Dear Audience EP.

If only because this post IS an Extended Play, in every sense of the word.

A few days ago I posted a rather long and extensive review of the fourth album of the Thai rock band, Bodyslam; said album was the very enjoyable Save My Life, and to that end, I thought I did a reasonably good job at giving said work due justice – especially with the presence of cultural quirks and language gaps thrown into the mix. In writing the review, I did my research as best as I could, visited numerous translation sites to ensure that I had as close an approximation as I could ever hope to have, and ultimately produced a final review which – while not perfect – is something I am quite satisfied with.

So imagine my surprise and absolute shock when I received a comment from my only Thai reader (as far as I know of at least) saying the review that I had done was actually a song SHORT.

There was one track missing from my copy of the album @.@

I was seriously flabbergasted at how I could have missed out on something of such a scale; I mean, if I mis-spelt the band member’s names, or conveyed a translation that was not 100% accurate, then perhaps that would have been forgivable, based on the circumstances. But I left out A SONG. A WHOLE TRACK. All four minutes and twenty seconds of it >.<

Thus, in order to remedy that, here’s my review of that “missing” number, Dear Audience:

Song: ท่านผู้ชม (Dear Audience)

Album: Save My Life

Artist: Bodyslam

Release Date: September 2007

Track Number: 3

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Although I never stated it explicitly in my initial review, I want to say here that while listening to Bodyslam, I always felt that their faster numbers were where they were most enjoyable – that’s not to diss their slower numbers of course (tracks like แค่หลับตา and นาฬิกาตาย are nothing short of amazing fun in and of themselves). Thus I felt that it was somewhat of a shame that Save My Life only featured two REALLY head-banging tracks (ยาพิษ/Poison and เสี้ยววินาที/Split Second) out of the full complement of nine, which actually is a pretty low percentage – for any given album. And honestly I remember thinking once that it didn’t make sense at all to me lol.

Now I see that I should have guessed even then that there was something mssing from the mix =.=”

Dear Audience is that missing fast number. From the moment this song starts one immediately feels the groove-jet setting in, as the catchy-but-simple riff propels you into the first verse. As the title of this one suggests, the song is essentially a number that is aimed at none other than the watching public and the band’s general audience themselves; a bit of a tongue-in-cheek thing so to speak. Although frankly speaking I do not understand the lyrics and their culturo-linguistic significances at all, it is safe to say that I am more than able to feel the attitude just hurtling out of the catchy opening first verse.

The bridge is pretty spectacular as well, but for me it’s the chorus in where Dear Audience scores big time. We first get to hear it at around 0.49, and just LISTEN TO IT GO, seriously @.@

Anthemic verses characterize this one (the part that I simply simply LOVE although I have no dickie bird as to what it means, are the syllables “Mur-rai-ja“, which are powerful sounds to use/make in just about any language I think), as both Khongmalai and Changsawek belt out the phrases intended to taunt their audience; but check out Chaneed in the background – rolling and drumming for all he’s worth; that’s one SICK drum pattern right there!! Changsawek is equally impressive instrumentally, his bass driving the tonal uplifts and downturns constantly throughout; in fact I would go so far as to say that this is the track in which he plays best. Stunning performance, simply put.

Verse two and the second sampling of the chorus is no real different from the first, but with bass control and attitude like THAT, who the hell is complaining?!?!! I throughly enjoyed my second spin through the whole affair, and it gets me worked up for the climax of the number each time. This aforementioned peak is another one of the highlights of the track, as Khongmalai leads you into an unassuming guitar section from Tantrakul, allowing this talented guitar player to simply riff the whole track along, as the former sends falsetto after falsetto up your ears and the band dumps the chord at 3.34.

The final 50 seconds are so are filled with more of that grunting chorus, which I seriously enjoy a LOT lol. There is a final adjustment to the state of affairs however, as Khongmalai takes the liberty of adding a couple more syllables into the final lines to add a tone of finality to the song. It works big time, trust me. One hell of a way to end the lyrical component.

My only (minor) gripe with this one is how the song ends: you get Chaneed playing his drum pattern ALONE for the first three seconds or so – which sounds bloody amazing – but then the whole component is curtailed by the entrance of some weird techno warp at the very end. I’m no musician, but I honestly feel that the whole song would have been better served by simply letting Chaneed finish it.

Here’s the relevant song btw:

ท่านผู้ชม

Amazing song – Save My Life is seriously made all the more stronger by the presence of this one as track #3 on its songlisting. I said the album was good before, even without Dear Audience – imagine how much better it is now lol.

The album – and this song in particular – still comes very highly recommended =)

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How my iTunes looked after Dear Audience’s late entry lol. Truly, the song had LOTS of listening to catch up on LOL XD

PS – In hindsight, I still can’t believe that of all the 10 songs available, Prae and I missed out on swapping this one!! Dear Audience just screams BASS to my ears LOL!!! My music buddy – of all people – should know why this is particularly agonizing to me XD

The dust subsides.

MIDTERMS, WINTER SEMESTER 2009:

FLS 1511 – Communication orale et écrite en français langue seconde : niveau élémentaire I = 89% (A)

GEO 2113 – Paleontology = 89% (A)

GEO 2164 – Introduction To Analytical Mineralogy = 78.3% (B+)

GEO 2321 – Structural Geology and Tectonics = 85% (A)

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So we got lucky for the most part. Even then, the results you see above are quite disappointing to be honest, and definitely not worth being proud of – despite their apparent “okay” grades and related scores. None of the above I am particularly satisfied with, especially as I really want to end this whole second year affair with a bang before heading home for the summer.

Consider this one galvanized for the remaining 2.5 months.

Lives Worth Saving.

Alright folks – another album review.

Be forewarned though – this one is “slightly” unusual; but I really want to do it anyway, so here goes:

Album: Save My Life

Artist: Bodyslam

Release Date: September 2007

Number of Tracks: 9

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Okay at this point, most – if not all – of my readers would be saying any one of the following phrases: “Eh, band mana pulak nih?“, “Which band is this again?“, or “Est-ce qu’ils sont malaisiens?“. Pick your pick lol – I openly admit that these guys will probably be the most unexpected subject of musical reviews ever to grace snuffleupagush. wordpress.com.

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you Bodyslam – a Thai rock band, no less – made up by the quartet of Athiwara Khongmalai, Thanachai Tantrakul, Thanadol Changsawek, and Suchuch Chaneed.

Before I begin, let me impress on you the amount of RESEARCH I had to do in order to write this review, and how difficult it was to (hopefully) properly spell out the names of the four band members lol. And let it also be said that pronouncing their names will be yet another story – don’t ever make me read this review out loud lol. Although then again, based on my – admittedly rudimentary – knowledge of Thai nomenclature, hardly anyone should call them by their “real” names anyway. Which is good, because I tend to slip up on those. Pretty badly and embarrassingly so.

In the case of Bodyslam however, Save My Life would be the band’s – who by the way were formerly known as La-On (which apparently means “Kids” in some northern Thai slang) – fourth studio release, with the most recent one being their 2005 album Believe. These guys are also apparently very big in Thailand – having shot to fame in the late 1990s by winning a local talent competition – and simply going from strength to strength since then, to the point of overplaying on local radios which, believe me you, is a blessing and a curse in and of itself.

At this conjecture I suppose some explanation as to how I got my hands on this album is warranted; let’s just say I practically swapped iTunes with a girl I met over the last few days of the biggest run-by-students event in the world – namely the World Universities Debating Championship – in Cork, Ireland.

Said girl is probably screaming her head off in some dorm at the Assumption University of Thailand now, in time with my reciprocally bartered “gifts” of Incubus and Metallica; bless her XD

Anyway, a few paragraphs ago I mentioned that I had to do a significant amount of research to do this review – which should not be very surprising to my readers, as all of my previous efforts at commenting on musical releases have had undertones of some background reading and/or online referencing. This one however, is different. I think it’s no stretch to say that this has been the hardest review ever that I have done on snuffleupagush.wordpress.com – and for good reason; to begin with, consider these few tenets which one may tend to take for granted in looking at a review:

How am I going to refer to the songs? Especially if they come in titles like ยิ่งรู้ยิ่งไม่เข้าใจ and นาฬิกาตาย?

Are the lyrics any good? Are they worth singing to, and – more importantly – worth appreciating?

Can I – in confidence – do what all reviews are supposed to do: give the artist and their works due justice, while not knowing any cultural references that may be relevant?

You see my problem >.<

That said though, this review now begins in earnest, with the following concessions: I will refer to the songs by their Thai script mostly – if only because that’s how they were supposed to be written anyway – and from time to time, risk (severe) embarrassment by providing translations of the phrases; there will be next to no evaluation of lyrics, because after some mulling over, I decided that the best way to understand and appreciate this album is to feel it, as opposed to listening to it. And finally, for the third question – I assure you I will do my best.

Save My Life opens with an absolutely ferocious set of beats by drummer Chaneed, courtesy of the album’s first single ยาพิษ (which apparently means “Poison“…then again maybe “Venom” would be a better synonym…ah, dammit!! You see?!?!! Problems already!! >.<). For a metal fan like me, in order to be won over, the opening ten seconds of any mainstream rock album has to either a.) possess a super riff, or b.) be extremely catchy.

ยาพิษ has the latter. The moment the guitars enter at 0.03, you easily get the sense that this band means business – despite their simplistic outlook; and they don’t take long to get started either, as by 0.12 the fun has already begun. A second layer of guitar work enters, adding more depth to the sound and compensating to great extents the actual lack of raw power which the band’s sound may fail to afford. By 0.25 I was listening through my ears no longer – the heart and raw gut instinct took over, as the verses began and I tried to make sense of the song’s lyrical direction. At 1.09 though, all doubts of my ability to appreciate Thai rock dissipated – as I found myself head-banging to the fantastic funk-beat of the chorus. This one is inventive, relying on falsetto vocals and grunting guitars to drive the song along and forward, pulsing deeper and deeper towards objectifying the ideas of worded poisons.

The benefits of being unable to understand the song were quick to show however – it didn’t take me long to uncover the true musical genius of ยาพิษ. My absolute favourite part of this song is the chorus; or more accurately, it’s ending. I was listening intently when I noticed the song’s guitars gently phase out to be replaced by none other than a groove-techno beat – absolutely amazing and definitely a seller for the masses; hooks always score big.

ยาพิษ.

Unfortunately I admit the same fascination cannot be expressed with the video. I found the whole thing quite wonky, in fact XD And it more than once reminded me of scenes from both Nang Nak and Ong Bak.

In that order XD

It also comes with karaoke lyrics, just in case there are some of you out there who want to sing along =p

At this conjecture, I recall that it has been quite a while since I was last fascinated with the vocals of a foreign male singer (the last one being Gackt Camui of Japan around mid-2006), but Khongmalai breaks the duck – especially in this next one:

อกหัก

Sultry, soaring vocals, magnificent rockified bridge, and tidy ending with a solid solo included. Easily one of the best tracks – if not the best track - on the album.

The same cannot be said for the third number on this album however – my sources tell me it can be translated as “The More I Know, The More I Don’t Understand” – which falls somewhat short of the mark set by the first two numbers. Not to say that this one is bad; however, it just seems to meander without actually going anywhere – which is somewhat of a shame as the tune employed is decently interesting and worth taking note off. Not exactly a miss but it isn’t really a hit either – final judgment on the work as a whole will come at the end of this review.

But after that short yet minor disappointment, we have not one but TWO gems back to back – tracks four and five, แค่หลับตา and เสี้ยววินาที respectively, also rank ridiculously high on my personal list of top foreign songs. This is quite a dichotomy as the two songs couldn’t be more different in form and function – the former is a gentle ballad (also the only track on the whole album to feature a guest artist; namely Panadda Roengwutti…don’t you just love the amount of research I did to write this review? XD) whilst the latter – if possible – actually rocks harder than our good friend Poison. I would be hard pressed to find the better of the two because frankly, I believe Save My Life will be much worse off with the absence of any one of these two gems. At the risk of further embarrassment here, I believe the ballad is entitled Just Close Your Eyes whilst the other – according to my various sources – is something along the wonky lines of Split Second or Broken Clock; LOL SEE WHAT A DIFFERENCE IT MAKES?!?!!! XD XD XD

Just Close Your Eyes is particularly interesting to me, because not only did I feel that Roengwutti and Khongmalai exhibit perfect vocal chemistry (although maybe not symmetry though…Khongmalai actually does the bulk of the singing here), but it also provided an interesting outlook into the idea of how the hearing ears can tell you one thing, but the listening heart and mind another. After listening to the interplay between Panadda Roengwutti (this is a girl’s name for all you Thai-name-gender-unaware reading minds out there XD) and Athiwara Khongmalai about a dozen times – check out the section between 2.47 and the song’s ending btw; it sobers me up EVERY time – the foreign listener tends to get the impression that this song is a an optimistic ode to love, as exemplified by the rockified and cheery bridges, plus the sweetly sung female parts of the song.

Thus, feeling all warm and happy, I looked up the lyrics of the song online -

And immediately wished I hadn’t @.@ They were damned depressing, SERIOUSLY!!! =.=” With lines like “Our love might end someday”, and “But at least you were ever in my life”, my take on the song changed COMPLETELY LOL. No longer was it this innocent, unassuming tune which I had always assumed it to be – the outlook of the song was now that of a mature adult in my eyes now; shows what a difference listening by ear and by heart can do to your opinion of a wall of sound @.@ This revelation was actually what I saw as the defining moment of my appreciation of this foreign language album -

I do indeed, have a lot to learn still >.<

The ending of Broken Clock/Split Second leaves us with another four numbers left in the whole album; next up is the medium-paced คนมีตังค์, which I suppose I find okay, but like The More I Know, The More I Don’t Understand, it fails to leave a large impact after the double-whammy of two excellent songs preceeding it. Track number seven in turn is แสงแรก, of which I have failed to find a proper translation of. This one is also, admittedly, not much of an improvement over the one preceeding it, although it does have a very promising start to the whole affair – I enjoyed the teasing guitar riff which funked over the entire opening =) Ultimately though, it yielded nothing as promising as tracks # 1, 2, 4, and 5 thus far.

Jam Pecah/Broken Clock~Split Second/เสี้ยววินาที.

But that trend changes with the final two songs on the album, of which one is another power ballad and the other another averagely-paced song. Of the two, the one to REALLY watch out for is the ballad – นาฬิกาตาย  is indeed the fifth gem of the album, as it were. Clocking in at 4.02, this song is really one which pulls at the heartstrings, as Tantrakul strums his way through, with Khongmalai simply WINNING my heart over (again) with his rendition of the chorus – beautiful effort, beautiful voice control. Another thing to watch out for is the complete silencing of the drummer Chaneed until 1.15, when he enters with a deceptively simple beat that actually serves as the perfect bed for Khongmalai’s next assault on the sultry chorus – marvellous stuff.

And watch out for the entry of an wind-based instrument (I wanna say it’s the sax, but I’m not at all sure lol – help anyone?) at 2.25 on the album – the dichotomy is simply pleasing to the ears; or mine at least =)

Here’s the relevant video, if anyone wants to take a look:

(the song only starts at about a minute in, and our unidentified wind instrument takes the stage at 3.30)

ALSO note that (albeit less seriously this time XD) in this video, Thailand is apparently being invaded/under attack? LOL!! Not from the south I hope? XD?

I notice – as I come to the end of this review – that I have hardly spoken at length about the instrumental versatility and cohesion of the band as a playing unit in and of itself…which is somewhat unusual for this arrangement-analyst wannabe lol. I’m guessing that my fascination with the emotive meaning of the album in and of itself probably out-trumped any arrangement judgment that I wanted to make about the songs up to this point at least lol. In any case, Bodyslam does a pretty decent – if not marvellous – job. These guys are NOT Metallica – this should be made clear – so if you’re looking for hardcore riffs and amazing raw energy then I suggest you look elsewhere. What they DO offer the average interested listener is hook after hook after hook, in every sense of the word. I have to say that I would love to play the bass in this band, as – based on what I’ve heard – although the instrument is as always largely relegated to the backseat, its booming power in driving along the band cannot be understated. Then there’s Chaneed – an unsung hero if there ever was one, playing solidly and keeping time for the band all throughout. With decent solos and riffs coming from Tantrakul, coupled with Khongmalai’s astute vocals, I don’t think Bodyslam does anything remotely wrong.

So there you have it people – my first foreign language album review on my blog lol. It was a pretty interesting experience to say the least – both listening + evaluating and blogging out my review. Very rarely do I foray into songs done in languages other than the ones I know (heck, I hardly ever listen to Malay, even!) unless they’re associated with my personal interests in some way (for example, the Final Fantasy series) so having Bodyslam rule the roost of my iPod and my iTunes for the past couple of months was tremendously interesting to say the least.

And now we come to convention:

83%.

Personally, I liked this album very very much =) You have no idea how many degrees of enjoyment and entertainment the album as a whole brought to me, and of all the stuff that I traded over during the course of Cork Worlds 2008/2009, I have to say this set is probably one of the best compilations I received (with the possible exception of Michelle Branch’s Hotel Paper ). HOWEVER, note that I am deliberately avoiding from handing this album the much higher score that I feel like giving it because I recognize that a Thai album MAY not be everyone’s thing at the moment. I would also happily concede that I am less than impartial to the country as a whole at the moment, so my opinion may be slightly over-inflated – honestly speaking – for all the right reasons, that is =)

At this point, I would like to give out a very big terima kasih to Miss Tanyanan Songprasit (Prae) for successfully introducing me to this band (and many others besides actually XD). It was a good call indeed =)

That said, I would be more than willing to purchase any new release of Bodyslam’s this year – should they release anything (although I’m guessing it HAS to be done by proxy *nudges Prae* XD) – and from there on end happily qualify it for my upcoming “Music of 2009″ blogpost to be done in late December 2009/early January 2010. In fact, even as I write this I readily admit that I have started looking at some of their older works – for example, I now know that 2005’s Believe retails on iTunes at CAD 9.99 LOL! XD XD

In short, Save My Life was one hell of a ride for me. And I admit, unexpectedly so =)

And I sincerely hope it will be for you too, should you ever choose to pick it (or any of the band’s other works) up. Have fun!

Selected Tracks: ยาพิษ, อกหัก, แค่หลับตา, เสี้ยววินาที, นาฬิกาตาย.

Selected Duds: None that I can really think of, to be honest.

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Lol, it has just occurred to me that I am indeed “experiencing Thailand”… although perhaps not exactly in the way that my good friend Dave from Wilfred Laurier University had hoped for XD +

But isn’t that what it should all be about, anyway? =)

Mille: The Conclusion.

Somehow, at the very beginning of writing this post, I felt compelled to release the picture that caused this blog to be named as Oh!Gravity lol. Anyway though -

The comments are in!!  As of yesterday evening, Oh!Gravity officially passed the 1000th comment mark (actually, we’re now at the 1006th already!), so thanks folks!! =D

Thus, here is the item I am compelled to release: the uber-dubious roll of “honour” lol!! (“honour” is in inverted commas because you guys are seriously SAD cases lol, coming here for entertainment and procrastination purposes =p). The winner is officially (and obviously) the saddest case of all lah =p

THE RESULTS:

Comment # 998: Ariff Shazwan, on Reading Week 2009.

Comment # 999: Irving Tan, on Mon Ami. (I know, kinda dumb that I’m part of the results actually =.=” I totally FORGOT I was doing this thingummajingy and actually commented on Comment # 996 a couple of hours after I introduced the game lol =.=”)

Comment # 1000: TANYANAN SONGPRASIT, on Mille.

Comment # 1001: Farah Hanani, on One For The Good Old Days.

Comment # 1002: Farah Hanani, on Reading Week 2009.

Comment # 1003: Wan Mohd Farisman, on Yes Oui Can.

Etcetera…

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And you know what’s the most hilarious part of all? Remember when I said that the catch was that “no one really knows how close/far my blog is to the 1000th comment”? There actually was a way for you readers to check the amount of comments already published here on snuffleupagush.wordpress. com LOL!!! I kid you not! I found it out myself in the five minutes after I published the Mille post LOL!!! XD XD XD

I was like “Oh. Dang.” XD

I’m not telling you how it’s done though…just in case I decide to play the same game for Comment # 2000 or something =p

In any case though – little Prae, I owe you a drink. Come to Ottawa and claim it =p

Yes Oui Can.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you’d know that the portrait above is of none other than the 44th President of the United States of America, Mr. Barack Obama. Now, I never was a huge follower and believer of the Obama-mania (Obamania? XD?) which has followed this great man ever since he announced his candicacy for the top job in the whole of the United States (although I admit I do find him a very inspirational figure on a personal level). Regardless though, on the morning of February 19th, I still conspired to rise (relatively) early and make my way down to Parliament Hill in downtown Ottawa, where Mr. Obama was scheduled to make his first ever working visit to another state, ever since his inauguration as US President.

Canadians LOVE Mr. Obama. I cannot stress this point enough.  To the national sentiment, he makes Stephen Harper  (Le tres honorable premier ministre) look like a schoolboy and Michael Ignatieff (Le honorable chef de l’opposition)  like an envious greenhorn (which he actually really is? XD?). We actually wouldn’t mind trading any of every single one of our prime ministers in history – except maybe Trudeau – in exchange for this guy to come and administer this country lol. Back during the Democrat primaries, for the local papers (or The Globe and Mail at least, which happens to be the one I read) every day there was at least a single opinion sheet and a couple of pages devoted to Mr Obama as he duelled with Mrs Clinton. Then the election season came, and while pundits were careful to include McCain into the equation, I think it’s safe to say that public sentiment still leaned towards the man who would become the first black president of the United States of America – if not for his platform and ideas, then for the symbol he was.

So imagine how we reacted when it was announced that Mr. Obama’s first working visit as the President of the United States would be to the capital city of his northern neighbours – that of the enigmatic Canadians. We who live in buildings made out of ice, wear beaver pelts, and shoot bears for lunch XD

And let’s not forget all those hockey pucks lol. So yeah, imagine how we (or at least, the other Canadians aside from me) reacted?

We crapped our pants in excitement lol. I swear I heard orgasms coming from the rooms across the residence hall (this may or may not be related to the news of Obama’s arrival XD). The papers were LOADED with stuff about the guy I tell you – pundit speculation upon pundit speculation, historical revisit after historical revisit, and editorial after editorial…we were so pumped I tell you. Especially when we were informed that we had a tiny chance of seeing the great man himself as he ascended the steps of Parliament Hill to be greeted by our Stephen Harper.

This Sea-To-Sea stalwart felt he could not miss out:

Colonel By Drive was closed for the day. The President’s motorcade would actually pass by my beloved campus lol.

The rest of Colonel By Drive; Canadian and American flags alternated, all the way up the Drive, past Laurier, and onto Rideau before culminating at Wellington.

I crossed over to the other side of the Rideau Canal via the Corktown Footbridge, as it brought me to the side closer to Parliament; it wasn’t exactly the best of days for pictures:

Then on towards the core of the city it was; past Pont Laurier -

And by the War Memorial -

The roads were filled with a slushy goo, thanks to the recent surge in temperatures here in Ottawa. It was as high as 9 degrees at some points last week…now I don’t feel too jealous of people in Krung Thep Maha Nakhon anymore =p

The main routes to the Hill were closed and barricaded, so I was forced to duck alongside Queen’s, and make my way upwards astride Sparks Street in order to reach what is probably my favourite set of buildings in the whole city.

Parliament Hill.

Already the number of people on site was starting to swell; and we were at least a few hours away from Obama’s arrival lol. Truth be told, Air Force One hadn’t even landed at Ottawa International yet @.@ + XD

Sights along Wellington – flags upon flags, as far as the eye can see.

After submitting myself to a quick security check at the gates of Parliament, I entered the main quad of the Hill, and joined the mass of people waiting to greet the 44th President of the United States. It was a motley mix to say the least, with people from all sorts of social backgrounds, nationalities and political beliefs thronged there. And of course there were some very interesting signs, especially in light of many recent American-Canadian issues (like border protectionism, Buy American ideals, and the fact that we’re just plain jealous of them XD):

Climate Emergency…we’ll burn in hell for this.

I especially like the anti-Harper poster lol. Not to say that I disagree with Stephen Harper of course…as if it made a difference anyway for this vote-less Malaysian-Canadian XD

The crowd just grew bigger and bigger by the minute; evidently even I had underestimated how many people were willing to brave the moody weather for a glimpse of Obama lol. Most of them were pretty restless by the time I got there lol, having waited on the Hill for quite a bit already in all likelihood XD

And all the good viewing spots were taken btw. The closest I could get to the action was about 10 meters away from the police barricades…which were themselves at least 200 meters away from the bulletproof plexiglass shields of the Peace Tower >.< I went for the best spot I could find, and hung around to wait with everyone else, while Metallica and Bodyslam took their respective turns to blare in my ears.

I thought this guy was just restless btw, what with his making of snowballs the size of Mt.Vesuvius and all XD Turns out he should be the Petronas scholar, not me lol…that snowball would later serve as a massive platform from which he would be able to stand on and catch a glimpse of Obama lol. Damn, genius XD

I blame it on cultural relativism. It’s the snow-based counterpart of what Malaysian kids would do to catch the DYMM YDPA pass by in his motorcade I guess – panjat pokok kelapa XD

(“climb coconut trees” for those not-as-of-yet-educated-in-Malay)

This one is for all those Parliament Hill stalkers out there – have you ever seen this particular flagpole fly another other than the Canadian flag? @.@ I sure haven’t @.@

And the media – lots of media – out to hunt their darling:

CBC Radio-Canada.

I was actually surrounded by journalists at one point; The Sun’s representative was on my right, The Ottawa Citizen’s on my left, all while French tabloids jibbered around me in la langue francais and the CBC cut swathes through the gathered horde with their massive tank turrets.

Yup, many people indeed.

And I fell in love with this little tyke =) So illegally cute, don’t you think? Sitting quietly on her dad’s shoulders and all =)

Ah. Now we’ve gotten to the part that intrigued me the most – the safety measures lol @.@ I’ve already alluded to this at least once – I mentioned up there that the Peace Tower had plexiglass bulletproof shields; rest assured that that’s not how it usually is lol. Usually it’s just this mass of sandstone (I think) arranged as an archway leading into the main chambers of the Canadian Parliament.

Then there were all those police officers, stationed on like, every single bridge and intersection leading up to Parliament. Helicopters whizzed overhead, patrolling dilligently and acting like the massive airborne sentinels which they were built for. I would later learn that there was actually a specific chopper that would follow and provide air cover for the President as he left Ottawa International for Parliament Hill.

@.@?

But what caught my eye the most was this:

Snipers lol. I counted 24 of them, at least two teams each on every one of the Parliament buildings: Centre Block, West Wing, East Wing, opposite the street – EVERYWHERE LOL. And consider this “frightening” fact:

These are only the ones that they let you see lol.

I realized this fact after I spied a lone sniper member sitting hidden in one of the numerous crannies that deck the face of the Peace Tower.

@.@? + XD?

Anyway, if you think I was semangated, then check out this following poster -

For the uninformed, Vancouver is bordered by the Pacific Ocean; here in Ottawa we’re much closer to the Atlantic lol. Also, Vancouver is around 3.5 time zones behind Ottawa? This is one massive country XD

Crazy eh? =)

By now though, the crowd was getting restless. Where was the President?!! According to the original schedule, he was scheduled to appear on the Hill by 11.40 am – it was already 11.45 am and still no show. Had Air Force One been delayed?

But just then we heard it though – the loud thump thump thump of chopper blades. The one following the Presidential motorcade.

So that’s where the man was.

The crowd went bonkers I tell you.

LOUD cheers of “O-BA-MA, O-BA-MA!!!” began to fill the air, along with racuous screaming and high pitched yelling – all this even before the President’s limo was anywhere close near the Parliament quads!! The screaming and cheers gradually grew louder and louder, reaching an incredible decibel of joy as a black limo (or several black limos actually – there were decoy vehicles apparently @.@) roared up the main drive of Parliament Hill.

I was craning forward, standing on tip-toe – the crowd was belting out cheer upon cheer -

Where was he?!?!!

All the limos had screeched to a halt – the man must be directly in front of me right now -

Oh shit, oh shit, camera out camera out!! The time has come!

The crowd let out an extra loud ROAR as I fumbled with the clasp of my camera string -

Got it!!

CRESCENDO!! He’s HERE!!!

I swung my camera up above the heads of the people in front of me, tiptoed as high as I could go, and snapped like crazy for the following:

WHAT -

THE.

EH you BLOODY VANCOUVER ISLAND =.=”

I swear everyone got at least two feet taller as the President got closer =.=” Like, seriously, how else can I explain a TOTAL loss of view from where I stood, having been in a reasonably advantageous position only two minutes ago? @.@ All I could see was a mass of hands, waving cameras and obscure flashes going off -

And then, as suddenly as it began, the cheering subsided @.@

Eh, what the…what just happened? Why is everyone so quiet?

The guy beside me checked his Blackberry for The Globe and Mail’s official website and supplied the news to the crowd at large:

“President Barack Obama met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and was brought into Parliament”.

======================.======================”

What was that? Seven seconds of him standing outside and letting people catch a glimpse of him? =.=” + @.@

That was it folks, seriously. The crowd began to subside and people began to mill out – our chance to glimpse the 44th President of the United States was over. I was like, WOWTHATWASBLOODYFAST lol @.@ I spent the next fifteen minutes traipsing in the snow about the quad before deciding that there was nothing left for it – there was no chance left for the average Canadian resident to catch a glimpse of the ever-famous symbol of the American Dream.

(that belief of mine was not-so-true actually…moments after his working visit ended that evening the President went for a WALK in DOWNTOWN OTTAWA, BUYING SOUVENIRS at the BYWARD MARKET; I was like @.@ man, seriously. After all that fuss, all I really had to do was go and buy some shit - like flowers (wth XD?) -  down at the market if I wanted to see Obama live lol =.=” + XD)

Ah, well XD

I headed straight for home after that, well knowing that I had to do some reading while my erm, reading week was still in session =p Despite the fact that I never caught sight of the President himself, I have to say that it still was a very interesting experience in and off itself – like, I have never experienced such mania about a politician before (not for all the right reasons at least lol), and I’m pretty glad that my first brush with such fervour was with the man who will undoubtedly be one of the defining moments of our time.

That’s not to mention the historical significance of the whole affair – this was essentially the President’s first ever visit to a neighbouring state under his still fresh administration lol. So I get bragging rights I guess =) + =p Although I can’t provide a very cool answer to the question of “Where were you and what were you doing when Barack Obama was elected as the first African-American President of the United States of America?” (I was stuck in my room, doing a bloody Quaternary Geology lab report =.=”), I can at least sound reasonably awesome if someone were to ever ask me, “Were you there when Barack Obama visited Canada for the first time as the new President of the United States?” -

Hell yes I was =) And yes, I still find him very inspirational lol.

One final thing to show you guys before I end this post – this next thing was once the biggest welcome mat in the whole world, sporting the word “Welcome” in over 100 different languages; it was there on the Hill to greet Mr Obama =)

So, do you see your mother language? =)

Malay was not present, unfortunately lol.

Also, I think this post qualifies as a Project: From Sea To Sea experience, don’t you think? =)

-

PS – Don’t you think the title of this post is very cool? XD + =p Especially as “Can” is the international ID term for Canada? XD

Mille.

The comments page of my blog is nearing the “1000 comments” milestone now lol. Firstly, I wanna say thanks very much for reading and saying a few words every now and then guys =) It’s kinda hard to describe the feeling that I get each and every time someone makes a stop-over, aside from the fact that I can’t wait to read it and that it generally arouses up my blogging mojo…okay the usage of the word “arouses” sounds wrong ahahaha.

And now, the pledge – I’ll buy a drink for the person who makes the 1000th comment. No joke =)

I promise that you (whoever you are) will definitely get it the next time we meet up; consider that this is essentially me looking for an excuse to hang out with any one of my friends (as if I needed any more already, after 2 years in Canada lol!) =)

Ah, the tricky thing about this whole affair is that no one really knows how close/far my blog is to the 1000th comment eh?

Oh, and PS? I’ll only be counting your FIRST attempt…i.e you cannot send an infinite number of comments with the knowledge that one of them will eventually strike gold lol. If you make comment number 997, 998, 999, 1000, and 1001 for example, only the 997th will be counted as your entry =p

Tak aci ah main comment banyak2 =p

Reading Week 2009

Is turning out to be pretty depressing thus far >.< Why? Because it has only served to remind me what a slacker I’ve become these past few weeks.

Let’s look at it this way – so far, I’ve had one full week to myself. A WHOLE week – seven days of 24 hours each!! And I barely managed to get ANYTHING done in that massive amount of time – consider the fact that my Field Studies lab (due Monday) is nowhere near complete; and that I haven’t even come close to touching my Structural Geology lab that’s due in the same week as well >.< That’s not to mention the fact that I haven’t even done any reading (or at least, nothing significant and ultimately worth mentioning) for any of my courses >.<

If I’m not careful, I’m really going to bomb this semester.

I’ll be frank and honest – Structural Geology means NUTS to me at this point in time. It is a course that has me utterly and completly confused. My Field Studies track record isn’t anywhere near awesome either. But what has Irving Tan been doing to fix that problem? A ridiculous and absolute amount of NOTHING!

ARGH I feel SO disappointed with myself >.< Barely a year ago, I would have started locking myself away in my room for hours and hours on end, slogging at a subject just to ensure that I understood it and was able to deal with it.  But now? I’m just cruising along for Pete’s sake =.=”

THIS CANNOT HAPPEN! I DON’T HAVE A RIGHT TO SLACK OFF AT ALL!!!

I’m here on the Government’s money, and everyone at home has their hopes on me to carry the family through; God knows that’s the last responsibility I’d ever want to shirk…but my attitude in recent times doesn’t mirror that. I don’t want my grades fall; heck, I can’t let them fall.

But judging  by the way I’ve been acting recently, it’s only a matter of time until they do =(

And you know what’s the worst part? The fact that I’m just sitting here, procrastinating. Cheating myself out of time when I’ve got worlds to save.

I’ll be ever so disappointed with myself if the effects of my slipping out of control like this ends up costing me certain things. Like this one here -

Getting on the Dean’s List and proving that I can stay there time and time again is the ONLY way that I can think of to guarantee my employment with Petronas when I graduate in two years’ time.

The pressure is getting to me, but I can’t seem to get myself to act and retaliate in response – and that’s the most depressing thing of all.

What am I doing here these days? >.<

Part of me feels burnt out and exhausted after two years of non-stop studying, part of me realizes I’ve just been a fool in recent times. I just hope that this disjointed phase will pass, and that I’ll be able to have a better hold of myself soon  – all while managing to learn how to hold on to all the things that matter.

I’ve never been able to learn to be a balanced man. I think it’s time I tried again.

For now, God help me.

And in the meantime, can someone please come give me a huge kick up the behind and tell me to go study? >.<

-

“I can’t look around – it’s to much to take in.

I can’t hold back – when I’m stretched so thin.

I can’t slow down – watching everything spin.

I can’t look back – starting over again.”

From Canada, with love.

Sent off three packages from the post office today – all three were for people very important to me.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed packing up my letters and gifts to them. I was amazed how my pen simply flowed in writing out a few heartfelt words to those that matter. Sealing the envelopes of the bubble wraps was just plain satisfying, and watching the postal clerk print out receipts for those three places located at the other edge of the world somehow put a small smile on my face =)

So what if the whole process took an hour? All I hope for now is that the people who will receive these gifts and letters will enjoy using them as much as I enjoyed getting and sending it off for them.

I have only one thing left to say -

WHY THE HELL DO YOU ALL, LIKE, STAY SO EFFING FAR AWAY LAH?!?!!!! LOL!!! XD

I tell you, the total postal cost for all three sent items was nothing short of horrendous HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA XD XD XD

But in all seriousness though – even if I were given a choice to go in the other direction,  of course I’m more than certain that I would do it all over again =)

One for the good old days.

So the institution in which I did my Canadian Pre-University studies was at the University of Ottawa earlier this month. It was a business visit in conjunction with the Education Fair hosted by the Faculty of Education at the U of O, and they were there to look for graduate teachers for their programme which offers the Ontario Secondary School Diploma.

It isn’t often that I get to see something even remotely associated with Malaysia here on campus – so far all I’ve ever found is random mentions of how gorgeous Pangkor is in my BIO 1130 class and a Francophone book printed by uOttawa Press about Islam in Malaysia – so I had to stop by and say hello.

I introduced myself as an ICPU June 2007 graduate and got to speak with Mr Jim Leonard, the programme’s new director who just replaced Mr Frank Meagher – the person I had in my time at SS 15/8 Subang Jaya – two months ago. After a few words, we exchanged contact details (I gave him my e-mail) and he said that Taylor’s might be in touch with me soon; I actually forgot those last few words of his in recent times, as I allowed my midterms to berate me.

So imagine my surprise and terharu-ness when I saw the following e-mail sitting in my inbox late this evening:

“Irving,

It was a great surprise and pleasure for me to have met you while I was at the Feb. 6^th University of Ottawa Faculty of Education Career Fair. You are such an outgoing and well-spoken young man. It was certainly a surprise to have an ICPU graduate come up to me with such enthusiasm when you saw my Taylor’s University College sign.

I was pleased to hear that your studies in 2^nd year Geology at the University of Ottawa are going well. I am sure that your sponsor, Petronas, must know they have a very promising, articulate and confident young man as a scholar. Needless to say, I was very impressed with you!  You told me that you were a valedictorian for the ICPU class when you graduated and I could certainly believe it just speaking with you for a short while!

As I mentioned to you in our discussion Taylor’s and the ICPU Programme, in particular, would be quite interested in receiving a few sentences from you that we could use as a testimonial in future marketing materials. You told me how much you felt that the ICPU Programme at Taylor’s prepared you for your transition to University studies in Canada. We would, of course, love to have you share a few comments and reflections in your own words about your time at Taylor’s and the ICPU programme.

I am sure that you are busy with your studies, but I know that we would all appreciate hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Jim

Jim Leonard

Programme Director

International Canadian Pre-University Programme

Taylor’s University College

No. 1 Jalan SS15/8

47500 Subang Jaya

Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.“

-

I am very touched and flattered lol. For marketing purposes though it may be, I still find this a distinct privilege and an interesting thing to be honoured with.

I miss those days. Might do a blogpost on them soon =)

Once I get my Cork Worlds thingy settled that is XD

Joget Global.

Is kinda what I feel like doing right now.

And with awesome friends like these, who wouldn’t? =)

In alphabetical order -

Aini Yasmin.

Amirah Izzati.

And Zaharina Khalid.

To the three of you:

Thanks from the bottom of my heart for ambushing me with something which I had really wanted for quite some time, but never believed that anyone would be able to guess what it was. I had virtually resigned myself to a long, hard hunt for it in the annals of Mahkota Parade in Melaka this summer. But then these three beautiful ladies ended up guessing my hand with such astute ability. Here’s what they saw fit to gift me with when we were reunited at a Malaysian students meeting yesterday:

Kembali kepada selamanya.

The Butterfingers’ 6th album, Kembali. Something which I had really wanted an original copy of for the longest time. Refer here and here for additional background details =)

Red on White on Brown.

I was so overwhelmed by this random present that I literally yelled in surprise and couldn’t stop laughing – never did I imagine someone (or some people, actually) would actually be able to guess my hand.

My silently patriotic Malaysian hand, if you will.

Hasil Penerbitan Butterworld.

Also particularly interesting on the CD was this -

I had not seen this lapel in ages lol @.@ + XD

And the occasion for this seemingly-random gift? Simple:

You girls really shouldn’t have you know =)

So yeah, I was completely won over by the time I realized what was in my hands last evening. I called these three housemates incredibly beautiful ladies at heart once, and I seriously think that that is actually an understatement due to this and other recent events. Seriously, aku sangat sangat sangat terharu.

I would also like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to Dila, who as I understand it, was extremely insrtumental (yes this is an amazing pun I know =p) in ensuring that a original copy of the much-sought-after Kembali made its way from Malaysian shores to the frigid lands of Ottawa, Canada lol. Many thanks =)

Edit: Sorry about the delay Dila – took quite a while to find this specific photo of you lol =)

In any case though, I also want to say again that I think you three main ladies are truly incredible.  I don’t know if I’ve ever told any of you girls that explicitly before, but if I haven’t then know that I am doing so now. And I think there’s no time like the present to say such words of appreciation and faith.

Truly, I will remember this moment of surprise that you three gifted to me for the rest of my life =)

-

Terima kasih.