Get Up, Stand Up

Guys I know this is a late post. But I wish to inform as many of our fellow Asians and Singaporeans who could be still unaware of this incident. Disclaimer: You don't have to adopt my stand.

This is about the old trishaw uncle who was ridiculed and cheated of his money.

Original Footage
Interview part 1
Interview part 2

Ok. I admit the interview does make him look abit angelic and pitiful, but that's tv for you. I also admit that the replies and responses of some people are somewhat violent and ungracious. I was one of them and it's the only natural reaction. So to those who want to use that to turn the tables around, don't tell me if you got raped one day, you're not gonna react violently, verbally and physically, when you find the rapist.

Anyway what has happened is set in stone. They took a ride, made fun of the old man because he's slow, they refused to pay, they thought(maybe they still do think) it's funny, and they posted it.

There is no excuse for what they did. It is obviously a result of them thinking that they are caucasians, and hence they can do anything. Doesn't matter if they are drunk or not. If they were, and regret what they did, they would have apologized, instead of parading their unethical behaviour.

I have read some pretty ridiculous responses to the situation (you can see one for yourself, here. i'm audioman there)

Please, I urge us as Singaporeans and Asians to stand up for ourselves. Nobody can shut us up. Not that we should make unnecessary hooha out of nothing, but we will not rest until our case is heard, and heeded. I'm encouraged by how the old man took it peacefully (I can't do it), and all who stood up for our own people. Especially Laurette from expat@large's blog. I've read some posts slamming the uncle. It disgusts me still just to think about it.

The issue is now pretty much resolved. But if ever anything like this should happen again, let nothing (read: N-O-T-H-I-N-G) dull our senses so much so that we think it's just a passing breeze.

P/S: sorry this came so late. I only heard it from kevin yesterday. I couldn't stop reading and writing about it. Been at it since 2am.















David



P/S: I hope nobody's extremist enough to execute their own 'justice' by imitating the Finland shootout guy or CPL Dave Teo.. We're smarter than that.

Att: Santa. My wish list

To all santa clauses out there, i'm gonna list some of the things I want for this christmas here. so please keep on reading.
(if you'd like to let me know if there's sth i can get you, pls do let me know so I won't have to think too hard to get you a present, or end up getting you sth irrelevant which will end up (if it's lucky) in your storeroom)

CDs:
1. Sting - Ten Summoner's Tales
2. Vinnie Colaiuta - Cinnie Colaiuta
3. Tower Of Power - Very Best of Tower of Power: The Warner Years
4. Count Basie - (any big band tracks with count basie!)

Others:
5. a bass guitar [no brand in particular. just name your axes and i'll pay the taxes. no cheap-ass samick stuff pls cuz i have that already] (i'd pay for this but it'd be nice if you could give a christmas discount =))


Yep.. That's all for now.
Now this is quite achieveable right? =)



Quote:
You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving -rick warren
(this has nothing to do with my christmas requests. =))

the buzzZZzzzZZzz of life

Greetings everyone.

I'm currently having withdrawal symptoms from not being able to find The Return Of The King, being the third part of LOTR. So I've been forced to read The Hobbit, which is also as good as LOTR when it comes to showing the reader the Middle Earth's wonders personified and walking the reader through the plains of the world after the Elder Days (i.e. New Zealand, if they do make The Hobbit into a movie). That's still ok, but after searching out 3 libraries (including the national library) I have now in my bag Tales from the Perilous World and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Pearl Sir Orfeo. I haven't started on the second, and the first compared to LOTR is similiar to Roald Dahl's short stories compared to his classics, just less random.

Got scolded in band practice today for not being able to keep crotchets on the bass drum. Then got scolded during big band practice for not being able to read tow gay fast enough.In fact, it's not even fast. It's just plain slow. It's days like that that brings me back to reality. A little less confidence to steer me to not think too highly of myself. That I guess could be a good thing. Some sort of a reality check. But I can assure you it's not motivation I feel.

and life is getting boring. anybody got any interesting websites to introduce? maybe i should go check out the matrix philosophy webbie dawn intro-ed me.

AND I NEED SLEEP. i think i get a total of about 7 hours of sleep everyday. but i just can't help but knock out within 5 minutes of sitting still (especially on rocky bus rides) and when i don't knock out i'll be half asleep as sometimes I make links in my head that don't make sense. AT ALL. i could be sitting at the desk thinking about how I'm gonna spend christmas, and my trend of thought could slowly but steadily steer towards how gandalf is planning to eat lunch at the cookhouse after raiding my bunk. i swear i'm not making this up.

i thank God life is still good

i hope the same goes for you all faithful readers. even if it's not, don't look on the down side. what has happened can't be undone, so we can all make ourselves feel better by not dwelling in feeling lousy and stupid for our mistakes/mishaps. Tomorrow can be a better day.

peace y'all
david

Burnout

yo guys sorry i haven't been posting.

Anyway God's been good to me, life has been easy on me. I hope this goes on forever. Haha yup that's me. Easily contented and stagnated. Haha

Btw caleb intro-ed me this band Norwegian Recycling.. Basically, they(or he) do(or does) mashups. Gotta give it up to him. Very smooth transitions and all.. I wonder how he took out everything except the vocals.. anyway here are 2 nice songs by him/them. Some people will look upon it as how boring and duplicated music has become, but I see it as how 4 simple chords, 1 5 6 4, or even the way overplayed 4 5 3 6 turnaround find in half of the gospel songs written since the 80s, and more than half the pop songs we hear today, can be injected with every individual's own flavours and genius lyrics.

The 2 songs sound especially nice towards the end when everything's so heavily layered, but ever so poppishly that it's not tiresome for the ears.

anyway here it is:
8 become 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeYSkxQxcRM
how 6 songs collide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JKKl95Ttrc


p/s: i finally found a picture of myself!

Letter to Mr Arsene Wenger

Dear Mr Wenger,
WHY THE *!&@ ARE YOU LETTING ADEBAYOR PLAY SO LONG?
Has he not done too many unnecessary one-touches, and let loose too many potential goals nicely set up? (Not mentioning the passes he's been making to the phantom Henry)
I'm sure you'll let somebody else take his place (I think bendtner's a good idea).

Arsenal Forever,
David

C: pop

Yo guys. This is one of the nights which I will regret tomorrow.. It's been like that for the past 4 nights, and tomorrow will be my 5th day in a row dozing off in anything I do.

My cell group and I went to K-box yesterday (a first time for me) to....... I suddenly can't remember what for. But anyway it's got something to do with Theresa before she gets married but it's nothing near a sabotage. Anyway, it turned out to be Wen Ai's birthday so we passed around to card to sign in front of her (I wonder if she saw) and dedicated a Happy Birthday song to her. This song. I still remember it. When I was secondary 1, I went to karaoke with my godfather. It was a birthday celebration for one of his friends, and of course, they sang the happy birthday song. AND IT'S THE SAME CHEESY MTV WE SAW YESTERDAY. It was this teenage blonde girl's birthday and they had a cake in the living room of their white-ish bungalow, and guests started streaming in with gifts and all.. I'm sure some of you have seen this evergreen video before.

It was fun seeing everyone sing. And it's the love that kept them in the room when I was singing. Wen Ai's obsession with S.H.E., Shuwen's preference for oldies (Everly Brothers man.. even the MV was in greyscale! haha), Reuben's ability to sing any song, Sinlong's photography expertise, it was fun man. I'll see if i can get some pictures from Sinlong.

To my surprise, K-Box was a lot more fun than I had thought it to be. We sang lots of C-pop songs by jay chow, david tao, stef sun (all of which are artistes I used to like a long time ago, but also which I have forgotten to listen to amidst all the new(and old) music). Reuben and I attempted a H-pop(hokkien pop) song which proved to be as disastrous as it can ever get. haha.

Anyway all these C-pop artistes have very nice songs with very meaningful lyrics and very interesting arrangements. I should go get my hands on some of their cds this weekend. Jay chow, in my opinion, is the chinese "jay"son mraz.

He has a song called '(secret) signal' and it's interesting how he parallels a couple so in love and later on slowly losing steam to a handphone that's slowly losing the ability to receive signals sent to it. It starts with him talking about this couple not letting people know that they're together at first, how they're "walking in the tunnel", and then the girl eventually wants to "get out and feel the breeze", to let the world know that they're together. But the boy prefers not to let people know so that their opinions and gossipping won't crowd out or interfere with the signal they have between them. Anyway, then through a sudden twist of fate, the girl loses the ability to receive signals, and the boy is searching and searching but still he finds nothing.

Anyway since a video speaks a thousand words, here's the jay chow secret signal MV

F.I.R.'s Fly Away and Our Love, Stefanie Sun's Wo Yao De Xin Fu, and many other songs keep ringing in my head. I guess it's the Singaporean (or maybe just the Chinese) frequency that's resonating in my heartstring.

Anybody wanna go K-Box don't forget to jio me!!


Support local, make it global

the grass is always green where you're not

Dang.. The accents for the previous post didn't come out right..

Anyway I've come to the conclusion that it's pretty pointless in thinking that after doing this, or once i buy that, or once i get to this point i want to get to, I will finally be satisfied. There is no such thing as a better girlfriend, a smoother drumset(of course if you wanna mail me a dw set pls don't stop now), a nicer workplace, all because "better" is not a constant. It's just a mad and endless chase from one point to another. It's just an occupational hazard that most of us cannot shake off, and that is to keep ourselves busy. When life is more on the repetitive side we look for adventure, and when we get too tired of the insecurity that adventures bring we long for a quiet life by the countryside. In the most uncliche-ish cliches, the grass is always greener on the other side.

Sure we should look for betterment and embrace change. But sometimes we just gotta look out for delusions which brings us longing for our old little grass patch, or for some, a field of Venus flytraps in the Addams Family backyard.

Not many people make drastic decisions with drastic implications every other week or month. Some wait their whole life pining for the one day to take that taxi to the great unknown, and that's when they find that the grass may not be greener, or even as green, but one day it will be as glorious as when God walked in the garden of eden.

That's just a theory. I'm still at the stage of recognizing that i should stop field-hopping. I look forward to the day when God tells me to move (or stay) because I know that's the best(maybe worst it will seem?) place to be.




Why do people train to play fast? The top drummers in the world don't play even half of their grooves and fills at their top speed. It's because when they can play fast, they can play slow easy and effortlessly.
-a certain pro drummer

if i were milla jovovich..

I wouldn't be blogging now. I watched Resident Evil 3 yesterday, the part that made me really jump was when kok siong let out a yelp and twitched violently in his seat. Anyway I'm so glad that the real world is not plagued by the T-virus (yet) and not hanging on a strand of her DNA (yet) and not subject to the fancies and theories of some Umbrella Corp. (yet)

Seeing how the zombies and the zombie-birds come like a steam roller on these humans just makes me really thankful for the fact that in life there's always a way out. At least it is still so in my simple life. I really don't think that there's anybody in this world who'd rather be a zombie-fighter in Resident Evil. Maybe except for the 'Save' function, and cursed be the day when the undead close in upon you with the computer out of reach.

Anyway the new worship ministry schedule is out. I was just gonna tell Mervin and Jocelyn that I don't mind playing the bass guitar more in church, but I just don't want to play less drums. And so wonderfully, the roster came out just as I had wished, saving me a lot of grumbling and jocelyn and mervin a lot of pain in the butt from my grumbling (which shouldn't be the case in the first place, but in this case, thankfully it didn't have a chance to be the case)

I'd better go get some sleep. Else go work tmr like the zombie I was today.



> >> > > > > >
||:RLLR RLLR RLLR RLLR :||
> > > > > >> >
||:LRRL LRRL LRRL LRRL :||
-rick latham, Contemporary Drumset Techniques

woodshed

Hi dear readers..

Once again, the week flew very quickly. I hope ORD comes soon, but not too soon at the same time because I don't think I don't think I'm gonna do music like I do now and get paid (a measley sum) for doing that.

I've been thinking about it lately, and I think that how you perform, and your general behaviour and thinking habits are very much determined by the culture you are in. Why do I say this? I started wondering about why there are so many pro drummers from Victoria School. First there's Ramu, then there's michael liang hong christopher and of course jonathan. Could it be that Ramu started a culture of asking yourself for more, and not being content with yourself? Back in Maris Stella, we rarely cared about learning new rudiments and cool chops, and we were very easily contented/impressed with ourselves. I wish I could go back to Sec 1 and start woodshedding from then, and also be a better section leader to the percussionists.

Anyway, maybe that's why everybody says the music scene is dead in Singapore. I hope I can take the 'S' train on time and lest I be left behind with all the critics and naysayers.. Already I feel the train has reached the next station. hahah..

I failed my motorbike prac 5 just yesterday. So demoralizing man. I thought everything was going fine, until I came to the plank where I fell to the deep hollow in my wallet. Good thing i accumulated 22 points. If I had met the < 18 points requirement, and got an immediate failure for the plank I'd be hopping mad. Can't wait to pass sooner so I don't have to waste any more money and I can finally not be dripping wet when falling in for first muster.

gtg now.. have a great weekend guys and girls

black wednesday

I knew I shouldn't have taken that afternoon nap. All my life when I take afternoon naps, I wake up feeling wasted, like i'm waking up to a world without friends, purpose and hope.

I left my wallet in bunk today. Either the 169 bus driver give chance, or he didn't notice that I didn't scan. Whichever was the case, I'm thankful for it. I was hoping to meet somebody I know when I get off, actually I was hoping to meet sgt. Leon cause I thought he gets off at the same place as me, but that didn't happen. I couldn't find any familiar faces to borrow $1 from, so i took a taxi, and it cost me $7.50 =( I'm not even pennywise, and I hope I don't be too pound-foolish, too often.

Often people say life is more than living for yourself, and I've friends who commit themselves to helping and caring for people. I have benefitted from selfless people like this myself, and I feel the obligation to pay it forward. But I can't seem to see myself doing that. All I wanna do, is just to get my girlfriend back, play drums, make music. Of course it doesn't mean I don't care about the people around me. One's life is a like tree that receives and gives, going in a full circle. I consider myself no longer a sapling, thought I still have much room to grow and many things to learn, and I have a feeling (maybe due to peer pressure) that it's time I gave of myself to helping other people. But then again, some people have been the victims of my theory testing, and I'm very afraid to assume that I'm right in many things. For now I think I'll just stay 'selfish' and make sure I don't ruin more lives than my own. The best I can do now is probably just to make my workplace a better place.

Now, back to how today can be marked as a relatively grey day. I was watching the chinese evening news, and a report said that some joker from the labs in taiwan said that sleeptalking, sleepwalking, or generally just the lack of sleep, can have many harmful effects on people. For growing people, I'm guessing children, that can stunt their mental growth. For adults it leads to a higher level of physical stress (I don't recall if they mention mental stress), and higher blood pressure at the later parts of their lives. And there's a part which is horrifying enough for me not to tell you about. I worry that it might pertain to me, but I also don't want to retrofit into some mis-prophecy. For all we know it may be rushed out to meet some quota just like how we jc kids fake some numbers and statistics to pass PW.

I hope tomorrow does get better. What does my hope weigh, nothing more than a fool's hope, but nonetheless it's still the same hope that keeps us living from day to day.


P/S:thanks jeff for subscribing to my blog! =)

we are one tonight

these days i'm going back to my bad habit of thinking the worst of people. or maybe i've only just realized that i was at it so frequently (how about almost every person i meet). it's my bad and my apology goes out to all i've offended. i don't understand how i can reply a smile from a stranger by turning away. it's not so much towards the more elderly, and that makes me feel a little better. by the time i turn back he/she's already looked away thinking 'ok wtf'. and anybody who shares any bit of regional (intra-unit) news i label immediately as 'gossippers'.

i think i need to stop passing all the bad gas around and start paying it forward, all the love and kindness people and God have been giving me.

i never really liked 'we are one tonight' by switchfoot until i saw the video and got a rough idea what they're trying to say. in the video, people transform (digitally) to other people from all walks of life. troubled teenagers to even more troubled moms, 9-5ers to the lead guitarist of the band, the lead guitarist of the band's hand strumming his guitar to a kid strumming a piece of paper with his crayon. the idea is (i think) no matter who you are, where you come from, what you stand for, what differences we have between us, at the end of the day, we are still the same. two eyes, one tongue, no matter how different i am from you, strip down these differences and facades, you and i are born of the same mould.



All rise, all fall
I'll fail you all
We built these cities to stand so tall
We've lost our walls

I don't want to lose it, coming down
With the whole world upside-down
I don't have a soul to trust in now
With the whole world upside-down

We are one, tonight!
And we're singing it out!
We are one, tonight!
And we're dreaming out loud!
And the world is flawed
But these scars will heal
We are one, tonight!
Tonight!
Tonight!
Tonight!

Two eyes, one tongue
I've come, undone
I'm no victim
I paid these dues
I came to lose

I don't want to fight about it now
With the whole world upside-down
I don't have a soul to trust in, now
With the whole world upside-down

We are one, tonight!
And we're singing it out!
We are one, tonight!
And we're dreaming out loud!

And the world is flawed
But these scars will heal

I don't want to lose a common ground
With the whole world upside-down
I don't want to fight about it now
And the world was burning out

Let's slow the evening down
Slow it down
Slow down
Please slow down
Down
Down

The stars are comin' out!

We are one
We are one
We are one
We are one tonight
We are one tonight
And were singing it out
We are one tonight
And were dreaming out loud
And the world is flawed,
But these scars will heal

We are one tonight
Tonight

before you get the wrong idea, i just wanna tell you that the we are one tonight video is quite funny and really meaningful. not boring at all in my opinion. i hope you like the video. i love it more everytime i watch it.

you and i, just the same soul

what i wanna be

hey guys now i finally get some time to tell y'all about the week that's just passed.

i just started taking lessons from (2SG) linchow, and it's amazing learning and watching him play. to think that there's actually a guy who's bored(or adventurous) enough to take any piece of rudiment/style and know it inside out, from bebop to ratamacues, dave weckl to lars ulrich. i still got a long way to go, so in a sense i'm safe from the immensurable amount of things i have to learn, for now. he told me to clean up my chops (just like alvin did when i started lessons with him). so now i'm just clicking my hats on 1,2,3,4, the n's, and both combined, playing the kick on the 1/2/3/4, e's, n's, and a's. this particular independence(or unison) exercise is so simple you can finish it in a day, but i (and whoever agrees with me in the importance of it) will be practising it until the day we die.. i'm looking forward to the next lesson (minus the scolding part =X)

it may be too early now to mark it as unforunate, but i definitely feel so about the saf making me play the bass guitar. i mean i respekt bass players(such as victor wooten and ivan yap (heh)), and i acknowledge their utmost importance in a band, BUT i'm NOT the bass player.
i tend to get a bit pissed when mervin asks me to play bass guitar for church service. cause i don't really wanna waste too many moments practising any thing else other than drums. i wonder if it is an issue of pride.
so now the saf is asking me to play the bass guitar. no prizes for guessing when i'll stop.
even theresa's asking me to play bass for her wedding!!(theresa/weiming if you're reading this don't take me wrongly. it's my pleasure playing for your wedding =))

now it's still quite fun because i'm learning how to walk on the bass for jazz and bossa and it's fun too learning some victor wooten bass exercises (mostly for the right hand). but how long will this novelty last, or when will it upgrade to love and commitment, i don't know. but for now i just wanna play the drums.

this, and today's sermon, made me start to ponder what i'm gonna do in life. am i gonna be a drummer, or a bassist, or full-time worker at the loft studios, or a pastor(yikes! hahah), or just something to do in the line of econs? my own business? or get the time-machine thingie hermione got from dumbly-dorr and do all of the above? i mean it all seems like great fun, and greater commitment, but what is it that God wants me to do? i definitely can't afford to go to berklee at this rate(unless maybe if i sign on [double yikes-yikes!], and i wonder if i can brush up my chops in time. does coming to saf ban ds have a part to play in anything?

worries and questions without answers (for now) aside, i'm very thankful to God for my posting to band. i love it here. i get to practise everyday, play music, learn music, and not to mention canteen uncle's wicked-sick popcorn chicken and wicked-sweet milo-peng.

and i also know for a fact that, God gave Noah a seemingly random, and nonsensical mission that'll make him look like Ned Flanders, and Noah, against all odds, did the right thing by walking by faith and not by sight. i think that's one of the most amazing stories in the Bible. may we all walk from day to day in obedience to God.

gtg clean up my mess of a room now. have a great week everyone
life is long don't hurry too much.

this week just started to look up

yo guys! i actually wanted to write in yesterday but i was too shacked out..

yesterday was the end of my first week in central band, and also the last day of my stay-in (whoopie!). i guess it's also the end of the traumatic experience for andrew and richard, my dear bunk-mates, with all my sleep-talking and dead-loggedness type of sleeping. my heart goes out to you guys.

i just passed my driving lesson 3 today morning as well. mr rafael closed one and a half eyes to my plank course, which i cleared successfully only twice out of maybe 10 tries? anyway i'm very thankful that i passed. i prayed really hard that i'll pass. i didn't want to waste any more money on too many lessons because i took 5 lessons to pass my lesson 1.. that was really discouraging, and i nearly wanted to abandon learning riding altogether after spending about $200. those few weeks, plus some other things, made this august the worst month of 2007 for me.. so far. haha just kidding about the 'so far'. couldn't resist quoting homer..

everyone can despair, so what good are we doing by adding to the numbers of sad and cynical people in this world?

going for frontline now.. have a great weekend guys!




P/S: lelong! lelong! i'm selling my 1-week old samsung hp charger (it works only for the older phones.. it doesn't work for the new line of samsung-beyonce type of phones.. my samsung colour phone's dying so once i sell this charger i'll get a new phone.. going only for $15!!

an old man i met

it's friday again! been having ip(individual practice) since monday, except for tues when i took an off day. can't remember what for though. this week feels 4 times shorter than last week when we had ocs rehearsal for half a day everyday. maybe time really flies when you're enjoying it!

on my way home just now i met some 60+ y.o. blind man somewhere near amk hub. he was sounded as cheerful as his bright orange t-shirt, and he asked me if i could bring him to the bus stop on the opposite side of the road. so i said ok, and we walked, and it was nice to hear him laugh and even the silence felt cheerful too. i told him my grandma was also 60+ and she goes in and out of the hospital and he went 'aiyoo aiyooo aiyoo ko lian dai tsk tsk tsk aiyoo yoo ko lian ah aiyoo aiyo tsk tsk tsk'(aiyo poor thing tsk tsk) then i said it's ok she's fighting fit now and then he stopped saying the same 3 phrases.

anyway halfway through the journey to the other side of the road, i wondered to myself, could he be a feigning blind, and maybe when we reached the other side of the road he'll ask me for some money? my dad always told me not to give beggars(especially indian males[no offence]) money when they ask for it cause they'll just buy stout with it. and some of my nasty(or maybe sincerely helpful, depending on how you look at it) insist on bringing people, asking for money to take the mrt, to the mrt and buying the ticket for them, just to make sure that the money they give them won't be spent on any vices.

well for every nike shirt or gibson guitar we buy, we're paying more than we ought to, and mr. nike's just sitting in his own Just-Do-It sweatshop shaking his Nike Air-clad feet collecting cash. i think the only people who shouldn't mind this are the people who are paying to set themselves apart, for they're paying the exorbitant price for its sake. for the rest of us, if we could just insist on getting that 5% discount(it could be from $2.50 to $10), or buy it from queensway instead of buying it from the boutique, the amount of money we save can easily be given to these people for a drink, a meal, or just one less worry for the next day.

so why do we worry about that 1900-5-dollar phone call being part of the next headlines charity scam, and in doing so let the needy people take the brunt of this pound foolishness?

which reminds me, i haven't bought a new shirt (except for the 3 plain white t-shirts for the band) or pants since the start of 2007.. hahah but i'm not that charitable. i spent most of the money i spend on musical instruments.

anyway for the benefit of the integrity of the old man, he didn't ask me for money. i shouldn't have thought of him that way.


david out


p/s: check out plainsunset's new hit! they played it at this year's baybeats.. the first picture that comes to my mind is the merlion lol
River Song(video)
River Song(mp3 just let the website load. the song will be the first one to be played)

paramore

yo guys check this band out.. drummer's only 16 but really killer. the oldest is the bassist who's only 22. amazing young inspiring band.. just goes to show that there's nothing you can't do!

for a pessimist, i'm pretty optimistic
pressure
born for this

don't forget to support our home-grown very-owns!
the suns - cecelia
plainsunset's latest (not so new tho) single (just the song not the video.. nice song about singapore)

it's time to go koonz

is blogging a symptom of egotism and pride?

so.. are our lives that important that others (the whole world, in fact, since all can access most blogs) should be informed about it?

or are our opinions so right and important that we should rally as many as possible to our own sides by presenting them in the most fanciful and palatable manner possible?

but if we were to not care about ourselves, and go over to the other extreme of being ALL outward-looking and not inward-looking at all, would we be a cardhouse counting down the seconds to a monster kill?

but then again, just like marxism, democracy, and many other ideal communities (which i don't know of), don't we all find equilibrium at where we fall short (to varying degrees) in the process of reaching for the ideal? or even if 99% of us try to look out for each other more than we do ourselves, there'd be the 1% that exploits the majority and whips us with our own stupid belief in idealism.

for those who are thinking, why the fog are you thinking so much for? just tell the world about yourself man, the good things that's happened to you, the wonderful things you've seen, it may bring a smile upon someone's face; it may whisper (or shout) to someone in the dark loneliness: you're not alone! i quite agree with you.

i hope this is not boring you. i've been thinking for 2 years if there's a right or wrong, other than God's spoken words in the old and new testament.

hope this picture neutralizes the futility of the discussion. =)
chanced upon it when i ran out of harry potter's to read and when they stopped screening the order of the phoenix -___-
i think, at least it's better than pointing your zildjian drumsticks made of hickory and cock hair at people and avada kedavra-ing people, right deon?




On the softness of her laugh,
I could almost make my bed
But the racket of her absence joined
The sirens blaring ringing in my head

+ Copeland

accio holiday!

hey jeff thanks for leaving your mark on my blog. it just feels better to be connected to the rest of the world.. cause no man is an island eh? if i'm an island, i'd be a no man!

anyway my bro's panasonic camera keeps giving me the screen of death ('system error' on a blue backdrop). does anyone know what to do? wonder if i should fix it or get a new one. i should've made for comex man..

I NEED A HOLIDAY. thanks to Gryphon Coy. and sir william ikhwan's generosity, and some robber i met along the way, i've only 1.5 days of leave left till new year's day! i admit my work is way more relaxed than that of my contemporaries, but i still feel i need to take a break from ninetofivescity and escape from worries for just a few days. i'm sure it'd do anybody some good =)

anyway i got this off the net. same model as my snare drum(pdp sx), just that mine's black. i finally found out why the sound didn't project very well (sorta like a drum corps snare) : the snares were too tight! so i took out the snares and i turned the switch on, and then i put them on. what i did previously was that i put fixed the snares with the snare switch off, so when i turned it on it was waaay too tight. now it sounds sweet and makes me wanna keep playing!


some killer snare drum shit to inspire, awe, and for some, bore.


go away, monday blues,
for today, i choose not you!

the chicken

hey guys here's a nice and happy (and wicked on drums bass and keyboards) tune, the funky chicken. wicked drums to make ur day..

finally got a nice sound out of my new snare drum. been reading prof. sound for months and months but when i finally got the drum his method didn't work! but i guess it's to each drum its own. i tuned the top to be as tight as the canopus at the loft, and the bottom to be 4 semitones higher.. prof sound said that to get the pop top 40 sound i should tune the bottom skin 3 notes higher.. maybe he meant tones. but still my drum doesn't project very well. although there's the 'png!' in it, it still sounds kinda constricted. maybe it's the skin? martin (the seller) gave me a dw stock batter head.. maybe i should try something else.. any recommendations anyone?

my bro's camera is down so i can't put up pictures at the moment.

ok gotta go for ocs commissioning parade now. till the next time..


frodo: (Gollum) deserves death!
gandalf: Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.

i'm blogging again!

hey guys! guess who's back!~ i'm so inspired by richard (thanks richard) and his innocently amusing blog so much so that i can't help blogging again, despite the grim prospect of it becoming indescribably boring, again.

so here we are. army life's been good i'm posted to the SAF bands. i was told not to blog too explicitly about matters à la militaire, so if you find that it's crossing the line please do inform me, lest i be charged.

i've been whacking rudiments for the past 3 months but i don't seem to be improving very much in terms of speed and coordination on the kit. i wonder why.. hrmmm.. can't wait for linchow to come back so i can ask him to impart to me his skills.

so sian man first 3 weeks already, first batch72-er to get knocked down, to run 1 round around the ocs parade square, and get extra coy BO duty for ONE WEEK. oh man.. but it's ok. running and push ups keeps me fit, and the extra BO duty also gives me some time to read and practise some rudiments.

w.r.t. the unpleasant politics, i echo the opinions of one of the best goalkeepers playing for the best team in the world, Mr Jens Lehmann:

"You write something and then you read it again and think that you were right, so then you ask me what I think of it.

"Don't ask me how I should interpret your interpretation.

"The English exaggerate everything and how can you understand such an interpretation?"

have a great weekend guys and gals~