lol it’s the holidays…

So yeah guys…term 1 is over, and just like that, we’re back on our asses in front of the computer. Or wait, am I just talking about myself? I’m such a lazy antisocial temporary NEET* aren’t I? lmaololuberroflcopter. Well, I guess I do have a lot on my plate these holidays regarding productivity which is both desired, and necessary in order to maintain my sanity over these two weeks. If I don’t manage to get out of my room, I might as well do something…otherwise I’ll end up drowning my misery in metal of increasing brutality, with lyrics of increasing sadism.

And so, this attitude has brought me here, to write a list. It might seem like the a list you’ve seen before. But what is on the menu for these weeks should, ideally, be somewhat realistic especially in comparison to my list for the summer holidays of months past.

(By the way, NEET stands for Not in Employment, Education or Training.)

Leeeeeeeeon (General)

Do the Sleek Geek video

Finish writing N#17, N#19

Do some art/design

Read 1984

Read Paradise Lost

Shred some heavy shit with brutal sweeps on guitar

Play some romantic shit with pretty melodies on piano

Apply for jobs

Get hair layered again?

Drive more

Antisocial behavior

Anime: (Welcome to the NHK!, K-ON!!, Elfen Lied, Aoi Bungaku, Code Geass R2)

Vlog at least thrice more

Start writing a story about the tales of anticonsumerism, antisocialism and depression

Brainstorm stuff

Do some recording, learn how to use ProTools properly+plugins and mixing/EQ-ing

Catch up on Critical Thinking h/w

Watch ~15 movies (including: Saw, Eastern Promises, Snatch, Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity, Goodfellas, The Usual Suspects, Memento, Taxi Driver, American History X)

Zzzzzzzz

That’s right, I PLAN on TRYING to SLEEP more these holidays…

Yonder (Things to do outside the house)

Band practice!

Get me some live metal

Gamble…not really, but still

Go to the gym/run/parkour/dance/chase things…anything to get some progress on the 60hrs of compulsory exercise

Attend possible Disney Marathon

Attend possible tea party…yeah…

Spend some time with friends and stuff

So yeah, my LAZY menu…it’s not much, but I guess that way it’s somewhat more realistic than writing 618 songs and learning to play songs 121 times better and going to another planet after being disappointed with mankind. Speaking of mankind, we are rather amusing. Have you ever taken a step back, and just observed the way we interact with one another? The way some people obviously try to assert dominance, to impress, to feign emotions, to lie. It’s very interesting.

Ahem.

Anyway, the holidays should prove as a little gasp of air before we plunge into the depths of…school and the cycle of stress, the violation my brain is constantly subjected to, yet again. But there is hope! Somewhere!

Do I fold this hand or try and bluff it out? Is there actually a way out of this whirl of boredom…or rather, must we swallow hard, accept it and attempt to change it from within?

Goodnight. have fun doing stuff.

And so the school year begins…

Thank you Roger!- for finishing your blog post to remind me that I should maybe do a quick one to follow up my previous one.

Holidays came to an end recently…an end I probably wasn’t too well prepared for, seeing as though the 6-7 weeks seemed to pass so slowly, and then BAM- suddenly being hit with the ‘OH SHIT, I ONLY HAVE ONE DAY LEFT!’ Well anyway, now that it has passed, I severely regret how much time I wasted…well, I’ll let you decide whether this cycle of activities is essentially a great list of mediocrity and, is ultimately representative of the stereotypical modern unemployed asian teenager:

• Eating food
• Drinking soft drinks and ice tea
• Listening to music hours on end
• Playing CoD4, Left4Dead2, FIFA, poker and Brawl
• Playing guitar
• Occasionally writing a riff or two
• Facebook
• Engadget
• Staring at the monitor, waiting for something interesting to happen
• MSN
• Doing a bit of morning exercise
• Youtube: music, mychonny, animals doing ‘cute’ things (e.g. cats falling asleep, dogs trying to howl)…umm yeah…

So pretty, much…I was REALLY REALLY BORED in the countless hours I spent in my room and on the couch.  Looking back, I know that if I had focused those hours on something worthwhile, I quite possibly would have achieved something to be proud of, such as…more exercise=more fit, more composing=more songs=more happy happy yay, or more drawing=good good yippy yay woop de doo! But, however I managed to spend them listening to Wintersun, Ensiferum, Children of Bodom, Dark Tranquillity, Stam1na…good stuff and playing guitar (which is somewhat productive). Playing poker can also be productive, if you have the right attitude towards it o_O . I can admit that Facebook managed to suck out hours and hours of my daily life- mindlessly staring at the screen waiting for someone to post something interesting to make my day seem that one bit brighter (just exaggerating, my days weren’t that sad). The days of CES also managed to take considerable amount of time to get around and be informed of the latest geek news (as Roger and other folk would also know), which ultimately just made me want more than I can get…3D TVs, phones, computer hardware, etc. I eventually managed to shut all that out and keep it that way until I get off my ass to find a job. Almost every night consisted of a movie and lengthy sessions of FIFA with the sibling, so that turned out quite satisfactory in making me fall asleep.

Well, despite all that, I did manage to achieve some of my goals set in the post ‘The Ambitious Summer’:

• Videoed ‘Towards Dead End’ (on facebook)
• Started writing a neoclassical song
• Started writing another song or two
• Got better at ‘Triptych’ by Siam Shade
• Practiced piano once!
• Children of Bodom plays on Last.fm now on 1300+
• Had 2 band practices
• Started work on a manga (however little work that ended up being)
• Watched plenty of DVDs
• Didn’t crash car

With the composing, I am quite pleased with how some are turning out, so I just hope that I will manage to get back into the correct mindset to finish off some of those songs. Guitar practice progressed fairly well; just going over the usual cycle of songs every day, doing exercises, learning new songs, etc, and band practices were fun as usual (despite procrastination). Drawing and scripting with friends actually went alright, and we seem to be heading on the right track…lets just hope that we manage to follow up? Also, I DIDN’T CRASH THE CAR! Hurrah! Asian boy can car drive good yes? …and that’s about it.  Disappointing, I know, but I did manage to do other things:

• Layered hair, asian style.
• Went to the beach (haven’t actually been in years *gasp*)- sunburn=bad, friends=good
• Watched Avatar and Sherlock Holmes
• Went ice skating (haha headbang+little girl nearby=LOL)
• Socialized (a bit), when I managed to get outside the house
• Wrote a few movie reviews on Facebook (to make sure I still english good)

YAY! Anyway, quite contrary to what these lists might suggest, this was probably one of the best school holidays I’ve had in awhile *cough* Counter strike addiction *cough* Anime addiction *cough* and I am quite looking forward to this year at school, which after the first two days, promises to bring a lot of work (I LOVE MATHS), but also friends, pretty good subjects and all that. Let’s hope it all goes well and we all get out alive!

Approaching 6000 Days On Earth- My Report On The Past 365+

2009 has reached its end…but my mind was too focused on other things to realise. I can’t remember enough of 2009 in sufficient detail to fill up a entire blog post, but I’ll try my best…

The past year has brought to my life considerable amounts of change, experiences and stuff I probably forgot already. It consisted of shifts in the way I spend my time, and it even provided the chance for new friends. Change was evident in my attitudes, addictions and hair length. On the other hand, some things didn’t change…spending habits…music taste (*cough* METAL FOR LIFE *cough*). Were these changes for better or worse? Were my choices beneficial? Were they rational? Only time will tell.

Experiences. My memory does not serve me well in this area, but here goes. The past year has presented me with a plethora of experiences, good and bad, rewarding and  punishing…I attended a wedding, I crashed a car. I stopped playing Counter Strike, I started playing poker. And theres more: I also went to a beach for the first time in who-knows-how-many years, wasted a lot of money, attended 2 anime conventions, suited up & went to a formal, reached 180bpm, straightened my hair, socialized more than usual, installed an EMG85, suffered at least 4 allergic reactions, signed up on Facebook, watched way too much anime, failed a job interview, got addicted to Facebook, wore a tiara at school, had some unusual things posted in relation to me on Facebook, went to Tasmania, started writing more music, significantly decreased my anime watching later on, re-arranged my room, gained awareness of my dream, went to Bendigo with nerds like myself, got my braces off, reduced sleeping hours…a person can just go on and on about all the crap that happens in their life can’t they? If you read all that, I am proud…but that doesn’t cover it all- many of those experiences were filled with more experiences in themselves; laughter, anger, joy, pressure, pain, friendship….

I have a lot to be thankful for in 2009…things such as the experiences above, but also general safety, health, loyalty of those around me, kindness expressed through friendships, and kindness that I have been able to share with others.

Moving on…to….

SCREAMFEST! A true way to kick off 2010! Warning: what follows is my ramble about it. Screamfest was epic. Screamfest to me was like an oasis to a dehydrated mammal who had limped a thousand years in a desert. My soul trapped in this body trapped in Australia yearned for a taste of the feast from Europe. I might be exaggerating a little, but not much…and now that I have had a taste, I hunger for more. Sure, the lineup was not perfectly suited to my taste…but I remind myself that that was all it was…a taste, a little teaser for what awaits me in the glorious lands of Finland, Germany and beyond.

Okay. That’s done.

New years resolution. What ultimate goal should I set? I have already listed all the things I plan to complete in my previous post…but to have a resolution is “the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/). Hmmm…this’ll be it: I will not set my sights off my goal aaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnd besides that, I’ll just take life as it comes- learning from every single experience.

The Ambitious Summer

Dear WordPress blog,

I haven’t touched you in awhile, but I haven’t forgot about you. A lot has happened in my life over since I last posted on you, but since you are incapable of feeling emotions and having a response that can be interpreted by me, I don’t think I will or need to tell you anything. So anyway, your humble master has returned to post on you once again. I’ll stop rambling to/on you now, because, as I explained earlier,  it is pointless- except to entertain some bored minds who actually bother to read this stuff that I post on you.

Well anyway. Summer holidays are approaching. Its been a rather fast year; it started off slow, but it seems to be relentlessly accelerating. Especially upon the completion of the math exam today, the realization has dawned upon me that I, once again, must set an agenda to motivate me to do something worthwhile in the weeks that await me. So here is my ambitious summer. (Oh, and to the special english students who will have this realization dawn upon them tomorrow, I wish you the best)

• Complete writing ‘Song #1‘ and ‘Song #5′
  
• Complete writing ‘Pokemetal’
• Complete writing ‘Electrometal’
• Record ‘Electrometal’
• Video of Towards Dead End
• Start writing ‘A Whole New World’ -metal version
• Start writing a neoclassical song
• Improve my improvisation skill by ~200%
• Get a whole lot better at Kissing the Shadows, Beyond the Dark Sun, Triptych, Technical Difficulties on guitar
• Get a whole lot better at Downfall, Groan of the Wind on keyboard
• Practice at least some piano
• Get my Wintersun plays over 2000 on last.fm,  Equilibrium, Dark Tranquillity over 1500, Children of Bodom, Kalmah, L`arc~en~Ciel over 1000
• Have at least 2 band practices
• Come up with band names
• Come up with song names
• Come up with lyrical themes
• Write lyrics (with help)
• Start drawing the planned manga which cannot be named because it will compromise its uniqueness
• Start scripting the planned manga which cannot be named because it will compromise its uniqueness
• Draw some pretty pictures
• Have at least 8 real-life poker days and/or nights
• Get my facebook poker chip count over 25 million
• Watch Zombieland
• Watch at least 10 DVDs I have not seen before
• Go fishing
• Get a job (Yes, you can laugh, but I’ll think you’re mean)
• Keep fit
• Finish some anime that I somehow managed to stall on the last 2 or 3 episodes
• Will my hair growth to speed up
• Read through the Critical Thinking course notes
• Ask myself: ‘Do I really want to do the Critical Thinking course’
• If yes to above, then hope ever so dearly they accept me
• Not crash car
• Not get sick
• Not encounter too many mean people
• Test out a Korg Triton
• Test out a Roland Juno G and/or Juno Stage
• …more that I cannot think of right now to be added maybe soon, maybe later, maybe never.

So that’s that. Now, shall I get a start on it? *simultaneously opens facebook poker, picks up guitar, plays along to Children of Bodom with Last.Fm scrobbler on*

Smash! 09 (not finished and not going to be)

Smash! 2009, my first anime/manga convention, turned out to be more packed than I expected, I also had more fun than I expected and ultimately spent twice the amount of money I had anticipated. Note this blog post will not be as detailed as Rogers, and will not contain photos, as I did not bother taking pics there (might put in pics of my purchases).

On Saturday, waking up at 6:20, I got myself ready for the event I expected to be an ‘asian gathering’ (despite 2 of my white friends). I got dressed, brought around $120, ate a banana for breakfast then got my dad to drive me to the station. Soon after, we were on the train with Bevan, and later joined by Roger. We had a fun nerdy random conversation getting ourselves pumped for what awaited us. We arrived at Central station, walked outside to Eddy Av. and…’OHHH S*****T’. There were so many people in line for the buses, by now, my expectations for the event skyrocketed. Missing out on the first bus, we finally pushed our way through to get onto the second bus.

Arriving at the Roundhouse…’OH S**T’. The lines were so bloody long, and I started to feel the need to go to the bathroom…

To be continued?

————————————-

Heck. this was so long ago, I won’t bother finishing this up. Read Roger’s blog if you really want to find out more.

Kinokuniya yay

Well, well, well…the holidays are closing up before I fully realised it. But I guess I’ve done a bit…

Firstly…on the 15th and 16th (I’m pretty sure thats right), I went down to the city for some shopping/hanging out with friends, which is always a good thing; socializing and the such. On the Wednesday, my companions were Bevan and Roger, since our objective was to go to Kinokuniya in Town Hall and eat some Japanese food, since we are otaku to some extent.  The train down was…tiring: no seats= standing for >1hour. When we got there it was great. We went to some hobby shop and computer shops to look for Roger’s desired Creative gigaworks speakers and some Gundam models, but the shopkeeper was away…for quite awhile, hence our decision to leave.  Next we went to Galaxy World, to play some arcade games, which is another way of saying- spending ~$10 on temporary enjoyment. After that, we walked around and eventually turned up at Ichiban eatery/resturant, since Wagamama and the other fancy resturant were too expensive/would drain our money desired to be spent @ Kino’. Yay for prawn dumpling ramen. Nay for Bevan’s slooow eating . When we were finally done, we were off to the magically sexy land of Kinokuniya. I was planning to splurge all my moneys on this place, but something was wrong…me, Leon, known to spending whatever money he gets his hands on, couldn’t bring myself to buy anything (and Roger’s persuasion made me accept this).  Bevan, being at Kino’ for his first time, carefully made his decisions and ending up spending all the money he had (on Jump, Hikaru, Bakuman, etc). Roger bought nothing either. And so my decision to buy some nib pens was put off…little did I know that shipment from that online shop would be so expensive…The train home involved reading Bevan’s masses of manga, and a Coconut Milk Tea with Lychee jelly from Easyway.

Thursday:  My second day down to Sydney, this time with Martin, Nick and Roger. Our objectives were to go to Allan’s Music and…socializing(??).  On the way down with Nick and Martin, we talked a bit about music: which was our common motive to go to Allan’s. We were just like any stereotypical teenage group on a train: talking fairly loud, messy yet amazingly sexy hair, talking fairly loud and wearing hoodies…but we ended up damaging our ears with our ipods anyway…until Hornsby station, aka. Roger. The train left. But no Roger. Then the destined phonecall arrives on Nick’s phone. ROGER MISSED A TRAIN!!O@$IU@!(49-8 aregihreagoijg. We were alone. Well, after we calmed down and got off the train. We started walking ever so slowly in the direction I believed would take us to Allan’s. Thankfully, we arrived without making any wrong turns (but a quick stop @ JB). Just as we walked in and saw the $5000+ tags on the Gibson guitars, a voice from behind: “Helloooo”. Roger was already here…apparently it was because he walks fast (he is really tall) and the next train was fast. I prefer the answer to this to be a mystery…can Roger teleport? Can Roger fly? Was Roger actually on that train, followed us like a frickin’ ninja for lols? Well anyway, enough of that. Allan’s Music: Martin and I went straight to the guitars, Nick to the drums. Nick found some nice kits, Martin was at the Martins and Gibsons, and I was looking at the Ibanezs and Jacksons. Then we came across this curious object called the ‘Jam Cube‘. Being shy little kids, neither Martin or I were brave enough to go up and ask the big people if we could use the Jam Cube or touch a $1500+ guitar, so I just took a ~$1000 Jackson RR into the Jam Cube. The Jam Cube was sound insulated to the max and contained a bass amp and a Roland Cube 30 guitar amp. I plugged in the Jackson and played some groovin’ tunes/Children of Bodom/Wintersun. The Jam Cube was great, but a little hot (because Martin was sitting on an A/C vent), but the Jackson RR’s action was too high, therefore my decision to leave. After this we went to Galaxy World, some rand shops, Kings Comics (I wanted some Obama comics), another JB at Pitt Street Mall and finally got some foods. Martin and Nick went to get some calories, whilst Roger and I were having trouble deciding between ramen and tempura, noodles and fried rice. I ended up with fried rice+mongolian beef+satay chicken and a really expensive orange juice. After this…Roger went to get some shit flavoured jelly beans (umm…vomit, toothpaste, rotten egg, etc) and Dr. Peppers. I forgot what happened next, but then on the train ride home, we just talked and played with our ipods again.

Friday=I have a job! For 1.5 days…

So yeah…my mum’s friend got me a stocktake job with another friend for Friday and Monday (the last holiday day). Well I wanted money…but this is a lot of effort. Counting parts, ranging from around 5x3cm to 3x3mm in the hundreds is lame. akregopkregopkregopkopthrtophjiohmjoifgmjhoifsjg263o0i5tr69y8hij5orjmfdio!!! GAH!!! Have to do another 6-8hrs of it on Monday…but I want the money…I need it!!!!!!!!!

Friday Night=Poker Night

Poker Night #1 at my brother’s friend’s place. Expected # of people: 10. Final # of people: 5.

Pretty lame game, peoples were more into watching TV than playing poker. ~4 slices of pizza + 2 garlic bread eaten.

Thursday 2

Today was our jam @ Nicks’ with our incomplete band consisting of Nick on drums, Alex on guitar and myself on guitar, with Ethan and Martin hanging about as well. We went through the now oh-so-tiring Master of Puppets by Metallica, Fade to Black by Metallica (which is all great except for the lead up to the solo) and Kissing the Shadows by Children of Bodom (which is bloody hard/annoying/badass/sexy). Now what else to learn? Wintersun hopefully

We wrapped it up with a game of Mario Kart 64 which was truly epic.

Friday Night 2= Poker Night 2

Poker Night #2 at another of my brother’s friend’s place. Expected # of people: 6-7. Final # of people 6 (yay).

Good game, with more serious poker attitudes with trash talk going on. I won with a fullhouse. 5-6 slices of pizza + 2 garlic bread eaten.

Saturday

Family outing to Sydney for lunch with cousins. I ended up going to Kinokuniya again today, this time fulfilling my desires of spending money. Tachikawa wood pen holder with grip, 3 G-pen nibs and Gurren Lagann V1+box bought. Moneys well spent!

And so it was. I’m sorry for some piece of shit humour and sentence structure.

Farewell.

Poker Night #1 at my brother’s friend’s place. Expected # of people: 10. Final # of people: 5.

Pretty lame game, peoples were more into watching TV than playing poker.

Eden of the East phone

I want this. Now. That is pretty much all I can say. The amazing anime, Eden of the East which has just finished airing has brought forth this beast of a phone.

http://www.animenews.biz/nec-to-launch-cellphone-as-eden-of-the-east-tie-in.html

Now…I need ~$700 bucks. Shit.

I just realised…I have homework

Hmmm…as I was playing guitar and drawing my seinen character…I realised I have quite a bit of homework to do. I’m bored so I’ll list it (might not seem like much to you :O )

• English: Questions on Othello (due this week), Othello comparative study assessment (due in 2 weeks?)
• History: Stolen Generation questions, Assignment on Migrants’/Women’s Rights, and more! (due next week, due in 3 weeks)
• Science: Physics assignment questions (due next week)

…when I type it up it doesn’t seem like much. But I guess when you’re busy surfing the net and drawing manga…time does fly by…

Random update yay!

Yay its June! I haven’t posted in awhile…I don’t know why, probably because I haven’t been bothered.

Well school is still boring, BUT…we had a great 27th-29th of May: half our school was gone to some sporting thing…and yes, I didn’t go (shut up, it’s not because I suck at sports…it’s cos I didn’t try out… lol). Because of this event, my english and math teachers both were away coaching teams…and replacement teachers don’t really care about work! Now…the greatness of this comes from the fact that I happened to bring a poker set to school…

Lack of teachers+poker set= Poker and Blackjack in classes. ‘Twas fun.

Well…what else has happened since last time?

• Got someone to help me draw manga…so now we’re a team of 3
• Discovered Yen Plus! manga/manwha magazine…looks good (but sucks having to import EVERYTHING I want to buy)
• Bought some manwha online…still waiting for them (expensive shipping FTL)
• Started practicing my realism/seinen style art
• Working on some chibi style characters for my mum’s custom stamp business (www.littlenotes.com.au www.littlenotes.etsy.com)
• Started playing Windwaker on gamecube again
• Started learning Kissing the Shadows by Children of Bodom on guitar
• Poker

So yeah…as you can see, my life is very interesting and productive. Well, back to drawing or typing up another blog post or checking any news on E3 2009.

Farewell.

We have 10 stories written

Well…we’ve hit 10 story ideas written for potential manga. We, as in myself and my fellow manga friend, are now in the process of writing a slice-of-life one, seeing as though most of the stories we’ve come up with are horrors, sci-fis or fantasy…which are all hard to draw well. So, we have decided to start with a slice-of-life to touch up our skills.

Skills…I can say quite confidently that my character drawing skills have improved since say…last year, or even 3 months ago. I need to work on panelling (pacing and stuff), toning (ARGH), perspectives and drawing hands and feet…yes…hands and feet are quite the annoying.