Wednesday, September 26, 2007

(Yet another) Blogging Break

Since I just downed a cuppa coffee, I thought I might as well get this done with, seeing how I'll be up all night anyway.

Due to unforeseen circumstances (EXAMS!), and many other events (mostly EXAMS!), I have once again decided to run away the heavy responsibility that is blogging. Yes, I admit, I'm more interested in my Rubik's Cube at present.

Right now, I have the following to be completed :

1. EXAM! Prep. That's a lot of Math to revise.
2. World Lit Essay.
3. A quintillion million gazillion hamillion chameleon physics practicals

4. A whole ton of Business questions
5. Mandarin Essays
(wo bu zhi dao la)
6. Something else (so this list looks more imposing)

Okay lah, listed down it doesn't look like alot, but that's how life is. It's like idiotic chemicals who refuse to react the way they're supposed to. The textbooks say this but nooooooo, they just have to differ by 106kJs!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!


Okay again, my brain is overloaded with Rubik's algorithms and what-not.

But I swear after Raya I'll be back with a vengeance. I'll spam a whole load of posts and you'll just HAVE to read them over and over again till your eyes bleed and you start reciting 'Hamelot' in your sleep - IN MANDARIN.

I've officially gone detrimental.












Technically, it should read hamnoj.blogspot.com on holiday, but it couldn't fit. Another case of bad photoshopping. Blah.


Storming off and smelling off caffeine,
Jonathan.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Miss Kalai

No, I'm not dedicating this post to Miss Kalai or anything.

Awhile ago, she walked up to me and demanded that I remove a particularly unflattering picture I posted up some while ago from my blog. To view the now condemned post, click HERE.


















Now on the main point, HOW DO THESE PEOPLE FIND ME????? No Miss Kalai, I'm not implying that you're someone who's Technologically Backward and doesn't know how to use Google to stalk keep up with your students. I just don't really understand how these people managed to find me on the WWW (that's world wide web). Well, let me tell you something else.

One day I was happily (or not, I can't remember) waiting for my ride home, when two girls from the school popped up to talk to Jorrel. When he had to take a call, they suddenly turned to me instead.

Girl whose name I do not know #1 : Hi, we read your blog. It's really good.
Jon : Uhh, hi. Do I know you?
Girl whose name I do not know #2: Nope.
Jon : Are you sure you've got the right person?
Girl whose name I do not know #2: Yup.

Or something like that lah. It's pretty amazing, once you think about it, just how much the Internet has expanded over the last few years. Sometimes in our classes, when we're hopelessly out of our minds with boredom, we log on our MSN messengers and start sending digital nudges to everyone else in class. To think that that one signal traveled halfway around the world, only to be received by someone half a meter from yourself. It's true when they say the world is getting flatter.

Woah, I'm way off my original topic. Finally, then, I'm sorry if I've offended anyone, be it Miss K or Girl WNIDNK #1 and #2. Frankly, I'm a little overwhelmed by the fact that people (plural, my friends) actually read my blog!

Minor rant over, Jon signing out.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Obituary : Luciano Pavarotti

Last Thursday we experienced the loss of one of the greatest operatic tenors of our time, Maestro Luciano Pavarotti.




















Here was a man, the stuff living legends are made of.

I've never written an obituary before, simply because I haven't had to opportunity (or misfortune, however you see it) to write one. But truly, I see it fit that I pay tribute to Mr. Pavarotti and the accomplishments that were his life. As a kid, my mum would oft tell me of the great Three Tenors, no other than Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo. I didn't think much of them then, save for a sort of far-off awe with which we regard dignitaries such as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

His music reached far beyond the usual opera audience, and I cite myself as an example. Honestly, I can't really stand all the glass-shattering pitches sopranos are able to reach and loud 'Aaaaaaaaaaaa!'s which characterize opera. But then I stumbled upon a grainy video on YouTube, showing Pavarotti belting out Puccini's Nessun Dorma, I became absolutely infatuated with the it and the man, and had it on replay loops in my head. I really couldn't help but continue browsing for more videos of the Maestro. His collaborations with James Brown, Bono and Sting? Explosive. As Bono aptly put it:

'He was a volcano of a man, who sang fire'.

And when I saw the headline on Thursday 'Pavarotti Dies at 71', I quietly mourned for the great man. I never knew him personally, and neither did the millions of fans and well-wishers who grieve this loss. Pavarotti was constantly positive about his condition, and confident he would recover from it eventually. Although he never did, we are exhorted by his personality, which was as large as the man himself. From the aria Nessun Dorma, he sings 'Al'alba vincero! Vincero! Vincero!' in a climatic crescendo. It translates to 'At dawn we shall be victorious!'. Fitting, for a man who battled against his ailment for years.

You can watch his final performance at the 2006 Torino Winter Games here.



ITALIAN;
Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o, Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza,
guardi le stelle
che fremono d'amore
e di speranza.

Ma il mio mistero e chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun sapra!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo diro
quando la luce splendera!

Ed il mio bacio sciogliera il silenzio
che ti fa mia!

(Il nome suo nessun sapra!...
e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!)

Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All'alba vincero!
vincero, vincero!

ENGLISH
None must sleep! None must sleep!
And you, too, Princess,
in your cold room,
gaze at the stars
which tremble with love
and hope!

But my mystery is locked within me,
no-one shall know my name!
No, no, I shall say it as my mouth
meets yours when the dawn is breaking!

And my kiss will break the silence
which makes you mine!

(No-one shall know his name,
and we, alas, shall die!)

Vanish, o night!
Fade, stars!
At dawn I shall be victorious!


Adieu, Maestro.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

MERDEKAx7!

I'm really really busy at the moment, so excuse this pathetic semblance of a post for now.

1. MERDEKA! Yay, we're 50 years old and everything. Did anyone spot me on TV or in the newspapers?

2. What was Aladdin's mom's name?

ALAMAK! Wahahahaha!

That was so random, but something I never want to forget. It's the epitome of Malaysian quirkiness and humour. We find entertainment in just about the most trivial of things. Okay, moving on.

3. I have a new hero! I'm doing this crazy thing called the Extended Essay at the moment (it's the thing that IB-ians all over the world bitch about the most) and the man is just a genius! I mean, Doppler effects! I hadn't considered that at all!




















The big red words tell all. And if they say 'Don't judge a book by it's cover', I say 'Don't judge a physicist by his beard'.

That concludes this wreck of a post. If I were to envision this post as a real-life material thingamajiggy, I would say it looks like a few Post-It notes taped together. Real messy. And for the record, I don't think I'll be posting anytime soon