This Gray Monster

It's raining outside.

English rain has always been depressing. The gray skies, the chilling cold. But there's something more to it. Like an overshadowing sadness, a blanketing melancholy, it pierces any sense of mirth you might have for the day. Just like today.

What excitement I have for finishing my last seminar of the week quickly dissipated in this ashen monster that they call the English shower. The rain seems to go on forever. Even when it's not raining the clouds still gather around and over you, and when you're safely inside, you're still stuck with the window view of a featureless sky void of anything except the somber gloom. Liquid sunshine it is not.

I've lost my appetite.

Signing out

Over and out

I Set My Friends On Fire

Smosh & I Set My Friends On Fire - Sex Ed Rocks

This video made me laugh so hard, I almost damaged my vocal cords.

It made my day. Or night.#

EDIT:

Smosh is, well, just a bunch of guys having fun making funny videos.

http://smosh.com/ The Smosh official website

http://uk.youtube.com/user/smosh The Smosh Youtube channel

Signing out

Over and out

Re-Mastered

I've just recently re-ripped all my CDs (not including the ones I left back in Brunei and in London) because I wanted to improve the quality of the mp3 files I already have. Some of them were quite low quality (at 64kbps) because of really stupid circumstances relating to iTunes and the lack of decent mp3 converters back in the day. Now they're all amped up all the way to 320kbps. which takes a whole lotta space, but worth it.

I don't really play computer games, so games don't take up much space on my laptop. So now half of my hard drive is just my music collection. That's 75 GB. Oh fuck.

It's really worth it though, that extra space taken up by the extra three hundred bitrate. I've really re-discovered songs with the richer detail. I've fallen in love again with Rise Against's 'The Sufferer & The Witness' and Coheed & Cambria's 'Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV.' Even albums I thought I got sick of like A.F.I.'s 'Decemberunderground' and The Blood Brothers' 'Young Machetes.'

I would definitely lose my head if all that music suddenly disappeared. Ten years worth of collecting music gone. I would actually kill someone.

Signing out

Over and out.

Blink

A few months ago, Travis Barker, the drummer for +44 and Blink 182, and his friend DJ AM, almost died in a plane crash that killed four people. Yet out of this tragic circumstance comes a silver lining.

Tom, Mark and Travis have spoken again, after four years.

Here's Mark talking about it.

It's not clear whether they have talked about a Blink 182 reunion. It's too early to tell. I've already given up before this little glimmer of hope. I didn't think they were ever going to go back together. Now I'm just crossing my fingers.

Blink 182, for all their pre-pubescent humour and power pop catchiness, influenced who I am today. Their tunes were contagious and infectious. Their college humour, seemingly immature at first, represented a refusal to embrace the norms of the grown-up stereotypes, a rebellion against society's demands for everyone to leave their inner youth. Yet their last self-titled album pointed to a growing maturity that though not quite adult, revealed a side to them that knew they were not going to be young forever.

Tom ran away towards that direction sprinting, forming the ambitious Angels & Airwaves. Mark and Travis, shocked by Tom's departure, formed what some would call a mature version of Blink 182, +44. Opinions were divided between fans which were better, and some even refused to acknowledge the existence or the talent of the two, unable to let go of Blink 182.

I don't know what to expect. I just won't let my hopes up.

Signing out

Over and out

Wriggly Shrigley

What do you think of the new theme? I made it myself, from the bizarre drawings of David Shrigley. I wanted something simple, weird and easy to look at. Nothing too complex. Nothing that will distract you too much. And yeah, I think I achieved that. And I've been wanting to do a black and white theme for a while, or more specifically white and black.

I 'borrowed' the HTML code from another theme and just replaced it with my own images.

I had no lectures today.

Signing out

Over and out

No Pins Allowed

A bit of a filler.

James Yuill - No Pins Allowed


I'll update soon.

Signing out

Over and out

Review: iPod Touch 2G 32GB

I love this thing. It looks beautiful naked. It does.

But I'm a bit paranoid right now, since for some reason the back of it is scratched, so inside the Belkin you shall be, my pretty one.

I'm in love with my iPod Touch. This is stupid, but I think I am. I'm sorry, Pill, I've got a replacement for you, and it can sing me five thousand different songs. Can you do that, Pill?

Hahahahaha.

I think I'm going to review this. Promise, no bias.

Device: iPod Touch
Version: 2nd-Generation
Size: 32gb
Manufacturer: Apple
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

For people who think iPods are just about the hype, you are missing the point. The hype is not the reason the iPod is so successful. The iPod is successful because it is brilliant at whatever it does, and that in turn generates an amazing amount of hype.

Observe, the 2nd-generation iPod Touch. It's beatiful to look at, with it's glossy black exterior that looks simple yet elegant at the same time. The screen is vivid and bright. The only buttons are the one in the centre, and the volume control at the side which wasn't on the first one.

People who don't understand the iPod say that a lot of other things can do what the iPod do. Other mp3 players can play music. Other players have touch screen. Other players have video playback. And some have WiFi connectivity. And some do things better than the iPod.

But then with these other devices, they usually have strengths in one aspect and lacking in another. The iPod does everything it wants to do very, very well. The touch screen is responsive. The interface is extremely intuitive and the multi-touch is exceptional. The menu is easy to navigate through.

The Safari browser is really good. Looking at full websites are easy, and it reads pdf files (!). It's reasonably quick. A bonus is that you can watch videos on Youtube, a major plus you rarely get in any other similar devices.

The Genius function may seem disposable at first, but then when you really start to use it, then you realise how convenient this powerful tool can be. No more having to create playlists on the go when you suddenly feel the urge to listen to a kind of music. The Genius does it for you. Trust me, you'll love Genius. But be aware, you need a fairly large music collection for it to really work well. It works better if you give it more songs to choose from and work with.

The App Store is another highlight. You can add a lot of functionality to your iPod Touch. Things like Google Earth, GPS, eBay, PayPal, internet radio and graphic calculators are free of charge to download.

Most people know the Touch has got a built-in accelerometer, and this comes in very handy when you want to watch films or type something, because the touch keyboard can get tricky when the iPod is vertical. It's also very good fun when you're playing games. There's a game called iBaseball (App Store) that requires you to hold the iPod Touch like a bat. Like a Wii almost.

With my Bose headphones, the music quality is really good. It's a major step-up from my Sony Ericsson phone (obviously).

Apparently it's got a Nike+ feature, but I don't have Nike+ sneakers, so I have yet to try that. Might be an excuse for me to start jogging. Hahahaha.

There are a few imperfections though. Being connected to a WiFi networks seems to drain the power a lot quicker than usual. And I notice that when the iPod is connected to the laptop and you're browsing your music, sometimes the screen would go black and go back to the main menu. These are really very minor flaws, and easy to overlook.

In short, the iPod Touch is intuitive, extremely responsive, looks and sounds good, and has those extras you won't get anywhere else. And believe me, these extras will become indispensable after you get used to them.

Signing out

Over and out

A Better Kind Of Milkshake

You know, as a linguist, it's fun to analyse what people say. Even before I took this course, I tended to over-analyse conversations. But now, it's like I've been given new tools to pinch out every information I can about you from a sentence.

We were studying the evolution of meaning in words in our History of English a couple of weeks ago, and the most amusing thing happened.

Our lecturer, a 60-ish guy who tucks his shirt into his blue jeans and has the most soothing voice that he'll just make you go to sleep, was telling us how the word milkshake has been given different connotations in hip hop. And to make his point, he starts saying the lyrics to Kelis's 'Milkshake.'

"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like
It's better than yours"

He looks to see that everyone is paying attention.

"Damn right
It's better than yours"

And there was people who couldn't stop laughing. It was like watching your grandpa trying to gain some street cred by getting some bling and telling you he digs 50 Cent. I was only laughing mildly on the surface, but inside I was rolling around my imaginary floor and stumbling onto tables and stamping the floor with my fist with uncontrollable fits of laughter. The way he said it was as if he was reading the news.

"Okay, for the news today: My milkshake is definitely better than yours. And it brings all the boys to the yard."

Then he starts telling us how milkshake has become another word for sexual appeal and female charisma, with the straightest face you have ever seen. He was oblivious to how funny this seemed to everyone.

Funny times.

Signing out

Over and out

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Now playing: Tubelord - The Death of a Digital Alarm Clock
via FoxyTunes

Lord Of The Tube

Tubelord

Today I found an insanely addictive band called Tubelord. It's just so contagious. Tubelord is almost like a hyperactive version of Foals.

Tubelord - Feed Me A Box Of Words


Damn it, Jay! Stop posting music!

Signing out

Over and out

Escapism In Plans

The Streets - The Escapist

When it comes to hip hop I guess I lean more towards British hip hop. Nothing too gangsta. The Streets, aka Mike Skinner, has recently come out with his album, Everything Is Borrowed. It's not bad. 'A Grand Don't Come For Free' was better, but 'EIB' is different. Good different. Skinner is well-known for rapping about things people actually go through like eating kebabs and urm, losing a grand at the back of a television. But yeah, there's none of that wealth-flaunting, bling-obssessed, sexist stuff.

There's also the quite younger Plan B, a more agitated, yet thoughtful youth that ponders and questions the notion of forced morality and the knife culture of other youths. Still waiting for his second album. This song wasn't even on his first.

Plan B - Cast A Light




This is my favourite Plan B song. How often do rappers rap about their mamas? And to discuss something like this so maturely and thoughtfully at his age, I admire Plan B. And the way he incorporates an acoustic guitar in his music. It's brilliant.


Plan B - Mama (Loves A Crackhead)

If you've seen Adulthood (sequel to Kidulthood), you might recognise him as Dabs. His song, Kidz, was also used in Kidulthood.
Signing out

Over and out

The Life Of An Inanimate Object

I was reading a friend's blog, and one thing she said struck me as something easily overlooked. How inanimate things lie witness to our entire lives. Here are some of my inanimate things and the things/events they've witnessed:

Nissan Serena (not entirely inanimate, and we don't have it in the family anymore):
This one has a lot of memories. Before everyone got their driving licenses, this car was the shiznit. The universal driving license. The late night magic carpet. This one time the whole car was filled with balloons. This car also was the reluctant witness of my late school out routines, when I would spend hours talking with people waiting for their parents, notably Dibah, Yumnie and Fatin. I guess one-sixth of my high school life was spent in that car. Sometimes after school I would go home, shower for ten minutes and pick up Yumnie so we could go to Coffee Bean. My first metal gig I used this car. Fee always liked the fact that System of A Down was played constantly on the stereo.

The blue tables of MS cafeteria:
The idle afternoon hours. The small talks and the epic conversations. Love stories came and went. Cg Haiseh looking for the absence of songkok and tudung. The pond where the captain of the winning house would be thrown in. Fee giving me my 18th birthday gift from a plaster plaque she painted. The mid-lesson coffee breaks. The pre-football chat session. The post-football chat session.

My Bose earphones:
Long train journeys, from Shrewsbury to London and back. To Oxford. The flight back home. The flight back to London. The hours spent promoting Chef Wan at the Mall with Fee. The retrospective, introspective looks while on those journeys. Fifteen hours of plane time feeling like nothing because Pill was on the same flight. Turning it off so you could eavesdrop on the nearby conversation.

My wristwatch:
Waiting for 2007 to come. Her hands in mine. The fireworks of London. The dancing under the fireworks. The anticipating glances. Hours spent talking to Dibah in her room while Fatin was blissfully unaware. Comparing with Yumnie how similar our watches are. My resting forehead after a hard night out.

The dining hall in Brunei Hall:
A three-night Final Destination trilogy marathon. A TMX Elmo being unveiled. Christmas Eve dares. Self-karaoke videos (Zeerah on Smack That was hilarious). The introduction of a new 'best-friend' to Farah during an impromptu screening of Saw III (or Hostel, I can't remember). The nature of reality, as discussed with Dibah.

Pick an inanimate object. How many events in your life do you feel that object witnessed?

Signing out

Over and out

The Twenty-First Epiphany

So. I'm twenty-one. Now what?

What does it feel to be twenty-one, asks one of my friends. Well, it's good to know I'm legal in the states, I said half-jokingly.

This is one of the best gifts I've ever had:
No. Not the case, you idiot. Though I must admit it's a very nice Belkin case. It's what's inside that matters:

iPod Touch!

Yes. It's a brand new iPod touch, and with 32gb of memory I can take half my music with me everywhere! That's so fucking awesome. I've got sick of just having less than 10% of my music collection with me on my phone. It sucks. It's annoying.

Now I can fully utilise my Bose headphones. And distract myself in lessons with stupidly addictive tilt games. And go online on campus. I love this little thing. And I love Pill for getting this for me.

What's been on my earphones? Williams Fitzsimmons. Beautiful voice. Something you wouldn't expect coming from a face full of hair. And a beanie hat. And an ugly brown blazer.



William Fitzsimmons - It's Not True

Just chill-out music with a tinge of sunshine melancholy.

Yes, I'm discovering tons of music from people I've never even heard of before. James Yuill anyone? Ore Ska Band? Peter Broderick?

Don't ask me how I find my music. Sometimes I don't know myself either. It's not like I intentionally try to. Sometimes I find an artist I really like, look for his/her music, and end up hours later discovering a folk ska band that got disbandeed thirty years ago.

Get your head out of the mainstream. That's where most of the shit music get played. Some of them are good. But chances are, you're better off finding yourself music that you really like, rather than some mass-produced, mass-marketed nonsense trying to cater to as many people as they possibly can.

Singing out

Over and out

It Takes More Than The Basics

This is one of the most touching ads I've ever seen. It honestly almost made me cry.

Signing out

Over and out

This Wish Is Impossible, Cinderella

Since it's my birthday soon, I'm gonna put up an improbable wishlist :P Things that I actually do want but will probably never get. Hahahaha.

[1] A Mini Cooper S
[2] A functional lightsaber
[3] Nike Hyperdunk (with power laces)
[4] A 5 foot tall rubber duck with Burmann on its chest
[5] A hoverboard
[6] Gorillaz to perform live on my bithday
[7] My clothes to be sponsored by Selfridges
[8] The power to make people more interesting
[9] The ability to cook virtually anything using vegan ingredients
[10] World Peace

And oh, if you could, bring my baby sister from Brunei while picking up the Mini, yeah? Thanks.

Signing out

Over and out

Hahahaha

No it isn't.

It is so fucking unfunny I can just die.

Signing out.

Over and out

All I Need Is Not This

And all I need is comfort. And understanding.

No judgments.

Signing out.

Over and out

For You Are Silence

The simple symphony of silence. The creaking pitches and thudless melodies.

Do you hear the silence talking to you? Can you listen to the emptiness?

Attentive ears await for voiceless orchestras. In perfect unison the mute instruments bring heaven back within the grasp of we the sinners. And in crescendos we await for your epiphanies. Be it false or true. Be it good or bad.

Be it anything. We lay awaiting.

For you are the silence of ages. The same silence that saw empires rise and fall. The same silence that saw civilisations build and perish. The same silence that saw men become great and fall into obscurity.

The same silence that listens to me. That talks to me.

You are beautiful.

For you are silence.
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Now playing: Ólafur Arnalds - Lokaðu Augunum
via FoxyTunes

Being A Baby Kid And All

Of all the people in Brunei, this little girl here is the one I miss most, my baby sister.

Sweet little thing, she is. Her laughter, staccatos of giggles, the bundles of smiles and that goofy grin she does when she is shy. She's almost a toddler now.

And you know what's scaring me? For the past two years and the next three years I will only be there for a quarter of her early childhood. You know how heartbreaking it was every summer to get her re-acquainted with me? To familiarise herself with me, every fucking year? It's so painful every summer to go back home and see her running away from me as if I was a stranger.

I'm afraid that after five years of being in England (maybe even more) she will be distant to me. I'm so fucking afraid of that. My baby sister, not knowing who I am. Unable to process that I'm her older brother.

This is the little baby girl I used to just watch for hours as she played with her broken toy phones and incomplete Lego pieces. This is the little girl I used to hold in my arms while I danced to the rhythm of music. This is the little girl I used to pick up and hold her just above the sink so she could wash her own hands and her own mouth after she ate. I remember everytime she noticed that I was cooking something she would point to the plates and with just the look on her face made me know that she wanted to sit beside me to eat.

I smiled when she climbed the table to change open the DVD player and put a VCD of Tom & Jerry, the same episode she's already watched thousands of times.

I smiled when she wanted to play with the cats but was too afraid as she grabbed my ankles and hid behind me.

I smiled as she made me push her tricyle around the house, circling tables and rooms as we go along.

I still smile.

Yet I am still fucking afraid.

I won't lose those memories.

But she might.

Being a baby kid and all.

Signing out.

Over and out.

Go Play

I'm getting this:

Harman Kardon Go & Play iPod Dock.

First thing first, all I have is an iPod Nano right now, which isn't even mine. It's Farah's. So I bought this because it's a very good pair of speakers, and it'll be for my super-big laptop. The laptop speakers aren't bad though, considering they're that, laptop speakers. But I miss the bass.

I got this on eBay for £124.00. Which is a bargain, considering the actual price could go up to £250. Plus postage and all, I'm still saving between £30-80/. I have high hopes on this one. The JBL Creature II was also a creature by Harman Kardon, and I absolutely loved it. Mubin has the Harman Kardon Soundsticks II, and from what I've heard, it's brilliant.

By the way, I got a new laptop about a month ago. I still have my dilapidated Acer TravelMate 3040, which is as light as a feather (but also lightweight in terms of performance). Now I have the massive 17" Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Xi 2528 (at about 3.7 kg):

It's not going to win any beauty pageants, but it's okay. One thing I don't like about it is that it runs on Vista. I absolutely despise Vista. It's slow, inefficient and unnecessarily flashy. And it shows. Even with the relatively high specs the laptop slows down at times. My TravelMate has much lower specs and it runs XP much more smoothly. But that's Microsoft's fault, not Fujitsu-Siemens.

The media buttons at the top of the keyboard aren't as responsive as you would expect. The keyboard needs some getting used to, especially since it has the Num Pads at the side (as well as the top) that you only expect on desktop keyboards. The spacing of the keys are quite weird at places. But I'm getting used to it.

The 17" widescreen is beautiful. It's clear, vivid and bright. The viewing angle is good. I used to have a problem playing DVDs, because the screen flickered, but it's gone now. I'm not sure what that was about. Maybe it was a software problem. It can connect to HD TVs, so you can watch DVDs in High Def, but you can't play Blu-Ray discs, which kind of takes the shine off the HDMI connection.

I use the laptop with my 22" Acer X222W LCD screen, and it rules to have a dual screen setup. It's especially useful as I usually have my iTunes on one screen and other stuff like Mozilla Firefox on the other. By the way, Firefox 3 is awesome.

Considering I only got it for £400 (yes, that's about $1000 in Brunei), it's a very good deal. It's original price is at least £700. I'm getting better at bagging myself deals these days.

I have lectures soon.

Signing out.

Over and out