Ok I'm slightly over the initial happiness resulting from the return of my favourite guitar. It's now time to get back to the normal mundane nature of being a university student. I'm starting to lose faith in my uni system. The quality of the lecturer that I have for Career Management Strategies is utterly appaling. She doesn't know crap. Every single sentence and statement passed is one shrouded and laced with contradictions, and a really evident "I don't know what I'm talking about" tone. Furthermore I speak for the majority of the class when I say I haven't learnt jack from this module.
Nothing at all.
I merely show up for class, to turn in assignments. Furthermore each class attendance carries a certain weightage cummlative towards our final grade in the course. The quality of this lecturer is just plain appaling. Plain and simply appaling. She has no idea what she's talking about, she probably doesn't even go through the online material to make sure she knows the expectations of the assignments, she turns to us to fix and schedule things, wasting time when she herself can schedule everything on her own, there are contradictions in what she says. And when we question her it just leads into an endless downward spiral of idiomatic anecdotes.
I come to class to be educated and not to suscept my intellect to insult.
Rant mode off...for now.
One of the reason why I love my sister Charmaine so damn much is that she's just almost as nutty as me. She found this advert on some beauty products, instead of doing the typical "oh my this can improve my skin tone" nonsense; she did something most definately more nonsensical. I like a good older brother joined in. Mara, Stef and Jer saw the pics on my camera. Their propensity for copycat nonsense never ceases to amaze me. Especially you Mara!
As said in a previous entry, me and Josh decided to embark on a contest. I wanted to dispell the myth or more so the silly little idea that he had in his head, caucasians could grow facial hair faster than asians. So what's the result? I most definately won, by a few millimeters of course.
Poor Josh though, I bet he hasn't shaved till now. I've got really sick of looking even more ugly than I usually do.
I finally got her back. Travelled first thing in the morning to Holland Village to Guitar Tech and longtime friend, Mark Stevens' house to collect her. I was so damn excited, more than a kid on Christmas. It's been about 2 months plus since I last had her in my hands. Sent her in for a refret (Frets:Those metal things on the guitar neck you press the strings on to get the individual notes), she's been with me for just about ten years already, the frets are worn down by all the constant abuse I've given to her. My request was far from simple, do a refret but at the same time do it with a custom shop type finish. Having all the fret ends on the guitar rounded so much so that when I run my hand down the neck I would never have the agony of feeling the shrap ends of the fret biting into my skin. This is extremely time consuming to do, after placing each fret in, after crowning and leveling, every single fret end has to be individually rounded, ONE BY ONE. And I've got 24.
It's not an essential request, but I'm hell of an anal guitar player. I'm not easy to please as well, especially when it comes to the guitars I play. I'm not saying that my playing is top notch or something, but it's just part and parcel of my expectations as an individual and a testament to the beauty of my guitar.
Mark's done a really wonderful job this time. I've been having work done with him for ages, almost 7 years now actually. From simple things like setting up my guitars, changing pickups and the like. I had absolute confidence in him when I requested for him to do my refret. Every single step of the job he consulted me and asked me for my preferences.
I would never trust anyone else with my guitars, period.
I'd even go down to Perth to hound him personally when he leaves Singapore.
There's a pretty amazing story about this guitar that makes her so damn special to me. I remember the time when I was circa 8 years old, being forced to go take organ lessons at Yamaha at the old plaza singapura. I always passed by Swee Lee Music Co. just before heading to the disgustingly boring lessons. Every single damn time I passed by I saw this very exact same model staring at me in the window. It's as if she said "Take me, I'm your's". 8 years later my Dad bought this guitar for me upon getting good results for my O Levels. The guitar was my only motivation. I didn't care if I went to jc or poly or whatever...I had an Ibanez Jem FP. The same damn guitar Steve Vai played. I was in heaven at age 16.
So she's done, I checked her out today, the fretwork is immaculate, the setup is heavenly, she's a dream to play on. Even better than before. I had her for a jam session over at Byden's place today going over some tracks with him, the guitar sounded so damn good even over a conventional sound system, not even a guitar amp! I was excited I even went down to Funan to show her to Benson, incidentally his guitar is ready as well! Well She's home with me now, with her place back on my familiar Eddie Van Halen Wall right next to my Universe. It's just about 4 am right now, I've spent the greater part of my time at home playing so damn much. I almost wet my pants just now.
I'm so damn happy.
Say Hello To My Little Friend. This pic does not do justice...Heck even close ups don't. But I'm still gonna post close ups! Body. Body Again! HeadStock. Volume Control Knob Always Loud. Fingerboard with Vine Of Life inlays, just look at that fretwork!!!! 24 Frets of PURE JOY!
Mark thanks so much for the work. You've surpassed my expectations this time.
Happiness is 6 strings, pink knobs, vines, and flowers.
I've been awaiting the 21st of October as if it was Christmas. Zouk reopened after being closed for more than a month due to renovations. I'm officially alcoholically active. I didn't drink a drop since they closed. On friday however the fountains of whiskey dry flowed freely. First impressions, the gargantuan speaker set ups. My jug of lychee liquer almost vibrated off the speakers. The damn things are huge. SERIOUSLY FOOKIN HUGE.
It kinda reminded me of that movie "The Italian Job", where Lyle played by Seth Green said that when he had all the cash from their stylishly orchestrated robberies, he's purchase a set of speakers that will blow off the clothes of women. Them speakers at zouk...I think if turned up at full volume would probably blow your frickin' pubes off. However large the speakers may be I kinda felt that the old sound was nicer, it had much more punch and midrange.
Anyways the place is nice and all, much more spacious than what it was before. But the main room feels like a spaceship to me, due to the futuristic decor I guess. The Dj console is way too high, which is going to prevent people from shaking hands and getting various body parts and CDs autographed too. Honestly speaking not very much has changed though, which is a good thing in my opinion. You can't really improve that much on something which is already perfect.
Phuture looks totally different. The only thing in my eyes which lasted from the previous Phuture was the wall mural done by Massimo Iosa Ghini, it's been there since '96! The bar is in a totally different location, chairs, tables everything all different. But the music and the crowd is still the same....urgh RnB.
Velvet's more or less the same, different Art work on the walls from the same guy who did those japanese cartoon characters on LV bags, different carpets and ceilings, but them chinese character like things hanging from the walls in the main room still stand.
The food at the Deli tastes the same, how's that for consistency! I didn't get to see winebar though. The crowds were nuts...I shit you not when I say that there were more people outside than there was inside. And inside was already so frickin' packed. I enjoyed myself, music was top notch as usual from DjB.
I know I've been posting so much about the fact that my guitar is coming back soon. Even my sister knows about it, which prompts this... I spent the rest of my weekend waiting for my guitar. Was told she'd be ready on Saturday, but turns out she's not done yet, then my tech said Sunday. And then I got a call saying he's not sure when she'll be done. I'm not really pissed off per se, but just slightly anxious. I miss my baby. But I'll be patient. Good things come to those who wait.
In the whole spirit of cute dog photos I tried to photograph my Amber this weekend. I found out something though. She's so scared of my camera. Heck she's even afraid of my sister's IPOD! All my sister needs to do is wave it in front of her and she runs away. I think she's more afraid of my sister's blend of commercial RnB and other radio friendly tunes which fill her IPOD. So I tried, and everytime I did she got scared and ran away... I did however manage to get a few shots. She can get quite Tao at times... But most times she's just such a Sweetie.
Anyways I got this anonymous note from someone in class left on my table after break on friday. I'm handsome and noisy.
Just like the title to my blog entry, my day did not make sense to me at all. I think I totally screwed up for my finance quiz today. I just didn't know what to do at all. I looked at the question paper and just really freaked me out to great lengths. It did not make sense to me at all. Just like my answers. I just input random formulas that I thought off which rang some sort of bell to me in my head and used them for their respective questions. I am so fucked left right and center for that course. I really really need to pull myself up and get a better grade for it, the last thing I want right now is a C or a D to pull down my whole GPA. I've harnessed the help of auditor extrodinaire Daphne, she'll be my resident finance tutor for now. She helped me out today already! Thanks yeah!
I'm back to my trigger happy self once again given the fact that my dad has returned the camera to me...After taking 2 photos in Jakarta...of which one is a total botch job. Carynn escaping my photographic advances. Other peeps have bags, I've got eye backpacks!
Possibly due to my sleepless nights, but most probably because of the sheer amounts of utter illogical working of my courses.
Career was even worse. I got back my assignment and got like 66 percent! JEEZ! That's a really crappy grade if you ask me, furthermore this is a 2 credit course. The thing that makes me feel the most injustice is the fact that up to this point in my life, I've had no formal educational training whatsoever in how to write a proper professional level cirriculum vitae or a resume. I haven't even learnt it under formal instruction from my lecturer in the class I am taking it in. And this is what my lecturer advocates, I learn from my crappy grade which I received unwillingly for the assignment and apply it to future assignments. BEST RIGHT?
I think the greatest irony of it all is the fact that the assignment in itself was delivered in its entirety online. The template on how to do a proper cover letter and resume, along with its conditions and expectations. If I have fufilled them I don't see why I should be even penalized to begin with. It clearly states there, "State your highest educational qualification attained", my lecturer advocates that I write everything from secondary school up till now. And what am I suppose to do as a student? Follow the template? Or perhaps I should quit studying right now and invent a mind reading machine that will enable me to read in to the expectations that others have of me, even before they've stated them.
I'D BE RICH I TELL YOU.
And no I'm not whining away like a little boy after circumcision. Everyone else in class got shitty grades for this assignment. That's probably a truck load of foreskin.
I honestly feel expectations should be clearly stated out before an assignment. Rather than be told to us after the assignment has been completed, expecting us to learn for our so-called mistakes, or more appropriately termed "Ignorance"; and then take it from there.
INJUSTICE I TELL YOU.
Well rant mode off. In other news of academia, I did rather well in my Economics Midterm, I got a B minus. However I'm not really satisfied with the grade though, it's still pending review right now, and hopefully it will be revised. I need all the marks I can get on this subject, I already missed 5 percent of my final grade due to being 5 minutes late.
Ok on to the usual scholastic nonsense on the campus of SIM. Ifindthis so irritating and Isincerelyhopeyoudotoo. Jer trying to be like Mara. Mara being herself. Us trying to look sporty in Rachael's Red Cap. Me and Josh in our latest invention, tissue paper booger breathing smelling stoppers.
Speaking of me and Josh. We've came up with a rather innovative theme for next week's entries in my blog. It's a competitition of some sorts. All will be revealed in due time!
Don't hold your breath.
Christopher.
P.S. You received my letter yet? Domo's worried, starting to piss his pants and fart lots, my room isn't getting anymore fragrant.
Yes it's true. I went to my guitar tech's house today, the guitar was setup fine and all. But I'll be getting her back for sure on friday. Although I'm slightly sad and all, there's a really good reason behind this. He wanted me to play with her first before he committed himself completely to doing the last stages of the refret. Which is in my opinion extremely professional! I'm so lucky to have a tech like him. Most folks here in Singapore call themselves luthiers when half the time they don't even know WTF they are doing or even talking about. So I played her today, it was amazing, being away from her for so long, it was as if I was going to buy a new guitar or something! So anyways I'll be getting her back on friday, the fret ends are going to be nicely rounded to my specifications...CUSTOM SHOP STYLE!
My Dad came back from Jakarta today from business. He handed me the digital camera as soon as he stepped in the house. Asked me to develop the pictures which he took. He took 2 measly photographs...of which this was accidentally one of them. I assume he was anxiously fiddling around with it in the airplane. I so love the fact that he doesn't know how to delete any pictures.
He didn't bring me back anything this time. However I can always nick some of the alcohol he bought at duty free. But that's the least of my concerns, my dad's safe and sound and all, and furthermore now he can go down to the shop as well! I've been wanting to show you all something he got me while he was in China. It's a piece of Amber, with a very beautiful carving of my horoscope. I'm a Gemini. I'm not that much of a believer in horoscopes, I've always thought them to be hogwash. But I can most definately appreciate the thought that he put in it, as well the amount of craftsmanship involved in this miniature work of art. Here's a picture, ten cent coin, Amber Gemini, Jim Dunlop Jazz III Guitar Pick. I took a picture of all of them together just so you could see how small this thing is.
The pictures do not do justice at all until I get myself a spanking new Canon Digital EOS.
I got a damn B- for Econs midterm. Sigh, I'm already down 5% due to the fact that I was late for the first test. Anyways I'm not really that sad about it and all, I'm just going to make sure I damn friggin well for all the other upcoming tests. There's one coming up soon in about 2 weeks time, I'm going to mug till I become unemployment expert.
I missed out big time on the boat party the other day. I feel pretty sorry about it, knowing how much effort my friends went into arranging everything and all for Felicia's Birthday Party. She had it on a boat! How uber is that! Sorry let me rephrase that again...A YATCH. No where near a measly boat. But sigh I had to work once again. I stayed in the shop from 830am to 830pm. Shiok thing to do on a saturday. But my friends came to rescue me, in the form of my band's guitarist Benson and his friend Adrian, we went to check out Harry's at Esplanade. Paul Ponnudorai was playing there. Yes I know your reaction...PAUL WHO? PAUL WHAT?
Paul's this really good guitarist from Malaysia, who plays frequently at harry's, actually I think he's the resident act at this point of time. His playing has such an air of versatility to it, blues, jazz, and rock, the man can do it all and then some.
I can only do one thing. Make noise and more noise.
Went jamming yet again on sunday. It was probably one of the best sessions we've done together as a band. We have finally mastered every single one of the original material we've come up with. But something lacked from the session, as if there was some sort of energy lacking in all of us. I guess maybe playing the same 10 plus songs twice for 3 hours can be pretty damn mundane. I'm so itching right now to take our music out and play it live. I so wanna play live! I haven't done that since I was 17 or something. Anyways we're all taking a 3 week break from jamming and all, but we're still going to meet up for composing and arranging and all. I shall use this time to improve on my phrasing and of course try to play faster. LOL.
I wasted what must have been 4 hours today, waiting for some silly compulsory talk on the time value of money to start. I've learnt this damn concept 3 times already in my uni life. But my economics lecturer deemed it a must go for all of us. BEST BUY...well anyway I guess I did benefit somewhat from the talk, in some weird repetitive knowledge way I guess.
Yes read the title.
She's coming back tomorrow, I've been waiting for her for so damn long already. It's been 3 long months already since she left me, since I last laid my hands on her, caressed her body running my fingers up and down her neck. I miss every single thing about her, the way she felt in my arms, her voice and even dare I say it her scent.
So my usual routine prevailed once again, out of bed into the shower and of to school. Clothes on first of course. Economics at 1045 at room 3.12. The class today was pretty interesting had a little discussion on globalization. Yes it's one of my "Love to hate" topics. I feel the concept in itself is a good one, but at the hands of the institutions deseminating its principles these days, it inevitably turns into a sad form of exploitation.
Moving along now. I spent the rest of the day chilling out at Adnan's place at maplewoods. Actually it was for one reason, I really wanted to see his new dog. Initially he was looking for a new hobby of some sorts. Something to occupy his time I guess. He even wanted me to teach him guitar, take him to go buy a nice six string and an amp, and give him a couple of lessons. But in the end he chose the dog over guitar. Some little part of me still feels it's not a very good trade off, but a large bit of me just fell in love with his little poochie otherwise known as Pixie Hermess. You tell me how not to be OMG SO CUTE over something like that?
MORE MORE! So cute lah you pixie!
She's only 2.5 months old. So so so cute. But my dog is still more uber than you will ever be pixie.
I watched 2 movies at Adnan's along with Albert as well. 50 first dates and The italian job. I preferred the former though. I can't get enough of the whole Sandler/Barrymore duo thing. I was damn tired after that. Most probably due to the fact that I had a whole bag of lays potato chips for lunch. Me and Adnan only had 13 bucks between the two of us. 2 bags of lays and a beer later I was broke for the day.
I went home after that, all tired from the chips and stumbled upon something which turned up in my mailbox a couple of days ago. THIS! I don't know about you but the way I read it...Adult conversation...experienced teacher. Sounds like a class by some veteran mandarin phone sex operator.
I mailed out the cord keeper today along with the letter hopefully it reaches you.
I had a super awesome weekend. I went for my usual jamming session with the band. We tried out that uber professional looking room, nice lighting, wooden floorings, a three seater couch, and loads of space. You could probably park a car in there. The sound was really really awesome. One thing really ticked me off though, the fact that my guitar tone sounded like crap. For me tone is really everything, if I can't hear the tone I want I just can't play jack after that. It's so sad really. I am not sure what the cause is but the tone I get from running my pedal varies from one amplifier to another. The Marshall Amp I put it through sucked ass. It was one of those digital emulator amps. JEEZ.
This is my pedal. I've had it for years, it's given me really killer tones and kept most of my apartment awake at night. I guess it's really good for my setup at home, I get a really good distortion tone and a nice shimmering clean tone. But for studio and live...it ain't gonna cut it.
Anyways we did a recording yesterday. The quality was amazing. Right after the jam session all of us sat down in the listening room digesting all the bits of audio. I think it's somewhat weird listening to yourself on playback. I mean yes it's especially strange for vocals, there's actually a scientific explaination behind that, don't believe me go ask Jeeves. But I felt no different when I heard the tone of my guitar...sigh so much tweaking to do. I guess the intial tone problem realy screwed around with my playing for the whole session.
But there was a sense of accomplishment in the air as we all sat there and listened to the tracks. The four of us have bearly been together for a month and the sound engineer was like you guys been together for damn long is it? LOL. It's fun and equally rewarding to sit there and laugh at all the mistakes committed. I know I have many.
I spoke to Crystal this morning, and turned on my webcam for the whole visual effect as well. I've roped in a venture capitalist! She came up with a novel idea. A huge jar for me to save up contributing towards my new pedal. For every dollar I put in it she'll put in one as well. How cool is that! So here it is folks...the CHRIS' GEETAR PEDAL FUND. Incidentaly the post-it is from her as well.
This is what I'm aiming for right now... It's got a friggin tube in it! For all the audiophiles and guitar tone afficionados out there, I'm sure you know what tubes can do for your tone. For the rest, I guess tubes conjure up a picture of being in ICU in a hospital or a very minimal piece of clothing. Benson, the guitarist in the band already has one...I'm jealous, full of envy, but I'll get mine soon!
I just got back from my economics class this morning. Nothing really notable but Tiffany came on time today and we got to school nicely punctual. Something did irritated me today though. Josh couldn't stop biting his nails. I felt like plucking them out one by one and letting him chew on them the whole day. They should make fingernail chewing gum for compulsive nail biters. I used to be like that though, but it passed as soon as I decided it looked silly. Wahliews...
But Josh I'm sure you know I'm just fucking with you.
As I was in the toilet at school today relieving my bowels, it reminded me so much of what happened to Avis the other day when he took a crap in Balmoral Plaza. For some silly reason sewage...Aka. SAI JUI...started flowing faster than you can say SHACK BALLS. It went all over his pants. I called him due to the fact that we were suppose to meet up at the bus stop. I got this..."BROTHER I NEED TO GO YOUR HOUSE AND CHANGE, BATHE ALSO...SOMETHING BAD SOMETHING DAMN BAD." I mean it's one thing to get your pants wet, but hell it's another to have them smelling like $%^&.
Sigh.
Well I got him fixed up and brought him to Seiko Watch paradise. He got himself a really nice one too. Good on you brother! I'll always be here if you need clean pants and warm showers.
Yes those were the words uttered by my new red haired friend Josh this morning. Mr. Blass has also changed his hair colour to a very nice fabulous shade of red, making him ever more susceptible to the term ANG MOH. Anyways it's a pretty interesting fact that the little verbal error from Josh's tongue slipage is actually a well documented factual error in the English language. For those of you who are ignorant to this, it's actually a Spoonerism which incidentally originated from English Clergyman Reverend W. A. Spooner. And no he did not make a living producing cutlery nor was he the one responsible for giving us the comfortable copulatory position of spooning. Go check him out on the net for more info, lest I bore you with mundane details.
Anyways this is what's become of Josh after hair colour treatment at the hands of Carynn! Not bad eh? It's so Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
I stayed over at Adnan's the other night doing our customary last minute exam revision thingie. Overloaded on Red Bull, cigarettes, silly discussions and laughter I got loads of macro-economic knowlege under my belt. Honestly I really did, I spent most of the time teaching Albert, Adnan, and a very unwilling Felicia who doesn't even take economics to begin with. GDP, Inflation, Unemployment...BLAH BLAH BLAH. I got it all down. But the really crazy thing about it was the fact that by the time I went for the exam my brain was already overloaded on information and unloaded of sleep. I totally mixed up normative and positive analysis. There goes 5 marks out the window. Nevermind there's still a slight chance I will get 95%,I hope. The old 1-2-5 neoprint pose, except for the fact that this time 5-2-1. Check out Albert's face!!! I really have to stop smiling like that.
Well I spent my day practicing tonnes. But really I don't think they have been all that productive, which is really sad though. There's a large difference between me picking up my instrument and playing for hours and really getting down to serious practice. So damn dissapointing that I've been doing so much of the former lately. But it's all good, at least I'm playing.
I've got no tests next week. No tests other than my career management module. That class really fucks me off. It makes me question the fact that I'm actually paying to sit for such a class. Everything is so damn bloody ambigious. We did a class today on personality assesment. You know that questionaire type thing that people give you on certain interviews. Honeslty speaking I feel there's no damn way you can actually classify human emotions to fall under a certain category and thus judge a person from there. It's absolutely preposterous to do so. I liken it to just about the accuracy of a newspaper horoscope. My lecturer advocates that I should accept it, just for the conveniance of facilitating and agreeing with the damn exercise.
Right.
I popped by over Tiffany's place today to jam with her. A pretty silly idea initially because we didn't prepare anything to begin with. And for the first time in my life today I plugged my guitar into a bass amplifier, I tried plugging it into the keyboard amplifier but it just made my guitar sound like a sour honey producing beehive. But it was all good fun, I tried to play drums but failed miserably. She did however teach me some valuable music theory! I now know how to use the harmonic minor scale!
There's nutrition class and after which is student council elections. I just cannot help but feel that these things are just popularity contests. That or just a lame excuse to sabotage someone you don't like into a year long sentence of doing extra things. That's the way I am, skeptical of the system and all the little illusions it sets us out for us to believe. Don't get me wrong, many of my friends are in council and stuff. I admire them for the efforts in getting things done, but honestly I symathize with them and all the BS that the people upstairs put them through.
Yeah things have pretty much blown over right now and all is well. I spoke things over with them, although it was of course really difficult at first since everyone is pretty much in such aggro spirits at loggerheads with one another. But things have worked out fine. To all those who posted on the tag board. I thank you for the encouragement in my time of need. Although sometimes I just feel that no one really does care, but you guys have really proved me wrong. I guess my folks are just going through their respective menopauses right now. I'm just an easy willing victim in this crossfire.
Econs midterm is tomorrow, I so cannot screw this thing up this time. It's just about weighing in on 20 percent of my final grade. I'm right now at the the friendly confines of study central. Aka. Adnan's House at Maplewoods. Albert and Adnan are currently in the adjacent room checking out random red faced drunken pictures of themselves over the other computer. We've got just about 15 cans of redbull among the 3 of us right now. Enough to keep us insanely awake through the whole night just in time to go sit for the paper tomorrow at 11. You might be wondering is this really effective to begin with. The fact is I'm not an advocate of midnight oiliness kind of studying. I'm not doing any last minute work right now, but I strongly feel a deepened understanding of the subject is crucial for me to score tomorrow.
I try to hone this by going through the concepts and discussing it with my buddies. I feel that when you're really able to explain the concepts clearly to others you would have probably attained the above mentioned level of understanding.
I've got just about 20 bucks in my wallet now to last me till the end of the week. It doesn't help that much since cigarettes cost 11 bucks a pack these days. I shelled out 120 bucks the other day on guitar strings and books. What a way to start the week yes?
I seriously have to find an alternative venue in order for me to earn some extra income. Working in the shop just isn't going to do it. I mean I do feel that it is indeed my duty as a son to work there, but in terms of development it's just now really all that productive. Sure I do hone my sales and business acumen there with my various interactions with customers, but I can't help but feel it's such a chore staying there for a whole day on a saturday.
Mara wore her new necklace to school today. I felt rather embarressed since I did not even know the origin of the damn thing. It came from a collective birthday present to her which I was incidently part of. It's just like the blue one, just that it's red this time and it's not long enough for me to swing around my neck. I took pictures and I'll post them tomorrow and include an A/B comparision with the infamous blue one.
