Armless piano player

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MJ-NeXRcEk&feature=related

This is true inspiration.

The best quote from Liu Wei, the guy who's playing the piano, I think, is when he says:
"人生中只有两条路，要么赶紧死了要么精彩得活着。没有人规定钢琴是要用手弹得。"
Translation: In life, people have two routes. They can either die sooner, or live wonderfully. Nobody decreed that the piano must be played with your hands.

Pure inspiration.

Thanks to Xin for the link to the link.

Do you hear the people sing?

Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.
They will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord
They will walk behind the plough-share
They will put away the sword
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
Tomorrow comes!
Tomorrow comes!

I think you're...

I think you're really really awesome. Yes, you!



Learned a new word recently. "Epikicity". Pronounciation is still in the works, but look at it. Bask in it's epikicity. That's right. "Epikicity" is itself epikicitic. Did I just make a new word? :O

Finished reading the main Honor Harrington story arc, waiting on book 12 (should come out some time in June/July, apparently). Also waiting on book 4 in the A Desert Called Peace series, no time for completion yet. Military science fiction, yay!

Have been encouraged to branch out from that, though. So...A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson, is at the very top of my 'to read' list. :) Thanks Janmay! Have also been meaning to have a look at Philip K. Dick, apparently he has awesome science fiction/fantasy/alternate history kind of stuff, definitely perks my interest.

On the music front, still going with the techno/hardstyle blend. MrChitotheHardStyler, on Youtube, has an AWESOME collection of his own stuff, and tracks from other artists. Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/user/MrChitotheHardStyler

My mouse broke recently. I think the frayed wires were shortcircuting my laptop whenever I plugged it in. So went and played Runescape for a while, using touchpad. Stole my sister's mouse today (yesterday). It's a piece of rubbish. Logitech, and PINK. The cord is way too short, and it'll often move the mouse to the complete opposite side of the screen that I'm trying to move it, for no apparent reason at all. Oh well. Mouse is better than no mouse at all. And it's a little less responsive, as I found out to my shock when playing Modern Warfare 2 today.

On that note, Modern Warfare 2. Had five harriers today, but not a single chopper gunner. I think I'm starting to lose my touch. I did manage to get to 10-0 at one point, until some lightweight+marathon knifer spawned behind me and knifed me. Sigh. Need that one nuke. Maybe I ought to stop sniping...pretty fun though. Highrise, Terminal, are now my two favourite maps. Quarry isn't bad either. Karachi and Favela are still the two maps I utterly despise.

Electronic music

I remember the day I first heard electronic music
I knew back then this illegal computer sound was gonna be my call
My heart got hooked on 4 by 4 beats
When house took his journey with Jack Chicago and Acid House

Now my heart is hooked forever
It's in my soul, in my veins
On my mind 24/7
I don't care if it's french-tek, hardstyle, hardcore, old school or jump

I don't understand people who are satisfied with ordinary pop music
They just listen to whatever radio stations decide they should like
Followed by an overkill of ring tone commercials meant for kids
And my god, they like it!

Some people even think that house clubs are for weirdos only!
Maybe they're right, maybe we are weird
Maybe this music is weird and maybe the clubs are overrated
But we're in this together, we're in this for the love of beats,
for the love of loops

If you're in the scene, being a DJ seems like a natural path to follow
Ha, and back in the days DJ's were weird people who liked music in a weird way
Back then you would have to be a nerd to become a DJ

Nowadays everybody wants to be a DJ
Nowadays everybody wants to be that nerd

It sickens me, I hate those smart asses who think that DJ is an easy way to get laid
Well... get a life!
If you're not in it for the love of the music, would you please fuck off!

-DJ Coon

Dreams

"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one." James Anthony Froude.

Dreams are, ultimately, nothing more than an attempt by the brain to decieve itself, to persuade the rational side to be irrational, to believe in the impossible, to hope for that which will never come to pass. Give me a dream, and I will show you a two-edged sword, a broken promise, a shameless lie. But such is the power of a dream, that many a man has fallen to it's poisoned lure; Lincoln - Hitler - Mao - Obama. Look how far their dreams got them. A cold grave (or, in Hitler's case, cyanide and a 'warm' sendoff). To the common man, dreams are merely a temptation to keep them happy with their current circumstances, secure in the knowledge that there is a possibility of things getting better. But here's Reality for you. Things will never get better. Get used to your backbreaking 10 hour job, because the only way you'll get out of it is in a coffin.

~~~

It is almost impossible trying to find piano sheets for Chinese songs. If anyone can find sheet music for 甜蜜蜜 (Tian Mi Mi) by 邓丽君 (Teresa Teng), could you please send it my way? :)
On that note (haha, pun intended), song requests are always open. I'll keep them up there for a day at most, no more than one song per person per day.

~~~

Memory of the day: Year 11, Hari sends me a song by Flobots called Handlebars. I watch the video on Youtube. It's amazing, moving, touching. It's message still resonates with me today. I encourage you all to go see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuK2A1ZqoWs and decide for yourself.
I'm going to keep it at the top of my playlist for a day.

mp3 players

Due to a request by Hungy, today's blog will be somewhat shorter than normal. As compensation, expect tomorrow's to be longer. :)

~~~

Every morning on the train, on the bus, on the way to school, I observe all kinds of people listening to mp3 devices, totally removed from the rest of the world. It's like they've been insulated in some of kind invisible bubble, thousands upon thousands of them descending upon the city every morning like some greyish mass of humanity. But at what cost? Sure, you can swap music, and that's pretty sociable, but at the end of the day, when you're on the train with four other guys, and no-one's talking because they're all listening to music...that's just sad. This isn't like the Internet creating anti-socials, because the Internet is the greatest tool for mass communication that exists today. But mp3 players? You're just rebuilding the Tower of Babel, seperating the population in a jumble of people who are unable to communicate with one another because, even if they desired to do so, the other party would not be able to hear them. You're creating a society in which everyone listens, but no-one speaks.

Yes, I'm a hypocrite. I'll gladly don my headphones every morning, afternoon and night. But hey, what else is there to do? Silence is deafening.

~~~

Just finished the first three books of the Alex Rider series, and they're pretty good. Not as good as, say, Matthew Rielly, but still good nonetheless. Fancy gadgets, sure, but usually only one use, and rarely more than two or three each book. Anthony Horowitz can really piece together a good plot.

~~~

Note to anyone wishing to buy any of the professional pictures from the Melbourne High School Year 12 Formal 2009, they'll be available for purchase next Tuesday 1st September at the Hockey Pavilion.

~~~

Memory of the day: Grade 6, Cross country. My vice captain and I agreed to run across the line together and so finish equal first, thus increasing the point value of our victory by a bit, and relegating the next person to measly third place. We pulled it off, handily. Looking back, I was a bit of a bastard...fun, though, that's for sure.