1. ns. having less time for youself and all. makes you either want to spend all your remaining time at home with family, or out exploring the real world. (bloody cny season, had guard duty on day 2!!!!) thank goodness i'm happy with my present vocation.
2. the anticipation. of life after ns. i got everything planned out, you know!
3. food. vivocity restaurants (good). holland v laksa (good). the cookhouse food (bad). and the resulting bulges in my thighs and stomach, thanks to the fried food i eat everyday.
4. people. all my ex-es (jc friends and teachers) more specifically, mep and chorale buddies i love you all! i wish i could see my jc classmates for a nice, tenseless chit chat, though. can i please relive those memories...
5. more people. the people i see in camp. the bastards (certain platoon mates and colleagues) and the good ones (certain platoon mates, colleagues and my 04/07 Z/plt3!!!). you're nonetheless unforgettable :)
6. MUSIC. i still love utada hikaru (somebody buy me her 1st three albums and a large poster of her please). i also like angela aki, shiina ringo, ken hirai, fir, jj lin, jay chou, fergie, corrinne may, rachael yamagata(!) etc. i miss classical music. and so i watched quite a number of classical music concerts.
7. university plans. psc/hdb/ura/bca scholarships. andrew chin of psc. my a level results. my nus archi + usp application process.
8. more ns. 2 + 5 months of training to be a 3sg. days in bmtc, sispec bslc and aslc. the occasional night out, an odd feeling. finally earned the rank after countless attempts on the soc. the field camps and overseas exercise (the navigation one was rather memorable and fun). TAIPEI CITY.
9. clothes. i'm gearing towards a wardrobe revamp. how trivial this memory is, haiz.
10. fearing for the future. already my school knowledge is leaking out. of what use is my knowledge of organic chemistry?? i realise ib is less rigorous but way more enriching. so i became smarter at the expense of having less knowledge.
(need to rethink my selections)
Monday, December 31, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
memoir
the boys learnt of the imminent, as early as a year ago. that year, they had time to mull over their future, and maybe take action for (or against) it. but, no amount of preparation can take away their apprehension for what was to come.
the surrender of their two years to their country. for those two years, they will be reined by the inescapable arms of the constitution, compelled to submit, unwillingly for most.
and then the two years began, with their entry into an island even smaller than the mainland. all food and accommodation paid for nine whole weeks. they'd rather pay to be elsewhere, of course.
the boys did not know what to expect. fearing, perhaps even loathing, everything: the people, the system, the new life.
three weeks. confined within the recesses of a clearing within thick, untouched jungle. in only three weeks, they experienced the toughest transition in their lives.
some were high fliers in the academic and working realm. some experienced the pleasurable life, complete with a mane, clothes to go with and girls to top it all off. some were happily holing themselves at home, cemented in front of the computer or encircled by mountains of books, a la hermits. whatever their background, they were the same as soon as they underwent the symbolic haircut. the last time most had such a hairdo was when they were infants. gone were their flashy clothes, they either wore spartan shirts and folded their socks like schoolkids do in elementary school, or green spotted outfits that could fade into the jungle which surrounded their surrogate homes.
every day, they were under the watch of superiors, who would physically punish them for any misbehaviour, however trivial it may be. the strictness of it all was unparalleled by anything else they had encountered.
with an aching in their muscles and heart alike, many confided in their loved ones, who were living across the straits or overseas, covertly over the phone, which was the only means of reaching out to the world outside.
what was to become of them in the following weeks on the island, they thought? much less how to survive two years. why are they here, in this god forsaken place. why.
everything they did was challenging. receiving and carrying out demands from the superiors, executing commands to manoeuvre the marching group, waking up and gathering before the sun even takes a peek at them.
especially arduous was their six-day jungle experience. six days spent crawling, running, sleeping (and alternate leg thrust-ing) on mud and plants is no doubt a distasteful experience for the boys who were accustomed to being pampered with a luxurious car to be chauffeured in by day and a large soft mattress and air-conditioning by night. many shed tears, some belched.
fortunately, the boys were entitled to return to their rightful place in the mainland every weekend. the precious weekend was spent mostly on healing and rejuvenating the wounded, tired soul, be it in the company of their newfound comrades or their beloved family and soulmate.
the weekly cycle carried on for nine weeks. and finally it was time. the final trip out of the island. their parents watched them with pride as they marched smartly in the parade.
they somehow did it. the boys became warrior men. they will remember those days of their lives, their infancy in the organisation we call the army.
remembering the spartan warriors of 04/07 batch, zulu company platoon three.
***
to my platoon: thanks for the experiences we shared together. it is especially heartening to know that i have changed some of you, or made your bmt experience much more bearable. and it's touching to unbashedly introduce me to your parents during graduation parade (sorry boxun for excusing myself immediately after the introduction, was helping 2IC with something then) or repeatedly proclaiming i'm your favourite sergeant. you guys make me feel i achieved more than my worth :) geez.
anyway, you people have been more than mere recruits to me from the start, seriously. maybe i treat all of you too civically, but each of you are a person, a human being, after all. and i'll try to act upon your appraisals and improve myself as a commander :)) all the best to your future, whichever path you take. it's alright if you forget me, but do honour yourself, family and friends in whatever you do.
the surrender of their two years to their country. for those two years, they will be reined by the inescapable arms of the constitution, compelled to submit, unwillingly for most.
and then the two years began, with their entry into an island even smaller than the mainland. all food and accommodation paid for nine whole weeks. they'd rather pay to be elsewhere, of course.
the boys did not know what to expect. fearing, perhaps even loathing, everything: the people, the system, the new life.
three weeks. confined within the recesses of a clearing within thick, untouched jungle. in only three weeks, they experienced the toughest transition in their lives.
some were high fliers in the academic and working realm. some experienced the pleasurable life, complete with a mane, clothes to go with and girls to top it all off. some were happily holing themselves at home, cemented in front of the computer or encircled by mountains of books, a la hermits. whatever their background, they were the same as soon as they underwent the symbolic haircut. the last time most had such a hairdo was when they were infants. gone were their flashy clothes, they either wore spartan shirts and folded their socks like schoolkids do in elementary school, or green spotted outfits that could fade into the jungle which surrounded their surrogate homes.
every day, they were under the watch of superiors, who would physically punish them for any misbehaviour, however trivial it may be. the strictness of it all was unparalleled by anything else they had encountered.
with an aching in their muscles and heart alike, many confided in their loved ones, who were living across the straits or overseas, covertly over the phone, which was the only means of reaching out to the world outside.
what was to become of them in the following weeks on the island, they thought? much less how to survive two years. why are they here, in this god forsaken place. why.
everything they did was challenging. receiving and carrying out demands from the superiors, executing commands to manoeuvre the marching group, waking up and gathering before the sun even takes a peek at them.
especially arduous was their six-day jungle experience. six days spent crawling, running, sleeping (and alternate leg thrust-ing) on mud and plants is no doubt a distasteful experience for the boys who were accustomed to being pampered with a luxurious car to be chauffeured in by day and a large soft mattress and air-conditioning by night. many shed tears, some belched.
fortunately, the boys were entitled to return to their rightful place in the mainland every weekend. the precious weekend was spent mostly on healing and rejuvenating the wounded, tired soul, be it in the company of their newfound comrades or their beloved family and soulmate.
the weekly cycle carried on for nine weeks. and finally it was time. the final trip out of the island. their parents watched them with pride as they marched smartly in the parade.
they somehow did it. the boys became warrior men. they will remember those days of their lives, their infancy in the organisation we call the army.
remembering the spartan warriors of 04/07 batch, zulu company platoon three.
***
to my platoon: thanks for the experiences we shared together. it is especially heartening to know that i have changed some of you, or made your bmt experience much more bearable. and it's touching to unbashedly introduce me to your parents during graduation parade (sorry boxun for excusing myself immediately after the introduction, was helping 2IC with something then) or repeatedly proclaiming i'm your favourite sergeant. you guys make me feel i achieved more than my worth :) geez.
anyway, you people have been more than mere recruits to me from the start, seriously. maybe i treat all of you too civically, but each of you are a person, a human being, after all. and i'll try to act upon your appraisals and improve myself as a commander :)) all the best to your future, whichever path you take. it's alright if you forget me, but do honour yourself, family and friends in whatever you do.
Friday, December 07, 2007
100th post
a trivial and meaningless title, but i shall perform the traditions of honouring the 100th post as a milestone in this blog's history, just because so.
anyway i'm waiting to be fetched to the movies with my soon-to-be-private soldiers. and today, the coy was spurred on, like, awesomely, totally, radically, by my 2IC's discursion about an unwilling NSF's suggestion letter which is a lame excuse for an emotionally-charged immature rant about NS.
parts of the letter rephrased:
"...we have nsfs who enter command school so that they can screw recruits under their charge..."
"...we have the ferris wheel and the shiniest durian (esplanade) and don't-know-how-many soldiers who can't defend singapore against a superpower nation..."
"...ns wastes talents [perhaps such as the author?]. that's why we are facing brain drain..."
to the recruit: you're just bitter that you have to do what everyone else has to go through. someone has to do it, and if you expect somebody to defend you, it's morally fair you should do your part too. ya duh, not everyone is most talented in military-related areas, but who's to look after your apartment, car, orchard road and your dad and mom?
laughable, the mind of such people.
in other words, now i feel absolutely sorry for myself for not putting in proper effort into what i really would like to do in my life, not to mention my dilemna of my choice of career was thrown into the spotlight once again. gah.
ali ord leh. i jealous. not that ns is a waste of time (anymore). just want freedom.
anyway i'm waiting to be fetched to the movies with my soon-to-be-private soldiers. and today, the coy was spurred on, like, awesomely, totally, radically, by my 2IC's discursion about an unwilling NSF's suggestion letter which is a lame excuse for an emotionally-charged immature rant about NS.
parts of the letter rephrased:
"...we have nsfs who enter command school so that they can screw recruits under their charge..."
"...we have the ferris wheel and the shiniest durian (esplanade) and don't-know-how-many soldiers who can't defend singapore against a superpower nation..."
"...ns wastes talents [perhaps such as the author?]. that's why we are facing brain drain..."
to the recruit: you're just bitter that you have to do what everyone else has to go through. someone has to do it, and if you expect somebody to defend you, it's morally fair you should do your part too. ya duh, not everyone is most talented in military-related areas, but who's to look after your apartment, car, orchard road and your dad and mom?
laughable, the mind of such people.
in other words, now i feel absolutely sorry for myself for not putting in proper effort into what i really would like to do in my life, not to mention my dilemna of my choice of career was thrown into the spotlight once again. gah.
ali ord leh. i jealous. not that ns is a waste of time (anymore). just want freedom.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
of perfect pitchers and long lost suspected romances
had fun and casual conversations with my ex-teacher and classmates from jc today.
i related to them how my recruits got so fascinated with my sense of perfect pitch.
*strikes a random note on the guitar*
"F"
*strikes again*
"B flat"
*amazed look on recruits' faces*
tee hee!
"sergeant can you recognise chords?!"
"yes"
*strums a chord*
"F# minor"
sergeant = god-like.
oh, and i baked (rather, froze) a cheesecake for the little gathering :) picture's somewhere in my camera, will upload soon. it received decent reviews.
!!_!!
(^ .^) a happy bunny. inspired by hikki's blog posts :$
|> <|
O__O
i related to them how my recruits got so fascinated with my sense of perfect pitch.
*strikes a random note on the guitar*
"F"
*strikes again*
"B flat"
*amazed look on recruits' faces*
tee hee!
"sergeant can you recognise chords?!"
"yes"
*strums a chord*
"F# minor"
sergeant = god-like.
oh, and i baked (rather, froze) a cheesecake for the little gathering :) picture's somewhere in my camera, will upload soon. it received decent reviews.
!!_!!
(^ .^) a happy bunny. inspired by hikki's blog posts :$
|> <|
O__O
Saturday, November 24, 2007
me is me but is not the was-me. will i be the want-to-be-me in the future?
my dad sent me some smses while i was in camp (the following are unedited, original smses):
that was the first, then he went on to comment about this yr's psle top scorer:
anyways, i searched for proof of his statement, and here it is:
lol. i suppose i was a born mugger? hurhurhur. and i have good toilet manners; i never read or multitask while answering my nature calls, thank you very much.
i am not a mugger! well, at least not a full time one!
***
my first batch of recruits is going to leave me soon!! they are great people in general. damn, i'll miss them. i think the fear of the unavoidable led me to start searching for their friendster profiles and adding them to my friends list. not that i use friendster (or for that matter, networking sites) often. it's kind of like the last strand of thread that holds the pieces of cloth together. i hope that my next batch will be at least as good as this!
Fyi, archi-NUS produced only one 1st class honour student in last 2 decades! This yr intake of 140 or so, now 30 had left. U certainly hv chosen a challenging but so $rewarding course 2 study.
that was the first, then he went on to comment about this yr's psle top scorer:
awww man...Fyi, headline news of The ST shows PSLE top scorer fr St Hilda scored 294 pts topped the previous high of 292 set in 1993 by Justin Lau, now 26 and a postgraduate student in architecture at NUS. The top scorer could read at age 2.5 but my Clifford could read at age 1.3 yr-old sitting on a potty, remember?! Believe daddy, stay focus, nurture ur talent wif a well-developed physique.
anyways, i searched for proof of his statement, and here it is:
lol. i suppose i was a born mugger? hurhurhur. and i have good toilet manners; i never read or multitask while answering my nature calls, thank you very much.
i am not a mugger! well, at least not a full time one!
***
my first batch of recruits is going to leave me soon!! they are great people in general. damn, i'll miss them. i think the fear of the unavoidable led me to start searching for their friendster profiles and adding them to my friends list. not that i use friendster (or for that matter, networking sites) often. it's kind of like the last strand of thread that holds the pieces of cloth together. i hope that my next batch will be at least as good as this!
Friday, November 16, 2007
more oddities of life
internet-based human network programmes are an addiction to me. in my secondary school and jc life i have been wasting most of my time away on msn, chatting with friends who i can confide in so easily via a mambojambo network of wires and 100101110100101011100. msn's perfect for work-related discussions, too. and although the email notifications from facebook irritate me to no end, i still use facebook, knowing/assuming that my friends are going to be using it for a long time, and therefore we can keep contact that way.
but for someone who relies on internet connections (and the handphone) to stay in touch with friends, i have not been adding as many to my contact lists or asked them for their email address, or msn and facebook accounts as i could have (keep in mind i see 50 new faces every three months - bmt, bslc, aslc, and now my recruits).
to keep those things in perspective, i have added all of my ex jc classmates' and a large proportion of my chorale mates' email addresses onto my msn messenger account, let's just say the total number of those whom i've added who are from these two social groups is around 80. this is 80 out of 25 + 100 = 125 people. and that's in the span of 2 years. compare that to 50 x 4 = 200++ new faces in this year. out of that i think i have less than 30 added on msn. hate to say this, but i think i can now safely delete some of my old contacts whom i know won't talk with me unless during some special occasion. so in short, i'm hanging on to my exchorale-mates who are still going out together. how sad, the fragility of relations.
oh yea, this week was especially tiring. it's the first time that i - shock! - hurled vulgarities at recruits like how you would throw a mud pie at a wall (the wall doesn't strike back but feels shitty). luckily not from my platoon man. i think i'm too lienient with my platoon. not that they're stepping all over me (actually none of them ever tried to do that to me), but lienient in terms of push ups and other forms of punishments. i don't remember pumping the platoon since before the field camp (what if my OC sees this :O )
anyway back to the fierce part. they were supposed to execute certain drills when contacted by certain others. WA LAU that one also cannot leh!!! ya, so from that you feel like king, but in the end it doesn't really matter.
ok enough of mind nonsense. jay chou's new album is out!! not too bad la, although i think he's capable of better stuff. and i'm busy the entire of tomorrow - lunch and dinner outings organised by friends.
ok, that's all i have to say for now, because i'm totally worn out and tired today... see you maybe next week? or the following week :)
oh, stalkers please tag so i know who you are heh.
but for someone who relies on internet connections (and the handphone) to stay in touch with friends, i have not been adding as many to my contact lists or asked them for their email address, or msn and facebook accounts as i could have (keep in mind i see 50 new faces every three months - bmt, bslc, aslc, and now my recruits).
to keep those things in perspective, i have added all of my ex jc classmates' and a large proportion of my chorale mates' email addresses onto my msn messenger account, let's just say the total number of those whom i've added who are from these two social groups is around 80. this is 80 out of 25 + 100 = 125 people. and that's in the span of 2 years. compare that to 50 x 4 = 200++ new faces in this year. out of that i think i have less than 30 added on msn. hate to say this, but i think i can now safely delete some of my old contacts whom i know won't talk with me unless during some special occasion. so in short, i'm hanging on to my exchorale-mates who are still going out together. how sad, the fragility of relations.
oh yea, this week was especially tiring. it's the first time that i - shock! - hurled vulgarities at recruits like how you would throw a mud pie at a wall (the wall doesn't strike back but feels shitty). luckily not from my platoon man. i think i'm too lienient with my platoon. not that they're stepping all over me (actually none of them ever tried to do that to me), but lienient in terms of push ups and other forms of punishments. i don't remember pumping the platoon since before the field camp (what if my OC sees this :O )
anyway back to the fierce part. they were supposed to execute certain drills when contacted by certain others. WA LAU that one also cannot leh!!! ya, so from that you feel like king, but in the end it doesn't really matter.
ok enough of mind nonsense. jay chou's new album is out!! not too bad la, although i think he's capable of better stuff. and i'm busy the entire of tomorrow - lunch and dinner outings organised by friends.
ok, that's all i have to say for now, because i'm totally worn out and tired today... see you maybe next week? or the following week :)
oh, stalkers please tag so i know who you are heh.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
the voyeur/stalker/friend in me
a simple google search on one of my recruit's name led me to a tiny network consisting of his other platoon mates (i.e. my other recruits) on friendster =P i have this urge to add all of them to my (measly) friend list, but i think i'll save it till just before they POP la. i think i need to maintain whatever i have left of my rank superiority, sekali they don't obey my orders in camp because i befriended them. but it's really nice to have them as friends leh. i see the good friends in them, haha...
speaking of googling, just searching for my first and last name leads one to this blog O_o i must try to conceal it a little more...
would you consider fanatic fans to be stalkers? i mean, even if the artiste publicises aspects of his/her life? if so, i'm a UH stalker :$ i mean, reading her blog is rather, oddly, intriguing. her randomness and make-believe stuff and freudian tendencies... lol.
(unrelated to the above) something else of interest. how our minds can relate one sensory experience to another. like for example, a girl eating an octopus tentacle can mean something much more, urm, fascinating (not for the young):
was searching for websites for the bored, this particular website is actually quite clean, but it just happened to have this link to another site with a video of the above description O_o
so now you know "i'm not- that- in-ner-cernt..." (quote from britney spears).
speaking of googling, just searching for my first and last name leads one to this blog O_o i must try to conceal it a little more...
would you consider fanatic fans to be stalkers? i mean, even if the artiste publicises aspects of his/her life? if so, i'm a UH stalker :$ i mean, reading her blog is rather, oddly, intriguing. her randomness and make-believe stuff and freudian tendencies... lol.
(unrelated to the above) something else of interest. how our minds can relate one sensory experience to another. like for example, a girl eating an octopus tentacle can mean something much more, urm, fascinating (not for the young):
was searching for websites for the bored, this particular website is actually quite clean, but it just happened to have this link to another site with a video of the above description O_o
so now you know "i'm not- that- in-ner-cernt..." (quote from britney spears).
Friday, November 02, 2007
with regards to training. self-reminders in quasi-encryption.
(can i stop pretending to write in impeccable, melifluous (or should i say, superfluous) language. please.) my current apparent tendencies with the complicated seems to stem from being in a relatively intellectually less-stimulating environment. need a remedy for this.
ok so the musings of the week (actually three) are as follows:
the smallest ripples caused by one's movement can generate waves and tremors in others
stereotypes can be reinforced with one filmsy example, but cannot be weakened even by one strong counter-example (in reference to... ah, not that i actually care much about this stereotype, i'm just observing things as casually and objectively as possible)
be watchful of what you do now; your eye may be twitching later. on a similar note, leading by example is a cliche but extremely important point. living your life and leading others to live their lives in different standards is suckstoyoutothemax :(
a certain level of familiarity does not breed contempt. Instead, lieniency, which must be avoided for the student's future well being.
and anonymous mudslinging is no less than an offence. with that, a disclaimer:
THE POINTS MENTIONED ABOVE ARE REFINED AND ORIGINAL THOUGHTS ARISING FROM DAILY HAPPENINGS, AND IS IN NO RELATION TO YOU WHATSOEVER. MORE IMPORTANTLY, THIS AUTHOR DOES NOT HARBOUR ANY ILLS TOWARDS YOU, AND SEEKS YOUR FORGIVENESS IF YOU ARE MORTALLY OFFENDED.
once again, the eternal internal issues with the fragility of human relationships... is there something 2 people can hang on to forever? it takes infinite trust in each other, i guess? argh, dunno la...
***
on a happier note, i'm on the hunt for cheap (read: less than $10) CDs, VCDs and DVDs... currently my most recent buys are FIR's love.diva and hikki's dvd version of bohemian summer 2000 (which costs only $14.90!) but i must say it was a somewhat sucky dvd because of the quality of the acoustics and hikki's own vocal limitations. 2.5 stars out of 5. :( utada united is much better, but it's freaking expensive.
oh, faye (female lead singer of FIR) composed 2 songs in the album on her own. i say they are 2 of the more memorable songs in the album, because their style (by that i mean the melodies and chords and such) is different from the usual FIR. worth a listen. oh, and one of the rare moments when mandarin pop utilises complex or rare and innate vocal abilities, such as the whistle tone, can be found in this album :) the songs from FIR's first 2 albums are probably still our 'staple listening' from FIR's expanded repertoire, but this fourth album is nonetheless competent. 3.5 of 5.
i want: fergie's the dutchess, jay chou's on the run. never mind that fergie's a lousy lyricist, the music's still good, really. and on the run shall be my - horror of horrors - first jay chou album. have heard lots of jay chou's songs, but have yet to come around to lay my hands on an album.
and i'm glad to return home to finally smell my bed for extended periods of time, even if it is only for one night. anyway it's my fault i didn't apply for leave to rejuvenate away from work :P in spite of what i have typed earlier, i'm still generally optimistic and happy with what i do. i think i'm going to miss 04/07 when they graduate :'( haiz.
ok so the musings of the week (actually three) are as follows:
the smallest ripples caused by one's movement can generate waves and tremors in others
stereotypes can be reinforced with one filmsy example, but cannot be weakened even by one strong counter-example (in reference to... ah, not that i actually care much about this stereotype, i'm just observing things as casually and objectively as possible)
be watchful of what you do now; your eye may be twitching later. on a similar note, leading by example is a cliche but extremely important point. living your life and leading others to live their lives in different standards is suckstoyoutothemax :(
a certain level of familiarity does not breed contempt. Instead, lieniency, which must be avoided for the student's future well being.
and anonymous mudslinging is no less than an offence. with that, a disclaimer:
THE POINTS MENTIONED ABOVE ARE REFINED AND ORIGINAL THOUGHTS ARISING FROM DAILY HAPPENINGS, AND IS IN NO RELATION TO YOU WHATSOEVER. MORE IMPORTANTLY, THIS AUTHOR DOES NOT HARBOUR ANY ILLS TOWARDS YOU, AND SEEKS YOUR FORGIVENESS IF YOU ARE MORTALLY OFFENDED.
once again, the eternal internal issues with the fragility of human relationships... is there something 2 people can hang on to forever? it takes infinite trust in each other, i guess? argh, dunno la...
***
on a happier note, i'm on the hunt for cheap (read: less than $10) CDs, VCDs and DVDs... currently my most recent buys are FIR's love.diva and hikki's dvd version of bohemian summer 2000 (which costs only $14.90!) but i must say it was a somewhat sucky dvd because of the quality of the acoustics and hikki's own vocal limitations. 2.5 stars out of 5. :( utada united is much better, but it's freaking expensive.
oh, faye (female lead singer of FIR) composed 2 songs in the album on her own. i say they are 2 of the more memorable songs in the album, because their style (by that i mean the melodies and chords and such) is different from the usual FIR. worth a listen. oh, and one of the rare moments when mandarin pop utilises complex or rare and innate vocal abilities, such as the whistle tone, can be found in this album :) the songs from FIR's first 2 albums are probably still our 'staple listening' from FIR's expanded repertoire, but this fourth album is nonetheless competent. 3.5 of 5.
i want: fergie's the dutchess, jay chou's on the run. never mind that fergie's a lousy lyricist, the music's still good, really. and on the run shall be my - horror of horrors - first jay chou album. have heard lots of jay chou's songs, but have yet to come around to lay my hands on an album.
and i'm glad to return home to finally smell my bed for extended periods of time, even if it is only for one night. anyway it's my fault i didn't apply for leave to rejuvenate away from work :P in spite of what i have typed earlier, i'm still generally optimistic and happy with what i do. i think i'm going to miss 04/07 when they graduate :'( haiz.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
my 1st batch!
simply put, i'm really happy to be in tekong :D i guess teaching, guiding and helping out is something i really enjoy doing...
learnt a lot of things just in one week, but suddenly i forgot all the points. i guess this form of experiencial learning is kind of, gradual? i'm certainly growing together with my recruits. even staying in camp is alright for me (wow)
ok, got stuff to do now...
learnt a lot of things just in one week, but suddenly i forgot all the points. i guess this form of experiencial learning is kind of, gradual? i'm certainly growing together with my recruits. even staying in camp is alright for me (wow)
ok, got stuff to do now...
Sunday, October 14, 2007
just before my 1st batch
http://www.youshare.com/view.php?file=clifford_chickenrice.mp3
for chenjie :) and anyone else who's interested to know what i did in MEP...
anyways, am quite excited and scared of the incoming batch of recruits. hope i can handle them fairly but firmly. and get positive criticism from my peers and the recruits... crossing my fingers :)
for chenjie :) and anyone else who's interested to know what i did in MEP...
anyways, am quite excited and scared of the incoming batch of recruits. hope i can handle them fairly but firmly. and get positive criticism from my peers and the recruits... crossing my fingers :)
Sunday, September 30, 2007
leisure farm is the place to be
leisure farm~~~
not the most imaginative name for a private estate. but it's 100% paradise land, beautiful landscapes. and winner of numerous awards.
hey, RM 0.5 mil for an acre of land! that's the equivalent price of some 3-cubicle (oh, i meant room) flat apartments in singapore! maybe if my parents never got tied down with mewah view and my now 11-year-old volvo, we can own a house in leisure farm... :(
not the most imaginative name for a private estate. but it's 100% paradise land, beautiful landscapes. and winner of numerous awards.
hey, RM 0.5 mil for an acre of land! that's the equivalent price of some 3-cubicle (oh, i meant room) flat apartments in singapore! maybe if my parents never got tied down with mewah view and my now 11-year-old volvo, we can own a house in leisure farm... :(
Friday, September 28, 2007
how far can you stretch $50?
2 specialised dictionaries, 1 graphical book with interactive cd-rom, 1 polo tee, and 3 music cds :)
(bjorn, i think i found your favourite cd shop in chinatown haha! it's quite impressive that it has ENGLISH/WESTERN stuff!)
ok fine, the graphical book is 10 years old and two of the cds are made in the early 2000's era. but hell, it's still value for money. beat this: michael buble and norah jones for 4 bucks each, plus nanquan mama's new album for 6.90. (still on the lookout for f.i.r's new album, love.diva) and seeing 3d images of architecture around the world from your computer at 5 bucks only.
(speaking of archi, why is it that our impression of the futuristic world has to be in shiny metal or transparent glass, shaped in abstract yet simple geometric or organic shapes. is it because of the shapes of the early aeroplanes or the nasa space shuttles, and its prescence on mass media?? maybe if the spacecraft had an old world feel to it, like a red brick exterior or something, we would be seeing bricks and not smooth marbles and metals and glass in the future hmm...)
think i shall pack away the unwanted books in the house one day and sell them off at bras basah. a couple of shillings per book sold though, but it clears space in the house...
oh, and there's this super expensive stall located at the basement of central (the shopping mall at clarke quay) that sells pretty nice local stuff. tried their wonton noodles (damn ex, $3.80 and it's on promotional rate). BUT, it was quite good. ok la, the soup wasn't as sumptuous as crystal jade's, but that's because crystal jade's is slightly oily, like it has lard or something. this soup has a mild taste, but good enough that i downed the entire bowl. the best part is the wonton - fresh minced meat and prawn, very Q! the wonton meat blend is really quite good. da pai dang, #b1-15. do remember to grab some coupons outside the stall, else you will have to pay the normal price.
(bjorn, i think i found your favourite cd shop in chinatown haha! it's quite impressive that it has ENGLISH/WESTERN stuff!)
ok fine, the graphical book is 10 years old and two of the cds are made in the early 2000's era. but hell, it's still value for money. beat this: michael buble and norah jones for 4 bucks each, plus nanquan mama's new album for 6.90. (still on the lookout for f.i.r's new album, love.diva) and seeing 3d images of architecture around the world from your computer at 5 bucks only.
(speaking of archi, why is it that our impression of the futuristic world has to be in shiny metal or transparent glass, shaped in abstract yet simple geometric or organic shapes. is it because of the shapes of the early aeroplanes or the nasa space shuttles, and its prescence on mass media?? maybe if the spacecraft had an old world feel to it, like a red brick exterior or something, we would be seeing bricks and not smooth marbles and metals and glass in the future hmm...)
think i shall pack away the unwanted books in the house one day and sell them off at bras basah. a couple of shillings per book sold though, but it clears space in the house...
oh, and there's this super expensive stall located at the basement of central (the shopping mall at clarke quay) that sells pretty nice local stuff. tried their wonton noodles (damn ex, $3.80 and it's on promotional rate). BUT, it was quite good. ok la, the soup wasn't as sumptuous as crystal jade's, but that's because crystal jade's is slightly oily, like it has lard or something. this soup has a mild taste, but good enough that i downed the entire bowl. the best part is the wonton - fresh minced meat and prawn, very Q! the wonton meat blend is really quite good. da pai dang, #b1-15. do remember to grab some coupons outside the stall, else you will have to pay the normal price.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Good stuff up for downloading
http://www.youshare.com/view.php?file=Soleram.mp3
the best song of 2006 (: its performance was nothing short of a miracle...
(forgive the recording quality. i did my best to edit out 2 complete lapses in the sound, thanks to the recorder)
the best song of 2006 (: its performance was nothing short of a miracle...
(forgive the recording quality. i did my best to edit out 2 complete lapses in the sound, thanks to the recorder)
Thursday, September 20, 2007
things i can't help but take away from
been through this, don't really want to experience anything like it again.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS THE LONGEST BLOG POST YOU WILL HAVE READ IN A LONG TIME. i took nearly 2 hours writing this (a now-rare burst of the remnant bits of intelligence and empathy i still retain)! but i hope you do take some time off to read it, just 10-15 minutes? thanks!
simply put, today i was an observer of a little conversation that became slightly unpleasant yet funny (at least to the onlooker). the topic is in principle, similar to the yellow ribbon campaign; one party was the 'public', the other the 'ex-convict'. you can imagine how the conversation turned out to be la.
i have this knack of befriending 'convicts' and 'ex-convicts'. i'm some prison warden or something. had one such major encounter in sec 3, minor encounters throughout secondary school all the way to JC. the sec 3 one was most memorable because i practially became his so-called best friend, until something triggered off an avalanche of events which became quite a hot conversation topic in school, blahblahblah.
the 'convicts' i have seen are ostracised (to different extents) by their peers. on a personal, one-on-one level they're mostly really pleasant to talk to (maybe i have lienient standards on 'pleasant'). they have interesting views on stuff that runs the gamut from little rumours about school people to personal preferences for fashion to more intellectual stuff like classical music, philosophy and psychology.
of course the reason why people shun them is that they somehow lack in social skills. things that the majority of the population take for granted like body language, choice of words, kindness etc. it doesn't help if the shunned 'convicts' physiques are somewhat un-average: too fat, too thin, too tall, too short, ugly face, the list goes on. they often end up being the butt of sissy, fat and thin jokes. these jokes are easy excuses for jeering at the shunned, which miss the whole 'why are they discriminated against' issue.
yea, even the fat people. fat isn't the whole and only reason why they are laughed at. it's their lack of confidence and deflated personality (due to their perceptions of how others respond to their size) that people like to pick on. this vicious cycle then perpetuates by itself...
the sissy ones are probably the most unfortunate lot of them all. just like how you get naturally alpha-male personalities, you also get people from the other side of the masculinity spectrum. blame it on nature (maybe upbringing? not really la. you can have one normal and one sissy living under the same roof. i've seen examples of this). and so they're made fun of by the virtue of their nature which they find so hard to change or hide.
another category of 'convicts' is the AP (attitude problem) sort. all sorts of problems you can find one (pardon the informal tone and syntax error). some are arrogant farts, some too lame and conversation-challenged, others too self-centred and selfish. oh, but the similar characteristic of this lot is often that they have a strong outward personality that tends to dominate in social settings (a derogatory synonym would be 'oppress'). many do reflect upon their actions and the things that go on, but they end up with the (socially) wrong conclusion that there is nothing wrong with them and that things, the way they are, are just normal or can't be helped. worse, some don't realise they are not liked by others!
such was the case of my dear then-sec3 friend. sissy, weird thoughts plus an oblivious-ness. actually he isn't unaware of what people think of him, just that sometimes he concludes wrongly that people can embrace his quirkiness. no, actually he knew most of his problems and DID try to change them. but he just couldn't. his (innate) personality, perhaps. and the methods he does are kind of odd or wrong. in short, he's on a different brainwave.
as the kind warden i am, i always listened or at the very least, tried really hard to listen and appreciate their situation. just listening to them makes them feel so glad and relieved there's someone who understands them and more importantly, do not mind them for who they are. of course, listening does not equate to understanding, but if you are a good active listener you would naturally ask leading questions for more information, sometimes leading to the root of their issues - that's a sign of understanding them.
when i was still in school most of the time i took a genuine interest in their talk, thankfully the habit of listening has sunk deep and is rooted in myself, for nowadays i can garner energy to listen to boring chaps who talk endlessly about their endeavours, even when i don't really feel like listening sometimes (but it's only polite you listen).
oops, running slightly offtangent but this is supposed to be an entertainment column-sort of article, so who cares about the issue at hand which i want to talk about.
it's so understandable why they're excluded from games like poor ruldolph the reindeer. humans are not inclined to accept people who are different from them. in almost every instance of civilisation ever in history a particular gender is favoured over another, because of the perceived superiority one has over the other. it's almost always the male that dominates, because of their physical strength which makes it easier for them to accomplish important tasks such as finding or cultivating food. in comparison females are less able and perhaps, a bane to society in a way, so they are discriminated against.
people who are of minority races and religions are despised for various reasons, amongst them historical reasons (catholics versus protestants in northern ireland), physique reasons (skin colour), and very importantly, character/cultural differences, perceived or not. in fact, in some ways physique reasons are interlinked with character differences. for example, westerners think chinese are impolite, inconsiderate and scheming. it's not untrue that many chinese (from whichever country they are from) are rather callous with their droppings (spitton, litter etc.) in foreign countries, and will never resist bargaining mercilessly with a market vendor. however, many of their so-called 'wrong' behaviours are the norm in their own homeland - a clash of cultures, do you see? i'm sure you can think of more examples here. the worst part is that, by careless extrapolation due to similar physiques, every single chinese is associated with the uglier ones. i suppose a similar fate befalls the sad fats and thins and uglies in societies.
one really important repurcussion of frantanising with the so-called bad is that one may end up being associated with the bad and end up in the same class at the bad. protection of self-interest, i see...
referring to the two examples mentioned in the earlier paragraphs, the discriminated can be said to be 'harmful' or 'less helpful' than others. their value is cheapened by virtue of their differences, be it intentional or natural or neither. and who like valueless people? they are hindrances, no? look at old-folk homes, look at hospices, look at how and why companies retrench employees. it's a sad fact of life, your value determines your worth being accepted.
but there's sometimes redeeming aspects of the outcasted. i had the opporunity to interact with children with lower-than-average intelligence in sec1. they (unknowingly) reveal to me the joys of living a simple life and taught me patience and being embracing. not to mention, no one can resist kids. in a not dissimilar fashion, your hated classmate or neighbour may have a passion for cool, trendy stuff like rock music or have the mind to succeed in marathons, what have you not. they all have something special about them, or at least something you can learn from. i'm sure there's something, at least one thing good about them. even terrorists. look, they have undying loyalty for the cause they are fighting for (pardon the oxymoron in 'undying' hurhurhur). how many people want to serve in the army to defend their own country, much less defend some cause which you know, can seem daunting to do at times when you lose your compass of morals and values.
but, may i appeal to your emotions, to quote an often-quoted chinese proverb, do not do onto others what you do not want onto yourself. what goes around often comes around. oh, by the way, i'm speaking up for those who are either naturally disadvantaged in some aspect that makes them hated, or genuinely make an effort to change themselves ala yellow ribbon-type of people. yes, what goes around comes around, ur hur. that should be a good enough reason for the selfish inconsiderate souls out there who are lucky enough to be socially accepted heh.
it's rather funny, sad and perplexing at how the victims of hate cope with their circumstances. i remember how disturbed i felt when the sec3 guy in question tried to enter a conversation by making somewhat relevant but 'useless' comments such as 'oh yea, i agree with that... you know blahblahblah'.
oh, i must relate to you a vision i had of that guy. i had this nightmare, that guy was wearing an oversized torn greyed and dirty set of school uniform, and he was extremely distressed and hysterically chasing after other people in clean uniform, who were frightened by him. his hands were flailing around, no, outstretched in front of him, try to get hold of someone, just someone. but he couldn't. quite oddly, the following week he behaved so disturbingly wrong in class that i couldn't take it anymore and i avoided him in the end. by the way he emotionally harmed me, although my subsequent avoidance hurt him even more i guess. the day he harmed me i couldn't stop but keep thinking of the string of those harming events, till i even got a headache, no kidding. i admit my subsequent handling of the matter was totally unfair to him. being quite a bigmouth i told a few people about what i experienced and of course, the news spread all over class and triggered more interest within the school community (hehe). but hey, i only told class people and close friends, fair enough on my part, right? in a way, no. although it served as a way to warn others of things that may come, the issue was too sensitive to be broadcasted publicly.
anyway, time really does heal things. people almost do not mention him anymore. even when his surprise visit to our secondary school during teachers' day failed to make an impact anything as large as during sec3. and he did talk a little to others, and others did reply (thankfully) politely. maybe people are pre-programmed to be nice when unprovoked (ie over long periods of time), which kind of reinforces the notion that people do things in their self interest hm...
forgive their size, their loose wrists, their lamer-than-lame wise-cracks, even their sometimes-inflated egos and oblivion towards what others think of them. open up your heart a bit more and be less self-centered. your own interests can be balanced with their needs of being accepted. no need to be bestest of friends with them, just smile at them, greet them, help them if they really require help. yes, that takes a hell lot of patience but it's really important that you have a near infinite quantity of that virtue.
if you really don't want to be too involved with their lives, showing a bit of the appropriate body language and telling them really nicely you have to go may break the message to them gently and subtly. of course, don't overdo that and be an active listener!
going back to the first mentioned encounter, i suppose i did something somewhat acceptable to both parties: just listening to both of them and laughing innocently at the jabbing (well, at least one party was tickled). duh the best thing to do is to mediate and convince both parties on a compromise, which is something to the effect of allowing the convict to change for the better and the convict being more accepting of what people still think of him (after all, perceptions don't change easily) and prove himself to others, albeit in a silent manner. as to how to convince, i have not come round to that yet (perceptions don't change easily). sigh.
in the abovementioned respect, both parties have to work hard at bridging the gap between each other.
can someone rate this little rant? is it sensible or just stupid verbal diarrhoea in some ways... and was it sufficiently deep enough and not simplistic... argh...
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS THE LONGEST BLOG POST YOU WILL HAVE READ IN A LONG TIME. i took nearly 2 hours writing this (a now-rare burst of the remnant bits of intelligence and empathy i still retain)! but i hope you do take some time off to read it, just 10-15 minutes? thanks!
simply put, today i was an observer of a little conversation that became slightly unpleasant yet funny (at least to the onlooker). the topic is in principle, similar to the yellow ribbon campaign; one party was the 'public', the other the 'ex-convict'. you can imagine how the conversation turned out to be la.
i have this knack of befriending 'convicts' and 'ex-convicts'. i'm some prison warden or something. had one such major encounter in sec 3, minor encounters throughout secondary school all the way to JC. the sec 3 one was most memorable because i practially became his so-called best friend, until something triggered off an avalanche of events which became quite a hot conversation topic in school, blahblahblah.
the 'convicts' i have seen are ostracised (to different extents) by their peers. on a personal, one-on-one level they're mostly really pleasant to talk to (maybe i have lienient standards on 'pleasant'). they have interesting views on stuff that runs the gamut from little rumours about school people to personal preferences for fashion to more intellectual stuff like classical music, philosophy and psychology.
of course the reason why people shun them is that they somehow lack in social skills. things that the majority of the population take for granted like body language, choice of words, kindness etc. it doesn't help if the shunned 'convicts' physiques are somewhat un-average: too fat, too thin, too tall, too short, ugly face, the list goes on. they often end up being the butt of sissy, fat and thin jokes. these jokes are easy excuses for jeering at the shunned, which miss the whole 'why are they discriminated against' issue.
yea, even the fat people. fat isn't the whole and only reason why they are laughed at. it's their lack of confidence and deflated personality (due to their perceptions of how others respond to their size) that people like to pick on. this vicious cycle then perpetuates by itself...
the sissy ones are probably the most unfortunate lot of them all. just like how you get naturally alpha-male personalities, you also get people from the other side of the masculinity spectrum. blame it on nature (maybe upbringing? not really la. you can have one normal and one sissy living under the same roof. i've seen examples of this). and so they're made fun of by the virtue of their nature which they find so hard to change or hide.
another category of 'convicts' is the AP (attitude problem) sort. all sorts of problems you can find one (pardon the informal tone and syntax error). some are arrogant farts, some too lame and conversation-challenged, others too self-centred and selfish. oh, but the similar characteristic of this lot is often that they have a strong outward personality that tends to dominate in social settings (a derogatory synonym would be 'oppress'). many do reflect upon their actions and the things that go on, but they end up with the (socially) wrong conclusion that there is nothing wrong with them and that things, the way they are, are just normal or can't be helped. worse, some don't realise they are not liked by others!
such was the case of my dear then-sec3 friend. sissy, weird thoughts plus an oblivious-ness. actually he isn't unaware of what people think of him, just that sometimes he concludes wrongly that people can embrace his quirkiness. no, actually he knew most of his problems and DID try to change them. but he just couldn't. his (innate) personality, perhaps. and the methods he does are kind of odd or wrong. in short, he's on a different brainwave.
as the kind warden i am, i always listened or at the very least, tried really hard to listen and appreciate their situation. just listening to them makes them feel so glad and relieved there's someone who understands them and more importantly, do not mind them for who they are. of course, listening does not equate to understanding, but if you are a good active listener you would naturally ask leading questions for more information, sometimes leading to the root of their issues - that's a sign of understanding them.
when i was still in school most of the time i took a genuine interest in their talk, thankfully the habit of listening has sunk deep and is rooted in myself, for nowadays i can garner energy to listen to boring chaps who talk endlessly about their endeavours, even when i don't really feel like listening sometimes (but it's only polite you listen).
oops, running slightly offtangent but this is supposed to be an entertainment column-sort of article, so who cares about the issue at hand which i want to talk about.
it's so understandable why they're excluded from games like poor ruldolph the reindeer. humans are not inclined to accept people who are different from them. in almost every instance of civilisation ever in history a particular gender is favoured over another, because of the perceived superiority one has over the other. it's almost always the male that dominates, because of their physical strength which makes it easier for them to accomplish important tasks such as finding or cultivating food. in comparison females are less able and perhaps, a bane to society in a way, so they are discriminated against.
people who are of minority races and religions are despised for various reasons, amongst them historical reasons (catholics versus protestants in northern ireland), physique reasons (skin colour), and very importantly, character/cultural differences, perceived or not. in fact, in some ways physique reasons are interlinked with character differences. for example, westerners think chinese are impolite, inconsiderate and scheming. it's not untrue that many chinese (from whichever country they are from) are rather callous with their droppings (spitton, litter etc.) in foreign countries, and will never resist bargaining mercilessly with a market vendor. however, many of their so-called 'wrong' behaviours are the norm in their own homeland - a clash of cultures, do you see? i'm sure you can think of more examples here. the worst part is that, by careless extrapolation due to similar physiques, every single chinese is associated with the uglier ones. i suppose a similar fate befalls the sad fats and thins and uglies in societies.
one really important repurcussion of frantanising with the so-called bad is that one may end up being associated with the bad and end up in the same class at the bad. protection of self-interest, i see...
referring to the two examples mentioned in the earlier paragraphs, the discriminated can be said to be 'harmful' or 'less helpful' than others. their value is cheapened by virtue of their differences, be it intentional or natural or neither. and who like valueless people? they are hindrances, no? look at old-folk homes, look at hospices, look at how and why companies retrench employees. it's a sad fact of life, your value determines your worth being accepted.
but there's sometimes redeeming aspects of the outcasted. i had the opporunity to interact with children with lower-than-average intelligence in sec1. they (unknowingly) reveal to me the joys of living a simple life and taught me patience and being embracing. not to mention, no one can resist kids. in a not dissimilar fashion, your hated classmate or neighbour may have a passion for cool, trendy stuff like rock music or have the mind to succeed in marathons, what have you not. they all have something special about them, or at least something you can learn from. i'm sure there's something, at least one thing good about them. even terrorists. look, they have undying loyalty for the cause they are fighting for (pardon the oxymoron in 'undying' hurhurhur). how many people want to serve in the army to defend their own country, much less defend some cause which you know, can seem daunting to do at times when you lose your compass of morals and values.
but, may i appeal to your emotions, to quote an often-quoted chinese proverb, do not do onto others what you do not want onto yourself. what goes around often comes around. oh, by the way, i'm speaking up for those who are either naturally disadvantaged in some aspect that makes them hated, or genuinely make an effort to change themselves ala yellow ribbon-type of people. yes, what goes around comes around, ur hur. that should be a good enough reason for the selfish inconsiderate souls out there who are lucky enough to be socially accepted heh.
it's rather funny, sad and perplexing at how the victims of hate cope with their circumstances. i remember how disturbed i felt when the sec3 guy in question tried to enter a conversation by making somewhat relevant but 'useless' comments such as 'oh yea, i agree with that... you know blahblahblah'.
oh, i must relate to you a vision i had of that guy. i had this nightmare, that guy was wearing an oversized torn greyed and dirty set of school uniform, and he was extremely distressed and hysterically chasing after other people in clean uniform, who were frightened by him. his hands were flailing around, no, outstretched in front of him, try to get hold of someone, just someone. but he couldn't. quite oddly, the following week he behaved so disturbingly wrong in class that i couldn't take it anymore and i avoided him in the end. by the way he emotionally harmed me, although my subsequent avoidance hurt him even more i guess. the day he harmed me i couldn't stop but keep thinking of the string of those harming events, till i even got a headache, no kidding. i admit my subsequent handling of the matter was totally unfair to him. being quite a bigmouth i told a few people about what i experienced and of course, the news spread all over class and triggered more interest within the school community (hehe). but hey, i only told class people and close friends, fair enough on my part, right? in a way, no. although it served as a way to warn others of things that may come, the issue was too sensitive to be broadcasted publicly.
anyway, time really does heal things. people almost do not mention him anymore. even when his surprise visit to our secondary school during teachers' day failed to make an impact anything as large as during sec3. and he did talk a little to others, and others did reply (thankfully) politely. maybe people are pre-programmed to be nice when unprovoked (ie over long periods of time), which kind of reinforces the notion that people do things in their self interest hm...
forgive their size, their loose wrists, their lamer-than-lame wise-cracks, even their sometimes-inflated egos and oblivion towards what others think of them. open up your heart a bit more and be less self-centered. your own interests can be balanced with their needs of being accepted. no need to be bestest of friends with them, just smile at them, greet them, help them if they really require help. yes, that takes a hell lot of patience but it's really important that you have a near infinite quantity of that virtue.
if you really don't want to be too involved with their lives, showing a bit of the appropriate body language and telling them really nicely you have to go may break the message to them gently and subtly. of course, don't overdo that and be an active listener!
going back to the first mentioned encounter, i suppose i did something somewhat acceptable to both parties: just listening to both of them and laughing innocently at the jabbing (well, at least one party was tickled). duh the best thing to do is to mediate and convince both parties on a compromise, which is something to the effect of allowing the convict to change for the better and the convict being more accepting of what people still think of him (after all, perceptions don't change easily) and prove himself to others, albeit in a silent manner. as to how to convince, i have not come round to that yet (perceptions don't change easily). sigh.
in the abovementioned respect, both parties have to work hard at bridging the gap between each other.
can someone rate this little rant? is it sensible or just stupid verbal diarrhoea in some ways... and was it sufficiently deep enough and not simplistic... argh...
Sunday, September 16, 2007
the pleasures of having an MP3 player
joy is found!
dark chocolate and ham mooncakes
and, not forget, the sounds of voices and instruments
accoustic or studio (i prefer accoustic)
MP3 player in one hand
and Cadbury Old Gold in the other...
ORGASSSSSMIC~
***
(finally) acquired an mp3 player and it's already half full of songs. listening to music with the proper equipment, that is, good sound systems or at least earphones which give better clarity than run-of-the-mill computer speakers, can really give 'orgasmic' pleasure lol! it's always so interesting to listen to something so clearly, everytime you listen to a song you somehow pick out something you never heard before, it's like a dog finding a buried bone in its own backyard! sweet.
and here comes the realisation: i still love music the most. miss choral and classical music. don't know what i've been doing all these while, but i think i should still attempt to pursue some sort of active musical experience before i get too old to seize the day.
***
my new work environment is quite fine, and everyone there thinks it's swell (: it can only mean good things, but i'm still apprehensive about stuff (i think it's this restrained youth to freed adult transformation thing). makes me wonder if i'll just shrivel up and die under the beatings of the outside world after 111108. credits for that should be given to my heightened sense of self consciousness and the too-many advices from everyone else who are more experienced. speaking of more experienced people i was quite touched by the words of a wo this week. he's one amazing guy!
***
ok this is going to sound stupid, but i re-realised the need to give more than take. not that i forgot completely, more like it has to be more pronounced in my lifestyle. in an ironic sense one can take away a lot from giving, but let's go into that. hey, at least you're making everyone happy, who is truly altruistic anyway.
can't remember what made this switch in mindset, but i suppose some of the things that happened in jc and ns and this blog which encouraged me to think more for myself (it's my blog anyways)... hm. anyway, i must remind myself to do some cip-ish work when i have free time. think that'll be settled when my work schedule is confirmed :)
dark chocolate and ham mooncakes
and, not forget, the sounds of voices and instruments
accoustic or studio (i prefer accoustic)
MP3 player in one hand
and Cadbury Old Gold in the other...
ORGASSSSSMIC~
***
(finally) acquired an mp3 player and it's already half full of songs. listening to music with the proper equipment, that is, good sound systems or at least earphones which give better clarity than run-of-the-mill computer speakers, can really give 'orgasmic' pleasure lol! it's always so interesting to listen to something so clearly, everytime you listen to a song you somehow pick out something you never heard before, it's like a dog finding a buried bone in its own backyard! sweet.
and here comes the realisation: i still love music the most. miss choral and classical music. don't know what i've been doing all these while, but i think i should still attempt to pursue some sort of active musical experience before i get too old to seize the day.
***
my new work environment is quite fine, and everyone there thinks it's swell (: it can only mean good things, but i'm still apprehensive about stuff (i think it's this restrained youth to freed adult transformation thing). makes me wonder if i'll just shrivel up and die under the beatings of the outside world after 111108. credits for that should be given to my heightened sense of self consciousness and the too-many advices from everyone else who are more experienced. speaking of more experienced people i was quite touched by the words of a wo this week. he's one amazing guy!
***
ok this is going to sound stupid, but i re-realised the need to give more than take. not that i forgot completely, more like it has to be more pronounced in my lifestyle. in an ironic sense one can take away a lot from giving, but let's go into that. hey, at least you're making everyone happy, who is truly altruistic anyway.
can't remember what made this switch in mindset, but i suppose some of the things that happened in jc and ns and this blog which encouraged me to think more for myself (it's my blog anyways)... hm. anyway, i must remind myself to do some cip-ish work when i have free time. think that'll be settled when my work schedule is confirmed :)
Friday, September 07, 2007
i'm sad
everybody and everything is leaving. my new bunkmates, my ex-JC friends, my swimming pool, my mess... NOOOOOOO :( and i may potentially not take on the are-jay-see people next year, since i'm to be encaged in a place that is 3 freaking kilometres away from the main campus.
i'm hoping this string of events will trigger my resolve to pursue knowledge so i can fulfil my life after 111108.
111108!!! wooohooooooo
i'm hoping this string of events will trigger my resolve to pursue knowledge so i can fulfil my life after 111108.
111108!!! wooohooooooo
Sunday, September 02, 2007
something to remember ourselves by...
Event: RIGEP '04 Gathering
Date: 1st September 2007
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: RI Dining Hall
how nice it is to say 'hi' and find out what your ex-classmates have been doing during their/your absence from your/their lives. (: my thanks go out to the organising committee!
(oh jeff, enough about the 'nerds' gathering thing haha... and don't you and you and you start it either heh.)
anyway, it was also really cool to meet my ex-teachers. forever-18 mdm woon who speaks mandarin at breakneck speed, pleasant and genial mrs low, charming and chatty mrs maas and miss tang, jovial mr krishnan, caring mrs tay, enlightening mrs lim, mrs yak, mrs chong, miss quah. of course, most of them had trouble with remembering my name haha! they recognise my face but have a bit of problems with the naming bits lol... haiz oh well. must be naughtier next time, then people can remember me :P
pictures? next time la, waiting for others to post theirs up on online groups (didn't bring a camera).
Date: 1st September 2007
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: RI Dining Hall
how nice it is to say 'hi' and find out what your ex-classmates have been doing during their/your absence from your/their lives. (: my thanks go out to the organising committee!
(oh jeff, enough about the 'nerds' gathering thing haha... and don't you and you and you start it either heh.)
anyway, it was also really cool to meet my ex-teachers. forever-18 mdm woon who speaks mandarin at breakneck speed, pleasant and genial mrs low, charming and chatty mrs maas and miss tang, jovial mr krishnan, caring mrs tay, enlightening mrs lim, mrs yak, mrs chong, miss quah. of course, most of them had trouble with remembering my name haha! they recognise my face but have a bit of problems with the naming bits lol... haiz oh well. must be naughtier next time, then people can remember me :P
pictures? next time la, waiting for others to post theirs up on online groups (didn't bring a camera).
Friday, August 31, 2007
help, i am neurotic
i wonder if the maintenance of this blog (that is, in simpler terms, blogging) has caused me to become more self-centered. or is my conscription ironically making me think more for myself?
(actually, it's not illogical. although NS is for the better good of the nation, the involuntary near-absolute surrender of one's time may somehow cause one's head to start cranking up ideas on how to take back what one feels is his and hence, becomes more selfish la. and i'm not making up spin here. chats with some of the people i've met in NS have revealed each of their own selfish nature. of course there are helpful people in NS, really helpful ones and i appreciate them. but i also wonder how many think of using their bookout time for a 'greater' cause i.e. CIP-style work? sigh.)
and an informal (credibility not sure, i didn't check that out) personality test reveals i'm somewhat neurotic, haha. oh well, i guess (i'm hoping, actually) many of my peers would be similarly neurotic lol.
(tekong is quite good so far. got very entertaining bunkmates. finally i can have exciting random chats again heh.)
it's quite amazing how some memories retain their vividness better than others. memories of dreams, experiences, thoughts... the longing for what i used to have (or not have but dreamt of) and indulged in is like a bath in warm scented spring water. or snuggling up in a thick blanket in an air-conditioned bedroom. haha, sigh. don't think i'll experience something real in the near future, i'm too neurotic for anything wonderful to happen onto me hoho...
(actually, it's not illogical. although NS is for the better good of the nation, the involuntary near-absolute surrender of one's time may somehow cause one's head to start cranking up ideas on how to take back what one feels is his and hence, becomes more selfish la. and i'm not making up spin here. chats with some of the people i've met in NS have revealed each of their own selfish nature. of course there are helpful people in NS, really helpful ones and i appreciate them. but i also wonder how many think of using their bookout time for a 'greater' cause i.e. CIP-style work? sigh.)
and an informal (credibility not sure, i didn't check that out) personality test reveals i'm somewhat neurotic, haha. oh well, i guess (i'm hoping, actually) many of my peers would be similarly neurotic lol.
(tekong is quite good so far. got very entertaining bunkmates. finally i can have exciting random chats again heh.)
it's quite amazing how some memories retain their vividness better than others. memories of dreams, experiences, thoughts... the longing for what i used to have (or not have but dreamt of) and indulged in is like a bath in warm scented spring water. or snuggling up in a thick blanket in an air-conditioned bedroom. haha, sigh. don't think i'll experience something real in the near future, i'm too neurotic for anything wonderful to happen onto me hoho...
Monday, August 27, 2007
i kick myself!
now, what have i done during the past few days...
friday: watched 'hairspray' with yi han! the movie-musical is really good, it can cheer anybody up :)
saturday: dinner with some chorale people at cilantro (somewhere near between bugis and city hall). was complaining about my lamb chop which tasted like satay, until i realised (from the decor of the restaurant) that it's a FUSION-themed restaurant -.- the dessert (apple pie with ice cream) more than made up for it, though...
sunday: dad's birthday, and AHM which i could have skipped because nobody was there to mark attendance. again, the efficieny of my sub-unit has been proved. because i didn't run for about 2 months, i felt real giddy and everything looked quite white for a while after running the 6km :O don't worry i'm fine, though. after that, i bummed around with zhengyi and borrowed some instructional/information books from esplanade.
now, why do i want to kick myself? just about every other ex-classmate is enrolled in a (i suppose?) superior faculty or university, or is simply flying off. while i'm probably going to get a 'typical' university life OH NOES!!!! ok, this is probably being unfair to NUS, but the prestige of being in NUS med/law fac, or just about any overseas university is undeniable, isn't it?? too bad i'm not interested in engineering (which i think i would have been able to secure a scholarship with), or med or law haha. but i got this feeling i'm not going to regret having made the choice to stay put here when i finally start in aug 09. haiz dunno la, i'm too fickle-minded.
friday: watched 'hairspray' with yi han! the movie-musical is really good, it can cheer anybody up :)
saturday: dinner with some chorale people at cilantro (somewhere near between bugis and city hall). was complaining about my lamb chop which tasted like satay, until i realised (from the decor of the restaurant) that it's a FUSION-themed restaurant -.- the dessert (apple pie with ice cream) more than made up for it, though...
sunday: dad's birthday, and AHM which i could have skipped because nobody was there to mark attendance. again, the efficieny of my sub-unit has been proved. because i didn't run for about 2 months, i felt real giddy and everything looked quite white for a while after running the 6km :O don't worry i'm fine, though. after that, i bummed around with zhengyi and borrowed some instructional/information books from esplanade.
now, why do i want to kick myself? just about every other ex-classmate is enrolled in a (i suppose?) superior faculty or university, or is simply flying off. while i'm probably going to get a 'typical' university life OH NOES!!!! ok, this is probably being unfair to NUS, but the prestige of being in NUS med/law fac, or just about any overseas university is undeniable, isn't it?? too bad i'm not interested in engineering (which i think i would have been able to secure a scholarship with), or med or law haha. but i got this feeling i'm not going to regret having made the choice to stay put here when i finally start in aug 09. haiz dunno la, i'm too fickle-minded.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
3 stripes
finally got the damned ch3vr0n5 XD
today's parade was ok, except i screwed up the rifle drill real bad - the sling unclipped itself from the rifle during a drill!!! O_o clipped it back during the awards presentation segment, when most of the audience's attention was directed towards the stage. i deem it rather amazing that the guy standing right beside me during the parade didn't notice any of this at all.
my experiences during the past 5 months would have been a lot better if i didn't have such a voracious appetite heh! need to lose the fats on my tummy now.
on a more serious note, my life would be great if there weren't any selfish, obnoxious, stupid (not in the academic sense of course), THEIVING, stubborn people around. oh, and add people who make unenlightened judgements. grr.
more about 'theiving' people. can't stand it when people borrow things which belong to me without asking WHEN I AM PRESENT. i mean, i'm alright with lending things, even if they borrow it and return in my absence as long as they tell me about it later. but when you just take something that's mine away right under my nose that's impolite!! worse, borrow and not return, whether the culprit has asked for permission or not. this has been the cause of my loss of at least 3 pens (of which i retreived 2 by actively claiming it back -.-), an ENTIRE RIFLE CLEANING KIT WHICH INCLUDED A BLANK ATTACHMENT AND C-TOOL. that cost me about $30 to replace, you know. on a tangential note more items should be classified as credit-payable, then i wouldn't be spending so much cash.
the baseness of human nature (to be fair i do crack under stress, but hey, there are people who're just, well, base. winter, spring, autumn or fall). oh well. enumerating and detailing the instances when people demonstrate such unworthy 'virtues' on a public blog will prove itself to be a far too emotionally-charged and draining, not to mention, unnecessary and simply mean, thing to do. i'll just shut my gap up and try to forget and forgive all those who have offended me. but that's going to be a challenge when i am to be cast off to island tekong with a handful of the abovementioned. :( save my wretched soul.
i don't know why were people nicer during BMT. is it because all the recruits were unfamiliar thus feeling threatened by the military environment and therefore, behaved more amicably towards each other in order to receive mutual support? maybe it's because post-BMT moods are generally poor. or is it because of...?
if i've offended anybody during my course as a trainee, for an unreasonably large part i'm not very apologetic, sorry. (unless, of course, i obviously started the trouble. i'm not yet a total jerk, you know.) although i don't champion a tit-for-tat attitude, when you're sick and tired of nonsense unfolding and manifesting itself every single day the good (or less bad, however you wish to think) succumbs to the desire to retaliate. sometimes i wonder what's wrong with myself, i must be deprived of something important. sigh. my tolerance level must increase furthur.
back to the parade thingy, everyone was really showing their joys and all right after it ended, but i didn't feel that immense, pressured-release of elation like steam streaming furiously out of a pressure cooker. maybe the realisation that i'm permanently out of that camp grounds has not struck me hard then, it's slowly coming to me right now, though. was somehow silently glad about leaving the people behind - that means no human interaction except with my mum who graciously attended the parade :) - as i dragged my duffle bag out of the grounds.
(disclaimer: i am not implying that there's anything bad about that camp, it's just that i'd like to stay away from organisations and build a sanctuary in the confines of my own private space for a while)
i suppose the current locations of my house and my new camp, being on opposite ends of the country, give me more excuses to hang out at various places of interest during my bookout times, can't be a bad thing :)
future aim: train the best trainee! :[ muahahaha...
*ahh, in a better mood after translating my angst into black-and-white.*
today's parade was ok, except i screwed up the rifle drill real bad - the sling unclipped itself from the rifle during a drill!!! O_o clipped it back during the awards presentation segment, when most of the audience's attention was directed towards the stage. i deem it rather amazing that the guy standing right beside me during the parade didn't notice any of this at all.
my experiences during the past 5 months would have been a lot better if i didn't have such a voracious appetite heh! need to lose the fats on my tummy now.
on a more serious note, my life would be great if there weren't any selfish, obnoxious, stupid (not in the academic sense of course), THEIVING, stubborn people around. oh, and add people who make unenlightened judgements. grr.
more about 'theiving' people. can't stand it when people borrow things which belong to me without asking WHEN I AM PRESENT. i mean, i'm alright with lending things, even if they borrow it and return in my absence as long as they tell me about it later. but when you just take something that's mine away right under my nose that's impolite!! worse, borrow and not return, whether the culprit has asked for permission or not. this has been the cause of my loss of at least 3 pens (of which i retreived 2 by actively claiming it back -.-), an ENTIRE RIFLE CLEANING KIT WHICH INCLUDED A BLANK ATTACHMENT AND C-TOOL. that cost me about $30 to replace, you know. on a tangential note more items should be classified as credit-payable, then i wouldn't be spending so much cash.
the baseness of human nature (to be fair i do crack under stress, but hey, there are people who're just, well, base. winter, spring, autumn or fall). oh well. enumerating and detailing the instances when people demonstrate such unworthy 'virtues' on a public blog will prove itself to be a far too emotionally-charged and draining, not to mention, unnecessary and simply mean, thing to do. i'll just shut my gap up and try to forget and forgive all those who have offended me. but that's going to be a challenge when i am to be cast off to island tekong with a handful of the abovementioned. :( save my wretched soul.
i don't know why were people nicer during BMT. is it because all the recruits were unfamiliar thus feeling threatened by the military environment and therefore, behaved more amicably towards each other in order to receive mutual support? maybe it's because post-BMT moods are generally poor. or is it because of...?
if i've offended anybody during my course as a trainee, for an unreasonably large part i'm not very apologetic, sorry. (unless, of course, i obviously started the trouble. i'm not yet a total jerk, you know.) although i don't champion a tit-for-tat attitude, when you're sick and tired of nonsense unfolding and manifesting itself every single day the good (or less bad, however you wish to think) succumbs to the desire to retaliate. sometimes i wonder what's wrong with myself, i must be deprived of something important. sigh. my tolerance level must increase furthur.
back to the parade thingy, everyone was really showing their joys and all right after it ended, but i didn't feel that immense, pressured-release of elation like steam streaming furiously out of a pressure cooker. maybe the realisation that i'm permanently out of that camp grounds has not struck me hard then, it's slowly coming to me right now, though. was somehow silently glad about leaving the people behind - that means no human interaction except with my mum who graciously attended the parade :) - as i dragged my duffle bag out of the grounds.
(disclaimer: i am not implying that there's anything bad about that camp, it's just that i'd like to stay away from organisations and build a sanctuary in the confines of my own private space for a while)
i suppose the current locations of my house and my new camp, being on opposite ends of the country, give me more excuses to hang out at various places of interest during my bookout times, can't be a bad thing :)
future aim: train the best trainee! :[ muahahaha...
*ahh, in a better mood after translating my angst into black-and-white.*
Saturday, August 18, 2007
prelude to the end of part III
this is when i go through my well thought out plans for my future...
someone tell me why do i have too many interests, and how to whittle them down to a few so i can concentrate on those few :(
popcontemporaryjazzclassicalpianovoicedrawingcomposingarrangingproducingenglishliteraturegermanjapanese... and there's the necessary stuff to do, such as exercising etc.
when i (finally) get to university i'll have literally no more time left for extraneous pursuits, so i need to settle them before university! help!
imagine a timetable like this (i imagine myself doing something like this in 2009):
6.00am wake up
6.30am travel to school
7.30am reach school for assembly
8.00am start conducting maths or physics classes
5.00pm end of classes
7.00pm start teaching piano at a music school
10.00pm go home
11.00pm reach home
alternatively,
8.00pm start playing piano at a pub or hotel lobby
11.00pm go home
12.00pm reach home
career, money = good ($65/day for relief teaching alone!), time = zero. unless i spend the free time in the day on individualistic things, but my dear colleagues will notice. hm.
picture this: i import a mini MIDI keyboard into my office cubicle, plug it into the laptop lent by the school (ok perhaps my OWN laptop, since when does school provide laptops to relief teachers, or do they?), and fiddle with the black-and-white plastic keys silently, the sound travelling electronically through headphone cables and converted into sound waves at my ears. when i should be marking scripts or coming up with lesson plans or preparing tutorial solutions or giving remedials. uh oh.
or maybe i'm thinking way too far ahead. still, i got to make the best out of this time. i want to go for courses! perhaps a music- or language-related course, or learn a contemporary dance style, driving lessons, japanese becuase i'm interested in its culture, german for its usefulness if i do get to travel to europe again. ahh, europe... oh yes, exploit my membership cards (safra, chevron) as much as possible!
somebody please give suggestions how to spend my time? do tag or leave a comment here :)
oh, i received my self-shipment of my CDs - tales of earthsea by studio ghibli and instrumental versions of songs (aka a music CD) found in studio ghibli animations :D:D the music CD is a cheat, it's mostly MIDI :'( but for MIDI it's quite good, acutually more than passable. love their tunes, you guys should go listen to some of them :) haven't watched tales of earthsea (yes, it's adapted from the novel series of the same name) yet, maybe i'll watch it tomorrow...
someone tell me why do i have too many interests, and how to whittle them down to a few so i can concentrate on those few :(
popcontemporaryjazzclassicalpianovoicedrawingcomposingarrangingproducingenglishliteraturegermanjapanese... and there's the necessary stuff to do, such as exercising etc.
when i (finally) get to university i'll have literally no more time left for extraneous pursuits, so i need to settle them before university! help!
imagine a timetable like this (i imagine myself doing something like this in 2009):
6.00am wake up
6.30am travel to school
7.30am reach school for assembly
8.00am start conducting maths or physics classes
5.00pm end of classes
7.00pm start teaching piano at a music school
10.00pm go home
11.00pm reach home
alternatively,
8.00pm start playing piano at a pub or hotel lobby
11.00pm go home
12.00pm reach home
career, money = good ($65/day for relief teaching alone!), time = zero. unless i spend the free time in the day on individualistic things, but my dear colleagues will notice. hm.
picture this: i import a mini MIDI keyboard into my office cubicle, plug it into the laptop lent by the school (ok perhaps my OWN laptop, since when does school provide laptops to relief teachers, or do they?), and fiddle with the black-and-white plastic keys silently, the sound travelling electronically through headphone cables and converted into sound waves at my ears. when i should be marking scripts or coming up with lesson plans or preparing tutorial solutions or giving remedials. uh oh.
or maybe i'm thinking way too far ahead. still, i got to make the best out of this time. i want to go for courses! perhaps a music- or language-related course, or learn a contemporary dance style, driving lessons, japanese becuase i'm interested in its culture, german for its usefulness if i do get to travel to europe again. ahh, europe... oh yes, exploit my membership cards (safra, chevron) as much as possible!
somebody please give suggestions how to spend my time? do tag or leave a comment here :)
oh, i received my self-shipment of my CDs - tales of earthsea by studio ghibli and instrumental versions of songs (aka a music CD) found in studio ghibli animations :D:D the music CD is a cheat, it's mostly MIDI :'( but for MIDI it's quite good, acutually more than passable. love their tunes, you guys should go listen to some of them :) haven't watched tales of earthsea (yes, it's adapted from the novel series of the same name) yet, maybe i'll watch it tomorrow...
Monday, August 13, 2007
WELCOME TO TAIWAN
training was physically and mentally tough, especially when i have to endure EQ- and commonsense-challenged people. funny how my hate dissolved at the end of the training :\
anyway, RnR was not too bad, save for all the amusement parks the guided 'educational' tour brought us too. too many of a good thing is bad, and boy, were we glad for the 'free and easy' periods!
ok, let the pictures do the talking!
betel nuts are the craze all over taiwan...
... and so are convenience stores, such as 7-eleven.
this is a scary amusement ride, it propells you vertically down at blistering speeds up till over 100 km/h! the scary part was actually going up, though :| oh, it was interesting to note that a lot of the amusement parks promote certain cultures, such as the local aborigines or modern taiwan history...
turkish ice cream, found in leofoo village, also an amusement park. i liked that park the most, it even had a mini zoo!
won't be seeing this in s'pore anytime soon, i guess. opium smells like soap. oh, and i think i tasted opium-flavoured green tea (compliments from the hotel) - the taste is GROSS. like cigarette smoke.
some of my 'mates at the lunch table... we ate pork and egg and cabbage for every meal in 20 minutes. not that i'm complaining about the pork, haha
that's me (i can't recognise myself) at a temple overlooking a really huge river.
i'm rather thankful for the typhoon, which cooled temperatures down by about 10 degrees. how picturesque, never mind the human heads below :S
ximending... lots of streetwear shops, shopping haven for teens. however prices don't differ much from singapore, that kind of dampened things a bit :(
but it's all ok when i have cheap food! 2 buns going for NT35 (approx. $1.60) because the shop was to close for the day...
another part of ximending. how i wish i had all the money in the world *drools*
ningxia night market, near the hotel which i stayed in.
tasty food from ningxia!
how can you say you've visited taipei without going to at least one night market heh! i visited one more - shilin!
some parts of taiwan still live in the 8-bit world, i see :P how can one cartridge cost NT300!? it should be free or priceless in this age and time lol.
one of a few shopping malls we visited. i think in all i spent over NT10000 in all sorts of stuff, don't ask me how i did it :|
horrah for their train system (whose engines make similar sounds as our local MRT - manufactured by the same japanese company) i liked my travelling experiences on the trains a lot...
TRTS. yep it does look a bit like our MRTs...
waiting for the inter-town train to take me out of taipei (albeit 'illegally') to...
hsinchu! where i met up with my relatives for a short while!
and that was kind of the end of my trip to taiwan haha. am missing it already, which is quite strange considering i wasn't always in a good mood during the trip - being unable to bring any CDs back (i mailed 2 CD sets back home from hsinchu), spending extravagently on things, sticking around a motley crew of shoppers who all had different agendas, hanging around amusement/cultural parks aimlessly twice WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN VISITING TAIPEI 101 AND WINDOW SHOPPING AND EATING :@ still, i'm pretty glad for the chance to travel abroad again. happy happy happy.
teehee sorry for not buying anything for you guys (the stuff there is practially the same as in singapore) but if you would come visit me at my house i could treat you to delicious pineapple tarts and mochi :D
***
post-taiwan was quite ok, finished reading the whole of 'deathly hallows' in approx 10 hours, munching on my newfound snacks (i gained 1.5kg after returning home, i hope part of it is muscle mass created from climbing hills). feeling more solitary than ever, i'd like to spend time staying at home and not going out haha.
anyway, RnR was not too bad, save for all the amusement parks the guided 'educational' tour brought us too. too many of a good thing is bad, and boy, were we glad for the 'free and easy' periods!
ok, let the pictures do the talking!
betel nuts are the craze all over taiwan...
... and so are convenience stores, such as 7-eleven.
this is a scary amusement ride, it propells you vertically down at blistering speeds up till over 100 km/h! the scary part was actually going up, though :| oh, it was interesting to note that a lot of the amusement parks promote certain cultures, such as the local aborigines or modern taiwan history...
turkish ice cream, found in leofoo village, also an amusement park. i liked that park the most, it even had a mini zoo!
won't be seeing this in s'pore anytime soon, i guess. opium smells like soap. oh, and i think i tasted opium-flavoured green tea (compliments from the hotel) - the taste is GROSS. like cigarette smoke.
some of my 'mates at the lunch table... we ate pork and egg and cabbage for every meal in 20 minutes. not that i'm complaining about the pork, haha
that's me (i can't recognise myself) at a temple overlooking a really huge river.
i'm rather thankful for the typhoon, which cooled temperatures down by about 10 degrees. how picturesque, never mind the human heads below :S
ximending... lots of streetwear shops, shopping haven for teens. however prices don't differ much from singapore, that kind of dampened things a bit :(
but it's all ok when i have cheap food! 2 buns going for NT35 (approx. $1.60) because the shop was to close for the day...
another part of ximending. how i wish i had all the money in the world *drools*
ningxia night market, near the hotel which i stayed in.
tasty food from ningxia!
how can you say you've visited taipei without going to at least one night market heh! i visited one more - shilin!
some parts of taiwan still live in the 8-bit world, i see :P how can one cartridge cost NT300!? it should be free or priceless in this age and time lol.
one of a few shopping malls we visited. i think in all i spent over NT10000 in all sorts of stuff, don't ask me how i did it :|
horrah for their train system (whose engines make similar sounds as our local MRT - manufactured by the same japanese company) i liked my travelling experiences on the trains a lot...
TRTS. yep it does look a bit like our MRTs...
waiting for the inter-town train to take me out of taipei (albeit 'illegally') to...
hsinchu! where i met up with my relatives for a short while!
and that was kind of the end of my trip to taiwan haha. am missing it already, which is quite strange considering i wasn't always in a good mood during the trip - being unable to bring any CDs back (i mailed 2 CD sets back home from hsinchu), spending extravagently on things, sticking around a motley crew of shoppers who all had different agendas, hanging around amusement/cultural parks aimlessly twice WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN VISITING TAIPEI 101 AND WINDOW SHOPPING AND EATING :@ still, i'm pretty glad for the chance to travel abroad again. happy happy happy.
teehee sorry for not buying anything for you guys (the stuff there is practially the same as in singapore) but if you would come visit me at my house i could treat you to delicious pineapple tarts and mochi :D
***
post-taiwan was quite ok, finished reading the whole of 'deathly hallows' in approx 10 hours, munching on my newfound snacks (i gained 1.5kg after returning home, i hope part of it is muscle mass created from climbing hills). feeling more solitary than ever, i'd like to spend time staying at home and not going out haha.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
pre-ROC
met up with weiyuan, ryan, keegan, chenjie, jeremy, matthew and jlo (the latter two are juniors whom i'm not very familiar with haha) for lunch at takashimaya breeks, shared a mass attack, or whatever the big bowl of ice and cream is called. cheat one lor, that thing is mostly blended crushed ice and cream with some sort of extra flavouring in it. anyway, it was supposed to be a farewell of sorts for chenjie (sigh). i think i'll miss him in time to come.
in other news, i got wind of some spoilers for HP7 thanks to weiyuan :) ah, can't wait to read the book!
in other more important matters, i'm very apprehensive about the trip, so much that i'm really stressed out. i have no suitable bag at home to use as hand carried lugguage (trolley bags are either too small or too big and very unwieldly, schoolbag-type bags are too small ARGH) and now i'm resigned to a trolley bag which threatens to break the strict regulations for size and weight. don't ask me how am i going to board the plane without the trolley bag (last minute shopping for a bag??) ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH! i can imagine my instructors commenting about my 'kiasu-ness' with the bag size and type...
ok i'll take a nap before i taxi there. wish me luck.
in other news, i got wind of some spoilers for HP7 thanks to weiyuan :) ah, can't wait to read the book!
in other more important matters, i'm very apprehensive about the trip, so much that i'm really stressed out. i have no suitable bag at home to use as hand carried lugguage (trolley bags are either too small or too big and very unwieldly, schoolbag-type bags are too small ARGH) and now i'm resigned to a trolley bag which threatens to break the strict regulations for size and weight. don't ask me how am i going to board the plane without the trolley bag (last minute shopping for a bag??) ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH! i can imagine my instructors commenting about my 'kiasu-ness' with the bag size and type...
ok i'll take a nap before i taxi there. wish me luck.
i am so fat, that when i jump for joy...
coolest thing: I PASSED SOC! thanks to a very encouraging sergeant who literally did more than 'walk' the talk haha :)
next obstacles are just the ROC trip and my IPPT (i want the C** badge gah!!!) my legs goyak already, if not, can get silver.
came back from a fatty but not very fulfilling meal @ swensens which cost $27 with my BSLC sectionmates. i had to eat a midnight mcdonald's supper, consisting of a double cheeseburger and a small coke ($3 in total!), to satisfy my palate. man, am i indulgent!
ok, so late, must sleep. tomorrow still got outing sia! oops should be spending more time with family gah. but tomorrow's outing is very very important... updates coming soon
I PASSED SOC!!!!
next obstacles are just the ROC trip and my IPPT (i want the C** badge gah!!!) my legs goyak already, if not, can get silver.
came back from a fatty but not very fulfilling meal @ swensens which cost $27 with my BSLC sectionmates. i had to eat a midnight mcdonald's supper, consisting of a double cheeseburger and a small coke ($3 in total!), to satisfy my palate. man, am i indulgent!
ok, so late, must sleep. tomorrow still got outing sia! oops should be spending more time with family gah. but tomorrow's outing is very very important... updates coming soon
I PASSED SOC!!!!
Monday, July 16, 2007
another round of rambling, be prepared.
yesterday was a good day, spent time with parents and went out to watch OOTP. not a fantastic rendition, maybe it's because there is zero rising action - there isn't quite a moment where the pacing of the movie is slowed down. quite sad that most of the characters are whittled down to cameos (would like to see more of the professors), though i guess it's essential that it is done. the film is obviously targeted at people who have read the book; there isn't much explanation about the ongoings weaved into the dialogue. and i think a lot of information of secondary importance (but still quite important) got left out. overall rating: 3.2/5 (the extra .2 because its harry potter)
today was a rather sucky day, not just because tuesday is looming. first i tried to resist the temptations of junk/extra food millions of times, and finally the floodgates of my stomach and wallet burst (what's new). second, i spent a lot of time ambling about home aimlessly. practised basic drawing of straight lines and round shapes, poked the piano for less than 5 minutes, sat down in front of the computer for goodness knows how long, had a glimpse of the TV (saw a few moments of kids central, channel 8 and ellen degeneres in bed?!). third, my resolve to exercise on this gloriously sunny and supposedly happy day dissolved into nothingness. fourth, i explored a certain someone's blog - i hope he/she never finds out, i'm quite sure it'll never happen anyway - and i think reading his/her posts affected my mood. how i wish i could change him/her, turn him/her around 180 degrees and revamp his/her life. argh.
i am a lump of fat, the weighing scale with techno electrodes that are supposed to measure your bone/fat/water mass, among other things, can testify. we'll see if i can pass SOC. shit, confirm cannot one, and i'll be sad and embarrassed again, the cycle repeats, blahblahblah. maybe i won't be able to earn my 3stripes, what an entertaining thought. i'll probably attempt to downgrade before that happens to make myself feel better. failure sucks, and i don't want it. who would anyway heh.
calculations of my finances revealed i spent S$1845.96 the whole of this year so far, which is more than half my salary (which includes my forwarded august pay)!? my gosh, if i were a rifleman i would have spent away all of my allowance! don't ask me how i manage to spend S$300 a month. you'll be surprised how all the little expenditures add up, and, can you fathom this, i could have cut my spending by half if i just stopped snacking and going out for things altogether.
looks like my life is pared down to basic survival. thoughts of money, health, career (if you consider being an NSF as an occupation, actually it's not but never mind that), family. not quite in the mood for friendly gatherings or meetings, i like to be alone or with one or two other friends in a quiet setting. oh, just give me assurance i'll successfully complete anything that comes in army, and i think my life will brighten up.
no, seriously, what you've read is really about 90% of what goes through in my brain. of course i could have elaborated more about my weekday happenings, but they are more temporal and my memory and senses have numbed since ages, hence a plain ol' me. i really wonder how long it will take for me to (re?)open up to close and chummy relationships, platonic or otherwise.
i like my blog white now, it's quieter and cleaner :)
yesterday was a good day, spent time with parents and went out to watch OOTP. not a fantastic rendition, maybe it's because there is zero rising action - there isn't quite a moment where the pacing of the movie is slowed down. quite sad that most of the characters are whittled down to cameos (would like to see more of the professors), though i guess it's essential that it is done. the film is obviously targeted at people who have read the book; there isn't much explanation about the ongoings weaved into the dialogue. and i think a lot of information of secondary importance (but still quite important) got left out. overall rating: 3.2/5 (the extra .2 because its harry potter)
today was a rather sucky day, not just because tuesday is looming. first i tried to resist the temptations of junk/extra food millions of times, and finally the floodgates of my stomach and wallet burst (what's new). second, i spent a lot of time ambling about home aimlessly. practised basic drawing of straight lines and round shapes, poked the piano for less than 5 minutes, sat down in front of the computer for goodness knows how long, had a glimpse of the TV (saw a few moments of kids central, channel 8 and ellen degeneres in bed?!). third, my resolve to exercise on this gloriously sunny and supposedly happy day dissolved into nothingness. fourth, i explored a certain someone's blog - i hope he/she never finds out, i'm quite sure it'll never happen anyway - and i think reading his/her posts affected my mood. how i wish i could change him/her, turn him/her around 180 degrees and revamp his/her life. argh.
i am a lump of fat, the weighing scale with techno electrodes that are supposed to measure your bone/fat/water mass, among other things, can testify. we'll see if i can pass SOC. shit, confirm cannot one, and i'll be sad and embarrassed again, the cycle repeats, blahblahblah. maybe i won't be able to earn my 3stripes, what an entertaining thought. i'll probably attempt to downgrade before that happens to make myself feel better. failure sucks, and i don't want it. who would anyway heh.
calculations of my finances revealed i spent S$1845.96 the whole of this year so far, which is more than half my salary (which includes my forwarded august pay)!? my gosh, if i were a rifleman i would have spent away all of my allowance! don't ask me how i manage to spend S$300 a month. you'll be surprised how all the little expenditures add up, and, can you fathom this, i could have cut my spending by half if i just stopped snacking and going out for things altogether.
looks like my life is pared down to basic survival. thoughts of money, health, career (if you consider being an NSF as an occupation, actually it's not but never mind that), family. not quite in the mood for friendly gatherings or meetings, i like to be alone or with one or two other friends in a quiet setting. oh, just give me assurance i'll successfully complete anything that comes in army, and i think my life will brighten up.
no, seriously, what you've read is really about 90% of what goes through in my brain. of course i could have elaborated more about my weekday happenings, but they are more temporal and my memory and senses have numbed since ages, hence a plain ol' me. i really wonder how long it will take for me to (re?)open up to close and chummy relationships, platonic or otherwise.
i like my blog white now, it's quieter and cleaner :)
Sunday, July 15, 2007
this was a most horrible week for me >:( field camp was uber-pissing because of impatient and untactful twits, also i was an appointment holder for the brunt of the camp, which just made things worse la. think the peer apprasials for me is going to be seriously screwed up this time (fyi i got good peer reviews for bmt and bslc). heck, not like i'm considering to make many, if at all, good friends out of my present platoon mates >:@ to top it all off, we got confined last night and had our long weekend cut by effectively 1.5 days (i just booked out), and all because of a few irresponsible persons.
on a different note, my OC is seriously wonderful. how i wish i could pass my SOC for him. well my passing of SOC is probably insignificant to him la, but i can't quite think how else to show my gratitude. thank goodness i have him as OC...
on a different note, my OC is seriously wonderful. how i wish i could pass my SOC for him. well my passing of SOC is probably insignificant to him la, but i can't quite think how else to show my gratitude. thank goodness i have him as OC...
Friday, July 06, 2007
joke
probably the wittiest thing i said the whole of this week and last week:
"the length of a SAR 21 [edit: or any rifle for that matter] depends on how tight you screw the muzzle"
that came as a rare spontaneous flash from a chasm in my mind. and as all of you know, i'm a boring person who doesn't make many intelligent comments, if at all, right? :P
more about intelligent (read: smart aleck-ish) comments. i found out that the blogger, who was at one period of time infamous for a particular post which created a large public furore, was accepted into yale university for the same reasons :) you go, girl!
anyways, i need emotional support to push me through the last two legs of aslc BAH. you are probably lucky you aren't in my section, else you would hear me rant everyday :\ and speaking of two legs, i need two new and stronger legs to pass SOC. no, arms too!
my life revolves around army while my peers' lives revolve around the likes of friendster, facebook and myspace. shit, i've been forced to listen to stupid ditties like 'tokyo drift' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p07GQhBdIPQ and other euro technotrash, oops i mean eurodance, through a bunkmate's speakers that the tunes involuntarily surface in my mind all the time! GAH!!!
back to the previous topic, though. a(n) (in)sincere apology for not taking the time to respond to any stimuli directed towards me via the abovementioned electronic portals :P am too lazy to update anything online but my blog posts. hell, why am i spending so much time online?
i miss: RJC people youknowwhoyouare, BSLC sectionmates (screw shaun for leaving me alone), AND family (whenever i'm not at home)
"the length of a SAR 21 [edit: or any rifle for that matter] depends on how tight you screw the muzzle"
that came as a rare spontaneous flash from a chasm in my mind. and as all of you know, i'm a boring person who doesn't make many intelligent comments, if at all, right? :P
more about intelligent (read: smart aleck-ish) comments. i found out that the blogger, who was at one period of time infamous for a particular post which created a large public furore, was accepted into yale university for the same reasons :) you go, girl!
anyways, i need emotional support to push me through the last two legs of aslc BAH. you are probably lucky you aren't in my section, else you would hear me rant everyday :\ and speaking of two legs, i need two new and stronger legs to pass SOC. no, arms too!
my life revolves around army while my peers' lives revolve around the likes of friendster, facebook and myspace. shit, i've been forced to listen to stupid ditties like 'tokyo drift' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p07GQhBdIPQ and other euro technotrash, oops i mean eurodance, through a bunkmate's speakers that the tunes involuntarily surface in my mind all the time! GAH!!!
back to the previous topic, though. a(n) (in)sincere apology for not taking the time to respond to any stimuli directed towards me via the abovementioned electronic portals :P am too lazy to update anything online but my blog posts. hell, why am i spending so much time online?
i miss: RJC people youknowwhoyouare, BSLC sectionmates (screw shaun for leaving me alone), AND family (whenever i'm not at home)
Saturday, June 23, 2007
darn it
it's a really bad time to be in NS. that stance (for the lack of a more appropriate word) is getting reinforced in me now, and why that thought?
apart from the obvious reason that i'm serving NS during the prime of my life (on second thoughts NS is training me to be physically and mentally fitter, which i wouldn't have bothered to do unless forced, so i take back the previous statement teehee...), i'm missing a hell lot of good TV and movies this year! argh!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_in_film - how many good films can you spot?! all the threequels, animated films (the simpsons!), thrillers and etc.
and mediacorp channel 8 seems to be producing more interesting and less lame shows, such as 'kinship' （手足）*i'm rooting for malaysian jesseca liu* and...
'switched!' （幸运星）
the TV commercials and photoshoots (published by mediacorp tv) are looking good, no? i am secretly in love with jeanette aw *silly embarrassed grin*
but no time to watch, unless i attend B or C or OOC every day.
siiiiigh.
apart from the obvious reason that i'm serving NS during the prime of my life (on second thoughts NS is training me to be physically and mentally fitter, which i wouldn't have bothered to do unless forced, so i take back the previous statement teehee...), i'm missing a hell lot of good TV and movies this year! argh!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_in_film - how many good films can you spot?! all the threequels, animated films (the simpsons!), thrillers and etc.
and mediacorp channel 8 seems to be producing more interesting and less lame shows, such as 'kinship' （手足）*i'm rooting for malaysian jesseca liu* and...
'switched!' （幸运星）
the TV commercials and photoshoots (published by mediacorp tv) are looking good, no? i am secretly in love with jeanette aw *silly embarrassed grin*
but no time to watch, unless i attend B or C or OOC every day.
siiiiigh.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Play!
http://www.play-symphony.com/
watched Play! with huimin and jeff, who are like my regular concert-mates. anyway, it's the kind of classical concert that anyone who likes video games can go watch and not fall asleep (so fast), partly due to the visuals. stylistically the programme was understandably slanted towards simplistic but coherent, of course, medleys (not even theme and variation).
i found the super mario bros. medley very enjoyable, because i'm quite familiar with the game and the songs haha. and of course the final fantasy/kingdom hearts pieces too. i'm not too satisfied with the organist (who can't play at a constant tempo), the pianist (who is inaudible whenever the orchestra is playing loud) and the choir (which only sounded good for the final piece, when they decided to give their all at last). wah lau, can't even enunciate their words properly for all the other songs, thank goodness most of the text are simple effectual 'ah's :P i guess my standards of choral singing has increased tremendously since watching the bavarian radio chorus concert. and no chiobu in the chorus at all. that's sad.
the concert reminds me of 'symphony of voices 2004' by VJC choir, where they performed a FFX + spirited away (one of my favourite anime movies) medley arranged by mr kwei, complete with accompanying video clips of the game. i remember being enthralled by the experience :)
in other news, i'm adapting ok to my new training schedule + company :) phew! now my main worry is to pass SOC and i think i can get my 3SG rank and $800 and my (self-perceived?) virtually 100% confirmed vocation as a BMTC instructor oh yeah yeah yeah! this year is quite a blast so far, got money, can spend, so many happenings etc.
ok that's all for now, i'm looking forward to eat my marks & spencer cereal tomorrow for breakfast (bought it at $4.90, usu price $7.90!)
watched Play! with huimin and jeff, who are like my regular concert-mates. anyway, it's the kind of classical concert that anyone who likes video games can go watch and not fall asleep (so fast), partly due to the visuals. stylistically the programme was understandably slanted towards simplistic but coherent, of course, medleys (not even theme and variation).
i found the super mario bros. medley very enjoyable, because i'm quite familiar with the game and the songs haha. and of course the final fantasy/kingdom hearts pieces too. i'm not too satisfied with the organist (who can't play at a constant tempo), the pianist (who is inaudible whenever the orchestra is playing loud) and the choir (which only sounded good for the final piece, when they decided to give their all at last). wah lau, can't even enunciate their words properly for all the other songs, thank goodness most of the text are simple effectual 'ah's :P i guess my standards of choral singing has increased tremendously since watching the bavarian radio chorus concert. and no chiobu in the chorus at all. that's sad.
the concert reminds me of 'symphony of voices 2004' by VJC choir, where they performed a FFX + spirited away (one of my favourite anime movies) medley arranged by mr kwei, complete with accompanying video clips of the game. i remember being enthralled by the experience :)
in other news, i'm adapting ok to my new training schedule + company :) phew! now my main worry is to pass SOC and i think i can get my 3SG rank and $800 and my (self-perceived?) virtually 100% confirmed vocation as a BMTC instructor oh yeah yeah yeah! this year is quite a blast so far, got money, can spend, so many happenings etc.
ok that's all for now, i'm looking forward to eat my marks & spencer cereal tomorrow for breakfast (bought it at $4.90, usu price $7.90!)
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
can't resist!
didn't want to post a 2nd time today, it would seem to be overboard going on and on about myself (worse that i proclaimed myself to be narcissistic my previous post) but who's to stop me? muahahahaX
thanks george, andrea, pei shan, senthil, dominic and yvonne for the CD! they (the gospellers) tout themselves as an a cappella group but i only hear 3 truly a cappella tracks on the CD - including the introduction and interlude -.- nonetheless, it's rather good ol' standard soul + RnB music (ken hirai?). liked their single 'Platinum Kiss', their only proper a cappella track on their latest album. although the music was of good quality, maybe a more varied lineup of songs would be sweller!
***
main reason why i want to blog now: just frustrated about my inevitable third phase in NS!!! although i have to rush tomorrow morning to make it to camp by 7am, my bags are still unpacked as of now.
why can't i get a stay-out vocation? why why why
ironically, reading the thread about how to downgrade PES in the Stomp! forum has made me feel better for a while. basically most people who advise either gave dumb advice "go fake mental illness! go get knocked down by a vehicle!" or something more reasonable. for example, one cited an incident whereby this guy who faked a mental illness could not gain a place in ANY university or college because of his track record of mental illnesses (btw the condition was reflected in his certificate of service in NS) :O holy moley. most agree it's totally stupid to injure yourself seriously enough to downgrade then live with your disability for the rest of your sad life (that i agree, of course)
therefore the best thing to do is to just carry on and do your best *sad smile* :) but hey, even the cloudiest day can clear before 5pm to reveal a beautiful sunset, like today. maybe i'll have a better life in NS eventually?
knowing that there's a good possibility i may fail the course doesn't help things, and then there's the overseas trip and millions of field camps and scaling high structures (and jumping off them, too) which are sure to cause damage to my body. argh, i don't want footrot or any infection or injury to any part of my body!
another (side) factor that is causing me stress is that i'm sure that my current abilities in the fields of aesthetics will land me in nowhere. e.g. i can't play scales or improvise on the keyboard properly, much less sight sing :O so no part time piano teacher for me when i finally ORD. or how i try to draw still life and it ends up disfigured :\ conclusion: i will be sad even after i ORD.
or maybe the cause of my troubles is that i'm staying at home doing nothing at all. it's IMMENSELY boring just idling around at home (no wonder i'm eating more), thinking of doing things but don't have the courage or perseverance to succeed in it (e.g. playing a performance-level jazz piano piece)
OR maybe listening to the same songs over again through the computer speakers adds to the monotony of my life (too lazy to rip my CD collection again after this computer had been reformatted).
now i wonder if i'm asking too much of myself or my life hm... i always asked my mom if she ever feels bored at home, and her reply is always 'no' :O she's unbelievable! i really don't think i can survive going through the same routine every other day...
if i had the freedom to do anything i want to do without regard to consequences, i would like to be in a mega mall chomping down food
i am a truly self-indulgent person, i realise :|
thanks george, andrea, pei shan, senthil, dominic and yvonne for the CD! they (the gospellers) tout themselves as an a cappella group but i only hear 3 truly a cappella tracks on the CD - including the introduction and interlude -.- nonetheless, it's rather good ol' standard soul + RnB music (ken hirai?). liked their single 'Platinum Kiss', their only proper a cappella track on their latest album. although the music was of good quality, maybe a more varied lineup of songs would be sweller!
***
main reason why i want to blog now: just frustrated about my inevitable third phase in NS!!! although i have to rush tomorrow morning to make it to camp by 7am, my bags are still unpacked as of now.
why can't i get a stay-out vocation? why why why
ironically, reading the thread about how to downgrade PES in the Stomp! forum has made me feel better for a while. basically most people who advise either gave dumb advice "go fake mental illness! go get knocked down by a vehicle!" or something more reasonable. for example, one cited an incident whereby this guy who faked a mental illness could not gain a place in ANY university or college because of his track record of mental illnesses (btw the condition was reflected in his certificate of service in NS) :O holy moley. most agree it's totally stupid to injure yourself seriously enough to downgrade then live with your disability for the rest of your sad life (that i agree, of course)
therefore the best thing to do is to just carry on and do your best *sad smile* :) but hey, even the cloudiest day can clear before 5pm to reveal a beautiful sunset, like today. maybe i'll have a better life in NS eventually?
knowing that there's a good possibility i may fail the course doesn't help things, and then there's the overseas trip and millions of field camps and scaling high structures (and jumping off them, too) which are sure to cause damage to my body. argh, i don't want footrot or any infection or injury to any part of my body!
another (side) factor that is causing me stress is that i'm sure that my current abilities in the fields of aesthetics will land me in nowhere. e.g. i can't play scales or improvise on the keyboard properly, much less sight sing :O so no part time piano teacher for me when i finally ORD. or how i try to draw still life and it ends up disfigured :\ conclusion: i will be sad even after i ORD.
or maybe the cause of my troubles is that i'm staying at home doing nothing at all. it's IMMENSELY boring just idling around at home (no wonder i'm eating more), thinking of doing things but don't have the courage or perseverance to succeed in it (e.g. playing a performance-level jazz piano piece)
OR maybe listening to the same songs over again through the computer speakers adds to the monotony of my life (too lazy to rip my CD collection again after this computer had been reformatted).
now i wonder if i'm asking too much of myself or my life hm... i always asked my mom if she ever feels bored at home, and her reply is always 'no' :O she's unbelievable! i really don't think i can survive going through the same routine every other day...
if i had the freedom to do anything i want to do without regard to consequences, i would like to be in a mega mall chomping down food
i am a truly self-indulgent person, i realise :|
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Sunday, June 03, 2007
BAVARIAN RADIO CHOIR
this has got to be the BEST concert i've watched in quite a while! and only at 17 bucks omg~~~ huimin and jeff can attest to the choir's godly qualities...
the best thing i love about the choir? its homogeneity. and when i say homogeneity, it's really homogenous. the chords not only lock in perfectly, there isn't any spectrum of tone, even between the male and female voices :O how did they do that?! well, strong rounded altoes, no soprano divas, and unobtrusive basses (the invisible subwoofers, as i like to call them). my only complaint about the tone is that a few tenors can't help but belt at the high notes, compromising the homogeneity slightly. otherwise, there isn't any case of belting out. they're so controlled even at the loudest, they retain the same tone. it's pretty obvious that every member is selected partly on the basis of their tone i.e. most have the same voice qualities.
and - get this - they're wonderful at varying their tone in order to suit different genres of songs. their contemporary (20th century songs) are so dynamic (more on that later), their chinese songs (they sang qing jiang he haha!) are really damn chinese they put asian choirs to shame. just splendid. mmm the accompanying pianist was only so-so, not outstanding in any way :\
anyway, the choir actually prepared 2 contrasting programmes, one for each day of their performance. upon first viewing the programme list i thought the one i'm going to hear is going to be better, but after sitting through the first half, perhaps yesterday's programme is more varied and wouldn't have bored me through the first half. i mean, listening to one hour of mostly early romantic pieces will get quite tiring after some time. at least they incorporated songs which only require male or female chorus. (fyi, yesterday's programme was baroque/renaissance for the first half, and romantic the second half save for mozart's ave verum corpus)
having said all that, the first half songs were all wonderful in their own ways, too bad they all have similar textures and all that. would be nice if there were some 20th century or baroque piece in the first half to contrast, or even late romantic would be nice! first half was brahms' op. 42 and 44 (early works), schubert, mendelssohn and schumann - lyrical overkill. i'm sorry, i didn't listen carefully enough to their singing to detect much difference between the styles of schubert, mendelssohn and schumann :$
second half was awesomely moving. thomas jennefelt's 'warning to the rich' had the controlled dynamism and intensity required; composition-wise, it's just fantastic. britten's 'the ballad of little musgrave and lady barnard' tells a tragic romantic story about a poor guy who loved a rich married lady. i must admit it was really touching, my eyes were a bit moist at the end; the lyrics and music complemented each other. finally, brahms' op. 104 (a late work yay) which had the much needed polyphony to contrast against the first half songs. each song in the second half sounded better than the previous lol! it was such a treat...
speaking of treats, they treated us to 3 extra pieces during their encore, 2 of which are local chinese compositions and the third, a magical ave verum corpus that went permanently flat from the middle onwards but it was still magical (when they were still on key and didn't get a bit lost hahaha)
***
oh yea, visited the world book fair just before the concert. got persuaded to invest in a long term (25 years!?) insurance+saving plan. anyway, the selection of books is pretty good if you're a chinese reader, else, it isn't very wonderful la. however, i managed to get some piano scores at cheaper prices (parallel imports la). didn't find what i was hoping to find - nice books on contemporary design at cheap prices.
***
back to the concert: post-concert was quite enjoyable too, perhaps because of the 'ecstasy' effect the concert had on me. started to blabber quite a lot of trash at the amusement of ourselves heh. i think that's where i'm a bit similar to my dad lol. got sombre/ecstatic moods one, very contrasting.
ok, gotta sleep. planning to do something about body maintenance tomorrow :P
the best thing i love about the choir? its homogeneity. and when i say homogeneity, it's really homogenous. the chords not only lock in perfectly, there isn't any spectrum of tone, even between the male and female voices :O how did they do that?! well, strong rounded altoes, no soprano divas, and unobtrusive basses (the invisible subwoofers, as i like to call them). my only complaint about the tone is that a few tenors can't help but belt at the high notes, compromising the homogeneity slightly. otherwise, there isn't any case of belting out. they're so controlled even at the loudest, they retain the same tone. it's pretty obvious that every member is selected partly on the basis of their tone i.e. most have the same voice qualities.
and - get this - they're wonderful at varying their tone in order to suit different genres of songs. their contemporary (20th century songs) are so dynamic (more on that later), their chinese songs (they sang qing jiang he haha!) are really damn chinese they put asian choirs to shame. just splendid. mmm the accompanying pianist was only so-so, not outstanding in any way :\
anyway, the choir actually prepared 2 contrasting programmes, one for each day of their performance. upon first viewing the programme list i thought the one i'm going to hear is going to be better, but after sitting through the first half, perhaps yesterday's programme is more varied and wouldn't have bored me through the first half. i mean, listening to one hour of mostly early romantic pieces will get quite tiring after some time. at least they incorporated songs which only require male or female chorus. (fyi, yesterday's programme was baroque/renaissance for the first half, and romantic the second half save for mozart's ave verum corpus)
having said all that, the first half songs were all wonderful in their own ways, too bad they all have similar textures and all that. would be nice if there were some 20th century or baroque piece in the first half to contrast, or even late romantic would be nice! first half was brahms' op. 42 and 44 (early works), schubert, mendelssohn and schumann - lyrical overkill. i'm sorry, i didn't listen carefully enough to their singing to detect much difference between the styles of schubert, mendelssohn and schumann :$
second half was awesomely moving. thomas jennefelt's 'warning to the rich' had the controlled dynamism and intensity required; composition-wise, it's just fantastic. britten's 'the ballad of little musgrave and lady barnard' tells a tragic romantic story about a poor guy who loved a rich married lady. i must admit it was really touching, my eyes were a bit moist at the end; the lyrics and music complemented each other. finally, brahms' op. 104 (a late work yay) which had the much needed polyphony to contrast against the first half songs. each song in the second half sounded better than the previous lol! it was such a treat...
speaking of treats, they treated us to 3 extra pieces during their encore, 2 of which are local chinese compositions and the third, a magical ave verum corpus that went permanently flat from the middle onwards but it was still magical (when they were still on key and didn't get a bit lost hahaha)
***
oh yea, visited the world book fair just before the concert. got persuaded to invest in a long term (25 years!?) insurance+saving plan. anyway, the selection of books is pretty good if you're a chinese reader, else, it isn't very wonderful la. however, i managed to get some piano scores at cheaper prices (parallel imports la). didn't find what i was hoping to find - nice books on contemporary design at cheap prices.
***
back to the concert: post-concert was quite enjoyable too, perhaps because of the 'ecstasy' effect the concert had on me. started to blabber quite a lot of trash at the amusement of ourselves heh. i think that's where i'm a bit similar to my dad lol. got sombre/ecstatic moods one, very contrasting.
ok, gotta sleep. planning to do something about body maintenance tomorrow :P
Friday, June 01, 2007
here's a quickie...
... but a sincere thanks to the people who somehow remembered my birthday even though i have virtually, nearly, going to disappear from their lives! didn't expect these many people to sms or call me or to even give me presents haha :$
in addition to my immediate family (in no particular order): dominic (you're the first!), teri (a close second haha), beow, shaun (my bunkmate), yi han, bjorn, kwan rui, jeff, xi xun, samk, ah yee and cousins, khairi, baldwin, huimin, chenjie, xavier, kevin ho, mat, george, bonkie, wendy, ryan, chang! sorry if i forgot to mention your name anywhere:(
a bit girly i know, but i <3 all of you!!! *attempts to bear hug and/or plant a smelly wet kiss on everyone*
anyway, stayed at home the entire day, because i'm on MC. sick but happy, ha! ok, i shall please Mr Tall by keeping my posts short and un-crappy! thanks for the pencils, btw! you've reminded me that i ought to be brushing up on my drawing skills :X hm that should be something i need to work towards for now (apart from clearing SOC) thanks to yi han, too, for wanting to treat me to a potentially sumptuous delifrance buffet *erhem* :P but of course i had to decline the treat, HAIZ! don't know how to reciprocate my dear friends' kindness, espeicially when i'm in camp :X
to please the plethora of people, i've also changed my display picture to a handsomer cuter me (taken 3 years back) :D *shameless smile*
ok, off to some leisurely drawing!
in addition to my immediate family (in no particular order): dominic (you're the first!), teri (a close second haha), beow, shaun (my bunkmate), yi han, bjorn, kwan rui, jeff, xi xun, samk, ah yee and cousins, khairi, baldwin, huimin, chenjie, xavier, kevin ho, mat, george, bonkie, wendy, ryan, chang! sorry if i forgot to mention your name anywhere:(
a bit girly i know, but i <3 all of you!!! *attempts to bear hug and/or plant a smelly wet kiss on everyone*
anyway, stayed at home the entire day, because i'm on MC. sick but happy, ha! ok, i shall please Mr Tall by keeping my posts short and un-crappy! thanks for the pencils, btw! you've reminded me that i ought to be brushing up on my drawing skills :X hm that should be something i need to work towards for now (apart from clearing SOC) thanks to yi han, too, for wanting to treat me to a potentially sumptuous delifrance buffet *erhem* :P but of course i had to decline the treat, HAIZ! don't know how to reciprocate my dear friends' kindness, espeicially when i'm in camp :X
to please the plethora of people, i've also changed my display picture to a handsomer cuter me (taken 3 years back) :D *shameless smile*
ok, off to some leisurely drawing!
Sunday, May 27, 2007
scottish fantasies (long post)
attended 'scottish fantasies', a classical concert performed by SSO + a chours including SSC.
guest solo violinist was good, but not good enough. i don't know much about violins, but i have a feeling a 1728 stradivarius may not carry a bruch melody through, with all the dynamism in tone and volume required, especially when juxtaposed against a billowing orchestra. for goodness sake, 1728 is still during JS freaking bach's time! something from that era ought to be used to play handel or mozart, ah yes, mozart.
her tone was like a coloratura's (spelling?) at the high range: sweet, agile; ascending notes tend to go a little little bit sharp. but a coloratura doesn't have the dramatic tone! maybe it's the strings? anyway, i can imagine how nice the violin would sound with a mozart piece, you know, something like the soprano in the 'magic flute'? harhar...
anyway, 2nd half was very interesting and even GOOD at parts... the chorus sucked occasionally, though. basic problems like blending within the section (technical problems)... yucks yucks yucks. oh, mr toh's ex-student, phua ee kia, and the yjc mep teacher ms yap performed in it.
i actually chatted with ms yap a bit at MOE during the scholarship tea session (way back last year, when i was still seriously considering teaching physics at 25). she's quite cool leh, RJCian, MOE scholar, and so actively involved in the local arts scene. she's part of some quartet called 'curious attacks', along with phua ee kia. check this website out for more information: http://curiousattacks.googlepages.com/
ate pineapple cheese prata topped with honey at kent ridge after the concert (YUM YUM!), at some shop called the 'cheese prata shop' i think, it's really really near NUS, along the expressway if i'm not mistaken. chatted with jeff and ms ng from acs about the concert and stuff haha...
i must complain to my readers about my spending habits! katong laksa, barley drink, ice cream, prata, milo dinosaur! ok fine, the laksa + barley was my lunch. ah yes, add a taxi fare from holland v to orchard (actually shared by 4 people, but it's still money spent). speaking of holland v, met up with chenjie/ryan/yiwei/keegan (the usual gang la) this afternoon too :)
if you can see my continuous but incongruent train of thought: i miss the community hospital carolling group!!! kwan rui, xi xun, sam, wen jun!! of which i have not seen kr and xx at all this year... and i strangely(?) miss s06c haha :$
perhaps it's my reluctance to admit to things i'd rather deny. not just about admitting i do miss people. (tangent: it's even more impossible to lie that i miss things/people whom i don't. urgh!) like, i've always been telling people i HATE classical music, reading, and chinese traditional music (ok, i DID honestly hate CO music, but that was back in primary school). don't know whether i really hated classical music or reading or not, but i really seldom listen to classical music or read serious books (well, relative to the amount of time i spend doing other things).
but i can't say i hate them you know. hell, i've been going for more classical/cultured performances than ever! and i managed to sit through hours of orchestra playing which i never thought i could (must be the mep training). and, i finished one novellete this year :O:O and am going to read more. i like recordings of some classical music, especially pieces i'm more familiar with, such as piano pieces which i've played before. to be honest, i like baroque music *gasp!* more than Classical music (note the capital C, it refers to the particular era of approx 60 years, not the entire history of western classical music - small c) and my future resolution is to practise the piano so that i can beat my peers in who currently pwns just about anyone else but have decided not to pursue piano in college MUAHAHAHA. not that i'm taking a music degree, though, hm. *thinks hard on how impossible this goal is to be achieved*
i think all these self denial is my way of trying to be 'part of' the mainstream. similar to how i cringe when the fact that i listen to more japanese (pop/rock/whatever) music than other types is declared to a large audience haha. actually ah, i do listen to asian pop lor, like mandopop hits on the radio. in fact, the first station i tune to is one of the chinese stations (then 99.5 and 92.4). but then i don't have a good retrieval of memory, so the melodies i listened to gets chucked into the depths of my brain, never to be refound till i listen to it again, then i recall. plus, i don't freaking memorise lyrics :|:| hence i can't sing on demand (i think i've mentioned that in the previous post).
OK fine. i'm behind the times when it comes to western contemporary music. sorry, can't take the jarring sounds i hear on 987 or 98 fm sometimes...
last.fm (a website + programme)is one of my avenues to reintegrate myself haha! you guys ought to try it too! too bad they only have selected 30 sec clips. tsk.
another random thought, after reviewing what i've just written: hopefully i won't break contact with the more-than-just-accquaintance-but-not-close-enough friends. haiz!
okok enough for one night, bloody hell i'll never recover from sleep deprivation at this rate (my fault) XD
guest solo violinist was good, but not good enough. i don't know much about violins, but i have a feeling a 1728 stradivarius may not carry a bruch melody through, with all the dynamism in tone and volume required, especially when juxtaposed against a billowing orchestra. for goodness sake, 1728 is still during JS freaking bach's time! something from that era ought to be used to play handel or mozart, ah yes, mozart.
her tone was like a coloratura's (spelling?) at the high range: sweet, agile; ascending notes tend to go a little little bit sharp. but a coloratura doesn't have the dramatic tone! maybe it's the strings? anyway, i can imagine how nice the violin would sound with a mozart piece, you know, something like the soprano in the 'magic flute'? harhar...
anyway, 2nd half was very interesting and even GOOD at parts... the chorus sucked occasionally, though. basic problems like blending within the section (technical problems)... yucks yucks yucks. oh, mr toh's ex-student, phua ee kia, and the yjc mep teacher ms yap performed in it.
i actually chatted with ms yap a bit at MOE during the scholarship tea session (way back last year, when i was still seriously considering teaching physics at 25). she's quite cool leh, RJCian, MOE scholar, and so actively involved in the local arts scene. she's part of some quartet called 'curious attacks', along with phua ee kia. check this website out for more information: http://curiousattacks.googlepages.com/
ate pineapple cheese prata topped with honey at kent ridge after the concert (YUM YUM!), at some shop called the 'cheese prata shop' i think, it's really really near NUS, along the expressway if i'm not mistaken. chatted with jeff and ms ng from acs about the concert and stuff haha...
i must complain to my readers about my spending habits! katong laksa, barley drink, ice cream, prata, milo dinosaur! ok fine, the laksa + barley was my lunch. ah yes, add a taxi fare from holland v to orchard (actually shared by 4 people, but it's still money spent). speaking of holland v, met up with chenjie/ryan/yiwei/keegan (the usual gang la) this afternoon too :)
if you can see my continuous but incongruent train of thought: i miss the community hospital carolling group!!! kwan rui, xi xun, sam, wen jun!! of which i have not seen kr and xx at all this year... and i strangely(?) miss s06c haha :$
perhaps it's my reluctance to admit to things i'd rather deny. not just about admitting i do miss people. (tangent: it's even more impossible to lie that i miss things/people whom i don't. urgh!) like, i've always been telling people i HATE classical music, reading, and chinese traditional music (ok, i DID honestly hate CO music, but that was back in primary school). don't know whether i really hated classical music or reading or not, but i really seldom listen to classical music or read serious books (well, relative to the amount of time i spend doing other things).
but i can't say i hate them you know. hell, i've been going for more classical/cultured performances than ever! and i managed to sit through hours of orchestra playing which i never thought i could (must be the mep training). and, i finished one novellete this year :O:O and am going to read more. i like recordings of some classical music, especially pieces i'm more familiar with, such as piano pieces which i've played before. to be honest, i like baroque music *gasp!* more than Classical music (note the capital C, it refers to the particular era of approx 60 years, not the entire history of western classical music - small c) and my future resolution is to practise the piano so that i can beat my peers in who currently pwns just about anyone else but have decided not to pursue piano in college MUAHAHAHA. not that i'm taking a music degree, though, hm. *thinks hard on how impossible this goal is to be achieved*
i think all these self denial is my way of trying to be 'part of' the mainstream. similar to how i cringe when the fact that i listen to more japanese (pop/rock/whatever) music than other types is declared to a large audience haha. actually ah, i do listen to asian pop lor, like mandopop hits on the radio. in fact, the first station i tune to is one of the chinese stations (then 99.5 and 92.4). but then i don't have a good retrieval of memory, so the melodies i listened to gets chucked into the depths of my brain, never to be refound till i listen to it again, then i recall. plus, i don't freaking memorise lyrics :|:| hence i can't sing on demand (i think i've mentioned that in the previous post).
OK fine. i'm behind the times when it comes to western contemporary music. sorry, can't take the jarring sounds i hear on 987 or 98 fm sometimes...
last.fm (a website + programme)is one of my avenues to reintegrate myself haha! you guys ought to try it too! too bad they only have selected 30 sec clips. tsk.
another random thought, after reviewing what i've just written: hopefully i won't break contact with the more-than-just-accquaintance-but-not-close-enough friends. haiz!
okok enough for one night, bloody hell i'll never recover from sleep deprivation at this rate (my fault) XD
Friday, May 25, 2007
weekly updates
1. phantom of the opera was worth every dollar :) although i wasn't always moved by the emotional bits of the musical (and i was dozing off during the start of the second half - blame that on my sleeping habit and the relative inactivity on the stage at that time) the voices were really good, and there weren't any cracks from the singers LOLOL. the visuals are really stunningly beautiful, methinks. there's something i like about the presentation of "masquerade" and the musical's theme song; i suppose i like loud (volume) and quicker-paced songs.
2. i still failed SOC. and my EX shoes and boots plan kind of failed, to some extent. ok, so basically i was to do SOCs till the end of the week. seeing negative improvement in the timing, it was pretty obvious my muscles can't quite take the daily 12+ minutes of strain (yea that's how bad my timing is, but factor in the 1+ min i stop at the low rope obstacle) therefore, i finally saw the MO for my long persisting numbness + odd sensations in my toes. the MO, who's probably used to seeing hordes of trainees seeking an opportunity to slack off, relented without persuasion and gave me EXCUSED FROM FOOTWEAR till the end of the week!!! :O was shocked and happy when i saw the results of my status :P
and so i skipped the following physical activity (a march), but the immediately-following NIGHT OUT too :'( because status personnel cannot have night out :( never mind, i still had lots of pleasure pigging out at the canteen.
and! the higher-ups decreed that there shall be no more SOCs for the rest of the week. oh well, good also la, since everyone just booked out tonight instead of tomorrow morning if there were SOC :D so here i am, typing this at midnight... heh.
3. i hope i get a good posting result. pray for me!
4. Operation *er hem sensitive, non-SAF related information* must not fail! will keep you people updated on its progress in time to come...
5. i listen too exclusively to the same artistes. i must listen to more mainstream western songs so that i can sing on demand ARGH!!!! and that would require memorising lyrics, which i don't :\
okays, gotta sleep now, my dry eyes are back in vogue, curse the dry weather and the winds which blow into my face!
2. i still failed SOC. and my EX shoes and boots plan kind of failed, to some extent. ok, so basically i was to do SOCs till the end of the week. seeing negative improvement in the timing, it was pretty obvious my muscles can't quite take the daily 12+ minutes of strain (yea that's how bad my timing is, but factor in the 1+ min i stop at the low rope obstacle) therefore, i finally saw the MO for my long persisting numbness + odd sensations in my toes. the MO, who's probably used to seeing hordes of trainees seeking an opportunity to slack off, relented without persuasion and gave me EXCUSED FROM FOOTWEAR till the end of the week!!! :O was shocked and happy when i saw the results of my status :P
and so i skipped the following physical activity (a march), but the immediately-following NIGHT OUT too :'( because status personnel cannot have night out :( never mind, i still had lots of pleasure pigging out at the canteen.
and! the higher-ups decreed that there shall be no more SOCs for the rest of the week. oh well, good also la, since everyone just booked out tonight instead of tomorrow morning if there were SOC :D so here i am, typing this at midnight... heh.
3. i hope i get a good posting result. pray for me!
4. Operation *er hem sensitive, non-SAF related information* must not fail! will keep you people updated on its progress in time to come...
5. i listen too exclusively to the same artistes. i must listen to more mainstream western songs so that i can sing on demand ARGH!!!! and that would require memorising lyrics, which i don't :\
okays, gotta sleep now, my dry eyes are back in vogue, curse the dry weather and the winds which blow into my face!
Sunday, May 20, 2007
this is a most fantastic, unbelievable week!
first, i've been worrying like hell about my impending extra (guard) duty, which was to be carried out this week, ever since last saturday. then, to my utter relief, the extra duty was to be on tuesday, hence saving my S$147 dollars and the pleasure of meeting my dear closeknit group of friends :)
BUT, there was to be an SOC period before my guard duty, or was there not? i changed into my SOC attire, when i was called to fall out of the SOC group (YES!!!!!!!) girls may want to ask their guys how horrible SOC can be, if you're still not adjusted to running as fast as you can but not too fast else you'll fail all your obstacles, and how the swing trainer + low rope fails a good number of people (including me). so, no SOC is good!
BUT, my company scheduled its FIRST NIGHT OUT ON TUESDAY!!!!!!! :'( imagine my sadness when i saw my bunkmates book in at 10pm (i was standing at the gate)
during that shift, jeff smsed me saying that yiwei got into NUS architecture! then came and went a flurry of sms-es and phone calls, which flustered my fellow guard duty-mate who reminded me i shouldn't be using the *er hem* phone during duty XD
so anyway, I GOT INTO NUS ARCHITECTURE YESSSSS!!! my life is going according to plan so far :D
the rest of the week was quite ok, just a couple of bumps here and there. like, how i got very irritated with some of my bunkmates for laughing and chatting away at the top of their voices callously, while a few of us were trying to sleep >:( nvm la, i got over it quite soon.
*haiz, dunno why i feel so distant from him, though we've known each other for more than 2 years. is it my fault, or his? haha. i guess our personalities are incompatible, though we're still ok friends, but not close buddies, which in fact, he managed to make, not one but two, and within my section leh! an irrational sense of jealousy comes over me whenever he chooses to ask favours of other people instead of me hahaha! i must be quite ego to think that people ought to be always looking to me first for any help. don't worry i'm not angry or anything with him, but i'm just trying to understand myself a bit better. i suppose i'm too introverted to interact with a lot of people, so i end up being quite selective about my friends in the end. friends meaning those i actually talk to; i'm genial to everyone else, thank you - i'm not the cold kind of person, just (usually) introverted*
ANYWAY, i evantually got my first night out on wednesday! and - oh my gosh - did i spend a hell lot on eating :D ice lemon tea, 2 prima deli pastries, andersen's ice-cream in 2 hours HOHOHO!
random: keeping a ledger has made me a stingy poker lol!
fast forward to friday. did AOC, quite fun, and i could actually climb a rope :D:D:D my confidence is restored!
on the same day, i completed 'the picture of dorian gray' by oscar wilde finally! a big thank-you to jeff, who kindled my interest for literature. i realise i am eligible to read books without feeling a sense of stupidity for not understanding the full meanings of texts. 'dorian gray' by the way, is quite an intriguing book that touches on a lot of philosophical/social issues, such as marriage, role of women, and especially pleasure. a really twisted book, i must say... haha...
and good news to myself: i finally conquered the swing trainer on saturday morning! :D:D realised that you CANNOT sprint your first 700m until you get exhausted, else you have no energy for any obstacle. in the end, my timing was 11:30 (which sucks actually, but considering that my previous timing was something like 13 or even 14 minutes, it's fantastic). now, to pass ALL the obstacles at one go -.- (failed low rope during the rundown, but i could do AOC leh??)
released from captivity at 10am :) rushed to katong mall, watched a rather substandard piano masterclass (fault lies with the performers who lack a LOT of basics) but still, was quite a good refresher to me. i wonder if i do have the potential to do classical music performance hm? nah, just a random thought.
point of going all the way for the masterclass wasn't for the class actually, but to see my lovely ex-piano teacher and yiwei and chen wei :) we ate really sinful stuff after the masterclass, never felt so happy after eating a basic meal for soooo long! fyi, i ate (FAKE) katong laksa (they didn't even snip the noodles short so that you can use only a spoon!) and char kway teow and homemade barley. loved the cockles, i don't know why?? i used to really HATE them as a kid, they got this fishy gooey smell, taste and texture to them. now, i kinda like it being squished in my mouth!? i'm growing up, man. oooh, and any food with lard, for example char kway teow, is SHEER HEAVEN. eating the fried pieces of lard is pleasureable!
held up jeff for quite a while as a result, finally met up with him (yiwei tagged along) and finally set off to bo's birthday bash :) great friends around, great food, great entertainment (consisting of a paid ameteur band and an impromptu performance haha). after watching them play the keyboard, i wonder if i have the musical intelligence to actually play any improvisation up to scratch :'( as you can see, i am bipolar with respect to the confidence of my abilities. i'm probably quite realistic, though.
really miss the company of these people whom i'm so familiar with.
OH SHIT I JUST REMEMBERED. i forgot to take home the peacock mask! sorry teri, heh~
life is so good to me~~~ i really don't think i deserve some of it, really :S
ok need to shower + sleep now, i got the entire day out, again :P singapore poly river raft race (which has become a family tradiiton kind of thing to attend, due to my dad) and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA TEEHEHEHEHE *gleaming eyes*
BUT, there was to be an SOC period before my guard duty, or was there not? i changed into my SOC attire, when i was called to fall out of the SOC group (YES!!!!!!!) girls may want to ask their guys how horrible SOC can be, if you're still not adjusted to running as fast as you can but not too fast else you'll fail all your obstacles, and how the swing trainer + low rope fails a good number of people (including me). so, no SOC is good!
BUT, my company scheduled its FIRST NIGHT OUT ON TUESDAY!!!!!!! :'( imagine my sadness when i saw my bunkmates book in at 10pm (i was standing at the gate)
during that shift, jeff smsed me saying that yiwei got into NUS architecture! then came and went a flurry of sms-es and phone calls, which flustered my fellow guard duty-mate who reminded me i shouldn't be using the *er hem* phone during duty XD
so anyway, I GOT INTO NUS ARCHITECTURE YESSSSS!!! my life is going according to plan so far :D
the rest of the week was quite ok, just a couple of bumps here and there. like, how i got very irritated with some of my bunkmates for laughing and chatting away at the top of their voices callously, while a few of us were trying to sleep >:( nvm la, i got over it quite soon.
*haiz, dunno why i feel so distant from him, though we've known each other for more than 2 years. is it my fault, or his? haha. i guess our personalities are incompatible, though we're still ok friends, but not close buddies, which in fact, he managed to make, not one but two, and within my section leh! an irrational sense of jealousy comes over me whenever he chooses to ask favours of other people instead of me hahaha! i must be quite ego to think that people ought to be always looking to me first for any help. don't worry i'm not angry or anything with him, but i'm just trying to understand myself a bit better. i suppose i'm too introverted to interact with a lot of people, so i end up being quite selective about my friends in the end. friends meaning those i actually talk to; i'm genial to everyone else, thank you - i'm not the cold kind of person, just (usually) introverted*
ANYWAY, i evantually got my first night out on wednesday! and - oh my gosh - did i spend a hell lot on eating :D ice lemon tea, 2 prima deli pastries, andersen's ice-cream in 2 hours HOHOHO!
random: keeping a ledger has made me a stingy poker lol!
fast forward to friday. did AOC, quite fun, and i could actually climb a rope :D:D:D my confidence is restored!
on the same day, i completed 'the picture of dorian gray' by oscar wilde finally! a big thank-you to jeff, who kindled my interest for literature. i realise i am eligible to read books without feeling a sense of stupidity for not understanding the full meanings of texts. 'dorian gray' by the way, is quite an intriguing book that touches on a lot of philosophical/social issues, such as marriage, role of women, and especially pleasure. a really twisted book, i must say... haha...
and good news to myself: i finally conquered the swing trainer on saturday morning! :D:D realised that you CANNOT sprint your first 700m until you get exhausted, else you have no energy for any obstacle. in the end, my timing was 11:30 (which sucks actually, but considering that my previous timing was something like 13 or even 14 minutes, it's fantastic). now, to pass ALL the obstacles at one go -.- (failed low rope during the rundown, but i could do AOC leh??)
released from captivity at 10am :) rushed to katong mall, watched a rather substandard piano masterclass (fault lies with the performers who lack a LOT of basics) but still, was quite a good refresher to me. i wonder if i do have the potential to do classical music performance hm? nah, just a random thought.
point of going all the way for the masterclass wasn't for the class actually, but to see my lovely ex-piano teacher and yiwei and chen wei :) we ate really sinful stuff after the masterclass, never felt so happy after eating a basic meal for soooo long! fyi, i ate (FAKE) katong laksa (they didn't even snip the noodles short so that you can use only a spoon!) and char kway teow and homemade barley. loved the cockles, i don't know why?? i used to really HATE them as a kid, they got this fishy gooey smell, taste and texture to them. now, i kinda like it being squished in my mouth!? i'm growing up, man. oooh, and any food with lard, for example char kway teow, is SHEER HEAVEN. eating the fried pieces of lard is pleasureable!
held up jeff for quite a while as a result, finally met up with him (yiwei tagged along) and finally set off to bo's birthday bash :) great friends around, great food, great entertainment (consisting of a paid ameteur band and an impromptu performance haha). after watching them play the keyboard, i wonder if i have the musical intelligence to actually play any improvisation up to scratch :'( as you can see, i am bipolar with respect to the confidence of my abilities. i'm probably quite realistic, though.
really miss the company of these people whom i'm so familiar with.
OH SHIT I JUST REMEMBERED. i forgot to take home the peacock mask! sorry teri, heh~
life is so good to me~~~ i really don't think i deserve some of it, really :S
ok need to shower + sleep now, i got the entire day out, again :P singapore poly river raft race (which has become a family tradiiton kind of thing to attend, due to my dad) and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA TEEHEHEHEHE *gleaming eyes*
Monday, May 14, 2007
on sale
anybody wants to watch phantom of the opera?
i may not be able to watch it, because of some stupid thing >:( which isn't totally my fault. i don't even KNOW when during this weekend i'm not free yet!
i'm very pissed about it!!!
anyway, details are as follows:
Sunday, 20th May 2007
2.00 pm
Esplanade Theatre
$147 (incl. of SISTIC charge)
Stall seat (Row O Seat 19)
that's a bloody good seat (the 2nd most expensive one) and it's such a waste if it's not taken up. if you're interested, can you please message me? first come first serve basis hor! oh btw you'll be sitting with bjorn and beow and maybe baldwin (don't know if he bought the ticket or not) and maybe one or two others.
*ack i haven't told bjorn that i may not be able to go*
in the event that i can actually attend the musical (i don't know when i'll know if i can or not) i'll recontact you yea?
sigh. here's bye-bye. till the next weekend, or the following one :(
i may not be able to watch it, because of some stupid thing >:( which isn't totally my fault. i don't even KNOW when during this weekend i'm not free yet!
i'm very pissed about it!!!
anyway, details are as follows:
Sunday, 20th May 2007
2.00 pm
Esplanade Theatre
$147 (incl. of SISTIC charge)
Stall seat (Row O Seat 19)
that's a bloody good seat (the 2nd most expensive one) and it's such a waste if it's not taken up. if you're interested, can you please message me? first come first serve basis hor! oh btw you'll be sitting with bjorn and beow and maybe baldwin (don't know if he bought the ticket or not) and maybe one or two others.
*ack i haven't told bjorn that i may not be able to go*
in the event that i can actually attend the musical (i don't know when i'll know if i can or not) i'll recontact you yea?
sigh. here's bye-bye. till the next weekend, or the following one :(
Sunday, May 13, 2007
one month late
sorry bjorn, i've been putting this on hold for so long haha! anyway, i think i'm beginning to idolise his qualities!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Lo
he's professional singer, composer, producer and graphic designer! (plus, he's bilingual!) and he was 29 when he launched his professional singing career (2005)... i didn't think that older singers would be as well-received as younger ones who just emerged from the teeny-bopper stage haha... i think he's proof to me that i can pursue what i intend to do: get a design-related degree and moonlight as some sort of musician. woots!
back to the music! being somewhat partial to RnB/pop(ular) music, i quite like his song arrangements. like "erica" where he integrated a cappella elements into the song, now that appeals to my choral background! basically good mainstream music, style-wise very typical of mandopop.
hacken lee's music gives a nice twist to the kind of music i usually hear. got influences from all over the place, like classical Western and Oriental music... and i like the elegant saxophone introductions to some of his songs, makes me think of classy restaurants... i'm beginning to form this conclusion that cantopop is mainly ballads, or at least the cantonese i know (bjorn, my cousins) like to listen to ballads haha!
thanks bjorn for lending me your CDs in your efforts to educate me in cantonese lol! i'll review the other artistes soon :) like vincy and edmond leung (interesting airy tone). i think my only exposure to the dialect is when i go back to malaysia, which happens only about twice a year (and due to NS i can't find time to go back. shit.)
somehow i find the inflections of the dialect so befitting of pop melodies, better than mandarin, hmm...
meanwhile, my dear classical-only friend is going to explore new genres of music, going over to his place to exchange my CDs for his WTC (well tempered clavier) by JS Bach :) i remember being spellbound by a recording of prelude no.12 in F minor book I (played that for DipABRSM) by... err Argerich i think, eh no, aiyah can't recall already, i don't even have that recording :(
still haven't found the perfect songs to lend him. he likes relaxing/soothing music, and i'm supposed to find pop/RnB/rock music that's soothing?? i think he needs classical pop (crossover) music. i like hayley westenra and charlotte church and sarah brightmann and russell watson and josh groban and... although i must confess i don't listen to them much, an occasional hearing is always so pleasant.
currently listening to: shiina ringo/the cantopop CDs i got
soon listening to: rachael yamagata/hayley westenra (when i get hold of their albums)
*i realise i prefer listening to female voices. hm.*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Lo
he's professional singer, composer, producer and graphic designer! (plus, he's bilingual!) and he was 29 when he launched his professional singing career (2005)... i didn't think that older singers would be as well-received as younger ones who just emerged from the teeny-bopper stage haha... i think he's proof to me that i can pursue what i intend to do: get a design-related degree and moonlight as some sort of musician. woots!
back to the music! being somewhat partial to RnB/pop(ular) music, i quite like his song arrangements. like "erica" where he integrated a cappella elements into the song, now that appeals to my choral background! basically good mainstream music, style-wise very typical of mandopop.
hacken lee's music gives a nice twist to the kind of music i usually hear. got influences from all over the place, like classical Western and Oriental music... and i like the elegant saxophone introductions to some of his songs, makes me think of classy restaurants... i'm beginning to form this conclusion that cantopop is mainly ballads, or at least the cantonese i know (bjorn, my cousins) like to listen to ballads haha!
thanks bjorn for lending me your CDs in your efforts to educate me in cantonese lol! i'll review the other artistes soon :) like vincy and edmond leung (interesting airy tone). i think my only exposure to the dialect is when i go back to malaysia, which happens only about twice a year (and due to NS i can't find time to go back. shit.)
somehow i find the inflections of the dialect so befitting of pop melodies, better than mandarin, hmm...
meanwhile, my dear classical-only friend is going to explore new genres of music, going over to his place to exchange my CDs for his WTC (well tempered clavier) by JS Bach :) i remember being spellbound by a recording of prelude no.12 in F minor book I (played that for DipABRSM) by... err Argerich i think, eh no, aiyah can't recall already, i don't even have that recording :(
still haven't found the perfect songs to lend him. he likes relaxing/soothing music, and i'm supposed to find pop/RnB/rock music that's soothing?? i think he needs classical pop (crossover) music. i like hayley westenra and charlotte church and sarah brightmann and russell watson and josh groban and... although i must confess i don't listen to them much, an occasional hearing is always so pleasant.
currently listening to: shiina ringo/the cantopop CDs i got
soon listening to: rachael yamagata/hayley westenra (when i get hold of their albums)
*i realise i prefer listening to female voices. hm.*
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