Post-Birthday and Pre-CNY Present for Myself:
I gotten myself a computer game to entertain myself after my birthday and during the wait till Chinese Lunar New Year. It's titled Three Kingdoms Story 2 (三国立志专 2) and it's about playing a cartoon version of the more sober Romance of The Three Kingdoms. Although it's considered an old game (since 2005), I got hooked to playing it because the animations were really fun and the dialogue between the characters were amusing, entertaining me for hours the few days before Chinese Lunar New Year.
This is the world map where the objective of the game was to conquer all the thirteen cities before the main character (I chose Liu Bei - the goody-doer) reaches an age of 100 years old. Time was spaced out into four seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter so that means I have 320 turns since Liu Bei was already 20 years old when I first started.
The screenshot was taken fairly early in the game and at the bottom of the screen were my characters then and the assigned character development and specialization that I had chosen for them. From the left, Liu Bei (fire magic & healing), Guan Yu (water magic), Zhang Fei (fire magic), Guan Ping (archer), Zhou Cang (diplomat), Liu Chan (water magic), Liao Hua (healing), Guan Xing (archer), Zhao Yun (tank & fire magic) and Zhuge Liang (fire magic & healing). They did not look much then but as they level up, the characer portraits will change and they would be dorned in better looking armour.
This screenshot was taken during a massive siege against a enemy warlord known as Dong Zhuo. The screen was already nearly empty because many allied troops and enemy troops were killed near the city gates. My characters were trying to bridge the city walls to reach Dong Zhuo and the blue dragon thingy was actually a powerful water magic spell called 水龙计.
The reward scene when Dong Zhuo was finally defeated after the battle.
This was taken during one of those random encounters in the game where I had to rush a small army to protect a city within a limited number of rounds - failing which I would lose one of the cities I had previous conquered. In this battle, the raiders did not stand a chance though as my characters were much stronger by then.
Chinese Lunar New Year Eve Reunion Dinner:
A total of twelve delicious dishes were served during reunion dinner. The photo included some of the very tasty dishes - clockwise from the bottom right hand corner were chilli crabs, pork, mussels, vegetables, fish, roasted duck, non-spicy crab, chicken, cereal prawns and the centre dish were steamed vegetables and some seafood. Reunion dinner lasted from 5pm till 6.30pm.
This was the breakfast taken on the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year - a family custom to have a mix of Chinese and English breakfast - a legacy left behind my grandparents who had seen the colonial times of early Singapore and wanted a fusion celebration in the morning. Chocolate cake, love letters, karopok and ba-gua with English tea. It's a strange combination but it tasted delicious because it's so different from the previous night's reunion dinner fare.
River Hongbao Festival at the Floating Platform:
Another CNY practice in my family was a family outing to the traditional River Hongbao Festival. This year, it was held at the Floating Platform at Marina and we had to wait an hour from 5pm to 6pm because the festival only start at 6pm, which was pretty weird. Anyway, this was some of the very cute looking lantern dolls on the platform. There were many more such dolls but the crowd prevented any decent shots to be uploaded here.
The raging bull was quite realistically made. It seemed to be part of the theme of the festival called 牛转乾坤, which means the turning of chance to one's advantage. This probably had something to do with the forecasts of a terrible recession in the wake of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations.
Another lantern display of beautiful mandarin oranges on trees. Many people posed for pictures here but obviously for security reasons, I will not be uploading those shots taken with my family. The orange lights provided a very surreal feeling for this display if one stares at it long enough. Hahaha.
The entrance to the River Hongbao Festival was seriously decorated with red lanterns, lots and lots of red lanterns. This was by far the most beautiful entrances made for such festivals in years.
The central stage on the Floating Platform. Some dancers had just finishe performing and the stage was set up for some lantern puzzles which I have no patience to wait for to answer. The crowd in front of the stage seemed enthusiastic enough to hold on till the emcees turned up though.
How can anyone forget the mainstay of the River Hongbao Festival? The God of Fortune - a massive lantern standing at more than five storeys high. It seemed to be spraying a shower of golden paper at intervals of one hour because the road was full of such paper. We did not wait for the shower because my father was having some stomach upset so we had to leave early.
The Battle with a mighty cockroach:
When we reached home at around 9pm, everyone was tired from all the walking and crowd squeezing. After settling down, I took a shower and went on to try and finish the rest of the Three Kingdoms Story game and by the time of 12 midnight, I heard a strange cracking sound of wings at my ceiling and noticed a huge cockroach. Without ado, I grabbed the nearest insecticide spray at the bottom of my table and aimed my shot at the monstrosity.
To my dismay, the insecticide spray was nearly empty and it came out as a mini squirt instead. The cockroach, like an experienced fighter plane, immediately headed towards my face...I dodged the cockroach and sprayed it again in mid-air and it took cover behind my bed whilst I was desperately trying to coax more insectide from the bottle. The cockroach seemed to noticed I had some trouble with the can and made a sudden charge at me again, wings batting loudly, intend to crash right into my face. I dodged backwards and tripped over the sideboard of my bed and landed heavily on my clothes hanging on metal frames.
The fall was bad because I was actually standing on my bed trying to get a better view of the hidden cockroach without realizing it was much more intelligent than I thought so being caught offguard, the fall was nearly 60 cm from the sideboard all the way to the floor. I did sprayed the cockroach for the third time in the middle of my fall. Landing on my lower back, I had a minor sprain on my back, cuts on my legs and hands from the metal frames and a streak of skin torn from my left hand. The cockroach crashed into the side of the wall from my third spray and scurried out of my sight when I was trying to recover from the fall.
I thought I was really lucky because I could have broken my spine from the fall or got my back impaled by the metal frames' sharp corners. Neither happened and I received no broken bones either - just a stiff lower back and those cuts and scrapes. The cockroach was not to be seen again even though I made another search of the room. I supposed it must have been one of those elite warrior cockroaches which were sent to avenge its brothers and sisters which I had killed for the past year. Mother Nature sure had her surprises even in such a form.
Lesson learnt from the battle - I should have just struck out and punched the cockroach in mid-air (which I had the chance but I did not take it) instead of struggling with that stupid empty insecticide can. I have ordered a full can to be placed in my room at any time. Lesson for my blog readers - be fiercer than that flying-cockroach-in-the-face in case you backed in the wrong direction and suffer such a fall as I did. Hahaha....
Have a good week ahead - without those cockroaches.
As with all good bloggers, I'm supposed to update on the activities happening in my life during the Chinese Lunar New Year and I really wanted to since the photos are ready and the blog post is already in my head.
But I am currently nursing some sprains sustained from a fierce battle against a mighty cockroach last night so the blog post will have to wait until I am in a better shape. Yeah, a cockroach could injure poor Sean if the battle conditions were in its favor. Will blog about this as soon as I can.
Wishing all my blog readers a Happy Chinese Lunar New Year, no matter what your ethnic group is, because it's still a happy occasion worth celebrating!
It was my birthday yesterday so here's a blog post to tell my blog readers how I spent the day. After so many years of celebrations, I did not expect much anticipation and excitement because I am not a greedy person wanting of much from others. It was a half-day work for me so I spent the morning working as a normal person all the way till 12pm before I headed home.
There was a simple home celebration with my family members with red eggs and a birthday cake (strawberry-flavored) and that sort of took care of my lunch part I of the day. After that, my mother, in her usual festive mood, was raring to go to the nearby market for another round of Chinese New Year preparatory shopping and I obliged so off to the market we go. She bought and I lugged quite a few items - a box of mandarin oranges, a couple more CNY decorations, loads of vegetables, some pork cuts and some garnishing and condiment items. Lunch was eaten at a normal coffee shop with much fanfare because the items were pretty heavy and the weather was too hot t
o move elsewhere.
The afternoon was spent reading and finishing up on a book called Conquests of Alexander The Great. I like reading the occasional classic epic and history books because they provide knowledge of how the known civilized world came about. The book detailed how Alexander became a leader of the ancient Greece through a combination of wisdom, cunning and coercion, leading an improved and united Greek army across many different lands to conquer them, spread the Greek cultures and customs, whilst slowly assimilating other civilizations' practices.
Alexander was both being praised as a brilliant diplomat and strategist, as well as being criticized as an arrogant and overly-ambitious leader. In any case, I thought he was still a pivotal person in bringing about the spread of various cultures and languages which made the world what it is today. With the book finished, I took a nice, lazy two-hour nap from 3.30pm to 5.30pm. Yes, be jealous, because naps are becoming a luxury activity in the hectic-paced Singapore but my work and lifestyle grant the occasional naps and I love my sleep, away from the crazed rush of the world whenever I can.
By evening time, I got myself ready for the evening celebration with my VIP friends. The Changed Man had planned for an evening celebratory dinner at Melben Seafood Restaurant, famous for its crab special dishes so all the VIP friends who could turn up converged there at. After about one hour of waiting, nibbling on peanuts, chatting away at the economy, Obama's inaugural speech, the work, the bedsheets (yes, the ladies were yakking about which bedsheets to buy) the food finally arrived.
We ordered some fried vegetables with mushrooms, some fried yam sticks, and some really delicious buns which we used to dip in the sauce of the crab special dishes. Not in the picture were a dish of black pepper pork ribs as well.
We also tucked in two crab special dishes - this one is the butter crab and it was really nice with thick crab meat hidden inside those huge pincers. The sauce was buttery with a tangy peppy taste. The other was the claypot crab with noodles which was also very delicious. I did not take a picture of it because two VIP friends were too close to the claypot. They don't like their identities to be made known on the Internet thus so I could only take pictures of the food instead. Sorry for the few photos taken because I was too busy talking and eating with my hands. Hahaha.
The aftermath of the celebratory dinner, which lasted about one and a half hours, over delicious food, hilarious jokes, coy teasing and satisfied smiles. As I rarely eat crab during my normal meals, I thoroughly enjoyed the dinner, nibbling through every possible nook and corner of the crab to find those succulent meat. Blurp~~Hahaha.
It was a good celebration - needless of any presents when the company is so fun-loving and joyous. These are extremely busy VIPs who took precious time and effort to convene together for my birthday. My grateful thanks to each of them! ^__^
Reply to tags:
-: Yes, it's a Superstar competition and the appearance-disadvantaged will have to fight harder than the others to earn their places. I can only do my best within my performance commentaries to critique only on their singing and performances, and leave the choosing of the outward appearances to the voters instead. Well, I thought I took even more fire during Season 1 receiving even death threats from really agitated supporters but I got used to such things already. Thanks for looking out for me! =)
passer: I understand the sentiments of those who saw my 5.5 as a tough score against Ridhwan, given his ethnic and language background and the comparatively difficult performance he gave. But my thoughts are in line with Li Fei Hui Laoshi - if Ridhwan dared to sing and dance at such difficulty level, he'll have to deliver. If he fumbles (which unfortunately he did), he must accept the scoring consequences.
passer-by: Jeremy has his stage appeal but it will depend on whether he can continue to deliver and improve against his previous performance(s). The same goes for the remaining nine contestants, as well as the two earmarked for revival - can they better themselves and show growth in becoming the next Campus Superstar? Good luck to them all!
C1 李李美子 Mavis - 《我要快乐》 原唱者：张惠妹
- the opening line was dragged out too slowly
- 抖音 and 哭腔 were a little overdone
- 早 was sung slightly off-key
- 情绪有点过苦沉
- judges' scores are 6.0+7.0+7.5+7.0= 27.5
- I would have given Mavis a 6.5 because her performance seemed to lock the song into a fixated emotion when there should have been a release of freedom in her singing. Without that important change, the song became a dead-end ballad when it was not meant to be so.
C2 丁文淞 Jeremy - 《彩虹》 原唱者：周杰伦
- 能 was sung a little too low
- 天，的云，你要 were not enunciated correctly
- volume control of the song seemed loose
- judges' scores are 6.0+6.5+6.5+7.5= 26.5
- I would have given Jeremy a 7.0 because although his voice was perfectly suited for this song, his volume control was erratic and it disturbed the quality of the performance. His facial expression was also relatively lacking to emote the song properly.
C3 叶嘉敏 Jiamin - 《灰姑娘》 原唱者：张惠妹
- 了很久 抖音 was a little too much
- her voice projection was a little too conservative to fully bring out the song's flavor, holding herself back more than it was necessary
- 我的他 was not enunciated properly
- judges' scores are 7.5+8.0+8.0+6.5= 30.0
- I would have given Jiamin a 7.5 because even though she performed a song a little bit too safe to justify the spirit of the song, her vocal control and volume control of the song were very steady and she knows how to emote and lighten the key portions of the song in a timely fashion.
C4 张慧诗 Rachael Chang - 《勇气》 原唱者：梁静茹
- Opening word 终 's key seemed to be incorrect
- Background music over-ran her voice at somewhere near the first chorus
- 真心，太急 were not enunciated correctly
- 我 sounded a little too low
- judges' scores are 6.5+6.5+6.0+6.0= 25.0
- I would have given Rachael a 6.0 because I kept seeing Rachael concentrating on smiling and fiddling with her hair when she should be emoting the song and entering the proper state of mind to portray the song well. Her apparent distraction which was very obvious to me at least, mars her score from my view.
C5 Ridhwan Azman - 《就是我》 原唱者：林俊杰
- 忘词 for at least two full lines during the verses and was unable to recover back to form properly for at least the next five lines of the song
- high note's reach was less impactful than what was expected
- microphone positions kept changing, affecting projection of his singing voice
- judges' scores are 6.0+7.0+6.5+5.0= 24.5
- I would have given Ridhwan a 5.5 because his performance was very good before he started forgetting his lyrics so what was intended as a 7.5 was seriously penalized when he started fumbling. I know learning Mandarin songs for Ridhwan is an uphill task but an incomplete performance cannot possibly command a good score, no matter how hardworking the contestant was at backstage.
C6 郑琪颖 Benita - 《心动》 原唱者：林晓培
- 影，明白，住在 were not enunciated properly
- the final note at the ending seemed a beat slower and slightly unsteady
- judges' scores are 6.5+8.5+7.0+7.5= 29.5
- I would have given Benita a 7.5 because barring some minor technical issues, she did a very good job emoting the song and I could feel her singing to be in-tune with the mood of the song. Her facial expression could have a little more room for improvement. For example, she had closed her eyes for certain portions to thoroughly enjoy the song more and hold the ending a little longer with her stage presence, it would have been a better grade.
Good luck to all - still have 3 minutes left to vote!
Grace, one of the singing enthusiasts, has managed to get herself into the semi-finals of the above-mentioned singing competition and I decided to go down and support her because I thought it's the right thing to do since she has the passion to sing and the will to perform. I did my reconnaissance of the stage at around 12.30pm and went looking for lunch at the now-huge Jurong Point and eventually settling down for Japanese bento lunch. Initially, I was hoping the new extension wing would have NYDC because I had a craving for their mushroom-ham baked rice but only New York New York was the closest call. 
My lunch was a tempura-cum-salmon in teriyaki sauce-cum-beef teppanyaki set lunch at the second floor of the old wing one floor below Fish and Co. It costs around $12.90 + $1.80 for an additional iced lemon tea. The meal was quite filling and I actually could not finish the beef. The salmon was delicious I must say. 
After lunch, I took a quick window-shopping trip before settling down at my chosen spot to watch Grace in the competition - second floor overlooking the stage without the rooftop sunlight glaring down on my camera. Immediately, I noticed something terrible with the stage - it was located too close to the basement escalators and there was barely enough standing room near the stage area. There was less than three metres of space in between the stage and the CNY booth. Looks like Jurong Point management was too greedy trying to squeeze too many stalls and booths without thinking about realistic space management. The acoustics at the competition stage was terrible so it was really impossible to do any accurate assessment of the contestants because the speakers' projection was swallowed up by the ruckus of the CNY stalls and humdrum. 
W.3.Muzic, the organizer of the competition, was not very efficient or at least skilful in their management of the competition either. My reasoning for saying so - the briefing of the first 10 of the 20 semi-finalists were done at 1.30pm under the hot sun when most of them were wearing makeup and their stage costumes. After the briefing, the semi-finalists were made to stand until their turns were up. I thought it must have been really uncomfortable for them to wait in such a way when chairs could have been provided backstage. 
The first contestant was dressed up to the nines for her performance, which was good because it showed she respected the stage enough. Although the judges had a lot of negative remarks, I thought she was pretty impressive enough to draw more than 100 people around the stage within three minutes of her singing. If she makes it into the top 10, I wouldn't be surprised. 
This contestant sang 差肩而过 but his performance was lacklustre and was actually boring, compared to the high-energy performance immediately before his. 
I thought her physical appearance was most star-like but her singing was too timid as if she was trying to hold back her image. A pity because she would have done much better if she let herself loose abit. 
This female contestant was also too timid. Her singing was drowned out by the background music and she did not even notice it so she sang as safely as she could without the effort to master the song as her own. 
I really don't like the way this contestant under-dressed for the competition. He looks more like he was going shopping on a lazy day rather than giving a serious performance onstage. 
This contestant did quite well with his Jay Chou's song, 不能说的秘密 but he kept cocking his head to and fro like an ostrich to keep his rhythm, which looks really odd onstage. The judges were not wrong to point out that he sounded more like rehearsing as Jay Chou instead of giving his own rendition of the song but all in all, he should be able to qualify. 
The best among the first 10 semi-finalists - solid control of the song though he was a little too shy to commandeer the stage because his gesticulation was too conservative. Still, he has the best vocal controls and an even better understanding of how far his voice can go without tipping over into the danger zone. 
Nice polished shoes but it doesn't go very well with his other outfit pieces and his performance was unsteady at best, which was a waste because I thought he was trying hard to get whatever he wanted. 
Grace was contestant number 9 and she fielded 热带雨林 instead of what she initially chosen 纸飞机. I thought she would be regretting her decision because she could not pull off the three separate voices in S.H.E and she was duly criticized by the judges for choosing a wrong song. (Grace, I actually wanted to tell you that your song choice was bad but you told me you changed the song yesterday night so it was too late to vacillate by then. Hope it will be a lesson learnt for you not to attempt multi-singer songs if you cannot change singing styles within the song.) 
Poor Grace tried her best but the song was rather bland because expectations of her song were high since it's a highly popular song and she lost tempo of the song at a few portions. She was also too stiff-looking because she could not overcome her nervousness onstage - hence the judges commented on her expressionless face during singing. (Grace, I thought I told you yesterday to keep talking to your friends whilst waiting? Apparently, you were left to allow your tensions to mount for a full 50 minutes because I could clearly see your nerves fraying during your wait.) 
Too soft and bland were my impressions of this contestant's performance. 
As expected, the security guards at Jurong Point started chasing members of the audience to the side of the stage and I thought it was extremely rude to do so after the members of the public settled down comfortably to watch the competition. If there ain't enough space, tape the direction arrows on the floor rather than chase people away from the front of the stage. Minus 5 points for Jurong Point for failing to consider spatial constraints before signing on so many stalls and booths.
I had just finished reading a book about learning and teaching music and I thought it will be interesting to share some of the findings inside with those blog readers who may want to know more, especially since most of my recent posts have been about Campus Superstars 3 Competition.
The benefits of learning music:
"Music is a powerful, unique form of communication that can change the way pupils feel, think and act. It brings together intellect and feeling and enables personal expression, reflection and emotional development. As an integral part of culture, past and present, it helps pupils to understand themselves and relate to others, forging important links between the home, school and the wider world. The teaching of music develops pupils' ability to listen and appreciate a wider variety of music and to make judgements about musical quality. It encourages active involvement in different forms of amateur music making (individual and communal) and develops a sense of group identity and togetherness. It also increases self-discipline and creativity, aesthetic sensitivity and fulfilment."
(taken from The English National Curriculum (National Curriculum for England, Programmes of Study))
For those who prefer to decipher the above extract in Chinese, let me try to translate it:
音乐本身是个强有力且独特的沟通法语，因为它能改变学习者的感想与行为。音乐能汇聚智力与感想并让人能有表达能力，回故与思绪上的发展空间。因音乐也是新旧文化不可分开的一部份，它能帮助学习者有自知能力并引用于他人，有助于加强家庭，学府与社会的桥梁。教导音乐能促进学者的听辨能力，从而提高对音乐更广大的赏识，并有能力辨别音乐的素质。教导音乐能鼓励学习者多参与各种不同的音乐制作，以建立团体精神和归属感。它也能增强自律与创作力，提高音乐美感的敏锐度，和达成满足感。
And I end this post with an instrumental song from one of the greatest jazz saxophone players alive, Kenny G, in his piece called Forever In Love. Go grab a friend or your partner and start dancing to the music. Alternatively, just grab your favorite drink, sit on your couch and enjoy! ^__^
Kenny G - Forever In Love - Kenny G
(Source: McCormack, Ian and Healey, Jeanette (2008) Getting The Buggers in Tune, London: Continuum International Publishing Group)
This is the world map where the objective of the game was to conquer all the thirteen cities before the main character (I chose Liu Bei - the goody-doer) reaches an age of 100 years old. Time was spaced out into four seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter so that means I have 320 turns since Liu Bei was already 20 years old when I first started.
The screenshot was taken fairly early in the game and at the bottom of the screen were my characters then and the assigned character development and specialization that I had chosen for them. From the left, Liu Bei (fire magic & healing), Guan Yu (water magic), Zhang Fei (fire magic), Guan Ping (archer), Zhou Cang (diplomat), Liu Chan (water magic), Liao Hua (healing), Guan Xing (archer), Zhao Yun (tank & fire magic) and Zhuge Liang (fire magic & healing). They did not look much then but as they level up, the characer portraits will change and they would be dorned in better looking armour.
This screenshot was taken during a massive siege against a enemy warlord known as Dong Zhuo. The screen was already nearly empty because many allied troops and enemy troops were killed near the city gates. My characters were trying to bridge the city walls to reach Dong Zhuo and the blue dragon thingy was actually a powerful water magic spell called 水龙计.
The reward scene when Dong Zhuo was finally defeated after the battle.
This was taken during one of those random encounters in the game where I had to rush a small army to protect a city within a limited number of rounds - failing which I would lose one of the cities I had previous conquered. In this battle, the raiders did not stand a chance though as my characters were much stronger by then.
A total of twelve delicious dishes were served during reunion dinner. The photo included some of the very tasty dishes - clockwise from the bottom right hand corner were chilli crabs, pork, mussels, vegetables, fish, roasted duck, non-spicy crab, chicken, cereal prawns and the centre dish were steamed vegetables and some seafood. Reunion dinner lasted from 5pm till 6.30pm.
This was the breakfast taken on the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year - a family custom to have a mix of Chinese and English breakfast - a legacy left behind my grandparents who had seen the colonial times of early Singapore and wanted a fusion celebration in the morning. Chocolate cake, love letters, karopok and ba-gua with English tea. It's a strange combination but it tasted delicious because it's so different from the previous night's reunion dinner fare.
Another CNY practice in my family was a family outing to the traditional River Hongbao Festival. This year, it was held at the Floating Platform at Marina and we had to wait an hour from 5pm to 6pm because the festival only start at 6pm, which was pretty weird. Anyway, this was some of the very cute looking lantern dolls on the platform. There were many more such dolls but the crowd prevented any decent shots to be uploaded here.
The raging bull was quite realistically made. It seemed to be part of the theme of the festival called 牛转乾坤, which means the turning of chance to one's advantage. This probably had something to do with the forecasts of a terrible recession in the wake of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations.
Another lantern display of beautiful mandarin oranges on trees. Many people posed for pictures here but obviously for security reasons, I will not be uploading those shots taken with my family. The orange lights provided a very surreal feeling for this display if one stares at it long enough. Hahaha.
The entrance to the River Hongbao Festival was seriously decorated with red lanterns, lots and lots of red lanterns. This was by far the most beautiful entrances made for such festivals in years.
The central stage on the Floating Platform. Some dancers had just finishe performing and the stage was set up for some lantern puzzles which I have no patience to wait for to answer. The crowd in front of the stage seemed enthusiastic enough to hold on till the emcees turned up though.
How can anyone forget the mainstay of the River Hongbao Festival? The God of Fortune - a massive lantern standing at more than five storeys high. It seemed to be spraying a shower of golden paper at intervals of one hour because the road was full of such paper. We did not wait for the shower because my father was having some stomach upset so we had to leave early.
