Been very busy the past few weeks

YES! I'M SO FREAKIN BUSY the past few weeks. First, it's my hamster's sickness, then my Industrial-Based Project, then the Chinese New Year preparation, then an outdoor performance for the elderly, then a performance for an environment event, then performing for TalentQuestX competition and then now Atrium got sick again, and he's getting worse then before!

I thought he's gonna be fully heal soon, unfortunately, the moment he finished his medication, his diarreo is back! Though is not as horrible as before, but he became very thin and weak. So sad!!! I have no choice but to continue his medication and feeding food again, hoping he will get well soon.

My sick Atrium... =(

For the outdoor performance for the elderly, I performed "Ai Wo Bie Zhou" by Zhang Zhen Yue. The organisers want old songs and that song is the oldest song I can go. LOL! Anyway, its just for a performing experience, the elderly there don't really care for good vocals or stage presentation. And so the me and the performers there had a great time improvising songs and anyhow jam on the keyboard up on stage with so many elderly watching us. Haha! And also, Zi Qin is the main highlight for that day, she really sound like Deng Lu Jun and the elderly can relate to her voice.

For the performance for the environment event, many students and teachers from different secondary schools came to gather for the event in Ngee Ann Conventional Centre. I have to perform 2 songs, "Ai Wo Bie Zhou" again and "On The Way Down" by Ryan Cabrera. It was the reahearsal day when I heard news from Olivia, my IBP group mate, said that the sound for our film "Yi" turn out well in the preview theatre. I was really happy to hear that. Ok, back to the actual performance day, as I was performing I saw Zi Qin and Project Superstar Wee Jian there. So nervous to perform in front of the 2 pros. Unfortunately, I was overly nervous and I CRACKED MY SINGING FOR ON THE WAY DOWN!!! AND ITS NOT EVEN THE HIGHEST NOTE!!! SO EMBARRASSING!!! Zi Qin is like "diao (-_-!)"... After the event, I don't even wanna face anybody and left school to prepare for my TalentQuestX performance later.

Ok, for the TalentQuestX performance, I had been told by the organisers that I've got into the finals for the song original composition category and I have to showcase it during the TalentQuestX vocal semi-finals, which is on the day of the environment performance event. So I went to Tiffany's house to rehearse my song. Stupid Tiffany keep complaining the key of the song too high. Lol! But she really did a good job singing for my song. And so that night of the vocal semi-finals, me and Tiffany went to the stage with the SCC keyboard (which is freakin heavy and its the only keyboard that I can get for plugging my CD player in...). We were shock to find the place in a pub and sonia is in the semi-finals too! So we were sitting together with Yu Bin (a very good vocalist) watching the others doing their sound check. We saw a contestant there who looks like Hor Wei Jian and Hong Jun Yang and sings like Cao Ge and Zhang Xing Zhe. Wahahaha!!! What a hybrid! Oh! We also saw a couple performing a jazz song. The man was a malay, playing the piano, more pro than Mark Yu Chun or Amos, able to sing as good as Micheal Buble and the woman was an eurasian, singing like some caucasian singers. They are DAMN FEAKIN GOOD!!! We was telling Yu Pin that they will confirm win the duet category. They are like those professional pub performers and they are in their 20s or 30s.

I have been told that my performance is after the duet performances. And after all the duets have compete, I went up onto the stage with Tiffany feeling very nervous and SCARED... BECAUSE I HAVE NOT SEEN THE FREAKIN PRO JAZZ COUPLE PERFORM IN THE DUET COMPETITION!!! Fortunately, there are no mistakes when we are performing my song. And the next performance from the composing category is THAT JAZZ COUPLE!!! Die la... No hope liao... Actually still got a bit, because their song is not commercial, not like guang liang this kind which most people like. Oh ya! And one of the 3 judges is actually a music school director that I helped for performing for her school opening ceremony!!! A girl contestant, RJ, from my course actually regconised me and call out for me and Wendy on that day. And Sonia really improve A LOT in her vocals based on the day I saw her in NP Idol. Seems like Wee Jian has been training her well. Oh! Wee Jian was there to support her too, he came down after the environment event. So cool, get to meet so many people I know...

Sonia, Yu Pin, and RJ got into the finals for the vocal category!!! The final showdown for all the categories will be on 31st March at ACS Barker!!! If you able to make it, come support me leh... Wahahahahah!!! For SCC members, support Yu Pin and Tiffany also! For NP Idol people, come support Sonia. This is so freakin scary since its my first time in a competiton...

I'll be back...

My hair is finally red!!!

I've been dying my hair 5 this week!!! Which cost me a total of around $100! Just to get my hair to the red I that I wanted all the time. By the way, I didn't copy Tiffany lor... I already planning to go for red because its valentimes and chinese new year! And red is an auspicious colour in this period of time. Lol! My first try was the day before yesterday when I went to the salon and asked for red colour. And it turns out to be orangy red. I looked so punk lor! (but at least its better than last time when I dyed light green...) So I insisted that I wanted a darker colour. I wanna look my best for chinese new year because I'm gonna meet some important people. And I can't wait to meet with my uncle (some of you will know what I mean). In the end, after adding darker shades of dye, my hair still look very bright. Let me give you an example:

So I went over to NTUC to buy dark brown coloured dye and plead my mum to dye for me. She agreed, but unwillingly. Haha! Then the result is that my hair became very black, with a bit of red shades on the tip of my hair. Look so awful lor! Then Zi Qin introduce me to her mum's friend, who is a hairdresser that charge dying of hair in a cheaper price. I went to try my luck again! She dye light brown on my hair, and the result is not much difference, only slightly lighter this time. Then I got quite fed up and I went to buy a EXTREME HI-BLEACH dye. I went home and apply a little potion of it and rub it onto the tip pf every part of my hair. The results, it finally turns brighter!!! And its not bright to the extreme too!!! FINALLY!!! The red that I wanted...

Anyway, I was playing with my hamster(Atrium) on my office chair one day when suddenly he stood very still staring at me when I was lying on my bed. I closed my eyes for a moment and I suddenly dozed off!!! This is so typical of me, lol!!! Then my mum passed by, saw something cute and took a photo...

Atrium actually fell asleep too the moment I dozes off!!! LOL!!! Saw that flurry little thing on the left of the photo? That's him.

I'll be back...

Been thinking about music...

I've been thinking for quite some time about this. It seems that the Chinese in Asia tend to prefer more on Mandarin pop or ballad than English songs. I've been composing quite a number of chinese songs in SCC so far and I realised I tend to use chords that is commonly used in Mandarin and Korean pop music. I've always been wondering is there such a thing as Singapore Mandarin pop? I've heard of Korean pop, Japan pop, Chinese aka Taiwan pop, but I've never heard of Singapore Mandarin pop songs before. Maybe the name sounds awful... Or perphaps, the Chinese in Singapore tends to follow Taiwanese pop style?

One of my sound lecturers (Mr Heng Han) once told me that Taiwan music companies tend to look for composers in Singapore because they believe that Singaporeans are influenced by the English culture, thus there maybe a possibility that the songs composed in Singapore will result in a different feel. Maybe that what I've been looking for all these times in SCC. I had been trying to compose a English song chords to a chinese lyric. One example is the chinese song which I composed "Lady." I used jazz chords for that song, but I think it doesn't sound appealing enough. I think I'm still too used to "Guang Liang's kind of music". Perphaps it's ok for those to think that this kind of combination may turn out weird. I just have to make myself and the others able to get used to this different feel hopefully.

I had came across this band called "Mute Math" some time ago and I went to view their videos on youtube today. I was totally amazed with the songs they composed! It's so freakin fresh (as in the style) and their choice of chords in some songs are freakin' hard to figure out! Best of all, they are christians too and the singer is a keyboardist/keytarist as well (like me!!!). I thought that it is quite impossible to sing and play the keytar together. But he actually gave me the encouragement to do so. Therefore, I'm gonna use my Hong Pao money to buy my very own keytar. And I will train myself to write English songs chords in SCC. I want to have my own style. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!



(I'll be back...)

There's hope!!!

Yay! I see improvements on Atrium's health! After bringing him to the vet for the 2nd time, I was told to stop all the antibiotics, cos its causing the harm, and its really true! I was wrong to listen Johnny telling me that its normal to diarreo after taking the antibiotics. Now that I think of it, he killed mouse by disecting them in his school labotary. Wahahaha! Anyway, I have to feed him with powder food mixed with water to get his body weight back on and his "yakult" to introduce good bacteria into his digestive system.

On the previous days, it had been an unlucky weekend for me. I'm so desperate to have my hair cut for my performance on last sunday that I went to the particular barber shop at Novena and it closes everytime right before I reached the place. And the vet closes the moment I reached that place last saturday when it was Atrium's most critical period. And the shops in Sim Lim Tower closes when I went there to buy cables for AOM's recording studio. Perphaps its due to my poor time management.

Oh! And I found out something today. I was chilling out with Kak Leong today when suddenly he mention a guy called Mark coming to fetch us to his house to play majong. I suddenly thought of a guy called Mark in SCC, someone that people in SCC termed him as one of the Legends... True enough, its really him. What a small world!

(I'll be back...)

On the way down...

Its been both a sad and a happy day for me today. Sad being that Atrium condition is getting worse. He's been having wet stools since yesterday till now. And he has slimmed down. I hope its due to the medication taking effect... Or maybe I should bring him to the vet again...

Oh! And I saw him sleeping in a very weird posture today:



Saw his head lying onto the bowl of nuts? He probably fell asleep while having his meal... Lol!

Sunday is drawing close, and I've got a song to learn to perform for The Art of Music roadshow on that day. I realised I still have trouble memorising lyrics even though its not in chinese. I finally managed to get a guitarist and a cello player for my song. By the way, the song I will be performing on sunday is "On the Way Down" by Ryan Cabrera. Die!!! How am I suppose to face the public when I can't get my lyrics right!!!??? Shit!!!

Anyway, SCC just had its last monthly performance for the semester. Really glad to see so many new faces on the performing stage performing my songs. So proud of my SCC juniors. Haha! And I'm also happy that some of the members are forming bands! Hope they really succeed in reaching their dreams and make SCC proud. The next "Audio Insanity" is gonna give birth! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!