I Think I Am Done!

Tags

holidays, music

Yeah, maybe it is wishful thinking, but yes, I think I have finished my last known assignment (although further editing is in order) which is due tomorrow. Once I hand that God-forsaken 2000-word report tomorrow to my lecturer, I will be officially free, UNTIL MARCH, if what Akil says is true. Yeah, it seems my holidays somehow start tomorrow, and it only ends on 2nd March 2009, that if my calculations are correct is nearly three and a half months of holidays. Gosh, bliss!

To commemorate my seemingly completed assignment, I would like to share with you my favorite 25 singles which got me through 2008 in no particular order!

25) Nonpareil of Favor – Of Montreal
24) Pot Kettle Black – Tilly and the Wall
23) Bandit – Reverend and the Makers
22) Sleepwalker – The Sister Lovers
21) Great DJ – The Ting Tings
20) U.R.A. Fever – The Kills
19) Come As You Were – The Bird and the Bee
18) How Could I Just Kill A Man – Charlotte Sometimes
17) Happiness – Goldfrapp
16) No Sunlight – Death Cab for Cutie
15) My Drive Thru – Converse Century Tribute (Santogold and co.)
14) L.E.S. Artistes – Santogold
13) You and Me – One Night Only
12) Do You Wanna – The Kooks
11) M79 – Vampire Weekend
10) Why Do You Let Me Stay Here – She & Him
9) Ghosts – Laura Marling
8) Young Love – Mystery Jets
7) The Good Old Days – The Lodger
6) On My Shoulders – The Do
5) Get Over It – Guillemots
4) Sultan – What Made Milwaukee Famous
3) Hot and Cold – Katy Perry
2) Viva La Vida – Coldplay
1) The Re-Arranger – Mates of State

Anyway, wait for more updates cause tomorrow will be part 2 of the paintball wars!

If you would excuse me, now is dinner time.

Holiday Postmortem

Tags

cable cars, Chong Yi Xiang, Chow Zhen Long, holidays, Langkawi, Lee Sze Shee, Penang, Su Yintse

Through this trip to Penang and Langkawi, we learned never to watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at 12.30 a.m. ever again. One, wrapping your head around aliens and the fact that Harrison Ford and his alias Indiana Jones will never ever die in this franchise even though the rest of the earth was blown to smithereens at 2.30 a.m. takes a lot of work.

Two, if you do not know the way back home, and a couple of your friends have been asleep since the movie began, you are liable to be lost for up to 1.5 hours on the deserted streets of Penang and meet a host of Mat Rempits who look like they eat skinny Chinese boys for breakfast at 4 a.m.

Third, there may be a chance of being nocturnal as when you return to the hotel room, everyone suddenly becomes all energetic even though you have to wake up a couple of hours later to meet your friend’s aunt for a scrumptious McAllister Road breakfast.

I’m just saying…

We also learned that if you laugh hard enough and move fast enough, the photo taken makes you look like an over-sized baby needing a bottle pronto.

We also learned that we are messy and disorganized, just look at our hotel room. It only gets worse when we refuse to let room service come in.

We also found out that even though they did put that sign on the locked-for-good window, we still wanted to smash it open and look at the view without glass in our vision’s way.

I personally realized that when the cable car comes, and the doors open, but you feel the fear of heights engulf you, and you just wanna stay on the ground.

That is when your friends make you buy a ticket, push you into the car whether you like it or not, and make fun of you on the way up and down. Who knows, you might just reach 710 m or more with a little shove from your friends!

I also learned that when you are about to go on a speed boat, there is no use waking up earlier to wax your hair. It just does not work, period.

Your hair just gets blown everywhere, and at the end of the day, blown hair beats waxed hair roots down!

I also had no idea Yi Xiang was THAT tall.

Last but not least, is there a budding romance between two of my friends?

The million dollar photo deserves the million answer.

Finally, I had zero knowledge that there were still beautiful locales that could take all the crap in the world and make it all good in Malaysia. I mean, look at the view.

Why can’t the whole Malaysia be all sandy beaches and coconut trees?

For those who missed my holiday blog posts, the two parter is below.

Blogger on Vacation

Tags

90210, CW, Gossip Girl, holidays, Langkawi, Penang, Surviving the Filthy Rich

As the title of this post suggests, I will be away at Langkawi and Penang for my last week of holidays which means, yeah, unfortunately, my classes start on the 26th of May which also means, unfortunately, next Monday which my calculations point out is not really that far away.

Anyway, as I will be having limitless amounts of fantabulous fun under the sun and on the blush white beaches (or what is remaining of them) for the foreseeable future till Monday, this blog will not be updated, and if it is, well, it must mean that Langkawi and Penang are too boring in which case I have to seek refuge in a cyber cafe. Woe is me if that thought meets fruition.

Langkawi/Penang Escapade of 2008 promises to be an exciting and volatile trip as not only have my friends and I not planned on what are travel plans are, but we still have no idea how we are coming back to Seremban come that faithful Sunday. Well, wish us luck!

In other non-holiday related news, the dust has not even settled after a mind-blowing finale to season one of Gossip Girl and already CW have announced the Fall 2008 line-up. Way to not rest on your laurels guys!

Besides re-runs of Gossip Girl, we can expect a wide array of scrumptious-looking new shows on the block hoping to emulate if not better the hype and buzz that surrounded and still surrounds the kids from the Upper East Side. For one, I am really excited about Surviving the Filthy Rich, which is centred around Yale graduate and recently out-of-work Megan who becomes a tutor of two rich girls, and 90210, a spin off of the hit 90’s show Beverly Hills 90210.

And yeah, there are new seasons of One Tree Hill and Smallville which I could care less about, but CW’s Fall 2008 looks like a promising non-season in the life of one TV show aficionado.

Happy Holidays from the Good, the Bad, and the Plain Old Lazy; and unfortunately, I will see you guys on Monday!

Holidays, We Sure Need More of Em…

Tags

Alex Turner, Arctic Monkeys, Augustana, holidays, Malaysia, Paramore, the Click Five, the Decemberists, The Last of the Shadow Puppets

Holidays are bliss. Holidays are like totally glorious, you get to do things which you would normally not get the chance to do (read also: play hours worth of Football Manager and update blog whenever). Official day one of the holidays have been fantastic to say the least as I have been doing nothing except reading novels, watching sitcoms and movies, and listening to some delightful music.

One band I have been able to enjoy so far are the Decemberists, a totally cool Indie pop-folk band with some infectious tunes. I am currently giving their 2005 album Picaresque a listen, and boy, am I hooked, especially Engine Driver is just monumentally sing-along worthy with its catchy appeal.

From the band that gave you the melancholic anthem of the year Boston, Augustana, comes their follow-up album Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt. I am currently giving this sophomore effort a listen, and I have not been disappointed so far with more piano-leading singles that shy away from the more rock-infused debut Stars and Boulevards the name of the game for Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt.

Another band I have been able to take a closer at are the Last of the Shadow Puppets when I saw them on MTV. At first I thought it was an Arctic Monkeys I have not heard of (which is strange since I have their two albums and most of their covers on BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge), but after some background check, the Last of the Shadow Puppets is a side-line project for Arctic Monkeys frontman, Alex Turner! That said, I still prefer the pure rock-and-roll genius of the Arctic Monkeys to the sophisticated full-fledged orchestra backing up the Last of the Shadow Puppets.

I was there when the Click Five came to Hard Rock cafe last year for a showcase, and whoop-dee-doo, they are back for more Malaysian hospitality! This time at Genting in June no less. *whisper* Don’t they have anywhere else to go? I mean, hello, every year?

Malaysia sure have not impressed as a concert nation this year with no noteworthy bands or artistes stopping by as of yet (no fanboys or girls, Click Five do not count!). I mean, I am craving for some good old fashion jump-around-shaking-our-heads-without-ecstasy-pills since KT Tunstall and Club 8 and Pelle Carlberg’s concerts I witnessed earlier this year. Come on guys, bring us Paramore!

Now that would make my holiday even better.