I've just realised that watching Ponyo on the Cliff can potentially turn one back into a 5 yr old.

No kidding.

Hey tt's a pun.

8 years have passed. Time really flies.

But you are still as adorable as the first day i really knew you.

Keep up the good work! (^^)/(._.)

Happy Anniversary.

So school has started for a week. Since i'm not taking any cores this sem, i dun really see any familiar faces in class. Which is still fine i guess. The only problem is that there's group projects to be done. But somehow i managed to hook up with some pple tt i hope should be able to get me by (i'm intending to cruise this sem, but we'll see how. )

Taking 2 GEMs this sem, and it's kinda distracting to see SO MANY hot girls streaming into the lecture hall. Seems like i've been missing out for the past few sems. Stupid Chang. Shouldn't have taken so many stats mods as UEs.

My FYP presentation should be fine i guess. But somehow i had a major blooper which hopefully no one will find out. Only wm and sr knows, so i guess it's ok heh. Somehow during this presentation i realise that i like to present stuff that i'm very very familiar with. I dun like presentations, but when it comes to stuff that i'm good at, i like to go all out.

Moral of the story: I should work in some field that i'm really good at.

Question: What am i really good at?

I dun really know the answer yet. I feel that i'm still quite a jack of all trades. I dabble abit into everything, with sufficient skill and knowledge to impress most people. But i'm not really good at anything, so much so that there's this swagger and confidence tt comes with the ability. I'm only good enough to hold my own in most situations, but i've encountered some where i'm like totally destroyed. Yea, accidents do happen.

So essentially it still boils down to finding one's strength. And maximising it. And find a job tt amplifies this strength of one.

I always feel that you can never find a job that you will love. Work is always work. You'll never say "i play from 9 to 5". It doesnt happen. What makes a job "fun" is because u are good at it. Thus it's easy to perform whatever that's required. But humans are always humans. They want challenges, but not too challenging ones. That's why they keep thinking of changing jobs.

But i say, whatever pays the most amount of money per hour spent is the best job. And that's why most govt jobs are the best. They never take an additional hour from you, and they have good pay and benefits. So it's like most amount of money per hour + intangibles. Nice

I'm really thinking of going to some stat board and be some phony statistical consultant. It works. Half the world doesnt know statistics. The other half knows statistics, but doesn't understand its implications. The whole world thinks they can manipulate and predict numbers. They are so wrong...... it's only 95% of the time!

I feel so powerful right now.

I should start job hunting soon, or the Amazon living 3 bus-stops from me will start hunting me.

I've been wanting to post this for quite sometime, but i've only got time today. So here goes:

Chang's take on what makes a good song good?

The main gist of it all? Catchiness.

Now here we do not merely define catchiness/catchy-ness as in the general pop context. Catchiness means different things to different pple. And it's especially a big issue when it comes to musicians.

So how can a song be catchy?

1. Punchline chorus. Typical of most pop songs. 1 very good phrase tt keeps repeating in the song to reinforce it into your brain.

OneRepublic - Stop and Stare


Dream Theatre - I Walk Beside You

2. Good Lyrics. Different from punchline chorus. Good lyrics catches your attention right from the get go. Easy on the ears, no big words. I usually can't figure out the lyrics of any song on the first listen. But if i can, the lyrics are good!

Corrinne May - Angel In Disguise


Paul Gilbert - I Like Rock

3. Catchy riffs. Generally better than good lyrics cos usually the music starts first. If the riffs catches the attention, the lyrics really doesnt matter anymore. This tends to be the domain of metal bands though.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can't Stop


Hammerfall - Fury of the Wild

I still have no idea what they are singing.

4. Catchy groove. Differs from riffs abit. This is about the overall rhythmic feel of the song. You'll remember good riffs, but grooves is more vague. You just know this song is dancy or headbangy or whatever.. groovy. ok somehow morcheeba's shallow end is not available on youtube. Note generally most good songs HAVE good groove.


Rammstein - Links 2 3 4


Jamiroquai - Little L (Cant embed the studio version)


Paul Gilbert (again) - Boku No Atama


Larry Carlton - Room 335 (song starts from 0:53)

5. Memorable Solos. Yea, not every solo is memorable. It takes one good solo to define the song.

Dream Theater - Through Her Eyes (my all time favourite solo, starts at 3:43)


Guns N Roses - Sweet Child O Mine (This song has everything la)

In essence, every recording band/artiste has technical ability, cos they are professionals. What makes a song sell is purely on how it's written, whether it has sufficient hooks to grab attention. It's like writing a book or movie. Nobody wants to read a boring book or watch a boring movie, no matter how full of "subtance" it might have. You still have to keep your audience interested.

Tired. Rant over. :D

OK, so i kinda MIA-ed for a while. Was basically so-called "very busy" with my FYP. Yea quite alittle bit of ups and downs with regards to the project progress, but ultimately when i showed LJL and Jimmy, they were both pretty pleased with my work. So that's kinda nice. And now there's more substance in my project, so i feel safer too. And today i'm sorta done writing the report, so tt's one burden down.

And then we have the project progress presentation on wed. Which i havent touched yet. Nice.

Sorry for making someone the FYP widow. I must say it's a clever term to describe the situation.

Some guys tend to be very passionate about their work/interest. Some girls like such passionate guys, because they think that the guy's passion for work/interest will probably translate to passion for the girl. That's why it's good to have a hobby or something that u are relatively good at it. Just to nail this kind of girls. ^^

Haven't seen my bro for a while, so he came back today and that's kinda nice. Stole quite abit of music and movies from me, so i gotta get some from him when i go over. Remind me to bring my iPod. And the iPod cable.

I wanna catch Marley & Me, Ponyo on the Cliff, and Red Cliff 2. But i think they'll have to wait after the presentation.

Module bidding is kinda insane this sem. As i've mentioned before, the longer u study in NUS, the less options for solid modules u have. Which equates to more fucked up timetables, and more bid points for modules u desperately want to get. I'm surprised to pull off a 2 day week last sem. But no more :( :(

Air Alert. I'm working on it. Step ups are the killer.

This holiday feels kinda long. Cos everyday i wake up and i face my FYP stuff. Time doesnt feel that wasted when u know u've used it for something "purposeful". Like FYP. I dun really curse and swear at it cos so far it's been relatively "fun". Except for the dreadful integration which LJL suddenly threw at me. I trumped it in the end. Which is nice.

I realised i can just coast next sem and still graduate decently. Nice.