will there be me if you are not here??

2010-11-30T22:47:00.001+08:00

From the Sun:

The alleged events took place from 1989-99. No one is saying corruption should not be exposed - but why three days before the dreams of the nation are decided?

Oh yeahh. you guys now worry about hosting the World Cup because of bad timing of the release of articles? How about the John Terry scandal?Wasnt it bad timing as well?

2010-11-23T20:37:00.002+08:00

Nothing in this world matters more than the love that you receive from your parents.

2010-11-23T18:07:00.000+08:00

why art thou forsaken me??

2010-11-16T13:43:00.001+08:00

what did i do to deserve this???is doing past years papers/prelim papers no longer enough??

2010-11-06T17:07:00.003+08:00

I'm really sorry for saying this, but sometimes,you have to learn how to study. If you have any questions, 1)go consult your notes and think it through first, 2)if that fails, try getting a teacher, 3)if that fails as well,go online and type in your question before 4)consulting your friend. cuz chances are, if these stuff is not in your notes,your friend, who by the way isnt a multiple international olympiad gold medallist, will not know and will have to consult someone else!

Moving on, if its a question on concepts and if you do not understand, then yeahh,consulting a friend might be a good thing cuz he can break it up into simpler reasonings rather than the humongous and (sometimes) unnecessary additional points made by others on the web (since these additional points are far beyond the syllabus). If its a question on content, ie how many centrioles are there in a cell, then just use the internet, cuz the answer is right there. Studying, by now, should be 45% in the lectures and classrooms, 45% at home and 10% when asking friends. So yeahh, i know im being a complete ass here. But seriously, you have to learn how to study.

Midterm Elections

2010-11-04T21:55:00.002+08:00

Come on Republicans. surely you can do better with a strong mandate by the people than just aiming "to restrict Barack Obama to just one term of presidency"? And YOU guys wonder why the Democrats are reluctant to work with you guys when coming up with policies? And Democrats, you are at fault too because that is what you did when Bush was in the White House. Come on, politics should be about making the country better, even if it is at the expense of helping the incumbent get a second term. What's the use of a Senate/House seat if people are starving, are unemployed and are dying from global warming? Be mature and act like responsible civil servants, because YOUR actions are just serving up fodder for critics of democracy. Democracy assumes that the candidature that are offered are rational. Some of you guys cant be further from the truth. Sigh.

Love this guy

2010-10-29T20:31:00.001+08:00

A levels

2010-10-28T21:53:00.002+08:00

This is the time when i start panicking. Oh dear, have i finished as many prelim papers as so and so? Have i written as many essays? Have i done as many maths problems? Sigh. exams.

ranting 2

2010-10-21T22:07:00.002+08:00

'respect the club'. truer words have never been spoken. How many players today actually do such a thing, i.e. respecting the club that they are in and not leaving until they are forced to? The United trio are examples, Raul, Casillas, Puyol, Valdes, Iniesta, Xavi are all examples as well. Whats the difference between these type of players and the rest? They are all legends in their own right. Will Rooney ever be a legend at United/Everton/God knows what club when he retires? Unlikely. He will always be in the eyes of the fans a mercenary first, a football player second. Yes, United are not playing well now; yes, they have lost other mercenaries like Ronaldo and Tevez; yes, they have the Glazers who arent helping situations by giving them a huge debt while siphoning off profits for themselves. But it is moments like these where legends are formed. Did Bobby Charlton leave United after the 1958 Munich Air Crash or after United sold Best and Law? No, he stayed on and was rightfully crowned as a legend, as a knight of United and Britain. By wanting to leave, Rooney is saying that he wishes to win, and is willing to be a second or third option in the team, rather than the star player. Much like Lebron James, he has chosen the easy way out. Lebron could have become better than Jordan if he had stayed with Cleveland. He could have won a few rings ON HIS OWN and proclaimed that no one, not even Jordan, can do it single-handedly. And even if he had failed, he still has the excuse of the team not making the right moves and people will still respect him for that. Heck, he could even be like Kevin Garnett. Garnett stuck with the Timberwolves despite a lack of progress and eventually left as a legend to join the Celtics trio where he won a ring that he deserved. Lebron could have done the same and formed a trio with Wade/Bosh/Anthony/Rose/Paul/Stoudemire when he reached his twilight years. He will be a legend and I'm sure the people of Cleveland will not begrudge him his shot at a ring. After all, the number of rings that one have does not really matter. Look at Olajuwon. He only had 2 rings but is rated much much higher than alot of other players who have more. Im sure that Lebron would have been rated much higher if he had stayed and won a ring rather than leaving and winning a ring every year for the rest of his career.

Anyway, back to Rooney. He took the easy way out, he shirked away from his responsibility and he didnt really respect the manager nor the fans. He could have been a Ronaldo, i.e making his intentions clear from the start that he wants to leave (because that has been his dream and not because of the squad strength) and still playing his best for the club. Ronaldo's last season saw him win an EPL medal, a Champions League runner-up medal and a League Cup medal. At least United fans were willing to let him leave because he had played his best for them whenever he pulled on the shirt. How about Rooney? 1 goal so far this season, and it came from the penalty spot no less, isnt really a decent return from Rooney. His performances were abject, uninspired and he doesnt really look interested. But heres the crux of the issue. Is it his fault that things have turned out this way? Has player power now become so important that managers like Ferguson are outdated?

The Bosman and Webster rulings have definitely given players alot of leeway in terms of transfers. In the days before Bosman, even if a player has reached the end of his contract, he is still bound to his club and cant leave until a new deal has been agreed. With Webster, clubs are now forced to sell their players when these players announce the intention to leave as the players can buy themselves out of the contract for a nominal, some say criminal, amount. Yes, the Bosman and Webster rulings are definitely good for the players because they can now hold the club ransom and demand a higher pay. For those in the lower leagues, i will argue for the rules to hold because they are literally the ones living hand to mouth, having to squeeze every pound they can out of their bodies before retirement calls. However, for players like Rooney, does 500K a week really make that much a difference from 200K a week? Is he going to build a house with all that money? Hence, perhaps a modification of the rules can be considered, like perhaps removing these rulings for players who are earning say above 70K a week. Clubs have done alot to try and buy these players, try and keep them happy and they deserve total loyalty from these players. No one is saying that you cant leave, but make sure that you commit to your contract and pay back what the club has done for you. Sepp Blatter might say this as football slavery, but to be honest, slaves don't usually buy huge penthouses and beautiful cars and milk in the adulation of millions of fans worldwide. So if this is football slavery, i would think that alot of people will rather be slaves than to be the 'free' workers that they are everyday. Player power must be curbed because at the end of the day, soccer now is not just about the player. It is about the clubs and the fans worldwide who support these clubs. And these fans deserve every right to see their heroes in full flow, playing at their best every match and not whining divas who try to make a few more bucks a week just to buy that new rolls royce. No player is bigger than the club. I think that has been clear since football started. You may leave Rooney, but just remember, you had this glorious chance to replace Cantona, to replace Beckham, Keane, Ronaldo or even one of the legendary trio and establish yourself as the best player in the world. And you blew it. So the next time when you see Javier Hernandez or Nani or Macheda receiving the Ballon D'or, just remember, that award could have been yours if you had stayed. Manchester United have overcome the departures of many players, some as good as you, most greater than you, but the club is still standing. No one is bigger than the club. If you do not want us, we do not want you either.

ranting

2010-10-21T17:26:00.002+08:00

what is the exact role of the media in our society? is it to inform?is it to educate?is it to entertain?or is it just to make sure that its headlines are as sensational as possible and try to sell as many papers, or get as many 'likes' or retweets as they can? Yes,a public figure will always need to behave himself even in his private life, but we have to accept that public figures are not infallible. In fact, nobody is. So when rumours of an alleged affair of a public figure begin to surface what does the media do? Are they supposed to report it? Well, given that the media serves to inform, then yes, they are supposed to report it. However, the timing of the report can be very crucial in this aspect. Take a look at England before the World Cup. Had the John Terry scandal been responsibly taken care of, England might very well have a much more eventful tournament (which isnt a given seeing their abject and pathetic performances). That scandal, reported just months before the tournament suddenly threw Terry's credentials as a leader in question and the manager was forced to change captaincy. Reports of a split in the dressing room for those supporting Terry and those support Wayne Bridge would not have been far from the truth. What I am saying is not for these reports to remain hidden forever, because that would give public figures the extra power of being able to do anything and everything without the fear of being exposed. What I am saying is that the timing of these reports must be handled with responsibility. When the England squad failed to impress during the tournament, the very newspapers which published the scandal were also amongst those who blasted them for 'a lack of team spirit',among other things. Have they stopped to consider that it is THEM who caused this split? No, they didnt. Of course, an ideal world would be one where we do not have to live with sensational news dominating the papers (aka the number of mistresses that a single golf player had over the past few years) and instead read news that really matter. Poverty, global warming, terrorism, financial crisis, global health threat. These are the issues which really make a larger impact on the global community rather than scandals.

Another point that i would like to point out would be for media to be objective in their news reports and not to be biased. While some would argue that it is hard to do so, given that journalists have their own opinions on news as well, 'columns' in newspapers are invented for a reason. There, journalists can publish their own views, citing data which do matter for their views and make a case of their own. However, in other parts of the papers, newspapers should just print the facts and statistics from both sides and let the reader decide for himself/herself which viewpoint is more convincing. Take a look at the US Mid-term elections now. Many have started blasting the Obama administration for being 'big government' and being ineffective, especially in terms of improving the domestic economy. These are the very journalists who also complained about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh, and did i mention that these are also the very journalists who were up in arms over that Nigerian bomber who somehow managed to sneak onboard a commercial plane and would have succeeded if not for the heroic actions of the passengers? Be fair to the guy, for once. If history has taught us anything, it is that we should not judge the effectiveness of a government in the days that it was in power, but rather in the days when it has left power. Look at Harry Truman. His ratings when he left office were nothing but abysmal, but in recent polls, he was regarded as a top 10 president in the history of the US. So, please try to see things from the long-term perspective. Also, please publish data that may not support the viewpoint of the news that you are reporting. Take for example the Republicans call for less government action. Yes, that will reduce the deficit. But do you remember the last time when the government didnt act directly during an economic crisis? It was just a small matter known as the Great Depression. So, please 1) do not jump to conclusions too quickly and 2) publish data from all points of view, rather than from one which is the current public sentiment just so that you can sell more papers. The difference between news sources (aka news portals and newspapers) and blogs or opinion websites is that news sources let people think for themselves, while blogs publish THEIR opinion and try to convince readers to do the same. We are not idiots. Let us think for ourselves.

2010-10-19T22:45:00.002+08:00

Great job rooney. after all that the club has done for you, aka supporting you when you had a broken leg during euro2004, supporting you while the whole of england called for your ass after the 2006 worldcup, making you into the legend that you are, and now you are turning your back on them. It's nice to see a player who has turned his back on the club, very loyal.

2010-10-06T21:44:00.002+08:00

2 years. have we known each other well enough? starting from playing frisbee in the auditorium on the very first day, to PW meetings and getting to know more people better, to us fretting over our first lecture tests, to class outing at Sentosa, to our very first common tests in RJ, to mugging very very hard for promos in RJ, to ponning lectures to work hard for PW written report, to class lunch at Seoul Garden, to helping each other out for Oral Presentation for PW, to class outing at Shinyi's house, to waiting super anxiously for the release of our chinese and PW A level grades, to crab beehoon at 王老师's house, to prelims and class outing after that, and now, to the very last (official) day of our JC life.

2 years is 730 days, but then taking away all the holidays that we have and orientation as well as A level period, the total time that we have spent together is probably fewer than 600 days. As we leave the class, there is just one question that we should all ponder. Given that we can turn back time, will we have done anything differently?

2010-09-22T17:05:00.000+08:00

I am soooo sick of studying ...

2010-07-25T11:25:00.001+08:00

lalala, you have gone where your seniors have once threatened to tread, but have never gone before (:

My darling juniors (Xinyi and Lin Jin)

2010-07-23T21:35:00.003+08:00

Today was SIBF, the very first time that you guys are playing for RJCSB without me in the section. Before, i could always be the last guaranteed option, meaning i will tank the high and difficult parts, while covering all your parts, so that you guys will not be exposed during concerts by Mr Oura or during the actual performances themselves. I was really really worried at first when I heard that Mr Oura plans to play Macchu Picchu for SIBF. As we all know, this song is definitely many times harder than what we have played for Atempo XX. Also, the high parts for Macchu Picchu is really really high, something that i am really concerned with when i came to take you guys for sectionals during the June Holidays

Fast forward to today, 23rd July 2010, The Republic Cultural Centre at Republic Polytechnic, 5:55 ( plus minus 5 minutes ). That was the moment when i really saw how far you guys have come from the days when you will just hide behind the senior and play softly, hoping that the senior will play the notes correctly and that you will not be picked on. This was something that has happened before during my reign. There was one time when Mr Oura was taking some random trombone part on Slavia. I choked while breathing and stopped playing, and both of you just stopped playing as well, as though afraid to continue. I had hoped that both of you will be independent of me, and not take me for granted because there will be the day when i will not be there for you guys. Well,that day is today. People have always said that results dunt matter, and that it is the process that counts. Well, we live in a practical world and results will always be what we want and what we look for. However, what defines results is not whether you get a gold or a silver, but rather how much you have improved in that whole process while chasing your desired result. And as for that, I think that you have achieved the best results that you can ever achieve today.

To Xinyi: Well, you were the one that i am more worried about, not just because of the super duper hard parts but you have to play but also because of your responsibility as a SL and your mental well-being. Being a SL, as im sure you know very well, can be quite mentally exhausting, especially since you are the one who takes responsibility for the section and is the one that everyone will look to when the section is having difficulties. However, you have managed not to crack, at least not publicly, during this 'ordeal' for SIBF and that in itself is a fantastic achievement, on top of your success in playing the super hard parts for Macchu Picchu. Your determination to get those notes out right has been really admirable and i feel vindicated that i have made the right choice as a SL. A SL doesnt need to be very pro practically, but he/she needs to have determination and an iron-clad will to succeed. I may be very harsh on you at times during the June Sectionals, but i really do hope that you can succeed and be happy playing your instrument. AND CONGRATS ON THE GOLD WHOOTS

To Lin Jin: okayy, you must hate me for not making you SL:) but heyy, lets be honest lah, im really losing sleep over who to put as SL, and in the end, i just decided that perhaps xinyi has that x-factor that you have, but you didnt really show it :) okok,im not making much sense, but NVM. however, you have improved much as a player since i last heard you play when i took sectionals. I think that you will improve much more in the upcoming months as you get used to your doug yeo mouthpiece and play with a better tone. I really hope that you can continue the tradition of RJ trombone sections having solid bass trombone players.

To both: okay, first things first, CONGRATS FOR SIBF, you guys deserved it, whoots. So yeah, my prophecy has really come true. you have gone where your senior (aka me) have never gone before, which is to get gold for SIBF. If there is ever 1 true legacy that i left on this section, it is you 2 amazing juniors that i have, who will continue the vitality and virtuosity of the RJ trombone section(: if anyone can do it, its you two

2010-07-12T18:15:00.003+08:00

Can we ever play like them? aka, choir with band?

Last Day of the hols

2010-06-27T09:10:00.000+08:00

Econs:
Economic aims

Maths:
Complex numbers
Graphing techniques
Power Series
Differential Equations

Biology:
Stem Cells
Gene Therapy
Photosynthesis
GMO
Evolution (everything)

Chemistry:
Chem Equilibrium
Ionic Equilibrium (A&B)
Electrochem
Intro to Organic chem
Nitrogen Compounds II

sigh sigh, still got alot ><

Mugging stuff

2010-06-26T10:30:00.001+08:00

Econs:
WHOLE of macro :-
Economic indicators
Keynsian and multiplier
Trade
Globalisation
Economic aims

Maths:
Vectors (1&2)
Complex numbers
Graphing techniques
Power Series
Differential Equations

Biology:
Stem Cells
Gene Therapy
Photosynthesis
GMO
Evolution (everything)

Chemistry:
Chem bonding
Chem Equilibrium
Ionic Equilibrium (A&B)
Electrochem
Intro to Organic chem
Nitrogen Compounds II

Legend: Bolded topics means havent mugged yet ><

2010-06-25T09:25:00.001+08:00

Is it just me being paranoid or are we growing further apart? sigh,i hope that it is just me, cuz i really cant imagine a lifetime without you :(

2010-06-24T15:21:00.000+08:00

I'm only up when you're not down
Don't wanna fly if you're still on the ground
It's like no matter what I do

Mugging stuff left to do

2010-06-24T15:15:00.003+08:00

SIBF 2010

2010-06-03T10:09:00.000+08:00

Hmm,to play or not play. That is indeed the question, and its 1 where neither answer is correct. Graaahhh

2010-05-31T16:31:00.000+08:00

It has been really boring without you):

Post mortem :)

2010-05-17T18:07:00.012+08:00

Lol, i don't think that we will need to post mortem for Atempo XX seeing how successful it was. Anyway,here will be my version of what happened on that day,12th May itself.

Well,even though we get to skip all our lessons that day, morning assembly was compulsory for all of us:( which meant that we were unable to come to school half an hour later :(( However, on hindsight, this was actually quite a good move as it would have meant that everyone will be on time for our final rehearsal at 830.

Well,our final rehearsal actually breezed past us pretty quickly and we just did a run-through for most songs. Hence, Mr Oura released us pretty early for lunch, at around 1030, which is about an entire hour earlier than what we have expected. S0,we used the extra time to get a full band picture, with Patrick as our photographer.

Anyways,the guys in my batch then went to camwhore with Jerald's camera. Unsurprisingly, Daniel was the main star/attraction/centre in every picture!Anyway,we had a pretty quick lunch,then went to help the percussion move their instruments down to the foyer where the "lorry with driver" lorry was there to load them on. In between,i received my section gift from my juniors. It turned out to be this inflatable large sword which was personalised with their own handwriting. Words can't describe the gratitude that I felt at that time. They also bought me a box of Merci chocolates. So Sweet!!

And so, we made our way to VCH. It was there where disaster struck as we realised that the power cable for the electric piano was left in the RI bandroom. So James took a cab back to retrieve it, before more troubles start. So we began our dress rehearsal. Hmm,nothing much to comment on really as it was pretty smooth. And so, our final practice session ended and we break for dinner.

I must say,after having experienced the dinner that Chamber, as well as the dinner for Limelight last year, provided for us, the dinner this time seemed to be a marked improvement! So kudos to Weiqi and Huijun for finding such a good vendor:) So after dinner, we took more pictures, including bimbo section pictures and a 1/3 batch picture. Perhaps my greatest regret that night was that we did not manage to take a batch picture together :(

And so the concert started,exactly at 7:30 pm. My last concert for RJCSB. (Below will be some of my comments on our pieces, and as always, they might be abit different from how others felt about them)

Army of the Nile:

It was actually one of my least favourite pieces of the repetoire that evening as i did not have the original score with me. To make matters worse, the conductor's score was a condensed one, meaning that i have no idea what my exact notes were. So i have to feel my way through this piece by sheer memory and luck and hope that my 5C1 note is actually correct. On the whole however,i felt that this piece was done rather decently and was a pretty good opener for the concert.

Nightflight to Paris

Hmm, this was actually quite a fun piece for me, as the notes were pretty simple and the rhythm was rather basic. The can-can part is actually pretty fun for the performers (i think), but you can probably feel the exasperation and boredom of the audience towards the end as the main melody was repeated 4 times. Pretty tiring piece though, but i think that the band has managed to perform this piece pretty well.

Asuka

The piece where the 'u' is supposed to be silent when pronouncing the name of the song. This was actually the piece where the band had some problems with earlier on, e.g. the coordination of the different instruments earlier on, the trombone soli just before the end of the second music et cetera. Well, we did manage to play it pretty nicely on the concert day itself so i will say that its a job well done!

Cinq Preludes

Ahhhh, a pretty nice piece by Debussy. Well, not everyone can appreciate this piece, obviously, and i will think that a significant portion of the audience would have fallen asleep during this piece. Technically, this was not the most difficult piece of our repetoire, but it was certainly the most challenging in terms of musicality. Like what Mr Oura said, the band has to give its full concentration to this piece throughout the entire music in order to play it well. While I felt that we played this piece better during our rehearsals than during the concert, it was still a pretty commendable effort by the band.

Northern Motherland - A Tribute to All Living Things

While it was a last-minute introduction to our repetoire, replacing Slavia, as one of our main pieces, nobody in the band was complaining about it XD. I think that the band immediately took to when we were given the scores, partially because the melodies were pretty heart-warming and nice. My only grouch about this piece was that the whole band was practically blasting their way through the piece, something that I am sure we need to improve on. Otherwise, this was probably our best piece of the concert :)

Boys of Wexford

HMM, okay, i shall admit that i didnt really practise this piece much with my section, given that there are other more important parts that need immediate attention. But i do think that the section has managed to play this piece quite decently, and so has the band. Definitely not the best way we have played it, but it wasn't too bad.

Warabe-uta fantasy

Heh, possibly one of my most, if not the most, feared pieces throughout the concert. The solo wasn't a classical one, meaning that it doesnt really require one to play it loudly, or with much virtuoso (be it slowly with expression or with quickness to show of your slide skills), but perhaps thats why it is SO hard to get it! Up till today, i still have no idea how it is supposed to be played. And my poor (?) tuning didn't really help smoothe my nerves leading up to the concert. But i thought i managed to play it quite well, not really my best effort though, and yeahh, i was pretty pleased with it. I thought that the whole band did pretty okay with this piece too, though dynamics could be more controlled. Ah well.

Swing low sweet chariot

Heh, it's daniel's piece! I thought that this piece, together with Arabesque and Cinq Preludes, really showcased Daniel as he was at the forefront of these pieces. What made this piece special was that we played UNDER him, and not WITH him. Okay, there were some screw-ups at the start, but it was a sign of strength and maturity that we managed to get the song back on track and not just fall apart, which was pretty possible. Weiqi played her solo well and perhaps that gave confidence to us to play this song well too!

Arabesque

Daniel showcase part 3! Hmm, his solo was fantastic, to say the least. But perhaps we could have played this piece with more finesse rather than just blasting our way through (given that we have like 3 more pieces left to go). The blasting and brassy sound just dunt seem to go well with this piece,hmm.

Joh Hisashi

The first part of this song is REALLY VERY VERY CUTE <3.>

Samba Express

PENULTIMATE PIECE! And i think we managed to do it really well. Okay, im not talking about the technical parts and whatnot, but more about the ability to make the audience high and cheerful! And yes, we managed to do it really well. No complaints whatsoever with this piece, though Quan Hui might probably say that it is too loud for his likeing :) not surprising though.

Takarajima

If there's ever one piece i might miss playing with RJCSB, it's likely to be takarajima. It has become sort of like a staple for every Atempo and im sure it will continue to be, just like Army of the Nile which will soon become a staple. Mr Oura managed to get the audience to become EVEN more high, if thats possible, and it was a really wonderful atmosphere. Dunt even think i have heard or been part of an audience that is SOOO loud. But its nice(:

A Tempo XX

2010-05-10T18:22:00.003+08:00

Okay, so atempo XX will be happening in 2 days time and, after 2 hours on that day, it will be all over. Atempo XX will probably be the last time all the J2s will be playing together, at least till after our A levels. But even then, not all of us will join Rwinds,so yeah, i guess that it is probably true that this will be the last time i am playing with rjcsb'10. Of course, this might very well be the last time i will be playing with rjcsb'11 too (barring some miracle that i may play for SIBF), but the feelings are just not there.

What do i have to say of my batch? There are some whom i have known for the past 6 years, others whom i have only known for the past 2 years; there are some whom i have spoken to alot of times, others whom i have perhaps spoken to less than 5 times. Perhaps benni is right, our batch just isn't as bonded as the batch of rjcsb'11. Is it because we did not go through Play! like the J1s did? Or is it because we have barricaded ourselves in our own comfort zone, refusing to step out to know new people, people from other sections, people from other schools? Perhaps for some of us, these 2 years are seen as a waste of time, where we view each practice with apprehension and not with joy and anticipation. No matter what, these 2 years have perhaps passed pretty quickly and here we are now, with our last concert in 2 days, knowing jolly well that after wednesday, we may never meet again, may never play together again.

What i do hope is that we will not just view this concert as just another concert that we have performed for the past 6 years. This is definitely a special concert, held in a special concert hall. While VCH may not have the splendor or glamour of Esplanade, it is where most of us have had our very first major concert. It is where tears are shed, hugs are made, joyous moments are remembered, but most importantly, where beautiful music is played. For us, this is OUR concert, the one which will define our time in RJCSB, and possibly our times in RI/RGS. So i do hope that we will be able to enjoy it as much as possible and remember this for this will be our moment for evermore.

What do i have to say to my juniors?All i want to say is that you guys have proven yourselves to be a capable and bonded batch, as seen from your great success in Play'10! So i do hope that you guys can be inspired from this concert,your very 1st major concert with RJCSB, to create more great music with Mr Oura and with RJCSB, and hopefully, make SYF'11 a joyous and memorable event in your lives.

So, Atempo XX is coming. What you want out of it will be what you get out of it

Atempo XX

2010-05-06T16:37:00.001+08:00

6 days, lets go:)

exciting

2010-01-02T16:43:00.002+08:00

you know, sometimes it just feels as though fate is playing a cruel game on you..giving you hope for a few seconds before crushing it with its bare hands and leaving you disappointed..well, today was such a day..i started out, with a tinkling of hope that i may be able to get into YO (finally) as i felt that i played pretty alright during my practices..my optimism was dealt no harm when my tutor said my playing was not bad..and so, i set out to CCAB in high spirits, quietly confident..then, disaster struck..i missed 13, which could take me to a busstop where 156 is available AND 93..so im left with the next best alternative, which is 88..just as i thought i might be able to make it in time, i saw 156 travelling in the opposite direction as i was about to reach RI..well, at that point, i was thinking, shit, im so gonna be late..so i took my time, walked across the overhead bridge and sms-ed IRIS for the schedule..when i saw that it is 'arriving', my spirits immediately rose..but then, it turned out to be a false dawn for me..so i smsed again and found out that its coming in 16 minutes..then, i was panicking like crap cuz its already 9:49 and my assessment time slot is at 10:15..but i have no choice but to wait for the bus..then there was a rapid exchange of smses between Valerie and me as she kept urging me to hurry up while i myself am panicking like crap..ok, so the bus came and i ran frm the bus stop into CCAB, panting and being super out of breath..i struggled to hold the pen straight as i filled up my particulars..then i went in, without ANY proper warmup at all..so i went in and found out to my horror that i was supposed to play 2 pieces instead of 1..well, at least Mr Lim was kind enough to do away with that requirement..so i started playing..for 1 second, before Jamie Herse(?), the other assessor, told me that i was playing at the wrong tempo..well, at about half the tempo really..okay, so i would put that down to a case of nerves as i was really nervous and not very well-prepared..but at least i played that portion well, sounded okay and i tot, maybe i would have a chance..just maybe..but then, came the animato section..the phrase which i feared the worse passed by without much incident..so far, so good...BUT THEN, the next part, which is the EASIER part, just tonguing, was where disaster struck..instead of playing G, i played a partial higher, to A..then everything came down and the E natural became G instead..due to the speed, i was unable to change without the whole thing being too jumbled up..well, at least the ending was okay..but by then, the damage is done..can i still get in??i left home today with a hope that i can get in..but i returned home today just with a hope that i could have done better..sigh..see how fate likes to play around with us??

missed chance??

2010-01-02T16:35:00.003+08:00

kays..so maybe it wasnt meant to be..i mean, the harder phrase was over and all i had to do was tongue my way to the end..so the tonguing was fine, but not the pitching..and so, i missed yet another chance to get in..am i really fated not to get in forever???

Band Fest'09

2009-12-21T11:56:00.002+08:00

kays, so band fest ended yesterday with an awesome concert..but first, i would like to thank a few ppl for making this a really really enjoyable experience..

Thanks to:

MY SECTION:- for being such an awesome and great section..okay, we prolly didnt gell on Days 1 and 2, but from then on, we really clicked together and become a good section, instead of just individuals..really hope that we can have a chance to play together in the future

MY BATCHMATES:- for making me look forward to going for band fest everyday..its a really hard experience kay, travelling frm Bayshore to Boon Lay everyday..but the presence of you people really made it worthwhile..and to those we came to watch us yesterday, THANK YOU! it's really nice to see all of you guys again..

Dr. Fraschillo:- for making practices fun and enjoyable..i have really learnt under you..thank you for everything and i do hope that i will have a chance to play under you again..

Honor Band:- for making this experience a fun-filled one..it's really nice being with you ppl and making music tgt..

LOL..okay, lets talk abt the music now..granted, it isnt really the type that we usually play..its more fanfare-ish, other than Aria and movement 3 of English Dances, and i was really afraid that we would turn into a whack-machine..well, we did turn into a whack-machine, but it was one with substance and richness in the tone, rather than one with just volume and nothing else..so yeah, i would say that the band played really well...GOOD JOB GUYS!..it was a really enriching experience to learn from all you great players!:)

silver lining

2009-12-06T15:07:00.001+08:00

okay, so maybe there is a silver lining to this catastrophe..at least it didnt happen earlier during PW..at least i can still get some movies for my friends..at least i wunt be distracted during my A lvls next year..yea..looking on the bright side does help

Life sucks..sometimes

2009-12-06T14:49:00.001+08:00

kay, my life really sucks..just did a system recovery and found out that i lost all my files..sigh..

Band fest and SATS

2009-11-29T15:57:00.002+08:00

okay okay..so i have gotten into honours band, 1st trb..so maybe i do get lucky once in a while XD..lol..anw, time to work hard now and get back into shape..its gonna be a hectic dec with band fest, YS (performance and audition) as well as Rwinds..hope my lips dunt die during the two weeks when im gg to tan tock seng..and yea..got the shock of my life when i discovered that two of my HB section mates were BM and brass SL..really shocked me sia..but then, its now a new challenge for me to be able to play with such pro ppl..think it will do me some good..

OKAY..band fest is actually the least of my worries right now..cuz i have SATS coming up in like less than a week..have been doing exercises this past week and to be honest, i dunno if its gonna help or not..granted, the maths section is a breeze..so that 800 marks or so shldnt be that much of a prob..but the fact is that Harvard and the rest of the Ivy League isnt really abt just students who can score full marks..its abt students who can score for maths AND the other components..and thats where im dying..badly..

K, the writing portion shld be pretty okay for me, going by my exercies..hope to be able to score somewhere between 700 and 750..so that will give me a score of around 1525 for now..but its the critical reading portion that is killing me..if im able to secure 725 for that portion, i would be rather safe..2250 isnt that bad a score..BUT..its not that possible..dunt even think i can score above 700 for critical reading..so that pulls me score down to around 2200..which is dangerous as my writing isnt THAT secure..so yea..i may even be pulled down to 2100..which is pretty below average..

sigh..

PW and band fest

2009-11-10T21:02:00.001+08:00

okayyy...im really damn damn scared for my PW..i dunt want to be one of the minority to get a B for PW..it really sucks okay..but then again, presentation hasnt been one of my best parts..so yea, hope all of my hardwork has paid off..i definitely know that i have prac-ed alot more than what most people have done..3 times a night since dry run is really alot alot of practices..

okay, so lets move on to band fest now..sian la..have to audition for a place in honours band..to be honest, i really dunt think i can make it given the lack of practices and my noob-ness..so how??i also dunno leh..but i suppose that it would be a small "consolation" that mr oura is conducting the non-honours band this time..think it will be less pressure and might even be more fun due to that :) time to start looking on the bright side yo..

Promos results

2009-10-27T20:32:00.002+08:00

kays..promos results are out..not really very very happy with it but quite decent la..though could have done better

Biology:- B(69%) to be honest, this was the most satisfying of all my subjects..getting a B was my aim during promos revision..thought i could have gotten an A after the paper but still, a high B, one which is on the brinks of an A , is pretty good job too :)

Chemistry:- B (62%)..kay, the grade is satisfying in the way that i have improved since my CTs..worked really really hard for this test..but to be honest, these marks in no way do justice to the effort that i have put in during revision..guess i really let myself down during the paper itself..not exactly disappointed but not exactly happy either..an A shouldnt be that much out of reach

Maths:- B (63%)..okay, so maybe i should have expected this given that i spent very little time on it, other than Chinese and GP, but still, a B isnt really that fantastic for me..thought i could scrap a borderline A even though i didnt do my 10 marks..but then, it just didnt happen..H3 maths is my dream..will it poof just like that??

Econs:- D (50%)okay, technically its an E, given that i scored 48.4%..but then, they rounded by to 49% and then, gave me one more mark to make me feel good about myself, thus the 50%..thought i could have nailed a high C or a low B with my case study, which was decent, but then, my second essay epic failed..8/25 is definitely not a mark i want to get again..okay, there was improvement, but more can be done..

GP:- D (50.5%)i was absolutely damn hopeful after the test..fine, the compre wasnt that easy, but i thought i might get a good grade for my essay..somewhere along the lines of 32 to 35..when i got it back, it was more along the lines of 27..which isnt really good..okay, next, i hope that my compre can save me..then, i saw that i got 23.5 for it..which just nudges me over the 50 mark..granted, this isnt an easy paper (quite some ppl did badly for it), but a very very narrow pass isnt really that great either..improvement needed (ALOT)

MT:- A (74%)..okay, i was really really shocked when i saw my paper..didnt expect to get so high for this test..i thought i might nail a high B but definitely not an A..well, i just hope that this doesnt turn out to be like prelims last year, where i scored a high A2 and ended up with a B4...

PW:- okay, im really really shitting my pants for this OP..i have faith in my oratorical abilities until like two weeks ago during dry run when may wong gave me a 3/6 for fluency..i dunt want to be one of the few who get a B for pw..i have really really tried very hard to make myself sound better and more comprehensible..awareness of audience can be practised, group marks can be worked hard for, Q&A can be mugged but fluency is just whether you have it, or not..i really hope that all my practices pay off..

k, im only saying this here cuz its unlikely that my group members will read this..but i am really really fortunate to have this team of ppl as my group mates..they have really helped me alot during this journey, from GPP to WR and now to OP, where they are trying their best to help me score for fluency..i am really really happy that i have them..so ya, if i was abit harsh or slack earlier in the year, sorry team..

Kays, now to H3..i really want to take H3..its not just it looks better on my report card/cert, but also, i feel that i am ready and prepared to take up studies beyond the conventional classroom..i really hope that i can take a H3 next year..

Promos end

2009-10-07T13:19:00.002+08:00

okay..so promos ended today..hmmm i think i may still get my itouch if im very very lucky..3As and 2Bs is really quite a hard goal to reach..but i think that i will be able to average a B for all 5 subs

GP : Expected-B

If lucky-A

Econs: Expected - D or C

If lucky - B

Chem: Expected - B or A

If lucky - A

Maths: Expected - B/A

Lucky- A

Bio (hmm, its really hard to tell for bio..sometimes, i feel that i have done well but when i get back, its some shitty grade)

Expected- B

Lucky- A

Kay, still need to work abit harder to get the ultimate 5As..it can be done

promos

2009-10-06T14:23:00.002+08:00

okay..promos was HORRIBLE..cant believe i screwed up that much..GP was okay, to be honest, im expecting at least a B for GP..econs was fine except for the first essay and case study..hope i can scrap a C..chemistry was fine..very fine..until that question on dissociation where i totally screwed up my ICE table..still hope that i can scrap an A..maths was, to be frank, pathetic by any standards..didnt manage to finish the paper, didnt do the questions well..forgot everything about sampling..hope to scrap an A still..but i think that the chances are quite low

Its time to perform..time to stop screwing up..i have worked very hard for these exams and it ain't fair for me to just throw away all my hard work cuz i wasnt at my best during the exams..its really not worth it..

Promos

2009-10-01T16:36:00.001+08:00

Hmm ok..lets check back on what i have revised

Econs ( 100% ) (but still lack practices and need to look through)

Bio (Second half of the year and DNA and Genomics done, but still need to prac)

Chem (Second half and gases done, more prac needed)

Maths (0%)(worrying)

Promos revision

2009-09-27T22:10:00.002+08:00

k..shall keep an update on my promos revision

Bio

Bio molecules (0%)

Cell division (0%)

DNA & Genomics (0%)

Viruses (100%)

Bacteria (100%)

Photosynthesis (100%)

Respiration (100%)

Organisation (0%)

Hmm..if only it is as rosy as it looks..sigh, dunt even think i can finish both bio molecules and cell division in a single day..

Chemistry

Stoichio (0%)

Atomic Structure (0%)

Chem Bonding (0%)

Gases (0%)

Periodicity (0%)

Energetics (0%)

Kinetics (0%)

Equilibria (100%)

Okay..needs to chiong already..

Maths

Stats (somewhere around 30%)

Pure maths (it will be around 60% without counting the formulas, functions and graphing techniques)

Okay, got hope of A...but still needs work

Econs (0%)

I dedicate my monday tuesday and wednesday to econs..hope it will turn out fine :(

DI(dream impossible)

2009-06-29T21:52:00.002+08:00

As i watched the opening ceremony of the asian youth games today, and saw the wonderful melodies churned out by SNYO, i have to ask myself..will i ever get a chance to play with these elite young musicians in my life??

Before the convo tonight with Valerie, i still harbour the hope, harbour the wish that i will get a chance to play with them, to make music with them and to become one of them

After the convo tonight, i realized that i have minimal chance, minimal hope of getting into YO anytime soon..given that there is/will be a Berlin trip next year, i really must make my choice..whether to stay with them, or to quit and concentrate on RJCSB, on my studies, on making RJ trombones good again..

I had believed that i would be able to juggle my studies and my work when i joined YS..how wrong can i be...for this upcomming common tests, i had neither prepared as hard as i liked as as much as i would have liked for them..of all my 4 subjects,i can only safely say that maths is my most confident one of them all, and yet, im still not certain of that A..when i entered RI as a sec1, i made a vow that no matter how hard the paper is, no matter how others fare, i myself must not set my standards against them..i must start my standards against the impossible, against the top..then will i improve..this is the same for my studies, the same for my music

Am i a worse player than Valerie? To be honest, i do not believe that to be the case..i have my own strengths, she has her strengths, but yet, YO seems to "value"her more than me..ok, maybe im just being paranoid that she got called up to go for AYG and yet i didnt..maybe the fact that being called up shows how much attention that the music director has given you isnt really an indication of how good you are...maybe she was called up cuz shes a female and YO wants some balance..wadever the reasons are, the facts are there for all to see..theres much for me to improve, to work on my weaknesses and make them my strengths..to make valerie's strengths my strengths and to make her weaknesses absent from my playing..maybe i should start taking practices more seriously from now on..maybe its time to spam pracs again..wadever it is, if you want to do it, do it good..or dunt do it at all..cuz its a waste of time if you do it..

My band major, Jerald Han

2009-05-18T18:13:00.002+08:00

Today, as i watched you walked up the stage receiving your badge from doctor he ruimin, my mind was in a jumble and in a dilemma..should i cheer you on, like what i would have done two weeks ago without a hestitation? after all, this is your big moment and you have earned it, i must admit..however, this is not two weeks ago..this is now..about 12 days after you started dao-ing me..is this the end of our friendship?will we ever be the same towards each other again?nevertheless, i still viewed you as my friend, as a friend whom i have offended, but still a friend..hence, i cheered you on..like what i will have done for the past 5 years..

You are the best band major that i have ever known, trust me..i know, i may have a tinge of biasedness here and there given that you are from my batch...but, i believe that nobody in the junior batches will ever dispute that fact..i am proud of what you have done for RIMB..proud for what you have done for our batch..but most importantly, proud of what you have done for your friends..even this year, even after you got into council, i still wondered whether i should nominate you for any posts or not..even after you have dao-ed me..the fact that you are a great choice for any of these top positions cannot escape the eyes of any of our batchmates im sure...no discredit to any other nominees..you guys are fantastic candidates as well..in the end, i felt that that was no point in doing so, as it is against council regulations to hold any exco position in any other CCAs...i do not want to put you in such a dilemma...but the fact that i have thought about it shows how much i think of your leadership..and where better than your days at RIMB as the band major..as OUR band major..as MY band major..you have the right balance of discipline and approachability...if such a word exists..juniors feel at home with you..but respect you nonetheless..batchmates love being with you..but know that there is a boundary that they must adhere to..it is not easy to be a band major on a prometheum year..with countless logistics stuff needed to do..that year, it was even harder, given that we have a japan trip to prepare for..do you remember how excited both you and i was?with me running to you every few minutes to ask if we have enough ppl to make up that trip?..it was truly memorable..and it must be said that you have excelled in this job well..prometheum was a resounding success..with more than 80% of the seats sold, which is quite fantastic...the japan trip was great as well..our batch really bonded through that experience..i still rmb us, me, you, benni and austin...emo-ing in some room in the osaka hotel..wondering about our next generation..about the batch to succeed us..whether they have the potential to do as well or not..given that SYF year is up next and we have a reputation to protect..it was through there that i saw your confidence shown through..that i know that RIMB has a rallying figure to go to now...you have made yourself a legend of RIMB, no doubt..you have really done a good job...

Right from the start, you were marked out from the batch to be something good..something great..something fantastic..yes, you were not as good as samuel pratically, but then again, who is? what made you different from the bunch of us is that you have the good points of everyone of us..you have the lameness of ryan, the logic of yingzhe, the skills of samuel, the discipline of benni, the people-orientated skills of lucas, the efficiency of lucas and so much more...you are the culmination of everything that is good of our batchmates..thats wad made you so likeable..so forgivable..so fantastic...during interviews'07..it was pretty obvious who the BM of our batch shld be...it is you from the start till the end..when matthew asked who i recommended for BM..the answer just came out easily,"Jerald". you are a marvellous figure for our batch..someone that everyone can look up to when they are down..someone everyone can depend on when they are upset..you are that fantastic, that important to us..during investiture'07..i was the one who initated the standing ovation for the BM and the DBM..after all..you all have done so much for the batch..i wouldnt initate a standing ovation for someone whom i feel doesnt deserve it..standing ovations have to be earned..not given..you are someone special..someone who deserves it without anyone asking...my decision was proven right just after REACT'07..it was the incident of the vibraphone breaking down..i was the one pushing it...yet, you didnt blame me at all..it was something that i still rmb up till today..and something that i still appreciate...

Why didnt i apologize to you for such a long time? Because i am scared..very scared...what am i scared of? i am scared of getting rejected by you..by you getting irritated and losing you forever...our original batch has only you, ryan, lucas,samuel,eric,austin, alastair, benni, russell, leonard and me left..the batch has gotten smaller by the year..we lost wenjie and jiahui, then han sheng..then yingzhe this year..i dunt want to lose you as well..blame me if i lack the courage for apologizing..but i really dunt want to lose anymore batchmates..10 batchmates is small enough..i dunt want it to be a single-digit number...

Whatever you do jerald, you will still be the bandmajor, MY bandmajor..the best i ever had..

Nominations

2009-05-09T22:42:00.001+08:00

well..i didnt get any nominations..am i disappointed?definitely..sad, not so...

SYF

2009-04-10T16:39:00.002+08:00

hence...another SYF competition gone..well, the only difference that this has to the previous 17 ones is that RIMB didnt get the gold that they so wanted, the gold that they so deserved and the gold that they worked so hard well...

well guys, for us seniors, you ppl continuing the streak of the gold that we have obtained over the past years is not of the utmost importance, and we hope that you have realized that too..if SYF was all about getting your gold etc, then i think you have missed the point completely.

I hope that you all have known more about each other, made better friends, become closer batchmates, but ultimately, become a band...a band of musicians, of rafflesians but most importantly, a band of brothers

If you guys have achieved that, i will be truly proud of you guys, no matter what you all have achieved...yes, the award that you all get will be recorded in books of history...but after this, where do this go? it will just go to the cupboard where it will never ever be opened for eternity..nobody will remember what you guys have gotten after a decade...but you guys will remember the bonds you have forged over this competition/festival..you guys will have these friends forever..

Think not of what we think about you guys..the opinions of others do not matter as much as how you have viewed yourselves..if you all have tried your best, then i trust that there should not be any regrets lingering within any of you right now...you guys shld be proud of what you all have achieved...

Another thing that has made me proud of you guys is the maturity that all of you have displayed, especially the way you guys hold yourselves on stage...gone were the lack of confidence, and in came the true spirit of the Raffles Institution Military Band..that of self-confidence and pride...you guys have improved alot over this past half year since we passed over the baton over to the current sec4s..and i have to say, im PROUD OF YOU GUYS...

remember this motto...WE SHOULD WE MUST WE CAN WE WILL...you guys have lived up to it

thinking aloud+orientation

2009-02-03T20:59:00.002+08:00

hmmm...ppl have been asking me this question over and over again,"arent you tired of band? why not join another CCA?"..in fact, i have asked myself this question numerous times..8 years in band is seriously a pretty long time for anyone to have stayed in a single cca..yet, i have always managed to come up with the answer to that question to convince myself that i have made the correct choice to continue band as my main cca in RJC..we start with my batchmates..its really hard not to like one another after so much we have been thru and all the bonds we have formed over the years..sure, there were the low points such as NBC when we were comfortable to be with our batchmates, with their encouragement..but we have also enjoyed each other's presence in times of achievement..i wld have felt dull if my batch wasnt having that mass convo when we got 82% for SIBF, i wld have felt dull if my batch wasnt that to celebrate the success of both prometheums and i CERTAINLY would have felt dull if we didnt go to japan together as a batch..so, premise one, my batch is amazing, kickass, godlike, beyond godlike, 'nuff said...the second premise will have to be the conductor, mr oura..sure, he might not like me as much as say jerald, eric or samuel, but it is certainly an honour to work under him, to play for him, to perform WITH him...to me, band wldnt be band if mr oura isnt our conductor...in terms of musical skills, hes definitely up there with the top of the cream of the crop in Singapore, if not Asia...but wads made him really the reason for why i loved band in secondary school was because he was more than a conductor, more than just a mentor..he single-handedly made band fun for me, at the very least..i looked forward to band more than ever under him and im sure that RJCSB and RIMB will be very much different without mr oura..hence, conclusion is that band is definitely the place to be in..true, i may not know how floorball would have been like..it might be more fun than band...i will never know...but the fact remains that band will ALWAYS be fun..stanely said that house=fun...i say that band=fun:)

okay..lets go on to orientation...ystd was really amazing...the opening was FANTASTIC..especially the part where they had so many school uniforms being displayed dancing some dance(think its our batch dance?)...yes, there might be more RI and RGS uniforms than the rest out there,but the fact that they actually bothered to do such a thing of combining all the uniforms together really displays the sincerity of welcoming the non-rafflesians to the raffles family..great job guys..i really think that my OG is pretty fantastic..the guys are pretty much bonded together, even though i dunt really know marc, weisiang and shawn bfore this...the girls are also quite open and together..even though we didnt manage to win any of the competitions these two days, im sure that it has been a pretty fun time for all of us..since station games are too typical to blog about, i shall talk about the EA we had today! it was pretty original for the orientation comms to have thought of this amazing race format..esp the checking out time and locations, as they basically force us to think of our route bforehand, lest we find ourselves in an area far frm the checkout point when the checkout time limit is just round the corner...vincent was really amazing today, helping us alot and really doing a good job navigating us around...GREAT JOB VINCENT...i think that we wouldnt have been able to do most of the events as quickly as we had if vincent wasnt here..i just hope that one of us can take the initiative tmr during war games and dunt rely on vincent all the time...its really hard on him to have to be responsible for the results of the group if we just expect him to lead..but still, it was good job today..managed to checked out first at esplanade..and having a short tea/waffle break at gelare...hope tomorrow will be better and i get to know my OG better...

APPEAL

2009-01-13T13:40:00.000+08:00

I AM GOING TO APPEAL MY O LEVEL HIGHER MOTHER TONGUE RESULT...cuz B4 is SIMPLY CRAP

conflicts

2008-12-23T12:51:00.002+08:00

ok...so right now, im basically torn between YS and Rwinds...today i will be going for rwinds cuz YS didnt have prac..shall speak about prac ystd later...but the real IMPT date is next monday, 29th of dec..which is well, one day before CODA and principal's investiture...which one should i go for? rwinds last rehearsal at RI bandroom(probably my last before i take my A lvls) or YS last rehearsal at CCAB??...its really a pain to have to choose either..but the best option thats right in front of me right now is to just go for YS prac first, then rush off for rwinds...but will there be enuff time for me to really learn something during that short rwinds prac???i have a bad feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg of many more conflicts to come in the coming years...still, as i have said and promised, YS will always be on the top of my priorities, and i will not break that promise bar certain exceptions..

ok...lets talk about rehearsal ystd...i was late...my first time...out of 3 times...lol..shld really start getting out of the house earlier...anyway...reached there..saw another new trombonist, called nathaniel..think he shld be in YO or at least in NS, after overhearing their talk about SAF bands..saw jamie too...and why is everyone wearing contacts nowadays???i just dunt see the beauty of contacts..maybe thats the whole beauty of it?..anyway...went thru all the pieces...shared my solo with jamie...the real reason why i did that was cuz there was a repeat and i would have to repeat the solo again..and it would really sound boring if the same person plays it again the same way...so i tot she might be able to bring something new to the solo and overall, to the song..prac was pretty alright, though i think i was very much off-form..must get it back ASAP..and i need to get a black bowtie!!i wonder where can i get it hmmmmm

tickets

2008-12-18T14:14:00.004+08:00

ok...here we go again..tix sales..is anyone wondering why i only sold 3 rwinds coda tix instead of like 30 sth for jerald?i dunt really think im the tix selling type and i dunt want to force people to go for something that they either 1) dunt enjoy or 2) dunno how to appreciate or both..concerts are for people who understand music and really know how to appreciate them..concerts are not events whereby you have a full house ticket sales but everybody just falls asleep before intermission...im not accussing jerald's friends of anything(in fact some of them are the most musically-inclined people i have ever known or met aka lumpy and eugene)..but i just do not like the idea that we are being forced to sell tickets to our families and friends just so that we can break even..yes, breaking even is impt but wads most impt abt a concert is bringing music and joy to the audience..and the way to do that is not by being on the stage when your 20-strong family is down there...the way to do that is to play good music for the audience who understands your music..i would rather pay to play to an audience who appreciates wad im playing rather than to play to a full house of people who do not understand the very essence of music..the way to do that is to play good music for the audience who understands your music..music shldnt be something about kinship or friendship..it should be a language that is special to all of us...musicians shld play their best for concerts, instead of putting the emphasis on tickets sold...i certainly do not want a situation where i will lose my friends just because of a ticket..and i know that will happen when you force them to go...as musicians, we shld be judged on our abilities to bring great music and joy to the audience...not our ticket-selling powess..

Ravel

2008-12-02T07:24:00.001+08:00

ok...i hereby conclude that ravel hates trombonists...so freaking high!!!

updates

2008-11-22T21:42:00.002+08:00

hmmm...been looking at the goals that i set myself at the start of the semester...welll..lets look at my report card...i think i failed my goals academically...didnt get 4.0 for all sciences+maths and definitely didnt do well for all of my tests...but at least i didnt get a single 3.2..though that aint really something to shout about...

cca-wise hmmm...didnt get gold for presentation for SIBF but i really do think that we made mr oura happy or proud of us by really playing to our standards...granted, we only got a silver and 82%, but it could have been much worse given our standards when we started playing the pieces...investiture-wise, im still kicking myself for missing that high b flat...really should have nailed it...

musically-wise...i think my high register dropped abit...couldnt really hit super F that easily now...but having said that, i think my mid and lower register have strengthened alot...thanks to me getting a teacher!!yayy..i think my tone kinda improved and i have just concluded my study on double-tonguing...though its a really short and fundamental one...i didnt have time to finish hanon though..but well, i got into SNYS and for me, that was the real highlight of this semester...shall elaborate more about SNYS and the audition on a later date...

personally i do think i have managed to reach the standards i have set for myself..i didnt really lose my temper that much and i am really friendly to everyone now!!just ask valerie who sat beside me today in YS prac...at least im not so dao lah...but maybe just cuz shes a girl and having been through one prac and all the songs, perhaps i felt responsible in helping her along today...hmmmm...lol...

okay, i will give myself a 70/100 for my work this semester...really hoping to do better next semester...especially academically...

myself...a radicalist?

2008-11-04T14:27:00.002+08:00

well...to be honest, since young, i was pretty much radical in my ideas...not that much about bombing people in the US but more about my ideas on punishing criminals...i once had this idea that it will be really great if we can just stop the production of tobacco and thus, prevent the circulation of cigarettes...another one would be to introduce the death penalty to smokers who smoke in public places...serious...i had this when i was like 6 years old etc...i really wonder if im fit to be a politician next time, given my radical stand towards alot of things...especially vices...

radical???

2008-11-04T13:59:00.003+08:00

lol..jerald just called me crazy for saying that obama and mccain cant save the US economy..ok, maybe i was wrong to say that only a war would save the economy...but the fact remains that even if either candidate wants to rebuild the entire economy, it will take a long time given the many problems that are still hidden within the US economy, which will affect the world economy, as shown by the great depression and the recent crisis...the only problems that came out now from the US economy is that of the large mortgage debt that it has incurred from the borrowers of banks with low interest rates and less stringent checking than normal, given the good economy outlook in the past few years...this has led to many bad debts incurred by the banks and these debts are unrecoverable even with the mortgage of properties, given the low(?) house prices now...so, this has led to the collapse of fannie and freddie initially...then, we have big corporations like AIG, the lehmann brothers and merill lynch collapsing right after the collapse of these mortgage banks...you may ask, wad do these companies have to do with the falling property prices???well, they invest in property with the money that is given to them by the investors of bonds that were bought and when the property prices well, so do these organizations too...well, the rest is pretty much recent history, with the 700 billion bailout etc...wad i do firmly believe in is that this subprime mortgage crisis is just the tip of the iceberg, with the rest of the problems being exposed as we dig deeper and deeper...however, the main problem now is the entire structure of the global financial systems throughout the world...this is something that MUST be solved and is something that im afraid will take a long time to solve...the problem now is, are countries prepared to wait for such a long time to solve this problem? ok, you may ask why this solution takes a long time to implement...firstly, a whole new framework and structure must be conceived, and that could take quite a while...we must make sure that this framework is stable, can be regulated but yet, not nationalized...second, the implementation...the fun part of economics is that nothing can be confirmed in theory, as practical usually works differently from theory...so how do we make sure that this implementation will be smooth and be successful?we are starting from square ONE again, with no prior knowledge or experience on this new system...third part will be getting everyone to implement this system...no matter wad happens, the world must still have a global finanical framework and structure to work with...so it is crucial that everyone follows the new framework...yet, wad works for one country may not work for the other and some countries may just not adopt it altogether...so how do we change this framework? through war...its a last option no doubt, but it must be done if countries are unwilling to comply through diplomacy...only then can we start anew...this mortgage crisis is not the end of all problems, but simply the start of all problems...its unprudent to assume that all problems will be gone once and for all...maybe this crisis will be over in a few years with no bloodshed but the existing problems are still not solved yet, and this problems will resurface again to haunt us...you can argue that only the US needs to change its financial system, rebuild its economy and everything will be fine again...but wad this crisis has shown us is that once again, our global financial system is still too reliant on one superpower, such that when this fails, none of us are able to help it up again...yes, we have survived many crisises in the past, but there are no guarantees that the solutions to this crisises actually do solve the underlying problems in our economy...there are no guarantees that this crisises are the same as the one that we are facing right now...maintaining an economy is easy, but rebuilding one isnt...and right now, the whole world's economy has to be rebuilt, not just the US's...yes, if all goes smoothly, we dunt have to go to war, but, how do we assume that all will go smoothly?..and even if this crisis manages to be resolved, it will most likely be due to market forces, more than that of the policies of the president of the UNITED STATES...cuz this crisis has turned into a global one...and has affected many countries internally...even if the US manages to recover,other countries might not...

Peter moore

2008-11-01T11:34:00.003+08:00

Its really heartening to see and hear that in this era where people prefer to listen to things that are too loud for them rather to hear nice music that there still exists such nice music...this kid is really really great...especially since his friends would rather blast their eardrums with out-of-tune rock and punk and yet, hes playing such a nice piece...ok, it may not be classic, but at least its not that loud and stupid...this kid's got a great future...remember the name, peter moore...and its not just cuz hes a trombonist that i recommend him...

clear up some stuff

2008-11-01T11:29:00.002+08:00

ok...lets clear up some stuff here...i never ever said that HSM 3 sux...wad i did was just to say that HSM 3 is really good..but if you say that is an asskicker, then you are really deprived...okay, maybe if HSM3 isnt graduation, then nobody will say that, but HEY, you dunt base your rating of the movie based on its title and u dunt base it on wads great in the movie and forget wads not so great in the movie...HSM3 is good, but it aint great...and no, i wunt remember it like the way i remember casion royale or the simpsons...you may say that im insane and unappreciative of good stuff..but wats the point of us discussing this if you are going to base it on your terms and im going to base it on mine? a movie, no matter wad it is, a musical, action, dancing movie shouldnt be predictable...and sadly, HSM3 is too predictable...

2008-10-31T22:18:00.002+08:00

Hmmm...since we are on the topic of HSM3...

oh...and i really love this guy's tone and everything about his trombone playing...

HSM3

2008-10-31T21:52:00.002+08:00

yeahh...just watched that finale yesterday with 9 of my batchmates...namely HSM crazy JERALD...i-dunt-want-to-watch-HSM YINGZHE...singing-again? ALASTAIR, eric, benni, lucas, ryan, russell, and chinese-newspapers-FTW austin...okay...so thats the finale..thats it, finished...move on to college...and yeah...the series ends...

to be honest, it wasnt as bad as nikhil puts it...yeah, i found it abit too kiddy for my taste, but hey, its DISNEY...you dunt really expect disney to have really hardcore fighting fantastic exciting scenes right?even though they supported nude photo taking by their stars...hmmm, i would give it a 3.5/5 as a movie, and as wikipedia puts it subtly, this movie aint one for the converters...and im a converter...or non-converter to be precise...

WARNING:spoilers ahead...but who cares man...wikipedia has all the spoilers and torrentz.com has the visuals for YOU

we start off with the basketball championshipp...yadadadada...wildcats won...whoots..they sang their way to the championshippp...however unrealistic that is...but they still won...then they went back to schooll..have to do a play for prom..and some guy/girl/teacher signs troy up for some arts scholarship when his dad clearly wants him to go and play bballl...then his girlfriend goes to stanford...then he has to make a choice...and he went to ANOTHER college..none of the first two fits him...the final college offers him bball and arts and is 37.2 miles away from stanford...one wonders why this offer didnt come out earlier...then they graduate...

okay, lets split this up...good and bad...the bad first...there aint alot to be honest...maybe its cuz im too old to really like this...but to be honest, its plot is too too too shallow...okay, maybe musicals shouldnt have too deep a plot as half of the time is spent singing and dancing doing anything that is musical...BUT...a great movie is always different from the rest right???so yeah..HSM missed this chance to be really a legend that is worthy to stand beside mickey and minnie..if they are the franchise of disney, then i really pity disney...its just lacking that x-factor...

okay...the good part...the graduation is really cool...fantastic...imba...out of this world...but pity HSM3 is let down by its plot...really, it could have been great, imba, fantastic and oscar-bound...not just the nominations...but getting the award itself...thats why its only a 3.5...and for your info...no movies has gotten a 4 and above before...so yah...i do rate it pretty high...

Video

2008-10-29T18:08:00.001+08:00

I really love this song

results day 2 ...i failed judgement day

2008-10-29T17:50:00.002+08:00

sigh...so in the end, i didnt get 3.73 and instead managed to hang on to 3.69 by just a tiny-weeny bit...my maths was pathetic, my history was average, my chem was horrifying and my bio was way way way way way under my expectations(which aint very high to be honest)..

k,so we start the day with maths..i had hoped to at least get one 4.0 from maths but, i got none!!damn frustrating...i really really feel damn disappointed...careless mistakes here, careless mistakes there and all of my marks went missing...in...action....im really really disappointed at my maths...when i first walked into RI, i had this vision of defying anyone who said that maths is hard and that getting 70 odd % is really good...well, i did manage that a number of times in these 4 years, but to be honest, this EOYS, i really screwed up big time

then we have history...my next best hope for a 4.0...i missed it by one percent and i am really disappointed at it...my china question went okay, got a 17/20...nothing to be proud of but the comment that it was a refreshing point of view...then i got only a 15/20 for the hitler question...guessed i aint great at doing source-based, but i do feel that i have learnt quite a lot from today's history...at least i know how to conclude now...still wondering if i should take econs or history for RJ(no way im going to call it RI)...well, on the looks of things, its probably 40% history, 40% econs and 20% china studies...

then we have chemistry...granted, i am in the top 5(?) in my class for chemistry EOYS, but hey, 63/80 is nothing to shout about...i was near perfect for the MCQ, a 27/30 is probably pretty fantastic, but i totally died in section B...guessed the culprit? carelessness...again...sigh....if i wanna be a doctor, i guess i will have to work on solving this problem on carelessness..god knows how many marks this problem has caused me...i am really really disappointed...

lastly, bio...i was expecting at least a 70/100 for bio, but it did not come to me...instead, i got a poor 62/100, easily the worst result for this year's EOYs...ok, some people might say to me that 60 is the average of our batch and that to get above 60 is pretty decent...but hey, im not your average joe or wadeva...i dunt aim for the average, i aim for the high flyers...on section B alone, i lost at least 15 marks to carelessness...well, lets see how these 15 marks come about...i forgot an arrow, i forgot to label my inter neuron...so that cost me at least 2 marks...i forgot involuntary, that cost me one mark, i forgot to mention the pancreas detecting the increase in glucose and increases the insulin concentration, another one mark, i totally forgot everything about pure sugars and carbohydrates, that was 2 marks, i totally screwed up my homeostasis question...vasodilations and vasoconstrictions cost me 3 marks, no reference to data cost me 1 mark and an inability to read the graph cost me another mark...i forgot to describe the adaptive advantages, another 2 marks...i stated ONE invalid indicator, one mark gone...i forgot the function of nitrogen in amino acid making, one mark gone...i forgot the differences in the process of antisense RNA and RNAi, 2 marks gone...i forgot wads an antigen...one mark gone...i did not describe the memory lymphocytes correctly...one mark gone..and i did not have time to finish the last question...so 2 marks gone...so in total, thats about...21 marks...okay, plus minus 3 marks,i should have gotten AT LEAST 18 more marks...and thats not including my MCQ screw ups...WAKE UP DAVID ZHAO...YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO SCORE HIGH, BUT YOU ARE NOT DOING SO!!!OTHERS HAVE IMPROVED, BUT YOU HAVENT...YOU ARE SO FREAKING FAR BEHIND...WAKE UP!!...

i really do hope that i am able to make this disappointing experience the turning point in my life...

RESULTS!!

2008-10-28T18:32:00.003+08:00

lol...today was damn nervous...cuz i was afraid for my SS, english, physics...ok, everything...but when i got back my marks today, it wasnt that bad, except for physics...i got back SS english and physics and welll...lets talk in order of merit...

english was really really really really really ^n(where n >infinity) unexpected...i excepted to fail my AQ cuz i kinda digressed into ageing population rather than UNDERpopulation...but hey, it was still pretty well done and i got a 9/10!!yayy:)then overall i got 37/45 for english...wouldnt that say this result sucks but hey, there's always room for improvement...so now my english should be arnd 78 % for the entire year...crossing my fingers for moderation...comeon!!2 marks!!

then we move on to SS...i got 23/30 for the paper which put me at a nice fat 80% for the entire year..OH YEAHH!!...okay, so i should have gotten higher for the first question on neccesary evils and what not, but to be able to learn something yet still get 10/15 for it is really beyond my imagination...yeahh, should have gotten at least a 25/30, but im not complaining...

then we have physics...at first, i thought i did badly for physics, but still in contention for a 75% for eoys..well, you take 10% points off 75% and you get 65%, which is wad i got for my physics EOYS...to be honest, the questions that i did not know how to do were pretty rare in the paper and i have to say that carelessness cost me at least 14 marks...hmmmm, talk about complacency...so yeah, i screwed up physics big big time and got only 71%..others might think that i shld be happy at being so tyco and getting such a grade, but to be honest, i know that im capable of much more...so yeah..i will try to redo this paper and see where my mistakes lie...i really got to be more careful now...

anyway, tmr is JUDGEMENT DAY for me...i either get a 3.69, a 3.73 or a 3.78 for the entire year...well, im hoping to get the 3.78 GPA but to be honest, 3.73 is much more realistic...hope for the best!!!

Recap

2008-10-25T21:22:00.003+08:00

lol...this semester has passed damn quickly..but before i forget, lets do a recap of the EOYS shall we?..okay, i have screwed up big time this EOYS and yes, i have woken up...last time, i always have this feeling about how people can screw up tests and exams, not knowing wad to do etc...well, i have experienced it first-hand this time and yeah..i will make a come-back, i SWEAR...granted, my GPA will prolly hit 3.69 or even 3.73 if im lucky this time, but HEY, its not down to my EOYS, its down to what i have done over the past year...and when push comes to shove in A levels, not many will look at your overall grades, but they will rather look at your A levels...so yah...gotta work harder, be less complacent and become a model student again. COME ON DAVID, YOU CAN DO IT!!

haha...okay, lets do the recap..chinese was fantastic, got 73 percent for EOYS..cant say that was my best though..screwed up paper 2 and the letter part of paper 1...but HEY, i got 55/70 for the other part of paper 1..so yah..i am quite happy with the results...then come english..i sincerely hope that i will remember that interference=meddling in the future and read the question more thoroughly..just hope that they dunt penalize me too much for reading underpopulation as an ageing population...then come SS...omgzadhjahgjsahgujjashg...i dunt know wads a necessary evil!!!ARGHHH...well, just hope that they will be a lil lenient and give me the benefit of the doubt...then we got chemhistory!!History was average, leaning towards the good side...chem was BAD..big time...okay, so i dunno alot about why certain organic chemicals contribute less to global warming and give out less light...but HEY, i could have guessed right...but maybe shld just listen to mrs kua's explanations...then the electrolysis question...sigh...could have gotten some marks there...but just totally screwed up...

okay...now we have erm physics...sianz...section A is okay, but section B isnt...i could have blamed it on time...but i would rather blame it on complacency..i was too bloody complacent...sigh...i feel really bad...shld have really aced this physics test...okay, then we got bio...i did really well given my expectations...dunt think i can get a 4.0 but shld be able to get at least 85% for this test...then maths...arghhh...maths paper 1 i screwed up big big big time...i forgot to add 4 to a certain question...sigh....shld have done better...anyway...paper 2 was much better but shld have remembered cone surface area...arghh...well..just hope that i can get one 4.0 from maths...

so now we have the break down...4.0 for chem confirmed, SS on a thread, maths on an even thinner thread...then 3.6 for the rest...so yeah..that makes me on course for 3.73...but really, i shld have done much better...

anyway, this is just the first part...the second part will come out soon...it will include EVERY non-academic stuff that happened...and trust me, its pretty interesting..for me at least...

Investiture 08

2008-08-16T20:53:00.001+08:00

Really disappointing...we have to split up investiture, our LAST investiture into..1/2...meaning theres no soccer, no lunch....and of course meaning that we have broken our proud tradition of having an interesting investiture and letting the sec3s take charge...sigh...im not really in the mood to comment now...so yah, my post seems abit short...will comment some other time about this major major bullshit that dampens MY investiture mood...yes, i want fun...but above all, i respect tradition, and i dunt like to see change in something that is working out fine for everyone

RIMB'08 (sec1)

2008-07-18T16:37:00.003+08:00

Investiture is 30th August 2008...

On that random day in 2005, we gathered at the dining hall...we were strangers then, all 17 of us...one came in later that year, 4 came in in 2007...but no matter, cuz we are batchmates...we would have more if many had not quit, if many had bothered to come for practices...batchmates are different from "people in a batch"...batchmates are something more...something more prestigious, more unique than that...batchmates are more than just friends...batchmates are brothers...we are a band of brothers...if one falls, we will not go for the gold alone...we would wait and help him up...if it means missing out on that prize, we would not have bothered, because after all, losing one prize is nothing compared to losing a batchmate...we started out as strangers, as people with no idea who the hell is that guy in front of me during drills...but yet, we persevered as a batch and we managed to make it through our first year...we may not know who is in front of us, but if we see him struggling with the heat, we would give him a "cool wind" treatment, even if it means a 20-push up punishment...we would do things together, run as a batch, never leaving anyone behind...we would play soccer as a batch, going up against seniors bigger and better than us, but never failing to applaude someone if he has done well or encouraging someone who just made an error...we would play music together...play music as a batch...play our batch piece with joy and pride...becuz we knew then that these are the people whom we are going to have to be with for the next few years...and these are the people that we can always rely on for encouragement in the bandroom when we just finished a difficult maths paper...(to be continued)

Will all this end so quickly? after all, 4 years seemed like 4 seconds...in a flick (or flicks), we have turned into seniors...and very soon, we will turn into alumni...will we change?will our beliefs change?will our ideals change?will our friendship change?nothing is for sure in this world, but i have an exception...no matter what happens to us in RJC with all these girls around us, we will never forget the fun moments we have together as batchmates...simply because batchmates mean much more than friends...we are brothers...brothers determined to bring RIMB back to the fore...

Goals for Term 3

2008-06-22T22:10:00.002+08:00

ok..below are my goals for term 3...lets start with academics.
4.0 for bio, chem, maths...
3.6 for the rest...
Do well for all my tests....

CCA
Gold (or presentation) for SIBF
Make Mr Oura happy for SIBF (a must!!!)
Play well for Investiture...

Musically
Finish Hanon
Hold Super F for 8 beats
Tongue Super C
Finish my study on double-tonguing
improve my tone
Get a teacher

Personally
Do my best for everything
Dunt lose my temper
Try to be friendly
Try not to swear...

Hmmm...thats it...

Japan - detailed post

2008-06-19T10:30:00.002+08:00

Day 1 - arrived in RI in a taxi with dao bo...cant believe that it costs 26 bucks =.=...so expensive...then we go up there, take down the bubble-wrapped instruments...put them in the atrium, then stone until the buses and lorry came...Mr Jee was like telling everyone to tuck in their shirts, but obviously, some ppl nvr listen...i mean, if its a uniform, FINE...but its like, we got ppl wearing RI polo, ppl wearing tailored pants...so yah...looks so not uniform...then the lorry came...then the bus ( and a mini bus ) came...poor lucas, eric and austin..they reached the airport first via the lorry and have to carry everything down...but its great training for your biceps!!...haha...then we checked in, ate dinner...Dinner was a damn fun affair, but it proves that you shldnt bring your parents along when your batchmates are arnd...we were like discussing Russell's 4 girlfriends...(i think they include winston, lucas and zhenyi and some random person)...russell was looking like he was ready for the kill when he rejoined us...then we just stoned and waited for our plane lor..im so excited man...its been like 10 years since i sat on SIA...then we found out that SJIMB was also taking SIA, in the same terminal, but different locations...PHEW..BUT their departure gate was just beside us...to clarify, they dunt have departure halls, just one big chunk of space with different departure gates...i still find it miraculous that changi airport didnt have anything damaged...i was half-expecting a fight to break out...
Day2 - ok...so jerald and i just sat bside mrs tan and hear her emo-talking abt alot of stuff...i faintly rmb something abt austrailia, abt jap ladies etc etc...then its time to board the plane...my oh my...SIA is certainly a different class..i mean, there is so much legroom that instead of being like some ppl, who wanna watch the movies or play super mario all night long, i just wanna sleep...and trust me, its nice to sleep on a SIA flight...i was stuck in between mr jee and austin...austin was like sleeping throughout the whole flight...mr jee was watching powerpuff girls (!!)...i watched half an episode of simpsons, then fell asleep...when i woke up, i tried to play pokemon, but found it too boring...so yeah...breakfast was alright, for me at least...i mean, im not used to jap food lah, but given that international selection was gone, i just have to make do with what i have lorr...then arrived at osaka kansai airport, took that tram to the customs...then have to go through some imba process...fingerprints, taking camera shots etc etc...then went to get our luggage and bubble wrapped instruments...the first thing i noticed abt japan was the nice weather...the bus drivers were damn friendly...then we boarded the bus...went to nara deer park...nice scenary..but better ones would come afterwards...LOL...the deers were damn cute!!!..then went for lunch..lunch was quite nice...ala carte...then went to osaka toin high school...they had a symphony BUILDING...note, its not a hall...its a BUILDING!!...omg...if only RI can do that for us...then we practised our pieces for fukui concert...mr oura was pissed at ppl who didnt sleep on the plane that morning...but hey, srsly, we took SIA cuz its more comfy to sleep on it than on like say some other airlines...then the osaka ppl came...then got big big confusion...they got 175 ppl...compared to our 44...so yah, seemed quite overwhelmed...then they took out their shiny new instruments!!!omg...ok...maybe they are not new, but its still shiny...then i saw like wad ...8 xenos?maybe one Conn...and i felt jealous..but hey, the suaning part is to come later...we tried bandwagon ,dance celebration and merry widow...and they managed to play them well...very well in fact...one thing i noticed abt these ppl are that they like to end their notes nicely...it gives you a round feeling, rather than like say a constipated sound...anyways, we got suaned..i mean as a band lah...individually i would say that the sec4s and above are prolly still in their league...but hey, 2 years down the road and they would be in another league...then ate dinner with them, went back to our hotel...I GOT A TRIPLE ROOM!!...omg...so alastair, leonard and russell came in to crash our room...played cards...then sleep...damn tired...
Day3 - we went to USJ...it was fun to say the least...we took the spider man ride twice...it was really fun...jurassic park also...hollywood dream was erm...non existent for me...haha...k, i admit that im scared of roller coasters...but back to the future was disappointing...i mean, when you go into a volcano, you expect to feel hot air...instead, we felt cool air coming out...then erm...backdraft was also disappointing till the last part...after USJ, we went to dotonburi...we didnt manage to get into Yamaha...cuz its holiday for the workers on wednesday...but we went to some other imba music shop...now i know why these jap ppl are pro...with so many method books on offer, and so many good professionals out there to teach you how to play your instruments, you have to be pro...and oh, the trombones there are damn cheap...i really wanted to buy one...but no money :[...but i managed to buy a trombone swap..HAHA...now i can do wad alastair and fat sam do after concert...and i got an orchestra excerpts book for trombones..hmmm...not too bad, quite fun....then played card games in hotel again...
Day4- hmmm...nothing much to talk abt...just erm...we went to kyoto...stopped at the golden pavillion...then reached fukui...ate a typical jap meal...which was damn damn damn nice...then went back to the hotel...guess wad we did again...oh...and some snrs...found out the function of the P1 button!!and they went to some sec2s rooms and switched on that channel and locked them inside...whoa...
Day5 - we went for rehearsal...the fukui symphony hall was erm...fantastic...to say the least...there were chandeliers, there was an organ...and the pipes were damn nice...to be honest, i dunno which one is better...esplanade or that one...that just proves how much emphasis the jap ppl put into music...and i mean band music, not your heavy metal...if only singapore could have done the same for us...rehearsal was alright...but my tone sounded funny...but luckily, it became right at the end...the bento lunch was something that i would pay 4 bucks in s'pore for...but heh, it aint available in s'pore...after that, we went to tojinbo, where according to abtzy, if you swim across the water, you would reach north korea...like who would ever wanna do that...then dinner...then cards...
Day6 - Concert!!!..the morning rehearsal was screwed up...mr oura seems pissed...not surprising given that the fukui conductor is his teacher and obviously, he didnt want his band to be humiliated...sigh...but the concert was alright...and that erick miyashiro guy was just plain imba...he could hit high notes like freeeeee....and according to austin, he is muscular, not fat...haha...nice analogy austin...
Day7 - we had an exchange with the fukui band...i gave away my cards and my tie as they were like so happy with it...nvr mind that i didnt get anything in return...they would prolly have given me the wristband if im in yingzhe's position instead...but seriously, it is more heart-warming to see their smiles than to get something to wear on your hand...well, it was fun, but hey, all good things have to come to an end...so yeah...time to say bye...oh...did i mention that they got a bandroom which is half (or 3/4) of our hall and they got section rooms??i am so so so so so so jealous...then we went back to osaka...ate shabu shabu (?)...and austin came up with memorable quotes...abt beef...oh...he actually declared war against eating beef...nice one austin...went back to the hotel, crashed samuel's room..****ed a few ppl...and watched indiana jones...haha, that was damn fun...
Day8 - Have to return to s'pore...really felt sad...seeing that homework pile...how i wish i could have stayed in japan for a longer time...lol...better still, have homestays with some of the jap ppl...LOL...but yeah...thats the end...good bye japan, but i will be back soon...i promise...

NIPPON!!

2008-06-17T09:07:00.002+08:00

omg..japan was fantastic...everything there was perfect...or to some extent, really unbelievable...the toilet bowls are digital...the music is great, their gimmicks at concerts are fantastic, the amt of space that the school sets apart for the bands are really eye-openers, the food is really delicious, the ppl are really nice and the weather is really really great...can u believe if RI will set apart like say 2 floors of the admin block for us???i dunt think so, but thats wad the jap bands have...and one of them have a whole building to themselves...that was the one that really makes me green with envy...oh and not forgetting that they have practices every day of the week, with each prac at least 4 hours long...and the cheap instruments..(a xeno only costs like 4 k sing over there), the books that they have which will help them improve and the overwhelming musical talents over there whom those students can look up for if they want some professional help...over here in s'pore, band is just something that u spend your afternoons at...if you are lucky, you may be discovered by some scout and taken for intensive training, but thats where it all ends...if only RI can place more emphasis on band and make us something that they can really be proud of...no offence to the rugby team, but HEY, if u guys havent won anything significant for the past decade, maybe its time for the school to start looking for something more impressive, other than studies...we are good at studies, but in the real world, studies is not everything...sigh...how i wish i was in those jap schools...

JAPAN!!

2008-06-10T00:10:00.002+08:00

lols...im at the airport now...awaiting my flight which is at 1:10 am...ystd night was quite fun...roaming arnd the new terminal of changi airport with my batch...this is gonna be one day that i wunt forget for long...we met some SJIMB guys...turns out that they are also going to japan, going on SIA, but just one departure hall away frm us...they going tokyo, where NYCB is...haha...hope they have fun there...hmmmm...its been quite a long time since i took SIA, so yah, im gonna enjoy it alot...cant really talk much here given the time limit that i have...but its really nice to go out to a new country, especially with your band, mr oura and the teachers...really learn alot abt each other and can really have fun together...

RISE (again)

2008-06-01T10:12:00.002+08:00

well...rise concert was quite fun...learnt quite alot, not the practical stuff but the mental stuff which gave me lotsa motivation...oh btw, im talking abt ziluo and aldwyn, not the way the SE ppl treat instruments...yeah...i admit, i may be a tad younger than them lah, so my practical standards shouldnt be better than them, but hey, in the world of music, age doesnt really matter...i mean, when mozart was 6, he would prolly have owned like a few thousand pianists who are at least twice his age...so yup, must start working hard now...hope getting a teacher will help and maybe getting into SNYO would confirm that i didnt waste 7 years trying to play a trombone properly...SNYO isnt everything, but its a gage of yout standard...and of course, being prinicipal trombone for RJCSB...it aint gonna be easy, but when you have feelings for your batch, for the music, (not for that band yet), have the respect for the conductor, you would want to do your best for the band, and thats wad im gonna do...
okay, on to the more serious stuff...WHO THE HELL DO SE THINK THEY ARE??...i sometimes wonder why mr oura didnt want to form an orchestra with the SE guys...maybe he loves band too much???...but frm my experience with SE, the only thing that they like, or have respect for seems to be the bandroom...given that their own "varese" was taken away...i admit, i would love to play for them again, but when i play for them, im playing for the music, not bcuz im a rafflesian and have to play for RISE...im totally apalled by their behavior and their treatment of our percussion instruments (and to some extent, their own instruments)...when someone tells you to hold the timpani by the legs and not the skin, you jolly well listen bcuz that instrument costs more than your life and your violin/viola/cello/double bass and its not yours...you are a noob in handling of percs and wad makes you think that you can just do wadeva you want with something that you dunno???really stupid...nxt, we all know that you have done us a great favour by lending us your double basses and we returned it by lending you our perc instruments for your concert...but hey, the deal stops there...we didnt abuse your double basses right...we didnt like go scratch on them for put a tuba on them right???...we lend you our percs doesnt mean that we give you the rights to abuse our percs...also, its really stupid to put your violins on our timpani...firstly, there is every chance that your violin will drop off...and secondly, you are destroying the timpani...sometimes right, i really agree with wad trevor sze said "i cant believe im in RI"...really stupid...lastly, who the hell gave you permission to play samba on our instruments????...and for the record, it doesnt sound remotely nice...it sounds pathetic...
okay...now im done...but to be honest, there are some really nice guys in SE, just some idiotic guys who have just destroyed their nxt year's concert when they dunt seem to understand instructions...no matter what, even if im in rjc nxt year, im gonna make sure that our percs dunt land in the hands of SE...

RISE

2008-05-29T12:49:00.002+08:00

hmmm...spent the last few days having rehearsals for RISE...getting owned by aldwyn tan...haha...though jerald said that music isnt abt who owns who, i still feel that the competition is pretty vital in the development of music given that you will be motivated to play better, improve and try to beat that guy who once beat you in his playing...when i first saw aldwyn, i thought of him as some funky hair style guy...just got the looks, not the substance, cant be that imba one that got promoted in SNYO just half a year after a stint in SNYTO...but hey, after playing Prince Igor with him, i realized wads the fuss abt him...he is THAT good...i mean, i found out that he plays the bass trombone, but his high notes certainly dunt make him sound like a bass trombonist...i thought i was like one of the best in perhaps school bands for high notes trombonists, but since i heard him, i started having doubts abt myself...i idolize (?) matthew, charles, quan hui, michael, ziluo for their trombone skills, but to be honest, i feel that aldwyn is the standard that i must reach bfore i move on in my music "career"...hmmm...shld start practising harder...it wunt be that easy, but since he started playing only when he was 12, and hes like maybe 2 years older than me, i would say that it can be done...JIAYOU!
ok...going on the RISE...i must say it feels more like SNYO then RISE..given that we have wad? 25 guest players????....and some of the ppl there ARE SNYO...its been a really great experience...forget wad jerald said abt orchestral songs being boring...i really love those songs...because these songs really kinda force me to play better, to improve...rather than the songs that i get in RIMB...granted, its still not perfected yet...but HEY, if you can sightread some of the songs, whats the fun in it???...ok, resting for 100 bars isnt really sth that i have experienced, but it forces you to concentrate, to listen out for the music...that is wad orchestral music is all about, and i do think that this stint in RISE really makes me remember my dream of getting in SNYO, rather than something like philyouth winds...if RISE asks me to play for them again, i would do so, not because im a rafflesian and im obliged to do it, but because i really love the orchestral atmosphere...
That part was abt orchestral music, now its abt RISE...i have played for RIMB, and i have really fallen in love with the music, with the band etc...so much so that i have feelings when i play for them...these feelings are not frm the scores, or abt the scores, but they just flow out bcuz of my love for RIMB...HOWEVER, when i played for RISE, my only joy for playing for them, or rather my only feelings, were, as forementioned, for the music itself...i do not have any feelings for this "ensemble", which actually means that im not giving my all...hmmmm, maybe its the time problem...too little time with them, the animosity of everyone..."im like the only sec school wind player"...but hmmmmm, it really wasnt that enjoyable, and if it wasnt for the orchestral pieces, i would have walked out...

Half way mark

2008-05-18T21:56:00.002+08:00

hmmmm...looking back at this year huh...or rather the last six months...have to say, its been a rather disappointing(academically, personally, musically etc) semester, yet one filled with joy, happiness, pride, but in some cases, sadness.
My grades are somewhere like 3.69, but i know that i can hit 3.8 easy peasy if i worked hard for my first APR. A 3.6 for history, bio, chem and physics for me?nah, i should be getting a 4.0 for these subjects...no offence to anyone who did badly for the first APR, but it was really so easy, that i might have gotten higher marks if i closed my eyes and do the papers and assignments...then personally, hmmmm...just want to close one chapter of my life and move on..but it hasnt been easy...maybe things will get better in RJC?...then musically...rejection by SNYO isnt hard to overcome, but when you find out that you are not better(at least not in the sense of the judges) than the SL of RGS, it really makes you think alot about your own standards...excuses like "oh im too old" or like "theres not enuff space" isnt really valid, given that if you are good enuff, they will rather take you in than to keep those who arent up to standards...
But hey, in this past month, or to be more specific, on 15th May 2008, at VCH, something happened to lighten up my semester by 100000000 mega watts...at that moment, wadeva grade, wadeva rejection didnt hurt me anymore in that few hours...on that day, RIMB'10, RIMB'09 showed RIMB'08, Mr Oura, our alumni, the audience what they can do...it was really a proud moment for me as a senior, as sec4 leaving the band in a matter of months...the concert was really great for us...keep it up guys...i hope that what happened in the atrium ystd was an one-off event...show us that you guys are ready for the big stuff...you guys should do it, you guys must do it, you guys can do it, and you guys will bring back another gold(with honours i hope) frm nxt year's SYF...
Ystd night, i woke up at arnd 2 am...i just sat in bed and thought abt my years in RI...the premier school...the premier institution...but most of my happy memories seem to come not frm me getting full marks or wadsoever for my academics, but they come frm RIMB...frm sec1, when i just go promoted, go lanning with tbones'05; all the way to sec2, promoted to lance corporal, faced with humiliation for NBC...i still rmb vividly that day, when we got a mere 80.4% to scrap a gold home and how our seniors, michael, jeremy lied to the whole school to keep our reputation intact, but lo behold, prometheum XI was fantastic, still could rmb justin singing the institution anthemn in VCH, we doing the Unite cheer without the rest of the school, saying goodbye to michael; then on to sec3, SYF...how we worked really really really hard just for that gold and for our reputation...i rmb fondly the moment the announcer said that RIMB got gold...it was really sweat and toil, but we made it when others say we will falter, to the malaysia trip, great fun, to con brio...esp hao qing's imba encore shouting...then farewell to matthew, promoted to Corporal, and having to take charge of the band with my batch; now, here we are...sec4s...we just finished prometheumXII, the alumni said it was good, mr oura didnt look too disappointed, and poof!thats our last prometheum for RIMB as a RIMB member...of course, we still have that japan trip and SIBF to look forward to, but thinking back at my days at RIMB, the days when i didnt really feel for the band to the day, that day, prometheum XI, when i finally felt that band is my second home, not the school, the band, i cant help but shed a few tears...RIMB, we said that you are one of the best, we are wrong, you are the best...wad makes us special is not that 17 gold SYF streak, its the brotherhood that the batches have shown, its the bonding btwn batches(there arent really any inter batch conflicts), its the heart that we put in our music...i have done my best for RIMB, my very best...but after SIBF, i really cant do anymore...at least not in a direct way lah....i really feel very sad that my time in this great band has to come to an end soon...how i hope that i can serve you for the rest of my school life, or even my life...RIMB, you made me realize wad RI is all abt...its not abt the mugging, its not abt the hours spent in school...for me, its the hours spent in the bandroom that really makes my RI life so memorable...thank you RIMB...the band cheer shall continue to be true for as long as the spirit of RIMB remains...

Prometheum XII

2008-05-17T21:30:00.003+08:00

whoa...its finally over...the one last public concert that the batch of 08 will have with RIMB as members of RIMB...hmmmm...it kinda feels sad yeah...i mean, the feeling was just so magical, the great support after merry widow, the laughter for circus, the ensembles, the screw-ups...but in the end, the audience loved the concert(i think) and i feel thats wad it matters...
Hmmm...a analysis of the songs??haha...dunt blame me for trying

Wind Harmony March:
For me, it was our best song of that night...i was talking about that smile on mr oura's face as the song ended...the starting was great...you could see him nodding...then the rest was okay, except perhaps for the semi-quavers part in C...that was not done well, but it was still a good job

St Florian Choral:
The clarinet part was great...thanks clarinets..but i think our harmony wasnt that good...but still not too bad...other than that uncalled-for imba high note played by a clarinet...i mean, it was a bad mistake lah, but im sure many others will also have cracked under such pressure...good piece...

Symphonic Festival:
We started fine...but as we move into the fast part, suddenly, everyone started disintegrating...at least it wasnt as bad as it was today during Open House, but it was still bad...some sections played quicker than the conductor, then some sections cannot come in...then result in the whole music sounding wrong...definitely one of the worse pieces of the concert

Dance Celebration:
It would have been the best song of the night if not for MY screw-up...the last part...tonguing part...i tongued slower!!!then i cracked on my C...omg...but overall, it was pretty great, but i wish that i can solve that problem...its still bugging me today...until the last time when we played it today...must work hard on it

Merry Widow:
I would say that based on the applause alone, this was the best piece...everyone loves it (i think...)...it sounds good...in fact, it sounds very very very very nice...until the last allargando..some sections came in early and played quicker than the baton, which kinda results in the whole run-down of notes turning into some disaster...other than that, it was pretty okay...but my lips had die :( nearly couldnt hit that G...but when i did, it sounds nice..to me...lol...and the OFFBEATS...omg...must sort it out liao...within the section

Ensembles:
Perc ensemble was well-received...esp. stinky grabage...well done jerald and co...then came the swing ensemble...it would have been funny normally seeing yingzhe not hitting the high notes, but on that night, it was really quite a sad sight lah...i mean, he worked so hard for it, but it didnt sound half the way it sounded like during normal prac...plus i think his lips had over-worked...he commented during intermission that he couldnt hit above F...much more hit that high B flat that was theoretically out of the range of a bass trombone...but luckily it still sounded okay(and not many ppl know abt monster inc)so yeah...then pink panther...i was damn nervous when i was standing at the pillar, then samuel signalled...but hey, once the audience starts clapping the rhythm, it feels alright...some people mentioned my tone was nice etc etc...but i shall leave that to the audience k...but hey...ensembles was well done...

Comedians' Gallop:
Ben NI!!!!!!!...probably a testamonial for one of the few like not so flashy ppl of our batch!i mean, you dunt see or hear ben ni playing the drumset right...but his solo was damn nice...must have spent alot of time on it...anyway, 'nuff said...it was fantastic...good job ben!

Black River Overture:
hmmmm...in tune flutes?check...tpt coming in at the right time?check...saxophone solo?check...i would say that it is good lah...but not great...but definitely something that we had worked hard for...given that it was taken off the list some time ago...

A day @ the circus:
When i first read the score, i laughed out loud...i mean...it was damn easy...but hey, easy songs are harder to make them sound pro...but Mrs Chua did just that!...i would say that her commentary probably over-shadowed the clowns and that cannonball guy...but hey, im not saying that im not happy at that...in fact, i think this is the most fun song on our repertoire...practically, it was good lah...but im nearly deaf frm that timpani hit...i shall bring earmuffs nxt time

Bandwagon:
Im not going to blame the euphos...im not going to blame anyone...but seriously, i think that was beneath our standard...maybe everyone's tired?but yeah...we can do better for bandwagon than wad we did on thursday...much much better

Eres tu:
hmmmm...this song is probably one of the most boring songs i have ever played...but hey, its a good training for lip muscles...so yah...we shall use it nxt time for lip training exercises!!ok...for first trombones lah...it was really really xiong...

Thank you guys for coming down k...hope you guys enjoy it...haha...and thanks RIMB...you guys really make me proud...granted, the concert is not perfect, but lets face it, we are not perfect either...in fact, i think that this concert is great cuz you showed everyone what you can do...so why not start doing them now???lol...continue working hard guys, and we can perform at the presentation for SIBF...its hard, but never impossible...

Final Push

2008-05-04T20:39:00.002+08:00

ok...now it comes down to this...the last 2 (or is it 3 or 4 or 5?)tests for the last week!!!whoops...not the last week im sorry...but probably the last significant week of the semester!!yayyy...i mean...after week 8...with that crazzyyy HMT Mid Year(or rather mock O level HMT scenario 1), and that not so crazy but still quite crazy BIO...oh...did i miss out something???i think i missed out that i-dunno-wad-the-hell-it-is-about-exactly chem practical!!yayy...and of course..we still have the i-think-i-heard-her-say-it-but-i-cant-confirm chem OBA!!...omg...and yah la...got the 1000^1000 projects that we need to do, and hand up..and the movies i need to watch...and the girls and boys i need to chat to at night...etc...but first, lets go to the projects...let me see...wad do we have here hmmmm...bio portfolio(i have no ideaaa), english-cum-philo argumentative essay-cum-argument tree(when is it due arrr), then still got the history project(i hope to get extension for this...since she has alrdy given one extension, she might just give another)...did i miss out anything??OH YAH...the bio FPS...or is it FPA??heck lah...just know that we are going to do something abt something that happens in the future...for reference, if you wanna know wads gonna happen(and wad the peeps at that time gonna do), go read nostradamus' s lost book...it may give you some clues...i mean...ok, it concerns us, but HEY...how the hell can we do a good one if we do not know the resources that the govt(or rather the world)has???i mean, for all you know, they have already invented some machine that can give you 10 billion bags of rice for like one bag put inside....so yah...its never to early to plan for your future, but make sure that you know wad you have....
ok...moving away frm the academic stuff...we have BAND! BAND! and more BAND!!...Prometheum XII..7:30 pm...15th may...VCH...you know you want to hear us...but hmmmmm...did i miss out something?yeah...i missed out the price...its 10 bucks btw...but theres still one damn impt fact...we are playing on a thursday night :O...for all you know, we could have sold triple our tix sales now if we didnt tell them that and scammed them..but hey...when we were selling tix, there was a pledge nailed to the wall and we just looked up, saw the I-word and told them the truth...its not In, or intellectual...its integrity...but still...i would say that i feel much more comfy telling them that instead of them finding out and being angry, shocked...and just make sure tt you cant play for the concert...then after that, we have Open House...you know, i bet that just having Shazam and Tessa having a play abt love in raffles would attract more ppl than the rugby team owning ACS(I) infinity to 0...but yeah...its the schools' decision, and who are we to interfere???but hey...having a performance TWO days after our concert isnt going to do us much good...and ppl are going to pon anyway D:...but LUCKILY, rjcsb is having prac on that day...hmmm...may be able to drag some peeps to come over and cover...oops..i mean make the music better...yeahh...then still got the japan trip...kinda excited...NOT CUZ OF THE GIRLS...but cuz of the music...really makes me feel jealous that a japan school, dunno if its an elite one or not, having their own symphony hall (whoa)...compared to our auditorium(not too bad lahh)...rooms for individual sections compared to our bandroom (fantastic!)...but hmmmm..maybe thats the norm in japan??but hey...RI has done much for us k...i mean, not many schools in the whole of Singapore can boast that they have a bandroom...just ask some other schools in bishan lah...but are we going to get mocked at in Japan??...the people there might not say that in our faces, thats not their norm i hope...but in our hearts??some ppl may just say "aiya...only a trip wad...and they are SUPPOSED to be better than us lorr"...and just push it out of their puny brains and waste their 2010(NICE NUMBER!!) bucks...in physical fact, these money are gonna pay for the OIL that our plane runs on..the beds we sleep on etc...but hey...wad makes this trip cheap is not that fact that it only costs 2010 bucks for a 7 day trip...wad makes it priceless is that we are prolly learning from some of the better school bands in the region...so yah...hope that ppl dunt just go there and act that a gold in SYF is some big deal and not learn anything...
then on to the sporting arena..the rockets are out (aiya, expected lah)...the hawks squeezed the celtics to game 7...but other than that, nothing really surprising...probably the most surprising one shld be dallas and phoenix...dallas lost to hornets and kidd looks like hes never gonna become an owner of a ring...which makes him look like charles barkley!!in terms of the hair(or the lack of) and the lack of a ring...and then we have phoenix...hmmmm...it would be great if they had o neal, stoudemire, nash and marion...BUT HEY!they didnt have that last guy and they dunt look so fantastic...comeon...surely o neal isnt worth a marion???...even pau gasol costs less...are you saying that o neal is better than gasol??6 years ago, i would trade anyone for o neal hands down...6 years on, i would only trade someone like boris diaw and like 3 more players, with a future draft pick for o neal...moving on to soccer!!!paul scholes shld get the "best" goal of the season award...bfore i saw marco senna's strike against betis...MAN U IS GOING TO THE FINAL!!...i know that place is where that rich kiddo called roman came frm...but hey, if its gonna be fergie against grant...van der sar against cech, brown against ferreria(or belletti), evra against ashley cole, ferdinand and vida against terry and carvalho, ronaldo against joe cole, giggs against wright phillips(or malouda or kalou), scholes and carrick(or anderson or hargreaves) against essien and obi(or makelele or some random guy), tevez against lampard, rooney against drogba the guy who "dived"...i would go for man u...hands down...why???bcuz man u play attacking football..while chelsea play defensive...yes...man u were defensive in the last few matches..but when its the last match of the season, you will see the dead coming back to play the game they shld have played 50 years ago...you would see rooney with the power and grace of tommy taylor...scoring like theres no tomorrow..you will see brown running the wings like roger bryne..you will see scholes, or carrick, or tevez even..playing with the power, with the grace of duncan edwards...drogba would be the most representative of duncan in that match, but hes wearing blue, not red...so yeah...you will see tevez running down the defence like duncan, shooting with so much power, yet with so much control...these are just some examples...but basically, on that night, 22nd of May, in Moscow, Manchester United will pay tribute to their 1958 counterparts..on that night, the swashbuckling style which has maded Manchester United the Red Devils will be back...on that night, there will not just be 11 players on the field...there will be 22...the last 11 being those who didnt make it to the final that year...and 8 of them who died trying to do so...it will not be simple, but on that night, Manchester United will not be a corporation, it will be a football club...a club trying to do what it tried to do 50 years ago, but with tragic results...the cup will be won for the Manchester United of 1958...for all the players who lost their team mates, their friends, their colleagues, their comrades in Munich..and also to those who tried to bring glory to England, to the city of Manchester, but died in the conquest...the dream was accomplished 10 years after that tragedy, now, it will happen 50 years after the tragedy...rest in peace babes, for your contributions will never be forgotten, and they will continue to inspire the future teams of Manchester United, whether they are in the EPL, or the Conference...

decisions...

2008-04-29T21:21:00.000+08:00

sighh...wrong decisions again...sianzz....first up, anyone wants to exchange a black hoodie for a white one???please??not that i dunt like the white one, but i actually got a white one alrdy...so yeah...i want one with another colour...so please???oh...and any size above L or L will do...so yah...please???..thanks alot...
then come the two papers!!!ok...i cant say i have done badly...but hey, surely i shld have gotten full marks for at least one of them?but i will not and thus, it can be considered a major disappointment...sighh
then prometheum XII...i hate to say this, but at the rate we are going now, its gonna be really bad...but HEY...RI guys are known to do things last minute, so yah...who knows...i hope that we are really going to chiong last minute and make it nice...hmmmm...hope so...

2 days in HELL

2008-04-27T21:39:00.000+08:00

obviously, some guy isnt happy with my post on the MG SG stuff...but nvm...shall not dwell on the past for too long...hmmmm...physics and chem test on 2 consecutive days...oh and btw, they are inverted in the sense that chem is tmr and physics is on tues...and not forgetting we have band tmr and i havent touched my physics yet...chem is like...QA, RS..and thats it man..the rest are just pure common sense...ok maybe extraction and salt preparation require some mugging but the others are just pure common sense...and i still dunt understand the need to memorize all the results for QA and the "can this metal displace H2 from water" this kind of stuff...i mean, when we become chemists or doctors, we are gonna have books beside us and we can just check it up right??...ok granted, you need to know some common ones, but hey, you dunt need to know all right???..if its a practical test, i will say "okay, thats fair"..but its a THEORY TEST!!!...omg....but hmmmm..think everything they do got a reason (and they have been doing it for like wad....30+years???)
ok...lets go on to physics...im not saying i rock at physics(cuz obviously i cant beat my dad in physics) but hey, i dunt think i need to mug so much lah...so obviously i will survive...
OMG MY FIRST CHEM AND PHYSICS TESTS OF THE YEAR..hope that i survive...
and today, i found that its not that rewarding to be nice to someone and offer them advice...they will just say"so wad if i do"...sigh, how discouraging...

yayy

2008-04-21T22:23:00.000+08:00

hmmm...officially kena rejected by SNYO...anyway, does anyone like my new skin??haha...credits go out to my junior!!lol...hmmmm...hope that this can kickstart my new blogging adventure...lol...not much time left...but yeah..today is pretty eventful...and lincoln got his piano part!!congrats!!and please dunt disappoint me ar linkie...then ermm...phototaking...think we are the section with the most random picture...lessons are boring, as usual...but Kristian and Biquan had a nice duet on the "podium", while bryan and luggie prolly enjoyed themselves...band was pretty fun though..no pressure frm Mr Oura..but i really want to stay back for next year's SYF...they are playing scootin on a hardrock(?)...it sounds fun...it sounds jazzy and i LOVE it..lol...i know that samuel and jerald are gonna love it too...just hope that RJC has such interesting songs too...hmmm...guess i will just have to find wilson ong and improve...I WILL BE THE BEST TENOR TROMBONIST OF MY YEAR...yeah...that will be my goal...and also, to take part in band fiesta(!)...lol...I WILL DO IT!!...haha....and btw, if you slowpoks havent realized(the slowpoks only refer to RIMB guys, alumni or current members), my url is actually the initials of our motta..its like...WeShouldWeMustWeCanWeWILL...lol...so it becomes wswmwcww...haha...hope you guys enjoyed that.

Back!

2008-04-20T21:54:00.000+08:00

hey...its been such a long time since i last posted on this blog...hmmm...smells musty...must change skin soon liao...but must get lin jin to help...LOL...these past 2 months...hard to describe lah...can be of happy memories...and sad ones...and the worst one....happy cuz yifan is finally my friend again!!as in normal one...it really makes me look forward to my life...and of cuz my beloved man u!!!COMEON...own barcelona and chelsea!!!(or liverpool)...then sad ones...hmmm...wads happening to me nowadays...i dunt seem to have the motivation to work, which has served me well over the years..and my grades are falling (dunt be mesmerized by the 3.69 ppl)...i mean...i shld have gotten 4 for chem, bio and history right!!...sigh...then of cuz..my failure for SNYO...even though jamie said that shes worse off than me..shes probably trying to make me not feel so bad...but hey, perhaps my time with a trombone is up and i shld go on to another chapter of my life?perhaps...
i must say, i never have any liking(perhaps only soccer) for anything that i dunt do well at...so yeah...wads the point of joining RJCSB if i know that im gonna get owned by jamie and suaned by matthew??...there is absolutely no point...so yeah...shld build up my fitness levels after investiture...and hopefully, i can get into some sports groups in RJC...but HEY, maybe i shld try concentrating on my A levels...
well...this post is actually a revival of my blog(i hope)...and that i will continue posting!!...but one issue to say...which is regarding band.
Recently, i stumbled upon an ex-trombonist(sec2) of RGSSB and i found out that shes in a sports group now...it really makes me wonder, how many of the peeps in RIMB will stay in band if they suddenly found out that they have a sports talent and the sports coaches are waving their hands at them...it really makes you wonder the motive of those ppl who quit a musical grp and join a sports grp...i mean, if you love that sport and have played it since young, FINE...but if you join that sport cuz you feel that being in a musical grp is a disgrace to how you look like...then im sorry...you SUCK...you see, music is something that is sacred, something that not everyone can do it, much less do it well...yet, you guys dunt appreciate it and prefer to go for ccas that have higher profiles...ok...i accept that fact that most, if not all, girls prolly find you holding a rugby ball or smashing someone's jaw more fantastic than you holding up a tuba and playing it...but, if you want to attract girls by that way, then i would say that your relationships will prolly last as long the titanic...cuz your relationships are not built on solid grounds, they are built on her liking you cuz she thinks you look cool and vice versa...k, im digressing but i think you get my point.
Musical grps are NOT dumping grounds for anyone talentless..neither are UGs...in fact, if you want a dumping ground, go to the sports grp where prolly only one out of 2 or 3 get to play...but yeah...the sports groups are not dumping grounds either!so yah, get that fucked-up mentality out of you and see musical groups as being something nice...and yeah..the school can do MUCH MUCH more for us...given that they managed to mobilise like alot of ppl down for a final that they havent won in 17+ years, perhaps they can mobilise 400 ppl down for a concert which features a band that has won 17 consecutive golds??
hey, im not saying that sports ppl suck...im just saying that those ppl who look down on musical grps uniform grps and see sports grps as god suck...cuz they dunt appreciate what it means to play music, what it means to have discipline..and even if they have the talent, i hope that they wunt utilize it to their fullest potential, cuz they dunt deserve it
Tagline: those ppl out there love music and they listen to music..you guys in here, you learn how to play music and you MAKE the music that they listen to and that they like..and YOU will know the difference between a sucky stinky piece of music frm a pro piece...

Life sux

2008-02-13T21:56:00.003+08:00

i really dunno what else do i need to do to get her love again...i mean...i was wrong...but hey...it wasnt tt bad a mistake was it???...okay...even if its tt serious to you...i tot tt we were happy together???im really really sorry and depressed...so many things happened today and you have to choose of all days to reject me todae...when im looking for something to brighten up my day...life sux...and i really feel tt the only reason why im living now is cuz of my parents...what will happen to them when i die?i certainly dunt want them to be sad...thus, i will not go bfore my parents, even if life really sux....please...i really love you...give me a chance to say sorry...and repay you for all the damage and hurt my slip-of-tongue has done...i really love you...but will you accept it??we can be happy, but it cannot happen if you do not accept it...where can u find such devoted love???even after 1.5 years of our break-up...i have tried to forget you...but i just cant do so...cuz you are so important to me...please...accept me?

Lets go back to basics...the real basic stuff

2007-11-10T21:54:00.000+08:00

If last prac was bad, lets get ready for worse times ahead for us...if we cant play just bcuz a few sec3s are absent, then nxt week will be even worse as only 7 sec3s will be left in s'pore...i am not going to blame anyone here as if anyone deserves to be blamed, it shld be my batch and not any of the juniors...perhaps it is our fault that we didnt teach the sec1s and sec2s well...we probably did such a pathetic job that two of our juniors, or even more, are unable to play offbeats properly...we as the top batch in this band shld probably be taking all responsibilty for the inability of our juniors...but perhaps there are somethings that are not really within our control...are we to blame for the lack of ppl??sure, some ppl are just too stupid and lazy to get their bodies, be it a six-pacs perfect one or a fat one, up to walk to the nearest train station and catch the train to bishan...who do they think they are???Mozart or Chopin???they may have great potential for all i care, they can be the nxt mozart if they want to, but if you do not practise, you will never be able to fulfill your potential...sure, you may be able to tongue semiquavers at 160 using single tongue and can have the most beautiful tone that all the girls like, but if you dun even bother to practise, then i will say tt you may be better than those who prac, but you do not earn my respect...its alright if you suck at something, but its even worse if you suck at it and still dunt practise...the worse case is tt you are good at it, but you dunt practise to make sure tt you can have a career out of it...you may wanna be a doctor or maybe a minister, but wouldnt it be better if you have two career choices rather than just one??...secondly, are we really prevent parents from taking their children overseas??till now, i still dunt see alot of parents taking CCA seriously...perhaps they think that CCAs are just a time for their darlings to socialize and make more friends??or CCAs are just the key to getting a good uni course???they are wrong...if CCAs are tt useless, then why is the SNYO set up??yes, it is set up for musicians with potential, but if CCAs are absent, do you think tt the potential can be tapped on??the same goes for sporting groups as well...lets say we have this guy who has the potential to be the next Harbana...but if the rugby CCA is absent, will he be discovered???adults will always brag about their kids being in the singapore sports youth team but when the kids have practices on certain days, they MOAN...isnt it unfair to the kids??they dunt get the credits, the parents get it...and yet when they have practices on days that contradict their other committments, you get frustrated...we are not saying that you cannot take your kids out for a vacation to somewhere like say St Petersburg to see the great city that Peter the Great built so that he can avoid Moscow...vacations are good for the family spirit but lets spare a thought for the CCA...if he misses the practices, the coaches will think tt everyone is not committed to the cause and thus, he will lose interest...so while your kids are in Russia freezing, some kids are here practising very very hard, just to make up for the few who are not here....If your kids have practices like say on every monday wednesday and friday, it is alright to skip a few as it really cant be avoided...i mean, you cant have a 2 day vacation right...but when the CCA teachers are kind enuff to give you a break of 3 weeks and its informed WAY BEFORE HAND, perhaps you can use the 3 weeks for a vacation???or even the last week as there is only like say one prac to get ready for the new school year...if you go then, the air fare prices wunt be as exorbitant as it is earlier in the holidays and your kids can use this chance when they are just fresh out of school and still in the schooling spirit to do their holiday hwk!!!imagine a poor guy sitting infront of the computer 10 hrs before start of school and trying to copy book reports from various sources just to get the work done...and just for parents who think tt being in a musical grp is gay or perhaps worse off than being in a sports grp, allow me to remind all that the government didnt spent a few 100 million bucks of money just to build a grand theatre...they use it to promote the arts, in which music is one of them, so as to make singapore an arts hub, in addition to an education and financial hub...lastly, perhaps we shld be getting more ppl in our CCA?i mean, a 60-odd ensemble is nothing to be proud of...in fact, if we compare our numbers to the numbers of other schools, e.g. ACSI(who can even afford to have a wind symphony), we are really outnumbered...with 60 odd ppl, minus off some scholars, minus off some guys who have gone for vacation, and some sec3s who have leadership camps, you are left with 20 sth ppl...how do you prac with 20 sth ppl???!!!...k...i have enuff of this ranting...i just hope that this situation wunt happen again...ever...

Procrastination is a thief of time and glory...

2007-11-07T21:50:00.001+08:00

Maybe if i had been serious in my dreams to get in SNYO earlier in the year, perhaps i will be the one celebrating with Austin today that we had gotten into SNYO...perhaps then i will not be regretting the fact that Jamie will have a good advantage over me in the playing of our instruments...perhaps in the future, RIMB can truly be better than RGSSB...all perhaps and maybes, but still, the fact remains that we will never ever be better than our sister band when our batch is taking control of RIMB...rewind into last year's NBC...RGSSB defeated us by a pretty narrow margin of 3.0+ percentage points, but also by a wide margin of 4 rankings...rewind into the SYF of this year...both of us achieved the Gold Award, but perhaps we are the happier ones with the Gold, not RGS...their piece was probably the hardest among all of the bands and they have played it well, really well...yet, they share the same award as us...have we improved?certainly not in quality as we changed piece after piece, going down the difficulty ladder, but certainly in luck...Looking at today, as Kenneth and I were discussing about the standards of RGSSB, i suddenly came to realize that with the prize accuqistion of the SNYO spots by two RGSSB players, perhaps the dreaded truth has come...our batch will never be better than them. In terms of numbers, we can say that we are just a drop in the ocean compared to them being a river...in terms of committment, we can say that it will only take us to practise our instruments for one whole month, without stopping, to be close to what they have done so far...and now, with the bar rising higher still, our standards are slowly but surely getting out of reach from them...Jerald may say that competition is definitely not in his mind when he faces RGSSB, but will he say that if we fail at NBC nxt year?To be the best, which is what RIMB has been striving to be for the past 50 odd years, surely we must defeat our closest rivals, both spiritually and mentally, before we can ascend to the top?While i may not make such a big difference if i join the SNYO, a difference is always a difference...perhaps then the RIMB tbonez can truly claim to be better than our counterparts from RGS??If one section manages to do it, then the pressure can be off the other sections...and then, we can at least be on the same standards as RGS...will this be my misdoing in failing to lead my band to the fore?Next year is NBC and prometheum year, as well as the school's 185th anniversary...we see our pictures on the RI wall of fame(or sth like that lah)...will it still be there the year after the next?will we walk away from NBC with our heads held high, or will we only be cheering for RGS, and not ourselves?who will be listening to during the presentation ceremony of NBC?hopely, all the raffles bands will be there...if not, wonder how it will feel like if RJC and RGS is there, but RIMB, the band proclaimed to be the best in Singapore is missing...As for prometheum, its held on a Thursday...this will be our last dress rehearsal for NBC...on that night in Victoria Concert Hall, will the audience be shouting encore! because of our great performance?or will it be simply because there are friends performing?What songs would we play?would it be the beautiful harmonies and charming music of great songs that will continue to enhance the reputation of RIMB?or will we simply be playing old songs over and over again??if the latters happen, then perhaps we shld add a new phrase behind the old saying that procrastination is a thief of time...it shld be procrastination is a thief of time and glory...i may not be receiving the best teachings that i can get anytime soon, but be assured, i will do my utmost best to turn the tables arnd and turn it to our advantage...we are the best, and it is time that we show it...

English Blog Assignment

2007-08-30T19:54:00.000+08:00

To yield or not to yield. That is the question

As the war in Iraq looks no closer to stopping than Derby County winning the Premiership this year, perhaps one family should be thanking their lucky stars and the 5 poor US soldiers, who were brothers, who died in 1942. Since 1942, the US army has adopted the “sole survivor” policy, which prevents a family from losing all of their children to war. Sergeant Jason Hubbard had his brother, Marine Lance Corporal Jared Hubbard die in a roadside bomb, as well as another brother, Nathan Hubbard who died in a helicopter crash. As the Hubbards mourned and rejoiced at the same time at the deaths of their sons, as well as the safe return of the other and another torn family, there is yet another war that involves the US. This time, the battlefield is not on the under-developed cities of Iraq. This time, there will be no tyrannies to target and kill. This time, the war takes place in the United States of America. On one side, we have the incumbent President of the USA, George Washington Bush and his fellow military commanders who would prefer a slow reduction and a slow handing over of power to the Iraqi Government. On the other side, we have lawmakers and the general public, who voted Mr Bush into power in 2004 rather than John Kerry.
Mr Bush’s argument for a slow reduction is that he believes that the Iraqi government, as stated in a report earlier this week, would be thrown into chaos if the US troops were to pull out. While military commanders believe that the Iraqi forces were not ready to assume full control of the situation and Iraq might go into civil war again. Also, they believed that the current Iraqi government is not yet ready to take over as they have not shown themselves capable of controlling the violence as of now. Mr Bush even likened the Iraq war to that of the Vietnam War to justify his actions of not reducing the troops and even sending in more troops. He feels that if the US were to reduce their troops now heavily, this will embolden the enemy as the US has in a way yield to their violent behavior. The counter argument is that too many lives and too many families have been torn apart from this war. The earlier the US troops pull out of Iraq, the better it is for the US as their military costs will go down exponentially and fewer lives would be lost. Also, if the US does not pull out now, then they might never do so as they will never really give the Iraqi forces a chance to show their abilities.
I feel that both sides have their points that are logical. It is true that if the US were to pull out now, terrorist forces might see this as a weakness in the US policies and there will be more terrorist attacks to force US troops out of the Middle East altogether. Then, instability will kick in as the terrorists attempt to seize control of the whole Middle East, which will put the economies and the safety of many countries at risk. However, the US has already spent too much money and lives in this war. No country likes to see itself being controlled by an external force. That may be the reason behind all the violence. If the US were to withdraw now, then there might be a chance of peace in the Middle East. The terrorists did not ask for much at first. They just wanted an Arab Empire to be controlled by Muslims only. Yet, we did not give them the chance to do so and to control their countries themselves. If there were not US troops in the Middle East, then Sep 11th might not have happened. What the terrorists are demanding is just a Middle East controlled by Muslims, and not a Middle East controlled by some guy sitting on Air Force One. If we try to let them have their way, then peace is guaranteed. However, if they go beyond this agreement, and continue their attacks to ensure that the world becomes a Muslim world, then I think that we have the justification to attack them hard. Remember, they attacked us because we are on their homeland. If we didn’t do so, innocent people would not have died. Hence, the problem rests in us, not them. If not for us, they might not have committed those insane acts to get us out of there. Hence, it is our problem, not theirs.

English Blog assignment

2007-08-30T19:52:00.000+08:00

A case of too little, too late?

As the vice-premier of The People’s Republic of China declared a 4-month war on its home-grown products in a bid to improve the quality of the goods and to clean up China’s tarnished image on the economic front, I personally feel that this may be a case of too little, too late, or a struggle between two super-powers, the has-been and the will-be.
All across the globe, as China’s home-made products have flown far and wide from Asia, there had been constant reports questioning the quality of the goods that China has produced. There were reports from New Zealand about the so-called fire-safety clothing that China has made. Around the globe, parents were paranoid when reports came out that the Mattel toys that were made by China contained large amounts of lead. In China itself, there was a bogey report about the charsiew paos containing cardboard and meat, so as to save costs. Even though that was a fake report, it just goes to show that since news can be faked, fake food products can also exist. Since then, there has been a continuous stream of reports coming out from all corners of the globe complaining about the bad quality of the products made from China. These products range from toothpastes to beauty products to medicine and so on. Recently, the execution of a former drugs minister in China, who was convicted of being corrupt, further fuelled the belief that China’s products are not as good as the other countries in terms of quality. The case of the corrupt minister also goes to show that China officials are willing to close both eyes on a certain company’s products, be it good or bad, as long as they were paid a substantiate amount of money. This scenario is bad for the image of the manufacturing industries in China as bad products will tend to bypass the security checks and thus, the bad sheep among the herd is not picked out and affects everyone. Also, as most of China’s manufacturing industries are small companies, they are usually unregulated by officials from the government and hence, they are able to go straight into the market without any official checks. Thus, it is hard to fish out those companies that have produced those second-rate goods as they are simply too many of them to pin-point out anyone. Thus, I feel that even the best efforts of the Chinese government, providing that they are able to offer their officials a better option than to go down the path of corruption, may not be able to fish out all the bad products as China is too big, but it may be worth the effort to serve as a warning to the others.
Another point to note may be the biased view towards Chinese products. While I have to admit that these reports should be true, I would also have to point out that there is this misconception that Chinese products are not up to mark just because Chinese labour is cheap. Cheap is by no means lacking in quality. Labour is China is cheap just because the population in China is overwhelming and too many people are vying for that spot in the factories, thus salaries have to be reduced. If we are talking about cheap labour is paramount to bad quality, then what about Vietnam and Cambodia? Their labour is cheaper, if not as cheap. Yet, nobody questions the Nike shoes or the Adidas shoes that they have made. Hence, this could be an indirect battle between the US and the PRC on the economic front. The US may have been trying to slow down the economic progress of the PRC by exaggerating on some isolated cases of poor products and thus, affecting the output profit that the Chinese gain, thus affecting the economic growth of China. Though this may be one of my points of view, it is perhaps a little startling to find that most of the reports, if not all, came from the US, and its allies, in Oceania and in the EU.
All in all, this episode has not been a pleasant one to the Chinese. As they host the Olympics next year, they must tidy up their image as quickly as possible. There is no doubt that China has faced a lot of controversies in the past few years and is not far behind the US in number of controversies faced. The Taiwan issue has not been solved and then there is this worry about the safety of their products. If the Chinese do not solve these two problems soon, even a fantastic Olympics show by the Chinese may not be able to repair their tarnished image and this will result in them losing out eventually to rising powers like India.

finally........

2007-04-28T17:43:00.000+08:00

after soo many weeks of er absence, it feels great to be blogging again...wad a great period of time this has been for me...first up...SYF and the preparations for it...second up...well..the title race between manu and chelsea and third up...is probably a tie between the NBA play-offs and the tests =(...well first up is the biannual SYF central judging for bands...though i really dunt want to put the blame on our lack of success at winning the gold with honours award with anyone, i still feel deeply that had we begun practising with purpose much much earlier, we would well be one of the few bands who have gotten the top award...however, as said by Matthew, our achievement, which is a gold award, is already testimony of our efforts that we had put in from arnd December...its like...during december...we are totally sh**...but thks to mr oura's patience and guidance, as well as our hunger and desire to stop the rot, we had managed to come out of our "shell" and do what i think we are best at, proving other people wrong...for that...kudos to the sec4s, and some sec3s, for your inspiration to the rest of us!!!and of course kudos to mr oura who did not give up on us all this while, even though our performance was less than satisfactory by his standards, which i think were lowered by a considerable amt...well...this year,despite wad headmaster had said, was not exactly a great year for the aesthetics grps in RI...firstly...RIMB failed to get the coveted GWH award...next, Chinese Orchestra managed to improve...but to only a gold this year...anyway, nice work CO!...both ensembles, guitar and string, managed to maintain their high standards with guitar improving to a gold with honours...lastly, and perhaps the most shocking of all, the Raffles Voices, after winning a prestigious gold award at a prestigious competition at the Czech Republic last year, failed to hit the heights that were expected of them and fell to a gold award only....however, the competition is over...and the next thing for us is our overseas trip...hope tt we will not make the same mistake as last time again...next up is the sporting arena...with juz 5 games left too play...united and chelsea are still fighting closely with only a tiny 3 points, which can be struck off quite easily, separating the two teams...the more interesting part is that while people may have gotten tired of a Chelsea vs United showdown the whole season, and hoping for a more interesting end to the season..they are likely to be disappointed...both teams will face off indirectly, and directly, in the Premier League as well as in the FA Cup Final...the CL final??possible...if Chelsea and United both hold out for draws in their second legs...so if chelsea and united face off on all 3 fronts...some people are going to cry(once, twice or even thrice) while others will be celebrating with their pockets full of money they had won frm betting(once, twice, thrice and even a fourth time(yes...some ppl had put their money on United winning the treble or Chelsea winning the Quadruple))...Next on to NBA...the Rockets will face off tmr against the Jazz hoping to recover frm their thrashing in the last match...all the best...well...shall end here...this has been really a wonderful period...and anyway...happy bdae ZYF...i dunt wanna tell you tt cuz later u might accuse me of ruining your bdae...heres Hertilon, signing off...

SCREW-UPS SHLD NOT BE BLAMED

2007-04-10T21:19:00.000+08:00

so yah...today rgssb got a gold(with no honours) and suddenly, some of us are starting to put the blame of the failure to achieve a gwh by rgssb by the so-called screw-up by the bass trombonist during the opening of the song Singapore Sunrise...do u really think that we shld put all the blame on that single piece of screw-up???do you really think that it is fair that the person who has committed the screw-up be blamed for the inability of the band to achieve GWH???...NO...i dunt think so...ppl might say that music is abt wad the audience hears...but i personally believe that the true beauty of music is that we spend hundreds of hours to try and perfect your song...but cruelly, sometimes, God makes fun of us...just when we are able to play that part to perfection during practices, we "screwed" it up during the actual performance...so...do you really think that it is fair to blame someone who has worked soooooooooooooooooo hard but just fails to deliver the goods??after all, if it is really due to this that the band is unable to achieve GWH, then i have no more to argue against it...BUT facts have shown that this one piece of screw-up will not cause a perfect band to fall into the gold category...if it is just this one piece of screw-up, then the band will still achieve GWH, cause one minor piece of screw-up will not cost the band dear...HOWEVER, if the band only got gold and have this screw-up, this shows that there are other minute screw-ups within the performance itself, just that normal ppl hear the foremost screw-up more clearly than the others, hence they think that the screw-up is the cause of the failure of the band to achieve GWH...HOWEVER,to the judges and those more musically-inclined ppl, they will not fail to notice the other minute screw-ups and tend, will not put so much blame on that particular screw-up alone...WHAT im trying to say here is that band is a team effort, not an individual effort...when ppl screw-up, how many will be brave enuff to step forth to say that you have also screwed-up???but when the piece is nice, how many will step backwards and say that it is a team effort instead of an individual effort???think abt it guys...and also...the beauty of music, as i re-emphaised here again, is the hrs that you have put in to perfect it, not the 5 minutes on stage that you have spent to flaunt your so-called talent...HENCE, WE SHALL NOT BLAME THE BAND'S PERFORMANCES ON OBVIOUS SCREW-UPS...WE SHALL EITHER NOT SPEAK ABT IT AND IMPROVE NEXT TIME, OR JUZ FORCE EVERYONE ELSE TO ADMIT THAT THEY HAVE ALSO SCREWED-UP, JUST THAT ITS NOT THAT OBVIOUS...

10 days!!!!

2007-04-06T21:32:00.000+08:00

10 more days!!!bfore the ultimate showdown...wad will we get????watch this space...haha....anyway...ten days of preparation is definitely better than 4 days or 5 days of preparation, which is what rgs and nanyang are getting respectively...but 10 days also means that we have to be better than those in front of us to stand a chance of presentation or even gwh for that matter...as we are one of the last few bands to play, the judges would alrd have heard of many bands and would no doubt be using the best of them as the standard bar...and also, due to our reputation, the judges will no doubt be expecting nothing but great music from us...hence, 10 days may not look that great at all..but no doubt...10 days is better than none...haha...todae is good friday..the friday on which jesus christ, perhaps the greatest human ever, died for our sins on the cross...despite his death, there was no doubt abt it that we humans have not heeded his sacrifice for us mankind...as shown in the papers daily, there are still ppl committing the basic but probably the most serious sin of ending someone's life without appropriate reasons...worse still...while this is a day of mourning for humans, especially Christians, there are a minority out there who are instead celebrating this sad day...HOW DARE YOU!!!...DUNT YOU THINK ITS NOBLE FOR A MAN, OR IMMORTAL FOR SOME, TO DIE FOR OUR SINS???WILL YOU DO THAT??...i think those ppl shld be ashamed of themselves...its acceptable if we dunt join in the mourning...but to celebrate it??its a disgrace...anyway...todae passed by without much incident...except for that deleted post...which is erm not fit for the public's eyes..for those who have stumbled upon it by accident...pls forgive me for my ignorant ranting....

Player of the Week(Western Conference)

2007-04-03T21:49:00.000+08:00

Player of the week(Eastern Conference)

2007-04-03T21:45:00.000+08:00

INFLEXIBILTY!!!

2007-03-27T22:20:00.000+08:00

SIAN NAH!!!!!shit lah...im sure lor...its like...i tot that bukleyball(or wadever that stupid thingy is) is a macro-molecule!!!!!!WTF...im sure!!SHIT LAH...if im abit more flexible..i might have tot that a buckleyball is just a molecule!!NOT A DAMN MACRO ONE!!!...SHIT LAH...damnnation...thats two marks!!(or possible 4 if mistake is carried over)...im like...stuck there for 20 minutes, thinking abt how come macro-molecules can sublime at low temperatures...then i found out..that due to the fact that its a molecule, thats why it can sublime at low temperatures as only the inter-molecular forces of attraction needa be overcome!!!!WTF...hope that my second answer abt why it takes alot of energy to break up the carbon atoms...i know that it is correct!!!BUT WILL MY MISTAKE BE CARRIED OVER??shit lah..if this goes on right..dunt think i can take chem in RJC..then cannont..then no chance of studying in NUS medicine sch(at the very least lah)..SHIT!!MUZ BUCK UP CHEM!!..dunt care liao man...shall mug chem everyday..till i bcome a chem freak..HAHA..but other than that, the chem test is quite alright lah...but still...ALOT MORE CAN BE DONE!!!i needa improve on experimental design...needa improve on, chem bonding..and needa ask glenn if electronegativity is involved with reactivity, then why for grahpite and diamond, the changing of states require the carbon atoms to break the bonds while for buckeyball..you juz needa break the inter-molecular forces of attraction etc etc...DAMN MAN...muz get into NUS med sch!!muz at least be as great as ZP!!in terms of studies and everything else!!!TMR IS MATHS TA...TIME TO REDEEM MYSELF...SHALL MUG FOR CHEM..

DIE WEEK!!!

2007-03-23T21:44:00.000+08:00

sian lah...im sure next week is soooo hectic lor...its like...theres physics theory paper...on monday...then later...is chem theory...then maths TA...then physics practical...if that is not components of a hectic week, try squeezing in bio PT and sound test for SYF...its like i am running on a damn tight scheldue for my bio PT and in comes the sound test...thats not the worst as i can still rush on monday...but then...here comes the chem and physics test papers...SIAN...i dunt even think i have time to study for physics sia...and im seriously bracing myself for a fail for that test...its like...on sunday(cuz sat MUST rush PT)...i might have to chiong PT...then later might leave only the afternoon free...then in comes the sound test...which will practically take over 3/4 of my revision time...so wad do i do???!!!i must not break my record of not having failed a single test!!!can i make it past this die week??...or will i die in flames, trying to salvage what seemed like a pathetic week into an excellent week?watch this space...

Nothing much...

2007-03-22T21:19:00.000+08:00

Nothing much for the past few days....except that dear guanwei is guessing the initials of the ppl who smsed me...not bad guanwei...except that they are not initials...they are juz random letters...so yea...for that purpose..i shall be gay!!!and change the initials to male names...YAYY!!...today was quite fun lah...esp that part abt miss yong(is it correct?) talking abt how rjc gals classify guys...they are classified into "suitable", "unsuitable" and "sisters"!!...what an insight...though it may seem to be good to be a "sister", nothing beat being "suitable" for a relationship man...but dunno lah..i might juz fall into that deep dark pit of "unsuitable"s....but anyway...one and a half year to improve my image(and avoid insulting ppl who are very very guai lan...but too bad, girls are just unwittingly charmed by them)...wads next ar???oh yah...band prac...not that bad lah...at least mr oura doesnt look that angry...but thats still not great enuff sia...we must make him happy!!and the only way to do that??prac hard!!and produce MUSIC at SYF....if we get GWH and presentation...its not for us...its not for the sch...its for mr oura and our seniors bfore us...

Player of the week...

2007-03-20T16:51:00.001+08:00

Player of the week...

2007-03-20T16:47:00.000+08:00

Great Day????

2007-03-20T16:27:00.000+08:00

wah!!!!finally achieved results that one would expect of a "Zhao" man....its not that fantastic...but still sth to work on for the rest of my education career...first up is the bio test paper!!!38/45...not that bad right....but oh man...could have gotten higher if i spelt"kleinfelter's syndrome" correctly and got that goddamn ratio of sickle cell trait correct...but overall...its quite good!!compared to that chinese fiasco....then comes the hist graded assignment...for the first time ever in RI,i got top in the class for an academic subject!!!YAYYYYYYY!!!....haha...18/20...not that bad lah...but inference could be much much better :( ...today...i juz realised how desperate ppl can be....CAO YIFAN is such a horny bastard that he went around the whole of friendster looking for ppl with "not that bad" faces then add them...WAD THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM????!!!....you dunt add ppl cuz they look good...you add ppl cuz you like what you see on their profiles???!!is it by chance that most, if not all, girls on yifan's friendster profile are all good-looking???...wtf...and im sure you muz comment everywhere....when u saw that someone has the same name as you, you go and comment,"are you an impersonator" and then say,"hi, can u post your pic on your profile"???WTF IS THIS???you want to see ppl's pic then say directly...dunt use indirect methods...and i dunt think that you are soooo bo liao that you can testi alot of your friends abt friendster being some system when you meet random ppl and make friends with them...doesnt that sound like a system that you like???...pls lah...if you want to be horny...go outside rgs and be horny there...dunt be horny on cyberspace...cuz tat doesnt work...okay...enough of that guy liao...juz hopes that he doesnt surf blogs..or else im so damn screwed for the rest of the 2 years man...its like he can call upon the likes of daniel ng, chan guan wei, lim shi min, chen shaowei, elias tiong(not that sure...dunt really think so) and many of his RV friends to come and look for me for a "nice" chat...but SO???do i look like i care???i juz post wad i like can liao....i dunt need yifan's assurance of "no harm" to post something right???...sigh....

2 WEEKS!!

2007-03-14T22:00:00.000+08:00

wad a way to waste 2 weeks sia...first my bdae...then 2 consecutive public performances...then NEW PHONE!!(NUMBER:9321 2483)...then BAND CAMP!!!!...then exchange with 5 schs....then today's post...haha....my bdae was not that bad lah...for the first time in dunno how many bizillion years...i actually received a "happy bdae" from a girl..or three for that matter(im not suaning anybody here...im juz suaning myself)...then the 2 performances were pretty okay...except that the waiting time is boring...then band camp!!!lets start with the more controversial parts...firstly...im sure batch prac is of any use to us...except before investiture...how do you all expect us to improve when we are conducted by our very own batchmate who doesnt even have a frigging clue of wad to do???and we are not even allowed to practise some other songs which will help us in techniques????like wad dear han sheng said...if we want to improve on songs, we muz first improve on our techniques rather than juz playing the song over and over again...so wad if you can get that triplets right after 20 times of playing it?you sure you can get it right the next day?NO!!you cant cuz your basics are not even there!!!to practise it, practise on your tonguing first then try on the notes of the song...not prac the notes and hope that by luck, you will learn how to tongue faster....the only reason why you can do that is bcuz your tongue has got used to playing that note and thus, it will sound like you have mastered that skill, but not bcuz you have mastered it...whats more, with a person who doesnt have a clue abt the song conducting you all, do you expect to improve???...worse still...if that guy makes a wrong interpretation of the song, we will end up with the wrong interpretation and when mr oura scolds us, we get another one by some other guy....MOREOVER...im sure playing loud is called blasting...pls lah...if thats the case, mr oura would have addressed it during concerts and not you coming out and say that we are blasting....cuz we are juz playing the normal volume that we are supposed to...the sec3 trombones make up like 1/3 of the tbonez and our batch only makes up like 1/4 of the band???so naturally, the tbonez tend to stand out among the others right!!!...sigh...maybe nxt year, we shld not have any batch pracs till bfore investiture....then the exchange!!!i seriously dunno why nanyang called us pro when they are the undisputed champion of today...they were seriously much much better than us and we were seriously crap today...the sunrise sounded alright bcuz the other bands were staccato-ing that bass tbonez part(and theres one band where the bass tbone wasnt even recongizable)....but still...MUCH TO IMPROVE!!esp. ocean!!...comeon man...there are only 4 weeks left and if we work hard...we can make up for the 90 % that mr oura wants us to do for ocean...then GWH and presentation is ours!!!COMEON!!....

Revenge of the non-scholars(or most lah)?

2007-03-01T18:51:00.000+08:00

Finally man...we are finally able to catch up with the scholars...though temporary...after 2 days of really really afk exams, which the scholars shld be able to pass with soaring colours, we non-scholars are able to have a test that we are comfortable in!!!BIO!!!!haha...it is heaven compared to the other two examinations sia....at least we dunt have teachers barging in half way and telling us that the time is shortened or looking at a graph that we havent seen since a few billion years ago...other than the small hiccup of the time...the test was considerably good.....what a day man...dear shaowei and shimin want to write a song for me!!!!LOL...and it is abt something that isnt true -.-'....im sure i flirted with casslyn....im sure i stole casslyn from lincoln....im sure they both ignored the fact that the two ppl in front of them are the ones who really spoke with casslyn and at least one added her to his friendster account....im sure they are so blind that they cant see them sms-ing once every 1/99999999999th of a second....im sure that they failed to notice the fact that yifan smses casslyn more than the amount of smses that i have sent in a trillion years....guys...if you want to write me a song...pls get your facts right first....and pe in the rain rox!!!!!!!rox like hell man....once you got out of the rain...it feels like you had just taken a bath!!SO SHIOK....then there was this small little detail about our english personal narrative test....which was pretty alright!!!except the part about the word limit...then extra prac today!!!again!!!!so fun man....managed to play my part while listening to the SNYO's version of Ocean on my MP3....hope we can get gwh sia....cuz i really want to cry due to the song...not due to the fact that we had just broken our 17 consecutive top awards at SYF....but either way...we will be breaking a record!!!!but which will it be???who will be the ones crying in the end???

English Assignment

2007-02-28T22:14:00.000+08:00

Global Warming is no longer a myth. According to experts, the effects of global are now unstoppable. What does this mean? This meant that we humans are the ones that are responsible for destroying our planet. The result of the activities of us humans will be worsening killer heat waves and floods, devastating droughts, and stronger hurricanes and tropical, which will result in many millions, if not billions, dead. The question here is that are we humans supposed to take the whole blame? Or are there conflicts of interests?
To the environmentalists who have tried so hard over the years to warn the countless governments, we humans should be blamed for this outcome. Over the decades, there were numerous reports printed and published in newspapers to warn us that if we do not cut down on the greenhouse gases that we are producing, we humans will be destroying the Earth and the atmosphere that have served us so well since the first human set foot on Earth. However, instead of changing for the better, over the years, we humans have produced greenhouse gases at a rate that is slight slower than the speed of light. Instead of cutting down on production of greenhouse gases, we have instead produced more! Thus, our ozone layer is getting thinner by the day and our future is looking darker by the day. Hence, environmentalists put the blame on us humans as we have failed to recognize the dangers and cut down on greenhouse gases, but instead decreased the time that we have till "Judgment Day".
However, is it true that we humans are supposed to take ALL the blame? As reports had shown, the gases that we have produced come mostly from the industries in most developing countries and some developed countries. According to Darwin, life is about the survival of the fittest and it is also the same case with countries. If your country is just some small island on the Pacific Ocean, chances are your country would not be part of the UN Security Council. Hence, many countries rely on their industries to push them forward to become one of the superpowers of this world. Hence, we can argue against the claim that we humans are the ones that worsened global warming. In fact, while it is true physically that we are the ones doing the damage, we do so because of survival.
I realized that even if all of us do our part to save the environment, it will not work unless the industries stop producing so much greenhouse gases, as they are the main producers of those gases. However, we must still do our parts because that is all we can do. We are after all just plain humans and can do nothing at all to stop our governments from allowing the industries to produce so much greenhouse gas for the country's development. Perhaps, we can understand the pressure our governments are facing and try to empathize with their dilemma.
NOTE: i am not writing this to make you all rebel against your governments for their "contribution" to global warming..i am juz trying to explain the dilemma that they are facing....

English Assignment.....

2007-02-28T22:11:00.000+08:00

The latest criticism from America about China for their use of military weapons was just the tip of the iceberg of the on-going conflict between America and China over the use of military weapons that can threaten world peace and result in a war. China wants America to give it equal status as its European counterparts, or even as America itself, but the America is unwilling to do so and even more unwilling to lift the weapons ban on China. As everyone can see, every time the budgets of the countries’ military were published, America will be the first country to criticize China’s military spending as "extravagant" and a "threat to regional and world peace", while at the same time ignoring its own budget which far out-strips China's. I am not accusing America of double standards for I know that they actually do have more military commitments than the Chinese and therefore are justified to have a bigger military budget. I am also not accusing America of being biased against China in terms of military technology, for America is truly concerned about world peace and perhaps does not want the Cold War to happen again. However, I feel that America is perhaps a little ignorant about its comments on China's military. After all, China is still a developing country and its military technology is not as great as it should be, given its status as a world superpower. Hence, it is justified for China to spend more on their military than on other superpowers, for they also have a bigger piece of land to protect. Also, with the constant threat of Taiwan claiming independence, China needs to bolster its military, not so much for a war, but rather for intimidation purposes. Moreover, China has always maintained a defensive stand, and no evidence so far suggests the contrary, claiming that it will not use its military for offensive purposes unless any country violates its policies.
Singapore may have to play the mediator role in this conflict sometime as she is the allies of both countries. It will be a hard role, trying to settle the differences between these two countries, but it is one that Singapore will have to take when the time arrives. I do not think that my views of this conflict are absolutely correct as after all; this conflict may have started many years before I was born and that there may be many parts of the conflict that I may not have known which have resulted in today. Also, I do not think that I am qualified to comment on this matter as I am not a political analyst but just a student. Lastly, my views may be more biased against America as I am after all a Chinese. However, I am trying my best to dispel this prejudice to give a fair comment on this matter. But one thing cannot be denied, this matter must be resolved or a war may break out soon.
NOTE: my points of view MAY NOT be accurate and SHOULD NEVER EVER to taken into account when making views about politics...

what are we?humans beings or greedy beings?we always see others' faults, but not ours.....

2007-02-27T17:03:00.000+08:00

WHAT THE HELL...why must ppl be nice to CERTAIN ppl only when they need help?and when they have no use for them, they dao them and just ignore them...HAVE U GUYS THOUGHT ABT HIS FEELINGS?WHY MUZ YOU ALL BE SO DAMN REALISTIC???DUNT YOU ALL WISH THAT THE WORLD IS NOT REALISTIC?WHY DUNT YOU ALL THINK ABT HOW HE FEELS???...this has happened trizillion times on these earth by WE, homo sapiens....during normal times, when u find this guy irritating cuz wad he says is AGAINST wad you say, you do him and try to jack him like shit...but when u find a use for him(e.g. copying of hwk), you are suddenly like an angel to him...you suddenly starts to realize his presence and then starts being nice to him till your "job" is done...after this, you just ignore him AGAIN...WHY BOTHER BEING SO REALISTIC??would you like that if someone bloody does that to you?how would u feel?happy, cuz u are a tool?...think abt it guys...if u find that guy irritating, then juz ignore him and dunt ever ask him for help and pretend to be nice to him...cuz you are not helping him...u are instead making him more miserable....AND AGAIN...why dunt ppl look at wad they are bfore looking at wad other ppl are?Fancy calling ppl posers when you yourself is wearing ankle-length socks...dunt give me that crap abt finding no suitable socks...there are TONS of non-ankle-length socks out there in the market...and does that person getting demerit points bother you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much that u have to repeatedly tell him to tuck in his shirt??and wad bloody right do u have to tell him to tuck in when ur dear fren's shirt is OUT of his pants?why have double standards?if you tell him that out of concern for him, then thats alright...but if you tell him cuz you want to see him suffer..then thats absolutely bullshit...why not treat ppl with kindness and respect?why bother being an animal, whom dunt really care abt the other species, when u can be human??WHY MAKE SOMEONE'S LIFE MISERABLE WHEN U CAN MAKE HIM SMILE?WHY????is it that hard?is it that hard to bring a smile to your classmate's face?is it that hard to restrain from jacking him?does it give u pleasure in doing so?cuz if it does, then u are not human...you are not even an animal...you are worse than that....and if you are, i dunt see the point of knowing you AT ALL...and i dunt see the point of u living, cuz you will only bring sadness and hurt to others....

WHAT A DAY

2007-02-26T22:04:00.000+08:00

SIAN!!im sure we have a maths teacher from India who cannot speak 5 lines of english without the whole class being lost and yet still have her teach us till the end of this term!!!i am so damn going to fail my maths test tmr sia...and today's chi test is seriously crap...im sure for that close(or cloze)passage, we got options that we dunt even know the meanings of and you expect us to "choose the best option"??!!!WHAT BS!!!....worse still...we had some chi teacher come in and tell us that the test is one hr long...then later...35 minutes after the test is started, she walked in and said that the test is only 45 minutes long-.-'....i nearly didnt complete my last question bfore the time man!!!...and screw guan wei lah...im sure mr oura sucks...if he sucks, then i dunno which conductor is considered good liao...its like....we made mistakes that is not worthy of the badge that we wear proudly on our chests and yet, he is patient with us and encouraged us to improve...mr oura, if we dont get gold with honours this year...its not a disappointment for our seniors...rather, we will feel that we are unworthy of your tutorial for you have spent so much time teaching us musical stuff that is really very very basic and yet be very patient in your lessons....sigh man....this band is really dotz...im sure ppl pon juz to mug for maths..its like...WHATS THERE TO MUG FOR???!!!maths is abt practice and practice is in the classroom!!not in the bedroom!!!....then...we have dear han sheng who for some reason chose this time to dislocate both of his ankles and then to not come for band...when we need him alot(cuz no more oboes mah)...sigh...tmr is maths test...and my life will depend on it....as well as my pride(cuz my father might suan me if i get sucky results)>< COMEON RIMB!!!show s'pore and the world what we are capable of....

2007-02-20T17:29:00.000+08:00

2007-02-20T17:04:00.000+08:00

Nothing much...

2006-11-16T22:21:00.000+08:00

Yeah...today passes without much incidence worth noting of, unless you count wayne rooney scoring 4 goals against poland(in my computer game) a big incident...yeah...well, spent the whole day tabulating the responses from mii former class about the trip down to the chalet and "amazingly", only 15 pupils replied to the mail sent by Jolly Jellybean and thus, the trip could well be deemed as a social outing instead of a class gathering....the rest of the day was spent on trying to figure out the password for my internet access(which in the end turned out to my msn one) and trying to find the air pump (which was considered missing for the best of the past 2 years)..anyway, gotta have a early night as its cca AGAIN tmr><...not that i dunt love it, its juz that its boring wif the same routine-->pt, sectionals, concert, fall-out...HOW BORING!but then, its the routine that my seniors have come up with and i shouldnt try to challenge them for they are more experienced than me and know what they are doing(or so i think)..anywayz...gd nightz:D

Noob Han Sheng

2006-11-15T21:00:00.000+08:00

Yay!One more day gone...and juz found out that han sheng got "cheated"!By a guy...in our sch!Haha...LOLZ...that guy went to pose as an rgs girl and said to han sheng" Hello!are you hanshen(same lah), the gd looking student frm rimb?im frm rgs n my frien recommen me 2 u:-)"...lols...he was still boasting to us about a girl called him good looking...haha...so funny...turned out that the "girl" was a guy! wonder how han sheng will react though...dunt think he will be happy...well today is juz another normal and boring day...gotta go to school for cca prac-s and then found out that the most interesting part of the practice(mebbe not lah), which is pt, is changed to juz 2 rounds around the top level due to lack of ppl!Man..how boring can that be....yea...and anyway...ppl are missing!MAN!and the problem is that some of them are the BETTER players in the band!how are we supposed to maintain our winning streak wif such indifferent response from the members!Furthermore, today's practice was juz as sucky as ever...it was really a miracle that mr oura didnt manage to scream at us, which was what he did at us, and i really admire his cool-as-a-cucumber "spirit"...Really man, we need to improve badly(as a whole band and as individuals) in order to continue bring honours to our school...Low attendances are not gonna aid us in our quest for gold, neither are indifferent attitudes during practices...all i can hope for now is that all of us can wake up and realise that we are no longer one of the best school bands in the country and that gold is not guaranteed with every competition that we take part in...like what matthew had said, this year's gold at the national band competition was juz a sign that the judges did not want to see a band, which had been fantastic for the past few decades, drop to such a low level and thus tried to be as lenient as possible...hence, i do hope that the band, esp. SOME of my batchmates, can try and learn as much during practices as possible...haha...i have confidence in them, but the problem is , is my confidence in them unproven?we shall see in the next few months then...for now, the best i can do is to improve myself first before "bossing" around the others...yea...gotta go now!Gd night bloggie :D