Niwde Hot Exposé

Mocca Perks Cruise Ambassador 2011

2011-12-18T22:02:00.016+08:00

It was a usual schooling day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia when I noticed that a contest was being held to find a "Cruise Ambassador" to go on an (almost-fully sponsored) 8D7N Jewels of the Far East cruise for two on the Costa Classica, and cover it "live" with daily updates on Facebook about my experiences! I jumped at the opportunity; this sounded really cool!

As they were searching for the most creative and original answer to what I would do as a Cruise Ambassador, I took some time to craft the following: "As a youthful, 23-year-old mocca perks Cruise Ambassador, I will bring forth the vibrant exuberance of the 8D7N experience of the Costa Classica onto Facebook through live status updates and a daily montage video (highlights of activities) uploaded on Facebook. To include an element of surprise, I will incorporate creative themes like "10 Things You Didn't Know About Cruises" (facts, figures, places), "10 Cruise Crew You Didn't Know Existed" (crew interviews), "10 Delectable Dishes To Try" (for the foodies), and "Top 10 Nautical Escapades" (must-try activities onboard). I believe that the following strengths give me an added advantage as a Cruise Ambassador: 1) my travels around the world (and the region) recorded online on my personal blog; 2) my technical aptitude towards media (background in graphic and video editing); 3) excellent command of the English language with extensive vocabulary knowledge; and 4) frequent user of social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, etc). As a musician in practice, I will bring fresh insights into cruise activities from a creative perspective, connecting effectively and emotionally with both the young and the young at heart." I had a good feeling that this was a decent answer and I stood a good chance of winning, and sure enough, I soon received a call from my Mom in Singapore that Mediacorp (Mocca Perks' parent company) had informed her that I had won!

The following is a recollection of my daily updates as featured on the Mocca Perks website during the period of my 8D7N Jewels of the Far East cruise to Kuantan, Bangkok & Koh Samui (9-16 December 2011), along with selected photos (more photos and videos can be found on my Facebook profile):

Ambon Jazz Plus Festival 2011

2011-11-23T15:14:00.013+08:00

Bono once said, "Music can change the world because it can change people." Indeed, the power and potential of music to enrich lives was apparent, as I experienced first-hand recently. Now in its third year, the Ambon Jazz Plus Festival 2011 brought a renewed sense of hope to the people of Maluku as the event united people of all religions through their shared love of music. With the theme “Hands for Brotherhood,” the three-day event celebrated local and international talent and promoted better relations among the people of the Spice Islands, which recently experienced a spasm of religious conflict. The island’s local musicians were joined by a stellar list of international musicians at this year’s festival, including American jazz guitarist David Becker, French pianist Cedric Hanriot and the Ambonese-Dutch jazz and soul singer Jessica Manuputty.

I was fortunate to be able to perform in this music festival with my band, FVE Project. FVE (Funky Virus Experiment) has the roots of funk, imbued with nuances of fusion and jazz, due to its members' diverse musical backgrounds. Though a fresh entry in the music industry, each band member is no stranger to the music industry both here in Malaysia and Singapore. The members of FVE have participated individually in events including Ambon Jazz Plus Festival 2010 (Indonesia), Borneo Jazz Festival Preview 2011 (Malaysia), and Singapore Street Festival; opened acts for Glenn Fredly, Tompi, and Michael Buble; played in major Malaysian music venues such as No Black Tie, NeroFico, Groove Junction, and KLPAC; and even recorded for the first jazz album launched in Maldives, "Feshun". FVE's latest appearance as a band was at the Music, Arts, Style International Festival (MASiF) 2011 @ KLCC and Studio6's Afrik-Asia Music Fiesta 2011 gospel concert.

Sunshine and a cool tropical breeze greeted me, as I touched down at Ambon's Pattimura International Airport. What struck me first was the island's fertile and mountainous terrain... Though situated in a secluded location in Indonesia (rather close to Timor Leste and Australia), the natural scenery was just breathtaking!

As we roamed and explored the island, the beautiful, laid-back charm of Ambon and the hospitality of its people just made me forget the incessant, urban rush of our modern world...

As I quote from Shakespeare, "If music be the food of love, play on..." The local cuisine, like their music, definitely scored a hit, rendering us helpless in wanting yet another serving of food!

Eventually, it was time to perform, and my band took to the stage, tantalizing the audience with songs like Lettuce's "The Flu", Snarky Puppy's "Skate U", and Spyro Gyra's "Para ti Latino".

My whole experience in Ambon, Indonesia was an eye-opener. This year’s festival was held in Ambon’s central Pattimura Square for the first time, with the hope that the location would help draw more people. The strategy and hard work paid off - the estimated crowd at the event doubled from last year’s festival, with around 8,000 people watching performances over the three days. And how better to round up this post than with a video clip I shot on the introductory night cruise party we were invited to. Here, Ambonese people of all ages and religious backgrounds joined hands to form a circle, before singing “Maluku Tanah Pusaka” (“Maluku, the Sacred Land”), considered to be a cultural anthem for the people of the islands. Peace; brotherhood; equality for all - may these ideals spread out from Ambon, and to all the nations of the world.

Countdown to New Year 2011 - Fireworks @ KLCC

2011-02-03T23:39:00.003+08:00

The long-awaited video of the fireworks at Suria KLCC @ Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where I counted down to the New Year with college buddies Gang and Javen... enjoy!

December 2010 update

2011-01-08T18:14:00.010+08:00

Happy New Year 2011! I realize that I'm super late in updating about December 2010, but life was just too packed and crazily fun to have time to do so... here are the key events:

Dec 1. I had a nice 8-course Chinese lunch with my schoolmates at Pik Wah Restaurant (Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Sumptuous, filling, and at RM35 per person, it was a steal ;)

Dec 6. Played DoTA with Gang, Nic, and friends at a cybercafe till 2am+... I really suck at it, but I try =) just not the gamer-type, unlike my brother...

Dec 7. After badminton and a game of pool with schoolmates, headed off to meet Singaporean friends Veron and SK, here for a holiday, at Bukit Bintang, where we had Nando's (Sungei Wang Plaza) for dinner...

Dec 10. I was merely kidding, but Javen, Gang, Ryan and I ended up visiting the Zoo Negara in KL anyway. It wasn't too big, and the attractions were mediocre, but I wasn't expecting much (ended up buying lots of souvenirs for folks back home though). Thereafter, it was dinner at KFC and catching the latest Narnia movie...

Dec 11. Had a nice Papa John's Pizza lunch with my Dad before I headed back to Singapore by coach... still managed to "crash" upon Natasha's surprise birthday party at Villa Bali (Gillman Village) on time!

Dec 14. Caught up with my secondary school classmates over badminton and lunch at Subway... hadn't seen some of them for at least 5 years...

Dec 17. Checked out the new NEX shopping centre at Serangoon with Tianshun, and had a chance meeting with campmate Kenneth at Sim Lim Square's nu:box outlet (didn't know he worked there)! Thereafter, polytechnic classmates Yanxi, Jasmine and I showcased our original songs (thanks for singing Jas!) at the MTL Songwriter Showcase at the Library@Esplanade. This is 想要, co-written by Yanxi and I:

Dec 21. TICE Eco Camp reunion at Hippopotamus Restaurant & Grill at Marina Square; the food was rather pricey but the ambience and quality of food was great (so was the free flow of chips =p)!

Dec 24. The SINGAPORE CHRISTMAS EXPERIENCE begins... Met my two schoolmates Javen and Lim, who arrived from KL by coach... we first proceeded to my place for a cosy local steamboat dinner, then went out to take in the sights and sounds of a Christmas countdown at Orchard Road (which included getting "sprayed on" by strangers; all in the name of fun LA!)

Dec 25. Places on our itinerary today included Sim Lim Square (for the best local IT/electronics deals), Bugis Street (inexpensive clothes/food), Iluma shopping centre (with their upside-down Christmas tree decorations), Somerset/Orchard areas (shopping!), Fullerton Hotel (look-see), and the Marina Bay area (Esplanade/the Merlion)...

Dec 26. After a Hong Kong-style lunch at VivoCity, we headed to Sentosa, where the rain did not dampen our spirits to explore the beaches, Southern Most Point of Continental Asia, Sentosa 4D Magix/Cineblast (awesome simulator and 4D rides), Merlion Walk and Resorts World Sentosa (Universal Studios Singapore was sold out until 2011!) The one-of-its-kind "Crane Dance" show at the Waterfront of Resorts World Sentosa ended the night brilliantly with its amazing water, light and sound effects!

Dec 27. After a semi-buffet lunch at Lighthouse Bistro, compliments of my Dad, my Dad and I accompanied my two friends to the Larkin Bus Terminal at Johor Bahru, Malaysia, where they caught a bus back to Kuala Lumpur (KL)... =) what a wonderful holiday it had been!

Dec 28. Met polytechnic buddies Prinsten (lunch over McDonald's) and Tze Lip (dinner and a music jamming session over at my place). I was trying to catch up with as many friends as possible before heading back to KL in the next few days...

Dec 29. Japanese ramen supper with my J-rock bandmates Woon Han, Hui Ming, and Benji at Cuppage Plaza... we didn't have the time to jam once again though! Soon soon soon...

Dec 30. Met polytechnic lecturer Wendy to pass some gifts, did some last-minute shopping at Carrefour and Sim Lim Square, and dropped by the post-Christmas gathering at polytechnic lecturer Simone's... then caught the bus back to KL at 2359 hours...

Dec 31. Counted down to 2011 at Suria KLCC with colllege buddies Javen and Gang, and an amazing display of fireworks!

Here's wishing everyone a wonderful 2011 filled with bountiful blessings, opulent opportunities and mesmerizing moments! Remember: make MUSIC, not war! ;) HAPPY NEW YEAR!

November 2010 update

2010-12-03T15:50:00.006+08:00

Somehow I just realized I could Twitter if I'm lazy to write long blog posts... Twitter's like a mini-blog! =.="

6 Nov. Went for a nice local (KL) duck rice brunch with college mates, then checked out the PC Expo @ Mid-Valley MegaMall... offers galore, but there wasn't anything specifically for Mac, so I didn't get anything in the end.. thereafter followed Gang & Javen to T.T.D.I. where they cut hair.. and "zhi char" dinner at Kepong ended the day :)

7 Nov. Cut my own hair for just RM9.90 at E3 Salon @ Genting Klang.. just down the road from my place.. it was cheap and not too bad at all!

Mid-Nov. (well, almost the whole month) Time was largely spent on getting the many assignments done, as well as practising for our practical performance exams and studying for tests. Many thanks to Gang and his family of which I inconvenienced by staying over/studying for those many nights at Gang's... thanks bro!

20 Nov. My ex-Army colleagues from Singapore came up to KL for the weekend... Had a great Saturday with them at Pavilion KL, Bukit Bintang, and Bangsar! Ate so much... Hakka cuisine, beard papa puffs, cheese tarts, mango smoothie, sticky sweets, satay/naan/tandoori chicken, Baskin' Robbins... =) thanks Chiu & Jas and see y'all back in Singapore soon!

21 Nov. Wee hours of the morning, 2-5am. T'was at McDonald's mugging for the impending Malaysian Studies exam with my college mates...

25 Nov. Headed to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in KL with Javen, Gang, and Lim, to watch Lim's piano teacher's lounge gig set for the night (with bassist and saxophonist). Later, we gained deep insights on the workings of the music industry as his teacher shared his experiences and opinions. Cool stuff - it's not a easy road ahead for us musicians, but as long as the flame of our passion's still burning bright, anything's possible! =)

27 Nov. Caught the virtuoso Brazilian guitarist, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Celso Machado, at a guitar masterclass at KL's Performing Arts Centre (KL PAC). Really love the ambience and old world charm of the place. The masterclass was great too; especially the insights into the workings of the bossa nova and baiao rhythms... thanks for the invite Joanna! ;)

29 Nov. The final day of my exams and the final Monday of the semester before the holidays. It was practical exams (Private Instruction module) the whole day; I played Debussy's "Reverie", Mandy Moore's "Only Hope" accompanied by the wonderful vocalist Natasha, and the jazz standard "I Should Care" for my classical, pop and jazz pieces respectively. Also helped a couple of other vocalists as accompanist for their pieces and sight reading.

To my college friends: it's been a wonderful first semester knowing you guys, happy holidays everyone and see y'all in January!

To my Singaporean friends: well, it's December already, and I will be heading back to Singapore for a while this holidays... so catch up with you all soon! ;)

October update

2010-11-03T14:08:00.008+08:00

So it's been a fun-filled, exciting October... have been mostly occupied with school work (assignments, performances, tests and the like), but at least I'm doing what I enjoy! Here's a rundown of some key happenings...

3 Oct. Overnight study for exams with friends at my place... we ended up cam-whoring quite a bit!

15-16 Oct. My college, the International College of Music (ICOM) holds two Tribute Series Concerts to ABBA and Queen. Check out the trailer preview here!

18 Oct. Caught an early music concert, "The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres", at the KLCC's concert hall... it was a tasteful visual-aural blend of sights and sounds as I was treated to soothing traditional/classical music along with projected images shot by the Hubble Space Telescope. May I add, the buffet dinner during the intermission was unexpected and sumptuous!

22 Oct. Finally, an evening of SPORTS - indoor badminton! I hadn't played any (officially) since I got here to study... here's a dazed photo shot over dinner at the nearby "pasar malam" (night market) after the game...

29 Oct. GENTING here we come (again)! It had been about a year and a half, and oh my, it was sure good to be up there almost 2km in the clouds again, enjoying the cool mist and fog just sweeping past my face. Although it was only several hours, it was a good de-stress and bonding opportunity with my friends (and their friends), as we made up real silly forfeits over games at Coffee Bean, embarrassing ourselves in public... definitely looking forward to being back up there again!

31 Oct. Marcel's surprise birthday celebration at Pasta Zenmai @ Mid-Valley MegaMall, KL!

This November's the final month of my semester before school closes... so exams and assignments clamour for my time and attention! Take care everyone! Ciao~

Do you remember... the 21st night of September?

2010-10-11T22:45:00.007+08:00

Just a quick September update people! Life here studying music in KL, Malaysia is going well... =)

3 Sep. Caught the comedy Phua Chu Kang (PCK) The Movie at One-Utama shopping mall... ironically it was shot in KL as well!

6-11 Sep. Headed back to Singapore for the one-week school holidays; spent a large part of it researching for my English essay assignment on advertising. Also had mini-reunion with the SP Musical peeps and my polytechnic diploma classmates (one more time before a few of them fly off to study!)

17 Sep. Played the lead melody on piano for Kim's performance of Brian Culbertson's "Get It On"! Check it out ;)

19 Sep. Tried the local "bak kut teh" (pork ribs soup) with Gang & Javen, then shopped at Berjaya Times Square & Sungei Wang Plaza. Also caught the movie "Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore" =)

24 & 25 Sep. Caught the John Thomas Jazz Trio (consisting of pianist Eric Li, bassist Fly, and drummer John Thomas) at their preview gig before their Hong Kong tour... =) awesomely talented musicians!

Oct updates are next so stay tuned! ;)

August 2010 update

2010-09-06T19:07:00.007+08:00

Back in Singapore for the 1-week school holidays! Last week was exam week, so I've been trying to catch up on sleep and getting back my life lately... :) Not that I dreaded the exams or anything; it's just the pressure to keep up a high standard for everything; Berklee requires me to achieve a minimum grade of C+ (73) in order for the particular credit module to be transferred over (I'm on the Berklee Transfer Programme, for the unaware - read my previous post). So besides the exams (and the first-ever Youth Olympic Games and National Day Parade 2010 in Singapore that I missed), here's a little summary of the key happenings in my life this past August:

1 Aug (Sun). Met college classmate Gang for shopping, lunch, and checking out of prices at Berjaya Times Square, Sungei Wang Plaza, and Low Yat Plaza. Got a free ride on the KL monorail there, which took ages to arrive due to a train fault at another station. Later that evening, got a taste of the wonderful local Malaysian home/hospitality :) dinnered and bunked over at Gang's...

2 Aug (Mon). Chilled out with college friends at Alexis Telawi bar @ Bangsar, where they were having an open jazz jam session. Realized that the local jazz/music scene was more happening than I thought!

6 Aug (Fri). After the usual Friday Performance held in the college's Recital Hall, we had a Student Council Meeting along with wacky icebreaker games... I should have left the college earlier though; I ended up missing my 7.30pm bus to Singapore even after taking a cab (which got stuck in a horrible traffic jam). I ended up taking an 8.30pm Transtar First Class Solitaire bus at RM95 back - great food, drinks, movies (personal entertainment screen), blankets, and service onboard the double-decker coach (I was 1 of only 2 passengers onboard that night =.=").

7 Aug (Sat). Back in Singapore for the National Day weekend... Checked out audio gear/music books at Sim Lim Square and Yamaha @ Plaza Singapura. Many thanks to Erica for the invitation to that night's concert: the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO)'s Opening Gala - Jazz You Up with Jeremy Monteiro. Later that night, caught up with polytechnic friend Prinsten at Timbre@Substation. Headed back up to KL the next day.

9 Aug (Mon). Caught Singapore's National Day Parade 2010 webcast in KL!

13 Aug (Fri). First performance in college during our traditional weekly "Friday Performance": I performed Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" with a violinist, and played brass section on keyboard for Lennise's performance of "Alfie".

20 Aug (Fri). Had dinner at Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) and chilled out with college mates... watched funny YouTube clips with the free wi-fi available and laughed till we nearly died at some hilarious/sadistic clips... especially Tickle-Me-Elmo being burnt! Later, enjoyed the live lounge music at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and cam-whored (took many distorted/funny photos with Apple's Photo Booth application). More crazy photos on my Facebook album.

25 Aug (Wed). ICOM's Night Out @ Solaris Mont Kiara's Canon Celebrities Club - a night where the college and generous members of the public (RM20 entrance fee) got together to raise funds in aid of Pakistan; all proceeds went directly to Mercy Malaysia to aid the flood victims. It was definitely an inspiring night as the senior students inspired the freshmen with their groovy, professional renditions of original and cover songs.

27 Aug (Fri). Played for Jenn's epic arrangement of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star during the "Friday Performance".

28 Aug (Sat). Tried Nando's for the first time at its Petaling Street, KL outlet. Amazing chicken and peri-peri sauce!

31 Aug (Tue). Happy 53rd Merdeka (Independence Day) Malaysia!

Life at ICOM... / July 2010 update

2010-07-31T23:29:00.011+08:00

OK, apologies for not having updated for quite some time... I've been very busy with school! Taking a short break now from work...

For those who are still wondering, I'm currently doing my Bachelor in Music at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It's a transfer programme whereby I spend 2 years here at the International College of Music (ICOM) and then move on (and transfer credits) to Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA, where I spend another 2-3 years for my Bachelor's (single/double major). It's fortunate that Berklee ties up with schools worldwide as part of the "Berklee International Network (BIN)", about 30% of Berklee's student population are transfer students. In Asia, 3 colleges of music are in the BIN - one each in Japan, Korea, and Malaysia (the nearest).

I find ICOM a viable route for regional (especially Singaporean/Malaysian) students who wish to pursue their musical dreams at one of the world's most prestigious contemporary schools of music, Berklee. Especially for those concerned by the high costs of education at Berklee (Boston), they would get to save a substantial sum of money by going through the ICOM-Berklee 2+2 year route. Indeed, current exchange rate conditions (Singapore vs. Malaysia) mean that the cost of living is generally cheaper here. The near-familiar culture/food has also enabled me to settle down in a foreign country faster, so I can devote more time to studies. Still, I do realise that my future is also not everything in life; the proximity of being near(er) to my friends and loved ones (a.k.a family) while in Malaysia means that home (in Singapore) is just a half-hour flight/5-hour bus ride away.

My stay so far in ICOM has been a much enjoyable and fruitful one; being surrounded by people who are so passionate and talented in music and audio technology really provides fertile ground for networking, and challenges me to take my own musicality to greater heights. The facilities and resources (especially a really huge and neat collection of library books!) just keep me in school daily till 7pm (closing hour) - I'm either at class, jamming at a rehearsal, researching in the library, or in one of the 38 practice rooms! I really love the faculty here too; a number of which are Berklee alumni themselves, or even my polytechnic lecturer's former teacher! Oh my gosh, the intimidation/awe of being taught by a lecturer's lecturer! But seriously, one just can never learn enough from these masters in their field... oh, did I mention the MacDonald's with free WIFI that's just a few steps away from school? *excited look* I love my new MacBook Pro and Logic Studio!

I will try to post more updates on school life (modules I'm taking, etc.), and also photos/videos here or on Facebook soon; but meanwhile, here's a quick update of my life's happenings in early July 2010:

Jul 1. Attended a "Music Publishing & Copyright" seminar by COMPASS and an "Artiste & Event Management" talk by Music & Movement, as part of the DMAT Masterclass Series (DMAT-MS) in which prominent industry experts were invited down to Singapore Polytechnic to share their experiences/knowledge with current students/alumni. T'was also an informal reunion:-

Jul 2. A full day of workshops and performances by the incredible Juwita Suwito and her band from Malaysia. Found out that their drummer was an ICOM alumni! Also dropped by camp mate Mark's 21st birthday chalet at night...

Jul 3. Attended a "Musical Script & Songwriting" workshop (as part of DMAT-MS), conducted by Musical Theatre Limited. Later at night, had a reunion-farewell dinner with secondary school besties Huiling and Shaun at MOS Burger, Tampines Mall, before heading to Starhub to terminate my local (Singaporean) phone line. =(

Jul 4.Independence Day! - in another sense for me - goodbye Singapore! I took a morning coach up to Kuala Lumpur with my dad to settle down in preparation for my new life...

Jul 5-9. Orientation week begins at ICOM with talks, briefings, and placement tests/auditions - I managed to get the "advance standing" into Semester 2 (2 years/4 semesters instead of 2.5 years/5 semesters)...

And so a month of school has passed by so quickly; assignments, research, projects, practice and more all clamouring for my attention! Till my next update; take care everyone!

2010 Recap (Apr-Jun)

2010-07-24T14:43:00.010+08:00

Just a brief update of major events/happenings in my life in the final months leading up to O.R.D.! :-

Apr 16. Attended a talk, "Writing Musicals: An Introduction", conducted by Musical Theatre Limited at the Library@Esplanade. A fantastic opportunity for the public to get their "feet wet".

Apr 24. Celebrated Haze's birthday with fellow J-pop band members at PartyWorld KTV @ The Verge (new outlet at Little India). Two huge LCD TVs, a multi-function massage chair, instruments (shakers, clappers, and a tambourine!), dice to play with, laser dico lights, and decorated bling-bling wallpaper and cushions really enhanced our overall experience!!

May 1. Started a one-month long stint being a lounge pianist at The Fullerton Hotel Singapore. Six nights a week, two hours a night, and some pocket money and experience gained...

May 8. TICE Eco Camp's Team Heart's 2nd Year Anniversary Reunion at Azabu Sabo Japanese Restaurant @ Marina Square. 2 years on, the friendships forged still remain strong...

May 21. Visited my alma mater St. Hilda's Secondary School with my ex-Computer Club-mate Yongkang. Met a few teachers that were still around, but most had left or moved on in their career...

May 28. The beginning of a half-month stint gigging weekends with vocalist Melissa at La Salsa (Jimmy's bar @ Dempsey Hill)...

Jun 12. - O.R.D. LO!!! The completion of my 2-year mandatory National Service term is a shared vision among every enlisted (read: forced/reluctant) Singaporean soldier that had to give of 2 years of his life to the service of the nation!

Jun 13. Stuffed myself silly with the amazing buffet dinner (SG$40) at Cafe 2000 @ M Hotel Singapore. T'was a celebration of O.R.D. with my Army mates...

Jun 20. Lunch with my J-pop bandmates at Ootoya Japanese Restaurant at the newly-opened Orchard Central.

Jun 23. Stuffed myself silly (again) will 6 J Co. donuts and Starbucks' Green Tea Cream - and that was after dinner!

Jun 24. Met up with polytechnic mates Zhen Hong, Joanne, and Ginny for dinner at Azabu Sabo Japanese Restaurant @ Marina Square, before heading off to explore the new local sensations - Marina Bay Sands and the Helix Bridge.

Jun 27. A thrilling day of social gatherings... Celebrated army mate Edwin's birthday over lunch at Big-O Cafe @ Paragon, with a surprise chunky chocolate-durian cake! Later that evening; had dinner with my TICE Eco Camp friends at Manhattan Fish Market @ Marina Square, followed by catching the World Cup screening at MacDonald's!

Jun 30. An enjoyable afternoon tea at Canele @ Robertson Walk with my former lecturer Wendy Ng, and a chance encounter with actress of local movie "881", Yeo Yann Yann! Thereafter, attended a Social Media Night @ Zsofi Tapas bar in support of the organizer (my army friend), and realized that a chance meeting with strangers overturned many common friends... truly, six degrees of connection...

2010 Recap (Jan-Mar)

2010-04-04T18:25:00.011+08:00

Jan 1. So I woke up at 11.30am to a brand new year, after having counted down at Marina Bay the night before (as usual). Met up with my TICE eco-camp mates for a steamboat at Bugis in the evening. I managed to get a few cups of lime juice free (apparently, it wasn't free flow but sold by jug) - I was honestly unaware and thought it was self-service at the counter! It was hilarious as we tried to sneak our drink cans to other tables to try avoiding payment (just for fun to see if it could work); but the sharp-eyed Chinese waitresses saw through our tricks - TWICE. ROFLMAO. The outing was followed by Wii games and booze at Kelly's to end off the night. It's amazing how we're still a close-knit group, since the eco-camp ended in May 2008!

Jan 15. Cabbed with my keyboard and Misty down to Costa Sands Resort (Downtown East) for Nicholas Yong's 21st birthday celebrations! Spent the night socializing and jamming with my very talented musician friends... here's a sample; do visit my YouTube for many more videos!

Jan 22. Caught the Anthony Drewe and George Stiles' musical, "Just So", at Victoria Theatre, in a hilarious local adaptation by students from the Singapore Management University (SMU). Was inspired by the passionate performers and the marvellous music - thanks for the invitation Jimmy!

Jan 31. Brandon's farewell party - best wishes to him as he pursues his Arts Management degree in Australia!

Feb 6. Alumni and current students of my Diploma in Music & Audio Technology gathered back in Singapore Polytechnic tonight for a long-awaited reunion. Games, music performances, and a sumptuous buffet dinner spread added to the upbeat atmosphere of the night. Reminiscence - I really miss my polytechnic life, but it's time to move on... here's "Umbrella", brought to you by some of my former classmates and I:

Feb 8. Representatives from my camp unit visited our adopted Ju Eng Home for Senior Citizens to bring Chinese New Year cheer. This video features three classic/popular Chinese numbers, "月亮代表我的心" (The Moon Represents My Heart), "老鼠爱大米" (Mouse Loves Rice), and "细水长流" (meaning: "Economize To Avoid Running Short).

Feb 12. As part of my camp unit's anniversary, we caught the movie "Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief" at Eng Wah Cinemas (Suntec City), then had an 8-course lunch and "lo-hei" to celebrate Chinese New Year at Pioneer Spring Restaurant @ SAFRA Mount Faber. It was my lucky day... I also won $50 of vouchers (valid at Robinsons/John Little/Marks & Spencer)!

Feb 18. 22nd birthday! Flooded with wishes through SMS, calls, and FaceBook - thanks everyone! Had dinner with Wendy and Ning at House @ Dempsey Hill - excellent ambience and irresistible desserts! =D

Feb 19. Supported Stubborn Stain Productions' latest short film "Means To An End" at LaSalle, at the invitation of indie film-making stars/polytechnic schoolmates Syed, Amir, and Ajay. Thereafter, headed to Timbre@Substation to celebrate Susanna's birthday - along with catching talented musician/former diploma classmate Bani Hidir performing with 53A!

Feb 21. Buffet treat by my beloved Child's Play J-pop band members Woon Han, Benji, Hui Ming, and Haze @ Daidomon Japanese restaurant at United Square, Novena. One of the more tantalizing dishes we had that night was ox tongue - chewy, rubbery, weird (a tongue tasting another tongue)!

Feb 25. Caught the NOISE Singapore 2010 Festival Showcase exhibition of artwork/photography/etc. at Raffles City Shopping Centre. Kids are getting naughtier but more talented too these days...

Feb 26-28 The sequel to 2009's smashing 21st birthday celebrations; albeit on a smaller scale. Like the previous year, I had friends from different social circles pop by over the three crazy/wild nights...

Mar 6. Dinner with Wendy at Donato's, a cosy authentic Italian cafe @ Ghim Moh (Buona Vista). Thereafter, headed for the NUS Arts Fest opening play, "wo(men)" at the University Cultural Centre (UCC) Theatre. Emotional as it was, I felt that it was a tad too draggy; sitting with our necks craned from the Circle seats at the highest level also kept us at the edge of our seats. Still, thanks Christine for the tickets!

Mar 19. Went for ExpressInMusic's regular meet-up of singers/songwriters/musicians at Hackerspace.sg (70A Bussorah Street). Yet another networking opportunity.

Mar 20. Attended "Render", a graduation showcase of works by the students of the Diploma in Music & Audio Technology (DMAT) and Diploma in Digital Media at Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel. I must say that the graduating batch of DMAT students excel especially when it comes to performance - they delivered their original songs on stage with much zest and professionalism! Later that night, the lecturers, students, alumni (3 of us) and I checked out Jimmy's newly-opened bar, "La Salsa", at Block 11, Dempsey Hill, where we were pampered and spoilt for choice with a vast array of Mexican cuisine and margueritas... thank you for your hospitality Jimmy! Mar 25-26. Flew over to International College of Music in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a chance at Berklee College of Music's World Scholarship Tour. I also attended the enlightening music clinics conducted by Berklee faculty Fernando Huergo (Associate Professor, Bass Department) and George Russell (Associate Professor of Harmony) on improvisation and ensemble playing, followed by a concert put up by their talented (and young - of JC/polytechnic-equivalent age in Singapore) students. Some takeaways for musicians: Take risks and play as if it was your last performance! | "If it ain't got GROOVE, it ain't a do-do!"

Happy New Year 2010!

2010-01-02T14:12:00.002+08:00

Happy New Year to one and all! I hope the new year has been great for you so far; do cherish your loved ones, treasure every moment of life, and capture every opportunity that passes you... I spent New Year's Eve at the Marina Bay Countdown with my army mate Matthias; here are the fireworks, for those of you who didn't catch it live:

The Marina Bay Singapore Countdown brings together the collective wishes and aspirations of thousands of Singaporeans, and unites all in counting down the final seconds of the year to celebrate the beginning of a new year full of hopes, challenges, changes and dreams.

If you were wondering about my New Year resolutions, I haven't made any; have just decided to take things in their stride as they come (not to say that I'm not planning ahead for the future). On a sidenote, I hope to keep my blog going by updating it once in 2 months at least, or more often once I'm out of Army - June 2010, I can just smell it! :) Also hope to meet and catch up with more friends (especially long-lost ones) out there, and get to know many more new ones! Till then, take care and I'll see you all around!

2009 Recap (Oct-Dec) & Music Involvements

2009-12-29T22:36:00.025+08:00

We're on the brink of 2010! To wrap up 2009's blogging, here's a peek at my life from October to December (this is part 4; see the 3 previous earlier posts for more):

October:

2. Gig: "Moonlight Voices in the City" by SMU Music Interactive Club (which I assisted) - MoonFest @ Esplanade - My first performance at the Esplanade concourse, bringing cheer to the public with stirring renditions of popular Chinese songs from the 70s and 80s... here's a sample:

6. Caught a free concert by a renowned string ensemble, the Camerata de Lausanne, at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music... it had been some time since I heard such refined, exquisite string music...

17. Attended a songwriting workshop in the afternoon, conducted by Musical Theatre Limited at the Arts House. I learnt about the different types of musicals, wrote a short tune on the spot about the theme "Cinderella" with my group, and got to know more friends and music contacts.

Later on in the evening, I celebrated Joyce's 21st birthday with my diploma classmates!

24. This year, my organizer's filled with birthday celebrations; mostly a lot of my peers turning 21 like me. My NS mate Kok Chin turned 22 tonight! Celebration at Costa Sands Resort (Pasir Ris). Thereafter, headed to SAFRA GameHaven for LAN gaming with a few camp mates... (so I'm not a nerd, OK? For those of you who think I'm a "good boy" with no life except studying). Supper was beancurd ("tao huey") at Selegie! Yum yum...

29. Gig: Blackout @ Emily 2009 at Wild Oats Bar on the Hill. It was a charity gig in support of the Singapore After-Care Association, which helps ex-offenders re-integrate into society. Misty and I performed several songs, including "Always Be My Baby", "Close To You", "Byul", "If No One Will Listen" and "When You Believe"... all these videos can be found on my Facebook (you might have to search through a bit as I've got lots of videos)!

Here's "Almost Lover" and "Hero":

November:

7. "Superstar" Musical Reunion: about 15 of the cast from "Superstar: the Pop Musical", Singapore Polytechnic's first, gathered on 7 Nov 2009 for this overdue 3rd-year anniversary reunion, which was co-organized by Esther and me. We had dinner and games at Pit Stop Cafe.

13. Yet another eventful day: camp unit cohesion in the morning - complimentary KFC breakfast, followed by movie (2012) at Golden Village VivoCity. Later in the evening, went out for supper at MongKok Dim Sum (Geylang) with my TICE Camp "Team Heart" peeps.

14. Celebrated my diploma junior Cheryl's 21st birthday at UBud, a Balinese restaurant at Bukit Timah. The chicken and fish were good!

16. Gig: "The Stage Is Yours" - acoustic set @ Music Dreamer Live! Cafe. I was initially supposed to perform with my vocalist Haze, but she fell sick, so I pulled my other vocalist friends Nicholas and Misty in. Here's a snippet of our hour-long set... the full video set is available on my YouTube and Facebook accounts (the umpteenth time of me repeating, haha).

23-24. St. Joseph’s Institution International (SJII) presents its Christmas pantomime: “The Wizard of O.R.S.”! I helped out as their recorded sound engineer/arranger for the music/sound effects. It was a great experience working with both professionals and the kids alike!

December:

5. Gig: Singapore Prison Service - Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon @ Bliss Garden Restaurant, Singapore Expo. Nope, I don't volunteer with the Prisons, but I've helped out in similar charity events/dinners before, so this is just another one. My vocalist and guitarist friends from Teen Challenge and I performed "Wonderful Tonight" and "If Tomorrow Never Comes". I must say I was quite astounded and encouraged by the 9-course lunch, which included Shark's Fin Soup and Braised Abalone with Broccoli, among others.

11. Met up with some of the cast and crew of SJII's “The Wizard of O.R.S.” pantomime for pool, bowling and dinner at Marina Square. Wendy, their Drama H.O.D. (and my ex-lecturer), joined us later and we went over to the Esplanade to catch Babes Condes and her band perform some Filipino Christmas and traditional songs...

12-13. T'was not just an ordinary weekend for me, but a GIG-end with 3 performances - once at the Youth Advolution for Health's (YAH) 4th Birthday Bash 2009 @ Republic Polytechnic, and twice at a "Project Eathink" event outside The Cathay, organized by Singapore Management University's Gourmet Club. Here are some videos:

15. Several of us musical peeps from Singapore Polytechnic's "Superstar: the Pop Musical" gathered at at Changi Airport to bid farewell to Timothy, who played a lead role as "Jun Liang" in the musical. His entire family was emigrating to Canada... we miss you and wish you all the best Timo! Here's the group shot of us with the Cookie Monster pillow we bought for him (of special significance to him, as his "Jun Liang" character in the musical saw him carrying around his beloved Cookie Monster):

18. I DO drink, for those of you who aren't expecting me to. Occasionally though, haven't gotten fully-drunk before. Anyway, I chilled with some army mates tonight at Ice Cold Beer @ Singapore Management University (SMU). Later on at 1am, caught my music friend, vocal coach, and pianist Michelle at her final night performing with her band at BarStop. Here's the shot of Michelle with my army friends and me:

19. Christmas party at Cheryl's! Dinner was potluck, and we played games and exchanged gifts... thanks for hosting us Cheryl!

21.Representatives from my camp unit visited our adopted Ju Eng Home for Senior Citizens to spread the Christmas cheer. Here's Shawn Poh's soulful rendition of the classic "Moon River" by Henry Mancini, and Ace Huang's stirring take on Lin Jun Jie's "会有那么一天" (Hui You Na Me Yi Tian).

Here are two duets by Shawn and my mom, who volunteered to come down and sing - "If We Hold On Together" from "The Land Before Time" cartoon series, and Teresa Teng's popular "我只在乎你" (Wo Zhi Zai Hu Ni). I accompany them on keyboard.

23. Afternoon: went for a National Education tour to Semakau Landfill (offshore Singapore) to learn about waste management and increase our environmental awareness and appreciation (or so were the hopes of my camp unit when organizing this).

Evening: Christmas party at Rochelle's place. Met a few juniors from secondary school (several years apart), and discovered again how small the world really is!

30. Polytechnic classmate Peixia's 21st birthday @ Costa Sands Resort (Sentosa)

31. I counted down to the New Year at Marina Bay with Matthias, my army mate from BMT...

On a sidenote, here's a look back on my involvements with music this past 2009:

Gigs:

15 April 09 - "The Stage Is Yours" - acoustic set @ Music Dreamer Live! Cafe

24 April 09 - SMUMIC "The Ultimate Virtuoso 2009" Grand Finals @ Nexus Auditorium

5 May 09 - 41SAR RSM COC Parade @ Kranji Camp II - dinner performance

16 May 09 - Wedding gig @ Holiday Inn Atrium Hotel

5 June 09 - 6th Army Maintenance Base (6AMB) Family Day 2009 @ Nee Soon Dri Clad

13 June 09 - [Singapore Street Festival '09 Electric Youth!] D'J Party (J-Rock & Cosplay)

20 June 09 - Private birthday party @ SMU Scréme Cafe

7 August 09 - Potong Pasir CC 44th National Day Celebrations Dinner

9 August 09 - Singapore's Got Youth Talent 2009 Grand Finals @ Bishan Junction 8

11 August 09 - SB Talentime 2009 Finals

25, 31 August & 2, 9, 14, 16, 23, 30 September 09 - Live gigs @ C.Nai Hong Kong Xpress (ECP)

25 September 09 - Ark Singing Talent Contest (Semi-Finals) at ArkHub @ Kallang

2 October 09 - "Moonlight Voices in the City": MoonFest @ Esplanade

29 October 09 - Blackout @ Emily 2009

16 November 09 - "The Stage Is Yours" - acoustic set @ Music Dreamer Live! Cafe

5 December 09 - Singapore Prison Service - Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon @ S'pore Expo

12 December 09 - Youth Advolution for Health (YAH) Birthday Bash 2009 @ Republic Polytechnic

13 December 09 - Project Eathink @ The Cathay

21 December 09 - Ju Eng Home for Senior Citizens performance

Projects/Teaching:

June–September 2009: Keyboard instructor at Music Garage

July–November 2009: Recorded sound engineer/arranger for St. Joseph’s Institution International (SJII) pantomime: “The Wizard of O.R.S.”

5-8 November 2009: Sound engineer for Musical Theatre Limited’s “Wonder of Musicals”

November 2009-ongoing: Musical Theatre Limited mini-musical song arrangements

November 2009-ongoing: SOMA recording project

December 2009-ongoing: Church song arrangement project

Workshops, Seminars, Meet-ups:

10 January: SOMA Open House 2009 - Songwriting workshop by Keith Kwok

21 March: "Getting Yourself Heard" - NOISE Singapore workshop by Daniel Ong

~ 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year? May lots of luck, limitless laughter, and most of all, lavishing love be with you and your loved ones this coming 2010... Happy New Year! ~

Warm regards, Edwin

2009 Recap (Jul-Sep)

2009-12-29T20:22:00.013+08:00

Continued from my previous post, here's a recap of all the major/interesting events of my life from July-September 2009... I admit I did not have much of a "social life" for the second half of 2009 due to the lack of time; juggling camp work with the many gigs and other musical projects took a toll on my health and hours of sleep.

July:

4. Celebrated Jeremy's 21st birthday at his place!

5. After an organized meetup of singers & songwriters at the Red Dot Museum, had dinner with diploma classmate Jasmine at Ichiban Boshi @ Esplanade... oishii ne!

11. The news came so suddenly that I was in shock when I got the SMS that my polytechnic schoolmate and friend Edwin Lim had passed on... tears flowed freely and many heartfelt experiences with him were shared at the packed memorial that evening. Edwin, I will always remember you for the fun, joy, and laughter you brought to me and everyone else around you - remember during the chalet when Wendy called "Edwin!" and both of us turned around at the same time? Though I've known you only briefly through our school's Theatre Compass and "An Inspector Calls" play, you were very encouraging and caring towards me and the rest; somehow wish we had got to know each other more... =( you will be sorely missed... RIP bro. God bless.

25. Two birthday parties: Snowlin's 21st at the Khalsa Association and Si Ling's 21st at her place... here's poly schoolmate Natasha and I at Si Ling's bash (haven't got the photos with the birthday girls yet! =x):

August:

2. Another 21st birthday celebration, featuring my talented vocalist friend Misty:

7. Gig: Potong Pasir CC 44th National Day Celebrations Dinner (accompanied vocalists with community/National Day songs)

8. Dinner @ IKEA Tampines - the long-awaited secondary school gathering! It was great to have some of us together again and catch up with each others' lives...

9. Gig: Singapore's Got Youth Talent 2009 Grand Finals @ Bishan Junction 8 (accompanied vocalist with 2 songs on keyboard). Later on, caught the National Day fly-past and fireworks!

10. Huiming's birthday celebration: steamboat @ Bugis. In the following instructional video, chef Huiming gives the uninitiated some basic lessons in cooking!

11. Gig: Back to my alma mater Singapore Polytechnic for a guest performance with a vocalist at its School of Business (SB) Talentime 2009 Finals...

16. Besides the Army Half Marathon in the morning (I ran 10km), it was also a significant day - 300 more days to ORD! Time flies, as of "press time" I've a 160+ days to go to ORD!

29. Lydia's farewell dinner at her place... she was flying off to the States to study music at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Jokes abounded through the evening as we reminisced our school life and lessons, with the funniest (according to Winnie) being me mixing up the term "rondalla" (an ensemble of plectrum instruments, stringed instruments played with a plectrum or pick) with the Venetian "gondola"! ROFLMAO!

25, 31 August & 2, 9, 14, 16, 23, 30 September - Live (paid) gigs @ C.Nai Hong Kong Xpress cafe at East Coast Park's Marine Cove... thanks to Karyn, Benji, and Woon Han for coming down to support my vocalist and I on several of those nights!

September:

19. Ace's 21st birthday BBQ at Pasir Ris Park (group photo unavailable)

25. Gig: accompanied vocalist on keyboard in Ark Singing Talent Contest (Semi-Finals) at ArkHub @ Kallang (Mu Chuan)

Check back soon, the final recap for Oct-Dec 2009 is in production!

2009 Recap (Apr-Jun)

2009-12-28T19:31:00.021+08:00

Continued from my previous post, here's a recap of all the major/interesting events of my life from April-June 2009:

April:

3. Caught a concert (Hommage a Poulenc with Thomas Hecht & Friends) at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. Talented geniuses!

4. Jammed at Guitar 77 with my J-rock band at night, then went for an outdoor photo-shoot till the wee hours of the morning. Our chosen photo for our band profile turned out to be this one, shot at the top of a multi-storey carpark! LOL so cool right?

6. Attended a violinist friend's solo recital at the Arts House. You go girl!

11. Another usual day of rushing around... Met my polytechnic lecturer Wendy for lunch at Sushi Tei in town, then zipped back east for a gig rehearsal at home, followed by Hanson's 21st birthday celebration at Sculpture Square, and finally a band meeting at Heeren late at night. Whew! Here's us at Sculpture Square:

12. Grabbed a collection of cheap-sale movies at a warehouse sale at SAFRA Tampines, before meeting secondary classmate Shaun for the Good News Singapore event at the Indoor Stadium.

15. Finally - my first gig of 2009 (role as keyboardist), with Haze (vocalist) and Benji (guitarist) at Music Dreamer Cafe @ Marina Square. Here's a sample of our performance; more videos on my Facebook/Youtube accounts.

18. DMAT sophomore batch chalet/BBQ @ Costa Sands Downtown East - I brought along some horror movies to spook them out. We also met a polar bear!! =.="

19. Caught polytechnic schoolmate Syed's film feature at the Singapore International Film Festival @ Singapore Art Museum. We then went to Pit Stop Cafe (Boat Quay) for games; the photo below was featured on their website! (Photo no. 97 as of 28 December 2009) :)

24. SMU "Virtuoso" Grand Finals at NEXUS Auditorium, Cuppage Plaza - Played keyboard accompaniment for a song I had just learnt a few days ago. The vocalist emerged as the champion - congrats Eng Teck!

25. Cubase 5 Launch at SMU Admin Building - I thought I would be alone, but ended up meeting my classmates/schoolmates/lecturers... it's a small world indeed...

26. TRIPLE-BILL of rehearsals in one full day at 3 different locations: Raffles Place, Bukit Timah, and Aljunied!

30 April-3 May. Genting-KL Trip: Four fun-filled days at the City of Entertainment and the capital of Malaysia... Malaysia BOLEH! :) More photos/videos on my Facebook account... but here's a selection:

May:

5. Dinner gig - 41SAR RSM COC Parade @ Kranji Camp II

9. Kamesh's birthday celebration @ SIA Sports Club (Changi), followed by Haze's birthday celebration at K-box (Marina Square).

16. Wedding gig @ Holiday Inn Atrium Hotel

23. Attended an anti-tobacco workshop conducted by the Youth Advolution for Health at YWCA Fort Canning Lodge. Thereafter, we proceeded to a Fab & Smoke Free event at Tampines Mall, where I won a consolation prize of an iPod speaker/charger!

June:

5. 6th Army Maintenance Base (6AMB) Family Day 2009 - yet another performance in camp! Pity we didn't take videos but only took photos after the event:

6-8. Went on a short trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with Dad. Main intention was to check out the International College of Music (ICOM) there (as they have a tie-up programme with Berklee College of Music), but we visited several places of interest as well. Not forgetting shopping!

13. [Singapore Street Festival '09 Electric Youth!] D'J Party (J-Rock & Cosplay) - Finally, the day had arrived for my J-rock band to perform at *scape! Youth Park... here's one of the pieces we covered, Ayumi Hamasaki's "A Song for XX"; more videos on my Facebook/Youtube accounts.

Later that night, a birthday surprise for Joanne is planned and executed, just when she thought everyone forgot about her birthday...

20. Performed with friends at a private birthday party gig at SMU's Scréme Cafe. Earlier on in the day, I was officially inducted into the family of YAH ambassadors to promote health and wellness!

27. Took part in the SHINE Youth Mascot Parade, Asia's largest of its kind, as part of the Youth Advolution for Health (YAH) contingent. Spot me amongst a bombastic build-up of balloons, and with a PCK wannabe:

Next recap coming up soon: Jul-Sep 2009... stay tuned!

2009 Recap (Jan-Mar)

2009-12-27T14:22:00.029+08:00

To all my faithful readers out there (I know there are still a handful), here's a recap of all the major/interesting events of my life from January-March 2009 (with minimal talk about NS; see previous post):

January:

1. Woke up to a brand new year and made some resolutions.

9. MES Family Night @ Pit Stop Building (camp function). Here's a photo of us fooling around:

10. SOMA Open House 2009 - Dropped by the School of Music & the Arts' (SOMA) Open House to check out their facilities. Also attended a beginner songwriting workshop to gauge their teaching methodology (already completed a year-long Songwriting module in my Diploma).

20. Obama's inauguration! YES WE CAN!

24. TPS reunion potluck gathering @ East Coast Park. Hadn't seen some of my primary school classmates for years...

25. Scene: Reunion dinner at my eldest uncle's place. My cousin-in-law passed me several slices of sour Mandarin oranges; upon chewing them, the area under my tongue started to constrict uncomfortably, and my salivary glands became swollen. I started medication to reduce the swelling, to no avail. Half a month later (mid-Feb.), I was due for an Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) specialist appointment at Singapore General Hospital - but it was just that morning when a small salivary stone emerged into my mouth via a blocked duct (after much tongue-prodding the past few days as well). So it was just that stone causing all that eating discomfort!

February:

7 & 8. Went on the Singapore Flyer once on each day (Saturday night and Sunday afternoon). The rides were FREE as SAFRA was having a promotion then. We even got free oranges (Chinese New Year season) upon flashing our SAFRA cards.

13. My camp unit's Teambuilding Day @ SAFRA Yishun. We were divided into teams for outdoor adventure games; I overcame my acrophobia today (for once) by climbing to the top of an outdoor rock wall!

20-22. The largest event I've ever organized by myself so far in life: A smashing triple-bill of 21st birthday celebration BBQs at Costa Sands (Downtown East). Over 100 of my friends from my various "social circles/groups" arrived on 3 separate nights. Even though my parents were unsupportive of me blowing almost SG$1,200 on the whole celebration (that's my ONE-month army allowance in ONE night!), what can I say... it was the best 3 nights of my life this year...

Here's my gift list; thanks to the following for their presence and presents!

*Friday:

Police watch - NS Comms guys

Solar-powered toy - Pius

Converse duffel bag - TICE camp friends

Hush Puppies polo tee - Rochelle

Audio Technica portable headphones - (then) Hazeto band members (currently Child's Play)

Candy Empire chocolate & jellybeans - Bing Hao

"Boy naughty" lamp - Idayat

The first night of my 21st birthday bash kicked off with a big bang - food, friends & FUN!

Social groups present: NS comrades, TICE Eco Camp 2008 camp-mates & Child's Play band members

*Attendance: 22 guests

**Catering by BBQ Wholesale Centre Birthday cake (Premium Mango) from emicakes Cookies (2 dozen) from Subway

FUN FACT: The 3-night event was conceptualized and planned barely a fortnight before it took place. I realized that I wanted to plan a BIG, unforgettable event for my 21st to thank and catch up with as many friends as I could. (All the way back even to primary school!) Having a BBQ every night for 3 consecutive evenings gave my guests the flexibility to choose a convenient timing to come.

*Saturday:

Topman shirt - Bastian & Song Hua

Scotch whisky - Yuanlong

Adidas cap - Alastair & Dyna

Angbao - Simone & Gerald

External hard drive - Bruce & GAMBIT friends

Converse bag - Kok Song & Soon Seng

Aldo cuff links - Bryna

Pinata - Emily

"I Owe" metal plate - Wee Siong

Toblerone chocolate - Filzah

CK fragrance - Natasha

The second night of my 21st birthday bash was actually a TRIPLE BONANZA celebration with my friends Emily and Wilson celebrating their 22nd birthdays too!

Social groups present: SP Musical superstars, SP "An Inspector Calls"/Theatre Compass peeps & Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab associates, among other friends

*Attendance: 39 guests (excluding Emily and Wilson's friends)

**Catering by BBQ Wholesale Centre Birthday cake (Pure Addiction) from emicakes

FUN FACT: The proposed budget included the chalet rental, BBQ catering for 3 nights, 3 birthday cakes, and 5 dozen Subway cookies! The total expenditure hit a 4-figure mark!

*Sunday:

Taboo game - SP Theatre Compass friends

m&m's Premiums Triple Chocolate candy - Alex & Aimran

Designer coaster - Rain

Ferrero Rocher & angbao - Geoffrey Low

graniph purple tee - Siew Ting & Swee Fuan

Watch - Belinda

Amazing Cube (time/alarm/date/temperature) - Cara

Keyboard cover - Nicholas Yong

McKal earphone - Yao Guang

Pop Urban case with Adidas body spray & hand sanitizer - Ginny, Joanne, Mel P, Zhen Hong

Nike water bottle with Handy Power mobile charger - Mabel & Kevin

Mickey designer cup - Abel, Regina & Rex

Jumbo Kungfu Lolly - Vivian

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon - Xiu Ru

Picard wallet - DMAT girls: Joyce, Meijun, Winnie, Tian Hwee, Lydia, Jasmine, Kaiwen, Yanxi

Hugo Boss "Energize" cologne - Cheryl, Xin Yi, Serene, Teck Hui

The Body Shop "Of a Man" Eau de Toilette - Hock Leng & Shawn

Buffalo David Bitton jeans - Gildon

Jazz charts - Michelle

*belated gift:

Nike water bottle - Kelly EB

Shot via webcam on 21 February 2009 at the combined birthday chalet of Wilson, Emily, and I @ Costa Sands (Downtown East). Featuring the Superstars from Singapore Polytechnic's first musical, "Superstar: the Pop Musical". Video courtesy of YQ.

24. MES Safety & Innovation Seminar @ Jurong Camp I - *yawns.

27. Camp unit's anniversary celebrations - Free movie ("Valkyrie") at West Mall, then banquet dinner at Civil Service Club (Bukit Batok)

March:

1. Zhen Hong's birthday celebration and games at VivoCity

6. Visited Career & Education 2009 Fair @ Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre. Also went in free to Wild Wild Wet (promotional voucher)!

7. Attended NOISE Singapore workshop: "Making Music Professionally" by Shirlyn Tan; followed by DMAT Alumni Reunion @ Singapore Polytechnic cum farewell for our lecturer Mr Jimmy Ye. Ended off the night with board games at Mind Cafe (Boat Quay) with diploma classmates.

13. Woon Han & Benji's joint 21st birthday chalet/BBQ at Costa Sands (Downtown East) - *nostalgia...

14. Crammed into the tin of human sardines at IT Show 2009.

19. Wild Wild Wet for FREE again! (yes, promotional vouchers from previous bookings of the adjacent Costa Sands chalet)

21. NOISE Workshop: "Getting Yourself Heard" by Daniel Ong Thereafter, went over to CDANS (Bukit Batok) for Kelly's 21st birthday BBQ. 24. "Live 'n' Loaded" filming @ MediaCorp Studios - role: audience calefare; task: get high and crazy for the camera! Thanks for the ticket, Lloyd!

27. Watched "Zuo Jun Violin Recital" at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

28. Attended "Breathe: Youth Speak", a health symposium at Singapore Management University, followed by a DMAT dinner gathering hosted by our lecturer Mr Jimmy Ye.

29. Angela's 21st birthday chalet/BBQ @ NSRCC

Stay tuned for the next recap: April-June 2009!

Manpower Management in National Service

2009-12-24T21:26:00.003+08:00

Sorry that I haven't updated - for a year. Life's been really packed this past year, and with a handy organizer that I use to track all my activities/events/appointments, I didn't feel the need to blog. This will be my first and second-last post of this year; will wrap up with a recap of the year soon.

The long babble about NATIONAL SERVICE: Well, it's been 1.5 years since I enlisted into mandatory National Service (NS), the bulk of which occurred this year. I felt quite "left behind" as my counterparts who went on the junior college track had already started on their degrees, leaving me, the polytechnic kid, behind still serving the nation. =.=" I received my "Out-of-Training" (OOT) status during my first week of Basic Military Training in Pulau Tekong due to my pending medical appointments. Subsequently, I was posted out and became first a storeman, then an armourer (small arms technician). My current role in camp is multi-faceted though, and thus not as dreadful and monotonous as before - I help out in many areas including administration, inventory, maintenance of weapons, projects, presentations, videos, and more.

I still remember I was extremely reluctant and negative towards NS during the first few months. It's not so much of a reluctance to serve, but more of a question of "Am I serving the nation to the best of my ability?" - which I would sordidly reply a "No" to. In fact, I had actually already passed the auditions and was waiting to enter the Music & Drama Company (MDC), which I did not get into because my PES (Physical Employment Status) was still "B" - simply meaning I was too medically fit to enter MDC (I had to be medically unfit - PES "C" or below). The manpower side apparently introduced this directive recently due to manpower shortage in many combat units; they didn't want combat-fit soldiers flooding in to dance and make music.

I found the manpower directive absolutely absurd and needless. It all boils down to the existing vocation system, which unfortunately posts a soldier based on manpower/organizational needs and his individual PES. There are many talented young soldiers around that can potentially contribute much more to the organization (and the nation), IF only they are placed in the "right place". One example: a soldier with an Aerospace Engineering diploma would expectedly fare much better in a relevant vocation like an aircraft technician (being already a "Subject Matter Expert") as compared to a medic, for instance. What is the point in "retraining" someone with a set of new skills if he can contribute much more effectively in his field of specialty (taking into account his current background and skill set)?

Professionalism is one of the SAF's core values - it's essential to continually strive to improve and set high standards, especially when the "client" at stake happens to be your NATION. Realistic and reasonable standards should, however, be expected of soldiers serving NS - for many of them, it's a whole new skill set they're picking up. In my case, us technicians are often expected to perform exceptionally well as "experts" - after just half a year or less of training. I wouldn't exactly term a soldier who has served NS for 2 years as an "expert" in his vocation - if that were the case, by the time I hit 50, wouldn't I already be an "expert" in around 20 areas?! Truth is, expertise takes INTEREST, DETERMINATION, and SACRIFICE to develop - heck, I've already spent SEVENTEEN YEARS (along with a diploma, and relevant certificates) in my field of expertise and I still consider myself a "semi-professional". No point forcing a cat to chew a bone. (??) (You get the gist?)

"Force-posting" someone to an irrelevant vocation, as is often the case currently, may even incur negative effects. Taking my peers in camp as a point in case, they are simply unmotivated and reluctantly carry out orders and work. Lethargic, "can't-be-bothered" attitudes abound, and work is tediously done with the expectations of rewards of time - either an early dismissal in the afternoon, or "offs" that can be cleared subsequently. Escapism (a.k.a. playing punk or "chao keng" in the Hokkien dialect) is an oft-used technique to get excused from events/work, appearing in various forms like RSO/MC (reporting sick outside - and thus getting a Medical Certificate) and MA (medical appointments - some of them have one appointment every FEW DAYS, so sick or feign sick?) Perhaps the popular adage sums it up best: "Act blur, live longer." Often, I have to take up the bulk of the responsibility and do the bulk of camp work (which shouldn't be the case just because I'm one of the most senior among my peers), while the rest hide in rooms or play their PSPs. Some of my peers hardly "appear" in camp (often on MC or MA); and even when they do - hardly do anything constructive - almost equaling their absence anyway. What then, is the need to have (on the surface) sufficient manpower strength, when only a fraction of them are working efficiently? If each individual had been thoughtfully posted to a relevant vocation in the first place, potential problems and negative attitudes could have been avoided. So much for striving to be a first-class organization.

For readers who agree/disagree with me, feel free to share your views with me personally; I'm open to getting more perspectives on the issue. Thanks for reading.

For auld lang syne...

2008-12-30T22:41:00.042+08:00

For auld lang syne, my jo, For auld lang syne, We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne.

I'm back to blogging these last two days of the year, after realizing that I've only blogged like 9 times this 2008 so far... Haven't blogged for at least half a year already!

I guess not many will read this (or even constantly read my blog at all) due to my frequent absence and laziness to blog. But for the few who are concerned or curious at all about what's been goin' on in my life thus far, I'll do a brief update here - you can always ask me more on MSN Messenger when you see me online (or rather, on "Busy" status, as I am almost perpetually)... alright, I'll bring you back in time to......

13 June 2008. I enlisted into Yankee Company of BMTC (Basic Military Training Centre) School One as my mandatory National Service (NS) began for me... besides my folks, my friends Lloyd and Leslie travelled with me by ferry to the offshore island of Pulau Tekong, the all-too-familiar place where most recruits spent their first few weeks of military life at. The whole enlistment process took just a few hours, and after bidding farewell, it was time for this recruit to start getting used to this "army" lifestyle... the shaving of hair, the discipline and consequences, and the regimentation of the drills and our turnout/bearing. It was tough initially while I tried to adjust my mindset and my body clock (waking up at 5.30AM was not part of my routine prior to this) to fit the demands of the system. Even if I was mentally prepared, I did not prepare myself physically/medically, resulting in some chest pains and shortness of breath during the initial physical exercises. A few days later, I was given "Attend B" (light duties), and eventually got my OOT ("Out-of-Training") status merely a week later. You see, the Medical Officer (MO) saw that I had several cardiac appointments coming up which would interfere with my regular training - so he went for the OOT. I wasn't really expecting the OOT - got slightly upset that I would have to recourse BMT again. Half a month later on 2 July, I was OoT again - this time, "Out of Tekong". Thus ending my rather short BMT (it was supposed to be 13 weeks, including the PTP - Physical Training Phase).

As for the rest of my military life so far - this past half a year (which vocation I'm in, which camp I'm in, how I feel about it, etc.) - I'm obliged NOT to blog anything about it here, unless I want the Military Security Department (MSD) to come down hot on my heels... you can ask me in private if you're curious. (There's still a limit to how much I can share with you even then - especially when it comes to sensitive information! Shhh!=)

Let's not go into all those mundane army talk... meanwhile, in my civilian life (or what's left of it in these 2 years)...

5 July - Happy Birthday to Naomi! With camp friends from TICE Eco Camp 2008 (see my previous blog posts about it)

26 July - Performed on the keyboard with a band at the 80th Anniversary Community Dinner (Roland Restaurant, Marine Parade) of The Assemblies of God of Singapore. Had the chance to play two solo pieces for Guest-of-Honour Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports. I'm still trying to get (any) photos that were taken of that night's performance.

9 August - Happy 43rd birthday Singapore! Part of the cast and crew of my polytechnic's drama production of J. B. Priestley's "An Inspector Calls" gathered at our producer/lecturer Wendy's place for a day of feasting, fun, fireworks, and friends! The view of the fireworks was especially good from her top-floor unit near the city - my camera didn't capture it that well, though...

23 August - Caught up with Song Hua (then sergeant-to-be) over dinner at Curry Favor/Moon River Cafe @ Stamford House. I had this Stuffed Mushroom Curry Katsu Combo ($18.90) with miso soup... not too bad but not the best I've eaten :P

24 August - The Grand Finals of Music Express (飞乐时空) 14, a Chinese song writing competition, were held at NTU's Nanyang Auditorium. Congratulations to songwriter/vocalist Jasmine Lim, whose song "Reila" won the "Best Arrangement Award" in the Finals! (She was also the vocalist for my song which entered the Finals.) The following photos are of the live interview during the show with my lyricist Yanxi and I, a segment of the programme booklet of us, and our performance band, respectively.

9 September - My army friend Shawn Poh's 22nd birthday - celebrated loyally by a bunch of guys mostly in No. 4 uniform at the Seoul Garden (Bugis) buffet restaurant! (Too bad we didn't take any photos though; most of us came direct from camp, so we couldn't bring a camera along.)

4 November - Barack Obama FTW (for the win)!

29 November - Accompanied several vocalists on the keyboard at Music for Hope 2008 - a charity performance @ The Heeren Shops. Performed 12 songs non-stop for an hour... this was after several months of weekly practice with the vocalists - you can view the videos of our rehearsals and the actual performance here.

5 December - "Get Naked" - my musical friend/polytechnic schoolmate Natasha's 21st birthday party at Grand Copthorne Hotel. There were friends, food and fun throughout the night... =D you can view what went on behind closed doors here and here. A must-see for the wannabe saboteur!

6 December - Met up with Song Hua and Vincent to visit Ben & Jerry's Chunk Fest. It turned out that the queues for free ice-cream were amazingly long, so we ended up having dinner at Billy Bombers @ The Cathay and then catching the movie "Cape No. 7" - I liked its simplistic yet deeply romantic soundtrack. Later, we managed to catch local premier a capella group "Vocaluptuous" at one of their Christmas gigs at Paragon. Go Simone!

7 December - Another TICE Eco Camp 2008 reunion outing - it was a pity that only Lloyd, Veronica and I could make it... we still enjoyed our "wanton mee" and desserts at Bugis, though. Lloyd and Veron had just come back from their holidays in Malaysia and we fervently discussed the finer points of travel - made me long to get out of Singapore so much (well, further that Pulau Tekong =.="), cos' I didn't step out of the country this 2008... and I'm not expecting to in 2009 too, because of NS (yes, I could take overseas leave, but there remain other uncertain factors to consider).

22 December - Caught the sold-out final show of "Another Crazy Christmas" by Dream Academy Playhouse @ Suntec Theatre. Many thanks to Natasha for her extra ticket! With a live band and lots of singing, spoofs, and parodies, the brightest stars of the Singapore theatre scene lighted up the night with an explosive alakazam! Local Broadway Beng Sebastian Tan crashed the Christmas party, performing his trademark Hokkien song, while Guest stars local premier a capella group "Vocaluptuous" performed a few of their popular numbers, to much cheer. Simone, the only female vocalist in the group, was my lecturer back in my polytechnic days; I worked with her on the sound design for our school's production of J. B. Priestley's "An Inspector Calls". "Vocaluptuous" has recently been gaining popularity in the local scene, with more appearances both on TV and radio, especially during this festive season.

27 December - Singapore Polytechnic's Superstar the Pop Musical 2nd Anniversary Reunion... I organized this informal event to provide an opportunity for the cast/crew/band of the musical to gather and catch up with one another once again... many thanks to all those who came, and for those who could not make it, many apologies for choosing this particular date too! =X will see y'all at the next one, yeah? See if you can spot my lecturer (and local singer-songwriter-lawyer) Mr Jimmy Ye in the photo below! He was the Artistic Director for the musical, and wrote its songs and story too... *Hint: he's in the most (only?) outstanding outfit!*

After the event ended at about 11pm, a group of us headed down to Tango's Restaurant & Wine Bar @ Holland Village to chill out and catch up with each other - amidst pizza, wedges and jokes!

Well, it's been a fairly enjoyable year, this 2008... I still feel that 2007 has been the best year of my life so far though. I think I'll do up my resolutions tomorrow... and on this final note...

Happy New Year! May 2009 be a fantastic year for you and your family, filled with opportunities & dreams come true! To my dear friends - take care and keep in touch! =) Cheers to all!

Off to Tekong!

2008-06-12T21:57:00.006+08:00

The top story in the local news for June 12, 2008, as quoted from ChannelNewsAsia.Com

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Ministry of Defence has declared a three-day time-out (12-14 June) on all physical and endurance training activities in the army, navy and air force.

This follows the deaths of two servicemen within two days.

20-year-old Officer Cadet (OCT) Clifton Lam Jia Hao, a pilot trainee with the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), died on Wednesday, one-and-a-half hours after he collapsed while he was undergoing jungle orientation training in Brunei.

A day earlier, 20-year-old army recruit Andrew Cheah Wei Siong died after he fainted while taking part in a two-kilometre walk training activity on Pulau Tekong.

Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean said the time-out will allow the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) to review and re-focus on training activities to ensure that proper procedures are in place before training resumes.

"While the SAF needs to carry out realistic training, this will be done without compromise to safety," added Mr Teo.

The minister also extended his condolences to the families of Mr Cheah and OCT Lam. "I am saddened by the loss of two young and precious sons of Singapore," Mr Teo said in a statement.

From Singapore Stories - My Daily Bread: Earlier this year, 40-year old Major Tan Yit Guan collapsed during a self-paced run and, in 2006, Lieutanent Lionel Lim, 24, encountered unspecified difficulties during training in a swimming pool and died soon after being evacuated to hospital. In 2005, 19-year old 3rd Sergeant Ivan Ong and 2nd Warrant Officer Teh Kok Lian, 39, both died after collapsing during runs, following 2nd Sergeant 25-year old Rajagopal Thirukumaran's and 20-year old Recruit Andrew Chew Heng Huat's similar deaths during training in 2003. In addition, we have four more similar cases between 2001 and 2002, and two cases of servicemen found unconscious and who died later, the first in 2002 and the other in 2006.

I'm really shocked by the news - this not being the first time such an incident has happened - especially taking into account the infamous commando head-dunking incident. And is it just mere coincidence that it's happening at a time when the June intake of recruits for Basic Military Training (Physical Training Phase) has just started? I, for one, am enlisting tomorrow (13 June) at 11.30am to BMTC School 1. MINDEF had better review their training policies, practices and intensity thoroughly for the safety of all the young innocent souls serving the country. As I enlist tomorrow, I carry along with me many mixed thoughts and feelings - my family and friends whom I'm gonna' miss (though it's merely 2 weeks, I'm looking at 2 years as a whole), and my mental preparation for the physically enduring regiment of army life. I'm glad I've completed almost all of what I've wanted to do before I enlist (I drew up a "Cage List", a pseudo-"Bucket List") - all my favourite food, all the people I wanted to meet, and all the tasks I had to complete before stepping into this new phase of life. I'm especially grateful to Song Hua, Kevin, Dominic, Brandon, Wilson, Prinsten, Timothy, Varun, and Luqman (all my seniors in the army) for their priceless advice, tips, and encouragement given to me - it really helped to prepare me mentally and "logistically". I'll miss all my friends out there (as well as my hair =P), but I promise I'll catch up with you all again soon alright! I know a few of you all will really miss me or feel worried for me - but I will take care of myself well, no worries! Meanwhile, I'm off now to continue packing... take care everyone and see you all again soon!

Love,

Edwin

Graduation 2008

2008-05-31T00:03:00.012+08:00

Singapore Polytechnic held its 46th Graduation Ceremony from 27-29 May 2008 at the Singapore Polytechnic Convention Centre. This video showcases the graduation of the pioneer batch of Diploma in Music & Audio Technology (DMAT) students during Session 6 on 28 May 2008.

Another phase in my life has ended, upon my graduation from Singapore Polytechnic (SP) with a Diploma in Music & Audio Technology (with Merit). Not to boast but just to for the record and to enlighten the curious ones, I received the Media Development Authority (MDA) Course Gold Medal for being the top student in the course (it came along with a cash prize of $400), as well as the DBS Bank Award ($1000).

These past 3 years have been the best of my life so far... my constant involvement in school events makes them all the more memorable... as a tribute to the days gone by, here's a photo recap of the major events of my polytechnic life...

Looking back on my polytechnic life, I'm especially grateful to all my lecturers, DMAT classmates (below) and SP schoolmates for all their help, care, and support they've showered upon me... thank you each and every one of you so much so brightening my day :)

My many memories include the numerous school talentimes in which I used to accompany my friends on the piano... especially frequently with my vocal ensemble Sensually Transmitted Music (below)...

The Artiste & Repertoire Challenge (ARC) 2006, in which my team, Six For Music (6FM), emerged as Champion in the tertiary category (winning the Best Music Business Award as well)...

Superstar: The Pop Musical (2006), SP's first musical, opened my life into the world of musicals - I'll always cherish the wonderful times I spent with the musical cast and crew...

The study tours I went on to Hong Kong (2006) and the United States (2007) gave me new insights on different cultures and fuelled my passion for travelling...

The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, a summer internship programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, USA (2007), saw me as "Audio Lead" in a team working on an experimental game for both the blind and sighted...

I was recently involved as Sound Designer in a stage adaptation of literary master J B Priestley's suicide mystery "An Inspector Calls", held to officially launch Singapore Polytechnic's brand new School of Communication, Arts and Social Sciences (CASS)...

Thought it would be fitting to end this post with some lyrics from the ever-popular graduation song, Graduation (Friends Forever) by Vitamin C: ~As we go on... we remember... all the times we... had together... and as our lives change... come whatever... we will still be... friends forever...~

May 2008: Gastronomic Gluttony!

2008-05-21T20:57:00.007+08:00

It's the 4th anniversary of my blog, and what better way to celebrate than by blogging about one of my favourite pastimes - eating! LOL - I think this is gonna be one of my longest posts ever - yet! :D Here's what I had this past month:

2 May. Met Song Hua, Bastian and friends at Ajitei (Takashimaya) - food was alright; I ordered some katsu chicken dish I forgot the name of. =.= Didn't take any photos as I didn't bring my camera along though. =X

4 May. Dinner at Swensens' (Suntec City) with Zhen Hong and Alan. I had a Sourdough 49ers Chicken ($11.90) and a complimentary scoop of lime sherbet (using a voucher I had gotten from visiting an open house by the School of Music & the Arts [SoMA]). The sourdough chicken buns were rather pathetically small, as you can see below; the small serving of fries didn't help. I mean - the dish was priced at $11.90, and certainly they could have been a bit more generous? =/ Well, at least the refreshing bowl of coleslaw served with juicy bits of pineapple helped to satisfy my appetite. You can do bettter, Swensens'!

Sourdough 49ers Chicken ($11.90)

5 May Had breakfast at McDonald's (Tampines Interchange) with Zhen Hong before heading to the gym. It was the largest breakfast I had for some time - Big Breakfast with milk and a Sausage McMuffin with Egg (thanks to the free add-on coupon)! Lunch later was at Swensens' (Plaza Singapura), because I wanted to use my 1-for-1 ice-cream voucher before it expired. =.= I had a Black Pepper Seafood Pasta ($9.80) and a Double Berry Sundae ($7.90). The pasta was spicy and good, although the pathetic servings of clams and crabstick didn't help very much (then again, what can I expect for $9.80?) The sundae was delightfully berry-ful; ice-cream being the niche product of Swensens'.

9-11 May TICE Eco Camp 2008: Had nasi lemak, beancurd (tau huey), and roti prata - all of which I blogged more about in my TICE Eco Camp post (see previous post).

16 May Had my favourite "Honeydew with Sago" dessert at Ah Chew Desserts @ Liang Seah Street, Bugis. It was a tad too watery for me; the honeydew wasn't really fresh, though the generous helping of sago compensated for its shortcomings.

17 May Steamboat dinner at Bugis with my diploma coursemates. You can view the photos at my Facebook album. For $17.90 nett per head (adult), the price was rather exorbitant, but the quality and optimal variety of food made up for it. There were also these "bonus cooked dishes" that the waitresses occasionally handed around to customers - our group got 3 of these, including a dish of fried man tou buns - small but thoughtful "nuggets" to entice customers to come again next time. It did help that the drinks (orange/grape cordial) were free flow too! For the 2 soup bases, we ordered 老母鸡汤 (herbal chicken soup) and 麻辣汤 "ma la" (a spicy soup) - which had lots of chilli oil and chilli padi in it - only for those able to tolerate its spicyness (see the photo below)! Side dishes we ordered included pig's offal organs, flower crab, prawns, and the customary chicken and pork. Dessert was agar-agar and slices of watermelon, which really helped to quench our thirsts.

The wide variety of food

Spicy "ma la" soup!

With my prized collection of food leftovers =.=

18 May Dinner @ Pete's Place, Grand Hyatt Singapore; courtesy of Singapore Polytechnic Principal Mr Tan Hang Cheong. Mr Tan gratefully treated the cast and (main) crew of the recent school drama production of "An Inspector Calls" (see previous post) to a hearty Italian dinner. What really exuded the Italian charm of Pete's Place was its homely ambience and the occasional 'live' demonstrations of "dough-throwing/flipping-in-the-air" by this amazingly talented chef (I don't know the correct technical term for it - but watch the amazing video below!)

These were among the dishes we had (appetisers/main course):

Selezione di insalate (customized salad) Capricciosa pizza (tomato, mozzarella, pork sausage, mushroom, artichokes, black olive and oregano)

My main course: Linguine alle vongole (Linguine with clams and herbs in white wine sauce) - coincidentally, the Principal had the same dish as me too. :) Celebrating the birthday of Mr Tan Hang Cheong, Principal of Singapore Polytechnic, with a scrumptious cake sponsored by the hotel You know you want a bite of the melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake - those "red berries" on top are actually not what they seem - they're filled with molten chocolate! The sound crew from Singapore Polytechnic (clockwise from top): Edwin (sound designer), Melissa (theme song vocalist) & Lydia (theme songwriter)

20 May Dinner at Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar @ Raffles City Shopping Centre with some of my DMAT (Diploma in Music & Audio Technology) coursemates. It's been a while since I saw some of them, though we'll all be seeing each other again soon at the upcoming Graduation Ceremony on 28 May! It was my first time at Shokudo, kind of a Marche-style Japanese restaurant, where cards are used to register food/beverage transactions, which are later paid for at cashiers before leaving - makes for a temptation to "swipe" (purchase/eat) more than one can afford though. The penalty for losing the card is SG$100!

The modern Japanese-style lighting/ambience/decor is conducive and refreshing, though the seating is rather cramped - some tables are located barely a chair's distance or so from another, and the walkway gets rather squeezy if human traffic gets high. Still, Shokudo has a super wide range of food to choose from that will leave the discerning gourmand spoilt for choice - teppanyaki, hot pot, meat skewers, udon, donburi, curry rice, fried rice, Japanese "yong tau foo", gyoza (dumplings), desserts, soups, salads - just to mention a few. According to a Sunday Times Life! article (10 February 2008), they have a whopping combined total of about 230 items in all the different stalls! The price, expectedly, is rather steep; the average side dish itself costs at least $3, while the main dishes start from around $6. Long queues predominate certain popular stalls, where you have to wait in line for some time or wait for your food for some time to get cooked - it's mostly prepared fresh. The quality/serving size of the food was above average, I felt (at least for the dishes I tried). Here's what I tried; not much of a dinner, due to the late lunch I had keeping me full... more photos at my Facebook album.

Tokyo-style clam chowder ($3.80) - It tasted very different from its Western counterpart - perhaps less creamy. :) It turned out to be my "main course" for the night.

Bacon and cheese omelette ($5.80) - I had a bit of this, which Jasmine generously shared with me.

Robatayaki (grilled) skewers: beef ($2.50) and scallops ($3.80) - It wasn't excellent for its price. I mean, look at the serving size and tell me if it deserves to be that expensive!

My bill chalked up to be $11.85 (not counting the omelette above), rather pricey for just 3 side dishes. It was a good experience mingling around with my soon-to-be ex-classmates though. :D See you all on Graduation Day!

And here's Shao Chong & Jwee Keat fooling around like they always did since Year 1. =P

26 May Swensens' was having a 1-for-1 Ice Cream Sundae offer from 26-30 May 2008 (courtesy of soshiok.com), so I went with Zhen Hong to the outlet at West Mall - I had a yummy-chocolatey-bananey-strawberry Coit Tower ($7.60). No photos though.

28 May Graduation Day! Wee Siong, Clef, Louis, Yuanjie, Boyuan, Peixia, Meijun and I went over to Ajisen Ramen @ Bugis for dinner after the graduation ceremony that evening. I ordered a set meal - Spicy Octopus Ramen (dry) with cold tofu, fried chicken, and iced lemon tea - $16.30 in all. It was all a tad too spicy for me, and the iced lemon tea was absurdly sweet (though I should be grateful it's not diluted).

31 May Went out for a "farewell dinner" with Song Hua before my army enlistment in 2 weeks - thanks for the treat Song Hua! :D We ate at Sketches Cafe in Bugis Junction, where they had this "Design-Your-Own Pasta" thing going on - and so we did! My pasta dish I created was a mixture of 3 types of pasta (ravioli + fettuccine + spaghetti) along with alfredo (cream and cheese) sauce, topped up with chicken, bacon bits, ham, carrots, pine nuts and, of course, more cheese. Song Hua had his pasta with garlic sauce. Our creations didn't taste too bad after all, contrary to our expectations.

To end May on a fitting note, we went off to catch the highly-anticipated movie "Sex and the City" after that. I ended up really enjoying the movie (peppered with hilarious moments at every corner), as well as its soundtrack - including Fergie's "Labels or Love", Jennifer Hudson's "All Dressed In Love", Duffy's "Mercy", and Mairi Campbell & Dave Francis's solemn rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" - the version that I like best so far - the melody just pierced through my heart (and got stuck in my head too). For those who haven't caught the movie, do catch it before it's too late! ;)

TICE Eco Camp 2008 (9-11 May 2008)

2008-05-19T19:18:00.017+08:00

Click on the title above to view my Facebook photo album of the camp!

The TICE Eco Camp, initiated by the Tertiary Institutions Council for the Environment (TICE) committee, is held annually. The advisory committee's ultimate goal is to reinforce environmental consciousness and a sense of responsibility amongst tertiary students. The purpose of the camp is to better equip our youth with environmental knowledge so that they will be more responsible leaders of tomorrow. This is the first time Singapore Management University (SMU) played host to this annual event, centered around 3 key values - "Reflect, Relearn & React". Participants were encouraged to elect pro-environmental choices through informative events (e.g. talks, visits to recycling plants) and experiential learning (through games, skits, etc). It is hoped that the camp can be a catalyst for environmental initiatives in tertiary institutes and our community. New-found friendships and camaraderie amongst the mixed tertiary groups and the planned embarkation on more green initiatives by the tertiary students certainly made the 3-day event an exciting, fruitful, and unforgettable one.

I first found out about this camp through a thread in the Youth.sg online forum. I was slightly hesitant over the fact that the camp was only open to "tertiary students", but I thought I might as well just try applying, since I was still by right a tertiary student (officially graduating on 28 May 2008). Moreover, the mention of the free meals and 2 nights' stay at the SMU hostel sounded really attractive. I was thinking that this would also be my last camp before I booked in to the REAL army camp =.=, so why not join the camp and enjoy a bit first, forge new inter-tertiary friendships, and learn more about saving the environment. :)

So there I was on Day 1 (9 May) at 9:00AM registering at the concourse below Li Ka Shing Library, SMU. I met the rest of my Singapore Polytechnic juniors, most of whom were from the Singapore Polytechnic Environmental Club (SPENV) - it was rather hard to introduce myself when they asked me which Year of study I was in - Year 4? (I had already finished formal lessons in January 2008 and will be graduating in end-May 2008) Shortly after, we split into our inter-tertiary teams for some ice-breaking games, including a fast-paced movement game dubbed "Sperm & Egg" and the traditional game of "Eagle Catch Chicks" (老鹰抓小鸡). My team, "Heart", consisted of a mix of university and polytechnic students, led by Jack, our facilitator from SMU majoring in Political Science.

Later, we moved to the Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium, where representatives from different organizations/companies and the Guest-of-Honour, Mr Howard Shaw, Executive Director (Secretariat) from the Singapore Environment Council arrived to witness the Opening Ceremony of the camp. Lim Nanli, the chairman of the camp's executive committee, and Mr Howard Shaw opened the camp with speeches encouraging the students to take up an active role in the "green effort" to conserve the environment. A lunch buffet followed; most of us used reusable cutlery, plates, and cups that we had brought along, in a bid to reduce the "disposable" wastage. We were later allocated to our rooms at the nearby SMU Residences @ Prinsep Street - mine was Block 85, #04-06, Bed B. The hostel was new and welcoming, a refreshing escape from the hustle and bustle of the city nearby. Next to it was the spanking new La Salle College of the Arts campus. I just felt rather uneasy that I was sharing my room with a Mainland Chinese student - in terms of privacy and security of my valuables - thankfully, nothing happened (yeah, maybe I was paranoid). Here's where I slept for 2 nights:

After bumping in and settling down in our would-be home for 2 nights, we split into different groups to visit various places of environmental interest: incineration plants, metal/plastic/tyre recycling plants, and the like. I was due to visit the Tuas South Incineration Plant, the latest and largest one built in Singapore. Besides the overwhelming stench of refuse, the visit was really enriching (finding out what happened to my rubbish) - you can view the photos I took, or simply watch the short video below.

Later that evening, I excused myself from the camp a couple of hours to attend a school event - here's where I digress a bit. If you don't already know, the site on which Singapore Polytechnic (SP) is currently located (in the Dover area) used to contain British colonial buildings - army barracks and the like - that were converted for educational purposes after World War II. Moberly, named after Major-General Richard James Moberly, was one of three main buildings on the PMB that were named after Colonel Commandants of the British Royal Signal Corps. For twenty years, Moberly was home to British regulars and local soldiers. Retaining the colonial façade of the old Moberly building, the refurbished Student Hub@Moberly now holds facilities such as music jamming, computer gaming and karaoke rooms, pool and foosball tables, a student lounge, massage chairs and even a museum exhibit of SP's artefacts. In celebration of the official opening of Moberly, the Department of Student & Alumni Affairs (SAA) went all out to re-create the atmosphere of SP as it was 50 years ago. Student Hub@Moberly officially opened on 9 May 2008 with a big bang, officiated by the Guest-of-Honour, HE Paul Madden, the British High Commissioner to Singapore. Invited guests, staff and students were treated to an outdoor party with a '50s-themed buffet spread, entertainment by the student clubs and of course, tours of our grande olde dame, Moberly. British and Malayan soldiers who worked and lived in Moberly returned to what they knew as Princess Mary Barracks. For me, Moberly contains many fond memories of the times I spent there from way back in 2006, with the cast of Superstar: The Pop Musical, during our musical training camp there. We spent many days practising and many nights asleep in the dance studio and the karaoke and music jamming rooms. Singing, dancing, and acting lessons went on despite much of Moberly still undergoing redevelopment then.

After a hearty buffet spread of food and mingling around with student friends (from Superstar: The Pop Musical and elsewhere) and staff/lecturers (Wendy Ng, Jimmy Ye, Erica Wong, Michael Spicer, Anna Neo, Vicky Quek, Hope Lee), it was time to head back to the camp. When I arrived at the SMU campus, the team was already hard at work planning for the skit presentation the next night. A few rumbling tummies later, we headed for dinner/supper (dinper?) at the famous Fong Seng Nasi Lemak shop nearby. I wasn't really hungry but I ordered anyway - and was shocked to find out that I had ordered $5 worth of food! Further enquiry found out that the palm-sized piece of saucy chicken cutlet I had ordered cost me $2.50! Along with the other 2 sides of fishcake and vegetables, I had emerged $5 poorer. The food was nice though. :) After that, the team was "on" (enthusiastic) enough to head to the famous "Rochor Beancurd" outlet nearby for dessert - hot/cold "tau huey" (soya beancurd). Students living in the hostel were so fortunate to be surrounded by these and so many other nice eating outlets - well, they were after all living near the heart of the city! I came back to my room, finding out that my roommate was already fast asleep, so I followed suit. What a day. =D

Day 2. After breakfast, we went for an inspirational talk by guest speaker Ms November Tan Peng Ting. Currently a Geography honours student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), she has previously won the HSBC National Youth Achievement Award (Environment) 2006 for her initiatives and participation in various programmes such as the NUS Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, Toddycats, Hopea Sangal Education Program and many others. Ms Tan had also received the NUS Student Achievement Award in 2006. A striking statement she made during the talk was regarding her intention of switching the lights off for a period of time every day for a year, to save electricity and thus Mother Earth - which would be the "equivalent of 365 people doing it in a day". The following activity was dubbed "Green Mission", kind of like an Amazing "Green" Race. We were given clues to various locations (SMU campus, the Esplanade, Fort Canning, Plaza Singapura, etc.) and then had to complete a "green" activity at each station. The station challenge at Plaza Singapura proved easier said than done: "Find and take photos with 2 Carrefour customers using reusable shopping bags." Here's Kelly and I with two - Caucasian - customers. (We couldn't find any local "green" shoppers in time; I guess recycling/reusing is stronger in the culture of Westerners.)

My team didn't win the "Green Mission" challenge, but we enjoyed the experience thoroughly. Later in the evening, we presented our group's skit about how CFCs depleted the ozone layer, which was previously more successful in limiting harmful ultra-violet (UV) rays from entering the Earth. Excessive UV radiation leads to skin cancer for a sunbather, who, upon consulting the doctor, finds out about the effects and consequences of ozone layer depletion. Too bad I don't have any photos or videos of the skit for posterity, but it was damn hilarious all right! =D Supper for tonight was with my Singapore Polytechnic counterparts at a prata shop nearby, and, you guessed it - "Rochor Beancurd" again - you can never have enough of it! We then headed back to the hostel where we discussed (until 3.30AM at least) about our school's "Green Vision" plan, to be presented the next morning!

Supper with my Singapore Polytechnic counterparts

Day 3. The Green Vision is a competition that seeks to find the best green projects amongst our participants and reward them with seed money (sponsored by DuPont Singapore Pte Ltd) to realize their plans. Participants will be grouped according to their institutions to brainstorm and plan their projects. Thereafter, they will present their plans to a panel of judges. My team finalized our proposal in the morning for a "GreenCard" that could possibly be incorporated with the existing NTUC LinkPoints card, to keep track of "green points" that can be accumulated through "green" purchases and transactions. Unexpectedly, a team from NUS and our team from Singapore Polytechnic won the DuPont seed funding of US$1,500 (per team)! Three cheers for Singapore Polytechnic!!!

After that, it was prize presentation (for the winning teams - not Team "Heart" though) and mass photo-taking, before it was time to bid farewell to everyone. =( I really missed Team "Heart", my family for 3 days - it really helped that we were all tertiary students and so could relate easily to one another. In the words of my fellow team-mate from Temasek Polytechnic, Lloyd, "We met as strangers, but left as friends." But it's not the end yet! Team "Heart" is so enthusiastic that we still kept in touch after the camp, even meeting together to play board games at Settlers' Cafe (Central) a week later!

Up next is a barbeque gathering at East Coast Park (planned for 8 June, 5 days before I enlist into the army). What can I say, besides what we always say... I "heart" you people!!!!! =)

Loving Team "Heart", niwdehot

"An Inspector Calls"

2008-05-13T18:27:00.008+08:00

A school play in which I was involved in as Sound Designer...

Here's a brief write-up about it: Singapore Polytechnic officially launched its brand new School of Communication, Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) with 2 evenings of drama and charity on 22 & 23 April 2008 at the Jubilee Hall (Raffles Hotel). CASS is the first in Asia to offer applied drama as a course of study. It introduced the full-time Applied Drama and Psychology (DADP) diploma course this year. The school also offers the Media and Communication (DMC) full-time diploma course. To celebrate the launch of the new school, a group of Drama Appreciation students took to the stage with literary master J B Priestley's suicide mystery "An Inspector Calls". The story revolves around the Rai family and the unfolding revelations following a police inspector's incessant interrogation into a suicide case. Almost 400 guests turned up at Jubilee Hall to take in the students' first public appearance, including President S R Nathan as the Guest-of-Honour. It was said that local celebrities Dick Lee and Kit Chan were present at the event too, though I didn't see them myself.

Time for my reflections... overall, I've really enjoyed working on the sound design and theme song (along with my classmate Lydia Ang) for the play. Over the past two months, having the company of the "An Inspector Calls" (AIC) cast and crew along with my wonderful lecturers (Director) Simone Khoo and (Producer) Wendy Ng made progress on the sound design a lighter burden to carry. Though the sound design at many points was tedious, with many single sound cues being rejected numerous times, the friendship and patience of those mentioned above encouraged and spurred me on to achieve the most suitable and creative sounds I could come up with. A major problem was the coordinated synchronization of the sound cues with the live action - either the sound cues had to follow the timing of the actors or vice versa. A compromise was eventually reached as I took note of the timings of more-or-less constant, stable scenes (with regards to timing) and the actors followed the sound cues of the rest. The zesty humour of the cast in particular added spice to my otherwise dreary days spent mostly working on the sound design. Being the very first time I did sound design for theatre, I am very grateful to Simone and Wendy for their confidence in allowing me to handle the sound design (instead of hiring a professional one). The show itself was a definite success, with almost a full house on both nights and standing ovations. The Principal of Singapore Polytechnic kindly went around thanking the cast and crew personally for their hard work, and conveyed to me the President's comment that the sound cues were brilliantly spot-on and really enhanced the play. In a follow-up letter to the Principal, the President even compared the show to a "West End hit"! Indeed, fond memories of the times I spent on this play will stay - much of its dialogue is still stuck in my head until now (having been present at their rehearsals countless times)!

AIC photo album on Facebook | AIC Behind the Scenes video | AIC Speed Run (Part 1) video | AIC Speed Run (Part 2) video

April 2008 update - 1 month to NS!

2008-05-13T15:20:00.012+08:00

I know it's quite late already for an April 2008 update, but there's just been so much going on in my life - which equates to an enormous amount of blogging to be done (if I were to blog about every single thing, which I fortunately don't). I have exactly 1 month of freedom left from today, before I enter National Service (Physical Training Phase). Sadded. Well, here's briefly what I got involved in, in April...

4 Apr. Singapore Polytechnic Theatre Compass chalet at Aloha Changi Biggin Hill Bungalow A - a secluded respite from the hustle and bustle of urban city life! My diploma course junior Melissa and I were invited to the barbeque by our lovely lecturer Wendy Ng, who wanted to thank us for our involvement in the various past projects of Theatre Compass. May I highlight the wonderful honey-BBQed chicken wings that night! Absolutely sedap (delicious)! Later that night, Theo (our vocal coach Michelle's husband) brought 12 of us daring kids for a tour of the nearby (haunted?) Old Changi Hospital. It didn't help very much that our group consisted of 13 members and the date was 4/4/08. =.= Some of the odd things that happened over there: 1. Theo detected some "cold spots" in certain rooms of the old hospital and decided not to bring us into them - it was really spooky as his video camera's battery level lowered significantly every time he brought it past the "cold spots". / 2. We were trudging along a walkway on one of the higher levels of the building when we all heard the eerie sound of a distant choir of kids singing - it sounded as if it was from one of the lower levels - goosebumps! / 3. Theo himself claims he has a "third eye" and can see spirits, he himself having died in a motor accident and then minutes later brought to life again. He mentioned seeing a woman in a white gown at the end of one corridor (many people died at the hospital during World War II). / 4. Things got really spooky when not just one, but two members of our group did a role-count halfway through the tour - both admitted having counted 16 people instead - double coincidence or three more guests to our entourage? / We eventually met another group of student "ghost-hunters" but decided to continue with our own course of exploration. Later in the wee hours of the morning, on the way down the hill to the main road outside, we met several cars of (apparently) police officials going up the hill - perhaps doing a routine check of the area for illegal immigrants/activities, or maybe having some clandestine meeting? Whatever it was, they stopped and asked us what we were doing, and smirked at our view that the place was haunted. As for me, I do believe in ghosts and spirits, and the notion that they are just as afraid of us as we are of them. That's why I chose not to be afraid but instead showed respect for the place and whoever inhabited it - nothing significant happened to me, besides an increased heartbeat and the goosebumps. Tired out as we reached home (chalet), I caught a few hours of nap before heading home to prepare for the next day's hectic event...

5 Apr. Gig: Launch of the ARK (Acts of Random Kindness) Card @ Junction 8, organized by Temasek Junior College as part of the Singapore Kindness Week. Cards were handed out to members of the public in a bid to promote a spirit of awareness to the less fortunate around us. I accompanied several of my polytechnic musical friends (Esther, Melissa, Wee Kiat, and Syed) on the keyboard; we performed "Close To You", "If You Can See Through My Eyes" (an inspiring number from our polytechnic's 'Superstar: The Pop Musical' that we were all involved in), and "I Will Survive". You can listen to a 'live' rehearsal recording of the songs here. The guest star for the event was Paul Twohill (finally got to see him 'live', though I did catch him briefly at another event at the National Museum - not that I'm a fan of him).

11 Apr. I attended a Navy Careers talk at the SAF Careers Centre @ Depot Road - for a free Eng Wah movie voucher and a delightful, exaggerated (may I add government-sponsored) buffet spread. After the event, I had already boarded a bus back to Redhill MRT Station and was thinking why the bus's EZ-Link reader did not beep when I got on the bus (not that the bus driver noticed, as the bus was crowded). That's when I realised that my EZ-Link card was MISSING! I immediately got off the bus at the next stop and trudged back thinking whether the staff at the visitor registration counter had passed me my EZ-Link card when I returned the visitor pass and locker key (for my camera handphone). He apparently HAD NOT, even denying my claims at first that I did indeed return everything I was supposed to at the counter minutes before. It was only after verifying my identity and searching through their collections that they found my EZ-Link card, left behind in their drawer. Good service indeed. *smirks* They didn't even bother to apologise after returning me my card, as if it was my fault.

12 Apr. In the afternoon, I went for Channel U's SuperBand auditions @ Toa Payoh HDB Hub with a band I had just met recently over the local SOFT.SG music forum. The live crowd of hundreds of people and fans made the atmosphere lively even though it was raining. I even happened to meet Yuan Jie, Ryu, and Arif, my diploma coursemates who were helping out in the event as sound crew/stagehands. It was finally our band's turn to perform, in front of the cameras and the crowd, though we didn't pull our audition song (够爱 by 东城卫 & a Chord) off as good as we had hoped. The judges commented that our delivery/arrangement of the song could have been more creative, and that the lead vocalist had to watch out for his high notes. We didn't get through, but it was a good experience :) Here's a group photo of our band, 疯林岳:

Later that night, I met up with Song Hua at Changi Airport's Terminal 1 to welcome Bastian and the rest of my course juniors (Cheryl, Ginny, and Joanne) back from their overseas internship in China - coincidentally, they had taken a transfer flight back through Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific flight CX711 - the very same flight I had took during a school study tour to Hong Kong in 2006. It was good to see them back again after 9 weeks. Song Hua and I then caught "The Bucket List" at Golden Village (Tampines Mall), a movie about 2 cancer-stricken patients coming up with a list of things they wanted to do before they "kicked the bucket". The touching movie (and film score) reminded me of how precious time was, encouraging me to spur on even in the face of difficulty. Which reminds me of my favourite quote: "Measure life not by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away." - a maxim which I follow in my daily life, treasuring every fleeting moment of it.

15 Apr. Had an interview at Mastereign Academy for a freelance music teacher job. It went better than I expected, as they were impressed by my CV and performance experience, the only thing holding me back being my 2-year National Service commitment. Still, they've got me registered on their freelance teacher list, and I hope I can have a chance of working with them soon - perhaps in 2 years' time.

18 Apr. Met my diploma coursemates Peixia, Meijun, Clef, Yuan Jie, Boyuan, and Louis to collect our graduation gowns for the upcoming Graduation Ceremony. The appointed supplier, Serangoon Broadway, was thankfully a short walk from the nearby Potong Pasir MRT Station. The rental fee for the gown was $76.75 (including a $50 deposit), tearing holes in our pockets. The staff there even relentlessly tried to persuade us to purchase "graduation portrait packages" at 20% off the usual price - still beyond what most of us could afford, they ranged from $110 for an individual 8R shot to a whopping $2080 for a family 60R shot. Whoopi(Goldberg)! Of course, none of us got "conned" to take such a pricey shot just for a (measly?) diploma. We then went for dinner at Ajisen Ramen (Plaza Singapura), where I ordered a set of Crayfish Ramen with Baby Octopus and Iced Lemon Tea (total of $16.30). More holes in my pocket (I'm waiting for the return of my $50 deposit when I return the gown after the graduation ceremony).

19 Apr. Had lunch at Breeks (Marina Square) with some Theatre Compass friends (Kamesh, Nuraini, Sabrina, Feroz, Hamidi) and Wee Kiat. I ordered a Seafood Aglio Olio, a Brownie with Warm Cheese Sauce, and Lemon Tea. We all also shared a Mixed Safari Platter (with buffalo wings, waffle fries, etc). Total price for me: $15.

22-23 Apr. "An Inspector Calls" - a school play in which I was involved in as sound designer. Look out for my next post about it!

25 Apr. Lollipop! Party @ Ministry of Sound (MOS), a back-to-school party organized by Singapore Polytechnic's OOPS! Magazine. The cast and crew of "An Inspector Calls" (AIC) were on the priority queue, so we didn't need to queue at all to enter the venue, unlike the hundreds of eager student clubbers outside waiting for their free entry (with their Singapore Polytechnic admission card) into the venue. Many of them did not manage to enter as the club was already full! Lucky for us AIC people, we not only got in quickly but also had a VIP buffet area, along with a free drink coupon, catered exclusively for us (and the other VIP guests, including our avid supporter, the Principal of Singapore Polytechnic, Mr Tan Hang Cheong). Sad that the party lasted only till 9pm, as the MOS staff had to clear the place to re-open to the public at 10pm. Spot me in the photo below!

29 Apr. Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day! The worldwide event saw snaking long queues for a free cone of ice-cream. I went to White Sands Shopping Centre @ Pasir Ris, hoping for a free cone too, but decided against it, as the queues there numbered hundreds of people - mostly school children who had finished their lessons! The lengths of time people sacrifice for a free ice-cream cone - I guess I'd rather buy it (at its exorbitant price) myself. It currently costs about $12+ for a pint of it here; I got it at US$4 over in Boston! I could have gotten 2 pints there for the price of 1 pint here. Thankfully, I had already savoured quite a few pints of it over in Boston last year during my 9-week internship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (see one of my previous posts for more information). =)

March 2008 update

2008-04-14T17:57:00.016+08:00

Well, my previous post was lengthy because February was such a busy month! March - was not so.

Mar 1. Went for a play, "Walking Into Doors", performed by the NUS (National University of Singapore) Theatre Studies Society at OldSchool, Mount Sophia. The small space of the room the play was held in gave an intimate feel, which allowed the actors/actresses to relate to the audience with incredible talent and expression.

Mar 2. Visited Popular Bookshop's sale at Singapore Expo Hall 6B. Got quite a few bargains.

Mar 7. Watched Jay Chou's movie, "Secret". The music touched me more than the storyline did. It probably goes the same for another musician - we don't just see movies the way people usually do; we listen to them too.

Mar 8. Went for School of Music + the Arts (SoMA) Open House 2008. I was intentionally there to catch their Career Talk, which featured Babes Conde, the internationally-renowned vocal coach and singer/songwriter/composer/pianist. Having worked with her in a past musical as part of an incidental music band, I was enlightened by her stories and advice that she gave to everyone: to go all out for music, always trying again despite failure. Words of wisdom from a seasoned professional.

Mar 13. I had signed up for Ossia Music School's "Jazz Meets Classical" free talk, in the hope of learning something new - it was some time since I went for any formal music talk. So there I was that morning at the Woodlands Civic Centre, slightly late. The moment I opened the door to the room the talk was held in, my jaw nearly dropped when I saw the instructor speaking to mostly parents with their kids. Was I kidding myself - what kid had I to bring in? And I thought the talk had been for professionals, or at least, young adults. Embarassment aside, the talk was rather delightful, emphasizing the need for an "internal body sense" of rhythm that should be inculcated from a young age (I had been to Yamaha Music School when I was young). The instructor also demonstrated how closely related classical and jazz music were, with live examples on the piano. He even invited a few kids up to the piano to try to improvise in a "call and response" fashion; he would play a simple musical motif, and the child would attempt to "answer" back with another. I fondly recall doing this often when I was young(er) - I'm still young okay! :P

Mar 14-22. I fell SICK. Mild cold I think - I didn't see a doctor - just self-medicated myself and drank lots of water. Things got worse when my computer went down (fell sick too I guess) on March 17, though it was gradually repaired and restored to full health over the next week or so.

Mar 24. Met Tze Lip, my fellow buddy from our school's first musical (Superstar: The Pop Musical - see one of my previous posts) for dinner at Pizza Hut in Tampines Mall. I hadn't met him for quite some time since he shifted to his new place at Tampines East (I'm at Tampines West). Later, he came over to my place and had an enjoyable time singing as I accompanied him on the keyboard.

Mar 28. Went for another open house. This time it was that of the new GAMBIT Singapore Lab at The Adelphi. I had been involved in a summer internship program (Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, USA, in the summer of 2007 (again, see one of my previous posts for more detail), and now they had established a Singapore branch of the program. I met new and familiar faces, and we had a dinner of pizza and snacks over conversations of our current projects and future intentions. It was good to see them after so long.

Mar 29. Earth Hour from 8-9pm! People around the world were encouraged to switch off their lights for an hour to help save the Earth! Song Hua and I had dinner at Olio (Suntec City), expecting the lights to go off around that time. Apparently, only some lights at the taller office buildings were switched off. Well, dinner that night was awesome! Here's what we had:

Olio Teriyaki Tofu Burger $11.90

Mixed Sausage Combo $13.90

Devil's Chocolate Cake $5.50

Olio Style Brownie $7.50

OMG a brownie served on a hot plate! How cool is that - hot on the outside and cool on the inside (there's ice-cream to go!) Check out the bubbling brownie in the video below:

Well, it was a great way to end off the night with such lovely dessert. Rating: 2 smiles!! =P

By the way, if you were wondering how I can be so anal (read "precise") in my dates for my previous post and this, it's because I keep track of every event in my organizer (can't imagine my life without it - it's like my brain, sorting out every nuance of information that flickers through my mind). Till next time!

February 2008 update

2008-04-14T16:19:00.016+08:00

Yes, I know it's a bit late for a February update when it's already April now. I haven't had the time to blog these few months because of certain events/projects taking up my time... I'll briefly go into them here...

Feb 2. After getting my hair cut, Song Hua and I went for this hilarious musical, "Chesty Nutty Bang Bang: The Hairspray of the Phoenix", at the National Library's Drama Centre. As seen on their event flyer, "Welcome the lunar new year with this hamper-full of spoof songs, parody sketches and moments of sheer comic ecstasy! All accompanied by the irreverent musical genius of Bang Wenfu!!" We laughed so hard at their unique brand of shameless movie spoofs - from 881 to Hairspray, from High School Musical 2 to Hostel, from Transformers to The Queen! They even had rapid-fire parodies of TV ads, government rap songs, and drunk driving scandals! Freakin' hilarious! :D Oh yea, I managed to find Wenfu (a famous local arranger) on Facebook too, and I've added him as a friend. LOL, hope to have the opportunity to be mentored by him at some point in the future.

Feb 3. Played games @ Settlers' Cafe (Central) with Cheryl, Joanne and Yaoguang, my juniors who went on the SMIT Study Tour to US as well (see my earlier post about the tour). Much like Pit Stop Cafe, Settlers' Cafe has so many games you can't find in the market; some of which are specially imported from overseas! And the rates at Settlers' Cafe are really reasonable, going per table per hour; the more people play, the less it costs everyone.

Feb 7-8. Chinese New Year! A trend was observed of gradually decreasing "ang bao" (red packet) collection, against rising inflation. The collected sum was still triple-digit though. GONG HEI FAT CHOY!

Feb 11. Went for my National Service (NS) medical check-up at the Central Manpower Base (CMPB) at Depot Road. Pending my blood test report and my rapid pulse of my heart, I was given a provisional PES (Physical Employment Status) D and was told to come back again on February 26.

Feb 12. Back to the wild! After a hearty Subway lunch, my diploma course classmates and I went cycling at Pulau Ubin. Peixia hurt her knee when she fell from her bike while going down a steep slope, but it was fortunately just a minor abrasion. As the auburn evening sky darkened, we chatted over dinner at the famous hawker centre in Changi Village, renowned for its traditional yet delicious food. Then it was home sweet home. :)

Feb 14-16. Took a Standard First Aid course at Emergencies First Aid & Rescue with Cheryl. It was sponsored by our school Singapore Polytechnic, so we didn't have to pay a cent. The usual price's $115/$75 for students, by the way. :O We learnt about CPR, bandaging, treating burns, and more. After a final practical and theory test on the final day, we were awarded a 3-year certification in Standard First Aid (certificate and card).

Feb 16. After many days of "pleading" by Bastian, the organizer of my school's Annual Dinner & Dance 2008, I finally relented and attended the event. The theme was "Very Vintage", and the place was Meritus Mandarin Hotel. The food was not too bad; and I got to meet some familiar old faces there. :)

Feb 18. The "LONG-DREADED" day on which I officially lost my teenagehood status. The original plan to celebrate my 20th birthday with a steamboat dinner at Marina South had to be changed because the entire area had turned into a "ghost town", the shops having been closed/relocated, and I would expect, to be demolished as well. This was due to the construction of the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort nearby. It was a melancholic moment as I contrasted all the steamboat dinners, bowling games, and kite-flying that I had had there in the past, with the upcoming integrated resort that promised a new experience. It wouldn't be the same; that old feeling of eating your hearts out, with an open field and the city skyline in the distance. We headed over to Pasta de Waraku (a Japanese casual dining restaurant) at Marina Square after some deliberation, and ended the day off with two games of bowling. I don't wanna turn 20! I still look young and I want to stay young too, okay!

Feb 20-21. Performed for Punggol Cove & Periwinkle RC's (Residents' Committee) Chinese New Year Dinner at Orientus Resort Singapore, a new holiday resort located, of all places, inside the Seletar East Camp. =.=" With my keyboard, I accompanied my friend Nic, who sang and played the guitar. After that, Nic kindly gave me a lift to my class chalet at Aloha Loyang (since it was on his way), where I arrived, fatigued after performing, past midnight. We had a BBQ on the second night (February 21), and after a series of adrenaline-driven games, we walked over to the garden maze and playground at the nearby Pasir Ris Park. The next morning, half of us were half-dead, as we checked out of the chalet.

Feb 23. My good friend Song Hua brought me out for my birthday dinner at Indochine Nude Restaurant in Wisma Atria. The soft, cozy ambience of the restaurant attracted us to it. The food, though pricey, was thoroughly delicious - the chocolate brownie with ice-cream dessert at the end being the star to wrap up the night. Thanks for the dinner Song Hua! ;)

Feb 26. Went back in the morning for my NS medical check-up, and I was given PES B (fit for most vocations). Oh well - I'm still aiming to try for the Music & Drama Company (MDC) though - it's the only thing I know how to do!

Feb 27. Received my final semestral results through e-mail. I was neither shocked nor disappointed; I kind of expected my results to tally with the effort I had put in for each module. Here they are: Cumulative final GPA: 3.866, semestral results: 3 'A's, 2 'Distinctions', 1 'B+', 1 'B'.

Feb 28. I finally read Charlotte's Web, that best-selling children's book about a spider that saves the life of a pig. I turned into a child again as I flipped and pored over the yellowed pages of this classic.

Feb 29. February 29 of the leap year 2008! No, I didn't catch The Leap Years though, but Kungfu Dunk instead (my brother had passed me a complimentary ticket for it). After the movie, I went over to witness the opening ceremony of my school's BIRTH Graduation Show at VivoCity, where soon-to-be graduates of the Diplomas in Creative Media Design and Interior Design stole the limelight with a runway show, amidst an exhibition of their works.

I'm back!

2008-02-09T23:36:00.000+08:00

I'm back! After a 5-month hiatus from blogging, I thought I'd update you guys again on what's happening. Hmm... looking back on 2007... it's been a really wonderful year... one of the best years in my life so far. Even in 2008 now, I'm reminiscing all the good times I had back in 2007 - wonderful travels (twice to the USA for an attachment and a study tour) and all the wonderful people around me. Well, I guess it was the heyday of my youth (my last teenage year being 19 in 2007). I'm turning 20 soon - but I still look much younger right? :D

So it was getting back to school life after my study tour to the States (see my previous post). And it was one heck of a final semester, having to rush assignments and final year projects and whatnot. Everything seemed as if it was surging beyond my threshold limit of control - tight deadlines, high expectations, severe lack of sleep (my record was 36 hours - and there was a week I didn't sleep for 2 nights!). And I was counting down to the end of DMAT on my MSN Messenger's display name. As always, the day soon came - and the values of freedom, euphoria and justice dominated. :) Well, I was so weary from everything I yearned to hibernate.

And here I am now, an unofficial diploma graduate. The graduation ceremony's not till later in the year. Meanwhile, the government beckons us male graduates to serve the country for 2 years. 2 FREAKING YEARS. Imagine the amount of work/studies one could have completed within that period of time. Talk about women "catching up" with men on the career ladder. Hmm... my medical check-up's in a few days' time, and I guess I'll know when I enlist soon after. Meanwhile, I'm reading up about music (theory, performance, analysis, etc.) to brush up and consolidate what I've learnt in my 3-year diploma. And I might get some part-time work. Depending on when I enlist. It's freedom for the girls now (unless they're getting a degree overseas) while the guys are held back (ritenuto!) for 2 years.

The Lunar New Year of the Rat has arrived recently, and it seems to be rather downbeat this year, with the possible US recession looming, oil prices soaring, and the US sub-prime mortgage crisis (or whatever it is, I don't bother understanding). Red packet collection decreased amid fears of a worsening economy. Still, they're increasing the pay of the "top guns", using excuses such as "retaining talent" to justify their actions. All those $$$ could be better used to help the poor and unemployed - over and above the $150 million Workfare Package payment thing.

By the way, I've created a portfolio website to showcase my musical works... it's at http://www.freewebs.com/niwdehot. Go check it out if you haven't - and if you would kindly leave a message on my guestbook, I'd really appreciate it. That's all I have for now. May 2008 be a wonderful year for everyone! :]

Addition on 11 February: Here's something I found online...

Imagine this: your son is 18. He goes to army and "kena" screwed by CCB (Hokkien vulgarity) regular for 2 years. A foreign 18-year-old gets a scholarship and enjoys free education. As your son completes NS, you work more to pay for his university fees, which keep rising. By the time your son completes his education, the foreigner will be 2 years ahead of him. Once or twice every year, you son goes for reservist. The foreigner sits in the office, "kio ka" (Hokkien - "relaxing legs"). When the war comes, the foreigner says "goodbye, I'm going home". Your son is sent to the war to die. Welcome to Singapore.

Really true right! Oh man. On goes the debate...

Reflections: SMIT US West Coast Study Tour

2007-09-14T16:01:00.000+08:00

Selected photos of the trip @ my Friendster profile

03-12 September 2007 ~ San Francisco/San Jose/Los Angeles

"Seen Hollywood; the sunsets in LA" goes a phrase in Singapore's recent National Day Parade 2007 theme song, "There's No Place I'd Rather Be". For me, it's "been there, done that".

If I could find a single word to describe this trip, it would be "indescribable". The trip was so much more than just a study tour - it was a cultural exchange, a foreign insight, and a holiday all rolled into one. Having been in the States 9 weeks shortly before this trip (on the East Coast in Boston, MA however, for a summer program @ MIT), it made me miss the States even more after this brief one week on the West Coast in sunny California. Moreover, the friendships we forged among us and the good times we had together will forever - I believe - be etched as dear memories in our hearts.

3 Sep. I henceforth begin my chronological breakdown of the trip. We landed in San Francisco and had a Chinese dinner at a restaurant before checking in at Courtyard Marriott (Oyster Point) Hotel. No one really ate much due as we were weary after the long flight from Singapore (transiting in Taipei). Like our tour guide Louie had warned us, we would wake up at about 4am in the morning due to the jet lag; which most of us not surprisingly did.

4 Sep. The morning was spent at the University of San Francisco (USF), a Jesuit institution. We got our first taste of the San Francisco landscape and climate, as we passed through hilly roads and swathes of fog. (Did I mention that I love the weather in the States?) We went for the customary tour of the campus, the highlight of which was St. Ignatius Church, with its stunning interior murals and architecture. Lunch was the traditional Clam Chowder in Sourdough Bread Bowl at the famous Pier 39 of Fisherman's Wharf. It is really a must-see tourist destination with its boulevard of shops, restaurants, and even a Hard Rock Cafe! Next, we stopped by the one-way Lombard Street, also known as the "World's Crookedest Street". It slithered around so much like a snake and was at such a steep angle that vehicles had to brake while slowly making their way down. The view of the city of San Francisco from the top, however, was breathtaking and worth all that effort to climb up. Later, we went shopping at Union Square, famous for its many top-label department stores (the likes of Burberry, Nike, LV, and many more). We then rode past Chinatown on our way to the absolutely-incredulously-amazing Golden Gate Bridge, which I managed to traverse to its mid-point before having to return back due to a lack of time (as is common during tours, where schedules are tight). We had a final stop at Twin Peak for a poignant sunset view of the city beneath us. As the chilly winds and golden sunset engulfed my senses, I felt a moment of peace inside me and understood why some hail San Francisco as the best city of the States.

5 Sep. We visited Stanford University in the morning - it's ranked 4th in the 2007 edition of the U.S. News and World Report undergraduate college rankings, “America’s Best Colleges”. Did I mention the HUGE campus? Stanford occupies a total of 8,180 acres in the San Mateo and Santa Clara counties! Later on, we dropped by the Intel Museum where we were enlightened on processors and technology with their interactive exhibits. The evening was spent at the Plug & Play Tech Center (NUS Overseas College) in Silicon Valley, where we had several talks by creative entrepreneurs and met NUS students on their overseas attachment here over dinner.

6 Sep. The larger part of the day was spent at West Valley College, where we got to sit in for lessons to find out how similar/different our education system was from theirs. It turned out to be similar; they were very practical-oriented too. My DMAT juniors and I also got the chance to take a peek at the school's music department and their well-equipped TV studio. It was a pity there was not enough time for us to perform several community songs and present about Singaporean life to our American counterparts; but we did perform for the rest of our tour group, to much applause. =) Then it was off to Apple HQ - OMG OMG I visited the Mothership! We were given a formal introduction to their company as well as some of their latest products like the iPhone, the new iMac and the upcoming OS Leopard. At the Company Store, we got bargains when we were gratefully granted staff discounts of 15% off.

7 Sep. THE DAY I LAUGHED THE MOST (YET) - This day is significant for me; I never laughed so much in one day in my life before. Thank you all =) It really destressed me. I treasure those happy times of joy, laughter, games and forfeits on the bus as we made our long journey from San Jose to Los Angeles. We played Bluff, Murderer, and many other silly games and got so high over the forfeits! And to think that I did most of the forfeits, most of which involved - intriguingly - my bright orange travel pillow and the bus PA system. =.= I went up once with the travel pillow strung over my head and had to say, "Joanne, you're so cute!" LOL... and there was Kok How with the pillow on his head moshing along to the Gatsby theme song - TOTALLY HILARIOUS! =D And what a fuss we made over Jia Bao - our cherished...... broom on the bus. Yes, how hilarious was that! A broomstick and dustpan on the bus with the brand "Jia Bao". ROLFMAO! Haha... we eventually reached the famous 17-Mile Drive, a scenic chain of roads where we got off at several points to enjoy Mother Nature at her best. We caught seals, seagulls, otters, and the Lone Cypress standing on its own so forlorn at the edge of a cliff where it had stood for over 250 years. We also drooled over the stunning views and the architecture of the MILLIONAIRE homes that we passed by. Who wouldn't want to live in that utopia?

8 Sep. UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!! Woohoo! We spent a whole day of fun there going for live shows and rides. There was Jurassic Park's wet plunge, the Revenge of the Mummy indoor coaster, and the spooky Haunted House. We met characters like Scooby, Spongebob, the intelligent-replying Donkey (from Shrek) and later went for the highlight of the day, the Universal Studios Tour, where our tram passed through real movie sets and really got into the scene with all the real-life effects: experiencing a fire in a subway station, being flooded all around with water, and watching dancing cars from Too Fast Too Furious - Tokyo Drift - with their pyrotechnic effects and all. Of course, it was all preplanned, but the effects were so realistic. As they say, "Entertainment is Universal". The day really passed too fast and soon it was time to go back and rest for the next day at...

9 Sep. ...DISNEYLAND!!! Every child's fantasy, it is surely as they name it, "the happiest place on Earth". This Disneyland in Anaheim was way larger than the one I had been to last year in Hong Kong. I "turned" into a child again as I went for the rides; all those characters that had grown up with me in the storybooks and cartoons were REAL - for once - in the magical Disneyland. Later, I enjoyed their Parade of a Million Dreams - Ratatouille, Snow White, Beauty & the Beast, Simba & Friends, the Little Mermaid; you name it, they were all there. And after a shopping spree and going around collecting souvenir pennies, the magic of the day had worn out and it was time to go back. =(

10 Sep. Our final day in the States. I was so sad that I emo-ed on the back seat of the bus for most of the journey. OK, well, it wasn't that bad (at least I didn't cry - and you go "OMIGOSH! Have I ever seen Edwin CRY before?"). But I must tell you that I can get quite emo at times - you just don't see it. I can make myself cry if I so wish to. Anyway, we visited two rival universities in the area, the private University of South California (USC) and the public University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Of course, each had nasty things to say about each other, and we were told the silly pranks each school did on their rival's campus. UCLA once displaced the USC mascot Tommy Trojan's sword and placed it on his _____ (you-know-what, stars with a P) and had USC go so ga-ga over it that they placed a 24-hour surveillance camera to guard their dear Tommy Trojan. =) And USC got back at UCLA when they poured a whole lot of dye and detergent powder into UCLA's dear Inverted Fountain, causing chaos as a soap-sudded fountain overflowed into the plaza, dying the bricks pink. ROLFMAO! We later spent some time shopping/eating at the Hollywood & Highland Center and explored a tiny bit of the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. Alas, it was time to go off before we knew it, and our final Chinese dinner at a nearby hotel restaurant preceded our flight back home.

12 Sep. Back in Singapore at noon. Home, sweet home and yet dearly missed memories of a wonderful time in the States. The week passed so fast; I was enjoying the company of all my friends. They say that "all good things come to an end". Do they? The trip has ended, but the friendship has just begun. Never in my history of undergoing "student tours" (to Japan, Hong Kong, or even recently in Boston), have I had the privilege and pleasure of being with such a wonderful group of people. Maybe it helped that all of us were from the same department in school (SMIT - School of Media & Info-Comm Technology); but you could really contrast the change between when we first met as strangers during a meeting days before the trip, and after the trip ended. We even ended up creating a whimsical "family" out of ourselves; our grandparents being the two lecturers that accompanied us, a Mommy and a Daddy, among others. You people really, truly made my day (or should I say, "week"), and for that, THANK YOU. =)

Memories of Boston

2007-08-10T07:15:00.000+08:00

Taken from my Reflections in my Journal on my internship:

Now that the 9-week summer internship has ended, the game is finally in a satisfactory state. I have largely enjoyed my 9 weeks here even though what I specialize in is not really related to the games industry. Having said that, I would not wish to work for a game company in the future, because the pressure and intensity (of rapid development especially) is something that I do not like to partake in.

My job doing sound/audio for the team was a rather tough one as the game needed many audio assets (to cater for the visually-impaired). Since I’ve been trained all along to create music per se, and not for media (like film, animation, or games), it was rather a challenge to adapt the style of my music to a superior authority. Before, I’ve had the liberal freedom to compose music as I liked; the sky (my creativity) was the limit.

Personally, I feel that Scrum is not effective for rapid development of prototypes by student teams, because it assumes a level of professionalism and ignores natural human behavior and “limits” (humans cannot work 16 hours a day!)

I’ve been thinking if the game could have more than just the tutorial and one actual game level. However, given our short period of rapid development of 9 weeks, I feel that demonstrating the concept of the game with one solid level is better than having many levels with “bugs”.

That the sound effects and dialogue have been finally settled on is a huge relief. Many hours had to be spent on the gameflow, which was crucial to determining just how much sound effects and dialogue were needed.

I feel that it is very difficult to make a game “perfect”. Just as a “perfect” song would not exist, so the same goes for games – after all, these artistic products are subjectively judged and the level of “perfection” is but a mere human standard by which we try to attain.

I leave thoughts of the future development of the game aside as I try to concentrate on my final year of my diploma. It would be nice to see a derivative version of the game in future.

Overall, I believe I have done my best (along with juggling the school workload simultaneously while I was here in Boston). I’ve had a severe lack of sleep while I was here, and have sacrificed many weekends, outings, talks and game sessions to do my schoolwork instead. I am looking forward to completing my final semester in SP to the best of my ability.

-----

Indeed, I've been sleeping very late and had to wake up early many times to go to "work" on the project. It really drained all my energy and vitality that I brought along with me to this wonderful city of Boston... if only I could come here again, not for work (heck it!) but just to enjoy its beauty... maybe in a few years time if I get to Berklee.

I'll be leaving Boston for Singapore this Saturday evening and will arrive in Singapore at 6am+ on 13 August 2007 (Monday). I definitely had a great time here with all my friends from the other polytechnics, universities, private schools and of course, MIT itself. There were so many wonderful times I had here (bike tour, theme park, Harvard Square, Berklee, Independence Day fireworks, and so much more) that acted as a stress relief to the ever-growing pile of schoolwork. Honestly, life's not just all about work, unlike some Singaporean mentality. I've learnt a lot from the US... ideals, concepts and techniques that I want to try out in Singapore. Time for work is strictly time for work here, and playtime is strictly for play. Unlike Singapore, where we still have to think about our work even during playtime - the distinction is blurred - resulting in our ever-lowering efficiency and productivity rate. Talk about Singapore trying to be a hub for every fucking thing in the world; Arts Hub, Biomedical Sciences Hub, Education Hub, Media Hub - it's always good to aim high to motivate oneself, but not at the expense of many other important factors in our life - our family, friends, and time out that we have to take to "recharge" ourselves. OK, I'm being too political now, but I guess I have the genes of my dad who could give a lecture on a certain topic for hours.

As I close another chapter of my life, I'm looking forward to all my friends back in Singapore, some of whom have been awaiting my arrival for some time. My classmate Jasmine even dreamt about me several days ago - that I had returned to school. I miss you all DMAT peeps, SP Musical peeps and other peeps! See ya all in a few days' time.

----------------------------------------------------

Thought it might be fitting to end with the lyrics of the song "Boston" by Augustana... love it man...

in the light of the sun, is there anyone? oh it has begun... oh dear you look so lost, eyes are red and tears are shed, this world you must've crossed...you said...

you don't know me, you don't even care, you don't know me, you don't wear my chains...

essential and appealed, carry all your thoughts across an open field, when flowers gaze at you...they're not the only ones who cry when they see you you said...

you don't know me, you don't even care, you don't know me, you don't wear my chains...

she said i think i'll go to boston... i think i'll start a new life, i think i'll start it over, where no one knows my name, i'll get out of california, i'm tired of the weather, i think i'll get a lover and fly em out to spain... i think i'll go to boston, i think that i'm just tired i think i need a new tow, to leave this all behind... i think i need a sunrise, i'm tired of the sunset, i hear it's nice in the summer, some snow would be nice... boston...where no one knows my name...

One month later...

2007-07-16T09:43:00.000+08:00

It's been at least a month since I set foot on this glorious land and MAN, the life's great here indeed! If the talent, environment/landscape, weather and less stressful lifestyle here in Boston could be combined with the peace and technology of Singapore, you'd be living in a UTOPIA.

Well, I'll mention some of the memorable events this past month. I went on a bike tour of Boston and the surrounding area (25 miles at least in total) quite a while ago. Bum really hurt, but it was fascinating to breeze through the most scenic areas you could ever wish for... the amazing land, forest, city, sea and breeze. One stop was even through Forest Hills Cemetery - a haven for those who have passed on. Cycling through the endless mounds of gravestones, I was filled with a sense of sympathy and yet peace. It seemed like time came to a standstill.

I should mention the BRILLIANT Independence Day 2007 (4th of July) Fireworks @ Boston, the BEST I've seen so far in my life - with its full serving of 25 minutes! To the 1812 Overture, popular themes like Pirates of the Carribean, and even the song Boston (how fitting!) by Augustana, the Boston Pops Orchestra (among the world's BEST) carried us on a whirlwind of emotion and pride for our country ('cept that it WASN'T my country but it did feel like it - I mean, with at least 100,000 people around you cheering along as well, wouldn't you feel like them too?!) Do ask me for a video of the fireworks, complete with narration from yours truly, ME if you like. =)

You know, Boston (or rather Massachusetts), has one of the largest number of schools in the world in such a high concentration area. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Harvard, Boston U, Suffolk U; the list is endless... giving birth to Boston's alias as a College City. There's practically at least one school within a mile or less from wherever you are. Not to mention, my all-time dream school: BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!! *faints* I've toured around it a few times already as well as got some merchandise, and my oh my, it's really a dream if I could get in! =X They have like so many ensemble and practice rooms, and studios, and performance centers, and, *faints again*

Next I should touch upon this CRAZY DINNER I had at a restaurant that is notorious for its avant garde concepts in customer service - Dick's Last Resort. All in the name of FUN. It's the way you get treated starting right from the time you are being seated - the menu's tossed to you. A waiter greets you rudely and gives you a time limit to place your orders. The waiter then takes your orders, only to have you find out later the drinks are self-service. While waiting for the food to come, a balloon is tied to your ponytail by an unsuspecting staff, or a tall paper hat is folded and put on your head. Markers are then used to write cynical and retarded statements on the hats or balloons, and everyone around you will be laughing at something you are unaware of. The rule is not to remove the balloon or hat from yourself till after the meal is completed. Meanwhile, crayons are given, and you can draw stuff on the long paper sheets laid out across the table; the very same paper that the waiter writes your orders on and tears off a part of! The food was overall filling and good; and it was one of the most HAPPY meals I've ever had. ROFLMAOXZER!

Of course, with all the fun and enjoyment of Boston, one has to pay the price as well; in my case, balancing our stressful project here with my school assignments back in Singapore. It's definitely a rush to get work done and on schedule every single day, and many a time, I'm left exhausted at the end of the day. I feel like I'm working myself OUT (mind the pun) - out of battery, that is.

Hmm maybe the Six Flags Theme Park (New England) tomorrow will wake me up (mind the pun again). They have dry and water rides, as well as the world's rated No. 1 roller coaster. I wonder...

BEANTOWN

2007-06-25T08:10:00.000+08:00

Shoutout from Boston:

Hey everyone! It's been 2 weeks since I arrived in Boston (also known as Beantown for its famous baked beans - and clam chowder!). Haven't managed to update till now because the workload of the project is rather tremendous. My project team has to create an audio game in the theme of a "DJ Simulator" (for both the visually-impaired and normal, sighted people). The game will be implemented in the Wii and PC platforms and we have 7 weeks left to create it. God bless the Queen (and us :P).

Well, it's summer now, the weather's gradually adjusting to fit that of Singapore's - besides the chilly winds. Local time is 12 hours behind Singapore time. And because of the tilting of the Earth, the sun rises at about 5.30AM and only sets at about 9.30PM.

The food here's nice (it comes in LARGE portions), though I occasionally miss the local LAKSA and CHAR KWAY TEOW. Not to mention CHICKEN RICE, FISHBALL NOODLES and DESSERTS!

I'll buy back some chewing gum... anyone who wants anything else back from Boston please TAG on my tagboard on the right column, and I'll try to get it back for you. Thanks all and see ya guys in mid-August when I return!

Edwin, signing off from Boston, Massachusetts

Life's great!

2007-05-03T19:52:00.000+08:00

Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Gamelab Summer Intern Project

Life's great! I'm being sent on this fully-sponsored (with a monthly stipend of US$800) summer internship programme to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in Boston! OMG it's Boston; the States! A total of 30 students will be sent from Singapore to MIT for the summer internship for a total of 9 weeks starting 9th June 2007. They will also be working with MIT students on a total of 6 game-based projects. The variety of projects ranges from audio based to animation based areas where the intent is to create a playable game demo by the end of the 9 weeks attachment. The intent is to get students with a variety of skill-sets ranging from audio, animation, games design, concept design, technical implementation to production management experience to work together to create a playable demo within the required time-frame.

The students will be exposed to the following opportunities:

·Seminars provided by the MIT professors; ·Cross cultural interactions as they will be grouped in a team of 7 students, which will be a mixture of different students from Singapore as well as students from MIT; ·Exposure to the overall games production cycle as they will be expected to create a playable game demo by the end of their attachment.

"A Labour of Love" - Young NTUC Musical (May Day 2007)

I was "engaged" by Babes Condes, famous international singer-songwriter-composer-vocal coach (for Singapore Idol as well) to assist her as second keyboardist for the incidental music band for this brilliant musical which she scored for. She happens to be the mom of my coursemate Adam Shah, who's a great drummer and bassist himself =D. Together with James L, a shredder guitarist and a course junior, the 4 of us made a great band doing fill-ins and incidental music in between the scene changes. You can read more about the story of the musical by clicking on the link above. Anyway, it's not just about the 4-digit pay, I feel really grateful to Babes for having given me this wonderful opportunity to experience what it is like playing for a musical. (She had also coached Singapore Polytechnic's "Superstar the Pop Musical" cast, in which I was in, last October 2006.) You are the song that makes me sing, you'll fly a rainbow on its strings; all of my days I'm sure, you're always there for me. Babes' songs are just so heartwarming. `_~

Virtuoso Arts: Artiste & Repertoire Challenge 2006/7 Music Album

I was supposed to be the Music Director for the production of this music album - but I'm flying off to Boston halfway through the production process (see above 1st paragraph). The album's supposed to be a compilation of original songs by our artistes (who had won the Artiste & Repertoire Challenge 2006/7 - see my earlier posts if you wanna know) for commercial sale - no kidding! More details soon...

Overall, it's a busy busy busy busy month of May, as usual. 2007 will be the busiest year of my life... YET.

A new phase in life

2007-04-13T23:47:00.000+08:00

9 weeks of internship at Yellow Box Studios have ended for me... it's both a happy and sad "ending" - happy because I can finally return back to school to be with my friends and learn more new stuff, and yet sad because I'll miss my working environment, friendly colleagues and the fantastic myriad of eateries around my workplace in the city area.

Enter a new phase in life. It's the final Year 3 of my polytechnic education. Forecast: an extremely hectic year to give a final push. Many commitments have been made this year and it's my responsibility to balance all of them. Sigh... a re-enactment of my secondary school years where I nearly died juggling all my commitments. Oh well...

WELL, I just completed this competition and did my school proud =) TEAM 6FM (6 For Music) DOES SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC PROUD by being CHAMPIONS of their category (Polytechnic) in the first-ever-of-its-kind Inter-school Artiste & Repertoire Challenge (ARC) - they also garnered the "Best Music Business" award. Organized by Virtuoso Arts and 77th Street in support of Creative Community Singapore, the competition aims to increase awareness of the various supporting creative industries behind artiste management. It is thus a useful and innovative platform that allows youths to explore and realise their dreams in music recording industry, while at the same time, developing potential creative entrepreneurs and mentors who can contribute their experience and skills beyond the boundaries of the challenge.

Artiste and Repertoire (A&R) is essentially the research and development arm of a record company. In addition to being a talent scout, the A&R person is also the crucial link to getting the music record produced: from choosing the songs among the repertoire and helping to decide whether an artiste is going to do a cover, to deciding which producers are most suitable for the artiste and finding engineers and sessionists for the recording of the album. During the challenge, each team member was assigned a specific role in A&R and underwent mentorship with industry professionals to learn the art of the trade. After the training, the teams had to complete different tasks in the areas of music production, music business (marketing/promotions) and artiste’s image (fashion/styling/make-up).

Team 6FM consists of six students from different diploma courses but with a shared passion for music, thus the team’s name – 6 For Music (6FM). Not surprisingly, these six students were also members of the cast of Singapore Polytechnic’s first musical, Superstar.

The road to the Finals was not easy, with the team even going the extra mile in the production of the album. Instrumental and choral arrangements were made for the single, and recording and mixing took place over several weeks. Not content with just a single for their demo, a music video was shot over one weekend, and these were compiled into a CD and bonus DVD for their album. The business side saw the team churning out market survey and research, advertising and distribution strategies for the album, budget and sales reports and a full press kit that included information, photos and other promotional materials.

For more details, you can check out Reyza online at http://rizahamizan.multiply.com/.

I must say I'm very grateful to my team for all their efforts through this competition. Also loads of thanks to our music video crew, supporters and fans! We would not have made it without you all. Look out for the upcoming ARC Album in August 2007!

P.S. This competition really took up much of my time and effort in the period December 2006 to April 2007. Now that it's finally over, I can move on to my other commitments in life... more competitions, music exams, gigs and school work... =D

Chinese New Year - cum - 19th Birthday

2007-02-17T23:32:00.000+08:00

新年快乐! It's the Year of the Pig this 2007... and Day 1 of this Lunar New Year also happens to be my 19TH BIRTHDAY! Hmm... just had reunion dinner with my relatives at my place... feeling damn full now. Well, I'm not really in any mood for Chinese New Year or my 19th birthday now, cos' I'm mugging for my upcoming ABRSM Grade 6 Theory Exam in March... anyway also feel a bit lonely, don't know why - think it's because I haven't seen most of my classmates for a while (not used to it), with the 9-week internship that we're having. Only met up with Royston and Jiayi working at other companies nearby for lunch the other day; exchanged our working experiences over yong tau foo!

My birthday wishes this nineteeth year: 1)score well for my studies and exams, 2)take care of myself more, 3)learn to relax (ironically, 2007 will be my busiest year YET!), 4)learn to treasure every moment of my life, and all my loved ones around me.

That's it for now. 新年快乐! 祝你过个大肥年!

The Busiest Person in the world RANTS.

2007-01-28T22:43:00.000+08:00

Just managed to sneak in some time to blog. Life's been interesting so far in 2007 - I highly anticipate that it will be the busiest year of my life - yet. Year 2 of polytechnic's gonna end for me - as of today, 1 more each of assignment, presentation and test to go. And there's 1 demo assignment due in Year 3. I just can't wait for my academic workload to lighten - in a few days!

There's no holidays after the exam weeks end. We Year 2 students have 9 weeks of (paid) internship. It's only $440 a month though, but the experience in the professional industry is priceless. My lecturer Erica e-mailed me recently: "You're taken by Yellowbox!" I was ecstatic that I had gotten through my interview with YellowBox Studios, one of the top music production/post-production houses in Singapore. They have gurus like Rennie Gomes (the friendly Managing Director who interviewed me), Shah Tahir (married to renowned vocal coach Babes Condes, he's Singapore's TOP live sound engineer and my coursemate's dad as well), Ricky Ho (his music for the "Girl By The River" ad for The Bank Of China won 66 awards internationally!), and homegrown Iskandar Ismail (OMG OMG my idol!). Haha... can't wait to work with them this mid-February to mid-April.

And once my academic workload gets off me (temporarily till Year 3) in a few days' time, it's full steam for the ongoing inter-school Artiste & Repertoire Challenge (ARC) 2007 competition, where we have to market and groom and artiste (as an A&R team). I'm currently in the midst of recording the demo track of Guy Sebastian's Taller, Stronger, Better for my artiste Riza. There's like 30+ hours of recording studio sessions to come and a whole host of instruments to record so I'm gonna' be vexed. Already I spent about a week arranging a full-scored SATB chorus part and different instrument sections for the song, and then recorded them onto MIDI in Cubase (then transferring as WAV into ProTools). OK I won't go into the technical jargon, but there's so much stuff to be done... haha. OH - and there's the major Music Video Filming/Editing coming up for the song once the demo is ready - to prepare: storyboard, plot outline, shoot locations/schedule, etc. And there's another whole section on Business (budgeting, marketing plan, artiste/team profile, financial projections, promotions, etc). Really hope we get through the preliminary rounds; we're representing Singapore Polytechnic by the way.

Oh and right smack in the middle of my 9-week internship is my ABRSM Grade 6 Theory Exam in March. AHH! "Grade 6 score 98 marks, Grade 7 score 99 marks, Grade 8 score 100 marks!" - as quoted by my friend Tze Lip. By the way, I got 97 marks (Distinction) for my recent Grade 5 Theory Exam. After Grade 6 it's a slight deviation from theory to finish my Yamaha Electone Organ grades - 2 more grades to go... but I think I'll just skip to Yamaha Electone Organ Grade 5 (Teacher's Grade). Then it's back to Grade 8 theory (YES I intend to conquer theory, provided I'm not dead beat yet) in March 2008. As my lecturer Dr Tan said to me last time, "one step at a time". Wise words.

Well I'm gonna stop ranting and go back to work now... busy busy busy...

Back in action

2006-12-23T15:57:00.000+08:00

Sorry to all of you out there who've been viewing my blog so often in the hope of an update. It's finally here, one month later.

Well, it's finally the term holidays after a gruelling 12 weeks of Term 3. Two weeks more of holidays, then 3 weeks of Term 4, then 9 weeks of internship with a music-related company. Hmm... so fast gonna be Year 3 le... well I finally got my handphone in November 2006 (yes, I survived without a HP for more than one and a half years in polytechnic).

Ahhh... I'm really shagged... so many things happening and so many things on my to-do list. Finished my final "gig" of the year not too long ago... scroll all the way down below and you'll see all the events I've performed for (I'll update as more come). Then there's this external competition called the Artist & Repertoire Challenge 2006 - the team has to market and groom an artiste (for the music industry). Good exposure for me, since I'm gonna be in the music industry later anyway. Then there's my ABRSM Grade 6 Theory Exam next March - rushing my preparation! And I got to brush up my electone organ skills if I wanna take my Yamaha Electone Grade 5 (highest grade) next year as well. Then still got polytechnic assignments to complete during these holidays... and end-of-academic-year tests when school reopens!

I think I'll faint from stress next year.

Superstar the Pop Musical - A Tribute To Friendship

2006-11-24T01:35:00.000+08:00

Sorry I haven't blogged for so long... been so busy... anyway, click on the title above for a video I made as a tribute to Superstar the Pop Musical. The musical may be over but the friendship continues. Long live the camaraderie!

ROCK ON - SuPerstar: The Pop Musical

2006-10-14T21:06:00.000+08:00

SuPerstar: The Pop Musical, is Singapore Polytechnic's first foray into the staging of a professional musical and the closing event for the President's Challenge 2006. Staged on 6 & 7 October 2006 to a sold-out crowd of over 3000, the musical received standing ovations by the full-house audience and rave reviews by high-profile members of society. The man behind the show is no other than renowned singer-songwriter-lawyer-lecturer Jimmy Ye, who has many songs and awards to his name. He is especially popular in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan.

SP MUSICAL ROX!! Love you guys - cast, crew, band and everyone else who's involved!It's been one week since the second (and last) night of the musical concluded on a high note. More than 150 days of hard work, tears and sweat (the brunt was mostly bore by Jimmy) have finally come to fruition! For me, I have really, truly, enjoyed myself as part of the musical cast. The training is tough, but success at the end is sweet. This is one event that'll forever remain in my memory. One thing's for sure - the show might have ended, but the camaraderie among us lives on... as a family of BEST FRIENDS!

Intensive training for SP Musical

2006-09-10T19:29:00.000+08:00

I'm back from Hong Kong! The life there is quite as hectic as Singapore, but the landscape is totally breathtaking (save the pollution). Where we have flat land and only Bukit Timah Hill, there are mountains and valleys as well as the famous Victoria Peak over there! I managed to get bargains at their Ladies' Street Market (kind of like our "pasar malam" or night market here in Singapore) - although a number of the products were obviously pirated. Hong Kong Disneyland was rather small but a classic place to be in, with all the characters I grew up with. I blew more than SG$100 there (kind of regrettably)! I'll definitely return to Hong Kong in future if I have the chance to.

Anyway, I won't be available for the whole month of September as there's musical camp every Monday to Friday every week to prepare us for the big show on 6 & 7 October... if you haven't got your tickets yet, get them from SISTIC ($18-$88) before they run out!

Bon Voyage

2006-08-22T22:17:00.000+08:00

Just a brief update on what's been happening to me before I leave next week for a study tour to Hong Kong (28 August - 1 September) - fully (and generously) sponsored by SP School of Media & Info-Communications Technology as part of the scholarship I'm under.

My main performance this month was the Music Express 12 飞乐时空 National Song Writing Competition Finals on 18 August, held at Nanyang Auditorium. I played the keyboard for Kok Song, a university undergraduate who had written a Chinese love ballad entitled 滥好人. Our team also included a guitarist, a violinist, another singer, and two support "harmony" singers. Despite having only rehearsed together several times the week before, we clinched the Most Popular Song Award 最受欢迎歌曲 thanks to our large number of supporters that had come to support us. Congratulations Kok Song!

And I would have performed at two birthday parties of my musical friends this month - Jasper's on the 12th and Esther O's on the 27th. Happy birthday to both of you!

By the way, I had no exams (only several small tests) - my course is a In-Course Assessment-based (ICA-based) one. No holidays as usual - the only break's next week's trip (see it's a STUDY TOUR, not a HOLIDAY, though we go to Hong Kong Disneyland :D). After I return back to Singapore, it's one whole September month of intensive training camp for the upcoming SP Musical. It's going to be fun, but real tiring too as well (Monday "book in", Friday "book out"). Wake me up when September ends.

Well bon voyage (to myself :D) and see you in September after I return from Hong Kong!

Sound Machine OVERDRIVE

2006-08-01T13:57:00.000+08:00

Ahhh... haven't blogged for like a month and a half! Been too caught up with my external keyboard performance commitments and involvement in the SP musical. So it's like I'm sleeping at past midnite every day and waking up early because I stay oh-so-far away from school (walk, feeder bus, MRT train, walk). The makings of a zombie...

Phew... I'm like a part-time keyboardist now... hope my studies don't get affected (too much). It's the exam period now with 3 tests coming up and several assignments due.

Let's see what I had this past month or so... there was SP's Graduation 2006 Performance on 5 July. Went rather smoothly though it was rather sad that the audience was not really appreciative. But considering the fact that we were sideline entertainment while they were enjoying the buffet spread, it was OK. Then there was the recent Charity Fiesta 2006 @ South West CDC from 28-30 July. Rehearsal on the 28th, and the main performances on 29th and 30th July. (Sensually Transmitted Music ROCKS!)

It was a tiring weekend; I must have played up to 20 songs - several of them perilously impromptu (we ran out of songs to perform for our 2-hour slot so we just on-the-spot picked some songs)! And just yesterday was SP's Singa Mania 2006 Competition Finals, on which I accompanied 5 finalists (4 of which were from the SP musical) on the songs First/An Jing, When You Told Me You Loved Me, A Whole New World, Open Arms, and I Will Survive. Congrats to Faliq, Siti, and Marina for the top 3 prizes respectively! And many thanks to the peeps from SP Musical, MIT Club, my classmates and the rest of you keyboard "fans" who showed me so much support!

Ahhh... there's still an NTU Music Express Songwriting Competition Finals on 18 August that I'm rehearsing for (I'm accompanying the singer; and it's not my song - I'm just a performer). Thereafter, I fly to Hong Kong for a study tour from 28 August to 1 September. Then there's the SP Musical feature performance in the President's Star Charity Show on 3 September - and a weekday camp from 4 Sep to 22 Sep - intensive training for the musical. The BIG DAY(S) - 6 & 7 October @ the NUS Cultural Centre - Superstar: The Pop Musical!

(I'm spelling out my organiser...) Then there's my Grade 5 ABRSM theory exam on 28 October, another performance for the SPSU Honours United Bazaar (some campus event) around 13-17 November, and some National Education Fest (and maybe my diploma course concert) in December.

Next year, hopefully... my semi-professional vocal ensemble group (vocalists + me as keyboardist) will be on track to perform at wedding gigs and stuff - but we'll leave that story to another day...

SP Musical Fever

2006-06-17T22:46:00.000+08:00

Celebrating my 150th post!

Singapore Polytechnic (SP) presents: SuPerStar - The Pop Musical. The closing event for the President's Challenge 2006, Singapore Polytechnic is the first polytechnic in Singapore to hold a public-staged, large-scale musical. To be held at the NUS University Cultural Centre on 6 & 7 October 2006, all proceeds from ticket sales go to charity, in aid of the President's Challenge 2006. VIPs include President S R Nathan and the First Lady, Mdm Ho Ching, and other important government and ministry dignitaries.

ALAMAK! Got back from the SP Musical training camp yesterday... miss it so much!! :( A musical's not an easy feat to pull off, but with the passion of all those involved in the musical here, we're gonna' make it GREAT! Imagine training and pushing ourselves in the areas of singing, acting and dancing from morning to night for FIVE days! I lost a bit of sanity, nearly lost my voice, and completely lost my focus of mind on academic assignments (for once).

The portable keyboard used for training was a sucker of my attention; I spent the whole of the first night awake hooked on it like drugs, subsequently teaching a few songs to a few "students" as well. The final day of the musical camp culminated with a presentation to several of the polytechnic's Directors and lecturers, where we presented our Act 1 to the praise and support of our guests. Well, October's approaching and there's not much time left to prepare for the big show, but for us here as part of the cast of the SP Musical, we're looking forward to every moment of it! Long live the camaraderie!

Musically high!

2006-05-13T00:01:00.000+08:00

I got through the auditions! I've committed myself into yet another major performance event this year, besides the upcoming Graduation 2006 performance in July and the 2nd DMAT concert in December. Singapore Polytechnic (SP) presents: SuPerstar - The Pop Musical. Singapore Polytechnic is the first polytechnic in Singapore to hold a public-staged, large-scale musical. To be held at the NUS University Cultural Centre on 6 & 7 October 2006, all proceeds from ticket sales go to charity, in aid of the President's Challenge 2006. The VIP might be none other than President S R Nathan.

It's just so exciting to be part of the team of students shortlisted to perform in this musical, be it in singing, dancing, or acting. Professional vocal, dance, and drama training is provided to us free-of-charge by renowned local companies and personalities. A usual day of training begins in the early afternoon with group vocal sessions, followed by dance/drama training and finally an evening jog to keep us in tip-top condition for the physical demands of performing in the musical.

What's a musical without great music? I especially like the songs written for the musical by Mr Jimmy Ye, Artistic Director of the SP Musical, a singer-songwriter who has more than a hundred songs published under EMI Records, and who also happens to be my lecturer.

Looking forward to the months ahead in preparation for the musical...

Labour Day update

2006-05-01T16:45:00.000+08:00

OK, this post has got nothing to do with Labour Day a.k.a. May Day nor to-be-mums giving birth in hospitals. Just an update on what's happened these past two weeks of school since school re-opened. The academic workload in general is piling up as usual, with other activities interfering with the otherwise mundane rigour of the timetable. I beg to differ if anyone claims that Year 1 is "chiong" (rushy), Year 2 is slack, and Year 3 is "chiong" again. I believe it's "chiong" all the way.

I foresee assignments not being able to be completed in time - especially with the current state of technical affairs in school. For one thing, the keyboards for classrooms T2025 & T2026 that were supposed to have arrived two weeks ago are nowhere in sight as of the last school day (I suppose they are still at Customs?). How on earth are we going to complete our assignments in time with a deprivation of school facilities? As for the handicap of having no Internet access in T2025, T2026 and T2044, it definitely prevents people from playing online games and surfing porn, but that also means we have one less avenue to back up our data on Hotmail/Gmail/some other web storage service. We now have no choice but to either use a portable hard drive, thumb drive, or CD-R/CD-RWs to store our work.

Musicians we are. Even though our module Performance has officially ended last year, the school's still relying on us to offer our musical services when it comes to their events. Upcoming performances include the Graduation 2006 performance in July, the SP Musical (did I get in?) in October, and the 2nd DMAT concert in December. Rehearsals for these events are resuming - more time taken up when there's multiple events and you're in multiple performance groups. Being a coordinator for the Graduation 2006 performance and the Concert Chairman for the 2nd DMAT concert, I'm not complaining, but I just hope everyone involved in the events will cooperate with whatever's expected of them.

As always, I am unable to remain active in any CCA at all - but it's alright considering that I already have more than enough CCA points. Of course, I don't just join CCAs for CCA points. Being from DMAT, I'm supposed to join a music CCA, as recommended by a lecturer, but I decided against it as I'm currently concentrating on my Grade 5 theory lessons and the improvement of my electone organ performance skills. Better for me to focus on my major instrument first, I feel.

The upcoming weeks are certainly gonna' be exciting ones with all the performances and other activities lined up. I'll update again if there's anything happening. That's it for the Labour Day update.

Calendar of Events (Year 1 Sem 2 Vacation)

2006-04-20T22:43:00.000+08:00

Above was what I was involved in for the past 2 months of academic year-end holidays.

Temptation, Sensation & Aggression

2006-04-15T20:13:00.000+08:00

Media & Info-Comm Technology (MIT) Club Freshmen Orientation Camp 06/07

6-9 April 2006

It was a camp like no other I had experienced before. Sure, it was more tiring than your ordinary camp, but the fun I had more than justified for it. As part of the Games Personnel (GP), I joined around 20 others in organising the activities of the camp. Not knowing each and every of my fellow GPs as I was the only one from my diploma course, I initially struggled to get out of my comfort zone when striking up conversations with them. Near the end and after the camp, it felt much more comfortable speaking to them.

Day 1. The main activities of the day were the Battle of the Zones and the Night Walk. Battle of the Zones was basically 12 station games split into 4 zones. The game I was in-charge of, Web of Dexterity, was an advanced modified version of the common Spider Web game. This time, players had to face the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal challenges of being stuck in a Web while collecting "items" along the way within a time limit.

Temptation lurked about as the freshies were gotten prepared through ghost stories and the like for the main activity of the first night. The Night Walk through the campus scared most of the freshies, even if they did not admit it openly. The numerous props, which included Sadako dolls, combined with the realistic makeups of some of our "scare crew", enhanced the dark, scary atmosphere of the route. The freshies were released pair by pair from one end of the campus (FoodCourt 1). I was stationed with Yong Xian at the upper lift landings of the T15 block. Our scare object of choice: the dustbin. When the freshies made their way up the pitch-dark lift from the ground floor, the doors would open on the 4th or 5th floors (I depressed the lift button and then hid). Imagine a stream of light and a rounded-edged dustbin (the height of a small child) suddenly appearing right in front of you (just after the lift door). Later, when the freshies got up to the 6th floor and continued along the route (past another innocuous-looking dustbin), Yong Xian would suddenly push the dustbin off the ground and hide. The freshies, not a long way in front of the dustbin, got shocked at the abrupt loud "plomp" which penetrated through the night's silence. Some even screamed. Way to go, Dustbin Crew!

Day 2. Sensation = Sand-sation at Sentosa! The freshies definitely had fun going about from game to game at Palawan Beach, Sentosa. The game I was in-charge of was Quidditch, basically Captain's Ball except that there was a hooped goalpost which the ball had to be scored through. The final game, Battle of the Millenium (a.k.a. Tug of War) got everyone hyped up with its intense physical demands and enthusiastic cheers from the onlookers.

After we got back to school, the main activity for the night was the Labyrinth of Panic. The objective was to gather as many gems (light rings) as possible around the campus's 4 zones, while staying out of areas that were closed. Teams had to avoid "Demons" (confiscate light rings), and look out for "Guardians" (grant light rings upon completion of a task).

Day 3. Teams competed against each other in the Amazing Race in this show of aggression. The Race started off with the mini-game Food Chain at Chinatown. Each team was given the first food item to start off with. The last letter of the first food item will determine which letter the second food item (of their choice) begins with. Upon completing the third food item, teams went back to the starting point where they were given the final (fifth) food item upon completion of a task. The teams then finished their fourth and fifth food items and reported what they have eaten. Before releasing them for the actual Amazing Race, each team had to consume a whole unpeeled lemon without using their hands (they used their mouths instead).

What better way to spend the last night of the camp than to hold MIT Club's traditional Shim Nite and Disco Nite! A shim is basically a she-him - a guy dressed and dolled up to be a girl. They look kinda like transvestites. Each team sent a representative, and, along with our senior shims, made the whole Shim Nite a rousing success! For privacy reasons, I will not display any shim photos here, but you get the idea. Similarly, the Disco Nite rocked the classroom through the night with the top hits of Hip-Hop, Funk, Techno, among other genres. Along with our expert DJs Chalk and Hadi, I controlled the overall PA mix. Most of the freshies certainly enjoyed this nightclub of "havoc".

Day 4. After singing a few camp songs, doing the Friendship Dance, writing testimonials on each other's backs, and a photo session for every group and everyone, the camp ended on a good note. The newly kindled friendships didn't stop there - there's a Reunion for everyone (even those from the School of MIT who did not attend the camp) coming up soon!

Personally, I really enjoyed the camp even though it was the most tiring one I have ever been too. Probably because I was part of the Organising Committee. I wanna thank my fellow Game Personnel "Agressas" for being such great people to be with, and the Group Leader "Honchos" for a job well done guiding the freshies. To all freshies, I hope you enjoyed the camp. Be seeing you around in MIT Clubroom!

"MIT!" "MUST BE THE ROUTERS!!!" (Official Camp Shout-out)

Easter Sunday update: School's finally starting tomorrow after 2 months of break! Year 2 already... by the way, I've met the Year 1 DMAT juniors - and my - they're a sophisticated and talented bunch! And I've got FOUR of them from my secondary school! Alright... gonna have dinner now... will update again soon... *geared up for a whole new academic year*

Is City Harvest Church a CULT?

2006-03-27T21:45:00.000+08:00

Extracted from an online webpage (to link, click on the title of this post). The views expressed here are entirely the writer's own personal opinion. I have edited the article for grammar.

Answer this question: "Is City Harvest Church a place where...

a) a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by are promoted

b)a place where extreme or excessive admiration for a person, philosophy of life, or activity is conducted

Firstly, let me state that I am not in anyway against the belief of a god(s). What i am against is the active searching out of and roping in of new members of City Harvest Church and asking for donations.

Now granted, people may choose not to donate, but seeing how everyone else does so, they will feel peer pressure to do the same. I especially abhor the way in which City Harvest Church sets out to recruit prospective new members. By telling them that they will go to hell if they do not attend your church or believe in (your) God, you are blalantly insulting the right of that person to his/her choice of religous belief. And I would like to remind everyone that NOT believing in God is a choice of religous belief as well.

By hosting youth activities at the church, City Harvest is encouraging young members to ask their friends to come and participate in them. Once at these events, the young people will feel obligated to join in by the intense peer pressure. Soon, more young people will join, because it seems to be the "in" thing to do, and this use of peer pressure, whilst brilliant, is utterly immoral.

Many of these young people have no grasp of the religon at all, and are simply repeating what is told to them by those in charge at the church. Often they go to extremes such as walking around and praying openly, or excessively buying biblical books. They do not truly believe in the religon, although they may think they do - they simply do it because their friends do it. "Hey! if that many people are doing it, it can't be wrong can it?"

Well, up until the mid 1800's people all over the US had slaves, and no one can doubt the wrongness of that can they?

The point is, just because everyone does it doesn't make it right. Haven't we had that old adage drilled into our heads from youth? To the young people attending City Harvest at the behest of their friends, I strongly urge you to reconsider. City Harvest members who are reading this, I welcome your LOGICAL reasoning and explaination. (Please don't give me any crap about burning in hell. I'll just laugh in your face and ignore you).

Which answer did you choose for the first question?

a) was the definition of a religon

b) was the definition of a CULT

So that effort DID pay off.

2006-03-22T21:49:00.000+08:00

Several "heart attacks", panic "strokes" and tonnes of sweat... it was all necessary. Breaking out from the normal crowd, the typical lifestyle, and the dazzling temptations, I had to keep myself disciplined strictly to follow my mundane regiment.

The normal crowd. My social life for the past one year has largely been confined. Except for the occasional class outing, I rarely went with my classmates to "chill out" or "hang out". It's good that my parents have a rather strict curfew on me as well - so I pressured to come home on time. Good discipline.

The typical lifestyle. Singaporeans in general love to EAT, SHOP, TALK, and SLEEP. I have tended to eat or desired to eat more recently, but it's for me to grow bigger (if it's any use at all in helping my size/weight). Shopping is something I dislike - I don't go window-shopping at all (waste of time); I only shop when I have something ESSENTIAL I need (not want). Needs and wants. Yakkity-yak. Not having a handphone has kept my mouth quieter and my fingers less itchy. It also prevents people from bugging/irritating me (that's why I always prefer to be contacted by e-mail). I can't stand the sight of teenagers now when they have nothing to do - the handphone is whipped out and the fingers itch and twiddle with it. I find it pointless, especially if you're not replying to an SMS or playing some game. Is it really just a "fashion statement"? A huge barrier has been built between the real and the virtual. As for sleep, I hate being a lazy bummer doing nothing at home or being a potato couch, even if it's the holidays. I can even go to the extent of being BORED and wanting to get BUSY if ever I have too much free time on my hand. The origins being from secondary school (some of you may know I was renowned as being a very BUSY student).

The dazzling temptations. One year on, I have continued to resist the negative forces of EVIL. Here goes my list of "No-nos": NO useless TV shows (excludes news and documentaries), NO cinema visits (when was the last time I entered a cinema? hmm.), NO anime/cartoons, NO computer games (addictive shit which so many people are hooked to), NO BGR (for now, not the proper time), NO crapping around or wasting time, NO slacking, NO... I know I'm placing many restrictions on myself, but it's a matter of working hard now and reaping the fruits of my labour - later.

Well, I've been putting or at least attempting to put heart and soul in whatever school project I did in Year 1... so that effort DID pay off:

PERFORMANCE 1 - DIST

MUSICIANSHIP - DIST

MIDI & SYNTHESIS - DIST

RECORDING AND MIXING TECHNIQUES - DIST

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES - DIST

APPRECIATING CROSS CULTURAL DIFFERENCES - DIST

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT - A

CRITICAL REASONING SKILLS - B

INNOVATION, DESIGN & ENTERPRISE IN ACTION - B

Semester GPA: 3.957

Cumulative GPA: 3.922

Cruisin' about...

2006-03-20T16:20:00.000+08:00

Back from my cruise... enjoyed the view of the endless seas and the strong winds that nearly blew me across (literally) the ship. The main thing I did there was eating a superb 6 meals a day at the many restaurants they had onboard. The food wasn't that great, but what can you expect onboard floating restaurants that struggle to keep tonnes of food fresh continually trip after trip? Didn't use many of the facilities there because I preferred to spend my time eating or taking in the view of the surrounding waters. A pity the trip was only 3D2N... so short...

Just yesterday I went for the MIT Club BBQ. Why am I the only DMAT representative - again? But the food was good for 2 bucks - satay, sambal stingray, and sotong - above the usual chicken wings, fried rice, crab sticks, sausages and potatoes.

Up next there's the Freshmen Enrolment (including two camps) and 3 concerts in store for me... life gets tiring. Half the holidays are gone - I shall try to get more sleep and rest.

Vacation-ing

2006-03-02T20:30:00.000+08:00

It gets tiring going out almost every day for class holiday events. And I'm spending so much money that my pocket money's almost depleted (there's still ang bao money though). There was the Pulau Ubin cycling trip where we went to Chek Jawa (one of the few mangrove swamps left in Singapore), the Bukit Timah Hill Hike (got soaked in the rain like a sponge), and most recently yesterday's East Coast Park outing where we cycled or roller-bladed. I conquered East Coast Park for the second time; I took 23 min 13 sec 73 ms to cycle (read "chiong") from Pit 80 to Pit 1 over at the other end of the park!

I've a steamboat dinner at Marina Bay tomorrow (gonna' blow at least 12 bucks tomorrow) and I wonder if I should go bowling (and bowl my bucks down the drain). Hmm... I'm definitely looking forward to next Tuesday's Paranormal Night Experience @ SP. Well, surely hope we don't see "anything" along the way or else everyone might just freak out.

So many other events are coming up too... I'm cruising from 15-17 March, have at least one BBQ coming up, along with two camps, among other activities. And I want to resume my music lessons soon! Argh... my former teacher's expecting so I gotta find a new one. Wanna take Grade 5 theory end of this year...

Another thing - I shall endeavour to sleep earlier every day because every day after requires more energy. I've gotten deeply stuck in the vicious cycle of sleep debt. Anyway, I require about 10 to 12 hours of sleep for optimal performance and alertness. Zzzzz...

Estactic 18 right on time for vacation!

2006-02-21T20:55:00.000+08:00

Geez... I've got so many items to update here but I'll try to concise them. Well, I still miss my maternal grandma at times, especially when she's been staying with me for the past few years - every time I go into her room I just feel a sense of loneliness and sorrow. But I wanna thank all you people out there for supporting me through this hard time, even if it's only just an encouraging tag on my blog.

I'm finally 18, and as my header image for my blog during the month of February 2006 shows, I have so many entitlements. Not that I'm gonna' be a bad boy and smoke, drink or club around for the rest of my life. But you never know... I wanted but had no space to include that 18 is also the legal age for sex. LOL.

I'm 18 - and I'm done with Year 1 of my diploma. Time flies faster than a space rocket... I can still remember the days when I was still a dumb freshie discovering new things everyday in my new environment. Phew - at least now the assignments are over, while most other courses are having exams on now... *sniggers*

I'm 18 - and what better way to remember being 18 on 18th February (it comes only once in a lifetime) than to have a CONCERT! It was not held on my behalf (I'm not that lucky) but was a music concert put up by us Diploma in Music & Audio Technology (DMAT) students. We performed pieces from genres varying extremely from classical to pop to punk in this concert entitled, "CrossRoads - Where Genres Meet". We were graded on our performances as part of our module "Performance". The official estimated attendance was 235 people - not bad for a start. It was a success and I'm thankful to the course for putting up such a good show. I also have to thank Ian and Wei Jie, who niftily conceptualised a birthday surprise for me at the end of the concert in front of the audience. I was super-embarrassed and super-shocked at the same time, with the class singing the birthday song around me and being presented with a slice of yummy cheesecake bought by Yan Xi (thanks!). Being the Publicity Head of the Concert, I'm definitely pleased that everything on the publicity side of the concert ran smoothly. Looking forward to our future concerts and gigs...

I'm 18 - and right on time for vacation! As my diploma course uses an In-Course Assessment (ICA) system, we do not have major exams but continual assignments and minor tests occasionally. ICA involves our modules, which are largely year-long ones. Thus, I'm still waiting for my Year 1 results now. Now that we have 2 months of vacation till mid-April, I have already planned out my personal schedule and will be kept busy by class activities, CCA activities/camps, BBQs, a chalet and a cruise on Superstar Virgo, among others.

Looking ahead for my eighteenth year ahead...

In loving memory...

2006-01-28T20:10:00.000+08:00

Maternal Grandma Tan Kim Kee 陈金枝(1930-2006)

Departed 26.01.06

Dearest Grandma,

I never realised you would leave so soon that afternoon, or I would have rushed to the hospital immediately. Oddly enough, I was on the train at Outram Park MRT Station during your final moments. I was terribly shocked to meet your body at the ward, but I was consoled that your many years of struggle with multiple illnesses (kidney failure, lung and heart problems) had come to a restful end.

You left so soon, I shouldn't have left for dinner the last time I saw you. Your parting return gift to me of $20 was certainly appreciated, yet even without it I already have more than enough. I have so many memories of you, as you have too. Alas, time and death has taken its toll. Was it just mere coincidence when I noticed the clock in your room had stopped exactly at the time you left this world - 5.13 pm? A premonition gone unnoticed.

You cared for me so much when I was just a small boy - I remember the Collon, Pocky and Hello Panda biscuits, among other items you bought when you visited us... the times we shared eating kway chap and wanton mee at the coffeeshops downstairs... the origami planes, boats, frogs and boxes you taught me to fold... so many memories.

You loved to cook - I forever cherish your dishes knowing I'll never be able to enjoy them anymore. Popiah, chicken rice, gnor hiong, lor mee, prawn noodles, nian gao, clams, fish - I love them all. Similarly, you took great pleasure in eating, enjoying a sumptuous variety of food all through your walk of life. You promised me that we would go out together for a big sumptuous lunch once you were well. I knew deep inside me that it could never happen, but I so admired your optimistic outlook on life. Hope you enjoyed all the dishes I bought for you during my visits to the hospital: ice jelly, chicken rice, siew mai, popiah and more.

Then, you were afflicted with kidney failure and had to undergo dialysis. Your will to live was strong, despite all these difficulties. You peservered on through each pain, each cramp, each ache. The tears in your eyes, and your failing memory over the last few days made me cry, seeing how much you were suffering yet how little I could do to help. You asked me to cut or remove the restraining strings that bound your hands onto the bed, but I reluctantly didn't do it - for your own good. You cared so much about our wellness and whether we had eaten. Were you waiting for me when you were about to leave? I can never be more sorry I promised to see you again soon. By the time I next came, it was too late.

Rest assured that your children, grand-children, and great-grand-children will take care of themselves and that we have all we want to live happily and adequately. I really miss your laughter, your jovial personality, your singing, your smile. My first original song composition I dedicate to you: "Vivid Dreams" with its theme of hope. I have also compiled a CD with 15 of your favourite songs and distributed a copy each for your children's families. In addition, your grand-daughter Jasmine has made a video clip as a tribute to your final journey on earth, with your favourite song "Qian Wo De Shou" in the background. I really regret not having the privilege to play your favourite songs on my electone organ for you... just for that one last time. It has been so long since you heard me play. Don't worry about me, I will work hard and eat hard.

Life has been so different these past days without you - I'm still adapting to it. Rest in peace... I'll see you again there in the heavenly realms. I'll always have you in my mind - forever. Be with me, my beloved one.

Loving you always,

Your grandson Edwin

Freaking pissed.

2006-01-20T12:29:00.000+08:00

Couldn't wake up today... got to school almost 1 hour late... freaking pissed to find out my REMT project group wasn't in the studio. Don't everything depend on me to do, take more initiative - go approach Swee Beng open studio! What if I'm sick or I died, then how the project going to carry on? Please lah.

Then halfway through Musicianship class, I was wrecking my brain nuts over perfect cadences... stupid classical rule shit. Then Ian called and I had to rush all the concert publicity materials out in both hard and soft copies. In the middle of the lesson.

I'm freaking leader and admin liaison officer of every project group that I'm in... it's getting fucking annoying because if there's anything to be blamed - it's going to be on me, not the rest of the group - when I have so many bloody damn groups to manage. And the same stupid situation's happening to me again, like in secondary school... the leech that always gets taken advantage of!!

Who the hell bloody does most of the projects? Who manages all the admin stuff... you think so easy you go and do lah! It's already bloody late and there's NO TIME to do the assignments!

To all my group members: Better freaking - 1) DO YOUR WORK ASSIGNED TO YOU 2) QUALITY WORK, NOT CRAP 3) FOCUSED, not mapling or bloody other games and 4) HAND UP ON TIME or I'm really bloody going to complain to so-and-so lecturer that you've been slacking and don't deserve the marks... then that's your own bloody problem!

Rainy days and Mondays...

2006-01-10T22:41:00.000+08:00

...always make me down. But it's more of the Northeast Monsoon - it's been raining almost continually every day for the past week. I get quite sick of the wet weather.

Had CRS discussion today at Candice's place in preparation for the Discussion Cafe on Thursday. Argh - debates again. And the dumb General Elective Modules we have to take are just a waste of precious time. Which reminds me that they (the diploma course management team) are intending to modify the course structure for next year to become more techonology-based. I'm more to the artistic music side. Haiz... that's why brushing up on audio technology basics are first in my priority list now.

Our graded performance concert's about a month away and the lecturers don't seem to care in the planning and approval of the administration and publicity involved - they're too caught up with all the polytechnic publicity propaganda stuff (e.g. Courses & Careers Fair) to bother with us. Childish polytechnics; always competing with each other and each claiming that they're better than the other.

It's late already so I gotta' go sleep... always waking up late for school these few days... Term 4's so bloody tiring (but I expected it anyway).

New Year, New Challenges

2006-01-07T20:21:00.000+08:00

It's been quite a few days since the new year and I haven't posted till now because of my workload and my old trusty but exploded computer monitor (it fizzled out a few days ago). This new year - a whole lot more challenges await me. Challenges that might overcome me if I don't take control of it.

What are group projects for if the members don't even take the intiative to contribute and, more disgustingly, DON'T even contribute. It's Term 4 of Year 1 in polytechnic and most of the class still haven't woken up from their ideas of slacking around. I'll make it MY academic resolution this year to join only groups that are WORTH my contributing to. There's no point in pushing or delegating work to other people when it ends up that all the shitload comes back to me again - either the work's not up to standard (N.B. I have a rather high standard), it doesn't come on time, or WORST OF ALL doesn't even arrive at all. A very good example is my largely defunct Concert Publicity Committee: most of you do your work; I appreciate it. But consider putting a larget amount of effort in it. I didn't delegate work to you all for nothing - I might as well have did it myself instead of waiting for the sometimes LATE work. If so, what's the POINT of having a committee in the first place (we're all supposed to contribute to lighten each other's workload)!

Gotta' rush my assignments out so I'll blog another time...

Reflections & Aspirations

2005-12-30T17:55:00.000+08:00

525,600 minutes... how do you measure a year?

2005 has been a momentous year for me... a new phase in education with the introduction of polytechnic life, and the passing of my paternal grandmother. Looking back in this final post of the year, I realised that I haven't changed much. Still the same guy who says "yes" to everything, gets himself involved in everything, and is too serious on everything. The one who is most likely to get taken advantage of by other people. Not that I don't mind. I just don't express it much unless you make me mad.

Looking forward to 2006, there's Year 2 of polytechnic coming up. I hope I have sufficient energy for my studies ahead. To DMAT peeps, I might appear to be "strict/harsh" on some of you, but it's only because I hate slacking (i.e. I want to get things done, ASAP, if possible). To all my other friends around me, thanks for supporting and encouraging me through 2005.To my family and relatives, thank you for the care and concern showered on me... all the best for the coming year. To my maternal grandma, may God sustain you with good health ahead. To the reader of my blog, happy 2006 ahead!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2006 to all!

Assignment Frenzy

2005-12-23T13:38:00.000+08:00

Just changed my blog layout (a little). I've just finished all my E-Learning Week assignments... crazy pile of work that had to be done. But I'm not relaxed yet... neither should anyone in class be. Look - we got a concert in less than 2 months' time so you guys better be serious in rehearsing. Doing everything at the eleventh hour (last-minute) will just kill you. Don't be a foolish mugger. Then there's the publicity for the concert. I've rushed you all for a million times for the designs - thank you Yuan Jie, Louis and Wee Kiat for the posters but how about the rest? Especially the ticket designs. We need to let the school print so it's damn urgent - by early January we have to send all the materials off for printing already. Yeah, happy holidays my foot. Term 4 (which is gonna be the most rushed term YET) starts Jan 2 2006 and all the tests and major project work which will determine our final grades are coming up. I would predict in advance that this year would be my worst Christmas/New Year yet. Some people and some things are not helping. Read my previous post if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about. Disappointed to see that much of the class is still hooked on idiotic computer games like MapleStory and involved in relationship problems. It hinders group work so much that a disabled person might be able to contribute much more (or at least be COMMITTED). And I don't freaking care about part-time work outside during these 3 years... my stand is you wanna work, you might as well expel yourself and go work. You didn't realise that you came into a FULL-TIME diploma, eh? Time to resort your areas of commitment. I've got lots more to say but I guess I'm ending here because I don't want to spoil the NEW year.

SNAFU - Situation Normal All FUCKED UP!

2005-11-27T22:03:00.000+08:00

I'm pushed to the point of using, unreservedly, the first vulgarity in my blog. I find no point in hiding from people that our diploma course is all so perfect and exclusive and whatnot... relationships in class are getting worser by the day (has it even been good right from Day One?). Perhaps us musicians are full of problems and we'll never ever get along with one another well.

INTER-DIPLOMA Level. You guys already know of our stinking bad reputation - the other diplomas hate us to the core (I've spoken with some of them). It's not because they're just jealous of us, don't keep thinking they're always at fault (and I'm not siding them OK). We have our fair share of responsibility too, whether it be hogging the studios or damaging the equipment. Please don't act so proud and gung-ho as if you're the MASTER of the studios or what cos' we're sharing it with them (no choice, live with it). And please don't keep talking bad about other diplomas OK, for a start, without DMMT, you wouldn't be here in the first place!

INTER-LECTURER Level. I guess our lecturers are freaking pissed at our CBB (Can't Be Bothered) attitude towards lessons in class. For freaking hell and heaven's sake, pay ATTENTION to what he/she is saying! Whole life break break break, even secondary school classes (and I even bet some ITE classes - SHAME on us!) are more focused than us! Are your attention spans so short (like what M Spicer said of 20 minutes) that for whatever lessons longer than that (which is EVERY LESSON), your brain turns OFF? For one thing, the class should be kept smaller (no more than 20) – don’t combine so many students in one class – it’s not conducive for learning. The lecturer goes on speaking while the class does not pay attention (the class is so big that 2 lecturers cannot handle). But that's not the main problem.

OUR PROBLEM. I don't know what's wrong with you guys. Can never be serious is it? Lecturers like M Spicer and Christopher Tan already so kind towards us and you can't even show due respect to them. As if talking in class is not inconducive enough, you people still surf the Net and play your computer games like nobody's business! For all who are reading this, I feel SUPER PROUD to announce of DMAT's superb level of ILL-DISCIPLINE. Almost the whole class is desperately hooked onto one (or two or ALL) of these THREE WOES (which I term) that are common activities in class – anime (waste of time), computer games (USELESS waste of time) and/or BGR problems (DUMB USELESS waste of time!). Few of you can admit that you don't get your hands into even ONE of the Three Woes. I proudly say I DON'T.

COMPUTER GAMES, for one thing, has got so many bloody "blind" people hooked, going crazy about levelling up and completing quests. You sacrifice so much of your precious life playing stupid games like MAPLESTORY that will only give you a temporal sense of satisfaction. What's the DAMN BLOODY FREAKING point?!?!?! Then when it comes to WORK, one by one all laze and slack your way through, worse yet, becoming a FREELOADER who leeches on the hardworking members of the group. Like the Publicity Committee Meeting I just had with you all - how many of you were actually listening to me? Took so damn long to start the meeting properly - please I don't want to scream at you like a crazy idiot because you guys should be MATURE enough to know what is expected of you. The work I asked you all to hand up to me, I will SURELY have to chase you all again and again (and again). You all bloody freaking idiots making me waste my time on you all.

BGR problems. You guys can never grow up, can you? All wearing masks in front of each other, living each day trying to hide your true self. Fighting over childish matters, neither party wanting to give up, when you should be thinking of how to resolve them. For the GUYS: please, there are so many girls out there, if you're desperate for one go grab one out there, don't make so many love quadrangles in class! For the GIRLS: you ladies, please express your feelings towards ANY guy clearly, don't make them misunderstand your intentions toward them.

GROUP WORK. It's only Year 1 Semester 2 Term 3 and some of you all are finding it so hard to work with each other. I find that there are 3 root causes. 1)Misunderstanding/miscommunication, 2)Lack of respect for each other, 3)PURE freeloading/slacking. For me, it's the third one that's the most fucking irritating. I may not show it, but I HATE/ABHOR it when some of you start leeching and freeloading on me. I'm not your servant even if I'm the leader, so just because I complete everything for you doesn't mean that you can take advantage of me. You sick leech. As for my DVPT group, it's WEEK 5 already. Wake up your bloody ideas. You don't want your grades but I do OK! Don't fucking pull me down the drain along with your bloody idea.

I HATE group work. I don't find that I can trust ANYONE totally in class anymore. I just don't know how all these problems in our course will work out (if at all). I doubt so. In fact, I should be bothering about my studies anyway, so to HECK with you guys. Get it in your head that I came here to study for a diploma, and not for friends or relationships or anything else. DMAT sucks (well, at least some of you guys do)!

Priorities & Group Work

2005-11-13T00:07:00.000+08:00

I'm entrenched in the same situation I encountered in secondary school now. Shucks, but anyway I expected it. With my uncontrollable mouth that hardly says "No" if someone wants me to do something, I get myself into almost everything. Problem is, I got to get my priorities right. It boils down to commitments - am I more committed to my studies or CCAs?

In terms of studies, my diploma course (Diploma in Music & Audio Technology or DMAT), despite having fewer modules than most other courses (7 in all currently), requires that I commit a huge amount of time. You must realise that assignments alone take up most of my time, but this large amount of time is not just for assignments but for other musical necessities as well, my course being both an Arts and Science course.

In artistic terms, I have to brush up my music theory (workbooksin preparation for Grade 5 next year, regain my electone organ performance skills for Electone Grade 6 exam (then there's my private music lessons I hope to resume sometime soon), attend concerts around once a month (to broaden my perspective and musical knowledge), listen to wide genres of music CDs, and of course, be at endless rehearsals (for upcoming Performance events - graded as part of one of our modules). In scientific terms, I've chosen to read library books on specific issues on related audio technology regularly and browse through manuals on software that I use (in order to get better acquainted with them).

As for CCAs, I'm fairly active in both the Info-Communications Technology (ICT) Club and Campus Crusade for Christ. I'm also part of the Singapore Polytechnic (SP) Ambassadors. Currently, I've the 2006/2007 Freshman Orientation Programme in store for me in ICT Club. For Campus Crusade, there are activities almost every day, but I can only attend so much because I've either got assignments or something else on. (Sorry you guys, I can't be actively involved, you'll start fussing over why I don't put God first but then - what about my studies? Isn't that honoring God too? I can't be very involved, my diploma course just doesn't "allow" the time for it.) For SP Ambassadors, I have to promote my course during the upcoming Courses & Careers Fair and any other open houses.

Think that's all of it? There's still a MAJOR concert coming up that I'm co-planning. It's a concert for our course to promote our course (propaganda!), and my role as the Publicity Committee Head means that the bulk of the work is on me now. Those of you who have planned a concert (I do mean a FULL-SCALE concert) know how I feel (probably). The point is, all this publicity planning takes up another portion of my time.

You certainly don't understand the extent of my situation. EVERY DAY is a mad day occupied with the things listed above. I already don't (even if I wanted to, but I don't) YAK on the phone (don't even have a handphone anyway), LAZE on the couch watching TV/anime (waste of time), or get HOOKED on computer games like perpetually almost all teens are involved in now (whether Maple, RO, DOTA, Warcraft or whatever, you are senselessly wasting your life away). But the amount of work listed above still deprives me of sleep (I'm a useless person myself - need 9 hours of sleep at least every night to function well). Can I NEVER get my priorities right?!

Another thing that I hate to rant about: GROUP WORK. Sorry if I offend anyone by what I blog but I just got to say it 'cos I'm darn sick of it. Can you all PLEASE listen and complete whatever tasks are expected of you? I've already taken the trouble to delegate all our jobs equally but you must realise that if one member is not responsible towards his job, the pressure is piled on to the rest, it's not FAIR! And then when the grading comes, who's going to suffer? ME, OF COURSE... everything's always PUSHED to me - even if it's not I have to START things or it'll never get done! If the whole group gets high grades it's not fair that I got the same as those of you who slacked; if we get low grades then all my efforts are wasted! If you were to be more serious in doing your job, then all would be fine; everyone's happy. So please be COOPERATIVE OK? Don't make me chase you for the stuff you have to hand up. TAKE INITIATIVE. I hate to FORCE you but sometimes I have no choice. PLEASE contribute well as a team member OK...

I'm quite moody these few days, but it's just that I want to get things DONE and NOT WASTE TIME. I really hate slacking... learnt my lesson from secondary school, especially the "holiday" period between the end of 'O' Levels to the start of Polytechnic. There's a lot I have to catch up and improve in terms of music; I can't afford to waste any more time. Call me a nerd if you want to, I don't care - at the end of the day, we'll see who gets where.

ICT Club - Leaders of Tomorrow Camp

2005-11-07T14:15:00.000+08:00

25-27 October 2005

This was ICT (Information-Communications Technology) Club's 1st attempt at organising a leadership camp. We got to know our clubmates better - this was essential if we were to work together in future ICT events. Held on the last week of the polytechnic school vacation, it was no wonder that fewer than 20 freshmen attended this camp. We could have slacked that last week at home.

Day 1. After registering my name and having a briefing with my campmates, my group came up with "Synergy" as our group name. We had a flag-painting session where we got painted on by the gamemasters if we didn't freeze when the music paused.

We had station games at various parts of school - the final game "Red Indian" being the most exciting. Two balls were placed in the muddy centre of a designated area on the field. Two teams had to line up back-to-back. At "GO!", we had to run to our group's territory to construct an "Indian tepee" with 4 sandals/slippers. Once the "tepee" was constructed, we ran to the middle, grabbed a ball and attempted to destroy the other team's "tepee". Meanwhile, the "goalkeeper", along with his team players, had to block the incoming ball from destroying the "tepee". My group didn't win - but the game sure was fun.

After dinner was "Water Freshido" where we were blindfolded and led along (holding each other's shoulders) to go through a series of obstacles which ultimately led us to having to crawl, spin and whatnot through water sprays and mats filled with water. We were thoroughly soaked after the whole thing ended. After showertime was "Night Walk". Blindfolded and led all to way to the other end of school, we walked through a path lit with light sticks individually (for the guys) or in pairs (for the girls) - while the seniors attempted to scare us in their various guises. All this - in near pitch-darkness at times. Halfway through the path, we had to search for a piece of paper using a lighted candle in a ladies' toilet to sign our names on and confess any "sin" we had committed. Inside too were scraps of newspaper littered on the floor and at the sink was a baby doll stained with blood complemented with bloody scribblings on the mirror. Near the end of the Walk, we had to search for our faces on burnt-edged papers in a dimly-red-lit lift. Mine appears below.

Day 2. The first thing we had in the morning - Physical Training (PT). It was near-army style in tenacity. Our PT instructors were scolded us and made us run rounds after rounds when our manners did not show. It was a dreaded period of time for everyone. Immediately after that was breakfast - bread with kaya and jam. And Milo. The main event today was an orienteering game where we gained points by searching for clues (coloured strips of paper) at various checkpoints on Bukit Timah Hill and its vicinity. The different colours represented different amounts of points. Our deadline was 4pm; we thought we were late - but we ended up being the first group to have lunch and return to school at around 4.30pm. The other 3 groups came as late as almost 6pm! By the way, here's a photo of my group "Synergy".

They had a food auction for dinner, but I had to leave for a concert. I found out that they bidded for items like canned foods, sausages, Japanese chicken, drinks and oil using the points they collected during the orienteering game. By the time I was back from the concert, they were just starting on Block Catching. We freshies had to run from our seniors over the vicinity of a few floors at two blocks. If we were caught, we were put into "jail" and got "tekan" (made things difficult) by the "jailmasters". At first I got a few sprays of water while I was blindfolded - but the worst was a full bucket of cold water. After some time in jail, we were let out as spies, with a mission to catch the rest of the freshies that had not yet been caught. The game ended with most of us dripping wet.

After a refreshing shower, we planned the steps for our "group dance" and then had Disco Night. Drinks (100-Plus and Milo Dinosaur - a Milo drink with LOTS of Milo powder, very concentrated) were served at the "bar counter". I did not join in the frenzied dancers - I'm not that "type" and besides, I was already worn out by the day's activites. Some of us went back to sleep early, while the rest did not sleep till dawn.

Day 3. We woke up around 9am, had breakfast, then packed up our belongings. Before breaking camp, we had the customary sing-along session, friendship dance and writing of encouragement testimonials on each other's backs. We took group photos in our dri-fit white camp tee (like the one above at the beginning of this post) before bidding farewells to each other. I'll leave you with this photo of glowing light sticks. ICT Club rocks!

Calendar Of Events (Year 1 Semester 1 Vacation)

2005-10-29T15:16:00.000+08:00

I thought it would be nice if I posted a link to what I've been involved in during the recent vacation. Especially for the curious people who can't understand why I seem so busy.

Calendar Of Events (Year 1 Semester 1 Vacation)

Love, your grandson

2005-10-03T22:12:00.000+08:00

Awarded at The Memoirs Awards - in collaboration with Aaron's blog

(In Mandarin): "Yao hao hao du shu, zhuan hen duo qian ah..." (translated: Must study hard, earn a lot of money ah...)

I was touched so deeply I nearly cried in front of everyone in the hospital - never to forget those precious words. And I will regret for the rest of my life that I did not even say what was to be my final goodbye to her properly when we had to leave.

I was in ominous silence through the taxi rides to the hospital and back - I just somehow felt sad. Even though my paternal grandma appeared fine when we were at the hospital, things took a turn for the worse several days later.

1 Oct (Saturday night) My parents had come back late from visiting her, telling me that she was in a critical condition (in the isolation ward). Another regret - I was more caught up with my work and did not see her. That night, while in bed, I somehow had that ominous feeling again - that something was going to happen to her. I thought it was just a mere thought so I calmed my mind and drifted off to sleep.

2 Oct (early Sunday morning) I was jolted out of sleep by a phone call at around 3.30am this early morning. I heard my mum say to my dad, "...your mother just passed away..." I can't explain the sadness that welled up inside me - just that the tears just welled up and I broke down inside. I couldn't sleep for the next few hours until morning. I realized that the ominous feelings I had experienced was a forewarning for the ignorant me. Apparently, she faced difficulties in breathing due to pneumonia, at 1 am - and by 3.11 am, she was gone...

3 Oct (early Monday morning) It was about 4 am when I woke up again, this time not because of a phone call. Her face from the casket appeared to me again (I was at her wake earlier on Sunday night), peaceful and rested. I just felt so sad and broke down in tears again, deep inside regretting bitterly all those times that I could have spent with her but didn't and the undeserving kindness she showered upon me. It was just so sudden an impact on me, perhaps God's punishment for being unfilial. I didn't sleep properly for the second night straight.

I can't recall much of how she took care of me when I was young - only through old photographs and my parents will I be able to do so. I never had the faintest idea that her birthday which we celebrated in January this year would be her last. There were certain points in the past where I wanted to talk to her more but was hindered because of language difficulties I had in communicating with her. It is all too late now to get to know her better...

Even as I'm typing this, I can't help but just well up with tears. I don't know if I can sleep tonight. We never learn to appreciate things until they're gone. Now I know the real meaning of all those circulated e-mails asking us to treasure every minute of life and make the most of it.

The mourning continues until this Saturday where we will bid our final goodbyes to her. One thing's for sure, she was always be kept fondly in our memories. Never said it before, guess it's too late now. But still...

I love you, Grandma.

Love, your grandson

In loving memory: Grandma (1923-2005)

"Vacation" (in inverted commas)

2005-09-26T21:20:00.000+08:00

"Woah... your course so lucky ah, no exams, some more got SIX-week vacation!"

No exams but a six-week vacation means almost nothing - except for those in class who are planning to slack through this period. Having no exams does not grant our course any less stress than other courses - it's just that we are in a system of Continual Assessment (CA), that's all. Which means we're never freed from the never-ending assignments that we have in store for us. Moreover, in my opinion, a six-week vacation would be foolishly spent at screens (be in computer or TV) or in a relevant SLACK mode.

Seems like I'm just over-working myself. I think not - what with the numerous activities that I've organised for the course to - in a way - "de-stress". There's anything from Heritage Day (a visit to the Asian Civilisations Museum) to Sports Days (badminton/basketball/cycling at Pulau Ubin/ice-skating) to Games Day (board games/cards) to... the list goes on. There is also a variety of concerts and masterclasses to choose from (I'm attending at least 5) to broaden our musical experiences. All this, along with the rehearsals I have scheduled for next March's DMAT concert. I am concurrently brushing up on my music theory (plan to take the ABRSM Grade 5 Theory Exam next March with a few others in class) and my sight-reading for electone organ (beginning again with the basic grades). For those of you who don't know, I stopped learning music since Primary Six and have yet to continue lessons. That's why I'm desperately trying to brush my skills up now. I just don't want to waste this vacation (from mid-September to end-October) away - it's too precious especially since I have so many tasks on my personal agenda.

I guess I'm only free enough to update my blog once or twice every month, especially since I have to blog on my Performance Journal (graded) about once a week. Read up more on the latest happenings of me over there.

*Updated on 26 September*

I was making a search on "SP DMAT" using Blog Search and chanced upon these comments from an SP student (childish-me.blogspot.com), some of which I find make sense:

"Though music is my interest and I hope to pursue it, but IF (though there is no IF) I ended up in DMAT, Singapore has such limited resources. Her music industry is so small. I have to go overseas to gain experience. And you know. Working in music industries is taking a big risk. You may be famous for now but not forever. Yes or no? Or worst still, not famous for the rest of your life. Just living like some poor old musician creating music that no one appreciates. That is the worst scenerio for a musician. This applies to artists too. It's the same. Therefore, I can conclude that DMDT will still be my first choice. Sigh. HAHAHA. But. BUT. I really do hope to study in DMAT. HAHA. Ironical. HAHA. =x But I want money too! HAHAHA. Lame ah. HAHA."

Singapore's music industry being small is true only to a certain extent. I mean - the industry might be small now - but who knows - in ten years' time or so it might have ballooned into a large industry. Fame is not the main desire of everyone who entered DMAT anyway. And working only in CERTAIN music careers pose a big risk. You can jolly well be a music teacher in the local schools or a private music teacher and enjoy a generally smooth career (what with civil servant benefits and FAT PAY from the government's bulging pockets for the school music teachers).

As for me, I have hardly any idea of what I'm heading for after my three years in polytechnic. Yeah - 2 years of National Service, and I'm probably going to go for a degree... but in what? I have yet to decide, but I'm looking through the possible choices I have.

More performances. And slackers.

2005-09-03T22:08:00.000+08:00

Can we NOT have any more performances between the 31 August performance and the DMAT concert? It is really tiring - we need the time allocated for Performance to practise intensively for concert and also brush up on our general playing. One performance after another, after another; when's it going to stop? Will we still be caught up with all these performances when the workload of other modules increase (which definitely will take place next semester)? Can't the school just hire external bands to perform... it doesn't always have to be us... just because we're part of SP and since it's an SP event - we ought to be showcased... a lot of us are getting really tired. There are more problems in the course than the lecturers think. Desperate underlying ones. If our workload (especially for Performance) continues to increase I fear for the worst - many people not being to cope with their studies and subsequently FAILING modules... now, NO lecturer would want that - would you?

That was my mood last Friday actually. Was really sick of all these performances. Now I'm only slightly more positive towards it. The DMAT concert might be pushed back to March 2006 and it turns out that there're gonna be several more performances in the meantime. And the workload's gonna' increase next semester. We have to squeeze in whatever spare time we have left for rehearsals.

The coming Weeks 15 & 16 are the climaxing weeks where we have several tests and assignment deadlines. Pressure's on. I don't know why... I've been having some mood swings lately because I just want things (in this case, group assignments, done). I hate it when my group members drag their delegation of work till the last minute - or worse don't do it at all, or don't show a good attitude towards it. If they don't know it's OK; just ask me and I'll clarify things. But if they simply are not interested in doing it - and doing - or should I say PLAYING some other stuff instead - then I can't help it but get real MAD. Especially when it's supposed to be GROUP WORK and EVERYONE'S SUPPOSED TO CONTRIBUTE. It's like MY marks are at stake here; if you don't care about yours then don't drag mine down as well. Which makes me think again to choose my members wisely for future group assignments. I already have a rough idea from working with certain people over whether they are the "kind" that I'm looking for - those that are serious when it's time to be serious.

Where got time?!

2005-08-17T19:30:00.000+08:00

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.

2005-08-07T22:20:00.000+08:00

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!

Urban Escape

2005-07-29T16:49:00.000+08:00

Hours ago I just returned from that wonderful retreat Aloha Loyang. Couldn't help thinking that sometimes when there's so much stress around me - it would be pure relaxation (but wishful thinking) to enjoy the serenity of the weather and scenery on a bench near the beach.

Fine - so I did get really MAD last week but it was because I was feeling super stressed out - don't mind my vent of anger on my blog. Anyway, I'm better now with the end of the SP Graduation 2005 performance. The DMAT Chalet/BBQ (27-29 July 2005)contributed positively as well - we had "high" fits of laughter through games like Twister & Game Of Life. My friends had not seen me so happy/"high" before - all that laughter definitely removed the stresses and worries in my mind for the time being. Sure, it was ordinary, but I saw it as a break for us who have sacrificed much of our leisure time towards assignments and performance rehearsals. I mean, even machines gotta' rest at one point, what more us humans. So yup, it was thanks to the chalet in granting us a temporary hiatus from school work.

All good things will come to an end - and so did the chalet. I only had a few hours of sleep throughout the two nights - so obviously I am already about to fall asleep on my keyboard as I'm typing this out. I'll cut it short then.

Next week's Term 2 Week 10. The pressure will pile on... press on Mutts!

It all went wrong.

2005-07-16T14:55:00.000+08:00

Haven't blogged for almost a month. Busy with music rehearsals almost every day. Fewer and fewer hours of sleep and getting home as late as past midnight on certain days. All because of various upcoming performances at SP's Graduation 2005 (27 July) and SP's end of 50th Anniversary celebration carnival (August). Then there's our performances during lunchtime in the school's food courts and our end-of-year Concert. It all sounds nice and enticing but when even when you enjoy pasttime to the fullest - sooner or later you'll get worn out. That's what I am now. Hardly one term into the first year.

I am freaking fed-up with the "unserious" attitude of some people in class. Can't you all just get serious for once over rehearsing for the coming Graduation performance at least! Yeah most of the VIPs are gonna appreciate our sideline performances but there's bound to be a few incorrigible spoilt bast*rds (like Mrs Goh Chok Tong - which I'll come to later) who will complain (even if it's not shown outwardly but in their minds) about how sucky a standard we are - when they don't Do from Re or can play any damn note on the piano. Hello?! - how much can you expect from some 1st year students who have not even completed ONE TERM of studies in school. Damn it - in advance - to the spoilt VIPs in particular. And as for the unserious people in class - won't you all just settle down and concentrate on rehearsals and go for fun AFTER the rehearsals... instead of just thinking of having fun all the time! There's a time for work and a time for play - NEVER mix the both OK?! Don't listen never mind - continue to slack some more - but don't influence the rest in a bad way!

Enough about internal class issues. But not about the greatest two incorrigible, spoilt, ought-to-be-hanged, damned, selfish, oh-my-freaking-whatever-the word brats in Singapore - Mr TT Durai and Mrs Goh Chok Tong.

For those non-Singaporeans in the dark about the NKF Scandal issue... here's a little enlightenment:

The CEO of the National Kidney Foundation Singapore (NKFS), T.T. Durai, has breached the trust of the people of Singapore and all others who donate to him. He has drawn a total salary of about S$1.8 million over the last 3 years, which averages out to S$600,000 per year and this money comes from the donations of people, many of whom do not even earn that amount in 5 or even 10 years. In addition, he has been less than truthful with the public, lying time and again in court before withdrawing his statements. The NKF has also played games to keep the truth from the public, with chairman Richard Yong telling the public that senior executives fly business class for long-haul flights. However, Durai told the court that he indeed flew first-class. Singapore's National Kidney Foundation (NKF) CEO TT Durai sued media company Singapore Press Holdings and one of its reporters for defamation. But two days into the court proceedings, Mr Durai withdrew his suits. Revelations in court became the talk of the town and the NKF came under public scrutiny. Thousands of Singaporeans withdrew their monthy contribution to the organisation and thousands others signed an online petition calling for Mr Durai to step down. On Thursday, July 14, the NKF board and its CEO Mr Durai announced their resignation. To ensure continuous operation of NKF's various dialysis centres, the Government will appoint an interim Board. It will also work towards forming a new Board, appointing a new CEO, reviewing accounting practices, funding needs, and pricing and subsidy policies of the foundation.

Basically, the NKF is a cheater of public funds! Mr Durai had 8 cars at his disposal (I don't know for what damn reason) and gold-plated taps in his office as well. Five caring benefactors – The Shaw Foundation, the late Mr Tay Choon Hye, Singapore Pools, Lee Foundation and Singapore Buddhist Welfare Services - donated $21 million for the entire cost to build the NKFS Centre. FOOLISH DECISION. Mr Durai is one guy who - worse than the worst murderer - was is a Hitler who ought to be hanged for betraying the trust of so many Jews (Singaporeans).

Now for the equivalently-responsible MRS GOH CHOK TONG. She has been brought up a spoilt lady as patron of NKF. What with her words that Mr Durai's salary of $600,000 a year was PEANUTS and that what a trivial issue it was to make a fuss over. MR GOH CHOK TONG OUGHT TO DIVORCE HIS WIFE! Spoilt bread - spoilt woman - peanuts it is to you but RICHES they are to the 95% or so of Singaporeans who are poorer than you... struggling to make a living day by day. And you with your totally SPOILT PERSONALITY - still DARE MAKE SUCH COMMENTS!! You're damn too much and I'm sure many Singaporeans wouldn't give a DAMN at your funeral!!! That's the damn problem - that most people who are brought up rich are spoilt - and they just go on torturing helpless, poverty-stricken mortals at their merciless command.

Sick and tired of the long hours spent in school every day. For 3 more years - at least. To DMAT peeps: I don't want to name you out but if you are a culprit of the above stuff I mentioned - please STOP harrassing those of us who want to concentrate on our studies/rehearsals. Meanwhile, enough for this post... got to do my assignments now.

Halfway into Term 1.

2005-06-26T23:08:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow, the second semester of school begins for those in junior colleges, primary schools, and secondary schools. But for us polytechnic students, it's already been halfway into Term 1. It has been a harsh time for especially the freshmen Year One students in adapting to the hectic pace of tertiary life. Tomorrow, Week 5 of Term 1 begins. We're halfway through Term 1 already - so quickly.

This past week - projects and assignments took their highest toll on me (yet). Especially that storyboarding, outline/profile and PowerPoint I had to do for Digital Video Production Techniques (which I did from Friday to Sunday).

Just yesterday we spent an entire day out at Bukit Panjang sourcing for available soundscapes for us to record as part of our Recording & Mixing Techniques assignment. A whole day of recording just for 2 minutes of final production. And that's only for one person, there's still three of us left to record (on other days). It's so frustrating when you just want the SOUND of an environment recorded, not the VIDEO or anything else. Just the SOUND. We went to the arcade and library and both firmly rejected our request. So much for corporate organisations. At least the bowling alley was kind enough to allow us several recordings.

Today I went to Wild Wild Wet (a water theme park) at Downtown East as part of my dad's union's annual family gathering. Had not much of a mood for enjoying the lazy river or wave pool there though. Just took the day as more of a short escapade away from the whizz of doing projects.

Very sleepy now - off I go to bed. Caution: My blog may/will not be updated often in the next 3-5 years (at least) at the rate that my assignments are going.

Exhaustion.

2005-06-15T20:15:00.000+08:00

With the worst days starting from 7am (time I leave home) to 6pm or later (time I arrive home), I've yet to adapt to the long hours of polytechnic life though I can cope with other aspects such as finding my way around school. Guess it's the one-and-a-half hour journey (walk->bus->MRT->walk and vice versa) that's draining me out. Like today when I came back myself (I come back with at least one person most of the time) - it was so hard to restrain myself from falling asleep. I managed to get a seat, so the environment was comfy for a good rest. I didn't want to end up at Boon Lay or something (missing my stop at Tampines) anyway, so tried as best as I could to stay awake.

Yup, another thing - lunchtime's ALWAYS so crowded! ONE hour for lunch is often a mad rush to secure seats and add on to the already-snaking queues. Especially for the new freshman intake - the DRAGON YEAR BATCH of 1988! Which results in a greater number of people fighting for that single seat. 6 food courts and still not enough. Oh well - not too long ago we christened ourselves as DDB (Diploma in Da Bao || Da Bao = Takeaway) students. There were 16 of us who takeaway-ed our lunches, giving us 16 red plastic bags swinging to and fro as we walked to a staircase to have lunch together. Not before lining up in two neat lines side by side (no one in the middle) and taking a photo to capture the moment. It was super lame - but we had fun later singing songs accompanied on the guitar - great in expelling excess gas. Haha. We will definitely consider Da Bao-ing our food in future.

If you haven't noticed yet, I haven't been blogging so often now - can't afford the time to. So I'll just be doing fortnightly/monthly round-ups of my adventures in life. Catch you all next time.

DMAT - you rock.

2005-06-06T21:49:00.000+08:00

I've been so caught up with polytechnic life that I've just managed to squeeze in a bit of my precious time to blog about recent developments.

Life rocks at Singapore Polytechnic (SP). As has been the focus of my previous posts. Polytechnic propaganda they might seem, but I'm not intending to show any bias towards Junior Colleges, Centralised Institutes, Institutes of Technical Education or private schools here. Just frankly describing my experiences.

It's now (as I'm typing this) the start of Week 2 in school. Got to know my classmates better, 43 of us including me in all. Although I must admit I still can't match certain names to faces. You know - girls' Chinese names that are so similar to one another.

DMAT (Diploma in Music & Audio Technology) life is great - an exclusive luxury lusted after by hundreds of applicants. For the privileged 43 of us who got into the course, we could have asked for no more. For one thing, we get to create our own digital music in the MIDI & Synthesis module. Another unique thing we get to do that no other course offers is to stage our own group/solo performances in public areas (we're coming to it not so soon yet though) in the Peformance module. And - we study in an air-conditioned environment for all our lessons - no workshops or laboratories for our course.

If there has to be a down-side to this course at all, it would probably have to be the Musicianship module, where we're covering Music Theory at an impressive speed (presumably EIGHT grades in one semester/half a year) as part of our Musicianship module. Our timetable is rather packed, ranging from 9/10am to as late as 5pm (for Friday), with breaks of only 1 hour per day on certain days. But this is perhaps of our present process of adaptation to polytechnic hours; we're not used to such a hectic schedule yet - but we'll get used to it in time.

Sidetracking now to the CCAs I joined during the CCA Week last week: Campus Crusade for Christ, Info-Comm Tech (ICT) Club (my faculty's club) and Community Services & Cultural Club. 3 in all. But the two clubs are what they call "non-commitment-based" - which means I don't really have to be a REAL active member all the time. So my main CCA would be of course Campus Crusade.

Ack. Gotta go sleep soon so I can't blog anymore.

DMAT. --*Exclusive. Exquisite. Experiential.*--

Singapore Polytechnic - ROCKING MY WORLD! (Part 4)

2005-06-01T19:57:00.000+08:00

The final series of the summary of my polytechnic orientation activities. I was barely starting to regain my energy after a camp and a chalet (see Singapore Polytechnic - ROCKING MY WORLD! - Parts 2 & 3) when I went for this event. So, as expected, I was EXTREMELY worn-out.

[21 May 2005] || Organised by SP Community Services & Cultural Club

Hmm... I was supposed to at least put some photos of the event in this post - but I haven't managed to get them in digital form yet. Yawn. Where's Foodcourt 5? *blur* Oh now I remember. Grabbed a sandwich from a nearby shop and registered my attendance. Then it was the usual routine of icebreaker games again - in groups. We were split evenly later however - my group was El Draque. Guess it's some pirate's name or something because all the group's names were centered around the theme of "Vikings Showdown" - which was the event name anyway. Our first assignment was to paint our group emblem/flag. Like most of the other orientation activities, we were to carry it around with us wherever we went around Sentosa. Again, I don't have a photo of our completed banner. Ack. That aside, the team spirit for my group was rather low at first when we later decided upon our group cheers (which I contributed - seeing that I could do my part to gel the team together). This was to change gradually in the course of the event when we needed lots of teamwork to get things done.

We had lunch at 11+ and took a chartered bus to Sentosa Island, singing silly songs and filling the bus with laughter along the way. Upon landing we were given a quick briefing, after which we took off to the Visitor Arrival Centre to catch a bus to our Game Station (different teams had to go to a different station first). El Draque (my team) headed for the Carlsberg Sky Tower, our first stop in the leg of the race. It was a flip-the-card memory game. Seems easy but don't forget we each had 2 cards and there were 10 of us - which makes for 20 cards. The climax was when my poor team leader Xiang Ming found out that - to put it in Singlish - he "kena tio" bird shit. In other words, he got bird poo on the back of his shirt. We were like pitying him but laughing at the same time because of his "misfortune". Returning to the game, there was a forfeit for us because we finished the memory game too fast. Sitting in a circle in alternating gender (boy-girl), we had to pass a tiny slip of plastic with our mouths to each other. Which meant KISSING (separated by a piece of plastic)! I decided to be enthusiastic and did it anyway.

The Merlion was our next stop. Just that it took a bit of time to find that the gamemasters were actually at Merlion Walk instead. Two cards, pictures of animals, were given to us again this time - we had to keep them secret. Then we had to act out one animal and give the other card we had to another person who was acting out our other card's animal (sounds confusing? read again. if not, never mind). All without mouthing or any verbal communication. Then we stood in one line, passing a Mentos sweet from mouth to mouth (again, boy-girl alternating). More enthusiasm needed. I did it anyway. As always, a forfeit out of the blue was bestowed upon us again. We stood in the shallow "fountain river" of the Merlion Walk and sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" - while the inquisitive eyes of the public scrutinised us.

Next stop - Siloso Beach - was agreeably the worst experience for us. Given a pail filled with holes, we had to lay down on the sand and cover the holes with our footwear as they poured more sea water in. And we had to remove our footwear one by one at the same time. The pail, being suspended, caused great distress. Worse than that was that we got completely wet when the gamemasters poured sea water all over us. Later we went into the shallow part of the sea, separating ourselves into two groups, facing each other. We played five rounds of a game similar to scissors, paper, stone. If you think that wasn't wet enough, we had to roll in unison over the sand next.

We walked to Underwater World with wet sand on our clothing. Luckily Underwater World was near Siloso Beach, or else we would've gained even more stares from the public as we trudged on. Separated according to gender again. Then we got little cardboard cards with different body parts written on them. We were supposed to transport various fruits in the fastest time in pairs, using our respective body part combinations. El Draque was one of the fastest teams - we clocked a timing of about 4 minutes plus! The forfeit this time was well - yummily sour - savouring a slice of lemon each. Then we had to do our group cheer (like what we did for most of the game stations), because lemon was supposedly able to help us to soothe our throat, making us able to cheer louder.

Cable Car Station was next and as usual, we ran into a bit of trouble finding it. Having eventually discovered it at the foot of the now non-operational Cable Car Station, our task was to all cram into the masking tape-tiled shapes on the floor with the given number of feet and hands. Thankfully we had no forfeit this time because we completed the station quickly.

Back at Siloso Beach, we discovered we had to complete three inter-group games. Just a quick summary of them. The first game was at some mini play fountains at Siloso Beach. Holding the shirt of the person in front of us, we had to cover the nine "water holes" of the fountain according to the called "fountain number" (there was a fountain number layout). Any water that shot up above our knee level because we failed to cover it lost us one game point. El Draque won! So the other team had to do a forfeit of - what else - being splashed all over with more water. Ended up we were all wet - AGAIN. Second was a game that I'd briefly describe as "Shoot-a-hole-through-the-paper-using-paper-bullets". Self-explanatory. Which led to the third game where, since El Draque had lost the second game, had to face a water bomb bombardment by the winning group. We felt like Prisoners-Of-War as we crouched face-down on the sand and got bombarded by the winning team. Anyway, we got our revenge later when we won a game of "Bird-Water-Stone" (like "Scissors-Paper-Stone"). It was evil fun hitting back at them with water bombs like they had previously did to us.

The FINAL VIKINGS SHOWDOWN @ Palawan Beach. The rain was starting to get heavier, and we were starting to feel cold and hungry. But we still had to play this "telematch". The first task was for the group to run, one by one, to get one article of a pirate costume each. After that, we had to dress one of the members in that costume, and that member had to run across the suspension bridge to the island (South-eastern Most Tip of the SouthEast Asian Continent) and up one of the two towers to get coloured flags assigned to our group. While that member was still somewhere about in the towers, the rest of the group had to fill water bombs and transport twenty to another pail some distance away. After accomplishing that and once our "pirate" had come back, we had to all roll in the sand - AGAIN! Next, a few members had to go across to the towers to retrieve our group flag. Upon their return, we all dashed towards the finish line. EL DRAQUE EL DRAQUE NUMBER ONE!!! We came in 1st! It was a tremendous achievement for us - we felt that it really made our day - and it was totally unexpected, anyway.

We took a group photo all together to preserve the memories there (and I blogged this post, or for that matter, other posts in this series, for that same reason too). As said earlier, I haven't seen the photo yet. Guess they didn't make it available online. Following that was washing up and having dinner at the Seah Im Food Centre in mainland Singapore. Then it was time to bid adieu. Home sweet home, rest for our tired souls.

Footnote: The series of "Singapore Polytechnic - ROCKING MY WORLD!" is a recollection of the great times I had during my various polytechnic orientation activities. As you can see, fun is always guaranteed by joining these events - especially so for those of you reading this who have also gone for any of these activities. It is with great pleasure (and much fatigue) that I end this series here - the full 4 parts of the "Singapore Polytechnic - ROCKING MY WORLD!" series are available through my blog's archives as well. Having a great time in Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and hope all SP students out there will enjoy their time here as well!

Credits: Certain parts of Part 4 - this post, were copied/modified from my ex-secondary school classmate (and present SP schoolmate) who also went for the event. Really needed her blog posts about the event, which helped me remember the time I had there as well (you see, it's been quite some time between the event and typing this so I can't really remember all the details). Thanks Jessica!

Calendar of Agenda (May)

2005-05-29T22:16:00.001+08:00

A look-back on what I busied myself with in May 2005:
1 May Labour Day
5 May Singapore Poly. Campus Crusade for Christ BBQ @ East Coast Park
12-13 May Went back Secondary School help Ms Yew (IT stuff)
16-19 May Singapore Poly. (School of Info-Communications Technology) Freshmen Orientation Camp
19-20 May Singapore Poly. Campus Crusade for Christ Chalet @ Aloha Loyang Resort
21 May Vikings Showdown @ Sentosa - Singapore Poly. Freshman Orientation Activity
22 May Vesak Day
24-27 May Singapore Poly. Mass Orientation Programme
28 May Singapore Poly. Community Svcs & Cultural Club BBQ @ East Coast Park