To be honest, WordPress seems like too much work. Every now and then I’ll want to say something, or share a video, or just get something out on the screen, and with WordPress it often feels like too much pressure to try and get a whole post out when I just don’t feel like I have the creativity to push it out.

So off to Tumblr I go.

Leaving this up in case I ever feel like coming back, though.

When everyone was getting transferred out of the MGSM program while I was still stuck in the endless tedium of calling people who would rather give to real charities than a graduate school, espescially because I was the particularly useless one, I got kinda worried.

When I walked into the office and they didn’t even bother giving back my data and gave me somebody else’s instead I knew something was up.

When my team leader asked me to tally up a half hour in advance and then ushered me quietly into a side room for a “talk”, I was like, “LOL BAI GAIZ”.

I feel like I should probably be disappointed or sad or something but everyone at work was really nice and funny and it’s not even as if they just dumped me out on my ass on the pavement – I got escorted outand everything, yo! Probably to make sure I didn’t steal credit card info out of spite from having just been technically fired, but I digress.

I bet you anything though that if they hadn’t put me on the two hardest programs consecutively (you trying to tell me elderly retirees are REALLY going to want to sponsor another child for an additional $50, and CEOs with MBAs under their belt are going to want to commit to regular giving over the phone with no prior research? LULZ) I would’ve actually done kinda okay, and I probably would’ve hit my goal of lasting till uni and saving $1000.

But that’s okay. I turned up to that first interview happy that I’d even managed to secure an interview. (Not even the Mexican place at Liverpool gave me one, you know.) The fact that that interview turned into a job at possibly the least screwed up call centre you could ever find was just icing on the cake, and I mean, I hadn’t even expected to keep it longer than a week let alone a whole month. My first aim had been primarily to see what the formal workplace was like, and I think I achieved that – with a tidy profit at that.

The way I see it, I just finished paid work experience. (Which would technically be an internship but that sounds a bit fancy for the situation I was in.)

I think more than anything I’m kind of looking forward to what I can do the rest of the holidays – I did have goals for my summer break (overcome the “post-traumatic stress” of last January’s near-concussion on my bike, practice Japanese, play video games because I never have time during regular school days) and now I actually have the opportunity to do them. I hadn’t been happy for a while; probably when they put me on MGSM and effectively sucked any self satisfaction I could get out of my job.

As well as that, now I have experience under my belt, and I know how to operate in a workplace. Granted a call centre is probably leaps and bounds different from retail or fast food, but it’s still something to put on my resume even if I can’t supply a reference because I was “asked to leave, as opposed to leaving for private reasons”.

The only sad part is now I have no money. But you know, I got by without it before. I don’t think it’ll be any different now.

That said, I still do love music a lot. The only thing that’s changed is that now I don’t play bizarre justification games with myself to explain why I might kind of enjoy Britney Spears’ 3 sometimes.

This is all really just a leadup to a list of my favourite songs of the past year. I was going to write artsy fartsy, Pitchfork-esque summaries but halfway through the second one I realised that it contradicted the whole anti-pretentious theme of my intro. Also I really can’t be bothered.

Peter Bjorn and John / Blue Period Picasso

I love PB&J. I really do. I would probably put them No. 1 on a list of “favourite bands I have discovered this year”. I wish I could put Objects of My Affection here but that was technically from two years ago, so this will have to do. The thing with their Living Thing album is that even though it’s awesome, a lot of the songs followed the same template of pairing “I-have-issues-in-my-relationship” with “so-minimal-it’s-barely-there” arrangements. I like Blue Period Picasso in particular though because I am a sucker for cute metaphors.

Namie Amuro / Dr.

I’ve always liked Japanese music, but this year I didn’t listen to it because let’s face it, a lot of it was shit. Previously I would’ve said the exchange rate contributed to me not listening to it, but honestly speaking, I can make room for things in my budget if I really want them. Before two weeks ago, I think maybe there was one Japanese album that came out that wasn’t a best-of album that I really loved, and I didn’t even get to listen to it properly because it was too expensive.

Anyway, my point is, Namie Amuro’s Past < Future came out on the 16th and despite thinking it was kind of shit from what I’d heard, I’d bought it anyway and fell almost completely in love. Most of it is pretty typical (but very well done) dance-pop, but every now and then she’ll through a curve ball at you. Dr. is one such curve ball, and man, what a curve ball. Don’t believe me? The lyrics feature Amuro talking to Chronos, the Greek god of time. The tempo changes about seven times in just under seven minutes. The song samples Ravel’s Bolero and makes it work. Just listen to it. Seriously.

Alphabeat / The Spell

Okay, this is basically nostalgia exploitation, but damned if Alphabeat can’t write an awesome tune. Although to be honest, I don’t really remember 90′s music sounding quite this good. I also like that they removed mentally disabled acting Anders from most of the song and relegated him to the bridge and the bridge only. They sound better that way.

Damn Polydor for delaying the release of the album until March. Seriously.

Vampire Weekend / Horchata

Yes, I know they are overrated hipster bait, but I firmly believe that Vampire Weekend themselves make no moves to buy into their own Pitchfork god status. To me, Vampire Weekend just seems like the sort of band I’d make with a bunch of friends if me and three other people I knew could play instruments and compose music to a certain degree of acceptability. All you really have to do is look at the A-Punk video, how can that look anything other than a bunch of guys just hanging around and being idiots?

A lot of people think Horchata is really similar sounding to their stuff from their debut, but in my opinion it’s anything but. The fun little instrumental runs between the verses really make the song for me, and the bouncy synthesisers give it something their old stuff doesn’t. Lyrically it’s just Campus, Part 2 though.

Vampire Weekend can still go screw themselves for what they did to everyone with the Oxford Factory gig though. Also Cousins sucks. Contra better not suck too.

BoA / Eien (Eternity)

I’d like to say that I like this song because it’s a well written pop song or some bullshit, but I think I might just like it because it’s catchy, danceable and simple enough for me to understand even with my elementary Japanese.

Utada / Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – FYI

Catchy chorus, amazing arrangement, but I don’t actually feel there was a lot Utada did to contribute to either. Okay, so it’s not that great, considering her standards, but I feel obliged to put this on here because I did listen to it an unholy amount of times, and it is the best song on her This Is the One album, but really, as amazing as the first Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence was, there wasn’t an awful lot she could do to mess it up, was there?

Also the lyrics are crap but this is a given for when she sings in English.

Jordin Sparks / Battlefield

There is nothing more fun than driving down the freeway in a car full of people yelling “GUESS YOU BETTER GO AND GET YOUR ARMOR”. Try it.

Keri Hilson / Knock You Down

Kanye! Ne-Yo! An amazing beat! An amazing chorus! Oh, and Keri Hilson.

Right so Keri did very little as a singer to really make this song as awesome as it is. I love her album but she has the personality of wallpaper. You probably could’ve substituted anyone else into this song and it still would’ve worked. She helped write it though, so I suppose that counts. Maybe.

This is really only here because I can’t include Energy.

Passion Pit / Little Secrets

At first I hated the album because their lead singer seriously only knows one way to sing, and that’s ultra high falsetto. It’s nice to listen to once in a while, but when you have it shoved in your face as aggressively as it is on the first track, you tend to be irritated rather then left in awe.

And then I realised how fun it was to yell the chorus of Make Light, and they grew on me significantly.

Little Secret is probably the best song on the album. The video game beats are catchy in itself, add to that a great chorus as well as a children’s choir (a children’s choir! No-one can resist a children’s choir!) and you’ve got yourself a hit.

It also doesn’t hurt that this is one of their songs with significantly less WTF lyrics. I have no idea what Passion Pit are talking about in the vast majority of their music.

Glee Cast / Don’t Stop Believin’

Glee is what would happen if you took High School Musical, and added a heavy sense of irony and an ability that allows it to not take itself so seriously, although possibly not in a way Disney intended. Or if you took Mean Girls and added songs. In any case, it’s good, not Emmy material, but competently written and fun, but not in a saccharine way.

This cover of Don’t Stop Believin’ is possibly much better appreciated if you have knowledge of the TV show, but were it not for the nostalgia factor attached to the Journey original, I would think that many would feel this is the superior version.

Lady Gaga / Bad Romance

Yeah. I got nothing, except that Lady Gaga is a lot smarter and more talented than everyone gives her credit for, and that bellowing “GA GA OOH LA LA” is addictive.

Girls’ Generation / Gee

2009 was the year I discovered K-Pop, and believe me, nothing enthralled me more than the wonderful world of shallow, overproduced Korean pop music. If I were to listen every Korean-language song that I took to, this list would have about twenty more songs than it does now. That said, there is one song, one song that defines not only my K-Pop addiction but perhaps 2009, the year.

And that song, is Gee.

There is only person I know that was immune to the wonders of Gee. What is it about Gee that makes it so endearing? What is it that causes every listener to gravitate towards the appeal of its nine performers like nothing else ever has before. Is it the bizarre English monologue? Is it the arrangement’s heavy usage of synth, running alongside the vocals like a sprinter trying to overtake is competitors? The bizarre, and yet simple dance? The repetition of the word “gee”? The legs?

Whatever it is, Gee and its hypnotising effect is not a song I will ever forget. The way I sat in front of the monitor, mesmerised. The attempt I made to learn the lyrics phonetically. The way the earworm spread quickly to everyone else who viewed the video. The birthday I spent drunkenly mimicking their dance late at night in an abandoned Town Hall station.

For me, Gee was 2009.

Yes, that’s right. I played old-school Super Nintendo. Don’t judge me.

The sad part is that I think my reflexes have gone backwards, as the same levels I had no problem with as a child have no become substantially harder. The main difference is that instead of my frustration manifesting in a barely self-restrained attempt at chucking the controller at the TV, I resort to mentally cursing the system.

My Super Mario World cartridge wasn’t working earlier. I found myself blowing on it out of reflex.

YES I WILL START STUDYING SOON

I also have exams. Specifically one on Wednesday for a class during which I was usually asleep, or not there.

Which means I only have two full days (Sunday, and half of the Monday and Tuesday respectively) to study for it.

Uh.

The interview wasn’t actually as hard as I thought it would be; in fact, it consisted of a bunch of pretty simple tasks – introduce yourself, group debate, one-on-one interrogation, simulated job situation, pretty easy stuff. The difficult part was trying to do all of this in a relaxed, composed, and efficient manner, which was kind of hard when your hands are shaking from the nerves.

But I guess I must have impressed someone, because I got offered the job. Woo!

I must admit, I always get a bit taken aback when people say I am above average at things. I mean, I know I’m sort of funny, I’m more or less easy to get along with, and I’m polite when I need to; but whenever people say I’m really adept at any of those things, it feels a little odd. Keeping that in mind, you can imagine how strange it was trying to talk yourself up.

I also found that people take you exponentially more serious when you’re dressed all business-like; a man in the elevator thought I worked on the top floor. Hee.

When I announced this during lunch at uni once, the general reaction was that of dismay and discouragement. “Why are you trying to do that? You sound fine. That’s a stupid idea.”

But bear with me. I have my reasons.

These include; silly carried-over insecurity from the junior years of high school when boarder-generated anti-American sentiment was at its highest, a perception that people would hang up on me less often if I worked at a call centre which ended up being a stupid reason because I was unceremoniously rejected before I even got to the interview stage, not wanting to be mistaken for an international student again, a desire to say “bogan” and “bloody” with the right accent because let’s face it, they just don’t sound right when I say them, and most importantly, boredom.

As a result I have been repeating everything everyone says, ever. Apparently, this is very offputting.

I also sit around repeating various text that I see around me. Apparently, this makes me look psycho.

I think the worst part is that I’m not even getting close to sounding anywhere close to the accent I want. Most of the time people can’t even tell that I’m trying.

Nine times out of ten I’ll just back out of opinionated discussions unless I happen to be really passionate about whatever the subject is (read; music, assholes, general lack of tolerance and compassion for other humans) – there’s really no point in mindlessly arguing over a stalemate, and I’d rather save myself the stress, thanks.

But there’s two things standing in my way.

The first is my crippling laziness, which consequently results in me never getting anything done, ever. The irony is that laziness itself it what keeps me from doing anything about my laziness.

The second is the pathetic amount I know about current affairs. For all my ambition and aims, I actually know seemingly know next to nothing about politics, or relations, or what the hell is actually going on in this world. Even when I sit around and read the newspaper or actually study from my politics textbook, it doesn’t seem anywhere close to what other people – people in my tute, people in my class, hell, complete randoms on the Internet WHO ARE MY AGE AND CAN SPIT OUT PARAGRAPH AFTER PARAGRAPH OF POLITICS OPINION COMPLETE WITH HEAVY JARGON – know.

I wonder if this makes my opinion somehow less valid, if this makes me “stupid”, and unsuitable for any job other than the inevitable language teaching / interpreting that comes about as a sort of booby prize for having taken International Studies? I don’t even know what to think anymore, whether to be disappointed in myself, or envious of others knowledge, or perhaps assume that no-one actually knows anything and are really just talking out of their ass and thus resent them?

It’s okay to be (sorta) angsty (at least by my standards) on here ’cause no-one reads this anyway unless you’re weird and put me on RSS feed (yes, that’s right, I’m talking to you).

It’s no secret that, contrary to what many in my age bracket would do, I purchase music CDs. That in itself, however, is not the problem.

The problem is that I think I have become addicted to buying CDs, obsessive-compulsively buying albums just because they are on sale, or on my “to-buy” list, or because I am collecting all of a certain artist, or because JB Hi-Fi’s slapped a sticker reading “Buy Me Now!” on the front, and really, who can resist a fluorescent pink sticker? This problem is further compounded by the fact that I am completely financially dependent on my family, and use much of their money to fund my addiction, savings be damned.

I think the worst part is that it is getting to the point where I have too much music, so much music that I am finding it hard to keep up with myself. Out of every five CDs, maybe two or three will really manage to strike a chord with me, and even then I only really have a week or two to let it sink in before something new comes out and my attention is diverted and I have more dead space in my room.

Admittedly, the situation is not as bad as when I was in high school and would buy CDs for no reason at all other than to buy and consequently ended up with a collection that was half stuff too crap even for my admittedly lax standards. Nevertheless, something must be done.

And that something is this.

I have three CDs in the mail that haven’t got here yet. Plus I was planning to buy something with a gift card sometime in late-November. These are factors that either cannot be changed, or do not adversely affect the status of my bank account.

Thus, I declare here, at 2.35am on October 31st, 2009, that I, Timothy Sun, will endevour to restrict my CD buying as of December 2009. I will buy only two (2) discs worth of music every month, whether that be an album or a compilation or one of those fancy little EPs they only ever seem to market in South Korea. This is a promise to myself, and one that I am forcing myself to keep.

Hopefully by doing this I can save money, and also improve the quality of my purchases, since I’ll have to carefully plan out what to buy and make sure that what I’m buying is actually good. And if I break this pact, I’ll find some way to punish myself. Probably make myself take my CD collection to the second-hand shop and sell off half of it again. Or something.

And finally, in case I have not repeated it enough times on this blog; I really need a job. Like whoa.