fuck slash, neal schon is my new hero

There are many second-rate guitarists who people like to say that they are "awesome" maybe cause they appear to be mildly good looking, or can play 200 notes in a minute, or they are very flashy, et cetera.

Few can make the guitar sing...

He makes me want to mod a guitar, with a sustainer unit, onboard distortion, onboard delay and OFR whammy. Pure genius, the way he modded his LP - having the sustainer switches at the top/behind the bridge makes it much easier to switch modes in the middle of playing solos, and contoured neck joint really makes it very easy to hit the 22nd fret on a les paul, add the higher octave harmonic ability of the sustainer and he is able to really make the guitar sing.

It's not the most technical of songs, but it's the way he plays it...

let me tell you a story

One day, I felt inspired so i opened up my acrylic red mockingbird and decided in a whim to change out all the parts. So i simply cut (yes, cut) the wires and stuff, thinking i am able to solder them back again. Well so I dismantled the parts and stuff, and here is what was left of it:
















So i happily went and shopped for parts, ordering some online, so here's what I saw when I opened the box. Basically I ordered a gold tuneomatic bridge, stop tailpiece, gold 3-way toggle switch, orange capacitators, 1 giant sized pot, 1 Dream P-90 pickup (GFS) and 1 Dream 180 Pickup (GFS). Not that I expect people to understand what those mean but well, just note that they are all gold.
















So I actually happily put it together and all, and thought I was so smart I saw the diagrams and tried to solder them, so I did, and put everything together, so here was the result:

JENG JENG JENG JENG! Chio right?












































Very big change from when I first got it:
















So of course you would expect me to be like, the happiest kid in Singapore today right?

HELL NO, apparently something is wrong with my wiring, plus the wires which I try to solder with end up being frayed and all, well i TRIED my best and rewired it twice over, but alas when I plugged it into the amp THERE WAS NO SOUND! Not even a signal of any sort.

So something somewhere must have blown... means I still have to lug it down to Peninsula to get someone to wire for me, apparently at least another 30 bucks gone =/

I'm like how depressed can, for all the skillzors of guitar playing cannot even solder stuff myself... Haiz. I can envision my forthcoming conversation with shop owner of doom...

Me: Err, hey, you do rewiring here right?

Him/her: Yes, of course, what can I do for you?

Me: Err, I tried to DIY and somehow it doesn't work, can you fix for me?

Him/her: Ok, sure let me take a look... (opens back cavity, which he doesn't really need to cause the cover is clear plastic) WAH LAO EH.

Me: Yeah, messy right... I want to keep the tone knob and gold 3-way switch, cause those are new.. and the orange drop cap too! Err so how much...

Him/her: Wah, must change out both volume pots, like $5 each for the pots and $20 each for the wiring, so I think like $50 bucks ah.

Me: Wah, can cheaper anot?

Him/her: Very cheap already. Some more your wiring so messy.

Me: Hai, bo bian also lah. So when can I get it back, today?

Him/her: Definitely cannot lah, come back next week.

Me: Haaaah, then must lug back home again....

Okay, never mind I am depressed already, so I shall wait till I get my pay before I get it fixed (or not) For now it sits pretty in its beat up hardcase in all its newfound glory but i STILL don't know how it sounds.

Mr. TJ says bring it to Standard Value. Which is like a zillion miles away in Woodlands, so I guess no, I won't. I'd bring it to either Dan's or Maestro though it might cost more and not end up in the same clean cutesy way Standard Value does soldering jobs.

In other news, didn't go to work today because of an FOC main comm meeting, which was a bit strange cause I was so out of their wavelength (no offense, really) and attempts to dabble in gossip was not met with very friendly-ly (broken english alert, don't learn from me) and though it was a valiant attempt, there was really too much info to be shared over verbally without any reference documents for us and stuff. And only 4 out of 8 OGLs were there so.... God bless us, Melissa.

Anyhow it does sound to be a very interesting WKWSCIFOC2008 so all those who are attending as freshmen, get ready to hear your OG's awesome name: -XXXXXXX-! I didn't come up with it, if you want to blame someone, blame JASON who happily ganged up with newfound special friend to kope the last ever sensible name from me.

Ok lah, come to think of it Ravioli is much worse. Haha.

In some more other news, I spent the weekend (Sunday evening, really) trying to learn "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson (You'd know if you play Guitar Hero 3) and I must say that guy must have a zillion fingers. So far I've only learned about the first minute of the song, since it's such a hassle to remember it. But it's really fun and nice to play (like I was literally swaying along to it...)

And Marvel Straploks are kind of awesome.

I still want to watch Kung Fu Panda, anyone wants to watch?

Got to work tmr... haiz. At least it means cash hahahahaha.

work work werk warrrkk!

Ah finally found some work! Been working for the past few days (5 days into the job already). It's a telemarketing job, not very nice as in the sit there and slack and still can collect money per hour job (referring to Cameron and his pit stop comfy plushy job) but it is not as evil as my previous telemarketing place. The full time staff are very nice people, very friendly and understand that telemarketing is a really god forsaken job, so they do not pressure you with unreasonable-ness.

I mean, if an uncle can't really speak English properly, what is the point of asking him to attend a seminar which is entirely in English? Well it's really a lot more relaxing to not be put under a quota for the day, so on and so forth. And some people are also very rude, even those (especially those) from so-called big MNCs. There was one German MNC which was so rude I had to put down the phone immediately to stop myself from raising my voice at her. And another finding: usually guy receptionists are more friendly than female ones, somehow. Haha.

Work again tommorow, at least the money is going to come in :/

Results aren't as good as I'd hoped, made worse by the fact that all my subjects are 4AU courses, which brings my GPA for this sem to a lowly 3.9/5. Everyone else seems to be getting above 4, which is a depressing thing really. COM230 got myself a mere B, which I suspect was because of the projects (I so nailed the exam, I swear) I'm not going to say any more, because it is pointless. Suffice to say, next sem I am only doing group projects with people who actually have a clue as to what's happening. 208 was kind of expected, I mean, Communication Research, seriously? 202 was screwed up, that bastard of a tutor really screwed us ALL up very badly. It is really sad that your grade in university relies highly on your tutor. Doubly sad that an incompetent bastard who isn't even qualified - a graduate student - is asked to grade the tutorial class. I mean this is a joker who tells us that the lecturer is talking rubbish, and constantly treats everyone like little children, thinking he's so damn smarty pants we all must kowtow to him and all, when really he's just a bullshit pretender of a graduate student who is just interested in completing his own course and doing his own research.

Who else grades a full scale term paper with just a pencil grade and no breakdown/comments/feedback/marks of approval/disapproval in the entire 20 page booklet? In contrast the other tutor was a lot more constructive, and obviously those people are the lucky lot to get better grades for COM202.

I think I just lost it in the ranting for a moment there. Well I'm quite depressed with results.

When is the stupid rat race going to end? It ends when I can successfully convince myself that I am already competing in the elite, so B grades are pretty okay. It will end when my parents finally realise that grades are not everything. It ends when I stop caring about the grade and start enjoying the process. It ends when I start doing SOMETHING REAL in uni.

But first year is finally over.

On the bright side I got my Hall 2 room (yay =D) and stuff, so am really looking forward to next sem in that sense. Of course, had to endure the customary parents' nagging about how not to piss off your neighbor and roommate and stuff. I mean seriously, I am a very docile and pacifist person, why don't they go look at the friggin mirror?

Like seriously.

I feel like eating satay