I'm running...I'm running away......

This is my third major event of the year; first was Orientation and Second STaR Symposium (I'll find time to upload this one if I've time!). Today's shoot was and wasn't really rewarding. Photo-wise, like Edwin said bout his own photos, I couldn't really find "The Shot" although I've a couple of fairly good ones. :) But through this shoot, I managed to learn quite alot from the professional photographer the school hired, Jack...stuff like how to pan properly, countering backlighting and in-camera settings. It was certainly rewarding listening to him share his experiences. Kudos to him :D Alrighy, here are my photos for today's Road Run. I suddenly got inspired by some B&W madness hence all my photos are in B&W. And I think the vintage oldie feel fits the school's intention of bringing back old memories from the past through this run. Enjoy :)

Hello everyone.

It has been some time since I was last here wasn't it? The reason why I've time to blog today is because it's my mum's birthday. (The link is: It's her birthday, so she's giving me a break).

Well I noticed that recently there has been a greater influx of readers to my blog, which is kinda nice, because at least I know that I'm not talking to myself. :D

Hmm...this whole week has been pretty relaxing for me because there's no photog on Tuesday and no extra bullshit stuffs on the remaining days of the week (until today...which I will elaborate later shall not elaborate on). I find that the more relaxing my days are, the slacker I become. When I'm busy, I tend to make an effort to keep up on my subjects' homework. But somehow, when I'm free, I tend to make myself more free by doing stuff like playing drums, surfing the net and (attempting to) read The Economist.

Anyways, I finally got to try out the drums at the Broadcast Station for real today :D It's kinda lousy (as compared to my Roland's) but well it's good enough for a poor school like NJC. I was jamming with myself halfway when Wen Song, Sheena and friends popped in. They wanted us to play something so WS and I (haha coincidentally, I'm WS too) ended up jamming Drive - Incubus and No Such Thing - John Mayer impromptuly. Too bad Paul was at Physics Consolidation then. Consolidations always suck. Anways hopefully the IT department return the guitar and bass amps back to the Broadcast Station so we can jam with our electric guitar/bass. :D


Alrights. I think that's sufficient for an update. Will blog again when I'm super duper free.

Zzz-ness

Ok a little update here:

1. I'm tired. Frigging tired. I haven't managed to get any hwk done for the past 3 days. And I literally conked out during Physics and Maths lessons today.
2. My Maths and Physics quiz results were horrible. :(
3. I haven't been home early than 9pm for the past 3 days.
4. My first photog lecture was 3 hours long - it ended 1 hour later than it was supposed to. (And I'm working on that)
5. I've a gazillion things to process for my Maldives OCIP trip on 12th March.
6. I'm totally looking forward to Maldives. School is horrible.
7. If I could quit photog for 2 weeks to catch up on my hwk and some sleep, I definitely would.
8. My eyelids are drooping. I think I need to sleep.
9. Yay tomorrow is the late day!
10. Zzzz

Waking up to the morning blues of Valentine's Day

I was feeling all emo when I woke up at 1030am this morning. Thoughts about ystd Talentime performances still ring in my head. I was planning to emo on my blog ystd but I just couldn't pen my thoughts down.

Talentime 09 could be seen as a weird experience for me. For the first time since I started a band, I've never watched a (band) performance; I was always the one playing up there. But ystd I found myself sitted at the front row of the Ngee Ann Kongsi PAC cheering my friends on.

After the performances, I felt really emo on the bus back home. Zhi Ler was saying that Talentime might be the last performance the J2s are going for and I couldn't help but think: Is this the end of it all for me? I really really don't wish to end this year by just mugging for As. It would be such a waste. I want to perform. I want to jam. But the ugly fact is I'm neither good enough nor confident enough. Throughout the past 1 year, I've been performing within my comfort zone and working with not-so-talented but hardworking people. I want to play with capable and music-loving people like Ashwyn and Caleb but I'm afraid I can't cope with their demands. Although both Zestin and I have been playing drums for around the same time, Zestin is such an excellent drummer with so much more performing experiences than me. Learning and perfecting 5 songs within 1 day is definitely not what I'm capable of. That's the reason why I'm in such a dilemma.

Should I break out of my comfort zone and give myself a shot at playing with more capable musicians or should I break out of this whole music thing and concentrate on my As?

Btw here's a song that I love alot by a Singapore veteran band Plainsunset. It's called River Song.

Ok today was awesome. Jamming/messing out with Caleb's band and photog orientation session simply rocks. But unfortunately I missed Paul and Wen Song's performance on Live N' Loaded. :( But at least I saw the interview by Utt. Re-Telecast on Thursday midnight! Ok more elaboration another time. iBlogging is no fun. Keyboard so small. And I'm bloody tired.

Everybody's playing and I don't feel the same

Ok I've got rid of my 2.8cm iPod stratch post because I finally settled down and realised I shouldn't be fussing over some insignificant part of my life.

Tomorrow. Tuesday. Paul & Wen Song will be playing LIVE on Live N' Loaded on Channel 5 8:30pm. Friday. Zhi Ler (and Paul) and Caleb's band will be for Talentime 09. All my best friends are playing gigs while I watch from the stands or stone away. It's going to sound abit embarrassing but I'm saying it anyway. I'm Jealous. :/

Seriously, I can't help but express great disappointment for my own band 3:45. We did really well for Rock Night 08. But just when we got recognized and were offered to play for gigs, we lacked the motivation and commitment to do so. Gigs that we missed out? Senior Graduation Night, Live N' Loaded, Talentime and Bandage 09 (I bet you guys didn't know). I'm really thankful that 3:45 helped me build my drumming skills and exposed me to performances. In fact, 3:45 was the perfect stepping stone for me; until recently.

It was only a few months back I realised that everyone had different priorities and interest level towards music & performances. I wanted to jam, to perform and to build a name for 3:45 in local youth music. (In fact, I really wished that one day we could play like Redeeming The Riot, Ten Minutes Late and Fire Away, Samson! and gain publicity amongst the youths of Singapore at least.) Meanwhile, most of the rest placed CCAs and studies as first priority. That was when I finally realised the reason behind bands breaking up.

It's really not easy finding the ideal people to form a band. Firstly, you have to find people of similar musical influences. Secondly, gauge their musical proficiency. And finally, make sure these people stick with you till the very end. Finding capable people who shares your musical influences is already tough enough. Making the band last? It depends a lot on fate. Starting 3:45 was pretty much an error. Firstly, we didn't really have a genre all of us really liked to perform. We maybe playing simple rock or whatever progressive rock but I truly enjoyed was pop punk/energetic rock. Meanwhile, Kah Lok preferred solo artists like David Cook and Chris Daughtry. Secondly, (honestly speaking) we were all pretty noob at our instruments at the beginning. But as time goes on, I felt that the gap between our instrumental proficiency was getting larger and larger; and sometimes this makes some of us pissed at each other. Lastly? Let's not talk about it.

It is kind of ironic how Zestin was telling me one year ago that my band was tight (as in...bonded not the timing) and now 3:45 is tearing apart. One year ago, we were superglue tight. Half a year later, cracks started to appear. And exactly one year later, we fell apart; going our seperate ways. What a difference one year can make...haiz. I remember enjoying singing Unintended and The Remedy outside LT 5 together with Zhi Ler on the acoustic guitar after Talentime 08 rehearsals. The rehearsal night was cold and long but our hearts were burning with passion. I truly enjoyed those moments of pure fun and laughter I had with 3:45. Unfortunately, it turned out that Talentime 08 was one of our worst performances ever. Luckily, it wasn't too long before we experience the ecstasy of playing music again. Rock Night 08 was the most memorable performance I had. We worked really really hard for it. And we reaped the fruits of success. RN08 can only be describe as... 30 minutes of magic.

However, that is the past. Now that Zhi Ler has left to play bass for Caleb's band, I'm seriously disappointed at myself for not playing while everyone else around me is doing so. I want to start a new band but I can't find the right people. Life seems pretty dull now without jamming and gigging. Haiz.

I'm feeling half as tired as Letts Tan; assuming Letts Tan is feeling twice as tired as I'm now. And I presume he is.

Wei Shuen Ng is currently: chionging photos, catching up on tutorials and fighting to sleep before 12 midnight.

Seriously, I'm really sick of putting all my homework to a stop. I find myself getting further and further from my Resolution no.1 of 2009. Basically, for the whole week (including tomorrow), I've been super busy with photog stuff. Orientation coverage, CCA Carnival & the ultra cui OG photoshoot. I've already missed 7 1/2 hours of lessons this week - equivalent to 7 lessons. I feel like an OGL or SC. In fact, I was thinking that I should have just applied for OGL for this Orientation instead. The red-shirted people seem to be having lots of fun D:

The main reason why I was thinking about (or rather hoping I was) being an OGL is I don't really feel like devoting entirely every single lesson or rest time to NJPS. If I were to miss lessons, I rather have fun missing them. Not feeling guity about ponning the remaining half-an-hours of my chem lessons. To be frank, event coverage for O2 was dull as I was almost shooting the same things I did during O1. And I found out it's rather irritating to teach 4 new kids and shoot photos at the same time. Maybe that was why I lost interest in Event Coverage for O2.

Haiz. I can't wait for my Maldives application to get approved so I can guarantee 10 days of escape from school madness. I hope some interesting new SH 1 students will sign up :D Coz I hardly know anyone from the 1st Maldives briefing and Moyi is so bad to abandon me D: Jk jk.

Right. I'm gg to sleep. It's 12! The earliest I've slept at throughout this week. Nights.

While Waiting...

Ok a lil' update before I head to my relatives/dad's friends houses for visiting. My ulcer is healing pretty well :) My grandma gave me this cheem looking oral medicine and it was really wonderful. I suspect it's an anesthetic and a medicine. My ucler is looking a lot more prettier (although all ulcers are ugly) now. A few days ago it looked like some gross stuff, which I shall not elaborate on.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for news from the current Strings pres about whether 3:45 will be guesting for Talentime. Only a successful gig can save 3:45 from crumbling now. We had our first jamming in a longgg time ystd and I think we would need only a few practice sessions at my house before we're ready for Talentime. :D Besides, it's only 2 songs. I really really hope we can gig together as a band for the last time. If we're successful, I guess I'll have no regrets with 3:45.

Alright I should be logging off already. And I like my new Skinny Jeans :D