Power of rot, obscuring truth, What once was old restore to youth!

If anyone can tell me where that title came from without googling it, I'd say they know their 80's cartoons pretty well. And that they'd probably feel nostalgic about it now too.

Anyways, I'm still in Nebraska but I'd like to point out a couple of things.

1. I've moved to Flickr cos Yahoo Photos was going out of business (I presume). And I've uploaded 2 new albums there. Seattle 07 and Cubs Game. The link is on the right.

2. Ah Seng has a new post. 6 months after his last one but a new post nevertheless.

3. Bob has a new blog now. And he has some pretty cool stuff about modding your car (Corolla S). Go check it out.

4. The Simpsons is a funny movie, if you appreciate that kind of humour. I watched it for 6 USD in Nebraska. What a steal eh.

Awesome Video

Wow. I can recognise like maybe half the games shown here. But the blend of Kung-fu, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Mario is irrestible. A bonus is the white dude in the background when Sylvia walks around that says やらないか. That's how someone asks for sex (with prostitutes) in Japan. And who says video games aren't informational. Enjoy!

Rants

I feel that the internet here is stable enough to try to blog now. First off, big props to E.B.O.F. for hosting my previous rant. (A bit of incestuous cross self-linking there).

Anyways, aside from all the sentiments expressed there, I really wish I could be done with this place and go home soon. But the odds are good that I'm gonna be here till early August at least. That's... umm... gonna suck. A lot. But what can you do? A job's a job and you have to do your best, regardless of what kind of (mis)management and (a severe lack of)communications you have.

Lastly, I'm really looking forward to going home as I can finally start living in Chicago proper. Hopefully I can go jog/bike around the lake and meet new friends and just soak up the bustle and energy. 最后想说的就是算了吧，她不值得我烦. And that's the word.

Beer Song

What could be better than a song that exalts the virtues of "liquid bread"? And to top it off, it's done in stop-animation lego style. With a chicken!!

Interesting Video

The following is Rip Slyme's latest single. I find it fascinating for a couple of reasons.

1. There are 11 girls in the video.
2. Allegedly, 6 of the 11 are AV stars (aka porn stars). (Courtesy of www.japanprobe.com).
3. That dance routine looks damn gay. Even when the girls do it, it doesn't look good.

Enjoy.

Random Stuff

Ever been to Vegas? Seen the Bellagio fountain? Even if you've never been to Vegas, if you watched Ocean's 11, you'd have seen it. Now see it again, sweeter, more calorific and definitely more home-made. Kudos to Mei for that video.


So I was traveling back from a job site today. When you drive for more than an hour, chances are, even with a 6 CD changer in the car, you're gonna listen to the same song a couple of times. I was listening to Eason Chan's Bai Se Qiu Xie (White Sneakers). It's a really nice song, I wish I had memories like that. Here are the lyrics. Taken from baidu.com.

歌曲：白色球鞋
歌手：陈奕迅 专辑：认了吧

LRC歌词 HOT
• 搜索 "白色球鞋"mp3
打印预览
到一定年纪总算明白
美好的事物
好像大部分都在青春时候发生
那天无意中翻出了那双发黄的白色球鞋
依然还有心跳温度
和她一起走过这城市许多的路
她总低着头听我的梦和心事
那一天笑着对我说
随我的白球鞋的脚步好像可以走到幸福
忽然她让我感觉
自己已不再孤独
可以在未知的明天去天竺
美好青春的爱情和曾经走过的路
年轻城市换成另一种面目
如今大了那样感动难重复
幸福和那双球鞋放记忆最深处
这保留却又忘了的初恋纪念物
在经历几次恋爱后重新回顾
爱还依然清晰在梦中
让当时的街灯和书
有许多已不知去处
想起来我然感觉曾经自己不孤独
你是否已走到你要的幸福
美好青春的爱情和曾经走过的路
年轻城市换成另一种面目
如今大了那样感动难重复
幸福和那双球鞋放记忆最深处

当年的我还懂保留失落的爱情遗物
究其爱情现在想起来却面目模糊
却相信去感触
美好青春的爱情和曾经走过的路
年轻城市换成另一种面目
如今大了那样感动难重复
幸福和那双球鞋放记忆最深处

Here is a video. It's not a single, so there aren't any good vids of it. Just a concert footage.　It's about 4:23 into the clip that the song starts. Enjoy.

Man Vs Wild

I never really did any true survival skills training in the army since I never really was expected to charge hills in the forest anyways. However, recently, watching the Discovery channel show Man Vs Wild, I have an urge to train up and see what's it really like. Although I failed once during the adventure race in that park in the middle of Indiana, I think I would like to try again.

In any case, that show is so cool. The host even has a kick ass name. Imagine a survival show host called Bear? How awesome is that? And he shows you all kinds of neat stuff, from escaping quicksand to building a shelter in the snow. I just spent the last 3 hours of my life watching back to back to back episodes of that show when I should have been doing my laundry. Oh well, at least doing laundry is easier than eating maggots for lunch.

To people who have Discovery, I say give it a shot. I think you'll find it fascinating.

How to Build Your Own Rock Band (Or How 5 People Can Look Good Doing Nothing)

So how was my vacation some people might ask. And I can honestly say it was a heck of a good time. I managed to meet up with my cuz, E.B.O.F. and my friend from home. So it was really enjoyable.

One particular part of vacation that really stood out was when we went to the Experience Music Project (EMP) near Space Needle. It was there that I realised how manufactured bands are produced. Let me share some of the insight I gleamed from that place.

First, when starting a band, you need someone with passion, or at least someone who looks like they have passion when the camera flashes. So I present to you the Siao Zhar Bor Ardent Drummer Girl. She's literally ready to burst with fury.

So after you settle on the passion, you then need the flair. To accomplish this, you need to have a pretty face lead singer (who can sing, preferable). As they need to look good, most of the time, a female is selected for the task. In our case, it was simple. The girls simply looked better.Hence the SuperStar Wannabe Lead Singer.
Ideally, you'd want to have more than a single sex front the good looks section. If the best looking guy isn't much to speak of, then you transform the ordinary into the extraordinary by sticking an electric guitar in his hands. Thus creating Flair Number Two (For Female Eyes version). Or as I like to call it, the Act Seh Guitarist.

So after you covered cool, you now want to spin a little humor into your group. To do this, they employ the "Act Blur" persona. In this case, it was done by the a Koteh Back Up Singer. Incidentally, a male with a tambourine is the latest "hot" image with all the chicks. Or at least according to the population (me) surveyed. So I shall hear no arguments about that.
Lastly, after all that commercial appeal, you have to "keep it real" to give your band that edge. To that effect, you need a "homey"ish kind of band member. We decided to cast our keyboardist into that role. And the Homey Keyboardist was born.
Although each individual element might seem very "meh" at the moment, a rock band is truly greater than the sum of it's parts. Combined, the aforementioned members form a fluid, melodious and totally happening band. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present "The Engineers and Psychologist". And yes, no one had a better name at the moment of inception.

My apologies for the cropped picture but the poster was too big for my scanner.

I hope my readers have learnt something from this tutorial about how to create your own musical experience. And I would expect acknowledgements when anyone of you make it big. Till then, live long and rock on!