The Effect.

I'm a little bit late on updating my experience with the whole Steve Vai Masterclass that took place in Australia (And I went to the Melbourne one), and I must say that it's amazing.

If you play an instrument, I encourage you to go if you have the chance. It's the only time you get to learn the most valuable asset of a musician such as him, and that is intellect.

The clinic was amazing. It reminded me what life should be, and even if you face the slightest frustration that "pisses you off", you should learn to understand that it could've been worse, and others are actually facing it on a bigger degree.

I mean, you could be missing a limb, but you're born perfectly, right?

So why have all the negative energy when you're completely normal and when it's a waste of time?

Plus being angry does quite a lot of harm to your body.

Why?

There's a lot of things that you can do to achieve your goals. And the first thing you should do is to ensure that you're going to do it with passion. Ensure it excites you too.

I'm not going to call you a douche because you don't understand or if you think this post is is stupid. After all, what others say is none of my business. What I do, is my business.

Self Reflections.

I was pretty hyped up about the whole Steve Vai thing that's going to happen tomorrow.

For those who're a bit backdated, I'm in Melbourne as I'm typing this out. The Steve Vai Masterclass takes place tomorrow at this place that's..somewhere...near...this place I'm staying.

I'm currently staying with an old friend of mine for about 9 years (but we started talking in 2004, so that's 7 years of good friendship). The last I've seen her was 5 years ago, and I'm really glad that I saw this random advertisement about Steve Vai's masterclass and .. called her up, asked her everything that I needed to know, and BOOM.

I'm here, a week before my finals, and one more day to watch the guitarist I'd never imagine to meet (not personally, but it's close enough!).

Getting back to the point, I was really hyped up about it. But as my friend dedicated her weekend to me (with the fact that she's working and all!), I feel really touched, appreciated and at home. And this trip; this unplanned getaway made me realise that the really good friends never move away from you regardless of what you do!

I feel really great. It's been years since I really went about doing the things that I wanted to and stuff like that without the fact of being tied down to a certain schedule/time or something! I actually feel pretty relaxed and I'm having a great time.

Melbourne's a beautiful city, and I was watching some light show at some art exhibition at town area. It's .. great. Music made me appreciate more than what audible art is. The amount of effort being put in certain works and all, I think that's a good effort that requires attention and respect by the public!










And to all of my friends that have put up with my personal shit, and random music status updates of my journey in Music itself, I thank you all for your patience.

A Minor Shoutout.

In the world of technology, there's always been a great battle between Macs and Windows.

As much as I hate the idea, I always appreciated both machines. One was just comfortable for me to work with, the other is extremely versatile. You can heavily game on one machine, and you can't on the other. The other works smoothly when it comes to recording and plenty of other junk.

But today, I did not expect the person I looked up to as a visionary for a company that was ready to be in the dumps.

I always admired his presence on stage, how he held the audience in his keynote presentations with regards to the release of a brand new product. As much as how some people hate the current CEO (which I don't. I'm just confused why people would hate another individual when it's all about work sometimes? After all, Tim Cook tapped into the flash-memory industry for their iPod lines), the previous previous one had passed on.

A true visionary, and a rather interesting leader. Sadly, he died young, and he was really strong fighting all sorts of cancerous activities in that shell of his.

Thank you.

RIP, Steve Jobs.

Setup?

Mmhmm.

Sweet.

Another Cover!

And there we go again.

Aeris' Theme :)

Cosmo Canyon (Cover)

Trust me, this is bloody spontaneous.

I hope you enjoy it.

I was testing out Omnisphere, a new plugin I got for my recording stuff, and .. My word, this application really scares the crap out of me. So many patches and stuff to pick from. It's insane!

Of course, I always have owed my open mentality to the likes of Nobuo Uematsu and Harry Gregson-Williams.. So here's a rather random product when I'm not that serious.

Do check it out when you're free!

So, remembering back..

I managed to go for these clinics:

Malaysia (Surprisingly!)

2004 - Mike Mangini Drum Clinic

2006 - Wes Borland Guitar Clinic (it was FREE and not many were there!? WTF!)

2008 - Mike Mangini Drum Clinic (Again!)

2009 - Andy Timmons Guitar Clinic, then Boston Brass Clinic

Australia:

2010 - Virgil Donati Drum Clinic

And this year..

2011, October 17th - Steve Vai.

It's like a dream come true.

A Dramatic Turn of Events

After several cleared issues, I managed to obtain the album.

I'm a Mike Portnoy fan, and also a Dream Theater fan. So when I say that they're missing an element off the drums, I'm saying something must've went wrong during the mixing process. If it was mixed to be a little bit heavier than "clean"-drums, I think this would've captured my attention.

And finally, after years, John Myung writes!

On another note, this whole album is a spiritual-emotional experience. It's bittersweet watching Dream Theater recording with a new drummer and all, but it sounds so good at the same time.

I must say a job well done, and it might take me a few more listens to really get used to this album's concept.

When You've Lost It; Look Back.

When you think you've clearly lost it, and the world's against you. This is what you do.

Sit back, think about the past, reanalyse yourself and understand what made you the person you are today.

Yes, I'm talking about taking a big step backwards, understanding yourself, and seeing if you can actually accept what you did before that made you the person you are today.

And if you think you've lost all sorts of beliefs, turn back, and start your metronome.

Of course, with that said, I'm not coming up with another emo blog post or something, but I'm rather happy to share that I've turned myself back to 2004, understanding how I picked up speed and endurance on the guitar in fast playing on some certain licks.

Until today, there's a specific lick that I can play with speed. But if you slow me down and look at how I play, I'm cheating the notes I played. In fact, nothing comes out clearly sometimes (my case, all the time).

So, I decided to put "playing the guitar" one side, and take up "practicing the guitar". Sure, if you're playing a song and all that, that's really cool. But paying attention to the details on how you're playing and perfecting your mistakes - and UNDERSTANDING your mistakes, that's another different blow to yourself.

If you're a weakling, you might find that a bit demotivating. But if you're really up for a change, and improvement, I think that's the best step so far.

What pushed me to "go back to the roots?". Simple. Rhythm Knowledge by Mike Mangini. To cut things short, he and his students found a study that if you were to practice a certain technique, or part of a song, for 90 minutes per day, 4 days a week for 6 weeks, you'll sustain the ability to play that practice session for quite a bit, until you degrade.

Which is pretty interesting, because I used to play the A minor scale in reverse with quadruplets to familiarise myself with scales for the first time in 2004. Every single day without fail, I'd play that. Only because, that's the only thing I knew how to play back then. Exactly after a month of hard practice, I realised that I "shredded" on that quadruplet riff taught by my guitar instructor, and learnt the concept of scales on a guitar's neck.

But here's the magic. I never thought of "playing fast" or "shredding". I just wanted to play that A minor scale right. And playing it right and well, was my objective rather than "shredding".

If you were to ask me to play that A minor passage today, I won't be able to do it as well as I used to in 2004. My problem is that, BECAUSE I already mastered it back then (and not applying it to songs and jam tracks anyway), I am not able to play that passage at the same speed as I used to in 2004.

The common, and most saddest thing, about instrumentalists these days (drummers, guitarists, bassists, percussionists, violinists, cellists, violists, fluters (??), keyboardists, pianists), is that when they're self taught, they just want to jump into hyper speed on the first try. I'm not kidding about this. I've seen a couple of friends (and family?) of mine doing this. And it's really hard to let them know that to play quickly, you have to play slowly first. Master everything, and build up speed with patience.

Little do they know that they're actually killing their muscles to achieve what they have in mind.

I built my speed picking naturally, and I must admit that it isn't perfect. That's why I'm going through this whole "therapy" of "slowing down" (I even had issues playing clean & properly at 100bpm when I was doing a simple semiquaver [notes in 16th] practice!).

It took me a month of long hours of practice per day to realise that I was actually building up speed gradually, and naturally.

If you don't believe me, just attend Mike Mangini's next clinic and ask him about training on speed. Drummers have it as the worst when it comes to building speed without applying the right techniques and concepts. What Mike Mangini said back in 2004 when someone asked him that question, he said to never go against nature - this means never go against what your body can NOT take.

You have to build speed, gradually. The best way is to practice from slow, and eventually, it'll be quick. I did 2 repetitions of 90 minutes of the same thing with tempo variation (a few in 90, a few in 100.. a few in 120.. But didn't go more than that). And I realised that I was having fun rediscovering myself on what I did when I was a younger guitarist.

I was a guitarist back then, not a musician.

Of course, with life as it is now, since some of us might have jobs, or are attending school, or doing both at the same time (!!), all we want is to go home, and just pick up our musical instruments and start playing what we feel like playing. That's because we've already "mastered" the instrument based on our own expectations.

But we're never the master of our instruments. Even professional musicians are constantly seeking ways and methods to get better. And you can ask most professional musicians, I bet you most of them (or all of them) would say that they really missed the times when they could just sit down and practice, rather than to play, their instrument as they did when they were younger.

On another note, do not forget the most important thing. If you're not recording your 90-minute practice sessions, then pay attention to what you're playing:

- Make sure you're playing clean. Watch unethical habits that you could have applied (like mine was to string-rake when I wanted every note to sound clean).

- Make sure you're hitting the right note/notes at a time

- Make sure you're playing with the metronome.

More importantly, don't underestimate yourself. Playing the 6 same notes in a single measure for 90 minutes, you're bound to throw yourself off somewhere. So pay details to yourself.

Also, know what you're playing. Make sure you understand what you're playing. The notes that you strike, timing, and everything else. It's all part of the learning curve.

August 2011

Hey guys! Whoever still reads this, I salute you because I've been neglecting it. A lot.

But hey! Let me tell you a story. In 2004, when I started picking up guitar lessons from a local guitarist in Penang, Kelvyn Yeang, he spoke of many names that I could never grasp. Of course, back then, his hero was none other than every shredder's hero; Yngwie Malmsteen.

Yakkity yakkity yak, and I picked up G3 2003, the one that feature Yngwie Malmsteen as the guest. On the same DVD were Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.

That's when I saw this tall wizard, getting on stage with his rather.. stylish shirt.. and strapping on his triple neck Ibanez JEM.

For a kid who knew nothing about guitars and only knew of double neck guitars due to the influences of Metallica and AC/DC, I was flabbergasted.

And today, I just made a purchase:

Yup, living the dream. I could only imagine watching him on a TV screen (it'd be an LED monitor in Blu-Ray with times like these) and that's it. The most I've been so far was Mike Mangini and Virgil Donati.

But it's Steve Vai?

I sacrificed Van Halen, only because I didn't have the funds for their expensive tickets. This one costs $80, and we get to have a proper in sight of what goes on with his mind.

Truly exciting.

I really can't wait. I found a reason to.. be happy again :)

Slight Updates, Again.

Yup, by now, I think you must've realised that I don't really do much.

Well, nothing to be done really. Besides the fact of this university I'm is really messed up in plenty of ways. I'm surprised that the most disorganised faculty is the faculty I'm in. Like seriously, how could you mistake a student to be excluded from a course when the performance was average? Well, besides the fact of failing one subject (and soon to be passing that supplementary paper anyway). And for the other two subjects, I got two credits, and not two passes.

So, bitches, time to fuckin' wake up and do you bloody job.

Anyway, I'm shit bored at home when my brother's not around because I can't whoop anybody's ass on Mortal Kombat, and I have yet to babality Shao Kahn.

Err.

Nothing much. Plus my HDMI cables hasn't arrived yet. One of them would be from Hong Kong, and the other would be from the States that got shipped out a few hours ago.

I'm switching from DVI to HDMI now for my setup to reduce desktop clutter. Will see how will that work out.

And when the HDMI cables kick in, I'll be really busy:


All for the cause to get thoughts off my mind. Life's not a bed of roses, really. Not anymore.

Which brings to my other rant. The interesting bit about people when they change, and when they turn sour. Guess some people do take things for granted every now and then. But then again, we're not around to change the lives of others, so it would be unfair for me to comment on their current status in life.

Perhaps, this semester, it's about time that I picked myself up, and left everything behind. After all, what is the point of effort when you get rejected?

Again, With The Updates.

So, depression is the worst. It directly affects my bank account.

With that said, I purchased a $70 Blu-Ray player that supports USB ports & 7.1 DTS surround sound. Which is kind of cool. It's cheap ass Blu-Ray player, and I've built my mini Blu-Ray collection.

Also, I'm selling a couple of Magic Trackpads if you all are interested - One for auction and one for bids:

$90 Trackpad
Auction - Magic Trackpad - available for worldwide buyers + free shipping

So if you're a Mac user, and who's got a wireless setup like mine, and you're out of Trackpads, head on there and get something (if you want to?)

I moved into my new room after my housemate moved out, as well. It's not that bad, but I learnt my lesson that you shouldn't live by the window on the ground floor during winter. It's bloody cold.

Other than that, my finals wasn't that bad. I still failed Banking & Financial Institutions, but hey, what can I do about it? Lecturer's a dick, I'm an ass, so it's common for me to fail.

Nevertheless, I'm working hard for the supplementary paper. Things should look well.

Till next time.

PS. Tomorrow: Semester 2 begins.

Slight Update.

So, I got down and dirty with creating an official Facebook page for myself. It's better to diversify my music stuff than my personal life so others won't be annoyed with it, I guess?

It's a win-win situation, although I don't really like the idea of.. having that Facebook page sometimes. It's fun, and I see the numbers growing!

If you wish to follow up on a less cluttered update scheme, do head over to the right of this page, and click on "like" on Glacius!

Alternatively, you can head to this website - My Official Music Page on Facebook and click like.

Most of the songs will be featured under "videos", until further notice.

Also, I've been speaking to plenty of Malaysian (to me, local) guitarists, and one of them came up with the craziest idea after I sent him a sample of a new song I'm working on. He suggested that we should collaborate and work on a song.

Sure, who wouldn't like that?

But he's speaking to -me-, you know. I'm not going to hog the spotlight myself, so I asked him.. how about featuring the rest of the guitarists we know?

And the ball started rolling.

I can give you a hint, and if you're a Penangnite. The people involved:
Richard Leong
Jean "Glacius"
Kelvyn Yeang
Chiat
Eric Neoh
Alfred Oh

And we're still awaiting for the better musicians!

I'm really looking forward to this project, and the upcoming song that we're going to produce.

I must say, Dropbox does make transferring files a lot more easier.

Season of Heartbreaks

A song that I wrote in 2005, recorded in December 2007 as an experiment, and now with a matured mind (but still requires a lot of practice), a new rendition's released!

Enjoy!

Memories.

This is good. This is really good.

So far it's the first day of my finals that finished, and guess what I'm up to?

Here's a hint:



I'm just practising on what I can really do with what I have around me, more importantly, stuffing my mind up in every aspect to get every piece of creativity to get things up and running.

Right now, I'm redoing one of my old songs that I wrote with a cheap ass keyboard (that was worth RM10?) entitled Seasons of Heartbreaks. This time, minusing out the crap flute, and trying my best to not stuff in guitar works, because I want to see how far I get with my own creativity based on MIDI technology.

And believe it or not, I was sitting down here for about 7-8 hours staring at the screen, producing stuff and having dinner in between.

Rather progressive, I must say.










I wish I could do this all year long.

Streams of the Unknown.

Sometimes when you put in too much input, you get nothing in return. There's only a handful that really kick you in the places you expect, and sometimes, when you least expect it. But most of the time, nobody really bothers to kick you back. Regardless if it's on the face, stomach, trying to break your ribs, and plenty of other things.

But sometimes, when nobody's there to give you a good kick, it makes you wonder if you've lost everybody, or you've lost yourself?

Some questions are meant to be unanswered. And most answers are meant to be unquestioned.

I've taken a risk; I took a really good jump.

But this, is one of those times, where I actually regret bits and pieces of it. It's like I finally landed flat on my face, and I understand how it is like to be a failure when it comes to accepting facts and decisions.

It's problems like these that made me rant out as much as I want to. But ranting it out, doing what I do, being who I am today, performed divisions to worlds unexpectedly.

Not like I wanted this to happen, but I am not the controller of fate.

It feels like I've lost everything up to this point. Perhaps karma for not appreciating the finer things in life. Sooner or later, I'm going to look back and regret everything I have done.

Perhaps, to not accept myself for who I am was always the first problem. This leads to plenty of other issues.

It's hard, really. You know what's going on with the world, but the world won't look back on what you've achieved.

And it's through rants like these that allows others to distance themselves from one another. Regardless if it's distance from me, or distance from the rest.

It's been six months that I've been floating around like a specter. A wandering soul, that is lost endlessly in all streams that leads to life.

Some find it easy in life, some find it challenging.

But really, this is not what I want.










Maybe one day, I will regret how this day will change my life forever. Or maybe not. I've made promises to others before, but I haven't done one for myself.

I promise myself to be a musician, the guitarist that I am, who lost his heart to all of the instruments around him.

A puppet with a soul, yet without a heart.











It's not too late to really kick start this year for myself.

If someone can give me a birthday gift, please give me time as it's the most valuable thing in this world.











And I'm sick of relationships, the whole issue with feeling love, and getting yourself in and out of everything. Maybe you're the one reading this, or not. You're always welcomed to read what I write. More importantly, I can pretty much fuck off because I really can't be bothered what happens to anything around me.

Bona fide.

Disassembling the 1TB HDD I had with me for years since I first bought it in KL in 2008.

It's interesting to see what's inside and what made it tick.

Cool experience. Just being nerdy tonight. :)

The clustered thoughts of random emotions,
Mixed, like vomit.
Taken in, then thrown out again.

The time that passes,
A sign of success or failure?
The light dims.

The future is untold - and will never be shown.
The cracked lips with never-ending blood flows.
Yet, still alive, and it ponders.

Never again, shall one be whole.
Impossible,
Such insignificance.

Let Them Talk

I am completely biased, but I just got this album off iTunes:



I'm completely blown away. Finally I get to listen to this.. Doctor play good blues.

The Final Bit.

The final step for my quest for tone would be the Line 6 POD Studio UX1, and boy, am I amazed. I guess I can pretty much throw away all of my pedals now.

But that's the problem. It's all digitalised and, my God, there's a shitload of things that can be done.

Can't wait for the finals to be over so I can get down and dirty with this!

I recorded a crap version of King of the World. Not perfected in every way to respect Neil Zaza's original composition.

Oh well!

More updates next time!

ART TubeMP Studio V3 - II

So, here are a few shots of the ART TubeMP Studio V3.

I was writing that previous blog post on my iPad before I slept, so I got a tad bit lazy to explain further.

This is my very first tube preamp, and yes, I do see the point of people arguing back and forth between solid state amplification technology and tube amplification technology (speaking from the perspective of a guitarist - although this can be use for plenty of other things).

The thing that captured my attention about this preamp is because that it has 48v phantom power, runs on 9v AC power, it's small..and has a VU meter which is very pretty!

Plus this retails for about.. USD$70 ~ AUD$100 after shipping based off the stores here. I got this via eBay.








I had few runs with this earlier on, and I had no idea regarding its potential, but, my word, it really does give your instrument .. a different character if you're running it directly without EQ. An interesting thing about this preamp is that it comes with a limiter system (called OPL in their terms), and it works pretty well.. But I'm not a fan of limiters when it comes to guitars and stuff. But if you're blasting the input up to its maximum, then the limiter will come in handy - especially if you don't want to accidentally get some tube distortion.

Sure this is a studio-equipment thing, but I doubt I'll caught not having these with me during gigs or practice sessions.

It sounds -really- good.

What an awesome step forward in my music journey!

ART Tubemp Studio V3

I must say, being a growing musician, I always see the debates of tube-technology amps, against solid state amps, and everybody's making a big fuss about it.

Today marks the day that I see at the uninteresting debate turns into life, and it DOES make a huge difference.

I just got my ART Tubemp Studio V3, and it is amazing! I spent hours again rediscovering what the tube technology can really provide in terms of tone, and it does make a huge difference!

Trust me on this one, I couldn't help myself but smile! It sounds really good!

Vision

Vision to the furthest,
With nothing in sight.
The breeze, and the rain,
The scent of corpses in the air.

Vision to the furthest;
Empty roads,
Empty lives,
Empty souls.

Trapped within,
The screams for freedom,
The exoskeleton,
The punishment.

The voices in their heads,
The brightest lights in the darkness,
Time;
A paradox.

Skinned to the knees,
The beauty in horror,
The moving eye; the stitched lips.
The banshee's screams of joy.

Vision; removed.
Thoughts overrun.
Freedom in an arm's reach,
Stolen by failure.

Warriors by day, crippled by night.
War put up by fights after fights.
The hung spirit,
Trapped within its beliefs.

Vision; non-existent.
Death becomes irrelevant.
Pass the phase; to understand the truth.
Lies the ultimate beauty.

Uh..

So my setup will be the Line 6 POD Studio, the M-audio Oxygen 25 and the Art TUBEMP Studio v3.

Now..to figure out how am I going to get everything up and running ..hmmm...

Of Tone and Preamps.

Sure, I overspent on an overall average of $100, which is my critical level, but I couldn't stand it anymore.

So, I'm running through a solid state amp, the Roland Cube 30X, and always wanted a tube amp.

Problem is, I never had a tube amp. Or a good one. Until I remembered about .. Preamps in studios.

I bought a cheap ass one for fun - $100? Will see how different it is. Can't wait to see how well it does in the digital side of music.

It's called the Art TUBEMP Studio V3. When it arrives, pictures will be up.

Till then, my fellow friends.

Unleashing Thoughts.

Empty promises.

Not to say that I believe in karma, or anything, but if I can't even fulfill my own promises, I don't think anyone else will fulfill their promises towards me.

Guess it works as a double edged sword.

So, what should I do? Branch off from the world, escape from the past and begin a new life?

It's more to like a reset button on a device.

If I do that..

.. Really, how many people will remember of the existence of one who faded?










Another mystery of life, and suicide.

Hot Toys - Iron Man Mark VI

That's the new addition. The dude on the left.

More shots @ My Flickr site.

My God, the job done by Hot Toys. You gotta love 'em, and hate 'em at the same time. They define imperfection perfectly.

Minor Update.

So, we broke up.

That's about it.

Don't worry, I'm fine. It's because I'm just way too busy to be depressed about this issue. I will regret my decision one day, and the imperfected side of me would be the part where I will never forgive myself for being who I am.

BFD2.

After I saw my friend use this, I just..had to get my hands on this.

I'm completely blown away.

Dead awesome. Classic prog rock.

The Quest for Tone II

Watch this space. Upgrades owing soon to enhance music production.

Are you scared? Because I am!

In Depth View: King Of The World.

You can view the whole writeup here, if you're interested to know some behind-the-scenes in prior to recording that video!

My First YouTube Video!

Have a listen! It's a cover off a brilliant guitarist - Neil Zaza. This is one of his songs from his album, 212.



Yeah, and I was a bit nervous on the camera.

Pardon the mistakes! Enjoy!

PS - Neil Zaza mentioned this in his Twitter, and also replied to that YouTube link!

So.

I hate it when this happens.

Sometimes, you know what you're doing, but when you really look at it objectively, you know that you've got completely no clue about what you're doing.

The only thing I know what I'm really doing is that when I pick up the guitar.

On the studies side, on the other hand, is a pain in the ass. On one matter, everything seems clear. But apparently, I've got short memory issues, so I tend to forget everything that I know of.

Which is clearly a bitch.










It's been a few times I've hit rock bottom. I am truly depressed.

Till All Are One.

Yup, my first Optimus Prime figure. Waited for years to get one of these guys.

Of course, if you follow up on Transformers, you know that Optimus Prime is the biggest image when it comes to being a complete good guy and a leader.

And .. well, it's with me.

Too bad I didn't order the one with the trailer as planned. This is the 2011 edition, where it comes with the soundstage that features the Japanese voice actor in the animated series. Awesome!

Getting Back On Track.

.. I know I'm not supposed to mention this but..

I just reminded myself of a very important tool to top off my guitar stuff, and that's the Line 6 TonePort UX1 audio interface, which is not available anymore.

But it's just a name change to the Line 6 Pod Studio UX1.

So a few months from now, I hope to get my hands on one of these babies. I think I've been eyeing on one of these for a few years now since a couple of my friends are using it. It's a very powerful tool.

One more time
Show me how to live
One more time
Just let me be

Like the crow overlooking a corpse
Let it be;
Nothing but meat,
Lifeless without a soul.

Like dolls in a museum,
Eyes overlooking on its admirers.
What are you thinking?
What do you see?

The future is a mold,
Of dirt and clay.
Put down the hammers and tools,
But don't remove your hands.

The future holds a light,
But after the light, comes darkness.
Like day, then night.
The sun, then the moon.

Darkness claims the half-hearted.
Decision makers, to decision followers.
The pouring blood,
The missing vision.

The Next Step.

The next step is for me to stop procrastinating and finding short cuts to figure out stuff that should not be figured out to kick myself into gear, and into motivation.

I really hate it when something like this happens, but hey, what to do?

Things are looking pretty okay on my side, I need to learn to relax for quite a bit. But then again, I can't relax too much or I'll end up procrastinating.

The next step refers to me finally calling the dude I'm supposed to meet in Melbourne. Good timing too, because he mentioned on the phone that he was going to leave Melbourne for another two weeks. The only thing I can say besides good timing is..

.. Damn, he travels a lot.

Well, in his position, he'd better be traveling a lot. It's part of his job, so at least he's just being responsible.

So, another call should be lodged during the mid of next month to see if everything goes well.

But that doesn't mean that all will be well.










I should really start saving up for the Melbourne trip. I'm really broke. I'm going to break some rules soon.

PS. Mortal Kombat is awesome. If you hate it, you'd better stick to watching your Teletubbies because I think that is what excites you.

I Know, I Know..

I know I'm not supposed to keep things abstract, but I have trust issues.

Sorry guys.

All I need is for me to be in your prayers, and I hope I don't screw things up. That's good enough for me.










I never felt so lost.

The Beginning Of .. Well, A New Beginning.

Sweet.

So, what's to download now?

Before I End The Night..

Here's a band that many real music enthusiasts know of; and it's sad to say that I just recently discovered pure talent from these guys.

They're called Rush.

And here's one of their songs that I find rather interesting to my ears!



They're simply amazing!

So..

Minor updates:

Uni's being a bitch. I was slightly motivated in one of my subjects that seem like a constant back-2-back workload of assignments that depresses me. Now I see why it should be a group assignment instead of an individual assignment.

Purely, it's my mistake for taking it up as an individual assignment anyway. But hey, too late to turn back now. I've got a few more days until the whole damned thing is due.

Hopefully all goes well. I've been looking at this excel sheet since this morning and trying to figure out if it was alright. Apparently, it's not. How DO people cope, anyway? Or I'll just conclude that my level of understanding is not equal to those around me for this subject.

Or these subjects, for this matter.

Due to this subject, I had to retract to Windows, and running Windows on my Mac. That was how dead serious I was with this assignment because I was too dead lazy to work with it on my netbook (which is collecting dust until Top Gear, House or How I Met Your Mother releases new episodes.)

Ah, fuck. I think I'm beating myself up too much.

Or too little? Maybe going a step further won't hurt much, right?

I know it won't hurt others. At least it'll show some decent outcome if I perform everything rationally.

Oh, and I cut my finger at work. I still can't play the guitar. I cut my finger at work on Saturday afternoon. I decided to slice off the dead skin at the moment, so I see a bit of my red flesh underneath it. It was a deep diagonal cut. It should be alright by next week, I say. More Neil Zaza/Van Halen practice next week! I'm planning on taking up I'm Alright (generic Neil Zaza anthem) and Van Halen's Panama (Just because it's full of rock n roll groove!)



That's about it from me, guys. Hope you all have a good week ahead.

So.

Another night of getting to bed, having the same thoughts, and the same demotivated crap.

Hope you readers are having a better time than I am.

God bless.

Thoughts.

So, another month passed.

And I'm still on the urge of killing myself.

Another one of those thoughts about how people can actually change over time, and never look back.

Which is a good thing.. or a bad thing?

Is change even recommended?

Is change the best method to overcome a certain situation?










Like governments, they will not believe something they spent their time so long to nurture (or invest), even if the outcome is going to reflect bad issues.

Sometimes we have to learn to let go.










Sometimes, I have to learn to let go.

Now I See.

... what's the big deal with external monitors.

They make me lazy, but hell, it's to fully utilise the maximum resolution you can get out of something, and TVs and standard Full HD monitors don't really do anything good.

One interesting thing about this Samsung monitor I've got though - the panels / controls are all touch-based. Which is annoying at one point, especially at night if the lights are off, somehow.

And sitting in an odd position (no thanks to my minor collection of figures) to see what's going on in one screen and what's going on the other, etc.

.. shit man.

I really need a workstation for this crap. Haha!

I'm having the time of my life.

---

On another note, I should get less committed with some issues in life if I continue to be unappreciated.

Not to say that I don't really give a shit, but if this goes on, I think it's better that one pulls themselves out from an issue than to stay.

Like a dying leaf on a healthy plant. It's like a disease.

Oh Hello!

Besides the fun of getting a shitload of new DVDs and a new pair of speakers,

Meet my.. ultimate break for the Mac.

... You don't know how happy I am.

Next test: Top Gear in 1080i

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA

Snap Back To Reality.

You never know what will hit you when you know that you're destined to fail one day.

I wish for a lot of things.

One of them is that I should not be around in the world so it can be a better place to live in.

I really can't be bothered with life right now.

It's the same shit, but different days.

I Am Such An Ass.

I know.

I decided to follow my roots in music and bought these three:



David Gilmour, Eric Clapton's Crossroads, and KISS.

How awesome is that.

But that's not the end of it. I only have my Sennheiser HD280 PRO to assist me with these musical journeys, and the lack of the low ends makes the likes of Gene Simmons, Billy Sheehan, Geddy Lee, Victor Wooten and many others sound like shit.

Hence..



Gah.

Boy, will I have an awesome time tomorrow catching up. Hehehe.

Oh Joy!

I might and might not get the vacancy that they have for grabs!



Here's a hint, after JoeyShinoda told me what's going on with Next Byte (Especially when I was checking out their website at the same time), they were offering a spot in being a part-time sales consultant.

I've only did sales for 24 days, and it's pretty interesting. Especially, the only way I learn about stuff is actually through practical work.

Whatever it is, I would love to learn more about the opportunities and technological improvements for Apple products.

Heee. :)

Hot Toys - War Machine

So, today I got this awesome little figure. A figure that collectors would die for.

Hot Toys.

I've never heard of them, and I've always been loyal to SquareEnix's Play Arts Kai (.. Until recently due to bad QC), and you know what?

I've defected.

I've never seen such detailed work based on a movie star. James Rhodes' face (based off the movie) looks like.. Well, HIMSELF.

I was suckered into Hot Toys after seeing what they did to Stallone. And Stallone looked like.. STALLONE!

I'm impressed!

So here are some shots off my Flickr gallery:







Of course, there were some issues with the LED on the head area, so I opened the battery box. Without realising it, I managed to screw up the screw that I was screwing on (!!). So I found a replacement. Found these bunch of brass screws that's meant for trains and wooden tracks and stuff. Pretty interesting thing, but yeah, these screws cost me $5.50, the screwdriver set costs $25.50, and extra batteries to be replaced would be $10.

Great.

Anyways, the screws, followed by the rest of the shots.

I'm just surprised at the amount of effort the team puts into in designing a figure on display. I believe that this would be the 2nd most expensive figure I have up to date in my collection. The first one would be my Takara Masterpiece 04S.

























I mean, look at the detail on that face. At one point, it looked really realistic.

Actually, it does look pretty darn realistic right now.

Of course, I was rather amazed at the articulation of the fingers, so I decided to see if it really could grab onto something non-Hot Toys related.

.. Like a Takara Masterpiece weapon.

.. Let alone, Megatron.



Oh how awesome!














The other question in hand is: I'm not sure if I'm willing enough to pay $200 ++ for the upcoming Iron Man Mark IV figure that I preordered. I can always cancel it since I did not pay for a deposit fee. Heh.

And this is what you do if you have more than one War Machine head.

A limited edition Jungle Fatigues Big Boss:



Hahahaha!

New Year Resolution - The Amendment.

So, Penang has been great.

Not really.

My mum flipped when she re-remembered that I failed 2 subjects on the first semester, and calculating the costs on how much those bloody subjects were in MYR.

I mean, in AUD$ was already a headache, but if you convert it to MYR, you'll just pee in your bloody pants until you turn anorexic.

So, here's my new year resolution for this year. We (or rather, my mum and I - for the first time) had a serious discussion about financial rubbish.

I can assure you a few things:

A major cut in toy collections (A lot of good ones coming out this year!!)
Custom model guitar going to be postponed.
My 27" iMac might not pull it through (especially when I got the MacBook Pro, it kind of eliminates the purpose unless if I really want to be an ass to myself.)
Expanding my pedal board.

All because the funds will be pumped into funding the most important thing in my life:

.. Myself.

My education, the mess that I've created through my failure, and my decision of taking up another room that will increase costs for me and my brother, so on and so forth.

Guess I have to work hard, and study hard.

This is just the beginning.










Hopefully my email will be heard of, and the steps to my career will make it through. If all goes well, I might move from Hobart to Melbourne by the end of this year, and get a TR / PR straight if possible.

I will stand firm on this year's resolution. Because I really want to achieve this.

I really want to.