Afterthoughts : Penang Jazz Festival 2010 !!

2 weeks later, the blog is dusty, and its not getting any better like the wine bottle does cuz if the wine bottle is dusty, means its about time to bear the luxury of tasting that bottle of richness. Well that's not the case for a blog so yea *what??*

Good morning!!

There were no major events for the past 2 weeks except Penang Jazz Festival 2010!!! Here are some captures on the night of 5th December,2010. It was both 4th and 5th but I'm attending 5th mainly because of the presence of Tommy Emmanuel !!

The whole thing was awesome. Since its the 7th fest, I hate to say that I missed the past 6 years of Penang Jazz Fest because it really did blew my mind away. RM60 was totally worth it!!

As we all know, the music appreciation level and the standards of differentiating good and bad music in this country is totally screwed up. ESPECIALLY when it comes to jazz, blues and classical, just how many people would try and blend themselves into that music?

Well here's what I thought :

1) Jazz is something that people have to discover it for themselves, it really requires one to LISTEN to it.

2) It's very 'busy' music, frequently evades straight statements of the melody, can be discordant (or sound discordant to the untutored ear, even when it's not).

3) Jazz is an enigma. Jazz takes some thought, whereas the kinds of music that is being played on major radio stations nowadays are packaged up and sold to the masses.

4) The poor representation of jazz to a public that might be attracted if they only really knew what real jazz was.

The hard work that the Jazz Fest Committee gives in to connect all the international artists and have them perform in this annual musical island festival is just awesome. People need to learn more about this form of art.

I'll be there to support this festival again, next year. And this time, it's gonna be 2 days, and I'll be carrying more of the records home. Hehe. Awesomeness!!

I love jazz :)

My Dearest 1989 Honda Civic 1.5

I sent my baby to the workshop, and it was said, and decided, that the engine needs to be replaced. The ENGINE. Exactly. But then again its a 1989 car, wouldn't bleed much off the wallet for a 21 years old car engine.

It would be a few days, or probably weeks later when I get to drive my baby again.

In the mean time, I'm meeting the completion of my sem break's schedule halfway :

- Tuition class (confirmed)

- Performances (confirmed)

- Guitar teachings (yet to inquire, planning to teach at Music World, either with Jocelynn and Chiew Fui @ Gurney Plaza's branch, or Kok Choon @ Auto City's.)

- Going back to dad's firm to help out (yet to be confirmed)

Gonna get through this sem break, fully!

I miss you, Civic.

Pffff.

Good Morning

Good Morning... I'm up early again and I don't know why.

Anyways, was wondering if I should use Tumblr.

Tumblr is fun, creative and somewhat fresh. Thing is, I don't have much friends who are using it now, and you are only allowed to follow the updates of your other friends given that they are using Tumblr as well. I have 2 followers, and am following 4 friends.

Stick to blogspot perhaps? I don't know.

Good morning once again!

People and their names

Be proud and stand by the name your parents gave you, it is totally unnecessary for one to give themselves an English name like, out of nowhere, especially Chinese.

Noticeably in Facebook, most of my old friends (especially chinese), they didn't have an English name then, and now they have one. Ergo, I have problems finding their names when I wanted to follow up on them because I have to spend some friggin' moments to look for their names. That is just not cool...

Giving yourselves an English name doesn't make things 'cooler, doesn't change anything except it troubles people like me who actually cares *ahem* *inhales* about you and wanted to know how you doing recently and I have to dig you outta my friend list knowing that you already gave yourself an English name out of nowhere and all I can do is forcefully magnify the God-forsaken thumbnails in friend list just to get to recognize you.

Some even 'created' some really fucked-up names which me and other friends would crack jokes outta their names... cuz its really retarded!

Good morning, and be proud of the name your parents gave you, or you can already effin' eff yourself.

The thing about daily revisions...

Study week is rather relaxing for me...

The outings are ridiculously frequent, much much more frequent than the outings before study week.

Birthday celebrations, Starbucks moments, movies, gaming, you name it.

In fact I think I'm already in the mood for holiday... LOL.

And am heading to G-Spot later at night with Joseph Wong and others (if they are joining) to enjoy ourselves with the live band performance over there...

Well, all I can say is, usual revisions and reviews after each class (if you do attend the class), or daily revisions, are important :) eases things up at the other end, like I do now. Seriously, it's a fact. It's not too late to practice that in the semesters to come :D

Good morning.

p/s : A lot of nice and exciting movies are on the way... Skyline, Tron, Harry Potter, Narnia, you-name-it. Can't wait =)

Study Week

We've entered study week, and the actual motivation or mood or mode (or whatever you call it)for studies + revisions are just yet to be in place.

Updates since the last post :

a lot of birthday celebrations going on (including mine) up till yesterday - Khai Loon's.

Prepared myself a lot of short-notes and past year exam papers, am yet to finish all of it.

Am loosen up myself a bit later in the evening to watch Buried with Patrick.

Absorption rate was high this morning (4am) while I was studying, accompanied by Facebook and JabberLoop...

Who's the JabberLoop?

They JAZZ things up, big time.

Audition for VOLKSWAGEN POLO ROCKS

Got a text from Ribben last night about the Volkswagen Polo Rocks audition.

I called Chiew Fui, driven by my madness and spontaneousness, she agreed and so we entered the audition. Arrived at the scene at 12pm, the crews are yet to setup the stage, so we registered ourselves. Our performance consist of one vocal solo by Chiew Fui - I've Never Been to Me, another song by Chiew Fui accompanied with my guitar - Fish Leong's Love song (情歌), then my solo performance doing mash-up of As Long As You Love Me and Kau Ilhamku :)

Best thing out of this audition is, its me and Chiew Fui's 1st time entering this sort of competition, and its way too spontaneous. Haha. And hey I get to perform with

LIYANA FIZI!!!

Meeting her in person is just nice. I couldn't really recognize her when I first saw her, coz she always has the fringe with the hair, but this time its a clear forehead. Then suddenly the image of her singing Stay in her music video pops in my mind and I was like 'what... isn't she the... oh my!' She was getting ready by playing her guitar at Coffee Bean.

Here's how I started the conversation:

Bowie : Hey! What guitar are you using?

Liyana : Oh I'm using a Martin! What about you?

Bowie : Oh I'm using Norman, it's a Canadian brand.

Liyana : I see. Let's enjoy the performance ya!

Bowie : sure thing!

At that point, I was already thinking 'why is this girl right here looks so familiar'.

Then the moment she strikes the guitar with one of her song, 'Ternyata'.

I was shocked. 'It's her!'.

And so happens, the photos were taken. And I had the honor of singing Stay with her.

It was fun and exciting.

Quote of the day... LOVE

"Dear heart, please fall in love when you are ready, not when you are lonely." - Heba Elnakib

Well said...

Bowie Ong.

I Can't Tell You What It Is...

...
but to keep thinking that I'm not good enough for you, and keep improving myself.

I miss you <3

There'll be better days tomorrow though you had a rather troublesome morning.

突然间migraine了一下下... 希望待会跑步可以调整下整个人的心情和状态。

我很想要挥霍... Crowd Lu, it's all your fault, but of a good cause.

OH YEAH !!!

Bowie :D

没时间 : time is running out.

没时间我没时间～

Final exams here I come!!

Used To

We loved to watch live concerts a lot...
We loved to watch live bands instead of minus-1 performance.
The groove of the band is just... overwhelming!

I remembered once... I bought Jason Mraz's Live On Earth DVD, she downloaded the audio file for the whole concert shortly after we watched the whole thing. She wanted to try something out. She insert the CD into the player... and I do as she said... both of us lied down on the floor with our eyes closed.

"PLEASE PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR JASON MRAZ... *audiences screamin' and applause*..."

followed by some really nice and clean tone of a Fender e.g. with the reverb of the Chicago arena... the screamin' lasted for like 2 minutes...

We are picturing the stage, the crowd, everything... the picture flows along with the on-playing CD... the feeling was... awesome!
It's weird, I know...

Then there's a sustain on the electric guitar... there, we know Jason Mraz is inches from the main vocal mcrophone, with his Taylor Nylon Jason Mraz Signature guitar ... there he strummed a G chord... gently sets off the whole concert... and he sings...

"Well... sometimes the sun shines on... other people's houses and not mine,
somedays the cloud paint the skies all grey and it takes away my summer time.
somehow the sun keep shining upon you, while I struggle to get mine.
If there's a light in everybody, set out your ray of sunshine..."

There we held our hands together and sing along...

最初的梦，最爱的人，美好时光 :)

Damien Rice - Cannonball

There's still a little bit of your taste in my mouth
There's still a little bit of you laced with my doubt
It's still a little hard to say what's going on

There's still a little bit of your ghost, your witness
There's still a little bit of your face i haven't kissed
You step a little closer each day
That I can't say what's going on

Stones taught me to fly
Love, it taught me to lie
Life, it taught me to die
So it's not hard to fall
When you float like a cannonball

There's still a little bit of your song in my ear
There's still a little bit of your words I long to hear
You step a little closer to me
So close that I can't see what's going on

Stones taught me to fly
Love, it taught me to lie
Life taught me to die
So it's not hard to fall
When you float like a cannon...

Stones taught me to fly
Love, it taught me to cry
So, come on courage
Teach me to be shy
'Cause it's not hard to fall
And I don't want to scare her
It's not hard to fall
And I don't wanna lose
It's not hard to grow
When you know that you just don't know

THE LETTER :)

I'll send you a letter
From the frontline
Please send applause
And some good advice
You were born with a compass
A map on your table
Tell me how did you find out
Your bearings were wrong

Just pray for us
Pray for sunshine
These days are cold
And I'm missing you
The city is no place to lose
Ah, but I never thought
I could choose
It was plain from the start
Plain from the start
I was playing for time

I need laughter and love
Some special drug
I need cigarettes
There's killers behind us
Devils ahead, send protection
I will drown in this city
I will drown in this trench
Built for us
And the only thing left
Yeah the only thing left
Is the running

And these clouds keep on rolling
And I, I don't know why
Take this guitar right out of my hands
I surrender
This town don't want drunkards
Or singers of bad poetry
They want dancing and drugs and laughter
And we don't have them

Just pray for us
Pray for sunshine
These days are cold
And I'm missing you
This letter was meant for your eyes
Destroy it and then just go hide
You're the only thing left
That makes any sense
Please don't blow it

I hate this part right here

My entire day is ruined by that teasing text of yours.

Thank you.

I'll see it as a challenge towards my persistency.

... I miss you.

Enough said.

Life is Good : PHOTOS TELL IT LIKE IT IS

Fireworks

Long ago when I whirled away
Held a promise of a brand new day
I crossed my fingers for a love to keep
Tornadoes swept me off my feet

Sleeping dogs dream of chasing a ball
Like a blossom from a tree that falls
I throw down with a raven in the sky

In a graveyard I feel so alive

It's so cold here, in my bed without my love
I cover my emotions, I'm half dead
And the hours laid as the memories still haunts me, and it's tearing me apart
There are fireworks exploding in my heart

Love is always just within my grasp, like a ufo it's come so fast
Was it real or just in my mind?
I ask the psychic on the telephone line

Fast cars dream of winning the race
Like a cloud that gets stuck in one place
I'm drifting with the autumn leaves
In a parks where I pray for peace

It's so cold here, in my bed without my love
I cover my emotions, I'm half dead
And the hours laid as the memories still haunts me, and it's tearing me apart
There are fireworks exploding in my heart

Every now and then I catch a glimpse
Of what it's like to have some common sense
Pipe dreams never seem to come true
They are just a pretty song playing out of tune

Flying fish dream of reaching the sky
Water all around them makes them cry
I never was the kind to kiss and tell
Love's perfect mix of heaven and hell

It's so cold here, in my bed without my love
I cover my emotions, I'm half dead
And the hours laid as the memories still haunts me, and it's tearing me apart

There are fireworks exploding in my heart

Romantic not?

I was having some tea at E-Gate's Paparich with Patrick. Sitting next to our table is a couple, but they barely talk to each other.

A closer look to the top of the table, both of them had their eyes on their iPhone 4.

Just like when a kid got his new toy, he wouldn't stop messing around with it, and he'd be playing with it for the whole night since its really new and he got really excited.

We chatted for like 45 minutes, and I still notice no dialogues from the table next to us.

They were so concentrated on their iPhone 4 and I could notice their fingers are constantly swiping and pointing on that screen.

I even made a joke over their 5 seconds conversation.

Version 1:

M: what u doing?

F : oh facebook-ing

M : oh me too...

Version 2:

F : wanna leave already ah?

M : hmm later la

F : ok

Or maybe its the couple thing that the outsider couldn't comprehend... I don't know.

You see, the thing about all these fancy technologies nowadays, especially Internet, cell phones and stuffs, made things a lot less romantic compared to our parents' generation.

Back then, you don't text or call your girlfriend.

You'd walk a few miles to her place just to say hi to her and ask her out for dinner.

You'd write a letter and hand it over to her in person just to get her to the idea that you are missing her.

and....... SOME OTHER THINGS like that.

Well, yea, that was from me, a guy's POV.

Bottom line is, you can't stop yourself from spinning along with the world.

Every second, things are changing and evolving.

Imagine that now, if a guy walked a few miles to the place of the girl that he fonds of, just to ask her out for a date. I bet the girl will end up asking him :

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TEXT ME FIRST?"

Falling Slowly

My all-time favorite song...

ONCE : Falling Slowly.

A lot of people covered this song, including Kris Allen.

I'm hoping that one day, some girl from somewhere is gonna sing this with me...

and I'm yet to find out who would she be.

I don't know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can't react
And games that never amount
To more than they're meant
Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You'll make it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can't go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I'm painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It's time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I'll sing along

Random thoughts

失去的，其实从来都没失去过。

You are, and always will be, my prettiest friend :)

Heart to the ground,

I love you, always.

Bowie

WE

It's okay, if you had to go away.

Just remember the telephone, well, they work in both ways.

And the more you follow through,

and there's always more left over and not too much explaining to do.

If you ever find your love, I will be your lifeline, I will never miss a phone call.

but if I never hear them ring...

If nothing else, I'll think the bells inside have finally found you someone else and that's...okay.

Coz I remember everything you said...

Because you...

and I both love.

what you...

and I spoke of.

and others can only dream of, others can only read of...

Español muy sexy!

What I needed to do, is to learn how to sing a Spanish song on Spain's International Day.

So I pick a song which I'm familiar with its melody line and yet available in Spanish language.

Enrique Iglesias's Heroe!

How it happened : I wasn't in that particular class the other day, and Ms. Maria asked if any of us knows how to sing and play guitar, a few of them suggested me straight away. So on and so forth, I am where I am.

Si pudiera se tu heroe...

Spanish language is sexyyyyyyy :D

Good morning, I miss you!

She's like a pair of headphones I wear all day...

Just like a song in my head...stuck on replay like...

nananana...everyday...

Good morning.

p/s : faster get over with the fever, you-know-who. I like the way you talk, so there's no need for you to care so much about not knowing how to being totally courteous or stuffs. SERIOUSLY. Just... be who you are!

Here I am once again early morning revisions arghhhh.

I miss her...

nananana... everyday...

She :)

I bare my windowed self untamed and untrained
Dreams that hardly touch our complexions truest faults
If room enough for both my drowsy spirit shall fall
Bold waves tumble oh to the season of my heart
And you have offended my faith and my trust
Until all is lost into the beauty of the day
Until all is lost...

But there's something in the way you laugh
And it makes me feel like a child
Aspects of life they confuse me
You and your thesis amuse me
Oh, after and afternoon with you
And your rich black eyes
Your lips and dark hair
Elbows and exposed knees tossing toward the ceiling
after an afternoon...
After an afternoon with you :)

Face to palm
Tear to tear
Mouth to tongue
Heart to ground
Heart to ground
Heart to ground
I am in love

random中的random

不坚持 ＝ 放弃。

放弃对你的坚持 ＝ 放弃自己。

当然我不可以放弃自己，所以：

不放弃自己＝不放弃对你的坚持。

坚持到底...

这是我的诚意.

Panic at Clinic Cafe

nice shot taken by Yuan :D

Random : iPhone and it's freakin' Bluetooth

It's Yuan's Z610i and my K770i. She was transferring our photos to me.

We were transferring photos at Clinic Cafe, and some might wonder 'why not your iPhone?' . Well here's the part that I have to complain about, Apple bears the thought of dominating the whole world with its product, hence making all its products interact with family products ONLY, and people still love it (me too) as much because its just way too awesome at times, comparing to what others have to offer.

OK, iPhone's bluetooth? They couldn't interact with other mobile devices, and it requires a 3rd party app from the App Store to enable it to do so, and that app itself is not FOC, mind you.

That's all? Yea that's all I had to complain, I love everything about iPhone but except that. But come to think about it, it doesn't bother me much. Except when everybody's taking out their phone to have some file sharing moment via bluetooth, I'm gonna have to step away, LOL.

This is a random complaint regarding iPhone's bluetooth.

Have a good day, and Happy Malaysia Day!

Namewee 黄明志

I was in the car having this conversation with my dad, regarding Namewee 黄明志. His actions, his videos, and stuffs, and how we all sees it.

We both agree that we don't know whats with the on-going craze of Namewee and his videos.

It is true that he is one of the sharpest and most outspoken person of this nation, that speaks about certain issues that is happening; expresses his thoughts in words without any hold-backs; amazingly he is the best at what he does.

I do not totally disagree with the opinions, thoughts, POVs, and messages he delivered through his songs and videos, but raising the awareness by not looking things from different angles? That is just wrong, hombre from Muar.

The video of him confronting the people at TNB is just outrageous and irrational. How many times does people have to remind him that it's a BREAKDOWN not a SHUT-DOWN. And of course! TNB have to have emergency backup power for their facilities. Otherwise, who's going to light you up when thing goes wrong?

His actions were moronical to the max.

What I personally thought was, if he wants to raise the awareness of certain issues like racial discriminations, he should alert, then suggest what kind of actions should be taken. Since a lot of people are on his side, I'm pretty sure there are people behind who can actually 'walk his talk' (people with 'powers'), cuz he couldn't do a thing with his present status.

The way he do things is not bringing the whole nation together, instead its tearing our nation apart at some extent; it's not bringing the people and the government together to work out a solution to solve problematic issues; it's not helping especially when everybody sang along his songs, oompa loompa nobody is thinking of a way out to solve the probs! He enrages and advocates people, people are aware of the issues, and people got angry and... and then what? Nothing! But a bunch of government-haters who can't do a wee bit of thing.

So people, your awareness has been WELL-RAISED by Namewee, is anyone going to suggest a solution and work things out? His actions has got to be related to something more constructive, or else it'd be a laughing stock. I don't know, I could imagine words like 'Malaysians are singing their country to its worst and they are still the same the next day when they woke up, losers.'

This is a random thoughts regarding the Malaysian YouTube Hero, Namewee and his actions.

No offense to all the supporters out there, good night, and wake up for a beautiful 1Malaysia Day tomorrow.

DENIALS

I have no time for that, as well as for those who bear that kind of thought.

Denial is : an imaginary mind defensive mechanism that is meant to fail; that confines you in a circle of easy-going words and thoughts, instead of the naked-truth; that irritates me even more knowing that you ignored the facts of what actually happens and detoured to an even longer journey to solve the issues.

Please please puh-lease, put down that invisible denial shield of yours. Welcome to the reality.

I'm used to the best of both worlds : constructive criticisms that aggravates hence motivates me; praises and compliments that inspires me to do even better. Of course, you need to do a lot of filtration on people's words. That is how you are gonna move on.

No offense, but I pity people who are not able to cope with razor-sharp criticisms (the constructive ones). It's time to toughen up your shield, and get yourself rugged. You need to expose yourself to both sides of this world. Life is wonderful, and it's because there's an ugly side of it that makes it beautiful. Ergo, it's COMPARABLE.

Good morning, and Happy Wednesday.

p/s: screw denials, big time.

Get Well Soon

No denying, you're the habit that I can't quit.

Get well soon, you-know-who.

Te echo de menos.

Cornered

I read The Time Traveler's Wife for the second time.

It is this very book, that I'm able to drown in each and every words of it. Sadly, I loathe the feeling of whenever I closed the book and came back to reality. I don't know why. Maybe something as pure as such doesn't exist in our world but in the story itself. When you ask this to any other person, chances are the topic will crack into jokes and laughter, into something that you hate to agree on : I'm getting older.

Clearly more time is needed to adapt myself back to solo (single). I would constantly keep myself busy just so I wouldn't think of all the nonsense that will, in anyways, make me fell into the emotional turmoil. No they are not nonsense, I'm calling it nonsense because it's the naked-truth that I'm avoiding right now, subconsciously. But nonetheless, this isn't the worst.

The mirror in my room can always tell whether I'm lying or not. If I'm happy, the smile on my face would shines out naturally, and I'll be happy with it because its real; but if it's the other way round, the feeling of betrayal would be really overwhelming, and I'd walk away with no facial expression. Betrayal, because you looked right into the smile in that mirror, and you can tell that the person is faking it. The razor of honesty reflects from the mirror and killed me in an instance. This is what's happens when you sold yourself out. At least not all the time. But heck, that doesn't feel good.

The heart itself stopped at a lot of places that it thought it'd be it's last stop.

It's home. Where it belongs.

Overtime, I'm tired.

I was surprised at times, when people told me about their past relationships, they even categorized on the relationships where they 'devoted the most and the least devoted'. Maybe one doesn't wanna fly so high, just in case if he/she falls it wouldn't hurt as much.

Devotion, I don't know.

I'm still going to be as devoted as I always has been.

Let's hope that I'm not wrong.

It's still a long way to go until I'm up and flying again...

p/s : I'm still holding on though, you-know-who.

寂寞先生

我可以无所谓...

HOT-CHOC-ICE

I tagged Debbie in this photo purposely (some might wonder),

who else would I tag if not her, it's our favorite iced-chocolate!

Although sailor is not around here,

our hot-choc-ice moment is going nowhere because

12,000 kilometers away,

Debbie is doing the same.

thanks to the Internet, Facebook and Starbucks for their global franchise outlets,

Thanks for the tag, Debbie :D and the photographer for taking this photo.

it's really heart-warming.

Cheers, sailor, and miss you too! :D

ORIGINAL LINK RIGHT HERE

坚持

他不是在积极和盲目的情况下坚持着...

或许是吧？他不懂。

其实，自己可以看开一点是最好的。

I'm not in denial... 刚才的那两个字都被表达得很清楚，

只是，他真的不希望自己和恋爱只是擦肩而过。

脸部表情

: |

他对她的企图（很自私的）就是：

他只想对她好

为什么很自私呢？

因为，他会很开心。

真的... 很开心啦 !

我很傻？

管它傻不傻，开心就好！

所以你说，我是不是很自私...

Smile, an everlasting smile.

:)

一个微笑就足以形容今天的心情。

虽然看的戏真的有够废（3只手指swt)，

鱼扒餐也so-so,

诊所Cafe有新鲜到。

但是，

那一切都不重要，

重点是在于身旁...

陪同着的

她

I had a nice afternoon :)

T.I.M.E

It's only a matter of time.

我的两行泪来自这首歌

很久都没听歌听到掉泪了。
请边听边看歌词。

--

她来听我的演唱会

在十七岁的初恋第一次约会

男孩为了她彻夜排队

半年的积蓄买了门票一对

我唱得她心醉我唱得她心碎

三年的感情一封信就要收回

她记得月台汽笛声声在呵呵

播我的歌陪着人们流泪

嘿陪人们流泪

她来听我的演唱会

在二十五岁恋爱是风光明媚

男朋友背着她送人玫瑰

她不听电话夜夜听歌不睡

我唱得她心醉

我唱得她心碎

成年人分手后都像无所谓

和朋友一起买醉卡拉ok

唱我的歌陪着画面流泪

嘿陪着流眼泪.

我唱得她心醉

我唱得她心碎

在三十三岁真爱那么珍贵

年轻的女孩求她让一让位

让男人决定跟谁远走高飞

嘿谁在远走高飞

我唱得她心醉

我唱得她心碎

她努力不让自己看来很累

岁月在听我

们唱无怨无悔

在掌声里唱到自己流泪

嘿唱到自己流泪

她来听我的演唱会

在四十岁后听歌的女人很美

小孩在问她为什么流泪

身边的男人早已渐渐入睡

她静静听着我们的演唱会

Happy Birthday Sailor Debbie!!!

It's Debbie's birthday!!!! And we couldn't miss this once-a-year video call (not exactly but its her birthday!). I'm with my guitar as usual. And she sang along on the other side of the screen, that is some 12,000 km away from here.

Credits to the geniuses who created Skype :) connections for both the video and audio were smooth and clear.

and FULL SCREEN...

Happy Birthday Debbie :)

Stay pretty, stay healthy, stay funny, stay Debbie.

From Penang, to Sailor, with Love :)

p/s: am reading your blog whenever I can, I missed a lot of updates I'm sorry! :(

Bowie & Yuan Yuan :D

 

Bowie and Yuan Yuan :D

p/s: finally done editing the photos and combining it into a collage. HEading to KL now!

Yuan no bad mood today okay... see u after I came back :D
I'm always a phone or text away :)

Rocken Banana!!!!

:)

OUR BANANA SPARKS!!!

Kau Ilhamku - covered by Bowie :)

Yes I think I'm way too free now. Was just testing on the green screen and other features of iMovie...

Sing along, people :)

CONCERT SEQUELA

A week later after the concert, I'm back in business in my studies, blogging, gym, writing songs, and trying to cut off our way-too-frequent suppers and late night outings. What can I say, our bond is tight.

A lot of stuffs had happened in the past 3 months. Some cried for their endurances and patience had finally paid off; some cheered for they get to live their normal life again (no more waking up at 6 in the morning just to practice a song) ; MOST, like me, misses the moments in the past 3 months. Honestly, its not easy to adapt... this. In the past 3 months, we never get to sleep for more than 5 hours a day. It was all about the preparations for the concert... the whole work force is on its top gear, but glad we enjoyed the whole flow.

I'm technically (music) and mentally improved, if you ask me. Oh yeah, my mandarin too, I'm grammatically improved! xD

3 months of preparation ; 1 night of perfection ; 19 years of legend.

And I'm exposed to the best of both worlds...

Nothing from the rehearsal nor assessments are like what we performed at that night. The quality is beyond what we could expect despite most people could see how bad we did back at assessments and rehearsals. Everybody was excited by the presence of the audiences. It was totally different, and with that excitement going on, we maintained PMA (positive mental attitude) the whole night.

Glad to announce that, there's a high probability that our annual concert will be included under Penang Georgetown Festival's list. This is big, especially for amateur song-writing and composing association like Wanderers. 19 years of legend, and we became part of Penang's heritage and culture.

I just get so emotional... so emotional...

Am glad to hear that a lot of people loved this song of mine.

THE CONCERT!

I'm dozing off... I'm just updating my blog after all.

USM The Wanderers 19th Annual Live Concert is coming soon!

When : 7.30p.m. 30th July 2010

Where : Dewan Sri Pinang

Contact me for more information regarding tickets, etc.

019-4738111

Photo Printing Frenzy

Well there's a new computer appliance in my house recently.
It's a Canon Selphy CP760 compact photo printer.
Dad bought a new HTC phone and got this as a free gift,
it's been on the working desk for about 2 weeks,
so I thought I'd give it a try.
I have absolutely no idea about the capacity of the ink cassette (aka ink cartridge),
I have no idea if there's other brands out there that sells the same type of ink,
I have no idea on anything,
and so happens I gave it a try,
so here's the first photo,

It came out beautifully... Love it!

I thought I never needed it, but hey I'm in love with it now.

Let's make some photos...

If anyone has any extra info regarding the ink cassettes and photo paper do let me know.
I'd like to learn more about it... lol.

IT'S GETTING HOT IN HERE

I guess everyone who lives/visit/study/outstations in Penang couldn't agree more when I mention that the weather is seriously hotter than ever.

For so many years I've lived in Penang, I have to admit that there is a fairly large change in terms of weather here... It's so much hotter and dryer than it should be.

Mother-nature has signaled us, are we gonna make a change? Those who doesn't know about the change of Penang weather, well I don't have the figures though, but the temperature has risen for a 3 to 4 degree celcius hotter (which is a lot).

Some people claim that their places is hotter than Penang because we have sea breeze -- Alert! The sea breeze is not breeze anymore... Breeze is suppose to be cooling. I think a better term for it now is called HEATWAVES.

So it's hot from the ground and from the sea, which makes Penang Island is like Hawaii in USA... Sahara desert minus the sand...

*sweating*

Talking about global warming, I guess most Penangites would feel it first hand right now... go green, people, make that our remedy to mother-nature.

Stay cool,
Bowie.

Everybody Loves Ah Har

Took a walk around my living area yesterday morning with Jill.

As I walk, I've reached the area where Ms. Ng Choei Har lives in. I headed to her house. But it's nothing like what I remembered. The tan-colored MyVi is not there anymore, the whole place still looked more or less the same, but the red palm outside of the house wasn't there, could it be that she already moved to some place else?

She was my English teacher during Form 4 and Form 5. Well everybody loves her back then. She prefer to learn things with us rather than teaching us, she lets us express our own points of view rather than confining our minds within a given parameter. For that, I respect her, all the time.

She guided me, Jerwin and Steven in the debate competition. In which led us to the final round, which we ended up losing to Convent BM, well one of the opposition was our friend, Grace-Lynn. I miss those days.

Not so long after we graduated from high school, a few of us including Wei Xiong still managed to ask Ms. Ng out for a drink or something. In fact, she's everywhere. Regardless of which private college or government universities the students went, they will call upon Ms. Ng. "Ms.Ng ah drop by Tanjung Bungah when you come la I'm in TAR now; Ms. Ng call me when you're at Sungai Dua la I'm in USM; Ms. Ng are you in? I'm around your taman now."

Yes, she was, and she still is, that popular. Well, why not? When she can talk to you like a good old friend, advises you in every way she could. I don't know how to put this, but back then, when we were away from home and at school, she's like a mum in school. Haha!

When she's not around, we often call her as 'Ah Har', without the title and first name ahahaha.

I have her number in my cell, but it is weird because, I don't feel like giving her a call. Maybe not now. Maybe tonight. Haha. It's been so long. And given the fact that she may have already moved to some place else.

Happy Chinese New Year, Ah Har.

I'm drowning in this song now:



sing along, people.

Love and be loved in this valentine season.

I'm Officially Missing You

挂电话的时候还以为她也要睡了。

我好玩地在Facebook说希望我睡醒的时候就要看到她的vid xD
结果她花了整晚edit,之后再upload去Facebook．
整个video都蛮自然的说，当然也蛮好笑的　xD
辛苦Debbie了

在这里顺便comment两句。
Debbie的嗓子是不错的，音准可以锻炼，可能有时候她真的是像别人常说的musically deaf,但并不是musically inclined!　

为了赎罪，我也边练着Tamia的Officially Missing You了．．．越练越喜欢的说．


I'm Officially Missing You...

VIDEOS : Of Sailors, 'hot choc ice', guitar, DSLR and cannot-eat-one Apple

地点: Starbucks -> Segafredo @ Gurney Plaza
时间: 二月二日晚上十一点～二月三日凌晨三点钟
参加聚会的是两位水手： Bowie 和 Debbie
Bowie - > 吉他手，主音
Debbie - > 合音，摄影师



旁人的眼光我们不管。
作品如下。。。







快乐。。。
是可以分享的。。。
看了之后，你也是不是觉得很快乐呢？
xD

Enjoy the vids.

Gears

Amateur practicing tools of mine
I just wanna share...

Well what I did when I'm practicing, I'll have my guitar plugged into the Line6 Micro Spider amplifier that I have, which is a pretty cool mini amp...

Have the microphone plugged in as well...
Notice the PHONES/RECORD OUT port, I plugged a 1/8-to-1/4 converter there.
Unless you live in a bungalow or a place where the distance of one house to another is quite far away, you wouldn't wanna listen to the mic output directly right out of the amplifier's speaker while you screams and squeaks and strums and have the whole neighborhood complains about you being a singer-wanna-be and have people to sue you for disturbing the neighborhood,
a pair of headphones is required.

Set the modeling output of the amplifier to Acoustic, depends on what guitar I'm playing, the rest of the models like Clean, Crunch, Metal and Insane are strictly for electric guitars.

Here's the headphone I'm using, PHILIPS SHP 2000.
Its good enough for me, considering listening to myself while practicing.

And the mic with the performance that worth its price and specifications,
Shure's SM58

As of the demos that I always record and some people told me that it's quite clear, even what I did was just recording using a normal multimedia microphone, then play and sing directly to that microphone while record the whole thing.
I guess the clarity of the raw recording is contributed by the sound card itself...


Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi 5.1 External Sound Card

everything you need for the sound... but it is DEFINITELY not a proper recording sound card, I used what I have.

Yes, its just like any of those audio panels you have at your laptop or PC.
I noticed a contrast in between recording directly using the laptop sound card and this external sound card. The noise level is pretty low, and every bit of sound is captured, even the bass of the guitar is not that boomy. The gain of the vocal and guitar are balanced.

Furthermore, make sure that the multimedia microphone is a stereo microphone, which means it's able to capture the sound in a higher dB, more sensitive.
So if you think that my suggestion is the best way to do so, do make sure that the room is quiet, even the sound that the ceiling fan makes counts.
But do aware that recording this way is strictly for producing demos and raw recordings only.
Do not attempt to do or expect a studio-quality recording out of this. Haha.

Good morning ;)

I thought it was my last breath

...

The reason that I'm sitting here writing blog is because... it's not my time to go just yet.

The incident that occurred in the afternoon almost timed my years of life.

I'm glad that I'm still alive...

But I'm afraid to go to sleep now, afraid that it might occur again when I'm waking up.

But I have to sleep.

So help me God.

你可以改变世界

今天在例常和jam歌结束后，和Patrick和Jia Xi他们去吃chendol。

很不幸的，Patrick的车竟然没电。结果我们跑去Sungai Dua那里的修车行借了鳄鱼夹，把我们的车的电箱连接传电下。还好没事了。

还有，今天才发现到，原来Jia Xi和Lip Heng俩都不吃榴莲。结果谐星Wei Hong也做了一连串引来爆笑的事情。

以上我所说的，都不是重点。

今天的例常，我发表了一首新歌。由于在准备不足（背不到歌词) 等等的情况下。犯了好多错误。但也多谢 Andrew 帮我用钢琴来 fill in。

由于刚刚在场的大部分人对于英文词都感到陌生，或者不熟悉。我觉得，我的信息始终还是没传达到。

其实很简单，整首歌的歌词，最重要的一句话就是

One Life Can Change The World.

看看你们的双手，看看你们的手掌。照下镜子，看看自己的模样。

你并不渺小，因为你可以改变世界。

从头到尾读一遍，我的用词真的很烂。。。

糟糕。

我的中文啊啊啊啊。

Random

Good morning, world.

Rise and shine!

Picture Collages

This is what I love doing lately - creating picture collages.
Everything lasted forever in the picture.

<3

... damn, caffeine on high, wth.