Archive for March, 2009

Extreme Makeover begins…

Posted in Uncategorized on March 29, 2009 by mdjasrie

So the time to have an extreme makeover begins…

In only a matter of months, i would be going through a new phase of life, and with that in mind, what better timing than to undergo an extreme makeover of my bedroom to prepare for that? 

And so it begins, me and my parents have begun pouring over various catalogues and brochures, ranging from paint colour, to funiture, to electronics, to find the most economical, yet totally different look for my room. In a month time, May, it would be completed and today marks the first day of the process, and throughout the process, i would try my best to show you the before and after pics of my room. So here are some of the things that have been discussed, but before that, a little background info:

INTRODUCTION

Currently my family is living in a 5 room flat. For a family of 3, i have 1 extra room to begin with, other than my bedroom. That room was previously occupied by my grandmother, that since she has passed on, its become nothing but a storeroom of sorts. Lots of furniture, such as bookshelves (one of which is a closed, glass paneled bookshelf), an old computer table, three seater sofa and a coffee table among other things lying around. So to fully utilise the room, we decided to shift some of my stuff from my bedroom, to the extra room. This room does not have aircon and have a single, double-pane windows.

 

Extra room from the door.

Extra room

My bedroom currently holds my wardrobe for my clothes. This wardrobe is fixed to the room and cannot be shifted. A black, closed door, glass panel bookshelf, a computer table with my computer at one corner and a queen size bed in the middle. All these leaves little space to walk around in my bedroom. This room has aircon, and has 2, double pane windows, spanning an entire wall of my bedroom. The computer table is terribly messy and the table is small.

 

My bedroom from the door.

My bedroom

THE PLAN

The plan currently is to have my bedroom transform into a study/entertainment room. This room would have my computer, a brand new lcd tv mounted on the wall and bookshelves from the other room. It will also have the sofa and the coffee table from the other room shifted to my bedroom. Thus, this ‘entertainment room’ as it would be called would fulfill my entertainment (lcd tv, computer, ps3) and my education needs (bookshelves, computer, books, coffee table).

The extra room would have my queen size bed occupying a majority of the room with a few other little furnitures like side tables and stuff. This room would now be known as my ‘bedroom’

THE BUDGET

SGD1000, and that includes any furniture, paint, accesories, electronics bought during the extreme makeover.

THE CONCEPT

After much discussion, i have decided on a more rustic, warm, wood feeling to the entertainment room. This is mainly because of the amount of wooden furnitures, such as the bookshelves, dark brown teak table as my computer table (not shown in any images), black coffee table and a brown wooden sofa. The bookshelf from the new bedroom, the one with the glass panels, would be shifted in. So with all the wood, it is natural to choose a slight brownish tone to the room. Thus, we have decided  to buy paints of the appropriate colour to suit the theme. In fact, we have found inspiration from the Sony Bravia LCD TV brochure and we have decided to choose the colour as close to the one printed in the brochure. 2 different colours would be used for the entertainment room, to give a more contrasting look. The darker tone would be on the wall where the computer and lcd tv would be located.

Following brochure, the colour concept in the picture have some similiarities to some of the range of colours from the paint brochure.
The bedroom would contain my bedroom and it would be a rather simple set up, using brighter colours, most likely only 1 colour. The location and positioning of the queen size bed has yet to be determined. 

 

LCD TV

The lcd tv, has already been bought at best denki. We have bought the Panasonic, 32 inch HD ready LCD TV. VIERA TX-32LX80MS is the model. We bought it at around 700 bucks with some goodies thrown in. Although it wasnt the optimal choice of an LCD TV that i would hoped to have, im satisfied with the size and it would certainly enhance the concept of an entertainment room. I was eyeing for a Samsung Series 4 LCD TV with slightly better specs, or a SONY BRAVIA S series, but those 2 are a little tad more expensive than the Panasonic ones. Besides, im on a shoestring budget and having a 32 inch TV in my room is much better than the earlier proposed 26 inch. So beggers cant be choosers.

 

So this is what we have planned so far. The LCD TV has been bought and would be delivered at the end of april, and with that, things have set in motion. In the next 2 weeks, we would discuss in further detail if there is a need to buy and extra furniture to enhance the room and other accesories needed. The paint would most likely be bought within the next 2 weeks as well. On the 20th April 2009 onwards for the entire week, work will truly begin. I would take 5 days off  to do, cleaning, removing, shifting, painting etc.

Utada Hikaru’s latest album: This is the One

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , on March 22, 2009 by mdjasrie

Utada’s latest, entirely english album, (her third attempt in breaking into the western market) has finally been released in Japan, and will be released in the US in May. I managed to sample her album before buying it and i must say its a great improvement from her previous all-english album. Its much more mature and more contemporary and it really sets a new milestone in her career that she do have the potential to break new grounds in the western market. The downside for me its the lyrics composition. I dunno but i feel that it can be improved alot more. Though the songs are catchy, but it feel that it doesnt really connect with the listeners, when it comes to how she composes her songs lyrically, especially if she is trying to connect to the english audiences. The album manages to debut at no 3 on the Oricon charts on its first week of release, quite a dissapoint really given the fact this would be her first album (excluding the previous english album release) to NOT top the charts on the week of release. But then again, you can really blame the quality of the tracks, perhaps its more difficult to market an all-english album to the Japanese market.  Perhaps they are waiting to see if it is really good to make their perchase. Also mind you that the charts only track physical album sales and not digital sales like from Itunes, which in the past have dominated the charts from within, from the recent singles that she has released so far.

So will she be able to dominate the airwaves in the States, only time will tell. But i feel that it would be an uphill task. Her biggest assets would be her roots, and maybe, just maybe a fresh face and voice would give her the break she needs. 

 

Her new album features 10 all-new tracks including 2 remixes.

1.“On and On”  

2.“Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – FYI” (Samples Ryuichi Sakamoto song with the same name.)

3.”Apple and Cinnamon”  

4.”Taking My Money Back” 

5.”This One (Crying Like a Child)”  

6.”Automatic Part II”  

7.”Dirty Desire”  

8.”Poppin’”  

9.”Come Back to Me”  

10.”Me Muero”  

Click on the above links to sample the songs.

James Morrison soul gooood!

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , on March 21, 2009 by mdjasrie

Ok you can throw stones and break my bones. Im very slow when it comes to identifying great music artists that produces great albums now and then. And here it comes again: Was listening to James Morrison’s Broken Strings, featuring Nelly Furtado and i slowly got hooked by its amazing duet performance. Adding to James’s husky, smokey voice, i cant help but to sample more of his tracks. The next day I bought his album. I was sold in less than 24 hours. I immersed myself in every track from his latest album, Songs for You, Truths for Me, and i loved every single one of it. James Morrison is now a singer worth the purchase of not only the album but the album that comes WITH  the dvd!

It seems that im a sucker to singer who have that unique born-like-that, husky, ashy, smokey voice. Somehow im just attracted to singer who have that quality, and if they produce great music, im sold instantly. Duffy, Utada, Adele, and now James Morrison.

 
1.”The Only Night”  

2.”Save Yourself”  

3.“You Make It Real’ 

4.“Please Don’t Stop the Rain”  

5.“Broken Strings” (feat. Nelly Furtado)

6.”Nothing Ever Hurt Like You”  

7.”Once When I Was Little” 

8.”Precious Love”  

9.”If You Don’t Wanna Love Me”  

10.”Fix The World Up for You” 

11.”Dream on Hayley”  

12.”Love Is Hard”  

13.”Sitting on a Platform”  

 

James Morrison has a number of great tracks, and his first half of the album is especially strong. Hit titles such as Broken Strings, You Make it Real, and Please Dont Stop the Rain is especially catchy. Click on the above link in the song list to sample them (only 3 though). Overall, this is a must buy album of the year for me and im glad i made a great purchase.

IT SHOW 2009

Posted in Uncategorized on March 14, 2009 by mdjasrie

The IT show was packed. literally. levels 2, 3,4, and 6. Full of booths from telcom companies to Sony’s taking up an entire floorspace and beyond. 

This year’s IT show didnt do much damage to my wallet. Though i was tempted to buy a 22 inch Full HD lcd monitor, a netbook for my upcoming uni studies, 1 terabyte Harddisk. But in the end i tried to save money this year and with the economic recession (yeah right) i bought myself a pair of  decent earphones. The Sony’s XB series, or Extra Bass series.

At 106 bucks, this MDR-XB40EX  earphones packs a punch with a 13.5mm vertical driver (note the round thingy placed vertically), larger than average earphones out there, delivering extra bass to your music without compromising the middle range tones and you can really hear the extra oomph in audio playback. Im loving it.

Its growing…

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , on March 8, 2009 by mdjasrie

Bought 3 new game is a span of 1 week. Eternal Sonata, great rpg, Killzone 2, best shooter to date, and Resident Evil 5, a popular franchise with an extreme makeover.

Departures

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , on March 8, 2009 by mdjasrie

“Departures” is an Academy Award winner in the Foreign Film category. A japanese production, it showcases Daigo, the main character, a cello player having lost his job in an orchestra in tokyo after being dissolved due to low popularity ratings. Wanting to return to his hometown, and start anew, he seeks out to find a stable job. He stumbled upon an ad, recruiting people in “assisting departures” in NK Agency. Little did he know that it was actually an agency in assisting the “departed” or the dead.  With no career prospects anywhere else, and good pay, he had little choice except to take the offer.

This is truly one of the few foreign films that im my opinion truly deserves an oscar. While the film is lengthy, clocking at almost 2 and half hours and have very slow moments, its the subject matter and the way its been handled with a different perspective that deserves the attention of the oscars. This movie touches heavily on death and the departed and i love the movie in introducing to us the very heart and often tabbo aspects of Japanese culture. Death as it seems to be a very touchy subject, however in this movie, you will see a different perspective about death and you will soon realize just how beautiful death can be. Death as a means of passage is heavily emphasized here, and also the fragility of life and the importance of celebrating and treasuring life that most of us take for granted. 

Those who are in the mood to watch artsy movies, should give this movie a try. Its not all sorrow and sadness in this movie. It has healthy doses of humour in places where you will never expect to see when dealing with the death of a person.