Reader's Digest Jan 2008: Jokes, SPOP Grand Finals: Performance Clips By 萧敬腾, Movie Review: Vantage Point

Reader's Digest Jan 2008: Jokes

Susan was desperate for a few days off from work. But she kewn that the boss wouldn't let her take a vacation. So she got a crazy idea. She hung upside down on the ceiling until the bigy guy noticed and asked her what she was doing. "I'm a lightbulb," she told him.

"You are clearly stressed-out," said the boss, looking concerned. "Go home and take it easy for a couple of days." Susan jumped down and headed for the door. Her co-worker Janice seized the opportunity and followed Susan.

"Where do you think you are going? the boss hollered after her.

"I am going home, too," Janice said. "I can't work in the dark."

SPOP Grand Finals: Performance Clips By 萧敬腾

One of the guest performers for the abovementioned competition gala. For those who can't get enough of his singing, below are two clips which featured him singing portions of three local song compositions in the first performance clip (I am more impressed with his third song though) and his own song composition in the second performance clip.




Movie Review: Vantage Point

I met up with one of my ex-students for a late lunch at Burger King and a movie. The poor bugger was so busy with his JC life that he wolf down two burgers, fries, drinks and an ice-cream. After lunch, we went to watch Vantage Point because both of us like movies which are thoughtfully crafted and Vantage Point turned out to be what we liked.

Revolved around an assassination plot which involved two accurate shots into the US President and two powerful explosions which caused so many casualties in some anti-terrorist convention in the city of Spain, the many seemingly-normal characters weaved together to provide the viewers on what actually happened and how everything fell into place.

I am not going to reveal any spoilers but just to tickle the curiosity of readers of my blog who have not watched the movie, here are some of the more memorable characters in the movie.

A Secret Service Agent who is an elite bodyguard to The President. Can he solve the assassination plot in time before more people get killed?
A beautiful Spanish paramedic who rushes to the scene of the assassination and bombing with a stretcher. How does she turn the lives of the people she met there?

A highly-trained Special Forces operative becoming a very reluctant person to be dragged into the whole incident. Can he keep his head clear in the middle of the chaos?

An American tourist who loves to video-camera and befriends a young Spanish girl during the anti-terrorist convention public ceremony. How do their new-found friendship affect the course of the assassination of one of the most powerful leaders in the world?

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.

More Photos from Today's Health & Wellness Expo 2008,Teresa's Performance of Yu San at Ngee Ann Poly

Commentary on Singing For Samuel on 《恋人未满》:

Before anyone of you click the video below, please take note that the video was recorded with sporadic sudden volume bursts so don't put your ears too close to the speakers or earpieces or you may suffer a few shocks like I did when I first listened to it.


Samuel, since I have promised you that I will comment on this song so that you can improve, so here it goes:

Given the audio quality of the recording, I can only comment on what I could hear amidst the background music and static. The following is what I found out:

1) Male's starting part was too weak. There was no clear input of variation in the singing of the lyrics. Male sounds like reading the lyrics rather than singing them.

2) Female's starting part was quite clear. However, her endnotes are not very clean as if the lines just run-on to the next line without a specific break.

3) Female's second part was over-done with the endnotes. This time, she breaks the endnotes too hard, sounding as if she was chomping on the last word of each line of the lyrics. Control of endnotes and end lyrics is very important.

4) Harmonization is not good because both male and female are not communicating enough to decide on which key to rest on. Hence, the parts sounded uncompatible to blend into the song.

5) I admire the courage of both singers to jump enthusiastically into the crescendo part of the song. That is the spirit - keep that burning. However, control is the key word. Singing high and singing with control are two ends of the singing skill spectrum. To prevent screaming into the mics during crescendo portions of songs, allocation of enough breath and awareness of when to stop should be made known to oneself first.

6) When the song is supposed to fade after reaching its peak/finale, one's singing volume and emotions must adjust accordingly. By the end song, I could not really hear that difference. If a male singer is to participate in this song, he should know when to sustain his part because I find the male's voice disappearing for extended time with no reason when he should be following through with the female for some parts of the song.

That's all, Samuel. Hope my commentary can help you improve somehow. Have fun learning!

More Photos from Today's Health & Wellness Expo 2008:

As I was saying in my previous post, before I started reporting on Teresa's performance, I was hanging around the abovementioned exhibition and I must say it was very interesting. Full of stalls selling and promoting and introducing new healthcare products, giving free health tests and checks. A pity I did not have much time there but I did manage to take a few shots of a couple of performances onstage then.
This is Dongfang Billy, a famous and popular artiste amongst the middle-aged populace of Singapore and similarly so in a number of countries. He is a cancer survivor, and he now works even harder to entertain, after dancing with Death itself before. He is seen here demonstrating some healthcare food and is later going to distribute those food to the audience. I did not eat because I don't want unfamiliar food to interrupt my report on Teresa's performance then.
This is him promoting some powerful blender that he is the spokesperson for. He said it could spin 30,000 times a minute and he uses it liberally to make all his healthcare food onsite. I must say his cooking skills are very well-honed. Precise and decisively confident.
This is the first time I hear Billy sing live onstage. His singing skills are not on par with the various Superstars but considering his multiple skills in hosting, cooking, entertaining, it will do.
The is the end part of his song. He ends it with a rather amusing pose but at least he is enjoying himself onstage. I remembered Billy before he was diagnosed of cancer was quite a hot-tempered celebrity, now he is a much more humble and better artiste.
This is the immediate yoga performance before Teresa started singing. I could not remember the name of the yoga centre but I remembered what this yoga instructor said "Yoga is not about the postures, not about the time you spent doing it, but it's about connecting yourself with your body, having time being yourself." How true, I am not a yoga person but most of the time, many people aren't even aware of themselves, just busying away from activity to activity. No wonder they don't enjoy themselves much.

Teresa's Performance of Yu San at Ngee Ann Polytechnic 18 January 2008:



(Video source: Ada from TFC and matsufuyu , 18 January 2008)

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!

Report on SPOP Songwriters Concert @ Eastpoint Mall 19 Jan 2008 (with exclusive video and photo coverage of Teresa too!)

Exclusive Slideshow of SPOP Songwriters Concert @ Eastpoint Mall:

Hope everyone reading my blog likes the slideshow that I have made for the songwriters and superstars singing at Eastpoint Mall on last Saturday. Remember to credit me if you are going to take anything from the slideshow.


For those observant enough, you may noticed that Teresa's performance photos are not included inside yet because her fanclub photographers have not finished processing those shots yet so I'll add hers in once they are ready.


Alright, since I promised a report so I'll make sure I comment on each of the twelve performances on that day. Here goes:

《谢谢你的好》 By 陈铿百 Nat Tan

Nathaniel's performance was very stable. Nothing extraordinarily memorable or worth negatively commenting on. Good job, Nathaniel!

《Love is Forever》 By 阮诗凯 Keely 曾裕淑 Maxilian 许政宁 Zhengning

The more people onstage, the more my expectations of being entertained is. The three girls did alright for their performance but fell a little bit short of my expectations of them moving around more onstage and maybe doing a little bit of synchronized movements. However, they just swayed and waved, without further explicit attempts to increase the total entertainment value of their performance.

《沙漠》 By 陈迪雅 Diya

Diya's performance was postponed until the second half of the concert and her skills were still there and the song was performed with relative ease for her. I don't know if it was deliberately planned by MediaCorp's artiste or wardrobe department, but I kept seeing Diya in suspenders, which actually shortened her height even more onstage and gave neither a matured nor a youthful look to Diya. Perhaps Diya should consider a wardrobe change or stick to jeans or skirts like the other female performers?

《蚊子咬咬》 By 谢子伟 Jeff Teay 官镜瀚 Jeremy Kwan

Again the same thing happened, both the guys just sang and sang without any significant or memorable planned moves. It was quite a waste because I thought they were already well-trained in their music school to learn about stage movements. This song actually has a lot of potential for very comical moves onstage but neither of the guys seemed keen to entertain the audience. No wonder Spicymac (another celebrity blogger) was complaining the atmosphere then was a bit cold. Half the responsibility laid with the performers.

《雨伞》 By 曾咏霖 Teresa

Teresa's vocal quality was undisputedly par excellence that afternoon and had won quite a few rounds of resounding cheers, applause and whistling. Like most of the abovementioned performers, she knew her song well and I have no much to comment on the vocal aspect of their performances. Teresa did her stage movements as well as she could but my expectations of her are, as usual, higher than normal. There is still some room for improvement for her stage movement and because I am nicer to the girl (obviously), my more detailed advice is given to her at her own official fanclub instead.

《Sunday Evening》 By 杨佳盈 Carrie

I read Carrie's blog yesterday and I was surprised to find her "moody" because her song was not moving up into the leaderboard at all for the past few weeks. Carrie, if you are thinking it was to do with your performance, let me tell you that your performance last Saturday was, in my opinion, was amongst the best three. Good stage movement, good involvement in the song and genuine interaction with the audience there. Excellent work!

《男人香水》 By 林昱志 Leon

Leon seemed very emotionally connected to the songwriter and hence he was hugging and cheering with the songwriter fairly often but I was thinking it was really very disrupting to the overall enjoyment of his performance. He modified the song with a personal rap portion, which was creative and well-done, but it was again disruptive to the audience trying to identify with the song. Imagine first-time listeners were impressed by the rap portion but found to their disappointment that the official version had not such portion, how then is it possible for listeners to stay with the song?

《婚礼》 By 杜蕙甹 Candyce 张乐声 Lesheng

Yet again, very little stage movement that was doing justice to the song. I thought both of them were supposed to be singing a love duet but I sensed zero chemistry between the two singers. With no chemistry or attempts to form it onstage, the song was lost and attention for the performance waned. Lesheng and Candyce, both of you should be able to see from the stage how the audience faltered because there was little commitment to the song from both of you, both vocally and visually.

《不再》 By 孙文海 Wenhai

Perhaps I had high expectations that Wenhai could pull off rock songs without a sweat but I was utterly disappointed when he relied on the deejay to switch vocal ranges in-between the songs. He was supposed to impress the audience with his power but I could tell that he was just waiting for the special effects to hit in when the portions were reached. Wenhai, you have to show your own strengths instead of relying on those special effects to pull your designated song off the ground.

《爱的味道》 By 黄俊辉 Adriano 李俊纬 Marcus

Chemistry was slightly better between the two guys for this song and they were really enjoying themselves onstage. However, there was still much more room for improvement instead of just swaying their bodies to the tune of the song. Both of them must take note of their stretchnotes because I caught both of them going off-key near the end of the song. Considering the relative strengths of the other more senior singers, such a mistake became quite glaring to the trained ears.

《发烧》 By 汤灵伊 Tang Lingyi

Lingyi was as cute as ever and was doing all she could to portray that image throughout her performance, which was absolutely fine since it is a cute-sounding song to begin with. However, her voice projection through the microphone sounded too soft and she did not seem to notice that and compensate for it. With no adjustment and stage moves that were getting rather stale towards the end of her performance, my attention wavered too. I hope she could do better next time round.

《我死了怎么办》 By 潘嗣敬 Sugianto 田铭耀 Mingyao

This group put in the most effort to come up with synchronized stage moves to impress and entertain and I was a lot more pleased with them for their efforts. Yet, more could be done if they had more practice because I could see that they did not really coordinately completely and Sugianto was more like trying to catch up with Mingyao throughout the performance. It may look alright for the general audience at Eastpoint Mall but it would not make the cut if the stage or setting was a notch more formal. Practise! Rehearse!

Teresa performing 《雨伞》at Eastpoint Mall on 19 Jan 2008:

Okay. I admit the video quality dropped considerably from that on my camera/video phone when I uploaded the performance onto Youtube but I hope everyone can still enjoy the song and Teresa's singing beyond all the pixel and static issues in the video. It's actually a beautiful and endurable song once you listen to it a few times.

A post and reply on analysis of lyrics for Yu San on SPOP Official Forum

Originally posted by Meteorstorm:

Even though 《雨伞》is one of my favourite songs in SPOP Hurray, i believe there are better written songs in the competition.

I like the melody of 《雨伞》but i don't really like the lyrics... in a way i feel that the love described in the song is too pragmatic and self-centered...

It seems like the song is about how and what the partner can provide, and nothing about giving and sacrificing for love.

The following was my reply to Meteorstorm:

Hi Meteorstorm!I have a few queries about your comments and am wondering if you could answer me?

You said "there are better-written songs in the competition". May I know which songs are you referring to?

You said "the love described in the song is too pragmatic and self-centred..." May I know are you referring to the following parts of 《雨伞》?

只怕雨伞雨伞变得一点破旧
挡不住大雨大雨不停的掉落
小小雨伞驻在我家门的角落
不能永远挡着风 遮着雨 保护我

Although I am not Dione so I can't completely interpret her thoughts for this song, this is how I feel about this part:

Who doesn't worry about the possible change in the nature of one's love over time?

Who doesn't worry that one's love cannot withstand the tests of the ups and downs in life?

I think the songwriter is trying to show the worries and doubts as the song persona looks at the umbrella (which is now a symbol of love) and wonders how long such a love can endure.

I think it has accurately reflected how people have always wanted to huddle under the protection of love but are hesitant to completely commit themselves to love because the relative brutal realities of time, wear and tear often overshadow the enjoyment.

《雨伞》did not give a happy ending nor a sad ending in the song, and Dione has chosen to give it an open ending because even until now, few, if any at all, can confidently determine the outcome of their love.

I suppose this is another truth in anyone's love life - we will not know the quality and strength of our loves until the final moment hence the open-ended question will be there till then.

May the best song wins!

Sean Ho

Attempts to dilute SPOP votes on MediaCorp's SPOP Official English Forum

Hi faithful supporters of Teresa!

I have been notified of the following incident at the abovementioned forum (thank you ZZZ for the information) and I have decided to share with all of you what I have responded to that person's post.

This is what he wrote:

Re: Kindly refrain from voting this song!

Originally posted by tida Given her popularity and the number of fans out there, there's no need to vote anymore for Teresa Tsang's song. As you can see from the 'who's leading chart'...her song is already there. She is very safe so no no risk.So, please redirect your energy and vote for Nathaniel's song number 1 instead.

This is what I replied:

Hi tida!

I am agreeable with the notion that Teresa is popular and she does have an incalculable number of supporters (active ones you see in the main fanclub websites and passive ones around the island). Thank you for affirming that with your post too.

But your "no need to vote anymore" suggestion is far from accurate and realistic because I believe many faithful (and thinking) supporters of Teresa understands that the other 11 SPOP songs have also wisely chosen their designated singers who have large fan bases too.

Diluting Yu San's votes to support Nathaniel's song is not a very wise option if supporters really wish to see Yu San steadily holding on in the SPOP competition.

Also, I would like to make it clear here that we have no illusions about the following - The song "Yu San" is written by Dione. Teresa is just the designated singer for this SPOP competition. So the votes which kept Yu San on the leaderboard is not just from the supporters of Teresa but people who genuinely support the SPOP song composition "Yu San" and of course, Dione herself.

Hence, I would like to continue my appeal to supporters of Yu San, Teresa and Dione to vote for the song Yu San in the SPOP voting competition. The closing date is 21 January 2008 so keep the votes coming in! Jia you everyone.

May the best song wins!

Sean Ho
Music clears the mind, fills the heart, moves the soul."

I would like to appeal to all faithful supporters of Teresa not to respond and reply on impulse to such tactics to attempt to dilute the votes of Yu San or to stir anger between supporters of Teresa and supporters of Nathaniel.

Let me deal with these posters. All of you just carry on with your daily voting until Yu San reaches the semi-finals of SPOP, from where a new strategy will be put up if the song makes it to the top 6 compositions.

Have a good week ahead! = )

More SPOP Public Appearances By Teresa in Jan 2008, Recent Duet By Teresa and Geraldine at MusicDreamer Live! Cafe, Screenshots of Rome: Total War

More SPOP Public Appearances By Teresa Tseng in Jan 2008:

日期：1月18日（星期五） 时间：下午4时 地点： 义安理工学院 Atrium

Date: Friday, 18 Jan Time: 4pm Venue: Ngee Ann Polytechnic Atrium

S-POP 万岁！首次走入校园！Super系列参赛者将带来12首“原汁原味”的本地创作，势必让你听出耳油！我们约定你了，不见不散！

Take a break from your books and immerse yourself in the original tunes of the Top 12 compositions from S-POP HURRAY's Songwriting Competition! Meet with the song composers in person and play exciting games and stand to win limited edition S-POP HURRAY! Premiums!

主持人：林翠芳出席歌手：陈迪雅、陈铿百、杨佳盈、汤灵伊、田铭耀、阮诗凯、许政宁、孙文海、曾咏霖、张乐声等。

Host: Lin Cuifang

Performers: Diya, Nat Tan, Carrie, Lingyi, Mingyao, Keely and more

日期：1月19日（星期六） 时间：下午3时 地点： 东福坊
Date: Saturday, 19 Jan Time: 3pm Venue: Eastpoint Mall

想一口气听完12首【S-POP 万岁！】创作大赛的作品吗？那就别错过这场热闹的S-POP 万岁！飚唱会。除了多位本地歌手之外，参赛的词曲创作人也将和大家见面。主持人林翠芳也会在现场和你一起玩游戏，送出超限量发行的S-POP T恤和公仔。以实际行动支持本地创作，S-POP 万岁！飚唱会等你一起来狂欢！

S-POP HURRAY! is moving out of the studio bringing you the Top 12 compositions from S-POP HURRAY's Songwriting Competition. Catch also the song composers in person as well as play games with our host and win limited edition S-POP HURRAY! Premiums!

主持人：林翠芳

出席歌手：陈迪雅、陈铿百、杨佳盈、汤灵伊、田铭耀、阮诗凯等。

Host: Lin Cuifang

Performers: Diya, Nat Tan, Carrie, Lingyi, Mingyao, Keely and more!

(Information and Image sources: SPOP official events webpage)

Recent Duet By Teresa Tseng and Geraldine See at MusicDreamer Live! Cafe:

I would like to thank skyvel of TFC and of course the video originator, eileen5537 (possibly a Geraldine supporter) for the provision of this exclusive video of our Campus Superstars singing!



Screenshots of Rome: Total War:

Okay, as promised, here are the screenshots of the classic computer game that I am currently entertaining myself whenever I am not working.

That is one of my generals, Victor, in red near the coastal ancient city of Sidon. Although he is well-accompanied by eight units of Roman archer auxilia, four units of Roman heavy calvary, 4 units of Roman Legionary heavy infantry, 2 units of Praetorian heavy infantry, poor Victor is stuck with two major enemy armies (in blue) from the front and back, not to mention the enemy garrison in Sidon city and another incoming reinforcement enemy army at the bottom of the screen. Victor needs to break the encirclement or risk being wiped out completely.
This is the battle screenshot where Victor tackles the army behind his back. I adopted the box formation because the enemy army has more calvary units than Victor's army and those could easily outflank my infantry and archers so the box formation will protect them as best as possible compared to other army formations. All my calvary units are placed behind, ready to charge at the enemy units which will be pounding at my box formation later on when the battle starts.
Engaging the enemy army. I am currently doing the calvary run, which involves harassing the enemies so that their ranged units, especially artillery and archers cannot concentrate on my main body of archers in the box formations. This, of course, puts that particular calvary unit doing the run in great danger but it fulfils a greater objective of keeping the box safe so that my ranged units can shower arrows on the moving and frustrated enemy units.
Of course, the calvary run tactic can only achieve that much effect before the enemy units finally lose their patience and charge at my box formation. By then, their numbers and morale have been greatly reduced by the arrow showers. The infantry charge is braced by my fresh and ready infantry units surrounding the box and thus will withstand the enemy's attacks long enough until they start to rout and retreat from the box. From there, my calvary would be chasing them down from behind and cutting them down. The battle was won and General Victor broke the encirclement with over 100 casualties whilst the enemy army lost over 1000.
With the routing of that enemy army, General Victor broke through and suddenly changed his route, attacking the neighbouring city of Damascus and taking it so that the army can rest within the city's walls. Meanwhile, my reinforcement army arrived in the next turn, went around the city of Sidon, successfully survived an ambush by 300 enemy soldiers and has now besieged Sidon instead. By this time, the city garrison, though has increased due to the influx of escaped soldiers from all these nearby battles, is of lesser threat because they have incomplete units, which have suffered casualties of varying degrees. Those enemy units could not recover during the siege because my spies and assassins have already sabotaged those re-training facilities. The city of Sidon fell in the next turn.

There you go. Hope those interested in this game enjoyed my little story telling. Have a good week ahead and thank you for frequenting my blog all these time! =)

Report on SPOP New Year Eve Mini-Concert @ Hougang Mall, Teresa's Latest Photos and Message to Her Supporters, My Christmas and New Year Celebrations

This will be an ultra-long post because I am packing a lot of things into it. Without further ado, let's get started.
For those who can't get enough of Teresa appearing on SPOP with Chen Weilian, the above are a series of screenshots some of the highlights of that episode. Everyone was teasing Weilian as he was blushing when Teresa sang "Cinderalla" and they had a lot of fun together during the recording.

Report on SPOP New Year Eve Mini-Concert @ Hougang Mall on 31 Dec 2007:

I was there at around 1pm and found Jolyn already sitting at the main audience area in front of the stage. However, the stage was elevated on two platforms and I thought the viewing of the performances would be rather difficult because of the stretched necks since the stage was so high up. So I took the liberty to find a seat on the second floor at Gelare and subsequently, Jolyn and Michelle joined me at the table.

Both Michelle and myself had not eaten our lunch so we ordered spaghetti and dessert to fill our stomachs whilst waiting up there. Blanket and JR, two of our fabulous fanclub photographers, arrived shortly and joined us for a while before they took up their positions to capture the best shots of Teresa's performances onstage.

At around 2.20pm, the Mini-Concert finally started and each of the twelve song compositions' singers came up onstage one by one to perform the SPOP songs. Here are some of the photos I have taken from my position. Some of them are blocked by a decorative tree by the side of the stage but at least it was a comfortable position to sit and watch the performances. With Blanket and JR around, I could relax abit without worrying too much about the photo-recordings of the event itself. =)

This is Nathaniel performing onstage. His singing is very good and he is confident of his performance.

This photograph shows Zhengning, Maxilian and Keely waiting for their turn to be onstage. The three girls are busy posing for the people there and Keely and Maxilian were like holding hands and swinging them. Very funny. Haha
This is Diya posing for the people as well. The shot is blurred but I can tell you that Diya is a very friendly and obliging celebrity, posing and signing autographs. No wonder she has so many supporters.
This is Jeremy Kwan posing at the same waiting area downstage. Quite a friendly guy and even without his singing partner, he could nail the song just as well.

Carrie belting out her song onstage. Her live version sounded alot better than the SPOP studio version but my alignment is still with Yu San. But way to go, Carrie. =)
Teresa going onstage for her turn to perform. She goes onstage with a smile and comes down fron it with a smile too. Could tell she really enjoys singing and her performance was flawlessly beautiful, attracting nearly everyone with a view of the stage to turn and look at her performance whilst she was singing Yu San. There was almost no qualitative difference between what you hear on my IMEEM player and the live version she sang at Hougang Mall. She must have put in a lot of work to master the song for all these outdoor events.

Teresa singing onstage. Unfortunately, the tree was in my way again but Teresa knows her stage movement well and managed to traverse from platform to platform. Unlike her first few public performances, I have little else negative to comment for all her recent performances. Teresa is a fast learner and can now manage her stage, audience and emcee interactions very well.

Yes, I know the photos I took of Teresa are no good but thankfully, both Blanket and JR have done their work well. JR has not uploaded all his photos yet but Blanket has finished his. Below are extracts of some of their work. Want to see more? Don't go Mocca, go to the Official Teresa Tseng Fanclub Forum Site on my Blogroll on the left and view all the excellent photos of the beautiful and talented Teresa.

Teresa's Latest Photographs and Message to Her Supporters:

Turning and facing different groups of audience at Hougang Mall, Teresa knows not everyone can see her onstage so she makes the effort to allow people to see her better by moving around from platform to platform.
Teresa smiling for the photographers at Hougang Mall, including one which she looks directly at Blanket himself on the fanclub shots. As with most of her public performances, almost all the professional photographers were busy snapping photos of Teresa. I could see all the flashes shimmering away the moment Teresa was onstage from my position on the second floor.

After Teresa's performance, I brought Michelle and Jolyn down to the first floor to wait for Teresa because Jolyn wants a photograph with Teresa and her autograph (Lucky her, she got both of them). Teresa did not leave Hougang Mall with the rest of the celebrities but she made her way to the escalator lift with her family, Thomas and Mdm Tseng instead. JR followed the three of us and we managed to get hold of Teresa whilst she was waiting for the lift.

Below is the fanclub exclusive photograph of Teresa at the lift waiting area of Hougang Mall.

Teresa left after taking a few photographs but she knew her supporters really wished she could stay a little longer, so she left a fanclub message at around 9.24pm last night:

大家好：

我是曾詠霖，祝福大家在新的一年裡心想事成！

添平，謝謝你製作了一份最特別的禮物送給我，感激不盡。

Jolyn Teng，也謝謝你送的禮物，我會好好珍惜它。

因今日是歲末，我有要事在身，故！無法跟大家一起合照，很抱歉，謝謝大家的諒解。

後天就開學了，所有的同學我們一起努力吧。最後，祝福大家身體健康！曾詠霖

Below is last week's results of the SPOP voting contest as of 31 Dec 2007 9pm

编号 Song No. 05 雨伞
编号 Song No. 07 男人香水
编号 Song No. 08 婚礼
编号 Song No. 09 不再
编号 Song No. 10 爱的味道
编号 Song No. 11 发烧

Teresa's SPOP song "Yu San" is currently STILL on the leaderboard for the votes! Hurray!

I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of Teresa to thank every single supporter who has been voting for the song all this while to make it happen and appeal to them to continue to vote for the song to keep it going through the competition.

Once again, thank you and keep on voting!

My Christmas and New Year Celebrations:

I was really busy for the past week because most of my free time was spent celebrating Christmas and New Year with my VIP friends and family. Below are the photographs I have taken for my gatherings with my VIP friends for the past week.

What is this? Mashed potatoes. Why take this? Because I was doing all the mashing. Why am I mashing potatoes? Because I was part of the team preparing food at The Changed Man's house for a Christmas celebratory dinner gathering of the VIP friends. Mashing potatoes is not easy work but the end result earned praises because it tasted really smooth and yummy. Hahaha.
Another dish prepared on that night. It's carborona spaghetti with ham, peppers and bacon bits. Very nice and delicious and everyone ate their fill that night.
More dishes taken just before the dinner. Sausages from Germany, Mushroom soup from Campbell. The missing dish was the mashed potatoes, which I was taking a break from mashing it then. Hahaha
This was taken from another KTV session with my VIP friends. Sam Lee was one of our favourites and happy to say, I am getting the hang of singing his difficult and challenging songs. When I feel up to it, I may even post another performance video of myself singing his songs on this blog. Stay tuned! Wahahaha...
This is Landy on the KTV screen. Pretty hor? She is talented but unfortunately not a bright star yet because she has too few songs under her name so far.
The Chinese temple at Si Ma Lu. Yes, my VIP friends pray at that place and I followed them. Although I am a free-thinker, I pray for strength to continue my work to save the world whilst I was there too. I heard the temple was the only building left on that street during World War II. Apparently, even the Japanese bombers did not dare to offend the gods inside by bombing the temple.
This was where I was last night - St James Power Station - Boiler Room with twenty other young elites. It was by invitation and I was honoured to be part of them last night, partying away at that place. I have never been to that place and it was very nice - lots of live performances, lots of drinks and lots of beautiful people to look. Hahaha
As the night approached 0000hrs, the party got wilder and the lights got crazier. The end effect? A very high crowd jumping around, toasting around and dancing around. By that time, I was already 50% drunk. Haha.
A photograph of how much we had drunk last night. We ordered a 8.5litres of Chivas, two bottles of Absolute Volka, two bottles of Cordon Bleau and two tanks of beer - and we finished everything at night. I heard the bill footed by the two hosts was more than $2000. Woohoo~

By 1.40am, I was nearly 80% drunk and it was time for me to go because I had to some blogging and work to do today. Oh, I was the first to leave as the rest continued to party until daybreak. Those folks were simply amazing party animals.

Alright. That's the end of the long post. I have got to grab my lunch before my New Year Day continues.

Happy New Year everyone and may it be a bountiful year of joy, love and happiness for all! =)

Teresa in SPOP singing 《雨伞》, Teresa in SPOP singing 《你最珍贵》with Chen Weilian

Teresa in SPOP singing 《雨伞》:


Teresa's singing is amazing and it's not because I support her singing. Listen carefully. You may initially think that this video version's sound quality was because the crytalline-clear singing was ripped from the studio recording version. When you have finished listening, you would probably realized that Teresa's SPOP actual live version was almost identical to the studio version on my IMEEM player!

One thing is proven again and again, Teresa's quality singing is absolutely amongst the best and has definitely lent the song even more strength and soul.

Please continue to vote for the song on the SPOP website. The song is on the leaderboard in terms of votes but there is still a long way to go. Voting is free and every registered member can vote up to 10 times!

Teresa in SPOP singing 《你最珍贵》with Chen Weilian:

Yes! The highly-anticipated duet between Teresa and Chen Weilian is finally out. I got the source from Chen Weilian's fanclub so am crediting them for this video. Notice how nervous Chen Weilian was when he was told to touch Teresa's face - he was literally stammering and blushing at the same time.

Their duet was very nice indeed. I particularly loved the ending harmonization - done to near perfection. Well done, Teresa and Weilian!

Updated Photos of Teresa Tseng and Campus Superstars, S-POP万岁!之创作大赛复赛歌曲得票排行榜 (as of 17 December 2007 9pm), Publicity for 《雨伞》

Updated Photos of Teresa Tseng and Campus Superstars:

This photograph is taken from Khim's blog and it's probably taken after Star Awards 2007 on 16 December. Shown in the photograph is Khim and Teresa.

This photograph is taken from Xu Zhengrong, Dasmond's blog. I believe it must be either taken during the Star Awards 2007 rehearsals or during the Post Party because the two girls' makeup are still on. Shown in the photograph from left to right are Shawn Tok (CSS 2), Renfred Ng (CSS 1), Geraldine See (CSS 1) and of course Teresa Tseng (CSS 1).
This photograph is a screenshot of the televised Star Awards 2007 where MediaCorp presented some of its most promising young Superstars of the future. We see Renfred, Shawn, Teresa and Geraldine onstage presenting themselves in front of some of Singapore's television and entertainment moguls.

S-POP万岁!之创作大赛复赛歌曲得票排行榜 (as of 17 December 2007 9pm)

投选成绩每逢周一晚上9时后更新。

Voting Results will be updated every Mon after 9pm.

编号 Song No. 04 蚊子咬咬
编号 Song No. 05 雨伞
编号 Song No. 07 男人香水
编号 Song No. 08 婚礼
编号 Song No. 09 不再
编号 Song No. 11 发烧

Publicity for 《雨伞》

I have been trying to reach Dione Tan, the songwriter for the abovementioned song to coordinate with her to publicize for the song but she seems uncontactable at the moment. So I have to proceed without her, hopefully only for the moment. Dione, if this blog post manages to reach you, can you contact me via the MSN address on my blog please?

I have put up the song from the SPOP voting website onto my IMEEM embedded player on my blog so that more listeners who have not had the chance to visit the SPOP voting website can hear how the song goes. (Disclaimer: This move is only put up for pure sake of publicity and with no intention of achieving any monetary profit for myself.)

In addition I have also included a Youtube video of Dione Tan singing the original song with her own piano accompaniment, as well as the lyrics of the song below.

Hope everyone can enjoy the song and of course be moved by it to vote for the song. Voting procedure is very simple - Go to the website. Register if you are not a member. Start voting. Voting is free and every member can vote for 10 times everyday until the closing date in 2008
《雨伞》

Written By: 陈明娴 (Dione Tan)
Sung By: 曾咏霖 Teresa Tseng

是不是每一次都要我记住那天

淋着雨 你伸出手 借给我的那把...雨伞

*时间长 思念就变得越深

失去了 是我一切的判断

淋大雨, 期待你出现在眼前

被遗弃的心 等待你打开

只怕雨伞雨伞变得一点破旧

挡不住大雨大雨不停的掉落

小小雨伞驻在我家门的角落

不能永远挡着风 遮着雨 保护我

只怕雨伞雨伞变得一点破旧

挡不住大雨大雨不停的掉落

小小雨伞驻在我家门的角落

不能永远挡着风 遮着雨 保护我

Ooo...挡着风 遮着雨 保护我 Ooo...

挡着风 遮着雨 保护我*

(Repeat * once)

Latest Update on Teresa Tseng 曾咏霖: Events n Appearances Schedule For Dec 2007 and Jan 2008

Hi faithful supporters of Teresa!

I have the following announcements for Teresa Tseng's events and appearances schedule for Dec 2007 and Jan 2008 so please keep a lookout and see if you can participate actively in any of the following events and activities, giving Teresa all the support she needs to continue to shine as one of the finest Campus Superstars in Singapore!

1) Teresa's designated song in the SPOP songwriting competition 《雨伞》written by 陈明娴 Dion Tan is NOW open for voting!

As you all know by now, Teresa was invited to sing one of the SPOP top 12 song compositions and the full version is now up on SPOP's website and open for public voting. To listen to the song, you have to go to the site (click here) and you should look under song number five. Hold your mouse cursor over the speaker icon on that page and you should be able to hear the music playing and Teresa's fabulous rendition of the song.

I don't want to spoil the fun here so I would rather keep my comments of that song for now and let everyone else judge for themselves how good the song is through Teresa's singing.

If you think you like the song, you can then click on the name of the songwriter and vote for it! You will need to register your particulars with MediaCorp with you wish to vote but that form is simple enough and should not take more than 3 minutes to fill in. Each registered member can vote up to 10 times every day so please rack up your daily quota of votes if you really really love to hear Teresa sing the song for the Grand Finals of the SPOP competition! Voting period is from 26 November 2007 to 21 January 2008 (2359hrs).

After voting, you can also use the inbuilt email system to forward the song to as many of your friends as possible to let them vote for the song too!

I hope everyone can like the song as much as I do and put that extra effort to vote for the song brought about so beautifully by our dearest Teresa! I have already voted. What are you waiting for?

2) Teresa Tseng will appear as a guest celebrity on SPOP on 17 Dec 2007 (Monday) at 8pm on MediaCorp Channel U in the episode where Chen Weilian is the main guest celebrity. Please stay tuned that night to watch the exciting duet with Chen Weilian!

3) Teresa Tseng will appear on SPOP as a designated singer for the song 《雨伞》on SPOP episode five at 8pm on MediaCorp Channel U in front of a panel of judges. Please stay tuned that night to listen to her rendition of the song onstage!

4) Teresa Tseng has been invited to attend yet another movie premiere in December 2007 (she loves to watch movies). Details of the movie premiere will be made available as soon as possible. If you want to catch a glimpse of the beautiful Teresa and watch a movie in the same theatre as her, please stay tuned to this blog or the official Teresa Tseng fanclub website!

5) Teresa Tseng will be a guest celebrity for TODAY newspaper's Health & Wellness Exhibition from 25 January 2008 (Friday) to 27 January 2008 (Sunday) at the Singapore Expo Hall 6B from 10am to 8pm. Other celebrities involved include Billy Wang, Tay Ping Hui, Vincent Ng, Felicia Chin and Shawn Tok! More details will be furnished as the dates approach so do stay tuned to this blog and the official Teresa Tseng fanclub website!

That is all for now. Have a great week ahead and looking forward to everyone responding to the events mentioned above!

What can be worse than death? - Cruelty, SPOP Hurray Concert On The Move Goodie Bag Contents, Crazy and Fun Quizzes, 有时唱歌爽就可以了

What can be worse than death? - Cruelty (to anything)

Kailin, you were asking me the other day what can be so scary about death. It's actually not the cessation of breath and life because there are worse things than those. Why don't I let the video I find do the talking?


Do you see my point now?

SPOP Hurray Concert On The Move Goodie Bag Contents:

Time to inspect my booty from the event. Hahaha..Hmm... I have two packets of 3-in-1 coffee (for people like me who sleep very late sometimes), hairdye packages (I need to dye my hair..how timely), teeth-whitening toothpaste (me go check mirror later), calendar and postcards of Korean TV dramas (will keep and give to my Korean-maniac friends) and two packets of issues (which I can use to blow my nose in the cold weather of December).


Crazy and Fun Quizzes:


Okay. I koped the quizzes from Khim's blog bcos she is very good in finding such stuff so credit Khim for the following quizzes to show how I may possibly be. Hahaha.

Lets101 Quizzes - Fun Quiz

Hmm....I think most of this analysis is quite accurate, except for the very sexy part - I really cannot imagine myself being sexy..hahaha but the rest of the quizzes keep harassing me with their results.

My sex appeal is 8.3 out of 10.
Ladies beware!!!

Lets101 - Free Online Dating Network

Erm...ok. So all you ladies better stay away from me bcos the quiz says I am dangerous..hahaha



Addictive content in my personality is 80%

Beware!!! people easily get addicted to me

Lets101 Quizzes - blog quizzes

Erm...so this addiction is good or bad? But the word "addiction" is negatively connotated ley.

Lets101 Quizzes - fun Myspace quiz

Okay, so must I go hunting for ladies who are with the zodiac signs Cancer, Libra, Sagitarius, Virgo, and Leo? Please take a queue number and meet me can? Hahaha...

This is like so -______-

Life is tough for poor Sean. Fortunately, there are people who can still make me smile. For example the video below this.

有时唱歌爽就可以了



可为，虽然听得不是很清楚，但是不要紧，你们唱得那么开心，自然，也是另一番的享受。哈哈~~ ^__^