Rant

Ah. Finally the smooth surface of keyboard under my fingertips. The damned Internet connection in college had been denying me of my access to this sinfully indulging virtual world. Can't believe I have to pay for that crappy wi-fi. I mean, I can't even RANT through my blog (have I told you I express myself, usually anger or frustration, through words 99.99% of the time?)! And now my bottle is so full that I simply need to unscrew the cork. OK. That came out wrong. 

Anyway, it had been a bee-bee-busy week. Seriously. All I did was rush rUSh RUSH for things that, if given a choice, I wouldn't give a shit about. Except for the first 2 ASSignments. Or more like duties. Or whatever you call it. I'm too lazy to check the thesaurus. 

So, Monday. Once successfully found an empty piano room (it's literally an impossible task during peak hours), spent the whole time training my fingers to heed my brain signals to play the closest-to-perfect scales without fumbles or slips. Scales assessment and sight-reading test was at 6.30pm. Thank God it was done by our respective Major class lecturers. I would have been fried if it wasn't. Well, the scales and arpeggios weren't a problem, though I'm still not confident about my Minor 6th. But, hell, my sight-reading was a stinking pile of poo. My written piece sight-reading was so-so, having done it for years now. The other one still makes me cringe thinking about it. I already hate sight-reading as it is, but apparently, as a Contemporary Music student, I had to be put through an extra custom-designed torture: Sight-reading with IMPROVISATION. On the dot. To the music-illiterate, it means only a single melody line will be provided, I would have to add the left-hand part on my own according to the style stated (e.g. bossa nova, jazz, swing) PLUS include an introduction AND a solo part AND an ending. I S.C.R.E.W.E.D. U.P. Gah. Don't want to think about it. It's now just a big blotch of black black ink on the otherwise clean paper of that day's exam. 

Haha. This is just the beginning of the rant. You are encouraged to stop reading. Seriously.

OK. That night, rather than feeling all relief and celebrating by reading my Map of Bones, I had to rush for my composition, which was quite impossible since I was already in my hostel, far far away from the piano in Block C. So, I just scribbled some notes according to the off-tune imaginary piano in my mind. In the end, I spent the time typing the attendance list for choir sectional practice. And here was the confusing part, since when did paper work, one that involves the attendance, become a treasurer's job? I mean, I still could split the burden amongst the sectional leaders, but that would take time, and time was definitely something I didn't have. Not with choir rehearsal looming 1 and a half day away. And given the condition of the Internet at the hostel these days, receiving files from them would be off-limits, even if they managed to complete it in time. So, yeah. 

*I miss CHS Choir, where there was a defined line drawn between the jobs of the post. As the assistance treasurer, my work revolved around money and only money, nothing more, nothing less. Of course, my post as Soprano sectional leader was another case.*

Right. As I was saying, I had to hand in my song composition ASSignment on Tuesday, so spent loads of time that day itself trying to mold it to resemble a comprehensive song. Lecturer left the college before I could pass it up =) So I put it at her pigeon hole in the music office. By the time she sees it, it'll probably be next semester, during which I won't be taking composition anymore (drums, perhaps?)

After my daily routine of practising (piano and viola) till 10pm, I burnt the midnight oil to sift through the whole bloody stash of sectional attendance lists. Just so you know, it was an excruciatingly painful job. Half of them wasn't even fucking DATED. Seriously. Was writing 4 or 5 numbers that fucking hard?! AND, at least for Soprano's, those that WERE dated, a quarter of them didn't make any sense! One week, there was only 1 sectional practice, then in the following week, there were 2. I mean, what am supposed to do? Add an extra list to fill in the inexplicable absentees? Or better still, cancel off that whole week and tell Ms. Rachel there weren't practices that week due to unforeseen circumstances?! Ugh. This choir seriously needs help. OK. Maybe it's just Soprano.

Anyway, Tuesday done seething in fury over the incomplete lists (I ended up changing various dates, if Ms. Rachel asked anything, I would just non-chalantly point my finger to the head of Soprano). Woke up early on Wednesday to print them out. Oh. And guess what? 8 hours later, I was told there was no need for the freaking lists with ticks and crosses. She just wanted lists stating the number of absences. That was all. Name. ID No. Number of absences. *Eyes narrowed to slits* 

Aha. Ahaha. 

I simply passed the 4 sectional attendance lists to the respective leaders while I took to care for the overall list with 83 people. Call me stupid. But to be frank, I think I have a crucial problem of not trusting others to do the job well. Hey, you can't blame me. 2 times I led a group for an ASSignment, twice I ended up doing it on my own coz my members didn't find plagiarism wrong (they simply copied and pasted the whole piece of work from the web page and sent it to me. Honestly, did they even understand the consequences if we were caught plagiarising?) and a lot of them (not all though) didn't give a damn whether what they wrote made sense or not (I got a feeling they interpreted "I'll do the editing" to "Just write crap. I'll cover up everything for you by helping you do the research and complete the whole ASSignment"). Most of them looked extremely please with themselves when handing me their part of the project. 

Moving on. Wendesday night was spent on finishing up the absentees lists for Ms. Rachel and making whatever changes requested by Lai Jiunn to the draft for the booklets for the choir concert the next day. Once done, it suddenly hit me I hadn't even started studying for imMoral Studies exam on Friday. And so I began cramming the pro- and against death penalty arguments and other puny facts into my brains. Succumbed to sleep a little over 2am. Or was it later?

Thursday was a helluva day. Both good and bad. Gathered people in the morning to help put together the 200 printed sheets into booklets. It was way fun. More than 10 of us squeezed into a dead end-corridor (containing 5 practice rooms), sat on the floor, me and Wen Dee with our shoes off, and slaved away, sorting the pages and stapling them in the centre. Jia Wai called us the China factory. Haha. 

Then, to celebrate the clearance of the dark cloud and to eat the time before choir rehearsal, a couple of us went to CC again for L4D. LoLz. I'm still not that addicted to the game, not like all of them, but I enjoy hanging out with these people, especially in large groups. We went for tea straight after, during which Wen Dee and I actually kept our promise and did a little revision for imMoral. Oh. I totally blanked out about the printing the attendance list for Ms. Rachel. Until when we got back to college to get 1 or 2 of the cars so that we could drive to the Bak Kut Teh shop. Sadly, by the time I was done with the bloody list (fucking library computer ran out of ink, wasted 3 papers of mine before I printed it through another desktop), we only had half an hour left. That 30 minutes were used on bathing. Dinner had to wait till 7pm, when my parents arrived early to give me my choir outfit (your friend here loves to procrastinate, thus leaving out the most important clothing for the week while packing). Boo.

End of rant. The next paragraph is going to be a happy one. 

The performance was magnificanto! At least the last 2 African folk song: Oye (pronounced as 'oh yeah') and Dubula. I honestly enjoyed myself onstage =) Didn't we all? 

During tea break

Irene and me

My Blue Mountain Soda

Ooo...Wen Dee sangat rajin

O.o Rachel's expression is so funny

After the concert and the treacherous row calling
Sin Zu and me

Timothy, me and Oskar

Me and Zedus. I look depressingly short.

Me, Rays, Ee Ling and Wen Dee

No comment on Oskar's play-dead

Too bad not everyone from Foundation Semester 3 is in here

Whoa. Someone actually chucked this onto youtube immediately after the concert. I'll try to get the 2 last songs. They were the best of the night. Meanwhile...

Come, Gentle Spring - Haydn *I can hear sniggers coming from a CERTAIN person*