1 Week More

Well, it's probably old news by now that I'd be leaving Sony this Sunday. What you may not know is that I received a job offer by Samuel to take over him while he settles into his Uni life. It's an office job at Paya Lebar, which will probably take me slightly more than an hour to get there from where I live. My main reasons for making the change are that they're giving me Tuesday off, my ankle's hurting so I can't stand for that long any more, the pay's higher, I want to try something new and I'd have my weekends free. Some reasons are probably more legitimate than others but it kills me to not be able to run when I want to because my legs ache like mad the moment I'm home. I'd like to go for something that has my shoulders and back aching instead. Not a pretty good trade off... but yeah.

Okay, this just came in. I don't know when I'm starting on the new job. It was supposed to be next Thursday. Oh well, I'm cool. A bit more time for me to bum around a guess.

I met up with Guo Fei and Samuel recently. We had a meal at Raffles City and chatted at Starbucks for quite awhile. A small gathering between good friends. I don't mind having a big one though, and I'm thinking of planning things, but relationships between people are... complicated. I mean, I could probably get everyone together, but I'm sure as hell that I won't be inviting you-know-who. And it just happens that everyone has someone that they dislike, or hate. I agree with Daniel - once you're out of there you're not obligated to see people you don't want to. So I'm sparing myself the pain.

I haven't talked about music in a long while, because I've been listening to a weird mix of stuff lately. The album that I can't stop playing on repeat has been Good Charlotte's Good Morning Revival. I know it's strange, totally unlike me, but I think it's brilliant. There's a strange connection between me and Good Charlotte. And I don't even like the genre that much! Maroon 5's Make Me Wonder has been on heavy rotation on MTV and it's shockingly good. Boogie and groove. Woah. Also, songs from the Grey's Anatomy OST are the shizzle. A shoutout to Samuel for alerting me to them. Last of all, I'd like to share a scary fact. I think I actually like Hillary Duff's With Love. Yes, I've lost my all my Dignity (pun intended. Is title of album.) by admitting I actually like this shit. The urgent beeping just drives me crazy. It sounds a bit like Lindsay Lohan's Rumours, and something Britney might actually have on her album. Britney Spears, come up with a new album already! I've been forced to like some wannabe trying desperately to act sexy in her vid and sound like you, in your freaking absence.

Whose fault is that, if not yours?

If you're wondering whether Brit even looks fit for the job (I've had it with people saying that she's never gonna get her body back), take a look here. Enough said.

Ooh, and did I mention Lindsay Lohan? Yeah, she's got a half-fucked career in music and movies but she's terrific. For something like this.



They're looking gorgeous.

A Reunion

On Wednesday the four of us met up again after an extremely long hiatus. It's probably been close to six months since we did anything together. We're all busy with our own jobs, with our own lives (Mr Ang ORD-ed a month ago!), but it was great, and crazy for us to get together again for this little adventure. Our chemistry is pretty good, even though we don't don't really go for vice on our trips (it's the things that you can't do, but do that gives a great thrill) we know each other so well that... nothing is unexpected and we work together pretty well.

Anyway, we met up at the coffeeshop near Daniel's place and had dinner. It was almost like we've never been apart. That sounds a bit mushy. We did a bit of last minute research before going to sleep. For some weird reason, I wasn't able to sleep and kept thinking of rubbish. Haha...

The next day we washed up and took a pic before leaving for JB!



Yeah, it was kind of dark and I shun flash photography because of how uneven the lighting ends up, thus we still got a crap photo in the end. It's completely my fault. The T10 can do so much better!



We got ourselves a cab and made our way to the checkpoint.

And I'll spare you all the boring description of how we camwhored on the bus, and had our breakfast which consisted of pig organs.



We went to City Square for a browse, which turned into an enormous shopping spree. Well, for them, not for me! At least after I swore off buying clothes and stuff, I don't intend to spend so much money anytime soon! I think Daniel bought shoes. I can't remember whether they bought shirts though. There were some really good designs, and the berms were really good too. Very reasonable prices.



Then we had an incident.

I went to play DDR at the arcade. I wanted to take a video but it would've been quite retarded. Anyway, Sern Hong joined me in playing. We put our bags at the machine and tackled the songs one by one. I enjoyed myself a hell lot. It would've been better if the music was louder and the screen wasn't only showing 3 colours! Anyway, we did a whole lot more shopping getting a cab and making our way down to this huge mall called Jusco.



I love how the taxi's can stop randomly to pick up passengers. Furthermore, you've got to bargain with them on the price, and that usually takes some time. It causes a queue to form up behind them, which is kind of insane to think, "Hey, I can make the traffic stop!". We went through about 5 before deciding on one who'd take us there for RM 15. When we reached our destination, Sern Hong, who was sitting at the front, was in charge of paying for the cab fare. However, he couldn't find his wallet and I ended up paying for it.

Thinking that it was just a moment of carelessness, we emptied his bag and looked for his wallet with him. We couldn't find it, and therefore concluded that he'd left his wallet behind somewhere. I remembered (I wonder if he did) that he took out his wallet and left it with his bag when we were playing DDR. Thus we made a trip back to City Square and searched the places that we've been before, but it wasn't sucessful, despite us being hopeful. We were all feeling quite down about it and pondered how we were going to continue our trip. In the end we went to Macdonalds for lunch and went back to Jusco.



The place was huge. At first it reminded me of IMM because of the high ceilings. Then when we explored further, it began to look a lot more like Vivocity with its expensive boutiques and wide layout. And then we did so much window shopping that we were so damn sick of shopping. We had our dinner at KFC, which was fantastic. Apparently, the meal there includes chips, and a lot of other stuff for a good price! Great, I'm beginning to sound like a cheapskate now right? I'm so poor after starting this month by spending so much money. After a visit to the toilet, we came across this play area actually dedicated for kids, but we ended up having what was probably the highlight of our entire trip.



I don't know how to explain it but in that moment that we were playing the four games, it was as if nothing else really mattered other than winning the silly game. (We're a bit competitive with vball.) I suppose it was really in that moment I could say I was truly happy. It's crazy that sometimes you go around spending the whole day looking for a defining moment, and you never never know what form they'd take. After that we made our way across the causeway, and headed home.

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, Bernard's nick has "Jason is leaving sony..." at the personal message part. Man, who knew it'd be so difficult.

Levi's

I've always thought that I'd get my first pair of Levi's jeans when I started working. But surprisingly enough, the first item that I've bought from Levi's isn't a pair of jeans.



It turned out to be a top! It's tough to find! I checked out the price at Taka, before wanting to get it on Thursday when I was at PS. They didn't have it. And neither did the outlets at Suntec and Marina. I went to get it yesterday during lunch break. Hahaha... it probably looks familiar because Edison's wearing it on the column on the right! Through the years there are a couple of clothes that I saw him wear, one of which was this jacket thing! I may not look as good as him (and I mean who can), but I've always been influenced (except his hip-hop Bape era) by his fashion sense.

I'm keeping this tee for a special occassion. If I can think of one to attend that is! I got 3 polo shirts and a sweater from Giordano on Sunday too! Seriously, I can't handle my own money.



Note to self - stop buying clothes!

A Typical Day

Disappointed

I'm not angry because you couldn't make it. I was more pissed that it took you 17 hours to reply my message to tell me you couldn't make it.

Oh, screw that. I'm angry you couldn't make it to begin with. I mean, everyone knows I'm busy. I get booked for gatherings, outings, a week or two, even a month in advance. I don't take rejection well, and it's worse when you decide to hand it to me 15 minutes before the time I suggested we meet.

And 17 hours.

Words can describe the situation, but they can't describe the emotions I'm feeling right now.

Give 'em A Week

I've got the chance to listen to the following albums:

Beyonce - BDay
Fergie - The Dutchess
Good Charlotte - Good Morning Revival
Gwen Stefani - The Sweet Escape
The Feeling - Twelve Stops From Home
The Fray - How To Save A Life
Timbaland - Shock Value

I'm going to give them a week, and rank them. It'll be interesting to see who will emerge "victorious"! Well, give me your two cents on them, what're the tracks to look out for if you've heard any of them, and also which album you think I'll like the most! It's an interesting selection, I know! 7 albums, 7 days... It's going to be brilliant.

New Schedule

Well for starters, instead of quitting the job at Sony, which most of you would've thrown me a party if I did, I'm working there 4 days instead of 6. As for tuition, I've currently got 3 students - a P6 student who lives in Yishun whom I've given 2 lessons to, a P5 student who postponed his first lesson today, and my P1 cousin who's having her first lesson tomorrow morning. So a typical week for me would be something like Monday - Sony, Tuesday - All 3 of them, Wednesday - Sony, free at night, Thursday - P5, free at night, Friday - P1, Sony, Saturday - Sony, Sunday - P6. The lessons are all over the place and I haven't got the chance to organise my days properly. I'm still trying to settle into the new schedule as it's only my first week, but sitting at home in front of the computer certainly beats standing. It doesn't help that I've got a colleague who keeps trumpeting the fact that I'm doing fewer days than before, I guess it'll just make everyone else think I'm lazy and hate me more.

I can't be bothered to curse and swear and take photos but it's raining. Again.

It's actually really cool being a teacher. A mentor. I haven't taken up this role since I've had juniors in Harmonica Orchestra, which was about 2 years ago. It's just the feeling of giving guidance and having people to learn something from you that just makes me feel proud that I actually have knowledge that's worth sharing. Another level up would be when they start looking up to you and giving you respect, which I feel has to be earned. I can't even begin to describe the feeling. It's like you've become from a stranger to someone they trust, and then someone they come to for advice and to hear about your experience and they rely on you. Having to live up to expectations sometimes makes a person stronger and more capable than they could ever imagine themselves to be.

I've lost a lot of naïveté ever since I took up that job. Yeah, I think I've surprised myself and probably even some of the friends that I've related my experiences to. It's really true that working makes you grow up faster. I had to face up to some nasty things in army, but working is really something else. The tricks are slightly sneakier, the drive to perform and be noticed is much more. Unlike some people, I don't like to stay stagnant and I try to improve myself constantly because this is who I am. However I don't think I've gotten very far and as a result I don't try so hard any more. The best thing I've ever heard was from a rather senior staff who said that I was a fast learner. And that's probably the only thing I've heard with regard to the standard of my work.

Which brings me back to expectations. I'm still a kid at heart. Immature. I need affirmation that my efforts make a difference. That brings expectations that I'd work to live up to. I'm not content with merely going through the motions in life.

Anyway, Guofei, Shawn and I met up yesterday. We talked about the current state of our lives, walked from Orchard to Dhoby Ghaut to look for Ivan at MDIS. He hadn't finished work yet and so we had our meal at Long John Silvers' while waiting for him. We discussed a lot of issues after not having met up for so long, and one of the things that came up was money, which seems to have become such a crucial aspect on our lives once we start working. First of all, despite it not being as important as family, friends and spending time doing things you actually enjoy, the time we spend persuing it actually takes up a lot of our lives. My colleague asked if you could give up your life for a million, would you? Me, being the live-for-the-day and enjoying-all-the-small-things kind of person rejected the idea straight away. It's 10 more years to see the sun rise in your face, 10 more years of being with your friends around, 10 more years to see your kids grow up... My colleague, on the other hand, felt that you've to work for 5/6 days a damn week - why not spend the rest of your life not working and actually living it for say, 30-40 years? You'll probably spend more than 10 years of your entire life working anyway.

I've gotten so out-of-point.

We went to Clarke Quay after that for a walk and it was very happening. The mall's already opened. But there was this place (which I have no idea what it's called) which houses The Clinic and Attica. It was amazingly posh (pardon me for my sua-ku-ness) and definitely the kind of place you'd like to chill out at after a day of work. But then again, it's not an option when you earn a measly 30,40 dollars a day. I was in awe most of the time and tempted to have a lifestyle like that, but I must say, I don't think I'd be able to support myself, or my family (yes dammit, I do give money to my parents). It makes me more motivated to earn money though, because wants can be satisfied by money.

See, what did I say before? The older you get, the more shallow and superficial you become.

Why Does It

... have to rain every damn time I get a day off and want to swim?



I know I sound childish but...



Fuck!

To Remember

A great concert by the best.
Because for now, no one in the Chinese industry can do better.

唯舞獨尊

I apologise for the bad quality of pictures and rushing through this entry again. Ryan and Colin have already blogged about their experiences and I've got nothing else to offer, other than the photos! Muahaha!



I was very excited to be in the Indoor Stadium once again, but this time to be in the presence of an artiste that I can understand (Rain was good, but there was still a language barrier!). Having bought the tickets 3 months before, I've been waiting for this day since then! Colin got us seats with an amazing view with sufficient space to jump/dance around and also, good "leg space".



The 5 of us waited about 1.5 hours for the show to start, almost till the point that we got really bored. But as the lights got turned off one by one, the atmosphere started to get really tense. But then I'll let the photos speak for themselves.



The Indoor Stadium was fully packed.



She rose up on these two rings to a great height, and there was no support. So all of us were pretty freaked out by the fact that she was hanging upside down (you try it!) and doing her gymnastic things. It seems that she's making a habit of starting off every concert showing off her moves. Must be the yoga.



She kicked off with Wan Mei, and then Mr Q. I was somewhat surprised to hear the gem being performed so early in the concert but the crowd seemed to love it. Everyone was holding up their huge red... stick things and waving them to the rhythm. She then went into the dream mode with Le Yuan, which didn't go down too well with the crowd, but was great for the mood. I mean, you can't be that high for the entire 2 hours right?



The special guests were Energy. We were all very disappointed when we heard it was them and not Edison Chen, Show Luo or Stanley Huang. However they gave their best shot and sang Come On and Fang Shou, arguably their biggest hits to date. Which really is kind of sad if you consider that both songs were from their first album! Anyway, I guess they did really well because the crowd went ballistic (dare I say even crazier than when Jolin did the first 5 songs). I sort of lost interest in them especially after Milk left, and I haven't heard a single bloody song from their first album as a threesome. My favourite guy on there was Shu Wei, although he's a B-grade singer compared to Ah Di. They still have potential I guess, it'll be up to them to make the most of it. Their ballad was boring, but it's good to take a breather such high-energy tracks.

Bad pun. Arhm. And Colin was shouting, "Toro!" at them.



Now this get up was fabulous. And she also did some show-stopping ballads. If I'm not wrong (I think I'm already mixed up with the 2 ballad sections) she did Kai Chang Bai and Lin Mong Chao De Wei Dao.



Here's a little recording of it, starting from the second chorus I think!

After that she did the Kallang wave twice and then got everybody up on their feet before getting everyone insanely high on her biggest hits - Kan Wo 72 Bian, Ye Man You Xi and Ai Qing 36 Ji. Almost everyone was standing, grooving and having a good time. I'm quite happy that most of the audience seemed like they were enjoying themselves tremendously too. It seemed like a huge party.



This was the performance that made it worth the ticket price. The live performance of Wu Niang was super electrifying. Everyone got on their feet again. The part of the dance which was featured in the MV and also at last year's MTV Asia Awards came alive right before my very eyes and it was heart-stoppingly good. I'm going to get the DVD of the concert because of this performance.



She ended the concert with Dao Dai, something she has been doing since her last concert. I think the choice of song was apt, because everyone knew it really well and we all had such a good time I wished that we could "Rewind" and experience the entire thing again.

It was brilliant, despite what the Life! article said.

They should publish Colin's aritcle instead.

Ooh, and thanks to Weetz for the ride to Somerset!

Freedom Writers

After the previous day's insane 5 hour K Box session with Zhenhui and Shuming that ended at 3AM (and I've to take this chance to thank my dad who was driving his cab to take me to supper before sending me home), I got a mere 4 hours of sleep and went to meet Ryan for Freedom Writers.

The movie was very good and it there were parts that almost moved me to tears. As they say truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and this story is certainly uniquely inspiring and interesting seeing how it's based on a true story. I can't even think of the words to describe it so I'm going to copy and paste the sypnosis directly from the yahoo! webpage, just to get you interested!

Fresh–faced, idealistic twenty–three–year–old Erin Gruwell is ready to take on the world as she steps inside Wilson High School for her first day of teaching. Her class, a diverse group of racially charged teenagers from different walks of life--African Americans, Latinos, Asians, juvenile delinquents, gang members, and underprivileged students from poor neighborhoods--hope for nothing more than to make it through the day. On the surface, the only thing they share is their hatred for each other and the understanding that they are simply being warehoused in the educational system until they are old enough to disappear.

So check out the movie, it's really good.

After that we went for lunch at the food court before prodeeding to get ourselves a nice spot for the SK Red Party. There was only one special guest and she turned out to be Sun Yan Zi. We waited for an hour or so, and there was this annoying mother with her annoying children standing behind us, creating a din, and putting her hand on the rail above my head, which made me uncomfortable. She was standing so close to me I wanted to elbow her in the knee.



But all was made right as Jean Danker came on stage, did her MC-ing and kicked off the show with a models modelling the latest creations from SK jewellery. After that she introduced Sun Yan Zi, who managed to sneak into the place while we were not looking, and she knew that 90% of the people in the crowd were waiting for her. I was surprised that she would be performing two songs (when I've only heard that she'd be performing Ni Guang) and was taut in suspense, wondering what the other one would be.



Ni Guang was well performed; she had an amazingly powerful voice. Here's a recording of part of the performance, forgive me for my singing in between!



The second song was Gu Ji Gu Ji, my favourite track off her latest album and it got me on a high. I got the entire song on video but it sucks because for the most of it, you get to hear me singing along. Then there was this part when she looked up at us and saw us singing along with her and she waved, and we waved frantically back! I was pretty ecstatic!

And then we met Colin and his two friends for the Jolin concert.



We were there pretty damn early and we waited for the entire place to be filled.



It was a bloody fantastic concert, and worth my every cent. There's nobody who can do it as well as she did! She's at the top of her game in the Mandopop scene. Jaw-droppingly good. As such, it deserves an entry of its own. Probably tomorrow, after a night's sleep from the work I'd be doing today, I guess there'd be an entry!

K Midnight

I wish I had time to blog properly but I haven't. The good news is starting from next week, I'll be doing a 4 day week, which means I'll be a bit more free to do other stuff. The downside would obviously be earning less money and spending more of it. I'm currently dirt broke. Time to dig out all the coins and use them!

I met up with Zhenhui and Shuming yesterday and despite the disgustingly expensive KBox charges yesterday, we went to sing. I can't live without singing, despite not being any good at it. I can do a mind-blowing rendition of Everytime though! I'm surviving on 4 mere hours of sleep (thanks to my dad who sent me home at 330AM but went round to supper and this weird place to top up diesel and caused to to return at 5AM), but I'm going out now to catch a movie and probably the performance of another superstar before witnessing Jolin in concert.

But for now, my first attempt at video-blogging.

Pay Hikes

I disapprove.

Oh Yeah

I guess I'll have to agree with Mr Weetz's comment. The only problem is how I'm going to go about fixing it. I have a plan, but I'll have to see if the boss feels the same way about it. If not I'll have to take another choice of action seeing that I'm not feeling "happy" enough throughout my day. It's a pain in the arse.

I had my first tuition lesson 2 days ago and I was there early. I wanted to go for a swim, but the sky looked crappy. Anyway, I was welcomed by the thunderous barking of their dog, which unnerved me. Luckily, his parents weren't at home. I helped him with his schoolwork, went through a couple of topics, tripped and almost fell on a tesselation question, and gave him homework. Simple but fulfilling. At least I felt that I'd earned the money with some skill.

Yesterday I had a terribly snobbish customer who was filthy rich, but impolite and a fucking bitch. And so I didn't really give her a wide smile or anything like that. I just talked matter-of-factly. Well, she had the cheek to complain to my colleagues that I was unfriendly, when she was the one muttered audibly retarded remarks under her breath like, "No wonder Sony's going bankrupt!".

Change is hard, but I deserve so much better.

Finally

It's a disaster. There've been fewer entries every month. Boo.

I know I haven't been writing a lot over here, choosing to update the right side of this page more consistently, but it's pretty much what's going on my mind. It's the reason why I have 2 days off this week, and also why my colleagues start singing Ai Qing 36 Ji etc when they get within hearing distance.

Okay, I've finally got my first tuition offer. And I'm so glad that I managed to secure it over the weekend. It's a P6 student living in Yishun (fantastic because there's a swimming pool there, but because of the impending rain I won't be swimming today) and the pay's 15 bucks an hour. It's not fantastic but I guess I really need it. I suppose I could raise it if I manage to teach him next year, when he goes to Sec 1. I spent some time yesterday afternoon during my break to look through assessment books. Yeah, I'm such an old foggy that I can barely remember what's being taught at that level. I flipped through a bit and realised that I've come such a long way in my six years of education post-P6. I'm nervous and a little freaked out at my first assignment, but I've always liked teaching, so I'm guessing that it should be fun. I'm desperate for more though. I want to spend less days working at Sony. It's wearing me out.

Recently I've been addicted to Grey's Anatomy. And for the first time in a very long time, I slept at 240AM, due to the viewing of 5 consecutive episodes. It's crazy but I just couldn't stop myself. I watched another 2 this morning. It've never come across another serial that's as good as this one. I'm ready to throw everything else out the window just for more of this. It's good stuff.

I don't understand why it has to fucking rain when I'm planning to go for a swim. Seriously. The days that I spend at work, looking out the great glass panel to see that Orchard Road is being soaked by the sun's rays and the gentle swaying of leaves to the breeze is enough to make me feel like a dangerous, caged animal. Gosh.

Yes, I realise that there's no focus in this entry. You know on some days you have to rant and you don't make sense and you don't want to sound like you're preaching or pretent that what you've written is meaningful and thus having to wrap up your entry with "the moral of the story is..." .

This is one of them.