my blue heaven

2003-09-05T11:04:00.000+10:00

Goodbye Blogger

Hello Movable Type! Just a note to let you know I've finally moved from blogger to Movable Type. Everything should still work & look the same (with perhaps more functionality). Catch any errors, let me know! I'm still working on things, incorporating the extra functionality that MT provides. And while I'm at it, I might be giving this site a bit of a face-lift (coz I'm just about sick to death of this layout!) We'll see how much time I have.

So the url is now: http://kazzart.com/blog. (And the comments work too! :P)

Goodbye blogger - its been fun. :)

(NB. This blog will still exist as my archives.)

Current listening :: "Doesn't really matter" - Janet Jackson

2003-09-02T17:36:00.000+10:00

Quick update

Have to leave work now, so just a quick update. Darn comments are STILL down. Grr! So annoying. :(

Last night I let Coltrane stay in my room with me while I slept. I think he spent almost the whole night sleeping on my bed with me. Heh. Not as bad as last time, though he did wake me up around 7ish to be fed. (I just ignored him - as he walked on my pillow around my head! - and went back to sleep :P).

2003-09-01T17:24:00.000+10:00

Boredom you are breaking my heart

Feeling so very unmotivated at the moment... about work, church, and other stuff. For some reason I really don't feel like being at work these days.. or doing this project I'm supposed to be working on. Blah. Its so very boring. IT is starting to bore me. As I sit with the business/marketing people, listening to them describe the requirements for this system, I feel my eyes start to glaze over as I struggle to pay attention. Maybe interest will kick back in sometime, but at the moment, it's just not there.

Also been feeling very tired lately - I just have no energy to do anything, and I start getting sleepy by 10pm or earlier! What's wrong with me. I'm usually quite the night owl. This only started since I came back from my ski trip. I think the sudden change from 5 - 6 intense hours of exercise a day to zero hours exercise has something to do with it. I need to kick my lazy butt into action and get exercising again! Which is exactly what I'm planning on doing tonight. I'll firstly hit the gym for a workout, and then go home, get my cossies and head to Lane Cove Aquatic centre for some swimming and spa/steam/sauna-ing action. Yay! It'd be nice if I had someone to do this with, but the ppl I've sms'd haven't replied yet. Oh well, alone is good too.

BBK Gig #4

The BBK gig on Saturday night was great! I didn't think much of the first support act, I can't even remember their name! But the second support act were pretty awesome - Dappled Cities Fly. Their songs were really interesting and there was so much energy in their performances of them. Definitely keeping an eye (or ear) on these guys!

My friend Leo came along too (after some bagdering via sms), which was cool. T'was good to catch up! I also saw Leo's band-mate/band-leader John, and actually struck up a conversation with him. Heh. That was kinda cool - he recognised me from this blog! Consequences of having a webcam I guess. (Hello to Leo and John if you're reading this! :)) Anyway, t'was a good night of good music. No piccies sorry coz my parents have the camera and they're in the Northern Territory.

Other randomness

Darn cough still won't go away. :(

YACCS commenting is down at the moment (hence the javascript errors on this page).. and is likely to be down till Tues or Wed!! Grrr. Not Happy Jan. :( Anyway off to the gym now!

Current listening :: "Return to the city of folded arms" - Bluebottle Kiss

2003-08-29T11:54:00.000+10:00

Kitty affections

Last night my brother and I left kitty out and about in the house while we slept. (We usually lock him in the bathroom, but since my parents are away, we've been giving him a bit more freedom.) Anyway, I also left my bedroom door open. Big mistake. Coltrane decided it would be fun to come leap on me in the middle of the night.. a few times. The last time was at 5:30AM. And after having him pounce and bite on my feet (coz moving feet under the blankets are just too irresistable for kitty), I decided it was high time to kick him out AND close the door. Grr.

Of course he only wanted to play and get some attention. All was forgiven in the morning when I got up and had kitty rubbing against me, giving me nuzzles and kisses. Hehe so cute! He just wanted to be picked up for a cuddle. :)

Prussian Blue

Have been listening to alot of Bluebottle Kiss lately. Guess I'm in that sort of mood. They're playing at Vic On The Park (Marrickville) tomm night... and as they are me and Andrew's current favourite Aussie band, we'll definitely be there! :) I highly recommend people check them out - they have some mp3 downloads on their website. Their latest album, "Revenge is Slow", is one of the rare albums that has me loving almost every song on it. I also find it quite therapeutic for those angsty moments (which I seem to be having lots of lately..).

Angst (warning: rant ahead)

So speaking of angst. Hm. Just been feeling tired.. of life, of people. As cold and heartless as it may sound, sometimes I get really tired of dealing with other people's problems and hang-ups, and copping flak for getting involved. Sometimes I just want to be away from everyone and the stresses of everything - at church, at work, with friends... Or just find new and different things and people. Maybe its the quarter-life crisis talking. Or maybe I've been listening to too much BBK. I dunno. Sometimes I just feel like I can't be bothered anymore. Maybe I'm getting cynical about friendships (like fjord eh :P). There's been enough reason through my life of friendships so far to prove it to me. From my old church, to primary school, to high school, to uni.. the cycle goes on. A friend once said that friends are all there is to hold on to. Of course on a christian level I know that to not be true, but even on a more human level, I don't believe it. I don't think I have believed it for a long time. I dunno, maybe it was/is my fault, maybe it wasn't/isn't. I'm probably not making sense. If I have ever told you about my high school/friends experiences, then you might know what I'm on about. I was gonna blog about it earlier this year.. but never got around to it. Its not that big a deal, though I'm making it sound like it is aren't I? I'm sure I'll get over it, sometime.

Cough

I still have this darn cough... I'm all better from that bad cold/flu two weeks ago, and all the phlegm is gone, but I just can't seem to get rid of this tickly dry cough. I've been taking some cough syrup at night before bed, and it helps a bit, but not for long. Anyone know anything else I can try? :(

Current listening :: "Revenge Is Slow" - Bluebottle Kiss

2003-08-27T17:27:00.000+10:00

Fotos

A friend from the ski trip sent round a few of their photos. Check em out. (Can you find me? Hint: I'm wearing the ridiculous looking bright purple ski suit. :P)

I've also added some more photos of my kitty to the Coltrane album, and added 2 pics to the Misc Friends album.

I just got my own photos developed today (old fashioned film coz I didn't have the digital camera) and they turned out pretty good. I'm getting them scanned so expect some more ski trip photos soon! :)

Current listening :: "Deep River" - Utada Hikaru

2003-08-25T14:29:00.000+10:00

Back

Yep, I'm back from an absolutely awesome holiday at the slopes. It kinda sucks to be back in the real world, with all its stresses and worries and blahness. *sigh* I miss skiing. At least I'm not quite "back in the grind" (ie. at work), as I've taken Mon and Tues off. :)

Skiing was great! Though the snow was pretty mediocre on Fri and Sat at Perisher Blue (due to the huge rain event the Wed before last). Still, I got to ski some of my fave runs - such as Zalis and Excelerator (though the Ridge was patchy as.. the middle third being all brown snow and rocks showing through.. shockers). Mt Perisher & Sun Valley was in fairly good form though, which was great! And Olympic was open - probably the hardest run at Perisher. I did it not once but twice! I'm so proud of myself... heheh.. its pretty scary up the top as you're looking down these huge moguls on a 60/70 degree slope. I think the trick is to not stay up there too long (though the view is fantastic) looking at the run, or you'll end up getting too scared. As the Nike ad says, just do it! Anyway, I was glad to have "conquered my fear" up there. Tis a good feeling.

I also took a lesson on Fri afternoon.. I was the only one in my level 5 class, so it ended up being a private lesson, which was fantastic! It was great to just refresh and improve my parallel skiing technique (I hadn't done a lesson for like 5 years), I felt much more confident after the lesson, and my parallel turns definitely felt smoother.

Anyway, sorry for those who've never skied before and have no idea what I'm on about. Just needed to rant about it! You should definitely give skiing a go - you'll be hooked! :)

So on Sunday, conditions were very different - it basically dumped big time over Sat night and all Sunday. It was practically blizzard conditions up the top, visibility very limited. Someone would ski a few metres and then just disappear.... it was a complete white-out! We were actually at Thredbo on Sunday, but half the mountain was closed due to almost no visibility and wind. Still, we found some really nice fresh ungroomed powder along Ballroom and Dream Run (prob coz that way was closed, but you could still ski it down to Friday Flat). I took a few photos along the snowy tree-lined path of Dream Run - it was just beautiful. Skiing on fresh powder is pretty hard on the thighs.. you gotta keep moving and working hard to keep your skies from getting stuck. But, its awesome.. and so soft if you fall. Unfortunately with all that snow coming down, my ski suit and gloves were soaked by the end of the day with the snow melting through. :( On the last run of the day, I had to stop coz I couldn't feel my fingers at all - I was afraid I was gonna get frostbite or something.

I also made a few friends during the trip. I went only knowing 3 out of 29 people, and even then I wasn't close to them. Oh, and they were also all a bunch of honks. I felt a bit apprehensive when I arrived, coz they were ALL speaking in cantonese to each other. I mean, I understood probably about 95% of what they were saying, but still, I can't really speak canto very well. However, skiing tends to bond people together, and I made some good friends over the weekend. I rarely get to meet new people and make new friends anymore, since finishing uni, so I really valued the experience.

So, that was my weekend. And I'm not even that sore! Very happy about this one. Guess all that working out and going to dance classes paid off eh. :)

Current listening :: "Eyes On Me" - Faye Wong
'I kind of liked it your way
How you shyly placed your eyes on me
Did you ever know
That I had mine on you' ..... such a beautiful song... *sigh*

2003-08-20T16:18:00.000+10:00

Counting the hours..

Its almost time, another hour and I'll have begun my 4 days holiday from work! Even though I'm only away from Thurs to Sun, I've taken Thursday to Tuesday off, for a bit of a recovery break after I get back. Woohoo! :) I love the end of work/beginning of a holiday... its the best feeling! :)

I'm also just about recovered from my cold. Only a little bit of phlegm, and I'm not coughing very much anymore either. Yay!! Good timing! :) Now all I have left to do is pack, prepare some stuff to bring for the long drive down (gotta make some more compilations methinks), and hit the gym before I leave today for a spot of light exercise and lots of stretching to get me in shape for the hard slog down the slopes! (I was supposed to be working out hard in the week leading up to skiing, but coz I got sick, that was kinda impossible. Ah well, I was working out pretty hard the few weeks before I got sick anyway, so that'll have to do!)

Anyways, gotta dash, lots to do before I leave work today! Will post more tomorrow before I leave since I have the day off at home. :)

Current listening :: "Everyday" - Hillsong

2003-08-18T17:53:00.000+10:00

Slow recovery

Finally back at work today, after a nice 3 day break (well, if you call being sick a "nice break"). Anyways, am still coughing up phlegm alot, and feeling a little on the tired/weak side, but other than that, I think I'm on the mend. I haven't been this sick in quite a while. It was a truly miserable experience.

And this coughing/phlegm thing concerns me. I have 3 days till I go skiing. I really need to be better before then. I can't ski like this. :\ Anyone know how to get rid of phlegm??

Anyway, I *hate* being sick. Really really hate it. I think I'm the type that, if I'm unable to be productive/active for any extended period of time, I get depressed. Like now. Even though I'm back at work (not that I really want to be back at work), I still felt pretty depressed today. Or maybe it was because I was back at work... :P

Donnie Darko

I finally got around to watching Donnie Darko on Saturday night with Andrew. It was a great movie.... until the ending... which left me gestulating wildly at the tv screen with a big "What the?" It felt like a bit of a let down... and I really didn't understand it. So, what do you do? As any good geek, you search for "Donnie Darko explanation" in Google. I found a number of interesting explanations, the best ones being here and here (warning: don't read unless you've watched it coz they contain massive spoilers). Oh and check out the official Donnie Darko website. Its wieeerrd.. but gives some interesting extra information. I think I need to watch the dvd again... with directors commentary on.

2003-08-13T13:35:00.000+10:00

Sickness

I seem to have come down with something, so I took the day off work today. I was feeling pretty crap yesterday, shoulda gone home - I ended up leaving at about 4pm coz I was just in too much pain. My muscles and joints hurt... particularly my knees and lower back. And I think I was starting to get a fever too. Not to mention my chest hurt from phlegm & coughing.

Anyway, this morning wasn't much better... I definitely had a fever, and my chest really hurt everytime I coughed. It was difficult to even breathe coz of the phlegm. Then my joints started to ache again. I ended up taking 2 panedine and sleeping most of the morning, all wrapped up to try and sweat out the fever. Am feeling sorta better now, which is a relief. Hopefully I'll be well enough to go to work tomorrow. I still haven't finished that darned project. :\

Current listening :: "Here comes september" - Waikiki

2003-08-11T13:18:00.000+10:00

Music for the soul

There's nothing like wallowing in some good heart-rending musicals when you're feeling down. I tend towards "Jekyll and Hyde" myself. I love the songs, "A New Life", "Someone Like You", "In His Eyes", "Once Upon A Dream" (lyrics here). Ahh... tis music for the soul.

Interpol

While we're on about music, I went to see Interpol and Bluebottle Kiss at the Metro Theatre on Saturday night. T'was good... very good! Interpol are a band from New York (apparently they're pretty big over there!)... um, best compared with bands such as Joy Division and New Order.. they also kinda sound like The Strokes.. but much darker. I think Andrew classified them as "New Wave"? And a friend from NY classed them as a "goth NYC band". They were pretty good! Really tight. I hadn't really heard that much of them before, but what made me buy the tix was that Bluebottle Kiss were supporting. They're my favourite Aussie band at the moment. Its such a shame they're not more well-known and popular.. they deserve to be.. Jamie's songwriting is awesome.. their songs are awesome and so intense.

The guys in Interpol are a bit scary looking. Hehe. The bassist looks like "creepy thin man" from Charlies Angels.. with dyed black hair. He even had the cigarette thing going. The keyboard player was pretty weird looking too. Really gets into it, even tho he's only holding down synth/organ pads. I always found that kinda funny. :)

Anyway I took a few piccies. Check em out - the one on the left is BBK and the one on the right is Interpol.

There's more in the gallery.

Anyway, better get back to work. The project I'm s'pose to be releasing today isn't working properly.. so gotta fix the bugs. :\

Current listening :: Turn On The Bright Lights - Interpol (I love the song "Say Hello To The Angels"... my current fave from the album!)

2003-08-08T17:24:00.000+10:00

Its the weekend! Yay!

Argh, soo glad its finally Friday!! Woohoo! Anyway, I gotta dash off soon, but just a quick update - I've uploaded a new album to my photo gallery - it contains all my archived pics of Coltrane, yep from when I first bought him, to now! Clicky here to view. Also I've updated the cam archives with cam pics from May and June (yeh I've been pretty lazy the past few months, I know).

Anyways, hope everyone has a great weekend! Ciao!

Current listening :: MTV Unplugged - Utada Hikaru

2003-08-07T18:02:00.000+10:00

All that jazz

Went to dance class last night at the Sydney Dance Co. It was great.. I was very glad to have Ramon back! The main routine was to "Miss Independent" by Kelly Clarkson. I had no idea she was won American Idol. Anyway. The routine was fun! Quite technical with alot of turns etc... I liked! I noticed last night that my increased physical fitness has benefitted my dancing! I seem to be able to do the moves with greater ease, do things I couldn't do before, and not get as tired. Cool! Guess all that working out is paying off!

It seems they've finished building the luxury apartments on the wharf next to the SDC.. they look pretty nice.. not that I'd ever be able to afford anything like that. But here's a pic of the pretty lights.

Tonight I have my jazz fusion class.. second last one of the term. In some ways, I'm quite glad about that. Its nice to have that extra night free, especially since I now seem to have something on every single night of the week. It gets tiring. Sometimes I just wanna be able to relax after work.. do my own thing.. catch a movie or something!

Anyway, last week our class had this "open class" sorta thing. We'd share the 2 hours in the recital hall with the other jazz class and have an hour each to demonstrate our class to the others, and any friends people brought along. Naturally Andrew came along to hear me play. I thought I sucked, but he seemed to think it was good. He took some pics and videos of me, but I think I'll only post a pic coz my solo's sucked on the videos.

The pic above is of the guys in the band - drums, bass, 2 guitars, and trumpet. In the pic below, I'm on keyboard, and my teacher is on piano. We played through our usual warm-ups, and then performed two Yellowjackets pieces - "Sightseeing" and "Wisdom".

Well, I best be off. I might get some gelato or something before class tonight. Mmmm...

Current listening :: "I can love you like that" - All For One (my gosh... talk about nostalgia!)

2003-08-06T17:59:00.000+10:00

"Daancing.. yeh!"

Am off to dance class tonight. Yay! Ramon is finally back. The last two weeks that I've gone, he's been away. Last week was ok though, coz I went to Michael Boyd's int/adv Jazz Funk Hip-hop class instead, but the week before, even he was away too. That kinda sucked. Anyway, must be orff. Ciao!

2003-08-05T17:05:00.000+10:00

Health & Fitness kick

"I feeel good... *nanananananana*... I knew that I would..." :D

I'd been slipping into a phase of laziness/unhealthiness. So, deciding that I wasn't gonna let myself get unfit, unhealthy or fat (ever), I gave myself a kick up the butt and got back on track with my work outs at the gym. I also have tried to make it to my weekly dance classes at the SDC again - I've been the last 2 weeks (unfortunately Ramon was away :() - and its been great!

I've also tried to keep a watch on what I eat - I mean, I'm no health freak, not in the slightest - I eat my fair share of chocolate & icecream on a weekly basis - but, when I can, I endeavour to eat healthily (eg bringing mum's cooking for lunch every day, or choosing noodle soup instead of fried stuff). I've even been able to force myself to walk away from buying an unhealthy snack (like an icecream after work, or macca's after the gym when there's dinner waiting for me at home), and it felt so good to conquer that temptation! :) I'm also trying to make sure I drink enough water - so I'm aiming for at least 2-3 litres a day. (My complexion is starting to show the difference - those blemishes/pimples I got a few wks ago are clearing up!)

So anyway, I went to the gym today and yesterday.... and I swam the day before... and it feels AWESOME! I love the feeling you get just after you exercise. That relaxed, refreshed, satisfied feeling of doing something thats good for you. I've been sleeping really well too. This morning I actually woke up feeling fairly rested. Thats rare for me!

Anyway, just wanted to say that I'm feelin' gooood! :) (Now I just hope I can keep this up.. forever!)

Current listening :: "Time to party" - Craig David

2003-08-04T15:05:00.000+10:00

My weekend

I had a rather nice weekend of fun, fellowship and food. :)

Starting off with Friday night, after Glue, the leaders hung out at "Wongside", which is now referred to as "Geekside" but only after 10pm. :P (Explanation: here.) Sometime during the night, Aaron decided to take some photos as evidence of our high level of geekiness (clockwise: Nate playing Buffy on XBox whilst Andrew watches, Chris and Gav engrossed in Batman comics, Cerise and Ernie doing a puzzle, Paul and Sai on the internet).

On Saturday we had our Rice leaders reunion at CCC Milsons Point. We strolled down to the park on the harbour, just under the harbour bridge to have a nice picnic lunch of charcoal chicken, salad and rolls.

(More pics here.)

It was such a beautiful day of clear blue skies and sunshine, I just had to take some pics of the harbour. I love Sydney.. it's such a beautiful city.

(More pics here.)

Afterwards we went to Bravo's in Crows Nest for some yummy gelato, and in the evening me, Andrew and a few WS'ers went to watch Extreme Ops at the cinemas (a pretty fluffy movie, so-so plot, but awesome skiing/boarding action!)

On Sunday, I went to morning service (argh so early!) because I was rostered on for the first Glue stand of the month. (The glue stand is an information/advertising table set up at morning service to inform and promote our youth group (Glue) to the morning service people, esp the parents in the cantonese/mandarin congregation.) Here's a pic of us, with our pastor Rev Eddy. :)

[Updated: Tues 4:39pm]
Oops I forgot to add, on Sunday late arvo/evening I went for a swim at the Lane Cove leisure centre with a girlfriend. I love swimming there.. the heated indoor pools, awesome hot spa, steam room and sauna. All for $4.90. And then afterwards we went for dinner at my fave japanese teppanyaki restaurant in Carlingford. Pigging out on the Set Menu A after a good swim/spa/steam was the perfect way to end the weekend! We started with a salad, then salmon sashimi, some tempura pieces, and miso soup. Then onto the teppanyaki - scallops, prawn, teriyaki chicken, misoyaki beef, fried rice, veges and finishing off with icecream. Yum! :P~

Well, I guess its back to work for me. *sigh*

Current listening :: "Close To You" - The Carpenters (*sigh* Karen Carpenter has the most beautiful voice...)

2003-07-30T12:03:00.000+10:00

My inner geek

I just took the Geek test scoring myself 24.45759% - Rank: Geek.

Heheh. Not that high I guess, and I even exaggerated slightly at some points. Anyway..... what did other peple get? :)

Compelling story

I finally decided to have a look at "Shine For Jesus - Karie Yu's Spiritual Journals & Parents Heartfelt Words" book that my mum gave to me to read. I know I took ages to get around to it, and I shoulda done it earlier. Now I guess I can get the girls I lead at my youth group to read it.

A bit of background info, Karie Yu and her school friend Caitlin Twibble were 2 fifteen year old girls who were killed on 3rd Dec, 2001 in a freak storm during their Duke of Edinburgh activity in Hornsby. They were camping in their tent when a large tree fell on them, killing them instantly. There's even an old SMH article I found here.

Anyway, she and her family were committed christians, going to Hebron Alliance Christian church in Sydney (this makes it even more real coz I know people from that church). The day after she died, her parents found her spiritual journal, a whole bunch of prayers written on paper cranes, and 4 long letters of prayer to God. They decided to put together a book publishing these things to encourage people. Her journal entries were pretty amazing for a 15 year old girl. She demonstrated a spiritual maturity and a deep understanding & love for God that is pretty uncommon for someone so young. She seemed to be able to find joy in everything, and the majority of her journal was giving thanks to God for this or that. (How different is that from alot of journals.. like mine when I was in high school.. which probably had more whinging/ranting than anything else!)

I found the forewords by her parents, sister, pastors especially touching. I started reading this on the train this morning, and almost as soon as I started, I found myself nearly bawling. It wasn't that it was so sad (though it was)... but I was more moved by their words of faith.. esp from her mum.

What I found particularly compelling were these words from her letters to God, written just 10 days before she died:

"Thank you that that I can go up to You when my physical body ceases to function. Thank you for giving me the opportunity on earth to serve You! Thank you! Thank you that my time on earth is running short so that I can go to You! Thank you that "To live is Christ, to die is gain!". Thank you!"

Anyway, if anyone wants to borrow/get a copy, let me know. They're free and my mum can get her hands on more copies.

Current listening :: "Eyes On Me" - Faye Wong (from Final Fantasy VIII)

2003-07-29T16:38:00.000+10:00

Busy Bee

Sorry I haven't posted much lately. Work has just been really busy, with this project I'm supposed to complete by next week. (Er, dunno if that'll happen.) But I'm actually getting somewhere with it, which is good. I think I've managed to complete the main and most difficult part. So I'm giving myself a blogging break. :)

Anyway, the Snowy Mtns have just had yet ANOTHER dump starting today. Apparently they're getting some really nice dry white powder over there. Argh! I wish I were there! I've been religiously hooked on the ski.com.au forums, particularly the weather forum, checking out the weather predictions from amateur forecasters. Some of them are pretty good, The Frog in particular seems knowledgable. Its all such geeky stuff! I think I've actually gained a basic understanding of what Highs and Lows and barometric pressure (hPa) readings mean from reading their discussions. There are also a few live reports from people at the slopes who are nice enough to take the time to log on at an internet cafe and give us an update. This has become a yearly ritual, everytime the ski season starts. :)

Anyway, back to work.. or actually perhaps the gym. Gotta work up my fitness if I wanna hit the black runs more this year. :)

Can't wait to get me some of this....

Oh btw, looks like that Dunia_Arna girl who copied my website design has closed up shop. She finally replied my email, and it turns out that she wasn't the one responsible afterall. She said that since she doesn't know html or anything, she got her friend to set it up for her. Looks like he was the copycat. Anyway, she appologised many times for this whole thing, which was nice of her. :)

Current listening :: "She's got that vibe" - R Kelly & Public Announcement (old skool baybee yeh!)

2003-07-25T12:30:00.000+10:00

Merry Christmas!!

And the heavens have finally opened over the snowfields. Its dumping down snow right now... around 1/2 metre in the last 24 hrs, and still more to come! Hallelujah!! :D

(Pic from http://snowatch.snow.net.au)

Current listening :: Turn On The Bright Lights - Interpol (Gonna be seeing them at Metro on Aug 9.. with Bluebottle Kiss supporting. Woohoo!)

2003-07-25T00:43:00.000+10:00

Copycat and thief!

Ok, I just had a look in my webstats, and found an interesting number of referrals from manggung-online.blogspot.com and dunia_arma.blogspot.com to my site. So I go to check them out, and I find that manggung-online.blogspot.com is an almost exact duplicate of my site!! Even calling it the same name. And whats worse, they are using all my files, images, stylesheets.. everything! Not only a copycat, this 20 something year old girl from Indonesia is also a thief. Stealing my bandwidth, which I am paying for!!!!!! So, after being suitably outraged, I sent her the following email:

Hi,

I happened to look through my web stats and saw that you are using files from my website. In fact, you are copying my whole website design (http://kazzart.blogspot.com) for your websites http://manggung-online.blogspot.com and http://dunia_arma.blogspot.com. (Though I'm guessing the dunia_arma one has been changed recently.)

I am not sure if you are aware, but this means you are stealing from me. Not only my design and ideas, but also the files & images on my server, which costs me money to run. This is called "stealing bandwidth" and is generally not tolerated over the internet.

I will ask you nicely to please take down your site (or at least change it), and not use any of my material/ideas/files without my permission again.

Regards,
Kazzart

Though on another note, I suppose that imitation can be a form of flattery...

2003-07-24T16:42:00.000+10:00

More cuteness!

Argh, I just can't get enough of Coltrane! He's too cute! Last night, a girlfriend came over to hang out, we chilled out whilst listening to some girly cd's. Anyway, I think Coltrane was feeling affectionate, coz he jumped up onto her lap, then later slept on my lap while we sat in the lounge room. I took the opportunity to get my friend to take some good photos of him.

This'll be the last batch of photos of Coltrane for a while... I promise! :)

More procrastination :\

Yes, erm, I've been doing some more of that today. (But I have actually made a pretty good start on my project... I just got.. er.. sidetracked for a bit..)

I made myself some really cool girly compilation cds! :) Check out the playlist:

GIRLY FEEL-GOOD COMPILATION

Why Not - Hilary Duff
The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling) - Atomic Kitten
You Make Me Feel Like A Star - Beu Sisters
What Dreams Are Made Of - Hilary Duff
17 - Mandy Moore
Sometimes - Britney Spears
You Drive Me Crazy - Britney Spears
Born To Make You Happy - Britney Spears
Autumn Goodbye - Britney Spears
Anticipating - Britney Spears
Boys - Britney Spears
Dirrty - Christina Aguilera
Bootylicious - Destiny's Child
Do You Want My Love - CoCo Lee
Jenny From The Block - Jennifer Lopez
Loving You - Jennifer Lopez
Lets Get Loud - Jennifer Lopez
All For You - Janet Jackson
Someone To Call My Lover - Janet Jackson
Magic - Disco Montego Ft Katie Underwood

GIRLY GIRL COMPILATION

What Dreams Are Made Of - Paolo and Isabella (Lizzie Maguire)
Open Your Eyes (To Love) - LMNT
If You Believe - Rachel Lampa
Only Hope - Mandy Moore
I Wanna Be With You - Mandy Moore
Walk Me Home - Mandy Moore
Lock Me In Your Heart - Mandy Moore
Crush - Mandy Moore
Dear Diary - Britney Spears
Sweet Kisses - Jessica Simpson
Betcha She Don't Love You - Jessica Simpson
Before I Fall In Love - CoCo Lee
We Could Be In Love - Lea Salonga
I Believe In You And Me - Whitney Houston
At The Beginning - Richard Marx & Donna Lewis
Automatic - Utada Hikaru
Final Distance - Utada Hikaru
Eyes On Me - Faye Wong

GIRLY HEARTBREAK COMPILATION

Foolish - Ashanti
Emotion - Destiny's Child
To Fall In Love Again - Jessica Simpson
When You Told Me - Jessica Simpson
Quit Breaking My Heart - Mandy Moore
Someday We'll Know - Mandy Moore & Jonathan Foreman
First Love - Utada Hikaru
Silence - Jay Chou
Girl In The Mirror - Britney Spears
Lost Without You - Delta Goodrem
No You Didn't Say - Kandice Love
Out Of Reach - Gabrielle
Killin' Kind - Shelby Lynne
All By Myself - Jamie O'Neal
Impossible - Christina Aguilera
Underappreciated - Christina Aguilera
What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted - Joan Osbourne & The Funk Brothers

Tee hee. I love my girly girl music! :D I gotta say, compilations are hard to make. I found myself changing my mind so many times, trying to get the perfect collection of songs on one cd. That "Girly Heartbreak" compilation is particularly.. poignant... Most of them have some sort of personal meaning to me. :)

Current listening :: "Final Distance" - Utada Hikaru

2003-07-23T17:26:00.000+10:00

More Coltrane!

As requested.. more Coltrane pics! He's grown quite a bit in the past month or so.. from this - taken just a month and a half ago:

To now - a nearly "teen" kitty at 4 1/2 months!

*sigh* How they quickly they grow.

Anyways, I better be off soon. Gonna go to dance class tonight... first time in ages (again)!

(Argh darn it, the server's down, so you won't see the pics. You won't even see the proper layout/graphics/stylesheet for this blog. Grrrrrr. :\)

Current listening :: "Magic" - Disco Montego Ft Katie Underwood

2003-07-21T15:15:00.000+10:00

Professional procrastinator

I am so bad. I really should be working on this programming project now, but I find myself blog rolling, blogging, getting on cam, surfing... anything but doing the work I should be doing. Even worse, I should have started on this last week! Eep!! Bad Kazzart. :(

I usually tend to get like this when a task appears to be too big/difficult/unfamiliar. When I'm just about to start something, and I have no idea what I'm doing yet, that's when I try my utmost to avoid starting it. But once I start it, and I have an idea, a vision, of what I'm supposed to be doing, then its all good. Its just when I can't see the path ahead, I tend to get cold feet. So much for "I enjoy the challenge of tackling difficult tasks and always put a 100% effort into getting projects done". What a load of tripe. :P I wonder what would happen if everyone told the truth in their job interviews.

Having said that, I am now going to attempt to finish installing Visual Studio .NET so that I can actually get *started* on this project. :|

But before I do, a quick update on the weekend... My friend's 21st was good, and very close to my house. :) I didn't drive so I had 2 malibu & pineapples and a baileys & milk afterwards... I actually went red - the curse of being asian. Not as bad as my friend though. :P Saturday, I didn't end up going to the Fish Markets coz Andrew and I had an argument (actually, more he was upset with me about something - but we're ok now!) and instead spent the day with a girlfriend - swim/spa/steam/sauna-ing at Lane Cove leisure centre *ahh.. bliss*, then watching The Lizzy Maguire movie again (coz she hadn't seen it yet) and finally pigging out at Gourmet Pizza Kitchen. T'was a good girly day. :) On Sunday our youth group leaders meeting went for ages.. like, over 3 hours I think. Ok ok.. I'm gonna go do some work now.. really...

Current listening :: "Why Not" - Hilary Duff

2003-07-18T16:43:00.000+10:00

Quick update

Just a quick update coz I've got to rush off soon. Haven't been posting much lately coz work's been fairly busy, and I've also been working on a new design for this website! I'm going to be from Blogger to Movable Type (on my own hosting - kazzart.com) soon-ish.. well, as soon as I get my act together. And I'll hopefully have a new design to go with the move. Yay. :)

Am so glad its Friday (again!) - I've got a 21st tonight which should be good, and then tommorrow Andrew and I are going to the Sydney Fish Market for a nice seafood lunch on the wharf. :) Sunday will again be filled with church stuff - English service picnic, Glue leaders meeting, evening service. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Current listening :: "Beautiful Collision" - Bic Runga

2003-07-16T12:35:00.000+10:00

Fourth grade musings - "Privite - Keep Out - Or else"

Tuesday, 8th November, 1988
Every Tuesday Mr Denholim takes us for fittness. I go to the gym on Tuesdays too. Mrs Dupriez gave us this diary.

Wednesday, 9th November, 1988
I got in trouble by Mrs Dupriez. Had to move to a different seat.

Thursday, 10th November, 1988
Some boys in 3rd class were chasing my friends around with a dead grasshopper in their hand and they screamed and ran away and they chased after them. It was raining and we got wet then the bell rang and we went to class. I fell over but I wasn't hurt.

Friday, 11th November, 1988
Leanne was at the front to write who was good or bad and I was on the good side.

Monday, 14th November, 1988
On Saturday it was hot. Thought I was going swimming. Didn't. Went to clean townhouse in Marsfield. Thought it was boring. Went shopping bought ships, chicken wings and other stuff. Went home. Sunday. Went to church cam home. Had to go to town house again. Came home. Mum and Dad went to see the payvement for pool. We played computer and watched tv. Then mum and dad came home. Had chicken wings for dinner. Then watched Santa Claus THe Movie.

Thursday, 17th November, 1988
I was ignoring K.M because she was lying. She was jealous because I was always using the black pen. Today Dance 88 is going to be on. I don't have a clue what it's going to be like. I don't think I am Karen Martins friend because she shows off.

Friday, 18th November, 1988
I was in trouble by Mrs Dupriez. Had to move to a different seat.

Current listening :: "Crazy In Love" - Beyonce Ft Jay-Z

2003-07-15T18:25:00.000+10:00

I know Kung Fu!

You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You display a perfect fusion of heroism and compassion.

What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

2003-07-15T11:31:00.000+10:00

Busy Bee

Ack. I've been so busy the past few days, I haven't had any time to update at all. What have I been up to? Lets start from Thursday.

Thursday night - we (me, Andrew, Aaron and Cerise) went to the Hillsong conference night rally, held at the Sydney Superdome. T'was very interesting. Some parts were incredible.. the sheer number of people that came (packing out the Superdome to the point of overflow), and just the hugeness of the event - its professionalism, organisation, and of course the cha-ching ($$$)! There was even a band (a pretty good funk band called the Jive Express) entertaining the line outside while we waited to get it. It was all pretty spectacular. We didn't arrive 2-3 hours early, so we ended up sitting near the top, almost behind the stage. But it gave us a good view of the crowd.. and that was pretty cool. There were so many ppl, it made me giddy just looking down at them. I forgot to bring my camera (which they didn't allow anyway).. but it woulda been cool to show you a pic of the crowd. Of course, the music was pretty good - like everything else in the event, it was huge. They really go all out with everything. Everyone was enthusiastically jumping up and down, particularly the youth on the floor area. There was lots, and lots and lots of music. However.. the short sermon we heard (just an offertory sermon.. there wasn't a normal one coz that night was some live album recording with this band from the UK called Delirious) was quite a shocker. Brian Houston, the senior pastor at Hills CLC, gave the talk, and errr.. it was kinda heretical! He was trying to encourage us to invest our money in a good cause (ie. Hillsong).. this wasn't the heretical part... it was the passage he used to teach this - Mark 4 - the parable of the sower. The application was that we were to "sow" (invest) our "seed" (money) in the "good soil" (Hillsong). HRMMMMMMM...... *thump* (the sound of my eyebrows hitting the roof) Not only that, Jesus actually explains what he means by that parable just a few verses down.. but I guess Brian Houston didn't read that far.
Friday night - was Cerisie's 20th birthday. (Happy Birthday Cerise!) We went out to pancakes for supper, and were gonna go to karaoke or clubbing or something, but ended up going back to Cerise's place coz I think some people didn't wanna go karaoke etc.
Saturday - we had our youth group social, which involved some games, lunch, and watching the Spirited Away dvd on a projector. That night, we went out for Dan's 18th birthday - a "classy" affair at the Burwood RSL. Ahem. :P Afterwards, we intended on going clubbing at Minc, but ended up at The Republic Hotel, at Ben, Andre and Kev's birthday bash/free dance party. (Can't get better than free!) Happy Birthday guys! I had such a good time there, and saw soooo many people I hadn't seen in yonks! Heaps of my old uni friends, and a fair few school friends were there. It was cool. The music was really good.. their friend, DJ MC played some pretty good stuff. I liked the old school and the party anthems. :) Ooh, and I found an alcoholic drink I actually like - Malibu Pineapple! Its so yum! :) Ended up getting home at about 4am that night.
Sunday - unfortunately, I had a 10:45am Glue/SYG leaders meeting, which I was about 40 mins late for (my bad!). Then we went to lunch, and afterwards had music practice, and then evening service. I was totally buggered by then. I'm suprised I'm not sick now!

So yes, that was my very busy weekend. I had a good time though, and I think I've just about recovered.

Oh, I bought a jumper this morning. A really pretty pink one! I've had my eye on it for a while, and I decided to have a look today, and Lo and Behold! it was on sale - $20! Happy am I. :D

Current listening :: "Better than life" - Hillsong (Err.. yeh I gave in and bought some Hillsong albums.. "Hope" and "Blessed".. I'm such a closet Hillsong music fan. *hangs head in shame* I actually really like this song though.. its so cool.. pity about the words in the chorus..)

2003-07-11T15:16:00.000+10:00

Friday boredom

EVERYTHING : You belong in a small percentage of Asian females who are an all-round-little-bit-of-everything group. You don't have an accent, but you can speak your own language a little too. You shop at many stores including Forever 21, Rave, and Abercrombie. You own several pairs of platforms and those cute neon colored thongs. Stop being indecisive.
What Asian Girl Are You?

Indecisive? Well pfft to you....! :P

I'm sooo bored today. I just want the day to end so it can be the weekend.... ugh. Only about 2 hrs more, thank goodness! Work is starting to become really really tedious.

I've got a pretty busy weekend coming up - tonight I'm going to Pancakes at the Rocks and then Karaoke at KMix for a friend's birthday. Tomorrow I've got the Glue social (my youth group) and then at night I *might* go clubbing at Minc, if I'm up for it. Sunday we have a Glue/SYG leaders get-together, then music practice, then church.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great weekend! :) (Note: If you check yesterday's post, I've put 2 photos up from the Ultra Suite gig on Tues night.)

Current listening :: "Time To Party" - Craig David ("All friday, time to party, let me see you swing and sway, tell me are you with me, are you with me" :P)

2003-07-09T16:36:00.000+10:00

Double wow

Last night Andrew and I went to see Ultra Suite at the Hopetoun Hotel (you know, the band my friend Leo plays the bass in :)). It was pretty good. :) I was chatting to Leo before they played, and he told me they had a small article about them in the current edition of Drum Media (pg 26, under "Almost Famous") - and that they used the photo I took in the article. How cool is that? My picture is in Drum Media! Wow... :) He also pointed out the ad for their gig on the wall at the Hopetoun Hotel, and said that was my pic too. Double wow! :D

I took a couple of photos last night at the gig too, but I forgot to bring the camera to work today. Will try upload em tomm.

Anyways.. not feeling too good at the moment. I was gonna go to dance class tonight, but I changed my mind. Take a wild guess. :\ So I'm gonna go out with Andrew and his old "strathfield" friends (from his highschool years) to watch Charlies Angel 2 (again).

[Updated: Fri 11 July]

Current listening :: The Lizzy Maguire Soundtrack

2003-07-07T16:06:00.000+10:00

Sop alert

I really like the song "You Make Me Feel Like A Star" - The Beu Sisters, from the Lizzy Maguire movie soundtrack. Yep, I ended up watching it on Thurs night instead of going to jazz fusion (heh) - and by myself too coz I couldn't find anyone to come with me (which I don't mind, its fun watching movies alone.. I used to do it heaps in high school! Or maybe that was just coz I was a nigel... :P).

Anyway, I really liked it!! Esp the ending. And Hilary Duff is sooo pretty! Hahah... I'm such a teeny bopper girly girl! *hangs head in shame* Ah well. I also watched Charlie's Angel 2 on Sat night. I thought it was ok... I think I preferred the first one actually. The storyline in this one didn't quite flow at times.. or maybe it was the screenplay that was badly done. Anyway, things didn't quite make sense.. and I think that was a result of bad.. something. I dunno much about movie making, but something wasn't right. Otherwise, I still enjoyed it. Action-packed fun and fluff.. (and totally un-believable action at that! :P)

So back to this song I really like... its so sweet and soppy and girly. :)

Never gonna be in movies
Except in a front row seat
Never gonna be the raving beauty
My momma thought I'd be
Never gonna write that novel
Never be a homecoming queen
Never gonna be a supermodel
On the cover of a magazine

But all those things don't matter in the light of things to come
'coz baby you are my moon and I am your sun, oh!

You make me feel like a star, oh baby
You say Stay, baby stay
Just the way you are
And tell me "Girl, you're fine
And you will shine
Forever in my heart"
That's why you, yeah you
You make me feel like a star

Maybe I ain't the girl next door
Who waves at you and smiles
Maybe I'm not a party girl
But don't I drive you wild
Baby, the way you see me
Is the way that it should be
Feelin' like I'm something special
Seven days a week

And the only thing that matters when the day is done
Is that you are my moon, and I am your sun, oh!

You make me feel like a star, oh baby
You say stay, baby stay
Just the way you are
And tell me "Girl, you're fine
And you will shine
Forever in my heart"
That's why you, yeah you
You make me feel like
Everyday's my birthday
Every night's a dream
Oh, and when you kiss me
I melt just like ice cream

Never gonna be a Charlie's Angel
Never gonna be a saint
But you love me for all I am
And everything I ain't, oh!

You make me feel like a star, oh baby
You say stay, baby stay
Just the way you are
And tell me girl, you're fine
And you will shine
Forever in my heart
That's why you, yeah you
You make me feel like a star

*sigh*

I didn't do much this weekend. Me and Andrew had all this stuff planned (going shopping, to a friend's 21st, to the fish markets for a nice lunch on the wharf.. lots of quality time stuff) but we didn't do any of it coz he was really sick. :( I think he had food poisoning, or a bacterial bug or something... he had a high fever (39C) on Sat night, and lots of stomach pains and diarrhea. Poor guy. So I spent most of the weekend taking care of him. (Awww..) :)

[Updated: 4:30pm]
I did take some nice photos of the sunset whilst at Andrew's place on Saturday. His room & balcony have such a niiiice view of the sunset. :)

Current listening :: "You Make Me Feel Like A Star" - The Beu Sisters (The Lizzy Maguire Movie OST)

2003-07-03T15:11:00.000+10:00

Kitty antics

I've finally uploaded some video's of my kitty, Coltrane. They're in the Downloads section. There are two - the first one taken when he was about 2 months, and the second one about 3 months. He's so cute! :)

Is it just me or is this day going by real slow.. *sigh* Trying to decide what to do tonight... go see Lizzy McGuire... or go to my jazz fusion class.. hmm.. I feel like a night off.. but then, I'd be skipping jazz fusion.. hmm..

Current listening :: "Crazy In Love" - Beyonce

2003-07-02T11:31:00.000+10:00

Roll call

EVERYONE PLEASE READ!!

Now that I have your attention. This follows on from yesterdays musings, and is also something I've been wanting to do for a while... Could everyone who reads my blog please comment on this post. Its time for all you lurkers to come out into the open! :P Strangers and newcomers, please, introduce yourselves! Friends who know me in real life... definitely would appreciate it if you made yourselves known! And the regulars, please comment too! :)

Ok, let the roll call begin. :P

Btw, I'm "live on cam" at the moment.. hahah... haven't done so for a while and kinda missed the novelty of it. :)

Current listening :: "Don't know why" - Norah Jones (found the chords to this on the net.. yay.. gonna try playing it sometime)

2003-07-01T18:50:00.000+10:00

Free haircut!

I just got a free haircut today! Woohoo! I was walking down Hunter St, and as I walked past a hair salon called Wink, next to the Hunter Bar, a girl standing at the doorway came out and asked me if I wanted to be a hair model for her.. basically, she'd be giving me a free haircut, in whatever style I wanted. Cool! Can't turn down a freebie! :) The hairdresser said she just finished her apprenticeship. I guess she was supposed to practice on people or something. She did a pretty good job. Though, I would've prefered a bit more layering/feathering around the back to give it more of a jagged edge, less straight.. but oh well, it was free! :) No more split ends for the moment.. yay!

Anyway, I'm off to the gym. Been feeling so lethargic coz I've been exercising less - so lazy!

2003-07-01T12:31:00.000+10:00

Paradox

Hm, I just read an interesting post on Larissa's blog that was almost exactly what I had been pondering this morning, except sorta opposite. She was commenting about how she was less open in her blog entries because of the many random and unknown visitors on her site "I don't know who I'm opening up to anymore."

My thoughts were similar - I was also musing (again) about how I don't really post my personal thoughts/feelings anymore. Except my reasons were the opposite of hers. I wasn't writing really personal stuff because people I know, whom I am friends with in real life, read this blog regularly. Interestingly, I don't mind unknown people reading my blog, or even people I know & meet through the blogging community. But I'd feel uncomfortable with people who know me IRL reading personal things, so I hold back and restrict what I write.

(Can I just say that this is NOT a request, nor a subtle hint, for those people to stop reading my blog. I don't have anything against you guys reading this!! I'm sure I will work out a solution to this. Or maybe I won't. Maybe its the bloggers paradox.)

A while ago, I started a private and anonymous blog to let those troubling thoughts out, then eventually I couldn't be bothered posting anymore. A few months ago I started a paper/pen journal to write those things that were just too personal to share with people. I feel a little sad that we have to be so.. closed.. about certain things. Its like I'm putting up a front, an act, for people. I dunno. Hm, this is becoming similar to what I was writing in my journal this morning. Maybe this is too personal. I don't like it that I'm now hesitating to publish this post. I'll probably just post it anyway.

Lately I've been feeling.. sorta lost.. directionless. I dunno. Sometimes I feel like I'm tired of this life. Sometimes I wish I were younger again, with that youthful energy, experiencing things for the first time.

"Everybody knows, it sucks to grow up"

I wonder.. is there such a thing as a mid-20's "crisis"? A time of stagnation, of searching, of necessary change. (Hm, wouldn't mind doing some reading on this stuff. I always found psychology interesting.)

Anyway, enough introspection for one day. Boredom at work is not a good thing.

[Updated: 12:45pm]
Am flying through the Harry Potter series again. After finishing "Order Of the Phoenix" in a day and a half, I needed more! So, a week ago, I decided to read from the beginning again. I'm now up to book four "The Goblet of Fire". How I love reading. :)

Current listening :: "What you see" - Britney Spears (Hehe kinda appropriate.. "What you see, is what you get. This is me, hey you, if you want me don't forget!")

2003-06-30T17:48:00.000+10:00

"The bride cuts the cake, the bride cuts the cake..."

On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a friend's (Don Yee) wedding to his American fiancee (yep a long distance relationship that actually worked), Vivian. Luckily for them, it was an absolutely beautiful day, blue skies and sunshine.

It was also a pretty tiring day for me, as our band (Jonny Panic) was playing at the wedding and the reception. It was a pretty good gig. We were a bit late setting up at the reception, but once we started playing, everyone seemed to be quite impressed with us (which was nice). We were quite suprised actually, to be recieving so many compliments. I mean, we did alright, but it certainly wasn't our best attempts at playing, and we had many drama's with guitar tuning and our mixer overheating & blowing a fuse. :\ The setlist went something like:

"Moon Dance" - Van Morrison
"Have I Told You Lately" - Van Morrison
(break to eat the entree)
"Blue Bossa" (jazz standard)
"Close To You" - Burt Bacharach
(break to eat the now-cold mains + speeches)
"Now and Forever" - Richard Marx
"Cute" (jazz standard)
(break to eat dessert + more speeches)
"The Cake Cutting Song" (while they were cutting the wedding cake.. heheh)
"Rearrange" - Tim Woo

Hm. Thats not exactly right, but I can't remember... anyone who remembers better, feel free to correct me!! Below is a shot of Jonny Panic, and also one of me and Andrew, after the reception.

Anyway, I've put up the above pics (and more) from the wedding in my gallery under "Friends". Go check em out!

Oh, I guess I should mention a "highlight" of the reception was that I "caught" the bouquet (note the inverted commas) - to much laughter and cheering and congratulating of Andrew. (And I didn't even go for it.) How embarrassment. :o

Current listening :: "My Funny Valentine" - Miles Davis

2003-06-25T17:15:00.000+10:00

Photoblog entry

This post is probably more of a photoblog than blog. I'd been having lots of fun with my parent's digital camera over the last few months, taking pictures everywhere I go, alot of which I never get around to posting. So I thought I'd post some now. Enjoy. :)

Note: this post is probably easier to read when expanded. You can use the nav on the left to swap between layouts. It'll remember what you choose the next time you visit this page too!

Lets start with some more photos of my kitten, Coltrane. I took these one morning last week when I let him come into my room while I was getting ready for work. I don't think he'd ever seen himself in a floor length mirror before.... it was funny watching him trying to attack his reflection. :)


He always finds a patch of sun to lie in. So cute!

This was taken one sunny morning a week or 2 ago, as I was leaving home to go to work. It looked so pretty I decided to take a photo (from my driveway, looking down the street).

In April this year, I was driving down Silverwater Rd to church in the late afternoon (on the way to Kyckstart actually), and as I crossed a bridge, the view of the sky was so absolutely breathtaking that I just had to take a photo (erm.. while I was driving yeh.. but I did slow right down, and used the viewfinder on the digital camera, also relying on luck to get me a good shot! :P)

As you may have guessed, I like to go wandering around the city sometimes with my digital camera. For some reason I find the city quite beautiful at times. This first was taken at some alleyway next to the MLC Centre. The second one is another Martin Place shot.

The last two here are of Pitt Street mall, at the beginning of the lunch hour (its wasn't too crowded yet).

Anyway, hope you've enjoyed this photoblog entry. (Sorry if the page took too long to load!) I'd best be off to the gym. Its almost 6pm now!

Current listening :: "Rock your body" - Justin Timberlake (Ugh no, I've succumbed.. I actually like a Justin Timberlake song! Only this one though.)

2003-06-24T12:22:00.000+10:00

Belated Friday Five - Hair edition (ooh girly post!)

1. Is your hair naturally curly, wavy, or straight? Long or short?

Naturally straight, but not dead straight.. got a very slight wave to it. Its long of course. :)

2. How has your hair changed over your lifetime?

Hm. Not much until my later years. I have only ever cut it short ONCE (short = above shoulders / bob) when I was in kindy.. and boy did I regret it. I was so embarrassed at school - I think I cried. From then on, I never cut my hair short again. Over primary and high school, I grew it really long (the longest it got was to my lower back). Then in uni I discovered layers and colour - red streaks or brown streaks were my fave. It was still longish (shortest I have gone is just below the shoulders). Then upon entering the workforce, I discovered the asian "magic permanent straightening" technique - and have done it three times in the last three years, coupled with red or brown streaks every so often, and a slightly feathered, layered cut (which every honky hairdresser cannot seem to resist giving). My latest cut was at a non-asian place (was getting sick of feathered cuts), and has long layers now, more choppy than feathered.

Btw if you guys have no idea what I'm talking about, what "layered" means, and if the word "feathered" conjures up images brightly coloured feather boas, then here's a pic of my (straightened) hair with long layers & slight feathering!

3. How do your normally wear your hair?

Out and long. I never tie my hair up, unless I'm at dance class, when I'll have my hair in a pony tail.

4. If you could change your hair this minute, what would it look like?

Well, I'm due for another hair cut soon. I think I'll go to a korean place this time, and get a better shaping, with a few more long layers. I've also been itching to get my hair coloured/streaked again... this time a bolder light brown I think (too chicken to go blonde).

5. Ever had a hair disaster? What happened?

Erm. Aside from when I was in kindy with the bowl bob cut (and the boys in my class laughed at me :\) - one time after going to a honky hairdresser, I asked for a shorter cut (but still below shoulders). What I got was this really honky, really layered/feathered look - with short layers.. so some parts of my hair were only to my ears in length! I was so distressed I called a friend afterwards (Vron, u may remember this :P) and babbled about going to another hairdresser to get it fixed! (Which I didn't in the end.)

Expecto Patronum!

I finished Harry Potter - Order Of The Phoenix last night. *sniff* I'll try not to spoil the book for those who haven't read it yet. I'll only say this.. I felt kinda depressed afterwards :( (white text for your benefit.. highlight it if you want to read.. not a spoiler, only saying how I felt at the end of the book). Anyway..... it only took me a day and a half to read the whole book! :D

Current listening :: "Sakura Drops" - Utada Hikaru

2003-06-23T17:17:00.000+10:00

Bookworm

I've been reading the latest Harry Potter practically non stop since last night. Ugh.... Can't. Stop. Reading. It. So. Addictive. I'm actually close to finishing the book now. *sheepish grin* I bought it at GB's just before it closed on Sat, 5:30pm (only $25.85 coz I had a Coles Myers card!) and only got a brief read on Sat night. I was busy all day Sunday because Jonny Panic (our band consisting of me, Andrew, Tim and most recently Sam) were recording a cover of Coldplay's "Clocks" (instrumental only) for a friend's video. It was fun, and kinda hard coz each part had to be absolutely perfect (we tried to record one track at a time, ie each instrument individually - but ended up recording piano and bass together coz of rhythm issues). T'was cool coz we recorded at Tim's place - it was all set up with wires running everywhere. Will post a photo soon!

Anyways, I gotta dash now.

Current listening :: "Touching heaven, changing earth" - Hillsong (*cough*... erm... yeh I like listening to hillsong music sometimes :P)

2003-06-20T18:24:00.000+10:00

Fusion last night

My jazz fusion class at the Con last went well... suprisingly! See, I was considering not going to class. I've been feeling a bit discouraged the last few weeks. I felt that the class was just getting too hard, so why bother?

But I'm glad I went! It was the best I'd played this term. Funny how it works.. coz I hadn't managed a practice this whole week, and then I have a class like that. I think my attitude and mindset had something to do with it. I'd been pretty stressed out and negative about my ability to play this stuff over the past few weeks. Then I just got tired of it, and decided I didn't really care if I stuffed up.

Of course I still cared about playing well, but I wasn't trying to get it so right.. I wasn't so afraid of making a mistake. And it made a difference. I mean I still spent a lot of the time fumbling around trying to find the rhythm and chords, but there were moments that I got it.. that I was there.. that my solo flowed, and was sitting nicely within the rhythm (syncapated even). I think the shift in attitude made a difference. Being afraid of stuffing up made me play timidly, which is not good for soloing!

Current listening :: "Motet" - Yellowjackets

2003-06-18T16:10:00.000+10:00

CUTE!!

Omg... check out this pic! How huuuuge is that dog! He's soooo cute!! :D

Darn it... my chances of going skiing this year are not looking good. There are no more spots in my friend's ski trips, and not enough people can make the one I'm trying to organise. *sigh* :\ Bah.. maybe I should just go by myself with one of those organised ski trip groups.

2003-06-17T17:42:00.000+10:00

Hooked on the white stuff ;)

I wanna go skiing this year! Wah! Was trying to organise a group to go, but people are being flaky and unavailable. :( I sooo wanna go skiing... anyone in a group already going that I can join up with?

I've been back at the perisherblue.com.au and ski.com.au websites, checking the snow conditions and forums for the latest forecasts etc. The snowcams shots look so nice. *sigh* Skiing is just irresistable.

On another note, I went shopping during my lunch break today. Hee. I bought myself a new white angora jumper (on sale), napolean navy & silver eyeshadow and sand beige sparkle dust (I'd been itching to buy this stuff since that napolean class coz these were the exact colours he used on the model), and some L'Oreal Hydrafresh face moisturiser and eye cream. (See pics below!)

Current listening :: "Feel Good Time" - Pink (can't wait till Charlies Angels : Full Throttle comes out!!! :D)

2003-06-13T00:19:00.000+10:00

Kitty TV

Coltrane likes watching tv. Hehe. Its so cute! He goes right up to the tv screen and sits there looking up at the tv, entranced. He likes sport the most I think (typical male!) - and even tries to swat at the ball in the tv screen. Tee hee. It was so cute, I had to take some pics.

2003-06-12T11:59:00.000+10:00

Counting the hours

Woah. Looks like I've been ported across to the new version of blogger. Its pretty nice. :)

Anyway, today is the last day of my training course. (Woohoo!) I'm definitely gonna be taking tomorrow off. I *need* to rest up at home and get better! Its been pretty bad enduring a full day of training whilst very sick. Talk about bad timing. Anyway, it'll be nice to spend time at home tomorrow. Maybe I'll watch one of my 4 new dvd's that I haven't had time to watch yet (with Coltrane on my lap of course)!

Hm. Is it lunch time yet? *sigh* Only 5 hours to go before this is over...

Current listening :: Ok Computer - Radiohead (this is during the lab work practice time of course)

2003-06-10T15:04:00.000+10:00

Suffer

Hello from Aspect Education Services! I'm sitting here in my "Upgrading Web Development Skills from ASP to Microsoft ASP.NET" training course (having afternoon tea break of course). We actually have web access from our computers in class which is pretty cool! Training has been alright... am learning all about Visual Studio .NET, and the new functionality of ASP.Net. Woohoo. :\ It would be a bit more interesting I suppose if I weren't really sick at the moment. :( I managed to catch myself a cold on Sunday night at SuperJamm. Grr. Blocked runny nose, stuffed head, blocked ears, headaches, sore throat, unstoppable coughing, phlegm.... Gah.

Codral is my friend. Anticol too.

I keep dozing off at regular intervals for some reason. I'll be listening to our teacher, watching the screen, then suddenly I'll hear a soft snore coming from my mouth.. and realise I'd fallen asleep for a split second.

2003-06-06T17:03:00.000+10:00

Finally Friday

Its long weekend time! Woohoo! Not that I'm gonna be able to get much rest this coming weekend. Not with youth group (Glue) tonight, Rice Fate event tomorrow, morning service & sunday school (we have to "present" ourselves to morning service & SS this sunday) then music practice & evening service on Sunday, clubbing Sunday night... phew. Only on Monday will I be able to finally spend some quality time with Andrew and just relax. My life is waay too busy. I need a holiday.

One thing I'm definitely looking forward to though, is SuperJamm VII on Sunday night. Yay! At last I'm gonna get my clubbing fix. Heheh.

Anyways, almost time to head home.. or rather, to youth group. Next week I'm gonna be at an ASP.Net training course... so yeh, things are gonna be a bit quiet on the blogging front over the next week. But I'll try update whenever I can. See ya's, and have a great long weekend! :)

2003-06-05T17:43:00.000+10:00

Updates + stuff

I've updated my photo gallery. I've finally ported it all across to my new hosting, and have organised the albums into categories - friends, gigs and performances. I've also created a new "miscellaneous" album under "friends" - and put in various amusing photos I've taken of friends over the past month or so. This will be an archive of memorable photos of friends. :)

Jazz Fusion class tonight! Yay! Or should I shudder with dread? Hehe, nah just kidding. I practiced last night, for about an hour, which was good. Its still frustrating though. Trying to impro on the off-beat. Argh. Makes me wanna tear out my hair. I can do it slow... but when the speed picks up.. nup. Its all over. Sorry I'll stop ranting about this... soon... when I can do it (which'll be in 10 years time at my rate!) :P Anyway, I hope my practice paid off and that tonight's class will be better.

Well I'm staaarving.. I didn't really eat the lunch my mum packed me (last nights leftovers as usual) today coz it was kinda yuck. I think I'll go buy myself some early dinner, to tide me over till after class. Hm... do I want Boston Market 1/4 chicken meal, or Japanese udon noodle soup... hmm..

Current listening :: "Baby I" - Tenderoni (from "Soul Food" OST - my gosh.. listening to this song.. reminds me so intensely of uni days, its like a physical blow to my body.... it all seems like another persons lifetime.. I kinda miss it.. hm, maybe I'll blog about it later..)

2003-06-03T12:00:00.000+10:00

Sap

I'm feeling so happy at the moment. And its all because I've just finished reading this young adult romance series (which will go unnamed so I don't totally embarrass myself). It had such a wonderfully happy & romantic ending. *swoons* Hehe.. I'm such a sap. :P

But I love girly schtuff. Romantic movies and books... girly singers (eg Mandy Moore).. doing make-up.. getting facials.. having girly nights cooking scrumptious dinners and desserts... dancing... girl heart-to-heart talks. It rocks being a girl! :) And I'm sure there are many girls out there who agree wholeheartedly - right Vron? ;)

Not so sappy

If you're a Radiohead fan, Triple J are currently playing the entire new album "Hail To The Thief". ~~You can listen online here, right now!~~

Current listening :: Mandy Moore/Britney Spears/Jessica Simpson/Christina Aguilera playlist shuffle - and proud of it!

2003-06-02T16:49:00.000+10:00

Weekend

Had a rather tiring weekend. Saturday was the RICE Fete - thank God we had a beautiful sunny day for it. It was a great success with about 430 highschool kids turning up. Our SaltLight gig there went fairly well, considering the (miniscule) amount of practice we'd had. From all reports, we sounded pretty good. It was fun, and the set up we had was... absolutely awesome. We had a real stage, foldback amps, mixer desk, sound crew.... basically thousands of dollars worth of equipment for us to use. *sigh* Well, we'll never get that again! Here's a piccy for ya's. (From the left, me, Andrew, Sam and Tim - thanks to Ajamedor for the pic.)

Last night I took short nap on the couch... and guess who was happily snoozing on my tummy... :) Coltrane is so cute! :D

Oh, my Emma dvd arrived (from ChaosDVD) on Friday! Yay! Am looking forward to watching it with Coltrane. Heh.

Anyway, I really should head off to the gym now before its too late. I've given myself the goal of going to the gym every day of this week! Mon to Fri. :)

Current listening :: I Wanna Be With You - Mandy Moore

2003-05-30T15:04:00.000+10:00

Pain

Ugh. Can't. Walk.

That inner thigh muscle that I almost pulled is now complaining rather loudly to me. I must look like I have a peg leg, lurching along as I walk (because I don't want to use that particular muscle).

Jazz Fusion revisited

I now remember why I nearly dropped Jazz Fusion last year. Last night was painful... really painful. Why does this stuff have to be so darned hard!?!? The class started off fairly well with the standard warm-up technical exercises - scales in all keys at an absurdly fast pace, various five finger exercises in all keys (at medium, fast, and ultra-fast pace), and also mixolydian, whole-tone and altered scales in various keys. And finally improvising round II-V-I progressions in every key, using first triplets, then quadruplets.

We played two jazz fusion pieces by the YellowJackets - "Wisdom" and "Les Is Mo". I only had to impro in "Wisdom" (which was a piece with a 2/2 loose swing feel) - and I totally choked. I just couldn't get into the rhythm of the piece.. it was too fast! And the teacher wanted me to emphasize the off-beat too? I couldn't even find the on beat! :(

This is something thats always been really challenging for me. Rhythm. Like, I'm alright at it (for an asian)... but that really funky, off-beat, syncapated rhythm just doesn't come naturally to me! I can keep in rhythm with a band, and feel a swing or bossa beat fairly well, but when it comes to pushing the boundaries of "being in time" by emphasising off-beats, and pushing and pulling at the time... well, I've got a loooong way to go. And thats not the end of my troubles either... "Les Is Mo" had some incredibly difficult and complex jazz chords, with a "Funky Gospel 1/4 Note Sidestick" rhythm to boot. Ugh!! You try playing this chord progression (to that fast, syncapated timing):

Em7 Db7(#9) Ebm9/Bb Ab13(b9)/A Ab13 G13(#11) Gbmaj7 Cm11/F

The depressing thing is, the other people in my class are really quite good (except the bass player, thank goodness for him!) We have a drummer, bass player, two guitarists, trumpet player, me on keyboard and my teacher on the baby grand. The guitarists and the trumpet player are really good. I'm playing with some very talented musicians - people who can probably almost make a living from playing music. Our drummer for example, has never played jazz before, and this is his first class at the Con (he moved up from Melbourne recently). But he played in a rock cover band for a few years, doing gigs around the place, and really, he's pretty good... good enough to make half a living out of playing the drums anyway! One thing that was kinda cool - he mentioned that he's looking to perhaps set up a jazz band here in Sydney, and asked if I was interested. Sounds cool huh! But I'm also thinking, I dunno if I'd be good enough.... I wouldn't wanna hold the band up because I can't play stuff. Hm. Still... see how things go. Thats one thing I wanted to start getting out of these classes at the Con - meeting other muso's who would wanna jam and stuff! How cool would that be! :D Looks like I've got a lot of practicing to do - and lots of motivation to do it! :P

Oh, if you wanna hear what sort of music we're playing in our class, you can listen to snippets of the YellowJackets live album "Mint Jam" on their website. Or, you can download an mp3 snippet of "Les Is Mo" in my downloads section.

Current listening :: Kind Of Blue - Miles Davis

2003-05-29T14:06:00.000+10:00

Ouchie

Dance class last night was awesome! I'm glad I went. The main routine was soo cool... though very ouchie! It had lots of floor work (which equals lots of bruises on my knees :\). It was also really fast - I almost did my left knee in, and almost pulled/cramped my right inner thigh muscle trying to get my body to do those moves up to speed! Turning, kicking, sliding on the floor... constantly getting up and down on the floor at high speeds is kinda painful! But I didn't hurt myself (permanently anyway) so its all good. :) After two months of not dancing, I was expecting my ability/condition to be worse, but I was actually ok! I managed to master the lyrical and main routine. Yay! :)

Now I just have to let my poor body recover... am sore all over.. my arms, thighs, calves, back, butt... ugh.

Anyway, tonight I start term 2 at the Con - doing a Jazz Fusion class. Should be good.. am looking forward to it! :)

Kitty news

Coltrane is doing very well, settling in quite nicely at home. He very quickly won over my parents and brother. Hehe. My dad spoils him shamelessly now! And he's been allowed to roam around the house when someone is home (though not allowed upstairs, or in certain rooms). He's been a bit naughty at times - whenever we put food on the table (eg for dinner), he'll be straight to the kitchen miaowing piteously. But the worst thing is, he actually jumps onto the kitchen table when nobody is looking, and has eaten out of my brother's unguarded bowl before! Naughty Coltrane! How do I train him to not do that.. just keep using the water spray? Now we lock him in his room whenever we're eating, coz otherwise he won't leave us alone.. always jumping on our laps!

But still, he's adorable. I always pick him up and cuddle him when I get home, and just walk around the house cradling him. :) Last night I took a few more pics of him (he's getting bigger). He looks especially cute lying on my lap, purring away! :D

Current listening :: "If you believe" - Rachel Lampa

2003-05-28T16:52:00.000+10:00

Indecisive

Hm. In typical Kazzart-indecisiveness, I can't decide whether to go to dance class tonight, or just gym and go home to watch my newly purchased DVD's. Speaking of which, I bought 2 new dvd's from HMV yesterday! Two for $50 sales rock! I bought X-Men 1.5 and Spiderman collectors edition. Not a bad bargain considering they were originally $39.95 and $45.95!! :D

So back to my dilemma. To dance or not to dance. Hm. I haven't been for soooo long. Nearly 2 months I think! I've always been either busy with something, or just way too tired. Finally I'm not busy tonight... but whether I'm too tired... hmm... I am tired.. but thats not really the question. Its more "Can I drag my lazy arse to two hours of intense jazz dance class when I just feel like veging in front of the telly and/or sleeping?" Hm.

I think I will go to dance class. Yes. Stop being lazy and go dance! ... Indeed.

This post has been brought to you by Kazzart's Inner Monologue ®.

2003-05-26T13:37:00.000+10:00

eBay-ed

I just purchased (on ebay) a brand new, still sealed copy of "Sweet Home Alabama" on DVD. Yay! :) I've not eBay-ed for anything since I bought my logitech webcam/digicam. I'd been looking for this DVD in Australia for ages, and couldn't find it anywhere! I don't think its even released here yet (though you can hire it at Video Ezy?) Anyway, I finally resorted to eBay, and bought it from the US for only $15.50 (AU). Not bad eh. :) Now I can eagerly await the arrival of my purchase.

I've been doing a fair amount of online shopping lately. A week or so ago, I bought 2 books from Barnes & Noble online (much cheaper than amazon!!) And I will soon be making another purchase on ChaosDVD.com (Xmen 1.5 on sale!!) Hmm... no more online shopping after this, I promise!

On another note.. I think I'm in need of another clubbing fix. And soon. But where to go...? Anyone know which R&B clubs are good now? Or better yet, anyone know of any R&B events on over the June long weekend?

Current listening :: "Leaving (Always on time pt 2)" - Ashanti

2003-05-22T16:27:00.000+10:00

Photos

Recognise these boys? (Hint: A Current Affair last Friday night. Hee.)

How about this handsome young man here. ;)

Those pics were taken at the Matrix Reloaded midnight session. (Which totally rawked by the way! We were on tv! :D If you haven't seen Matrix Reloaded yet... what are you waiting for?? :P)

Also, here are 2 pics I took at the Annandale Hotel, where my friend, Leo's, gig was about a week ago - he's in a band called Ultra Suite. They were pretty good! Look out for their debut album "Confess It All" later this year! Oh, and I saw Jamie, lead singer from Bluebottle Kiss at the gig.. (coz he's friends with the John, lead guy in Ultra Suite who used to play with Bluebottle Kiss).. that was kinda cool.

2003-05-22T12:02:00.000+10:00

More piano!

I've just signed myself up for another term at the Conservatorium of Music's Jazz Outreach Program . Last term I did jazz performance groups (playing typical jazz standards in a small band), which was good and quite helpful, but I felt it wasn't pushing me enough. It was good for ear training, coz our teacher did heaps of that (playing us a wierd jazz chord and making us tell him exactly what sort of chord it was (eg minor 7 #9 b5), but not so much on the practical side of playing scales and modes, pushing at our technical fluency. I mean it was still practical and helped me solidify my improvisation and comping, but I guess I wanted something a bit more challenging (esp since our bass player wasn't very.. erm.. good.. and we had to stop and hold his hand through a lot of fairly basic things).

So this term I'll be doing jazz fusion again (I did this class about a year ago). And though I found the class *really* challenging, and at times incredibly frustrating (coz I just couldn't do it!) - it really pushed me and improved my playing ability. Nick (our teacher) made us do really fast scales, modes, and technical finger exercises in all 12 keys every week! I just hope I have improved since a year ago... even if just a little bit. The problem is I don't really practice much coz I don't have time... so I don't improve much. *sigh* Too much to do, not enough time.

Sometimes I wonder about my piano playing. Is it worth me doing all these classes, spending all this money, time, effort on trying to improve.. I mean, sometimes I wonder if I just don't have it.... If I just don't have talent, like, maybe I'm kidding myself, and really, my piano playing is pretty crap. Oh, I know I'm fairly competent in a church enviroment, playing really easy worship songs, but when it comes to harder stuff, when it comes to being able to really feel rhythm and syncopation, being able to improvise whilst comping with my left hand, being able to make music, to play with flair, or even just play by ear... I dunno... it seems to come so much easier for other people. Esp that rhythm/syncopation thing. *sigh* I'm still trying to shake off the asian thing of playing on "1" and "3"... but maybe I can't. Maybe its just me and the limit of my ability.

/rant

Hm.. sorry for the rant. It's something that comes into my mind every so often. You know, in some ways, I think that sometimes its my insecurity that gets in the way of my playing... not just my ability (or lack thereof :P)... but its because I'm afraid to play, and let go.. afraid to make a mistake, I hold back and play really tentatively sometimes, which is not what playing is about. Maybe thats why guys tend to make better musicians a lot of the time. They're better at "putting out" (as Andrew puts it).

But then again, I think its not just that... I'm not always conciously holding back... sometimes I'm trying really hard, but it feels like something is blocking my way. (Musicians-block? :P) I can't let go... and I usually need to warm up for a while before I can do so and really play. Same goes with dancing/clubbing - takes me a while to loosen up. :) Or anything to do with performance. Hm. Interesting. What an uptight scaredy-cat I am! :P

Current listening :: Mint Jam - Yellowjackets

2003-05-20T12:49:00.000+10:00

The Scientist

Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you, tell you I need you
And tell you I set you apart
Tell me your secrets, and nurse me your questions
Oh lets go back to the start
Running in circles, coming in tails
Heads on a science apart

Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start

(Disclaimer: This post has nothing to do with my current relationship!)

Current listening :: "The Scientist" - Coldplay

2003-05-17T21:16:00.000+10:00

Miaow!

Yep. I've picked up my kitten (I decided on the name Coltrane). He is absolutely adorable!!! He's quite settled in his new home (the downstairs bathroom that nobody uses). He had no trouble using the kitty litter, and has endless amounts of fun playing with scrunched up bits of paper (cheap toys!), chasing his own tail, or trying to bat at the bell on his collar! So funny to watch, he's the cutest kitten! And he is so affectionate too.. he loves being with people, and having people pay attention to him. Whenever I enter his room, he always comes over to me, miaows at me and rubs against my leg and my foot, purring all the while. :D Oh, and he loves to climb up and sit on my lap. :)

Of course its not fun and games for me all the time. He has at times pounced on, and tried to climb up my leg(!) when I wasn't paying attention to him. And at times he starts to bite or claw at my clothing. Its not too bad yet, but I don't want him to make a habit out of it. Anyone got any tips on how to train a cat to behave and not use you as a scratching post or toy to bite on?

Anyway, I'm home alone tonight. Just a been having a relaxing night, cooking myself dinner, playing with Coltrane. This is the first Sat night I've been home in... aaages! It feels wierd.. like I'm thinking, is something wrong? Hehe. Well I don't mind being home now, coz it gives me time to play with Coltrane. Speaking of which..... :)

[Added: 11:15pm]
Here are some photos I just took of Coltrane! Isn't he adorable! (Click on photos for larger version.)

2003-05-15T16:27:00.000+10:00

"I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it.."

Man. I can't stop thinking about tomorrow! I'm picking up my kitty tomorrow! Yay! Last night, not only did I dream about kitty again, I had trouble getting to sleep and kept waking up during the night. I'm even in a hurry to get tonight out of the way so that it can be tomorrow! Though, I'm pretty excited about tonight too. I'm going to see The Matrix Reloaded midnight session at Fox Studios tonight! Woohoo!

Ah.. its too much excitement for me. I wanna go home now so I can start getting ready for kitty's arrival!

2003-05-14T13:47:00.000+10:00

Soon-to-be proud owner of....

My very own kitten!!! I went to the pet shop last night and put a deposit on kitty. There was a minor disappointment - the kitten was a different one to the one I thought it was going to be. The female, medium-haired one I saw on Saturday was actually sold on Sunday. This one is a male domestic shorthair cross russian blue. Its got a thick, soft coat of grey with a smattering of silver/white tips. Its really quite handsome, cute, and slightly more active and playful than the female.

I was really indecisive at the pet store, calling numerous friends and asking their opinion. I was afraid that as a male cat, it was going to be more aggressive/scratchy and less affectionate. But the pet store owner said that males tend to be more loving and affectionate, and also that it really depends on the cat and how it's raised. Also they said the male aggressiveness should pretty much be neutralized once its been desexed.

I'm picking him up on Friday! I soo can't wait! I feel like a kid again, waiting for christmas day! I can't stop thinking about kitty! I haven't been this excited about anything in a long time. I even dreamt about him last night! :D

So to important matters. What should I name him? Since I thought I was gonna get a female cat, the names I had in mind were either Ella (as in Ella Fitzgerald), or Ellie, or Misty. But now that its a male, I've had to rethink. The names I've come up with so far are:

Coltrane (as in after John Coltrane :))
Davis (as in Miles Davis)
Misty (its a unisex name right?)

What do people think? Any other ideas? I wanted something with a musical reference.

Legendary Creature

You are an angel.
What legend are you?. Take the Legendary Being Quiz by Paradox

Hmm. An angel eh... 0:-)

I've got heaps of work to do at work at the moment. Ugh. Yeh, yeh, I know what you're all thinking.. bet you're looking outside for the blue moon. :P Anyway, so what am I doing blogging? Erm... *cough*

Current listening :: "People Everyday" - Arrested Development

2003-05-13T12:26:00.000+10:00

Musical moments

Ahh.. its so good to be able to listen to musicals. Where would we be without them? :) I've been listening to my Jekyll and Hyde soundtrack all morning. Its so easy to lose yourself in these songs, and their anguished lyrics. (I don't understand how anyone can not love them!) *sigh*

I've even put up (in the Downloads secion) the lyrics from some of songs I'm listening to currently.

Once Upon A Dream (Jekyll & Hyde)
A New Life (Jekyll & Hyde)
No One Knows Who I Am (Jekyll & Hyde)
In His Eyes (Jekyll & Hyde)
Someone Like You (Jekyll & Hyde)
I Know Him So Well (Chess)

The hunt for kitty

I went to the pet store yesterday, leaving work early so I could make it there before 6pm - I had arranged to meet the store manager before 6 to put a deposit on kitty and she promised me she'd wait till I arrived before leaving. So, I got there at about 5:50pm and she wasn't there! The store was closed, lights off and everything. I was quite disappointed and not happy Jan!

Anyway I just called them today (a different person is working), but I arranged again to go in to put a deposit on kitty. I also found out that she's the only grey kitten left! Man, I'm glad that I told them yesterday to put a hold on her - I didn't really think they'd sell so quickly!

Current Listening :: "I Know Him So Well" - Chess

2003-05-12T16:43:00.000+10:00

Kitty kitty!

I'm gonna get a kitten!!!!! :D

Well, I've gotten the dreaded asian parents' permission anyway! I'm going to be visiting the pet store to look at (and possibly put on hold) this really cute grey kitten I played with on Sat. Its domestic medium hair, with a bit of russian blue in it.

This is so cool! I've wanted a kitten my whole life... ever since I was a little girl. And I still go crazy over any cat (or dog) I see. Finally I get to have one of my very own. :)

2003-05-11T00:18:00.000+10:00

Randomness

I went to a singing lesson today, first time.... this year!! I've been meaning to go (since it started up again after Xmas/NY break), but something always seemed to get in the way. Anyway, it was fun! I've missed singing those beautiful and anguished musical songs.. like "Movie In My Mind" from Miss Saigon (the song I always warm up my voice to.. for some reason it always helps me find my "ladder"), "When I Look At You" from The Scarlet Pimpernel, or "In His Eyes" - a beautiful female duet from Jekyll and Hyde. *sigh* Singing musicals is so much fun. :)

Tonight we had our first SaltLight dinner/information night. We had two sneak preview performances of songs from the upcoming CD, which went very well I must say. (You guys sounded great!) If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go visit the newly completed SaltLight website! :)

Tomorrow for Mother's Day, I'm gonna be cooking my mum lunch. :) I'll be cooking (Vron's special recipe of) chicken/tomatoey pasta. Its yummm! I kinda want to show my new-found culinary skills to my mum. Having had a decent amount of experience now, cooking pasta and other dishes (either for myself, Andrew, or friends), I think I'm ready to unleash my cooking on my parents. :P Hope they'll like it!

2003-05-08T12:27:00.000+10:00

Giant catfish?

Oh. My. Gosh.

Take a look at this catfish... its.. scary! Gives me the creeps!!! *shudder*

Clicky to get the full glorious view

What a girl wants

On Tuesday evening, I met up with a girlfriend and we watched "What a girl wants". Heh. Despite some initial misgivings, I ended up really liking the movie. Its very girly, very american and just a tad clichéd, but, I liked it more than "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days".. it was just very sweet and nice, with a lovely touch of romance. And its got Colin Firth in it! *sigh* :) Its quite soppy too (the father-daughter kind of soppiness), and I found myself a bit teary in parts. *ahem*

While I'm reviewing this movie, I might as well review others I've seen in the past week or so. Its been quite a movie-filled week. I saw "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days" last week on Tuesday, which was good.. pretty funny. :) I don't like Matthew McConaughey, but I like Kate Hudson. She still had that presence on screen in this movie.. like in Almost Famous.

I also saw X Men 2 (again) on Saturday night. It was good having a better seat, a great view of the huge cinemaxx screen. Slight spoiler ahead: Interestingly, I didn't cry at the end the first time I watched it (though I felt like it), but I did this time. *sigh* Anyway, now I CAN'T WAIT TILL MATRIX RELOADED COMES OUT!! I'm gonna be seeing the midnight session on Thurs 15th. Woohooooo!!! :D

Current listening :: "In The Club" - 50 Cent

2003-05-07T20:25:00.000+10:00

And the girliness continues..

I went to a Napoleon make-up master class today (which Napoleon himself took)! Held from 12-2pm at Grace Bros, it was part of this special promotion thing they're doing this week. It costed $40, BUT we got a $40 gift voucher for Napoleon products, which is cool, coz I wanted to get some anyway! It was such a fluke that I went to this class, coz I just happened to be walking thru GBs on the way to work, and I stopped at the Napoleon counter briefly to look at some stuff and they told me about it, and so it was on impulse I decided to sign up for it!

The class was really good! I learnt heaps, and took copious notes whilst Napoleon step by step demonstrated how to make up a face on a model. (She was quite pretty.. blonde.. and only 17!?!) I looooooved how he did her eyes. It looked awesome. Smokey, yet subtle. He used some pretty interesting colours too. I typed up my notes in Word when I got back.. do ppl want me to post the file for viewing?

Anyway, after the class, I got the chance to talk to Napolean and have him make up my face. (How cool is that!) He used some rather interesting colours.. like lime green (not fluro.. but a medium toned shade.. like wasabi :))!! I've never used any green makeup before.. I don't even wear green clothing! But it turned out really nice. Its a very japanese look he says.. great on asians. Then he used a salmon coloured shadow to highlight, and a touch of midnight blue eyeliner (he also used a bit inside the eyelid in the corners.. which I would never normally do, but the effect was very nice and not nearly as irritating/itchy as I thought it would be!), and of course some mascara too. Then he finally added gloss on my lips, and bronzer on the "3rd dimension" of my face. And voila... the end effect was really nice! Happy was I. :)

So I ended up buying the green and salmon eye shadow, and midnight blue eyeliner (coz it looks so cool!) Also a lip gloss, this special limited primer & foam cleanser/makeup remover (comes out as foam and smells like marshmallows!) pack on sale, and the "Camera finish" powder foundation.

Oh and I also bought that Delta Goodrem cd afterall. It was a limited edition pack with bonus dvd is my excuse! :P

Current listening :: Innocent Eyes - Delta Goodrem

2003-05-06T15:44:00.000+10:00

Friday Five - Music Edition

1. Name one song you hate to admit you like.

Erm. I'm kinda into the Delta Goodrem song, "Lost Without You", at the moment. (Oh the shame!) Its kinda pathetic but I'm so easily suckered in by a pretty face, and the whole well-marketed, feminine/girly persona. I like my girly girl singers (like Britney Spears, Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson.. see a pattern here?)

2. Name two songs that always make you cry.

"I'll Forget You" by Frank Wildhorn & Nan Knighton (from the musical "The Scarlet Pimpernel". When I first sang this at singing lessons, I.. well.. couldn't... because of the big lump in my throat that developed as I read the lyrics. Other songs from this musical are equally as heart-breaking.. eg "Now When The Rain Falls" and "When I Look At You").
"Someday We'll Know" by Mandy Moore and Jonathan Foreman or "If You Believe" by Rachel Lampa (both from "A Walk To Remember") - actually this doesn't make me cry anymore, but it does stir emotions/memories from that movie. *sigh*

There are quite a few other depressing songs I could name... like the whole "Revenge Is Slow" album by Bluebottle Kiss, "For Martha" - Smashing Pumpkins, Something For Kate's stuff, "No Aphrodisiac" - The Whitlams. Though, I've only ever cried to that last one - "No Aphrodisiac" - and thats probably coz I was depressed at the time.

3. Name three songs that turn you on.

Errr.. I dunno about "turning me on", but these songs are quite sexy and good to dance to!

"Pony" by Ginuwine
"Too Close" by Next
"My neck, my back" by Khia OR "Freak Me" by Silk (depending on if I want a party song or slow jam)

4. Name four songs that always make you feel good.

Hmm. This is hard... there's too many of them! (Hee.. can anyone guess where that line is from? :P)

"Underground" by Ben Folds Five (actually, any Ben Folds/Ben Folds Five song!)
"Close To You" by The Carpenters (or other classics by Burt Bacharach, such as "Do you know the way to San hose" *sigh*)
"Back and Forth" by Aaliyah, or "Time To Party" by Craig David or "Only You" by 112 ft Notorious BIG (any R&B party anthems really... anything that makes me feel like clubbing/dancing)
"Dream A Little Dream", the Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong version (or other jazz/swing stuff by Ella Fitzgerald, Miles David, Bill Evans etc)

5. Name five songs you couldn't ever do without.

Um. I dunno if I can be bothered answering this one. I've already answered more than enough for the previous 4 questions. (Me and my verbal diarhhoea.)

Yay for girliness! :)

I've been feeling so girly lately! Have been submerging myself in girly things... listening to all my girly girl songs, watching "chick flicks" with girlfriends.. I even picked up an old "Sweet Dreams" teen romance book last night to read (ok, I admit I used to read "Sweet Dreams" stuff when I was in high school.. *embarrassed look* - its probably one of the reasons I'm so into romantic comedies now).

*sigh* Its so... good... to get back into girly girl schtuff. Ooh, and speaking of girl schtuff, I'm gonna see "What A Girl Wants" tonight with a girlfriend. Its got Colin Firth in it! Yay! :)

Current listening :: "Lost Without You" - Delta Goodrem

2003-05-01T20:52:00.000+10:00

"I awake to find no peace of mind.."

Been feeling a bit... alone... or lonely... (is there a difference?) of late. Trying to put this feeling into words.. I guess I just don't feel like I'm really connecting with anyone at the moment.. and that makes me feel alone. Perhaps its the busyness of life, perhaps my life has started to become one big responsibility after another.. without much time to relax and.. fellowship, I guess the word is. Maybe its all starting to weigh down on me.

I never wanted to be one of those people that I looked at when I was younger.. you know, the excessively busy leader types, where if you ever wanted to meet up with them, they'd have to book you into their diary weeks in advanced. Where their life was filled with one meeting after another.. one church activity after another. If its not bible study prep, its cellgroup, or leaders meeting, or a music practice, or a different meeting, or meeting a friend.. or.... I wonder if it is a bad thing or not to live like this. Bah. Stupid whingy rant. And its not even that time of the month.

Other randomness

I've said this before, and I'll say it again, for some reason I love being at work after hours. From about 6ish onwards, most or all people have left the office, and its nice here.. peaceful and quiet. I have my (pentium 4) computer, almost full net access, good food, my discman... what more could one ask for. :P Bah, I'm a geek, I know.

Another thing I love at the moment (besides Andrew :P) is.... gourmet cream cheese (with garlic & herb.. though I'm making do with onion & chives atm) and warm crusty turkish bread. Mmmmmm..... :P~ Also, I'm still hooked on Campbell's Country Ladle "Homestyle Chicken & Pasta" soup (thanks to Vron for introducing us last winter :P). Seriously.. its sooooo yummy. The best canned soup I've ever had. Also, I've recently discovered Cadbury's Velvet Chocolate hot chocolate. Whats so special about this hot chocolate? Well, for starters, its not powdered stuff - its actually real dark chocolate flake curls, which you melt into your milk. Mmm.... soo rich and chocolatey. Even just eating the chocolate bits is yum. I have yet to try them on ice-cream though. :)

Why all this talk about food. Hmm.. I dunno. I think I must be experiencing withdrawal symptoms from not being able to eat properly this past week (coz of my mouth ulcer). But, it's finally on the mend.. I can even eat most foods without it hurting anymore! Yayyyy! :) I never realised how important it was to me to be able to eat yummy food!!

Current listening :: "Don't panic" - Coldplay

2003-05-01T15:59:00.000+10:00

B-Z

Life is very busy at the moment, so appologies for the lack of updates. Over the past few days, work has decided to dump a whole heap of stuff on me - I'm currently developing a brand spankin' new AAP CS website, plus the AAP website is about to undergo an overhaul... so they tell me. I still have yet to do my bible study for this Friday (though I've started on the preparation) - I'm gonna take the girls through Colossians this term, basing the studies on the Matthias Media book "The Complete Christian" (I hope its not gonna be too hard for them to understand.. what do you ppl reckon?).

My very own cyber-home

Guess what, I bought myself some hosting (to be shared with Fjord and Nate)! Woohoo!! :D I'm gonna have a real web site now, instead of this piecemeal one with pages all over the place. I already have a domain name and everything, and over the last few days, I've been trying to set stuff up. I've also been slowly copying files across, setting up my cgi scripts etc etc. It's gonna take a while, especially since I'm busy at work now, and my computer at home decided to cark it (had to reinstall win2000, and all the drivers and probably most of the programs... grrrr... lucky my OS is on a separate drive so all my data is still intact).

Anyway, so thats what I've been up the past few days. I'll let you know the new web site address when its all ready. Who knows, I might even try a new design with the move. (Depending on how much time I have.. so no promises ok!)

Oh, and my "hot air" is slowly getting better. About &@$* time!!! Its taken almost a week.... a week of pain.. *dramatic sigh* :\

Current listening :: Parachutes - Coldplay

2003-04-28T18:13:00.000+10:00

Hot air

Translate that into cantonese and you'll know what I've been suffering for the last 4 days. For the non-asians out there, its a literal translation of a chinese phrase which means "mouth ulcer". Its been a painful time. :( Especially the putting salt on it part. Brings new meaning to the word pain. Mmmm.

Xmen 2 Premiere

Last night I went to the X Men 2 premiere event screening (wasn't the media premiere, so no actors/stars were there). But it was kinda cool. Held at the State Theatre, there was an expo before the movie with Xmen comic book stalls and other stuff, and we were given showbags (apparently) worth $80 (ermm..) The movie was pretty good. I wanna see it again. :) It sooo leaves me wanting to see X3 though. Argh. Anyway, I'm not gonna give away any spoilers here. You're just gonna have to wait till it comes out. :)

KyckStart 2003

I had a great, but very exhausting, weekend at KyckStart. The talks were great, the atmosphere fun, the music awesome, and the conversations girly. :P More about this later, coz I wanna go home.

Current listening :: "You Alone" - Emu music

2003-04-24T18:27:00.000+10:00

Another long weekend

Ok, I'm off for the Anzac Day long weekend.. woohoo! Three day working weeks rawk! :D I'm going away this weekend to the Blue Mountains with my Glue girls, to a christian youth convention called KyckStart. Should be awesome! Will tell you's about it when I get back! Hope everyone has a great long weekend!

2003-04-23T20:14:00.000+10:00

Photos + New clothes = Happy Kazzart :)

I've just uploaded my photos from Nate's 21st (last Sat night). Check em out!

I went shopping this morning, and ended up buying myself a new white skivvy and a cream coloured puffy coat (I'm so bad). The coat's a bit honky looking, but sooo pretty.. I really like the colour! The skivvy has this threaded string on one side which is kinda cool. :) Anyway, I was so happy with my new buys, I decided to take photos of them.. in fact, four photos of myself "modelling" the clothes.. hee... (and I just couldn't resist pulling the honky pose. :P)

2003-04-22T12:45:00.000+10:00

Too busy to....

This easter weekend has been just absolutely chockas and totally exhausting. From Thursday night to Monday night, I've been non-stop running around doing this or that. I'm actually almost glad to be back at work, just so the pace can slow down a little! Sorry about the lack of updates. I didn't get online even once during the long weekend... amazing for a net-addict like me huh! :P

So what have I been up to. Lets do this in point form:

Thursday night, I went to my jazz impro class at the Con. I really need to work on rhythm and emphasis in my improv solos. Looks like its back to playing scales on the off-beat. Not that I was ever really successful at doing that. :\
After class, on the way to Wynyard Stn, I managed to lose my wallet! I must have dropped it somewhere on George St.. I was pretty upset about that. Andrew had to come out to the city to pick me up (because I had no money, no train ticket, no cards). We then went to Vron's place for Andrew's band rehearsal. Amazingly, after the rehearsal, the city police station called me up and told me someone had handed in my wallet, with all my money (around $100) and everything still in it! Wow.. that was pretty honest of the person!!
Friday morning, I went to church for an 8:45am service, and had late brunch with friends afterwards.. then went back to church for music rehearsal (for Sunday's easter service), and then had to go into the city to pick up my wallet from the police station
Friday night we had our Glue (youth group) social - pizza and trivia night! It was most amusing. :)
Saturday morning, we (the Glue leaders) had a rather long (3 hour!) meeting about Glue, and lunch afterwards, then went home and begun the tidying process in my room, which included an installation of a new bookshelf
Saturday night was Nate's 21st - lots of yummy satay sticks, chicken wings, etc etc cooked by his parents. Yummm... those sticks were absolutely delicious!! I even got the recipe off his mum! :P~
Sunday morning I had to get to church at 8am(!!) for a music run through before the service started at 8:45am. Too many early mornings in a row.. its unhealthy!! :P Anyway, afterwards, me and Andrew and a few friends went out to Paddy's market in the city. I bought myself a new watch, a lighter (even though I don't smoke.. but its got a green flame!!), a phone cover, and a black and red dress (its really pretty!)
Sun night, hung out with friends, went home, did more tidying
Monday I had to continue tidying my room because pest control are coming in to spray stuff. With the new bookshelf, I now have more places to put all my cds and books!! Andrew came over a bit later and we ate pancakes.. yumm..
Finally Monday night, went to leaders bible study group.

And that was my long weekend, in a nutshell. :)

Tough times

There was also a particularly emotionally draining and stressful situation on Sun night, where I had to counsel a friend. Not that I'm complaining about it, coz she's a close friend and its a joy to be able to help her (and others) through these tough times. I feel priviledged that she trusts me so, and has such respect for my advice. I do feel a bit unqualified to be giving all this relationship advice, even though I've had a fair amount of relationship experience. I still worry about giving the wrong or bad advice and making things worse for her/everyone. How does one know that they are doing/saying the right thing?

Anyway, I really feel for these friends.. I can really feel their pain.. its like it echo's in my own heart. Man, I'm so not cut out to be a counsellor.. I'm very glad that I'm not a psychologist or anything. I don't think I'd be able to handle it all day, five/six days a week! I think I'd get too emotionally involved. Maybe its just a girl thing. Or maybe its just coz I've been through it before, so I have an emotional understanding as well as an intellectual one. Still, I'm glad to be able to, and I do want to be able to, help my friends through this difficult time.

Current listening :: "If you believe" - Rachel Lampa

2003-04-16T13:06:00.000+10:00

First dustings

Alright! It seems they've had their first dusting of snow for 2003 at Perisher Blue. Woohoo!! I sooo can't wait till the ski season! :) Please let there be lots of snow!

I've already started visiting the ski.com.au forums in anticipation of this year's season. Last year, I was there every day leading up to my ski trip, getting excited by the ski talk & reading people's weather forecasts.

So, in anticipation of the coming winter, here are some very amusing tips to get you ready for season 2003, taken from a post on the forum:

Visit your local butcher and pay $30 to sit in the walk-in freezer for a half an hour. Afterwards, burn two $50 dollar bills to warm up.
Soak your gloves and store them in the freezer after every use.
Fasten a small, wide rubber band around the top half of your head before you go to bed each night.
If you wear glasses, begin wearing them with glue smeared on the lenses.
Throw away a hundred dollar bill-now.
Find the nearest ice rink and walk across the ice 20 times in your ski boots carrying two pairs of skis, accessory bag and poles. Pretend you are looking for your car. Sporadically drop things.
Place a small but angular pebble in your shoes, line them with crushed ice, and then tighten a C-clamp around your toes.
Buy a new pair of gloves and immediately throw one away.
Secure one of your ankles to a bed post and ask a friend to run into you at high speed.
Go to McDonald's and insist on paying $8.50 for a hamburger. Be sure you are in the longest line.
Clip a lift ticket to the zipper of your jacket and ride a motorcycle fast enough to make the ticket lacerate your face.
Drive slowly for five hours - anywhere - as long as it's in a snowstorm and you're following an 18 wheeler.
Fill a blender with ice, hit the pulse button and let the spray blast your face. Leave the ice on your face until it melts. Let it drip into your clothes.
Dress up in as many clothes as you can and then proceed to take them off because you have to go to the bathroom.
Slam your thumb in a car door. Don't go see a doctor.
Repeat all of the above every Saturday and Sunday until it's time for the real thing!

Current listening :: "Love like this before" - Faith Evans (remix feat Fatman Scoop)

2003-04-14T17:45:00.000+10:00

Reminiscence

Last night I looked through an old journal from around my senior high / 1st year uni years. It was very.. interesting. Quite an eye opener really, to see what I was like back then, the things I did, what I thought about, who I hung out with and the guys I had crushes on!! Actually, it was kinda embarrassing at times. I was so.. young.. and immature.. and boy crazy!! :P

It was really nice to be reminded of events back in time. I wrote heaps about things I went to, people I met and what I thought of them!! Here's an interesting entry from Mon, 1 July 96:

Guess what - on Saturday night I went to this harbour cruise dance party. It was great, though the DJ sucked. But I still had fun & some of the music was good. It was organised by this guy at Epping Boys for year 12's only. Lapman invited me to go & I met quite a few guys there from Epping Boys. Lapman's group of friends were really nice. I met this guy calle Jonothan - he's really nice and chatty. Another guy called Mark - he's nice though not as chatty, but better looking. [insert: Hahahahah, did I really write that?! Oh, and M - try not to get a big head :P]

Anyway, thats enough revelation from my secret diaries for now! Maybe I'll post snippets from other sections later! I gotta dash to leaders bible study.

Current listening :: Revenge Is Slow - Bluebottle Kiss

2003-04-10T13:15:00.000+10:00

Who's your daddy?

"Give me noise! Give me sex! Give me dirty!!"

"I wanna see feral!"

These are just some of the motivational words coming from the mouth of Michael Boyd - our dance teacher last night at the SDC. My usual class (intermediate jazz with Ramon) was cancelled due to some private function in Studio 1, so the class was combined with Michael Boyd's new Interm/Adv JFH (jazz funk hip hop) class. I'd been meaning to try this class sometime anyway, so last night provided me an excellent opportunity.

I really enjoyed the class! The routine was soo much fun! Let me explain those "motivational words". :) It was a pretty "dirty" routine I suppose, but it totally went with the song - which was Gerling's latest EP - "Who's your daddy?". The routine wasn't vulgar or anything.. no crotch grabbing etc.. it was just very.. out there, lots of posing and very expressive movement! It was a bit 80's - the sort of routine you'd make short, sharp "Ahh" sounds to whilst performing (if you hear the song, you'll understand why)! There was floor work involved too, which I always love in a routine!

Anyway, its really hard to describe a routine in words. I'll just have to show you if I see you! The warm up and across the floor sections were standard Michael Boyd style - fast, funky and loose! A style I always find quite difficult. But this class wasn't as funky as his old latin/funk class, and it was a little more technical, which made things easier for me.

So now I'm pretty much sore everywhere.. yet again. Michael Boyd's classes have always been hard on the body - my battle scars from last night include a slightly bruised pinky, light bruises on both knees, and a pinched nerve (or whatever it was) on the top of my left foot. See how much fun dancing can be! :)

Updates

I've finally gotten around to adding another photolog to my Photos page. I took the photos almost a month ago, but only put it together just then. Clicky here to have a geezer.

Current listening :: "Born to make you happy" - Britney Spears (yah yah, I know its Britney.. but I need a Britney fix every now and then :P)

2003-04-09T14:20:00.000+10:00

Happy One Year Blogging Anniversary

I can't believe its been exactly one year since I started blogging. Where does the time go.. *nostalgic sigh* Starting with my first (very deep) entry:

Testing my first entry to this blogger thing.

I've managed to ramble on about myself to an unknown (and known) audience for a whole year now. Amazing. :)

I have to admit, the nature of this blog has somewhat changed over the past 12 months. Starting with the intention of being an online diary of an anonymous writer to let out emotions and thoughts, through two layout changes, to now - a full-blown website with photo gallery, "live" webcam, guestbook etc.

It's been a bit difficult to work out what to write, now that many friends who know me in real life know about this blog (btw this does not include those that I have given the url to and definitely does not mean they should stop visiting!). Still, I find myself limited in many ways that I wasn't when I first started. I dunno if this is a bad thing or not. Sometimes I contemplate moving my blog to regain relative anonymity. Or maybe I should put up a sort of disclaimer like LuckyKat has done, or just use this generic blogger's disclaimer. At any rate, I tend to more often than not write about the inconsequential and the inane, keeping the content "safe". This may also be because I'm just too darn lazy to write anything more deep and meaningful!

Anyway, so here we are. Happy one year blogging anniversary to me. :) I might be moving to real hosting soon, with my own domain name and everything. I already have a domain name, but I just haven't got around to getting hosting for it yet.

Oh, any cat lovers, check out this cute and rather funny/silly picture.

Current listening :: the sound of my work colleagues chatting

2003-04-08T12:01:00.000+10:00

Klutz

Grr. I just managed to spill tea all over my light blue "Bens" tshirt & some of my jeans. Argh. A work colleague who observed the event quipped "Still haven't mastered the art of drinking from a cup, I see". Grr. The tea bag got caught in my fingers and jerked the cup to the side as I was holding it.. hence spilling tea over the right side of my tshirt & jeans. I managed to wash most of it off in the bathroom, and am now sitting uncomfortably in a still damp tshirt & jeans. My tummy is cold. :(

I'm just glad my cam wasn't on at the time! :P

Current listening :: "Moon dance" - Van Morrison (*sigh* This song is so awesome! Love the piano solo!)

2003-04-07T15:29:00.000+10:00

Frustration plus

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! STUPID STUPID BLOGGER!!!!!!! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! #@#%!%^*$!

I just spent the last half hr or so writing up a post. And then accidently pressed some keyboard combination which loaded the archives page.... and lost my post!!! ARGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

Ok... breathe... calm.... think daisies and wild flowers and whiskers on kittens... ahhhh... Now lets see if I can remember what I wrote.

Par-tay analysis

Its all over.. *sighs with contentment* What a busy weekend. I think I am actually glad to be back at work (well sorta). Andrew's 21st party on Saturday night was a success! The night went by in a blur for me, with constant running around churning out food, taking pictures for Andrew, having a bite to eat and an occasional chat to a friend in between. By the end of the night, I was exhausted, and my feet and back were killing me. But I think people enjoyed themselves. They definitely enjoyed the food - those pizza wheels were absolutely demolished! I know Andrew really enjoyed having the party, and that makes it all worth it! :)

I'm glad we decided to make gourmet party food, instead of the standard party pies etc. Good food makes all the difference at a party.. next to good background music of course.. oh and appropriate lighting schemes ("Did I stumble on some bad lighting?" hee hee). If you're interested, the menu consisted of:

marinated chicken wings (honey soy and bbq seasoning)
mini pizza wheels & cinammon wheels (made with puff pastry, tomato paste, herbs, bacon, cheese.. and cinammon and brown sugar for the sweet ones.. yumm..)
potato wedges with sour cream & sweet chilli sauce
toasted turkish bread & dip
cheese (brie, havarti, cream with garlic & herb) and crackers
fruit platter
vegetable sticks and dip

Many thanks to Vron for the recipes & and helping out on the night! And a extra big thanks to Ernie for coming with me to shop, cook, and clean! This guy is tireless! From the time I picked him up at 2:30pm, to the time he left at 12:30am, he didn't stop working! I shudder to think what would have happened with the food had he not been there - he cooks twice as fast as me - and we were late anyway!

The place looked very impressive. Though, I think the lighting scheme didn't *quite* work out. The candles looked very nice. Andrew did a good job with their placement. :) (And the kerosene torches outside rocked!) But everyone was clumped over with the two tables of food, which happened to be right next to the well-lit kitchen, which kinda spoiled the whole dimly lit, jazz club feel. Ah well. I think everyone was suitably "wowed" by the house anyway. It is pretty huge. We held the party in the open plan living area - which is about the size of 4 spacious rooms put together! The 50 people we had there barely filled half the area.

The live musician (Andrew's friend's brother) definitely made a difference with the atmosphere. Live music always does. This guy, Raymond, did pretty well, playing and singing jazz classics on a beautiful sounding jazz guitar. Anyway, I think I've rambled on enough. Am feeling kinda sleepy now, after stuffing myself with lunch (leftovers from the party)! *yawn* Oh, I took lotsa pics with my parents very nice digital camera. I'll put them up in the gallery asap.

Current listening :: "Georgia on my mind" - Ella Fitzgerald

2003-04-04T14:42:00.000+10:00

Nego thoughts

Life has been waaay too busy lately. Even though work has only been moderately busy, everything else has just been piling on top, until I feel like I can almost not handle it. Ugh. I hate having so many things to remember that my brain feels like its crashed and I can't recall even one of them. I hate the feeling of doing something so difficult that I despair of being able to do it at all, much less finish it on time (reminds me of uni assignment days! :P). The feeling of helplessness, things being out of my control, is the one thing that really makes me stress. I'm normally quite laid back, but when I get like this, I don't handle things very well. Found myself binging last night on chocolate to try and just destress. It sorta worked. :P

*sigh* I need a break. :( I hate to be so negative and all.. but life kinda sucks at the moment. Hopefully things'll be better next week. Its just this week, with writing my first study (since like 4/5 yrs ago) for the Glue girls (and boy was it hard), organising Andrew's 21st present, Andrew's 21st food, Andrew's 21st whatever!

2003-04-02T17:22:00.000+10:00

SARS

Just found out yesterday that an old high school friend of mine, Thomas, who moved back to HK when he was in like year 9 or 10 contracted SARS. How scary. He got it whilst working at the Prince of Wales hospital in HK. Fortunately he's fully recovered now. He was one of the first people to recover and be released from hospital actually, and is immune to the virus now.

I was chatting to him on ICQ and he tells me that he was interviewed by The Australian newspaper (the article is in todays paper if people wanna grab a copy) - seems he made it to front page, and there's a nice big photo of him on page 10. He was also interviewed by 60 minutes, which will be airing on Sunday 13th April.

Current listening :: "I'd still say yes" - The Braxtons (such a beautiful, classic slow jam - Ramons' been using it for our lyrical routines lately :))

2003-04-01T12:58:00.000+10:00

The asian parent epidemic
Ok, I'm feeling pretty peeved at the moment, so bear with my little rant. Here is where the story begins..

This morning, I got my dad to drop me off quite early at the station because I planned on visiting Koorong before catching the train to work. (I needed to look at some stuff for my bf's group pressie). Anyway, I spent a good half hour in there, getting prices, comparing different books etc. Then I caught the train in.. and I had just arrived at Wynyard when my dad calls me saying my boss called home asking for me. Now thats quite unusual, because I wasn't even late. I was arriving at normal time, and have arrived later than this fairly often.

So my dad was freaking because he thought my boss was calling because I was late or something stupid like that. So I get in to work and I find out my boss was calling home simply because: a) he didn't have my mobile number, and b) there was some work that I had to do for this person, and she was becoming anxious about getting it completed - he just wanted to know whether I was coming in today (I was off sick yesterday), and if not, he'd get another to complete the work.

Anyway so it's all cool, I do the work etc etc. Then I get this suprise call from my mum asking where I was (whether I was at work), and to give her my bosses name and number. What the?!? She must've found out from dad about my boss calling. So she's being silly and thinking I'm getting in too late. She actually wants to call my boss and ask him what is the starting time for my work and whether I was getting in too late. I, of course, refuse to give it to her. I mean how unprofessional would that look, not to mention embarrassing and downright bl..dy hindering awkward! I really think she has no right to meddle in affairs to do with my work! I mean sheesh!!

*ok think caaalm.. deep breath in.. deep breath out..*

Well, I feel a bit better now. But I still am stuck with the problem of my mum wanting my bosses number. I managed to stave her off by saying I'll try and find out "official starting times" (not that I think there even is such a thing here!) She wants me to show her a document from HR as proof, or something ridiculous like that. I'll see if I can get my hands on one I suppose. Though I really don't think one even exists! Oh, and she threatened to find out my bosses number by herself (by calling up and enquiring) if I didn't give it to her.

*sigh* I think I need to move out. Real soon. Anyone got any vacancies?? Please?!?

There was one occasion a while ago where I was complaining about to an Aussie friend about my parents chucking a fit over me coming home too late. This friend then commented about how cute/sweet it was that my parents were so concerned about my going out too much/coming home too late. And I was sitting there thinking "What on earth are you talking about? It ain't cute or sweet in the slightest!! It's absolutely, frustratingly annoying!". Its times like this I really wish I had Aussie parents.

Current listening :: "Beautiful Collision" - Bic Runga

2003-03-27T11:11:00.000+10:00

Impossible

I'm really into the song, "Impossible" (on the Christina Aguilera album "Stripped") at the moment . Its written and produced by Alicia Keys (you can definitely hear her influence and style in the song). Its a really soulful piano ballad - hehe of course there has to be a piano involved somewhere in the song - and I like the way Christina sings it. I also like the arrangement of the song. Mainly chordal work on piano, with a bluesy/jazzy feel, a tight drum/bass rhythm section, with subtle electric guitar work in the background, plus touches of wind/brass instruments (I think I hear flute & sax?) in the right places.

Hm. I can't believe I just musically analysed a pop song. What is the world coming to? :P

"It's impossible
It's impossible to love you
If you don't let me know what you're feeling, babe
It's impossible for me to give you what you need
If you're always hidin' from me

I don't know what hurt you
I just, I wanna make it right
Cos boy I'm sick and tired of tryin' to read your mind"
more..

Current listening :: "Impossible" - Christina Aguilera (ft Alicia Keys)

2003-03-26T10:19:00.000+10:00

Updates

Don't know if you've noticed a few minor updates around the joint. In the nav bar, Gallery has changed to Photos, which leads to a page with links to my various photo pages (including my current gallery, some old photo pages, and my photologs).

I've also added a Downloads page which will contain stuff I'm into at the moment, maybe some lyrics I like, or my current wallpaper.. whatever! :) Recently, I've noticed a heap of searches for The Bens hitting my site, so I've put up lyrics of "Bruised" (which happens to be my favourite song at the moment). :)

Oh, if you are new to my site, please take the time to sign the guestbook or make a comment, and let me know how you got here! Thanks! :)

Current listening :: "Beautiful" - Christina Aguilera

2003-03-25T09:53:00.000+10:00

Asterix.. Obelix.. Dogamatix.. Getafix.. Bruce Willix??

On Sunday night a group of friends and I saw Asterix and Obelix : Mission Cleopatra at the French Film Festival. It was great! No, it wasn't an animation (if thats what you're thinking), it was a movie movie, with Gérard Depardieu as Obelix. Some other known actors in the movie were Jamel Debbouze (from Amélie) and Monica Bellucci (who will be in The Matrix Reloaded).

The movie was hilarious! Soo funny! There were many references to other things, such as a Star Wars reference (which was a cack!) :D It had that sorta self-aware humour, a little like "The Emperors New Groove". I'm glad I went and saw it. I'd never read much Asterix before (I was more of a Tin Tin fan in school), but I think I might have to read a few now. :)

In other news..

It's been quite a few days since I last blogged. *gasp* :P My weekend was pretty jam packed - did lots of planning and shopping on Saturday for my bf's 21st party (which is in two weeks time). On Sunday I met up with my youth group co-leader to prepare a study (though I think we probably did more chatting than preparing!) and then had music practice and church.. plus the movie afterwards.

I think I'm gonna have to start writing down everything that needs to be done in a big to-do list. I'm getting so busy with everything that I'm forgetting all the bits and pieces I need to do. Too many things on my plate! Ugh.

Jazz class

I realised I haven't posted much about my Jazz Performance Group class at the Con. I forgot to do last weeks update. My class last Thurs was really good. I felt that my improvisation solo's were really getting somewhere.. like, I was in control and not just scrambling to get the notes, or figure out what scales went with what chords. Even my teacher said it really sounded like I was making music as opposed to just playing scales. :) The class was really small, because our drummer, vibaphone player, and flute player were all away. So there were only 4 of us including the teacher! Me on piano, the guitarist, bass player and teacher on sax.

We were playing together quite well as a result of the small class, bonding quite solidly and really listening to each other. There was a moment at the end of "Little Sunflower" when we were ending the piece by just jamming on Dm7. We were really together, listening and answering each others playing.. getting quieter, till we tapered off into silence. *Ahhh..*

Current listening :: "Gangsterland" - Bluebottle Kiss (this song goes off! Love the guitar solo/jamming/thrashy bit at the end!)

2003-03-21T15:16:00.000+10:00

"Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry"

Feeling depression setting in. Not really sure why. Maybe I'm listening to too much depressive music. I've been listening to "The Scientist" by Coldplay. Such a beautiful song. For some reason, listening to it makes me wanna cry.

Nobody said it was easy
Oh it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said that it would be so hard
Oh take me back to the start

Ah, stuff it. I'm gonna go have a shower.. and maybe sit in the sauna for a bit.. still very sore. :(

Current listening :: "The Scientist" - Coldplay

2003-03-20T20:25:00.000+10:00

Photos of The Bens are up!

I've finally gotten around to uploading my photos from The Bens Rock Over Australia gig. Enjoy. Sorry about the bad quality/blurriness of some of the pics. I didn't take alot of them as I couldn't see much coz I was too short. :( I got a taller friend to take them. (Thank you Paul!)

Current listening :: "Reckless boy" - Ultra Suite
(yes, Leo, if you're reading this, I listen to your band's stuff every now and then. I'll even plug you guys for free. :) Everyone, check out Ultra Suite - their debut album is coming out in the middle of this year.)

2003-03-20T15:52:00.000+10:00

That familiar feeling..

Have been feeling that familiar old feeling of soreness today. The ache of my back muscles, legs, and neck (and other odd places) that result from only one thing. Dance class. :)

It was great! I've really missed going. I'd forgotten how strenuous it could be, but it probably is not as bad as it could have been since I'd been exercising. My choreography wasn't too bad. The lyrical was quite alright (but then I think I've always found lyrical jazz easier than funky jazz) - and my technical stuff seemed still intact. I can still do an axle, jette, barrel turn/jump, kicks, and even an odd double turn (though I mostly stuck with single turns in the routines.. didn't wanna press my luck!) I felt a bit stiff and awkward when we started the 2nd routine, naturally, but eventually got back into it. The routine was really fast, so I had a bit of trouble keeping up in some sections, but I managed to pretty much master all the steps and do them in time. I gotta say, doing a quick chasse with a head roll really puts you off balance! Probably the reason my neck is so sore today!

Anyway, enough ranting about dance class and usage of technical jazz terms that probably only 1 or 2 of you will understand. :P I'm off to another jazz class.. of a different variety - my jazz performance group (piano) at the Con. Yay! :)

Current listening :: Army - Ben Folds

2003-03-19T22:06:00.000+10:00

Spew-worthy

Eww... Ack... Gaa... Ugh...

*violent shuddering*

That would have been my reaction as I gulped my mum's health (read: evil) concoction of freshly juiced celery, cucumber, capsicum, green apple and bitter melon. Do I hear a collective "ewwww"? The only reason I drank it was coz of health reasons. Think of it as pain endured for good, much like doing stomach crunches.. or push ups.

Current listening :: "Xfire" - The Bens

2003-03-19T15:47:00.000+10:00

The Bens

The gig last night was awwwwesome! :) I managed to get myself a cool "The Bens Rock Over Australia" t-shirt and their tour only EP. I can't be bothered writing a blow-by-blow account of what happened. Visit Larissa's blog for a fairly accurate description. :)

Highlights for me were Ben Folds (duh!), Ben Kweller's adaption of "Ice ice baby" (so funny), the suprise appearance of Jimmy Barnes during "Khe Sanh"(!!), Ben Folds and Ben Lee's cover of "I touch myself". I loved how they played musical chairs, demonstrating their (well Ben Folds anyway!) fine ability to play more than one instrument. They really looked like they were having fun on stage, eg when Ben Kweller's guitar strap broke, to stall for time they started up some impromtu jamming and making up of silly lyrics. I also liked the "Chopsticks" influenced little ditty of Ben Folds.. heh.

~~Not sure what I think of their new stuff yet~~ I like their new stuff, after having a good listen to the EP today. The "Xfire" performance last night was a little wierd, with Ben Folds going off on the synth (sounds alright on the cd though). The low frequency synth section during that song was almost powerful enough to shatter a glass. It certainly felt like a physical blow to my body, not to mention my ears!

Oh, I've got pics, which I will get around to uploading soon. A few didn't turn out too well, but I took enough to get at least a few decent ones. My friend also brought his (much better) digital camera, so I'll be getting his pics to upload too. :)

[Updated: 5:27pm]
Oh, I forgot to mention meeting Larissa at the gig. That was kinda cool. Its always a bit of a novelty meeting "internet friends". :) I had a feeling I might bump into her there coz she blogged about going. I had just finished buying my t-shirt and cd's when a uni friend, Xtn, came up to say Hi, and with him was Larissa, whom I recognised straight away (coz of her cam shots I spose!) She was a tad shorter than I'd expected. :)

In other news

I'm gonna go to dance class tonight! For, like, the first time in 2 months. I'm gonna be sooo rusty.. :( I think my fitness is fine coz I've still been gym-ing regularly, but I bet my choreography is gonna suck. I hate the feeling of being so lost that I have to copy the person in front of me the whole time, and be subsequently half a step behind the whole routine. Still, I'm looking forward to it... I miss dancing..

On another note, check out this cnn screen capture. Heheh.

Current listening :: "Bruised" - The Bens (such a pretty song.. definitely my favourite on the EP)

2003-03-18T16:10:00.000+10:00

Rockin' the suburbs

Tonight I'm going to The Bens Rock Over Australia gig. Woohoo! :) I'm really looking forward to seeing Ben Folds live again. He's soo awesome. I've been listening to nothing but Ben Folds all day today in preparation. :D I'm also gonna be a real groupie and wear my Ben Folds t-shirt too.. heh.. yes I'm sad.

I will be bringing my digicam to take some pics, so check out my gallery in a few days time. Hopefully I'll get close enough to the stage to get some good shots. Anyway, better start getting ready to leave soon.

Current listening :: "Ben Folds Live" - Ben Folds

2003-03-17T15:45:00.000+10:00

Homeless blueless

Geez I'm tired today. Am feeling kinda... listless... & weary. Even lacking motivation to go to the gym. I think I've been listening to too much Bluebottle Kiss. Arg. Perhaps they should be taken in moderation.. otherwise it just gets too darn depressing.

The BBK gig on Saturday night was pretty good! I took quite a few photos, which I've put up in my gallery. The first support act, Oblique, were alright. They looked so very young, like they'd just come straight out of their dad's garage or something. But they weren't bad. Andrew reckons they sound heavily influenced by The Cure (which is a good thing. :)) The second support act was called "Big Heavy Stuff" (they
didn't really have big, heavy sounds though.. hah, I'm too funny.. not). They were ok. We were anticipating them coz they supported Radiohead once. But by that time I was getting a bit tired. I always seem get tired during the 2nd support at a gig, and then wake up for the main act.
		So anyway, around 11ish Bluebottle Kiss came on. It was a very interesting set. After the first song, Jamie (lead guy) rushed off stage. He'd developed a bleeding nose! A few minutes later, he came back on with a tissue stuck up his nostril, and starting playing again. During the song the once white tissue slowly turned red.. and then blood started dripping down his mouth and chin. Yet he kept on singing.
Gotta give him points for sticking by the "the show must go on!" mentality. Soon there were drops of blood on his shirt. Eww. It was pretty gross.. but kinda amusing at the same time. Midway through the set, he rushed off to clean up a bit, and apply some ice. To stall for time, Ben Fletcher (2nd guitarist & vocals, photo below, on the right) came on and entertained us, singing a song from his band "The Devoted Few". He was pretty good. Anyway, by the end of the set, Jamie's bleeding had nearly stopped, and they managed to get in some thrashing about and breaking of guitar strings, finishing up with 2 encore songs, "Last Cinema" and "Gansterland".

I also bumped into an old family friend, Leo, at the gig. That was pretty cool coz I hadn't seen him for ages. He's joined a band, called Ultra Suite, playing the bass. The lead guy of that band (John) used to play with Bluebottle Kiss, so I guess I shouldn't be suprised to see Leo (and his friend Richard - who plays 2nd guitar in the band) at a BBK gig. Heh. Anyways, Leo tells me they've finished recording their debut album, which is going to be mastered, and then released around July. Looking at Leo's info page on their website, I gotta say, I like his taste in cd's! (I know he'd get the Andrew stamp of approval!) :)

Oh, I've updated a few things around the joint. My links page (I'm trying out blogrolling.com for my blog links), the about page, the nav panel, and of course, the gallery. Note that the pictures in this post were taken by me. Please do not take without asking permission first.

Current listening :: "Helping you hate me" - Bluebottle Kiss

2003-03-15T12:04:00.000+10:00

"Boredom you are breaking my heart"

Not much time to post at the moment. Just a quick update coz I gotta leave soon to go shopping. Tonight I'm going to see Bluebottle Kiss play at the Gaelic Club (with Big Heavy Stuff and Oblique supporting). I soooo can't wait. Should be awesome!! :)

People, I definitely recommend you check these guys out.. you can even download a few mp3's on their website (of old songs, not from the latest album "Revenge Is Slow", which you should buy to support Aussie music!)

Anyway, gotta dash! Hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

2003-03-13T20:36:00.000+10:00

All that jazz...

Just came back from my jazz impro class at the Conservatorium of Music. Ahh.. I love music.. and I love playing music. :) Particularly jazz.. its so.. beautiful (but so damn hard to play!) At the moment, we're doing "Little Sunflower" by Freddie Hobbard. A wonderful piece.. its modal, with a bossa beat. I *like* modal pieces... it means I can play without stressing over chord changes and what notes to play. :D A modal piece is, I think, where there are very few chords, which are sustained for ages, and u can basically play any note in the scale of that chord when 'comping because the root of the chord is so obvious and you're in that key for ages, so you just play around it to make things more interesting. (eg "Impressions" by John Coltrane is a classic modal piece.. only two chords - Dm7 and Ebm7.. so its basically all white notes.. then all black notes on the piano. Hee. Love that piece.)

After my class, I decided to sit in on Nick Fowler's jazz fusion class (I did this class about a year ago, which culminated in my first jazz performance, at the Con no less!) My teacher, Alan Webb, told us we were free to sit in on any class we liked. I wanted to see how what Nick was doing with his fusion class, and it just happened to be right after my class, so I went in. It was cool being in his class again, he pulled out the keyboard for me to play along (rather than just sit and listen), which was nice of him. I definitely found his class a lot more challenging than my current one. I think my skills lie somewhere between his class and mine. Though its a bit disheartening to be so very lost when you're supposed to be soloing, I find it is good to be pushed and challenged the way you are in his class. And I love his warm ups - we do scales, scale patterns, and modes in all 12 keys - this *really* pushes you to improve your skills. Anyway, I might go back to that class next term.. or maybe go up a level in jazz performance groups.

Oh, and did I mention that Nick is an absolutely brilliant pianist? When it's his turn to solo, he just blows us all away.. it's breathtaking listening to (and watching) him play, solo, comp.. whatever! I wish I could play like that.. *sigh*

Mirror mirror on the wall...

A friend recently introduced me to The Mirror Project, suggesting that I upload the mirror photos I took whilst doing that tour of the office photo blog. I'd never heard of the site, so I checked it out. It's really cool! It's basically a "community of like-minded individuals who have photographed themselves in all manner of reflective surfaces". I had a look around the site, and some photos that grabbed me were this, this, this, this and this one.

For some reason, I really like seeing photos of people in everyday situations and places around the world. It opens a window to a different part of the world, you're seeing what they're seeing, and you don't even have to be there. I love getting that glimpse into their life, which is so different from mine, for just that brief moment. Thats why I started a photo blog (well, I've only done one so far, but I'll add more as I get more ideas, and time). My mirror photos were totally.. well.. crap.. compared to some of the photos on that site. But hey, I uploaded them anyway.

Current listening :: Internationalist - Powderfinger (for some reason, Powderfinger particularly suited this day.. maybe it was the beautiful sunny autumn weather we had today, or I was just feeling laidback)

2003-03-11T16:19:00.000+10:00

Long time no post

Gee its almost been a week since my last post. So what have I been up to.. well, my jazz performance group course at the Conservatorium has been going well. In my class, we have me on piano, a drummer, bass player, guitarist, a vibraphone player (!) and my teacher on saxaphone. Its pretty fun jamming together. I think I'm one of the more knowledgable ones in the area of jazz theory (because I went down from intermediate to elementary), but in terms of playing ability, we're all pretty much on par - probably coz I took a break, and didn't practice.. :(

My weekend was alright. I went to my bf's close friend from primary school's 21st on Sat night. It was cool to meet his old childhood friend. :)

Anyway, I'll post more later. I gotta leave now. Am meeting a girlfriend for a girly dvd and dinner night tonight! :) We're gonna watch Emma on dvd and cook ourselves a yummy chicken pasta with tomato and bechamel sauce .. and apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Mmmm.... :P~

2003-03-05T14:54:00.000+10:00

Photo blog entry #1

Phew. That took a while. I decided to go with the cool and snazzy slideshow layout using lots of javascript and css. Things may change if this method becomes too much of a hassle.

So for the moment, let me introduce... A day in the life of Kazzart @ work. :)

Meh.. feeling rather braindead at the moment. Am very overdue for lunch!

Current listening :: "Moondance" - Van Morrison (Awesome stuff... gimme more Van Morrison!)

2003-03-04T12:43:00.000+10:00

Webcam fun

I've been having lots of fun with my webcam today. Hm.. I must be bored. Anyway, I got an idea from another blog that I occasionally visit.. and that is to do some "photo blogs" with my digicam. So the first one is gonna be a tour of the office (since its already been asked for!)

But important matters first... lunch... hrmm.. what should I have today...?

2003-03-03T09:55:00.000+10:00

Friday Five - Literature Edition

Man its been aaages since I've done one of these... I've been too lazy to lately, but these questions caught my interest.

1. What is your favorite type of literature to read (magazine, newspaper, novels, nonfiction, poetry, etc.)?

Novels definitely!!! Fantasy novels, to be more specific.. I'm hooked on them!

2. What is your favorite novel?

Hmm.. I think I will still stand by "Magician" by Raymond E Feist, though other books/series are starting to encroach on that number one turf.. like the Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A Salvatore and David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean (yes I know, they're brainless, light and fluffy, but thats part of their charm.. that and all the witty repartee!)

3. Do you have a favorite poem? (Share it!)

Hm I don't know many poems, other than ones I learnt in high school. We did Kenneth Slessor for our HSC, and I actually liked his poetry, my favourite was "Country Towns":

Country towns with your willows and squares,
And farmers bouncing on barrel mares
To public-houses of yellow wood
With "1860" over their doors,
And that mysterious race of Hogans
Which always keeps General Stores.

At the School of Arts, a broadsheet lies
Sprayed with the sarcasm of flies:
"The Great Golightly Family"-
Of Entertainers hear To-night"-
Dated a year and a half ago,
But left there, less from carelessness
Than from a wish to seem polite.

Verandas baked with musky sleep,
Mulberry faces dozing deep,
And dogs that lick the sunlight up
Like paste of gold - or, roused in vain
By far, mysterious buggy-wheels,
Lower their ears, and drowse again.

Country towns with your schooner bees,
And locusts burnt in the pepper-trees,
Drown me with syrups, arch your boughs.
Find me a bench and let me snore,
Till, charged with ale and unconcern,
I'll think it's noon at half-past four!

I also quite like "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".. its cool!

It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
`By thy long beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

I'm not gonna quote the whole poem, coz its just so darn long, but another stanza I particularly like is:

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

4. What is one thing you've always wanted to read, or wish you had more time to read?

Hmm.. I wish I had more time to read the bible and christian literature. Or rather, I wish I set aside more time and made it more of a priority to read the bible (and christian books). Otherwise, I also want to read from start to finish, The Silmarillion. I read it ages ago in like year 6 or 7 after LOTR, but found it so dry and boring that I only skimmed through and read bits of it (like the tale of Beren and Luthien.. *tear*).

5. What are you currently reading?

I'm glad to say I'm back into reading again (I drifted off for a few years around the uni/work transition period). At the moment I'm reading The Tamuli trilogy, by David Eddings. Just finished "The Shining Ones" last night, and am about to start "The Hidden City", 3rd and final book. I also have on backburner, "The Dragonbone Chair" by Tad Williams, which I was about a third of the way through, but got distracted by David Eddings' Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium and Tamuli! I'm also in the middle of LOTR, and a few christian books like "1st Century Answers to 21st Century Questions" from the SMBC Press, and "If I were God, I'd make things clearer" by John Dickson.

In other news..

I saw advanced screenings of "Maid In Manhattan" on Saturday night with my bf. It was really sweet.. and romantic. *sigh* I'd say its more a romance than comedy, though there were a couple of funnies. I'm still trying to decide where I'd place it on my scale of romantic comedies (I refuse to use the word "chick flick" because I do not believe romantic comedies are strictly for "chicks" - actually I'm quite adamant on that point - I know of guys who aren't afraid to enjoy a good romantic comedy, and they have my utmost respect.. as opposed to guys who dismiss any romantic movie as a "chick flick" (usually said with dismissive and superior tone) and classify any guys who enjoy them as a pansy)... aanyway.. meanwhile, back at the ranch....

I was saying, I'm not sure how highly I'd rate this movie yet, because I saw it with Andrew and I think that colours my perception of the movie (only to a small degree). Its really quite strange, I find that I enjoy my girly movies more when I watch them with my girly girlfriends, because when I watch it with people that I know are highly critical and somewhat cynical, I worry about what they're thinking of the movie at any point in time, and my brain starts working overtime, thinking as they think, noting the points of inconsistency in the plot etc etc.. and that really spoils the movie for me. I actually really dislike watching those kinda movies with critical/cynical groups of people now.. I think this is partly due to a bad experience of watching a soppy romance with a group of overly critical friends. As a result, I no longer like that movie quite as much because of the feelings/memories associated from that experience. Even watching it a third time with a girlfriend couldn't quite erase the memory.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Blame it on girl troubles. :) I'm not really all that bitter about this stuff.. some things just get to me more easily when I'm not in the best of moods, in other times I would be able to just shrug it off and be more laid back about it.

Current listening :: This Is Me Then - Jennifer Lopez (I don't care what people say about her, I really quite like J.Lo! She's sexy and classy and not afraid of it! :D)

2003-03-01T17:11:00.000+10:00

A career change..?

Well, that was interesting. I just managed to break into my house after locking myself out. It was, scarily, a feat too easily accomplished. *Kaz idly wonders if its this easy at other houses.. mwahaha* J/k. :D

Anyway, last night was my first time leading a bible study in our youth group (I'm leading the year 7 - 10 girls group). It went fairly smoothly, though I feel like I'm in very unfamiliar territory. I guess I'll learn as I go. I'm still trying to decide how strict to be with them in terms of them getting distracted during the study. I want to be hardlined-ish with them, but I don't wanna come across as mean and thereby alienating them from me. *sigh* It was kinda funny though, I had to near shout at times to be heard over their chatter!

Anyway gotta go.. am going to watch Maid In Manhattan now with my bf. (Adv screenings!) Yay!! :)

2003-02-28T14:17:00.000+10:00

Blahness

Feeling kinda depressed.. no idea why... *sigh*

Things feels so.. empty.. and blah....

Anyway... Jazz class last night was good. I'd forgotten how much fun it was to jam and play jazz and impro and stuff with a band. We did Mood Indigo (Duke Ellington) and Impressions (Coltrane) too... my teacher, Alan Webb, always seems to like doing Impressions! I love playing it, coz its a modal piece and there are only 2 chords in the entire song. Dmin7 and Ebmin7 - so its practically all white notes, then all black notes.. woohoo! :) The only problem I have with the song is its high F.B.C (fingernail breaking capability) - I came away with two broken/flaked/split fingernails. Ouchie.. :(

Current listening :: At The Montreux Jazz Festival - Bill Evans

2003-02-27T15:51:00.000+10:00

Sooo... tiiired...

Argh.. feeling so exhausted at the moment. Totally my own fault of course, since I slept late every night of this week coz I was either a) reading or b) on the net. Bad Kazzart. Anyway, for those who are itching to know about my gig on Sat, I'll post up the details soon.. I promise! Just got no time at the moment coz work's been so busy and I really have to run now coz I got my jazz impro class at the Con at 5pm and its 4:50pm already... I'm outta here!

2003-02-25T16:42:00.000+10:00

Photo's galore!

I've just spent the last day and a half uploading, configuring, fixing, and fiddling with this program called Gallery - its a bunch of open source php files that you put on your webserver that creates online photo albums, all with automatic thumbnailing and a bunch of other cool features! Its soo cool!! :) Unix is sooo much more fun an OS to play in than Micro$oft!

So lookee here for the photos I took last week at our beach holiday.

Anyway, today I went with two friends who also work in the city to Balmain for lunch. One of them, John, can drive into work at the moment, so he drove us out to Balmain where we had some yummy Thai. Then we came back and checked out his office (the newish Citygroup building at Town Hall).. we went to the top floor, and man, that view is incredible!

Yikes, nearly 6pm already, I really need to haul my lazy butt off to the gym. I haven't been since... the week before last! Eeek!

Current listening :: Standing In The Shadows Of Motown OST

2003-02-22T00:56:00.000+10:00

"Back to life, back to reality" (and doesn't it just suck!)

The worst thing about going away on a holiday is the coming back. I had the most wonderful 4 days away at Copacabana beach, living in the most beautiful house I've ever stayed at, with the most beautiful sights and sounds of the sea to wake me up every morning. *sigh* It just kinda sucks to be back. Especially when you come back to a nagging mum, stressful situations and pissy people... not to mention lousy weather. And then there's the dreaded work on Monday morning...

Anyway, I had a great time down there, relaxing in the house, cooking and eating yummy gourmet meals, spending every day on the beach (getting dumped by the rather large waves, but that was kinda fun too.. in a suicidal sorta way.. :P). I took lots of photos with my digicam while we were there, so once I download them to my computer, I'll put them up here.

Tomorrow night is Deb's gig. I can't believe its here already! And I haven't had a chance to practice at all since our last rehearsal coz I've been away, so I really hope everything goes ok! We have a rehearsal tomorrow at 2pm, before the gig (which is at 7pm). I guess it'll be alright. As they say here in oz, "she'll be right!"

2003-02-16T21:53:00.000+10:00

We're all going on a... summer holiday..

Arghhhhh!! I can't believe its tomorrow!! Finally our summer holiday is here. I'm going to be spending the next 4 wonderful days lazing about a beautiful, luxurious house right on Copacabana beach. Either that or I'll be lazing ON Copacabana beach, or body boarding in the surf. *sigh* So, expect to see me all tanned and dark when I get back. Ooh and I'm bringing my digicam, so expect some photos too. :)

Anyway I'd best start packing my stuff! See ya's when I get back!