錄音室

Are what have been recorded the truth?


Yesterday has been an interesting experience for me: my first time in a recording studio... It was for my percussion band though, I wonder when will my vocal recording be... Haha...

Progress was slow at first, we kept doing many retakes... Oh, I just realised who was the culprit... Haha... When we were doing Samba, everyone was playing so we had problems making everything blend nicely... I admit, it was my fault... The djembé being a high tone instrument is very obvious when all the rest are bass instruments, any beat missed or rhythm changed is immediately discovered...

We spent 3 hours setting up and getting the Samba right, the rest was a breeze... I was leading the Chinese section on the lion drum so we only did 1 take!!! Though I would had wished to do another one if we had the time, the cymbals weren't that good...

The Indian section took quite long as they had problems coordinating and the instrument didn't sound good in an air-conditioned room... The drum had to "drink" lots of water to make it sound more bassy...

Oh well, its easier to hear it then describe it... This is the version I edited, the one edited by the engineer wasn't exactly what we had always been playing... I'm not sure which one is better, but mine definitely sound better since I've covered up some of the mistakes as well as enhancing some instruments that weren't audible... Get it here...


This is a djembé...


The djembé players... Havoc makers???


Stop bothering me, I'm trying to concentrate...

X-節

X-mas?


I've been thinking of this for the past few days, why is Christmas = X-mas? There is like no relation except maybe "criss-cross"... Then again, how did the first person thought of that and more importantly, why?

Asked a few people this question and a clan member posted a good explanation on the forums...

DanDrew766:
"For the record, Christmas is a completely religious holiday. The word comes from the words "Christ" which is god, and the word "Mass" which means gathering.

The English word "holiday" also is in fact religious. The word sprouts from the words "holy day" meaning that holidays began as days to be observed by the religious. Big corporations just thought they could capitalize on the idea with the introduction of Santa and such.

Tell me why we don't get a day off for St Patty's day but we do for things such as "Good Friday"? At least here in America we don't, because that isn't really a major English holiday. Its Irish, and if you are any good on your American history, you would know that the Irish didn't really like us, because Americans came from Britain, and the Irish were oppressed by the British.

Anyways, back to the argument at hand. X was in fact meant to replace "Christ" so as not to offend the Jewish people or any other non-Christian people. But seriously, who really cares about the Jews?(JK JK JK JK)

And no, "Christ" has nothing to do with Santa. But Santa in my opinion is the better one, he gives me video games!"

Boring entry, I know...

決心

New year resolutions: to make a better New Year resolution this year...


I'm sure there are many people that makes the above resolution, or maybe even "to achieve my New Year resolutions this year"... What's the point of making such resolutions when you know that you would not carry them out? To give yourself a target so that you have something to remind yourself of? Or is it just to bluff yourself that you've made such a resolution and you'll probably achieve it, thereby making yourself feel better (or rather less guilty of the things you have not done)... I know its too early to be posting this, but I want to type this all out while I still have it in my mind...

If there is something you want done, just go and do it... There is no need to wait until the very last minutes of the year to decide what you want to do... Maybe you have too many things you want to do so you have to list them down... But I'm sure you can do that on any other day...

News Flash!!! The reason for New Year resolutions just came into my mind, its like my left brain just talked to my right brain...

Making New Year resolutions is a way to reflect back on what you have done and not done in the previous year... It makes you think about what you'll want to achieve in the coming year...

Well then, problem solved... Hope all of you make resolutions that you can and will achieve... Happy Holidays...

佳節

You're either happy or sad during festive seasons...


Holidays are times when people get together, be it friends or family... This Christmas is just like any other day to me, I spent it at home alone... So should I be sad that I'm alone during a holiday or should I just treat it like every other day?

Well, its almost over and I just treated it like any other day... No point making myself sad right? Its not like this day has any special meaning to me...

My phone just died on me and I didn't even do anything!!! Was chatting on MSN when I suddenly heard my phone rebooting... I thought it was just a normal crash until I realized that it isn't booting up!!! Tried to switch it on several times myself to no avail... Took the battery out for several minutes and still no luck... Finally resorted to formatting the phone (press and hold "3", "*" and the green button; might only work on Symbian phones)...

So I've lost most of my contacts and ALL of my messages... Oh well, I guess its finally time to let go of some things...

新設計

New Layout...


Well, visually there isn't much of a change because I changed to the new blogger layout and spent an hour or so trying to make everything look the same as before... So what's the point of changing the layout if everything is the same as before? I don't know, just trying to find out what the new layout has to offer...

With everything being point and click, its more difficult to customize the layout now... I don't really like that space they put after my "artworks", "friends" and "links" on the sidebar... Haven't figured out how to remove those spaces yet...

I think the only good thing this new layout offers is the archiving of the archives; it make it easier to locate my past entries... The tallying of the posts is a plus too...

This made me realize that I'm not as productive as last year... Though I started out March last year, I had 9 more posts than this year...

Hmm...

I think I've just found out the reason... Someone took up all of my time during the past 3 months where posts are scarce... Its not that I have no time or nothing to blog about, but because I can't really blog about what happens here especially when I know that person reads it (and I just realized she still does)...

Oh... Shouldn't go that much into it... Christmas is coming!!! I've always hated this period, it is the most fun time of the year but it also signifies the end of it... It makes me realize that I have achieved nothing and this year is no exception... Oh well, gonna enjoy it while it lasts...

思緒

Things are only how you want them to be...


This post is going to be very random; different people may have different interpretations of it...

Everyone knows life doesn't always go your way, it just follow you once in a while then move off in a different direction at the most crucial moment... That's why life sucks... However, I always believe that things are how you want them to be... Its like the cup that's half-empty or half-full, it doesn't necessary mean you're pessimistic if you see it as half-empty or optimistic if you choose the other... If so, what would I be if I say the cup was never full in the first place?

When things happen, you can groan and moan that your life sucks and how things can never go your way... Or you can be happy that things didn't get worse than it probably could... At these times, I believe that all those thinking are just a waste of time... Why waste time contemplating over the events when you could use it to think of a way to make the situation better?

I've always thought that I could easily control my emotions; I can be sad or happy if I choose to... It was only yesterday that I realize my emotions can only be controlled on the surface level... To others I may look totally fine, even I believed that I'm totally fine... It was when my mind stopped working when its supposed to that I realize that I'm still affected by the events that had happened... Maybe it was due to the lack of practice or maybe I was too tired, but I couldn't focus on what I was supposed to... Zombie would be a good word to describe it...

I predict I'll be normal again in 1 or 2 days time, but what is normal when things will never be the same again... I am the epitome of positive thinking, so yup... Nothing can bring me down...

失去中心

Fun makes you lose your focus on the important things...


Being rejected really isn't a very nice feeling... First rejection was from MINDEF, my application for deferment was rejected... Its a 3 weeks ICT!!! What an idiotic thing to do when my exams are so close...

Secondly, I was rejected several times yesterday while playing basketball... I'm fine with being rejected by Teck Sheng (he is so tall and all...), but being rejected by Cherlynn was depressing...

Today, my project proposal was rejected... I'm so dead... Really not good at coming up with problems to solve... Give me a problem and I can think of several ideas to solve it but not the other way round... Can someone help me think of something? Think of some IT stuff (computer, handphone, iPod, etc.) that you don't like or think can be better...

愚於愉

Yesterday was funny, today was fun...


Damn, I love that title... Ok, so yesterday wasn't exactly the best day I had... Something happened and things are getting a little rocky; I know the issue will have to be addressed sooner or later... Might as well thrash it out first and if things go bad, we won't need to waste anymore of our time...

After that something happened that made me cracked up... I was laughing, really laughing hard, but somehow I felt empty inside...

Today, I met up with 2 people for breakfast then played basketball with those Esprimere kids in the afternoon... It kept drizzling and the floor was wet, a big disadvantage for me... The only thing I'm better than any of those present is my speed; can't really sprint when the floor is wet though... Overall, it was fun and tiring... Haven't been exercising much these days, that workout really tired me out...

Life's going back to normal for a while I guess... or maybe not... Heh heh...

一無是處

Its not about knowing how to do it, its about getting it done...


Knowing how to do things is useless unless you go out to get it done... For me, I haven't done anything yet... My project that is... Its already December and I haven't even have a contents page yet...

Was performing yesterday at Zheng Hua Community Club for the Arts Festival... I used to hate what we were doing, but I'm starting to like it these days... Think its because I'm getting better already... Haha... Met up with a friend I haven't seen for very long, she was supposed to come support me but she came after everything ended...

Oh well, haven't been doing much these days...

殘廢

The worse handicap is the inability to get past your mental barrier...


This weekend seems to be the most packed after so long of nothing... First up, was performing at Vivo City promoting Standard Chartered... I haven't told anyone about it since I'll be wearing a tight suit, not exactly something you want others to see you in... The good thing is our faces are painted, so it'll take a while before you can recognize me... Well, at least that's what we hope; its a good thing I haven't seen anyone I know yet...

After that we decided to go Dragonfly at the nearby St James Power Station... The place is quite nice and I totally liked their band... They play Mandarin/Cantonese/English Pop at intervals throughout the night... Drank quite alot that night and reached home at around 2am...

The next morning I was at National Stadium by 7.30am already... Woke up late and missed the supposed meeting time, had to take a cab there myself... We were there for the Singapore Marathon (sponsered by Standard Chartered as well); not to run, but to "make some noise" to cheer them on... There was a competition to find the group that can "make the most noise", or as they put it nicely "best raise the spirit of the runners"... I didn't expect anything since I'm already dead from the events the day before, it wasn't a hangover or anything, just tired... Furthermore, my hands already hurt from that 2 hours of playing...

The people just kept coming and coming, there seemed no end to them... We kept playing until 3 hours later when the rain saved us... We got second though, $1000 prize, not much for 3 hours of playing...

We had to go back to Bishan for more practice since there is a performance this coming Saturday... And another hour plus of playing, my hands were totally gone... Usually if our hands are bruised, we'll just use another part of our hand to play, but there wasn't any other part of my hand that isn't bruised...

After that was Weifen's wedding dinner, was really tired by then... I didn't drink any that night, I could already drop dead without any influence of alcohol... Nothing interesting happened though...