, and it is very prone to very random mood swings. It's true I tell you.

Halfway through your playing, it will decide to give you the silent treatment, and nothing would come out of them speakers.

So you have to console it, sweet talk it, gently and soothingly move the wire around for a bit, before it finally relents and decide to talk to you again. Or sing out the tune you were playing on the guitar.

Back then Chuan Ling used to come over with her guitar so we could play together. Don't think having guests meant the amp would behave itself.

I remember us playing, and then my guitar going silent all of a sudden, and so one of us would go over to the amps, twist the red wire a bit, unplug it from the amps, then plug it in again, all in the efforts of trying to have it working again.

"Eh twist it more... more! No sound la. Still no sound. No sound at all. EHH! Got sound!!...... Eh? no sound again."

Shitty.

And when it finally worked, whoever using the electric guitar would try very very hard to not move it too much.

'Cause moving it too much would mean untwisting the red wire from whatever random position it would decide only to work in, and then we would have to go through the whole rigmarole of "Twist again! No sound! Got sound already! Eh no sound again!".

Yeah, pathetic. Really pathetic.

My brother, on the other hand, wanted to buy a classical guitar worth thousands of Ringgit, which my parents obediently lovingly obliged.

Unfair hor.

Back to why I am very un-intellectual-like.



These, are the books that my brother read / magazines that he subscribed to.

The yellows ones on the right are very obviously National Geographic. What else would my artsy-fartsy brother subscribe to? Galaxie? Lime? CelebritySecretsRevealed?

He was only 11 when he asked to subscribe to National Geographic, which my parent obediently lovingly obliged to.

Me? I wanted to subscribe to Reader's Digest last year, and my mom had to keep asking me, "You sure you want? You got read or not? Subscribe already don't read, afterwards waste money. YOU SURE YOU WANT?"

YES I AM SURE. And yes we do have a subscription to Reader's Digest.

Anyway.

While my brother was reading books like "Sceintific Genius" and encyclopedias (yes, he actually read the entire volume), I was reading this.



Yes I had better children's books than these lot, otherwise I'd be pretty pathetic.

By the time my brother was 17, he had already read AND UNDERSTOOD "A Brief History Of Time".

It is THE book ordinary people with ordinary intelligence and ordinary IQ like myself wouldn't TRULY understand.

As for me, I'm 17, and just yesterday I was flipping through Roald Dahl's "The BFG".

Weeeell, I kind of found my hard cover copy of it, and hard covers are better than paperbacks, and it's nicer to read too.

Plus, I needed a break from school textbooks (*disgusted look).

Proves just how intellectual I am. (NOT AT ALL.)

I want to dress in elegant gowns and play one of Beethoven's greatest Symphonies on the grandest of grand pianos in front of an elite crowd of 'high society' people, and when I'm done everyone will cheer and clap in their elegant, high society way and I'll move on to the most elite and the highest of the high society people and proceed to have the most intelligent conversation ever. We'll discuss deep, meaningful topics like the Meaning Of Life and all that.

I want to be an artsy-fartsy intellect toooooooooooooooo!

P.S. My use of "artsy-fartsy" is in a good way. Not the showy, pretentious kind of way!

Dum-dee Dum

We shall all have a new rock band to look forward to now – Supernova!

I thought it would end at 9.00 pm as usual, but then halfway into the show I realized, oh shit, it'd be ending at 10 pm tonight, darn, haven't started on Physics yet.

The only solution? Cram everything in during comercials.

When they've already axed Magni (yeay!) and Toby, there were only two left.

By then we were already a bundle of nerves, with our fingers crossed ultra tight.

Seconds before Supernova revealed their new frontperson, there were talks of "OH SHIT I have to go to the toilet" and "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE" and we were practically dying from the suspense.

Fortunately I don't have to boycott them, cause... LUKAS WON!


Uh-huh! Weird, gothic, freaky Lukas Rossi!

It was wonderful, we I had tears of joy! My sister was rooting for Dilana, well too bad for her.

Dilana is great, she has an amazing voice, and look at this.


She looks a tad vampiric in that, but there's no way you can say she hasn't got the rocker attitude. There's this strain in her voice that I totally dig. And her version of 'Mother Mother' was cooler than cool. Energetic, and watching her you almost feel like jumping on stage and go crazy along with her.

But Lukas, man some of his performances were amazing.

Especially when he did 'Lithium', I had goosepimples, he even did better than Marty! (You must know, I am a HUUUGE fan of Marty's.)
He did the first verse slow, then he burst into the chorus with the stage lights suddenly glowing bright. I thought, wow, epic.

Lukas is amazing in the way that he takes songs everybody knows, but he shreds them apart, then puts them back together, and make it sound almost better than the original!

Like how he did this slow, dark-ish version of 'Living On A Prayer', you almost think gawd how can he do that, 'cause the original had been the kind of song you nod your head and move along to.

Though there are people saying how the show was kind of a fraud, because the audiences were led to believe that their votes mattered in the final decision, when in actual fact the winner had been predetermined since the beginning of the show.

There are also people going on about how the only reason Supernova did not choose Dilana or Magni or Storm was because they were too good. They would do great things if they embarked on a solo career, instead of being tied to Supernova.

Weeeeeell.

I wonder if anyone else noticed, that Tommy Lee had been throwing a whole lot of sexual innuendos directed at Storm Large ("Storm Triple-X-tra Large!"), and that not ONE single song from Motley Crue, Metellica or Guns N' Roses had been performed?

Bad past, maybe.

All in all, now I've got nothing to look forward to on Wednesdays and Thursdays. (It's comforting to know I'm not the only one around here excited over the show. Else, I'd sound pretty stupid. It IS only a show where past-their-prime rockers elect a new frontperson for their new band.)

(I remember pledging that I wouldn't watch Rockstar last month, 'cause I wanted myself to study, hah, taking on more than I could chew. Not watch Rockstar? How can?)

Came home from tuition Friday night, tv was switched on and it was showing One In A Million, so I just planted myself on the sofa and watched.
Paul's comments on Faizal's take on RemyZero's 'Save Me'?
"That was like watching Rockstar."

Pffffttt. Faizal's performance can be anything, but definitely not likened to performances from Rockstar! Worlds apart!

It's time like these you remember why people always think everything from Malaysia is inferior. Musical talents wise, it kind of is. I couldn't say ANY of the performances from One In A Million, or Malaysian Idol had been memorable, 'cept maybe a few by Jaclyn Victor.

(I hope when, IF, Supernova comes to Malaysia, I would not be stuck at camp, servicing the nation!) (National Service lah.)

P/S. If you have not been watching Rockstar: INXS / Supernova, well, you SHOULD HAVE. You would've so so enjoyed it. Now it's over and well too bad for you!

P/P/S. Thank heavens for Star World.

Can you spell ANTICIPATION?

If anybody asks, yeah I'm still alive. Hah.

Just too busy spending the afternoons making sure I don't screw my trial exams up too bad.
But it's not working!

Random declaration -
If Magni wins Rockstar: Supernova, I will will WILL boycott all future efforts of Magni-fronted-Supernova!

What do the people see in him?

Keeping my fingers crossed for the other three.

Especially Lukas.

(Try typing 'Lukas' in Google Image and what comes out? Lukas Podolski. Pffft.)









WAS a Dilana supporter, then was rooting for Toby, now I'm all for Lukas, because his cover versions of late has been amazing.

Initially Lukas seemed like this freaky gothic kid who'd be better off fronting My Chemical Romance or something, and it seemed highly unlikely he'd front a band like Supernova, but I guess it's like the plate of curry mee that comes with a half a cut lime, that you sqeeze the juice all over the mee. It's an added twist, and absolutely tasty.
(I'm slightly better at analogies now, haha!)

Here's hoping Lukas, Dilana and Toby will get to the finals. From there, whoever wins, doesn't really matter much.

I know the finale's gonna be an awesome show!

I'll not be studying Physics tomorrow night, that's for sure!


(What's pathetic is when you devote an entire post to a reality tv show.)

INXS, phoooey.

There are, of course, a few reasons why I shouldn't be blogging right now -

1 - I made my friend change my Blogger's password, which she so nicely did, and I wasn't supposed to know the password until after the trials. That was an attempt to stop myself from posting.

2 - I really should have my head buried in those ultra thick, ultra intimidating reference books.

3 - I Just Shouldn't.

But of course, I got round that password change thing by cleverly clicking on the 'Forget Password' button and having it sent to my email account. Genius.

Sorry Friend, haha, your efforts wasted.

I had a dream where instead of mosquitoes zipping past us all around the room, there were instead blue balls of ion-ion hidrogen flying around.
(From studying chemistry just before bedtime.)

I also dreamt that I forgot to bring my calculator to school, and had to resort to using my cellphone ultra basic one for add maths exam paper.
(From randomly playing with the calculator too much in between studying.)

I also dreamt that I had no idea WHAT was in all the cerpens and prosa's, and the BM paper was in an hour's time.
(From really having not read the Antologi Kerusi before, not even once.)

So anyway, my brother called from Hawaii last night, a call that lasted a good two hours.

We were talking about random stuff, updating each other and all, and suddenly he asked, "So when's your SPM starting?"

"November."

"Oh, how many A's are you aiming for then?"

Me, sounding a bit paiseh, answered, "If possible, straight A's loh."

I must say, I was pretty discouraged when he asked, without thinking / missing a beat, "Har? You think can meh?"

Well, why couldn't I?

* * * * *

I needed a little boost of spirits last weekend, not that I was feeling blue-ish, but things were getting a little too bo-ring. Very ho-hum.

So what better pick-me-up than a full-fledged rock concert, right?

The INXS Switched On World Tour!

And did I get to go? NO.

It started off with a classmate having free tickets to the show, for his birthday. Fine and dandy, except that said classmate happily asked me, "Who's your favourite INXS rocker? Mine is Tommy Lee!"

*Groans.

Waste of good tickets. (And he didn't even go.)

Then during lunch at the chicken rice shop outside of CHS, my sister excitedly told me she had a friend who had a friend who had won tickets but couldn't attend the concert.

That means, free tickets for us!

And then came the ultimate party-pooper, the One That Cripples Great Plans -







- tuition.

See, I don't have tuitions everyday, just on Friday nights, how unfortunate that everything good that happens, always have to happen on a Friday night.

Now you can't pooh-pooh Murphy's Law away.

The last time I wanted to go to a mini-gig thing, it was a Friday night. But back then, it wasn't so near the exams, so I lied and said tuition was canceled.

Darn the trials.

It hit me not too long ago, that if Marty had won Rockstar: INXS, then Marty would be the one performing here.

If that had happened, trials or no trials, I would be so ready to lie about not having tuition classes again, no doubt about it.

'Cause Marty is amazing. Not him, his performances.


Haha, sorry, I just had to. Marty Casey, doing "Wish You Were Here", which is my utmost favourite performance of his in ROCKSTAR history, ever.

Marty's band, the Lovehammers, was supposed to open for INXS on their world tour, but I guess when they say something like that, it really only applies to the US. Oh well.

I reformatted my transflash card the other day (about time I did it), and I transfered a whole bunch of ROCKSTAR video clips onto my cellphone (why? I dunno, for fun?), most of which are, who else, Marty's performances. And a bit of Dilana, 'cause she's pretty good too.

I digressed a bit.

You know, it would have been fun to go for the Yogyakarta Quake Aid concert cum carnival, but it wouldn't be fun to go alone, it'd be nice if the whole family went, but having to pay RM320 to go to a concert where we don't even know one-tenth of the artists performing there, isn't a very good idea.

So what plans did I make in the end?

Nothing. I stayed at home.

(No wonder I couldn't blog. My life is so mundane, I've got nothing to write about.)












[You guuuuuuuys! I know you still visit, I see the daily hits, but my tagboard/comment box is being left all alooooone!]

"What good is it writing, when no one is there to read it?"

I really should update more often.

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.

O Great Oracle

So, in an attempt to waste more of my time this afternoon (yeah, 'cause I never seem to do that enough), I dwelled in this great activity called Foreseeing with the Oracle.

It is basically putting your music player on shuffle mode, ask your question out loud (with great respect and reverence, of course), and have your questions answered by the Great Oracle.

Seeing that I have more than just a few measly songs in my player ('cause it really wouldn't work then), I figured I might get some pretty good answers.

So I asked my first question, "Great Oracle, how does the world see me?"

Not wasting a second, the Oracle answered, "Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World - Marilyn Manson". (No! Not kidding.) But then I realized, ahhh, I already had that song on play, so it doesn't count. I clicked for the next song, and - "Simple Man - Shinedown".

Well. I would've preferred the world see me as someone totally complex, much like Einstein's mind, complex, much like Pembezaan dan Pengamiran, complex, like, very un-simple. But nevermind.

Then I asked, "How can I make myself happy?" and the Oracle paused a bit, like any great foreteller should, and answered, "Screaming Infidelities - Dashboard Confessional". (Oh I bullshit you not.) Now, that really is pretty hard to do, since I don't have anyone to be disloyal to in the first place. Also, it is pretty disturbing, y'know, that I have to cheat on my boyfriend to be happy. Perhaps I'd enjoy seeing him hurt. Ooooh.

Then I had to proceed, "Will I ever have children?"

And the oracle played "Two Beds and One Coffee Machine - Savage Garden". I've never really paid attention to that song, so I googled it, scanned through the lyrics, and found out that it has lyrics like 'Slowly she opens the door, Check that he is sleeping, Pack the kids up in the car'. I have concluded that it must be trying to tell me that some time in the future I would cheat on my husband, have kids (ah, the answer to my 'children' question), then later on leave my husband.

Still. Wow the Oracle gives good answers. While I'm pretending to be totally awed by it, I'm just secretly glad that I have been lucky thus far. 'Cause the Oracle still hasn't played anything by, say, Chevelle. Y'know, 'cause Chevelle is so totally cryptic, I almost can never understand the lyrics.

Then I asked, "What should I do with my life?" and the answer the Great Oracle gave was - "Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode". Um, no comments. I have to be silent, ya know.

And ooooh, this one is good. I asked, "What do my friends really think of me?" and out came, "You're My Angel - Taking Back Sunday". Oh really? I always thought I was pretty average. Haha! (I cannot stress this enough, these are what 'the Oracle' really gave me. You KNOW I don't lie.)

And then came something totally creepy. "O Great Oracle, what will be played at my funeral?"

"Bury Me In Black - My Chemical Romance".

OMGWTFBBQSauce!
Yes initially it tried to play 'Some Hearts', but that song was deleted, so it skipped straight to 'Bury Me In Black'. This is supposed to be a joke. The stupid player isn't supposed to answer that with a song like this.

"Will I have a happy life?" and it answered, "The World You Love - Jimmy Eat World". Guess I'll be pretty happy after all. Y'know, despite the infidelity, the lies, the kids (probably illegitimate) and the pack-up-and-leave.

You know, with all the answers the Oracle has given me, well, it's creepy. It's supposed to answer my questions with songs that are so random, they don't even really answer the question. You know, like, "O Oracle, will I ever get to marry Lee Hom?" and it's suppose to go, for example, "Chicken Pie". Y'know, totally irrelevant answers.

So I decided, heck, why not give the Great Oracle a little test. By asking the same question, of course.

"Great Oracle, again, what is the song that will be played at my funeral?"

Great Oracle : "You're So Last Summer - Taking Back Sunday".

Well that's sad. And I thought I will be remembered. ='(

* * * * *

Yes this is a pretty stupid post. Well, I was bored.

I'm pretty creeped out by the songs that were chosen. I mean, take that funeral question, for instance. There are only a handful of songs in my playlist that could approprietly answer the question. And it had to choose the most appropriet one. (Yes I cannot spell appropriat.)

I'm just glad it didn't play 'Tortures of the Damned'. It would've meant I would be sent to hell. And apparently I wouldn't be enjoying it, either.

(Chooiyen promises the next time she posts, she'll post something a little less stupid.)

PS. I just found out my 101 post count also included draft posts. My real post count must be somewhere around 90. Oh that's disappointing.

I not stupd, I just Crybaby.

I read my post from yesterday, and gosh, what utter rubbish. But if you got what I was trying to say, it'd have been something interesting to ponder over. Honestly.

I watched I Not Stupid Too today, and I must say, why no one warned me that it was going to be a tear jerker? I had no tissues with me, and the tears were coming down like, um, rain! It was so unbelievably sad!

It was also very funny, there were a bunch of very-act-macho guys sitting behind us, who spoke cantonese and liked Jay Chou ( I know 'cause they were cheering during Jay Chou's little "cameo"). I kind of imagine them to be the lala kind lah.

Anyway. Everytime the tear wrenching scenes came on, they would try and find something to laugh at. ("Aiyer, look at the guy's nose! So big leh!") People like these are often just trying to cover up the fact that they are about to cry. Then there was this guy, who was trying to make himself laugh at his friend's "cover-up" jokes, and he went "hahahahahahaa-uuaapp!"
Heh. He was trying to laugh, but that sob prevailed! He was freaking crying okay!

Macho guys don't like people knowing that they cry.

I came out of the cinema after the movie, and went straight to the loo, but it was packed, so I walked a little further to another loo, and a couple of people were staring at me. Not being perasan. Really staring at me.

Eek. My face was completely red from the crying. I tried washing it, but the red remained. So wutoodoo, I walked around the mall for the next fifteen minutes looking like I had just had a fit.

I hate the fact that I always cry the most during movies. I dislike my active tear glands. My sister says my crying is distracting, because I sob too loudly. See? I hate it.

But the first half of the movie was waay funny.
Like how Tom and Jerry wasn't paying attention to their mother. Reminds me so much of myself.
Like how the students went, "Eh, next class got spotcheck!" and everyone scarmble to hide their cellphones. Reminds me so much of CHS students, and also of myself. Haha.

Anyway.

I bought Chevelle's This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In) album. I know, it was out in 2004, what took me so long? I dunno why it didn't cross my mind, I'm always thinking 'buy this CD buy that CD' but never 'buy Chevelle CD'. So stupid, 'cause it's so good! Easily one of the best.

The thing about Chevelle is, they don't do the mainstream kind of pop influenced rock, yet their music is still good enough to be played over and over on MTV and all that. Take The Red from the old album, for example. Solid. The best Chevelle song ever. And it's a far cry from the usual Nickelback and Paparoach.

I once lent my burned compilation CD to my friend, and the first song on it was The Red. He told me the first song sucked. Huuuuhhhh? I remember Chinese New Year last year, I was in Ipoh, I was practically spending all my free time listening to Chevelle over and over again. (Yeah, burned CD.)

Chevelle isn't trance music, but some of their songs leave you in a trance. Like Comfortable Liar. Especially during the bridge, you just sit there, non-moving, and you marvel at the wonder that is Chevelle. It is completely awesome. They're like Marilyn Manson. You don't just like the songs, you are completely awed by them.

I was having Burger King's lamb burger (very good, I recomend also), and the mayonaised cabbage fell on the booklet. Sighhh.