Hmmmmmm.........

Hubble.

2011-08-27T02:23:00.001+08:00

I'm bound to write something here sooner or later.

Watch this space.

It might (never) happen.

Reflection

2011-02-08T21:37:00.003+08:00

I know I wrote this in my facebook, but sometimes I really think I should be doing something else. Why did I decide to pursue music? I've been around music since I was alive. It's probably the only thing I know, or rather have a qualification in. It's not like I can't live without music. I don't love music THAT much. I don't spend 6 hours practicing my instrument. So, logically speaking, since I do not love music that much, I shouldn't be pursuing it as a career right?

I've never been able to compete with peers of my same level. It always seems that I have a reputation to live up to, having a musically-inclined family background. Any career options to do with music will only have to start with a blooming performing/solo debut. Going straight to teaching will seem like a failure and defeat in the face of overwhelming standards that I am not able to live up to. So what's next?

It's not like I can start a teaching career now anyway. I'm not even done with my studies. That is if I can even find a university in the first place. Should I even try to continue this path? Is it worth the sweat, money, time and embarrassment, when results are not even guaranteed, and when there are, they just aren't good enough?

I am, and always will be, just another guy trying to play the cello under the shadow of his family.

Touchdown

2010-11-30T00:37:00.002+08:00

Arrived on Austrian soil not 4 hours ago. 22 hours of traveling definitely takes a toll on you. Only managed to have 5 hours of sleep on the plane.

Fatigue is setting in. I already miss home and uncertainty is about to overwhelm my psychological state.

God is my only comfort. Pray for me if you are reading this.

...on second thought...

2010-10-12T12:21:00.003+08:00

The urge to blog today left me as soon as I arrived at the typing screen.

Bye!

Gastronomy

2010-09-27T19:10:00.006+08:00

Boredom can do wonders to a person.

Thanks to it I am inspired to try cooking again. Spaghetti Bolognese on wednesday was good. Carbonara yesterday was a near disaster. Where does one find pecorino romano cheese in Singapore anyway? My next ambition would be fried rice. That's how noob I am.

But on to REAL food.

Handburger @ Somserset 313. The patty's good at medium rare. Just above the unassuming onion rings, which were tasty with a soft center (though a little too oily), is the chilled tomato stuffed with coleslaw. Adds a tangy touch to a refreshing side. Next stop for burgers would be Burger Bench & Bar at Cineleisure Orchard. Been always curious about that place.

nEbO @ AMK Hub. That was one big sandwich. My iPod's reference for size doesn't do it justice. One half of that is about the length of my palm, and 1.5 times the width of my hand. I only finished 1/4 of a half. (That means 1/8 of the entire sandwich.)

Despite all this eating and cooking, I'm still losing weight. I wonder why...

...

2010-09-19T21:08:00.004+08:00

Just when I thought I've had enough to think about, issues creep up to me like a lioness stalking a baby gazelle. On top of that, the state of my mind, heart, body and soul is in no shape for tomorrow's lesson.

God, I've never needed You more.

Ha

2010-09-11T16:39:00.002+08:00

Saturday. Another one of those days to seal myself up at home and catch up on long-needed practice. But hey, I'm a free man in 5 days (technically). That means more time for consistent practice.

Popped to Death

2010-09-01T23:59:00.001+08:00

Her eyes were closed. The silence was deafening. An occasional cold breeze of wind breaks the otherwise stale air around her. An influx of memories filled her mind. This battle might be her last. Years of training and discipline boiled down to this moment. There were many like her, but she was different. In the world of men, she was an endangered species.

She takes a deep breath. Her right arm raises up, preparing a decisive strike. A wrong move could be the end of her. 'Strike and follow through.' she thought. She had rehearsed this in her mind countless times. Now, she has to act on it.

She strikes. It didn't take a blink of an eye before her right hand landed. Her deceptively harmless weapon met a metal surface. 'Now follow through'. She relaxes, not making the mistake of letting the situation get the best of her. The weight of her arm was sufficient. She pulls. 'Balance of weight and speed is key'. Too fast and she would have slipped, exposing herself to elements of counter-attack from any, or all of her enemies around her. Too slow, and she would have just ground herself to her doom.

Success. The metal surface vibrated with such ferocity, the energy had only one way to go. Down. The shockwave travelled rapidly, down in the grains of the wooden pillars, through into the hollow tree, piercing right into a metal pin embedded to the ground. The earth shook. Nobody would have thought that such power could have come out from such a person as her.

Elgar would have been proud.

Believe it or not, this post took me 3 days to complete. I just don't have the time anymore, not even to practice my instrument during the day. Pardon my bad command of english in regards to the pseudo-novel above. --> (Think Nodame Cantabile + Cooking Master Boy + Samurai X) The possibilities amuse me.

I have so much more to write, but it's already 1 minute to midnight. I guess therapy will have to wait another day/night.

Kit-Kat

2010-08-24T00:15:00.000+08:00

It is pretty amazing as I looked back at my life in church. Being raised up in a traditional setting of a Presbyterian church, then moving on to the day when my cousin brought me to a rather different church. The very first day I attended his church was nothing short of an in-your-face miracle. I was 13 then.

I consider myself blessed and very fortunate to be in the group I am in now. It wasn't the same in the past, when I was mixing with people who do not understand the circumstances surrounding me. We were all innocent and ignorant of so many things going on. We did what we thought and knew was right, but our eyes still weren't fully opened. It came with age and experience. As I grew up and looked back, it amazes me at how God has worked in my life over the years. I've always thought I could only have friends who are musicians, or at least understand what music is all about. It seemed to me that musicians can only fully relate their thinking and be understood by a fellow musician. I looked at my family and can't help drawing the link to that fact. All the musicians in my family married another musician, or somebody who works in the music scene. A couple in my current group consists of a trombonist and flautist.

Maybe there's a need to be understood. Maybe it's easier to relate to somebody who is in the same field of work as you. (What about lawyers?) Maybe it's the fact that your other half has to understand why you have to spend 3 hours alone in a room tearing your heart out with your other other half? Maybe it's so that he/she can understand why you can't go out on a date because you need to practice. (But seriously, get a life.)

This disconnection with the rest of the world (non-musicians) was detrimental to my social and spiritual well-being in church for a couple of years. Until I attended this group. It is... different. I figured, the problem might have been me all along.

But that's a another story for another day.

Taking a day off from practicing last Friday was probably the best decision I made in the past week. Practicing til the cows come home was taking its toll on my hands and sanity. I figured, if it's not getting better by practicing a whole lot more, might as well take a step back and think things through. I got back on Saturday and the feeling was great. My thumb doesn't hurt anymore, I was relaxed, and the sense of positivity was back. Maybe the fact that I was back home helped a bit. Spending 3 nights out of 4 in camp is depressing. Going out for dinner once in a while is a good change of pace, but otherwise, it's boring. So, if things are looking grim during practice, and you feel that things are not improving the harder you try, take a deep breath and a step back, because a break might be all you need. (No, kit-kat is not endorsing this.)

Peace?

2010-08-18T21:32:00.000+08:00

Fishing.

It is amazing how three men in civil defence uniforms could spend one hour in the regimental cookhouse talking about it. It's a wonder how much we can relate to it.

Having to cancel tomorrow's lesson with my teacher was.. disheartening. Having not improved to the extent I wished I have is not something I can live with. It seems that I always reach the LDMR (Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns) too soon for my practice sessions, and my down time after each practice session seems to be longer than what I deem healthy. Teacher has always emphasized on the importance of practicing intelligently. It must be due to my impatience when it comes down to solving problems. It must be something in the deep recesses of my sub-consciousness which leads me to think that there is always not enough time at the rate I do things. This isn't unjustified though. My days in this little island are numbered. At least if everything falls into plan.

I have been spending more time than usual praying and seeking about current events. With the progress I am making on my instrument, I can only trust in God at this point. There isn't much else I can do but my best, and leaving the rest to Him.

Hello

2010-08-11T19:14:00.000+08:00

pandas are lethal. They tempt you with their cute biscuit prints with a chocolatey center. As you swallow the deceptively harmless creatures, they attack you from the inside, going straight to your hips and thighs, refusing to relent to your efforts of flushing them out with regular exercise and healthy diet.

Music.

Where do I begin?

How would you define it? A combination of sounds, rhythms and silences? A plethora of vibrations set into a stream of systematic motion? As a noun described as 'an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and colour' in dictionary.com? Or something that just sounds good? It's funny when you think about it. Because if that's the case, you can't really draw the fine line between music and noise. Noise, if you think hard enough, could also be defined the same way. Like Berlioz's critics first thought when he wrote his Symphonie Fantastique. Like an amateur cellist who couldn't play Haydn's concerto in C in tune.

It really isn't about playing the right notes in tune with impeccable technique or singing out a phrase with a profound sense of musicality. True music is done inside the heart of the performer. When the audience see where you are going at. When they have understood your intentions enough. Can music be called music if the performer's heart laid bare before the world turns out to be as black as a rotting concoction of human waste and cow's manure? It doesn't matter if the acoustic of the hall is horrible, or that your scores flew away like the feather in Forrest Gump, because at the end of the day, it is what happens inside that matters, and sometimes, elements of rhythm, melody, harmony and colour just don't cut it. That and of course lots of practice.

Having said that, practice today was.. much less than desirable. My playing seems to be taking the route of being temperamental. It's good on even days, bad on odd days. But if that's really the case, I should be rejoicing since I'm having lesson tomorrow.

Just my two cents before my brain implodes in heavy thoughts tonight.

Conviction

2010-08-08T22:08:00.000+08:00

Who reads these anyway?

Sermon was convicting and despite predictable pointers you might expect from a topic like that, you never fail to learn something new. It's probably God's way of convicting you of your sins and having His word implanted into your heart.

Two more months before becoming a full time citizen. Plans are being made but actions remain stagnant. It's still too early to do anything about it anyway. Procrastination? Hope not. Progress with Desdemona remains conspicuous. Guess I will find out on Thursday. While I'm happy with the overhauling of my vibrato, other techniques are having a relatively bleaker outlook. Intonation forever remains a problem. Thumb position never fails to hurt. Patience runs thin, but that's the only thing we can hold on to at times like these.

Airline hasn't contacted me since, and I don't expect they ever will. Well, no harm trying.

If last night's dream was limbo, I would have almost gladly stayed. It's funny/disturbing how a dream like that can affect you for the next entire day. Depressing, but it happens. A sign? I wish upon a star. It's probably just a rush of emotions and biological compounds all thrown in together into one volatile mix of... delusional thinking?

But then again, who reads these anyway?

Revival

2010-05-31T08:54:00.000+08:00

What can be better than to worship God with His house and being ministered by Him? By the time i realised it, we have been standing for 3 hours. The conference was a true blessing.

Sometimes, or rather most of the time, your relationship with God is a decision on your part, and the things you do every day reflects certain aspects of your convictions.

Well, on to something lighter. The song that my friend and I wrote were shortlisted into the top 3 list out of 23 songs submitted for the competition. Given the fact that we were confined in a small space of a 2m by 1m room with no air-conditioning or ventilation for 7 hours, stopping only for lunch consisting of pastamania delivery, I guess we did pretty ok. While I am not considering song-writing as a career, I think I might enjoy writing a song or two once in a while. (Like every six months?)

Then again, we did it with the purpose of growing the Lord's kingdom. It was only then that I realised it was all worthwhile. So don't expect tragic operas, majestic symphonies or virtuosic concertos from me. I'm writing contemporary music, much to the dismayed (but currently unknown) reputation of my family.

Recovery

2010-04-02T00:20:00.001+08:00

"A professional is not determined by them playing flawlessly, but by recovering whenever making a mistake."

Reminiscence of a chinese orchestra session in my secondary school days. If that dictates professionalism, I have failed miserably for tonight's performance.

Hiatus

2010-03-21T19:08:00.000+08:00

So the long hiatus is over. I am back. Again.

After just over a year since my last post, why did I decide to make a comeback? It's probably one's need to be heard or to be felt. Maybe writing (or typing for that matter) is a form of subconscious therapy, to pour out one's thoughts before actually resulting in self-implosion. Maybe it is to share the goodness or spread the evil to their readers. Or rather, maybe it is just another manifestation of somebody's attempt to grab attention.

Should I participate in a songwriting contest? Ideas are flowing in my head like the Niagara Falls dumping people hiding in barrels. I couldn't help but reminiscence about the very first song I wrote over a year ago. The words of cheesiness never fail to make me cringe like a hamster in hibernation. People actually said it was not bad. Maybe in-depth reviewing and re-writing is needed.

I noticed parents (namely my brother and sis-in-law) are prone to repeating verbs twice in a sentence when baby-talking to their kid. Example: 'Come sit sit on the carpet here.' or 'Ask xiao shu shu (small uncle aka me) to play play cars with you!'. It also occurred to me that I'm a passive baby-pleaser. I wait for them to come to me rather than putting myself in a vulnerable position of being rejected by a 2 year old.

My weak heart would not have been able to handle that.

So Close

2009-02-17T22:11:00.000+08:00

So Close by Jon McLaughlin

You’re in my arms
And all the world is calm
The music playing on for only two
So close together
And when I’m with you
So close to feeling alive

A life goes by
Romantic dreams will stop
So I bid mine goodbye and never knew
So close was waiting, waiting here with you
And now forever I know
All that I wanted to hold you
So close

So close to reaching that famous happy end
Almost believing this was not pretend
And now you’re beside me and look how far we’ve come
So far we are so close

How could I face the faceless days
If I should lose you now?
We’re so close
To reaching that famous happy end
And almost believing this was not pretend
Let’s go on dreaming for we know we are
So close
So close
And still so far

I've fallen in love with this song. It's from the movie Enchanted, and I tell you, I love the music in there. And I liked the movie too. It just brings back childhood memories, to the days when I used to watch Snow White almost everyday. XD

Don't we humans wish that life was like a fairytale? Where life and love will ultimately end happily ever after? That we will find our true love somehow one way or another? Eternal bliss I tell you...

Anyway.. Back to cruel reality. I saw a boy knocked down by a car today from my bus. It was just a bump, but he fell anyway. As a *ahem* responsible and alert Civil Defence Rescuer, I was about to rush out of the bus to aid that boy. But he just got up and continued running. Sheesh. The driver wasn't so happy though. He asked the boy to come back and gave him a piece of his mind. the boy just kept apologising and continued running after the bus, which was the one I was in.

My left wrist is hurting from too much Popper etudes. Maybe I should retire to Germany now.

o.o

2009-02-03T20:01:00.000+08:00

Today wasn't the best day I've had in my workplace. I got my senior scolded by my officer because of some small trivial procedure which I overlooked. She knew that it wasn't his fault, but he took the scolding. I've a feeling I'm on her blacklist now. Well, what can I say? Every job and task given to me, I've performed it to the best of my knowledge, so I'm not going to hide or anything. I still feel bad that my senior took the scolding.

Preparations are being made for a small performance, hopefully to be held in June if everything goes well. It has been quite some time since I played chamber music. I must say it brings back the familiar feelings I had in my fingers. It just feels refreshing.

Ok. Enough with the Mentos.

It is a short post today because for some reason, nothing is coming into my mind right now, and I can't practice because my father has friends over for dinner. I guess it's movie time...

=l

2009-01-28T01:06:00.000+08:00

It's one of those days again...

Chinese New Year was ok. I didn't do much visitation. In fact, the only place I went to was my grandmother's place for lunch. We met everybody else there, so it was done in just one place. Not much ang bao received, but the density of the money was high.

There are just too many things on my mind right now. So to make things a little lighter, I will just blog about the kinds of people there were in my platoon during my basic training.

The Black One - Basically the only Indian in our platoon. Cheery guy who couldn't stop smiling or laughing even when the corporals were scolding him. The subject of racist jokes, but nothing personal. We like him.

The Chubby & Cute One - Probably the fattest and heaviest of the entire regiment. Cute as a teddy bear. Makes everybody laugh, even the hardiest of corporals. Good instrument for corporals to make people laugh, therefore inflicting punishment. Good fun.

The Cheerful One - Can't stop laughing. Probably the first guy I know to have signed extra guard duty due to being irritatingly giggly. Nice guy.

The Mini One - The shortest, but also the fittest. The only guy to have passed IPPT, because he's the only guy who can pass his pull-ups. Aimed to be a Physical Training Instructor, but ended up being a clerk due to his weight. Buffed up as a bull, short as a gnome.

The Greedy One - The one who eats the most. The guy who lost 2kg in 13 weeks while others lost more than 10. Also a trouble-maker and joker. More towards the irritating side. The Ultimate Saboteur.

The Hated One - Only liked by a handful of his own kind. Generally the most inconsiderate and racist guy I've met. Stupid enough to get caught smoking in the toilet, along with a handful of his own kind. The very first guy whose face I would very much love to punch. Mysteriously disappears during bunk cleaning and other dirty works. Much better now though. Also an Ultimate Saboteur.

The Family Guy - The 21 year old who already has 2 kids. Has a criminal record. Irritating and sometimes racist. A saboteur.

The Cut-Queue Squad - A squad of people who cuts the queue during our meals. Namely made up of The Greedy One, The Hated One, The Family Guy, and others I can't really remember. Normally made up of 4-5 people. Tactics include faking to play catch and trying to joke around with the people in front. Doesn't go straight to the front because they know the first few have to serve the rest. Gladly volunteers their friends to serve the line while they enjoy the food.

The Psycho One - Socially handicapped. Likes to be alone. Can't remember names even after being in camp for 9 weeks. Speaks with a strange accent, probably Englishy-Americanish- Singlish. Contains rage til the last moment and blows up by screaming 'F***' in the bunk. Quite sadistic when it comes to using power tools and thinking of ways to torture the corporals before killing them. Mumbles to himself after every sentence. Much improvements now.

The OC's Pet - The one with good skills in digital design and creativity. Always asked to do posters and lesson plans for the OC or anything for that matter. Eventually evolved the idea of slacking in the office while the platoon does PT. Also the guys with the high-tech lap-top. Ended up slacking with him for the last 3 weeks in BRT. He managed to lose weight even without doing PT for a month or so. Job now? Administrator in the instructors' office. And he's loving every moment of it. Also a great mind for jokes.

The Light-Duty One - Wore his uniform only once, in the 13th week on the day of our passing out. Never wore his uniform before that due to lower limb injury. Never done PT. Have the shiniest and newest boots in the entire platoon. Nice guy. Platoon's photographer.

The AWOLer - AWOL aka Away WithOut Leave. Disappeared after 4 or 5 weeks. Probably arrested with a police case and put in Detention Barracks by now.

The Italian - An acting graduate from Laselle. The favourite among everybody in camp due to his roots. The only white in the whole regiment. A great joker. Totally motivated to make a difference. Mr. Perfect. The only recruit in our platoon to get into the Emergency Response Specialist.

The American-Born Chinese Singaporean - Always seen with The Italian. Has American accent. Probably the youngest in platoon. Sometimes insensitive. Otherwise ok to get along with.

The Acting-Instructor - Longs to be an instructor. Irritating at times. Likes to act-smart.

The Kengster - Keng aka acting sick. Champion in hand-clapping (a light form of exercise for people who are sick). Claims to have health problems without certification.

The Best Buddy - The buddy who AWOLs after 5 weeks or less. Got his girlfriend pregnant. Borrowed $30 from his buddy and disappeared. Never came back to camp. Who's his buddy? Me.

Believe it or not, there are actually more to this list. This is just a glimpse of what holds in that traumatizing camp.

Until then.

You

2009-01-07T19:19:00.000+08:00

You.

The blessings you have received. The things you have gone through. Could you have done it alone? Look back to your past and count your blessings. Were they possible without God?

You know the truth. You know the facts. You've read the word. Are they not enough? Must you go back to your old ways? How long will it take before you change for real? How many times have you looked up and ask for strength, when you yourself are not putting in the effort? Nobody said it was easy. It is your choice. Your life. You take charge.

Are you going to regret after everything has passed? How will you account to God for all those you have done? Why are you so stubborn? It is time to wake up! There is no time for regrets. Stop your old ways and turn around! Stop procrastinating and start now. Who knows what the future holds? Tomorrow might be too late. Do you want to wait and see? What if it was your last day? Are you sure you are safe? Think again. You might not be.

It is time to start anew. The time is now.

Consider it.

To Be Continued...

2009-01-06T23:09:00.000+08:00

I was about to blog. But Jaryl and Jeremy asked me out for a drink...

The Endless White Canvas

2009-01-04T04:40:00.000+08:00

Just when we thought there were enough going on around in the family, something else happens. My paternal grandfather passed away yesterday. I'm not really close to him, but he has always been a part of our family. He had been senile for many years, and most of the time, he couldn't recognize me, though sometimes he could recognize other people. Now that he's gone, family gatherings at my grandmother's place will never be the same again. Apparently, either he stopped breathing or his heart stopped yesterday, and they sent him to the hospital. They fought to bring him back and sustain him, but I guess it was his time. Sometimes I guess this is for the best too. He can't survive on his own, and his stroke had paralyzed him for years now. Perhaps the greatest relief is that he is a believer, and that we might meet him up there soon.

Death has always haunted me. I can never imagine what it will be like. Can you? Just imagine. Your physical life as you know it will be gone for all eternity. Eternity is a really really long time. Our lives, if placed on the timeline of eternity, is just like a small pencil dot on an endless white piece of canvas. The canvas never ends, no matter how long you draw the line, or how many pencils you use. That is just the beginning of a never ending time. It is really up to you to decide what happens after you've placed the first dot on that canvas. It is up to you to decide what happens to your soul after your life on this earth ends. Choose wisely, because I repeat again, eternity is a really really long time. Would you rather risk eternity for just a few measly years of your life?

Well, on a slightly lighter note, I'm getting my Civil Defence vocation tomorrow. The best possible scenario is me getting in into the Music and Drama Company in SAF, which is close to impossible. So, the next best thing is me getting a clerical position in the CDHQ, thus allowing me to play in the combo band, which is essentially a rock band. At least I will have more time to practice.

Until next time...

Revival

2009-01-02T17:01:00.000+08:00

It has been exactly 1 year and 3 months since I last blogged, and I can truly say there are just too many things that have happened so far.

I just passed out from the basic rescue training programme of the Singapore Civil Defence Force. I wouldn't say it was a total waste of time serving that time, although I would have wished I didn't have to. You really meet all kinds of people in camp. There are some who are quite nice to get along with, while you would just like to punch the others in their faces. Seriously, I just don't understand how people can actually learn to live with the character they have. I will explain more in my next post.

I lost a total of, officially on paper, 13kg. But I believe its only about 11kg because they used different weighing scales for our medical review. It took me 13 weeks to lose that much, and probably 2 weeks to gain it all back. I can already feel my tunny growing back to its eloped fleshy sloppy shape again.

My stomach is not feeling too well at the moment. I think I ate too much jalapeno peppers at Carl's Jr.(Yeah.. Healthy food for the healthy-minded) Went out with Christoven, Wei Kang and Audrey this evening. Wk and Chris convinced me to buy a black sweater jacket which cost me $60. Its my first 'jacket' if you even call it one. I think I'm already starting to like it.

Crap. Tummyache again. Brb.

Back. It's amazing what you can learn from the book Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader 16th Edition. Like it actually takes 0.2 secs for the International Space Station to travel 1 mile. 3 secs for 475 lawsuits to be filed around the world. And so on and so forth.

Many things have happened in my life, whether it involves my spiritual life or the people around me. It is a new year now, and many people probably have their own resolutions to go through with. There are new things for me to worry at this point, and all I can say is that whatever happens, God is the one who wills it. Whatever He puts in your path, it cannot destroy you. You just have to look closer and think about what is best to be done.

Til the next post...

Broken Promises

2007-10-03T14:41:00.000+08:00

ok..

so i've finally blogged.. yea. guess i broke my promise about blogging over the weekend.. in any case, i'm leaving for thailand in 8 hours time.. will be going over for the south-east asian youth orchestra..

to be honest, i just dont understand how i got in, since i seriously screwed up the audition.. and i seriously forgot to thank God throughout this entire event.. i guess He is the only reason how i managed to get in.. i hope good things are in store for me there, or after i get back..

and, today is a special occassion.. it is

MICAH'S BIRTHDAY!!!

here are the pics of my little ol' nephew in June when i was there:

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there.... i MIGHT post more pictures in the future.. but dont keep your hopes too high up..

Hoho

2007-08-02T15:40:00.000+08:00

Quote of Da Day:

"Gentlemen, be democrats in life but aristocrats in art."

-Conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957)

ok.. school has started.. its super stressful for me on tuesdays and thursdays, but super slacked on mondays, wednesdays and fridays.. i would say i'm fortunate enough to quit snyo at this time because thursdays are hell for me, and i heard the pieces they are preparing are very difficult.. i will be glad to sit this one out..

nothing much have been happening around lately, except for the fact that my mum came to visit singapore for a couple of weeks and she got me a new bam high-tech cello case.. woohoo.. i'm such a fortunate boy/guy/man/spoilt brat... it cost her $1480 but she hardly paid any attention about the money.. it was just because i needed and wanted it.. sometimes i feel like i do not deserve a mother like that..

the original cost of the case is $1920, but my bro, having the fact that he is in sso, got a 25% discount from the store.. hoho..

ok.. so it seems that every semester of my school term, theres always somebody who would tick me off one way or the other.. the world just doesnt seem to run out of these kind of people.. i wont say who it is, but really, that person seriously need some humility of some sort.. i wont continue about this.. bleh

on the lighter side of the new school term, nafa has a new intake of violin students, and extremely fortunate enough, they are of some certain standard.. at least they can play, and i would say a couple of them are really good.. looking forward to our orchestra and strings improvement..

i finally got hold of the pics of my dual-continental trip, so i will posting them up real soon sometime within this week..

i have to wake up at 7.45 later, so i shall stop here..

enjoy*&^)

Farewell.........

2007-07-21T11:11:00.000+08:00

*sigh*

so i am officially out of snyo now.. yesterday's performance was great.. i think we did reasonably well.. i will post pics up as soon as i get them..

i think the highlight of the day was melissa's birthday prank which we did on her.. basically, the plan was to make her think her cello was in her case, and adriel will be looking for her while holding her case.. then i will come running and crash into him.. well.. just watch the video...

ahaa.. and even mrs wong fell for it.. also, if you notice, theres another person filming on stage on the conductor's stand, and her video's quality is much better than this.. i will post it when i get it.. its really fun, but i injured my leg during the fall.. hahaa.. oh wells...

enjoy)*(&

Proposal

2007-07-18T16:32:00.000+08:00

Quote of da day:

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."

-Optimus Prime
(Transformers)

ooook... nothing to blog about except..

about 4 days ago, wei kang, christoven, mark and i went to hard rock cafe for some dinner.. if you'ven been there before, its like rock music all the way with people chatting about.. its quite a noisy place.. so wei kang was reading a book about body language, which was actually very cool.. he taught us a lot of things which help us read another person.. =D beware!

anyway, after quite some time, there was a sudden silence in our surrounding.. the music stopped.. and suddenly, a guy was walking out on stage, holding a microphone and singing, with a bouquet of flowers and a teddy bear in the other hand.. he sang a love song which i dunno the title of.. and everybody knew what was coming next.. he kneeled down in front of his girlfriend and proposed! woohoooo! the entire restaurant was screaming and cheering and taking pictures.. of course, i was one of them..

and also, SNYO concert this thursday 7.30pm at VCH, tickets at $5.. it will be my last concert with them cause i'm quitting.. wanna focus more on my final year in nafa.. so do come...

enjoy&%$

Ta-da

2007-07-16T13:20:00.000+08:00

Quote of da day:

"To high treason. That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration. Had we lost the war, they would have been hanged, beheaded, drawn and quartered, and-Oh! Oh, my personal favorite-and had their entrails cut out and burned! So... Here's to the men who did what was considered wrong, in order to do what they knew was right... what they knew was right."

-Benjamin Franklin Gates
(National Treasure)

i think i will start posting quotes everyday if i remember..

enjoy^%$(

Short

2007-07-14T16:57:00.000+08:00

hoho

Quote of da month:

"Me? I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly stupid."

— Captain Jack Sparrow

considering that i almost broke myself down earlier this week, i'm doing rather well for these couple of days.. mentally that is.. i have nothing to blog about.. so have fun for the time being..

enjoy%$#*$

Muse Knights of Cydonia

2007-07-07T11:04:00.000+08:00

ok... after being influenced by my sister in america, i discovered some amazing rock music by the band muse.. its not a new band, but i like their music especially those in the album absolution.. this video is the mtv of one of their songs in the lastest album black holes and revelations.. this one is different from absolution in terms of style, so i didnt really like it that much.. but i like this song.. the mtv is hilarious

enjoy^#@^%

2007-07-07T08:23:00.000+08:00

greetings

i figured i wont be getting those photos that soon.. so i'll just rant about and keep this page a little busy..

i'll be auditioning for sayowe (south-east asian youth orchestra/wind ensemble) this coming sunday.. the funny thing is i dont exactly feel all that excited about it.. i dunno why.. it just seems different from that time when i auditioned for ayo.. we were all panicky about ayo, about the orchestra excerpts and stuffs, but for sayowe, i'm prolly thinking that its nothing much.. HOWEVER, if i fail to get in, it tells alot about my playing then.. therefore, i can say its quite scary to a certain extent..

some of you know that i got myself a nintendo ds lite.. its pretty fun and definitely much more interactive than psp, cause has a touch screen where you can do many things with the stylus.. i have a game called nintendogs, where you own a dog and teach it some commands, like standing up, rolling etc.. the one characteristics of the game which really wowed me was that there is a toy called the bubble blower which you can play with your dog.. you know those things which you blow and bubbles come flying out? yea, in this game, you literally have to blow into the screen! its just so darn cool! but honestly, its more of a girl's game but who cares.. haha.. i got myself a siberian husky btw...

oh and i have to say transformers RULES!!! omg.. its the best action movie i've ever seen in my life! michael bay is improving every day.. he was also the one who did armaggedon(?).. the visual effects are like WOW.. there was BOOM and BANG and WHOOOSH and KA-BOOM and BOOM and BOOM and somemore BOOM!!! notice i only said it was a great action movie.. for those out there looking for a good story, you might want to skip it, BUT DONT!! its the best action movie ever!! its definitely worth watching it 5 times.. i've watched it twice already.. planning to watch it the third time.. hoho. besides, the team was given the greenlight to make two more sequels.. but judging from how the story ended, i dont see how theres gonna be a way to continue it.. the movie is also one huge sell-out.. if you noticed, they were like advertising for so many companies.. the panasonic 1gb memory card, the wide range of gmc trucks, the also-wide range of chevrolet(?) cars, the porsche and something about sony which i cant remember... its still an OMG-OMG-OMG-OMG movie.. 9.5/10, with the 0.5 deduction for stupid plot.. its so stupid that it should be 5/10, but the action was that good.. =D

anyway, enough crapping around.. i have blogger's block (it rhymes!)... til the photos are with me, i dunno if i'll blog unless i have really something interesting to blog about...

enjoy#$@&^*

BIRTHDAY BOY

2007-06-13T16:11:00.000+08:00

wooooot

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEE,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.....

hoho... i'm 20 now.. just a year away from R21 movies.. but so far nothing good in those ratings?

i will post my dual-continental trip for 2 weeks as soon as i get hold of the pics from my bro's cam.. til then, i'll leave this space a little empty..

enjoy(*&%)

Farewell

2007-05-25T20:42:00.000+08:00

so long, farewell......

i'm leaving for the states in about 4 hours... i cant sleep because my stomach is kinda upset.. i dunno why.. i might blog again when i'm in the airport's free internet zone.. haha.. its gonna be dejavu.. did that the last time i went to the states 1 and a half years ago.. but i'll be going alone this time.. kinda worried about how the flight transfer might work.. hopefully the us immigration wont do anything stupid.. i heard they confiscated my mother's chilli when she went there.. =/

i'll be gone til the 3rd of june, and then leaving for australia on the 4th.. busy man eh.. what to do.. hahaa

on random notes:

Which classical composer are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Tchaikovsky

80%

Brahms

75%

Schubert

65%

Chopin

65%

Wagner

60%

Mozart

60%

Haydn

60%

Beethoven

55%

J.S. Bach

45%

Handel

45%

Hector Berlioz

40%

Liszt

35%

Schumann

20%

Which classical composer are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Tchaikovsky,You have delicate nerves, which you occasionally damage by working too hard. You cling to your ways and are fanatically patriotic.

Which classical composer are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

i'm actually tchaikovsky... =.= probably because people think i'm gay.. omg! how can they even think that?? right.. no comments.. and i'm not that patriotic.. bascially, the results are wrong!! so wrong.. bleah

ok.. actually i have nothing to blog at the moment, except that i went to watch pirates 3 yesterday afternoon.. it was great.. but i was kinda confused at the beginning because i cant really remember what last happened in the 2nd installment.. the movie is almost 3 hours long, so be prepared if you intend to watch it..

alrighty then.. i'll leave you guys in peace.. await my return!

enjoy*&^

=(

2007-05-21T16:49:00.000+08:00

=/

oook.. i blogged.. yes.. go celebrate and throw a party or something.. be sure to invite me though..

ok.. i have a few things to blog about.. in any case, i shall just start randomly on one..

went on a movie spree one day last week with wei kang.. ok, not really a crazy movie spree, but we did watch 2 movies in one go.. we first watched bridge to terebithia, which is actually a little disappointing, but i didnt regret watching it.. i almost cried watching it.. ok.. you might think this is like some narnia flick where 2 kids enter a world of magic and stuff. actually no.. its just a story of these 2 kids who got to know each other and became very close friends by living life together.. they bonded their relationship by creating an imaginative world of their own in a forest which can only be accessed by swinging across a small creek with an old rope.. well, i shall leave the details out, but i can tell you the magical sequence of the film is ultimate cheeziness... its actually kinda dumb and you actually get goosebumps by even being inside the cinema watching that.. but after a while, you cant help but think about the kids' innocence and creativity.. they are kids after all, so who cares? i will leave the ending out.. but if you have to find out, a big clue is that it almost made me cry...

while about 1/4 of people were sniffing towards the end of the movie, stupid wei kang was like 'OMG! that is the worst film ever! i feel so ashamed by even being seen watching this!' slap you arh.. wah lau.. stupid wei kang.. for some guy who actually cries watching 'cinderella story' and 'nanny mcphee', you are one weird guy.. hahaa.. wah lau.. those shows are like '........' la.. who would cry in those movies man.. grow up, and start crying in shows worth crying for.. =D

ok.. whatever.. only a few shows made me sad.. some of them includes armageddon, lord of the rings: fellowship of the ring and spider-man 3.. but bridge to terebithia had the worst effect on me.. in fact, i'm still heart-wrenched over the story.. but its just a movie man.. =.= its time i get out of it soon..

anyway, we watched 28 weeks later after that.. its better than i expected.. and the ending is like 'ooookkkkk'... its one of the better zombie flicks i've seen..

on stupider notes, my luck was on the ultimate low yesterday.. it just couldnt really get any worse... it all started with me playing with the saf band.. first of all, i was told saf's rehearsal was at 9am at nee soon camp.. this was before i was told that syo had a recording session at 9am too.. but i told mrs wong that i couldnt make it cause i only have 2 rehearsals with saf and the concert is on sunday, which was just now, and i'm the only cello, so that makes me solo, which means i cant afford to miss any rehearsals.. she was trying to persuade me lorh.. its sooooo funny... she was like 'tsk, come for the recording laaaa.. recording lehhhh.. its recording you knowwwwwww, that one rehearsal only, come for the recordingggggg' ahahahahhahaaa
anyway, i told her i really cant make it.. so she said ok.. =/ so, the next day, i reached nee soon camp which is very far from my place.. and it cost me $10.20 of cab fare to get there.. after i got there, i wasnt allowed to take the cab in to the saf band house.. i tell you, the singapore government deserves to be purged for this.. you know why? you know how big the camp is? its HUGE!!! and the venue of the rehearsal is located all the way at the other side of the camp.. they said i had to walk!! OMG!!! IDIOTS!!!!!! STUPID GOVERNMENT AND SOLDIERS CANT USE THEIR BRAINS!! i'm a freakin civilian.. you guys should be serving me or something.. not pay extra gst and taxes when you cant even provide simple solutions to problems which arent even supposed to be there in the first place.. ok.. whatever.. so i walked, but luckily, a friend happened to drive by and he's a tuba player playing inside saf too.. so he gave me a lift.. thats probably the only lucky thing which ever happened that day.. when i reached there at 8.45am, the composer/conductor walked over to me and said that i was a little too early.. they are only going to rehearse my piece at 11... OMG!!!! omgomgomg... i was sooooooooooooooooooo 'wth!'..... i should have gone for the syo recording... but nvm.. i didnt really mind.. you know me.. so my friend got me a room to practice in.. i practiced/slacked for 2.5 hours and went back.. i waited.. they didnt start on my piece til 11.15am.. ok.. and guess what.. they stopped rehearsal at 11.30... ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dfkgjbhdviudysgviuaer
i should have really gone for syo recording...fine.. after the rehearsal, i was tuning my cello cause that place is very damp.. then guess what.. my A string broke.. =.=
right..........................
so i reached home and called synwin if they had the A i was looking for.. no stock.. grammercy? no stock.. frank brothers? no stock... its a major crisis for cellists in singapore.. i even asked my teacher and uncle and some friends if they had.. all dont have.. and my teacher was also aware of this strings crisis in singapore.. cause she needs it too.. =/
right.. so i had to use a super lousy A string for the performance this evening.. it was super metallic and i hated it.. but no choice.. the performance was weird because i was the only cello there in the entire wind band.. so weird and the worst thing is, the sitting position for the cello section in wind band is different from that of the orchestra.. they are to sit beside the conductor, or sometimes in front.. as for my case, i'm solo cello, so i was basically sitting beside the conductor on his right facing the audience.. its like playing a concerto la... i had quite a number of solo parts, but lets not talk about them...

ok.. there goes my lengthy childish post with lots of ............... and !!!!!!!!!!! and OMG and etc....

enjoy@#!^*

Fubar

2007-04-23T15:40:00.000+08:00

fubar...

i hate my life.. i'm probably considered the black sheep of my family, something which i thought i could live with until recently, i heard something from someone.. the ultimate disappointment..

whatever..

if anybody is interested in watching phantom of the opera, please ask me along.. honestly, i've never really knew the actual story.. considering that i have 3 months holiday, and apart from the trip i'm looking forward to overseas, this is the most boring holidays i've ever had.. yes. i'm a loser..

i shall not continue to bore you with my complaints

CONCERT!!!

2007-03-29T16:08:00.000+08:00

SINGAPORE NATIONAL YOUTH ORCHESTRA CONCERT!!

DATE: 29TH MARCH
VENUE: VICTORIA CONCERT HALL
TIME: 7.30PM
TICKETS: $7

PROGRAMME:
SAINT-SAENS SAMSON AND DELILAH
RAVEL TZIGANE FEATURING ALAN CHOO AS SOLOIST
BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO. 7

SINGAPORE NATIONAL YOUTH ORCHESTRA CONCERT NO.2!!!

DATE: 30TH MARCH
VENUE: VICTORIA CONCERT HALL
TIME: 7.30PM
TICKETS: $30

PROGRAMME:
FEATURING LI CHUANYUN AS SOLOIST
VARIOUS PIECES FOR SOLO VIOLIN AND PIANO
BRUCH SCOTTISH FANTASY
SARASATE GYPSY AIRS

COME SUPPORT!!!

Uhhh............

2007-03-26T23:49:00.000+08:00

ooooooooooooooooookkkkkkkkkkkkkkk....

tomorrow's my last exam and i'm here blogging..

ok.. actually the only reason why i'm blogging is because i need to post some very beautiful photos of my beautiful face... =D

ok.. try not to puke...

thats me giving a masterclass with muhe.. (me being the left of course)

and thats us playing vivaldi's double cello concerto... actually, no.. we're just poking fun at qin li-wei, aka yong siew toh's conservatory cello professor who always seem to have a zai-zai pose in all pictures containing him..

us again.. i think muhe is scared of me.. he's always leaning to the right side...

AND DA PIC OF DA DAY:

check out da pro pianist at da background....

enjoy#$@&*

Earghhhhh

2007-02-20T20:40:00.000+08:00

right...

so its in the middle of chinese new year... havent done much actually.. have been happily collecting red packets here and there.. but it doesnt add up much though... i've been eating too much of those peanut cookies thingy.. you know those round ones that are quite powdery? my grandma's are the best!

nothing much have been going on.. so i'll just post a video of a monster...

have you ever wondered what lurks in the darkness of the orchestra pit when no one's watching?

P.S: yea.. i didnt shave if thats what you're asking..

enjoy$#@!

14

2007-02-05T17:11:00.000+08:00

fourteen, 14, shi(2) si(4), 100+40-20-25+2-8-50+2-1+3-4-25=14

seriously, since the last post til now, if it wasnt for the auditions today, i would have felt much better...

let me tell you what happened during my ayo audition.. before my turn, there was a girl, jolyn, who was playing the exact same concerto which i was going to play.. when i knew that, i knew i was so screwed already... so it was my turn.. i went in, and the conductor told me to play the d major and minor scale.. but when it came to the minor scale, he asked me to slur 3 notes to a bow and staccato the 4th note.. i did.. it was ok when it was ascending, but i practically screwed up the descending scale.. fine.. next was the concerto.. i played, first page relatively ok.. 2nd page my finger slipped, but i managed to catch it back.. i was already playing the harmonics when he asked me to stop.. and guess what he said next...

Him: have you heard the girl before you play?
Me: no
Him: you knw she played the same piece as you right?
Me: yea
Him: she's only 14...... (stares at me)
Me: (smiles at him and shrugged)

i cant believe this happened.. fine.. so i played the next piece.. faure's elegie.. he didnt say anything for that.. he walked to me and placed the orchestra parts on my stand.. he asked me to sight-read scherherazade.. the theme was ok, the cross strings section was screwed up.. it was squeaky and all..

Him: hmm.. i don't really like the sound of your cello.. do you like it?
Me: uhh, well, ok...
Him: its not a very good cello eh? its so difficult to find a good instruments nowadays..
Me: (smiles)

fine.. now he's talking about my cello.. we went on to the 4th movement, which was mad.. he asked me to play at a super fast speed with a super difficult bowing at the tip of the bow... i couldnt play it.. then he took the scores and went back to the table..

Him: hmm.. ok.. thanks very much.. its always good to have challenges

yea.. fine.. i know i suck.. but you dont have to shoot me like that.. andris and yong rui were after me.. in all, only 4 cellos auditioned.. andris, me, jolyn and tang jia, who is from yong siew toh... i think out of this 4, everybody but me will get in.. seriously.. people thought that at least i made it into the sight-reading phase.. well, to tell you the truth, the only reason i can think of that made him do that was the fact that i put the amount of orchestra experience i had in the registration form.. if i didnt put what i put, i would have been out of the room in 2 minutes... i heard that jolyn might be too young to play, and she doesnt have enough orchestra experience, fine then, so that means i'm the only 1 out of 3 who wont get in..

all 3 of nafa's violas auditioned too.. he didnt say much for 3 of them, and only christoven got into the sight-reading phase... i'm not jumping to any conclusions here, but judging from what i know, one of them should be able to get in..

i dont exactly know what i'm feeling now.. discouraged, put down, pissed, disappointed, blah blah blah... the reason i joined the audition was so that i will play well in it, and not to get in.. well, i can say i didnt play well at all.. especially the sight-reading part.. i did what i could, and apparently it wasnt enough for the concerto..

i know i tried my best, but apparently the world doesnt care whether you tried your best or not.. what matters is whether you are good at the end of the day... hard work with no results = no work done thus no use... well, that applies to musicians the most.. and that is one of the many reasons why musicians cant mix well with non-musicians.. face it.. i even have this problem in church.. we always aim for perfection and settle for nothing less than that.. people say just do your best.. i agree, but doing your best alone isnt enough at all in music.. if people think musicians are fortunate people or live a relaxed lifestyle, think again.. we put ourselves into emotional, mental and sometimes physical torture to produce the results we want, and when we dont get it at the time we want it, we go mad, seriously, mentally mad and crazy.. we are not as free as you think.. everytime you spend your hours watching movie, having fun outside with your friends, theres a good chance we're aving orchestra rehearsal or practicing.. so dont come telling or asking us why arent we turning up for this and turning up for that, why we dont have a social circle outside the music world.. birds of a feather flock together.. get this in your head.. there is just no way musicians can relate with non-musicians properly.. when we tell them about dvorak and bach, they tell us about jay chou (not aiming anybody) and how good his singing is.. really, his singing isnt really singing at all.. his songs might be nice to listen, but i wont call it music, art, or good singing, or even singing for that matter... thats just an example.. yes, we musicians have no life but practice and practice and practice... we spend our entire mortal life learning non-stop.. so please understand this fact before jumping to any conclusions of any matters about our lives..

i have so many things to do and so many things to think about that i feel i might explode any moment into madness.. seriously.. the amount of school work i have to handle soon, the amount of pieces i have to practice in such a short period of time.. i seriously dunno whats in store for me next.. i'll probably be just another failed musician.. no matter how hard i try, it seems the circumstances just wont allow me to succeed in any way...

i was pretty ok after the audition.. i'll probably be ok again.. i just need a few hours to calm myself down and get on with my life.. afterall, its just an audition..

enjoy%$#@

STUPID

2007-01-12T14:18:00.000+08:00

zzzzz

no words can describe how i'm feeling now.. i'm tired, depressed, sad, pissed, and feeling inferior... as always...

i didnt sleep last night cause i was rushing for history presentation.. we did ok, but we have to start from scratch again because our rendition of the question wasnt what dr kan wanted.. fine.. doesnt matter..

went for snyo rehearsal.. i was so pissed after we ran through beethoven 7th.. i could hardly play a note and everybody else was playing as though they practiced for weeks before.. i feel pathetic.. yes, they played it before, but its pathetic when your first desk and everybody is able to play but you.. it sucks to the core.. i hate it when these kinds of things happen..

andris got offered a place in the royal college of music for piano.. she didnt get it for cello.. we were surprised.. if she didnt get it for cello, then the rest of us can forget it..

i'm starting to doubt everything i thought i felt.. maybe its because i'm super tired now.. i hate it when this happens.. when you dunno what you're really thinking and feeling.. its so damn deceiving and you just dunno what to do next..

something stupid happened.. its so stupid.. but its just a misunderstanding.. and probably one which will never be resolved.. no its not serious.. its sad that it happened.. at least to me.. oh well.. if it happens, it happens.. if it doesn't, it doesn't.. simple, yet difficult to accept.. yea.. some of you might know what i'm talking about..

if i dont reveal certain things to you, its not that i dont treat you as a friend or consider you a helping hand.. its just that sometimes, or most of the time, i cant let you know.. and sometimes the reasons are obvious.. now its not.. if you are reading this, i hope you'll understand..

Mooombai

2006-12-13T17:23:00.000+08:00

wheeeeeeee....

leaving for india in about 20 hours time... playing for a super rich family's wedding.. they are paying for all the accomodation and airfares, including travel insurance, and they are paying us $700.. cool? ohhh yes!

anyway, have a hectic week after i come back.. too many things to do.. history homework and not forgetting dr goh's concert on the 21st.. he keeps telling me to make sure that i come back from the trip, or his piano trio is down the pits.. well, he can always ask my uncle..

dunno what to expect there.. hope the things will be cheap and decent.. anybody considering to buy slaves? white slaves: S$750, chinese slaves: S$700 brown slaves: S$200, black slaves: free (get 3 and get free deodorant)

ok.. i'm going crazy.. see you guys next monday..

enjoy#$@!$

Nightmare..

2006-12-03T15:49:00.000+08:00

ok..

so i finally post... uh, nothing much happened actually... come to think of it, actually yes, but shall just tell you the main stuffs...

the day before yesterday, which is on a thursday night, we had snyo rehearsal at vch and was waiting for a cab with adriel.. we waited for about 45 mins before one finally decided to stop.. before that, we were waiting with our cellos at the roadside.. then one car stopped in front of us and asked if any of us had a quartet.. adriel doesnt, so i told them i had one.. they asked me if was able to play for their function somewhere near the end of december.. they look like those southern indians, or maybe northern.. whichever has the fairer looking people.. and they look with a foreign accent.. well, there was this girl behind in their car, and she was a little... freaky... they asked for my name and hp number so that they can contact me.. so i told them my name was joshua, which is what i tell people who arent chinese... so the girl who was behind the car was starring at me the whole time and kept saying my name... isnt that like freaky?? anyway, thinking of the incident, it actually sounded like musical prostitution... me and adriel, standing at the road, and a car comes by and asks for our service... lol

anyway, the snyo concert was yesterday, and something happened which will probably scar me for the rest of my life.. it was time to play ibert's flute concerto and people who were not playing for this piece were leaving the stage.. so i flipped our scores to the concerto, and to our unpleasant surprise, the first page wasnt there.. so i thought it might be jumbled up somewhere behind.. i searched.. NOTHING.. omg.. i turned to adriel "crap.. we dont have the first page.." we starred at each other for what seemed like eons.. then our genius sl thought of something "can you go backstage and get it?" so i went.. i ran.. i looked, i got the spare first page and ran up on stage again.. luckily there were still people setting up.. and i put the page on our stand.. so finally, i calmed down a little bit.. so we started.. 1st page was ok, 2nd page was ok, then when we turn to look at the 3rd page, it wasnt there!!! OMG! but luckily we were able to memorise the first few bars of it.. and i was in a state of shock... after what seemed like ages, we approached a few bars of rest and i quickly flipped to the 3rd page.. and guess what.. our original 1st page was on our stand, it was just flipped to the 2nd page!! omg... it was such a stupid mistake!! ngahh!!!!!!! this is one of those typical musician's nightmare come true, apart from forgetting to bring your instrument before a concert, forgot to bring your scores, late or totally forgetting to perform for your concert, or for string players, forgetting to bring your bow...

i feel stupid...

anyway, i bought a couple of mr bean animated shows just now.. they are so crappy and funny.. should watch it when you can.. and if you didnt notice, his feet and legs arent connected to each other..

enjoy#$!&%#

Indecision.........................

2006-11-13T12:30:00.000+08:00

ngahhh..........

here i am blogging again... well, nothing much to blog about except that the nafa went to desaru 2 weeks ago and we came back, giving a concert last wednesday.. yes yes.. its like super old news now... anyway, i still miss desaru.. had lots of fun there... and the concert last week was fantastic! the strings have improved dramatically.. not sure about the winds though.. some said its about the same, or rather a little improvement... well, volker is good... =)

anyway, i have finally officially started on saint-saen cello concerto.. hopefully it will be better than haydn.. so far i am very pleased with the improvements i have made so far.. people said my sound is much broader and projected.. i think now i have to focus on a lot of intonation and bowing techniques.. it wasnt as simple as i thought..

=)

anyway, some of you have been wondering whats up with my msn nick a couple of days ago.. nothing much really.. the fact is being a christian is just never easy at all.. wanting to change for God is probably the most difficult thing to do in your entire life.. which is why nobody can ever do this without the help of God.. and its probably the biggest miracle you can ever witness yourself, greater than the splitting of the red sea... my nick more less consists of this issue.. the other part is something i would like to keep to myself and a few other people..

snyo camp.. to attend or not to attend.. that is the question..
sight-reading beethoven 7th...

enjoy&^$^%#

RESULTS

2006-10-31T13:29:00.000+08:00

hmmm....

many of you have been bugging me to put the results up, so here it is... before i do so, let me review the questions and answers.. =)

1) c

hmm... this is probably the easiest question ever.. the way she played was unique and no other masters ever played like her, her musicality and character is just amazing.. woe to those who got this wrong!!

2) b

his works are rather easy to understand, and the tune being very catchy.. i like the way he composed his music, and of course it was his bohemian style which stood out the most, which made the music he wrote so lyrical at times..

3) c

ooo.. i think none of you guys got this question correct.. dvorak might be my favourite composer, but this symphony is my favourite, due to its thick texture and lyrical passages.. it beats dvorak any time.. =p

4) d

=D

5) b

ok, so people not from nafa would not know this question.. haha..

6) d

no comments.. haha

7) a

haydn in d is definitely out.. after i learnt the concerto in c, i never had the interest to play another classical concerto again.. dvorak is a little too mad for me right now, and i dont plan to play elgar anytime soon, if not at all.. i mean after how du pre played it, whats the point when someone already reached the highest possible standard for this piece?

8) a

i signed up for the mechatronics course in temasek poly before deciding in nafa.. i was thinking that mechatronics might lead me into aeronautical engineering, then to pilot training so on and so forth, but i had second thoughts about it after my dad talked to me.. the rest were just for fun..

9) d

yes i might be a star wars fan, but i do not have the first episode.. haha...

10) d

ok.. probably the 2nd most wrong answers belong here... i think the only person who got it right was my sis, because the person who calls me sai-han (say sai1-han1 in an ang moh accent) is my bro-in-law.. han-han is my bro's nickname used by my parents.. haha..

sooo, if you're keen to find out what you've got, its here:

jwen: 2/10
the chang: 1/10
project alamak supervisor: 8/10 (wwoooooooo)
yau: 5/10
my dear sister: 3/10 =(
the slut: 4/10
audrey: 4/10
andris: 4/10
leslie: 1/10
kai: 3/10
ch: 5/10
lyr: 6/10
en xin: 3/10
wan qiu: 4/10

so i guess the winner is project alamak supervisor.. haha.. hmm.. interesting..

ok... so thats it..

enjoy$#!@%$

Life.......

2006-10-27T15:26:00.000+08:00

*sigh*

life is short and precious... created and taken by God, cursed yet blessed in some ways.. it is sometimes taken at times least expected, but most of the time, blessed even though un-noticed... it was the way he played, his music, and to others who were closer to him, his life.. i might not have known him personally, but it was the way he played, how hard he tried that touched me the most.. although there is nothing much i can say to his family to console them, i pray that God will help them through this moment of their lives...

In Memory
Of
Danil Shagimadanov
(1990-2006)
SNYO Flute Principal

NEW

2006-10-15T04:08:00.000+08:00

hmmm....

i'm a changed man... at least for now... why? it is slightly due to something, which only my most trusted sister and a couple of you know about it.. but a whole big deal was because of God, and because of dan wrote in his blog.. its something i cant elaborate right now... =D

ok.. its quiz time, for those of you who have anticipated this moment... state your answers in my tagboard with identifiable(?) names, and i shall declare the winner probably a week from now.. no.. wait.. i'll be in hk.. ok.. by the coming thursday... the winner will probably win a prize from hong kong..

here goes............

1) who is my favourite cellist?
a. rostropovich
b. yo-yo ma
c. jacqueline du pre
d. pablo casals

2) who is my favourite composer?
a. Brahms
b. Dvorak
c. Stravinsky
d. Gabriel Faure

3) which is my favourite symphony?
a. Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique
b. Dvorak's New World Symphony
c. Brahm's Symphony No. 2
d. Dvorak's Symphony No. 8

ok... this is getting too easy... here are the difficult questions...

4) what is the brand of the watch i am wearing?
a. swatch
b. omega
c. hugen
d. fortis

5) in this semester, i did a history presentation on a certain piece of music. what was it?
a. smetana's ma vlast
b. mussorgsky's night on bald mountain
c. ibert's flute concerto
d. dvorak's cello concerto

6) how many keychains do i have on my bag?
a. 0
b. 1
c. 2
d. 3

7) which of these cello concertos do i hope to learn next?
a. Saint-saen's cello concerto in A minor
b. Haydn's cello concerto in D
c. Dvorak's cello concerto in B minor
d. Elgar's cello concerto

8) what did i really want to be before i became a musician?
a. pilot
b. bio-chemist
c. aeronautical engineer
d. navy officer

9) which of these movies do i NOT have in my collection?
a. jarhead
b. fun with dick and jane
c. the incredibles
d. star wars episode 1 "the phantom menace"

and last of all....

10) which of these nicknames were never used on me? (pronounciations shown)
a. sea-hum
b. see-han
c. sai-han
d. han-han

ok... thats it.. sibmit your answers before the coming thursday and the winner gets a prize from me from hk... haha.. all the best..

enjoy$%^@#%@

... !!!

2006-10-07T14:26:00.000+08:00

yes...

exams are over... well, the practical was ok... made some stupid mistakes in my studies, but i know i practiced hard for it, so i dont really care what the results will be... it seems now i have the habit to practice at night, specifically at 11pm to about 2am.. 2 weeks ago, i couldnt sleep, so i practiced from 4am to 7am.. crazy? maybe...

anyway, it seems that theres a problem surrounding me right now.. not, it does not really involve me, but it is an issue that all of us know definitely.. homosexuality... before i start anything, let me get this straight, i do not hate gays (or lesbians for any of this matter). i just totally disagree with the world's thinking and most people too.. now, the world is already starting to accept homosexuality bit by bit, and soon, there will be no moral limits as to whether same gender marriages or sexual acts can go to... God did not create man and woman to allow man and man or woman and woman to sleep together.. man and woman is what a relationship should be.. now, i'm not saying i hate these people or asking you to do so.. in fact, i do know a few of them, and i treat them as normal human beings, just as we should to others, and if any of you who do otherwise should be ashamed of yourselves.. but let me get this clear.. loving them as friends should NOT include encouraging their ideas or actions of homosexuality.. it is morally wrong and of course, who would encourage another to do what is wrong? but what if you think its ok? what differentiates(?) between morally right or wrong? well, all i can say is that you can find them all in the bible.. and why the bible? to understand what is morally right, there has to be a standard set in this world, a standard where nobody can oppose or question, or else, who sets the rules? and God is the one who created us right? who else is better to set the rules and standards than our creator Himself? He is God afterall, and who knows better? but what if you dont believe in God? then tell me, how do you set your moral standards? how do you tell whether premarital sex is wrong or right? how do you view homosexuality? on what basis do you put your morals on?

well, yes.. thats probably my most straightforward entry so far... just had to tell you guys where i stand for those of you involved..

on lighter notes, MY SIS GAVE BIRTH!!! WHOOOOOO!!!! you can see pics of the baby here ---> www.xanga.com/gelok

i think she blocked me, maybe not.. well, i'm trying hard not to think about it.. thats why relationships can ruin a person..

anyway, i'll probably post a pop quiz for some of you reading sometime tomorrow or something(although i doubt there are more than 5)..

enjoy$#!@%$#@

DEAD

2006-09-25T21:58:00.000+08:00

I'M STILL AWAKE!!!

studying for history exam.. what else... zzzzzz
am so dead.... help...

Aimless Post....

2006-09-15T02:02:00.000+08:00

ooooooooooooooooook.....

here i am to blog again... didnt have the motivation to... anyway, nafa had our gala concert on tuesday, with the choir and vocal soloists nancy yuen, lim shieh yi(?), william-something and student zhou qian (not to be confused with yong siew toh's violin lecturer)...

just came back from eating durian...

anyway, in my personal opinion, i thought this was one of our best concerts yet... i think.. cant wait for the video to be released.. i thought the cellos did pretty well, except for a few blunders here and there, but they were insignificant... at least from what i thought...

i had a rather disturbing dream last night... me, my bro and father was in america to visit my sis for a month.. since she moved to texas, we were driving on the highway which was in the tornado alley.. well, no, no tornadoes appeared.. but, we crashed into the corner of a tunnel.. uh, i didnt see us crash, but as we approached the wall, i woke up... oh well...

i'm like doing orchestration (which is already 2 days overdue) and blogging at the same time lah.. but come to think of it, i'm beginning to enjoy orchestrating... seem to get used to it now.. kinda fun actually, but not when you have to rush for a dateline(deadline?)...

oh yes, adriel's weber's solo is improving... another 3 months to concert, and at this rate, he should be playing like a pro by then.. and ibert(say ee-bear) flute concerto's 3rd movement is madness... but we got used to it in 20 mins.. not bad eh? =p
if kevin the flautist in nafa wins the upcoming concerto competition, thats what we're gonna play, and if we actually do, well, all i can say is good luck to the orchestra...

and i must say that many people have been reading my blog all along and i was rather oblivious to it.. nobody told me? lol... lucky i didnt gossip about you-know-who doing you-know-what at you-know-where with you-think-i-think-you-know-who... go figure... haha...

ok, nothing else much to say.. oh yes! i saw a copy of singapore's encyclopedia on my dining table a few days back, and it was opened to the letter 'C', and immediately, i saw my brother's name with a description.. it goes like this:

Chan Yoong Han (1974- ) Musician.
Chan Yoong Han studied in Australia and the United States. He has performed in music festivals worldwide, and as a solo violinist in concertos with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. A distinguished member of the orchestra's first violin section, he is also one of Singapore's most active practitioners os chamber music. In 1998-99, he curated, organized and performed a series of eight solo chamber recitals entitled Motifs and Murals. Chan also won the Young Artist Award (Music) in 1994. <----- its supposed to be 2004!!!

well, thats not the first time they misinformed the public about him.. the worst case was when he appeared in the newspaper a few years back, i think when he gave the very first performance in the esplanade to the public when it first opened... they spelled his name wrong 3 times.. no, the mistakes were all inconsistent.. first it was chan yong han, then chan yoon han, and then chan yew han or something like that... haiyo.. newspaper editors nowadays...

so i was flipping through the encyclopedia for people that i might know, and of course one of them who came into mind was our beloved lecturer...

Goh, Zechariah (1970- ) Composer. <--- cool!
Zechariah Goh Toh Chai studied piano performance and composition at the Univertiy of Kansas, where he was awarded the Anthony B. Cius Music Composition Award in 2000 and 2001. His works, which include choral, chamber and orchestral pieces, have been performed in Singapore, Korea, the United States, Australia, Europe and Brazil. He teaches at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. In 2003, he was given the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council.

many people like lim yau are inside too... interesting... ok.. enough of typing.. got work to do..

enjoy$#!#@!

WHAT

2006-09-07T08:00:00.000+08:00

wooooooooooooooooooo....

am in my school's com lab now... joyce just brought in nafa's recording of our concert with peter esswood, the one with fingal's cave and smetana's moldau... you know what?? we actually SOUND GOOD!! amazing....... maybe its just the recording that covered up our mistakes... wow... its really good... just cant believe it...

for those people who knew, i was really pissed on monday.. no, i'm not pissed with mr hartung.. he's a very good conductor.. the reason i was angry was because, for some reason, the cello section was rushing in the vivaldi and bach concerto.. hartung was literally screaming at us, and he almost wanted to give up on us.. no, not on the strings, on the cellos, in front of an audience... i cant believe it.. i cant believe that i couldnt hear that we were rushing.. i was following the soloists as close as i could.. did i really rush? was it just the tendency to rush that he was pissed with? i dunno... the utter humiliation we faced.. i should be able to tell when we were rushing...

the next day, i was feeling better... until string's class.. when dr goh came in and talked to us about the rehearsal on monday.. he said he was impressed with the progession the strings have made, specifically the violins and violas, which he says is probably the best section now.. he didnt mention the cellos and bass.. what could i say? the cellos and bass are left behind the violins and violas.. we didnt improve since hartung came? this shouldnt be the case.. so i'm really dissappointed..

another thing i was shocked about was when clarence performed for string class.. after his played, hartung asked ma sai about his playing.. for those not in nafa, ma sai is a very virtuosic double bass player.. best in nafa in terms of technicality.. i wasnt happy with the fact that mr hartung was actually comparing ma sai and clarence's playing.. come on.. it is very discouraging for the player leh... so in the end, clarence didnt get any constructive comments about his playing.. i cant believe it..

string ensemble concert at vch on thursday and nafa orchestra/chorus concert next tuesday... i'd better play well or else i'm screwed.. stupid vivaldi cello solos...

on lighter notes, remember i said i was dreaming about lim yau and soon lee? well, the day after i dreamt of lim yau, i dreamt of him again.. this is sick, then the day after that i dreamt of lim soon lee again!! omg... i think i'm super stress now... i dreamt of someone last night also.. its really weird la.. shall not disclose names for now or people will think too much... haha

well, my church's anniversary celebration is coming soon... am i excited about it? somewhat yes, but i'm still not over the fact that i cant play for it..

celebrated my brother's birthday yesterday.. i bought him a dc comics artwork book.. it looks good.. i had a hard time deciding on what to buy him, so i bought that.. probably the worst present ever got for anybody.. i will make it up on christmas... anyway, we went to eat at a brazilian restaurant near the queen astrid park area.. i tell you, the queen astrid park is filled with filthily rich people with bungalows that look like fortress with high concrete walls.. its ridiculously huge for singapore... for those who have been to my house, their houses are like as long as my house's building, which contains about 10 families!! go see it for yourself... anyway, side-tracking... so we ate at this brazilian buffet.. it isnt one of those where you walk around and get your food.. the food come to you.. there are waiter's carrying skewers of meat around.. they have medium-rare beef, chicken liver, honey-backed ham, lamb, beef ribs, pork, fish, grilled pineapple blah blah blah... and we had wine too.. it was the most i've drank so far.. 2 glasses.. and i finally knew the right way of drinking wine.. ask me for those who want to know.. haha...

well, i've talked to my sis about certain stuffs about someone.. conclusion? i shall wait.. be patient.. get to know the character, make sure that its really what i want, ask God and see what happens... fine... i shall wait.. no hurry.. push it and your life is destroyed.. at least for awhile.. i dont want anything to go wrong.. i hope... who am i talking about? for me to know, for you to find out.. haha...

enjoy)(*&)(*$)*&%

Look And Listen!!!

2006-08-31T16:02:00.000+08:00

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

come on guys... you should know this by now.. look at the conductor and listen to the music... stop rushing.. if you cant look at the conductor, then look at me, although i do make mistakes sometimes, but follow my lead.. come on.. its basic orchestra practice.. you should know it by now.. stop making people scream at you and getting pissed over this kind of stupid mistakes..

haiz.. anyway, i have a few things to talk about.. first of all, about ns.. i just dont understand why guys are trying to wimp out of ns.. come on.. its the time when we start learning discipline and learning how to rough it out.. are you guys men or whimps? ns is something all guys should go through.. its not as if they are sending you to death camps or making you a soldier for life.. so just get in there and learn to be a man lah..

and another thing.. when i was coming home just now, a whole group of super irritating, loud, talkative, trying-to-be-cool-and-think-they-are-so-cool malay and indian teens came up the bus.. i cant stand them.. they are thtop of my racist list.. why are they like that? they talked as if they owned the entire bus, and think they are cool and funny... whatever... they are the most corrupt and have the most disgusting attitudes of all people.. i'm not generalising here.. not all malay teens are bad, like my classmates, but those out there, wearing chains and caps, with ties hanging loose on their necks... who do they think they are exactly? so you think i'm just racist against them? wait til you hear about their own people being racist against them.. i have both indian and malay friends who cant stand those teenies i was mentioning.. now, am i the only one now? can you imagine your own race being racist against your race? that is how stupid and insulting those teenies can get...

anyway, on lighter notes, i dreamt of lim yau last night.. for some reason... lol.. he was in my kitchen conducting cello sectionals! like what the.............. i dunno.. the night before last night, i dreamt of lim soon lee also... so whats next? casteels? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

i played to strings performance class on tuesday, played faure's elegie... well, i knew the piece quite well.. the only problem is playing it well.. i wouldnt say i did a good job, and i wouldnt say it was bad either.. it was....... ooook... main problem of intonation and vibrato... they said my sound projection improved.. well, that isnt exactly my priority right now, but fine.. christo said he liked the ending.. there was a silent resonence(?) after i played the last long soft note... well, the piece itself is emotional, so its quite difficult to portray it well.. as for the fast passage, i thought my andrenaline whould help me through it.. the fact was it helped too much.. my fingers were going faster than my mind could think, so i rushed a little and of course played some wrong notes, but at least i didnt break down.. more luck next time i guess...

so thats it.. my whiney post filled with complaints and comments... happy reading..

enjoy#$@#$

Turning Point....

2006-08-25T14:10:00.000+08:00

yesssssssssssssssss.....

it is official... i wont be principal cellist in syo... well, no, i'm not sad.. disappointed maybe... i dunno... i only played the solo once, and that was it... well, i'm not going to be pissed, sad, angry, etc.. about it.. i have decided.. i'm not going to play music for the sake of being better than others.. i'm going to play music because i want to and i love to... it is my life now.. i guess this is the time when i have to rely on God and his strength, that i may not be put down by others anymore.. in any case, thanks for some of you guys' support... you know who you are.. ^^

anyway, i have a whole pint of ben & jerry's ice cream (brownie fudge chunk) waiting for me in the freezer.. cant wait.. but first, i have to switch on my vcd player and put in my lord of the rings: two towers movie, sit back on my comfy bed and dig in to my ice-cream... mmmmmmmmmmmm....

OH.. talking about lord of the rings, guess what.. syo is actually playing a piece from lord of the ring... lol.. its basically a medly of most of the themes found in the fellowship of the ring movie.. and we are playing it with some malaysian youth orchestra i think.. lol... oh, and mr lim's baton is slightly crooked.. if you actually look carefully, the end of his baton is slanted...

ok... for those of you who knows me well enough, i'm a weird dreamer.. i can dream of anything, anyone, anywhere, anything... so guess what i dreamt last night... hahaa... i dreamt of someone, who actually went shopping for his/her brother's birthday... so when i woke up, i smsed him/her whether he/she has any siblings who had an upcoming birthday... of course the answer was no... yes.. i'm weird.. dont ask me why.. thats just the way i am...

ok.. thats it.. at least this post is like 4982% betetr than the previous one...

oh.. and i havent shaved for 2 weeks... whoooo

enjoy#$!%$

Peace....

2006-08-22T16:31:00.000+08:00

*glares*

well, i thought it would be a good idea to make peace with him, but too bad... i doubt i can make it for his departure... not easy being a conductor you know...

oh, nafa appeared on channel u today.. didnt get to watch cause of rehearsal, but i heard that eva and laurel were featured.. haha... eva with her green-coloured hair playing solo... she has a bright future indeed...

i got the principal seat again in nafa... am i happy? not sure.. really... i'm concerned over the reason why they put me there... i dont think its my playing.. maybe its just the fact that i have more experience in leading.. thats all.. i'd rather play well than lead well now...

i thought i had a lot to blog about.. somehow, as always, my mind seems blank now... am trading music with andris now.. her du pre's saint-saen(?) concerto with my rostro's haydn in d... weird.... as always...

oooooo... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! i gotta learn the saint-saen(?) concerto man... have to ask my teacher first... never really knew how to spell 'saint-saen'... anybody??

uh... crap.. this is probably the most crappy post ever... bleah...

enjoy#@%$!&^$#

Du Pre....

2006-08-18T15:01:00.000+08:00

sad........

haiz... feel so sad now... just watched a documentary about jacqueline de pre on youtube just now.. there are 8 parts to it... its really sad la... wah lau... almost cried.. she's my favourite cellist... her interpretation, technic, character, amazing.... if only she was still alive.. its really a pity that she had to go so early... now i'm also reading a book, hilary and jackie... its an auto-biography of her, written by her sister and brother, hilary and piers respectively... well, its really emotional... the book tells of her life with her family, her relationship with her sister and brother... you know, when i was reading the book, her relationship with her brother seems to be very very similar to me and my sister... and guess what, the brother used to learn the clarinet, then he gave up... hilary played the violin for some time before settling on the flute... you guys should read this book.. i was already about to cry when i read the first 2 pages... can you imagine... if your interested in watching the documentary, go www.youtube.com and search 'du pre and elgar cello concerto'.. there are 8 parts, so watch it in order...

well, on lighter notes, actually, no lighter notes.... just, ...... that.....

nafa had our concert on tuesday with darrell ang conducting.. well, i've thought it through... it was definitely wrong for us to judge him like that.. he is afterall like everyone of us.. he's not perfect.. he's learning and developing his abilities as a conductor... maybe his character has more room for improvement, but dont all of us have too? i dunno... i didnt really enjoy the concert we played that night... he kept glaring at me... when somebody in the cello section rushes, he glares at me and assumed it was me.. well, and he's also biased against me i think... shant talk about it...

didnt get to play the weber solo for syo tonight.. some other day perhaps...

enjoy%$#

Solololo...

2006-08-09T03:28:00.000+08:00

...................

right... mr lim asked me to look through the solo part for weber's invitation to a dance.. so that means adriel and i will be 'fighting' for principal seat... well, i screwed up when i played it the first time, which was last thursday... it was fine at the beginning, til i screwed up 2 bars of it in the middle section... argh!! haiz.. i practiced so hard for it!! and it ends up like that.. oh well.. i dunno.. i asked my teacher to help me with it, and she did a great bunch of work on it.. she's good i tell you... she taught me a whole lot of things, important articulation and bow control which i've never thought of.. well, lets just see how it goes the next time i'm playing it, if mr lim considers it that is... adriel will be playing next on saturday, and i wont be going for rehearsal cause nafa is having rehearsal... oh yes, thats another interesting topic...

well, darrell ang is here to conduct us for our next concert.. well, he may be good for professional orchestras, but the whole of nafa agrees on one thing, we dont like him and he cant take students, or professionals-in-training.. he will remain as another legacy, one which the students of nafa will start rising up against... its really funny i tell you... the extent to which we hate him is unthinkable in the music society.. well, its not really about his conducting.. he qued the brass players at the wrong places, scolded them for not practicing their parts when they actually did but was wrong because he qued them in wrongly, actually editing the composer's score (when the composer is my lecturer), and suggested going to every individual wind player's house to give them private coaching... i mean, which conductor would offer to do that??!! its madness!! well, some of us thinks he has other motives for doing that, but thats not for you guys to know.. =p

so, our concert is actually next week, wednesday at nafa theatre, and they invited the music big shots.. lim soon lee, lim yau, chan tze law etc.... yea, wait til mr lim (soon lee) sees me playing.. i wonder what he will say next during the next syo rehearsal...

i watched battel royale at seng fu's house a couple of days ago.. its sick i tell you... SICK... its a japanese show.. its about this class of students who were chosen by the government to be sent to a reomote deserted island to kill each other until only one survivor remains.. it is sick.. imagine killing your own classmates.. they have to, because each of them has a metallic device strapped onto their necks.. if there is no winner at the end of the 3rd day, the collar would explode, ripping your neck off, and of course killing you.. so throughout the movie, you can see human desperation, madness and sometimes trust... but its really disturbing... i still cant put myself to understand how people can kill their friends.. if it was me, i would rather hide in a safe place, not kill anybody, and just die on the 3rd day.. but of course, i may not be sane enough to do that when the time comes... oh yes.. forgot.. each of them has a unique weapon given to them.. those who are lucky gets guns, crossbows, knives or other useful devices.. those who are really suay get paper fans, binoculars, cooking pot lid, and other stupid stuffs... well, sick... thats all i can say about this movie.. it seems japan is always the one coming up with stupid things...

enjoy#$@&

V

2006-07-30T17:18:00.000+08:00

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."

yes, for those of you who watched the movie, its from V for vendetta.. its probably one of the coolest and best movie i've watched.. i just bought the vcd this evening... its really really really good... well, its about a guy who's planning to overthrow the government that rules the people with fear and control with and iron fist... and this guy is called V.. you dont see his face for the entire movie coz he wears this white smiley mask.. why? apparently he was part of a government cover-up.. what they did was that they arrested people who arent guilty of anything, and used them as experiments for biological weapon research... of course many people died, 100,000 to be exact... and what did the government do? they made up a cover-up story, claiming it was a virus epidemic, and they follow-upped very well with it.. they had the situation 'under control' by giving the people placebo vaccines and claiming it did stop the virus from spreading... so, the facility that was holding all these experiments had an accident and was burnt down to the ground... only one experiment survived..

no, he did not have mutant abilities.. he was merely human, only a little much faster and stronger... but he was burnt very badly, so he wears a mask.. he goes around killing the government party members one by one.. and there was a part where he managed to broadcast tchaikovsky's 1812 overture on the streets with all the governement speakers, then at the exact right moement, the parliament building blew up with amazing displays of fireworks... oh yes!! i love this movie!!! its really good...

hahaa... when i was watching it, it keeps reminding me of the singapore government.. to be honest and blunt, i hate them... stupid propagandas and dumb people who just cant do the job properly, sucking our money to feed their wallets, as if they needed so much... what makes them so special, that they can earn more than 5-6 digits worth or pay? we chose them to help us! they should be serving us, not the other way round... i just cant wait for a certain guy to die and see what happens to the government... oh well... whatever..

anyway, snyo rehearsal has started since the day before yesterday... i didnt turn up on thursday coz i had to play for some peru independence anniversary celebration at shangri-la hotel.. all the big shots there, ambassadors and all... oh, we had good food there too.. we were allowed to eat with them after our performance, which was actually playing the peru and singapore national anthem... lol.. in the end, half the string ensemble went drunk, or rather high, after drinking some beer, wine and some super strong cocktail... i had a cup of it, and my face was a little red after that.. lol..... we were laughing all the way, and some guy actually tried to hook up with eva... hahaha.... he failed.. miserably...

back to syo.... i sat at 4th chair today coz i was late, so adriel was in pricipal's seat while wilbur was associate... weber's invitation to a dance wasnt too bad.. the cello solo looks easy... LOOKS... can be deceiving... adriel played the solo well... not bad... then mr lim came over during the break and told me to practice the solo part.. well.. lets just see how it goes this coming thursday... someone told me i should claim the principal's seat.. by right i should be principal since i was associate... well, now that i dont mind, but it is still mr lim's decision at the end... oh, and syo is confirmed for going to aberdeen next year... woooo... august i think... andris should join us man... we need all the help we can get.. prolly playing brahm's 4th symphony..

anyway, went to meet up with some of the guys i know at somerset.. leslie, you might know them very well... i dunno... i was thinking a lot then... i was disappointed, frustrated, irritated and prolly angry at the thought of it... these people are people i respect and look up to a lot... they are people who live lives of example, but they dont seem to understand certain things.. no, i'm not saying they are like worldly people who dont give a crap about anything.. i mean the way they do things... they are indecisive.. i just dont understand why they cant quickly decide on one thing and get on with it.. they have to stand in the middle of orchard road, blocking people's way with around 10 of us... yes, maybe its our numbers that makes it difficult to decide, but they are united, and it should be no problem doing so.. and one of them said i should mix around with them more often ratehr than sticking to him... well, i'm fine with that, but the problem is i have hardly any common topics with them... i'm a classical musician, and the only one there too.. who can i talk with about orchestra and conductors other than people in nafa? well, of course i have other things to talk about, but only seng fu is able to communicate well with me, if you know what i mean.. as in we have lots of common topics... too many, in fact we can chat the whole night long til the next morning, if we can survive that is... we can talk about matrix, army, classical music, concerts, jokes, why the earth is round, v for vendetta, blah blah blah.... but the rest just dont relaly get it... i dunno.. maybe its just me.. i'm not bonding well with the group.. there are other factors too.. i'm quite sick of the way they try to click with me, but it seems fake to me... it seems, doesnt mean it is, just to me... they said they want to watch my concerts... they never came.. everytime i see them, they ash when my next performance is, as if it was a ritual to ask me every week.. do they intend to come as they said they would? for the past few months, it didnt seem so... are they sincere? maybe.. prove me wrong...

enjoy#@$!%$

Pride Rock...

2006-07-22T14:47:00.000+08:00

ooooh i just can't wait to be king........

ooooh yes... bought cds today... 5 disney soundtracks (orginal of course) for $19.90.. the catch? its from china, with chinese words on the cover... another catch? when i ripped them into my computer, all the titles are wrong.. so i have to spend like 10 minutes renaming them...

well, some of you were asking whats up with the conductor who pissed me off... he came to conduct my school's string ensemble.. he doesnt like people to write things on their scores, if it is already on the score... he doesnt like us to circle the dynamics... well, thats irritating... he always scolds us for not following the dynamics... why? because the dynamics are not catching our attention, and we circle them so that we notice them... and he doesnt want us to do so.. i mean, yes, he is training us to read the score properly, but sometimes if circling them works, why not? nothing wrong? he says that if we circle them, our brain will take more time to process the circle, what we wrote on the score, the given dynamics, bowing, etc, and by the time we did those, its too late to play it properly... i mean, come on!! even professional orchestras write things on their scores rite?? =.= there are other things about him, but i wont bother typing it out...

oh well, i'm over it anway... i guess i should apologise to the cello section.. i have been giving them the black face that day... but for those who knows me well, even when i have a black face, i wont vent my anger on anybody who talks to me.. so feel free to talk to me even if i look pissed... hahaa...

on lighter things, i went to kl with the new music ensemble on sunday til tuesday.. we were supposed to represent Singapore in some international music conference held in kl... i never really had that lots of fun since i went to america... we watched pirates of the caribbean there, and we were like checking our seats for HIV-infected needles just in case.. hahaa... the urban legend.. well, it goes like this.. there was a girl who went to watch a movie in malaysia, and when she sat on her seat, she felt a very sharp pain in her butt... she looked down and saw a syringe(?).. then the person sitting beside her said "welcome to the hiv family".... sure enough, she went for a check-up, and it was positive.. omg..... traumatising yea...

yea.. i loved that movie.. the plot is not bad, and the twist was really a twist.. cool... oh yea! we saw this car advertisement in the cinema... it goes like this...

BEAUTY HAS A NEW MEANING...
(CAR DRIVES BY)

LUST HAS A NEW MEANING...
(CAR DRIVES BY)

DESIRE HAS A NEW MEANING...
(CAR DRIVES BY)

PROTON 101

wah lau.. ahahaaaa... when we saw that, jeremy, jeremiah, yunqi and i burst out laughing like mad... hahahahhahahahaa.... oh welll.... our hotel was located just 5 mins walk away from the twin towers... cool? its less that 5 mins walk from where we are performing too... and its a 4 or 5 star hotel too... and i stole one of their tequila shot glasses.. haha... its free anyway...

my plan backfired to celebrate ee wei's birthday there... at first she was thinking of celebrating yunqi's birthday, which has already passed last week, and ee wei's birthday is on the 20th of july... so she planned to celebrate yunqi's birthday.. so i bluffed her that we are, and we are going to buy a cake.. so i told yunqi that we are celebrating ee wei's birthday instead... and i told her to tell the rest.. uh, apparently they didnt get the message... so in the end, they ended up singing the birthdat song for yunqi instead... actually for both, but yea.. the plan was foiled...

we only ate good food there.. mainly from the hotel's restaurant, which is 24 hours open... their satay is GOOOOOOD!!! juicy and tender!! omgomg... especially the beef one... wah lau!! cant find it in singapore la... the problem is their satay sauce isnt nice enough...

i didnt buy much there.. just bought a couple of mpo (malaysian philharmonic orchestra) cds and quite a bunch of tidbits... dr goh paid for quite a lot of our food.. it must have cost a bomb for him... well, he's one interesting fellow... funny too... should get to know him.. hahaa..

my mother bought me a pair of oakley sunglasses too... $400+.... well, i told her i didnt really need to spend that money to buy it, but she insisted.. she said as long as i dont lose it or spoil it, its worth it.. healthy eyes are more important.. so i gave in.. =p
but really, some times i think i've been neglecting my parents nowadays... should spend more time with them... will see what i can do...

the question still remains... to be or not to be... haiz...

enjoy^$@#%@

Performathon....

2006-07-14T09:56:00.000+08:00

dsoraygvnosritgyvnuihrighbvklsdfhg..........

i thought i might blog since i didnt blog for such a long time now....

yesterday was hell for me.. actually, not really.. i'm surprised i managed to get through it without much difficulty... but thats an understatement... i had 2 performances yesterday.. the first was an afternoon concert, or rather music platform for my school.. i was playing modern music composed by Singaporean composers, namely leong yoon ping, kelly tang and zecheriah goh toh chai, who is also my school's lecturer... of all the 4 pieces i played, i think the first one was the most non-sensical... it was like, 'what is going on?' it was a quintet, with a double bass and piano.. in all, we were only given 5 weeks to prepare all the pieces, and it was madness... dr goh's piece was my favourite among the 4... the piano trio he wrote was interesting, although its technically a little crazy... it seems he likes to write in semi-quavers, and they are usually isolated in groups of 1 crotchet beat.. nvm.. too complicated.. nafa is gonna play one of his orchestra works called 'naunces' (?) lol.... he also wrote an arrange for a malay folk song 'suriram'.. thats probably the only melodic and lyrical piece i played with them... kelly tang's piano trio was the one we were most worried with.. the timing is madness, we had to count, sometimes in irregular beats.. and i got lost in the middle of the performance.. but at least i managed to catch it back... my uncle played this piece a few years ago too, and the recording was amazing... the group is going to kl on sunday and coming back on tuesday for some international music conference... i cant wait for it to be over.. i have to stop playing modern music and get back on track with classical pieces... gonna play tchaikovsky's piano trio op. 50 with yi kai..

the 2nd performance i had was the snyo concert at night... we played mozart's symphony 25 and shostakovich's 'gadfly suite'.. apparently the gadfly suite was written for a movie in 1955.. i should find it someday and watch it... i like that suite.. and i thought we did quite well for it, although we heard some comments about the cello section from some of my friends... well, i couldnt really hear anything from the front.. its quite a sad concert.. depressing... lots of people are leaving syo, and this is the last concert with them... ike, andris, charlotte, wilbur are all leaving... the cello section will never be the same again... it seems as though i'm the only one of my generation to stay behind, other than ruo lin... since andris is leaving, i MIGHT end up being principal cellist, but i'm not so enthusiastic about it.. i dont want to occupy myself with this kind of stress and responsibility, thats why i'm hoping mr lim will push adriel up and me staying as i am now... besides, they are gonna play weber's invitation to a dance, which has a HUGE HUGE cello solo in it.. i would rather call it a one movement cello concerto.. if mr lim ever puts me as principal, i will see if the piece is manageable, or i'll quit... well, i cant say i'm doing a good job as a sectional leader in nafa, and i definitely doubt it will be any better in syo...

well, really, syo cello section will never be the same with the people leaving now.. i thought i should write some farewell messages to those i know... cheesy or mushy? dont think too much...

well, first wilbur... he's probably the only person i hang out with in the cello section.. we always eat dinner after rehearsals, and start talking about people in the orchestra.. haha.. really crappy.. it seems we have a lot of common topics to talk about... well, he's migrating to hong kong in august.. there goes my toilet buddy...

charlotte... the person who seems to be always fighting me for cabs at the end of rehearsals... i knew her ever since i came into the training orchestra, and we went in to the main together too... so that means we have been in the same orchestra for the same amount of years... she's probably the most talkative, or 'attitude' person i know, but the cello section would seem empty without her....

last but not least, andris... probably one of the most talented person i know... plays the piano and cello sooo well... i would say it was my privilege(?) and honour to be playing with her for all those months... and i can tell you that she is indisposable for the cello section.. now that she's leaving, the cello section will never have another person as her to lead them ever again...

well..... thats it... i will definitely miss you guys.. all the best and God bless for your exams...

enjoy*)(&%^^%*#)*&^

Padawan.....

2006-06-27T15:23:00.000+08:00

you have learnt well, my young padawan....

haiz... came home from orchestra rehearsal in nafa... i had the choice whether to go or not, but i did... i figured i couldnt leave and forsake my cello section.. haha... i regretted... the piece was mad.. played beethoven 3rd symphony... its crazy... first of all, my sight-reading isnt really good.. secondly, the piece is mad... thirdly, the piece is difficult.. shall i continue?

have to play for string class tomorrow, and was only informed of it this afternoon.. ao last minute.. what to do? its nafa.. oh well.. still thinking of what to play.. something easy and sight-readable.. probably popper no.3...

my ps teacher has changed... it used to be my uncle.. now its yu jing, the sso cello associate principal... well, i went for my first lesson last friday.. i really liked it... she focused on all the basics, my posture, the articulation, bow control, etc... she's good i tell you.. GOOD... anyway, the exercises she gave me looks very easy.. LOOKS.. looks can be deceiving... i tried to play it, and i was out of tune.. well, it was supposed to teach you how to play it in tune.. haha... it figures... at least now i have something to practice... hopefully i can improve and take my playing to another level with her... no pieces for now...

feelings can be deceiving... if you fall prey and slave to it, it will lead you astray, and probably to your own destruction, but if you control it and know what to do with it, your life will be wonderful...

probably...

well, maybe.......

perhaps......

possibly.........

just dont take my word for it...

enjoy$#!$%$#@

Illuminati....

2006-06-23T04:27:00.000+08:00

whee whee...

reading dan brown's angels and demons... its really really really really really really really good and exciting.. really a very good book.. its not as critical as da vinci code.. its more of a scientific fact book, other than some rubbish which is commonly found in dan's books.... well, the amazing thing was that the day before i started reading this book, which i borrowed from my neighbour, i was watching a documentary on discovery channel about megastructures.... the CERN (Conseil European pour la Recherche Nucleaire) is building this huge underground particle accelerator machine, which will be the world's biggest machine in the world when completed... the purpose? to experiment and research on the big bang... the whole machine underground will be shaped in a circle, with a circumference of 27km... what it does is it uses magnetic fields to accelerate 2 particles of electrons or something in opposite directions, then making them collide into each other at a speed of 180,000km per sec.... this will create a huge explosion, and create energy, which they hope will be used for our power supply in the future... its energy output is 100% for this energy source compared to nuclear energy, which is only about 8% efficient... soon after i watched it, i borrowed the book from my neighbour, and read the first few chapters, and was shocked to find out that it was almost exactly what the discovery channel was saying... they also mentioned about the building of the machine in europe... so i guess this fact is based on that event..

anyway, the book is really good... what happened in the book is that a scientist was murdered.. he happened to discover how to make anti-matter, the opposite of matter... thats where the religious part comes in... this scientist was a devout christian, who was determined to prove that God existed through science and the big bang... that God was the one who created the big bang and that the 2 opposing forces came from him instead of nothing... basically he got murdered because he made a breakthrough by creating anti-matter, and the illuminati, an elite group of mysterious and brightest scientists in the world who are against any religions, espeically the catholics.... it appears they are behind the biggest conspiracy ever... long story.. anyway, they stole the anti-matter... whats wrong with that? anti-matter destroys matter once it touches matter, including air.. its destructive power is enormous... 5000 nanograms of anti-matter, when in contact with matter, is enough to blind you, even when you are not looking directly at it.... so imagine half a gram of it being stolen, and being used as a time bomb...

on top of that, the pope just died, and all the cardinals are gathered in the vatican city to elect a new pope.. there are however 4 of them, who are the most prefeerred and highest ranking of them, were kidnapped by the illuminati, and threatened to kill one of them every hour... so john langdon comes in to find the lair of the illuminati, which are clues laid down in ancient artifacts which are so subtle that most people, of not all will not even notice, like a statue pointing in a certain direction, is actually pointing to another marker...

its actually too much to say it out... go read it!! just make sure you treat it as a work of fiction... i still cant believe that people would really believe in the da vinci code... oh well...

this is probably one of my longest post ever...

enjoy(*&%&@

Too Late

2006-06-15T13:29:00.000+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

the only problem is i'm 1 day late.... hmm.. oh well...

19 and counting... and no M19 movies.. sad...

enjoy*&%^$

The Prodigy.........

2006-06-12T13:44:00.000+08:00

zzzzzzzzz.............

just ate me dinner... chicken chop bought home by my dad... not bad.. haha... oh wells...

went for pco rehearsal for the rossini stabat concert this coming sat.. it was probably one of the worst rehearsal i've ever had with pco, and christoven thinks so too for him.. my concentration was down, and everything seemed like a blur for me.. you know when you are not focusing, and then the thigns you see arent appearing that real to you? and somehow the lights around you seem to dim or flicker? it was exactly what i felt, only that the light was literally flickering above me.. one of the lamps was spoilt... and a bunch of wrong notes came from my cello... i wonder what mr lim thinks of me now...

andris was principal cellist, as usual, and she smsed me in the morning that its gonna be a sight-reading session, and it will be super scary.. uh, coming from her? cannot be trusted... when we started reading the score, she played as if she practiced for weeks already.. not surprising... haha... what do you expect from a prodigy? nono... its proooooooooooooooooooooooooodigy, as alan would put it...

well, havent been contacting wei kang for the past few days... for some of you who knew, well, yea... wei kang!!! oi!! we're here if you ever need us ok? dont do anything stupid.. really... hope you're doing well larh.. nothing much i can say.. i'm not the kind of guy who can comfort someone... so i hope at least i can help out in any way?

i've been thinking... prodigies... in the musical world especially... what exactly brought them about? was it intense training and discipline by the parents? or a natural gift that happens just like that? i dunno... maybe both... it happened that both my brother and sister were under strict discipline from my dad... i didnt receive as much attenti0n from him compared to them, because i learn cello, not violin, which my dad specialises in... he couldnt really help me much when i was young, and all he could really do was to force me to practice and practice... i cant help but feel a sense of jealousy, enviness and regret when i look at those really good people out there.... if only i could be like them.. if only i practiced like mad when i was young... if only............ then things would be much easier now... nothing i can do now... but practice and practice and practice to make up for lost time... oh well....

now i'm depressed... =.=

enjoy$%@#%@

Last Day...

2006-06-05T07:48:00.000+08:00

............

am in the com lab now... with a bunch of people i dont know who are recording for darius's composition competition... and they are forming a circle around me now.. hahaa... i feel WEIRD... i am sooo out of place right now... oh wells....

anyway, school starts tomorrow... cant believe it that i cant really wait for it... i'm just so bored of doing nothing during the holidays... and that samuel is trying to ruin my life.. he's out to get me...

DARIUS's compo sounds good.. i'm sure he will win this competition.. if he wins, his song will be the national day song for this year.. aint that cool? i think EVAN would be proud...

dont really know what to blog about... as for my msn nick, it was wei kang and shaun!! those 2 pushed me into the pool during our class bbq... evil beings... i trusted them.. i planned out everything, i designed the masterplan, and they used it against me...

i had another weird dream last night, and its very freaky.. it was about my sister.. shall not talk about it.. haha.. no, she didnt die, it was weirder than that... i may tell you guys what it was about soon.. i think..

this must be my shortest post ever..

enjoy(*^$$#

So Dumb The Con Of Man

2006-05-26T17:44:00.000+08:00

1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89..............

before i post anything, wanna make an apology to mark, sam, yongrui and wei kang for what happened just now... i was making a big deal over such a small thing... sorry... really... it was stupid... i was thinking since we've gotten so far, might as well continue on right? but forget it.. its over...

Anyways, watched the da vinci code today with them, except wei kang... it was rather cool, makes a lot of sense IF the info they gave was true, but it isnt, far from the real truth.... constatine wasnt the one who compiled the bible, drew young men like females at their time, the Priory of scion was a scam which was only created in the 1960s and exposed as a scam in the late 60s instead of being 100s of generations old..... i could go on with the whole list of twisted facts, but you get my Point... but it was very good they way they reveal the 'truth'... at Least it kept the 3 of us watching and sitting at the edge of our seats eager to find out whats next...

the 3 of us have discovered a dark and possibly deadly conspiracy in our time... the truth that when revealed, will shake the Entire southern seas...

far above the knowledge of the queen,
beside the mighty pillar of wisdom she hid,
seeking for those who held the secret,
the power behind seasons and storms.

her head blessed with enchanted wings,
she fears not the worst of things,
consumed by darkness she embraced,
no companions has favoured her.

so dark the coats of her,
but she fears of only one,
neither gods nor demons shake her will,
only the fall of man will she stop.............

go figure... ^^

enjoy$%@^%$

Le Pew...

2006-05-23T17:37:00.000+08:00

...............

went to watch over the hedge with samuel, mark and nuzli at the new cathay building... and when we were lining up for the popcorn, we met lifeng (?) and dunno who there too.. and they were watching the same movie as us.. haha... the show is realli realli realli realli funny and cute!! especially the turtle!! omg!!! he's soooooooooooooo cute!!! and very sad also... when he was sad, you feel like crying for him lorh.. go watch and you will know why...

had a haircut last week... look, weird? my hair is neither long nor short, and cant really style it in any way...

i pasted 3 videos on my blog in case you havent noticed... the first one is Frauermann(?) playing dvorak's cello rondo op. 94, and david popper's spinning song... its really good.. it was filmed in 1939 and is the only surviving film of him... he's amazing, but musically not as good as those i've heard in the recordings... he seems to play the pieces effortlessly, as though they were the basics to him... crazy... me trying to learn the dvorak now, but i'm wondering how long it will take me to learn it?
the 2nd one is the airshow of the red arrows synchronised flying... this group is the elite team and one of the best of synchronise flying squadrons, some of which includes the blue angels and thunderbirds... but i think the red arrows is the still the best among them... their tricks are really really difficult and almost crazy to do... especially their trademark where they seem to fly aimlessly in a group, then they suddenly criss-cross each other's path in divert into 4 different directions... its near the 29 sec mark if i'm not wrong... there was a famous accident which involved them many years back... i'm sure most of you must have seen the video on tv... it was the most devastating crash they had which killed 2 or 3 pilots of their squadron, and also a number of the ground spectators... the team was out of action for a few years, but they made a comeback.... amazing...
the 3rd video is about acrobatic flying... the way they maneuver the aircraft is amazing... you know how dangerous and difficult it is to do those stunts? you can never imagine... i saw the old guy fly in an airplane race before... he's fast, but he got 2nd i think?

got back my ps results today.. got a D(pass)... well, fine.. lynette seah's comments were really, a little useless?? i smsed my uncle about it, and he gave his usual answer... 'ok.' lol... dunno what thats supposed to mean... i wonder what hes gonna say during my next lesson...

it just started to rain... at this time? zzz

enjoy)(^%#@

I Don't See Why........

2006-05-15T18:54:00.000+08:00

*sigh*

crappy feeling i'm having since this afternoon.... why? well.... my church is already 'recruiting' people to play for the christmas service in december... its gonna be a big event... and since i came to this church 6 years ago, i've always wanted to play for the church on a regular basis... unfortunately i have to attend syo every saturday, and since last year, on thursdays too, which makes me totally unavailable for the music ministry rehearsals and sometimes even service too... and it has been worse for the past few weeks.. havent gone to service due to rehearsals... well, apparently the auditions for the christmas thingy is over, but i'm sure they can make some arrangements right? i seriously doubt that the church is that inflexible... well, so i asked mei hwa, my unit leader, whether there was anything she could do to help me ask about it... but she said, honestly, the main problem was because i'm not consistent in my service attendance, so i cant play, even if she could ask about getting me in later... i mean, its not as if i want it this way right? its not as if i dont want ot attend service right? its because i cant, not because i dont want! theres a big difference between those 2..... fine, i'm sure they have reasons for doing this, that people do not perform out of glory and self-honour, and they should be doing this for God and God alone.... but you cant judge a person's spirituality and motives by their service attendance right? i mean, what if a person got persecuted but his parents, but wants to serve in a special event, cant he serve too? or he cant because he havent come to service for a long time? its not as if i havent played in church before... i did it a few times, and i wanna do it again! ARGH!!!
well, fine... i'll accept it.... just... not so happy about it... i'm quitting syo after july anyway... will they accept me after that? probably.... at least let me give it a shot ok?

had to get that off my back before i go mad in my bed.... well, nothing much happened since i went ice-skating.... and crap... received the news that i have to re-assess my harmony... paper on the 1st of june... i'm hopeless in it.. and to master it in 2 weeks? i dont think so..... will try, but doubt so... and i have to write a 1000-word essay for my sas.... fine... if they want an essay, they shall get one.... lets see how they react to anti-modernism....

oh... and wei kang arh....

CELLO RULES!!! whether you like it or not...

*bleah*

enjoy$%#&$&##

Coooooooooooooooookies.....

2006-05-13T14:34:00.000+08:00

coookiesssssss...........

well, just came home from dinner with my dad... went to chomp chomp, 2nd time this week too...

had a great time yesterday with the nafa ppl... first we went to jurong for ice-skating.. havent skated for years, cause the last time i did was when i was pri 4? i remembered i crashed into those people doing figure-skating in the middle of the rink... and they were quite pissed with me.. haha.. what to do? i dunno how to skate...

well, yesterday, qinglun, wei kang, huiqi, yong rui, andy, sebastian, christoven and i went to ice-skate, and it was hilarious... especially wei kang... he was paranoid at every movement we made at him, cause he was too scared to fall down.. and i tried to make him fall.. haha... evil... well, u will never get used to it until u fall the first time... =p
and no, I DID NOT FALL YESTERDAY.... THAT WAS NOT COUNTED!! i landed on my hands... so that leaves me and christoven 'clean'.. we're the only 2 who didnt fall... hahahahaa... wheeee....
and besides, i almost fell coz of some little girl who was blocking the way, couldnt turn in time so i tried to stop, which all of us couldnt figure how... i ended up spinning hysterically, trying to control my legs and swinging my arms around, until i landed on my hands on the ground... *phew*
they saw it, and were laughing all the way... =.=

after that, wei kang, christoven, huiqi and i went to eat at the sakura buffet... we ate too much.. and for the first time, i actually ate the raw oysters without spitting them out... starting to get used to it? we took too much food, and its probably the most food which i've wasted in all my life... wont do it again... but the food was alright, considering its $28 per person and christoven was kind enough to lend me money first... looks like i owe lots of ppl money...

we went over to carlton hotel (not ritz carlton) near chijmes, and sat down there to drink beer and eat kacang puteh.... wei kang relaly couldnt drink any beer, so christoven drank his... and me? i personally dont really like beer, but i drank 4/5 of my share, but the lady kept pouring more into my glass, til it seems as though i onli drank half of it.... the singers there were, er, well, they could sing better... but it was ok... then there was this american guy who drank too much, and went up on stage and started dancing with the singers... you could see that they were trying to avoid him from kissing them, but they still kept a smile.. then he was dancing around the bar, shaking his butt and clapping and singing along.. hahaha... it was really funny, but we felt embaressed for him... after a while, this indian guy came up and told the guy off quietly, cause it wasnt really an appropriate public behaviour...

so we went home after that, which was about 11.50pm...

today, woke up at 2pm.. haha... oh wells... and surprisingly, until now, i havent shat out the things i ate yesterday at the buffet... amazing... it was the most bloated dinner i ever had in my life... went to acjc's strings concert at 5 at vch... went with sarah cause eva couldnt make it, so its down to the both of us... and she brought like a whole plastic bag of COOKIES from subway, and its like an early birthday present for me? haha... i'm fine with it... thanks! it should cost a bomb anyway...
andris was playing solo and she was in the first program... she was playing vivaldi's cello concerto in A minor... it was goooooood.... although there were some very slight intonation problems, but the idea and technical abilities were there... the only main problem was probably the phrasing and direction of the music... it didnt really bring the music anywhere, and it was kinda monotonous in some sense... maybe its because i was sitting at the back? probably... but her sound was, amazing? it was clearcut and straight to the point... her crossing of strings were very clear, although there were some accents on the lower notes, which are difficult to adjust even for professionals... in all, it was good... but you know what? i cant believe nobody gave her flowers after her performance!!! its a disgrace man... how can you not give the soloist any flowers or gifts on stage?? =.= and she had to change her concert attire in about 2 to 3 minutes so that she could make it as principal player in the next piece... really a rush...
the concert in general was alright, and yibin was playing albinoni's oboe concerto... he's probably the best youth oboeist i've heard so far, since i first heard him a few years back...
the main problem with the concert was their encore... it was, er, horrible... i mean, really, compared to the thimgs they played earlier, it was really in the pits... probably because they didnt rehearse much on it? encore pieces are not really meant to be rehearsed... lol... oh, and the conductor was kang ming, who was my brother's groomsman for his wedding, of which i was the bestman.. =p

well, i had more weird dreams again... and its really really really weird... and as far as i remember, they were scary, but exciting... it was about war, undercover jobs, and lots of shooting and jumping off buildings and parachutes.... tell you guys next time if i want to...

enjoy_*(&)(*%$%$#(

Moony.....

2006-05-10T04:35:00.000+08:00

ho hum.....

juz woke up, and i had a very very very very weird dream.... tell you guys later...

had a rather interesting day yesterday... i went to school to practice in the late afternoon then met up with wei kang, seng fu and yong rui to go orchard... in the end, we didnt... we ended up eating pepper lunch at dhoby ghaut.. its quite good, but the price isnt worth it i would say... the portion is too pathetic..

after that we decided to go to mt alvernia hospice with wei kang to visit his dad.. i didnt really like that place, especially the lift.. it smells of, er, death? theres this very disgusting plastic smell.. who knows, maybe its human smell.... ewww.... finally saw who jane was... it is really really unthinkable that she is something else... she's either an extremely kind and godly christian, or she's the worst hypocrite and cunning vixen.... and she wasnt what i expected from wei kang's blag... interesting...

we couldnt decide on where to go next, so i suggested taking a walk in mcritchie reservoir ... mind you it was already 9+ at night... the park was rather quiet, with couples kissing here and there.... then we entered the jungle area................... we could hardly see anything at first, and yong rui was crying to go back... hahhaa.... but i wanted to move on.. its like a jungle adventure you know... you dont do this often... well, it was really amazing how God could create the moon.. the moon was already bright enough for us to see the road ahead of us.. it was sufficient for our eyes, except yong rui's coz he's blind in the dark... it always seem dark until we actually reach the area.. it was soo cool!!! we practically walked for about 45 mins? then we reached the main road with cars... CIVILISATION!!!!
we felt as if we were stranded in the forest for years and finally found our way back to home... ahahaha... and wei kang was hysterical...

that was fun... we should bring the whole nafa for a trip like that one day...

as i was saying, my dream just now... i cant really remember much of it... the first part was that i was supposed to get married on friday...!! and i did not know anything about it at all!! i was like, what?! married??? and you know who's my bride? its on of the media corps actress, dunno whats her name... the one whos acting in the 9pm show, which i must have saw at mount alvernia hospital when i was waiting for wei kang.. it was just this once and she's in my dream.. =.=
she was my bride and she was excited about it, but for me, like what the heck? who arranged the wedding?? my parents? and they didnt bother to tell me about it? apparently the dinner and everything were planned out already, and they were already looking for the wedding attire... and my attire was some traditional chinese costume... =.= and her dress was the traditional western wedding dress.... crappo.. ahahaaa... and for some reason, her height was like 2 heads above mine... i didnt know what to do.. to tell her that i didnt intend to marry her and break her heart? i dunno... and lucky for me, my dream changed scene.. ahaha.. heng...

this time i was a pilot flying my plane over enemy territory... then we noticed there were 3 black box-like structures with some sort of black circle in the middle of it that looks like a gem of some sort... and we were suspecting that it was the reason why many planes have been crashing there recently... the funny thing was that, we just landed our plane there, mind you its enemy territory, and conveniently asked them what the deivces were... they didnt want to tell us, so we had to find out ourselves... when i was about to find out what it was, my father woke me up.... !!!!

talk about anti-climax....
zzzzz

enjoy&%$&^%$

Blood?

2006-05-04T17:04:00.000+08:00

wheeewheee......

hmm... where should i start? i think yesterday is a good topic...

had my cello exam yesterday... well, no comments... i knew it!! lynette seah was one of the examiniers, along with mrs santos... well, i thought she'll definitely ask me whether i'm yoong han's brother.. and she did, and the very first question when i first stepped into the recital hall... expected... well, heres the timeline and stress lvl of my exam...

waiting period - 1.30pm - stress (3/10)

anticipation - 1.55pm - stress (3.5)

entering hall - 2pm - (4)

'are you yoong han's brother?' - 2.01pm - (8)

start of beethoven sonata - 2.05pm - (7)

start of haydn concerto - 2.13pm - (8)

start of haydn concerto second section - 2.13pm - (9)

start of orchestra excerpt, brahms symphony 4 2nd mov - 2.16pm - (9.5)

orchestra excerpt, mozart magic flute overture - 2.19pm - (8.5)

made mistake in mozart - 2.20pm - (9.6)

end of exam - 2.21pm - (3)

and until now i cant believe i screwed up my mozart orchestra excerpt... it was the easiest! and i played a whole bar as though it was shostakovich... played like a fourth up of the actual note... incredible.. a total screw up... my haydn second section wasnt that good either... was out of tune in the high positions... beethoven sonata was the best i thought... the funny thing was that i wasnt nervous for the exam... i'm beginning to get used to this performing thingy... well, i learnt one thing, dont panic no matter what.. just look into your music and play like you used to...

well, after my exam, christoven, evan, jwen and i went to watch a mooovie... havent watched one since i watched fearless with samuel and gang, which was a few months back... we watched the sentinel.. it was ok.. the plot was ok... everything was ok.. it wasnt exeptional in most or any way...

so we went home after the movie, and evan and i took the nel back... while waiting for the train, an indian-looking girl, who was sitting beside evan, started talking to her... evan was like slapping my arm, signalling me to do something.. well, what did you want me to do? haha... well, we found out she was pakistanist, and she was intending to share the gospel to us... cool i was thinking... was glad that there are people doing this... well, that was until i noticed she was holding the book of mormons in her hand... a mormon... the first i've seen in singapore... so she found out we were already christians, so she was like ok, sure... but she did give me her name card, with the branches of the mormon churches on back of it... i kept it, and its still in my wallet... maybe it might prove useful someday, probably few years ahead? mormon churches are called the church of the latter day saints... saw a few in america when i was there... well, i didnt hold any judgment on her.. its just sad that they believe in somethings which are ridiculously wrong yet they do not realise it... dont blame them, its like me telling you that the earth is square, but all of you believe its round... no! its square!! yea... you are like those being deceived out there... if you get what i mean...

well, anyway, today... rehearsed lu heng's piece in the early afternoon for this compo exam on friday.. interesting piece.. a video game quartet.. haha... so after that, christoven, yong rui, eva and i went to watch a movie.. again... haha... this time it was mission impossible 3, and WEI KANG pang sehed us, because he doesnt like action movies... haiz... how can? tsk tsk tsk... it was action movies that make movies exciting... haha... anyways, its probably the best of the trilogy... exciting, and you dunno what will happen next.... the plot was good, and the action scenes were really nice!
we were practically making fun of eva for the whole day... you see, she likes gothic stuffs, blood, dark stuffs, etc... interesting... so we thought the person she was sitting beside was gonna lose a lot of blood to her... haha... nvm... long story... go read yong rui's blog... (advertisement)

this is a long entry, so i'll let you guys digest it... =p

enjoy_(*^*)$$^@#

When?

2006-05-02T14:46:00.000+08:00

.................

well.... just came home from supper, from which i came from the hua chong concert.... it was goooood... and hilarious.. my brother was playing solo for scarabin's (spelled correctly i hope) carmen fantasy.... it was really really funny, because there was an introduction played by the prchestra, then my brother had to enter from backstage slowly, walking to the center of the stage, one hand holding his violin, the other hand holding a..... rose..... AND THEN, the orchestra stopped... he took the rose from his hand, threw it to the ground, and stomped it with all his MIGHT... ahahahahhahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahaaaa!!! omgomgomgomgomg!!! everybody was laughing!!! ahahahahhahahahahahaaa!!! and my brother was trying hard not to laugh... hahahahahahhahaaa.... oh wells....
the mendelssohn's octet was good, except for some intonations here and there... lenard played well today, but sometimes the cello cant really be heard... well, violas were even worse.. if i were listening to a cd, i would think it was a trio instead of quartet... but violas has always been like that, so whats the diff? =p
went to watch it with sarah and eva, and i was like 15 mins late, cause yi kai and i had to settle some of the beethoven issues... well, they keep saying that i should be like lenard... must play better... i'm trying!!! ahhhh... and my vibrato, still a problem...
and they keep teasing me about andris! hello? doesnt mean i support her means i like her ok? lol... i mean, she's really good larh, you have to admit, like the 'goddess' of cello at her age, and she's my so-called 'role model' in singapore, so dont think too much... =.=

anyway,had ps today, and tomorrow's my practical exam... well, we ran through the whole programme, and surprisingly my uncle said it was quite good, except with a few intonations... well, that has always been my problem... intonation... irritating...

dunno what to do larh... sianz... practical exam tomorrow, hopefully it will go on smoothly... i doubt they will let me finish my piece cause of the time limit.. well, pray for me please?

enjoy_(*^_

The Edge Of My Sanity

2006-04-26T19:41:00.000+08:00

madnessss.....

its 4.26am at the time i'm typing this now... fisnishing up my concert attendence, which was supposed to be due on monday.... and thanks to SOMEBODY (shall not say who in case he sues me for saying wei kang), i'm not able to hand up my moa and almost everything else on time... =.=

well, doesnt matter... not as if it helps much... well, crappy things going on now... having cello lesson in almost exactly 5 hours time, that means i have to wake up at 8.30, which means i have less that 4 hours of sleep... perhaps i should not sleep now, in case i dont wake up in time.. i cant believe this is happening again, after wei kang and yong rui were sleeping (or rather not) over at my house 2 days ago, which we didnt sleep at all...

i was kinda pissed and tired on monday... i had to play for so many composers, and i tell you, i screwed up at least half of them... i'm so sorry guys!! if any of you are reading this.. i was just.... playing ruccish, and i even almost made of the composers cry during the exam... argh! i cant believe i did this!! this is so pissifying!! what a word... oh well.... they all said it was ok, i did my best.. well, i dunno.... i dunno if what they said was what they really meant.... i hope it was...

so i reached home at 8pm, worn out and not having a chance to take a long nap in school... so i took a quick shower and slept til the next afternoon 1pm...

yesterday wasnt really any better... didnt do anything because wei kang didnt come early enough to pass me my stuffs... i cant print my things from the com lab coz my printing card does not have enough money to do so... i have 100+ pages to print, which will cost me $9... guess i will haf to try again later... so far, i'm probably losing marks like nobody's business for overdue works... haiz............

well, me chatting with eva now... she's always the one up late and probably the only one active enough to tok wif... she's a little 'mad' now... as always.. she probably goes psycho in these hours... who knows...

i'm going to get myself something to eat... maybe i wont b sleeping at all... probably... perhaps...

enjoy)*&%&#)

To Be Or Not To Bee?

2006-04-23T14:45:00.000+08:00

wellll....

crappo... tons of things to do and handed up on monday... concert attendance, harmony portfloio, moa portfolio, history presentation portfolio, sas portfolio, string studies self-reflection, and playing for a handful of composers... haiz... why must nafa ask us to do some totally unnecessary stufffs? i think its rubbish....

well, my uncle told me that i should quit syo... he said that i will not learn anything there.. if i were to join an orchestra, i should join pco or something... well, i enjoy syo... my friends are there, and i sure did learn lots of stuffs there.. in fact, almost more than 90% of my orchestra experience came from there since i started in sec 2... i guess i have learnt what i must now, and maybe i should quit... well, if i were to quit, i will be quitting after this coming concert... i hope it will be a memorable one... as i was on the bus back home just now from school, i was smiling to myself.. haha.. mad it seems... i was thinking of the things we had in the cello section when we were together... it was fun... just as the rehearsal was just now... well, in a way... and besides, i would be missing the aberdeen trip next year... *sigh* i guess i'm not destined to follow syo on any of their tours... i sure did miss the vienna trip.. i practiced so hard for it, but i guess they already prepared the result before the audition... a few other people are leaving too... charlotte, wilbur, ruo lin, andris <--- of all people... haha... and i wonder who will be principal when she leaves? cant wait to find out! i guess there will never be another principal like her... maybe adriel? ahaha.. probably.. or most probably lenard... well, if we leave, all the old generation will be gone from the cello section.. sad... but its gonna happen sooner or later... oh wells... this is perhaps the will of God? after i quit syo, i would be able to attend service as usual, without being late, and definitely able to attend caregroups on thursday evenings, which is not possible now that i have syo from 7-9... all these are about to change...

aniwaes, i was playing for a bunch of composers for their composition exam yesterday, and i was using my uncle's cello.. WOOT!! the sound is great, the sound projection is goooood, and the positions are darn comfortable!! i want that cello!!! but, what are the chances that he will give it to me? =.=
so once i played the first piece, wei ping rushed over to me and said "you must use that cello for your exam!".. yea, i wish i could.. lets see what my uncle has to say about it first yea? so i guess i did quite well for the exam (i hope), cause alan was also saying that the cello sounded great, compared to mine... however i'm suspecting that it is just the strings... coz my cello really need a new set of strings, the oldest string being the c string, for roughly a year or so already... !!! and its mouldy... so, i'll have to wait and get a new set before i can conclude anything.. but the cello itself definitely has a part of its sound...
well, after the exam, dr goh sent me an sms saying "thanks for playing for the compo students... you have a good heart..." well, i guess its no problem... i know the feeling of asking for help and not getting it, so it is my nature to help with what i can... but sometimes, some people can go too far... but so far, its ok... another 5 or 6 more to go on monday i think? maybe... i should be able to survive, considering that we have tons of portfolios to hand up... *groan*

meanwhile, i'll use my uncle's cello as often as possible... muahaha.... he loaned it to sarah so that she can use it for recording.. the school's cello is horrible... thats all i can say about it... cant expect much for a school cello... you cant expect a school to pay more than $10000 for a cello for general use... so, i guess that will have to do...

enjoy)(*^(^$

The Easter..........

2006-04-17T06:05:00.000+08:00

*groan*

am in school now.. was practicing with yi kai for his and my exam... crappo... some easter sunday eh?

managed to go for service yesterday coz there was no syo... was glad to see some people there... havent seen them for a year or so...

i'm still in a state of denial that eva is the one in her msn display pic.. its....... crazy.....

aniwaes, playing for a whole bunch of composers on monday, meaning tomorrow... so many compsoers, so little time... i'm the only cellist now, playing for AT LEAST 6 composers... more to come after they give me the scores... it was totally unexpected, because i thought their exam was over for composition, which i played for quite a number of them too just a month or so ago... and now, its the end year exam... oh wells.... this week is gonna be the worst week of all.... have to hand up moa portofolio, history presentation portfolio, moa groupwork, which we havent done anything at all... crappo... on top of that, there is still our harmony portoflio and sas portfolio... havent done anything about it too, and my practical exam is in 2 weeks time, and i have to play for yi kai's accompaniment exam on tuesday... argh!!!! i have to get through this... its possible... definitely.... i hope... probably... maybe... possibly... perhaps... i guess...

ok... nvm.... went to service yesterday and it was great.. went to 2 services, the youth and tertiary service.. its the same aniwaes... no diff... so i met my bro for dinner after that, and we went to pregos... haha... its an italian restaurant.... its really good! and i ate the squid ink pasta... its quite ok.. cant really taste the squid ink though... then he ordered 2 pizzas, both of seafood type, but different settings... very good!! we should go there one day... and my sis-in-law has the raffles card, so we have a discount of 33% for 3 people... its like 50% for 2 people, 33% for 3, 25% for 4 and 20% for 5... i shall consider going there for my first date.. =p
well, so after that we went to raffles hotel to have some cocktail.. interesting place, and its like madly expensive.... but still, we had the RAFFLES CARD... haha... so i got meself a singapore sling, which tastes like fruit punch with alcohol.. quite disappointing... my sis-in-law got some frenchy word drink, made of pineapple juice and coconut thingy with some rum or something.. my brother got himself a zombie, which is made of 2 types of rum with cherry or something like dat.. it tastes like nail-polish, or rather industrial alcohol... it took me about 4 sips to start liking that one... then my brother got another drink, tidalwave.. its like lime and gin and something else... no idea... haha... oh wells.... my cocktail excperience....

so i am here.. in school.. practicing... oh wells....

enjoy)&^%$

S Wood..........

2006-04-13T19:34:00.000+08:00

zzzzzzzzzzz.....

its 4am now and i'm doing my history portfolio... what a life... still stuck with 1 and a half more to go... and still stuck on a keyboard work... argh...

nafa's concert was yesterday... i tell you... it was embarrassing... they invited some sso cellists, namely guo hao and whats-her-face.... no idea wads her name... guo hao must be so pissed with the cello section.. simply because of 2 accidents which happened to him... the first happened the day before the concert.. out dear new cellist and soon-to-be student of nafa, eva (pronounced as 'evil' without the 'l'), accidentally tipped guo hao's cello a little, and apparently his bow was on the cello, and it slid down on the ground... guo hao literally ran to his cello and and took it away from the area, and he kept strring at eva.. poor thing... and she was thinking of how to redeem herself... well, i thought it was nothing compared to what is gonna happen the next day...

it was concert time, and the cellos were entering the stage... i was principal cellist (because they had no choice), so i had to walk out fast... well, guo hao was already in his seat, in the 3rd desk, and i didnt really notice that, until, i felt something hit my right shoulder, followed by a loud 'OI!'.. to my horror, it was guo hao's cello which i banged into, and it was right into his tuning pegs! argh!! the embarassment!! then he starred at me and quickly tuned his cello, which didnt go out of tune at all... man... i can feel all the eyes look at me at that point of time... oh wells... i wonder how much his bow and cello cost... probably more then 5 digits altogether... definitely... well, so now i have to redeem myself too... =.=

my brother and uncle came for the concert... and i screwed up.. big time... yea... my uncle's gonna kill me on friday... the overture was fine, in the beginning at least.. we played mendelssohn's 'the hebrides' fingal's cave... it was fine until we reached the fast part, and i tell you, i screwed up very badly.. i was playing rubbish... the speed is ALWAYS faster that i thought... haiz.. after all the hard work practicing that passage... grr...

well, we played a piece by delius, who is an english composer... quite pleasant... and then, the gu zheng concerto played by ting ting... not bad actually.. thought wei kang would find it crappy, but to my curprise he gave us a 7/10 in context of chinese music...

seng fu and leslie came for the concert, but they left during the interval coz they had something on... well, we played 'the moldau' by smetana.. one of my favourite pieces... it is beautiful, by professionals i mean.. by nafa? we did our best... it was ok... then disaster strikes... we played sibelius's kareleia suite... it was horrible.... nobody dared to play out... in fact, nobody dared to play out throughout the entire concert... well.. it happens...

peter esswood is probably the best conductor we will have for the following few months, maybe even years.... hopefully he will come back soon and save us... oh, and for some reason eva finds him cute? lol... oh, and she;s gonna be sectional leader sooner or later... she just wont believe me... we shall see.. =p

crappo.... 4.30 already... too many things to do... playing for at least 6 composers for their exam on monday.. dr goh even asked me to premier leong yoon pin's work in KL in july, along with his very own piano trio, which is madly crazily difficult!! almost everything in treble clef... *groan*

ok... seriously have to continue with my portfolio... and prepare for the composer's concert i'm playing for later this evening... and will be late for syo rehearsal too... sianz...

enjoy)*&%&^$

The Dreaded Month...

2006-04-05T14:59:00.000+08:00

eargh.....!!!

projects and portfolios!! bleah.... disgusting and disgustingly disgusting.... so busy now, and so cramped up for time.... just came back from pco rehearsal, playing marriage of figaro in july, the full opera with the slo... maybe fairul will be singing?? hahaha... lim yau was in a good mood today... probably coz its professional ensemble... total different case when he came to nafa.. oh wells... students will be students...

the reason i'm blogging is because i'm waiting for wei kang to be online so that we can discuss about the history presentation tomorrow... so screwed... so many things not done yet... script, co-ordination, roles... argh!! too much!! *grunt*

history portfolio due day after tomorrow... hopefully a tsunami will postpone it... batam trip cancelled.. sad... camping in national library instead.. weird!! so stressed... argh!! ok.. nvm.. think slowly.. calm yourself down and THINK!!!

i'll try...

Utter Disappointment...

2006-03-30T16:10:00.000+08:00

i am so disappointed with some people now...

just reached home with samuel and gang... talked lots of crap as usual, on bus 80.... this evening wasnt a pleasant one at all... there was extra syo rehearsal today, which happened to have the same time as my clarinet quintet rehearsal... i was originally planning to go for the syo rehearsal coz i have to get used to the guest conductor, and the concert is tomorrow... however, someone begged me to stay for the quintet rehearsal, i really mean begged.... you should have seen the sms he sent me... and he did convince me to stay back for the quintet rehearsal... it was school committment and i suppose i have to put that first... had hardly any choice... i was kinda glad i did though... the coaching clarinet teacher gave us lots of really good advice on the piece...

now, why am i disappointed? well... as most of you know, tomorrow is the syo concert, and nobody, i repeat, NOBODY i know is going... not even those that were quite close to me... i understand... some of you have things going on, my father is teaching, samuel has rehearsal... i'm fine with that... i'm talking about those outside the music circle... yes.. leslie, you should know who i'm referring to... not pinpointing you though... at least i know one of you who is really very interested to go, but you just cant make it.. its fine... but the rest, and i'm sure they're not going to read this... they said they are coming 2 weeks before, but now, one by one they are not coming... why? because they have something on... no, thats not why i'm disappointed... i'm disappointed because they did not keep their word, and they just cant inform me about it... they said they could make it, but at the back of my mind i thought they having a weekly gathering on that day, but i thought maybe they are really coming... well, i was wrong... and never once in my life in syo did anybody in that group came for any of the syo concert... i know, because the concerts are normally on saturdays, which they are always busy on, and i dont blame them.. its fine.. now its on a thursday, probably the only concert on a thursday for the next few years, and they decide not to come... cant you guys make an exception for once? make it into a group outing or something??

its not that i want to be proud that i'm playing and that i want all of you to watch me play... no... i hate that thinking... its just the thing about support... for musicians out there, you know what i mean... playing for somebody you know in the audience is so much more enjoyable than playing for a whole bunch of strangers... samuel, you should know what i mean i guess... conducting for nobody you know kinda drags down your motivation eh? maybe... well, there goes my motivation for tomorrow's concert... i will probably be playing as if who cares... nobody knows me anyway....

well, whatever... now you know why i'm disappointed... yea... fine...

tomorrow's concert is at vch 8pm tix at $6.. tickets are sold there on the spot... yea... as if anyone is going anyway...

The Glare...

2006-03-24T15:04:00.000+08:00

sigh....

back from syo rehearsal.. and i can tell you that it was horrible for me.. the first half was fine, playing berlioz overture and ravel.... it was ok... then my concentration collasped in brahms... we played through the 2nd, 3rd and 4th movement... huge cello section solo in 2nd.... and i screwed up... was confused with the fingering, whether to play on the A or D string, and then the far jump to the high B went out totally... i looked up, and i saw mr lim glaring, or rather starring at me... he was probably starring at me half the whole time... seriously, i screwed up... and then in the 4th movement, i lost all sense of rhythm... i keep coming in early, sometimes late.. couldnt play some of the notes for some reason... i dunno what the heck happened to me just now... i guess i have to practice like mad tomorrow, which reminds me, cello lesson... playing haydn 2 times next week, once for yi kai's accompaniment exam and 2nd for my string class... its pretty unstable, always at my best performance the first two times i play it, after that, disaster for the rest of the day.. i dunno why... it seems i wear out the more i play it... dunno what my uncle is gonna say..

oh wells... the syo concert is $6 instead of $7.. sorry.. my mistake... and the nafa batam 'trip' is confirmed at $75 for everybody, including outsiders... asked wilbur whether he could come, but he's having school at at that time... o'levels this year i think... currently pending is jeremy and andris... hopefully they will go so that my suffering will be eased a little at least...

well, not really in any mood to blog anymore... quite down and lost of what to do now... too many things to practice, so little time, on top of history and harmony projects, history portfolios, methods of analysis portfolio just to name a few... *grunt*

*sigh*

3 Maids?

2006-03-23T17:04:00.000+08:00

soooooo......

here i am blogging again... today was crappy... as in funny, in a sense... we are having our chamber choir platform, aka small concert, the 2nd wednesday from now... and the whole school is singing... then wheres the audience? the 3 drs and some of the teachers... weird... haha... imagine, 100++ people on stage singing and onli about 5-6 people in the audience... cant imagaine.. haha... well, its so bad that dr goh asked us to release our maids so that they can come for this small concert.. ahahaa.... i dont have any, and mark and wei kang sabohed me, telling dr goh that i have 3 maids... i dont have any at all, at least i used to have 1, ONE.... and i was defending myself saying 'no no!!!' and that genius samuel was like waving his hand in front of my face with 2 fingers up, meaning 2....

and i simply said 'no no!! i got 2!! nonono!! 1! ahh! nononooo! 0!' i was manipulated just like that.... yes, i may have a weak mind..... probably... and they even suggested bringing my chicken along... =.=

i'm still grieving over the lost of 5 of my chickens that died and went missing mysteriously for the past few years ok! =(

so if any of you are interested, this small concert is at my school on the 5th of april, 12.30pm... tix are either free or $5.... come support.. we seriously need it... hahaa...

syo rehearsal tomorrow is probably gonna b conducted my the guest conductor, john farrer... no idea about the backgroud of this guy... but he should be good... hopefully he wont pick on the cello section...

oh.. talking about cello now, nafa orchestra is gonna go batam for rehearsal break... no, not a holiday, but a break for rehearsals, in batam resort or chalet.. so weird... where to rehearse? in the middle of the sea on a kelong? probably... but i'm looking forward to it, and i'm asking some of my syo friends to come along... we seriously need cellos there... the conductor is a very good cellist, and we need supoort!! andris!! jeremy!! somebody!! come!!!!!! currently those confirmed are only 4 people for the cello section... inclusive of our professor kan...

if any of you can play the cello and are interested, call me!! you probably have to pay at the most of $150 for 3 days 2 nights inclusive of food and accomodations, etc... probably includes your shopping cash too... if any of you are considering, i can try talking to our head of music to provide some subsidy...

well, nothing to blog about now..... and somehow my tagboard is now a little corrupted... have to purify it someday.... any exorcists around?

enjoy)&*^$@)

God-Given Gifts...

2006-03-17T16:06:00.000+08:00

heh.....

havent blogged for ages... didnt have the motivation to... well, i have some things to blog about now...

just came back from supper with my dad and my auntie, along with his friend from penang, who is an artist... he's probably the only guy who can make the paintings he makes... lol.. well, in a way that nobody can duplicate him, like Monet... he uses the batik technique to create a blur, yet clear and distinct style similar to that of Monet, though differences are quite far apart... and he's holding his solo exhibition at my school in May... come come if you guys are interested... very nice guy too...

had syo cello sectionals and rehearsal today... sectionals was kinda screwy, cause i was the one leading it for the first 30+ mins... it was my first time leading sectionals, so i was kinda lost of hjow to lead them.. so i played through the 1st movement of brahms with them, little did i know that conducting them was the best way, cause andris did that after she came... she was late, cause she had to repair her bow...

oh, talking about the cello section, i dreamt of the cello section last night... yes i know, i have weird dreams... i dreamt that we were all on a train going to germany.. hahaa... frankfurt to be precise, and somehow i missed the train, but i still ended up in it a few minutes later... long and weird that dream was...

well, back to sectionals... after sectionals, we went to eat prata, and thus half the cello section, including the cello and dbass sectional leaders, were slightly late, not excluding myself... so i came, and mr lim asked me to sit at 1st desk... i suppose its permanent, until i do something stupid... i was so freaked out... wasnt even mentally prepared for this... so i played, and i kinda screwed up the ravel 4th movement... coz i was used to reading the top line, but now i have to play the bottom line, and i was confused... better luck on sat...

i was thinking... i was quite happy yet scared when mr lim put me up at first desk... was it from God? i dunno... but i'm sure this is... and there must be a reason why... and now, i have an inner battle to fight... i'm afraid that i will grow proud, something which i am very scared of... for some of you who know me, though i come from a musical family, i try to stay as low a profile as possible... its not because i'm humble, its because i myself feel that i have not lived up to my family's name, more like a disgrace... but now that the 1st desk thing happens, i'm afraid that i will start putting my head up high, as if i'm someone important... it is a rather small thing to be proud of, but its a big thing for me...

why an i so scared to be proud? i have seen many people being proud, showing off, putting their heads up high, and in the end, brought down to the lowest pits by God... if God can give you his gifts, bless you with what you need and among others, he could just take it away in a snap, just like that... God will honour the humble and bring down the proud... and thats the reason... i hope nothing goes wrong from here...

well, maybe i wont be in 1st desk for too long... who knows...

aniwaes,

SNYO CONCERT ON 30TH MARCH, THURSDAY, 8PM, TIX AT ONLY $7!!! COME COME!!!

enjoy%$#@!@

Coming Soon...

2006-03-01T16:21:00.000+08:00

"The Best Epic Since Spongebob!" - The Straits Times

"One Of A Kind!" - Chigago Times

"The Best Ever Movie! A Must-Watch!" - Congo News

"People Who Miss This Must Be Nuts, If not Worse!" - Gunostaviran Paper

The Legend Is True...

The Power Is Tempting...

Evil Is Everywhere...

He Is Looking...

Searching...

dghjdghjdghkdgkdgkghk

For His Precious..........

fdhdfgjdfjdfhjd

jdjhd

dghjd

The Bald Of The Ring

Coming Soon...

ghjfgjfgjgjf

dfjhdjdhjd

djdhjdghjdghj

dhjdhgjdg

dhj

dgjghjghjdghj

dhgjdghjdghj

dhjdjdghjdghjghj

dghjdghjdghjdgh

CRAPPY FILMS PRESENTS A NAHIS PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH NAFA A NAHIS GNAKIEW FILM

CLARENCE TAN "THE BALD OF THE RING" REBECCA KAN AND THE NAFAIANS

COSTUME DESIGN BY HIM MUSIC BY NAFA ORCHESTRA EDITED BY NAHIS AND GNAKIEW

PRODUCTION DESIGNER NONE DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY UNKNOWN CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS SOMEBODY

PRODUCED BY NAHIS AND GNAKIEW WRITTEN BY NAHIS AND GNAKIEW

DIRECTED BY NAHIS AND GNAKIEW

NOOO!!!

2006-02-18T12:38:00.000+08:00

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I AM SO DEAD TOMORROW!!! why??? because andris and natasha are not turning up for syo rehearsal tomorrow and i have to move up to pricipal cellist for a day!! ARGH!!! i'm so dead!! i'm gonna screw up!! mr lim is gonna kill me!! oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no!!!

bleah... anyways, am in school now, waiting for that yong rui to finish the dumb game of his.. we are now going back into time of the arcade, playing old games like puzzle fighter and kof 98.. haha.. oh wells, they are kinda fun though...

i'm starting to hate cabs again... yesterday, after syo rehearsal, i waited for a cab, and it took me 1hr 45 mins to get one!! this is ridiculous... it is really really ridiculous... cab drivers complain they dont have enough costomers, and i dont see any cabs stopping for me, 4 of which were not hired and they did not stop... whatever...

enjoy^!%#@&

Blee Blee Blahh Blooo Bleeeeee......

2006-02-17T06:28:00.000+08:00

..........................................

havent blogged for a few days, many days... ahaaa... i wonder who still reads my blog... i'm in school now and yong rui is blogging beside me, and he's using as many ............................................ as usual...

have been receiving many requests to play their compositions for next week exams.. its as usual.. always the week before the exam that the requests start pouring in...

going for syo rehearsal later, probably gonna be killed by mr lim... we're playing brahm's symphony no. 2, and the second movement is a killer for the cello section... huge solo all the way... bleah... with so many sharps...

had dinner with the gang yesterday, and we were discussing about our lecturers in school... ahahaa... it was very very very very very funny... we were talking about the drs. in our school, kan, goh and tan... and we noticed that they behaved in a certain manner... like dr tan, she's always munching on something outside class... always... just like brad pitt in ocean's eleven... ahaha... and dr goh and kan, too many things about them... ahahaaa... none of them bad though, so dont worry... oh, talking about them, dr goh said he read both mine and wei kang's blogs, but not really on a regular basis... ahaa... better stop saying bad things about him now... =p

i'm having blogger's block right now... nothing much to blog... oh, jeremy and wilbur are gonna leave syo after this concert... crappo.. that means only andris, ruo lin and i will be the remaining older generation of cellists... the rest will be the younger ones...

and good news, my peeling is gonna stop anytime!!! i've had terrible sunburn for the past few weeks from swimming with samuel and yong rui at jurong east... its really fun there, and we're gonna go there again soon... this time with sun lotion...

thats all i can think of and i'm gonna practice now.. will try to update as much as i can...

enjoy!Q%^$#@*&!

Finally...

2006-02-06T07:07:00.000+08:00

ooook....

back to blog... was quite lazy to blog for the past 2 weeks or so... got quite a lot to say, but its all in the past already, so no point...

i'm really really really sian at home now, with nothing to do... haiz... wei kang and yong rui going to watch chingay at amk later.. watch it last night at orchard already, so i doubt i will be going later... oh, i remembered something.. i saw jeniffer lopez at boston when i was in the states.. haha.. ok, that was so random...

i have nothing to blog, except that i got a new handphone... my n-gage was just too bulky and its quite irritating because of the rubber strip that keeps coming off and sometimes the phone itself is prone to crashing... i had to repair it twice for some dumb malfunction the phone had... oh wells...

enjoy!(*&%@(

INFECTED!!!

2006-01-21T03:12:00.000+08:00

NOO!!! I'M INFECTED!! ARGH!! GAK!!!! EAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! EARKGH!!!!!!!!!!!

fine then... so i'm supposed to name out 5 weird things about myself and pass the infection to 5 other people... cant really think of any, cause i am more or less perfectly normal... will try to name out some although some of them arent weird...

1. yes, the same as jovan and wei kang, i'm a right-handed person but i wear my watch on my right wrist...

2. i have never learnt how to use the chopstick the right way, so i have been using it my way for the past, erm, 13 years or less of my life...

3. out of the 3 children in my family, i was the only child who was planned out... my bro and sis were accidentals... apparently accidental children are more talented than the 'planned' child...

4. i never liked anyone touching my shoulders... it is one of the most sensitive part of my upper body... for some reason... i dont like massages on them too... i get earghyiryeryag whenever that happens...

5. and the weirdest thing is that i dont really have anything weird about me... weird...

so there.... now i shall choose my victims...

LESLIE
ANDRIS
THE BEANARIAN
SENG FU
NING

ok... i know some of them wont do it... but who cares... just pass it on for the fun of it...

just had dinner, and spilled some lotus soup on myself... =.=

enjoy(*&%)*

How?

2006-01-18T14:06:00.000+08:00

welll...

was tidying my room and balcony just now... throwing lots of things away, especially my secondary school books.. yes, its not disposed off yet, for now... probably in a few days time... lots of memories came back... the things beanarian and i thought of while in school... the kkk drawings are still here... hahaa... its crappy to even think of it... my archie comics were everywhere... well, i'm taking it easy... little by little...

haiz... and then, the sad part came... well, to me at least... recovered the snyo programme booklets for previous concerts... was looking through all of them... then i looked at the very first concert i played in the main, the one when we played dvorak's no.9... zhangyi and andris were playing their concertos... and i read their resumes... crap... i was lost for words... well, to sum it up, they are geniuses... well, you guys will definitely know by now how i would be feeling... inferior... i'm not jealous or anything, but crap man, how am i songing to be like them? i mean not only saying about these 2, but the rest of the world? ahhhh!!! how how how how how how how??? how in the world am i going to be a good cellist? looking at myself now, its like, like, bleah...... i seriously dont know how my future is going to be... i dont see myself as a good player at all... AT ALL!!!

well, to heck with it... i need some assurance of some sort, anything to gain my confidence back... somehow somewhere someone sometime.... i hate saying this, but i've got inferiority complex... it sucks at the thought of it...

ME

2006-01-16T14:04:00.000+08:00

Added this from my sis's blog..

In 2005 I've...

[x] broken a promise - i'm sure i did.. probably... maybe..
[x] made a new friend - many... in nafa
[x] fallen in love - still thinking about this one... just in case...
[ ] fallen out of love
[ ] done something I swore never to do
[x] lied - duh...
[ ] stole - don't think so...
[x] went behind your parents back - i was walking behind my dad quite a number of times in the states...
[ ] cried over a broken heart - my heart's still in one piece...
[ ] disappointed someone close - i don't think so.. right guys? erm... maybe...
[x] hidden a secret - of course... why would i tell you guys that wei kang was... ok... nvm...
[x] pretended to be happy - mildly
[ ] got arrested
[ ] kissed in the rain - !!!
[ ] slept under the stars
[ ] kept your new years resolution - never had any, don't plan to...
[ ] forgot your new years resolution
[x] met someone who changed your life - you change once you meet the people in nafa.. strange...
[ ] met one of your idols
[x] changed your outlook on life - a little...
[x] sat home all day doing nothing - like today...
[ ] pretended to be sick - did that in primary school all the time... not last year..
[x] left the country - hell yeah!!!
[x] almost died - in new york by a bunch of angry mob...
[ ] told the person you love how you really feel - hmmm.... should i? =p
[ ] given up something important to you - doubt so...
[ ] lost something expensive
[x] learned something new about yourself - well, yes... i'm screwed up...
[ ] tried something you normally wouldnt try and liked it
[x] made a change in your life - started wearing jeans...
[x] found out who my true friends were. - yes... especially one... whom i realised wasnt a good one...
[x] made a total fool of yourself - always...
[x] met great people - too many...
[ ] gotten a tan - i've gotten fairer in fact...
[ ] had a b/f or g/f? - lol... do friends count?
[ ] lost a really good friend
[x] gained a really good friend - some... sort of...
[ ] got drunk - i can't... no matter how hard i try...
[x] physically fought a family member - to keep my older brother from the receipt of his birthday present....

enjoy*$)*&%*

Art?

2006-01-14T08:34:00.000+08:00

oooook....

in school now... just came back from singapore arts scene at an exhibition near my school... this very very fragile-looking artist who makes granite sculptures and some charcoal paintings... well, they are interesting, but i wouldnt call them art... to me, art has to have a definition... if art is limitless, then my computer is an art, my toilet bowl is an art, my room which is messed up is an art too... modernists think that art can be art if you were to create it with your emotions or drawing something from another deformed perspective... thats rubbish i think... if using your emotions is making art, then i am the greatest artist to have ever lived! i can just take a white canvas paper, splat it with red paint and say "oh! this is representing the chaos of humanity! the power and violence and blood that mankind have brought to this pure world!" thats really the biggest rubbish ever... and if drawing a deformed object is art, then i can also be an artist... i shall draw a person with a one-sided face with an eye below his mouth and his mose at his ear... really... modernists' ideas are ruining the definition of art... although i havent found the true definition, i personally think art is something which is a form where a natural object or scene is portrayed with its original and PROPER dimensions where the audience will know the object once they take a look at it... the reason why art is now deformed to modernists' proportions is because artists are always looking for new ways to portray their feelings or the environment... well, the finest of art is done and over... the masters have reached the highest point of art, just like stradivarius have reached the highest point of instrument-making.. face it, the best of its time has passed... the only thing artists can do now is either copy the masters, or make a new breakthrough... i'm not saying modernist art are not nice... i'm saying they are not art, but that doesnt mean it is not nice... well... enough crap about art...

i was totally down yesterday for some reason... when i went for syo rehearsal, i suddenly dreaded my own playing... i have no confidence in my playing again... compared to others, i am nothing more than a little green pea to them... i don't know... what do others think of my playing? what does mr lim think of it? well... i don't know.... so i was like crapped out yesterday evening... haiz...

well, in any case, ii'm getting over it, but it will definitely stay in me for a long time... bleah...

enjoyu(*&#%@Q(*&%#@$

Three Tranced Mice...

2006-01-12T16:41:00.000+08:00

oooooooooooo....

back to blogging.... i figured i would let my blog settle down after loading up those pics... well, in any case, not much have happened for the past week... wednesdays are as busy as usual, if not worse... and homework is already piling up...

i cut my hair again on sunday, and i look weird... again... today was pretty interesting though... it was music platform and it was the music tech's students' turn this week... they were practically playing sounds which they have edited and recorded down and compiliing it into an idea of sounds... the pretty interesting one was ryan's one, which depicts a first-person's point of view in the bombing of london last year on the 7th of july... he even made the sounds heard when we play our mp3 or discman! it is really cool... and of course, not forgetting our own composer in year 1... lu heng composed a techno piece, which was a variation of the song three blind mice... it is soooooooooooooo nice!! probably the only techno i will ever like.. ever... it is really really cool... ahahaa... i'm gonna ask him to send it to me...

well, got meself a lotr necklace, or rather a choker coz i didnt expect it to be so short... =.= but the gang said it was just right, so, its just right i guess... yep...

thats all i can think of to blog now... gonna get screwed tomorrow... didnt do harmony homework coz i totally forgot about it... bleah... and i think my auntie threw my moa citations away... eargh!!! nvm... i'm sure dr kan will understand.......

i hope...

enjoy^!@*%#*()&$%

The Trip...

2006-01-04T17:26:00.000+08:00

ooooook...

figured how to post pics already.. well, i shall show you what i did in the states for the past 2 weeks... didnt really take pictures of everything, but the important ones are there though..

WARNING: SUBJECT OF PHOTOS MAY NOT BE PHOTOGENIC AND APPEALING TO THE AUDIENCE... CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

it all started with a 12 hr flight to franfurt, germany, where we had a stopover for about 1 hour+

thats my bro... well, aniwaes, we ate like fat and short sausages which were called frank-something... haha... this pic was taken at one of the restaurants at the airport...

my dad...

well, so the flight goes on for another 9 hours to jfk airport at new york... and my bro rented a car there, so we could travel around the country...

we drove for about 2 hours to the state of massachusetts, amherst, and stayed in this motel called the university lodge... well, before that, my bro drove us to the very tree which he crashed into 2 hears ago, and apparently, that tree is now the shortest among the rest... he stunted its growth... the tree wasnt even scratched, but my bro's car, which was borrowed from a friend, was a wreck...

this is draggy... ok.. nvm.. shall cut it short...

so that night, the first night in the states, we went to a pub to eat buffalo wings... to be precise, 60 of them, shared among 5 people... madness... and on top of that, we ordered a huge nachos with cheese and jalapeno peppers and the works, and a whole rack of ribs... we couldnt finish it.. its too much.. haha... and the wings were great...

the next day, i ate my very first real donuts, which is not the doughy bread crap that singapore has.. these are REAL donuts... fried, not baked... we had cinnamon donuts.. it was really delicious...

so after that, my bro brought us to this all-girls college to look around the campus.. it was beautiful... the architecture was amazing...

after that, he brought us to this river, which was totally freezing!! it was the coldest place we visited in the states.. even with my winter gear and ski gloves, i was freezing mad... and my bro still wanted me to take off my gloves to take pics for him.. =.=

ok... the next day, we visited my bro's violin teacher when he was taking his masters in the states.. charles treger is his name.. my father has one of his recordings too... he's really amusing.. told us many of his stories when he was young... and the saddest thing was, i didnt gel my hair.. and i look like crap... haha.. oh wells.. oh, the lady in orange is my sis-in-law..

we spent a total of 3 nights at amherst, then we drove to boston city, which was about 3 hours away... i love that city!! soo many historical sites! one of them was this cemetry, which contained a number of historical figures, which includes mother goose, the woman who wrote nursery ryhms, and samuel adams, yau and adam's son, who was one of the people who signed the declaration of independence.. didnt manage to take photos of their graves, due to some unfortunate events... ooh, before we reached the city, we visited a fulte factory, burkardt or something like that.. dunno how to spell.. yep.. one of the top 5 flute makers in the states at least.. it was really cool, cause my bro's friend is working there, and there are only 20 people working in that factory...

we also visted yale university, which is one of the top 3 universities in the states.. i love that place.. it is sooo beautiful...

we ate lunch at this place called the marketplace, which is actually equivalent to singapore's finger food street, but much more high class and expensive... we ate lobsters, one each.. haha... its really really good... and the clam and lobster chowders, omg, its amazing...

and we went around taking pics of the very house which the declaration of independence was written and announced, which was exactly on the balcony... oh.. that statue is samuel adams btw...

so it was christmas day, and i tell you, the streets were totall empty! like TOTALLY!! we could even take our sweet time taking pictures in the middle of the road... it was as if the whole city was wiped out of humans! and the worst thing, no food shops were open... utter torture... we ended up in dunkin donuts eating muffins.. haha... so we ended up taking pictures along the way, and we attended a church's christmas service.. interesting...

we also went to harvard university.. didnt really like that place... i prefer yale... but it was nice aniwaes.. those two guys, the one in yellow and the most-front guy are my bro's friends who are studying there...

we stayed in boston for 3 nights, then we drove to evansville, indiana state... it was an 18 hour drive.. and we did it in one day.. haha... phew.. we visited the gelok family, which is the one my sis is getting married to... the girl on the extreme left is dan's, my sister's husband, youngest sister, who is 18, the same age as me.. i was attracted to her, but it wont work out at all.. we have two totally different personalities... i tell you, the whole family is extremely fun to be with... they also have a strong set of principles which they have to follow.. and they have a family 'coucil' whenever theres something wrong in the family and they will sit down and discuss it, not like singaporeans.. they shout and argue and they dont realise it doesnt solve anything.. oh wells..

the next day is the wedding.. the big day.. i was the only one wearing this long coat, and i look like some godfather or something, which everybody keeps calling me.. hahaa.. the procession was great... my sis and dan were sobbing when we were singing the hymns.. it was really touching.. how they went through difficulties, and i really mean BIG difficulties and tribulations to be with each other... the woman in red is my mum btw..

after the procession, there was a banquet.. it was really really really fun... i danced for the very first time in my life... both fun and slow dance.. haha... everybody was having fun that night.. my sis taught me how to spin her in a slow dance.. we didnt really have a real chance to say a proper good-bye to her.. she had to run out of the place while everybody was throwing rice at them.. you know, the tradition.. and the only way to escape was to drive away in their wedding car.. however, her friends filled the whole car with balloons, like so many of them! they couldnt even put their hand in.. haha.. sigh... i miss her...

so the next morning, i was already depressed... bleah... we headed back to new york.. we arrived at the big apple about 11 hours before countdown, and we ate chinese food there.. it was great, better than in singapore.. amazing...

we visited the grand central train station, the largest train station in the world, with 300 tracks in total... !!

we went to the times square... it was already packed with thousands and thousands of people!!! and it was 9 hours before countdown.. 9 HOURS!! and we almost got killed in the mob.. minutes after the photo was taken, we were walking in the human jam when the flow stopped all of a sudden... nobody could move at all.. i couldnt even lift up my arm to touch my shirt! and people were starting to get pissed and they started pushing.. they almost started a fight, which would leave us dead if it were to happen...

well, it was an exciting experience though... we managed to get out of the sardine can and headed to the airport, and there began my journey home.. and now i'm here sitting in front of my computer.. yep.. thats my trip to the states in a nutshell.. left out lots of things but i guess theres no point in telling you guys everything...

enjoy!&#@$#&%#

BACK

2006-01-03T01:28:00.000+08:00

i'm back guys... and happy new year...

well, really depressed after the trip, as usual, but now its quite different... i'm not totally depressed cause the trip is over, but coz i was thinking of someone... argh! it was only on friday, american time, which was the day after my sis's wedding, that i had a dream of someone, and it made me extremely depressed, and i remained so for the rest of the trip til now... oh wells... should i go after her? maybe, maybe not.. shall consult my church leaders about this...

aniwaes, arrived at 6.30am this morning... sorrie didnt get anything for any of you peeps... but will be treating u guys to a meal some day, for the nafaians and syo cello section... shall tell u guys about it soon...

well, the trip was amazing.. went to soooo many places... i shall post the pics i took on my blog as soon as i learn how to, and show you everything i did on my 2 weeks trip... but to sum it all up, i visited some of the top universities in the states, visited lots of historical sites, saw the statue of yau and adam's son, and was almost kill by an angry mob in new york times square 9 hrs b4 countdown... yep... soon...

i miss my sis...~

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

2005-12-19T14:49:00.000+08:00

I'M IN THE AIRPORT NOW!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

wah liew.. free internet service and got webcam somemore.... hahahaaa.... got so many x box here also, but taken up by kiddies... hahaa...

flight in 1hrs time.. 12 hr flight to frankfurt germany, den another 9 hrs to us...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

this is too good to be true!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

ahhhhhh@!#$@!#

Farewell...

2005-12-19T06:11:00.000+08:00

my last blog entry before i leave...

song: evermore

the quality kinda suck, but who cares... hahaa..

enjoy#$@!

CHRISTmas...

2005-12-18T18:43:00.000+08:00

20 MORE HOURS!!! approximately...

now... christmas, the time where people celebrate a season of giving, exchanging presents and the birth of Christ.. but one thing which many people do not know.. we all know that this isnt the exact date which Jesus was borned, and nobody knows when... not many people know that the date of Christmas, but the day itself came from pagan origins, which is disgusting when you look deeper into it...

The origin of this festivity is presumed to be Mithraic and about 4000 years old. Mithra was the god of light in ancient Iran. The symbol of Mithra is Sun. Iranians used this symbol in their flag for at least the last 2500 years. The period of 17th to 24th of December was the duration of this feast. The 21st of December, which is the solstice of winter, is still celebrated in Iran. It is called “Yalda” and it represents the victory of light over darkness, which symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. Mithraism was brought to Europe by Greek soldiers after the defeat of the Persians by Alexander and by the forth century AD it was the predominant religion of Europe and the main rival to Christianity. The worship of Mithra spread throughout Asia to Europe where he was called Deus Sol Invictus Mithras. Romans adopted this festivity to celebrate the god, Saturn, and the rebirth of the sun god during the winter solstice. The winter holiday became known as Saturnalia and began the week prior to December 25th. The festival was characterized by gift-giving, feasting, singing and the priests of Saturn called dendrophori, carried wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession.

ok.. i copied this whole arcticle from http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/sina21224.htm ... dun tell dr kan.. =p
yea... the evergreen boughs are also those circle leafs thingy you hang on your door...

easter is also of pagan origins.

The (Easter) bunny, the oldest pagan symbol of fertility - Semiramis - has absolutely NOTHING to do with the birth of Christ.

http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/studies/holidays2.htm

well, not that i'm against these festivals, but we have to make sure that all of us celebrates these seasons with a right heart, a heart that will honour God... i myself am against the idea of these festivals because it is not of the word of God but of pagan origins... HOWEVER, we could still use these dates as a remembrance of Jesus, His sacrifice for us, instead of for plain fun and fun alone.. oh wells...

leaving tomorrow night!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! snow snow snow snow snow snow!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..............

dunno if i can get gifts for you guys.. no $$$... haha... but will try... in case i do not make it back alive, which i doubt so, i wanna tell you guys that God is everything... you may not believe in Him now, but it doesnt mean you wont in the future.. you have a chance, grab it when its there... well, that sounds very final, as if i'm dying for sure, but i'm not taking any chances... haha...

oh wells... cya around guys... next year perhaps... maybe i may even blog later in the afternoon when i have time...

enjoy!@!$&%$#

ABCD...

2005-12-17T15:24:00.000+08:00

48 HOURS LEFT!!!

performing at esplanade park tomorrow night from 5.30-8pm.. come come!! its free! its from the singapore youth for christ, the one which wei kang went for, but this time at esplanade park.. haha.. F-I-N-L-A-N-D

aniwaes, packed 98% of my stuffs already, the remaining consists of my toothbrush, toothpaste, gel, laundry bag, erm, what else, my wedding coat, which is with my bro... i think thats it... have to bring a whole bunch of books for my sis, if not my bags will be much lighter... the worst thing is that i dont have my cd player with me.. =(
its with my grandfather... long story that one is...

anyways, i heard both my bro's and dad's students won 1st place in the violin competition, the junior and intermediate category.. haha... expected... =p

my dad kinda scolded me for doing things at the last minute today, which i don't think so... i was outside with my church friends, and he said that i should be home packing my bags... oh wells, not against him or anything, and i don't like to dishonour my parents, but i think i know what i'm doing, and i can handle things myself.. i sure don't need them to worry about the way i do things... i guess sometimes he just cant trust me enough, cause sometimes things happen when we overlook them, so i guess i don't blame him... but things ended well today...

oh, and i got my school results back today.. wah liew... very weird lehz.. i scored badly for some subjects which i did quite well, i think...

music technology - A
study skills - B
concert attendance - D (!!!) i should have scored well for this!!
performance projects - B
harmony - D (!!!) expected to fail.. haha...
history - C (!!!) i thought i got a B!!
aural and sightsinging - C
principle study - cello - B (!!!) higher than expected...
string studies - B

credit attempted- 20
credit point - 52
credit earned - 20

hahaa.... oh, in case you're curious, D is a pass instead of C... not secondary school anymore.. and i have no idea how the credit thingy works... oh wells, i'm really surprised i passed everything, and the honour has to go to God... wouldnt have done it without Him..

okay... jwen leaving tomorrow evening, evan in penang, and i'm leaving on sunday night... my flight is at 2355... anybody wanna send me off? =p

enjoy#@!$

$500!!

2005-12-16T17:32:00.000+08:00

2 MORE DAYS!!!

went to get my passport today.. sooo new and clean... i damaged my previous one coz i left it in the washing machine.. bleah...

went winter shopping too... bought a number of stuffs, and my dad spent around $500 worth of winter stuffs... we bought this thermal pants, which is like a very very thin pyjamas pants, and guess how much does each cost... $63!!! wah lau... for that pants!!!?? from italy they say... doh! aniwaes, bought ski gloves too, and wool socks, and a woolen sweater... haha...

not sure if i'm going to the violin competition finals later.. so early in the morning.. my bro's and dad's student got in, intermediate and junior respectively... haha... my dad said from the looks of it, both of them should get 1st... they're siblings btw.. can help but notice that not a single nafa violin joined the competition.. haha.. sianz... wait til they have a cello competition, then, muahahahaa.... well, on second thought, i never really liked competitions... it puts me down watching people play so well.. crappo... inferiority complex... besides, playing is all about character, and the judges' decision is not always the best... they should have a vote, like american idol or something... haha...

but singaporean youths nowadays, haiz... just dunno how to appreciate classical music... well, get this, without classical music, pop, rock, jazz, new age, whatever you can think of, wont be here... classical music was the step to refining music, the time where music is controlled by laws so that it will be called MUSIC... scratching records, people screaming and electrical sounds are not music, they are called noise, it is not natural... well, anyways, whatever...

2 more days man... 2 more days.................

enjoy#@%$#@

Merica...

2005-12-15T17:56:00.000+08:00

3 MORE DAYS!!!

got diarrhoea yesterday.. bleah... shall blog more tomorrow...

enjoy!#@#@

(song: star wars - across the stars)

Mee...

2005-12-14T15:27:00.000+08:00

5 MORE DAYS!!!

havent been blogging for 2 days i think... nothing much happened anyways... seng fu and aloysius stayed over at my house yesterday, and they made a mess out of my room... they left some maggie mee on my bed and they turned my room upside down... =.=
and they couldnt help themselves from touching my lightsaber... oh, talking about it, we were trying to make a short movie clip using my lightsaber... haha... we only managed to make one, with me being the cameraman... i'll try to upload it one of these days.. its quite dumb... they kept hitting my cardboard and my ceiling light, and i almost broke it... oh wells..

i need to go winter shopping soon, got lots of winter wear to get before leaving for the states... anybody wanna join? haha... probably not...

ooook... nothing else here...

enjoy#!$#@

Cothen...

2005-12-12T16:57:00.000+08:00

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........
6 more days to america!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... too good to be true...

aniwaes, played for singapore youth for christ yesterday, and wei kang came to watch it... he thought he was tricked into coming, but it was actually his own mistake... haha... it went quite well, but the a capella group went a little out of tune after awhile... oh wells... then took a cab home for my house concert which my dad organised... on the way home, my dad called me and told me i have to play something... !!! wah liew... the concert is like 3 hours away?? so bo bian lorh... nothing to play.. no pianist to accompany me also, so muz play bach suite.. haha.. getting sick of that song liao... so, during the performance, i told the audience a little about bach and his suites, and i told them he wrote it in cothen... right??? i mean, he wrote it in cothen right??? please tell me that i'm right... wait... i go check my history portfolios to see if i'm right.........................................................

YES!!! I'M RIGHT!!! HE WROTE IT IN COTHEN!!! AHHHHHHHHHH.... i'm juz good... =p

anyways, i learnt a huge lesson from that performance... NEVER ever, and i mean EVER, put rosin on your bow without trying it out again after putting it... i did it.. the bow's resistance was not what i expected to be and weird sounds came from the strings... and it was hard to control my bow... just wasnt used to the sudden change of resistance after putting on the rosin... oh wells... yong rui joined us too, and i played a trick on him.. haha.. i told him that my dad said he had to play something... and he had totally nothing to play... and he panicked.. hahahaa... he was like searching all my piano scores for songs to sight-read... so he found out that he didnt need to... drats...

as for today, played basketball with my friends... haha... lost to a team of girls, 11-10... their shooting is really good, and they are from some school team from some jc... had some unhealthy bodily contact too... haiz... just not used to playing contact sports with girls.. oh wells... haha... no, i'm not a chauvanist pig, at least not now...

probably...

enjoy!@#!

AHHHHHHHHH!!!

2005-12-10T15:27:00.000+08:00

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.................
my com's finally back... the adwares gone, so no more pornographic ads will be popping out in front of my face... bleah...

aniwaes, come to think of it, i have nothing much to blog about... oh... yes... i dreamt of her again, 2 nights in a row... hahahhaaa.... no, its not only about her, it invloves the whole snyo and especially mr lim... hhaaa... scary... was supposed to play solo or something like that.. it was 2 nights ago, cant remember... oh wells..

performing for singapore youth for christ tomorrow... haha... those interested contact me... and andris will be playing in a competition tomorrow... haha.. all the best, too bad she doesnt want anybody to go there to support her.. will freak her out she says... haha... i think its the same competiotn li tong took part in... its piano also... soo many competitions going on now... violins are taking part this coming weekend... oh yea... i saw the advertisement for the chinese weekly discussion or dunno what, about the taxi drivers one.. wah lau... see? i'm not the only one having problems with them... haha... oh wells, they better do something about it...

so thats it... nothing to post... oh...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS (soon Mrs) SI-NING!!! oi... havent bought your present yet.. will try to find a good one, and pass it to you in the states.. haha.. ^^

enjoy!@!

The Universe...

2005-12-06T17:25:00.000+08:00

wowwwwwwww....
oh man... went to audrey's birthday party today.. haha... ate a lot for the bbq... it was really fun.. and i juzt realised today that i didnt like beer, but i already opened a bottle of heineken, so i have no choice but to finish it... well, it appears that audrey's brother, martin, admires me.. ahaaa... ok.. maybe i think too much.. bhb... but it appears that he holds me in quite a high position.. haha... when i entered his house, he wanted me to play a piece on tommy's cello, and i just didnt know what to play... haha.. so i was playing crappy stuff, a little of bach's suite, a little of haydn... he's quite a nice guy, but i guess he's a little down about his ability on the violin.. he's only sec 1, and he's taking grade 7 already... and he says he's not as good compared to tommy, his brother.. i mean, man, if that's bad, look at me man... took grade 8 at sec 4, my siblings were at the states at my age, and here i am, studying at nafa in singapore... oh wells, in any case, lets just see how it goes for me in the future...

aniwaes, after the bbq, the gang lied down beside the pool and gazed at the night sky... it is sooooooooo amazing... i found so many stars which i never knew was there! i realised that theres actually a small cluster of stars, the size of ur thumb if you were to point it toward the sky with your arm out-stretched, that was made up of 6 or more stars! it is soo amazing!

wow... as we gazed through the sky, something struck my mind.. wow.. isnt the universe amazing? there has to be a creator behind it! and that is God! i mean, there isnt any other way to explain the creation of everything in this universe! the big bang? what was it before the big bang? something had to be there! even stephen hawking doesnt know what was there before it! everything we see here, the universe, earth, plants, humans, millions and billions of stars, made by God! i mean, wow! you cant say that we evolved from apes... the theory isnt even proven at all! it simply says that all animals came from a simple cell, and it evolved to what is known as us today.. why do they say that? because all of the animals had a common part of their body that links to the rest, example, the sealion used to have legs, but they developed fins because they seldom used their legs, but the evidence of their legs are in their bone structure, which are also similar to whales and dolphins, etc... then let me ask you one thing, if i were to use a lego set to create 2 different animals, lets say a human, and a horse, and i used a blue piece on both figures, does that mean they came from one piece and became two different spieces of lego figures? no! in fact, it is also saying that there is a creator who uses the same piece in his creations! i mean, ok, i think many of you wont understand what i'm saying, but basically, evolution is rubbish... it is not even a proven and fool-proof theory and the world is adopting it as if it was a fact... it is not... and there is only another possibility of our existence, and that is God.. the only reason why many people do not adopt this idea is because they don't like it, or they do not believe in it... well, whether you like it or not, or whether you believe it or not, its true... what you think doesnt change the fact... look around you.. the fact that the earth is sooo perfect for supporting life... the exact amount of sunlight, which even a 1% difference in it will destroy life, the distance between earth and the sun, which is also put to absolute accuracy for life, everything, was made for us to live! it is not by chance that some explosion made this piece of rock alive, or that we evolved from some microscopic organism... the structure of our dna is so complex and perfect, that it has to be designed by someone or something, which is God!!!

oh wells, i hope none of you are offended by this post... just telling you what i believe in... i mean, there is no way that the universe does not point to God... if you would like to prove me wrong, i am more than pleased to discuss it with you.. ^^ but i do not mean to offend anybody k? this is a darn sensitive topic, so dont sue me!!

enjoy~!~ (if u can)

Slacking...

2005-12-05T16:51:00.000+08:00

ooook....
she's not angry anymore... haiz... i'm not going to make the same stupid mistake again... never.... well, in any case, sorry about everything...

oh well... went out today... watched zathura with my friends... it was really good.. haha... its almost exactly like jumanji, but its space this time instead of jungle stuffs... its really good and funny.. but its just a little predictable.. like you kinda know what will save them next, you know? yea... spoils the excitement... but its still good!

anyways, helped chien han with his mmm (?) project, which was to create a website about a topic.. and he chose "undiscovered talents: music".. hahaa... and he's using me as the main subject.. ahahaa... actually he should do on people like andris or ike, but he has no choice but to do me.. haha... thats why i had to like take pictures of the cello section with his camera yesterday after the concert.. and now he wants all the newspaper articles i have about my family... =.= oh wells... all the best... you need it when you involve me in your project.. haha... =p

oh wells... things going on in my mind... too many things to think about... if i were to type it, it may offend quite a number of people, and it is just tooooooooooo looooooooong... so i guess i have quite a lot of thinking and self-reflection to do... i guess i have pray about it to solve it... i cant do it on my own... sigh...

yep... dats it...

enjoy!@!