Scherzando Comrade

Spam

2010-01-30T21:23:00.003+08:00

To you tyrannical Japanese and American spammers, wherever the hell you are,

You both parties have one thing in common. Bullshit. If this is going to promote your product/sex service/ virus/ Trojan horse/ advertisement/ easy-money-making scheme, you are targetting the wrong guy. If it's your job to spam inactive blogs, please go find your own asses to promote your products because they need it more than I do. I wouldn't be bothered to delete your posts, but rather contribute to the world what the world HAS to see - idiots and shitheads that have no life just like all of you transvestites and freaks. Have a life.

2010

2010-01-03T17:11:00.002+08:00

I dread...

Leaving:
Home
Family and friends
Beloved
School
Society

Entering:
A phase of solitude
A whole new life
Hell

It's just the part of life that changes the most. When you out of school uniform and into the outside world. Tertiary education is no longer an option, but a must. And for my parents, going overseas is the must. I have a dateline to comply, and I won't be here for long. For now, I have to find work, and I have to apply for scholarships to see whether I can bring about subsidy to a my crazy family's budget.

I guess we all have to come to this point when we say goodbye to childhood and adolescence. 11 months and I'm an adult. 6 months maximum, I'll be out of here. Leaving everything behind. Entering a new world. Coming back only once so seldom which is nothing but a temporary welcome back. Sigh, this is so depressing.

But still, we have to move on as civilised people. I guess I have done enough years in school, and now it's off to higher education. It's this time when you dread being old, when all you wanted during your high school days was more freedom. This freedom is dreadful.

To my beloved friends, let us all just stand together and cherish our last moments together. Some have already left us, but we'll keep them in mind. And one day, hopefully we'll reunite.

I feel so corny, but I guess everyone will, someday.

For now, it's the 1992s' turn.

And so will be, for the years to come.

Drive

2009-12-19T19:18:00.002+08:00

This is a reduce, reuse, recycle advertisement.

Do you have any old, obsolete, junk computers still in use at home, in your office, or in someone else's toilet bowl?

This is your final warning - please trash it.

Why?

Simple.

I had to do my law today. Another word for it is table test. Undoubtedly, the only examination in Malaysian where 84 is the passing mark. Anyway, I'm learning to drive. =.= (Laugh all you want. I know I'm younger than you ex-Form 5's.)

I was assigned to this bugging old computer at counter 6. First you have your test for colour blindness. Next, is a vision test, especially made for idiots and the blind. These are the kindergarten tests that you have to pass 100% before proceeding to the main part.

And so, with a dumb connection that probably still uses dial-up, you wait like one minute for it to sign in, and you actually have to press the 'end session' button to end the test when you have already answered ALL your questions and you have pressed the 'yes' button when they asked you whether you wished to end the test. Make this simple. There's two 'end' buttons. One at the end, one at the bottom left corner of the screen if you decide to flop. The third one is on your UP-TO-DATE keyboard. Try that now.

I've been struggling through law for the past week. It's undoubtedly not-so-freedom after SPM, having to sit for another test which still requires some common sense. Yes, you can shoot your way through, but as probability has it, you won't pass. Not a chance.

I finished in 15 minutes. But before pressing the 'end session' button, you would have to check. But if you don't press that button, you will end up failing as well. Told you how out-of-date this system is?!

I checked backwards. 50, 49, 48... 34. I stumbled upon question 34.

Then the monitor started going on and off. The monitor's resolution went berserk, highs and lows. Then it switched off, before I could press the 'end session' button.

I went to make a complaint at the counter.

And then...

BOOM!!!

The staff were really too blur to even bother about the computer's state. One even asked me to sacrifice my healthy lungs by smelling that area for any nasty, burnt silicon smell. And yup, there was. Short circuit. All the others were probably thinking what the hell did I do to the computer.

Then, the bad news. I had to redo the test. =.= Luckily, the system is online and somehow, I managed to log in and resume from where I was, without any deduction to my remaining time. I had all my answers at 0 seconds, and so, being a bit 'pai seh', I decided to stay and check for five minutes before going out. And also, I wanted to get the hell out in case counter 2's computer suffered the same fate.

And so, I passed. Duration: 4 minutes and 53 seconds. For those who probably jumped to conclusions, they'd probably think I'm such a good 'chiong-er'. I'm not.

Thank you, old comp. You have just given a very suitable public service message. Trash that old hag!

Zzz.

2009-10-27T20:43:00.004+08:00

This is the most zzz moment of life.

Books. Zzz.
Kelantan papers. Zzz.
Sejarah. Zzz.
NO study leave. Zzz.

SECOND TRIAL PAPER FOR SEJARAH. Zzz.

And the thoughts of leaving my beloved home, my beloved town, my beloved country. Zzz. And "HAHA" to the sarcasm. It's a practical joke.

People are just rushing through their books for SPM. I can only comment: Zzz.

People are DESPERATE for the forecast topics for SPM. I would say: Zzz. That is if I even pronounce it correctly. Zzz. This is such a waste of time.

I really should be studying now, but I just can't find the tab to that nice song I've heard. Zzz.

No, I'm not announcing the name of that song. It's unavailable anyway. Zzz.

Touching my books is just like touching those kiddish Enid Blyton series once more. Memorising every single bit of childishness, one by one. Zzz.

Yea, that's education to you. MEMORISING. Ah, go to hell, memorisers! Zzz.

I guess that's Man's mental capacity in a world of numerical dominance. They say the more number of A1's (Currently A+. Zzz.), the better. Zzz.

Sometimes I just wonder whether we earn the distinction from our hard work MEMORISING instead of understanding. Zzz. Amen to that.

Oh, did I tell you our seniors used to learn 80 moral values instead of our current 36? Zzz.

Oh yea, do I have to add that these moral values are learnt by MEMORY? Zzz.

God gave us a cerebral cortex not just for memory, but for understanding and continuous learning throughout our lives. Zzz. Oh yea, I memorised that from Bio. What's there to understand about anyway? Zzz.

There's just this nonsensical word to everything. Zzz. Everything is just: Zzz. At this very moment right now.

My friends are having their "sick" leaves, and I'm not allowed to skip school even once. Zzz.

It's not like my attendance is getting A anyway, ever since my one week's case of HFM. Zzz.

Speaking of HFM, it should have infected me now than before... At least I get my sick leave. Sick without the inverted commas. Zzz.

The world is just so zzzzzz right now. I feel like having no life. MapleSEA is no life. DotA is no life.

Studies --> no life. Proven chemical equation. Zzz.

We all need a break from this. Zzz.

And I can't imagine... Getting 99.5 as a prerequisite for a course that seems more appealing to me than the others. Zzz. You guys guess the course.

And yea, the perfect ending:

Zzz.

Sekian, terima kasih. Zzz.

Zzz,
Zzz.

Count the number of times the word "Zzz." came out in this blog. Yes, it must just look like this: Zzz. Capitalisation and punctuation counts. Zzz. Size and font doesn't count. Text me the correct answer, and you win yourself a slap to any place which you desire, as long as it's on you not me. First come first serve basis! Zzz.

Trials

2009-10-16T18:26:00.002+08:00

It's been a while since the last real update. You can't blame me. It's getting hectic now, and I still refuse to count the days to SPM. (The smarter ones count the days left till SPM is OVER!)

The results for trials are finally out - well, long time ago, but still, let's consider I've only bothered publishing it now. I've ended a 'wicked sick' streak of getting 1st in class this term. I've been overtaken. And it's such a relief I didn't fall any worse.

And whatever I said in "Maybe" (the previous post) actually came true after all...

Anyway, here it is:

BAHASA MELAYU
78 (1A) It's not supposed to be 1A, but 2A, but in the list it's written is 1A. o.O

ENGLISH
93 (1A)

MATHEMATICS
98 (1A)

SEJARAH
81 (1A) Ha. Ha.

PENDIDIKAN MORAL
88 (1A) Ironic of my morality.

ADDITIONAL MATHEMATICS
95 (1A)

CHEMISTRY
85 (1A)

BIOLOGY
80 (1A) In the face, you stupid Bio book!

PHYSICS
87 (1A) Most bias paper. I got the same marks as someone else. His remark was "OK", and mine was "NOT GOOD!". Grr.

ENGLISH FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
86 (1A)

PRINSIP PERAKAUNAN
84 (1A) I was having a bad stomachache and diarrhoea while doing this paper. >.<

GRAND TOTAL: 955/1100

AVERAGE: 86.81

POSITION: 2/44

I won't confirm these results until it's officialised. But anyway, I have made some epic failures in trials.

First of all, for BM rumusan, I got a legendary 12 out of 30. Amazing!

And I lost all my marks in Accounts because I didn't do the extra accounts (even though it didn't state they were necessary). Stupendous!

My Sejarah was legendary. Out of 12 marks, I only answered three points from the book, and I got eight correct. The effects of colonisation of the Europeans towards other regions. And I even wrote this crap: Europeans married the Asians, and thus came about the Eurasians. (In BM, of course.) Teacher's reason for not marking it: I'm not too sure about that. It's not even in the book!!! Well, I didn't get the mark anyway.

As usual, my friends' superb sniping skills on the objective questions of History kicked my arse totally. Surprisingly, I only lost 13 marks in my paper two (which I didn't even properly study for, oops), and all the rest from the sniping field dropped me. Grr.

At least I don't use cash to buy weapons in online games...

Neither do they.

=(

Dynasty Teo has finally ended. (Taken from my Facebook account, flooded by messages on my father.)

Maybe

2009-10-05T19:51:00.003+08:00

Maybe some people don't realise their words are words I never think of saying.

Maybe some people don't realise that depriving me just makes me hunger for more.

Maybe some people don't realise how dangerous I am when that happens.

Well, maybe if they do realise, they won't know that they aren't the victims.

Maybe they don't so really realise who's the real victim.

Maybe they don't think my promises are actually worth keeping.

Maybe they don't realise the true meaning to them, rather than some stupid thing called academics and education.

Maybe some people don't even realise my modesty comes from something what they call a total F of a time in my past.

Maybe they don't really think that I'm capable of destroying no one but myself.

Maybe they actually think I'm just a joke.

Or maybe there is actually no point to prove them wrong.

They ARE wrong anyway.

.

2009-08-25T13:58:00.004+08:00

As a friend,

Sometimes you say things that are better left unsaid. But out of will for the better, sometimes it has to be done.

Sometimes when you do so, you will have to face your friend trying to desolate you.

And sometimes, things will never get better.

Sometimes, you have to dwell with the truth, and live through it.

Sometimes you fall amidst doing so.

But sometimes, you live through it.

Because of a friend.

Sometimes, you may find someone trying to be getting less close to you.

But little do we know it's just an act of giving space.

And do we show it ourselves that the space they give is not necessary?

It's a space not to be left empty, but be filled by a friend?

And sometimes, you may slip your words, and how your friend feels may go unnoticeable.

When you notice it, it may be too late...

But what are you going to do about it? It's never too late. Until it is.

Sometimes, you never get a chance to say "I'm sorry."

Sometimes, the truth hurts. But you have to bear with it.

Sometimes, lies are revealed. Secrets are no longer hidden. And we are responsible for it.

Life is not always a matter of secrecy, it's a matter of time.

And so, when are you going to tell someone you've hurt that you're sorry?

When are you going to tell the exact truth, and when are you going to do something about it?

And when are you going to be honest, if it's for the best of your friend?

Will it be ever too late?

Passing Down

2009-08-22T17:46:00.002+08:00

Let us say goodbye to this buggers:

EX BAND MAJOR:
ROLAND TEO (BOO!!!)

EX ASST BAND MAJOR:
MOHD. WARIQ

EX CONDUCTOR:
MOHD. WARIQ

EX DRUM MAJORS:
I. MUHD. AZRI
II. SHALOM WONG

EX SECRETARIAT:
SECRETARY I: WONG HICK MING
SECRETARY II: SEBASTIAN TAN
SECRETARY III: TIMOTHY NG

EX WELFARE:
FREDERICK TOH
ADNAN ZAKI

EX UNIFORM:
LIM KIM YONG
VOON SOON LOON

EX MARKING:
CAMILLUS CHENG

EX QUARTERMASTER:
JORDAN WEE

EX INSTRUMENT MASTERS:
WOODWIND: VOON SOON LOON
BRASS: JEFFREY LAW
PERCUSSION: ADNAN ZAKI
COLOURGUARD: M. KHAIRUDIN

EX AFTERNOON SUPERVISORS:
STANTON TAN
PHILIP LAW

And to all the EX section leaders as well. Which I'm not too sure of. =P

Now, let us say hello to the NEW buggers of SJSMSB!

The new:

AFTERNOON SUPERVISOR:
M. SHAHIRAN

INSTRUMENT MASTERS:
WOODWIND: PHILIP LAW
BRASS: BERTRAND ALBERT / JEFFREY LAW
PERCUSSION: RAPHAEL ISAIAH
COLOURGUARD: AQMAL / NIGEL CELLU

QUARTERMASTERS:
CAMILLUS CAEM
HAZIQ AZHAR
(SUPERVISED BY: JORDAN WEE, ADNAN ZAKI)

MARKING:
BRENDAN ALBERT
LOUIS VISALL
SEBASTIAN MACCLAY
(SUPERVISED BY: JEFFREY LAW / IAN RINO)

UNIFORM:
LIM KIM YONG
VOON SOON LOON
EDMUND NAYONG

WELFARE:
ABDUL WAIE
FAIZUL ZURAIMI
SHILTON SPELBERG
(SUPERVISED BY: FREDERICK TOH)

SECRETARIAT:
SECRETARY I: LUKE SIA
SECRETARY II: SEBASTIAN TAN
SECRETARY III: TIMOTHY NG

DRUM MAJORS:
JORDAN WEE
ADNAN ZAKI
FREDERICK TOH

CONDUCTOR:
TO BE CONFIRMED =P

ASST BAND MAJOR:
IAN RINO

BAND MAJOR:
JEFFREY LAW

Congratulations and best of luck (He. He.) to the new probationary board for SJSMSB 2009/2010. And I wish you a "great" year ahead. He. He.

And to the old board, thanks so much for your dedication and commitment, and may we all watch our juniors do the work, I mean, slavery this time, as we retire and go our separate ways. Sob sob.

But just a warning though.

1. You newbs (newbies) are subject to change, catastrophes and natural disasters.
2. I'm not too sure whether I've typed out the correct board list or not. Hehe!
3. To the band major - I'd love to see you cover your ears.
4. To the secretariat - Good luck finding your printer ink.
5. And finally to everyone - Have fun! ;)

Pre-JB Sequel

2009-08-06T22:18:00.001+08:00

It has been really hot, don't you agree?

It's all due to the stupid haze. Darn neighbours.

In fact, the API is so bad that there has been no release of the API index in newspapers, yet.

Most people say they can't afford to close down school at this moment, due to the upcoming examinations, and worse still, the H1N1 outbreak.

Speaking of the virus, a lot of my band mates are getting sick. Most of them with fevers, flus, sore throats, coughs, headaches, asthmatic problems... It's really going haywire in my school. My classmates are absent, the number of absentees just grow over the days, and I register a weird temperature of 36.0 degrees. Normal body temperature is about 36.9 degrees. Hmm...

Needless to say, most of my friends are over 37.8 degrees, with high fever. A lot of people are pretty worried.

And masquerade is back in town. Everyone's wearing masks - not a sign of fashion, but out of health concerns. Mount Santubong has disapparated, once more.

I wonder, how are we going to Johor Bahru in such a state. I just hope and pray everything will be fine...

Vengeful Spirit

2009-07-30T00:16:00.003+08:00

See that stupid bugger with that ugly 'helm' over there? She ain't stupid, she ain't wearing a 'helm', although that's not definitely hair, but it's Shendelzare Silkwood, the Vengeful Spirit.

Yup, this is probably going to be the worst DotA strategy guide ever written in the internet. And I'm really just wondering how many noobs are actually gonna follow all the stupid things I'm gonna recommend in this post. Really, trust me, this is only for fun, and it's probably not the way I play. Unless, I have a feeder of an enemy team and I just want to experiment some things of course.

Introduction

Vengeful Spirit, or VS, is a weakling. Starts off with really low health and low base attack. Just about any typical agility hero whom can't do much. So at least that's what the noobs think. Well, maybe that's why they are reading this very sentence. Noob.

She is a killer. Duh. All heroes can kill. But a supporter at end game. Not typical of an agility hero, but there you have it, the stupid sister of Mortred. Who asked you to trust that b****? It's really VS's fault that she actually didn't see what's coming. But anyways, she has a very cute attack.

She actually throws 'herself' at the enemy. Literally. She throws a spirit. At quite a good pace too. Well, she has probably everything covered except her really low health and terrible movespeed. It's not that terrible but still...

Skills

Magic Missile
This one is totally for KS fun. I mean, what beats KS-ing that stupid arse who calls you a noob? Show him your 'last hit' skills. Even if it means him leaving the game, infuriated. (He deserved it.) But typically, an 1.75 second stun at all levels which deals quite a big deal of damage (which is good for KS, I mean, 'supporting'), and is probably the best ranged damaging stun you can ever get.

Terror
She screams. It's terrible, doing only 25/50/75/100 damage, but it actually helps with the armour disintegration and the lowering of attack damage. It's good for shooting damnated b**tards like Bloodseeker, stunning him and running the hell for it. That is if your noob skills allow it. It typically helps and is a good addition to Stygian Desolator and Assault Cuirass, provided your noob farming skills give you enough gold for those noob items. I'd rather leave this end game, since... It's no good for KS. =D Just joking. (If you're super pro at last hits, this is probably a skill that can actually kill at late game. No joke.)

Command Aura
Gives her and anyone in an AOE (area of effect) to have 38% extra damage at level four. It's definitely good for her weak base damage, added on with damage items and such. You can mix and match auras, just like getting Lycanthrope to do his stupid screaming like thingy, and Traxex with her noob-ish trueshot aura, and whatever else. This really helps for farming, trust me.

Nether Swap
Sounds like a stupid ultimate, but it's actually the most fun... This makes VS a formidable enemy. She can swap positions with an enemy hero, and trap the enemy hero right in the middle of VS's comrades. We'll learn more about its noob-ish uses later. We will? I thought you were just reading this crap.

Item Build

Who the hell doesn't use Bracers or Wraith Bands? (Points at a noob.)

Power treads or boots of travel? If you're really that noob, try boots of travel.

And from this moment on, there are a few tactics to playing VS:

1. Armour-reducing agent (Undergoes oxidation):

- Stygian Desolator
- Hyperstone/ Assault Cuirass
- Butterfly (for the fun of it, noob)

2. Some idiot who slows and splits herself:

- Diffusal Blade
- Manta Style
- Butterfly (for the fun of it, noob)

3. Some idiot who slows and loves the colour blue:

- Diffusal Blade
- Eye of Skadi
- Butterfly (no need for me to repeat, noob)

4. Some idiot who loves chicken:

- Diffusal Blade
- Guinsoo's Scythe of Vice
- Hyperstone/ Assault Cuirass/ Butterfly

5. Crazy ass:

- Crystalys/ Buriza-Do Kyanon
- Stygian Desolator
- Butterfly
- Assault Cuirass

And you can always add on an Aghanim's Scepter if playing cheat is your thing. (You can swap every 8 seconds. =D)

Okay, now for noob tactics:

(NOOB) Tactics

Magic Missile
1. KS. There's nothing like it. Practice your 'last hit' skills with this stun. It works 99.99% of the time.

2. This works with nether swap. You see an arse coming to your fountain and you're inside it? Play dirty. Swap with him and stun immediately and do a wave of terror. And watch him scorch to death. =D

3. Just stun any arse that gets in your way. Duh.

4. It's perfect for Admiral's Torrent and Invoker's Sun Strike and anything else that requires timing. Just ensure that arse doesn't move lah. You know what to do?

Wave of Terror
1. Like I said. If you are superb at KS-ing, and you want to try your luck. Try shooting this at a running hero. If he has 1 mm of health, I bet you'll not get the kill. Try 0.01 mm instead. If you can. Good as a supplement for desolating arses.

2. Just shoot a guy who wants to hunt you. It really doesn't matter how you shoot it, as long as it hits him. But it obviously won't work.

Command Aura
Maximise this passive. There's nothing else you can do. =.=

Nether Swap
1. The combo with the magic missile. Perfect. Cheat.

2. Try to stay in between some two large trees to remain hidden from sight. And if you see a hero... Best of luck to him.

3. If you're chasing a hero and he has an enemy alongside, swap with the enemy and stun the chased. It does save you somehow.

4. Get a stopwatch. Start the time when you swap with a noob enemy. And stop the stopwatch at the time he actually reacts to his current condition. And that's how you count a noob. Like you and me.

5. If you're willing to wait. Get someone like Beastmaster to cut down some trees for you. Wait at the stumps, and just wait. Until the trees grow back. And... =D (She can't use the blink dagger. =(*

6. Be a sport. If you're in an unfavourable condition, swap with your ally. He'd be most pleased to avenge his death on you. It's what you call love.

I don't know why I wrote this. It's all so random. And I still can't think of anything more noob than Nether Swap tactic 6. I need more noob ideas. Maybe I should go play noob now.

Note for real noobs: You could consider getting her Battle Fury, Vladimir's Offering, and wondering what the hell next. When the game ends of course.

(Naga) Siren(s)

2009-07-27T22:23:00.004+08:00

This is very much the most vivid memory I had during my exams - sound pollution and disturbance. Grr.

First of all, the Yang di-Pertuan Agung and his VIP's were coming to town (without Rudolph and the other reindeers driving Santa Claus' sleigh) for an important event at the new DUN, Majlis Raja-raja Melayu, the XXXth since its first in the year XXXX. This just shows how good my history really is. Please read the big big advertisement at the Jalan Song and Jalan Laksamana Cheng Ho junction for more details. Thank you! =.=

And with this, comes the noisest bunch of white people you'd ever see. The traffic police. To come to think of it, their cars are white, their uniforms are white, their helmets are (sometimes) white, and their motorcycles are white too. And so is the lettering on their number plates, the colour of their long-sleeve shirts, the colour of their faces when they see the litter around my housing area, and many more.

Their lovely serenade of wailing sirens and blaring horns create such a symphony that even Mitsuo Kaku's string theory about the universe being a comparative symphony is demonstrated in a minute, sub-metropolitan settlement known as Kuching.

Orchestration: Many, many, many police cars with functional sirens that produce 120 decibel sound waves, a bulldozer, and some crappy driver.

My accounts quiz was very much distracted by their first movement, named "Sirens Thy Shall Hear". And for physics the next day, we had a very soothing second movement, which is named "Fail Thy Physics". My Physics I was screwed much by it, and furthermore by the third movement which came with a bash, "I Tumble Thy Pole".

The lights went off. The fans died. The whole school's supply was cut off. And we were evaporating. Well, literally.

Why the cut?

Back at my dad's construction site, someone actually hit a SESCO pole... And "I tumble thy pole".

...

And it took them two hours to bring our school back to life.

PS: Mitsuo Kaku is mentioned here just because my brother adores that guy. He's a genius by the way, co-founder of string theory which even Beethoven doesn't understand.

Phew

2009-07-27T18:44:00.002+08:00

Guys,

I'm so sorry I hardly update anymore. HFM aftermath, you see, even though I don't have those horrendous dots and rashes and blisters anymore. (I still have that terrible voice though.)

Well, exams have been kinda a midnight oil thingy, although I kinda ran out of blubber to burn after band. Well, they never really stopped practice until the Thursday before the exam week, and we all know whose doing it is, but I did not go for it since I wasn't very much prepared for exam anyway.

And even with that little break, I was not even one bit prepared.

I'm losing my first position streak this term. Many reasons why. Many many reasons. Not just band, not just the dictator, not just HFM and lethargy and horrendous dots, well... That's up to you to guess. Well, you see why I hardly blog nowadays. I just don't have that youth in me anymore. Uh oh, I'm growing old. Sigh.

Oh yea, that stupid mole on my chin still has one pathetic hair growing from it. It's where the beard's supposed to grow, so I guess that's why. And Kel says, for every mole I cut off, statistically I'd lose 10 IQ. I guess my exam results are karma from pulling that darn hair off. >.<

Oh well, results now...

Clearing Up

2009-06-28T17:10:00.004+08:00

Sore throat's clearing up. Rashes are disappearing. =)

Not showing signs of secondary infection (or rather quarternary infection, since I had to go through fever thrice). No viral meningitis (yes it can be that bad), no symptoms of influenza A H1N1, duh, no possible traces of other viral infections that may have seeped in and kept me company throughout this week.

It kinda means I don't need a sick leave anymore. I just have to stay... away... from my friends for a little bit. Wouldn't want anyone else to suffer a week of torment with HFM. (HFM patients usually can still be infectious for two weeks or more after recovering, or at least that's what I've heard.)

So guys, keep your distance and don't gay with me yea? For your good (and mine =P).

I just hope I'll be accepted when I come back though...

It's been a while.

Sigh.

Epidemic (2)

2009-06-25T19:52:00.003+08:00

One week after the post "Epidemic", the second epidemic strikes again. =.=

I'm currently in the fourth day of pain. Only He knows how long the pain will last, but we'll see. After my first influenza epidemic, I soon infected my brother. But apparently, my virus was strong enough to mutate into getting him into a fever. And soon enough, a terrible sore throat. Rashes started appearing on his hands and feet; ulcers started forming in his throat and mouth. Took him a few doctors to actually be diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth (HFM) disease.

So he took the week off. How lucky. Bearing with the ulcers and rashes, he survived the ordeal and apparently passed it on to me. Bleh.

On Sunday evening, I started having a headache. Minor one. Soon enough, I complained of shivering to my mum and I told her I was getting feverish. And the next morning, it really became a reality.

I went to a doctor where I miserably waited one hour for my turn. Suffering from the air conditioning, I was pretty much the only patient who had goosebumps all over. My weight was 65, my blood pressure 121/71. And I was diagnosed with throat infection. Of all the things in the world.

I was prescribed antibiotics, fever pills, painkillers and two days sick leave. And so, off to bed.

The next day, it was to my horror that the antibiotics actually made my throat infection worse. And so, my fever rose again. But after a day of battling it out with microorganisms, I survived.

Wednesday, I wasn't too lucky. My sick leave was over, but I was brought to the doctor once again. I started having small spots on my hands (weirdly not on my palms) and lots more on my soles. Still, the doctor wouldn't dare to diagnose me with HFM. And at one early point, he actually just came to a conclusion that I had tonsilitis. o.O (My blood pressure 116/71, my weight dropped to 63, my pulse rate - which I forgot - dropped too, somehow. Hmm.)

My mum disagreed because tonsilitis would mean lots of shivering and terrible fevers for me. The moment I got out of the clinic with sore throat lozenges and a numbing liquid drop thingy, I started getting feverish once more.

Shivering, but I survived. Today, I've just finished my last antibiotic pill. My fever pills were all used up this morning, and I have only a few painkillers left. Two days worth of sore throat pills and the terribly useless muco-aid drops. We'll see how the epidemic spreads from here.

I'm on home quarantine until Sunday. Forgive me, band members. And I know all of you are so eager for me to spread the virus to your beloved teachers.

Epidemic

2009-06-18T00:50:00.004+08:00

My flu epidemic strikes again. Last patient count was seven. We'll see about this one.

It all started out with a simple barbecue at Wariq's place on Saturday evening.

By midnight, we were all settled and ready to watch a boring game of Fatal Frame. What happened to the good old scares. And then a horror movie that actually made just about everyone sleep. "Jumby wants to be born again." Uh-huh.

In the end I was very much restless in the freezing room. Slept at 5.30.

The next day, off to badminton I go. And once again, the legendary Red Bull that never ceases to awe. I was very much on plans to make myself sick for school the next day for drinking that crap. But still, for the sake that I was already having a minor flu and I was abnormally drenched in sweat.

Sunday night starts the epidemic. Influenza, sore throat, cough - and phlegm, headache, giddiness, and the urge to get myself in worse state.

The next day, I went back before Accounts started. Rested the afternoon for good. But apparently, I passed on the epidemic to the guy who sits next to me. Another flu victim. And for health concerns in Kuching, I shall not disclose the name. xD

And the next to get hit was my brother. And he, too, suffered an early trip back home the next day. Apparently, my virus mutated into its high fever version. I was really much complaining why my virus doesn't give me that rather than an irritating and terrible flu. So far, it's two infections from me. =D

Oh yea, I'm still really wishing for a day off from school. I've just been sleeping in classes all day. Sigh... What's wrong with me?

...

Ester Power!

2009-06-08T21:33:00.005+08:00

Extra class today, again for Chemistry, and things went as explosively as expected. xD What's Chemistry without the broken test tubes, split-in-half glass rods, burnt-up litmus papers, crazy concoctions, and pyrotechnical mayhem!

This time, I went on a camwhoring frenzy - not on myself, but rather the cute little bottles and apparatus in the Chemistry lab. It's not everyday you get to take pictures in the Chemistry lab you know, what more to say bringing a handphone to school, ever since the caning and tyrany came back to place in Malaysian schools. As a debut, this terrible-looking test tube diagram:

Trying. My. Best. Not. To. Laugh.

...

I can't believe you can get 3 marks for THAT kind of a diagram. (Of course, it's just a sketch!)

Anyways, the Chemistry lab is a really fun place to take awesome photos:

PS: Wrong spelling. MG would be so mad, they missed out an H. And you know how an hydrogen ion (H+) means to her. Random quote: "It's-th not-th white-th, it's-th colourless-th!!! Do you know the difference-th bet-th-ween white-th and colourless-th or not-th?!" Those were the days of acid-base titration.

Pyromaniac alert! (Yup, I was granted that name thanks to my adventures in the Chemistry lab with fire. Hehe!)

But the true highlight of the day was the experiment: preparation of ester. We're supposed to get that sweet-smelling, pungent smell, just like the smell of the rubbery thingy that can produce bubbles when you cover it on one end of a straw and you blow it. (Those were the kiddy days.) I have no idea what the rubbey thingy is, but it sure smells like ester.

But, of course, as true rocket scientists, things are definitely bound to go a bit crazy:

The power of science. We did not do that once, but twice! The first time we did, the teacher was there, and she laughed along! xD

As true rocket scientists, we did what we must for our protection. For our own safety and health, and to avoid being caught for arson, we decided to let Lukhman to be the guinea pig and hold the test tube. I know we are all so mean. But then he's the crazy one to follow what Su said: "Mouth at the flame!" And you know what happened then...

If you are all wondering, it's because of the fumes of ethanol, not some fuzzy wuzzy magic concoction we've made out of the production of ester. But, all the same, it was fun. And that really deserved my first upload onto Youtube. Support it by commenting here and also on Youtube! xD Link provided here!

Extra classes are definitely worth the fun, after all. So much for SPM. Observation: The test tube catches fire.

Amazing

2009-06-04T23:34:00.003+08:00

Jon Schmidt - Love Story (Taylor Swift) meets Viva La Vida (Coldplay)

A must watch. An amazing piano-cello duet.

I have never been so mesmerised by such a great Youtube video until now. It's the best arrangement I've ever heard so far. Thanks so much to the friend whom introduced me to this video! =)

The video inspires me - the true beauty of strings. Never heard a cello this good in my whole life, although it's not a classical piece, but rather a new age one. Amazing find, and it has already over 1000000 views since its debut on the 9th of April, 2009. Beats my blog stats big time. xD

Oh yes, I do appreciate mellow beauty. Not just the bright beauty of the violin and the screechy piccolo. Oh violin, do forgive me for avoiding you. It's just that you broke another darn E-string of mine that was worth 18 bucks, and so as a punishment, I shall not play you until I get a new string, so there!

Anyways, finally something blog-worthy! Shows music has no limitations.

PS: Jon Schmidt is a genius. And the cellist is super cool. If I hit my violin like that, I can bet the strings will break. And no, I can't play a bass drum while spamming on the violin at the same time!

State Level 2009

2009-05-29T17:31:00.011+08:00

The Green Machine uniform.

We spent the last two days before going to Sibu at Kuching's indoor stadium. I had not much time to pack for the Sibu trip, and out of precaution, I packed a forklift's worth of goods into my pitiful bag before sleeping.

The next day, due to delays, we left 30 minutes late, at 9.30 am. Mr. Ben was there to give us a small briefing before we left, as he couldn't follow us this time. The bus had a TV with karaoke, and it would have been hard effort to stop the monkeys from hollering with the Indon artistes, but most of them had a tough day the day before, and so, many slept, including me.

We stopped at Serian, and not long after to pump some more fuel, and then to a stop at Sri Aman for lunch. By then it was already 12.30 pm, and I was starting to get worried that the bus will not reach Sibu in time. Our last stop was at somewhere near Betong and Sarikei, before finally reaching the bumpy roads of Sibu.

We found our place not long after. A beautiful place. Sibu Diocesan Pastoral Centre. PIctures were taken the next morning:

The pastoral centre is a beautiful place, full of plants, trees, and home to 16 dogs that are said to be harmful but never bite. There's also a locked-up fish pond (bummer). The main building has a ground floor and three upper floors, and we stayed on the second and third floor. It houses a chapel (St. Camillus Adoration Chapel, so much for all the Camillus-es out there.), St. Martha dining hall, 21 rooms on the upper floors, and a drying area at the very top. Lecture rooms (I think) and a huge kitchen too.

We slept the first night, after arriving at 6 pm. The next morning, we had a bit of a sectional and music practice, before sleeping two hours in the afternoon to prepare for rehearsals at the competition ground. SK S.E.D.C. Weird name, weird place.

We had a first taste of the ground. Full of pebbles and stones that hurt the thin soles of our marching shoes, with slippery places, rough and painful places, damp places, and you can just about imagine how bad it would have been if it were not for our "living skills" to survive in the field. We rested the night with a bit of polishing.

Food so far has been provided by the volunteers at the pastoral centre for the non-Muslims, whereas Muslims have their own packed food catered from elsewhere. I've been sleeping the nights in the uniform room, after much requesting with the teacher allocating the rooms. Hehe! But still, it means more treacherous labour at night - going room to room and doing uniform business. Sigh.

The next morning we were up quite early, and we were off for a rehearsal for the competition. There, we met the other teams and we knew for sure, there were 8 competing in this year's state level. Although, honestly, I can only tell you... Err... 6? The other two I kinda forgot their names. >.<>

The clouds were with us that evening...

There was an uniform check and we were off to sleep early, lights out at 9.30 pm. I'm very sure not everyone slept by then, but oh well, neither did I. xD

The next day I was up by 4.30 am, and lazing around until the real alarm sounded at five. We had breakfast, and we were off to the school at seven. We quickly put on our uniforms, and there was soon an uniform check at around eight. It was a terrible time.

We had to stand inside a stuffy basketball court for at least 30 minutes. It was getting so terribly exhausting that three people from SJSMSB had to retire, one was sick. And one of them was my junior. =.= It was a long check because one of the contingents came late.

Since our turn was last, we had much time to revive the sick ones, and stretch and warm up before our turn was near. We had numerous complaints of being too loud when we warm up. Well, that was kinda a good thing, considering we never had such compliments before. xD

Soon enough, our turn was coming up. We had a very emotional briefing before getting into position, making most of us cry. It was the first time we cried before the competition, rather than crying after everything was done. We had many well-wishes, as far as from Canada, to our so-called rivals from all over Malaysia. Almost everyone was betting on us to win state level. And it was really the greatest time to cry, not of sadness but of spirit.

We were very much the most cheered-for contingent in the school. Very much the only team that performed about football. In 10 minutes, it was all over. The best performance by SJSMSB of the year 2009 up to date. We were very much peaking for state level, after a series of improving performances since we came to Sibu.

Soon enough, we were into the same stuffy basketball court for the announcement of results. We were very much in a murderous mood, waiting for the boring speeches over the poor PA system to be over. Soon, the announcement of results.

Best preparation was won by Chung Hua, Miri.

Best colorguard (CG) was won by St. Joseph, Kuching. (Good for our almighty footballers.)

Best percussion was won by St. Joseph, Miri.

Best drum major was won by Riam Road, Miri.

Overall:

3rd place goes to St. Joseph, Miri.

2nd place goes to Chung Hua, Miri.

1st place goes to St. Joseph, Kuching.

Everyone was screaming at that time. Well, at least on my side. Even those whom had to retire were in a screaming frenzy. (I was regarded as a casualty just because I wanted a tissue. =.=)

We had our very first KFC meal after the announcement of results. Junk food never tasted that good. =P We only got to leave at around 2, waiting for the judges to talk on how to improve our performance. Jonathan Fox was there to talk to us again after everything was over. Soon, we were on a rush to prepare for some shopping.

The view from outside: Wisma Sanyan, some weird monument, and RH Hotel.

We were in Sanyan for less than an hour. Feasting on whatever possible, most brought back loads of junk food for all to share. We soon departed for our thanksgiving dinner sponsored by one of the generous parents.

The heading was absolutely amusing:

"The nite is ours. Lets make happens is again in JB." xD!

Seeing their mistake, the waiters soon tried to correct it, but to no avail:

Let's make it happens again! =D

It was a crazy night. Lots of singing, dancing, weird stuff. And pulling around to drag people on stage. Form 5's had a table to themselves, and we were busy doing stupid stuff as well. In short, we destroyed Kingwood Hotel.

When we got back, I only slept at 4.30 am. Cards, cards, cards.

At 5.45 am, up again. After a hectic packing, we were off back to Kuching. This time, more stops, more annoyance. Someone needed an emergency pee-at-a-plant stop, the driver needed an emergency stop, we had to stop for breakfast and lunch, we needed to stop at Serian again, so in the end we were the last bus to reach St. Joe, two hours behind the first bus.

Anyways, it feels great to be back home. =)

I'm Bach

2009-05-24T20:45:00.002+08:00

I'm back from Sibu. With three trophies.

One with a broken head, appreciating our participation in the disorganised event.

Another, for the best colourguard section in the state. CGs rock!

And another, for the overall champion, at 76.50 points.

I'll blog more soon, I'm a bit too drenched to write more. *Slumps.*

I'm so happy to be back. I've had enough of "good" traffic etiques and healthy, "fat-free" food, if you get what I mean.

Few More Days

2009-05-15T17:55:00.003+08:00

A few more days to state level...

Wednesday, we are leaving by bus to Sibu.
Thursday and Friday, rehearsals and personal practices over at the town.
Saturday, the real deal.

The schedule is packing up, and I've really not much time left to blog. Not like I have blogged much for the last few days, but I'll definitely blog about state level when I come back!

Wariq's camera pictures are just so... weird sometimes. Well, don't fail me, dear piccolo. (I've glued your loose pads already. Err, although I'm not supposed to glue it. Heh...)

To band members out there:

Do your best! Give everything you can for the state level competition! Look forward to see my friends (and make new friends) over at Sibu. =)

Completion

2009-05-14T00:53:00.002+08:00

It's rather late, I know. But it's rather pleasing news that I have finally achieved the impossible... finishing my additional mathematics project in just four evenings. (If you count in the number of times I decided to fool around rather than do the work, then you'll see how fast things had to go.)

My Additional Mathematics Project Work for the year 2009 is about circles. Crappy circles, although it was mostly about semicircles in Parts 2 and 3. Part 1 questions the definition and history of Pi, and Part 2 is mainly long-winded tables and stupid deductions, whereas Part 3 comes the application of what we learn in class to our project work.

And all my stupid calculations regrettably had to be done by hand, since Microsoft Word doesn't offer formatting for fractions, and it's so hard just to find a multiplication symbol in it. =.= The hardest and most annoying part of all was to... Subscript the stupid smaller numbers in my project.

I sought help online from some very good references that I believe every Malaysian SPM candidate this year would use. xD (So much for a rich source of information called the internet. It's now a place for cheaters and plagiarisers as well.) And based on my observations, everyone's definition and history of Pi is exactly identical, except those who took the burden to twist some of the words. Other than that, it's all Wikipedia, the hero of the day.

Since we can cheat our project work so easily, I still ponder why on Earth do we even have to deal with this project in the first place... Nevertheless, it's too late to post my report online, and so, I'm not going to get free hits from publishing such confidential information. Cheating is bad karma, you know...

Mum

2009-05-10T08:27:00.002+08:00

Having band practices all this while has been rather tiring, causing all my blog-worthy stuff to go into the recycle bin. Test week has just finished, although there are still a few tests going on before I leave for Sibu (next week). It's only one week left till state level on the 23rd of May, at some primary school ground in Sibu.

Needless to say, I'll be pretty packed. And tired. Sigh, and of all the days I just had to wake up so early today. Bleh.

Anyway, Happy Mothers' Day! I've got a dinner tonight. =D

Photo Shoot

2009-05-02T23:01:00.004+08:00

28th April 2009 - After EST, most of us had to walk all the way to the Old Court (the white buildings facing Sarawak River at our waterfront) just for our class phototaking. Some people took the easier way by going there by car, and leaving us unfortunate ones behind. Yea, some of you just drive pass us in an almost unoccupied car. Bleh.

The dress code was formal, although some classmates appeared in T-shirts and short pants and slippers. Sweat. Some of them were just about too couldn't-be-bothered to wear anything but their school uniform. Most of us took our outfit seriously, and yup, there goes the shirt I have never ever worn in my entire life.

Photos courtesy of Daniel and Edwin, as published on James' website. Girls, please be warned that some of these guys are actually homosexuals, and if not, they are already taken. (These pictures have official copyrights, too. =P)

PHOTO ONE

Imagine, going so far to the Old Court just to take a picture under a tree. Consider the other trees around, but oh well, it was definitely worth the walk. And the gasoline for some of you selfish ones. Hmmph.

This picture is a bit way too up. And I'm just too noticable in the picture. I blocked someone's face. =( So much for trying to kneel down.

PHOTO TWO (AND THREE)

Making use of the Old Court, for once. First picture was a bit serious, and the second one more fun. Mainly thanks to playing with fathers' names while waiting for the 12-second timer to finish up and take our photo.

PHOTO FOUR

A randomised photo that is a bit more racist and discriminative. Notice how people are spread out in this photo, into their own gangs. Bleh. I'm stuck dead center because I mostly have nowhere to run. Some people were trying to do obscene stuff in the photo anyway. And no, I drove them away before they could shoot a photo, so don't think of seeing me being 'covered'.

At the end of the photo shoot, most of us had our gang pictures taken up. Mine with my friends, not too sure where it is now, but I'll try find it someday. Rushed down to McDonalds, and only waiting to find my grandpa looking for a McD at Crowne Plaza. Sigh, sometimes I wonder how bad some people misinterpret directions...

Blog's Birthday!

2009-04-27T18:47:00.003+08:00

Tomorrow, this blog, Scherzando Comrade shall officially be one year old! But most unfortunately, I would not be able to celebrate such an occasion online, thanks to my class' phototaking and more band. Grr. Nevertheless, this blog is just so full of memories. Sob sob. And may this blog continue to exist for the days to come. Amen.

Here are the stats so far:

26761 views ever since 18th of June, 2008, mostly done by my friends... and me. =)

This is the 301th post, over a span of approximately 365 days. Not too bad ey? (I know I have been inactive. Please blame band for that.)

I'm cashing out RM61.40 from Nuffnang, due to my efforts of using their advertisements on my blog. It has however displeased me that I have done the cashing out back in February, and up to now nothing has reached my doorstep.

This blog had stupid names like Simply Words, or Con Forza, but Scherzando Comrade has lasted up to date. =D And it has influenced many, many others to start blogging too... =P You know who you are. Me and my perasan-ness.

Largest number of comments on one of my posts is a massive 77, and that is because some people were just too busy criticising each other back then. No offence intended, guys.

Smallest number? Zero. Duh.

Scherzando Comrade has had the services of several hit generators, but I've stopped ever since I never bothered about strangers visiting my blog. But still, all are welcome. Just don't give me stupid porn links and links to nothing but crap. And oh yea, keep your sexual intentions to yourself, or maybe to other guys around. (Well, I'm not referring to you!)

The most favourite song ever published on my blog was Bach Street Prelude by Vanessa Mae. Some say they got stuck to my blog just because of the song. Just shows how much people depreciate my crap. T.T

Unique visitors, as published on Nuffnang, is usually around 100-200 per week recently. At Scherzando Comrade's peak, it used to range from 800-1500 per week. Shows the power of dishonest and displeasing hit generators. Hey, everyone was trying to 'cheat' back then. I'm happy with my statistics now. Not like I care anyway. =D

Maximum posts in one day for this blog? Five. Minimum. Zero. Duh, again.

Most frequent commentor? Me, because I'm always busy replying others. =) You want me to name the other commentors? Come on, I know you want it~

PS: These statistics have proven to be quite accurate at the time of publishing. If you read this late then, you better start being an early bird rather than accuse me of false facts. Time management, boy!~

Dry Spell

2009-04-24T14:49:00.003+08:00

I'm sorry for the lack of updates this month. There hasn't been much to blog about actually, apart from the heat!

Kuching is facing terrible temperatures recently. Every single day, it's frigging hot (although it's not July or August yet) and it spells trouble for me and my poor skin. Say hello to ecdysis (peeling of skin in reptiles) once more.

Every single day, the blaring sun scorches the earth, without much cloud coverage, and then it will start thunderstorming in the afternoon. That's just about the only time the temperatures are cooler. You can see the steam coming from the pedestrian paths at my area during drizzles.

It's so hot I can hardly concentrate in class... Well, maybe just about everyone can't focus anyway. The school's concrete structure makes everything so terribly hot, and I'm so thankful my house isn't that hot even though it's also concrete. If I told you it was wooden, you'd come over and burn it anyway.

And the worst part is when it starts to thunder, and then off goes the computer. Nooooo~ =(. I hate this kind of weather. It's against band, it's against my cyber life, it's against my studies... And it makes me fall asleep all the time in class.

Now the class teacher can not only mention how good I am at choosing which classes to skip just to do band work, but now I know the best time to sleep in class as well. Blame global warming! Earth Day yesterday was frigging hot! We should do something to preserve Mother Nature!

Now, since when did I become such an activist... Hmm. As always, blame the weather.

PS: Thank goodness band practices are now in the evenings. Saturday and Sunday... Err, I guess I'll live through the UV rays.

Burung

2009-04-20T19:23:00.004+08:00

Found this crazed bird during band practice:

It's a plump bird some of the members found disturbing a wasp nest. In other words, this plump bird is also a typically stupid bird. It got stung on the neck, and fell head first onto the ground. And Earth is no 'crazyjump' map in CS where you get to jump down from as high as you want, and land in water. Instead, you kiss concrete in reality, and you don't respawn after your poor team loses the round. This injured bird is then taken from the crash site, and puti n the good hands of some of the colourguards.

Although, it has a slight problem about tilting its head...

Oi, burung! Perch up straight!

Thing is, whenever the twig falls out of place and the bird is perched onto it, the stupid bird doesn't even bother to budge from its position. For example, it's tilted at 30 degrees and it wouldn't even bother to struggle to get back to normal position. Defies gravity, this crazed bird.

Look closely at this poorly-taken picture, and you'll see the bird is actually showing its arse to public, and having its head tilted at almost an amazing 180 degrees. Not bad for a defected bird.

This plump bird can't chirp, nor fly. Let's just hope it won't disturb another wasp nest in the near future, unless it enjoys defying gravity in a small cage. Oi, burung!

Dehydrated Plankton

2009-04-18T19:47:00.002+08:00

I must be the only land-inhibiting plankton in the universe. (Or the only plankton that bothers to bleed red blood in CS when shot and carries the deadly M4A1.)

Worse still, in the scorching heat.

Today was pretty much a day I assumed would be of good weather. I was so darn wrong when I noticed the clouds just dissipating into thin air. (I wonder, the reverse observation of carbon dioxide running through lime water. Bleh.)

And the day was so f-ing hot, I had to be a Malay perempuan with a tudung for once. And the moment I took it off, my hair was so flat like a girl's in front, and standing at the back they decided to call me "ke boh" - chicken girl, or rather prostitute in Hokkien.

Now I feel all roasted up. My upper limbs, the tibial area (bio freak alert!), and part of my face. No, smacking me real hard doesn't really help deliver much pain. Planktons are way too defected to feel pain from the whacking, but rather the peeling. =S

I chugged down a whole litre of chrysanthemum tea, finished up my jumbo 1.5 litre bottle, ordered one drink and bought another, and I'm still dehydrated here. Poor dehydrated plankton. I'm better off living in the sea and competing with Mr. Krabs for business.

I'm now officially an Indian. Try my blackness, not my Indian accent. And my tolerance towards Indian food. (I just got terrible diarrhoea thanks to some idiotic Malay Indian coffee shop at Satok. Grr.)

Chao. (Yelps at my red skin.)

Signing off,

A plankton better off aquatic.

PS: I wonder, who else could I bother to bring to court than the crazy bugger whom thought of the idea to practice 1.30 in the afternoon!!!

Threats

2009-04-16T18:23:00.003+08:00

Letters are out, stating that anyone that misses any band practice from now on without any excuse will be given 5 demerit points. Blah, what crap. Threats are of no use to some of the useless members, and it's affecting the good members anyway. Soon enough, the idiot on top will have to demerit the whole band. That would be the greatest day of my life.

First Exam

2009-04-14T18:55:00.003+08:00

Decided to arrange it in ascending order. =.= These marks are almost finalised, and hopefully will be better by the time Parent's Day comes. =P

Biology - 79 A2 (Sigh, the only A2, by only 1 mark.)

Bahasa Melayu - 81 A1 (Yea right.)

Physics - 82 A1 (Used to be 77. Heh.)

English - 83 A1 (Double standards, huh?)

EST - 87 A1

Accounts - 88 A1 (Phew...)

Add Maths - 88 A1 (My Paper 1 screwed up.)

Moral - 92 A1 (What a contradiction.)

Sejarah - 92 A1 (Worse than an ironic score for me.)

Chemistry - 95 A1

Maths - 96 A1

Total: 963/1100

Average: 87.54

Position: 1/44

This term's marks are sooooo contradictive. How the heck did Moral and Sejarah become stronger subjects in the first place?! And how on earth did my BM get an A1, and my English marks neck-to-neck with it?! Sigh, Form 5 is so stupid.

Future

2009-04-10T21:16:00.002+08:00

I was wondering... What would happen if I decided to become a band instructor?

I mean, my experience in band, and my diploma in music - what's the point of going this far without spreading the love?

My mum thinks I don't apply my skills in music anyway. Bleh.

I'm inspired mainly by the school's alumni, whom come back just to teach the band for free. I truly respect them, sacrificing everything just to be with us guys. Worse still, being willing enough to face the music from the dictator. We all know the sad stories.

And so now, I'm wondering the limited choices I have in the near future. But I'd definitely not feel like coming back to instruct SJSMSB as long as someone is there. I can always come to help, but sorry guys, never as someone under the dictator... We've all had enough. Even the alumni. May the band crash thanks to not the band members but the one on the top. Amen.

Now, back to the choices... I wonder where I will be in the future, but it'll be great to be a music instructor for once. =) And no, I don't plan to teach marching if it's in the hot sun. Putera lilin, I know. (Mind you, it's candle prince, not princess. Direct translation.)

So, anyone willing to recommend me?~ =P

Keywords

2009-04-10T19:29:00.004+08:00

The people who visit my blog are sometimes weird... o.O
Their keywords are somewhat a bit... sinister.

The most common of them all is "Roland Teo". I'm not being 'perasan' or anything, but they seem to love Googling for my name. o.O

There's also a very big hit under the keyword "DCPIP", a chemical used to test the presence of vitamin C. Well, I'm no Bio expert, and I can tell that my DCPIP post in the previous year has attracted quite a lot of visitors who find the post absolutely useless. I really pity those researching on this chemical and stumbling across my uneducational blog.

Next of all is "Jawi", whether it is the difference between Arabic and Jawi, how to write Jawi, and whatever. Well, my site is rather uninformative on that too. Sigh.

Some people even search for "Scherzando Comrade", or rather the joking comrade. I wonder why I chose the name in the first place. Maybe because I love Italian musical terms, and I am a comrade-of-war in CS, CSO, whatever... Or maybe it's because of the dictator that I've decided to go against her ways and become a 'comrade'. Hmm...

Some look for "St. Joseph", relates to band activities, school results and such. "SPM" is among the keywords too, and I'm so sorry because I'm only going to sit for SPM this year! xD The ones I really feel bad for are those who are looking for SPM results... Too bad for them to stumble across my rantings, I guess.

Another is "MPYO". Sigh, and I'm not even in. And yes, people think they can find MPYO audition results on my blog too.

The worst one of them all is "Literotica". I get sooooo many obscene keyword searches under this category. People are just so fascinated with such forms of entertainment nowadays... The cause of this is probably my previous posts about The Sound Machine by Roald Dahl, which is totally obscene if you think of it the wrong way. "Yes yes, good good!~" Goodness.

I wonder... Well I get 30000 hits before this blog's birthday comes...

CS Mania

2009-04-09T18:15:00.007+08:00

It all started out with a simple CS game with friends that spurred many others to do the same. Counterstrike was soon the game of the class (although DotA still dominates, bleh) after much blabbering by me and Kel and a few others. =D

Soon the wonderful online LAN game server Garena (GG, GHad (jihad) for Lukhman xD) and CS 1.6 came together. Server by server, me and my friends gave the headshots, fed the pros, pwned the noobs, got accused for using Aimbots, et cetera et cetera...

And now, it's my honour to present a parodical review on my most favourite guns.

Just about everyone's favourite gun. The M4A1 carbine. It comes with a silencer shaft (that comes and goes like a condom, easy and quick in comparison with the stupid CT pistol) which actually provides more headshots than it really could in real life. It's almighty accurate for pros, and the ultimate gun for noobs to die with. Just let the pros pwn you and grab your carbines, won't you?

I kinda hate it for its inaccuracy at very very long distances. And even at short distances. (Spraying it is still a more accurate option for short range though.) It kinda sucks to be in a lagging server, and being caught in a crossfire of M4A1's. You're definitely bloody and dead by the time the lag is over.

Unfortunately, this gun is available only for the CT's, unless you kill one and loot him. =D The terrorist's best substitute is the AK47, which is a rather cheating weapon because it gives you almighty headshots out of luck rather than skill. Yes, I hate that weapon.

My spraying with the carbine makes everyone pissed though, because my headshot rate is incredibly high when I spray. xD Sounds fake, but I never ever hack. And you have my word... NOOBS!

People spend ages spraying you just to kill you, and just one head shot with this zoomable AUG kills. You're better off dead at short range though, unless karma has it that you shoot that bugger right in the head. Ah, the wonders of kneeling down and pointing up. =D

It's an expensive weapon (so is the carbine, bleh), so don't think of it when you have no money to waste. That's why, maps like Pool Day and Iceworld are the best. =D Note: This weapon is used best to KS, and to annoy others. Spread the love.

On the note, I'm an assaulter. And bait. Don't blame me for my high death score. T.T It's of valour and courage to take the front seat and be among the first few victims, you know. Some more with an expensive gun like the AUG.

Ah, the ultimate 'cuak' weapon. The AWP Magnum. This sniper kills, pwns, and does enough kill seals to get you kicked out of the game. It's the perfect sit-down-and-relax weapon in places like DE Dust II, unless you're the last man standing thanks to your noob assault team. No, you won't survive with this weapon without camping... Playing chicken, hiding in corners...

And I hate camping!!!

AWP maps are quite fun though. Hmm... Beware the many sniper professionals in Garena's CS server.

My best weapon, the MP5 Navy. Get close and personal with this gun. You will receive a lot of cb's and wtf's and wth's and whatever from your friends thanks to this murdering sub-machine gun. It sucks at long range though, and that's the main cause for my deaths.

Therefore, be a man! Get close and personal! Hit them hard from the ass up! (Use the recoil! It does wonders to your headshot rate!) Watch the blood spill! (Sadistic remark.) Have the kill! And die sooner or later! Better still, you also can perform lethal headshots with this mild weapon from long range. Muahahahaha.

I seem so passionate about this cheap weapon. Hmm.

The ultimate pistol - the Desert Eagle. It kills within two shots on the chest at short range, and a hell lot more at long range. (It's a pistol, for heaven's sake!) The dual pistols are more of my favourite, but thanks to lousy Google and the buggers whom don't upload such images of my favourite secondary weapon, I had to stick with the most damaging pistol instead.

It serves me well... But it serves no better than option number two. Cheaply priced, it's the perfect last resort weapon. So much for loving the expensive M4A1, AUG, and inadequately fooling around with the Magnum.

Now the main point of CS...

The whole idea of the game is to, well, kill. Plant bombs. Rescue hostages. Whatever. And the main rule of the game is: If you are a good player, people will start accusing you of using Aimbot hacks and such and kick you out of their server. That's the golden rule. Thus, try your best to be noob, please? xD

Rule two is, you must never camp. Campers are idiots whom just kneel and wait for the world to end. That's pretty much the case for people like you and me.

Rule three is, just shoot. It doesn't matter whether you kill your own teammates (if friendly fire is activated), as long as you win the game. That's what you call teamwork!

And above all... the golden rule: Always curse! It pays to use the bad words online! You get kicked out of the server if your host is a bitch! That rules! Well I'm not serious.

Do watch out for a guy named Plankton around though... He may be noob, but still he's a bit scary for his inadequate... size. So much for a plankton, in cladded armour and carrying a gun 10000 times his mass, I guess.

Now I feel the urge to play. *Reloads weapon.*

Regulations

2009-04-06T19:30:00.002+08:00

The school has become a prison.

Not only about tucking in shirts...

Or tucking in shirts as long as we wear our frigging uniforms...

Or tucking in, even outside of school hours, or going out of school...

Or maybe tucking in at home...

Not only about disallowing handphones...

Or not allowing any student to hand in their handphone to teachers...

And maybe soon not allowing handphones in uniform body quarters either...

There goes the purpose of the band room.

Not only about KPI (key performance indicator)...

Or forcing teachers to mark papers within three days-
Which has obviously failed, but...

Not only about whacking buggers hard in the ass in public...

Nor about the noise pollution that comes with it-
Yup, it's hard from blocks away. Poor asses...

Nor about the dictatorship haunting the school...

It just gets worse.

Now we have to stay back until 3.00 pm for extra classes.

And that's just because the school doesn't bother to fit EST and PSK inside the timetable. (Not like extra BM periods help anyway.)

And mind you, accounts are elective, so that's my fault I've got extra class on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Regardless of class ending earlier than expected or not, extra classes are still on until 3.00 pm. In other words...

We prisoners shall dwell in boredom until then, if we finish earlier than stated...

Two hours of deprived freedom.

For FOUR DAYS in a week!

Some bugger proposed to have SIX DAYS of school a week!

At the same time, lengthen school hours!

Increase school fees! Not of my concern. =P

Thus, depriving us students from social rights!

(Thank goodness it's just a proposal.)

Not only are the teachers pissed over these matters, now they are taking it out on us students too.

And the students could do no better but to rebel either.

Did I mention? EST dropouts are entering D class. Another dictated order.

Yup, we aren't too happy.

Not like I dropped EST, but I feel for them man...

Not sure whether it's still on with all the badmouthing around.

Talk about double standards, hypocrisy, tyrany... Lost liberty.

Quote: Double standard. Am I?!~

Let's see.

No more easy trips to our infamous toilet. (Enforcement of the necessity of passes to do our business. Some sort of prison ey?)

No more storage vaults for handphones among teachers.

No more lame excuses to skip extra classes.

No more coming back early for beauty sleep.

No more peaceful learning, I mean, chatting.

No more good ol' times.

No more good ol' school.

Sigh.

Bugged

2009-04-04T19:36:00.002+08:00

I really cannot tolerate poor discipline. It's a well-known fact. And yet, I'm really having trouble coping with you guys, and I'm the one in the middle having to get complaints from both sides - the teachers' and instructors' side, and my own leaders. Just having the drum majors and president (mind there is no "S" to the behind of president, thank you very much) doesn't mean we alone can control the lot of you. I wonder, why is it me that gets bugged for poor discipline, when it's not directed at those idiots instead...

And then you guys hate it if I became strict, someone with a fierce stand for once. But now you're pushing me to the limit, and I'm really going to screw you guys from now on. Sorry to say, you people are just over my limits. Yea, I'm just another smiling maniac around, but it's really a shame you don't know it feels like to be in the middle.

I was supposed to be the top, the one managing the band. And yet power is deprived from me... Thanks a lot to the others for doing so. Not like I need the power anyway. My decisions are never mine... I'm just another used brat for you guys.

You people disrespect me, then I should have been better off someone of your own rank in the first place. Maybe why don't you take over my place, and I escape band practices for you. I go to cyber cafes during practices for you, I watch movies during practices for you, I shit on your pants if I do come for practices, I raise disciplinary problems for you, I talk shit for you at the back, and maybe talk shit about you too, laugh away during briefings, shout unnecessarily, topple down chairs and tables for you, do stretching exercises like crap, play like crap, march like crap. That sounds so much better than being the one scolded for all these doings of yours.

Maybe you don't know how it's like to be directly the one under the teachers and instructors. It sucks, going for pointless meetings just to sort things that I never get a say with, doing useless notices that you never bother to read (and yes, most of the time because the secretariat never does it), do things out of my command especially when it comes to your discipline and bad behaviour. Why don't you try taking my spot for a while? It will be great to be the one doing bad things to you.

It's pointless to advise people like you. We tell you not to do things, and yet you do it. Warnings won't ever tame your stubborn minds. I guess that's what your parents taught you? No offense. We still have cases of idiots like you every single day, and I'm telling you the truth, I'm so fed up of it. The same names can just be called every practice, the same missing people in the "attendance list" (and you expect me to do an attendance list for you absentees), the same idiots running off to cyber cafes and movies. What the hell are you doing in band anyway?

If you think you're that good that you can replace my post, go ahead. Try me, try the post I have. So much for the most premier club in school. People say we suck, and that's probably because of people like you. Life's just so fair huh?

PS: I'm not referring to anyone that reads this. Hmm, maybe if they stumble upon my words, then too bad for them.

Illusions

2009-04-03T19:36:00.005+08:00

Here's a cool optical illusion that is unlike many others.

Instructions:

Relax and concentrate on the four small dots in the center of the picture for about 30 to 40 seconds.
Then, take a look at a wall anywhere around you (preferably a smooth, single-coloured surface).
You will see a circle of light developing.
Start blinking your eyes a couple of times, and you will see a figure emerging...
What do you see? Moreover, who do you see?

To think of it, this optical illusion is way less irritable than optical illusions like this one:

It's so bugging to the eyes. Well, a tip is to just stare at one black dot (at the center of the circles), and it will, hopefully, stop moving. And yes, I do not cheat with optical illusions and I have provided a stationary image.

Courtesy of my mum's forwarded email.

PS: The image of the circles is a bit too small. Click on it for an enlarged version, and a more irritating time.

The April Fool

2009-04-02T17:54:00.002+08:00

Fooled once, twice, thrice.

First time, I actually made myself believe that someone who was always fine, always cheerful, always happy, and always high-spirited would come telling me that she wants to cry, she is not okay, bla bla bla. I fell for it, and it took me twenty minutes to realise it was an early April Fool's Day joke. =.=

Second time, I actually believed someone whom said that she is allergic to chocolate. The ironic thing is, most girls are chocolate addicts, and she apparently was eating chocolate at that very same time. In the end, I was given the infamous "April Fool!". So much for being a fool.

Third was the best. Joel came back from KL for the public speaking finals, and he soon was boasting to everyone around that he won. And the really grand thing was, he was (presumably) going to London, and going to compete as the youngest finalist ever at international level. A full-expense-paid trip, we were awed. And just yesterday, someone finally came to tell me Joel didn't win, and someone from Miri did. It was in the newspapers. He got almost the whole school to believe. xD

And someone came telling me some Roland Teo passed away. It was in the newspapers today. Uh oh...

Disappointment

2009-04-01T15:31:00.002+08:00

Some people have been rumouring that to keep up with their KPI (key performance indicator, or Kanasai Professionalism Index), the principal has asked all teachers to mark their papers within three days. This is good news for us whom have to wait weeks just to get the marking done. Some teachers do give lame excuses like having five classes to mark, and having an (inactive) swimming club to take care of... But oh well, let's just hope the new kanasai system can work things out.

These are my marks so far... Some are a bit of a disappointment.

First of the day was Biology. The highest was meerly 80. Everyone was pretty much shocked at the drop in standard. Bleh, I got 79. Just one more mark to A1. And the teacher actually photostated my essay section of the paper. Not again, please... T.T I hate it.

Maths was 95 yesterday, 96 today due to to some changes. And surprisingly, Amir got the same marks as me - 94 for Paper Two, and we had the same one mistake in our Paper One, question 36. And we were sitting at opposite ends of the class. Swt. We both got that one mark for that not-so-mistake already. So yea, we're still equal. =D

BM was a surprise, considering I suck at it. Well, everyone does. Maybe no, just me. I got a 78. So much for clowning in class. Sejarah got a 92, out of sheer luck. Amir got a 95! How he memorises all that historical s*** really awes me. xD

Add Maths... Only the second paper has been out so far, and I got a 92 for that. Physics was a disappointment... 77. But soon I spotted many, many, many mistakes in his marking. And now, I'm aiming to claim until I get at least an 82. I guess April Fool's Day takes its toll on his eyesight and literacy.

So far quite bad. Accounts is going to kill me. =(

Happy April Fool's Day! And yes, don't be a fool, like me. Story some other day!

Not-so-liberty

2009-03-30T15:25:00.004+08:00

Examinations are over now, so here's a quick preview on an examination that was pretty much bull.

Biology - If destiny may, I will get an A. A2 or A1 wouldn't matter. For they provided me with three lines, and I wrote nine. And that was just for two marks. This is what you call desperation. Targeted mark: 90, bull!

English - Needless to say, I wrote another emo story. Bleh. It's not really my specialty, but oh wells. Targeted mark: 85, minus five for the emo story.

Add Maths - Two papers, and both were equally okay. Paper One was a bit lengthy, and Paper Two just killed my patience. I'm so lucky I get to choose in Paper Two because I could hardly do some of the questions. Oops. Teacher claims I got 90+ for Paper Two, but we'll see sooner or later. Targeted mark: 93? Nah, let's round it up. 90. =P

Moral - Six structures and two crappy essays. Once again, three lines provided, nine lines written. What a policy I have. I guess, Malaysian education is all about the lines and wasted ink. I'm so gonna fail this one. Targeted mark: 80.

Physics - The last question was terrible. 10 marks on a faulty electrical wiring system and you have to correct it in a lengthy essay. I spent most of the time writing bull in paragraphs without hopes of scoring anything. And I thought Physics was all calculations and theories, not home science. Screw the syllabus! Targeted mark: 90. Nah, in my dreams.

Bahasa Melayu - Targeted mark. 0. Not many people really care if it exists anyway. xD But it still is an easier paper than others. Thanks to tuition! =D (It's a place of slumber, but all the same.)

Maths - Two papers, and one I've already scored a 94 (Paper Two). I'm planning to get 96, that is if I can manage to get full marks for my objective paper. Targeted mark: 95, well, if I'm that unlucky then 90.

Sejarah - Targeted mark: 30. Maybe because I just hate Sejarah and I find it useless studying dead people and learn their imperialistic values? Nah... Let's just give it a 70 and assume I never did an essay. (It was two and a half pages long. I think it'll still score a zero though.)

Chemistry - I spent the night rushing for this one, as the night before I had to follow my mum and brother to Sushi King. Bleh. All the same, I got 28 out of 30 for my objective, mainly because I can't do a single salts question at all! (I skipped that structure in the next section, but all the same, it's a choice.) My essay was as crappy as ever, but still... Targeted mark: 90

EST - It's a pretty unstable subject. Our principal announced that EST dropouts would be placed in D class. Pretty much an uproar from the students. (This principal is getting a bit out of hand, don't you think.) I don't mind the shirt-tucking and attendance thingy, but this thing is a bit too much. Targeted mark: 85, thanks to the crappy essay once again.

My targets are just gonna disappoint me this term. Thanks to all the incidents over the holidays. And all the beauty sleep too. And yes, it's not white, it's colourless! *Knocks head.*

Earth Hour

2009-03-29T19:15:00.003+08:00

Earth Hour was an disappointment.

I feel very glad for those whom switched off their lights. But, Kuching was still the same bright city, a city of switched- on lights, despite Malaysia claiming to be "involved" in Earth Hour. So much for showing that Malaysia is united.

Sigh, some people just don't get it. This is environmental awareness... It doesn't save a lot of energy, but it does bring a meaning. A meaning to Mother Nature, a meaning to our awareness of the need to save Earth!

Earth Hour was great too, considering I celebrated my dad's and my bro's birthday in darkness. It's rather cool, especially when we were eating at Bla Bla Bla, an once-in-a-year treat by my mum to the family.

We had a candlelight dinner. Much of the Western tourists around were complaining, but all the same, celebrated Earth Hour. The waiters and waitresses gave more attention lighting candles for them, and also for the floors since there are two ponds in Bla Bla Bla. And I think one person had a very nice immersion once in the darkness. Kesian.

Hopefully I can get more pictures from my dad, with his proper and decent Powershot camera. My SE phone fails me all the time.

We had great food - chicken in cream of asparagus, midin salad, crispy soft shell crab were all great to me. Roasted lamb and grilled salmon not too bad, but the most irritating part was the super sweet mashed potato that came with just about every dish. In all, we had seven dishes, all large serve. Me and my family had a bit of a hard time filling up.

I guess, we never learn that Bla Bla Bla serves food in large portions too, just like The Junk. But it was definitely worth the bloated stomach.

Back home, we sang a miserable Happy Birthday song, and my bro and dad cut yet another chocolate cake. Nothing beats a great chocolate cake. =D

And that's how my family spent a birthday. In darkness, for a sole purpose. Next year, I might resort to one hour of haunting. Hmm...

Birthday Kids

2009-03-28T18:21:00.003+08:00

Today at 8.30 pm, please switch off your lights for one hour. This is to save the world! It's Earth Hour 2009!

And another reason is, so that we all celebrate my dad's and my brother's birthday. Yes, they both have the same birth date, the same kiddiness, the same everything... Even the same underwear! Right~

Well, let's say everyone blows out their lights in honour of my father, 44 and my bro, 14. Yer, like as if they were that royal!

The thing is, I'm sure most people won't want them to blow their candles. Non-electrical source of light for one hour. Hmm...

Have a great birthday dad! And bro!

Hiatus

2009-03-25T00:00:00.002+08:00

This is a scheduled post. Bleh.

Guys, and girls,

I'll be on hiatus from now on until the 31st of March 2009. Well, it's a Monday, and it also marks the day I finish all my examinations. And the days after, living hell. Well, depends whether my marks are good or not.

So while you're at it, do look at my former posts, especially those with the tag "Western Australia" on it. Those are probably the only posts with adequate pictures, as compared to the others with my cheap Cybershot phone.

And I know I'll screw up during my exams, so yea, let's see where we get to.

Good luck to all Josephians! =) (And those sitting for late examinations like us too.)

Extra Class

2009-03-20T20:54:00.008+08:00

In the Chemistry lab:

Su: Next time, when you open up Teo Tuition Center, make sure you charge me only RM30 a month. RM30 to cover breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, drinks, air-conditioning, and everything.

Roland: So it includes one night's fee lah? (You know what I mean.)

Su: Really? I never thought it would cover up to there! *Eager face. =.=*

Roland: No, I'm not saying you can have me, that is an extra charge. And it's not for guys. (And I'm no gigolo.)

Su: Aww... Then how about your brother?

Roland: Owh, my brother ah... You can have him for free, it's included in the RM30 charge.

Su: Wah seh, so he's some sort of a promotion lah?

Roland: No, he's a free gift!!!

xD!!!

(The Teo Tuition Center thing was just a mocking way of calling me 'top student'. Nah, guys, I don't think I'll maintain my position this year...)

***

Soon enough, we were sending fathers' names through SMS all around the class, and much later to prank others with more sinister intentions. "L****** skodeng ompuan." (L****** likes to look at girls.) He never found the culprit until the end of the day. xD

We were busy playing around with muscle strengtheners - the one where you squeeze two 'rods' together with a spring leverage system. Well, it's just a stupid grab-and-press item, so you don't have to wonder how it really looks like.

It makes that stupid squeaky sound that irritates just about anyone in my area. Well, some go obscene with it by making additional and unnecessary sounds, and some going for the quickie, but oh well, the teacher never really noticed.

...

Our teacher went through much of Form 4's later syllabus. Everytime she makes a mistake we are like, "OMG!". Oh M******* Goh! xD (That's her name.) Another acronym invented by me.

We all had a good laugh (and a good bore) today. It feels great to get out of my imprisonment here at home.

PS: Some people have started calling me Teo-phillus, after Theophillus, the addressee in the Gospel of Luke. =.=

Calligraphy

2009-03-20T19:17:00.004+08:00

This is Lukhman's masterpiece, my name written in Jawi, a 'karya khat' that most others don't know how to do. Apparently, my name is a bit too easy for him, so maybe I should get him to do "superfragilisticexpialidocious" for me next time. =P

Thank you, Lukhman.

Doulos (An Old Tale)

2009-03-19T18:07:00.004+08:00

Doulos left three months ago, and it took me that long just to get this post done. Sigh, sometimes I wonder what's wrong with me.

How I got to Doulos was pretty much very random. I knew I had missed all the nice events on Doulos, because I was still in Western Australia, suffering from my dry skin back then. And even so, I didn't think my mum was that keen (due to her piles of office work) about bringing me there, so yea.

But then, it was on registration day for Form 5's when I talked to Kel, and he asked whether I've been to Doulos. You know my answer. But his reaction was pretty much unexpected.

Next thing I knew, I was in his car with his mum and lil sis. Hi there lil one! Didn't your mum teach you not to ride a car with strangers?

It was a pleasant trip, bringing me to Satok just to get some snacks and packs and packs of kolo mee just for a friend of their onboard Doulos. Well, they say they are going to miss kolo mee so much, and since they're leaving soon... Kel's family was pretty much keen on letting them have their last experience with our culture. I wonder if they like kampua mee as well? Hmm...

I spent some time at Kel's house, and was soon introduced to their family's self-fermented ginger beer. Looks like someone just got another opportunity to get drunk again. =D

They even make me take a second serve with ice-cream. It's too nice of you guys! (My mum never killed me for drinking that much alcohol, fortunately.)

After a bit of settling down, we went off to Doulos.

I never had a first impression that this was actually a Nintendo game-ship. I know Doulos by reputation, not by their Game Boy Advance chute.

Kelvin's mum brought me to see Ginny, a British that works for Doulos voluntarily. Well, all Doulos crew members are volunteers, that actually pay to work onboard the ship. Now this is what you call devotion.

I was brought on a tour around the ship - the cabins, the dining room, everywhere. Soon, we went to get some ice cream... pure ice cream that we can't get back here. Well, it's like Sugar Bun's ice cream, but just, much much better. (I guess? I'm not so good with my taste buds nowadays.)

We had a stroll around to see the books and CD's and great offers. Things are sold in units, so as they do not have to change their price tags everytime they settle in at a new country. I'm not very sure what the exchange rate was already for Malaysia, since it's been a while. All I remember is I bought an extremist Sudoku book, and a key chain for memories.

Sadly, the ship will soon be retiring, after many years of service, and so is Ginny, whom says she wants to spend her time in Cape Town. Well, all the best to her! =)

Their next stop after Kuching was going to be Cebu, Phillipines. And from there, the journey continues. I wonder how they are doing.

I know this is a late post, but I hope it brings up memories to all. =)

Only One

2009-03-18T16:36:00.002+08:00

Broken this fragile thing now
And I can't, I can't pick up the pieces
And I've thrown my words all around
But I can't, I can't give you a reason

I feel so broken up (so broken up)
And I give up (I give up)
I just want to tell you so you know

Here I go, scream my lungs out and try to get to you
You are my only one
I let go, but there's just no one that gets me like you
You are my only, my only one

Made my mistakes, let you down
And I can't, I can't hold on for too long
Ran my whole life in the ground
And I can't, I can't get up when you're gone

And something's breaking up (breaking up)
I feel like giving up (like giving up)
I won't walk out until you know

Here I go, scream my lungs out and try to get to you
You are my only one
I let go, but there's just no one that gets me like you
You are my only my only one

Here I go so dishonestly
Leave a note for you my only one
And I know you can see right through me
So let me go and you will find someone

Here I go, scream my lungs out and try to get to you
You are my only one
I let go, but there's just no one, no one like you
You are my only, my only one
My only one
My only one
My only one
You are my only, my only one

...

F1

2009-03-17T00:00:00.000+08:00

I'm taking F1 this year. The only position which permits you to use a shorter stick (toothpick) whereas the others from F2-F8 train their flabby arms with flutes. I kinda pity them, and myself, since it's pretty obvious a piccolo is way harder to play than a flute. Yea yea yea, self praise. *Throws piccolo away.*

F1 - Roland T** Y** L**
Nickname: Plankton, Teh O, TEO!

He doesn't resemble a plankton, and yet he is one. He's not a weakling, but he is called one. Maybe because of my instrument. Hmm... I refuse to comment about myself.

F2 - Mohd. Danial bin Mohd. Reza
Nickname: Err, squirrel?

His nickname is undecided, he's still new anyway. He's the smallest junior around, so yea... Don't mess around with my junior. I still have no comment about him.

F3 - Voon Soon Loon (Moon Boon Goon Noon Toon?)
Nickname: Chipmunk

Chemical composition: VSLO6N3
I'm not sure what that is, but his name is pretty irritating. Woodwind leader and section leader of the year, so give him the nuts! Vooonnn~

F4 - Daryll Ambang ak. (Michael) Tanjung
Nickname: Bagat?

I don't know. He's probably a replacement of previous year's Daryl, but just the younger and shorter version. And I seem to be pretty good at their father's names... Hmm...

F5 - Sebastian Tan Hua Ying
Nickname: Cicak

He climbs walls, he sticks his tongue out at insects, and he loses his tail. So much for an assistant section leader.

F6 - Nicholas Ngu Kek Hong
Nickname: TBC (to be confirmed)

Another junior (grr, we have too many). I still have no comment for my juniors. You can always ask the other seniors, but not me.

F7 - Jordan Wee Yang Yaw
Nickname: Rabbit

Quartermaster of the year, who probably screams more unreasonably than I do. Yea, there goes my belt, thank you so much! Nah, he's probably the best towards his juniors (compared to me, heh heh) and so, no comment. Full stop. (Weee~)

F8 - Muhd. Azraai bin Norman
Nickname: TBC (to be conned)

I'm not too sure whether it's Mohammad or Muhammad in the name list, but it's okay, everyone makes mistakes. Another new face. We stole him from R2's position, and they still are screaming about it. Heh heh. He's happy with where he is now, so don't think of getting him back!

Aaargh, thinking about my juniors makes me so sick.

Possibly Another Curfew

2009-03-16T20:50:00.004+08:00

Parents barring me from going online, again. Just because my examination is around the corner.

16 years 3 months and 16 days and they still do not know how I function. People still criticise my ways (of being so addicted to the computer, my phone and such) as a recipe for failure, although most of the time my results have never been classified that way. In their faces? Nah, they never learn.

People probably don't know that I'm a person who needs human company, a person who needs something concrete (rather than abstract) to entertain me through a boring phase called revision, or rather studying just to make up for all the sleepy and chatty moments in class. And as a PS, I'm someone who wouldn't even bother to study if it weren't for my own interest.

So yea, please. Don't force me to do things your way.

I wasn't born to be planned by you guys.

And I wasn't born to be made a lonesome who is in dire need of a close friend, either.

Even so, even if I did debate the fact that I won't be in my best shape without my daily routine, I bet I'd still be barred anyway. So guys, I think this could (and if fortunately, will not) be an early hiatus notice. I'm deeply sorry. I haven't been updating much anyway.

(And I wouldn't want to be emo with my words if I did, so yea.)

All the best to my fellow classmates, and fellow Josephians, and just about anyone else having a late examination with us. Study smart! And live your life!

PS: Plus, I still owe quite a lot of paperwork to the dictator. Won't some people just ever understand?

M4A1 "Trumpeter" Carbine

2009-03-15T20:20:00.006+08:00

Behold, scrap trumpet parts made useful; I proudly present to you:

The M4A1 "Trumpeter" Carbine. Lame, yea I know.

I was searching through the piles of rubbish in the band room, and I came across this box full of scrap brass instrument parts. Mostly scraps of trumpets, a bit of trombone slides, and euphoniums too.

Somewhat practicing the 3R's (add one more R for ridicule), I joined together scraps, part by part, to produce a brassy version of the M4A1 carbine.

It's fully functional, just for your info. It actually scares some band members when I suddenly point this monster at them. There's always a risk of the front 'ammo shaft' to fall off though...

Hey, don't rifles work the same way too?

Some call this creative. And some call this a unpredecented president's work. So much for being a board member, huh?

PS: I was about to fix a scope onto the scrap gun to make it into a Bullpup, but oh wells, I ran out of parts. Anyone willing to sponsor their crappy trumpets into this project?

...

2009-03-14T22:22:00.001+08:00

So much for all the promises...

Lethargy II

2009-03-11T23:24:00.002+08:00

I'm still exhausted. I apologise for the delay.

In fact, I've rather been a lazy ass in class - feeling ever so keen to have some precious moments of sleep in boring classes, staggering to stay awake during prefect duty, opening my eyes wide just to avoid them from failing me, and pigging on bed whenever necessary.

Teachers have been complaining about my exhausted looks in class, my new skin colour (why don't you go tell Azri he's an official Indian), my droopy eyes, everything... They say I look sleepy in class, my skin is sun-scorched, I'm too busy, et cetera. And yet, some people still continue to bug me with homework, band notices, administrative work, bla bla bla.

And I asked all the board members about this coming Saturday. Nobody will make it for practice. Some useless ones will make up their own excuses, others on vacation, some half-dead (like me), some on strike, and most of them are just gonna go "Huh?!" when I tell them there is band practice this week. No, I did not plan the practice. I'd feel dreaded to.

Whatever it is, do give me time to recover. My sunburn's killing me, and so is all the overheating, flu, lethargy, whatever... I really should consider not going to school to rest. Slim chance.

Band Camp

2009-03-10T16:52:00.003+08:00

Day, I mean, Evening One (05/03/2009)

Thursday evening marks our first session with Jon Fox, Tony Makarome (sounds like Macaroni, but hey, it's a great name), Hassan, Jumardin and others. We had a really putrid-smelling ice-breaking game, where everyone had to throw in a shoe and randomly pick another one to find its owner.

Regrettably, most of the members had the same shoes, and so, much confusion among the pitiful souls. And worse still, the audi soon stunk of the... Let's not make this too disgusting for others to read.

It was poorly planned, a last-minute measure. Oh well, sectionals for Part One after the smelly game. Dr. Tony emphasised a lot on tonguing styles (articulation, kinda), playing styles, most of the things you won't hear other instructors say. He is more of an artistic guy than the technical kind, something you can hardly find among Asian or Western instructors.

Finished at 9.30 pm. I was off home to pack. From then on, I was pretty sure I'm really gonna suffer from this band camp.

Day Two (06/03/09)

Fitness started at seven. And as usual, I had to deal with buggers at the back talking away. We ran a magnificent five rounds, enough to make the band members suffer. Well, we are good marchers but not good runners. x) (Except a few of us, of course. And it would be a shame if the board members didn't make it through the run.)

From the very first breakfast, we all already knew. Is this all we are going to get for paying RM60 for food for the band camp? I need not mention how packed food tastes like, but oh well, for the sake of filling my tummy.

We started off with Part One soon after. It was a great runthrough, managing to finish at least three quarters of the drill score. (That is attributed to our previous runthroughs for the past two Saturday practices, and of course, we didn't tell anyone that. Hehe.)

That was the very first time I knew my section would be in deep s***. F1, F3, F5, F7 were all taken by seniors, and F1 is obviously me. =P F2, F4, F6, F8... I need not mention. We have a 1:1 senior to junior ratio this year, a record-breaking ratio, as last year, we had 7:1. Things just couldn't get any worse. Crooked lines, wrong positions, bad marching, wrong facing, and just about anything else. S*** happens.

The Indon instructors were pretty funny. I just fell in love with their language... The melodious pronunciations that totally wipe out Bahasa Malaysia's arse. Oops. Their spelling is definitely awkward, but other than that, their BM is almost flawless... (Currency is a different story.)

Mr. Fox in front, however, had that usual American accent which I find rather boring now.

They said we would have a 'buffet' for lunch. A 'buffet' it was. Just like any other boot camp. Scoop, smash into plate, walk over and leave. Malay-catered food. So much for the money. But hunger does its miracles on my consumption.

The afternoon was for sectionals of Part Two, once again by the Macaroni guy. And soon after, Part 1 once more with music on the field. That was when things started to get heated up, thanks to the sun.

Dinner was a pot bless by the parents. All sorts of food await us members as we wait for the finishing ones to check in. It wasn't much of an enjoyable pot bless though.

One of the screwed-up things of the day was the fact that most members did not fall in at the auditorium by 8.25. It was a strict order, and some even came in thirty minutes later. It was a huge delay that really made me pissed, but all the same, we had a chance to watch our drill show for the year 2009 in 3D Java format, thanks to Mr. Ben and his formation-designing software.

I slept on the stage, together with other band members. It was a maddening hot night. I couldn't really sleep, thanks a lot. And worse still, some bugger was doing his belly-drumming while lying down on my left. =.= Things just can't get any more uncomfortable.

Day 3 (07/03/09)

Today's supposedly a replacement day for our classes, but thanks to the dictator, it was just another day of torture on the school field.

We started with fitness as early as seven (with me waking up at 5.20, as usual). A poor breakfast, and off to the field to touch up and finish Part One. Mr. Chong's voice blaring from the Physics lab, Madam Clown from 5B, some disturbance from the students here and then, and a bit of a crowd during recess break.

Usual Indonesian charm, American accents, and a bit of screw-up with my juniors.

My legs were starting to fail me after lunch. While running through Part Three, I was very much in desperate need to rest my legs. Music is now done with mark time, instead of sitting down. Dinner was much needed after another tiring day.

We watched Kung Fu Panda for the night, something brought about by Puan June. And she even sang a song to us, something that somewhat 'relates' to us band members. =.= We all had a good laugh, lying down and watching Po do his business.

Supposedly a night of reflection, things were a bit too late to do such things anyway. I stayed up quite late listening to the board members strut their stuff.

Most were complaining about their members, their section, the band, the administration. Most people agreed I'm not strict enough, despite pissing some of them off for quite a while thanks to my scolding. Many talked about particular members being very rude and hopeless, and some also talked about how terrible this camp was.

Indeed, it was meant to be fun yet serious as the same time, but now it's more like a torture boot camp for all of us. My sunburn, my lethargy explains it all. We had a mini-feast at the back of the auditorium too. So much for not eating in the auditorium.

I slept at 2.30 am. I know, stupid of an exhausted person to do.

Day Four (08/03/09)

The day is dedicated to one hour of prayer service for Catholics at the cathedral, other Christians with Mr. Rechard at the AVA, and Muslims at the surau. We started at 7.30 am due to the prayers, and we were taught a few basics by the Indonesians. Some things that are slightly different than those taught by the Thais.

Part Two, a slow-paced practice. Lunch, fortunately with the facility of the canteen operating since Friday. Part Four's music score was done in the afternoon, with much attention paid to the feet. Left right left right. This basic is something our band lacks now. Sigh.

Part Two was successfully finished in the afternoon, without much music of course. Dinner was a pizza party, again a pot bless by parents. Also a night to return smelly clothes home for the parents. Me, Wariq and other board members salvaged whatever we could for the night's supper feast. Some parents were so supportive they provided plates and more drinks for us. xD This is what you call corruption.

Before that, we had a small treasure hunt, thrashing tables and chairs and such. My group was last, but oh well. I was only the facilitator. The four groups from treasure hunt are then sorted to do a Band Idol show for the last day.

The usual feasting happened behind the auditorium. And this time, I slept earlier. Despite the snoring. =.=

Day Five (09/03/09)

The day is dedicated to polishing Parts One and Two, for the afternoon show for parents and friends. It's a miracle that we managed to finish two parts, although initial plans were to finish the whole formation. Sometimes, such dreams are only drawn in clouds... And master plans.

The performance was a great one, though with crooked lines and such. We noticed some Greenians tagging along to watch us too, apart from the usual parents and the little ones. Makes me proud for being piccoloist. Heh.

Soon enough was Band Idol, with four groups (A, B, C, D), a colourguard feature by the name "Sarong", and the previous Suthi Downgraded. I forgot their new name. Hehe.

Groups A to D were hilarious. Dramatised versions of things happening in band. Impressionists of Jon Fox and the Indon instructors won the crowd, and my group did it all, including Mr. Ben, much to my parents' delight. We seem to have a thing for the Indon language now...

Jeffrey was playing Jon Fox, walking like him, talking like him, and whatever-ing like him. Camillus (Cheng) did his part as Hassan, with perfect Indonesian intonation. Mr. Ben was played by Ian, whom only carried a schoolbag and a set of drumsticks. xD And the rest were divided into the good, and the cool.

Sarong was a pretty funny performance, featuring Azfar in a sarong, whom is still capable of doing an underpass of his instrument despite wearing that stupid long version of an underwear. The percussions did great too.

And it was a perfect ending to the band camp. Well, maybe the sunburn, lethargy and aches weren't too much a perfect ending.

Secretariat, you owe me a band camp report.

Lethargy

2009-03-10T15:27:00.002+08:00

Guess what guys. I'm back from band camp. It's back to the civilised world, a world of liberty and peace, and rest. I was pretty much a half-dead zombie in class, taking every chance to nap, regretting the fact that I should have asked my parents to let me have the day off so that I could just zzz...

It has been a so-so camp, managing to finish Parts 1 and 2 of our formation, and as well as having some sweet memories, but lots of bad experiences as well. Lots of sweat and energy have been put into this camp, and I thank all the band members for working so hard for the past five days. (I sound so like the principal. Grr.)

I'll put all these into detail much later. I need time to recuperate and peel off all the sunburn. And of course, to get rid of my horrendous shoulder cramps. (It's a pity I can't keep my tan. Lizard skin issues.)

Complaints

2009-03-05T15:07:00.003+08:00

I've been regarded as a 'colleague' of my teachers' in the staff room. Yesterday, I spent record-breaking time, missing classes just to deal with the financials of a zero-fund school. I know, I sound like some buggering finance minister whom talks money all day, but yea, that's almost a truth.

I had to circle around the school just to collect money owed by the band members which are seriously overdue. (Irresponsible brats, but what can I do if last minute procedures are made?) And so, forgive me if I have PMS-ed, the guy's way, over this matter, as nobody is able to stand running rounds around the school for the sake of your food and well-being. Sounds so like I'm your slave.

And so, I had to pass the Chemistry and Physics lab quite a few times, despite 5A having classes there for the last four periods. I was as subtle as a plankton... I was never noticed. If not, I'd still be able to run away anyway. =P

Soon enough, I found another reason to be stuck in the staff room as I had to edit my teacher's work programme for the band camp, as she went to seek refuge. =.= And at the very same time, I was asked by the disciplinary teacher to fetch a guy from 4H to send to her office. And I went to three different blocks just to search for their nomad class. Sheesh.

I'd been through the rain, under the hot sun, inside the freezing staff room, out into the windy open, and scorching heat, and that's the perfect reason why I'm not feeling too well now. =.= So much for a band camp happening this evening. But no worries, I'll live through the camp, sucky or not.

My money collections ain't complete though. And I'm no longer intending to do any more rounds around the school...

Plus, the teachers are getting really fed up of seeing their new 'colleague'. Complaints (regarded as compliments) here and there. Some of the teachers just know me too well now.

Sigh...

2009-03-03T22:38:00.002+08:00

I am sorry I haven't been updating much recently. My head's rather blank now, and I've been a bit too busy for my fingers to add on to the burden. Sometimes it's just so hard to find something to blog here, and worse still I have been behind schedule.

I still have a trip to Doulos that I haven't mentioned in my blog. And for Band Idol preliminary and final nights, I still have not gained the pictures (which I'm supposed to get for someone else... grr...) required as it seems as though no one actually took pictures for the night. This is the very first time.

And too, as any year would have it, I think I'll have to post up the line-up of my flute section for the year 2009. I mean, flute and piccolo section. =P

All this is going to come soon, so please be patient. I will be away for quite a while from now until this coming Monday, as... Well, you will know. Just keep in touch yea?

Shrugs

2009-03-01T19:51:00.002+08:00

I really wonder whether I've been turning into a monster lately - classified under the same species of a particular 'monster' which I need not disclose here. The monster from the rainforest adventure. x)

I don't mean to be a brat during band - shouting whenever necessary, picking on a few sections, punishing at times, giving long 'lectures' (which never seem to work), making last-minute datelines, and whatever.

Okay, shouting first. I wouldn't have to shout if there weren't other brats in the band anyway, chattering away not only when I'm talking, but when instructors are talking too. People always complain of my strict ways when I handle my briefings to the band, but hey. If you people would at least cooperate with me, I can be just as playful as I am outside of band. And maybe cut down on the bad words too?

Then picking on a few sections. Yea, they say I'm very bias towards my flute section. But to think of it. How many times do you ever see them talking, coming late for band practice and falling in without permission, being caught to skip band practice at cyber cafes, playing with handphones during practices, not bring scores or stands, and most of all, not following the datelines? How many of you sections have actually passed me the full amount of money required to be passed to the teachers? Only my section has.

As to those I always pick, look at your members. Sleeping, skipping band practices (DotA-ing, as always), not following dress code, not respecting seniors... And worse still, you guys have more potential than just that. What's the point of picking on you when you have absolutely no use at all? Don't you ever remember Mr. Benedict telling you that he doesn't pick on hopeless ones, but on those he believe can improve?

I can still remember those days I was picked by him, just so I can improve. I can see where I stand now, and it's all thanks to him.

And the punishing bit. Just consider yourself lucky for your attitude. You haven't remembered the 2007 tyrany regime? And to the Form 5's, the hard times we had back in 2005? This has become a band of much consideration, and that's probably the reason why we're dropping discipline, dropping in standard. Can't you feel it? Why don't you do something about it? Why must it be only be some of us that cares?

We shitted during assembly... And you still don't want to do something about it?

Giving long 'lectures', and you rush me. Don't you ever think where you stand? Yes, we may go late, but how much later do I go home? How much later does my quartermaster go home? And has he ever complaint? Have I ever complaint? Haven't you forgotten the previous years, those practices that never end on time?

Maybe it's not working, since I'm boring you to death. Yea, you're better off dead if you go on that way. I may not have the voice of power like Joo Lung has, but hey, what is the golden rule when it refers to us seniors? Respect.

And you say my words are useless, bullshit, whatever. Haven't you considered your own bullshit, talking away during practices, and worse still gossiping about me at the back? (You know who you are. Sigh, you guys love to check your looks so much, and yet you never look at yourself, deep inside, properly at your own mirror.) Ironic isn't it?

Last minute datelines. It's not me who sets them. It's the teachers. You were born into a band of bad administration, due to our hectic schedules, for the numbers of years, and don't tell me you're not used to all this shit?

I'm the one they come to most of the time, next is the instructors. So if I don't get you to collect the money and stuff on time, who gets screwed? The person who has to pay, or the person that handles your late payments, information, and such?

I work last minute just to make things work, and you only complain to pass the time. No wonder some members just had to quit because they "cannot cope". Look at your instructors whom are still studying for once, whom come back to you for free without salaries, always on time, always ready to serve their part for the band.

I'm trying to do your name list now, and I can't do it, and it's due tomorrow. And I'm asking you guys to pass your members' details by tomorrow. Is this possible? No? I'm not even complaining. It was actually due on Friday. The payments? Supposedly by Saturday, and now? Sometimes I wonder how I am ever going to do things on time.

Please guys, I depend on you so that I can do my job. What on earth are we called one band, one sound, when we don't even practice it anyway? Go ahead and complain all you want. If we're all in this, complaining all the way, at least we're one sound, but we're not. Some still care. You are killing the band. Live a life!

PS: This is not complaining. This is just another seemingly useless 'lecture'.

Conflict & Consideration

2009-02-27T18:34:00.003+08:00

Last Tuesday, was our last day of band camp with Mr. Mitsuo Nonami, a famous Japanese band instructor that specialises in the brass band field, whom has been teaching in the South East Asia region for quite a number of years. I'm not doing a CV on him here, so if you need more details, ask him personally. =P

My favourite phrase: Shit happens. And it really happened on the very day; as fate would have it, my Moral answering technique workshop happened to be on the very same afternoon, and clashing with my band camp.

The story of how a resolution was made for which activity to be present at starts here, from the last period of school.

***

Last Period (12.10 pm)

Just coming back from my PNB investment quiz, I entered the staff room to see one of the teachers in charge of the band, and requested a letter to leave early for band camp from the workshop.

I went to my Moral teacher to hand in the letter. I went with the usual polite approach with the "excuse me teacher" and the usual stuff, explaining to her that me and the band members from Form 5A to C would have to leave from the workshop early (1.50 pm) due to the crap activities we have starting at two.

Now, she's one teacher you wouldn't want to reason with. She's probably one of the most queer teachers you will ever have - lenient yet strict, kind yet "cruel", if you can get the picture. And for the very first time in history, she totally objected.

The workshop will only happen once, and the teacher will never conduct another one ever again, even if we requested for it. The worst part is that this matters a lot for SPM, and there's no way a sensible student would sacrifice his academics for something as 'small' and 'unimportant' as a meer band practice.

Soon enough, the other teachers joined in the 'fun'. My Chemistry teacher-th started-th lecturing me about-th the importance-th of this workshop-th, es-th-pecially since it's-th my SPM year. (All the ths are on purpose-th.) And looking back at my Moral teacher, you could just see the pissed-off-look in her eyes. And my Chemistry teacher's eyes all the same... blur. xD

All the same, I was chased to the Chemistry lab to find the dictator and ask for her consent over this matter. (Well, everyone knows the outcome, but oh well.)

Chemistry Lab

"The school has spent a lot of money for Mr. Nonami to come you know!"

"No, you cannot miss the band camp because he only comes once a year! Do you understand?!"

"Make sure you tell the other band members who are in this workshop that they must go for the band camp too!"

"Why wasn't I informed about this workshop thing? It's so last minute, and I wasn't even informed."

I did tell the dictator that the workshop is only 'once a year', and it's for SPM and it concerns my academics, but all the same, you see how bad this school is at priortising? (At heart, I would have to go for band anyway, thanks to some dictator in our regiment. What happened to the republican administration; ie: ruled by the president, not some bugger called captain at the top. Blame our education for putting such a post for such terrible buggers.)

And so, I returned...

Staff Room (Once More)

I came to the Moral teacher, I tried to explain everything, but I was cut short. "I need not here your excuses." That's rather mean, don't you think? But all the same...

This time, more teachers came in to join in the 'fun'. One talks about the importance of academics over band activities, another says I should know what to put first, the other adds on I should have my own choice instead of following others' orders. Another starts interrogating me about when this band camp was announced, when the notice for the band camp was put up, when I was informed about both activities, and such...

Well, the matter dragged on and on until I had to be brought to the principal's office, at last. "Why don't you go ask Mr. Lau's consent over this matter?" Darn that teacher whom brought up such nonsense, worse still, made me involved.

General Office

And there me and my Moral teacher waited for our turn to meet Mr. Lau. Soon comes a few teachers, one by one, to ask regarding our matters with the principal. Some tried to ask me, "If you had a choice, which one would you go to. Band or the Moral workshop?" I couldn't answer. I just said I couldn't choose.

I have responsibilities for both you see. One for myself, and one for the band (and that frigging dictator whom doesn't give a damn about my own studies).

Few minutes later, we were with Mr. Lau to discuss the matter. Like a philosopher, Mr. Lau starts bragging about how busy the school is, and how big the possibility would be for some events to clash, just like what I was facing then. (Just get to the real deal, dude! =.=)

And next... he told us he can't decide. =.= He said both had its equal importances, for the band has spent quite a sum for Mr. Nonami to come, and I had my studies to take care about. Either ways, I was soon shooed out of the office so that the teacher and principal could be alone. (No coughing please.) And there I sat on the sofa outside the principal's office for minutes to come.

Some more teachers came in and out, asking the same question. Most knew about my poor attendance records, although I have never been absent from school. But absent from class, yes. As my PSK teacher puts it: You're just lucky I haven't sent in a letter to the school. If not, you'd be dead already. =.=

I skipped on whole Sejarah people just dealing with this crap, and I sat there for minutes just for the two of them to get settled. (No coughing again, please.)

Soon the door was opened, and again the same stupid answer I got from ages ago: It's up to him and the band members to decide. What a waste of time and saliva.

My Moral teacher didn't look too pleased. Who would be pleased anyway?! Not even me.

Freedom (Not)

And so I was brought back to the staff room, and I aroused even more questions from the teachers nosing around. Everyone just started asking what was my decision, even though I wasn't too sure then either. Oh wells, at least I have the freedom to choose now... not. I still have to abide by the dictator's rules. What the heck.

And so, I went from 1.15 pm to 1.50 pm to please the Moral teacher, and headed back to the auditorium for band. That is, after apologising to the Sejarah teacher for skipping his period, again. Sometimes I wonder whether I'm doing all this skipping voluntarily, or out of force.

Morale of the story: Never mess with strict teachers. They are just too stubborn (for your own good) to be true. The reverse is only true for the dictator.

Wordle

2009-02-26T16:00:00.006+08:00

Raphael featured this in his blog, so I thought maybe I could do one for mine. =D

Wordle is just a site which generates random words from your website to create images just like above. I have tried mine, and now you have a clear map of what are my most frequent words in this blog. I wonder whether there are any foul words in those pictures too...

PS: Click on the pictures to obtain an upsize! You ought to know!

Random

2009-02-26T15:04:00.003+08:00

1. I can never play tennis. The tennis ball flew over to the basketball court twice, and once more onto the main road. All in the name of my back hand stroke. I had to 'chiong' towards the road despite heavy traffic to get it back. I guess, band members were never made for such light touches over great distances. Maybe I should take up golf... (You can imagine how many balls I'd lose. Don't overthink.)

2. I've been a leech, sucking on people's homework because I've been always away from class, ever since a crappy concert called Band Idol showed up. Yes, my name has been blacklisted for the most number of so-called 'ponteng' cases in my class. PSK teacher adds: "You're just lucky I haven't sent your name in!" He's not serious.

3. Despite being the busy ~~bee~~ plankton, I still have finished all, if not, most of my homework. By parasitic and saprophytic means of course. So there!

4. The baldies in my class have actually grown more hair over the week. Now, their heads look like cleared-off forests with mould and fungus growing all over them. Oops. And no, I will not go bald. I'd contribute to the cancer society by other means, but I seriously respect those whom did the shaving with a heart. Unless, they actually badly needed a haircut...

5. I have to train four juniors to take positions in the flute section for the formation this year. *Deep sigh.* There's a one to one junior to senior ratio now, and that's pretty risky for a section mostly placed in front. Shit happens.

6. I've laid my hands on 4 by 4 and 5 by 5 cubes, but until now, I have never bothered to learn the formulas to solve them. The 2 by 2 and 4 by 4 cube have separate conditions and parity cases that are not found in the 3 by 3 cube, and the 5 by 5 is just a monstrous disaster. Why can't we all just stick to the normal cube?!

7. Integration is crap. My crappy 570-MS calculator fails me all the time for definite integrals.

8. Add Maths still rocks! Especially calculus! Sorry to those who hate it. (PS: I hate Sejarah.)

9. As a left-hander, my G-Soft pens always run out of ink. I have seven darn pens of the same model in my pencil-box, and four are malfunctioning. Three are still okay, but as fate would have it... That's the life of a left-hander. Not forgetting the frequent smears, the bad handwriting, the horrible, terrible and vegetable inconvenience of having to clash with other right handers when sitting together.

10. Only one of my juniors managed to pass the audition for probationary prefects this year. Discrimination of band members is very popular, you know? Well, it's their fault they prioritised band to just about everything the senior prefect asked. I respect their honesty and loyalty to band. It's okay guys, you don't have to be prefects to be model students. But please, don't ever put my name as your idol! It's embarrassing! =.=

Influenza

2009-02-24T20:21:00.002+08:00

Rhinitis has a thing for me.

Rhinitis is often referred to as 'runny nose'. Yes, why do noses run and feet smell. It's a stupid condition where your body is just so addicted to influenza and allergic reactions. Dust, paint, animals, pollen grains, and whatsoever can trigger my rhinitis. And now, my mum points her finger at my hectic schedule for the past few days.

They say shit happens when you're overworking. Well, rhinitis isn't really an abnormality of the rectum, but rather the nasal passageway. NOT anal passageway. Mine is forever blocked at one side. (It just seems to switch from left to right to left to right once every few weeks.) I'm meaning my nose, not my ass, mind you.

The worst part is not just the sneezing, but the 'leakage'. I'm not an experienced 'plumber', (unlike girls, oops!) and so, my 'leakages' are almost uncontrollable. So much for guys and PMS. Just that it's runny, and not... viscous.

When it comes to leakages and rhinitis, you don't have any pipes to fix... Just tissues to waste. I invest in the Canteen Tissue Fund (CTF), where I invest at least RM0.30 a day on a packet of tissue. And when I have rhinitis, it triples in bond size, but I still don't get any dividend or profit or whatsoever. So much for investment.

And just today, I had to go for some stupid investment quiz, together with KT and Amir, representing the school at interschool level. Yes, the questions were stupid, and so was my flu.

Then, you have the side effects of your constant sneezing. Let's talk Biology. Let's talk mitochondria, and how frigging hard they have to work to compensate for the energy wasted from sneezing, sneezing, sneezing... It's so bad I actually start to doze off just about everywhere.

Frankly, I dozed off during the investment quiz. 30 minutes, and I was "zzz". Yup, I could "zzz" without any support from my arms for my oversized head. Little could the examiner notice, even though I was right in front.

As president, I was soon caught for dozing off during Mr. Nonami's session with us. Little did I know that all the others soon caught my drowsiness too, and soon enough, at least a quarter of the band dozed off at least once. I was the one being more attended to, of course. T.T You can't blame a sick, crippled guy like me. Crippled mentally, not physically.

Everyone's just getting sick now. This is a rather worrying situation. =/ I'm not being 'perasan', but I've a really bad feeling I was the one whom started the coughing and influenza menace in the first place... Hehe!

This serves as a lesson for all - be paranoid. Wear oxygen masks to protect yourself from possible SARS (Severe Acute Rhythmic Syndrome) and my wretched flu.

Blur

2009-02-21T14:40:00.002+08:00

I've been such a blur and forgetful person recently...

First up, I always end up asking "Where was I?" whenever I hold meetings, especially when others come to interrupt me with other issues.

Next, I've been forgetting to bring home my prefect blazer regularly, although I'm always very fortunate it always ends up in the band room. =P

Need not mention about homework. There was one time I forgot to do six reports, and all had to be passed up on the very day. FIVE Physics reports, and one Chemistry report. And you thought 5A was an easy-going class. (It's my fault I never use my diary anyway. =P) Fortunately, I finished it all up, subtlely. That's the good thing about pretending to be good in class, and being the unattentive one behind my innocent eyes.

Worst part was the day I actually forgot to wear my socks to school. =.= I've never disclosed about it since the incident two weeks ago, which took no notice from my seniors. So, laugh all you want.

Other than the usual I-forgot-to-do-my-homework ways, I guess I'm getting seriously too blur. I've no idea what I'm doing in Accounts, what on earth the Chemistry teacher is teaching. I'm dozing away during Biology, running away during Sejarah, clowning away during BM, chattering away during English, snoring during Maths, and going "Ha?!" during Add Maths. So I guess, this year is really a great year to come after all.

Plus, the fact I've so much band practices... I've hardly anymore time to devote to this blog.

Birthday Girl

2009-02-20T00:00:00.002+08:00

I haven't really had the time to update, but...

To Adeline Liaw,

HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY!!! =D

And to all others too, whom share the same birthday as her! =)

Valentine's Day

2009-02-16T15:42:00.003+08:00

It's overrated, they say. Lovers, especially the guys (sexist remark xP), really invest into this day, with teddy bears, chocolates, roses (and black roses too), "secret bottles of love =.=", perfumes, cards, and just about anything else that symbolises "love" for their loved ones. In other words, it's just another day of good business for those whom are involved in this infatuation affair.

In fact, clubs like Interact and Leo, and even our school's prefectorial board, have been making the riches with this sinister form of business. It's almost like sucking dry the wallets of many guys and girls, no offense, just for the 14th of February, every single year. Yes, it's for fund-raising I know, but...

It's just about the only day you see guys and girls get together in public, sharing gifts with each other, talking to each others, laughing, sweating (as in "swt" for lameness, not from working out), and bla bla bla... And for the other days of the year, you can just wait for something sweet to actually happen to you. It won't. How sad.

I did receive a few gifts from a few friends, and by all means, please do not "ahem" at me for this matter, because they are from friends! (And even if you did want to "ahem" me, the guy that ordered his Valentine's gift for his girl through me never got to give the girl the three roses with wrappings. Interact, Interact, must you do this to me? And oh yes, we were forced to do those orders for the sake of the prefectorial board. Bummer.)

Many of my friends got the cheers with tons of presents from the school next door, and a few pranks that just have such lustful messages that I dare not describe here in this blog. (Apparently, it was a plot between some of my classmates. Heh.) Some had a few stalkers up their sleeves, some had sweet friends, and some had... Anonymous admirers. This year wasn't too much a suspenseful one compared to last year.

Well, the whole point is... All of us will not receive any more gifts throughout the year... Unless it's your birthday, or you just got lucky, or you had a premarital baby. Oops. You won't receive those "I-love-you's" from your darlings (whoever they/he/she/it is/are) for the rest of the year, in the form of cards, cookies with sweet messages, "secret bottles of love =.=", and... You get the picture.

Maybe it will come in a message, or blurted out in a simple call. But how much do you mean it?

St. Valentine sends one message to an imprisoned girl, and now the whole world does it. But I assure you, during those times, they didn't just send it on such an auspicious date. True lovers don't just celebrate Valentine's Day once... They celebrate it everyday.

It does not matter whether you can afford roses everyday for your guy/girl or not. What really matters comes from your heart. It doesn't have to be in the form of teddy bears with the message "Hug me!", or key chains that proclaim love to your special one... It can be as simple as a text message, or a single sentence. Just be with your loved one everyday. Just show him/her/it/whatever, love defies science - the world does, indeed, revolve around your true love.

Same applies to your friends. Yea, loving a girl and loving your friends are a bit different (which is hard to explain), but either ways, show everyone some love won't you? I vowed to make every day a Valentine's Day this year, and I'm going to make it happen, for the days to come.

Of course, I'm so not giving roses to the baldies in my class. They would plant it on their heads, and water their shiny scalps every single day. Now that's a gruesome sight. What's with me and those UFO-heads?! =P =P =P Just joking my friends! You are definitely heroes for the cancer patients! =)

It's the 16th of February. And to me, it's just another Happy Valentine's Day! =)

Band Idol - Auditions

2009-02-14T22:41:00.003+08:00

The auditions were rather disorganised. As usual. Because some buggers actually messed up the original plan... Well, you can't really blame those that never come for meetings out of stupid, personal reasons. See how the story continues from the previous blog entry about meetings, meetings, meetings?

Well, all participants were given the chance to watch the performances live from where they sat - away from the judges' seats, behind securiy guarding near the center. Well, the security didn't serve much purpose as the buggers weren't so efficient with keeping people out of the area. Sometimes I just wonder how discipline can just vanish in a matter of days.

Us four judges had a hard time settling in, as I not only had to deal with judging, but a few administrative matters at the same time as well. But overall, everything went smooth and fine, although tabulating the scores took very long. The hardest part was definitely giving the marks.

The afternoon started off with the solo category - and had a bad start with soloists not being prepared for their solos. All the last minute business has really brought up the crap in most of the soloists, and with much devastating effect on SJSMSB's reputation. Honestly, I was seriously ashamed of their performances, but I knew that last minute matters would bring about lousy comebacks.

After the four soloists, came the ensembles. First up, vividly remembered, is Tubatwoty (pronounced Tuba-Two-Ty), with a more impressionistic Super Mario theme to brighten up the day. Soon enough, it was obvious out of the 14 ensembles performing on the day, 12 would be qualified enough to enter the preliminary round.

There were many promising groups - first on my mind was the 3A1's, the only truly jazz band for Band Idol 2009. The Geeks were very, very promising with their magnicificent lower brass ensemble plus percussion, and so was Oasis (soon to be, Suthi Downgraded). The 28's, the one whom I arranged for, screwed up so badly... I think I'll just stop here.

There were some mishaps - last minute buggers. In fact, one of them got a pathetic zero from one of the judges because of lack of preparation. I would have done the same, but out of face, it was a 38 from me. xD

The 1995's were promising. They played so well during the auditions, despite sounding like 'brown matter' the first time they started practicing "New World", a John Thompson arrangement of Antonin Dvorak's masterpiece. However, calamity had to strike their group just a few days after the audition.

Overall, the highest score I ever gave never reached the 80 level, and was more or less around 73... I think? (Hey, I was the second most lenient judge okay, after Wariq? Well, Wariq, it's explainable. =P) One of them marked 69 as the highest. =.= So much for student music directors and presidents ey?

My salutations to those teams whom have worked so hard for the Band Idol auditions - you know who you are. It has been a wonderous experience as a judge for the auditions, although there were many distractions and things didn't go as smoothly as planned. In the end, all the soloists plus 12 ensembles made it through to the preliminary round, and the case was closed for the day.

Soon enough, I was bombarded with many changes in team numbers and repertoire to sicken me. All in the name of good performances. It's good for the audience, but not good for me. T.T Oh well, that's the life of someone who has to do all the participant crap on his own.

Roland - Danny Boy

2009-02-12T19:52:00.003+08:00

Danny Boy - Roland (Arranger)

Finally, with the help of Audacity (the perfect mess-maker for all my edited songs), I have encoded my original 21MB WAV file into a typical 128 kbps MP3 file. And at just a meer 2.08 MB, it's now time to showcase my arrangement in my blog, at the request of some of my juniors. Told you your president isn't a bitch. xD

Well, do give your comments about this piece I've arranged. An Irish traditional, boring Irish traditional, I know, but I was definitely into showcasing my woodwind section's specialty - blend and balance. It got the comment of the "best arrangement" in Band Idol by judge Edwin, which was referred to Waie.

I was so terharu when he made this announcement: Thanks to Roland TEO for arranging this piece for us. At the same time I felt like killing him lah. Heh. xD

Comments please. I'd love to be of service. =P (Not that service, please.)

Band Idol - Meetings

2009-02-12T19:20:00.003+08:00

I absolutely hate them... meetings. Well, I wouldn't really hate it if I had to control such a noisy zoo of a board.

Meetings go this way - they never start on time, they never end on time (they end early), and everyone is always on a rush to go back home. In fact, some never turn up even though they are around at school. Some are not informed, some are playing basketball, and some do not even know where on earth we are. =.=

For the past few weeks, there have been meetings and meetings and meetings, only once with the dictator of Josephian Regiment. Just shows how much outcome I would get from the other meetings. Sometimes I wish I could be as strict as the dictator, but I do know, I'm only a student and it's way against my intentions to be hated.

Well, I'm most probably hated now anyway, but oh well...

I also had a few meetings with the judges. Had many accounts of my good friend shouting: "Roland! Play safe ah!". I'm sure all of you know what that means. There were even some moaning out my name (you know, the dirty way), and some even tried to ask me whether one fo them is my girlfriend. o.O =.="

In fact, there was one day they assumed I had four girlfriends - two because of the meeting, another one that we met at Thompson Corner, and another one whom jumped out of nowhere but inside a car just to ask me about MPYO. Yup, I failed for MPYO. T.T That was a very sia soi day indeed.

But in the end, we got just about everything fixed. We appointed the head of all crews, their members, their roles, their responsibilities, their stations, their special tasks, bla bla bla... And here is the list of the crew of Band Idol:

Event Managers:
Mohd. Wariq
Roland Teo

Emcees:
Camillius Caem
Priscilla Toh (for preliminary round only)

Ushers:
Abdul Waie (auditorium interior)
Lim Kim Yong (auditorium exterior)
Wong Hick Ming (counter)
Shalom Wong (counter)

Head of Stage Crew:
Jordan Wee

Head of Security:
Mohd. Khairudin
Adnan Zaki

Media Team:
Jacob Sigar
Frederick Kagan
Frederick Toh

My job was the frigging hard one - arranging all matters regarding the participants of Band Idol. I had to deal with the turns of the soloists and ensembles, arrange their room allocations, arrange their pieces for judges' use, and just about anything else that had of concern to the participants. The worst part was, of course, the arranging of turns.

Many people just had to find problems with me - asking why they are first to perform, why they are this, why they are that, and so on. But rules and rules, and I win. =P Now Band Idol is over, they can't taunt me about it anymore. Phew.

Meetings run to plan the schedule of Band Idol was a complete mess - the dictator disapproved of certain performances, wanted only an allocation of six minutes per performer, and was totally into getting me to play my violin for the finals. In fact, I disobeyed most of them. xD

We gave an allocation of at least eight to ten minutes per performer, increased the allowed number of participants per ensemble, and I didn't perform for the night. How's that?

Well, if you want to see me perform, maybe next time. Just get me a distortion pedal, a good Marshall amp, and an electric violin. Muahahahaha. My parents will disapprove.

And no, I don't play like Vanessa Mae.

Cut the story short, meetings were crap. But thank God because of the meetings, Band Idol 2009 went fine. Story on the auditions, preliminary round, and grand finale, coming up soon.

Urban Dictionary

2009-02-10T21:56:00.004+08:00

The rules: Go to urbandictionary.com and type in your answers to the following questions. Post the first definition it gives you.

Then your own comment below.

Tag 5 people.

1. Your name?
- Roland

1. Roland (Frankish: Hruodland, Italian: Orlando) is a character in medieval and Renaissance literature, the chief paladin of Charlemagne and a central figure in the Matter of France. It is thought the title character of the 12th century Song of Roland, which recounts his final stand against the Muslims during the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, is based on a real person who died in that battle (under different circumstances), but the authors of most later chansons de geste and the Renaissance epics Orlando innamorato and Orlando furioso made little attempt to establish historical accuracy.
2. From the The American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language. Roland {1}. A masculine given name. Roland {2}. n. A lengendary paladin and nephew of Charlemange killed in the battle against the Saracens at Roncesvalles.
3. An individual of high intellect, fun loving and irresistible to women.

1. There exists only one historical mention of a French Roland, found in the section of Vita Karoli Magni on Roncevaux Pass, written by Charlemagne's courtier and biographer Einhard.
2. Gawd girl! That guy is such a Roland.

: The history is a bore, but no, I'm so not a Roland.

2. Age?
- 16

Legal age for f***ing in the UK.

: I love the humour, but no thanks.

3. One of your friends?
- Kelvin

(n) an act of violence; (v) to be violent

: xD

4. Favourite colour?
- White

The color white.

Contrary to popular belief the word "white" is not a racial comment or slur.
This paper is white!

(Idiot human rights activist) "Oh my GOSH you racist bastard!!!"

: Guys, please don't search for 'black'.

5. Birthplace?
- Kuching

The capital of Sarawak, Kuching is is the 4th largest urban area in Malaysia and with probably the best quality of life. It is a beautiful, green, laid-back city with non racist people (comprised of mostly Chinese, then Malays and Dayaks)- which is a like far-away dream in most parts of Malaysia. Most only 'learnt how to become' racist after staying for some time in West Malaysia. Intermarriage especially among the Chinese and Dayaks are common. Kuching has the best of both worlds - the facilities of a modern city and the strong community ties of a small town. In short, Kuching is a wonderful place to live in but a mindnumbingly boring place for tourists.

Contrary to what quite a lot of West Malaysians think, Kuching people are not uneducated and 'ulu'. The fact is most Kuchingites can speak better English then them. Kuching also ranks as the no. 2 highest average household income.

Most Kuchingites have the same hobby - eating. This is why there are so many kopitiams over here. Our most famous foods are the kolo mee, laksa Sarawak, kacangma and midin belacan.

Kuching is developing at a very pace rapid pace and this is not neccesarily a good thing. Rising crime, traffic jams, several new malls, and more coming soon might turn Kuching into another unlivable metropolis. Currently however, crime and traffic are still much better than in other large cities in Malaysia.

Noooo.. Kuching, you're beautiful just the way you are! Don't grow up too fast! T_T
Kuchingite driving around: Haiyo why Kuching so boring one no place to go one? All the same things nia.

Another Kuchingite: Nevermind la. Can go eat again lor.

: I feel proud. =)

6.Month of your birthday.
- November

The most popular form of rain when getting married to a hot and sexy rockstar.

: It's a bit sinister at first thought, don't you think?

7. Last person you talked to?
- Mum

A word Americans don't know how to spell.

: xD!!!

8. One of your nicknames?
- Plankton

Mr. Krabs' business rival on Spongebob Squarepants. He owns a shitbox restaurant called the Chum Bucket, where he makes secret evil plans to steal the Krabby Patty formula and therefore attract business. He always fails.

Plankton

"You'll never catch me, Mr. Krabs. I went to college!"

: Hey, that's the other plankton, not me! xD

Tag five people:
- Kelvin Ting
- Lukhman
- Adeline Liaw
- Cassandra Ong
- Peggy Sim

Band Idol - Diplomacy

2009-02-09T21:55:00.002+08:00

After much primitive planning, it's now to Stage Two - setting diplomatic relations with other schools invited to participate in Band Idol 2009.

The first step was to send in the letter - which was one month off schedule. No, it was obviously not my doing. =P

The most weird part - the letter to St. Teresa was handed in on Sunday. It was only received on Tuesday, considering our teacher handed it in personally herself. o.O Just shows how weird the world is.

As for other schools? They received the letter, but the teachers in charge of their bands were never informed about the event. =.=

The first major diplomatic relation in my list was definitely St. Teresa, the school just next door. Soon enough, I was being pestered by Wariq to be quick about getting the audition judges and extra participants from other schools. And thus, started my promoting career in preparation for Band Idol.

Contacting their president, I managed to invite her and the conductress to be judges for the event. Both of them were eager, but unfortunately their teacher-in-charge required a letter of invitation for the both of them to be judges. I got this forwarded to the dictator, and I got the bombing of my life. It didn't just feel like the Hiroshima bomb. It's like nuclear radiation - no matter how hard you evade it, you can't stop it from pestering your body cells.

Nevertheless, I got my way. I sent in a letter with my name. Case solved. Forget about the bombing that happened back at Boulevard. Yup, I was bombed at a performance. What a perfect time for a Stratojet to drop its ammo.

I was soon given 20 final tickets and 10 preliminary round tickets to sell. As band major, I'm definitely expected to sell the most number of tickets in comparison with the other members. Towards the end, it was obvious I didn't really fulfill this requirement. T.T

Registration forms were out last minute. And the registration forms were in last minute too. We changed our last date for entries for at least three times just to deal with the buggers whom never acknowledge the word "last". As a matter of fact, the full programme of the auditions was only done one day before it, thanks to all the last minute business.

Meeting by meeting, things started falling into one piece - from beginning to end. With the assurance of proper judges for the audition round, it was soon down to the judging scheme - its aspects, its allocated marks, and whatsoever.

And if you are wondering who the judges are:

Seat 1: Mohd. Wariq
Seat 2: Me
Seat 3: Amanda Voon
Seat 4: Ginny Tan

That is the order of our seating arrangement on the real afternoon for auditions. And that's coming up in the very next post. =D

Band Idol - Preparations

2009-02-08T21:29:00.003+08:00

I have been owing everyone this post for ages now, and I think it's about time I started working on it.

Band Idol was actually proposed before the school holidays last year, in the month of October. Well, it just came out in a meeting and soon enough, I came out with a proposal letter to the dictator.

Alongside the dictator was another confidential proposal, which was soon rejected due to "not-so-financially-related" reasons. In other words, the dictator, as always, wanted money. I just wonder how all the money we earn from performances and such actually leak out of the band. Truth is, I don't even do the band accounts. (Nor is there a treasurer, and so they blundering gave the job to me. Bummer.)

We had millions and millions of meetings before the holidays, and during early part of November, to discuss about how Band Idol should be run. We all were forced to make it by December, due to limiting reasons. (Obviously, the dictator doesn't know what on earth is a holiday.) Oh well, I just had to do my job - screaming at the board members to keep their frigging mouths shut. Yup, that's in my job description.

After much discussion, it is decided that Band Idol would have an audition round and final round. Soon enough, Dictator Money-Face added on a preliminary round just to add on to the earnings and profits. Hypothesis accepted.

Audition judges would be the president, and student music conductor of every school. (For our school's case, it would be just me and Wariq.) As for the prelim and grand finale, it would be up to the teachers and instructors to decide. And they never decided about it until a few days before the actual date. That would be four months. Congratulations!

And so, all the details were given out, and meetings were done once again to "finalise" a few things. "Finalise" with the inverted commas, because it never really was a "final" decision anyway. =.= Soon enough, it was the dictator's job to deal with the sending of invitation letters to other schools to participate in Band Idol.

Guess what? Because of that, Band Idol got postponed.

Why?

No school opens their office during the holidays. And plus, it is said the letter was so screwed up since it didn't really comply to the matters discussed by the board members, and so vague even our acting principal at that time didn't bother to put her signature on the letter. Bummer.

And so, from December to February. That is what you call time waste management.

Band Idol is literally unheard of until January, when the dictator finally calls me in to ask about the event. And that is, just a meer one month before the grand finale. Everything's set, and the letters are handed in real late, and from there, soon came the paperwork.

Registration forms, registrar lists, room allocations, order of appearances (one set for each round), judging and evaluation schemes... all the paperwork under me. Not to mention, the logistics and its labour, organising meetings, dividing jobs, and even arranging a piece. =.=

Things just get more and more hectic from here.

(To be continued.)

Epilogue

2009-02-08T00:14:00.004+08:00

Finally, Band Idol 2009 is over.

Congratulations to Suthi Downgraded, our homeground percussion team, for winning first place in the ensemble category, as well as claiming the best performance award based on votes by the audience. =)

Well wishes to Daniel Balan too, winner of the solo category with his alto sax. Both solo and ensemble categories have true winners.

Not to mention, the superb and super-creative ensemble from GRSS, "The Geeks", at second place. And as their name would have it, the geeks really stole the show for the prelims, as well as the grand finale.

Last but not least, to The 3A1's whom managed to get third place. It has been great receiving complaints about my chants throughout the night. =P And it has been great listening to you girls too. =D

Not to forget, all the other participants of Band Idol 2009, whom have made it such a success. =)

More details will come soon. Someone just needs rest.

*Stares at Valentine Talentine schedule.* I think not.

Pre-audition

2009-02-03T22:44:00.001+08:00

All the best to all those auditioning for Band Idol 2009 tomorrow.

Do your best! =D

Smirks: I wonder who the judges are.

Burden

2009-02-02T19:27:00.002+08:00

My doubts come out true after all.

Some people just don't know what the heck a due date is for. Are you trying to exploit me or something?!

Don't tell me I still have time. You don't even know me.

Learn some sense of responsibility man. Learn some sense of respect!

Doubt

2009-02-01T19:52:00.002+08:00

The due date for registraton forms is on the 2nd of February, 2009. And I doubt all the registration forms for Band Idol will come in on time.

Participants are supposed to enclose a RM 10 registration fee together with the form. I doubt that all are aware of this fee, and pay up by tomorrow.

Participants also are required to hand in a copy of their scores. Even if the judges need it, I doubt that they will come in on time, or worse still, not come in at all.

Participants who need specific stage set-ups are required to enclose a diagram for the stage crew. I doubt some even bother to hand in an extra piece of paper to explain this. And I doubt some are even aware they need microphones.

I was so happy with the ticket sales. And now I doubt the tickets can ever finish on time.

After a three-month delay, I'm expecting the best for Band Idol. I doubt there will be even enough participants for this event.

I doubt I'll ever stop doubting. >.<

Christmas & Eve

2009-01-30T17:43:00.015+08:00

24th December 2008

It's Christmas Eve, but it's not the snowy Christmas Eve you wish for - it's a sunny and cloudless Christmas Eve at Dunsborough, in the shire of Busselton.

The day started with a show that we missed the day before... The sheep-shearing show.

It all starts with bullying two kids into holding up two grown-up sheep while he runs away for no apparent reason. =.=

And soon enough comes the shaving:

Looks disgusting and gruesome? Well, sheep all love it. I'm not so sure about the guy ones. =P

The aftermess... and it all goes into this machine:

If you didn't have the compressor above, you would have to use your own feet to stomp the wool until it's all compressed. Well, it's good bucks - A$150 a day just to do this frigging stompful job. Not bad for someone who can't use his hands but only his feet.

Soon enough, we're shooed outside to witness a whole congregration of sheep coming-

Closer...

CLOSER!!!

=.=

This is probably a small herd out of the thousands of sheep this shepherd herds. You see a crazy dog stomping on the sheep in the picture above? That's the dog he uses to line up the sheep, in a not-so-uniform flock of poking out heads, like a squished sponge cake. I pity those guys, but at least they don't feel a thing underneath their wool armour.

Apart from that dog, the shepherd uses another black-and-white dog to chase the sheep in. I'm not very sure about the breeds of the dogs, but you dog-lovers should know better than me. =)

And now they go...

And the two lazy dogs can have a rest.

Back in the shed, comes up a surprise. Little ones are asked to line up in front, and the big ones (like me, yea right) stay behind. Soon comes the shepherd with milk bottles, and a stampede of young little lambs.

If you need more pictures of them feeding, get them from someone else. I don't support animal pornography. =.="

Finally, when the show ended, we each had a small souvenir of sheep wool - just grab a handful from the table topped with spreaded wool and run off. According to the shepherd, the oil found on the wool is good for the skin, and is also suitable to polish your shoes. =.= I'm not a chemist either, so please do not ask me what the mass of fluff is all about when it comes to its 'sebum'.

Next up, we went on a drunkard tour, once more. After all, our flight's tomorrow morning, and what a better day than the day before Christmas to buy wine.

I'm not a drinker, but the only things that went into our list of things to pack was 2 award-winning Shiraz 2008 red wines from Windance, two Pink Moscatos from Evan's & Tate's, plus two more red wines from The Growers. I guess. Oh well, I'm not drinking them, so what makes you think I'd be so detailed about it? xD

Crisp, spicy, rich, warm... bla bla bla. That's how they describe wines. Let me give you my description - dry, disgusting, gruesome, bacteria-infested, gory, and undrinkable. How's that?

Late in the afternoon, we had a trip to Busselton Jetty. The last time we went to WA (back in 2001), we never got a chance to finish the jetty, for the temperature outside during spring was enough to catch hypothermia. Yea right.

Now that it's summer (with a minimum of 10 degrees, what the heck), why not give it a try?

The (darn) bridge takes a staggering 20 minutes to complete from head to toe, that is, if you walk as fast as me and my dad do. And it takes another 10 minutes before we sight our mom and brother. =.=

In other words, we took one hour to complete the bridge, with nothing but windswept and messy hair. Nah, it was a great experience walking a half-completed bridge, risking drowning and being swept to Indonesia.

History has it that this bridge burnt down thirty years back, and ever since then, the railway service that services this jetty has closed down. They have rebuilt most of it, but as financial problems would have it, the bridge was only half-completed all the way through, as you can see in the pictures above.

It's a pity I might never come back to see this bridge in completion.

...

***

Finally, after a long and tiring journey, we were back in Perth, just in time for a late seafood dinner at one of Perth's finer Hong Kong restaurants. The prices are staggering - snow crabs are A$40 a pound, and lobsters just come in a few dollars lesser. We ordered one gigantic lobster, pork in salt and pepper (squid just tastes as good with salt and pepper, but we shouldn't try the same thing over and over again), scallops in their shells, and one vegetable dish that turns out to have more beef in it than its original purpose. =.=

One thing's for sure - we still have this thing for Hong Kong English. Back in 2007, we had such a laugh in Hong Kong. Well, that was the past, and what a better way to relive it in Perth. Me and my bro were hiding behind our napkins hearing the waitress-in-charge speak her stuff. The food, especially the 'pok' and the 'scar-lop', are satisfying enough to make us end our hysterics campaign.

"Scar-lop", served with their shells on a small "table" (plate). Table. =.=

This lobster costs at least "twer-ty" (20/30?) dollars a pound. Cooked on a big "table", and cut into smaller "tables", just for you.

Regrettably, no pictures of "pok". And squid. The best squid I've ever tasted. =(

Initial plans were to stay in the restaurant as long as possible, to kill time as we had no accommodation for the night. We finally got kicked out at about eleven and soon we headed to King's Park.

Dad's confession: I've never learnt how to use the camera's manual function until a few day's back.

=.="

25th December 2008

Despite being thousands of kilometres away, I sent my midnight Christmas wishes to some people, RM3 at a time. King's Park was a place of couples and families anyway, and it made me really anxious to get back to my hometown. Oh well, RM3 doesn't hurt much does it?

After a final drive throughout Perth City, it was time to park at the airport.

This is the only picture that can ever certify the kilometres we have traveled throughout WA, a staggering 2658.4 kilometres that has brought us way up to the Pinnacles, all the way down to Albany, and all the towns and suburbs in between. All thanks to this car:

It may not have automatic windows at the rear, or a proper speaker system (left rear speaker is screwed), but hey, it has survived four-wheel-drive tracks, the desert, and the long-winding routes of WA. Not bad for a (cheap) car ey?

Look closely and you will see all the insect and bird crap all over. Hope the Avis guys don't get mad. Hehe.

2.00 am: Can't sleep. Everyone's asleep. Damn.

Oh yes, we slept in the car. How nice is that? =D

3.00 am: Soon enough, the news spreads. You ain't going on board with your six bottles of red wine as hand language. And as my mum would have it, out goes all the clothing and in goes the wine bottles, each protected by polystyrene (which used to be a box intended to store bacon back home), tea towels, some clothing and more. So much for not knowing international flight rules.

Don't look at me. I did tell them, but they just won't listen. =.=

5.00 am: Enough waiting. We had an early check-in, which soon flooded minutes later.

Soon enough, I met Peggy, whom is on the same flight with me. A coincidence? I was sitting in the same aisle as her and her family. =.=

Six hours aboard the plane, we headed for KL, with much trips to the toilet due to last night's Chinese tea indulgence. The trip to Perth was a meer five hours, but thanks to stupid Physics and Mother Nature, some things just had to wait a bit longer. Not too good for my impatience.

KL was a frigging mess. LCCT was crowded all over. Back to barbaric living. How sad.

8.00 pm: A safe journey, and I'm back home. HOME!!! =)

***

I'll miss Western Australia. It has all come to this.

THE END

Family

2009-01-28T22:41:00.003+08:00

To think of it, I've a large family - cousins, uncles, aunties, nephews, nieces, and many more. But it's just a bit regrettable that I'm not very close with most of them, as my first language is English (and my second language - Malay or /and Mandarin plus all its terrible dialects - not too much a perfected one).

My mum joked with me - my great-granddad was a guy with many brothers: real brothers, not-so-real brothers, foster brothers, godbrothers, sort-of brothers, people called brothers, more brothers, and stepbrothers, and many more. Not sure about the sister part though.

And myself, I've seen many things - the relatives who are rich, relatives who live moderately, relatives who need more than what they have; whom are educated, who never bothered, whom are religious, some who don't give a damn, some whom are getting married, some whom lost their loved ones (which I feel too), and even those I never thought would have been my relatives.

To think of it, my family has its Malay background too. =) Although, my bloodline is from China.

It's really great to know you have a family, but it feels rather awkward at the same time to know that you could have been closer to them, and yet you never took the chance.

But there's always the time... the time when you can start to drive. =D

Visit your relatives this Chinese New Year. Have a great one. =)

Pentuplet

2009-01-27T22:26:00.004+08:00

Fifth post. =D

Tagged by: Sabrina

1 - Adeline Liaw
2 - Cassandra Ong
3 - Kelvin Ting
4 - Lukhman
5 - Peggy Sim
6 - Howard Kong
7 - Norman Goh

How you know 1?
> Alliance of Biohazards, Kuching. =.=

What would you do if you never meet 2?
> I'd be grateful she hasn't nuked me, yet.

What would you do if 3 & 4 dated you?
> It's okay, they do it all the time, without my consent.

Would 5 & 6 make a good couple?
> They don't even know each other. But still, they are band members. *Wink wink.*

Do you think 4 is attractive?
> Retard! =D

Do you know anything about 1's family?
> She's the youngest among her siblings?

Tell me something about 7?
> Ex-head prefect. =)

What language does 2 speaks?
> Gibberish, and pig-snout.

Who is 3 going out with?
> I need not mention. =P

How old is 5?
> Soon to be 15.

When was the last time u talk to 1?
> Now. =D

Who is 6's favorite singer?
> What's the name of the blondie in HSM again?

Would you date 7?
> He is a guy.

6 single?
> Seems like it... for now. xD

What is 5's last name?
> Pei Chi. I remembered!

Would you consider being in a relationship with 1?
> o.O

Which school does 2 goes to?
> Kota Sentosa, I mean, SMB St. Teresa.

What do you like about 3?
> His GeForce 7600 graphic card is with me, but it's uninstalled. xD

School (Outdated)

2009-01-27T22:12:00.002+08:00

This was supposed to be done the week before CNY, when we still had school, but oh well, blame it on all the stupid stuff I had to deal with... Yes, Band Idol. Grr.

I kinda miss school now. =/ Must be from all the (darn) house chores and cleaning up kids' mess. Not that I have anything against them. It's adorable to watch them smash up the newly-attached lights. Nah, they never broke. I bet they can't even reach it. =P

I miss the cheerful class... All the people going "Dong dong dong Cheng!" just to commemorate our new Sejarah teacher, the one-and-only Mr. (Dong Dong Dong) Cheng. One and only because we haven't had history notes for years!

Of course we wouldn't dare to go "Dong dong dong Chong!" during Physics class lah. We do use our brains to stay out of trouble you know.

In Add Maths, we are still doing differentiation. =.= So much for being in Form 5. My dad's is continuously bragging about it ever since I started learning about it.

Anyways, I'll see my friends on the fourth day of CNY. =)

It's a record. Fourth post in a day. =.=

Last Call (Advertisement)

2009-01-27T21:26:00.003+08:00

This is an advertisement for Band Idol 2009...
And I expect 10% of the income earned from the event due to my ticket sales and promotions!

Closing date for registration forms has been pushed a little bit further, to the 2nd of February, 2009. There's still more or less a week's time for those interested to join Band Idol, and we are still short of solo performers! (There's been words spreading around about a greater prize given to the winner of the solo category, I think?)

It's still not too late! Get your registration forms online (through me, boo!), or through me. Through me, through me, through me. =.= Grr.

And tickets, tickets, tickets! I've still a few more preliminary tickets! I can still prearrange reservation for seats in the preliminary round and grand finale! It's RM 10 for the preliminary round, and RM 15 for the finals! Grab them now before it's too late.

I've had it with exclamation marks. =.=

I'm so not going to be a publicising whore when I grow up.

PS: Those who need to contact me, contact me lah! Reservations anyone?

Stereotype

2009-01-27T19:15:00.003+08:00

The second day of CNY was a boring one, a day subjected to staying back at a boring place called home, awaiting visitors that never come. Well, we did have a few unexpected visitors, but nevertheless, it's rather quiet right now, apart from the TV downstairs.

Even if a visitor, (slash) visitors, did come, it would be the same figurative speech by my parents, and the visitors too.

If it were a toddler, or a lil kid, or just about anyone that fit in the category - I think you'd know their speech too well.

"Waaa~!".

"*Hysterical laughter*".

"*Cute voice* Ha-ppy... new... year!".

=.=

If it were another parent, it would be much worse:

"Wa! Lu eh kia ah ne tua han!". (Wah, your son's so big already. =.=)

"Wa! Zhin tua han liaw wor!". (Wah, very big already wor!)

"Wah, ah ne 'hensem' liaw lor!". Eh eh eh, that one I don't want to translate. Bluek!

"Wah, leng zhai leng zhai!".

Aaargh, I think I've had enough.

And my parents - they'd brag on and on and on and on and on and on and on about my academics, my post as president/band major/the teachers' ultimate date partner in the band, my music degree, my blog, my this, my that... It's sooooo audible even from up here, while I'm dozing away in front of the computer. It's just too stereotype.

Best part is when we visit another house, and a grandma comes over and comments my dad: "Wah, eh tang zho ah kong liaw wor!". (Wah, can become grandpa liaw wor!) Now, that is indirectly pointed at me, because I'm eldest. Sheesh!

The worst part is when I call or text someone, and a grandma pulls over and says: "Wah, call girlfriend liaw oh!".

Grr.

But still, I know what you are thinking. Laugh at me if you want. Ha. Ha.

Drunkard Day

2009-01-27T17:54:00.007+08:00

23rd December 2008

Today was another round around Margaret River's vast lands and grape farms. Soon came my parents' drunkard plan - to bring home bottles of famous Margaret River wine, both red and white, for everyone to enjoy.

Breakfast was at Artezen, an espresso bar that provides the best breakfast in the whole of Dunsborough. It's a wonder how such a small town can host such great food, like the Big Pig.

First on the list was the sheep-shearing show at one of the farms around Margaret River. Most unfortunately, we missed the show by a meer 30 minutes, so we had to wait for the very next day. Still, we got to take a picture of one of the noisy rams that are displayed outside the shearing shed. (They are darn noisy, and their heads keep poking out of the fences whenever you approach them. You have been warned.)

The whole afternoon was soon dedicated to wine-tasting. We went to several places like Windance, Laurence, and Evan's & Tate's for such purposes, although me and my brother were only on a mission to find a place to sit for the whole boring afternoon.

The real beauty, however, was at Laurence Winery, where they actually charged you for wine-tasting. So much for the free samples. The lawn at the winery was marvellous, and so was the interior design of Laurence's main building. It was antique - a sign of their wealth from their famous wine business.

After all the drunkard business, we were on our way to our next destination, when police stopped us over. Darn. Poor dad was being recorded by a speed camera, although he wasn't speeding, and soon enough he was asked to do an alcohol-analysing test. A random breath test, as they say. We were set free, but the cooked-crab-like face of my dad's just aroused too much suspicion among the traffic police. See the cons about drink driving?

Where Margaret River meets the sea:

And I bet you're fed up with these:

You are just so fed up with my dad's obsession over pictures of WA's shoreline, aren't you? =D

After a day of driving here and there to taste wine (not me, sob sob) and photoshoot more shorelines, tonight was a well-slept night. In fact, the last night we ever had an accommodation at Western Australia.

But, we returned on the 25th, even though our accommodation in Dunsborough lasted until the 24th - and we never booked a motel back at Perth for the day after. What do you think we were up to? That's all coming next.

Firecrackers

2009-01-26T00:41:00.003+08:00

Now I see why economic recession is killing every country on Earth, including ours. Just look at the amount of money that literally dissipates in the air with every firecracker lit, plus the humongous display of an array of fireworks.

On the bright side, it displays the unity among countries - with all the distinctable smuggled fireworks from all over like Indonesia, China, Thailand, whatever... You see how much we just love each other (and blasting things in the air)?

To think of it, this year's fireworks display at my area is way more expensive than the other year. Ironic, for the economic downturn is supposedly a limiting factor towards the duration of the magnificent display every upcoming CNY. Maybe I can never work as an economist. Not like I want to, during these troubled times.

Now I sound so mature. Grr.

Oh wait, I think it's best if I did. Never mind. =.=

Back to the story, do they have something against rats?! Because, last year, the rats didn't really get much of a bombing to celebrate the new year, and now it's the year of the ox, everyone's gone bombing like mad, hoping they can get roast beef from the sky from all their pollutants and such. =.=

Not that I want Malaysia to start raining rats lah!

Well, money was literally burning in the air for the past few minutes, and it has finally stopped just a few minutes ago, much to my ears' delight. I still need to preserve them for Band Idol! xD

But still, thank you for giving me and my family such a spectacular fireworks display, for free. xP

Happy CNY!

2009-01-26T00:00:00.001+08:00

Happy Chinese New Year my friends!

Have a great one!

=)

It's CNY Eve!

2009-01-25T23:28:00.004+08:00

I have miraculously survived the ordeal of cleaning two bathrooms (their walls). Yea, I know, that sounds so lame.

Until Mr. Muscle came in.

Mr. Muscle is a frigging concentrated mould and mildew killer (that kills way better than anthrax) that is supposed to be used in minute amounts, and not in an open and ventilated space.

Apparently, I used large amounts, in an enclosed space, with the door closed, spraying on every bit of the bathroom walls, and letting the murdering solution seep into every crevice and crack in the tiles, before finally scrubbing the walls really, really hard, to get the slimy and disgusting mess off the mouldy wall. Well, maybe the wall wasn't too bad, but the fumes were, in Ron's terms, "bloody hell".

The bathrooms now still have the stench of the horrible detergent, that smells worse than cat poo in monkey brain juice, pulped to perfection and mixed with rotten cheese plus pig eyeballs. That sounded childish. Oh well, just reliving those moments when I used such childish terms to describe gory situations. =.=

As for my health deterioration due to excessive abuse of bathroom detergents, judge for yourself - I finished a first bottle, and half of a second on all the walls. =D (The clothes I used while washing the walls still smell like crap.)

Vacuuming was another matter, a last minute matter. In fact, I could have done a record for being so quick on finishing two floors, but too bad I never bothered to count. xP And apart from the bathroom doors, that was all that actually needed such a hectic afternoon and restless night.

Dinner was a great one, although on my table there were only seven out of 10 whom were suppose to attend. The other table, belonging to my mum's side, is as always, full. Nevertheless, it was a great family reunion. =)

It's now 10 more minutes to CNY. Let's see whether I can actually get my CNY post done correctly this time, unlike the time before for New Year 2009, which was set on the 1st of January, 2008. =.="

Bombings have started. The plankton will rule the world!!! xD

Preparations

2009-01-24T23:09:00.003+08:00

CNY (Chinese New Year, Crappy New Year, whatever you want to name it) is just around the corner, and desperate enough, me and some of the band boys are still coming to school for preparations for Band Idol. Yup, they have their pieces to play, and I have my administrative work and training to handle. Grr.

Back home, I've managed to finish 10 chairs (six in the dining room, four near the entrance), four sofas (two single-seaters, one double-seater and one huge three-seater as the grand finale), plus two frigging-holed tables in one night. When I mean "finish", I mean cleaning and polishing them, of course. (Obviously it's not assembling or dismantling or destroying them. =.=)

All this, was done with a not-so-helpful aerosol furniture polish spray, which I have had an lethal overdose of. It's not my fault if I end up in hospital from inhaling all the odouriser, CFC and mucky polish.

Also a major part of our preparation for CNY - clearing up the junkyard of a home. We brought over loads of newspapers and magazines plus two glass covers for the ceiling lights we no longer use to BDC's recycling station. It was such a huge mass/mess to dispose of in a comparitively small CRV, so we used a Hilux. The pick-up truck saves the day.

Apparently, none of the recyclable rubbish anyone throws ever reaches the recycling stations. The most they can go is probably to the front entrance of the station. In fact, they are all scavenged by eager families waiting outside the station. It's a common sight, and now that it's disposal time of the year, plus economic recession (=.=), more eager families await at the self-declared site for scavenging unwanted goods.

In fact, you don't have to even unload the stuff yourself. They climb onto your car and collect the stuff themselves. Without your permission, of course. =.= Gruesome. Totally.

It's a horrible sight... typical Malaysians. But what else can we do but continually make the poor dependant on those with proper jobs and proper pays. Someone ought to do something about this. Out of civic-mindedness, I did not take any pictures of their dramatic climb onto the pick-up truck. Fortunately, these people equally share the goods, so there is never a fight spurring among those guys.

But fancy having total strangers scavenging your goods on your very own pick-up truck. =.= I'm so lucky I did not put my violin and other documents behind.

Nevertheless, I'll be pretty packed with Band Idol 2009, and preparations for CNY. My posts on Western Australia has been stalled for a while, but trust me I'll get it done when I can. =D

Happy polishing sofas!

PS: I don't have an open house, but I do accept visitors on the second day. =) I need not advertise Band Idol 2009 anymore, do I? =P

Bygones

2009-01-23T21:35:00.002+08:00

"I'm sure you're very disappointed..."

"You're on the reserve list..."

My MPYO results came late - the letter never reached me until two days after Philip had received it.

As always, the letter was already opened - by my enthusiastic parents. Well, not so enthusiastic this time.

I wonder how the others faired with their letters. I'm very sure I'll never make it, but oh well, who ever said I would pass anyway? =)

PS: I'm not disappointed. It's just the person whom wrote the letter is pretty bad at psychology.

2K9 - Music

2009-01-23T20:40:00.004+08:00

What a better way to start the year than meetings, meetings, meetings...

I have been pretty packed for Band Idol 2009; it's not just about ticket sales and promoting ~~(jual badan)~~ or whatever. And it's not just about the meetings either...

For the very first time in my life, I have become a score arranger. =.= That was so not in my new year's list of resolutions. Thanks to some buggers whom have nothing to play, and for the sake of humanity and planktons and cubes and ducks and whatever, plus preserving the name of SJSMSB. Yea yea yea, I know I sound patriotic.

Thursday afternoon and night were muchly dedicated to the work of research - a pathetic act of plagiarism that Malaysian education so often encourages. After all, it's common practice to use the infamous "Ctrl-C" and "Ctrl-V" for course work. Even more common is "Alt-F4" and "@#$*%!!!", and for the very first time, I felt that those two were absolutely necessary.

To think of it, a lot of people have been "Ctrl-C"-ing and "Ctrl-V"-ing my blog. Maybe I should have a copyright protection system. =D *Groans.*

***

I thought of weird names like "Distortions" for weird things I composed on Finale 2009. (Yup, piracy rocks! And so does Keygen.) Aaargh, it's the first on my new year's resolution list now - to murder Finale 2009, if only it were alive. Eventually, I fell back to a MIDI file containing the infamous "Danny Boy", and that was when I really started working.

Working...

Working...

...

12.30 am - Ta da! Amidst the yawns and blinky eyes, it was a chaotic success - an ensemble score for two flutes, two clarinets, an alto sax and a piano. Fits the criterias of Band Idol's rules and regulations, plus it has my name on it. =P (Copyright Plankton 2009.)

And the next day, needless to say, I came late to school.

***

Meetings meetings meetings. It's the best thing in the whole wide world, aside from politics, economic recession, and the subject Bahasa Melayu. (I can't even master Bahasa Cina, what more to say...)

The Dictator, or Right-Wing-Honcho of the Queen of England, was present in today's meeting... and so there goes my sarcasm and wicked sense of humour during meetings. Ah, at least the Dictator solves much of the discipline problem. Conclusion: A honcho is a pain up the arse.

And so, we have confirmed just about everything for Band Idol 2009 - from the organising committee to job descriptions and to even reservation privileges. Yes, if you are a bugger whom can't possibly contact any of us directly but by a stupid thing called a handphone, you are most welcome to make reservations through the number 012-3456789 for preliminary or final tickets to Band Idol 2009. Well, that's not the handphone number, but if you need it, talk to me about it personally. =)

That sounded so wrong.

That always sound so wrong.

Footnote: That service is only reserved for retards. Like you and me.

***

What a better peace of mind there is when you find out about your juniors playing horrendous music for Band Idol. Yes, pieces that are meant to rupture the image of SJSMSB, and replace it with one that is infested by earthworms, planktons and ducks... and cubes.

I was so amazed by the fact that my juniors just took bits of waste paper from here and there, and stuck it all up into a Finale score, a medley of formation pieces and concert pieces over the years in SJSMSB, with a touch of no-sense-of-key-signature and uttermost horrible arrangement. Well, it wasn't really that bad, but oh well.

The stupidest thing I ever offered in my life was help to arrange a new piece for my junior, and I have never turned back since. I should have gone to Achmed and hire his guitar guy to back up for the troop of juniors, or maybe get Achmed to sing along some Christmas (suicide bomber) carols to brighten up the day.

Whatever that I've arranged, I'll post it up soon, and that's only after Band Idol. =P Confidential purposes. Sorry. And of course, it's under the copyright of Plankton!

Reminder: Closing date for registration entries is on the 2nd of February, Monday. Please pass your registration forms to me a.s.a.p. Ticket sales are still going on, and I've still quite a number left to offer.

I might be performing. =P

PS: I was fooling around with Adnan's viola today. Who knows, I can finally master all four string instruments. Muahahahaha.

Notice

2009-01-20T17:25:00.003+08:00

Please note...

This blog isn't for your ridiculous spam or for any jurisdication over any matters concerning me.

And if you needed a place to give me stories of your so-called 'praise' and 'worship', by pasting unrelated stories in my comments page, can't you do it in your own blog, rather than mess up mine?

Besides, if you can't take a joke, don't shit in my pants.

Berry-picking

2009-01-19T17:59:00.008+08:00

22nd December 2008

Today was the day we had to leave Albany. And off we were to a small town called Dunsborough, near Margaret River, and in the shire of Busselton.

We had made a lot of stops before finally reaching Busselton.

Walpole's Tree Top Walk

The highest point on the tree top walk is approximately 40 metres above ground level, a gruesome experience for those scared of heights. Nevertheless, it's not everyday you get to walk among the tallest trees in the deserted continent of Australia.

In fact, I've already succeeded in finishing the tree top walk back in 2001, when I was only Primary 3. Back at the cashier and gift shop, I decided to get my second, and probably last, certificate to certify that I have successfully survived the not-so-dangerous walk in the Valley of the Giants.

Yay, I survived! =.=

The big burger lunch:

Lavender and Berry Farm

We stopped by at one of the places we have visited back in 2001. Pitifully, this lavender and berry farm is for sale, worth over a million bucks, and of the three alpacas living near the entrance of the souvenir shop, only two are left. I've no idea where Blackberry went.

We got a chance to go berry-picking. My mum bought two containers from the cashier and we were off to their berry yard to pick some stuff.

Apparently, the berries weren't too ripe yet - blackberries had to be totally black to be sweet and edible. Raspberries didn't fair too well either. But oh well, I never got a chance to taste them. My mum soon threw them away. =.=

Finally, after a tiring journey through the winding roads on the coastline back to Perth, we've reached, and stopped, at Dunsborough, a small town with a population of 4000. We stayed at the Dunsborough Motel, a satisfactory place which is within walking distance to many of the nice eateries in the area.

The one I would really recommend is Big Pig pizzas, a take-away restaurant which serves one of the best pizzas I've ever tasted in my life. The thought of it just makes me condemn Pizza Hut for the rest of my life. And oh yea, there are no Pizza Huts throughout my trip in Western Australia either.

Big Pig should rule the pizza franchise market!

Noob Theory

2009-01-18T20:38:00.005+08:00

Recruitment on the first Friday of January brought us 41 registered names, 25 present the next day on our usual Saturday practice.

As the president (or rather, psh, band major), it brings about the responsibility of being the student music director, in short SMD. Yes, SMD can be an acronym for "suck my ****", but Wariq fairs no better as vice president, he gets SMC, "suck my ****". Now, this is one job you wouldn't want in your whole life.

Especially when you have a dictator for a teacher-in-charge, in a democratic country, and a class full of annoying irritants for music theory. Don't you think the Form 1's seem to get shorter, year by year? Oops.

It's been two weeks with the juniors, and two times have they entered a class with me for a stupid subject called music theory (for noobs). Of all the things in the world, music can't come so naturally if you don't have the fundamentals - just like wanting to bake a cake, and yet not having the ingredients, or wanting a girlfriend and realising that you're a girl and the realiity that lesbians are critically discriminated in Malaysia. Well, that's a very bad comparison, so scrap that.

But yes, I've been giving comparisions like that to my juniors during music theory, just grabbing every moment to talk (and be) crap and maybe make their childish brains trigger a laugh - how lame. Of course, this has definitely got me in trouble; in my vocabulary to the Form 1's, "trouble" is more of "deep shit". So yea, deep shit it is.

The first lesson with them was about notes and values - semibreves, minims, crotchets, quavers, semiquavers, their rest equivalents, bla bla bla... It took me at least one hour and a half to make them memorise and understand the concept of all the music notes. I tried to call a crotchet a "tau-geh", and a quaver a "tau-geh with a defected tail", and a semiquaver a "more cacat-ed tau-geh with two tails", but nevertheless I kind of failed to make them learn as fast as I have learnt in my naive past.

Not to mention, a crotchet rest was "a squiggly line", and a minim was a "tau-geh with its innards disemboweled just like how Jack the Ripper would have wanted it", since the note's circular bottom is not blackened like how the crotchet is. =.= Now you see why I got into deep shit with the teachers. Deep shit it is.

Soon, came the hard part was telling them why we used five lines in a score, and what was that curvy thingy (the treble clef) at the beginning of every manuscript, plus the weird flat and sharp signs after it, and the fraction soon after. Then came the horrendous bar lines, which made me realise I had to teach time signatures and bar lines. Aaargh!

Honestly, I never knew what on earth bar lines are for. I just told them it's for the convenience of idiots whom always make mistakes when playing music, so that they don't always have to start from the beginning to correct their mistakes. (I told even more stupid stories about the Do-Re-Mi system, soon to come.)

By the first week, they were all asking the same, "When are we going to touch our instruments?" question. It seriously got me pissed off by the second week, then I finally stumbled upon the perfect answer: "If you can't digest all this s***, you won't be able to touch even a stick!" Nah, I didn't say that. I seriously didn't. xD

Imagine me, telling them nicely, over and over again, that they would have to master the basics of music theory before they could even consider touching the music instruments. Bummer.

Those with musical backgrounds were the main problems. They were the ones, sitting at the back, yawning and grumbling, and forever grumbling with the same, old, annoying question. To make things worse, the most unattentive ones added on to the count, plus the ones busy dreaming away.

Focus is one thing you cultivate in band, and talking is what you cultivate when your Chemistry teacher is around. =D

The second week, I was focusing on knowing the notes on the treble clef, and the need of a Do-Re-Mi system. I made the others remember FACE, for the notes situated at the spaces between lines, from bottom to up, read F A C E.

As for the notes of the lines, when read from bottom to up would be E G B D F. "Every good boy deserves fruit." =.= That was what my music teacher back in primary class used to teach me. To add a bit of class to it, the F-word was used to replace the word "fruit", spurring up much laughter among the Form 1's. Now, I didn't want to introduce that word, but too bad kids nowadays are not only growing shorter, they are starting to know their words too well too. =.=

I'm innocent!

Teaching about key signatures required the understanding of the Do-Re-Mi system, so there I was, telling them idiots in the middle ages thought pentatonic scales were just rubbish, and decided to add on semitones (half-steps) systematically into their music to make it sound nicer. And like magic, came about the major scale system which made the 3rd and 4th plus the 7th and 8th notes just a half-step close.

I had to relate this with the key of C major, the only key with no sharps or flats. I introduced the chromatic line-up, and constructed with them some major scales with the help of the chromatic scale that grew longer and longer as I started going for higher scales. Upon tipping the whiteboard with my chromatic ABC with sharp and flat signs, most probably still did not understand. Darn.

And came the bombardment of the same, old, annoying question. "When are we going to touch our instrument?" I had to settle them down by trying to guess the instrument some recruits could possibly play.

The factors of choosing an instrument: body size (no twig should ever carry a tuba), size of lips and mouth (fish lips = tuba), musical sense (woodwinds = running notes + musically talented junior; brass = the sense of blasting; colouguards = sense of dancing around whenever you hear a song, right~), stomach power (reserved for trumpets), rhythmic sense (percussionists), and hand synchronisation (pitifully, a conductor, yours truly). At least, I was just trying to amuse them. Not to mention, clumsiness - you can never be a colourguard with fumbly hands.

I told the short ones they were going to clarinet. =P (I'm not being discriminative.) If they really did, Wong would definitely slaughter me.

Oh well, since I've already a diploma in hand, what else could I do but spread the love? After all, music is the universal language. =)

PS: I'm somehow reputated by using a lot of bad words, but no, it's for fun, and it's not true, nothing more. Please, no backstabbing. Foul words are intentionally for educational purposes alone. xD

Stick-fishing

2009-01-18T16:16:00.009+08:00

21st December 2008

The second and last day at Albany - a town of great food, beaches, and hilltops.

Chickens, rabbits, pelicans, and those noisy, stupid white birds - they have all of it here in Albany. We took a seafood lunch at a local marron farm (that caused a fortune, despite me feeling rather unreplenished from the dishes, recently classified under Roland's not-so-filling foods), and soon enough we were on our way to take some more beautiful shots of Albany.

Not too beautiful ey? Stupid bent tree.

At first, we all thought it was just a fallen tree.

Until, I started to notice it had some things flying all over it...

That's when we started running. =.=

There was one particular beach, Little Beach, that really captivated us, especially my bro, whom found crabs, octopuses, fish and weird stuff in the crevices among the rocks. =.= Catching them with twigs lying around didn't really fish us a dinner for later.

Saw many hay stacks, cows, and even met two dudes from Brisbane along the way, campers whom even offered crackers and snacks to us. =.= That is what you call Western etiquette. After a tiring day of rushing around and taking pictures behind windscreens (despite all the bird and insect bombardments), it's finally the end of a day of much panoramic views and memories you can never forget. =)