As most of you would know by now, I have a habit of sharing music under AOTW (Artist Of The Week) which…well, disappeared for many weeks. Now that I’m over the other side of the Great Firewall, it is even harder to find the videos to share ! But let’s try to pick it up again by starting with something I’ve shared in my Facebook group “Myy #nowplaying” ! Feel free to join and share good music with the rest too! (purely English and preferably not too mainstream too please!)

Adam Stidham is the mastermind behind Civalias, a solo project that started off in California. The sounds of  Civalias are both engaging and infectious. A tinge of Aqualung and Radiohead in his music but that’s probably why I am drawn to it. Check out his other track “We’ve Got Company” that I really like from his EP “You, Me, We” too!

Civalias – Something Real

Oh, don’t let this go, don’t turn your head
If there’s something left to show
Hold it in your arms and in your fingers
‘Til its strong enough to know

We can run and break the stillness
One by one- can you feel it, can you feel it
And we can live without the worry
‘Cause we survive on something real

We walked on wires, through the burning fire
Just to prove that we belong
And oh, still in my head, a rising choir
And it goes on and on and on, singing

Oh, and its never gonna let me go
Its calling out my name, and washing me away
Oh, no its never gonna let me go

And what to doubt, can’t figure out
And I’m still waiting

And we can run and break the stillness
Can you feel it, can you feel it
My heart is a long long road to you
And we survive on something real (2x)

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In How I Met Your Mother E7E12 “Symphony of Illumination”, Robin discovered that she is unable to have children but she contemplated on telling anyone.

“I knew I could have talked to my friends, but it’s just… I already knew exactly how they would all react.”

I think many of us have felt this way before, feeling the need to tell someone about things going on in your life yet you pause and ask yourself “why bother?” – simply because you know exactly how others would react to it. With the help of technology, our lives are so public that there is no need for a simple sit-down conversation with friends anymore. People know about your relationship status, your life updates etc through social networking platforms, commenting on them directly or simply give you a “+like” as acknowledgement. I can almost imagine how many people would simply click on the “+like” button if there’s one on my blog now, just to agree that they felt this way before.

Anyway, back to the point whereby there’s no point talking to friends anymore…that’s just sad huh? I think it’s a pity that technology has helped us develop such a habit of being an open book instead of talking things out with close friends. Maybe we still do, but you’d realize they fill in the gaps once in awhile in your conversation or assume things based on what you’ve posted online etc. I think I have slowly reduced the information I am posting online and alil more reserved in the things I’m sharing about my personal life. Maybe to some, this defeats the purpose of having a public online presence but I miss the late night chats and long emails from friends. People should hear the story from me personally instead of just reading bits and pieces from a 140 characters update, which simply leads to more unwanted misunderstandings and assumptions.

This is probably why I like being in Beijing more – people are mostly disconnected (or at least not on the same social networking platform). We actually sit down to talk for hours and share our life stories instead of stalking each other on Facebook or twitter. Their responses are more unpredictable and constructive instead of a simple “+like” or another 140 characters respond. What do you think? Are you sharing too much online that when you meet up with your friends, there’s nothing much left to talk about (but simply going through what you guys have already posted online) ?

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1. The Mermaid Theory ?

As most of you probably knew by now, I’m back in Beijing and oh boy…it sure is cold here! But totally lovin’ it as compared to humid hot Singapore!

Now that I have my iPhone WordPress app (Praise the Lord) installed, I’m guessing I’ll be blogging more frequently than I was doing so during the last semester.

Probably still doing my usual TV and musiv reviews, as well as introducing Beijing/China cuisine to you guys! Been wanting to post vidlogs but uploading the videos is a pain in the ass. So let’s stick to words and pictures for the time being, unless someone in China has a better suggestion for me!

Just an update since I’m back in Beijing and hopefully the next post will be soon!

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Testing the WP iPhone app since I’m back in Singapore, trying to find new ways to keep my blog updated once again!

I am currently back for Chinese New Year holiday with my family and flying back to Beijing once again on Friday. Do I miss Singapore? Apart from family, friends and food, I don’t really think so! My sinus is back the moment I stepped down even though air in Beijing is far more polluted and the heat is unbearable for someone who just returned from Harbin!

Hopefully with the app, I can regularly update my site with short posts and pictures from Beijing! I was considering to shut the site down but can’t bear to do so…afterall, I’ve met many great people via my blog! Perhaps some of you can suggest via comments on what I should do with the site…revamp? tumblr it? just let it rot? haha

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

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I have been in Beijing for almost 2 months now, I guess it’s about time to conclude some of my ‘findings’ and personal experience to share with my readers who have been majorly neglected (if any left..haha)

credit:rtas.org

so here are the top 5 observations I have made in Beijing during these 2 months,

1. Public Transportation : Hah! The most talked about topic in Singapore lately? Beijing buses are awesome in my opinion – they have a person on the bus to announce the stops and to warn the traffic/bus driver about situations on the roads, there is also a rolling text screen to tell you where you are at with announcements made in both Eng/Chi on most of the buses. The subway is easy to understand too but I personally prefer the bus because there’s bag safety checks at the subway station which is a chore to me. Plus it is easier to get a seat on the bus than subway, if you can even get on the train. I dare say it’s the same around the world when it is peak hours anyway – you probably have tuna-packed trains and a ‘grinding party’ as I’d like to call it. I would actually say that it is more enjoyable to get around Beijing than in Singapore! (minus the distance factor of course.)

2. People : What can I say? All the misconception about the China-Chinese people in Singapore has a certain influence on me when I first arrived, I was almost expecting to deal with “barbarians” for the rest of the two years here. Surprisingly, the people here are wonderful! Sure, they are loud (especially the older generation) and they value this ‘mian zi/face/reputation’ very much but in general, they are way friendlier and easier to get along with than most Singaporeans. The students are very keen on making friends as they don’t have much overseas exposure and are very curious learners. So much so that sometimes it scares me alil on how ‘aggressive’ their friends-making is. The older generation here is darn adorable too – try walking up to a bunch of old man playing chess along the streets and they will welcome you with their broken English attempts and show you more of their local culture. The taxi drivers are amazingly nice (or at least those I’ve met), they are patient and they’d stop the meter if they are unsure about the place you’re heading to and check for you personally. Most of the people here welcomes foreigners and they try to learn English from us, maybe just louder in volume and less educated for the older generation. But I really like the people I’ve met so far.

3. Food:  I strongly believe in ‘whatever the locals are eating, I should survive too if I eat them.’ I love the streetside food here (no, I’m not referring to those exotic food that even the locals do not have it often in their daily lives – those are really for tourists anyway). A simple meal would consist of 1 dish…I barely have a bowl of rice now. It’s almost like an misconception of how Chinese can’t survive without rice in a meal because most of the time, we don’t have rice on the table but just dishes or a bun at most. I love the huge portions because you really need to order just one dish per meal and it’s not too expensive to keep yourself full. The vegetables and fruits are amazingly sweet and fresh here but usually I stay away from meat since their steaks often disappoint me (it doesn’t even look like a proper steak). I love the hotpot culture here since I’m a big fan of hotpot – it is cheap and you can either have an individual pot to yourself or one that’s shared with friends. Always my top choice when out with friends.

4. Traffic :  One word to describe traffic in Beijing would be “chaos”. The first day I reached Beijing, it took me 5 minutes to cross the street because none of the cars stopped when it was green light for me to cross and there were always bicycles and buses turning in from all directions. You will eventually learn to adapt to the local culture of ‘just cross, don’t stop’, while keeping your eyes open of course. I stopped listening to my music on the roads since you have to listen out to the traffic most of the time. But it is an organized mess I would say, everyone seems to know this ‘invisible rule’ and so far I have not seen any major accidents around my neighborhood as compared to the frequency of China traffic accidents news  in the Singapore media.

5. Education: Being the first batch of English-taught International MA program students, we certainly have VIP welcome when we first arrived. Everyone was fussing over how we adapt to the education system here, the language barrier, the lifestyle etc. The professors who are in my program are mostly scholars from overseas universities with a reasonable standard in the English language. We have a lot of freedom in deciding how our program should be run but I must admit that it was rather disorganized. The local students are really helpful and it has been an amazing learning experience so far with a REAL international environment to study in. Singapore is advanced and globalized but we lack the interaction with international students from all over the world. My program alone has 16 of us from 12 different countries and I have been hanging out with friends from other parts of the world (some which I still have no idea where it is located at) in my university core module. Eye-opening experience indeed and you’d realize how lucky we Singaporeans are once you travel or understand the people from other parts of the world.

I will try to constantly update on my happenings and experience here in Beijing, as well as my MA program etc. It is just overwhelming now with many conferences going on, as well as course papers to finish,  the insane amount of readings and research….the list goes on. You can view my updates on twitter @iammyy or facebook (if you’re a friend). If not, feel free to leave a comment or email! I’d love to hear from you.

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2011 has always been a ‘special year’ in my mind namely because 1) I am born on 11.11 so 2011 makes it 11.11.11 = special! 2) It is the year I graduate from SMU! 3) It is also the year I became a post graduate in BNU! 4) Not forgetting I am going to be here in Beijing for 2 years on my own – my first taste of independence! Other than that, it was also a year full of ups and downs in my personal/love life.

Let’s put my thoughts into quotes  from one of my fav TV show, How I Met Your Mother.

Ted Mosby once said that “Sometimes things have to fall apart to make way for better things.”  and I can’t agree more. Without goodbye, there will never been this ‘Hello’ we had 6 months back.

He also said that “You can’t talk yourself into falling in love.It doesn’t take days of deliberation…When it’s real, you know pretty quickly and with absolute certainty.” This relationship is definitely what we can call ‘fast and furious (haha). It happened so quickly and we went through so much together that it felt like a fast forwarded love movie. It didn’t took long for us to decide, maybe not with absolute certainty that it will work but we knew it was real.

Barney’s dad, Jerry told Barney that “Don’t get me wrong, settling down is a challenge – it’s the biggest challenge of your life.” Settling down is a huge phase in our lives. Who can guarantee what is going to change in the future? The obstacles we might face (or facing), the fear of the unknowns, the insecurities, the doubts…it is tough, I won’t lie.

But I am quite certain that “I want to be a complete head over heels idiot for one.” like how Ted puts it. Be it over tears or laughter, angry nights or happy moments together. I want to go through all that with just one person. Perhaps I have found the one to be head over heels for – at least for the past half a year, I know it was worth it and it will be.

“I stopped believing. Not in some depressed, I’m-gonna-cry-during-my-toast way. Not in a way I even noticed until tonight. It’s just every day, I think I believe a little less, and a little less, and a little less. And that sucks.”  Like Ted, I am not the most positive or optimistic person around, but as long as I know you will be here..that’s something I can believe in and hold on to?

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Sorry for the disappearance! As most of you might know by now, I am in Beijing, China currently!

Finally decided to attempt to cross the great firewall with my wimpy VPN access and back to blogging regularly. It’s tough because the internet connection is crappy and my patience hits the boiling point every time I try to load a youtube video or post pictures up.

But we will see how this goes! School has started for me and the first week has been…miserable. (will explain further)

Well, I am doing my masters in Beijing Normal University (it’s like the NTU/NIE here) and thank God, it is conducted in English with only international students. To be exact, 15 of us from 12 different countries. Need not to say, I’m the only Singaporean in class. So far classes are manageable apart from the fact that it all starts at 8am! The Chinese begins their day really early here with odd working hours like 8-1130am then 2-5pm…that’s a long lunch break and way too early off work time to most workaholic Singaporeans eh?

The people are very nice to us international students, especially due to the language barrier and adapting to the new environment. I’m lucky that I can get away easier by being bilingual and it makes life a whole lot easier. Unfortunately, I am often mistaken as Japanese (probably because I have bigger eyes than most Chinese -.-) and the dorm is ‘invaded’ by the Koreans. It was quite difficult to find native English speakers to hold a conversation with! But most of my new classmates are pretty friendly and we have only each other to depend on anyways.

So far the weather has been cooling and signs of winter reaching soon. Yesterday was insanely cold for someone who has always been staying in a ‘summer all year long’  country. From a 24 degrees to a sudden 14 degrees was a huge temperature drop! Guess I learnt my lesson now after freezing my way to class and back to dorm yesterday. haha

Anyways, just a brief update! Will try to blog more regularly now that I’ve settled down…any special topic requests? You can follow me on twitter/instagram @iammyy for some #onlyinchina scenes too!

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If you travel often, Zuji is definitely not a foreign name to most of us travelers. Zuji recently launched his interesting campaign called ‘Get Out Of The Dot‘ for Singaporean travellers to…well, get out of the dot! The great thing about Zuji is that – they do the research for you, just click away!

Looking around me, I really can’t think of anyone who doesn’t like to travel. The only reason why we are unable to is probably because – too many places, too little money and time! But think about it, we have a whole lifetime to slog away so the more we should steal some time to enjoy life! Need more excuses to convince yourself to get a trip out of the dot? Here’s top three reasons that I thought of..

1) SIANgapore : There’s only SO MUCH (sarcasm) we can do here in Singapore. What’s your regular day out like? Shopping and eating and people-watching at a cafe while trying not to look like a pervert. Yes, we do have cool places like Sentosa, Universal Studios, Singapore Flyer, the zoo..bird park…but seriously, how many times can you visit these places?

2) Learn about us: Traveling is the best time to learn about yourself and the people you’re traveling with! Look at how the ‘true color’ of people surfaces on reality TV shows such as Amazing Race. You will find strengths and weaknesses (probably being direction blind for me) and expand your reality. As the saying goes,all reality expands when you expand your reality. Traveling offers this ‘reborn’ experience for us and you return to Singapore feeling refreshed.

3) Culture Shock, not!: Singaporeans are often portrayed as spoiled brats and taking things for granted. It is time to step out and see how lucky we are in this beautiful island!  Do something you’ve never done before – be crazy when you’re overseas! (I have always secretly wanted to try skinny dipping..haha) Learn about others’ culture so you can be a student of the world instead of just a Singaporean! Embrace the culture in a new culture and live in it.

Here’s the (even more) interesting part, I am asked to nominate 3 Singaporeans to get out of the dot..

Barbarella should Get Out of the Dot. I would send her to London to satisfy her Sarong Party (parties?)

Like how ZUJI puts it, Catch a glimpse of the French romance. Or get taken for a ride in London. I’m quite sure Barbarella would love to get taken for a ride in London *coughs* You know, horse riding lessons in Hyde Park in central London.

Furryphotos should Get Out of the Dot. (and not come back? haha) I would love to send him to Cottonwood, Idaho for some furry business!

Since I have to nominate someone else to get out of the dot instead of myself, I think he is the best person to visit this place ‘Dog Bark Park Inn‘ on my behalf! It is an awesome (and world’s biggest) beagle-looking bed and breakfast guesthouse. To be honest, I didn’t know where on earth is Idaho until I googled it. See! That’s the reason why we need to travel more to widen our knowledge!

Last but not least, I would love to send my parents (ok, I’m cheated..that’s two people) to Honolulu for some sunshine.

Not that we don’t have enough sun on this red dot here but we lack a beautiful beach like Waikiki beach! Did you know that President Obama and Bruno Mars are also residents of Honolulu? Pretty cool eh?

By the way, you can still join in the fun by:

-       Checking out ZUJI’s FB page ! I love their ‘Get Lucky’ tab.

-       Follow  ZUJI Twitter who might just offer you some unique opportunities to get out of the dot!

Now I’m really itching to go on a holiday!

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Tom: “Either she’s an evil, emotionless, miserable human being, or… she’s a robot.” (500 Days of Summer)

It has been a really long break I took from blogging. Like what Tom said, I was definitely a miserable human being trying to be a workaholic robot. Not an excuse for my tons of overdue posts (Timbre Rock and Roots, Timbre Song Writing Competition, Fairly Legal Review, many weeks of AOTW and TV+movie reviews)  I know. So sorry to all my readers but I AM BACK (-inserts awkward silence-) Those posts will come shortly after!

But yes, getting back to the whole blogging thing before I am doomed behind the Great Firewall. In case you have not heard, I will be leaving Singapore in a few months time for further studies in Beijing. The good thing is, it will be conducted in English (Phew!)  The bad thing is, I have to leave my loved ones behind and also having unstable internet for the rest of the months I’m there. Hopefully I can continue blogging with the not-so-secret mighty VPN power. More on that decision next time!

In other news, the last few weeks of school was great. Catching up with old friends, meeting new ones, getting enough sleep (or so I think) and busy planning for the Beijing trip and studies. I am currently working full time at Epiphany Education till I leave town, it has been real fun conducting workshops for students and knowing that they enjoyed the time spent together with their coaches, hopefully learning something out of the workshop too? Hee.

So how’s May coming along for you?

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This gotta be one of the most exciting music festival  happening after the awesome Laneway Festival experience I’ve had at the start of the year. How can you resist having all this legend..wait for it..dary (No, wasn’t a pun for John Legend) performers up on stage for not just one but TWO nights! Fantastic lineup…and like many others, I’m really looking forward to catching Bob Dylan, Imogen Heap and John Legend!

It is good to know that Timbre is also supportive of our local talents! Check out The Sets Band and 53A on the 2nd night as well! It’s gonna be a rocking weekend! Happening this coming weekend at Marina Promenade, get your tickets at Sistic now! Just call 6348 5555 or log on to  www.sistic.com.sg

If you can’t make it for both nights, do stay tuned for I’ll bring you personal updates and highlights from the event! Gosh..I can’t wait for the weekends to be here!

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