How Many Centuries Have Passed...

... since this blog's updated?

I owe my readers,followers, and those people who discovered my blog in one way or another, a major apology for once again leaving this blog to the hands of spiders and dust bunnies. Degree has undeniably suck the very life out of my physical being, thereby depriving me of my time to blog and of course,spam this space xD I guess this explains the random quotes I've been throwing all over my Twitter huh?i can only stand being deprived of my blogging time for so long. So basically there has been a number of happenings in my life that i have not been updating about. Let's start with the oldest one,and then build up to the latest event shall we.

BRACE YOURSELF,this is bound to be an extremely long post,with extremely large amounts of pictures and captions!

• Music Club's Divas vs Kings Concert. (20th April 2012)

This was my first ever event that I've organized as a new BOD alongside Jessie. Planning stage wasn't as intense as MJ Night considering that this event is less ambitious. Admission was free and the theme was pretty 'narrow'. The idea was to get our Elite members to expose themselves to songs performed by artists whom they consider as 'Kings or Divas'.Here's an interesting part, at the very last minute,we decided to give it a charity twist.Back then there was a devastating story about the late Alda Tan (an infamous independent bassist) who collapsed into a coma due to brain cancer. We decided to give him a helping hand by raising minor funds merely by placing two containers labelled 'Kings' and 'Divas' in the middle of the stage for attendees to donate. At the end of the show,we were to calculate which team, Kings or Divas, who contributed the most to the charity.We even got Adam Lobo from Dragon Red to come and give us a little speech regarding Alda's condition. Neo did an excellent job emceeing the entire show. The playlist and performers go as follow :

Sequence (No.)	Song List	Performer
Opening	Hush + I Will Survive mashup	Leanne Chuan, Maya Hanum
King 1 Diva 1	Hound Dog by Elvis Presley Love On Top by Beyonce	Spellman Choy Ron Hoe
King 2 Diva 2	Use Somebody by Kings of Leon Without you	Dzaim Adzmi Alif
Transition (Break)	I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You	Adam, Leanne
King 3 Diva 3	You Are Not Alone by Michael Jackson I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston	Faiz Ruda
King 4 Diva 4	What’s Up Lambert Medley	Ryham Haris Jessie Lim
King 5 Diva 5	Yellow by Coldplay Irreplaceable	Spellman Choy Leanne Chuan
King 6 Diva 6	Home by Michael Buble Against All Odds	Adam Alif
King 7 Diva 7	The Way You Look Tonight I Wanna Dance With Somebody	Jason Phung Maya Hanum
Transition (Break)	Greatest Love of All	Hui Ying, San San
King 8 Diva 8	Man In the Mirror by Michael Jackson And I’m Telling You	Dzaim Adzmi Ruda
King 9 Diva 9	Don’t Look Back In Anger Stand Up For Love	Ryham Haris Park Jung A
Grand Finale	We Will Rock You	Elites All Star

As a last minute thing,I played guitar for Ryham as she sang 'What's Up' by 4 Non Blondes, a song I would have never thought I would ever perform. It went really well. Most of them,especially Ryham,Ruda,Jung-A,Maya & Ron totally brought the house down :D Not to mention Mahirah's surprise attendance ! My personal favorites of the night were of course Dzaim's 'Use Somebody' ( the crowd sang along with him,backing him up with the iconic "ohh woo-oh oh woo-oh", I think he cried at one point :') ), Sai's epic fail Man In The Mirror when he forgot how the song starts but managed to control the situation by making it a joke, Ron's adorable 'Love On Top' cacat dance HAHAHA, Ryham's slot with me (although she almost forgot the first line,but moi saved the day by playing an extra bar of progressions hehe), and also, the crowd's participation in We Will Rock You,rocking with us,drumming their seats and stomping their feet. It was just epic and all our effort paid off!

*p/s : please please please don't ever talk about my epic fail harmonization for Greatest Love of All, a guitarist should stay as one,and never ever ever ever sing.

• Babo Violence, Lake Busking, & Avengers. (1st May)

So the boys in my class introduced me to this addictive game called Babo Violence,which is a basically a first person shooter game involving characters in the form of colorful balls (yes you read that correctly, BALLS) in obstacles built by players beforehand. It's a multiplayer game,so we had uber fun playing on LAN considering it was just the beginning of the semester, a dull Monday,per say. This was long before ground rules were set,disallowing games to be played in computer labs. That session was in the morning,in the evening,on the other hand,I had a little busking session by the lake with the usual Elite gang,singing random songs before having dinner and heading on to Sunway Pyramid to watch The Avengers.

•  Best Assignment Ever (11th May)

Wanna know what's probably the most fun assignment we've ever done? The publicity stunt assignment for Communication for IT Professionals ! Our idea was to promote Sparta Energy drink! (in this sense,'we' refer to my group consisting me,Yen,Seelan,Shafeeq, Zul & Khanna). Apparently we had a slight crossover with another group consisting Jitki, Kai, Calvin, Chee Heng & Jacky (or as we like to call them, the Januarians, since they came from FIC January intake, technically our intake 'seniors', heh). They did 'Sparta Chicken' so we decided to collaborate. The idea was to ..'shove' our posters to the random people in SLC,asking for their feedback regarding the outlook of the posters we designed. Some of us went as far as bringing paintball war gears (the one everyone was oh-so-fond of messing with xD). 

p/s: Why wasn't I in the same group as Jitki? Back then we merely knew each other,and I only know him as 'that weird guy from FIC Jan,who introduced himself as JK but no one calls him that' lol. Little did I know,later on we'd grow so close within months,it scares us.

• Calvin's Manson Makeup (15th May)

Someone went all out for his class project, Marilyn Manson makeover,need I say more? I'm missing this mofo already, he left for Adelaide :(

• Random Friday (guitar hunting, mcd dinner,playground gossip - 19th May)

This was probably the first outing I've had with Jitki before we became best friends. He wanted to look for a guitar,knowing that I had somewhat of a wisdom relating to music,he dragged me along,guitar hunting from store to store, from Sunway Pyramid,to TGS Damansara Perdana,to Bentley to some other random music stores along LDP. Knowing that we might not make it back in time for dinner,he decided to have it at my place instead,where coincidentally, Yen and Angyu was after Yen's futsal session.Clearly Jitki's presence partially surprised them as they weren't aware of our closeness. The rest of the night was spent watching 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' after dinner followed by a McDonald's session,and a gossip session at the playground near my place (where abandoned buses were,making the place slightly eerie,much like a potential zombie hotspot). This marked the first outing we've ever had as a gang.

•  Final Outing with Mahirah (27th May)

Just like every other farewell tradition,it was a must for us to at least have a final outing with Mahirah before she flew off to Adelaide to pursue her dream course in degree level. Our destination this time was Time Square,why? Because it's in the heart of the City,and it's near other shopping spots as well. As much as I despise shopping, for Mahirah, I'll survive xD We first had lunch in Nando's (for some reason,this place has always been our first stop before anything else o.O), went window shopping for a bit and had a karaoke session. Let's just say it's my first time being cooked up in a room,with music at full blast,random tidbits on the table and screaming my lungs out to various tunes. It's one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done,karaoke comes second in my 'fun things to do before I die' list after rock gig pogo xD we ended our little outing with a little more shopping and camwhoring! 

to be continued.... more updates coming soon, expect a part 2 :))

RMS Titanic Centenary

Today marks a century since the catastrophic tragedy of the sinking of the ever-so-infamous "unsinkable" RMS Titanic on April 15th 1912. Henceforth, historians and marine biologists had been searching high and low for the remains of the majestic cruise ship,which was finally discovered by a Dr Ballard in 1985. This very remarkable finding became a large stepping stone to scientists and investigators all over the globe to uncover the theories and myths surrounding the tragedy : how it occurred, the phases of the sinking,historical artifacts,microbiological creatures, fate of the bodies buried at sea; there were countless questions and hypotheses to be proven.

A footage of the wreckage shown in one of the scenes in the movie Titanic (1997).

Construction of the RMS Titanic

The famous grand staircase in the hallway of the RMS Titanic

 Out of over 2000 passengers and crews,only 710 survived ; this casualty count was certainly a shocker to the world especially with the fact that word had been around during the time that the ship was built in such a way that it was almost impossible for her to sink.As massive and dazzling as it was, it was very clear that she lacked in safety measures : with only a number of lifeboats enough to bear not even half the number of the passengers and crews altogether.A result of 90% male casualties was actually due to the "women and children first" policy whereby these two categories of passengers were given priorities with an exceptional case of wives who refuse to leave their husbands behind and those who gave up (especially the crews and the third class passengers). There were 16 air tight columns altogether; it was mentioned that if it were to be only 4 of them filled up with sea water instead of 5 the ship would have survived the collision. According to certain claims, the ship received a warning from another nearby ship regarding the iceberg area she was approaching but unfortunately the message wasn't taken seriously considering the fact that the crews assumed the ice would have melted by then.If only they heeded the warning,the collision could have been avoided with only a difference of two minutes.The death toll could have also been the result of men being shot to death in the chaotic scene of jumping into the lifeboats.

 Only slightly above 700 passengers (mostly from the first class) made it to the lifeboats,while the remaining 1000 were forced to remain on the sinking ship : some remained in their positions and went down with the ship (including the Captain Edward Smith), some died when the ship broke in half after it immersed in water, some drowned to death due to the suction effect of the sinking ship, some perished after the funnels collapsed and hit them in the water, some even died of hypothermia.It was a gruesome sight and experience that traumatised the survivors for life.The screams,the devastating shout of agony as they were forced to deny access to the lifeboats,shouting heartless things like "One more of you will sink us all!".They did eventually return to rescue the lucky ones, although there was a slim chance that most of them would have survived. A rescue ship,the Carpathia came to retrieve the victims. The exact number of passengers were uncertain, because of many factors. The ships then returned to the sinking sight to retrieve bodies ; however due to the fact that the death toll was way too high, only bodies of the first class passengers were taken back to their hometowns while others were left to be buried at sea.

Now that it's been 100 years, artifacts had been extracted from the site to be auctioned to the masses. Somehow, this had cultivated mixed reactions. In my own personal view, excavation should be ethical, meaning the purpose should be done for knowledge and discovery, not for profit. Auctioning the personal belongings obtained from the shipwreck is a tad disrespectful for those buried at sea ; it's as if we're digging a person's ancestors' grave and stealing the items they were buried with.For the past few nights I've been digging through articles upon articles about the aftermath of the tragedy for the sake of general knowledge (Yana?reading? yes I know it just doesn't mix but this is really been an interesting topic). In a scientific perspective, the Titanic remains is expected to collapse in another 50 years due to corrosion. Expeditions had also led to the findings of human remains consumed by sea critters and bacteria,leaving only inedible parts such as the rubber boots the deceased was wearing at the time of the tragedy.

The band,who sacrificed their lives to give others hope to live

Captain Edward J Smith, who went down with his ship - died in honor.

John Jacob Astor 1V - wealthy man who sacrificed his life for the
well-being of others

This tragedy had also been commemorated in so many ways,including movie productions like the renowned Titanic (1997) starring Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet. To be honest,I didn't really take the movie seriously back when I was a child until I found out that it was based on a true story.What trenched my heart the most is of course the double standard between the high class and the commoners. Most of the time I was depressed because of all the children and adults who lost their will to live and decided to stay on the ship as it sunk. An unforgettable scene was of course that one of a baby and its mother floating,lifeless on the freezing cold surface of the water. I couldn't bear the sight of it,it was too much for my fragile heart to imagine that all those scenes were true : even the one with the crews getting orders to lock the third class passengers up in order to let the first class passengers have the privilege of getting on the lifeboats first.Where was the humanity? I was also emotional when the podre' read the prayers,knowing that the end was near. It reminded me how precious life is as it is fragile. Not to mention real life prominent heroic figures from the true story such as the Titanic Orchestra consisting 7-8 members who kept playing music for the people to give them hope as the ship was sinking,and John Jacob Astor 1V who helped people into the lifeboats.

 To us, she was just a historical shipwreck we only found out about because of the movie Titanic ; to researchers she is a gemstone whilst to the survivors, the haunting memories will scar them till the day they die.It was indeed a night to remember for all eternity, one that proves even perfection has its flaws when it comes to the laws of nature,and that fate cannot be avoided.

May all the souls that perished on the night of 15th April 1912 rest in peace. May God bless them all - the children,the women,the brave men, the crews --- all of them.

Overdue Greek Toga Night Adventure

'

This story is super overdue(about exactly a month ago?LOL) but knowing me,I NEVER leave out any adventurous details of my life.So I've been having my bandmates practicing a month in advance, whereby the songs were chosen with everyone's approval.After much bickering on FB,we've finally decided to do "Here Without You" (3 Doors Down),I Won't Give Up (Jason Mraz) and Breakeven (The Script). After a month's preparation of three days per week, we were struck by misfortune when we learnt that Neo was down with food poisoning; in despair,me,Josh & Nadzmi scouted for more than one substitutes to cover for him.Lucky for us,within a day we managed to get Denise,Jessie and Jason Addams (Jason & Adam) to help us out.

Nadzmi & Denise rehearsing

 Many thanks to Faiz for willing to be my personal chauffeur, my date to Aiman's wedding (which coincidentally fall on the same day),my motivator and our personal makeup artist.We rushed from my house to the wedding,and then straight on to uni for a last minute rehearsal with our sub vocalists.

Jason's hair done by Faiz

 

 Jason Addams x)

Faiz & me after makeup,backstage at Thyme & Terragon

Le Toga people from the Taylor's Hospitality School

Post makeup :3

Le Greek Toga throne

 It went pretty well and I was amazed by their ability to adapt (and not to be proud or anything but), not to mention Josh and Nadzmi transposing the songs in such short notice.Our slot was supposed to be at 8.30pm,but somehow there was a situation where Dzaim's band went missing at 7-ish and we had to fill in with Jason's performance, Breakeven.We were slightly panicked with the fact that Denise actually drove all the way to her church in Damansara Heights for a certain rehearsal, we thought she wouldn't make it.However, Dzaim & Said then took over our slot at 8-ish, performing Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People.Then 'twas our turn again, luckily Denise showed up just in time. Jessie performed I Won't Give Up followed by Denise (Here Without You). For some really strange reason, there was so much time left for performances as the Greek Toga Night was moving faster than we thought. Spontaneously, Jason Addams performed their own stuff to save the day.

Me & Jason backstage.He tried to calm me down when I panicked,lol

when you see it.... HAHAHAH

me,Jessie and the creepy Greek head.

 Since the food served was only allocated for 4 performers,we decided to move the party to Sunway Pyramid for dinner. We managed to talk Jessie and Denise into joining us. I'm telling ya, our convoy was mad -.- the boys playfully raced and fought for parking space. It was hilarious, not to mention the tiny argument regarding where to eat at , a silly debate of Delicious vs Nando's - the latter won,in case you were wondering. Let's just say the way the waiter and waitresses looked at us seemed like we were noisy enough to get kicked out xD Then again,you can't blame us,we're like family and the dinner was unplanned. After what seemed like a 2-hour banter,we finally dispersed. I swear,it was hella fun! Maybe it's true, the best things are natural and impromptu eh? ;)

say hello to the 'Noise in SLC' gang !

'family' photo take 1.

take 2 - meme family hehe : (left to right) Nadzmi facepalming,Josh "One Does Not Simply",Adam "So close..",
Denise "Aliens",me "Philosoraptor",Faiz "inverted Bitch Please"

Top 10 Reasons Why K-Pop Isn't My Thing

Kpop fans I'm warning you,you wouldn't like this so feel free to proceed elsewhere if you can't bear to hear your idols being ditched by me. Otherwise, stay and hear me out.Just a message to people out there who think they can get through me when I clearly said I'm into Western music.

I've always been known as 'that rocker chic who plays guitar and is obsessed with all things punk', so much so that it's like my middle name now. It's not like I have a reputation to uphold, but I really do live up to that certain lengthy middle name people have been giving me.I know,not all rockers dislike Kpop, but really,ever since my friends in Muar started to get into all things Korean, I found myself to be a bit left out.YES I did enjoy Winter Sonata,Autumn in My Heart and Full House,they each have their strengths in terms of storyline, but that's just the soap operas. Let's get to the music. The ballads are undeniably soothing and placed at the right moments of the stories to toy around with our emotions, then again there was this thing called Kpop. I thought,okay since I wanna be a musician,why not give it a whirl and be a universal music appreciator. I tried listening to it,and also googled for pictures of the Kpop stars which my friends had deemed as 'hot',clearly I wasn't into it at all.It's been years and I haven't budged from my stand of being on the non-Kpop fan side.And now people are trying hard to get me to like it -.- dude seriously? I was entirely annoyed enough seeing B2ST live at MTV World Stage because they took too much time and made me wait so long for Neon Trees and 30 Seconds to Mars to perform. Let me clarify the exact reasons pertaining to why I can never become a KPop fan.

1. Weak vocals - I'm in no way competent to judge one's singing due to my insufficient level of singing capabilities but to me, if you struggle to reach a note,you're too nasal to the point of shouting, you can't sing. Not only do they have such pitching problems, they also have breathing weaknesses and their vocals always sound too airy for my liking.The girls are high pitched in a very disturbing way,something that reminds me of why I hate Vanessa Hudgens. Their songs are bloody easy to sing in spite of the fact they had to juggle singing and dancing on stage, it's never an excuse to suck.
2. Annoying tunes and beats. - This speaks for itself. They use such irritating sounds and effects. Listening to the intro of their songs alone is torture for me, too much of synth and all these unnecessary artificial beats,not to mention excessive usage of autotune.
3. Silly lyrics. - Stuff like "ratatatata" "dandaratantam" and "ring ding dong" dafuq is that?? What do they even mean? Songs are supposed to express your emotions, rambling out random syllables just don't cut it.Why do I cope with Gaga instead? It's because as trashy as her music sounds,she compensates with her highly empowered vocals, not to mention her enthusiastic charisma on stage.
4. Pointless scenes in the MV's. - The song is about a girl,but the intro of the MV shows a few guys,shirtless,breaking out into some heartbreak dance routine and splashing in unison. You can barely tell the relation between the songs and their supposedly complementing MV. As for the girls, it's a must to laugh and make duckfaces at each other.
5. Cliche' dance routines - Chest thrust, open jacket, something like shuffling but in a faster tempo, open glasses,throw stuff till they shatter when they hit the wall. Yes,very nice.Very sexy. Why am I not turned on? Coz they're lame and almost the same everytime.That's for the guys,as for the girls, wear hot pants or short skirts,show off lovely lady legs, move that curves,Wow.. seriously,is this art?
6. Too pretty/ too much fashion emphasis - Needless to say their style is overrated, their clothes are too fancy for their capabilities. i understand the fact that they're celebrities and are somewhat trend setters, but overdressing gets you nowhere,love.
7. Trying too hard to exaggerate cuteness - Koreans are naturally adorable, if they don't try too hard. Puffing your cheeks? Plastic surgery? Excessive makeup? Absurd hairstyles? Duckface? Dressing up like 5-year-olds? You gotta do better than that.
8. They all look the same - Self-explanatory. To this day I can never tell them apart,let alone tell which members are which in individual groups.I find it freaky.
9. Too mainstream - When it gets famous,it gets overrated.When it gets overrated,it sucks. Simple math.
10. Their fanbase goes overboard ALL THE DAMN TIME - Not all of them,I was just annoyed by the very few that somewhat worship these bands. Sure it's okay to simply paste the posters in our bedroom or change your fb profile picture to their photos, but seriously dude, I got shoved and squished by Kpop fans who wanna see B2ST the other day,not only did they physically abuse me,they also SHOUTED in my ears the lyrics of the kpop songs, and shrieked at every muscle the kpop stars moved.It was such a torture. As much as enthralled as I was to see Simple Plan,I didn't remember harassing people with my fandom. I simply cannot stand them at all. Fangirling is a normal thing but really, don't go overboard. Other people wanna see the show too. Don't hog the audience space for yourselves,be considerate.

Guess I've proven my point now.

i KNOW RIGHT..

Pre-birthday, Birthday & Post-birthday Adventures

Oh my.. wonder how long has it been since I last updated ? I don't know what exactly have I been doing with my life but it's very likely that I end up too tired to think of ways to tell my stories here,so I apologize for my absence. To be perfectly honest,I'm very overwhelmed with the number of blog views I have since I last dropped an update here! So I guess here's a gift to my darling readers,an all-in-one post to compensate the adventures I've been leaving untold. So here's what I owe you, let's drop the descriptive part for awhile but I'll try to include as much detail as possible.

Pre-birthday 

26th February: Walkathon 

Waking up as early as 4am after a mere one-hour bedtime is not the best idea I've ever had. It felt like a hangover, except I wasn't drunk, just ultimately exhausted from sleep deprivation. My insomnia is indeed incurable for some weird reason. So I walked into the cold shower and got dressed, prayed,and waited for Sheeqa to come and pick me up, Apparently we waited for subuh prayers to pass before we proceeded to Mont Kiara to pick her friends up. The view of KL City was magnificent, the twilight sky and the concrete jungle. We reached the venue (Padang Merbok) at about 7-ish where we were required to sign up; got our numbers ready,tshirts on and we were up for that 1.8km walk accompanying the disabled ones. It was a wonderful experience, I managed to get to know a few of them, boy, how they inspired me! Their will to get on with their lives,especially those who weren't born disabled,it made me realize that our vision is such a huge gift from God but we tend to neglect it and forget to be thankful of it. All in all,the event was kickass and we ended the day with a lunch in Padang Kota, not forgetting our soggy shoes filled with mud.

27th February : Jam sesh and Guitar Class
A musician's gotta do what a musician's gotta do, in spite of it being the eve of my birthday, I still had to come to uni for band practice and to teach guitar class on behalf of Music Club, just to assist Calvin. So we did a little tweak on the songs we were to perform, before Nadzmi had to leave for work. Neo and Josh,however,joined us for the guitar class. Teaching beginner guitarists was one thing, teaching them the RIGHT thing was another.I did not really have a proper briefing,so I went on rambling about guitar tunings,of which made my lessons deemed as "too competent for beginners",so i had to tone down a little bit,teaching them more basic stuff like sitting with a guitar and reading basic tabs as well as basic plucking. Admittedly, I myself have never used my right fingers for plucking as I consider myself to be more of a 'pick person',then again,as the syllabus required,I had to somewhat improvise and master the skill on the spot.Surprisingly half the 'students' were actually better than I thought,sure buzzing noises were likely due to improper fretting of the strings,then again,their determination to learn was highly commendable. So once the guitar class ended,I headed down to the V to have dinner with Eve and the rest of the new friends I made: Eunice,Darren. All was well. Not to leave out,my pre-birthday dinner of Pizza!


Birthday Adventure:
28th February : Fever, Comida & Awesome Ribs

So yeah, the best way to turn 19,and the best gift (according to my scumbag bodily system) is by giving myself a break - or rather,forcing myself into getting some rest and drinking more water.YES,I was 19 and feverish, yippeee ! NOT.I knew that disease was coming when I started to overwork and barely had enugh sleep for the last couple of days,my body could only take so much. Then again,it was still a terrific day on account of waking up to a birthday card waiting for me on the table from mom.Managed to reply over 200 ++ birthday messages from everyone on Facebook,Twitter and even my phone, which was somewhat equivalent to a world record for someone so sickly as I was LOL. I was supposed to claim my free food coupon from a newly opened Western cuisine restaurant in Desa Sri Hartamas called Comida,owned by the one and only One Buck Short considering the fact that it was my birthday. The plan changed the last minute as my sister decided to treat me and my mom to Tony Roma's in the Curve where we ironically bumped into Mooky of One Buck Short,lol. And just as the waitresses served me my birthday lava and sang me the birthday song,I saw Joanna Renisa walking outside with her hubby,Azri. In case you're wondering,she's the lead singer for Joanna & Co,a local act I happen to be a casual fan of. Talk about awesome encounters eh?Did I also mention my niece drew me a really sweet card? :3

Post-birthday Adventures:
29th February : Final Jam Sesh

I miraculously recovered from the fever just in time to jam with my bandmates. I registered for degree and became an official degree student,although classes don't commence until April. We managed a few arrangements and everything was all set for our performance. So since the day before was my birthday,I got a few awkward wishes and greetings from people who just found out when they saw Ang Yu passing me a gift. It's this 3D puzzle I took 4 hours to complete.Mind boggling,if I don't say so myself,it was tricky for the most part but it constructed patience.The following shows the untouched and aftermath of the puzzle,and yes,it's smaller than you think.Only about an inch long and 1cm high.

Everyone left as early as 4pm.So much for Josh's plan to do something crazy on the 29th eh? LOL.


3rd March : Greek Toga Night


Based on the 'pictures or it never happened' concept,I'll wait for Faiz to upload the pictures first before I write anything. (Slow poke is slow,I know,but it's understood well that he's been busy with classes and such,so I'll wait).


4th March : Gossip Girls' Day Out

It's been ages since I last recalled our outing,and it's always been an incomplete gang joining it if one were to not be available on the decided date,then again this time we planned ahead - take a month in advance.Thank god at least four people showed up including myself.So we did the usual routine gossiping while having our lunch at Uncle Lim's, and then we headed on for a little stroll while waiting for our movie to start since the ladies were looking to window shop and hunt for shoes.Funny story,the movie booking got mixed up since we had separated seats in spite of booking together. Sorry trainee employee guy, we want our money to be worth it, what's the point of going outing together if we don't get to watch the movie in the same spot? The mix-up was however solved peacefully when the manager personally went out to do so.Meanwhile, it was my time of the month and nature took its course on me, so it turned into a quest to solve that little issue I had : either by looking for a skirt to wear as what Jijie & kak Halie had suggested  or a new shirt as what Rin proposed,so that I can tie my jacket around my waist.So we finally decided to leave the problem behind and chill at Starbucks, our routine final stop. A little more gossips,and then we headed into the theater to watch Lorax. The movie's fine,imaginative and suitable for children. Amusing but not much of a message to convey. I give it a 6/10. A little more gossip session while waiting for our respective transports and then the farewells.


7th March : Outing with Hanizar + Car Park Adventure


Now this is an interesting story to highlight. It wasn't exactly Hanizar's first time coming to my uni,so she picked me up at home and came with me to my beloved Taylor's Lakeside Campus,where she had to wait for me to settle all my Music Club business with Jessie,Vincent,Deena and Neo. Our meeting started at about 2pm after I grabbed lunch with Hanizar (it was on her,woohoo) at the V, my usual place to be every Monday despite the fact that I'm not a vegetarian. So it ended at 4pm. Sunway Pyramid's parking lot was so packed that we were forced to literally drive against the legal direction flow to get a decent one. We got out of the car and then walked around. I did enjoy window shopping with her, because she doesn't usually take too long or go into unnecessary shops.Grabbed dinner in McD whilst we did a lot more catching up,and then a movie : the Woman In Black. At first I thought,meh.. an American horror movie,what could be so scary? This should be a laugh, plus it's Daniel Radcliffe, no one could possibly get the fact that he's Harry Potter out of our heads. - I was bloody wrong though. I spoke too soon,the movie was scary as fuck ! I found myself (and probably Hanizar too) covering our eyes half the time, not daring to even give a peep. It was so scary that we ended up forgetting where we parked our car. 45 minutes of exploring each and every atrium and car park floor possible later, we finally decided to consult the staff at the car park help desk to help us locate our car. She was half laughing when she found out Hanizar gave her the wrong car plate number, but we were lucky the car was found. We drove into the night, with rain above our heads (yes.. way to add in the horror movie mood). It was chaotic but fun.


11th March : Another Birthday Brunchinner

Decided to not order my usual bacon cheeseburger

My Aunt Yah makes it a point to celebrate my birthday regardless of my age, so she treated me New York Strip Steak at Chilli's and Tutti Frutti. It was indeed a brunchinner since I was so full that it was the only meal I had all day till I slept.Great to finally have gotten myself a proper capo (which cost quite a fortune) and a 500GB external HDD. I'm a happy 19-year-old :3


12th March : Gaga vs Adele

My Mondays are usually early since I joined Music Club Committee.I have to follow my brother to the uni at 7-ish in order to arrive at 8-ish in time for his classes. For 4 hours or so,I'd have to get myself occupied before anyone in campus would be free to have lunch with me.Lucky for me,that day Mahirah was free,so we grabbed a bite with Spell,Neo and Leanne. Beckofen Spaghetti carbonara with turkey ham slices of course :3 My fave! Mahirah couldn't stay long though, but we managed to jam until 1pm.So as what the outcome of the meeting was supposed to be, we went on with Gaga vs Adele theme. However, a slight miscommunication reminded us that no one booked the venue,so we had to settle down our Music Club meeting in the music room. A little packed, but it was great that quite a number of people turned up. As soon as they arrived,we did a briefing and then divided them into groups. The Elites were assigned to lead the groups whereby at least two Elites were to mentor their individual groups,be it Team Gaga or Adele. I was with Spellman and a few others.Since we're team Gaga,we decided to do Just Dance at first,then we switched to Bad Romance in spite of that minor episode.For a group of new people, my team was actually pretty good.They sang in proper key,which made it easier for me to transpose the song into a male vocalist's range.It was fun,all the rivalry, a few excellent hidden talents, we couldn't even choose a winning team since everyone went all out and did a great job; except maybe the Elites screwed up a little when we attempted the GagAdele medley.Well what did you expect out of a two-hour preparation performance? The important key was that all of us had tonnes of fun.

*EXHALE*  that was hella long post but there you go,what I've been leaving out all these while.Thanks for being such loyal readers! Keep up the support.Loveeeee and respect.

Lavigne's Black Star Week

In conjunction with Avril Lavigne's Black Star Tour which ended yesterday, having Malaysia as her last performance venue for the tour, I decided to blog about the whole week in one go. I'll try to tell each story as brief but complete as I could,with only the highlighted events included.

Day 1 - Sunday : Lunch with the Elite Team

So apparently Mahirah and Nadzmi secretly planned a lunch date with all the members of the Elite team prior to the departure of  a few of us to other unis, it was initially meant to celebrate the anniversary of the Elites and as a farewell for them. Well, things don't always go as we plan ; something came up and Mahirah herself couldn't make it so the organizing duties have been passed to the co-host of the event, Nadzmi. in spite of the fact that it was meant for the Elites, we brought in Dzaim's friend to join us under the concept of 'the more the merrier'. Jessie and I took the time we had while waiting for our food to arrive to prepare charades and plan out Music Club's first ever meeting. We talked for a bit while pictures were captured.Then everyone dispersed, where Josh had bowling practice, Benson had another appointment to attend to, while Dzaim's gang headed to One Utama to settle their preparations for their France trip,which left Faiz,Nadzmi and me alone. So the three of us walked to MBO to watch Journey 2. Not a bad movie at all to be honest and all three of us had a great time. pics credits to Nadzmi photography.

Day 2 - Monday : 1st Music Club Meeting in 2012

Not sure if anyone is aware of how I've been actively spamming the Music Club page lately ; the point? I'm a junior committee of the club now,and I were to handle meetings and other Music Club activities. To be perfectly honest, it was awkward at first, especially with the fact that only the junior committee were there while Benson only arrived later on.There was nothing scarier than trying to make a good impression and handling a crowd of new faces. This was also the first time we had a meeting in the Experimental Theatre aka The Box. I started to nervously approach the new members and got to know a few of them (whose names I could've sworn I had troubles remembering, lol). It went pretty well since they're quite warm , phew. Then Josh got to their attention when we did an introductory speech. They were then divided into 3 groups and we played charades. These groups were to guess the names of artists written on pieces of paper held by their leaders. They were to sing out songs by the artists ; alright I confess most of the committee did help the junior out. So as a result, all three groups were then required to each prepare a love song performance while the Elites, too, had to prepare ourselves to showcase and demonstrate who we are to them. The loser needed to perform first. Neo,Josh, Benson, Faiz and me performed Breakeven on behalf of the Elites. (photos credits to Nadzmi Photography)

Day 4 - Wednesday (Pavilion with the Musketeers)

It's been awhile since us trio : Mahirah, Faiz and me, had gone for a proper lunch date and outing,so this time, instead of having lunches in our uni, we decided to twist our plans a little bit. Faiz fetched me from my house and we headed for M's in Mont Kiara. I finally met her mom and got to somewhat chat with her for a little bit. We then headed for Pavilion. Traffic was quite smooth (my mom called be on my way there, making sure I come home early because I had a last minute notice to settle my scholarship application that night), and the first thing on our minds was to grab lunch. After several contemplation (and arguments lol) we finally settled down in Nando's. To save up, we ordered the Nando's 4-pax platter and a dessert. It was pretty amusing how the place doesn't seem to have enough staff when we were there, there seemed to only be one waitre on duty o.O peculiar, I know. After we finished our meals, they told me they were taking me to a 'surprise place'. As much as I love surprises, I hate curiosity! can't believe they would put me in that situation for the whole night! lol. Finally, mystery's solved. Turned out they were taking me to this newly opened haven for makeup addicts : Sephora, which was situated just opposite the main Pavilion building. Of course, what's the purpose of stepping into a makeup store and NOT dolling up yourself right? Faiz was on makeup duties, and I must say he might as well just work there xD judging by the standard of his skillful hands.Then we were up for a little facial cleansing talk by one of the salesgirls (dubbed E-een), as convincing as it sounded, I'd stick to my old face washing routine,too lazy to bother xD our next stop was Sticky, a candy place that Mahirah favors a lot. We were lucky to have been able to witness the candy being made by hand. Then we did a little more strolling before we finally decided to grab a Chatime (*disclaimer : it's a very popular chillout place in Malaysia that mainly sells bubble tea and other Taiwanese style drinks in plastic cups) and then took pictures with the touring bear statues to wrap up the whole outing. (photos credits to Mahirah Photography).

Day 6 - Friday (Jam session with Band 93)

It was the 17th already and I've never been this glad to have made up an alibi to cancel our 26th February gig ! Although it's almost two weeks away, I doubt the boys can cope such tight schedule,especially considering the fact how we're all part time musicians and are not professionals. I'm not really their leader, thank God, but we share the tasks among one another since none of us are willing to appoint ourselves one. So we made it a habit to practice way earlier beforehand to avoid any last minute jobs. We all anticipated Josh's arrival to see what he brought.. it wasn't a bass as we've expected, but he brought enough equipment to open up his own mini studio in SLC! well it wasn't a complete set,but surely it's good enough for recording. His midi controller (the red keyboard,for those of you who are wondering), his mixing headphones, laptop,cables,condenser mic, mixer. It was a hassle but he managed to carry them all by himself ; although he had to first go home and take it back to uni. The jam session went well for 2 hours solid before we resumed a random jam session. Jason joined us in between and they managed to record a song with him. It was rather productive and I managed to wrap up Here Without You and part of Breakeven with Neo. We then dispersed, where we awkwardly ended up meeting each other again outside SLC. Neo,Josh,Jason and I sat on the floor and started talking. Just as Josh was gonna leave and I wanted to head out to dinner with Jason, we met Neo who was supposedly gone for hours ago. Talk about magnet eh?  Another funny incident is when we were all in the middle of a convo when we learnt that Josh's car broke down and we had to go all the way to his parking spot to jump start the engine for him. Heck of a day I might say!

Day 7 - Black Star Tour final gig (Avril Lavigne live in Stadium Merdeka)

I've been waiting for this my whole life! Avril Lavigne, as I mentioned before, is one of my biggest idols and she's definitely in my bucketlist of artists I'd like to watch live before I die, lol. I got her Rock Zone ticket thanks to Rach! For some strange reason, I wasn't quite excited about it the night before,maybe because of the hectic day I've had in uni. I didn't bother to get myself ready until it was 3pm. Traffic was smooth along MRR2 but started to clog up when we reached KL, I managed to reach on time : 6pm. I was supposed to meet up with El Amino but unfortunately the queue was insanely long so I decided to just wander around alone to look for a perfect spot to sit and wait. I was lucky I stumbled upon such lovely girls : Alyssa & the gang of young teenagers. I initially asked them about the posters they got, and somehow the conversation evolved and voila! new friends :D And the advantage was that I managed to get to the front of the queue with the girls.Long story short, security was an asshole and they took my camera away, then again it wasn't enough to steal the excitement. The show started of with some shitty dance music (sorry, for some reason I hate music remixes done by this DJ Natalie, it was disturbingly annoying). I was so glad it ended and soon, Avril showed up on stage strutting the tunes of Black Star and then pumping up with WTH. The 3rd song was SK8ER BOI, one of my faves since I was a child! The following are the songs she sang + my reviews :

Full Track/Song list of Avril Lavigne The Black Star Tour LIVE in Malaysia
1. Blackstar 
It was only an instrumental, but the excitement started to spark because we know we're finally seeing her on stage. The 'star' light sticks waved by the audience gave a really interesting effect on the entire atmosphere throughout the song.

2. WTH
To be honest, I'm not really a big fan of this song but I gotta admit, Avril pulled off the high notes better singing live rather than recorded! 

3. SK8ER Boi
I hate the fact that everyone sang along and I can't hear shit that Avril sang,lol. It was fun though because the whole crowd felt the energy she carried and started to jump with her.

4. He Wasn’t


5. I always get what I want


6. Alice
This song was so much better live than in the album. I fell in love with it instantly when the epicness flew in the air as the music started to entice us.

7. When you’re gone
"I always needed time on my own" - by singing this line, Avril had once again gotten the whole stadium to sing along. As usual,her vocals were out of this world !

8. Wish you were here
9. Unwanted/ Musical Piece
10. Girlfriend
11. Airplanes/ My happy ending
12. Don’t tell me
I texted Dex, because it was pretty much 'our song', we did a cover of it before and we both happen to be Avril junkies.
13. Smile
14. I’m with you


Encore :
15. I love you
I saw a couple going in the empty space between TT Zone and Rock Zone, the BF proposed to the GF, of course she said yes,but eventually fainted probably due to dehydration.
16. Complicated


Somewhere in between, Avril and her band disappeared from the stage, the whole venue darkened and the crowd shouted for an encore. The members reappeared, switching roles : Avril on guitars, Jim McGorman (yummy... hehehe) on lead vocals etc, to cover Foster The People's "Pumped Up Kicks".


All in all,it was a great show in spite of all the drama and the mildness in the atmosphere due to Avril's lack of audience interaction. All was well and I enjoyed every bit of the concert :)


p/s: did I mention fate brought me to meet Nureen Izazi? she's an amazing budding young guitarist,you should check her out,seriously. she has high potential!