Merdeka! x3

Happy Merdeka to all Malaysians out there! Isn't it amazing we've gone independent for 48 years? I know that the feeling of Merdeka has gone stale now but imagine what it must have been like 47 years ago in 1957, when we first got our freedom, that feeling of happiness, of being freed of the chains of the British. It must have been pretty damn amazing.

I've been too lazy to update my blog nowadays, didn't even record my trip from Kuala Kangsar, but since I have free time now..to hell with sleep! Later, I shall be doing a new layout for this blog, since I've finally learned how to do a css layout, albeit a simple one. I'm just a beginner, ya know. But the new layout will definitely look better than the last one.

I shall leave this post with a line from Tash Aw's debut novel, The Harmony Silk Factory that kind of struck me:

(Let me just find the page first)

There, too, was the Tunku, the Father of the Nation, raising his hand and repeating the word 'Merdeka' three times, the people on the Padang echoing back, the chants coming through the television sets as clear and sharp in our ears as breaking glass. Independence. Freedom. New Life. That was what the word meant to us. And although the innocent dream we had for our country have died in the years since then, suffocated by our own poisoned ambition, nothing will ever diminish what we felt. Nothing will rob us of those stuttering sepia-washed images of Merdeka Day.

Practical Exam

On Friday, I woke up with butterflies in my stomach wishing it was already tomorrow. Why? Because my piano practical exam was on that day. I know it wasn't any use to be scared but I can't help it. I'm still scared. I find the thought of someone judging me scary. My own private issues, I guess. I've been practicing hard for the past week, and I know all my scales already, though my fingers still won't cooperate with me and tend to play other notes instead of the one I intend them to play. My pieces are good, I mean, I could pretty much remember the whole piece without the book anyway. No hope for my side reading however. That one can already be counted as screwed. I don't know how anyone can read notes so fast, but I'll mistake E for C and I'll overlook any sharps or flats, and it takes me forever to read the next notes.

So, I practiced in the morning and at 11.10am, I went to the Prince Hotel for the exam. By the time I got there, it was already 11.45am. After I registered, it was ten minutes before it was my turn. My hands wouldn't stop sweating. As usual, it was a guy examiner again. I never get the girls, though my friends say they're stricter than the guys. Anyway, he was very polite, yea, all British guys are always so polite. I started with my scales and this is where the nightmare begins. The first one I played, I played 2 octaves instead of 3 octaves. And I pretty much played something wrong at every scale, either missing a note, or suddenly slowing down. And I played C# minor instead of C minor. Hah! Thankfully, the guy was really nice. My chromatic went suprisingly well and my arpeggios too. But I think I got one of the notes wrong.
My pieces was suppose to go well. I practiced it a million times a day, but still, STILL, mistakes. Argh! And I didn't go loud or soft enough.
Side reading was horrible. The guy only gave me 15 seconds to look at it. And I was confused whether I could practice play it or not. I think I got everything wrong. 'Nuff said. The singing part I think went partially well, I don't know whether my singing was accurate. After that, the examiner played a piece. I didn't expect it to be so short. He asked whether it started with a minor or a major. I think it was a minor. Then he asked whether it ended with a minor or a major. I didn't remember so I said minor. Next, is it from the Baroque period (I don't know what period this is) or from the Romantic period? I have no idea what Baroque period music sounded like, so I went with Romantic since the piece did sound kinda romantic. It was played in minor key, and it was slow and soft, and in the lower region. He asked me why I thought so, and I gave him a crappy answer. After that, he gave me a really really long piece to clap. Honestly it was really long. I couldn't remember the rhythm. And the end. He thanked me. And I thanked him back. And he thanked me very much back. Honestly, why are they so polite? It's quite annoying sometimes.

Yea, so this is my not-so-bad experience for Grade 5 practical exam. It was better compared to my Grade 4 experience but still bad. I don't know whether I'll pass, but if the guy is really nice, I think I might pass. Because yea, I made tons of mistakes, but I knew my scales and pieces, I knew the sharps and flats to play. I just always missed the notes. It was the best I can do. So here's to hoping.

No Really, You Should Watch Veronica Mars

source: TVgasm
by Erica

A few days ago, J-Unit posted about his Veronica Mars skepticism. Since I started watching the show I've encountered this same skepticism from a lot of my friends, all avid TV watchers who I know would love the show. I've heard "yeah, I know, I've heard it's really good but..." more times than I can count. And yet so far I've managed to convert more than a few friends, co-workers, and total strangers. after the jump, hear my rebuttals to some weak "I would watch, but..." excuses, all of which I've actually heard.

1. "I would watch, but...it seems kind of lame. It's like some Nancy Drew-type stuff, right?"
Yes and no. Veronica is a detective, but this isn't a formulaic detective show. As an amateur sleuth working for her father, a private investigator and former sheriff, Veronica solves crimes, and they range from credit card fraud to kidnapping to dognapping. But this mystery-of-the-week detective work is less important than Veronica's questioning of some key events in her life, namely the following:

Why did my boyfriend abruptly break up with me? Who murdered my best friend (who was also my boyfriend's sister), and why? Why did my mom run out on our family? Who drugged and raped me at a party, and why?

And instead of crying into her flask and becoming a lesbian when times get tough (she's no Marissa Cooper), Veronica approaches these problems as a detective. She looks at them as puzzles to be solved. The first season of the show centers of Veronica's quest to answer the above questions and return her life to the "normal" way it was before. And in this case, "normal" means class politics, extramarital affairs, and possible incest.

2 "I would watch, but...isn't it just like all those other teen shows?"
Now would be a good time to emphasize the possible incest. How many teen shows have that? Seriously, people, this show is DARK. A lot of really messed-up things happen on this show (like the aforementioned rape and murder), but they're not dealt with in a scandalous, soapy way. They're presented as inevitable, believable facts of Veronica's life that she has to figure out how to deal with. That's not to say the show isn't funny. It's not sitcom-funny, it's not Adam Brody-funny, but it is definitely funny in its own subtle way.

Plus, the plots make sense in a way that teen soap plots often don't. I've never had a "No! Stop! Why are you doing that!" screaming at the television moment with this show. Though I have screamed "Oh my god!" and "Awesome!" and "He's sooooooo hot I can't even take it anymore!"

Visually, Veronica Mars is unlike any other teen show. The cool color palette features lots of greens, blues, and browns, and for a show that takes place in a beach town in California, even the outdoor scenes are surprisingly dark.

One thing VM does have in common with a lot of teen shows is that most of the actors playing teens are actually in their 20s. Still, no one looks too old (there's no hag-like Gabrielle Carteris hanging around). Plus, it'll make you feel a little less dirty when you develop crushes on Kristen Bell (Veronica) and Jason Dohring (Logan), who are by the way, two of the best actors on TV

3. "I would watch, but...it's on UPN."
Of all the reasons I've heard for not watching Veronica Mars, this is the one I never understand. Do people feel some kind of flushed-face embarassment just from watching the network that features Eve and The Parkers? Do they think that VM will automatically suck just because it's on a sucky network? People watch the WB. People watch public access. Why can't they watch UPN? Think of it this way: maybe VM is about to usher in an era of greatness for UPN. Or maybe it will always stink. Either way, who really cares? [ed note: TVgasm readers should not have this problem sine you all love ANTM]

4. "I would watch, but...it's going to be on at the same time as Lost."
Look, I like Lost, too, but I still contend that Veronica Mars is the better show, and the show with more respect for its fans. (The only thing missing is Hurley.) Remember all those questions I laid out in #1? Each one is answered in detail by the end of the last episode. And how much have we learned about the world of Lost since the beginning? What's in the hatch? What about the monster? And the others? I love suspense, but I also like my questions answered in a timely fashion.

But regardless of which show you prefer, you can actually watch both. See, they have this thing now called the VCR (and the DVR, and the Tivo) where you can watch one thing and record another sometimes! Also, I hear that there's this thing called the internet where you can download shows that you can't watch on your TV.

5. "I would watch, but...I don't want to watch the episodes out of order, or only watch some and not others. Plus, I've already heard who the killer is. Why should I bother?"
Each week during the regular season, approximately 2.4 million people watched the show. Some of them must still have it on tape. Or on the internet. You could also tape the first few episodes of the season, which starts on September 21st, and then watch them after you watch the DVD, which comes out October 11th. You could also check out Mars Investigations (http://www.marsinvestigations.net), a great site created primarily for latecomers to the show as a catch-up tool.

My roommate and I had pretty much figured out who the killer was, and who the rapist was, before those episodes aired. (It's not that it's easy to figure out. It's more that we made "sitting around and discussing who the killer might be" our main social activity for the weeks leading up to the finale.) And even though I knew who the killer was, I still felt like the last episode of the season was one of the most suspenseful things I've ever seen on TV. Despite being a "detective show," Veronica Mars isn't just about the facts--it's about how those facts are portrayed and how they affect the characters and their relationships.

This is the point in any conversation between me and someone I'm trying to convince to watch VM in which I basically beg them to give it a chance. I have to admit that I was a latecomer to the show. I had heard about it at the beginning of the season but didn't feel like investing the time or energy into watching another show, and a friend convinced me to just tape a few episodes and watch, and I'm so glad he did. I've staked my reputation as a devoted TV fan on this show more than once. I've offered to write up recaps or act out episodes for anyone who was the slightest bit hesitant. (That offer still stands, if any of you want to track me down and force me to reenact Veronica Mars on the streets of New York.)

It's just really, really good. And as my roommate said when I asked her if I had left anything out: "Also! Cordelia! Woo!

Neptune High (Trading Card Game)

moved to a new blog. Check out my other tcg's there.