29 September 2008

Just another student.

Why is it, that most of the time when I'm on break I'm always alone? I'd most likely blame for the lack of people I'm compatible with that's in my program, not to mention the lack of females in the program (like seriously its like a 9:1 ratio). But truthfully the only answer to this is my lack of confidence to open up and approach others. I'm way too shy, I'm surprised that I was able to meet some people at school already. The first month of school is almost done and now comes the true test students' obligation to their education commitment. Already this Friday I have a thesis for my ITM 100 class due, a paper for SOC 202, and prior to Friday I have another quiz to do for MGT200 and ACC100, oh my gosh! It's like a never ending cycle of evaluations. There was no way I could have prepared for this, not even in high school.

I tried reading the chapters that I missed earlier on but that failed. I had to wake up at 5am today what a drag, I only got about 3 hours of sleep! That's not even a sleep, more like a nap, oh man. There are so many things I need to do in order to get on the path of success for school. Sleeping patterns, time management, control, discipline, dedication, the list goes on. A little under 15 minutes to go before my MHR 405 class starts (as of 12:46pm). This class has got to be the most boring class there is, its too long and draggin, I have trouble staying awake in that class.

Sometimes I ask myself why am I even going to university? Or why am I taking ITM? Why Ryerson? Why something business related? I HATE BUSINESS, ITS SO BORING! Ironically, accounting is probably my strongest subject too.

I am so looking forward to tomorrow, WEEZER BABY! WHERE? THE ACC BABY! WHEN? 7:30pm BABY! STOP!... AIR GUITAR TIME!




28 September 2008

Daydreamin' Reminiscin'

I hate Sundays. All I ever do is sit and lounge when I should be studying or something. Almost 2 years ago I got into rock music, the first band that took me away was ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION.



It was something magical about this band, I heard of this band before because of the anime series Naruto and Full Metal Alchemist (they had 2 songs that were the opening themes for each respective series). But at that time I never liked rock, just liked watching anime. Aside from the opening themes which I heard about a year prior to my transition from rap to rock, the first AJIKAN (the band's nickname) song that got me obsessed was called "Rashinban" which translate to "Compass" if I am correct. Since then I was considering picking up the guitar, but I was still skeptical on the idea.




It wasn't until BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad aired on MuchMusic and I just happened to be channel surfing and decided to spend the next half hour watching the episode that was on. I remember a friend of mine that watched the series before it was even licensed in North America. After the first episode I solidified my decision, but instead of the guitar I picked up the BASS. Why? 'Cause Taira looked like such a bad ass with his bass.



Around April of 2007 I started playing my instrument, taking weekly lessons. Now it's been over a year and half and I'm still playing the bass today. Since then I've bought 2 Fender Precision Basses, one acoustic guitar from Japan (that I had to sadly leave behind in Vietnam), and most recently an Epiphone SG. I started playing guitar as you can see, but don't expect me to put much emphasis on it, my heart still belongs to my bass(es).



Ever since AJIKAN, I've discovered many other great bands (like ELLEGARDEN), but one band that stood out the most was STRAIGHTENER (ストレイテナー). These guys were something different, AJIKAN was a true rock and roll band, while ELLEGARDEN was a hard-edged punk with melodic harmonies band, and then you have STRAIGHTENER, you wouldn't know what to categorize them as they're THAT UNIQUE.



Another reason why I love them is because of their badd bass player Hidekazu Hinata. This guy is just phenomenal. Being me I tend to always do background checks on stuff I like. Interesting fact about Hinata, his first band (or alteast nothworthy) was ART-SCHOOL (yet another band that I love).



During 2003 he joined ZAZEN BOYS and STRAIGHTENER, get this in this year alone he was in 3 BANDS! Unfortunately he decided to leave ART-SCHOOL in order to focus on the two other bands. Also he and Horie the vocals of STRAIGHTENER started a side-project called FULLARMOR. In 2007 Hinata announced his exit from ZAZEN BOYS. As of today he is still STRAIGHTENER and he still kicks ass, literally. His presence on stage is unprecedented. He sets the standard out there for every musician who performs live, this is why he is my idol.



I always fantasize about myself performing in front of a large audience and just rocking it out like Hinata, it seems so much fun. Showcasing your talent with emotions, heart, passion it's so much fun. I hope I'll get the chance one day.

Time to eat, later.

"...so how was your Friday?"

Thank goodness for Fridays. Like seriously, imagine a week without a Friday. Friday is a day that's like not the end of the week nor is it the beginning or middle. It's the day that's usually last day of school/work of the week for most people and it pretty much the day that kicks off the weekend. Some like myself consider it a weekend to say the least, like come on...SUNDAY? What is there to do on a SUNDAY? SUNDAY is like the most boring day of the week for me not to mention it's the day before I return back to school.

"...so how was you Friday?", oh me? Well first off, thanks for asking. My Friday was pretty good and my Friday night was memorable to say the least. So during the day I had a class at 11am until 12pm. Afterward I met up with two of my friends and we had Korean BBQ for lunch.



Yum... all you can eat. Cheap and fulfilling food at its finest.

So when lunch was done, we took a stroll down Queen Street West. I never got to really appreciate how nice Toronto is (I think i mentioned this a previous post). Here's what I mean...



Ahhh, gotta love T.O.

Later on that day, we decided to go home. So on the way to Spadina station, there seemed to be ANOTHER POWER FAILURE. That's two days back an forth for TTC. But luckily it did not affect the subway trains, just the street car. That would've been hectic. Then after finally getting to Finch station, there was another incident that cause further delay on the busses, but this time it affected the YRT. The good ol' (old) people at VIVA were having a strike and protesting and tried to make a statment. This caused trouble for the busses trying to get in and out of the bus loop and ultimately caused yet another long set of long line ups.



When I finally got home, I went straight to the basement to jam with my bass guitar for bit. During the evening I went to a friends birthday party actually it was two of my friends, they were celebrating it together. Yup it took place at two hotels (first one we got kicked out before we even popped any bottles open, sad...totally reminded me of prom). The second one was half-assed success. Why? Lets just say later on that evening events occurred. Events such as me laying down in the trunk of my friends '92 Honda Accord, taking my shirt off and walking on the side walk, getting in to a friendly brawl with a BIG friend of mine (which was considered life threatening becuase he was seriosuly BIG). But that's just me, as for the party in general, well... it ended in sourness (like prom night did). Cops got involved thats all I'm saying LOL.

Yup, indeed a memorable Friday it was. I think thats enough for tonight's blog.

PEACE. DRINK RESPONSIBLY.

26 September 2008

Recap of Yesterday In a Large Nutshell.

So yesterday my final class ended at 6pm...guess what time I got home (the average time it takes me to get home is at least an hour and half)? I ended up stepping through the doors at my house at 9:30pm!!! THAT'S OVER 3 HOURS! The TTC system was so hectic yesterday, it literally affected everybody in Toronto taking public transit. Here's the deal, after class ended I took a little twinkle in the men's room (because that's what men do when they're in the men's room), afterward I went straigtht to Dundas station. When I got there I saw cops and a train full of prople already, I knew something was up. But, in all honesty I thought somebody got stabbed or an old lady got her purse stolen or something. So while I was standing there in the train waiting for it to move, I started sweating excessively and I've been standing in there for like 10 minutes and its packed with people, not to mention I had a jacket on. Impatient as I am, I got off only to overhear someone say the trains had a power failur or something. I was shocked and scared becasue I lived all the way uptown and I was all the way at the centre of downtown Toronto! Needless to say there were some trains running, BUT they were SLOWWW as HELLLLL! All passesngers were forced to get off another station and take the shuttle bus to get to their designated stations. As I got off Bloor Station and went up to catch the shuttle busses outside this was what I saw...






It was horrible, yet exciting LOL. Why? Because something finally something happened for once that I wouldn't consider regular or commonly occurs in my life. The bus ride was OBVIOUSLY a catastrophe! I was like sweating pounds of sweat due to the density of the bus carrying passengers well over the capacity limit. I had to stand up for the whole ride holding on to the rail my arm got so sore afterward. People outside were taking pictures of the bus, standing and staring, pointing and what not. It was hell and back I tell ya. Thankfully they fixed the problem and today the TTC was back to normal. My cellphone almost died because of the pictures I took with low battery level haha.

Take a look at what did to the small table on my chair in class today,



I traced the linings from the wood with my pencil, my friend was telling me how I was crazy for doing and must be bored out of my mind (and I was minus crazy). It might not look much from the picture, but in person it looks sick! Just as my friend. *nods head*

Here's a picture I took of the lecture hall...



That's all for now! PEACE.