it's a b3 yo! and i'm happy with it! :DD i won't have to write a word of chinese for 4 more months when i reach jc! so i've gotta read in the meantime. shizz. hope everyone out there did to your expectations! (:
came up with something while taking a mugging break. i can't play it myself though, for the sweep-picked arpeggio part. and i just clipped my callouses off so i won't be tempted to play. yep! try it out, if you want a computer generated recording of it or the gp tab, tell me.
i'm back on hiatus. again.
Posted at 4:29 AM
Monday, August 6
of rapture, woe and disquiet.
before i go on hiatus, i just heard this rumour.
CHINESE O LEVEL RESULTS ARE OUT LATER TODAY. LIKE BLAH OMGWTFBBQ.
damn. i hope i get higher at least a b3, and NOT have to sit for the re-examination.
the other day, i brought my acoustic to while away time during the quarantine after the bio practical. somewhere along the way after edwin borrowed it, it landed in the hands of someone who's been hiding his talent alll this long long long while. EDWARD! we sang songs to him, and he just put chords to it immediately! wonderwall, toxic (by britney!), power rangers! (HAHA), and a few other japanese rock songs from gundam seed, and so on and so forth. he also did a totally impromptu and improvised verison of the school rally and majulah singapura. not only that, he doesn't just play chords, he fits in his own transitions in between chords. the best part? he can't read tabs! dong, hyo, julian, jethro, i and a few others were pretty darn inspired. he's only picked it up a year more than me, but i think i'd take a decade to catch up la! he's got a damn keen and sharp ear! and he knows his scales and chords damn bloody well!
anyway, one last thing before i try making my disappearance, if anyone has pictures of AP, of the band, do send it to me, especially if its of the pre-parade segment, salutes involving the pipers and buglers, handing over of command, march past, and the march led by dominic. :D i've compiled about 30 or so from glen and a few others.
food for thought from julian's blog which i thought is really pertinent (note the present tense):
For the most part of our lives, i think people over-react. Things aren't always as bad as they seem and we content ourselves with things the way they are. After a while we think its part of our personality to deal with shit the way we do and we blame everyone around us when really, we brought it upon ourselves. Hardly do people ever stop and think to themselves, 'I could be happy. So much happier and so much more.' So let me ask you, why can't you just be happy? Why can't the world? And you think you're cool that way.
I was just thinking about Peer Support in SJI and how we've wanted to do so much and yet we keep falling short not because we don't try but rather, because its so impractical. Seriously, if you look at leadership here, we're heading for nowhere. Service? Nonsense. Faith? What faith. Community? We're so exclusive sometimes. And if you compare us to other people, i honestly think that more often than not, they've got it right. We haven't. I look at some people in our school and i think to myself, these aren't josephians. They're just people who happen to go to the same school as me.
I have a theory. Going to SJI doesn't make you Josephian. Its what you do that does.
Before i go, here's some pictures of AP, i know, a month late, but better late than never.
I think i'm gonna be mighty tempted to blog when i'm bored. alright, time to finish my lla journal.
Posted at 4:07 AM
Sunday, August 5
hiatus.
"I wonder sometimes if seeing would make honey taste sweeter, lavender smell richer, the sun feel warmer"
2 and a half week to prelims, can't say i'm ready but ah, break a leg.
Hiatus until then.
ciao.
Posted at 1:45 PM
Thursday, August 2
ah, breeding!
There's this place called Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, in Australia, home to the largest marsupials, the Big Reds - kangaroos. So this was part of the IJTP comprehension we did in class, and there's this sentence,
"More water and more food stimulated the reds to breed."
So I asked Gabriel, "There's that mean you feel the need to breed Gabriel?"
Gabriel, with tons of sarcasm, said, "Do YOU want to breed with me Ian?"
:D Right, so before you get the wrong idea I'm gay, I'm not, and I DO NOT LIKE BEEF JERKY.
Anyway, biology practical tmr, chemistry practical was good, and i should be finished with A and E maths by next week.
Oh, and I've pretty much decided I'll come back to help the SJIMB as an alumni as often as I can next year. I'm banking on the fact that things will change, or rather roles will change. Sec 4s, anyone interested? I need a nose transplant. Sinus is really making me feel shitty.
And there's this paradox. Those against discrimination based on sex and race inevitably, discriminate the pepertrators. Hmm.
New blog song, which hyoseok introduced me too. Thanks hyo! Yeah, the lead singer has a really soothing voice, I like their style too!
Eisley - I Wasn't Prepared Oh, when the day is blue I'll sit here wondering about you And how the pollen fell All around your face in strange yellow patterns
But, i wasn't prepared for this Oh, i wasn't prepared for this
When the morning came The bees flew down and Wrapped themselves around me And that's when i spoke the word To have them trace your face for me in pollen
But, i wasn't prepared for this Oh, i wasn't prepared for this
Come, come back to me, my, my darling Come, come back to me, my, my darling
I wasn't prepared for this Oh, i wasn't prepared for this
When the day is blue I'll sit here wondering about you
Night.
Posted at 11:36 PM
Sunday, July 29
dread.
i dread going to school somedays nowadays. take a test or two, or maybe even three everyday. go home, mug your ass off.
quite the life i thought i'd be signing up for, but not one i'm really desiring now. so maybe i'll mug hard after all, and get all my 8a1s (excluding chinese), get labeled as an 'achiever', land myself in a good junior college,
study.
2 year respite in the army
get a place in one of the universities in the ivy league.
study.
come out, get a job that pays well.
and that would be the oh-so desirably singaporean way to start one's career.
achieve when you're young only to get into the rat race when you're older. and if you ever win the race, you're still a rat.
doctor - could join them, but i won't be able to stand being a gp cooped up in a clinic room all day. i don't really want to see innards and all and cut them up. curious, but no. psychologist - nah-uh, might end up seeing one. philosopher - hah. in singapore? theologist - cue being a priest. teacher - maybe, but i don't know if i want to commit my whole life to a bunch of seeming ingrates who will appreciate you only a whole lot later (that's if you teach well).
whatever it is, my image of a profession in my mind now, is really nowhere near an office, nowhere near lots of numbers and graphs, just somewhere doing something that's beneficial to someone else.
maybe in africa as a doctor. then i wouldn't have to be cooped up in a room. and i'd be helping someone at least.
and the reason why i'm probably ranting is probably 'cause i just finished a whole week of tests and tomorrow i've got a chem mock paper, and a history test. stupid of me not to take some form of lit.
so conclusion, i could take the oft-taken route: mug hard, get into a good jc, consider purpose in society later, all singaporean society expects you to do now is get good grades, and it's a bonus if you do well in cca too, double bonus if you actually do community work of your own accord regularly. eventually end up in a well-paying job in the private sector.
or i could mug hard selectively, get into a jc i want. eventually end up somewhere that shows la salle's ideals have rubbed off on me. or, be an author/teacher. so yes getting a distinction gives me a broad-based education that gives me many chances in jc, but here's the thing, i've come to a point where if i can do what i love, i'm happy.
oh, and moonlight as an amateur musician.
sweet. (:
but until then, sleep then mugging. waking up in the early morning to mug.
night.
Posted at 11:32 PM
in which Ian rants on about gray afternoons, and chilly nights.
right. so it's been raining non-stop these few days. and i love the weather, but somehow it's not really conducive for studying.
all you wanna do is sleep.
right.
those of you who know me well will know i can be quite absent-minded and muddle-headed.
but there are times i seem as if i don't remember something, but i do. there are times when i seem as if i don't care or bother, but i do. there are times when i seem something i'm not.
we all put on facades, just a matter of how opaque or transparent they are. we need our facades sometimes, it would be brutally honest to just tear them down. nice, but naive.
anyway, the sec 4s aren't allowed to step foot in the bandroom anymore. i haven't been there in a while, but yeah. a part of your almost daily routine gone again. it's like a vacuum, that you can only try to fill up with mugging? only it's not as fulfilling.
my guitar's gone for the week for servicing. gonna set me back $180. the neck's warped, and the general setupb basically is screwed. so yeah the guy at guitar connection's gonna heat the neck and do a general setup. floyd roses are pesky. bah.
and imagine! i'm stuck with only my acoustic for a week. like the horror of horrors! but anyway, i'll try this really nice song caleld Rylynn by Andy McKee which julian introduced to me. the intro mostly anyway.
Posted at 2:30 PM
welcome
this blog is more personal than most.
so tread with caution.
as a good friend once said,
"tread with caution,
for you tread on my dreams"
If you wanna take any material
please do give due credit.
other than that,
have a good read (:
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God, everything lasallian, music, church, french horn, guitar, anime
proverbs 3:5-6
trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will direct your paths.
