Have you ever been alone in a crowded room when I'm here with you?

Have you ever been alone in a crowded room; well I'm here with you...

Still, 3 days, 4 malls, 8 laser engraving shops later, I finally found something I like enough to purchase.

I have become a local EXPERT at business card holders and laser engravings.

Why do I even bother going to the mall anymore? I can't remember the last time I ever found what I was looking for at Markville.

I've been so tired these past few days from the surgery that I forgot what a raging insomniac I can be when I'm not fighting pain.

I've made a decision to personally parse out how exactly Cry is played. Yup. Gonna pull that thorn. By ear because internet tablature generally sucks balls and I've already checked the ones for Cry (a lot of ball sucking). Figuring out the notes should not be a problem. Arranging them to be humanly playable on the guitar should be the interesting part. That is my pet project for the next few days.

Generally, if a song sounds good (or I think it's capable of sounding good) on an acoustic guitar, I will learn it, more for my own sake than others. As much as I enjoy playing the acoustic guitar with people, I find that that type of opportunity has not arisen since I was in first year. And generally, I find myself taking some artistic license with songs I learn on the guitar simply because sometimes they're not originally acoustic guitar songs and sometimes I think my version sounds better. So I rarely play songs exactly as they are played by the original artist. However, I have hit a snag with the song, Cry from... well, I would say it's from the A Walk To Remember soundtrack except it's really from Mandy Moore's third album and got pulled into the AWTR soundtrack compilation. But regardless, this song has been a thorn in my side for years. How long have I been playing the guitar for? 5 years? Yeah, so it's been a thorn in my side for 5 years, even though the basic chord progressions underneath the song are pretty simple. The reason being that I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how anyone can play this song comfortably/fluidly going by what I hear from the original.

Well, what's the big deal? I can do what I always do right? Take artistic license with Cry the way I take artistic license with every other song and play it in such a way that sounds humanly possible. Unfortunately, here's where the snag comes in. I cannot, for the life of me, bring myself to do this and this is why this song has been a thorn in my side for 5 years. Despite all the music/songs I have heard since I first saw A Walk To Remember in 2002 (6 years of music, adding up to what I imagine to be well over several thousand songs), Cry remains possibly, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful, well-crafted slices of music I have ever heard. And not just because Mandy Moore performs it; every note, every harmony, every pluck of the guitar string fits in its place in such a way that every time I hear the song, I actually hear every note and its contribution to the piece as a whole. This is why to play anything other than exactly what was originally written, I feel, would be impossible. If someone played Cry exactly the way it's supposed to sound but leaves out one single plucked note on the guitar, I would probably hear it where I wouldn't otherwise if it were any other piece. It's just one of those things you know. One of those weird oddities in my life.

I don't even listen to Cry all that much these days anymore. Probably been at least a year...

Freaking inflation! $22 for a tube of badminton birds (12)? Let's see, averaging 2 per night, once a week, a tube should last me 6 weeks. 24 weeks of school, 4 tubes of birds... $88?! Christ, badminton's an expensive sport. Should have specialized in tennis. That's what Elaine said but would I listen? No.

It's the oddest thing. I'm pretty sure I can empathize with people I don't even know...

So I'm at my gate at Singapore's Changi Airport.

God, I have never been so sad to leave Singapore in my entire life.

You know something that generally makes me nervous? A lot of things, but in this particular case, I'm thinking of times when I let people know that I'm a drummer. Once you tell people this, they have this strong inclination to ask you to "play something" whenever you're confronted with a drum set. Now... the drums are a rhythm instrument. Sure, there's lots of creative license I can take but the average person won't be able to tell the difference unless I'm playing it to the backdrop of live music. So I always feel slightly idiotic sitting behind a drum set playing various beats that can't really be appreciated without supporting sound.

And I arrive in Singapore! I'll be back next Monday. I'm guessing no one wants to see Wanted with me? No? I didn't think so. What about The Dark Knight?