Reflection on Casiopea's Take Me

You might think that this is a review of Casiopea's Take Me, or some sort. I just feel for the song. Here's the video for reference:



The first movement is a short piano introduction. The flow of the tunes is melancholic, and if you have a video of this, you can feel the melancholy by just looking at the face of Minoru Mukaiya... just kidding.

Enter the second movement. Enter Tetsuo Sakurai, Issei Noro and Akira Jimbo. The band comes to play with Mukaiya. Mukaiya still holds the melody here. The tune is now asking, seems like someone is saying, please listen to me, please answer my question.

Next is the third movement. The melody gives the impression of persuasion, although a little heavy and a hint of force can be sensed. Given this, my impression was the answer to the second movement's question seems to be negative. Then there's the repeatition of the second movement.

The fourth movement is just a rehash of the second movement. This time, Mukaiya takes the backseat and Issei Noro gives a guitar interpretation of what the piano was saying. The third movement is played with a tweak at the end to serve as transition and in preparation for the fifth movement.

The fifth movement has the heaviest part of the song. Aside from persuasion, you can feel the desperation of this part since the someone still answered negatively. There's force, the melancholy is at highest, complementing the transitive third movement. But right after the movement, the second movement is repeated with piano adlibs. Akira Jimbo and Tetsuo Sakurai play their parts lightly but still persuasive.

The final movement is another variation of the second movement. This sounds exactly like the second movement, giving the song a question mark as ending. Just like saying, "What now?"

Video from Youtube.com

Zoom - Fat Larry's Band

Let me dedicate a song to someone special. Zoom by Fat Larry's Band. I want this one to be sung by Monchit, our male soloist, during my wedding... hahahaha!

Zoom
Just one look and then my heart went boom
Suddenly and we were on the moon
Flying high in a neon sky, oh...

Bang
Just one touch and all the church bells rang
Heaven called and all the angels sang
Sunrise shine in the midnight sky, oh

Zoom
You chase the day away
High noon
The moon and stars came out to play
Then my whole wide world went zoom

Moonbeams dancing in the afternoon
Shadows blowing as the roses bloom
Looking down on a wonderland, oh

Smack
Just one kiss and I was outta whack
All at once there was no turning back
Oh so far above the brightest star, oh

Zoom
You chase the day away
High noon
The moon and stars came out to play

Zoom you chase the day away
High noon
The moon and stars came out to play
Then my whole wide world went zoom

I passed a rainbow as we went flying by
Faster and faster, we were higher than high
For once in my lifetime
I was finally free
And you came back to me

Oh, zoom
You chase the day away
High noon
The moon and stars came out to play
Oh, zoom
You chase the day away
High noon
The moon and stars came out to play
Oh, zoom
You chase the day away
High noon
The moon and stars came out to play...

The State of My Mind

I don't feel any pressure, even though there's a series of deadline running after me. My group mates in SSD might call me a motherfucker if they read this post, but who cares. I am just happy to feel this way.

Being happy and contented without any reasons at all is stupid, but this is much better than to be stressed out with all these problems. Oh yeah, it's not without any reasons. Maybe because I have found a little source of inspiration these past few days.

Sun Tech Days 2008

I've attended the Sun Tech Days last June 18 and 19 at the Makati Shangri-La. This event is organized by Sun Microsystems, and is held in 15 other cities worldwide, with this event being the last for this year.

You know, this event is very memorable to me. It's my first time to step on a hotel, my first developers event I attended, and of course I have fun. Aside from the things I've learned, I have these bonding moments with my classmates and other friends from the other sections and other schools.

First thing first. There are a lot of topics discussed during this two-day event. Actually, it's a three day event, but I wasn't able to attend the June 17 University World Tour because we have a mock defense in our SSD subject. Anyway, the main tracks are Web Development using programming tools made by Sun Microsystems, Desktop Applications, and OpenSolaris, the operating system made by Sun.

Aside from this tracks, I was enlightened about open source. Before, I only appreciate software made by Microsoft, which is not open source. With open source, I can get the things I need for my computer (such as operating system like OpenSolaris), without paying for its license. How do these open source companies earn profit? When customers want additional tools, they have to pay for it. And aside from this, these open source companies are more community-oriented, unlike their counterparts that are profit-oriented.

During the first day, I attended the Web development track and the last part of the OpenSolaris track. And if you are a java programmer, Netbeans is the ultimate development tool. Aside from java, Netbeans has also plugins for Rails on Ruby (RoR), Grails, Java ME (mobile edition, this one enables you to create programs for your mobile phone. Wonderful!), and even C. Except for the OpenSolaris track, I was with my classmates all the time. The food on the first day was not suitable for my pang-kanto tastebuds and I came to realize that I cannot stand the food on any hotel because of that.

During the second day, I attended all interesting tracks. But my favorite tracks are the Developing Java using Mac and the MySQL track. I need to be on the MySQL track because we are going to use MySQL for our backend in our system. And actually, the best speaker was in that track: articulate, not boring, straight to the point, although I find him boastful. Now Mr. Gaffar Mua, what you've said is true; Indian developers are boastful.

The other speakers are mostly Singaporeans and Chinese developers. The speaker in the Mac track is a Filipino, a UP professor. I find him good, but maybe because of Mac's (and Apple's) disadvantages in Java programming, I wasn't impressed that much. I also like the Singaporean Sang Shin, a Java Evangelist.

And food is better at the second day. WOW. Although we were not able to seat this time, maybe it's worth it. It is also during the second day that I met other students from other schools, namely, Informatics Northgate and Arellano U.

And it's not because of those tech stuff I met the Arellano guys, it's because of my piano playing. But the head erminguard stopped me and said, "Gusto mo magbayad ng PhP2,000.00?" Put*** ***, if I will become a successful musician and I will be playing at the same venue, I will bring my own piano. I don't care if it's only a bright or even a stage piano, I won't use their PhP2,000 per play hell-sent piano.

Me and my classmates also took pictures during the event. I'll just wait for them to upload them and post it here.

Introduction

First of all, I would like to welcome you to my new blog.

I just want to thank everybody who visited my blog. I'll keep this blog updated for you. And I will try to post everything that I can muster... nah... But there are things that are too personal, I'll just keep them on my paper diary... Yes, I still write on a paper diary.

That's all for today. Sorry guys, because I still have to wake up early tomorrow to attend the second part of the Sun Tech Days. See you tomorrow.