Current Affairs

I'll be having my current affairs tomorrow and I would just like to share my speech with you. Do give me some comments!


Good Morning audience, I am Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. I will be talking about the recent flood events today.

Firstly, I feel that no amount of engineering can prevent flooding. The recent floods are labeled as ‘Freak Floods that happens only once in 50 years’ by the Minister for Environment, thus you could already infer that the rainfall is much heavier than normal. There is a limited amount of space that has been dug underground and limited amount of space you can run off for canals. If there is a heavy rainfall, we have to prepare to accept it. Based on statistics, the amount of rainfall in each of the three incidents is approximately more than 60 per cent of the average monthly rainfall for June. Thus, unless Singaporeans want to lose more roads to make canals, we cannot stop floods from occurring. It is impossible for Singapore to be entirely flood-free.

Secondly, I do admit that the government did not foresee the extent of the flood risk, but we will work hard to combat further floods. We will continue to implement new drainage works, improve the design of the drainage systems and to deal with more intense storms. But still, I don't think it's possible in Singapore to expect the place to be completely free of floods. Because if you're going to do that, you'll have to have huge tracts of land put aside for huge monsoon drains which will be empty most of the time. The land is tied up and the infrastructure will cost a lot of money.

Lastly, I feel that Singaporeans cannot expect too much from us. Singaporeans expect everything to be perfect in their country, but the government has its limits. Some things are beyond our control, just like these flood incidents. Compared to other countries, we do have an efficient flood prevention system, but sometimes it’s just God’s act that we would occasionally meet these problems. After all, no lives have been lost and the floods are just expensive inconveniences. Singaporeans sometimes do take things for granted; they should learn to appreciate it.

I would conclude this by comparing Singapore’s floods with China’s floods. In China, 100 thousand people were affected by the recent floods and at least a thousand and hundred were killed. Let’s then compare the differences. Were Singaporeans’ homes destroyed? Were there any deaths? Were they forced to migrate from Singapore? No, and all of the above had happened to citizens of China. Singapore has merely seen a little of what China had.

Singaporeans really must appreciate that here in Singapore we don’t have any natural disasters and that these little inconveniences should not be taken into heart. The government is always working hard to solve problems, but please do think for us when we really have no more ways to solve this issue. We have a peaceful life in Singapore and we must cherish it. I end off my speech here; thank you.

Getting used

Well, after several sectionals, combined or sections, I guess it wasn't as bad as it was. I first thought it would be as boring as the first sectional after the long break, but I gradually realised that I could always find new people to mix with! Thus, I got along more with the sec 2s and 3s, who were actually really nice people as well :D

I guess we shouldn't always do one 'experiment' and take the results straight away - we should do at least 3 'experiments' before actually deriving the answer.

Yuhao is actually really cool; his personality is great, and he is the guy I would like to mix with if I could =P

And with Mr Sze conducting, it wasn't as bad as someone else conducting, because there was "law and order" within the practice. Thus, I enjoyed the process of playing the music since Mr Sze was there.

I'm actually getting the excitement back from before. I'll be working hard for SYF next year! Gold with honours~

New style of sectionals

I really missed having sectionals with the sec 4s.

Today, Mr Sze didn't come for practice, for an unknown reason, thus we had a full day of sectionals. This sectionals was different; Yu Hao, not Jared anymore, was leading the viola sectionals.

It was really boring without Wenqi and Terre, as well as the other violists, of course. No more jokes were made, and it was all serious. There was also a sudden decline in the people having sectionals; it was almost practically only 3-4 of us having sectionals, and it was, stressing this, REALLY boring. Perhaps it was due to the piece, which was extremely easy to play and the melody wasn't very emotional at all. It was also very stressful since Yu Hao kept making me play solo, but yes, luckily, I didn't screw up.

I didn't know that I would be 'lovesick' after the sec 4s left. Really. I didn't enjoy having practice anymore. I felt like quitting today, because nothing seems to interest me in the CCA anymore. I'll be following up on this in any case...

Sec 4s

Today marks the day of the end. The end of the journey with the secondary 4 seniors, who have all played an important role throughout my one and a half years in HCISO. I'll be sure to miss them, as I felt that I was closer to the secondary 4s than other members in string orchestra. Well, I'll be posting about my reflections on the seniors in my section.

First up, Jared, viola section leader, always very cheerful and lovable :D He always took care of me and asked me out for movies and lunch, and other stuff. Sometimes when I didn't practice, he didn't scold me, but pushed me on to practice and told me to bring the orchestra to greater heights. Jealous of his skills, he motivated me to practice and to overtake him. He always brought us back for sectionals and practiced patiently with us. Thanks.

Next, Aaron, although you may seem like a quiet guy, but you have a nice personality. You helped me to sign up for my viola exam when I didn't know how to, and even took blame by my mother for signing up late, thus making her need to pay for late fees, even when you were helping me. Sorry about that, but thanks a lot for taking care of me and improving my skills.

Wenqi, you are always joking around and making the viola sectionals so alive. Without you, sectionals are boring. I liked being your roommate when in Melbourne, and waking me up from my deep sleep everyday! I liked you as you didn't really scold or beat me up (o.o) when I accidentally spilled some oil on your iTouch, and you have a great personality. Thanks for guiding me.

Terre, even though I didn't know you very well, but I knew that you, just like Wenqi, always liked to make the sectionals become full of nonsense, like making fun of Zheryin -.- and stuff. Thank you~

Finally, Zheryin! I meant, Zheryin(s). :D Anyway, I liked you for teaching me not viola skills, but how to be a nice guy. I learnt alot from you without you noticing, and I liked how u endured Wenqi's and Terre's jokes of you being 21 people :) Thanks for being my senior.

My next CCA will be held on 30th July, since Mr Sze is away from Singapore, and also because he promised us to give us a break after the 2 oversea trips.

Melbourne/JB trip

This picture was taken while He Kai was playing a solo in Rendevous.



This picture was taken after a concert in JB. A group photo.



This picture was taken in JB. It was a performance during JB Art Festival 2010, and this took place at a memorial hall. I can't remember the name of the hall :o



This was taken while on a bus ride.



We're on newspaper! We bought a newspaper on the departure day of JB, only to find out that we're now famous :D



This picture was taken in Melbourne. We're (the quartet) preparing for the performance, setting up and stuff.

Welcome back!~

Hey guys, finally, I will be starting to blog again! I kind of broke my promise of posting interesting stuff about my CCA, but I will be posting pictures of my overseas trips to JB and Melbourne, although not blogging about them in detail.

HCISO March camp

Hey people, I had just came back from String Orch's march camp. ^^ I haven't been posting for one week as I know everyone would be sick and tired of my same posts XD. I would just like to point out something that had happened on Monday and not mention about other boring happenings on last Friday and Monday.

On Monday, we had sectionals, in which we decided to practice for the Holberg sixth movement, Rigaudon. Sze occasionally came in, and I got screwed for marking (-.-) while he was conducting, so I had to play it solo. I kind of screwed up for the first few times, but got it right soon, thus Sze couldn't niao me, yay! Then he started to get pissed off with all of us for not getting his instructions into our heads and soon started flaring up. He said that we could not even follow simple instructions and he had to continuously tell us at least 3 to 4 times before we get it done. He also scolded Jared for not taking lessons, of which he contradicted himself by saying that "the Nanyang girls only took 2 lessons from me and that's it. And now they are better than those of you who take lessons from Dr Yeo." So... Jared doesn't take lessons and he's very good, so why do you have to scold him? Hmm... Anyways, he also told us to reflect on how we could improve our attitudes and stuff, and I gave a lame idea. :) I win.

Now I'm moving on to the details of the March camp! :D It has been a fun-filled 3 days 2 nights, and I really enjoyed it. I'm lying, but just take it that I enjoyed it, okays? :)

On the first day of camp, I reached there at exactly 8.50am and, as expected, the starting of the camp was delayed to 9.15am. Firstly, we had icebreakers and musical chairs. Icebreakers was lame; it always is lame, but just lamer this time, since we didn't run around hitting other people, but just had to listen to what the other person has to say and just say it again. Then musical chairs... HAHA it was damn funny and fun. I managed to make it to the final two, and lost :( :( I was too dizzy to actually know where the chair is, since Jon Yong played the last two pages of Tchaikowsky track 5 last movement. Thus, I lost the champion seat to a sec 1 violin two. Want to know my strategy to playing musical chairs? Yes? Okay, I won't tell you. :) JUST KIDDING.

Firstly, for the first few rounds of the game, you should move one step at a time such that each step makes you directly in front of a chair, so that it makes sure you will have a chair to sit on once the music stops, thus making you progress further into the game. Next, after more than half of the people are eliminated, you have to be crafty, and evil XD. You stalk the person in front of you. Yes, stalk, and make sure you are very near and behind him all the time, and snatch the seat from him when the music stops and he tries to sit down. He will instead sit on you, whereby you are already on a sit. Evil, right? As for the final two round, you should use a combination of the two tactics, and use them at the correct time. That's all for strategy discussion, I have to move on to the camp!

After our games, we had practice with Sze until lunchtime. The usual niaoing by him came again, but it was more serious this time. He shouted crazily often during the rehearsal and he broke my string while demonstrating a part! What the... and I had no spare string to change. Luckily, I had a reason that I had just changed it not long ago and did not have time to buy another spare string, thus he couldn't scold me. Edward then helped me get a string and after practice we had some lousy lunch -.- In the afternoon, we played AMAZING RACE. Focus on the AMAZING... anyways, I shan't go into details as it really will take long to write about it. It might possible make this blog post twice as long.

Then came dinner, and the food equally sucked haha. After dinner, we watched a 1.5hour video clip on a violin solo, and everyone was totally restless during the video; some were playing finger games :o, some were just making fun of the violin soloist and laughing about. AND THEN CAME MRS NANCY TAY. Horror got the better of us and we were stunned! :D She didn't say anything, but shouted at He Kai about her unhappiness on a private conversation shortly after leaving the room. Yea, after that was free time, and I was playing card games with the Sec 2 cellists till lights out. But something really pissed me off during the lights out. The sec 1s kept blasting inappropriate and loud music at inappropriate times and kept laughing about something that wasn't funny, and because of that, I only had 4 hours' of sleep...

Day 2 arrived sooner than expected. We had to wake up at 7 to go for breakfast at King Albert's Park. Yes, you guessed it right! We went to eat MacDonald's breakfast. I don't actually like MacDonald's breakfast in actual fact, but still went ahead with hotcakes, and the syrup was spammed on the hotcakes! :) We then had practice with Sze from 9 to 11, of which he didn't screw us much, and Zhi Hao kind of praised us for having good conduct that day. After practice, we had lunch... and the usual lame stuff until about 3. We played 'real life' R1SK, and Zhi Hao was the captain of my team, and he was really pissed about the flawed game set up by the sec 3 OTs. (Because we were trashed badly HAHA. But the game really was flawed in one way or another.) We lost very quickly at the starting of the game and I joined the Sec 4s' team. We were actually winning, and then the last team, led by Po Han, suddenly dominated the game. They only had one territory left then, and suddenly they had half of the map, and then total victory. I was the last person to 'die', but I think I could have won, and the reason for 'dying' was partially because Jared indirectly told me to just let Po Han win because it's boring and there was no way we could win anymore. Yea, the game ended at half the time it was supposed to end, so we were actually supposed to carry out a card game championship, but the sec 4s protested and went their way, so He Kai had no choice but to go along as well. HAHA.

From 4.30 to 6, I was really sian. I wanted to mix around with orchestra members, but felt really tired, so I went back to the room and slept. Halfway through my sleep, Han Cheng suddenly appeared in front of me and kind of woke me up by putting his smelly feet in front of me. That pissed me off and all the cursing and swearing came out of my mouth. At 6, we had dinner, which undoubtedly sucked again, and then carried out our night games. This is one of the games I have enjoyed most during the orchestra camp.

It was like Dota, and if you know Dota, congratulations, because you will understand me more easily! But if you don't, let me explain a little about the game to you. We split ourselves into four groups, of which strategy is needed to obtain more points, which is gained by snatching the slippers of another group. In each group, there is a treasurer that will take care of the slippers, and other group members each need to take one slipper to be able to snatch a slipper from another group. if your slipper is taken away, you cannot attack another group and have to get a slipper from your treasurer to get back into the game. But, the area is very large; we played the game in the whole SALT Centre, so you will take a long time to find your treasurer, and yea, treasurers can be attacked, and if they are, they have to drop the whole bag of slippers, which will mean that you are as good as dead. Well anyway, I was in Jared's group and we teamed up with Zheryin's group for the first game. For the second game, we decided to team up with a stronger group, which was led by Zhi Hao. Yep, it's pretty difficult to explain in full detail about how we planned our strategy and stuff, so I will stop here. I'm guessing you are interested in the game, yea? It's really fun, trust me. No sarcasm.

After our night games, we had a shower and then I met Jared on my way back to my room and he invited me to join the sec 4s to go to KAP for supper. Unexpected I must say, and I readily agreed, but had to wait 5 minutes for them to do something in a specific place :) I can't go into detail, or else I would be sabotaging them. During our trip, Jared asked me how it felt to travel along with sec 4s, and I said it felt normal. The sec 4s were shocked at my response, but I really felt normal. I felt that I was more close to the sec 4s than the sec 2s in the orchestra, mostly due to the difference in personality between the two batches. I preferred the more fun and jokish kind in the sec 4s than the childish behaviour in the sec 2s. Hmm... guess I have matured! HAHA I wonder who praises themselves for maturing, other than me.

Day 3 arrived, and in the morning we had breakfast which was catered. Finally a good meal, I must say, and for the first time we had noodles and DILUTED milo. But it was better than normal, so I can't complain much. After breakfast, ANOTHER rehearsal with Sze :( :( This time he was worse than the practice we had on Friday; he was shouting all the time, and even asked me to do a solo on a grade-8-standard piece which I had to sightread. Yea, pretty screwed up for me, and for us, the orchestra members, and we didn't have a good time with him. But it was okay, as the next activity really was good XD.

Water bomb! Once again, it was like Dota and required alot of strategy. There are three lanes you can go, and the objective is to hit the stationary OT on the other side 10 times with your water bomb. You can also 'kill' other attackers from the opponent side and they would have to go back. So, it was the same group as yesterday's night games, and for the first round our group was up against Zheryin's group. We totally trashed them in strategy and teamwork; when their OT got whacked 10 times, our OT only got hit 2 times; total ownage! For the second round, it was winner against winner, and obviously Zhi Hao's team would be the other winner. Zhi Hao and Dylan was good in strategy, but I was better :D. Unexpectedly, I managed to hold Zhi Hao off, and we were on par, strategy or aiming wise. In the end, we emerged as overall champions! Then there was a free for all session where we could bomb anyone we liked :D I really enjoyed it.

For lunch we had pizza, although it was those type of cheap 'Buy 1 get 1 free' and plain pizza. We had to be contented with it though, because it was the best meal we had in three days -.- After lunch, we had a movie screening of Jared's film. He made a film about musicians all over the world being attacked and in the end there was only one survivor musician. I kind of summed it up to be boring, but it was a really good film. Then that marked the end of the camp :'(... ...

I really enjoyed myself these 3 days, and had the chance to bond with my seniors and juniors well. From this camp, I have learnt the importance of teamwork, and have gotten many more bonds with other people. I guess I might not be able to let go from this fun for like one week, but I will =) Oh, and there is a video link attached below about violists dancing, damn funny! HAHA You readers should go and watch it!

Violists DANCE!

About serious matters, I have decided to do some changes to my blog posts after much thinking. I will only be posting happenings in my CCA when there is something interesting, as I know that everyone is tired of reading normal happenings in daily life. So, from now on, I will be posting less but better blog posts. So, I'm choosing quality over quantity!! :) :) Good bye everyone, and thank you for reading this extremely long blog post, if you even read it totally :o

Musical chairs - finals :o


Hiding place for night games~


Team Alpha - alliance for night games!

Owned

Hello people, today I was late for CCA due to Chinese test stuff, and reached at about 3.30pm. When I arrived, the orchestra was having sectionals, and we were doing some... err... I forgot the name of the piece, but it's soothing and simple to play. Then we went back for combined practice, in which we did pretty well and then went back to sectionals after a 20-minute break. During that sectionals was when I got owned... :(. While we were practicing the second movement of a piece which I had forgotten the name again I didn't really get the rhythm and when Sze came into the small room, he sat next to me -.- Oh my god. I felt stressed because if I played something wrongly, he would know right away, but the more pressure I had, the more mistakes I made, of which one was a major mistake and I had to keep trying and get it right when Sze corrected me. He was pretty angry as I could not get it right even after many tries, and Alvin was being a b*tch and kept saying stuff that I knew, but just couldn't manage to do it. Anyways, my C string was also out of tune then and didn't dare to tune it or Sze would screw me with the speed I tune, so I rather played out of tune, but it was also not a good choice; He kept looking and shouting at me. Oh well, bad luck that Terry was gone teaching the sec 1 and thus allowing Sze to have a free seat next to me. After that, we had combined practice and that's all with Sze! Next, we had a video taking, which was claimed to be for the March camp. Pretty amusing and humorous, because the Sec 4s were not supposed to play, thus making the viola section shrink to 3 people only. Thus, those sec 4s wearing white shirts had to 'fake' in the viola section while the video was being taken. In any case, the music would be replaced by the real track anyway, so who cares HAHA! Next, Zhi Hao announced some stuff and we ended at around 7.10pm, in which my father kind of scolded me for ending so late, though it wasn't my fault. Signing off~

THE MOST UNLUCKY DAY

Since today's CCA was cancelled due to A Levels' results, I'm posting on how today went.

Simply put, today was damn unlucky. Firstly, at the start of the day, I got caught by the 2A1 and 2A3 form teachers, separately, for something I shouldn't have done, but had a good reason for it. The 2A1 teacher was very kind and just pretended he did not see anything and just walked pass, but Ms Yap, as expected, scolded me. Although I did it as a group, she only scolded me and the rest just ran off. Totally unfair, but I won't go into much details since I might be accused for flaming or some other stuff. Then next thing was when we were boarding the bus for bowling, Sherwin treated me a chicken to cheer me up, but instead it almost dropped on the floor due to Jun Hao's epic push and I had to catch it in such a way that it dirtied my shirt. Owned. Next up would be bowling. I kept shooting gutter for the same mistake that I kept telling myself to correct it, and yes, I lost to Chuan Hao for the first game, which was an utter disgrace -.- not really unluckiness, but it's pretty bad omen. Then, when Tian Ern, Jeffery, Shawn, Chuan Hao and I went to a CERTAIN place, Chuan Hao and I got caught for not bring an Identity Card; This has never happened before, ever... thus unlucky once again. Then after that, while on my way back home, I tripped and fell, ouch. Now my knee and palm are still bleeding. So, how do you like my epic adventure? Comment please. :)

Maycomb - A good place to live in?

Interpersonal
Conduct an interview with a friend (not from HCI) or family member. Find out from their point of view on prejudice and discrimination. Either record the interview or write out the interview transcript:

Me: What do you think is prejudice?

Friend: I'm guessing it's kind of like an adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts or a preconceived preference or idea.

Me: Can you form a sentence for me with it?

Friend: He has a prejudice against a person that his parents claim to be a bad person, although that person is kind and friendly.

Me: Next, what is discrimination?

Friend: I think it's to discriminate against a person or thing on the basis of the group, class, or category to which the person or thing belongs rather than according to actual merit.

Me: Form a sentence?

Friend: Foreigners have been saying that the new law is discrimination to them.

Me: Okay, thanks!

Intrapersonal
Write a diary entry for a major character of the novel:

Dear Diary,

It is a dark day for Maycomb County. Some of us knew Tom was going to lose, but we still had hope, so we must look up. Tom knows, and we know, Tom did not commit this sinful crime. I look at the Ewells with pity. As Tom said in court,"I felt sorry for her." These aren't the words of a hate filled angry man; these are the words of a wonderful God-loving man. Whites think it is appalling for any Negro man to feel sorry for any white human being no matter how low in social status. I think it is the mark of a deeply caring man.

Tom, we want to thank you for being so strong throughout this terrible time. We must stand together and say what happened in court is wrong. We must stand together and support Tom's wife and three small children. Finally, we must thank Mr. Atticus Finch for defending Tom. Atticus Finch is a good and decent man. We must pray together that his appeal on Tom's behalf will finally be heard in the halls of justice.

I will write again.

-Alexandra Finch

*Classified under Others*

Multiple Intelligence test

Eh...As you can see, my Logical and musical areas are the best, which is expected from myself. Maths is my best subject in terms of academic and my CCA is String Orchestra, thus pretty obvious. As for linguistic, yep, I can't really express myself what I have in mind well. Visual, interpersonal and intrapersonal exist in myself and yes, I'm totally not naturalistic and neither am i Body Smart.

*Classified under Others*

Sectionals

Hello people, today's practice was fun since there was sectionals for two hours, plus had a new song to practice! The song was pretty fun, because it was challenging, and because it had the horse galloping rhythm that I learnt since I started learning violin, but couldn't get it right because I was too used to Tschaikowsky's bowing. For the sectionals part, we practiced on the difficult spamming part that we had to shift like mad and had to think fast. We also had quite alot of fun fiddling with the pictures at S107 and talking crap that pollutes sec 1s' minds. Hmm.. then after that, we had a conversation with Sze about where we wanted to go for an exchange programme and had to hear his 'speech'. We then went back to orchestra room and had a combined practice, and that was all. Zhi Hao and Steven talked to us after that. Uh and I voted Hong Kong when Zhi Hao held a voting session, which was a minority. Yup, that about sums up today. :)

Solo session

Hello people, if you haven't noticed, I have downgraded my layout due to the fact that my older and cooler layout was unable to show how many followers I have. :( Anyways, back to my topic, today was pretty cool, it started off with Mr Sze niaoing me, luckily, in front of the viola section ONLY. He said that my intonation was not good at all and elaborated a lot of rubbish which were not true. But he's a nice guy in fact, since when I told him that I would be getting a viola only after I grew taller, he suggested that I buy a viola at a music shop that would be able to refund, at full price, that older viola after I get a new viola. Thus, I had a solo session with Wen Qi for two hours, of which we were slacking through it since Wen Qi thought I was good :) Then when Mr Sze came into the small room both of us were playing in, we were like totally shocked and immediately started to fake play some pieces haha. Yup, pretty much dull, just that the secondary one violin two guy was pissing me off by continuously poking me with his bow and pretending it wasn't him when it's bloody obvious. Being a big asshole, I must say. I went off at 6pm as I had to send my cousin off at the airport as she was going overseas for studies. Bye~

Tuning

Hello people, today's CCA was, again, boring like hell -.- We spent 2 hours learning how to tune, and for the seniors, how to speed tune. Of course, we all knew how to tune, but do we know how to tune accurately? That was a good question Mr Sze asked us, of which no one replied. The good thing is I learnt how to tune a totally screwed up viola within 5 minutes today :) After that, we had, again, some fun with the boring pieces... This time, alot of people got screwed by Mr Sze for e.g. playing when you are not supposed to, playing out of tune, etc. I got scolded for something I didn't do; Someone played out of timing and he thought it was I who was the one that did it, but I was lazy to explain in case it got complicated haha. Then Zhi Hao gave announcements and told us that we had to buy the orchestra shirts, and I thought, ****, I had forgotten to buy it last month, thus approached Jeremy and was told that I would have to wait until next Monday, which was cool :) .

Oh and another thing. Since 12th February 2010, HCISO has been on Hwa Chong webpage! There is a pretty cool reflection from Steven, the Vice President, on the post as well! haha and I also noticed a typo on the news. hmm.. Sorry for the boring post, signing off!



There... Steven, the emotional guy who still can't get over the beautiful memories of the exchange programme :)

HCISO Video: A Haunting of HCISO Orch Room.
Introducing, Ghosts Kaishin, Enying, Zheryin(x21), Jared and Wenqi.
Production Crew: Spongefly Lovers, Jonathan Yong and Edward Neo.

HKMOY Exchange Programme

Today's CCA was very sian == we had sectionals until around 4.30, where the seniors had to tutor the juniors, and the ratio is 4:1 WHEREBY THE SENIORS DOMINATE THE RATIO. And worse still, I was the only person to get tutored. So, yeah, pretty obvious it would suck, right? Then we went back to the orchestra room when Ms Ting scolded me for not selling any tickets for the concert. Not that I'm trying to flame her right now, but I don't feel that I'm in the wrong. Firstly, all the friends I tried to sell my tickets to either bought them already or could not make it. Secondly, she said that I wasn't close to my brother just because he didn't want to turn up for my concert... ... that was pretty much rubbish. Why must my brother have the same interest as me, and when he doesn't, why are we not close? But, I didn't bother telling her that because it would make things complicated :o Then we kind of had fun with Sze by playing through Bach's pieces and Sonata. Actually, after Sze came into our orchestra, I have learnt alot of things which I had never known before. So, I love him! :D :D Signing off~

Mr Sze

Yo, Jasper here :D. Today's practice came out much better than expected! It was fun. Firstly, we played through some lame pieces by Bach, conducted by Jon Yong, then Sze came and conducted the same pieces again -.-". Afterwards, we separated into small groups whereby each group had at least one person in each section, and I got into a group with Kenneth, Kang Le and Si En (who was 'kicked out' and changed to He Kai afterwards). I was good :) other than the fact that when Sze came into our group I was partially out of tune and didn't play VERY VERY near to the bridge. For our break, we had pizza XD and niaoed the uniform groups. Zher Yin said, "Hello, you all want pizza? Too bad finish already!" HAHA that was funny, especially when they were serious and it was random. Then, we went back to the orchestra room and played 2 other LAME songs, which were actually more challenging than Bach's songs. During that period of time, Sze managed to educate us in hearing other people's notes and intonation :o what a zai conductor! I now understand why my seniors and Dr Yeo keep saying Sze is actually a very good conductor, which I always thought not. Well that's all, goodibye!

Silver Lining performance

Hey people, sorry for not posting from thursday to saturday because I was tired out and didn't have time.

On thursday, we basically practiced with mr siew from 8.40am to 11 and rested. He was a totally changed person whom I had known before :o... He acted as if we committed some major offence and kept a long face throughout -.- At around 3, the girls came - first look, not very amazed with their looks :D :D Anyways, I practiced till 4.30 and went for violin lessons.

On friday, we took very long to move the big instruments to Cheng Yi Lou, around 1.5 hours. So in the end, we started late -.-", we were supposed to start at 10.30, but instead started at 12 or so. Practiced for about 1 hour and went for lunch, then practiced till 4 and that's it! Since 'the girls are tired because they needed to wake up early to practice'. Sure, so it was our turn to wake up at 6 tomorrow to go to school.

On the day of the performance, it was hell! Wee. We practiced with Sze from 7.30 to 9, then had to sit for 2 hours and listen to the girls play some lousy music. Then Siew asked for a combined concert and because (I think) Aaron laughed twice while the girls we practicing, although not laughing at them, Mr Siew was quite pissed. So pissed that he didn't allow the J1s to play for Tchaikowsky. I mean like what the hell, they are our seniors and you don't allow them to play just because they didn't come for thursday's and friday's rehearsal while they had an orientation? Ms Ting explained that every player needed at least 3 practices before the concert to adapt to the orchestra, but it's not as if our seniors are so lousy and needed that. They were our SLs after all. And so, I didn't really enjoy the process of playing with Mr Siew.

When I was playing Summer, I didn't screw up! :D But alot of people did due to nervousness, so we got scolded badly by Sze for it, especially En Ying who didn't look up for 12 bars. For Tschaikowsky, uh.. yea.. I totally screwed it, even the first and second movements. I think it was because my viola was out of tune, so I didn't dare to play loud, resulting in a poor performance. But my timing was wrong too though, especially during the 3rd movement pizzicato where i plugged 2 bars ahead of what I was supposed to play. Oh, and it was partly because I was influenced by the wrong timing of the horns and flutes since I sat alone in the whole row.

To sum up, the preparation and the concert itself didn't actually go as perfectly as I had expected it to be. And I'm sure Mr Sze will screw us next Friday; he said that we had to be prepared... wonder what it means haha. Anyways, currently the exco and the girls are having fun, no, not what you think -.-, at orchard road, playing amazing race HAHA. I didn't want to go since I thought it was lame and I have tuition later on. Well, bye!

P.S. You guys might want to look at this :D ---
HCISO scares Sec 1s with video

Hong Kong Girls

The Hong Kong Girls are arriving tomorrow to practice with us :o... though I neither feel excited nor dreadful, but still. Well, because of this, I shall show you some spoilers of what we are performing this Saturday!

**SPOILER ALERT**

Shocking News

Today i received 'shocking news' from my Section Leader, Jared. He said that I could not perform for the concert which was 5 days away, and which I had put a lot of effort and practice on. I felt that it was unfair, thus consulted Steven. Then I found out that Jared actually wanted me in the performance because "I was quite good, possibly better than Alvin", but there was limited space. Thus, after some consideration, I was in! :D All for some shocking news. I was punished by Mr Sze for leaning back on the chair while playing, so Xin Yuan (YES, XIN YUAN) and I had to clean up the orchestra room -.-" Pretty much boring, since I wasn't playing for a period of time when I 'still wasn't one of the performers' and Sze asked me to not 'get into the way' -.- I wasn't. In fact, I'm good! HAHA. Anyway, I had to prove to Sze that I could make it and niao him back!

Peter Chao's Birthday

Today is Peter Chao's birthday. Actually it was two days ago, but he had just uploaded a video to celebrate his birthday. It is, in my opinion, one of the funniest videos he has ever posted. But be warned of vulgar words and adult content, so if you are one of the little-goody-two-shoes (or a teacher :o), please don't see it!!

Link: Chinese guy has a small peanie

P.S. I posted this because I was influenced by Tian Ern and I was bored.

*Classified under others*