Hooray, I’m musical again!

Today I bought myself a Roland EP-97 Digital Piano, thus ending a very long musical drought. When I was living in Adelaide, there used to be a piano in the house, but after I moved to Sydney, I no longer had access to any musical instruments (not counting my two recorders). There was a brief period towards the end of last year where I was playing on a crusty old upright piano belonging to one of my housemates, but he sold it before I had half a chance to practice a tune. I’ve also borrowed violins for various gigs in church, but had to return them soon after the performance. Its not like I’ve ever owned a violin before anyway, so no great loss there.

Its hard to say why I missed having a piano. I guess I’ll find out soon. Now, to figure out where to put the darned thing…

Go shorty, it’s ya birfday

Yep, today was my birthday. As you probably didn’t notice, its been a while since I last wrote. Between work, and two weeks holiday in Adelaide, and procrastination in general, I just haven’t found the time nor inspiration. In fact, after I finished reading Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, I was in a state of catatonia for about a week, having been so completely and utterly blown away by this literary colossus amongst tiny inconsequential book things. It was so great that it has taken away from me any sense at all that I will ever be able to write a great book. In comparison, I feel like my writings are like the vapid dribblings of a nobody. You must read this book (the individual volumes are called Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. I can only hope to achieve near-greatness through emulating him, and one day I might even try…

My obsessions with lyrics continues… the title of this post comes courtesy to you of the poet 50 cent (I used to think the lyrics were “go shorty, it shivers eh? Gonna party like it shivers” – it probably makes more sense if you’ve heard the song…)

Lastly, thanks to all who contributed to my birthday today – through SMS, phone calls and my birthday dinner. All the kind wishes, gifts and good intentions were very much appreciated. If you haven’t gotten me anything yet, its not too late! Cheques should be made out to… hehehe…

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For those of you who are wondering what the heck is up with that stupid Solo poem below, that was just me being very silly and wanting to see what it would look like to post pictures on this page. Pictures are supposed to speak a thousand words, but that one must have been feeling a bit off, ‘coz it could only inspire me to muster together 33 (and one of them isn’t even a whole word).

An ode to Solo

Not all soft drinks are eq’ly created,
Only Solo is lightly aerated.
Light on the fizz so you can slam it down fast,
I savour each drop, from the first to the last!

My Immortal

It’s ironic, but most of my favourite songs don’t usually have anything to do with the music. Instead, I’m usually captivated by the song’s lyrics (which explains why I hate heavy metal, since the lyrics of a typical metal song usually goes something like “aarrrrrrrrrr grrrrraaaaah argh rrrrrrrrrrr arrrrrrr!!!!”). One song that has recently been added to my collection of favourites is “My Immortal” by Evanescence. It goes like this:

[verse 1:]
I’m so tired of being here
Suppressed by all of my childish fears
And if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
Because your presence still lingers here
And it won’t leave me alone

[pre-chorus:]
These wounds won’t seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There’s just too much that time cannot erase

[chorus:]
When you cried I’d wipe away all of your tears
When you’d scream I’d fight away all of your fears
And I’ve held your hand through all of these years
But you still have all of me

[verse 2:]
You used to captivate me
By your resonating light
But now I’m bound by the life you left behind
Your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams
Your voice it chased away all the sanity in me

[pre-chorus]

[chorus]

[bridge:]
I’ve tried so hard to tell myself that you’re gone
And though you’re still with me
I’ve been alone all along

[chorus]

Most people think this song is about a loved one who passed away, but I believe another possibility is that the singer is singing about somebody who has been in a coma for a long time. The meaning of the song then changes from agonizing over a lost love, to someone who is torn by the fact that she is still committed to this person (maybe they were married), but is becoming increasingly unsatisfied with giving her love but never receiving any back. Now she’s contemplating leaving, but is having trouble reconciling it in her mind as it would be a betrayal of the love they used to share. This conjures up some very strong mental images for me (I nearly lost my brother to a car accident once) and Evanescence singer Amy Lee’s divine voice helps complete this tragic picture.

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Another band whose lyrics irked me until recently, was Garbage and their song “Cherry Lips”. It just kinda changes gender after the first verse, and although this shouldn’t be surprising given that there is another song on the same album called “Androgyny”, I was still curious as to whether it was talking about two people or one person (who would have to be a cross-dresser). I finally found out today that the song was written for, and about author “JT Leroy” who grew up as a, you guessed it… transvestite.

My life turned upside down!

I’ve finally started making progress on my new years resolution to make my life better. I alluded to this a few posts ago by describing how I was making a change to my sleep patterns. So that the whole world can hold me accountable, here is the crux of my plan. Of course, things that are categorised tend to be easier to understand, so I’ve chosen to stick them under the mantra of “Healthy, wealthy and wise”.

Healthy

Early to bed, early to rise…
This is pretty much the core of my plan. As most of you know, my job involves shift work, that is, start at around 11-12 in the morning, and finishing (supposedly) at 7-8pm. Previously, I would treat it like a regular 9-5 job and get up about an hour before work, and spend more time after work for recreation, not sleeping until 1-2am in the morning. Now, I’m getting up at 8am each morning, because I find that (a) I’m usually more fresh and productive after waking up, and I might as well give my best hours to myself, rather than slaving over a job; and (b) because everything (shops, etc.) are open in the morning, so its much better for shopping, instead of having to stalk the aisles of the late night Coles or Woolies. I’ve also committed to sleeping a little less, meaning that I get more time each day. I don’t think I’ll miss it!

Swim, swim, swim…
I’ve taken up swimming for exercise. I can’t stand going to the gym, and racquet sports (tennis, badminton) that I used to play have become a bit too strenuous for my unfit, unco-ordinated body. I’m starting myself off with once a week, and gradually building up to twice a week or more. At the moment, I’m able to do 1km (20 laps of the Olympic pool) without too much effort. I swim in the mornings before work (before 9am you get an earlybird discount at the Sydney Aquatic Centre) so I don’t want to push myself too hard.

sdrawkcab slaem ym gnitaE
That’s “Eating my meals backwards” (boy, “Eating” backwards looks dangerously like “genitals” Or maybe I just have a filthy mind. hahahaaha). Yep, I’m starting the day with a good, wholesome dinner, and have lunch in the late afternoon and finish the day with a nice breakfast. Why? Well because when you get up in the morning, you need the most energy. A typical Asian meal (like what I pretend I’m making) usually consists of a lot of rice, which is a slow-burning carbohydrate. So eating my big helping of this in the morning helps me to have energy for the day, with lunch and breakfast only being top up meals consisting of nothing more than maybe a sandwich, and fruits. The first day I tried this, I didn’t feel hungry for the entire day, whereas before I used to have to snack right through the day. It could also be my metabolism isn’t used to it yet, so I’ll wait and see what is the long term outcome. Oh, and eating a light meal before bed helps me to sleep too, ‘coz I don’t have as much latent energy.

Wealthy

Actually I don’t have any big plans here. I’m a timid investor and I don’t like risk, so I won’t be investing in shares any time soon. I’m getting quite high interest on my Internet savings accounts and I’m relatively content with that for now and don’t see any additional benefit in investing in a Managed Fund that might only give me a tiny little extra – or even go backwards if the portfolio performs badly or I choose a bad fund.

My goal is to save up a deposit for my own apartment. Most market analysts seem to be predicting a property slump in the next few years, so I hope to be ready to take the most advantage of that.

Wise

My work pretty much takes care of my major training. I did a Project Management course earlier this year, which I thought was quite useful. Later in the year or even next year, I hope to also do Communications and Leadership courses (depending on how the training budget goes!) While I definitely prefer, and have more fun with the technical side of things, I can see that career-wise it’s not going to get me anywhere. So taking on these “soft skills” will ensure that I’m making progress in my job.

As for personal interests and hobbies, I took up piano again briefly last year, since there was a piano in the house where I’m renting a room. Unfortunately, the guy who owns it came back from the US and sold it for a bit of extra cash. I’m not too keen on buying a keyboard, since my room is chock full of stuff as it is without yet another piece of “furniture” to gather the dust.

Earlier this year I finally bit the bullet and signed on for broadband internet at home. Before, I kept telling myself that I didn’t need it since I could access the internet at work already, but it really isn’t the same. I can do all sorts of things now, like redesigning my personal web page (the fruits of which you’re reading now!) As I continue to experiment with it and expand the content, I hope I will pick up some more skills about web design. Its already been a great learning experience just in setting it up!

Wow. And that concludes the longest post since I started writing this blog. If you’ve made it this far, then congratulations! I hope I’ve inspired you enough to make some changes to improve your life too. You can share your successes and discuss them in the comments section below.