The Shameless What I Want For My Birthday Post

To answer those who've been asking what present I want for my 21st, let's make things easier for you by posting this shameless thread. For someone who's not a sucker for things he doesnt need, here are some of the things I actually might (or might not) need:

1) Multiple guitar rack - due to the high number of instruments I have and the limited space I have in my tiny room, I'm in a situation where well... there are 6 stringed instruments in my room in total so I need a place to put them nicely, at the same time being conveniently located and all...



















2) Zoom 9.2tt - OK I seriously don't expect anyone to get me this but I'll just shamelessly put it up. Unless you want to... it's just $500! Hehehehe.















3) Arsenal away jersey - well, it's not a 'need' but... And FYI please don't put them with names at the back!
















4) Laptop bagpack - yeah... must be able to fit a 15.4" laptop! hehehe. No weird colors please! Preferably black or red!

new toys

After like 10 working days of waiting (that means 3 weeks) finally all my toys are here! :D:D gonna experiment with them later..




















Behringer MS16 monitor speakers (these were bought in SG) - pretty decent and does its job! Has already paid for itself by being present since the UOC video post production






































Little oversized box for the USB recording studio



















Lexicon Lambda USB recording studio




















MXL990 condenser microphone!














3 generic Nady SP5 microphones! They were damn cheap at 30 usd for 3, plus shipping works out to about $20 a mic? o shit ok not that cheap. But apparently pretty decent

make my memories

I haven't updated again for damn long. Well basically let this be a record of the one month or so that I'd rather forget.

In retrospect it's really kind of going to be one of those unforgettable experiences, working for a shady production company is really an eye-opener, working with people who are intelligent in their own way without actually having a halfway decent education (no I'm not being sarcastic), working with talented people, experience people who have given me a real eye education for the finer details of production work.

What I really want to forget (but what that would really taint my memories forever) is the fact that on my VERY LAST DAY OF WORK a sponsored laptop went missing and fingers started pointing everywhere. Being one of the last trustworthy people on the planet apparently meant that I was entrusted to go to location (a rented condo) alone to settle a lot of stuff. And that apparently made me one of the 'PRIME' suspects. Add that to the fact that one of the days I insisted on going home to eat when wrap time was early, accusations flew that really spoilt my entire mood. And till now, after sessions of 'clarifying' where I was and what I was carrying, apparently they are still not too satisfied. So fine, call the cops, I'll talk to them - not even an issue.

Apart from that, it's been fun being a super senior for FOC, and truth to be told I guess our batch has been put to shame by our own freshies. Yup, here's some videos for you to enjoy if you are loser-ish enough not to have gone for the CS camp! :D

I last posted on the 3rd of June - and it's been almost a month.

Well, I've been off to work for a production house - a holiday job which, at first, I was happy to take up because it was somehow relevant.

Of course, at the end of everything I will look back and tell myself, oh what a priceless experience it is, to be given the responsibilities despite being only a second going on third year student in WKWSCI. I'll tell myself, at least now I know what to look out for, what to anticipate, what to blacklist in the future.

But that's for looking back at the past. There's no time like the present, finally a little breathing space and we've all seen, or heard, about the true colors of many people. I originally had a rather decent impression of the bosses but following what I saw, what I heard, and what I have gone through personally... I'm sorry I guess I can console myself I'm out of a job in 7 days.

It's been kind of fun being involved with the production, talking to the little kids and complaining about things together with people - been fun doing what I do best. Has not been fun being dragged into wardrobe and getting blamed for not knowing things - I mean, c'mon I'm a clothes idiot and you ask me to do wardrobe... of course you're asking for it right? But that's beside the point.

Name me your worst working experience, be it army or what not, can you beat a job where there is already a fixed monthly salary, you have to find your own way into the deepest reaches of Katong, wake up at 6 just to travel to the East and work a 14-16 hour day, and repeat the same thing for 10 days straight before a breather day. Can you imagine what it's like, knowing that you WILL earn more money even if you work as a toilet cleaner?

It's ok, I tell myself, the experience is priceless. Of course I didn't count on the experience being quite so bitter especially with the bosses...

Now I just want to sleep and do my own stuff while I still can.

Thankfully the kids have to go back to school and so there's no way to shoot. If not those bloodsuckers would definitely find more reasons for us to work even more.

little boxes on the hillside, little boxes!

Malvina Reynolds - Little Boxes (theme song of Weeds)  Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky  Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same  There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one  And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.  And the people in the houses all went to the university  Where they were put in boxes and they came out all the same,  And there's doctors and there's lawyers, and business executives  And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.  And they all play on the golf course and drink their martinis dry,  And they all have pretty children and the children go to school  And the children go to summer camp and then to the university  Where they are put in boxes and they come out all the same.  And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family  In boxes made of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

This is a really really awesome song of a really really awesome CABLE TV series WEEDS which, like DEXTER, will never clear Singapore Censorship Board. Essentially it's a show that revolves around a female drug dealer who just wants to provide for her family, set in suburban America and is basically, an awesomely messed-up show.

After watching many many episodes of the show the theme song grows on you, and I really must share. 

The Original version

Elvis Costello's version


Death Cab for Cutie version


Country version by Billy Bob Thornton


A WTF version by Linkin Park


Floaty version by the Submarines


An awesome version by Englebert Humperdinck


What i think is a ghastly (though most original) RAP version by the INDIVIDUALS:


This is my runaway favourite version given the theme of the song :D:D:D
Which sadly refuses to be embedded so go here to watch it...

I swear, it's a damn addictive song!

BullShit

fuck you, 

woman from the stupid SBS faculty who made it her semester-long goal to torture students without biology knowledge with near-impossible MCQ examination questions.

FUCK YOU. 

Thanks to you my gpa is now one more step to being VERY fucked up. And it's hardly fair seeing how your fucked up tinkering with the exam format seemed to make it NOT EVEN POSSIBLE for us to get a decent grade

may you burn in hell/have a minor lab accident (minor only, im not that evil)

ok im just venting. I need a target and she's the most convenient bitch around

to be honest, i am flabbergasted at how we went home empty handed. here were the other entries.

if i'd known, I would have continued singing KTV. if we were told before hand like the winners were told beforehand,  i would have stayed at home. maybe we're like the sex pistols - i think we're awesome, but we've never won a single prize. really. like you'd think by now we'd have come closer to winning something. 

it's all right, we'll keep trying

holidayyy

So here's what I've been doing the past week or two: 

Watching TV shows: namely the Simpsons, which i still have a lot of. The rest i've actually watched in between studying for exams :/

Conquering China - it's the strategy game Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11. Not exactly fun in the fun sense but strangely addictive. I guess it's just about conquering everything. This screenshot is my army about 4 cities away from conquering the entire China. 

AIESEC Speak out for Red - took just a full day of our efforts but i think it's pretty decent. Fingers crossed that the organisers don't do something stupid to make me curse and swear at them. 

Zhenggg guitars - clockwise - family of three electrics, heavily modified masterpiece mockingbird, washburn superstrat with custom finish (using duct tape) and NEW cloud inlays, acrylic mockingbird with NEW bird inlays. Probably going to zheng them again, just unsure with what. Waiting for the little killer pickups to arrive from the US (thanks JAC! :D) so I can replace the stock washburns.

Many of my friends appear to be rather awesome photographers. Judging from how awesome they made me look in these pictures:

By Ahmad! 

By Zed!

One of chang's cool ass shots with the cool ass lens which costs waaayyy more than that guitar (which cost me alot)

aaaand. A little gig from my band again! Not so pro but i guess we are decent. If you guys want to watch it's next monday (18th May 2009) at Music Dreamer Live Cafe. Here's the link for FACEBOOK USERS. Yup yup. To be honest I'm not that excited about it because i'm kind of lazy and performing is tiring. But I'm supposed to play the instrumental I played for fete so you can come down and watchhh =D. Oh by the way, theresacoverchargeof10.90whichincludesonenonalcoholicdrink. 

Next up, still in the midst of thinking of stories for crowbar awards. But i highly doubt theres a real chance of coming up with winning visuals simply because we're not really equipped for it. To be honest every step of the way we've done are just making do with what we know, not actual skills training. Something that bothers me about going to BCS, is that we seem to be groomed to be behind the scenes paperwork handlers, promoters, and et cetera without knowing  the requisite technical skills to succeed and produce real good work. That's all well and good, I can readily admit we can analyse, break down and structure stories, scenes and plots quite well. But are we able to reverse that process and make something high-quality? Very difficult. And it shows - why are poly students able to create such stunning camera work and special effects while we are restricted to dramatic creations which are less impressive? The answer is training, we lack it severely. I mean, this is something I heard from Vincent himself (the media head of CS) - outside, to be endowed with BASIC proficiency in AVID people go through an intensive 3-week long course. CS people have to make do with three 1.5 hour sessions to learn AVID. Nothing close. Audio proficiency needs like one entire course just to get the basics right, but yet there is no real workshop that trains us in that. 

Droning on and on, but basically what I want to say is, if you are interested to act for our crowbar entry, or want to be part of the crew, can sound me out and i'll be sure to call you down! Hopefully an idea pops in  my head soon.

wham bam shazam

YESHHHH EXAMSS ARE BLARRRDY OVER!!! =D

That's for the happy stuff.

The sian-er stuff - well I'm broke-ish, means must find work. But wait! It's damn difficult to find a holiday job where employers are simply exploiting you with meager per hour pay to do the work of a cow. And to make it worse, I am not a PR, which is, WHOA, double no-hire. Okay, so I'm broke. But part of the reason of finding a holiday job is so I 'won't be bored at home' says my mom. 

Okay, I'm quite sure there are a million and one other things I can do to fill my time, writing screenplays, writing songs, going out to meet friends, make some short films, sleep? Isn't it important to sleep? I hate it that people who can only observe come in and say 'you should do this, you should do that' et cetera. Like 'you should work so you're not bored' - really, I think I'd be more bored if i settled for some telemarketing crap or what not. 

Ok, it's called summer break but I'm not break-ing anywhere. No such thing as a family holiday since the year 2005? That's a zillion years ago, much shits happened and by now both my sisters are working, and my parents can't leave the rented out apartment without people looking after it. Neither can they leave my house with the students inside unattended. Neither can they leave the maid unattended. One thousand one hundred and eleven excuses later, we're probably not going to go on a real holiday together for the rest of our lives. Excuses excuses excuses. And that probably means the next REAL holiday I'd ever get would be say, if I ever got married and went on a nice, long honeymoon. Yes, that's so fucking sad. I see some of my friends who have a missing family member, nonexistent family members, and stuff. My family's all here but they're not really here. So disconnected already so there's not much point in saying anything. Who ever asked my opinion whether we should move house or not? Nobody, cause apparently the entire family must follow the head of the household when he decides something is good for us. 90% of me thinks I'd be a ton happier if I were still staying at the old place, a quieter neighborhood, closer to some of the people whom I'd have been close friends with if I stayed. But no, of course - I guess nobody bothered to ask what would make the family happy.

And I've been proven quite right, eh. And now there are multiple dimensions of dislike, preferences and biases and I lost the words with which to hold a real, non-superficial conversation with them. Sucks. 

Anyway, money makes my world go round so far and yet I need more of it. What's new. Some birthday parties soon, maybe some stayovers, some things here and there, I hope I'll be happier than the last summer break. Maybe go for a quick (cheap) getaway with some friends, since the family won't budge. I guess we're all zombies now.

could it be could it be, that you're joking with me

I am great sadness that Arsenal lost to Chelsea. It's not even because they played horrible (ok mostly they did but....) but because of sheer dumb luck. If some Spaniard didnt bang into Almunia the way he did, Malouda's shot would've been saved and Drogba would probably not have scored. As a fan I'm chuffed that Fabianski chose the semi final to show his nerviness in a big game. 

Ok that's done and over with. 

I've still got two papers, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday, but I am sluggish stop-start at the studying thing. I really need to step out... 

Yeah I guess that's it. Hope one of my job applications get accepted beyond the 'Oh he's not even PR' rejection mark.