Woo-hoo! New speakers!

These speakers are specially constructed for sound engineering. Unlike ordinary speakers which are usually engineered to have more ‘colour’ for one’s listening pleasure – for instance, perhaps more bass, or warmer tones, and so on – near-field monitor speakers, as they are called, are best neutral and should clearly project the sounds within the mix. By being neutral it means that there’s not too much bass or too much treble (higher frequencies) so that you can do your mixing accurately, like you know how much bass or treble to put, and how you ought to pan (meaning, place a particular instrument or voice to the left, centre or right).

What I like about the Yamaha MSP5 Studio is its small size, its clarity of sound and that the bass woofers are in front, facing you. It means that I can estimate the strength of my bass. If the woofers are at the back, they will hit a reflective surface and bounce back and hence you might add more bass than you should because you might feel that the bass just doesn’t get to you.

In addition I purchase a Shure KSM109 condenser microphone for recording purposes – to record my acoustic upright piano, to record voices as well as sound effects. We buy a microphone stand too – but forget to purchase the mic cables. Darn. So my boss gives me one of his spare cables. Thanks boss!

So I have to re-arrange my desk again to accommodate the new speakers, which are slightly larger than my old ones. And they have to be solidly positioned on the rack – they are pretty heavy, about 8.8kg each. Now the 20-inch screen goes to the back, on the parapet next to the window. The laptop remains. The Mbox 2 takes the empty lot where the 20-inch screen leaves. What I’m happy with is that the equipment are all spaced out, not as crammed as before, where it’s even difficult to slot a CD into the disc drive of the laptop, or to reach for the rear USB port to switch drives!

Shit! I must find time to read Harry Potter!! I can't even remember whether I read Book 6 or not :P

Finally I get that wretched phone fixed.

Eventually it costs me about 90 bucks = 85 for the repair, about 3 bucks for travelling on the subway to Century Square and back, and $2.50 for dinner because I am so famished I will probably barge into the driver's cabin and ask him to skip all the stops along the way.

Kidding.


*** *** *** *** *** ***

So this is what happened two weeks back:

I am wearing a brand new waist pouch - as always I like my phone, camera and stationary within easy reach. This pouch is pretty long, about a quarter of the diameter of my waist. Maybe it's meant to be worn directly in front but er I don't really fancy going around with a protective guard upfront so I wear it on the left side. In my direction, I have the phone in the left-most pocket, and the camera on the right.

Okay so I head for the Maria rehearsal at Tampines Central CC. I walk into the room, and with eyes on the drama that is being acted out before me, I slowly edge onto the floor. And I do not notice that the pouch - too loose for my skinny waist - has slipped to my butt.

So I sit. Ouch, I sat on something - the pouch. Immediately there's a quick sound like somebody snapped his/her fingers. Oops! I sat on my pouch! My butt reacts and the safety mechanism kicks into action to prevent further damage.

I now have the sensation that I made a pretty heavy impact on my phone, since it is in the left-most pouch it went to my buttocks just as I am about to sit down. I take it out of the pouch and lo and behold! The screen is fuzzy. I slap it, perhaps something wrong with the display. Nothing changes. Maybe it'll be okay once I shut off the phone and turn it on again.

And then it hits me that this phenomenom is permanent. That big patch that looks like a star just reached the end of its life and burst into the big bang - that's probably the liquid crystal splattering in all directions. For the fun of it I press the protective covering of the phone. The liquid inside spreads, shrouding a greater deal of the screen. Cool.

Anyway the damage is already so bad that I cannot even see a single thing on the screen. I cannot message or check my contact list or even transfer my contacts into the SIM card for usage on another phone because... I just cannot see anything on the screen.

Taken at Tampines Central CC rehearsal room, right after the damage has been detected, using my camera which thankfully got away unscathed and untraumatised.

Moi will be presenting a new work called Chamber Jammin': Rhythm and Lambs here:

Temasek Junior College (TJC) Music Elective Programme (MEP) Alumni Concert



Performance

12 August 2007, 7:30pm (approximately 1 hour, no intermission)

Venue
Esplanade Recital Studio

To be announced soon

Moi will be composing the music for this show:

We head to Nee Soon East CC for our JC classmate Siti’s wedding.

The celebration takes place in the multi-purpose hall. Tables placed around the hall in a way that an aisle is left down the middle of the hall for the bride and groom to walk to their places on the stage. Two long buffet tables occupy the sides the hall – one for the main courses, the other for the dessert. Geez what a spread of dishes! Pity I am unable to savour the pastries… bloated myself with the main course that allows me to skip dinner. The hall is decked out in the theme of gold. Each table has an interesting floral arrangement of roses dipped into bottles of green water, causing the rose petals to have a nice little tinge of green near the stem.

The joy of attending a Malay wedding is that it is a leisurely and easy-going affair. You can come at whatever time you like, you can eat whenever and whatever you like, and you can leave whenever you like. It is very casual. In contrast, for a Chinese wedding, it is a tightly-controlled eight-to-ten-course meal where yes, everybody treats it as a leisurely affair, coming at whatever time they like and then they spoil the party by causing dinner to begin late. And because each table is entitled to a certain quantity of food, overzealous folks at the table will attempt fastest-chopsticks-first and try to swallow as much food to be the overall heavyweight champion. And with the presence of alcohol some guests will just drink themselves silly and bawl and sulk and make the wedding the most memorable they’ve ever attended.

Probably the only problem at a Malay wedding is crowd-control, because people come at their own time, so at moments there might be a sudden surge in the crowd and there will be insufficient tables. Yet this problem is easily solved. Guests graciously finish their food and leave so that others may sit down and feast as well.

When we first arrive, we decided to eat first because there are quite a lot of people queuing up to wish the bride and groom well and to take photographs with them. The couple are seated on the stage, in front of this lavishly royal set that just makes the otherwise plain and boring hall look tremendously sumptuous.

Unfortunately the bride and groom leave before we have a chance to go up. And we foolishly speculate what might have happened

(1) She went to a dressing room backstage for rest and a change of clothes. But it’s unlikely she’d hang out in such a place – dressing rooms are CC auditoriums are either pathetic or non-existent.

(2) She went to an air-conditioned room in another part of the CC – now that might be possible…

(3) She went home to sleep…!

They re-appear until about an hour later – this time Siti is dressed in a gorgeous white gown – earlier she had been in a golden baju kurong. We’ve never seen our classmate look this stunning before!

Now we know why she must have taken so long. The dress is complicated to put up on the wearer.

Finally we get to meet the bride and groom, and take pictures with them!

I have to mention: Siti’s relatives and friends are really musically talented! They perform well at the karaoke set, rarely going off-pitch, and maintaining a good sense of rhythm. In fact we even thought the sound people were playing off CDs until we hear some off-key singing – and we realise it’s LIVE ENTERTAINMENT!

Speaking of Siti’s relatives and friends – the couple will host another function, this time for the groom’s family and friends. It’s an interesting piece of news – the first time we learn that Malay weddings organise two feasts, not just one!

And I talk to a stranger for the longest time, before realising that I don't know his name. "By the way, I didn't get your name."

And I realise this fellow is one I met before - and I couldn't recognise him.


Me: "Er...... you look different lah......."
Weijie (the other fellow): "Must be the specs"
Me (thinking to myself): Right.... I can't remember what specs you wore the last time...... (terribly embarrassed)


And I remember this guy wants to set up an acapella group and during our conversation (before I actually realise it's him) he was talking about running an acapella group and I don't realise it's the same thing altogether.

An old article I wrote about my alma mater Chung Cheng High School's ghost stories which I discover while sifting through my backup disk drive.

Disclaimer: up to you to believe in these stories



*** *** *** *** ***

Chung Cheng High School (Main) has been occupying its current plot of land for more than half a century. It has found a place in History as the venue where students, fed by Communist ideology, showed their discontent towards the pro-colonial local government of Singapore, along with the students from the Chinese High School. With such a long history, it is no surprise that the Chung Cheng compound would have a legacy of another kind.

These stories are told by word-of-mouth and obviously not in the official annals. What I am recounting are through accounts I have heard verbally from seniors and staff. Whether these accounts are true or not they are unverifiable. It is best to not to take them too seriously. At the end of the day whether one believes in the supernatural or not is a very subjective matter.

The Piano

Before the Grand Auditorium was renovated, it was formerly called the Old Auditorium. It was a colossal building that looked extremely worn out. The interior was musty and dark. Locked doors and nooks and crannies bred imagination.

There are two pianos at the stage. One is a grand piano used for performances. The other is an upright piano hidden from the stage. It was located at a stairwell which was the way of passage from the stage to the dressing room. This piano was in an extremely piteous condition. Parts of its outer shell had gone missing and exposed the fragile interior works to the elements.

During recess some students went to explore the Old Auditorium. It was a favourite exploration ground because of its age, which breeds imagination. These bunch of girls went into the dressing room and shut the door.

Suddenly they heard the piano being played. They opened the door. In a split second the sound vanished. To even greater surprise they found no one out there. If someone had decided to play a practical prank on them they would have the person’s footsteps echoing away as he/she ran sprinted away. But no, they heard nothing.

They went back to class.

And then weird things began to happen.

One of the girls suddenly went berserk, screaming and pounding away. She snapped just like that. Almost as unexpectedly as she lost her mind, she calmed down, sat back at her seat… and began drawing pictures.

And what did she draw?

The piano, of course…

* * *

The Girl on the Fourth Floor

This story was recounted by my Chinese-language teacher.

There was a girl who was a bright student. She did very well in her academic work. Unfortunately she met with an accident and it affected her memory. After she recuperated and returned to school she was placed in one of the more average classes.

During an examination my teacher was an invigilator for her class. Since it was a long paper she and another teacher worked shifts. My teacher finished her shift, and decided to sit somewhere near to mark her papers before invigilating another class. This was a time when the old classroom blocks still existed, as well as the old bungalow houses that used to function as extra-curricular activities rooms. She decided to sit inside one of these rooms as it would be more comfortable than being in direct sunlight.

She heard a scream. She walked out, and saw the girl running away, several teachers chasing after her. She followed suit. They ran to the grey-coloured administrative block – now the Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) block. The girl ran to the fourth floor, to the opening facing the Old Auditorium, and threatened to jump. The teachers tried to coax her out of it. She refused to be placated… and she jumped.

It is said that when you stare at this very opening at midnight, the very spot where she leapt to her death, you can see the white figure which is the spirit of the girl.

* * *

The Coffin in the Closet

The Science laboratories used to be located at the CCA Block. Each floor, beginning from the second level, was dedicated to each field of science, namely Chemistry, Physics and Biology, not in any order because I have forgotten how the rooms were organised.

Some students had ventured into the Biology laboratory while there were no staff members around. They went into the preparation room.

To their horror they found a coffin in the closet! They would expect to see skeletons, being a room for the study of the life sciences, but a coffin…!

When the word got to the staff they removed it quickly. Nobody knows how the coffin found its location, when it first appeared, and who put it there. Best of all, nobody is interested in finding out who was actually inside it!

* * *

Other rumours from Chung Cheng High School

A tunnel that runs from the bowels of the Old Auditorium to the bottom of the pond… it was used by the Japanese after they invaded Singapore…

To add to the mystery, where the two main staircases of the Grand Auditorium are now, there used to be stairs leading to the basement. Prior to renovation, these were boarded up, but you could see the stairs through one of the rounded windows from the porch.

When you stare at one of the small windows near the roof of the Old Auditorium (above where the museum now is), you can see white figures jumping about.

Does the life-size portrait of first Principal Dr Chuang Chu Lin have a life of its own? His eyes seem to trail your every moment – back then when his portrait still hung on the third floor at the former reception area where the Teacher’s Workroom now stands. Or is it just the figment of one’s imagination?

My friend Malcolm is selling his house and furniture, he has put up pictures of the items that he will like to sell here:


www.flickr.com/photos/treasures4grabs/

If you're interested, do check them out and contact Malcolm about making purchases.

I discover this cute Chinese New Year message from last year (Year of the Rooster) in my (temporary) phone's message inbox:


非常重要，你必须以正确发音读这些字：

过国过果
郭国过国国
果国过国国
国国国过过果国

很好，您都读对了。今年鸡年相信您可以和母鸡聊天了。


*English translation*

Most importantly, you must pronounce the following Chinese words accurately:

Kwok, kwok, kwok, kwok
Kwok, kwok, kwok, kwok, kwok
Kwok, kwok, kwok, kwok, kwok
Kwok, kwok, kwok, kwok, kwok, kwok

Well done, you have pronounced everything accurately. This year I believe you will be able to chat with a chicken with ease.

A very inspiring interview with David Marshall conducted 13 years ago for a college newsletter. Let's just say the ministerial pay rise is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

http://thinkhappiness.blogspot.com/2006/08/meeting-david-marshall-in-1994.html

Missing Person

A friend's friend's friend has gone missing.
Click on the URL below for more information.
If you happen to see this person please call them and help relieve them of their anxieties, it would be much appreciated!
Meanwhile do post this information on your sites so others can chip in to help,
you may not know her but knowledge of her wherabouts might save a person's life :-)


http://poww.livejournal.com/

IPPT tomorrow and I realise I have no running shoe.

Somebody kill me.

My friend comes over to my place. In the kitchen he spots our blue plastic clock with the hook at the top. "Hey I also have the same clock! But it's pink!" (his sister had bought it.)

Then in the living room he mentions he has he the same reading chair - except that the legs are of a different design.

It's fun attempting to identify Ikea furniture while visiting someone else's place. And then you try to pick out which piece(s) of furniture both of you happen to have purchased from Ikea. Sometimes when I go to Ikea and I see a particularly familiar piece of furniture, I'd say, "Oh! So-and-so has this too!"

Backlogged!!!

Lots of photos now, lots of photos coming.

Nasi Padang! From Lorong 27 cormer coffee shop, intersecting Sims Avenues (not Ho Kee Pau). For 3 bucks you get a very generous filling on your banana leaf. Shiok!