† Erik Mongrain: Lap Tapping Technique †

I'm not sure how many people have heard of Erik Mongrain . He is a Canadian composer and guitarist, best known for his unique acoustic style, and his use of a two-handed lap tapping technique on the acoustic guitar.


Biography: I've read a lot from a few musical forums that mentioned Erik Mongrain started his guitar at the age of 14 and he learned his guitar via ear hearing. He was previously an electric guitarist but he found himself more interested with acoustic/classical guitar and therefore he began to experiment with a technique known as lap tapping, in which the player lays the guitar across their lap, and taps the strings on the fret board with both hands.


The classic way of performing tapping is just like what is shown above. However, Erik has another extended way of playing his very own lap tapping.


So what is lap tapping? As you can see from the picture above, Erik Mongrain is performing wonderful lap tapping technique by treating the guitar as a xylophone. This is an mazing video clip that I manage to find from YouTube showing how Erik does his tapping.


This method increases the flexibility of the instrument, in that it makes it possible to play more types of music on a guitar, and also producing more sound effects.

† Priscilla Hernandez: Etheral Gothic †

Priscilla Hernandez, born in La Palma, and now based in Barcelona, Spain. She is the amazing ethereal singer-songwriter, composer, and fantasy illustrator behind the album “Ancient Shadows”.

Her music can be classified as 'Ethereal gothic' or dark new age, based in the spectral spellbinding of fairytales, concept that also nourishes her fantasy and fairy art as illustrator and photographer. She's also known as "Yidneth" which is not her artistic name.


During late 2006, she released her official debut album "Ancient Shadows (the ghost and the fairy) which compiles 19 of her songs as well as two booklets with her illustrations. The album won the award of "Best new age album" and she was also nominee as best new age vocalist in Los Angeles Music Awards.


Here's a few nice songs of her that I've uploaded to Aimini.net:
Woman of Ireland Tragedy
I'm Right Here
But If You Go

† Ocean Rescue †

3/4 of the earth is filled with water and 80% of the 3/4 is sea water that we can't even drink due to its extreme saltiness. Imagine your boat has capsized and you're sailing in the ocean on a piece of wood, without any water. What are you gonna do when you're thirsty? I think its a tough situation for everyone to handle especially when you can see water just right in front of you but you can't even drink them simple because they are salty.


"Ocean Rescue" has an interesting idea and design that aims to help victims of getting lost in the ocean. Not to worry about drinking water as Ocean Rescue is able to use the ocean water to make distilled water by itself.


What an interesting idea of having such mechanism of making distilled water automatically.


Other than making distilled water, Ocean Rescue can also be used as a mini light house floating in the water, catching other people's attention.


It also contains a gas chamber that produces colourful gas to catch helicopter or other boat's attention.

† Random Food Hunting †

Wednesday night... this is a special night that we should celebrate because we have two more days to go before weekend (what the hell?). So me and my house mates have decided to celebrate such wonderful night by offering western food to our lord stomach.

East Grill Kuantan... our destiny... and here we arrived at the restaurant.

House mates were studying the guideline. According to William, the right choice must be made in order to fulfill our "lord stomach".


William: "Lets play a game before the food arrive. I'll be the king and you'll be the peasant."
Lee: "Errr... yes milord... hail king William... "


The time has come... this is what I ordered: medium rare Newzealand Grill Rib Eye. One word to express its deliciousness... Yummmmm...


Chicken chop ordered by one of my house mates. Doesn't look promising, but it tasted good.

† 10 Things I Miss About Scotland †

Ehem... Let me demonstrate a lil bit of Scottish accent: "Heya... Hew zet go'en? Go'en fer shoppen th'es Sundee aren't ye?" Its been almost 3 years since I graduated from Scotland. Looking back at all the photos, I realize that I miss Scotland dreadfully especially what is gonna show below.


Of course, the thing that I miss the most is my Scottish friends. Being a multi-cultural country, Scotland is full of all kinds of races and ethnics.


Castles can be found in many parts of Scotland. These castles are so damn cool and they remind me of many mid ages movies.


Abandoned ruins located on top of the hills are one of my favourites. These ruins are part of the historical attractions that attract many tourists like me to spend whole day admiring their structures.


So here I would like to present a group of funky pharmacist who graduated from International Medical University - University of Strathclyde. Look at them, enjoying their Scottish Highland Dance by exposing their kilts, showing everyone their undies.


Highland's glen... What can I say? The sum of mountains, wind, trees and coldness are sufficient to describe what highland is.


Ahhh... My favourite hairy-coo. This hairy-coo shown in the picture above is the largest coo found in Scotland, maybe because it gets to eat everyday. Where does the food come from? Isn't it obvious... the visitors who visit it everyday.


Fresh fresh seafood of Scotland... Yummy! Neither salt nor vinegar is added.


Slundger (something like "cheers")... Living in Scotland is meaningless without Chivas. Forcing friends to drink, or being forced to get drunk is part of our life in Scotland.


Ever heard of 'Deep Fried Mars Bar'? Imagine how high the cholesterol you are ingesting into your body when you eat this legendary stuff. Well I don't care since it can only be found in Scotland.


Lastly, Scottish bag-pipes... Its kinda annoying listening to it everyday. But ever since I left Scotland, I started to miss it some how.

† Boskke's Sky Planter †

Isn't this a great idea? Placing your plants upside-down, making them look like a decorative furniture. Such design is proudly presented by BOSKKE's Sky Planter.





By placing a plant in your house, it really makes your house look natural and eco-friendly. Well, I wonder it will look like if I place one in my room...

† My Spec (Mandarin Version) †

我的第一篇个华文文章呢。。。 请多多指教! 有露思苦 (yorushiku)!!

看来岁月不留人哪。。。 我竟然得戴眼镜了。。。

当时我的朋友拉着我到眼镜店去陪他配个新眼镜。怎知我心血来潮也跟着他去检验眼睛。检验结果：近视二十五度。。。 散光竟是一百五十度。天啊。。。看来我是不戴眼镜不行了。难怪我夜里驾车总是觉得街灯有点太亮了。

我万万没想到选眼镜竟然是那么的困难。黑框的也不是。。。 白框的又太傻傻底的。。。 红框看来像老花眼镜。。。 黄框有显得有点色迷迷。。。没框的又有点太普遍了。最后，我选中了Armani Exchange 的蓝框眼镜。

戴眼镜原来是那么的辛苦。原本看人只需要斜眼就够了。戴了眼镜后竟然不能斜眼看人了。。。 因为眼镜的边柄总是令我看不见站在我隔壁的人呢。。。

其实往好处看， 戴眼镜也不错啦。。。 我医院的病人也会觉得我可靠（我一向来都很可靠了），成熟，稳重。。。 哇哈哈。


关丹医院最有型的热血男儿，李大哥。很荣幸的，就是他提出买新眼镜的。千万不要给这个照片吓到哦。。。 这只是他试眼睛近视度的镜框而已。

† O2Jam Is Back †

What a joy, I've finally manage to play O2Jam again!
So here's the link where you can download it and play: click here to download. I was listening to my iPod and the song "Bride In Dreams" appeared randomly in one of my songs. It makes me miss playing O2Jam so much that I've decided to go find out why the hell O2Jam has been shut down in Malaysia. Along my web surf and search, I found no answer to my question but lucky me, I came through a forum (I can't recall what is the address of the forum) where many O2Jammers made their complains about the disappearance of O2Jam. One of the replier introduced them this website and finally my dream of playing O2Jam has come true! O2Jam... Here I come again!


Its pretty easy to sign up, just install it and click on 'register' and it will link you to a website where you have to fill in your user ID and nick name. After you've settled everything by filling in all the blanks, you're free to play then.

NOTE: I realize many users weren't able to join the server. From my point of view, I think its because of the IP address. I've uploaded a new post of O2Jam Malaysian Server. Feel free to take a look.

† Exploded iPod †

This is an interesting exploded view of iPod I've taken from "Art of Billy Chasen". According to the creator of this exploded version of iPod, the iPod will still work well when electricity is conducted through it. What a creative idea of utilizing the iPod to create such wonderful scientific view.

† Play Station Portable 2 †

PSP2... Is this for real? Might be just an innovative design. Anyway, its a cool design don't you think so?