FS: Canon Pixma iP4760

Tada.. For $120.

For Sale: Balloon sculpting materials ($10)

I guess professional clowning is not the path for me.. Selling a half-pack of balloons and a pump. To test if they are still functioning, I tried a bit of sculpting. I call it 'dogs and mistletoe'.

For Sale: Physics Textbook, Serway & Faughn 5th ed. ($25)

Not sure if this is still applicable for the current A level syllabus though.

For Sale: Roadsign Australia ($3)

For Sale: FILA shades

I don't know what the market rate for shades these days are. So quote me!

For Sale: Marshall bass and guitar amps ($90 each)

Description:

Bass Amp:

• 15W
• Sound is not superb. Practice amp
• No noise

Guitar Amp:

• 15W
• Sound also not superb. Practice amp.
• Noisy with a background hiss, but drive/clean channels work fine.
• Very light, good if you wanna carry it around

SOLD! $90 Jim Dunlop GCB95 Wah

Description:

• Condition (sound): good, no noise.
• Condition (aesthetic): Battery cover's broken, so the battery will be dangling outside of the pedal. If you're like me and you use a DC brick/1-spot then it's not a problem.

SOLD! 11 copies of Modern Drummer magazine (2008-2009) $40

April 2008 - March 2009 (missing July 2008)

All pages intact. Half the copies aren't even open (that's another story about my subscription impulses)

For Sale: Yamaha 6-pc Stage Custom

Description:

• 1990s Stage Custom Made in Japan (you can't find this in Yamaha stores); Birch/Mahogany/Falkata
• Throne not included
• Kick pedal is not a stock Yamaha pedal
• 22 x 22 (kick); 10 x 8, 12 x 9, 13 x 11, 16 x 16 toms
• Snare drum is a 14 x 5.5 PDP maple snare (SX series. 6-ply)
• Hardware made in Indonesia (better than Taiwanese hardware, which is what you get in stores these days)

Condition: NO dings on the Yamaha drums, PDP snare has a little scratch on the shell

SOLD! $360 (price reduced from 500!) Yamaha G5A (5-string bass)

Description:

• Very versatile 5-string bass.
• Especially when the sound guys don't bother to EQ me properly, the onboard pre-amp gave me a lot of control on stage.
• I love its twang. The bass can be pretty heavy too.
• The scale length is 34". I'm not entirely sure about this, but I can say for sure that the low B string can get quite floppy. It's not a very tight B-string which a 35" would give you. I have to compensate for that in my playing
• Selling it because I'm upgrading to a Mike Lull! (more head room in its sound)

Condition (sound): 10/10. No noise. Fitted with new input jack about 18 months ago

Condition (aesthetic): 7/10. some significant dings (all in pics below)

For Sale: Holga ($70), flash ($35)

Philippines

I finally have the time to blog about my Manila trip in March! This entry will be a mix of my reflections on Philippines and tips (and warnings!) for you if you're going there. Firstly, Pinoys are real nice. Them and us - it's symbiotic relationship called tourism. They really have incentive to rob you. If you don't travel too flamboyantly, you need not worry about being robbed. Btw, they love to hang out. From late morning to evening the malls and streets are perpetually packed. So if you ever run out of ideas (which you most likely will if you're in Manila City for more than 2 days), ask the locals hanging out with their friends.

Taxi drivers may try to rip you off, so insist on having the

meter (rather than a flat rate) before he drives. In Manila City you can get around very conveniently and cheaply (7 pesos) on jeepneys. The taxi rides we took averaged about 100 pesos for a 3km journey. Jeepneys are pretty fun to ride too!There really is nothing much to do in Manila City. They've got a HUGE ASS mall by the bay (free wifi!) and that's probably a good first stop to stock up necessities (like a US plug converter and a map of Manila. Very handy.) Within Manila we went to Intramuros. We heard that there was a local troupe in town performing every night for 2 weeks but we missed cause we went in the da

y.

Once you reach Intramuros, there will be guides on horse

carriages who will offer to show you around. That's ok, maybe unnecessary, but hey it gives to their income and economy. (Ok here comes the warning about Intramuros) They'll probably show you the epic places like the Catholic churches and Spanish colonial houses. But after the second church, everything was pretty much on repeat mode. We checked out the Intramuros (a particular fort which the Spanish built and the Americans seized) which was really nothing but a lot of walls (circular walls, flat walls + a lame golf course and a lame pond). So I recommend that you quit the tour after the first 3 stops. (Btw that's my lovely companion for the trip on left, outside a catholic church)

By the third day, we already ran out of things to do near where we stayed (Manila

int'l youth hostel) Very good location, near the airport, near a major road [think it's called Airport Road] which links you directly to the megaassmall, intramuros, etc. Why I mentioned this is because this hostel has a particular cook whose husband is an artist, and also a tour guide. So we asked him to show us around, and he took us on a day trip to Taal Lake. It was a 3 hour bus ride (20 pesos) to Tagaytay City, a 20 minute bike ride and a 40 minute boat ride. Local guides on motorbikes with a carriage will drive you downhill on their Kawasaki to the sea level.

The bike ride was my FAVOURITE part of the trip. All the way down, the smell of the earth invades your nostrils and your neurons keep firing. It's not like a cologne you wear which you stop noticing once you get acclimatized. Just when I thought I got enough of it, I take another deep breath and I feel awed all over again. I could sit there all day breathing the earth.

So when we got to the coast, the boat took us (sadly not to Pinatubo, which grandly erupted in 1991 saving us all from global warming for 2 decades) bu

t to Taal Volcano. After we landed on the island of Taal Volcano,we had to walk or ride on a pony. (Another warning) The lady told us it'll be a 2-hour walk, so we

decided to take the pony. But on the uphill sections my conscience was struggling nearly as badly as my pony was, so I got off at long uphill stretch (which turned out to be the last uphill stretch). It would not have been a 2-hour walk. An hour at the most. So, just. don't. take.

the. pony. Peddlers will try to sell you water, masks, hats, souvenirs, umbrellas. Usually at 50 pesos (about SGD$1.60), defo overpriced.

This is a badly stitched picture by me. When we reached the top, overlooking Taal Lake, we enjoyed the calm for about 2 hours. If we had been able to afford a whole day, we could have gone down to the lake and bathed in sulphuric water. I'm quite sure it would have been fun trekking downhill (really) so maybe if we ever go back, we'll set off earlier. (Warning again) There's no need to sign up for tour packages cause they areway overpriced. It's really much better to handle it piecemeal, just get to Tagaytay City, and haggle your way down to Taal volcano.

We returned on the boat and the bike to Tagaytay City, by then the weather had turned to a cool 20 degrees Celsius. That night for dinner, we headed to a hotel named Island Cove, which looked like 4-star to me. The seafood was ok (7/10) but the MUSIC was insane. I would have thought that Beyonce and Taylor Swift were all there that night if I only had my ears to judge.

On our 4th day, we went to Ayala Museum in Makati City

. On our way out of our hostel, we saw the Baclaran flea mart. My lonelyplanet guidebook tells me it's an 'exotic' local flea mart. It doesn't seem like it at all. Maybe erotic's the word (cause there were quite a few porno dvds on sale haha) Anyway I think 'exotic' is an European Orientalist construct. Life is life. Nothing is really 'exotic' if you live in it everyday. It has become a cliche and a stereotype of the East. Life can be beautiful, or it can be damned with exploitation from the West or local elites -but it is not exotic.

So, back to Ayala Museum. I have to say Philippines has so much talent for art. Oil, canvas, parchment, pen, watercolor... I'm no art fart, but the artwork in the gallery was so captivating I could just watch the re-creation of beauty on canvases all day.

Serendipitously, there was a German jazz trio playing that night at the museum. Most OUT music i've ever heard (more out than chick corea or hiromi, maybe not harmonically but defo rhythmically.) They're c

alled Hyperactive Kid, and they really are.

We went back on the 4th night to our hostel, where I wrote my essay and Karen checked out her photos on my MBP (and was so tempted she bought her own haha) while waiting for our departure time.

Pleasant trip, great companion, itinerary that was somehow filled up (thank God, really). I have to say though I think the services there are intentionally made inefficient to increase employment (I had to go through 4 stages and 4 employees to get my AA batts for my camera). When you look at a country screwed over twice, first by the Spanish, and again by the Americans for over 80 years (from 1898 with the Filipino-American war that killed 600,000 Pinoys to supporting the corrupt martial dictator Marcos up till 1980s), you can't help but hope that a political Ip Man will rise up and be a voice for the Philippines. (Yes, I'm quite inspired from watching the second half of Ip Man 2.) To save them from politickers and people who labour for power and oppress if it does not compromise their power, to establish a state that truly enriches and satisfies everyone. Utopian? Maybe in this world.

Yes, welcome to the inside of my head.

the weight of glory

Hey guys. No, this is not about how stressed out I am about my overwhelming all-the-rage-ness. (I wish it were). It's a book (more like a compilation of orations) by C.S. Lewis in the 1950s, titled "the weight of glory"(omg u can read so many chapters for free!)

I've never read any of his books other than the screwtape letters, probably because i'm too ill-equipped to take in more than the surface.

Because it's my first time reading his ideas, I find it very interesting how the society he described (pre-popular TV, pre-gossip girl, pre-internet) hasn't changed much since. Though I've always been having a suspicion that people retrofit their lifestyles to TV and literature. It's a chicken-and-egg question between TV drama and real life high-hormone emotional struggles.

But, I digress. I particularly related with the inner ring, which talked about what we call cliques today. It's kinda hard to imagine my dad sporting the then-latest curry-pok hairstyle or my mom with her hippest curls to try to fit in. But such exclusive groups and its pertinence date back to the Victorian era, at least.

I'll cut and paste you some lines from the chapter the weight of glory:
"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal..... And our charity (to each other) must be a real and costly love, with a deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrement itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses."

Yep. Overall I think it's a good read. Especially since though he's a Christian writer, he's not cliched (people took his lines!) and it's mostly a no-holes-barred commentary and he addresses some issues (like your secret longing to belong and sniggering at people who didn't) which the subconscious you didn't even dare to bring it up to you!



AND

My arowana just died. Watching him swim sideways with occasional jerks is something I definitely don't ever want to see again. I wonder why I feel so sad about it. I never used to feed him and never got too close to him cause I didn't want to give him a shock. Though it was a cheap buy at $168 I think the greatest loss was watching him struggle and not knowing what we could have done to help him.

It was an oversight on our part cause just before dinner, we changed more than half the water at one go, unbalancing the pH level and temperature.

another campFREE publicity video!

the post for which i'm too drowsy to think of a title

interesting article about how it's possible to blame anyone for anything

i'm off to bed.. can't feel my body after popping that flu tablet

good week everyone!

the weekend is here!

YEA~ baby. Tomorrow's public holiday plus some days off gives me a 6-day weekend! Now.. how am I going to spend it??? Give me some ideas!

Yesterday I was surfing around and I found this novel (to me) way of teaching kids how to write essays. It's so amazingly simple I wonder I've never been taught this way in school!

Teachers have broken down in my class so many times (we weren't even the worst around), we got tired of acting sorry and quiet, and getting our class rep to run after the teacher. A recurrent jeremiad is the whopping stack of homework they have to assess. I'm guessing that this gives them more homework, depriving them of their life. When they erase the line between work and rest, the joys and pains of teaching becomes a blur and what might have once been sufficiently enjoyable becomes a daily torture after the first period with the nasty class.

SO. I'm suggesting, for the primary to pre-U level, that they farm out the work which don't really need the teacher to do personally to a programme, leaving them more time for work that don't evoke binary answers. If a computer does it, the teacher can see the mistakes and strengths of the class in a chart, and can have access to each individual students performance according to topics. Which is basically what teachers do when they assess the homework personally, right?

Assuming that kids don't stop receiving essay assignments and suddenly find that all their homework are MCQs, this might actually shear off the lethal tumour which was once the educators's time. And the workplace suddenly becomes a garden burgeoning with creativity and a deeper insight into the mind and the desire to learn, which for some of us was being murdered slowly and stealthily since the day we had to ace all our exams.

another random post

Hey guys! Sorry for slacking on this blog. You know how sometimes when you face a giamongus mountain it makes you just wanna slack at the foot of the mountain, instead of climbing it as you planned? Yup that's me now when it comes to SO many things.. For example, one mountain is improving my sight-reading! =(

While googling for how to run a happening youth camp (ahhh!!), I suddenly remembered a friend who was telling me that he feels people in church can get so fake sometimes, and he didn't see any value of being in a community who was so judgmental of him.

Let's assume that he's not hypersensitive. That led me to remember also the old notion of church being a collective of imperfect people (as popularized by switchfoot). While some of us are frowning upon another fellow Christian for not doing the right things, we are all equally in need of help to be a better person, to better the world in all its dichotomy.

I don't know if this short discussion can be called a discussion (my brain's busy in the alimetary department). But anyway I got to go now. I'll end off with a fun fact!

After years of study techniques workshops my schools made me attend, I knew that the number of hours you spend sleeping are as important as those you spend studying, but not why. But I was convinced only after finding out that getting a good night of sleep after a long day of learning helps consolidate memory formation of the prior day.

Tata!

amsterdam, singapore, and the world!

the montreal airport (do they have only 1?)


































where we were gonna spend 6 hours..















































6 hours later...


























try pinching your nose and saying "tank you"
















the amsterdam schiphol airport at 7:55am

















i took this while queueing to buy our 15-min train ticket to the city centre. which cost us 6.50euros!

















cute!














inside the train. it was really just cruising along the city. you gotta understand that we just came out of quebec, all positive and ready to unleash a smile. and we were quite surprised to see that the dutch people at this part of the city looked bored and stoned. i think it's because most of the people we met/saw are waiting for their trains to get to work.



















central station at amsterdam. it was about 15deg and pretty cloudy throughout the day.









































just outside the train station. it's quite a green city with more trams and bicycles than cars. and the damn tram nearly got my face off me.



































the whole city had a funky smell. i suspect it's because of:
1)the river
2)marijuana
3)rubbish trucks
4)shops selling fish












rush hour




































quite a nice city










































































































































































check out her waist size!















































chinatown!




perpendicular to chinatown is the famous DeWallen. i wonder if city planning did this discriminatingly.







































































this is back in Singapore on our way to customs.











Sorry about the lousy photo commenting i'm quite an idiot with blogspot (either that or blogspot's platform sucks)

Anyway it's my 6th day back in singapore and i'm still jetlagging. It's good that i don't really have to follow a tight schedule for these few weeks.

I remember asking myself on my first few days in quebec:

Where are the beggars??

It was such a beautiful city, everybody (locals and tourists) lived like they didn't need money. I don't know if I've said this before, but it could be either that that's the case, or they're just not showing their neediness. But anyway, watching CNN (cause almost all other channels in the hotel are french!) i learnt about even more gang fight casualties in montreal.

Just yesterday I was watching Jamie's Kitchen: Australia (it's not a cooking show, per se). If I were to be given the chance to learn cooking from a great chef (jamie's sidekick), and eventually get a chef's place in Jamie Oliver's restaurant, it'd be the first thing on my list. I'd push away anything just to attend his classes. It just seems like the logical thing to do, right? But I realize that I do not think the same way as 15 of these apprentices. They're all from the wrong side of the town, with family problems, drug addictions, learning disabilities. Some of them really want to learn and are giving all they've got. But more than half are missing classes, giving excuses like their knees hurt in the cold.

Plus hanging out with the guys from bands from all over the world, mostly the canadian peeps, i realize that people are different. I always tend to assume we're the same and smack my forehead and think "why don't you see as I do?". The upbringing, situations you've had to get out of, struggles you had to overcome, people you've had to deal with, all play a part in making you. Though we react and behave differently, but still all over the world every country has the same group of poor and uneducated people. We still share the common goal of surviving and making sense of life.

I have so much more to learn about why people are the way they are. and i think if one day when everyone understands that, and respects that, we'll be living in a much better world without discrimination. i know it's idealistic and this is blatant amateur writing. Do recommend some text if you want me to get out of this immature state of mind!

until the next time, peace out stay cool respect yourself and other people and remember to live!