I’m back! (Sort of!)

Well I just realised I haven’t blogged for a long long time! And that’s mostly because I’ve been busy with school, guitar and the gf! I’ve also been working on a little side project for keeping tabs with business news and I should be ‘unveiling’ it in the days to come so stay tuned!

Anyway, happy 2010! I’m sure you guys had fun fun fun! Keep the music journey going and don’t forget to keep improving and learning! (I just learnt a little chord theory today! haha!)

Adios!

Busy-ness

Hello!

So sorry for the lack of updates, I’ve been really busy with my university work as well as juggling ideas for some of the music projects that I’ve taken up.

Should be more free to write some more nonsense in December! =)

MR BIG Reunion Tour : October 18 2009

It’s been about 5 days since I caught the MR BIG reunion concert at Fort Canning park and boy am I still addicted to that rush! It was a great night – the crowd, the songs, the crazy bass and guitar solos, the sing-alongs – everything you ever wanted in a Mr Big concert!!

Hopefully they’ll come by again next year, I can’t wait to see them again!

PSLE Maths question

Apparently, in the recent PSLE for our dear primary school kids, the following question popped up during the maths exam:

“Jim bought some chocolates and gave half of it to Ken. Ken bought some sweets and gave half of it to Jim. Jim ate 12 sweets and Ken ate 18 chocolates. The ratio of Jim’s sweets to chocolates became 1:7 and the ratio of Ken’s sweets to chocolates became 1:4. How many sweets did Ken buy?”

Now, what in the world was THAT about?

I vaguely remember doing relatively simple stuff for my PSLE Math (that was 9 years ago) and it sure as hell did not involve solving simultaneous equations and algebra. Back in the good ol’ days, it was -simple- model block drawing, counting to 100,000 (or whatever) and stuff that I’m sure kids these days would laugh at.

I swear, kids these days are learning stuff that are way more difficult than what we used to do back in primary school. Blame it on the big paper-chase that seems essential for surviving in this urban jungle we call Singapore, but really, by the time my kids come round to primary school, I don’t think I’ll be able to tutor them like my mother did to me. That, in some sense, might lead to less parent-child bonding time since the kid would probably have to spend more time with a tutor than with their moms or dads due to the increasing standards of primary education that parents would simply find too difficult to keep up with.

Although MOE did state in a Straits Times article that the level of difficulty, number of questions and syllabus of the exam is comparable to that of previous years, one can really wonder how ‘comparable’ it is and how long ago ‘previous years’ was. True, we can’t base an entire paper’s difficulty on one question, but it seems to me that the good ol’ days of ace-ing primary school math might soon be a thing of the past for parents and grandparents to talk about to their children or grandchildren.

And in case you were wondering what the answer was, it is 68.

Answer can be derived by clicking more.

ERM chooses a second runner-up

A NEW Miss Singapore World has been crowned.

Miss Pilar Carmelita Arlando, 20, who bagged the second runner-up prize at the Miss Singapore World 2009 pageant will represent Singapore at the Miss World finals in South Africa.

The original winner, Miss Ris Low, quit her title last month after news of her being under 24 months’ probation for credit card fraud, was reported.

Pageant organisers ERM Marketing said they picked Miss Arlando over first runner-up Claire Lee, ‘due to her claims of injury’ which result in her being unable to stand for long hours.

Said ERM Marketing in a statement: ‘The international pageant will be a physically and psychologically demanding experience. It would be best that she (Miss Lee) remains to recuperate in Singapore.’

Miss Arlando is currently pursuing a Diploma in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Management at MDIS.

Besides picking up the second runner-up title at the Miss Singapore World competition, she also bagged the Miss Personality and Miss Abry awards.

ERM added: ‘Her parents have been interviewed and they reassured us that she has no criminal records or probation order to keep.’

-Source: www.straitstimes.com

Thank God this is over. We can move on with our lives now!

Miss ‘Boomz’ does it again!

With reference to a certain article on the Straits Times online news page…

Man, it’s time to give this girl a break already!

It’s not like I am an ardent fan of Ris Low (quite the contrary really), but let’s stop beating on the dead horse and get a move on with the new (hopefully better) Miss Singapore World representative (which ERM hasn’t chosen yet). There’s so much trash on the internet about Ris Low that it’s starting to become tiresome just reading articles after articles and comments that’s been dissing her since the saga started.

Look, we know:

1) She doesn’t speak good English
2) She doesn’t look that superb
3) Less-than-stellar qualities in terms of character
4) Bi-polar disorder
5) Credit card fraud

and now:

6) Allegedly cheated in exam?!

Come on, the press CAN do better than that. How does this article better inform the public anymore than what previous articles have written about? We KNOW Ris Low is in shit, but she’s already out of the competition, give her face some room to breathe man. The people who we should have our eyes fixed on is ERM World Marketing! Up till date, they’ve yet to have chosen a new Miss World, which would seem absurd because the logical choice would be for the first runner-up to take the crown should the current Miss World fail in her duties (If not why chose a runner up in the first place?). But it seems that ERM is -still- undecided as to which path they’re to take.

Now that is something worth reporting about. At least it’s something I’d want to read instead of some article about Ris Low making some boo boo (again).

Who says Asian people can’t make good black metal?

Chthonic from Taiwan begs to differ.

Chthonic (sometimes typeset ChthoniC) is a Taiwanese melodic black metal band, formed in 1995 in Taipei. The group incorporates influences from traditional Taiwanese music including instruments such as the erhu (which is called a hena in their native Taiwanese).

Since their formation, Chthonic has released five studio albums.

-Wikipedia.org

Have you registered yet?

“Sorry, you need to be registered to enter.”

Doing usher work at GCA 2009 was very interesting. For most part, it would be reminding people to register at the registration desk before they enter but sometimes, some people seem to think that a “yes” would suffice. The fact is, even if your answer was “yes” or “no”, no sticker means no entry. Come on people, it’s free, it only takes you a few minutes to get the sticker, and if in any way some disease were to spread in the convention, we would have some way to contact you.

It’s also really funny to see the reactions of people when they get stopped at the gate for not having the sticker. For some it’s the amicable “Thanks for letting me know, I’ll go register straightaway because I want to yada yada yada” while for others (like a few people), it’s more of “Why do I need to register for a free convention? blah blah blah”. Look, in the time you took to talk smack to me, you could have already gotten your sticker, so why waste your time? I’m still not going to let you in, you’re still not going to see what the hell’s going in there, so the only way is to walk 10 steps to the counter, fill in a contact form and get your sticker! It’s SO EASY!

Then there was this girl who apparently either 1) forgot she registered or 2) didn’t register but took her friend’s sticker instead. The funny thing was, I didn’t realise she HAD a sticker pasted on her other arm (the one I couldn’t see), so when I stopped her and began my routine, she promptly gave the blur look then the “huh” and hurried back to her friends when she realised she got busted (meaning she obviously did option number 2). If she had just said “yes” and knew when to flash her sticker, I would have been fooled – damn that guy at the door with psychic powers. She probably just wanted to get free Coke Zero anyway (yes there is/was free Coke Zero, subject to availability).

And you know what was the most epic conversation I had with one of the people who wanted to get in?

Man: Excuse me, what is going on inside here?

Me: Games Convention Asia

Man: Sorry, what?

Me: Games, you know, like computer games, PS 3 games all those

Man: Oh, no wonder there’s so many weird people here

I totally cracked up there. Those ‘weird’ people he was referring to were the cosplayers who were outside the convention hall, all dressed in really snazzy costumes. I must clarify though, although there were a few weird cosplay choices (ET, Pokemon, some other unidentifiable creatures), there were really good ones like the (I assume, not too sure) Granado Espada, Bleach and some other kinky schoolgirl anime ones. Those were actually good, as in the actors were pretty close to the ones portrayed in the anime. Short people playing short characters, no fat girls playing slim characters (okay, there was maybe one or two) etc etc. One advice I think all cosplayers should be at least aware of is that if they don’t at least resemble the character in real life, putting on a costume and a wig isn’t going to make much of a difference. So please save yourself from potential ridicule and cosplay something that YOU LOOK LIKE.

And by the way, the Master Chief cosplay was AWESOME. Totally dug it. And that Wolverine uncle? Fucking awesome too.

As for the convention / exhibition itself, I guess that’s another post for another day.

The girl from economics class (3)

What do I do, what do I say?

It’s almost break time, I wonder what her name would be. A certain excitement filled my blood as the clock ticked closer to 1:30pm. Jessica? Melissa? No, Michelle. Most definitely a Michelle.

“Okay now you all go for break…”

… And I bolted from my seat again.

A quick run to the toilet to tidy myself up. If I’m lucky, she probably hasn’t actually seen my face much to remember what it looks like, so I figured I should make my hair look less messy.

If you’ve seen my hair, you’d know what I actually look like now. Not the most clean cut person, I’d say.

I got back to my seat earlier than she did. Girl business I bet. I slouched back into my seat, head still swimming with thoughts.

“Sorry!”

Again, that interesting voice popped up beside me. I moved, and she sat down beside me again, much like how it was like when the lesson started.

She went back to writing something on her notes, though I couldn’t tell what. What does this girl have so much to write about anyway?

I leaned forward, trying to find an excuse to look at her.

I’ve never done this before, it’s so unfamiliar. Argh, how do I ask for her name?!

My heart speed up a gear as I leaned towards her.

“So, what’s your name?”, I suppressed the excitement to scream.

She leaned back and smiled, almost as if she was expecting the question.

My head was in a flurry.

She said something, but the adrenaline pumping through my veins crunched my mental capabilities for a moment.

“Huh?”

I leaned closer.

“Chels,” she said again, “c-h-e-l-s”.

My mind stopped.

“How about you?”

Bob, John, Peter, David, Mr Blues Man.

“Oh, Juliano.”

I have someone to sit with in econs now. Her name is Chels and she has a beautiful smile. =)

The girl from economics class (2)

“So can this bolded line here be the PPF?”

Mr Ting waved his cursor along a line on the curve he had displayed on his laptop.

I didn’t know the answer. In fact, I didn’t know whether I was supposed to be writing anything or not. But she sure had a lot to write about, it seems.

*ss ss sss ss ssss*

Word after word formed as she scratched her pencil on her page. What could she be writing? I don’t seem to have much to write on my page…

I looked around, scanning the room. Seems innocent enough, some were writing, some weren’t. I guess I’m just one of them who didn’t understand what’s going on.

1:00pm, about an hour had past and my heart was still beating out of control. If I didn’t get out of this seat soon, I’d probably have cardiac arrest. Luckily, Mr Ting was about to finish the question he was discussing – an opening for me to slip out.

I hesitated. And then, I said, “Hey, can you look after my stuff?”

She turned.

“Oh yeah, sure.”

Gosh, she’s pretty.

I spun my chair around and raced up the steps, tripping over my bottle in the process.

This is crazy.