Radical life-changing decision + Ottos + forced memes

Persuasive dog is persuasive

Forced meme aside, i have decided to make a decision that could change my life forever.

This decision will forever alter people's perception of me. It marks end of an old beginning and a new beginning of an end. It heralds the transition of getting past yet another phase in my life, especially now in my impressionable teenage and almost-post-adolescent years.

In fact, this could change the world.


I have decided to be a proper male now.
I will leave my hair short.

It all started when my MUM (like wth) pulled a surprise attack on me, strapped me unto a chair, and did the unthinkable:

She cut my fringe straight.

This is outright child abuse.

After hours of wimping about my lost dignity and wallowing in self-pity, I persuaded my mum to at least cut my fringe properly. Now its a freaking bang. Still sucks, but at least its not a bloody coconut.

But i came to realize: My hair is not growing the way i hoped it would. I kinda wanted a mat-style headbanger curly rocker hair, but instead i was getting a post-modern emo look. I guess long hair doesn't work on me. Come to think of it, my "best" hairstyle in secondary school was an ah-beng japanese style trimmed short thinned hair. Okay, i dun really know how to describe it, but its short and thinned.

I will get my hair cut by a REPUTABLE hairdresser/barber on Wednesday.


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To break the monotony of yet another long winded post by me, i shall put another forced meme here.



Because of teh internets, Mudkips are now THE coolest pokemon in the world since the big fatass sloth-like one. And its underlying innuendo is much worst than Squirtle. Don't ask.

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An Aussie family missionary band came into PMC today and led worship/songs for Ympact. I liked the whole "live performance" style format that they used: We (the youth congregration) "watched the band perform" rather than the usual "sing along with the worship leader" thing. They're called the Otto band or something like that, cos' thats they're surname.

They are kind of like an Aussie version of Corrine May. Not outrightly "Christian music" yet not to subtle. Just sub Corrine's pianos with acoustic guitars, and ang moh singer instead of English-ed Singaporean voice. The lyrical style is kinda the same, except the Ottos are more "direct" and "Christianish" than Corrine, i.e. less subtle.

And everyone agrees they sound like Colbie Caillet. White ang mohs girls with acoustic guitars. What did u expect?

All this time during corporate worship I/we have been singing songs that praise God. That is, we sing songs about His glory, His majesty, His awesomeness, and calling Him to work in our lives. Also, I have been inuanded by many a sermon proclaiming the glory of God, His majesty and His awesomeness etc etc.

Yet I seem to have a dislike of writing Christian songs. For some reason I just can't write them. I kinda realised, pardon my language, that I don't like sucking up to the Big Guy above.

I guess I forgot one important attribute of God:
He is our loving Father.
He saves us because he loves us.
He is the loving shepherd that tenderly cares for us.

The Ottos' songs were like love songs. In fact, you can take their songs in an entirely different context if you didn't know they were singing about God, and imagine that they were singing a love songs to another lover and not God. I know. I just read through some of their lyrics.

Here's a sample of their songs.

Its Alright

It's alright
He's by my side
And He'll take good care of me
It's alright
He's on my side
And He knows my every need
He said,
Oh you of litte faith
See the sparrows in the sky
Unencumbered by the cares of the world
I feed even them
Clothe the lilies in the field
How much more to me are you worth that these
I gave my Son for you
It's alright
I'm by your side and I'll take good care of you
It's alright
I'm on your side
And I know all that you go through

If you go to church and listen to Christian songs, you'll proberlly hear the standard stuff:
"All majesty to the God of creation"
"We worship You"
"Falling before the wonder of Your name"

Yet the Ottos were singing songs that were like...love songs. Its as if God is an intimate lover.

Its important to adknowledge the majesty of God, his attributes of Holiness, Powerfulness, Sovereignty and Worthiness-to-be-praised-and-worshiped.

But I guess, sometimes we have to remember that God also came down as Jesus Christ. He loved the people around Him that He fed them, ate with them, talked to them, fratenize with them, healed them. He loved us so much he actually died a horrible death for us. A king who came down to our level? Thats much food for thought.

I guess i got inspiration to write different kind of "Christiainish" songs now. But i kinda fail as a songwriter lol.

BTW i got Melissa Otto's CD, featuring some of the songs played during service. If you want to hear it just ask nicely and say please. :) I also got the DVD.



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Yet another long winded post by Ben? I'm sorry. Heres another forced meme to make it up to those who bothered to read through this post or those who just scrolled down in boredom.


This.... is......Breakdaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaance!!!!

Hero of War - Rise Against

I tried to learn guitar chords for modern pop-rock songs... so that i can at least play some of the stuff that the kids and friends in church like... songs like Yellowcard's Only One (okay), Boys Like Girls' Thunder (eeew come to think of it its a crappy song and band) and One Republic songs (a closet guilty pleasure of mine).

But i gave up on learning all of them after hearing Rise Against's Hero Of War. Now i only stum this song lol.

I realised why i don't listen to mainstream rock and pop-rock and pop... It sucks. The singers all sound the same. The melody structure follows the same structure as boybands, i.e. easy listening, memorable verse melody but lack real gritty thought-provoking substance. Electric guitars are non-existent (whats rock music without them?). Singers sound like they never reached puberty. Most are one hit wonders (well, maybe you can call them 2-3 hit wonders, but that elevates them only to the level of boybands)

And don't get me started on pop-punk! Yuck! The worst subset of rock music... its so fail it doesnt deserve a place in the rock music family. Every, I repeat, every singer have the same voice, and its a pre-pubescent whiny crybaby voice. The chord stucture is the same throughout every song(I, Minor, IV V, repeat), guitars are just high pitched power chords, lyrics are restricted to break-ups, new love, and masturbation. Melody is the irritating kind that gets stuck in your head. POP-PUNK SUCKS!!!!!

Sorry, i grew up listening to a few real punk rock music... Very little mainstream elements in them, they don't hold back on aggresion and distortion... stuff like The Offspring, The Ramones, Rise Against.... So i know that punk has so much potential than the "pop" kind you hear on the radio

And nowadays i stopped listening to music just for the music and opened my ears to the lyrics. The lyrics of pop-rock songs are at best okay, i guess, but there are more lyrical themes other than love, break-ups, finding love, walking together... notice the similiarity with boybands here?

Yes, I'm talking about the themes usually explored by political punk bands, not-too-Christian bands, metal bands and such. Themes like politics, violence, death, brotherly love, stepping up for our society, war, religion, peace, basically all the hippie stuff but darker.

Enough of ranting about music. I want to get back to the main feature of this post: Rise Against's Hero Of War. Its my new favourite song. Heres a homemade Youtube video.



Rise Against is punk rock band that i heard a few songs years ago...They sing alot about politics, society, suffering, rebellion but also sometimes the standard fare of love and hate... Only last year did i get to hear more of their songs... They are a harder kind of punk band, meaning they lean on the hardcore side.. They scream some of their choruses ala Foo Fighters style(but even more xiong). But this is the first time i heard an acoustic song from them.

If you took the time to hear the song, and even watch the video, i'm sure that it somehow got those brain cells working a bit. Even if the music doesn't really suits your taste, surely the lyrics must have gave you a new viewpoint of soldiers, essentially but not necessarily American.

I personally feel the melody is great, on the mainstream side, like today's pop-rock ballads... but this song conveys more emotion that the other modern ballads i heard. The lyrics actually have substance. (Pissed in his hands... surely thats an eye-opening line? Shit like these happens in this world btw) The chord structure is simple, again similiar to others, but the whole song just.... trumps the rest.

The song gave me a few different perspectives: The persona, a soldier most likely an American (they wrote the song in such a way it could be ambigious, but the first verse, involving how the soldier got influenced into joining the army, is uniquely American).

His ideology of war changes in 4 minutes of the song: From a gung-ho, proud new recruit, wanting to be a hero of war, to a callous commanding soldier, although having a little conscience left, does his job in a slightly cold-hearted way.

Soon, he guns down a civilian woman, which i assumed he feared to be hostile, but couldn't discern through the chaos and battle(soldiers face this shit. Thats why sometimes they shoot innocents or friendly soldiers: Its hard to discern whos friend and whos foe in the thick of battle). Upon realising that the woman was holding the white flag of surrender, his whole attitude towards being a "hero of war" change.

Then theres the perspectives of the others: The captured man, his family and friends, the children around, the lady with the white flag: All victims of war


Rise Against's newest album, where Hero of War is taken from. Thinking of buying it.

It made me think about us... we have never gone through war, and some if not all of us will/has not lose/lost a loved one through war, let alone be inside a war-torn area. Truly we are blessed, but what about others?

And what about the soldier? America, desperate for recruits, resort in aggressive marketing to portray being in the army as cool, hip and heroic. Many youths, swayed by the charisma of soldiers giving talks in schools and a sense of patriotism, signed up, not knowing the consequences of almost inevitability getting into a warzone.

I just wanna say that theres better music out there that the mass-produced radio hits that most ppl listen to... Hopefully I can introduce a little bit of those to you guys. In turn, you guys usually corrupt me with pop music too, haha, so its fair lol. :)

OH YEAH I DON'T HAVE THIS SONG!!! ANYONE WHO HAS IT CAN SHARE WITH ME??? THANKS!

Ben's first proper blog post + secular music + watermelons

Blogs are for ppl to talk about their daily lives. I don't have a life so i don't blog. But what the heck.

Came to school late. I slept only for about 3 hours, because i stayed up lated to write a boring essay about secular vs Christian music to One Voice. Got scolded by a senior for sacarsm. do'h. Sincerely sorry.

I'm too lazy to talk about the article. Here is just some main points taken from the ongoing discussion:
-Everything is permissible but not everything is benificial. Cor 6:12 (this is a verse in the Bible)
-Be wary of being "demonically" influenced music, especially shock metal.
-Nothing wrong with secular music as long as it does not harm you or others

http://www.av1611.org/crock/pod.html

Here is an article about the band P.O.D, who are Christians (but not playing in the Christian music industry). But its soooo funny. The author was ranting and rating about minor points about POD. He even mis-interpret some of their quotes. But there is some truth.

But come on: Little Nicky movie is satanic? Jimi Hendrix "bloodshot eyes and messing up song sets" were demonic attacks? (its drugs lah. Thats how he died.. Theres a book warning of the danger of confusing epilepsy and scientific diseases with demonic possesion). Calvin Klein? My cousin says: This guy needs a girlfriend.

Yeah its true that POD should not support satanic bands, use occultic symbols, talk bad about conservative Christians yet promote other "filthy (his words not mine)" bands. But bottom line, they are humans who make mistakes and sins. They are not in the Christian music industry, so its okay if they feel they want to leave God out in some of their songs.

My dad asked me why they can't remove their tattoos. And he's an expert on tattoos himself... surely he knows that those tattoos, even with the best surgery, will leave uglier scars all over their bodies? "then cover them," he said. Okay, i too think that they should not brazenly display their tattoos. But you can't hide your past, just like how born agains like Neville Tan(sic?) or Glenn Lim should not hide their past. Different issue altogether.


Okay lets blog about my day.

Went to school late because of afore-mentioned article. Tried my best not to sleep in school (only had a good 3 hours rest) but for some reason i only slept 15mins in biochem.
Bad enough. 15mins overshot. Will try harder tommorrow. keep it down to *close eyes, lean down, but still awake when teacher says something important*, and then to no need of sleep at all.

Anyway as usual didnt understand anything. ate lunch and dinner. Went to management of enterprise quiz. It was hard. Went home and blogged.

See? my days are boring. So lets blogged about something else

My dad is growing watermelons!!!!!

THEY ARE LIKE SO CUTE LAH!!!!!! they are as small as marbles! But many of them died for the cause :(

But theres this survivor which is growing. Can't wait to eat him. muahaha

My brother suggested writing a blog for the watermelons.

HUH!?!?! coming from my brother its shocking.

Will consider it. Probably after tests.

Peace