This blog has now reached it's end. The American Adventure has finished. Will there be a sequel in the near future? One will never know, but for now let's let the credits roll...

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Chapter 4&5&6&7&8

Nifty video of my practice in the lab. This is what it sounds like every night.
Sorry it cuts off half way... I ran out of video.
Enjoy.



Monday, April 27, 2009

Chapter f(x)=x-9 : Picture Update

First let me introduce you to the Xlerator. This little monster sits in the bathrooms all day, waiting for you to put your hand underneath it so it can blast it to oblivion.

And this is what it does to your hand ( I hope you can see.. but if you can't it blasts your hand out of shape)

Now that is one seriously powerful dryer. I've had alot of fun with it. If you put both your hands together underneath your palms make odd farting noises.


And here are the first casualties of my nightly practice. I'm gonna try and keep all of them to see how many I destroy during my time here in America. Thankfully I brought quite a few of them so I don't have to buy any yet.

And now, presenting.... (drumroll)

THE MANY MEALS OF KJ!













Yeap.. that's pretty much what I've been eating so far. If you're wondering why some of them look similar it' because I bought a huge packet of instant potato powder mix and that's sort of been my carb staple - it's easier to cook than rice. And I've had cabbage for almost every meal, simply because cabbages are 98 cents each.

And now some bonus pictures

I decided to treat myself to a huge bottle of pepsi. 2 litres only cost my $1.50. If you consider dollar to dollar, it's darn cheap. I mean, back in malaysia you'll prolly get a measly 325ml can for 1.50.


And this was the disaster of my first attempt at cooking rice on a stovetop in a pot. In other words (if you can't understand by the picture) PHAIL! I burnt the bottom and spent like 10 minutes scrubbing the pot. Don't worry, I learn fast and now my rice perfect adee. I'm like the pro of stovetop pot rice cookery. I should enter a stovetop high flame quick pot rice cooking challenge or something.

That's it for now. I know I've forgotten to put something in this post. But that always happens. And I can update this darn thing anytime anyway. Till next chapter folks.


Sunday, April 26, 2009

Chapter -1.5 : The Hobo Experience

But first some other things.


Here's another one of my LPWs... Comments are welcome on this page and the youtube page. Playing that funky music.




Next is something I suppose only Americans can think of. I love green tea. I love green tea with lemon. And even green tea with all sorts of crap that Justea puts into it. But this is the first time I've ever seen green tea with milk and sugar.




See, I have photo proof. And it looks just as disgusting as you think it does.


Before you go and try this first, here's a picture of me after tasting the green tea with milk.


It's incredibly weird.


And now, the Hobo experience.


I was on the bus back from downtown LA the other day. Actually no, I was on the way to downtown to take the train back to Hollywood. At one stop, this weird looking hobo snuck into the back door of the bus. I suspect he was trying to sneak it without paying while the driver up front was busy with the other people. But his hobo plan failed. 


He was detected by the bus driver's super senses - years of bus driving gives you skills like that - and was asked to get up front to pay. The hobo was grunting and complaining words that didn't make a whole lot of sense. I guess I don't understand enough Hobo Speak to comprehend. All I heard was him muttering about wanting his 50 cents back. You see, Hobo had to pay but he kept insisting the bus fare was 50 cents when it was actually $1.25. So all Hobo did was pull out a dollar bill and ask for change.


And there were 2 things wrong with that. 

1. The buses do not give change. If you only have a 100 dollar bill then sorry, you're not getting back your 98.75. And

2. Hobo was a quarter short anyway.


So the bus driver asked Hobo to sit down and shut up. He did one of them. Throughout the journey with Hobo on the bus, Hobo kept spontaneously shouting out weird sentences. Most of them were Hobo Speak, but I managed to catch some of it (unintentionally of course. He was yelling. Don't look at me as if I was paying attention to Hobo) like 'I love you!' and 'Where you going?' and stuff like that. Alot of 'I love you!'s by the way. I think they were aimed at the bus driver. But then again, this is Hobo we are talking about, and only God knows what he was really saying. It was like a guy with a speech problem and tourrettes at the same time.


The entire journey freaked the crap out of me. Hobo was sitting just 2 seats away and it was freaky everytime he spontaneously yelled some weird Hobo sentence.


I guess this is the reason why most people don't take the bus. To avoid the Hobos. Be thankful there aren't as many Hobos on Buses in Malaysia.


*Huge photo edit coming up next. Stay tuned.


PS

I wonder if there is a phobia of your clothes shrinking in the wash. Because I have that.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

The things I miss... (so far)

Last Edited - November 14 2009.

- My CD collection

- Making money and buying almost anything I like.

- Late night mamak sessions with random people

- Driving

- Mom's spaghetti (mine is no where near in comparison)

- My drum kit

- Jamming with the Teen Street band (yes you guys get special mention)

- 7-11 and Viran

- Milo

For now..

*EDIT

- Going to Summit

- Rain (yes.. I miss the rain. I haven't had any since I got here)

- Yee Mee (all the varieties of it - claypot, fried, braised ... etc etc)

- My Toy Collection

- 7 RM movies and the unlimited time to watch them

- Mom's baking - everything from brownies to apple cakes and pies.

- spices in the fridge (all I have here is salt and pepper.. everything else is so expensive)

- chinese rice wine

- Frozen burger patties (really cheap ones)

- Longan syrup mix

- Impromptu practices at my house with Calbin, Ahloo and others who've been there.

- My Calvin & Hobbes collection.

*EDIT*

- Eating out.

- The chicken rice chili, and perhaps some other kinds. But mainly that one.

- Eating cheap-ish sushi

- Tau foo fah and other tong sui.

* MORE EDITS*

- Durian. Lots of Durian.

- Koko Crunch

Monday, April 20, 2009

Student Math

2 cans of tuna = 2 sandwiches.

2 cans of tuna + ranch dressing = 2.5 sandwiches

2 cans of tuna + 1/2 onion + ranch dressing = 3 sandwiches

2 cans of tuna + 1 gigantic onion + ranch dressing = 4 sandwiches

2 cans of tuna + 1 gigantic onion + ranch dressing + lettuce leaf = 4 very filling sandwiches

2 cans of tuna + 1 gigantic onion + half a head of lettuce + ranch dressing = 6 sandwiches.

Suddenly I'm seeing a pattern here.

hmm

2 chicken thighs = 2 sandwiches

2 chicken thighs + ranch dressing = 2 creamy sandwiches

2 chicken thighs + 1 gigantic onion + ranch dressing = 4 sandwiches

2 chicken thighs + 1 gigantic onion + ranch dressing + alot of lettuce = 6 sandwiches

Who says math does not apply in the real world?

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Here's the first attempt at the LPW recording..

Sorry about the focus. For some reason the camera wouldn't want to focus on the zoom. And sorry about all the background noise... was recorded from the back. 


Friday, April 17, 2009

Tiny update number 5/4

Le sigh...


A wave of depression skims over me. Well, definitely skims over because if you truly know me then you know that nothing can possibly keep me down. But I am slightly disappointed and today has just been a crap day. Well, in retrospect not really so crap, but still quite crap. 


So I get my butt to the jazz LPW today (after waiting and queueing at the registrar office to get my schedule changed) and lo and behold - no more spots for drummers. All the spots were taken in the first week when everyone signed up and I was stuck in class. Phooey. 


So that means no jazz for this quarter. NO JAZZ LPW! OMGBBQ! So what in the world did I change my schedule for!? Now I've got to get up earlier on Friday - no wait, that's not true... I still get up at the same time because I did have a class at 10 before this as well... 


NO JAZZ LPW! OMGBAI!


I keep looking for the bright side in this and I suppose there is one. I get to do my funk LPW now... and there's always the Blues and Brazilian LPW to compensate... it's jazzy enough to get my groove going (Gonna try getting the video up later). But I suppose the bright side isn't quite as bright as it would be had it been brightened by the brighter fact of doing a Jazz LPW and not doing the others as the not so bright side because that side of the brightness is possibly brighter than the current brightness of the bright side which makes it not so bright but bright nonetheless. 


But come on... NO JAZZ LPW! OMGMMKAY!


There's still a chance at another LPW called the Schroeder LPW... I'm gonna check that out next week and see where things fly with that. So for this quarter it's all blues, funk and bossa. Good enough... but NO JAZZ LPW!


Ok I've said that long enough. 


But the crap day doesn't end there.


There was free food at school today. Mountains of pizza and even larger mountains of Coke. It was fantasticly delicious and the pizzas were huge! You could take piece after piece in the never ending wave of pizzas! 


And that's all in my imagination because I was asleep.


Oh yes... I was sleeping when they were handing out free pizzas. I fell asleep on the couch today and missed free pizzas. How much crappier can the day get.


Oh well.


I guess the best I can do is Play That Funky Music ... which is my next LPW and I hope I hit the 90's this time.


KTHXBAI!



Thursday, April 16, 2009

Welcome!

Welcome to the new face of KJ'S American Adventure!

This is just a welcome post to get you acquainted with the move! Think of it like house warming... except it's not a house. And it's not getting warm.

I finally decided to move to have more freedom to edit my posts and blog. The idea of having a novelty blog on blogsome (I know no other person who uses that service) was completely destroyed by the fact that the novelty blog sites are just crap. And so, as unwilling as I may be, I succumb to the status quo of the blog world. *sigh*

Oh well.. not to be too depressing or anything. So let's open some beer - I mean Pepsi - and enjoy our new place! Get settled soon! We're gonna have a ball!

*SITE MOVED FROM BLOGSOME*

Things to come -
Some pictures
Videos of my LPW performances. Hopefully I have no trouble uploading them.
Ramblings from week 2!
Stay tuned!


-KJ