Where got time?!

Seriously - did you think I'd have time to update my blog frequently? Assignment due dates and tests are hitting a climax in the coming few months with every week having at least a few test and assignment due dates. That's beside the time we're supposed to set aside practising our instruments and scales, arpeggios, all that stuff. And for me, planning for the year-end concert as Publicity I/C.

Already I feel so pathetic wasting away 3 hours travelling to and from school every weekday - can't really do much except read up on music theory/technology notes. 3 hours has never been so precious - time that could have been spent on more sleep or even practising music. Even if I leave school in the evening, it's night when I reach home (then there's dinner). About an hour or two left to practise a bit of keyboard.

Now for you Dee-Mutts. Well, maybe not all of you but some at least. I don't know but I feel like I'm in a course of slackers. I can relate to the problems you all face around this age - of how you want to feel you BELONG, of how you need that SOMEONE, etc. But I hope all these worries and problems don't affect your 3 years here - you're here to get your DIPLOMA. You NEED it for your future.

For those of you who are planning to "drop" or "care less" about certain modules, just a reminder that you have to PASS EVERY MODULE in order to get your diploma. So even if it's say REMT or MIDI you hate, you have to live with it. Maybe I'm being over-nerdy and working too hard but - even if it's a polytechnic that we're in now - did you think life would be so easy? 30% work and 70% play? Yeah right. I feel that more time should be spent on assignments and being serious instead of taking life too easy in this presumed "honeymoon" year. Year One doesn't mean you should slack. Honestly, going shopping/to the arcade/slacking around too often isn't going to help you in the long run. I mean - this may not be true for all of you but when you received your 'O' Level results, I'm quite sure that you were not FULLY satisfied but regretful (even to a very small extent) that you did not achieve the grade you were aiming for. The cause? Probably because you honeymooned the first few years in secondary school and by the time Sec 4/5 arrived (and you realized your prelim. results were horrible and chionged/worked hard), it was quite too late.

And I don't know why sometimes people do not take it seriously when I'm discussing/working on group assignments with them. And the talk of the day over lunch and during whatever precious spare time is wasted over gossip, useless chatter about topics that should be at the back of their minds (games, anime, songs, etc). Then, when it comes close to assignment due dates people suddenly start to get frantic and try to rush the projects out hurriedly, at the expense of their grades. Couldn't you all have just cut the crap-talk (in the past) and started the assignment earlier? You wouldn't need to get so hectic at the eleventh hour - you don't care about your grades NEVER MIND but for group work - you affect those who want to score well too!!

INITIATIVE. More of you guys gotta' have it. Don't keep depending on a few of us hardworking nuts to provide the groundwork for you. And then you're just the follower - following blindly. Be willing to take up roles to lead the group be it for assignments or performances. YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO BE A LEADER. Don't just leech around on the "good guys" and drive us nuts with a pile of workload and an outstanding "portfolio" of being a group leader for every module. Hello - I'm one of them already - don't drive me more crazy to my grave - when I ask you to lead the group, just do it - don't push all the responsibilities to me! (On a sidenote: Don't be like that inconsiderate guy who just dumped a pile of books onto my trolley while I was doing CIP at the library, expecting that I was at his service to such an extent - you lazy bump, you think I your maid or Bangladeshi worker or what?!?!)

So I hope that more of you guys can be serious when it's time for work, okay? You know how much I don't like working with people who are not serious in assignments. I got my own grades to care about; you got yours. And please don't slack too much. Restrain yourself from visits so often a week to the arcade and so many games, and anime and all that - it will NOT do you any good to be hooked as if you were drugged at the expense of your studies. All those can wait till after these 3 years. P.S. I might still be following you all for dinner, but if you all go to places like the arcade after that, I would rather go home straight and not waste my time there.

Down with the flu.

The flu virus has eventually gotten the better of me after weeks of stress, impromper meals and a lack of sleep. I'm recovering though - thanks to a very helpful dosage of antibiotics and long hours of peaceful sleep over the past weekend. Not forgetting watching my diet carefully - no fried, oily, spicy or cold food.

You know, sometimes the modules we take in polytechnic aren't that necessary. Stuff like Character Development that waste our time over issues like Case Studies and Community Involvement Projects (CIP). As for CIP (we have to fulfil 8 hours), we barely have time to help ourselves, much less the community. They say it's "community before self" - even at our own health's expense? Those precious 8 hours could have been better spent brushing up on our academic studies. Stuff like Innovation, Design & Enterprise in Action (IDEA) as well. Totally a waste of time where we have to brainstorm for a new innovative product and go through the processes of designing, promoting and marketing it. Hell-o, we're neither Mechanical nor Engineering nor Business students but Music & Audio Technology students - so what on EARTH are we doing in a module like that?!

You know how the competition's like when many people in the course turn out to be audiophiles or music freaks. People with Diplomas in Piano (Practical) and ABRSM Theory Grade 8 and stuff of the like. And I only have a crappy Yamaha Electone Organ Grade 7 (it's inverted - from Grade 13 to 1 - Grade 1's the highest) and ABRSM Theory Grade 4. I took the contemporary approach to learning music - unlike the majority who took the classical (piano) approach.

In our module Musicianship, we learn basic keyboard skills, theory and composition. Unfortunately for me, they're taking the classical approach as well - the unfamiliar path that I had rarely tread on. So in the first few weeks of school, they were talking about scales, arpeggios and chromatics. OK fine, I still can understand a bit of that. Then came our assignment - we had to write an ETUDE!! I was like - what on EARTH is that?? (It's actually a technical study to improve your keyboard skills.) And my fellow piano peeps were going on about dead composers (?), Hanon exercises (??), thirds (???), split chromatics (????), nocturnes (?!?!?!)... you get the idea. Pardon me but I NEVER had to do scales/arpeggios/thirds/chromatics/etc. on my electone organ - which - by the way, does not even have sufficient keys to perform these exercises fully. However, I am slowly trying to pick up the trades of classical piano, practising as best as I can on my double-keyboard-layered organ.

And as soon as I brush up on my music theory after more than 5 years' of musical decomposition, I'll hope to start on formal music lessons again and finish my Electone Organ Grades 6-1 (professional teachers' grades!) and ABRSM Grade 5 (and progressively on to Grade 8). I'll see if I have time in the future to double up with an ABRSM Piano Grade as well. Slowly, but surely - press on my fingers! ;)

P.S. Happy 40th birthday Singapore!