in the midst of my preparations for exams kinda glad i took this southeast asia studies module for exposure. After living here for so many years, my knowledge of this region is still pretty much limited. One of the last topics for this module was pop music (thankfully we didn't study traditional) in the region, which i'm putting up to share with you guys, those that I like haha. Keep an open mind!

Freddie Aguilar (Philippines) - translation of the title means "I will fight". Suppose to be some underground protest music in the 60s against the Marcos regime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wudfsN8BhhQ

Namewee (Malaysia) - that's the name of the composer, i'm not going to put up the link for fear of being arrested lol. It's around on the net. This one is quite funny but at the same time brings up some salient points about the chinese community being marginalised.

X-banana (Myanmar) - I have no idea what the title means, but it sounds pretty modern r & b rap kinda thing. It's actually one of my favourites, heard this music is suppose to be underground because it's banned by the military government for American influences.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gqMpFIzLKqU

Inul Darista (Indonesia) - She's like the booty shaking equivalent of Shakira in Indonesia. For a predominantly muslim society, she's stiring up a lot of controversy. Not sure whether she's included in the anti-porn bill recently passed there but boy can she shake it with her trademark "drilling". I thought excessive hip shaking bit a lil funny, reminds me of the Music and Lyrics scene where Hugh Grant twisted his hip.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YkWWi1GgMX4

Didi Kempot!! (Indonesia - Java) - i heard of this guy before, seems like a cool guy. This is a song about coffee or something. Point of interest here is the difference in culture even in the country of Indonesia itself, this one coming from Java, listen to the blending with the traditional instruments. Catchy song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxR_MhnhjZA

Zaidi Puluh Perindu (Malaysia) - A song about durians.. Oh man i liked Dikir Barat but i didn't know there's such thing as Dikir Moden! gosh it's exactly what you'd expect, electric guitar, heavy rock beats and of course the choral singing haha.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=myGKElO-pNI

Khmer Surin (Thailand) - Popular rural music. Area north of Thailand close to Cambodia where the people living there think they are more Cambodian in nature but are Thai citizens still. National boundaries can be so artificial at times. This one was quite funny because the lecturer (from Thailand) started dancing and wanted us to join in as well (which noone did lol). In the end, he my tutor (from this region) to join him which was quite fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9ZIT4MqsWo

Chin (Thailand) - He's like the Wang Li Hom version there, young dude with the pan-asian looks that would attract legions of screaming schoolgirls, ok most girls. This is the "modern" pop music because they are largely western influences cept that the language is changed. Like they say: If you have it, flaunt it. But seriously, do i really need to keep looking at his sweaty washboard abs? geez.. but i guess it works for his fan base. I got abs too ok! well.. back then...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5knHq6fOkCs

Sheila Majid (Malaysia) - popular female singer in Malaysia. It's a nice song, western influenced jazz but in Malay lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1RCb2wZUFk

That's why i love music, you can appreciate it on the most basic of levels without understanding the lyrics or the meaning. Of course, the songs i love most are the ones that I attach meaning to, which is different for everyone. Though that doesn't mean i can't appreciate others as well. cool huh. I'm not wasting time blogging, its revision ok!

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went to this awesome vegetarian place YY recommended yesterday and it was quite an interesting because the menu is catered for vege newbies like us. There was the usual "beef steeek", "chik cutlets", all tongue in cheek but vege style. I really enjoyed the fried "chicken" one and the "monkey-head" mushrooms, pity we were so hungry and started eating so noone took any pictures hah.. the bishan gang bought us a cake to celebrate our bdays and the restaurant also gave us free desserts! YY got a topman cotton jacket and me two p&b tees :)

we then dropped by the egg tart stall for weiling's quick fix and proceeded on to the "famous" dessert stall in chinatown for further desserts. Although feeling quite full at that point, i had this peanut and sesame cream concoction but mainly still tasted like sesame haha. Ms lum still felt hungry after that and wanted frog porridge, but the rest of us were done for the night lol.

throughout the night we were talking (ok gossiping) about their biz comm members and a mysterious person. What's most interesting was that i also knew the person, what a small world haha...

exams are coming, i should start studying but can't really focus when i still have a project to clear, i hate that kind of feeling. Hopefully this week will be better, i love studying! or at least i should convince myself that!

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Went pei lin's place for dinner and to celebrate my birthday on that deepavali holiday. A little bit different this year because my usual birthday partner gabriel is not around, so that means i had all the girls to myself haha. Anyway, pei lin made some fantastic pizzas for the night, home made dough and stuff and it was fun helping out with the cheese and the oven. The more fun part was when we got to talk about jing xian's new job as a sia trainee, sounds almost like being in the army for girls, really been a long time since we could get everyone together (left gab) to chit chat like old times. enjoyed myself.


Was pretty much stuck in school for the majority of my birthday, had lessons from 10 to 6, no breaks to add. Forgot to charge my phone the day before so was had to set my phone to silent to conserve batt. Many thanks to those who sent me well wishes during the day, apologise if i didn't reply fast enough because of my phone situation. JR, tootsie, and Jiakee came into my last lesson with a bunch of balloons and cake for me, very cute because they had written messages on the balloons.Feel a bit bad also because JR had to skip a few lessons to get the balloons.

Came back home and received a mail from sherbs for a card nightmare before christmas pouch, haha you always know what i like. shuyi dropped by later for the f1 photos i still owed him and he also gave me a cute little wrx remote controlled car! i think we're going to have a race soon so i spent some time practising before heading to bed.

I think the overall theme for this year's celebrations is flour-less cake, having received three different chocolate variations which were really nice. A big thank you to everyone, I had a lovely day :)

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sometimes parents keep things from their children in order to shield them from the "hard" truth. For the most part of my life i had been living in my own little world, at times upset or frustrated about how things are carried out around the place. But as i got older and find out more things, i dunno whether is it better for me to know the truth in the first place or find it out only so late. But as they say, better late than never. Growing older means more responsibility. I knew that, but it didn't really hit me until recently. I also read in books and watched in movies that things are never quite what they seem. Now i know it applies to real life too haha.

Naive or gullible? A bit of both for believing everyone else but not some. Better late than never ya?

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how do you tell the difference between a happy haha and a cynical haha when all my hahas sound and look the same?
If anything, i can only blame myself for being such a whore to others.
my eyes are droopy, the horse is hungry, and i need to study
oh please don't let me be nice when i'm not

haha.

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"Gravity
is working against me
And gravity
wants to bring me down
Oh gravity
stay the hell away from me
oooooh gravity
has taken better men than me
just keep me where the light is" - john mayer

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