My MacBook Pro

It's been a month since i received my laptop from college... It's a 15 inch MacBook Pro... it's quite a good laptop.. it's powered by Intel's 2.4 GHz core 2 duo... it has 2gb ddr2 ram (upgradable to 4gb).. a 256 ddr3 nVidia geforce 8600 gt.. and 200gb hard disk... it's pretty good for gaming.. i tried playing devil may cry 4 and mass effect on maximum settings and maximum resolutions (1440 by 900).. it didn't lag that much at all... nice, since i'm quite the extreme gamer.. =p.. anyways.. for those of you who are curious... here are some screenshots of my mac... =)

first and foremost, the desktop... see how different  and neater it is from the windows system.. 

in windows, you have to press start to access the menus.. in mac, its all arranged at the Dock.. very easy to get into an application...

this is very cool.. as you scroll over the applications in the dock, it magnifies it for you so you can have a better look at it... something that windows doesn't have.. =p

in mac, there ain't windows media player.. but they do have iTunes.. which to me, is like way better than WMP... hehe...

look at this.. it's a feature call dashboard... u can widgets on it.. to make it look cool... in this pic, i had the time, calculator, calender, iTunes, dictionary and google search widget... so cool...

After using windows for many years, i thought it was like the best operating system around.. but i was so wrong when i started using mac... it's so cool, user friendly, fast, and reliable... and more important, unlike windows xp, the mac system is less vulnerable towards viruses and malwares... actually, there's hardly any virus out there that could infect a mac.. from my experience so far, that is... hehe... to all windows users out there, make the change! go for a mac! haha... =)

Tiring day

It's been a very tiring day for me... hardly had any sleep.. worry worry... my mind's plagued by worries... but things got better before class... =).. arhhh... stupid digi.. barred my line without even notifying me with any sms... today in class, we learn new song.. it's a rock song by bon jovi.. it's ' Blaze of Glory'... the score looked pretty complicating.. but it was fun to play the song with the band.. haha... i can relax on this song as i'm playing the strings effect on the keyboard.. =p... then after class walked home... wrote this blog... and now... i'm gonna doze off... zzz.....

The Sleeping Doll

'The Sleeping Doll' is a book that i've just read by Jefferey Deaver.. He's best known work is 'The Bone Collector', which was made into a movie starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.. anyways.. this post is about a new book from him... From the very first chapter of 'The Sleeping Doll' i knew that this book was going to be a cliffhanger!.. full of suspense and thriller with wicked plot twists towards the end makes it one of my favorite books that i've read.. 'The Sleeping Doll'.. i seriously recommend all readers and fans of thrillers to get your hands on this one.. it's worth every penny.. =)...

Assessment (Week 7) Result

Today had performance studies class.. Learned new song today, called 'Route 66'.. man.. this song is pretty hard for me.. as we tried earlier, i realized i couldn't catch up with the rest of the band... hard song... but nice... =p... i have to practice more on this song... by the way.. at the end of class, we were informed of our results of the assessment we had last week... i did just ok... got 85 marks... what cost me a lot was actually the piece... it seems that I'm too technical.. =(.. too classical... sighs... i have to kick it out of my system... i have to listen to more songs it seems... surprisingly, my sight reading was actually good... =p... i actually thought it would've been the other way around... well.. whatever.. I'm glad that i passed it... =)

KL Bird Park

Well.. me and my mom, bro, sis, aunt, uncle, and cousins went to the KL Bird Park on the 22nd of August.. it seems that this is the biggest bird park in the world.. i was the cameraman... saw alot of interesting stuff there... hehe... here are some of the pics i took...







the entrance...












my cousin and sis with some nice lookin birds...













haha... although its a bird park, them monkeys always seem to be there for food...












cute little chicks in the nursery section in the bird park...











and here are some ducks too.. hehe.. quack!














these birds here are relaxing, and having a nice time under the shade of the tree...











a nice pic of a peacock by a mini watefall...
m favorite pic... =P












haha... lunch time for the birds... made me feel hungry...











he's looking out for something... but i dunno what.. haha... curious little fella'...












haha... this here isn't an animal.. but.. it's my sister's slipper.. haha.. she slipped and fell into this pond of koi fish... haha... there, u can see one of her slippers floating..











here're some weird looking birds.. exotic..












green parrot high up...













haha.. one of the visitors feeding the peacock...














the peacock by the waterfall.... nice view... good cameraman... that's why... =p =p =p!

Relieved

I've just arrived home.. had assessment over my sight reading and piece with the band.. I initially thought that i was gonna screw things up pretty bad... but surprisingly, i actually did quite well.. my morning started off badly... walked to college in heavy rain... i was soaked! lucky my laptop didn't get wet... and on the way to college, i slipped and fell on my back... darn it... a bad start to an important day... when the time came for my assessment.. i remained calm and upbeat to go through it... maybe having such a bad start to the day was good.. haha... anyways... I'm happy with how i played today... i hope the results will be good too... =)

Assignments & Assessments

Here i sit in the practice room in ICOM... today just handed up the theory assignment... 2nd assignment, which is about the major and minor scales, composing rhythms, and knowing those common italian terms... I'm glad that i finished that one... coz tomorrow is more harder! =(...  tomorrow got sight reading test and we have to play 2 songs with the band.. i'll be assessed based on my performance of the 'Autumn Leaves' song... its my first time playing in a band.. so i dare say I'm quiet nervous... unlike those competitions i've been in thru classical piano... the both are very different... if i screw up tomorrow in my piece, I'll be letting the whole band down.. =(.. i must avoid that... Practice Practice!! ... must get thru it flawlessly... ironically, i should be thankful as the pieces are much easier and less demanding if compared to those classical pieces that i used to play... hehe... i just hope me and my friends will get thru both of them well... =)

A New Toy

Today i got a new toy from ICOM.. It's a Oxygen 8 v2 25 key midi controller... it's a good tool for composing and arranging and mixing a song.. here are some pics of it... 

This.. is the box.. hehe... =p

and this here is the midi controller itself...

well... i've played around with it for a few hours... damn it's so fun! haha... i will try to upload some of the songs i created with this new toy of mine... =D

*Note on cool websites*

Hi everyone.. the cool websites consists of sites where you can visit to download mp3 (MP3s Downloads and Jazz MP3s), download piano sheet music (Sheet Music), and a very useful site for us to check whether our computer/laptop can run today's games ( Can You Run It?)

All sites are virus/spyware/malware/worm free.. =)

The Transition

It's been a month now i've been studying in ICOM... well.. the experience so far has been fun.. fun because it is.. different... different from what i expected.. i've been playing piano since i was 3.. and since then i have been playing classical only.. but in ICOM.. its a different world.... here, they emphasize more on contemporary music.. hardly any classical.. the transition, from playing classical to playing more modern stuff, has been pretty exciting for me.. both genres are special in their own way.. I'm still new to the world of contemporary music.. and so far, the journey into it has been nice... =)... in my first month at ICOM, i've learnt how to play some simple basic contemporary pieces with a band.. pieces like Autumn Leaves, Ain't No Sunshine, and Route 66.. i find that playing piano in band is really fun... haha... there're loads of room for improvisation... I'm grateful that i've been classically trained.. as the skills and techniques are still the same... hehe.. lucky me... hehe... I've made some new friends in ICOM, with both fellow students and lecturers.. everyone's good and talented in their own special way... hehe... it's been fun and nice... and I'm looking forward to doing my best here... =)

1st Post

Well.. Hello there everyone.. This is my first post on blogspot.. 

I just arrived from johor... went to have dinner with a friend from college, Siang.. nice chap.. good guitarist... tomorrow got Performance Lab class... this Thursday got assessment.. scary.. =(... we'll be assessed on sight reading and a piece.. can be either Autumn Leaves, Ain't No Sunshine, or Route 66... Wednesday have to hand in theory assignment.. lucky i finished that weeks ago.. haha...