.ZNING

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T14:37:00.002+08:00

Happy New Year EVERYONE!!!! WOo Hoo!

Its been a very long time already and after browsing through all my friend's blogs, I decided that i had to write something here. Its been a nerve wrecking year for me in 2008 going through school life and all sorts of different things. Most of all, I felt that i have aged...

Firstly, A levels. Its the most stressful and boring thing i have ever done in my life and i really hope that i won't have to do this kind of thing anymore. Going through A levels made me feel how dumb and stupid i can be at times and it has also showed me that with much effort, I can really stuff ALOT of stuff into my head. Stuff that i thought was impossible to go inside my head somehow managed to go inside, somehow.

Life after A levels is confusing. Its a sense of feeling lost after all the routine studying schedule and all of a sudden, "Hey? i don't need to pick up a book anymore?" Hmm... It really feels very very weird. The first few days were terrible. I did not know what to do and how can i pass time. Time seemed to crawl at an amazingly slow speed. Its like the first few days you go to school feeling how time is passing so slowly? Come to think of it, time seems to pass slower when you don't need it and it just speeds through when you really need it. Oh well its all psychological.

Attending 3 chalets in a row was a first for me in my life. Never was I involved in 3 chalets at one go. One sec 4 class chalet, MR chalet and finally SB5 chalet. I enjoyed all of them equally (: Sec 4 chalet was more of a gathering for me to meet up with old friends and catch up with them. Did not stay for the night as i had MR chalet the next day. Although it has been 2 years already, the bonds that we forged during the secondary school days remain strong and i could really feel the atmosphere that reminded me of secondary school days. But oh well, as usual, I don't fit in very well with my sec 4 class. Not that i can't fit in at all, but just not very well. But still, i really like my sec 4 class.

Then MR chalet. It was one heck of a chalet. It was like one big family having a chalet. All the other halfs of most MR members were invited to the chalet and really, it didn't feel wrong at all. We had Charis and Ziyi who joined us even though they were not MR members but they blended in well with us(: Once again thanks for coming(: Although i really hated my buddies teasing about me, i know that they tease me because they care for me, because they want it to happen which is also what I want to realise also. However, sometimes its not very nice to continuously tease and tease cause it really hurts me. Hope you guys can understand how i feel (:

Then it was prom night. I did not attend but i somehow got in =X Saw so many people dressed so pretty and so handsome that i got abit jealous. But oh well i saved some money -_-...Went for post prom party and i can tell you its not my cup of tea. The music is just blasting and piercing that my ears hurts. Me and Shuteng just left at like 3 plus and we walked around trying to find our way in town cause both of us are goon dus when it comes to walking around town. We wanted to find a macs to have coffee and just sit down but no matter how we walked, we lost our way-_- Our initial plan was to find raffles city so we walked and walked from raffles place to cityhall and then somehow we just ended in bugis-_-"' finally found what we want and we just bought food and eat. Slept at the macs till it was like 5+ and we decided to try our luck to catch the first bus. Took 170 and it was a very very fast journey from bugis to my place. I think it took like 30mins the most? No much stop and no much traffic. End of day, Clubbing is not my cup of tea.

Working is fun for me. First time i really work in the real world earning money. first day of work is kind of confusing cause i did not know anything to do with selling. The most confusing thing was each and every products pricing. Just way to confusing. But slowly and surely, i will pick it up. (:

On the last day of the year, I got a very very special opportunity to go behind the scenes of Channel 8 new year count down show. I am really really lucky to have a friend to help me arrange for it. Reached Vivo at like 9.45 and there was like a freaky queue outside. I got the backstage pass and go all the way backstage. Woots! Damn exciting. Saw alot of artiste and sure they are all very gorgeous:D Really was an eye opener on how people run shows. Really an eye opener.

Here's wishing everyone a very happy 2009!

My audio salvation is here!

2008-11-14T22:20:00.002+08:00

A's is almost over and finally, after a long time, I've finally got it (:

WOO HOO!!!

Second Repair of GC

2008-09-11T18:38:00.005+08:00

Not mine of course :P Haha. Its my friends. His calculator got pretty screwed up and many of the buttons could not be pressed. He told me that some people said that the battery leaked and the liquid caused the calculator's inside to corrode and spoil. So i decided to take a look.

Opened it up and wah it was a mess. All the dried up battery water was inside and it was slimy. Took it for a wash and rubbed it clean. At first i thought it would be a simple thing cause maybe it was just dirt but after washing and trying to turn it on again, it didn't seem so easy.

Spent like 30 mins before I figured out that the battery water has actually corroded the conducting tracks on the PCB to the extent that a few of them are no longer conducting anymore. So i whipped out my trusty soldering iron and some enamel coated wire and began re-routing the tracks with the enamel wire. It wasn't easy and my hands were kind of shaky today.

After around 30 mins, i finally finished re-routing all the necessary tracks. Tried it again but oh bugger, it was even worst. I tried and tried and tried all sorts of method but it just didn't work. Logic was telling me that what i did was correct but i just couldn't solve the problem. I got so frustrated that i decided to give up.

I closed up the thing and screwed the whole thing up till the final cover. It was only then that i realised that i had screwed the screw in the wrong place inside so i couldn't screw the top cover up. Screw it!

So i had to reopen the whole thing again. This made me hand itchy again and i decided to give it one last shot. I desoldered the whole thing, and resoldered the whole thing again but this time in phases so that i would know which track that i re-routed controlled which buttons. This was a better choice as i could see if the soldering was done right. The first one went in and :D It worked! I restored the number zero and some other numbers when replacing one track. Then i moved on to the rest and finally everything was back and working fine.

I tried to neaten my soldering with some solder flux and dang, that was a bad decision. it screwed the whole thing again-_- Now the stupid feeling was feeling up in me and i was starting to feel damn sian about this. At first i didn't know what was wrong again but heck, i decided to just wash it with some water again. WOW! After washing with water and drying it with a hair dryer, it worked again! So happy. And i realised that this thing couldn't had alot of flux lying on the conducting pads cause i think the flux could conduct electricity too. So yea washing away the flux solved the problem. Closed it up and :D a job done again. So happy!

Yea okay i guess about 90% of the people who read what was up there understood nuts about it but in short i repaired another GC.

So anw, yesterday's night was very very clear. I couldn't resist but to take a photo of it. Here it is:

Peering through the clear night sky, I couldn't resist myself but to feel helpless...

College Bowl

2008-08-29T23:59:00.001+08:00

Woots! Fun. Haha. Been some time since i posted too cause of prelims which is quite bad. But anw, College Bowl. Shall just post photos cause a picture speaks a thousand words :D

Life is unpredictable...

2008-07-26T23:18:00.003+08:00

After what happened for the past 2 days, I finally realised how brittle and how unpredictable life can really be. First it was Kai Yan. Though i did not really know her, apart from playing netball with her on a few occasions, I knew what she was going through. I admire her courage and the strength that she had to fight her illness. Unfortunately, she passed away. She was a brave and courageous person. Rest In Peace.

Then today, Clement called me.
"Hey, you know anything that happened to Xing Zong recently?"
"No, why?"
"He committed suicide yesterday."

It was really a blow to me. 2 days, 2 lives. He was a great classmate to me. One that had a happy go lucky attitude. It was totally unexpected of him to commit suicide. Brother Muscle! How unexpected. Life could have taken a setback, but why? Why choose to take your own life?

Life is really unpredictable. A moment you may be seeing your friend so cheerful, being with them having fun with them and the next moment, they are gone. Its really unexpected of him to take his own life. He was so cheerful and always so happy, how could he have committed suicide? Its totally unbelievable, but it has happened. Hais. What can i do, what can i say? It has really been an honor to be your classmate. May You rest in peace.

Goodbye 12th Media Resource Crew

2008-07-20T13:59:00.003+08:00

Friday was the official last day for my batch in Media Resource Crew. My batch was the 12th batch of MRC. Honestly speaking, I am really proud and fortunate to be in the 12th batch. The 12th batch was a magical batch. With each of our individual specialised areas combined together, we were a batch that was made for success. With each and every show that we do that outperforms the previous shows, we were on our road to totally creating a new unprecedented standard in ACJC MRC's history. Oh well, I will really miss my batch of talented people, especially my main comm and sub comm members. Of course i can't miss out all the people who were constantly there to support us. Shu Teng, Wei Enn, Matthew, Kevin, Fang Yu, Tian Cheng, Buo Wei and iVan.

To my wonderful Comm members, thank you for being there to support me. Especially to Kee Ann and Zhong Xian. Haha, our job scope totally changed from the previous batch. I focused mainly on technical aspects while you guys covered my administrative aspects. Thanks alot!

To Brandon: Thanks for being my president, although at times i wonder if did i make a wrong choice back then as to whether to vote for you as my president. Well everyone makes mistakes at different parts of their lives. But still thanks for being there and try to learn to be a bit rational and learn some self control and perhaps reconsider how you package and present yourself.

To Zhong Xian: Okay i love arguing with you although it does not improve my GP in any way. Haha. Firstly i must say that i'm sorry for having a negative impression in the past and perhaps made a wrong judgment about you. But seriously, try to tame down a bit cause for me to have a bad impression of you to start off with means that something is not right with you in my eyes right? But still, thanks for your "anger management" problem that has prevented me from getting anger management problems. If not for your constant lectures with the J1s, then i believe i would have to be the bad boy and do all the bad things. Really Thanks!

To Kee Ann: Wah seriously, YOU ARE A WORKAHOLIC. DO YOU REALLY LOVE TO DO WORK!?!?! OH MY TIAN LA! Work work work non-stop -_- Learn to take things easier too at times (: Although they say you must do finish all the work, you don't need to do it to such an extent. Its really too much for them to ask you to do that. But in all case, THANKS ALOT! I think the person i should thank the most is you cause you really did a wonderful job. Amazing one i must say. Even the people in my father's office can't do a job like how you do it. I SWEAR! I am really fortunate to have you as my QM.

To Shermaine: Thanks for being there when i need your help. Though we didn't really get to know each other well, it was enjoyable having you as my friend. Thanks for always extorting money from me anyway.

To Colin: You and KA, seriously form the totally imbalance stock take team. YOU GO GIRL! :D Haha. Thanks for all your help ad being our odd job worker =X And for that, I shall reward you with the title of "Sir Sai Kang". Okay la, really thank you ALOT. Always there to cover for everyone when we are all busy. Maybe saying a little less of those superlatives vocabulary would make you a nicer person. But oh heck, i love your "wonderful" vocabulary.

To Joe: YAY! MY BUDDY FOR VIDEO EDITING and a great self taught drummer. AND OH! A great dancer too! Never failed to have fun when editing videos with you. Your eyes and perspectives are really a wonderful one. I never fail to enjoy listening to your ideas. Always gives me new insights. Thanks alot!

To Xiang Jun: Thanks for being the camerawoman for like almost every time i need you to be. Thanks alot! I wish you and him all the best too (:

To the rest: Thanks for being in MRC. To the people who honestly regards MRC as their CCA and not like those who have multiple CCAs and always never fail to not turn up for events, no I'm not talking about you big guy, REALLY THNAKS! Thanks for having trust in us, having faith in us. Thanks for not giving up on my comm and continue to support us. Even though there has always been the misconception that we want to get all of you guys out and claim fame only to us, you guys continues to stay on. Honestly, that very day when all hell broke lose, I really didn't mean my words to be that way. Really. And for all you know, i wasn't the one who came up with the various test and quizzes. Irregardless of that, I'm very touched to those few who bothered to continue having trust in me and my comm and not blame anything on us or bear any grudges with us. Really Thanks Wei Enn, Kevin, Matthew, Tian Cheng and Shu Teng. For those who were angry with me, firstly, i am sorry but please realise that i do not have to. Shan't elaborate on that.

Anyway, time really flies. First official event was teacher's day and then seniors night, then orientation then bla bla bla and now its all over. Woah. Just can't believe it. As time passed, we all got to know each other better. We grew, we improved and we became a team. Thanks (: Like we all agreed on, "The development and creation of a crew like ours is not just a matter of talented people but also 'cooperative' teachers." Unfortunately we are bounded by them, or else we could have gone further but also with them, our crew won't be this crew that i know of now. So to the teachers, thanks for being cooperative and understanding while in the mean time also 'cooperative and understanding'.

To my successor. All the best to you. Whatever that i need to teach you, i have taught you. Now its up to you to cultivate and grow your own skills. I don't expect you to be at the same level as me but if you do i would be really glad and comforted.

To our successors. ALL THE BEST TO YOU GUYS TOO! Like what KD said, don't let your small quantity of crew members be a hindrance. All you need is to improve on your skills and efficiency and a small number of crew will be not a problem anymore. Learn to repackage yourself and learn to show some self confidence. Its all about the package, really. So all the best in your future endeavors and in the mean time don't neglect your studies and oh ya, to some of you don't enter depression mode okay? Haha.

CMPB + Passion AC

2008-07-05T09:52:00.002+08:00

4th July, America's Independence Day, my medical checkup day and also Passion AC day. So fun right? Haha. Went for CMPB checkup in the morning with Kang De, Kee Ann and Zhong Xian. The 4 of us had quite some fun at CMPB and the bus ride back to school from CMPB was the best. We were so unhappy with the bus uncle that we were like saying all the guai lan things very very loud. The bus uncle was weird. We went up the bus and tap our cards and he wanted to check our bus pass cause he thinks we cannot be students. So okay lor take out and check. But its so weird, a bit too extreme i think and his attitude wasn't the best kind of attitude. So the 4 of us were just totally du lan by him that we started to like complain about Singapore's bus system and stuff like that. Super funny though. Haha. Oh anw, im in PES B because of having a history of Scoliosis.

So anw, got back to school. Took my own time to settle down before going up to the hall. Much to my relief, everything was more or less there already. Just that the mixer was patched like totally wrong, wonder who did the patching of the mixer. So i just went about re-patching everything and its done. Tested the whole system and it was just sounding the way its supposed to sound. Monitors were also working perfectly fine too just that it is also patched wrongly to the amp-_-. So got everything up and ready by around 4.30ish? Waited for the CF people to come back and we began our sound check. I took a different approach this time round for sound check. I ensured that all the monitors were having a good mix through them. I walked around the stage listening to their monitors ensuring that there was nothing being too loud or too soft. The most fun person to do sound check with must have been the drummer. Quite comical. Haha. 6.30 came and people came in. Started at around like near 7.20 i think. Shall not talk so much about the mix, but i had fun doing the mix, cause its also most probably the last mix for me being an MRC member :'(

Oh wells, there is a time to let go of stuff and yesterday was officially the last event the J2s would be doing. From then on, its the J1s turn to do events already. I'm really kind of worried for them, but I can't do much anymore. What i should have taught them, I taught them. What i should have cultured in them, i really HOPE that i have cultured in them. Now its up to them to up their standards. All the best J1s!

The Talk

2008-07-01T21:13:00.002+08:00

Well, it all eventually led to "The Talk", for which i am glad that all of us had one with him. Personally, it made me see things in another perspective, some that never ever crossed my mind before. Well, our objectives for The Talk were met and I am happy with the outcome, hope the rest of us are happy too. Now that things are more or less settled for the time being, its time for me to change my focus to my descendant. They really would need to start to pay attention to the details already.

Yes you all have already learned quite well, taking into consideration that you are a small group of people going to cover a large group of people's work. I really pity all of you but yet i have no choice but to scrutinise and reprimand you all whenever they do the wrong things. You guys already know how to operate every single thing that you will ever need to know to survive. Learn the basics well and they will carry you really far. Now what i ask from all of you is that to pay attention to all the minor details. Yes paying into attention to minor details may sound like a pain in the ass, why bother when ignoring them would still allow things to work out? Paying attention to all the minor details is the difference between an engineer and a good engineer. You guys can make it happen, you guys are capable of it, its just a matter of are you guys going to do it. Be on the alert, know what to do at the right time, don't panic. If you are not very good at using the touch pad, then train yourself to be good with it.

Its time you guys learn to be independent, its time that we let you go. Honestly speaking, i am worried for you all. Me and KD are very worried for you all. We somewhat already expect what it would be like for the first chapel that you guys will be doing and that thought, really makes us very worried. Being independent would mean that you guys would have to learn the things all by yourself, answer all your doubts by yourself. I know its not easy, but it is possible, take me for an example, i'm sure you guys can relate it well to me. All in all, it really actually boils down to your fundamentals cause if you have realised, a lot of the problems and questions you guys ask, has always got something to do with the basics. Learn your basics right and strong, and most of the problems that come to you all will be solved easily.

I really wish you guys all the best and i hope you guys will start to pay attention to all the minor details. Its never too late you know?

Wat the SHIT?!?!

2008-06-21T22:40:00.003+08:00

I swear that I'm a joke. I DROPPED MY GC INTO THE TOILET BOWL!!! Shall not go into the details of how me GC end up in toilet bowl. Worst thing is that it was TOTALLY submerged in the toilet bowl water and i could see bubbles coming out. DARN!

I went home and knew that i had to open the damn thing up to dry it. BUT I HAD NO SPECIAL KEY TO OPEN IT. It did not use the standard philip crosshead screws but instead some weird screw. Fiddle around with it and was lucky enough to find a flat screwdriver that is of the right size to manage to twist open the screws. Phew. Opened it up and boy oh boy. It was wet like dunno what. I removed the PCB and brought it to rinse under a tap to clean it. Then used tissue paper to absorb the moisture and then proceeded to placing the whole PCB under rice grains as i heard that rice grains had the effect of absorbing water. I was really hoping that the chip wasn't fried or anything.

Had to use a hair dryer to like bake the thing a little to purge out all the remaining moisture and then i tried to turn it on. The first few moments were kind of scary. The screen was totally dark but after a few seconds it said ram cleared and all was working well (: Wah must be my damn unlucky plus damn lucky day.

This Week.

2008-06-19T23:12:00.002+08:00

This week has been one of the more productive week. Okay, it has been the MOST productive week for the entire June holidays. Went to school almost EVERYDAY to mug form 10 to 5 in the library. Only day that we did not meet up in school to mug was monday.

Monday, Berd, Bong, Jin Xuan and Vivian came over to my place to mug. Woah! I tell you my place is the worst place ever to hold a mugging session. Just too much distraction. With music that can be blasted like damn loud and a laptop... I guess its totally a very hard to study in environment. So it wasn't very productive. Haha. JX, Berd and I ended up watching Taxi 2 towards the end of the session, but we sure laughed our heads out. Had KFC for dinner at my place and we watched SuperBand together. Laughed and laughed at all the "cannot make it" band. But i admire their courage to go in front of national television and perform. Respect!

Tuesday, Wednesday and Today. Went back to school to mug. Mug from like 10-5 having lunch in between. Been doing chem for the past 3 days. Spend so much time on chem cause i want to finish that organic assignment that was given to us. Left with nitrogen compounds and i am done with it.

Holidays are going to end. What have i done this June holidays? OH MY TIAN! NOTHING LA!

Yet Another Audiophile Post (YAAP)

2008-06-11T12:13:00.004+08:00

And its Yet Another Audiophile Post.

I had a dream last night. I dreamed that i forgotten to pull out the power cord for my Nelson Pass Preamp and left it running overnight. True enough, when i woke up the next morning and went to check, it was seriously plugged in and that means it has been running for like 16hours straight? And the bad thing is that i run them on disposable batteries. My immediate reaction was to run to my room and take out my multimeter to check the voltage. 15.5V on both sides. What a relieve. At least it didn't drop to like 10V. When the batteries are new, they should measure roughly 18V.

So i thought that i should do something about it, like an indicator to let me know if are they turned on or not. So i got down to it right after breakfast. Fitted 2 separate super bright blue LEDs to each channel of the preamp. Hid them behind the big knob so that it looked like the knob was glowing.

Had to drill the 2 wholes for the LED but i did not have a drill-_- I only had the drill bits. So i used my hand to slowly twist and turn the drill bits till there was 2 holes-_-

So this is the final product

Did some internal rewiring too to make it neater

No more messy wires. Okay maybe still a bit messy but at least its neater

The 2 blue LEDs. Wait, it seems like one side is brighter! Shit.

Upon further probing, i realised i had actually used 2 different resistor for the LEDs. This was the dimmer LED's resistor. It was a lot more larger in value compared to the other resistor, so had to swap it out for a smaller value resistor.

After swapping out the resistor, i had to test if did it still work with the modifications

And a nice blue glow(:

Shall take a photo tonight when its all dark and see how the glow effect looks like.

2008-06-10T13:23:00.002+08:00

Was feeling very very emotional. Couldn't stop myself being that way. Decided that i must stop being so emotional and I've got to do something about it. Ran through my head of what to do to flush out the emotional me and this is what i came up with.

Its a power supply for my Nelson Pass JFET preamp.

LM317 voltage regulators

Schottky diode for conversion of AC supply to DC

Final product. Dual transformer, separate power supply.

However got problem. No voltage when i first turn on. I suspect its the schottky diodes that are fried. Didn't have the time to debug the problem.

Added a new component to my audio system

Horns to go with my corals (:

Fostex D252 horns. The board at the side is the crossover for the horns

Not the prettiest setup but heck, it gives good sound!

The diaphragm of the horn

Also redid my battery supply for my Nelson Pass JFET preamp. It looks so much more neater now.

Overall the sound improvement with the horns is very good. Now my Corals still run full range but with the Fostex horns crossing in at around 8kHz. At first the sound is a bit too bright, very ear piercing because of the additional high frequency energy. So did some measurements using a Real Time Analyser (RTA) and figured out the frequency that was causing the problem. Adjusted the EQ on my laptop audio out and ah ha! It sounds a lot more better already.

Now with the Fostex horn, the highs are crisper but not to the extent of ear piercing. I can now also pick up the not so obvious breathing sounds of the singers when they sing. Overall a good improvement la. Only problem is that now when i want to listen to music, i need to use my laptop cause i dun have a graphic equaliser! So its a bit troublesome.

Okay its more like a geek or audiophile post liao, okay it is.

Jesse McCartney - Why don't you kiss her

2008-06-01T12:18:00.002+08:00

We're the best of friends
And we share our secrets
She knows everything that is on my mind
Lately somethings changed
As I lie awake in my bed
A voice here inside my head
Softly says

Why don't you kiss her
Why don't you tell her
Why don't you let her see
The feelings that you hide
'Cause she'll never know
If you never show
The way you feel inside

Oh I'm so afraid to make that first move
Just a touch and we
Could cross the line
Everytime she's near
I wanna never let her go
Confess to her what my heart knows
Hold her close

Why don't you kiss her
Why don't you tell her
Why don't you let her see
The feelings that you hide
'Cause she'll never know
If you never show
The way you feel inside

What would you say
I wonder would she just turn away
Or would she promise me
That she's here to stay
It hurts me to wait
I keep asking myself

Why don't you kiss her (tell her you love her)
Why don't u tell her (tell her you need her)
Why don't you let her see
The feelings that you hide
'Cause she'll never know
If you never show
The way you feel inside...

Why don't you kiss her?

FunOrama XIX Video

2008-05-25T16:49:00.002+08:00

Something that is way overdue. But nevertheless, here is ACJC FunOrama XIX Video!

NAPFA

2008-05-22T21:42:00.003+08:00

WOOTS!!!! I PASSED NAPFA!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally! (:

Must really thank those people who motivated me to pass my pull ups. Jin Zhe, Berd, Cynthia, Vivian, Derrek, Kai Yuan and more la. Ever since the day i saw Kai Yuan pass his pull ups, it has been my motivation to train for it cause i saw a living example that it is possible to pass pull ups for people who fail it. :D Must thank him for giving me the motivation to pass my pull ups if not i guess i would still be slacking and failing my pull ups not even wanting to pass it.

Have to thank Berd and Jin Zhe for pacing me for the last lap of my run. I really could feel my feet ache already and i was almost going to give up. But they came along and pushed me on. Thanks alot! (:

To everyone who has in one way or another help me pass my NAPFA, Thanks!

enCOre

2008-05-19T19:25:00.003+08:00

Went to watch the enCOre concert yesterday. Pretty good one i must say.

Wanted to go there with a listening ear to really enjoy the music but the day before, Vivian just SUDDENLY call me and crap, have to do videoing... Oh wells. Ended up watching the whole concert through a view finder which is just so not good. Life of a Sai Gang warrior.

So Anw, had to go to SCH just a bit earlier to setup my camera and get a good spot. Supposed to meet with Shiyi for dinner first before going over to SCH but then she pang seh me, call me when im on the bus telling me her mother cooked liao. End up i decided to just grab a light snack ALONE at burger king. Super lonely. Haha. After my light snack at BK, went to the library at Westmall. Grab a copy of HiFi Choice magazine and indulged in it. Read the magazine till like 5.50pm then Shiyi came. Made our way to Tanjong Pagar MRT. Okay la, at least she was understanding and agreed to go there earlier. (:

When we reached Tanjong Pagar, she met her classmates over there so we went split ways. Went over to SCH first to get ready. Was given the circle seats. Setup the camera and was deciding which tripod to use since i brought my own one. Once i was done., i SMSed Q cause he used to work at SCH. I asked him if could he help me ask his friend to let me go visit the control room. =D. Was very fortunate cause his friend allowed. Damn happy. They had a lot of equipments inside. A few racks of it and their speakers were EV speakers which sounded just great. The mics they used throughout the concert were DPA mics anw. Good stuff. However, throughout the whole concert, there were no amplification done for the orchestra except for the soloist performances.

So anw, the concert started. I started off using the tripod. It was super duper jerky. It came to a point that i really wanted to just throw the tripod away... and i did. I decided to use my hands halfway through. Although its very tiring and i would most probably shake more, at least its not jerky. I felt pretty lonely up there at the circle seats myself. Like a man on a island alone. Although it was like a best spot to watch a concert, it was really lonely up there.

I liked the last encore piece cause the conductor really energised the atmosphere by bringing the audience into the music. Its like he has bridged the gap between the audience and the orchestra. Great job Mr Shen!

The concert ended and i just packed my stuff and left the circle seats. Found Vivian and got her to bring my equipment back to school and take care of it cause i lazy to bring everything back myself :P

Took some pictures with the class with Vivian and Miss Too, then i left already. It was pretty late already and they wanted to follow Vivian back to school so i just decided to go home from SCH. Met up with Shiyi and we left for home together. Met Kok on the way. Ended up being lame with him and our conversation is really very very lame. Reached home at around 12.

=D

2008-05-16T20:27:00.001+08:00

Just want to say thanks to everyone who wished me happy birthday and to SB5 for buying the cake to celebrate the May baby's birthday. Thanks a lot (:

Pictures!

2008-05-12T19:52:00.001+08:00

So here are some picture of the crew during AC got talent.

Everything looks blue...

Curtains Closed

After the show

Wrap up for last week!

2008-05-11T21:42:00.003+08:00

Last week was kind of tiring. But oh well all our hard work has FINALLY paid off. AC got talent. One of the best show i have ever done. No major hiccups and cock ups and the best thing of all, we have won the challenge set aside by ourselves. We did a live telecast thing! First time ever in ACJC and it was made possible by us. GREAT JOB GUYS!!! Shall post some pictures after i get back my camera. Have to thank the councilors for being so meticulous in everything they did cause the script that they passed to us was just so comprehensible. In short, one of the best shows MRC has ever ever done. BEST!

On the other hand, i have missed out a lot on my academics. Sleepless nights made me very tired and unable to concentrate at all. The thought of AC got talent makes my mind wonder away from lectures and tutorials. Just cannot concentrate. Some teachers are considerate while some aren't. But oh well, can't really expect all of them to be so understanding. Right? In fact its a blessing that even some of them understand (: Sometimes what i need is time for myself to adjust myself back to the right mood instead of someone always pushing me. All i need is some time alone to sort out my thoughts. A quote from Randy Pausch at his last lecture: Life ain't about achieving your dreams, its about how you lead your life.

I'm back!

2008-04-30T21:31:00.002+08:00

Yep! I'm back and im not going to blog about how tired i am this time (:

Monday was maths test. I kind of forgot to retrieve the probability tutorial that i promised Miss Kuah to retrieve by the end of Friday after the AC's Got talent rehearsal. I feel really bad for that. She is really understanding cause i only passed it to her on that Friday afternoon and she just marked it for me without doubting me or anything. Really appreciate it, but it just slipped my mind to retrieve it after the rehearsal. Anw, Monday morning after chapel and cyberwellness talk, Miss Kuah called me but i accidentally hung her call!!! Argh!!! Then she smsed me. Wah i feel terrible doing that although it was an accident. ZZZ. She actually smsed me to remind me to collect my probability tutorial although the test was just like an hour away. I really really appreciate it. Thank you Miss Kuah for your understanding! Really thanks! Sometimes when you are feeling so tired and down about everything single thing in the world, it is this kind of acts of kindness, care and concern that brightens up your day and make you realise that all is not lost. Really thanks! (:

Tuesday was Chem test. I think I was prepared for it but then Murphy's law never fails to amaze me. Oh well. It was really Chem day. Wah so many period of chem and then chem test and chem MCQ time assignment. Chem Chem Chem. BAH!

Today was physics SPA. Wah its the last of SPA. I hate it but i am going to miss it :( Undeniably it is enjoyable for me to do physics SPA. I really pray and hope that i did not screw it up cause its double weightage from the rest of the SPA's I've ever done. Hope all goes well and i did not forget to write anything cause i ALMOST forgot to write the whole section on Hypothesis. OH MY TIAN LA! Lucky i realised it while i was writing my procedure on the hypothesis and then figured out that the whole section is missing!!! It kind of made me nervous and not able to concentrate after that cause i became so concerned about if did i screw up. Hope everything goes out well.

Oh anw, can you believe it? Miss Kuah has finished marking the papers and she returned it to us today. Very efficient! AND................................~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I GOT 20/25!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOTSSS!!!!!! ITS MY FIRST A FOR MATHS!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was like punching my fist in the air after looking at my marks cause i was so happy!!!! MY FIRST A!!!! YAY! I'm so going to fight to the end for an A for my maths! With hard work, all is possible. I got everything on complex numbers correct (: So its just the probability question that i sort of screwed up but im not good at probability cause my head is kind of the think in one direction kind. Haha.

Tmmr's labor day. A much awaited holiday. Finally some rest for good (: Shall sleep like a pig tmmr then go for tuition during the evenings.

So tired...

2008-04-26T21:29:00.002+08:00

Its been long since i've updated. All is fine (: Just that i'm feeling a little worn out. Everyday is like a tough one to pull through. How i wish i can just don't worry about stuff for one day and do what i like most. It's so tiring... So many tests this week. Chem test, Maths test, and PHYSICS SPA!!!! WOAH!!!!! Going crazy... Most likely will fail one of them but it shall not be Physics SPA cause it determines my A Level results. What Mr Chew says makes sense, totally. Okay i shall mug hard for next week!

phew, finally over...

2008-04-19T16:44:00.002+08:00

Finally its Saturday and the week is coming to an end. Just came back from Maths tuition and now i'm just lazing around listening to music on my system. Its been long since i turned it on to listen to music. I miss the sound of my Corals. They are seriously like gems.

Monday - Supposedly to have AC got talent auditioning. Somehow ended up with only one pianist auditioning... -_- So we just left la. Waste time.

Tuesday - MP Mdm Halimah Jacob came to our school to conduct a GP enrichment talk. Had to do it with Shermaine in the end cause if screwed up confirm GG to MRC. Lucky no screw ups at all and Mdm Halimah knew how to use a mic properly. Concurrently, there was CB Paul Quiz rehearsal. The rest of the crew did the rehearsal. Ended kind of late.

Wednesday - CB Paul quiz. I opted not to have a blue slip cause i felt that there were just too many people over there. No point for me to be present. Furthermore, with my presence, i will be doing everything including sound check and stuff cause thats my nature. So thats why i best felt that i just opted out of a blue slip and leave the stuff to the J1's to do.

Thursday - AC got talent audition. At least this time got a few bands. But heck, 1 band only-_- Did the semi full setup with the board in the center of the hall. Must thank KD and whoever who helped out with the fast setup. Had a bit of fun while mixing for the band.

Friday - Julia Gabriel Debates. Something like CB Paul but without monitors. Oh man, had a screw up during our manpower transition. Crap. Luckily the teacher was not so petty about stuff. Ended at near 1030 and by the time i got home, it was 1130.

Today - Community Games. Shall not say anything about it.

Finally its over. But is it really over?

I'm Burning Up!

2008-04-16T22:07:00.004+08:00

This week is very very hectic. I'm not sure how am i going to get pass with it. So many events. Multiple events happening at the same time. Everyday filled with events, even Saturday. Miss Too asked us if have we ever wondered and I told her that i wondered if will I ever get to rest. I can really feel myself starting to burn out. Really very tired. Everyday in class, my physical self is there, but my soul is somewhere else worrying about other stuff or if not, resting. I really feel very tired. Plus all the problems that is happening with my CCA, I really wonder if i can survive through this week. But i know, there would always be people who are even more tired than me. Hearing what Bernard told me today, i realised that I'm actually quite fortunate for some teachers understand my situation but don't know and understand his.

Had CB Paul event today. Only ended at 6.30pm. By the time we finished packing up, it was around 7.40pm. Really want to thank her for waiting for me to be done with MR stuff and trying to lift my spirits. I was feeling pretty moody the whole day, just didn't really want to do anything but she came along and brought a smile to my face (: Thanks alot!

Really feel like just dropping down and sleep now but i know i must persevere!

JIA YOU! I MUST MAKE IT!

A trip to telex

2008-04-12T09:13:00.003+08:00

Yesterday, i went to Telex. A company which was taken over by Bosch and carries brands like Midas, Klark Teknik, EV and Dynacord. Brought my camera along but did not take any photos -_- Haha. Was so engrossed with all the stuff there that i forgot to take photos. But i took a photo of gifts that Q gave me. Anw Q invited me there cause i wanted to know how to EQ the sound.

I got to use the Legend 3000 Console. It was the 48 channel version but still it was damn big already. Confirm cannot put inside the tiny cage. This is a picture of the board that i got to use. Very cool i must tell you and I must really say that the board is really designed for the engineer and not designed for the engineer to learn.

Q went through everything with me on this board and its really amazing. The way it mutes certain circuits when it is not in use to reduce noise floor, the way it routes its matrix channels, the way it inputs ambience sound into its aux channels, simply amazing. Surely you won't find anything like that in a Yamaha console.

Q was like fiddling with his Smaart Live software cause it wasn't working and in order to teach me how to EQ, he needed that software to show me the graphs. Unfortunately his Smaart wasn't that Smaart yesterday so in the end cannot teach me EQ but he still taught me all the kinds of EQ, like shelving, parametric, constant Q parametric, proportional Q parametric. All these weren't known to me until yesterday. So thanks to him i got to know more!

By the time we finished everything about the Legend 3000, it was 2 hours later. So we moved on to the XL8! Woots!

Damn cool piece of mixer. It's so good that i won't even say that it is like a mixer but instead its more of a audio network system. No audio processing is actually done on this board. Really! Although it has like 7 Pentium 4s in it plus 5 more dunno what processor, just not from intel. Really damn good. The 5 screens in front are high contrast monitors so no need to worry that cannot see. The faders fly like so damn cool and all the functions are just mind blowing. Again, it is a mixer designed for the engineer and not designed to let the engineer to learn. I picked up how to use this board in quite a fast time. Midas paid a lot of attention to this board. Attention to how engineers get so worried about the values when on a digital board causing them to slow down, attention to like what if there was suddenly a board failure and what should the system react to, all these made up the XL8. Seriously its one of the most amazing and impressive board i ever seen.

As i said, the board does not do the processing on board so it has 22 outboard modules in order to run with it. It has ten DL471 DSP Engines, two DL461 Audio System Signal Routers, five DL451 Audio System Modular I/O, four DL431 Audio System Input Splitters and One DN9331 Klark Teknik Helix Rapide. All this for one board. And the best part, it runs on a fibre cable and it has a redundant 2nd fibre channel in case one fails and even if it fails all of a sudden, the sound will stil be there, just that there is no control over the sound but it does not mean an instant mute. Damn powerful.

96 channel is a standard for this board. You may ask, 96 channels but the board is so short? That was my qns too but then i realised this damn thing is actually like a page thing. You can flip the page to the next page and all the channels will change on the display! Its like OMGWTFBBQ! And even more cool thing is this. There is a layer B function so i can actually work on one of the bays on this board, which actually has 5 bays, and what im working on is independent of what another person can be doing on the other bays. Its like effectively having 2 separate mixers to control the same thing. Seriously i have NEVER seen such a board with all these functions before. Crazy shit but very impressive. I really nothing to say but just go wow!

Learned the XL8 operations then it was about time to go home. On the way home, Q lent me his Westone earphones. OH MY TIAN! I listen to that earphones liao then feel like throwing away my HiFi system. Its like a few WORLDS APART. Damn good la! The bass is so deep and so punchy and the mids is just SHIOK!

Okay enough geeky stuff liao before SOME people poke fun at me with my geekness again. Haha.

PW Results

2008-04-11T21:22:00.002+08:00

We got back our results today. I got an A but somehow i did not feel as happy as i should have been. Only 2 people in my group got As. See Toh and me. The rest all got B. I felt that i have sort of failed as a PW group leader cause i did not lead my group to success. On the surface, it looks as if i worked for myself only, cause i got an A but the rest did not. I'm really sorry for not doing a good job PWAC122... Really sorry.

Seeing Marshella's and Vivian's expression when i told them that got B's hurt me quite a lot. The fact that Marshella did not get an A made me feel irritated. She was the one who did the most work in the group but yet she got a B. She was the most hardworking one, most determined one but yet she did not get an A. I'm really sorry Marshella. Vivian, the most cheerful one. The most rationale one. The most analytical one. The one who really cared about team spirit. But she did not get an A. I really don't know what to say. Her sad, dejected face just made me feel guilty of not doing a good job as a PW leader. Alvin too didn't get an A. I guess all i can say to them now is that i'm really sorry and not to be sad cause whats done cannot be undone. Must look ahead and strive hard to score for other content subjects! Getting a B isn't the end of the world, be optimistic!

omg damn paiseh!!!

2008-04-08T20:06:00.002+08:00

This morning, cause KD wanted to purposely sabo the J1s so everything was in like a mess. LT1's screen and projector were not ready for assembly. So halfway through devotions, me and KA went down to LT1 so get it ready BUT omg! the string was like so high up that i cant reach. I had to climb a chair and even jump of from the chair to grab the string. When i did that, the screen made a SUPER DUPER LOUD noise. Then the whole hall turn around and look at me. OMG SO DAMN PAISEH CAN!!!! AHHH!!!!! The string slipped through my hand so it was still kind of high up there although it is lower. I stretched myself to reach for the string and because it was swaying, i had difficulty grabbing hold of it. So i like pinched the air a few times before i finally got it. The people at LT1 was like looking at me trying to pinch air la, they were giggling. WAH!!!! DAMN PAISEH LA!!!! I think i must go hide myself liao la. So malu. AHHH!!!!!

FunOrama Video!

2008-04-07T17:12:00.002+08:00

Yay! Im so happy cause despite the video i made is 7mins long, Mr Mak has allowed it to be played (: Yay! Thanks Mrs Loh for asking him too! I'm so happy la! Haha. Looking forward to tmmr! Woots!

FunOrama!

2008-03-30T14:41:00.002+08:00

It was a blast! Wonderful! Perhaps the most tiring 2 days but yet most meaningful experience i will ever have in ACJC. Simply great!

Started off with preparation day. Had MRC duties in the morning. Very sorry to the class for not being able to help out. Waited till 10+ for everyone to assemble in MR room before we began our massive project of making sound audible from every angle of the school. Took crank stand and horns and hundreds of meters of cables to setup. Somehow my group was one of the faster one this time round. Did more than what i was supposed to setup. Laying of cables was fun and i figured out that perhaps i have wronged someone for a long long time. Finished setting up all the speakers at around 1pm. By that time all of us were famished. Seriously. Ran quick checks on the system before energising it. Pretty successful i must say. No glitches.

I guess we were too loud cause this teacher from the dunking booth complained to us that their loudspeakers could barely be heard over our system. She complained complained complained and kao bei kao bei to all the teachers in the school. Then that class's chairman came over and talked to us like he wanted to pick up a fight. He used all sorts of vulgarities until i think he has finished using up all of them found in the dictionary of vulgarities. Seriously that class is pretty rubbish cause from what i can see, all their planning were last minute stuff and their teacher was seriously pretty screwed up. Compared to my class form teacher, i realised that my class actually got a very very amazing form tutor.

The system was officially ready by around 2pm. Went over to my class to setup the gun. Had no choice at first but to only use batteries and an inverter. Got done with it. Haha had quite some fun with it shotting cans. I was quite shocked to find out that people actually found the gun fun. LOL. I heard that Mr Sim who went into the MR room on Friday saw the gun on the table and went " WAH! Really look like carbine!" LOL!!! Must really take my hats off to Jin Zhe who made the effort to search high and low for the toy gun replica of the carbine. I must say that I'm sorry for losing my temper on you on Wednesday but let that be a lesson to both of us. (: Oh have to also thank Mr Chew who was so understanding to me and gave the games stall a power point which we did not apply for. So in the end we ran from power supply off the wall instead of a inverter. Finally, I must also thank my father for always willing to listen to me and help me out with the testing and advising me on the safety aspects of the gun.

Night came and 8 of us stayed over in school. By then all of us were pretty angry with the way the school pushing us around. Reported to the discipline committee for staying over in school. Went out at around 9pm for dinner. Yes most of use skipped lunch and only got to eat at around 9. All of us were like hungry ghost. LOL. We RAN from school to the JUMBO coffeehouse. 7 of us ate. Shu Teng eaten already so he just drank tea. 7 of us and 12 plates of rice :D

Went back to school walking very slowly cause we were like so full. Went to our temporary Command Control Centre and lazed around there. Waited till 12 midnight then we began our disrupting the water supply and food plan, as ordered by the OM -_-. Went around the whole school to remove the fuse and turn off the water supply of the water cooler and vending machines. Came back and went to bathe. Had to use the girls toilet cause the guys toilet was filled with gas cylinders. Yellow is a nice colour for a toilet. By then, my phone died-_-

At around 2am, this group of guys came down with a calf and prepared it for a roasting session. Wah its like the first time i see such a thing, very very cool.

Went back to CCC and i knocked out. Slept till 7am cause was seriously damn tired. Woke up and tried turning my phone. got like 1% of battery left. Then received SMS from vivian asking for my apron. AHHH!!!! I forgot to bring... Very sorry about it. I kept reminding myself to bring on Firday morning but then i forgot... Very sorry. Went to our system and began re-energising the whole system. Successful.

FunOrama! I was involved with 4 things, fruits stall as helper, games stall as troubleshooter, MRC, and Roving DV. Wah 4 things to cope with, how to juggle? And i had $50 waiting for me to spend. Plus my phone was dying. ZZZ.

Fortunately everything went on quite smoothly with a little bit of problem here and there with the games booth. It was very crowded in school. Like alot of people and it rained quite heavily. Spent more time at the games booth and i found it really fun and fulfilling to see people having fun with the gun that i built with Jin Zhe, although our gun went over the budget. There was this small boy who was so cute. He was like holding the gun and when i started the count down, he went "tan tan tan" which meant wait wait wait in hokkien. So cute la. haha. The top prize was won by this girl who just managed to hit 2000 points. Very pro.

So sad. FunOrama had to end. Pack up began and only managed to clear everything at 8pm. Sat in MR room and used XJ's charger to charge my phone. Turned it on and omg. Alot of voice call alerts. Very sorry to all the people who called me especially Shi Yi. I promise to charge my phone to 100% and bring my charger along the next time i am having another stay over anywhere.

Learned alot of things during FunOrama. Really a great experience!

FunOrama

2008-03-27T21:00:00.002+08:00

YAY!!! 2 more days to FunOrama! Woots! Love the atmosphere around. Although its really busy ad hectic toget ready for FunOrama, i still think that its worth every single moment of it. Can really feel the class coming together and bonding with each other as FunOrama approaches. Even the usually quiet ones start to speak up! So exciting la!

I bet our class games stall would be like the coolest around cause the machine is made by Jinzhe and Me, so of course will be darn cool. Bwahahahaha. LOL! Hopefully the gun won't fail me on the actual day and alot alot of people can come and have fun at our booth. Really look forward to it.

John Mayer - Daughters

2008-03-23T13:35:00.003+08:00

I know a girl
She puts the color inside of my world
She's just like a maze
Where all of the walls all continually change
And I've done all I can
To stand on her steps with my heart in my hands
Now I'm starting to see
Maybe it's got nothing to do with me

Fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too

Oh, you see that skin?
It's the same she's been standing in
Since the day she saw him walking away
Now she's left
Cleaning up the mess he made

Fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too

Boys, you can break
You'll find out how much they can take
Boys will be strong
And boys soldier on
But boys would be gone without warmth from
A woman's good, good heart

On behalf of every man
Looking out for every girl
You are the god and the weight of her world

So fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters, too
So mothers be good to your daughters, too
So mothers be good to your daughters, too

Sick...

2008-03-21T11:13:00.002+08:00

ZZZ... Sick on good Friday, what perfect timing man...

Couldn't sleep well at all last night, just tossed and turned on the bed. Wasn't even sure of what was going through my head. It was like total confusion. Semi conscious about my surrounding and not even sure if am i in a dream or not.

Woke up at around 10. Was still in a kind of semi-conscious state, unsure of what am i supposed to do. Took some time to stabalise my thoughts before going to wash up.

Now my whole body is aching and my throat hurts. Breathing in hurts a lot already. I want to go sleep and try to recover but the moment i try to sleep, the weird semi conscious, confused state will get back to me and i will end up tossing and turning around on the bed again.

Hais, hope that i will recover soon...

Chemistry

2008-03-18T18:43:00.002+08:00

Every time it comes to chemistry lessons, I always have a very reluctant feeling in me. One side of me tells me that I want to learn Chemistry but the other side of me tells me that I had enough with Chemistry.

When JC1 started off, i was quite enthusiastic with Chemistry. It was like the lesson that i most looked forward to. Partly due to me liking Chemistry and partly due to the wonderful tutor that my class had. I still remember after PAE when there was a reshuffling of teachers and classmates, i was super happy when i saw her walk down the corridor for our first Chemistry lesson. Happiness was an understatement at that time.

But now, its a totally different story. In my honest opinion, she is now just a purely results orientated teacher. I try not to think so much about it but it really is very hard to ignore that feeling in me. Yes it is our fault to write the wrong stuff in the test papers, yes we failed you, yes we disappointed you but is it really purely our fault? Our fault to make this mistakes? I mean there is always this factor of human error and something things that go wrong will go wrong. Its not like we students want to purposely write the wrong stuff in the test papers, in fact we don't want to. Who doesn't want to get high scores for whatever tests they take, whatever examinations they take? All of us feel happy when we eventually get good results but we too feel sad, disappointed with ourselves when we fail or make silly mistakes that put us at a disadvantage.

It feels horrible to realise that a mistake has been made. Just terrible. Is rubbing it in really necessary? Perhaps it will leave a deep impression in us but then again where is the humane side of doing such a thing? Maybe such a "rubbing it in" session will help us in the future when we take our papers in the next few months, by then i would be thanking you all the way till there are no more other means but then again, are there really no other methods to make us understand and learn from our mistakes other than having a "rubbing it in" real hard session? Maths was something that i totally hated. Totally. I took maths tutorials and lectures for granted and just ignored Miss Kuah and Mr Tan during lectures and tutorials. But when she took over our class in J2, I realised that she was a tutor and lecturer that did not just care about our results, our grades, but also someone who cared about the welfare and wellness of her students. This was a motivating factor that led me to at least pick up my pencil and give maths a try. From then on, i got so hooked onto it that it really became an enjoyment whenever i could solve a maths question. For that, i really respect her.

Perhaps it has been proven that scolding sessions work the best in obtaining results that are satisfiable but does that mean that without scolding, satisfiable results are unattainable? I agree to the act of scolding but only at appropriate situations. That is my believe, which is why i don't lose my temper easily at anyone unless that person is pushing my limits. In my honest opinion, excessive reprimanding sessions are harmful, and I'm beginning to feel the effects of it. It has been getting too common nowadays, so much so that I'm beginning to lose interest in it. In the past when I did Chemistry tutorials, I did it with a thinking in my mind that its for me cause I'm actually enriching myself with information but now when i pick up that stack of paper, my mood dampens. Its as if I'm studying Chemistry to satisfy her demand for our good grades.

Oh well, this is just purely my opinion and i seriously don't mean any harm. I just want to let the steam of anger out of me so that i will feel better. It may be a very biased opinion but this is truly what i think about it.

MahJong!

2008-03-16T11:03:00.002+08:00

Woots! Went to Vivian's place to play mahjong on Friday. Started off with 3 people and we were watching Kung Fu dunk while playing it. So hard to concentrate la and 3 people mahjong seriously quite hard to play cause cant really count with 3 people. Then when the show ended, Bernard joined us and we had 4 people. Yay! He did not know how to play so we taught him how to play. He is a fast learner! So in no time, we were playing at a fast speed. the 4 of us played from 3+ till 6 and Jin Zhe sat at a corner to mug from 3 to 6. -_-"'

I was like on a winning spree, kept winning for consecutive 4-5 rounds and i was the dealer so the dice got stuck at my place. haha. Guess i was lucky. All the tiles that i needed just came up to me. After that i lost the winning luck and lost for a few rounds. Then at the last round, i was feeling lucky again and won it! Yay!

Went down to the coffeshop to have dinner. Ate Yu Pian Mee Fen for dinner. Not bad.

Saw Mr Kayden Lim on the way out of the coffeshop and all of us were like stun. Haha. We quickly walked off.

Reached the MRT station and we walked off in different directions.

Argh school's gonna start again and the hectic life of school will hit me again. Roar!

MRC Camp

2008-03-12T21:40:00.002+08:00

Woo Hoo! It was fun!

Learnt a lot from the J1s from the way they behaved and interacted. It sort of reminded me of me during the march camp last year. Ah, how quickly time passes.

It was very tiring for all of us cause we were like dozing off whenever possible throughout the second day. LOL. I dozed through the end of camp briefing... alamak. haha

But overall, it made me realise a lot of things in MRC that i once could not make sense off and i got to know the J1s more. They are a fun bunch of people and i really do hope that they will stay on in the CCA.

MRC Recruitment Video

2008-03-07T23:08:00.002+08:00

WooHoo! But this one is without the effects, so its not the actual one shown during assembly today...

Terms

2008-03-06T20:04:00.001+08:00

Two word: Quite Screwed...

My Guzheng Story

2008-03-02T13:22:00.005+08:00

A story about me and my Guzheng.

Secondary 1, I was somehow posted to enter Guzheng Ensemble. Everyone in my class was kind of in awe cause i could get in. It was considered as a CCA that was really good considering that they only picked the best few suitable people to join it. 11 people managed to get into Guzheng Ensemble for my batch. Practices were once per week, every Wednesday.

I was one out of the 2 boys in Guzheng. People tend to relate me to being "sissy" cause i was in Guzheng. They had the impression that Guzheng was for girls. Well, i had that impression too but then when i saw my senior Wei Long, i was taken aback. I realised that there is a violent side to Guzheng. Haha. He could play the Guzheng with anger but yet at the same time with grace, something that is pretty rare nowadays i would say.

Soon i had to get my own Guzheng cause i had to practice at home. At that point in time, i had the feeling as if I'm going to stick to Guzheng as a CCA for the rest of my education but who knew, i would get tired and sick of it after some time? I got one, one expensive one. It cost my parents $880 plus the cloth to cover it which cost $50, it was really expensive. Price wise it is expensive, but what was more worth is that this Guzheng was specially selected for me by my trainer, Yin Qun. She even placed a sticker with my name on it on the Guzheng.

I was one of the most promising player in Guzheng Ensemble. I picked up the skill very fast and i could play songs that most did not know how to. The only problem with me was that i was too violent. I had little expressions in my music.

The first outing i had with Guzheng was on a Saturday during Sec 1. It was like a exchange thing among different Guzheng Ensembles from different schools. It was held at Fuhua Secondary School. At that time, the Chairman of Guzheng was this pretty girl. She was very talented, graceful and responsible. She would think of all the possible problems that may arise and solve them even before they arise. I can remember that she wanted all the performers for that day to re-tune their instruments cause she was worried that the change in temperature from air conditioned surroundings to room temperature will affect the sound. What she did was very smart. Something that left a impact in me.

It was the year of SYF too. Out of all the people in my batch, i was selected to go with them to support them. I guess i was kind of important? They won a gold, which was the highest possible at that time.

Secondary 2 came. We shifted our venue cause we had a new school compound. The new room was around the same size as the old room but there was a GIGANTIC mirror that went across the room. Something like a dance studio.

Secondary 3 came. SYF year. I was part of it. Pressure was super duper high. All of us wanted to get Gold With Honor, but honestly, deep inside me, i was pretty sure we couldn't make it. Everyone was super encouraging to each other telling each other that gold with honor was ours. Oh well. We practiced very very very hard everyday, EVERYDAY.

That day came. We were excused for the whole day to allow us to practice in the morning and get ready for the competition. Everything just happened so quickly. In no time we were in the tuning room inside SCH. Everything went on smoothly until we got to go on stage. OH MY! Someone's support toppled. This was bad. My chairman was thinking of what she should do but she decided to fake on and not change the instrument for a spare one. I agreed but i guess it was a wrong move. All of us were so happy when it was over.

We went inside to listen to the whole thing and when the whole thing was over, the results were announced. We lost it. We did not get Gold with Honors.

It was a sad thing. All of us wanted to get GOH, but we failed. Everyone was crying. Everyone. Our grand-seniors were there to cheer us on but all we could do was cry...

Sec 4 came. I took over as the Chairman. I was rather unhappy with the results of the committee cause i really didn't want to be Chairman cause i knew i would screw the whole thing up. And yes i did. Some of the teachers were screwed too to start with.

That year was a hard one for me. I didn't really know what to do. All i was looking forward to was to step down during July. Hais. Come to think of it, i am really very irresponsible. Performances were not the main thing in my head. Oh well. But i have to thank my 2 good friends i had in Guzheng. They continuously pushed me on but i continuously failed them. Hais.

As time passed, i picked up another hobby and my guzheng was left at a corner, never touched. It must have felt lonely. It came to a point when my father decided to put it back into its casing cause i wasn't even using it.

Today. It would be most certain the last day i would ever see it again. Kind of sad but i know that it would be put to better use with a new master. I decided to give it away, for the sake of music. Someone who genuinely wants it and would use it. Just really hope that the new master would put it to good use.

Goodbye my Guzheng...

O2 2008

2008-02-23T10:02:00.003+08:00

Woo Hoo! It was sure fun and fulfilling.

At first i was kind of reluctant to get all day blue slip cause i was going to miss so many lessons. First day of my blue slip, i was like ponning my blue slip as much as possible cause i really wanted to go for lessons. Second day was the same. I went for swim PE and YAY! we played water polo!

But on the third day, i realised that i cannot pon my blue slip anymore cause i had to complete the video MRC promised to produce for the campfire. So starting from the morning, i sat in front of the G5 in the free sauna facility and began working on it. I worked on it continuously for 5 hours then went to eat for lunch. Was quite stressed up and did not really have the appetite.

By the time i went back to the mac, i realised that i only had a few more seconds of video to edit only and WOW i was so glad. Showed my senior, Hao Ting, the video and he commented that the front was boring. I quite agreed. Haha.

He helped my edit the front and... WAT THE! IT BECAME SUPER DUPER COOL! Modified some minor effects and finally at 5.34pm, it was a ready product.

During the playing of the video, my heart was pumping like MAD. So excited! The front part, everyone clapped and cheered on like siao la! DAMN GOOD AH THE FEELING! Then after that the crowd highness dropped. HAHA. Okay la the front still quite boring. But at the centre, when the video splitted to more and more, everyone started to clap! And when it even expanded MORE, THEY CLAPPED MORE! Woots! From there on, all of them were kind of amazed by the video already. At the ending, everyone went WOAH!! OMG I TELL U THATS THE BEST SOUND I EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE LA! WOOTS!

Was super duper high and high fived with Hao Ting. At least my dunno how many hours of work plus Hao Ting's refinements payed off. SO HAPPY!

Then after the video mass dance. The people in the hall siao one la and they stinked up the hall even though the air con is turned on. They were super high! I played with the songs abit here and there and sometimes just stopped it and ask bong to off the lights, as if there was a blackout, but maybe doing it a few times made them quite bored. Oh well...

Towards the end, the couples dance was played. I was already beginning to roam around the hall cause the playing music device changed to Brandon's MP3 player. My year's couple dance was played and i got Shermaine to dance with me. Sort of forget the last few steps already. Haha.

It was just great fun la but i have to get myself back to studying!

What a week...

2008-02-15T15:51:00.002+08:00

What a week this is. How great... It was just horrid. Apart from valerntine's day which was kind of surprising, the rest of the days were just purely screwed up. Sometimes i really want to just walk off and don't care but many a times, i can't. Its a chalenge that I face but how long will i be able to fight with it? I'm not emotionally strong, in fact im emotionally weak. Thats me.

Every night when i reach home before starting doing my homework, i would stare out of my window, looking at the dark forest just outside, wondering how long can i take it, thinking through how am i going to solve the problems that plagues me. Its hard and im getting very tired. Time is now the only factor left before its all over.

How i wish that i can just put everything down now and walk off. What a week...

CNY last day :(

2008-02-10T12:11:00.000+08:00

So fast la, CNY visiting period going to be over. Sad sad. Currently, there are like guests in my house and omgwtf, my parents are not at home. So i'm like stuck with guests which i don't know and i don't know how to interact with them. AHH! haha

So this year, its the first time i my life, i gambled with my money! Woots! But ZZZ i lost like $10 on black jack. Its crazy la, i played like just a few rounds and i lost $10 already, so i stopped. Then went on to play with my cousins. Smaller risks, cause we played like 10 cents and 20 cents one, BUT STILL!!! I LOST!!!! I'm such a loser at gambling... Nvm about that. Then played mahjong with my family. Quite fun. Lost 50 cents but had fun. Played till like 3am then we go and sleep. Mahjong really rocks!

Okay i better go outside and TRY to talk to them. haha

siblings are like angels without wings

2008-01-31T21:52:00.000+08:00

Someone told me that before. I remembered and i felt it today.

My whole class got the chance to go to PJ to sell our funorama tickets. I was like super sianed cause it was very very hard to sell the tickets. Apart from meeting E-Ling, Yang Yi and Derek over there, I met my cousin.

He was the only person who bought from me and its because of him, i managed to even have sales of my tickets. He helped me sell 3 tickets to teachers. Really, what more will i want.

I have indeed felt it, siblings are like angels without wings.

tired

2008-01-27T23:41:00.000+08:00

wah tired is the only word. The week was quite hectic. Monday chapel was quite good according to Miss Tay. Throughout the week was just pure mugging. Then Friday there was MUTS and of all days, the aircon BROKE DOWN!!!! OMG! SO HOT LA! But did MUTS with 2 speakers and aiyo didn't know the peaveys were broken. Only realise it like on Friday. Change to Altecs and all was good. Discovered that VLC player can't MP3s well too cause it all gets compressed... Then Saturday, went back to school to have a trial run for Fun-O-Rama. The room was super hot and stuffy. Left at around 1 for tuition. Was super tired by then and i dozed off during tuition for like 5 mins. After that i was recharged. Just that 5 mins. :D. Sunday, went to my father's office with Jin Zhe to build the coil gun. Wah spent like 7 hours in the office building that thing like almost non stop. In the end work like twice only and one component blew up. ZZZ so now have to change that component. SUPER SIAN.

last week

2008-01-20T19:20:00.003+08:00

What happened last week? There was worship under the stars. We let non-comm members plan and do everything. Well, did not turn out as expected. The idea and the reason behind it got sort of misunderstood, BIG TIME. Well, its also through such misunderstandings that things will change, BIG TIME.

Went for this bioethics talk on Saturday at Biopolis. I was there to do filming for the GP department, they are just too smart. The camera i loaned out is rubbish. Even on still ground, the internal lens shifts so i was quite screwed. The video i took kept moving about slightly and its quite irritating but no choice. At first, i thought it would be boring and stuff but then it caught the interest in me and i was like so attentive for that 2 hours! The best part was the Q&A session. Sort of like a debate and it was kind of scary.

1st week of actual school

2008-01-12T12:11:00.001+08:00

And im so going to die. So much stuff to catch up. Finding it very hard to catch up.

Class had this fund raising thing for our booth for fun-o-rama and we sold HDB and CCB! LOL! Its not vulgar stuff... HDB is hot dog bun and CCB is cheese corn bun. Quite funny. Had a fun time making the hot dogs. I was helping out with the oven thing before derrek mustered the courage to put in the hotdog into the oven and take them out. lol. Shifted alot of the the lessons to friday from the thursday's time table. End up, we have a super duper long and non-stopping lesson on friday with only a 20min break somewhere in between. Overall, it was a fun thing and i guess the class bonded quite alot through this.

Went back to my secondary school on friday to help out with the campfire (in the hall) stupid ingenious idea. The fire was like FAKE. A fan with some red strips make the fire. hmm... I was doing the mix for them but i was kind of unfamiliar with their board and equipments and worst of all, their board did not have a PFL function. OMG! Messed around with it. Had feedbacks at the start of the show and after that, all was fine liao. The MCs were like screaming into the mic and it was terrible. The speakers just couldn't take those loud transients but anw, it was a good experience going back to my old school to mix for them. Left at around 11pm for home.

JC1 Orientation

2008-01-06T12:02:00.000+08:00

Had MR duties so sort of skipped all the lessons for orientation. People start school on first day of school, i start school on second week of school :P.

Rained EVERYDAY during the orientation. Quite sad. Worst was it rained during campfire. So the campfire was held in the hall, without fire. First day's setup was kind of screwed with just the horns. Second day, was just slightly better with horns and speakers to fill the places where the horns can't reach. Third day was the best with all the 4 speakers in use firing at different positions and it was so loud that the sports complex could hear it LOUD AND CLEAR! Woots!

Spent most of my time pouring people with water and starching them. Pretty fun. Helped abit with the videoing. But its really a bit la... haha. Then on the third day, just before the campfire, we had to do a video cause we promised to produce it. Had a illegal stayover in school to do the video. Joe and I were on the G5 all night working on the video. Credits goes mainly to him cause i sort of dozed off for like an hour or so halfway. The both of us were like zombies on the last day and my brain doesn't work without sleep-_-

Did the final edit and ending as Joe went to sleep. I was so desperate for and ending that i asked for opinions. In the end, we decided to film joe sleeping with a text saying that he is too tired to continue then ending off with a MRC productions video. haha, "This is a production by MRC, Yes we don't just clean OHPs" Its like a classic!

Finished it and then exported it. Wah like zombie... My brain couldn't work till the point i forgot alot of stuff. Morning came and KD asked me for the keys he passed to me. I was like omg where did i left them. Then asked KA and he said i pass it to him last night 0_0

So had quite a scare. After the setup, i just went to sleep. Slept for like 3 hours and woke up. Went out for lunch and it rained like mad. Took out alot of umbrellas from MR room and they were those big AC umbrella. Haha. Looked quite grand with so many umbrellas.

Came back after lunch and WTF, they were like sort of going to blame us for being late and stuff. Wah we dun need to eat leh... Setup everything liao then got dance rehersal. F all the D**** people. Totally unreasonable. F Them. Pissed with them.

The even started and i pushed everything to damn loud. Used almost all of my head room and it distorted quite badly when someone screams into the mic. Everyone was so damn high in the hall la.

Then came the most high part, MASS DANCE! haha. Played from my year one to their year one. Started off with normal speed. Then came the second round. PLAY LIKE VERY FAST. Then came third round, play like super slow, then halfway super fast!!! So all of them were like "AHH!!!" haha.

Well orientation is over liao and so are my holidays :'( LOL

First day of School

2008-01-02T21:48:00.001+08:00

Had no lessons cause i had MRC duty for the orientation. Kind of had fun too. Tried learning their mass dance but it was like super hard. I shall learn it by tmmr then i can have fun with it liao (: Hope everything goes out well tmmr and it wun rain tmmr.

2008-01-01T15:17:00.001+08:00

Wah so fast end of this year le. I realised just how fast time have passed. PW. I can even still remember how our group formed. And thinking back, its pretty coincidental. I still remember being called to stay back in LT3 by Miss Koh to get back our own PI. At that time we still didn't know our groupings, but strangely, 3/5 of the group were the last to leave. Me, Vivian, Marshella. We were the last three to be called back because all of us had various problems with our PI. Pretty amazing isn't it?

How about Chinese? I can still remember the first time i stepped into room 4.2 after the PAE. Had the very very first chinese lesson. It was more of a introductory lesson and gosh, my first impression about the teacher was terribly bad. I just had the feeling that she was the kind who would use force to make us do work. The way she spoke, the way she explained how she conducted the lessons. All these led to me hating her some fair bit. I can even remember after attending the lesson, Jin Zhe was like looking at me shaking his head in despair. He had the same thoughts as me.

I miss my OG. They were a great bunch of people. People who did not really care about the various differences we had. Over there, I felt that I was known. I never felt lonely at all with my OG. We could meet up and gather for all sorts of weird reasons. Pure fun i must say. Sadly, some people from our OG group had to go overseas to further their studies but still, it was the best bunch of people i got to know in AC. You could say that they were the people who somewhat convinced me to stay in AC. Maybe if I ended in some crappy OG, I would have ended in the school that i really want to go. Jessica, the shortest girl in our OG. Very friendly, very thoughtful. She is always the one who organise stuff for us to attend. Even if the turn up rate was terribly low, there would always be this certain factor of fun in it. They were the ones who remembered my birthday. Lured me to KAP macs and bought me a birthday cake. It was quite embarrassing to me for them to sing me a birthday song so loud but to tell you the truth, it was the first time that my friends remembered my birthday and even celebrated it for me. Felt really touched.

Then there was 1SB4. To tell you the truth, i really didn't like the class alot. There were a few hypocrites in the class and these were the people who organised outings. The outings were just terrible to me. I really did not have any true friends in that class. I can only think of Alvin (no, not the Alvin in 1SB5), who is now in CJ as a true friend to me. Just too bad that he couldn't stay on in AC. Really hoped that he could stay in AC. Ting Ting, a sad case. 8 pointer who ended up in JJ all because she wrote NJ as first choice and AC as second choice. NJ rejected her and AC rejected her too cause she wrote it as her second choice. What to do? End up in JJ. Cute person with a name that she claims to be meaningless. Haha. There was a period of time where i think the class took me to be transparent. I really don't know what happened at that time. But oh well, it all adds up to the bad experience with 1SB4.

Then PAE ended. Orientation 2 ended. Only thing i could remember about orientation 2 was that i was super hyper with the games and smashed starch on everyone, especially Jessica :P. Danced with Jessica for like how many times during the camp fire till the extent that when the couple dance was playing i went "YOU AGAIN AHH?!" LOL! But well she is a great dancer considering her having no background in dancing. I ended up in 1SB5. Some familiar faces with ALOT of new faces. NJ rejects was what Miss Koh described them... A little mean perhaps? 1SB5 was better in the sense that i could relate to them more. Became good friends with Jin Zhe for don't know whatever reason. Haha. Maybe its because he always boxed me whenever i was near him which i didn't really mind.

Somehow became top pupil in class for chemistry consecutively for 2 times. Really its SOMEHOW. I don't know the reason behind it :P. But stay up there is very hard to results became not as good. Quite stressful you can say.

Struggled with my thoughts about MRC as my CCA but eventually decided to stay for the passion i have in it is boundless. Became the vice-president which is what i really wished for. Fortunately till now, still survived school life being VP of MRC. haha. Learn a lot of new knowledge because i am in MRC and my interest continues to make me super curious about all the audio equipment. Must thank Q ALOT cause he is the one who taught me so much stuff, introduce me to high end audio equipments for Live Reproduction, be my "consultant" although i dun pay him, haha.

My audio journey continues and now, i feel like changing speakers. 2 15inch bass driver plus the flat 8 plus fostex horn. Dunno how it will sound but hope that my father lets me put it at home. really HOPE ah. haha. Built another amp and this time it looks damn nice compared to my previous amp and confirm this amp is better built with better components. Brought my amp to NoiSing and it played towards the end. haha at least it played la. (: Got to know Kin, through Q, and woah, isn't he another fantastic person. Easy going, friendly, aiya just wonderful to have around as a friend la. He gave me so many opportunities. The recent one would be to build a crossover for yong. Well i built it and got my money, but shall not say anything about what happened on that night where we all met to listen to yong's new GOTO drivers. Well in chinese it says "talk money hurt relationship"

Had a crush a couple of times but never voiced out anything. Some were heart aching, okay fine, all were heart aching. haha. I shall make a promise to myself to not crush for someone for next year. Focus on A LEVELS. A LEVELS AH!

Lost my wallet during a class outing with 1SB5 which i dun think i will ever find again and the class outing was not a very successful one with only Jin Zhe sleeping over at my house turning the event into a gay party with me and Jin Zhe. Haha.

Badminton, hmm, what to talk about it. hmm. Wanted to organise a game with SB5 but WTF TA MA DE. Organise for like so long also never happen. Not like my OG one ah, one day before just say only and it HAPPANED! like magic. Stopped playing during a period of time cause of school stuff but has since resumed playing.

Okay shall not continue rambling liao, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Project for other people

2007-12-21T14:19:00.000+08:00

Its the first time I'm building stuff for other people instead of for myself. I was approached by Kin to build a external crossover for this person named Jia Ern. Well got to work and this is the final product.

This external crossover will be used to drive 2 pairs of GOTO drivers. GOTO don't come cheap. At least $7k a pair =/ So kind of nervous to know if the crossover i built will work out well. Gonna know the answer later this evening. Fingers crossed. Oh and i want to thank Kin for giving me the chance to build this project (:

402 Chalet

2007-12-19T19:50:00.001+08:00

Woots! Had 402 chalet from Monday to Wednesday. Great time! Felt able to let my real self out again with 402 people. Such a great bunch.

Met at Tiong Bahru MRT station and we sort of stoned there for awhile to wait for Darran to arrive. During that time, I learnt how to solve a rubiks cube! yay! Darran came and we went off for pasir ris. Ate lunch at pasir ris then headed to Costa Sands resort. The place is ultimate. You have to pay to get into the chalet grounds. $1. ZZZ. I book a chalet inside the place and i still have to pay for admission fee. What a smart way to earn money.

Went into our rooms and began our Dai Dee, Bridge and Asshole Dai Dee session. The Asshole Dai Dee session was a big one with like 3 decks of cards together. Dylan was like going "WOAH i can have 5 of a kind man!" It was super funny, especially when Dylan could have got the king's seat if he did not kept on passing to let his allies to put cards. LOL

Had dinner at the Kopitiam just outside the wild wild wet theme park. Decided to eat kway chap with Clement, DAMN WRONG CHOICE! It was like the soup of the kway is prepared by pouring LARGE amounts of dark soy sauce mixed with water. WTF! Salty like nonsense. I was even more stupid to buy 2 kway for myself-_-. My taste buds sort of screwed up because of the saltiness. Had to compensate by having desert. Had chendol dessert which i eventually felt super cold eating it. After dinner, we went to play pool. Only played one game out of the one hour. Talked cock with Ronnie, Gavin and Darran. Talk about dunno wat ghost stories, economics and bla bla bla. But it was quite pleasing to get together and talk cock and catch up with friends.

After the pool session, Ronnie and me decided to play table soccer. Super fun game. I won him by one goal. Then after the solo fight, we decided to have a 2V2 challenge. Me and clement one team, Dylan and Ronnie another. The score was quite close but eventually, me and clement won.

Went back to the chalet and watched transformers. After that, i sort of like played cards a little and dozed off at a small corner. The place was frankly speaking, overcrowded.

Second day came. Me and clement was hungry so we went to KOPITIAM again to eat breakfast. Had peanut pancake and tea. Saw Tze Hui and Kah Hwee. They were going to Wild Wild Wet to play i guess. After that, we went back to the chalet and played cards. Played till about noon then went for lunch, at KOPITIAM AGAIN!!! Had Mee Hoon Kway this time round. After lunch, we went to escape team park! First time there for me.

I was like super scared cause i had fears of myself dropping down. First ride i took was this turning thing. It was mild for me la, so did not feel terrible. Then they wanted to go for this wild wild wet alike thingy. Sit in a boat and fall down a "waterfall". Quite scared for that too. Then we went to play pirate ship. I was scared la, so i sat at the centre. The feeling was already quite bad. Then they wanted to play inverter. I was like WTF GO AWAY!!! IM NOT GOING TO SIT THAT GAY SHIT THING!!! Its like it hangs u upside down for a few seconds la! siao! So decided to not take that ride lor. Went to BK with another guy who also did not dare take the inverter. So we sat outside BK cause we were all wet and cold. Talked cock and then went to find them again. They were still in the queue la... but nearing the start. So we waited for awhile and finally got a chance to see them go up. Seeing them only made me quite giddy, so not taking the ride was a good move by me. After the inverter ride, we went to play go kart. Aiyo, if not for jamming the brake so quickly ah, i would have got first place le... zzz. I braked so hard that i skid off the track. haha im still not the last, cause someone also kept skidding off the track. The track was very slippery cause it was raining. After go kart, we went to haunted house. Kai Jie was like WTF screaming non stop. I think 90% of the chance i got scared cause of kai jie and not the haunted house-_- Halfway through the thing, we decided to hide in the haunted house and scare the next group. hehe. So anw, after haunted house, we went crazy with pirate ship. Took it continuously cause there was a short queue. We got to jump queue cause no one wanted to sit in the center and there were empty seats. After first ride, we got off and almost instantly got on again. Then after we got off, we decided to wait till our turn to seat at the last row. Seating in the centre and at the last row made a huge difference. I felt real scared that my feat trembled when going down. Although scared, we still did all the guai lan stuff like faking to be scared and stuff. But im really scared!!! This pirate ship is not the most scary one that i had taken before. The scariest one i ever taken was at lotte world in Korea. Felt extremely terrible after the last ride. Almost vomited when the ship stopped. The rest of the people wanted to take that wild wild wet thingy again but i was feeling so giddy that i gave it a miss and sat at one corner. Dozed off while waiting for them.

After that, went to play this wheel of fortune thingy and out of the 4 tickets we used to spin, we only got 2 consolation prizes :( haha. Bad luck i guess. So after that, the rest of the people went to play rainbow but i really could not take anymore so just sat at one corner and wait.

Went back to chalet and by then it was like 8 plus. Showered and went out for dinner. KOPITIAM AGAIN!!!!! ZZZZZZZZ

After dinner, back to chalet and more dai dee. At around 12, we gave winston a birthday surprise. It was his birthday! Happy Birthday Winston!!!

Went out later to cheers to get instant noodles. Ate it at the chalet and i went to sleep. Tired...

Had a really good time with them (:

everything i have not blogged about

2007-12-14T20:50:00.000+08:00

on monday, there was MRC bbq. Kind of low turn up rate but still had quite some fun. Met Shermaine and ZX at around 1pm then went to eat lunch and buy stuff for the bbq at Giant. Reached Miss Tay's house at around 4.30pm. Got a chance to go up to her house cause only got 3 of us. hehe. Her house looks very beautiful. Very contemporary looking. It was like drizzling and raining so heavily in the afternoon so it was kind of looking bleak. We decided to continue BBQ in the end. The weather was quite kind to us cause it only drizzled halfway through our bbq. Our seniors came and just ate lor. Then Miss Tay was kind again and let everyone into her house. We played with her dog and her dog kept peeing. Miss Tay says that she does that when she gets excited. haha. So anw, Christiana was scared of dogs, so we sort of made the dog run to her and she climbed onto Miss Tay's dinning table. Crazy...

So BBQ was fun. Then came tuesday. Helped Reuben to solder cables he needed for his church camp. He came to my house at around 12 and be began soldering and testing so many cables. Ended the soldering session at around 3pm. So we soldered for 3 hours and i breathed in about 3 hours of lead too...-_-

Wednesday. BORED TO DEATH DAY.

But received a phone call from my father to ask me go work at his office.

So did it and on thursday, i went to his office. First task. Repair a computer. Took me like 10 mins-_-. Fault, spoilt graphics card. Plugged out the graphics card and used the onboard graphics card and wala, a useable computer which was originally intended to be scrapped. Then i sort of stoned around and waited to get more stuff to do. My father brought me to meet with Leon, my boss for the next 2 days. The whole office were like "upgrading" their burn in section's equipments thus they needed this parallel cable. So for the next 2 days, i will be sitting at a table during office hours soldering and producing this special cable.

The cable was a video splitter thing. 1 In, 4 Out. 1 male RCA head and 4 male BNC head. Took me like 1 hour? to produce my first cable. But after that, i improved in speed. It consisted of this metal bracket which held the 4 male BNC heads and the cable. I had to use the cable to parallel to the 4 heads. Too bad i did not take a photo of it. But basically what it does is that instead of using the normal 4 cables for the input of their equipment, they now only need 1 such cable for 4 inputs for their equipment. The idea is good. But the way it was implemented is quite bad in my opinion. The design of that cable is quite flawed. The person designing this cable obviously did nto consider it for long term usage. By the looks of the cable, i have a very strong feeling that this cable would need to be repaired every 2-3months? cause its really quite weak despite using 3 cable ties at different positions to secure the cable from moving.

But anw, i was given this to make so i had to make it lor. During lunch time on the first day, i went out with Dad for lunch. We drove to this industrial place to buy screws. The story behind why we need to buy screws for the company is really toot. I also nothing to say. The screws are for the chairs. Amazingly, their chairs need to buy screws cause its missing-_- I mean like if the chair you are sitting on dropped a screw, won't your immediate reaction would be to pick up the screw and put it back in place? So weird la. They have missing screws cause their screws dropped and they lost it. The screw is like damn big.

We had lunch first and my lunch was only $2. Very cheap. Then we walked around the area to look for screws cause the first shop we visited did not have this kind of screws. The screws we needed used the imperial units for measurement whereas the screws that the first shop we visited only sold screws that followed the metric units for measurements. As we walked around the area, i spotted alot of shops that did all sorts of things. Metal welding, glass cutting blah blah blah. We arrived at this shop. Found it, bought it and left. Went back to the office and continued soldering. Managed to create 13 of this cables on the first day in about 7 hours.

Second day, went back again to the same spot and continued soldering. My brother also went to the office as no one was at home to help look after him. He did some assessment books first then came to help me abit. I got him to help me mount the 4 BNC heads onto the metal bracket. He did 8 of them. Changed the method at which i produced the cables and managed to create more cables in a shorter time. Managed to make 16 cables in 5 hours.

So total damage to myself is like 2 very very sore hands from using the pliers to tighten the nuts and bolts and strip the wires and ALOT of lead fumes into my body. Best part is, I am probably not going to be paid. But maybe this time i will be (: i hope.

Class Outing (or should i call it my wallet?)

2007-12-08T16:49:00.000+08:00

So Thursday, we sort of had a class outing. Such a sudden thing. I only got to know that i am supposed to provide the venue like on Tuesday night. Anw, me and JinZhe were late la cause of JinZhe's perfect timing =X. He was supposed to reach my house at 11.30. But end up he called me at 11.30 telling me he was only at clementi-.- By the time he reached my house, it was like 12 noon. I got changed then we left. Damn i should have wore short pants with sandle instead la, although like uncle... BUT STILL, IF I WORE SHORT PANTS, THE LIKELIHOOD OF ME LOSING MY WALLET IS NEAR 0....sianz...But anw, met up with everyone at like 1.25, so we were like 55mins late. Sorry.

Then the details i lazy to blog... But then i lost my wallet after playing Daytona la....Cause my pants quite tight and if i put my wallet in the pocket, i cant even sit properly. so i put the wallet on the top lor. play until so high that i forget to take my wallet. 5 mins later when i realise it and go back there to find, its GONE.......!!!!!

Tried searching for it high and low, but it was really gone. Can only blame myself for being so forgetful. Thanks to those people who helped me find. Cynthia, Derrek, Bong, JinZhe. Thanks to you all (:

End up only JinZhe sleepover at my house cause vivian last minute pang seh. So me and JinZhe only become gay party-_- Lucky he come over to my house, if not my parents would like nag at me more. hehe. So we stayed up till like 2.3o then i knocked out. JinZhe was happily playing dota.

Then next day came. We played CS over lan. Quite fun la. One on One.

We left house at around 1.30pm then went to chua chu kang to make my new EZ link card. Wah damn it need to take photo, then create that card need 19 bux. On hand, i only had 30 bux. Still had to feed myself and my brother. So end up after doing everything and getting my card, i got $5 left for myself and my brother. haha.

Thanks to JinZhe for following me around to assist me in making my card.

This event of me losing my wallet, somehow made me feel for a moment that the world is dark cause the person who found my wallet never return but then it also made me feel that this world has a bright side cause there are so many people who are willing to help me find my wallet. Thanks everyone (:

Seniors Night

2007-12-04T19:52:00.000+08:00

One word. Tiring.

Well funny shit happened too. haha. On Sunday, we wanted to go back to school to run last checks before we headed down to shangri-la to do our setup. We also wanted to do a mock setup to ensure that the sound would be sufficient. We were in school at around 10+am. Started doing our checks till like 12+ then we went for lunch outside. When we came back to school, much to our horror, the school was locked. Shit was the first word that came to everyone's mouth. The security guards were so evil. They just refused to open the gate to let us back in. All our valuables were in MR room and some even had our house keys in there. For me, my laptop was inside, so no laptop for one day :'( But well its at least better to be locked outside than to be locked inside :P

This was a big problem cause our stuff was scattered around in the hall. Terrible situation. The guards refused to open the doors and OM just hanged up on us leaving us with a note of "don't disturb my holiday" -_- So end up, we went over to Zhong Xian's house to stay over and go back to school early in the morning. Did just that and headed back to school on Monday at 5am. Reached school at 5.30am and we were also still quite worried that the gates would be locked and the guard would not open it. But hehe, when we reached there, i asked the guard "Is the school opened already?" HE SAID YES!!!!!!! AHHHH!!!!!!!! That kind of happiness and feeling of being relief is just great. We were so happy that we RAN into the school. I think the guard would be thinking whats wrong with these 5 people, open school only mah. Haha.

First stop was MR room. All our stuff was like frozen. Super cold cause the aircon has been turned on for like 8hours and the thermostat is set at 16 degrees :x We put our stuff down and then me and KD went to LT4 to collect the snake from Faith Methodist Church. The rest went to the hall first. We started to pack everything into our flight cases and just prayed real hard that we would not miss out anything. Fortunately, we got everything ready by 6.20+am. All of us supposed to meet at 6.45 so we were kind of ahead of time. We started playing badminton in the hall but with squash and tennis rackets. Everyone arrived and had a short briefing with them. Shifted everything down from the hall and began the wait for the lorry. The lorry was LATE. zzz. When it came, we went OMFG WHY THE LORRY IS LIKE THAT ONE!? It was like those sing chinese opera show kind of lorry with no aluminum tail gate which made it really hard to load up heavy items! And we had 4 of them. Our amp rack which was super duper heavy cause of the 3 amps within it, and the other 2 flight cases which had almost all of our cables in there from our room. haha.

We got the void decks benches and tables to form a stair case thing so that we could load it up easier. Thanks to the councilors, we were able to load everything up. We brought along 11 speakers for this whole event cause shangri-la was really just very big. When we reached there, we begin our setup. Set a target for every section of the setup but we did not meet it. Well cant really blame them cause the scale was rather big and the helpers we got were lacking in technical experience. Well thats the exact reason why we brought them along, to let them learn, make mistakes and gain experience. I had to setup the console and lay the snake and that itself took quite some time. Even me myself did not meet my own target of 30mins. Had a prime location of having the console at the centre and back of the whole hall so that i could monitor the sound better. The ballroom was on the wide side so we had some problems with laying the speakers in that manner. We were rather unsure too of how to place the speakers cause totally no experience with wide venues. Initially, we started off with a plan of having improvised subwoofers cause the school did not have any. We took the EAW speakers and passed only the low frequencies into it. We wanted to use the DIY speaker done by our dunno how many great grand senior but sadly, it doesn't work. But then, i spotted the subwoofers that came with shangri-la's ballroom and decided to ask their sound crew if could we tap into their subs. They were great people. Kind of funny too (: At first when they saw the amount of equipments that we brought in, they asked Zhong Xian "I thought u only asked for projector screens?" Haha. I guessed that they did not expect schools to have such stuff la.

Tapped into their subwoofers and the sound was just really great. We used our DIYed kick mic, and it got broke after that. Some KUKU person went to pierce the woofer cone :'( But anw, with this DIYed kick mic and coupled with the MD421 and the subwoofers, the kick sound was just SUPERB! Their subs were some good stuff. 18" woofers with integrated crown amp inside. Really can shake the whole place. I played some bass music from my computer and from far, i could feel the ground shaking if i pushed it real hard. I walked around to check the sound pressure level and when i got close to the subs with our speakers at the corner, wah almost died. The bass makes u feel as if u are going to have a heart attack but it felt good for me:p Decided that i shall not have to much bass after all.

Got everything up and running at around 11am and the SCs were kind of surprised with the sound cause it was way better than expected i guess. Cause got subs mah...lol. Did sound check till like 1pm then had my lunch while the rest went on to duct tape the cables. Seriously, the back stage was like wah lao damn messy with all the cables. First time i see so much cables too.

Had Macs for lunch and really gobbled it down very quickly as soundcheck for the bands was about to begin. After lunch, the morning crew was dismissed.

The bands started coming in to rehearse. I was on board that day so i did sound check for every single band and recorded the settings down. First time i did it this way. Kind of fun too.

Finished sound check for everyone and then we began our lazing around session. As we lazed, Shang's sound crew came down and said that our duct tapping of the snake was kind of messy and it would fall out very soon. He gave us a few rolls of duct tape which was wider and better quality and that allowed us to duct tape the WHOLE snake. THEY ARE JUST GREAT PEOPLE TO WORK WITH! Their personality are also very good. There was this uncle in the sound crew, he joked alot la! When i asked him what tape he giving us, he said video tape -.- very lame but still... haha. Then we wanted to borrow an XLR cable cause ours was not long enough. Then he cracked a dirty joke saying that his longer, if u get what he means.

So anw, got ourselves ready for the night. We were kind of bored at first cause nothing was happening. Ran my last sound check before the actual thing began then we went to pretend we are J2's and joined in their cocktail session. haha.

FINALLY, the event started. The J2's started entering the ball room and the dinner started. My seniors came and find us at the console and Reuben kept taking food from his table to give us. haha Thanks man! But in the end, we didn't really eat finish everything and the waiter cleared it away for us :x

The bands performed and the whole night just went on quite smooth la. Got a few feedbacks here and there and its actually caused by the subwoofer and not our speakers. Thats how amazing their subs are. haha. I heard that the backstage had a few problems or two but from where i was at the console, it seemed like nothing went wrong.

The whole event sort of ended with the emcee's saying good night and me playing some rock music which many say that i have a bad taste for rock music -_- But quite rock mah, so much bass. It was supposed to make people dance but no one danced -_- SO SAD LA!!!! zzz

Everyone sort of wanted to stay on but the councilors had to make them leave. They had to resort to turning off the lights to make people leave. But still they were staying. LOL. But slowly they left la. Began our pack up and aiyo so many cable to pack. ESPECIALLY THE SPEAKONS AH! DAMN JIA LAT. RGB CABLE ALSO QUITE JIA LAT. Loaded everything back into the flight cases and loaded it onto the truck. Took the truck back began unloading.

Slept over in school cause it was so late already.

Overall, i think the sound was quite good and it went on quite smoothly. Hoped all our seniors had a great night yesterday. (:

Tuition

2007-12-01T17:16:00.001+08:00

Wah almost got a shock from today's tuition. Reached there at around 1.20 and when i went in, omg no one except the tuition teacher! I thought i would be having one on one tuition with him this time round la! That would be quite scary cause i have never had one on one tuition before. But then, i heard the all so familiar clacking of crystals slippers and i breathed a sigh of relief. Wah felt better after that. Then slowly everyone strolled in. It was like almost full house today.

Worried

2007-11-29T19:18:00.000+08:00

Wah im quite worried with myself. Recently, i tend to forget things very easily and i get very paranoid over forgetting about things. But seriously, I really cant remember much. Quite scared. Quite scared i will forget even more that i have already known. Scared that i will forget my family. Scared that i will forget my friends. Oh well, maybe im just being too paranoid.

Next Monday is Seniors Night. Wah the stress level is getting higher and higher. Every night i think so much about it that i cant really sleep well, coupled with the stress level that builds up as the day comes closer, i haven't been sleeping properly at all. Yesterday I was trying to get myself to sleep. I went to bed at around 11pm. Once i was on bed, i began thinking about the various speakers positions compared them in my head. Wah think until i really dunno how to sleep-_-. At around 12am, i walked into the living room, turned on the TV and watched till like 2! then i tried to sleep again but cannot. So i turned on some music and finally i slept.

I really hope that seniors night would turn out well. No feedbacks and good sound!

Old Old Mixer

2007-11-27T10:12:00.000+08:00

Oh yes Shermaine, I know you really want to look at laogudong mixer. Yes i know. So here it is, just for you :P

Its really a very old mixer, It doesn't even have a gain control, just a attenuator but i really think it looks great.

Mr Foo's Wedding

2007-11-26T23:05:00.000+08:00

Aww, it was such a romantic and sweet event. The solemnisation was held at the beach just behind Rasa Sentosa. The weather was rather gloomy at first but like what the pastor said, "with Andre around, miracles always happen". It was like really a miracle, the cloud was super dark and u could really feel the moisture from the rain far away hitting your skin but a few moments later when the wedding starts, the sun shined again. Wonderful weather.

During the dinner, Mr Foo sang a song called "Till i met you(her)". Cant really remember its you or her but its a song written by himself. The lyrics are short and simple, but it brings everything out. Just great.

Ahh, i must say that his wedding is one of the nicest one that i've been to, Wish them a blissful marriage. (:

Amp Mods

2007-11-22T14:14:00.000+08:00

I was feeling so sian in the morning that i finally managed to sit down in front of my desk and mod my amp. Redid the wiring for the power and now i have a switch to control the relays for the speaker protection. Added Black Gates capacitors too at the input. So thats about it.

yesterday

2007-11-21T12:16:00.000+08:00

yesterday all my troubles seem so far away...LOL...nvm. Okay but yesterday, KD and me went back to school to meet the council people to discuss about seniors night cause they need our help. We went back earlier cause we wanted to test out stuff cause we never try before. Thankfully that thing works. We wanted to even bring out the Puden Room's gigantic speaker built by one of our grand senior but then could not find the keys so gave up. Hopefully can get that speaker out someday to try. Finished testing everything at around 9am but we were supposed to meet at 10! so we stoned. Stone halfway, the seniors came in. They have just finished their last 40mcq questions for their A levels! Congratulations to them!

Then finally, 10am came. So they came in and discussed. Then it was daunting for us to find out that the freaking ballroom was damn big. Really like damn big ahh! Thats according to the SC's description but we could not trust their judgment. So we made a date with them to go down to shangrila ballroom to have a look at ourselves. If its really THAT big, then its really GG for good.

Well meeting them this Friday. So hopefully not so big la.

Parachute Band

2007-11-18T09:33:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, Parachute Band came to ACJC to perform in the hall. KD and me went down to help with the lightings. Had much fun just playing with the coloured lights. Like O2 jam again :P

So anw, the equipment there was pretty awesome, although the speakers are of a not so good brand, but overall still quite good sound if u ignore the echo and the muddy bass.
These are the speakers from Delta Audio. There are like 2 big black boxes on the floor and those were the subs. They are DAMN powerful but sound muddy. We were in the cage and they turned it on quite loud and it felt as if the whole cage was going to collapse. Everything was vibrating so violently. Scary. Then just before the whole concert started, they brought in ONE MORE sub. Like 2 not enough. Bring in 3. Siao.

Well, the concert began and really had fun trying to make the lights follow to the mood and tempo of the music. Its even more fun that Passion AC. Just fun la.

Wah how i wish that we could buy a sub to use in the hall. Then it will be great!

2007-11-13T20:02:00.000+08:00

Went out with wee meng, clement and chris today. We went to play pool at west coast recreation center. Played for like 3 hours i think. Quite long. Halfway through, all of us felt really hungry so we went to the food counter to get some food. It was a little overpriced so i did not buy anything cause my wallet only had $7 -_-'". Clement bought himself nasi lemak. It took forever to come. i think 30 mins. All of us were joking about why it took so long. Reasons such as "the seller growing the coconut and the rice", "the seller is growing the fish" and all sorts of stupid reason. Then when clement's nasi lemak came, wee meng went to order fan choy. It too also took like 15mins to come. Wah its those ready made food la, also can take so long... For that, there was one joke about why it took so long, "the seller digging the ground for aluminum to make aluminum foil".

So we finished playing pool and we went downstairs to eat jack's place. Cause after paying for pool, i only had $2 left, i was very reluctant to eat at Jack's Place. How to pay?! But still after doing all the maths, we still went to eat at jack's place. They were all saying "aiya the most we wash plates" Haha, quite funny.

My hard work: ACJC CPA Video

2007-11-10T23:25:00.000+08:00

So finally, after a very long period of hard work, to the extent of bringing the G5 home, I am proud to present the final product:

its so BORING

2007-11-08T18:53:00.000+08:00

Wah after completion of the CPA video, i feel so bored. ZZZ. Whole day spent at home staring at the computer and listening to music. SO BORING!!!

my thoughts...

2007-11-05T21:12:00.000+08:00

Saw everyone come back from the camp. Everyone seemed to have grown, matured. My president matured. I guess he learned a lot from it :D Well i felt kind of lonely. Looking at everyone come back from camp, learning new skills, I feel as if i am actually disadvantaged. Well, I don't know. Just a feeling. Everyone so happy, team spirit so high, ahh how i just missed it.

When they came back for the dinner thing, i felt like i was so left out. Everyone making new friends, everyone so bonded to their new friends, how i wish i made new friends?

A friend once told me that i would feel better if i thought of it as putting school matters above self. Well its quite true, but i just cant find that feeling where i place school above myself. Its hard.

2007-11-03T18:55:00.000+08:00

aiyo next Friday is CPA gala dinner. I need to produce this video for it and I'm like so dead. Had to skip the CCAB camp for this video. Argh. Then people suan me say i purposely pon the CCAB camp. ZZZ. Nvm bout that. Have been going back to school these 2 days to do that video. First draft has to be out by Tuesday. So I'm rather screwed. I don't think that i can produce that video by Tuesday. Just really hope that i can complete it (:

OP's Over!

2007-11-01T23:23:00.000+08:00

OP's over. PW's over. Smile? Cry? Happy? I don't know leh. But quite reluctant la, after all our PW group is like one of the closest in the class.

So anw, I was like super nervous even when the first group was presenting. My heart was like THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP! Super hard! Could feel it almost like jumping out of my heart. Kept telling myself to relax cool down and think of other stuff. Somehow i got nervous when i did not pay attention to the group presenting but haha.

So all of us were like OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG before our turn to present and it was like chaos in the presentation room as all of us kept on practising. Quite noisy somemore. Then the invigilators came in and it was like a bomb landing in my heart. Its time.

Alvin was so much more better today just that he frown too much. Too much pressure. Then Marshella was quite good too! Her volume was quite good and i realised she can emo alot. Then ME! ARGH. I felt like a retard man! I missed out the package part and went back to it after i talk about the budget. crap. nvm, over le. Don't think of it ba. Then Vivian. She did quite well today. Dunno why she keep thinking she screw up. Then See Toh. Best man! Nothing more to say. Oh but sorry leh i press the slide wrongly. Pai seh.

Then Q&A. That i really screw up. ARGH. NVM LA. ZZZ

But then PW over le :'(

OP Final Reahersal :'(

2007-10-31T20:04:00.001+08:00

Today, met with PW group for our final proposal. Well quite fun actually. Visited Vivian's house. Not too bad. Haha. Not too bad. LoL. So rehearsed for 2 times each then we really cannot take it le. All the best to us for tmmr (:

Well on the way home, i chanced upon a funny thing. I was on the bus and there was this lady sitting behind me. She sneezed. A few times and said nothing. Then came another sneeze and she commented "Na bei". Then came another one, and she commented "ahh F off la" and wonderfully it stopped. LOL

2007-10-30T21:06:00.000+08:00

Woots! Felt real good today. Went to Sim Lim area to get equipments and stuff for MRC. It feels good to be there spending money that is not yours :P. Haha. Don't need to think as hard. Had lunch with KA and KD before meeting Mrs Loh at Sim Lim. As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words, so here it goes:

New equipments (:

A Level Chinese

2007-10-29T22:17:00.000+08:00

Woots, its over! It was reasonable i guess? Composition was like hmm, qns 1 cannot do, qns 2, cannot really do, qns 3 totally cannot do, qns 4, forget about it. So in the end i choose qns 2 but i knew that it was quite easy to write off topic. Just hope that i will not end up writing off topic ba. Then came comprehension. Quite okay i guess. Could answer everything and my "choose word fill blank" should be quite well done, i hope (:

So after chinese, met for awhile for a short PW meeting. Rehearsed once through then they all left without me :'( Sad... LOL! I was like packing my laptop into the bag la, then they all just stroll out of the classroom without me. So sad... But Jin Zhe waited for me (: All of them went to play bowling and eat jack's place while i had no choice but to stay in school to do work. Well i guess thats my life ba. Sometimes i feel quite sad not to be able to be with my class and bond more with my friends, but sometimes i also feel quite happy to be around with MR members. They are a great bunch of people.

Like today, i was quite sad after they all left me alone in the room to pack my own stuff but after i went to MR room, i was kind of cheered up there la. They went bowling and it was alot of people. Seriously quite wasted for me not to be able to go play with them. Next time round ba.

I had to stay in school for a reason. To interview the architect who designed the CPA. Started shifting the lights at around 2 then went to the conference room to prepare for the interview. Quite interesting to visit that room. There were traces of a meeting to decide how to promote people. That i shall not elaborate. So waited quite some time for the architect to arrive and finally he did. Interviewed and he left. Then Mr Foo told me that the dinner was next Friday and i was like hmm. OH MY! No need to sleep already. Then may have to sacrifice my Thursday to do this video. :'( no more outing with PW members. Im confirmed not able to go for first day of leadership camp already because of this video-_-. Quite a sad life i must say but then again, i enjoy part of it :D

We stayed back till quite late today. KD, HT, Shermaine, Joe, and me. Ordered pizza for dinner. Then we started to have a mass convo among ourselves-_-. Very lame, i know. But it was fun :P We were like spamming people and see who's laptop was the first to die. LOL. But quite evil la. Spam other people until one by one they all die. Haha. But it was quite fun.

Last Day of School?

2007-10-27T09:57:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was the supposedly last day of the school semester. Well officially it is, but unofficially, i think its the start of a busy busy holiday for me.

First up would be the production of CPA videos. Got some very very old photographs yesterday and i have to scan them into the computer. Its pretty interesting to such old photographs and then compare it with now. There are like photographs without the bleaches, without the sports complex, without the LT4 section, without the F block. Its just really cool. Then there is this picture of the main gate with the ACJC logo there. Its very different from now and i realised something, the old school crest that was at the main gate is actually in the MR room. Haha.

Then there is this leadership camp. 4 days 3 nights and i seriously think i will die. I haven't even buy all the necessary stuff that i will need. So behind time. It would be at MOE dairy farm camp site which is very near to my house. So if something happens, i can just go home. LOL

I would also like to work during the holidays, work part time in the profession that i am seriously interested in. This would take up ALOT of time but i guess it would be all worth it eventually. Whats that job? Go guess.

Clay Shooting

2007-10-25T23:29:00.001+08:00

Went for the clay shooting thing today. Quite fun actually and i really think its worth the $21 i paid for it. Went to that place which is like super ulu. Had an introductory session by this instructor then we started shooting off. The first time i heard it fire off, i was like AHH! But then after awhile, i got used to that bang sound. The gun we used is a dual barrel shot gun. Quite an interesting gun. The bullets are like the size of your thumb. So big bullets, big gun, means big recoil. The recoil was quite insane. They said that it was stronger than a M16 but im not too sure. I felt that it was pretty all right for me. Kept on shooting for quite some time and my results were not that bad after all. HA! IM TALENTED!!! LOL!!!...

After the whole thing, we went out into the field to collect some clay birds. Erm, okay maybe not some? haha. Cause we got like 96 in the end. :P It was just really fun la to shoot the guns. the sound from the gun is just amazing.

Well tmmr is the REAL release of the results. Really hoping very hard for those people to get promoted. Best is none of my friends gets retained.

Chinese.........sucks

2007-10-23T17:32:00.000+08:00

Totally hate Chinese. Everyone laughs at my composition cause i write in broken Chinese and i can't really express myself correctly. But i guess I'll still have to do it cause I'm taking this exam called the A level Chinese language examination.

I was quite happy if i could get just a B or a C but then one day Fang Yu made me realise that getting a B or a C will not be satisfying at all. Thanks to him, now I'm trying hard to get an A. Really hope that i can get that A that i really want now.

Tmmr, the final results will be released. I really hope that everyone can get promoted and no one gets left behind in my class. Good luck everyone

My PW Group

2007-10-21T22:06:00.000+08:00

What more can i say?

Started off as strangers, looking only to complete this PW thingy.

Through GPP, we became friends

Through EOM, we became good friends

Through WR, we discovered hatred

Through OP, hatred dissolved

Through the ups and downs of PW, we became true friends

What more can i say?

Friends for Life! (:

Gotta Go My Own Way

2007-10-20T11:18:00.000+08:00

Gabriella
I gotta say what's on my mind
Something about us
doesn't seem right these days
life keeps getting in the way
Whenever we try, somehow the plan
is always rearranged
It's so hard to say
But I've gotta do what's best for me
You'll be ok..
I've got to move on and be who I am
I just don't belong here
I hope you understand
We might find our place in this
world someday
But at least for now
I gotta go my own way
Don't wanna leave it all behind
But I get my hopes up
and I watch them fall everytime
Another color turns to grey
and it's just too hard to watch it all
slowly fade away
I'm leaving today 'cause I've
gotta do what's best for me
you'll be ok..
I've got to move on and be who I am
I just don't belong here
I hope you understand
We might find our place in this
world someday
But at least for now
I gotta go my own way

Troy
What about us?
What about everything we've been through?

Gabriella
What about trust?

Troy
You know I never wanted to hurt you

Gabriella
And what about me?

Troy
What am I supposed to do?

Gabriella
I gotta leave but I'll miss you

Troy
I'll miss you

Gabriella
So I've got to move on and be who I am

Troy
Why do you have to go?

Gabriella
I just don't belong here
I hope you understand

Troy
I'm trying to understand

Gabriella
We might find our place
in this world someday
but at least for now

Troy
I want you to stay

Gabriella
I wanna go my own way
I've got to move on and be who I am

Troy
What about us?

Gabriella
I just don't belong here
I hope you understand

Troy
I'm trying to understand

Gabriella
We might find our place in this
world someday
but at least for now
I gotta go my own way
I gotta go my own way
I gotta go my own way

Promos result

2007-10-19T22:27:00.000+08:00

Got back my results today. Nothing special. Just disappointing.

Chem was really deserved. Failed it. 39/80. Perhaps i am the complacent one that Mrs Tan is talking about, now i think it is true. I did put in effort but i guess its just no enough. One mark away from passing. Really hope that there will be moderation to help me get my 2nd H2 pass.

Maths. Also deserved it. 40/100. But actually i am quite happy with it cause i improved like 2 folds from my terms. Partly being that i took up tuition and it somehow got me in the mood to study maths again like during secondary 4. So yea (:

Then GP was like hais. Don't know what to say. 24/50 for both papers. My language isn't fantastic but maybe i could have put in more effort cause even Fang Yu who is always criticized by Mr Foo for his bad English got 30+ marks for both papers. Its really time I did something about it.

Chinese. Disappointing. I thought i did really well for my composition section. So well that Lao Shi will pick it up to show to the class. But? I only got 33/60. OMG WHAT HAPPENED?! Quite sad about it. I put in so much effort in writing this composition. Wrote about 4 pages plus trying to put in as much effort as i can for every scene of the story i put in. But in the end...Screwed. But for the comprehension section. Still quite happy with it. 70/100 for that part of the paper. Overall i got 64.5 for the whole of Chinese paper. Still pretty okay i guess.

Physics was really a miracle. AMAZINGLY I PASSED! Woots! And whats more amazing is that I GOT 60!!! Section A I got 14/20 and section B i got 46. Just real lucky. But hey! I studied quite a bit for it too.

Econs was quite loose with the marking and thats how i got 18 marks for the essay. Full marks for part a of the essay somemore... Total i got 31/50 for everything. I thought it was quite good until i heard that the average is 35 -_-.

Well I still can't promote. Missing a H2 to promote. Hope the moderation can help me.

To those who really have problem promoting, wish u guys all the best. And i seriously don't mean to suan u. Seriously.

A mass heart to heart talk

2007-10-16T21:30:00.000+08:00

Today, a group of friends and myself had a heart to heart talk with each other. Some parts really hurt quite alot while we were talking but some parts were quite intresting. Well all of us made an oath to keep the conversation within the table so i shall not elaborate on more. But well, it was heart warming to at least know that there is someone there willing to listen to you talk (:

Thank you!

2007-10-14T10:21:00.000+08:00

Well I'm quite down these days, but its heart warming to know that there are still people who are concerned about me. To all those people who cared for me and asked if I'm okay, a BIG thanks to you. It really made me feel better (:

AC games day 2

2007-10-12T21:57:00.000+08:00

2nd day of AC games. Boredom for me... Guess my class ended up bonding more as i rot and stone in the MR room. Well setup up everything and then just handed the system over to the councilors. I was more of a photographer for my class for the 2nd day of AC games though i played half a match of ultimate Frisbee. Shall post the pictures i took for the class a little later on the class blog.

Half way through at around 1.50, i had to meet up with Mr Foo to do the video for the CPA gala dinner. So i started off by helping him shift those studio lights to the principals office. The moment i stepped into the office, i was like WOAH! Its very big. An eyeopener.

So after filming the prinicipal and vice principal, i headed back to MR room and began playing bridge till forever. Halfway, we swapped to playing Mahjong then to poker. We even had chips. We were all laughing about Kee Ann and his ever diminishing chips. Soon, KD followed suite and both of them ended up bankrupt. In the end i also ended up bankrupt... Played for so long until AC games already ended but we are still playing... Went out and kept the stuff then resumed.

This time round, we played pull up poker with the seniors. While we were playing half way, ALL OF A SUDDEN, the principal walked in. OMG!!!!!! WE WERE LIKE SCRAMBLING TO KEEP THE DECK OF CARDS AND THE CHIPS ON THE TABLES!!!! AHH!!!!!!

Lucky us, she did not say anything. I think she saw and heard something la.

Well at least i had a good time with MR people. Feel that i am myself over there.

How many times already?

2007-10-11T23:02:00.000+08:00

Hais, got that same old feeling again, just like last year, how i felt. Words can't describe it, but it really hurts. How many times already? How many more times? Hais... Sometimes i really do hate myself for being like this, but then again, its my fault for me ending up being like this. Do such emotions have to strike me once every year? My heart is really aching, its crying, just a fraction away from shattering...

Why.........?

New Preamp

2007-10-08T18:53:00.000+08:00

Righto, straight after promos, i went up to meet up with kin on friday to get some resistors and the tranny from him. He recommended me to build a preamp and showed me an ULTRA SIMPLE circuit. Its so simple that the total cost for this whole thing would be like erm erm erm, $20 the most if u use those generic components.

So some details on it.

Okay i give up arranging the pictures. So i used the tools in photobucket.

firday

2007-10-06T18:48:00.000+08:00

Well promos are over and i wonder if am i eligible for three year JC course. So anyway, yesterday we had a miniature SB5 gathering. We met at JE, had lunch at kobayashi and then went on to watch Detective C+. Quite boring at the start but towards the end things gets better. Derek was really funny cause he was like covering his face with this popcorn box. He very scared. Seriously some parts are a little scary but worth watching. So after watching Detective C+, we went to play LAN. Counterstrike it is. Totally owning. The main map we played was poolday and i got like near 100 frags. The closest next to me was bong i think, with a frag of around 70. Every one was like damn high when we played poolday. My team was like screaming and screaming "chiong chiong chiong" until the lady at the counter had to come and quieten us down. But it was very refreshing cause its very long since i played to such extent.

After LAN, i had to leave cause i was going to meet up with Kin at Sim Lim. The rest went on to play pool. I reached Sim Lim a little earlier than expected so i just went to buy the components i needed first. After getting them, i just continued walking and stoning around till Kin came. Went to buy cables first and i was quite amazed to get to know of places that don't seem to be selling cables. So Kin got his cables then we crossed over to Well Audio Labs at burlington square. Kin got the RMG resistors for me and he bought this Teflon Tube sockets for himself. Not cheap. I also very paiseh to take the resistors, but i shall skip that.

After buying all the resistors, we head on down to chinatown to visit KOBA. Its the first time im there and WOW! ALL SORT OF EXOTIC STUFF CAN BE FOUND THERE! I am so noob. I shall just go to KOBA next time to get all my components. So much more value for money and the people there are more friendly. Kin got me some Wima polyprop caps and again im paisehed. Crap. After KOBA, we went to AHFartaudio. First time there too and got to meet Gaga from the loft. Had no idea he was gaga until dinner. So lazed around listening to some music over at AHFartaudio before the three of us went for dinner.

I watched them eat dinner and talk about all sorts of things until i blur blur. haha. After dinner, we went to Kin's house. Reached at around 9 and i had to leave at 10. Looked around at all sort of components and stuff. Speakers, compression drivers, aiya alot la. Stayed on till 10 before i left.

Took a bus home and zzz, it took me 2 hours to reach home from there. So long... But anyway i got home.

argh...

2007-09-16T15:03:00.000+08:00

Started off writing something, then decided that i cannot write about it cause i realised that I am lost for words to write about it. Perhaps this can express my feelings for IT. TOTALLY DISGUSTED.

Chinese can help express my thoughts about it too:

多就滋味少，少就滋味好。

Thats all i can say about it.

Felt really terrible yesterday while doing the Chem promos 06 paper. How to do when im not even equipped with the necessary information? How? You tell me how? I feel as if im being forced to study now and not allowed to study at my own pace. That kind of feeling does not help at all in the process of studying. Its a negative coefficient to studying.

Thankfully, there was someone to talk to when i was feeling that terrible. Thanks a lot to you (:

Aiya dunno what to write liao la.

NoiSing 07

2007-09-12T22:10:00.000+08:00

All righty, it has been way too long since i last posted. So i decided that i shall post a post now while im taking a break from my studies. Crap promos are around the corner...

So anw, last Saturday i went to attend a gathering called NoiSing. It is a gathering organised by the echolof DIY community people with the main coordinator being Johari. To me it was an eye opener cause i saw LOADS of high end stuff and the most important thing of all, got to take a look at how other people build their own equipments. Here is alot of pictures for u all to see.

BIGGEST TUBE ON THE DAY AND IT IS USED AS A PREAMP. FTW!

5687 tube preamp biased using LEDs

Kenneth at the computer controlling the fully digital crossover that controls the frequency of the sound coming out from each speaker of the multiway system.

Plasma Tweeters at US$1500 a pair. There were 2 pairs there.

Power cord or snake?

Solid State room

My amp hiding in a corner

Orions

Sexyback ;)

Turntable came on and this turntable has a bamboo arm

Full rangers at $6000 a pair. U want?

DIY 2 way Scanspeak speakers. Good bass.

Preamps using the Aikido topology

Maxonic field coil drivers

Monica 2 DAC

Cool right? Haha okay to me it was cool la. Top picks for me was the Maxonic Filed Coil horns that did not use a normal magnet but instead used a solenoid to generate the magnetic field. Quite intresting. Another intresting one would be the Ducan Plasma Tweeters. YES PLASMA! Normal tweeters have diaphragms that pushes air to produce the sound but for this, u guessed it, it uses plasma to generate the sound. It works basically on the concept of modulating an arc. And one more thing. ALL THESE STUFF ARE NOT CHEAP! For example, the plasma tweeters costs US$1500 a pair-_-. And there is this full ranger that costs $6000 a pair. OMG. ITS JUST A FULL RANGER LEH!

Of course im not a freeloader :P So i contributed in by bringing my amp there to let them play with. They didn't really play much with it la partly because my amp only produces around 2.5Watts and partly because its a Solid State amp. yes the people there prefer tubes. Got the chance to play my amp towards the end of the whole thing. Comments received was that the sound was thin but it is inherent in all solid states amplifiers.

Time for another post on....MY AMP!

2007-09-04T22:08:00.000+08:00

LOL... Righto so this is yet another post on my amp. Well after my amp has been completed and weeks of running in, i decided that something is missing in the sound. Compared to the previous amp that i DIYed, it lacked that musicality i would say. I don't get moved when i listen to this amp although the soundstage and details are alot more better. I thought that it could be my opamp that is different cause i used the AD826 i my previous amp and now im using OPA2134. They are in the different league in terms of pricing. The AD826 costs 9 bucks a piece and the OPA2134 costs 4 bucks a piece. Thats more than 2 times the price. I decided to go for OPA2134 this time around because of design constraints. I wanted my amp to have a high input impedance and by doing calculations, i had to use a opamp that had low input current which lead me to use the OPA2134. Okay so anw, i tried swapping the opamps but cannot la, my DC offset jump to over 20mV which i don't feel all right with. So decided to change back and instead do some biasing for the opamp. Yan recommended me to use LM317L to do the biasing as it "takes out the guess work and works much better than using discrete transistors and gates". So went to get the components from SLS and off i started soldering. Solder solder solder solder... and TADA!
Standing up on my circuit board. Point to point wiring. Art work.

So test was up next and boy was it disappointing. It distorted. Crap. Think think think, then suspect is my power supply to my opamp cause i had this circuit to limit the initial surge to the filter caps for the opamp. It actually also limit the maximum current. Removed it and YAY! good sound. Installed it for both sides and done. Did not listen to it but will do so tomorrow.

Teacher's Day

2007-08-30T22:07:00.001+08:00

(: the new implementation works for ACFM (: So glad.

Righto, todays teachers day performance. I was on board and quite stressful la. Everything was quite smooth except for the transition from the normal performances to the band performances. For some stupid reason, until noe i still don't know, the setup for the bass guitar did not work well. So in the end Kee Ann and Zhong Xian decided to mic it up, which is a good move. Choir was not very good too because of the way the mics were aiming at. I could not do much on the board cause if i pushed the gaine even more, it will feed. Actually if u hear closely, it feed a few times but they are minor feeds. I think i pumped the volume a little too loud for dance? But how leh, dance always want loud loud music-_- Then the music of the dance start playing only ahh, Miss Tay SMS me tell me to lower the front left amp because the sound very sharp. I AGREE! The dancers told me to cut bass and boost treble?! hmm. But anw, i think MRC did quite a good job this time round ba. The emcees had a part to play too cause i was giving them commands to tell them when we are ready to go or not so a BIG thank you to them. Last but not least, THANK YOU STUDENTS COUCIL FOR ORGANISING TEACHER'S DAY!!

Bowling + ACFM

2007-08-28T20:14:00.000+08:00

Okay its been very long since i last updated, so here is something.

Today we went bowling! Okay we includes vivian, kai yuan, jaymond, cynthia and me. Five people went to play bowling! Woah!... We started off with making the trip to the bowling alley. It was funny for us to be in such a rushing mode because of Vivian. She had to get back to school before 4.30 for her Chinese Orchestra. So we walked really quick and ran after a 196 bus-_-. Eventually we reached West Bowl and then started discussing about how many games to buy. We settled for 2 games each.

We started bowling and oh my, Jaymond is super pro! His highest being 140. I was just having fun with the first game and i think i scored terribly. All the random shots which totally required skills that are next to none. Vivian started off with a winning streak which had 2 strikes. (Notes: strikes in here mean this sign "-" and not "X") She was busy washing the gutters. Haha. She was laughing at herself too but then she soon became busy with sulking at herself la. But overall, she improved throughout the 2 games. In fact, she is the 4th one to get a strike cause i did not-_-. But hey! i managed to get a strike in my very last game.

Okay so bowling game came and went. Now on to ACFM.

For this week, the ACJC students council would be having ACFM where students can dedicate songs to their beloved teachers to thank them for their hardwork and effort in nurturing students into bright young talents. Main point. MRC had to support. They had this very odd request. The ACFM they wanted was very different from the previous ACFMs as they wanted the sound to come out from the hall and outdoor system. This would mean that they are not using the school's horns. Crap. More work for us. Even Mrs Sharon Loh made that comment. We had to find a solution to channeling the audio feed into the hall system as it was non existent. I thought of one and decided to go ahead with it. It used speakon cables as it seems that that is the only cable that is long enough to travel from the hall to the lobby. I soldered this speakon to XLR converter and on Firday, Kang De, Kee Ann and me started to lay the long speakon cable. We flew the cable from the third floor and let it down to the first floor all the way to the concourse. From the third floor, the cable entered the side door and went all the way into the cage. The length required was very long that we had to get another speakon cable to extend the 1st speakon cable0_0. So all was laid and we decided to do a test first before we duct tape everything down.

The source was a creative mp3 player. AMAZINGLY, the sound was just super clean and clear. I was rather surprised to hear such clean sound as i did not expect that. I was expecting to hear some buzzing sound because speakons are not balanced cables which means that they are more prone to noise pickup. But anw it worked. So we started to duct tape everything down.

So this week came and we have to support ACFM everyday for this whole week. First day no major problem. The transmission was quite okay except that there was some buzzing sound which was not really loud. Second day, MAJOR buzzing sound. So major that i had to rethink about how i transmit the signal. Well i thought of it and im going to try it out tomorrow to see if will it work. So wish me luck for tmmrs new implementation.

Stupid Actions

2007-08-20T21:13:00.000+08:00

Today i did something stupid. Very stupid.

It started of with me walking with Joe to the MRT. Then we got onto the MRT. Then in the MRT, somehow we started talking about chinese teacher. He mentioned about his chinese teacher who used to be a reporter for Mediacorp News. Then i was like who? He replied saying that it was the one who was the chief invigilator for the chinese mock exam. Then i went. OHH!!! THAT ONE WHO ALWAYS DID THIS ACTION AHH? And stupidly, i did the vulgar hand signal which means no d***. ZZZ. The people around me were like trying to walk away from me after that la. Crap, so embarassing.

A trip to City Harvest Church

2007-08-19T11:57:00.001+08:00

Yesterday, i had a chance to visit City Harvest Church. Mr Foo said i could go there and see him operate the board during their services so i decided to just go take a look. I reached quite early so i entered the hall like halfway through a service. The service was for children i guess? Cause everyone there were pretty young.

The place is quite impressive and the main hall is situated underground. I went into the hall and first thing i saw was the BIG LED screen. Yes they don't use projectors, they use LED screens. Then i saw the board in the middle of the hall so i went to it. Met Mr Foo there and started to admire at the equipments. The board was a 48 channel, Series Five Spirit mixer by Soundcraft. Its quite old already. The previous mixer that was in this position was a MIDAS Heritage 3000 but it got shifted over to Singapore Expo Hall. Still i had a wonderful time at just looking at the equipments. The speakers were those hanging from the ceiling array speakers. I felt that the volume was very loud cause i could feel my ear drums ringing after the first service. Clearly not very good for the ears. The board was around 3 metres long? Not very sure but im very sure that i must run from one end to the other to control it. They confirgured it such that one side was for the singers and one side is for the band. Mr Foo was on board and he did it himself. The impressive thing was the amplifiers they used. From the mixing desk, i could not see any amplifier cause the amps were in a different room. So if it was in a different room, how am i going to control it? There is this computer at the side of the mixer and a software was running. Then i realised that that software actually controls the amps! You could adjust the gain the volume from it and everything is connected through fibre optics.

So after the first service, Mr Foo took me around the whole hall to show me all the equipments. I went to the amp room and it looked like a server room to me with all the racks and stuff. Then he brought me to the light room which was super cold. Then he showed me the subwoofers which are like hidden. Then we went to their "own" room and before we entered that room, I saw another mixer as big as the main mixer in the centre of the hall. It was used JUST for controlling all the stage minitors! It was another Spirit Mixer but it was much older than the main mixer. It was a Spirit Viena. Not just that, beside it was a MIDAS Venice mixer to accompany it. Below that mixer was all their wireless mics receiver. Awesome stuff.

Their setup would sure cost ALOT. Everyt channel in use had a compressor and a gate. Thats like 0_0. Wah if only my school had such equipments......

scared

2007-08-14T20:50:00.000+08:00

Scared. A word that that describes fear. I felt it. Today.

During chemistry tutorial, it was suddenly jolted into my brain that this term is going to be over. Promos is just 45 days away and im still struggling away with my maths and physics. Somebody save me! The kind of fear that got into me, is really something that i do not want to feel. So fast the june holidays ended. So fast the term is going to be over. So fast will the promos end. And eventually it will be, so fast did my college days end.

I just cant believe it. I better start studying.

One ACS National Day

2007-08-08T22:19:00.000+08:00

Today, all 6 schools of the ACS family gather at Queenstown stadium to celebrate One ACS National Day. Well other people may have found it boring but i found it fun. Not because of the parade by itself but more of because i was doing Roving DV on it. All of the Roving DV crew were suppose to meet at 6.30am and i made it there at 6.05am. I even went to school at around 5.50am to get extension cord. BUT holy crap, everyone reached at 7. -_-. 7 leh! omg thats like 30 mins late la.

So anw, started to take videos. We had on hand 2 cameras so we took almost anything we could see. Kellop (is this how u spell it?), Geraldine's cousin was our reporter. So we started off trying to record an intro, which was almost impossible because of the super duper loud speakers behind us but we eventually manage to get the timing right.

Then we interviewed our GOH. He was very friendly and answered our question with very elaborated details. Well he was once an ACS boy too (: So after the interview, we had to take a wrap up shot. We took like 4 shots before we got it right. Quite fun i would say but i won't want to do the script.

My New Amp!

2007-08-01T21:24:00.001+08:00

All righty, my new amp is up and running. Whats left is just some fine tunning. So here are some pictures for you:

Pretty Blue Light

Cause im on a budget, i had to recycle parts from my old amp

Last shot of it before it is disected :(

So this is what i took out to recycle. Reconditioned it and its ready to be used again.

Getting everything ready to do a mock up with everything inside.

Got those ellen key screws to hold everything in place.

Bare back.

Started soldering all the wires together. Its hell of a mess...Like my hair!

Messy right?!

The largest and smallest heatsink i used in this amp.

Then came the time to spray my casing. I had to sand everything before i could spray. Luckily, i had this adapter thing to sand for the drill and it really helped alot!

Managed to sand it till it reflected evenly but its not very shiny.

The power of aluminium dust...!

Then the spraying started off. I had to do it at the condo's staircase shaft so that no one could smell the smell of spray paint.

Sprayed a total of 3 coats of paint and i think it looks quite nice (:

Final product without the top cover.

And my workspace (Bedroom)

Really learned alot this time round from my father and the people online. Want to really thank my father for being so surpportive this time round. I was seriously shocked when he was so supportive of it but really, he teached me alot of things that i don't think normal schools would teach. So thanks to all those who helped and suggested idea for my project!

away?

2007-07-30T19:18:00.000+08:00

You may be wondering where have i been after that random post? Well im just here and there and everywhere? haha. Nah, i have been bust with my amp and im so excited cause i can predict that if nothing goes wrong, it will be ready by tonight! I have loads of pictures which i would really wish to show, but due to time constraint, its hard. So look out for the space above this post to see my new amp :P

random

2007-07-24T21:18:00.000+08:00

This shall be a rather random post. Here goes.

I am pretty sure that many of us have heard before of the story about a 1/4 filled water bottle and the many different ways in which a person can look at it. One such way is that you can think of the bottle as " Hey there is 1/4 of water in the bootle! Thats great!" and alternatively you can think of it as "Oh dear, something is not right cause 3/4 of the bottle is not filled!". It really depends on how you want to think of it and how you want to accept it.

Well, many a times this story is used to encourage people to look on the bright side of things and its not really the end but ever thought of "you" being the one trying to tell the story, know of this story and truly follow it yourself? We keep telling such stories to friends and such, but when it comes down to performance indicators, do we ever see that the 1/4 of the bottle is filled? I am rather sure that most of the time, most, but not all, of us only can see that the 3/4 of the bottle is empty , little will we realise that there is actually this 1/4 of the bottle being filled. In fact, I feel that demands and expectation actually minimises the 1/4 such that it almost appear negligible to oneself. Isn't it such an irony for such a story which is suppose to be encouraging to not be accpeted in the eye of the performance analyser?

Amp Update

2007-07-21T22:52:00.000+08:00

Today i went to my father's office to build the chasis for my amp. Since a picture speaks a thousand words, i shall just use pictures (:
My present, wraped in newspaper. Hmm, whats inside the wrapping paper. Aluminium sheets! Precut somemore... (okay that sounds lame)

Mock up of the whole thing. Shall eventually spray it black.

Then we began drilling 15mm deep holes using the bench press.Look at that! So long!

For the tapping part, we used a portable drill, set it to low speed and tap.

Thats about all for today. Only managed to do the tapping for the top and bottom of the heatsinks, the front and back have to wait till later. It sure is hell lot of work!

MRC handover day

2007-07-20T21:53:00.000+08:00

Today was MRC handover day. The new comittee members are as follow:

President: Kang De
Vice President: Zhen Ning (yar thats me)
Secretary: Zhong Xian
Treasurer: Shermaine
Quarter Comittee: Colin, Xiang Jun, Joe, Kee Ann

So there it is. I felt rather sad that the seniors are leaving us. All seems just so fast. Well, have to accept it ba.

Together, this new comm shall lead MRC to great success!

Council Investiture 2007

2007-07-16T20:52:00.001+08:00

Great work they got there. Very very grand in my honest opinion. I was up there in the cage on the mixer. Stress level not as high as before, like chinese new year which i totally screwed up. But anyway, the whole investiture was quite well done except for the start where the cue was given to play the music and i played but then the council people didn't walk out. A few seconds later, we had a council rush into the cage telling us the people haven even reach the door!! Okay okay, i faded out the music and then Miss Annie came out and repeated "I present to you, the student councillors. Again." It was really quite funny but then all went on quite smooth after that.

I was rather touched by maggie's speach. Not just because of she thanking us MRC but it was an overall thing. The way she phrased everything and stuff, was just meant to touch peeple. The first CCA she thanked was MRC, and indeed it touched me to know that someone out there actually still knows that we are always around, suporting various events "secretly".

Through this investiture, i learned that council is quite a fun thing. I stayed on for their recession and really saw the other side of council. They were actually giving out presents to teachers and councils. The councils first gave the 5 teacher in charge presents and they were very very creative presents in my opinion. There was one for this teacher called: eeker tanial?! Don't really know how to spell it but its pronounced it this way. So the first present was this card showing a new kind of evolution from ET to 一个大牛 to Tuna. I couldn't really get the tuna part but it was just funny la. So after that card, the council people gave him a back massager with a cow head soft toy on its tip. Then came the fun part. He was given 2 custom shirt. The first one was a white shirt with the words, 一个大(a cow head). The next T-shirt was one with the words tuna. But it was designed to look like the Puma style. So instead of the words Puma, it was replaced with the words TUNA and instead of a leopard, it was replaced with a flying tuna -_-. Quite lame but it was hilarious!

Ahh its just so sad that half a year has gone and various CCA leaders are stepping down already. What have i done this half year? I don't really know. Its like i just closed my eyes and half a year is gone.

Oh ya. From council investiture, i learned one thing too! Old teacher does not necessarily mean naggy. Trust me on that. I learned that FIRST HAND. Haha!

Amp Update

2007-07-13T22:49:00.000+08:00

Righto. Reached home at like 8+, then took a shower and started working on my amp before dinner came. What i had to do was to remove the parallel resistor so that i would have a effective resistance of 1.2Ohms along the output stage in order to decrease my bias current
Instead of 2 resistors, now there is only one. so its 1.2ohms

Each channel has its own heatsink.

Everything needed to run the whole thing.

Now some maths. With voltage of 0.739V and a resistor of 1.2Ohm, we have:

0.739=(I)(1.2)
I=0.616A
Power that is continuously dissipated.
P=VI
P=(32)(0.616)
P=~20watts

Thats alot of heat considering im not using it to cook anything. It works already and there is sound. I would really wish to borrow my father's office oscilloscope and check for oscillations here and there. But anw, theres sound already. I have yet to do a proper listening test so cant really comment on the sound. Must wait till it gets fitted into a box, which will be my aluminium casing (:

Jia Qian's Mum

2007-07-11T21:39:00.000+08:00

She passed away, while giving birth to twins. Its really a sad case. Her mother went under the operating knife to deliver the twins but after the operation, she could not stop bleeding. Her wound was oozing with blood that could not clot. The hospital, R*ff*e* hospital, told them that they could not give her anymore blood because they have already hit the quota and their blood supply is running low. Indeed she was given 20packets of blood which is 10 litres of blood. Thats alot. The family made a agreement with the doctors there that if they found people to donate blood, the hospital would release more blood. So the next day many of us received smses asking us for help. Most of us went to help, i wanted to but i could not because i just donated my blood not long ago. The blood bank had more blood but after that, im unsure of what happened. I suppose she got more blood. I heard that her mum was in stable condition soon after but the next day, she passed away.

The newspapers reported on this and its a very hot news now. Sadly and annoyingly, the hospital is actually claiming that they were willing to provide as much blood as they could to her mother. It is just super annoying. Shying away from responsibility? It has not been the first time i seen such cases already. Last year, my grandma passed away also under the surgeons knife. She was admitted to the hospital just to undergo a simple surgery to change her broken bone to an artificial one. The chance of survival as claimed by the doctor was 90%. 90% mind you. My cousin, who was a doctor too, encouraged my grandma to undergo this operation. Who knew what happened? The incision was made, and immediately, my grandma went into cardiac arrest. She had a heart attack in the middle of the operation? I don't know. But what i knew was that when my uncles and parents probed the hospital for the reason behind my grandma's death, they were wishy washy and very very inefficient. Excuses were that the doctors was on leave. Very "efficient" i must say.

I feel very sorry for Jia Qian and her family. Just hope that her father will stay strong. Not easy to bring up 4 children now. Pray that they would not meet with any big problems. To end it off, i will quote what her father said

"Does Saving A Life Require Approval?"

Chinese Orals

2007-07-09T21:58:00.000+08:00

Gone. Screwed. Quite badly done im my opinion. I had difficulty reading the passage and smoked through 4-5 words. Confirm the examiners would have picked it out. Then came conversation. The question was something like: Nowadays there are alot of people posting their photos online to share, do you think this hould be encouraged? And i went: yes it should be encouraged but there are the negative sides of it too. Did i answer the question?!?! hmm. Then i only said like a few points and started err err erring until the examiner could not take my errs anymore and said: you have said quite alot already so let me ask you another question. Dead. Towards the end, i was very nervous already and it was pretty obvious that the examiner wanted me to be gone. Okay dead.

0_0?!

2007-07-08T21:46:00.000+08:00

Wat the! Another cap went kaput again! But then this time i was pretty darn sure i did not wire it wrongly! I guessed that it was a surge problem cause my cap bank is like 30000uF which draws a very very high current momentarily when just turned on. I suspect it could be due to that problem and then somewhat confirmed it after hearing from my dad that Tantalum caps cant really withstand surges in power.

This time the blowing up was even more POWERFUL! I was wiring everything up on my second channel and decided to turn it up after checking the wiring. So i turned the power on and POP! Saw a damn big spark and then saw the cap actually shoot out of the circuit board?! So scary la! Very lucky again cause i wasn't sitting in the "firing range". I think im going to change all the tantalum caps on my circuit to either ceramic caps or just use the electrolytic cap la.

A trip to my father's office

2007-07-08T17:28:00.000+08:00

After countless tries of drilling with a simple hand drill, i decided that the quality sucks big time and decided to ask for my father's help. He was really open about me building another amp this time round:)

I was super excited cause i got to use this machine:
Its a heck of a drilling machine and the good thing is, its precise. I was rather surprised when i got to know of the price tag of this machine, around 100+. Wah such a precise machine and it costs less than a Black and Decker hand drill?! WOOTS!