Question everything

warning: the post entry this time might appear to be inappropriate for strong believer.. u might better read other things instead of this. coz I don't want to light any flames.

here we go

well. I like to question things, including beliefs.
Not all of my friend know it, but I am a free thinker. I don't really keep boasting about my belief in nothing, but it might seems to grow stronger.

Recently I often spare my time to watch youtube channel on Richard Dawkins videos which mostly comes from richarddawkinsdotnet channel on youtube. to look at his talks, debate, and interviews.

I do not belief, not because I just do not want to belief. I don't belief because I do not find the necessity to belief, what is right to belief and why should I belief.

every religion talks about faith. but, if you think about it, faith is blind, because faith is not supported by any evidence. I will not blindly belief in something unless I see a clear evidence and reasons on why I should belief in something and stand by it.

many religions told that god created human and other living creature on this earth, in the definition that human in the first place do not have any ancestor as it is created as human straight away by god in the first place. however, science shows that human is an evolution from other creature which is some kind of apes. and as I know, no religion teach about evolution in its holy book.


there are many other controversial things that you can find on the internet, and books. try to open your mind and question everything. seek for the truth. simple question can have deep meaning. just try to look it broadly, is this right? is this wrong? why my belief is right? why not other people's belief? is it wrong not to belief?.
just keep ask yourself question. what? why? who? where? when? how?.

I do not encourage any people who read this to become a free thinker like me. But I hope this post can encourage people to seek for the truth, to ask questions, ask for clarity.

life is a learning experience and learning is a journey. it will be a shame to live your life based on something that supported by nothing or supported by bullshits.

Blabbering

Alright, I written everything last night at foyer, but the internet got problem, so I just save what I wrote to notepad and copy paste it back to the blog today. here we go


4:29 am in the morning.. still in the foyer, with yinyun twins..

bored already and can't continue to study, therefore I am here blabbering on my blog.
Lots of things have been left out from being written on this blog since the last post.
The trip to broga, monash extreme sport carnival, dinner @ steamboat with sunway marketing staff, teachers day events, etc etc

I'll just write summary of some events that I still remember

Broga Hill

its pretty enjoyable, its been long since I'm putting an effort to see a sunrise up a hill. I went there together with novita, oliva, shenny, susan, mega, rocky, rio, and yudi. had a nice morning exercise followed up by decent breakfast.



Monash Extreme Sport Carnival

I performed at this carnival with my new band. MK Ultra, we just been together for one month at that point of time, but I think we performed pretty well.
I've moved from one band to another. namely

1. X-Numb. the band I created during highschool. I was the lead guitarist, after one performance then we disband.

2. No Name Band (at monash with hazique cs). just performed once at monash street performance and thats it.

3. Session guitarist for Justin cs. only for a while during the cns week of music club

4. Session Bassist/Guitarist with Johan and Ivaldi. Only performed once at monash music club gathering night, but we jam few times until now. but kinda rare. btw Johan is the guitarist that made me willing to sacrifice from being guitarist and start playing bass seriously

5. Vanishing acts, together with oliva, mega, steph, and jeffrey. I was the guitarist and we performed once at Monash Talent night 2009. This is a pretty good band, I'd like to perform more with them but just not the kind of band that I will put my 110% into it. Genre differences problem. the feeling is more on playing for fun and experience only.

6. MK Ultra. performed once at MESC. after moving from one band to the other, this is the band that I think I should stick with. however slight changes might need to be done here. not everybody moving to the same direction. once that tackled, I believe this can be a decent band. everyone just need to develop their skill more. Arman need practice on vocal, I need more stamina and stability on playing bass, ziyan need to get a synth and learn it well. and we need a MUSE oriented drummer (jeffrey, I am sorry if u ever read this). if all that things done, it'll be nice. finally I found a non-mainstream band that fit my style, and can bring out the craziness out of me, never in my life I jump around in the studio or stage when jamming a song.
If I managed to get a job in malaysia, I will keep this band together and hopefully we can do some crazy stuff. I think Arman have a great ability and also determination in creating and playing his own music, I want to bet my luck on that. hopefully we can create original songs and start small by playing frequently at Cafe's.

sometimes I think its pretty crazy and silly if I look back at times. All this music and band things is started because of an ANIME. its called BECK. The ANIME is about highschool boys that loved music and his journey on creating his ultimate band and music. Looking at the ANIME, I was moved and feel like to have a band on my own, thats when it all start. of course with further influence from MUSE, inspirational people like flea, and some friend.

Teachers day events
luckily  my classes are only on monday and thursday, and sunway having teachers' day event on tuesday and wednesday for two weeks in a row. so there are totally 4 day of teachers' day celebration.
sunway invited around 200 teachers from selangor area.

because the event do not clash with my classes I managed to join all the event and helped out. In return, in all 4 days I had 4 different meals in sunway dining room which all are very nice. My favorite is the beef steak, and the tiramisu dessert. yummy. more events like this please. :p

I realized that I am the only student helper that join all 4 teachers' day event. so lucky.

at the last day, there are some extra little pot plant to give out, so each student helper can get one. I take one and give it to Shenny since Novita said that she must really liked it.

Recording
recently I try to record a song. using sonar 8 producer, I am trying to do an amateur home recording. but its not easy as I thought, but I am trying my best.
having headache working on it sometimes, as I had writers' block all the time. I do not not how to connect the instruments and vocal so that they make one nice flowing sound. what I have now are notes that sounds ok individually but did not work properly if put together. I hope I can overcome this soon. its killing me

Swimming
redang trip coming soon on july. I can swim but not very well. I only can swim breaststroke and I really think I need to learn freestyle. so far I managed to swim back and forth at condo swimming pool 6  times, but of course with some rest interval and using breaststroke. I want to improve my swimming ability and able to hold longer breath, if I managed it I think I'll have some pretty nice snorkeling experience later at redang. its gonna be fun.


all right, thats all for today. for my friend that is bored and got nothing to do and end up at my blog, I hope u enjoy what u read. haha.

cheers.
gotta go.

Big Night Out 2010 - MUSE

This is a video I found on Youtube..
I think this is a pretty good representation of how great the Gig was..




Not all of the song Muse Played is shown in this video though..


note: No Copyright infringement Intended

Big Night Out 2010!!

3rd February 2010


Big Night Out 2010 at Singapore.. This is the second annual Big Night Out at Singapore
The Headline is MUSE, and the bands that assisting them are saosin and rise against.

So, My journey starts at 3rd February morning

7.am wake up and get ready
8.45am met Daniel (apparently he is going to batam at that day, using aeroline to singapore) at lobby
then we walk to pyramid to take aeroline.
9.30 the bus take off.

-inside the bus-



Had my breakfast inside the bus. They provide subway sandwich for breakfast. Pretty Good
Then watch 2 movie inside the bus. The movie played was Raise your Voice (hillary duff movie), and some alien movie (family movie).


around 2.30 when I arrived at Singapore immigration, I got into a little bit of problem there.
This is my third time coming to Singapore, but apparently this is my first time coming there using my own passport. Before that I didn't have a passport and enter Singapore under my father passport account.
Therefore, they held me for around 15 min there, filling up my data in the database, finger print, address in Indonesia and Malaysia, Which College did I attend, College Address, bla bla bla.
SHIT!! they just waste my precious time. I need to go to Singapore Indoor Stadium ASAP, I need to get in the queuing line.


Due to that I am behind the schedule that I have set.
3.30 I arrive at Harbour Front Centre.
3.45pm I arrive at the hotel. Hotel 81 Palace at Geylang (apparently this area is famous for prostitution, and I can see that clearly, many prostitutes houses there).

This is the hotel room that I am Staying in. Spent $60 for this room.

4.pm I arrive at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, and Immediately start to get in the queuing line.
There was MUSE souvenir shop at that time, selling MUSE T-Shirts, MUSE bags, MUSE badges.
I wanted to buy something from the shop but my priority now is to get good position watching MUSE later on, so I need to queuing in the stadium entrance, not queuing in front of the souvenir shop.
I was hoping that the shop is still open after the show is done, apparently not. That SUCKS

The queuing line around 4.30pm

while waiting for 3 hours to get inside from the west entrance, I just listen to MUSE in my MP3.

6.45.pm the west entrance open. But things starting to get messy, people break through the queuing line. looking at the other do so, I don't want to lose and let those people get nice position, so I also break through the queuing line. Suddenly many of those that are behind me are now in front of me, and many of those that are in front of me are now Behind me. Very sad. But Whatever.

Around 7 managed to go Inside the Stadium and get the free standing area. I think I'm around 6-9 Row, Not so sure, But its pretty close, BUT NOT CLOSE ENOUGH, I want closer.

Saosin open the Big Night Out, Then Rise Against.

Save The Best For The Last, MUSE Perform after these two bands.

I don't know what happen in this Big Night Out, but the supporting bands play too freaking many songs.

I believe Saosin play around 8 to 10 songs, and rise against play around 6 to 8 songs.

Saosin

Johan and Shakila seems to like this band. So I have great expectation on them to Rock the Big Night Out.

But Apparently, They didn't leave good impression on me.

1. Their Music is rather similiar with other punk rock bands, quite distinctive, but not distinctive enough.

2. They play around 5 or more songs with the bass off or maybe the volume is too soft. They keep going with it,  Where I think they shouldn't. The vocalist drummer and guitarist should buy the bassist some time to get his bass sounds rights. just do some instrumental shit or interaction with the audiences (well actually they did a little bit of interaction to buy some time, but it just for 1 min which is not good enough for the bassist to get the technical problem solved). at the last 4 songs then the bass volume is loud enough.

3. I personally think they didn't have good attitude. They were asking how many Saosin Fans in the house (they ask their fans to raise their hands). Then they start talking about maybe they should 

do a headlining in the future. I don't care if they do headlining in the future event, go ahead dude. But it just the way they say things, expression, gesture, intonation, I just feel that they intimidated by how many MUSE fans compared to Saosin fans that night, and how the crowd didn't really rock on to his expectation. Oh please, You guys are not big yet, don't compare yourself to MUSE. MUSE have influenced many artist just check it out at 

http://www.musewiki.org/Influences#Artists_or_bands_influenced_by_Muse, lots of big names there, Brian May, coldplay, dream theater, linkin park, lost prophets, marylin manson, etc etc. See the list n you will see how big and influential they are.

Rise Against

Not much to say about this band

But They have some pretty good song. There is one song that is really good that night, very familiar to me.

I don't know whether it is their original or they do cover song that night.

They have good attitude, showing some support for both MUSE and saosin.

MUSE

When the other 2 bands play, the crowd is very messy, at some fast pace songs some people jumping around (which is good, I did that too), but the others look for chance to steal spots and start pushing around when the other jumps (I believe that is because some MUSE fans that stands rather behind want to come front, so they start pushing, the times Rise Against almost finished their performance, more pushing happens).

Thank god when it come to MUSE performance, all the crowd suddenly become more cooperative.

Probably because everyone more focus on capturing picture, singing along, rather than do some pushing pushing and pushing.

Many of the crowd are just like hypnotized when MUSE performs.

Have you ever come to a charismatic church and see how they sing along inside the church?, that is just what happen inside Singapore Indoor Stadium when MUSE perform. just 100times better, wilder, louder.

My soul just drown into their songs that night. chanting every song lyrics, clapping, raising both of my hands and move them to the beat, jumping. I just went crazy, completely crazy.

The Setlist
We Are the Universe (Intro)
1. Uprising
a great choice for opening song
during the chorus, I got really excited coz we are all like MUSE cult group when everyone chant "They will not force us, they will stop degrading us, they will not control us, we will be victorious". 
2. Supermassive Black Hole
probably the song that all Muse Fan there know (those twilight fan probably just know SBH and the new The Resistance album song) 
3. Map of the Problematique
Really nice guitar effect on this song.
4. Resistance
one of my favorite song from the new album. Great feeling on the drum.
all the fans cooperate well on chanting "it could be wrong, could be wrong"
5. Interlude + Hysteria
the outro from this Hysteria is special, really like it. first time of hearing this type of outro, just small changes on the guitar notes but made the songs feel very fresh.
6. Stockholm Syndrome
the first thing that come to my mind when they play this song is "a dream come true". because I keep imagining and dreaming watching MUSE playing this song live. One of the best Live song from MUSE. Event MUSE admits that this song is very fun to be played live.
7. Nishe
good filler while the crew arranging Matt White Kawai Piano
8. United States of Eurasia
Very Nice background on the screen behind them. It shown closed up picture of fans, and some videos on wars and politics. Euraasia~~sia~~sia~~sia.. Euraaasia~~siaa~~sia~~siaa~sia~~ (good ending of this song)
9. Sunburn
Totally didn't expect this one coming. haha. So glad that they play a song from Showbiz. Nishe also from Showbiz album, but it more to instrumental filling song. Not many of the fan know this song. I only hear Matt and My Voice on this one, I didn't hear anybody sing along on this song. Maybe there are some other person, not that I aware off.  Great version of Sunburn, Matt replace the guitar solo with Piano, Greato..
Helsinki Jam
Great job by Chris and Dom. Nice Jam they got there. Brilliant Idea to buy Matt some time to get ready with his keytarcaster.
10. Undisclosed Desires
probably the song from MUSE at that night where I didn't get so hyper. I think its because the main power in this song is Matt Vocal. There is no Piano or Guitar in this song, and there are 3 and 4 layers of vocals on some parts of the song. on live, they can only create 2 layer of vocal, Matt + Chris, Maximum 3 with Morgan (the so-called 4th member of MUSE) helping with the vocal, Dom Can't sing thats why. Furthermore, the vocals is not just simple vocal, but high technique with effect added vocal. With that great layers of vocals gone, this song is not so great to be performed live compared to the other song. FYI, the laser start it action from this song onwards
11. MK ULTRA
Matt Guitar at the bridge is really really LOUD here, Awesome!!.
12. Starlight
Clapping to the beat create a very nice atmosphere there. Spelling TITS in morse code.. Gotta Fucking Love it.. Hahah..
13. Time Is Running Out
at first I thought they were gonna play plug in baby, because Matt take the position he usually take when he want to play plug in baby.. TIRO is awesome.. The Crowd chant "Bury it, I won't Let you Bury it, I won't let you smother it, I won't let you Murder it"..
14. Unnatural Selection
most of the fans join chanting at "counter balance this commotion , we're not droplets in the ocean"
Encore
15. Exogenesis: Symphony Part I (Overture)
I overheard them rehearsing this song when I was sitting outside queuing. Again, I only hear Matt and my voice on this song. I feel like possessed by something when it comes to "who are we. when are we, why are we, why are we, why why why".
16. Plug in Baby
Another one of their best song performed live. Matt literally dancing with his guitar. Awesomeness!! 
17. Man with a Harmonica + Knights of Cydonia
Chris Harmonica comes to the ear, and straight away stuck in my heart. Hahah.
an Awesome ending for Big Night Out
Love the crowd chanting "No One Gonna Take Me ALive, the time has come to make things rights, U and I must fight our rights, U and I must fight to survive.


I thought they will play "guiding light" because I overheard they doing rehearse on this song, but apparently not.


Looking at their performance live. Know I know why that they get the best live act awards consecutively and why they got PhD from a university. They really2 smart when they perform live. Everything is well planned
The entrance, the set list, the lights, and coordination.


For Example when it comes to United States of Eurasia and Sunburn where Matt gonna need the Piano, they play Nishe first, therefore, there is an Instrumental song that the audience can listen to while the crew prepare the piano. Then when Matt set up his keytarcaster when it comes to undisclosed desires, Dom and Chris play the helsinki jam, Bass Solo + Drum. Therefore, the audience is never left with a single minute where there is no MUSEic playing. We always get to listen to something great every single minutes of their performances.

The Crowd
Generally, Some of them sucks.
Why?
1. some don't have any manner, they push people for fun. WTF?
2. many of them are not gentlemen. Hey dude, C'mon even if it is not your friend, if there is a girl beside you and people start pushing, try protect her a bit la.
3. Some are really lame, there is this one group of friends, around 7 ppl. THEY SUCKS. I don't know what they doing there at the front free standing area, they better just go home and play their Playstation. After Rise Against perform, while the crew moving out all Rise Against Equipment and Start Moving in MUSE equipments many of the audience start screaming MUSE. But this stupid group just screaming BULLSHITS. They screamed "westlife, backstreetboys, maria ozawa, bonjovi, etc etc". Damn!!, Maria Ozawa is not even a musician, She is a porn Star. WTH!!


MUSE Crowd
I feel rather proud telling this here. Many of them are not Hardcore fans like me. When MUSE play "Sunburn" and "Overture" I felt that I am one of the few that singing along and know the lyrics of the songs. 
I believe many of them didn't know and didn't listen to "Showbiz" Album.
and when MUSE give a little bit of time for fans to scream song title to request. The fans just screaming, "Plug in baby" and "Knights of Cydonia".
Iam the only one that screaming "thought of a dying atheist", "Hyper Music", and "Citizen Erased"
Asides from that they were pretty good. Know the songs well, know the lyrics and the beat well.
Hyper and High. It feels very nice to be in the front row watching them up close and jumping around with bunch of other fans.




Overall


It is a very great experience for me, very fun, ROCK to the MAX.
attending this gig I also realized that I am not just MUSE fans, I am MUSE worshipers.
doing this, means that I have fulfill one of my mission in my life.
still got a lot of mission left though.
Climbing Everest, Abseiling at Angel Falls, get my own House, have a pet (preferably eagle), etc etc.


Spending


Big Night Out TIcket, SGD 171.20
Living Cost in Spore for 1 Night SGD 100
Aeroline RM158.

Lepok Waterfall

Alright..

After such a long time without any "Real" trekking, finally I've come back to the wild..
Yesterday I went to Lepok Waterfall. This is the second waterfall that I went, the first one is chilling waterfall (been there 3 or 4 times =.=, but it is very beautiful indeed)

wake up 6am in the morning, as the invitation to trek was soooo last minute, I didn't have time to prepare the food nor water for this trekking.

went to college at 7 am, meet Amir at the foyer. Apparently he is officially a pilot now and work with firefly. Congrats.

After a little chat with Amir, I went to the water shop at the Cafe to fill my empty water bottle. Unfortunately, the green light (which indicate that the water is save to drink) is not on. But whatever, I need water to keep me hydrated, so I just put in 50 cent to the machine, and fill my empty water bottle.

After that I went Back to Foyer and Met Mr.TMC. I told him that I got no food for this trek, and he said he have bread that he can share with me (which actually have been expired for one day). Again, whatever, I need food to keep me going. It just expired by one day anyway. LoL

7.25, Everyone hop on to the bus and we go to the trekking spot. around 25 people join the trek

I'm not sure what time, maybe at 8.30, we arrived at Sungai Lepok.
Do a little warm up and then start walking.
TMC take the front, Amir and Me have to take care at the back.

Everyone walked quite fast actually, The trek estimated to be 2 hours walk, but 1 hours++ we arrived at the waterfall already. At certain spot, TMC told everyone to be careful because it is slippery there, But he is the first one to slip at that spot near the waterfall and got washed by the water. He got himself all wet and his camera too. =.='''. I was hoping that I could get some pictures from Him. But now I have to wait Amir to print his picture first, then upload it on his blog or facebook (yea, he need to print it first, he use film camera)

TMC and I ate all the expired bread together with a can of tuna. TMC also make a hot Milo and Share w/ me. Pretty nice trekking for me, as I don't need to prepare food nor milo but I have someone who will share for me, and all I need to do is just help him carry the bread and the  gas + stove. hahah

on the way back, I walk at the front. Until I have to stop at one spot (because its likely for the others to choose the wrong trail at this spot). So I stop and wait for those who walked behind me. wait for around 20 minutes, until everyone that is not guided by TMC pass the "potentially misleading spot". Then after that I run run and run try to catch up with the one at the very front. Apparently I can't, they are too far in front of me, I just managed to catch up with the new MDM lecture (I forgot her name).

I think I managed to reach the starting point from the waterfall in less than one hour (not so sure, didn't check the time). Before Everyone come, I took the chance to changed my cloth inside the empty bus. After change my cloth, I bought an Ice cream and wait for the rest.

1++ we rode the bus back to sunway, 2++ we arrived at sunway, then TMC, Amir, and me went to jaffar to have lunch. Out of the blue, TMC take his money and ask Amir to pay for the food, including mine and Amir's. Thx for the treat.

overall, this trek had been pretty fun, and apparently this is the my first trek that didn't have group picture, and my first trek where I used my MP3 and have "MUSEic" in my ear while walking deep in the jungle.

thats all
Cheers
^^

back to nature

what a surprise tonight..
I was watching SUPERNATURAL Series and then suddenly my phone rang

I thought it was Aan, Bcoz in the afternoon he said he wanna play dota later on at night..
but it was from TMC..
last minute invitation to trek to lepok waterfall..

its been a long time.. yeah, it sure has been.. and i'm excited for 2morrow.. hehe ^^

Bla Bla Bla

Somehow I realized that more and more people becoming what their surrounding want them to be
rather than being themselves or being what they really want to be..

and kids nowadays.. lots of them are just wannabe..

=.=""

Radiant Tiger Unstrung
Hydra Bent Sprite
Replicas of You
Hydra Hap by Pit!!!!!!


notes: Uncertainty Wooed Sooty, Lame Ouijas


Its all a code, a secret. Solve it then you know..