Tachikawa NO JIRETTAI BURO-GU!

You know, sometimes a song just hits you like a freight train appearing out of nowhere, its scary. Really scary. The previous time it happened, I was listening to Terra Naomi, this struggling independent artist on Youtube I just happened to stumble upon a year ago. She was peddling one of her catchy numbers ‘Say its Possible’. She was this nobody who had somebody’s voice. Goosebumps began to flow through my body, to the point that I dropped 20bucks and placed an order for her ‘Virtually’ CD EP online pretty much immediately, a recording of a few of her songs she sang in a summer holiday ‘tour’ she did pretty recently. and I never did something that spontaneous in my life EVER.

..along with subscribing to her video channel on Youtube, which I rarely do to anyone unless they did really oustanding vids, which not a lot of people actually do. She had a few songs like ‘Say Its Possible’ and ‘Something Good to Show You’, which had been my favourites ever since, and followed her quietly all the way to this:

Live Earth - Wembley Stadium.

I mean like WOW! I knew she’d go to great heights, but to the point of playing in front of BILLIONS of people on Live Earth. Respect to ya, Terra. You’ve totally outdone yourself this time.

I am grateful for this incredible opportunity and hope that my experience can encourage other people to dream big and expect the unexpected. Nothing is beyond our reach. - Terra Naomi

You’ve really inspired me. From a nobody, to somebody who’s touring all around to radio stations throughout the US. Wow. Watching one of the most talented artists I’ve known truly evolve from the beginning all the way to she is now. I’m speechless. Music’s my life. My inspiration. And through that I’ve gotten more inspiration to succeed in life. Nothing is beyond our reach, and I can truly say that really is true from what I’ve seen with my very own eyes. Thank you Terra : ) You have a lifelong fan in the sunny island of Singapore! : D

Another new artist has caught my eye recently: Lisa Lavie.

Lisa Lavie - Angel (P.S. I love the Rihanna’s Umbrella reference in this song. So subtle. So smooth : D )

Lisa’s like a cross between Anastasia with that unique roughness to her voice, Joss Stone with her versatility and smooth jazzy voice, and Mariah Carey with her godly pitch and voice control. She’s sounding pretty pro now, but she’s still one of those unsigned rarities in the world today. Teaming up with a very talented producer Ben Margulies, they’ve been producing really slick R & B tracks. Check her out on myspace!:

http://myspace.com/lisalavie

Damn, I need to get my own MySpace account.

Look out for Lisa Lavie breaking into the mainstream market soon! Her debut album’s called “Soon To Be” (I think.. heh. It just sounds so inconspicuous, so I could be wrong : P ), and its hitting the market soon. And I foresee her shooting up alllll the way to the top! Check her out soon guys!

Damn that has just gotta be the most mentally exhausting exam in the past 2 years of my life! I just finished the entrance exams for the Chemical Engineering degree programme offered by the National University of Singapore.

Just to gain entry.

They tested me on what I’ve learnt for 3 years in my Diploma programme in poly, and they revised everything in 3 months! I’ve been in the army for 2 friggin’ years, and being thrown into the fray like that is really exhausting. I swear to god. Slogging my ass off day and night, not knowing what questions they would ask. They can only ask so many questions in 2 friggin’ hours.

3 FRIGGIN’ YEARS IN 3 MONTHS. AND A PAPER LASTING 2 HOURS.

God, I must be insane.

I swear I was gonna cry. So many complex fucking questions in Chemical Engineering and they just had to ask simplified questions with nothing to convert, nothing to refer to, nothing intensive to calculate. WHAT THE FUCK? All that.

…*ahem*. I’m not saying I could fully answer all the questions. heh ^^; but. sigh. I should be able to scrape by with at least a B.

…I hope. haha.

ANYWAYS.

Its been quite a post-National Service experience for me so far. Studying and all, but I’ve been getting a lot of time to do stuffs I’ve been wanting to do as well.

My Japanese classes are going well so far. Been learning a lot of technical aspects of the language. Even though I’m relatively ok in the language, learning the in-depth methods of converting the base words into other forms gave me a new understanding of the current knowledge I have. I’m loving it! I’m hoping to go for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 3 next year. Wish me luck! (:

Oh, and my driving’s been great. I’m nearly at Stage 4 (There are 5 stages. The first 3 stages have 10 sub-stages each, the fourth has 5, and the last one has none). I’m done with my Advanced Theory as well, and my test’s in November. I’m close to driving on my own. Watch out world! heh heh.

My gym routine’s fine. A minimum of 3 times a week, with options to do it daily, and with the help of muscle-building protein shakes. Its been about 1 and a half months now, and the buildup has been quite steady. Increase in the toning of my muscles can be seen little by little, and the weights have been increasing bit by bit. I’m getting there, slowly but surely : D

My swimming’s been cut down by quite a bit. Once every 2 weeks with about 30 laps in about one hour per session. Sadly my distance timing hasn’t improved, but then my burst speed in short 10 lap bursts has improved a LOT. Soooo cool! : O

Oh, and with the help of my parents and that special someone, I got myself a Timbuk2 bag! Its like Crumpler, only BETTER!

Timbuk2’s a bag manufacturer based in San Francisco who’s been making high quality messenger bags since 1989. Not a lot of people have em’ in Singapore, and I thought they didn’t have retailers in Singapore. Their prices are slightly more expensive than a Crumpler, and they’re much more exclusive. I was surprised (pleasantly) when I was shopping for a new bag at Queensway Shopping Centre when I came across this shop called Bonkers. Browsed inside and VOILA! Timbuk2s! Oh, and I got a free shoulder pad worth 26 bucks! haha

I got the Large All-Black Classic Messenger bag. Its like, damn big! Specs are 57.15cm (Width) X 31.75cm (Height) X 21.59cm (Depth), and costed 180 bucks! I’ve been looking for one big ass bag for a long time, looking at how my arm’s been tearing apart with the loads I’ve been carrying around Singapore, heh.

Here it is! Edited the background since my floor kinda sucks, lol.

Its really solid and made of ballistics nylon and waterproofed. Feels really sturdy and solid. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a messenger bag. Crumpler’s too common and overrated. Get Timbuk2! (:

Got myself a new Nokia 5300 Music Xpress Phone too! Rocks! : D

And to end off this blog post, a comparison to how I was 4 years ago, to a relatively accurate picture of me now:

What a ride! What a ride. heh.