A Quasi-Goodbye.

2012 is going to be a big year. No, not because of the impending apocalypse. No, that’s not real, but if it was, I’ll revise the previous statement.

In case you could not tell, the blog has been updated rather infrequently over the past year. No excuses, just pure laziness and, to be honest, lack of content. But I decided to do something different, change up the way this blog works. Ooo.. Twist.

Yes, my normal blogging style is going to be changed, somewhat. You’ll see. Post #1 of the new style will arrive Friday, or Saturday if I’m too exhausted to do everything. It’s going to be a departure from my previous posts, and a gimmick that will probably wear me out by Post #0.5, I.E. when I’m writing the first entry. Either way, it’ll be fun, I hope, and hopefully this marks the start of me actually writing stuff on this blog. Beyond!

Hugs & Kisses =)
-Tokyo Disneyland Busted!-

That Yearly Tradition.

A yearly tradition for this silly blog
On New Year’s Day, I rhyme, not talk
It was a year to remember in some ways, to forget in others
Along the way I’m sure I ruffled many feathers
Also last year I didn’t blog much
For my one reader, I seemed so out of touch

But oh well, 2011 is behind me, and I leave it with glee
Unfortunately with it, leaves some depressing memories
I’m speaking of the homework that awaits me when I awake
Oh, the horror, I really can’t take

I kid, somewhat, to make this rhyme longer
To make this post not quite so sombre
2012 is upon us, as apocalypse awaits
“We can’t stop it!” they say, “It is our fate.”
To them, whoever they are, I say get a brain
This year won’t be filled with regret and distain.
For 2012 will be awesome, I can fill it in my bones
My hands and my fingers, as I type on my iPhone
It has already started great, and I say it with no irony
If I had a band, I’ll play Beethoven’s ninth symphony

But alas, this post has to come to an end
Know that I’ll always love you, my reader(s), family and dearest best friend.
May 2012 be the year we strengthen our bond
I had to write that line in to end with a Beyond!

When She Loved Me.

When somebody loved me, everything was beautiful
Every hour we spent together, lives within my heart
And when she was sad, I was there to dry her tears
And when she was happy, so was I, when she loved me.

Through the summer and the fall, we had each other, that was all
Just she and I together, like it was meant to be
And when she was lonely, I was there to comfort her
And I knew that she loved me.

So the years went by, I stayed the same
And she began to drift away, I was left alone
Still I waited for the day, when she’d say “I will always love you.”

Lonely and forgotten, never thought she’d look my way,
She smiled at me and held me, just like she used to do,
Like she loved me, when she loved me

When somebody loved me, everything was beautiful,
Every hour we spent together, lives within my heart
When she loved me.

Something About a Wand.

There’s a cycle that happens in my life. I try to enjoy it every time this time hits, because it’s one that gives me hope. And inevitably, everything begins to crumble down like the domino effect that life is. But as Marshall Eriksen once said, “If you knew that you were going to lose your leg tomorrow, would you sit on the couch and cry about it, or would you run and jump and do some awesome air kicks while you still could?” Well, I choose air kicks.

That’s life, right? Nothing lasts forever; Hell, even the basis of life doesn’t last forever. And while we are alive, why not make the most of it?

That said.. How has everyone been? My blog has been doing it’s best impression of Syuhada’s, a version of the living dead. But not anymore more.. Yeah right.

By the way, that was a rhetorical question.

Testing out new earphones now. My old pair kicked the bucket yesterday, so decided to reward myself, spend a little more, and got a mid-range pair. That and I’ll keep the one year warranty this time. I go through earphones like underwear (An exaggeration, just in case you had doubts about my hygiene), so spending an extra couple of bucks of a pair that I’ll actually keep the warranty on and is so much better is probably worth it. Thanks to Rio, who will probably never read this, for the introduction!

Before that, went with Steph to get her wand. Let me say this – She got so excited when she got her wand. There was apprehension before, but upon contact, it was like someone put her into the Cruciatus Curse and turned her into a giddy twelve year old meeting Justin Bieber.. Or, in this case, Steph holding Snape’s wand. It was an awesome sight to behold, and made the months trying to find her a wand so worth it.

Going to go convert music now. School reopens in less than a week!! Beyond!

Hugs & Kisses =)
-Tokyo Disneyland or Bust!-

Haha

Hello

Goodbye, Steve.

There are really few people that I do not know on a personal level that I would tear up for if they died. Well, when I woke up to the news that Steve Jobs had passed away, I cried.

Words cannot describe how much of my life was influenced by one man. Apple and Pixar. Walk into my room and immediately, you realise those are the two brands that dominate my life. From the Toy Story memorabilia to the iPhone and MacBook Pro, his vision can be found in my room.

Jobs was an visionary. He saw the potential in things when others did not. Pixar was not an animation company when Jobs bought it. It was a hardware company that created shorts to promote its hardware. When the hardware side began to die, Steve sold it and rebranded it as an animation studio, and the rest is history.

He saved Apple from the depths of hell. The same company that kicked him out, he returned to make it the market leader that it is.

I don’t have many words to say about Steve Jobs that hasn’t been said and repeated. But I do want to say this. I don’t have many role models in life, but Steve Jobs is one of them. He didn’t want to be the richest man in the world; He just wanted to shape it, and damn it, look around you as you read this. He did.

R.I.P. Steve, and I’ll see you in heaven when time comes.

What If.

It’s over.

147 112 219

Cookie for anyone who gets the title.

You know who you should be thanking for this post? Syuhada. Why her? Well, she wrote a blog post today (lostinthemoment.wordpress.com if you want to read it), and in case you’re a new reader (Hi, Número Dos), my blog has running gags, one of which is Syuhada never updating her blog. It has spawned such phrases as “The day I die is the day Syuhada updates her blog.. Which means I’ll live forever” and “The story has changed”. Yeah.. If she posts, I post. Kind of a rule..

School’s over (Yippie!) and I’m bored. Like “I’m writing a blog post at 12:24am” bored. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the lack of TV shows that have turned me in.. I’ve also realised I have not replied my dear friend Stephanie on her suggestion of rewatching shows. Darn.. Didn’t see that SMS.

Rewatching was autocorrected to “treat hong”. I shut you not.

For those wondering, yes, that typo was intentional. My fingers typed Stephanie’s name as such and not Steph, so it sticks. Oh, and shut should be shit. Frack.

Speaking of school (Two paragraphs later.. See what brilliant transitions a Mass Comm student can make?), the first semester was fun.. Albeit uninteresting. I dunno.. It felt tame, almost too tame. Like the first season of The Office. It was okay, but it felt like the best was yet to come. Wow.. That analogy was perfect.

Next semester, with Location Video (LocVid) coming, I really cannot wait. It’s no secret I’ve been dying to shoot a real project/script for forever. And I’ve been dreaming of some stuff too (No shit, I dream of crap like this). Should be an interesting winter.

Ah.. If only Singapore had winter..

GamesCom is happening right now and fuck, was the Sony conference just amazing. Resistance on the Vita looked awesome and Escape Plan made me lol so hard. It looked flat out fun! And Uncharted 3′s demo blew me away. That should have been the E3 demo, and knowing that was at E3, I was disappointed.

And then, the bombshell. The PS3 price drop. Holy shit. That was just what the platform needed. Once the price drop hits Singapore, I’m telling everyone to buy the darn console. It’s the best all-in-one you can get, where you can watch videos (Blu-Ray or even stuff off your HDD), play games and more importantly, look at the Trophies I have =).

I’ll post something on Monday, hopefully with some pictures. Teaser.. Ooo.. Beyond!

Hugs & Kisses =)
-Tokyo Disneyland Busted!-

Flowers for Your Grave.

Ever had the feeling that something inside of you died? That’s the most apt description of the way I’m feeling now. And a slow & silent clap for anyone who gets the title without Googling it. And no, using Bing doesn’t count… Bing. Lols.

For anyone who follows the blog, you would note that I’ve been MIA for the past 2 months sans 8 days, so it’s technically more of a one and a half month but I’m going off track here.. Where was I? Yes, MIA-ness. I would give the “I was way too lazy” excuse (True to some extent), or maybe even the my life was way too boring (Not true), but the fact is that the past month and a half has been trying for me.

See, while blogs are technically online diaries, I don’t view it as such. I view my blog as a way to let people inside a little part of how my brain operates, a platform if you will to express my thoughts and feelings. It isn’t, however, a free-for-all of information regarding Jeremy Hong. I never meant for it to be that.

Why do I mention this? Well, the past year, 2011, has been a really rickity one. There has been a ton of stuff that happened that has screwed with my head. I’m not saying that I’m not happy; God knows it’ll take something major to bring me down. But it’s been tough nonetheless. I didn’t want that negativity to spill over into this blog. So I just decided not to put my thoughts into words. That’s all. Simple as that.

I’ll try to be more upbeat about life next blog post, be it a month or two down the line. Or maybe even tomorrow. All I know is, tomorrow, I need to get my ass up and start living life. Beyond!

Hugs & Kisses =)
-Tokyo Disneyland Busted!-

A Crazy Thought That Manifested Itself Into a Long Ass Post.

People don’t understand my dilemma.

Okay, for those who don’t know, I probably have the slowest Mac in Mass Comm right now. At least among the Year 1s. The reason is simple. I got my MacBook Pro for Christmas in 2008. Back then, it was the bomb. It was super fast & and all that jazz.

Three years on, with software getting better and software getting higher specs all round, my MacBook Pro has become a turtle. In fact, the upcoming release of Mac OS X Lion has my Mac as the minimum specifications required. Ridiculous, yes.

But the truth remains – My Mac is nearing its third birthday. I haven’t really felt the need to change my Mac yet in MCM, but that’s because I have yet to really need to utilise my
Mac’s power this semester. And even then I’m feeling the heat. It has an atrocious boot time, my applications take forever to load, and even then crash frequently.

I know the logical thing to do is to restore my Mac. But it’s not gonna solve the main issue at hand, which is that I’m using a Hyundai against the rest’s Ferraris.

Thus, I’ve waited. The arrogant part of me wanted to wait for the MacBook Pro redesign so that I can stick out in a good way. But when is it going to come? I’ve always said October, but now, I’m having doubts. The new MacBook Airs & Mac Minis are set to launch July – August, and there’s this lingering doubt in me that Apple will launch another laptop-based product so soon.

Okay, here’s the dilemma. Next semester I’m going to take Location Video. Editing video is a giant pain in the butthole. Even back when I first had the MacBook Pro it still took forever to render stuff. Now, with my obsession with HD video (And more recently Full HD 1080p ones to boot), I’m beginning to think if my good ole MacBook Pro can handle it. Remember..

A) It’s slow.
B) It crashes a lot.
C) Yeah, pretty much those two.

So, what’s really the dilemma here? Well, it means I’m kind of forced to upgrade in a way. But here’s the kicker – Suddenly, I’m beginning to thinking getting the 11.6″ MacBook Air would make a whole load of sense.

Okay, before you come up to me with pitchforks, hear me out. The MacBook Air is around S$1349 (Something I don’t think will change) and a low-end iMac is around S$1648. The latter has around the same specs of a 15″ MacBook Pro (If I were to get one now). The total price of both devices would also roughly equate to the price of a MacBook Pro.

Of course then, the question of it is “Why not just get the MacBook Pro?” Well, there’s two reasons.

The first one is kinda obvious and it is the fact that the you get two devices for the price of one! And the second, well, the Pro is hell to my shoulders. The Air? I could dump it in my sling bag and wouldn’t even notice it was in it.

Now, you’ll probably ask me about the whole “editing video” thing I brought up earlier. I mean, wouldn’t the MacBook Pro wipe the MacBook Air all over the park? Yeah, it will, but think about it logically.

The most logical reason why I’ll ever need to edit video outside is group work. Now, most of my classmates have Pros, and thus the entire editing solution can be handled on their Macs instead of mine. And if I ever edited video solo, I would just bring it home.

Of course, there are situations where I will have to do my work solo, namely Radio Production. Well, yes, there will be a disadvantage, I won’t lie. But judging from reviews, the flash memory really helps to offset the general performance disadvantage, and audio editing is not CPU-intensive.

So that addresses the power concern that I have. Why did I blog this? I don’t know really. I guess I needed somewhere to rationalise this. I mean, there are other stuff that I’ve considered (The fact that both the iMac & Air have 16:9 displays), but I guess I pretty much convinced myself this is what I need to do. Now, time to ask my mother.. Beyond!

Hugs & Kisses =)
-Tokyo Disneyland or Bust!-