Really old song by one of my favourite singers, 范玮琪. I think its a pity that she isn't as big a star as she deserves to be. She's a really good singer and she has a very nice emotive quality to her voice. Plus, she's really pretty and smart (Harvard student!) too. And she's a really funny person, very sweet, caring and hilariously accident prone. She's the kind of girl who doesn't hide behind a mask and she's not afraid to show her goofy, rather silly side to fans and viewers. She's that genuine! And she's in a super long term relationship with 黑人, and the two of them are so darn sweet together... sigh!
Anyway, this song has amazing lyrics. And a tune that just urges you to hum along with it.
I love the chorus... the lyrics are so... true. Yes. Rather lame, but yes, that's the beauty of it. Very good lyrics that sorta describes how everyone feels when they are stuck in something that isn't exactly reality yet.
I was digging through my CD collection today when I came upon a CD that was burned by a friend of mine as a birthday present. Thinking that its been ages since I last listened to the songs in that album, I decided to listen to it. Written on the disc were the words 'Happy Birthday! You're 15 now!!!' Reading those words made me realize that THAT many years have already passed. Its quite bewildering really, because I can't seem to remember much details of what had happened in between the time spent til now. All that comes to mind is the amount of studying I did for my O'levels, then the A'levels and now Pros. Which brings to mind the image of me ,5 years from now, not being able to recall all the fun and interesting stuff I did in medicine when I look back to my medical school days then.
One of the songs in that album was the movie soundtrack version of 'There Can Be Miracles', which had the children's choir singing Hebrew in it. I remember being quite addicted to the song then. 5 years ago, I used to face any hardships with the rather uninspiring 'There can be miracles' quote. Somewhere along the road, I guess I dropped it. Perhaps its not to late to pick it up all over again.
Its the final week before the start of our 2nd pros. Things have progressed in remarkably strange pace this week. There were days were nothing much was achieved, and days were progress was so unbelievable that I had to start doubting if anything ever seeped into that cerebrum of mine. And then there was the minor shock I had today, when I work up to find both my parents at home - for a moment, I thought that I had miscalculated the days left and that it was Sunday already. Turns out that today was a public holiday. Wow, like that would do wonders for my social calendar.
Yesterday was quite a blur. It was a day spent trying to recover from the sleep debt accumulated from staying up all night at Xiuzhen's 21st birthday party, and trying to do some amount of substantial studying to cover the horrific loss in study time for the preparation of the party itself. I don't really know how I did it, but in a strange twist of fate, it was the one day where I made the most progress so far in terms of studying. Must be the stress and pressure boring down on me then, granting me unprecedented powers in the field of focusing and concentration. Well, whatever it was I'm really thankful for it because it helped to force me to pick up the slack.
Anyway, I'm trying to study antibiotics and anti-fungal and anti-parasitic agents right now. Yes, I'm studying pharmacology again. It appears that I also develop a sudden urge to blog when I'm studying pharmacology. Must be all the pent up frustration and boredom with the subject.
Quote of the week: 'Happiness is a thumb and a wet blanket.'- Linus van Pelt
I shall now go to shower to attempt to make my continual mugging of antimicrobials more comfortable.
Okay, I'm having a 'Peanuts' overload today. I'm like Linus! This isn't the only quiz results that states I'm like Linus. But I think its quite true... I've been reading 'Peanuts' comics and yes, I do agree that I most like Linus. Stuck in his own world with his security blanket and thumb sucking and passive, loyal nature.
I've also come up with another addition 21st birthday gift idea! Apart from the HP-movie collectors wand and a stylish globe, I'll like a 'Peanuts' comic book: one of those books that are a collection of individual scripts and stuff. That'll be cool.
Just a suggestion folks. Don't get too serious over it. =P
I've always known that Pharmacology would be the main obstacle to my completion of medical school. Even before I entered Med, I've always anticipated that I would develop an everlasting hatred for Pharmacology. "Loathing, unadulterated loathing! I will be loathing you my whole life long!"
To me, drugs just don't make sense. I would rather be studying about random body parts, strange facts on microbes or how diseases come about then memorizing obscure facts about each particular type of drug. Pharmacology just doesn't make any sense at all. Why do we, future doctors, have to memorise facts and properties about so many god-damn drugs when we probably won't actually prescribe half of them in our future work? And why do we have to memorize facts when there are formularies for us to consult in the work place? I just think that all the cramping on drugs that we are doing right now is entirely redundant mugging and way too taxing for us to go through. We should just be allowed to concentrate on other more useful and important facts and not on properties of some stupid drug with utterly fanciful names that all sound or look the same.
I absolutely hate pharmacology. Even though Pharmacology pros isn't til next year, drugs such as immunosuppressants, corticosteroids, antibiotics etc are tested this time round as well. It is one thing to study about living microbes that are at least very fascinating and interesting. It is an entirely different matter to study about synthetic, non-living compounds that have properties such as bioavailability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, terms that are really as boring as their names suggest. Last night, I was attempting to study the notes on HIV therapy and antivirals: I stared at the page on mechanism of action for the drug Forscarnet for ages, but nothing went in. Even if you asked me today what Forscarnet does, I would probably just give you a smile and tell you that it 'f*cks you to death!' Okay, I know it does something to inhibit DNA and RNA polymerase, binding to some pyrophosphate bond or something, but my point is that Pharmaco is an utterly boring subject that I have absolutely no passion for and if it wasn't for the fact that I need to pass the subject to get my MBBS, I wouldn't be bothered with trying to memorizing these stupid facts at all.
If studying antiviral drugs was already such a pain the ass, just imagine the amount of work I have to go through for the stack of notes on antibiotics. I know that medical historians say that antibiotics are the saviours of mankind, but seriously, they should be renamed the killer-of-medical-students-who hate-pharmacology. I'm sorry Sir Alexander Fleming, but your discovery of Penicillin really makes me sad.
Life throws you the punches, and it takes alot of guts to dare to roll with it. But every now and then, life throws you a super duper massive punch that makes you go *blink-blink*. Then you look at the fast approaching fist and you consider dodging it this way and that, but then, suddenly, something in your cerebrum goes *click* and you tell yourself, 'What's the point?' and then you don't even bother moving away as the fist comes crashing into you once pretty face.
My life is a tragi-comedy. Its very very funny and hilarious, because I am quite a funny, clumsy, crazy person, and I'm surrounded by funny funny friends. But at the same time, it is a tragedy, because tragic, most tragic, so tragic that they're tragically funny things start befalling onto me. I can almost smell the bittersweet scent of Irony as it comes streaking in front of me, shaking its stinky butt in my face and sticking out its slimy tongue, in total mockery of my totally sad state. I honestly can't decide whether I should laugh or yell in despair. I think I'll make do with something in between, like laughing while yelling or something.
To all my friends who messaged or called me and offered their condolences, a big thank you for your care and concern. I really appreciated it. It made the hilarity of the whole situation even clearer, and yes, made it clear that if someone deserves the award for ultimately suay-ness, either one of us Mr Yeos will get it (though I still think the other Mr Yeo deserves it more! =p)
Whatever comes next in my tragi-comedy of a life, it'll probably be either more tragic or even more hilarious. So to all who have so far enjoyed following 'The Damian Yeo Show', stay tuned for more exciting, heart-wrenching and hilarious things to come!
Blizzard Entertainment has made my day VERY special by finally releasing information about the Zerg. Yes, the Zerg, the last playable race of the Starcraft universe, has FINALLY ARRIVED!
According to reports so far, the Zerg have QUITE a number of new units, and retained a number of old classic ones. The Zerglings and Mutalisks were announced to be making a return quite a long time ago, as were the Ultralisks, which were also revealed to be in the game just a couple of weeks before. And today, we were given confirmation that three other classic units were making a comeback, namely the Hydralisks, Lurkers and the Queen, though the Zerg Queen has undergone a total transformation and is now RADICALLY different from its original incarnation!
Also, it has become quite clear that the Zerg is shaping up into a race that emphasizes more on ground motility and ground swarm tactics. While this has always been the case for the Zerg, this emphasis on total ground power has become more obvious in Starcraft 2. The number of unique types of ground troops that the Zerg now have is a staggering 10, while they only appear to have a total of 4 Zerg fliers. This clearly distinguishes them from the other races in Starcraft, including the Protoss, who have the most powerful airfleet in the Starcraft universe, and the Terrans, who are like a transition point between the two races.
Here are some radical screenshots of the newly released Zerg! A battle between a swarm of new Zerg Corrupters against two Terran Battlecruisers.
The Zerg Swarm on the move: In this picture, you can see Hydralisks, Zerglings, Ultralisks, Lurkers and new units such as the Banelings, Infestors and Roaches, all scurrying about to invade the nearby terran base. The Zerg swarm just looks SO DAMN COOL.
A squad of Hydralisks and Lurkers attacking a Protoss defence encampment. The Protoss are really getting owned.
Zerg on Zerg attack. You can see the newly modified Zerg Queen in this. In the original Starcraft, she was a Zerg flier. Now she's really found a new niche in the Hive structure of the Zerg and has evolved into a ground unit - apparently, she's like a defense co-ordinator of the hive, with abilities to allow her to effectively defend the Zerg hive clusters. And you'll are currently only allowed to build one Queen in a single game, though this cap might changed considering how they removed the cap on the Protoss Mothership.
There are more Zerg screenshots and new demo videos on the net! ZERG GALORE!
"Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid." - Captain Jack Sparrow
Captain Jack Sparrow is SO entertaining! And Johnny Depp really is the most talented actor to have ever lived. There are actors who are just men pretending to be someone else, and then, there are actors who are really actors, men who live the characters that they are portraying, men who communicate with the characters they are portraying, men who really breathe life into characters that were moments before, just merely words describing who they really were. Johnny Depp is one such actor, and actors of such caliber are really really hard to come by. Which is why he is my favourite character, because all the quirky characters he portrays NEVER FAILS TO AMAZE ME AND MAKE WANT TO PLAY THE CHARACTER AS WELL!
This man deserves at least 5 Oscars! SO START GIVING THEM TO HIM ALREADY!
And so the CAs are over! I think everyone's just thankful for a short break before the start of the final lap of mugging in Year 2. So let's all just enjoy this short two day break, get revitalized, rejuvenated, refreshed before the mad rush to the finish line!
And since its been absolutely AGES since I did a review of an album, here's one to get the long stagnated engine for music reviews rolling!
Introducing Joanna Wong, 王若琳! If you like female jazz/lounge/bossa nova singers like Norah Jones, Lisa Ono or even Rachel Yamagata, listen to Joanna Wong! Dubbed as Taiwan's very own Norah Jones, this talented songstress sings English Jazz songs so fluently and with such crisp annunciation, you would be forgiven if you ever doubt the fact that she was Taiwanese!
Norah Jones' voice has a crisp, clear quality to it. Lisa Ono's voice has an affable accessibility to it. Rachel Yamagata's voice has a husky, sexy feel to it. Joanna however, feels like a unique blend of Yamagta's huskiness, Ono's accessibility and Jones' crispness. She sings with a quality that is uniquely hers, but definitely puts her on the same level with all the other great female jazz singers.
'Start From Her', Joanna's debut album is a two disc album that features 17 tracks, 12 in English and the remaining 5 in Mandarin. Every track is filled with the emotive rich quality that only jazz can offer, but at the same time, is made with the same accessible quality that only pop can bring. While she is obviously more at home singing English, her attempts at creating Mandarin jazz songs is also praise worthy, and the quality of her Mandarin tracks are no less brilliant. All in all, this is another perfect album to add to your (or in this case, mine!) collection of CDs prefect for late night listening, either to shake off the awful feeling you get when you are mugging for the next exam that you are going to sit, or when you end up dumped and out of love. On the other hand, it is also a perfect album to listen to when you are feeling at peace with the world, and would just like to chill and be one with the universe, to relax and be cool as you settle down for the night, to dream the night away.
And so, lets start the final lap, right from here.
Today's just one of the days where I really feel like CRAP for taking up my place in medical school, and subjecting myself to this much work, memory, studying and stress. Just when I felt like I was making progress in finishing the whole stack of notes on Infectious Diseases, I found a winzip file under my 'M2 Notes' folder that was unzipped. Thinking that it's very strange and discomforting to have an unzipped winzip file in my Notes folder, I decided to unzip it: lo and behold, out came 4 more sets of Infectious Disease notes, notes that I had conveniently forgotten about ages ago, and thus had not printed out (or studied) yet.
At that point in time, I just wanted to yell 'FUCK!' and just throw in the towel. For just that moment in time, I really felt like giving it up, freaking giving it all up and quit medical school and just stay home to rot. But then, the medical student in me promptly took over: I took a look at the clock on the wall, drew in a deep breath and proceeded to open the first file to start my reading.
Everytime I hear some fellow medical student complain and whine about how much stuff we have to learn; how hard they are forcing us to work, how little time for relaxing and fun we have; I have the urge to remind them that we chose this path ourselves, knowing full well what we were going to get ourselves into and that we have absolutely no right to complain. So I gave myself the exact same advise that I would give to another beleaguered medical student: stop the incessant whining, suck it all up and just slog on.
And please don't tell me that it isn't supposed to be easy, because that's just telling me what I already know.
HAHA, Geraldine uploaded two more new videos! These were from a concert at the Esplanade, my one and probably only time that I ever got to perform there. I think this concert precedes the one previously posted. Oh wait, Kailiang's in it as well! So yeah, it REALLY precedes the other concert then!
Honestly, the quality of this particular song was quite bad. HAHA. There were obvious blemishes and 管乐's 音准 was erm... not that good eh? And I remember that I never practiced this song properly! So yeah, wonderful memories!
I've performed this song like dunno how many times liao. Nice song though. Brings back lots of memories with the 中阮 people. Good times, good times!
It's probably going to be harder identifying me in these, because the camera guy didn't really focused on me. Again, really funny. AND WTF! I HAD DAMN BAD POSTURE WHILE PLAYING THE INSTRUMENT! Should have gotten a backbone then man! ________________________________________________________
Thanks to Geraldine, I'm ON youtube!
From some long forgotten era where I still played a Chinese Orchestra instrument called the Ruan (阮) and still looked like an anorexic nerd. Oh wait. That hasn't changed at all! I STILL look like an anorexic nerd! TRY AND FIND ME! A free drink for anyone who manages to find me in that mass of people!
If you looked carefully, there's this part where the video caught me changing notes halfway through the song, because I came to the realization that I was playing the WRONG note! Its quite funny when you realized that your mistakes on stage actually got caught on camera! But then, I wasn't that conscientious a musician anyway. Because I was so lazy, I didn't have the patience and will power to practice diligently, so I never mastered my instrument properly. But then again, that's a recurring theme in my life - I'm quite smart and talented enough to be okay in stuff I pick up, but because of my fickle-mindedness and laziness, I can never ever be perfect in them. Jack of all trades, but master of none.
On another note, it feels really WEIRD to see yourself on youtube. Now I know why certain actors never like to watch themselves on the screen - its just weird. It must have been weird for Gladys to discover that she was on youtube ages ago as well - boy, how I used to make fun of her when I discovered those videos! So I apologize Gladys, for any trauma I might have caused!
I actually think I made quite a number of mistakes in that performance! This is so funny! I think this video convinced me to not ever pick up that instrument for at least the next five years. I think I'm so much better off listening and appreciating it than being involved in producing it! Hehe.
In Dreams - Edward Ross When the cold of Winter comes Starless night will cover day In the veiling of the sun We will walk in bitter rain
But in dreams I can hear your name And in dreams We will meet again
When the seas and mountains fall And we come to end of days In the dark I hear a call Calling me there I will go there And back again _______________________________________________________
There are some songs/scores that you cannot listen to without becoming emo. One of them is this short song, called 'In Dreams'. It doesn't actually exist as a song on its own. In fact, its part of the song 'Breaking of the Fellowship', which of course, originates from the score of the movie soundtrack for 'The Fellowship of The Ring'. It is one of the many beautiful, uplifting (and sad) songs from the trilogy's amazing soundtrack and never fails to put me in a retrospective mood. Which is why you should never ever attempt to mug while listening to the 'Lord of the Rings' soundtracks. Trust me, I learnt the lesson the hard way last night.
What I love about this song is the lyrics. Its very poetic and speaks of both the joy of being with friends, and also the inevitable grief of parting with them. Like every other song from the 'Lord of the Rings' soundtrack, when taken in context of the film's plot, it is absolutely apt and just fits the storyline to a tee. Whenever I listen to this song, I'm always reminded, albeit a tab morbidly, of a funeral. Be it that of one of my friends, or even my own. If I were to choose a song to be played or performed during my funeral, I would choose this to be it. If I were to choose a song to sing at a friend's funeral, I would pick this as well. Because it speaks volumes, about the sadness of parting with people, but then again, it also gives us hope, that one day, we will all meet again.
All of the sudden, I miss being immersed in Middle-Earth again. I should have another trilogy session soon...
Name: voldemort33
XY, 01/06/1987, s'porean typical geminian free-thinker moody & eccentric thinks far too much for his own good med student (be afraid. be very afraid!) demon45_6f@hotmail.com
crazy craves
music (jazz, rock and lounge) day-dreaming drawing & photography animals (sheep!) chocolate and tea! seafood, noodles and soup!
pet peeves
noisy crowds over-possessive, insecure, whiny people two-faced hypocrites housework and homework being called 'rich' rushing to do stuff crying, pesky kids
deepest darkest desires! (aka wishlist!)
to be a doctor (with a heart of gold!) a dog my own condo apartment a driving license and my own four wheel drive my own comic line someone to hug
