Movie Review: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)

Movie Review: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Pt 1 (2010)

Well, it was a tough choice between Red and Harry Potter since I am limiting myself to watch only one movie per week and the latter finally got my vote because I thought the movie preview was a little reminiscent of Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of The Ring where Harry, Hermione and Ron had to travel through so many scenic places to reach somewhere. I am not a fan of Harry Potter but I just like to visit those magical fantasy movies once in a while to dazzle my imagination with spells, fireballs, dragons, etc.


The movie starts off with Harry, Hermione and Ron leaving their homes because Voldemort has successfully infiltrated and eventually took over The Ministry of Magic. The trio of close friends barely escaped with their lives under the cover of their friends and family and they realized they must venture to find Voldemort's Horcruxes since Voldemort had imbued seven items his soul and hence can always resurrect himself whenever he dies. They must find these seven items and destroy them to defeat Voldemort.


Of the seven Horcruxes, an Elder wand, a Resurrection stone and a cloak of invisibility are the most powerful items because when these three Horcruxes, when brought together, will give the wielder the power of Death itself. Henceforth begins a long quest spanning unfamiliar landscapes to find clues to find these magical items without the help of their friends, protection from their Hogswart professors and perpetually under deadly pursuit by the Death Eaters.


Patience, tolerance and friendship between Harry, Hermione and Ron were tested amidst bitter words, jealousy, nervous intimacy and frustration when their inner nature were periodically corrupted by one of the Horcruxes in the form of a locket which they could neither destroy nor discard until they finally discovered the use of the Sword of Gryffindor.


I shall not provide too many spoilers there but expect the touching scene of a burial of a memorable and likeable character when this character narrowly saved Harry and his companions but sacrificed his life to do so.


I was hoping for some good magical action scenes but other than the forest chase scene, most of the others were too fast to be truly enjoyable for a non-fan viewer like me but the acting was subtle and good and at least the graphical effects were good enough and the treachery ran deep enough on the side of Voldemort who managed to find one of the most powerful Horcruxes to use against Harry Potter and his friends in Part II.


Blog Modifications and Changes:

I realized that some of my links on my blog are no longer working and it's high time that I updated them and change some of them completely. So here are the most recent blog modifications and changes made:

Blog Roll:

Olivia Ong's Facebook Group is included at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Olivia-Ong/41155493643

-> Started off in Japan as a singer specializing in bossanova, Olivia Ong came back to Singapore with a big bang and received more accolades for her comfortable singing style and her squeaky clean image in her latest album "Olivia".

Tay Kewei's blog url is updated to become http://taykewei.com/

-> The Singaporean singer-songwriter-vocalist is moving on to bigger events and gigs with her latest album "Come Closer...with Kewei" and now has her own website. A true inspiration to all that such dreams can be realized in Singapore.

Serene Koong's blog url is included at http://blog.omy.sg/serenekoong/

-> The Singaporean singer-songwriter from Funkie Monkies Productions has came quite some ways to reach where she is. Her hard work paid off when her most recent album "55:38:7" was well-received in the region.

KTVClub SG's blog url is included at http://www.ktvclub.blogspot.com/

-> This is an interest group for singing enthusiasts to gather for karaoke outings and regular singing competitions. The leader of the group, Nigel Tan, has been making admirable efforts to organize such activities to bring together more people.

William's blog url is included at http://moveondaily.blogspot.com/

-> The artiste manager of Royal International Group has a blog updating his artistes' events as well as his own feelings about the highs and lows of artiste management.

Serena's blog url is included at http://workingtowardsmydream-serena.blogspot.com/

-> Another artiste manager of Royal International Group maintains a blog about her artistes' events as well as her own thoughts about grooming young artistes in Singapore.

Elson's blog url included at http://elsonsoh.blogspot.com/

-> A Singaporean artiste under Royal International Group who has been working hard for the past few years to get his fledgling career up into the air. He is earmarked to release his album in November 2010 with a newly-released track, Saranghamnida, on the radio station FM93.3.

Shanice's blog url included at http://www.silvergrandeur.blogspot.com/

-> An even younger Singaporean artiste who is also trying to get her dream as a singer realized. Her stellar appearance has already drawn invitations from modeling and acting agencies even before she has found her path in singing.

Joseph's blog url included at http://josephhuiblog.blogspot.com/

-> A boyish looking Singaporean artiste recently recruited into Royal International Group. Being already a founder of the local artiste group Youthbox, Joseph is actually more experienced on the stage than he looks in his profile pictures.


Alright. Signing off with a quote from Flora Whittemore:

"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live."

That's all for now. Have a wonderful weekend ahead, my faithful blog readers! ^__^

Eating & Swimming with The Changed Man, Showcase @ The Esplanade Waterfront Event, Night at The Clinic Event, Vivace! 09 Concert Auditions Event

Eating & Swimming With The Changed Man: I was called out last Saturday morning to join The Changed Man for lunch and a swim so he drove both of us to Adam Road to try out the famous Nasi Lemak stall but the queue was so long that we decided to try prawn noodles instead. After about 10 minutes of queuing, we got ourselves two of the following prawn noodles. It's my first time trying and I must say the prawn soup was delicious and the prawns were fresh but there was little else to vary the taste and the fish cake and bean sprouts were totally overwhelmed by the prawn soup base. Still, I was grateful for the lunch and washed it down with sugar cane drinks and chatter with The Changed Man about his recent adventures in scuba-diving and his upcoming attendance of the Stehanie Sun concert that very evening.

After lunch, we ventured to the Jurong East Swimming Complex because The Changed Man has never set foot in it and he was complimenting how serene the environment around the Olympic pool was and we made a number of laps inside before we hopped over to the Wave Pool so he could try bobbing in the artificial waves and rain. The crowd was sparse due to the H1N1 flu scare so we had very little problems with overcrowding there.

The day ended at the nearby IMM where we had some desserts at the Hongkong Cafe before he had to rush home to prepare to attend the concert. I went home to have a shower and a nap.


Event: Showcase @ The Esplanade Waterfront Facebook is useful in a way because I get invited to all sorts of music-related events and this one features Kewei, Kexin and a number of local singers whom I would like to spend a Sunday evening to listen to. I would be rushing down from another appointment this coming Sunday but given the programme and the reputed consistent good singing from these singers, I think the effort will be worthwhile. Hopefully, I can get some good seats and take a few photos to upload here as momentos too! ^__^

Event: Night At The Clinic Amusing poster, right? I thought it was pretty cool for them to modify it into a thematic poster for this music event, featuring one of our prominent music teachers in Singapore, Mr Peter Tan and his cadre of students who will be performing on 8 August from 9pm. I am really keen on going but I will have to figure out a way to see if I can reschedule appointments for that Saturday because it is the National Day weekend so there could be clash with other plans as well.

Event: Vivace! 09 Concert Auditions @ Music Dreamer Cafe @ Marina Square I am not exactly a participant for this event because only those from 18 to 25 can participate in the closed-door auditions to compete for placings to perform for a charity concert, but I would like to go and have a look to see who are the talented brave and charitable ones who will attempt this event organized by Gefang Academy (whose director of music is Huang Zhiyang - Campus Superstar Season 1 Male Champion). The poster looks very well-made and I hope to give some good blog coverage of this interesting event for my readers too.


Blog Modifications & Updates:

There are some changes or updates on this humble blog of mine for the information of my readers.

1) New Blog Feature - I have signed up for Plurk and thus this is a new platform to keep my blog readers updated on my shorter thoughts and doings whenever I am online but not really drafting full blog posts. I am still trying to get used to this new form of communication and I hope I can do a good job of telling how things are going in a shorter and more convenient form. I will of course still continue with my usual blog posts as regularly as I can.

2) Blog Roll Changes
- Jiamin (blogger) has decided to stop updating. It's not known if she would continue blogging as she did not say when.
- Shawn Tok (CSS 2)'s website went dead without any explanation.
- Keely (CSS 2) has not been updating her blog since mid-June 2009.
- Natasha (blogger) is temporarily stopping blogging activities for a month.
- Elaine Ng (CSS 2) blog url is updated
- Xing Yu (entertainment news blogger) blog url is updated
- Aijia Cai (blogger) is added to blog roll
- Shelly Chua (CSS 3) blog url is updated

3) Blog Music Player Changes

I have decided to try something different from contemporary Mandarin pop songs for a change so that my blog readers who are unfamiliar with this new genre of music can experience the beauty and passion of Flamenco Music.

What is Flamenco? Below is a short write up taken from wikipedia:

Flamenco is a Spanish musical genre with origins in Andalusia and a term that refers both to a musical genre, known for its intricate rapid passages, and a dance genre characterized by its audible footwork. The origins of the term are unclear. The word Flamenco, which applies to the song, the dance and the guitar, did not come into use until the 19th century.

Flamenco embodies a complex musical and cultural tradition. Although considered part of the culture of Spain, flamenco actually originates from one of Spain's regions: Andalusia. However, other areas, mainly Extremadura and Murcia, have contributed to the development of several flamenco musical forms, and a great number of renowned flamenco artists have been born in other territories of the country. It is generally acknowledged that flamenco grew out of the unique interplay of native Arabic, Andalusian, Sephardic, and Gypsy cultures that existed in Andalusia prior to and after the Reconquest. Latin American and especially Cuban influences have also been important in shaping the rumba flamenco form. Flamenco is the music of the gypsies and played in their social community. Andalusian people who grew up around gypsies and the life were also accepted as "flamencos" (Paco de Lucía).

That's it for this blog post. Will update again as soon as I can. Time to enjoy my Saturday off day! ^__^

Congratulations to 王天安 of 《发烧》and 陈明娴 of 《雨伞》, Blog Modifications, Rewarded For My Efforts

Congratulations to 王天安 of 《发烧》and 陈明娴 of 《雨伞》:

These two songs from the SPOP Hurray! Songwriting competition have successfully made their way into the S-POP HURRAY! Music Gala, a grand musical extravaganza at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 23 Mar 2008 (Sunday), where both songs will compete for the highest honours alongside with performances by some of Asia's greatest superstars.

Below are the locally-produced music videos featuring the designated singers for the forementioned two song compositions. The production is quite amateurish but I suppose there must be a start somewhere for these young and aspiring music-video producers.





Blog Modifications and Updates:

I finally have some time to update my blog's main playlist and I have added some of the songs for the listening of all those faithful readers of my blog. Some of these songs are written quite some time ago but I really enjoyed the quality of their lyrics, tune and singing so I hope to share them with the readers as well.

I believe if one is to learn how to enjoy Mandarin pop music, or even learn to sing them, one must make the effort to expose oneself to as many different types of songs and singing styles.

02. 张国荣 - 夜半歌声
04. 莫文蔚, Karen - 单人床双人房
08. 陈晓东, Daniel - 不想睡
12. 黎明, Leon - 等到天昏地暗
15. 方大同, Khalil - Love Song
16. 戴佩妮, Penny - 一念之间
20. 辛晓琪 - 味道
32. 动力火车, Power Station - 外套
37. 两个女生 - 啄木鸟
39. 张信哲, Jeff- 最想念的季节
45. 戴佩妮, Penny - 街角的祝福

Rewarded For My Efforts:

Thank you for all those readers who encouraged me when I first posted about my personal crisis a couple of weeks back. It has been confirmed - I am rewarded with a new lease of strength as the verdict turned out to be in my favour. I hope I can fully make use of this new lease to strengthen the foundations of the years of work even further so that such a dangerous crisis will not happen again. Once again, thank you for your encouragements.

Happy Valentine's Day 2008!, Blog Modifications

Happy Valentine's Day 2008!

Alright, I don't exactly have any romantic celebrations with any beautiful girl today because I have to work. Yes, yes, Sean Ho has no life but some people have to work today so that the world will not come to a standstill just because the couples in love are celebrating.

Anyway, couples or singles, I suppose we can still celebrate L.O.V.E because it is one of the few emotions that separates us from beasts and monsters. Following the songs from my IMEEM player, I have also compiled a playlist using those songs by looking for their music videos on Youtube. For those with celebrations, maybe you can listen in while waiting for your partner to come and join you. For those without celebrations, you can still listen in and have fun looking through all the renowned love duets made throughout the past decade.

Have fun!



Blog Modifications:

1) Online Buying and Selling Shop:

No. The shop is not mine but I am merely helping a friend to advertise it out of goodwill. The thing I see in the shop is that the items are selling for quite reasonable prices. The bad thing is that the photos taken of those items are not very clear and without multiple angles. Anyway, I believe this friend of mine is responsible enough to make sure all the items and transactions come clean and hassle-free.

2) Removal of Slideshow and Performance Playlist of Teresa Tseng:

I have removed these two items because they seem to be causing quite a lot of lag on my blog recently, resulting in very slow page loading times and even hanging computers of certain visitors. Unless I have an overwhelming number of visitors requesting me to put them back up despite the inconvenience caused, I will have to stash these two features away temporarily.

Okay, time to run. I still have my regular gym session and maybe will go eat something nice for lunch as a token to celebrate Vday ba. Take care everyone! =)

Edison Chen's public apology and appeal about the nudge photos incident, Modifications and Updates on My Blog

Edison Chen's public apology and appeal about the nudge photos incident:

Well, although a lot of people are pounding Edison Chen about the incident, I personally think the blame cannot be entirely put on him. If he is to shoulder any responsibility I would blame him for his carelessness not to protect such photographs from public view when he sent his computer for repairs and thus leaking those photographs out. There is talk about him using a spycam to take some of those photographs but Interpol did not accuse him of anything yet so I cannot blame him on that ground either.

Hmm...choosing to hav sexual relationships, regardless of being celebrities or not, at their ages, is nothing unforgivable since they are all consenting adults. The bad thing however is that because they are celebrities, such affairs should not have been made public because it will probably do a lot of damage to their careers and embarass many of their supporters. Now that so many people have seen and perhaps even kept those photographs, undoing the damage will take more than just a public apology, especially since they are celebrities and are considered recognizable icons of the music and entertainment scene in the region. What else is there to do? I suppose that's the duties of their celebrity managers.

Good luck Edison and all the people involved in the incident! Hope they can recover from it soon!

Modifications and Updates to My Blog:

I believe the regular visitors to my blog would have noticed some of the changes by now. And I would like to detail those changes here in the hope that visitors will have even more fun coming here and finding this place useful.

1) Blogroll Updates (At Sidebar):

Cuiping (Singing Enthusiast), Agnes (CSS 2), Choon Keat (CSS 2)

2) Added Youtube Video Playlist of Teresa's Performances (At Top Below Slideshow):

I complied as many of the girl's performances on Youtube into a playlist and put it together with the slideshow for visitors to enjoy. Although some of the videos' quality is not good, but her singing still comes through quite clearly.

3) Added Time and Date Display (At Sidebar Before Cbox):

Although I believe there is always a time for everything and everything has its time, awareness of the progression of time is also necessary so that we don't waste the most valuable resource on earth idling away or doing or saying unconstructive things.

4) Added Weather Forecast Display (At Sidebar After Cbox):

Well, I was hoping for a cuter-looking one displaying Singapore's weather but most of the weather forecast gadgets online were for other countries so I have to make do with this for now. It shows really strange things like pressure and humidity, which most people won't be bothered to care about but I suppose information is still information - you never know it may come in handy on some days. I will try to upgrade this to some satellite-based ones if possible. Give me some time to look.

5) Added Daily Zodiac Horoscopes (At Sidebar After Weather Forecast):

Just click on your zodiac sign or right-click to open in another tab and it will display your daily, weekly and monthly horoscope. It's quite nifity and I hope it will be useful and fun for visitors to play with whenever they visit this blog.

6) Added Famous Quotes From Memorable People (At Sidebar After Zodiac Horoscopes):

This is another useful widget which I found whilst surfing hundreds of widgets over the past few days. Not only does it show the quote and the person saying it, most of the time, there is even a picture attached to the quote so that you will know who said it. The quotes will change every 30 seconds so nobody will be bored with the same quotation again and again.

7) Added Google Search Engine (At Sidebar After Famous Quotes):

This is one of my favourite search engines on the Internet so it deserves a place on my blog too. Visitors can use it to further their awareness of any topics that they are interested in and another window will pop-up with the search results, leaving my blog page unchanged. Have fun!

8) Major News and Current Affairs RSS Feed Reader (At Sidebar After Google Search Engine):

This is one of the most difficult feature for me to do because most of the RSS readers I found on the Internet could not fit into my blog's sidebar and could not support enough feeds from all the major sites that I would love to include. After a number of hours, I finally found this widget which can fulfill all my requirements. Use the Menu button or scroll arrows atop of that RSS Reader to scroll through all the major news and current affairs and entertainment news across the world. The font size is not the same as my blog's but oh well, I can't have everything as perfect given my limited Internet skills. Hope everyone can find it useful for their research and updates on all the ba-gua.

9) New and Upcoming Movie Trailers (At Bottom of Blog):

I love movies and I want to know what new movies will be coming to our screens so I found this interesting widget which will show all these, including a trailer of those movies as well. Now instead of just relying on Yahoo! Movies, I have another source of advanced information to check out those movies which I really want to watch! Yay~~~

10) Virtual Earth Satellite Map (At Bottom of Blog after Movie Trailers):

This is such a cool application because it has three to four map engines and by using the appropriate ones, you can actually zoom in all the way until you are about one kilometre from the street level in any part of Earth! Yes, I actually could see the details of the rooftops of buildings in Singapore. However, the map would not allow users to go all the way until the street level to cars and people but I think that could be done with the non-civilian version. In any case, it's very very useful for visitors to locate certain buildings anywhere on the planet and definitely helps in the study of Geography for student visitors because they can see all the various land features clearly using the satellite views.

11) National Geographic Photo Of The Day (At Bottom of Blog After Virtual Earth):

As seen from the URL title of my blog, I respect Nature and I appreciate good photography of Nature at her most wonderful moments. The application will host one photo everyday for visitors to enlarge and even learn about the picture and the natural environment, which I like.

Alright, it will be time for me to have my reunion dinner soon so I would like to wish everyone here a Happy and Prosperous Chinese Lunar New Year! I will come back with more photos of my Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations so do stay tuned! =)

Happie Bday To Mie Part III and Part IV

Birthday Celebrations 2008 Part IV : Movie - American Gangster
After dinner at NYDC Holland Village, the three of us decided to try and catch and movie and both of them actually chosed Alien versus Predator 2 at VivoCity and we proceeded in The Married Soldier's vehicle. However, when we reached there, the movie had already started and hence we picked another movive - American Gangster. It turned out to be a very entertaining and informative movie. It's about how one of the greatest kingpins, Frank Lucas, in America rose to power through a combination of wit, intelligence, discipline and sometimes, fiery rage. The kingpin was arrested eventually but he helped the police tracked down all the corrupted policemen and foreign nationals, which helped made America then to be so drug-rampant.

I loved the movie and it was the good acting and the gripping plotline that made the movie captivating. I would definitely recommend the movie if you are those that preferred acting to shooting and kissing scenes. Hahaha. One good movie after one good meal - Perfect!

Birthday Celebrations 2008 Part III: Dinner and Dessert at NYDC
One of the best places to hang out at Holland Village, in my opinion, is NYDC. Why? Because the ambience is comfortable, the service is friendly and polite, and the food is absolutely delicious. I met The Changed Man and The Married Soldier for dinner and dessert as part of my birthday celebrations and we ordered NDYC's famous baked rice and mudpies. I didnt' take pictures of the food because by the time we reached there, we were all famished and we tucked in as soon as the food was served.

However, mudpies were slower because we were busy chatting about our exploits and adventures over the past week. The above picture showed Band Aid Mudpie - slighly alcoholic but yummy to the taste buds. The below photograph showed Tiramisu Mudpie - one of my favourites not because of the colourful chocolate rice, but because of the perfect proportion of cake, ice-cream and fudge.

Birthday Celebrations 2008 Bonus: SPOP Victory For 《雨伞》

Word had reached me amidst my celebration that the SPOP song, Yu San, had made it to the top 6 song compositions of the competition. This was the icing on the cake for my birthday celebrations because the voting efforts of faithful supporters of Teresa, supporters of Dione Tan, and supporters of the song itself had not gone to waste.

Although I don't have the actual statistics, personally , it was another affirmation that the Campus Superstar of my choice, Teresa Tseng, has proven her worth once again that she continues to be able to shine with her singing, propelling the song well enough to earn the confidence and collective action of the various groups of supporters throughout the population of music listeners to send the song to the semi-finals.

The SPOP competition is not over though, since it's only the semi-finals and there would be another few more rounds of voting but for now, there is a definitely a cause for quiet celebrations. I have already sent my congratulations to the girl and I hope she will be give the chance to be featured in the upcoming music video for the song Yu San in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, my birthday celebrations have simmered to an end even though I am still receiving ice well-wishes across the various communication channels.

My heartfelt thanks to all those well-wishes, Natasha, skyvel, zena, LK, Cuiping, Michelle, Xiangrui and many more whom I cannot openly name here. Take care and have a good weekend ahead!

Random Pictures, Blog Modifications and Updates, Jungle Trekking Taboos

Random Pictures:
Chinese Lunar New Year is coming and I managed to get hold of one of the malls' decorations for the upcoming festive season during one of my working trips arond the island. Any intelligent guesses where all these beautiful lanterns are being hung at?
This was my yesterday's lunch at an undisclosed hospital cafeteria. Readers of my blog who were wondering how come I didn't blog yesterday - My dad landed himself in the hospital after spraining his back and I had to rush to and fro the hospital to get his admission administration and stuff done. That took up my entire Saturday. He's better now but my poor old man is still stuck there without his television and guitar.

Blog Modifications and Updates:

It's been quite a while since I touched up on the features of my humble blog so there are the following changes made:

1) I have decided to tuck away my IMEEM player for now so that readers will not get too sick listening to the same songs being played again and again.

2) I have decided to change some of the songs on my main blog's music playlist. The new songs are as follows:

12. 蔡淳佳 - 庆幸有你爱我
18. 曹格 - SUPERSUNSHINE
27. 光良 - 烟火
28. S.H.E - 最近还好吗
29. 范玮琪 - 是非题
30. 刘若英 - 我很好
36. 张韶涵, Angela - 不想懂得
43. 周杰伦, Jay - 彩虹
46. 蔡健雅, Tanya - 达尔文
47. 林宥嘉 - 背影
48. 罗志祥, Show - 一支独秀

3) I have updated the slideshow for Teresa so that two of her recent public events photographs are included inside. Hopefully, by this weekend, I will have even more beautiful shots of her on the slideshow.

4) I understand that some of the songs on the main playlist are not working. Repairing them takes some time so do be patient. I will work on them as soon as I can.

Jungle Trekking Taboos:

One of my students is going to the Outward Bound School for some enrichment camp and I was telling her about some of the jungle trekking taboos that I was taught during my training days. Apparently, she just laughed them off and even though I am not that kind of superstitious person, I believe these long-established taboos must be there for a reason. Out of sheer knowledge, regardless if you believe in them or not, I decided to put them up here for fun. Read and see if you have actually heard of such taboos whenever one is to trek through jungles.

1) Do not comment on strange whiffs of fragrances or smells whilst in the jungle. It is said that sometimes "dirty things" will put on such smells to attract the unwary and those who speak of these on the trail will be followed. The most common encounters of strange smells are frangipani and pungent decay.

2) Do not shine torchlight onto the treetops above. It is said that those belong to the domains of the night creatures as well as "dirty things". There have been unexplained cases of mania and frenzy when a few shone their torchlights to the treetops (It happened during one of my jungle training trips when some chosed to challenge this taboo knowingly). These people are said to revealed they saw "dirty things" hanging onto the treetops.

3) Do not suddenly turn around if someone taps on your shoulder while you are on the trail. It is said that each human being has three "lamps", which are supposed to be protective lights against "dirty things". A sudden turning around will extinguish at least two of those "lamps", leaving the person extremely vulnerable to unimaginable horrors standing behind. Should one be tapped, one should keep moving and requests his/her name be announced loudly. If the person/thing refused to answer, continue walking until the whole group is informed and proceeds to a safe place out of the trail.

4) Always remember to say "excuse me" if you need to urgently answer the call of nature. It is said to be necessary in case one relieves oneself atop of the resting place of "dirty things". It doesn't really matter the "excuse me" is uttered in what language, as long as the deferential tone is there. It is said that those who broke this taboo would have "dirty things" following them around until an apology was made.

Okay. That's about all I know of. I choose to follow them whenever I need to enter jungles because these are small things which usually do not interfere with the major flow of programmes. Whatever one's religion or culture is, I suppose the people who taught me these taboos had their rationale:

"Better respect such ettiquette in the jungle. After all, our safety is more important than being obstinate and we are just guests in the jungle, which plays host. We should give this minimum respect."

KTV at AMK Kbox, Teochew Porridge Supper, Blog Updates n Modifications，Song Recommendation:《你是我的眼》

KTV at AMK Kbox:

I went kboxing with Michelle on Tuesdays and it was like decided on late Monday night because Michelle had nothing else on on Tuesday afternoon. And my my, she was in such a high mood inside the room, selecting and singing non-stop for nearly four hours. It must have been her way of release from her end-of-year examinations and she was belting out songs from A-mei, Fish Leong, Saya and sang almost all the songs which Teresa had sung during the Campus Superstar competition. A hardcore supporter indeed. Hahaha...

Well, I didn't really sing much because I was more like watching her singing. The reason? Michelle, the whole trip was actually my way of thanking you for helping the fanclub supporters pass their presents to Teresa in school on her birthday. Hope you enjoyed yourself then! =)


Michelle was obviously an fan of A-mei's songs. I occasionally picked a song to let the girl rest in-between. Hahaha..
Fruit punch for Michelle. Hot honey lemon for me. She only finished only half of her first drink while my second cup was already empty. Hahaha... Michelle the camel who doesn't really need to drink.

Teochew Porridge Supper:

The Changed Man actually wanted a night run at East Coast Park last night but he was working too late that by the time he drove over to pick me up, it was already 10.30pm. He did not even had his dinner yet so we zoomed off to a famous Teochew Porridge outlet to quash his hunger pangs. Over the supper table, we ate and talk about all sorts of stuff (guys' talk so it's confidential..haha) and left after an hour because he was almost completely concussed from work. He is probably still knocked out even as I am typing this blog post.

Simple Teochew porridge fare. It was light but delicious. The place is especially packed on the eves of public holidays though.

Blog Updates and Modifications:

1) New Links and Links Updates:

I have added or updated the following links on my blog so feel free to browse them if you wish. Please don't spam the celebrities or my friends because it's not nice. I know not everyone likes everyone else but I suppose a little tolerance practised can make this world and my blogging a much nicer place, don't you all agree?

Friendster Social Website
Facebook Social Website
Kenneth (TFC)
Zena (TFC)
Natasha (Singing Enthusiast)
Kewei (Singing Enthusiast)
Kailin (Singing Enthusiast)
Huixian (CSS 2)
Weilian (PSS 1)
Kelly (PSS 1)
Carrie (PSS 2)

2) The Imeem Secondary Music Playlist:

For those who frequent my blog would have noticed that I would occasionally put up the secondary music playlist containing English songs on my blog. The reason is because I would like to share with all of you some of my memorable English songs in my life as well.

I know some of the readers are pure hardcore Mandarin songs listeners but don't worry, the main playlist of Mandarin songs is still available for all of you if English songs are not your cup of tea.

For those who find the English songs palatable, I will continue putting up the secondary playlist and update it whenever I rediscover more English songs which I have always liked.

Song Recommendation: 《你是我的眼》 By 萧煌奇

如果我能看得见

就能轻易的分辨白天黑夜

就能准确的在人群中

牵住你的手

如果我能看得见

就能驾车带你到处遨游

就能惊喜的从背后

给你一个拥抱

如果我能看得见

生命也许完全不同

可能我想要的我喜欢的我爱的

都不一样

眼前的黑不是黑

你说的白是什么白

人们说的天空蓝

是我记忆中那团白云背后的蓝天

我望向你的脸

却只能看见一片虚无

是不是上帝在我眼前遮住了帘

忘了掀开

你是我的眼

带我领略四季的变换

你是我的眼

带我穿越拥挤的人潮

你是我的眼

带我阅读浩瀚的书海

因为你是我的眼

让我看见这世界就在我眼前

听后感：有时候，好的歌曲不需要花样，能够感动便已足够了。《你是我的眼》的曲风听起来有点老土，歌词也没有新鲜独特之处，可是用一把不乔装弄势的声音，也能唱出一番的韵味。这是一首带着诚意的歌，感谢带路开眼的人。我喜欢。

Birthday Celebrations, Videos n Songs Recordings, and Updates To My Blog

Birthday Celebrations For The Married Soldier:

Yesterday was The Married Soldier's birthday and her wife, whom I decided to call The Thrower of Plastic Dogs (you will know the reason behind the nickname later), had organized a surprise birthday dinner at Mellben Seafood Resturant, as well as a board game session at Settlers' Cafe.

The Changed Man and I went to the Mellben Seafood Restaurant at around 6pm and started an hour's worth of wait before we finally got ourselves a table for four. We ordered the house special's claypot soup crab, a black pepper crab, some vegetables, fried beancurd, BBQ chicken wings and chicken satay. It was quite a spread and all four of us tucked in heartily.

After dinner, at around 8.30pm, we went to the Settlers' Cafe at Holland Village because it was one of the favourite activities for The Married Soldier. The Thrower of Plastic Dogs initially suggested KTV but I was still nursing the sore throat so we had to settle for games, which turned out to be a good idea too. We tried out as many board games as we could at Settlers' Cafe and the following photographs showed some of the more memorable ones that we played last night.

This is the food and beverage menu of Settlers' Cafe. Quite unusual and eye-pleasing.

We tried playing this game about planning a 10-day journey across Africa but it was too much brainwork for the four of us, especially after such a heavy dinner. We gave up after two rounds because The Changed Man won two consecutive rounds without manoeurving because he had such good cards in his deck.

This was one of the interesting games that we played called "Walking The Dogs" where we had to get as many dogs in line as possible to earn points. The Changed Man won one of the rounds marginally over The Married Soldier's wife, whom the latter threw a few plastics dogs at the former in jest. Hence the name The Thrower of Plastic Dogs. Hahaha... XD

This was a reflex game about getting the correct dinosaurs with the correct background pictures. Although I was slowed down considerably by medication for my sore throat, my auto-reflexes were actually to my surprise much faster and thus I was the winner in this board game.

The Settlers' Cafe gaming session ended with a delicious brownie cake as a mini-birthday cake for The Married Soldier who insisted on sharing with the rest of us. Compared to the iced coffee and the iced honey drinks, the brownie cake was much tastier. Highly recommended.

Video Performances and Song Recordings:

Ever since Campus Superstars Season 1, I have received occasional videos and audio recordings of songs and performances, which singing enthusiasts have recorded and sent to me, hoping that I can comment on them. I hope I have been providing constructive enough comments for these brave individuals. Although I am definitely not an officiated person to comment on music, but do keep those self-recorded performances and songs coming in and I'll do what I can to help. After all, one of the objectives of this blog is to help people in their singing in whatever little ways it can.

I have read the tagboard comments about posting my own performances up and I will seriously consider doing so - recording audio performances using Youtube so that people can listen to my renditions of songs and have some fun laughing and learning through those as well. However, recent intense work has drained my voicebox and I am still nursing a sore throat (with heavy medication). When I recover, I promise I'll get to work on those audio performances and upload them here.

Updates and Modifications To My Blog:

I have put up more new songs (okay, some of them are not so new at all but nevertheless beautiful songs in my opinion) on my blog's main playlist for the listening pleasure of all the music enthusiasts and kind visitors to my humble blog. I hope everyone likes the new songs and continues to participate constructively and actively on the tagboard or comments section.

Frankly speaking, I do hope that this place will grow and nurture into a place where music lovers can come and share their thoughts and feelings about songs and music-related events.

Here are the new song additions on the main playlist:

01. 飞儿乐团, F.I.R. - 月牙湾
08. 陈伟联 - 火柴天堂
11. 孙燕姿, Stefanie - 雨天
20. 陈绮贞 - 还是会寂寞
24. 陈绮贞 - 旅行的意义
34. 张惠妹, A-Mei - 你是爱我的
35. 王力宏 - 落叶归根
40. 林忆莲, Sandy - 为你我受冷风吹
47. 苏永康, William - Sorry

Updates and Modifications On The Blog 28 Aug 2007

For those of you who hope to see more photographs of Teresa during the CSS 2 Grand Finals...

The highly-anticipated and highly-acclaimed opening item by Zhiyang and Teresa. I believe nobody would mind if they had sung the entire song instead of just a few lines that night.

The fondly-remembered Campus Superstars Season 1 Top 10 posing after their group opening item. I heard they wanted to sing live but organizers insisted on pre-recording their singing, which in my opinion, was not really necessary.

Very interesting and stylistic postures by the five ladies of CSS 1. I remembered it was quite nice to hear their voices blend into the song then. Enjoyable performance.

Brilliant Superstar smiles from Zhiyang, Clara, Teresa and Khim with a mischievous pout. Haha...

Let me guess - this is most probably taken backstage after their successful opening performances on the Grand Finals night. They definitely looked very high that night.

(Images source: http://u.mediacorptv.com/storylanding.htm, http://u.mediacorptv.com/css2/tabloid.htm)

New Photos Added On The Blog's Main Slideshow:

Two photos of Teresa Tseng during CSS 2 Grand Finals

New Songs Added On The Blog's Main Playlist:

26. 苏慧伦, Tarcy - 我一个人住 (New Addition)
32. Energy - 某年某月某一天 (New Addition)
38. 张惠妹 - 如果你也听说 (New Addition)
41. 刘畊宏 - 彩虹天堂 (New Addition)

New Links Added On The Blog's BlogRoll:

新动网 Info-Entertainment Website
爱琴海民歌餐厅 Music Dreamer Cafe Website

Let me have...
the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
the strength to do the necessary,
the love to give to the deserving,
the wisdom to perceive such differences.

Updates n Modifications To Blog 28 Jul 2007

觸摸 原唱者: 陈伟联

(放轻松，培养情绪)
(第二钢琴，准备入歌)

(B)(轻音) 聽說南方 從來不會有~寂寞~
(B)(轻音) 聽說~(低音)在海邊~ (B)世界沒有盡頭~
(B)(中音到重音) 你哭着告訴我 (B)你和他 夢想的重重~~
(B)(重音) 我會是你雨天的爐火 (B)擁抱你的溫柔~
(B)(中音到重音）好想看你的~笑容~~ (B)對離開的~他說~~
(B)(中音到重音) 你心中那~份美麗~怎么 (B)找都不會再有~

(B)(重音)請記住我未來遙遠的風 (B)有一天你會找~回~你~的~夢~~
(B)(重音到中音)幸福是看~得~透 而不是 (B)舍不得 他 的 所 有
(B)(重音)慢慢觸摸天空暖暖的火 (B)我在這天黑了也不會~走~~
(B)(重音到轻音)你的快樂除了他還有 (B)我永遠守候~不要難過~~~~（轻拉音）

(B)(轻音)聽說冬天 也只首了灰~念~頭~
(B)(轻音)聽說~(低音)在天空~~ (B)有迷人的星座~~
(B)(中音到重音)一起去探險吧 (B)也許你 會喜歡而感動~~
(B)(重音)你沉默的時候 (B)我知道你的心~~還~很~痛~~
(B)(中音到重音)真想看你 的 笑容~~ (B)對你的他大聲~說~~
(B)(中音到重音)你心中那份美~麗怎么 找都不會再有(重拉音)~~~~

(B)(重音)請記住我未來遙遠的風 有一天你會找回你~的~夢~~
(B)(重音)幸福是看~得~透 而不是 (B)舍 不 得 他 的 所 有
(B)(重音)慢慢觸摸天空暖暖的火 我在這天黑了也不會走~~
(B)(重音到中音)你的快樂除了他還有 (B)我永遠守候 不 要 難 過（中拉音）~~~~

(重拉音)喔~~~~~~~~

(B))(重音)請 記 住 我未來遙遠的風 (B)有一天你會找回你 的 夢~~
(B))(重音)幸福 是看 得透 而不是 舍 不 得 他 的 所 有
(B))(重音)慢慢觸摸天空暖暖的火 (B)我在這天黑了也不會~走~~~~(放慢)
(B))(重音到中音)你的快樂除了他還有 我永遠守候（放慢）~~~~ (小停顿)(B)不要 難過(轻拉音)~~~~

(B) = 呼吸
~ = 尾部拉音
Bold = 特别处理

New Addition To Blog Roll:

Elaine from CSS 2 (See Blog Roll on left hand sidebar)

New Songs Added On Main Music Playlist:

Song 13. 蔡淳佳, Joi - 风铃
Song 15. 梁咏琪, Gigi - 新鲜
Song 17. 张韶涵, Angela - 不痛
Song 21. 方大同 - 爱爱爱
Song 40. 林忆莲, Sandy - 诱惑的街
Song 45. 彭羚, Cass - 随爱而飞
Song 46. 李圣杰, Sam - 眼底星空

Hope everyone can enjoy listening to them!

(Video Source: YouTube, May 25 2007, babydoll15)

Teresa @ Sheng Siong Variety show, Slideshow and Performances video links

Teresa Tseng, Female Champion of Campus Superstar I and MediaCorp Artiste, attended The Sheng Siong Show on 17 Jun 2007 (Sunday). She was present as a judge for a competition held during the show and was also a guest performer, where she sung a duet with Renfred Ng, First Runner-Up of Campus Superstar I and MediaCorp Artiste.



Friendly, megawatt smile of Teresa as she responded to the cameras during her presence as a judge of a competition in the show.

A duet song "恋爱达人" with Renfred Ng. Polished by experience and exposure, both Teresa and Renfred were already used to the stage attention. Notice how natural and relaxed both of them were even in the middle of the performance.

Enjoying oneself onstage will bring that kind of comfortable feel and confidence. This is again brilliantly captured in this screenshot of Teresa.

(Source: blanket, 17 Jun 2007, idollic.com/teresa)

(Notice: The photo screenshots were being disseminated well-intentionally to share beautiful shots of the artiste and Campus Superstar Teresa Tseng. If MediaCorp Singapore wishes me to remove the photographs, kindly contact me at my MSN address above in an official email correspondence and I will remove the photo screenshots.)

Slideshow of Teresa Tseng

I have also done a simple slideshow of Teresa Tseng at the various public appearances and noteworthy events or programmes. The images are possible through a long list of sources so I would like to extend my thanks to all those who have contributed the photographs throughout 2005 to 2007 thus far. I hope all of you can enjoy the slideshow and continue to see the growing success of Teresa Tseng.

For those interested in watching Teresa perform in both the East Point Mall and Sheng Siong Show, please go to http://idollic.com/teresa/ to view both her performances.

Updates, Modifications and Notices On My Blog

Updated Music Playlist:

I have removed some of the older songs on my blog's music playlist and added a number of newer songs for the listening pleasure of all those who took time to visit my blog. Some of the songs aren't necessarily new but at least IMHO, good songs worth listening to.

18. 吴克群 - 男佣

31. 伍思凯 + 马玉芬 - 关于爱情 (One of the best timeless love duets)

33. 张信哲, Jeff - 太想爱你 (A classic masterfully sung by The Prince of Ballads)

36. 张韶涵 - 真的

37. 梦飞船 - 不值得 (Amazing harmonization of voices in this song)

Added New Blogs on Blogroll:

For those who are observant, I have added a number of new blogs for the curious visitors of my blog. The new additions are Huixian of CSS 2 and Shawn of CSS 2.

Answering To Comments About My Photographs:

Thanks but no. Moreover, without explicit permission from the people supporting me, it's not a good idea to drag their faces into this blog.

Whatever the case, I am hoping to attract readers with content and not with my face (which isn't much to look at anyway, haha). I am trying to secure a better camera phone and perhaps in the near future, readers can see how my photoshooting skills of food and scenery are.

Blog Posts In The Making:

a) Movie Review of Shrek 3

b) Visit To Chinatown & Hindu Temple

I am still busy with the upcoming Campus Superstar QF 1B post-performance analysis blog post so be patient okay? Will generate the abovementioned two posts as soon as I can.

Announcement To Supporters of Teresa Tseng:
Teresa Tseng, the Overall Female Champion of Campus Superstar Season 1 will be making a special guest appearance at an event at East Point Mall near Simei MRT station on 16 June 2007 (Saturday) at around 1800hrs. For all those who have not seen Teresa's gracious Superstar aura onstage, please head down there and if we are lucky, get to hear her sing.