And now he’s wrapped around her fingers… November 8, 2009
Posted by LZK in Life, Songs, Movies and Entertainment, Thoughts.add a comment
The past week has been surreal.
Life seems to be lingering in between routine and a waste of time. Probably I’d call it a time-wasting routine. O-Levels starts in, what, two days? I’m mentally prepared without actually having to prepare. That’s good, right?
The post-exam period has been a blast, for me and probably for everyone else involved too. After two weeks of grueling practice, we finally managed to pull off what has been dubbed “the best performance of the [Aphelion Day concert]“. It still manages to evoke a surge of emotions deep inside me, no matter how many times I watch the video.
It began with two friends’ dream of doing a musical performance that’s nothing like this school has seen before. Xue Zheng and I were so inspired after watching Glee that we started planning this performance even before the worst of the exams have passed. It wasn’t easy, just like everything else, and we went through quite a bit of trial-and-error before being satisfied with what we have. I sure did get a little abrasive in the process, and I thank you guys for putting up with it.
On the surface it’s a performance that’s certainly for from perfect. The choreography leaves much to be desired. A few notes were flat, out of tempo even. The piano can hardly be heard and the harmony doesn’t blend in well. No, it’s hardly perfect. But for the 13 for us, it already is.
We created the perfect ending for four years of high school, an ending that we can call our very own. No one can get as much satisfaction from doing this as we did, without pouring as much heart and soul into everything from the conception till the actual performance. All of us had no vocal training. Our drummer learnt drums for only 5 days. We did 80% of the choreography from scratch without any dancing experience. Yet we did a performance that I believe no one in this school thought of doing before. And listening to the compliments from the teachers and fellow friends, it really made me realise that what we put up was more than just another campy stage performance.
For me, it was the one memory that I’ll cling onto forever.
***
Back to what’s happening now. Well despite the looming possibility of getting an A2 in O-Level Chinese, I’ve found a new fixation – The Sims 3.
It's no wonder that this game is a global obsession.
A few days into the game and I have already found it increasingly hard to detach from the virtual world of Sunset Valley. This game, simply put, is an amazingly detailed and micro-scaled life simulation game. Everything is as realistic as technologically possible, and although it does take some time for one who’s never played the previous installments before to get used to, I have since found it enjoyable micro-managing my two (and later, three) Sims, and found the freedom of choice to my liking. Yet unlike it’s violent counterpart GTA, there is actually an incentive to do good.
But what I like about it the most isn’t about how you can manipulate your Sims’ lives (for example, making your female Sim cheat on her husband with another woman), having turned off aging and practically living a monastic routine lifestyle. Instead I find myself drawn to the part where you can design your own house. I’m practically spending every penny I have on interior decoration while actually planning on what to do with the huge plot of land I have. The tools available for this are actually pretty amazingly complete, which means at any level of design competency, with a little flair for decoration, one can actually make a pretty decent house.
Oh, and there’s more. My Sim gave birth to a baby girl a few days ago. Now I understand the pains of parenting. It’s hard. Really hard.
Why I pick True Blood over Twilight October 23, 2009
Posted by LZK in Songs, Movies and Entertainment.2 comments
Background info:
True Blood is a television series based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. I finished both seasons but haven’t bought the books yet.
As for the Twilight novels, I have only read Breaking Dawn last year and it was way below my expectations. I watched the Twilight film despite having no interest in it, to get an objective viewpoint.
The following is my amateur attempt at a review, based solely on what information I have gathered through my experiences with both pieces.
*****SPOILER ALERT!!!!!*****
Presenting to you…
Why True Blood is better than Twilight
Let’s start with the plot.
The plot for Twilight is, unsurprisingly, predictable. After reading Breaking Dawn I went thinking, “Hmm, let me guess: New girl in town, meets this vampire guy, falls in love, something happens, vampire guy saves the day, kiss.” Every single bit hit the bull’s eye.
Furthermore, Twilight is one of the most PAINFULLY SLOW-PACED movies I’ve ever seen. You get chunks of silence every now and then, and the first hour is like reading pages from the diary of a 13 year old girl who watches Disney everyday. You could go into the theatre half an hour late and not miss anything.
True Blood, on the other hand, gets you instantly hooked. With it’s unique mix of drama, horror and mystery with romance, it is hard not to. By the end of the first episode you get your first cliffhanger, and then you watch the second, and the third, and the fourth… You get the idea. Audience retention, one point to True Blood.
I was hoping I did not have to start on this. The casting.
True Blood has Academy Award winner Anna Paquin as the lead female Sookie Stackhouse, and her vampire boyfriend Bill Compton played by Stephen Moyer. On the other hand, we have pot smoker Kristen Stewart as the lead female in Twilight, while the choice of lead male has created a horrifying worldwide phenomenon that I fail to comprehend.
I must applaud Twilight for the choice. Kristen Stewart looks boring and weak (probably because of the drugs), and Robert Pattinson is a terrible choice for someone supposedly the ideal vampire guy. On the other hand, Anna Paquin is probably the hottest gap-toothed woman out there. Stephen Moyer actually looks like a vampire.
Moving on to the setting for both films.
A girl comes to this new town and is astonished to find a family of vampires there. She meets this boy and finds out his secret. He turns her into a vampire and they live happily ever after.
BORING. CLICHE. UNCREATIVE. Just because you said it came to you in a dream doesn’t change the fact that the story has been around for 30 years. Watch The Vampire Diaries if you want.
How about this?
Development of the synthetic blood led to vampires “coming out of the coffin”, and human society is struggling to accept them. A girl finds herself attracted to a vampire but faced pressure from friends and family. They are unwittingly drawn into the world of vampire politics and the war between the extremist “Soldiers of the Sun” and the age-old vampire community. Not mentioning that there are far more vile creatures lurking around than vampires.
Other than this setting being a much more interesting spin to the typical vampire film, one must agree too that it gives more room for content development. The conflicts between groups of people on vampire rights, the vampire society’s stance, acceptance of vampire love; all these are much more interesting than a story building purely on puppy love.
What next? How about portrayal of characters?
In Twilight, Edward the Vampire is supposedly beautiful and is telepathic. And Bella? A shield. Probably the most useless ability next to Claire Bennet’s in Heroes. I was prepared to enjoy the display of abilities in Breaking Dawn (disregarding the fact that I find every other part irredeemable) but I was disappointed. With vampires around the world assembled and ready to fight at the end of Breaking Dawn, I was expecting some epic fight scene; instead Stephanie Meyer wasted it by making the characters talk their way out.
In True Blood, Sookie actually has a personality, which I find lacking in Twilight’s Bella, seeing that the constant cliche “damsel in distress” portrayal left the character in ruins. The useless ability Bella has, that had rendered her totally dependent on almost anybody, crippled any potential for her to be actively involved in any part of the plot.
One must give credit to Twilight too.
The usually dark and morbid vampire genre is now suitable for all ages, shapes and sizes; vampires sparkle instead of burning in the sun. (Seeing someone turn into ash isn’t exactly the perfect family activity, no?) It keeps up hopes for those waiting for that shiny knight on a white horse by pointing them in the right direction (Hint: Los Angeles). After all, it’s is always easy to imagine you’re four again.
But if you want in to darker material, where the cruel reality is presented to you, M18-style (though they exaggerated on the humpin’, it’s HBO after all, they sex everything up), I suggest you give True Blood a go. Forget the criticisms of the fake Southern accent or the cheesy fangs, I’d take those over sparkles anytime.
There ain’t THAT many zombies in the world, are they? October 15, 2009
Posted by LZK in Songs, Movies and Entertainment.add a comment
I still managed to play Survival Endless, for the 4th time, in the midst of the exams. And now it’s finally over, I’ll post a couple pictures up.
This was at 70 flags: Starting to falter
72 flags: I used up almost all of my 9990 sun reserves at this point of time.
82 flags: After a few easy waves I managed to rebuild my infrastructure. Still no sun though.
87 flags: Down again.
90 flags: Living in squalor
That's it! 92 flags and I'm not going to touch it anymore.
Next wave consists of Giga-gargantuar, Jack-in-the-box, Zomboni, Catapult. I’m not going to touch this for now. Ciao!
Amidst the flurry of craziness October 4, 2009
Posted by LZK in Uncategorized.add a comment
…. I have created a “Dream Journal”. You can click the link above to take a look! =)
This is because I find that most of the time I have really awesome dreams and I forget them after a day. So I devised a way to record it down without using up space! There it is. Up there.
Anyway I haven’t officially thanked you guys for the awesome birthday yet! So here it is! Thanks to my friends and family who wished me in person, through facebook, sending plants, SMS, Messenger, etc. Thank you for the kind wishes! May the stars shine upon you =)
Also thanks to the few of you who took time out for the lunch at Subway, and thanks Cabie and my parents for bringing us out to Spizza for the awesome dinner! I had loads of fun that day, thank you thank you thank you! With much love <3<3<3
Anyway I’m supposed to prepare for the Chinese Exam tomorrow, IHC Exam on Tuesday, E Maths on Wednesday and Biology on Friday. THEN, it is Chemistry next Monday, Physics next Tuesday, Chinese again on Wendesday, and Add Maths on Thursday. After that is all fun and games….
English and Malay went quite well for me. Hope it was the same for you guys too.
-ZK-
Holi-shi* holidays September 6, 2009
Posted by LZK in Creations, Life, Songs, Movies and Entertainment.add a comment
Okay today was screwed.
Feeling like doing something other than lying on my bed with the computer, I decided to use the gym, probably run a km or two, and do some weights, sit-ups, etc. As you all should know I suck at physical. Plus I haven’t ran for ages as we skipped PE for a few weeks.
After a retarded 1 km I was literally DYING. The feeling like you’ve been sprinting for ages, and your heart is going to explode and you can’t breathe and MOST OF ALL, everytime I breathe my ears pop, like there’s something wrong with my internal pressure or something. Damn, I expected at least 1.8 without being K.O.ed.
However, the poor performance of Zi Kang on the treadmills is due to other factors, especially that the air-cons in the gym have been turned off, he has not done sufficient warm-up exercises, and that the setting on the treadmill was too fast, resulting in a sharp increase in his body temperature and leading the the eventual crash-and-burn scenario mentioned above.
In conclusion, poor physical fitness is the main factor for the poor performance on the treadmills, but other factors under the aforementioned circumstance led to the particularly pathetic 1 km as well.
(Heck, that’s one more thing accomplished today. Humanities essay revision complete.)
I wasn’t feeling able to continue on the weights, so I went back to my room and did the usual dumbbells later in the day, when I was feeling better.
***
Today would’ve sucked if I had not found this:
Click to go to the website.
It is an add-on developed by Mozilla Labs that allow you to do cool things to your Firefox browser. You can add “personas”, or skins, to your browser, and most of all, with a simple editing software like Fireworks, you can make your own skin that will look awesome!
The only downside is that it takes a lot of tweaking to perfect. So I’ve used up the evening to go picture-hunting and an hour or two to do up a design! 
Though I’m still tweaking it a little now and then, but the general thing is done, and tweaking is very fast to do anyways.
After the final tweak.
No surprise, huh. Who else but Taylor Swift? I did this with a mix of Fireworks and Photoshop (mostly Photoshop), and if you are wondering the “Taylor Swift” signature is actually a font called “Satisfaction”. Beautiful name, the font is nice. Google it up
I personally enjoyed doing up the footer (the bar right above the start menu), especially the butterfly part. Took the butterfly from taylorswift.com. The only thing I’m dissatisfied with is the bookmarks blocking off the face. I’m lazy and I have loads of bookmarks. Probably going to shift it to the right a little. Hope you liked it
Oh, and here’s a tutorial for designing your own skin. (Sounds cool, designing your own skin?)
The website has tutorials too, I strongly recommend looking at the sample images to get a rough idea of how to place the stuff. For the header the most important stuff should be on the upper right corner, while for the footer it should be on the lower left. Approximately 25% – 50% of the height of the image will be used, the rest is blank space. To illustrate my points,
Sorry for being a copyright a**hole.
If you want it, contact me directly! Though I believe no one would, haha
***
Seems like this post’s gonna be long. It struck me when I said “No surprise, huh” just now. Sharing with you guys my newest discovery, “No Surprise” by Daughtry. Okay I’m feeling like Columbus. All the while it’s there but I just found it today. Thanks for Nick for introducing this song to me. Just never occured to me to search up male rock singers while soft rock is my second favourite genre next to country.
Oh, and this real funny thing popped up on my Youtube home page just now, so I figured I’d post it up.
Bo Jun shared this “whacky” song a couple days ago, it’s the Duck Song. The “pum pum pum”s really got me. 
That’s all! Till the next time we meet.
Teachers’ day ‘09: The aftermath September 1, 2009
Posted by LZK in Thoughts.add a comment
One thing I find curious is that the ability to appreciate seems to come with age. At least, that’s the way it is for me. When life brings you through so much, you find yourself more on the recieving end than on the giving end. And I guess that this will never change.
Preparation for Teachers’ day has always been a somewhat “easy” thing for me. Since primary school, the gifts I give to teachers have always been prepared by my mother, wrapped exquisitely in brightly coloured paper and a few “Happy Teachers’ Day!”s hastily scribbled onto tiny cards and pasted on before giving it away. This year it has changed.
On my mother’s recommendation I went to Bugis with my brother and 2 friends to get Swiss rolls from a Rich and Good cake shop along Kandahar Street. I’ve tried the swiss rolls a couple of times before and never seem to get enough of it. And since I’m in a mood for them, we went cake-hunting on a frustratingly hot Saturday afternoon and almost cleared the shops stock of swiss rolls. The next day we dropped over to BTP and got a few other presents (for a very special teacher) and coloured paper for the decorations. The night was spent writing down personal thank you notes for the teacher.
Only then did I realise how much I have been missing out these years. Four years at high school made me treasure my teachers an awful lot, and for the past three years the tiny “Happy teachers’ day!”s didn’t do them any justice. It was a pain having to leave out some teachers as well. The truth is that there are some teachers that have really impacted me enough for me to put in, say, ten minutes writing and designing a card for them. These are the teachers that have changed me, the way I see things, and the way I live life. These are the teachers that I will remember forever for that.
For the rest it was really regrettable not being able to show my appreciation in any way, for I simply find no way good enough. On one hand the fact of not having a large enough wallet seems more like an apologetic excuse than anything, on the other the thought of buying a little candy and sticking a “Happy Teachers’ day!” card onto it was quickly dismissed; the meaning would only last until the empty wrapper is tossed out of the window. My sincere apologies to them, and I wish them the best of health here.
***
Which brings me to something I have been thinking about for some time, possible as long as 6 months ago. It bothers me to see some people “hating” teachers that really don’t deserve it. I’ve spent my whole Sec 1 life complaining about a truly exceptional teacher without seeing past all those superficialties; now that I’m not taught by her, being under her guidance once again is one of my greatest wishes. It’s almost painful, and I really don’t want to see people wasting such good opportunities.
For me, I may be unable to appreciate some teachers, but when someone asks me I’ll never say that I hate anyone of them. Teachers teach, and I believe that being hired by my school, they have already proven that they can at least perform this duty well. When I say that I “hate” a teacher (or pretty much anyone, for that matter), it is because their moral standards clash with mine. To put it in another way, I lose my respect towards a person that sets an example I find myself unable to learn from.
There are instances whereby I see people blindly ignoring advice teachers give just because they think they are right all the time. People disrespecting a teacher for how the teacher looks. People saying that teachers are “lazy” because they don’t use “unconventional” methods. Has this evolved into a society with such an extent of “kiasuness” that conventional means low-grade? That looks mean everything? That people are so afraid to admit they are wrong, they let it blind their eyes? It’s disturbing to see that the future might end up in hands of people like this.
To end things on a lighter note, I’ve edited a quote from a fellow countryman, which I find very appropriate. “事实就像榴莲一样，硬硬尖尖；只是看你敢不敢打开看看里面的真相。它可以很臭，也可以很香；只是看你有怎样的鼻坑。“
Once again, a very happy teachers’ day to teachers around the world, including my own mother, who is one herself.
The worst game ever. August 29, 2009
Posted by LZK in Life, Songs, Movies and Entertainment.add a comment
And I’m not talking about the game itself, it’s about the survival game I just played.
In one breath I wrote this as my facebook status:
my mind and body is utterly destroyed after 3 hours of playing survival endless. (almost) all my sunflowers are gone and i’ve lost 2 cob cannons out of 8. my defenses are pathetic and it’s only wave 30. next wave reads gargantuar and giga-gargantuar. HOW DO YOU PEOPLE REACH 100+? now i’m hyperventilating.
Oh, for you guys who don’t have the game, go get a copy.
It’s a tower defense game in which you build plants to stop zombies from getting into your house and eating your brain. That’s pretty much it, as seen from the gorgeous wallpaper above. Most of the game is pretty easy, yet fun at the same time . It gets boring fast though, because for most of the time you will be doing brainless things like this
and this
No, I did not photoshop this. This was done through luck and hard work.
which you can’t really screw up. The true challenge lies in the Survival games, especially Endless. Essentially you need to build a defense that can last as long as possible. Experts online claim that over 890 flags are possible. Personally I haven’t passed 34. At my prime (which was just now) I’ve got everything like this
Painstakingly photoshopped for maximum viewing pleasure
But then some crap happened and it became like this
which spells D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R for someone as pro as me as there are no sunflowers, which is my economical support. Which means I can’t get back to my 8-cob-cannon-lineup. Anyways I would have recovered if not for the fact that the next wave was like this
Note the three things that take out Spikerocks the fastest.
Which is why I call it the worst lineup. So far I’ve always lost to this line up, or perhaps the wave after. There are backup lawnmowers, after all. No idea as to how to prevent this from happening. I’m too devastated.
Oh, as for my flu, as seen from my blogging at 4 am in the morning, I’m back in top condition save for a little cough. Thanks for your concern
Erm, good night, I guess? Happy planting!
Sick. Cough cough. August 25, 2009
Posted by LZK in Songs, Movies and Entertainment.add a comment
I have MC for one day. Doctor didn’t even specify whether it’s flu or not. Whatever. I’m thinking it probably is.
So. New additions to my playlist.
I first knew about Gloriana through Taylor Swift’s blog ’cause she has them as her opening band for the Fearless tour. Turns out they were quite good! Their first single, Wild At Heart!
Marion Raven is still in my top 5 favourite singers. This is the song “Crawl” that I find very nice. She appeals to me in the sense that she is not all hard rock. I only like soft rock. Skip to 1.15 for the song.
That’s all! Feel like dying now. Cough cough.
Darn. Second Attack. August 23, 2009
Posted by LZK in Life.add a comment
I’m writing this with trembling hands for the virus has attacked a second time.
For the past one week I have been feeling unwell, but it was only a runny nose, phlegm, and the cough that comes with it.
Just when I thought it was getting better – the phlegm is decreasing, sore throat gone – I woke up with fever today.
Probably gonna see a doctor later. I hope that it isn’t flu. Don’t wanna miss out on my sabbatical.
***
The past week was tiring. The last few tests, coupled with rushing of ACE, plus projects day, and the illness coupled together. 3 out of 5 team members for projects day went down, 2 with H1N1. It was pretty crazy considering we pulled it off without much of an issue. In face we did not screw up at all. How amazing.
So to take a break I watched Bleach all day yesterday. And now I”m kinda bedridden.
Pensive Mood. July 31, 2009
Posted by LZK in Thoughts.add a comment
Yeah, right, maybe it is not entirely our fault. Maybe she’s just going off at nothing. But is it JUST another incident that we can sit our asses on and forget about it? Is there entirely no takeaway for us?
I slipped away into another one of my pensive moments and chewed on what she had to say. But the moment she left, the class was a buzz again. I couldn’t think straight. What had I expected? Minutes of contemplation?
Although admittedly I was partly trying to make myself feel better (it was not entirely my fault, but why am I feeling so sorry?), I didn’t expect that out of 25 people, not a single one saw the greater picture.
Could we make it a class thing? No. I don’t think so. If the truth is not obvious enough, the feeling is not mutual enough, then we are not ready yet. Not ready to accept the fact that we’ve been unfair to her.
I truly thank her for showing us where we have gone wrong. I didn’t know how hard it was to say sorry, even though I know that is the right thing to do. Is silence all we could give her? Is it our only way of showing regret?
What good is it to know right from wrong when I did not do anything about it?
My mind is set, and I know what to do. This time round, I’ll make myself proud.
