It’s been a while since I last update this blog.

Things are pretty much getting routine till there is nothing about them to blog about.

Band wise, there are ups and downs. JUNK manage to get more gigs in these few months. We played our first Jazz gig in the Malaysian Youth Day and another one in Jazz Ampang. Most of them are free gigs. I don’t really encourage free gigs because as a musician, we want to be respected (or rather compensated) for the amount of resources we’ve put in, monetary in particular. I think I’ll blog about my opinions on free gigs in a separate post in the future.

Also, JUNK took part in a band competition and we managed to go into round 4 of 6. This is my first time taking part in a competition like this. It is a good experience. We somehow manage to get good comments from the judges.

The competition somehow drained us up and we don’t have much time enough to breathe and reflect on what we did. Due to our own personal commitments, work, so on and so forth, we don’t have really have enough opportunity to practice together also. So we have to really “belasah”.

To think from the other perspective, the competition did make some of the deep hidden issues within the band surfaced. So as we band, we’ll have to address these issues as a matured adult, rather than making a reckless decision and regret it later.

Enough said, look on the bright side, we manage to gain more exposure and experience. Compared to our gigs a year or two back, we’d feel anxious, nervous till the point of insomnia before gig. Now, we’re somehow feeling more relaxed and less nervous compared to earlier gigs.

Wish us all the best ……

2007 – Toe Tragedy
2008 – Knee Tragedy
2009 – Mishaps
2010 – Annual Injury

Seems like this is going to be an annual event.

How I ended up ? Was cleaning my “new” apartment unit and some of the floor tiles bloated suddenly and some got cracked. So in the midst of pulling it up, the tiles broke and my thumb got cut. Kinda deep, can see the inner flesh and the wound is around 2 inches long. Awful lots of blood..

So got 4 stitches, 1 Tetanus injection and RM100+ gone… and more money to spend to fix the floors…

A friend of mine posted this as his FB status :

“kalau basikal drpd bicyle, motosikal drpd motorcycle, then seterika itu bahasa apa? apesal bukan "hari ini saya tak sempat besi baju?" this is no joke, can someone let me know where this word come from?”

Then a friend of mine manage to shed some lights on the answer. This is his response to the FB status :

“I think I found it: "Strijken" [Dutch. Google translate can pronounce this] Source: http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/hiramoto2007lexical.pdf”

Language is a funny thing isn’t it??

Anyhow, my purpose here is not to promote the study of language but some funny stuff exchange that we had over the posts. Take a look :-

Received this email from a colleague of mine which I think I’d like to share here. Feel free to debate.

The human body was never meant to consume rice! You see, our genes have hardly changed in more than 30,000 years. However, our food choices and lifestyle have changed dramatically. The caveman would hardly recognise our food or way of life.

Caveman food was never cooked as fire was not yet tamed. Thus, he ate only those foods that you can eat without treatment with or by fire. He ate fruits, vegetables, fish (sushi anyone?), eggs, nuts and meat. Yes, even meat! You can even eat meat raw if you were starving in the forest. You have the necessary enzymes to digest meat.

However, rice, like wheat and corn, cannot be eaten raw. It must be cooked. Even if you were starving in the desert, you cannot eat rice in the raw form. This is because we do not have the system of enzymes to break rice down. You were never meant to eat rice. To make matters worse, you not only eat rice, but also make it the bulk of your food.

In some parts of Asia , rice forms up to 85% of the plate. Even if you take rice, keep it to a minimum. Remember, it is only for your tongue - not your body. Actually, rice and other grains like wheat and corn are actually worse than sugar. There are many reasons:

Rice becomes sugar - lots of it!
This is a fact that no nutritionist can deny: rice is chemically no different from sugar. One bowl of cooked rice is the caloric equal of 10 teaspoons of sugar. This does not matter whether it is white, brown or herbal rice. Brown rice is richer in fibre, some B vitamins and minerals but it is still the caloric equal of 10 teaspoons of sugar. To get the same 10 teaspoons of sugar, you need to consume lots of kangkong-10 bowls of it.

Rice is digested to become sugar.
Rice cannot be digested before it is thoroughly cooked. However, when thoroughly cooked, it becomes sugar and spikes circulating blood sugar within half an hour-almost as quickly as it would if you took a sugar candy. Rice is very low in the 'rainbow of anti-oxidants. '

This complete anti-oxidant rainbow is necessary for the effective and safe utilisation of sugar. Fruits come with a sugar called fructose. However, they are not empty calories as the fruit is packed with a whole host of other nutrients that help its proper assimilation and digestion.

Rice has no fibre.
The fibre of the kangkong fills you up long before your blood sugar spikes. This is because the fibre bulks and fills up your stomach. Since white rice has no fibre, you end up eating lots of 'calorie dense' food before you get filled up. Brown rice has more fibre but still the same amount of sugar. 

Rice is tasteless-sugar is sweet..
There is only so much that you can eat at one sitting. How many teaspoons of sugar can you eat before you feel like throwing up? Could you imagine eating 10 teaspoons of sugar in one seating?

Rice is always the main part of the meal.
While sugar may fill your dessert or sweeten your coffee, it will never be the main part of any meal. You could eat maybe two to three teaspoons of sugar at one meal. However, you could easily eat the equal value of two to three bowls (20-30 teaspoons) of sugar in one meal. I am always amused when I see someone eat sometimes five bowls of rice (equals 50 teaspoons of sugar) and then asks for tea tarik kurang manis!

There is no real 'built in' mechanism for us to prevent overeating of rice:
How much kangkong can you eat?
How much fried chicken can you eat?
How much steamed fish can you eat?
Think about that!

In one seating, you cannot take lots of chicken, fish or cucumber, but you can take lots of rice. Eating rice causes you to eat more salt. As rice is tasteless, you tend to consume more salt-another villain when it comes to high blood pressure. You tend to take more curry that has salt to help flavor rice. We also tend to consume more ketchup and soy sauce which are also rich in salt.

Eating rice causes you to drink less water.
The more rice you eat, the less water you will drink as there is no mechanism to prevent the overeating of rice. Rice, wheat and corn come hidden in our daily food. As rice is tasteless, it tends to end up in other foods that substitute rice like rice flour, noodles and bread. We tend to eat the hidden forms which still get digested into sugar.

Rice, even when cooked, is difficult to digest..
Can't eat raw rice? Try eating rice half cooked. Contrary to popular belief, rice is very difficult to digest. It is 'heavy stuff'. If you have problems with digestion, try skipping
rice for a few days. You will be amazed at how the problem will just go away.

Rice prevents the absorption of several vitamins and minerals.
Rice when taken in bulk will reduce the absorption of vital nutrients like zinc, iron and the B vitamins.

Are you a rice addict? Going rice-less may not be easy but you can go rice-less. Eating less rice could be lot easier than you think. Here are some strategies that you can pursue in your quest to eat less rice:

Eat less rice-cut your rice by half..
Barry Sears, author of the Zone Diet, advises 'eating rice like spice'. Instead, increase your fruits and vegetables. Take more lean meats and fish. You can even take more eggs and nuts.

Have 'riceless' meals.
Take no rice or wheat at say, breakfast. Go for eggs instead.

Go on 'riceless' days.
Go 'western' once a week.

Take no rice and breads for one day every week.
That can't be too difficult. Appreciate the richness of your food. Go for taste, colors and smells. Make eating a culinary delight. Enjoy your food in the original flavors.

Avoid the salt shaker or ketchup.
You will automatically eat less rice.

Eat your fruit dessert before (Yes! No printing error) your meals.
The fibre rich fruits will 'bulk up' in your stomach. Thus, you will eat less rice and more fruits.

It's your life. Decide what you want to eat! But eat less rice! 

Just wanna share my current pedalboard for my analog pedals. I’m using it quite extensively now for jamming. It’s not a huge board in terms of number of pedals. (Some pedals are just huge in size)

Power : DC Brick

GUITAR > Korg Pitchblack Tuner > Crybaby GCB95 > Analogman Comprosser > Keeley-mod DS1 > Damage Control Demonizer > Boss Volume Pedal > AMP INPUT

AMP SEND > Analogman Mini Chorus > Eventide TimeFactor > AMP RETURN

Still waiting for the patcher pedal to arrive from US.

I’m actually feeling guilty for not updating this blog. Not that I’ve lost interest in blogging, just that things are being very routine lately. Probably I’ve lost the interest in noticing the interesting stuff happening around me. Or I’ve subconsciously chose to ignore all these stuff.

Anyhow, I’ll try my best to blog “more often”.

As for myself, I’ve been hitting the gym very often, almost every weekday and some weekends as well. My trainer advised me to take pictures to keep a log of my progress. So I wanna share some progress pics here.

I was at Pavilion just now for a dinner with my sister. Thinking whether to dine at La Bodega or Weissbrau. So we ended up at Weissbrau.

I ordered Pork Knuckle and my sister ordered some Sausages. Pretty decent… I will try the sausage next time.

Tadaa………

Introducing another new addition to the family, the Roland VG99.

Damn interesting piece of gear this is.

This is kinda very very late post on a new (relatively speaking) toy that I’ve acquired recently. If you ever noticed in some of my previous performance postings, I’ve used a guitar which was not my usual Ibanez or Fender. That’s the new toy I’ve got.

Introducing a new addition to the family, the Don Grosh Retro Classic Custom Guitar.

This toy is beast. I lend this guitar to my guitar sifu, Jose Thomas to use for this gig 2 weeks back at No Black Tie. He liked this guitar too.

I also would like to say Bye to my Fender and Musicman. They have served me well. Hope they will do the same to their new owners.

Attempted T-Square’s Megalith (Bridge Part).

We practiced this part for around 1 hour. HAhaha.. It was fun afterall.

Officially 28 today…

I was thrilled to be invited as a session guitarist to perform alongside with Mr Syed Sobrie Al Yahya and his wife, Azie. He is a singer-actor that used to be very popular in the early 90s. We were performing for a government dinner event at Putrajaya International Convention Centre. The Prime Minister and ex Prime Minister were part of the guests.

I’m kinda nervous because seldom play in an official big gig such as this. But luckily the band members were fun to be with. The sound crew were very very helpful. Each one treated each other with mutual respect. Overall we did well and the guests were happy. And we are happy too …

Apart from that, we also had our best band lounge so far. Eizaz and I got a complimentary room at JW Marriott Putrajaya to rest and get prepared for the gig. The bed was so comfy …

Woohoo… Got my first today.

Let’s see how many I can collect this year .. Collected 7 last year

JUNK was invited to play at this nice cozy little place called “Hot Pot Cafe” at Damansara Damai.

http://ally-fazdly.blogspot.com/2008/10/meh-makan-makan-hotcafe-damansara-damai.html
http://silalahrasa.blogspot.com/2009/06/hot-pot-vista-damansara-damai.html

Owned by musicians, the place is nicely decorated with musical instruments, pictures of musicians, Music Certificates and others. Stage setup was minimalist yet decent. Worth checking out if you are nearby. The owner welcomes bands to perform at the place.

Don’t know how to elaborate more but do visit Jocelyn’s blog here for a review of the gig. The pinnacle of the performance was when Dino climbed up to get his old Trombone and jammed with us and Dr Farah did an impromptu improvisation of Blues vocal with us… (Dino and Dr Farah owns the cafe)

Enough said, the pics …

I’ll be playing in some small gigs this month. Come support us lar…

Oct 13 (Wed)
JUNK - 第六届马大校园华语歌曲创作比赛

Oct 31 (Sun)
HYBRID - Animangaki 2010

Pics from Eizaz’s camera.
Like just finished shower… LOL

Just finished my virgin run. A 7km run organized by McD in conjunction with the Olympics Run. Pain like hell… but worth it la…..

Running with me are Eizaz and Eizhan, along with other thousand over runners. Manage to finish within 35 minutes. Not bad for a first timer and surely can do better next time…

What’s next? 10km run???? Well… we’ll see about that …

Enough said, here are some camwhoring before the race starts …

Another camwhore session after we finish…

Will wait for pics from Eizaz’s camera …