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Raves and Rants

I am so very tired.

Posted 2002-03-17 (日) 午後10:39 by terra

I am so very tired. I only got to sleep at 5 AM in the morning earlier because I was scripting this darn school programming assignment. The reason why I took so long was because I’m completely out of touch with java. I got stuck at one point for a few hours and it turned out that it was a stupid mistake that involved only a handful of additional words. So INFURIATING. Oh well, shit happens. But anyway, at least I’ve got it settled.

I found myself awake at 7:30 AM because my family had to go to church. Waking up with so little sleep is an extremely painful thing to do. Luckily I had a rather invigorating Ashtanga class today so that sustained me pretty much the rest of the day. I still have lots of work that I need to get done. The coming weeks aren’t going to be fun methinks. Exams and assignments are almost here again =(

Subjects: General

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: programming, yoga

Self-disgust

Posted 2002-02-14 (木) 午前1:41 by terra

I am somewhat disgusted at myself for having devoured an uncountable number of Chinese New Year cookies. Enough to make me feel sick to the stomach, literally. I weighed myself earlier today and I think I’ve put on about 1kg in the last 48 hours. So much for yoga and swimming last week. Tomorrow (or rather later) marks the beginning of my intended week-long (hopefully anyway) diet hehe. It’s going to be the mid-term break soon and if I’m going to the beach I don’t want to look like (as my friend calls it) an ‘aircraft carrier’ LOL.

Subjects: General

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: Chinese New Year, disgust, holiday, swimming, yoga

Feeling Jittery

Posted 2002-01-16 (水) 午後10:40 by terra

I’m feeling jittery at the moment. School makes me feel nauseaus sometimes. I think it’s definitely the homework. I had pretty great day earlier, an interesting lecture in the morning, lunch with some friends in the business faculty canteen. When I got home, I did a bit of surfing, spent some minutes on some yoga postures, and after that, TV for an hour.

So I thought: okay, maybe it’s time to check out what homework I may have been assigned. I drop by one of my computing modules’ website (database module), and lo and behold, I see 6 tutorial questions that I have to get done by next Monday. Suddenly I don’t quite feel so good anymore.

I attempted the first tutorial question and decided to give up. It wasn’t too difficult but it’s really tedious. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind then, and neither am I now. Maybe I’m just tired. I’ve been sleep deprived for various reasons these couple of days - yoga may be my spiritual caffaine that supplements me with energy to overcome lethargy, however, it can only do so much before exhaustion creeps in once again.

Subjects: General

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: database, yoga

15 mins before lecture

Posted 2002-01-08 (火) 午前9:54 by terra

It’s 15 mins before my first lecture. I’m at the school’s computer lab at the moment. Earlier, I had breakfast at with my mom and dad. Because my lecture on starts at 10AM, my dad dropped me off at the Arts faculty where I popped into the library to check out some novels. I borrowed Arthur Clarke’s The City and the Stars as well as Asimov’s I, Robot. The books are kind of yellowed and spotty, and a little dusty too. They smell…I don’t want to smell them. The Clarke book was printed in 1975 and the Asimov book in 1983. Strange, I’ve Raymond Feist’s 2nd Edition Magician at home, which I believe was in 1983, but it doesn’t look half as bad as the Asimov book. Oh well.

It appears that blogger’s publishing facility is down. So I guess this blog won’t get to appear until I get home. It’s now 5 mins before the lecture. I’m not feeling too good. A sense of dread maybe?

Subjects: Books 書物, School 学校

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: Arthur C. Clarke, blogging, Issac Asimov, library, Magician, Raymond E. Feist, robot

First lecture of the new year

Posted 2002-01-07 (月) 午後11:23 by terra

Fantastic.. my first lecture of the new year begins tomorrow at 10AM. I’m feeling a bit delirious. There are butterflies swarming around in my stomach. It’s 11:15PM right now. I know I have to start making a habit of sleeping early, but it’s probably going to be a bit hard getting used to again. Going off to reread a chapter of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Dammed first. Why am I reading this book again? There’s a funny explanation to it. I had a strange dream a few days ago, in which Lestat — Tom Cruise version — appeared. I can’t really remember what it was about, but I guess my dream could have been attributed to new QOTD movie trailer which I saw online a few weeks ago. The actor who’s playing Lestat is Stuart Townsend, I’ve not seen any of his films before, but he seems a pretty good Lestat, except for the lack of blonde hair. I’m not one of those fanatical Anne Rice fans so I’m not too fussy though.

Subjects: Books 書物

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: Anne Rice, Lestat

Good intentions

Posted 2002-01-06 (日) 午前1:13 by terra

I had meant to sleep early: my eyes are almost hurting because they are so tired and dry. Looking at the time now however — I guess not.

I wanted to mention something about this last year (actually, to be less vague, over a week ago) in my blog, but because blogger.com was down, I put off the update until I forgot all about it. Anyways, just wanted to say that I watched Miyazaki Hayao’s Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi last week in the best cinema in Singapore and totally loved it. I can’t wait for it to be released on DVD. I already have the Mononoke Hime DVD at home, so it’ll be the second Miyazaki film that I’ll purchase.

While we’re on the topic of Miyazaki films, My Neighbour Totoro was showed on TV on New Year’s Day morning. I only managed to catch the last half-an-hour of it. However, the version that was being shown was the Chinese-dubbed version of it, which as usual sounded awful. To make it worse, the broadcasters must have used an old copy of the film or something because the picture quality wasn’t too fantastic. The colours looked murky and the lines of the drawings were blurred.

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: anime, Avalon, DVD, Final Fantasy, Kawai Kenji 川井憲次, Lord of the Rings, Miyazaki Hayao 宮崎駿, music

I love the LOTR

Posted 2001-12-22 (土) 午前9:59 by terra

This is a bit belated, but I just have to say: Lord of the Rings, what a great, great movie. The best fantasy movie in years, and a completely different cinema experience from what we’re used to seeing. This should be what movie-making should be about. And the score, damn, Howard Shore, you’ve convinced me to buy your album. What a nice present to get for your family for christmas.

The only thing that marred my viewing experience was the horrible audience who couldn’t appreciate the subtleties of the film. This bunch of women at the back just couldn’t shut up throughout the movie, even in the quiet moments of the film. How unfortunate for them that they missed out on one of the greatest movies ever, even though they had paid S$7.50 and were propped in one of the best seats of the theatre.

Right now, I’m done with re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring and starting on The Two Towers. I have the Alan Lee embellished hardcover edition that I got for Christmas a couple of years ago. I see the movie-tie-in mass paperback editions in the market right now, they just don’t do the book justice. Even though the prices of the hardcover editions have increased over the years (My book cost about S$70 four years ago, the same books now cost around S$105), I think they are a great investment if you can afford.

Subjects: Books 書物, Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: anime, Christmas, cinema, gift, Lord of the Rings, Miyazaki Hayao 宮崎駿

Xenosaga or Xenogears?

Posted 2001-03-23 (金) 午後3:10 by terra

23 Mar 2001, 3:10-3:30 PM

The Xenosaga album by Yasunori Mitsuda has been getting quite a bit of flak from fans expecting a followup to Xenogears. The following was a reply I made to a post in the Gamingforce.com forums titled “What is better Xenosaga OST or Xenogears OST?”.

Well in my opinon, I’ve been listening to the Xenosaga soundtrack for the past few days. And as an album, I prefer Xenosaga to Xenogears because the tracks in Xenosaga have more flow than Xenogears. I can say that this is partly due to the fact that Xenosaga was composed for the PS2 which allows for more performed instrumentation rather than sequenced music.

The Xenogears OST had some really fantastic tunes, the opening track, for instance, surpasses the opening track in Xenosaga. The bulk of the standout tunes were in the end of second album in the Id and final boss themes. But the soundtrack on the overall was uneven. In terms of game background music, some of the tracks are perfect, but when it comes down to the purpose of cd music, they are merely filler. However, the reason why I think people love the Xenogears OST (which I do btw) is because the music at the end covers up the deficiencies scattered in the rest of the album. I’m sure a lot of Xenogears fans put the last tracks (“Alpha and Omega”, “One Who Bares Fangs at God” et al.) on repeat mode far more often than the earlier songs in the CD. There could be exceptions I guess, but that’s what I think anyway.

Subjects: Music 音楽

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: Creid, game music, Led Zeppelin, Mitsuda Yasunori 光田康典, Presence, soundtrack, Xenogears, Xenosaga

Achilles Last Stand

Posted 2000-12-25 (月) 午前12:00 by terra

Just today, I was feeling bored while taking a long trip to town in a public bus. So I plugged into my Discman, and played one of my all-time favourite cds: Led Zeppelin’s Presence. As the introductions to the first song Achilles Last Stand delivered through the miniature earpieces, several thoughts came into my mind. Although this was not the first time I felt this way, for some reason or another, this time, I felt the need to put down my thoughts into words:

Achilles Last Stand, is in my opinion, the archetypical rock song. It combines layers of magnificent guitar-playing, evocative lyrics, together with hard-hitting vocals and a rock-solid rhythm track. From the incandescent siren-like guitar solo, filled with Spanish-styled arpeggios, accompanied by subtle (yet brutal) harmonics and octaves… to the extraordinary paramilitary drumming - enhanced by the pounding bass line… to the haunting echo-filled vocals… It was the first real hard rock song I heard, the first song that really got me into the music of Led Zeppelin, and the first song that truly blew my mind.

Subjects: Music 音楽

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: Achilles Last Stand, CD, guitar, hard rock, Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, Presence

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