School has officially ended awhile back, and despite the exams coming up in May, I'm still pretty much slacking, which isn't right, but it feeeeeelllllssss sooooo gooooooddd woooooo (apart from the 5-second guilt that kicks in when I lay on my bed at night).

Revision units have started and its a bore. Not as informative as I thought it'd be, and personally, I feel I'll be better off staying at home and slogging away on the notes myself. BUT. It's all been paid so I guess I'll just have to attend the lectures and see what's what. I can always leave early if I wanted to anyway.

On the home front, CNY breezed by, Dad's made his annual CNY roundabout trip. He's coming back again during mid-April, which will be of good news since he has a way with Mom.

Bought a used MIJ Fender Telecaster right after CNY, its my first proper guitar (aside from the cheap guitars that have been sold to me 3rd hand) and I'm enjoying every bit of it! Bought a EHX Double Muff to go along with it, and yes, its my first "proper" pedal (aside from the Zoom multifx pedal I bought and sold, which sounded rather digital-ish). The old guitar has now been passed over to The Bead who's attempting to learn the guitar. We've been trying to write simple silly songs as well just to have some fun. I must say, songwriting isn't as easy as it seems. Lyrics are difficult to write, even the lame ones.

On the electronic music front, I've taken a liking for older trance sets, and I've been listening to Oakenfold's Essential Mix from way back in 1999, and yes, he sure does know how to mix a good set. PVD's Energy 2003 set is another one that keeps me moving, especially the starting. The older tracks are actually less produced than the current songs, they seem simpler in construction. In fact, the simplicity is probably what's drawing me towards them at the moment. The breakdowns don't seem that drawn out either (although this could be due to track selection), all in all, I'm digging it.

All this led me to doing a practise mix just before I started this entry. Its been ages since I did an actual mix that lasted an hour or more, what with the guitar and The Bead's computer, but it felt so good this time around. Partly because somehow, I miraculously didn't screw up any beatmatching or EQ-ing, and everything just blended. I was intending to do a retro-trance mix, but due to a lack of material, I had to use the 4-CD A State Of Trance Classics collection, which was rather meagre in track variety. However, most of the tracks are awesome classic tracks, and mixing them one after another was just something that I really really enjoyed. Favourite portion was Underworld's Born Slippy to Motorcycle's As The Rush Comes, blending in the intro drum beats of As The Rush Comes to the solo thumping bass beats in the middle of Born Slippy. By the end of it all, I was sweating all over from jumping up and down profusely like a madman, and still craving for more. But alas! No more tracks already. Sad. Shall go to Beatport and buy tracks soon. 90s trance here I come!