the land of bravo sierra

MOVING OUT AFTER FIVE YEARS!!!!!!

2011-01-07T19:30:00.002+08:00

Okay, people. I've decided to switch over to Tumblr after five years of using Blogger. It's time for a change methinks! I will still be leaving this blog open for you to trawl through 378 posts of bravo sierra. It could've been 600+ if I hadn't deleted more than 200 posts during a 'purge' sometime in 2008.

I will still be updating my photography blog so be sure to visit. Okay, time to say bye for the last time! (Hope to see you in Tumblr!)

>>Bravo, sierra!!!

got a tumblr, whatever that is!

2011-01-05T22:02:00.002+08:00

Check it out: http://bravosierra09.tumblr.com/

Still finding my way through. It looks simple and sleek so I thought I'd give it a go. Who knows, I might even move there one day.

it's that time of the year again!

2011-01-03T13:52:00.002+08:00

Happy belated new year everybody! I was in China without an internet access over the New Year weekend so I couldn't post on time! A new year, a new start! 2011 is special to me because I can finally learn to drive! But first, I have to learn the highway code!

So for this year's first post I shall review last year's New Year resolutions and set this year's.

1) Compose a cello sonata (the first one I can think of)

I must admit I've completely forgotten this one. But I composed a whole bunch of other songs! Like my Christmas Medley, Vocalise, wedding songs for string ensemble...

2) Finish Toccata

I've forgotten about this one too, but I think I can still play it.

3) Finish Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 3 Part 1

I meant to type piano concerto, and I've not completed that yet.

4) Get at least 3.8 GPA for every semester (if I get into poly)

I got 3.9 for my first semester! I got into poly!!

5) Get more pictures accepted to A.net!!

I got 14 pictures accepted last year!

6) Get into NP's String Orchestra!

I did!

7) Get along better with other people

I hope I did!

8) Improve my non-existent Russian!

I'm ashamed to say that I've given up!

So, 3 out of 8. I could do better. Maybe I should've set more realistic targets. Haha. Anyway, on to this year's resolutions...

1) Maintain my GPA

2) Renew my scholarship

3) Get more photos accepted on A.net

4) Learn Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto Part 1

5) Take cello lessons more seriously

6) Pass driving test on the first try!!

7) Control my anger

Right, that's all I can think of. So long!

merry christmas!!

2010-12-25T17:12:00.002+08:00

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Let your heart be light

From now on your troubles will be out of sight!

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Make the Yuletide gay

From now on your troubles will be miles away!

Here we are as in olden days

Happy golden days of yore

Faithful friends who are dear to us

Gather near to us once more!

Through the years we all will be together

If the fates allow

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough!

Have yourself a merry little Christmas now!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

can't wait for practice to resume!!

2010-12-24T00:03:00.002+08:00

Heard from my senior that Mr Kong and Mr Ma would be coming back next year~!!! I've not had lessons for 2 solid months, so I was very glad at the news!! Now that my right hand has almost recovered, I can practice Butterfly Lovers again!!

I'm half dreading and half looking forward to tomorrow! Because I have to vacuum the house in the morning and do a lot of housework. But at night, I'm going to Orchard Road to photograph the Christmas lights! Finally!

On Christmas Day, we'll be having a family gathering at my house! I don't like hosting parties but my mum insisted... But there'll be lots of food so it's okay! Then next Wednesday we'll be leaving for China to spend the New Year there! Well, that's not the main purpose of the trip. I'm still excited anyway! Even though our plane leaves in the afternoon, I'll be going to the airport super early to photograph planes! I'm also going to bring my tripod because I heard that I can photograph lots of stars in China! My first time doing astrophotography!

Damn tired, going to bed now! Good night!

got rejected, again!

2010-12-22T23:25:00.003+08:00

Stayed up until 2am last night waiting for A.net to screen my photos. I had 2 photos in the queue and one got an instant rejection (haha...) while the other one passed the first screening. Now so far all my photos that passed first screening made it, so I thought this one would go through. So I waited for the confirmation email. At 2am, there still wasn't any email from A.net, so I went to bed feeling quite confident that my photo would be accepted. The next morning, I received... A rejection email!!! And you know what, it was sent at 2.16am, minutes after I went to sleep!!! :( If I had stayed up later, I would've seen it, and at least my time wouldn't have been wasted. Alamak, all my photos submitted to A.net so far have been rejected! Either their standards have gone up, or my editing skills have gone down! I'd like to think it's the former! But it's still bad for me!

Haha. I should go for plane photography trips more often!

On a random note, I really want to learn jazz! The past few days I've been listening to jazz all day. I love those jazz chord progressions. Watching people play jazz on Youtube makes me insanely jealous. They make it look so easy but in fact it's one of the hardest genres to play. I've been experimenting with my own jazz arrangements of popular songs but they're just pathetic attempts. I've found a music school that teaches jazz improvisation and just looking at their syllabus makes me drool. It's called Play By Ear and it teaches everything I want to know about jazz improvisation. I wanted to sign up for lessons right away the first time I visited their website, but then I realised that I would not have the time... So I can only learn after I graduate, which is... 2.5 years later!!!

You know, I might even want to do my 3rd year industrial attachment in Singapore just to learn jazz half a year earlier...

the memory of...

2010-12-22T17:08:00.002+08:00

The way your smile just beams

The way you sing off key

The way you haunt my dreams...

No they can't take that away from me :)

looking forward to christmas, but not after that

2010-12-19T22:27:00.004+08:00

My hand is healing! I'm so happy. Although it still hurts when playing with my pinky, at least I can bend it now! I can clench and unclench my fist, no problem! I can't wait to play Mendelssohn!!!

I love the holidays! I am enjoying my holidays more than when I was in secondary school. I'm really glad I discovered photography. It is a great way to pass time. On Friday and Saturday, I went to Marina Bay to photograph the area. My first attempts at panorama photography were successful! I shall not talk about photography too much because that belongs to my other blog!

Actually, my main purpose in going to MB on Friday wasn't for photography. I wanted to watch a live jazz performance by the Summertimes Big Band at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre. As you know, I'm very interested in jazz. I'm currently self-learning jazz improvisation, but I plan to learn it at a music school after I graduate (which is... 3 years later). I attended all 3 sets of the performance. It was amazing! Some songs were unfamiliar to me, but I totally enjoyed the performance (because it's jazz). And of course, with Christmas around the corner, the band also played jazz arrangements of Christmas songs. Jazz arrangements of holiday classics are my favourite ever. What's more, they played my favourite Christmas song, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, four times! I was a very very happy kid at the end of the 3 sets.

Right Hand, hurry up and heal quickly! I'm dying to borrow all the jazz books from the Esplanade library...

I went back yesterday for more panorama photography, and to listen to another big band, the Tanglin Rose. Half of their members are from Summertimes, haha. I met my friend there, and we had fun taking pictures of the beautiful cityscape. He had just bought a Holga and was playing around with it.

I had wanted to go back this evening for the Summertimes Jazz Orchestra's performance. It would include strings players too, and I wanted to attend so badly. But I couldn't because I had my own performance. It was at my CCA instructor's music school's Christmas party, and we, as a quartet, would play some songs at a corner while everyone feasted on barbecued food. Now normally I would be glad to have a chance to play with my senior, but I would've passed up today's performance to attend the jazz orchestra's. But hey, some students even came back just to watch us play, and I'm grateful for that. However, I feel bad for not doing a good job. After all, one of them is a cellist, and he's much better than me...

Was pleased to have performed my Christmas medley! Although it sounded a bit weird, according to my senior... (I think it's alright though..!)

The feeling of not needing to do anything... Wait, I think I have at least 4 projects to do! Oh no! 2 of them are COMISS projects, and they're a BITCH!!! I hate formal presentations! DUDE!!! One major presentation is enough already, but one more 'small' project due on... the second week of January?? OH NO!!! D: Suddenly my holidays don't look so fun anymore.

Sigh. You know, I'm actually starting to accept the fact that I may not get my scholarship renewed next year. What a joke I will be. What a let-down to everyone who believed in me. And the 15-85 remains a distant dream...

You know, during times like this I like to play Bejeweled Blitz to try to block out the bad thoughts from my mind. But my mouse just died :( And being ashamedly addicted to Bejeweled Blitz is extremely unhealthy. But it's the best way for me to be momentarily cut off from reality. It's just like how some people drink to forget their problems. And even though we know it's bad, we still continue doing it. I've tried looking for other ways to destress, but haven't found one. Because nothing demands my total attention more than Bejeweled Blitz. And just like drinking, after the initial high is gone, I'll crash back into reality and discover that, on top of a splitting headache, my problems still have not been solved.

sian

2010-12-09T23:09:00.003+08:00

Got an email about my scholarship.

"We note that you have done relatively well for your previous semester but your academic results is not within the top 10% of your cohort."

Not within top 10% = not on director's list = no scholarship renewal next year

I don't yet know if my scholarship'll be terminated or not, but it's likely things will head that way. And that means, NO LENS!!!!!! If I hadn't got a lens at stake, I would say to hell with this director's list bullshit. But faced with a very real possibility of not getting my lens, I am fucking pissed. Damn you contrasting subject, you were my downfall in secondary school, now you're back to haunt me. Go away you bitch.

terminal one's viewing mall is FINALLY OPEN!!!!!!!

2010-11-26T12:12:00.002+08:00

Read on an aviation forum that Changi's T1 viewing mall has finally opened after months of renovation!!!!!! And from the picture someone posted, it looks really promising, because it doesn't have the double-glass design that killed the views in T2 and T3's viewing malls. BRILLIANT!!!!!! I don't know how big the place is but as long as there's an unobstructed view of the planes, I AM GOING THERE EVERY WEEK!!!

I already have my first trip planned. I can't go tomorrow because of my performance, so SUNDAY will be the day I'm checking the place out! I'm giggling like a schoolgirl as I type this. One whole year of not being able to photograph planes at the airport and now it's going to change. AWESOME!!!!!!

It's time to revive my dead A.net account. Waaaaaahhhhhh I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Hangs camera around neck, puts on cap and sunglasses, checks equipment... IT'S GO TIME!!!!!!

christmas comes early in the land of BS!!

2010-11-08T22:24:00.005+08:00

I couldn't stand it any longer! I usually activate the snow script in December every year but this time I can't wait anymore! I was psyching myself up by listening to Christmas songs on Youtube! Gotta love those jazz arrangements! :D

all we know is falling

2010-11-02T21:47:00.005+08:00

Yesterday, our president dropped a huge bombshell on us. No thanks to 2 missing violins, our CCA would be suspended for two weeks, maybe even more, as investigations are conducted.

My first reaction was, NOOoooooOOOoooOOoOoOoooOOO!!!!!!!!!

It was as though a huge chunk of me had been ripped out. "NOOOOOooooooOOO!!!!!" I moaned to my seniors. "NPStrings is my home!!!"

I know, I once threatened to quit. But it was only an empty threat. I was an asshole then. But deep in my heart, NPStrings is where I know I belong. Having been part of a happy family for only less than a year, I was reluctant to let it go.

And then a sudden realisation hit me like a flying brick.

No Saturday lessons for at least two weeks.

It dawned on me how much I took Mr Kong and Mr Ma for granted. I turned up late for almost all the lessons, didn't put in much effort in learning the cello, often giving up on a song I was working on and playing the piano instead. And on the rare occasions I played with Mr Kong, I didn't play well. "There's always next time," I reassured myself.

Now, I don't know when the next time is.

I have yet to play Butterfly Lovers properly with Mr Kong. Same goes for Beethoven's Spring Sonata.

I have not taken a photo with Mr Kong or Mr Ma. (This is what depresses me most.)

I have not mastered tremolo and vibrato. I also have not mastered a single piece, because I get tired of playing the same thing over and over again.

I have not seen the best of Mr Kong yet. I want to see him play Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, maybe even play with him.

Our president talked to us just now. He said that the club had been on the verge of shutting down last year, when 2 violins had also gone missing, and that it could happen this time.

And when my favourite senior told me that he wanted to quit NPStrings, all I was aware of was my happy little world crashing around me.

The destruction of my beloved CCA is now complete.

playing with mr kong is so fun!

2010-10-30T22:29:00.002+08:00

So today's cello lesson was the first in one month. Bet Mr Kong and Mr Ma had an awesome time in Europe. I'm so jealous, just looking at SSO's photos on Facebook!

Halfway through the lesson, I went to Mr Kong and requested he play Butterfly Lovers with me. It was very thick-skinned of me because he is a master of that concerto, having recorded it years ago to rave reviews. Actually, the reason why I had the score was because his student had wanted to play with me. This student, an NPStrings alumnus, is something of a legend to my seniors. And I thought, since Mr Kong was here, why not play with him?

When he took his violin and approached the piano, the whole room fell silent. And I proceeded... to humiliate myself in front of him. Haha. I blame my nerves. I can never play well under stress. Hey, playing in front of a famous violin virtuoso is very stressful, you know!!! Luckily, Mr Kong was very understanding and despite my horrible playing he showed me his appreciation afterwards. And before leaving, he said to me, "Let's play again next time!!"

Mr Kong is so awesome!!

Of course, I didn't forget to play the cello! For today's lesson, Mr Ma let me play a grade 8 piece! In fact, he let me play 2 pieces! But as my skills were not fully developed yet, I could only play the easier parts. Maybe I should play with Celly Belly more often (he's sulking in a corner, having been neglected for weeks already. D: )

Sigh, I should be catching up on sleep now! I have to wake up at 6 on 4 days out of 5, I was late for 5 minutes yesterday despite catching the 8am bus!! Grrrr!!!

back to skool!!

2010-10-26T20:06:00.003+08:00

Yesterday was the first day of the new semester! I wasn't really looking forward to going back to school because of my new timetable. This sem I have to take 2 more modules, which means my timetable is packed! Lessons end at 5 most of the time, and my only half-day is Thursday! What's more, the modules I'm taking now are many times more difficult than the previous ones! I am so going to die!!

And the most worrying thing is that my lecturers are extremely boring! To date, I have slept through half of my lectures. It is fast becoming a habit! I have to do something about it before it gets out of hand.

Sian. At least there's NPStrings to look forward to!

the ultimate time waster

2010-10-04T21:48:00.005+08:00

I was supposed to have piano practice at 6.30 just now, but I found no one there when I arrived at 6.35. The practice room was still empty when I returned from dinner after 7, so after muttering a few choice words, I decided to go home. But I didn't want to reach home too early because I didn't want to recount the tale to my mum, and I had nothing to do at home anyway. So I took a long bus ride, on bus 74 all the way to Hougang interchange and then 165 back to Ang Mo Kio.

It was a mind-numbing journey. Half and hour into the ride and we were still stuck in Ang Mo Kio. I could've hopped off at AMK Hub but I didn't. The bus sped on towards Hougang, and as the journey dragged on I felt myself losing focus. I was in a stupor, slowly losing consciousness in the drone of the engine and the air conditioning. I was prone to motion sickness in long bus rides, so I found myself yawning every now and then to stop myself from puking. When we finally entered Hougang, the bus kept turning here and there and I swore we travelled on every street in the area. What's worse, we seemed to stop at every bus stop and this made the trip longer.

Suddenly, I realised I was the only passenger left in the bus. I snapped out of my semi-consciousness. This meant we were approaching the bus interchange! Over there, I exited the bus hurriedly, relieved to be on terra firma once again. I checked my watch: it took me an hour to get here.

I was lucky to have had a fast and reckless driver. He sped down Bukit Timah Road and Lornie Road like nobody's business. Many times I was forced to the back of my seat when the bus accelerated. I loved it. It brought to mind the best bus ride I ever had, on service 52. On that wonderful ride, the bus negotiated a curve at such a high speed its side scraped the road. All of us were experiencing a force of at least 2G and I was clinging onto the handrails for dear life. Good times. I never had a bus ride that fun anymore.

If I'd boarded a double-decker, I could've taken 2 hours to reach Hougang. Because more often than not, the 74 double-deckers that I board are one of the slowest vehicles around (that includes bicycles). They trundle along the roads with a maximum speed of just over 20km/h. Sometimes, they go so slow that I believe I run faster during my morning jog. Their slow speed is painfully evident on Lornie road, where stopping at bus stops and traffic lights are rare, so it's like an expressway. So there we are, at the extreme left of the road, doing under half the limit, while other vehicles zoom by. Another bus roars past us and seconds later, it disappears into the horizon.

To be honest, it's not only the 74 bus drivers who are under the snail's curse. In fact, the slowest bus I have ever travelled on was ironically a service 52.

Back to the story, where I just stepped off bus 74 into the bustling Hougang bus interchange. Not far from me was a pasar malam, where sticks of fishball, sausage, chicken wings and other mouth-watering fried food were sold. It took me all I had to tear myself away from the lure of those artery-cloggers and reluctantly, I took bus 165 home.

And so ends my account of my boring trip home from school, which took a grand total of 1.5 hours, more than twice the usual time. Now I understand why my senior refuses to take bus 74 home. Riding it once was tiresome enough, but doing it everyday, that's another story. Next time, I'm going to hop on bus 89 from Changi Beach to Hougang. I've seen the route, and it's long. But I guess I'm prepared.

three decimal niner

2010-10-01T09:21:00.003+08:00

As you will have known by now... the poly results are out!!

And yours truly got... 3.9!!

If you bother to know, I got AD for Compro (surprise surprise! Even I was shocked myself) and Engineering Mechanics, A+ for ETE and A for FAT (kinda disappointed there). I heard from my senior we could get money for getting AD's, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

Yes, Idea Jumpstart (aka contrasting subject) is my downfall again... Got B for that damned subject. Last time it was humanities, now this... Ah what the hell, I'm going planespotting later anyway!

this is the life

2010-09-29T23:06:00.003+08:00

Today I went to Changi beach park on a whim. I had always wanted to try out bus 59, which goes to Changi Village, and as the weather was good this afternoon, I made the decision to go. It took me 2 hours to get there from my home -.-" 1 hour to get to the bus stop in Toa Payoh, 1 hour on the bus itself. So I reached there at 5pm which isn't too bad really, because it wasn't too warm. I was bursting with excitement because it was my first planespotting session since... last December!

I was walking towards Changi beach park from Changi Village when I saw a Fokker 50 take off and then immediately do a hard bank to the left, its landing lights shining directly into my eyes. At first, I was shocked but I recovered a second later and I wrenched my camera out of my bag and started shooting. And then I realised I had the wrong settings because I had been shooting other stuff earlier this morning, which required me to overexpose by 2/3 stops and have the aperture wide open. Naturally, I panicked. I managed to regain my senses soon enough to adjust the aperture, but not the exposure compensation. Meanwhile, the Fokker, after doing a tight 180 degree turn, landed, seconds after taking off.

Luckily, at least one shot was salvageable:

The park was almost empty when I got there, except for 2 aviation enthusiasts and the occasional cyclist/runner. I found a spot under the trees and waited for the planes to come. Here are some of my better shots, though I won't be uploading any of them to A.net anytime soon...

AirAsia A320. I'm sick of these planes.

Jet Airways 737. I'm as sick of 737s as I am of A320s.

Qantas A330. When the 787 enters service, A330s will no longer be at the top of my 'sexiest airliners' list...

SQ 777 arriving as a storm brews in the north.

I had this shot in mind for many months now, but it didn't quite turn out what I had imagined. The aircraft is too small and high in the frame for my liking, but maybe it's because it's an A320.

I figured I had had enough of shooting from that spot, so I prepared to leave to look for another angle when I saw it. Even from so far out, the shape of the A380 was clear. As I had my 18-55 on my camera, shooting close-ups of the plane was out of the question and I didn't have time to change lenses. So I waited until it came closer, and while waiting I took test shots to get the right exposure. I reckoned a shutter speed of 1/100s was too slow so I used 1/160s, but that meant I had to pump up the ISO speed to 400. But my light meter kept saying I was underexposing so I adjusted my ISO to 800. All this while the A380 was coming closer. Then for some reason I decided 1/100s would be acceptable but then I would have to change back to ISO400 for which I had no time as the A380 was already screaming over me. So I had no choice but to be forced to shoot with ISO800 or not have a shot at all. And in all the chaos I forgot all about shooting the A380 with the sea and the trees but instead focused on filling the frame with the plane.

Sigh. I sweated so much for such a common photo.

Managed to keep my head when a 777 arrived and got this shot of it but it would've been much better with an A380 instead...

Love the good ol' 747.

BA 777. To be honest, I'm also kinda sick of 777s...

CX 777, B-HNA. I had been hoping so much for it to be B-HNC, for the lame reason that my first photo on A.net was of that plane, haha.

There was a major storm going on over Pulau Ubin, and every now and then there would be lightning. I was so afraid it would come to Changi and leave me stranded on the beach. (Luckily it didn't)

I was at a new spot when another A380 came. This time, I had the correct settings.

It was then I noticed the orange sky at the other side. Then I thought of my old spotting location - Shore Restaurant at SAFRA country club, to the south of the airport. From there, I could have photographed 20C and 20R departures set against the orange sky, and maybe a sunset shot or two. I turned back and looked at my grey sky. Sigh. The grass (or sky, in this case), is always greener (or more orange) on the other side.

KLM 777. Now how I wish I had a longer and better quality lens (read: 100-400) to capture the plane and the vortices more clearly...

At about 7pm, the wind direction began to change. It was south-easterly most of the time I was there, but then the storm began to blow towards us. The wind was chilly and dead leaves were flying everywhere. I began to freeze up - yes, you heard right, I was freezing up in Singapore - because I was facing the sea and received the full force of the wind. Slowly, the headwind became crosswind and finally tailwind. So the planes began landing from the other side instead. And it was then I decided to call it a day.

I took a photo of this stray cat though!

Had a really tasty dinner of seafood mee goreng at Changi Village before boarding the next bus home. On the bus, I made myself dizzy by reviewing my photos and systematically deleting one photo after another. I have this rule that no matter how brilliant the composition of the photo, if it is blurry/out of focus, it goes into the bin. So this means more than half of the photos I took. :\

I'm going back on Friday! I have thought of other new angles and I'm eager to try them out!

(Oh yes, and in case you're wondering why I'm not posting this on Camera Kid, it's because the photos I took aren't terribly interesting. Maybe I'll put up one or two, but that's the maximum.)

that sinking feeling...

2010-09-24T20:01:00.005+08:00

Just suffered the biggest disappointment of my life.

After more than 1 year of not watching, I finally remembered there was Mythbusters on TV today at 8pm (a quick check with the TV guide confirmed that), but somehow they are now screening a documentary about building an eco-friendly city.

Do I even need to start describing how utterly devastated I am feeling right now? The last episode I watched was way back in August last year (forgot exactly when, but it was before the prelims), and I even missed the ENTIRE season 6. I couldn't believe my eyes when I watched the trailer for that documentary after 'Everything You Need To Know'. Hoping that they had made a mistake and played the wrong trailer or something, I stayed on, clinging onto whatever I'd got. And when the show started but I didn't hear the Mythbusters jingle, everything fell apart and my knees gave way and I sank to the floor, moaning...

Okay that was rather melodramatic. But seriously, I swear the TV guide said that Mythbusters would be showing now. I hate you Starhub for playing with my emotions!!!

in the mood for christmas!!

2010-09-19T22:56:00.003+08:00

Oh how much I love Christmas!!! Which is kind of strange since my family almost never celebrates Christmas. But for some reason I feel all warm and fuzzy inside whenever I see something related to Christmas. And I love the festival so much I spent the whole day writing a Christmas medley for strings ensemble!! I love writing stuff for strings because it's easier than composing for piano! I'm still not done yet though - there're so many more songs I want to include in the medley. Hope I won't run out of pages to write on, haha. I hope NPStrings will one day perform it, but it's okay if we don't. There's the SSO's Christmas concert to look forward to :D

I can't wait for next week, there's strings practice on 4 days out of 7. In fact, there's practice tomorrow. Maybe we can play my Vocalise arrangement.

One year of rach 3

2010-09-18T23:44:00.001+08:00

I just remembered... Exactly one year ago on this date, I played the whole of Rach 3 for the first time. Since then I have learnt many other songs but this concerto is the single greatest thing I've ever played. And I don't think I will ever learn another concerto quite like this one.

I've found another holiday activity: arranging songs for strings ensemble. So far I've finished Vocalise, and there are still many other pieces on the list. Hopefully this will keep me occupied for the rest of the holiday.

time for a change

2010-09-17T14:29:00.004+08:00

I bet the first thing that came to your mind when you came here is, 'What the fuck has happened to you??!!' To which I say, pink ain't that bad a colour y'know!! However no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to remove the irritating navbar at the top. (I'm using Google Chrome, but somehow it's not there in IE) I don't know why I could remove it in my previous skin though.

Remember what I said about me dreading TCP camp? It turned out that my fears were unfounded because it was awesome. And it's not only because we stayed indoors all day long and had good food (my ideal type of camp) but also because it made me think of things that I never bothered to think about and I got to meet awesome people. I wouldn't say this camp changed my life, but I certainly got something out of it.

We were dismissed at 4pm, and as I had CCA in the evening and had to return the school's cello, I went home and came back at 6.30. I think NPStrings is the only thing for which I will forsake an evening of rest just to attend practice. In the end we didn't do much, just practiced scales and I made a fool of myself on the violin. But I'm glad I turned up. I don't think there's anything the world right now that I love more than my awesome CCA.

We have practice tomorrow again!! But I'm not expecting anyone apart from myself to turn up. It doesn't matter. I'm going to ask Mr Ma to teach me Rachy's cello sonata. And if Mr Kong remembers, we'll play Beethoven's Spring Sonata. Speaking of which, I have not practiced it for weeks.

post exam activities

2010-09-04T22:11:00.003+08:00

Exams end next week! I have to think of stuff to do during the holidays!

1) Batam trip! - Organise and edit photos

2) TCP camp! (It's an induction camp for members of The Christieara Programme for us scholars)

3) Brush up on Russian!!!

4) Design ambigrams!

5) Do macro photography!

6) Practice cello!

7) Practice piano!

8) Go planespotting!

9) Erm, is there anything else?

Looks like someone's going to be really bored for 2 months... T___T

andrey! and other stuff

2010-08-29T11:12:00.002+08:00

Andrey was finally delivered to my house yesterday! And my goodness he's so big! Here's a photo I took of him a few minutes ago, pardon the poor quality because I took it with my phone...

(Check out my G1000 poster on the wall!)

And wow, playing on Andrey is really different from playing on Sasha. They also sound very different. Sasha had a very harsh sound and it was hard to control the volume of my notes, but Andrey... All I can say is that he sounded just like a grand. Really! And although he's 10 years old and he's an older U3 model, I don't mind it a single bit!

Oh and something awesome happened on Friday. My 14th photo got accepted on A.net!! ^^ Remember the photo of the Chinook and the flag? Yeah it got accepted!! :D But the more awesome thing is that it made it onto the front page!! Because of that, it got more than 3000 hits!

I've decided not to trash my photography blog! I've added some new stuff to it, like the Photo of the Week feature (updated every Sunday), and my new project, A Sunset A Day! Basically it's an album full of sunset pictures taken from my window. I aim to update it everyday, unless the weather is really bad and I cannot see the sun.

Check it out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53419441@N03/sets/72157624700076691/

Okay it's time to go now! Bye!

remembering sasha

2010-08-23T00:00:00.006+08:00

Today I met Andrey for the first time. The moment I played Rach 3 on him, I knew he was the one... Haha, Andrey is of course my so-called 'new' piano, but since he's 10 years old he can't be called new. But I have to, so to speak, find Sasha a new home first to make way for Andrey (who's no midget).

Ahhh... Letting go of Sasha is like losing a friend... He stuck with me from grade 2 (even earlier, methinks) to 8, and I learnt my first piano concerto (Grieg's) and Rach 3 with him, and even cried on him once. And he also put up with (a younger) me slamming the lid down in anger or hitting the keys in frustration when I could not perfect a piece. Oh yes, I also composed my song (which was later recorded into a CD and performed in a concert hall) on him, and you can say he was the first to hear it. In fact, I think that Sasha, of all the things that I own so far, contains the most memories, and is one of the very few things that still survives from my childhood. We have been through so much together.

awesome!

2010-08-22T09:59:00.003+08:00

Wah Mr Kong's concert was amazing! My senior said he made a lot of mistakes but it sounded alright to me! But overall he performed really really well. Half the time he had his eyes closed, haha! We sat right in front of him, at the second row, but when we met him at the autograph signing session he said he hadn't seen us! Yes I got his autograph, although I could get one anytime I wanted! Haha! We'll be playing Beethoven's sonatas next! He said that the Spring Sonata is fun to play! And it turns out I have the score! And since the next lesson is, like, 2 months away, I'll have time to practice! How exciting!

Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 was strangely familiar to me (maybe that's why they called the concert 'The Familiar and the Fantastic'??) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Or should I say I thoroughly enjoyed watching the cute principal cellist. Hey, even my senior says he's cute!!!

At the concert we met some of our CCA friends and an alumnus. So it wasn't only us who were there to support Mr Kong! After that some of us left and the rest of us had supper and I reached home at 12.30 and went to bed, completely forgetting about the Arsenal match.

We won 6-0! I realise we like to score 6 against 'Black' teams. I still remember the 6-2 victory against Blackburn. I forgot when. And now 6-0 against Blackpool. Haha.

Off to look at pianos later! I can't wait!

for the love of SG

2010-08-11T11:51:00.003+08:00

I had the best National Day ever! Everything went according to plan. I reached MBS at 8am and at 10am, after buying the tickets, I set up camp at the Skypark. Part of the plan involved waiting up there for 8 hours and I'm proud to say that I did it!! Of course, the whole point of this mindless waiting was for the photos, and here they are...

Oh in case you're wondering, I've given up on my photography blog. Haha!!

My dad and I were expecting long snaking queues at MBS, but it turned out they hadn't started selling tickets yet. So we went to the nearby shops to look around. Half the place was still under construction...

(Click for larger size)

Interior of Tower 1.

The 'Beanstro' by Coffee Bean ♥

We walked about aimlessly for 2 hours and finally at 10am we got our tickets. Went straight to the Skypark after that.

I'd planned to take panorama shots from the Skypark but they didn't allow tripods... What the fuck!

Cool pool.

That's my house at the centre of the photo!

The Padang.

Having taken my fill of photos, I set up 'camp' at one of the seats facing the pool... and sat there for around 5 hours. The boring wait was made somewhat more bearable by listening to music and thinking of someone.

I made my way to the observation deck at about 4.30 and was dismayed to see that there were already many people there. But luckily I got a good spot at the front, with nothing between me and the view below. Because at some places you were blocked by glass and we try to avoid that kind of situation.

Another 2 hours of waiting ensued... If not for the sunblock that I had applied, I would've been baked alive. We were facing the sun directly and the heat was incredible.

I couldn't see what was going on at the Padang because of the huge screen blocking most of the performing area, but I had a nice view of the 'backstage'.

The parade is starting!

Check out that mass of red at the right of the picture...

Suddenly someone pointed at the sky and for a second I saw the outline of a Chinook helicopter before it disappeared above a cloud... then I saw moving specks in the sky and something red blossomed above them... Here come the parachutists!!

The sun was so bright I had to use a 1/4000 shutter speed to get this shot. And in the process I looked at the sun through the viewfinder... and yellow spots started appearing in front of me. It was scary as I thought I'd damaged my vision. Thank God they went away soon after.

First Red Lion...

Last Red Lion... Steering the parachute with a flag as big as a bed tied to your leg must be a bitch...

The Skypark was crowded!

I was lucky to have an observant guy beside me. Because he kept pointing to his girlfriend aircraft in the distance that I hadn't noticed. So it was thanks to him that I saw a flag-carrying Chinook hovering around behind the skyscrapers. It was quite far away and I expected it to take some time to reach the Padang.

Then suddenly there was the unmistakable sound of turning rotors and appearing from my left were 2 Apaches and another Chinook! I figured that there were 2 Chinooks with flags and the one I saw earlier was a backup.

The aircraft and buildings are dark but the flag seems to be glowing... I like it!

I had set my camera to continuous shooting mode and I simply followed the helicopters with my finger pressed firmly on the trigger...

Before I came, I already had in my mind a particular photo composition, that included the Chinook with the National Flag and the Padang. To see something in your head becoming reality... That feeling is indescribable.

It just gets better...

I submitted this to A.net!

Then, it was time for THE MOMENT that I'd waited 10 hours for... The appearance of the F15SG!!!!!!

At that moment, everything was blocked out as I focused on photographing my favourite fighter jet. Nothing else mattered...

5 F16s followed closely behind the F15s but who cares about them, I'm here for the F15s only... I'm kidding, the truth is I didn't manage to get a decent shot of them...!

The whole thing lasted for less than a minute. I almost left when I remembered the Gulfstream...

Hello!

Bye bye!

Soon after, one F15 roared above us and everyone scrambled to photograph it. This is the best shot I have of it though. D: So this F15 did all sorts of cool tricks like vertical acceleration, free fall, and even a high G turn around MBS! Damn I love those afterburners! Sadly, I don't have a good photo to show you guys!

After I was sure there were no more planes coming, I left the Skypark for... the hotel room! My friend's dad booked a hotel room at MBS overlooking the Padang and a few of my secondary school friends were invited. So awesome! However, the downside was there was no balcony and not all the lights were turned off so there were some reflections in my shots...

I was pretty drained out at the end of the day and I didn't participate much in the games my friends played.

But it was awesome to see my friends again and I hope we could meet again soon. Thank you everybody for making this National Day so memorable!

I can do this

2010-08-09T13:55:00.001+08:00

Hello! I'm blogging from my Dad's iPhone here at the Marina Bay Sands Skypark! I've been up here since 10 in the morning and there are 4 hours to go... Wish me luck man I've been sitting at the same spot for around 3 hours already. Yes the view is awesome but it gets boring after awhile. The food is very expensive here, as expected, but I can't go down because I'll have to pay to come back up. Oh God I will never do something like this again. Or maybe I will if, say, the AN225 comes to town. I had better get decent photos of the F15SG or I will never forgive myself. Haha.

haha

2010-08-08T12:33:00.002+08:00

Was reading my previous blog posts dating all the way back to 2008 and found myself missing all those good times. And I realised that I haven't been blogging often nowadays. Haha. Who cares if no one reads my blog. At least I'll have something to read when I'm bored.

Well, I've said this many times, and I'll say it again... Poly life is awesome! It's the holidays now thanks to the YOG break, all the way until our exams on the 1st week of September, and after which we have 6 solid weeks of holiday! Now that's something you won't get in JC or secondary school because I never had more than 4 consecutive weeks of holiday in secondary school! I can't wait for the new semester, because we'll be learning new things!

And I'm finally rid of Computer Programming... I don't hate the module that much but doing the project was tedious, and programming isn't really my thing (it brings back bad memories). And I thought I'd seen the end of Idea Jumpstart after that Jumpstart Challenge day, when I found out that the Comm Toolkit module we've to take in Sem 2 lasts for 4 hours every week... And that there're modules called Idea Blueprint and Idea Launchpad in Year 2 o.O

One thing I'll miss, though, is Engineering Mechanics. Because it hardly needs any studying. Ha.

ETE... I will not be missing you anytime soon, bro. Now, time to tackle diodes and logic gates =.=

As for CCA... Haha I know what you're thinking! That's right, here I go again talking about my CCA like the best thing since football. Okay weird analogy. Anyway I'm losing interest in Piano Ensemble, haha! I can count the number of times I've been to CCA on one hand... Sigh, but I'll stay on until I get to perform at the Esplanade. ~~Then I'll quit.~~

Totally different story for NPStrings though. Yesterday, apart from the ego-boosting exchange with Mr. Kong (see below post), my cello teacher, Mr. Ma, let me play a Grade 8 cello exam piece... I didn't play it extremely well, of course, but I managed to get the basics right. Okay, I admit that it's not much of an ego booster than a morale booster, but it made me feel good all the same.

Moving on to other things, I'm kinda looking forward to and at the same time dreading tomorrow. Because I plan to photograph the NDP planes from Marina Bay Sands's Skypark, and there're limited tickets available, I have to wake up real early tomorrow to queue up to buy mine. And the infuriating thing is that you're not guaranteed a place up there even if you had a ticket... so I'm planning to camp at the Skypark once I get my ticket... which is from around 10am to 5 or 6 pm. Scary thought. I don't know how I'm going to spend 10 hours 50 storeys in the air. I cannot go down and explore the resort because if I do I may not be able to go back up again.

Update: I just visited the Skypark website and it says that 'all tickets are scheduled and allocated a specific time-frame'... Okay I don't know if they'll enforce this rule tomorrow but I certainly have a mighty bad feeling about it... Time to scout for other locations as a backup I guess.

But after that it'll be awesome because I'll be meeting my secondary school friends!!! Oh how much I miss them! We'll be staying in a hotel room in MBS with a great view of the fireworks! And we'll probably be staying up all night talking about everything! Yeah I can't wait!

Self plug #2

2010-08-07T18:26:00.000+08:00

Hahahahaha... This is the 3rd post about me playing Mendelssohn's violin concerto with Mr. Kong! This week, I made quite a lot of mistakes, but so did Mr. Kong, hahaha!! But at least he didn't ask me to repeat some parts. After that, he said that he'd hire me as accompanist to his students when they go for their exams...!!!!!! And when I said that I'd done this before for $50 an hour, he went on to say that I could earn $60 to $70 instead..!!! I tell you, my ego went through the roof at that moment, haha! Wah!!! I'm so high now!!

an update

2010-08-02T13:14:00.002+08:00

So on Saturday I played Mendelssohn's violin concerto with Mr Kong, after practicing it for a week. And it was so fun!! I didn't make any major mistakes :D although I rushed at some parts and he told me to play them again. We will be playing again next week, until his performance on the 21st (I'll be watching it with my seniors! ^^)

Yesterday the wind destroyed my A380 model :( It was on my bookshelf and the wind was so strong it blew the curtain right up to the ceiling. And the curtain dragged my A380 down and it tumbled 3 metres to the floor D: It lost the left horizontal stabiliser and the second engine, and part of the stand got stuck inside the plane when it snapped off :(

Oh and I just found out Lubey has his own Youtube channel!! (L) (And he's soooo cute!! :D) His videos deserve far more than the couple of hundred/thousand they currently have. Lubey, ya tebya lyublyu!!! ♥

shameless self plug!

2010-07-24T19:57:00.007+08:00

Okay guys... This post will be the most shameless self plug that I've ever published, so forgive me for not holding back some things! :D

Today we had Sports and Wellness football tournament... and it started off badly, with rain falling heavily in the morning. Thank goodness it stopped early and we could start playing footy. The guys got the big field while we girls were relegated to the nearby netball court --" We were divided into 6 teams that were named after World Cup-winning countries. Well, 5 of them (Germany, Spain, Brazil, England, Italy) are, don't know why Holland was included. For some reason my group was named Spain.

And Spain won the tournament!!!!!!!!! We won 4 games and lost 1. And I scored some goals! Finally! My teammates are so awesome! Especially us from SO42! We scored a lot of goals among us! And we also got to know other football mad people like us. What's more, people from the footy team wanted us to join their CCA! But I'd said so many times that I wanted to join but couldn't because the training times coincide with Strings'.

I had cello lesson after footy, and I had thought of skipping it. But my heart won my brain in the end and I trudged to class. Then halfway during cello lesson Mr Kong the violin instructor and the SSO assistant leader came to me and asked me what piano grade I had. I replied 8. Then he asked how much I got for sight-reading (the first time anyone asked me this question), and I said full marks (don't think he heard me though). Then he said he had brought the piano part for Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor (it's a great concerto - go listen to it!) and he wanted me to play with him. ("It won't be a problem, since you can play Rachmaninoff!" - his exact words, and yes he did hear me play Rach 3 before - not very good though.)

And so I did. I sight-read the whole thing at full speed, with Mr Kong driving the engine. He tossed away cascades of notes like nobody's business. And as for me, well let's just say that I performed admirably. For the first 2 movements that is. We didn't stop at all. Well, actually I did... but Mr Kong kept going on and I had to skip some bars to catch up with him. Oh and I finally found out that a tune that had been stuck my head for years but didn't know where it come from was from this concerto. Then came the 3rd movement. And that's where my sight-reading skills failed me. We paused a while for me to take a breather, and we played it again. It was marginally better but as the movement progressed it became clear to me that I was never going to sight-read the thing. But I could sight-read the right hand part. So it was with great regret that I ended up playing the rest of the concerto with my right hand. Except for the coda, where I felt it safe for Left Hand to come in.

After the last note, my cello teacher shouted 'Bravo!' and Mr Kong said 'Bravo!' to me too. And he lent me the score to practice so we could play again next week :D And he said that my piano playing was better than grade 8 standard!!!!!! :D

Wow it was damn surreal, playing with one of the best musicians in Singapore... I'm so honoured!!!!!!

a little here and a little there

2010-07-01T23:14:00.002+08:00

Wah... The first week of the new term is almost over, and so is the World Cup... And yet I am falling asleep during the 2.30 matches! Even when the teams were playing well... Take the Spain-Portugal match for example. I fell asleep at half-time and woke up just in time for the goal. Then I fell asleep again and woke up way after full-time.

Sigh... It is with great regret that I announce that Team Bravo Sierra is now #6 in Predictor Challenge, despite guessing the result of the Netherlands-Slovakia match correctly. I predicted a 3-0 win for Argentina, but the buggers let me down and let in a goal... And why must Brazil score 3 goals? I had betted them to win 2-0... T_T

And Spain... They wiped out 4 players from my fantasy team... It's my fault though. I bought a bunch of Portuguese players during the transfer window, forgetting that they were about to play Spain... I am such an idiot!

Moving on to other things, I am happy to say that I got my scholarship!! I really didn't expect to get it as I had forgotten to bring my results to the second interview. So I thought I had screwed up the whole thing. But thankfully it didn't affect anything! But the sad thing is that I have to maintain good results for the whole year (top 10%), an unenviable task. And I have to have at least 12 ARLS (Achievement, Representation, Leadership and Service) CCA points each year. But I'm sure it won't be a problem, as the CCA I am in is the best in the world (see previous posts).

Coming to poly is one of the best decisions I've ever made. Not once have I regretted my choice. :D

self plug!

2010-06-21T00:19:00.003+08:00

Oh my goodness I'm so high right now!!

Currently, I'm leading Singapore in Predictor Challenge! :D

Click for larger size!

Okay I admit it was mostly luck, rather than actual understanding of the teams, that took me this far, and that I'll sooner or later surrender the lead, but I'm going to savour this moment while it lasts! Go Team Bravo Sierra!!!!!!

WTF...

2010-06-17T12:39:00.002+08:00

I can't believe I fell asleep during the Spain-Switzerland match! I was in an awkward position on the chair and somehow I dozed off with about 20 minutes to go. I woke up at 1am and didn't know where I was and I didn't bother to check the results as I was so damn tired.

Sigh! Spain lost! And David Villa was subbed out so he earned only 3 points for my fantasy team! And Fabregas didn't even play! I expected so much from them and they only gave me 3 points! But I'm still keeping Fab in my first team. I believe he'll be on the starting lineup against Honduras.

the adventures of team bravo sierra

2010-06-14T21:21:00.002+08:00

Last night's match between Germany and Australia was a bittersweet affair for Team Bravo Sierra's (BS) manager. Because in the starting lineup of the fantasy footy team were Philipp Lahm of Germany and Tim Cahill of Australia. Lahm earned 13 points, but as he was the captain of BS, he won double the points for the team. However, Cahill got himself sent off and lost 3 points, and although he got 2 points for playing 56 minutes in the game, he still lost 1 point for BS.

French goalie Lloris and defender Sagna earned 10 points each for BS despite drawing 0-0 with Uruguay on the first day of the World Cup. It's the most boring match so far. Stankovic from Serbia was added to the squad in desperation as the manager ran out of money and options. He managed to win 4 points for BS, but the manager regrets leaving Algerian midfielder Ziani on the bench.

Van Persie just won 3 points for the team after his country's 2-0 win over Denmark, but it's not enough for the manager, who swore at the player whenever he missed a shot. The manager is ruing the sale of Lionel Messi, who has 13 points so far. David Villa had better perform well for Spain so the pain of losing Messi wouldn't be so bad.

So far, the players yet to play in Round 1 are Cannavaro, Eboue, Fabregas and David Villa. Fingers will be crossed for them to perform well and earn more points for Team Bravo Sierra.

special world cup ambigram!

2010-06-10T17:23:00.002+08:00

Haven't been designing ambigrams for a while now, so here's one specially designed for the World Cup!!! Just thinking about it makes me shiver with excitement!!!!!!!

Okay, so I have my jerseys ready, my scarf and flag ready, I've already subscribed to the World Cup package the moment SingHub got the broadcast rights, I've pinned the fixtures to the wall, I've bought the World Cup guide, I'm almost recovering from my illness, and now I've designed a World Cup ambigram! I'm all set and ready to go!! WOOSH!!!!!!!!! :D

down with fever... world cup fever

2010-06-07T20:57:00.003+08:00

Unless you've been living in a cave, you'll know that the planet's greatest event is going to start in 4 days... AND I'M SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been sick for the past fucking week!!! Just last Sunday I was down with a different kind of fever, the burning one! Then I had a fucking sore throat for the whole damn week!! And now I've lost my voice and I've been coughing non stop for the past few days, and there's no end in sight to this stupid sickness.

HOW. I'm so fucking not missing the first match I tell you, or any match that I want to watch, for that matter. Fuck you, you fucking virus. Can't you infect me after the World Cup? Is this too much to ask for?

i love NPStrings

2010-05-28T22:15:00.004+08:00

It's amazing how time flies when you're having fun. 5 weeks of poly life has zoomed by and it has been awesome. I think it's mostly because of NPStrings. It's the most kickass CCA ever. Right now 2 of my seniors and I are arranging this JJ Lin song for strings ensemble. And it'll most probably be performed in a concert. How awesome is that?! Not only that, we get to be coached by professional musicians from the SSO. And we have great CCA members and seniors and teachers and everything. I look forward to CCA every time (well, except for Tuesday), and while we're waiting to start practice, when I'm not at the piano playing nonsense I will be looking around at everyone and being grateful and happy that I'm in this CCA.

You know, I'm starting to think that being too short for SYFC might not be so bad after all.

depressed...

2010-05-17T14:09:00.002+08:00

SYFC visit was as bad as I had feared. Not only was I tormented by the sight of the rows of Piper Warriors that I would not get to fly, and the SYFC alumni walking around with their wings at the front of their uniforms, I didn't bring my camera, so I couldn't take photos for A.net. It has been more than a month since my last shot got accepted. I wonder when my next one will be.

So we had a short briefing about the club by a representative, and I could only listen glumly as the guys around me talked excitedly about joining. We also had a tour of the facility, led by our senior, and I got a chance to go inside one of their planes. When I told my senior that I couldn't join SYFC because of my height, he kept saying 'don't be sad!', which of course made me sadder.

STFU

2010-05-11T09:19:00.004+08:00

This Saturday, we'll be going to SYFC to visit its facilities. Right now we're watching this video about it and I just can't describe the dejection I'm feeling. I don't want to go there and look my broken dream in the face, but for the sake of CCA points, I have to. I think I will be permanently depressed after the visit.

laptop is fried...

2010-05-02T16:39:00.002+08:00

My poor laptop is dead! Yesterday I plugged in the adaptor to charge the battery and the computer shut down immediately. Then I smelt something burning and realised my laptop's insides were being cooked. Needless to say it wouldn't start up anymore. So now I have to get it serviced or hopefully get a new computer, but the problem is that Lenovo's service centre is located in friggin' Changi...!! To make things worse, I can only go on Friday, but I'll need my comp for Tuesday's Computer Programming lesson!!!

They'd better give me a new computer! And I'm thinking of trading it with my dad's smaller and lighter and better-looking laptop. Dunno if it's possible or not.

I'm really enjoying poly life! I'm starting CCA from tomorrow onwards, and I can't wait! I've successfully auditioned into the main string ensemble, despite having played cello for only 5 months! I was even asked to teach cello-playing basics to the freshies, albeit temporarily...

Also, I'm finally quitting French! Because when I went to sit the placement test, the teacher said that even the highest-level Intermediate 202 was too easy for me! I told her that my reason for taking French was to get the Diploma Plus certificate, but she said that O Level French was better. And she encouraged me to quit. And that's what I'm doing!

You know, I'm starting to dislike the weekends! Because I really love going to school! And now that I'm in CCAs I like, poly life promises to be a blast! Woohoo!!! :D

19 april come quickly!

2010-04-16T19:17:00.003+08:00

I've been waiting for 19 April for 5 solid months... And it's almost here!!!!!! For those who don't know, 19 April is when poly starts!!! I can't freakin' wait! I bought my school books just now (I didn't know we had to buy textbooks until yesterday :\ ) and I flipped through some of them, and I must say they're many times more interesting than my secondary school books! (Speaking of textbooks, I've yet to finish printing 'The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge'; it's been almost a year since I downloaded it)

Since I've nothing much to say right now, I shall end this post. Do svidaniya!

camera kid: colmar tropicale!

2010-04-03T14:06:00.002+08:00

I'm back from Malaysia! Go to my photography blog for pictures!

happy (early) birthday, rachy!!

2010-03-31T21:10:00.004+08:00

It's Rachmaninoff's 137th birthday in 3 hours' time~!!!!!! :D

Having missed out on his birthday celebrations last year (I found out about his birthday one day after it had ended, wtf!), I was determined to remember it this year. So, I planned to play all his songs of which I have the score. The problem is, my parents want to drag me to Malaysia with them tomorrow! This means I can't play the piano at all tomorrow! No choice lor, I had to do it today. I dug up all my piano scores and played them one by one. Some of them I hadn't played for almost a year, some I had never even played before, so I had to sight-read. The songs included preludes, etudes tableaux, piano concerto #2 which I transcribed for piano solo,Vocalise (transcribed for piano solo too), Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, miscellaneous songs, variations, and of course Rach 3 (I saved it for last). Although I didn't play very well, I still hope that he'll appreciate it. He'd better! It took me 6 hours to finish playing everything!

I'm still going to celebrate his birthday tomorrow anyway! I'm going to listen only to his songs the whole day! All 164 of them!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DEAR RACHY!!!!!! Wherever you are, Rachy, I hope that there are loads of Steinway D-274s and concert halls and cars and everything you love! Oh and did I tell you that I dreamt of you last night?! I dreamt that I was attending your concert and that I wanted you to sign on my Rach 3 score! You rock!!! ♥

the lousiest prok 2 cadenza recording ever!!!

2010-03-26T22:52:00.004+08:00

Remember what I said in the last post about me failing to record Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.2's cadenza? Well, after dinner I thought I'd have another go and I managed to record a half-decent one! Of course, it is mistakes galore, especially the notorious colossale part, but what the heck! Also there's a part, I don't know how to call it, where I do 'glissando-like' scales and hit wrong notes along the way, that part is where I mess things up big time. Haha. But things get better towards the end, but the last few bars are also where I screwed up when I wasn't supposed to. Sigh. The score said 'pp' (very soft), and yet I somehow added an accent on the note. It must be that adrenaline still running through my veins! It's still inexcusable though... Despite that... you still want to listen to it?? Very well...

Download 'The Lousiest Prok 2 Cadenza Recording Ever!!!'

I'm afraid just clicking on the link won't work... You'll have to save it! Never mind, I won't be angry if you delete it afterwards!!

Oh, and excuse the fart-like sound at the beginning... I seriously don't know how it got there! I swear it wasn't in the original!!!

... Done listening? Now to rid your ears of that terrible playing, here's a video of the pro, Li Yundi, in action...

And here's a complete version of the cadenza...

You'll notice that they still play with mistakes... Not Ash though! His recording is abso-fucking-lutely perfect!!!!!!!!!

Respect!!!!!!!!

Right, time to delete that file from your comp, I guess! :D

a not so quick update

2010-03-26T18:10:00.008+08:00

For all you non-existent followers of my blog, it's been a while! You can't blame me though, it's been an uneventful week. Okay, not really. On Sunday 21st March, my dad's hospital had a charity show on TV. Thong Chai Hospital's charity night. I think you know about it. I had badly wanted to watch it live (my dad had tickets), but couldn't, as I'd bought tickets to a concert. More on that later.

Why had I wanted to watch the show? Well, apart from the obvious reason that it was my dad's hospital and I wanted to support them, the main reason was that he would be appearing on TV, and I wanted to witness him make a fool of himself in front of the camera.. well not really. Haha. I caught the replay though, and I must say that he didn't do badly at all! Basically, he was interviewed by the hosts of the show about a patient who had some kidney problems, and he talked about when the best time to receive kidney dialysis was. It lasted less than 5 minutes.

Then the next day at work, a patient requested to see 'the doc who spoke on TV' - my dad! Haha! And our neighbours even recognised him in the lift! And his hospital has seen a surge in patient numbers since the show, which is good and bad. There are just too many patients and not enough doctors. Just the other day a patient stormed into the hospital and ranted about the hospital being inefficient and such. However, there was also an anonymous guy who dropped 150 thousand-dollar notes into the donation box!

Okay, on to the concert. On the programme were Tchaikovsky's 'Romeo and Juliet', his Piano Concerto No.1 and Prokofiev's Symphony No.5. I found myself smack in the middle of the concert hall, so I couldn't see the pianist's fingers at all.

Romeo and Juliet was not bad, and I recognised the Love Theme from somewhere, though I couldn't put a finger to it. The piano concerto was well played, though with a few mistakes. For a noob like me, anyone who can play a concerto with an orchestra is genius. I think the concerto itself is overrated though. The reason for its fame lies in the opening lines, that played-to-death melody, and then what? The melody disappears into oblivion, never to reappear again. I swear, if you played that melody in front of most people, they'd recognise it from that concerto. Play them the next few lines, or something from the middle of the 2nd movement, and they'll be lost. Well, I tried that with my dad. He claims the concerto is his favourite, but he didn't know most of what I was playing when I played it for him the other day. Or maybe it's due to my lousy playing? I was after all sight-reading.

Sadly, there wasn't an encore! I clapped with all my might, trying to coax at least one encore from the pianist, Lim Yan. I clapped until my hands tingled and until my arms ached (I did that all the time in concerts), and imagine my disappointment when the concertmaster left the stage! Because when the concertmaster leaves, it means that the show's over.

Prokofiev's Symphony No.5 was awesome! It's the reason for which I bought tickets to this concert, without a second thought. I lost track of the time listening to the performance by the Orchestra of the Music Makers. How I envied them! It's one of my greatest dreams to play in an orchestra. After the performance, I clapped my hardest again, trying to get an encore. And we had one! I recognised it as Shostakovich's Jazz Suite Waltz or something like that. I remembered hearing it on 92.4.

As usual, I left the concert hall with a huge smile on my face. I always felt good after a concert!

Speaking of classical music, I really envy the Brits. Because they get to listen to BBC Radio 3, their classical music radio station. I stumbled upon its website the other day, and found a treasure trove of shows, all available for download (albeit only for a limited time). My favourite is 'Discovering Music', where a DJ (are they called that there?) breaks down and analyses a song in detail. It can be a sonata, a symphony, a concerto or a tone poem or whatever. The shows I downloaded are around 40 minutes, though I think the actual ones are longer. There was a note at the top though, saying that they were truncated (shortened) for copyright reasons.

However, 40 minutes was more than enough for me. Needless to say, I downloaded all the Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Prokofiev shows, plus one about Ravel's piano concerto. And I stayed up until 4.30 in the morning listening to some of them. Had I listened to all in one go it'd have taken me the whole night.

The analyses are so deep and thought-provoking! I learnt more about my favourite songs than I ever did. For example, I had never thought much about Rach 3's main melody until the DJ pointed out that it consists of notes not more than a third apart, and that it rises and falls like a wave, and this wave-like characteristic is present in many parts of the concerto... And the opening chords in Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini give a clue to which keys are used in the piece (A minor, D minor, F major etc)... The melodies used in Symphony No.2 come from the introduction in the 1st movement... And so on, and so on. They also set aside an hour everyday for a week for the 'Composer of the Week', and have a whole bunch of other awesome shows that I didn't have the time to listen to. If only we had Radio 3 here!!

Still on the topic of classical music, a week ago I tried and failed to record myself playing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.2's cadenza. Haha. I had wanted to post the recording here for you people to listen, but I kept screwing up every few bars. Especially the 'colossale' part. Actually, it was only the 'colossale' part where I had a problems. (It's better now though) If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's what Wikipedia has to say about it..

The colossale portion of the cadenza is profuse with giant runs and large chords.

and that...

Prokofiev himself describes this as one of the very hardest places in the concerto.

...However it's nowhere near the sheer difficulty of the 2nd movement. I tell you, superhuman fingers and concentration are needed to play it at actual speed and without a single mistake. (Therefore, Ash is not human! As well as all those crazy geniuses who can play it) Well I know because I've learnt it. And only my right hand can keep up with Ash, while my left hand just jumps hopelessly between keys, only managing a note here and there.

The 3rd movement. I can't decide if it's my favourite one or the 1st. It just screams awesomeness. I don't know how to describe it. It's so unique. And awesome. And naturally I've tried to learn it. And failed, because I didn't have the patience. Because I found out about another song...

Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. It's as kickass as it sounds. Come to think of it, keyboards are the only instruments that can played with one hand... right? Okay, percussion instruments. Anyway, I love songs written for the left hand only. Because it's an opportunity to train that lousy good-for-nothing left hand of mine! Seriously!

I think I've talked enough about music. Let's move on to another love of mine, photography. Though I think everyone has given up reading this abnormally long post. Haha. It's MY blog, so I get to type what I want!

So anyway, I had my 4th airshow photo rejected! So far I've had 3 photos rejected on the trot. I told you it was beginner's luck. Of the 4, 3 were rejected for motive. Sigh. Motive. Nothing I can do about them because I can't reposition the planes in the photo or something right? For one of the photos I got a personal note, 'motive for poor crop', because I had cut off the window of the plane, but I can't fix that because it's already cut off in the original! :( Cries. I feel so bad for the screener though. He took the time to add that comment, but I can't fix the photo!! :(

Oh, but did I tell you about the accepted shots? *Consults previous posts* Okay so I haven't told you about accepted shots #6 to #9! (Though you'd've known about #6 and #7 if you read my photography blog) Anyway, here they are...

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Singapore---Air/Boeing-AH-64D-Apache/1668160/&sid=4b0afcba99b12643ea5c804ff21269db

http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/McDonnell-Douglas-F-15E/1668161/&sid=4b0afcba99b12643ea5c804ff21269db

That Apache shot is one of the more boring ones and I have no idea why it is more popular than my T-50 one, which I think is more exciting. Oh well. Different tastes I guess.

My poor G450 shot, my favourite of the lot, is languishing at the bottom with only 204 views!! D: Why don't people appreciate artistic shots?!!

Haha, here I go ranting again...

I have to stop now or I'll continue typing until goodness-knows-when!! I have more things to say though, like that fact that orientation is coming (I'm excited! - NOT!!!) and that I got tickets to Yo-Yo Ma's concert in April (!!!) and that I FINALLY found a poster of Arshavin in his Arsenal shirt (but his hair -yuck!!) and that I never knew Ash was in Asia for a concert until too late and that... that... that...

............

damn...

2010-03-18T13:38:00.003+08:00

Alright, so I tried connecting my monitor to my laptop and thank goodness the colour is okay. However this presents another problem. I had intended to bring my laptop with me when going overseas so I could edit photos for A.net on the go, but now it seems that I have to lug along my monitor too... Argh!

ambigram: andrei arshavin!

2010-03-17T22:41:00.003+08:00

Continuing my tradition of designing an ambigram for each of my idols... Here's one for the awesome Andrei Arshavin!!!! I know that he prefers his name to be spelt 'Andrey' but I can't find a solution to it! So Andrei it is!

I don't really like the R/H solution but it's the only one I can think of!

I also tried a Russian version but failed spectacularly.

Oh, and if you search 'Alexander Lubiantsev' on Google, on the first page you'll see my ambigram! I really hope he Googles his name so he'll see it!

Come to think of it, Prokofiev and Henry are my idols too... Maybe I should design ambigrams for them?

new laptop!

2010-03-17T17:58:00.003+08:00

I just got my laptop this afternoon! And I'm happy with it except for the monitor and the speaker quality! The monitor has a strong blue colour cast to it and it is a problem when I'm editing photos for A.net because as you know, A.net has strict rules and will reject photos with colour casts. So how am I supposed to get the colour of my photos right when my monitor has a colour problem? I'm going to calibrate my monitor against my desktop computer's monitor tomorrow, and it if doesn't work, then I'll just have to do my photo editing on my old comp then... WTF.

Oh and if you're wondering, my laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad W510 :)

camera kid: accepted shots #4 and #5!

2010-03-09T13:44:00.003+08:00

After an excruciating 3 and a half hour's wait, I had 2 of my 3 uploaded photos accepted! Check them out here! I have 2 more photos in the queue. And I'm going to add some more!

camera kid: accepted shot #3 and some nature shots

2010-03-07T16:37:00.001+08:00

Go to my photography blog to see my 3rd accepted shot on A.net and some photos taken at Bishan Park!

camera kid: moonshot #2

2010-02-28T20:30:00.003+08:00

Check out my photography blog for my latest moonshot! Note the before-and-after images. Photoshop rocks!

No title

2010-02-26T00:13:00.000+08:00

Today I went to Hwa Chong JC to help Yee Ching out with her diabolo rehearsal. And I got a hysterical welcome by Abilai haha. I'd react in exactly the same way if I saw Lubey on the street.

Before that I had watched Percy Jackson at AMKHub. It was the first time I had gone to the cinema alone and it wasn't too bad. But who cares. My aim was to watch Logan Lerman. I had made up my mind ever since I first saw the movie poster. And I wasn't disappointed. By Logan, that is. The result was that afterwards I had to constantly cover my mouth to hide a stupid grin so people wouldn't think I was crazy.

Okay back to HC. It may look big and impressive from the outside, but I found it kind of ridiculous that they only had... Class benches?! 20-something people to 2 park benches are you kidding me? At least have 5! The campus is so damn big there's bound to be space! It's unbelievable.

Anyway, I met quite a few St. Nick's people and it was nice seeing them, though I felt a little out of place. And I found out that HC has a freaking grand piano!! Well, it's not a Steinway D-274, but it was a grand all the same! But I couldn't play it until the end of the rehearsal. So we went through the programme and yada yada and yay it's over! After fooling about on the piano with a few friends I headed to Coronation Plaza for dinner with Yee Ching. Then I went home and watched Peter Chao on Youtube.

Okay it's getting kinda late now and I have to wake up at 8 tomorrow. Why? To watch the figure skating medal event! They'll be playing Gershwin and Rachy's songs so I have to catch it! I'm rooting for Kim Yu Na because oh God she's hot!!

check out my photography blog!

2010-02-23T17:49:00.004+08:00

http://camera-kid.blogspot.com

It's my very own photography blog! So from today onwards I'll post all my photos on that blog and post a link here! Please please please comment!! Thanks! :D

i can't believe there's still two months to go

2010-02-22T18:20:00.003+08:00

I've been on the comp since I woke up, which means I've been staring at the screen for almost 8 hours now. I said almost because I had cello lesson just now. I just took a picture of the gigantic G1000 poster stuck proudly on the wall above Alex (in case you don't know, he's my piano).

So you're wondering what on earth I've been doing the past 8 hours? Well, I don't know myself. I mean, I've been playing Airline Manager, surfing the A.net forums and watching lame videos on Youtube, but it's strange how 8 hours can fly by so fast.

Oh, and I just discovered Fred on Youtube. Yes, it took me a while. I also recently started watching Nigahiga, months after my friends stopped parodying them in class. I know, I'm slow. And I'm kind of disturbed that I like Fred. He sounds annoying and acts like a gay but I still like his videos. I think the guy playing him being good looking has got something to do with it. (Oh no, I'm becoming more and more prone to stuff like this...) BUT!!! Good looks and annoying voice aside, I think the stuff in the videos are funny! Go check them out!

I'm also hooked on this 'band' on Youtube. I don't know if it can be called a band because it's only 2 people. It's called Pomplamoose. It's a play on the French word 'pamplemousse', which means grapefruit. I found out about them while reading mrbrown's blog. He's a fan of them too. They do covers and compose their own music. I love their compositions! Go check them out on Youtube! They have a website too, over here: http://www.pomplamoose.com/! I can't decide which song is my favourite, because they're all awesome! But if you don't have time to go through everything, I highly recommend Centrifuge, Beat the Horse, Expiration Date, My Favourite Things, La Vie En Rose, In the Season, and Little Things.

I'm progressing extremely slowly but surely in Russian. I can now conjugate the verbs 'to want', 'to eat' and 'to drink', form the prepositional case of nouns and also form simple sentences. I am not joking when I say that Russian is the most goddam difficult thing that I've ever tried to learn. It's ten times more difficult than Rach 3 because I managed to learn Rach 3. Not saying that I won't manage to learn Russian, but I'm going to take more than 110 days that's for sure!

Okay I'm off to listen to Pomplamoose and Prokofiev! Talk to you later! Peace out, home dog! (Haha, I totally ripped that off from Fred!)

garmin g1000

2010-02-12T20:59:00.004+08:00

Just got back my laminated life-sized poster of the Garmin G1000 on the King Air 200. Here's a picture of it in all its glory...

Here's a comparison with me:

And here's a comparison with Celly Belly:

Note that the poster is as long as Celly Belly with its tailpin extended. It's the most effing gigantic poster I've ever had and I don't know where to put it. When I finally find a wall to paste it on, I'll post another picture.

Singapore Airshow 2010

2010-02-08T16:44:00.002+08:00

I was at the airshow on 5 days, from Tuesday to Thursday and then on Saturday and Sunday. I tell you, trade days are awesome! There are so few people and you can board the aircraft whenever you want! What's more, there are no fences blocking the aircraft! However, the downside is that there are no freebies, as the people there are all businessmen/women.

I took a lot of pictures there (duh, that's what airshows are for!) and uploaded them on http://bravosierra.shutterfly.com/. Do check it out and leave a comment!

Actually, the flying display wasn't that spectacular. For one, it only featured individual aircraft, not an aerobatics team like the Black Knights. The F-16 and the Apache 'integrated' display doesn't count. What's more, the star of the show, the F-111, didn't even perform on the public days due to a technical fault! How lame is that! I really pity those who went only on public days, because the dump and burn was awesome! (See my photos!)

But at least I caught the C-17 and the B-52, who came only on Wednesday and Saturday respectively. The C-17 flew for 2 rounds before flying away, while the B-52 only flew by once! Oh well. I can't complain! Think of those poor people who came on Sunday and missed both of them plus the F-111! That's gotta suck!

Saw some good-looking pilots! Again, go check out my photos at the above link!

Oh yes and I got some really awesome souvenirs from Garmin! So on Saturday I walked by Garmin's booth and saw a poster of the G600 flight instrument. Then the guy manning the booth asked me if I had any questions about it. I replied that I was just interested in the glass cockpit. Upon hearing the two words, he promptly disappeared into a room and returned with a huge life-sized poster of the G1000 flight display on the King Air 200! I think it's as wide as my dad's car!

And I think that Lufthansa Technik's freebies are the best. They were giving away this 3x3 Rubik's Cube with pictures printed on each face. I tell you, it's damn harder than it looks. Because not only do you have to get the colours right, you have to get the pieces to face the right direction. I took almost an hour to solve it, after re-doing it many times.

I didn't take many posters like I did at the last airshow. But it's okay as I've run out of space on my wall. What I did take, though, were pictures. Again, check out my photo album (link at the top).

I learnt many things from my 5 days at the airshow. The most important one is to go on trade days in future airshows.

a post full of randomness

2010-01-31T10:06:00.004+08:00

You know I'm really bored when I write a post with that title. So anyway, yesterday I went to ECP and guess who came! The A380! (I never get tired of photographing that beauty)

On Final.

Close up of the nose.

Of course, I didn't go to ECP. The A380 isn't even real. It's my 1:200 scale model. I took these shots as a practice, as I want to take photos of the real A380 from the same angles at the airshow.

A few days ago, I took this picture of Celly Belly, my latest love.

Next time I'll post pictures of my other loves, Alex the upright piano and Vladimir the grand piano (I haven't bought that yet).

In unrelated news, I just found out that I owned an Arshavin poster for one and a half years without even realising it. I spent the past few months searching for one in vain (maybe Football Weekly had his poster in one of its issues, but I missed it), when I already had one sitting on my shelf inside a forgotten Euro 2008 issue.

Of course, I would've preferred him in an Arsenal shirt. (Although he looks hot in anything)

I also redecorated my room a little, replacing an old Audi poster with van Persie and Vela.

If everything goes well, I am going to the airshow on all days, from Tuesday to Sunday. This is because I have a friend whose dad works in the aerospace industry and who is giving me a trade day pass. And I've already bought tickets for both public days. It is going to be the best week of 2010 yet. However, with more photography opportunities comes more stress. There is simply no excuse to mess up my shots and not get even a single one accepted on A.Net. If, after six chances at photographing the B-52 and the A-10 and I don't know what planes at the flying display, I still can't get one shot accepted, I'll have to say that I'm not worthy of A.Net.

Oh well.

i feel weird

2010-01-25T14:10:00.004+08:00

Yesterday, I missed the first half of the Arsenal-Stoke game because I had forgotten that there was a match that night. As you have already known, we lost 1-3 and are now out of the FA cup. To ease my depression, I went to Arshavin's fan group on Facebook to look at some of his photos and... (I'm embarrassed to admit it) my depression was cured. Because... (I know I sound like a crazy fangirl here but I don't care) ...... Arshavin is hot! Especially in two of the photos. I swear I got weak at the knees and started babbling like an idiot and giggling like a schoolgirl. Oh wait. I am a schoolgirl. You know what? Arshavin can definitely give Alex Lubiantsev a run for his money. In fact, I can't decide who's hotter. Which is all the better as I'll be more motivated to learn Russian! Sigh... Pity Russia won't be playing in the World Cup!

/fangirlism

too much of a good thing is not good

2010-01-24T21:41:00.003+08:00

Next week, most of my friends will be heading to their new JCs while I rot away at home for three more months. Yes, that's 1/4, 25% of a year. It's killing me. Everyday, I wake up and think, 'Today will be a boring day' and it turns out to be boring. For the past few weeks, the only things I've been doing are: Wasting time on Facebook, learning Russian, practicing cello and piano, and... nothing else. Not that they're a total waste of time (only one is), but it has been 2 months and I'm still doing the same things. By the way, I left out planespotting because I've only done that twice since the beginning of the hols.

Now if I were to return to school, there'd be so many new things to do. I bet poly life is awesome. And I can't effing wait to start my CCAs. I'm planning to join NP Strings and Piano Ensemble. I made a huge mistake in secondary school, joining a useless CCA called Infocomm. I think it's the biggest and most stupid mistake I've ever made in my whole life. Really, I can't think of any other mistake quite like this one. So, I'm determined to make up for the hours I've wasted.

Come to think of it, the reason why I'm so effing bored and frustrated over here is because I'm... (okay, it feels weird to type that out)... lonely. Of course, being alone at home is much better than having the parents at home, but I really miss the days in school where there's always someone to talk and listen to. Heck, I miss my class's noisy environment. It's too quiet at home.

Haha, this post suddenly sounds so emo. On a happier note, there's a class gathering next week! Our last gathering before school starts. And after that... I don't want to think about it.

bird spotting in singapore

2010-01-17T22:34:00.003+08:00

Today, I went to Jurong Bird Park with my mother, my godsis, her mum, kid and nephew. I wasn't that interested in the birds, but I wanted to photograph them to improve my technique.

Not sure if cropping the neck off is a good idea.

We watched the Bird Buddies show (whatever the name is).

Flamingos.

This would've been a cool shot if not for the chopped-off beak :/

Gotta love his beak.

Now that's a proud trainer.

'Basketball' competition with the other parrot.

Egging him on.

Spot the bird part 1.

Spot the bird part 2.

Fly baby fly!

For some reason, this reminds me of an A380. o.0

Spot the bird part 3.

Tearing his way through rice paper.

This parrot, Amigo, can sing 3 songs and count to 10 in 2 languages!

Flying with your buddy.

Failed attempt at a panning shot.

Looking good.

Eagles are the coolest birds ever.

Dead centre!!!

Hot!!

I love this shot.

Kinda normal shot of a swan but I still like it!

Gotta love those pink feathers! /hides

Flamingos.

Penguin.

After that, we went to East Coast Park to look at a very different kind of bird.

(I anyhowly edited them in photoshop. But because they aren't meant for A.net, I can do whatever I like!)

A330s are seriously the hottest planes ever. They look good from almost every angle!

KLM 777. I remember photographing it 2 years ago!

SQ 777

A320

My first time seeing an MD-11!

Feel the power!

A380!

I was waiting for the next plane to come when a Frenchman approached me (I could tell from his accent straight away) and asked me for the flight schedule and when the A380 would come. I admitted that I didn't have a flight schedule as I shot anything that came, but that I knew the A380 would arrive at about 6 plus (it was almost 6 then). Then he asked about my hobby and then he mentioned that his wife was a journalist for The New Paper and she was invited to the 787's test flight! He seemed impressed that I liked planes and wanted me to contact his wife :O And maybe - just maybe- I can go up the plane or something. Wah!! But there're no guarantees. However, as I have nothing to lose, I'm going to email her tomorrow!

B747! My lame attempt at a creative motive.

There was some filming going on, on the pier where I was photographing planes. Note the actors' costumes. In this scene, they were punching the air and shouting 'Unity is Strength!' in Mandarin.

Sexy-looking A330 coming towards me!

The 777 looks great in side-ons, but the A330's belly looks nicer :P

I learnt 3 things from today's photography session:

1) Leave the head-ons/belly shots to the pros.

My gear can't handle the tricky lighting conditions. Get the sky's exposure correct, and underexpose the belly. Get the belly's exposure correct, and blow out the sky. I guess I should stick to boring side-ons, sigh.

But I think the Shadow/Highlight tool in Photoshop can help a bit. I'll continue experimenting.

2) I shouldn't photograph planes just for A.net.

It's kind of hard, because everytime I take a shot, I think, 'Will A.net accept this? Oh no, it's blurry/soft/off focus/the wing's cut off/under- or over-exposed/its front wheel is blocked/the motive's questionable etc etc and I think it's a bad practice. Because, ultimately, photography isn't about A.net. It's also about art. Instead of fretting about the right settings for a correct exposure, I should strive to get a creative shot, one that nobody has gotten before. See things from different angles. It takes time, but I'm trying to grow out of that 'I photograph planes only for A.net' mentality.

3) I don't think I'll return to the pier with my camera anytime soon.

Because of #1. And it has prompted me to list out the spotting locations in SIN.

Rwy 02L/20R

Side-on: ECP Area G, Shore Restaurant (need >250mm focal length; shoot against the setting sun for lovely silhouettes), Changi Beach

Head-on/Belly: ECP Area H pier, Changi Beach, Changi Industrial Park (planes are lower than from ECP, but they're blocked by buildings)

Rwy 02C/20C

Side-on: Shore Restaurant, Changi Coast Road (but I don't go there anymore; I'm too scared of the police!), Changi Beach (need >250mm focal length)

Head-on: If you're daring and stupid, go to the end of 20C where the landing lights (dunno what they're called) are, and shoot away. Most likely you'll be shot by the police.

Actually, Tanah Merah and Safra Country Club have good views of landing/departing aircraft, but you've to pay to go in.

Places to avoid

T2 and T3 viewing malls. Impossible to take decent aircraft photos. T1 is undergoing renovation. They better not destroy it by building useless sunlight-blocking structures in front of the glass and reducing the already-pathetically-small viewing area by adding more shops.

Changi Coast Road. Go there if you dare, but don't stay long.

Wha, I took almost 3 hours to complete this post. Most of the time was spent uploading and editing photos. The time now is 1.10am. Time to sleep now. Good night!

crushed

2010-01-17T08:46:00.002+08:00

Hai... Today I got my third photo rejected. Which isn't such a big deal if not for the fact that I already have one accepted shot on the site. The thing is, I spent much more time on A6-EYI (the rejected shot) than on B-HNC (accepted). A few days ago, 9V-TAH was rejected too and I think I had spent more time on it than any other shot.

I know, spending more time on a shot doesn't equate to getting a quality shot, but my point is, I put in more effort on A6 and 9V than on B. Seriously, I was expecting B to get rejected. I was like, what the hell lah, put that in the queue and see what happens.

Oh well. I've since given up on A6 and 9V. I might be going to photograph planes later! Hopefully the photos'll turn out well.

i guess i did something right

2010-01-11T17:00:00.002+08:00

So, today was D-Day. The day where I would know whether learning Rach 3 while preparing for the O Levels was a stupid thing or not.

This year's top scorer is Kai Rou, my classmate and friend! And that means my school, St Nick's, has churned out 2 top scorers in a row! So the media were here and they kept interviewing her and all that. And people who got 10 A1s, among which was Yee Ching, had their pictures taken! Because St Nick's also has the most people with 10 A1s!

Since the top scorers had already gotten their results and I hadn't, I began to fear the worst. Like getting A2 for Physics or something. So when they showed the list of people who got 7A1s, my heart sank to my boots when I didn't see my name. My goal was 7A1s and I thought it was all over when I wasn't called.

Then they showed the list of people who got 8 A1s. And that was when I started shouting. Because right at the top of the list was my name! I was shaking all over when I went up the stage. And my hand was shaking so hard I couldn't hold the phone properly to sms my parents and aunt and cousin. Then when my cousin called, I kept swearing into the phone because I really was too excited!!

Here's what I got (if you're really interested):

English - A1

Comb Humanities - A2

A Maths - A1

E Maths - A1

Physics - A1

Bio - A1

Chem - A1

French - A1

HCL - A2

Chinese - A1

L1R5: 7-4

ELR2B2: 5

In theory, I can apply for RJ and VJ and whatever. But I've already set my sights on... Ngee Ann Poly's Aerospace Technology! I'm going to put RJ as one of my choices though. The 12th choice, just to spite them.

Never in my dreams did I expect to get 8 A1s... I thought I was a goner when I found out that I had misread the English composition question. And a few days ago I had a nightmare where I got over 20 for L1R5 and a C5 for French. As a reward, I'm going to ask for a Russian guidebook from my parents and I'm going to buy another Adidas shirt for myself tomorrow!

Yee Ching and Xue Kun got very good results too! So we'll be watching Avatar and going shopping tomorrow! Then it's off to XXK's house to play Rach 3 and Toccata! Haha!

new feature: comments!

2010-01-06T20:50:00.003+08:00

As you can see at the bottom of this post, and every post below, there's this little link called 'Post a Comment'. This is for you to post about anything related to the post. Because, if you comment on the cbox, the messages will be lost after awhile. You can spam the comment box if you want; the more comments the merrier!

the ultra boring first post of 2010

2010-01-01T09:10:00.007+08:00

So... the new year was the most anti-climatic ever. Spent most of it feeling tired. I had wanted to go take photos at Marina, but I broke my dad's tripod. But despite getting another one (with my own money by the way), I still didn't feel like going.

Okay, since this post is going to be boring, I'm going to bore you with what I'm going to do for the rest of the holidays (I have 3 1/2 more months to go... wtf) Maybe I'll throw in some boring New Year Resolutions so you'll be running away in no time.

Right... The first thing is, I still have to tutor my cousin. D: I think it's for a day a week, but still... D: Yes... I had agreed to this, but it was out of politeness, not willingness. BECAUSE I'M NOT WILLING TO TUTOR ANYBODY ANYMORE!!! -cries-

The next thing is to go photograph planes and get more pictures accepted on A.net! But I cannot keep uploading boring side-ons! So I'm going to photograph head-ons! And maybe underbellies.

Then I have to brush up on my cello because I'll never be able to compose cello sonatas at the rate I'm going... And I have to learn all the songs I had listed below. Not easy. In fact, if Wikipedia is right, Toccata is so difficult that Prokofiev (its composer) couldn't master it. --" I'm halfway through it and I think that I've busted a nerve on my little finger because it hurts just stroking it.

More boringness coming up! Let me tell you what I'm going to do later! I saw an ad in the papers about the Page One sale that I had gone last - er, the year before last! And I'm going there today! Hopefully I can get good photography books at - gasp - 5 dollars!

Actually I have a whole bunch of boring things to add to this post, but my mother is nagging at me for breakfast! And you know what... I have to run 2.4km later.

*EDIT*

Okay, I did not run 2.4km. I didn't even run! Haha. But I must start running soon or I'll become lazy.

I love warehouse sales!! I bought a thick Arsenal book for... 5 dollars! And an image editing guide for 5 dollars! And two Aircraft Illustrated magazines for... 1 dollar each! Okay, the Arsenal book was the 2007 version, the guide was printed in 2002, and the AI mags were a couple of months old, but their information is still relevant! So I'm very happy with them. I saw a couple more awesome photography books, but even after a 50% discount they were still very expensive, so I didn't get them.

Then I went to another books warehouse sale (you bored yet?) in Ang Mo Kio. The books are even cheaper. I saw a Teach Yourself language guide, with a CD, that cost $12!!! However, to my immense disappointment, there wasn't a Russian language guide D: Not even photography books. Spent more than an hour there and left empty handed. Sigh.

Oh and I just read my 2009 resolutions: (Note: things are going to get more boring so I'd advise you to leave my blog if you don't want to be subjected to my powers of boringness)

#1 use the computer only during the weekends

I succeeded in this! But only before the O's and partly because I told my parents to lock the computer.

#2 do maths homework

This too!

#3 get A1 for maths and science

This too!

#4 get a photo accepted on a.net

If you've been reading my blog, you'd know that my beautiful photo, the one of a CX 777, was just accepted into Airliners.net. Success!

#5 not watch football matches that end later than 12, not even against manure or chelshit or poo or totnumb, because i need to catch up on a lot of sleep.

This too! But only before the O's.

#6 jump everyday because SYFC >>> o levels.

Sadly, no. But I have other goals now! Being a pilot is still at the top though!

#7 get into SYFC no matter what.

See above!

The most boring part ever...

Don't you just hate it when you read about people talking about themselves? That's why this post is so boring!

My 2010 Resolutions

Compose a cello sonata (the first one I can think of)

Finish Toccata

Finish Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 3 Part 1

Get at least 3.8 GPA for every semester (if I get into poly)

Get more pictures accepted to A.net!!

Get into NP's String Orchestra!

Get along better with other people

Improve my non-existent Russian!

Okay that's all I have for now. And now, things to look forward to in 2010!

Gil Shaham - Ecstasy of Inspiration! 9 Jan

O Level Results! Sometime between 11 and 13 Jan

Singapore Airshow! 7 Feb

Poly!!! 19 Apr

Russian Rhapsody with Yee Ching!!! 8 May

World Cup! 11 Jun - 11 Jul

Okay, I think that's the major confirmed events for 2010!

I hope you weren't too bored! But it's your fault for not heeding my warning! I'm going to end here! Bye!

this can't be true

2009-12-30T09:03:00.002+08:00

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Cathay-Pacific-Airways/Boeing-777-267/1632811/L/

Yes...... It's accepted!!!!!! On my first upload!!!!!!

*hyperventilates*

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! More uploads here I come!!!!!!!

moonshot!

2009-12-27T09:05:00.002+08:00

Digitally enhanced in Photoshop but it's a moonshot nonetheless!

Can't wait for the next full moon...

Planes!

2009-12-22T13:37:00.003+08:00

Yay! I'm photographing planes again! This time I'm using better gear, not the lousy point-and-shoot. Hopefully my 55-250 can deliver the goods and get me some shots on A.net.

It was my first plane photography session, so I don't really expect to get any of these shots accepted. But I'm going to keep trying until I succeed!!

i love shopping!

2009-12-21T08:29:00.002+08:00

Went out with XXK yesterday! She wanted to help me buy clothes for poly! She wanted to 'change my style', in other words, make me buy girly clothes...! I told her it was impossible. But what do you know...

So we roamed Bugis Junction and I managed to get a shirt from Cotton On for ten bucks. And their receipt is effing long! I only bought one item and they gave me a scroll that is more than half a metre long -.-" They filled the whole receipt with their exchange policy, which most of us don't care about. Tsk tsk tsk, major paper wastage!

I won't bore you with our adventures in Bugis Street, but I emerged from there with three new shirts, yay! Then we headed off to Ang Mo Kio Central and XXK brought me to this shop that sells nice shirts at cheap prices! And that was when XXK succeeded in her 'mission'. Because I bought 3 shirts that were supposedly 'girly' - not the designs on them, but their cutting (is it the correct word to use?). But, to be honest, I didn't see anything girly about them... We bought matching 'Starbucks' shirts and are going to wear them for class gathering!

Haha, my first time buying so many clothes!

never again

2009-12-14T17:18:00.002+08:00

That's it. I've had enough. I've had enough of the fucking Twilight series. I just finished New Moon, and I cannot continue anymore. I can't stand the mind-numbingly cheesy stuff that - fuck, I have difficulty typing out his name - he says. I've lost count how many times the word 'velvet' was used to describe his fucking voice. Or 'perfect', to describe his lips. And that bitch Bella annoying the hell out of me. So many times I found myself slapping myself on the forehead when I read about her 'pain' and 'anguish'.

Examples:

"I was gripped in a sudden agony of despair as I considered that alternative. My mind rejected the pain, quickly skipping on to the next option." - The Cunts might be vamps! Should I heed his advice, and ignore him, or 'do nothing different'?

'"You don't want to hear it," I mumbled, almost whispered. As soon as the words were out, I regretted them. The pain in my voice was very faint; I could only hope he hadn't noticed it.' - After he said that he couldn't read her mind. What pain? I don't understand why she would feel pained by this fact.

I think that Bella is very stupid too. Until now, I don't understand why she didn't turn to her vamp friends for help after the phone call from James. Yes, her mum was apparently in danger, but come on, James was only one vamp. Did the Cunts think that they couldn't handle him, despite outnumbering him seven to one? I wouldn't even go into detail what she did next. Let's just say that she was dumb enough to obey James and walked straight into trouble. And at the climax, Bella fainted at a convenient time, so we didn't get to read about the action scenes. Fucking awesome, that was.

New Moon was no better. The way Bella dealt with the break-up sickened me. Nightmares about nothingness? I wanted to strangle her when she said that she'd do anything to hear her beloved's voice again. That cliff-jumping scene was incredibly stupid. I was so sorry that there weren't jagged rocks in the water to smash her skull into a million pieces. And who the fuck did she think she was, playing with another boy's feelings and sending him the wrong signal? What's so special about her anyway, having had the whole school fall in love with her on her first day? Don't even get me started on the 'I can't live without you' bullshit. Bedward's 'love' can't be described as 'true love', because if you dig deeper, the only things that kept their relationship going were his looks (yes, he has a perfect body and a velvety voice and a sweet breath and intense topaz eyes) and her smell. I was so frustrated that I yelled at the computer screen. (I downloaded the e-books (for free, duh. I'm not going to support a crap writer like Smeyer))

I felt so bad for Jake when she rejected him. What had he done to deserve such treatment from her? And she still had the cheek to call him mean when he left her motorcycle (which her dad didn't approve of) in front of her house?

The writing was horrible too. I was irritated by the improper use of italics.

Example: (only one, because I can't bear trawling through all the crap to get them all)

'I waited for them to get their food, and then followed them to a table, my eyes on my feet.'

So many times the word 'get' was wrongly emphasised. And the number of typos... GAH!!!!! At first I thought there was something wrong with the pdf file. Then when I read the chapter-by-chapter analyses on anti-Twitlight websites, I realised that they were actual typos. *shakes head* I even read about Meyer getting her geography all wrong... Brazil has a west coast?? *faints*

So, that's it. I will never touch a Twitlight book ever again. I will never spoil my eyes trying to to read 368 pages of crap that is Eclipse on the computer screen. The only way I'm going to read the book is to follow Dan on Sparklife.

so much to do...

2009-12-13T11:56:00.003+08:00

... so little time! I thought that I'd have all the time in the world during the holidays to do what I had planned, but that's not the case! Let's see my to-do list again...

1) Learn Etude Op.33 No. 1 (not done)
2) Learn Etude Op. 33 No. 3 (somewhat done)
3) Arrange Symphony No. 1 Part 3 for cello and piano (not done)
4) Learn Etude Op. 39 No. 7 (not done)
5) Learn a bit of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 Part 3 (half done)
6) Learn Cello Sonata Part 3 on the cello (not done)
7) Brush up on La Campanella (not done)
8) Learn Prelude Op. 32 No. 13 (not done)
9) Learn Prelude (1891) on the cello (not done)
10) Learn Salut d'amour on the cello (not done)
11) Learn Prokofiev's PC 3 Part 1 (still stuck on page 10)
12) Learn Prokofiev's Toccata (not even a fifth done)

And there's more...
13) Go plane photographing every Sunday (so far I had only been to 2 really short photography trips)
14) Practice cello everyday (not doing that either)
15) Tutor my wayward cousin (see below post) from Monday to Friday every week, from 1 to 5pm (this new arrangement is better than her staying at my house, but it robs me of my weekday afternoons nonetheless)
16) Wash my Arsenal jersey (haven't washed it since I last wore it out for class gathering...)
17) Prepare farewell gifts (not saying what I'm doing, except that making them is really tedious and if you receive one, you'd better treasure it)
18) Manage my airline on Airline Manager (the most addictive application on Facebook since Know-It-All Trivia)
19) Read the Twilight Saga e-books (I'm just reading it to see how bad it is, really. So far, it hasn't disappointed.)
20) Visit anti-Twilight websites (here're some: http://www.twilightsucks.com/, http://community.sparknotes.com/index.php/2009/07/16/blogging-twilight-index-page/, http://applesparkles.wikia.com/wiki/Frozen_Apples, etc...)
21) Learn Russian (never got past the 'numbers' chapter - but I can still count to 10 in Russian!)
22) Learn Greek (can't count to 10 in Greek)
23) Learn the pronunciations of 30 languages (it's actually not that difficult, but I don't have the time for it!!!)
24) Read the whole Artemis Fowl series (I still have The Eternity Code and The Opal Deception)
25) Finish watching the Mythbusters episodes that my dad has recorded for me before he deletes them to free up space on his HDD recorder
26) Run 2.4 km every morning (my mum's fault)
27) There's more, but my mum's shouting at me for lunch, so bye!

Out of the frying pan

2009-12-05T19:27:00.000+08:00

I said a few months ago that the Gershwin concert I had attended would be my last for the year. But, weeks later, I search for Rachmaninoff's name on Sistic just for fun and found yet another Rachy concert. By the Singapore National Youth Orchestra. Which was held yesterday. On the programme were a Debussy piece, a Glazunov violin concerto and Rach's Symphony No. 3. Don't know what they were playing at, playing a piece composed by the guy who ruined the premiere of Rachy's first symphony. But I must admit that the concerto was not bad. No match for Rachy though!

There wasn't any encore by Kawasaki, the violinist. Which was a first for me. I clapped with all my might hoping for at least one but none came. Then it dawned on me that Glazunov might not have written songs for solo violin. Or maybe violinists don't even give encores.

Like every concert that I had been to, this one didn't disappoint. The superb orchestra was aided by the fact that the symphony itself was a masterpiece to begin with. Haha.

I attended the concert with my cousin, whose attendance was last minute. Because she failed her PSLE and I was - I used this word before but am forced to use it again because I can't find another word that conveys the same 'feeling' - relegated the task of babysitting her. Yes. Not only tutoring her. Reteach her PSLE stuff from the bottom up. But also playing counsellor, trying to change her mindset about studying. Because she hardly studied, spending all her time watching drama serials, on Facebook, SMS-ing and talking on the phone. It's no easy feat, trying to change her ways. A preliminary test of her English and mathematics yielded shocking results. Her grammar is atrocious, subject verb agreements and the tenses having thrown out of the window. Her grasp of phonetics is non existent too, which results in the wrong spellings of even the most common words (like eaten). Simple calculations are challeges to her, and she doesn't even know the 12 times table.

Die lah... I have to tutor her everyday for a month, if my mum were to be believed. There go my holiday and my freedom. I never thought that I'd be doing PSLE stuff after my O levels.

check this out!

2009-11-30T14:53:00.002+08:00

I just got it yesterday! It's not the best, but it's a cello! So far, I've managed to play only Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. But, once I've mastered the basics, I'm going to play Rach's Symphony No. 1 part 3, which I'm going to arrange for cello and piano, his Cello Sonata part 3, et cetera! My cello teacher's coming later. I'm so excited!

beat this

2009-11-26T16:07:00.010+08:00

http://www.sporcle.com/games/world.php

Name as many countries as you can (195 in total) in 15 minutes. The highest I got without help was 184. (But I missed out Ethiopia and Colombia, argh!) Some people can get 192, or even everything. I think they're crazy!

Taiwan is considered a country in this game, but I always leave it out.

***edit***

I finally got full marks for the game!!!!!!!!! Now my life is complete! I had no choice but to include Taiwan, but that was after I had gotten all the other countries! Haha damn you Kiribati!!

Now, off to other quizzes!

i love the AN-225 mriya

2009-11-25T21:35:00.003+08:00

But, more importantly, its uber hot Russian pilot, Sasha!

... Okay, I know he's just a (minor) character in 2012, but he's the most good looking one! One thing though, real pilots don't wear their jackets in the cockpit... I was devastated when the Mriya fell down the cliff, taking Sasha with it D:

The destruction was overdone and extremely unbelievable, but hey, as the Mythbusters always say, "If something's worth doing, it's worth overdoing!"

Apart from the Mriya crash and some fighter planes sliding off an aircraft carrier like in Transformers, 2012 is a definite MUST WATCH!!!!!!!!!!! Heck, it's worth the money just to see Sasha :D

But the same can't be said for New Moon, which has to be one of the worst movies I've ever watched. I don't know how some people can watch it 6 or 7 times. I don't like Edward's voice, I don't like his cheesy lines ("You're the only reason I'm alive", "The reason why I did this was because I thought I was protecting you", etc), I don't like Bella and her reckless stupidity. I mean, jumping off a cliff just to see an ex-boyfriend??!! (They're only hallucinations, by the way) There is so much more to life than losing a boyfriend. And she's only seventeen! There are plenty more fish in the sea. And she's not satisfied, even after being friends with Jacob Black, who in my opinion is a damn sight nicer than Edward. He looks more normal and doesn't speak in an irritating husky voice. But I don't get how he could transform into a wolf at will. Whatever happened to werewolves and the full moon?

Haha. But I'll catch Eclipse all the same, just to see how much worse it can get. In the meantime, I want to watch 2012 again - you guessed it, to see Sasha!!!!! <3

this is not your typical 'it's over!' post

2009-11-13T23:07:00.004+08:00

It all started with Zizou.

Because if not for him, I wouldn't have learnt French. And if I hadn't learnt French, I wouldn't have had the chance to go to France last November. And if I hadn't gone to France last November, I wouldn't have taken awesome pictures. And if I hadn't taken awesome pictures, my dad wouldn't have said that I deserved a better camera. And if my dad hadn't said that I deserved a better camera, I wouldn't have gotten my CANON EOS 450D 18-55 KIT + 55-250 + UV FILTER + CIRCULAR POLARIZING FILTER + REMOTE CONTROL + LENS HOOD + DRY CABINET............

From left to right: 55-250 (with lens hood), Canon EOS 450D with 18-55 lens. EW-60C lens hood for 18-55, Targus UV Filter, Tokina UV Filter, Tokina Circular PL, Remote control.

And by registering my camera online, I'll get a FREE 50mm PRIME LENS!!!!!!!!

THIS. IS. SO. EFFING. AWESOME......!!!!!!!

I'll round off this awesome post with the Photo of the Year:

Note: I did not fuck. The actual sentence was 'I fucking hate this book'.

The beginning of the end

2009-10-11T19:00:00.001+08:00

I'm blogging from my Dad's iPhone so I'll keep this short. Next Friday is the beginning of the end and I am extremely excited. I played the whole of rach 3 just now and it was brilliant, for my standards at least. I may be a little lame here, but I even prepared 3 encores for my little 'concert'. Haha. That is, if anyone wants to listen. Okay, here's a little challenge. (for me) I'm not going to blog anymore until the end of the o levels! Alright! But I'll continue to tag! so the next time I post here, the o levels will have ended!!

Oh yeahhh!!!

slacking is bad!

2009-10-02T22:56:00.003+08:00

But that's exactly what I've been doing for the whole of this week! I don't think doing a TYS paper everyday counts as studying, though! I can't believe I used to study 8 hours a day.

The end is so close I can smell it. The last time I checked, there're only 41 days left. 41 days to my Rach Three concert! And I'm going to be the pianist this time. I'm nervous! But excited at the same time. This concert is for you, Yee Ching!

And after that, it's an hour or two of footy, then it's off to the camera shop we go! Here's my finalised shopping list:

Canon EOS 450D Kit (18-55mm)

55-250mm

UV Filter

Circular Polarising Filter

Wired remote

Rubber lens hood

And after that, we'll go get my cello! After I've mastered the basics, I'm going to arrange songs for the cello and piano:

Rach's Symphony No. 1 Part 3

Prelude in F Major (1891)

Elgar's Salut d'Amour - I know there're already cello/piano arrangements for the above 2 songs but I'm going to write my own versions

Maybe a few sections of Rach 3

And compose songs for both instruments.

Then I'm going to learn Cello Sonata (cello and piano parts) Op. 19 by Rachmaninoff. Or at least the third part.

And I've received another job offer by my employers, the violin teachers, which means the money will come rolling in! I think I'm going to buy some sheet music, books, and stock up my wardrobe in preparation for Poly. And I'll spend my remaining time at Terminal 1 or going on a photography tour around Singapore.

Reality Check: There are still 41 days to 13 November. And I still suck at Rach 3.

Dammit...

brwen stxizel

2009-09-30T22:27:00.004+08:00

Brwen Stxizel, my football team! Made up of Brenda/er Wong/Na, Jing/Xi Wen, Stacey, Me (xi -something), and Hazel. New player: Sarah Long. We couldn't add her name in because we've already printed the shirts. I think it's too cramped at the centre. But what the hell.

to my favourite vladimir: ashkenazy!

2009-09-27T16:42:00.003+08:00

Mirror-image ambigram! I designed the 'Vladimir' during a very boring Chinese tuition, and the 'Ashkenazy' on a sleepless night.

Edit: this ambigram is one of my absolute favourites! :D

i played rach three with ashkenazy!

2009-09-26T22:33:00.003+08:00

... or rather, his recording! And I'm happy to say that I could catch up with him most of the time! And I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had been practising Page 65 a tad too fast. Of course, Ash can play it twice as fast if he wants to. But if he thinks that the speed is okay, I'm fine with it! As for the other parts, he played them so fast that when I played at his speed, I couldn't see my fingers. Especially the last few pages of Movement 3. Left Hand had to play octaves at an unbelievable speed and needless to say I misplayed over half of the notes. But as Ash is a hundred times the pianist I am, I'm not disheartened!

Recently I developed a liking for chain ambigrams.

Boeing. My first chain ambigram. I have to say it is a natural chain ambigram.

Arsenal.

Rachy.

And...

'I Completed Rach Three', my celebratory Rach Three ambigram!

Okay, I'm going to watch the F1 qualifying race! I'm hoping for more scandals! Because I think they're more interesting than the race itself! Actually, the only thing I like about F1 is the sound of the cars...

i win

2009-09-18T22:21:00.003+08:00

... because I completed Rach Three!!!!!!!!

Took me the best part of 110 days. Well, actually less than that since I didn't practice everyday, but I can't possibly record the number of hours I spent on it, right? So it's officially 110 days. Played the whole thing for the first time just now. It took me 50 minutes because I repeated many parts. There are some parts that I just can't play right... And after that I was so exhausted I collapsed into bed and regained consciousness only 2 hours later...

It's such an awesome feeling, knowing that I've learnt every page of Rach Three. I'm far from mastering it, of course, and I don't expect to anyway. But it's okay. For all I know I might be the worst Rach Three player in the world. But I'd rather be shit at Rach Three than be pro at a noob song, like, I don't know... Canon in D? *pukes*

OMG I COMPLETED RACH THREE!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

The Spirit of America!

2009-09-11T23:02:00.001+08:00

For the past few days I've been reduced to a zombie-like state. I woke up at 0800 and slept at 0000, and studied for half the time I was awake. So it was only reasonable, even humane, that I got a day off today. By attending The Spirit of America!

It felt great, back at my old seat! This time I could see Pascal Roge's fingers more clearly because, well, his shoulders aren't as broad as Boris's. I noticed some differences from the recording I had (no idea who was the pianist though), but I loved the performance all the same! But it was kind of irritating when people clapped in between movements.

I tried to get Pascal's signature. But I had to buy his CD first! So I wouldn't have gotten Boris's autograph even if I tried. If Ashkenazy comes, I'll make sure I bring extra money because I don't mind paying for his autograph!

I thoroughly enjoyed Bernstein's West Side Story. I loved the drums! The principal percussionist had given us a pre-concert talk and it was very interesting. Too bad there won't be any more pre-concert talks for the concerts that I'm going to attend!

Next concert: Gil Shaham! I can't wait!

12 pages left!

2009-09-06T13:54:00.000+08:00

I sort of got past page 65, one of the most scary pages I've ever seen. And I didn't escape unhurt though. I swear the skin of my fingertips have become thinner. I am talking, of course, about Rach 3. The more I play it, the more I'm convinced that I suck. And the more I'm convinced that people who can play it are freaks (this includes Ash, Lubey, Horowitz, Rach himself and a whole lot of other pianists. Freaks.)

But page 65 is hardly the most difficult page ever though. For those who don't know, on page 65 there is such a huge mass of demisemiquavers that they seem to be printed on black paper. Just for fun I tried playing the last few bars of part 3 and I almost died. It may look innocent - some crotchets and quavers here and there but I'd rather take page 65 anyday.

Here's why: it involves both hands playing chromatic scales - in octaves - and at a speed of 6 beats per second. It is like having a seizure. And just when you think the worst is over after hitting the last note of the scale, you realise that you have to play D major chords, alternating between both hands, at a speed of 8 beats per second. I lost as much sweat playing the last 16 bars as playing the whole of part 1.

Sigh. I don't know if I can finish the whole thing by the end of O Levels! It's only 67 days away. 12 pages may not seem like much but this is Rachmaninoff we're talking about! Not some crap Canon in D which everyone can sightread.

rach squared!

2009-08-22T23:27:00.003+08:00

yesterday's concert was so awesome! i loved everything about it. this time my seat was in the stalls and although it was a tight angle, i could see the pianist's fingers. i scoured around before the concert for seats with better views and now i know roughly where to seat when there's another piano concerto performance at vch.

the pianist was john chen, youngest winner of the sydney international piano competition. by the way, lubey took part in the same year and won, too! ~~(but john got 1st and lubey 5th, dammit!)~~ but they also recorded rach 2 and 3 together so it's okay!

i got john chen's autograph!! but he didn't talk to me :( he talked to the person in front! he asked her if she were a musician and what songs she liked to play. damn! i wanted to tell him i was learning rach 3, haha! i should've asked about lubey though!!

well, for the encores, etudes op. 33 no. 5 and 6 were played. i immediately recognised no. 6 because it's on my mp3's list of rarely heard songs, haha... but i don't think it's there anymore. i wanted a third encore! when john left the stage i was one of the handful still clapping.

the next song was symphony no. 2! and it would last for 1 hour. the person beside me wasn't too keen. i heard her telling her friend, 'i don't know how to prevent myself falling asleep in the next 1 hour', or something along the lines. pah! then why were you there.

i think symphony no. 2 is one of rach's best songs! it's so beautiful. especially the 3rd movement! however, i still prefer his first symphony! i love the 3rd movement so much i'm going to arrange it for cello and piano after the o'levels :D

we didn't have anymore encores after that! i clapped my hardest, hoping that there would be one, and i didn't mind a short one! but when the concertmaster left i knew it was all over. then i heard the person beside me telling her friend 'we just sat through a 1 hour concert and you still expect an encore??!!'...!!!

it was a wonderful night! i even met a friend who went to france with me. turns out she likes rachmaninoff too!

i was so happy i spent some time strolling around singapore river and admiring the night scenery. it's an awesome photography location and i'm going back once i get my camera!

on another note, it was after i got john's signature when i regretted that i could've, but didn't, get boris berezovsky's autograph. stupid, i know. i don't know why i didn't bother. so from the next concert onwards, i'm going to get the autographs of all the soloists. and at the next rach 3 concert, if there is going to be one, i'm going to get the pianist to sign my rach 3 score. hopefully he'll be ashkenazy or lubiantsev. i'm crossing my fingers! if john could perform here, i don't see why lubey can't.

a dream come true

2009-08-16T20:27:00.001+08:00

remember this post i made 1 year ago?

no, you don't, but that's not the point. if you're too lazy to check it out, it's about this weird dream i had. i said i dreamt that i saw a ferrari, a car and a 747 race, and the 747 won. pretty lame dream, eh? no one would be that bored to get a 747 and a race car and race them against each other.

but yesterday i saw a news article in the straits times, and it said that a porsche would be racing against a 747 on the 5th of september! well check this out!

okay, it's not going to be exactly like my dream, as it's a porsche and not a ferrari, and the car won't have a headstart, but both involve race cars and planes! the papers say the 747 reaches 290km/h at takeoff and the porsche's top speed is over 300km/h. but you never know!

what's next, the concorde taking to the skies again? i had a dream like that once!

it took me 24 days

2009-08-09T14:08:00.000+08:00

i just finished rach 3 part 2!!! and got a few sore fingers along the way, but i don't care! part 3 is next but i don't think i can complete it by the end of the o levels. my mother is threatening me with death if i play too much piano. i was exaggerating, but you get my meaning.

after rach 3: prokofiev pc 3, gershwin's pc in F

fighting a lost cause

2009-08-07T20:42:00.000+08:00

today we had national day celebrations in school!! as usual, i wore my arsenal shirt, but this year i also brought along my arsenal scarf!!!! i think the whole school should be arsenal fans so there won't be any problem choosing clothes for national day celebrations!

after that, we had a footy match with the teachers! this time, there were many teachers and students playing, unlike last time! and i scored 3 goals! and got 2 bruises, one on each shin, and an abrasion! and the abrasion was very disgusting because pus kept forming. and when i went to watch 'fighting' with yeeching, the pus seeped out of the plaster and flowed down my leg! you could see pus streaks all the way to my foot. and when it hardened it formed a crust and it's so disgusting! there was so much pus the plaster lost its stickiness. --"

and the only good thing about 'fighting' is channing tatum. really.

cyberfair

2009-08-02T13:59:00.000+08:00

breaking news: the results of 2009 cyberfair are FINALLY OUT (2 months late) and we got... silver! for our hastily and sloppily done website. not bad. but the problems are, the deadline for cca record updates is long over and i forgot who took part in this competition. so i can't get extra cca points.

not that i care anyway.

dead

2009-07-27T10:36:00.000+08:00

i almost died on saturday. the fever peaked at 39.9. my ears were hurting and i thought i would lose my eyes too. even now my vision is a little blurry. never, never again. i hate being sick. i want to eat ruffles.

i completed rach 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-07-16T21:32:00.004+08:00

.........part one!!

i had resolved not to blog for a long time so that people would watch lubiantsev's video below. (the more i research on russian pronunciation, the more i don't know how to pronounce his name. but that's another thing.)

but this is a hugely important thing. for me, it is a milestone. it is a tremendous achievement that, 2 months ago, i never thought would be possible.

after 46 days, i finally played rach 3 from start to finish, and made only a few mistakes! of course, the quality just isn't there but i'm continuing to work on it. my stupid left hand still gets stuck at some bars of the cadenza but it is improving. i still hit wrong notes when i play that cascading alternate hand part which comes just before the chordal part (i don't know what you call it, but i call it diabolical), but i will continue to work on it. (and my left hand continues to be jealous of my right)

okay, by now if you're wondering, what the eff is rach 3? it's the colloquial name for rachmaninoff's piano concerto no. 3. it is one of the most difficult piano concertos out there. and one of the most awesome. just ask anyone who's been to berezovsky's recent concert here (ME!!!).

for the sake of this post, and yeeching, i have uploaded the 3 parts of the concerto to imeem. this is played by the legendary vladimir ashkenazy.

innit awesome!!! i'm inspired to complete the whole thing already!!!

alexander lubiantsev!!!!!! ♥

2009-07-09T18:35:00.003+08:00

here's a post dedicated to the wonderful alexander lubiantsev! he's a brilliant pianist with good looks to boot!

look look look!!!! here he is playing prokofiev's piano concerto no 3 part 1! (the song is very nice!) he won 2nd (or 3rd, as there was no 1st!) in the international tchaikovsky competition! ahhhh!!!!

and here is an ambigram dedicated to him! ♥

i don't really like the 'X / T' and the 'I / D' combis but i couldn't think of any other solutions!

speaking of ambigrams, check out my ambigram page! just click on the link on top! i haven't added all my ambigrams yet. but i'll try to, soon!

TRANSFORMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-06-25T20:29:00.002+08:00

it totally doesn't deserve the 0.5/5 star rating Life gave it! i mean, how can anyone give a movie which shows the concorde and the F16 the lowest rating one can ever give??!!!??!!!

there were so many cool shots of planes. the C17s silhouetted against the sunset... classic a.net shot! the camera flying over the air france concorde in the scene at the museum... AWESOME!!! the F-16s flying in formation above the skies of egypt... a dreamshot!! that SR-71 transforming into the robot... unforgettable!! the F22 with tattoos... desirable! we also saw the E2C hawkeye, and even a brief shot of a 747 taking off. the most heartbreaking part was then the aircraft carrier tipped over and the poor F18s sliding off the deck into the sea... i couldn't bear to watch it. haha.

it's worth watching the movie just for the planes!!

i got the zen mozaic!!!

2009-06-22T22:54:00.004+08:00

and i bought it with my OWN money! a hundred percent mine!! cos i got $735 for playing the piano! and as for rach 3, i'm now re-learning the cadenza! which means i'm more than halfway through part 1! so far it's not that difficult. but that's because i've not gotten to the difficult parts yet. in part 3 there's a section where the whole page is full of demisemiquavers. the notes are so densely packed together from afar you'd think the score was printed on black paper. it's that diabolical. well i shall try to complete part 1 first then think of part 3!

i hate the ambigram generator

2009-06-20T23:26:00.003+08:00

you know why? because it creates in one second what we ambigram artists toil for hours to get. it's so unfair. go google 'ambigram generator' and see for yourself. BUT i made it design an 'i hate biology' ambigram and it couldn't do it! HAHA SO THERE.

well here are 2 more ambigrams i designed. took half an hour for each :)

another take on rachy's name. i'm extremely happy with this.

my favourite footy player of all time... zinedine zidane! i tried to make the centre 'e' look as gothic as possible, but i failed.

this is kinda worrying. i'm spending more time on ambigrams than books! cannot cannot cannot. i will keep away from ambigrams tomorrow.

another ambigram

2009-06-19T22:00:00.002+08:00

a lame one...

shit. i should've got into ambigrams earlier. then i can submit this for cohort tee design. damn it.

i tried designing a 'social studies / propaganda' ambigram but it didn't work out. it was very frustrating. and it wasted my studying time. what a waste. it'd make a brilliant ambigram.

ambigrams, more ambigrams!!!!!!

2009-06-17T23:05:00.002+08:00

after 8 hours of studying... not non stop, of course, but 8 hours nonetheless... i came up with this ambigram... again... i wonder what's with studying and ambigrams, ha!

just look at this work of genius... i'm sure others can do it better, but it's the best i can manage. here's another one that i did yesterday...

i'm actually rather pleased with this. i'm going to print it on a t shirt! and the bio one. awesome! then i'll have 2 t shirts - no, make that 3 (including our class hoodie which will feature the 4d ambigram!) - with my ambigram designs! wheeeeee i am so happy! it must be all the studying!

i can't take this anymore

2009-06-14T21:04:00.002+08:00

it's pathetic. what nine hours study schedule. i can only manage a miserable 5. i blame it on fatigue.

i keep thinking about the end of the o levels. i have already planned everything out. i have researched the prices for the canon 450D and the lenses and the filters. and i have also found a cello school and a shop selling cellos. everything is in place already. what's left is that fucking 5 months. five fucking months.

the june holidays isn't half over yet. and i am already failing.

mugging for exams is a bad thing. do you agree? explain your answer.

2009-06-08T22:23:00.003+08:00

it is the exam period again. with exams comes mugging. i agree to a certain extent that mugging is a bad thing. but, believe it or not, there are good things that come with mugging.

mugging is damaging to the body, especially to the brain. mugging involves cramming enormous amounts of facts into the brain. the brain, despite its being the most complex machine in the universe, has its limits. one cannot expect it to absorb all the information from 3 science textbooks, 1 social studies textbook and one history textbook. let's not talk about the curious breed of humans called the china scholars who eat their textbooks for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. the brain i am talking about is the brain that everybody has - normal.

mugging can cause immense fatigue. a typical studying schedule lasts from 0900h to 1200h, then 1400h to 2000h. well, at least that's my studying schedule. with such a packed timetable, it's no wonder the human body cannot cope and this makes the poor person vulnerable to sicknesses. and the person will feel incredible guilt when he takes even 5 minutes off his studying time to sleep, because time is very valuable - a minute lost is one less definition memorised.

mugging causes unsociable behaviour. one cannot expect to go out that often when the whole of his day is used up for studying. this alienates him from his friends and causes further problems. also, spending large amounts of time alone can make one go crazy - not a good thing at all.

however, mugging has its good sides. it is only when somebody loses something that he realises what he truly loves. i used to take the piano for granted - hammering the keys for hours on end without a break. now, with that crazy study schedule, i only have time for 1 hour of piano everyday. with such a limited time, i learn to treasure that hour. every minute playing rachmaninoff's piano concerto no. 3 is bliss to me. and it is because i can only play it for 1 hour everyday that i love the piano even more.

people usually look at what's in front of them and forget the bigger scheme of things. sure, mugging for 5 months is pure torture. but what comes next? if we don't mug today, we will not have a bright future. good o level grades are the ticket to a better life. therefore, mugging is useful in the long run.

weighing all the points, i agree that mugging for exams is a bad thing, but its good points far outweigh the bad ones. 5 months of mugging is nothing compared to years of struggle if your results are no good.

moral of the story:

STUDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ambigram-mania part three

2009-06-01T16:00:00.003+08:00

look, i tried, okay? i tried not to design more ambigrams because i have to blog about my designs after that and it means using the comp, which i do not what to do. but i have to blog about this one - the 4 diligence ambigram!!!!

TADA!!!!

it has to be my best ambigram yet. yes, even better than the rachmaninoff ambigram i drew a few days back.