I got this quiz from a link in a friend's blog (xanga). The only thing that really makes me astonished and speechless is the "The right job for you:" part. On one hand I do really wanna finish my Ph.D. and become a successful and well-respected M.I.S. scholar/researcher. On the other hand, deep in my heart, I always want to be able to produce my own album, but I never have the chance to get exposed to the world of showbiz. I want to be able to sing the poems that I created all a long and record them in my own album. But, *sigh*, this one is just a dream. Well, anyway, this is the result of the quiz. Click this bold word for link to the quiz's website.
Get to know yourself better
Your view on yourself:
You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.
The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:
You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.
Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.
The seriousness of your love:
You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.
Your views on education:
Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can.
The right job for you:
You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.
How do you view success:
You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.
What are you most afraid of:
You are afraid of having no one to rely on in times of trouble. You don't ever want to be unable to take care of yourself. Independence is important to you.
Who is your true self:
You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.
This week's shows have been quite a shock to me. AI judge Randy Jackson suddenly became as critical as Simon Cowell. Almost all the contestants lost their wow-factor that night. While the theme of that night was "the music of the 21st century", all the contestants picked songs that did not show-off their vocal abilities. This is odd, since this is our era, and their era. However, only two stood up brilliantly, of course, Paris Bennet and Elliott Yamin. And surprise, surprise, one of the bottom three performers last night was Katharine McPhee!
Paris Bennet, uhmm, I kinda agree with Simon on her stage act (Simon Cowell said that Paris is just a little girl pretending to be Beyonce.). But overall, her performance was fabulous. She sang Beyonce's "Work It Out" without any flaw, and to all of you novice or amateur performers (that includes me of course =p), do take note on how to move or shake your body while singing difficult notes without loosing your breath. I tried this once when I performed Alicia Keys' "Diary" and I learned that doing Michael Jackson's spin and moonwalk in the middle of singing can be tough! Although I got praised from the crowd (of course, some of them are my close friends), I was not satisfied at all with my performance. But I admire Paris for being able to control her vocal while shaking her butt like Beyonce =p
Elliott Yamin's stage act was goofy! =p The way he bounced, trying to be black, ooouuhh gawd, not in a million years!!! =p He looked like a seventh-grader trying to bounce himself in a prom party =p Not to mention his outfit =p But I do admire how he could turn a country-ballad Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Wanna Be" into an R&B song (despite the fact that I don't like this song, even in any kind of version.), sorta like his version. I can see his confindence grows stronger on every performance. He started to express himself, that he owns the stage, not the other way around. Compare this to his earlier performances, in which he looked awfully nervous and shy (but at least he wasn't trembling like me whenever I was about to perform =p). That's why, I agree with all the AI judges' comments, even Simon said it was fantastic =) And Mandisa, I think she did okay. She sang a gospel song, Mary Mary's "Wanna Praise You". Once again, she showed off her vocal, but I just can't understand why Simon disliked her performance.
My apology to all Ace Young's fans, but I think he has gotta be in the bottom three list and I was right. First of all, I don't like the song that he picked, "Drops of Jupiter". Second, he sang it terribly, especially during the "ehehe..ehehe..ehehe.." part, which was repeated couple of times. It sounded horribly funny, I couldn't help myself from not laughing or giggling while working in my office yesterday (I had to muffle my mouth =p). The third flaw, he thought showing off the scar on his chest during the lyric that mentioned about scar was sexy, but to me, that was hideous! Judge Paula Abdul was asking how he got the scar, hoping that the scar would be caused by something tragic or dramatic like the theme of the song. It turned out to be a basketball play accident! I got completely turned off when he showed his scar and couldn't help myself from laughing everytime I remember that ridiculous "ehehe..ehehe..ehehe.." thingy (he got the guts to sing that part! Even Sekar, one of Ace's fans, was laughing during that part and thought it was ridiculous.) Well, Bucky Covington, uhmm, I think he did better yesterday, but his vocal got drowned by the background music, so I couldn't hear his pronunciation clearly.
Lisa Tucker, tsk..tsk..tsk..., two weeks in a row in the bottom three list, and she got the guts to sing a song by the past winner of AI, Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You". I actually didn't watch her performance though, as she was put as the first performer that night. I was late cause I was practicing wushu and the cab arrived late. But from most of the AI news that I read, many reviewers said that she "successfully" ruined the song. All the judges agreed that she had made a bad choice of song. And after two weeks being in the bottom three, I was right, she has to go home. Bye-bye Lisa, I did enjoy your performance though. And, hee..hee..hee...., Taylor Hicks, this time he tried hard to stand still while performing. Like always, his souly voice was so soothing, but his effort to stand still made him looked like he was constipated =p
Now this is a shock! I love the way Katharine McPhee sang Christina Aguilera's "The Voice Within" and all the AI judges thought that she did a good job too! And then how come she ended up in the bottom three list last night? Come on peeps (especially those of you who live in the U.S.), help me vote for her, do you wanna recover from the McFever too soon? Or you just can't stand from "suffering" (enjoying) the McFever no more? Just because the previous performers did awful, that doesn't mean that the latter ones would do the same thing! All the reviews that I read showed a sign of shocked too, and the audience on the stage was also on shock. This is what happened if you don't dial her number! A Tylenol or Advil won't kill her, but not dialing her number will surely do! Well, at least there was a little entertainment last night. I enjoyed Shakira's and Wyclef Jean's performance, singing their new hit "Hips Don't Lie". Anyway, I will post a new review below once I get the theme for next week's show. Keep on voting your idol peeps!
STOP PRESS (March 31, 2006): The next week's theme is "country music". If I were the contestant, I would personally pick B.J. Thomas' "Raindrops Keep Fallin on My Head" (B.J. Thomas also sang the theme song of the 1980s' famous sitcom "Growing Pains" starring Kirk Cameron and later on would introduce Leonardo DiCaprio.). But again, I can't seem to suggest any of those country songs to each of those contestants cause country music isn't actually my thing.
Before playing the YouTube videos below, please turn off the audio or video played on the right section of this blog. *sigh* Monday again... I came late today cause I got to drive my Uncle's car instead to wait for the bus every 7:05 AM like used to do. Well, the "grand manager" isn't here yet, surprise, surprise, cause he's one of those workaholic type who comes at 8:00 AM sharp and leaves after 6:00 PM everyday! I can't wait to get back home today, 6:00 PM for a more complicated wushu practice. Finally, compulsory forms cause now I'm officially a green-sash student, which means that I'm officially in the intermediate level =) Even as an intermediate wushu practitioner now, I still can't land on both legs whenever I do the jump-front kick and I can't do the legs-cross sitting stance. But to earn this sash, I was drained to my last breath last Saturday. Yes, as a wushu student, I had to take a sash test to earn a higher level.
Frankly speaking, I was terribly dissapointed with my performance on the sash test, especially when I performed the complete basic broadsword form. This form consists of 4 sections, when I took the gold sash, I was asked to perform just 2 sections of this form, but this time, the whole 4 sections, cause this Tuesday I will be learning compulsory broadsword form, the form used by wushu athletes at various wushu competition. So I have to finish the basic broadsword form. Actually, I have no problem at performing changquan forms (long-fist barehand) and broadsword form, which is my specialty weapon. I was more worried to perform the staff form, the only weapon I can't seem to figure out until today. I was even praised by the tai-chi practitioner, who was one of the test judges, that my chanquan forms are more powerful and more flexible than they used to be. I had to perform 3 full basic chanquan forms and the first section of the intermediate-compulsory chanquan form (some said it's the junior-compulsory changquan form). In addition to the broadsword, I was planned to perform 2 sections of the basic staff form. For a demo of how the compulsory broadsword form looks like, click on the video below. This is the exact form that I will have to learn this Tuesday, so imagine me doing that with much, much less perfection =p I can do the side split, but my back leg has to bend a little cause I still can't do the split really low. Freddy suggests me to practice the split everyday even when I'm not training for wushu, it's just that I'm too lazy to do that at home =p
The routines performance (basic stances, such as front-stance punch, slap-kick, cartwheel, etc.) and the chanquan performance went well. These drained a lot of my energy, I was panting like a dog after doing all of these forms =p The trouble started when I was called by Sifu Lu Xiaolin (the Headmistress of my wushu school. She's also a member of U.S. National Wushu Board of Directors and U.S. National Wushu Judges/Coaches.) to perform the broadsword form. I couldn't get rid off the thought of having to perform the complete sections of this form. I was more anxious when suddenly Stephon (he was acting as one of the judges as well. By the way, this good friend of mine who is about my age is one of the U.S. National Wushu team members and he's one of the top 5 wushu athletes in U.S. So I'm lucky to learn from these top-notch wushu athletes in the U.S. =p) announced that he wouldn't count every sections I did, so when he said go just performed. Usually he would count so I had the time to pause for a while and think. The result was, right on the third section, I completely forgot the rest of the movements, making me stood there completely clueless. I have never been in this kind of situation and never felt this embarrased. I kept on thinking positively that this was not a competition and I would pass anyway. What dissapointed me is that, this is my specialty weapon, I even practiced myself at the basketball court at the back of my apartment which lured many eyes to stare at my sword =p (I will never, ever practice weapon forms outdoor again.) I always thought that this is the weapon I'm most comfortable with and I already got the idea of the dexterity, speed, and power of the movements when doing this form. And to my surprise once again, I was not called to perform the staff form. I was terrified that I thought that I did so terrible on the broadsword form that I got skipped from doing the staff form which could mean that I failed the test (which could mean another 2 months of being a gold sash student and learning the same thing I've been learning these past 2 months.). Well, after the test, Sifu told me that she noticed my expression that I was surprised during Stephon's announcement so she noticed I became nervous and I rushed too fast. I didn't give myself a time to think for a moment for my next movements. She also told me that the reason the judges did not ask me to perform staff form was that I already performed the routines, 3 1/4 changquan forms (1/4 of these forms is the first section of the intermediate-compulsory changquan form) and a complete set of basic broadsword form, which is too much for a gold sasher. Well, eventually I passed with a very generous score (for gold sash to green sash, I think the score range is from 7.2 to 7.6. I got 7.4.).
Well, enough said, I'm just looking forward to this evening's practice. When I called Stephon yesterday, I forced him to teach me compulsory chanquan form while I get to finish the intermediate-compulsory chanquan form =p He gives up and finally agrees with my demands, some student I am, huh? =p (at first, he didn't agree with my request and he insisted that I finish the intermediate-compulsory changquan first so I wouldn't get mixed up and confused. But I kept on nagging him =p) I just realized that it's been almost a year since I first started wushu back in June 6, 2005 (I still remember that horrible first day of training. Now I lost so many weights because of practicing wushu.). And I grow to love this sport even more everytime I practice. I love wushu for its graceful, fluid, circular movements yet rapid, fast, and powerful. For those of you who have no idea of how competition wushu looks like, below is the video of my most favorite sport and one of the only three sports that I like (these other two sports are swimming and tennis). BTW, I like this video's background music, Linkin Park's Breaking the Habit, the song really suits the vigor nature of wushu. Anyway, I realize that I can't be as good as these athletes as I'm training for health and for fun (besides the fact that I started late at this stage of life. I need to train harder on flexibility and conditioning. I have to stretch more but I'm too lazy =p), but I'm trying hard to get as near perfect as they are. I hope someday I will be able to upload my very own video of me performing wushu forms (which means I should be doing perfect performance with very minor flaws.). And click the next bold word for definition on what competition wushu is by Wikipedia. All I can say is that competition wushu is a Chinese Martial Art that focuses more on performance or styles/stances rather than on self-defense. Most people recognize Wushu as Kung Fu (which actually means skills gained through hardwork and rigorous practice. So a Basketball player can also be said to have a Kung Fu =D). Enjoy and have a great Monday.
Another final week of American Idol. Before the result was announced, like usual, they showed a weird ads of car (Ford) by the idols, singing on the beach (I was too astonished at the bizarre advertisement. And even after two ads, their singing are still not harmonized!). The ads sounded like just a group of people being put together to sing an ads jingle, despite how talented they are. Well, I'm just gonna concentrate on my three idols instead, Mandisa Hundley, Elliott Yamin, and Katharine McPhee. And of course, the idol who has to be laid off this week, who is none other than our beloved "Chicken Little", Kevin Covais.
Anyway, the other night, I think each performer showed their best performance, except for Bucky Covington who sang "Oh Boy" in a pointless karaoke mode (that's what AI judge Simon Cowell said). At this moment I knew right away that Bucky would be on the "bottom three" performers. I even thought that he was the one to go home on the next day's result show. Oh boy, you gotta go home =) OK, Mandisa Hundley, she dressed elegantly, which matched with that night's theme "music from the 50s". Despite her jumbo size, she looked elegant and pretty that night. And wait till she started to crack your emotion with "I Don't Hurt Anymore". She earned high praises from the three judges, Randy Jackson was a little speechless, Paula Abdul called her a thoroughbred, and Simon Cowell loved the performance and he thought it was sexy as she made it sounded like a stripper song.
My boy, Elliott Yamin! =) Man, I should definitely get a chance to meet him if I have to live in Richmond, VA for the next 5 years this August 2006 (but still I prefer to live in Atlanta, GA no matter what!). He came back with "Teach Me Tonight", Ladies and Gentlemen! Well, his strength is jazz (and soul) anyway, he used to gig around Richmond with a jazz band. At first, I thought he was gonna sing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" or any of those stuffs. Anyway, after those so-so (or should I call lame?) performances the past two weeks, he was finally alive! I have to agree with Rico though, that Elliott's best performance is still when he sang "Moody's Mood For Love" (and also his first performance when he sang "If You Really Love Me". That was the first time I realized him.). And you can tell that the AI people are working hard to give him some make-over. He looks a bit better with that goatee beard and a bit of messy hair style. But please, that night was the "music of the 50s", I was hoping that he could dress a little bit "50s". Take a note from the female contestants will ya? But dude, if you ever make a record deal (but I think it would be tough for him to win AI if viewers judge looks also. There is a chance though and I'm very, very sure that he can make it to the top 5 contestants.), I will surely buy your CD! (even though I will convert your songs to MP3 later on, for the sake of my iPod =p) I think you have the best vocal among all this season's male contestants and I wanna learn vocal lesson from you! (hey, at least we have the same vocal technique and I never did any vocal lesson either!) BTW, I've already downloaded the MP3 of him singing "Teach Me Tonight" during that night's performance. I will upload the MP3 on this blog tonight so you too will have the chance to listen to his wonderful voice.
My newly-found crush, Katharine McPhee! =) Oooh boy, she's such a feast to both the ears and the eyes. She sang Ella Fitzgerald's "Come Rain or Come Shine" that night. She has a beautiful voice, she can sing, she dressed elegantly again that night, she knows how to work the stage and the camera, she is a real singer and performer! Just take a look at her picture on the left-hand side and listen to her voice every Tuesday on Fox, 8/7c. Despite AI judge Randy Jackson said that this wasn't her best performance, I'm pretty sure that she could be the next American Idol for this season! But she'll have to be smart since she'll be facing fierce competition against Mandisa Hundley and Paris Bennett.
Well, last night's result show, Ace Young could relax a bit for this week. It seems that his teenage-girl fans surely voted for him this time, a lesson that could almost lay him off last week. It's a shame that Lisa Tucker had to be on the "bottom three" performers again. I think she can actually sing, the thing is that her performances have always been a wee, bit tedious. Where's her fans? I'm affraid that she would be laid off next week, judging from the pattern that has been going on these past two weeks. And my prediction was correct, Bucky Covington was in the "bottom three" list. But to my surprise, it wasn't him to be laid off, it seems that the sky didn't fall on our "Chicken Little", Kevin Covais. It was a shame though, despite his nerdy look, I really love his voice, the way he sings, and his self-confidence. I love his rendition of "When I Fall in Love" on that night's performance. And should I remind you that he's just 16 years old? Anyway, at this point, the rest top-10 contestants will get a chance to tour the U.S. and to make the American Idol Season 5 CD! Well peeps, stay tune for next week's American Idol.
STOP PRESS (March 24, 2006):I just found out, next week's theme is "the music of the 21st century". Well, this is our era and the contestants' era as well. They will have a broad range of repertoires to choose. I have no idea what to suggest this time =p
Do You See What I See? One time there was a guy who was browsing a local "Home-Depot" store for a toilet. There were three types of toilet on sale: the wooden toilet, the stainless steel toilet, and the "singing" toilet. The wooden toilet is the cheapest while the "singing" toilet is, of course, the most expensive one. So that guy bought the wooden toilet. The next day he returned the toilet and complained to the store clerk, "I don't like this toilet. It gives me splinter! It keeps poking on my butt and it's so painful!" So the guy got to get the stainless steel toilet with the same price as that of the wooden toilet. The next day, he returned the stainless steel toilet as well. "I hate this toilet! It's too cold!" He got to the last option of the toilet and, unfortunately this time, had to pay a little bit more for the "singing" toilet. Surprisingly, he returned the "singing" toilet to the store on the next day. "I don't want this toilet. It's embarrassing! This toilet keeps singing "Do You See What I See?" whenever I'm using it!"
First of all, don't forget to turn off the music or video played on the right section of this page.
What was your first impression after watching the above clip of the final ads of Final Fantasy XII? If you're interested, please read my next review. Fans of the long-awaited latest installment of the famous Final Fantasy series can curb their enthusiasm in Japan. Square-Enix has finally released Final Fantasy XII (FFXII), which was originally scheduled in the mid 2004, on March 16, 2006 in Japan. Although sold during the weekday, die-hard fans started to line-up in front of Shibuya Tsutaya store at 6:00 PM, the evening before the official release date. The result was a queue of 70 people at 7:00 AM, right before the store opened.
Square-Enix president Yoichi Wada and FFXII Executive Producer Akitoshi Kawazu were on-hand at the event to greet consumers and answer questions about the release. According to Wada, over 2.3 million copies of FFXII were shipped for the launch -- more than that of the previous FF title (it is presumed that he was referring to 2001's Final Fantasy X.). He also mentioned that the U.S. version is currently in the process of being localized, and should see release sometime around Thanksgiving in U.S. One excited fan asked Wada to release a remake of Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation 3, to which Wada responded "We'll consider it."
The extra months spent in development may have caused some to wonder whether there is something wrong with FFXII. There isn't, if respected Japanese magazine Famitsu is to be believed. With the game finally nearing release, the magazine has doled out only its sixth perfect score, Next Generation is reporting. FFXII earns 40 points out of 40, which means that the four notoriously tough judges have rated the game 10 out of 10 for aspects such as graphic, story line, and game system. The clean-sweep 40-out-of-40 score puts Final Fantasy XII in an elite group of games that includes recent hits Soul Calibur (Dreamcast), Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64), Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube), Vagrant Story (PlayStation 2) and Nintendogs (DS).
The game system itself has introduced something different from the previous installments of Final Fantasy series. You might have known the so-called Gambit system, which consists of an action and a target for that action. Actions can make a character use particular items, attacks, magic spells or skills. Targets can be set as enemies or party members and can even be specified with usage conditions. It's possible to set up a Gambit to make a character use a heal potion (the action) only on party members whose life has gone down by 70% (the target). You can also make a character attack (the action) the enemy that's currently engaged with the party leader (the target). The power of the Gambit system grows along with your characters. As you learn new spells and skills, you gain new actions that can be selected for a Gambit. New target types can be acquired at a Gambit shop in town. You can even increase the number of Gambits held by a character. These can then be ordered, resulting in priority for certain actions. For instance, you can make a character first attack the enemy currently engaging the party leader, then attack the nearest enemy. Each Gambit can be toggled on and off individually from the main menu.
The Gambit and battle systems offer a refreshing experience for the jaded Japanese RPG gamer, but FFXII goes much further in its attempts at twisting all the old formulas. Enemies don't leave behind gold anymore! You can find gold in treasure chests here and there, but the real way to get cash is to collect treasures, sometimes in treasure chests, sometimes being carried by enemies, and sell them at shops. This system has worked well over the first few hours of the game, and it has the benefit of actually making sense as opposed to having all these monsters running around with bags of gold.
Another cool, new feature of this game is the level-up feature using this so-called License Point (remember the creative level-up feature of Sphere Grid and Sphere Nodes on Final Fantasy X? But the License Point is totally different.). Players will be awarded with License Points (LP) and experience for defeating enemies that at least one of them doesn't carry any item. Experience is used just as it is in any other RPG. Your character rises in level when crossing a certain experience threshold and gains added HP, MP and strength.
The LP is used for one of FFXII's coolest new gameplay systems: licenses. In FFXII, as with most other RPGs, you have to buy or find weapons, magic spells, skills and armor. Here, though, a character can only equip weapons and armor and use skills and spells if he's acquired the appropriate license. Each character has a personal license board, which looks somewhat like an irregular chess board. Each square on the board corresponds to a single license for a particular set of skills or items. The board is split into six license regions: magic, skills, accessories, defense, options and weapons. As an example, in the magic area, you'll find one square, titled "White Magic Lv. 1," which allows the character to use a level 1 cure spell. Another square, titled "Black Magic Lv. 3" lets the character use level 3 fire, blizzard and thunder spells. In the case of accessories, defense and weapon slots, opening up a given license allows the character to equip certain classes of equipment. You can make a character equip bows, daggers or heavy armor, but only once you've acquired the appropriate license, even if you have the equipment in your possession.
Two special skill types appear on the license board as you advance through the game: Summons and Mist Knack (character specific special moves, remember Limit Break on Final Fantasy VII or Overdrive on Final Fantasy X?). As for summons, each summon beasts can be assigned exclusively to a single character; once assigned, the summon cannot be acquired from the license board of another character. Both of these skills, once they've been acquired, are selectable via a special command on the battle menu.
Well, it seems that it will take another half year for the U.S. release of Final Fantasy XII. Although there is no official release date, it is said that the U.S. version is set to be some time around Fall 2006, before Thanksgiving. I mostly copy-paste the review above, so just click the next bold words for more info on first impression review by IGN: Final Fantasy XII Playtest, Famitsu's game rating review Kikizo: Final Fantasy XII Scores Perfectly, and FFXII's first sale in Tokyo review by 1Up.com: Final Fantasy XII Launches in Japan. Below is the clip of Final Fantasy XII's opening movie.
Guys, check this out, a blog from another Nasution in Bangkok, Thailand. I always admire how Enda Nasution writes and expresses his idea critically. But this one is very hillarious. I like how Bang Enda sarcastically expresses his opinion about this bill, so go check out his article called "Pornobasi dan Pornosapi". The contents are in Indonesian though. I left my mark there. I think for those of you who understand Indonesian will find it amuzing.
Another purple, red dawn... I dip my soul in her cafe au lait...
This blues infuses my emotion...
A merry toast to today...
Jamming myself in this aroma...
A similar, familiar aroma...
An aroma I'm fed up with...
Yet I long for and linger with...
Another red, purple dusk...
I stir myself in this smooth danish pastries...
A soulful gift that embraces her pink cheeck...
Yet a lazy evening we shall face...
Biting my lips in confusion...
Wanting to escape to that meadow...
A green, virgin meadow with handsome stallion...
Yet reality bite me to sorrow...
Another purple, red dawn...
I'm frozen into a sweet, raspberry ice cream...
Eager to satisfy her mouth and passion...
A sappy way to ignore my dream...
Twisted in this passion...
Is it a passion or a mere lust?
Tangled in my own premonition...
That dull aroma vanishes and that meadow morphs into a desert...
Fari Nasution @ Washington, D.C., March 2006
[This is just my way of saying that I'm hungry while listening to Terry Callier's "No More Blues". I know it sounds silly. But the weather in Washington, D.C. sucks! I was enjoying the sunny, cool breeze of spring when suddenly it turns back to winter, and plus it's cloudy outside. The sky is gray. I actually created this poem this morning, around 10:00 AM but I decided to hold it back for a while so I can upload "No More Blues" as well. Probably then you can grasp the emotion that lies underneath the poem and the song. Sigh, you can never trust weather.
Another lazy day at the office. Only few people here, the "grand manager" isn't even here. My co-worker who used to share her works with isn't here yet. The good thing is that, today's Friday, I get to wear short sleeves and jeans to office. Tomorrow, a whole day of wushu practice: barehand, short-weapon (broadsword), and long-weapon (staff) forms. I still can't do the staff's figure-8 and upper-cut right because of the trauma getting my left eye poked (or precisely hit). I thought my left eye would be blind for sure (20 minutes of having blurry visions on your red left eye that kept on shedding tears surely is freaky. I'd rather get my other parts of body hit by a staff instead of my eyes.). Since then, I always wear my glasses (which I rarely wear) whenever I practice with staff. Anyway, should I do tai-chi too? It's been a while since I did tai-chi as I don't wanna mess up my wushu forms (these forms are getting complicated once you're in the intermediate level and they expect a lot from you as if you were a professional wushu athlete.) On the other hand, I feel kinda guilty to my tai-chi instructor, it seems that I'm sort of a moody student.
8:33 AM Washington, D.C. time at World Bank, I building. No one's here except me and the ISG - E-Gov manager, Mr. Deepak Bathia. Another lazy morning waiting for my co-worker to give me another works. How time flies if you're stuck with something to do. Just got to read liputan6.com and found another news about "pornography" and "porno-action" bill in Indonesia. It seems that some Indonesian females and citizens of Bali strongly argue this bill. It is said that this bill controls how Indonesian women should dress and discredits women and children as the perpetrators instead of as the victims. I've read some of the draft of the bill and I found what they've been arguing specifically on the content of section 25. The content should read like this:
(1) Setiap orang dewasa dilarang mempertontonkan bagian tubuh tertentu yang sensual. (2) Setiap orang dilarang menyuruh orang lain untuk mempertontonkan bagian tubuh tertentu yang sensual.
Translation: (1) Every adult is prohibited from displaying certain parts of his or her body that are sensual. (2) Every person is prohibited from suggesting someone to display one's parts of body that are sensual.
Now, you know that I'm not interested in politic at all. But, what is the definition of sensual here? Have they (the government) defined the meaning of sensual/sensuality? Have they delineated the limit of sensual/sensuality? Well, pardon me if they have defined this limit but in my opinion, sensual/sensuality can have a different meaning to each individual as to how far the limit of sensual is. We need a clear definition and limit to what sensual/sensuality is and then we can agree with this definition. I found that the bill is just filled with sections, there is no definition to what should be adhered to and what should be prohibited from. This causes ambiguity, people from different cultural and educational background come with their own definitions that it then creates arguments. I don't know about the sections that express women and children as the porno-action perpetrators as I don't really read all the contents of the draft. But from what I've read and heard, I'm not surprised that the bill draws so many disagreement. The government probably thought that we basically adapt the eastern culture, thus this bill won't make such controversy. But it seems that they forget how diverse Indonesians actually are, in terms of culture and religion. It seems that the bill is constructed mainly from one specific point of view. It ignores other elements that contribute to forming the Indonesian society. Then why not form a nation on the basis of that particular element only? Why bother creating a controversy that leads to arguments, which might lead to a bigger chaos (for the love of Allah, please no, I have enough of riots.). Well, fortunately for those who argue it, the fact that it's still a bill, yet to be formalized as a law. It can still be revised (just cross your fingers.).
My eyes are very heavy. I didn't have enough sleep last night. To make things worst, I had a nightmare. It's been a long time I never had dreams about ghosts or mystical gimmicks since I never believe in mystical things (my nightmares were usually about arguments or getting lost alone in mysterious places or mazes.). This is silly. The dream was so surreal that I can still remember most parts of it. I dreamed that one of my friends (who I've never seen or even known) died beheaded. His body was thrown in a well and his head was wrapped in an Indonesian, traditional-batik sheet. A couple of days later on, all of the sudden the body was revived and came out from the well, morphing into a different form of person looking for that head (although this form had a head). He killed anyone or everything that came into his way, chopping part of the victim's body into pieces before finally killing the victim. This bizarro zombie got to injure a female friend of mine who kept the head for good-luck charm (who, again, I've never even seen or known, but she's very pretty though =p), he chopped her left arm. I remember seeing blood flowing like a river in my dream. I remember that I carried her in my back and we escaped to my other friends' place. These people were husband and wife. Another bizarre scene, they knew that they would be the next victims so as their only chance of survival, they dressed like "pocong" (Indonesian zombie in which a dead Moslem is bundled in a white sheet before he or she is burried) and wore beeds or a Catholic Rosario type of thing around their neck. They kept reciting some mystical prayers and it was not in arabic (so I know that it wasn't an Islamic prayer). Carrying your injured, one-armed friend on your back, seeing your friends dressed like the deads and waiting for a zombie to attack surely was creepy. I forgot the rest of it but I remember that during the final battle (it's like those kind of games =p), we all got to gather in a river (I repeat, in the river, not near the river) and I remember I was flying on the surface of the river like Jet Li with his kung-fu gimmicks on his action movies =p Although I didn't sweat at all, but this morning, I woke up with chills all over my body. Some dream huh? =p Probably I was very tired yesterday as I worked hard at office (I haven't been busy since 3 weeks ago) and went to wushu training afterward (I got to finish half of the praying-mantis style and Stephon is very pleased with my progress.). But last week, the night after I hurt my back during the praying-mantis style practice (and then I suffered back cramp and had trouble getting myself to sleep. Stephon told me that I didn't do enough bridge stretching.), I dreamed of being in my wushu school, stretching and doing a middle straddle when suddenly a sumo wrestler jumped on my back and fell right on my back, when I was right in the middle straddle position! I suddenly woke up with a terrible pain on my back but after that, the pain was suddenly gone! I guess I slept in the wrong position that night, but that position cured the pain on my back (with a tremendous amount of pain first of all, of course.). Now, this one is hillarious =p
Now, yesterday's wrap-up of American Idol =) He..he..he... My blog isn't complete without the review of my current favorite show, is it? =p My two favorite contestants, Mandisa Hundley and Elliott Yamin are safe. Of course, they have a terrific voice. But their performances that night were so-so, not that catchy. But that night, I fell in love with Katharine McPhee. Her version of Stevie Wonder's "Until You Come Back To Me" was fabulous. She has a terrific voice and she's HOT! She reached a higher-octave pitch during the refrain part of the song and I love her outfit. So classy and so sexy =p A new blog-buddy of mine, Rico, covers the review of Katharine McPhee on his blog (but the language is mostly Indonesian. So those who are not Indonesians might have difficulty reading it.). Anyway, I did notice that the first half of the performances was alright and the second half was fantastic. I have to say that the best performers that night went to Katharine McPhee and the Vin Diesel look-a-like, Chris Daughtry. I have to admit that Chris Daughtry is a fantastic singer and performer, but rock is just not my thing, so I'm never interested in this guy. But his rock version of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" was absolutely phenomenal. I understand that he said in the intro that he was a bit worried to sing Stevie Wonder's song since he's more of a rocker type of singer (even his stage act looks like a heavy-metal performer's style.). Sekar was complaining that that-night's theme was not fair for the female contestants since Stevie Wonder is a guy. But I think gender has nothing to do with it as it has to do more with the match between the character of the voice and the character of the song. It's all about style match. I imagine if I were to sing a rock song, I would be DEAD! My voice character is far from rock or heavy-metal style, I can't even rap although I can scat (of course, I can sing jazz songs too.). Anyway, last night, America chose to lay-off Melissa McGhee, whom I think is just another average singer. To make matters worst, she messed up with the lyrics of Stevie Wonder's "Lately", which is a big NO-NO to every singer who has to do live performance. Well, that's it for now, gotta get back to work. Thanks for reading this.
Finally, one of my two favorite seasons is here (at least is getting here.). The weather has been nice these couple of days (but it's very cloudy and windy today *sigh*), you can see flowers are growing. But I hate the scent of flowers growing. They smell weird, sorta like rotten, grilled shrimps and FYI, I hate seafoods! (but I love sushi and sashimi.) I can't wait to see the annual cherry-blossom festival next month. I wannabe a part of it though, just don't know to who I should report.
Finally, got something to do in the office. Yesterday, I offered a colleague of mine for help, and I ended up helping her with some stuffs. She's gonna give me more today. No more endless internet browsing, no more downloading weird software. BTW, I was a software admin when I started to work here back in October 2005. Now I've moved to a different subdivision, but I still retained that admin right until couple of days ago. I installed ARES (a peer-to-peer software.) and iTunes so I can download new songs and upload these songs to my iPod. But I forgot that as a big organization, World Bank has a sophisticated IT control and technical support.
Finally, a couple of days ago, I got a call from the IT technical support and they took over the control of my PC to scan for virus and spyrware in my PC. They said that they noticed some suspicious activities like on my PC, some sort of spyware activities. They found ARES and Yahoo! Messenger in my PC and demanded that I remove these software. Not long after that, they sent someone over and he removed ARES (I haven't had the chance to do it.) from my PC and he revoked my admin right as well =( But he was kind enough to let me have Yahoo! Messenger and iTunes in my PC (he said that these software have nothing to do with virus and spyware activities.). There go ARES and my admin right =( (*sigh* Now I can't install anything without permission and I can't download any song.) BTW, my job at this subdivision doesn't need me to do any sort of those software technical support thingies, so an admin right isn't that necessary. Well, I think that's a lesson I need to learn =p
Finally, spring is in the air, and just like what MINMI says in her song "Song of Four Seasons" (the original title is "Shiki no Uta".), "haru wo tsuge odoridasu sansai" (Translation: "Spring is announced when the wild plants break out in a dance".). I love this song a lot. I've been listening to this song over and over again for two weeks in a row! (to me, the appeal of this song defeats any other song I currently have in my iPod.) I love the idea of combining jazz and R&B, and I also love the poetic, symbolic lyric. If I had the chance to make an album, I wanted all the lyrics to be poetic and symbolic, but not cheesy. It just sounds unique, so classy, and very artistic. About the song, this may sound kinda bizarre, but whenever I listen to this song, it reminds me of Atlanta. This is because when I went there a week ago, I listened to this song everywhere I go, everytime, anywhere. This song really makes me wanna live in Atlanta, while this song is actually the ending theme of an outstanding anime, Samurai Champloo. Anyway, hope life will treat us better this spring.
Urgh, thought I wasted $16 for a cab just to get home earlier and watch Elliott Yamin in action. I was kinda disappointed by his choice of song last night. But still, he sounded fabulous like he used to. The thing is that, the song did not match his vocal characteristic! Plus, he was put to perform as the second-last performer, so I could have taken a bus and saved $14 instead *sigh* (Sekar was right. Because of the wushu practice, I usually got home around 8:15 PM to 8:25 PM. But last night, I got home around 7:30 PM and she was surprised to see me home earlier than I used to. She told me that she is pretty sure they're gonna put him on the last round, and she was correct! What a psychic =p)
Okay, last night, he sang Bryan Adam's "Heaven". Never in my life have I appreciated that song. I never like "Heaven", especially the remake, techno, house-music version by D.J. Sammy (it made me hate that song even more!) The original song was actually a rock-ballad thing, and the characteristic of his voice is soul! It is a complete mismatch! Should I lend him my more than 2,900 MP3s collection so that he can get the idea which song to choose for the competition? The beginning of the song was okay, I think, since I always love his vibrato technique. But still, tsk, tsk, bad choice, bad choice. I have to agree with Simon Cowell. Notice how Simon said that he felt a disconnection between Elliott and the song. I think it's a polite way of saying, "I know you love "Heaven", but this song is not for you dude!" Right after that, you can see a look of disappointment on Elliott's eyes, and of course, what Simon says are always the truth, even if they sound so harsh. And as usual, the other judges, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul were sugarcoating opinions. I know that he didn't sound that bad (as a matter of fact, he still sounded fabulous last night), so that's why I pick him as my most favorite male contestant (and Mandisa Hundley as my most favorite female contestant). Okay, probably my opinion was kinda subjective cause I hate "Heaven" from the very beginning and I was shock to see him singing that song. But again, I completely understand his effort, trying to prove to America that he's a singer and that he can sing any kind of song (those on his league of course). But dude, stick to your genre, you should be singing soul, or smooth jazz songs. Some R&Bs or pop songs are acceptable. I think he should try some Eric Benet's songs (and I think he will sound fabulous if he sings Eric Benet's "Hurricane"! But I think the falsetto on some part of this song might be a bit problem to him. Probably he can actually reach the falsetto range, it's just that he never showed it. Can't wait to see what he'll do next week.) or some Craig David's songs (how about "Walking Away"? This song suits his voice perfectly, I can already imagine.).
And as the result, based on my subjective opinion, the top male goes to Taylor Hicks. I kinda have an interest in him, but I think he's style, stage act, makes him look more like a retard (notice how he kept bending and swinging his arm like a retard everytime he sings). But anyhow, it does make him a unique performer though. He's voice, he's style, everything about him is so unique and different. The second top male has to go to (sigh, Sekar's favorite because of his good look. This is not a beauty pageant you know =p) Ace Young. I've never given him any interest before since I think he's just an average singer, but last night, he sang one of my childhood idol's songs. He sang Michael Jackson's "Butterflies" and I have to admit that he has a fantastic falsetto! (most part of "Butterflies" was sung by Michael Jackson in falsetto too.) Too bad he just didn't do some of those Michael Jackson's moves or moonwalk =p (or probably he doesn't know how to do it.) Well AI lovers and my dear readers, below are the videos of the last night's top three male contestants, according to my opinion, ordered from the top first, Taylor Hicks, the second best, Ace Young, and sadly, actually my most favorite male contestant, on the third rank, Elliott Yamin. I hope he'll sing something in his own league on next week's competition. And like usual, don't forget to turn off the music played on the right section of this page. Enjoy.
First of all, don't forget to turn off the music played on the right section of this page.
Did you see the video above? Then read my next review. Last night, I rushed myself back home to watch the Female competition on American Idol. Surprisingly, all the female contestants were so lame last night. Except for one person, Mandisa Hundley, a 28-year old gospel singer from Antioch, Tennessee. The previous contestants were so lame that I could dare myself to leave the living room and check some e-mails. But this girl, I mean woooowww, her entry was even engaging (notice that she said "Now All the Ladies and bla..bla..bla...."), and her performance was fabulous and enthusiastic. She seemed to have fun with the song that she sang. I wish I could perform like that, the last thing I remember about my last 2 performances was that I always trembling out of getting nervous before going on stage =p The result, sometimes my voice starts to shake along due to being nervous. Okay, back to Mandisa, despite her size (I mean her jumbo size), I love this girl! =) Her version of Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman" was trully fantastic, even better than Whitney Houston's version that appeared as the original soundtrack of the famous movie "The Bodyguard".
Her performance last night gave me the chills and I unconsciously stood up and applauded her (sorta giving her a standing ovation, but from my living room? Duh! =p). Notice that Paula Abdul jumped out of her chair, and Simon Cowell praised her by saying that her performance would make other female contestants hate her and it was one of the performances that he would rewind on his TiVo machine =) I believe that this babe can get to the top 5 too, but given the option to choose between Mandisa and Elliott Yamin, uhmm, I really don't know which one to choose. I'm confused =p I love Elliott as the male contestant since his vocal technique is obviously similar to mine, so I can really relate to him. This is a personal opinion, but I think those who made it to the top 20 of any talent show contest are extremely talented people. The only thing that could throw them away from this kind of competition is their choice of the song, whether that song really suits the singer's original voice and character. Those who had been thrown away on this season's top 24 contestants just had bad luck on choosing which song to perform, at least that's what I think. You pick the wrong song, then goodbye my love =p (or you just booked yourself a plane ticket back home, just like what Simon Cowell said to several female contestants last night =p) Anyway peeps, vote for Mandisa Hundley too! =)
Got to visit Atlanta last weekend. I'm not trying to be racist here (and I'm not!), but I heard lots of weird stuffs about Atlanta, such as it's a city filled with lots of African-Americans (and you've heard those discriminating stereotype of anything associated with a community filled with African-Americans.). But once I was there, it's certainly not like what you think. It's true though, there are a lot of African-Americans, for example, if there were 10 seats in the MARTA's subway (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, Atlanta's public transportation authority.), then 7 out of the 10 seats would be occupied by African-Americans. And there are very few Asians and Hispanics there, at least I thought so. Probably because it was weekend.
Day 1: Anyway, I visited Atlanta for a purpose of visiting and doing some interview at the Georgia State University (GSU). Once I got to the airport (12:00 PM eastern time), went to check-in to the hotel. It was the Westin Atlanta Airport. I love that hotel soooo much. I got a king suite room, with my own treadmill, even though I've never used it. Well, I think it worths the price, I mean I paid $420 for 2 nights stay including a round-trip ticket. Grabbed myself something for lunch (Rotisserie Chicken Pot Pie, and it was very expensive! $15 just for that thing! It was good though.) at the hotel's restaurant and immediately reserved a cab to downtown Atlanta (I got 1 1/2 hour left.). Took a short nap at my room (comfie =D) and then woke up and briefly skimmed through one of the professor's published research (so I get to show-off that I know and understand his works and I'm really interested to work with him =p). It took only 20 minutes by cab to the downtown. BTW, it was already spring there! It was 50 degree something, almost 60 degree. I could even take my coat off and wear only sweater. Leaves were starting to grow and I could see some trees with beautiful, colorful flowers. Arrived at GSU 10 minutes earlier than the scheduled time, and when I got to that professor's room, he was still busy on the phone, so I got to wait for another 15 minutes. He was very friendly and polite though, and I like him very much. Unfortunately, we only got 10 minutes left cause he gotta attend some meeting at 2:30 PM. He frankly told me that I have a very slim probability to be admitted there. He is a member of the MIS doctoral admission committee, and he is very concerned of my low verbal score on my GMAT's result. Last year there were almost 100 applicants to the I.S. doctoral program and the committee admitted 1 person only! This year, the applicants pool is kinda lower, but still, around 50 to 70 applicants and the committee plan to admit up to 3 to 5 persons for Fall 2006! But he said that I have other strong factors to be considered. I also proposed him to be my academic advisor, if I were to be admitted, and I promised him to send my research work that I did during my MBA program. The second professor is even friendlier =) I can see that he has a strong interest on my background (again, the fact that I work at the World Bank really helps!), and he doesn't really care about my GMAT score (but he's not a member of the doctoral admission committee.). He read my research work that I did at the World Bank right in front of me, and looked very interested. It turned out that one of his research area is Global IT. He even introduced me to a Ph.D. student (which I forgot to ask to meet with some. I usually asked the professors for the opportunity to meet with several Ph.D. students whenever I visit a school) and several other professors (including the director of the doctoral program). We even got to talk several personal matters (it turned out that he's a European and he's very pleased of the fact that I lived in France the first 5 years of my life and the fact that my Dad too, has a Ph.D. degree from Sorbonne, France.). The whole meeting took about 2 1/2 hours, and I went back to my hotel riding MARTA (which stopped at the airport and then waited for the hotel's shuttle that serves every 15 minutes.).
Day 2: Okay, it may sound stupid to some of you, but I paid another $82 for a one-day city tour (hey, I don't wanna spend the whole Saturday in my hotel room, plus I'm not familiar with the area.). It was scheduled from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM. Luckily, I am now used to wake up very early in the morning (thanks to my job), and was ready at 8:15 AM (grabbed some breakfast at the hotel restaurant again, and paid another $12 for some stupid American breakfast combo of scrambled egg, turkey sausages, toasts, hot tea, and a glass of orange juice. I had no choice!). Because I didn't know that the tour's starting point was very close to GSU's school of business, I took a cab to get there and there goes another $36 =( (I should have taken MARTA instead.). Now, I can see the real Atlanta! The city is very clean, with several unique buildings (several buildings with unique architecture, and several others with tunneled bridge connecting each building to another.). The parks are uniquely designed, especially the Centennial Olympic Park (look at the picture on the left-hand side). I instantly fell in love with Atlanta (despite of its reputation as the nation's second city with the worst traffic.). The first tour was to visit Coca-Cola Museum. I wasn't very excited though, as I lost interest to any kind of soda or soft drinks (my stomach can't take any of those stuffs no more.). However, I did taste some sodas, the Vanilla Coke and Power Drink =) (and then my stomach started to growl. I was scared that I might get diarrhea again.) Gotta read and watch some clips on several history lessons of Coca-Cola. Next stop, The Carter Center (Jimmy Carter Library and Museum). To me, this one was very boring since I have no such interest in that former President of U.S., although I did admire the building's architecture and the artistic gardens around the center. We spent 1 hour there! Next trip, The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site (National Park Service). It's actually a Church (Ebenezer Baptist Church) enlarged with a small museum behind it, but what interest me were the graves of the Reverend himself and his wife (Coretta Scott King, who just passed away earlier this February 2006). We got to see the house where the Reverend was born on 1929. We then had 1 1/2 hour lunch break, and then went for another visit, Margaret Mitchell House and Museum. FYI, Margaret Mitchell is the author of the famous Gone With The Wind (although I've never read the novel.). It's the only small house in the middle of tall, skyrise buildings, so it's easy to spot. It was supposed to be demolished before it was proposed to be a museum. It was quite interesting though, we got to visit the rooms where she got to sleep, eat, and write that novel (we saw the antique typewriter that she used to write Gone With The Wind.). The next tour, my most favorite one, is the tour to the nation's third most beautiful residential area. It's actually a forest on a hill, but filled with mansions and manors =) Each mansions and manors are located farther away to each other, hidden behind forested trees, but you can spot beautiful gardens and fountains right before each mansion. They look like European palaces. It is said that former Coca-Cola CEO, Robert Woodruff, artist Elton John, several Atlanta's sport atheletes, and the Japanese Consulate General live there. I held my breath with excitement each time I see each mansion. There was this mansion, extremely huge you can call it a palace, located faraway from the road, surrounded by beautiful gardens and fountains, and you can see swans around the fountains! Locals call it the swan mansion. The trip lasted for 1 hour 15 mintes, I took pictures using my cell-phone, everytime we stopped at extravaganza mansions. The last trip was a tour at Georgia Aquarium. This too was so-so. I had visited several national aquariums before, and I think this one is just the same as the others. But what annoyed was we got to spend 2 hours in the d*mn aquarium! As a result, I spent 45 minutes sitting on the bench. The tour finished exactly on time, and I grabbed a Prime Rib sub for dinner at Quizno's Subs and went back to my hotel using MARTA. But I surely enjoyed the city itself, how clean it is, how unique the architecture of each building is.
Day 3: I begged the hotel management to allow me to check-out at 3:00 PM. I was too lazy to go back to the downtown and to spend several hours before checking in for a flight back to Washington, D.C. (and certainly never wanted to spend several hours waiting in the hotel's lobby) They said they could only extend it to 1:00 PM. So I finally decided to go back to downtown Atlanta using MARTA. It was 11:15 AM. It took about 15 minutes to get to Five Points station. This is the station nearby GSU's school of business and the starting point of the city tour, the day before. I grabbed my lunch at McDonald's (another junk food =p) and walked around the plaza at the Coca-Cola museum and the Underground Atlanta. BTW, Underground Atlanta is an underground street mall, but not those malls with famous branded stores, famous boutiques, nor famous outlets. The outlets are more like gift shops. There is a food court although I didn't have my lunch there. My flight was scheduled at 5:30 PM, so I went back to the hotel (to pick up my bag that I left at the hotel's deposit counter) at 2:30 PM. It was Sunday, so it took 20 minutes to wait for the next train to arrive! Once I got there, I waisted no time to pick up my bag and took the hotel shuttle to the airport. Arrived at D.C. around 9:00 PM, got to my house around 10:00 PM, extremely exhausted. The next day at my office, I browsed the net for the costs of renting apartments in Atlanta, and surprise-surprise, you can live in a safe, well-maintained one-bedroom apartment with beautiful landscape for "just" $700 to $900 (with this price, you can only live in a mid-level one bedroom apartment in Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. It costs more than $1000 to live in that kind of apartment in D.C.). This price is just like the price of apartments in St. Louis, Missouri. But hey, if you take a doctoral program in U.S., you (usually) don't have to pay for tuition-fee and you'll get paid as a teaching or research assistant (usually around $1000 to $2000 per -month). Since now I'm really in love with Atlanta and I always wanted to study at GSU (BTW, the I.S. department at GSU's school of business is ranked on the top 5 by USNews and is internationally ranked number 1 in terms of I.S. research productivity, even higher than the ranks of the I.S. departments at MIT's Sloan School and at Stanford's School of Business. This is obvious since there are several "big name" professors at GSU's I.S. department and the I.S. research area are diverse.), I really hope that I can live in Atlanta this August for the next 5 to 6 years of my life and to study at one of the most respected I.S. departments in the world.
First of all, don't forget to turn off the music played on the right section of this page.
Did you hear him singing James Moody's "Moody's Mood For Love" on this blog's background song? Despite his look (I think he looks like Abraham Lincoln with dental problem =p Oops, sorry Elliott =p), I love his voice! People, vote for him to be the next American Idol =) I think he has a very cool, souly voice (I often imitate this style of singing and it made me sing the way I sing today), and as a matter of fact, he's white! He sings better than his male counterpart, Gedeon McKinney (who is an African-American. I think African-Americans are always great singers, so until today, if I hear one who sings terribly, this usually astonishes me =p). The first video above shows him singing Stevie Wonder's "If You Really Love Me" and you can hear (and see) what the judges have to say about his performance (notice that Simon Cowell praises him as the best male performer for the entire 5 seasons, which I think it's a little bit too far.). The second one shows him singing James Moody's "Moody's Mood For Love" with some extra interview on the beginning. FYI, he's currently living in Richmond, VA , so if I get to attend VCU, I might visit him and sing duet with him =p And don't forget to watch Elliott Yamin in action, every Wednesday night 8/7c on Fox channel.
:: posted by Fari Nasution @
3:51 PM :: :: ::
Chief Editor
Name: Fari Nasution
Description: A man born an artist and raised as an analyst. A man who tries to see everything from the good side. A man who tries to mature every second, every moment, but tries to see the world through the eyes of a child. A man who uses music as his main source of inspiration and as his secondary air to breathe.
