Meh..

Guitar on lap and a mug of coffee an arm length away
A roomful of silence,
save for the white noise of the oscillating fan above.
No pen, no paper, no lyrics.
Just thoughts.
You in black and white
Seated and listening
Not to my voice, but to my strings
At least I thought you were
We never spoke much after that
I could only ask what your name meant
I was intrigued by it
There was an aura of enigma surrounding you
I had to know you are
I took the chance
And you obliged
Out of sympathy or surprise
Only you hold that knowledge
Not that it matters
Because I don't feel like I'm on par
You're high up on hierarchy of awesomeness
While I'm wedged in the lower rungs of the pariah
But when you let me in on your miseries
And into the chapters of your life others would never read
Things changed
I realised I had a shot at this
Nonetheless, the lingering feeling of failure remains
So in between sips of caffeine
And thoughts about you in your black and whites
A song bearing your name was born
No lyrics
Only an instrumental
But it doesn't matter
You wouldn't be able to listen to it

The month-long contract was approved and I couldn't be any happier. I've made a mental list of what to buy with the money and more than 3/4 of them are categorized as 'needs', so there's no concrete excuse to slack off. 8 hour shifts for 6 days a week would rob me of already limited social life and fuck up my runs and work-outs, but I don't mind. I don't view it as a sacrifice, but rather, a choice.

We make choices. I hate to say 'sacrifices.' Sacrifices makes it sound like 'oh, poor me, I have to do this in order to get to this,' and I don't really like that word. - Deena Kastor

Labels: Work

You know a person is insane when he still has enough energy to pucker up for the camera after 10 kilometres of hills and inclines.

Labels: Run Nus 2008

The most depressing thing about the past two weeks of work is that the pay would be used to settle my I/C, Ez-link, Matric card replacement fees, and other debts to friends. Still, the money wouldn't be enough to cover everything.

On the upside, Wong is pushing the management to give me a 4-6 week contract, instead of the hourly rate that I'm currently employed for. This means higher pay and an advanced lump-sum salary. An even better thing is that if the contract ends, I would, by default, return to my 'part-timer' status. Hopefully, Wong would have enough charisma and charm to sway the bigwigs in his favour.

Labels: Work

Work's been good so far. Recalling the skills learned from two years ago isn't exactly a walk in the park, but it ain't no marathon either.

It's time for a new approach to guitar playing. Goodbye Telecaster. Goodbye guitar effects. Goodbye blues. Goodbye endless hours of chuggaration. Goodbye plectrum.

Hello Ovation. Hello open and altered tunings. Hello slap harmonics. Hello odd time signatures. Hello two-handed tapping.

So this is what it's like to juggle school life and work life at the same time. Better get used to it, Kamal.

I made a bastardized version of Lunarin's Ligeia about a month and a half back. I tried uploading it onto youtube but it took too long. So I just cancelled the upload and let the file rot in my hard drive. Until two days ago..

I compressed the video (no wonder the original upload took too long, the file was over 400MB!) and attempted another upload. It was successful. I then pass over the video link to Linda's (Lunarin's frontwoman) account on youtube.

I never would have thought she would post it on The Oracle.
Someone please tell me this is a fucking dream and that I'm gonna wake up in another 4 hours to the sound of a bootleg version of Zero Point Red that I set as my alarm ringtone.

Labels: Lunarin

Ouh, yeah. After listening to the whole album, I can safely say that its lives up to its pre-released hype. She makes the kind of music that I wanna make. Damn this girl and her talent!!

Worthy listens: Montreal, Life Being What It Is, Bone Chaos In The Castle, 2 o'clock, Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music Really Be A Bad Person?

Labels: Dreaming of Revenge, Kaki King

After lap 11 on the neighbourhood track, I noticed my duffel bag was missing.

Inside were:
-Clothes
-School Textbooks
-3 guitar pedals, one of which I just bought this afternoon for SGD50 and the other two that my friend sent to me for repair and modifications
-Bunch of keys (to my house and for my bike, and also the keychain that I got for a 10k race)
-Spectacles
-Sony Erricsion k770i
-Wallet (no cash inside, but my i/d card, atm card, me and my 2 friend's school matric card, library card were inside)
-Stationary (together with a graphic calculator worth SGD100)

I frantically asked around, and someone said this young, fat guy in orange ran off with it. I sprinted off in search of him, but to no avail. Now my parents are screwing me upside down for being so careless.

Sorry to the people who I got dragged into this mess. I'll find a way to repay back.

Damn the fucker to hell. I hope he finds himself 50metres in front of a marathon starting line and get trampled to death by runners. Please send bad karma his way.

Labels: Fuck, Robbed

Sure, the title seems to have come out of a P!ATD or Fall Out Boy discography. Fortunately, the music definitely doesn't have any resemblance to those whiny bands.



I love the last part, the so-called 'exploding' part. I use it to describe song parts that go from a polite, happy-hawaiian section, into a sonic madness of layered guitars and drums, weaving in and out of syncopation, before it ends, leaving you so satisfied that you crave to hear it once more, but at the same time, afraid that repeated listens would not live up to the same 'magic' as when you heard it the first time.

Labels: Dreaming of Revenge, Kaki King

And the fucking games they play.
Why do they even bother?