rawk out!

ispeakquotes:

1. Practice mindfulness

2. Play, laugh and enjoy the simple things.

3. Develop an attitude of gratitude.

4. Invest in, and nurture, your relationships.

5. Give up your attachment to outcomes. 

6. Decide to be adventurous and try new things.

7. Choose to live life at a slower pace, and don’t be driven by a sense ofurgency. 

8. Give up the need to be in control.

9.  Accept that you are human and life won’t be perfect.

10. Don’t compare yourself to others.

So 2012 is over and the world didn’t end and before I realize it the month is already half over. This year hasn’t been especially good so far since I fell sick immediately on the first of january and have yet to fully recover from it thus seriously derailing my plans to exercise. Another thing that hasn’t been going well is school. I have not yet gotten sufficient modules to graduate and the appeal process is slow and getting on my nerves. If I can’t graduate this semester it’s gonna seriously piss me off.

In spite of this rocky start to the year, I have decided that this year will be a good year. Things will be fixed, work will get done, things will go well. Not that I have a particularly good feeling about this year but simply because I have declared it to be so and I’m going to make it so. This is the year SHIT WILL GET DONE.

So it’s been 4 months since I last blogged anything at all. It’s just somehow been a chore but I’ve realized that the longer that I remain silent and uncommunicative the more I feel my ability to communicate deteriorates. So I’m taking the risk and going to try blogging a bit more now.

So the semester has recently ended and finally I can let my brain drift away from economics and land ashore on some more fertile creative ground. As much as I do enjoy learning about economic theories, the academic environment is just a shitty place to learn anything. It seems to just suck out all the enthusiasm I have for learning about anything at all. So my plan for this short holiday is to read lots and lots of books from the library so I can just indulge in other interests.

Additionally, I’ve been doing very badly in my gym attendance during the semester. So it’s time to start going more intensively. The aim is to get my third Brazilian jiu-jitsu white stripe before February. In fact, it’s my intention to give myself the gift of fitness for my 25th birthday. 25 seems like an age where I should be at the peak of my physical fitness and if my current state is going to be the peak then I feel really sad for my body. So… Some clean eating, healthy habits, intensive exercise. Hopefully by February I’ll have something to show for it.

So for today, the plan is to head down to Arteastiq for some fun painting and delicious tea. I know my artistic talent is dismally non-existence but I like to try anyway.

My first exposure to Murakami was IQ84. I must say that I only bought the book because I had been hearing a lot of good things about it and there was a lot of hype built up about the book. After reading it, I was left feeling unsatisfied. I felt it was a good read but not great enough to justify all the praise being lauded upon it and the hype surrounding it. So the book left me wondering what was so great about Murakami and that maybe it was all hype and no substance. Or perhaps I was just too dense to understand what was so great about Murakami and his writing.

 Then recently, I went to the library near my house as I usually do. I was just searching for an easy read and I decided to browse near the fiction section as I had recently spotted “The Evolutionary Void” by Peter Hamilton and thought I might find something good there again. Then I spotted the name “Murakami” and I thought to myself why not. So I randomly chose one without even looking at the title and I’m glad I did.

I must say that I really like this book. The emotion and the desperation of wanting to find meaning comes across so much stronger in this book and I firmly believe it is due to the first person narrative style that Murakami uses in this book as compared to IQ84. There’s a lot of good things to say about how the narrative style affects the thematic issues. By being limited to one character’s point of view, we are better able to experience the loneliness and isolation that Murakami puts across. At the same time, we experience the mystery and frustration of not knowing what is happening to other important characters. The lack of fantastical characters compared to IQ84 also made it all much more relatable to me. 

If there’s one word I would use to describe this book, it would be ennui. This book is full of it. So much that it caused a physical discomfort in me which is one of the signs to me that the book is engaging.

So thanks to this book, I am intrigued and I’m going to give Murakami’s other books a look-see too. 

I’ve always had music in my life. Since the age of five I’ve attended piano lessons and then picked up the guitar in secondary school. In Junior College I met a bunch of great friends who wanted to make music together and we formed a band and had some great times. After serving the army, I joined Ocean Butterfly’s Very Singer Course and there I made even more friends and also met the girl who I love very much. I feel music is the one constant in my life and making music is very part of my lifestyle.

Even more important than the social aspect of music making is the emotional aspect. As a guy, I don’t often have the opportunity to speak heart-to-heart with someone about my emotions. I generalize this as a guy thing but perhaps it’s more accurately just a “me” thing. You can’t speak about your feelings with girls because that just makes you seem wimpy but at the same time you can’t really talk about it with other guys because that’s just awkward at the best of times and often leads to ridiculous jokes to ease the tension and change the topic. It’s not that I don’t trust others enough to let them know about my problems or emotions but more of a case where I always felt that my emotions and my problems are something I should not burden others with. Just a simple case of being considerate, at least that’s how I feel. I do let a few people close but there are always things that cannot be easily articulated and are just difficult to express. This is where music is really important. This is where I can lie back on my bed in the dark with my guitar on my chest and the notes seem to resonate straight out of my chest. Music is like a big emotional liver. The toxic emotions that I just cannot get rid of otherwise all flow out and dissipate with the melodies that fade away as swiftly as they are sounded. 

At the same time, I know that this isn’t something that is unique to me. I’m sure many others are aware of this emotional cleansing aspect of music just as sure as there are many fresh break-ups listening to Adele and crying in their bedroom. Cathartic experiences brought on by music is something most people know about. So why did I start writing about this in the first place? Mostly because I am feeling a bit lost at the moment and just felt the need to express something. Also because I feel lately I have lost touch with music. I have lost some of that spark and passion to listen to it, to make it, to share it, to immerse myself in it. So this is to remind myself to make good music.

When life seems hard. Make good music. Sounds very similar to Neil Gaiman’s speech about making good art but why not, music is an art after all. Daryl. Go make some good music.