it's never too early...

... to put up the tree:



Yup, I put it right in front of me to remind me that as Christmas gets nearer, exams are going to be over!

"Hyugen's principle states that every point on a wave front will behave as a secondary point source emitting spherical wavelets with the same speed as the original wave in the forward direction only."

before Elvis, there was...

...Ol' Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra:



Listen to that voice!

elvis presley - love me tender

This is some good stuff:



Yes, I know I'm probably DECADES behind time but the man's a class of his own.

good CGI

Want to see some real good CGI? Watch the below .gif
It's kinda huge but let it load and watch it in its entirety.




That's a lot of movie budget blown right there in ONE episode of Heroes.

time to go boom

Heroes Season 1

Sweet.



Score!


I'm such a nerd. :-/

1812 Overture

I know it's weird to have me write about a classical piece, considering how much I like jazz, rock, pop and the like. Still, I've been listening to 1812 Overture, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, a lot and feel the need to write a bit about it in case you have not heard about this song. Maybe I tried to listen too much into this song but hey, I find it kinda cool.

Imagine this, the song starts out slow and then it will go higher and higher as if it's going to reach it's climax. Just when you thought the song starts to pick up its pace,it will begin to slow down and 'decend'. And suddenly, out of nowhere just when you think the song is going to end and sound draggy, it goes batshit insane. Not just any batshit insane kind of insane but rather almost a victorious sounding and triumphant kind of insane. You know, like when they have won the war, which is true in this case.

Also, have I mentioned that this is actually one of the few songs(less than 10 in the history of music) that requires cannons? That's right. In case you didn't read it properly, IT REQUIRES CANNONS. 16 shots are written into this song with 5 shots in the middle and the other 11 towards the end. I thought Jaco's big band was crazy enough but to have cannons written into a song is simply all kinds of awesome.

So, I decided to look up Wikipedia regarding this song and true enough this was written by Tchaikovsky in 1880 to commemorate the turning point of the Napoleonic War at the Battle of Borodino at the year.... 1812.

Basically, the whole song is structured in such a way to portray how the Russians struggled against the French/Napoleon army. Hence, the draggy and slow intro of the song and slowly as it approaches the Battle of Borodino, which is the turning point of the war, the song picks up. Although it's still a little draggy but you can hear that it's going higher and at the right moment, everything break loose and the song became... 1812 Overture.

Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia on the structure of the song. It will explain a couple of things in the song and hopefully will help you to appreciate this song even more:

Sixteen cannon shots are written into the score of the Overture. Beginning with the plaintive hymn "God Preserve Thy People", which was the old Czarist Russian National Anthem, the piece moves through a mixture of pastoral and militant themes portraying the increasing distress of the Russian people at the hands of the invading French. At the turning point of the invasion—the Battle of Borodino—the score calls for five Russian cannon shots confronting a boastfully repetitive fragment of the Marseillaise. A descending string passage represents the subsequent attrition of the French forces, followed by victory bells and a triumphant repetition of "God Preserve Thy People" as Moscow burns to deny winter quarters to the French. A musical chase scene appears, out of which emerges the anthem "God Save the Tsar!," thundering with eleven more precisely scored shots.

Like all classical pieces, there are many different recordings of this song. In fact, rumours say that Tchaikovsky himself may not have heard this piece as it is written! So, Antal Dorati came along and decided to record this piece AS IT IS WRITTEN for Mercury Records. Wikipedia says:

Dorati uses an actual Carillon called for in the score and they are rung about as close to a zvon then known. The art of Zvon ringing was almost lost due to the Russian Revolution and the atheistic beliefs of the communists. The Dorati recording also uses actual period French Cannon for the 1812 period which belonged to West Point US Military College.

One thing to note about the Carillon is that it is so rare that only a handful of classical pieces uses the Carillon bells. Now, imagine how difficult it is to get the zvon.

Fortunately for all of us, the recording of 1812 Overture by Antal Dorati can be found on YouTube. Yup, with cannons and everything. 1812 Overture starts at 2:44. So, you can fast forward till there if you want to just listen to the song:



If you think I'm kidding about the cannon part, check out the performance of this song by the Eastern Army Corps musical band of the Japan Ground Self Defence Force (JGSDF) using 105mm cannons. Fast forward till 5:03 for the song and the hawt cannon action:



Enough talking and hopefully what I have written is enough to give you an idea and also allow you to enjoy this as much as I did.



(References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Overture)

Marching bands

Here's a marching band from California, USA performing their 'half-time' shows at a football game versus Washington. Here's the list of games that the marching band did the music for:

1. Pong
2. Tetris
3. Pokemon
4. Legend of Zelda
5. Mario
6. Mario 'End-game' Music



What a bunch of talented people...

house

Here are some 'fan-art' that I found on SomethingAwful. Some of it are borderline creepy, so that means you really don't want to search for them on Google. Trust me.







And.... my favourite of all, from a recent episode(click on it to view the animated .gif):

Music is so beautiful

I was home alone tonight cause the family decided to run some errands outstation leaving me at home to take care of things. Anyway, I turned on one of the radio channels on Astro and after surfing around I decided on 'Opus', which is a satellite radio channel for classical music. Now, whenever someone speak of classical music, people usually think of the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky or rather the 9th Symphony by Beethoven.

Classical music is so much more than that, my friends. Although I have a crappy TV with crappy sound, I still got a huge kick out of listening to the sounds of different instruments and notes as well as chords mixing together into one beautiful piece of work. No, it's not that I'm high on drugs nor am I seeing colours or 'music' around me. It's just that when you listen to these works, as simple as they are sometimes, you can hear that there's a purpose behind everything. Maybe it's trying to accentuate another instrument or even making way for the coming lines.

It's almost like fine dining. Just that it costs next to nothing.

MPPPU Farewell Dinner 2007

Well, yesterday's dinner marked our graduation from our Form 6 studies as we continue to prepare for our STPM Examinations(Oh God help me). It's nice to see everyone unwind themselves for the night and having the whole thing hosted in Prime City's Jupiter Ballroom, which is also the biggest and coldest, gave everyone and excuse to dress up; and for some, to dress down... till almost well, nevermind.

As usual, the food served at the dinner was less than spectacular but considering the price that we paid, RM30, there isn't much room to complain. Hey, you gotta "eat what's on the table", isn't it? I believe Jun Jiat, who is the new President of MPPPU, and his team did a good job eventhough there was a bit of a hitch here and there during the event. But things could have been much worse but it didn't and the team handled all their situations well. So, that's all good.

I personally believe the performances this year was certainly much better than last year's dinner, probably because most of them are my own friends. For those of you who were there, I'm sure you will agree that Cheng Yee's song was fantastic and incredibly hilarious. Also, Mohan did a flawless performance of Michael Jackson's dance. He was incredible. And let's not forget about Elween and Hui Mun's wonderful opera performance.

Man, so many great performances and things to talk about. Rather than typing a butt load of text and ridiculous nonsense, please allow me to post pictures from last night's dinner and much thanks to WOON CHERK (visit his fantastic blog @ panorazzi.com/colorfool) for all the pictures that you will see here. The pictures that I will be posting here are mainly taken before and after the dinner with friends and stuff. As for pics taken DURING the dinner such as speeches, prizes and awards, I will try to get them from Miss Neo or the new MPPPU board and then put them up here for everyone's enjoyment. I will probably have to pay for the pics though. *cross hands*

So, hope you will enjoy these pictures!

I present to you, my class: PU2 F3

Not very graceful, I know, but everyone's got to do it.

Here's Cheng Yee presenting his very own song about the Form 6 life.
Fantastic stuff.

From left: Cheng Yee, Mei San and I.

From left: Boon Cheik, K'Chai, Woon Cherk

Hui Beng and I. Hui Beng is possibly the best dressed girl in the event. Possibly.
She's also in the MPPPU 06/07 board too.

Lee Ping and I. Trustworthy Treasurer of ELS 2006/07.

From left: K'Chai, Woon Cherk, Lee Ping, Miss Neo, Hui Beng, Cheng Yee.

Daniel and I. I finally figured out what made Daniel looked so different last night.
It's his hair and he dyed it with a little bit of blue. Vain.

Chee Yong and I. He's a fantastic guy.

And once again, I present to you, PU2F3.

It's a pity that I couldn't take pictures with everyone. I wish I could. Still, there are plenty more pictures with the new board and I will try to get it from them as soon as possible. Woo...

Some of my final thoughts about the dinner:
I felt happy for everyone because one of the toughest period of our life is finally over and at the same time I'm so proud of everyone when I was up the stage giving my final speech. Being the President of the old board, I had lots of opportunity to speak in front of people and also be able to share my ideas and thoughts with all the students. Standing in front of everyone whom I have tried so hard to care* for and to be able to talk to everyone as a group for the last time makes me really glad that I have decided to stay in Form 6 and to take up the responsibility and the position on the board. I don't regret my decision and I'm glad that I stood by it and have my friends stood by my side and I struggled with all the different dealings and things that I have to put up with.

* Well, not in a motherly way or anything like that but rather more of wanting to protect, take care and stand up for them kind of way. You know what I mean.

WARNING: Some sensitive stuff below:
Having been the President of the board, I have never spoken about the cons of being in this position. So, I'm going to take this opportunity to take it off my chest and maybe some of you will be able to understand what I actually go through.

These 1 and a half years in Form 6 have taught me many new things. Things that are practical as well as the human character. Most of the people I know are great people but nevertheless one has to face the dark side of the human character sometimes.

I have made many new friends indeed. I can see some of these people as my friends forever but there's always this little thought in me that makes me wonder a lot about my relationship with others. I see so many of them as friends and I would go all out to help them and believe me, I have at times almost have to give up an arm or a leg to get some of them out of trouble. But do they take me as a friend? Or am I just some random guy that they will have to respect just because he's a 'president and smiles a whole lot than the other teachers'.

I know I probably shouldn't look at things like this but I would be really stupid and ignorant to take it out of the equation altogether. When I look back at the things that I have done, it's almost as if it's a "horse and a cart" situation: I have many friends and because of that I did my best and do everything to help and at the same time as I do those things, I made many new friends.

My dear friends, whether you really take me as a friend or not, I will still look at you and treat you as a friend. I will call you brothers and some of you sisters. 20 years on, when we all lead our own lives, I will still look back to these pictures and think of the wonderful times we had.

I guess that's what you get when you become a 'public figure'. You form so many new relationships but you will have a hard time trying to tie things up when things have to come to an end. I guess it all takes practice and to me, this is one of my first steps in life and I'm glad I have taken these steps well.

I have done my best and I hope that my best is good enough for all of you. Well, all the best fellas and let's kick STPM's ass together.