They say that the twenty-first birthday calls for a big celebration. Honestly, I'm fine with a small one as long as all my best homies are there...
But nooooo... Most of my bestest friends are pretty much unavailable on the day itself. Ade, Daryl, Justus and Errik are serving NS, so I'll probably have to move it off to another date. Worse still, Owen and Ken are in Taiwan doing some military exercise so I must hold it off for another two weeks. Bladi Gahmen.
Yeap. My one year two month gig in Maestro will finally come to an end come end of the month after Isaiah told me he had to let me go. I'm not sad about it actually, I kind of chose it because he offered me back my regular position which I declined. Anyway, I have been "semi-fired" since last year already anyway...
I would say in all honesty that I preferred working with the staff lineup when I first joined. People like Zilong, Charlene (who is still working), Valarie and of course Vincent were really fun working with. But at the end of it all, I will say that it was a very enriching experience really. I learned a lot about guitars from my superiors there.
Speaking of Vincent, I went over to his place last Tuesday. My goodness. His room is like WOAH man... Guitars hanging all over the place and two eardrum-stimulating amps - The Fender 4x10 DeVille and a Marshall Vintage Modern half-stack. How cool is that man?
Also, I have been FINALLY making good use of my free time. I have been heading over to the YFC HQ to help prepare some event in June as well as learning some stuff about the Bible. Really nice people there. They don't seem to get anal despite my constant problem with punctuality, which strangely enough is kind of making me want to change that.
I also had my first "shadow-session" (that's what they call it) for the church band on Monday. It was a good experience but I realize I need to work on a lot of stuff, ESPECIALLY getting my hand flexible enough to do them weird-ass chords as well as working on transposition. I couldn't really hear myself well throughout the session though. Yong Wei had this super-thick sound which kind of blanketed over mine as well as Egwin who was on bass.
Daniel's big day would be on Sunday where he would play for service for the first time. Man, that poor kid, Marcus was grilling him throughout the session on Monday. The pressure's on! But ahya, Daniel is a pretty good drummer lah, I think he'll do well on Sunday.
Speaking of big day, mine will be coming Tuesday. You know what to do...
One thing that gets me all hyped up about aircraft and stuff are none other than military aerobatic display teams. I have always been a fan of them since I was little. The awesome tight formations coupled with death-defying maneuvers and colored smoke never ceases to make me go "hot-diggety-dang!"
I am fortunate enough to have witnessed not one, not two, but THREE different aerobatic team displays so far... and all on home soil! First of, needless to say, would be the RSAF Black Knights. When I asked around, people normally respond, "meh...", but personally, I think they're pretty awesome. I have been watching their displays live since I was six and I definitely think they have became better and better over time. Their most impressive show was during the National Day Parade last year where they had an extended performance versus your usual 5-second flyby during previous NDP's. A bonus to that was that they flew over the backdrop of the city skyline which was a thrill to behold from my aunt's high-rise apartment.
I think the team I witnessed before that was in 2000 where I caught the RAF Red Arrows at the Asian Aerospace airshow. This was really mind blasting. Till today, in my opinion, they're the greatest. True enough, they fly 6-9ft apart from each other versus the much more tighter 3-ft ship-to-ship distance done by the USN Blue Angels and the USAF Thunderbirds. Granted, they use MUCH less advanced aircraft (BAE Hawk trainers) than the two mentioned squadrons' more powerful F-16 and F/A-18, but that's not what gets me. What gets me is their nine-ship formation - three more than most other aerobatics groups that create a sense of density in the sky which to me is more impressive. Also, the fact that their formations are constantly changing as they go along, and the colored smoke in the three colors of the Union Jack - Red, Blue and White. On top of that they do (in my opinion) the most mind-blowing, gut-numbing, ball-dropping maneuver: The Gypo-Break
Oh yeah, do check this out while you're at it too!
Next would be the USAF Thunderbirds. I still can remember that it was on the 9th or 10th of April 1995 on a sunny morning along Changi Coast that I was treated to the raw power of six F-16 Fighting Falcons for the very first time (The Black Knights didn't adopt this aircraft until 2000).
Speaking about the Thunderbirds, I was doing some reading up lately. This team is the first ever military aerobatic team with women. The first being Maj. (Capt. at the time she joined) Nicole Malachowski who was an F-15 trainer pilot before she became a Thunderbird. To be honest, before I watched her interview, I expected someone really cocky with loads of feminism bullcrap (No, I don't see women as inferior, I just hate endless feminist rants) and the possibility of possessing male organs (you know how "feminine" most women in the military are...), but after watching several of her interviews, I realized that she was nothing like that. She possessed the grace of a woman, came off as incredibly humble and patriotic and served as an inspiration to many Americans, both young and old, male or female.
In the words of Ali G, "Respek!".
Oh yeah, one last thing. If you couldn't become a pilot or even afford Microsoft Flight Sim (or Tom Clacy's HAWX for that matter) there's this pretty cool freeware flight simulator called Ys Flight (click to download) which I've been hooked on lately. Despite the primitive graphics, this makes it possible for even the lamest PC systems to be able to run, and YES! It's network capable! Oh yeah, do take note that it works best with a joystick. Aight, I guess this would do for my rant... Heh.
I wish I had more hair. No, not on my head... elsewhere, like on my calves, forearms, and yes, my chin. The lack of it honestly makes me wonder if I've fully passed puberty or I've stopped right in the middle and carried on with life...
