got it covered

I don't know why, but I find myself mesmerized by the concept of current bands and singers covering other songs. And by "other songs", I'm not just referring to like the standard Beatles or Bob Marley or Police any other old-school classics that most bands typically cover. It's the current songs that you've heard a million times on MTV, and the radio (and nowadays, through people's myspace profiles I guess) that I'm really interested in listening to.

Maybe it's got to do with me having an obsession with getting an insight into artist's personal lives -not in the stalker way, but I am on wikipedia a freakish amount trying to find out what's behind certain song lyrics and stuff. I just find it interesting finding the types of songs people cover - like you get to know what music the singers and stuff like listening to, and how they interpret the song and stuff. I think it's also because covers provide a fresh take on something you're so used to, so it's kinda like hearing something again for the first time.

Anyway, that's why I'm a huge fan of BBC's Live Lounge - when they get singers to come in and do a couple songs, almost all the singers and groups do a cover of a song as well (list of the singers and the songs they covered is here). While there are some fairly standard covers, there are quite a few good ones there.

I've noticed I'm a fan of girls covering songs sung by guys, and vice versa - which is why I like Natasha Bedingfield's covers:

Natasha Bedingfield - Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol)



And I do like when artists come up with interesting interpretations of songs - While this isn't as out there as Corinne Bailey Rae's jazz-loungey version of SexyBack, I like Keane's mashup of Destiny's Child & Christina Aguilera (also a guy covering girl songs)

Keane - Dirtylicious



And then there are the songs you just wouldn't expect to be covered... Didn't expect a non-offensive rock band to cover a weird hip-hop-infused latin song - It's no My Humps, but still pretty bizarre...

The Fray - Hips Don't Lie (Shakira)



(see what I did there with the title of the blog and stuff? wow, I'm so incredibly imaginative & witty...)

cheese...

Since I've come back from my trip overseas, I've felt the need to bring my camera to more places more often. I got a digital camera for my 21st, and it feels like a waste if I don't use it. After browsing all the photos I've taken in the last 5 years or so, a pattern seems to emerge:
Birthday cake photo,


special occasion (formal), special occasion (wedding), photos of family holiday, another birthday cake photo,



people's 21st, another special occasion (wedding), and yet another birthday cake photo.


It seems weird to just take photos of the same thing every year when heaps of other stuff happens as well. Next thing you know, people you normally see are going overseas and now the opportunity to take photos with them is gone. So at first, it seems like a good idea to take photos of everything.

Unfortunately, I've found the two major problems with my plan:

1. I don't want to be that guy. You know, the guy who takes their camera everywhere and insists of taking photos of everything you do. While we all appreciate the photos after they're taken, no one relishes the time they are exposed to an unrelenting barrage of blinding flashes. Soon enough, people develop a greater resentment towards the guy taking photos of seemingly menial things. Me living in constant fear of being the guy with the camera means I only take a few photos at the start of the night, and the rate of photo taking quickly dies down. And all the interesting, photo-worthy stuff happens later in the night anyway...
   
2. The "good" photos are the ones with a group of people smiling, or doing something interesting or whatever. It requires a lot of effort to take these good photos, and for me, most of my photos end up looking like this:

I think next time I'll just leave the task of photo taking to that camera guy and leave my camera at home.

yay the amazing race!

I know what I'm doing at 9:30 Thursday night- my favourite reality TV show is back! I think I like it because it's kinda more game-showy than reality TV show, so even though it has pretty much the same formula as the first series, it doesn't really matter as much, since the whole globe-trekking and detour activity thing is still so cool.

Channel 7 have skipped season 10 in favour of showing season 11, aka Amazing Race All-Stars. I guess it's cool to be watching the same season America's seeing at the moment (despite the huge delay), which might mean there'll be less chance for people to find out who the winner is months in advance. They still could have shown season 10 during the holidays, or preferably, in place of the stupid American-only family edition of the show.

I don't know why, but I love it when they go to places I've been to, and get really excited when I recognise the background shops and stuff. I've actually found that I enjoy watching those travel shows more when I've been to the places they visit in the show and stuff. That's weird, isn't it? I think it's partially because I get semi-nostalgic and reminisce and stuff. That, and
I always kinda hope that I happened to be there when they were filming and just happen to be in the background. When I was overseas, I even kept my eye out for pairs of travellers lugging huge backpacks and cameramen following them. Despite my Amazing alertness and everything, alas, still no Phil Koegan sightings. Sigh.

irasshaimase!

I love when my dad visits Australia. Not because we have like, an uber-close relationship or anything, but mainly because it means we get to go to Shira Nui. It's this sushi restaurant in Glen Waverley, and, it's alright I guess. Kinda awesome. I don't want to overhype it, since, you know, you'll have ridiculously high expectations, and if you do go, it'll inevitably end in disappointment and tears. So anyways if you do like sushi (and other stuff too, but mainly sushi) You should try to check it out. Maybe.

It's run by this cool sushi chef called Hiro, who reminds me of a younger Mr Miyagi, if he was an Iron Chef with a really cool katana-like knife. He's one of the few people in Melbourne who actually has a license to serve fugu - you know that Simpsons episode where Homer almost dies from blowfish? Well, in order to prevent people from reevaluating their lives and doing everything they wanted to do in 24 hours, you need to get a license from the Japanese government to be able to serve it in restaurants. Anyways, Hiro doesn't actually serve fugu at the restaurant, but the fact that he could if he wanted to is cool nonetheless.

But the katana knife-wielding, potentially fugu-serving, Mr Miyagi is only part of the reason I like it so much. They've got really good regular sushi, but then there's also the mackerel wrapped with clear seaweed sushi and the blowtorched beef sushi. Like, a blowtorch! C'mon, how cool is that? (Please don't go just for the blowtorch - if you don't see it, it'll just mean more disappointment and tears.)

Shira Nui's also the only restaurant nearby that's run by Japanese people as well. Not that there's like a sushi-making gene that all Japanese people have, but it means that they do the Japanese thing of making sure everyone working shouts "Irasshaimase!" when anyone enters. You'd think that everyone shouting at you in a foreign language when you enter a store would be a little weird and scary, but it's pretty cool - I was thinking of of running in an out the shop to see how many times they shout it before they get over it and ban me...

the power of myspace

I just had a phone conversation about not-so-superpowers that people had - like the ability to guess where people came from, or guessing their favourite colours and stuff, and came to the tragic conclusion I had none. I wasn't looking for the ability to bend time and space, but you know, anything would be cool.

I do have the ability to find a way to make time pass quickly whilst doing nothing inherently productive... I know it's usually just called "procrastination", but I can waste hours on end finding out info on absolutely nothing. Then, it's like a stream of consciousness thing where finding the answer to one thing leads to more googling, and next thing you know, hours have passed, and I'm still none the wiser. And probably limit my future capacity to be wiser since my head is now jammed with more useless facts.

Let's take yesterday:

• Reading the Grey's Anatomy's Writer's Blog, since I like finding out useless trivia about TV shows.
  
• Checked other blogs for other news about Grey's Anatomy - Give me my Remote has a bloopers reel from Season 2 - I don't know what it is about bloopers, since they're pretty much a video of people screwing up lines and laughing, which doesn't really sound funny, but I still have to watch them. Speaking of which, you should youtube "Lost Bloopers Season 2" just to find a video of the actor playing Michael saying "oh no you di'int!" Hilarious!

• Grey's Anatomy Blooper reel video already taken down for copyright reasons, so try youtubing it, and still no success. There is a MadTV parody though, with the crossdressing Asian guy doing a pretty good Christina impression...
• Looking at other Grey's Anatomy youtube stuff, and the only other thing I can find other than The Fray music videos is a video of TR Knight on Ellen, talking about "the incident" with homophobic guy.
• Reminded about seeing the DJ on Ellen, and thinking he looked familiar. Found out DJ Jonny= Jon Abrahams, previously seen on Boston Public, Scary Movie & Meet the Parents.
  
• Wondered if he was always a DJ, or an actor who decided to be DJ - according to his myspace page, he's been DJing a while. Should I add him as a friend? or is that a little too weird?
  
• Who else who is obscure-famous on myspace? Hi-3 of Hi-5 (Nathan, Kathleen & Tim). Googled Hi-5, found out there was a Kathleen replacement who was also a minority (and also has a myspace page) and Nathan and Kellie were engaged, and then broke up. Would this ruin Hi-5? Well, according to Nathan's myspace page (with Kellie noticeably absent from his top friends...) Everyone's back at work, so looks like 5-year olds and horny older guys can breathe a sigh of relief..

what the hell was I thinking?

Mental note: Don't do things just because everyone else is doing them and everyone else thinks is cool, because you're bound to pay for it later.

I did something really stupid the other day that I'll probably regret for the rest of the year. I really don't know why I agreed to doing it. It was a slip of judgement, a stupid mistake that I didn't think about when I was doing it.

...I signed up for the AFL fantasy-sport-league Supercoach thing.


If you're not laughing out loud at the moment (or ROFLing, or LMAOing for that matter) It's probably because you don't know me as well as you should. Me and sport kinda go together like, um.... two things that don't go well together. I thought I could arse my way through it and pick players who's names I would recognise, but it kinda backfired and I ended up picking a guy that's been suspended indefinitely, one with a potential career-ending injury, and a guy battling cancer. Not the best start to the supercoach season I guess.

On the plus side, my love of all things TV related and a certain TV show involving people with extraordinary powers resulted me in naming my team The 9th Wonders. Which leaves two potential options for my season: I could either a) be totally awesome and come first, thereby reaffirming the whole Wonder naming thing, or b) just be adequate enough to come 9th thereby still validating my team name. I really hope there's at least 9 teams then, or hopefully, just 9 to make it easier...

need a linguist, anyone?

It's been yet another couple of weeks since my last blog. I know, I'm slack, but I really don't think it's worth blogging again about TV, since I've noticed that's pretty much all I've been doing lately... but then again it's hard to blog about my life when TV is my life at the moment...

I did go to the Monash Careers Fair a couple days ago though, if that's really blog-worthy. At the very least, it's made me realise how limited my career prospects are as a budding linguist. Out of the millions of companies that were there, I think only one stall were actually looking for someone with a linguistics background. It was ASIS - the Australian spy people on a recruitment drive to get more potential spies, or "information officers". For information officers, they weren't that informative, and was kinda hard to ask them questions about what entailed being a spy, since most of it was classified information.

Despite how cool it sounds to be a spy, like with the high-tech gadgets, pretending to work undercover in a paper company, and villains with sharks that shoot lasers and stuff, I don't think I could every be a spy. I already have issues in my job hunting lying to people and telling them I'll most definitely be here til the end of the year.

Plus, when you're a spy, I guess you can't really tell anyone that you are one, so the whole sounds cool to be a spy thing doesn't really work that well anyway...

why everyone should be watching heroes

I'm sometimes amazed when something that I hold dear to my heart (i.e. Guitar Hero) is not received well by other people. I'm a little shocked, and at a loss about how they can't see how cool something is but then subsequently get over it.

But when someone says they think Heroes is just 'meh' is just shocking. Like, seriously, jaw on the ground shocking. So shocking in fact, that even if you're at home by yourself, your mouth will be wide open, you'll make an audible inhaling sound because you're that shocked. Never felt like that before and wonder what it's like? Well, I consistently get that shocked when watching Heroes. I'm up to episode 16 - Unexpected and it's got a huge ending - like, filled with disbelief, ohmygods and everything - and the killer thing is, I pretty much have to wait 14 more weeks before I can talk to anyone in Australia about it, since it just started being shown on TV here a couple weeks ago.

So really, when's the last time something has actually made you gasp out loud? Anyone who's been so into a show and gasped knows how cool it is to find something that makes you do that. And anyone who says they've never gasped at a show is really deprived and doesn't know what they're missing.

Ipso facto, ergo, and a couple other rarely used conjunctive adverbs later, WATCH HEROES!!!

what i've been up to

Wow Narin, your blog is so interesting and witty and such a hoot to read! All the cool kids are reading it! It's not lame at all! But how come you haven't updated your blog recently?

Boy, I wish someone other than me said that. But anyway, if anyone did actually ask me that, it'd be a great segue into telling people what I've been doing recently.

...Well, that would have been a good segue into telling people what I've been doing recently if I was actually doing something interesting and blogworthy. But this excessive free time has let me achieve one of my life goals...

hiro's my hero...

You know how you can tell if you've got an excessive TV-watching habit? When you have so many TV shows to watch that you have to prioritise them by obligatory-watchingness. That's what I've had to do with Scrubs, Veronica Mars, The Office, Heroes, Grey's Anatomy, The OC, Lost, Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty - and Amazing Race hasn't even started yet!

It all started with iTunes giving away the Pilot of Heroes for free last year- and it pretty much snowballed from there. Fast forward to now, and I've got 9 must-watch shows (with a few in reserve) and 14 episodes of Heroes on my computer. I hope sharing my problem can help someone with organising their TV-watching schedule. Well, at the very least, I get hear the narration-type voice in my head as I type (It's kinda like JD without the wacky fantasies and the summing up of the moral every 22 minutes).

Shows to download from iTunes as soon as they're aired in the US:

1. The Office (US Version) - I know, the UK one's supposed to be good too, but I figure the US version provides more value for money since there's heaps more episodes than the UK one.

2. Heroes - Since I'm up to episode 14, and love this show, I just can't wait for Channel 7 to air them... And who can hate Hiro, who can "bendo time and space"?

Shows to download by other means, but if they can't be found a couple of days later, just get them from iTunes anyway:

3. Scrubs - I thought this season didn't have the best start, but then there was My Musical and His Story IV (yay Dr. Kelso!), and the expected hilarity ensues.

4. Veronica Mars - Veronica's the new Buffy, without the vampire slaying, but still with all the cliffhangeriness and witty goodness.

Shows to watch online whenever they're available:

5. Ugly Betty - I wanted to see what all the hype was about, and now that I'm up to episode 11, I kinda see why. Enjoyable, but not as must-see as the others.

Shows to watch immediately on DVD, to possibly catch up to be able to watch on TV:

6. Grey's Anatomy - I purposely avoided this show for as long as possible since I knew it would be a show that I would like. I was right. Still haven't found why the Mc-prefix is added to everything though. I'll keep you posted.

Shows to watch on TV:

7. The OC - This season's so much better than the last two. Plus, with new regular Autumn Reeser as Taylor, on top of Rachel Bilson as Summer, it leaves open the debate of Summer vs. Autumn. Priceless.

7. Lost - I heard the first few episodes are kinda iffy, but now I'm two seasons into it, I really have to find out what the dealio is with the island.

8. Desperate Housewives - I totally forgot what happened last season, but I still feel obliged to watch it - might drop off my list, if it sucks (and if I have the willpower).

9. The White Rapper Show - Let me set the scene: After a white, female rapper gets drunk, waves a dildo in everyone's face, and starts using the N word, she is subsequently punished by being forced to wear oversized bling displaying "N word" while playing mini-golf. What more can you ask for?

Shows to be watched later:

10. Entourage
11. Extras
12. Survivor

Gotta run. Just finished downloading Heroes!

new photo albums! which i'll update later...

Just a quick post to say I've now got photo albums up on my blog - I'm looking to add more photos, but have to find a way to work around the 250mb limit at the moment...

I've got to do this quickly because once I've done that, I can go back to preparing for my JET interview next week - I'm kinda freaked, because I heard that a majority of it will be in Japanese... hopefully, they won't be expecting too much (they are looking for someone to speak Japanese who hasn't lived in Japan for longer than a couple years) so all I'm doing (in theory) is translating my statement of purpose to Japanese, and trying to work out possible questions they'll ask me and answers. Problem for me is just a minor problem - my endless need to procrastinate has prevented me from actually getting around to actually doing much study - I was going to write a blog about my superhuman procrastination ability actually, but

back in melbourne... and bored as hell...

I felt the need to blog since I haven't done any blogging since I came back - probably because there's not much to update really - been back for like a couple weeks now and my body clock still feels out of whack - Not as bad as before though, since I think I just got sick from jet lag/exhaustion the week I came back, so was coughing and all gross, but I'm pretty much over that now.

But haven't really being doing much since - except for watching TV, and downloading episodes of all the shows I missed, and the shows I got hooked on that haven't been aired yet here in Australia - yay Heroes, The Office, & Veronica Mars! Also, Ugly Betty isn't too bad either - I ended up watching a few (by few I mean 8) episodes to see what the hype is all about - I can kinda see why people are watching. On a related note, yay peekvid.com - It's like youtube for TV shows, so more watching and less downloading time as well - so bookmarking it for every time I've missed an episode of Survivor.

Anyway, it still feels weird not being overseas - I've got a theory that the amount of time it will take before you settle back in is like around about half the time you spent overseas - so, some time this week I'll be more into the whole swing of things. It just feels strange going from chillaxing and not having to worry about anything to worrying about finding a job and an interview and stuff. I think I've spent like most of these two weeks finishing picking out the photos I like and making DVDs and stuff...

By the way, I'll probably make one of those online album things of my trip, so I'll put up a link once I'm done with that...

my humps... in thai

I've finally gotten around to posting this clip, of My Humps in Thai... We were kinda freaked out to hear this while at Starbucks.Nope, it's not even a song that sounds coincidentally similar,
it's just a straight rip off. Kudos Thailand, for bringing us inferior pirated DVDs, electronics, clothes, and now music!

My Humps

it's the end of an era... wait, how long's an era?

Wow. It's already been five weeks, and my Amazing Race-style holiday (though remarkably less amazing and not really a race) has pretty much come to an end. I've just finished packing my suitcase and what have I got to show for my holiday?

• Extra clothes I bought when they lost our bags (but now don't really need at all). I hope I can get reimbursed for these since it took a chunk out of my spending money...
• A cool blue Nintendo DS I had originally planned on purchasing in Japan to entertain me for the whole trip; little did I realise they sold out almost completely in Tokyo (or the places I went) so only managed to buy it a couple days ago here in Thailand. I also didn't realise that they don't have many DS games at all, and the ones they do have are imported from the US and not Japan, so are actually more expensive than Australia. So now I have a DS to play for the last day of my holiday, but without any games.
  
• A bunch of postcards that I accumulated over the five weeks, but forgot to actually send to people
• Monopoly: Roppongi Hills Edition - I remember why I don't play this game often - I really suck at it. If I buy up all the stores I land on, then I have no money to build stuff, and the fact that the Dark Blue Park Lane/Mayfair set is the bane of my existence.... It's so much harder to dislike this Monopoly though cos it's set in Japan and has all these anime characters on it! Plus, when the currency is flowers, how can you stay mad for long?
• 4.1 GB of photos on my MacBook - That's 1927 photos and 61 movies, which means hours of fun slideshows to inflict on everyone when I get back!
  
• at least $100 worth of tiny crap I thought would make cool souvenirs but looking back don't know why I bought them. Case in point: I have at least three or four mini plastic toilets that shoot mini plastic turds when you open the toilet. I know. It seemed cool when I was standing in the store in Japan with aisles upon aisles of those little toy dispenser things. Um.... do you want a mini plastic toilet????

Still, it seems like I could've done more on the trip - like spending more money or something - I guess I can just justify it when I get home by using up the rest of the money I allocated for this trip anyways.

Also, I'm kinda bummed I won't be here in Thailand to celebrate Australia Day - I know it sounds weird, namely actually celebrating Australia Day, and doing it in a place other than Australia, but they have a special buffet here on the day - By reading the ad, it seems like a shame to miss...


See? I love lamp.

chillaxing...

I finally got my suitcases back! It only took a week, an endless amount of time spent on the phone following it up and complaining, a few days buying clothes that I don't need anymore, but huzzah! Even though I've got new T-shirts, and boardshorts and stuff, I now have to make an effort to wear the ones I brought so it doesn't seem like a big waste of time and effort packing all that stuff.

Nothing much has happened in the past few days really though - mainly playing Pacman, lounging by the pool, and eating excessive amounts of food. I've also been shopping a fair bit to buy stuff, and hoarding the receipts in hopes of getting reimbursed by the airline. I'm pretty familiar with the local shopping centre now - to the point where I know what the next song will be that is blaring out of the loudspeakers - judging from the dido, savage garden, and that song by kylie that you apparently can't get out of your head, an Australian tourist gave them a CD six years ago that they haven't got around to updating yet.

I got freaked out though while I was there since I heard a Thai song that sounded strangely familiar... I'll youtube the song once I get around to uploading it from my camera.

baggage claim: the movie

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fruitlessly wait for your bags at baggage claim, but were put off by the thought of having to go through customs at the airport? Now
you too, can experience all the fun and enjoyment of waiting for a bag, in the convenience of your own home!



All this, thanks to my brother's unparallelled photographic ability, and two hours to kill at the Bangkok Airport!

things i've learnt on this holiday:

1. Japan really does rock. I was a little freaked out that I had really high expectations of it and that I'd be disappointed when I got there. Fortunately, this was one of the cases where I wasn't.
2. The Algorithm March thing. Me & my brother have watched it so many times now that we probably know all the moves. Well, I think it's a cool dance anyway...
3. Mr Pink from Reservoir Dogs has a fair point about tipping. In NEw York, most of the waiters were shitty, never smiled, and would just dump food in front of you. One place we went to, the greeter/door bitch greeted us with her friendly frown and took us to our seats. When we asked to be seated next to the window (in a fairly empty restaurant, and within sight of an empty table) She just said "nope" and walked away. Why pay a service fee for no service?
4. To find a good restaurant in Rome, simply find a place to eat. Then, once you're full and you've eaten a fairly overpriced mediocre meal, leave the restaurant, walk 20 metres, and then you'll find a place with not-lukewarm pizza.
   
5. The reason I love Thailand is probably because I've already exhausted every facet of the Thai tourism industry. Since i've already seen every major touristy destination, it just leaves more time for bumming, eating and shopping.
6. I'm Narin, and I'm a Guitar Hero-holic. I really, really really want to play. Guitar Hero songs now form an integral part of my iPod playlist, and when I listen to some of the songs, I remember what buttons to press and manage to air Guitar Hero. It's gotten so bad that everytime I hear a song, I think a) whether or not it's a Guitar Hero-worthy song, and b) what buttons you might have to press if it was in the game. Is that sad? Wait, don't answer that.
   

happy new year!

well, I certainly had an unconventional new years. It was spent watching Anchorman and The Office when the clock struck 12. We wanted to see the fireworks and stuff, but because of the bombs in Bangkok, New Years Celebrations were cancelled, which sucks, because our hotel room windows look right on the main street where the fireworks would've been.

It wasn't too bad, though. I've decided Anchorman just gets better everytime you see it. I'm not saying it's Zoolander or Dodgeball quality, but it may get there...

minor update...

just heard there's been some bombings here in Bangkok - I was wondering why they had to scan all our baggage at the hotel... The bombs were a little while away, but also heard there might be an attack near the major new years celebrations and stuff though, which is kinda near us... Anyway, just letting you know we're okay, and leaving Bangkok for Hua Hin in a couple days anyway...

new years celebrations and excessive gelati

This has to be the weirdest New Years yet – I left Italy at around 6:10 on New Years Eve eve, and around 14 hours later, I arrived in Bangkok in the afternoon. In between that, our planes got delayed, and all our bags got lost in between Rome and Bangkok. Haven’t had the best luck with our planes – I think every flight we’ve caught has been delayed – some for a couple hours, and this time they lost our bags…

Anyway, it’s been a while since my last blog - Our hotel in Italy didn’t have internet (well, they did, but at €17 a day, so like 34 bucks) so I’ve been waiting for a good time to blog. Not much has really happened, except that I’ve been killing time playing monopoly. Not just any Monopoly though. Monopoly: Roppongi Hills Edition! Roppongi’s this high-tech residential/business/entertainment district in Japan, which has its own logo and mascots and everything. So, this Monopoly has different place names, currency, and player tokens. I think the cool thing about it though is that instead of buying houses and hotels, you buy kiosks and megastores. I don’t normally enjoy playing Monopoly that much, but maybe because it’s in Japanese, and I can’t understand all of it that makes it more fun.

Italy’s been pretty cool – I’ve struggled to find good pizza and pasta here, but the gelati’s been good. I guess it’s kinda hard to screw up ice cream. So the gelati’s been a little too good. I’m kinda glad I’m leaving Italy because I’ve pretty much OD’ed on gelati. Favourite flavours: Chocolate mousse, Panna Cotta, Cream Caramel, Mango, Lemon & Chocolate truffle. It’s been pretty much a requirement after every meal –including breakfast- one gelati hunt ended with two cones of gelati after we discovered an even better gelateria right behind our first one. I think I’m one more serve of gelati away from diabetes. Maybe I shouldn’t have had that fourth one of the day yesterday…