Monday, November 29, 2010

Roger Reigns Supreme



6 - 3 , 3 - 6 , 6 - 3 (1 hour 37 minits)


Defeating top seed and close friend Rafael Nadal, His excellency Roger Federer celebrates his victory in the ATP World Tour season finale Barclays 2010.

Roger is now one of only 3 players to have won the Barclays Championship 5 times. This is also Roger's 66th ATP World Tour Title.

Where only the top 8 players qualify to play, Roger once again proves that he IS indeed, worthy of being noted as the greatest player of ALL time.

Beating Rafa in three sets, 6 - 3 , 3 - 6 , 6 - 3 (1 hour 37 minits), Roger won an incredible 92% of the points played on his first serve in the final, and lost only 13 points on serve in the entire match (San Francisco Chronicle, 2010).

Roger's elegant style of playing exhibited in all its glory is a sight to behold :) Where artistry and sportsmanship blends into a masterpiece of peRFection.


CONGRATULATIONS ROGER!



P.S: Take that naysayers out there! HAH. I shall shamelessly gloat.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Scenes

Got bored for the first time since college ended, thus here I am. Went through some of the stuff I wrote in high school. Them 'short stories' I've long stopped writing because I discovered that my attempts at poetry are much less time consuming.

I think...I ought to give writing another stab. I miss it. You know, just cooking up plots, characters, dialouges and scenes. I particularly liked thinking up that something special that I'd usually start with before I build up the characters and story around it. It's usually a scene. Never a message though. I've never been able to write something to convey a message. It's always been about, a 'something'.

For example,


THIS, put a scene in my head. Of a guy playing this song like in the video, under a hazelnut tree by a brook, so close he was to the water, he could dip his bare feet in it. Surrounding him, is a field of dandelions that swayed in the breeze, as if dancing to the song played on the guitar. There's also a girl, in a yellow summer dress that matches the sun and the dandelions. Spinning like a mad gypsy, her long dark hair and dress billowing. Sun kissed, the grass is gilded in gold.

So, I wrote a chapter with such a scene in it. Oh, since I was particularly fascinated by fire then, dude's a pyromaniac. For some reason, the girl's blind.

MEH. There, click if you may and laugh at my amateurish attempt.

At any rate, I suck at it hahah.



P.S: I'm not even gonna get into my long stagnant attempts at writing 'novels'. Those chapters are probably decaying. If electronic documents can rot, they probably would have. *shrug*

All my lies

Let me swim in the channels of passion
So that my actions may be driven by love.
Stoked by the fumes of desire, I will step
Out of these smog of loss and confusion
This mist of anger and dissatisfaction
That clouds my eyes and blinds my heart
So that heavy sighs lace all my lies
All my smiles.

Can I not be what I yearn yet still be
What embodies the wishes of ones I care for
Bear the responsibilities they ask of
And fulfill the expectations they have bore.
Show me that the world is gentle and kind
Tender feelings of tolerance and resilience
Bare to me their generosity
If it be a must, let it be even pity.

I cling to such grand notions of liberty
That I know many have fallen prey to.
Mere indulgences of foolish romantics
Where thrive only things of beauty
And odes to our depraved humanity.
With my dreams in the palms of my hands
I offer myself brittle promises
In the face of denial, all my lies made fatal.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Deathly Hallows Part 1

My precious Harry


Just got back. Love it, can't wait for the second part. Potter fans out there, hurry along to the nearest theaters and welcome our dearest boy-who-lived into thy arms.

The journey to the end starts here :') After the books, you have movies. After the movies?

Legends they be those stories that beats eternally within the hearts of the readers


__________________________________________________


P.S:
And this. After you've seen the movie you know that the scene where this song is played is not in the book. All the same, it's all good. I like it. Have always been a Harry-Hermione fan, though of course that can't ever be because of darling Ron.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

My apologies

Candle-lit faces, Candle-lit gazes


Last night was AUSMAT 21's grand dinner. I went and that is to be considered an achievement (yeah, boo-hoo I'm a loser). I mean, I paid RM80 and all. I believe, it's the first time I ever went to any social gathering (of such scale) quite so willingly. I really wanted to see everybody all dressed up and happy and stuff.

It was nice. I don't know. I wimped out when everybody started singing at the end of the dinner. I left. It was dark so people didn't really notice.

It was dark because the committee planned a surprise gift thingy for the lecturers. They gave twenty of us one of those small perfumed candles and had another twenty carrying roses and a small gift follow us in the dark to where the lecturers sat. The candle bearers stood in a circle around the lecturers' table, the gift bearers handed their gifts, then the lecturers blew each of the candles out. Pagan much? Hahah. Naww, it was nice. Some of the lecturers actually cried and that probably worthed much more than RM80 I'd say.

It was after the candle-gift event that the singing started. It was still dark while I made my getaway. Pretty darn rude of me to sneak off like that and not tell my classmates. They looked nice in the diffused light and I want to remember them like that. I only bid farewell to Alia (fellow victim of Otago's mass interview slaughter session. Egh, I'm just sore. Ignore me). She insisted that I at least say goodbye to the others but I just gave her hand another squeeze, an apologetic smile and left.

I bet she cried when the singing ended. She's such a nice person and she always cries when things gets a bit, uh, 'feely' and I don't want to see her cry. Saw her cry plenty of times already. After the interview, after the interview results came out, at the class party... so none of that for me.

Blame my conspicuous avoidant nature but really I just don't want to say goodbye and that's that. Hopefully, I won't ever have to say goodbye to any of them at any point in the near or not-so-near future. Let everything stay as if we'll all just meet up in class tomorrow (though thank god NOT! Haha).

Thus the end of the College phase. What's next remains to be seen.


_________________________________________________

P.S:

I've finished reading 3 of my Big Bad Wolf purchases. One was crappy (Exurbia by Molly McGrann), the other two were absolutely brilliant (The Reminder by Rune Michaels & Beat The Reaper by Josh Bazell). Also, Beat The Reaper has this 'medical/mobster' game at its website. If you have nothing to do, then do click.

Exurbia was an unplanned purchase anyway. *sigh* Never judge 'Young Adult' books by their covers. Never. Not that Exurbia's cover is particularly attractive anyway though.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Like A Painting

The grass made greener
The skies made bluer
All is touched by the Sun's gold
And all is untouched by Time's 'Old'

In a painting, all is frozen
The subject or scenery from a single moment
The artists' brief yet passionate limerence
A single point in our space-time continuum

What you see is but a mirage
Underneath the concrete idea of the painting
The dashes of paint and the strokes of brushes
All you really see is the artist's visage

Their countenance made bold
By the language of colours and texture
Their personalities made bare
By the painting's essence and nature

If I can reveal to you my true feelings
And have you understand my feeble thoughts
On a canvas that spans skies and seas
My mind to you I'll paint transparent

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Big Bad Wolf

My preciousssss

Total: RM162
Number of books: 22

Quite a bargain indeed. Housies Alice & Linda (she spent RM230!) tagged along in my trusty taxi cab Atos. Good thing mom was kind enough to show me the way the first time I went with Alice. Yeap, we went twice. Alice slept over at my house and all.

Alice and I got to go on the Media preview day because we won the Big Bad Wolf BFF photo contest heheh, which is a good thing. Otherwise, on the first day itself...gosh. The crowd is just plain brutal. Bibliophiles ravished the book piles with hungered gleams in their eyes, I kid you not. It was so crowded I felt pretty darn nauseated.

Also, got to meet an old friend from high school. Grapes, I mean, Grace. Heh. She's working as one of the 80 staff on hand. If you go over to the sci-fi section, she's the girl with the orangey bob haircut :)

Lovely days ahead of me. Just me, my books, my cats & Adi in my room. Still, I'm kinda hung up that I didn't get these titles. I want these SO bad. Like, real bad.


(Especially this The Periodic Table by Primo Levi. Somebody, do get it for me from Kino)


(BBW had practically every other book Roth ever wrote EXCEPT this one. Oh, the INJUSTICE of it all!)


Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Liberty

I have officially finished the South Australian Matriculation (S.A.M). The results of my South Australian Certificate of Education (S.A.C.E) shall be known on the 16th December 2010.

What more is there to say? :)

To celebrate, here's something I wrote sometime during SPM. Form 4 and 5 seemed to last decades instead of two years. I remember scribbling this in one of my notebooks while studying. Those days, I care not to return to them. SPM was, IS, a nightmare. Sheesh.



Liberty

Can you smell it?

The scent wafting towards us,

Sweet and delicious,

Perfume of 'freedom'.



Can you feel it?

Tugging at our toes,

Teasingly soft caresses,

Of awaited 'Liberation'.



Can you hear it?

Whispering our names,

Beseechingly silent,

The winds of 'Release'.



Can you see it?

Just over the horizon,

Fleeting glimpses,

Of dawning 'Liberty'.



Run we must not,

Savour the flavour,

These cold shackels,

Soon,

No longer part of us.


P.S: Tomorrow, Big Bad Wolf Book Sale! *howlsssssssss* Now, BE JEALOUS heh.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Nobody

Wake from this silly enchantment,
Open your leadened eye lids and look,
What you see around you are Truths ignored,
Realities smothered by petty fantasies.

Should you look at the person by your side,
And he or she unconscious of your gaze,
You'll see them as they really are,
Unguarded with thoughts unhindered.

What little you know of them, revealed,
In ways you could only dream of,
But really don't be greedy and seek,
What their private souls may be in need.

Vague elucidations of many versions,
What really do any of us understand,
Of souls and thoughts and emotions,
That define our arbitrary 'I's.

So stop looking for angels and soulmates,
Stop wishing for devotion and attention,
In your reflection you will find,
The Nobody that rules your body.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Mr. Cut Here

With his palm down, over the bright green bushes,
He lets his hand brush over them as he walks down the hall.
Caressing droplets of dew from the shoots,
He smiles a very private very lopsided smile.
Thinking thoughts I imagine to be rather discerning,
His glassy eyes not seeing the shoots he's caressing.

As I look upon his ghostly slight figure with venom,
Never, not even once would he glance around.
Not realizing the confused hatred of my unsound mind,
He went on walking at his decidedly measured pace.
Careless, uninformed and unknowing,
Eternally, wholly, unaffected by my misplaced enmity.

A milky white latex glove in his slender hands,
He blew until it ballooned like a cow's udder.
The fat girl by his side laughing, and he laughing,
Its echoes filled the vacant corner where I stood.
Over the days, I silently watched and brood,
Waiting for a glance that never came my way.

What few recollections I have of him,
The one that loops like a broken film,
Are of him in the hallways, walking steadily,
Not in herds as boys often do; solitarily.
His head tilted back, slightly to the right,
Staring into depths unfathomable.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Reptilia



A 'Reptilia' cover by VSQ (Vitamin String Quartet).

This is just, Perfect.


Check out other covers here.


Who're the VSQ (Vitamin String Quartet)?

The String Quartet Tribute is a series of string quartet tribute albums, released by Vitamin Records and performed by several different groups of musicians. These string quartet tributes are commonly referred to as "VSQ," or "Vitamin String Quartet" by fans. Albums generally focus on one band per record, and perform classical versions of that band's songs, generally note for note. They use a wide array of instruments but primarily violins and violas.


Also, here're some awesome behind-the-scenes B&W photos of Julian's Phrazes For The Young solo tour by Chris Searl. The rest are here.





(Yes, Jules is a rock star that reads Hesse's Siddhartha. He's cool like that.)