Oh my goodness, it feels like it’s been ages since I last visited this place and posted something. Things have been picking up at the office lately that I couldn’t find time to write up something for the site during the weekdays which is both frustrating and sad.

I remember having mentioned before (if I actually did) that Nendoroid Megurine Luka has arrived at my desk.

Now isn’t that face absolutely cute. Currently, she’s on display at my office desk along with Nendoroid Drossel. I switched her to this face because one, I love it, and two, it matches Drossel’s eyes. Continue Reading

Sept 9, 2009 is when Apple is supposed to have an event where they’re supposed to be announcing some new products, mainly the new iPods for this year. So I felt like having an iPod Soundcheck survey. I wrote up these questions off the top of my head and answered them myself. If you use your iPod as often as I do and feel like answering this survey as well in your blog, then feel free to copy and post. But please try putting a trackback, especially if you don’t mind sharing your music preferences.

iPod Soundcheck

All these questions mainly refer to the CURRENT contents of your iPod.

1. Do you have your iPod turned on right now?

Yes

2. What’s your current earworm?

One of Those Nights by The Cab

3. What was the last album/artist/song you loaded onto your iPod?

Whisper War by The Cab

4. If you’re feeling heartbroken, list five songs you’d listen to in your iPod right now.

Gravity by Sara Bareilles

Whatever It Takes by Lifehouse

Colors by Amos Lee

To Make You Feel My Love by Adele

Three Cheers For Five Years by Mayday Parade

5. What’s the dominant genre in your playlist?

Rock

6. Do your friends listen to your iPod?

Yes.

7. Do they enjoy listening to the songs in it?

Some of it. They usually give me stares that say “who’s the artist?”

8. Do they always use your iPod as a source for new songs to listen to?

Sometimes, they do. My brothers do.

9. What’s the oldest song in your iPod? (based on the year the track was released)

Symphony in C – IV Allegro Vivace by Georges Bizet

10. What is the oldest uploaded song on your iPod?

I Miss You by Aaliyah

11. Do you load single songs to your iPod or whole albums?

Mostly whole albums.

12. What is your favourite feel-good song in your iPod?

Nothing specific, really.

13. Go to your Songs list and select Shuffle. List the ten songs that your iPod goes through every time you press next after that.

1. I Miss You – Aaliyah
2. Satellites – Beyonce
3. Mesmerized – Lifehouse
4. Your Body Is A Wonderland – John Mayer
5. Release Me – Mae
6. I Miss You – Ayur
7. Risky Business – The Cab
8. What’s Been Going On – Amos Lee
9. Let Her Cry – Darius Rucker

10.  Nyan Nyan Service Medley – Megumi Nakajima & Sheryl Nome

14. Which band/artist has the most content in your iPod?

DEPAPEPE

15. Are you obsessive-compulsive about album art?

Yes.

16. What are the last five albums/artists you’ve added to your playlist?

Whisper War, The Cab

Punk Goes 90’s, Various Artists

Nothing Personal, All Time Low

Burning The Days, Vertical Horizon

Into The Wild, Eddie Vedder

I never realized it’s so hard to get my grubby hands on some LFO (Lyte Funky Ones) songs. Yeah, yeah. I know, they’re not sharpest rapping tool in the shed. But I won’t deny the fact that I enjoyed their debut album, particularly Summer Girls and Girl on TV. And it’s quite frustrating that I can’t find those songs online at the moment. Well, the free ones at least.

I’ve managed to nab Callalily’s Destination album. Chil asked me to get her a copy of the song Magbalik. She seems to have taken a liking to it.

By the way, I’ve also managed to get Augustana’s latest album Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt (or is it the other way around, I’m not sure…). I liked their song Hey Now and Sweet and Low. I’m still listening to the rest of the album so next time, I’ll mention what other songs from that set I end up liking.

I also nabbed a four song set of Augustana doing live versions of Boston, Wasteland, Stars and Boulevards and some other song that I like listening to but can’t seem to remember the title. I was nearly moved to tears with Boston. I just absolutely love that song! This live version is only played with guitars and piano. Loving it big time!

Jeeeeeeezus…

Two more songs I just got were David Cook’s cover for Aerosmith’s I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing and Carrie Underwood’s Jesus Take The Wheel. I know Carrie’s song is a bit old but I do love listening to it and while I was at the mall earlier today, it was playing over the PA system and it pretty much got stuck to my head and I was silently singing it. Parrot Syndrome – as I frequently tease Chil with.

Anyone here willing to toss me a copy of Girl on TV in mp3 format?

I remember when iPod Touch first came out and a lot of people were complaining that 8Gb and 16Gb weren’t enough to store your videos and music in. The main gripe was that iPod Classic had a relatively large screen and good picture quality and it had a 160Gb version and yet here’s iPod Touch with awesome screen size and application capabilities and it only had 8Gb of storage. Now, Apple has released the 32Gb iPod Touch for four times the storage size of the smallest Touch. I honestly want one now. Maybe for Christmas. ^_^;

Apple has already released a 2Gb iPod Shuffle for those who think their teensie-weensie lapel-mic-sized iPod should have more storage space. Now it’s double. Whether I would buy a pink one, I’m not entirely sure but I have a feeling more people will be gunning for the 2Gb Shuffle now. What I would love the iPod Shuffle to have though is a small screen that displays music, playback and volume information.

I don’t know if you watched the recently concluded 80th Academy Awards. This is the song that won this year (performed and written by Glen Hasard and Marketa Irglova):

I don’t know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can’t react
And games that never amount
To more than they’re meant
Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We’ve still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You’ve made it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can’t go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I’m painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It’s time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We’ve still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You’ve made it now

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We’ve still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You’ve made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I’ll sing along

This is my current earworm and I am just loving it!

This is the MG RX-78-2 Gundam ver. OYW (Theatrical Colors). If you’re thinking it’s pretty much the same as the TV colors version, you’re definitely wrong. For one, the box art looks old-school-awesome. And this is probably the first box art that I’ve seen with a Gundam’s head missing. Also, the color of the plastic is different. If you look here, you’ll notice that the white parts are gray and the blue parts are a darker shade of blue. I’m not sure if these promo pics are any different from the image of the model kit shown in the box but I’m assuming that since these promo pics don’t have panel lines, this is the actual color of the plastic.

So aside from craving for this model kit, the two Gundam Unicorns and the 1/100 Alteisen, I’m also craving for Gackt’s up and coming tribute album for Tomino’s work called 0079-0088. Here are the cover arts for the Amuro and Char customs

News from Gunota Headlines.

All I can say is  what a rant! There are some parts I cannot completely discern but the overall message of this rant, I completely agree with.

I’ve always loved listening to music but from where I live and the income that I earn, I simply could not afford to listen to as much as I would want to. In a country like the Philippines, if you were to buy records legally for international artists, the extent of your exposure to the different genres of music depended on the size of your wallet. And with my wallet, I wouldn’t go past OPM’s which is sad.

And yet I can already hear other people say “oh if you could afford to buy an iPod, then you can afford to legally purchase records”. But then, if I were to buy overpriced CDs just to get the music to load into my iPod, then it’s either I have an empty iPod or I have a bunch of CDs that are limited and with the pop fixation here in the Philippines, they’re all going to be Ogie Alcasid and Regine Velasquez songs. Not that I’m belittling Ogie or Regine but like I said, your exposure to music would be limited to what you can afford.

I admit that most of the music I listen to is shared music, primarily because I cannot afford to buy each and every record that I would want to try out and listen to and THEN decide if I like their new album or not.

Have you read this article? What are your thoughts? 

I’ve been listening to whole albums lately and there are some that I enjoyed and some that I didn’t. Lately, I’ve been focusing a lot on the lyric, vocals and specific instruments grouped together or separately (guitar, piano and violin). I’m not much for overall feel in my current listening sessions. I prefer to see how the lyric and the vocals move me along with the melody of the song rather than just listening to the whole song and decide whether it’s worth replaying or not as a whole. If the lyrics hit me good, then I’m good. That goes hand in hand with the vocals. So that means even with simple melodies, if the lyric and the way it was sung is good to my ears, then I’m more than happy to listen to it again and again.

Augustana’s 2005 album All The Stars and Boulevards ended up in my iPod after listening to their song Boston. I love the piano and the vocals on that song. I also like the sound for Sunday Best as well as Stars and Boulevards. These are the songs that stand out for me. Nevertheless, this is an album I can listen through from first song to the last without it growing stale on me.

Infinity On High by Fall Out Boy is a giveaway. I love listening to this album. I’m no music expert but I feel that the good thing with this album is that no song sounds like the other which is sometimes one of the reasons why I drop an entire album altogether when listening to it. Thnks Fr Th Mmrs, This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race, and Hum Hallelujah are just a few of the songs that I bob my head to when FOB’s playing in my iPod.

Paramore’s Riot! album is another album I’ve not gotten tired of repeatedly listening to for the past couple of months. I love That’s What You Get as well as Hallelujah. The pace of the album is maintained and I hardly lose interest in any song that’s currently playing. It’s definitely worth listening to. The first song that got me into listening to this band is Decoy but after listening through the entire album, I’ve been hooked. I would also suggest listening to their previous album, All We Know Is Falling. The title song is good as well as other songs like Whoa.

Coheed and Cambria’s latest album No World For Tomorrow is an album that grew on me. On my first listen, I was all meh about the entire batch of songs. But after every repeat of the entire album, the melody and the vocals started to grow on me. I’ve listened and like songs from their previous albums but I didn’t think I’d enjoy how they actually construct their album. The pace changes from start to finish but the enjoyment doesn’t. No World For Tomorrow is an excellent song as well as Mother Superior. Then nearing the homestretch, I grew to like how it slows down and lets your ears rest from the loud guitars and drumbeats like when you’re listening to The Road and The Damned.

The last album I’ll be talking about in this post is Mayday Parade’s A Lesson In Romantics. The first time I listened to this song, I jumped immediately to the song entitled Jersey. I was hooked after I heard the vocals. And then I listened to Miserable At Best which is a slow piano and vocals song and I loved the lyric of it. The chorus states a very realistic but romantic statement which doesn’t overdo whatever you might be feeling for your significant other: “I can live without you but without you I’d be miserable at best”. I just love this song. Other good listens in this album are Black Cat, Jamie All Over and When I Get Home, You’re So Dead.

I’ve yet to finish listening to Radiohead’s latest album as well as Lifehouse’s Broken EP. There’s also I-Empire by Angels and Airwaves whose vocalist is a former band member of Blink 182. I listened to Yellowcard’s Paper Walls album but I’ve yet to find a song that I like other than the first one in the list which I don’t even remember the title of. There’s also an All Time Low album I’m currently listening to their latest album called So Wrong, It’s Right. I enjoy their songs but haven’t really played their album back as often as I have the others that I mentioned above. Perhaps, on a later date, I can provide more about All Time Low’s album.

How about you? What bands, solo artists, or genres are you into? 

I always feel happy when I hear this song. Send it to a loved one. It might just make their day.

Michael Buble – Everything

You’re a falling star, You’re the get away car.
You’re the line in the sand when I go too far.
You’re the swimming pool, on an August day.
And you’re the perfect thing to say.

So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La
So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La

 This one’s for you, bee. Thanks for telling me about this song.

How Do I Breathe lyrics by Mario.

How do I breathe
How do I breathe mmm mmm..
Feels so different being here
I’m so used to being next to you
Life for me is not the same
Theres no-one to talk to
Don’t know why I let it go too far
Starting over it’s so hard
Seems like everywhere I try to go
I keep thinking of you
I just had a wakeup call
Wishing that I never let you fall
Baby your not to blame at all
When i’m the one that pushed you away
Baby if you knew I care
You never would’ve went nowhere
Girl I should have been right there

How do I breathe
Without you here by my side
How will I see
when Your love brought me to the light
Where do I go
When your hearts where I lay my head
When your not with me
How do I breathe
How do I breathe

Girl I’m losing my mind
Yes I made a mistake
Thought that you would be mine
Guess the joke was on me
I miss you so bad I cant sleep
I wish I knew where you could be
Another dude is replacing me
Girl this cant be happening
I just had a wakeup call
Wishing that I never let you fall
Baby your not to blame at all
When i’m the one that pushed you away
Baby if you knew I care
You never would have went nowhere
Girl I should have been right there

and I wonder
How do I breathe
Without you here by my side
How will I see
when Your love brought me to the light
Where do I go
When your hearts where I lay my head
When your not with me
How do I breathe
How do I breathe

I cant get over you no
Baby I dont wanna let go
Girl you need to come home
Back to me
Cause girl you made it hard to breathe
When your not with me

Tell me
How do I breathe
Without you here by my side
How will I see
When Your love brought me to the light
Where do I go
When your hearts where I laid my head
When your not with me
How do I breathe
How do I breathe

Tell me
How do I breathe
Without you here by my side
How will I see
When Your love brought me to the light
Where do I go
When your hearts where I laid my head
When your not with me
How do I breathe
How do I breathe