It's the beat.

Monkey and Doggy

Feeling: ?
Current Love: NY Excuse (justice remix) - Soulwax

My eyes hurt, and it's the annoying itchy lack-of-sleep kind of pain. It's been a week and a day since the fall semester had ended, and I haven't been doing much than sitting around home. which is quite enjoyable.
The last day of the semester wasn't as dramatic as I had imagined or expected from past experiences. After my last final (ME270) ended Saturday morning in the middle of the snow storm, I didn't feel the relief that I should have felt. I was looking forward to finishing finals, but nothing? I suppose ME didn't go as well as I had hoped, but it wasn't terrible either.
My day wasn't quite over yet as I had been scheduled to DJ with Mayowa for AZ and Snebtor's party. My parents picked me up from campus and had lunch with me, but I soon departed to prepare for the night.
Mayowa and I spent most of the afternoon preparing our setup and set. We headed over to the party house around 7. The snow had been falling nonstop, and the road conditions were looking pretty bad. There was probably a good 1/2 foot of snow by the time we arrived. We did a quick soundcheck and went out to grab food and party favors from Wal-mart, which may have been a poor idea considering I couldn't tell which side of the road I was driving on. But we made it back safely just when the party was commencing.

Blackheat was up first. I wasn't sure what to expect of them from their Myspace music which sounded pretty dark and droney. But they DJed a pretty decent set with a lot of French Electro and my favorite tunes with the likes of Digitalism and Midnight Juggernauts.
AZ busted out his beats next as I took over his door duties. Not too many drunk people at this point, but one chick did almost slip off the stairs. Pixiu from Beatkids transitioned into his party mashups right after AZ's set. I thought he was pretty good, but some people complained about his tracks being to choppy. :shrug:
Mayowa and I went on around 1:15. My intro went well, but I freaked out abit when Mayowa's outputs weren't coming through. My song was just looping and I was pretty much like "fuck". I don't remember what I did, but things started working thankfully.
I thought overall our set went better than I expected apart from my Mac freaking out a few times. The crowd seemed to have fun too. We ended sometimes after 3 and packed up. The party was still happening upstairs with some weird drunk jam session.
Drove back to the apartment in the thick layers of snow with Mike, Andrew, and Andrew's friend that I don't remember the name of.
-------------
Looking back on the semester, here's what I have to say about my classes.
Diffeq: I was seriously worried about getting a B in this class mostly due to the fact my failed the first exam. But in the end, the class was pretty easy. Somehow got a 96 on the final, which is impressive, but I don't know if that's before/after the curve. My professor could have been better, but I guess it's not as horrible as mine for linear algebra.
Physics E&M: fuck physics.
Stat for engineers: worse class ever. I'm pretty glad that I switched out of IE, because the department is going down the drain. My professor is horrible. I understand better by reading one paragraph out of the book than listening to her lecture for an hour; and even the book isn't very well written.
CS: The infamous Bill Crums... wasn't too awful, although I didn't learn anything in this class besides how to compile C in Unix. What a waste of my time.
Mechanics: Probably the only class I enjoyed, but sadly my final B average spurred the same jaw dropping wtf as I did for Sociology last semester. The final exam probably got me pretty bad, which is unfortunate. Disappointment, disappointment...

So that's about the end of my meh semester. And what's better to top it off than my last clove? My trusty pack of Black have been with me since the Hookah nights of summer, survived the steaming moshpit of Gregg Gillis, and stuck around for those crazy drunks nights. I smoked the last one last Sunday morning, while I enjoying the snowy view from my apartment balcony before spending half and hour trying to get my car out of the snow. Horrays.

The end of something great, but perhaps the start of something wonderful?

ファイナルファンタジ

So I've been crazy excited for Final Fantasy Crisis Core ever since it was announced way back when. It's been so long! yet only the Japanese release thus far. No matters, March isn't that far away.
From the reviews thus far, it seems like Crisis Core is A++; so I'm relieved that it's not just another exploit of the FF7 series. The graphic and gameplay seems superb for the PSP engine. Check it:

ZOMG. Actually, I'm not a big Sephiorth fan...

Hot cut scene action.

What is this brat doing here? Also, I wonder if Uffie got her name from Yuffie...

And the trailer for Crisis Core

Can't wait!
Speaking of 7, Last Order is on youtube. It is the animated short of the two critical cut scenes from FF7 in which Crisis Core is centered around.




------------------------------
While we're all things Final Fantasy today, Square had announced a game called Dissidia back in May as part of the 20th anniversary of the FF serie. The game is a 3-D action -fighter type of deal for the PSP. Looks interesting, but I'm not nearly as excited about it as I am with CC.


How is 13 coming along? Haven't heard much.
FFXIII trailer


But lastly, where my Chrono Break at :(

"Oh no you didn't."

Y2K8

New York Style

Y2k8 will be bumping this year in the Silent Barn aka. the middle of nowhere. Of course, that just makes the party cooler.
I will be kicking out the jams with some "indie disco beats". I'm not 100% sure what that is, but hell, it will be rocking, and grooving. My friend Bradley D, also an organizer of the event, will be DJing his old school pop hit mash-ups (beware of Marvin Gaye...)

I'm looking forward to meeting all the other artists and watching them perform.
I'm expecting Neon Coyote to throw down mash-ups of great electro/house/pop/hip-hop goodness. ( I'm guessing that they play with Ableton)
Lismore reminds me a lot of Metric, mostly because lead singer Penelope carries Emily Haines persona. But, musically, I don't think the two are as comparable as Lismore has a great danceable electronic sound.
To keep the dancing going until end of 07 will the the Venezuelan party jammer Todosantos. They carry the happy electro sound with a hint of Brazilian spice---- a diplofied version of CSS kind of deal. They will also be doing visuals, neat.
Lastly, Ninjasonik will be closing out the night by making everyone's y2k8 tight pants tighter. If electropop rap is a real genre, Ninjasonik would fall under it. Hopefully everyone will not have passed out at this point to rock hard to the last beats.

I'm not too sure what to expect as craziness will likely ensue, but it will be a rocking good time with non-stop dancing.

check it:

Bradley D - "Justice at Roxbury"
Lismore - "Paradis"
Neon Coyote - "I Just Want to D.A.N.C.E. with You"
Ninjasonik - "Internet Bitch"
Todosanto - "OMG We Got It"

vids are great too:

Tight Pants! (Ninjasonik)


"Shake that ass to the beat"(Todosanto)

"It was acceptable in the 80's"

"I created Disco"

Damn those British and their eye candies. Scotland native Calvin Harris is bringing back the 80s with his beats and most importantly, his fly eyes.

Mix:
Here's a nice remix of Merrymaking by Mr. Oizo of Ed Banger, and a tropical remix of CSS by Harris.

"Merrymaking at my place (Mr Oizo remix)" - Calvin Harris
"Let's make love and listen to death from above (Calvin Harris remix)" - CSS


But mostly importantly, watch and learn from Harris on making those snazzy fly eyes.

"This Thansgiving, arrive hungry... leave stuffed"

"Put your hands up for Mamaark Ronson"

Feeling: Stuffed
Current Love: Boys Noize - "& Down"

Phew. Thanksgiving is over, end of school is near. It's funny how fast a semester goes past. From my point of view, it doesn't feel like that I've learned very much, but I'm ready for physics and statistics to be over with.
Thanksgiving was much fun. My family had a grand party as usual, although this year I didn't have to cook the turkey. Instead I roasted lamb for the first time in my life. In turned out fairly well for a first attempt, and I received positive feedbacks too. woot.
I made the usual mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, etc. This year I invited my friends, who were either townies or stuck here for the holidays, over for the dinner party too.
They were fairly bedazzled by the amount and variety of foods in front of them. We ate, planned Black Friday, played 360, and learned a Kpop dance.
Oh, how could I forget, we also watched our guests (mostly my neighbors) get intoxicated, which lead to one passing out and , I'm fairly certain, throwing up in my laundry room. I'm pretty sure that's never happened at my house before as far as I was aware, but in the drunk guy's defense, I can see him being the type to do so.
Mike made a comment about how all the adults were getting drunk while we are sober, which is the reverse of what usually happens. Oh irony.

I wasn't so excited about Black Friday this year as there weren't anything I really wanted to get. But I did decide to go out just for the atmosphere. I stayed up all night and headed out around 3:30 AM. Driving through Lafayette made me reminisce about Black Friday two years ago. It's hard to describe the feeling, but it's some kind of peace that you feel within... until you pass Best Buy.
The line was all the way around the building as usual. Except this year, I didn't have to be in it, so I felt nice and warm in my car... until I got out outside of the Mall.
I stopped by Kohl's first since they're the first to open at 4 AM ---- mess.
I felt somewhat out of place just walking around and browsing as everyone else was either waiting in the massive line or rushing to snag items. The line was discouraging. Even if I found anything, I didn't want to wait that long, so I left and meandered around the empty mall.
I've never been inside the mall when it was empty, so the experience was interesting. It was also interesting to see the type of people waiting in front of stores for them to open. Not just that, the type of people walking around too: Teenagers strolling with their best pal in one hand, and a cup of coffee in another; moms already loaded with bags in both hands; and just the most random people who were just there for the hell of it.

I pretty much walked back and forth the two end of the mall, going into stores as they opened. I snagged a mini fondu set at Sears right before the lines got long, and that was really the extent of my shopping besides a sweater.
I headed home around 7 just as the sun was rising. Tired, passed out.

5 PM was when I woke up. I didn't do very much all day except return Jame's 360 and play Halo3 at his place with Mike. Unproductive, but fun.

Saturday was unproductive too, so I won't go into details, but today I went out to Radio Chiguiro again. I was suppose to go in with Mayowa, but I later found out his flight from Cali was delayed.
Leo was there though, and Mike showed up later. The set didn't go as well as I expected, probably because I was still abit nervous... Oh well.
I stayed after to chat with people and drew with Leo till the place closed at 6. Unfortunately today was the last day of the exhibit, so I gave one last look of the radio before it turns back into a bleak white of nothingness. (ok, maybe not that dramatic, but it's a shame all the art will be gone)

"Music sounds better with you"

Sir Wolf

Feeling: Relieved
Current Love: Mark Ronson ft. Lilly Allen - "Oh My God"

Done!
... for now at least. It felt great yesterday to be done with homework, but today's classes went by sooo slow. After a night of partying and getting roughly 4 hours of sleep, I headed for my 8:30 physics and barely stayed awake; alas, I learned nothing. I wandered off to CS only to find no one present --- oh right, class was canceled. Unfortunately I still had more classes to attend, so I ended up taking a nap in the union.
Physics recitation was at 10:30. My group finished in 30 minutes, so I grabbed food before my CS lab at McDonald's. There, I ran into my friend Kevin, whom I haven't seen since our random bus meet last semester. We chatted for a bit, and he seems to be doing well.
Lab was somewhat frustrating as my partner and I spent pretty much the entire lab trying to fix one function to read data. So that means the rest of the program is homework.

After what it felt like a long long day of class, I can now finally relax in front of my computer and sleep to my heart's content. Also, no work tonight. W00t! As far as Thanksgiving plans goes, I got none. I will probably go home tomorrow and prepared for the dinner party Thursday. Hopefully by then I will have black Friday strategies figured out, if I am not so lazy this year.

Anyways, moving on...

This past weekend was more or less, very spontaneous, but awesome.
Friday's highlight was the "Above Amused" site installation put on by Purdue Art Grad students. I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be surprisingly wonderful and refreshing. I also got to see and chat with a lot of friends and met some new ones.

I was introduced to Snebtor, who ran a haxxed radio called Radio Chiguiro. Actually, I've seen him at Mike's Zombie dance party a few weeks back, doing visuals for AZ, who also played later in the night. (more on that later) The cool part of it all is that everyone seemed to have a passion for music and art and tries to bring that to the community, which is rare to see in Lafayette.

AZ playing, before PA got all funky

I stuck around till 10 ish to see AZ and Sweet Sixteens play. I got a good look of AZ's setup this time, which included a beat sampler, synth sampler, distortion, and other things. Basically he loop beats and synth, but it sounds really cool. It's really something I would want to do if I had the equipments, but I'll just stick to my laptop for now.
Sweet Sixteens followed after his set was over. Apparently Sara's boyfriend is the guitarist. It's my first time seeing them, and their sound reminded me of Eagles of Death Metal: happy short and rock n' roll.

Photos from Above Amused:

--------------------------------------------

Saturday was a whole another story...I'll spare the details, because I can.
Fast forward to 3:30 pm: Mayowa called me to go into Chiguiro for a live DJ set. I'm not gonna lie, I was not very sober at that point and didn't have anything prepared. After some exchange, he convinced me to go. I figured what the hell, it's all fun and games even if I screw up horribly.
I got ready and headed over to the studio. Snebtor helped us set up, and Mayowa started with his set while I pulled stuff together to make something out of nothing. I was kind of scared, but at the same time I didn't care so much.
My set was ok, but not awesome. After my set, Mayowa and I collaborated with our lappys to end the show. It was hard beat matching manually, (especially with two different programs: he was running Traktor and I was running Ableton), but we pulled off alright. Snebtor seemed to enjoyed, so that was good. He invited us back for next week, and hopefully by then we'll be more prepared.

After finishing around 6, I headed over to Mike's for a Thanksgiving dinner party. It was chill and fun. I played Mahjong with the Asians, ate Turkey etc and cookies, played Wii, and had a blast.

bazz2.0

Makeover!

Bazzooka Network now has a new face.
This should have happened a long time ago.
Things are still under construction, and suggestions are welcome.

Enjoy!

2000000000???

Flickr hit 2000000000 (that's two billion) pictures uploaded on the 13th. Yes, that is the picture, slightly modified. It's not that awesome, but I can see it being so much worse.

My last picture post on Flickr was #1698163723 on Oct. 22. If I did my math correctly, there would have been an average post of 13,123,316.4 pictures per day till Nov. 13 to reach 2 billion pics. Impressive.

Congrats Flickr, now give us more space for pictars!

Fall Fall Fall Falling

Feeling: Still abit sick, but : )
Current Love: "Any Way You Choose To Give It (The Whip Remix)" - The Black Ghost

Yatta! It's friday.
Friday puts in a great mood. Perhaps it's the warm autumn ray trickling through the shades of orange and yellow, or perhaps it's the sense of accomplishment--- another week survived.

The weeks have been flying past very quickly, probably because of the amount of work I have to do/plan on doing. It's nice staying busy, which makes having time to relax feel so much more enjoyable.
The past two weeks have been filled with exams. Physics was abit dissapointing, ME score surprised me... in a good sense. But I'm happy about that, considering that takes off a lot of worries I had for the class. CS was last night, and it went alright, and finally, quiz in IE class today, my last class of the day.

Not sure what the weekend will hold, but we'll see.

"It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!"

Feeling: Sick.
Current Love: "I Get Around (Midnight Juggernauts remix)" - Dragonette

Runny nose is a bummer, but I seem to get it all the time unfortunately. Homecoming weekend probably contributed much to my current health state, but I can't really complain.
The past few weeks have been fairly hectic; perhaps engineering is finally starting to drag me down. Looking at my schedule for next semester, I don't think things will get any easier. Exams are coming up in the following weeks, and after that will be Thanksgiving, which I'm fairly looking forward to.

Going back to the weekend, it was much fun as it was random and tiring. The weekend was :
A. Purdue homecoming
B. Halloween weekendish
C. Visit from friends/hanging out with friends

A. Even though I didn't partake it any homecoming activities, I did end up going to the game agaisnt Northwestern on a whelm as I was dragged into going. But the great part was that Mike was able to get me in for free, which was impressive in his not-very-sober state. The game ended up being fairly fun, and I was glad that I tagged along.
B. The Muse was set to open Fri., and I was looking forward to it/the halloween party...except it didn't open. I was mostly disappointed because of all the hard work I put in. I won't rant about my boss, but she could be handling things better. Nonetheless, I still got to wear my Nascar-hick turned "Busy E" attire Saturday.
Speaking of Saturday...but I should probably go back to Thursday. Me and Mike's friend Brad came down to visit from NYC, because his parents (Purdue alumni) were in town for Homecoming. Brad's brother Jeff and Jeff's roommate also came down Friday. Anyways, we all went out for Karaoke Saturday night in our costumes. (The best was probably Jeff's banana suit) I ran into Ester, who left for Korean 3 years ago and just came back this semester for college. She called my name, and I turned over to see an unfamiliar face -- she looks completely different! Seconds later, it struck me. I'm not completely sure why, but I realized it was her and gave her a warm greeting.
Karaoke was fun times, but the party was just beginning. After stopping by Morgan's dance party with Connie, we converged later with everyone at Noel's party, conveniently located across from my apartment. Dancing ensued, to the beat of the mixtape I made earlier in the day in a very tired/inebriated/half-asleep state. It turned out ok, but I was mostly happy that people were enjoying/dancing to it, so, mission accomplished.

C. Just because this whole post is not very chronological and most likely confusing, I'm going to go back to Friday.
Friday was Rumi's birthday, so Brad and I joined her for dinner at Asahi along with her entourage. We waited for awhile to get seated, and even longer for a chief to cook for us, and to our luck, we got the overly annoying, slightly homoerotic, Malaysian blabbermouth. The food wasn't as good as I had recalled even though I was starving from all the waiting. Oh well.
Dinner took awhile, by the time we got back to Rumi's, it was already 11ish. She got ready to hit the bars while all her friends flocked in one-by-one as midnight approached.
Around 12:30 am, the masses migrated to the bars, while I stayed behind. John was nice enough to keep me company since he didn't really drink, so we decided to make boba aka. bubble tea at my place. We listened to music, watched videos, debated about Jens Lekman's current home, and had a boba fight. All in all it was fun, but I was pretty dead by 3 and called it a night.

So, that's about it in summary, oh wait.




Now I'm done.

""But we just want to dance..."

Feeling: Sore
Current Love: "Shadows" - Midnight Juggernauts

Justice.

I have been looking forward to this show for over 3 month, and alas I have to say I came out somewhat disappointed.

I first learned of Justice's US tour Chicago stop the night of Pitchfork. Mike and I were both super excited. We even heard some kid from Ohio talking about it before Klaxons' set Sunday. This lead to another funny story.
Mike got the kid's number and finally called him the night before the show at 2 in the morning. He picked up, and Mike asked him if he was going. He replied yes, and said something along the lines of "can I go back to sleep now?" I was surprised that he was going, but unfortunately we didn't meet up with him before/after the show.

Anyways, the crew (Mike, Cara, John, and I) left West Lafayette around 6:30. The show was at 9 Chicago time, but we didn't make it to the Metro until 8:45 due to several pit stops and delays. (both on the road and in the city)
We made it in just when Midnight Juggernauts came on, and the floor was already pretty packed. Their set was short, and the sound wasn't so great at some point. (the venue's fault). "Shadows" was great live.

I almost forgot. No merch! none at all. I was looking forward to getting a Jugg tour shirt. Why do you hate us...?

Getting back to the story.
We had been slowly creeping up towards the front during Jugg's set and Justice's set-up. The space was getting tighter and reminiscence of pitchfork came back. After 20 some minutes, the metal playing on the speakers finally cut out, and the crowd chanted for Justice.

The duo ascended to their cross throne, and "Genesis" descended upon us.
The crowd went wild when the first chorus hit. Everyone was jumping, including me. Air was slowly depleting and the temperature was rising; I had a good feeling that this is going to be Klaxons all over again.
The girls behind us definitely did not except this.
"What the hell is going on? I just want to dance!" one cried out.
Looking back, I feel kind of bad for them. I think things could have been better if the crowd wasn't so rowdy and didn't have so many jackasses.

Justice's set was also lacking. The overall mood was rather edgy, and I wish they had played more happy tunes like "Just Jack" and "DVNO", and more covers. The encore of Metallica was pretty interesting/odd.

---
It rained the whole way back. We got back around 4 and I didn't get to bed till 5. I had no intentions of going to my morning classes, and I did just that. Got up around 1, ate, studied for my exam at 7, took the exam, and I was home free. What a great day.

Also, Klax in French? I guess they're fitting with the Parisian scene pretty well. I'm not a big fan of the version though, but the Justice remix is ++.

Mooncake, Mooncake

Feeling: Pensive
Current Love: "Yeah Yeah" - Bodyrox

This weekend has been rather chill. Slow, but still good. After finishing classes on Friday, I studied for awhile in the Union and chatted with Sami after he came over. (Maybe it was more like me listening to him talk about how he got raped by his Physics test) I made dinner, studied more, and watched TV. I was waiting for some calls to make plans for the night, but it was around 11, and I still haven't heard from anyone. Matt texted me to join him at a party, so I agreeded since I had nothing else to do. The host was his old roommate who is hispanic. Everyone at the party was hispanic. I'm pretty sure both Matt and I felt awkward being there, so we left after awhile. We picked up Connie from her house and met up with Andrew, Jen, Raj, and Molly at a party in Jen's apt. complex. Surprisingly, Nikhil was there, and I later discovered he lived next to that apartment. I had a good conversation with him in his slap-happy state. I also got to steal some music from him, which is always a plus. I left around 3 and passed out.

I want to kick the habit of sleeping in super late on weekends. I woke up at 1 Saturday morning, which is an ok time. Mike called, and I went downstairs to make lunch with him. Tasty bok-choi and beef stir-fry. We studied and did laundry before he had to work at 6 at Bea One. I went with him though, because I wanted to talk to the owner about doing graphic works. She was surprisingly young. I think everything went well, so I was pretty happy about that.

More study ensued after I left. Studying never gets tiring, right?
I ate at Panera (ran into Mayowa) and stayed there until 9. I switched locations to the Village Coffehouse but didn't stay very long as I had gotten a call from X. He was studying as well, so I invited him over to my place to have a study party. He brought me chicken curry from his house, which was pretty tasty. I slacked off though and pretty much just ended up watching foodTV. He left around midnight, and I met up with the crew at another party. That party did not have the best vibe, so we left for another, which turned out to be fairly cool.

It was a roof party above Von's with live music and of course, drinking. Mike came after he got off of work around 2, and we had fun watching/stalking drunk people. There was this one guy who walked like a zombie due to his drunkenness. (Also, I learned from this weekend that drunk people can be scary. I don't like it)

Mike and I left abit before 4 as the party died down but had enough time to grab food at the Rice Cafe before it closed. We ordered "Egg Foo Young", which is apparently fried egg with meat and veggies. It was tasty nonetheless. Passed out at 5 and surprisingly woke up at 1.
I went downstairs to borrow a pot and woke up Luke in the process. I decided to make lunch with him, so I pulled out my marinated chicken and veggies and made tomatoe mushroom penne. I was really happy with how the chicken turned out, so I'm excited to cook the rest when I get around to it.

Studied, did more work.

My parents wanted me to come home for dinner, because we had neighbors over, so I agreed and rode home with my dad at 6. Ate dumplings, ribs, tofu, noodles, etc. The usual party food.

-----

I feel like there's so much homework/work I have to do, but in reality, it's really not that much? I don't know. I guess I like having things to do, but sometimes having nothing gives a good sense of acomplishment.
:shrug:

"We dress just like Cid and Nancy"

Feeling: Exhausted
Current Love: "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" - Daft Punk

Is it the weekend yet? I'm completely exhausted of energy at the moment from lacking sleep in the past 30 hours. But yet, I'm still excited about summing up my weekend at two in the morning.



FRIDAY

I woke up at 9:35 for my Diffeq class and received a text from Matt:
"You want to come to the Threadless opening?"

What.
I have been wanting to go all week, and it was surprising that he was going. Basically, the online/Chicago based company just opened a retail store and was "throwing a party" at the Metro= free shows.
After ironing out some kinks in the plan, I agreed to tag along with Matt and his friend Mike (the driver) for a weekend road trip to Chicago.

I went to my math class at 10:30 and got ready/packed before going to Mechanics at 2:30. I had to skip my 3:30 Stat class since the show was scheduled to start at 6, and we wanted to avoid traffic.
After food, gas, getting lost (solely a fault on my part), we finally got on 61 around 4:30. Lucky for us, there was an accident a mile or so down the road, and the traffic was in congestion for about 15 mins. Some car/truck was flipped on its side by the road. Eh.
The rest of the drive went smoothly and we got into Chicago just around 6. (Chicago time!) The store was a lot smaller than I had imagined from looking at pictures, but the LCD screens were super neat. I took a few pictures but did not buy anything.
The store was in the Depaul area, so Mike dropped his car off at his friend Ben's, whose apt. we later crashed at. Ben came with us to the Metro, but it took him forever to get ready. Taking the train took awhile and getting lost did not help either (not my fault this time; I was actually the one who noticed we were going in the wrong direction). We finally made it to the Metro around 8:30, where the last band, Hey Mercedes, was setting up. I was disappointed that I missed Anathallo, the band I really wanted to see, but I couldn't complain too much considering the show was free.
Hey Mercedes turned out to be punk/emo/whatever, and we all agreed that it wasn't super. We left after 40 mins. and followed Ben to his friend's party.

The party started out small and grew exponentially with time, until it hit the limit, and then decreased. It was fun talking to people, but the highlight had to be the piss-ass-drunkard.
Everyone first noticed him when he locked himself inside the bathroom throwing up for awhile. He disappeared after that, and everyone assumed he left. But later he comes out of no where, stumbles into the kitchen, where I was sitting with others. You can tell that he was about to blow as he tried making his way to the door. I watched in silent and waited for the moment...
BAM! He blasted.
The projection was rather impressive. Red liquid and chucks were splattered all around the entrance to the laundry room. Seeing as the front door was too far, the drunkard dashed for the immediate window in the laundry room and rained down from the second floor.
Oh but it gets better.

Two minutes later, a group of guys walked up from their smoke break, not looking very happy. Apparently, they got hit by the drunk's puke as the window was directly above the front door. Luckily, they didn't get too much on them, but the turn of events is still hilarious.

The hosts freaked out when people started throwing up, so they wanted everyone to leave. Ben was in the pool of people that threw up, and he was pretty wasted. We ended up hailing a cab, because he didn't want to walk, and the cab driver was really dumb.
$10 later, we made it back safely and called it a night.

SATURDAY

Mike and I woke up bright and early Saturday night. We had to pick up Matt from the apt. where we partied, because he ended up staying there for various reasons. Naturally, we made fun of him.
The plan for Saturday was going up to Libertyville, Mike's hometown. The place is about 40 minutes north of Chicago.
On our way there, I dropped into the first "Oasis" I've ever been to. It's basically a consolidation of fast food haven. I wanted to get a Gyro, but Mike recommended a local place. Since we were close to out destination, we left and ended up eating at the Gyro place. I enjoyed it, even though the meat was super salty.
We sat and watched TV at Mike's house for awhile, regaining energy and figuring out our next move. After some time, Mike's light bulb lit up, and he had a surprise in store for us.

I was pretty curious as to where he was taking us. We made a pit stop at Caribou Coffee (my first time to the chain), and ended up in the rich neighborhood. Mike led us to the end of a street, where sets of wooden stairs delve onto a beach and the sound of wave splashing lingered in the air. It was a very pleasant surprise. I had no idea the town was right by the lake, and I have not been to a beach for over a year.

We spent a long time at the beach. Everything felt calm, happy, and peaceful. I imagined how wonderful it would be if I lived in such an area. Everyday, on the beach.
But Indiana, in the end, is just Indiana.

Mike planned a get-together with his friends for the night. His dad bought him alcohol from the store and apparently doesn't care that he or his friends drink in the house. We grabbed food with his friends at a Thai restaurant for dinner, and regrouped back at his house.
The night was also his high school's homecoming, so his sister and friends were hanging out upstairs while "us college kids" partied in the basement.
We danced and raved to Daft Punk (Interstellar 5555), and later Matt taught us to swing dance. We danced the night away, and before long, everyone parted, and it was already 1 A.M. I had work Sunday morning, so I requested that we leave in the morning. Mike planned on staying up, and we all ended up staying up before leaving around 5.
By the time I got into the car, I was ready to pass out. At some point down the highway, I noticed Mike pulling into a gas station. Apparently his car was heating up, so he had to buy some coolant. Problem solved? Except some times later (I really don't remember how long, because I was pretty much drifting in and out of sleep), he stopped again because the car was still heating up. He called his dad and found the problem. Good, we're really on our way now.

I felt a little guilty for having Mike drive all the way back at this hour. I could tell that he was barely hanging on towards the end. I'm just glad I made it back safely.

SUNDAY

After getting back, I showered and got ready for work. The weather was terrific, which made the 20 minute walk fairly pleasant. I haven't gone back to work in over 3 weeks, so I had no idea what's up these days. The hours went by pretty easy as I just had to resort some books. The rest of the time was devoted to ME homework.

The rest of the day wasn't that exciting.
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Sooo, looking back, it was a good weekend with fond memories.
Also, I miss Chicago.

Onward, Week Three

Feeling: Productive
Current Love: Emergency - Passion

Phew. This week has gone by super fast. Stressful, but overall good.

The Industrial Roundtable was Tuesday and Wednesday. Although companies were that enthused about recruiting interns, I had a fun experience and was motivated to look further into getting an internship over the summer. I'm fairly interested in interning with UPS, a consumer company like General Mills, or a tech company like IBM or Motorola. Also, free things are good.

Another time consuming task this week was the interviews for SCC recruits. It was fun to be honest, getting to converse with the applicants and pose questions. I guess the pool of candidates weren't as crappy as I had expected, so that's good. Next week consists of two days of formal interviews. Yay for more work.
Speaking of SCC, there has been some drama/tension lately. I won't go into details, but I find the whole situation amusing. Things will straighten out, I hope.

The weather has cooled down considerably within the week, and it's so nice. I had a productive day today of attending class, finishing homework, stopping by SMEF (Management job fair), and going to work. I received my first graphic assignment of the year and am pretty excited. It's a bit technical, but I think I will enjoy it regardless.

No plans for the weekend yet.

C-A-I-R-O-O-O

Feeling: ?
Current Love: "Digitalism in Cairo" - Digitalism

Ello. There are a lot of things that I want to blog about, but I have been lazy/wasn't in the mood to do so.

I guess first and foremost: school.

It is now the 3rd week of classes, and everything has been going fairly well. The class I am liking the most at the moment is Mechanics. I've heard good things about the professor, and he is, well, fairly good. The problem I can't seem to overcome is that I am always tired/sleepy in there. Perhaps it's the post-lunch laziness, but the instance I sit down, my eyes do not want to be open. Sitting in the 2nd row isn't alleviating the situation either.
Speaking of sleeping, I also have a tendency to doze off in Physics E&M and C-programming. Physics is more challenging this year, so I'm actually paying attention in class/taking notes. CS has so far been review material for me, so crosswords all the way. The professor Bill Crums is infamous for his hated way of conducting the course. So far it's been ok, so I hope to see soon what the rave is all about.
Sadly, Diffeq has not been as fun as I had hoped. At this rate, I don't know if I want to take anymore classes. And lastly, there's my IE stat class. Our lecturer has a tendency to go off on a tangent about herself, and I get the vibe that majority of students in the class doesn't really care about the class. I'm not a big fan of stats, but I suppose it's getting better now that things are more mathematical, but I didn't do too well on the first quiz/hmwk.

Work.

I'm back in the newsroom now. The first day wasn't very exciting, perhaps because I was composing the sports page. Everything is still pretty much the same. Minus a few familiar faces. I haven't checked in with Follett's for two weeks. I am not really sure if I want to work regular hours over the semester. It's so far away and not the most exciting.

Food.

Cooking has been enjoyable even if I still lack essential cookware. (pots) I have found love in making tasty sandwiches and melts, while experimenting with ingredients, especially meat. (Tasty pastrami...) I have ate out on few occasions. The new restaurant down the street called Rice Cafe has gained much popularity for its taste and late delivery hours. Even though somewhat pricey, the portion is good for two meals. I've visited the place once and ordered a pork noodle stir fry, but somehow I got all other meats except pork. (Shrimp, chicken, and beef). It's rather funny, but I'm not complaining.

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Justice Klax?

I am disappointed that I can't go see Bloc Party this wed. in Indy due to SCC duties. Final Fantasy is opening for them, and damn, I want to see Owen Pallett. : ( But in better news, Justice ticket is on the way! I have already started making my shirt (stenciling) for the show, and it's pretty rad.
Hopeful: Klaxons 10.6.07 @ Metro

Please?

'06 Album Rock Party

Oh wow, I've completely forgot about this post. It's been almost 3 month since I began writing it, so I'm pretty glad it's done.
Even though it's more than half way into '07, 2006 was still a good year for music, and it was hard to pick the favorite favorites.

All the songs are playlisted. (link on the side bar) So be sure to check it out, if you haven't. Also if you're bored, read my'05 review.
(In order of how my mind flows; but pretty much random; I'm not a fan of rankings.)

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Whatever People Say I Am, I Am Not
Arctic Monkeys
Track Pick - "Still Take You Home"

The Arctic Monkeys is blog raved turned UK's "next big thing". Even though they might have turned "mainstream", it doesn't matter, because these guys are still rocking. When I listened to this unknown little band at the very beginning of 06, I knew think they would hit it big. The raw sound, catchy riffs and bass line, the style, and the adorable heavy British accent (I'm a sucker), is what I wanted. I was tempted to list this album for my 05 review, since it was released in Jan. but I refrained. A year and more later, I am even more in love with these guys and the album.

A Lesson in Crime
Tokyo Police Club
Track Pick - "Cheer It On"

"Ask me about being in Tokyo Police Club". My secret love for Canadian bands never seizes; But seriously, they're awesome. These yet legal Canadian kids are making a scene. The 20 min EP has gave these kids ecstatic fans, television debuts, label deals, and gave the world happy dance-punk tunes. TPC's sound is quite unique and distinctive, but very refreshing and of course, dancable.

Professor Murder Rides the Subway
Professor Murder
Track Pick - "Champion"

Champion! EP by another uprising dance-punkers from New York. Rides the Subway delivers much energy while keeping things fun. Afterall, this band has a lot of fun. You can never have too much cowbells!

Writer's Block
Peter Bjorn and John
Track Pick - "Young Folks"

"Young Folks" is all the rave from UK Top 40 to US Top 40 to Kanye West's dub and backup band. But I can't talk down on the phenomenon indie/mainstream breakthrough and debatable "sell out". The tune is quite catchy, and I can't, or at least haven't, gotten sick of hearing it. The Swedish Trio have been around for awhile, but this was their album. In entirety, Writer's Block is solid.

Night Ripper
Girl Talk
Track Pick -"That's My DJ"

Your favorite mash-up DJ Greg is here to please everyone. Honestly, I think anybody can enjoy this album. I can say so much, but I'll just leave it at that. Listen to Girl Talk.

The Warning
Hot Chip
Track Pick - "Over and Over"

I didn't find too much out of this album after the first few listen throughs, but after awhile, I was in love. I'm not use to listening to "soft" stuff, but something about these UK rocker's infectious electro-pop and dance sound beckoned me to listen over and over.

Transparent Things
Fujiya & Miyagi
Track Pick - "Collarbone"

They're just pretending to be Japanese. Fujiya & Miyagi is fairly unique compared to everyone else on this list. Their sound is very chill jazz like electro, but at the same time it gets your feet moving. The lead's voice is also very smooth and jazzy. Classy.

He Poos Clouds
Final Fantasy
Track Pick - "Song Song Song"

Alright, so I might be in love with Owen Pallett, but I respect his musicianship more. Again, this is another album that took awhile for me to pick up. Pallett hones his violent is this dreamy album that can probably dub as a final fantasy soundtrack. You got nothing Patrick Wolf! (jplaying, I like you too).

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Notables: Here are some notable albums, but I didn't feel it was good as a whole, or for whatever reason, to write a review about it but definitely check them out too!

Robbers & Cowards by Cold War Kids
Scale by Herbert
So This is Goodbye by Junior Boys
The Ship by Danielson
This Harness Can't Ride Anything by Chin Up Chin Up
Yellow House by Grizzly Bear
Wolfmother by Wolfmother
CSS by Cansier der se Sexy
Gulag Orkestar by Beirut
Everything All the Time by Band of Horses
!!! Myth Takes
With Love and Squalor by We Are Scientists
The Loon by Tapes 'n Tapes
Youth for Eternity by The Subways
Pieces Of The People We Love by The Rapture
Bring Me The Workhorse by My Brightest Diamond
Six Demon Bag by Man Man
Return to the Sea by Islands
Let Me Introduce My Friends by I'm from Barcelona

Free Chipotle Day

Scored: 2 free burritos

So Chipotle had a back-to-school promotion today and gave out free burritos from 11-10. Being a Chipotle enthusiast as I am, I naturally headed out for some. Overall, today was pretty busy with 4 back to back classes (including 1 lab) staring at 8:30 and being at random places. I also had to work pretty much right after classes. Luckily CS lab got out early (even though it sucked), and I found some time to stop by Chipotle. The line was definitely not as ridiculous as it was for their grand opening free burrito promotion last year. Even better was, I spotted some friends in line and was able to get food within 10 mins.

Work was hectic today. I thought Sunday would have been the busiest day, since it's the day before school, but today kind of sucked. Pretty much all the major classes' books are out, and it's a pain trying to find more/explain to people/reserve books for them, etc. Also, refund is annoying; I'm glad I'm not a cashier for that reason.

My day wasn't quite over after getting out of work at 6:30. My first Exponent meeting was today too. And with my lucky with the Gold Loop, I wasn't able to catch the bus. It never came! Tired and burned out, I treked for 20 mins. under the heat and got to see all the happy faces in the office---- It is nice to be back. Work starts Thursday!

After the short meeting, I headed over to Chipotle again in hopes of finding tomorrow's dinner. Luckily, I ran into Sam and people and was able to cut in line again. I couldn't resist the temptation to eat more burrito, So I chowed down half of my steak pinto. Govind joined us soon after, and we ended up interneting at the Village Coffee House. (I still don't have wireless in my apt.) Among the numerous people I ran into today, I saw Lena for the first time in about two years. We had a quick chat and parted our ways. I really enjoy running into people/friends that I haven't seen for awhile, unles it's the awkward half-friend what-should-I-do scenario.

Classes have been meh, although I didn't expect the first week to be very exciting. It rained a lot yesterday. Kind of a downer to the start of a new year.

Animal Collective Poster

<3

I received an oversized envelope in the mail yesterday. The most interesting part was that it was from Domino Records in NY. As much as I love music, I don't have connections or is famous with the industry. So why is Domino sending me stuff? And what could it be? With much excitement, I frantically opened the package with my Xacto knife to discover a lovely Animal Collective poster printed on watercolor paper.

But like I said, I don't have connections so there is no chance of me just getting random/free things in the mail. The poster was actually acquired through Daytrotter. They were giving away a number of them to whomever responded first and naturally I jumped on the bandwagon.

That was over months and months ago.

I didn't think I got it, since it has been ages, so this was quite a pleasant surprise. I'm not the biggest Animal Collective fan, but free and pretty posters are for the win.

"She is the queen of the castle California, thrill"

Feeling: Drained
Current Love: Pavement

I have been so tired lately, it's rather sad. I don't really know why or how it started, but I don't like it at all. Sleeping has been hard lately. It takes me at least an hour to fall asleep, because I have too much on my mind, and I end up tossing and turning all night in misery and having weird dreams. It is only around 9 or 10 that I get the "sleepy feel", but by then I usually had to drag myself out of bed to get to work.
Speaking of work, my hours are gradually increasing. Surprisingly, it hasn't been too bad working 6-8 hours a day, but I just feel so tired after I get home. It's a bummer. Next week I have 40 hours, and tomorrow is my only day off. I took some sleep aid in hopes of finding a good night sleep, and I'm looking forward to a productive and fun day tomorrow.

Only two weeks till school. I want to move in already!

Summer B.E.A.T. Mixtape

S u m m e r B . E . A . T .

Hot of Ableton!
Not really, I finished this a few weeks ago; not sure why I didn't post it then. Anyways, this is my summer mix. I like how it turned out for the most part. Enjoy!

Lainii - Summer B.E.A.T. (51:13 mins.):
Soft Tigers - Heart it Races [Architecture in Helsinki Cover]
Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks (Punks Jump Up Special Disco Remix)
New Young Pony Club - Grey
Architecture in Helsinki - Do the Whirlwind (Safety Scissors/Hot Chip Remix)
Bonde de Role - Solta O Frango
Enon - Tilt You Up!
The Blow - Hey Boy
Calvin Harris - Colours
Yeo - Two Sides of a Door
Tokyo Police Club - Cheer Them On (Trey Told Em Remix)
Junior Senior - Move Your Feet (Djosos Krost Extended Remix)
Justice - B.E.A.T.
The Go! Team - Bottle Rocket
Fox n Wolf - Youth Alcoholic
Le Tigre - Deceptacon
Punks Jump Up - Dance to Our Disco
LCD Soundsystem - North American Scums
!!! - Me And Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard (A True Story)
Lo-Fi-Fnk - Change Channel (Kaos Remix)
Peter Bjorn and John - Let's Call It Off
I'm From Barcelona - Jenny
Streetlight Manifesto - Walking Away
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"I know what girls want, I know what boys like"

Feeling: Lethargic
Current Love: Gegg Gillis:

Gregg makes my heart melt...too bad he's taken.

I'm sad that his upcoming show in Indy is 21+,
but in other news, my favorites new singles at the moment:

Caribou - Melody Day
Liars - Plaster Casts of Everything
(The video is rather interesting. Check it out at YouTube.)