THE 2004 LIST OF MOSTLY INSIGNIFICANT THINGS

Best Albums
1. Israel and New Breed - Live From Another Level
2. John Butler Trio - Sunrise Over Sea
3. Something Like Silas - Divine Intervention
4. Missy Higgins - The Sound of White
5. Prince - Musicology
6. United Live - More Than Life
7. Kasey Chambers - Wayward Angel
8. U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
9. Velvet Revolver - Contraband
10. Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin

Best Albums that should have made the above list (but for reasons stated in the brackets, didn't)
1. Joss Stone - The Soul Sessions (because it was released in 2003)
2. Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News (because I only heard half of it, even though that half was utterly astounding)
3. Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals - Live From Mars (because it was released in 2001)
4. D12 - D12 World (because bad taste marginally outweighed brilliance)
5. Alicia Keys - The Diary of Alicia Keys (because it was released in 2003)
6. Joel Turner and the Modern Day Poets - self-titled (because beatboxing has to be seen live, not heard processed)
7. Jack Johnson - On and On (because I can't find drugs strong enough to appreciate half the album, and guitar skills good enough to play the other half)
8. Live - Awake (because Greatest Hits albums don't count)
9. Pete Teo - Rustic Living for Urbanites (because I've only heard the online acoustic versions, not the actual album)
10. Hillsong Church - For All You've Done (because it plain sucked)

Best Movies
1. Before Sunset
2. Kill Bill Vol. 2
3. In America
4. Spider-Man 2
5. Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
6. Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster
7. SuperSize Me
8. 21 Grams
9. Dirty Pretty Things
10. Team America: World Police

Best gigs
1. My Graduation, Adelaide Festival Theatre, September
2. Paul Coleman Trio, Paradise Community Church, April
3. Steve Vai, Thebarton Theatre, July
4. Brooke Fraser, Jive Bar, November
5. Tommy Emmanuel, Her Majesty's Theatre, December
6. John Mayer, Adelaide Entertainment Centre, April
7. The Marmalade Trio, Rundle Street
8. Mamma Mia, Adelaide Festival Theatre, January
9. Saffire, Elder Hall, November
10. Evanescence, Adelaide Entertainment Centre, January

Worst Movies
1. The Notebook
2. Catwoman
3. New York Minute
4. The Punisher
5. Along Came Polly
6. Sylvia
7. The Butterfly Effect
8. The Day After Tomorrow
9. Paycheck
10. Open Range

Best TV
1. 24
2. 2004 Athens Olympics
3. My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance
4. Happy Tree Friends
5. The Sopranos
6. Six Feet Under
7. Port Power winning the Grand Final
8. Buffy reruns
9. Rove Live
10. Margeret Cho Live

Best Internet
1. Wierd eBay listings
2. Gmail
3. Liquid Generation
4. Miniclip
5. eBaumsWorld
6. Nooma
7. Yetisports
8. Gawker
9. Free Kicks
10. MusicCanteen

Best DVDs
1. 24
2. Requiem for a Dream
3. G3 Live in Denver
4. Dave Matthews: Live in Central Park
5. The Sopranos
6. Evanescence: Anywhere But Home
7. Buffy
8. Israel and New Breed: Live From Another Level
9. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
10. Australian Idol Greatest Moments: Season 1

Best Food
1. The first Malaysian dish I ate when I arrived in Malaysia
2. Mushroom and Pesto Entre, Enzo's Restaurant
3. AB, Burger Bar North Adelaide
4. Salmon and Avocado Penne, Southside Edge Conference
5. Bueno's Chocolate Bar
6. German Goulash, Linda Chong
7. Chicken Schnitzel, Bar
8. King Island Blue Brie, Adelaide Central Markets
9. Morrocan Beef Curry, Southside Edge Conference
10. Butterscotch Pudding, me

Best Books
1. Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse - Robert Rankin
2. New Testament Transline Bible - Michael Magill
3. Not Even a Hint - Joshua Harris
4. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
5. The Journey of Desire - John Eldredge
6. Courageous Leadership - Bill Hybels
7. The Case for a Creator - Lee Strobel
8. The Heavenly Man - Paul Hattaway
9. Babylon Rising - Tim LaHaye and Greg Dinallo
10. Boundaries Face to Face - Henry Cloud and John Townsend

Thing I won't miss about Australia
1. The summer flies

Things I will miss about Australia
1. Where would I begin?

And now, the special announcement:

This will be my final blog entry.

This blog has served its purpose. It has paid its dues. It has snapped its shots. And, now that I'm back in Malaysia, it's time to capture the next stage of my life through other means.

And so farewell. Will miss you blog, and you, readers. Mail me to stay in touch. And touch me to stay in, er, touch, too.

Bye.

Currently Reading Next Door Savior: Near Enough to Touch, Strong Enough to Trust By Max Lucado see related

I'm back. In Malaysia. For good. Was it much of a secret?

Rather than commenting on the immense sense of disorientation, or the myriad of emotions felt over the past few days and weeks, or the experience of that final Sunday and that Monday morning at the airport, I thought it better to preserve the overall shallow nature of this blog, and offer my top five travel tips that I have learnt from the past few weeks. And so:

1. Travel with Qantas Airlines. Not only is the check-in process extremely swift (you see, no student flies with them, which means I literally waltzed past the line and right to the counter, instead of enduring hours of waiting), they've got great in-flight entertainment. Plus, they compensate you pretty well when flights get cancelled while waiting in transit (like I was in Darwin), which leads to...
2. When your flight gets cancelled, abuse your privileges. If they give you a free hotel room in a really nice hotel, ask for the biggest, family-sized one with two double beds and 10 pillows. If they give you free local phone calls, make as many as you can till you run out of numbers. If they say you can order anything from the restaurant menu, order everything and try everything, even if you can't finish it all. Anywhere near $100 worth of food is a good start.
3. Make friends with Germans and Sri Lankans. The Germans will join you in brazenly exploring the town, while the Sri Lankans will help you appreciate the finest in foods. And both of them don't really like Singaporeans.
4. In Singapore, hang with locals. No, not necessarily Malaysians-working-in-Singapore or Malaysians-who-have-migrated-there-for-just-a-few-years, but true blue Singaporeans. Then you get to funky bars and watch bands play, go to the non-touristy places to eat non-touristy food, and taste real life. Plus, they help you get over the sudden culture change that no amount of mental preparation could have helped overcome. Thanks guys.  
5. Nothing beats Malaysian food. Nothing.

Cool. Coming up, with an aboundance of year-end lists appearing, and being the list-freak that I am, my second annual list of everything that matters only to me and no one else. Plus a small announcement. It's gonna be good.

For now, a very Merry one.

Currently Watching The Motorcycle Diaries By Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo De la Serna see related

Some kid got killed by a pair of sharks, right at the coast of my favourite beach, right in front of my favourite spot. How fascinating...

After an insane week of minimal sleep, numerous trips to the airport, and a continuous stream of furniture-carrying for moving-people, it was only due to me to get to catch Tommy Emmanuel play once again at church's Carols night. As expected, he was sensational. As unexpected, so was our band. I mean, when Mr. Emmanuel himself can say to the pastors the next day that he wanted to move to Adelaide just to be part of the church, or that he wanted to record an album with the band, or that he was simply stunned when one of the vocalists hit spine-tingling notes on 'Oh Holy Night' that brought tears to just about everyone in the crowd - we had to be proud of our boys & girls.

And on the topic of guitars, mine has arrived. And. Oh. My. God. Does. It. Sound. Fine. Thanks, Jimbo. You get to see Ben Harper live, I get my 810. Fair trade, dontcha think? 

And, got a big day today. Very big.

Currently Playing Reise Reise By Rammstein see related

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• 36 oysters.
• 3 lavish lunches/dinners.
• 2 trips to the airport.
• 1 metal rocker shot.
• 20 sausages.
  
• 2 housemates gone.
• 3,487,597,320 photos taken (or at least it feels like it).
• 1 graduation service.
• 6 more days to my guitar arriving.
  
• 8 more...