david's chaotic cosmos

FS: Canon Pixma iP4760

2010-11-25T22:55:00.001-08:00

Tada.. For $120.

For Sale: Balloon sculpting materials ($10)

2010-05-31T03:50:00.000-07:00

I guess professional clowning is not the path for me.. Selling a half-pack of balloons and a pump. To test if they are still functioning, I tried a bit of sculpting. I call it 'dogs and mistletoe'.

For Sale: Physics Textbook, Serway & Faughn 5th ed. ($25)

2010-05-31T03:47:00.000-07:00

Not sure if this is still applicable for the current A level syllabus though.

For Sale: Roadsign Australia ($3)

2010-05-31T03:41:00.000-07:00

For Sale: FILA shades

2010-05-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

I don't know what the market rate for shades these days are. So quote me!

For Sale: Marshall bass and guitar amps ($90 each)

2010-05-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

Description:

Bass Amp:

15W
Sound is not superb. Practice amp
No noise

Guitar Amp:

15W
Sound also not superb. Practice amp.
Noisy with a background hiss, but drive/clean channels work fine.
Very light, good if you wanna carry it around

SOLD! $90 Jim Dunlop GCB95 Wah

2010-05-30T08:35:00.001-07:00

Description:

Condition (sound): good, no noise.
Condition (aesthetic): Battery cover's broken, so the battery will be dangling outside of the pedal. If you're like me and you use a DC brick/1-spot then it's not a problem.

SOLD! 11 copies of Modern Drummer magazine (2008-2009) $40

2010-05-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

April 2008 - March 2009 (missing July 2008)

All pages intact. Half the copies aren't even open (that's another story about my subscription impulses)

For Sale: Yamaha 6-pc Stage Custom

2010-05-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Description:

1990s Stage Custom Made in Japan (you can't find this in Yamaha stores); Birch/Mahogany/Falkata
Throne not included
Kick pedal is not a stock Yamaha pedal
22 x 22 (kick); 10 x 8, 12 x 9, 13 x 11, 16 x 16 toms
Snare drum is a 14 x 5.5 PDP maple snare (SX series. 6-ply)
Hardware made in Indonesia (better than Taiwanese hardware, which is what you get in stores these days)

Condition: NO dings on the Yamaha drums, PDP snare has a little scratch on the shell

SOLD! $360 (price reduced from 500!) Yamaha G5A (5-string bass)

2010-05-30T06:54:00.001-07:00

Description:

Very versatile 5-string bass.
Especially when the sound guys don't bother to EQ me properly, the onboard pre-amp gave me a lot of control on stage.
I love its twang. The bass can be pretty heavy too.
The scale length is 34". I'm not entirely sure about this, but I can say for sure that the low B string can get quite floppy. It's not a very tight B-string which a 35" would give you. I have to compensate for that in my playing
Selling it because I'm upgrading to a Mike Lull! (more head room in its sound)

Condition (sound): 10/10. No noise. Fitted with new input jack about 18 months ago

Condition (aesthetic): 7/10. some significant dings (all in pics below)

For Sale: Holga ($70), flash ($35)

2010-05-24T04:33:00.000-07:00

Philippines

2010-05-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

I finally have the time to blog about my Manila trip in March! This entry will be a mix of my reflections on Philippines and tips (and warnings!) for you if you're going there. Firstly, Pinoys are real nice. Them and us - it's symbiotic relationship called tourism. They really have incentive to rob you. If you don't travel too flamboyantly, you need not worry about being robbed. Btw, they love to hang out. From late morning to evening the malls and streets are perpetually packed. So if you ever run out of ideas (which you most likely will if you're in Manila City for more than 2 days), ask the locals hanging out with their friends.

Taxi drivers may try to rip you off, so insist on having the

meter (rather than a flat rate) before he drives. In Manila City you can get around very conveniently and cheaply (7 pesos) on jeepneys. The taxi rides we took averaged about 100 pesos for a 3km journey. Jeepneys are pretty fun to ride too!There really is nothing much to do in Manila City. They've got a HUGE ASS mall by the bay (free wifi!) and that's probably a good first stop to stock up necessities (like a US plug converter and a map of Manila. Very handy.) Within Manila we went to Intramuros. We heard that there was a local troupe in town performing every night for 2 weeks but we missed cause we went in the da

Once you reach Intramuros, there will be guides on horse

carriages who will offer to show you around. That's ok, maybe unnecessary, but hey it gives to their income and economy. (Ok here comes the warning about Intramuros) They'll probably show you the epic places like the Catholic churches and Spanish colonial houses. But after the second church, everything was pretty much on repeat mode. We checked out the Intramuros (a particular fort which the Spanish built and the Americans seized) which was really nothing but a lot of walls (circular walls, flat walls + a lame golf course and a lame pond). So I recommend that you quit the tour after the first 3 stops. (Btw that's my lovely companion for the trip on left, outside a catholic church)

By the third day, we already ran out of things to do near where we stayed (Manila

int'l youth hostel) Very good location, near the airport, near a major road [think it's called Airport Road] which links you directly to the megaassmall, intramuros, etc. Why I mentioned this is because this hostel has a particular cook whose husband is an artist, and also a tour guide. So we asked him to show us around, and he took us on a day trip to Taal Lake. It was a 3 hour bus ride (20 pesos) to Tagaytay City, a 20 minute bike ride and a 40 minute boat ride. Local guides on motorbikes with a carriage will drive you downhill on their Kawasaki to the sea level.

The bike ride was my FAVOURITE part of the trip. All the way down, the smell of the earth invades your nostrils and your neurons keep firing. It's not like a cologne you wear which you stop noticing once you get acclimatized. Just when I thought I got enough of it, I take another deep breath and I feel awed all over again. I could sit there all day breathing the earth.

So when we got to the coast, the boat took us (sadly not to Pinatubo, which grandly erupted in 1991 saving us all from global warming for 2 decades) bu

t to Taal Volcano. After we landed on the island of Taal Volcano,we had to walk or ride on a pony. (Another warning) The lady told us it'll be a 2-hour walk, so we

decided to take the pony. But on the uphill sections my conscience was struggling nearly as badly as my pony was, so I got off at long uphill stretch (which turned out to be the last uphill stretch). It would not have been a 2-hour walk. An hour at the most. So, just. don't. take.

the. pony. Peddlers will try to sell you water, masks, hats, souvenirs, umbrellas. Usually at 50 pesos (about SGD$1.60), defo overpriced.

This is a badly stitched picture by me. When we reached the top, overlooking Taal Lake, we enjoyed the calm for about 2 hours. If we had been able to afford a whole day, we could have gone down to the lake and bathed in sulphuric water. I'm quite sure it would have been fun trekking downhill (really) so maybe if we ever go back, we'll set off earlier. (Warning again) There's no need to sign up for tour packages cause they areway overpriced. It's really much better to handle it piecemeal, just get to Tagaytay City, and haggle your way down to Taal volcano.

We returned on the boat and the bike to Tagaytay City, by then the weather had turned to a cool 20 degrees Celsius. That night for dinner, we headed to a hotel named Island Cove, which looked like 4-star to me. The seafood was ok (7/10) but the MUSIC was insane. I would have thought that Beyonce and Taylor Swift were all there that night if I only had my ears to judge.

On our 4th day, we went to Ayala Museum in Makati City

. On our way out of our hostel, we saw the Baclaran flea mart. My lonelyplanet guidebook tells me it's an 'exotic' local flea mart. It doesn't seem like it at all. Maybe erotic's the word (cause there were quite a few porno dvds on sale haha) Anyway I think 'exotic' is an European Orientalist construct. Life is life. Nothing is really 'exotic' if you live in it everyday. It has become a cliche and a stereotype of the East. Life can be beautiful, or it can be damned with exploitation from the West or local elites -but it is not exotic.

So, back to Ayala Museum. I have to say Philippines has so much talent for art. Oil, canvas, parchment, pen, watercolor... I'm no art fart, but the artwork in the gallery was so captivating I could just watch the re-creation of beauty on canvases all day.

Serendipitously, there was a German jazz trio playing that night at the museum. Most OUT music i've ever heard (more out than chick corea or hiromi, maybe not harmonically but defo rhythmically.) They're c

alled Hyperactive Kid, and they really are.

We went back on the 4th night to our hostel, where I wrote my essay and Karen checked out her photos on my MBP (and was so tempted she bought her own haha) while waiting for our departure time.

Pleasant trip, great companion, itinerary that was somehow filled up (thank God, really). I have to say though I think the services there are intentionally made inefficient to increase employment (I had to go through 4 stages and 4 employees to get my AA batts for my camera). When you look at a country screwed over twice, first by the Spanish, and again by the Americans for over 80 years (from 1898 with the Filipino-American war that killed 600,000 Pinoys to supporting the corrupt martial dictator Marcos up till 1980s), you can't help but hope that a political Ip Man will rise up and be a voice for the Philippines. (Yes, I'm quite inspired from watching the second half of Ip Man 2.) To save them from politickers and people who labour for power and oppress if it does not compromise their power, to establish a state that truly enriches and satisfies everyone. Utopian? Maybe in this world.

Yes, welcome to the inside of my head.

2008-10-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

the weight of glory

2008-10-16T07:49:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. No, this is not about how stressed out I am about my overwhelming all-the-rage-ness. (I wish it were). It's a book (more like a compilation of orations) by C.S. Lewis in the 1950s, titled "the weight of glory"(omg u can read so many chapters for free!)

I've never read any of his books other than the screwtape letters, probably because i'm too ill-equipped to take in more than the surface.

Because it's my first time reading his ideas, I find it very interesting how the society he described (pre-popular TV, pre-gossip girl, pre-internet) hasn't changed much since. Though I've always been having a suspicion that people retrofit their lifestyles to TV and literature. It's a chicken-and-egg question between TV drama and real life high-hormone emotional struggles.

But, I digress. I particularly related with the inner ring, which talked about what we call cliques today. It's kinda hard to imagine my dad sporting the then-latest curry-pok hairstyle or my mom with her hippest curls to try to fit in. But such exclusive groups and its pertinence date back to the Victorian era, at least.

I'll cut and paste you some lines from the chapter the weight of glory:
"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal..... And our charity (to each other) must be a real and costly love, with a deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrement itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses."

Yep. Overall I think it's a good read. Especially since though he's a Christian writer, he's not cliched (people took his lines!) and it's mostly a no-holes-barred commentary and he addresses some issues (like your secret longing to belong and sniggering at people who didn't) which the subconscious you didn't even dare to bring it up to you!

AND

My arowana just died. Watching him swim sideways with occasional jerks is something I definitely don't ever want to see again. I wonder why I feel so sad about it. I never used to feed him and never got too close to him cause I didn't want to give him a shock. Though it was a cheap buy at $168 I think the greatest loss was watching him struggle and not knowing what we could have done to help him.

It was an oversight on our part cause just before dinner, we changed more than half the water at one go, unbalancing the pH level and temperature.

another campFREE publicity video!

2008-10-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

the post for which i'm too drowsy to think of a title

2008-10-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

interesting article about how it's possible to blame anyone for anything

i'm off to bed.. can't feel my body after popping that flu tablet

good week everyone!

the weekend is here!

2008-09-30T03:30:00.000-07:00

YEA~ baby. Tomorrow's public holiday plus some days off gives me a 6-day weekend! Now.. how am I going to spend it??? Give me some ideas!

Yesterday I was surfing around and I found this novel (to me) way of teaching kids how to write essays. It's so amazingly simple I wonder I've never been taught this way in school!

Teachers have broken down in my class so many times (we weren't even the worst around), we got tired of acting sorry and quiet, and getting our class rep to run after the teacher. A recurrent jeremiad is the whopping stack of homework they have to assess. I'm guessing that this gives them more homework, depriving them of their life. When they erase the line between work and rest, the joys and pains of teaching becomes a blur and what might have once been sufficiently enjoyable becomes a daily torture after the first period with the nasty class.

SO. I'm suggesting, for the primary to pre-U level, that they farm out the work which don't really need the teacher to do personally to a programme, leaving them more time for work that don't evoke binary answers. If a computer does it, the teacher can see the mistakes and strengths of the class in a chart, and can have access to each individual students performance according to topics. Which is basically what teachers do when they assess the homework personally, right?

Assuming that kids don't stop receiving essay assignments and suddenly find that all their homework are MCQs, this might actually shear off the lethal tumour which was once the educators's time. And the workplace suddenly becomes a garden burgeoning with creativity and a deeper insight into the mind and the desire to learn, which for some of us was being murdered slowly and stealthily since the day we had to ace all our exams.

another random post

2008-09-17T02:12:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Sorry for slacking on this blog. You know how sometimes when you face a giamongus mountain it makes you just wanna slack at the foot of the mountain, instead of climbing it as you planned? Yup that's me now when it comes to SO many things.. For example, one mountain is improving my sight-reading! =(

While googling for how to run a happening youth camp (ahhh!!), I suddenly remembered a friend who was telling me that he feels people in church can get so fake sometimes, and he didn't see any value of being in a community who was so judgmental of him.

Let's assume that he's not hypersensitive. That led me to remember also the old notion of church being a collective of imperfect people (as popularized by switchfoot). While some of us are frowning upon another fellow Christian for not doing the right things, we are all equally in need of help to be a better person, to better the world in all its dichotomy.

I don't know if this short discussion can be called a discussion (my brain's busy in the alimetary department). But anyway I got to go now. I'll end off with a fun fact!

After years of study techniques workshops my schools made me attend, I knew that the number of hours you spend sleeping are as important as those you spend studying, but not why. But I was convinced only after finding out that getting a good night of sleep after a long day of learning helps consolidate memory formation of the prior day.

Tata!

amsterdam, singapore, and the world!

2008-08-31T12:53:00.000-07:00

the montreal airport (do they have only 1?)

where we were gonna spend 6 hours..

6 hours later...

try pinching your nose and saying "tank you"

the amsterdam schiphol airport at 7:55am

i took this while queueing to buy our 15-min train ticket to the city centre. which cost us 6.50euros!

cute!

inside the train. it was really just cruising along the city. you gotta understand that we just came out of quebec, all positive and ready to unleash a smile. and we were quite surprised to see that the dutch people at this part of the city looked bored and stoned. i think it's because most of the people we met/saw are waiting for their trains to get to work.

central station at amsterdam. it was about 15deg and pretty cloudy throughout the day.

just outside the train station. it's quite a green city with more trams and bicycles than cars. and the damn tram nearly got my face off me.

the whole city had a funky smell. i suspect it's because of:
1)the river
2)marijuana
3)rubbish trucks
4)shops selling fish

rush hour

quite a nice city

check out her waist size!

chinatown!

perpendicular to chinatown is the famous DeWallen. i wonder if city planning did this discriminatingly.

this is back in Singapore on our way to customs.

Sorry about the lousy photo commenting i'm quite an idiot with blogspot (either that or blogspot's platform sucks)

Anyway it's my 6th day back in singapore and i'm still jetlagging. It's good that i don't really have to follow a tight schedule for these few weeks.

I remember asking myself on my first few days in quebec:

Where are the beggars??

It was such a beautiful city, everybody (locals and tourists) lived like they didn't need money. I don't know if I've said this before, but it could be either that that's the case, or they're just not showing their neediness. But anyway, watching CNN (cause almost all other channels in the hotel are french!) i learnt about even more gang fight casualties in montreal.

Just yesterday I was watching Jamie's Kitchen: Australia (it's not a cooking show, per se). If I were to be given the chance to learn cooking from a great chef (jamie's sidekick), and eventually get a chef's place in Jamie Oliver's restaurant, it'd be the first thing on my list. I'd push away anything just to attend his classes. It just seems like the logical thing to do, right? But I realize that I do not think the same way as 15 of these apprentices. They're all from the wrong side of the town, with family problems, drug addictions, learning disabilities. Some of them really want to learn and are giving all they've got. But more than half are missing classes, giving excuses like their knees hurt in the cold.

Plus hanging out with the guys from bands from all over the world, mostly the canadian peeps, i realize that people are different. I always tend to assume we're the same and smack my forehead and think "why don't you see as I do?". The upbringing, situations you've had to get out of, struggles you had to overcome, people you've had to deal with, all play a part in making you. Though we react and behave differently, but still all over the world every country has the same group of poor and uneducated people. We still share the common goal of surviving and making sense of life.

I have so much more to learn about why people are the way they are. and i think if one day when everyone understands that, and respects that, we'll be living in a much better world without discrimination. i know it's idealistic and this is blatant amateur writing. Do recommend some text if you want me to get out of this immature state of mind!

until the next time, peace out stay cool respect yourself and other people and remember to live!

i'll miss this life

2008-08-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

Right now i'm clearing some leave just to stay at home and laze around. Somehow I started to hate my organizer, and I didn't mind penning less than 3 things on it. Which I guess can be something good.

I think I'm really infatuated with sarah mclachlan. I haven't heard anything else other than her songs (except highlanders pipes and drums)! When I listen to her, it makes me wonder. How can somebody so rich and famous with 2 kids and a husband write such melancholic songs devoid of daily middle class struggles? She's brought so much beauty into the world especially with surfacing with songs like full of grace, world on fire and building a mystery. It's endless!

I hope I'll get to watch her at least once before I die.

anyway more pictures!

inside the Citadel

we got a great view of le chateau frontenac from the citadel

our lovely tour guide

a reminder of their political struggles for sovereignty.

last day in quebec:

us flooding the area

i'm back!

2008-08-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I'm back in singapore! totally lost track of time. and the pictures are totally screwed up (chronologically). I'll try to keep them in order as much as possible but you gotta give me some time to do it. and it's not helping that i keep having to wait 10 mins just for facebook to tell me "uploading failed"!

We dropped by Amsterdam before flying to Singapore, and i conclude it's not that Singaporeans are colder, it's just that Quebecers are extraordinarily friendly! but then again it was mostly the senior citizens, holidaymakers, and service industry people we were dealing with. When we were taking the train to Amsterdam city centre at 7am, the working class people we saw waiting for their trains looked just as stoned and jaded! i'll do another post on the happening Amsterdam.

Anyway, the trip was great and i miss quebec already! it's not surprising though. it's such a beautiful city, plus the weather was about 10-26deg when we were there. and most of all most people are friendly and at least (maybe only) on the surface they looked like they were living as if they didn't need the money. Is that a possible model of living? I wonder. I'd love to live like that. Well anyway thankfully it'll be a good 5 years before i have to be financially independent.

So this is the essence of my half-year resolution: stop rushing.
I realized my reading is so slow because i'm constantly being interrupted by sporadic thoughts about all the other things in life.

Canadians REALLY have good genes. The girls are so pretty and the guys are so handsome! At least in quebec.

Anyway, here are some pictures i took on one of our discover quebec afternoons. Enjoy!

this was our chillaxing afternoon at Ste Foy. some of us got sick of shopping so we decided to make for the sea! (actually it's a river)

so this is vignesh in front of a beautiful house..

HE'S ALIVE!!!

i couldn't resist too..

when we asked for directions before we started walking to the river this guy told us it was 5 miles away. but we went anyway and it turned out to be only at most 1.2 miles -_-

anyway the beach was nicely developed with level roads, park benches, trees lined up neatly. somehow i felt it lost a bit of its beauty in that.

let's play spot the weirdo!

i love how the road bends..

us snooping around ppl's frontyards.

this is the canadian cadet's band. they were awfully friendly, and i even got a shirt from one of them!

gary vic firth lee demonstrating for us the traditional grip on the vibes.
(disclaimer: i'm just kidding)

jais just grooving..

us and a whole lot of senior citizens watching the NYPD jazz band at george place V. these old folks really know how to enjoy themselves! most of them are here on holiday anyway..

the traditional headbangers of korea.

we had coldplay for opening
(just kidding)

there were at least 30 bagpipes there. but surprisingly it wasn't that jarring. in fact, i'm in love with bagpipes now! i don't have a good recording(neither does youtube as of 5 mins ago) of the piece, Vent D'espoir. but if you can check it out, you'd agree with me that every hair will stand at the part where they go up 1 key when the bagpipes came in!

another typical apartment in lower old quebec city.

nice flowers which won't bloom in singapore, and drawings which won't exist in singapore because the moment they start coming into existence the creators will disappear.

these people are REALLY into green roofs. anyway this is a train station

inside the train station

still inside the train station

all 3 of us taking pictures at the same time

still all 3 of us taking pictures at the same time

a "wet" market we happened to pass by. the shop owners looked about 60 years old average. and they looked like they lived as if they didn't need the money!

the cadets drum corps.

cute babies

i was lucky they didn't think i was a paedophile (BECAUSE I'M NOT)

they only posed for me after the hot dancers went off stage

another cute boy

it's such a coincidence that we're all wearing the same thing

i'd have hopped on if i could fit into the cabins.

too bad we missed the lights show..

finally somebody who's weirder than vignesh!

interesting..

some holidaymakers we bumped into

other than the young girl holding the violin, the rest of the troupe looked 60!

i accidentally caught a bit of bum in my picture..

on our way back..

TUESDAY

2008-08-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

what the lame..

this is the logistics camp where we have our lunch and dinner.. breakfast's at the hotel

left to right: fu, shou, and richard LU

houses across the street of where we had the Grand Concert

the little park outside where we played

where we played the Grand Concert.

first time in my life i saw a celesta in "person"

Daryl posing at the nice house across the street of the concert hall

the 34th Regiment Canada Army reservist band practising hard for the display..

i think it's because it's novel to me, i love the looks of the streets!

then it rained. we had to cancel one show because of the rain.

of late i've been having REALLY bad memory. like now i cannot remember for the life of me what we did that night when it rained.. anyway i'm really dead beat now you guys have a great day. remember. every now and then we have choices. we can choose to be mean to somebody,
or we can choose to love somebody. we can choose to be jaded, or we can choose to give ourselves a chance to hope.

cheers!

what a difference a day makes..

2008-08-15T18:11:00.000-07:00

Remember just 12 hours ago i was telling about how fantastic Quebec? ok now it's still fantastic but i think i'm just too tired to appreciate it.

We walked downtown after lunch and like typical tourists we took gigs of pictures. and like typical poor blokes i didn't spend on anything except on batteries cause my camera died.

O Canada!

2008-08-15T04:55:00.000-07:00

hey guys i'm finally here in Quebec after clocking 20 hours on 2 flights and 10 hours in the Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport (i don't know how that that guy who inspired the movie, the terminal, did it)

We're staying at a boutique hotel, rooming with marc with 2 queen sized beds with duvets THIS thick *sticks out index finger and thumb as if to pluck a massive grape*

It's already our second day here and work starts tomorrow. this is the view from my room! isn't it beautiful? i'd never thought i'd live to see this day, when i can stand in the sun and not sweat! in fact i was shivering! it was about 11degC just about 1 hour ago when we were having our breakfast.

And another highlight is... the counter girl is so hot and friendly! i wonder if facebook is big in canada.. I resolve to take a picture with her at least before I leave. I knew I shouldn't have quit my french classes.. =(

Ok i'm gonna work out my Michael-Phelps diet breakfast now. Good night Singapore

deal or no deal

2008-07-31T03:46:00.000-07:00

they say the greatest inspirations come from the toilet, and i think i just had one while i was pooping.

your journey with God is sometimes like the gameshow deal or no deal. there's a box next to you that possibly contains 250,000 bozingos, and you choose some boxes to open, and then the dealer comes and offers you a choice of settling for less, or risk getting even lesser if you unfortunately open a case containing $$$250,000.

so in life sometimes it's like that. all you hear is the gruelling silence when you consult God on an opinion, and you wonder if you just missed what he said. So a bad habit i've developed over the years is to choose the lesser option. I just settle for whatever train that comes, thinking well at least this train came.

Then you hear stories like Joseph (with the technicolor coat), where God seems to go as opposite as you can go with what he envisioned his life to be like. and after being backstabbed, shipped out, backstabbed again, jailed over many decades, he finally became prime minister and lived his vision.

I also recently read about Walter Ciszek and i really admire him for staying true to his beliefs despite his "Josephian" life story..

and the funniest thing is that we KNOW the $$$$$250,000 is in our box (though not necessarily in cash), we still choose to settle for less. thankfully we get to choose to come back into the game.

it's a convoluted world..

2008-07-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

at least that's how it is in my world now. sometimes miscommunication can be so costly. and because you didn't say yes people assumes a no when u're actually doing the silence-means-consent..

maybe like neo did (tho he was blind/blindfolded at that time) see the light above the dark clouds in matrix 3, one day we all can see how the world really is, and when all is light there is no room for shadows..

friday morning..

2008-07-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

i'm sleeping in later than usual, the kitchen ran out of bread and i'm wondering what can go with tuna, and i feel good! the past few days been crazy.. haven't had a weekend since 2 weeks ago, and i'm not gonna have my weekend this weekend.

anyway victor wooten's coming to town! does anybody wanna go watch?

it's so sad that big artistes will never come to Singapore. U2, for one, will never come unless we change some laws. I was watching a switchfoot video the other day, where jon was apologizing for not being able to let everybody watch, and he said they'll try to play at a bigger place next year. AND when they came to Singapore, it wasn't even half-filled!! kids that like switchfoot might find tickets to expensive (adults too), and older ppl are more likely to less fanatic.

i hope PARAMORE comes soon!!

ok i'll go a-hopping to look for a more productive use of time already..

peace out!

i was quite close..

2008-07-07T08:47:00.001-07:00

to not being able to write today's and yesterday's post!

got this from wikipedia

The following lists the effects of alcohol on the body, depending on the blood alcohol concentration or BAC.^[4]^[5]^[6] Remember that tolerance varies considerably between individuals.

Please note: the BAC percentages provided below are just estimates and used for illustrative purposes only. They are not meant to be an exhaustive reference; please refer to a healthcare professional if more information is needed.

Euphoria (BAC = 0.03 to 0.12%).
- Subject may experience an overall improvement in mood and possible euphoria.
- They may become more self-confident or daring; they may become more friendly or talkative, and/or social.
- Their attention span shortens. They may look flushed.
- Their judgment is not as good — they may express the first thought that comes to mind, rather than an appropriate comment for the given situation. See: in vino veritas
- They have trouble with fine movements, such as writing or signing their name.

Lethargy (BAC = 0.09 to 0.25%)
- Subject may become sleepy.
- They have trouble understanding or remembering things, even recent events. They do not react to situations as quickly.
- Their body movements are uncoordinated; they begin to lose their balance easily, stumbling; walking is not stable.
- Their vision becomes blurry. They may have trouble sensing things (hearing, tasting, feeling, etc.).

Confusion (BAC = 0.18 to 0.30%)
- Profound confusion — uncertain where they are or what they are doing. Dizziness and staggering occur.
- Heightened emotional state — aggressive, withdrawn, or overly affectionate. Vision, speech, and awareness are impaired.
- Poor coordination and pain response. Nausea and vomiting sometimes occurs.

Stupor (BAC = 0.25 to 0.40%)
- Movement severely impaired; lapses in and out of consciousness.
- Subjects can slip into a coma; will become completely unaware of surroundings, time passage, and actions.
- Risk of death is very high due to alcohol poisoning and/or pulmonary aspiration of vomit while unconscious.
- Loss of bodily functions can begin, including bladder control, breathing, heart rate.

Coma (BAC = 0.35 to 0.50%)
- Unconsciousness sets in.
- Reflexes are depressed (i.e., pupils do not respond appropriately to changes in light).
- Breathing is slower and more shallow. Heart rate drops. Death usually occurs at levels in this range.

Death (BAC more than 0.50%)
- Can cause central nervous system to fail, resulting in death.

i'm NEVER drinking this much again..

i'm never drinking too much again

2008-07-06T02:56:00.000-07:00

yesterday we went for jeff's wedding dinner, and i got wasted. the feeling sucks man. this morning when i woke up my heart was still racing until i had my lunch la.. i was puking over the place it was so malu! good thing justin brought me to the toilet. and i puked on the car, and at home. my parents were so patient (this is the understatement of the year) with me. my mom was like walking this meatbag programmed to spray vomit every 10 minutes to the carpark, and all the way home. and to prove it, when i called her this morning she didn't yell at me. damn am i lucky to have my folks..

things like this you just gotta do it to the limit once, so that you'll never want to do it ever again. it was so embarrassing to see people at church today. hahaha.. well but it was fun while it lasted.

chicken and egg.. or egg and chicken?

2008-06-24T08:37:00.000-07:00

This question's probably older than me, and while stoning on a few bus trips, it suddenly sneaked into my brain.

Did the notion of anger and "breaking stuff" come about naturally in us first, or did limp bizkit's song along with all the anger in pop culture and media come first? When a typical teen argues with his parents, does he feel like smashing things because he learnt it from watching tv, or does he feel like that because it was a reflex built into him?

Did adam get a great headache (and before moses was there with the 2 tablets) over some differences with eve, or is that only an image too often portrayed by hollywood? Would ur great^999 grandfather have brought your great^999 grandmother to see the shooting stars as an effort to make up to her (for marrying another concubine maybe?), or is that just a shakespearean notion which eventually became pop culture, and hence how we behave?

hmmmm..

bad day

2008-06-10T03:40:00.000-07:00

well it happens..

i'm guessing it's an unavoidable byproduct of the modern world. we start wanting so many things, and some of which when we can't get, just makes you frustrated because things get out of our control. we become slaves of what we want and i'm guessing that's what's making me feel like shit.

on another note.. you've heard of 'middle-child/only-child/etc syndrome' right? lately i've come to realized that being the youngest of the 2 children in my family, everybody lets me win. nobody demands that i do the dishes (though i volunteer to do it once in a few weeks.. hey my bro does it once a year! it's ok he wouldn't read this anyway). and in my church everybody's diplomatic and nice when it comes to reprimanding people.

and i think that explains the difficulty i have in accepting others' opinions. there is one way though. i just tell myself 'ok i don't give a shit about this' then i'll agree with anything. i feel so guilty for the times when marc and kenneth and the lan gang so readily agreed with i jio-ed them for lan. but everytime they jio me i always cannot make it. it's things like that. i guess it's never too late to start deconstruction works..

anyway i know this video is so old, but if u haven't seen it, check this funny shit!

the parable

2008-05-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

This is about a kingdom value/principle that I've been learning in church.

There was a King, who has many commanders, men and people under him. and there was this particular commander involved in this parable too.

The commander was put in charge of the King's money, and because there was so much money involved, he had a committee under him to help him. As prosperous years passed, the commander got complacent and slack with the operations of managing the King's funds. One day, in the nation's annual auditing, they found out that actually a 1/4 of the King's funds (which is a lot of money) was missing! So investigations started, and obviously the first person questioned was the commander in charge.

At the end of the round of investigations, the commander in charge finally concluded that it was careless accounting on their parts, and money was slowly being embezzled in small bits, all unnoticed. and knowing that he was pretty much screwed, he had no choice but to beg the King for pardon. so the King said, "alright. it's ok. Money lost can be earned again. If I executed you, no money can bring you back again. From now on, be more careful with my money."

The commander, filled with immense joy and relief having escaped the death sentence, came out of the court room with a spring in his steps.

Not long after, the commander thought to himself, i must punish those who deserve to be punished! So he held his own round of investigations, and called for all those involved in the careless accounting of the money. Having done that, he sentenced all involved in some way to life sentence in prison.

The King when he heard about it, the King summoned the man and said, 'You evil servant! I forgave you when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn't you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?' The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt.

And that's exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn't forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.

long weekend..

2008-05-19T01:16:00.000-07:00

yo!

finally a 4-day work week's coming! i'm halfway through this wonderful public holiday, and so far it's good. an unusually easy and free day.. i have a bad habit of packing up my schedule to the brim, and complain to myself that i'm too busy. then when there's a day when i'm absolutely free, i go and pack it up again.

in a recent discussion with jeff (an avid reader of this blog), we were talking about people who can't do things without company. is that something that comes with age? because i can do many things alone, and in fact i prefer to do them alone. could it be that after years of trying to achieve whatever u're trying to achieve (the 5Cs which many sinaporeans slave for, success in ur field of work, etc) u realize that life is actually about something more than ourselves? maybe life is about people?

anyway check this out! switchfoot's latest single from Chronicle's of Narnia 2, this is home another cool song would be faust, midas and myself. when i found out what faust and midas meant, i was like WOAH! these guys are cool man..

it's so comforting to know that there's so much more to life, that after this life, there is another more fulfilling, more intriguing, and more "infinite"

why....

2008-05-16T01:10:00.001-07:00

was my last post so emo? i don't remember.. hahaha.. well i guess it's time to chillax and do something about it rather than whining as in a GP essay.

i'm gonna be broke again.. getting a pair of HR624s and an apogee duet. leaves with like... hmmm let me calculate..... NO MONEY for my bike!! arghh... and zero purchasing power at the great singapore sale too.. haha well i guess that might turn out to be a good thing. though i HAVE been wearing the same pair of burms for the past 5 years..

diz iz a peekture taken of mee when i bot dat pair of bermoodas.

now my hair iz shorter..

what spells trouble?

2008-05-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

I'd say, people.

What reason is there for not allowing foreign aid workers to come into your country and help your people relieve the tension and pain they're experiencing right now? To quote my CSM the burmese government is "f**kedtype".

And the idea of a superior people eliminating the aliens in "their" land. In Rwanda, they called them "cockroaches" and assumed the right to kill 500,000 of them (they stopped when they stopped).

The rich go on amassing their wealth, which comes from exploiting the poor in one way or another, and they forget the poor. If only the rich would just give a small percentage, to the poor for education, and the most basic of social developments, i'm sure the world will become a better place. It seems ridiculous to us that anybody would believe that their neighbour deserves to die because some authority said so, and even more unbelievable that anybody would execute genocides of such massive scales. We need to bring these people up to this basic understanding of the need to respect each other, and that there's always a bloodless way out.

And there's the TV (and the producers) introducing notions of love(sensationalism could be a better word), rebellion, and egocentric thinking. Looking at issues kids (like us) deal with today, don't you think it's largely similar to what you see on TV? (ok not prison break for me)

I hope as much as we bring trouble, we also can be agents of peace and healing.

It's a fine balance..

2008-04-24T06:36:00.000-07:00

between staying tender and being jaded; idealism and realism; (staying innocent and being streetsmart?). I often find myself tipping to either ends. and i don't like that.

Anyway, thanks for tuning in to my monthly blog entry *throws confetti* I think i should write less, but more frequently so I won't be so scared of blogging. haha

I recall a recent post (of mine) and a string of retorts on youtube regarding the rickshaw uncle getting bullied, I find a stark similarity in tone and content with the pro-China, who are mostly China-ese, protests. And it scared me. I guess the spirit of Bruce Lee and no-more-sick-Asian attitude flows in our veins because of our upbringing (and genetic make-up?). It'd do us all some good if everyone would just keep their cool and speak rationally.

Anyway I'll try to "happen-ize" my blog with some pictures!

ok. one picture. haha don't really have many good pics to post. This was taken at my bro's graduation earlier this month. Well, what can i say.. Babes abound at SIM!

note: can somebody tell me how to put pics as it is on blogger so you don't have to click on a minuscule thumbnail to see a giamongus picture? like a 4R, or facebook photo kinda size would be great.. pls let me know! thanks!

it's time

2008-03-17T03:18:00.000-07:00

howdy do!

Doesn't time just fly? You can never say for sure, but if none from my family's chosen to be extraordinary, i think this is what will happen:

My bro's 25 this year, and within the next 5 years he's probably gonna get married and have kids. In that same span of 5 years, i'll be 25, a budding young millionaire, my parents are gonna be GRANDparents. And YOU are gonna be fresh out of college, having your second child, sending your first kid to pre-school. You may be getting tekan-ed in BMT, or you could be planning your own 60th birthday party, or simply mugging your ass off.

5 years ago, i was 15 and still woeful about singlehood, slowly shedding off a kid's excitement about everything new and nonchalance for anything that bores. Trying to be somebody, hence mimicking and wannabeing almost everyone.

Weird things happen when you don't act your age.. Not that it was all bad, in fact i'm thankful for being so blessed. Wrong turns don't turn out as bad, and everything turns out for good. i believe it's all part of a growth process. The development of a budding young millionaire. Not forgetting to mention that i'm still single(read: *hot* bachelor)! (FYI if anyone out there is looking for the queue to join)

ANYWAY.. this is the reason why i'm broke (for now)

awfully nice dude sold it to me for a reasonable price. it's so hard to find honest dealers out there these days.. He waxed all the wooden parts and wd-40'd all the metal parts. amazing.. it's a Stage Custom made in Japan.. from the looks of the lugs (it runs across the shell from head to head) i think it's from the 90's..

will post better pics when i'm free enough to change heads and brush up the kit a little!

peace.

quarter life crisis

2008-02-24T06:16:00.000-08:00

greetings .\\//

according to wikipedia:

Characteristics of quarter-life crisis may include:

feeling "not good enough" because one can't find a job that is at one's academic/intellectual level
frustration with relationships, the working world, and finding a suitable job or career
confusion of identity
insecurity regarding the near future
insecurity concerning long-term plans, life goals
insecurity regarding present accomplishments
re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
disappointment with one's job
nostalgia for university, college, high school or elementary school life
tendency to hold stronger opinions
boredom with social interactions
loss of closeness to high school and college friends
financially-rooted stress (overwhelming college loans, unanticipatedly high cost of living, etc.)
loneliness
desire to have children
a sense that everyone is, somehow, doing better than you

i bolded those that "symptoms" that i currently feel.. Well I guess everybody feels this at some time or another. I'm glad SSDC and SAF and making some stupid decisions has taught me to just forget the past and move on..

BUT nevertheless God has still been wonderful to me.. allowing me to even take another breath, choosing to cover my sins at his own expense so I can one day stand in His presence..

I spent a bomb this past week on some CDs like boys like girls and jack johnson, but tts alright cause nothing beats celebrating original music..

cheemness for the week:
'Twas much, that man was made like God before,
But that God should be made like man, much more
-John Donne

late post.... again

2008-02-10T05:49:00.000-08:00

yea boys.. that's right. i got that close. haha that's jon foreman, the frontman from Switchfoot. sorry for the late post.. the concert was AMAZING. the band was tight, the delivered the songs packed with more punch and emotions than you can ever get out of a compact disc. You can check out the rest of the pictures i took on my facebook albums. Nigel, Justin and Caleb also have some awesome pictures.

Now I love _EVERY_ song by them, including the ones i didn't use to dig a lot like awakening and learning to breathe (that's my #1 favourite now). It was like a spiritual (for lack of a correct word) experience man.. I believe every kid in the arena took a piece of good influence home to keep a long long time.

ok peace out everyone trust y'all had a good and long weekend, now our next destination.. to monday, and beyond!

for the buyer..

2008-01-29T03:29:00.001-08:00

pics pics pics!

2008-01-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

yo guys.. i finally got me a camera! Canon powershot A570IS for $338. thanks to jeff's recommendation, i only had to buy it on the way home (the shop is just outside my camp) and in doing so i saved myself an hour long trip to Audio House at sims drive..

anyway here are the pics of my pdp snare! sorry my camera skills sucks spheres..

and a little pic of my humble kit.. before you get disappointed by raising your hopes, i mean it when i say humble.. so get ready...

the set up is kinda screwed up.. tried to put my hi hat on the right side last weekend, and after the failed attempt i just put it back to its space and went for lunch..

peace out!

I can't call this post morbid..

2008-01-20T07:04:00.000-08:00

because i'm not unhealthily interested in how i'm gonna die. But i was quite alarmed earlier on while watching The Man of The Year, where Robin Williams was a comedian who through a technical error with the voting system became the president of the USA. The show was quite exciting as in there were some twists and if i had my hands on an armrest i would have tightened my grip at times. BUT

my heart was beating unusually quickly throughout the whole show. about 80BPM? i had about 1.5 cups of teh-O when the show started. It was the same when i was watching arsenal against birmingham last week..

so i'm wondering could it be a health problem? anybody has any clue?

anyway recommended listening for the week..

YOUR MOM! hahaha once again it's only recommended.

a lighter post..

2008-01-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

When Booker T. was in his last days, he was planning his own elaborate funeral. So he contacted his own funeral band, got Paul Bearer and co. to be his pallbearers, and so on. He wanted to be special so instead of being laid six feet under, he wanted to go 12 feet, so he looked around for his own grave digging specialists.

Now.. what did he say to them?

CAN YOU DIG IT, SUCKA!?

i don't think it's my pride

2008-01-14T06:51:00.000-08:00

yo guys. jeremy intro-ed me this website guitarpraise.blogspot.com where you can learn how to play praise & worship songs that are popular in most churches. there are some pretty good videos such as the King Of Majesty entry by kenny, and i stopped after watching 4, 1 being the King of Majesty by Kenny, and 3 bad ones.

before i lose control of myself and start sliming the regulars there, i think we should all acknowledge that we are weak and lousy, and hence not rush to publish videos of ourselves teaching some simple licks in songs.

Firstly, if kids can't figure these things out by hearing and/or by reading, they will soon keep their ears for one sole purpose, "to hang their spectacles"(quote: linchow).
Secondly, it will give kids the wrong impression that this is about that's all there is to playing guitar. If they don't actively find out the real stuff, they will spend many years practising things that won't really help them improve much.
Thirdly, revering these methods of playing music with the guitar is just plain stupid.

tip: just acknowledge that we are weak and lousy. have like a font size 54 disclaimer saying that this is not all that there is so that people who are new won't be deluded. or else these kids will scrimp and save just to blow their savings on another fender, or another line6 or boss pedal. We HAVE to acknowledge that all we know, is NOT all there is to know. and we HAVE to STOP miseducation.

Talk about free stuff, there are tonnes of instructional videos available on iTunes podcasts. for drummers there's of course the VicFirth podcasts, for guitarists there's Moao Silberto Michael Schaefer Guitar World magazine etc. Who says there's no right or wrong in music? There is, and that is when you close your ears and stop caring to know more about it. And that usually branches out from pride. To think that we're good enough already. But of course if you're too busy that can't be blamed..

I once read a chico hamilton interview. He said when he has lessons at his place (on his b-e-a-u-tiful dw 4 piece kit with 20" kick), when he's teaching kids how to play, he hears a miniature tony williams on his shoulder telling him: come on, teach them the truth.

So guys, unless you're at that level, please don't say that.

peace.
David

Slam me if you wanna. I don't think it's my pride at play.

MOSAIC jazz fest

2008-01-10T08:32:00.000-08:00

Hi guys. Sorry for the lacuna. Life's been good to me. My new year resolution is to stick to my long term plan, mid term plans and make constructive short term plans and stick to it. And make shorter entries on the blog. Haha

So my long term plan (2 years?) is to be a killer drummer, to be able to play anything to the click, and to play consistently even without hearing the click. I kinda gave up my hope on going to berklee in 2009 when Linchow it's impossible for me to get a scholarship by 2009. But i'll keep on practising anyway.. It doesn't have to be now anyway.

Anyway mosaic is coming! A good one for indie + soundscape people i think.. After hearing the 30-sec mp3 clips of the artistes you have to pay to have. A bad one for me. hahaha their indie is really indie. not like the indie-emo-rock I like. But anyway i think some of the local acts like kerong trio and jamm sessions if enough keep my ears and eyes occupied!

yeap ok guys have a great weekend!

Get Up, Stand Up

2007-11-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

Guys I know this is a late post. But I wish to inform as many of our fellow Asians and Singaporeans who could be still unaware of this incident. Disclaimer: You don't have to adopt my stand.

This is about the old trishaw uncle who was ridiculed and cheated of his money.

Original Footage
Interview part 1
Interview part 2

Ok. I admit the interview does make him look abit angelic and pitiful, but that's tv for you. I also admit that the replies and responses of some people are somewhat violent and ungracious. I was one of them and it's the only natural reaction. So to those who want to use that to turn the tables around, don't tell me if you got raped one day, you're not gonna react violently, verbally and physically, when you find the rapist.

Anyway what has happened is set in stone. They took a ride, made fun of the old man because he's slow, they refused to pay, they thought(maybe they still do think) it's funny, and they posted it.

There is no excuse for what they did. It is obviously a result of them thinking that they are caucasians, and hence they can do anything. Doesn't matter if they are drunk or not. If they were, and regret what they did, they would have apologized, instead of parading their unethical behaviour.

I have read some pretty ridiculous responses to the situation (you can see one for yourself, here. i'm audioman there)

Please, I urge us as Singaporeans and Asians to stand up for ourselves. Nobody can shut us up. Not that we should make unnecessary hooha out of nothing, but we will not rest until our case is heard, and heeded. I'm encouraged by how the old man took it peacefully (I can't do it), and all who stood up for our own people. Especially Laurette from expat@large's blog. I've read some posts slamming the uncle. It disgusts me still just to think about it.

The issue is now pretty much resolved. But if ever anything like this should happen again, let nothing (read: N-O-T-H-I-N-G) dull our senses so much so that we think it's just a passing breeze.

P/S: sorry this came so late. I only heard it from kevin yesterday. I couldn't stop reading and writing about it. Been at it since 2am.

David

P/S: I hope nobody's extremist enough to execute their own 'justice' by imitating the Finland shootout guy or CPL Dave Teo.. We're smarter than that.

Att: Santa. My wish list

2007-11-09T05:05:00.000-08:00

To all santa clauses out there, i'm gonna list some of the things I want for this christmas here. so please keep on reading.
(if you'd like to let me know if there's sth i can get you, pls do let me know so I won't have to think too hard to get you a present, or end up getting you sth irrelevant which will end up (if it's lucky) in your storeroom)

CDs:
1. Sting - Ten Summoner's Tales
2. Vinnie Colaiuta - Cinnie Colaiuta
3. Tower Of Power - Very Best of Tower of Power: The Warner Years
4. Count Basie - (any big band tracks with count basie!)

Others:
5. a bass guitar [no brand in particular. just name your axes and i'll pay the taxes. no cheap-ass samick stuff pls cuz i have that already] (i'd pay for this but it'd be nice if you could give a christmas discount =))

Yep.. That's all for now.
Now this is quite achieveable right? =)

Quote:
You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving -rick warren
(this has nothing to do with my christmas requests. =))

the buzzZZzzzZZzz of life

2007-11-06T06:56:00.000-08:00

Greetings everyone.

I'm currently having withdrawal symptoms from not being able to find The Return Of The King, being the third part of LOTR. So I've been forced to read The Hobbit, which is also as good as LOTR when it comes to showing the reader the Middle Earth's wonders personified and walking the reader through the plains of the world after the Elder Days (i.e. New Zealand, if they do make The Hobbit into a movie). That's still ok, but after searching out 3 libraries (including the national library) I have now in my bag Tales from the Perilous World and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Pearl Sir Orfeo. I haven't started on the second, and the first compared to LOTR is similiar to Roald Dahl's short stories compared to his classics, just less random.

Got scolded in band practice today for not being able to keep crotchets on the bass drum. Then got scolded during big band practice for not being able to read tow gay fast enough.In fact, it's not even fast. It's just plain slow. It's days like that that brings me back to reality. A little less confidence to steer me to not think too highly of myself. That I guess could be a good thing. Some sort of a reality check. But I can assure you it's not motivation I feel.

and life is getting boring. anybody got any interesting websites to introduce? maybe i should go check out the matrix philosophy webbie dawn intro-ed me.

AND I NEED SLEEP. i think i get a total of about 7 hours of sleep everyday. but i just can't help but knock out within 5 minutes of sitting still (especially on rocky bus rides) and when i don't knock out i'll be half asleep as sometimes I make links in my head that don't make sense. AT ALL. i could be sitting at the desk thinking about how I'm gonna spend christmas, and my trend of thought could slowly but steadily steer towards how gandalf is planning to eat lunch at the cookhouse after raiding my bunk. i swear i'm not making this up.

i thank God life is still good

i hope the same goes for you all faithful readers. even if it's not, don't look on the down side. what has happened can't be undone, so we can all make ourselves feel better by not dwelling in feeling lousy and stupid for our mistakes/mishaps. Tomorrow can be a better day.

peace y'all
david

Burnout

2007-10-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

yo guys sorry i haven't been posting.

Anyway God's been good to me, life has been easy on me. I hope this goes on forever. Haha yup that's me. Easily contented and stagnated. Haha

Btw caleb intro-ed me this band Norwegian Recycling.. Basically, they(or he) do(or does) mashups. Gotta give it up to him. Very smooth transitions and all.. I wonder how he took out everything except the vocals.. anyway here are 2 nice songs by him/them. Some people will look upon it as how boring and duplicated music has become, but I see it as how 4 simple chords, 1 5 6 4, or even the way overplayed 4 5 3 6 turnaround find in half of the gospel songs written since the 80s, and more than half the pop songs we hear today, can be injected with every individual's own flavours and genius lyrics.

The 2 songs sound especially nice towards the end when everything's so heavily layered, but ever so poppishly that it's not tiresome for the ears.

anyway here it is:
8 become 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeYSkxQxcRM
how 6 songs collide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JKKl95Ttrc

p/s: i finally found a picture of myself!

Letter to Mr Arsene Wenger

2007-10-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr Wenger,
WHY THE *!&@ ARE YOU LETTING ADEBAYOR PLAY SO LONG?
Has he not done too many unnecessary one-touches, and let loose too many potential goals nicely set up? (Not mentioning the passes he's been making to the phantom Henry)
I'm sure you'll let somebody else take his place (I think bendtner's a good idea).

Arsenal Forever,
David

C: pop

2007-10-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

Yo guys. This is one of the nights which I will regret tomorrow.. It's been like that for the past 4 nights, and tomorrow will be my 5th day in a row dozing off in anything I do.

My cell group and I went to K-box yesterday (a first time for me) to....... I suddenly can't remember what for. But anyway it's got something to do with Theresa before she gets married but it's nothing near a sabotage. Anyway, it turned out to be Wen Ai's birthday so we passed around to card to sign in front of her (I wonder if she saw) and dedicated a Happy Birthday song to her. This song. I still remember it. When I was secondary 1, I went to karaoke with my godfather. It was a birthday celebration for one of his friends, and of course, they sang the happy birthday song. AND IT'S THE SAME CHEESY MTV WE SAW YESTERDAY. It was this teenage blonde girl's birthday and they had a cake in the living room of their white-ish bungalow, and guests started streaming in with gifts and all.. I'm sure some of you have seen this evergreen video before.

It was fun seeing everyone sing. And it's the love that kept them in the room when I was singing. Wen Ai's obsession with S.H.E., Shuwen's preference for oldies (Everly Brothers man.. even the MV was in greyscale! haha), Reuben's ability to sing any song, Sinlong's photography expertise, it was fun man. I'll see if i can get some pictures from Sinlong.

To my surprise, K-Box was a lot more fun than I had thought it to be. We sang lots of C-pop songs by jay chow, david tao, stef sun (all of which are artistes I used to like a long time ago, but also which I have forgotten to listen to amidst all the new(and old) music). Reuben and I attempted a H-pop(hokkien pop) song which proved to be as disastrous as it can ever get. haha.

Anyway all these C-pop artistes have very nice songs with very meaningful lyrics and very interesting arrangements. I should go get my hands on some of their cds this weekend. Jay chow, in my opinion, is the chinese "jay"son mraz.

He has a song called '(secret) signal' and it's interesting how he parallels a couple so in love and later on slowly losing steam to a handphone that's slowly losing the ability to receive signals sent to it. It starts with him talking about this couple not letting people know that they're together at first, how they're "walking in the tunnel", and then the girl eventually wants to "get out and feel the breeze", to let the world know that they're together. But the boy prefers not to let people know so that their opinions and gossipping won't crowd out or interfere with the signal they have between them. Anyway, then through a sudden twist of fate, the girl loses the ability to receive signals, and the boy is searching and searching but still he finds nothing.

Anyway since a video speaks a thousand words, here's the jay chow secret signal MV

F.I.R.'s Fly Away and Our Love, Stefanie Sun's Wo Yao De Xin Fu, and many other songs keep ringing in my head. I guess it's the Singaporean (or maybe just the Chinese) frequency that's resonating in my heartstring.

Anybody wanna go K-Box don't forget to jio me!!

Support local, make it global

the grass is always green where you're not

2007-10-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

Dang.. The accents for the previous post didn't come out right..

Anyway I've come to the conclusion that it's pretty pointless in thinking that after doing this, or once i buy that, or once i get to this point i want to get to, I will finally be satisfied. There is no such thing as a better girlfriend, a smoother drumset(of course if you wanna mail me a dw set pls don't stop now), a nicer workplace, all because "better" is not a constant. It's just a mad and endless chase from one point to another. It's just an occupational hazard that most of us cannot shake off, and that is to keep ourselves busy. When life is more on the repetitive side we look for adventure, and when we get too tired of the insecurity that adventures bring we long for a quiet life by the countryside. In the most uncliche-ish cliches, the grass is always greener on the other side.

Sure we should look for betterment and embrace change. But sometimes we just gotta look out for delusions which brings us longing for our old little grass patch, or for some, a field of Venus flytraps in the Addams Family backyard.

Not many people make drastic decisions with drastic implications every other week or month. Some wait their whole life pining for the one day to take that taxi to the great unknown, and that's when they find that the grass may not be greener, or even as green, but one day it will be as glorious as when God walked in the garden of eden.

That's just a theory. I'm still at the stage of recognizing that i should stop field-hopping. I look forward to the day when God tells me to move (or stay) because I know that's the best(maybe worst it will seem?) place to be.

Why do people train to play fast? The top drummers in the world don't play even half of their grooves and fills at their top speed. It's because when they can play fast, they can play slow easy and effortlessly.
-a certain pro drummer

if i were milla jovovich..

2007-10-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't be blogging now. I watched Resident Evil 3 yesterday, the part that made me really jump was when kok siong let out a yelp and twitched violently in his seat. Anyway I'm so glad that the real world is not plagued by the T-virus (yet) and not hanging on a strand of her DNA (yet) and not subject to the fancies and theories of some Umbrella Corp. (yet)

Seeing how the zombies and the zombie-birds come like a steam roller on these humans just makes me really thankful for the fact that in life there's always a way out. At least it is still so in my simple life. I really don't think that there's anybody in this world who'd rather be a zombie-fighter in Resident Evil. Maybe except for the 'Save' function, and cursed be the day when the undead close in upon you with the computer out of reach.

Anyway the new worship ministry schedule is out. I was just gonna tell Mervin and Jocelyn that I don't mind playing the bass guitar more in church, but I just don't want to play less drums. And so wonderfully, the roster came out just as I had wished, saving me a lot of grumbling and jocelyn and mervin a lot of pain in the butt from my grumbling (which shouldn't be the case in the first place, but in this case, thankfully it didn't have a chance to be the case)

I'd better go get some sleep. Else go work tmr like the zombie I was today.

> >> > > > > >
||:RLLR RLLR RLLR RLLR :||
> > > > > >> >
||:LRRL LRRL LRRL LRRL :||
-rick latham, Contemporary Drumset Techniques

woodshed

2007-10-05T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hi dear readers..

Once again, the week flew very quickly. I hope ORD comes soon, but not too soon at the same time because I don't think I don't think I'm gonna do music like I do now and get paid (a measley sum) for doing that.

I've been thinking about it lately, and I think that how you perform, and your general behaviour and thinking habits are very much determined by the culture you are in. Why do I say this? I started wondering about why there are so many pro drummers from Victoria School. First there's Ramu, then there's michael liang hong christopher and of course jonathan. Could it be that Ramu started a culture of asking yourself for more, and not being content with yourself? Back in Maris Stella, we rarely cared about learning new rudiments and cool chops, and we were very easily contented/impressed with ourselves. I wish I could go back to Sec 1 and start woodshedding from then, and also be a better section leader to the percussionists.

Anyway, maybe that's why everybody says the music scene is dead in Singapore. I hope I can take the 'S' train on time and lest I be left behind with all the critics and naysayers.. Already I feel the train has reached the next station. hahah..

I failed my motorbike prac 5 just yesterday. So demoralizing man. I thought everything was going fine, until I came to the plank where I fell to the deep hollow in my wallet. Good thing i accumulated 22 points. If I had met the < 18 points requirement, and got an immediate failure for the plank I'd be hopping mad. Can't wait to pass sooner so I don't have to waste any more money and I can finally not be dripping wet when falling in for first muster.

gtg now.. have a great weekend guys and girls

black wednesday

2007-10-03T03:34:00.000-07:00

I knew I shouldn't have taken that afternoon nap. All my life when I take afternoon naps, I wake up feeling wasted, like i'm waking up to a world without friends, purpose and hope.

I left my wallet in bunk today. Either the 169 bus driver give chance, or he didn't notice that I didn't scan. Whichever was the case, I'm thankful for it. I was hoping to meet somebody I know when I get off, actually I was hoping to meet sgt. Leon cause I thought he gets off at the same place as me, but that didn't happen. I couldn't find any familiar faces to borrow $1 from, so i took a taxi, and it cost me $7.50 =( I'm not even pennywise, and I hope I don't be too pound-foolish, too often.

Often people say life is more than living for yourself, and I've friends who commit themselves to helping and caring for people. I have benefitted from selfless people like this myself, and I feel the obligation to pay it forward. But I can't seem to see myself doing that. All I wanna do, is just to get my girlfriend back, play drums, make music. Of course it doesn't mean I don't care about the people around me. One's life is a like tree that receives and gives, going in a full circle. I consider myself no longer a sapling, thought I still have much room to grow and many things to learn, and I have a feeling (maybe due to peer pressure) that it's time I gave of myself to helping other people. But then again, some people have been the victims of my theory testing, and I'm very afraid to assume that I'm right in many things. For now I think I'll just stay 'selfish' and make sure I don't ruin more lives than my own. The best I can do now is probably just to make my workplace a better place.

Now, back to how today can be marked as a relatively grey day. I was watching the chinese evening news, and a report said that some joker from the labs in taiwan said that sleeptalking, sleepwalking, or generally just the lack of sleep, can have many harmful effects on people. For growing people, I'm guessing children, that can stunt their mental growth. For adults it leads to a higher level of physical stress (I don't recall if they mention mental stress), and higher blood pressure at the later parts of their lives. And there's a part which is horrifying enough for me not to tell you about. I worry that it might pertain to me, but I also don't want to retrofit into some mis-prophecy. For all we know it may be rushed out to meet some quota just like how we jc kids fake some numbers and statistics to pass PW.

I hope tomorrow does get better. What does my hope weigh, nothing more than a fool's hope, but nonetheless it's still the same hope that keeps us living from day to day.

P/S:thanks jeff for subscribing to my blog! =)

we are one tonight

2007-09-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

these days i'm going back to my bad habit of thinking the worst of people. or maybe i've only just realized that i was at it so frequently (how about almost every person i meet). it's my bad and my apology goes out to all i've offended. i don't understand how i can reply a smile from a stranger by turning away. it's not so much towards the more elderly, and that makes me feel a little better. by the time i turn back he/she's already looked away thinking 'ok wtf'. and anybody who shares any bit of regional (intra-unit) news i label immediately as 'gossippers'.

i think i need to stop passing all the bad gas around and start paying it forward, all the love and kindness people and God have been giving me.

i never really liked 'we are one tonight' by switchfoot until i saw the video and got a rough idea what they're trying to say. in the video, people transform (digitally) to other people from all walks of life. troubled teenagers to even more troubled moms, 9-5ers to the lead guitarist of the band, the lead guitarist of the band's hand strumming his guitar to a kid strumming a piece of paper with his crayon. the idea is (i think) no matter who you are, where you come from, what you stand for, what differences we have between us, at the end of the day, we are still the same. two eyes, one tongue, no matter how different i am from you, strip down these differences and facades, you and i are born of the same mould.

All rise, all fall
I'll fail you all
We built these cities to stand so tall
We've lost our walls

I don't want to lose it, coming down
With the whole world upside-down
I don't have a soul to trust in now
With the whole world upside-down

We are one, tonight!
And we're singing it out!
We are one, tonight!
And we're dreaming out loud!
And the world is flawed
But these scars will heal
We are one, tonight!
Tonight!
Tonight!
Tonight!

Two eyes, one tongue
I've come, undone
I'm no victim
I paid these dues
I came to lose

I don't want to fight about it now
With the whole world upside-down
I don't have a soul to trust in, now
With the whole world upside-down

We are one, tonight!
And we're singing it out!
We are one, tonight!
And we're dreaming out loud!

And the world is flawed
But these scars will heal

I don't want to lose a common ground
With the whole world upside-down
I don't want to fight about it now
And the world was burning out

Let's slow the evening down
Slow it down
Slow down
Please slow down
Down
Down

The stars are comin' out!

We are one
We are one
We are one
We are one tonight
We are one tonight
And were singing it out
We are one tonight
And were dreaming out loud
And the world is flawed,
But these scars will heal

We are one tonight
Tonight

before you get the wrong idea, i just wanna tell you that the we are one tonight video is quite funny and really meaningful. not boring at all in my opinion. i hope you like the video. i love it more everytime i watch it.

you and i, just the same soul

what i wanna be

2007-09-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

hey guys now i finally get some time to tell y'all about the week that's just passed.

i just started taking lessons from (2SG) linchow, and it's amazing learning and watching him play. to think that there's actually a guy who's bored(or adventurous) enough to take any piece of rudiment/style and know it inside out, from bebop to ratamacues, dave weckl to lars ulrich. i still got a long way to go, so in a sense i'm safe from the immensurable amount of things i have to learn, for now. he told me to clean up my chops (just like alvin did when i started lessons with him). so now i'm just clicking my hats on 1,2,3,4, the n's, and both combined, playing the kick on the 1/2/3/4, e's, n's, and a's. this particular independence(or unison) exercise is so simple you can finish it in a day, but i (and whoever agrees with me in the importance of it) will be practising it until the day we die.. i'm looking forward to the next lesson (minus the scolding part =X)

it may be too early now to mark it as unforunate, but i definitely feel so about the saf making me play the bass guitar. i mean i respekt bass players(such as victor wooten and ivan yap (heh)), and i acknowledge their utmost importance in a band, BUT i'm NOT the bass player.
i tend to get a bit pissed when mervin asks me to play bass guitar for church service. cause i don't really wanna waste too many moments practising any thing else other than drums. i wonder if it is an issue of pride.
so now the saf is asking me to play the bass guitar. no prizes for guessing when i'll stop.
even theresa's asking me to play bass for her wedding!!(theresa/weiming if you're reading this don't take me wrongly. it's my pleasure playing for your wedding =))

now it's still quite fun because i'm learning how to walk on the bass for jazz and bossa and it's fun too learning some victor wooten bass exercises (mostly for the right hand). but how long will this novelty last, or when will it upgrade to love and commitment, i don't know. but for now i just wanna play the drums.

this, and today's sermon, made me start to ponder what i'm gonna do in life. am i gonna be a drummer, or a bassist, or full-time worker at the loft studios, or a pastor(yikes! hahah), or just something to do in the line of econs? my own business? or get the time-machine thingie hermione got from dumbly-dorr and do all of the above? i mean it all seems like great fun, and greater commitment, but what is it that God wants me to do? i definitely can't afford to go to berklee at this rate(unless maybe if i sign on [double yikes-yikes!], and i wonder if i can brush up my chops in time. does coming to saf ban ds have a part to play in anything?

worries and questions without answers (for now) aside, i'm very thankful to God for my posting to band. i love it here. i get to practise everyday, play music, learn music, and not to mention canteen uncle's wicked-sick popcorn chicken and wicked-sweet milo-peng.

and i also know for a fact that, God gave Noah a seemingly random, and nonsensical mission that'll make him look like Ned Flanders, and Noah, against all odds, did the right thing by walking by faith and not by sight. i think that's one of the most amazing stories in the Bible. may we all walk from day to day in obedience to God.

gtg clean up my mess of a room now. have a great week everyone
life is long don't hurry too much.

this week just started to look up

2007-09-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

yo guys! i actually wanted to write in yesterday but i was too shacked out..

yesterday was the end of my first week in central band, and also the last day of my stay-in (whoopie!). i guess it's also the end of the traumatic experience for andrew and richard, my dear bunk-mates, with all my sleep-talking and dead-loggedness type of sleeping. my heart goes out to you guys.

i just passed my driving lesson 3 today morning as well. mr rafael closed one and a half eyes to my plank course, which i cleared successfully only twice out of maybe 10 tries? anyway i'm very thankful that i passed. i prayed really hard that i'll pass. i didn't want to waste any more money on too many lessons because i took 5 lessons to pass my lesson 1.. that was really discouraging, and i nearly wanted to abandon learning riding altogether after spending about $200. those few weeks, plus some other things, made this august the worst month of 2007 for me.. so far. haha just kidding about the 'so far'. couldn't resist quoting homer..

everyone can despair, so what good are we doing by adding to the numbers of sad and cynical people in this world?

going for frontline now.. have a great weekend guys!

P/S: lelong! lelong! i'm selling my 1-week old samsung hp charger (it works only for the older phones.. it doesn't work for the new line of samsung-beyonce type of phones.. my samsung colour phone's dying so once i sell this charger i'll get a new phone.. going only for $15!!

an old man i met

2007-09-14T03:12:00.000-07:00

it's friday again! been having ip(individual practice) since monday, except for tues when i took an off day. can't remember what for though. this week feels 4 times shorter than last week when we had ocs rehearsal for half a day everyday. maybe time really flies when you're enjoying it!

on my way home just now i met some 60+ y.o. blind man somewhere near amk hub. he was sounded as cheerful as his bright orange t-shirt, and he asked me if i could bring him to the bus stop on the opposite side of the road. so i said ok, and we walked, and it was nice to hear him laugh and even the silence felt cheerful too. i told him my grandma was also 60+ and she goes in and out of the hospital and he went 'aiyoo aiyooo aiyoo ko lian dai tsk tsk tsk aiyoo yoo ko lian ah aiyoo aiyo tsk tsk tsk'(aiyo poor thing tsk tsk) then i said it's ok she's fighting fit now and then he stopped saying the same 3 phrases.

anyway halfway through the journey to the other side of the road, i wondered to myself, could he be a feigning blind, and maybe when we reached the other side of the road he'll ask me for some money? my dad always told me not to give beggars(especially indian males[no offence]) money when they ask for it cause they'll just buy stout with it. and some of my nasty(or maybe sincerely helpful, depending on how you look at it) insist on bringing people, asking for money to take the mrt, to the mrt and buying the ticket for them, just to make sure that the money they give them won't be spent on any vices.

well for every nike shirt or gibson guitar we buy, we're paying more than we ought to, and mr. nike's just sitting in his own Just-Do-It sweatshop shaking his Nike Air-clad feet collecting cash. i think the only people who shouldn't mind this are the people who are paying to set themselves apart, for they're paying the exorbitant price for its sake. for the rest of us, if we could just insist on getting that 5% discount(it could be from $2.50 to $10), or buy it from queensway instead of buying it from the boutique, the amount of money we save can easily be given to these people for a drink, a meal, or just one less worry for the next day.

so why do we worry about that 1900-5-dollar phone call being part of the next headlines charity scam, and in doing so let the needy people take the brunt of this pound foolishness?

which reminds me, i haven't bought a new shirt (except for the 3 plain white t-shirts for the band) or pants since the start of 2007.. hahah but i'm not that charitable. i spent most of the money i spend on musical instruments.

anyway for the benefit of the integrity of the old man, he didn't ask me for money. i shouldn't have thought of him that way.

david out

p/s: check out plainsunset's new hit! they played it at this year's baybeats.. the first picture that comes to my mind is the merlion lol
River Song(video)
River Song(mp3 just let the website load. the song will be the first one to be played)

paramore

2007-09-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

yo guys check this band out.. drummer's only 16 but really killer. the oldest is the bassist who's only 22. amazing young inspiring band.. just goes to show that there's nothing you can't do!

for a pessimist, i'm pretty optimistic
pressure
born for this

don't forget to support our home-grown very-owns!
the suns - cecelia
plainsunset's latest (not so new tho) single (just the song not the video.. nice song about singapore)

it's time to go koonz

is blogging a symptom of egotism and pride?

2007-09-11T08:31:00.001-07:00

so.. are our lives that important that others (the whole world, in fact, since all can access most blogs) should be informed about it?

or are our opinions so right and important that we should rally as many as possible to our own sides by presenting them in the most fanciful and palatable manner possible?

but if we were to not care about ourselves, and go over to the other extreme of being ALL outward-looking and not inward-looking at all, would we be a cardhouse counting down the seconds to a monster kill?

but then again, just like marxism, democracy, and many other ideal communities (which i don't know of), don't we all find equilibrium at where we fall short (to varying degrees) in the process of reaching for the ideal? or even if 99% of us try to look out for each other more than we do ourselves, there'd be the 1% that exploits the majority and whips us with our own stupid belief in idealism.

for those who are thinking, why the fog are you thinking so much for? just tell the world about yourself man, the good things that's happened to you, the wonderful things you've seen, it may bring a smile upon someone's face; it may whisper (or shout) to someone in the dark loneliness: you're not alone! i quite agree with you.

i hope this is not boring you. i've been thinking for 2 years if there's a right or wrong, other than God's spoken words in the old and new testament.

hope this picture neutralizes the futility of the discussion. =)
chanced upon it when i ran out of harry potter's to read and when they stopped screening the order of the phoenix -___-
i think, at least it's better than pointing your zildjian drumsticks made of hickory and cock hair at people and avada kedavra-ing people, right deon?

On the softness of her laugh,
I could almost make my bed
But the racket of her absence joined
The sirens blaring ringing in my head

+ Copeland

accio holiday!

2007-09-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

hey jeff thanks for leaving your mark on my blog. it just feels better to be connected to the rest of the world.. cause no man is an island eh? if i'm an island, i'd be a no man!

anyway my bro's panasonic camera keeps giving me the screen of death ('system error' on a blue backdrop). does anyone know what to do? wonder if i should fix it or get a new one. i should've made for comex man..

I NEED A HOLIDAY. thanks to Gryphon Coy. and sir william ikhwan's generosity, and some robber i met along the way, i've only 1.5 days of leave left till new year's day! i admit my work is way more relaxed than that of my contemporaries, but i still feel i need to take a break from ninetofivescity and escape from worries for just a few days. i'm sure it'd do anybody some good =)

anyway i got this off the net. same model as my snare drum(pdp sx), just that mine's black. i finally found out why the sound didn't project very well (sorta like a drum corps snare) : the snares were too tight! so i took out the snares and i turned the switch on, and then i put them on. what i did previously was that i put fixed the snares with the snare switch off, so when i turned it on it was waaay too tight. now it sounds sweet and makes me wanna keep playing!

some killer snare drum shit to inspire, awe, and for some, bore.

go away, monday blues,
for today, i choose not you!

the chicken

2007-09-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

hey guys here's a nice and happy (and wicked on drums bass and keyboards) tune, the funky chicken. wicked drums to make ur day..

finally got a nice sound out of my new snare drum. been reading prof. sound for months and months but when i finally got the drum his method didn't work! but i guess it's to each drum its own. i tuned the top to be as tight as the canopus at the loft, and the bottom to be 4 semitones higher.. prof sound said that to get the pop top 40 sound i should tune the bottom skin 3 notes higher.. maybe he meant tones. but still my drum doesn't project very well. although there's the 'png!' in it, it still sounds kinda constricted. maybe it's the skin? martin (the seller) gave me a dw stock batter head.. maybe i should try something else.. any recommendations anyone?

my bro's camera is down so i can't put up pictures at the moment.

ok gotta go for ocs commissioning parade now. till the next time..

frodo: (Gollum) deserves death!
gandalf: Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.

i'm blogging again!

2007-09-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

hey guys! guess who's back!~ i'm so inspired by richard (thanks richard) and his innocently amusing blog so much so that i can't help blogging again, despite the grim prospect of it becoming indescribably boring, again.

so here we are. army life's been good i'm posted to the SAF bands. i was told not to blog too explicitly about matters à la militaire, so if you find that it's crossing the line please do inform me, lest i be charged.

i've been whacking rudiments for the past 3 months but i don't seem to be improving very much in terms of speed and coordination on the kit. i wonder why.. hrmmm.. can't wait for linchow to come back so i can ask him to impart to me his skills.

so sian man first 3 weeks already, first batch72-er to get knocked down, to run 1 round around the ocs parade square, and get extra coy BO duty for ONE WEEK. oh man.. but it's ok. running and push ups keeps me fit, and the extra BO duty also gives me some time to read and practise some rudiments.

w.r.t. the unpleasant politics, i echo the opinions of one of the best goalkeepers playing for the best team in the world, Mr Jens Lehmann:

"You write something and then you read it again and think that you were right, so then you ask me what I think of it.

"Don't ask me how I should interpret your interpretation.

"The English exaggerate everything and how can you understand such an interpretation?"

have a great weekend guys and gals~