coolohoh: Biohazard (Biohazard)
Sigh.

It's been a long week...

JLPT tmr and I have no doubt about how I'm going to fail N1. Cos I was too greedy and decided to skip N2... And cos real life has been taking too much of a toll on me and I've not been able to find the enegy to study.

I actually had some time on my hands this week since I took sick leave from work on Thurs and Fri... But well... I was sick. And just unable to concentrate on getting those Japanese grammar into my thick head. So yeah... All the time wasted. Still not really well now... But better... At least I'm able to function... I just felt like curling up in bed all day on thurs and fri... It's amazing how some food poisoning related contipation and bloatedness can make you feel so bad... I couldn't even sleep at night... Hence the reason why I raised the white flag and went to the doctor....

Anyway.

Power of the Paradise!

Nope, I didn't watch the whole Music Day show... But I did see Arashi's Power of the Paradise performance and boy do I love that song!

So cheerful, upbeat, hopefull... And unlike Akashi, this one is fast paced. I love fast paced songs. Is it... club or something? Music genres... *shrugs*

I've updated nihongo manabu with a post about the new single. Upcoming new single at least. Please check out the post! XD

As I was researching for the post... Arashi just... Amazes me. It's the 5th bloodly hell time Sho would be covering for the olmypics... And it's the 6th time Arashi is providing the NTV Olympics theme song. Just... blows your mind doesn't it?

Alrights.

That's all from me for now! 
coolohoh: Biohazard (Biohazard)
Gosh.

This is just too crazy.

You know how rl has been really busy for me... Well ever since unsup got back from her maternity leave she's been working me non-stop. (Then again... I didn't have to work that fast or that hard...)

But yeah.

It feels like just a few days ago since Fukkatsu Love came out and now this...

Ok. Actually, it is only a month ago since Fukkatsu Love was released!

So yes. New single. Double A. Two PVs and two makings. Double the fun, laughter and joy, but also double the burdern on your pocket. Hahaha!

Three editions this time, two LE, and one RE.

More information as usual on NM here. Pre-order links are there too. :)

Cheers!
coolohoh: Biohazard (Biohazard)
Ok...

Unlike my post yesterday about SMAP.

This one is 200% real and confirmed...

Because the CDJapan links are out already!

I don't buy singles... but if you do, check them out on CDJapan now!

Limited Edition
Regular Edition
2 Set Bundle (Limited and Regular Edition)

I'll be posting and updating any news about the single in this post here.

More links!

YesAsia:
Limited Edition
Regular Edition


HMV:
Limited Edition
Regular Edition
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
So, instead of finished up my vacation day 4 post, I decided to just watch VSA and ouroboros last night instead, because I couldn't concentrate on any writing.

Must say, I'm loving ouroboros so much! Toma and Shun's acting is <3! And I think it follows the manga pretty darn closely. Things are a little speeded up of course. But then again it's a drama. I think Toma is less of a blockhead and a little more cool than in the manga. Which is a good thing to me. Bring on the coolness!

I wonder... will they include the part where Shun go framed and was sent to jail? But it's quite an important part in the manga I think.... they'll probably include it. Meh. I like my heroes to be invincible. Hahaha! Plus, I think that was really careless of Tatsuya to leave the cig on the table like that! When I saw that scene in the manga I immediately knew that it was going to cause trouble. Seemed too big of a slip up to be? Then again, it'll be unrealistic if the mangaka made Tatsuya invincible huh? That would become boring too. But arghs. Very exciting manga. I want to read on! Maybe I'll try and search for the Japanese version. It might already have ended for all I know... only that the translators are having trouble with the scans and stuff... I saw they were facing a severe shortage of manpower...

Ahhhh and the drama opening song. Just what is the name of that opening song! I've been trying to find it but to no avail. Ah maybe it's an OST....

Just looking at the Japanese wiki now and. Lol. They have a Chinese coach and a medical coach. Yup. Shun spoke Chinese in episode two. Him and the old wizardy doctor. Both of them sucked at it, but meh, it's fine. Can't expect them to spend month practising one line right? At least the sentence structure and stuff is alright. And it was over before I could cringe or anything.

Oh and... I'm loving Sakura loads. I only said it like a million times in the past few days. Heard the baystorm, more complete version, and it was great. Love that powerful, a little angsty, yet very hopeful feeling. Like the 'I will prevail no matter what' spirit. That kind of feeling, reminds me of breathless and calling. Or tell me why. Hope in the darkness not so much, because hope in the darkness gives a brighter overall feel than this. To me at least. It's really hard to explain these feelings. Musically trained people would probably imagine a scenery when listening to music. My sis would start thinking of choreographies. Me? I would think about the emotions the song conveys in me. Sometimes yes I do have some kind of scenery in mind, like for sync I was thinking of a lone guy standing on a high place (say top of a skyscraper) and snow falling around him. But mostly it's just that feeling that the song arouses in me.

Maybe it's to do with how I've always been struggling to make myself stand out for the better part of my life. So much so that I completely lost all motivation and gave up later on (that, and the teacher, syllabus, exam system). But even then, I was still trying to stand out somewhere, somehow. Stand out might be a misleading way to put it. It's more like... finding my place? Like in junior college, even though I didn't study at all, I still did a Science Research Programme. Still took H3 chemistry (it's like a higher level chemistry, and we were learning uni level pharm chem and org chem stuff). I struggled to get anything out of the H3 Chem exams. Scrapped a pass in A levels. But still, the stuff that I learnt then was invaluable. All the Structure Activity Relationship stuff, the BBB aka Blood Brain Barrier... It was all very important. Despite all the injuries and bruises, I came out of school intact and alive. That's the kind of feeling it has always been for me. Like. Hello! I'm here! Despite all the odds! That's why I think those kind of songs. Despite all my peers being a lot smarter than me. I could still find a little foothold, a little place to stand in. I could still identify my strength, and leverage a hell lot out of it. And in the end I'm still alive. Again, I'm struggling here in my work place. A misplaced (?) biologist in a field of chemists and engineers. But I've found a small foot hold too. Some recognition. The kind of feeling that makes you want to punch a fist into the night sky and scream 'I made it'. Or more like 'I'm still alive'. The fallen star lives on.

I've been thinking a lot about my next move. Where should I get a PhD? I really think I should look overseas. I'd like a change. I probably need a change. Go find some place where people are motivated and passionate about their work. In Singapore? I see no such... overwhelming passion here. The PhD students don't seem really intelligent either. I don't know. I just... don't get that sort of intellectually stimulating sensation, buzz, that I felt when I was in sec sch. There, people were sprouting things from university textbooks, talking about theories that I've never heard of. Here it's like. Idk. Just dull. Plain dull. Esp here where I'm working at. Many a times I even work harder than the PhD students. And I work faster too. They say that when you're the best in some place, then you know it's time to move on, to somewhere where you'll be the bottom of the pile. And then you move up till you reach the top, and repeat. That's very true. Yes I still have loads to learn here, but a PhD here, where I'm working, that's completely out of the question. And not because of the fact that it's not the right subject matter that I'm interested in working on. A team people like to work with other A team people. Heck that's so true.

Like in sec sch there's all these talk about the 'elites' and the 'elitist schools'. It's not that I have anything about people from lousier schools, of lower intellect etc. I'm don't even have a fantastic IQ. I have friends from all walks of life - mostly people I've met through gaming. But they will forever remain just friends/acquiescences. Elitist? No! It's just reality. I have nothing in common with them, beyond the game. There's nothing we can talk about! Their idea of 'hard work' is different... a job they find tough I'll find it not mentally challenging... We read different books (if they even read any at all outside of their school related compulsory materials. Ah, loads of manga and anime I guess?). Things that are common sense to me is all but common sense to them, and vice versa. We just live in different worlds.

I just to have a coursemate in year 1 of university. She came from some polytechnic... which was fine by me. But then her.... standard of... everything really shocked me after a while. It started off with us talking about projects and reports. And she says that she and her classmates are always looking for ways to add a few words to the report, so that the paragraph would end on a new line etc, so that the report/assignment would be a little longer, to meet the page length requirement. Of course, doing things like making it double line spacing, or increasing the margin width is a given. She says she's really good at doing such things. Me? I'm pretty good at editing all my reports and assignments too. To cut down unnecessary words, so that I can fit within the word limit. Our teachers never ever give a minimum word count/page count thing for our assignments. Because who knows how many pages of essay we'll come back with? Nope. It's always an upper limit, not a lower limit. And actually, they don't give page count limits, unless it comes with details instructions on font, font size, spacing, borders etc... because otherwise people would submit essay with a freaking font size 8, in a font that packs the most number of words in a given space possible. Then there was the time she casually said after our intro to chemistry lecture (which i was so bored throughout, learnt on my own in sec sch already, learnt again in jc), that now she finally knows what the = sign between C and C stands for. C=C. Get it? Double bonds. That's freaking lower sec stuff! Even my other friend, from a different polytechnic, couldn't believe it. That poor girl. I really feel sorry for her. She dropped out after the first year. University was just too hard for her. It was the first time I'd actually seen something like that happening. People dropping out of school because they couldn't catch up. In my sch yeah there were such cases, but it was more due to stress and the whole sch environment rather than because they were not smart enough. Like my classmate who kinda gave up on sch and retook the following year. She did well. And she's smart. She writes really well, fantastic English, enormous vocab, loads of bombastic words. At the start of the uni year, that girl was asking me and the other poly girl if we were going to finish the course, graduate from uni and stuff. We were both shocked. Isn't it a given that you'll graduate after getting into uni? At least for me. For us... Different worlds.

Overall... what I feel is that... the overall positivity and 'I can do it' feeling is just not present in so many people. If there's a barrier, that instinct to find a way to cross the barrier isn't as strong. That... 'I can and I will survive no matter what shit you give me'. And the 'I will make it work no matter what'.

Ah on that last point. There once was a teacher in sec sch who commented to me and 3 other project group mates. We were talking about making something in powerpoint. And she was like 'Do you know how to do that?'. Us: 'Erm, we're not sure but we'll try'. Her: 'Ya, you all will just go and click click click and you'll be able to figure it out. That's how girls are like. Not like me so old already, I can't figure anything out.'

Yeah, pardon that Singish aka poor grammar in there. So true. Or at least till my sis came along. She's not a very tech savy person for someone having being born in the digital age (same school too). At least IMO. Like, she doesn't really know how to use excel...! And I thought I was the ignorant one about excel... always forgetting the exact syntax and having the search google. It was only much later on that I gathered my 'ability' in tech was not normal. When really it was just a normal thing to me all along. To figure out how to use programs, make things work etc. And really, a lot of the time it was google helping me out when it comes to the finer points. A lot of it came from games and random exploration too. Like, I'm sure all of you have tinkered with html before right? For your own website or blog? I did it when I played neopets and tried my hand at decorating the pet page. And forums. Made one for my secondary school CCA and had fun tinkering with the color schemes and stuff. Ok, so I don't really know CSS, but I probably can clobber together a decent looking LJ layout if I really put in the time to. But now because of my sitting position at work, I'm kinda happy with the way my LJ looks. I like it anyway. It's mature looking. Definitely not gonna put big Arashi pics in the background. No, that'll attract a ton of snark remarks from my supervisor. Not that it really matters. Nobody really cares what you do at work... but I just don't like it when he comes and make fun of me. But that attitude to make things work, by hook or by crook. It's really important. I lost it for a while in terms of school work. Though even then it manifested itself in the not so important (read: useless) areas. It's taken me a long time to find it back again. Or still taking. Bit by bit little by little.

Sigh.

Yeah. I'm a perfectionist. Like everyone else from my school. If we have to do something, and we give half a shit about that something, then it has to be perfect. I think that's something that many people don't understand. Why we get some obsessed over the smallest of things. Like many people I too hate being corrected. Because my first reaction is 'shit what did I do wrong', 'where did I go wrong?' then maybe my face gets a little hot because I'm darn embarrassed. Especially when that person turns out to be right and I go 'crap I should have checked that again before posting etc'. It's maybe more of a perfectionism then pride. Or both in equal proportions. Pride in my work. I don't know. And it makes me hesitant to post some things because I think that if someone who knows better see my work they would laugh at my poor work quality. Yes. It's embarrassing.


Arghs. This turned out to be a much longer rant than I intended. But I guess that's what happens with rants.

Rights. Enough mindless ranting for today!
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)

So I finally heard the song! And I must say that I like it! Well not just the song, but I’m liking the drama and manga too. In fact, when I was watching the drama I was so intent on the story that I didn’t notice Sakura had started playing, and I had to go back and listen again. But it’s nice! How should I put it? It’s definitely my type of song. Full of gusto, determination, a little hatred. It falls in the categories of songs like breathless and calling that I love so much. Ahhh can’t wait to hear the full thing now! Just a little more than a month to go…! Ahhh loving it!


So yes. I watched to drama this morning, and liked it enough to read the manga. Well I’ve been wanting to read another manga for a while… well I did read Inuyasha last month… and now I’ve read all the released chapters (in English that is. Tried to find Japanese scans because there should be more chapters out but no luck on finding a source at the first try… and decided not to continue searching but rather do something else). Interesting story. I definitely hope they would make Ikuta and Oguri more cool than in the manga though. Definitely looking forward to see how they will end things in the drama!

coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Ahhh murder on orient express. I could not bring myself to read the book previously, but after watching half an episode yesterday, I finally did. It's a pretty short book, just 137 pages long on the pdf that I obtained.

I must say that the drama follows the book pretty closely, with some changes being made as to the length of the story and changing the whole thing into Japanese... Well watching it raw was really a bit of a stretch. I would have preferred my dramas with Chinese subs, but yyets seems to have closed down? I discovered yyets.cc yesterday, but it seems that I have to watch it online, and with a program (not even sure if the program runs on mac) so I shouldered on with the raws last night. Only got to just past the hour mark though, then I opted to head to bed. Reading the book now, it makes me want to rewatch the drama to see if I can pick up more of their conversation that I had missed. But it sure is interesting, the drama. Looking forward to seeing how the 2nd night of the drama goes.

Sakura. The new single. Now this is interesting. Arashi singing for Toma's drama. I wonder if this was often done by other JE artists? But well we know it's a first for Arashi. It's interesting to analyse what Johnny-san/JE is thinking/planning behind the move. Has Toma finally gotten, or earned enough reputation for JE to lend him Arashi's star power? I mean like Arashi's name earns big bucks for JE and it's not something that they would lend out lightly for sure. Not to demean Toma or anything! I'm really glad he's doing well. It's good to see that he's still able to do so well despite being undebuted. Like Kazama Shunsuke. I liked that kid when watching Hachi Jidai J, you know that junior show with Hiromi and all of Arashi minus Ohno? There were so many juniors from that time who were so active and probably really popular too, but have now quit JE because of various reasons. Many citing that JE rules were too restrictive, they were not given many chances etc. So it makes me glad to see that there are people who didn't get debut but are still able to flourish/make a living in JE. Like Kazama-kun? I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was still in JE when he guested on VSA quite some time ago. That's one cute guy. And looking at drama wiki now, he acted in four dramas last year. That's pretty good eh? It's good to know that it's just those few groups that can survive in JE IMO. Am I making any sense? JE can be a really tough place to be in, you only need to do a quick google search to find out about the lenghty periods of times when the kansai juniors were neglected to know how unfair it can be. Yet at the same time, it's not bad either. Juniors have their own TV shows, junior concerts, loads of chances and opportunities to grow. Debuted artists gets loads of support from the company, securing concert venues, holding concerts, publicity - and often riding on the sucess of older and more popular groups to pull the new groups up... You really can't say that JE treats them badly at all. Quite the contrary even. Like Arashi was given quite a lot of room to come up with ideas and such for their own concerts even in their rather early days, before they became the super, national idols that they are now...

Ah I'm starting to ramble so I'll stop here. Plus it's time for me to get off work so cya all next time!
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Hmm the song bittersweet is constantly revolving around my head now. In spite of how i find many parts of the song a little... idk... weird? Even right from the start... it feels quite different from their usual songs? Like the way the tune goes and everything... Ok, i'm a noob at explaining since i have zero music background. But it just keeps going on autoplay in my head... and its like the only song from the album that's on my brain's autoplay list.

I like all the songs this time round though. Road to glory is nice, though it lacks the... olympic theme song feel to me. Like... it doesnt feel special/quietly motivating like akashi was, nor does it have the pumped up, do your best feel of yurase ima wo. I like that one... even before i knew it was for the winter olympics. Somehow road to glory is missing the... motivational feel to me? (EDIT: Ok, not missing, just doesnt seem as strong...? Its definitely there now that I've listened to it again, its just that there are parts that doesnt feel as grand/motivational and makes that grander parts get washed out for me... then again, maybe its just because the song hasnt really grown on me yet) Not talking about the lyrics, but the general feel of the song... because i'm not paying that much attention to the lyrics still, and my level of japanese isnt that good...

But hmm Motto ima yori is nice, very, very upbeat, nice tune, happy song... and Sync gosh. I feel in love with that song just 20 secs (or less?) into it. I was like. Hey, this sounds like my type of song. And sure enough, the rest of the song was even nicer than the intro. It feels very... arghs. I cant describe it. But the tension and the feeling of the song just resonates with me. Love the lyrics too... 'I believe in my world again' Gosh that sounds so nice. Its like the kind of song you'd like to listen to when you standing at the rooftop and looking into the night sky, clenching your fists in triumph (but silently, with ur fists resting by your side) at your success of overcoming whatever, or getting to wherever you want after trying so hard. Like quiet, but powerful. That kind of feeling... did that even make sense haha? Like yarukizero mentioned, i'd like to have a PV for this song... but then again, I can imagine them as I'd like the PV to be like in my head, and that works just as well for me. Since it's the PV i created in my head, it'll be the 'perfect' PV yeah? :P

But yeah, its not everytime that i like every single song in the single. Still love sync the most! Right, that's all for now!
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Its playing over and over in my head now, though I've not even listened to it that many times... just like a few times when they performed it on Heyx3, then like maybe 3 times last night after i DLed the single, and then once when watching the PV and once when watching the heyx3 perf once more. I prefer their live perf much, much more than the PV. Sorry, but I don't... get the PV at all. Its all too melancholy and sad for the song. Like when they are lip syncing in the PV. It just feels sooooo, so bad. It so obvious that they are lip syncing, like the sound and video doesnt match. Like the kind of creepy feeling I get when say the video and sound track is out of sync, or when i'm watching something that's dubbed over. Something that I've never had a problem with for their previous PVs... Its like, they are standing there feeling so sad but you hear this lovely upbeat tune coming out... mismatch plus plus for me. There was this little bit of sakuraibajun laughing happily moments but... like... where's leader and nino? both still alone... i kept waiting for all five to come together but no... ok, some ohmiya maybe? nope, none of that either. If not for the five of them standing together you'd think they filmed the PV with O and N being filmed on some other day (or maybe they did and CGed it something...). And nope, no dance and all... I think that's because the PV was filmed BEFORE Ohno made the dance. I mean hey, that genius of a choreographer came to work on what... the 4th of Jan. And he took all of 2 days (or maybe 3, he wasn't that specific on AD) to come up with the dance, and then teach it to the members, and then they performed it live on the 13th. I'm pretty sure they took the PV way before that... Because otherwise it'll never be in time for the CD production and all. And they have to get like a million CDs ready, packed, and shipped before the 12th so that those who pre-ordered it will get it early (at least, those who live in Japan will get it early?).

Granted, they have spent their whole lives singing and dancing. But it still amazes me. How Ohno can choreograph a dance so fast, and how Arashi can learn it so fast. Even Ohno himself was surprised at how fast the members learnt when he was teaching them...This talent that I'll never have. Maybe Ohno will be amazed at how I crank out my school reports, essays and thesis overnight, or over the weekend... but we've all done that before right? Coming up with a dance in two days...? Now that's a genius. I heard from my sis that he spent his 20min train ride with his eyes closed and thinking about his solo song, and ended the train ride smiling because he was done coming up with the dance for his solo Rain. I've never read anything about that anywhere on the net, no idea if he said it in some mag interview, or on some tv show/radio, or if he said it at all/if its true... but man, that guy is amazing. How he mentioned in a magazine interview that he'll dance at 2x the speed of the song, so during concerts it's a breeze. GOSH. Its like the athletes who'd train with weights and stuff... I was like 'so this kind of stuff can be done for dancing too huh?'. I'd never have imagined. I wonder if he still does it now. Dancing at 2x the speed I mean. But its a good reminder to myself that they've put in loads of hard work to get to where they are now... Watching them on TV or in concerts its easy to forget about all the hard work behind the scenes, or even all the hard work they've put in years ago that allowed them to hone their skills to what they have now.

Hmm... they have yet to perform bittersweet elsewhere right? Am definitely looking forward to another performance of it... looking forward to seeing more of Ohno's choreography too. Remember on the heyx3 show when they asked Arashi how they will see themselves in the future... and Jun i think said that since Ohno's the oldest, they will keep dancing till Ohno can't dance anymore... like for another 10 years. And of course our leader immediately complains about having to dance for another 10 long years. But looking at him dance. Like this time round his Hit the floor solo is even more energetic and all (only saw from all the puny little news clips of course)... I want him to keep dancing forever >< 10 ears and beyond...

They are amazing arent they? 15 years into their debut and they are still growing. 15 years and the first single A-side song choreographed by Ohno. 15 years in Arashi and 20 years in the industry and its since single choreography debut. This kind of things really makes me wonder how long Arashi will continue to rule the Jpop scene. Sure, they are losing ground out to AKB. But look at akb - their members are always changing, and there's just soooo many of them. And you really should not forget that AKB was formed as a... theatre/musical group. (ok, i don't like akb that much, but i don't hate them either.) But with Arashi, its just the 5 and the FIVE only. Never more, never less, never changing. By just that Arashi has won already. And looking at their crazy momentum... it makes it really hard to imagine when will they finally... slow down. Critics/haters will say they have slowed down already... but... really? They have hosted kouhaku for the fourth year running. They did 24 hour TV two years in a row. Sho is once again the reporter for the Sochi olympics and ONCE AGAIN the were song to sing the olympic theme song for Japan. They had three major concerts/events last year - waku waku, Arafest and LOVE tour. Their activities are only increasing, despite the ending of HnA. And so much so for the ending of one Arashi show... sure, they have not had a new show with all five of them in it, but i think its because they are now way, way too busy and their schedule can't accommodate any more group regular shows. Aiba, Sho and Nino all have their own solo programs now... So what's the ending of HnA to say they Arashi is losing popularity, as many of those critics were so quick to claim when HnA's end was announced? The show might have ended but the group goes on, even stronger than ever. They've even made the global no. 1 placing several times... which i think is unimaginable considering how little their popularity is in the face of global super stars like lady gaga. Its like. Arashi is popular, but only in Japan. In the rest of the world they are popular, but... at least where I am it feels like we arashi fans are a hidden, rare lot. Everyone else, esp kpop stars are more popular/well known. Even akb is more well known :(.

Great. I'm getting really, really off track here. I just wish to see them continue growing from now on... even though I'll have to be patient and wait and see since I'm now watching them 'in real time' now, as opposed to watching their first ten years of growth through their old tv shows etc, since i only became a fan in their ~11th year. Can wait for what exciting stuff this year, their 15th year anniversary will bring. Its here and its here crazily fast. I still remember joining the 5x15 forums when it first started last time and that was like... way ahead of their 15th year anni... like a whole year and a half ahead? And suddenly 2014 is upon us. Scary how time flies. And it'll only go by faster as we age because our internal clock slows down. Crazy. But yeah, Ohno choreographing their first single kind of sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the year... at least for me.

Only caught up with watching two episodes of AnS, still behind on the VSA and way behind on nino-san. Ah... there was a live (or not?) perf on yesterday's AnS right? I guess it'll have to have bittersweet in it... ah... if only I downloaded it and watched it last night... but i kinda just sat there, played my phone a little, and then headed off to bed. Oh wells. Meeting up with my former FYP student and a friend from my old work place for dinner tonight. Tried to convince my dad to let me go on my own but to no avail once more. Convinced my mum, but couldn't convince my dad sigh. I just hate it. I've not been out on my own at all since the day i fell down. This sucks... ><
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)

 


lots of things to say today!


1st up… wild at heart tracks are out! yay! thank you to saobang2211 for sharing! <3


the pv is in her lj too, but somehow the version i downloaded just now… didn’t finish downloading? or something… re-downloading it now… can't wait to see it! love the retro part where they danced with the miss… the outfit is cute and the dance is energetic and amusing to watch XD


one thing i always feel said when deleting the radio versions of the songs is that… the number of plays is gone :( somehow I'm just a sucker for this kind of small things… just find it nice to see which song i listened to a lot and exactly how much lol…


this time especially… in the short few days since i started liking how can i love, i've played it a whooping 124 times! gosh! that's fast! o.o that's like 8 over hours of listening to that song in… wait… 2 days! wat the….!?!?!?! no wonder i can remember the chorus already :X


2012 03 03 10 58 51 pm


yes, somehow i just get really amused to see stats like this. i guess its because I'm a real geek…


2nd: i went out cycling with my friends today, and after that i decided to go orchard and join my parents… since i got there a little early, i decided to check out hmv at somerset 313… (got a fb friend coming to sg from australia tmr, so i checked out the arashi cd prices for her at the same time) since my handphone was somewhat running out of juice, i went to try out the iPhone dock speakers in hmv after that… playing mostly arashi songs of cos. after like 40++ mins of listening, i concluded that the 500SGD Go + Play 2 by Harman/Kardon was the most expensive, but best speaker out of the lot… the panasonic one had good clarity, but the vocals were weak… another brand's one that i can't rem the name of… lacked clarity (for the background sounds) AND had bad sounds for the vocals :X not worth the 400bucks….!


>>>>>ok, before i go on about some audio stuff, i'll talk about what happened 1st… i was like 40 mins into my song listening, when a bunch of 4 girls suddenly came up to me and went 'hi, are you a arashi fan?' to which i happily agreed… and than we exchanged twitter usernames. COOL! never expected to meet other arashi fans like this haha. it was quite funny… one of them was saying she was wondering how come she suddenly heard hmv playing this cool and nice music… than she realized its arashi's how to fly and they came over to find the source… another was wondering if she was playing it on her phone by accident or something haha XD


COOL, next time i have time and visit hmv, i'll be sure to do that again. actually this is the 2nd time i've done it, the previous time when i did it, i was with my sis + her friend… and we were happily playing all sorts of arashi songs too XD but it was a weekday so there were lesser ppl ard. and nope, no arashi fans approached us… (well weekday… the store was almost empty) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ok back to my long rant


WARNING: LONG RANT AHEAD!


was quite a nice experience… apart from a bunch of arashi songs i also played others like Easy, Dreaming, Fast car, and Lemon Tree… Lemon Tree is a nice song, i 1st heard it in primary school… at the start there's a glass breaking kind of sound… and that's good to use as a yardstick for speaker performance… its been really long since i last heard that nice, crystal clear clinging sound… last time in my old house I'd listen to it on the cd player (which had really good sound!) or my dad's wifi system… but nowadays… i only listen to music from my iphone using the standard issue earphones, or occasionally play it on my computer. realized how much i missed that good sound quality… even the tones at the start of the song is different/tweaked in the other lousier players…!


why am i using the iPhone standard issue earphones? 1) the sound quality is good. its no doubt NOT the best in the market, but its decent 2) I'm often listening to songs outside, on the noisy train, or in the even noisier shopping centers. sound quality? I'd just be glad if i can hear the song above all that din 3) i don't like those in the ear kind of earphones. somehow they feel a little weird (i guess i can get used to that but…)… and while its great that it cancels out noise… that's also the bad thing. It’s a little dangerous when you are walking around or crossing the road w/o being able to hear what's going on outside at all… so yeah… (and since i tend to daydream and space out so much) 4) its decently priced… yeah, i spoil my earphones really fast, they last like about a year, so at 50 bucks i get decent quality - quality assured! (i see a lot of earphones in the 30-40+ price range outside anyway, or even more expensive), w/o having to spend a ridiculous amount (like 3 digit numbers) on something that i'll spoil rather fast. 5) i like and use the remote a lot… like to change songs or adjust the volumes… esp to change songs. not many earphones out there with remotes - if they do have remotes, they are like extremely expensive. saw one NOT THAT ex earphones during the IT show… was like 60+ or 70+ (note: still more ex than the apple ones), but the quality and make of the earphone/remote was quite bad… :S so even though my dad wanted to get it for me, i couldn’t bear to have him spend that much money on a lousy looking piece of earphones :X


so yeah, although i do want to get a better pair of earphones, most of them are WAY too pricey IMO… well i didn’t have enough time to test out the earphones in hmv today… maybe next time. But i did get this nice panasonic headphones at an IT show like… 2 years back? its cheap (like 40+?) but really good… very strong base, clear sound and superb noise canceling (it made the ultra noisy IT fair hall become completely silent, so what do ya think?). The only thing is that its too big for my to carry around, and its somewhat tight and not very comfortable to wear for long periods of time (or maybe I'm not used to it)… previously wore it for a few hours w/o adjusting properly… ended up my ear was somehow trapped under the headphones and it really ached for a long time after that :X so it wasn’t till recently that i started using it properly… cos using the iPhone earphones for too long can cause my ear to get really painful at times.


guess I'm getting more used to wearing the headphones now… and yes it plays lemon tree in the 'right' tone/way. shall try and use it more often from now on...


a sound system would indeed be good… actually my dad did buy me a good sound system like when i was in… (can't remember when… too long ago!)… but it plays by usb or cd (at that time mp3 players just came out, and the standard sizes were like… 256mb so yeah, that's really eons ago right?)… and i hardly listened to it so it got moved to my parents room a long time ago - and they hardly listen to it either… i can move it back anytime, but the thing is… almost every time when i want to listen to music, its like at 12mn… and since the aircon isn't working i can't like close the windows and draw and curtains and play my music :X sighs.


should occasionally play music with the hifi system in the living room too, but i don't like working in the living room and my parents don't quite like the music me and my sis likes so… :X


sighs… no space on my phone and comp, else I'd like to rip all the classical music CDs that my dad has too… he's got TONS of them cos he was really into classical music + hifi systems last time. not that he isn't now, but he just doesn’t have the time.


(wow, the headphones are really good, like as good as that 500buck speaker, or even better…)


last time me + my sis + her friend tried out the headphones/earphones in hmv… none of them were as good as this pair lol… so that made me really doubt the quality of earphones/headphones out in the market. like those were designed more for looks and stuff than really listening to music… we were testing with classical music btw… my sister listens to classics a lot… i don't, at least because i don't have space to put them in my comp now :S used to listen to it a lot when i was young cos my dad will be blasting it over his hifi system.


hmm, why all these talk about audio stuff today? i was just reading an article about lossless audio quality VS the compressed versions like mp3 formats… and since I'm completing my collection of arashi songs and i know someone's ripping the CDs in lossless format, I'm wondering if i should download those… one thing is that the metadata like plays will be 'lost' when i switch to a new version… the other is that it'll take up more space… and than the most important question is… do i really need such a good quality song? maybe… or maybe not. most of the time I'm listening outside, so with all the crap noise you can't hear a diff… and than I'm not sure if my iPhone earphones are even good enough to play the difference… and than i when I'm listening to songs, I'm doing other stuff too, like typing this entry or reading some paper or doing some work or playing some games. my attention is elsewhere rather than the song… if I'm engrossed in my work/thoughts, i might not even notice what song I'm listening to anymore… so why the better version when i won't even notice a difference?


of cos after reading the article i was also curious… can i even TELL the difference? with the influence from my dad, i am more sensitive to sounds than an average person (at least i hope so), but i can't quite claim myself to be a true audiophile… so yeah… what i've been doing so far if i download a copy of the song i already have is to play the start and see if there's any difference… some of them its easy to tell that the quality is better, some sound identical… even the number of seconds the song lasts for is identical… often I'd see 1 sec diff in the length of the tracks - indicating that the track is evidently from a different source (some can be cos of singles VS album difference too). if the new one is better, that i'll delete the old one, but if it’s the same I'd obviously keep the old one...


hmm i still have not gotten my better quality of the energy song track… downloaded the lossless version and indeed it is clear as a gem but… somehow the album was ripped as 1 track that lasts for 5x minutes… so i'll have to cut the song out myself :S (and in doing so i might just destroy the nice quality???)


worst still is that i've already finished downloading all the albums… do i want to redownload everything in lossless again? and than… do i still have apps to sacrifice for space to put my songs? haiz...


EDIT: ok, i've decided to re-dl all the albums i recently downloaded… since those were all 192kbps :S...


arghs… i'll have to xfer all the lyrics too...


 


meh… enough rambling… i'll stop here now!

coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Wheeeeeeeeeeee! EXAMS are OVER.

downloaded the songs from the meikyuu love song single the day before... previously the ones i had were the leaked version with particularly bad static - so much so that i didn’t listen even half a song (somehow it sounds really bad on my headphones, like i'm going deaf or smthing).

absolutely LOVE all the songs in the new single. like ALL of it... quite unlike the beautiful world album where i didn’t like most of the songs at the start tho they (slowly and surely) grew on me later after listening a few more times... this time round i like all the songs at 1st sight... opps, i mean play. or listen. watever. maybe its cos the songs are faster paced, and kinda... techno? but i like them anyway :)

energy song is really wonderful too. can't wait for the original track to be out... okays, gng out with my sis, gotta run...

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