lollerskater

Zoukout 2006.

2006-12-13T01:56:00.000-08:00

This year's zoukout was pretty good. Well actually just ok by my standards. I was really looking forward to Steve Lawler's set, but sigh I came out dissapointed. The only Lawler gig I went to which was good was the first one. Live he just doesn't cut it for me. Much better on record. Ferry corsten was pretty good but music just a little too mainstream for my tastes. He spun your typical MOS annual tracks...total sian. Turned out to be kind of like my version of Mambo. But seriously speaking, I wasn't there this year for the lineup. More importantly I was there to spend time with Brother Avis, and of course Maddie. Probably the only surviving members of the super best friends club. I had super flashbacks of all the great times we spent together, rollerblading, hanging out, clubbing, drinking, etc. Sigh.

Speaking of drinking, here's the stasha-alcohola

Getting to the venue was an absolut bitch. Thanks however to my friend sniper rambo for his kind lift. I had to close both Island Creamery's before heading down, by the time I was on my way to Sentosa it was already 11-ish...Jeeebus! The queue into Sentosa was crazy! I probably spent 30 mins from the entrance of Sentosa sitting in the car till the actual zoukout venue. Thankfully brother Avis saved some drinks for me and fixed us up.

Sambuca still tastes like shit to me.

Captain Maddie and Valerie.

Us at our carpark pre-zoukout drinking area, same spot we used last year as well!

Well anyways we headed to the main arena soon afterward. I don't care so much for RnB so please don't ask me how it went. I was kinda dissapointed by the house/trance arena. I seriously miss Armin. Why the hell did you guys bring him in earlier and not for zoukout. It was hot, it was friggin crowded as well. Like super crowded. I had to keep watch and make sure no funny people were trying to grab our behinds. As well as keeping a tight grip on our nostrils from the killer B-O from the guy dancing next to us.

NO ARMIN, NO DEEP DISH, NO JAMES LAVELLE, NO PAUL VAN DYKE...LOL
Lawler was ok lah, I love his brand of dark house beats. But live, I don't think he felt the crowd very well. All in my humble opinion of course.

Me and Val @main arena.

Ok enough about music, djs and the like. The highlight of the night for me has to be Avis and his lightstick twirling skills. Like a true blue, full moon party raver, Avis borrowed a pair of sticks from some guy there and decided to have a go. There he was twirling away, creating beautiful swirls like a ribbon gymnast at the olympics.

THEN....the lightsticks get tangled! SUPER TANGLED!

We spent about 15-20mins trying to get them untangled while the lightstick owner stood there watching in disbelief and regret. Actually Avis and Maddie did, I just stood there in glee taking pictures with my handphone!

Soon afterward we headed back. I'm seriously getting too old for this. I got a really bad headache halfway through from all the B-O and smoke inhalation. Went back home and got to sleep around 7 in the morning. Only to wake up and head to work again!

I'm still feeling really disillusioned right now. I'm done with my exams, effectively speaking, I am totally done with uni. The next time I head back to campus is for my chance to wear a gown and a square hat, take some pictures, get a paper, and throw the hat high high in the sky. I know I need a job...damn I need a job. Sigh but all I can think about now is how crappy my guitar playing has become since my long practice layoff.

We'll see.

Christopher.

Deliberately Different.

2006-12-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

Zoukout is coming.

I've been studying so much I've forgotten how to dance, or at least try to dance.

Thank goodness for Bubba Hog and youtube!

I remember the first zoukout I went for, I was so comforable in my own skin, I went shirtless. The second time round, thanks to the nutritious post-army dietary guidelines I felt the need to cover up and wore a singlet. By the looks of things right now, I'll probably wear a jacket and long pants to cover up all my blubber.

The last few days have been pretty challenging for me, the final exams, the projects, managing the store...I didn't even sleep at all last night rushing the project for this morning. I'm at quite of a loss as to what comes next for me in life. I guess the aspect of which that is holding me back, are the sacrifices which I will inevitably have to make. Relish the free time I have right now and just enjoy indulging in my passions, while I can of course. But I won't lose sight of the main goals which I have set for my future.

I've been offline for just a couple of days and my guitar buddy Brandon did his take of Allan Holdsworth's Proto Cosmos, which is incidentally my fave Holdsworth composition. Brandon is a killer guitarist. Do check out the video please.

Jealous I am.

Killer playing.

I just got the backing track from him over Msn, I'll mess around with it for a bit, and if I'm confident enough I'll post one as well. I hope.

ORD LOH!

Christopher.

My Gear.

2006-11-26T19:44:00.000-08:00

I've always wanted to a detailed run down of the gear I use, just for the sake of it or for me to play pretend rock star once in a while. Some folks have expressed interest towards it by saying "WTF YOU NEED ALL THAT SHIT FOR?", so I'll be going through the gear I use in the coming posts. They'll be accompanied by great pictures courtesy of Canon Photo Marathon Winner Valerie Lam.

Be warned if you're not a gear slut, I suggest you leave now.

This is my current pedalboard, I got it from Mr Misse at www.mrmisse.com . He sells two versions one large and one small. Mine is the smaller variant of the two. It's an extremely versatile pedalboard. What you're seeing right now in the picture is the bottom of it, the upper portion it actually a lid. Place the 2 together and the pedalboard boxes together to form a case. The board itself comes with a carpeted bottom, perfect for velcroing your pedals to the bottom of it. I use industrial strength velcro and change my order of effects all the time so the stock carpet has worn off. Right now I'm using some carpet that was left over from shop renovations I did. Does a great job.

The signal chain is as follows:

Guitar : Ernie Ball Musicman Luke/Ibanez Jem77FP
Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Jr, tuner out to Boss TU-12
RedWitch Standard Moonphase
Xotic Effects Robotalk 2
Xotic Effects RC Booster
Bjfe Dyna Red Distortion
Moog Mooger Fooger MuRF
Boss DD-20 Delay

Everything in between is wired with Canare Cable and flathead plugs, all done up by www.mrmisse.com .

This is the first group, that shiny chrome looking box is the RedWitch, to the bottom of it is the Robotalk, the white pedal is the RC Booster, and the red one of course is the Dyna Red. I get all my swooshing lush sounds from the RedWitch Moonphase, it's does a really good job at it. Think guitar tone flying on the wings of wind. That's the Moonphase.

Next comes the Robotalk...

As some of you might know, I own a wah wah pedal but I don't use it. As a matter of fact I find it cumbersome to rock my foot back and forth while giving my guitar talking face and playing at the same time. I'm also some what dumbfounded without having an LED/Indicator light to let me know whether the pedal is on or not. Enter the Robotalk, it's the most vocal sounding Autowah I've come across. I got an extremely good deal on this pedal! It acts just like a real true to life wah pedal, but on the dynamics of your picking, pick hard and the WAH sound comes out, softly and the OOH sound comes out. Very nice. It comes with a random arpeggiator which I have not found a use for right now...play a chord and it turns the chord into EEEE DEEE AHHH OOOH WOOO AHHH EEEEH AHHHH OOOOH WAAA AHHH...etc etc.

This is probably the first pedal I bought from Mr Misse. I got it after Chinese New Year this year I believe. It's a clean boost pedal. It's especially great for use in a band situation. Say you've got a great rhythm tone going, but you've got a solo section coming up. The RC can act as a gain boost in pumping up the signal into your amp/distortion pedal...giving you sweet sweet gain you're yearning for. Placing it after your distortion pedals would make the RC act as a volume boost. Taking the original tone and just making it louder. Going straight into a clean amp the RC can give you a sweet subtle overdriven tone as well. Very nice versatile pedal...

Oh yeah...and Scott Henderson swears by it.

My main distortion pedal, the Bjfe Dyna Red. The whole interest towards this pedal stems from my late night conversations with my gear slut buddy Brandon. To him it was the distortion pedal to rule and end all distortion pedals. I was skeptical at first, I mean it's just a pedal right how damn good can something like this sound? But brother Roy got me a great deal on this pedal. The moment I tried it...my room with flooded with drool. They're not easy to come by, so if you do get the opportunity to get one, do it. It does not have that much gain though, but according to Brandon I'm able to coax gain out of it due to me picking so damn hard. So far the only distortion pedals I've found to have really liked are the Dyna Red, MI Audio's Tube Zone and also the Crunch Box.

The latest acquistion of mine is the MuRF, I was able to afford it having sold a whole bunch of old guitar books, CDs and DVDs I placed online for sale. Words alone cannot describe this pedal. The possibilities are really endless with this one. I've always had a strong fascination with Moog stuff. It's like a time based modulation, it can act as a sequencer as well. When you play a note, the MuRF turns the note into musical magic. You can also set the rate/speed and the type of pattern you want the animated notes to take. It's the bomb I tell you, I shit you not. However when I first heard it, I thought of it as noisemaker nonsense, but I've already used it with my band and have written quite a few songs and riffs based on the MuRF's tones. Used with copious amounts of delay and a deranged mine, it can do horror movie tones! Awesome stuff!

The pedal next to it is what I use for delay. Delay is basically something like echo...you play a note, it goes into the delay pedal and the pedal "Delays" the note a certain amount of time, and brings it back. Creating the illusion of "Echo". You can specify the number of repeats via the feedback knob, the amount of time you want the delay to be - The time taken between the played note and the repeated one, and the loudness of the delayed note. The advantage of the DD-20, I get to keep 4 different delay modes in one pedal. And I can switch between them midway into a song, or any time I choose to. The DD-20 itself has much more other stuff going on which I have not even checked out though...

And last but not least is my trusty Boss TU-12 tuner which I have owned since I was probably about 14 years old. Yes 14 years old. I've very much like to get a more accurate responsive tuner like the Peterson Strobostomp...but it ain't cheap. Probably take 3 weeks of ice cream scooping to afford. The Boss one fits in the crowded mass of my board which is good as well. It works fine but well...it ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

This is the amp I got at the Midyear Sweelee sale of 2006. Took me loads of saving to afford working part time and all. But it was worth it, it's everything I would want in an amp. A relatively small wattage, and a great responsive clean sound to die for. I changed the 2 pin power plug it came with to a 3 pin one, it's dead quite now.

Alright folks, that's probably about the end of the gear descriptions. If anyone else has any questions do let me know. I'll try to answer them to the best of my abilities.

Christopher.

Big 'ole Vivo

2006-11-22T07:37:00.000-08:00

I haven't been keeping up with it lately. I'm so totally out of it. Even the other day when I went for a haircut at Pacific Plaza, I went over to Scotts for lunch at the foodcourt. Most of the stalls were gone, I only found out why slightly later when I bumped into a friend working at the way huge Nokia showroom upstairs. Which brings me to my next revelation, since when did they even put a showroom there!?!? What happened to the watch boutique?!?! I feel like a friggin' dinosaur confined to the fossilized boundaries of Bukit Timah. Anyways I decided to visit the latest phenomenon in Singapore shopping - Vivo City. Was a great opportunity for me to spend some time with Val. I needed that so much, especially in view of the events which transpired through the course of the day.

I recently sold away two of my most prized guitar pedals for a handsome sum...300 buckeroos a pop. I've been on some sort of Moog-like frenzy lately. WTF is a Moog? Check it here, www.moogmusic.com . Anyways back to the story yeah. As fellow GAS-heads (Gear acquisition syndrome) will know, one of the unwritten rules of guitar GAS is this. You only sell something to buy something else! Wah lan eh, I had my sights on another Moog related pedal. Or in the bigger scheme of things maybe a nice Mac for the new house. But my dad gave me a nice reality check and told me to go pay for my insurance premium on my own. And it ain't cheap mind you. Not one bit.

Best Buy.

Anyways back to Vivo City.

First impression, the place is bloody hell big man. Seriously fucking big. Large vast floor spaces, endless ceilings, shitloads of people even on a wednesday. If you just stand there and watch it all you'd think you're in some well oiled machine of a factory.
IT'S THAT BIG!

MY STOMACH IS THAT BIG!

Essentially everything is the same though. I did not come across anything worth drooling over during my visit. Everything you can buy there you can probably buy at any other urban shopping mall in Singapore. Loads of people, uncontrollable children, crying babies, the works. However just experiencing the sheer size of it and the marvel of civil engineering it is makes the trip worthwile though. And I'm sure that's what the rest of the folks there thought too. I hardly saw anyone carrying any shopping bags for that matter. There are pretty nice outdoor gardens and stuff, but by the time Val and I got to going there, it was already pitch dark. Well one thing great was this...

Loves it!

Yeah I make it sound like such a tough trip and all. Maybe it's just my inner sense of paranoia thinking out loud. But seriously folks I did enjoy myself. There's a certain sense of therapy one experiences when taking part in the whole consumerism thing. I did see a lot of stuff I wanted but I just couldn't bring myself to spend the cash after paying my mofo insurance premium.

Highlight of my day...

Val's rock god super power fearsome shredder impersonation at toys r us.

Rockin'!

Christopher.

Good blogs have pictures...

2006-11-21T10:00:00.000-08:00

Yeah read the title, a good blog would have pictures. As a matter of fact, I believe all good blogs or more rather ones which were perceived good have pictures. And good pictures for that matter. Only with pictures or some other form of stimuli, would I be able to show you the things I've come across in my life.
How I went to school the other day to do my project with Lavinia with my unwaxed hair of floppiness, only to have our room filled with a full load of Indonesian students playing Warcraft provide us with surround sound in bahasa!

How I got rid of my street style hair cut with the help of my uber hairstylist!

Also you'd never be able to see the face shield I had on the last time round to deflect the little stinging beads of hairspray.

And how Val and I had "long love" with a "black jaguar" at cold storage holland village.

The good food Val and I had at Raffles City

The GREAT food they have at Pu Dong, but WTF! menus.

And also how you never know who you're gonna bump into walking around town...

Good Blog.

Christopher.

I'm Buzzed

2006-11-06T19:37:00.000-08:00

So yeah we finally got to playing the gig on saturday. We rehearsed and practice loads for it, 2 jamming sessions last week lasting till 12 midnight. I have not got round to loading the pics from the event, I'll post them up once they are done.

Here's some pics from the studio...

Mr Rock Voice! Suffian our frontman and bass player.

Yat my most fave drummer in the whole wide world. Please please don't break those sticks I gave you, not cheap you know, they cost like 4 hours of my ice cream scooping pay!

The gig went pretty well though the turn out made me slightly dismayed. Well I guess I can't expect much, it was 1230 on a hot saturday afternoon, most folks are still sleeping in. But there were loads of people enthusiastic about our music, and that really touched me. We were the first band to play and the next band taking the following slot was the winners of project superstar. And I believe the slots which followed were some winners from singapore idol.

Me getting my weekly high.

The Prince of Borneo and I trading licks.

The time flew by as if it was 5 minutes or something. We managed to fit in 4 songs into our half an hour setlist. I really wanted to do 5 but there was no time. Well the secret song will show itself soon. All that practice paid off, I couldn't believe we sounded so good on stage. And yeah another thing, it was our first official gig, got pay some more! The sound quality was really great, yeah so we didn't get marshall and bogner stack amplifiers but the soundman was great. Bad part was that my end of the stage was surrounded with a sheet of plastic. It felt like a furnace on a saturday afternoon, I sweat like a pig on stage...so friggin hot!

Speaking of hot...

Christopher.

Absence makes the stomach fonder.

2006-11-02T07:17:00.000-08:00

I seriously miss all the girls who went off to UB.

I've been trying to push away the repercussions their absence ever since this new semester started, I've been so caught up with things lately I haven't even had the time to take a breather to think about it. Well it hit me today. I took the bus to campus today. Usually Mara would come up on the bus somewhere around the Hwa Chong JC bus stop. Then Jenetta would get on the bus at the bus stop right before the Mazda showroom/Apple Centre place. Sigh I miss all of you shitloads. Especially Mara! All those times I irritated you, and threatened to squeeze your tits, I wish I could do them again. LOLOLOLZ. I miss Ris squeezing my man boobs. I miss Caryn inserting witty lines every now and then to irritate the hell out of me. I miss Cynthia telling me I'm handsome and also never failing to pointing out to me the latest news of pimples on my face. I miss telling Jer that she looks beautiful everyday. Sigh. I sometimes regret not coming along. I do feel out of place right now in this class, but the people around me have done pretty well making me feel at ease. I also miss you guys making fun of me cuz I can't do that silly face thing where your fingers encircle your eyes upside down thingy. Knn only my girls will understand.

Hence my purpose for this post.

To dedicate this post to every single one of you beatiful ladies right now in Barf-fa-lo eating food at crappy CHINA KING!

I bet CHINA KING no have Benster Chicken Rice!

CHINA KING might also have silly rip offs of various Asian dishes but no one does a killer homecooked nasi lemak than Auntie Veronica!

And I bet you guys miss Island Creamery too.

Seriously when you ladies come back, I'm gonna take all of you to newton/chomp-chomp/geylang supper/changi village nasi lemak/adam road hawker/katong laksa/jln kayu prata/Benster Chicken Rice/etc etc...and then ice cream at Island Creamery. And also don't forget all our sushi excursions! Come back soon ok. And don't waste calories on crappy buffalo food. Save them for when you come back.

Anyways on with today...

Today didn't feel like a school day to me. I felt as if my only purpose for today was to wake up and get through it. Fact is I didn't even want to wake up to begin with. Class went by in the slowest most possible motion. Lunch turned out to be total shite, I had japanese food (if that's even remotely possible...don't say anything Nic!) at the food court, crowded to the max by neighbouring lunch time patrons. GO TO YOUR OWN CANTEEN LAH.

Work went pretty well. In fact it was pretty ok, considering that fact that I went at it alone. Have I ever mentioned that I have the best girlfriend in the world? Well she did this to prove me right once again.

It may not look like much, but there's Herbal Chicken Soup, Salmon in Terriyaki sauce, and realy nice veggies! SHIOKNESS I TELL YOU!

Thanks babe.

Christopher.

IT'S MOOGIN' TIME!

2006-11-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

I had what I would consider a pretty good day today. Midweek Wednesday for me, no work, just school from 1-5, and I even got to work in a jam session from 9-11 at night. More on that later. I started out my day be meeting Valerie at Holland. She wanted to take me for Japanese. But I had much more simple desires. I had my holland village breakfast noodle craving. It's the stall in the corner at the hawker centre. Fookin' Awesome noodles. The best bits are the things you get to choose along with them, tau kwa, chicken chop, eggs with runny centers, fish cake. Top that all off with killer chilli and nice thick slices of green chilli and you're all set for a fiest! I'm getting all hungry just thinking about it right now. I was so hungry I ate really quick, and in my haste, even before I got to finishing up the chicken chop, while trying to slice it this happened...

THE BREAK DANCE OF THE NO GOOD PLASTIC SPOON.

Lunch was still good though. Even better was having my fave less ice more milk iced cafe mocha at holland starbucks.

Again my haste in drinking it gave me the urge to quell the runs right in the middle of my market reasearch class.

It's been really long since I picked up this guitar. I fixed her all up. And since then left her at Valerie's house for her to play. But I've decided it's time I do something about it. I should bloody play the damn thing. Given to me by my Godparents in Japan, this is the Jem90HAM model. Made to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Ibanez's parent company - Hoshino. Based on the same guitar which Steve Vai uses, it has a really cool textured blue finish whcih kinda sticks to my shirts everytime I'm done playing. Sometimes I get abrasions on my arms too. There are only 300 plus of these guitars in the world today.

ONE OF THEM IS WITH ME!

I still gasp everytime I open the case.

I took her to the studio with me tonight, played the exact same setlist which the band will be playing this coming saturday. The guitar held up extremely well. My bandmates went nuts when they saw her.

The view from the top.

We're pretty much done with all the songs we will be playing on satruday. Just a little few creases here and there which need ironing out. But other than that we're all set to go. I'm so so so excited.

It will be the first time I will be playing this guitar for a gig.

Please be good girl to me and don't break any strings alright.

Christopher.

Charmaine X bum X drifter X hobo X beggar X pauper X...

2006-11-01T02:36:00.000-08:00

My sister suprised me with her latest Halloween Costume. It's rather different from the ones worn by the girls at Island Creamery. Needless to say I got the shock of my life when she came in asking for "Alms for the poor". I couldn't stop laughing the moment I saw her, the only costume thus far I have came across which can match up to her's is Zhi Yuan's "Where's Wally" costume. The difference between the 2. Charmaine had no Halloween party to go to, she merely put on the costume, joined a bunch of her friends and took a walk around holland village. LOLWTFBBQ~!

Here's a thousand words...

My love don't cost a thing!

I must say I'm gonna give her an A for effort in terms of replication! Even her legs are covered with god knows what! Barefooted walking around aimlessly. Shirt was tattered, hair was mat, and even had bits of masking tape in it!

I couldn't stop laughing at all. Especially when she decided to go wake my dad from his slumber! WAH LAN EH. BUEY TAHAN I TELLS YOU! Even the bloody taxi driver was afraid to pick her up!

Happy Halloween, I love you Charm!

Christopher.

The Miko!

2006-11-01T02:03:00.000-08:00

Took quite a lot of effort for me to make my way down to great world shitty in time for work. Seriously. I spent a half hour taking a bus down to the lower portion of bukit timah, I planned initially to take a bus half of the way and just top up the journey with a cheap low cost cab ride. In the end the cab ride turned out to be about 7 bucks, much thanks to the peak hour charges. Best. That's an hour's worth of pay. I got there only to meet a slightly bored to death Denise, poor girl's been there since 11am. 7 long hours man.

Here we go again...

I'm almost halfway through Zhi Yun's book, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I wish I had read this earlier, amazing stuff. Only to be discovered accidentally through a bout of boredom. Honestly I prefer it at great world. It's a much better environment in my opinion, I get paid, I work, interact with people and get time to myself. I love the independance.

I woke up this morning to see my brother, Cecil's cat Miko sleeping on the chair out in the living room. I had to take a picture. Check him out.

At first when we got Miko, he seemed to want to destroy everything. Clawing the furniture, food, household appliances, and even the legs of my friends. Now he's such a baby. I used to be slightly biased towards him and prefered Dylan, but Dylan the dog has turned into a total psycho of late. I love this cat. I come home and he comes and sits next to me while I watch tv.

Miko the Catbit.

I decided to be a good boyfriend today and got Valerie a couple of her fave cds. I swear folks our schedules are so damn packed with work, school and our own commitments that stopping by a cd shop is an affair of rarity. I got these cds at "That CD Shop" at great world. Great service but the selection is a little too mainstream for my liking. That hardest thing for me to do that day - Asking the salesgirl for the latest Justin Timberlake, P Diddy, Pussy Cat Dolls, Corrine May Albums. YUCKS! Try to ignore the 3 for $49 labels...it's the thought that counts.

Loves it.

Christopher.

Choice of the new generation.

2006-10-30T07:03:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to get rid of the damn dialog box popping up asking for user names and passwords so try to play nice and ignore it for the time-being. I'll probably ditch the whole tagboard thing, I hardly have time to update the Silent Hill of blog and people hardly come vist. I had a short break of around 3 weeks, only two classes a week which lasted an hour and a half a session. Pretty damn good if you ask me. I spent my time doing almost nothing which entailed physical effort. Most times if I wasn't working, I was practicing guitar...well actually most of it was practicing guitar. Other times it was slacking off in front of the computer in my room.

I also found the joys of indulging in watching prison break on my computer. I'm not the type to watch tv, in I never watch anything on tv other than the news which I try my best to keep up with. But I'm really glued to prison break, it's really good shit man. I watched about 6 episodes the other day back to back before going to work. Nuts.

In other news I will be saying goodbye to my place at Balmoral really soon. My family has run into some financial setbacks and we've sold the house already. In December it's going to be Tampines here I come for me. It's going to take some real getting used to for me, shitloads of getting used to. But also I'm actually looking forward to it. I need a change of scenery badly. I'm pretty damn sick of being able to hear cars zooming pass by outside, my room getting dusty everytime I open my windows for an extended period of time. Worse still are the late night activities which take place at night...I won't even go into that.

Had my first day of school today after the long break, went pretty good. I think my attention span has lengthened somewhat after going through 2 semesters straight of 4 hour lectures. Today's one felt like a walk in the park. I'm not too sure about tomorrow's though...consumer behavior...argh. I went down to guitar land again after school today. Not that I go there all the time, in fact I was pretty unhappy about going there today. Cables I bought last week died on me due to a connection fault. But on the plus side I did get to hang out with my guitar buddy and bandmate Benson.

Together we ogled at the wide array of expensive guitars on sale. Played and tested many of them, without any real intention or ability to buy them to begin with.

I've been having major G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) for a Strat lately. After trying the Eric Johnson Strat at swee lee the other day I have not stopped thinking about it. I shit you not. I've even dreamt about the damn guitar in my sleep. Taking her to a private room turning my amp up to ten and having my way with her. I need major help man.

Then of course there's this other girl...

Damn fucking nice. Sad to say she's been sitting in that store window for over a year now, no one wants to buy. I seriously have no idea wtf is wrong with the general guitar consumer here in Singapore. One day....she'll be mine. By then I'll probably grow an extra pair of hands to play all these damn guitars.

And one for the kids too...

Another thing...

My band will be playing our first gig together this coming Saturday at Orchard Cineliesure, half an hour set beginning at 12. All are welcome. And if you consider yourself my friend you will be there. No lah joking, do pop by if you're in the area ok. No I won't be strumming a doremon. Come by if you can and if you're nice I will dedicate some guitar licks to you.

Or maybe even sign your underwear.

Christopher.

Technological Embrace

2006-09-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

I finally got myself a new phone all thanks to the budget surplus from the prize money of battle of the bands. I've been using the same phone from 4 years ago, my trusty nokia. I have no idea what the model number was, it took shitty pictures, stored a maximum of a very small amount of smses, had a transparent cover, and heck even had a torch light integrated into it! After a long stingy debate I had with myself I finally got a Sony Ericsson K800i. I have yet to really discover all the functions this thing has, it's pretty damn cool. Though I must admit messaging can get quite sticky at times having used Nokia for most of my cellphone life. But the camera is the shit! 3.2 megapixel siah!

Here are some pictures I took from a bazaar down at causeway point when I met up with the band at Suffian's place.

POWER NASI LEMAK. Yes it's really called Power Nasi Lemak. The food there is amazing. The atmosphere however was not really to my liking. I hate crowded places. But trust me the food made it all the more worth it. Killer nasi lemak with all the little addons your stomach can imagine! I had nasi lemak with stingray and my favourite beef lung.

To top it all off there was a Ramly Burger stall. We got greedy and decided nasi lemak was not enough. I ended up queuing a full 30 minutes for a burger I didn't eat. And in doing so missed half of the Steve Erwin memorial programme on animal planet. CRIKEY!

The place even sells guitars! One for 49 bucks somemore! Deep down inside, I was imagining myself with the blue one, getting a pickup for it and running it through my pedals and amp. It would probably sound like a horse's fart but what the heck 49 bucks only.

We headed back to Suffian's place after that to what has become Crossover studios. Suffian and Ben converted a spare room into a very nice cosy rehearsal space. Wrote 2 new songs in the studio that night. Honestly speaking I can't wait to get back into a real jam studio and rock out with the band I really miss that feeling.

Back to study for me..

Christopher.

. . . : S u r r e a l : . . .

2006-09-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

The title says it all folks, I'm still in a state of disbelief.

It's already been 2 days since we played at Dtent over at Downtown East for Singapore battle of the bands 2006. What a location right? Well it's sponsored by NTUC...go figure. But locations and venues aside. I actually thought it was pretty damn good. Think a rather small sized dome, with enough room for about 1500 people. I must say I was pretty impressed with the layout of the stage, it looked pretty damn professional to me judging from the past places I have played in - my room, my living room, other people's rooms, the jam studio...yeah you get the idea. 2 Marshall Stacks, 1 Bass Stack, and drumset, can't remember the name though. Anyhows the soundcheck didn't go that well for me, I couldn't hear myself, Valerie standing outside the stage couldn't hear me either. I was really down after that but on hindsight I felt I should have acted a little more professionally and not like a friggin' whiney little brat.

The best bit of it all was the fact that Simone booked a chalet for us at Downtown East.

While everyone was walking and slacking around aimlessly after their soundchecks we headed back there to chillout and watch 21 laps of MOTOGP! Seriously fun shit listening to Yat blabber nonstop giving me commentary. And I also got to warm up and practice thank to Benson's MINI-MARSHALL STACK. That little thing is just damn happening, I have to get one for myself! Got belt clip somemore, can bring on the mrt and do your best constipated guitar god face while you strike fear into the hearts of commuters with you MAXIMUM SPEED WRIST!

Anyways it was time to head off to the rock show. The pep talk before we left the room really put things in perspective for us. I don't know how to describe it, but after the semi finals I just totally resigned myself to the idea of winning something in this competition. I won't deny it I wanted us to be the best, but I realised once again, there's just no fuggin best. It's music for goodness sakes. The very fact that we were at the finals showed that the judges actually saw something in us for the music we played. On my side, the only reason I was there today was because my fellow friends, bandmates and brothers were there with me. After that the pressure just faded from view for all of us. It no longer felt like a competition but it was like a gig, just going out there to play our music and rock out.

And that's exactly what we did as a band.

The Prince of Borneo soloing and SHREDDING away like a madman!

ICE MOUNTAIN SATU LAGI!!!

Just being out there on stage, seeing all our friends and families coming down to support us was enough to more than make my day. Finally my folks and family got to hear me make some actually music instead of disrupting the peace of the household. Valerie especially, the one who really believed in me and supported me every single step of the way. Her parents were even there! Avis my brother from another mother! Mum, Dad, Cheryl, Charmaine, Carol, Shaoyi, Isa, Amanda, Derek, Sarah, Suffian's father, Tinni, Bobo, Ruby, Ruby's Bf, Adrian our ever so absent manager!, Yanni, Jennifer, Simone, Benson's friends, Suffian's friends, All my friends, my much missed group of hotties - Mara, Jer, Cynthia, Carynn, Ris, I miss you all tonnes!!!! -who came down to the quarters to see us play, and Yat's sister!

Our band got 1st runners up in the competition, needless to say I am very proud and happy of our achievement, all those countless hours in the jam studio and Suffian's house practicing away have paid off. All the times when I was frustrated with myself and picked myself up with the encouragement of the people around me have culminated into this moment. My brothers in guitaring Royhan and Brandon, thanks so much for the encouragement you guys have given to me. I really appreciate it.

Moments of truth.

Christopher.

THE DISTORTION PEDAL TO END ALL DISTORTION PEDALS!

2006-09-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

Two days ago in a jam session with my band, I noticed my main distortion pedal started to act all funny. The pedal sounded alright, but the LED (Light emitting diode) on the pedal ceased to operate! I was in shambles...I had no idea what to do, the only thing right now is to send the pedal back to MI-Audio in Australia if I can't get it fixed locally. I tried another overdrive pedal courtesy of my Chicken rice making guitar buddy Ben, an Xotic BB Preamp. Good as it seems, it still did not provide me with the melting searing distortion which I have become so accustomed to.

BUT GUESS WHAT FINALLY CAME TODAY!

I've waited what seems to be like an endless enternity for this pedal to arrive. Tried to purchase it through many different sources, online dealers, stores, the pedal maker himself, and even people who sort of had links with him. Endless scoops of ice cream served at Island Creamery just to save for this! But my ticket to the Bjfe DynaRed distortion came from my longtime Bro Royhan! Thanks bro, I have no idea how you did it but I really cannot believe that I have a Bjfe DynaRed on sitting on my desk right now!

Most of you reading surely have no idea what the big fat hairy deal is about a red little metal box. This pedal is made by Bjf Electronics in Sweden, there are only about 200 plus of these babies in existence right now. Each one is individually handcrafted by Bjorn from Bjf, components selected meticulously and assembled by hand! Even the box and letterings are handpainted!
THIS IS NOT YOUR UNCLE'S OLD BOSS DS1!

Here's the serial number a relatively low DR#177!

The inside of the pedal is protected by a thick layer of neoprene, the same material used to make dive suits...nuts! Covering the circuit is a thick layer of rubbery goop, the first of its kind I've ever come across.

Yet another crazy piece of trivia, each Bjfe pedal comes with a handpainted caricature inside! Mine featured a rooster, again purely coincidental considering the fact that my Chinese Horoscope is a Rooster as well! Corny and strange, but true!

It's really late right now, but still I'm excited as ever! If I plug in this pedal right now into my amp at home and play so much as one note, there's a high chance you'll see my sorry assed face in the New paper tomorrow for disturbing the peace. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and play the hell out of this pedal! The moment I ended work, I shot over to Royhan's place courtesy of Valerie's kind transportation. I also got a chance to check out Roy's new guitar. Amazing stuff mind you.

Till tomorrow!!!!!

Christopher.

You Got a Thang on Me!

2006-09-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

EAT UNTIL YOU CANNOT EAT ANYMORE!

2006-09-03T09:11:00.000-07:00

I know I should be practicing guitar, doing my homework, reading up on school work, working out in the gym, running round the track, or earnig extra bucks selling ice cream or whatever. But my tummy is more important to me sometimes. And this entry just personifies that fact. I can't get enough of the food at Pu Dong, it's a little Shanghainese restaurant downstairs at my house. As a matter of fact I believe they were even featured in the Straits Times a few days ago. The owners of the restaurant live right next door to me, due to my hospitality towards their kids with regards to all things internet, I get pretty good discounts when I dine there. A meal for 2, one main dish, 3 sides, costs us about 15 bucks! The xiao long baos they serve there can kick din tai fung's ass to taiwan and back. Better still you get to hear the unmistakable undecipherable tones of Shanghainese spoken in the background. The restaurant looks exactly like those I've visited in while I was in China.

Not pictured...the super kick ass pei dan tou fu!

After which we headed back to Val's place, along the way I had a craving for chempadak ice cream at Icekimo. For some strange reason however, the chempadak flavour tasted slightly bitter, as if I ate some of the chempadak skin or seed or what. I was so dissapointed, but it's alright, I'm sure it'll taste better the next time round! I still want my chempadak. Whatever the case, I still love the ice cream there. But of course nothing beats Island Creamery!
Damn big wor!
The worst few I've tried so far...that nonsense New Zealand natural, their double scoop is smaller than the single scoops we serve at Island. First and last time for me man. Ben and jerrys, OMFG so frickin expensive. And it's not even freshly made, you pay for some mass produced shite shipped across the friggin planet.

Nothing...I say again, NOTHING beats Island Creamery.

plsgimmemyraisenow stanley kaythxlala.

Anyhows, the first week of school is over. Last semester is no joke man. Strategic management is enough to kill me. I had to analyse the US housing industry using Michael Porter's Five Forces, I don't even have a frickin' clue about the housing industry...yet alone the US one! Anyways I managed to get everything done. Hopefully we do well for it. This is where I really do miss my girls, wishful thinking though. I have to realize I will not always get to work with the people I ultimately prefer. But the current team I'm working with is pretty good as well. The most important thing is work ethic and responsibility. I can't stand those mofos who do nothing, or hand you something in jackshit standard english.

Battle of the Bands final is less than a week away. I met up with Suffian and Yat over the weekend to work out some ideas I have for a song of our's. I'm very happy they welcomed the idea. Initially I thought they would be quite hesitant, but I'm glad they accepted my contribution. The final is gonna be awesome. My aim is not to win, but to represent my band and our music as it should be. We're playing our own music, written and arranged by us based on our own life experiences. There's simply no excuse for cocking it up. And that also goes for my last missed note on my solo on "moments of truth".

Next week will be seriously intense. We'll be jamming monday, wednesday, and friday at night some more! I can't wait!

I've got tickets for the finals, they are priced at 12 dollars a piece, you get one free drink with it, alcoholic of course. They cost 15 dollars at the door. If anyone wants some please email me@ lethalexcursions@gmail.com , I'll hook you up with a couple. You'll be rewarded with a great performance by my band. We're gonna play our hearts out this Sunday! Plus there are many other kick ass bands performing too. The competition is as tight as hell. Don't miss out!

Christopher.

Moments of Truth

2006-08-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

GEDDAFUGOUTTAHERE!!!!

2006-08-28T05:07:00.000-07:00

Val recently got herself a little present from mummy and daddy. A frickin' brand spankin new fresh of the fresh LCD TV. Liews...up until recently the only LCD I had on my room was that of the one on my calculator. Such loving parents. But then again I got guitar and roof over my head, got aircon somemore, but only can on at night. Not bad. I'm not complaining. Anyways, I managed to find the mystery blue ended cable and hooked the screen up to her laptop. The result is this!

Power Sial Brudder!

Imagine the possibilities! You no longer need to click on the endless blinking disco tabs on your taskbar to entertain msn messages while typing your assignment. Multi tasking at it's best. I also want.

Anyways I managed to observe first hand how the master does her paper cuts. Remember this?

It was my Vday present from Valerie, a cut out of my favourite guitar. Here are some pictures of work in progress of another paper cut she's doing right now. It's a picture from a motif of a bohemian type gypsy girl on one of her tshirts. All I can say is that the work is mad nuts. Respect.

BEFORE I GO ANY FURTHER...

LADIES AND GENTS, BOYS AND GIRLS...

MY BAND, CROSSOVER HAS MADE IT TO THE FINALS OF SINGAPORE BATTLE OF THE BANDS WOR!

CROSSOVERCROSSOVERCROSSOVERCROSSOVER!
CROSSOVERCROSSOVERCROSSOVERCROSSOVER!

We found out the results after jamming on sunday. Headed down to Dxo down at Esplanade. We were the 2nd band to be announced. Happiness! I was absolutely estatic. My bassist kissed my guitarist! I didn't kiss anyone though. Anyways, the finals will be held on the 10th of September, any folks out there interested in coming down to support us do let me know, I'll hook you up with some tickets.

In anticipation of the finals I have arranged my pedalboard to form the ULTIMATE BOARD OF MELTED CHEESE AND MAYO...I choose to go with a more versatile setup this time. Got myself a volume pedal and a pedal tuner to tuner on the fly onstage. The robotalk is back to give me all the silly quacky noises. And of course the other usual staples are there as well.

Alas the holidays have also come to an end. I'm back to school now, which also means I will have less time to practice but I will do my best. A more pressing matter is the fact that none of my girls are here with me. They are all at Buffalo craving chicken rice and braving the coming winter. I felt slightly lost today. I'm missing all of you, wish you guys could come down to watch us play, and also join me in class. There's shitloads of work to do balls.

Christopher.

Treetop Walk!

2006-08-28T04:27:00.000-07:00

We finally got round to doing it! I've been talking about it and procrastinating like a recalcitrant alcoholic for too long. Even heard about Carynn's trek to the treetop walk at Macritchie Reservior. In case you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, the Treetop walk is a suspension bridge in the middle of the reservior, which takes you about 5 hours if you walk at a gu niang speed to get to from the main entrance to the reservior. We made it in about an hour and a half. I owe that to my death march training in army and Val's endless hours dancing in the studios. Ok enough of my nonsense, honestly though if you do get a chance, go for it. The view from the bridge is well worth the effort of the tiresome trek.

Here's some pictures...

Flower with my lard ass in the background.

This is the bridge itself, you can't really tell that much from the pictures, but there's only enough room for one person, as in you can't walk two abreast or whatever. It's pretty damn high up mind you, I would give it about 5 stories judging from my internal super power expert range finder height measurer.

The view...

Other than that, there's shitloads of stairs to climb, up and down from the entrace of the tree top walk. And I mean shitloads. My legs felt like jelly afterward. It was then decided it would be appropriate to reward our stomachs with Benster's Chicken Rice down at thompson longhouse. *Thank Chew Hor Brother!*

One more...

Next week one more time plskaythxlala.

Christopher.

DONE!

2006-08-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

My copy of photoshop decided to go into a coma on my pc. I meant to post pics from battle of the bands semis but just had no means to edit them. Anyways the semi finals really kicked ass. Doesn't matter that our drummer decided to become a speed metal superstar in the first song, but I still really enjoyed it! Suffian sang so fast you could have sworn he was rapping. The second song tempo was spot on, and for that I'm extremely grateful. We found our groove and just went with it.

My drummer Yat, is one hell of a funny guy. He's got just about the same nonsensical sense of humour as me. We're from the same factory just different colour. Anyhow it's always before gigs which he gets super nervous. I have no friggin idea why. In the studio he is an excellent drummer to play with! But before the semis butterflies visited his tummy.

This is how we calm ourselves down before playing.

I was overwhelmed by the amount of sheer energy on stage. I found it somewhat surreal, to have practiced the song and all its individual little notes only to find onstage it was as if my fingers had individual minds of their own. I no longer worried about the structure, or what I was suppose to play. We were all kind of just feeding off the energy of the music. I got such a high from the experience that I was in a cold sweat once it was all over! Valerie can validate this from all the salty hugs she gave me afterward.

Also it was a real pleasure to be able to share the stage with my good friend Brandon and his excellent band Sky Juice. Jeez bro your playing was as tight as hell that night. Totally blew me away! Check them out if you can folks, simply rockin'!

One thing which I wasn't prepared for was the whole technicolor light show and smoke machine during the gig. It never really occurred to me that it was afterall held at DXO. Smoke machine smoke tastes worst than viceroys.

I really missed you guys...or more appropriately my girls. Sigh, it would have been so perfect if all of you could have been there like you were during the quarters. But you're all in UB, enjoying the perks of walmart and eating shitty pizza all day long. Did I also mention that I Char Kway Teow the other day? Girls, I'm sure you'll survive, Mara has brought enough instant noodles to last till armagaedon. Check out their blogs for more UB life action, damn happening lah!

Was really nice of Valerie's friends to brave the noise, smoke and onslaught of metal to come see us play! Thanks Amanda, Derek, and Sarah. And of course Auntie Veronica!

RAWK NEVER DIE!

Christopher.

. . . R e c o n s t r u c t i o n . . .

2006-08-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

I just got back from dinnner with the girls, otherwise known as the "Not-so-secret-anymore-gang". We went to the Xo fish noodle place at holland village once again. I got so sentimental when I noticed that we were sitting almost at the same spot as we did when we went there almost a year ago with the Japanese foreign exchange students. We were saying bye to them then, I guess this time it's my turn along with Xue Ting's to say bye to some of the best people in my life. Anyways sentimentals aside, I had an awesome time. Aside from stuffing ourselves silly, we did what we all usually do best. Just sitting around talking shit and taking the piss out of one another. I can't remember when was the last time I laughed so hard.

I made Carynn eat a whole sauce dish of hardcore chilli. Her friend aka. Lulu who is incidentally of male origin lost to a game of five-ten to me and had to drink the alcoholic xo fish soup. Xueting suffered the same fate and ate the remainder of garnish which consisted of cabbage slices doused with sweet sauce. Janetta lost scissors paper stone to me and ate the remainder of fish noodles...they taste disgusting. Alas, luck is luck and doesn't last, I lost to Mara and slurped down a dish of sweet sauce.

Tastes like Pei Bah Kao to me man!

In other news, the carpeting on my pedalboard wore off. See, the pedals are connected to the board via velcro stuck to the bottom of the pedals. Makes sense? The board is lined with a thin layer of carpet akin to that of the soft side of velcro. So a harmonic union between the 2 exists sorta... Well in a perfect world it would last forever. But you get what you pay for, my carpet wore off. I ripped off the whole thing yesterday evening not knowing whether my idea would work.

The idea went something like this, I mean since the only lacking aspect was that of the carpet, I improvised by using one of the many pieces of carpet lying around in my house. Just one of the perks of having a top notch interior designer as a sister. I cut the carpet...now this part was the biggest bitch of it all. Without having the proper tools, I actually used a normal scissors and a kitchen knife. It's not by any means perfect, but at least my pedals stick now. It's also a different colour from what it was before...a boring black. Now it's a nice combination of two of my fave colours, red and black.

Measured the old one, cut the new one, spread the glue over the board, and squeezed the new one in!

If my playing sucks at least appreciate my pedal board.

Here's the results...

Pedal board with new carpet.

My group of usual suspects.

This will be the setup for this Sunday's semi-finals. It's all I need for the set of 2 songs. I don't want to put every damn pedal in when I'll be only using at most 4 at a time simultaneously. From right to left: RMC Wizard Wah, Redwitch Moonphase, MI Audio Tube Zone, Xotic Effects RC Booster, and Boss DD20 Delay.

I can't bring this along but if I had a choice I most definately would!

As some of you might already know by now, I've been spending the first 5 days of my holiday working for my parents. I've almost expended every single cent I earned...on what you may enquire. I bought bed linen. Yes BED-FRIGGIN-LINEN. I can't believe shit like this actually costs so much. But I'm sick of sleeping on ikea sheets. They feel like ikea to me. I needed the change desperately.

Loves it.

Christopher.

You is what You are

2006-08-07T06:13:00.000-07:00

My brain is on total vegetating mode, I just had my first of 3 final exams for this semester today. It went pretty damn well,but I'm just so damn burned out by it right now. Nothing is going into my brain with regards to International Finance tomorrow. I met up with Mara yesterday to go over some stuff and it went well, I understood every damn thing. But now when I friggin review it's as if I have suffered from a rare strain of finance alzheimer's where I've just crap out all my info through my ass somewhere down the line of today's subject.

I took a break yesterday before meeting Mara and got myself a really nice pair of denims, been wanting to get these for a while but just never had the time to drag my ass down to town. Well there goes this week's ice cream scooping pay. Alex has turned me into a total hypebeast X gearhead once again...all because of the SBTG SB Hype that ensued. Well I didn't managed to get them, but since that missed opportunity I have found myself wanting other stuff. Visvim FBT I Likes!

The holidays cometh soon...

However the first 5 days will entail spending 12 hours of each in the family store down at mandarin hotel. Lucky you! Yeap the folks will be trotting off to Bangkok for 5 days leaving me to hold the fort while they're away. I'll also be taking a break from ice cream which is pretty good in a way. I'm still deciding whether or not I should be loading up on work during this school break of 3 weeks. Need the dough...need the dough.

Now...
Ben&Jerry's come in Shakes!

Hope they drop soon in sg.

Speaking of ice cream, me and Val decided to check out Icekimo the other day for some dessert after lunch at Ben's Chicken Rice joint at Longhouse. I went in and the girl at the counter starting whispering to her co-worker..."THEY ARE FROM ISLAND CREAMERY!"

Ok in other news, actually early news brought to most of you folks late...

My band is in Singapore Battle of the Bands Semi-Finals!

Quarter finals was actually tougher than expected. I have no idea why but a huge amount of nervousness and uncertainty overcame me on the day itself. I totally forgot to equalize the output level of my pedals with the output of the stage amplifier. I literally shot myself in the foot for doing that, as a result my distortion tone came out softer than my clean tone. How cock up is that. I couldn't hear myself on stage, the whole time I was counting along to the drums. However when I review a recording of our set, it sounded just fine. Well cock ups aside...
You live you learn...

I never really believed Valerie when she told me I had that whole STEAM expression everytime I play. She took a picture, but it seems to me as if guitar playing is somewhat equal to that of constipation. Hold the laughing gas...

Some other more pleasant looking pictures...

HOLY HARMONIZED VOCALS!

Thanks so much to all my great friends from school, my long time bro Royhan, and the whole crew brought down by the rest of the band who came out to see us play. It's the first time they've heard our music. I'm really grateful for you guys coming to see us and especially the hot chicks in front row screaming when it was my turn to solo. Mara and Carynn I was all ready to dodge the flying panties! Aside from trying to curb my giggles your screams almost made me water come out. Thanks to my sweetie for taking the pics with her uber camera and also the video taping!

Crossover - Suffian, vocals and bass, Me, Benson, guitars, Yat our outstanding drummer! I love this picture. Honestly, jokes aside, honest to goodness...I'm really happy I found this bunch of fast talking nonsense spewing band. If not I'd probably still be entertaining the ants in my bedroom.

Hapiness!

Ok Finance calls once again....

Christopher.

Another one...

2006-08-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

HOLY REVERSO AND COCONUT SWIRL BATMAN!

2006-08-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

I love the taste of these 2 flavours, the way the ice cream melts and slithers down my throat drenching my taste buds, basking in the indulgence of the flavour. The rich flavour of the chocolate ice cream coupled with the sweetness of the oreos. The light swirls of Gula Melaka in the creamy surroundings of coconut.

Visually it would look like this...

Carynn Tey I'm gonna buy you ice cream all the time from now on.

Christopher.

BIZARRE BEYOND BELIEF!

2006-08-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

The last week of this semester just went by. Crazy as it seems my gauge of time is rather backward right now. It still feels like Chinese New Year ended a while ago, and I'm slightly still in the start of the year. Summer semesters tend to do this to you, 3 courses intensively for 6 weeks and another 3 to follow for the rest. To top things all off I have an exam the day after national day, and 3 weeks worth of break following that till my final semester starts. I'm still completely clueless as to what I'm going to do with my "Bachelor's Degree" life after that. Worse still my whole group of friend will be leaving in about 12 days time off to UB. I used to feel it would be somewhat silly to go if just for one semester, right now I wish I had thought differently. I'll just sit out the rest of next semester bravely. Hopefully I'll make it through, at least I've got Valerie with me and good friends like Felicia, Adnan, Elysia, Xueting, et al.

Here's some pictures from this semester...

This was the day my sales force class got creative and decided we had to dress formal for a sales presentation. Guys being guys had to wear a friggin' suit. To imagine I actually wore that damn thing to school, getting up at 7am to iron and prep everything, squeezing my undertrained and over-nourished body into it in the morning. Thankfully my dad sent me to school. We actually did pretty well for that, hopefully I'll be able to keep it up till finals next week.

Well the outing on wednesday marked probably one of the last outings we'll all be having before the rest leave to UB. Being the only guy in a whole group of girls has its perks other than being the target of male bashing all the time. I actually got a mass sms from Ris telling me to dress up for we'll be taking pictures the next day. LOL. I can't imagine Avis or Benson telling me that.

So yeah we all went to Sakae Sushi at Wheelock, and what a noisefest that turned out to be. The place was full of kids making shitloads of noise, blame it on the buffet budgetting hours. But it was really fun. I had a great time. For a moment there I actually felt I grew a vagina got my period and became one of the girls. Fuck you man...hell no.

I still loathed hanging around womens clothing stores, desperately searching for the shoe section so I could find a seat to rest my sorry ass. But it's all good. In a very weird way I enjoy the teasing I get from them, the random rubbing of my tummy and my man boobs by Mara, Ris, Cyn, Carynn, Jer, Xueting...priceless I tell you.

LOVES CHEW AH!

Christopher.

Funky Monkey

2006-07-16T10:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't had anytime to update the whole battle of the bands situation here. Well after the whole bout of anxiety and excitement we got through to the next round. Inititally I was slightly nervous, but of course more excited than anything at all. But the combination of the 2 feelings soon turned into a mix of impatience and claustrophobia. We started late due to other bands coming late. And we had to stay till the end to wait for the release of the results. All other shortcomings aside, it went very well. Much better than expected actually. The gear used at the venue was by no means top notch, but we still managed to get a pretty good sound.

Of course I owe a lot of gratitude to my fellow guitar pedal slut Brandon for his help on that. He actually came down specially to make sure the sound was nicely balanced between all of us on stage. How your band sounds can seriously make or break you. Like what Suffian would say, we may be loud but we're not noisy.

Needless to say I'm very satisfied with our performance. Right now I'm just itching for the 29th to arrive and go up on stage to play our hearts out! The next round will be quarter finals and we'll be allowed 2 songs instead of the 1 song limit as per the auditions. The song choices have already been decided on with the end of today's jam session, we'll be sticking to our guns and playing the songs we feel most comfortable with.

I took some time off this weekend to spend a morning with Val and her family. We went off to some kampong lookalike place somewhere in Sembawang. To tell you the truth I've never been there before! I find that fact all the more disturbing since Singapore is such a small country to begin with. Anyway, it's for me; the closest you can ever get to Malaysia without leaving Singapore. The place reminded me of those rest stops during our long bus ride to KL back in January. After that we hearded to a nearby park, which had a nice little shoreline with the signature lightly coloured brown Singapore sand and greenish water. I found it all the more disturbing that families were playing in the water, while huge cargo ships were docked in the nearby port about 1km away.

More than anything I found it even more disturbing than my first disturbing thought...after going through so many International Business courses I actually imagined how many TEUs could fit on that ship and how much it could contribute to Singapore's GDP. I'm so sad.

In the park I came across a really nicely shaped sea snail, nicely shaped in terms of its shell of course. It never came out for me to actually find out what it looks like.

Here it is in my hand.

I wanted to take it home with me, but I decided against it after recalling some super Pantang incident which happened in Army when I brought back a baby snake to our bunk. A whole friggin' week of bad luck followed. The sea snail would have probably done the same, just probably condemn my with a life of sluggishness spent underwater.

Last monday while everyone else was getting high on watching Coldplay I went to the esplanade with Brandon and my guitar teacher, Andrew; to catch the one and only Allan Holdsworth. Extremely amazing. The whole experience reminded me of when I went to Steve Vai perform in Singapore. While not the same genre of music, and perhaps on totally different musical planes, both of them had a profound emotional impact on me. Lucky for me they dimmed the lights during the concert. The whole time in my seat I was smiling like an idiot to myself while fighting back tears from my eyes. Sounds friggin' pansy ass but that's really what happened to me. Or more rather what I experienced.

I'd do it all over again!

I spent the whole of my saturday doing my sales force project with Cynthia and Mara. Doing so just made me realize how much I'm going to miss all of them when they head off to UB next semester. Sigh.

Till then.

Christopher.

Tomorrow is the semi-big day...

2006-07-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

My band has entered the Singapore battle of the bands 2006. Tomorrow is the first day. We'll be faced with the auditions come 2pm on Sunday. We have been practicing real hard for this, endless sessions at the studio. On my own, I've been putting in lot's of practice time into getting everything right.
In fact every single minute of spare time I have on my hands, I spend it going over the song, just jamming along with it focusing on the changes. Like so...

We'll be doing a rather simple song this time round for the auditions. No one million notes per second nonsense for me...or more rather the lack thereof. I'll be playing rhythm for the song. Rather than to focus on the amount of technique injected into the song, I'll be concentrating on creating a really good groove to complement everyone else. I've played the song so many times, I've totally lost count. I know every single note, chord change, and every little change in direction that the song takes. But somehow I'm just a little bit shaken by the whole audition thing. I'll keep my teacher's words close to my heart tomorrow when I'm up there, "Cleanliness and Accuracy". Or something like that. I tend to be a little forgetful though.
One thing I will never forget though, is what he told me on friday.

A Good Guitarist strives to get it right, A Great Guitarist never gets it wrong.

I want to strive for greatness. But honestly speaking that's really besides the point. I'm going up there tomorrow to do what I love, with the people who have supported me, and made me stronger in my musical endeavours. My band and I spoke long about this issue, regarding the aims of your entrance into this contest. Music is never a contest, there's no bad or good music, there's just music which speaks to you more than it speaks to another person. A jazz guy can go on all day waxing lyrically about complex changes and lines, a layman with no musical background could be just whistling his favorite tune all day long. It may seem worlds apart but between them they share the bond of a love for music. And that's what my band has.

And we'll show the judges exactly that tomorrow.

I feel extremely blessed to be able to play with musicians like them. Not because of their calibre but also because of the passion that each of them possess. Plus their a really nice bunch of guys. Benson has helped me tremendously, fixed up my computer, helped me with gear, taught me so many nice guitar lines and chords. Suffian has always encouraged me when I felt that I wasn't good enough for the band, and his fried rice is pretty damn good as well! Yat...my personal funky monkey! We're practically from the same factory!

Ok enough of my spiritual ranting...

In other news, my sweetie has got the camera of her dreams! A Canon EOS 30D! Damn happening I tell you. The cost of the camera alone can buy me a brand new Musicman Luke! Might sound nuts to spend so much on a camera, but when you love something you'll go all out to make sure the equipment is able to express what only your mind can imagine.

This camera comes pretty damn close to that very state.

But of course, that makes it all the more appropriate for me to take nonsense pictures.

3rd String High G Harmonic coupled with loads of singing distortion and Whammy bar action...Chicks love it when I do this.

Sure....

I'll let you know how our audition goes.

Till Tomorrow.

Christopher.

Aftermath of the madness...

2006-07-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

Everyone's favorite local music store had part one of their bi-annual sale last Saturday 1st July. I finally got the amplifier I wanted, save enough as a result of just about 5 months worth of ice cream scooping! I also just about broke now. But I'm proud to say that I finally own a full tube amp, I think I speak for the rest of my family and my neighbours as well. The sale in itself was made nuts, girls think Mango/Zara sale times one million, guys just think the same thing but with actually something there for you to buy!

In preparation for the sale I beefed up my finances by working 5 days straight 6 hours a time! Seriously no joke man. I contemplated camping over night and even made the necessary preparations like making a checklist of what to bring. People actually camped there, I believe the earliest guy came at 3pm the day before! I wanted to do the same but I could only get there at around 11 pm the day before.

Here's what it looked like whenI got there.

Another picture...

Absolutely nuts!

I got there at about 8 o'clock, by that time people were going nuts. I heard about many instances about queue cutting and all. That's the ugly Singaporean for you, I had a fair share of such an experience but I will elaboarate on that later. What I am about to say may upset some people. I got in 15 minutes earlier despite not queueing reason being I am a member of sweelee music factory outlet. I have been hesitating very long about whether to join or not, it costs a friggin' hundred bucks for 15 mins of advance buffet whack! I rationalized it this way, the amplifier I wanted to get costs 2.2k, after the sale it became 1k, what's a hundred dollars. Plus I split the cost of the membership fee with other close friends of mine wanting to get stuff.

My doubled chin look of contemplation as I surveyed the inside of the store for one more time before the doors opened. I had 4 things to get, Fender Deluxe '65 Reverb Reissue amp, Laney VC15 amp, Boss DD20 and a Crybaby Wah wah.

Went in grabbed the laney first, left it on the counter got my amp next followed by the other 2 pedals.

Was going to get ready to pay when I chanced upon the ugly Singaporean. This mofo decided to go straight to the counter and say that the amplifier I placed there was his. Great stuff man, you get an A for an attempt but an F minus for your shitty actinig skills. After I literally told him to F!@# off. I got my stuff and was out of there.

So here I am with all the gear. I went in and came out within a span of ten minutes or so, it was total chaos, some guy actually came with a trolley and loaded up a whole bunch of guitar effects pedals, I saw people taking big ass garbage bags and dumping guitars into them. Absolute mayhem.

I would never have done it without the help of my sweetie. She didn't go inside with me, but helped me with the amplifiers and effects pedals while I paid for mine. Plus she was very sweet in providing the necessary transport for me.

Thanks babe.

I'm in tone heaven.

Christopher.

I can see your house from here.

2006-06-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

I went over to Ben's house the other day. He's the guy who went in SIM/UB but left halfway due to family business commitments. Right he's a fulltime chicken rice prince. I say prince because he will be chicken rice king one day. Anyways Ben owns a shitload of guitars. I popped over to his place the other day, played some string, tinkered with some pedals, and just talk cock. Got pretty damn bored after a while and decided to take some pictures.

This is my version of a family photo...

The white one in front is mine.

Then came the cowboy hat and the guitar strap with the bling attached to it.

Benster...

And you might want to close your eyes for this one...

ME!

Don't ask me how the hell I managed to pose like that, blame it on the cowboy hat.

Well after that whole ordeal, we went to meet up with KC, super power guitar tech and good friend of our's for supper. Spent the whole time talking cock at some kopi tiam at marina while KC was already pretty damn high. heheh.

I had IPP-BLOODY-T the next day.

WTF IS IPPT?

Well IPPT is essentially Individual Physical Proficiency Test, those of you who have gone through national service know what I mean. The army has been bugging me to take my IPPT for the pass year or so. I haven't been training, well at least on a regular basis. The last time I actually did some running was during Dec of last year. Anyways there's quite a penalty for failing the IPPT, sacrificing your weekends for remedial training aka. RT. You fail to show up for IPPT despite reminders fine money. LOL. I decided to just try my luck and see how it goes.

I couldn't really bother myself with the prospects of the monetary incentives. I just wanted to pass and be left alone. So I did mine at SAFRA. Might sound like it's damn easy doing a fitness test in a gym instead of an outdoor setting. But running on a threadmill at a fixed speed and incline is no damn joke. Plus it's damn demoralizing, some people just go there to mark attendance. To show that they have attempted the test. Situp, do 10, pullup, pull zero.
During the run some people even decided to leave halfway...

I did my best, it ain't a good result by far, but I'm happy.

ORD LOH!

Christopher.

All I have seen

2006-06-09T23:29:00.000-07:00

Been a pretty long time since I last blogged. I believe the last time was somewhere during last semester when final exams were on the way. Anyway those are all over and done with already. I did pretty ok, I wouldn't say really well, but at least I got a decent GPA for myself. My 2 weeks of holiday came and went as if it never happened in the first place. I didn't really do much other than working at Island Creamery and practicing guitar. I'm much better now.

Here's some pictures taken at work with my co-workers Tricia and Weifen. Please bear with my nasty looking mug. These were done with my boss' uber super power digital SLR camera. I have no idea why such an expensive camera sits in a drawer at work...I'd be snapping at anything and everything. The first 3 were taken by me...last one was Weifen's handy work. They remind somewhat of stills from a motion picture...

The Wonderful Tricia...

Weifen...

Some Stylo Mylo Arty Farty picture I took of some boy.

And lastly myself...

I so need to lose some weight.

Ice Cream Duty Calls!

Christopher.

I'm Guitarded.

2006-05-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

Dylan the dog recently got sterilized. It's a measure we have to take. My last dog met with many complications when she got pregnant and had puppies, as a result of which she had 2 miscarriages. It was a really heartbreaking experience for me when Amber, my previous dog died. We don't want to take any chances will Dylan. But I agree it's a really sad thing. She came back really dazed and subdued. I could tell she was excited to see me, she was wagging her tail like crazy but she just couldn't jump up like she usually does.

The funniest thing now is that Dylan has to wear a cone on her head to prevent her from interferring with her stiches.

I present to you Dylan the Dog in the latest cone fashions!

Now everyday can be Coney Dog day.

So yes as planned I met up with Benster, had shiok shiok chicken rice at his place and went over to his house to check out some of his new gear. Chicken rice was excellent. I can't believe how cheap it is. $4.80 I get a whole roasted thigh, rice, soup, and vegetables. At the place downstairs, $4.80 will probably just get you chicken and rice. Damn good stuff. I'm gonna go back there soon, furthermore it's so near Val's house! WOOT!

Benster's house is guitar wonderland. I got to play expensive guitars which only rich men can afford. In guitar internet land they are termed as the Guitar for Lawyer/Accountant/Invesment Banker/Doctor/And any other ridiculously high paying occupations.

Paul Reed Smith guitars!

This is what a $6000 guitar looks like.

Quite nice yes?

For me what's even nicer is a mini pedalfest. Benster has all these old school made in Japan Boss pedals. They make them in Taiwan now, along with almost 90% of your computer. As a result of which the new ones sound literally like crap.

Pedal Orgy.

Benster's a pretty mean guitarist, laying down nice blues lines and some funky strumming.
I'm just not too sure about his game face.

My highlight of the day was meeting up with Brandon to go to pedal wonderland. Aka. Mr. Misses's place at Clementi. Looks are certainly deceiving. Little did I know that on the 4th floor of a certain HDB block was a stash of shit loads of killer gear. It's an amazing feeling to play through a great amplifier. I got the opportunity to do so today twice! Brandon is a true killer player with a good ear for tone. I think without him my tone would be in the shitter. And my level of creativity would be stagnant. Meeting inspirational players is not easy especially in the context of singapore, everyone is just so selfish to share information. I've gain so many nice insights from him over the course of playing guitar together...I just have to work hard to apply them.

We spent about 2 hours there, just playing GREAT GEAR, talking shop and talking nonsense as well. I didn't even spend a single cent at Misse's place. I felt terrible about it, but he's an awesome guy. He actually called us over to just try out gear! How cool is that?

And that's the reason why I buy gear from him. No one can provide me with the level of service and information that he does. SUPER CONFIRM!

Christopher.

You're more boring than you think.

2006-05-04T21:54:00.000-07:00

I was looking around the usual websites which I frequent and I stumbled across this. A moustache tattoo! I intially thought it was a whole tattoo done on the upper lip of an individual. But then again that would be way too painful for most people to endure. Well I'm going to let the video link speak for itself.

I tried posting the video here on my blog, but there's some sort of encryption which prevents the html source from being viewed. Anyways just click on the link and you'll be brought to the familiar surroundings of youtube.

Do check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT_xgLd1Tiw

Would you get one?

I'm pretty tempted!

It's such an irony. I just posted pictures from yesterday afternoon's housekeeping activities. I also noted somewhere that ice cream is hazardous to sneaker love. And lo and behold, I was right. In a wrong way of course. My coworker accidentally spilt chocolate fudge on my suedes. It's alright, I'm fine, serves me right for wearing them to work.

Next time slippers.

Today will be yet another pedalfest type of day. I'm meeting Benster to pass him my Steve Vai Bad Horsie wah wah pedal. Wtf is a Wah wah pedal. Well step on it and your guitar signal turns into an animalistic quack. It literally goes "WAH WAH", what fun! But the pairing of a Vai Wah and Benster is potentially sacreligious. It's like giving BB King a distortion pedal. Well what's in it for me? I get to sell him my PRS Book for Fiddy bucks and also free chicken rice at his shop! After that I'll be heading to misse's place for fulltone pedal orgy.

Pics soon!

Christopher.

The Great Sneaker Clean Up!

2006-05-03T23:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah I had my last paper today. Fucked up system if you ask me. We had a whole spate of exams last week, with the last on thursday, wait one whole week later then it's the last one. A total loss of momentum on my part. I couldn't be bothered to study, most of the time was spent with Valerie since she was going to head off to perth. I took the paper today, it's over already, we'll just see what happens.

Anyways last paper means holidays have started, wait no, correction TERM BREAK. Bloody 2 weeks. I believe I start again on May 22nd. Well I'll spend the time improving on guitar and of course fitness. I still got the son of the ghost or the ghost of the son of IPPT to confront. KNN.

In other good news I managed to get the pedal I wanted 2nd hand from this guy. Pretty good deal considering the fact that the wait time for one...or should I say lead time for one is a couple of months now.

I was suppose to bring Josh to mod his Xbox today. But something cropped up and in the end the whole thing was cancelled. My plans for the afternoon were dashed, in vain I messaged all my guitar kakis but no one was free. Instead I took the time today to clear up some stuff in my room. It's bad enough that I own quite a number of sneakers, bad enough that I have to find space to store, time to wear them, clothes to match them.

WORST THING IS CLEANING THEM.

I went on a sneaker cleaning frenzy today. Got out all of my sneakers, took a cloth, toothbrush, bucket with detergent, and a load of elbow grease. Clean every single inch on every single one of them. I'm really particular about my sneakers, actually obsessive. Just a notch down from the way I feel about my guitar gear. I even took out all the laces and washed them. They're currently in the soak stage as I type this entry. I scrubed away the stain of Sambal Belacan Chilli which Ris knocked over on my Nike SB Hufs, I cleaned away the soya sauce stains which some prick spilled on my Hunter SBs, and I cleaned away the mop marks which David made at Island Creamery. Scooping ice cream is hazardous for sneaker love.

Pretty maids all in a row.

About 6 nikes worth of lace!

New pedal, new sneakers, old bank account without progress package.

And by the way the new Pearl Jam album is good shit. Nice riffy songs, and very solid drumming, very deep grooves like those found on the earlier albums! I love it, no shredding or widdly guitars here but the music is seriously good shit.
Don't think I'm partial to Pearl Jam or any other alt-rock cuz I shredz.

Actually I don't, it's just fast forward fingers.

Off to work I go.

Christopher.

FANTASTICO SCOTT HENDERSON!

2006-05-02T00:22:00.000-07:00

Check this out boys and girls.

This is Scott Henderson for you, seriously grooving absolutely mind blowing playing here!

I wanna be like him when I grow up.

Christopher.

Every Day of My Life I Wanna Play!

2006-04-04T21:28:00.000-07:00

Ok the bulk of the exams are over. I have not blogged at all in just about a month. Nothing much has changed since then actually, just more work more stress. Same shit different day kind of thing. I got my progress package yesterday! 300 bucks worth of free money! As usual the money is going to be used for guitar related activities. I'm still stuck in the shit hole of courses right now. My would be last semester is fast approaching, however due to some cock up which I experienced in my first I am lacking one module from graduating. And if my schedule does not permit it I'll have to wait a whole year just to take one stupid friggin' module.

I'm at a loss as to what to do now. I didn't have to deal with this a while ago, but due to the fact that the admin changed the schedule of courses, it looks like I have no choice now. I can't possibly be scooping ice cream on a business degree for one whole year right?

I've been smoke free for about a week now. I know it's suppose to be good and all. But honestly, if you ask me. I feel like crap. I've been waking up with a sore throat every morning, feeling really moody and snappy. And I'm breaking out with pimples. I think the pimple portion has to do with keeping late nights last week while studying. I'll try my best, I think it's about high time I quit smoking. I've been at it for about ten years already.

I met some really killer guitar players this month. Brandon the guy who shares the same pedal fetish as me. Ben who's caught pedal fetish from me. And another guy working at swee lee, who doesn't own any pedals but shitloads of killer amplifiers. I need to improve.

In the meantime I added something new to my board.

I step on it and my guitar turns into a demon. Speaking in sonically textured tongues with 2 voices at once! No it's not some emily rose pedal. It just gives me an octavia effect. It's funny though, but still very cool at the same time. It's so responsive. I love it!

Ok lah I will update...

More drool worthy pictures soon I promise.

Christopher.

Waffle Time!

2006-03-31T11:04:00.000-08:00

There's a really good reason why I haven't been blogging. I've just been really swamped with work lately, so much that it's not funny at all. Nutrition exams and papers due, MGT exams, law tests. I seriously feel damn burned out right now. But alas I still have to keep up the steam, catch with online lectures and do endless reading...or else every little hint of work up till now goes out the shitter.

Ok academics have been run over, on to the good things.

We've been toying with the idea of waffles at work. Who else to test this delectable delights on other than the nice kind folks working. Yes that's me and my other co-workers. I swear I think I've put on shitloads of weight while working at Island Creamery. My efforts to work off my spare tyre through exercise have proved to be futile up till this point. I've got just about 2 more months till I have to take my army fitness test.

Well until then, it's reverso shakes and waffles for me all the way!

I tell you it's damn bloody shiok, when we have it in store you better do yourself a favour and forget about putting on weight...BUY ME! EAT ME! YOU KNOW YOU WANT ME!
BLOODY MOUTH WAFFLING LAH!

In order news, today was a good day, a really good day. I haven't been spending that much time lately with Valerie. I got to do so today. And yes as a result of which I skipped Law Class! We had lunch at food republic at wisma...killer hokkien mee and char kway teow there I tell you! And also damn good teh. I bought myself 2 new tshirts today so I don't have to wear the same clothes to class since semester one. Nicholas on the other hand bought $7K worth of shit to prepare himself for his job in Japan. 2 bloody $2.5K trenchcoats from Zegna and BURR-BELLIES!

YOU KNN YOU.

Your bloody one year of shopping is akin to the GDP of a 3rd world country.

Well most of today was spent at home with me playing guitar.

Yeah what's new right?

Here's a picture of me playing the newest Ashlee Simpson song!

I played so much today I broke 5 strings. Not funny at all. I spent the last half hour restringing. Today proved to be rather productive as well. Went over to Suffian's place with Benson *Members of my band!*. We composed 3 new songs...or was it 4 new ones? And also had some really shiok mee goreng courtesy of the culinary skills of Suffian. Benson has a new toy...a $450 multi effects pedal that has a wing span of an endangered predatory bird.

My fellow classmates are probably still partying outside at MOS getting drunk and waking up to regret it tomorrow. I wish I could have joined them celebrating Stef's birthday, but duty calls. Sorry guys.

Anyways, HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEF, may you have many more Old Chang Kee to come!

Also I've got an appointment with Mr. Misse tomorrow, hopefully a new octave pedal will be a nice addition to my pedalboard. And of course I will be meeting for the first time, killer guitarist Brandon!

Together we shall lust happily like catholic schoolgirls over MORE MORE MORE PEDALS!

Christopher.

The Distance

2006-03-19T04:04:00.000-08:00

Yeah I just got back today's jam session. Haven't jammed with my band for 2 weeks. Benson got caught up at last week's IT show at Suntec. The studio today was somewhat sparse. Located in Waterloo Centre amid a Block of HDB Flats. It keeps getting weirder, 2 weeks ago it was at a shophouse in Arab Street along some road called Jalan Pinang. I'm not really sure what Pinang means but right next to it is Jalan Pisang, or Jalan Banana. My linguistic grasp of malay is currently crap status, besides being able to name my favorite dishes I can't say shit.

Aku Ta Tau.

Anyways todays' place was very downsized. Dark, with the absence of windows, the only source of illumination a lone flourescent tube on the wall. It's about the size of my room. My ears are still ringing from the bouncing reflections off the walls of the room. The amps were really jialat...line6 digital modelling amps. Everything was so close to each other that the sound of the drums could be heard bleeding into the P.A. system's echo. But it's only for practice, locations don't matter much to us.

But on a good note, we were tight today. Really tight. Like my secondary school uniform shorts.

So tight it inspired the jam studio owner to come in and take a picture of us. I'm joking of course, he might have taken a picture to put us as the noisiest band to have ever played at his studio. LOLOLZ

My pedalboard performed as promised. Really nice tones from my gear. I'm pretty damn happy with my current setup but as the G.A.S. monster looms over me, I don't know how long my spirit of contentment will last. I've already set aside a few bucks for Mr. Misse's new shipment of fulltone effects.

Dammit I want so many damn things! New effects, pedals, WAH WAH Pedal, Amplifier...
I secretly want a new guitar. I say secretly because I so so love my floral. Everytime I play something else I feel bad. Seriously. It sounds crazy, it's like the feeling you get if you cheat on your girlfriend or something.

Don't worry ok, I'll always love you.

I've grown pretty sick of jamming within the confines of studios, it's time to get gigs. My bro is helping me out on this, I really hope everything pulls through. :)

In "Training for IPPT" news, I just came back from another run. I'll be doing the same old 2k route for the rest of this week and then increasing it next week to the 3 plus k route. I hope to become Macho Man in no time.

I've got shitloads to do in school next week.

MIS Test tomorrow, MGQ and Nutrition Test on Friday.

Best buy right?

I bought new wheels and some bearing for my LOLLERSKATES. Skating in the rain the other day with Avis and Valerie really screwed things up for me. My wheels can't even move now due to my laziness in getting the damn bearings cleared of rust.

They're the rear 2 black wheels. The usual skate shop was really nice and gave me a great discount along with 2 free bearings!

Heck Even Domo Loves them.

I'm currently waiting for a meal of Swedish Meatballs to come from Ikea for me.
My folks are so sweet.

Christopher.

You Always Order the Special...with the HAWT Chocolate...

2006-03-15T04:42:00.000-08:00

My computer totally went berserk on me the other day. A simple restart turned into a hard disk failure. Best buy right? But what can you expect from a Pentium 3 550Mhz. Anyways numerous attempts to revive it followed by means of vain attempts from my brother, Cecil, and myself. Instead we made matters worse, confused my bios by installing 2 operating systems on my PC. Yeah so I went computerless for a few days, best bit was that my mind was totally made up to watch my online MGQ lectures and do my law project research. A rescue package came in the form of an intel celeron which belongs to my dad. That sufficed for the rest of this week.

My miracle worker and guitarist extraordinaire, Benson!

He fixed the thing for me in less than 24 hours.

Now I have a new hard disk, processor, power supply, operating system and loads of nice software to play around with! Thanks so much Benson.

I've been working so much it's crazy. Saturday crowds are really the craziest. The people come in hordes. Anyways the fruits of my labor have finally taken shape. Since my first paycheck I've bought myself 2 new pedals, a pedal board and a whole bunch of cables to go along with them. Long gone are the days I would show up to jam sessions in ziplocked bags containing my pedals. How pathetic right? Oh yeah Benson also sold me his 60 dollar Ritter Gig Bag for 20 bucks too!

So here it is...the pedal "Orgasmoboard"

Case closed...so pro looking!

Opened.

One shot is not enough...

So here it goes, my guitar into my Bad Horsie Wah wah pedal, ToneBone Classic, RC Booster, Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus, Line6 Echo Park!

Here's the best bit about me getting the EchoPark, some guy posted an ad online about selling it. He explained to me that he bought 2 just to try and see what they sounded like together...in the end he didn't like it. He originally intended to sell me the older of the two, but brought the newer one down by mistake! LOLOLOLZ.

So anyways, getting all the pedals and the pedalboard was probably the easy part of the whole equation. Next I went on a Velcro hunt with Valerie. I had to find suitably strong velcro strips in order to stick the pedals to the pedal board. I went to handifix at centerpoint *probably the only hardware store in the vicinity of my house*. The guy at the store tells me the 3M Velcro I bought "WILL CONFIRM WORK"...I went home and to my dismay the thing slips off like a lubricated toothbrush!

So stuck at home I was, whole pedalboard arranged nicely tell I remembered that a fellow guitarist of mine, Brandon told me I could get it Home-Fix....NOT HANDIFIX! Everything put in place, nicely arranged. But there was no way in hell they were going to stick on.

So I made my way to Marina Square. Valerie was really kind and sent me there, and joined me on my wild goose chase of a velcro hunt. Went there and BEST BUY they didn't have what I was looking for. I bought the next best alternative and to much of my Heng-Ness it worked!

Now I can turn my pedal board upside down and nothing will even budge!

I'm a happy man right now.

In other news I've started training for IPPT. I have to take it before my next birthday, surprisingly enough I have not slacked that much in terms of my fitness. Though I might not look like the part I still can run pretty well and knock out 12 pullups! Since I've started I've manage to run twice this week already while doing other exercises on my rest days. Hopefully I will prevail in the end and win myself some free money!

400 DOLLAH LEH!

I'm dead tired from work.

Christopher.

CONGURRATION YOU KENNA TIO MOBILIZATION!

2006-03-05T05:14:00.000-08:00

Yes, I got the best buy phone call that every NS Man dreads. I was relaxing at home after having lunch with my Dad and Valerie. Just sitting around doing nothing and I get a phone call from mindef saying that I have been mobilized. "Please report to your mobilization centre immediately." THANKS MAN! I feel like I just strike lottery or something, but instead of winning first prize, I end up claiming the money after my ticket has expired. So I proceeded to put on my uniform, shirt fits fine as it always has, I got a rude shock when I tried on my size M pants. Dammit they don't fit. Well yeah I managed to get them on, but they'd probably burst the moment I sat down. The realization of "NAH BEI" only hit me when I was putting on my boots and tying the boot lace in the typical "Lazy man knot" army style. I have not worn my uniform in like 2 years.

The uniform to me, feels like some sort of security blanket, a technicolor dream coat of some sorts. Whenever I wear it, I can fall asleep anytime anywhere, I feel mentally challenged, and most of all it causes me to speak in the language exhibited in my previous post.

But honestly speaking I did have fun when I was in army, I really enjoyed it. It's like a childhood fantasy come true, get to wear uniform go run around in the jungle and explode stuff. Yes most guys might not agree with me. I'm freaky like that.

GOOD TO GO SOLDIER!

I proceeded to camp, Valerie was really sweet and sent me there, I really appreciate it. Anyways I got there within slightly above half an hour of my phonecall. I was told by my friends that mobilization just consisted of you scanning your army card and then getting the hell outta there. But things turned out to be very VERY different. Inprocessing, scanned my army card, went to form up...and I ended up sitting there doing nothing for the next 5 frickin' hours! I shit you not, I did absolutely nothing productive, other than talk to my men and catch up. The only good thing about the whole mobilization other than catching up with my men was going to the Emart and buying myself some free army stuff. Can you believe it, now soldiers got sandals to wear! I got myself a pair, my new urban male slippers broke on me and forced me to walk home barefooted once. Next Zouk Out I'll be in army sandals. And now they even have a duffle bag with rollers so you can look like an SAF Stewardess! LOLWTFBBQ~!

Well anyways I was lucky to get the camera on friday, I took some silly pictures as usual in school during law class. Sorry correction *after* law class.

I'm sorry but I can't think of a logical explanation why anyone would want to wear sunglasses indoors, especially so when it comes to Mara.

Hence I had to conjure up a picture to illustrate what she was hiding behind the glasses.

Well as soon school ended I went LOLLERING with Valerie at East Coast Park. Yeah I got like a hundred days or so before I need to clear my IPPT. And I can't even fit into a size M pants! Exercise is definately in the priorities of the agenda. We skated so damn much from Macdonalds all the way to the END of east coast park. It's the first time in my life that I've seen the END of east coast park. I always thought it would lead to some big ass air field like changi beach or something but instead it was a golf course with funky smells.

All in all it's been a great week, I got most of my midterm results, did well for them. Now all that's left to go is LAW! Pray pray pray. I'm getting it back on wednesday...

Jamming today was excellent! I got a big ass marshall stack to play with, just like a RAWK concert sial! Please ah....don't ask me whether it's like Fort Minor or what crap like that. My band was VIRGIN TIGHT today. I made less mistakes. It was a great session we accomplished everything we set out to do last week.

Oh yeah if you need eggs, ask EGGY THE EGGSPERT!

Christopher.

Berak in Bugis.

2006-03-05T05:03:00.000-08:00

Wah lan eh, I today super buey tahan, go AHLAB STEET go jamming with my band kaki. Jam session damn super kenna one, we all damn good today. Guitar oso SUPER POWER SOUND SIAL. That place down there got MARSHALL STACK man. Amplifier as tall as your girlfriend neneh. Wah Kaoz! After we all jamming ah we go eat Bryani downstairs...WAH...I tell you ah, Wa Kah Le Gong, down there the Bryani is like Marshall Stack oso, eat ah can make your ballz vibrate sial.

But in the end oso make my stomach vibrate, that's why I super cannot tahan I go bugis junction go down there pang sai one time big big one. Wah lan eh that place toilet oso supper cannot make it one.

WAH NI NEOH HIAH!

Toilet KAN NA SO dirty, shopping centre somemore, I tot GAHMEN say must keep toilet clean, wah lan eh, wall oso got people write what ah call this number for dunno what kind of gin nah, got many name many number for you to call for special, no need go dickson health centre at sim lim down there.

Good day lah today.

Christopher Kia.

Yes so they're all over now what?

2006-03-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

Yeap my midterms are all over right now. A big ass burden lifted off my shoulders. But there's much more to come, so many damn projects. The awrd for the worst module I'm doing this semester has to go to Nutrition. I seriously have no frickin' idea why I'm studying this. I hardly eat nutrionally well and I work in an ice cream shoppe. Furthermore I've got a waistline most mortals couldn't wrap both arms round....well at least in my own eyes.

I can't believe the speed of which my midterms were graded, I have already got back the results for 2 of them. I did pretty well for both, I'm so damn relieved. I thought I would totally botch Operations management. I did well for MIS too...thank you so much Uncle Benson! If you're nice maybe I'll let you play my RC Booster.

Work today was pretty good, I was slightly worried my boss would fire me for the potential of my absence from 2 work shifts this week. I took off on tuesday to study for business law midterms. That turned out to be pretty good as well. But in my haste to study all the different types of business torts and other lawful stuff. I totally lost out on technicalities, I couldn't distinguish between executive and legislative...oh well..2 marks gone. 2 of my co-workers got their A level results back on wed. It sickens me somewhat, that such an emphasis is placed on results that it transcends into the mental esteem of a person. Such an unforgiving society we live in. I remember the time when I got my A level results, the first time round I got O F F , second time D D E.

Shiok right?

Honestly speaking, I don't ever remember studying in my life. I shit you not. I don't think I've ever really studied till the time when I'm in uni. Results didn't mean crap to me then, but now I lose sleep over a whacked out midterm.

Anyways my big pimp friend Nicholas came to visit me today while scooping ice cream. Nice gesture my friend. He's in the midst of beefing up his command of japanese so he can go to tokyo and make big bucks while playing golf with japanese executives, play pah-jin-ko, drink sake, AND CHOCO-PARTY EVERY SINGLE GIRL THERE! Good luck Ni-co-ras San!

My Sweetie sent me to work today, yes yes I know. I have to go get that thing normal people call a drivers' license soon. But how???? I wanna use all my money for my guitar fetish! Other than all the sweet things that my babe does for me to give me warm fuzzy feelings all over...she also sent me a link to an SIM student's blog documenting some sick mofo MASTURBATING in the library!

SURE NOT????

I tell you no lie my friend!

We have a LIBRARY SHAKER IN OUR MIDST.

I use the term SHAKER (with the strategically placed caps of course), because when I was in JC there was such an individual. But he went by the name of LT SHAKER! LT of course stands for lecture theater. There was this sicko, who probably spent his nights at home, cutting a small hole in his pocket anticipating the event whereby which he would SHAKE in the LT! And he really did it. He SHAKED off in the LT while looking at some pretty young ACJC girls. Sicko!

I present to you the LIBRARY SHAKER.

Apparently this guy had a bible with him and some lubricant. What a strange combination right? Well you mofo, if I ever see you shaking off in the library, I hope you pray damn hard. A security guard led him off upon knowledge of the event. He just got chased out. I'm not really sure whether he got more than that. But in my opinion people like this should be sent to prison, to become a prison slut.

Ok I'm going to sleep now.

Tomorrow I'll be rollering all my worries away!

Christopher.

You're the part of me that I don't wanna see.

2006-02-27T07:21:00.000-08:00

Ok so far it's 2 down already. Operations Management aka. "that online module" thing, was pretty okay. Pretty...Pretty...Pretty Good. The paper went well, I could answer everything but it was damn tricky. Totally MCQ and all the options were really similar. But heck it, it's over. The answer key is out already online, silly thing is that I don't have a question paper and I don't even know which set I got. Yes there were 3 different sets of question papers out, some measure imposed by UB to minimize cheating.

I did my Management info-systems paper today. Damn friggin' easy lah! All thanks to my IT professional guitarist in my band...The Great Benson! I even found the time to go jamming yesterday with them. It was a rather terrible session. I kept screwing up. As a matter of fact, every single damn thing that could go wrong went wrong. Murphy's Law of Jamming. My bassist almost went ballistic on my drummer, I broke 2 strings, I couldn't get my timing down, I forgot chords, my tone sucked donkey dick all thanks to that piece of crap of a Marshall AVT digital amp. I hate digital...as far as audio is concerned.

Well bad patches are pretty good in a musical context, it gave us the opportunity to realise and iron out all our errors and flaws. I think it's really important for us to have a goal oriented approach, especially so when it comes to our music. We keep coming up with new material that it's crazy, we spend rehearsing the new material and completely forget about the old stuff. Anyways the next time round will be much better.

Other than the fact that I've got one more midterm paper to go...

I've also got a new friend to go along with this...

And this...

After a seemingly endless wait it's finally here...

The Xotic Effects RC Booster!!!!

Yes I'm a guitar slut, I photoshop my pedals too.
I've been playing non-stop, it sounds so damn good I just wanna leave it on the whole time. It functions primarily as a booster. Just to give me that extra push and contrast from my rhythm tones when I kick into a solo. The best part is that it does not colour my guitar tone, it merely amplifies it. Plus I get to tweak it to perfection and really cut through the mix.

Neighbours in Balmoral please standby for sleepless nights.

I Heart RC Booster!

Christopher.

I'm as Serious as an Erection Problem Part 2.

2006-02-22T09:35:00.000-08:00

Ok folks here's Part Deux. The last we heard of our 3 Chinese heroes they were forlicking to wicked beats in the forest. Today is no exception just a change of scenery and a new tune. If you're a good boy/girl and watch it till the end I might give you a lollipop if my mood serves me right.

Speaking of moods I'm not really in the best of them right now. I'm up to my neatly plucked eyebrows in studying hell. My interactive online course thing's exam is on friday! This friday...1 friggin' day away. I've just only finished watching the last lecture which encompasses the exam. It pisses me off that no one told me about the whole extra credit thing. But nevermind. Anyways I think I will do fine as always. It really boils down to simple arithmetic, that's all operations management is. I just got to get down to what is what.

On a much happier note I just got word from the nice Mr. Misse that my Xotic Effects RC booster pedal is in! WooT! I'll be collecting it next week right after midterms. It's about 300 dollars in damage. But it's going to worth every single ice cream scooping earned cent!

Here's some video of Scott Henderson having his manly ways with the pedal.

http://www.prosoundcommunications.com/english/video/scott_henderson2/index.html

I'm gonna wrap up operations management tomorrow morning right before I head down to work. One bit of me is totally convinced that I can ace this thing but another side of me is totally doing the whole doubting thomas act...heck I don't even own the textbook dammit!

Till the morrow.

Christopher.

The Burning Water...

2006-02-20T08:55:00.000-08:00

I just realised that up till now I have not posted anything regarding Dylan, the new dog in my household. Anyways I've included some pictures along with the post so all those wondering wtf is a Cairn Terrier will finally get an idea of what I'm talking about...without me going "You know Toto the dog from The Wizard of Oz?"

Thank goodness that's over.

She's only still a puppy, we got her when she was only about a month old and now she's just about 3 or 4. I must say she's grown lots...really. It's pretty damn amazing how this whole growth spurt takes place. Equally interesting but at the same time damn friggin' irritating is the fact that she has learnt how to bark...or more rather discovered her innate ability to make shit loads of noise. Ironic though, because my sister Charm choose her due to her subdued nature as a puppy thinking that it will continue. Dylan and Miko the cat hardly get along, all Dylan wants to do is play, but all Miko wants to do is climb all over the place and leave his at fur on my clothes/sofa/bed/floor/etc. I'm not the type to like cats, never have and never will.

Another picture of Charm and Dylan.

Midterms are coming really soon. I've got my first paper on friday, operations management. Probably the best and the worst thing about the course is that it's completely taught online. Yes online! I get to view the lecture on my computer beamed straight to me from UB. UBer right? This means I can attend a lecture while smoking away in my room wearing my underwear taking notes at the same time! Bad news is that I tend to slack whenever I'm on my computer, spending my time looking at guitar porn and other means of distraction whenever possible. Which means all the time. I'm pretty damn behind lectures, well just about 3 lectures, which translates into being 1 and a half weeks' worth. But all will be fine, I've got the whole of tomorrow morning to make up for it.

I spent my day in school attending on measly lecture, management information systems, it's pretty ok if you can get over the accent and the silly antics of the lecturer. But I guess he makes it all the more interesting, no complaints about that. It's probably through fault of my own that I feel I'm not doing as well as I should be. Yup the paper is next week.

I met up with Valerie, Cherie and Jachin after school. I took Jachin to get some strings and a guitar tuner to revive his lost passion for playing. Hopefully that works out well. I know it will actually. I have faith in him. I also checked out the new Fenders at Sweelee...sigh all super cannot make it. I'll concentrate on just getting pedals for now I guess.

Yes and here it is my Valentines' Day present from Valerie.

I'm not really sure you can actually see what this is. Under the rushed nature of me taking pictures of it due to the fact that I don't have my camera right now, they're well, not really that clear.

You folks at home probably think it's some picture, painting, caricature, or whatever. Folks, in actuality this is a multi-layered paper cutout of my guitar.
All those different colours are not painted on or whatever, they are actually different layers of different coloured paper, individually cutout and layered to resemble my guitar.

Valerie secretly took a picture while I was in the loo. *how sneaky* And through weeks and weeks and endless sleepless nights she began toiling away on my present, replicating each and every single layer to form this. There's loads of detail in the picture, she even got the wall pattern, guitar bridge, body pattern, knobs, pickguard, vine, frets... aiyah EVERYTHING right!

I was super lost for words when I got it. Really I seriously feel I don't deserve something like this. So much work has been put into it, it's crazy!

And for those of you who don't think it's an accurate impression...

LO AND BEHOLD!

WAH LIEW!

Now I'm gonna ask her to do all of my other guitars!

Kidding.

Christopher.

I'm as Serious as an Erection Problem Part 1.

2006-02-16T08:38:00.000-08:00

My good friend Da Great Ong, or more rather Great Gong as we fondly refer to him as, sent me this video online. He challenged me and said there's no way I could be able to watch it all the way to the very end. I tried, I failed miserably the first time round. But I finally made it to the very end with help from Valerie. Don't worry I'm not going to show you some gross videos of people pooping on themselves or anything of that kind of proportion.

Just watch it, don't be a pussy.

Enjoy!

Christopher.

ALL YOUR GUITAR PEDAL ARE BELONG TO ME!

2006-02-14T08:23:00.000-08:00

Work's going great, very soon I will be broke student no more and become a fully feldged guitar slut. ALL YOUR GUITAR PEDAL ARE BELONG TO ME!!!!! Also guitar too...if I save enough money. I've got an Xotice Effects RC Booster on order from Mr. Misse! I went there looking for a delay pedal. It's something like an echo sort of effect for guitar sounds to add some texture to the tone, and sometime for pretending you're playing in some arena, or perhaps a cave for that matter. Instead, being the great guy he is; he took out almost every single pedal he had in stock. I fell in love with an RC Booster. It's coming anytime soon! I super cannot wait.

Yeah well today is Valentines' Day. I've become somewhat apathetic towards that Hallmark induced day. It's a mere product of commercialization if you ask me. Just a day to convince guys to buy 10 dollar per stalk roses for their objects of affection. I'd rather not though. Anyways I met up with Valerie for breakfast and headed to Killiney Kaya Toast. The original one mind you. The one which I remember from my childhood spending sunday morning breakfasts amid loud shouts of "KOOOOOOOOOOOPIIIIIIIIII SIEW TAI!" and also the presence of a twitching kopi uncle. Well the surround sound still remains but alas the twitching guy is no longer there.

Our rendezvous was cut short because she had to go to class and I had to head off to work. But it's ok, she came with her folks to visit me. I got the last Valentines' day cake Island Creamery had to offer.

Yeah but I was super busy, the place was friggin packed. It was really nuts, I worked from 4 till 10 and my dinner just slipped by. As a result I'm still wearing my apron. LOL.

I saw this advert at Serene Centre a couple of days ago...

Does not Bite?

Anyways Valerie gave me my present this morning, I was totally lost for words when I saw it. Really. I can't begin to imagine the amount of effort she put into it in putting it together for me.

I don't have a camera with me now, but when I do I'll take some pictures and post them here.
I'm the meantime here's a hint, it looks something like this.

Happy Valentines' day.

Christopher.

I'm your Ice Cream Man!

2006-02-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

Yes I am! I'm officially working at Island Creamery now. I had my first work outing today. My forearms are sore from scooping all that ice cream. I've just pretty much got so sick of working at the shop, I so needed a change of environment. Well I got it. It's a really relaxed atmosphere. A few bus stops away from my house, something to do other than slack time off during my off days from class. Plus I get free ice cream! WOOT!

I had dinner with Valerie and Family yesterday at Bugis Junction, we ate at this Japanese Western food place. The food was pretty damn good. I'm really surprised. Usually I would never touch Japanese interpretations of any other food other than Japanese with a ten foot pole. I had the Cuttlefish Ink Pasta. A rather adventurous outing, but it tasted so good. I could have sworn they added some tasty truffles inside. It made my whole mouth black though.

Enough about the black. They have a special sauce they call the BROWN SAUCE!

Notice the obvious grammatical errors.

There was another dish I couldn't make out. There was a picture and a listing on the menu, different names though. Scutch egg or Scotch egg? I was afraid to ask.

I also just found out my really bummer self-proclaimed poor friend is insanely rich. He just told me he's a CINDY! Back in his homeland, he has servants to cut his toenails. And another group of servants to collect his toenails and sell them on the black market to be grounded into a local delicacy! I wish I was a cindy too. But alas I can only be a Chris. I tried my very best to emulate his stature, observing him very closely from a picture taken from his friendster. My cindy is a model too.

CHECK DIS!

My feeble attempt.

Scooping ice cream is no damn joke.

I've got jamming tomorrow once again, I worked out a really heavy metal sounding riff, which will most probably morph into something crazy under my band. I'll be trying it out tomorrow!

Waiting for Valerie.

Christopher.

My New Year.

2006-02-03T17:53:00.000-08:00

My new year was mostly filled with eating, loads of eating. First stop grand-dad's place, dipped into my family's signature Naugh Hiang, or however the hell you spell it. Of course there were the mandatory chinese new year snacks, pineapple tarts, bah kwa and whatever the hell else. There's something that I will never really understand with chinese people. There's always this insatiable need to make people eat! Eat and EAT MORE! Dammit Auntie I've got IPPT to take soon! Again I ate shit loads when I headed over to Valerie's place. As mentioned before her mother is a domestic goddess! Her cooking is super awesome! I actually feel bad about the frequency of which I've been making digestive appearances over at her house.

What chinese new year would be complete without BUA KIAO! WooT! Gamble ah gamble! HUAT AH! I won about 40 bucks worth of 2 dollar notes off Colonel Lam during the first day. Everytime he handed me a two, I answered nicely..."Thank you Uncle", of course I could sense the "I'm going to get you back so bad" disgruntled type thoughts underlying his speech.
I BUA KIAO'ed at Val's house, Cherie's house and Avis' house!
But it was good shit. Second day I won much more as well. But that mofo Avis managed to score the seemingly impossible!

TRIPLE 7!

In some ban luck circles a 777 yields a 21 times win, hundred times or even a maddness 777 times! We stuck to 7 times for the sake of Val.

I watched the new jet li movie as well. Damn he looks so old in the movie. But it was good shit, the fight scenes were really top notch. Frankly speaking, I'm not that much of a fan for action movies. I can't stand the random senseless explosions. Ok, this one had close to zero explosions and gunshots, the storyline wasn't so good either, I still enjoyed it nonetheless.

I also went to check out the newly revamped Shangrila Cafe, you know the one downstairs just next to the outdoor garden, with the really nice buffet spread. It's called The Line now. Very very nice decor. Much better than Hyatt's dungeon of a Mezza9, IMHO. Nice place, but I got interrogated by the deadly duo of Val's Tan cousins. I'm only kidding, it was all in good fun.

I'm off now to clementi to check out more pedals.

I'm officially a guitar pedal slut.

I want...

Paint that thing red and leave the "Ai" on it and you're suited up for a CNY gig!

Christopher.

Malaysia Madness.

2006-01-19T08:38:00.000-08:00

Yeah so I went to KL for the weekend. I just had to get away from this place after a long week at work. It was the first time in my life I worked all alone in the shop 11.5 hours a day (yes we open from 830am to 8pm!) all alone! The reason for the early hours is to cater to tourists leaving for tours and all those kiasu people wanted to catch the complimentary breakfast buffets at the Chatterbox Restaurant. I also needed to take a break well before school itself kicks into high gear. I needed a getaway so so so badly.

Anyhows we got hooked up on a sweet deal with the coach thrown in and accomodations at the Renaissance for only $160! I had my initial apprehensions of travelling on a bus all the way there. I mean sitting in a confined place with aircon blasting away in your face was not exactly my idea of a good start. However it proved to be a rather relaxed experience, the bus left at 630am, forcing me to sleep the entire way. I woke up and found myself in KL. BEST BUY. Plus there was plenty of leg room and the adjustable seats helped nicely with the slumber as well.

And yes. Onboard entertainment.

We got there at approximately 1pm if my memory serves me right. It was a nice change from the constant rain that we previously experienced in Singapore over the week. Frankly speaking I can't really remember much in terms of the events and how they took place in chronology. I remember lot's, and I mean shitloads of crowded places. Imagine the wisma-taka underpass on a rainy day times SUPER HOT SHOPPING CENTRE WITH ZERO MERCY VENTILATION.

Get the picture right?

It didn't really agree with me either.

Taxis are possibly the best way to get around given the air quality and the heat. But most of them charge you a flat rate of ten ringers from point A to B. Of course I came across the occasional mofo wanting 15.

But you know all in all I had a lot of fun. I even checked out Zouk KL. It's very much like the Zouk of old, you know, before the whole multi million dollar renovation. The similarity is almost creepy. But the crowd is very different. The whole melbourne shuffle thing seems to be a really big thing there, and so are oversized raver pants and get this...sunglasses. Almost 30% of the peeps in the club were wearing sunglasses. Don't ask me why. But due to the lack of clubbing spot knowledge we headed to Zouk KL two nights in a row. Both nights seemed to be really hard trance, Saturday night was resident Dj Fono on the decks. Really nice. But of course not everyone likes DEE-DEE-DUI-DUI trance like myself. So I was forcefully taken to the phuture equivalent of Zouk KL called "the loft". In essence it is much smaller than it's Singapore counterpart, but the music is very much the same. RNB BALLS. It was fun of course.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED IF YOU'VE GOT A HOT DANCING PARTNER.

I believe it was day two when I checked out KLCC, site of the famed petronas twin towers. I don't know about you but seeing the twin phallic towers was worth the trip to me. Looking all the way up gave me some backaches. You can go up for a tour and stuff but it's only limited to the joining bridge in the middle of the building. I chose not to be a tourist and opted out.

The shopping centre is filled with your typical upper class Atas type brands, nowhere for broke college kids like myself to be hanging out in. The only thing I got there was dunkin' donuts and A&W cheeekin. And oh yes, I also scored on some nice facila cleanser and moisturizer. I bet you wanted to know that too.

Also on the second day we went to BB Plaza, I'm assuming BB stands for Bukit Bintang. I'm not really sure but anyways it's kind of like far east plaza and sim lim square rolled up into one. Weekend crowds of both places to the power of ten as well. There's loads of stuff to be bought there, like most places however, more stuff for girls than guys. I got myself 2 tshirts. The black one shrank to porportions only fit for my little sister. I also got 2 tubs of sebastian hair clay for hundred ringgit!!!! WOOT. BEST BUY.

Signs with errors always humour me.

The last day before we left, we went to Crystal Jade La Mian and Xiao Long Bao for lunch. It's so damn friggin cheap, I had xiao long baos with Foie Gras inside can! Ordered my favourite Dan Dan mian but it was swimming in enough oil to soak an entire lifetime's worth of facial blotters.

But still damn shiok.

Christopher.

Hell Week Part Two.

2006-01-15T21:01:00.000-08:00

Ok folks it's all over.

I made it through the hell week of working 12 hours straight in the friggin' shop last week. I did get some help along the way from Charmaine my sister. However she stayed in with me a total of what may have been 4 hours max over the course of 2 days. The only productive thing that comes to mind is getting sticky tape for me and relieving me while I went for lunch. Other than that there was of course the long nonsensical conversations which I so enjoy with her.

We hate work.

I racked in a total of 96 hours working time during my holiday stint at the shop. I don't really know how much that translates to financially speaking, my parents have a sort of token system when it comes to paying me for my time at the shop. It better be worth it though. It's really hard for me to come to terms with a sum of money in order to compensate me for not only my time but also the time spent in the shop rotting away the hours while reading books/magazines/newspapers 3 times over in a feeble attempt to escape the boredom.

There are several things I need the money for, new year clothes, guitar pedals, guitar amplifier, ipod, new underwear.

Along my numberous solitary meals at the taka food court I spotted this.

Ain't nothing like a nice japanese inspired shower after work!

WTF is Bukkake?

Well if you really need to find out, click here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukkake

I'll post pictures and nice long descriptions of the KL trip and Dylan the amazing cairn terrier soon!

Christopher.

Hell Week Part One.

2006-01-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here in front of my computer still recovering from day one of hell week. I got up today at 7am, made it in time for work at 830am. Popped by the newstand and spinellis, loaded up on New Man, Men's Health and a double shot mocha in a vain attempt to evade boredom.
Drifted in and out of sleep in front of my shop counter till 11am.

How's that for productivity?

Anyhows, under my mother's strict instructions my sister showed up for work. Scheduled to arrive promptly at 1pm, she instead arrived fashionably late at 430pm! She spent the time talking nonsense to me, while taking extended breaks at old chang kee and mishandling customers. We also did some origami cut outs.
Feast your eyes on our handiwork!

These turned out pretty nicely.

Originally intended as cut out men, we made them conjoined in a fit of spasmodic rage.

Boredom and our unclean curiosity got the better of us in the end.

I'm getting a new dog! Correction, Charm is getting a new dog. She refuses that I chip into the cost of getting one. I guess it's a claim to stake her ownership over the dog. It's going to be a Cairn Terrier puppy! We've decided on the name Dylan. I'm so sick of names that end with a 'Y' or 'Ie'. They have such an irritatting ring to them.

In the spirit of anticipation Charm got these!

She's going to be such a beautiful puppy!!!!!

I can't wait.

Yes and there's also a new addition to the household. A cat. I hate them. But just like an annoying sibling you got to accept them.

The cat has spent most of its time preying on my friends, clawing at them and at times biting.

But Miko can be a real cutie too.

Tomorrow day 2.

NI NAH BEI!

Christopher.

Brothers!

2006-01-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

This post is especially for Davinnia who commented on my post on Peter Jackson.

I still think he's adaptation opportunist personified.

Not only that, he's also a Michael Moore lookalike!

Same face and nose, different glasses and facial hair.

Davinnia - You know you love me.

Christopher.

Hell Week Here I Come.

2006-01-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

Firstly I hate drum machines.

Heck I hate all forms of musical sequencers. My jam session today reinforces that. Sadly my drummer couldn't make it, he went up to desaru for the weekend. Instead accompanying us on drums today was Benson's drum machine. Not a really good choice but heck you make do with what you have. Everything was constant, the beat and timing; all that with the overt absence of fill-ins!

As a result of the whole digital participation in the jam session I simply lost all mood to play. Equipment failure was the flavour of the day as well. My amp sounded like crap, and only at the end of the jam session that I realized that it was because I didn't plug my cable in properly. BEST BUY. Suffian, our vocalist and bassist; his bass amp kept going bonkers and losing it's signal. I think it's time to find a new studio.

Things would have been better if "Later Lam" could have played drums.

However Later Lam seems rather shy possibly due to the fact that it's her first ever meeting with my band members, yet alone her first jam session.

Well things were rather productive though, they are always! We worked on two new songs today, which was really good. I really like one of them but the other one I'm just not feeling. I'm trying to pull away from the typical rock sound of the band and maybe do something with a little jazz flavour in it, or maybe something slightly progressive.

Later Lam made me go over the other day to become Carpenter Chris. I'm not really sure why but I have a certain affinity towards that word Carpenter. Nicholas would understand completely if he reads this. This attraction originates from that show "Growing up". You know that one long long ago where it had Jamie Yeo going "Maaaaaaaaaaah...." and "Paaaaaaaaaa...". I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Well Gary played by Andrew Seow was always refered to a CARPENTER BOY...in a rather derogatory manner.

YOU'RE JUST A CARPENTER BOY, YOU'RE NOBODY! NOBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok enough of that. When I write a song with those lyrics and other of Nicholas' nonsense, I'll post it online with guitar wankage of copious abundance.

Carpenter Chris drilled 9 holes in a solid concrete wall on a landed property and put up 4 mirrors in record time! I did it within an hour, of course pausing to wipe the beads of sweat from my tender body and for some cool beverages as well.

Carpenter Chris at work.

I would say that my skills of handyman proportions were derived from my dad. Holding light bulbs, ladders, drills and straightening nails for him; surely has to amount for something!

The finished product!

Hell week begins. Oh yes it does.

My parents are leaving tomorrow for a week of enjoyment in chang mai staying with my uncle in his big ass bungalow, that damn place even has a basement and a front yard big enough to play a round of street soccer in. As a result of which I have to man the shop 24/7.

Oh the joy.

Christopher.

Beauty in Dissonance

2006-01-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

Yeah happy new year to all. It's 2006 right now. My new year's resolution of assembling the pedal board of doom has started! I've totally ditched multi effects. I have finally got my Radial Tone Bone distortion pedal. WTF am I refering to. Well distortion is the effect which turns your otherwise grandfather's country music tone of the guitar into a growling howling blood thirsty monster looking for fresh meat.

Needless to say I love it. If distortion was a type of food, I'd have a distortion buffet at every meal of everyday. And I'm sure Isa will agree with me. "Why everything also got so much distortion???" He never fails to tell me that everytime I crank it up. The pedal is simply amazing. I know it sounds like a huge exaggeration but it's as if I'm hearing the guitar for the first time in my life. Or more rather my own sound for the first time. It's just so responsive. I can hear every single thing going on, the pedal responds to all my little nuances and idiosyncrasies of my playing whether good or bad.

For something to sound this good, you'd probably think there's a bunch of little heavy metal elves hard at work within the chassis. I wish this was so, but in actuality it's due to the presence of a tube! Don't ask me how tubes work or whatever. All I know from experience is that, if it's got a tube in it, it's going to rock.

BEHOLD THE MAGIC LANTERN!
There it is, THE TUBE, in all its warm glowing glory!

This baby lists for about USD$250...I got it for a mere SGD$200.

Thank you Brother Benson!

I've been so out of the whole clubbing thing. It's not that I've grown sick of it or anything like that. I still crave listening to good house music. Speaking of which, do check out the newest release by Deep Dish. It's called "The George Is On". Damn bloody good stuff. I would have sent it to Avis over msn if my msn was not acting so damn moody. The last gig I went to so far was Deep Dish at Zouk. Really good stuff. I just hate to spend Xmas/New Years/"Any other occasion's" Eve at a club. So packed. Perhaps I'm just claustrophobic or something. I've probably mentioned this before, there are tonnes of reasons why people go to a club. I just don't want to spend my New years there.

Good close company is always the best way to go.

I would have joined Avis and Maddie but so sorry I already had plans. I got an sms from him, "Brother I'm so fucking high right now, happy new year, I love you." I can only imagine what he would do to me if I was there in the flesh. Down boy, I'll be seeing you on thursday for lollering.

I went over to Valerie's place for dinner with her family and some family friends, it was really nice. Her mother is a domestic goddess, second to only that of my own mother of course. Lasagne, Shepard's Pie, Fettuccine, Cheese Cake, some fruit type pie and a KILLER SALAD DIP WOR! After which we headed over to Jachin's house for some drinks. It rained but it was never my intention to get wet. But some mofo had to start throwing people in the pool.

Wet with Cherie.

Dry with Valerie.

I don't have a picture of Jachin. Correction I don't have a frontal shot. But I do have a picture sneakily taken from his behind. When people get thrown in the pool they get wet, when they get wet they put on towels. Sad to say, Towels however slip.

Ass crack Shack Balls with Jachin.

Happy New Year.

I got a feeling this year is going to be a really good one.

Christopher.

Support Your Local Outfitter!

2005-12-30T11:51:00.000-08:00

The past few days have been rather hectic for me. I've been spending my days slogging at the shop down at The Mandarin. Sales have been pretty good even with the whole Xmas shopping season blown over. Japanese customers have been pouring in due to the seasonal Japanese New Year. But believe me getting up at 7.30am everyday in order to open shop at 8.30am is no damn joke. If not for my DJ Assualt alarm tone, my ham and cheese roll and hot chocolate thanks to the wonderful peeps at Spinellis; I would never make it.

I've got over the whole Ninja Gaiden Black Fascination. The only enemy which irked me was that damn attack helicopter at the military base. My ninja bow and arrow techniques were just not up to par. I probably died like 20 times and re-did that whole damn stage from scratch. A down grasshopper does not give up! I've already beat the game, so right now it's back to reality for me.

Through a rather strange string of coincidences I've actually bumped into many people from my past. I chanced upon Melanie while waiting to get into Zouk on wednesday night. She was the girl that I spent my secondary school days being in love with. LOL! And she's not doing her Masters at Stanford. How UBER is that!

I met up with Melissa "Taku-Taku" Wong today. She just got back from her high profile jet setting job in NYC today. Stopping over in Singapore for just one day before flying off to pinoy land to enjoy a week with her boyfriend. Sweetness isn't it? I accompanied her for the last quarter of her 4 hour hair session at the salon. That place is truly awesome, you get your hair done, and while waiting for it to set, they lead you into a private room furbished completely with state of the art massage chairs and a DVD playing LCD TV! Heck at one point of time her stylist offered us Champagne! How's that for a happy ending.

I also got the chance to meet up with Evelyn Foo today. I remember back in the day her belt designs were already being featured in local women's magazines. And right now she's got her own fashion business in full swing. The concept really intrigued me right from the very start by her mere mentioning of it in the morning. I couldn't wait to check out the website. You girls really have it lucky. The tops, bottoms, dresses and accesories are simply exquisite. I'm no expert fashionista but I think I can appreciate the beautiful visual aesthetics of a great outfit. Her designs are wonderfully vintaged inspired, fully of girliness and whimsical beauty. I love them to bits. I actually got the opportunity to see 2 of her dresses today in the flesh. The quality is simple astounding. To me what makes a good garment a great one, is simply the attention to detail. And she does just that.

Ok enough of my ass kissing already...

Girls, please check out the site. Guys, check out the site too; Valentines day is just round the corner, don't set yourself up for "WTF WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU BOUGHT THAT" kind of situation. Buy something!

http://www.ilovetoswirl.com/

Many pictures of pretty models wearing the designs on the site. And get this...the photoshoot was done in NU YORK! WAH LIEWS.

Got Girl Look Like Liv Tyler Somemore!

Anyways for all those who are enticed, please visit the website or better yet approach me and I'll hook you up for an appointment!

I read an article today about dissapointing movies sales this year. They attributed it to soaring DVD and video game sales. I attribute it to the apparent lack of originality and talent. I caught King Kong sometime back, a so called blockbuster; released timely during the holiday season. I'm not much a fan of Peter Jackson movies. In fact due to that damn baby dangling, nose dropping, child lovin' Jackson, none of the other Jacksons have appealed to me at all. Peter is not to be left out. Essentially a champion of adaptations, I feel his movies are most definately aesthetically pleasing with all the grand cinematics and everything. But everytime I leave one of his movies I just feel something is really lacking. I think of it as akin to having a glass of iced water without ice. Yes it's a weird analogy I know.

But other than that, question yourself, your logic and moral reasoning...how the hell would any woman fall in love with a giant ass gorilla? Even with all the advances in biotechnology it would never work, think about how their kids would look like?

I also finally sold off my old faithful. My Boss GT5 guitar effects processor was sold off to a very nice gentleman yesterday. Apparently he's already got one and wants another one to add to the audio arsenal of his church. The very kind human being and my mentor in my band, Benson has hooked me up with a really sweet deal on his tone bone classic. Only for 200 buckeroos! Thanks man I owe you one. So yes. For all you guitar fanatics out there, I've converted. Gone are the days of multi effects processors. I'm officially a pedal-phile now. And quit thinking Jackson on me. I'm in the process of assembling my pedalboard of sonic doom!

The tonebone is only the start. I still have to look around for a nice boost, chorus, and of course delay pedal.

I had an awesome day today.

But something aroused a sense of negativity within me though.

I point your attention to my tagboard. Apparently someone out there going by the name pop thinks my results are the mere product of sim's "easy to score" processes. I quote "tts because it's so easy to score at SIM. hah.". I'll have you know I worked my ass off for those grades. And they were not easy, not one bit. Regular readers of this blog would know that my strength in finance is absolutely zilch. I worked my ass off to pull that grade up. And my fellow course mates would agree that the module in itself is not an easy one.

Notice "Pop" that I have not resulted to a barrage of verbal aggression on you. I could have easily told you to go fuck yourself after you're done with your family. But no. I shan't do that. Let's keep this discussion a docile one shall we.

I'd like to see your point of view and perhaps change it. Because I assure you, the program I'm in, it ain't easy. Not one bit.

Life is good.

SUPPORT SWIRL DO AH DO AH!

Christopher.

Ninja Gaiden Black - Xbox Madness.

2005-12-21T23:27:00.000-08:00

I just got my copy of Ninja Gaiden Black, fresh from South of the border of course. I've been at this game ever since. I curse the developers at Team Ninja for making such an addictive game. You've totally dashed my rumble the holidays, lose weight and going out plans. If I'm not at work I'm stuck at home with my ass glued to the floor and my eyes to my tele. Man this game is so so so damn good, for those with an xbox and a penchant for a secret mean nasty violent streak. This is the game for you. It's damn long in terms of gameplay and damn friggin hard to play.
But all said I frickin' love it!

And I have every reason to spend everyday slacking off like this.

Results just came out yesterday...

INTRODUCTION TO MACROECONOMICS B-
CORPORATION FINANCE B-
CAREER STRATEGIES, PLANNING & MANAGEMENT A
HUMAN NUTRITION B-

HAPPY LIKE FUCK LAH!

Yes and with my secretive amassing of funds, I've finally unleashed them on something other than alcohol and cigarettes. Christmas shopping is well underway, I've already bought a few things. And obviously I won't mention any of them here lest the receivers get some inside information.

Things on the musical front seem to be rather dry at this point of time. I haven't touched my guitar since my jam session with my band on sunday. And something just occured to me, we won't be jamming this week due to the public holiday which is Xmas on sunday. Screw you public holiday! I was suppose to meet up with Byden today but our plans fell through due to some last minute engagements.

My closest of close friends are planning a get together on Xmas eve. But I have no idea what we're all going to do. I envision the evening to be filled with silly voices of nonsensical speak and alcohol. Nonetheless it's really the company that matters the most to me. Activity of course, is secondary. Judging from the chemistry I have with them we could be doing nothing at all and just amuse ourselves with our nonsense.

Yes there are no pictures in this post. My camera broke down, gave me some silly lens error message after the fruitful zoukout night.

And yes there have been people who have been pissing me off lately.

I was at work the other day and a woman came in requesting she try on a necklace. Being the customer service oriented person that I am, of course I obliged. It was on of those choker type necklaces, made from a single piece of silver, adorned with mother of pearl and shell inlays. You're suppose to slightly flex the thing so that it fits nicely around your neck. I told the customer I'll put it on for her...she refused and said "I've travelled the world over, I know how to put on a necklace". Such upperty tighty attitude.

SHE BENT THE WHOLE DAMN THING STRAIGHT.

To my horror the inlays fell to the floor, dislodged from the silver. Obviously she had to pay for it, but when I confronted her with the option she shot back at me and insisted I gave her a damaged product to trap her. KNN.

Shortly after which she ran out of the store.

The damn cost of the necklace is going to come out of my pay. Thankfully for me, it is a family business. Pay of course would mean allowance. The financial brunt of the matter still rests on my shoulders but of course I'm not going to get fired or anything. LOL.

In other business matters, sales have been great so far thanks to the mad rush to buy last minute Xmas goods, and of course the copious amounts of rich Indonesian customers!

I need to practice...screw you Ninja Gaiden Black!

Christopher.

Nothing to see here people move along

2005-12-14T04:50:00.000-08:00

After the long hiatus from blogging I've decided to start once again. I stopped due to the overwhelming load from exams. I think I did pretty fine for econs, career and nutrition. But finance felt like plain kaka to me. Those who know me know that my level of comfort with the subject is akin to wearing a pair of soiled pants walking around town the whole day. It's a little tough for me to grasp, it's like I understand the shit and all but applying it just seems a little elusive to me. Well results will be out soon I guess, only time will tell.

Shit loads have happened since. Everything from pure happiness to plain tragedy has touched my life. Amber my dog, has been sick for the longest time. A kidney problem thanks to those motherfuckers at Pedigree. I have stopped feeding her that food since last year, but since then the damage has been pretty much irreversible. She was so sick we had to carry her to the vet. She's been staying there at the animal hospital for over a week. A few days ago we had to put her to sleep.

Yes put her to sleep, you read that right.

I feel like a true fucker for allowing such a thing to happen. But I was given 2 choices by the vet, either she comes home with us and dies a slow and painful death or we end her misery by agreeing to administer her with a large dose of an anaesthetics. I went down to the hospital with my family on the day it was to be done. She couldn't even look up to greet me when I called out to her. I had to lift her head for her to look at me. It's so fucking painful for me to write about this now. We hesitated for a moment but the right thing had to be done. After signing some papers and all she was carried to a room where the vet came in with a strynge filled with green liquid. It was injected via the drip duct located on her paw. The whole time it was done I was holding her while she laid on the table, her eyes were fixed on mine the entire time. I could feel her body grow limp and cold while she was in my arms. It's a really difficult thing for me to go through, even after she passed on her eyes were still looking at me. I whispered in her ear how much I loved her and that everything would be ok. I know the latter is not true, but it was all I could do at the time. Just the other day I was having a conversation with a friend saying that the hardest thing about growing so attached to my dog is letting her go, and now the reality has hit me like an ice pick in the forehead.

No longer do I come home and call out her name for her to excitedly come to me. I don't really know what else to do now.

I'll miss you Amber.

Ok wipe your tears. I'll talk about other things. Since the exams end the clubbing experience of a lifetime awaited me on Saturday in the form of zoukout. I had no time to get myself tickets due to all the studying I've been up to. Anyhows a friend of Wilson, Roy; hooked me up with cheap ass tickets. Thanks Roy you saved me from 48 dollar rip off damnation. We all got there at around 9, thanks to some last minute cock up which happened along the way and also due to the crappy traffic. Thankfully I was the vehicle commander in Avis' spanking new Peugeot! With my keen sense of navigation we were able to reach there on time. And also thanks to some friends in the front of the queue we were in within ten minutes!

The new van is amazing, Avis decked it out with ah beng standard speaker systems fit for any gold haired ah beng in an EVO/WRX, minus of course the neon lights and all. And get this in the back there's a friggin sofa! All that's probably missing is a bunch of curtains for the rear window. The car parked pretty damn near the venue and there we got alcoholized.

1X Vodka
1X Red Wine
2X Stout
1X VSOP MARTELL
I stopped counting after that.

There's not much to say, I'll let my pictures do the talking.

Yes it's the chilli crab gang.

Avis and his Cylume stick twirling miscue...

That's more like it brother.

It looks easy but trust me it's not, Sniper Rambo got hit in the crotch a couple of times over estimating his twirling abilities, and so did a bunch of random girls at the carpark.

To Dj we pray.

Damn good gig all in all.

And a really happy night for me.

Fuck the exams RUMBLE THE HORRIDAYS!!!!

Christopher.

I ALSO WANNA BE A RHINO.

2005-11-17T06:25:00.000-08:00

According to Merriam-Webster Online...

Rhinoplasty

Main Entry: rhi·no·plas·ty
Pronunciation: 'rI-nO-"plas-tE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ties
: plastic surgery on the nose usually for cosmetic purposes

Contrary to popular AH-BENG/SENG/LENG/TENG/KEONG/LEONG/TING/TONG/ETC
It's not meant to make you look like this...

With all the big hoo haa going on about all things plastic of current I just feel that this whole thing has totally hit the fan and spiralled out of proportion. Anyways I won't go into the whole ethical side of the issue. My close friends should probably know my stand on it by now. Instead let us poke fun at the whole thing and have a good laugh out of it. If I had my way, I'd probably be born as a Pan-American-Asian version of Brad Pitt. Nicely chiselled jaw line, beautiful blue eyes, blond hair, perfect nose, nicely widened pectorals, six pack...all that and have the versatility of growing a goatee without the fear of looking like an escaped convict straight out of Changi Prison.

Here's the story of one of my good friends, Felicia. She's 21 years young, slim, beautiful hair, very pretty and exceptionally attractive. However something's just missing right now. She can't really seem to put her finger on it. I however reckon a visit to good old resident local rhinowork expert Woffles Wu should just put things in perfect aesthetic harmony for her.
She looks like this now.

Not bad ah? So sexy some more.

BUT!

To improve on things, she wants this to be done. Bigger eyes, evenly balanced dimples and a sharper nose. Think cleopatra, but much prettier. HECK JUST THINK OF BEAUTY FOR GOODNESS SAKES'. However the lack of those super advance software where you can input an old picture of yourself and see how you look after being "Woffle-Lized", just makes us resort to more primitive means. We do have a picture. But upon our instructions she did the adjustments on her own...physically of course.

May I present to you the new Felicia.

Bigger Eyes, Even Dimples, Sharper Nose.

I also want to be like that. Thankfully for me I didn't have to subject myself to such an ordeal, instead I had our inhouse artist do an impression of the future for me. Upon making payment and being "Woffle-Lized". I should...I say again should look something like this.

Sigh...I wish I wish I wish.

Thanks for that Albert.

Anyway in order non-rhino news, I took my precious flowery guitar to school with me today. Which of course brought about tonnes of kodak moments.

Mara the RAWKSTARRRR!
Photoshopped by your's truly of course.

Well I took her...my guitar, not Mara, over to Byden's place right after school. There I spent the next few hours recording a couple of tasty riffs, licks and what have yous. I'm pretty pleased with the result since we took so long to get the sound card working. LOL! But it's all good! I'm very happy with the results we achieved today. I only hope that I can come as close as possible to materializing the exact same vision that he has in mind.

I'm going to watch a movie tomorrow, needless to say the excitement in brewing in me, not for the movie of course.

Anyways...

TOMORROW WE LOVE HOUSE!

ACTUALLY EVERYDAY ALSO LOVE HOUSE

FRIDAY NIGHT FRIDAY NIGHT!

Love House, Love Guitar,

I Love Rhino!

WOOT!

Christopher.

Collective Birthdays.

2005-11-16T08:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wished that at this time of year my parents would just celebrate their birthdays on the same day. It would just make the whole logistical nightmare of planning much easier on me. (6 People packed like sardines in a car meant for four is not my idea of fun, and of course who can forget all the squabbles we have with regards to deciding the location) But then again at this time of year, in addition to the above mentioned, I feel the strain on my wallet and its very limited finances being drained a lot!

Anyways Dad's birthday went pretty well. All well except for the cake though. I bought it somewhere in the early afternoon, brought it over to the shop chilled out with my folks and then did some errands for them. After that we headed to holland village for XO Fish Noodles. All this time the cake sat alone, untouched in the boot of my Dad's vintage. How's that for cold comfort.

We brought it home, the chocolate cake resembled that of a scene out of a landslide. I didn't take any pictures though. But we did get a shot of most of us.

The lack of flash makes us look like the friggin' simpsons.

What's with the hat? you might enquire. My sister got it for Dad as some leisure sort of driving hat. Possibly for him to pretend to look cool when he's cruising the streets in the vintage.

Anyways I headed straight to town today right after school determined not to let the landslide cakery event happen again. I fell asleep on the bus and woke up in a puddle of my own drool collected on my shirt. BEST BUY. Headed straight to bakers inn. I have no idea why on earth they changed their name. It sounds so horrid to me now that they have. Bakerzin or something like that if my memory serves me accurately.

I headed back down to the shop only to interupt my Dad as he gave Mother her presents.

A Bonsai, A bottle of perfume and a card.

We all surprised Mother by turning off all the lights, lighting up the cake and singing her a song as she came back from her dinner. Yes I know it might be unoriginal, but mothers love that factor of sweetness.

This time it's all of us, still yellow nonetheless.

Happy Birthday MaPa.

Christopher.

Hey can I borrow your Cleo?

2005-11-13T02:23:00.000-08:00

I guess my propensity to blog somewhat fluctuates. I apologize to the folks who come here and have to go through the agony of looking at my same silly picture for days on end. I can go sometimes 7 days in a row, with a post for each and every single passing day. But lately so much shit has been going down in my life. It's been hard even to take a short breather and appreciate the smell. My maid left a couple of weeks ago. Most probably it's been about 3. I keep track from the number of days I have to take out the trash. The demographics of my family is such, me and my sis are already in our 20s, my younger bro and other sis are in their late teens. There's not much to do in terms of pesky childcare. But with 6 people and sometimes 8, when of course my bro's girlfriend and my sis' boyfriend decide to make a cameo appearance in my everyday life, that equates to a hell lot of cleaning. I wouldn't say I'm spoilt or pampered or whatever, given the fact that most Singaporeans have a maid, I wouldn't go as far as to say that everyone's spoilt. More appropriately put, it's just like army everyday.

Area Cleaning once I get up in the morning. I take out the trash, sweep the floor, wash the clothes, dammit the list is never ending. I can do most every single household chore. Everything except ironing, which of course is the explanation for the crumpled state of my tshirts these days. I've also come to realize that my wardrobe for everyday school going probably consists of the same old cycle since semester one.

Either I start dyeing my shirts different colors or go get some new threads.

Housework gets tiring and discouraging too. Especially when you’ve already washed the clothes hung them out to dry and suddenly mother decides to make Sambal Kang Kong without closing the windows making my clothes smell like HEI BEE HIAM!

In other news, I’ve discovered the joys of multitracking with PC! Yes I was introduced to a program called Audacity by my neighbor Robyn. It’s completely free, and it allows you to record as well! Well in case you have no idea WTF multitracking means…essentially you can record sound on sound. It’s like you can record a rhythm, and then record a solo, your sister screaming, your dog barking, your parents nagging…etc, All happening simultaneously. I’ve got loads of material waiting to be recorded. One of my ideas is such, I’m going to record a conversation filled with irritating squeaky squeals from my either my female friend or an everyday escalating dinner time quarrel between members of my family. And then transcribe every single tonality of the human voice and play along to it with a Wah Wah pedal and loads of distortion!

Well I’ve taken on a new student in my “bluff your way through electric guitar 101” program. This person is none other than Isa. I used to teach loads last time, but my patience sort of dies down after a while. Everyone is so concerned about learning songs. Or learning how to sound like this player or that player kind of thing. I mean if you wanna learn a song, just go get the notation or tab from the plethora of information available online, take some time and learn it. Why pay someone to teach it to you?

In addition to Isa’s passion for noise on the electric guitar he’s also going to be featured in Singapore’s Seventeen magazine as some Flavor of the month!

So HAM-SUM right!

Anyways Isa eats with his hands. I’m totally cool with it, but Josh likened the whole experience of watching him in the cafeteria to a program on national geographic.

Well there was a silly idea the other day at school to dress up formally for class. It was all part and parcel of some interview thing we had to do for our Career Management module. I’m fine with dressing up and all. But walking around with a graying white shirt from the copious amounts of sweat plus all the people thinking I’m some lecturer is not my idea of fun. Anyway my interview went ok. All ok except for a few silly questions my lecturer threw at me.

Lecturer: “Well Christopher your credentials seem most suited for the job”

Me: “Well thank you, I am very pleased to hear that to say the least”

Lecturer: “Only one thing, how can you assure me that your enthusiasm and passion for what you do will hold in the future?”

Me: * Long dreadfully uncomfortable silence *

However what I was thinking at the time was how bloody damn uncomfortable, sweaty and hot I was. I wanted to teleport back home, switch on the aircon and dip my entire self in a bathtub full of nice warm water. I’m not quite sure why I had a closed mouth syndrome the moment that question came along. I guess I just didn’t anticipate something like that. I would consider myself much of a talker, more aptly put; a Bullshit Expert. I went in there totally unprepared. My only form of preparation was research on sales figures for the company I was applying for.

Nevermind.

Anyways this is what Me and Jenetta looked like on that day.

I tried my very best to be a good student today. After my chores I headed down to the library with the intention to study for economics. But bloody hell, only when I got there did it daunt upon me that this is Singapore. The country where the international code of silence in all libraries is considered null and void. I got a nice place to sit, took out my books, started to study…only to be accompanied by screaming noises and running footsteps of children.

Well I’ve got 3 tests next week.

Let’s just see how it goes.

In the meantime wish me luck.

Christopher.

Can't Get This Stuff No More

2005-11-02T07:06:00.001-08:00

There's a slight bit of a time lag on this post. Yes I've been somewhat falling behind on my blogging of late. I don't really know what has come over me, it's like I tell myself I want to blog and all, but at the end of the day I question the relevance of the words I put here. Is really what I saw over here of importance to you? Or do you just come here to look at pictures? I bet it's the latter. I could say something like you're father wear panty and it wouldn't matter to the general sample of my readership.

ANYWAYS.

Let's talk about my weekend shall we.

As promised I brought my dear market value friend Olivia to beach road to get some supplies. She wanted to go as a hottie of a policewoman for her Halloween party. The clothing she got from another place, stuff like a black shirt and short skirt which resembled more of a big belt if anything. But for the real deal, stuff like badges, police hats, and the like; there's no other place like beach road! Go there lookinga civilian and come out looking like some lean (well maybe not...), mean special forces machine! We even got a name tag for her. She's been christened Bambi Lee on her name tag. Other than of course reminiscing in NS and other crap, I had the wonderful food of Beach Road Hawker!

THE BEEF NOODLE IS DAMN HAPPENING! But I must say not as happening as my friend Olivia's nose gold.

So happening I ordered a 6 dollar bowl complete with extra tendon and all that other nonsense parts like stomach, liver and the like.

Also in the vicinty is Golden Mile Complex. I felt as if I had a bad dream and woke up in Ma Boon Krong in Bangkok. The place looks just like it, complete with Thai Signs and people, feels like it, relax slack jack type of atmosphere and HECK even smells like it! I walked around for a bit, it's pretty weird though, I only went there as a kid because there was a shop that sold firearms. I needed to repair my H&K Mp5 BB Gun, little did I know BB Guns were banned in Singapore. Anyways it's probably a place I would never go to under any circumstance, but I just had to go check it out to see what it's like.

In the adjacent building also named Golden Mile something, I actually discovered something. That place is filled with all of those "VIETNAMESE MAIL ORDER BRIDES" Thingies! Pasted on all the front windows are the mismatched couples. Pretty funny actually. Some of them are actually pretty good looking, but the singaporean men...sigh. I actually saw a newspaper headline which was pasted on the window.

It read: VIETNAM MEN WEAK BIRD, SINGAPORE MEN STRONG ROOSTER.

Sure or not?

It made me sick just reading that crap.

Anyways we decided to walk all the way from beach road to bugis mrt. There are so many nice little stores there to check out. In particular it's that costume store near Arab Street. But before I move along to that let me show you something really disturbing I chanced upon on the way there. It's a restaurant/bar sort of setup, outside there's a fountain sort of, inside the fountain laid this...

Well I really wanted to go for Halloween this year, only on the condition that I could find a hot dog suit. Checked my last ditch option at Arab Street but it was hotdog to no avail.

It's really weird how things work out. Olivia won first prize at her Halloween party at Hard Rock Cafe, she exchanged the original 20 litres of beer for 200 buckeroos worth of F&B vouchers! And then, I actually met Mark, and then Avis and Maddie at Balmoral! He's become somewhat of a regular at my downstairs hair dresser. Doesn't make much sense if you ask me since he lives in Tampines, but I like the idea. If it ain't broken don't fix it.

Perth Sweetie made this for me, using nothing but MSN HANDWRITING TOOL!

How uber is that!

For some silly reason I broke 4 damn guitar strings today!

It's a record!

Christopher.

Don't Let Anything Get In Your Way.

2005-10-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

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've shaven it off, all of it.

Christopher.

Guess Who's Back?

2005-10-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

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.

Christopher.

My Silly Camera-Phobic Amber.

2005-10-23T23:09:00.000-07:00

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.

I'll keep it down, sorry.

Christopher.

You are what you is, I is what you you are...

2005-10-20T04:42:00.000-07:00

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.
I find this so irritating and I sincerely hope you do too.

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.

She's coming back on Friday instead.

2005-10-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

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.

Tomorrow got finance test.

Ten more weeks to go.

Christopher.

She's Coming Back Tomorrow...

2005-10-18T05:58:00.000-07:00

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.

I'll get her back tomorrow at 1pm.

WTF AM I TALKING ABOUT?

Here's a nice teaser...

(Image taken from http://www.ibanez87.it/english/e-home.aspx)

I'll see you tomorrow...

Christopher.

Midnight Moves Before Me

2005-10-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

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.

Christopher.

Jokes Aside Ladies and Gentlemen...

2005-10-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

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.

BEST COMPLIMENTS.

Christopher.

Speak Legibly, Write Audibly.

2005-10-06T07:53:00.001-07:00

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.

VOTE FOR JOSH!

I'm going to practice now.

Christopher.

TIME TO GET CRACKING!

2005-10-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

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.

I so miss talking to my ppfp.

TIME TO GET CRACKING LAH!

Christopher.

Direct Injection

2005-09-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

I got myself to class on time to face the demon which was my finance test. It was bloody tough, I'm so screwed for it. Super confirm screwed. Anyways I'm not the sort to cry of spilt milk, I've got other tests to look forward to, nutrition...yes bloody nutrition on friday. And econs *GASP!* MIDTERM sometime next week.

I was walking around in Taka with Olivia and chanced upon a group of rather peculiar people. They were wearing neon coloured wigs, jumping around and basically making a spectacle out of themselves. Olivia had the camera close at hand and was ever quick to snap this picture.

Call me mountain tortoise in hokkien but I've never seen strawberries at their source in my life. Not even in real life, yet alone in a photograph. My ppfp sent this picture to me yesterday, apprently her backyard garden is a mini-fruit/vegetable section of a well stocked supermarket, minus the irritating crying children and slow moving human traffic.

Bah Kwa tastes best late at night when you've got nothing to do. I should know, tonight's the second night in a row!

Me and Nicholas went over to Sakae Sushi for lunch today. Bloody hell it's been so long since I've been going to that place and until now they still play the same silly cd filled with the exact same silly jpop tunes of yesteryear. I have nothing against other people's culture, but can't you just change the damn cd?

In other news, I taught Tiffany some guitar today. Power Chords! WooT! Folks she already plays the drums, violin, piano, sings and paints. Now guitar...

Just keep at it and you'll improve. :)

I tried to eat my hokkien mee at the canteen once again, but they were closed for some private function. KNNCCB.

Christopher.

Like the spider on the window I wish that I could speak.

2005-09-25T07:14:00.000-07:00

The events which have transpired over the past couple of days translated into my inability to blog. Yeah it sounds so bloody damn big and complicated. My internet connection was down for the past couple of days due to a fiesty router. I used a direct connection most of the time but that was rather selfish to the others in my home network.

Ok so what the hell has been happening in my life?

I shall try and start where I feel most comfortable. I had an awesome jam session today. We tried out a new song, which was written on friday night at my bass player's house. Quite funny how it all happened actually. Benson, the guitarist and I arrived somewhere in woodlands; hungry from the absence of dinner and tired from the journey, we sat around jamming off random chord progressions on Suffian's couch. Suffian recognized our hunger and started to cook up some tasty homestyle nasi padang! WooT! At this point in time we rambled on with my silly chord progression and all of a sudden Suffian comes storming in while still in the midst of fried rice screaming "KEEP THAT IDEA! KEEP IT!". Adding his really nice lyrics and some other progressive sounding parts, a song is born!

It's probably the most complicated thing we've come up with so far. Lots of funny rhythms and keep changes. But trust me it's nothing like progressive metal or anything of that sort. We tried it in the studio today, and it sounded damn bloody kick ass. So kick ass that at the end of the 3 hour session my fingers hurt like a bitch in heat denied of a mate. They're still hurting right now. I'm still getting used to this whole stand up and play guitar thing. It sounds so damn stupid but I'm so used to being a bedroom guitarist, the sitting down stance has rubbed off on me rather well. The pain in my fingers made my playing today sound like crap. I felt so damn disheartened, all my band members remembered their parts and there I was 7 string ibanez universe in hand with a pained expression on my face. And no that expression is not the one seen on most rock guitar players.

My dad came back from his business trip today. He brought back with him a whole roast goose! But alas those sneaky mother fuckers took out the liver before I could get my hands on it. China Foie Gras. Speaking of upper class food, I went with my high life friend Nicholas to the Canteen for lunch. No no not the school canteen or army camp canteen. But THE Canteen, the one opened by The Les Amis group at Shaw Centre. I had beef fried rice and he had hokkien mee. 16 Dollar hokkien mee. And trust me it was the best damn hokkien mee I've ever tasted in my life. BEST EVER! We actually took a break between the main course and dessert for a smoke. Came back and the most wonderful chocolate cake was sitting on our table just waiting for me to have my way with it. Damn good shit right there. It's as if the chef melted down the best tasting dark chocolate, encased it in a deliciously flavoured chocolate cake shell just for my gastronomic pleasure.

FUCKING A !

I'm not really sure why, but I feel as if everyone's out to get me lately.

Other highlights of the week included my various DVD screenings. I hung out with Olivia the other day, we basically did everything and nothing. Shared a chicken wrap at toast and decided to leave the hot day of orchard road behind seeking solace at her place while watching DVDs. I can't even remember the title of the movie, but it had Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac in it. Funny really funny. But my eyes betrayed me and I fell asleep only to get my ugly sleeping self photographed by her. I watched another movie with Nicholas, Donnie Darko...I won't even go into it. Damn deep deep movie. I'd watch it all over again. Pretty weird actually, I've known the guy for ages, the only damn things we've watched together are skating videos and nirvana.

I got shitloads of tests this week up ahead. And some silly compulsory graded library session tomorrow from 4 to 5 pm! WTF.

Fingers please heal.

Baby please come back soon.

Christopher.

P.S. Baby is my floral ibanez jem, still in process of refret.

2005-09-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

What can I say...

No Pictures No Life.

Correct not Mara?

Christopher.

I get breathless when I talk to you.

2005-09-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

I spent the whole afternoon today working on the new tracks. It pretty hard though. I'm so used to playing in a rock context, now playing guitar in such a foreign context has really thrown me off. I only hope that he likes what I've come up with.

Other than that I made my way to school on time. SIM looks like a bloody damn market place right now. I shit you not. There's even a stage for people to sing cheesy chinese songs. There's was a music school advertising there wares, with their top talent performing on stage. It was cheesy as hell even the key board player, a guy; wearing makeup. And I'm not talking like manly makeup...I'm talking like all blusher and shit type makeup. Surreal.

Other stalls included those usual accesory selling thingies, trying to catch the ever changing eye of the female kind. I wish they sold guy's stuff though. At a bazaar the last time round I did however chanced upon a tshirt I missed. It was a nike thing with an angry red rooster in the front. It does have some significance to me since my chinese horoscope is that of the rooster.

I'm all cock. And afterall it is the year of the cock. Things better go good for me this year.

I went running again. It was a rather apt way to end the day, I got up this morning and did myself some physical torture in the good old fashion of pushups and crunches. But fucking hell it ain't working, I'm still as fat as fuck. Anyways the run was pretty good, I went for it along with my 2 sisters. Imagine that a family outing. Something funny happened actually. As some of you might know, there are shitloads of models living around my area. I've even seen handsome man Jon Johnson a couple of times at 7-11, along with other eye candy as well. Female of course.

So yea I was running down balmoral road and straight up in front of me comes running this group of 4 models. Yes the need exercise too. I couldn't help but just smile like a bloody gleaming idiot. I smiled initially to myself but it caught on to them as well though.

That kinda made my day.

Christopher.

LOCK AND LOLL!

2005-09-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

My weekend turned out to be awesome.

The stress from my week probably added to the level of enjoyment though. Hard as it is to understand I guess it comes from the fact that I've suffered during the week, the weekend proved to be my escape from it all. It's like eating crappy food for a week and then sinking your teeth into a nice piece of perfectly pan fried foie gras, not that I've eaten any recently of course. I mean it's not like I've been doing mad manual labour under the hot sun or roughing it out while someone cracks a whip at my back every now and then to make me work harder. But it sure feels like it. One whip for you're doing fine, and two for wake the hell up.

I just got back from jamming with my band. Things are going really great with the new drummer. I have finally found a sense of calm and solace with these guys. I mean they're all older than me and stuff but still we really can click together. There are no egos, no spotlights, just nice wonderful music. Sometimes I think of it as such. Excuse me while I go off the deep end once again here. I mean there are times I just wanna totally shred things up and play my usual squeeze one million notes into a single bar nonsense, but if I could really get over all the silly ideas that I have of myself, of my insecurities, of what I want to be, of what people think of my playing, I would find myself, my small almost negligable self. I am negligable for I am just a small part of the song, and instrument for it to convey the message it seeks to. I am nothing but that. I just hope my fingers can keep up.
I feel so blessed to have found such musical company.

Really I do. Thanks guys.

I went to zouk for the closing down goodbye see you later party. It was nice to say the least. And also the long break away from the place would give me a chance to stay sober for a month and a half. I met up with a very talented person, plans are in the works for something nice. I won't say much here because nothing is confirmed at this point in time, but those close to me will know that I'm damn frickin' excited.

It was really nice to see all my classmates there. I feel that the whole cycle of partying has been greeted with more enthusiasm of late. But Albert, why on earth did you hook up with 2 lady boys? WHY???? Thank goodness I pulled you away. But jeez they look like they wanted to beat the living day lights out of me after that. Albert I just want you to know, if you didn't want me to pull you away I would have understood completely.

Adnan did the Bhangra to house beats, Felicia danced like a mad woman high on life and other liquified substances while trying to keep her balance, Cynthia just tried to keep her balance. :)

Something bad came to my attention while I was at the club though. I won't speak much of it here, but it involves someone very close to me. And to say the least, I will make sure the bastard gets more than he deserves.

Father Chen's gone off for a business trip and to look and act all high tech, he's taken with him my digital camera. Sadness. It's going to be all words for a week. Hopefully you'll still come here while I sedate you with words from my mundane life.

If you haven't noticed by now, I never post anything remotely private here. I wonder why though. It's as if my blog serves a dual purpose, to showcase all my silly observations in life; the other to showcase the innate silliness that my friends possess. I guess this is the way I am or perhaps would like to present myself as. Happy smiley most times silly on the outside, when so many other fleeting thoughts surround my mind. If you're so damn kay poh I recommend you don't come here seeking juicy bits of gossip cuz it ain't gonna surface here.

Anyways I won't make the same mistake tomorrow morning, economics is at 1045 and not 9. The vicious cycle of school, work, school perpetuates itself tomorrow.

OH JOLLY JELLY BEANS!

Christopher.

Surprised?

2005-09-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

I recieved this in the mail a couple of days ago.

Initially I thought I had some blogger stalker on my hands who's decided to take things to a whole new level. But then again I know who's it's from. I'm undeserving to say the least. Some of you might think - heck it's just a stuff toy. But it means the world to me right now. To think that I searched every single cute cute toy store in Singapore for him and even harnessed the help of my Japanese friends to find him. And all of a sudden he pops up in my mail :)

So now I will embark on my photo-journey starring domo in all the random places I go to!

Thanks for being so sweet.

Christopher.

Hotdog and a Shake.

2005-09-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, I’m going to try this again. It made me so major pissed off after my long post got wiped out yesterday night. Anyways here goes, I was speaking to one of my Italian guitarists friends online. Michel is his name, he’s into mixing elements of electronica and rock/shred guitar, fusing them into his own unique blending of music. He was giving me his view and theory on the fact that most successful guitarists in the world today have an Italian last name. It’s true folks, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Joe Satriani, the list really goes on and on. According to him after listening to one of my digital camera recorded solos, the only element that’s missing from my playing is an Italian surname in order to buttress me into rock super stardom. YEAH RIGHT.

It then daunted upon me how bloody damn crap the standard of my Mandarin is. He wanted me to give him the meaning of my Mandarin surname. Frankly speaking I have no friggin’ idea what Chen is in English. Instead I gave him my Mandarin name less surname, Pin Liang. Contrary to what most my friends think, it does not mean “Good Product”. It actually implies that the bearer of this name has a good character and compassionate heart. Whether or not it’s true I’ll leave it up to you to decide. Pin Liang or the closest equivalent in Italian is Bonocore. And no it’s not a hardcore porno flick directed by Bono from U2.

So hence…

MY PSUEDO ITALIAN SHREDDER NAME IS…

Christopher Bonocore.

In other news I’ve composed my first solo for my new band. It took me 3 days to do. But it’s all good. We just got ourselves a new drummer who can really click with us. Hopefully he decides to stay on and be part of our band. If all goes well all we need to do now is to familiarize him with our songs and we’re on to playing gigs! WOOT! Do come and show some love if you can.
My main guitar is still not back from my guitar tech, he’s down with an illness right now; but I’m in no hurry at all. He does the best work in Singapore and I would rather him do the job than anyone else.

School’s been quite the bitch of late. I got disqualified from a quiz the other day for coming ten minutes late. Yes ten minutes. I mean I think it’s only fair if the mofo of a lecturer could just give me my share of a fighting chance and do the damn quiz in the remainder of the time. I HOPE YOUR KIDS LOOK LIKE MONKEYS.

The week has been really hectic to say the least. Almost every damn day it’s waking up at 730am, heading to school and then back home, and then out again to the shop to work. The vicious cycle just mercilessly repeats itself. My body is on the verge of automatic shutdown right now. But I still managed to work in some exercise this week. I’m contemplating a run tomorrow morning before school…we’ll see.
Other than the crap that I’ve been getting from classes, my friends have been a blast to say the least.

Did I also mention there was a fake robot in school?

Mara and Stef on sim open house day.

I crashed a communications lecture due to my early rising. I excitedly came to school at 9 instead of 1045! WTF!

Christopher.

WHEN

2005-09-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

FUCKING HELL I WROTE A POST AND I GOT SOME MOFO ERROR MSG WHEN POSTING IT.

I'm in no mood to regurgitate it now.

Toilet Thoughts.

2005-09-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel that inspiration hits me the most when I'm on the john. Could be a simple piss or a number 2 but somehow I just get funny miscellaneous thoughts that somehow prove to be useful. Ok I might be slightly going off the deep end here. But through the course of this week several funny incidents have happened to me during visit to the toilet. On Sunday I took a crap to Richard Clayderman and a piano redition of "Perhaps perhaps perhaps", you know, that song that plays in that local jewellery ad. It was in the Mandarin Hotel while at work. It pisses me off sometimes when I think about music they play in elavators, shopping centres and hotels. What the hell is up with this crap? I mean if you're going to play something so damn bloody mundane and irritating why play it in the first place.

It's like the music you hear when you're holding on the line. Like when I called Starhub this week to change my mobile plans. Fookin' Hell...the music only made me even more agitated. I wanted to go find the call centre and stuff my phone up that guy's ass, put it on vibrate and call non-stop. I swear "Elavator, shopping centre, hotel, call centre "put you on hold" music...they are probably composed or at least compiled by the same folks. Aim to piss the hell out of you.

The music. It almost gave me constipation.

I came out fresh from my dump...and what the hell do I see? This Arab man standing next to me at the sink whipping out his slim jim, pulling back the hood and washing it with SCHOAP AND WARHTER! What the F!@# SIAL.

Ok on to the inspiration part, I guess it could be due to the fact that excretion takes place when your bodies is at its most relaxed state. Admit it. This happens to you too...on occasion when you're not reading the newspaper.

Ok some reflections after the very first week of semester number five. I'm retaking macro economics. I totally botched it the first time round. I shuffled in and out of camp for most part of my first semester. Going to school in the morning, from camp; heading back to camp after school to resume training and getting the full brunt of duties during the weekend. Yes I was the full time COS (company orderly sergeant) and Guard Commander. In hokkien jargon we call this BAO KAH LIOAS!
It was well a nice time though. I actually brought my Xbox to camp, brought a telelvision down as well and enjoyed some really nice bonding with my men over video games, cigarettes and packed food from the nearby kopi tiam. Anyways along to my reason, or in this case; excuse for failing. I didn't have enough time to studying. Hence I am redoing the whole damn module this semester.

Its funny, it's an irritating sense of deja vu.
Just like the kind when you realise you're making the exact same mistake twice.

Finance is a real bitch as well. All the funny terms that I've always heard people using in order to fatten up their conversations in order to make themselves look and sound important have suddenly come to life in an academic context. It's going to be a lot to study with its roots in economics and accounting. And my foundations are already pretty damn shakey to say the least. But I've promised myself to be a good student this semester, I've actually resorted to reading up before class! A FIRST!

Well with all the talk about IPOs during class...I can't wait to start investing.

My baby has been gone for more than a week, my fingers have resorted to being tortured by my 7-string Universe guitar. Sometimes I see it as her revenge exacted on me for neglecting her all this while. My usual number one floral has been sent in for a refret after being abused by my fingers for just about ten years. Ten friggin years and it seems like it was just yesterday that I saw her in the window of a musical instrument store while trotting for annoying organ lessons as an 8 year old child.

I'm taking yet another elective this semester. It should come as no surprise to you if you're in the same course as me. Due to restrictions in time as well as syllabus offered, "electives" are not elected per se and more rather compulsory modules. Put simply You have no damn friggin choice. LAN LAN SUCK THUMB. And for this semester it's nutrition. Every single class makes me so damn hungry. They flash pictures of all sorts of foods, and what's worrying is the fact that the bad foods cause my stomach to rumble and grumble at nine in the morning.

I exercised quite a bit this week.
Ran twice, rollerbladed once, did just about 500 pushups and 200 crunches spread over 2 days. I feel like an ex punching bag once owned by Mike Tyson, used and abused with bite marks in my earlobes. I thought I should be feeling this whole renewed sense of energy caused by all the various releases of endorphins in my body through the course of exercise. Perhaps it's too soon to hope and pray that by the time I wake my gut will be gone and replaced by a six pack.
Soon I hope, it will be soon.

Don't hold your breath for before and after pictures.

Other than the obvious physical and aesthetic reasons, I've also got to go take my IPPT soon.
I want my 400 dollars dammit.

I'm way pass my bedtime right now on a friday night. Yes folks for this wonderful semester, I have magical classes that are slated on Saturday mornings. Career planning and strategies.

I did however had my fair share amount of leisure time. I went out with Marshall today to have lunch with YanTing and her new job as the Visual Merchandiser At PRADA. Yes I know someone working in Prada. It isn't going to help me very much though, those damn robot charms are still so useless and expensive even after a staff discount. We had lunch at Din Tai Fung where I observed each Xiao Long Bao I ingested for the 18 exquisite and precise folds. I also caught the new Eric Khoo movie. Verdict?

Well if you hate slow movies like Lost in Translation and 21 Grams which deal with life and the subtleties involved in human relationships...don't go see it. Save your money and watch something like The Maid.

Me? I liked it. Although I felt it could have been better, I felt that more attention be placed on other characters in the movie other than focusing on the Deaf and Blind woman. That whole thing just turned the movie into an advertisement for the deaf and blind society. No offence, but I'm paying good money to watch a movie. I come to the theatre to be entertained, not to feel like "OMG I'M SO DAMN OBLIVIOUS TO MY FORTUNATE SITUATION"

I'm not saying that I don't feel that way. I do, but the damn movie just made the whole effort go overboard. Don't try too hard please, you just spoil the whole event.

Marshall bought a 99 dollar blazer from Mango. It was nice, but on the whole it made me jealous. I got a talking to from one of my friends who told me that I've been wearing the same clothes from semester one. How brutally honest and apt.

OK ENOUGH BLABBERING. PICTURE TIME.

Photo opportunities strike even in lecture theatres...

Sometimes even with foreign lecturers.

My good friend Felicia and her new earrings.

Marshall being very happy with hibiscus necklace BEFORE the movie.

Ok I got to get up tomorrow at 7.30 am to get to school by 9 am.

Class on Saturday morning, Can it get any better?

I loved the DVD, I really did, thank you.

You're really sweet.

Christopher.

Domo-Kun Hunting Part 1 and 2.

2005-09-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

I spent the last two days trekking the depths of our urban nation for this fellow, Domo-Kun. Now just who in the world is Domo-Kun.

If you've seen him around Singapore please let me know.

I checked out Wheelock, all the toy stores in Far East, Heeren, Taka; and today Bugis Junction and Bugis Village (Thanks to a not so reliable tip from my classmate Winston.) Thanks balls! And yes, much thanks also to my friendly white friend Josh, he accompanied me along my hunt. He didn't complain one bit about all the gay ass places we went to, the crowds of school kids we encountered, and my non-stop complaints about me having to take a massive dump amid the madness. But alas I'm afraid I know minimal amounts of Kung-Fu, and I can't cook Chop Suey.

Thanks Josh, no need to pull that face though.

Well you might be wondering at this point of time. Why the hell would a crock act like me want a Domo-Kun for? Well folks, I came up with the idea together with my PPFP (Penpal from Perth). Or as she'd be much rather known as, BEST - Benevolent, and some other good words OR - Belligerent Evil Sinister Terrible.

The idea also stems from a movie the both of us have watched - Amelie. In the movie, mysterious pictures of a cute garden gnome surface with him in various locations round the world. The idea is this, get the Domo-Kun, take pictures of him in various locations, and finally amass a huge useless collection of these pictures for our amusement.

After that take over the world.

But much to my dismay, one of the resident toy experts at Action City told me this. "I've seen him before, only in Japanese magazines, never in Singapore." I've also passed notes round class, much to the astonishment of my fellow classmates...no help in there either. My last resort is Ebay, where I saw a really cool Domo-Kun Hoodie Pullover!

This is my best photoshop clone stamping effort.
But I must say, DAMN THAT SHIT IS HOT YO! SIMPLY STYLIN' PHAT THREAD!
GONNA GET ME SOME BOOTAY FO SHO!

Other resort is to harness the help of my friends in the land of the rising sun.
IKU! Expect an email from me soon bro!

Desperately Seeking Domo-Kun.

Christopher.

I don't know if you know, BUT in my best friend's fridge there lies a BEAR PAW!

2005-09-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yes folks there's Bear Paw in Avis' fridge. Eh and don't get all bloody PETA on my ass right now, he assured me that the bear was behaving extremely badly, and furthermore if he was smarter than the average bear (ie. YOGI BEAR), you'd see him on Cartoon Network instead of Avis' fridge.

Which kind of brings me to my next point. Why the hell is it people get all mushy and emotional when dolphins or some other animal of deemed extreme schoolgirl anime cuteness gets killed. No one bats an eye when you sink your teeth into your damn 3 piece KFC hot and spicey Cheeekin'. Don't give me that crap about how Dolphins are really intelligent mammals, or they have such a cute face that you grow emotionally attached to them, and how they suscept themselves to the cruelties of captivity while performing dumb ass ball balancing tricks at Sea World.

Those are just Excuses...if you have a Reason let me know.

See how I've digressed. Blame it on that damn Cartoon boy's Bear Paw.

But I can't help but wonder what it tastes like.

Anyways let's move along and continue to talk about Saturday. From the post below you already know how I spent my morning, and right now you've probably wet yourself silly from the excitement and suspense about how the rest of the day went. Well let me tell you, it went like this.

After the damn BLADE BLOODY WATCH, Avis being the nice and kind friend he is, despite the frozen bear paw of cruelty which lurks in his freezer, sent me home to bathe and change. Such a nice fine boy he is. We met up with our new found Brazillian friend Letitia (I hope I spelt it right). It was our initial duty today to take her to the zoo, but since the only Pandas I know exist in my now defunct Gunbound account, we gave it a miss. Instead we started the day going to Little India to sample the wonderful Naans and Tandoori. I bloody love that shit. I want some right now, but koko krunch solves the problem just fine.

The food was a tad bit spicey for her but she liked it nonetheless. She thanked me for putting her through the ordeal actually, equating it to a cultural experience. A double portion of lime juice solved the problem nicely.

In between messy fingerings, the lovers still managed to take time to pose. Bloody naan, chicken tikka lips!

After eating we went to the Hindu Temple across the street. It's the first time I've been there in my life. Studying so much about Indian history and culture, it just seems right to pay that place a visit. I liked it. It was nice.

What even nicer is hunting for cheap bargains in Sim Lim Square on a hot saturday afternoon. The task was pretty gargantuan though. Secure cheap financial calculators for Leticia to bring back to Brazil for profit! Just like the underpants gnomes in south park.

PHASE ONE - COLLECT UNDERPANTS.

PHASE TWO - ...

PHASE THREE - P R O F I T!

But one setback though, running from shop to shop trying my very best to use my powers of persuasion to knock down prices sure can leave one really really tired. But we did it for a cause though. Shack balls.

Went in when the sun was shinning, left when it was dark. Total damage, one time minolta digital camera, three time financial calculator!

HUAT AH!

Christopher.

I'm your secrets...

2005-09-04T05:49:00.000-07:00

Well we never made it to the zoo on saturday. I did however make my way to blade watch. I got held up in the morning by some domestic disturbances, I shan't describe them, they make me uneasy to a large extent. Anyways I linked up with Brother Avis around 1030, instead of the intended 930. Sorry balls.

When I got there, every single mofo on skates was in orange. After a few games of "Where's Wally in a Sea of Orange", I finally found him. We spent the next hour skiving in macdonalds over big breakfasts and sausage macmuffins. Everyone in the orange shirts already left macs, me and Avis were the only ones left behind. Army taught us really good lessons. Anyways roller day was actually intended to be an intense one, but Avis had the mother of all hangovers, his eyes were still red in the morning.

The orange shirt was probably the worst thing.

I'm totally cool with the colour orange, in fact it's probably one of my fave colours. But the material was a killer...thick thick cotton. Yes it sucks the sweat away from your skin like a sponge, it sucks it just to let it fester on the material. Bloody uncomfortable.

The highlight of the morning.

Yes it's a skating Ronald, a roller-ronald, or as Crystal puts it a "Rollernald". It's bloody hilarious. One ronald on blades leading a whole damn group of orange shirt peeps on skates.

I didn't get to meet Uncle Goh. I didn't get to show him my roller skills. But we did get some silly certificate at the end of the day.

What I did for the rest of the day was something different altogether.

Christopher.

Temptation - Why won't you leave me alone.

2005-09-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

School's going to start this coming monday. My 3 weeks worth of holidays are soon coming to a close. It hasn't really seemed that much like a holiday to me though. In fact I believe the fatigue I'm experiencing now is much greater than what academic tiredness can possibly fathom. I've been working so much this week. Rising from bed at 7 in the morning, just to make sure I get everything right and in place to be at the shop at 830. In the interim period while I'm working before I knock off, I have to deal with all sorts of characters. Some of them pleasent some really just down right annoying. For example I had this guy coming in to ask me the price of a sculpture...the same guy, the same price...FOR THE WHOLE WEEK.

What the hell is up with that?

Of course I didn't give him a piece of my mind.

I've got a couple of things to do today.

I need a haircut so badly, I look like Mowgli from the jungle boy right now. I also need to head down to holland village to see my guitar tech, I'm sending in my baby for a refret, won't be able to see her for at least a week.

The break from alcoholism has been very successful so far. I survived about 3 events without a drop of alcohol in my system. Even last night when I was at wine bar I resisted the peer pressure exerted on me by Nicholas...even when it was his birthday. I'm feeling much better though, my gut has shrank considerably. Wish I could apply the same principles to my other vice, otherwise known as smoking.

I received a book from Crystal this week. Amazing book, I'm just pretty dissapointed I managed to finish it in such a short time. 2 days. But it's an easy read, I'm not praising myself for the speed at which I completed it. It's a nice break from all the usual non-fictional stuff that I read. I enjoyed it immensely. A nice post-it note to go along as well.

Tomorrow is Blade Watch day. WTF IS BLADE WATCH? Don't ask me, I don't have any idea either. All I know is that some police staff sargeant approached me and Avis while skating there the other day. He wanted us to come down and help out in some event. Must have been the pro roller skills of Avis that convinced him we were appropriate candidates for the job. So this saturday, actually tomorrow we have been tasked to head down and participate as ushers.

Benefits?

I think we get to meet Goh Chok Tong and show off our madskillz.

And I'm also heading to the zoo tomorrow, and zouk at night.

No drinking.

Christopher.

Self Control - Don't Turn Your Back on Me Now, When I Need You Most

2005-09-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

Me at womad.

Me at roller.

Me at circa minus 12 months...