Doodling

Gah. Another one of my lame attempts in trying to write a short fictional passage. DO PLEASE IGNORE IT. 

The clock chimed midnight.

She lifted her delicate fingers to the back of her head and gently tugged at the ribbon. As the mask fell from her face, he drew in a sharp breath.

It was her.

The girl who danced to 80s rock music with the curtains thrown wide apart. The girl who called him in the middle of the night to vent out her frustration. The girl who debated with him on practically every single topic. The only girl who yelled at him for giving her the look-over when she was a freshman. The girl who didn't believe in fairy tales. The girl who hated dresses. 

It was her. 

"What are you staring at? Never thought I was a girl-"

The words were lost as he snaked his hand to the small of her back and pulled her to him.

"Don't you try running away. With your average shoe size, any girl could fit into that missing glass slipper."

She chuckled softly. He never stopped being himself.

All too sudden, the amused smile evaporated as his face softened and his eyes had a gleam that she never knew existed. Then, oblivious to the rest of the crowd at masquerade, he leaned in, closed his eyes and covered her lips with his. 

He had found his Cinderella.

P.S. I love masquerades. There's something magical about them. Must be the unmask-at-midnight part. And yes, I'll admit. Cinderella is the only fairy tale that I still love and believe in. 

P.P.S. I'll update on my birthday celebrations as soon as I grab the photos from the respective cameraman/lady. In the meantime, thank you, THANK YOU, to those who celebrated my 19th with me. Your presence meant much more than any gift :)  

P.P.P.S. My sis finds the glass slipper part corny. HAHA.

the Day after Tomorrow

Intended to title this post 'LAST words' regarding my last written words as an 18 year old. But that would sound a tad morbid, don't you think? And unlike someone I know who, within the span of 60 minutes before her 19th, dedicated 7 posts on how depressed and queasy she was about being a step closer to her twenties, and, ultimately, her death, I'm not exactly upset about leaving 18 behind. Of course, this isn't to say I'm thrilled about it. 

I. Just. Don't. Feel. Anything. 

Odd, you know. No tingles of excitement. No bubbles of elation. No bouts of depression. Just nothing. Void.

Then again, my mind and body's responses tend to be retard. So just spare me a couple of days and you'll see a post with the torrent of thoughts that I'll have on living the last 365 days as a TEENager. 

Anyway, this morning's MIDI was a near-death experience. Stupid flash drive broke down. The pending assignments were saved in that 1 place (Don't blame me, it crashed before I could copy the files to my hard drive). Culprit suspected: MIDI lab's computer. From the disfigured dent on the back of the wafer-thin USB port, I'm guessing the dumb equipment couldn't stand the heat and melted, though it was saved before it became deformed or turned into pulp. THANK GOD I sat with Eunice because since we could only open a file at a time, Eunice opened hers and completed whatever work there was left while I counted down the minutes to the end of class. 

Oh well. Back to slaving. 

P.S. Ignore this post. My fingers are itchy and want to type something even if there are 2 assignments due on Thursday as well as a pop quiz on a subject that is more or less physics-related. Ugh. How unappetizing. 

Meanwhile, be entertained! Though some of you have watched it after much pestering from me.

An outdated update

Am supposed to be researching on Soul Music, or more specifically, the Motown Sound. Am due to finish up my Midi assignment before Tuesday's class. Am instructed to read up a whole chapter with 33 bloody pages of written facts on, God forbid, the PHYSICS of sound (sheesh, it IS Music Technology, what did I freaking expect?). Am told to look up on prospective songs for my band to play in the following week.

But, lo and behold, I'm blogging the night away here. Surprise. 

So I guess I don't deserve to rant about the past week. But just to let you have a gist of it, nothing HUGE happened, other than workload came pouring down like rain. The whole week had been cruh-ay-zee, with the capital C. It was like digging my own grave, waiting for the day when I would eventually drop dead, squashed by the immense weight of assignments, practices and expectations. Exams are nothing compared to these weekly tortures. I swear.

Anyway, to a lighter and much more cheerful subject: photos! I know I haven't been uploading tons of them from all those countless occasions. Heck, I just realized I haven't even posted my sexies' birthdays, especially Amanda's! *Knocks head against the wall*

Alright. Since my collection of photos aren't complete for certain occasions, I'm going to start off with Concerts. Then perhaps the next would be Birthdays, College Random Shots and whatever that I stumble upon. 

Shall we start with the less exciting one first? Lat's Window to the World & Charlie Chaplin. Fine. It wasn't NOT exciting, just the fact that it was a formal, dress-coded, instrumental concert makes it less striking. Thank God there was a 'silent movie' projecting on the screen, like the concert on Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Of course, the music was not even near to the latter. 

Let's skip the crap. 

Jing Hua, Eu Chern (with my sis' crutches) and me

Black and white

With a tinge of grey

Took my mom 3 tries before getting this (me, aunt, sis, Hau Run, Jia Wei, bro)

Ah, now for the exciting part! David A's concert! Had a blast there screeching and shrieking his name, even when I wasn't such a huge fan before then. Wicked singing, not a pitch off. He even came back onstage to sing 2 extra songs, A Thousand Miles and Angel (from his American Idol days), when JJ and Ean had us screaming his name again and again and again after he left. The best part was him playing the keyboard. Got blown away :)

Well, here he is:

An insane fan in-making?

The said fan and sis

+ bestie

:P

Leonardo Da Vinci's human diagram. The modern and clothed version, that is.

Wheeeeee...! Natalie and Ean :)

Amanda was wondering how they bred such huge swans

P.S. Angels & Demons was fucking AWESOME! Sure, a bit gory at the start where the bloody eyeball was lying on the ground about 10 feet from the body (I was about to bite into my snuck-in Kebab) and 1 part or 2 when they showed the bodies of the murdered preferetti, but all in all, the whole movie was adrenaline-rushing, with magnificent sceneries and sculptures to back it up. Loved the majestic background music too, loads of grand choral singing (reminded me of Lord of the Rings). Plus, most of the important details were in, though they missed out the scientific ones, like how they tested the very first creation of anti-matter within a lead-coated chamber. Disappointing that it didn't reveal the fact of the late Pope was actually Camerlengo's biological father >:-/ 

So, if you UCSI people plan to catch this movie, if we ever found a free time, that is, then I would definitely watch it again. Well, partially because Angels & Demons is worth watching twice, but mostly because I promised I would watch it with you guys. And I intend to keep my word :) We'll find time, ok?

Ah, May.

Monday (4/5):

I couldn't believe I went to college with no inkling whatsoever of my time table or even which classes I was to attend. Seriously. No news on our Jury results, which was THE examination that would grant us access to Degree if passed, and thus no course selection and no paying of fees. So there the whole bunch of us were, back in college but with no where to go. 

 

Monday:

2pm-3pm Band practice

4.30pm-5.30pm Sectional practice

5.30pm-6pm Band coaching

Tuesday:

10am-11am Midi 1

2pm-3pm Music technology

3pm-4.30pm Pop music history

5pm-6pm Piano class

Wednesday:

11am-12pm Band practice

1pm-1.30pm Viola class

Thursday:

10am-11am Midi 1

11am-12.30pm Pop music history

3pm-4pm Music technology

5pm-7pm Choir

Friday:

10am-12pm Master class

12pm-1.30pm Recital

2pm-4pm Modern band ensemble

Please note that this schedule was compiled over the course of 5 days. 

Tuesday (5/5):

Gah. Midi class got cancelled. But on the bright side, Wen Dee and I went fishing in the sea full of newbies (there are actually 32 Foundation I students, excluding those joining us 'old ones' in Degree I) and surprise (with the exclamation mark), someone here spotted a rare fish in the waters. Teehee! Degree didn't seem daunting anymore. At least for now. 

Had Carl's Junior for lunch. Along with Jia Wen, Rachel, Kevin, Andrew, Wen Dee and David Chiok. In Mid Valley.

HAHA. Some people take things too literally.

Andrew and his excessive intake of fries.

That burger won't stay so large and pretty for long, especially not in Wen Dee's hands

"Nothing beats Carl's Jr.'s burgers!" enthused a customer only known as Kevin.

David the Mr. Messy

*Gasp* Jia Wen lips were swollen! So Kevin gave her some reddish antidote for them.

Rachel looked so happy =)

Yours truly

We rushed back to college and arrived at 3pm on the dot. Only to have the class cancelled. 

Wednesday (6/5):

Couldn't recall what I did that day other than lazing about since classes still hadn't started yet. Oh! Jing Hua came to meet me after her classes coz she wanted to practice piano. And guess what? She knew Rachel from their primary school days! Cool =) This is a small world, baby, a small world. 

Thursday (7/5):

Hell yeah. First class in the first week of our first semester in Degree. Midi I. All about editing, mixing, arranging and manipulating audio data, plus others that you non-musically-inclined people might not comprehend. Sounds fun? It IS, if minus the presence of the ASS factor. Shitload. An assignment is due every single week starting the week after next. So within less than 60 minutes, you can imagine my face going from :) to >:( 

To top it up, Adil gave us a shopping list: A flash drive with at least 1GB, a hard drive more than 160GB and a set of headphones WITHOUT the microphone. Consequences might be dreary if his requests are not met. And so, shopping was a must, and since Wen Dee couldn't make it on Saturday, we decided to do it right after Pop Music History. 

By 12.30pm, the number of lines of frown had multiplied doubly. The reflective questions Alex handed us to answer were next to impossible. I foresaw endless hours of eye-straining research.

 

Anyway, off to Low Yat Jia Wen, Rachel, Wen Dee, Kevin, Andrew and I went! Whee...I got to sit the college's shuttle bus for the first time, as well as my first Star-line LRT ride! Right. I sound ridiculously backward here. But my point is, it was fun! Especially the part where we kept tricking the sleepy Wen Dee into getting off the train before our stop, though, of course, we would have dragged her back in if she did. I think. 

We met up with Bi Ying, Pik Ying, Huay May, Ming and some random friend of his during lunch at KFC. 10 minutes later, the Classical people headed off to buy something (classical-related, I suppose), only to joined us at one of the shops that sold rows of headphones. Then again, most of the shops there sold rows of headphones.

Thanks to the staggering amount of 13 sets of headphones (11 Philips, 1 Sony and 2 God-knows-what brand), we had a 5-buck price deduction. But it had to be paid in cold hard cash *Eyes narrowing into slits* So poor Ming went bankrupt after lending us practically every piece of paper money in his wallet. HAHA.

Headphones were the first and last thing we bought. Time was running out: we had more or less an hour before choir started and you know how even trains in Malaysia could get. Not to mention the college's shuttle bus. 

Wen Dee and Pik Ying, whose place (in Ming's friend's car) Rachel took in order to rush back to the college in time to attend a class

Beggars on the platform of Bukit Bintang monorail station. Someone was sure feeling absurdly generous that day: Beggar 1 got a mouse, beggar 2 got a set of Philips headphones and beggar 3 was smiling away as she viewed her gift. 

Andrew's new name. HAHA. All thanks to the printing error on the Modern Band list that typed 'Andrew Chan' instead of 'Andrew Chew'.

Reached college with 2 minutes to spare before choir. Thank God the attendance was marked by me and Wen Dee. For the last time. 

Heehee. I found out his name :) Sorry, you have to be either one of my Sexy Sluts or my trusted course mates to pry the sacred secret from me. 

 
Syok sendiri with our squeaky new headphones

If you scroll between these 3 photos fast enough, mentally adding the beat box sound, it would look like we were banging our heads to some imaginary rhythm heard only through our unplugged headphones

We dropped by Fun OK to have a couple of drinks after Ms. Rachel Tan released us from choir an hour early. 

Guess what? We skyped with Jia Wen who was vacationing in Hawaii!

And we chatted with Rachel too! She hadn't return from her trip to the East Coast. 

Oh no. This was just a hologram of them. They were still at their respective holiday venue. Though I can't quite explain Kevin's presence. 

Wen Dee, Song Lin and Phyllis

Wanna know what Yong Jia was so happily gulping down?

I don't know what was that either. Alien poo perhaps?

Huay May and me

Me and Jia Wen

Friday (8/5):

Attended our first Modern Band Ensemble class. Tons of talking, voting and answering pop-quiz-style questions to book time slots for band practices. It went on way longer than I had anticipated. Took around 15 minutes just for my band to come up with a song to play in the following week. Here Without You by 3 Doors Down. Cool.

P.S. Sorry, hon', that I couldn't make it to the movie. I'll make it up to you guys. I promise, fingers crossed :)

P.P.S. Congrats to all new committee members of junior choir. Happy working!

Love Story meets Viva La Vida

Jon Schmidt (piano) and Steven Sharp Nelson (cello)


Yet another reason to love independent, unsigned, unattached-to-major-recording-labels artists. I mean, how often do you see mainstream artists arrange their works of art? Fine. They DO arrange the songs but mostly in a way that appeals to the mass audience around the globe and, of course, reaps in profit. Even if they give the 'this is our style, so accept it or leave it' crap.

"But you enjoy listening to the mainstream shit, you hypocrite" chimes the voice in my head.

Anyway, I stumbled upon this ingenious arrangement of Love Story (Taylor Swift), which then seeps into the song Viva La Vida (Coldplay), at a friend's blog. Indeed, it is by far the most beautiful arrangement of the said songs, if you count the latter, I've come across. Ooo...can't wait till the music score is released next month! If I can't download it for free, I'll buy it! Just like I did when I went crazy over the piece Through The Kaleidoscope. Screw the US dollars, it's worth the money. Teehee! My potential Jury piece =) All I need to do is tweak the cello part.

I wanna soak up the sun

Invitation to UCSI Music Students' 

Day Trip to Sunway Lagoon

Date: 22nd April 2009

Time: 11am - 6pm (or till the guards kick the hell lot of us out)

Activities: Go wild

The Partygoers:

Andrew Chew

David Chiok

Irene Hooi

Jia Wen

Johan

Ken Ny

Kevin Ong

Kun Ming

Rachel Ng

Stephen Tan

Wen Dee

Ying Hui

Imagine us skittering across the cement-floor bare-footed under the sweltering heat with no more protection against the UV rays than a thin layer of sunblock. Water rides quenched our thirst for exhilarating escapism but increased our thirst for the cool, drinkable water we brought that was confiscated mercilessly by the guards at the entrance. The suspiciously cloudy liquid from the water coolers looked safe enough...to wash the mud out of our feet. And when hunger overtook us, there were only cutthroat-priced food available. 

But let's view things on the bright side: Most of the amusement rides within the Dry Park area were shaded, or least the queue sections, and we felt less of the heat when soaked in water in the Wet Park. There was almost no queue for every single ride we went on, so again and again we sat without disruption from annoying squealing kids and the press of an impatient crowd-in-line. Of course, the cherry on top would be the success of the trip after a wait of 3 and a half months for our torturous Jury to pass! 

Anyway, I'll just do the narration as you scroll down the string of photos.

Arrived at Rachel's place at what, 7 in the morning? Thanks to my lack of transportation. But it was cool. I got to watch August Rush while Rachel Zzz-ed. The 2 guys arrived about 10am and we were the first to reach the entrance, even after we walked from one end to the other in search for a specific person-in-charge (identity and reason will not be disclosed).

My infamous pose

We didn't bother lining up for tickets. There was no need to. The place was practically deserted. 

Boo you, woman! But it was partially my fault as well. The camera was way too off to the left. You can only see 1/3 of Rachel.

Busted.

It was a wonder how I made it through without being caught. I didn't even bother hiding my water bottle at the bottom of the bag like Jia Wen. The fella' just lifted up the top few layers of clothes and asked whether I kept food or water bottle in it. And before I could answer, he gave the green lights to go. Perhaps he didn't find an extremely heavy and bulging towel weird. *Shrugs* 

Gulped. Gulped. Gulped.

Wheeeeeeeeee.....!

Spent the next 30 minutes donning on swimsuits, coating ourselves with sunblock (an essential ingredient to avoid over-roasting) and cam-whoring

Irene, Wen Dee and me

Johan and Stephen says Hi 

Irene, Jia Wen, Wen Dee and me

You can see how tall Ming is

One of his never-ending supposedly-hidden talents

Since there weren't any Mr. McDonald around, Mc Johan was good enough a replacement

It was way past noon when we began our shoe-less journey across the dry part of the theme park. The ground felt icy cold for a split second before a blistering heat licked the soles of my feet in turn. It was like walking on a hot plate. Thank God it hadn't got to the point where we could see mirages. 

I've labelled the rides in the Dry Park according to the sequence in which we took them

Uno: Apache Pots

This is one of my favourite first stops. A warm-up before the real syok begins. The other would be the Grand Canyon River Rapids.

Kevin, Stephen, Ken Ny

Ming, Johan, Andrew, me

Wen Dee, Jia Wen, Rachel, Irene

LoL. We couldn't walk straight for a while. Well, at least none of us puked.

Dos: Tomahawk

Jia Wen, Irene, Wen Dee and I excluded ourselves from this ride. They called it a waste. We called it a relief. 

Tres: Lost City of Gold, the mine train

Wen Dee and Johan didn't join us for the ride. What a shame.

We started screaming as the train climbed, paused (my breath was caught in my throat) as we plunged downwards, regained breath as it climbed again, shrieked soundlessly on its second plunge, repeated the sequence once more, then screeched triumphantly (as though we won some game) till the end of the ride. HAHA.

The guy at the controls asked whether we would like to take the ride again. Wow. Either we amused him or he must be really bored.

Cuatro: Grand Canyon River Rapids

This was the very first ride we sat twice. And it was also the very first time I didn't have to go through the torture of waiting in line for hours for my turn, thanks to its popularity. The simple sight of a queue-less 'path' was enough to make me high. 

Cinco: Butch Cassidy Trail

I had no idea what made us went for a second round but we did. 

And yes. We bombarded a boot each. 

The effect of the blistering heat?

Cam-whored a little while some of them figured out where to head to next.

Irene, Stephen and David

Join me!

And so they did

Seis: Colorado Splash

Those waiting at the bottom graded each pair of us according to the final position at which we shot to a halt 

Siete: Niagara Falls Flume Ride

Had a double dosage for this ride. Let me tell you, not looking at the slope ahead while the 'log' climbed really helped. A LOT. I only felt a sliver of fear for the second round. 

First round
Me, Ming and Ken Ny

Kevin, Rachel, Jia Wen, Stephen

Second round
David, Jia Wen, Wen Dee and me

A variety of expressions

Ocho: Pedestrian Suspension Bridge

Right. This wasn't really counted as a ride. But it was our last stop before leaving Dry Park for good and submerging ourselves in the Wet Park.

While they scorched their feet crossing the bridge...

...we cam-whored! 

Steam rose as our grilled feet met the cool water of the 'river'

We met the rest at the lockers area after using the longer route. 

Digging out a splinter planted into Jia Wen's toe

Wonder how the bags in there smelt like after 7 hours in that locker with the pile of sandals/slippers.

Warning: DISTURBING PHOTOS BELOW

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Ahem.

aHEm.

AHEM.

Then it was lunch time! Freaking personal pizza cost 12 bloody bucks.

Off to the water we went! We spent the first half of the time lining up for ride after ride, including racing 4 times for Congo Challenge (that carpet ride). The other half was jumping from pool to pool, just lazing around. The funniest part was when we sat in a shallow pool, simply waiting for the bucket (picture inserted below) to fill up. And when it looked like it was about to tip over, we stood and gathered in the area most likely to be splashed then sqeawked with delight as the water hit and sometimes knocked a couple of us down. 

I took this photo as we were leaving the place. There weren't any photos taken until the end when Wen Dee decided to haul out her handphone-camera. 

Solo shots 

Moi

Stephen as Superman in Water.

"Use Pantene, for silky smooth hair"

David

Irene

Jia Wen

Ken Ny

Ming

Johan

Gah. I didn't know the lower lip of my right eye was swollen 

Jia Wen and Wen Dee

Making pillows out of sand

AHAHA.

18 SG

Andrew and his triple cone-boobs (no idea why the third one was on his stomach)

=)

:D

Treble Clef

Bass Clef

Alto Clef

This is what you get when you travel alongside music students.
Last group pic

I finally got around to try this U-shape ride out. Loved it!

We dropped by Johan's place to bath and clean up. By that time, my pants were soaking wet from my not-so-dry-afterall swimsuit underneath.

We were practically zombie-like while we waited for everyone to shower. 

Headed over to Asia Cafe about 8.20pm for dinner. Ordered the same dish as the last time I was there after ice-skating. 

Energy level boosted halfway up. Guess where we went next to fill the other half? C.C.! To play L4D! But the lousy connection potong steam so in the end each of us played a different game. Parents picked me up around 11pm, straight from C.C. coz the rest of them were staying overnight at Wen Dee's and I had another appointment with my sexies the next day =)