Filed under: Uncategorized
I’ve been asked this question more than once: “Why Glowingbrakes?”
I will then execute my now well-rehearsed routine of explaining how brake discs can actually glow red hot when they achieve a sufficiently high temperature. This is usually followed by a short moment of silence as my victim suppresses the burning urge to ask for a better illustration, in order cease the torrent of technical gobbledegook that would otherwise pour out of my mouth.
So, why Glowingbrakes? Here’s why:
(Photo: Schlegelmilch Photography)
This is actually a picture of Ralf Schumacher taken at Monza, Italy, in 2001, back when he was still racing with the then BMW Williams Team.
Hence, Glowingbrakes - because brakes glow.
Filed under: Ramblings
It’s December, school’s over for now, but it doesn’t really feel like a holiday, probably because I’ve spent so much time outside doing stuff. I haven’t really been able to just sit down at home and chill. First, it was retreat, then caroling, then my parents got sick, though they’re fine now. It’s surprising how many people got sick this holiday season. I thought I was gonna get the flu bug near the end of the retreat too, but thankfully, it was just my sinuses acting up again, really violently. Never in my life was my nose that blocked. But at least that kept me awake for the last few sessions of the retreat…
Speaking of retreat, retreat was great. Talk about a spiritual recharge. Working so hard does make you forget about God a little bit. Sure, I know at the back of my mind that he’s there, looking out for me, guiding me along, but I am guilty of not spending enough time with God. The 3 days at St Teresa’s didn’t really bring me any closer to Him, but it did help me to rediscover the importance of being close to Him, and that’s a pretty good starting point. And I have to say, I was pretty inspired by Carmelita’s sharing during one of our sessions, about reconciliation, and it really made me think. I had probably the best reconciliation session in my life thus far that night, so thanks Carmelita, for all the sharings.
I didn’t manage to write a lot of warm fuzzies during the retreat though. When the organizers rolled out all the envelopes, I just went “Argh… Not again!” So to Joanna, Carmelita, Raymond, Ben, Alex, sorry I didn’t write warm fuzzies for you guys! I was too sleepy… Hahaha.
And then there was caroling. Who knew singing could be such a tiring affair? And who I could even sing in the first place? Ok, fine, I still can’t sing, but it was fun, hanging out with the caroling team. The Anchorpoint team finally finished our last gig today, and then we went to Ikea again for dinner. I didn’t really like the salmon, but the meatballs still tasted as good as they did 2 days and 30 meatballs ago. Anyway, I’m just glad all the caroling is over. No more practices, no more gigs. From now on, I’m just gonna be chilin’ out…
Until CAW rally rehearsals start in a few days time… (Groan…)
Filed under: Music
I spent way too much money during the exam period, and a lot of it went to HMV, and also Sembawang Music, which happens to have a surprisingly good collection of CDs. And by CDs, I mean those not-so-easy-to-find CDs like the Hotel Costes and Saint-Germain-des-Pres compilations. Good music hardly comes by these days, so when I discovered downtempo and jazz 2 years ago (thank you, Lush 99.5), it was a like a breath of fresh air. And now, with those compilations, I finally have a sizeable chill-out collection.
Hotel Costes is a Hotel in Paris, known for its bar and cafe. The series of downtempo compilations released under the Costes name are all mixed by Costes’ resident DJ, Stephane Pompougnac, and the guy is a genius. His choice of tunes - from the likes of Thievery Corporation, Gotan Project, Louie Austen, and Stephane Pompougnac himself - and his mixing style makes every volume of the compilation coherent, complete, and slightly addictive, unless you’re not a fan of downtempo or if you’ve listened to it so much that you’ve gotten sick of it. It’s easy on the ears, and great to listen to after a hard day’s work when all you wanna do is just sit down and rot in your chair. There are 10 volumes in all, not including the “Best of” volume, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to end there.
(Album art: Amazon)
The Saint-Germain-Des-Pres Cafe compilations are named after an area in Paris that contains a number of well-known cafes such as Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots. The compilation supposedly features some of the music that can be heard in the cafes in that area, and sounds slightly less electronic and has a jazz-ier feel to it, as opposed to Hotel Costes’ downtempo beats. This series of compilation is mostly made up of nu-jazz pieces from artists like Bugge Wesseltoft, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Jamie Cullum and Koop. If you love the instrumentation of jazz and the looping beats of trip-hop, Saint-Germain-des-Pres would defintely be worth a listen to. There are currently 9 volumes in this compilation, with volumes 7, 8 and 9 each containing 2 discs worth of music.
(Album art: Amazon)
And both compilations make for great studying music, which I’m probably gonna need again in a few weeks time…
Filed under: Ramblings
Yes, no work. And it’s been like that for the past 5 days! Is that cool or what?!
I know, it takes a severely deprived and tortured person to be excited about something like that, but I’m the guy who dreamt about watching TV, remember?
Anyway, I’ve been going out quite a bit these past few days. I went to Pulau Ubin with my orientation-week OG, or part of it anyway, and it was great. It was my first time at Ubin actually, so we went cycling along some of the bike trails, looking for Jude’s mysterious boxes that were planted by people with too much time on their hands. And it was fun, even though my bag and shirt became really colourful. The bike had no mudguards, so the wheels were kicking up a lot of mud. And it was really wet too – it even rained quite a bit throughout the day. But despite the rain and the dirt, cycling on a trail sure beats the hell out of cycling at East Coast Park or something like that.
And fiddler crabs ARE cute. (Hahaha…)
I did go East Coast Park in the end though, but that was the next day, and there was no cycling involved. I joined the MM for a buffet lunch at the Tung Lok Seafood Restaurant – which had great service by the way - followed by a “practice” session at Geraldine’s house, which turned out to be pretty fruitless actually. Everyone spent half the time at her place doing nothing, and I spent all of the time doing nothing. We were trying to practice some songs for the retreat, which I’m not gonna be playing for (yay…), but I thought I’d sit in anyway. It was pretty nice. It’s been a long time since I actually got together with the MM.
So let’s see, caroling tomorrow, retreat next week, and hopefully, a jam session right after that before Vincent goes back to Indonesia. It’s gonna be another busy week.
And, strangely enough, no work…
Filed under: Huh?
We’re all familiar with chicken eggs, quail eggs, and duck eggs, and the rich, creamy goodness stored within their shells…
But can someone please tell me where carrot eggs and corn eggs come from???
