featured song of the moment... imogen heap: the walk

It's not meant to be like this.
Not what I planned at all.
I don't want to feel like this.
Yeah.
No it's not meant to be like this.
Not what I planned at all.
I don't want to feel like this.
So that makes it all your fault.


[no video, so just settle for the audio in this youtube 'thingy']

lossless songs galore

here's my special post on an introduction to lossless music...

what's lossless? and why loss less

basically, it's getting the original bitrate of whatever you get on your CDs and packaging it in a different file format (e.g.: Apple lossless, FLAC, Windows Media Lossless, just to name a few). As such, it does not need to compress at the processor, and the encoding is faster if lossless is used. A 3-minuts track which is 3MB at 128kbps MP3 can be 30MB at 1020kbps Apple Lossless. 10x the size, but the length f the song is still the same. Where's the difference? it's in the compression. With lossless, you get whatever garbage was made on the CD. If the recording company did a bad recording, your playback of the lossless songs will sound as bad. But if the CD had a good encoding, your lossless song will sound good. simple as that. no need to care about the bit rate or compression. lossless music has no compression.

overall, the sound will not show much difference to the average insensetive ears, especially not on the $5 earphones you bought at the Pasar Malams. You may hear a difference in the mid-range headphones/earphones/speakers, including the generic iPod and Creative earphones [from what i've tried.]. Apparently, mp3s and lossless was supposed to sound indistinguishable on the Bose or Shure in-ears or headphones...

the major points in differentiating mp3s from lossless by auditory means is to watch for the guitars, drums, piano, bass, acoustics. Esecially the piano. the sound of the piano string reverbing is quite noticeable in lossless, whereas the mp3s over-compress these frequencies. The bass is [needless to say] best in lossless, then AAC and finally mp3, reason being because mp3s work by squeezing out the extreme ends of the frequency ranges (i.e.: below 20Hz, beyond 20kHz).

Now comes the problem: which kind of stuff can play lossless?

iPods 3G, 4G, 5G, 5.5G, Photo, U2-4G, U2-5G
iPod mini 1G, 2G,
iPod nano 1G, 2G,
iPhone 1G,
Apple TV
iTunes 4.5 onwards
QuickTime 6.5.1 onwards

these support Apple Lossless.
But be warned: iPod video 5G [without the search function] will get only 4.5h of battery life on lossless music playback.

Windows Media Lossless Encoder is supported on Windows Media Player on Windows, QuickTime with Flip4Mac for Macs, Toshiba Gigebeat, Archos players. I suppose some of the Creative stuff and maybe the Zune supports this format as well...

The most popular amongst a significant number of audiophiles [well, apparently] is FLAC [Free Lossless Audio Encoder]. Not the easiest route. Firstly, you may need to get third-party apps for your stuff to support it [e.g.: iPods need to get the ROckBox firmware before it can support FLAC]. However, it is open-source, so there's a lot of forums around for assistance.

so, now the you got your reason to get on the lossless bandwagon, get the favourite CDs of yours and start re-ripping them in lossless!

music chart for now...

by popular demand...

1. imogen heap - the walk
[if you saw the Live Earth Concert promo ads on Channel 5, they used this song for one of their ads.]

2. imogen heap - just for now
[try streaming on las.fm or somewhere for the album version. immi's a musical genious!]

3. enrique iglesias - do you know? (the ping pong song)
[i'm sure you've heard this song before by now...]

4. fall out boys - thnks fr th mmrs
[like the song, not the title... what's with the vowel-dropping phenomenon? stop it... it's so not web2.0]

5. aly & aj - silence
[never heard of the song before... but thanks to iTunes, i think i like it..]

6. timbaland - the way i are
[catchy song... cool music video. check it out on youtube!]

7. timbaland - miscommunication
[yet another song with cool bg...]

8. maroon 5 - goodnight goodnight
[not exactly a bedtime song.. but it's really a nice moody song.]

9. fergie - glamorous
[she's glamorous... she's fergalicious, she's fergie... so watcha gonna do with her lady humps?]

10. red hot chilli peppers - snow (hey oh)
[good songs never get forgotten]

waiting, waiting, waiting...

the anthem of my state of mind for now: "wo deng zhe ni hui lai, wo deng zhe ni hui lai...."

why?

let's see...


i'm waiting for iPhone 2...

i'm waiting for iPod 6G...

i'm still waiting for my MacBook Pro...

i'm waiting for my booster immunisation shots due this saturday [thanx, HPB]


"people spend two-thirds of their life waiting." --personal inflated stats.

"suai" day week

life's unfair...

a math: 18/25
bio: 24/30
hist: 7+1 / 20

failed history [again]... i friggin studies for the hist test [something i rarely do anymore], and i did put in effort, but it's not good enuff, i guess...

a math: slightly unexpected to get so low... i guess my formula wasn't so clear...

as for bio, 24 / 30 wasn't so bad... until some guy sitting near me kept bragging to me he got .5 marks higher... yeah, sure... keep telling yourself that...

i mean: it's not fair larh!!! he's always talking in class... he always copies my notes... and he beat me?! can't say he cheated... but then...

at least the other guy he talks to didn't do as well...

o well...

hcl class: the teacher seem kinda angry about me (& yi lei) missing classes...

australia math competition: no comments...

and i don't wanna talk about my hairstyle....

Music chart for now...

Need your music fix? Well, u're screwed, cuz i've no iPhone! So here's my fav. podcasts...

1. Apple Phone Show
2. Buzz Out Loud by CNET
3. MacBreak Weekly
4. TWiT
5. DL.TV
6. Diggnation [explicit]
7. X-Play by G4
8. Attack of The Show by G4
9. VH1 Best Week Ever
10. RocketBoom

fill y'er iPod!

3 days left...

Mark monday... Not just any monday... This coming monday... For it's the my macbook pro actually comes back to me!!!

iRawk

Betcha didn't know...

Ever scrolled all the way down to the bottom of my blogs? (class blog n this blog).

by the way, jian bin's dad just passed away 1 of d past few days from leukemia... Went to visit him just now... Who knew this has been since the choir italy trip last year? it's not easy to lose one's dad like that... So Let's try to give him some encouragement when he gets back to school...

No sign of macbook pro... Thanks t9

This message is brought to you with the power of t9 input on the nokia n80.

i've been waiting for a really unbearablely long time to use my macbook pro... But seems like there's still no sign of it...

getting really desperate...

never servicing my macbook pro ever again...

not till i get an iPhone...

this entire blog post was done using t9... Yes, t9 will let you type iPhone if you're smart...

Poll-survey thing-a-ma-jig

Check out d poll when u visit d blog!

Nd 2 know how freq. u guys visit d blog so i know how many posts i shld do fver a period of time...

just checking!

p.s. If u wanna do d poll thing, just switch to d new blogger template n add a page element under 'layout'. Pretty cool stuff, n it has a cookie caching systm of sum sort (d way i c it) so only 1 vote possible per pc. (change to vote possible, though). Take that, spammers.

It's a good day..

Im optimistic for once... And i dont believe what made my day...

k, therd was d embarrasing moments in time when hall assembly occurred... Not talkin abt it... Y do i do d things i do?

then, free period... Nuthim much, i guess...

juSt 1 thing: where's my entry proof? I still dun have it, n i nd it 4 nov07 cl paper 1 n 2.

anyway, cl lc was pretty easy... So of course im happy...

n who knew Symphony 92.4fm will broadcast d 'O' lvl LC Exam?

p.s. Still on N80... No sign of improved typing nxt 3-6 days... Hmph......

5 more days minimum

Yep. 5 more days b4 i get back my MacBook Pro!

why such a long time? Well, coz apple wants me to get AppleCare...

anyways, i nd $457.98 for d repairs... So, anyone wanna help out w/ financial support?

im stuck at $360... Short of $97.98

o, btw, can sum1 help me to find where in S'pore can i get 'Imogen Heap Speak For Yourself' the album? Been searching arnd suntec, but alas, to no avail.

'one more thing...'

Heh, im not Steve Jobs, so me saying one more thing is not = a cool product w/ an apple logo...

anyway, lols aside... Where's my mac?

im tired from 'moblogging' sms style using t9 text input... Gettin lame.

iPhone rawks... Sure of it.

Oral exam aftermath...

It's over. I'm gonna hate oral exam from now on, specifically cl oral. Why do i stumble on every phrase? Haiz...

luckily, it's over. LC next... Shld b a piece o' cake...

32h, signs of desperation

I now learnt one thing: i have no life, thus i need a mac to live. I cant live on just an iPod n a n80. I cant get youtube on this junk... Get me an iPhone!!! Get me a Mac!!!

Me n My MacBook Pro.

My mac's currently under repair... Hope it cools a bit when i get it back...

kinda awkward when d guy at epiCentre was marking out d pre-service physical defects... Scratches everywhere...

so, just bear with me n my n80 for now... It aint that bad. (get me an iPhone pronto, man! Im dying here!)

why i've not blogged d past few days... [i blame linksys]

my router's been kinda quirky, so it didn't let anyone access the internet... the modem was working, though... so you can imagine how lame my week has been... spending 1 hour on tech support.

anyway, just a few quick bits...

-Yesterday was NCC day... so i decided to ask out of curiosity: what's JB wearing? A dependable source told me the average size was 21, and he's 29...


-What's Reuben been doing? Reading "Dummies' Guide to German Phrases"! Hallo Deutsche!!! Hallo Welt!!!


-Guess what I got yesterday.... "Chem & Physics remedial for ALL!!!"... (teacher's 'rationale' 'excuse': sorry, not enuff time. heh.)


-t'was a depressing day yesterday...


-it's 7-07-2007 !!! happy Live Earth Day!!!

-And speaking of Live Earth Day, I thought MediaCorp will b cheapos who will not air the entire Live Earth 24h concert... just 2 hours max... Well, no! It's 23 HOURS and 30 MINUTES of LIVE EARTH DAY CONCERT!!! w00t!!! [the other 30minutes was news... so just follow News5Tonight or switch to Channel U for the Shanghai concert]


-By the way,
Channel 5,
7PM 7/07/2007- 9.30PM 7/07/2007
10PM 7/07/2007 - 7PM 8/07/2007

Channel U
9.30PM - 11PM 7/07/2007 [Shanghai concert]

Have fun!!!

wanted to break this news yesterday...

My aunt [not my guardian, but my dad's younger sister], had departed this world on Jul 2, 2007, approximately 2pm GMT+0700. She was suffering from cancer which had spread to her hepatic organs.

Hope everyone can join in prayer as our family pays respect to the eldest sister amongst my dad's generation in the family.

She just became a grandmother several days before her day of departure.

Unfortunately, because of her cancer cells, my family has decided to do the ceremonies faster, so I won't be returning to Indonesia. And because of family-related reasons, she will be cremated instead of buried.

So, do keep my cousin and the rest of the family in prayer [she just gave birth 1-2 weeks ago.] as we pass through emotionally tough times.

We had been expecting the departure to come very soon, since this was Stage 4 cancer. But nevertheless, we know she is now in good hands with the Lord.

Thank you, and God Bless.

Guardian rant...

k... another guardian rant...

my dad told me to try & apply for an ATM card while i'm here... [in case of emergency and all...]...

so i went to the bank on saturday morning with my aunty...

we went to the macphersonPOSB branch...

they were closed for renovation...

never mind.. there's a UOB branch just down the road... so let's walk there!

my fat-a** aunty insisted we spend $1.80 on a bus ride...

for goodness sake [i will not use the Lord's name in vain... it's really not worth using his name here.], why must we take a stupid bus ride when it's just one single f***ing stop away? it's only 350 metres and the bank would only close at 1pm.. [it was 10am]. [sure, i'm cheap, but at least i'm healthy.]

so, never mind, we got on a bus and i looked really stupid, coz my aunt was blabbering away about why we go to the bank, and asking where he BANK is, and asking me rudely to MOVE IN[ i refused to move in coz it's one bus stop n we're almost there, so why not stick to the door?], and she was being naggy and all about me putting the $1 coin she gave me into the bin. [each person's 90c, and she wants to pay exact individual. what a cheapo.]

at the bank, the guy said i can't apply till im 16, unless my parents applied for me...

yeah, moments like this make me wish i'm not with my guardians, but just alone, living on my own savings being supplemented with 1k every month... and all the bills paid by Giro to my parents' own account... ah yes, the simple life... [i know how to operate a dryer, laundry machine, and stuff like that.

yesterday, i was out for tuition and afgm service for the milk run...

got home early [6 something], my guardians told me to wait for dinner [they went out...] which came at 9pm... well, at least they bothered to leave nuggets and stuff for me to consume before they left... [if not, i'll wreck the entire house... trust me...]

then, today, i went to call up POSB / DBS...

btw, my aunty just criticised me for being a bloody fool, and she doesn't want to take care of me ever again, as of 2 July 07 10:30:14am [feels like Twitter...]

anyway, back to the topic... i was calling up POSB... the told me they're having high volumes, so never mind, i'll check the website...

they only said that under 16; need parent's consent...

ok, so case closed, new objective is to get parent's consent... but how? what form? where?

that, im figuring out, but nevertheless, my aunt is now like bitching all over me now, about how i "bathed for an hour to apply for my visa" and how I said she'd not really doing her job as a guardian. [i didn't put quotes on that coz i did say that. i did not bath for an hour... i made crap, brushed my teeth, and bathed for 35 minutes total... she loves to shee the movement of the hour arm on a clock only... that's why]

ya know what? that's it. no more bitching around... if she wants me to live with her, she's gonna have to try harder...

now, nobody knew about this yet [except my parents n me..., so don't tell my guardians] but my parents are trying to persuade me to move to College. [that means i'm moving to the States.]

The only prob now is that the 'O's only end November 2008, results Jan 09, and college starts September in the States...

and also, which State? city? College? [for me there's these options in mind: MIT, Massachusetts ; somewhere in Cupertino, California; San Francisco; Harvard (unlikely)]

Actually, this was one of the reasons why I did not want to apply for PR-ship... coz that means im screwed to this stinkin place for eternity...

and besides, the way I see my guardians treat their house, i'm toast. they're renting out rooms as if they have a hotel or something... dude, you only have 3 bedrooms... the 2 extensions you made and the "Ah-Ma's room" are not real rooms... the formers are fake [no doubt about it], the latter is a store room... face it.

imagine this scenario... 12 people, one toilet, 5 bedrooms... insane? this is my reality... and i'm not the only one who's not happy... my dad's furious at the thought of the house i'm living in... and everyone here's treating me as if i'm some IT staff in a corporate company or something. but i'm unpaid... one of the great ironies in life, eh?

ok, enough ranting.... i'm furious enough.

music chart!!!

haven't done one in a while now...

1. imogen heap - goodnight & go

2. fergie - glamorous

3. timbaland feat. fall out boy - one and only

4. fall out boy - thnks fr th mmrs

5. panic! at the disco - i write sins not tragedies


6. enrique iglesias - do you know? (the ping pong song)

7. rihanna - umbrella

8. timbaland - the way i are

9. maroon 5 - little of your time

10. hayley westenra - shenandoah


11. linkin park - leave out all the rest

12. avril lavigne - contagious

13. gwen stefani - wonderful life

14. nelly furtado - te busque

15. timbaland - oh timbaland