Me Playing Gershwin

After a lot of practice, well not very successful practising, I present you my version of Gershwin's Prelude I. It really is the best I could get it, yet there are so many mistakes and the tempo isn't very consistent :( boo hoo!

My Trip to Singapore

I went to Singapore during the weekend and got back monday night (28th Jan). I must say it surprised me how closely Singapore resembled Malaysia, only cleaner and with better roads :p

I stayed over with my friend Charissa and we visited Orchard Road, Clarke Quay, Chinatown and Bugis Street. Oh and I even got to visit a Singaporean market (my friend's mom brought me to market with her) and I even had Singapore tau foo fah for breakfast (taste's pretty much like the Malaysian one :p) 2 days really wasn't enough to check out all that Singapore had to offer!

I guess it was worth missing the finals of the Aussie Open for :D

Some pics of the trip:

Yeah... frog porridge :s


Austrian chef dude who gave up his career to make/sell German sausages in Chinatown


Waxed ducks...

More pics on facebook!! :D

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Gosh, what a night (or should I say morning?) its been!

Well, it all started with the Federer-Djokovic semis clash which ended with Djokovic beating poor Roger in straight sets. I was shocked!! And what's worse was that I couldn't decide whether I should be feeling sad for Federer or elated for Djokovic. Hence, 'mis-event' number 1.

Then there was the dinner by my old choir to thank all the students, teachers and parents for their support in helping her open her choral academy. Food was good, company even better... then came the lucky draw... :s The highlight of draw being 2 Triumph gifts. There were about 30 odd people at the dinner and about 30 prizes to be given away at the lucky draw. And there I sat waiting for my name to be called out. The odds were pretty much 100% that I would win something, it was just a matter of when. Once all the other gifts had been given away, it was Triumph gift time... Yours truly won the gift pack which included a, very loudly publicised, g-string. No, not the kind that is metal and found on string instruments. This was a g-string. And to top it off, I was sitting with my parents when my name was called! 'Mis-event' number 2.

After the dinner, we (my parents and I) had to pick my sister up from her friend's birthday party at Starhill and we arrived about 1 hour too early. So we conveniently sat down at the lobby of the Marriot and waited patiently... Not so much a 'mis-event' as the previous 2, but one nonetheless. ('Mis-event' number 3)

So finally, my sister and her friend (whom we were giving a lift back) left the party and we were finally headed home!!! Now would be a good time to mention that my dad's brain shuts down at about 11 pm most days and it was already nearly 12 am when we accidentally jumped a red light. And it wasn't even a big red light, it was a teeny weeny pedestrian red light. And note that it wasn't done intentionally as my dad's brain had most certainly stopped working regularly by then. So we thought, "okay, we'll just keep going since we didn't notice that the light was red" but no... A few seconds later, a police patrol car came up behind us and signalled for us to pull over. 'Mis-event' number 4 - we got fined for 'jumping a red light'. Gah!!

So there... my whole line of unfortunate (I used the prefix 'mis', a little lazy word shortcut of mine) events. But what an experience it was :D

Oh and I'm actually a Federer fan. He's a really good player (and a nice person... lol, like I've met him). Just becoming slightly boring because he wins all the time ;)

Nadal Lost :(

I've been rooting for Nadal to get to the finals of the Aussie Open and beat Federer and win the title. But it was obviously not meant to be :(

Random French dude, Tsonga had to spoil it all. And it wasn't even a close match! Nadal lost in straight sets, 2-6, 3-6, 2-6. Imagine how painful it was for me to watch the match. It wasn't that Nadal played badly. He was actually playing pretty well but Tsonga was just too good. I'm so sad.

Oh well... There's always next year. I'll be rooting for Nadal again!

On the bright side.... Tsonga may be good enough to steal the title from Federer... only I don't want the guy who beat Nadal to win the Open. What a dilemma :p Imagine the stress the players must be under.

And Tsonga needs to brush up on his English. I could see him struggling to find the right words when he was being interviewed after the match. I'm so mean :D (and still trying to decide how much to dislike him - hate is too strong a word)

Perhaps Nadal will win Wimbledon? (Hope he defends his French Open title :s)

To Live Like You Were Dying

I just watched a very thought-provoking episode of CSI:NY about 4 young adults who were terminally ill. They made a pact to die on their terms before death came to claim them, each acting out their dying fantasy - the noble knight killed in battle, Marilyn Monroe of a drug overdose, happy rich guy in his top-end Manhattan penthouse. But what really got me thinking was that before their deaths, they had lived their lives to the absolute fullest knowing that soon they were to die.

All of us wish we had the courage to do and say things we never seem to be able to bring ourselves to do or say practically every day of our lives. Telling someone straight out how you feel about them, daring to conquer your greatest fears, doing things people never expected you to do - travel the world, give sky-diving or bungee-jumping a go, strike up a conversation with a total stranger without a second thought... Just makes me wonder if people who know that they are about to die in a month or two actually achieve more in their life than people who spend life not knowing when their dying day will be... tomorrow, next year, 20 years later. The mere fact that they have such little time to live spurring them on to do the most amazing things.

I wonder if it would be possible for just anyone to live like that. How fulfilling live would be... If only we (or rather I) had the guts to :p

You know, I never really spent much time reading other people's blogs until this year when I started blogging myself and I must say that I seem to be posting very regularly compared to my friends... Perhaps they have better things to do with their time, while I sit here and come up with post after post (quantity but not necessarily quality).

Yeah, I should get a life...

The Most Random of 'Em All

Yeah, I'm feeling a little random right now... well, more random than I usually am at least.
I think its the chocolate brownie I had earlier. It's having delayed effects on my brain. Or it could be some abnormal hormone imbalance... when are hormone imbalances ever normal? (a rhetorical question...?)

Ya... What else do I say?
I want to sleep, but my brain does not allow it... Feel sad for me. Pleeeeaasseee!!

Tomorrow's a Sunday. I'm going to be a lazy couch potato that watches the Aussie Open the whole day. Weeeeeee!! Parhaps by osmosis (can athletic ability permeate the tv screen?) I will be able to play like Roger... Wishful thinking, I know. But maybe.....

I don't think I should have had that chocolate brownie... I wasn't really hungry when I had it, just a little greedy. Oh well, such is my life :( Boo hoo.

Yeah, maybe this post is getting freaky/weird (in a bad way)/annoying/mundane (what does mundane mean exactly?)... but yeah, you get the picture.

Ok, I will stop now and you can stop your eye-rolling/cringing/yawning/snoozing/all of the above (well not exactly above...)

Don't be scared!! I'm not evil, I swear!

Yeah... don't run away (well, not too quickly at least)

The Facebook Phenomenon

I am a self confessed Facebook addict. Everyday when I go online, I open 3 tabs in my browser window - 1 for my email, 1 for Facebook and 1 for general surfing. Shameless, I know :p

I say it is a good way to keep in touch with old friends though some deem it a popularity contest to see who has the most friends and wall posts and gifts. So maybe it is for some people, but certainly not for me!

Its fun to write on peoples walls and to see what people have written on your wall; to tag people in photos and find that you've also been tagged by other people. There are times when I find pictures of me with friends that I didn't even know had been taken. Pleasant surprises!

The only thing I really hated in the beginning was the 'poking' that Facebookers were allowed to do. Of all the lame ideas there are, this has to be the lamest!! The pokes were so dissatisfying (though I must admit that I still do poke people for fun :p). Thank God for SuperPoke!! (do more than plain 'poke', lol)

Oh yes, and there's also the issue about facebook 'stalkers'. Pretty scary stuff if your profile is made visible to anyone. Even for people whose profile is only visible to friends, well lets just say that there's a little bit of a stalking instinct inside everyone... :p

In the end, despite all the drawbacks facebook is known for, I wouldn't be deleting my facebook account anytime in the near (or even distant) future. For me at least, facebook is here to stay!!

NB: I wasn't paid by the facebook people to say this... though I do feel I should be getting some
sort of compensation... *hint, hint*

I Want To Be MADE!!!

I was watching MTV Made the other day and it was about this girl who is your typical Miss Popular Blonde at school and her life pretty much revolves around her friends and parties. She wants to be 'made' into an extreme snowboarder. Which I thought was very cool! I want to be 'made' too!

Still trying to decide what I'd like to be made into... I think it would be safe to say something totally unexpected of me. Which is?

Too bad they don't have a Malaysian version of MTV Made :(

Who Has Seen Me Play the Piano?

Its a handphone video of a piece i just learned last week. Ignore the bad picture quality and mistakes :p



And also, I'm really excited because my blog has been getting an increasing number of hits everyday. Thank you repeat visitors!!

Oh and I've finally put up a little collection of links to my friends' blogs (see column on the right). Feel free to check them out when you have the time. Some of them are full of amazing graphics!!

Can't Wait for the AUSSIE OPEN!!! Who will win??

Tomorrow is the day! The first day of the Aussie Open in Melbourne. Roger Federer has won the men's singles title 3 times already and is a favourite to win the title again. As much as I like his tennis, I find it pretty boring that he keeps winning all the time! So whoever it is who makes it to the finals against RF, I'll be rooting for that guy.

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are favourites to reach the final round. I really, really hope that Nadal reaches the finals and wins! Its going to be very exciting.

Click here for more info and live game updates.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Nadal goes all the way!!

My Choc Chip Cookies

As of December, my favourite TV channel of all time is... wait for it... *drumroll*... the Asian Food Channel. Most of the daytime shows focus on Asian cooking but during the primetime time slots, they show really really nice Western cooking and baking shows. Heaven! *sigh*
So I watched one show where the chef made choc chip cookies and she actually gave ALL the measurements needed to make it at home. So I decided to give it a go...



Well, they looked pretty convincing and they tasted pretty real too... except once they had cooled down, they were HARD :s But I must say that they turned out better than I expected. I'll keep trying to get the right texture for my cookies... I really pity my parents and sister who have to be my guinea pigs for this :D

lame!!

Omigod! I just read some of my previous posts. I sound horrible!! Hopefully my posts start sounding better as I post more (my language skills are slowly dwindling :s).

does blogging make a person more self-involved and narcissistic?

Two Posts in a DAY??? o_O

Hehe, as everyone who reads this can see, I'm really getting hooked to this blogging thing. My mom doesnt' like it - she thinks its a waste of time... but then again, most of the things that I've been doing these past 2 months have been 'a waste of time' if I do say so myself.

I'm such a tool when it comes to HTML and other computer things so its gonna take me ages to figure out how to make this blog more interesting... I'm hoping that it will slowly evolve into something more attractive (like the ugly duckling?) *fingers crossed*

Ohhhh, and I have finally learnt Ostinato from Mikrokosmos VI by Bela Bartok... Yay me!! :D
Its a pretty cool song with very irregular rhythm (which is what makes it difficult) and it drives my sister up the wall when I play it because the practising bit means that I have to play the same section numerous times to be able to play it properly.

Word Geek

in·ure [in-yoor, i-noor] verb, -ured, -ur·ing
–verb (used with object)

1.	to accustom to hardship, difficulty, pain, etc.; toughen or harden; habituate (usually fol. by to): inured to cold.

–verb (used without object)

2.	to come into use; take or have effect.

3.	to become beneficial or advantageous.

I'm trying to read Frankenstein...

There are a LOT of words that I've never heard of. Must persevere and finish the book in order to expand my dwindling vocabulary... like Akeelah in 'Akeelah and The Bee' - a movie about the US National Spelling Bee.

NB: This is how I pass time :s But only when I am VERY VERY BORED. I'm not always a word geek....

Why Smoking Is Bad For You

(Totally unrelated to title) A friend pointed out that in one of my earlier posts, I thanked all those who commented on my blog but forgot to thank those who visited my blog but didn't necessarily leave a comment. So here's a big thank you to everyone reading this blog too :D

And to the main point of this post...

Why smoking is bad for you:
- Smoking causes cancer, heart disease and lung disease (OMG!! No way!! *rolls eyes*)
- Passive smoking is bad (really, really bad) for the people around you. So you're not only
shortening your own life span but that of others too.
- Smoking = $$$. Think of all the good things you could do with all that money spent on cigarettes.

That's basically the gist of all the anti-smoking ads and campaigns (except perhaps that last point). Like its going to convince a smoker to stop smoking... I know people who've had diseases caused by smoking and still insist on their daily pack. Why would anyone subject themselves to such a slow and almost always painful death? Self-inflicted too! I don't get it at all.

Its NOT COOL to smoke
People who smoke usually snore because their lungs and throat are so congested with gross things (not cool!!)
Neither is it beneficial to your health...
Addictive maybe, so why do people start smoking in the first place?
If its because of stress, try chewing gum!! Or even minor electrocution... Well basically what I'm trying to say is that there are other alternative stress relieving habits (don't count drugs)

So there, that's me venting out my frustration on this whole matter about smoking and my lack of understanding as to why people choose to start smoking in the first place.

Crazy/Beautiful

I was watching this movie on TV today and in the beginning thought "what a pointless movie this is". As the movie progressed, I began thinking "what an annoying movie!! ggrrrr...". Seriously. The character played by Kirsten Dunst had to be the most screwed up person I've ever known/seen. She seems to hate herself and yet she is self-involved enough to feel sorry for herself at the same time. Which is what annoyed me the most. She should just make up her mind already!! I could go on, but I'm sure you get the picture ;)

Towards the end of the movie however, I realised that it wasn't such a bad movie after all. It gave a pretty good insight to the life of an emotionally screwed up teenager (which was played really well by Kirsten Dunst) and there were some touching father-daughter scenes thrown in to good effect. So overall, I had a much better impression of the movie than I did initially. (But the girl still annoys me :p)

Political Science for Dummies

I found this on the internet and thought it was really funny! Have fun reading :D

DEMOCRATIC
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Barbara Streisand sings for you.

REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?

SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.

BELGIAN CORPORATION
You have one cow.
The cow is schizophrenic.
Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish.
The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow.
The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk.
The cow asks permission to be cut in half.
The cow dies happy.

Re-examining My Roots

I went to my grandmother's place for new year and happened upon this book called "Sri Lanka, Island of Terror: An Indictment". I was bored and so decided to try reading it. The book gives an account of the beginning of the civil war in Sri Lanka between the Tamils and Sinhalese though I must say that after reading the first chapter, I realised that the authors were most certainly biased towards the Tamil's side. The book made some serious accusations about the Sinhalese government attempting to exterminate the entire Tamil population of Sri Lanka using forced deportations, mass killings and such. It likened the situation to the German Holocaust. I know that it is unwise for me to take sides and so I won't. But whatever the reason is, Sri Lanka is up to now still in a state of unrest with bombings and shootings happening ever so often and I find all this violence hard to accept.

I am Malaysian but of Sri Lankan Tamil descent and this war does unsettle me somewhat. I do not know which side is good or bad, but the fact that these 2 parties refuse to cooperate and come to an agreement for once and for all annoys me. Why can't everyone just settle their differences without guns and bombs? Seriously! I think all these people need to be re-schooled and thought diplomacy. But its all easier said than done I guess. These people are fighting over much more than a petty disagreement. The best I can do is hope that somehow something gives and the rift is settled (yeah right :p). Feeling strongly about something and actually going out to do something about it are 2 very different things, I'm too lazy :D (which is why the most I can do is hope...)

I'm still reading the book, I think my uncle was reading it but he's away on business so I conveniently borrowed it. After reading the little bit that I have so far, I'm just very thankful that I'm Malaysian!

On a lighter note (sorry for the super awkward change of tone from serious to this), I would like to thank those who replied my email or left comments on my first post. They really made my day :D I'm still ironing out a few kinks here and there and hopefully will be able to make this blog more attractive as I become more comfortable with it. I actually wrote another post on Tuesday night but the formatting was weird and some of the words got stuck behind the hot choc pic :p So I had to delete it and create a new post (because I didn't know how to correct the werid thingy in the first post *blush*)

I want to blog!!!....

I must say that this blogging business is quite addictive!!
I've been itching to write another post since my last post... So this post is slightly pointless.

However to give it some meaning, I would like to introduce you to this super cool musician whom I stumbled upon on youtube. Paul Dateh plays hiphop violin and he plays it soooo well!!
This is his youtube video which has had over 700 000 hits:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

2008 New Year's Resolution: To revive my dead blog and keep it going for a whole year :s

Yes, I have decided to make this blog my new year's resolution even though I don't usually make New Year's resolutions... So we'll see how long this one lasts!

My blogging history is one that is full of false starts. I've probably created and deleted more than 3 blogs over the past 2 years in my futile attempts to enter the blogging world. This particular blog was actually started in February 2007 when I first started going to uni in Melbourne. However, as you can see I've deleted all my previous posts (which were pretty crappy anyway) and am trying to start anew. *fingers crossed!*

So Happy New Year to all who are actually jobless enough to be reading this. And stay tuned for more *ahem* soul-searching and thoughtful blog posts ;)