30/8/2003
BEHOLD!!! IT'S SHTIKMAN.COM!!

Aah yes ... no more pop-ups or advertisements. And 50 MB worth of web space so I can offer some stuff for download too (*wink*). Perhaps some of you surfing in from outside of South-East Asia could gimme a quick shout and tell me how my site's loading in your part of the world. My server space is based in Malaysia so it loads pretty quickly for me. Hope it isn't too bad for the rest of you.

I've been listening to a lot of Mars Volta. Definitely deserves more than a measly 4.9 from Pitchfork. Some excellent, noisy prog rock. Like Interpol flipped on 45 RPM.

Also:
Bob Dylan – Love & Theft
Black Moon – Enta Da Stage
Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People and Feel Good Lost
Jay Dee & Madlib – Are Jaylib
MF Doom & Madlib – Are Madvillain

Wow, I haven't bought a new CD in almost a month ...

28/8/2003
Stupid Tripod no longer lets me choose how I want my ads to be displayed. Everything is just embedded into the page automatically so my page design is all fucked. I've been thinking of getting my own domain name for a while now so I suppose now's the best time. Wait for it, oh faithful reader(s). Shtikman.com will arrive soon.

27/8/2003
Checkit! I actually went for a job interview yesterday. It was for the position of a writer at this publishing company. Had to go get a pair of leather shoes cos the two that I have are on its way back from London (still). It went ok, wasn't too nervous but fumbled on a coupla things that could've been said in a better way. Had to write a short essay before the interview out of four given topics. I chose 'a movie that I saw' and talked about City Of God. All in all it was okay, not entirely great either. Hey, it's a start.

It's my fourth week back in KL and I have to say I'm beginning to recover from my initial bout of post-London weirdness. Although I still very sorely miss shopping in Berwick Street. Downloading music's cool and all, but nothing beats stumbling upon a good, cheap CD in Reckless. Besides, I just fell victim to the RIAA for the first time recently. Not like I was served with a lawsuit or whatever, but apparently the RIAA secretly floods file-sharing networks with 'fake' songs, like you might download 'Celine Dion – My Heart Will Go On' (JUST an example, please, you know I like Shania Twain more) and after about 10 seconds into the song the audio will just fuck up and sound awfully distorted. Bitchin'.

I was having coffee with a coupla friends yesterday and somehow we got to talking about 80's cartoons that we used to watch. Stuff like Visionaries, Inhumanoids, Transformers, Centurions. Talked about the toys we used to have and stuff. The good ol' days. Which led me to this website which is like a big archive of 80's cartoons. I was looking through the list feeling awfully nostalgic when I saw this link to 'Belle and Sebastian'. I was like, what's this? To my surprise, I have seen the cartoon before! I was probably 5 or 6 years old then. Brought back memories of sitting in my living room staring at one of those TV sets with faux-wood panelling and dials to change the channel. So THIS was Belle and Sebastian! Hah! 80's cartoons were way cooler. Boys had He-Man. Girls had Jem (eww ...). And the toys were awesome. But they never lasted cos I used to destroy them in 'battles'. Like, really crash them into each other. I even burnt the action figures with matches so they, you know, 'died' realistically. The money spent on me when I was a kid ... hey, it's all good. Look how I turned out!

*Silence*

15/8/2003
Mmm ... yes ... life's been pretty decadent since I got back. Well, when things are 'decadent' for me it really just means lazing around doing nothing most of the time, downloading stuff off the net 25 hours a day and staying up late catching up with friends and talking about girls, work, life and girls. Job hunt's been trudging along; nothing substantial as of yet.

Went for this little gathering on Wednesday called the Rojak Sessions. Southeast-Asian readers (which means Michelle really) will know what a 'rojak' is. Basically it was a little listening party where everyone could bring whatever music they want and have it played on the sound system. Found out about it on a local dance music forum and thought I'd give it a try. I figured it might turn out that everyone already knew each other and I'll be this Lone Ranger riding into an unknown town so I brought Tonto along for backup (played by school friend Azmin).

So I went with my CD full of MP3s and attempted to find the venue which took me ages. When we finally got there the first thing I heard was DJ Shadow's Diminishing Returns Mix. Well cool I thought, what's next? Someone played Sasha. A girl played Smashing Pumpkins. One dude played United Future Organization's 'The Planet Plan'. What should I play? I decided on Madlib's 'Slims Return' which I introduced on the P.A. as 'something I really like, and hope you enjoy it as much as I do'. Someone nodded his head to the beat, a bunch of people continued playing cards at a table, the guy who cued my tune up smiled at me politely and Tonto deserted me. I ran for cover.

In the process I actually bumped into this long lost friend of mine whom I used to hang out with back in high school. Turns out that he's been pursuing a career in music ever since he finished school and is now involved in music production and stuff. We haven't seen each other for almost 7 years so it was nice to bump into him like that. Talked for a while but then he had to excuse himself so that he could play his own tune, and suggested that I play another one of mine as well.

Alright alright, I'll have to play something less indulgent next. By then Tonto returned and said he wanted to play a tune as well but he didn't have any music of his own. So I suggested Cutty Rank's 'Who Say Me Dun' from the CD I brought. At last, people were paying attention! Apparently everyone was up for some dancehall action so for a brief moment I was redeemed but Tonto took most of the credit. Oh well. Anyway, that got my spirits up so I thought, okay, I'm gonna play something weird but funky next. Something rare and out-there. I'm gonna play Four Tet's mash-up of 'Hey Papi'. Eventually my turn came and I proceeded to cue my tune up. Music starts. Blank stares all round. Conversations carried on. I ran for cover again.

So, yes. There'll be another session next week and I would like to go. But this time I'd better come in as the Green Hornet and pick some easier-to-swallow tunes. Kato can tag along if he wants.

5/8/2003
Since I got back my appetite has been absolutely voracious. I've been eating 4 meals a day and snacking whenever I can in between. Lunch is in an hour. Yum.

It hasn't really sunk in yet that I'm back for good. I still feel like I'm supposed to get on a plane in a couple of weeks time and I'll need to do as much as I can before I go. This time last week I was checking out the new releases for the week on Berwick Street. Sigh ...

Which is why it's great that I've got broadband at home. Yes indeedy, it's time to get with the program and get myself clued-in on this 'information superhighway' that I keep hearing about. It's great being able to listen to all these internet radio stations which would have been real awful on a dial-up connection. I'll also have to make do with lots of MP3 trading. And considering that the local radio stations here play more muzak than music, the internet will probably be my primary source of music from now on. I wonder where my boxes are ...

Next week I need start my job hunt. This Friday I hang out with my homies in tha hood. At Starbucks.

1/8/2003
OOH! New Sandman coming in September! I hope I'm able to get them back in Malaysia. I go home in about a day or so. I wanna get a pair of jeans before I go. Perhaps one last CD. A nice T-shirt. A friend of mine asked me for some furry dice to hang in his car. Another asked for Prince William stamps. My brother wants a Manchester United away jersey. More more more more meor mepmr moremo rmeomreormep ...

Pre-departure jitters settling in. I think I'm gonna make my job easier and get CDs for all of them. If they don't like the CDs I'll just keep them. Win-win.