3 weeks have passed

I've survived 3 weeks without proper internet! Borrowing my friend's internet to have this blogged.

Doing well now, but getting cold here and there. Got a flu this week since tuesday after i walked in the rain the night before. Freezing cold rain man... Spent around $2500 already in 20 plus days. Highest expenditure in my life. Next month onwards gonna cut down on expenditure. But still craving for another guitar and a dslr camera.

Went to Kamakura yesterday. It's a town outside tokyo that has history dated back to 1200s. So long ago. It's a nice place with a big buddha statue. Explored an area when tourists seldom go to.
Went for first jamming session today.

(to be further updated)

2 Weeks in Tokyo!!!

Two weeks have passed since i left singapore for tokyo. So fast man. And i was having complicated feelings for so long before coming here. Didn't have internet connection and iphone somehow just doesn't allow me to type in my blog. Finally able to update my life in tokyo.

Family pic. Quite surprised my aunts went to send me off =)

Gang pic


Room after cleaning up. Will be leaving it soon for another place though

Had fun exploring tokyo for the past two weeks. Went to places like Shibuya, Shinjuku and Akihabara. I've been eating japanese food which seems healthier till yesterday when i finally had a full mac meal after 2 weeks. First Ootoro eaten at Shibuya. 3rd Nov. Will always remember the fatty creamy taste of ootoro. No wonder it's an expensive delicacy.

Ootoro at 525yen

Went Mt. Takao last saturday to look at red leaves, aka momiji, but it was a little too early so most of the trees hadn't turned red. But it was an experience nonetheless.

Red leaves at Takao San

Another part of Takao San


New guitar setup with Blackstar tube amp HT-1R

Bought a new amp yesterday after looking at it last weekend at Ochanomizu station. It's famous for its many guitar shops there, many more than that in singapore. Damage 27800yen. I'm broke.

Had lunch today at Kawasaki after mac breakfast. 950yen damage for it but it's delicious. From today till payday it's time to cut down on my expenditure. The amp was really damaging.

Lunch today

Last blog before landing in Japan

This will be my last blog in singapore for this year. Tomorrow is the flight! 10.40pm at Changi Airport Terminal 1. It's a blinking of an eye like what i mentioned in another blog post couple of months back. I've already understood how time flies and i've been trying my best to make full use of all the time i have. Not that i've really done well in making full use of my time. Lots of time wasted worrying about many things and being depressed and emo. But it's still part of my life. Learnt lots of things till now. And a new journey awaits me.

Time to stay stronger and help more people around me, be it my important friends or strangers. Change takes time and every single step into the future results in a different future. Onwards wisely~

Faith Love Hope

Countdown: 3 days~

As of this post, 3 days to japan! Had recruitment talk at NUS earlier on. Will have another in NTU on tuesday.

Applying for international driving permit in singapore. Will need it when i wanna convert my sg license to japan license to drive in japan.

Very excited about getting a new guitar in japan! The next guitar i'm looking at is a fender telecaster! Either a red or beige telecaster! Hope i can find one i like. Who knows maybe i jus decide that telecaster is not for me in the end.

Countdown: 5 days to flight~!

5 days left! Going to NUS and NTU tomorrow and tuesday respectively! Wasted one sunday today staying at home packing stuff and sleeping! Can't say it's a waste though haha. I won't get a chance to sleep like this for a loooooong time. And i needed to prepare my 50kg box to be sent to japan too. And pack another 50kg worth of check-in luggage. Though i won't really use 50kg each at all.

My sisters bought me a new bag from Pedro after i asked for it. So nice. Might be a little metrosexual though but i guess it's not too bad depending on how you look at it. $119.

Ukulele and pulau ubin and japanese lessons

Ukulele given by my group of friends! So nice of them to give me just becos i said i want it for my farewell gift. I owe them big ones now. They brought it all the way to Pulau Ubin for the weekend chalet. Come to think about it, i didn't have time to post anything regarding the chalet. Let this photo be a memory of the weekend trip there. We had lots of fun under the sun and in the dim lights of the chalet.

Ukulele to entertain, after i improve my singing

Countdown to flight day: 9 days
Emotions: Nothing much left. Just excitement and maybe a little loneliness.

These couple of months since i started my japanese lessons, i've learnt lots of things from my fellow colleagues, Alan, Meilian and Sebin (hope none of them slaughters me for mentioning their names). Each of them have different characters and good points which i try to learn from. From Alan i've learnt leadership and mixing around with people. From Meilian i've learnt the importance of treasuring people around and living life happily. From Sebin i've gained lots of information about investing and knowledge around the world.

These few months have really been fruitful. I have never really understood the meaning of treasuring people around till now. I've always been the kind to jus mix around and meetup once in a while. But to put the effort to maintain the nice relationship, i've never really done it.

13 more days to flight day

Countdown~ 13 more days to flight as of time of blog post. Internal struggle isn't too great anymore. Things are seemingly more in control now. I do wish that if someone who is reading this blog and going overseas for a relatively long period of time can gain understanding on the ups and downs of waiting for the flight day.

Things aren't simple for the feeling of missing people close to me do get strong, at least for me. I'm sure many others feel the same way too. I really wish that i can be strong enough and not appear moody in front of people. Can't do it successfully yet. Control of emotions get hard when things aren't going your way. But i'm sure things can be improved with effort.

Couple more days to do my best and smile and be happy with everyone. I'm really glad i've really nice family and friends around me. I never really realise how close i can get with the friends till the time when i'm leaving. I guess the closeness doesn't appear till such times. And i also somehow wanna spend more time to everyone too. This is a really good experience. I'm glad i'm going Japan to work. Even my fellow friends in Toshiba are so cool that i've learnt so much things from them. How much more can i ask for in life...hmm just some more money to have a more comfortable life and a soulmate for the rest of my life??

Wanna make the last few days in Singapore the best since i'll be gone for a long time!

Fortune telling that's going to change me

Just went for one last session of fortune telling at Lot One yi wen fang today. It's supposedly done by a famous fortune teller that has 20plus years of experience and helped famous people.

I think i'm interested in fortune telling for letting me know what my future holds and as far as possible, tell me what i should do to improve my fortune. That's the idea i had when i went for fortune telling at IMM yuan zhong xiu 2 years ago. That's the idea i was having when i went for another round of fortune telling today.

All i had was 30minutes of negative things about my life. The fortune teller never mention anything good about my life. As if my life is only about bad things. I guess it's fine, since she might just be more focused and talk about bad things. But after all the talk, it didn't seem to hit me much. I dunno if it's her way of explanation or anything. It's true that the character wise she mentioned several things that are accurate. But she also mentioned things that i dun feel so much anymore. The way she put it seemed like my life is and will be worse. And recommended me to buy an item right after 30min. Great. She never tells me anything that i should change about myself and immediately tells me to buy their stuff. At least the IMM fortune teller told me what to be more proactive and stuff like that.

What am i supposed to do about it??? Wait and accept my fate and die??? I'm not that kind of person. I'm not someone who will accept things for what it is. If no advice is given, i'll look for one myself. And this fortune telling is going to change how i look at things again. I'm for myself from now on, and i'm not going to ask for help from such things again for a looooooong looooong time. Please dun try to buy things just in hope that it'll change your life. Life is still in your hands to change it. I'll need help from more friends and my family to point out my mistakes. I owe my life today to everyone who has been around me. I won't be who i am today without them. That, is so much better than buying astrological stuff from people who don't even bother to provide any advice and expect you to buy things from them after paying for the fortune telling.

Fly Me To The Moon

Learning this song now. Doing the Paul Gilbert's version. Mellow jazz with a tinge of distortion in his tone. But i'm doing a pure clean song of the song. Rather hard to get the feeling of the song. Technique wise is hard too. Will take some time to jus master the guitar part. Will take even longer time to master the guitar part while singing the song.

Cleaned my room (finally, since chinese new year) and rearranged my guitar gear. Gonna clear up my room to make it easier to pack since it's jus less than 3 weeks before my flight to Tokyo.

New picture of my guitars on display with the amp and effects~

First family dinner after many years

Yes! Finally another dinner with the family outside after like 10 plus years. Ate a nice fish with cereal prawns and some meat and veggies at Teck Whye kopitiam. Simple but meaningful. Won't be able to eat with them for quite some time already once i leave for japan.

Not much negativity about flying off already. Emo turning into excitement now. Only left with the vague future of what i need to do to make my life better. Hold on for another round of fortune telling next thurs at Lot One done by a famous fortune teller with 20 plus years of experience. Saw from newspaper article that she did it for famous people like Fann Wong and Christopher Lee.

emo emo emo emo emo emo!!!

21 more days to the flight to japan!!! Mixed feelings of everything!!! Leaving family and friends!!! Leaving sg food!!! Leaving sg places!!! Arggghhhhhh i need some emotional support. Trying not to think about it much everyday but it jus feels like i'm holding in a sneeze. You understand the feeling.

Luckily i've got friends who will hang out with me to make me feel less terrible. Now i really understand what is relationship. Gonna have such friends to make a person stronger and able to take up more challenges.

Having a girlfriend and a wife in future will be good too if she's able to listen and give the emotional support. Having a girlfriend or wife just purely for companionship isn't exactly sufficient. Now i also understand what it means by "Every successful man has a woman behind supporting him". It's never easy to go through all these difficulties without having someone to support the person.

I've lots of faith in my own abilities and i'm very sure that i'll be able to adapt well and survive well in japan. I'm confident in doing every other things well too. But jus can't get over the emotional feelings.

I WILL GET STRONGER AND BECOME A PILLAR OF SUPPORT FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND THE WORLD!!!!!!!

言っちゃった

月曜言うつもりだったが、疲れたから言ってなかった。
やっと昨日言っちゃった。初めての経験。言っちゃった。緊張していたが言っちゃった。笑顔をもらった。
返事は何でもかまわないから。言いたいことを言った。まだ一緒にいるけどよかった。今からもっといい人になろう。

Slip out



I don't know since when i changed to such a cold-hearted guy
I have to warm this frozen, icy, lonely heart to thaw
I like being wrapped with warmness more than anything else for sure
I'm going to make my coming days to be filled with laughter and joy
I let myself down that i'm more cruel than i thought i would be
I'm just a loser who ends up by caring for my soul
I don't give my heart to anyone because i don't want to waste my time
I tried to love this loneliness to slip out of this lonesome hole
Sorrow is what i hate but it's grown my sensations
Regrets taught me how to make any hard decisions
Peace is always by my side but i've never felt it once
Love is not the word only for the sweet romance
Well, i'm scared, scared, scared, scared to death
And i'm scared to keep on going on my way
Well, i'm scared, scared, scared, scared to death
And i'll tell myself i'm special till the end
Recalling my torn, broken, aching heart of these long days
And all the memories i wanted to forget for making leaps
Recalling, breaking, aching, crying, making sure to me
And i take all and grin at my future on the way

Two cats

Two cats came to my corridor in the afternoon today and enjoyed a suntan within the nice pots along the corridor along with the nice plants in them. Felt generous and treated them milk too. Was cold milk though so not sure if it's bad for the cats. Hope it's fine. They're young kittens after all, kind of a teenager cat from what i saw from the sizes.

Bite the bullet

I'm going to bite a bullet soon. Crossed my heart three times and said that i would not do it. But i still can't control and stop myself... Oh whatever... like crossing heart is going to work out. I'm taking a risk and heading to a new direction. Failure probably won't affect too much, and the success rate is probably 0.00001%. Either way, i'm biting the bullet and doing it.

What the hell am i saying? It's about something that i'll be doing. If successful, more info will be provided in the future.

Arghhh another pit stop

I've hit another rock for my guitar playing... I'm kinda stuck playing the same few songs for the past few weeks. Other songs that i wanna learn are quite hard. Oh mannnnnn.... This seems like a difficult barrier for me to break alone... How i wish i still have a guitar teacher to force things on me....

1 more month to the end of Japanese lessons at Aoba. Time flies man... Oh well.. Knew it when we had our first lesson anyway. When you're busy, time jus disappear without realising. Worse still if you live everyday hoping for knock off time. Will realise that you're 40 by that time. Continue that you'll reach retirement age before you even realise it. I'm really afraid of that, especially when time flies so fast i fail to care about people important to me much. Gonna treasure everything now. Some things once gone, will never be back. Money whatever can still be earned, but never people important to you... Saying that, my trip to Japan seems like a contradicting thing... I'm still having battles with going Japan once in a while, not exactly about a different culture, but more about the fear of losing time i could have spent with people important to me instead...

Freaking fate

I can feel the direction i'm heading towards now. Everything that i've aimed for has been fulfilled. Currently dun have big targets to work towards. Maybe just to find a girlfriend. But i jus dun wan a foreigner damn it. So many problems with having a foreigner as a girlfriend and wife. Not really worried about relationship kind of problems but more about problems created to my family and friends. Maybe family more. Communication and citizenship and such. But really feeling that everything is heading towards that direction now... And i can't seem to do much about it... Maybe i should learn to solve the problems that are stopping me from accepting a foreigner as a girlfriend instead of trying to change whatever has been set in front for me...

Singaporeans: 12 years of frustration under PAP

From http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/09/13/singaporeans-12-years-of-frustration-under-the-pap/

And lots of Singaporeans are complaining about PAP. I personally dun like it. What's the point of complaining so much about PAP? I dunno if they're really putting in real effort to improve things or to help Singaporeans. But no matter what, PAP is still managed by PEOPLE. People have limited abilities damn it. What's the point of blaming everything on PAP and expect them to solve all the problems. If you dun like it, dun just stay there and whine. Freaking get out and find a solution to the problem!

Try voting PAP out and bloody see what other parties can seriously do. I'd really like to see those whiners volunteering to solve all these problems. And i really what's going to happen if there is just a direct enforcement to kick all foreigners out. Singapore will degrade into some third world country again?

I truly agree with the guy that mentioned the thing below.

Quote from a comment:

Want some cheese with that Whine?
September 13, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Aaand what? Vote out the PAP and then what? What would change? Nothing. Do you seriously think that simply handing over the reins of power to another party would make a jot of difference? Please!

Look at almost every country in the world, and what ‘regime change’ has brought. Nothing changed. Look at America and all the hype about Obama. What changed? NOTHING. The economic recovery is tottering, the national debt is at a record high, unemployment is soaring and now they want to burn Qurans to commemorate 9/11. Iraq is still a mess and Afghanistan is a lost cause. Change We Need?! Bullshit.

What do you expect to change? Do you really think an RP or WP government would immediately start packing off foreigners back to their home countries? Or that suddenly people will boost up the local population by having more kids? Or that suddenly our government bodies which are filled with PAP yes men at the top will become more accountable? Only fools and kids will believe that. The PAP is not the problem. The problem is Singaporean. We wanted this scenario, and now that we’ve got it, we don’t like it and blame the government and pretend it’s not what we wanted. No one is forcing hawker centres to recruit PRC nationals. No one is forcing the thousands of retail places and restaurants here to recruit Indonesians and Filipinos, but Singaporeans want profit at any cost, even if it means screwing over other Singaporeans. If Singaporeans didn’t sleep with PRC women we wouldn’t even have PRC prostitutes!
No one forces anyone to go to casinos and yet most of the people there are Singaporean. No one is forcing anyone to ask 50k over valuation and yet Singaporeans are asking that much money because they are avaricious. No one forced 67% of people to vote the PAP, but a combination of greed, fear and selfishness is enough to put an X against their name on the voting sheet. No one forced people to torture kids with insane workloads till they have no time to even play, but a Uniquely Singaporean brand of kiasuism makes them do it.

The problems Singapore faces have no government solutions. They are a direct result of the peoples’ own shortsighted views on what success and happiness means. The PAP is happy to encourage that mindset because it keeps them in power but please don’t kid yourself into thinking that they created this mindset. That is a Uniquely Singaporean creation. The PAP is merely a reflection of that mindset.

Another week has gone by...

Without realising it, 9 sep is nearly over. I'm still struggling with the FYP project. Design is nearly done but i still need some time to send it for fabrication. Feeling kind of tired having to think of designs after returning home after whole day of japanese lessons.

It's just a month plus a few weeks before i fly to japan. Kept telling everyone that it's still long before i fly to japan. Can't say that now. It's not long anymore. Can feel the loneliness after going there. OMG... Oh well... Gonna motivate myself well and keep going. Mustn't stop heading forward even if it gets tough. It's really getting tough now.

Anyway i seem to be thinking about the future more and more now. Gonna prepare myself well. Or am i preparing myself too well already...



Been playing the electric guitar for a while now. Slowly realising the way of getting nice sounds out of everything i have. And this is Mary. Just by looking at the guitar this name pops up in my mind. So i call her Mary. Nothing sexy though. Not my girlfriend or wife yet.

Mary

New hard disk!

My sister bought this for me from Comex fair. Gonna return her $92 soon. It's a cute little portable 500GB drive. My current 120GB is fairly insufficient with all the songs and photos and movies I have so gonna get a bigger one. Need more space when i take a lot of photos in Japan too.

It's really a nice design. But read online reviews about lots of problems with the drive. Hopefully mine can last forever.

Another item bought

Seems like i've been spending gazillions of money these few weeks. Lots of guitar stuff been spent on. And this a new addition:

I like pedals which give me the ability to manually control things while playing the guitar. Using this, i can play a note or chord and hold it for a longer period of time, until forever, unless the power supply is cut off.

Anyway, I MUST really stop spending money on pedals for at least two months! Damn it! Really spent lots of money...

29 October 2010

That's the day when i'll officially fly to Tokyo, Japan. It's coming soon. Accidentally blinked an eye and i've ended up 2 months into my japanese lessons. If i were to blink again, it'll be the day to fly.

It's always frightening to go to a country which is unknown to a person. But to stay safely in Singapore is rather boring too. Time for fun and the unknown while keeping myself sane.

A final change of pedals

I think i've finally found all the necessary pedals for the tone i've always wanted. Freakin' spent gazillions of dollars this week. But gotten all the stuff i needed now. I'm ready for anything rock to blues to jazz now.

Time for more practice.

New pedal board

I've finally bought a Pedaltrain Mini after longing for it for so long. It sells like hotcakes. Stocks just disappear soon after they arrive. Bought it at Blackwood Guitar.

Now the whole pedal thing looks neater and less bulky. Just that the wah wah pedal has no place on the board. Gonna bring it around separately.

Paul Gilbert's Fuzz Universe

As a fan of Paul Gilbert, I've bought his newest album. Got it from HMV at $29.95. Guess guitar instrumental albums are hard to find in Singapore. Didn't know anything about him one year ago before i actually went into electric guitar. Spent one year listening to many famous and legendary electric guitarists and Paul Gilbert is one of the few that leaves a strong impression.

As a rock cum metal guitarist he is really interesting. He doesn't have any arrogance air. Likes to joke around too. Talented musician. And this is what was written in the album. Incredible heartfelt words that I love.

This is my third guitar instrumental album. It nearly drove me crazy on many occasions. Do you hear all those notes? First I had to find them. And then I had to put them all together in the right order. It literally took me months. What a job. But I love notes. So I'm happy to show up for work. Now, let's talk about the universe.

I always loved Carl Sagan's analogies involving the universe. Buckets, stars, and sand. Carl was an astronomer, so he liked to ponder the universe. He would say things like, "If every star was the size of a grain of sand... It would fill up billions and billions of buckets. These buckets, if arranged in a line, would stretch far beyond our sun. I don't if he said that exactly, but that's the best I can remember.

If every note on this album were the size of a grain of sand, it would fill up 72 buckets. That's just a guess, of course. But it's certainly not the billions and billions of buckets that could potentially be filled. Is it important to fill up so many buckets? Well, once I get started with notes, it's hard to stop. So I just keep going. 72 buckets full today. Tomorrow, a billion.

And what about the fuzz? Well, every note is not the same. And if you are a guitar player, you know how satisfying it is to have a big, fuzzy sound to bring excitement and power to your notes. Every generation has their own words for it: distortion, overdrive, gain, crunch, drive, break up, saturation, grind, grumpiness, howling hound dog... I'm making them up now, but you get the idea.

Anyway, the first word for this sound that I heard when I was a kid was "fuzz". It has stuck in my head ever since, and like a beaver's instinct to build a dam, I am somehow driven to tinker with my electric guitar and the fuzzy sound it can make. Sometimes I even turn the fuzz off, just to hear the difference. But mostly I live in a fuzz universe.

Play this music through some big speakers.

Rock & Roll.

Thank you.

Paul

Pedaltrain Mini

Thinking of getting a Pedaltrain Mini to arrange all my effects pedals. The current case isn't strong enough as the velcro mat keeps dropping off.

New guitar gear addition

Just bought a new Vox Amplug Cabinet at $32. It's a speaker for the Amplug which i can connect to the guitar and bring around conveniently. Sound wise I can't say it's really good. But at least I can have a portable amplifier while bringing the electric guitar around for practice.

It's Tuesday!!!

Went for Japanese lessons till 4.30pm. Hung around with friend till 6 plus. Reached home around 7 plus. Played guitar for a while...

More or less gotten the feeling for half of Andy Timmon's Electric Gypsy song for the guitar. It's one of the few guitar solo pieces that I'm learning. Hopefully can master it before flying to Japan.

Continued with TV. Tried to learn piano. I realised it isn't really hard to play the piano. Guess knowledge of music theory and another instrument helps greatly.

Continued with FYP design again. Dunno if I'm stupid or lack creativity. Dun seem to have much design ideas...

Felt like putting a picture of the Tibetan Mastiff

Convocation~ 卒業式

As we go on, we remember, all the times we, had together.

After 4 years, I've finally graduated. I still remember the first day when stepped into NTU as a student looking for a nice course to study. Hmm think I was actually looking to find out more about the design stream in Mechanical Engineering. Then I decided to change my course to Mechanical Engineering from Common Engineering and had an interview there.

If I'm not wrong, I went back to NTU again to prepare for Sports Camp SU13 to paint banners for the group as a freshie and had the camp 2 days later for 7 long and tiring days. I wasn't as fit as the rest of the group and probably didn't perform too well. It's a memorable experience no matter.

Then I stepped into NTU officially as a student on 7 August 2006. I was wearing jeans as I thought I should be more formal as a uni student. Perspired like crazy. Had my Sports Camp group Pumbaa celebrated my 21st birthday 3 days later in school. Had Sports Ball later on in September.

SU13 Sports Ball 2006

And I became a programmer for SU14 after that. Planned and had lots of fun with the SU14 batch. But failed as a programmer when the fire structure which my event partner, Lyanna, and I built painstakingly, overburnt and fell within a minute. I was so devastated.

SU14 Tioman Retreat

Continued with second year of school life, skipping lectures to sleep in late, struggling for examinations every few months, having to study like how I studied for 'A' Levels.

Had Engineering Innovative Design module during the June holidays. We won first prize though I didn't contribute much...

EID 2008

I continued as a programmer for SU15. Met more friends. Had Kok Sing and Audrey as event partners. Did Theme Park for SU15 and planned things to scare the new freshies. It was a great success.

SU15 Theme Park Event IC

SU15 Programmer

Joined the Japanese Appreciation Club as a sub committee member too. Got to know more people, though not as close. Tried to join the wakeboarding club too after getting very interested in cable skiing. But couldn't take the cost of about $50 per 30min of training so stopped going.

Wakeboarding coolness oh yeah~

Then I was in year 3. Had first semester with lots of projects, struggling with time. It was terrible. Never did I have such a busy semester. Worked hard with Kevin and Qingwei. Did a CAD project with Qingwei. I'm proud of this video that we produced using Geneva gear mechanism:

Oh and I took Japanese Level 6 as an elective. It was the elective I liked the most out of everything I took in uni. Never contact most of the classmates already though so don't remember them much...

Japanese Level 6, Semester 1, 2008

Then I finally bought my first camera, Panasonic Lumix. And I finally got to take a photo of the gang with a real camera.

Dated 14 Nov 2008

I wasn't really in the programmer team for SU16 this time round cos I've decided to go for Global Immersion Programme to China. Went for Chingay Parade in the second semester before I flew to Beijing for GIP. It was back in 2009. And soon after that I was in Beijing with Bor, Sihan and Jiwei as flatmates. Think I might have been an asshole sometimes as a friend. Hopefully the guys were ok with me...

Chingay 2009


Flatmates outside Tian An Men

Returned to Singapore around the end of July 2009. Gotten my Final Year Project and went to find Prof Low to talk about it. Think I kind of spoiled the market by finding the prof early... And after 2 semesters of struggling, I finally got this:

Was struggling to form a band while juggling FYP and other subjects. I really didn't want to live life as a normal simple engineer in the future. I wanna be different from others and carve out a new and better life.

Applied for Toshiba in Japan and got the job of design engineer. My path for the next 3.5 years was set to be in Japan, Tokyo, when I placed my signature on the contract paper. Continued with my normal life for the remaining of year 4 semester 2 in NTU. Finally completed the last exam paper on 4 May 2010 and prepared for the final FYP presentation around the end of May. Finally fulfilled my initial goal of starting a band, which is to perform, on 23 July. Took really long...

And finally, on 28 July 2010, I got this:

I can't help but to lament that after 4 arduous years and around $24000, all I get is this piece of paper, 2 sheets of transcript with the grades, and one more certificate for my design specialization.

4 years of life in Nanyang Technological University. It was a really fulfilling experience. I've made people unhappy, argued with people, people made me angry, experienced fireball dropping, experienced mixing with people...so many things... It will be hard to ever forget about the good and bad experiences in university. I had never been through such a fulfilling period of time while studying. With all that I have been through, I am now stepping into the real society, with a first step in Tokyo as a design engineer, AKA Japanese salaryman. Failures will come but they will go. Go through them and hold on hard. Things won't go smoothly all the time but they will end no matter what. Experience everything possible. That is life.

Gig at BluJaz Cafe~~~!!!

Gomen's first gig held at BluJaz Cafe! We were reminded of butterflies in our stomach by our vocalist in the afternoon when she complained about her having it. Luckily we still managed to overcome the butterflies and did relatively well for the gig, considering it's our first.

For me, I did make some mistakes here and there, not sure if anyone noticed it. Oh well.. Now I've learnt that even if you made mistakes, you must act cool and pretend nothing happened. Most people will not notice the mistake in that case.

Two more days

To the gig day... So nervous... I even dreamt of the gig yesterday...

Will try my best! Catch Gomen at BluJaz Cafe at 9 to 930pm on Friday!

Passed my IPPT!

Yes! After 3 tries I finally passed my IPPT!! I still can't believe I actually failed shuttle run and standing broad jump stations. At least I can understand that standing broad jump is possible to fail. But I've never heard of non overweight people failing shuttle run for IPPT.

Just a bit more I could have gotten silver too. Oh well.... Can do it for the next IPPT. I'm not going to take IPPT again for now. Sick of having to do it 3 times...

Busy Busy Busy

With Japanese lessons, guitar practices and FYP project. Gonna start real revision for the Japanese. The lessons are getting tougher and I'm starting to make more and more mistakes.

Gomen's debut gig is next Friday. So fast! Gonna practise more and more and more. I dunno why but I seem to be able to relax my playing style a lot now and can play more at ease. Guess it is useful when I get tensed up during the gig.

And my FYP project. It's starting to get busy. Gonna rush out the device design soon and fabricate it out. Hopefully by somewhere in August it can be done.

New pedal arrangement

...Again. The previous arrangement resulted in loss in dynamics and hollow tone. This time around, I've placed the GT-OD in front of the Distortion III to increase the gain of the pedal for solos. Volume can't be boosted this way hence placed the 10 band eq behind the two pedals. Now it has more gain for solos and the dynamics are back. Not perfect kind of tone yet but I can sense it nearing.

Andy Timmons - Electric Gypsy

Was introduced to this song yesterday. OMG it's nice! Found it normal at first but slowly gotten to understand the song more and got more feelings for it.

Swimming pool

The new sports complex with swimming pool opposite my house is nearly complete now. It's directly beside the reservoir and park. Seems like a good spot for mosquitoes, especially when swimming naked there. The scenery while swimming should be quite nice though. Wanna go there as many times as possible before flying off to Japan!

Germany is out!!

Damn it! From now onwards I'm not going to watch World Cup for the next few years...

4th day of my Japanese lessons is over. It's tiring to keep listening in Japanese. My brain kind of damaged already. But at least I feel the damage each day is getting lesser. Guess Japanese will be as easy as XYZ in another one week's time.

Taken from thE guitaR addicT!

The above picture is a new power supply done by Sanyo. Seems to be able to work well in powering pedals, just like having batteries in the pedals. Might be getting that when it comes to Singapore.

yAaaaa~~

Tomorrow is the start of the Japanese lessons offered by Toshiba. Hope it is fun and interesting and exciting and everything good.

Will be working on my FYP with the new project manager soon. I might be the only one in the whole of NTU to actually go back to work on the FYP, without being an official staff, that was supposed to have ended last semester. I wonder if anyone would call this stupid. I do find it stupid to go back to do up the project to a certain extent but I can't seem to leave the project alonesince no one else, even the new FYP students, would not be able to build the device in time (I think, after what the prof said). Gonna let the uncle stand up and walk as soon as possible. Kind of feel guilty that he can't get to use the device soon.

Rock On~!

Will be doing the first gig for the band on July 23 at BluJaz Cafe~!! I gonna improve my skills more!! Can feel the pro-ness of the whole band already. Can't let them down! Check out Gomen performing from 8 to 8.30pm! We'll be doing Japanese pop and pop-rock and anime songs!

New pedal addition: MXR GT-OD

Just bought the pedal from Ranking at Bras Basah. $148.50 but got a $0.50 discount. Got it for driving the sound from the amplifier more for doing solos in songs. Intended to use it for the upcoming gig in July. Gonna get a good sound!

It's really a nice overdrive pedal, if it is on its own. Realized that it kind of caused quite a few issues with the clarity of the sound and the noise created with the current setup. Oh well, give me a few more days to get used to it. Might be able to create a miracle tone out of it.

Little green pedal: MXR GT-OD

Monster Tree

Learning this song now. Gonna hit the right feeling for the solo. It's not hard to just play but quite hard to get the mood out through playing.

Life before Japanese lessons...

...is about lots of revision.

22 chapters of these kind of thing. It's tiring... Uber lot of things to memorize. Writing isn't too much of a problem but I can't remember the pronunciation and meaning easily. Damn...

Just tried new Elixir strings on my Les Paul guitar. Same string gauge as my previous Ernie Ball brand. But elixir strings seem so much harder to bend. I wonder if it's cause of the stiffness or cause of it being too slippery. But sliding is very shiok. Can do lots of expressive playing stuff now...except bending. Need time to get used to it I guess.