Spare me a dime.

Here's a question. What's the top problem, every Youth, out there have today?

No, relationships are not what I had in mind. What I'm talking about is money. Yes, we've all been there, done that. "Shit, I'm broke" or "I'm gonna go work for extra pocket money".

The evil that the world revolves around every night

We, as youths, are ecstatic when we get hold on even an extra dime of cash. We go out of control, like as if we can buy the whole world with that amount of allowance our parents would give us monthly. Well to be honest, most things out there are pretty expensive. But to be even more honest, most things we want ARE these expensive stuff. It's a pity fact, but hey... We're young and we wanna enjoy with whatever we can before we are dragged into the world of the mundane.

Well speaking of money, I'm currently right now in a pickle. I'm in that state of broke-ness. So hey, welcome me into the club. This is kinda actually my "official" first time being totally out of cash. From the day I got my ATM card, I've been careful to not overspend at least have a hundred or two in my bank at the end of every month. However, lately, I've been a little too care-free. I mean, I don't even have money to buy lunch now. I'm dead serious.

But how the hell did I get here. From being someone who would always have an extra bit of cash on hand, to being completely broke until the almost-never-arriving coming month.

I don't shop a lot. Even when I do, I'll just get what I need or really really want. And done, I'll be on my way. Same for this. Just that, this time what I needed, was a bit out of my budget, and I blatantly closed an eye just so I can get it. All at one go. I wasn't patient enough. Or I had patience, but it was limited, and I ran out of it.

So over the past two months, shall we review my Statement of Expenses? (failed POA pun there)

ITEM #1
Rally Neosound Semi-Electric Guitar

Remember Margo? Well, she's yesterday's news now. Move aside Miss Telecaster, say hello to Lady ES335.

This baby cost me a nice $400. It's pretty cheap for a guitar, but $400 is basically 2 months of my allowance. It took me 7 months of planning to get this guitar and 3 months to save enough to get it. I've been wanting a semi-electric for quite some time now. It's true. Blame Foo Fighters, Blink 182, Marty McFly, and so on and so forth. It has a distinctive sound and feel to it. It just matches the way I play. And I'm loving it right now. Still, because of this guitar, it took a large chunk of my allowance away from me. It was worth it. More or less.


ITEM #2
Home Recording Equipments

The day I went to get Rally, I went all out on shopping. The reason why it took 7 months of planning was because of this. Since I was going to shop for music stuff, I thought to myself, "Hey, why not I just get everything I need for home recording all at one shot?"

Me and my brilliant ideas, eh? Well, I bought a Behringer Condenser Microphone, a Mic stand to go along with it, some cables and other miscellaneous stuff. It cost me a nice $200 plus in total. And I'm still missing a Mixer. God dammit. That's why I don't have any full recordings up yet. You can say, this project is still more or less in the making. And because of that blasted mixer, what was thought to be a Holiday self-recording home project, turned out to be just another delay in cog machine.


ITEM #3
Video Games



I'm a gamer. Watcha' gonna do about it? It's my bread and butter. Like a cigarette to a smoker, I enjoy gaming and I need it. It keeps me sane and entertain in those long periods of nothingness and puts my mind away from other things.

But, again like smoking, it's an expensive habit/hobby. Each game can easily cost a nice $80. Sometimes more. Depending on the console that is. For PC, it's much cheaper, but some games are better played with a controller, so they will cost more for the Xbox. Just recently, I bought the highly anticipated Modern Warfare 2, a game so good I'll review it on my own when I get the time. And pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2, a soon to be released hit. They both cost me, give or take $150. Yeah, $150 for just two measly games. Crazy huh. But I know what you're thinking. I'm such a n00b. No one buys anymore, it's all about the torrents and rapidshares. Well, tell that to the developers who worked tirelessly hard to produced this game. The artists that worked overtime in order to get their concepts out before the deadline. The maketing team who spend a lot out of their own will to get their work known to the public. It's their job, and they need to get payed too. So by downloading for free, it's as good as making them work for free. And no one likes to do that, now do we? It's only fair, they deserve the same amount of respect they give us as their consumers.

So screw you piracy.

ITEM #4
Bus Concession/Transport Fares

Guuuh. This is the part of my spendage that I disdain the most. It's not that I want to pay for it, but I HAVE to. Otherwise, how the heck am I going to get any of my stuff anywhere? It's already sad, as a Poly Student, I'm paying full adult price for bus rides, and it's friggin' expensive. Seriously. I take the bus everyday. Usually, during secondary school $10 could last me for about 2 weeks. Now $10 can last be 5 days for bus rides. I need the concession rates in order to get my transport fix. It cost $50, and I'm paying it on my own. This was the latest thing I spent on. And after paying my concession for this month, I have officially become broke till god-knows-when.

ITEM #5
Driving tests

I'm not going to elaborate much on this, on the count of how embarrassed I am for failing the test twice. They cost $6 per test, and yet I'm too much of a Spongebob Squarepants to pass. How sad. I'll just continue to walk.

ITEM #6
Self-indulgence and Food

Food ain't exactly the cheapest thing anymore either. And so are stuff that I need to keep me satisfied, which I won't mention. But, it's not really a problem. It's when I buy stuff like a Venti Green Tea Frappachino from Starbucks that frightens me. But, meh. I'll be too busy enjoying the drink to care.

So that's about it. With that said, I'll be counting the days till I get a top-up so I can start saving up as per usual again. I've more or less got all the stuff I need. It's been fun spending. Now I'm going back to rehab and and I'll learn to save my moniezz again. Till then, I'll survive on food stuff from home, and not indulging myself too much. Cheerio.

FYI.

Actually, there is a blog post I've been holding back since, well, last month.

It's a taboo subject, and it's basically my in-depth thought about it, since I'm now part of it.

But for the sake of keeping my reputation pure, I'll keep it confidential till I deem it safe enough to post, while still not lose the trust of a few good friends.

If you wanna read about it though, give me a nudge. I'll think about considering first though.

Cheers.

Just pretend I'm dead.

Well hello there. It's been awhile hasn't it? Yeah, as you can see, I'm a class-A procrastinator. I've been wanting to update this dusty blog of mine, but every night it's "I'll do it tomorrow" and so on so for forth. But well, since I'm procrastinating my schoolwork, I can't be procrastinating with two things now, can I? That's just not fair. So let me update on what I've been up to.

Cue dramatic music.


What's new? School is back, that's for sure. Week 2's down, yo. Remember when I said "gah 7 weeks, what am I going to do?!".. well that 7 weeks just flew faster than Lewis Hamilton on the Singapore F1 Circuit. Before you know it, all of us were due back to school. And days prior were just as shitty.

The break was a feel good drag. I've done a lot during that 7 weeks, and it more less left a smile on my face. Only to leave me a little moody during the aftermath. I managed to go out with someone , took part in a theatrical production, played covers with Rachie :3, aaaaaaaannd spent more than $500 in less than hour on musical instruments and equipment. Huzzah. MLIA.

Oh and I even found out that I had a Spongebob green packet from Hari Raya!

AWESOME! \m/

So anyways, on the last week of the break we got our time table. I knew there was something fishy. Who would have thought, a whole school of it would swim through us. Night-classes are cool and all, but it's not cool to have a "Non-Media-Related" module end at 10pm, only to be followed by another NRM on 9am the next morning. When they said Semester 1 was a honeymoon, they weren't kidding. It doesn't help that the lecturer is a douchebag either. But, eventually, it'll grow on us. We have to move on and continue living. So shut the fuck up and let's work on our 4.0 GPAs.



Speaking of GPAs, I got a 3.167. There, I won't elaborate anymore on that.
Done.

So Semester 2 is running, and it's been okay for the most, except for Tuesdays of course. Some modules are more fun than others, and for our very first assignment from our PEM, Mr. Shariff (it's actually the first time we are interacting with him since SBM Orientation), was to make an introduction of ourselves through new media. And well, almost immediately, I had an idea in mind. After some scriptwriting and a day of production. This was what I came up with.

Enjoy watching me selling myself our for humor.

Of course, only Media Studies people might get half the jokes there. Inside jokes ftw.

So okay enough of school. Yesterday was Halloween. I didn't do shit, and it was a Saturday night. A dark and stormy Saturday night (how fitting). The first Saturday that I actually stayed home all day. It was weird, and I felt sad. Why? Everyone else had to rub it in by posting their Halloween party pics on Facebook. Sadface. Oh wells. At least the guys hosted an epic TF2 match. It made my day.

SO THERE. I MANAGED TO UPDATE THIS GOD-DAMNED WEBSITE. Awesome Ballzzzzzz. Now let me go back to playing Borderlands. This game is sick, yo. (sick as in good)

Rachie and Luqqie - "Everytime"

enjoy.

For the record, it's just a joke.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhh ouch.

Freaking Driver.

So I was going home today. From a nice day out with friends, and a really nice ending to the night that lifted my mood more than any of this week. I was walking home from the station. Minding my own business. Listening to my songs, while mouthing the lyrics silently to myself. I was about to take the staircase, I took a quick glance and saw my dad's car. Alright cool, fine. Then I realized, there was a friggin' taxi parked disturbingly close to it.

My first thought was that, "Okay, so maybe there's a guy waiting" because that spot is usually taken by people who are temporarily pausing their vehicles to await someone. But, the driver isn't present in that taxi. Shit. My dad is so going to be pissed off if he sees this.

I mean c'mon look at this:

my dad's car is the black (almost invisible one)

Take a look at that, and tell me that taxi isn't disturbingly close to my dad's car. It's parked at a very dangerous angle, and it totally blocked my dad's car from exiting the spot. What an ignorant bastard.

For all I know, he could have made contact with my dad's car and scratch it. But that's the least of my concerns. Thing is, my dad is taking the nigh shift for his job and he's supposed to leave in about an hour later (yes I did came home late, sue me). I can't imagine the rage he would go into when he finds his car in this position and he has to get to work on time.

He would have probably roared his lungs out in the empty parking lot and hunt down the bastard, and strangle him with his own bare hands.

It's scary to see how ignorant and inconsiderate people can be. Can't you leave your vehicle elsewhere and not block others? Didn't it ever occurred to you that perhaps the driver of that vehicle you're blocking might need to use it soon? I mean c'mon, I know the parking lot is full and all, but find somewhere else that won't hamper with anyone's personal space.



Fortunately, the taxi driver drove off in the nick of time, just when my dad was leaving home. I did alert my dad about the situation though. He wasn't too pleased to hear about it either.

Either way, I managed to take down the plate number of the taxi - SHB5334Z.
In the event that perhaps there are scratches or damages on my dad's car, I haz evidence to whom the culprit is.

Courtesy people. I thought Singapore is supposed to be filled with it. Apparently not.

I haz wood. lawl.

Wanna see my wood?
It's hard.
And I just played with it.
It's fun!



Lawl, innuendos aside, I meant drum stick. Aha. It is made of wood, and .. it's hard. (Hurr...) I got it randomly from Bras Basah, and with the suggestion of Andrea because well 1) I needed drum sticks for jamming, and 2) the one she took out looked cool.

I never really had a chance to utilize it though. For 2 months it just stayed in my room. From time to time, I'd pick it up and do air drums just to get the feel of it and practice my sense of rhythm. But what's the point of that? Instead, I began trying to bang on some random stuff. That only made my mum mad. What, I can't even practice drums now? Okay fine, I was banging those stuff at 2am in the morning. Point taken.

It was an awesome looking pair of drum sticks! It was black with hot pink gradient at the top. Okay, I know that sounds totally gay, but when you look at it, it does look cool! Fo' shizzle.

But yesterday I went jamming, and finally got it to use. After the first few songs, I was shocked to find out that that my drum sticks have officially been ... ravaged. By the end of the session, this is what's left.

Nice wood, eh?

Lol, I never thought it would ever end up like this. I'm never buying coloured drum sticks ever again. But Luqman, you over caring newbie of a musician, they're just cheap drum sticks, and making it all damaged like that is good, like battle scars proving that you've been practicing a lot!

Well, for you experienced drummers, you know this a normal thing. But I'm still an amateur, so cut me some slack for being sentimental on my first pair of sticks. I'm sure you felt the same thing for your first pair of sticks.

It still works fine, but it doesn't look cool to bring it on stage and play with it anymore. Sadface.


Oh, Word of advice. Never start something you know you probably wouldn't stop. That is all. Remember when I said I quit? Apparently I suck. Now I feel bad for doing so. You probably know what I mean. Puff.