random late night post to keep my free domain

Let's discuss something more random, shall we? Like the newly (actually about two months) opened shopping centre at my down there. Ahem, Yew Tee Point. So, what's so peculiar about the place?

It's a rather small shopping centre, frankly pathetic by mall standards. Above is a condominium, a carpark. The shopping part takes place over...one and a half storeys. Enough to host 70-odd shops. Which is fine and dandy.

But. This shopping mall has something awesome about it. It's chock full of food.

Come on, a third of the stalls sell omnomnom-ers!

Previously, for Yew Tee, we had:

1 Food Court
1 Hawker Centre (2, but the other doesn't count)
1 McDonald's
1 Cake Shop
1 Bread Shop
...

...That was it. Now, however, we have:

3 Food Courts
1 Hawker Centre
1 Japanese Restaurant
1 Hong Kong Restaurant
1 Indian Food Joint
1 Store that sells a lot of things
1 Chinese Noodle Joint
1 Toast Restaurant
1 KFC
1 Burger King
1 Subway
1 Long John Silver's
1 McDonald's
1 McDonald's
1 McCafe
1 Old Chang Kee
3 Cake Shops
3 Bread Shops
1 Chicken Store
1 Chicken Rice Store
1 Sushi Store
1 Bah-Kwa Store
1 Bubble-tea Store
1 Soya bean Store

No, that wasn't a typo. There really ARE two Mac's hanging around the area. Best thing is, they're located 5 metres from each other. Well, one of them is air-conditioned, but still.

Think there are a couple more I missed out, or not completed yet...

Glittery, Liberating Silver

So we got Silver.

We broke our 34-year, 17 consecutive Golds-and-above streak.

So.

So?

I admit, I was shocked when I heard the results. How could we have gotten Silver? I did not believe we played a Silver standard. I still don't. It was definitely a Gold standard.

But then, you realise that this medal is really quite meaningless. It says absolutely nothing of the effort that we as a band have put in. Whatever we've done, we've done our very best, to whatever extent we could have. That is enough.

I'm quite sure every other band in Singapore has worked very hard for this. Everyone deserves a Gold with Honours.

Hey, besides, I like silver so much more than gold as a colour.

dead blog revival

Finally. Have to update.

SYF is in two days' time.

God, I still can't get part G of Overture No. 1 right.

Makes me wonder sometimes if I'm really deteriorating temporarily, or I'm set on a path of no return back to Sec 1 days.

Fine, not so dramatic. Because if I really did so I'd probably quit band out of sadness.

But still, I've been deproving at a horrendously fast rate. My endurance, my high notes...will my tone go next?

I have no idea what's causing this. None.

Damnit.

I want to play the trumpet.

the start (end) of the holidays (my freedom)

Friday was awesome day. Day off as RI's A-level results were awesome. Next week? Holiday.

Friday: Band
Saturday: Band (though I poned this)
Monday: Band
Tuesday: Band
Thursday: SMP
Friday: Band
Saturday: Band

Yea, I have a free schedule. Not complaining though. We need the practices.

Of course, with so many days taken away from me, you'd think I'd be chionging my homework like some crazy maniac these few days. Instead, I got to turn 21 in Empire: Total War. As the Poles.

>.>

So today was supposed to be band day, but I didn't go as I had an NS talk conducted by Mindef specially for PRs. The event started at 7.45 am, so my mum and I had to get up quite early to go to Expo. Saw tons of Chinamen there. Like me.

Then was a short reception, then a ferry ride to Pulau Tekong, where the Basic Military Training Center was located. The place looked not nearly as run-down nor scary as I had never imagined it to be (to be honest I don't mind going for NS at all). Oh, and the boat was nice.

There we toured the facilities in the BMTC like the hospital, the pool, the track, the bunks (nicer than the place we stayed at during the Band trip to Malaysia two years ago), the recreation area (no com, sadly), and whatnot. Then, a ride back to the HQ for a talk in the auditorium. The MC was super duper high. Like, seriously, high.

There were a few talks, by two PR officers (seriously though, what's the point of staying as a PR if you work in the damn army? I mean, if your homeland and Singapore were to fight, then you're quite screwed...), the head of the BMTC, and Minister of State for Defence (or was it Minister for State of Defence?). Then Q&A, standard fare. All in all not horribly boring and definitely quite useful. Lunch was at the cookhouse, and then ferry back to the mainland, and home we went.

Then I played Empire until like, 9.

Shit, I'm addicted.

goddamn it stupid OpenOffice Chinese word count method

I was writing up my essay for 鹰的天空. first wrote something damn lame about some guy trapped under a building after an earthquake. Decided it was too lame in the end and I couldn't ever fulfill the word quota as I was on page 2 and at 700 words. So I restarted my essay. Did the 'do-you-want-perfection' question. Did a page (with a smaller Chinese font) and checked my word count. not even 500? Bullshit! A single paragraph is like over 100 words. So now my Chinese E-Learning is complete. Not my other subjects though...

Oh and I was supposed to collect my broken trumpets with Lin Jin (he had a broken trombone) at Windworks today. Only today was staff training and the band wasn't open, and there was no way in hell I'm bringing 3 trumpets home (I brought back from yesterday's awesomely-long practice from 9-5. Didn't play it though =\).

(I'm quite Bad) minton

I played a bit of badminton just now with my dad. Quite fun but I still suck. Need to get less lazy =\ Daniel Ng, wanna play some day?

I found out about (actually it's more I remembered about) Samurize, which is basically a desktop editor. Let's you put a lotta stuff on the desktop, like CPU info, RAM, time, etc. If you think a normal desktop won't have use for such a thing since it's so cluttered anyways, my desktop is rather...empty.

Yea. The wallpaper changes often, though.

Anyways, I tried to use Samurize. Fiddled around with it for the entire night on Friday, then uninstalled it the next. D: Tried Rainmeter, but didn't like the fact that to edit your desktop you had to use Notepad.

nothing much

Again, just posting to keep my domain alive. Hopefully.

Valentine's Day passed by peacefully without my doing pretty much anything. So did Total Defence Day (got caught mildly surprised by the alarm though).

I have SMP tomorrow, as my mentor had an MC last Thursday. Means I go for SMP twice this week...

Ah well. Need to improve my trumpet playing even more. I'm actually okay, just that my endurance is still utterly disgusting. Can't really think of how to train that though.

long time no update (shit may lose my free domain D:)

Feeling not so emo now, although still emo that I screwed up so goddamn badly yesterday concert. Ah well, it happens. But still.

I was supposed to have SMP today, but my mentor called in and told me she had an MC, so I went home earlier. Practiced a little at home, sounded like shit still. For reasons still unknown, I sound way better in school.

God, I seriously need to practice my trumpet playing more.

advertising for my debut single which is coming soon

People, get ready for the most awesome and pleasurable sensation you have ever experienced. This artifact, still in the midst of preparation, will blow your mind, and every other part of your body along with. Starring all sorts of fingerings, positions, and instrument blowing, it is the one, the only:

Saxytime with a Trumpet and an Out-of-Tune Piano

Okay the above was all a bunch of bullshit. You know, just in case you believed me.

I was playing Take 5 with Ernest as piano this afternoon. And I sucked. Surprise. So after practice we were all discussing about my debut album, and thinking up all sorts of innuendos to the title.

Bought a Trumpet duet book for myself. Hmm...

Kinda ironic since I'm only one guy, eh?

I realised that Cold Storage's honey-baked and black pepper chicken are SO much more expensive than their Carrefour counterparts! By more than a dollar! What the heck!

Also, a small chicken cutlet in Carrefour costs $1.60, while a honey-roasted version of a similar size goes for the low low price of $4.00. Huh.

Fanfare for Pres

So today we did a small fanfare for President Nathan. Who came to RI for a charity dinner that was:

-Organised by Boon Lay (Boon Lay!)
-Hosted by, well, the RJ part of RI
-Held in the RI part of RI's Albert Hong Hall, aptly renamed Ballroom Hall

So, one wonders why RJ wasn't invited to perform instead. Ah well.

I screwed up. >.> I was bloody tired, though, after the entire day, so yeah. But still.

tired

I really am.

Why is Band so tiring?

Quite a bit to say about CNY, but I'm too tired to. Suffice to say I went to a few of my parents' friends' houses and invited someone over. Received a tidy sum for Ang Bao which I feel is too much, but no complaints.

I don't know why, but today seemed especially tiring for me, even by Band standards.

Something is wrong with me this week. Or at least these three days. My playing turned out atrocious. It's like I jumped back all the way to the beginning of last year. Not good.

Tired.

the SMP lu(a)nch

So today was the CNY celebrations at RI (and every single other school out there...). It was the usual: RICO, Talent-time by the houses, a just-for-this-year performance by students from Shenzhen Middle School, and a lousy ending of CNY songs (well, one song).

RICO's performance was...amazing. The Erhu duet, that is. It was damn gay D:

The house performances were quite cool in general. Moor's kicked ass, can't remember Morrison's (lol), moving on. The singers were all ungodly horrible though. Weird.

Now Shehzhen's was a huge surprise. The guitar performance was awesome (that guy's got some vocals), and even the group 'Peng You' was nice. A nice break from the godawful singing.

Then was more less godawlful singing, but still not quite on par with Shenzhen.

Then...I had band. Practiced the fanfare we were goin to do for the President next Friday (yay).

Then was me trying to rush the others after band to get to KFC quicker as I was gonna be late for the SMP launch otherwise. So we walked marginally faster, I got my food first, wolfed it down, rushed back to school. I was still early. >.>

The SMP launch was...interesting? Well, definitely some useful information, but I'm not really used to hearing about what a good laboratory notebook is or how to do a proper literature review on the official launh day of any event. I'm more used to hearing...someone officially launch the damn thing. Which none of them said, oddly.

band practice today had two people

yay :D

I was happily practicing outside the band room (as RJ was inside doing something), along with Johnson and Zhao Yue, then Winston and Steven heard me and walked up. And suaned me. >.> Well, indirectly anyway. I can't even hit my super high Bb straight on (or my A, I think...hmm maybe A can).

should-be-spring-but-probably-winter cleaning

Because the world's freezing over. My mum told me that some parts of America are experiencing -40-50 degrees (Celsius) in temperatures. Holy shit. That's as cold as the Arctic. And 'sides, it's still snowing in China. So yeah.

I did help out a little. I scrubbed the toilet and mopped the floor, which surprisingly took me all of about 2 and a half hours to do. D:

Shall do a little trumpet practicing and then do my homework.

oh shit I haven't updated in a while

This. Is. Awesome.

Had band yesterday (like on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday too...). But can't complain, even though I feel like slacking. I heard Kranji Sec (the school right next to my block, I think. eh.) practicing Overture No. 1 for Wind Band (Wind Ensemble?) just this morning. If they're doing Saturday practices now, they're a hell lot more enthusiastic than our band. Oh wait. So are maybe the entire band population in Singapore.

Just yesterday too I heard from our teacher-in-charge that two guys are almost going to quit band (when their parents step up as well, you know it's gonna be hopeless). Problem? One of them is our only Sec 2 Euphonium (how coincidental! We only have 1 Sec 3 and Sec 4 Eupho as well!), so unless we get a highly enthu Sec 3 euphist next year, or a highly enthu Sec 1 (both are highly preferable), Euphos are dead.

Okay shall be less depressing. Was watching some Russell Peters today (trying to down--ahem, buy his newest gig) and it was quite funny. Only the guy who posted the show left out part 5, so I stopped after that. Did nothing the whole day though.

Awesome attendance will (hopefully) be awesome

Yesterday was Daniel Ng's birthday party. Interesting thing is, his birthday is two weeks away. Cool.

So anyway, I went to his house. Entered through the back door as the front door of the lift was unuseable? Then came into the study (or the lan centre), saw him and Huai Jun playing Sins of a Solar Empire (I can never get into the game), Huai Jun's bro TF2-ing. Naturally, I set up my com and...erm...shit, what did I do?

Whatever, Shaun came after skipping church for breakfast (>.>), then I played a bit of Audiosurf while waiting for their damned Sins game to end. So I could play Red Alert 3 with people, not myself. Came lunch (which was HUGE), then finally me and Danielzng played 1 2v2 Hard AIs and were trashed, then tried 1 hard and 1 medium and still lost. Meh.

Then was a long period of nothing while everyone besides me and Shaun...were Mapling. Yeah. On a private server, but still. MAPLING.

So Shaun showed me Liar Game, this weird Japanese psychological drama. Quite nice if you ask me.

Okay, then we had barbeque, blah blah blah, I went home, day ends. Then today came.

Morning was meh, until band. I had never seen such an attendance for so long I was quite surprised.

Crap, I got lazy. Shall stop typing now.

Raffles Trail

Meh, can't think of a good title.

So we had Raffles Trail today. And I am now DAMN tired.

*faints*

In, Lin Jin's words, a typical Presentation-Picture Slideshow-Performance kind of presentation, we went through droves of Sec 1s and after Kirk and Josiah and Johnson and Brendon left for JRIC, me and Lin Jin and Patrick and Arjun had to deal with answer parents' questions.

We of course had a few songs up our short sleeves. I had a Sing, Sing, Sing! duet with Josie, an In the Mood ensemble (Kirk, Josie, Lin Jin, and I) and later on I helped Lin Jin once with Pink Panther. Though I screwed up. Meh =\

Best thing that happened? About 20-odd Sec 3 scholars came asked to join the band. Everyone went all--

ahem.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT

--because our 60+ sized band is one of the smallest in all the school bands in Singapore. Well, they won't help in our next SYF, which is actually our most pressing matter at the moment, but hey, Prometheum XIII will probably be quite good with them!

thinner is too thin

Well, school lessons officially started today, so nothing much to say but AHHHH.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Okay fine, it's not that bad. But still. Our CLE teacher changed from Mr Kek Wei Lee (woo!) to Mr Eddie Chua. Well, definitely not a bad change by any means, but their teaching styles are rather...diverse. Eh.

Assembly was quite cool, if only for the fact that the speaker and his assistant were the same people who organised the Christmas Eve thing. Yea, the guys from Johnson's church.

What?

Well then anyways, since Kirk and Josiah happily assigned me to do a powerpoint presentation for Raffles Trail, I dragged Lin Jin down with me and we worked on it today. Not before wasting a shitload of time on this though.

Then my Dad came home and asked me to use some thinner to clean up my school pants. They had some paint stuck to them about...eh heh, almost two months before, so naturally it became impossible to remove the paint marks. D:

castles cannot fly, contrary to (un)popular belief

Yeah, they can't. What a surprise!

Alright, so today was the design-a-YOG-village-even-though-it-has-already-been-done-using-mediaeval-looking-sturctures event. So I was part of the Blue Zone (darn, I'd rather be a part of Nod), which went for a 'mediaeval theme'. Huh.

Well, I got my shirt all yellow and dirty, and I don't even think we won in the end =\ Ah well, at least it was fun. Kinda. Meh, I won't do sandcastles on this scale again.

Then afterwards we went back to school for lunch and band, but there was a few hours of nothing in between, so Lin Jin, Ernest and I smuggled Shaun into the band room to play Monopoly. Yeah, Monopoly. Then Shaun left, we started practicing, and band ended. I got to take fall out though, which was cool :D

holy shit I missed out a day D:

I shall adopt a no-caps title style and see how it works out.

Meh, weekend. Nothing much happened. Except that the Professor I'm going to work with (or at least be remotely associated to) for SMP soon asked his student (who I AM going to work with) to change the project to give to me. To a newer and more challenging one. Like, no-one-on-his-team-has-done-it-before newer.

O.0

So, anyway, it involves creating a membrane via electrochemical methods. Hmm...

Edit: Ooh, I like the no-caps title. I shall use it in the future :D

Highly interesting Powerpoint Presentation of Band in the making

Nice, eh?

First day of school...meh

Well, the first day went quite...boringly. Seriously. Assembly featured a lot more of Mr Magendiran than our newly-installed Principal >.> Oh and in a pointlessly entertaining bit of trivia, while Mrs Lim (right? oops...) is Principal, and Mr Kwok and Mrs Tan are vice principals, which is all fine and dandy, our Mr Mag still retains his Deputy Headmaster title. Heh.

Nothing much followed. It was a meet-your-new-maybe-still-old-lol-we-still-got-P-Lim session, which since we still got Mrs Lim, didn't have much of a point. >.>

I tried out the new (oops, new new) Western stall today. Well, cheaper than the old new one, but still a little expensive for the amount you get. Oh, and their baked rice is HORRIBLE.

Then was a briefing of Castles can Fly, which was a program where we built sand sculptures at East Coast on Monday. Then was a talk on how RJ--oops, RI was awesome by former RJC graduates (so, someone from a different school talking to us about our school now...what has the world come to?).

Then was band =] Tiring as hell as usual, but today I felt we weren't too bad, so that's a good point.

Oh, just got this little gem from MSNing with Lin Jin a few minutes back.

linjin. says:
tiiired
æ http://www.scalefeather.co.nr says:
i also
lol when you sleeping
linjin. says:
dunno
when i feel like
although
æ http://www.scalefeather.co.nr says:
i think i sleep 11 today?
linjin. says:
i wanna sleep now
but
i want to do chi hmewrk
æ http://www.scalefeather.co.nr says:
cannot too late liao
linjin. says:
so idelma
dilema
wah
typo
æ http://www.scalefeather.co.nr says:
idelma!
linjin. says:
nvr mind
æ http://www.scalefeather.co.nr says:
it's like
your mom, dell and apple came together to form a single entity

Okay fine. That fonts aren't correct. Nor the colours. But they're close!

New Year, (Luckily no) No New RAM

So Lin Jin went Sim Lim today. I asked him to buy some laptop RAM for me. See, I bought my laptop during August's Comex. HP. So the salesman was trying to get me to buy more RAM ("I don't get paid for this!" he says).

"If you upgrade to 2gb it'll be $140."

*HOLY SHIT*

"Then, what about 1gb?"

"Erm, that'll be 80 bucks. Okay, I'll give you a special price. 60."

*>.>*

Then, a few days before today, Lin Jin was talking to me on the MRT.

"Eh, now laptop RAM very cheap leh. Last time I went to Sim Lim it was $25 for 2gb."

*O.O*

Naturally I asked him to buy a 2gb RAM stick for me. So today he went to Sim Lim. Then my parents heard me, and went ballistic.

"IT'LL VOID YOUR WARRANTY!"

"IT'S USELESS!"

"ASK HIM NOT TO BUY! CANCEL! RETURN!"

*sigh*

Well, turns out a) the RAM stick can't be returned, b)apparently it doesn't void your warranty and c)it's not bloody useless.

So I still got my RAM, if only because Lin Jin couldn't return it. Oh well. I still got a lashing from my parents afterwards for not telling them in advance.

Oh come on, 25 bucks! I know it's money, but it's still nothing to cry about...

Happy New Year (omfg homework)

Well, it's a bit belated but better late than never.

Happy New Year!

Lol I spent the last few hours playing Red Alert 3 >.> And when I got out to watch the countdown, my parents were watching...a Taiwanese show?!