What's a good video worth?

Whew! What a week. Hasn't been feeling well this past week, but today I've been feeling much better and think I'm almost fully healed. Had a bit of fever, cough, running nose etc since Sunday. Think maybe it's cos of all the sight-seeing I've been doing last weekend when Alvin dropped by from UK. It was really cool and fun though, and it's always nice to see the familar face of an old friend, and I have to chuckle at the irony that both of us are from Malaysia and we ended up meeting somewhere in between as a compromise - Spain.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of OneRepublic and heard they've got a new song coming out. I've heard their new song, "All the Right Moves" on youtube a couple of times, but have yet to hear it on radio (back in Malaysia). So anyway apparently they now have an official music video up, which unfortunately I'm not allowed to embed here, so here you go:

One Republic - All the Right Moves

When I first saw the director of the video is Wayne Isham, I can't help but smile. I've noticed his names quite a few times, and he's worked with many of the biggest pop stars in the past like Britney Spears, N'SYNC etc. I like that his videos always seem to have an artistic feel to it, and also quite a good production value. I know music videos these days are a dime a dozen, but I think a good video can really enhance the enjoyment (and sales) of a song, and I quite appreciate videos which are not the typical cheesy storylines, corny dancing, or slo-mo sexy poses, or the endless girls in skimply clothing dancing around some (usually ugly) rapper/hip-hop singer.

For this video, I really enjoyed it and think it's a good video. I like the ambience of it which fits the mood of the song, and the well-choreographed dramatic dancing which blends with the song's tempo. Of course, there are still bits of "artistry" in this video which I can't quite figure out yet. And yeah, I really like the slick feel and overall good production of it.

Here's another old video by Wayne Isham which I find is a bit more creative and fun:
(Damn these official videos! Can't embed them..)

Sneak preview of Kris Allen's new album!

Get a sneak listen to full-length tracks from the soon-to-be-released album from Season 8 American Idol, Kris Allen!

Check out the tracks here. Just click on the play button next to the speaker.

As a biased Kris fan, I think this is a pretty good album. In fact, I think most of the songs are catchier than David Cook's album last year. I've only listened to it twice, don't wanna listen too much to spoil the fun when I get the CD later.

Favourite tracks: Written All Over My Face, Bring It Back, Let It Rain, Alright With Me, I Need to Know

Firing up the .. pan?

So in an effort to save money, I've been cooking dinners myself. I mean, why waste a perfectly good kitchen and fridge right? Well, actually not that that perfect. The kitchen is really tiny and lacking what to constitutes to me as essentials - a wok, rice cooker, and a chopping board. Ok ok, so perhaps the hostel wasn't build for an Asian style cooking.

Anyway, so I made fried rice the other day. And trust me, it wasn't easy! I cook the rice the traditional way, ala boiling it in a pot. Turned out quite nicely too. And funny too, that rice is like how noodles and bread are to us - they are just a few of them stocked in 1kg packets at the supermarket, compared to whole array of pasta and bread.

And of course I had to improvise. I had to peel garlic (first time, admittedly) and chop it on plate! For vegetables, I took the easy option of frozen vegetables - but then the variety type here only has beans, carrot, and potato! Yikes, potato in fried rice?! No choice. For meat, I toss in a few handy slices of ham. Flavourings a bit difficult - I had to make do with pepper, soy sauce (which is called spicy sauce here, no idea why since it's completely NOT spicy), and egg.

The last obstacle is the frying part - no wok! So then the non-stick frying pan comes in. Not easy trying to do some 'gentle' rice-frying in the pan.

Well, here's the end result:



Objective rating: 6/10
Personal rating: Bumped up to 7/10 due to hunger and hard effort in making it. And felt damn proud too!

In Barcelona

Arrived here yesterday. Checked into the hostel. Pretty nice room, with bathroom and kitchen some more. Slept a lot to get rid of jet lag.

Made dinner today - first time too as I've never had a self-kitchen before. Made a simple spaghetti with tomato sauce (sofrito de tomate) and added in sausages (cos it's convenient). Tasted decent. And felt damn proud too.

Climate change

"A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done."

- Fred Allen

That's one of my favourite quotes. I admit, sometimes it does feel like a Sisyphean effort when it comes to environmental issues, such as climate change. Good news are far and in between. Check out this latest news today:

"LONDON (AFP) – The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 years, a polar research team said as they presented findings from an expedition led by adventurer Pen Hadow.

It is likely to be largely ice-free during the warmer months within a decade, the experts added...

...The summer ice cover will completely vanish in 20 to 30 years but in less than that it will have considerably retreated," said Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the polar ocean physics group at Britain's prestigious Cambridge University.

"In about 10 years, the Arctic ice will be considered as open sea..."

I think Nobel Prize winner Professor Paul Krugman summed it up the best in his recent article:

"Every once in a while I feel despair over the fate of the planet. If you’ve been following climate science, you know what I mean: the sense that we’re hurtling toward catastrophe but nobody wants to hear about it or do anything to avert it.

... Part of the answer is that it’s hard to keep peoples’ attention focused. Weather fluctuates — New Yorkers may recall the heat wave that pushed the thermometer above 90 in April — and even at a global level, this is enough to cause substantial year-to-year wobbles in average temperature. As a result, any year with record heat is normally followed by a number of cooler years: According to Britain’s Met Office, 1998 was the hottest year so far, although NASA — which arguably has better data — says it was 2005. And it’s all too easy to reach the false conclusion that the danger is past.

But the larger reason we’re ignoring climate change is that Al Gore was right: This truth is just too inconvenient. Responding to climate change with the vigor that the threat deserves would not, contrary to legend, be devastating for the economy as a whole... "

So do we all just throw up our hands in despair and give in to the inevitable? That we might as well just party away and waste away our planet, since future generations will likely inhabit a wasteland of landfills and unbearably hot planet ala Wall-E?

The thing for me is, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Poverty has existed since humans started living in communities? Why do we still keep giving aid to them? So does famine. So does other sorts of problems plaguing the world.

As progressive and advanced our society has become, the truth is all of us like to cling a bit to our past. Our parents still like to talk about the good ol' days growing up in the kampung or how Malaysia was in early ages. And even now, people still go back to their "kampung" in droves for festivities like Hari Raya etc. But what we don't realise is that the same fate is befalling our environment. Soon we will start reflecting on the good ol' days of nice cool weather, shady trees, and when tsunamis, flood, and avalanches are as foreign as Burkina faso.

I believe we can all do our part, no matter how small, to make our lifestyle greener. If it's not out of altruism for the plane, at least to ease our conscience on what kind of world we want our kids to live. Use less energy (electricity, petrol), reduce plastic, try switching to greener products if possible, and recycle.

"The danger posed by climate change cannot be denied. Our responsibility to meet it must not be deferred. If we continue down our current course, every member of this Assembly will see irreversible changes within their borders. Our efforts to end conflicts will be eclipsed by wars over refugees and resources. Development will be devastated by drought and famine. Land that human beings have lived on for millennia will disappear. Future generations will look back and wonder why we refused to act; why we failed to pass on -- why we failed to pass on an environment that was worthy of our inheritance."

-Barack Obama, UN General Assembly Sept 23, 2009

La fotos, episidio dos

Yikes, I just realised that I've still got a bunch of pics from my last trip to Barcelona which I've not posted up yet! And not to mention that I'll be leaving soon again to Spain. So here they are!

Like I said in my (really long ago) previous post, I didn't get to travel much. Only on the day before leaving, me and my supervisor took the afternoon off for some quick walk around the city. And because it's been almost 2 months now, I can't really remember where we went. We took went on the train and changed at several stops. So, on to the pics!

Ah.. globalisation. And I just remembered a friend tapped me to buy some stuff from Zara from him. Hehe, not gonna happen dude..

Random shots around the city.

A cool classic Coke in a contour glass bottle.

Erm.. I just find this highly amusing. No caption needed.

I'm sure this is a historical building of some sort with a fascinating name and background,
I just don't know it.

From a little pet stall near on a well-known tourist walkway area.

A flower boutique stall.

From the marketplace (top to bottom) - lots of veges; glorious loads of strawberries (which I missed out on buying due to poor money conversion maths); and presumably a butchery.

The customary "I've really been there" picture of proof.

Bonus shots! Taken with my cameraphone as my digital camera was stuffed in my bag somewhere. Really pretty pics of snowy mountains taken from the plane window. And as usual, I've no idea which mountain range they're from.




Lazy to post more stuff. Updates on my current whatabouts tomorrow!

Kris Allen's New Single

The new single from American Idol 2009 champ, Kris Allen: Live Like We're Dying. Get an early listen of the full song!

The unofficial sequel to High School Musical

Some bit of fun; came across this self-production called "College Musical" while trawling the web. I'm really impressed with this, I haven't come across such well-produced videos like this on YouTube for a while. It's pretty amazing work - talented cast, great production, and a good script. Nice plot with just the right amount of cheese and humour. If you like HSM, you'll love this. Well even if you don't, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Check out the first episode here:





Here are the subsequent episodes:

Episode 2

Episode 3

Personally, I like the second episode the best so far. And though that song/duet in it was very HSM-ish, it's still a great and catchy song.

ETA:

Episode 4 is now up!

The Proposal

I'm not a big fan of romantic comedies, especially if I'm watching them on the big screen. Toss in some middling actors (IMO) like Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, and I'll barely consider watching it. So when I got some free tickets, I thought what the heck, I bundled in 2 friends along and trudged to I Utama to watch it.

And it turned out.. pretty enjoyable. I haven't enjoyed quite a movie this much in a while. It wasn't ground-breakingly spectacular, but it never felt like dull moment. This was probably due to the surprisingly good chemistry between the lead actors, and good pacing throughout the movie that you don't really get bored, despite knowing the ending the moment you step into the cinema. The funny parts of the movie was incredibly well-done, natural and just funny enough without resorting to gross, sexist, over-the-top gags (which is a rarity these days).

All in all, the movie is pretty smart in that it knows what it is - a pleasant feel-good romantic comedy. And it manage to do it exceedingly well by getting all the basics right and just a bit more, to get the audience engaged along with the right amount of humour that doesn't detract too much from the heart of the show.

Official synopsis from RottenTomatoes.com:

When high-powered book editor Margaret (SANDRA BULLOCK) faces deportation to her native Canada, the quick-thinking exec declares that she’s actually engaged to her unsuspecting put-upon assistant Andrew (RYAN REYNOLDS), who she’s tormented for years. He agrees to participate in the charade, but with a few conditions of his own. The unlikely couple heads to Alaska to meet his quirky family (MARY STEENBURGEN, CRAIG T. NELSON, BETTY WHITE) and the always-in-control city girl finds herself in one comedic fish-out-of-water situation after another. With an impromptu wedding in the works and an immigration official on their tails, Margaret and Andrew reluctantly vow to stick to the plan despite the precarious consequences.

My rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

"Back in my days..."

Went to the first-years briefing for the InterCollege VC Cup Debate with Fea - this is technically the 5th one I've been to. Feeling old... *grabs keys and starts driving down memory lane*

-

This is a gonna be a totally fanboy-ish and intelligence-devoid post, but I've spent the better part of the day without achieving much as I'm too caught up with the American Idol finale results show this morning.

*spoiler alert* In case you were living in a rock or planning to avoid all newspapers/radio and catch the show this weekend.

I was ecstatic that my favourite pick, Kris Allen won. Oh sure, he can likely never outsing Adam Lambert on flu day, but I liked his laid back manner and ability to connect emotionally to a song and convey it. Adam's octave range could probably give Mariah Carey a run for her money, but it always seems as if he's just showing off and putting on a show rather than just conveying a song.. Each performance, he'll have some tripped up lights, smoky effects, costume etc. While visually creative, it detracts me from enjoying the authenticity of a song. And oh, I don't like the tone of his voice too - too wavery, and for some reason he sounds really feminine to me.

So anyway, in the grand design of the cosmos, this is probably totally insignificant - the world economy is still tanking, I still have a proposal attachment to finish up, and a stupid brainwashing camp to attend. But this totally made my day.

ETA: Check out the new single from Kris Allen - the customary 'coronation song'. I usually think this songs are cheesy/sappy, but surprisingly this one is quite alright.
Disclaimer: Possible earworm. Shall not be held responsible for random hummings, or stuck melody in mind.

La fotos, episidio una

Ok, I lied. I got over jetlag a day after I got back, but procrastination and laziness got in the way. So anyway, there's a quite a few photos so I'm splitting them up two posts, in a sorta-chronological order in between my rambling narratives.

This was my first time venturing out for such a distance on my own, and not surpisingly, my parents were worried sick. But things pretty much went well. As the plane was arriving in the Frankfurt airport (around 6.15 am there), I was caught off-guard by the pilot's announcement that the local temperature was 8 degrees! Yikes. Landed on the erm, open landing (?) area, which was noticably windy and cold, before a bus took us to the airport. Inside the temperature is bit more tolerable.

It was a 6-hour transit, and man was things expensive there. A bottle of mineral water (500 ml) was around 2-3 euros (1 euro = RM4.8)! On the plus sight, coffee's widely available and cheaper there, relative to mineral water of course. So anyways, with my jakun-ness and all, I walked around the airport and took some pics. If you look real close at this departure information display, you can make out my flight - (Orange box), LH 4454 Barcelona.





No matter where you go in the world, you can always look forward to a warm, comfortable cup of coffee. A grande Caramel Macchiato here is 4 euros.



Cool to see some green steps taken by the airport. All the waste bins are like this:



Lots of shops there selling different kinds of shops - including this one which I'm not entirely sure but I think Fea and Alia would probably go ga-ga over:



Somehow, I find it amusing that travellers will just pop in and decide to buy an extremely (overpriced) crystals as they are about to board the plane:



Arrived in Barcelona airport around 1 pm. Took a cab to the hostel - La Residencia Campus del Mar. About 30 minutes ride, and the fare came up to 25 euros! (Double yikes). The rooms are really nice though, if a bit pricey:



Outside view of the hostel:



The hostel is actually within a residential neighbourhood, which is sandwiched between a large (assumably corporate) building and a park. It's also less than 10 minutes of walking distance away from the research institute where I would be heading to. It was really cool to walk around, as the weather there is really chilly, I'd say around 10 degrees in the morning, and bout 15 degrees later in the day. The daytime hours seemed to stretch longer too - 6.30 am over there is kinda like 8.00 am here, while 8.30 pm is kinda like 6 pm here.

I started out a bit earlier on Monday morning, and it was cool to see lots of kids walking around with their parents, presumably to school:



There also seemed to be lots of people cycling around, and later I saw people lugging their folded up bikes into buildings. I spotted many rows of bicycles, I kinda think they're sorta like a rent-a-bicycle service:




More pics and ramblings in the next post!

Home sweet home

Just a short update. I got home yesterday morning, jetlagg-ed and all. It was an awesome experience in Spain, with me never having gone to a western country before and kinda just making it out mostly on my own this time.

More updates and pix after I'm jetlag-ed free.

So...

Feeling a bit nervous right now - will be leaving for Spain in later tonight. Initially I was supposed to be going with my lecturer, but due to some scheduling conflict I'll be going there myself first.

Whew. My big adventure into the outside world. Alone. Can't help but feeling jittery - not to mention my parents giving me grief and also kinda worried bout dealing with my co-supervisor in Spain.

Oh, so just a head-up to you guys not to call me for the next week (like in the slightest chance of flying pigs that one of you suddenly decided to). Or else just in case you get landed with a big fat phone bill or watch your credit evaporate.

Adios!

World - 2. Me - 0

Apparently the forces that be are carrying some sort of grudge against me.

Today I was planning my labwork so that it'll roughly end around noon, so I can wrap up my work, go lunch and call it an early day.

So around 12, I ran a gel electrophoresis. Short description - it's a screening process to see whether I'm successful in generating the products that I want. Takes bout 1 and 1/2 hours, a no-brainer procedure.

Except that for this time after running a countless times for more almost 2 years now, it went kaput on me. To cut the story short - I couldn't find out if I was successful in generating the products I want. Even a negative result would've been better, I would then figure out what I should do next.

Now I have to run the gel again coming Monday. And I wasted around 2 hours in lab, almost starving for lunch while I waited for the gel in vain.

Sigh. I should better start hunting for a rabbit's foot.

Me against the world (and losing)

Today just isn't my day.

I woke up extra early today to go for class at 9 am, as parking's a nightmare there. A few minutes later, someone received a text message from the lecturer that the class's cancelled, with a replacement on Monday at 11 am.

To make it for that class,  I'll probably need to burn some hell money and sacrifice some chickens to get a parking at that time.

I wanted to transfer some money from bank A to bank B. At the Chancellory (2 minutes walk from my college), there is an ATM of bank A and cash deposit machine of bank B. Simple and convenient, right?

Turns out the ATM was kaput. So fine,  I walked to the next ATM at Pusanika (10 minutes) away to withdraw. Walked back to the same spot I started earlier to now deposit the cash for Bank B.

Deposit machine making weird noises; rejected all the cash. Tried putting in a couple of RM10 bills to see - also rejected.

Either that deposit machine's spoiled or I'm carrying a huge load of counterfeit cash.

My options now are 1. carry the extra cash around, or 2. walk back to Pusanika to deposit the cash back at the bank A.

Either way, I had just took an extra long walk to withdraw cash I don't need.

Understanding the US credit crisis

A picture's worth a thousand words, and this short video helps explain where billions of dollars disappeared to.


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Wrap-up

Guess it's time for the obligatory wrap-up post for 2008 (ignoring the zero post for December). Christmas and New Year passed by without a bang, as usual. Just met up with some friends, did some work at the lab, and relaxed a bit.

One awesome thing this year was the reinvigorating and comeback of our UKM debaters. We got a pretty good batch this year, and it's not only skills alone. Most of them showed real commitment and interest - things that are usually lacking in the juniors before this. We great inroads at this year's Royals Debate tourney at IIUM (the grandest national-level tourney). This was also my first time adjudicating officially at a tourney, and I was quite suprised that I was pushed all the way to adjudicate till the finals. And well, it's great too that I made some quick bucks too from the adjudicating. Hehe.

This year I actually tried to make some personal developments - on the finance and social side. I started reading up on personal finance, made a budget, track my spending etc. Well, it's never too early to start figuring out your finances and preparing for the (gulp!) golden years of your life (as much as that prospect scares the hell out of me).

On the social part - I started off kinda enthusiastic enough. I buzzed up old acquaintances and friends, and even met up with a few of my secondary schoolmates, though it tapered off towards the end as I worked on another social front. I became a little bit more proactive in meeting new people, and well...we'll see how things goes.

Here's looking to a more productive and exciting 2009, in more ways than one.