Chaotic Mess of Gray(Grey?) Matter

First entry after not writing for so long and it’s about money. Sheeeesh. Anyway, I have less than 10 days to finish up my system and today I have officially completed 1%! That 1% is finally able to compile SOMETHING c++ or c on my mac. So I don’t have to rely on the virus infested PC anymore. Nor worry about virus infested anything anymore and can do my work without losing any. Many a codes have become corrupted before T_T. BUT….

…I’m so doomed.

These past few months have put me staring into my bank account in the red with no savings at all at the end of the month. Wanton expenditures and blonde moments fill my current life as I stumble headlong into a world of useless unworking codes. Yes, I do get hungry when I’m stressed out. But recently I don’t even have money to indulge in excessive non-basic food (like chicken in nasi campur even. That’s EXTRAVAGANT in my books now) so I’m at my wit’s end.

Interesting life I’ve been going through Anyway, my head is currently shutting down at the moment (hence the blog entry) and I feel like taking a walk. A long one. Head needs to be cleared while more coding blocks will fill it later on.

I was in Jusco the other day when my girlfriend stops me from paying up the stuff I was holding onto. She showed me this:

She claimed it’s so good I would want to pick it up whenever I see it. I was a sceptic so I bought one box. And you know what?

She’s right!
Teehee. Kiddy biscuits can taste awesome too

I haven’t blogged in a while. Suffice to say, there wasn’t anything noteworthy to blog about. Really. So in a nutshell here’s a short recap:

Played PSP
Played PSP multiplayer
Played PSP…..

Well, yeah. not much variety on that one. So I’ll just have to go ahead with a few candid observations of human behaviour.

1. When walking in a shopping mall with coloured tiles, we make an unconscious rule of stepping on the ‘correct tiles’ if we happen to look down. No joke.
2. People who are scolded are angry too.
3. When you finally have enough money to buy a luxury item that you want, you always hesitate to the point of not buying.
4. When you enough money to buy a luxury item that you want but not enough to live the rest of the month, you’ll buy it anyway.
5. Weight gain after the fasting month is often the most that you’ll gain

Yeah, being bored knows no bounds. I’ll plunk in more stuff when I have more interesting things to report.

Who in their right mind would blog in the wee morning of Hari Raya Aidilfitri? No one I know of, so that leaves just me. (For my oversea and non-Malaysian friends reading this, Hari Raya is our big festive holiday after our one month fast, kinda like Christmas, only no Santa. And instead of presents, we give cash). As to why I’m blogging in the first place, I guess it has to do something about me not blogging about anything for quite some time.

A few trivial things to note this morning:

I’m wearing blue. Not your usual kind of blue mind you, it’s bright! You can see me a mile away (I wanted to make my clothes out of a Simpson printed fabric, but could’t find any. Oh well)

…are working out a bit, like a tiny rusty winch getting a drop of oil at a time. Not in the usual sense no, what I mean to say is…

I can draw again! It feels like… like… well… like whoa! (I’m running out of rethorics) Well, a little. My sketches still come out as goofy looking after a long time without practice. But more importantly, my head is exploding with ideas (like a bunch of sparrows clamoring and pecking out of my skull, demanding to be free), and the only way I can release them is by doing a short manga to let all the demons out.

Fingers crossed on when I can actually do them properly.

Oh and I’m soooooo getting a PSP in two months.

….actually, more like chirping. I never could understand what birds are saying in the first place so they always sound like chirping to me. That’s the first thing I heard outside my window on this heady day. A sense of clarity hit me: I know exactly what I have to do for my masters. It was so clear… like it was in front of my face all along and I haven’t realised it.

So off I went to the lab in the morning (which is now) and what do I do?

I write a blog. Pffftt… So much for chirping birds in the early morning outside my window. Actually the zen of enlightenment only lasted as long as I got out of the shower. Then blank. Gurrgh I hate it when that happens. It’s like dropping a coin into a gutter by accident. I guess I’ll just have to trudge back in the gutters to find it then.

Anyway…

Guitars… yesss… my current favourite subject. I tried out a Gibson Spirit Les Paul model the other day. The Spirit series is meant to be a beginner’s guitar and they have 3: the acoustic, the bass and the Les Paul. The body is VERY light, the finish is quite shabby in some places, particularly the neck and a very cheap looking plastic pickguard, but the function is simple. It comes with two mini humbuckers, a tone and volume control and a 3 way selector switch (hmmm sounds familiar). In short, it’s a Telecaster in a Les Paul body, although the sound is vastly different (the lack of twang for one). But here comes the surprising bit: plug it in and the sound is… pretty good. I wouldn’t call it awesome, but the initial action and response of the guitar is darn good for a beginner’s kit. It’s not as harsh as a stock Squier Tele and doesn’t require much setting. It’s basically out of the box and off you go. Granted I only played it for 40 minutes or so but the initial impression sets in pretty quickly. For RM550, you get the guitar, a gig bag, a set of spare strings, a pick and a tuner. My Squier Tele cost 580 and it only got me the guitar without anything else. Would I buy this guitar? It seems like a dream come true…

Nope.

I buy another guitar and my parents and girlfriend will kill me! (”Cakap nak simpan duit nak kawen… EEEEEEEE!”) I can hear it all now…. (yes, all 3 of them will say the same thing to me). The Spirit is one of those… small drops of candy that come in my way once in a while. It’s a small thing, it’s fun for a while. But I felt it won’t stay with me for long anyway. So yeah.

Other news is that this year, the puasa month will make me poor again. Yes…. putting aside a considerable portion for duit raya and new clothes, I pretty much can’t spend on any cool stuff Imma sad panda. My only cool stuff is that I might be selling off my amp to get a new one: a Marshall. Those things can make any guitar sound like butter… smooth and rich. Even the stock overdrive is awesome.

Okay, I’m tired of typing non-stop. I need a drink of teh tarik to keep me from hyperventilating with boredom.

Blog entry number 61. Yup, this is the one. I was quite shocked that I already had 60 entries prior without noticing. My my. I’m sure there are other people with way more entries than mine, but allow me a second to bask myself in my self-contained glory

Heads up: I’ve finished typing that darn proposal and handing in tomorrow morning(which is the unofficial deadline). My pay just got in, though I already spent 50% paying debts in the first hour of realising I had it. I’ve upgraded my guitar! Officially, I have a USD2000 guitar by soending way less. Did it by installing a Fender Custom Shop Texas Tele Pickup by spending waaaay less. Not too happy with the neck pickup at first, but it kinda grows on me after 2 hours of playing it and finding the correct tone to play it. Might buy that Marshall 2W pocket amp + Danalectro overdrive box tomorrow. We’ll see.

But even after all this good news (kinda), the bad news is I still can’t go back to UPM for Sanggar Warisan ‘07 Gosh, I wanted to go so much, but can’t afford to when my oral assessment is on the 30th (which is 6 days from now). With everything riding on me on this first assessment, I expect to be grilled, chewed upon and spit out by my evaluators. I pray everything goes well and be allowed to continue my studies even after being mangled in such a way.

It’s 2 am when I’m writing this in my room with a miracle that I managed to get wireless again. I’m going to spend another hour practicing shredding on my newly reborn Tele. Let me tell you: It sounds HOT!

My colleague tagged me! I have a feeling I WILL be breaking the rules as well.

Tagged by Riz

1) Each player must post these rules first.
2) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3) People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 facts? Random?

1) I like mellow yellow colour recently.
2) I have toys in my room and car (my lab desk will be next).
3) I spout random sound effects like "Gu!" or "Gao!" either in spoken speech or in written messages.
4) I had a separate DiGi number once for a total of 2 months.
5) I’m forgetful…
6) I like Dvorak’s music (google ‘im)
7) I REALLY want to go to Sanggar Warisan KTDI ‘07 on the 25th BUT I CAN’T! GAHHH!!!! (bloody masters first assessment)
I don’t like watching horror movies in the cinema…. don’t ask.

I don’t know who I’m going to tag yet. Nak tag Lia, Riz dah wat dulu. Gheeeeeee….

I don’t think there’ll be 8 ppl though.

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Now for my official random rant. Have any of you played Transformers: The Game? The missions are insane! The game designers had Ironhide, the weapons specialist with two big cannons take out 100 small drones that even an idiot could do blindfolded, while in the next mission they sent in Jazz, the tiny guy, to take out Starscream AND Blackout (which were easily 1/4 times bigger than Jazz) TOGETHER IN ONE FIGHT. That was so stupid (and I thought Bumblebee waiting to take the cube with Megatron shooting was stupid. I beg to differ).

Let me tell you a little story of man who just had a time of his life being so tensed up, he could explode in million pieces of chunky meat, bones and blood. Masters will do that to you too as it did the exploded man.

After the accident, I’ve noticed one very disturbing thing…. but before that, here’s a good thing (I guess): I can play the guitar better. Yay! Despite the fact that I only mastered movable chords and knew what power chords were three weeks ago, my fingering and grip on the fret board actually got better. But my hand still is kinda sore after performing extensive movable chords with that blasted finger positions. I need to modify my placement on the neck a bit.

Okay, here’s the disturbing bit: I can’t draw anymore. Well, not really REALLY can’t draw, it’s just that I’ve been coming up with blanks and even if I can draw, I’ll end up drawing characters in the same poses over and over again. I know physically my hand is fine, therefore it must be a psychological kind of stint. Exactly what, however, I don’t know.

Gah. Drawing aside, I’m still neck deep in completing my chapters to send in for my first evaluation, the fact that I have a little over 3 days left and doing speeds of a paragraph a day is NOT encouraging. Allah help me find ideas and words this weekend…. I so badly want to ace this.

And heads up on my guitar, looks like I’ll chuck the awesome DiMarzio Twang King neck pickup for a set of Fender Custom Shop Tele Texas Special pickups. I hope they’re as good as they claim on the box (the packaging looks very flash).

I’ll write more and try to draw when this masters proposal thingy finishes. My head could use more focus.