Chapter 5 - Happypolla

If you read Chapter 2, you will notice “Happypolla” is just a play on words of “Hoppipolla”. But it signifies more than just a word to me. To me, it is an emotion, or moment. Happypolla generally occurs in music for me, a moment where I am overcome and need to close my eyes, and indulge in the emotion stirred inside me. Whatever the emotion may be, I need to take a moment to control myself and float off in my own world.

Happypolla can also happen in life, but rarely so. It’s the subtle, gentle actions of some special individuals who don’t seek any recognition, but I notice. These people remind me there is humanity in the human race, and hope.

So you never know when happypolla might happen, but when it does make the most of it.

Chapter 4 - Look back and laugh

Not so long ago, my music tastes were vastly different to what they are today. I used to think I was pretty badass by only listening to music that was “punk” or “hardcore”. The list included bands such as Hawthorne Heights, The Used, Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold (this is only a small portion of the rubbish I was feeding my ears). Anyway, a while ago I stumbled across this gem of a video; it is a cover of an Avenged Sevenfold song, and it is hilarious.

I really don’t know my favourite part of the clip. The guitars are totally useless and even stop at one point. Luckily the singer is there for team and gives a prompt “Just keep going!” Or is it the crowd? Who are too stupid or deaf to stop head banging and dancing. No, no, the winner is clearly the singer who starts the song with an epic squeal and loses his voice at countless stages.

Chapter 3 - Self development

By occupation, I am a Student & Software Engineer. I study Information Technology with Electrical Engineering at the University of Queensland (Australia). Contrary to the general student, I actually enjoy learning and trying to develop myself further. While definitely not an expert of any standard, I do know a little about various programming languages and software development. With this bit of knowledge, Ocean Cycling will see various tutorials and guides in its future. You can help me help you by asking me any questions (which I will hopefully be able to answer...), otherwise I will write about anything I find particularly interesting.

A few free pieces of software I keep with me if I am coding:

• http://www.eclipse.org/
• http://www.netbeans.org/
• http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

I may even decide to talk about Electrical Engineering at some stage, but I am definitely more in tune with I.T.

Chapter 2 - Inspiration

Unfortunately I am not a very creative being. Therefore, I cannot really take credit for seemingly abstract titles like happypolla & ocean cycling. Over the last couple years my biggest inspiration has come from music, and the pioneer of that is the very special Sigur Rós. The first time I heard them, and their song ‘hoppipolla’ my life changed. Since then, I am on a constant quest to find music that promotes such strong emotions inside me, and while there will never be another hoppipolla for me; there is plenty of music that I am so happy to have discovered. Over the course of my blogging, I hope to share some of this with you. If you have never heard of the aforementioned song or the band, get onto it... now.

Music video for hoppipolla

Chapter 1 - Beginning

And so it begins. I’ve been meaning to make use of my domain name for a long time, but I’ve just been too lazy to set-up a server. So as a temporary means (hopefully) I will make use of this free service. Although I’ve said I had this planned for a while, I still don’t know what direction this blog will take, and consequently it will probably be fairly random. I am willing to take requests.