The Middle Years (2006-2009)

After a nice loooong break in Thailand (including such demanding tasks as sitting in a pool and surfing the Net at the same time), it’s back to Singapore, whereupon I launched straight into the human crowd surfing that was the IT Show and emerged with RAM, flash drives, and other geeky accoutrements…

When I was a kid, every Chinese New Year would mean my Dad pulling out this tape of traditional Chinese New Year songs sung in English, with pretty awful translations. The worst part of that is, now whenever I hear these songs at shopping centres and the like, I just immediately think of the English lyrics (“may the new year bring you all the things you want / and the best of health and wealth to you!”).

By the way, yes, I’m extremely gutted by the Patriots’ loss in the Super Bowl. Still can’t quite get over it.

This NY Times article on metabolic syndrome being linked to diet soda intrigued me - in my quest to lead a healthier life, I’ve cut down drastically on my Pepsi/Coke consumption in favour of water, but I still need a caffeine fix that’s sated occasionally by regular cola, and occasionally by diet, which I used to think tasted disgusting. So much for trying to drink diet…

RIP, Heath Ledger. Mortality is a strange thing to ponder: the more you think about it, the more of it you extinguish. Perhaps one of the most affecting sets of performances this decade, for me at least, was Ledger and Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain, which still sticks in my mind as an expression of regret and the ability of forces to work against emotion.

Went down to Wheelock Place to pick out Office 2008 for Mac and check out what the new Macbook Air prices would be like for Singapore. $2988 for the basic 1.6 GHz, versus the US price of US$1799 - so those travelling to the US can get a little discount shopping overseas, I guess. It looks really, really good. I just wish it would solve the aesthetic / convenience issue I have with my Macbook - not having a dock means, good as the Macbook by itself looks, you have to plug in 5 wires or so at a time, which doesn’t look very clean.

For childhood friends, new friends, friends near and far away, a cup o’ kindness: We twa hae run about the braes, and pou’d the gowans fine; But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit, sin’ auld lang syne.

Listening to Nick Lowe being interviewed on Fair Game with Faith Salie made me realise, I knew the obvious Lowe songs - “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?”, “Cruel to be Kind” etc. - but I never realised that he was Johnny Cash’s stepson-in-law and the writer of “The Beast in Me” as well as other great Cash tunes.

I’m looking for a nice pair of in-ear headphones for my iPod. Since a lot of what I listen to these days on the go are spoken-word podcasts, I’m not necessarily looking for the absolute best sound reproduction (as long as it’s nothing too tinny). But I do want a pair that have a good seal with the ear canal for sound isolation, and are fairly hardy - my original iPod ear buds’ rubber is falling off, and the left earphone on my Philips replacement set has gone kaput. Oh, and whose cord doesn’t tangle too often! Anyone have experience with the Sennheiser CX300s or the Shure SE110s?

Pretty shocking news. My memory of Benazir Bhutto was watching her deliver a lecture at the JFK School of Government and her fielding (fairly ably) a barrage of questions on her finances. That, and when I was at the Harvard Crimson, we always had to remember to put in her year of graduation and her Crimson editor status in any news report about her (since she was a fellow Crimson editor - sports desk, if I recall correctly - hockey fan). Assassination news is always shocking, and for some reason even more so when you’ve seen the person in question.

Merry Christmas one and all, to friends, to people who’ve read this blog for years, and to all readers who stopped from slashdot. Now for a surfeit of Sufjan singing, and to Christmas dinner…

In view of recent news events, a public service announcement: When you mix eggs together Remember the hot weather Don’t leave the cream out to stand And don’t forget to wash your hands

I see the whole brouhaha over the MDA rap video has reached the point where it got featured in last week’s episode of VH1’s Best Week Ever (a great podcast to get by the way) - cue it up about 19:19 into the video. Ah, international pop culture fame.

The Flaming Lips, “A Change at Christmas (Say It Isn’t So)” Jump Little Children, “You’re All I Want For Christmas” Neko Case, “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” Weezer, “The Christmas Song” Okkervil River, “Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas” Sufjan Stevens, “Come On! Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance!” Smashing Pumpkins, “Christmastime” The Darkness, “Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)” Jimmy Eat World, “Last Christmas” Kate & Anna McGarrigle, “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve” (with Rufus Wainwright singing)

I can’t believe it’s already December! 2007, where did you go?

The new Fabric podcast is pretty wonderful - not just the music of a night out in Fabric, but also a eclectic, record-bin-trawling selection. Like “The Hippie and the Skinhead”, the song from the Peter Wyngarde album that Craig Richards chose to dig out. Truly bizarre. I only wish they had a proper track listing. But then maybe that might make it too easy for us crate diggers…

So I was eating crabsticks today, and started wondering, why do they even bother colouring the crabsticks with those red lines on top? It’s not like I’ll look at the crabsticks and think, “oh, this looks real, maybe I’m actually eating part of the legs of a nice enormous crab”.

Iron & Wine, Naked as They Came She says wake up, it’s no use pretending I’ll keep stealing, breathing her Birds are leaving over autumn’s ending One of us will die inside these arms

The Boston Red Sox have won the World Series, and it feels pretty damn good.

It is pretty awesome that Wes Anderson made his short film Hotel Chevalier (the companion piece to The Darjeeling Limited) available for free download.