Random Rants about Addictions and Friends
i'm making it an official declaration. Doubleyellowline is an addiction. We're spending so much time as doubleyellowline, we're neglecting our bands! much less our other commitments. What to do about it? Can I turn down spending the day with these guys? I'm already craving for another mass-jam.

The Inhabitant gig was good. Sound was good. Bands were amazing. It was flawless. Fun, supportive crowd. Was Dino from Force Vomit in the crowd? Only Lunarin and Dreams of Day Architecture had percussionists performing and I managed to glean a thing or two from their performance. Ash Troubadour played a seriously decent debut. Lunchbox was one of my favourites, Rudy really expressed the songs well. We need that kinda emotion in the scene I think. Arpee was good, Evelyn's really has a gift of a voice. It's just a matter of time before they lose the nervousness and gain the confidence that Lunarin and Dreams of Day has. These two bands were pro. 'nuff said. and Pale Pretense. =) I was singing along. You two really showed the core of Pale Pretense. It was almost a flawless performance by Vivian and easily, to me, PP had the better sounding originals. There's this air of confidence now. Really proud of you guys.

The night was spent as usual, around a table with random drinks, on a game of songs and band names with the best bunch of people to play this game with. We spent the day at Ben's house. Pizza as sustanence. Too soon we had to leave but not before we saw Ros singing on tape! haha we have evidence! no denying man! heh

there's so much work to do, it really isnt funny. i have to really take 20 hour days now to catch up. Pressure's still manageable. I can't wait for the break week.


Oh yeah, happy bloody valentines.

Monday, February 14, 2005 12:20 a.m. comment# gbook

*begin subliminal message*
Everyone will go to tomorrow's gig. Here's the poster again. Chill. and erm bring food.

Saturday, February 12, 2005 12:53 a.m. comment# gbook

Today's Simple Pleasure
The morning test didn't go as planned. It was an ill-prepared effort really. Made me realize that I don't put in as much effort into my IS courses than the other more interesting stuff. Gotta at least do all the required readings prior to the classes. Work!

Had a small potluck session for lunch with the Arts Frat gang, Geraldine and Margaret (Chan). Free food and good company.. then played table soccer like 2 hours in a row.. headed to the school studio to jam with Jason and Anthony. grabbed more free food. headed to SMUBE's yusheng ceremony (more free food) and helped a birthday boy get his face smashed with cheese cake (which i must add was delicious.. and free). Headed then to a "reunion dinner" with the exco members at Taka. Anyway blur pics below of the SMUBE ceremony.. thanks to Terence.

Saturday, February 12, 2005 12:09 a.m. comment# gbook

Of Mice and Men? Of Lists and Pen.
Somehow I prefer writing things out with pen and paper rather than type out a plan on the computer. Something about writing rather than typing that gets the creativity energy going. Anyway, rather prepared for the test tmr. Did my Analytical Skills Project bit. Worked out some extra stuff i had to do.. lets tally up the to-do list... 4 / 12 stuff done. It takes a certain breed of men to be able to keep that grin up as the ground crumbles from under his feet from so much overdue work. *grin*

overdue.. monkey song.. aha.. inside joke.. sigh. test tmr 830 am. you're addicted... to the show.....

Friday, February 11, 2005 01:15 a.m. comment# gbook

Thumperature
From last night's performance at Thumper, I think I need a snare of my own. A loud one because contrary to some people who have only heard me in the studio, I hit soft.

Got lotsa work today and definitely don't feel like doing any but that's just being silly and lazy. lets get to it.

Thursday, February 10, 2005 02:25 p.m. comment# gbook

Political Urgency among Youth (or the lack thereof) and Traffic Penalties
The new flyover at Braddel Road supposedly has a speed limit of 70kmh. Should there be a difference in penalties between someone who drives on that road at 90kmh in the middle of peak hour traffic and someone driving on that very road at that same speed at midnight with not another vehicle on the road? Penalty for this offense regardless of the situation and time when the offense was committed is $150 and 4 demerit points. Is 70kmh as a speed limit reasonable for a flyover? Should the law take into account the severity of the offense in regards to traffic density when meting out punishment? Is the system based on safety or revenue?

There was an article in the newspapers a few days back. A much lauded discussion between the Chairman of the Feedback Unit and our Singaporean Youths, much acclaimed jewels of the country. Youths talked about the government being too much like an answering machine when it comes to accepting views and asked policymakers to individually or collectively respond to each suggestion and feedback that the youths and the rest of the community raised to the government. In all reasonableness, doing that is a waste of time. If the youth even spent the effort to think through that comment before he/she made it, he/she would have known exactly how useful that comment is to the country. There is a prevalent phenomenon going around the country. I've been to quite a number of events the last few months and each time a youth would step up to the mic, showered and lauded with praises, and talk about all sorts of things .. that equate to jacksquat. The only reason any of them are speaking up is the fact that they're only there to be recognized that.. "yes.. i'm speaking. i'm from an elitist school and yes im outspoken.. i did this and this.. oh and btw, what do you minister sir think of this inconsequential issue?" it's not difficult to get the elitist bunch to speak up. its difficult to get them to have something of value to say. fact is, there's nothing to fight for in Singapore. The Govt. IS efficient. We're not hungry, fighting for our daily bread. The only thing left are niggling issues.

I encourage, hope and look forward to having the youth from the street, the non-elitist, the youth who feel they lack, to feel enough ownership for his country, to feel that he too could steer society, so that he may have something of value to say and fight for.

Wednesday, February 9, 2005 04:51 p.m. comment# gbook

Moren Tea Estate + Thumper = Warmth

9th Februrary 2005
Yes, its the night of the first day of Chinese New Year. Just got to know of this performance three days ago. Drop by if you guys can.

Sunday, February 6, 2005 11:00 p.m. comment# gbook

is it the holidays yet?
everyday in my mad rush to school in the morning, i take a path out to the bus stop. today, there was a dead rat in it. yesterday there was a dead butterfly. the butterfly kinda took me by surprise. i have never really seen something so beautiful dead before. unmoving. it was surreal in a very unexpected way. it took 15 seconds of my life.

there seem to be more rats in singapore these days. i wonder if the old campaign of killing rats and exchanging them for cash might work with modern society. or will we just write in to the govt. and ask them to deal with the problem, them being upholders of public good. wonderful time to start a pest busting business. there was a van that said "the pestman" this morning. i wonder if he works for the Singapore Pest. *cue nervous laughter*

they're televising the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum tommorrow at 7pm. Guest speaker, our Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. Look out for the guy in the suit in the middle of the third row.

i was taking a shower when i thought of this.

Five Reasons Why Girls Won't Date Me
I don't drive
I'm broke
I'm always busy with other things
I hate to call
I'm studying programming

The One Reason Why Girls SHOULD Date Me
I'm in a band.

Saturday, February 5, 2005 01:01 a.m. comment# gbook

tired and stretched beyond reason
i hit school everyday at 9am and i leave it at 11pm and i have been having a back-to-back schedule for the last few weeks. back-to-back schedule means the longest rest period i have in between stuff is 30mins. most of the time there's no rest. i'm not very proud of being extremely busy but i have to say that i think it shows. i'm trying to curb it but i get that much more irritatible. sigh. i'm just taking 5 minutes to type this all out before crashing.

Thumper was good. the launch of live and loud. The bands were amazing. simply there. I believe that we could have a bigger crowd though. that's something to work towards but otherwise it was good. Good stuff guys.

Friday, February 4, 2005 01:40 a.m. comment# gbook

it's good to remember what chilling with friends is all about =)
i'm looking for my fiona apple. heh

SMU made its presence felt at Funkamania and JamX Finals. We had the flag, we had the samba dhols, we had color-coordinated crowds, we had massive lung-power. It just goes to show the kind of spirit that we have for our school. Good thing is, we don't just support our own. We support the other good ones too.

After such a long time, I finally jammed with MTE. Working with the new material that KC wrote. Very good music. Arrangement is a bitch and so is coming up with vocal melodies. heh. finally getting the chance to write some interesting drum parts for MTE songs. anyway.. the best part of the night was when we all headed down to Tanjong Pagar Railway Station for a night of food, shesha, jokes and good company. i was high on the shesha. positively couldn't walk straight when i headed to the toilet sometime during the night. damn good shesha. strong and smooth. the only place in town to get them. me and kc stayed till 6am after the rest left at 5. its good to have someone whom you can share your idealism and passion for things. most people don't understand.

well, got lotsa work to catch up on today. projects to start and finish, text to read, maps to mind, food to eat. heh. let's go let's go.

Sunday, January 30, 2005 03:14 p.m. comment# gbook

Investiture Pics
had my council investiture last wednesday. a rather low-key ceremony really. food was good though, performance by faye and jason was amazing and taking fun pics is always..well... fun.

Saturday, January 29, 2005 12:42 a.m. comment# gbook

the thing that should not be

Friday, January 28, 2005 01:42 a.m. comment# gbook

Stonedest Day Ever
it's been a brutal, bruising schedule since i can remember. it's become a necessity to take that 15 - 20 minutes at the end of the day to turn on some nice music, push all the pending deadlines and work aside and just blog or post up pics. not eating has an immediate draining effect on my energy. i was a walking zombie today. imagine this. i was tying my tie.. i'm an SAJC student, i tie my tie almost everyday for 2 years... and then suddenly, i forgot how it goes. it's not a temp slip of my mind.. it's as if that whole part of the brain just conveniently walked out the back and slipped away. stoned and no way to get around it.

Investiture today. Wonder when I can get the pics outs..

Wednesday, January 26, 2005 11:49 p.m. comment# gbook

SMU Patron's Day
I came to school and rushed AS homework. Had to admit it, I had no time to do it during the weekend. It was all rehearsal then. Anyway, shout outs to Raymond, Andre and Woonbock. We're SIS Mural Painting team. hahaha. Bunch of programmer-guys who tried their hands at painting for the first time and had quite a bit of fun too. haha. too bad we got last place. but it was definitely a cool experience haha. we rock lah.

and then it was Patron's Day performance time. Mugger Funkers gonna rock this joint. heh. I remember going up to the drums and finding that the hi-hat was unscrewed and I needed the thing to work for the second song at least. Good thing there was a 4 bar pause in the middle of "Long Train Running" for me to pull up the top hi-hat, loosen the top screw, tighten the bottom screw and put down the hi-hat back. And there was this one part where i hit the bottom of the cymbal and the stick flew out of my hand.. somehow i managed to grab it back and continue.. That's going to be one of those "gig experiences" that I'll remember forever. heh. Anyhow, we played good. Pretty tight stuff. We got the school on their feet! We rocked. Got lotsa people told me I did a real good job. Thanks guys. Big thanks to Jamil for lending me the funky orange retro shades.

Caught all the rest of the bands. Everyone was really performing beyond expectations. Really good stuff. We really put up a show. Such a show that Sylvester and Taufik was almost a let-down. Almost lah. hah. Maniam, the tabla guy from Zouk, rocked the place after that. Bloody good percussionist. He did something like a flanger effect on the tabla lah.. he played on it with one hand and dragged his thumb from the centre to the edge to vary the sound. Amazing stuff. Danced away. Thanks to Dahlia for giving me my Puteri Gunung Ledang dance. =)

gonna get pics and post them up. yup. today was good.

Monday, January 24, 2005 11:14 p.m. comment# gbook

Performance Notice
Taufik and Sylvester are coming down to perform at SMU's Patron's Day this coming Monday. The show starts at 6. Non-students are welcomed to crash. SMU is at Bukit Timah and not near Ngee Ann Poly.

It's going to be a hard hard week next week. Events, sessions, all sorts of stuff to do.. and thats not counting in the fact that I still have classes to go to. I haven't taken time to relax and jam with my band friends or chill with the DYL peeps. I gotta catch up with you guys. Sorry but Jan to Feb will be horridly packed for me.

Saturday, January 22, 2005 11:53 a.m. comment# gbook

Forced Connections and Student Stakeholders
i entered the toilet and i saw a gruesome sight. the floor was a scene. a shampoo bottle had committed suicide. it lay, broken, on the floor.. dripping blue fluids from its spout like spittle from a slacked-mouth victim. i didn't pick it up because obviously i assumed the authorities will settle it. we came, we saw, we looked the other way and self-justified.

want something juicier to read? how bout a comment from the SMU Students' Council member on the 15% tuition fee hike? The council is doing everything it can to try and get as much as we can from the administration while controlling the few loose cannons among the student population. reporters are circling the campus like vultures. one student venting his frustrations on having less money for himself when he works next time because of the need to take loans.. perfect candidate for a newspaper report don't you think? please take it official from here. We, SMU Students, are mature enough to realize the need for a price hike. We have asked for and will receive full disclosure on the financial numbers leading to the projection and requirement of a 15% increase. We will also work with the numbers ourselves and see if there are other ways beside such an immediate and large price hike. We have stated clearly that we are also stakeholders in the school and are entitled to, and will have, a say in matters and decisions that impact the university and the students. If you're looking for a sensational outburst of idealism and outrage, you will find none. We're business students. Such ways do not yield the preferred results. We will deliberate on, champion for and win greater rights for the students. We will do so in a manner that gives no one any ammo to deny us our rights. SMU, you have attracted the kind of students that take ownership over their University life and by golly, we will not rest until we do so.

Thursday, January 20, 2005 12:36 a.m. comment# gbook

upcoming performance


Got another gig coming up. Acoustic Performance with Pale Pretense. I'm going to be playing brushes on a snare. If I can get a snare.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 02:19 a.m. comment# gbook

student empowerment!
i had a dream this morning. i remember the hotel lobby, getting into a lift.. the doors opening up and there were monsters. i used a bullpup design rifle. i got injured and i went to a chinese senseh shop to heal. i pretended to be blind to get a discount. i woke up, late for my Data Management Class.

today was a flurry of events. Class till 130pm. Creative Thinking Project Meeting till 330pm. Did some work at the SAC Room till 430. Dialogue with President Hunter till 6pm. Dialogue with OSL Director, Stanley, till 700pm. Had dinner till 8pm. Patron's Day Rehearsal till 1045pm. Taught Zhiyang how to sing from the diaphragm till 11pm. heh. If you can't stop the guy from singing, the least u can do is make it less painful. heh.

I'm a huge advocate of the whole "belief + action = results" thing. If you want to achieve something, all you need is passion and self-esteem. Passion to make you believe earnestly that you can achieve whatever you want to achieve and self-esteem for you to take that belief to action. you could end up on the narcissistic, idealistic side of the fence.. but what the hey, i think its better this side. this kinda empowerment really counters apathy.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 01:36 a.m. comment# gbook

nostalgia
today i savoured nostalgia like fine wine. i took the route i used to take to secondary school. i was at katong shopping centre then to parkway parade. i used to go there when i was 3. parkway parade. the entrance is a floodgate of memories. the place is all new now. well parts of it. parkway parade was THE place in my childhood. and to me, will always be somewhat magical. i guess everyone has that one place they go to remind themselves of what it used to be like to be a kid.

Saturday, January 15, 2005 12:39 a.m. comment# gbook

i coffee therefore i am.
my mind was ablazed with thought last nite. i couldn't put myself to rest. even at 4am, i was forced to lurch out of my bed and type out an email. forced by my own need to clear all responsibilities i have before i can finally rest. 3 hours later, i'm up. now, i am a walking, grinning persona. caffeine is the lifeblood of the modern, sleep-deprived world. it's like spice in the Dune books. soon, the coffee will have no more impact. babies will be sucking up espressos in their bottles, weaned on coffee. fed with coffee. teenagers will be walking around chewing on giant coffee beans because it's the in thing. adults take 20-shot espressos into their nostrils or pierce the part of the mouth below their tongues and fill the gap up with caffeine implants. coffee culture? hah. you have no idea.... i wonder if u can make a cake purely from ajinomoto?

Friday, January 14, 2005 10:58 a.m. comment# gbook

Basic Theory Pics
The older pics from Pale Pretense's gig at Doubleyellowline:Basic Theory are out

Thursday, January 13, 2005 01:38 a.m. comment# gbook

band aid
sometimes after a long day at school/work, all you need is a secluded room somewhere with 4 close friends.. turn up the amp, turn up the mic, minor adjustments to the drumset.. and you're in for one of the best form of stress relief there is on the planet, rocking out. there's just something about bashing away on the drums, screaming out on the mic and wringing the neck of your guitar that just gets the work tensions out of the system. so if you're a pathetic, hen-pecked, trodden-on, super loser... get a Band. and be the rock hero you always wanted to be. *p.s. cocaine is a helluva drug*

Wednesday, January 12, 2005 12:10 a.m. comment# gbook

sore.
i have a mega sore throat. from straining my voice yesterday at the jam session and following that with mega shesha session 3 hours straight. damn. argh. im not going to be talking much today. anyway im up because i gotta go to some kenduri. sigh.

Sunday, January 9, 2005 09:47 a.m. comment# gbook

Blessed and Grateful
Today has been a gift of which I really do feel I barely deserve. I woke up today and spent the morning and early afternoon with my family. Enjoying each other's company, cooking lunch and household chores and whatever other things that needed doing around the house. While it might sound normal, there have been enough times in this household that had threatened to take away the simple pleasure of having everyone together as a family. I find that I simply cannot take it for granted. I think most of you would understand too.

I also spent the late afternoon and evening with friends. Friends in all true meanings of the word. People whom I respect. People who know me and accept me for who I am. If a person is defined by the company he is with, then truly I am blessed with a fine definition. We jammed as a family band, we ate, we talked, we indulged in shesha, we confided, we joked, we laughed. It's not in our culture to overtly show appreciation or affection but know that everyone of you guys rock. =) \m/

I took a cab back home. I had no cash and somehow the system could not accept my Mastercard. The driver decided to waive the fare. I insisted on getting his account number so that I can transfer him the money back but he said in Malay "Next time.. next time if we ever meet again, you can repay me. Don't worry. Please know I really do mean it." I'm going to write him a complimentary letter. That's the least I can do.

Bottomline is I feel truly blessed. I have learnt to fully appreciate the things that I often enough take for granted or overlook and that I think it is only appropriate to sometimes take time to look around and show my gratitude and to give back as much as possible when the opportunity arises. It's only when we stop to look that we realize just how much we could stand to lose.

Sunday, January 9, 2005 04:40 a.m. comment# gbook

planet paradigm pics
Pictures from Pale Pretense's Performance at Planet Paradigm. This has been brought to you by the letter P.







lomo?

Friday, January 7, 2005 02:08 a.m. comment# gbook

1am
after being a stubborn mule the last two weeks, i am down with flu, congested nasal passages, non-stop sneezing and a slight fever. i still find it rather sissy to be carrying around an umbrella even when it's raining. what can 10 minutes of walking in the rain do to you? quite abit i found out. especially when you keep doing that every day.. and you enter an air-con room and sit there for hours after walking in the rain. bloody hell. what happened to the days where all these don't matter and one can walk wherever and whenever one pleases? i don't know if i am ready to start losing the joys of youth. ah crap. im 21.

i'm going to destress tmr by going to school and spending the morning with fun mindless activity. i'm going to reskin the entire drumset in the school studio. heh. practise black dog!

my scholar friend called me a mugger. i was horrified. reading on the bus constituted as mugging? yes. i do try to study every other chance i get. only cuz 70 per cent of my time is spent on non-academia issues. am i a mugger? i had to really consider because I was the only person in Biz Law class who read Chapter 1 and answered all the Prof's questions. oh dear. i need to get my priorities re-aligned.. BRING ON THE DRUMSTICKS! LETS PLAY SOME LED ZEPPELIN!

Friday, January 7, 2005 01:00 a.m. comment# gbook

the escapade
i nearly forgot. having a doubleyellowline meeting at 7pm, i got on bus 186 from the school bus stop and being the studious boy that i am, promptly absorbed myself into a thick edition of Singapore Business Law (A Phang) confidently thinking i'll be right on time for the meeting at Tanjong Pagar. the first twinge of doubt crept in when the bus turned into balestier rd. that sinking feeling came in when the bus made its rounds at whampoa. a query with bus driver resulted with a rather rude "aah?! interchange interchange!" and subsequently, i was unceremoniously dumped off at St Michael's Interchange. an out-of-this-world vistage of the 1950's i think. "ulu" doesn't begin to describe. the only other person there was an apek that looked like he's been here since the place was built. like if they took a picture of the place every year, he'll always be in the background. somehow i got the impression that if i stayed too long, i'll end up like him so i did the only thing i could. get back on a departing 186 and head back to SMU. the whole thing costed me an hour and 8 bucks worth of cabfare as i later hopped onto a comfort cab to tanjong pagar. i also noted the fact that if i had waited 5 minutes before getting on the cab, i'd save a dollar on extra charges.

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 02:24 a.m. comment# gbook

the last bus club
quite a rather eventful day. best part was the end of it, an amazing chill-out sissha session at tanjong pagar railway station with ros, fairoz, kc, jame, shawn and erm two more guys. heh. got more than a little high from the strong stuff there. good food good company good shissha. simple pleasures in life. good stuff.

had to leave to catch the last bus. and for some reason, strangers seem to strike up conversations with me. two indian guys.. one asking for a dollar the other talking about going to serangoon. and this rather hot working gal. .who first spoke to me in mandarin (good thing i understood her) then we had quite a decent conversation before her bloody bus came along. and then some, on the bus this uncle smiled and waved to me like he knew me. maybe he did. maybe i just have this approachable look. haha. or maybe its the hair. must be the hair. anyway, nice to know we still have friendly singaporeans who find nothing wrong with smiling at strangers and having decent conversations.

oh shout out to kc for the softwares and icons. mac rocks \m/

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 01:20 a.m. comment# gbook

dont mess with the mail program after midnight
for good or for ill, i have accidently deleted all my mail in my school account. All. maybe its life's way of telling me to stay focused on the present. i seem to have lost quite a bit of my memorabilia.

Tuesday, January 4, 2005 02:04 a.m. comment# gbook

monday, january 3rd.
today i got my Dot back. i woke up at 830 today, no wait thats a lie. i lay on the couch till 9 in that semi-sleep state of vivid dreams. i dreamt i had breakfast so i felt quite the glutton when i actually did have my breakfast. i picked Dot up from International Plaza. It's quite cool to be walking around, not having to be in school and not having to work at 10am in the Central Business District. I contemplated wearing college wear to work next time. t-shirt and jeans

i had my first class of the term and it was a riot. got lotsa friends from previous term in there. love these guys. makes a module like Data Management that much more bearable when you're acting like a teenager instead of an adult. fun's cooler than cool.

spent the rest of the day in the SA Room working out the emails and stuff. SA work is a balance of really high-level interactions and menial stuff. it's really rather enjoyable. i was dreading school at first.. but it's such a riot all day.. how can one dread being among friends having no obligations except to understand what's being taught? especially when they give you more marks for talking in class! call me greenhorn but i'm going to enjoy it fully while it lasts.

Monday, January 3, 2005 11:45 p.m. comment# gbook

my webcafe meter says 5 bucks.
i'm typing this out in an expensive internet cafe but what the heck. the ibook's still in the workshop. internet at home is still down. after two days, you start to wonder what kind of emails you're missing out on.. and sometimes there are some friendster testimonials that you just can't wait another day to approve. this is the generation of the net junkies. the need to always feel connected. (connected to what? whom?) addiction to the need to blog. addiction to the need to send friend requests. addiction to the reading and sending and deleting of emails. my friends, we are all geeks and loving it.

Sunday, December 26, 2004 05:37 p.m. comment# gbook