LIGHT GRENADES!

I got myself Incubus's new CD. How awesome is that?

And Incubus said it would be released tomorrow. Yeah right, haha!

I'm so glad I went to HMV today. I also got Lunarin and RAFE's album.

I'm going to listen to them for the next few days. Yayness.

My audio CDs collection may have increased, but so has my VCD collection. Muahaha. I got Pirates of the Caribbean 2, V for Vendetta and Over the Hedge. While I have watched POTC2 and V for Vendetta (which is great stuff), I got it so I can re-watch it. One, because V for Vendetta is totally awesome, and two, because I think POTC2 deserves my 're-watching' so that I can consider whether to include it in the list of my "favourite movies of all time".

I feel some movies take some time to grow on you. Its appeal doesn't always get to you first, so you gotta watch it a few times. Just like the movie Fight Club, I'm sure most people thought it was crappy the first time they watched it. But, Fight Club is indeed brilliant stuff.

Same for music. And everything else I guess.

I just like to have this opinion of stuff: If their appeal is quick to get to you, it is probably quick to wear off too.

Anyway I went out with Chin Sheng today. The original plan was to watch a movie at Vivocity.

While we did watch a movie eventually, we watched it at Cineleisure instead. I'm really pissed that Vivocity, as much as it is huge, is pretty disappointing.

We watched Happy Feet! Which had a pretty predictable storyline, but was enjoyable nonetheless. It is the first movie that has made me laugh in a long while. All thanks for the 5 Amigos. HAHA.

"The last time I heard an animal make that sound, it rolled over and died."

HAHAH. Probably my favourite line from the movie.

Funny how I met Xu Chang, Isaac, Eugenia, Rachel Bok and other random people today. And just yesterday I met Ajit at Parkway. Holy shit man.

What the hell, is Singapore really that small that I keep running into people I know?

Anyway, about Vivocity, well to put it simply, most of the space is devoted to just making the place look big.

Or perhaps to give you more air to breathe. Lawlfunneh.

The shops are...well, just really disappointing in some ways. Vivocity is plain boring to put it bluntly.

For example, most of the shops are posh stuff? It's not really in any case affordable for most people. Maybe for tourists eh?

Furthermore, as much as Vivocity is big, that doesn't mean the SHOPS are gargantuan. That is totally misleading.

Very, very misleading actually.

Vivocity probably has the biggest GV theatre. That's true, but they also have one of the smallest Toys R' Us.

Ah crap, Vivocity is such a major disappointment.

Okay, I'm off to 'enjoy Incubus'. Hah.

PANDA PORN?! HAHAHAH

THIS IS SO FUNNY, RIDICULOUS, ABSURD YET ADORABLE ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

I was in the NUS training room today, when I decided to check up on the news today.

And this is what i got!

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/06/27/giant.panda/index.html

HAHAHA. I mean, pandas are kinda cute on their own already.

Pandas watching porn and making love is just...so hilarious yet cute.

THIS, my friends, brings a whole new level to animal porn.

We'll never look at National Geographic the same way ever again!

Well I'm lazy to blog further, more to come tomorrow!

And I can't believe it's coming true

I thought jamming yesterday was pretty good. Not superb, but reasonable I guess?

I think we still need to tighten those loose screws a bit.

We jammed a couple of random covers.

Since I've never really got to HEAR Hafiz sing, and since this is the first time we're jamming together as an actual band, I was pretty amazed by his vocal capabilities.

Haha, okay I know that sounds ridiculous, but since I'm the new member and all, it's not like I got to know everyone so well already.

We discussed a bit about the band competition (Overdrive 2006) too. What songs we were going to play and stuff like that.

The band competition sounds pretty exciting to me too. Will update in time to come!

Anyway, today is Day 1 of the whole NUS chemistry course thing.

IMO, it's not really that boring, but it's pretty lengthy (ie, the time frame of the whole event is a tad bit too long)

Everything can be finished up by 2pm I believe, but since all the professors on campus are so busy, I guess the extended prata breaks in between is a necessity.

Me and Keith paired up to to do an experiment which wants us to find out the percentage composition of calcium carbonate in eggshells.

If that doesn't ring a bell to those who just took Chemistry for an O Level subject, yes, we are doing titration.

Okay, most of you may be wondering, "WTF Bryan, isn't NUS supposed to be really high end with stuff that secondary schools don't have? What the hell are you doing TITRATION? Why aren't you synthesizing aspirin or something?"

Well the truth is, we were given a choice.

But me and Keith, being a bunch of lazy bums, decided to pick the easy way out.

Compared to the other 17 experiments we were allowed to choose from, this is A LOT more easier.

Perhaps I'm wasting my time doing titration when I could be doing something new.

But hey, it's not like this is exactly VERY new. For the first time I'm PLANNING a titration experiment, carrying it out, analysing the results, and having to present it at the end of the week.

If you ask me, this isn't all new.

Sure it might be a waste of time, but heck at least we won't hurt our brains trying to figure out how to extract caffeine from tea bags.

Oh so anyway I was on the MRT home with Keith. We took a train from Buona Vista.

And somewhere along the way we got into the link between two carriages. And to my left and right were a bunch of Caucasian tourists. Australians I guess?

And so the woman on the left said to the guy on the right, "HI!".

And me, being ever observant, and not wanting to appear UNFRIENDLY, turned and said "Hi?".

HAHAHA.

Oh well, the tourists has a little laugh. But the guy on the right was really nice.

He shook my hand and smiled. I smiled back too of course, just that I was terribly embarrassed.

And Keith was being a jackass by laughing all the time. Dammit.

Oh well I'm off to bed now.

I have to wake up in the morning tomorrow and head down to NUS once again.

Oh my science.

This is the return of the space cowboy

ALL RIGHT!

THE O LEVELS ARE OVER.

I'll drink to that.

I woke up the day after the Os with a sore throat.

Damn, that is so depressing.

Anyway, it has been SUCH A LONG TIME since I last blogged.

Not like I really wanted to, but I had this urge to blog about something.

Today is Part 2 of Operation Clean-Up-Bedroom-And-Throw-Away-Secondary-School-Material.

I didn't update about it, but yesterday was Day 1 of the whole thing. I'm quite proud to say that I've cleared all the junk in my cupboard that I have accumulated for the past 4 years.

In addition, all the dust. Ew.

I didn't take pictures because it wasn't a Kodak moment in any case.

For those of you who think that cleaning up your bedroom is a chore, I seriously beg to differ.

IMO, cleaning up your bedroom is especially rewarding. Because not only does your room look so much neater, you can probably find a lot of gems you didn't know you had.

You probably kept them in your closet or under your bed for so many years, you didn't even know they existed!

Well, what I found was a copy of "Anger Management" (the movie with Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson) and a N-Gage input jack converter that lets me use my ER6s with the N-Gage.

I know it is like blasphemy to use ER6s with a N-GAGE, but let me assure you that mine works like a charm.

The sound is really good, I couldn't be more glad.

I'm going to finish blogging real soon so I can go buy breakfast for my sisters.

But before that, I feel the urge to blog about the recent article where this person of Iranian descent was tasered by the police for not complying with orders.

The article covers several issues:

1. The use of tasers as a non-lethal (or rather LESS lethal) alternative to firearms and brute force.
2. Racial discrimination in the US.
3. And finally, the whole big fuss over the USA PATRIOT Act.

Go YouTube or Google to find the damn video or article, I'm too lazy to provide a link. It's quite recent, and it even appeared in the MSN News section.

Supposedly the Middle Eastern-looking dude thought he was being singled out just because he looked Middle Eastern. I can understand about that, and yes that is downright damnable. Racial abuse shouldn't exist these days.

The dude screamed "This is your fucking PATRIOT Act, this is your fucking abuse of power". Well, I myself don't like the whole idea that the USA government can search houses without notification, or detain suspects just because they have probable cause.

IMO, Americans are getting somewhat paranoid. Yeah and I'm supposed to believe that CIA agents plant microchips in the back of your tooth that controls your thoughts eh?

It is all part of fighting terrorism, not so that Bush can control your minds dammit.

Everytime they pass a new law to set things straight, people whine about it.

It's a damn cycle I tell you.

Same with the tasers. When people want tasers to get banned, then they'll bring back pistols and baton sticks.

More injuries will occur and people are going to bitch they want non-lethal methods to take down suspects instead.

Sure, then they'll start using tranquilizer darts instead.

And then people are going to bitch that the darts are inhumane.

Oh okay, so what alternatives are there? Train your police officers to be Shaolin Monks? That isn't very plausible since how much time and money goes into training someone to be able to disarm a suspect with little effort.

Or maybe we could work to inventing some sort of anti-gravity gun that traps suspects in some anti-gravity field bubble. Lawlfunneh.

I agree that in the incident mentioned above, the dude didn't deserved to get tasered 5 times.

However, I think people are confused with the abuse of power and the use of tasers.

Tasering a person 5 times, beating to you to a pulp, spraying you in the face with pepper spray, and tasering you another 5 times when you have done nothing wrong IS an abuse of power.

Tasering you once to bring you down if you are charging towards the police officers like a maniac is by no means wrong.

I know some people think, "All right smart ass, how would you like to be tasered?"

But really, would you prefer to get shot or beaten to a pulp instead?

And then there's the big hoohaa about people dying from getting tasered. Let's face it, if somehow police officers could analyse their suspect and SOMEHOW determine whether or not to taser him, we would be saving erm what, 79 lives out of of 100000? That's a small percentage compared to how many people die from AIDS and shit like that.

And if the suspect was high on alcohol, meth or cocaine, then he would have probably died sooner or later anyway.

People die easily, it's sad but true. It's unfortunate if you die from being tasered. It's just like how some people die from a fatal allergic reaction to bee stings. It's just that they ran out of luck.

Then there's the whole media fuss about WHO deserves to be tasered and who doesn't. Kids shouldn't get tasered because it is 'abusive'. It applies to old people too. Oh wait, does it mean I can taser dogs and cats repeatedly then? What is considered humane then? For some reason everybody has the stereotype that all the cops are sadists.

Supposedly because people have the assumption that a 5 year old child and a 89 year old granny with an axe or a crowbar is less dangerous than everyone else. When did tasering a suspect depend on the level of severity? So we use tasers on dudes who threaten to shoot themselves...and for maniacal psychopaths we use RPGs?

Like that incident where some 6 year old kid threatened to cut himself with a glass shard. The police tasered him to stop him from doing so. And what, the parents sue the cops? Obviously the parent felt tasering someone was worse then cutting open themselves with a glass shard.

Tasers aren't truly replacements to firearms of course. BUT, it's the best thing we have at the moment. Officers are still trained to use a pistol against a maniac charging towards them with a katana or chainsaw. If you don't know why, the reason is because tasers aren't always effective against homocidal madmen. It takes some time for the damn thing to work, and if you miss, it's not like the taser is going to reload on its own and hit the target again for you.

The lines between the use of tasers and the actual abuse of power has been blurred so much it seems like it is the same thing.

Let me reiterate once again, I agree that when authorities abuse the power they have it is unacceptable. But this, BY NO MEANS, should be the reason why tasers should be banned.

If tasers didn't exist and police officers were given the order to shoot to kill, people would probably bitch that they want guns banned and tasers introduced instead. And when people get prissy about the use of tasers, they'll bitch that they want tasers banned instead.

As I said, this is a cycle.

If we are so smart and if we really want to help the world to be a better place, why the hell are we bitching about how humane or inhumane tasers are.

Go do something good for humanity then. Save Africa. Help those with cancer, with HIV. Save the cats being killed by crazy women with stilleto heels.

Or you could invent the anti-gravity bubble gun like I said. Lawlfunneh.

I guess that is about all I can think about saying. Any rebuttals or criticism is welcomed.

All right I'm off to go finish packing my room. I can't wait for jamming tomorrow.

TAKE CARE ALL!