Sunday, December 31, 2006

My 2006 New Year Day's Celebrations


30th December 2006 (Sat) Celebration Part I with The Directionless Girl:

This year's 2006 New Year Day's celebrations seem to be a simple occasion with a couple of my very close friends, whom I like to term them as "VIP friends". The first part of the celebrations is a simple Pizza Hut dinner with one of my VIP friends from my university days. In this blog, and to protect her identity, I shall refer her "The Directionless Girl" because she herself said that her new year resolutions are zero because she did not have anything in mind at all. I suppose that is because she said she will have a lot of work on hand in the first few months of the new year.

Anyway, we ordered a couple's meal worth of Hawaiian Supreme Pizza, soups, drinks, sweet n spicy drumlets and honey roasted wings. The Directionless Girl was really funny because she was trying to calculate how much the meal would cost in different order combinations and I had a good laugh over that as I personally just wanted a nice dinner, paying far less attention to the price combinations.

A filling dinner followed, interspaced with our chatting about new year and catching up with each other's happenings in the past couple of months. She looked a little tired but I appreciated her trying to keep her cheeriness since both of us only get to meet up once in every few months due to our hectic schedules.

After a long dinner of about one and a half hours, we window-shopped around Jurong Point and I accompanied her to the NTUC FairPrice so that she could top up her supplies for her office pantry. A really simple but pleasurable outing which I enjoyed on a nice cool Saturday evening.


31th December 2006 (Sun) Celebration Part II with The Changed Man:

The Changed Man, another of my VIP friends, was late for nearly 45 minutes because when I reached City Hall MRT station, he had only just woken up and was making his way drowsily to the MRT station. I ended up browsing the basement of Raffles City whilst waiting for him to come and I found a nice shop with keychains in the designs of wooden animals. They look really cute and I think they will make great gifts for the coming new year.

When the Changed Man arrived, we bought tickets for Death Note 2 at Marina Square and ate lunch at one of the Hongkong Tim Sum restaurants there. I ordered a baked rice with fish fillet but it did not taste as good as NYDC's mushroom ham baked rice. Both of us then proceeded to shop around as we needed new clothes for another common friend's wedding dinner in February. I got myself a nice set of coat and pants worth $209 (original price $418) and the Changed Man bought another set of coat and pants, as well as some long sleeved shorts totalling $300+. I was quite pleased with my purchase because I finally got myself a useful reward for working hard in 2006. The clothes will come in handy for the wedding and any other formal occasions I may attend in 2007.

Death Note 2 was a really interesting movie [Be warned: Movie Spoiler in this paragraph!!!] because Kira managed to use even more complicated means to attempt to outwit L and prevent the capture of both himself and Misa. Many innocent lives were lost in the battle between L, Kira, Misa and Tamaoka (spelling?) and even two of the Gods of Death perished. Kira was finally killed but at a devastating sacrifice of L's life. I found it a little upsetting because at the end of the movie, Kira was mentioned more often but I felt that L deserved even more credit because he died willingly in order to lure Kira to make the final mistake in front of Kira's father. I don't know any real-life cloak-and-dagger detective stories, but it may not be hard to believe that for every criminal captured or killed, many detectives had indeed lost their precious lives in the pursuit of an imperfect justice system...

Celebrations for New Year's Eve come to an end because both of us are pretty appalled by the sheer number of people crowding into the Esplanade and Marina area, presumably for the fireworks during midnight. I am going to rest early tonight and probably miss the entire fireworks display and all the midnight celebrations altogether because I had suggested another more unique (or traditional) form of celebration for the New Year to the Changed Man and I will need all the sleep I can before that can happen smoothly.


01st January 2007 (Sun) Celebration Part III with The Changed Man:

The third part of the celebrations has not happened yet at the time that I am typing this post. I have arranged to watch the very first sunrise of 2007 on one of the eastern coasts of Singapore because I wanted something different from the fireworks, the crowd and the noise. I remembered clearly doing the very same thing during one of my camping trips a number of years back and it was a very memorable experience. Friends and strangers merely gathered on the coast and quiety watched the sunrise - not a single word uttered as each individual made their New Year resolutions silently in their heads facing the first rays of sunshine in the new year. Praying for a good weather and a clear morning sky, I hope to experience this special form of new year celebration, this time not with an entire camp, but with the Changed Man.

Before I turn in for the night, I wish every reader of my blog a Happy New Year and may peace, happiness and wisdom guides your path every day of the year!

We can draw lessons from the
past, but we cannot live in it.

By:

Lyndon B. Johnson, December 13, 196336th president of US (1908 - 1973) (Image Source: http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/Death+Note:+The+Last+Name/movie/13811/)
(Quote Source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2041.html)

Friday, December 29, 2006

守时的原则 - 五秒钟的生死

For readers who cannot view the following blog post in Chinese, please go to the View Tab, Scroll to Encoding and Select Unicode (UTF-8). Thanks.

守时的原则 - 五秒钟的生死

一向强调守时的我, 今天又面对了不守时的挑战。 一位学生为了把两本书递给我, 足足迟到了四时分中。

他迟到的原因, 我接受了。 他的迟到了,不尽让我想起我在中学时的一个教训...

那时我因为在食堂忙着一些课外活动的事务,而把和课外活动老师开会的事给耽误了, 虽然只迟到了五分钟,而我也频频道歉, 课外活动老师还是把我训了一顿。

她说∶“虽然你已道歉, 但是我还是希望你能明白 - 迟到是对等你的人的一种不敬, 不尊敬他们宝贵的时间。你应该知道, 时间用多少金钱还是买不回的, 更何况是其它人宝贵的时间?还好只是开会,若是救人的话,五秒钟就可能是生死存亡之别了。虽然不是每件事都如生死那般严重, 但我既然委托你重任, 你得树立好榜样, 保持一点守时的原则。”

当时我听了,惭愧不已。开完会回到家后,我把手腕上的手表换成数码手表, 并牢记老师那“五秒钟的生死"的教训。从此之后, 我永远只用数码表,并尽我所能在任何约会时,宁可早到也不迟到。

认识我的人, 有些会埋怨我对守时的原则太苛刻了, 但了解我的朋友, 也只道这是我对时间对等我的人的一种尊敬...

后来过了好几年,我上了急救课程,终于撤底明白老师的话,数秒钟真的能有生死存亡之别, 我可不敢随便耽误那宝贵的几秒...

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Night at the Museum, Latest Update from Teresa Tseng, The December Rains




Night at the Museum:

I watched this movie with one of my buddies on Christmas eve because we could not get any decent seats for Death Note 2 that night. Both of us are quite some movie fanatics and we agreed that if there were no proper seats for the movie, we would rather postpone the movie till a later date and we decided to watch "Night at the Museum", starring Ben Stiller, instead.

The movie turned out to be quite entertaining because it was about how a divorced father (Ben Stiller) trying to get a stable income so that his son would not have to keep moving from state to state, school to school with him. He found a job as a graveyard-shift security guard at a local museum, which proved to be one great challenge for him - the artefacts became alive every night after sun-down due to a powerful Egyptian tablet, which became a target for the retrenched museum security guards.

Stiller managed to unify the various fighting artefacts and coordinated the artefacts to prevent the theft of the precious tablet as it would mean the end of the artefacts' resurrection every night. The movie was funny at parts when Stiller tried to get the cooperation of the artefacts, which were pretty stubborn and war-mongering amongst themselves, and touching enough when Stiller finally earned the respect of his son when he managed to keep his job at the museum and done a great deed for the artefacts of the museum.


Latest Update from Teresa Tseng:

The following is Teresa's latest message at Teresa Fan Club (TFC) on 22 December 2006 and I am putting it up here for those who are reading my post but have no access or little idea of the young but accomplished Campus Superstar Overall Female Champion.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi all,It has been a very very long time since I last left a message here. How is everybody doing?^^ I would like to wish each and everybody a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

Well, I had been extremely extremely busy during this school holiday... I am so sorry that I could not leave any messages here for the past two months. My sincere apologies....

following are some events which u might be able to see or hear me.

23rd Dec 06 - 933 interview at 12 noon till abt 1pm. There will be a question and answer for call in, correct answer will be given a small little gift from ME, and maybe Geraldine.

9th Jan 07 - 933 interview for the new drama promotion. Time TBA.13th Jan 07 - Road Show for drama promotion. Time n Venue TBA.

3rd and 4th Feb 07 - Road Show for drama. Time and Venue TBA.

2nd Jan 07 - School Reopens....... HURRAY!!!!!!

^^Filming was a first, educational and enriching experience for me. I will try to elaborate more the next time. There are fun and laughter, hard work, tears and pain as well.

Finally, I had completed my filming, and also the song recording as well. I now hoping for the best, wishing that all will turn out to be fine.

Lastly, I would like to thank you all for all the support that had been showered upon me for the past year. I would like to wish everyone a better year for 2007!

With Love
Teresa Tseng^^
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From her message, it looks like she will have a series of publicity activities for the Idol Drama, scheduled to be televised in mid-January 2007. I am looking forward to the series because I am keen to see how the girl will adapt to acting, which requires quite a different set of skills from singing. Nevertheless, I hope Teresa will do well for the drama because it will be another good exposure to the public and hence doing her good in the future in the aspect of Superstardom.


The December Rains:

I have finally found a way to blog in Chinese and I want to thank Chengsong of TFC for his guidance in the Microsoft Language Bar. I want to express the December Rains in Chinese because some of the parts are better understood using the Chinese language rather than the English Language. For readers of my blog who have trouble with the encoding to read Chinese characters (Go to the View tab, Scroll to Encoding, Select Unicode (UTF-8) and you should be able to read the below section). Hope my Chinese standard has not deteroriated due to lack of use...

连绵细雨真的让人很想睡觉-有些人觉得很舒服, 有些人则觉得很反感。

因为新加坡没有四季, 所以我把十二月的雨季当成在下雪。

虽然“下雪”会带来不便, 但毕竟也给了我机会在温暖的被窝里补充睡眠。

近日疲于工作, 一直都没睡饱, 所以我蛮感激十二月的雨季的到来。

二零零六年又要结束了, 今年好像过的很快, 还来不及回顾, 就得准备迎接新的一年的挑战了。

也许时间永远过得比我们想像中的快吧, 若没有十二月的雨季, 雨滴的提醒, 我们恐怕早就忙昏了头,忘了时间的变迁了吧。

雨-是大自然的仙露? 灵魂的醒神水? 还是天地的泪?

因心境而异吧...


(Image Source: http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/Night+At+The+Museum/movie/13658/)

Friday, December 22, 2006

Personal Review of The Curse of The Golden Flower


A couple of weeks ago, I was pondering over what I should do for my parents for this Christmas and the answer came in the form of a simple movie treat to The Curse of The Golden Flower, which features their favourite actor Chow Yun-Fatt as the Tang Emperor. I was happy to see them glued to their seats, soaking in all the splendour and fine acting by some of the greatest actors alive today.

The movie was good. With Chow Yun-Fatt and Gong Li leading a formidable cast of actors in an epic portray of imperial court politics during the height of the Tang Dynasty in China. Both of them are indeed some of the finest actors because their expressions are flawless in depicting all the irony and suffering behind the glorious surfaces of the Imperial Family. Jay Chou was also quite suitable in his role as a fillial prince who could not bear to watch his mother suffered the slow poisoning by his father and led an ill-fated rebellion against his father within the imperial palace. Although his portrayal of emotions are still a little rigid but he makes it up with a princely charisma during the rebellion as well as his final scene where he makes a choice between serving his mother the continued two-hourly poison or be punished with his body split into five by warhorses.

The fight scenes were quite brutal but most of the blood in the large-scale rebellion in the imperial palace was glossed over by computer-generated images. However, what struck me the most was the depth and development of the characters in the movie: the Emperor (with his deathly-cold rationale to maintain the order of the empire, the Empress (with her cunning determination to end her personal death sentence with a rebellion), the Crown Prince (with his loyalty tested against secret affairs with both the Empress and the Imperial Physician's daughter), the Second Prince (Jay Chou, with his intense fillial piety even at the face of certain defeat and death) and the Third Prince (with a shocking display of ambition and violence towards his very own family). Another noteworthy character was the First Empress (birth mother of the Crown Prince) who had impressive scenes showing her deep hatred and vengeance against the Emperor who had betrayed and framed her in order to ascend to the throne many years ago.

In The Curse of The Golden Flower, it doesn't really take massive, gory battles or lots of tear-wrenching scenes to make it a good movie. It was those scenes of characters holding back the tears through clenched teeth and the deceptive smiles behind the scheming minds that made it such an experience to witness excellent acting and of course, a great story told.

(Image Source:
http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/The+Curse+Of+The+Golden+Flower/movie/13796/)

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Deep Disappointment at PSS 2 Judges' Scoring Reliability


Deep Disappointment at PSS 2 Judges' Scoring Reliability:

I just finished watching the Revival Round for the male contestants of PSS 2 and I was deeply disappointed by how the judges were liberally giving out unbelievably high scores to mediocre performances and marginalizing impressive performances with jaw-dropping low scores.

Earlier on, I had decided not to watch the PSS 2 competition anymore but I decided to give the PSS 2 judges credit for their experience and knowledge of singing so I forced myself to sit in front of the television one more time. The result - an almost disbelief at how biased Singapore's reputedly top-notch music people are in giving out scores for singing competitions.

Without specifying names of contestants, I watched with utter disbelief at how the PSS 2 judges were penalizing some of the rather-well-performing contestants with crippling low marks and for some contestants, below-the-belt comments on the contestants' physical appearances and even personal motives for participating in the competition. I could scarcely believe my ears because a judge for singing competition should never have humiliate any contestant, out of sheer professional respect and humility. I was horribly wrong and incredibly ashamed that our supposedly best music professionals were actually belting out such lowly comments at the poor contestants.

On the hand, the PSS 2 judges were all smiles for those contestants that they seemed biased towards and were showering groundless praises on those contestants' performances when I personally felt that those performances were merely a little above average. Of course, for people reading this post right now, it is perfectly alright to think of me as another ranting blogger with no proper credentials to be even criticisizing those highly-reputed judges on television. Indeed, I probably still don't understand what they meant by "head voice" or "flats during high notes" but after sixteen years dabbling in music and songs, I came up with the following criteria for a good performance:

Total Entertainment Value =

(Singing capability + Song Delivery + Stage Presentation + Stage Attire)

1.0) Singing Capability (Subtotal: 25 marks)
1.1) Lyrics accuracy (Max. 5 marks) - includes lyrics memorization
1.2) Tempo accuracy (Max. 5 marks) - includes synchronization to the tempo of song
1.3) Breath control (Max. 5 marks) - includes breathing techniques and song pauses
1.4) Voice clarity (Max. 5 marks) - includes pronunciation of lyrics and notes
1.5) Singing techniques (Max. 5 marks) - includes voicing platforms and bass use, rapping, etc

2. 0) Song Delivery (Subtotal: 25 marks)
2.1) Facial expression of performer (Max. 5 marks)
2.2) Body language of performer (Max. 5 marks)
2.3) Emotion management of performer (Max. 5 marks)
2.4) Creativity of song deliverance (Max. 5 marks)
2.5) Special techniques present in particular song (Max. 5 marks)

3.0) Stage Presentation (Subtotal: 25 marks)
3.1) Stage posture (Max. 5 marks)
3.2) Stage movement (Max. 5 marks)
3.3) Audience interaction (Max. 5 marks)
3.4) Camera interaction (Max. 5 marks)
3.5) Mcee interaction (Max. 5 marks)

4.0) Stage Attire (Subtotal: 25 marks)
4.1) Fashion appeal and impression (Max. 5 marks)
4.2) Suitability for song genre (Max. 5 marks)
4.3) Suitability for stage movement (Max. 5 marks)
4.4) Suitability for lighting effects (Max. 5 marks)
4.5) Suitability for image of performer (Max. 5 marks)


Yeah, I know all of the above critieria look so complicated but believe me, all of them are very necessary for a good performance and very few people can actually fulfill all of those criteria in every single performance. Obviously, the PSS 2 contestants are still very far from that but I could really see some of them doing everything they can to improve themselves in a number of the aspects above. Sadly, the PSS 2 judges chosed to silence them with really biased scores and comments, and probably wrecking the hopes of many singer wannabes with such a poor showing of professional grading of competition.

I don't know why I am so upset about that kind of biased judging and scoring because I am not even in the competition nor am I a hardcore supporter of any of the PSS 2 contestants. Maybe I just want to see a nice, healthy and blossoming music & entertainment scene for Singapore. I am not patriotic in that sense but I love to see good music and performances positively influencing as many people as possible and it is only through such Superstars that such an ideal may possibly take root in the increasingly apathetic society around everyone of us. I believe music can heal, if given the chance.

(Image Source: Hendriko, 7 March 2005, Flickr)

Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Music Playlist, The Playground and The Engineers on the MRT


The Music Playlist:

For those who have been visiting my blog, they should have noticed that I have included a nice little function - a music playlist to feature all the songs which I personally like and would love to introduce to the people reading my blog. I have not found a way to write in Mandarin so everything in the music playlist has to be in Hanyu Pinyin. My apologies to all those who may have little or no understanding of how Hanyu Pinyin reads as.

Nevetheless, the music playlist fulfils its basic objective - getting what I believed to be timeless good songs across to people of all ages. If you have noticed from the list of songs, I have included both relatively new and older songs in the playlist so that there is a variety of songs to choose from (in case some of the songs happened to be "unbearable" to some of you out there - I personally have not acquired the taste for heavy and metallic rock music from the Western cultures).

Obviously, there is no way to convince people that my selection of predominantly Mandarin songs are acceptable to everyone who may be listening to one of them right now, but I hope music lovers can still listen with an open mind and learn to appreciate music, whatever the genre, singer or time in which it was composed. After more than sixteeen years dabbling in music, I truly believe that music is one of the best creations of mankind and we should always be free to allow music to express some of our thoughts and feelings. Long live our love for music!

The Playground:

Two days ago, I was waiting at a playground for one of my lessons to begin because I had came a little early. Watching two of the kids clambering and having their fun on those large, colourful, metallic structures on those modern, carpeted playground set me thinking about the playground I used to play in when I was very young. It was made mostly of cold hard concrete, metal chains and lots and lots of sand and that was like more than ten years ago...

That playground was definitely more primitive than those we see around the neighbourhood these days but the experiences with the older types of playgrounds were educational in their own ways. From young, I learnt, through various incidents, that concrete is harder than my bones (bruises), metal chains are rougher than they look (abrasions) and sand contains quartz which can be as sharp as glass (cuts). My grandmother would be dabbing away at my wounds and I would be frowning and wincing away then. Hahaha...

I have not gotten any chance to play on those new playgrounds, probably due to the fact that it would be strange to do so at my age now but I suppose there are new lessons to be learnt at the playground since the structural content of the new metallic-carpeted playgrounds are so different from the older concrete-sand ones.

One thing is for sure though - no amount of classroom teaching can substitute the hands-on experiences at the playground. If you have been away from a playground for quite some time now, maybe you can just hop into one and re-learn those lessons again at the playground. After all, what could be a better way to learn things through a process of fun and laughter? Go get your dose of playground and get your hands-on fun now.

The Engineers on the MRT:

Yesterday, I was returning from a lesson on a long MRT ride back home and I had that rare opportunity to have four engineers standing beside me rattling off about technological gadgets. I am very sure that they are engineers because they were talking about complex technical issues within those gadgets and I could make very little head or tail of what they were talking because their language was peppered with loads of technical jargon. However, it was still fun to be listening in to what they said about MP3 players, scanners, printers, faxes, video cameras, cellphones, etc and I was admiring how much they knew about the field of work.

For me, I already knew from my primary school years that I would never become an engineer because I was never interested in reading those technical manuals and explaining to others how machinations work. I remembered there was a problem with the sound system at the backstage before an important concert then and a couple of the more technically-inclined team members were rambling about how to fix the problem. I tried very hard to follow their line of discussion but was totally confused. A few weeks of subsequent study into technical know-how yielded only disinterest and lots of dozing. By then, I decided I won't be an engineer when I grow up, much to the chagrin of those around me as they cited good pay and prospects in the careers of engineers.

My work philosophy remains the same after all these years - I want to enjoy what I am doing so I'll never have to work a single day of my life. My answer today: =D


Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.

By: William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2 Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 - 1616)

(Image source: Goran, 11 Jan 2006, stock.xchng)
(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/3071.html)

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Campus Superstars @ MediaCorp Star Awards Post Party

Campus Superstars at MediaCorp Star Awards Post Party

The above video link is the latest performance by Campus Superstars during the MediaCorp Star Awards 2006 Post Party. The video was transferred from a link gratefully provided by alan_is_not_great, a long time member of TFC. The song was titled "Fu Man Ren Jian" and was performed by Teresa, Zhiyang, Geraldine, Renfred, Adriano and Yuyang.

Honestly speaking, it was rather disappointing to see them doing a lip-syn performance because their voices, especially Teresa's, were fully capable of singing live onstage at the event and thus they missed out on a great opportunity to impress upon some of the overseas celebrities who stayed back for the Post Party. Nevertheless, it was good for those who miss them to see them perform and enjoy themselves onstage again.

Friday, December 08, 2006

The New 007, The Memory Pill and The Fallout Tactics Team



The New 007

I recently watched
Casino Royale, the latest instalment of the British MI-6 secret agent, James Bond movies and it struck me as I realized that the new 007 is very different from all the previous James Bond movie that I have seen. Yes, I watch every single James Bond movie throughout history not because I love to see Bond frolicking with the women but I love to see how he overcomes his opponents using his cool gadgets.

This time, however, did not feature much of his technological advantage, but the whole movie revolves around the new James Bond moving the story, defeating his adversaries, and overcoming his personal struggle with love with nothing else but his personality, courage and wit. The movie gave me a very deep impression of Daniel Craig, the lead actor, as he managed to portray a very humanistic secret agent who bleeds quite profusely(all the cuts, bruises and punches he took from his opponents), suffers pain (the horrible chair whip scene), feels love (which ended tragically with betrayal and death) and admits his failings (he knows when he makes a mistake and does whatever he can to correct it).

I really like the new 007 because he is not the kind of death-cool agent that could just walk away from an explosion but one who may wipe his sweat, blood and wince at the pain when he goes about trying to save the world. If you did not manage to catch it at the silver screen, I would recommend getting hold of it as a VCD or DVD. This will be the first James Bond movie I believe to be worthwhile for collection.

The Memory Pill

http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/21/memory_drug

A couple of weeks ago, I received the above video of how a scientist manages to use adrenalin to help mice remember things far better and the whole experiment points to a possibility of using chemicals to make "memory pills" enhance our memory power and learn things at a rate never before imagined. Wow...does that mean students can study at a fraction of their time and remember all the things that they have read?

This is definitely a good thing from one angle because most students I know are studying so hard that they barely have enough time to learn more about themselves and their surroundings. With all the talk on being competitive and efficient and trying to make it big through life with all the best possible things, this potential option really sounds attractive to the people who are always hard-pressed for time to acquire facts.

This, however, may be a dangerous thing as well, because it may provide an opportunity for people to try and bend time using chemicals and hence skip out a very important process of changing facts into the knowledge- the maturity of it. Facts needs time to "mature" because what one learns is mere facts but to classify it properly in one's mind and to form a judgement as to when to use the knowledge in appropriately circumstances requires the evolution of facts into knowledge. For example, one may know CPR, but one will still need to know if using the CPR will be the best option given the conditions of the casualty or if by using CPR will endanger oneself if there is clear and present dangers around. So, even if one may imbibe the memory pill and learn CPR in a matter of minutes, one may still be ineffective in using the facts behind CPR because it has not been transformed into knowledge yet and that transformation takes time...

The Fallout Tactics Team

I temporarily stopped playing the Port Royale trading-cum-pirate-hunting game because my in-game wife was returned to me safely by that nasty pirate king, together with a box of 20,000 gold coins. Why? Because my in-game was talking incessantly about hygiene of her captors and managed to convert some of those swashbuckling pirates into demurely behaved men and that pirate king was so astounded with what he believed to be a terrible conversion that he sent her back to me with money to prove his apologies for kidnapping her in the first place.

So with my in-game wife safely chatting away in Havana, one of the main port-cities that I controlled in the game, I went back to playing a tactical combat game called Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel. It's a very engaging game because it tests my ability to organize and manage a small team of commandoes to fulfil a number of missions given by The Brotherhood of Steel against a backdrop of post-apocalyptic environment. The missions are challenging in their own ways, from retrieving fusion batteries, recruiting mechanics, saving hostages, detonating nuclear plants, rescuing comrades, assassinating betrayers to defeating a post-apocalyptic supercomputer.

Using an editor, I managed to achieve unlimited gameplay and this is the 10th time I am playing the game and its missions with a deeply-developed team of commandoes consisting of a commander, a ranger, a sniper, a gunner, a mechanic and a surgeon. I crossed-trained them in many disciplines such as first-aid, doctor, lockpicking, traps & demolitions, repair and science and the members complemented one another very well in the various missions, just like a real-life special forces detachment. The gameplay requires much thought because it does not mean that packing the largest machine gun and rocket launcher will automatically yield victory because there is inventory space and encumbrance factors to work around with and the AI opponents can be hiding in deeply-entrenched positions, shredding the commandoes into bits if the wrong and reckless tactical decision is made. If nothing goes wrong, I should be playing this game from time to time because a good game keeps my mind nimble, my heart excited and my thirst for a well-earned victory quenched.


Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are
seasoned.


By: Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858US author & physician (1809 - 1894)


(Image source:
http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/Casino+Royale/movie/13754/)
(Quote source:
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2062.html)

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The Emergency Button, The PSS 2 Goodbyes and The Battle of Wits


The Emergency Button:

Yesterday, I witnessed a female passenger vomitting and fainting on the MRT passenger cabin. I wanted to reach out forward to help her because I was a qualified first-aider but the crowd was way too packed as they edged forward to see the incident. The poor girl vomitted at least thrice and nearly passed out and another female passenger pressed the emergency red button near the sliding doors, requesting the train to be stopped at Queenstown MRT station and some SMRT staff to help the fallen passenger.

Minutes later, the two male staff arrived, but to my utter horror, they went straight to unlock the emergency button instead of going to check on the female casualty. The disgusting idea hit my mind then at once - those SMRT staff were more concerned about that emergency button than the casualty (which is supposed to be THE emergency). I watched quietly over the bobbing heads of other passengers when the two male staff finished unlocking the emergency button and I encountered the second horror of that incident - both of the SMRT staff members started walking back, seemingly forgetting everything about the vomitting and fainting female passenger!! The good Samaritan also stared at the two men and finally only one of the staff noticed the staring and went back to check on the female casualty (who looked really feeble and weak from my angle).

The MRT train started moving and I stretched out to see what happened to the other male SMRT staff member - the last glimpse was of him still walking back to the elevator, seemingly unconcerned about the female passenger. So much for passenger concern and safety - I continued my journey with a new disgust about SMRT's handling of that incident. The button and the passenger - they seemed to have chosen that cold, red "emergency" button.

The PSS 2 Goodbyes:

I watched last Thursday's voting results show fpr the Project Superstar 2's first Quarter-Finals contestants and saw all the crying, hugging and goodbyes of those who were voted out and those who remained in the cruel competition. I could see how some of the contestants were incredibly upset because I believed they did not regard the whole thing as a competition but as an invaluable opportunity to make friends with like-minded people. Yet, the show moved on and the remaining twenty contestants continued their journey to attempt to become Superstars while the other four were to move on to whatever lives they had decided to lead after the competition.

The episode reminded me of something that I had learnt many years ago - the world moves on, whether you want it to or not. For some of the contestants, it must have been a terrible night that night to watch friends leave and perhaps never return again on the same stage, but such is the reality of elimination-style competitions and perhaps elimination-style real world as well. Maybe the SMRT staff were thinking about the same thing - that vomitting female passenger had fallen behind and would be left behind while the train moved on. I personally have waved goodbyes and left behind many things as well - the schools I went to, many of those friends I made during my stays there, the people who were once important but now meaningless to me.

Who gets left behind, who is staying behind, who is moving on and who is still undecided - this may well sum up the daily struggle by everyone in whatever worlds they deemed themselves to be in. Still, I believe in one consistent thing so far - do my best for every day of my life and let my destiny unfold by itself. To the person reading this right now - are you doing your best for every day in life or you have your own unique philosophy of managing life itself? Whatever the case - enjoy this moment because there will never ever be another moment exactly the same as this one.

The Battle of Wits:

I just came back from watching the movie starring Andy Lau and I was impressed by the simple message that it was trying to bring the audience - Let go of war and embrace peace. Obviously, this message has been brought across by countless movies, celebrities, political forums, and even cartoon strips but the fact remains even more obvious - it is probably one of the hardest things to do for many people. Why? Because war gives the perfect excuse to eliminate people you don't like, don't want to like, boost your own ego whenever you score a victory, trample the egos of those defeated whenever you win, or fulfil whatever secret desires or cravings that I cannot even begin to comprehend. I am not just talking about those wars with swords, shields, guns and bullets. I am including all other forms of war in which there is a competition with the victors celebrating and the vanquished falling silent.

In the movie "Battle of the Wits", the lead character, Ge Li, played by Andy, advocated something in the movie that is still resonating in my head right now - universal love for all people alike and he was intelligently retorted by a slave which he saved in the movie who countered - learn to choose who to love more is better than blind universal love. I suppose the slave's words made greater sense because loving someone or something or some belief does not automatically mean that that love will be reciprocated. Just like what happened in the move, Ge Li's unselfish love for the people in the city of Liang was horribly twisted by the Liang King as an ulterior motive to usurp power. Ge Li's was nearly killed and learnt his lesson that not every single human in the city deserves his sacrifice and devotion to save from harm. I suppose the same philosophy can be applied to the workings of daily life - one does not need to hate every opponent or every force of opposition or negation but one also does not need to love everyone equally because, regardless whether the love will be reciprocated or not, the focused effort of loving those whom one deems important to oneself is better utilized. For me, I am going to start to smile more to the people I love and stop frowning on those whom I don't. It may still be a battlefield out there somehow, but at least I will try to learn to fight, comforted by my new peace of mind. It's a movie that I would want to recommend to my friends. Click on the link provided by the picture source below if you want to read the movie's synopsis.


One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing;
that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.


By: Agatha Christie, Autobiography (1977)English mystery author (1890 - 1976)

(Picture Source: http://www.moviexclusive.com/review/abattleofwits/abattleofwits.htm)

(Quote Source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/24918.html)

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Behind Those Guitar Strings



Teresa Tseng Learning Guitar:

I had a recent update from Teresa Tseng's official fanclub that the girl is learning how to play a guitar for some of her song recordings. I was very impressed to hear that because it meant that Teresa was striving hard to break barriers and learning new things to further her interest in singing and music, possibly pushing herself to new heights to bring everyone even better performances if she manages to learn guitar well enough.

As a vivid supporter for Teresa's performances, I cannot find myself sitting idly so I decided to help her in whatever ways I can by providing her with a post about guitars and guitar-playing so it will, hopefully, help to further her understanding on the instrument and express herself better behind those guitar strings. I also try to generate this post for the benefit of other faithful supporters of Teresa who may previously have not much of an idea what guitars and guitar-playing are all about and thus let them understand that it is both a very interesting and fun instrument to play on, once the initial cloud of confusion and difficulty clears up.

What is a Guitar?

The Wikipedia Free Online Encyclopedia provides quite a comprehensive write-up about guitars and its possible origins. From my deductions, Teresa should be learning an acoustic classical six-string guitar because electrical ones and any other types would usually require some experience in string instruments and given the impending studio song recordings, I don't really think she would be learning those complex types of guitars at this very moment.

The Chords On The Guitar:

I found a very cool website that has one of the most comprehensive chord builder around for guitarists. If one bothers to count the number of available chords on the fingerboard of the guitar from the below link, one can easily find more than one hundred chords, which translate into countless variations and possibilities of making the guitar-playing a fascinating experience. How many chords can an experienced player generate from those six strings? The answer by some of the maestro guitars - a stunning few MILLION....Of course, from what I know, Teresa Tseng is currently learning just basic guitar-playing but I hope the chord builder from this website http://musiceffect.com/chord/ will help the girl to understand the interesting depth of the instrument itself.

Personal Recommendations of Mandarin Songs with Guitars:

The following songs are my personal recommendations of mandarin songs that go very well with decent guitar-playing. Okay, I am more into ballads but they really sound great - just listen and judge for yourself. Hmm...maybe Teresa may reach such excellence in time to come but for those who did not own a guitar or have not been instructed on the instrument, you can still enjoy the songs, paying particular attention to how guitars can beautifully complement songs. I am already looking forward to hear how Teresa sounds with her playing the guitar.

Who? Me? Haha...I was taught to play by my father and I modestly played my first song on the guitar when I was in Primary Three, which is like more than seventeen years ago. Am I maestro guitarist? Nope, because I had not been practicing as hard as I should have. Perhaps I might be motivated again to do so once I hear Teresa play her song on the stage or on the airwaves. Yet, after seventeen years, I still love the guitar and the music behind those wonderful strings. I hope you can also enjoy the songs below and learn to love the guitar too...

1. ???? By: David Tao Che

One of the more recent songs in the song market and should be easily recognized by many of the younger supporters of Teresa.

2. ???????? By: Power Station Dong Li Huo Che

An older song a few years back by one of the then-popular duo group from Taiwan. I could only grasp in amazement by how powerful their voices are.

3. ???? By: Sky Wu Si Kai

This song was from my secondary school era. I remembered vaguely that I fielded this song for one of my school's annual singing contests. I did not got through to the next round because the microphone was not working properly then? Haha..oh well..


Music has charms to soothe the savage breast To soften rocks, or
bend a knotted oak.

By: William Congreve, The Mourning Bride, Act 1 Scene 1English dramatist (1670 - 1729)


(Image Source:keela84, Apr 01 2005, Flickr)

(Quote Source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1486.html)

Friday, November 17, 2006

17 November 2006 End of the Day Post



How the day moved on:

Port Royale:

The morning started a simple breakfast of instant mee goreng and a glass of grape juice, followed by a gaming session on a computer game known as Port Royale. The game is about developing towns' economies, trading commodities, moving settlers, fighting famous pirates, fulfilling governors' quests, retrieving a long-lost sister and just when I thought that was already a long list, the game threw a surprisingly difficult quest again - rescuing my in-game wife from a pirate abduction.


This new quest is considerably more difficult because the pirate captain requested for a ransom of $900,000 from me. That is a huge sum of in-game money because I usually only make around $100,000 a week, which means a horrific surrender of nine in-game weeks of gameplay (translated approximately into 4 days of real-time game-play). The other option is to spend $90,000 on an in-game intelligence agent and pinpoint the location of the pirate's hideout and rescue my in-game wife in the less diplomatic way - cannons and rifles blazing. However, there is another problem, the pirate captain is no pushover small-time bucanneer - he has at least nine galleons and nearly a thousand pirates in his fleet. Galleons are easily one of the most powerful ships in the game and it takes a lot of time to recruit one thousand sailors (considering that each port only provides around fifty sailors for hire per week) and even more money to upkeep the salaries of the sailors.

I have decided the course of action, the guns blazing one. Why? Because paying the ransom will only make that pirate captain richer & more powerful and it does not guarantee that he will not try the same trick again anytime in the future. Though it will take me a long time to prepare the ships and sailors for the naval firefight ahead, I am determined to save my in-game wife because she looks quite alike to a real-life person who gave me the computer game as a gift in the first place. Call me bloodthirsty if you want to, but regardless of the costs (probably a number of ships and hundreds of sailor casualties), I am bent on sending that nasty pirate into Davy Jones locker and rescuing my in-game wife. I simply enjoy the challenge provided by a good game.

Pastamania Treat:

Lunch was at Pastamania because I wanted to give my parents a lunch treat. I usually work late and thus I make use of this period of rest days to be nice to them. Both of them are already so old but they were nevertheless very happy to know of the treat this morning and took time to dress up for the occasion. We had three plates of spaghetti (all different flavors) and my dad ordered a huge glass of Italian soda and my mom happily tucked into her chocolate mousse. It was not the best lunch treat in the neighbourhood but I suppose they looked happy enough. I wanted to order more for them but they simply refused, patting their stomachs contentedly.

What is a simple pleasure? Perhaps a lunch treat will do. The thought of my parents' mortality crossed my mind again. With age catching up, there may be fewer and fewer time left to make them contented or happy. I can only do what I am able to and hope that can at least repay a tiny fraction of my eternal debt to them - for bringing me up. It was a good lunch with my parents.

Same Gym, Different Feel:

Today's gym session was more unusual because I usually go to the gym in the mornings and even though it was the same old gym, the atmosphere exuded this afternoon was one of calmness and quietude because the radio was not blaring with the usual morning FM 98.7 music but was gently playing retro songs from FM 90.8. The gym crowd this afternoon was considerably different and much quieter than the morning one - almost nobody spoke and everyone was merely soaking the music and quietly doing whatever training they were at. Even the usual morning jokes, laughter and grunts of effort at heaving the weights were missing in the afternoon gym crowd. I was not uncomfortable but more amazed at how the same familiar place could have such a different feel altogether in a different time of the day. To make sure I can happily harmonize with the afternoon group of gym-goers, I kept my silence throughout and finished my weight-lifting session in an hour's time.

Translation For Teresa Tseng Fanclub:

Today, I did a translation of an I-weekly magazine article on Teresa Tseng and the Idol Drama for the fanclub because I realized that some of her supporters may not be that conversant in Mandarin to understand the article's content. Why am I doing this? Aren't I over-aged for joining a fanclub and supporting a young singer who is at least two generations younger than I am? The reason - she makes a lot of genuine effort to better her singing and she has the potential to become a great iconic singer if she wants to be. For me, Teresa is indeed a true gem in singing. Don't take my word for it - go watch her performances and decide for yourself.

Most of the supporters of Teresa are actually very nice people, spanning several age groups and I think doing them a little favour is not that difficult for me. I hope Teresa can truly understand how deep the support goes behind her and realizes the power within her hands (and voice) to change many things for the better. The supporters I got to know over the few months may not be the most vocal or visible, but they know their reasons for supporting the girl and they truly believe in her. That is a rarity amongst the local music and entertainment scene.

In a nutshell at the end:

Ah....a simple day. Sometimes, it is such a luxury.

Happiness is when what you think, what you
say, and what you do are in harmony.


By:Mahatma Gandhi Indian ascetic & nationalist leader (1869 - 1948)

(Picture source: ycon108, 16 Jun 2006, Flickr)

(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/31095.html)

Monday, November 13, 2006

Flowers For Algernon



Flowers For Algernon:

I wanted to write about this story because it is a literature piece for two of my secondary school students and it has got me thinking about what exactly is intelligence, how much people have been craving for it, and how much of it is considered enough for people. The topic may sound a little heavy for those looking for a light-hearted post on my blog but I hope it wil interest those readers who are keen to probe the very same topic themselves.

For those who have never heard of the story, it is about a man named Charlie Gordon who had volunteered for an surgical experiment to artificially increase his intelligence by threefold because he wanted to be "as smart as his friends". Algernon was a white laboratory mouse, which went through the same surgical enhancement. However, the surgical experiment's initial success was not permanent and after Algernon died from neuro-complications from the experiment, Charlie himself also experienced an equally rapid decline of his mental capacity a few weeks after the surgery.

Charlie struggled in futility to keep his intelligence and his new-found knowledge and the story ended with him leaving the town in the hope of leaving the memories of the experiement and the consequent experiences behind him. Charlie's final wish in his journal was to get his language school teacher, Miss Kinnian, to put flowers on Algernon's cheesebox grave because he considered Algernon as his only compatriot in his meteorite-like life.

What is Intelligence?

The ability to score high marks for IQ and academic tests or examinations? The ability to read pages of information and transform what one has read to knowledge? The ability to wise-crack with everyone in sight and impress them with witty jokes? The ability to solve problems in a spontaneous and creative way? The ability to gain acceptance from people and ensure one's continual survival in the highly competitive world today?

There are so many competing definitions for intelligence right now that it is really hard to say. But for the story of "Flowers for Algernon", it was definitely about social acceptance. Charlie Gordon simply wanted to be smart so that he could better enjoy the company of his friends around him and make himself more useful to the people around him. However, the harder he tried, the further those very people shrunk away from him. And as Charlie gained knowledge and understanding of the people and events around him, he realized how he had been made use of as a walking target for jokes and mass beatings.

What do people crave to have intelligence?

Social acceptance? Self-acceptance? Positive advantage over others in life? Multiplier factor in enjoying life to the fullest? I have asked many people in my life the same question above and the answers often vary. I am inclinced to believe that each and everyone of us have a slightly different answer in our minds and hearts but most of us agree that a higher level of intelligence is a good thing. Yet how much is enough? Do we ourselves know how much intelligence can we fit into our minds without risking some sort of "mental overload"?

How much intelligence is considered enough?

Charlie Gordon in the story "Flowers For Algernon" , though had thrice his original intelligence, had not only problems in trying to integrate himself into his immediate social circle but the very human society as both tried to alienate from him because he was being considered as "abnormal" now (on the other end of the intelligenece spectrum). The story never really discussed how much intelligence is considered enough but it did mention that the human world may not yet be ready to be friendly towards highly-intellectual people.

I personally feel that intelligence is considered enough if it is able to establish an integrative, stable, and contented connection with the world. If the level of intelligence cannot integrate with the existing knowledge of the world and society around that intellectual, it may only serve to destroy, not build the foundations of the world and the society. When that happens, such levels of intelligence may be met with hostility, alienation and even abandonment. If the level of intelligence cannot be sustained on a stable basis for a purpose (hopefully for contructive ones), it may only be disintegrated either through procastination, distraction or negligence. If the level of intelligence cannot fulfil an achievable contentment level within the individual who possesses it, it may ignite an uncontrollable ambition to attempt to amplify the intelligence level through whatever means possible and thus simultaneously putting the previous two conditions mentioned at risk.

Simply put, it's like balancing a see-saw with three conditions atop of it. So what is my verdict? Intelligence cannot stand alone because it is a multiplier, needing many other skills to work its magic.

It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival
value.

By:Arthur C. Clarke English physicist & science fiction author (1917 - )

(Image source:lemon drop, 03 Oct 2004, stock.xchng)
(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/777.html)



Saturday, November 11, 2006

11 November 2006 End of the Day Post



How the day moved on:

It's a slacker's saturday today, with a long drawn-out rain that is continuing all the way from noontime till the night. Hmm...9.30am seems to be the standard time for waking up whenever I have my rest days and this time, I have three consecutive rest days to catch up on my sleep, my games, and watching my vcds. Ah...it's good to have a nice break after all the hectic running about during those examination periods. Breakfast was a packet of mee goreng and a glass of orange juice - simple, filling and lazy's man's way out.

Playing Titan Quest:

After breakfast, I spent quite a few hours today enjoying the role-playing game, in which the storyline stretches from Greece, Egypt to China. The graphics of this game is the best that I have seen but the game does crashes once in a while so I had to backup the game files everytime I reached a safe point (in the game, this is known as a rebirth fountain). My Brigand (Archer + Rogue dual-class) character made very good progress today, travelling the entire length of the Silk Road, completing difficult quests with relatively ease because of a careful selection of skills and equipment. The character relies heavily on poison attacks, slowing the movement of monsters and injecting confusion into the minds of monsters in order to tackle the really powerful monsters, especially the Elder Draconians (large dragon-like monsters which are extremely fast, deadly and scary). Gaming Fun +1

A Comfortable Nap:

After a simple lunch of rice, chicken fillet and cai xin, I made full use of the cool weather from the afternoon rain to take a long comfortable nap. Two solid hours' of sleep without a single stir was the result and I woke up refreshed. What a joy to be able to do this because I am usually working in the afternoon so such naps are quite a luxurious rarity for me. Yawn~~ Energy + 1

Deep Impact:

VCD time! As I have said, today's a slacker's day so I decide to snuggle up at home to re-watch some of the vcds in my collection atop of my study cabinet. The choice for today is Deep Impact, another disaster themed vcd, which I had bought together with Armaggeddon. The storyline is about the same - giant meteor with the potential to destroy all life heading right towards Earth. The character focus in Deep Impact however is much broader, because it moves from various groups of characters to show how such groups handle the crisis. The one that moved me the most is the enstranged relationship between the daughter and the father. The daughter hated the father for his divorce with her mother, and in turn marrying another young girl who is only a couple of years older than she is. The mini-story of these two characters climaxed with the eventual acknowledgement that both of them still loved each other despite their differences and both the father and daughter perished in embrace on the beach as the tsunami wave from a smaller meteor crashed inland. Maybe it is not death that is scary, but a lifelong regret of not being able to resolve a human difference and reach an understanding that had really mattered to oneself.

Broken promises:

Today was also a day of broken promises - three of them to be exact. The first one came from a parent of a student who had been making use of me as a stand-in tutor while waiting for a tuition class to get organized. I was infuriated because the parent lied about committment to the assignment to both myself and the tuition agent and it had cost dearly because I had turned down assignments just to keep the student's timeslot. The second broken promise came from a friend, who was supposed to call me and confirm if there was going to be any morning jog. She did not manage to confirm anything from last night till this morning and I believe she had totally forgotten about it - still it's a promise broken. The third one came from a third party relay, who was supposed to pass a small loan to one of my friends in Indonesia. Apparently, this third party had failed to do so and there is already suspicion that she has absconded with the money. I am alright with the loss but it is nevertheless a broken promise because this person had promised me to pass the much-needed money to that friend of mine. Who honor their word these days? I hope I am not the only one left - that will be quite scary.

In a nutshell at the end:



Reputation is what other people know
about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.


By: Lois McMaster Bujold, "A Civil Campaign", 1999US science fiction author

(Picture source: weirdvis, 24 Apr 2004, stock.xchng)
(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/30945.html)

Friday, November 10, 2006

10 November 2006 End of the Day Post


How the day moved on:

Woke up late today at around 9.30am because I was watching the vcd Armaggeddon starring Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck all the way until 1.40am. The morning past by simply with a nice tiramisu cake, which I bought from The Coffee Bean the day before and it melted in my mouth - absolutely sinful and delicious!

The Clean-Up:

After slow breakfast savouring the cake, the first task of the morning was to clean up the interior of my desktop CPU because my computer hanged up on me the night before while I was in the middle of some MSN chat sessions. Armed with newspapers, a screwdriver, a toothbrush, a mini-fan and a piece of wet cloth, I started cleaning up the CPU and it's coolants fans and it was a grimly task. Lots of dust balls were removed and I was wondering how much dust was accumulated because of the recent haze in Singapore. I took a second look at my computer table and decided I should clean that up too and started moving all the peripherals and scrubbed them all. The task ended at around 1pm and I headed to buy lunch.

Surfing and Singing:

Lunch was a styrofoam box of rice, drumstick, cabbage and char siew. Not exactly a spread but it tasted good after fiddling with all the cleaning and dusting. The afternoon was divided between reading some of the blogs from MediaCorp on the Project Superstar 2 and I practiced my singing with a number of songs from the Internet to keep myself in shape. The practice song line-up for the afternoon was:

1. Fei Ji Chang De Shi Dian Ban (David Tao)
2. Pu Tong Peng You (David Tao)
3. Piano (Fan Yi Chen)
4. Kiss Goodbye (Wong Lee Hom)
5. Qian Li Zhi Wai (Jay Zhou and Fei Yu Qing)

Song practice ended around 4.30pm and it was just right because the afternoon rain was over and I headed off to the gym for my training session. The 2.4km run today was tough because I was trying to push myself to go faster and the result was a satisfied but breathless Sean Ho. Weights training was kept a minimum today because the accelerated run took most of the wind out of me but I considered the session fruitful enough. Gym was wrapped up at around 5.30pm and I headed home for my cooking lesson on pancakes! Phyiscal Stamina + 1


Learning about pancakes:

My mother decided to teach me how to prepare pancakes and I grabbed the opportunity to learn more about pancakes because her pancakes tasted great and I hope to upgrade my cooking skills so I can prepare pancakes myself in the future. Mixing the batter, pouring the batter onto the hot pan and learning how to get the pancake cooking properly without burning it took a good part of 30 minutes but I managed to pick it up. Hopefully I won't forget all the steps when I have to prepare pancakes myself! Cooking skill + 1

In a nutshell at the end:

I suppose today was more of a discovery day for me because for my song practice and my pancake cooking episode, I learnt that it is important to continue to keep an open mind and don't self-assume about the development of things. For example, I had sang "Piano" countless times without realizing that I was locking a part of my vocal box for some of the lines at the chorus portion until today. So I was making a conscious reminder not to do that again the next time round (because volume projection of those lines will be affected). Also, although it was not exactly my first pancake cooking lesson from my mother, the experience this time round was different because the batter was much thicker and the oil used from far lesser than the previous time. Looks like life remains very much a journey of continual self- (or re-) discovery of things around oneself...

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the
illusion of knowledge.

By: Daniel J. Boorstin US historian (1914 - )

(Picture source:Lex in the city, 8 Jan 2006, Flickr)

(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1972.html)

Thursday, November 09, 2006

What do I mean by Total Entertainment Value?





Teresa Tseng: Campus Superstar Overall Female Champion 2006

Yes. I openly support Teresa because though young, she is the one who can manage to understand and use the Total Entertainment Value (TEV) to her advantage. Obviously, Teresa still have room for improvement in this particular song (the wincing, the unclear lyrics at some lines) but she has plenty of desirable skills, which the PSS 2 contestants can learn from. Don't get me wrong, I am not here to advertise for Teresa even though I support her performances. I am here just to give examples of what TEV means because it doesn't sound fair to tongue-lash the PSS 2 female contestants without giving them some sort of reference material.

No doubt that the above video isn't really the best embodiment of TEV but she knows how to carry on singing despite her errors, lets go of her worries of her singing flaws and interact with the audience and listeners appropriately according to the song. Watch carefully and see how Teresa faces the different cameras accordingly and sings to the audience about the mood of the song "Fly Away". Teresa, despite her back injury then, still manages to stand up and face the audience in different stage directions. Notice also that Teresa has no fears of the judges and she treats them as part of the audience.

Same advice to all PSS 2 contestants out there reading this: Let go of your fears and worries, sing the song to it's flavour and invite the audience to be moved with your sincerity in whatever that you are singing. It's a performance. It's a whole package, not just about getting all the lyrics or pitching correct.

Good luck to all the PSS 2 contestants and may the best wins! Remember all of you have that social responsibility as Superstars-to-be: to make good things better, and better things best.


The secret of joy in work is contained in one
word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.

By: Pearl Buck, The Joy of Children, 1964US novelist in China (1892 - 1973)

(Video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTSDmyQqFRc)
(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1780.html)

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

MediaCorp Project Superstar 2 Q-F For Females



Sing to the audience, not to the wall!

Perhaps I was expecting too much from the female contestants because after all the hype-up and talk that who and who is how good and so on and so forth. I was hoping to see some really good performances for tonight's female contestants in the Quarter-Finals. Appearance-wise, most of the female contestants are considered quite attractive beyond the average standard. Experience-wise, some of them are mooted to be students from well-known singing schools in Singapore. Yet entertainment-wise, the performances turned out to be quite a disappointment because after so many Superstar competitions, the contestants tonight still do not understand what was meant by total entertainment value.

It is not merely about how well one retains control over one's vocals, but also how well one can stir the mood of the audience and entertain them with a good and spirited performance. It doesn't necessarily mean that a fast-tracked song will do the job but inviting the audience to get involved with the song is very, very important. Let the audience feel the emotions that one injected in the song and let the audience feel the song experience deliberated by the song-writer.

Too many female contestants are merely verbalizing songs, almost completely forgetting to entertain the audience with stage presence, audience interaction and even maintaining simple eye-contact with the audience. Song techniques are important but being a Superstar requires not just the basic singing techniques but also the stage skills needed to get the audience moving either to the mood of the smooth-tracked ballad or to the beat of the fast-tracked song.

Of course, this may sound like a blog rant from a practically unknown armchair judge, but I truly believe the following is exactly what makes a performance worth watching - sing the song, move the audience. If one don't even believe in the song performed, one can never portray the kind of mood and emotions needed to move oneself, let alone the audience. If one don't even tune in to the mood of the audience watching and listening to the performance, one might as well sing to a KTV set or a wall. Interact, engage and move the audience in the appropriate ways made possible by the song genre and type and one will have a stellar performance.



There are times when I think I should just leave the harsh comments to myself and just allow contestants to perform in whatever ways they deem fit. However, because some of these contestants will become celebrities, they will have the social responsibility as performing artistes to express and even educate what it means by performing for and entertaining the masses. Also, I personally cannot stand the sight of fielding weak contestants to represent Singapore's music and entertainment scene so I am trying to pour whatever comments I have (hopefully those are constructive enough) to make sure good performers stay and weaker performers continue to improve. Flamers, angry fans against my comments aside, I attempt to continue this with only two things guiding myself: social responsibility of celebrities and personal quest to see that it's the qualitative performances that go onstage for Singapore.

I pray the contestants read what I have posted here so they can mull over what was said and hopefully spur them on to continue to do their utmost. I have been onstage before so I know it is already difficult to manage so many things. But who says it's an easy journey to begin with in the first place?

It's not enough that we do our best;
sometimes we have to do what's required.

By: Sir Winston Churchill British politician (1874 - 1965)

(Picture source: TheD, 24 Mar 2003, stock.xchng)

(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/35384.html)

Monday, November 06, 2006

06 November 2006 End of the Day Post


How the day moved on:

I was quite tired this morning so I decided to skip gym and postponed the session to tomorrow instead. I left my cosy bed at around 9.30am and went to have my usual fair of cheese prata and iced milo for breakfast. A parent called in and asked for tuition slots during the school holidays and that took quite some time to settle because I am almost full up from December onwards.

Lunch was a homecooked meal of rice, broccoli and chicken, washed down with a glass of orange juice. It was followed by a short gaming session of Titan Quest where I managed to get my Brigand (a cross-breed between an archer and a rogue) character to the rebirth fountain at the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Progress was comparative better because I had my fair share of knocks and bumps with my first Battlemage (a cross-breed between a warrior and a firemage) character. Thankfully, the Battlemage is finally doing better after I got used to the game dynamics of the high learning curve in Titan Quest.


The afternoon lesson happened to be far more interesting because when I arrived at the student's house, the student was actually locked inside the house without a set of house keys while her mother was somewhere out there in a movie! I had to conduct the first 15 minutes of the lesson with the iron grilles between the student and myself. It was a first in all my years of giving tuition! Fortunately, the student's mother got back home and the lesson resumed in a much more comfortable setting in the study room.

The evening was punctuated with intermittent rain and dinner was a nice hot plate of sliced fish with kuay teow - delicious! I love to eat fish anyday. The lesson in the evening went on without a hitch and here I am at home, typing this post for my newly-borne blog. No particular plans for the night but I hope it will be a peaceful one since the rain has already cooled the night. Maybe I'll try to tackle the Chimera (a boss monster in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon) in the Titan Quest game or practice some songs on the Internet before I turn in for the night.

In a nutshell at the end:

A 27-year-old lady from China added me on Skype last night out of the blue and started chatting with me about Singapore, China and her aspiration to become a teacher. I was commending her on how brave she was to be randomly adding me on Skype and striking a conversation with me even though she has never seen me before. She spoke of how that was possible in the increasingly inter-connected world and I must agree that such unprecedented connectivity has provided the kind of convenience to reach out to people from many parts of the world. How difficult is it to speak to strangers? Perhaps not very - at least as far as I know - a warm smile, a genuine interest to befriend the stranger and a listening ear. The global village may be far closer than we know...

It is the province of knowledge to speak and it
is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

By: Oliver Wendell Holmes US author & physician (1809 - 1894)

(Image source:pinwheel, 10 Jul 2004, Flickr)
(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/29027.html)