The Long Goodbye

Hi guys,
this will probably be my last post here on blogger.
I must say, it's been a hell of a six year ride here. I leave this place with great reluctance.
This blog will still be up for sentimental sake, but I will be moving to cheyenne54.tumblr.com from now. All the posts that were on blogger have also been moved there.

Goodbye old pal. It's been real.

Don't Look Back

I am not part of history. I am not a citizen of history. I am an absence. I am an invalid. I do not exist.

I was looking through some videos on the fall of the Berlin Wall, and I grew very depressed because I realised that in all my 23 years of living, I have not been part of something that impacted or changed the world. Heck, not even in my own country.

In 1789, I was not King Louis XVI.

In 1805, I was not Nelson.

In 1815, I was not Napoleon.

In 1870, I was not Bismarck.

In 1914, I was not a soldier.

In 1917, I was not Lenin.

In 1939, I was not Hitler.

In 1948, I was not Tito.

In 1989, I was not Gorbachev.

For now, I am a victim of history, the very thing I love. I cannot, I just cannot believe that I will go through my life as someone ordinary. I may die in the process, but if that's the tragedy of history, then give me tragedy. Where is my Trafalgar?

Ridin in my car

Is the male voice dead?

Recently, I've discovered that my current spate of music interest has centred around the female voice. A few months back, I did a post on the Raveonettes, The Submarines and The Kills, all of which have a female lead.







Now, let me introduce three more - Au Revoir Simone, She & Him and Emmy the Great.







And come on, these girls are not some Amanda 'play the keyboard which when you look at it is not really so important in the band so much so that they can still survive without her so maybe ultimately she's just there for the glam and rock chic factor and nothing else' Ling. Don't get me wrong, I like the girl (I went to puke from nervousness after I met her for the first time and got her to sign my electrico badge). But let's face it. She's not Stevie.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy my recommendations.

A bowl collecting blood

"(Nagy's) speech verged on the disastrous; he began by addressing the crowd as "comrades", only to be met with angry cries of 'we are not comrades!'"

Evidently, Nagy did not possess wide ranging oratorical skills. You pay for an all out rock feste. The band turns up and belts out acoustic renditions of your favourite mosh hits (see: Oasis in Singapore).

But yes, rude am I in my speech, and I don't think I have put what I am trying to drive at eloquently enough.

For that, I shall enlist the help of an elite among fluency circles - John Rambo.

"It's like someone invites you to a party and you don't show up. It doesn't really matter."

A Great Big Sled

The post-war Soviet economy was too weak!

As I sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by a myriad of answers being shouted out, I was rather taken aback by the sheer complexity of the arguments being put forth.

Stalin couldn't be seen to be heading the efforts from the North!

I realised that each of the answers made sense, and they were things that I had not really thought about in great detail, but just in passing glances.

Larger geostrategic concerns!

And I thought to myself, "why can't I think of such brilliant answers on the spot?" It all seemed so natural to the rest, the kaleidoscopic waterfall of intellectual thought. But I, being simple, have dreams of my own. And I live in these castles by a child's faith. It was then that I realised that perhaps it's the simple things in life bring you to the answers.

Borders.

Talking Bird

heh heh heh

Canopies and Drapes

I will not lie. Rag is not easy.
I will not lie. Rag is trying.
I will not lie. Rag is testing.

I will not lie. Rag is special.

Paint. Thinner. Brushes. Dance. Nuts. Screws. Bolts. Spanners. Screwdrivers. Costumes. Contact glue. Scissors. Mounting. Ladders. Lorry. Mosiacs. Stairs. Tarpaulins. SIS. Bottle Caps. Cans. Wash the cans. Rulers. Godfather. Plans. Engine canteen. Durians. Seniors. 5am. Temasek. Eusoff. 12pm. Budget. Slotted angle. Lanterns. Lions. Red Bull. Beauty. Beast. Rag room. Sleeping Bags. Megatron. Narnia. Pushing. SRC. Touch up. Morning. Track. PeggyRosieCalefareDanny

and then at last... at long last, you see it.

When it ends, you cry. You cry because you had been part of something. Rag had become you, and you had become Rag. It is a bond that no one else knows, and please, dear Ragger, take comfort in that.

When it ends, you cry. You cry because you know that your Rag was special, that it was yours. No one else can claim that. Dear Ragger, sleep soundly with this.

When it ends, you cry. You cry because of all the memories, that will forever live on in that faulty camera in your head. Dear Ragger, I am glad to have been in those pictures with you.

When it ends, you cry because it has ended. Dear Ragger, I am blessed to be here with you, here at the end of our Rag.



To the Raggers, this is the most beautiful place in NUS.

Edward is Dedward

We'll disco boogie until the dawn, I'll teach this village how to mourn.

Bitten by the same bug

Science is dead.

Perhaps one day someone will quote me on this....or not (in any case, it's '(Shane Koh, 2010)'). No, I do not mean it in the same way Nietzsche meant it in his declaration of 'God is dead'. For me, it's plain and simple.

I need to bitch.

Firstly, the journey to science is arduous. I have to squeeze with the 4pm crowd on either A1 or B, and this usually involves people of my 'favourite' kind. Upon reaching science, and on the way to LT32, I am confronted by Helm's Deep. At this point, I think it is imperative to say that I SHIT YOU NOT. That being established, it is as if LT32 is build on a fort, or an ancient Greek Acropolis. I feel like an orc trying to overcome the walls of the Deep in an attempt to literally rip Legolas' hair off on the other side. It really makes Arts feel like the Shire, like home.

Secondly, perhaps to give the lecturer (whom I still have no idea what his name is... and probably never will) the benefit of the doubt, the clock in the LT is fast. Although you might be thinking that that's good, because he releases us 'early', it actually isn't, because he starts before the actual 4pm, and by the time we get in from arts, we are lost in the content. Therefore, it is not our fault that we have our picnics in the lecture (today we had Burger King!), doodle impressionistic art on our paper, and generally zone out during the lecture.

Thirdly, do you realise something in common with all the science LTs? IT'S ALL GLOOMY!! It's so depressing.

Lastly, and most importantly, WHAT HAS THE CONTENT GOT TO DO WITH ME?!?!?!?!!? I really feel like Webster (in Band of Brothers) when he drives past a whole lot of surrendering Germans in Germany and has this to shout, "Hey, you! That's right, you stupid Kraut bastards! That's right! Say hello to Ford, and General f**kin' Motors! You stupid fascist pigs! Look at you! You have horses! What were you thinking? Dragging our asses half way around the world, interrupting our lives... For what, you ignorant, servile scum! What the f**k are we doing here?"

In conclusion, for anyone reading this, and have not done their GEMS or Breadths, please find some other faculty to bitch about, for this one is taken.

You shook me all night long

"It is splendid to see you engaging earnestly in debate, taking issue with suspected malice or bias (surely, we are all biased to some extent?) and not being afraid to say what you think. Long may it continue!

Keep up the spirit of defiance and scholarly endeavour! I am excited by what I see already this term.

Best wishes,

The Old Guy"

It's hard not to love him.

Hot Blooded

Seriously, everyone should go and take a look at this, and perhaps you may understand how I feel.

PRC family refused to alight from bus; SBS paid for a cab to send them home

We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to rust.

Magpie

It's a happiness that finds itself in joy, and a joy that finds itself in love, and a love that finds itself in God.

Starry, starry night

I think it's quite funny how the Neimoidians of the Trade Federation in Star Wars have a Chinese accented English.

Inner Smile

I bought this!!

Next up, AT-TE!!!

Augustine

I haven't really regretted anything in my NUS life so far, but I would probably regret it if I left the school without doing Europe of the Dictators and Singapore Military History. Just like how the 'doctor' (who was probably God manifested) pressed me to choose passion over practicality just before I entered NUS, so now again did Prof Murfett (I hope he reads this) remind me of the choices I had to make, and the reasons for making them.

In any case, today's lecture was quite interesting. He talked about the German surrender of The Great War, and how the German public and even the military were completely taken by surprise when Germany surrendered because no foreign army had stepped into German soil. The legacy? Complete defeat of another became of paramount importance in every subsequent war to drive the point of complete defeat home to the people so that Hitler cannot happen again.

Augustine, oh Augustine. Is it worth all that war just to win? If it is, can you take me back to where it begins?

Bluebells

I had forgotten how much I love lit. Today reminded me of yesterday.

Think I've come to realise that I am a dying breed of student. For one, I'm still a pen and paper boy. I love, and prefer to write essays, the more the better within a given period. I guess it's the thrill of not knowing whether you'll finish the paper as you're penning your thoughts down. Then there's always the numbness of my thumb to look forward to afterwards, my battle wound, if you would allow me.

Today during lit lecture, the prof said that nowadays, lit doesn't really require quoting and all that, and I realise I still place quite a bit of emphasis on that, similar to history, where I still feel that the dates and events are as important as the argument. It's sort of like an arsenal that you have in your head which amounts to some semblance of concrete fact, instead of plunging full body into the world of argument and subjectivity. Perhaps, it's an anchor of sorts. That's why sometimes I get really frustrated when I can't remember a certain date or venue or event, or get really frustrated at being frustrated on why I care so much.

Unnatural Selection

Generation Kill is pure genius.

There was this scene, where I can't really remember what was said, but the marines were given an order to go to sleep. Then this one Marine went,

"Sleep? What kind of a fuc*king war is this?!"

haha there are like a thousand more of such quirks all throughout!!

United States of Eurasia

Seems like I've been quite preoccupied with war during this holidays. I have,

Re-watched Band of Brothers
Watching Generation Kill
Watched a Nat Geo Series on World War II titled 'Apocalypse'
Watched a History Channel Series called "Generals at War"
Read "10 Days to D-Day"
Read "The Battle for Singapore"
Went on the 'War on Wheels' WWII tour around Singapore
Constructed 1 Tiger and 1 Sherman Tank + 1 Normandy Landing Craft + Shit load of infantry
Started to plan a 2010 trip around Europe to visit all the war sites

kthxbai.

Chips and Shit 2009 Results

After much (and a delayed) collation of results and upon further assessment, the C&S team has finally come up with the list of winners for this year's competition. On behalf of the team, I would like to congratulate all the winners, and till next year, rock on!

Song Of The Year

Young Adult Fiction - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Resistance - Muse
Unfinished Business - White Lies
Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
I'm Outta Time - Oasis

Winner: Young Adult Fiction - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

Album Of The Year

The Resistance - Muse
Dig Out Your Soul - Oasis
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
In and Out of Control - The Raveonettes
White Lies - To Lose My Life

Winner: The Resistance - Muse

Band Of The Year

White Lies
Muse
Coldplay
Oasis
Anberlin

Winner: Muse

Gig Of The Year

Anberlin @ Baybeats
Coldplay @ The Indoor Stadium
Oasis @ The Indoor Stadium

Winner: Coldplay

Act That Should Come Down To Singapore

The Arcade Fire
U2
White Lies
Taking Back Sunday
Starsailor

Winner: The Arcade Fire

Cult Status Achieved By A Song

Everlong - Foo Fighters
Wake Up - The Arcade Fire
Creep - Radiohead
Dakota - Stereophonics
Hysteria - Muse
Don't Look Back In Anger - Oasis
Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

Winner: Wake Up - The Arcade Fire

- The C&S Music Awards Team

The United States of Eurasia

" How could anyone ever know of the price paid by soldiers in terror, agony and bloodshed if they'd never been to places like Normandy, Bastogne or Hagenau?"

David Webster

Chips and Shit 2009

People of the world,

The annual Chips and Shit Music Awards is back again! Into it's third year now, the organisers have taken out some of the past years' categories, but have introduced spanking new ones. After much deliberation and careful assessment, the team has come up with the 2009 list of nominations for the 3rd Annual Chips and Shit Music Awards.

Song Of The Year

Young Adult Fiction - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Resistance - Muse
Unfinished Business - White Lies
Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
I'm Outta Time - Oasis

Album Of The Year

The Resistance - Muse
Dig Out Your Soul - Oasis
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
In and Out of Control - The Raveonettes
White Lies - To Lose My Life

Band Of The Year

White Lies
Muse
Coldplay
Oasis
Anberlin

Gig Of The Year

Anberlin @ Baybeats
Coldplay @ The Indoor Stadium
Oasis @ The Indoor Stadium

Act That Should Come Down To Singapore

The Arcade Fire
U2
White Lies
Taking Back Sunday
Starsailor

Cult Status Achieved By A Song

Everlong - Foo Fighters
Wake Up - The Arcade Fire
Creep - Radiohead
Dakota - Stereophonics
Hysteria - Muse
Don't Look Back In Anger - Oasis
Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

Kindly note that nominations are still open, and suggestions are still welcomed for both Category and Nominees in an already existing category. In addition, you can vote for the existing acts already in the list. The Nomination Period will last fro three days from the date of this post, so please hurry to get your favourite acts in!

*Latest News*
There will be a mystery element in this year's edition of the awards. The organisers are hushed on what it is, but (hint), it involves prizes, kindly donated by our sponsors. More will be revealed as the results day draws nearer.

Till then, keep on rocking peeps!

- The C&S Music Awards Team

The Resistance

Love is our resistance.

I am currently listening to Muse's new Album, The Resistance, and I dare say that it is such a kaleidoscope of ethereal auditory imagery, that takes your soul and rips it apart. You feel the pain, you feel the agony, you feel the depression, you feel the loneliness, and you feel the sense of hopelessness. At least for the front part of the album.

Going along the journey, which I am inclined to believe that it resembles one Dante or Orwell took in Inferno and 1984, you start to experience a whole other sensation - healing. With soft, melancholy undertones and other-worldly blasts of quiet existence, you realise, that with the inclusion of the second half, the album is actually very nicely framed into a journey of sorts, which is why I make the reference to Dante.

At times, it sounds very much like Queen, in all its theatrical stageplay. At other times, I could see Middle Earth. I think that the use of string instruments has been very compelling in producing this effect, as well as bringing in the Middle Eastern and Indian influence to their sound. Of note, this album continues the Muse sound, and differs little with Absolution or Black Holes and Revelations.

I have listened to the album thrice over now, and in all times, I found something curiously similar. Towards the end of the album, I felt that my heart was so heavy, so burdened and an abysmal vision coloured my eyes and my mind. On all three times, I then frantically tried to search for other, more lighthearted songs on my playlist which could alleviate the pain. For those of you who know me well, you would know that that is not easy.

In any case, at first, I thought it was the experience of what it felt like to die. Surely, the pain, the torture, and yet the alluring estacy were testaments of such a feeling. But no, I grew to realise that it was much more, much deeper, much darker. And then I think it hit me. The torment, the tribulation, the suffering, the distress and the affliction upon me, was not of my own death, but of everyone around me. There is nothing more torturous, woeful and despairing than that. And perhaps therein lies the album's thesis, with the band's muse coming from spirit of the world.

Everyone in the world fighting, and surviving, and living, and loving, and hating, and dying... they are all me, and they are all you. The night has reached its end, and I fear that we will not live, when I observe how the morning arrives.

The Pretender

"Tottenham did create chances. But every time Robbie Keane or Jermain Defoe got a sight of goal, a red shirt was in the way, usually Nemanja Vidic but also Ritchie De Laet, a young Belgian recruited from Stoke on the advice of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who proved more than David Bentley's equal at left-back."

-Soccernet.com

Whoohoo!!

Drugs

Oh, I Buried You Today

They're back!!!!!!



"You drive me round and round
Until I crash into the stars"

Mushaboom

"During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man."

Hobbes, Leviathan

There goes the fear

"The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function: without mercy, without compassion, without remorse. All war depends upon it."

- Lt. Ronald Speirs

Sweet Disposition

"Even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is going wrong, I will get up."

Tonight, he was immortal.

Cast no shadow

"As much as we don't get on, we don't not get on. He's my brother, that's where it ends. He's the last person in the world I'd go for a drink with - the last person. Seriously. If there was Armageddon tomorrow and I was walking through the nuclear waste of the planet and I saw him coming towards me in the distance, I'd be like, 'Couldn't it have not been someone else? Did it have to be you?' And he would think the same thing." - Noel on Liam

I can't see how anyone can not love the Gallagher brothers of oasis. And I can't see a better expression of love than this.

On the topic of brothers, the hottest brothers on the planet (aside from my brothers and I),





You might be tempted to think this is a girl's blog.

From the stars

"Let me show you a very cute photo of myself"

Someone, please take a photo of us.

First Love

Two quotes struck me today. The first is from a reading off the book, "The Glass Palace".

'Dolly,' repeated Rajkumar. 'Dolly'. He could think of nothing else to say, or as much worth saying, so he said the name again louder and louder, until he was shouting. 'Dolly. Dolly.

Reminds me of Napoleon, and his last words on St Helena. Now, whenever I think about this I get sad, because such a great man, the man who required a Battle of The Nations at Leipzig to bring him down, died in obscurity. But perhaps, it is better than being sent to madam guillotine.

The other quote of the day, is off a retarded conversation Alvyn and I were having.

Alvyn rambles on about what a cock his brother is.
Me: Are you sure neither one of you was adopted?
Alvyn: No I don't think so.
*You think it ends here.
Alvyn: At least, I know my brother's not adopted cuz I remember his birth, but I'm not sure about me, cuz I really don't remember much of my birth.

But because he gave me quite a gay, but lovingly written card today, I shall...ah nevermind.