A little something just to take off the edge
A little more and I'll fall of the planet entirely
- Plus 44 "When your heart stops beating"

Yeah it's back....for stilt's sake....SJ and I still need to see that pic :)!. Blink182 split in the early 2005 on very amicable grounds. Mark Hoppus (bass guitar and vocals) and Travis Barker (drums and keyboards) went on to form a group called Plus 44 (OR +44) and Tom DeLonge (guitarist/vocalist) went on to form 'Angels and Airwaves' (aka AVA). Plus 44 releases their first album in the end of 2006 titled 'When Your Heart Stops Beating' and AVA came out with 'We Don't Need To Whisper' in early 2006. I found both albums interesting but preferred the sound of +44. It maintained the Blink sound and brought in more variety. Since 'American Idiot' (Greenday) this is the album that has been on top of my play list.

I get carried away with myself sometimes. I think I can handle everything....like I'm Superman..and then I end up over-promising and under-delivering. My schedule right now is totally ******-up! I manage an internship between 8AM-5.30PM everyday and I have university between 6.00PM and 9:30PM. Which leaves me with a one-day-weekend and a few hours a day to do all my assignments and reports. Oh well, if I don't work hard now, when will I?... right?

I'm interning with a top pharmaceutical company in their supply chain management division. The perks of the job are - a well stocked up fridge with soft drinks, fruit punch and milk; a coffee vending machine that makes a fantastic double espresso; a pantry stocked with beagles, Oreos and dorritos and a intranet web portal that displays some crazy sh** like how they found a way to take caffeine into your system while using bathing soap (Read).

I’m three months away from graduation and my job hunt should start very soon. I’m looking at Singapore, Australia and Canada as possible job markets. In terms of food and proximity to home (India) Singapore seems like the best deal, but I’m not the only person involved in the decision-making process anymore :).

My buddies from Cardiff (Wales) decided to use the excuse of a 'business trip' to have a relaxing weekend in Malaysia and since I was only a stones throw away, I decided to join them. We checked into Trader's Hotel in KL, smack in the middle of the KL 'golden triangle'. I've never stayed in a 5 star hotel before so I had no idea what to expect from one. The hotel was opposite the "twin towers" of KL (featured in the Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones movie 'Entrapment') . The experience was fantastic. The spa rooms, rooftop pool and skybar, the rooms... well here's a picture of the room.

Rooms at the Trader's Hotel


Petronas Twin Towers KL, Malaysia

Malaysia has a lot to offer-lotsa adventure spots, surfing, trekking & hiking destinations...but the bunch of losers that we were, we got pissed drunk and played on the PS2 all night and slept pretty much all day. Shopping in KL was cheap, lotsa street stalls to buy clothes from, watches (fake of course), shoes, bags, sun glasses and more. The night life is very very vibrant with prostitution running rampant. The funniest moment on the trip - My friend was hit on by a transvestite maybe a transsexual...not too sure....well 'hit on' here is a euphemism for 'trying to get into one of the change rooms knowing he was in there butt-naked'!

Pimp your Desktop using Rocket Dock!

I’ve been playing around with this freeware called Rocket dock. It’s like a Mac program bar for windows and it’s damn cool! It was created by the people at Punk Software, mac users who decided to give rocket dock as a ‘peace-offering’ to Win Users! It has no spy-ware or adware and it’s really small and uses very little system resources. Cooler still is the fact that it’s highly customizable! Here’s a video to see it in action. Here are a few screen shots.

Customizing icons in Rocket Dock

Customizing Rocket Dock Behavior

The software comes with it’s own set of dock-icons (that’s why the download file says it’s 6.9MB, although the program is really small). You can head down to Deviant-Art and download dock icons (for free ofcourse). I highly recommend – The Micro Icon Set , Aqua Value and Nimbus.

P.S. - As an attempt to move closer to 'sustainable blogging' I have decided to stop the normal lyric and song title bit from this post onwards. It's quite tough to pick a song which is appropriate for every post!

To the praying Mother
The worried Father
Let your children go
If they come back they'll come home stronger
and if they don't you'll know
- Good Charlotte "The River"

When Good Charlotte hit the music scene they weren't a revelation but you could like them. I wasn't too big a fan of their music until "Good Morning Revival" came along. It isn't anywhere close to some of my favorite albums of all time but I have grown to like this album. The songs are dark with shimmery electronics and distorted synths and choruses. It's definitely worth a try if you like trying out albums for the heck of it.

Here I am back after 10 months! I did my rounds with some of my blogging buddies, good to know they're still around except for Grant I suppose...the guy's I haven't visited yet, will see ya guys soon! I am currently between exams - 2 days before the last one in this semester. So let me keep my 'come back blog' real short and give you guys a very quick update that's very brief and very nicely presented in points - the benefits of pursuing an MBA :)

Update

My marital status has changed...and guess what ? She's a blogger too!!!
I'm about 64.7% through the program at NUS.
The course has kept me extremely busy - my biggest excuse for not blogging.
I should be hitting the job market in Singapore in 3 months time.

High points in the past period-

I kept a promise with a very special friend, a promise to marry her.
I was taught by 3 professors who's subjects were a real pleasure to take.
The sights and sounds of Singapore - it's so small, it's like playing Grand Theft Auto!
I designed the Uni's MBA website - the most visible web project I have done.
I have met one very like minded person, a potential business partner!
I designed my senior's yearbook - That's quite an experience...let me tell you.

Regrets-
Just one - I missed all the regular bloggers who pay me a visit.

So, keep visiting, posts will be regular I promise!

From the bible of none of the above
On a steady diet of soda pop and Ritalin
No one ever died for my sins in hell
As far as I can tell
- Greenday “Jesus Of Suburbia”

The video has some disturbing shit man…

But have you guys seen this documentary?

Gods Army

Source

The new documentary, Jesus Camp, which chronicles a North Dakota summer camp where kids as young as 6 are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in "God's army," is an illustration of this sentiment in the extreme.

The star of the film is Pastor Becky Fischer, who explains the startling mission of her "Kids on Fire" camp: "I want young people to be as committed to laying down their lives for the Gospel as they are in Pakistan." At the camp, the children are asked: "How many of you want to be those who will give up your life for Jesus?" Little hands shoot up from every direction. They are told: "We have to break the power of the enemy over the government." At one point, Becky yells: "This means war! Are you a part of it or not?" More little hands.

See Video

Now this is a Manifesto!

Source

"Certainly, political lightning-rod issues like abortion and homosexuality will be the first to be put in order. That citizens of this nation under God be permitted to continue in such heinous crimes against virtue is anathema, and it obviously will not continue…..

Change the courts. Once the legislature is re-aligned with the true Founder's intent, we will be in position to start changing the courts…..

Crush all opposition. With the government restored to alignment with the Giver of life, we will be in position finally to do away with those who oppose the will of God…..

Rewrite school curriculum. Every morning in the classroom, compulsory reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance—replete with expanded language developing and strengthening our commitment to living out our great nation's destiny under God—will be followed by the Ten Commandments and John 3:16. Bible study classes will be mandatory. History will be re-re-written to tell the true story of our nation's godly heritage.

Establish religious police. A sort of righteous Gestapo will be necessary, of course, to maintain national purity….."

Are we losing it?

It's the perfect time of night,
To be losing your mind now.
As the curtains finally fall,
Will you kindly take your bow.
- Ryan Star “Back Of Your Car”

My only entertainment the last few weeks was the "Rockstar Supernova" show. I'm not too sure if supernova as a band got the best lead singer but the show managed to showcase some talented performers. Rayan Star, Magni and Dilana had entertaining stage performances. My pick out of the lot was either Ryan or Magni. Hope they come out with some good rock albums.

Coca Cola owns fully or partially close to 500 brands! Wiki it and find out. I was blown over by that statistic. They just seem to be in every kind of drink that's out there, energy drinks, sodas, mixers, water, you name it, and they'll have a stake in it.

I can relate a lot with Jason Newsted. He comes across as a rock solid guy who is pretty grounded. He left Metallica saying "Due to private and personal reasons, and the physical damage that I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love, I must step away from the band. This is the most difficult decision of my life, made in the best interest of my family, myself, and the continued growth of Metallica. I extend my love.....". There was some controversy about his departure. He claimed Hetfield and Lars never really treated him as an equal and never allowed him to persue projects outside Metallica. I think it takes quite a bit of guts to quit a really popular band and decide to take off on something completely whack like Voivod. Voivod had tragedies and setbacks with the death of their lead guitarist but they seem to be moving along... and now Supernova. I can't put Jason and Tommy Lee in the same box.

NUS B.S.

Work work and more work. A typical day starts off with an in-depth case read to get prepped for class, a quick recap on the day's biz news. After a half-hour bus journey, I meet up with my class mates at the Graduate Lounge and then head for a 3 hour lecture followed by a quick lunch. Then it's assignments and homework that everyone frantically goes about doing to make sure they submit on time. Another half-hour bus ride home and you have just enough time to catch some show on TV and stuff dinner down. There is a lot of non - productive chit chat that happens through the day but that's about it....aaaah campus life!!

Then comes the choices you need to make. To do really well or do just enough to get home smiling. One of them means screwing yourself silly…or at least it’s so in my case. I need to put in 2-3 times more effort than normal to stay afloat…I’m terrible with remembering details formulas, numbers, dates and names….that pretty much covers everything right? Well, that’s the problem!!

She makes the indy 500 look like a roman chariot race now
A lotta guys try to catch her
But she leads them on a wild goose chase now
- Beach Boys "Fun Fun Fun"

The Beach Boys could arguable be the roots of Teeny Bopper lyrics...not to diss the Beach Boys but a girls voice replacing the lead vocals may not sound so bad! I started with the beach boys after watchin' Micheal J Fox's 'Teen Wolf'. "Surfin' USA" is part of that OST...Then ofcourse came a heavy dose of Baywaytch with almost all the Beach Boys Hits being played at some point or another. Though not great on the lyrics they did have an easy smooth relaxing feel to their songs.

As X – Dell observed, YES, these guys are keeping me quite busy….and there is still some ‘settling in’ and ‘getting accustomed to the place’ going on. Well I have also been having a blast at Uni and outside. For one, all the Subjects are great and I have Economics as one of them (Yippieee…my fav!).

So, update on the goings on...the 'blog worthy' ones.

We had a small mini “the amazing race” around Sentosa Island, which was part of a team building exercise..which my team won!

I took a rickshaw drive around Clark Quay...which was fun cuz seeing the city lights and fast cars and arriving on a richshaw at the most happening Discothèque is quite an experience.

Ministry of Sound – THE DISCOTHEQUE to be in...I mean wow...the place was rocking. Confession - I hate discos, I’m definitely the grundgy smokey pub corner/quiet dinner types...but I just HAD to dance (inspite of my totally uncoordinated feet) to this awesome, awesome music that was playing...it was ****ING fantastic. There are four rooms – One is red with a small dance floor typical 80’s style décor, the second is a dark room with a steel cage a little larger with Hip Hop playing the funkiest tunes, the third is a 25+ only Lounge bar…it’s WHITE...and last definitely not the least...a two storied awesomely big dance floor with hanging creepy looking mannequins…with a lot of artificial smoke, elevated podiums and those light flares that is handed out to people there...it’s friggin awesome.

So sorry I haven’t been coming around too frequently to your blogs,a thousand apologies for that and as promised you now have a picture to put against my name. The MOS pictures were taken with a 2MP Phone Camera so it kinda came out quite crappy.

Inside Ministry Of Sound Singapore.



The Sentosa Team (Thats me bottom left!)

Now the spires and the gables grow in orchards to the sky

And the blessings on my table multiply and divide
- Audioslave ‘Out Of Exile’

I’m still trying to figure out how Rage against the Machine changed into this awesome, awesome band…it simply amazes me every time I think about it.

If you are new to Singapore, well it really doesn’t matter. I am amazed to see how organized this country is. The MRT’s and bus stations are so well co-ordinated and interconnected; I find their punctuality and reliability almost boring!! They are extremely on time and by the book. Coming from a country where the daily routine is extremely unpredictable and a lot based on chance and luck, this place is quite the opposite. You will always get a bus or an MRT at a particular time, they will always take you to your destination at a particular time, there is no such thing as a “rush-hour” (if the locals tell you about it…laugh! It’s a joke, you have probably 5-10 cars extra running at peak-hour). So what do you need to get around Singapore? An MRT map, and a bus route map. There are big maps laid out at every MRT stop that shows every single building in that locality…big green neon signs always tell you where you are...it actually is kinda hard getting lost. You may miss things by a few stops but it’s not too hard getting back. This place has been so logically and brilliantly laid out, hats off to the planners.

Food, food and more food! If you’re a foodie…look no further. Truly multicultural cuisines at the numerous food courts and hawker’s area will continually impress you. The food looks great and tastes even better. I maintain what I said in my previous post, it’s a little bit hard if you’re a veggie (cuz you see soooo many options you just can’t have), but you’ll manage. I’m beginning to discover that eating out is damn cheap and it’s probably only a couple of dollars costlier than cooking at home. The downside is alcohol and beer is expensive, you’re looking at 3 Sing dollars (‘bout 2 USD) for a 250 ml can…OUCH!!


Food Courts in Clementi

From a Crossing in Boon Lay

NUS B.S.

We had all our welcomes and orientation lectures. The NUS MBA School is doing a lot to sell themselves hard and put themselves right at the top of the B-School list. We as students are yet to prove ourselves. A top-quality cohort is absolutely necessary to take the School to greater heights. The feel-good factor was introduced on day-one by the dean convincing us that the investment in the course was a wise one. We had lectures from the alumni, the careers service and the faculty telling us exactly what we were up against. What I was impressed about was the frank, no BS talk. It was the first time I really felt I saw and knew all the cards and knew exactly where this was heading, rather where I wanted this to go. It’s a damn good feeling to have when you’ve quit your job to get back to uni and you’re afraid of starting over.