Book Voucher Shopping @ Kinokuniya

 

I've gotten my 1 Malaysia Book Voucher (BB1M) worth RM250 around end of April and has been deciding which bookstore to go to grab my goodies. But my choice were only limited to Popular Bookstore and Kinokunoya because I have zero interest in the rest. I don't really have any particular fictions I'm aiming for (mainly because my sis have been buying them and I would just read hers if I wanted to), only some Japanese related stuffs at Kino. Popular was in my consideration because they will give out free RM50 book voucher if you choose to spend all your rm250 voucher in Popular, which means can buy more books (my sis can buy more books lol, since I don't know what to buy).

 

We have visited Sunway Popular, and the books that my sis wanted all not available =_= (talk about unlucky-ness). Then my mum decided to just bring me to Kino to see what stuff I want to buy coz she say the vouchers are mine and I should buy some stuff I like with it.

 

And so, these are what I got at Kinokuniya! >>

Tadaa!!!~~



Good stuffs are really expensive so didn't manage to get much.

Buying process were not exactly fun that day. At first we selected only one book, and the rest are all magazines; went to queue up, and they told us we have to verify our vouchers at another counter. Which is ok, so we left the queue, go to another counter to verify. Then we queued again. And when we were about to pay, the cashier told us that majority of the coupon has to be used for BOOKS, magazine not counted. Okaaay....so we had to shop again, and queue again. And after the payment we got a rm20 book voucher from Kino, so had to go shop for a book again, and queue again. Really tiring coz we had to go through the same process for like three times.

The only seriously pro looking book of the day lol. This has collections of business use emails in Japanese (and explanation in English), just what I'm looking for except I would prefer something even deeper. Saw a business/finance dictionary in Japanese to English and vice versa which is like super good and I really love it, cost around RM500, can vomit blood. Gonna go Kino again to sloooowly look through the racks for more of these later.

 

Final Fantasy Super Best Piano Solo Scores. The 2nd book which I picked to have majority of the voucher amount used on books. Two books add up already around RM240+ lol, no room for magazine d.

 

This is the thickest piano score book available in Kino lol. With all popular and great track/song scores from FF1- FF13. Kind of a great deal considering the amount of pieces they have in a book for RM130. Gonna get one more for piano scores + vocal.

Magazines~ Personally prefer Jelly more because it's focused on makeup and hair. Wanted to get a fashion related book/magazine but can't find one that I really like (not much time to slowly stare at them). Ageha - bought it coz it has Ank Rouge free gift, kinda regretted not getting another mag which gives LizLisa cosmetic pouch. Ageha's makeup is seriously super purikura-ish lol, but still can learn some stuff (Jelly still better). Had to give up on Kera coz spent too much d hahaha.

 

My sister's stuff: Asuka and ZeroSum. Super great manga magazines that have like super loads of nice new mangas. Got free gift summore (eg: Karneval mouse pad, super pretty!!).

 

Chinese novel also got free gift lol. It's like everything from Kino also got free gift. Am probably gonna pay another visit in 2 months time, gonna spend probably a day there slowly picking up more goodies!~



JRock Gathering 4: A Tribute to ONE OK ROCK

JRockの集い JRock Gathering 4: A Tribute to ONE OK ROCK

Time and Date: Sat, 23 February 2013, 2:30 pm - 6.00pm
Venue: Studio Lounge, Sunway Pyramid

There has been JRock gatherings organised by JRock no Tamashii every month since last year October, which I've attended their first gathering (for blog post click here). Gatherings after the first were all tribute to some JRock bands, where local bands get to perform tribute songs for tribute band's fan, it's an event held by fans for fans~

And for the month of February this year, it's a tribute to the ever amazing band One OK Rock! I personally liked several songs from them because I find them rather different from other jrock bands as their music are quite western influenced. Really good for them because they captured even the hearts of many non-jrock fans and Taka's (One OK Rock's vocalist) voice and english sounds great too.

So Acap and I were usually chatting about how we wanted to join up both me (as a featured vocalist) with his band - Osiria Rose for a performance; Since his band was invited to perform for this tribute we thought that this could be a great chance since his band loves and usually jams One OK Rock songs and obviously I like the songs as well. Then I started becoming FB friends with Osiria Rose members, (thats always the routine to know someone right? lol).

Members of  OSIRIA ROSE (do visit their page and give them some support~) for this tribute performance:

Amir As Blood - Vocalist

Najmi - 1st Guitarist
Amzar- 2nd Guitarist
Fauzan - Keyboardist
Acap - Drummer
Mosh - Bass Sessionist

I've joined their band for jamming twice, at ICONS puchong jamming studio. Studio was really great and cozy and cheap, good props (I don't have to keep setting the mics' EQ like in all other studios); too bad my band members stay rather far from Puchong, if not I would definitely recommend it to them. Jamming with another band feels different (duh.) but I'm glad that Osiria Rose members were friendly and easy to talk to. However joining another band's jamming made me miss my band a lot, as I have not seen them since new year eve countdown (around two months), was really hoping to see them soon~

To be honest song choice was one of the hardest thing to decide as most One OK Rock songs are freaking hard for a girl to sing, especially when mine isn't those deep low kinda voice. "Wherever you are" was a must pick since it's the easiest for me to sing, Amir will be doing a duet with me so it suits the feel of the song. Other than that all other songs were all rocks, which I agreed to singing "The Beginning" (backing harmonies + bridge part), and half of "Kanzen Kankaku Dreamer". Was pretty happy that we all chose Dreamer because ever since I've listened that song it has been a little dream of mine to perform it on stage (coz I can't perform it solo and i doubt my band would want me to do that song lol).

Performance day!

Studio Lounge is Sunway Pyramid, not that hard to find but I seriously didn't know that place exist even though I've been to Sunway for like a zillion times haha. The interior for Studio Lounge was kinda cool, typical bar-like ambience; with mostly purple and yellow lights:

 

Caption: Not bad right? mirrors like these were around the venue...

While the sound engineers and stage crews were busying with setting up the stage, Osiria Rose and I were chilling around near the lounge, chit chatting and trying not to be nervous (especially the band members lol). I did not feel much nervousness probably because I was performing as a featured vocalist and it's more of a coordination thing rather than just me alone.

And, I had a nice surprise (not really surprise la, I knew about it the day before)....

 

Huge thanks to Josh Lemphek, a DJ from Australia who took the trouble to watch our performance (when he could have go visit other places during his vacation)!! A day before Lemphek and I were chatting and I found out that he will be in Malaysia for few days before going back to Adelaide. So I asked him if he is interested in watching the performance and so he cam to support~ He is just super cool: he actually travels for more than 3 months from Aus to M'sia, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and China! Alone!! And he is like super young, still 15/16 something like that. It's currently one of my dreams is to leave home for a month travelling alone! Gonna keep quiet on that since it's still on planning phase lol.

By the way my OOTD is: Berska Limited Gothic Collection Dress; Black beret with white pearls; Metal Cross necklace; black and white crystal bracelet; ribbon tattoo stockings; Neko design wedges. Oh yeah and my punk coffin cross bag.

We were the first performance of the day, so while waiting, everyone poses for the camera haha.

Acap - Drummer

Vocalist - Amir

 

Keyboardist - Fauzan

The two guitarist of the day - Najmi and Amzar

Bassist (sessionist) - Mosh

(Sorry I forgot his name lol) and Lemphek. Don't know what are they starring at lol. Can see my hat in this picture haha.

Us posing for the camera but I think it's too dark.

 

When it's brighter Lemphek and Amzar not posing anymore =_=. Left me alone..

Oh yeah, before I forget, when I(we) first saw the stage, we were a little worried, because it was reallllllllllly small. We keep thinking about how to arrange ourselves so that we won't fall off the stage lol, as it's kinda difficult to fit all 7 of us on stage. So yeah, we ended up standing stiffly, dare not move too much scared we might hit someone and he falls off the stage haha.

Selina (Flying Pan) Making an announcement on stage.
And then it's our turn to set up the instruments and get ready to rock on!

Mosh and Seikan set up the amps.

 

As well as Fauzan and Amzar..

Of course the drummer Acap too doing his work to make sure everything's fine for the performance.

Najmi and the rest working. Lol I'm running out of caption, but basically everyone is busy prepping and setting up their instruments. I like the view from down stage (2nd pic). As you can roughly see, everyone is gonna be standing side by side, the stage fits justttt nice with all 7 of us standing straight.

In case you are wondering what I'm doing during preparation, I have to say that I'm the most free one among all other members because I have nothing to set up lol. There isn't even space for me to walk around on stage, so I figure I'll be just a nuisance if I stand there blocking their path while they are busy working. So I just pose for the camera haha.

Those who finish setting up early poses as well.

 

Done as well!~

The first song is by Osiria Rose only, without me. Let the main band heat up the crowd! In this picture: Dante the emcee introducing the band and they are ready to blast their first song!

First song they did was 'No Scared'. Song with loads of screaming.

Fauzan was the back up vocalist~

And....after the first song it's my turn~ 

 

 

Set up; and stand firmly on a spot securely (you can see for yourself how much space I have lol).

Started my performance with 'wherever you are', a super romantic song so we did a light rock duet!

Initially I could sing this song full of emotion but the band just had to spoil it lol (but I did ok during the performance la). During the jam practice Amir accidentally sang the chorus as 'wherever you are, i'll always make you cry', and i spotted that. Since then everytime we play that song we have to control our laughters =_=. And I had to focus a lot while singing because I was so used to the joke I may make the same mistake as him haha.

 

For our 3rd song we did 'The Beginning' and the last was my favourite 'kanzen kankaku dreamer'. I'm letting the pictures to speak for themselves:

 

I have to say,the audience were great!!! They were so supportive, and it was probably one of the best crowd I've ever encountered. They screamed, sang along and cheered for us throughout our entire performance. The front row even headbang with us; made us feel really appreciated ^^ 

One last picture of the full Osiria Rose band and me~~

I don't know how well I did on that day because none of us could hear anything we sang/played (plus there's no video recorded because the one who recorded for us lost the file - don't ask me how it happened), most probably due to the stage size and sound engineering settings. But with the crowd enjoying and cheering so much for us I guess it doesn't matter anymore.

I'm really glad to have joined Osiria Rose for this performance and am grateful to them who accepted me as a featured vocalist and treated me so kindly. I do wish to be able to perform even more this year; solo, duet, with my band, or collaborating with other musicians. Nothing beats seeing the audience cheering and supporting your stage. 

 

Max satisfaction.

First time posting from phone

So yeah, I know being awake at this hour is nothing unusual for me; but recently I have more classes than ever until the end of my exams, and they are all packed with full day classes (more than 10 hours usually). This made me feel incredibly hard to cope with my biological clock and really started to realise I'm having a serious non travel 'jetlag'/sleeping issues, omg.

Usual once a week class is ok because I only need to deal with lack of sleep for a day instead of few consecutive days like now..So yeah here I am blogging with my Iphone Blogger app while trying to drain all my battery (hp batt + body energy) down so that I can go charge them real soon and start the dreadful day again.

**I don't know how the layout will turn out since it's my first time using the app; if there's anything weird I'll re-align them when I'm back to com.

The Face Shop T.O.P. Girl

 

So yeah, I've somehow joined this campaign, "The Face Shop Be The Lucky T.O.P. Girl" yesterday; just filling in some questions and upload a picture, process was really easy. All applicants will get a TOP girl kit, so it would be great for any girls to just go for it ^^. I don't think I could even be called up for audition (coz i'm not even close to pretty), but it would be sad to have really few votes (since I'm not bugging anyone to vote). I know this blog doesn't have much readers, but if you ever feel kind enough to vote for me, I'll be really happy~

 

Here are the steps:

1. Like the Page: https://www.facebook.com/thefaceshopmalaysia
2. Go to the App: https://apps.facebook.com/tfs_topgirl_mal/
3. Click the "Go Vote"
4. Find "Ng Swee Yin" and click "Like"

 

*you could go straight to step number 2 since you could like the page there as well*

 

As you can see, I kinda accidentally used my real name for registration lol. I thought the name has to be following IC but after seeing other contestant's name I really regret using it, since not much people uses or even know my name these days. But anyway, do vote for me and spread the word (if you are kind enough to help)~

 

Thanks a lot xoxo