Note-Taker.

It's a rare thing, because I never received it last semester regarding this issue.

It's simple, you get paid $250 per unit of note taking. All you need to do is to attend the lectures and just write a whole shit load of things that makes the student understand asap.

There's a 1-3 day deadline for the notes to be written out.

Now I'm not doing this for the money, but the best way to understand a certain subject, is by teaching it. That's why you are required to at least lecture for a few semesters or a few years if you were to ever pursue your Masters or something.

It makes sense, and it's more stressful than anything else, actually. I mean, teaching kids, and ensuring they pass their exams without tossing them the exam's answer sheet, that's a real challenge.

Plus, I always loved sharing things from a different point of view. Like the iPhone 4. It already came out in Australia yesterday, but did I even make an effort to buy it?

Yes I did, but I won't be the first one, unlike the iPad. I'm not entirely giddyish about this phone, but I'll just wait for my replacement unit (in comparison to my current phone) to pop by. It'll be coming somewhere in August. There were no pre orders for this one, by the way. So I had to wait for the orders to open, and it'll just take me a few weeks extra to receive it. Heh.

And why the iPhone? Because it fits me. There are other better smart phones out there (Definitely not a Nokia, by the way), like the HTC Desire (which I just found out that it only costs about $719) and the Blackberry Bold 9700 ($650++) and plenty of other phones out there!

But too bad, apps are restricted on those phones, and you don't get as much as you do out from your device unlike the iPhone.

So yeah.

If the iPhone were known to explode fate a day's use, I would've went for the HTC Desire or the Blackberry Bold.

Heee.

So, like music, just spark a conversation with me. I'd love to share what I know, and I'm willing to learn.

And when I meant music, I mean MUSIC, not who's your favorite band and why it rocks and all that.

Totally different universe.

Big Boy's Toy - Pt. II

I know, I know.. I should really stop this habit, but..

I found the Jungle Fatigue version of Big Boss, and Chris Redfield from the ones who did and released the Sneaking Suit Version of Big Boss; Square Enix's Play Arts Kai (Custom).











And I pre ordered them too.

And out of nowhere, I want a Drossel too. T_T

The Quest for Tone.

Today, I paid off and finalised my order for the Fender Stratocaster that I've been planning. This is the part where I planned for something, and actually made it happen.

Previously, I was just .. planning, and there was no outcome.

This time, I have evidence that all's going to head my way. I paid the biggest sum I have ever did at one go.

Bugger. The oddest thing is that I don't feel the pinch compared to expensive grocery shopping, etc.

Maybe it's all about budgeting?

Anyways, so here's the gear setup that I am foreseeing:

American Standard Fender Stratocaster (Sienna Sunburst - Ash bodied w/ full maple neck)
Roland CUBE 30X (I wanted a Marshall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But this will serve as a good practice amp FOR the moment. Planning to get a Marshall in the near future anyway.)
BOSS DD3
BOSS Blues Driver
Jim Dunlop Buddy Guy Wah Pedal

I need to get a couple of daisy chains too. If all goes well (which I doubt), I should be able to own all of the above by latest end of September.

I've got other things in mind, so the chances of getting all of the above stated is very very slim.

I just had a listen to the Blues Driver, I should be able to survive with the pre-setted amp's distortions. But other than that, this will be my firsttime in 8 years of guitar experience, getting my FIRST guitar amp!

Yes, read that right. My FIRST guitar amp!











Yay!

Fender Stratocaster Update.

So, remember the Fender Stratocaster that I had in mind.

The day's coming closer, and I'm prepared to foot out the deposit or the first downpayment that I would like to give, and I couldn't be any more happier by emailling the person who's going to be settling my transactions (and possibly) a slight modification to that guitar.

.. Until I read this from his email.

"It is likely to see the discussed models in 8 weeks time". But it is likely = unconfirmed.

Edit: I just realised that I misread "likely" as "unlikely". What the hell. Thank you, blogspot, for making me realise what an idiot I was.

I'm giving this place at least 2 months to get my guitar in, but I am not sure because everybody went for the exact same guitar. I'm guessing that everybody likes the shade of sunburst colours, the same body, the same neck, the same this, the same that, blah blah blah.

WHAT, EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE ERIC JOHNSON NOW, IS IT?! GO GO GO, THERE'S STEVE VAI TO BE ADMIRED TOO, Y'KNOW!

I sent the email to this salesman that will be handling my transaction in getting this guitar, and I am looking forward to the day when my Fender Stratocaster comes into my hands. I grabbed hold of the Humbucker-Single-Single model, and when I held it by its neck..

.. It nearly slipped out of my arms before I gripped it a little bit tighter.

I was surprised. The tension that I put onto grabbing the neck was .. unbelievable. I used strength, but I didn't feel my palm trying to bleed, and it was as soft as a silk scarf.

Without playing it, I knew that what I had saved up for is definitely worth it. And waiting for it would be awesome too.

IF the SSS is not available, I'll opt for the HSS model, but only if I am able to install a push-pull pot into the damned thing (that splits from a pararrel humbucker to a series-single coil pickup, which is God-sent, like dual booting OSes on XP and Vista)












Now I realised that this blog does not make any sense, I'll happily wait for the salesman's reply. HEEEEE!

The Hunt.

So, you know that my little HP Pavilion DV2314t went busted just last month, on the 22nd of June.

The adaptor was generously sold to Joey Shinoda, and what became of whats left of the laptop?

I ripped the HDD out, and housed it in a new casing for it to work in, and it works as my portable HDD as we speak.

Funniest thing, I was already eyeing on a new HDD that has 500GB of capacity.

Besides that, I decided to pop by Dick Smith today to see what ranges of laptops they have there.

I saw a few, and I'm definitely ruling out on Toshiba. The build is just odd. I had a look and I saw the Dell Studio 17 available for $1199, and boy, is that a run for it's value. The only problem is that it's fitted with Intel Core Duo, 2GBs of RAM, and my ever hated Microsoft Vista.

Peeking around, and like everything else, I stopped by the Apple section. My word, the MacBook Pro looks nice. The 15 inch was the one they had on display.

And again, I was reminded why I fell in love with it.









It would make a really great Christmas present from my parents, but I don't think that's worth it. Regardless if they can or cannot afford it, I WANT to work hard for it, and make it mine.

:)

Next year, isn't far away now isn't it?

No wonder businessmen consider their plans in years.

Updates?

First of all, I would like to say, I nearly have a solid driving licence in Tasmania. Currently, it's a temporary one, only because my licence is in progress.

In other words, I passed! I nearly failed by 2 points, but that's all good.

The only advice I got was:

"The stop signs are there for an obvious reason."

Which is the most polite way to mention, "You should fucking stop, for once."

Like how Victor Wooten was asked to play less notes on his bass guitar when he was flooding tracks like nobody's business: "Remember Victor; We have two ears. One for the band, and one for music."

Others will ask you to tone down, play more stuff, etc, and that'll just demotivate you in a certain degree. Even if it doesn't, I bet you'll feel like shit for by 0.01%

Other than that, I've paid more attention to Eric Johnson (!!) only because the dates to my Fender Stratocaster is drawing close. Coming next month, I should be stable enough to pay the first deposit, then begin its shipping to Hobart, Tasmania.

Question is, how long is that going to take? I forgot to ask. Heh.

So I have to place my order weeks before expectations.

iPhone 4's pre orders isn't opened to Australia just yet, which is scary. The iPhone 4's release is 30th of July. Is Apple planning to not allow users to buy their phones up front first? Or ..?

The other problem is the famous Micro Simcard compatibility issue. My concern is none of that. I'm just wondering when will they have a proper leather folio casing for the iPhone 4, and make sure they have all appropriate screen protectors on the day of release, and I'll keep my mouth shut.

Other than that, university's pretty okay.

.. Or not. I won't touch much issues there.

One thing's for sure. I feel my brain's beginning to rust on me. Like a mercenary, a hero, only know nothing but brute force and survival for the love to his country.

A mercenary protects the physical state of the country, but he can't be running for politics now, can he?

He won't know the demographics, the economy, the news, and the updates that he should be knowing to improve his knowledge in handling his own country.

He only knows the battlefield.

I'm not senile, yet, but I'm starting to feel that age is catching up. The idea of adaptability used to work, but I don't think that can ever happen anymore. I slacked off way too much, and I tend to not do much nowadays.

Sadly, I wish I was not in this state. I wish to be productive. The reason why I excelled in my studies (believe it or not), was because that I could apply what I learnt at work in my studies.

Believe it or not, it was Starbucks that taught me whatever I needed to know to go against lectures with a solid point that they did not think of.

Which is a good thing; the point of a workshop. Contribution of ideas, arguements being counter-attacked, re-evaluated, and planning a possible conclusion to overcome any factors.

It's funny. It's ironic.











But give me any longer with this attitude, and I might drop out very soon.











Can I be like Orianthi, Alexi Laiho and Yngwie Malmsteen? All good guitarists because they dropped out of school at the age of 16 (for Orianthi and Alexi), and Malmsteen who had a 16-hour schedule for guitars, and 8 hours of sleep.

Heh?

The Search For Tone.

I never really cared about tone before, but that was years ago.

I had an odd liking for low-bass tone when I was younger, but fit that with distortion, and it sounds bloody muddy, instead of what the guitar should be. Plus I wasn't even playing on a 7 string back then. So what the hell. Haha

I was watching several people on YouTube last night, and finally, I did not look at the way they play, but I only focused on 3 things on their video:

1) Right hand
2) Left hand positions
3) Tone

Different guitars, with different tones. And yes, I arched several coves of Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover, and I came across this talented woman who could eat the guitar for breakfast at anytime. She was using a very very beautiful Gibson Les Paul with a gold top finishing. But that was the issue. She was using a Gibson Les Paul.

Her skills were present, she knew what she was playing. Sad to ah, I shut her window down because of the extra boosts, kicks and output that the song did not require.

Of course, she can still eat the guitar for breakfast. She reminds me of Slash too.

I watched this other Thai guitarist. He covered the studio version for Manhattan, and although he nearly had 98% of the tone right for that song, his reliability was in his left fingers.

The fretting fingers, mind you. Now, how does that approach tone? Its just a bunch of fingers tapping on several notes to get whatever it is you wanted out amplified.

That's when you're wrong. Vibrato, string bending, using different parts of the fingertips to play, all these will effect tone.

Of course, he was playing with a Fender Stratocaster, so that's an entirely different thing compared to the Gibson chick.

But still, to achieve that sort of tone by Eric Johnson is a challenge. Years of experience, research, and investment. It ranges from different sort of tube technology, to shaving off the paint on the guitar to get a certain amount of moisture for the guitar to breathe more, or less, to allow the notes to sing.

Yes! Moisture content! So don't paint your guitar too heavily, or not! I don't think I have the heart to shave off the after-shellacking finish once I get my Fender Strat.

But yes, the search for tone begins today. :)

Boy, am I excited! <3

Yay!

It finally arrived! <3

Close Call.

I just got to uni not long ago, and I know that my lecturer didn't release the first week's lecture notes.

At least that's what I know.

When I double checked again, it was released already, and boy, was I in for it. I didn't upload it to my iPad, and I was in deep shit (Somehow. Since they use the projector to review the slides anyway)

I checked out Safari, and saw that the lecture slides were available for download. Sheesh.

Since I had three methods to upload the PDF files into my iPad, the Wi-Fi share network was blocked by our glorious UTAS' firewall network. Can't blame them for taking up security anyway. So I had to think of another method.

Download from link - But the iPad/iPhone does not support PDF views in a different frame, so that was another problem.

Downloading from a link, but if the link were to be in a user-friendly interface. Fuck Hotmail for once, but Gmail?

Poof, and I'm all prepared. I think this iPad was a tad bit underpriced. :)

And for those iPad users, please do get the 3.2.1 update. It's released today! (I thought it was the iOS4, like finally. Sigh)

Just Another Day.

Last night, I passed my driving theory test. It felt like as if I was retaking my whole licence all over again from scratch. Heh. My driving test is up next Wednesday, and the only thing I need to bitch about is to find a damned car. This is when I'm going to kiss my boss' ass by asking him properly if he could lend me his car during the test. If no, I'll just have to pull off the biggest bullshit lie to some poor car rental company.

On another note, I'm typing this at work, but only publishing it when I get to the closest wifi spot available. Looking at my time today, that would be at uni.

And yes, I am finally utilizing my iPad, and seeing how it is any better than bringing a hard copy of my notes, or a soft copy would do just fine. At the end of the day, I still scribble my notes onto an exercise book.

I had a test run a few days ago at class. All I can say is, if you don't have a proper desk for yourself, you can kiss comfort goodbye. The iPad, compared to my netbook, is bloody heavy. I didn't notice this issue when I first got it until recently. Still, it's complete stupidity to compare a netbook with this highly priced, high resolution, photo frame.

What this thing beats the netbook is, the comfort of typing anything, and I dare say, ANYTHING. Because of the iPad's life-size keyboard, it beats the crap out of any 92% scale of a real keyboard. I've been typing on a standard keyboard for about 14 years and switching to something small is completely ridiculous.

Now, I'll put this to the compatibility test in UTAS. I understand that our online learning system works well only with Internet Explorer (which is completely stupid too). My housemate once submitted her assignment through Mozilla Firefox, and it did not get submitted. Same issue like me with SkyDrive (under MSN). My files could not be transferred over because I was on Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. Of ourselves, if I used something like Safari, it would've probably caused a Cyber World War X.

So, MyLO on UTAS. There's a rat race going on. I need to register for my tutorials later on, and hopefully, getting the time that i really want. If not, im pretty much screwed. If MyLO does not respond well with the iPad, then it's clear. The iPad's not put to blame, because iPhones and iPod Touches are required to install their own profiles in order to access the campus' wifi network. Which should be a tad bit interesting.

Oh well. Till then.








I wonder if the battery would go flat before the day ends. Oh wait. This isn't a power-sucking Microshithead device, it'll last me until the day after tomorrow, if I get bored, and probably next week if I don't get bored :)

Fresh Air.

I'm looking at my subjects: 2 starting with 1xx and one starting with 2xx. Meaning two Year 1, and one Year 2 subject. It shouldn't be that tough.

If I fail this time on any of the subjects I registered for, I'm just born dumb and Finance is not my field.

On another note, Semester 2 feels great. It's not like the failed subjects from the previous semester were pre-requisites to the subjects I am taking now, but it's more to like the other way around. These are the basic subjects that I was supposed to sit for before I went and declared war with Finance. It doesn't work that way.

Unless if you're a suicide bomber, then that's a whole different approach.

I finally stepped up for my driving licence theory test. And I failed. HAHAHA. I only had 2 wrong, and shit, I failed! I think I was either supposed to only get 1 wrong, or none wrong at all.











Will try again tomorrow.

And yes, it's free. That's why I don't mind failing this test LOL

Oh Sweet Stratocaster.

I was at McCann's music centre checking out several guitars with a friend of mine, Karen Belarek. A very old friend of mine that we met through another friend of ours. Since she just came to Hobart, I had to drag her around and bore her with more guitar stuff.

Only because it is educational!

If you were to be her, you'd notice that I would be having my nose fitted into all angles of the American Standard Fender Stratocaster that I saw for only AUD$2199, which is under my 2599 expectations.

Only problem is, the maple neck was a bit too glossy (probably protection) and it's a HSS setup, when I wanted a SSS setup.

That didn't matter.

I grabbed it, and I felt I was possessed.

It was somewhat light, the neck felt like silk, and the string tension felt great.

The feel of it just had me mesmerised.

That is the guitar I am going to get soon. Not because of musicians getting it.

But because, I felt it bonding with just a touch.











And I can pretty much imagine how it sounds like....

Failure.

I failed 2 subjects.

Yay.

Of iPhones, Fender Stratocasters, and MacBook Pro..

Well, I believe that some of my list is fulfilled by purchasing this glorious iPad. Now to continue on with the rest of the items that I have in mind. Between the 3 expensive items up ere, its a tough thing to choose. Let me break it down.

I need a new phone, I need an electric guitar (which manipulates my playing styles and skills), and I need a new laptop (after how my HP motherboard died on me)

So, pre orders start very soon for the Australian market. The problem is, will they have enough micro sim cards to be issued out to whoever plans to change from normal conventional phones to the iPhone 4?

And if I were not to spend on the iPhone 4, I can get my guitar at least a month quicker than expected, inclusive of the whole rig.

I am constantly reminded by the sweet sounds being played by guitar gods.

Which brings me to my next problem. I have a guitar, but I do not have a proper computer to record stuff on. Not like I do much recording, or anything, but.. That's just ironic.

Talk about spoilt for choices. This really sucks big time.

Maddox Lives!

'Nuff said.

I still have the first edition in Penang. This one's the 2nd edition LOL.











For the love of Maddox!

I Don't Do Donations, But..

The common sicknesses for a rabbit or a guinea pig, would be diarrhea.

Apparently, pets aren't the only thing that suffers from that, so yeah.

I just found out that about 32,000 kids suffer death by diarrhea. And I always thought that starvation stays on top of the list.

It is kind of sad, though, thinking about it.

And yes, I offered a donation to this. I don't usually do this stuff, but since I could afford it, I just might, I guess.

I also got an odd lime green glow in the dark wristband. Uh.

But at least that's a good reminder for myself.

Well, time to get the day started.. Again.