Settled

Thank God that whole stringy incident has been settled. I'm pretty much off the hook... for now. My boss Hozen managed to refill the returned set.

Anyway, anyone for Tabla? Looks like a wicked instrument to learn!

See pei suey man!

Words cannot express my suey-ness today. I thought it would be a good day because it was one of those days where some bugger from work falls sick and I'm called upon to stand in for him or her (I'm on Maestro's "reserve team" you see, or rather, reserve person since it's only me...), oh boy, I thought wrong...

What actually happened was that when this lady bought a pair of Elixir OEM strings, I had no idea we had two types, so I just grabbed two off the rack and handed it to her. When I was about to close shop, her son called me up and told me one of the sets were wrong. I was really puzzled as I had no clue we had different ones, so I gave him Isaiah's number to see if he could rectify the situation.

On the bus home, Isaiah called me up and told me the guy nagged the crap out of him over the phone for an hour, and the sadder news is I HAVE TO BUY THE STRINGS ONCE HE RETURNS THE SET. My gosh. I think I can jolly well kiss today's earnings goodbye. Here's a little calculation:

Earning today:
$5 x 7hrs = $35 (w/o commission)

Spendings:
Lunch (chai peng + apple juice) = $5
Dinner (Burger King) = $7
Transportation $2.50
Elixir set = $22.50
TOTAL = $37

WAH LAN EH! See pei suey man. I mean, if I were to sit down all day and just use the internet and doing nothing, I'm fine. The sad part is today just so happens to be one of those days where there's a shitload of work to do. There was stocktaking, I had to service a guitars (technically two as I helped a lady tightened her guitar's machine heads) and there were THREE customers in particular whom I had to do a lot of explaining to. I even had to run over to the Excelsior branch to deliver stuff and back.

Now I'll have to buy the returned set of strings from the customer sans the G string because he put it on his guitar and "it didn't sound right". Basket, I don't even like Elixir strings lah, so bloody expensive... if he had bought EXP or Wyres at least I don't feel too bad taking. I just hope boss has a special price for me on that strings man...

Still, the fact that I'm on the reserve team and I'm earning so little already sucks monkey ass. As much as I want to swear a shitload more right now, I am trying to keep this blog as reader friendly as possible and would refrain from stuff like that.

Slum-dawg

The big day was yesterday. Slumdog Millionaire nabbed EIGHT Oscars, all of which are well deserved. It is quite unusual how this huge victory is mirrored in the film itself where the protagonist who is an underdog himself, very much like the fact that this film is is and underdog and competing against the big-budget Hollywood productions, wins big in the end. Jai Ho!

Anyway, here's a clip of the actors and actresses who played the young and middle versions of Jamal, Latika and Salim on the red carpet. That kid who played little Jamal is really adorable! Just mind the part Sarah Jessica Parker comes in though...



Here's one more victory dance!

Still got the Blues

It's been a long time since I posted. I've been bumming around TOO much.

I finally bought tickets to the Mike Stern and Dave Weckl concert for myself and Botak. Can't wait! Bernie, Wei Zhe and Abigail are going to be there too. Sweet!

Last Saturday was Valentine's and indeed I spent it with the one I love... and by that I mean my Ibanez Artcore guitar. I headed out with Zico to Tanglin CC for a jam. My goodness, it was definitely one of the most awesome jams I've EVER had. One room, about ten or so guys and a whole lot of Blues! Met a lot of awesome people over there. There was Segar who had this sexy looking Fender American Deluxe Jazz Bass and was running them lines throughout the entire four hour session, there was Saifu who had a Slowhand signature Strat and was hammering out all the fancy Freddie King licks, there was Chris who had this gorgeous looking Suhr Tele on which he played some mean slide guitar on, and there was Paul who had this amazing looking Thinline Telecaster and was playing amazing Steve-Cropper-esque rhythm. My gosh, I could go on and on and on but those were the few guys that caught my attention. I'm definitely going back... not next week though. I have Sharon's and Hock Hai's wedding to attend.

Sunday was another day I spent with my love. What I mean by that is after service, there was this audition session conducted by David, Yong Wei and company to audition new blood for the Church band. I was pretty surprised I was able to flow pretty fine with the progressions though since I am quite lame when it comes to rhythm work... must have been the practice throughout the week before. So anyway, Mervin and I are now officially "trainees".

I also "procured" the album by the Lonely Island. If the name doesn't ring a bell, they were the ones who came up with songs like "Lazy Sunday", "Dick in a Box" and "Jizz in my Pants". Pretty crude stuff but at the same time, it's pretty addictive! Here's their new video innocently titled "I'm on a Boat"

de_dust

After a LONG while, I decided to pick up a pail of water and rag to clean my room just that day. My goodness. The amount of dust accumulated over the months was just shocking. It was a hard-ass job, but at least I had a sense of accomplishment, my room is more comfortable to sleep in and of course. Part of my mom's nagging has been suppressed.

That was that day... I checked my room today and My gosh, IT'S DUSTY AGAIN! Thanks to the construction works nearby. Mah de! No wonder so dusty! Gosh, I'm going to sue their ass if this results in some respiratory problem...

Other than that, since school is over, not much has been going on lately, just me sitting at home and bumming around. No one wants me to work... !@#$%^&.

Oh well, here's some entertainment anyways, enjoy!



I'm turned on as well...

A couple of you guys tagged me so, here are my 25 RANDOM THINGS

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. (yadda yadda yadda...)

1) I had countless girlfriends throughout my life, four of which are still in a relationship with me.

2) With reference to the above, "girlfriends" would be an interchangeable term with "guitars". Never had a human girlfriend before though...

3) I used to work at Toys 'R' Us. Worse working experience EVER man! Shitty pay, shitty work and shitty hours. After exploiting the staff discount for a Darth Vader helmet (the one with the voice changer!), I quit.

4) I don't drink. Not so for moral reasons... I just don't like the taste of alcohol.

5) The most awesome concert I've ever attended would be a tie between Buddy Guy in 2007 and Al McKay's Allstars (Earth, Wind & Fire Experience) in 2008.

6) I spent one whole year in vain (and $500) trying to get my motorcycle license but I gave up after realizing
i) Those dang instructors just won't let me pass
ii) I have a higher chance of dying young
iii) I don't have much money left in my savings account
iv) My eczema flares up every time I ride
v) My folks just disagreed with the whole idea.

7) Since I was a kid, I've always wanted to be a fighter pilot. I still would love to learn how to fly a plane, only now, it seems impossible because firstly, my physique is a complete joke and second of all, I'm not patriotic enough to sell my soul to the RSAF.

8) I am really unsure of which religious classification I belong to. The term "Christianity" would be too general as most people see it as an umbrella-term for both Protestants and Catholics and there are some vast difference. I'd say my beliefs are based on Protestant teachings. However, the founding father, Martin Luther, was an outspoken anti-Semite. That's bigotry and that's something I cannot see eye-to-eye with.

9) I haven't stared NS, but I still long for ORD.

10) I am really PES-E-mistic about my second medical screening that is about to come in late April!

11) Because of my lame physical condition now, part of me feels that when I do my National Service, I'll be one of those weaklings who will collapse, fall and die halfway during training...

12) Despite their status as one of the forefront alternative bands today, I find Coldplay gosh darn boring.

13) As of now, I don't see myself pursuing University education. Really. I don't.

14) Star Wars would have been the best movie franchise ever if it weren't for Jar-Jar Binks, the cheesy "love dialog" between Anakin and Padme and those fracking Ewoks. I still love Star Wars though.

15) I'm turning twenty-one the twenty-first of April (hint hint) but I do not have plans... yet. Suggestions are open!

THE FOLLOWING WILL OFFEND SOME. PROCEED WITH CAUTION AND DON'T JUDGE ME!

16) PMS and Menopause are my worse enemies.

17) I think STOMPers are retards.

18) I don't give half a crap about soccer.

19) Deep inside, I've always wanted to find out how smoking pot feels like.

20) Clubbing is the dumbest activity to participate in. Seriously... The crazily overpriced entry fee, the omnipresent stench of smoke and alcohol, the shitty migraine-inducing music coupled with seizure-inducing lights, skanky-ho's who apply as much makeup as they drink hanging all over the place... How much worse could THAT get? Sounds like a nightmare don't it?

21) Christians who condemn ALL forms of secular music tick me off.

22) I don't hate gay people but I think gay sex is gross.

23) Indie kids annoy me more than Jonas Brothers-worshiping teenyboppers. It's not the music i hate, it's just their mentality.

24) I have not watched Batman Begins, nor have I watched The Dark Knight.

25) Part of me wishes I was black.

Medical checkup

Had my medical done at CMPB yesterday... my gosh, it sure is a long-ass process!

I went in at 9am and I was lucky enough to have dad fetch me. Had to surrender my phone at the entrance though. No camera-phones allowed within the compound.

First they had me change into the shirt and the guy there combed my hair into a very smart hairstyle (though I might see it as swakoo) for a photograph session. That photo is going to be on my 11B for the next two years... dang. I also met Daniel, who has been working (or serving, rather) as a service medic there! It's been a long time.

The X-ray station, was weird though. The guy in charge was this really effeminate guy with a weird voice. I joked with two other guys in the line if he was born that way or the constant exposure to the radiation of the machine made him like that. Haha. But anyway he leaned my chest against the X ray panel and grabbed my hands. My goodness, I thought, the blood test station may not be the only station where I'll be poked! Just kidding, it all went well.

The MO who evaluated my status seemed quite du lan. After presenting my letter, he asked to see my eczema and all I could show him was one small spot which has been healing, so he dismissed it as mild... But I managed to get a PES-D in the end (which means pending) because apparently they detected some abnormality with my heart at the cardio station. So they gave me a referral to Alexandra Hospital for a test in late March.

After that was the IQ test. My goodness, Questions after question, asking about numerical sequences, patterns, algebraic problems and word-relation repetatively came up onto screen for hundreds of times (I'm not exaggerating). I could swear it was more mentally-exhausting than my entire tertiary education at RP! Haha.

The whole test took about five and a half hours. What a great way to waste a day eh? I took a cab back because I was unfamiliar with the place and the bus services that operate there. Cost me $12... thank you, MINDEF!