Not In The Mood

Today in conclusion, Coffee + (-sleep) + My Boss = Bad mood.

Can't handle coffee very well. Urgh. I hate them. What happen to the teas anyway?

Can't get enough sleep. Suddenly woke up at 2 am. Couldn't sleep back till 5:30. Woke up again at 6:25 am. Need to go to work.

My boss worried too much about faulty clocks. She's doesn't need to wait for more hours just to make sure they really faulty. Just return them and get new ones.

By the way, how's yours today?

Chopin Etude Op 10 No 3 In Guitar Chords

I love it when my favorite songs  are played  with my favorite instruments:  piano, guitar or violin (although I have zero skill with these things). On the conditions that the original notes aren't changed and able to make me feel it like the original.

As I'm addicted to Chopin Etude Op 10 No 3 for these past few days,  I want to find out if it's still sound beautiful if play with guitar. After listening to a few, I fall in love with this one. 99% like the original.



What do you think? It's beautiful isn't it? Funny how always sleepy when I heard this. Too relaxing I think. Ha ha ha. But I still love it. How about you? Do you have your favourite songs covered beautifully by other artist? Share with me. :)

At Vance: A Cool Metal Band

I was searching for Chopin Etude Op. 10 No 3 in guitar chord, when I read a title saying a metal cover of Chopin composition. I was like, "Huh? Chopin and Metal? What are they going to do with the song?! Please don't mess it up?! Come on.. don't ruin it!" But my worry is for nothing.

They did a good job with it and their arrangement is awesome without missing a note from the original. Make me want to give a big salute to these guys. So who are the people that I keep talking about?

How's that? Cool isn't it?

The group name is At Vance. Formed in 1998 by Oliver Hartmann (ex-Centers) and Olaf Lenk (ex-Velvet Viper) as German power metal/Neo-classical metal band. But later on, Oliver Hartman left the band in 2002 because of personal reasons. Currently, At Vance is consist of 5 members with Mats Leven for vocal, Olaf Lenk and Rainald König on guitar, Sascha Feldmann on bass and Jürgen "Lucky" Lucas on drums.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="332" caption="From left: Jürgen "Lucky" Lucas, Mats Leven (squatting), Olaf Lenk, Rainald König and Sascha Feldmann"][/caption]

Too much to talk about this guys and I hate composing a long article, so here I provide links for you to know them more.

• At Vance Wiki Page


• At Vance Official Home Page


• Shortcut to At Vance members' bios


• Listen to some their works or should I say songs they covered
  
  
  
  • Beethoven - 5th Symphony
  
  
  • Chopin Etude Op 10 No 4
  
  
  • Vivaldi - Spring
  
  
  • Vivaldi - Summer
  
  
  • Vivaldi - Winter
  
  
  
  

They are a lot more to add to the list of their covered songs. They didn't just do covers for others' songs. They did their own too. Thanks to Youtube, you could find them easily. But if you really interested with their music, please support them by buying their albums.

So, enjoy the songs. I got to go back listening to the Chopin cover.

What with that face, Nishikawa?

Found another funny interview of Abingdon Boys School. Sadly without subs. And no rough translation either.

I tried to understand the video by matching everything I heard with Online Japanese Dictionary till it sounds reasonable or related to things that I understand. So here it goes.

• Nishikawa not allowed to talk
  Abingdon Boys School should come up with topic and pictures related to their favourite things. Kishi, Sunao and Shibasaki had one, but not Nishikawa. Since he came empty handed, he couldn't participate in the discussions. The MCs suggested him to think of one on the spot. He said that is impossible. So he was asked to sit quietly at the back while others exchanged stories.


• Powerful Figure
  Kishi talked about his favourite baseball player , Mr Takashi Nishimoto. Mr Takashi Nishimoto was a former ace player for Tokyo Giants, back in the 80s.Nishikawa tried to interrupt but the MCs told him to just sit and watch as they were not discussing about his story.


• 
  


• Fishes
  Sunao listed out his top 3 pet fishes. Yes, he had fishes as pets. He had 10 of them.
  At this point, Nishikawa sat silently with a very solemn face behind Sunao. Through front camera shot, the others commented that he was like a waiting Shinigami (the Reaper) . Ha ha ha. Since he was distracting others, he was moved way back. Sunao continued with his list, as summarized below.
  
  
  
  1. Nickname: Nopo Narisu (like a beanpole : since Otocinclus can stay motionless sometimes)
     Origin/Species: Otocinclus
  
  
  2. Nicname: Paki-chan (Pakistan + chan)
     Origin/species: From Pakistan
  
  
  3. Nickname : Hagenamatsu (baldy back)
     Origin/species: Not available
  
  
  
  

Sunao looked so cute here.

Meanwhile, Nishikawa made some funny reactions when Sunao told others the name he gave to his fishes.

• Things I Like...
  Shibasaki explained on things he likes or was it things that help him pass out? I couldn't hear him clearly despite him talking slowly. Maybe I was distracted by his deep voice. Hahaha. Sorry. Can't translate more. But one thing I'm sure, he loved Maple Melon Bun. Don't know if he still loves them now. I wish somebody could help translate his part. As a fan, I really want to know. (T-T)

I need to explain that this is not a real translations for the above video. This is pure guessing.

So, if I did a lot of mistake or all of these are mistakes, please inform me and help me translate it correctly. Please?

The Power Of Paper

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="© 2007 Stella Levi"][/caption]

Luce, one of the cleaners, told me that it's better to use newspaper sheet to wipe glass door/window than a piece of cloth. She said it makes the task easier and glasses would look more cleaner more shinier. I was skeptic at first.

I thought the dried ink on the paper would somehow melted and stuck on the glasses. Who knows? In, another cleaner, showed me how it was done. Unbelievable. It works.

Just use it like you use the wiping clothe. Spray some cleaning liquid on the glasses. Scrub it with the paper. Scrub harder on stubborn stain. Voila! The glasses become clean and shiny. Believe me. It works.

Why don't you try it yourself? Don't forget to tell me the result.

Note: This technique only work on dust free glasses. Meaning, it won't work on glasses that have thick dust layer.

If you want to clean up the dusts, just use a  vacuum. Dust won't stray away and it fast. After that, you could use the tip above.

Raining

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="© 2010 stockvault.net and it's contributors - Some rights reserved"][/caption]

Ah~ It's finally raining outside. I love the smell of rain. It's fresh and soothing. At my family old home, I always sat at the veranda watching string of rains falling from the brim of the roof. Sadly, our new home doesn't have a veranda. All I can do to enjoy it, is by opening my room window as wide as I could, so that I could smell and hear the rain clearly.

The only time I dislike when it's raining is when I'm  on the road, riding a motorcycle. Those who use big vehicles like to speed even when the road is dangerously wet. Water splash on our face every time they pass by. I hate it when it happens as I'm afraid that I would lose control of the handles or misdirect my motorcycle to a wrong part of the road. There are those who are considerate with us but most of road user just overlook us. The life of a motorcyclist always on the line when we're on the road. ~sigh~

Still, I love rain. This minor thing won't stop me from enjoying it. It's one of God precious creation, right? We should enjoy it as much as it could. Do you have your own favorite weather? Can you tell me?

A Popping Straw

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="403" caption="Make it like this. See?"][/caption]

A game that I always do when I'm bored. Just need a drinking straw. . Do you know how to play this game? Let me tell you how.

01. Get a long drinking straw. Make sure it's not too thick or too thin. It won't work when the thickness is too much either way.

02. Pinch both ends of the straw.

03. Without letting it go, move both of your hand like the way your feet rode a bicycle. Twist it until the straw become smaller and tighter.

04. If you could hold both ends  with one hand, you must be awesome. If not, you should ask a friend to help you. Please make sure that no air has been released while passing to your partner.

05. Flick the center of the straw, where air gather, as hard as you could till you hear a pop.

Get it?. If you need visual guidance, click here. Hope you have fun. :)