Results came out. Way better than expected. Guess Guanyinma really shone light on me. In Johnson's terms, more insurance for the nxt year. Just keep maintaining this kind of grades and i'll be fine.

JQ is right, once work kicks in, you can't really gym tt much and intensively anymore. You can't go shoot ball and do ball work everyday anymore. Maybe tt's y guys always dislike the idea of holiday jobs. We always have something to do. It's really not that we are slack. We are just hardworking in another aspect of our lives. Like forming a band.

Apologies if anyone really wants to meet up with me these few days. I really have better things to do.

Saw some really young kids smoking today, like sec 1 sec 2. Funny thing is they are smoking and playing football at the same time. Doesnt make sense at all, cos it feels like they are not smoking for the sake of "i need a fag now". Rather, it seems like they smoke for the image of playing football and holding a cig. Like wtf stupid la. You either smoke, or u play football. You dun do them both at the same time. Nobody does it.

It makes you wonder, if you are already acting so stupidly at such an early age, how far can you go in your adult life. If i'm a dad, i'll be fucking disappointed, cos my son is not skillful with the ball, nor cool with the cig. You gotta be either one isnt it?

Anyways, dun smoke lar. 6 kids share a pack of smokes. How uncool is that? Ya gotta have your own smokes. Smokers hate pple who keep borrowing cigs. It means you're just a wannabe if you have to share a pack. Dun be a wannabe. Be somebody.

I feel happy in a way that, the lower echelons of our society are being sustained, so much so that i'll never need to be a bottomfeeder.

Kai just walked in with a face mask. He's gonna have baby-ass smooth skin on his wedding. For what?!

It's a tiring day today. I feel the pain in my shoulders now. Gym-goers are fugly with their oversized untoned bodies. Pls, just go google Rajon Rondo. Tt's the kind of physique i want. Lean and mean.

Roar

So what have i been doing for these past few days?

To be frank, nothing much. Just lotsa basketball and general conditioning. After every session, i keep feeling that i can train for a bit more, but laziness and inertia just tells me to go back and bathe.

Caught up with JQ and ZY like finally for a short shoot-around. Always fun to have my team mates around to run some drills and discuss the finer points of basketball.

I feel i can work more tho, cos for pple like ZY and Chao, tho they havent touch ball for a v long time, they are still more accurate than me. Or at least i feel that way. Maybe it's the way i hold the ball, cos i'm not v strong with the ball yet. Dun really hold it tight enough.

A look at the final four of the playoffs now, Pistons, Celtics, Spurs, Lakers. 3 Defensive teams. Goes alot to show how much good defense wins games. Lock the opponent down to where you want him, then impose your will on them.

Pistons/Celtics: I'm fine with either team, but Pistons play like they're gonna win, Celtics play like they dun deserve to win. Celtics talent over Pistons defense perhaps? I like Ray Allen tho, so i shall give it to the Celtics.

Lakers/Spurs: I'm a Spurs fan, but most prob Lakers gonna win this series since they are 3-1 up. Spurs should really shake up their roster and get some new guys to rebuild. They should give themselves a big pat for dispatching the Hornets, this is really how far they can go.

Music side, i'm trying to transcribe a version of "听海" in solo acoustic style. Quite tricky to get the feel of the piece right so far. Thinking of recording all the solo acoustic songs as well, but i havent installed Audition 3 yet. Still procrastinating for reasons unknown. I guess it's just because i dunno how good tt software will be and it will overwrite my wonderful Audition 1.5. If it sucks i'll have to uninstall and reinstall again, which will leave a buttload of nonsense files in my system. Hmm..

Havent been listening to my giant list of songs. 20.4 days of music to go.

Been playing quite abit on my bro's classical guitar with Salvarez strings. It's really the best set of classical strings i've ever played. At $20+ a set, it lasts for a year at least? Or even longer. In fact i dun really recall my brother changing the strings. The tone is pronounced, the strings are comfortable to play with, the bass strings dun really corrode, still silverly shiny now. Highly recommended. It's a buy and forget product.

Time for another shooting session. Gilbert Arenas made 50000 in abt 30+ days. I think i settle for 5000 in 30+ days. Not too hard lar, about 200 shots a day is quite manageable.

Peace.

After installing Firefox 3, i'm starting to surf at insane speeds. This browser is really solid and i'm pretty satisfied by the speed it offers. Of course, there's always the extensions to even enhance its capabilities, but for me i'm just a minimal user. I just need a fast browser.

Now tt i'm browsing so fast, there's kinda a lack of stuff to surf already. Louis told me to RSS more, but tt's just evil. RSS is evil! Eats up all your time!

I love FF3. Highly recommended for everyone to convert. So fast, you dun even know what hit you.

I came, i saw and i feel that it is not my lifestyle. That i will never engage in such decadent activities. Yes, maybe i'm a straight-edge. Maybe i'm just too nerdy.

To be frank, i find most girls in the club cheap. I find most guys in the club loser-ish. Dancing in a square? Chatting when you can't even hear what the music is playing because it's so loud?

And flaming lambo is supposed to kill me? Apparently i'm the only one still awake watching baseball at 5am.

Everyone can lead this lifestyle if they want to. But not me. And i hope you understand my point.

To any females reading, dun cheapen yourself.

This is the reason y NBA players get to play in the NBA. They are really THAT good. And this guy is just the coach.

It sucks to realise only now that to become really good in something, you have to work extremely hard for it. And the video clearly shows what extremely hard means.

You have to train/practise 200% for that 100% you are required to produce. Right now, i feel that i'm always doing "just enough" to pull me through without losing face. Apparently, enough is not enough. No one said you dun need to be able to dribble 2 balls proficiently at the same time, but it helps tremendously when you need to dribble only 1.

Have i wasted my life thus far? The more i watch, the more i feel i'm not doing enough, in terms of every aspect of my life. It's kinda like the "i feel i'm still very small" gym syndrome. Is it healthy? But it's quite a good driving force somehow.

Working hard is one thing. Making it fun is another. There's plenty of resources on the web to make learning fun. I'm sure everyone can find something that caters to them. I've found mine in the steve nash and ray allen vids.

Have you found yours?

Gotta love your mom sometimes. My mom fixed one of my dearest pair of basketball shorts when the elastic band ran loose. I shelved tt shitass garment for a few years before she dug it out and saved it with a touch of love. Who can beat that?

Gotta love your mom.

Kinda tired today, cos i was slugging it out with the PRCs in NUS, basketball-wise, with LCS and JQ. Sorry chuan, really forgot to ask you. But it's less skill-based basketball and more physical and random tyco shots basketball. Still fun, and at least i made my point. That i can shoot well so u better mark me tight.

Oh yea, and JQ lost to me on a first to 50 shooting game. I reached 50. He reached 10. ^^v.

Anyways, here's some nice IE hacks to make your IE or FF surf/launch faster. Maybe they work, and maybe it's just a psychological thing:

Link 1

Link 2

And this is an interesting article, on monster cables vs clothes hangers:

http://consumerist.com/362926/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables

Personally, i think cables are bullshit. I really just buy for the cable head. Whether it looks sturdy or not. Sound wise, it's all hype.

Shirui said she has a wonderful clip for me to watch. I haven't watched it yet, but i guess i'll share the love too, so here it is:

I saw YW at the court today. A few 1v1 bouts revealed something:

- My movement is still quite slow and easily anticipated.

- And i'm still not very accustomed with shooting over a defender. Tend to look at the defender more than the basket.

- Step back jumpers work. But you really have to bump the guy off.

- I'm getting more confident with my shot.

To be frank, i hate to be marked by YW. Cos he plays with alot of heart, hustle and aggression on the defensive end. Less skill and tactics probably, but he makes it up with athletism. So it sucks to be marked by him, esp when i'm a shooter, and esp when i can't really beat him off the dribble, and esp when no one bothers to do a off-ball pick for me. It's hard. But it's definitely fun.

There's alot of interesting customs when it comes to weddings. And angpows to go along with said customs. Angpow for this, angpow for that. I'm not complaining, cos i'm the one receiving at the moment. Probably 2 years later i'll curse and swear.

I realise subtitles add a whole level of enjoyment to the movie experience. Jerry Maguire was so-so becos of no subs, but some pple tell me it's the best movie of their lives. Sorry but i really can't get what they say sometimes, either too fast, too soft, or too accented, or too much nigger-speak. PS I Love You was more enjoyable, but probably not very also cos not much twists and turns.

It's cute how Shirui cries from the start till the end of the show.

Playing games really eat up alot of my time. Even though i only play in 1 hr bursts. Guess could have really made better use of my time than summoning skeletons and cursing.

Read about "German Volume Training" and it's 10 sets of 10 principle. Interesting way to look at conditioning. But i tried 2 days so far and haven't felt much fatigue. I wonder is it good or bad. At least i can do 100 of whatever exercise in 1 session without feeling much strain. Hmm.

Johnson's latest track is quite kickass imho. I like the riffs la. But as usual the mix is quite messy, so alot of little bits can't be heard clearly. Repetitive perhaps, but as i mentioned before, the key thing to break repetition is just pure production skills, and adding little weird sounds here and there. Or if u write like Dream Theater.

Still good la. Keep working on it. Should be a rocking song with rocking solos!

It bothers me alittle cos i'm not able to write something new. It's quite pointless recycling the same ideas again too. It's also difficult cos i have alot of pre-conceived ideas on how the vocals of each song is gonna sound, but i know i can never sing like Dio. Tt's why alot of ideas get shelved indefinitely.

Maybe i should write alot of music, and sell it to bands. That should make me some money?

Disturbing question #1: If the bride's pre-wedding party is called a hen's party, why isn't the guy's version called a cock's party?

Disturbing question #2: Why can't they invent a tv that can change channels instantaneously? It's irritating cos 1-2 secs delays means alot on tv.

Disturbing question #3: Why can't they invent a type of hair gel/wax that emulates the characteristics of shampoo? I believe for most guys, the coolest hair styles they can ever create for themselves in when they are washing their hair.

It's fucking hot now. Why?

Was supposed to help my brother do his wedding masterplan today, but... I ended up playing Diablo 2. Ahaha. Fucking waste of my time especially when im playing untwinked. Nvm, tml is a new day. We shall do new things in a new day.

Jiqing is coming back, like around now. I want my Shane Battier tee!

Dunno why, but i have thing for the bowens/battiers/kirilenkos. Glue guys they call it. Just go in and tame the opposing team's superstar. Hustle, block, frustrate, do whatever you can to deny the pass. If he has the ball, try to keep up, ask for help, challenge the shot. Essentially in NBA, when the superstar fails, the team usually fails. Unless u have alot of superstars.

Been sorta practising the songs i need to play for the wedding. It's a bitch la, slow acoustic instrumentals. Hardest to record, and easiest to cock up. Reason being, u have to hold the chords well enough to prevent buzzing, and let the notes ring sufficiently. Plucking wise u'll have to attack it the right way or the sound wun come out nicely. And slow songs means you really have to take note of all these things, cos fast songs you can always cover it up with the next coming note or smthing.

There's a reason y i din record any of my self-arranged acoustic instrumental covers. Cos they are bitches!

Audition 3 is out. Looks coolio, haven't installed it yet, but dear Johnson said it's solid. Apparently they have this new mixer thing, but i tot audition 2 already had it? Have to check out the guitar suite to see what's all the fuss about. Maybe can really record clean for once and let the comp distort for me. I wonder how much of a difference it will make. And oh ya, it can run VSTi la. Tt's like OMG? No more cubase bullshit for me finally? Really hope it does work, so tt i can get rid of cubase. But then, Cubase has Hypersonic, which is like a souped up VSTi tt gives u amazing patches for every imaginable instrument. Hmm. We'll see la.

My glucosamine pills are finishing, but i feel no difference. My knee still hurts whenever i sit too long. I think i'm sitting on the nerve or artery or smthing, but everytime i stand up my knee is numb or painful. Pfft. I tot sitting is supposed to be comfortable and relaxing? Guess it's not for my case.

My back is sore too. SBJ training is kinda affecting it alittle. Haiz. Getting old. And i'm only like 23+? Wtf.

The other day Phaedre asked me about scales. How to practise scales, how to get creative with scales. Answer: Sequences.

Assuming everyone reading this knows what is scale degrees. So we have 1 to 7. Instead of playing the scale up and down 1 to 7 to 1 like tt, you can do something different. As if all of Chang's practice routine/habits, it's all about patterns: (1* is octave)

Boring scale pattern:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1* 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 etc

Not so boring pattern (odd timing/quite hard):

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1* 7 6 5 4 3 2 3 4 5 6 7 1* 7 6 5 4 3 4 5 6 7 1* 7 6 5 4 5 6 7 1* 7 6 5 6 7 1* 7 6 7 1* 7 1*

Paul Gilbert pattern (he does this everytime regardless of what scale. And he's good at it):

1 2 3 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 (then u start the same idea on the 2 and so on)

Triplets:

1 2 3 2 3 4 3 4 5 4 5 6 5 6 7 and so on.

In 3rds(quite melodic):

1 3 2 4 3 5 4 6 5 7 6 1* (and back)

In 4ths (quite hard, depending on scale shape):

1 4 2 5 3 6 4 7 5 1*

Doubling (can be extended to all patterns, tripling works as well):

11 22 33 44 55 66 77 etc

Arpeggiation:

1 3 5 2 4 6 3 5 7 4 6 1* 5 7 2* 6 1* 3* 7 2* 4* etc

You can see it's all very "mathematical" when it comes to sequences. Simple patterns tt repeat by changing the degree it each time it repeats. Note that i only listed the scale degrees/notes and not the playing pattern yet. Which means, you can do it whichever way you want. Horizontal scaling, vertical scaling, some weird shit scale shape you've discovered.

Intervallic sequences will probably be easier to play horizontally as you can slide ur fingers up and down the neck. Pays well to be able to play horizontally.

Guitar Trivia: Do you know that Alex Lifeson of Rush only solos on one string?

Good night :)

Helped my bro do the RSVP thing for his wedding. I guess generally he's a well liked person, cos they are like "Oh! Kai's brother~" *insert happy tone*. Probably lifted up their mood somehow i guess. Wedding is troublesome la. Especially when you are anal about every single thing.

I wonder how much of a wedding is for yourself, and how much is for your partner and how much is for your parents, and how much is for everyone else. Seriously i wouldn't mind just inviting a few good friends and my parents to a small ceremony, and then just probably fly off for my honeymoon.

But too bad, i highly doubt it can be done. Everything has to be high-key.

I got my suit yday, and it looks pretty solid. But gotta alter the pants tho. Seems like i either wear them too low, or i have short legs. Can't be the latter la i think, quite impossible. Abit insulting for a basketball player too.

Iron Man is badass. Too bad there's alot of "story development" scenes, and not much of the actual Iron Man kicking ass scenes. Some only lar. Stay till the end of the movie though, cos there's gonna be a part 2, regarding the avengers or smthing. Personally i dun read any marvel comics so i dun really get what's going on. Hopefully Iron Man 2 will be something.

Johnson's friends seem like a nice bunch to play ball with, and they are pretty decent, with pple from VJC and NYJC and another guy tt seems to play for a hall or smthing. I like to play with competitive pple, i dun mind playing with aggressive pple, i dun mind marking the biggest/tallest/strongest guy on the opponent's team. But i mind if pple want to intentionally hurt someone. Tt really sucks.

Anyways, from my point of view, the "johnson bunch" hasn't seen the "light" of playing basketball. They are good, but still not good enough. How to say... hmm it's like as long as i can mark tt person somewhat ok he's probably still not good enough. They probably need more vision, less ego, more tactics, less fancy stuff, and they'll be good.

Basketball is a team game. It says alot when your team is stuck with all the weakest players and you still win.

Saw LCS at the court too. Stupid bugger keep bullying PRCs with his madskillz. To be frank, LCS looks like a basketball god like i look like a millionaire rockstar. Just doesnt go lar. And it's irritating to get beat by this doofus looking guy every single time. It's always a "what did i do wrong again" moment.

I need a new ball. This current one is too light. Makes me feel uncomfortable when i shoot other pple's ball.

I want a new ball!

Quite a brilliant video i say. Interesting viewpoints.

Hmm time seems to pass so fast during the holidays. That doesnt feel good, cos i still have loads of stuff i wanna do.

Spent yesterday eating jap buffet at Honjin (not so good already but still ok), drinking wine at some wine bar in dempsey hill (good german risling, but that's it) and finished off with some macdonald hot fudge sundae. But of course i woke up pretty late and went for a shootout to get myself real hungry before the feast.

I realise that in any social situations, it's important to have good company. Good company is like my bro, who's always able to work a crowd, and get everyone happy. The key thing is to get every happy. The last thing you want is a demanding person asking to you to do this and do that. It's really quite insensitive and turn off. Do not command anyone to do anything, especially if they do not want to do it.

I hate it when people shove things at me too. I don't owe anyone.

Rambo IV is good, like Nick said. Violent enough for me. Action packed enough. Gripping 1h 30 mins. Caught balls of fury today. Not bad, lame enough. Maggie Q is hot. Too bad her boobs are quite small, or she'll be really complete. Gonna watch Iron Man tml. Heard it's really good. Better be.

When working out, it's always good to push yourself, but it's always hard to push yourself. I realised that doing a 3rd set of static/weights is really the key to condition your body. Cos 1 set is easy, 2 sets is tough but still manageable, but by the 3rd it gets hard and painful. It's all good though, especially if you see/feel the results.

I haven't touched my strat yet since the start of the holidays. I'm really quite packed with activities, that i dun really have time to sit down and go thru my RSS too. I'm also tasked with playing "Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin" by Teresa Teng on my bro's wedding, so tt's a major arrow which i think i should not avoid and just practise hard for it like a real musician should. That should probably take up quite alot of guitar time i suppose. But promise, i will post something for the guitarists reading this blog.

Disclaimer: I'm not a good performing musician at all. I usually screw up here and there during live, and recording tt's even worse. So dun count on me to perform really well. I just try my best.

Anyways, from what i learnt from Bernard Tan, music has several forms: Listening, composing, performing, recording, conducting, teaching, producing and i guess a few others. Some people have a good ear for music, some people can write solid songs, some people can give a fantastic live performance, some people are damn solid in the studio, some people can conduct the orchestra really well to give a good interpretation of the piece, some people are able to impart their knowledge easily and effortlessly, some people just know how to make a piece of music sound better and sellable. Basically in this industry, you can't really do them all.

What helps a person survive in the industry is to be really good in one aspect. You gotta specialise so to speak, and probably be generally good enough in another. Like Jimmy Page, not really a very technically skilled guitarist (quite sloppy during live), but able to pen some killer songs. Happened to be quite solid in producing in his later years too.

So dun be too upset if you can't do them all. It's normal to be ordinary.

I guess that's about it for today. Nothing much to say really.

Alright, this sem is finally over. It might sound crazy, but i cleared 4 level 4000 modules. That means 2 more to go for the next 2 semesters. Plus some other random mish-mash modules. Hopefully year 4 life is gonna be more relaxing compared to this sem.

Kinda sad that so many people i know are graduating this sem, and i'll be even lonelier. Do i really have to hang out with the tiongs nxt sem? It's not that bad lar, but from what i heard from Jo, they can be quite hard to work with. Tricky. Only solution is to hang out with YM + tess more, and probably WM if he continues with honours. Hmm.

To all my graduating friends: Hooray! Shit is over for you guys. I know you guys hated it la. Admit it. If NUS is just studies, i think everyone will die. Luckily it's not, cos i came across your lives somehow somewhere, and i think i probably shocked the shit out of most of you shitheads.

Hope i hadn't been to much of an asshole to anyone of your. If i did... TOO BAD! :D

I came home and did a punishing workout. I guess this holiday shall be it lar. Just get the physique back, and probably more. Just to see how much i can go. I'm already halfway there, so it shouldn't be too hard.

The best thing about being fitter is that you feel good lar. Like 100% more. And being more accurate in your shots just ups this feel good factor by another 100%. Played ABC with dred and huiling yday. Totally destroyed them la. Not even close. I'm like so zhun unmarked now. Now it's just a matter of bringing this accuracy to match conditions. It's gonna be different la, but i'll work towards it also.

Get ready for some guitar onslaught too. This time, i will do all i can to upload some tab for u guys. Just some licks here and there to illustrate my point i guess. I'll work on the blues book again, work on the troy stetina book as well, and work on some new music i guess. Ideas had been flowing thru my mind lately. That is a good good sign for new compositions :D:D:D:D.

The only thing that's holding me back is singing lar. I can't sing, but a song has to be sung to be even close to listenable. Unless i can write like John 5, it's quite impossible to write another instrumental without sufficient technical skill and creativity. Hmm ok shan't whine. Just work on it. The entire holiday for me to do so.

Oh and i have 20 days worth of consecutive music to finish listening. Madness. What i try to do now is to sort them into 2 categories: headbang and relax. Quite nobrainer lar hor? And i add stars to the songs, so that i have a best of the best list too. Just in case i wanna hear great hits instead of random songs.

K i'm getting groggy and i have no idea what i'm rambling about. Also my MSN is super busy. The whole world needs me la seriously. Just like Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris facts are seriously funny nonsense. Too bad Shirui doesnt appreciate. Oh well we have different sense of humour.

Honjin tml! Eat until puke la. Watch out sashimi!

This morning i was feeling super nervous. While i was napping, JiQing typed this:

"oh ya, forgot to tell u, wadever the outcome of ur paper turn out to be, dun think so much... coz, i feel the most impt thing in life is to keep urself happy... there maybe many external factors affecting u, but the most impt factor is how u handle them and stay happy always... I can never say this face to face, so its better i say it here... thx for helping me get thru my darkest days, the darkest i have ever encountered these 24 yrs."

For someone tt just broke up with his girlfriend, tt's quite something for him to say.

At least i dun feel so nervous now, thanks to the nap and some words of encouragement.

7 days to your return dude. Gonna make lotsa shots on you!

Ah~ Havent blogged in a while. I wonder if that's a good sign. Usually when i'm so focused in doing something, i forget about everything else. Blogging is one of the first to forget, cos usually my life is so monotonous that there's nothing much to talk about. No one really likes my daily dealings with the chicken rice stall right?

Data Mining aftermath: It's probably one of the strangest papers i've ever taken. Cos i spend more time thinking than doing actual writing. And it's one of the modules that you'll never be too sure that you've proven the problem correctly. I see the PRC girl infront of me flipping furiously thru her notes, i hear the Singaporean guy behind me flipping furiously thru his notes. I see Ah San( a very skinny PRC guy which me WM and Jason kinda hate) beside me, stratching his head half the time.

When the PRCs struggle, u know you're in a for good time.

Not really confident about the paper, proving stuff has never been my forte. And my proofs seem so short and "elegant" compared to Ah San's, it really makes me suspicious. Hope i dun cock it up too bad for this paper. Hope the project is smashing like Matt says.

Oh well it's over at least. Onward to Finance! Another major hurdle. No thanks to the fucked up assignment.

Some wisdom gained during this exam period: Size does matter. The smaller u can write, the more you can squeeze into ur helpsheet. I can write super small, so i feel happy that i have a comparative advantage over my peers. Helpsheet-wise.

Been taking the glucosamine pills. Supposedly helps to improve the joints. It's equivalent to Triflex, which Chuan recommended to me. Let's see how it goes, tho i dun feel much difference yet.

For great abs, really, just do lotsa sit ups. No shortcuts, no secret training. I'm seeing some results, and it feels great. Just gotta whack more and more sets. 20 min workout is also great, i seem to prefer it over jogging now. But gotta train for ippt lar. 200 dollars for free, seriously y not. Maybe can try for 400 this time.

Oh and something tt i watched recently. Dun laugh. This is probably a higher form of music than anything else.