; the little -details- xXx

I can't say much about the exam today, but it's not like I want to anyway.

(See, I'll only discuss tests and exams when hell freezeth over. The hell people want to go over something they already went through, usually in pain?)

Anyway, I decided I needed to go out--and by 'out', I meant out of the neighborhood. So I went to what is probably my most favorite place in Singapore: Bras Basah--before you ask, I gotta say I have no idea why this place appeals to me so much; the combination of so many cheap books and music stores (and also, you can find lots of good, cheap food around) probably does it for me. I wanted to cop a feel of some of my favorite guitars that I would probably not be able to afford anytime soon; the last few times I did this, I had no guts to go and ask to touch something. I'm proud to say I've improved. 

Actually, I was about to just trip and fall into the same old cycle of stop-stare-gawk (Gibson Hummingbird/ the sexy Gibson LP Custom with whatpickup I forgot and floating bridge that is a whooping 5k), but thanks to Nic who wanted me to go ask the people in Swee Lee something about his Pearl drum components or something, I finally got into the store, and actually touched an Epiphone hummingbird (IT IS NO GIBSON BY GOD), some random Ibanez, some Epiphone Casinos and this HUGE Emperor (yeah, I do really have a thing for archtop guitars) and strummed a Fender twelve string for a while.

That Casino: fire engine red, seven hundred dollars? Hmmm... 

I totally forgot about asking the price of the Crybaby pedal. 

Then, I browsed around the used bookstores before finding my way to Popular. Tell you what, popular fiction holds no appeal for me nowadays; I'm so bored of those formulaic chick lits and criminal novels (the so many twists and turns I've read can be nauseating after a while). Anyway, I got two new books, which, let's be honest, I wouldn't have the time to read thanks to exams before I'd probably lost it to rot in some corner of my house.

After that came the fun part; I wanted to make my way to the Cathay. In simple words: I got lost. It's embarassing, I know, but I had the most fun getting lost--going in and out of Raffles Place, and then City Hall, and then Dhoby Gaut. I realised I really just love walking around, even after my handphone's battery ebbed away and I was forced to turn off my music player (oh, so that's why I need a proper MP3 player!).

I guess this is why I'll enjoy backpacking so much. People watching and just wandering around in a place zoooming in on the most unlikeliest details. One of these days I gotta show you some of my weirdest observations that I kept in poem-like-thingy-that-is-hardly-poetic or totally unartistic scribbling. I didn't care I was alone, or if people were staring at me weird 'cause I was staring at some thngs too intently (like there was this pair of twins totally drapped in 'Mad outfits, what with the baggy pants and hoods and boots and the daintly balanced cap--here's the thing: they were GIRLS, and they were CHINESE). 

Anyway, I found my way to the Cathay some time later. See, Aaron told me that the Gramophone is having this massive music sale since the beginning of the year or even earlier (he always delays in telling me these stuff--mate, whyyyyyy?) and I wanted to see how many CDs are still left? Apparently, the 'Clearance Sale' wasn't really working since they still have a shit load to clear. Good for me, cause I found some gems there. 

For example, omg there's this EP with ANDY BELL ON IT. It wasn't with Ride (which I really need to check out), nuh-uh. ANDY SINGS as in SINGS FOR HIS CAREER? Omg Noel should really let Gem and Andy sing; like how Ringo gets to sing at least one track per album while he was in the Beatles. But I didn't get it, cause I was too busy trying to trim down the pile of 15 CDs or so in my hands: The Who, The Cure, The Jam (okay, I really wasn't expecting that), and a lot more while I just kept adding to the pile as I browsed through the store ("Bob Dylan! But shite, dude's got like 33 albums to his name" or "BB KING!"). With great pain and no pleasure, I only bought four CDs after an hour plus of browsing; Pink Floyd's The Wall (FUCKING LEGENDARY CD FINALLY IN MY HANDS); and three compilation albums (because I couldn't choose between individual albums and the compilations are always the ones on sale): REM, Eric Clapton (Yardbirds era, yippee!) and Jimi Hendrix (which regretabbly, doesn't have Foxy Lady in its playlist). I had Kings of Leon and Kasabian and a few U2's, a John Lennon compilation in my hands (I did not see a Paul McCartney one; guy has too many CDs, all of which cost a bomb) and I really really couldn't bear to part with the Who's My Generation album and Who's Next. And Definitely Maybe (which, if I get, will be purely for collection since I probably have most of the songs already--SORRY NOEL THE INTERNET IS TOO TEMPTING). Razorlight, Yes, Weezer and AC/DC and *gasp*Radiohead (I really really want to be able to like them; it's apparently very uncool to not to) were also on the pile.

(OMG I DID NOT FIND THE FOO IN THE SALE PILE)

I've always spent the most time browsing through CDs and books, and I've never regretted the time I waste doing that. It's kinda a pity now that everything is going electronic--and I may not be the most reliable source, since I only possess enough spending power like from last year on and therefore own pathetic amount of CDs and books--not too sound old-fashioned, but having a physical copy of the work itself really amplifies the happiness (not least because you just parted with hard-saved money and THIS SHIT BETTER TURNS OUT GOOD), and the sense of satisfaction over the fact that if THIS SHIT DOES TURN OUT GOOD, you are literally touching history. We humans like to keep things intimate and we are very touchy feely species, and it's sad that all this is making way for convenience and free-but-illegal-actually-it's-a-bit-like-speedball-ain't-it downloading.

That was probably the most fun I ever had in a while even though I was alone. It's nice to get out from it all--even now when I return and the thoughts of exams come creeping back in like a ghost desperately trying to haunt me, organic chemistry and biology shall not wipe this smile off my face for at least a little while more. When I told Yang Xuan that my plan today was to go get meself a birthday present, it wasn't a lie. God, it's good to get out and find my place in this world that never stops for you and just floats along, y'know?

('Course, at around a hundred bucks, this has to be one of the most expensive presents I've ever both given and gotten).

On a side note, I really need to meet people outside school. Loneliness is a bit like a stale bread that I've been munching on too long cause I thought I have no other alternative. And that I need to go shopping; my jeans are too loose and are the furthest thing ever from 'flattering' and frankly, I feel like I've been either dressing like a no-life slob, or a Mod. 

My fashion sense, I guess, is as sharp as Pete Doherty's brain when he was drowning in smack and still snorted more (but I still love him and his music).

LET ME WATCH AMERICAN IDOL RARGH TODAY'S THE DUET WEEK AND ROCK AND ROLL WEEK

Holler if you actually read this blog. Holler, and a double take if you actually finish reading this post. 

Melinda Doolittle--the awesome powerhouse from American Idol Season 6--is finally going to have her debut album Coming Back to You in the stores on the 3rd of February this year--I knew this because apparently some of her fans posted comments on posts that contained any mention of Melinda, including one of mine from like a year ago to publicise her album. 


Expecting Michael John's album to come out a month after that :D fingers crossed there would be a duet with Carly Smithson. 


And here's another shocker: Chelsea got raped 0-3 by United. Winning the League for the third time suddenly doesn't seem so impossible for Man United (GARGH NO) and who wants to start betting who Scolari would start blaming for this uber embarassing loss? 

(Petr Cech again? Didn't watch the match--since I've already checked into the hostel by then--but have a gut feeling it might be Obi-Mikel?)

How I envy the fans of the Red Devils. Any Gooner is probably going through a rough patch right now (1-0 against Bolton. REALLY. URGH!)

MICHAEL JOHNS WENT OUT OF AMERICAN IDOL AFTER BEING AT THE BOTTOM THREE FOR THE FIRST TIME.

america, you so got it wrong.

(and it's quite funny watching american idol after watching american dreamz in hbo <hugh grant eeek!>)

why is the younger david and dreadlock jason still there? sure they have a cult following but we are talking about a talent here. michael johns=huge talent. he sings as good as he looks, to quote paula. even simon's surprised.

what the hell.

this is a mistake. a large mistake. he's a brilliant singer, a talented performer and an all around nice guy. he is a star.

somehow after he left, american idol just lost its dazzle. the only consistent performer left is david and probably brook. ohmygod i was actually hoping for a david-michael final but that so will not happen now.

it's okay. we all know michael's awesome. we'll hear from him soon. with luck, he can be the next daughtry, yknow?

american idol: idol gives back is here again!

and it's still made of win; in my opinion, not as much as last year's, but still an entertaining show otherwise.

why? because the idol hopefuls--the one who make up the show--sing only three songs and spend almost the entire show on stage taking phone calls.

but why is it still made of win? because of mariah carey, great britain prime minister gordon brown, fergie, bandfromtv, ben stiller, brad pitt, adam sandler, robin williams and still more.

robin williams particulary made my night. he played a 'russian idol' with an unpronouncable name. his favorite singer is 'lenin' (when asked if he's a lennon fan) as well as stalin, who apparenlty sung 'every move you make i'm watching you'. he sang a russian version of 'doing it my way' for his finals--randy said it was forcibly pitchy, paula diverted the subject and said his shirt was lovely ("thanks; elton john had a garage sale today...") and simon said it was brilliant. and whatever-his-name proceeded to hug simon and groped him ("let me touch you man to man").

he'd said this to simon earlier on: "simon! love your manbreasts, they remind me of my sister. in fact you look like her. you're beautiful. beautiful!".

forget daughtry, miley cyrus, brad pitt, ellen degeneres, teri hatcher singing and jesse spencer (chase from house) playing the violin with band from tv: simon cowell's nipples stole the show.

i think simon's just broke the record of the most number of manboobs joke anyone can ever crack ("my god, simon, you look like you're hiding the olsen twins... get a shirt that fits please, i know that your black v-neck has lasted you since fourth grade and you have sentimental values for it, but please")

how to fix this?

easy: simon cowell, meet nipple tape. nipple tape, meet simon cowell.

well maybe next year it can be better. like more of the idols please! and maybe they can get george clooney next time (eeek!). it's always great having politicians there too, for example george bush last year and gordon brown this year (that was a real shocker, really). next year, i hope it's nicolas sarkozy; he's my current political hero at the moment.

let me end off with a michael john picture. because i love him that much. (oh no, i just remember that people whom i support from the beginning of the shows just can't clinch first. URGH.)

(i hope he can turn that around then =D)



(i'm eagerly waiting the day i can buy your post-idol album, michael. just like how i'm waiting for melinda doolittle's.)

i shall sleep now and wake up early tomorrow to study. here's to actually waking up. (:

i'm exactly 1 month and 5 days away from my sixteenth birthday--but i'd really like to catch an nc16 movie right now. that three kingdoms movie. do you think i'll be allowed to enter the cinema this way?

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exam is coming, and guess what? tests and project due dates are coming too. i think april 14th is starting to be my most hated day, since everything seems to be due on that day. this semester is just screwed. in terms of planning (why such heavy syllabus when the semester is shorter?), workload (again, teachers have the uncanny ability to dump projects and assignments on the same period of time), and personal grades (although i'm pretty surprised--pleasantly--with my chem results =D). speech day is coming, which means orchestra rehearsals are coming like... everyday the week before speechday. then straight after speech day: exams!

this is crazy. this is madness.

and i still have the script for the bullyfree camp to do, designs for the samc shirt and trophy and banner (i dont know how i'm going to do that) and ... a ton of assignments.

24 hours a day is enough for me, only if i don't sleep and use the entire day sloughing at work.

yeah, that way, i'll die for sure. and the increasing frequency of the vertigo isn't helping.

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well, one thing to look forward to after exams: finally turning sixteen (gawd, i'm so old!), and movie marathon with divya (i'll pick as many george clooney/hugh grant movies as possible).

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american idol was a tear jerker right now. ramiele, the perky bubbly next-door-girl was eliminated. it was kinda sad, since she was the 'little sister' of everyone in the group and all the girls were hugging her as she tried to compose herself enough to sing her one last song. she's a little hot chilli pepper; no one would be able to guess that she can sing so bloody well with so much power if they just see her pint size. it's such a pity she's eliminated since she, like chickezie, was also a damn good singer. but the thing is, everyone up there are excellent singers.

i wish it was the small david that had gone. sure, he's got a large fanbase, but i think he's the weakest one up there, followed by ramiele.

and david cook and michael johns should stay up there and rule the stage. because they rock that much.

it feels like it's not too long ago when i was still rooting for melinda doolittle for american idol season 6. and now, i find myself cheering for a totally different set of people for the newest season of tv's hottest talent contest.

season 7 is so totally different than any other seasons so far because hey, everyone is talented. it's just so hard to pick a favorite since everyone can sing so darn well that now i'm comparing their personality (how gay they are; i still think that danny shouldn't be eliminated) and looks and stuff (okay, since when haven't we done that?) because everyone of them is star material--the only question is how much. everyone is so talented and all; i think this is the season where more contestants showcase their other talents in music such as guitar and piano whereas in the past i can only remember taylor hicks and his harmonica. there are no william hungs/sanjaya malekars/all those horrid mistakes as everyone of them somehow deserves a shot at the crown.

(at this point, i would also like to express surprise that i'm still hooked on to the show after 7 seasons; don't ask me why, i don't know XD)

anyway, here are my favorites!

carly smithson
she just so reminds me of taylor hicks! her voice, her singing personality and her stage acts... it's really a female taylor without the white hair! =D never does stop blowing judges and the audience week to week. amazing.

brooke white
pure passion and raw feeling that can just... connect with the audience. her rendition of 'let it be'  is my favorite performance for this week. and she's got the looks and the personality as well--the kind patient nanny who breaks to stardom with her angelic voice. mhmm mhmm. i like the sound of that.

michael johns
WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S MARRIED? :(
the smile. the eyes. the hair. and the so totally sexy husky voice.
and also, in simon's words "the most consistent contestant."
i can so totally see his cd already, rising to the top of the charts!

it's a hot season this year, people. =D will really be full of twists and turns and shocks. oh and the possibility of simon and ryan just having it out on the stage in front of everyone (oh finally!). a must-watch! (:

and back to geog project. remind me to never ever procastinate again.

...is jordin. that was easy (and relieving; if blake becomes the new idol i'd just die, man -.-)

the finale was... well, dull. blake kicked it into high gear with You Give Love a Bad Name, but the performances were dead until jordin sang This Is My Now, which is by the way, to me, the best final idol song so far. simon commented that jordin had just wiped the floor clean with blake with the song. awesome =D

the final results show was interesting as usual. =) the "crying girl", ashley ferl, was there again, crying her eyes out during sanjaya's performance. -.- whatever. but the performances were good, especially those by the top 12, and the top 6 males and females respectively. great to see chris (the fat one, not that justin timberlake wannabe), melinda, and other idol rejects who didnt deserve to be rejected. and the old idol alumni was awesome. i guess after getting kicked out of/won the contest they would sing much much better since they wouldnt be under pressure to perform their best anymore.

oh yeah, do you realise that melinda, lakisha and jordin lost a hell lotta weight? man, if i'm very desperate to lose weight, i'll go join american idol.

the best part of the show, however evil it sounds, isn't all the glamorous wonderful performances, i'm sorry, but it hasta be the simon-poking and the idol-audition-flops-fun-poking. don't you just love (and hate) simon cowell? =D

ryan seacrest was being nice and announced the results straightaway instead of doing that "after the commercial break" bullshit. XD do you know that blake was being really nice and whispered something to jordin, which jordin later on revealed (to MTV) to be "I love you. Please sing with me later on if I forget the words." then she said back to him " I love you too. Sing with me too, please." Not like she sang with him later on though. XD

blake's a really nice guy. cute. nice. haha. i hope the dark brown hair's permanent. okay never mind i'm sidetracking. but he's nice. he and jordin flipped coins on tuesday, and he was supposed to go last (which always does make a better impression), but he gave it to jordin because she wanted it (or so some guy in youtube said). imagine if the two of them were to go out. jordin's like... one head taller than him. or more. whewt. but they'd be a sweet couple. =P and they're already close together after all this idol hardship. jordin's pretty, blake's hot, jordin's sweet and blake's nice. =D wheee.

this year's american idol's more exciting than usual, if you ask me, even though some of the singers are weak; not as strong as last year's (coughsanjayacough). the top 12 is very close together, you can almost see the bonds between them, literally. jordin and blake are so close together, sometimes i think that they're together, like dating, or something XD it's very heart breaking and exciting to watch when they were about to be eliminated. me and my sister cried during a few eliminations, like phil's, lakisha's and melinda's. last year, it was sad only when my favorites went out. this year, every elimination felt like you were breaking up a family... a very close family.

okay so jordin's the idol, and she deserves it more than blake, but idol's just one thing. let's see how she does in the real world, in MTV, in Hollywood, in Radio Top Singles Chart. past experiences, like clay aiken and chris daughtry (excuse me: AHHHHHH CHRISSSSS!!!! sorry; i've got this little thing for him XD), can show us that idol champions doesnt have to mean that they're gonna be successful in the next step of their career. blake can do better than her after they publish their albums, or even lakisha or melinda. or god-allows, sanjaya.

american idol 2008: how many more talents are left in america, which can withstand simon's acidic remarks, fashion police bites and voters' bias? heck, would randy, paula, simon and ryan stayed? it'd be interesting to watch it next year.

listening to simon fuller's report about how successful the past idol alumni's been, even the rejects, and wow, well, screw all those reports saying that idol's gone flat, but these people do have talents and man, after they join idol, they really go from zero to $kaching$. i mean, these people's dreams do come true.

so if you wanna be a world famous singer, have talent, looks are secondary, then join american idol, suck up to simon and the viewers, act smart aleck towards simon, dont let simon's acid remarks screw you, throw it instead back to him, suck up again to more viewers and wow them with your fashion style and your power notes, and then there you go. a record deal, and a jump-start at publicity.

gargh. i still cant get over the eliminations of the two best vocalhouse. imagine lakisha and melinda in the finals instead. imagine them with This Is My Now. gawd, that would be THE finals. i wouldnt be able to choose between anyone. -.- sighh. hopefully voters would get smarter next year.

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This is my now, and I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around I can't believe the love I see.
My fears behind me, gone are the shadows and doubts.
That was then, this is my now.

And I have the courage like never before, yeah.
I've settled for less now I'm ready for more,
Ready for more.

Best american idol winner single. Ever.
and here I thought it couldn't get any better than Do I Make You Proud (2006).
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another idol season's come to an end, and i gotta wait till january next year to be blown off my feet again by new undiscovered talents.

divya should join.