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...

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

W__________I_____________D____________E

The blog is now

W________I__________D___________E

Yay. Been figuring out how to do this for a while. Silly me.

So now give me a W__________I___________D__________E smile

^_____________________^


Sunday, May 24, 2009

Chapter - OMG this is hard work!

What goes down in the practice labs every darn night. 

My hands are steadily improving because of this vigourous training. It's not all fun fun fun.. wait this is kinda fun too.


Friday, May 22, 2009

Chapter ^_^

So I've moved to a new apartment. I think I've mentioned that. Don't ask why. I'm not gonna explain. Just accept the fact that I've moved.

The new place is nice. Did I mention we have a Jacuzzi???? Hmm.. you might have caught it on my Twitter or something. Or I might have mentioned it before. 

That's me and my roomies having some fun in the Jacuzzi. With some unavoidable celebratory beer. Just one. Don't fret. It's a moving in celebration. Or something.
The picture is at a weird angle and my head is chopped off by the stupid metal bars thing and I apologize. But that was the only place we could put the camera and it was on a wobbly towel. So sue me. No wait... don't.

I seem to be writing in really short sentences today. I don't know why. See, I did it again. And again. Darn.

Anyway... 

I told myself I'm not going to post any more of my fantastic cooking on this site just in case all of you get jealous, but my latest masterpiece was... well... a masterpiece, and I'm so proud of it and how it turned out that I can't not brag about it.

Check out the fish and chips. That's restaurant material right there.

Ok, I promise I won't post anymore lunch or dinner pictures. Unless I make like a roast lamb in my apartment or something. Which is close to impossible... (and now I start to wonder what I could possibly do with the oven)

I can't believe it's week 8 of school already. It's been 2 months or more since I left home and it feels like 2 days. Now is the perfect time to insert a cliche. Time flies when you're having fun, and I've been having loads of fun in class and out of it. Practicing like a nut every night seems to be a fun thing to do so far. But it's not all bashing fun as my last 'practice' video might have told you. That was more of me giving you an insight to the sights and sounds of the MI practice labs. I'm putting together a video of what my REAL practice every night is like. And it's not... well... so random.

I expected to be busy and occupied when I got back to school and I expected to enjoy being busy (I know.. that's CRAZY isn't it?) and guess what? I'm right. 

School>Working

So far... 


I'm also going to be updating the 'Things I miss so far' post every now and then and link it to the sidebar so keep an eye out for that in case your name appears on it. 

Till next time. 

-KJ

***WATCH SOME FRUITCAKE AND ICE CREAM BELOW KTHX***

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Chapter 70 - Fruitcake and ice Cream

I know this is a blog for my adventures in america, but I cannot 'not' post this.

People who read this thing, if you can, pass it on to your friends. All the folks who were at Passion KL 2008, you know what this is all about!



Now GO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! 

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The Joys of Cleaning Pt 2

The situation - I moved to a new apartment. Don't bother asking why because I'm too lazy to tell you. The old place was in a mess. The manager was coming to inspect, so we had to work our butts of to get the place sparkling.

The solution - Get some cleaning liquid, some sponge, a mop and whatever else we can lay our hands on and destroy the dirt. Annihilate it. Cast it away into the nothingness of the rubbish bins.

The outcome - Using nothing but weird ammonia cleaner that I suppose has shortened my life by a considerable amount, and a sponge that has seen too many years for it's own good, and a mop that is so forsaken that I could've done better with a Kleenex, and a spoon, we managed to clear up majority of the place. Among the interesting events that occurred were

- Me scrubbing the shelves so hard the paint came off
- Using a spoon to clean a stove top. Yes, a spoon. Figure that one out will you
- Breathing in excessive amounts of ammonia
- Running out of plastic bags to store garbage

And other things. 

Mission completed - eventually.

***

Conclusion? I spoke recently about the joys of cleaning.

Well, here's my conclusion. There's only joy in cleaning when you clean for yourself. Cleaning sucks when you do it for someone else.

That being said, I've cleaned my new apartment and sliding my feet on the comfy clean carpet is pretty rewarding.

So my conclusion is definite. The joys of cleaning only exist as long as you reap the benefits.


Thursday, May 14, 2009

Student Musings

Necessity is the mother of invention. Especially when you are a student. And you have no money. 

So the dryer in my basement had a problem the other day. It doesn't usually happen, but my clothes didn't dry completely. Strange that they call it a dryer when it doesn't dry. Maybe should call it a not-so-dryer. So I had a problem. There was no where to hang the clothes to dry, the windows were blocked with permanent mosquito netting fixed on it. 

So, being the genius that I am, I invented 'STUDENT HANGER VERSION 1.0'



If you look carefully, that's actually the wooden rod from the closet propped up on my table and my side cupboard. And to make it higher, there's actually a small plastic container with a red cap - see it?

That little container serves a very unique purpose. 

Second problem - my roommates took the couch with them when they moved out, so I have a table, but no chair. I have a steamy bowl of noodles waiting to be eaten, but there is no way you can eat noodles standing up, or sitting on the floor with the bowl on the floor. 

So, out of my genius brain comes my second invention - 'STUDENT TABLE VERSION 1.0'


That's the same little container - it's actually used to put my rice. And it's the perfect height for me when I sit on the floor. 

Life as a student... it's a unique experience.

-KJ



Monday, May 11, 2009

Chapter >><< - KJ and the joys of cleaning

Situation - my feet feel uncomfortable stepping over all the small particles of stuff in my apartment.

The mission - to use a huge fan like device attached to a powerful electric motor within a tube or tunnel like device to create a form of difference in air pressure that causes the effect of suction into the device, which is then used to push said small particles of stuff into the device which then leaves the floor of the apartment more soothing to bare feet. In other words, Vacuuming.

The result - I spent a portion of a previous day running the machine all over my apartment. Every inch and every piece of wooden floor was thoroughly gone over with the device. 

Mission accomplished.
___

Now I'm not one to do alot of chores, my mum will testify to that. And I'm lazy at every opportunity - my friends will tell you that. So it was a life changing decision to voluntarily pick up a vacuum and clean my apartment. It was a decision that would impact the world forever. It went against every fibre of my body to voluntarily do chores. But I persisted and discovered something interesting.

I for once felt the joy that comes from sliding your feet on a nice clean floor after days and days of stepping around in the particle specked floor. (Did I mention my roommate was at the beach and he brought back liberal amounts of sand with him? I don't blame him.. just to let you know what sort of 'particles' exist on the floor) The sensation of the smoothness and being able to step all over the place without feeling small things sticking to your soles is awesome.

I can finally identify with the joy that comes from the hard work of cleaning your floors. 

It's still a pain in the butt to do, but at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

***NEXT TIME ON - THE JOYS OF CLEANING***

the bathroom maybe? I dunno about that one....

DUN DUN DUN!

*end credits*

-KJ

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Chapter XD (Blue Cheese Part 2)

So I forgot to bring my camera cable the other day. So I couldn't update my blue cheese dressing pictures. 

THERE! The dangerous dressing. It looks so tempting doesn't it? But it's scary. And I have a whole bottle to finish now. DUN DUN DUN!


Anyway, moving on.
I bought a brick the other day. Yeap, you read that right. I bought a brick. For a 100 dollars. It's not an ordinary brick though. It's made of 12 parts. Each part can be divided into two equal parts. And it's quite heavy. And it's made of wood.

TADAA!!!

That's a brick of sticks. I needed to get some sticks for my practice. That's about 8 bucks per pair. And I hope that lasts me till forever. I hope.

And another thing, I've been practising like a maniac. And I have proof. You know sometimes when you use a part of your body too much it starts to show signs of wear and tear or just plain hardening up to the abuse? Kind of like how people get that 'weathered' look when they spend too much time out in the sun or something? Well... The very same thing has happened to my finger. For those of you who don't know, I play drums with a grip that has the stick resting on my ring finger in my left hand. And after all the maniacal practice, my finger has become discoloured.

Yeap. That's not dirt or some kind of lighting effect. That is actually a dark brown discolouration happening to my skin. The skin there is also particularly hard and rough. Scary eh?

Last bit of this mumbo jumbo update. I'll say this - 'You're never too far away from home.'

MAGGI GORENG! TADDAA!!!

-KJ

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Blue Cheese?

You know when you watch food channels and you see all the weird/cool things that foreigners put in their food? Well, on the other hand they probably look at our asian stuff and think the same way, but that's not the point. 

Sometimes you hear about ingredients that sound cool and you wished you can have some. And then you go to your local market to find that no such thing exists where you live. 

And then you go to a new place and you actually find TONS of the stuff.

Well that happened to me just recently. 

I walked into the grocery store to look for salad dressing and the amount of varieties scared me. Shelf after shelf of weird looking salad dressings were looking down at me, inviting me to buy them. One particular bottle caught my eye. It said 'Blue Cheese' dressing. And I'm go 'Blue Cheese? Awesome! I'm a cheese guy ( I think) and I've always wanted to try blue cheese. The way it looks so gross like there's veins growing out of it. Yeah, let me at it!'

So I grab a bottle of this blue cheese dressing and pay for it. 

Then when I get home, I quickly cook up my chicken salad and pour liberal amounts of this Blue Cheese dressing on it!

'IT'S DELICIOUS!!!!!'




.... 

said my imagination before I ate it. 

The reality couldn't be further from it. As I bit into my gigantic chicken sandwich, the blue cheese dressing did to me what the Green Tea with Milk and Sugar did. My face was contorted in exactly the same way (refer for Green Tea Post for image). Ugh. Blue Cheese.

I shall not be tempted in the future. I shall stick to mayo, or thousand island. 

*fun update coming soon

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

I NAILED IT!!!!!!! YEAHHHH!!!!

I didn't mean to douse the awesomeness of the previous post, but this is even bigger.

I GOT A 98 ON MY LPW!!!! HELL YEAH!!!!

98!!!

98!!!!!!!!!

98!!!!!!!!!!!

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!


I'M SO HAPPY NOW!!! YEAHHHH!!!!!!!!!

*sadly... I was so pumped i forgot to record. Oops. Will try the next time.






Monday, May 4, 2009

Chapter THE AWESOME!

Ok, this is one of the main reasons why I started this blog and is perhaps gonna be one of the most awesome posts I ever make in my life. 

Yesterday, me and two friends went to the Catalina Jazz Bar and Grill for a concert.


That's what it looks like inside. Of course due to my camera flash and settings, you can't see the warmness of the place, but imagine that place a little more yellow and much dimmer... Very very cosy and awesome.

And guess who was performing? Chuck Loeb and .... 
*drumroll*
DAVE WECKL!

OH YES, I got to see Dave Weckl LIVE! Not only that, but I was like 20 feet from him the whole time!! And he walked past our table several times!! 

I felt like like a little schoolgirl.

But come on.. one of my FAVOURITE drummers and one of the most AWESOME ever! And I got to see him live!


Sadly his face was blocked by a cymbal from my angle so I managed to take pictures of his hair. But no matter....



I managed to meet him after the gig! And shake his hand and take a picture with him! 
YES! THAT'S ME! NEXT TO DAVE WECKL! WHOOOOHOOO!!

That was seriously an awesome night. And one that I won't forget easily. To be standing right next to such an awesome drummer and to see him perform live and see one of his insane solos up close... that was just amazing. So worth the 30 bucks that I paid. AWESOME!!!

I could barely sleep that night, sniggering to myself over the thought of meeting Dave Weckl... seriously schoolgirl man... I can't believe myself. 

This one goes into the KJ's AWESOME AMERICAN ADVENTURE FILE! (If there was one)

Till next time folks!

DAVE WECKL!!! WOOOTT!

Friday, May 1, 2009

It RAINED!

Yes it rained!!! In Hollywood! At last! A source of water other than the tap! And the shower! And the school water cooler!

It rained!!!

Well... technically it rained.

But comparing the rain here to the rain in malaysia is like comparing the drip you get from a leaky tap to the great flood of Noah.

But I felt TWO drops of rain on my face! I could actually feel it! 

The sad part is I could actually count rain droplets on my face. That's some lousy rain. Come on. Give me more please!

But it rained! 

That's a good thing!

RAIN RAIN COME LA PLEASE
MUST I GO DOWN ON MY KNEES?
WHEN YOU RAIN IT'S NOT ALOT
RAIN A BIT MORE CAN OR NOT?

-KJ