A Stranger in a Strange Land

I’ve been listening to alot of music these days, James Blunt seems to fit the mood pretty well.

Discovered a freeware app called Clutter, that lets me put CD covers on my desktop and click on them to play the album. Looks pretty cool … lets see if I can get a screenshot:

Isn’t OS X cool? =)

High of 50 F today, translates to about 10 C. Winter’s a coming.

Good thing I got this piece of spam in my inbox this morning then eh?

The layer of blubber should keep me warm.

I’ve recently rekindled my fondness for playing the guitar. My fingertips are crying bloody murder but they will just have to suffer until I get my calluses back.

Started with some easy-to-play songs so that I could get me some instant gratification:

Collide – Howie Day

Cast No Shadow – Oasis

Working on Blackbird by the Beatles now. It’s coming along nicely. But only have half the song memorized so far.

To my aching fingertips: I promise to keep you guys hard from now on.

(Wait, that sounded dirtier than I wanted it to)

Can’t sleep, so I’ve been listening to music all night. Realised that the latest Green Day album (yes, I’m slow) is actually pretty freakin’ good.

Grabbed a free download offa iTunes last week. Band called Acceptance.

That album’s pretty freakin’ good too.

There’s so much music out there … how to listen to it all? My hard disk only got 60 GB of space. Help!

I was pottering around on Epitonic awhile back and found this song that I pretty much took to right away.

Over My Shoulder – I Am Kloot

No, I do not know what a Kloot is.

Take a listen yea? Tell me if you like it.

When you walk through a storm,
Hold your head up high,
And don’t be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm,
There’s a golden sky,
And the sweet silver song of a lark. (Click on the link and sing along!)

Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Though your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you’ll never walk alone…

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you’ll never walk alone…
You’ll never walk alone

Just listening to an old Simple Minds song right now.

The reference to kicking reminded me that I went for my first ever organized exercise class yesterday … kickboxing.

I felt a little dumb warming up, like I was doing the Great Singapore Workout. I know, I know, something only our Gahmen could have come up with. Once we put the gloves on and started punching it felt cathartic really. The 2 girls I went with said it wasn’t that tiring (punch harder lah).

Had to proctor an exam last night too. That’s invigilate for you Queen’s English sticklers out there. It’s nice to just walk around and make sure no one’s cheating instead of sitting there cursing under your breath and breaking out into a cold sweat because you don’t know how to do a 20 mark question.

Went home and watched the American Idol that I recorded. It’s kinda boring this year, at least so far. Some of the women that got through are *ssssst* hot though so that’ll keep me watching for a couple more weeks.

Slept so well that I barely made it out of bed on time this morning, then I had to semi-rush to get ready. Don’t really like it when that happens. Reminds me of when Papa used to wait in the car with the engine running when we were running a little late in the mornings. The body feels good today though … tighter for some reason.

Been busy as usual, the days are absolutely flying by. I can’t believe it’s Thursday already!

Cold weather makes me hungry.

Swimmming makes me hungry.

Right now it’s 2°C and I just finished swimming … so far I’ve polished off 1 bowl of edamame, half a can of soup with a little rice and 2 oranges.

I’m not even that full. Comfortable more like. Think as long as I don’t overdo it I’ll be fine.

Was a really good swim I had just now. The strokes were smoooooth and the breathing was easy. It’s nice to be relatively fit. The weather makes it hard to drag myself out of the house though.

Everyone’s busy again. End of the semester blues for most but not me surprisingly. Only thing I’m worried about is my research. Ran into some problems that I’ll need my advisor’s help on.

The school newspaper published the salaries of ALL the professors in the school today. On one hand it IS public knowledge and all (my school is a state university) but if it were me I’d feel a little violated.

Time for the usual hot shower and then it’s off to bed.

Oh, new favourite song …. Hands of Time by Groove Armada. Check it out if you can on a rainy night … like I’m doing now.

Was a "sporty" weekend.

Watched Liverpool draw 2-2 with Blackburn on Saturday, following which my sad school lost for the 3rd straight game to Northwestern. The dream season has become a nightmare. I have to remind myself that it’s just a game, there are lots more important things in life.

The feeling of losing still bites though.

Am still aching from the 3 hours of indoor soccer we played on Sunday, I’m hobbling everywhere today. Somehow actual activity is so much more intense compared to doing stuff in the gym. Will be rethinking my exercise philosophy in the coming weeks. It’s time to get off this plateau. Was nice to runandrunandrun and not get tired though.

Just finished lunch and my math homework for the week. Listening to the Delicious Lo-Fi Lounge now. Thanks to Patrick for the introduction.

Oh, before I forget … This really needs to be done when you’re feeling slightly detatched from the world in general.