1. I am EPIC late for work - as in, I'm supposed to BE in the office by now - but since I spent a while lounging around in bed and am already late... whatever. ;) I fell dead asleep yesterday early this morning before posting... this, I realise, is the upshot of having a laptop which can be used in a semi-horizontal position, rather than my usual desktop computer which keeps me upright... for better or worse.

2. Anyways. A couple of quick things. I was tagged by irnbruise and alex_kingston for a handwriting meme:

a. Write your LJ username
b. Write your two favorite bands/groups at the moment (not overall, just currently)
c. Write either I ♥ k-pop ; I ♥ j-pop ; I ♥ c-pop (this isn't really for anything, just to see how you draw hearts xD)
d. Write the name of your favorite person of all time (e.g. Yamada Ryosuke)
e. Write down your recently favored person (e.g. G-Dragon)
f. Tag 5 people to do this meme

( pardon the illegibility )

3. Quick fly-by flail: I'm done tracking my audio of the awesome Superband concert. ♥ SO MUCH LOVE. Can't get over its amazing. ( audio and some pro-shot video! )

4. ALSO, JULIA @ BROADWAY JUKEBOX. OMIGOD YOU GUYS. She sang soooo many things, like Unusual Way and LOSING MY MIND (THE LOW NOTES IN THIS ARE SEX, YOU HEAR ME? SEX!!!) but but BUT my favourite? The fact that we finally have a FULL VERSION of her singing I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miz. AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Guys, do you know how obsessed I - and a legion of fangirls, thanks to Mr Rudetsky - am with having her sing that? THIS OBSESSED <-- literally I had spliced together two fifteen-second clips of her singing different parts of the song during interviews so I could pretend to myself I had a full version. AHAHAHAHA NOW I DO. And it is unbelievable. She acts the craaaap out of this. I want to flail more and will probably do so in comments but now I must run. Although I have to add: Julia is doing a show on May 18! XD Possibly not a solo performance, but whatever: this more than ever confirms to me that I need to be back in NY in May, y/y?! OMG. Why is everything falling into place for crazy epic amounts of flail AGAIN?

5. And now I am INSANELY late for work and really REALLY need to get going, ackity ack. OFF I GO.

1. Am currently at the Doha airport, not even past the halfway mark of a SEVEN-HOUR layover between flights back to Singapore. I am sorely sorely missing New York already. Also, I am going to die from heat stroke when I get back. By our last day in NYC, it was about 45F i.e., 7C, and I was walking around in just my Wicked hoodie... clearly I had acclimatised to the -16C temperatures of the week before. :P Seriously: it was 17C when I disembarked in Doha, and already I exclaimed at how WARM it was - Singapore will be at least 10C hotter. F A I L. I envision spending most of the next year week indoors.

2. Turns out there's wireless internet at this terminal. I have never been happier to have dragged my laptop with me on this trip (and I will never travel without one again!) - I sure could have used this in my FIRST ridiculously long layover here. I think it was in 2005 or 2006 when I was on my way to Egypt. We had to wait here for six hours at one point. I have spent more time in the Doha airport than... probably any airport ever. How's that for random times?! This, of course, means that I haven't done anything of what I PLANNED to do - which was get caught up on all the books I brought/bought on the trip which I didn't read because I was too busy flailing/watching theatre. But Wavepad refuses to work, so I can't track audios, wtf! *grumbles*

3. I'm addicted to Tetris. I spent the entire 11-hour flight (it's shorter because head winds or tail winds or whatever are in our favour travelling back across the globe) playing Tetris instead of, you know, watching movies. Or reading. Or even sleeping. Boo, I suck.

4. Let me also admit right now that I am ridiculously addicted to The Marvellous Wonderettes. Also my Mamma Mia audio. I am listening to both (especially my favourite songs) on a loop, and I really REALLY want to be able to see both shows again. Preferably with the specific performers who make me all flaily. BTW, because I'm not at all creepy: when I mentioned earlier that I'd stalked Beth Malone on Facebook, I meant it - I thanked her for a great show, and she was really nice and replied! ♥ Corinne Melancon sings such a BEAUTIFUL rendition of One Of Us. Now I wish that song had been kept in the movie. Meryl singing it would probably kill me dead. (And here's another random factoid proving that I'm not at all creepy: Meryl HAS sung two lines from it and was all reproachful of Benny for it being cut from the film. XD)

5. Speaking of Meryl, I really want to MAKE ICONS. This picture is just screaming for a ROCK ON caption...


She's in Tokyo! Why on my side of the globe NOW, Meryl?!

On a related note: Is it sad that Photobucket has noticed my hiatus and is sending me e-mails titled "Your Album Misses You"? I wish I was kidding. I'm not.

6. STILL. I will keep my chin up - it's been one of the best trips in the history of the universe (honestly this is my favourite vacation I have EVER taken). But it WILL be nice to go home and settle back into a familiar groove, in a way, and get some me time... well, maybe not, since I'm plunging straight back into CNY festivities and then work thereafter. Again, as I've said frequently, I'm just glad there's so much flail-related stuff to distract me from being back in the equatorial climes of Singapore. Doubt (and a ton of Oscar movies) on the weekend. Epic Emil concert the weekend after. Taiwan a month after that. noldoparma - want to go book-shopping at Kino? I think we get 20%-off sales from Jan 28 for a few days. I'm going to have to distract myself from how blah and soul-sucking RL/work will be in comparison to the last fortnight...

7. I AM going to read now. I must try to finish another book before I go back to work on Wednesday!

1. And so ends my weekend of EPIC FLAIL. Soon to be followed by a FORTNIGHT of EPIC FLAIL in NYC. Heh.

2. Mayday concert tonight was AMAZING. SERIOUSLY. Every time I see these guys live, I fall in love with them all over again - even if they made me work REALLY HARD for that. As mentioned here, when I went for a full-fledged concert in April last year, attending a concert by these guys is like a CARDIO WORKOUT. Even if you have assigned seating, it doesn't matter - you're on your feet for pretty much three hours, jumping and flailing even through the tender, sweet ballads. So the concert organisers for Sunday's event clearly decided - why bother with SEATS. Everyone who had tickets was just herded into Stadium Green, which is a large expanse of grass right next to the Singapore River. And so tonight, probably a few thousand people rocked out to Mayday (oh, 阿信, how I LOVE YOUR VOICE), beneath a cloudless, moon-lit sky, yelling like crazy people so everyone for miles around could hear. EPIC. ♥

3. Am tracking my audio now - SO amusing, OMG. The quality is actually really good, considering that the concert was outdoors and EVERYONE was singing along like it was a communal karaoke session (that's probably the most FUN part of c-pop concerts, how much PARTICIPATION is expected from the audience... though it makes for less-than-ideal boots). But you can actually HEAR the parts at which I just gave up on a consistently good audio and started jumping around like a mad thing. Hee.

4. Now that I'm planning to see SO many shows and concerts and read and watch movies, I decided to expand my yearly list to include live performances. It's only four days into the new year and I'm off to a pretty good start already! :D This is gonna be an EPIC year for flail. EPIC.

5. OH. I also got my hair cut. And coloured, and styled. FOR FOUR AND A HALF HOURS. Omigod. FAIL. I look like... a China doll or something. I now have a fringe, it's bright red (AGAIN), and... it's CURLED? *weeps* I'm sure at SOME point I should have stopped taking my hairdresser's advice - just as her assistant was about to dump all the brown (it's SUPPOSED to be brown) dye on my head, I had a moment of going... errr, the permed hair is QUITE enough of a difference, thanks. (What even possessed me to say yes to THAT, in the first place?!) And then I chickened out because the dye had already been prepared. And then I just had to suffer through it, because omigod it took AGES to get it all into my hair and then it HURT and made me feel sick. Yuck. And now it's RED. *weeps some more* I'm sure the colour will even out after I wash it a couple more times. BUT. Remind me - next time I get my hair cut, I'm going to stay away from colouring for a while.

6. Finished reading City of Stars. SO OBSESSED with this series, omigod. It's EPIC. From a parallel Venice to a parallel Siena, with winged horses, horse races, and just an AMAZING expansion of the universe from the first book. LOVE.

7. And I think I'm... falling sick again? As in, back into the illness I had all of December? Maybe it's just the lack of sleep from today coupled with the crazy cardio workout. But I'm snuffly, my throat is scratchy and ARGH. NO WAY. Not before NYC. How incredibly SUCKY would that be, seriously.

8. I should SLEEP, obviously, to try and avoid illness. But but but. I'm almost done with audio! Except I just screwed up and have to reload the entire file to fix it. ARGH. Why do I fail SO HARD.

1. I swear I'm going to bed soon. My back's all achy from yoga, even though it was technically a doddle of a class. I'm really soooo not motivated to work these days. I spent ALL DAY watching election coverage on CNN, obviously, and THAT made me happy. But did I work? Noooooooo. Sigh. MOTIVATE ME, GUYS. Or not. :P

2. You know how CNN goes on a MASSIVE FOOTAGE LOOP after a while? The coverage of the actual polling didn't, because stuff kept changing, but once Obama was announced as president, it went into a loop. And I think I must've watched Obama and McCain's speeches quite a few times over. Obama's speech was great, but you know what makes me more than a wee bit weepy? These bits of McCain's speech: when he says, "We fought as hard as we could. And though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours" and also "This campaign was and will remain the great honour of my life". Awww. :(

3. Also, Proposition 8. WTF, California, WTF. Talk about a reality crash-landing.

4. Okay, no more political blather. Let's have some FLAIL instead. Everyone needs to read this parody of Mamma Mia (the movie), because it is freakin' HILARIOUS, ZOMG. I could easily quote it all day long! Sample:

PIERCE BROSNAN Meryl, you should stop your daughter from getting married. Also, I love you. MERYL STREEP Oh shit, you’re going to sing again aren’t you. PIERCE BROSNAN Yep. (sings) So when you’re near me, darling can’t you hear me, SOS. I literally couldn’t sound less like a human if I tried, SOS. <-- LMAO, FAVOURITE!!!!!!!! MERYL STREEP Oh Pierce. I love you too. (pause) Except I hate you. Asshole. PIERCE BROSNAN This runs in the family, doesn’t it? Isn’t there a psychiatrist on this island anywhere?

5. Whoa, guys. We have an Elphaba for January 2009. She's a TV star... and has also been in Disaster Movie and Meet The Spartans. UM WUT. That is hardly a reassuring set of credentials. *cries* What if she can't sing? She needs to belt the roof off the Gershwin, ARGH.

6. Errrr... at least Ms Murney is keeping busy? I want to go for this Nov 17 Town Hall concert, argh. UNPLUGGED. Julia is awesome unplugged. As is Jeff McCarthy, who is ALSO in the cast. EEEEK. Also, this is my new favourite picture.

7. Finished tracking my Lee Hom audio! :D ( music man )

8. Why so much flail today, world? Clearly I am NOT AT ALL EXCITED ABOUT House/Cuddy spoilers of AWESOME. And how adorable are these photos of the 100th episode party, hmmm? Lisa + cake + Jesse = OT3, y/y? ♥

9. MOAR COMMENTS TO BE ANSWERED TOMORROW. BEDTIME NOOOOW.

1. HAI IT'S 5.25AM. WTF. And my Saturday actually got off to a kind of normal start too - got up just before noon, which is pretty good considering that I left work only at 2am! Now that's all screwed-up. Clearly a normal sleeping schedule is not something I am genetically capable of maintaining.

2. Great GREAT day though, first in a long while. I met N for lunch - we were SUPER CLASSY and had Pepper Lunch in the new J8 food court before we went to see Mamma Mia... YES, AGAIN. For me, anyway. Which makes Viewing #3. And it still makes me soooo happy. It's been ages since I've done this with a movie; I think the only other ones I've seen more than three times in the cinema are House Of Mirth (because Gillian pwns, kthx) and Chicago (because... I liked CZJ in it A LOT?). Would watching Mamma Mia AGAIN next weekend if it's still screening be excessive? Whatever - it won't be as excessive as the fact that, today, I AUDIO-ED A MOVIE. Yes. FAIL. Anyway: below the cut are the movie versions of the songs... because you know what? They ARE different from what's on the soundtrack...

( the winner takes it aaaaaaaaaall )

3. AND THEN, I did normal things. Like go for yoga instead of nap, and go for a huge family dinner - N is on her way back to Ireland for school on Thursday, so we ate and watched movies and hung out in her honour. :D The food was incredible: it was supposed to be sukiyaki, but it turned into a huge Japanese steamboat dinner. We just kept cooking wafer-thin slices of beef and pork in simmering sukiyaki sauce. Mmmm. Also salmon and tofu and beanspouts and udon and OMG. Then we had gorgeously flaky apple turnovers for dessert. SO YUMMY. XD

4. Also, Singapore has gone F1-barmy! So many of my friends and family have gone for the heats or qualifiers over the last couple of days. The final is later tonight... and entire chunks of the country's roads are cut off and dedicated to this. Crazy - I can't imagine how being packed into the bleachers like sardines on a warm toasty night like yesternight could've been preferable to watching it live on StarWorld from the comfort of one's house. Especially since it's unlikely the cars will spend more than three seconds in your vicinity anyway. But what do I know.

5. I was retagging some entries and came across this epic post full of epic flail. My goodness, I've had a LOT of fandoms, haven't I? Reading the post made me soooo happy and nostalgic. Also, I've decided it's a good way to *ahem* kick off Cocktoberfest in a couple of days' time... stay tuned. ;)

6. Suddenly I have too many things to do today, and it's already 6.10am, argh. Sleep, obviously, is key. I want to go for yoga. I need to watch House. And Woody Allen's new movie. Also I have icons to make. AND I'm supposed to meet people for tea? I think? Clearly all these things take precedence over studying for the GREs. ARGH LIFE. WHY DO YOU PWN ME SO. :P

7. Last, but not least, THANK YOU, GUYS, for your comments here. Seriously. They made me feel so much better after this week (read: six years) of utter fail at work. ♥

8. How is it that I've been writing this post for an hour? It's 6.22am, ARGH. O_O

1. WHY DOES THE BEST CRACK ALWAYS HAPPEN WHEN I AM AT WORK OR ASLEEP, ASKJDLDJASLDJLSJDLASA. Seriously. I went to bed for, like, just FOUR HOURS. When I got up again, flist had EXPLODED. EVEN MORE SO THAN AFTER SWEETSAUCE (WHATEVER THAT MEANS LOL!). Understandably though, for you see, I know all about the super-sexy House promos - the pictures at least, though not the tv promo (yet) - and I am ALL SPOILED FOR THOSE, AND ALL FLAILY. I COULD LITERALLY DIE FROM THE AWESOME. BECAUSE OMG HOW PRETTY AND HOW SEXY AND HOW ASDKSJALJDLJASDLAS ARE THOSE?!? FINALLY WE HAVE CUDDY IN PROMOS AND ISN'T SHE BLOODY GORGEOUS. PLUS THAT PROMO. WTF. W. T. F. KIND OF AWESOME IS THAT. I am, however, two episodes behind so am NOT leaping into any massive flail sessions for fear of being spoiled on plot points before I can see the episodes myself tomorrow.

2. It's good to have the fandom back though. Man. You guys have been going NUTS on my flist, lol. And I LOVE IT.

3. Work was made of FAIL today. Though when is it not. My boss was, as usual, full of inspirational win. I AM NOT BEING SARCASTIC AT ALL. </sarcasm> Okay. I shall NOT bitch though. Shall NOT.

4. ELTON!! YAY for Elton concert!! It was amazing - he played for a solid two and a half hours, no costume changes, just sang and tinkled those ivories like his life depended on it, which was awesome. I was surprised at how LITTLE he bantered (I always imagined he'd be the kind who would toss out wisecracks every other song, you know?), and I have to be honest - he no longer has that falsetto of his. It was pretty obvious in parts, when he either let his band or the audience cover for the fact that he can't go all high like he used to be able to. (See Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.) But he covered for it pretty well, and he was otherwise in really GOOD voice. He opened the show by singing a batch of obscure songs that I suspect you'd only know if you were a hardcore Elton fan - which I'm not - but the concert REALLY picked up once he hit his stretch of epic singles. OMG. It was cracktastic. The audience did his work for him (he really didn't even TRY to get everyone out of their seats and hyper, they just were). Bopping around to Crocodile Rock or Bennie & The Jets? GOOD TIMES. I bring my favourite songs from the concert, which are pretty much some of my favourite Elton songs ever. More flailing under the cut:

5. Funnily enough, I'm addicted to Alice Ripley's music. No big surprise there. But I just procured her songs with her band Ripley, and am AGAIN simply floored by her versatility. How does she switch from Broadway belting to folksy pop and punk rock? I DON'T KNOW, BUT SHE DOES, AND I LOVE HER FOR IT. I'm a little bit obsessed with her song Romeo now, but I can't for the life of me understand what she's singing at some points. AND GOOGLE HAS FAILED ME FOR ONCE. Anyone on the flist actually has lyrics? Or can help deaf ol' me decipher what Alice is singing? ;)

6. More work tomorrow. Saaaadfaaaaace. I'd rather stay home and flail. And I MUST go to bed now. MUST.

1. Like pretty much every day of my life - at least when RL doesn't butt its stupid head into proceedings.

2. Went to one of the BEST concerts of my life this yesterday evening - Taiwanese rock band MAYDAY! was in town for the night, and I've been to all the concerts they've held here since I returned from university. Because they are made of TOO MUCH AWESOME to be believed. They're still ridiculously young (early thirties for the most part), but so so talented. They play their own music, write their own songs, and are just... incredible live. Seriously. I always say that, if you think Singapore audiences are buttoned-down and too boring at live performances (and for the most part they are), you should get yourself to a Mayday concert. Because whenever they're here, imagine about 8-10,000 people literally ON THEIR FEET for three hours, dancing and singing and just rocking out. I'm still aching from that cardio workout - I mean, I was sweating five songs into the show! Nuts. But fabulous.

3. AND. OMG. I LOVE my new recorder. It's beautiful and lovely and it made me a lovely lovely boot of the concert. I've spent the better part of the last few hours slicing out the best songs and cleaning them up. And if I do say so myself, the recording really sounds quite good. I'm astounded by the quality actually. Best part? You can occasionally hear me and noldoparma having a mini RL flail moment, or giggling or just going, "OMG OMG OMG! THEY'RE SINGING THAT SONG?!" We were pathetic. And flaily. Anyway:


4. While messing with my boot, I also started to fill out a Wicked meme snagged from starhud5. I fail in many ways since I have only seen Wicked ONCE. Bah. I shall change that by June 15, though! Then I'd have seen Kerry again and SJB's last! :) Wicked fans on the flist (especially alexia88, who is trying to tempt me away from sleep :P), play if you haven't already... or link me to your answers if you've already done the meme!


5. It's taken me over an hour to complete this post, wtf. And I'm still waiting for my uploads so I can link them. FAAAAAIIIIlL. I'm supposed to go for a ridiculously expensive brunch with my friends at 1130H tomorrow. I will get, like, four hours of sleep at this rate. Though I am so hyper from concert and flail I don't think I COULD sleep, lol.

6. Oh, before I forget - I'm a little bit obsessed with the new Annie Leibovitz picture of Julianne Moore, which I discovered through iwant_sprinkles. It's... gorgeous, and part of the Reimagining Disney series. Julianne as Ariel from The Little Mermaid - SO PRETTIFUL, OMG. Click on the icon to see full-sized photo. I'm kind of in love with it.