Gret's birthday and a lil more...

Happy birthday gret!

Met Megumi on 25th nov to buy a present for my sis... Damn... 1 Jay Chou CD = $8.90... Then add 1 "bonus" MV and a box of playing cards = $19.90... Zzz... Then the best... Add a nice metallic casing = $27.90... So lame right? Haha... But since my sis wanted the playing cards so badly we had to get the $19.90 set... Haha...

Dinner wif my family, one of my neighbour and my mum's friends was fun... Eat until full... Haha...

Oh... And if you ever spilled water [doesn't matter how much] on your laptop [in my case a MacBook Pro], the most important thing is to let it dry... Haha... On mon 24th my dad was a bit careless with the water filter... I was in the office then doing some accounts for my mum... So I was working on my computer... Then beside my computer is the MRET machine [go google it for more info...]... Inside it is this water filter... I accidentally poured too much water into the filter system... So to prevent the container below from overflowing, my dad tried to balance the filter on top of those 5 litter water bottles... Then he continued adding water to it... Apparently he added too much water to it that the center of gravity shifted so the whole filter toppled, together with all it's contents onto my laptop, which took a direct hit... The computer just restarted... But I quickly pulled the power plug and removed the battery from it so as to prevent more damage being done to it... Then after a while of tilting the laptop I decided to open it so it could dry better... Fortunately my dad's favourite repairman had the tools to unscrew the laptop... I removed whatever I could and left it to dry for 1 week... And it works now... Yay...

[damn still haven't kicked the habit of backdating]

Updates again... Haha...

End Oct - Nov... A lot of things happened...

20/10... First of all, Happy birthday Yan Zhi! [my bro]

As you've seen, my phone died... Super sian... Coz I got stuck with a phone which can only store like 150 messages altogether... Extremely irritating!!!

In the same week I sent in my phone for repair, my GC battery leaked... Had to clean up everything before anything became worse...

Hmmm... To think of it, at least it died before the A levels, which would cause more trouble...

Then came the A levels... Some papers were easy, some worded very wierdly and some are still do-able... But then I still don't think I would do very well...

At least it's over... Heh...

Oh... And then came the global financial crisis in the middle of the A levels, before the Econs paper... Man... I really wished that the econs paper would be on the bailout package [which was an impossible dream...] because it would be sooooo easy... Haha... Nevermind... Econs this time was quite a killer though imo... Haha... Hack A levels...

Oh... And then there was the US Presidential elections... Haha... Clearly one of the most exciting of elections to watch...

Oh... And not long after the exams my class's civics tuitor arranged for us to have a class outing... It was quite fun... Then we went to watch Madagasca 2... It's quite a funny show and I'd recommend it... Haha...

Hmmm... So many things happened this month... I wonder what'll happen next month... Haha...

I'M FREE! Yay!

[Damn... NS Enlistment 28th Jan 09... Wth... 3rd day CNY... Anyone same as me? 8.30am reporting, army School 2]

Nice one, Nokia... Zzz...

Well... My phone died 2 weeks ago, and when I went to collect it on Wednesday, they told me that the phone has been corroded so it cannot be repaired and the warranty is also voided...

So I decided since the phone is already dead why not I try to open it up to see the extent of the damage...

1) Open the back plastic case...
Quite an easy thing to do... Note that the water damage sticker was purposely triggered (I wanted to see what could happen..) That was after I collected the phone and they said is beyond repair... So I figured that not harm would be done =)

2) Removing the screws...

3) Removing the front piece... [Screen + slider]


4) Remove the screws to the back piece...


The front piece:


5) Remove the screws to the front sheet to reveal the screen and the navigation keys... I pulled up the keypad too...




6) Go back to the main piece and remove the 2 screws holding the main board to the back portion of the phone... Remove the camera too...


7) The back piece:


In all the photos, notice the only corrosion is below the screen! Not on the main circuit board... So I wonder why the phone died completely after servicing [before sending it in I could still get a white screen and the phone is recognized as a "Nokia BB5 ADL Loader USB Generic / Nokia BB5 ADL Loader USB Phone Parent" when connected]

Now nothing happens!!!!

WTH is this???

[view my Picasa album of this...]

What Your Handwriting Says About You... [Facebook app]

Hmmm... Got a little free time today and went to try out this app called "What Your Handwriting Says About You"... and I think I would have to agree with most of what they have to say...

You are sometimes a very energetic person, but you are sometimes quite lethargic. [Quite true...]

You're moody, prone to ups and downs, and you don't have a lot of endurance. [Hmmm... This I partially disagree...]

You range from very outgoing to very shy. You are a shapeshifter who is very versatile. [Somewhat true...]

You adapt well, and you look at things from many angles. [I hope so... Haha...]

You are very detail oriented and meticulous. [Quite true...]

You are a careful thinker and a true intellectual. [Quite true...]

You don't a lot of space, and you prefer to spend time with others. [Very true...]

You are a little nosy and intrusive. [Not totally true...]

You sometimes don't give people enough space. [As ET always says... Haha...]

You are somewhat traditional, but you are also open to change. [Quite true...]

You listen to your head and your heart. [This I do not really know, but some of my friends say I do...]

You are a good communicator. [Not really true...]

You work hard to get your ideas across effectively. [Agreed...]

If you have the time, go try it out! Quite accurate results as I've seen... Haha...

Prelims... and other updates~!

August 9.. National day! Happy BD Sg!

Piano exam results... As I though, I GG-ed this exam again.. Lower than the previous round! Damn... I really shouldn't panic... It's not good for anything... heh...

Somewhere in early August... At least structured remedials are cancelled now... Now i can go home and study =) Haha...

Anyways... the Prelims...

Hmmm... It's the mids of Prelims and I think I GGed quite a bit of my subjects...

Chem - P3 was damn hard... Couldn't finish it on time... Spent too much time on a substance when it was already given earlier in the question. Didn't realize it until 15min was left... Then the rest of that question GG.. haha...

Physics - P2 was another lame paper... It's like an essay paper! When you flip open to the first page of the questions you'll see lines and more lines... The next 2 pages are also like that! OMG! Calculations are also very few... And those which are calculations are like damn difficult... Seems like many people are stuck with the last question... Even Wen Fong couldn't do it! (that says something...)

Econs - 3 hr paper. Not too bad, could do almost everything... But only 1 problem.. Couldn't finish... The 2nd essay I wrote until about 85% then times up...

GP - Surprisingly, I could finish the paper... Including AQ! Although the questions were very wierd...

Maths P1 - Not too bad... Could do a little more than half of it.. haha... Vectors and Complex numbers still GG...

Chem P2 - Totally different from P3! At least this one is managable... Could do most of it except for a few questions which I forgot how to do it...

3 more papers left! Yay!

NS Medical Checkup part 2...

Hmmm... Apparently the first time I had a few problems with the NS checkup people... Complained my heart beat too fast so I had to go back again... Plus, by the time I finished the medical part of it, they said it was going to close in an hour so I couldn't do the aplitude test [more like IQ test...]

So they gave me 07/07/2008 [Youth day!] [Monday] to go back to redo those 2 stations...

So... I guess it's over now... Got a PES C1 L2... Means I can get up to 2 stations off IPPT? Nice one!

The IQ tests are quite hard.. hehe... I wonder what I got...

Some more updates...

May 31st: My Birthday! Thanks all of you who have sent me a Happy Birthday message ^.^

Esp my Basses who went out for lunch with me :) Thanks for the presents!


Went to TPJC Band and Guitar concert... Was nice other than a few parts... Guitars should have been louder though... Met a few of my classmates there... Received a new pencil box as a present from Megumi, Eric and a few other TPJChoir mates... Thanks loads!

From left to right: Me, Wen Fong, Eugene Lim, Jiak Ling
(Don't know where Eugene Tay went in this photo...)

June: School Holidays~!

Although I had to go back to school in the first week of the holidays for lectures. Other than that nothing much...

It's been a month since Plaisir de Chanson 2008... Hehe... Would post a few recordings soon? Hmmm...

NS Medical check-up on 20/06/08! I wonder what PES I'll get... Hmmm... Most of my friends are in PES A and B... Only the one who broke his leg got PES E for 6mths then PES C2 L9...

Went to GradeBuilders for Phy, Maths and Chem crash course in the last 2 weeks of the holidays... Met my old Primary 6 classmate (Aloysius Tan) there... Found out he's staying nearby me =)

I guess that's the highlights for this month...

Plaisir de Chanson 2008

Well...

It's all over! TPJChoir performed in Plaisir de Chanson 2008 in the Esplanade and I dare say it was a really good performance!

For many J1s around, this is their first performance so if you're one of our audience please forgive them if they did not sing too well...

Wei Wei (00 batch's SC) was damn good ok? Here's a photo of me and him =)

I guess this is the first time you've heard of him. A short intro... He was the Student Conductor for the 00/01 batch of TPJChoir and currently is the assistant conductor of The Vocal Consort which is founded by Nelson Kwei, our ex-choral director. (That should say something about Weiwei yeah?)


We sang a total of 22 songs (including J2 chorus/alumni/combined/...) and I dare say all of them sound better that night then all the rehearsals we've ever had...

I would like to thank a few special people...
1) Nelson (for at least helping us in the first half of the year, until 1st April when that thing happened)
2) Weiwei (for conducting us, and guiding us... I personally wish you'd continue to stay with TPJChoir till they've finished their SYF.. haha) and Samuel
3) Our SCs for guiding us (though we still could not produce what you wanted fully.. but nvm lah?) and the P and VP of the choir
4) All J1s/J2s who sang in this concert
5) All Alumni who sang in this concert
6) Those J1s [Roger, Jeremiah and Joel Koh] who really took the time off to sing in the J2 chorus (you all kept saying "Please take me out..." but I didn't, and look, you've managed to get through it!)... I won't forget having all the extra sectionals with you whenever we could get hold of the time.. haha...
7) All our choir teachers-in-charge
8) All those who have bought our tickets

To end this post, here's a picture of the Bass section, 2008 JAE period... (to make up for the screwed concert booklet =X)

From left to right:
Back row: Tan Xiao Li, Roger You, Joel Goh, Lyndon Leong, Joel Koh
Mid row: Mohamed Haikal, Wong Dai Quan, Gabriel Lim [0708 SL]
Front row: Arron Li [0708 President], Jeremiah Tan

A Level PW results...

Well, TP118's members have mostly gotten a B for PW, however, as usual, Wen Fong (the imba one rmb?) got an "A"

Wootz...

I know this is really not an impressive task, coz most other people are getting "A"s... But it seems like TPJC has done relatively well this time, with more than 75% of the population getting a "A" or "B" for PW (again, not really the best, but at least better than last year ^.^)

I'll try to release all our group's materials (i dun think that's a problem now right? ^^) to help anyone who is doing PW now...


haiz.. i really have to get rid of this habit of backdating my posts... -_-'''

A-Level Chinese....

Well... A Level Chinese results is out...

and I got a C!!!

(ok lah.. I know it's nothing much, but I've almost never passed Chinese in JC before, other than Promos which got an E)

and I won ET! (and a few more people who are supposed to be my standard!)

Yay!!

(Haiz... have to kick this bad habit of backdating posts ^.^)

My new section!!!!

Yoz...

The new JAE batch has come to TPJChoir!

Guess wad: my section now has 9 J1s!! (while Tenors only have 4, Altos have ~8 and Sops have ~13).. that makes my section the 2nd biggest (in terms of J1s.. haha)...

Will post photos of us soon... haha...

Plaisir de Chanson 2008 would be held in the Esplanade on the 19th May 2008! Come support!

The CNY performance...

Hi all!

Here are some videos of the Esplanade performance... (more like CIP though...)

I only released the 3.30pm performance though...

欢乐舞曲


拜访春天


春天里


and here's my section (the PAE section)...



Plaisir de Chanson 2008 would be held in the Esplanade on the 19th May 2008! Come support!

Choir CNY performances...

Yozzz...

TPJChoir would be having 2 performances for Chinese New Year!

1) Voices of Spring@Ngee Ann City (Takashimaya)
Date: 13/02/2008
Timing: 7.30pm - 8pm

2) Voices of Spring@Esplanade
Date: 16/02/2008
Timing: 3pm - 3.30pm, 5pm - 5.30pm (2 performances)

We would be performing 3 songs there:
1: 欢乐舞曲
2: 拜访春天
3: 春天里

Here's a version of 欢乐舞曲 TPJChoir and VJChoir combined last year:


Enjoy!


Plaisir de Chanson 2008 would be held in the Esplanade on the 19th May 2008! Come support!

Life... and Death...

Hmmm... dunno wad to say... One of my friends (Kenrick) in TPJC was certified brain dead on Monday (not a joke ok?) and I'm not sure but from what his parents say, they'll give him until today to see if he has any responses.. If not, they'll pull the plug...

Well, I do not really know him well... He's not even from the same class... But then... I met him sometime back in 2005/2006 during Chinese New Year... That's how I got to know him...

Anyway, from what I heard from his mum (through my mum), he wanted to see me... If I'm not wrong, he was searching for me online to tell her about me... So end of the day, his mum only knew that he wanted to see a person called "Gabriel", but do not know how I looked like... Anyway, if I'm not wrong, I was the last "outsider" whom he wanted to see... I wonder why...

Currently, he is lying brain-dead in Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Ward 3A, Bed 7... He is really in a very bad condition (not sure if any hope left...)... He is on full life-support... He can't even breath on his own... There is a machine which pumps Oxygen into his body to keep him alive... Really sad case... All this is because of a black spot (from MRI scans) in his brain... Doctors till now have not found out much about what that is...

Kenrick, if you are around somewhere reading this message, we would miss you greatly... I still wonder why you wanted to see me (or maybe someone else...) and what you wanted to say to me... In fact, the whole of TPJC would also miss you... I pray that you would pass away peacefully and that your earthly body would not cause you any more problems... You have been a friend to me and I appreciate that...

Death is just another part of life... But you would not know when death would come... This is just an example to show that death does not only come to those unhealthy + old people...

So, while you are living, appreciate that the good Lord has given you another day to live. Do not waste it as it may suddenly be taken away from you!

Go ahead and call me a emo kia...

Here's a song for all entitled "The Magic of Believing":




Plaisir de Chanson 2008 would be held in the Esplanade on the 19th May 2008! Come support!

Visit to ESChorale on 11/01/2008...

I visited East Spring Chorale on the 11 Jan '08...

Good to see that they've got a new conductor... Heard from Kai Li that they didn't have a conductor for 4 months!

Anyway...

Listening...

Sops/Altos are very airy! Must ask them to work on their pitching too! More sectionals would do you good =)

1 way to try to be less airy is to support more... (But I dun blame them... they were without a conductor for abt 4 mths liao... i expect them to forget quite a bit) Maybe the SC/SLs can help?

Baritones... Check your pitching! More sectionals would also be good... Considering that you have learnt Laudate Dominum for quite a while already, I still don't see any reason why you just can't get that part right =( Very sad as this is such a nice piece and you don't do it well... Ask you SL to guide you in the jumps/how to get notes/... if you are not clear! (Well... SLs need to be good in their music anyway... haha..)

Try to achieve in-section blending (as in.. everyone try to sing the same style so no one would stick out...)...

Warm-ups...

I spoke to Kaili about some warm-ups you should do... (It worked in my choir at least...) Try to implement it... While Physical warm-ups are good, I feel that you should place more emphasise on the vocal part of it... Might want to ask your instructor to come say 1/2 hr later? so you would have more time to start warm-ups on your own before he comes in... It may also be used for sectionals (that's what my choir does anyway...) to revise through songs which you may have forgotten and clarify the part you do not know before the instructor comes... This is so that you can save time and money and at the same time be more productive...

Try singing chords, thirds and fifths... *Must make sure you can hear the overtones before moving on to the next chord!*

Note: The following are examples and they can be transposed!

Eg. Baritones: C, Altos: G, Sop 2: E, Sop 1: C



Baritones: C -> D -> C, Altos: E -> F -> E, Sop 2: C -> D -> C, Sop 1: E -> F -> E



and Baritones+Sop2: C, Altos+Sop1:G
ESChorale Forums

I've created a forums for you all more than 3 years already! and many of you do not know about it (or you don't care about it =( )

SCs/SLs I've also put up a MIDI making program on the forums so you can type out the music and upload it for your section to listen! MIDIs are quite a good way especially if you do not have a piano/music background at all... If you ever need help in it, you may give me a call at 9738 4238 (PLS call after 8!) or ask Yan Zhi for help...

If you need me to give you a demonstration on how to use it please tell me too... I'll try my best to help you... (But don't ask me to make them for you!)

Overall...

I feel this new conductor is quite good... Cooperate with him and I'm sure the Chorale would be able to achieve better heights =)

Try to learn how to sight-sing too! (At least identify and know how to sing note up/down, thirds, fourths, fifths and octaves)

BTW... If you ever need help, I should be able to help out... (like that Friday... I'm generally free on Weds too...) just give me a call... I'll try to be there...

Disclaimer: I'm just a SL... Forgive me if I've said anything wrong and if I've missed out on anything...


Plaisir de Chanson 2008 would be held in the Esplanade on the 19th May 2008! Come support!