Monthly Archives: March 2004

Incubus Full Stop

Pardon my bombast this time around; I was inspired.

Hoopla with the PUTRA LRT where I got to Kelana Jaya three times trying to get a seat.

Interstellar galactica with the Incubus press conference. They’re not much taller than the average Malaysian! Brandon Boyd the legendary hot one looked skinny and stoned, like his SCIENCE days, with snowcap and hair that promised to burst into dreadlocks soon. Mike was the wit, while Brandon was doing his usual dodgy answer like “Megalomaniac was just about somebody I had something strong against. While it became interpreted as an anti-Bush song, we like how it has taken a life of its own.” He was also asked about songs they hated to play again! “Oh you’ve heard this 5 million times over so let’s play it again!

We went back to check on the chick queue at the Xfresh TV second season audition. As we were about to leave, Syefri and I found out the hard way that our office digicam had the sucky stamina of its predecessor. (No brand shall be named.) And so, he left, and I waited around for the restaminizing of a branded digicam that was so shamelessly unable to show its battery life until it was dying.

On the bus there, I wrote a list of people I expected to see there. I saw all except Brian and one of my colleagues, Marlina. As I paid a cab handsomely, running down with prizes in hand for contest winners (what a bulk!) I got stopped by the many likes of a pitiful friend-supposed-to-sell-tickets-not-here Jay, the midriff-baring aunty Ledwina, the funky Priya, the clingy Cara (and Xfresh TV host) and many more faces that arouse familiarity. Then came the sardine simulation session! We were already sweaty then.

Thank goodness for media passes. I got a free Hulk ice-cream of questionable flavor. Oh, the view! Urbanite rock-educated chicks! A (mid)riff for a riff!

The place was huge. It was, after all, the Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club. It had high roofs, enough to ventilate without any traces of horse manure. The floor had hollow wooden panels; I didn’t know if it was a platform. The sides were giant cement stairs with plastic bucket seats stuck on.

Pop Shuvit started as the first act, and somebody (face not seen) was being carried out, probably a victim of air or lack thereof. Wow. At least I knew, from above, meeting Aznin, that the platform was sturdy enough to avoid bringing a footstomping crowd to their premanure death.

OAG was next, pronouncing “you all want to see Inchoobers?” to Dide‘s amusement. I stepped out for dinner. At 9:00pm, OAG was done. A bald dude stepped on stage. Was that Ben Kenney? Apparently not; it was a sound engineer.

The time from 9:30pm to 11:30pm shall be spared from this blog and saved for an article later! (I was very impressed by some things I didn’t know the band could do, and their flow from song to song was excellent!) Aye, they did not play Drive. (Scroll up for quote.)

Of course, I’d note the things I wouldn’t write there, like how I was tired of being a headbanging lamppost to Syefri and Aznin and decided to walk about to find people I knew. I found Jayaram (another Xfresh TV host), but he vanished during the ambient drawn-out jazzy solo of Sick Sad Little World (that was technically the last song).

Oh and I finally met up with a flat-footed MW after a day of “are you there yet?” and “meet me at the Bukit Kiara logo side!” MW provided the much needed water from a conveniently thought-out bag. It would be more than coincidental that MW’s friend fainted during Pop Shuvit!

As my mom wanted to avoid the jam at the venue, she asked that I get somewhere else first, and so Syefri offered a ride to Bangsar LRT. Dide also did, and I took the latter since he had to send off Aznin first.

Needless to say, upon getting home, I was happy to have my feet feel the cold marble floor! Oh, how my knees could fold onto the chair. Alas, I wasn’t sleepy, and it was the cause of this enthusiastic get-home-and-blog-about-it blog. (Once again I am stuck for a proper ending.)

Boneless Chicken

I went to KFC today and discovered their latest innovation – boneless chicken.

Well not really. I ordered a set meal that had 2 pieces of chicken, of either wings or drumsticks or both. I couldn’t remember what I had. The first one was rather crispy, and by the time I got to the second one, my colleagues asked me what happened to my other chicken. I told them I ate it!

They then noticed that my plate had no bones. Had I accidentally ate the oh-so-crispy bones? Had the chicken no bones?

I guess I was really hungry, as I finished my meal before the 4 colleagues who ordered before me. I wasn’t a bone eater (and I can’t eat bones anyway) so I’m convinced that yes – I was lucky. I got a boneless chicken! This was even though I didn’t order a fillet/boneless-chicken-style thing.

And no, neither pieces looked like Crispy Strips before I ate them.

Speaking of fillet/boneless-chicken-style things, I don’t know what KFC’s next reincarnation will be, but I hope it’s not wrapped in healthy-tasting salad.

Lopsided Observations

Female colleague, writing testimonial, asks: How come your testimonials all by girls one?
Me: Simple. Don’t approve testimonials by guys!

Of course, it’s not true – guys just don’t write me testimonials for no particular reason.

I wonder, too, if the nosey people walking in my hall (yes, I am related to them and inherit their nosey traits) wonder why whenever I’m on MSN, it’s always in a conversation with somebody with a female MSN display picture.

I calculated the ratio and found that females are more likely to put their real pictures. Yessir, statistical proof on my side that girls are vain! Of course, many things factor in to this, like:

– guys who are anime freaks and put irritating Japanese characters
– guys who are into Korean/Japanese chicks
– guys who put guitars as their pictures
– photography-loving guys

Surprisingly, the factors against girls putting pictures didn’t stop them from winning the vanity contest, like:

– not having the technical knowledge to getting their picture in the computer
– being into anime and putting irritating Japanese characters
– putting cutesy bears, flowers and other horridly adorable imagery
– putting a picture of a handsome footballer

I may not have that many MSN contacts, but let it be assured that I had an almost equal amount of males and females in my contact list when I counted.

Oh yes! Last Saturday I went for Meesh‘s blog meet and hadn’t a clue who was who and what their URLs were. Heck anyway, I still wanted to blog in the category of “teenager” and not “matured adult political musing“. One memorable dude was the owner of not just any major tech enthusiast community. If you’re reading this dude, my dual channel DDR RAM is working after moving the sticks around!

And now for the guitar geek side. I have a cheap Dunlop capo. I cut it using a sharp pair of pliers 25% through, making it a Drop D capo! Since the tubing was now in two parts, the long one could be applied to the 2nd fret (but not covering the low E string). Strumming the 6th, 5th and 4th strings would get a E5 chord. Forming a movable barre G chord on the 6th string would also work!

Okay, that’s not anywhere near layman terms, so I’ll use a diagram.

   X Y Z
d|-2-2-0
A|-2-2-2
F|-2-2-2
C|-2-2-2
G|-2-2-0
D|-0-2-0

The Drop D capo would effectively fret the X form. The regular capo would fret the Y form. Of course, I could remove the tubing and slide the metal rod through the tubing, so the capo could be 3 different combinations. The shorter tube could be used to fret 3 strings, like the Z form. With this, I could be free to chug a G major chord and do something with my left hand! Of course, I could also fret to the left of the capo where the capo did not press the strings.

Credits go to Johann Pachelbel’s Canon In D, that made me learn the X form. Nifty indeed, being able to play regular tuning forms and yet reach down to the low D!

I’m still looking for the tab for the alleged funktified aggro-palm-muted Michael Hedges version of that song.

Oh yes, what better way to end a blog entry by updating the links in my About Me! page.