musicplasma

especially for the music enthusiasts (i.e. tani + margie)

I'm not sure if anyone know this website already (www.musicplasma.com), but it's a pretty awesome and fun thing. We can enter a name of a band/singer, and it will display a web containing other bands/musicians that are closely related to it (by genre, I think...)

On Samosir Island

Argh... I couldn't resist! The temptation to check the internet... even while vacationing on Samosir island.

It's great here...!! I've gone kayaking, waterscootering (is that even a word??) and we've gone sightseeing. The view is marvelous. It's even better than Saint Tropez.. and considering how much I loved Saint Tropez.. well, need I say more?

Inside I'm really wondering WHEN THE HELL I get to go to Europe. It's already hard enough to have to miss a camping trip that I INITIATED. Ah well, I suppose it's like hunger... the longer you wait, the better the food tastes when it comes.

But Samosir island definitely has plenty of things to distract me. Everybody is nice because I'm a Batak... hehe. My parents are considering buying a property here but it's quite difficult to find people who would want to sell their land. The land here is termed *Tanah Adat*, meaning that the land belongs to a Batak clan and not to one individual. So unless the WHOLE clan decides that they want to sell the land (which is quite impossible because it's *the land where their ancestors came from*)... then the quest is pretty much doomed to fail. :-) Ah well, I can't blame them. I wouldn't want to sell the land either if it was mine. Besides, this keep *evil capitalists forces* away from commercialising this beautiful island. :-)

There are way too many Dutch people on this island!!!!! Grrr...

Today I'll probably rent a bike and cycle around the island. There is basically only one ringroad to speak of so even Margaret wouldn't get lost.. :P Remember Alabang Country Club trip?? ;-) hehe.. I got a bit sunburned yesterday while kayaking but it's all good.. :-)

So long for now!

Song List

     Finally!  I'm afraid mine's not as well researched as Margie's, so I've put them in musical category rather than timeline (not that mine stretches back very far, mind you).  I went through all the CD's I brought with me to Italy and picked out a few so this isn't definitive (I would hate to have my personal value judged by such a limited song choice!)
 
Acousticky
 
Nek : Sul Treno*
           Se io non avessi te

Alanis Morisette (sp) : Princes Familiar
                                        Not the Doctor

Red Hot Chili Peppers : Road Trippin'

Light, 'easy listening'

Stereophonics : Dancing in the Moonlight
                            T-Shirt Suntan

Remy Shand : I met your Mercy

Skin : The Trouble with Me

No Doubt : Too Late

Hip Hopish
 
Outkast : Rosa Parks

Murder Inc : Down 4 U
                        Rain*

Michael Jackson : Why you wanna Trip on me

Moderate Rock
 
Guano apes : Dodel up

Union Underground : South Texas Deathride*
                                      Turn me on Mr. Deadman
                                       Drivel (All have explicit lyrics so beware!)

Heavier Rock. I dare you :P
 
Megadeth : Holy Wars

Soulfly: Primitive
               Jumpdafuckup (Warning... explicit... it's quite obvious isn't it)

Personals

These are my personal faves for Bjork + Simon and Garfunkel. Bjork is an acquired taste so I'm sure for example, that Margie will have her different selection, of course in the end it's all up to you guys but just for starters:

Bjork : Joga
             Isobel
             Bachelorette
             It's not up to you

Simon and Garfunkel: Bleecker street
                                        Baby Driver
                                        America
                                        My little Town

Ha Simon and Garfunkel are playing here in Rome at a life FREE concert near the Colosseum on the 31st! Yay!

Hullo my pretties~

I thought I'd move and it'd be done with. But its Tuesday and I'm still packing all the minor stuff that we left behind when the professional movers came. And "minor" does not mean there's very little of it. There's a LOT of stuff left :P

Tomorrow is Adhira day however (as is marked on my calendar) and hopefully that means I can take a break from packing and go out and have fun with 60% of the jeeks (counting me). Ooh but guess what? I've never ever lived in an apartment before~ and there are some nice perks! It's smaller overall, but more organized -- and yesterday I went to the gym downstairs. It's feels quite different running on a treadmill, compared to jogging around the block, sometimes having to dodge cars. Afterwards Joyce and I immediately jumped in the pool and it was so pretty at night *sigh* tis quite nice. Now I can workout everyday!

So, how's everybody? Josie and Adhira, I shall be giving you a call tonight :D

love,
Margie

Rain rain go away!

Hello from Rainy Rome.

            Adhira, I’m afraid I must say that the CD with the photos on them? I only looked at it today! I forgot about it! (Sorry!) But it was lovely, I can’t believe you took the time to captionate them all! Eww frog dissection plehpleh.

            Nothing else here- I used up all my money on final Sicily preparations! (And I still don’t have a bottle of sunblock lotion! What am I to do! Maybe I shouldn’t have bought 3 bikinis…) And the thing is, I’m trying to think of things to do with friends but they all seem to cost money. Now why is that? Can’t people have fun without spending money nowadays? What spoilt people we are. A saunter in the park just doesn’t satisfy us anymore.

            I’ve been reading some Edgar Allan Poe recently (what goth would be complete without having done so?) and they’re really quite good, his short stories. I recommend ‘The Masque of Red Death’, ‘Hop Frog’, and ‘A Descent into the Maelstrom’ if you ever happen to chance upon it, oh you well read lot! I must catch up! BUT THAT COSTS MONEY TOO L I can’t wait till I have a library again.

            For those of you who do not know about Mr. Stalker Guy, please refer to my livejournal (click on the picky of me!). On a related note, I have too many black tops, and since Sicily will be hot, I bought a white top that said ‘Live Young Die Pretty’. After the stalker incident, I decided this wasn’t a good message to be declaring to the world, and stitched, in the corner, ‘But not yet!’ Let’s hope they get the point.

Signing off,
Colonel Tani

I'm back!

hey!! I just got back today. It was raining quite heavily when arrived.

So, how is everything going on? Is everybody still playing tennis? if yes, I'm joining on monday (let's hope it won't be raining!!)

I'm going to go to school some time next week -- I want to see IB scores too! and I'm wondering if the school already receive AP scores as well (hehehe... I want to find out if I really got a 1 in compsci : P). Tani, did you call the school already? If not, maybe I can ask them about that.. Anyone else coming?

okay.. I'm really hungry now. : S bubyee!

Jakarta Mania

Hi hi!!

For those two lonely-some left in Manila, here's a post to cheer up your day! As for the 2 other lucky gals spending their summer in exotic places, Gracie wishes them sunburn-free summers. :-)

I'm staying at a hotel with too many stars to count. Shangri-La to be exact. I'm really glad because I FINALLY get to go to the gym, play tennis and swim in a tropical swimming pool.. ghehe. So far I've gone shopping, shopping, shopping, PIGGING OUT and I also went to this spa to get a *traditional* Indonesian scrubbing! I'm with my mom so that explains why I can basically satisfy all my wimps (is that the correct word??) without worrying about the $$$. Hehe..

We're going to North Sumatra (a province West to Jakarta) next week because my cousin is getting married. He's only 26!!!! Who would get married when one is ONLY 26??!! ARGHH. Maybe I can still break up everything on time. *wink wink* Or maybe I'll just apply myself to being nice.

I've been practicing tennis with my cousin. He has been trying to teach me how to serve with spin.. I still SUCK at it!

Today I'm going to raid a CD store in search of *Indonesian* music. Just so I can appear *knowledgeable* about my *own* culture when I go to college... hehe.

Tani, Josie.. your narration about explaining your future *plans* to your family are so funny!! Here my *family* gives a lot of *oohhh* and *aahhhss* when my mom tells them that I'm going to *Europe* for college. My grandpa already dreams about me *working at the UN*.. and becoming *big*. It's all good and all but they seem to think that I'm going to do law, economics, PoliSci or some kind of socials studies when what I'm really doing is BIOMED!! Idiots. :S My family (from my mom's side) are basically all social studies or professional vocational school people.. so science is just beyond their comprehension. Ah well..

So anyway, that's it for now.

Cheers,

Gracia

Thunderstorms

Josie:  The shuttle request form (have you seen it? it's so cute! they say stuff like "congratulations! You have just won an all-expenses paid, one-way trip from ontario int'l airport to Harvey Mudd College!" Heehee. And they ask stuff like "what's your favorite word", and promise a driver with "an interesting t-shirt". :) Also, stuff about hotels around campus, bank info :P The roommate/sponsor information is all that's left!

You know what's been driving me crazy? Asako and I haven't been playing tennis this week because of the rain. And the thing is, it always STARTS RAINING TEN MINUTES BEFORE WE BEGIN, so we're already *in* ortigas when Coach calls us to say the lesson's cancelled. Argh, it's happened several times already! So I've called off lessons (just for me) out of frustration, really because we're moving this saturday (earlier than originally planned) There seems to be a thunderstorm everyday :(

I'm pleased however, to hear you're having so much fun! I've never been to Bali or Phuket. That said, my family's planning to go to Rombon (it's an island, I'm not sure about the spelling) and Boracay in the beginning of August, before school starts for my sister :) I hope plans come through -- but the weather has to clear first :P

Greetings from Phuket!

Hello everybody!! I miss you guys!! and tennis too =P
 
I was going to post something from Jakarta, but blogger was down at that time!! (annoying!!)
 
although the post is obsolete already, I'll still post it down here:
 
I just got here yesterday morning. We spent one night in Bangkok since the flight was on the next day. The terrible thing in Bangkok: we spent like half an hour looking for the hotel, which no taxi driver knows where it is -- it turns up to be a really tiny hotel close to the airport.
 
Here in Jakarta we're also staying in a hotel. It's a modest one, not expensive, and the exciting thing is, it's located near the pretty well known area ('Jalan Jaksa' -- translated as: 'Prosecutor Street') filled with backpackers' hotels, complete with the cheap bars and the ... 'women' =) . It's kind of ironic, since I don't think that prostitution is legal here (I'm not sure about this..).I got to eat lovely yummy tasty delicious spicy-hot Indonesian food for lunch and dinner yesterday. I want to take pictures of them, but my sister's digital camera wasn't working very well.Anyway.. I'm going to see my relatives today. Things will be pretty much just like that. I'm not even sure if I'll have time to see my old friends..Anybody wants anything from here? =)
 
Note for Gracia: You're coming here on the 15th, right? I'll still be here! So if you have time, maybe we can do something together for a day or so. I'll be leaving for Bangkok on the Saturday 17th morning.
 
//end of the outdated post ------------------------------------
 
back to today!!  my relatives were quite annoying at some point.  Basically, they didn't really share my excitement in going to college and taking up physics and/or math.  (that sentence might be an understatement).  but... I guess math and science are not really the thing.  they're more of the trade people.
 
I'm in phuket right now.  things are great!  I got those little braids yesterday, rode jetski today, and going to have dinner plus some shopping after this.  We're going to leave for Bangkok tomorrow morning and will stay there for 4 nights, I think.
 
I hope things are going great for you guys too!
 
Margieee:  is there any new mail from Mudd?
Tanii :   I'm not sure... but I think the school has told IB to mail the results to the university automatically, right?  (i mean.. we told the Mr. Knight and he told IB).  Hehehe... let us know how it's going with LSE!
Adhiraa:  how is tennis going??  I'll probably forgot everything i've learned by the time I get back to manila!
Grace:  Uh.. I wished we've met up in Jakarta...  Relatives are not the best thing in the world : P

Two is the loneliest number...

Hey there fellow jeeks. Adhira and I are both doing great. NO, WE DON'T FEEL ABANDONED. HOW COULD WE?
 
Josie, Gracia--  we know it was terribly important for you to go back to Indonesia. Tani --  you just had to return to Eddy, your bike rides and picnics in the meditteranean sun. No (sniff), don't mind us. Don't return our calls, our desperate requests for updates about your shiny, polished lives in lush tropicalia /maritime weather... (swoons in drama)
 
Love, Margie
 
p.s. I'm only kidding :)
p.p.s. I'm playing tennis with Asako these days. It's quite fun, actually ;)

I hope you guys check this...

Coz I need a spot of help.
 
  LSE is asking for the paper copy authentification thingy IB results. I assumed the IBO would send these on electronically but... anyhow, they're asking for a paper copy of the results with the ISM stamp - do you guys think I can call school (will anyone possibly be in) and ask them to DHL it to me?
 
  Have you guys picked up your hard copy diplomas?
 
~Floundering Tani

The post I promised

Dear Margwet, Josie, Gra-shaa, and Adhira (of the huge lips),

I'm on dial up connection here (actually as of right now I'm disconnected and typing into the box) so sorry about no pictures... yet again!

Well firstly, (I'm feeling formal today) congrats to all you guys and your IB scores! Josie I'm jealous! I've already written LSE something along the vein of 'Hi I missed by just one teeny weeny insy wincy point, and I speak sooooOOooo many languages. LSE is so cool, and it'd be fab if I was in byeeee.' :P And got a reply saying 'Wait until A-levels come out'.

Anyhow - life is good here, really haven't been doing very much though (oh you active cooking/tennis/studying people). Watch the occasional movie (can you believe Shrek 2 is coming out here in CHRISTMAS?!), go on the occasional bikeride (EDDY waiiiiit! *start fighting*), looking around for a laptop model (yes, still), learning lunch from his mom (come to me for italian next time!) and realising that hey, I can learn from my maid at home too! (doh!).

We found an apartment a week after arrival but stupid Italians - first we had to change the name for the gas, water, electricity and phone service (queues galore), then we found out there's a leak in the gas (gasman runs away to have lunch) so we have to call the plumber. Now that is done, we have to call the gasman AGAIN... grah, it's quite frustrating.

In other news, I'm going to Eddy's in Sicily for two weeks in August, so I'll take lots of piccies then! (Oh by the way, do you guys know if Mr. Knight checks his e-mail during holidays? I need to ask a few things about LSE and Nottingham - should I approach Nottingham, not yet etc.)

Adhira, could I have your dad's e-mail please? My dad wants to write thanking him about graduation night (ages ago I know... I guess we're being taken over by the Italian spirit too).

Keep posting guys!

IB Night

I forgot to take pictures of the food (for you Tanika), but just take my word for it, it was really good Thai cuisine :)











The guy next to Adhira is Vishu, her cousin (he's into metal like Black Sabbath, Linkin Park, er.. now I've forgotten) [Adhira, show him your mp3 cd thingie, he expressed interest in hearing it] And the other girl with Josie is Crystal, an old friend of ours who used to go to our school. She's nice, but nowhere as cool as you Tani~ we miss you a lot!

I have merely been *busy*!

Okay, new very good update :) Adhira how was Cebu? My dad has agreed to take us down to the Pagsanjan waterfalls, but after August 1. Who can come? I know Gracia can't -- Josie are you still going to be here? It has to be after Aug 1 because it'll be after our move to the new house (which is currently what consumes all my time, packing).

Adhira, everyone is running away from you! :) I agree though, post post post!

What is wrong with everyone!

I finally start using this thing and everyone disappears! One month into our holidays and i am already losing touch with all of you! POST SOMETHING U GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IB!,

It's today!! I was afraid that the IB server would somehow crash since people all over the world would try to check their scores at the same time. It turns up that the assigned GMT time for checking the results is different for each school -- or maybe for each time zone, so there shouldn't be any problem when we are checking ours. hopefully.

AAAHHHH!!!

Good luck everybody!!

Where's Tani?!!

Hey Tani!

What are u up to... not too much mischeif i hope ;) EXcited about teh IB scores? I just felt like talking to you... So hows life? hows eddy? hows Rome? I want to know everything!! U r not too busy for us, are you? ;)

How come I never catch you online?

Bloody Americans!!!

I have to go to the U.S. embassy tom. Quite nervous about it... what really annoys me is that they asked me for a document that is not even completely official at least not as much as the I-20 and has no extra info if not less. I dunno, seems to me like they are making up excuses to not let me go! Maybe I am just being paranoid, but what if I am not... AAARRRGH!!! Those @#%$^!&@"$!!!!!! I can now understand why they have thick glass between us and the interviewers... because if I could I'd probably strangle him! I dont think its human to make people wait for 3 bloody hours for a 1 minute meeting!!!! And even more outrageous if you have to go back and wait another three hours to show a paper that I could have as well typed up myself without anyone realizing it... seriously, the paper they want is not even signed by anyone!!!

P.S. the guy who had interviewed me sounded just like Gilmore!! I am starting to think a lot of people in 'u know where' talk like him! A rather depressing thought...

Tennis fotos :)

At 8 this morning I went to play tennis at Valle Verde 1. Gracia didn't show up. Dunno why, but I just went on and played with the coach anyway. At about 9:30 I finished -- and Adhira, Josephine and Francesca came! They have their lesson after me you see! Anyway, some very cute pictures of our little tennis beginners! you guys are in pretty good form, as can be seen from the pics :)



















I also have a quicktime video if anyone wants it~
maybe I'll host it up sometime this week~
(meanwhile, here's the photobucket link for em big-sized)

see you all this July 7! remember remember to post up those dreaded scores :) Anyone have any nightmares about scores yet? (me! me!)

p.s. Josie may I please borrow copies of your sims expansion packs! i wanna copy~ also, the IB countdown script is kooky -- it says "35 days, 7 hours, 12 minutes and 58 seconds" for me...