Music Monday: Starman waiting in the sky

As I said last week, I'm still on a summer music streak. I'll spare you the mash-ups and remixes this week and instead share an original song with some quality sampling.

Cosmic Jive is a a song that takes its name from a lyric in David Bowie's Starman, which is also the source of the vocal sampling for this track. I go through a Bowie phase every now and again, usually prompted by my iPod shuffling to Changes. This particular song, by Australian group Cosmo Black, is a very laid back electronic tune. Relaxing but still upbeat, calming but still demanding to be played loud and proud.

According to my Last.fm profile stats, I've listened to this particular song eleven times in the last week. Not exactly a huge figure, but still quite substantial, considering I haven't scrobbled my iPod stats yet. I should probably get on that.

Zooday was Zoo Day

A few weeks back a I went to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo. According to the ticket it is the first and only attraction of its kind. I have better things to research right now (midterm papers, ahem), so I'll take their word for it. Anyway, I had a really good time there doing all the usual tourist things: watched the fire dancers/breathers/eaters, watched a scripted animal show, and took the tram around to see the nocturnal animals doing, well, nocturnal animal stuff. Favourite animal? BEARCAT. It smells like popcorn. Again, taking their word for it.

When we went we made sure to buy a combo ticket, so we could come back another day and visit the actual zoo part of the Singapore Zoo. That's where I spent most of my day on Sunday. I was a little worried because I had been to the same zoo nine years ago on a prior trip to Singapore, and I shouldn't have forgotten too much from when I was 13, right? I was so incredibly wrong. Only once did I have deja vu, and that was with the orangutans, which I don't think I've ever seen in any other zoo.

Also different this time around was the fact that I had a camera, and a brand new fancy camera at that. Yes, last week I finally broke and purchased a replacement for my six-year-old Fuji (which I still love and will likely keep, just 'cause). It's a Sony HX7v, 16mp and 10x zoom. It's also incredibly slim for the power it packs, which is why I love it so much. The feature set alongside the superb hardware made this camera an obvious choice even before I saw the low price. The moment I saw a deal in Singapore I jumped, knowing I would be kicking myself late if I didn't.

All of these photos are a result of that first real day out (I played around with it a bit at a concert event to see how well it performs at night). I took almost 150 photos at the zoo, 95 of which I deemed of good enough quality to post onto my Flickr. Oh, and remember I mentioned the feature set? Two words: intelligent auto. I didn't have to adjust any of the levels in my post-production suite of choice, Picasa, for the majority of my photos. What you see is what the camera produced!

So back to the zoo. I had a tonne of fun there following the feeding schedule around the park, which allowed for some really great glimpses at some otherwise shy animals. The zebras and rhinos all came right up to the edge of the exhibit where the food troughs are, and the tigers poised atop rock outcroppings to snap at pieces of chicken that were thrown to the by the zookeepers. The lemurs needed no such coaxing, though. I even petted a few of them! Probably wasn't supposed to, though...

Uhm, just one more thing to say: this zoo was built for photo ops. The majority of the exhibits are fence-less, opting for moats instead in most cases, and the zoo really feels more like a park with exotic animals (and a few not-so-exotic ones, like ducks) in it. Some of the smaller primate species have been conditioned to stick around a certain area and just roam freely without any barriers, which is sometimes an inconvenience when a lemur decides to take a nap on the stairs. But hey, how often do you get to say that?

all photos by me

Music Monday: Feelin' Hella Good

After last week's combo breaker, I'm back with my female vocalists. This time I'm featuring the voice of Gwen Stefani with the song Hella Good by No Doubt, as remixed by Skymind. You can pick up a free download yourself by heading over to Last.fm

I'll admit, my music tastes are a little all over the place, as browsing through past Music Mondays will reveal. That said, my music mood tends to go along with the seasons. If I were back home I'd probably have KT Tunstall, Metric, and Shawn Hlookoff on repeat. But I'm not at home, and there is no autumn here (at least by my standards), so the season of the summer playlist lives on! As such, I'm still rawking the remixes, mash-ups, and dance tracks. Sorry if that's not your taste, but this be my blog and my recommendations! So deal with it. Or come to Singapore and share my mood. Either one will work, really.

Gaming in Singapore

Yesterday I participated in the interfaculty games at NUS, a "friendly" tournament among the different faculties here. I vice-captaining the volleyball team for the University Scholars Program. We had a good time and managed to pull of some reaaaaally close games and a single win. In addition to my vice-cap duties (which were none, really), I also ran the drills and played the part of setter. Yah, me: the middle block. It was quite the change!

So here's the team photo, try to pick out who I am, hahah.

photo by a friend

Oh, Academia

I wouldn't say that I've been neglecting my blog, but I certainly have been a little quiet the last while. Sure, I'm getting my Music Monday posts up and the occasional update, but nothing really major. Why? 'Cause I'm in school. Week four is just ending. I have papers due on the 16th. I have assignments and projects. I have reading out the whazoo. Do people even say whazoo? I'm not even sure any more, lah.

Academics is odd here, at least for me and some of the other exchange students I've spoken to about it. I keep forgetting I'm not on vacation. I keep having to remind myself that I really am in school now, being graded, and not just attending interesting lectures that I get to forget the next morning. This is real life, though it often doesn't seem that way.

So now the readings and assignments are starting to pile up, and I have less and less time to explore this amazing city or travel around. Dunwan lah, have plan oreddi! And yes, I'm trying to pick up some Singlish while I'm here.

On that note, I better wrap this up and do some homework stuff. Whahoo.

photo by mollyali