Home sweet home

Wow... it has been a long time since I last added new postings to this blog of mine. Well, I finally found time to revamp my blog - since it's a new year.

Many major things happened in December 2006 - things that I'm not ready to broadcast for the whole world to read. But well, I found time to go to Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur, apart from my original plan of going 'home' to Singapore and Batu Pahat.

This was/is my itenerary from Dec 18 2006 to Jan 16 2007:
Boston - JFK - Frankfurt - Singapore - Batu Pahat - Singapore - Ipoh - KL - Ipoh - KL - Singapore - Batu Pahat - Singapore - Frankfurt - JFK - Boston

Anywayz... I didn't take any photos in Singapore. On the day I arrive, Singapore has been raining countinuously for 2 days 2 nights - no kidding - literally. By the 3rd day of my stay, floods were reported in different parts of Singapore and Johor (South of Peninsula Malaysia).

Here are the photos I've taken so far....

and a video of my Mr. Roti Canai in action!



Next in line... my Mr. Ramly burger in action! But we'll see... cos it started to rain again in Batu Pahat.... since yesterday... so hopefully Ramly burger is still available for me! Keep you posted...

Thanks, giving time is over...

Back to reality. It was a good break in NYC though. I've to admit - I miss the hustle and bustle of the city life. Unlike Singapore though, there are places out of NYC that I could escape to. In fact, the best time I had throughout my trip was my trip to the Brooklyn Museum. The sun was shining brightly... space - new - the two words that came to my mind upon stepping out of the subway exit. It's definitely a treat in this part of USA. As if that was not enough, I was greeted by the sculptures of Auguste Rodin (yup, the thinker guy) the moment I turn towards the glass walls of the Museum. I saw 2 of its special exhibition - Ron Mueck's (a modern realist sculptor) and Annie Leibovitz's (portrait photographer). For $4 (student price) it was really a rare treat for my eyes.




I went to the museum with only the intention of scrutinizing Annie's personal collection of photographs. But Ron Mueck's exhibits was on the same level as Annie's - and it's too difficult to be missed. It's hard not to recognize his work and his name after seeing these sculptures. Not in any form of metal, Ron has incorporated the use of modern technology to realize the realism or reality. No photography was allowed and even though there are photos in the Brooklyn Museum's website, they don't justify the extent of the details the sculptor has put in. One must be there to be empowered by his work. Unexplainable emotions just brought tears to my eyes. His originality, his detailed observation and his enormous effort to plant each sculpture's hair - head, facial and body, the veins running through their body, the texture of their skin - with follicles and goose bumps to the little speck of dirt on the fingernails of his oversized sculptures - they just overpower you.




The exhibition of Annie Leibovitz's personal collection from 1988 - 2005 was obviously not a happy one. But you can tell she found joy in the midst of mourning for her 2 beloved - Susan Sontag and Samuel Leibovitz, her father. Out of the hundreds of photos in the collection (which included many familiar faces like the Bush Administration, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman, Jim Carrey...) it was the photos of her children, Susan and her family that captured my heart. One particular photo stood out - the silhouette of Susan standing in the middle of rock corridor of Petra, with the temple's facade as the silhouette's background. Yet again, another hard-to-describe-unless-you-are-there type of scenario. Simply breathtaking.

I've been lazy putting up photos/videos that I took in my camera. 3 more weeks... 3 more weeks and the semester will be done and I'll be back in Singapore for a month, well at least 2 weeks.

The future of WWW

There's an article by the BBC today that reported the concerns of the future of the internet expressed by the brain behind the world-wide-web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

As usual, the ungovernable 'www' brings about both pros and cons to the world at large. Unlike TV or radio broadcasting stations, the internet is made up of millions of nodes or computers that act as servers to the virtual community. Simply, any computer connected to the internet is potentially a broadcasting station. Unless governments are ready to ban the use of computers, or restrict the use of internet, there's no way to stop the exponential growth of information that floods the public domain of the virtual world. Truth or fiction? There are just not enough or no watchdogs to control the authenticity of what's being 'published' on the internet pages every second...

Based on statistics given by http://www.domaintools.com/internet-statistics, in the last 24-hour period, 707,358 domains are registered; 1,223,620 deleted and 228,630 transfered. Domains refer to web addresses that ends with your usual '.com', '.net', '.org', '.info', '.biz', '.us', etc. This doesn't include individuals who borrow the domain names of businesses they subscribed to, say, for example accountname.blogspot.com or accountname.myspace.com.

Governments are getting more and more concerned (for obvious reasons), because the growth of the virtual world is getting out of their control. Scientists and politicians always have this love-hate relationship. When scientists make new discoveries, politicians will try to take over and 'mis'use the new technology. In this case, it looks like scientists have the upperhand, or not. Civilians seem to have the remote control.

Another recent article from BBC reported that google's advertisement revenue is about to surpass that of US TV networks. What does this mean? It means that the future of TV stations is bleak, if they don't change their strategy. They are losing grip. It's not difficult to see that they are making changes to survive - providing free broadcasts of episodes online with limited advertisements. But no matter how they change, they will never return to their 'former glory' of having 'veto control' they once have over a country anymore, even when they implore internet to their list of medium - just because anyone in the world can do what they do - with a computer. Governments, who are notoriously known to exploit the media is becoming more 'vulnerable' due to this very fact. They can no longer control certain information from its citizens anymore.

This is bad news to governments of many countries in Asia. Banning of books, movies, news, music are getting less effective.

So what is really the power of the Internet?

In 1897 Gramophone Company (HMV) began selling records in UK. In 1960, Tower Records started selling its first records in San Francisco. In 1971, Virgin Megastore began its business in Oxford St, London. In 1985 internet became commercialized (though the technology was used as early as in the 1950s by US government intelligence). In 1991, mp3 was invented. What happened after that is a series of what the music business people called 'disaster'. Given more time, musicians began to realize that it's is to their benefit.

Recording companies once rule the world of music. Many musicians' dream was to secure a recording contract with a major record label. Who knew that in just a short period of 15 years after the invention of mp3, big music distributors with long history background like Tower Records, Virgin, HMV would collapse - losing its popularity to cheap virtual names like myspace and youtube?

Everything is becoming more and more abstract, virtualistic. The major changes in the music industry is just the appetizer of the power of internet. I say we should keep the internet free. Speaking of true capitalism. Internet is presently the truest form of capitalism.

changes changes changes

Dad's coronary bypass surgery went well. Thanks y'all for your prayers and support.

Due to the series of events and drama the past month, I was so stressed that I decided to move my furniture in my room - in the midst of project deadlines, calling home in the middle of the night and lack of rest. Guess what, it helped. I'm so pleased with the result.

7am, somewhere in Boston:

"Sigh... another cold morning in Boston, and I've to stand in Starbucks for 3 hours. Gosh, then I've to run for my classes." She got herself ready for work.


7:45am, In Starbucks:

"Routine, routine, routine." It is another busy morning where the earlybirds started queueing for their morning dose of caffeine. The queue never seem to get shorter even though the staff have been serving their customers for the past 45 minutes, since the start of the day.
"I can't wait for 11 am to quickly come... whaat... what's the next customer's order again?"


5am: In Apt 11 of Burbank St.:

*Flip and turn* "I've searched everywhere. It's not at home, it's not in Berklee. Is the one in Starbucks going to be mine? Did I bring it to the bank the other day? Maybe I should drop by the bank, if the one in Starbucks doesn't belong to me. F***. I don't wanna put too high hopes on getting it back. Yesterday morning the Security Office said the same thing, red passport in the safe. But it turned out to be a Japanese passport... I don't wanna make that stupid trip to the Consulate in New York on a WEEKDAY. Man, I can imagine the type of treatment they're gonna give me. Then when I'm back in Singapore, how to go back to JB? Make passport, going to the US Embassy to re-apply for the student visa, getting back to Singapore for the re-entry permit, the bus-ride, the queues, oh my gawd. The haze. Argh... my dad's operation... Damn, I can't even go back if I can't get my student visa done in a week. It's impossible. Not in a week, not during Deepavali and Raya holidays. I can't afford to withdraw from this semester. I can't stand staying for another semester here! And it's freezing cold here. When on earth are they going to turn the heat on? Why must I do everything myself!!!???"

8am:

She got ready. Anxious. "What if the passport in Starbucks is not mine? Then I'll be doomed."


8:30am, in Starbucks:

Me: Hi excuse me, I was told yesterday to come by this morning to have someone open the safe for me to see if my passport is here.
Staff: A passport? Can you please wait for like 5-10 minutes?
Me: Yeah, sure.
(After 20 minutes)
Staff: I'm sorry, we've checked the safe, but it was empty.
Me: Empty? How could that be? I should have got here name, but she told me that she picked up a passport sometime ago and left it in the safe. *lost*
Staff 2: Passport?
Me: Yeah.
Staff 2: Which country is it?
Me: It's a Malaysian passport.
Staff 2: It sounds familiar... I remember that. That was sometime ago, wasn't it?
Me: Yeah, I guess. Oh good, good... that it's familiar to you.
Staff 2: Why don't you leave your name and contact number with us. I'll check for you again and get back to you before this evening.
Me: Alright, hopefully you can find it, cos I need it urgently. My dad is having a major surgery and I need to get home by the end of the week.
Staff 2: I'm sorry. I'll see what I can do.
Me: Thank you. What's your name?
Staff 2: You're welcome, I'm Bridgette.
Me: Bridgette?
Staff 2: Yes.
Me: Thank you very much, Bridgette, for helping me find.
Staff 2: You're welcome.

I left for Mike Brigida's class at 9am.

10:57am, in Mike's class:
*Bzzzz, bzzzz* (Phone vibrating) "Argh, can't pick up the phone. It must be Starbucks."

11am, outside the classroom:
(New voicemail)
"(Voicemail recording) Hi Lisa, I found your passport. But I'll be off work after 11am. So,........"
"They found my passort!!" I screamed to Brigida. "(Eyes and mouth wide open) Wow! Praise the Lord!" Brigida shot back. "Yeah! I gotta go." I ran across the street to Starbucks and looked for Bridgette.

Waited for another 5 minutes before they had some free time to 'entertain' me. Then Bridgette appeared from the office with a red passport in her right hand. "I found it behind the office desk". "Behind the office desk??! Wow! Thank you, thank you, thank you. You saved my life!" I replied. I briefly flipped through my passport. My convict face is intact, student visa, no missing pages... Purrfect!

************************************************************************

It's amazing how every second, somebody, somewhere in the world - is put in a life or death situation, while on the another point somewhere in the world, someone else is just idling and trying to kill time. Better still, you'd never know when you'd literally save someone else's life - just by doing a simple favor, something you might not even remember 2 days later. If you find yourself stuck in life, or in a routine, break it! Do something that you don't usually do for a moment. Speak to a stranger, give someone a call, skip a class?!, visit somewhere, lose a passport?! It makes life much more interesting. Don't forget to share the love...

************************************************************************

For now, I'll not go back to Singapore/Malaysia as I've cancelled my plane ticket and dad's surgery date is not fixed. I'll just play by ear. More projects have just been assigned to us. Back to my normal routine of a student's life.

"No one owes you a living"

was an advice my first boss gave me before he was retrenched. That was 6 years ago. How we feel and behave depends solely on us - not on God, on your family, on your lover or even your best friend. It's all up to me, myself and I.

It's a simple advice and yet it takes a lifetime to master it - simply because no one will ever stop complaining, even the kindest soul on earth complains once in a while. I've to constantly remind myself of this fact, so as not to fall into the temptation of indulging in self-pity.

If you find it hard to be happy at times, do what I do - take time to think of what makes you unhappy, what frustrated you - then find a solution to it. Bear in mind though, that the best solution is, of course, to change yourself rather than changing others - because it's you who's unhappy, not the others. You created your own state-of-mind, so only you can undo your own doing.

To end today's blog, I'd like to share the lyrics from Bon Jovi's "It's my life" - a song that I've been repeating the past week.


This ain't a song for the broken-hearted
No silent prayer for the faith-departed
I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd
You're gonna hear my voice
When I shout it out loud

Chorus:
It's my life
It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just wanna live while I'm alive
It's my life

This is for the ones who stood their ground
For Tommy and Gina who never backed down
Tomorrow's getting harder make no mistake
Luck ain't even lucky
Got to make your own breaks

Repeat Chorus:

Better stand tall when they're calling you out
Don't bend, don't break, baby, don't back down

Numbed

Homesick.
Coursework.
Missing you.
Cold weather.
Dad's angioplasties.
Money always not enough.
'nuff said.

To the crazy ones

The IT office of Berklee very recently moved to the new premises. Finally the entire, well almost, IT related departments are located in the same building. They are definitely expanding, as there are still many empty cubes - which coincidently reminds me of Digicom, my old workplace.

Anyway, someone delivered a poster to the office and it was striking. It was a poem entitled "To the Crazy Ones". But of course, it's a poster by Apple - cos the whole Berklee uses Macintosh. Few days ago, I saw a series of amazing posters of striking personalities - again, part of the "Think Different" ad campaign by Apple sometime ago. My favourites are Gandhi, John Lennon and the most distinct poster of Jane Goodall, whom I took a few hours to identify on the internet.

I hope you'll be inspired by the poem as much as I was, and still am... let's all be Crazy...






It's Grace's 21st birthday today. We spent the midnight at the Belanie's to give her a surprise cake...

Back to my harpist roots

It's the first time I attended a harp recital in Boston - nope, I think in my life. And I'm honored and privileged to be in the same room as 3 top harpists in their own rights, right here in Boston's very own New England Conservatory (NEC).

I was at Ina Zdorovetchi's recital. She is a student of Ann Hobson Pilot, who is the harp faculty at Boston University and NEC. Not forgetting my teacher, Felice Pomeranz, who the harp faculty of Berklee College of Music who attended Ina's recital too. Ina is the 1st runner-up of the Cité des Arts de Paris International Harp Competition 2005, the most coveted prize in the world of Harp. She currently plays with most of the orchestras here in Boston, including BSO, Boston Pops, Boston Ballet. My teacher graduated from NEC 25 years ago, under the tutelage of Ann Hobson Pilot too. She recently just released a Intorduction to Jazz Harp instruction DVD. Ann Hobson Pilot is the Principal harpist of the BSO.

All I can say is - Wow...


From L-R: Felice Pomeranz, Ann Hobson Pilot, Ina Zdorovetchi and I

Watch TV programs online!

Great news! No need to have TV or cable subscription anymore! Not like I ever own a tv in Boston anyway...

Anyway, I can watch the controversial Survivor: Cook Islands online now. I can also watch Lost, CSI and The Amazing Race... haha.... no wonder the number of people using P2P softwares are dropping, even in the Windows environment.

The TV networks finally understood the main cause of 'illegal' file-sharing. They got it right this time. People from all over the world just wanna have easier access to tv shows, other than through local broadcasts - where they have to wait for local companies to broadcast certain shows at certain time. By then, many of the online forums were already discussing about outcome of the episode, while on the other side of the world, people are still dying to watch the episode.

Synchronize, synchronize, synchronize... welcome to the 21st century - where internet rulez... yeah!

Here comes Fall 2006 - a 10-year tribute to TIGS's chinese of 1996

Yesterday marked the official beginning of Fall 2006. It also meant that I've been here for 1 year 2 weeks.

Many things have changed and many things remained the same over this past year, I don't even know where to begin.

I am in fact pretty excited now, at this very moment, cos I just caught up with a childhood friend - whom I've not spoken to in 2 years?? or more? - over the phone. She just had her Chinese Wedding ceremony back in my hometown, Batu Pahat. There was so much to say, so much time too, but not enough money... hahaha... but it was very good conversation...

It's good to learn the updates of my childhood classmates through this friend, Ee Yi. In fact, I should backtrack a little bit to thank Su Peng, my FIRST childhood friend from school, for updating me about Ee Yi.

Moving on, I was told more friends are getting married in the near future (yup, it's that time in our lives...) and of one who'll be moving back to setup a pharmacy in my hometown. Ee Yi and her husband will begin their lives together in Shanghai next month...

Who would know the group of us - wacky chinese of TIGS, Temenggong Ibrahim Girls' School - would be where we are today? This feeling is overwhelming... I'm still savouring this emotion.

We have come a long way, my friends. Hopefully we'll have that opportunity to meet up as a group again very soon.

By the way, I strongly believe that I'm the only wacky one left. Don't believe me? Check out my latest photo below... Please also be reminded that I'm 27!!




This is the class photo taken 10 years ago - a few days before our secondary school public exam. Ee Yi is our brightest student in the school. However, in the photo, you can only see her eyes - right behind.

Last attempt of hummingbirds photo taking in Houston

On the day I leave Houston, I took a final attempt to photograph the hummingbirds. Prior to that, I waited for 2 hours - sitting in the backyard, waiting patiently for the hummingbirds to feed at Jill's hummingbird feeder. When the opportunity finally came, my camera died on me. Unlucky for me, it was also the same time I realized I lost my battery charger.

So in the next few days, I just see these hummingbirds flying everywhere. Anyway, here are the shots that I managed to take with Jill's camera... the best shots were in the last 2 slides, where there were 3 birds fighting over the feeders. Can you spot them? I bet you will, since my camera skills are so 'great'...



These are some of the photos I took at the beach in Galveston. Look at the lifeguards - they make me drown instantly...



These are some artsy-fartsy photos on the colors of Galveston:

The past one month...

It has almost been a month since I last pen down my thoughts on my blog. Living at my friend's home in a gated community outside the city of Houston for almost a month - with a Labrador and 3 cats - a beautiful view of the lake and a national park; just sitting out at the backyard - a recent addition to the beautiful view; the hummingbird migration season - has definitely distracted my mind from my usual routine of surfing the internet, practice my piano/harp, doing homework, drinking, meeting up with friends.

In the midst of my 'solitory confinement', I found time and interest in reading Confucius's Analects and Lao Tzu's Dao De Jing, thanks to Jill's resourceful library of philosophical books. For the first time in my life, I realized how my personal life has been influenced by these 2 great Chinese philosophers even without my notice. Despite growing up in a Christian environment since birth, Confuciunism and Daoism has definitely been part of my life, now that I've read a little about their philosophy.

Back to music, I did learn how to use Logic Express, Kontakt, Peak, Battery and Finale. On top of that, I've also gathered quite a number of sound samples, thanks to my purchase of the M-Audio Microtrack - it's quality is simply amazing. I also traded music with Jill, who deepened my knowledge in Rock and Country music a little more. Oh yes, I also took time to listen to Richard Devine's music collection.

There, this is what I've been doing the past month. I've a better idea of myself, my music, my technology. This should lead me to a better understanding of what I want to do with my life - eventually.

Oh yeah, before I forget, I finally found a solution to Jerry's food intake problem. He's Jill's 15 year-old cat. He has been vomitting his cat food almost immediately after eating it everytime. Just now, I saw him vomitting nothing, just stomach juice. We tried feeding him with fish and whipped cream, but he didn't like it. Today I fed him with my lactose free milk - whalla, he licked the plate dry. I'll continue to monitor if he still likes it in the next meal...

Getting ready to start school again... Can someone remind me the available tensions of all the major and minor chords???

Oh by the way, Happy belated National day to you Malaysians out there.

Quote of the day

Life is a constant struggle - he who knows how to smile struggles less

Harpo Marx - the harp genius

Introducing my hero... I've heard so much about him these years. Thanks to YouTube, I finally get to watch him! if only all harpists in the world behave as honest as him....
i love him, i love him, i love him!!

He's playing - with and on - a Lyon & Healy's Style 23 Gold - price: $50K now. Ok, I lied, it costs ONLY $45K (w/o shipping). =P


AMAZING harp playing


want to to know where the piano originated from? - of course this is exaggeration. and it's not THE real harp. but you sorta get the picture...

What is Enlightenment? (an excerpt from Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804)

Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage s man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere aude! "Have courage to use your own reason!"- that is the motto of enlightenment.

Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a portion of mankind, after nature has long since discharged them from external direction (naturaliter maiorennes), nevertheless remains under lifelong tutelage, and why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as their guardians. It is so easy not to be of age. If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscience for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself. I need not think, if I can only pay - others will easily undertake the irksome work for me.

**Thanks, Dr. Kiros**

Sepet: A Malaysian movie

'Sepet' is a Malay word usually used to refer the shape of Chinese boys' eyes. Flat, small...

This is a Malaysian production; written, directed and produced by Yasmin Ahmad - a well known female Malay movie director who uses the media to promote moderate Muslim behaviors and cultural understanding.

This movie is another great attempt to fuse the two major races in Malaysia - Malay and Chinese.

Some Malay vocabulary for you:
Kapsul Tongkat Ali - local traditional herbal capsule = viagra (hehe...)
Orked - The name of the female lead, also refers to the flower "Orchid"
Sayang - sweetheart

(1) Scene 1 - the parents of the Malay girl dancing to a classic Thai pop tune, until their housekeeper surprised them:


(2) Scene 2 - the couple's date with a classic Cantonese pop tune playing in the background (with a glimpse of a typical chinese family scene):


Obviously after watching these clips, you should see that Malaysia isn't really that conservative or strict.

Mamak: A Malaysian Culture

did you guys know about the existence of this video?!?! I miss hOME!!!

I PASSED my freakin' World History 1 !!

Phew!! what a month. If you followed my blog recently, I was rambling about the tough History teacher I got in Summer 1. I was keeping my fingers crossed the whohle weekend. By this morning, I was ready to fork out another $411 and another month to retake the paper.

6:30am - Alarm clock rang
6:35am - Flip and turn
6:40am - Still flipping and turning... heheh
6:45am - Shower
7:00am - worry, while playing Sudoku
7:15am - breakfast
7:45am - Waiting for clock's minute hand to touch '00'
8:00am - Walk to Mass Ave T stop
8:15am - Got into the World History II class
8:40am - Class dimissed cos there were only 4 of us
8:45am - Registrar - Q-ing to get result
8:47am - My turn
8:48am - Printer printing my result
8:49am - Receive my result slip...
8:49:35am - Holding the result slip - almost trembling


8:50am - Jump with joy!

I got a 'C+'. The worst grade in my entire schooling history. But it's also one of the happiest moment in my entire schooling history.

As I mentioned in my previous post, 1/2 of the students dropped out the class after the 2nd week. There were 3 tests altogether. 3 long essay questions in each test. In the first test, 3/4 of the class got a 'D'. I got a 'C-', not good enough to be transfered into Berklee.

All I can say is - I miraculously survived the ordeal. What a nightmare - in Roxbury.

Now I can relax, enjoy the sun, and World History 2.

Windy's soundalike session in Studio E

It was fun. One of the best sessions I've played for. Well organized, prompt, good players...

Glad to see a couple of familiar faces that I worked with before too - Ulf, Chris Vuk, Willy... Oh, we were playing Frank Sinatra's 'In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning'. As usual, I've requested for a copy of the final mix. Hopefully I'll be able to get it this time, then I can upload it here.

live room

Windy telling us what to do from the control room

Ulf conducting


rehearsing

a job well done!