WEE don't need no educa-SEAN

2012-02-12T11:25:00.000-08:00

I am postponing my return flight to Perth. Why?

Slightly more than two years ago, a certain organization made me trade what would have been a night of aural orgasm courtesy of one of the most legendary bands to ever walk the Earth for a momentary boner from five scantily clad MDC girls dancing to k-pop for an event made compulsory for me to attend.

No more excuses. As a man with free will (finally), I'm putting my foot down...

EARTH, WIND & FIRE @ Marina Promenade, 31st March. Oh yeah...

Flying Pigeons

2012-02-02T02:30:00.000-08:00

Not too long ago I stumbled upon a local dealer of Flying Pigeon bicycles. For those of you who don't know, the this iconic brand, based in Tianjin China has been churning out billions of these heavy utilitarian two-wheelers for the past six decades. It has became THE bicycle brand in China, a national icon that has been given to foreign dignitaries, even garnering accolades from post-Maoist leader Deng Xiaoping. Further research on the national treasure of China made me cave in to temptation, so I got myself one.

The bike was delivered right to my doorstep. Its gloss-black frame along with with the matching fenders with white trimmings with a small round reflector affixed on was love at first sight. The old-school rod-accentuated brakes and faux leather seat added an exquisite vintage chic. The bike was also fitted with a chrome rear luggage rack. Because its frame was made out of high-tensile steel as opposed to the aluminum frames of modern bikes, it was by no means light (20kg!). The brake mechanism that ran through he frame did not help with the weight either. With that being said, it was not the kind of bike one would use to ride fast over long distances. It was a workhorse used by old-timers to lug their goods around or trishaw riders. This resonated in one of my friends as he asked jokingly "Ah pek, lu ho boh?"

I went cycling across the country with a couple of friends the day after I received it. Anyway, despite the fact that they were using bikes many times the cost of the bike I was riding and the fact that I was struggling to keep up due to the bike's heft, the humble pigeon seemed to turn the most heads. Not really a fan of attention, but when you receive compliments from random people, you know you have got yourself something right. Even my mum loved it. She told me if I didn't want my Pigeon, she would take it. So since her birthday was coming up, and since riding my pigeon over long distances which I intended to do was impractical, I sold of mine (which was a standard male model) to fund her bike.

Initially, my plan was to get her the more expensive Omafiets (Dutch granny bike), but after a visit to the shop, we decided to call it quits on that model. She just couldn't mount the bike because of it's huge frame and massive wheels! Still we didn't go home empty handed. We got a vintage looking dynamo lamp kit.

Luckily, there was another ladies step-through bike that she could actually get on. It was also cheaper, however, it sacrificed the stylish curves on the Omafiets model for a more utilitarian look. Also and ran on 26" wheels instead of its larger counterpart's 28" rims which help make it lower. This particular one also came with a steel mesh basket. My mother also requested that the standard side-kickstand be replaced by a U-kickstand. The dealer was happy to oblige.

My mum then decided to commence operation beautification. The plain-looking basket at the front was removed and replaced by two pretty rattan baskets mounted using good old plastic cable ties. The finish product:

PS: If you reside in Singapore and keen on getting one of these beauties, do visit the dealer's page at DekiBike. He provides great service and he delivers right to your doorstep at no extra charge!

Happy Birthday Maurice White

2011-12-18T09:38:00.001-08:00

Today the incomparable Mr White celebrates his 70th Birthday
Happy Birthday Maurice White and thank you for the amazing music, infectious grooves and bringing together the GREATEST band in the history of EVER.
Stay young at heart cos you're never old.

Red Tails

2011-12-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

Lucasfilm + WW2 setting + P-51 Mustangs + boatloads of dogfights + Black history + Cuba Gooding Jr... I'm so looking forward to this come January 20...

George Harrison 25/2/1946 - 29/11/2001

2011-11-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

Ten years on and the legend lives on...

Thank you Mr Harrison, for the amazing music.

Dad's badass durian-cake nunchucku skills

2011-10-17T02:34:00.000-07:00

Great shot, kid, that was one in a million!

2011-10-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

Saw a bottle of Hahn while queuing up for Megamusic's Doorbuster sale with my brother who had a bottle of Solo lemonade... *idea*

Moustache

2011-10-12T22:24:00.000-07:00

Leaving on a jet plane

2011-10-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

Well, this is it folks. Tomorrow, come 1920hrs at UTC +08:00, I'll be heading off for Perth, WA at Changi Airport Terminal 1. I must say that I have been anticipating this flight even before I enlisted two years back, but right now, all I have are mixed feelings. Well, we'll see the outcome of this. See you guys again on Christmas.

Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin

2011-09-13T18:55:00.000-07:00

As celebratory as the title of this post sounds, this is actually going to be a pretty sappy post due to the bittersweet nature of ORD, much like the one when I ended my tertiary education term, so please bear with.

To my comrades and commanders in BMTC Quebec Company, Platoon 4, though three months is relatively short time span within these two years, it was great being with you all despite all the ass-raping and shit.

My buddy, Yi Jie, you the man. It was a great two years minus your time in SISPEC. I'll see you in Perth soon yeah? That's provided you don't go LA to study la...

To Motorized Support Company (MSC), especially Platoon 4 & 5 Mk. I, especially for guys like Ben Poh, Ben Lua, Gary, Andrew Goh, Liew Jian Zhou, Kenny, Tee Ang, Zhi Hao, Yuan Chong, Adam, Zhi Ming, Kenneth Sng and Jonathan Lee. Thanks for the great times we had at Sembawang camp doing the Class 4 drivers course, the Terrex Operators' Course at Gedong and NDP training,

MSC, Platoon 2, Javian, Andrew, Nick, Min Jie, JZ, Guan Han, Jonah, Eugene, Teongslut, KC, Kai Ming, Dennis, Marcus, Wen Zhong, Shaman, Alton, Leong Kian, Shu Han, John, Kong, Ivan and Boon Hou. Firstly, thanks for welcoming Gerald and me with open arms early in 2010 despite the fact that we did the driving and Terrex operator course apart from you guys and also for all those times we had together in bunk, in Kranji camp or during outfield.

To Kang Hui, Snake, thanks for all your concern and all the good times we had when we were stuck in the confine of the Terrex crew compartment as vehicle commander and operator be it training outfield or doing vehicle maintenance. We make a killer team.

To Kenneth, thanks for being my el confidante. It's guys like you who make life in an otherwise shitty environment bearable, heck, even fun. You're the brother I never had. Keep burning them strings hombre.

To Bravo Company, Platoon 4 Section 3, Asyraf, Danial, Hafiz, Jon, Han Wei, Fin, Firdaus, Eugene, Jordan, Samuel and SSGT Junior, you guys are freaking awesome. I'm not a fan of outfields but I'll always remember all the times we had out there training together. I am far from being the best Terrex operator, but that don't matter because I am proud to drive one of the best freaking sections in this whole damn battalion.

To Owen, bro, thanks for watching my back man though I've been quite a shitty mentee. I know my walk has been somewhat like a downhill slope throughout these two years, regardless, thank you for all your understanding and not pushing me to do stuff. It's been what? fifteen years since we knew each other? I would freaking miss you man. You go on and mold the future of our nation man.

To my non-immediate family, especially my aunts Amy and Alice Wee, Rosalind and Susan Chan and my grandparents, thank you for taking me in and treating me like a son. Ee Mah Ros, thanks for letting me live at your place and come over to Highland Road. Kor Kor, Big Kor, thanks for all the times you let me stayed at your place as well. I will seriously miss watching the Graham Norton Show and Miranda and laughing it out you guys.

To my band of brothers, Ade, Daryl, Ken and Justus, thanks for all those nights having Prata and chillin'. All the best to you guys as you go pursue your dreams.

To the guys who frequent the Blues Jams at Tanglin Community Club, I would miss you all too. I learned a whole lot of stuff and had a great time every Saturday.

To Valve Corporation for making Team Fortress 2, the awesomest antidepressant since Prozac. That shit kept me going...

Also to for those who I forgot to mention but have made my life a less-depressing affair in the last two years, I'm so sorry but I thank you too.

And finally to God. Thank You I'm still alive after this ordeal. :D

This song goes out to you guys

ORD lo.

... And she banned me from playing video games as a kid...

2011-09-04T07:09:00.001-07:00

What the...

2011-08-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

Came across this article on The Temasek Review. What... The... Fyuk...

That's like telling my neighbor in Australia, "Uncle Jerry, can you stop firing up the grill? Can you stop eating steak?"

Sorry, but curry is synonymous with the Singaporean taste and experience. If you don't like it, then kindly piss off, lest people like you complain about the odor of durian next. Now I am not saying I'm a fan of curry or durian for that matter. But what the hell, man, these are some of the things that gives identity to our culture. If we give in to them then I seriously wonder what am I defending throughout the two years doing National Service. All the talk about defending Singapore will be hypocritical. The higher ups in the Army keep telling us it's for our family... which in my case is bullshit as they're in Australia having the good life. Fact of the matter is I'm defending these pricks who are fucking up our culture. I don't consider myself a redneck but with this recent massive influx of cases from such people, I think I'm slowly turning into a xenophobe...

Finally, to conclude my post, here's a hilarious but frighteningly true statement from my friend WZ, "LOL! In Australia, there's only news of locals intolerance against the foreigners but in Singapore, it's intolerance against the locals by the foreigners. Uniquely Singapore!"

Prelude to Freedom

2011-07-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

My dad circled 13th September and wrote "FREEDOM!" in red on my wall calender just before he left for Perth. I love you dad :)

Five stars arising out of the swelling skin

2011-07-12T03:41:00.000-07:00

I didn't exactly think of something patriotic to do before my last National day before I leave the country in October but those damn mosquitoes in my bunk did...

The importance of capitalization and punctuation...

2011-06-12T03:38:00.000-07:00

Kung Hei Fatt Choy!

2011-01-31T03:43:00.000-08:00

It's the year of the rabbit!

Happy Boxing Day!

2010-12-26T03:45:00.000-08:00

Scott Pilgrim

2010-12-14T03:34:00.000-08:00

I'm freaking in lesbians with Mary Elizabeth Winstead... go watch Scott Pilgrim vs The World if you haven't yet...

Amusing stuff I came across while clearing up the house

2010-11-23T03:26:00.000-08:00

Mr Malmsteen, meet thy nemesis!!

超级白! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

The coolest piece of military equipment I have... and it's not even from the army I serve!!!

Can't watch South Park here...

2010-11-12T03:24:00.000-08:00

Looks like I'm heading down this street...

2010-11-10T03:22:00.000-08:00

Back to Perth

2010-11-07T04:34:00.000-08:00

After more than half of my service term in Emperor Lee's Grand Army, I'm finally getting my break. I've been in Perth for two days and it has been awesome, great spending time with the family again. My bro Shane even taught me how to longboard :) I can't upload my photos right now because I did not bring my USB transfer cable, but rest assured, it'll be on my Facebook page soon :)

Anyways, there has been something on my mind when my mom asked me to watch this show on Aussie TV called Junior MasterChef awhile ago. According to her, "the participants will put me to shame"... boy was she right, but not in the way she meant it.

I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched these prepubescent gourmet chefs... Then it hit me... though I'm not gastronomically inclined like my brother, who is doing very well over here by the way, it did indeed put me to shame, along with pretty much the whole Singaporean education system. I realized how much of a losing end we are... It's not like it's the first time I have known how unpractical Singapore's education system has been but just look at that! Kids, around half my age (8-12) whipping up one tantalizing dish after another on the spot and bringing it before the judge who is an industry expert to be assessed. The "closest" we have to this back in Singapore is the National Science Challenge. But frankly speaking, who the hell in the industry is going to give a shit about how much you can memorize your textbook when you're past eighteen? Now don't get me wrong. I'm not slamming the system. I'm somewhat grateful that I have received a heavily subsidized education until I was twenty but with all due respect to my friends and family who are in the education industry there, I think it's high time Singapore rethinks its rigid and mundane system they're branding as "quality education" and start thinking of more practical ways of molding the future. I've been a victim of "spotting answers" from previous ten-year series books, memorizing model answers for essay writing and yes, countless dreadful sessions of ting-xie... If we let our future generations labor through all these and telling them that they WILL have a bright future because they did so, I think they will be terribly disappointed when they find out the truth...

Your worship

2010-10-23T00:33:00.000-07:00

“I do have this superpower. It’s not called upon very often but yes, I can turn men gay." - Carrie Fisher

Hohoho... Beg to differ, I do... If anything, she turned a million asexual boys straight back in 1983 in this costume :DDD

But then again...

Old photo

2010-09-19T03:20:00.000-07:00

I was digging up old photos on my hard drive and i came across some photos taken at Asian Aerospace 2004. that's my mom at the STK area with a Primus and a prehistoric Terrex. that's right! TERREX. who knew that six years later her son would be driving one...

National Day

2010-08-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

What's up my homies... it's been a damn long time yet again. I have been really busy for the past few months burning up my weekends for this year's National Day Parade which happens in two days time. My company has been burning our asses weekend after weekend perfecting our execution for the mobile column segment of the parade which barely lasts a minute. I'd really like to say it has been an awesome experience but there will be always be superiors who are there to fuck up the feeling. There is nothing worse than feeling unappreciated and having our off-in-lieu shortchanged... you guys know what I'm talking about. Nevertheless, it still has its upsides. It has helped MSC to bond as a company as well as with the commanders, at least the good ones, and gazing up into the sky from the Terrex every week to see a 18-strong armada of aircraft (including the "new" Strike Eagle) roar across the sky.

To all my MSC comrades, 2 more days, let's do 1x good one and get this shit over and done with!

Terrex

2010-04-10T04:43:00.000-07:00

I'd really like to blog about something interesting, but that's the thing about the Army. It has taken away a lot of my social life. Anyway, I was doing my Terrex Operator Course since early March to April.

The course was not physically intense, but it was mentally draining. To sum up the course in a statement, it'll probably be "rush to wait, wait to rush". Every morning we would get up really early and take a bus to Sungei Gedong, which is this camp in no-man's land. The bus ride there is no less than 45 minutes. So we kind of waste an hour and a half everyday...

During training, we would wait a couple of hours for our turn to drive as there were only four vehicles that were to be shared between the forty-something trainees.

There was even this day when I happen to eat something the previous night and I had a bad stomachache during the start of the journey and after enduring it till Choa Chu Kang area, it got too hard to hold, so it just came off in my pants. Man, that was one stinky day... I think I even stunk up one Terrex...

During the waiting, we weren't allowed to sleep or do our own shit. The Warrant Officers forced us to study the oh-so-interesting Terrex manual and would knock us down if we do otherwise. I also happened to be platoon IC for a week and I got yelled at really badly by this Staff Sergeant because the platoon wasn't marching properly. That sucked..

But now that's all over. I passed out from the Terrex Operator Course and now a qualified Terrex Operator!

Anyway, here's some other random stuff I did when I got pretty bored...

It's been half a year

2010-03-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

It's been half a year since I enlisted and about 3 months since i wrote an entry... and 6 months since I have enlisted... Looking back, time actually flies, but when you're in there, it's as slow as it gets. Being in a stay-in vocation, I've never really had the time to blog lately, but now that I'm having a 4 day break, I might as well recount the events that have been going on in my so-called life in SAF...

Where did I left off? Oh yeah... my BMT experience. Actually towards the end of BMT, I got ticked off by the fact that I had to miss an Earth, Wind & Fire concert and attend recruits' night. I mean sure, a couple of scantily-dressed female members of the Music & Dance Company dancing to the Wonder Girls' Nobody might give me a momentary high, but that's still a lame consolation for missing out on the legendary EWF... It was their first time performing here since their existence (close to 40 years yo!) and i JUST had to miss it... Thanks SAF... care for soldiers my ass...

Speaking of the Music & Dance Company, I auditioned for it... and I didn't get in. But then again, I thought i didn't deserve to frankly speaking. I mean, if Darryl from Platoon one who is one of the most talented cats I've seen couldn't make it in, then who am I to say i deserve to? Anyway, they didn't take us combat fit soldiers seriously for the audition... So I guess it was due to my (lack of) standard as well as my PES status... grr...

As for my vocation, I thank God I didn't only didn't get into any Guards units. Man, that would've been hell. Instead I'm now under the 2nd Singapore Infantry Regiment... No, not as a rifleman... Thank God again. I'm actually part of a group of these lab-rats to operate these new Infantry Carrier Vehicles in an effort by the Army to motorize their Infantry units.

It's been quite a ride actually... Literally too because in Febuary I received my Military Class 3 & 4 license on my second test attempt. I almost failed that test because I did something really stupid the moment I passed. I grabbed the scoresheet and ran across the tarmac where all the trucks were parked with my arms wide open like an airplane's wingspan. That was when the instructor shouted at me to go back to him. He confiscated my 11B, provisional license and scoresheet and threatened to failed me. That kept me in suspense while he was testing the others. Thank God when he returned, it was just a lecture...

I kind of miss Sembawang camp actually... We burnt half our Saturdays every week but military regimentation was barely existent, but hey, enough talk about NS. All this left, right, left crap is probably boring the crap out of you too... Anyway, despite the fact that I missed out on EWF 3 months back, I managed to catch Kool & The Gang yesterday at the Esplanade. I got a seat right at the back of the theatre for cheapening out and buying the NS ticket but still, I managed to see everything on stage... Hot dang... They're in their late 50's/early 60's and still live and kicking. Awesomeness...

Celebrate good times, Come on!

Uncle Phillip and me

Oh yes, it's ladies' night indeed!

My Defining Moment/BMT experience

2009-11-08T02:14:00.000-08:00

Not too long ago, I received this letter on Enlistment Act Chapter 93 from MINDEF saying it's time to surrender my freedom and serve the nation. Fourteenth of September was a big day designated for me. That morning, I packed my bags and headed to Pasir Ris to report along with my mom, my grandma and three close friends. The the song Fortunate Son, penned by John Forgery kept ringing in my head, “It ain't me, It ain't me, I ain't no military son.” And every bit of me agreed with those few words. I was against the idea of enlisting. I thought of the things I had to sacrifice: my hair, and more importantly, my freedom. What's worse is that I have been living in Australia with my family and and enjoying life for two months so putting all these behind me was something especially difficult.
I got extra kiasu and shaved my head before I enlisted, so I was spared the agony of waiting in line and shaving it on enlistment day. The hairstyle itself wasn't so bad as people said it would be. In fact, I love to be able to feel the cool breeze running across my head and the fact that my hair takes seconds to dry after a bath. Anyway, on that same day, this young man came up to me. He told me he was my Sergent and gave me my 4D number. On that same night, I was also introduced to eleven other men, all bearing the same hairstyles as me. They were to be my bunkmates and together we would make Quebec Company, Platoon Four, Section one. This are the men I was supposed to spend the rest of my next three months with.

On the second day, there was an interview with the Platoon Commander. He asked about my background, risk-factors as well as concerns. Halfway through the interview, I broke down and cried right in front of him, but not for my loss of personal liberty. Instead I was homesick and already missing my family who were literally thousands of miles away down under. He comforted me and told me that they are in a better place. He was very right. I would rather be in Australia than in Tekong any day. It was the distance that separated me from them made me realize how much I took the time I had around them for granted.

I also grew much closer to my mother. I would try my best to call her almost every night after the routine orders have been given. The fact that I confided in her more than my father with regards to my new change of lifestyle from a civilian to a solder might seem a little strange, but having served the SAF for more than two decades, I think she was the best person to get advice from. It took me some time to adjust emotionally to the militaristic regimentation in BMT during the first few weeks so every time I told her to tell her I wanted to give up, she would be there to encourage me.

Apart from the mental adjustment, I also often found myself struggling to cope with the physical training since for the past few years I have been a physically inactive person. In fact, I was so physically inactive that I was so sure I wouldn't even see the light of passing IPPT so I didn't even give that a try.

There was once where I even fell out and got sent to the medical center as I had this chest pain which got so bad during one session of CPT. I was given painkillers and an Attend B status for two whole weeks. When I received it, I thought that was the coolest thing... but then again, which sane recruit wouldn't? “Sai Kang” was the name of the game during that two whole weeks. One day, the feelings on that took a drastic turn. There was three klick route march that I didn't participate due to my status. After the march, the entire company got “tekaned” really bad. I observed my section mates facing the floor, knocking-it-down then facing the sky and doing crunches. They were exhausted, sweating bullets and everyone was still shouting at them. Now, a casual observer might remark, “thank God I'm not one of them”, but strangely, I thought the total opposite. I weirdly felt left out and was missing the “bonding session”. I felt that I have taken the easy road out, abandoned them and therefore failed to work as a section. From that day, I told myself that once my status ends, I will try my best to train hard with them and try my best to endure the chest pain (unless it gets really bad because I don't want my folks to claim money from Aviva... at least not yet.)

Anyway, speaking of “tekaning”, I used to have this impression before I enlisted that that was the job of all commanders in the SAF was to torture the crap out of us. I thought the seventh SAF core-value, “Care for Soldiers” was there only for show. However, time and time again, I have been proven wrong. All my platoon Sect-Coms, Platoon Sergent and Platoon Commander are all nothing like that. Throughout my BMT, they really acted upon this especially sacred core-value. Sure, sometimes they would “tekan” us, but then again, what's military life without that? Also, they would not have a superiority complex and would step down to our level to assist and guide us. That's why when I see fellow recruits from other companies (and sometimes even other platoons in the same company) getting grilled, I thank God that I'm in Platoon Four.

Another thing I had was nervousness around guns and explosions. I never knew how I was going to overcome it in the army. The first time I was in the foxhole at the live range, I could swear that my hands were quivering while grasping the SAR-21. When the command, “Own time, own target, carry on” was given, I hesitated to squeeze the trigger, but I carried on anyway. After doing so, the bang sounded off and I saw my lane's target board fall. It didn't feel half as bad as I thought it was going to, so I just went on with it. As the training progressed, I started to enjoy firing the gun to the point that I almost became trigger happy, but because I treasured my freedom and didn't want to serve confinement, I tried my very best to control that.

Field camp was another defining moment. I questioned my ability to survive in an uncomfortable environment, without the luxury of bathing, external communication or sleeping in a comfy bed. Applying camo cream was also another experience. Wearing makeup for six whole days without removing it was a crappy feeling as my face felt oily the entire time. Every time I touched it up, there was a burning sensation and every time the the perspiration that trickled down my forehead and washed the camo into my eyes, it stung. It made me wonder why the heck would so many women like to wear makeup. Anyway, like live range, I didn't know how I was going to go through that, on top of that, the commanders gave us a hell of a time there... and I didn't mean that in a good way, but that forced the whole company to work together. Now that it has passed, I can say that I am glad it is over and having gone through all that crap and surviving, I can also say that I'm damn proud that.

Field Camp

2009-10-25T02:13:00.000-07:00

Day 1:

Field camp started off with an 8km route-march but because I have only completed three to four out of the many route marches Quebec company had, I was instructed to walk half that distance, so when the rest of them went to do the first four, a couple of us stayed behind and waited for our turn. I might sound like a weakling here but towards the end of the march, I started to feel weak and giddy. My section mates sounded it out to Sergeant Yi Wei and he helped me out to the end. After cooling down at the oil palm plantation which was to be our camp site, we pitched our bashas and that was when the shit started raining. After that was the urban-ops training which I admit was pretty fun. It's not everyday we get to experience storming a building and firing a gun. Night time pissed me off the most. We were expected to do tasks in pretty short time limits in the dark with our “tacticalized” torchlight. The weak blue light it emitted made it a pain in the ass to pick out the different items in my field pack which was packed to the brim.

Day 2:

Today was a continuation of the urban-ops training from the day before. Sergeant Kaiser made it an interesting experience. It seems like the days in Secondary School where I would play Counter-Strike for hours have materialized... only without enemies. Nonetheless, it was an enriching experience. Of all the days, I would say that this is my favorite, simply because we hardly received any tekaning.

Day 3:

Today was the start of the Conventional Ops training where we learned leap-and-bound. Like Urban-Ops, it was quite enjoyable and my team, which also consisted of Yi Jie and Dragon put in our 101% into the training. It was also the first time most of us saw a smoke-grenade in action, which I thought was pretty awesome. Tekaning sucked. Litter was scattered all over the place and as much as I tried to keep the place clean, it was all in vain. We all got fucked simply because it's all for one and one for all.

Day 4:

Today was comparatively more mundane then the other days. It was walking all the way in the morning to the new campsite, luckily without the field pack. The other half of the day was spent digging our shell-scrape. At first I thought, “hey, how hard could this be?” I was later proven wrong. Some time in the middle of the digging, Sergeant Yi Wei told us to stop and take a break which was cool, so we sat down and have a chat. The OC, Captain walked by and personally asked me if he could show me my shell-scrape. He then showed me how to dig it effectively. After resting awhile more, we were told to continue. It was only then that we realized that it had turned dark. Digging the shell-scrape in the dark was no walk in the park. But I did my best to at least make it enough to accommodate myself to sleep. We had tekaning again today, but today's one seemed more meaningful than the others. After getting screwed, they gave us a letter. Mine was from my mom. At first I thought it was bullshit. I thought they were going to hand-type some crap, but it was handwritten and as soon as I recognized her handwriting, I broke down. I honestly didn't care so much about the “protecting your family members as a soldier” bit they talked about but the letter itself made me realize how much I miss my family.

Day 5:

Today's event was pretty fun actually, We put everything we learned in the past few days into practice by going through the battle course. Yi Jie, Dragon and me gave it all we got. We all co-operated really well. For example, during retrograde drill, as the IC, I failed to realize that the rate-of-fire from the simulate enemy has increased. I made the mistake by telling my teammates to advance. My teammates were more aware of the danger and decided to keep quiet. That immediately gave me the hint and realized I was wrong after which, I issued the “Whiskey” command. I had a shitty feeling in my stomach after that. And by shitty I mean that literally. I had to go do just that. After hiding in the bushes for five whole minutes without anything coming out, I realized I had constipation... Must have been all that carbs in the rations, but after “unload, check-clear”, it felt awesome. Today's tekaning got worse. It was the first time I saw Captain Tan explode. But then again, I felt that to some extent we deserved it. He has given a lot of welfare to us but some of us choose to abuse that. I could barely walk by the time we walked back to camp.

Day 6:

The minute it hit midnight October 24^th, I was digging my shell-scrape, and drained of energy as I have been doing this for the past few hours. But I persevered as today was going to be hallelujah day... Or so I thought... I finally finished it (to my standard at least) a few minutes before 3am and went to have a well deserved rest. Though this grave was uncomfortably damp and muddy, the rest was sweet... until about half an hour later when I was rudely awakened by the screaming of one of the Sergeants. I woke up in confusion wondering what happened so I asked my section mate, Dragon who had his shell-scrape beside me. According to him, a relatively large number of people have neglected the one-third alert rule and got their rifles confiscated. Soon, my platoon IC informed us that higher-authority has implemented a full-alert rule instead and anyone caught sleeping would be punished. Fuck... how could this get any worse? I first tried to stay awake by offering my section mate who was having a lot of trouble digging his shell scrape while he had a “rest” at mine. I dug it for awhile then checked the time. It was 2+ hours to revile and I am almost completely drained. There is no bloody way this shell-scrape which was barely one feet deep and whose walls were sloping would reach the standard. Out of frustration I gave up and went back. That was when I realized I dug my shell-scrape wrongly, so I corrected my wrong and went into “alert” mode. I struggled to keep my eyelids from touching each other. It was soon revile time. I packed my field pack and my weak body tried to haul it down the hill... I felt giddier and giddier and as I arrived at the foot of the hill where everyone was gathered, I could stand no more. My platoon mate David hauled me to the medical tentage. He told me that today was book-out day and the shit we accumulated over the last few days was for this final grand moment: Booking out. Hell yeah. After sitting down and resting for awhile with my bunkmate who had a similar condition, I felt better. We then went back up the hill for shell-scrape evaluation. After going back down, we got fucked yet again. Everyone who held higher authority was raining shit on us... and for what? Some moron took a dump at my bunkmate's shell scrape. What kind of dipshit would do that? After what seemed to be hours of tekaning and trying to get the truth of that one asshole (no pun intended), we were finally dispersed to our relief to cover up our shell-scrape, but I was too weak. Thankfully, I had some help from Dragon. After that the tonner came to send us back to Rocky Hill and as weird as this sounds, I miss that place. We had the field pack inspection, lunch and rifle cleaning when we got back but more importantly, we finished field-camp and booked out, and that's all that matters to me really...

Have you ever wondered...

2009-10-06T23:14:00.000-07:00

After three grueling weeks in BMT, I emerged ALIVE!!!

Oh yeah, FYI, I'm on MC now...

This is it...

2009-09-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

Well folks, in about an hour's time, I'm leaving my house and heading over to Pasir Ris so that they can take me over to Pulau Tekong. The day I am supposed to become a soldier has finally came to pass. Out of sheer kiasuism, I shaved my head two days ago. Ain't going to let those guys at Tekong touch my head... I hear they do a really bad job.

Also, as much as I hate the idea of this disrupting my lengthy stay at Perth, I believe in a way it is a blessing in disguise. This September intake is the last one which would have a 4-week PTP. From December onwards, it will be 8 weeks, so yeah. Thank God indeed. Also, the earlier I start this, the earlier I get to finish and get away for good. 13 Sept 2011, here I come baby!

The End

2009-09-06T21:54:00.000-07:00

After seven weeks in peaceful Perth, I will be leaving on a jet plane for Singapore tonight... Don't know when I'll be back again within the next two years of my NS. One thing's for sure, I'm pissing off to live in this place after that.

Dance Raja Dance

2009-09-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

Al McKay on YouTube!

2009-09-02T02:09:00.001-07:00

Some kind soul on YouTube added a whole load of videos from the Al McKay AllStars Live in Lithuania... in HD too! *gushes like an exited schoolgirl* Aieeeeeeeeeee!!!

Fit for a King

2009-08-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

One of the main attractions here in Perth is the Botanical Gardens at King's Park. I'll just let the pictures do the talking...

More Nature oriented shots...

Beautiful view...

Also...

Miss Universe contestants... I keep getting older, they stay the same... yes they do...

2009-08-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well folks, Miss Venezuela has done it again. Congratulations, Ms Stefanía Fernández.

Still, in my opinion, a more impressive Miss Universe from recent years is 2005's winner. The Rusian-Canadian beauty Natalie Glebova. In the words of Axl Rose, "She's got eyes of the bluest skies. As if they thought of rain. I hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain". I heard she got married to Thai Tennis Pro Paradorn... Lucky bastard (not very pro according to my sister's friend Sam, so she really agreed on the "lucky" part...).

I was also doing some research on the contestants on Wikipedia. My goodness. A good number of them are as young as 18 years old! I can still remember years and years ago where I would watch such competitions and just get wowed (You know what I mean). It was also one of those times when I looked forward for puberty to happen really badly. Now, I'm 21 and I'm within their age range. My gosh, time flies indeed!

Sadly Singapore has never and probably will never comes close to winning, but then again, no surprise there. It's just like Goal 2010... never gonna happen. Before you diss me on my tagboard, hear me out. A lot of people have the impression that Singaporean girls are trashy. A good evidence on this is that infamous TV show S-factor. Also, one time I remember sitting at Maestro with Isaiah and Errik scrolling through photos he took at the Miss Singapore Universe Pageant. My gosh... a good 80% of them really cannot make it. Now you're probably thinking, "Sean, you think you're a gosh-darn hunk? Who are you to judge?" I'm going to counter that by reminding you that Simon Cowell couldn't sing (at least not that we know of), but his judgment between those who could and those who think they could is spot on... likewise with me and this situation. Anyway, two days ago, Sam also showed me THIS.

She looks okay I guess, but that's as far as beauty goes... My gosh... I didn't know whether to laugh or bang my head against the keyboard.

What's my point here? Well people, the girls you see on pageants are just a small sect of our female population, most of which are delusional as well as shallow. However, after living in this island for 21 years, I do indeed believe that there ARE girls living here who are beautiful, well-toned, nice, cheerful and intelligent... everything you could possibly want in a Miss Universe contestant... but they are too modest to take that step as well as just too busy to keep up with the crazy rat race of Singapore living.

It ain't me, It ain't me, I'm no fortunate one...

2009-08-21T01:52:00.000-07:00

Well folks this is it... I received news from the SAF that I will be drafted on the 14th of September at 1300hrs to BMTC-1 in Pulau Tekong...

R.I.P. Lester William Polfuss

2009-08-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

Sadly, we have lost a legend who contributed so much to music. My six-string slinging brethren, I say it's time for once to turn our focus away from bursts accompanied by figured maple, Goldtops and vintage PAF-spec humbuckers to the man whose name has been associated with all these and so much more. R.I.P. Les Paul. We mourn his passing yet we celebrate his legacy and fruitful long life. God rest his soul.

Perf

2009-08-05T01:57:00.000-07:00

Hey folks. How's it hanging. It's been a long ass time. I'm now in Perth, WA. It's a shame really. The life here just beats the crap out of Singapore. Makes me wonder why I wasn't born here... I mean, no NS, no rushed lifestyle, awesome climate, super friendly people and I can even sue my mom if she beats the shit out of me... Well, my friend brought out a great point. The exposure to freedom after a long depravity from it makes us appreciate freedom more. And yes, I am indeed enjoying it. Not to the fullest extent though. No sir, that will have to wait for two more years. I have to come back in October because that's the maximum limit for my tourist visa

Perth has it share of downsides though. The internet is not unlimited, Asian food is more expensive, it gets quite dry (Uncle Jeff says it's okay because I'll acclimatize to that anyway) and the shower-heads cannot detach so that I can spray a jet up my butt to clean it... No worries, I can live with that... except the last one...

My family is settling in pretty well I guess... The furniture has arrived five days back and has been all set up. Now the house seems more homely. My folks also bought two cars, a Tarago and a Camry for roughly AU$30k. That's right... both of em. Eat your hearts out, Singapore dwellers...

My dad has started Bible school. It has been a 30 odd years since he has studied. Oh well, time will tell if he's made for that. Aunty Joyce has been showing mom around for the last two weeks. And Shane started High school now. Wah, it rocks man. Every time we wait outside the school premises to pick him, Nicole, Joash and Aprille up I get a freakin boner because once the dismissal bell goes, oodles of girls with freakin' short skirts pour out from the compound! No wonder the shorts in their uniform for the guys are so baggy... to hide their hard-ons! But apart from that, the shorts are also far less degrading than the faggy hotpants we were issued back in lower Secondary... Man, I had a miserable time in Secondary School. Good for Shane... good for Shane...

I also bought this two awesome DVDs and killer prices. One is the Crossroads Guitar Festival '07 at the recommendation of Colin and the other is Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire live at the Greek Theater. Hunt them down. Two frackin' awesome titles to grab!

Oh yeah, speaking of which, Errik, Colin (Yong) and I played a set at Molly Malone's a few days before I left for Perth.

Thanks Colin (Lau), Shane, Stephen and Daniel for coming and thanks Gerry for letting us play!

PS: I'm not celebrating NDP this year...

Living room reverb

2009-07-04T10:41:00.001-07:00

Some people swear by spring reverb units, others by plate reverbs. Some even love the effect of inverse reverbs. Me? I swear by my new empty living room.

I wasn't lying about my living room being almost empty in my previous post!

Update

2009-07-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

I never thought this day would come, but it did. Our stuff is finally in a 20ft container en route to Australia and my house is almost totally empty now. I can get better reverb with an amp with a dry signal in my living room than one with a holy-grail or even a fender reverb tank. Hahaha. Our stuff would be meeting us there on the 20th of July. It's a shame I have to come back to fulfill Enlistment Act Chapter 93... pah...

It's amazing how How I Met Your Mother got its hook on me. I've never watched the series before but after strong persuasion from my sister and Ken, I started watching two Saturdays back and I completed all four seasons last Saturday. Hot dang...

Jeremy Yap from church also loaned me really awesome book called FYMO. Now I'm not a bookworm at all. I have never read a book (besides the Bible) ever since I graduated from Secondary School, but I'm more than halfway done on this. That's how good it is. I guess it's because it touches on man-girl issues... if you know what I mean.

Anyways, I was hanging out with Ade today at Sim Lim. He got his off-day today because it's SAF day so went there to get himself an optical to coaxial converter for his PS3. I didn't think I would be getting anything until I realized I have been procrastinating changing my PC case. Now a case is not something someone will upgrade but I guess I finally felt that it was too space consuming (It's a freakin' Server case at almost 2ft tall!) as well as the lack of convenience (no USB ports in front), but mainly due to its size. I still remember the look my dad gave me when he fetched me after collecting the case. WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING?!

While I was migrating the parts over to its new home, I was overwhelmed by the amount of dust that accumulated over three years (This case has been with me for five years but I changed everything out in 2006). Thank God for vacuum cleaners.

I also have been hanging out with Errik at Maestro Esplanade as well as just rocking out with our cocks out... well, not literally, but yeah. That guy can hit the high notes on EWF's Septermber. Respect! We were also hanging out along with Joanne at this event called OOOM. Some event where singer songwriters demonstrate their songwriting and performing. Let's just say I'll probably never reach that level.

Oh yeah, It's been one week since Michael Jackson left us. God rest his soul.

No pictures?

2009-07-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wish my blog could be more visual because frankly speaking, I am seldom in the mood to type. Problem is, I don't have a digital camera... baaahhh...

RIP: Michael Jackson

2009-06-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

To the man who wanted to Heal The World. Sure, the media and rumors made you look Bad and all you needed was Once More Chance. You said you would Stop Till You Got Enough of touring and this final world tour would be the last which wish we could still Rock With You, but you just Beat It from the face of this Earth (song). Cardiac arrest was indeed a Smooth Criminal. We will never forget The Way You Made us Feel. Black or White, you're still the same Michael Jackson. Rest In Peace.

Dog

2009-06-22T07:55:00.001-07:00

There are no words I can find to describe how much I want to punch my brother right square in his dumb face right now...

See this cute little doggy? That's Professor (dumb name, but it's cute). It was my brother brought it back a year ago but it is OUR dog. Our as in Family.

A month ago we were stuck in a situation where when we move over to Perth, WA, we would have to leave Professor in care of someone here in Singapore because mainly we thought pets were not allowed in rented property in Australia.

We had a couple of options: Hand him over to my mom's sister or dad's brother, both of which have had quite a lot of experience as a dog owner. My smart-ass brother suggested giving it to his friend, but me (as well as my sis) hope to God it will NEVER EVER happen because we have became so emotionally attached to Professor and would really want to see it again.

Now, my parents just came back from Australia and they have found a house where PETS ARE ALLOWED! So when my dad told me that, I was all like OH YEAH!!!

Now my brother is being a real cheese-ball. He keeps going "You know what? actually I still want to give it to my friend because I will have to pick up after him when I'm in Australia". You know what that means if that happens? The rest of us will NEVER see him again.

Now here's my rant and it's going to get nasty so excuse me, people.

Shit on you Shane. You think you OWN Professor? You HARDLY take responsibility for him at all. Who picks up after his shit? Not you. It's either Stef or me. Who cleans his pee-pan? Not you. It's either Stef or me too. Who feeds him? Lord knows that ain't you, punk. Throughout Dad and Mom's trip to Australia, it was Stef. You claim to but you just leave him the left overs and call that feeding him. Dammit, if I were Professor, I'll shit all over your face while you sleep because you are a shitty master. And who bathes him? You only do it when you're pushed to, and there was even one time you tried to bribe me with five bucks to wash him up. I did it anyway FREE OF CHARGE, even once when Mom and Dad were away. You know why? Because I love him. Me and Stef do. WAY MORE than you ever did to him, punk. The worst part is that he apparently clings on to you more than me or Stef. Shame on you. If you really claim to love him back, stop whining like a little bitch about taking care of him all by yourself in Australia. Mom and Dad are there to assist too so stop giving your lame excuses. They love him too so I know they won't mind. I already said I wouldn't mind forking out up to $500 to see him there so if you want to screw me over like that, you better watch your ass. True love wouldn't mind forking out $2k just to see him again in Australia. True love wouldn't mind cleaning up his feces even though it smells like, well, shit. True love wouldn't mind washing him up at least once a week even though it's a tedious process. So if you really claim to love him, PROVE IT.

*ahem* 'scuse me... that's all I have to say.

The Force is strong with this one

2009-06-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

My goodness... makes The Clone Wars (both the movie AND the TV series) look like Barney and Friends!

Pointlessness at its best

2009-06-15T07:56:00.001-07:00

Stephen Leong is standing next to a mountain, gonna chop it down with the edge of my hand
29 minutes ago · Comment · LikeUnlike · Show Feedback (5)Hide Feedback (5)

You like this.

Sean Wee
Sean Wee at 10:35pm June 15
eh, after that remember to pick them up and make a little island...

Gabrielle Tan
Gabrielle Tan at 10:38pm June 15
Sun Wukong ah u? hee hee

Sean Wee
Sean Wee at 10:38pm June 15
Sun Wukong wishes he was a Voodoo Child.

Stephen Leong
Stephen Leong at 10:43pm June 15
i think, i can only raise a little sand tho...

Sean Wee
Sean Wee at 10:45pm June 15
yeah, but still, the cool thing is you can manipulate the space-time consortium... after all, that time you wasted all my sweet time, you can give it back to me right? maybe one of these days?

Beatles Rockband

2009-06-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

Harmonix stabbs back at Neversoft's Guitar Hero: Metallica with RockBand: Beatles.

Not a fair fight IMO... Hahaha.

Guitar stuff and kwai lan aunty

2009-06-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

After more than three years of playing the guitar, I finally set up a decent pedal-board. I might sound super-noob to some, but I'm damn proud of it. Haha. Setup wise, it's pretty simple. It's just an Ibanez LU20 tuner to a Vox V847A Wah finally to a BOSS Blues Driver modded by Randolf. That blank space at the bottom left is reserved for something else, most probably a vibe pedal. I guess I've been listening to too much Hendrix.

That day I went over to Errik's house for him to mess around/test drive my setup I realized that there were annoying "pop" sounds when the tuner AND wah are switched on and off. daaang.

On the way home, I was standing up and was blocking some aunty's view from the TV Mobile screen. She became a real biggoty bitch and YELLED at me "SIAO TEE AH! WO YAO KAN TIAN SHE (kid, I want to watch the TV)."

Sure, I was blocking her from watching the OH SO AMAZING show Little Nonya. But for Pete's sake. Just tap my shoulder and tell me nicely. Basket, have to yell and create a scene and make me like a bad guy. Man, what a C-word... And by that, I mean crabby-old-lady.

So, being the nice guy I usually am (yeah, I said it, what what?) I went "aunty, relax, relax" and moved aside. But two to three stops down the road, Karma kicked in and a huge bunch of people boarded the bus and totally obscured her from the screen. Heh heh heh. Suck on that, bitch! That was a feeling unlike any other.

Anyways, in other news, I procured probably the most jaw dropping guitar ever in my collection: A Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster. It all started with a day out to help Sathish find a cheap and good capo. After we got that, we proceeded to Ranking Sports.

For almost half an hour, I couldn't test the damn guitar because the sales guy decided to give some guitar teacher was helping a bunch of kids and their mom select a good guitar priority. Basket... so we stand there like morons... But despite the pretty-much shitty customer service, it was fruitful in the end.

I always wanted a Telecaster since I played Kenneth's one a few years back. I wanted one even more last year because I wanted to do up a Telecaster project, so what I did was order a few parts such as the bridge and tuners from guitarfetish.com through Vincent. However, the procurement of the Body and Neck was a real pain. I contacted several distributors of Mighty Mite parts but they all turned a deaf ear on me. So I gave up my Tele project despite paying more than $100 for the parts... The bastards...

So what better way to make up for that by buying an off-the-shelf Fender Telecaster. There was one that really caught my eye on musiciansfriend.com called the Nashville Telecaster. It had three pickups instead of two and was available in a blonde-like shade similar to the legendary '52 Butterscotch Blonde Blackguard Tele... and one just happened to be hanging at Ranking Sports.

I seriously did not expect to buy my guitar that day. First off, the color was more orangey than blonde as the picture stated on the web. Next, I wasn't quite open to the three-pickup configuration. However, upon plugging in, that all changed my mind. Even through a cheap Smarvo amp, it sounded so good. Sathish too was like "woaah!" I put down $1004. $999 for the tele and $5 for a pack of D'addarios.

Now I might be $1000 poorer. But I think at the same time, I'm 1000 times happier. Heh heh heh.

Suck my Didgeridoo!

2009-05-13T05:07:00.000-07:00

I have been away for the last week. Where at? To the land of Australia... again! Where PAP, COE and ERP are just a few harmless series of alphabets. I only went with Stef though, as Dad's student visa application hasn't been finalized (and Mom and Shane are attached to this as well so they too couldn't go).

The flight was the same ol' same ol' in a rather small Airbus 320 which was pretty packed up like the last time... the most annoying part was babies who couldn't shut the crap up... nay, parents who can't shut them up. Gosh... but hey, I can't expect first-class treatment with a budget airfare can I? Heh. Nevertheless, I thank God for the existence of airlines such as JetStar, otherwise, I wouldn't have my six days in heaven...

Anyway, Uncle Jeff and Aunty Joyce were super kind and let us stay in the media room at their place. Nicole, Joash and Aprille were all also really accommodating as well. Did a lot of awesome stuff together like have picnics, play card games, play Nintendo Wii and do church stuff even though they are in the middle of the school term.

As for Australia, mere words cannot comprehend the awesomeness of the place. The environment was amazingly scenic, the climate was really awesome and the people were very friendly. I always heard stuff about Australia being a White-supremacist country so I thought I was going to get my butt picked on over there by rednecks but actually, I never experienced a hint of racism over there.

Though it was dry and cold, I remember an instance where I actually sweat bullets. Uncle Jeff took us to this music store called MegaMusic. Really ridiculous prices there. It's like mostly 30% more than prices here. Nevertheless, the guy at the store was pretty kind and allowed me to try a sweet-ass Gibson ES-335 which was going for like AU$5k through a Fender DeVille which was about AU$2k+. I don't know if it was the sexy killer tone or the fact that the tubes of the amps in the enclosed room are cookin' but I swear I was perspiring!

In other news, my PES-D status would extend until July... Whoopedidoo...

Birthday...

2009-04-19T20:14:00.001-07:00

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.

Arjevbin Fayed and Bybeiev Rhibodie

2009-04-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

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...

Some more rants on aviation

2009-04-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

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.

Hair

2009-04-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

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...

Sign on?

2009-03-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

As a kid, my favorite movie was Top Gun (still is one of my favorites). Not because of Tom Cruise, but because of Tomcat. No you moron, not TomKat, but rather, the F-14. Although that fighter was phased out by the USN three years back, it was also immortalized by that movie. Anyway, from then on, I would always dream of how awesome it would be if I could fly.

My dad would also frequently take me air shows and just watch in awe as the fighter jets streaked across. There was even one airshow where the Red Arrows performed here. It was nothing short of inspiring with their dazzling maneuvers, coupled with the blue, red and white smoke, the colors of the Union Jack. In short, i always wanted to become a pilot.

While other kids were reading Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl at that age, I was reading aviation photo journals and stuff like that, even to the extent of memorizing the specifications of several aircraft. I also have an uncle who served with both the RSAF and SIA and would explain a lot of aviation stuff to me when I asked him.

Lately, while I was sick I was also watching lots of videos on aerobatic teams. Not only the Red Arrows (though I believe they are the best), but the USN Blue Angels, the USAF Thunderbirds, the Russian Knights and Strizhi and even our homegrown Black Knights. A-freakin-mazing

I've also realized one more thing: My time has come to serve the nation and this might be my only chance to become what I've always dreamed of becoming. I still have 20/20 vision. However, as much as I want to fly on wings of Strike Eagles (F-15E), a big part of me is saying no. Why? Maybe it's because I'm an unpatriotic bastard and maybe because I always though of signing on as selling my soul away... especially if the bond is ten years and I'm thinking of relocating.

Maybe in the next life. No, I don't believe in reincarnation, but I mean when I settle down in Australia. A pilot's license there is about $10k. Yippie Ki Yay. It's a shame that doesn't certify you to fly at Mach 2...

Sakit

2009-03-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

I have been down with the bug for the last few days since Wednesday. Fever, cold, nausea, cough... It's as bad as it gets. Fortunately, I'm better now. Not exactly well, but recovering.

I choose you... and by you, i mean the Japanese version

2009-03-23T10:55:00.001-07:00

Aaron and I were just reminiscing about Pokemon, specifically, the theme song.

For those of you haven't heard of the Japanese version, just hit play in the window below.

(Killer guitar solo at 2:30)

Definitely way better than the English one. I just hope that after translated, it doesn't sound as cheesy.

"You're my best friend in a world we must defend... A heart that's true; our courage will pull us through, You teach me and I'll teach you..."

What the heck's that supposed to mean anyway? I thought Ash Ketchum's mission is to catch Pokemon, give opponents cocky thrash-talk and kick Team Rocket's butt whenever they interfere...

Speaking of Team Rocket, I wonder how their mantra sounds in Japanese...

Os-Tril-Ya

2009-03-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

As someone who is brought up in a built-up, fast-paced, results-oriented society such as Singapore, it is not everyday you got to live life... in fact hardly.

That's why Perth was such an eye-opening trip for me. My goodness, it's such a beautiful place. Once I'm done with NS, my plan is to piss off from here to settle there. Might not seem very patriotic, but then again, it's declared in Singapore's shared values that "No one owes Singapore a living". Heck yeah... Too bad there's National Service to serve, otherwise I'll be long gone.

Anyway, you know the phrase "The grass is greener on the other side"? Well, it's literally like that... and more. The sky is bluer, the lifestyle there is way better (and by better I mean more meaningful), the prices of cars and houses are lower (not the case with food though!), the air is fresher, the people are MUCH friendlier and yes, my gosh-darned sinus condition is practically non-existant throughout the ENTIRE trip, contrary to the fact that it's a colder place!

I have my peeves about there though. It's REALLY dry and most showers aren't detachable so I couldn't spray my butthole clean, but I guess that's pretty minor considering all the advantages.

Someone once told me that he'd rather live in Singapore as a first-class citizen than a second-class citizen there. After experiencing it, I'd say that even as a "second-class citizen" over there, I feel being treated better. But then again, I never really believed in the caste system.

Finally a meaningful week

2009-03-14T11:29:00.001-07:00

After bumming around for several months, I finally got off my butt and done something useful, thanks to Tengyu

He invited me to this program from SYFC called "Polyserve". Great people, great teaching.

Also attended Mike Stern and Dave Weckl in concert. This is my fourth consecutive year attending Mosaic Music Festival. They never cease to impress.

Mike... Stern... and... Dave... Weckl... were... freakin... AWESOME!!

I still preferred Al McKay's AllStars last year though...

S-Club

2009-03-08T12:58:00.001-07:00

It's so funny. Ever since last Monday, I haven't been stopped listening to old stuff by S-Club 7 like I used to ten years back... I have even been watching their cheesy TV program! Why this sudden craze? Lord knows man...

Wait... I know. It's Rachel Stevens... D'oh!

Astronomy, Biology and God

2009-03-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

This is probably one of my more "Christian" posts, but after Roland from my dad's cell group sent me this, it won't be nice not putting this up...

Now I don't know if you the reader might make out of this, but personally, I feel that this is in the words of Russell Peters, MIND BLASTING!!!

Settled

2009-02-27T08:39:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-25T10:35:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-24T05:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-17T04:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-11T06:07:00.000-08:00

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...

Medical checkup

2009-02-03T08:43:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-28T19:33:00.000-08:00

The Ultimate El-Cheapo Upgrade for your Gibson-styled guitar

Probably almost all guitarists out there are affected with a highly contagious disease. Though not as deadly as Necrotizing Easciitis which eats away one's flesh, this disease east away his or her wallet. This disease is none other than GAS.

We musicians are constantly bombarded by music manufacturers every year, NAMM after NAMM, Musicmesse after Musicmesse with new products, and because of all these, many give parts such as pickups and electronics priority for upgrades, spending hundreds, even thousands just to make one's axe sound better.

Despite all these gadetry out there, it is hard to believe that we have to look no further than two simple, low-cost upgrades could give a guitar a major improvement acoustically.

In this post, I am going to focus on two constantly overlooked components of the guitar. The bridge and the nut. Because these two components act as "contact points" for both ends of the vibrating portion of the string, they affect the sonic transference from the string to the instrument, hence, effectively affecting the tone as well.

Two of my superiors at the workplace affected my decision to upgrade the ones on my guitar. First, KC gave me tips on how to make my guitar sound better by just swapping out these two parts out. At first I didn't think it would make a big difference, that is until Isaiah did a major overhaul on his Epiphone Les Paul, which included upgrades to the nut and the bridge. I was pretty impressed with the results and decided to do a similar overhaul to my cheap Ibanez Artcore!

These are the two upgrades:

Gotoh Tune-O-Matic
These bridges come in two versions: The version with Standard Posts (ABR-1 style) and the version with studs and bushings (6mm posts like the ones on Epiphones). Do note though that instead of the 3-facing-up, 3-facing-down configuration of most Tune-O-Matic, this bridges have all six saddles facing upwards. According to KC, this improves the intonation. Well, you heard it from the man, 'nuff said.

Graphtech TUSQ nut
Bone and Ivory are probably the most optimal material when it comes to guitar nuts. Their rigidity and density yields a nice, full sounding tone. However, they are plagued with inconsistencies due to their organic source. Enter the TUSQ nut. This nut is made out of a special synthetic material which tries to mimic their sound. Do note that you WON'T get it spot on with the real thing, but it still drastically improves the guitar's tone, while having a price tag easy on your wallet. Even guitar manufacturing titans such as Gibson and Taylor are using them! Also, it gets even better you're an animal rights activist. Now you can do away with the dead-sounding plastic nuts without the guilt that comes with bone nuts!

After I got KC to install these components and setup my guitar, I experience the same improvement on my guitar that Isaiah did on his. They say that if you can't get a good acoustic tone out of an electric guitar, don't expect anything good from it plugged in, and that is really the case right here. played unplugged, the once dead sounding guitar now rang with brightness and more "zing" with increased clarity as well as richer harmonics. Through my Vox amplifier, its fuller sound was a far cry from what used to be a muddy sounding drone. The best part is that these upgrades cost no more than $50 (not including installation)!

Crazy taxi

2009-01-28T19:23:00.000-08:00

I met up with Owen and Joshua yesterday for a movie on Owen's treat. Watched Love Matters. Okay lah, not a bad show.

The cab fare there was crazy though. It all started when I took the wrong bus... AGAIN. When I realized I was taking the bus the wrong direction, I alighted and flagged a cab. What I didn't realize is that I flagged a premium cab, and it was during peak hours, so there was extra charges. Halfway through the journey there, I took a glance at the meter. $8?! ... WITH $4 SURCHARGE?! MY GOODNESS! My heart sank! Total bill amounted to $21, but to think of it optimistically, it was an avenue to displace my excessive $2 bills from all the ang pows.

My mom's still menopausing. Gosh, It's really scary I swear. It's like sitting around next to a bomb that's about to blow. My school was a refuge from that shit, but now that I've graduated, I am extremely vulnerable. It's probably because of menopause that there are so many gay men out there... The only good thing that I can get from all this crap is that I become immune to the degrading talk from all the Sergent when I enter NS... Heh!

Wishing everybody

2009-01-27T09:04:00.000-08:00

Dog Arrive Work Done,
Step Step High Rise,
Year Year Got Fish,
One Road Smooth Wind,
Out In Flat Safe,
Smile Mouth Long Open,
Heart Think Work Done,
Dragon Horse Sperm God.

New amp!

2009-01-23T09:10:00.000-08:00

Ever since dad has moved his office in, I felt that my ginormous AC-15, which I have hardly touched throughout its time of nearly two years in my possession (due to the fact that it was huge and waiting for it to warm up and cool down as a real pain in the neck) had to go. I sold it to Reuben who seemed pretty pleased with it, I can't say the same for his folks though. The second his mom saw it, she seemed concerned that this new (old) toy might disturb the peace...

So after letting it go yesterday, I posted a post on SOFT.com that I'm looking for a Pro Jr. One of the responses I receive was from some punk who thinks I was born yesterday. Here's what he told me:

"Hi prolly u want to check out my fender g-Dec. Other than the design is not as vintage as yours, it is a more powerful one. I'm just a few thread below yours."

More powerful? That's like saying a Glock is more effective than an M-249 SAW... Fortunately, two other guys actually HAVE a Pro Jr.

So using the dough Reuben paid me (the bugger got a whole lot of cash for the scholarship from MOE), I picked up a new amp this morning. I had to go all the way to Tampines though. The worse part was that because I usually have a terrible alertness in the morning, I took the wrong bus and almost missed the deal. So out of desperation, I took a cab which shaved seven damn bucks off my wallet, not including the fare deducted from the ride on the wrong bus deducted from my EZ-Link card... At least I have my new amp: A Fender Pro Junior. Awesome sounding stuff (I'll review it soon).

Three years in the life...

2009-01-23T08:28:00.000-08:00

This week would be the last week I'll ever attend school for the next couple of years (if decide to further my education that is). Had a great treat from Kenneth and Wen Yang. Great facilitators. They really made my third year in Republic Polytechnic awesome. I hate to sound sappy, but I'm going to miss schooling here.

This is very different from the feeling I had when I finished secondary school education. Back then, everything just seemed to be against me, the academic syllabus and the people. The worse time was doing Secondary five. My best friends Daryl, Ade, Ken and Justus had finished their O-levels before me so it was just me alone braving the storm. Let's be frank, the feeling of wasting one year of your life sucks. On top of that, I hear that the principal has kind of "given up hope in us", so I lost motivation as well. Still, I sucked it up and just got through it. The day I finished my last Design and Technology paper for my O-levels and stepped out of the school gates, I had a feeling unlike any other. Freedom never tasted this good. I swore to myself that I would NEVER retake my O-level examination whether or not I fail. (I didn't)

My plans after that was originally to study film and audio but my lackluster O-level grades forbade me from doing so. I got posted into Republic Polytechnic with the course not being my first choice, not my second nor my third. It was my eleventh, but beggars can't be choosers so it was no biggie to me. And that's how I got into this course studying Information Technology. The first year was fine since we were studying these ten "disciplinary modules" which had almost nothing to do with the course of our choice. But what gave me nightmares was one module, Computing, where we learned Visual Basic. The name implied its nature: Basic. Even then, I was struggling with the basic computing language. I told myself, this won't do. If I'm going to study IT, I'll probably shoot myself from depression, so I appealed to the School of Technology for the Arts for a transfer to study Sonic Arts along with a demo. It failed. I got depressed.

So I braced myself for second year. I was VERY prepared to drop out, I swear. I even failed a module (Objective-Oriented Programming, which is just a less scary way to say Java) but it was a borderline failure, so they didn't require me to retake it. Still, it was the worse year in poly life. I had the most intimidating modules and even met the the most effed up bunch of dipshits throughout my entire poly life. But by God's grace as well as the system's leniency, I scraped through year two. It was at the end of the academic year where I saw the light at the end of the tunnel which came in the form of a specialization selection. Four choices: Wireless Computing, IT Security, Multimedia and Networking. Needless to say, I chose the third option, which promised something close to what I wanted to learn in the first place: Film and audio.

Year three was ENTIRELY different from year two. I had the most awesome modules, met the the most awesome course mates and studied under the most awesome facilitators (the best was still Julian who taught me Operating Systems in year 2 though) throughout my entire polytechnic life. The whole Final Year Project thing seemed intimidating at first but it turned out to be a fun experience because both didn't require a line of Java code! Also, because of my job at Maestro Guitars, coughing out 2000 words for the Professional Profiling project was much easier than my pathetic attempt at that in year two.

Not only am I going to miss the academic life. I would miss Jammers' Arena (or at least what used to be Jammers' Arena). Bernie Chia is an absolutely amazing teacher. I have a feeling that he thinks that he hasn't taught me much because of my lack of ability to understand music theory, but I feel otherwise. He has opened me to a whole new realm of music. Also met and jammed some awesome musicians like Karl and Rudolf.

People keep saying, "Live in the future instead of the past", but as I stand here at the crossroads between two important phases of my life - tertiary education and National service, I can't help but reminisce about how awesome those times were (and how lame the stuff I'm going to experience is going to be...)

Something cute

2009-01-15T20:08:00.000-08:00

I was searching YouTube for some live Earth, Wind & Fire videos, in particular this song called "Can't Hide Love". Totally love that song man, it has this real nice slow, sexy funk groove. I found this:

Totally adorable!

Construction work rants, Poseur-caster and O-level rants

2009-01-14T09:09:00.000-08:00

I swear I'm getting annoyed by the construction works going on next to my place. Not only is it noisy, the dust IS GETTING BLOWN INTO MY HOUSE! I love the windy weather that's been happening these few days but with DUST?! My goodness...

Anyway, for almost the whole day today, I've been tinkering with my (and Shane's) upcoming reverse headstock Stratocaster, a.k.a. the Poseur-caster. I could have taken some photos on the progress, but to be frank, I am just too damn lazy for that, so I'll just lay it all down in words.

What's going on is that I bought over Joe's 1989 (that's right, TWENTY YEARS OLD) American Stratocaster. It had a pretty worn out fretboard and the previous owner (before Joe) went to go dye the whole thing dark brown, so it looks pretty fugly. So what I did was replace the worn out neck. There was this nice guy on SOFT who sold me a new AllParts Southpaw (that's left-handed) one-piece maple neck with a CBS-era reverse headstock which came with a *gasp!* GraphTech Tremnut! Perfect!

The hardware was VERY rusty so that day, I soaked them all in WD40 for a day. It's still rusty, but at least that managed to get some off and protect it against future oxidization.

What kept me busy today was soldering up the electronics to replace the pickups with my trusty set of Fender Texas Specials. It was a long process but it was all worth it... Man, I can't wait till it's all done. I'll post a demo video of it once it's done!

At the same time, I've been thinking about all the people who have just received their O-level results... Which brings be back to reminisce of the moment I got mine (though I try not to). I remember popping open the envelope and seeing a "25" for my L1B4 (not even R5, mind you...) Though there was a slight disappointment for my borderline failure in Science (Edward taught me well for Chemistry a few days before but I don't think I was able to stomach everything), I was really happy and grateful to God and everyone who tutored me (that includes Owen, Edward and my "official tutor" Ms. Wang). Why? I've never crossed over into twenty-something zone EVER before, except maybe once in Secondary 1, but that was, well, Secondary 1 shit...

Fast forward to today... pretty impressive results this year from the people I know actually! I'm yet to see someone who can "top" the score I got back then (technically, top can be used since the higher you go, the worse it gets!) People have been really, really happy. One strange exception is Jeremy. FOURTEEN points on his L1R5 and he has been complaining that it "was not enough". My goodness... either he just expects too much from himself or I'm just academically hopeless... Whatever the case, I'll be completing my diploma in a matter of days and once I get it, it'll render my O-level cert almost useless.

Anyway, to everyone who has received your O-level results, congratulations. If it ain't satisfactory, stop whining (this is not limited to Jeremy), it's all over... unless you want to repeat that is...

Literally shitty day...

2009-01-12T23:46:00.000-08:00

Dang what the heck is wrong with me today?! I've gone to the loo to take a dump for not three, not four, but FIVE times already... and that's only in the morning!!! Gosh dang, my anus is more sore than a sexually active gay guy... Must've been the SubWay I ate yesterday... Darn it.

I headed to go see Bernie today. Man, it's been a long time since we've met as I've been busy with stuff like FYP. Was great to hang around them once more.

Meanwhile, here's some awesome stuff to keep you entertained:

Enjoy!

Bon Voyage

2009-01-11T06:36:00.000-08:00

Thursday was the day me, along with my family went to the airport to send off two parties to Australia.

The first was uncle Jeff and family, who have been pretty close to my family, in particular my parents for the last decade and a half. They are heading over to Perth because uncle Jeff has decided to go pastor a church there. It's kind of sad because I don't know what BC would feel like without his administration. Time will tell I guess. Auntie Joyce too has been extremely generous and has often gave us lots of awesome stuff and they have opened their home every Sunday for the whole cluster to go chill. Though I don't really like hanging there for too long, it would sure feel weird not going there at all.

The other party was Jason Widjaja, who was heading over to Melbourne to further his studies, as well as try to get PR there. This brother has been a huge inspiration for myself and many others in BC. Though he left BC to head for another church two years back, he never failed to keep in contact with us. He is one monster of a bass player and has an exemplary attitude in showing how virtuosity in his instrument, along with being humble and dedicated gives glory to God. He is truly one of the best musicians to ever grace Bethesda Community's stage.

I really long forward to the day I head that way to join them as well in hopes of a better life. Sadly, that wouldn't be after at least two years where I, at gunpoint, have to serve the nation... Blast...

FYP ends!

2009-01-11T06:10:00.000-08:00

Wednesday was kind of like execution day because we had to go present our FYP. This single event would determine the future of the entire universe... well not really, but it WOULD affect my future should I happen to choose to further my education in a university after NS. No plans for that now though... Anyway, it didn't go too well, but to be fair, I didn't feel that it would the day before as I found out that our evaluators would be Sasi, who was my adviser for last semester's FYP, and *gasps* Tee Lip! I've heard stories about Tee Lip being the "no mercy" type. On top of that, I was having a bad cough and sore throat throughout the whole week, so yeah...

So the next day, the first moment when I stepped in, Sasi, who seemed quite surprised to see me in formal wear jokingly said, "Man, this occasion is too decent for you!"

That got me a little relaxed... but that's as far as the jokes went. It was all seriousness after that. Our project got slammed left right and center. Bit by bit, we felt shittier and shittier... I can even recall all the bad points they (in particular, Tee Lip) brought out:

- Though our process was perfectly documented in the presentation, we had no evidence to show that we tried it out (we didn't think it would be necessary), so he slammed us right there.
- Mentioned that the website looked ancient (referring to the non Web 2.0 layout).
- Questioned us about our lack of research, in particular the part about interlacing the video so as to remove lines when objects move.
- Said that the fact that the way Germaine implemented PHP was just to prove we could do it and not in line with the project's objective.
- Slammed me and Wilson for not finding a video converter that could convert videos without leaving a watermark.

They did comment that they liked the concept of the video though, so that made me breath a sigh of relief (that was the main part of the FYP anyway).

After the presentation, the show was not over. We still had to stay back to entertain the sad Secondary School kids for the open house, but at least we could sit back and relax because the presentation is the final (almost, since there are still tests next week) hurdle to completing this course and getting our diplomas.

They don't seem too happy, but I do... because it's OVER!

Sick

2009-01-05T04:13:00.000-08:00

I'm back from preparing my team's FYP booth for Wednesday's and Saturday's open house event. I STILL don't know what possessed me to agree to it... On top of that, I feel sick. That's right. I'm slightly feverish and I had a nauseating feeling this afternoon.

After church service yesterday, we went to the airport to go say hi to Michelle who has been in France for 4-5 months and would finally be coming back. After that, I had no idea why I agreed to take the bus when I could take the train and cut travel time into almost half, as well as spend less as I have train concession, but I was dumb enough to comply with the rest of the group to ride it home... It was a long-ass bumpy ride, plus I was sitting right at the back where I could feel the engine heat and vibrations. So I began to feel quite sick after that, but after drinking plenty of water (seems to be the solution to almost any minor sickness) and popping a Panadol or two, I feel a bit better now, thank God. I still hope this does not interfere with my FYP evaluation...

Justus' b'day

2009-01-03T15:19:00.000-08:00

I was hanging out at Justus' house along with Daryl, Ade, Amanda, Eugene, Eugene's girlfriend, and of course, Justus' friends and family celebrating Justus' twenty-first. Poor dude's spending his twenty-first doing BMT... but at least it was a good celebration before he went in. I pity Ken, who couldn't make it as he is spending his time amongst the thick foliage of the jungles in Brunei. I hear it's so dark, you can't even see your fingers at night! The worse part is he too would be celebrating twenty-first birthday, only THERE, which in my opinion is worse then doing it in BMT. Thank God my turn wouldn't come until roughly September, which is way past my twenty-first.

It has been a long time ever since I've got in touch with kitchen stuff by helping Justus, Amanda and Justus' mom a bit with preparing the food/cake for the partay before Daryl and Ade arrived. Didn't do much though. Last time I remember getting in touch with my "culinary skills" was back in secondary two in Home Economics class, with the teacher, Mrs Maria Lim, her huge wooden spatula poised to smack our ass. Ah, those were the days...

Oh yeah, you know what they say about National Service making you a man and increasing your maturity? Well, I found out that day that it's 100% BS. Eugene, who is lucky enough to have ORDed, is still the same old Eugene I remembered three to four years before graduation... pah...

Anyway, the photos of the event are posted on Daryl's latest blog post.

And yeah, I just have to post this before I end off this post! With all the extra party poppers from the party, we had a little counter-terrorism fun! Enjoy

Road-worn... mmm mmmm!

2009-01-03T09:26:00.000-08:00

After opening an email update I got from musiciansfriend.com, I was stunned beyond belief. Fender is actually making a new series of relic-ed guitars in nitrofinish previously only available at US$3k and above from Fender's Custom Shop. At US$950 (Say WHAAT?!) this thing's crazily affordable for us common folk. Here are some amazing drool-worthy pictures.

'50's Stratocaster. Classic two-toned sunburst look. Notice some of the finishing worn off from the maple fretboard.

'60's Stratocaster. This one looks awesome. The artificial aging process is also applied to the three-ply pickguard.

My favourite of the lot. Classic blond finish coupled with oxidized hardware... It's a shame that they used the parchment pickguard instead of the black one...

Now at this moment, my non-guitar-playing brethren would probably would go "That guitar is all banged up!" Well, it's the same reason why people were torn jeans.

In other news, Zooey Deschanel is getting engaged. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

Mosaic

2009-01-02T11:12:00.000-08:00

I have been attending Mosaic for three years in a row and it keeps getting better and better... until now. Anyway, in 2006, I went with Cashvin to go check out Jason Mraz with Toca Rivera. It was great. Two years back, I went to see Buddy Guy along with Colin, Tommy and Jeeyon (who was TOO lucky when he caught Buddy's pick when he flicked it at the crowd. Oh well, he deserved it... he payed front-row prices). Last year, I was "treated" by Najip Ali to go see The Earth, Wind and Fire Experience (which includes Al McKay from the original lineup). Although I went by myself it was the best dang concert I've EVER attended.

This year however, Mosaic's lineup looks pretty dang plain. It's almost as if I don't know a single act performing. Of course the exception would be Brian McKnight, of whom I'm not really a fan of, and Mike Stern with Dave Weckl, which I frankly don't know if I would be willing to fork out the dough for it.

But anyway right now I'm reminiscing about last year's one. Yes, Earth, Wind & Fire Experience. Granted, they're not the original one with Maurice White (as if the REAL Earth, Wind & Fire performs with Maurice White now anyway...) but they were tight as tight can be man... Dope stuff. Heck, even I prefer some of their versions more to EWF's! If you want to take a listen just head over to this link (Al McKay's site) and take a listen to the demo tracks on the Live in Europe Album... Gosh, I JUST WANT THE FULL UNCUT ALBUM! *hint hint* twenty-first birthday in four months time :)

More FYP...

2009-01-01T19:07:00.000-08:00

Man, even though I've done my part on the final year project, it's still far from done. Lord knows how I agreed with the rest of the team in exhibiting our project for the open house next week, but personally I don't remember. Was probably high... naw, just kidding. Actually the task ain't that bad. It's just the dang weekly logs that drive me nuts. Weekly logs for FYP is just like what Jar Jar Binks is to Star Wars. It's lame, annoying and if you take it out completely, it does not affect the whole thing. Heck, taking it out makes it even better...

Happy new year pull your ear...

2008-12-31T23:17:00.000-08:00

Happy 2009 folks!

I'm actually at work now at Esplanade. It's crowded outside buy lonely inside. And I'm going home at 8... What a day to celebrate the new year eh? No worries. As long as there's internet access, I'm totally cool.

I have to say though that I had a great time during the final hours of 2008. New year's eve started pretty lame as I had to go pack up lots of stuff upstairs to make way because dad is relocating his office back home. I had to go dismantle the bed and worse still, my drum kit. Now it's stacked up in my room, probably going to collect dust in the months to come. Honestly, I'm quite tempted to sell it since of the sudden spatial constraints in the house. After all, I hardly touch it anymore!

Anyway, after all that crap, I headed down to City Hall to meet Errik. He invited me to chill at Molly Malone's, the Irish pub he plays at occasionally. So we were chilling with his friends counting down to 2009, but it felt weird because as someone who has a distaste for alcoholic beverages, an Irish pub is one of the last places I'd go to, honestly.

But nonetheless, it was a great time. It was actually a Seventies versus Eighties Battle of the Decades theme party. It was a shame I didn't bring along a camera cos there were people with afros wigs and sunglasses to platinum blond wigs and stuff. I remember exactly one year ago, I was at Daryl's place along with Ken and Ade playing Call of Duty 4 and we totally missed the countdown. Hahaha. What a difference this time!

Errik and Gerry (the manager) were churning out tunes from that era. Awesome stuff. ended with Auld Lang Syne to bid 2008 farewell. Gerry also let me jam with Errik, so we two were playin' them Blues. Awesome, awesome night man. I met some really great people there who share the same love for the Blues. They also gave us compliments and some advice. One guy, Don actually met Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Derek Trucks! Man, one day man, one day...

But anyway, 2008 was a great year for me (not for the world sadly, with all that economic crisis and terrorism and crap like that). I studied stuff that actually mattered to me doing the Multimedia specialization instead of wrecking my brain to stuff I can't give two hoots about before this. I also gained a lot of invaluable information when I started working at Maestro Guitars, both in terms of what makes a great instrument and playing the thing, thanks to guys like Errik, Vincent, Mike, KC and Hozen. Made a lot of new friends and stuff. Church camp in June was also an awesome one. One of the best ones in my opinion. Andrew was a great speaker and shared a lot of great insight. Great year indeed, God has been good.

Looking to 2009, it's a cloudy future ahead. The good part is #1: I end my tertiary education in THREE WEEKS' TIME and officially graduate next month. #2: I get a long long holiday after that. The shitty part would be getting conscripted in approximately seven to eight months time. I was moping about all that yesterday and Errik said something profound: NS would not suck if you do everything in my control to not make it suck. Ah the words of the wise...

We'll see how it goes. That's the end of the post. Have yourself an awesome 2009!

FYP, Zoo and Cadillac Records

2008-12-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

Man, after several days of grilling our brains in front of the Mac at the green lab at school, Wilson and I have finally completed the video for our final year project. This experience has once again fueled my distaste for Apple Macintosh computers... Germaine and Xue Ying were pleased even though I thought it was still a little sub-par but at least what needs to be done has been done. Thank God... and Sathish and Joshua for helping us with the 3D animation bit.

Also, we (Thomas & co.) headed to the zoo today. Man, I am so not an outdoor person. The long walk throughout the entire compound along with the hot sun, (not to mention the insanely high price of drinks) made me tired as piss by the time I reached home. Still, it was a pretty fun day out with them. Should enjoy the last two days of the year 2008 before we head on to 2009 (where I become the MINDEF's little bitch).

There is a lot of talk going around about the movie Ip Man. To be honest, I'm not really much of a fan of martial arts, so I'll probably catch it at my leisure. However, being a fan of the Blues and all, a recent movie I enjoyed was Cadillac Records which is a based on the rise of Chess Records, the record label in the 50's which brought about the prominence of the Chicago Blues, R&B and Rock and Roll legends like Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Etta James and Chuck Berry. I do have to say that even though the movie was a little hard to follow, makes up for that with it's AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME soundtrack. Beyonce Knowles (who portrayed Etta James) is one heck of a singer. The makeup team also did a great job by making Mos Def the rapper look a LOT like Chuck Berry back then!

Alright then. If I don't blog tomorrow, you guys have a great 2009! (I know I won't...)

Four Quintessential Electric Guitars

2008-12-29T08:46:00.000-08:00

Fender Stratocaster
Anyone who hasn't seen this guitar at all ought to be living on the moon. It's familiar body shape has been to many the first thing they think of when the term “electric guitar” is mentioned, making it the most iconic (and most copied) electric guitar EVER. It also features industry firsts such as the patented tremolo bar and trademark offset double-cutaway comfort-contoured body. It owes its ability to cover a vast tonal palette to its three single-coil pickups and because it is so tonally versatile, the Strat has found itself in almost every genre of music these days.

Gibson Les Paul
Many argue which came first, Mr. Fender's Esquire or Mr. Paul's final evolution of The "Log". To me, that is as pointless as arguing whether the chicken or the egg came first. The thing is this. Les knew his stuff. He knew that the bright cutting tone of maple for the top coupled to the intense warmth of mahogany for the body would sound like heaven when fused together (although he thought of it the other way at first). Originally fitted with P-90 pickups, the Les Paul was later refitted with Seth Lover's fatter sounding patented applied for humbucking pickups which gained massive popularity after Clapton and Bloomfield drove it through a Marshall amplifier to produce the sweet Rock ‘n Roll tone all of us have come to love.

Fender Telecaster
The Tele, though an upgrade from the original single-pickup Esquire was still simple in every way. All it had was a simple block-routed single-cutaway ash body, two pickups and an ashtray with brass barrels for a bridge. Even so, it was very revolutionary in its time. It's distinctive bright, cutting tone won the hearts of many country, blues, rock (and even metal!) guitarists.

Gibson ES-335
Because of their association with artists such as B.B. King, Freddie King and Eric Clapton, this guitar is probably to many the epitome of what a Blues guitar should be. Back in the day, Gibson wanted to fuse the sweet, mellow tones of a jazzbox with the sustain and feedback-resistance of a solidbody. This was the result: The semi-hollowbody guitar. It allows a variety of tones that can be coaxed, from lush cleans to aggressive overdriven tones (Go hear Cream’s “Crossroads”!). Not only do they sound good, their arched top and trademarked F-holes just oozes class.

Telegib

2008-12-28T10:24:00.000-08:00

A couple of entries back, I've mentioned that I've got K.C. to swap out the pickups to the JB/Jazz configuration and lately I've been doing some reading up on them. It's interesting how they came about.

Back in the 70's Seymour Duncan was approached by his (and pretty much everybody else's) guitar hero, Jeff Beck for help with his Les Paul which had its original P.A.F. swapped out by a shady guitar repairman.

After this incident, they became friends and Mr Duncan decided to build a guitar for Mr Beck. Using two pickups he salvaged from a Flying V which was beyond repair (previously owned by Blues guitarist Lonnie Mack), he overwound them and popped them into a Telecaster.

The result was the Tele-Gib

This guitar was used extensively by Jeff Beck on the mind-blowing album Blow by Blow. Go take a listen to his instrumental cover of Stevie Wonder's "Cause We Ended Up as Lovers" and you'll know what I mean!

Later on, Seymour Duncan built a similar Telegib for himself. This time, he used a Gibson ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge along with the Gibson stoptail instead of a triple-barreled saddle bridge on Beck's version.

The popularity of these pickups spread quickly and soon became one of the most sought after aftermarket guitar upgrade even until this day.

As for the Telegib, dang I think it'll be nice to own one! Haha.

FYP in jeopardy

2008-12-27T07:53:00.000-08:00

Dang. Things are starting to look ugly. I have yet to complete my final year project. I couldn't go back to school this entire week because I was tied down by Christmas stuff and now I have so many public holidays which means the lab for me to do the 3d animation bit is closed and this means I may not have enough time to do it up. Gosh, I really hope I could get through otherwise it'll mean shittier grades, or worse still, getting retained for another semester...

I'm dreaming of a glum Christmas

2008-12-25T09:29:00.000-08:00

Man, my hopes were pretty high for Christmas this year... unfortunately with the old woman having her time of the month, it's practically impossible to have myself a merry little Christmas. Gosh, I can never think of something more senseless than to cut off all electronic communication. I mean I lost my fracking phone and now she CONFISCATED the dang router. I'm basically unreachable if you think of it... At least I managed to dig up the lame MiO router given by SingNet. It's lame, but I guess it'll do for now.

If anything made my day it was hanging out with Danny, Hock Hai and Sharon. Took me away from the Chalet which was really boring and I thought it was wasting my day (man, that rhymed!). Had a great treat from Hock Hai at Bark's Cafe and went to see their new home after that to have some more food!

Oh yeah, I have a little rant. Today being Christmas and all, I have been wishing people a Merry Christmas and a good number of them replied with "a Blessed Christmas". I don't know about you but this is annoying me. No, I'm not against the idea but what bugs me is that these people seem like they're kind of saying it for the sake of "sounding more religious" or "doing it the Christian way". Here's my point of view. Being merry (which of course means HAPPY) is the effect of being blessed. So if you're blessed, you'd be happy, or merry, or gay... whatever you want to call it.

So yeah, have yourself a Merry little Christmas. Hope yours would turn out better than mine, and I hope 2009's Christmas would not suck like it has been for THREE CONSECUTIVE YEARS.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2008-12-24T07:33:00.001-08:00

I know I'm twenty minutes early but

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

I lost my damn mobile phone

2008-12-22T11:47:00.000-08:00

Man, it's been a long time since I have worked. Been busy with FYP and Christmas preparations so I haven't really got the time. On top of that, I've kind of got "kicked" to reserved list where I work much less. Oh well... But anyway, yeah, it was too long. too damn long. So long that I actually didn't give one customer his credit card back after the transaction. So long that my Maestro uniform is so gosh-darned deep in my cupboard that I couldn't find it.

Oh yeah, I lost my mobile phone too... that's totally awesome eh? How I lost it? I THINK this is how it went. I was sitting down messing around with the guitar due to the boring afternoon at work when Chee Yong texted me to compliment the Media Team about yesterday's Christmas event. I was about to reply him when a customer walks in. I then put the phone on top of the amp and served them. Next thing you know, three rowdy buggers came in and when they left my phone was gone... Brother... Oh well, the phone was in a lame state anyway...

On the upside, I've got back my Ibanez AS-73 which I have sent to KC to i) Swap out the pickups for a pair of screamin' Seymour Duncans (JB/Jazz set) ii) Swap out the potentiometers and capacitors for new ones and iii) Do a minor setup. Man, now it sounds AWESOME and the fret buzz has been drastically reduced. Would post a video of that soon... Going to totally bend it like B.B. King!

New blog

2008-12-22T11:26:00.000-08:00

I've realized how much of a dead blog my previous one at multiply was, so I terminated it. Old has gone, new has come. Hopefully with the simplified interface here, I'll be more encouraged to blog. And that's probably how I am going to keep it: Pure and simple... and in BLACK! Apparently, research shows that this setting saves energy so, yay!