Ultra - Where are they now?

Song of the day:
Ultra
"Blind To The Groove"

In the year 1998, I started listening to English music after Deric introduced me to them.

So I also began listening to English radio stations and gained knowledge about the English music scene.

Bands from UK and US were very very popular during that time.

Rock and pop music pretty much made up a big percentage of the English music scene during that time too, with rap and hip-hop playing a supporting role only.

I was more into pop music at the moment as I was still very new to English music.

It was very understandable for me, especially in the "Boyband" era when'N Sync, Backstreet Boys, Five were super duper popular within the years 1995 to 1999.

However, I was pretty impressed with a new idea (which wasn't really that new to be honest) of a genre known as pop rock.

It all started to strike me when a new pop rock band known as Ultra started breaking into the UK pop music scene.

They first released their debut single known as "Say You Do".

To me, it was a refreshing song by a refreshing combination of "boyband" and rock music, and thus attracting my attention.

The beats, the rhythm, the lyrics. Just nice for me.

In 1998, Ultra actually consist of 

1. James Hearn (lead vocalist)
2. Michael Harwood (guitar)
3. Jon O'Mahony (drums)
4. Nick Keynes (bass)

Soon after, they released their debut album, also known as "Ultra".

Ultra's self-titled album

I bought a cassette tape version of this album in 1998 and I was attracted to it.

The songs were pretty nice, giving you the pop rock kinda feeling.

I would say The Click Five and Jonas Brothers would be the closest to describe Ultra, but of course since they are British, the accent is a little different.

Yet, the album consists of different musical styles, i.e. slow rock ballads, midtempo tracks, and a little bit of the choir type.

Later on, they released "Say It Once" as their second single, which was then followed by "The Right Time" and lastly their best single to date, "Rescue Me".

"Rescue Me" was the only Ultra single which managed to peak in the Top 10 of the UK Charts.

A ballad with a little more pop rock (due to the beats) feel than pop music feel to it in my opinion.

Since that single, Ultra did not produce their second album and seemed to vanish from the music scene for quite a while.

As you know I don't live in UK, I usually have no update on the band.

However, based on what is written on Ultra's Wikipedia page, the band split for quite a few years but reunited with addition of new members.

Now, Ultra survive and they've recently released their new album known as "The Sun Shines Brighter".

Well, it's pretty hard for a band to stay on for decades unless you've very good success in the music scene.

Take Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bon Jovi for example.

They've been doing those stuff for like decades and their fame don't seem to fade away.

But time does different things to different people.

Ultra might not be able to withstand the "commercial" pressure every band and music artists have to faced, but their music lives on in my life.

Till now, my favourite Ultra song would always be "Blind To The Groove".

It's a pretty interesting song which involves good back-up vocalists and a very exciting blend of pop rock music and a little gospel music in it.

I don't know how to categorise the song but to me, it will always remain as one of the songs in my "most favourite songs" album (if I ever compile one).

Try out Ultra. Maybe you'll like it. (:

Well, that's part of my musical memories that I would probably never forget.

I'm still alive! / A new beginning (notebook version)...

Song of the day:
Stan Bush
"Dare"

Wow. 

Just realised that I haven't blogging for months since I graduated from UTM.

Hmm...

Just to update, I

1. am still jobless/unemployed
2. am still a lazy rascal. Refer to 1

I know some of you are like "what the f**k? Get up and get a f**king job!!!" or something like that.

At the moment, I'm still taking my time to find a suitable job.

I've interviews coming up but I'm not very desperate for jobs.

Anyway, certain things have changed in the past two months.

Basically, my mindset has changed a lot in various subjects, i.e. friendship, jobs, life.

I've also taken time out to reminisce about past memories, good and not so good ones, memorable and not so memorable ones.

In this pacy era, it's difficult to even stop for a moment and admire the things around us.

That's probably the reason why I wanna take all the time in the world to rest, realise and learn things around me, and also discover what I could really do with my life.

All the while, I haven't been really making decisions on my own.

I want to have a say in my life, and I don't have the chance to do that in my life, especially regarding my future.

Now I've stepped out of university, graduating as a First Class graduate from Electrical Engineering.

And it's also about time for me to put aside what I don't really enjoy doing in the past few years, and look forward to something outside the Electrical Engineering field.

Hence, I'm taking my own sweet time. Cheers!

I know a lot of people will "look down upon" me. I understand that.

But I "look down upon" them too as they're just slaves for money.

I don't want to be a slave for money. I want to enjoy what I do and obtain the reward/salary that I feel is compatible with what I achieve within my scope of work.

That's my view though.

Oh ya, just only last week that I damaged my Presario V1000 by accident. 

It was a nightmare when I accidentally kicked my Presario.

It died a horrible death as it fell to the ground from the top of my small little side table which I placed my notebook all the time.

The motherboard struggled to inhale her last breath. 

And within seconds of trying to revive her, she died. :(

My Presario V1000 has been a loyal servant to me for the past 4 years since the year 2004.

Unfortunately, she suffered various kinds of illnesses annually and nearly died after 2 years of usage.

The motherboard was changed and luckily she was determined to continue living.

She went on strong for the next two years until last week when the accident happened.

Well, I've bought a new babe just only yesterday.

It came out of a surprise that I bought my baby as I was looking for a suitable baby with several brands considered, including Acer, Dell, HP and others.

And most people knew that last weekend was PC Fair weekends in several major cities in Malaysia, including Johor Bahru.

I wasn't satisfied with most of the model sold in the fair at Persada as the specifications were just not good enough for the budget that I've set for my future baby.

The budget? Roughly 2k to 2.7k bucks. 

After loiterring around Persada on the first day of the fair in JB, I went back empty handed.

As I was a Lowyat Forum member, I searched through the "Mobile Computing" thread and discovered a new Acer notebook model which was being hotly discussed.

It was weird as there was no sign of the notebook during the fair at Persada.

As I continue reading the forum, I realise that the notebook has the following specs:

1. Processor: AMD Athlon (Turion) 64 X2 RM-70 / 2 GHz ( Dual-Core )
2. Cache Memory: 1 MB, L2 cache
3. RAM: 1 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max), DDR II SDRAM, 667 MHz ( 2 x 1 GB )
4. Card Reader: 5 in 1
5. Hard Drive: 160 GB
6. Optical Storage: DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM, integrated
7. Display: 14.1" TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ), 24-bit (16.7 million colors), CrystalBrite
8. Graphics Controller: NVIDIA GeForce 9100M G
9. Networking: Network adapter, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b,IEEE 802.11g 

And also, the price of this babe was approximately 2k bucks!!!

This babe is the Acer Aspire 4530. Picture is as follow:

(Taken from Expertester@Wordpress.com)

For such a price, the specs were more than satisfying.

Of course, my mom has hinted me of getting Acer as she knew an Acer dealer with excellent customer service.

Before I got any info on the Acer Aspire 4530, I thought of having Dell Inspiron 1420 which is priced at roughly 3k bucks, but even its specs were just a wee bit off the Acer Aspire 4530.

(Taken from notebookreview.com)

1. Bios A09 version
2. Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7300 
3. Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic*
4. 2GHz, 4MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB
5. 14.1” WXGA Truelife Display with Integrated 2.0 mega pixel web cam
6. 160GB* Hard Drive
7. DVD Burner*
8. NVIDIA® GeForceTM Go 8400M GS with 128MB DDR3 dedicated graphic memory
   
9. Up to 384mb video memory share
10. Dell™ Wireless 1395 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini-card

My first question was: AMD or Intel?

AMD Turion 64 x2 and Intel Centrino 2 Duo were reviewed by several well-known computer sites as on par. 

Of course, the Turion has its strength and weaknesses. The same applies to the Centrino 2. 

But what I was curious about was that AMD could offer almost the same performance as Intel (in the Dual Core processor thingy) at a cheaper price.

Supporter of AMD might point towards the company's slogan, which is "The Smarter Choice".

So, one thing came to my mind: Are people prepared to support AMD in order to break the dominance of Intel?

Surely some of them were sceptical when I asked them to choose between AMD Turion 64 X2 and Intel Centrino 2 Duo Core.

Majority of them say the Centrino.

To me, it's like supporting Arsenal, not that f**king club from Manchester (not referring to Man City of course so you know which club I'm referring to) which had been a dominant force but not for long in my opinion.

Second question was always gonna be the budget.

But with the Aspire 4530 priced at 2k which is cheaper than Dell Inspiron 1420 by 1k bucks, it's easy to choose from.

Of course, prices can differ from one location to another, and possibly from one shop to another.

So I headed towards an Acer dealer (City Wise at Landmark) whom my bro got his Acer Aspire 5583 from.

I got all the necessary details and assurances from the branch manager. He promised to offer me PC Fair price too!

I left Landmark with absolute satisfaction after informing that fella I'll be returning within the next few days to purchase that babe. (Sounds like prostitution :( )

Back to the story. After all the considerations and tinkering, I decided to go for the Acer Aspire 4530, which received rave reviews from fellow Lowyat Forum members (even though most of them voted for Acer to be the worst brand of laptop).

Final price: 2199 inclusive of 3 Year International warranty, upgrade to 2GB RAM and a host of free gifts (mouse, headphones etc.)

Now, I'm updating my blog using my baby via the Windows Vista Home Basic. 

I'm still very new to this OS but honestly, the layout hasn't really been THAT different.

Still a lot to explore on Vista though :p

That's all for today guys! I'll be back to update my blog consistently.

See ya!

Say my name...

Song of the day:
Within Temptation
"Say My Name"

Say my name
So I will know you're back you're here again
For a while
Oh let us share
The memories that only we can share
Together

Tell me about
The days before I was born
How we were as children

You touch my hand
These colors come alive
In your heart and in your mind
I cross the borders of time
Leaving today behind to be with you again

We breath the air
Do you remember how you used to touch my hair?
You're not aware
Your hands keep still
You just don't know that I am here

It hurts too much
I pray now that soon you're released
To where you belong

You touch my hand
These colors come alive
In your heart and in your mind
I cross the borders of time
Leaving today behind to be with you again

Please say my name
Remember who i am
You will find me in the world of yesterday
You drift away again
Too far from where I am
When you ask me who I am

Say my name
These colors come alive
In your heart and in your mind
I cross the borders of time
Leaving today behind to be with you again

Say my name




(P.S.:

I'm so enticed by the arrangement of the whole song!

Not forgetting the superb voice by the lead vocalist, the song is almost complete.

It's almost the song of the entire century.

I never thought that Gothic rock can be sooooooo beautiful.

Awwwwww...)

Is it me or what?

Song of the day:

David Cook
"Eleanor Rigby"

Sometimes I wonder..

Is it me? is it anybody else?

What I'm talking about is the "me against the world" kind of situation.

When does this situation occur?

Arguments.

Discussions.

Quarrels.

Anything that involves more than 1 people discussing about stuff or do things together.

Have you ever faced with a situation whereby everybody's against you and you're the lone ranger in certain issues?

I guess you've.

I'm facing such situation all the time!

I'm always alone to defend my own stand.

Any issue in the world: Arsenal, religion, fear, Malaysia etc.

I'm always the lone ranger.

Even in my family, my siblings and parents are always against me.

I get to the point when I even feel depressed and have pretty low self-esteem.

This can happen to anyone when such things continuously happen in one's life.

I can hear voices which say, "You're making an issue out of nothing."

NO WAY!

Maybe I'm more sensitive than others and thus it IS an issue to me.

I feel pretty powerless everytime people bombard me with their views.

And I hate that feeling!

But I will accept other people's opinions if what they say make sense.

Yet, sometimes I think I prefer to do it my own way.

And this is probably why I sometimes feel that it's "me against the world".

Even if that's the case, it doesn't give other people the license to "kill" me.

I won't allow that.

I accept what is acceptable and I oppose what is not acceptable.

It's as simple as that.

But as I've mentioned earlier, it's always "me against the world".

I just come out with a simple statement and everybody wants to oppose me.

Is it because other people are jealous of me?

Or is it because other people look down upon me?

I've only expressed my dissatisfaction about this matter to the only friend who would listen to my problems, Jamie "Sexay" Sanderson.

Nobody else could understand how I feel to be honest.

Family members, friends. All the same.

Sigh.

What's next then? I don't know.

Even more of the situation?

Very likely.

Regrets...

Song of the day:
David Cook
"Always Be My Baby"

Regrets...

Everyone has regrets, I'm pretty sure of it.

I've tonnes of regrets.

But in this blog entry, I would like to highlight my greatest regrets throughout my life in my "beloved" university.

The first in line is always my choice of studying electrical engineering.

I know this has been repeated time and time again.

BUT...

I've learnt to accept it now. Fine.

Earlier today I had a great chat with one of my old pals from secondary school in a shopping complex.

Basically we chatted about almost everything, ranging from career to STPM.

It is always inevitable to include one topic in every chatting session I've this time around.

Romance.

This is only one thing that has not appeared in my life since I was born.

Why?

I don't even know why.

I used to have an explanation for that.

Fat.

I was fat before 2008.

Fat is the key to every girl's worst dream.

Just ask any girl on the road. Do they want a fat guy as a boyfriend?

I don't have the statistics here but I think that probably 90% would say no.

Their opinions and comments on that?

"Yuck!", "Eeewwww", "Disgusting.." etc.

Okay I'll stop that.

Now, in 2008, I've changed to become slimmer and skinnier.

But I feel that it's a bit late for me to make changes to my body.

Basically every girl that I at least have a crush on, has a boyfriend.

"Better late than never"? Oh my god.

Today's chatting session was one example.

I wouldn't wanna say anything but the girl involved was one of the girls I'd a crush on.

And I did not make the first move till I got beaten by a more superior guy.

Hands down. I conceded defeat.

But one thing did get to my mind and the golden words would always be "what if?".

What if I moved earlier?

What if I slim down earlier?

What if I bla bla bla...?

Thinking of these makes me feel inferior and regretful.

I still regret about what I've missed in large chunk of my life.

I thought I could impress people with my diligence and hardwork till I've got someone else to remind me that it wasn't meant to be like that.

People can be smarter than you and eventually beat you in the academic world.

And that "someone" (who reminded me) was none other than my father.

I was given a reality check in Form 5 and I was given more reality checks when I failed miserably throughout my so-called "love quest".

"I was fat", the lamest but most realistic reason before 2008.

Did I say that earlier? OH yes I did.

I'm pretty sure that I failed earlier because of my looks.

My score has been reduced to less than half even before I start showing my character.

With my low self-esteem due to my outlook, I can't even get girls to chat with me, let alone look at me.

C'mon ffs.

This world is very realistic and I've come to know that right in front of my face.

I know the cruel reality of life and I'm sick of it.

Girls can do the most cruel action to me before I even know it.

I've so many evidences to back my claims. But of course what's the point of showing all here?

It's history and "ffs wake up Kelvin Lye!".

I admit, to be given a reality check is cruel but honest.

That's why I don't wanna get fat again.

However, the large chunk of life wasted due to "fat"ness cannot be recovered forever.

I've basically had 24 years of life wasted due to people's opinion on my size.

I'm SLIM! SKINNY! Note that for goodness sake.

And I want to be loved.

I know love cannot be demanded but I want to be given a chance.

Short term romance. Long term romance. A short term fling.

Anything that can leave me with sweet memories.

You can say that I'm desperate but I just want to enjoy the process, even though it doesn't lead to marriage.

Enough of regrets.

I just wish for chances now, my Lord.