Cloud Age Symphony

For once a week, I have sang in a box for three weeks in a row. I have come to notice that my selection of songs is for one, rather limited and two, dated. If at all, I do not listen much to Mandarin songs. My exposure thus far has been from other karaoke sessions and exposure through songs used on television shows or advertisements. Since I have significantly cut back on my goggle box view time for quite some time now, that meant my knowledge of the Mandarin music scene is inadvertently stuck in a time frame of years past.

In short, I am going to need to keep track of the newer songs so as not to seem outdated when it comes to song selections. It’s not as though the one I choose are bad, but it just seems terribly repetitive to make the same picks over and over again.

Yes, once again it’s one of those potentially life-changing events that has suddenly taken reign of my attention, haha.

Prayer

September ended and left us, hopefully, a little wiser.

I tried to write but I hit a snag. The first snag I resolved and along came a second one, which presently has yet to be conquered. The words don’t come easy and the plot just doesn’t flow. "Writer’s block" or so it seems.

I wonder how and what my friends, whoever and wherever they are, are doing at this very moment…

19-2000

The soundtrack will never be able to reproduce the effect one experiences from watching the live musical. The acoustics, the visual impact of the production and the theatre setting all contribute in some way to the songs, enriching them for the visual and aural pleasure of the patrons. Grooves on vinyl just will not suffice. It’s akin to the common philosophy that some things in life are better experienced on a personal level that heard from the words of others.

The soundtrack produced serves as a trigger to the memories created.

Glinda:

"You can still be with the wizard
What you’ve worked and waited for
You can have all you ever wanted…"

Elphaba: "I know –"

"But I don’t want it —
No — I can’t want it
Anymore…"

"Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I’m through with playing by the rules
of someone else’s game…"

- Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked

So, whose rules and expectations do we answer to?

* The title is a reference to the song by Gorillaz.

You’ve Got A Friend

For a healthy dose of life and friends, look to CSC.

A handful of folks graduated turned up, like Weichung, Jasmine, Terence and I.

Thursday evening at CSC’s Annual General Meeting. It’s a simple matter, a formality that marks the handing-over and taking-over of duties where the baton is figuratively passed on. While the number of familiar faces I could hold comfortable conversations with numbered quite a bit, so did the number of unfamiliar faces. Nevertheless, the event served well to summarise the hard work the students contributed over the course of their term in service, and to inform me of all that has transpired and to remind of what we all have to eventually leave behind.

8-8-7-7-6-5-4

Friday night in the company of alcohol and music. EIC was playing in the background at Wala Wala and we ordered plenty of alcohol and chicken wings to go around the table of 6. A Thursday spent with the new generation of CSC members and a Friday evening with an all-graduated cast. We even bumped into a couple of other graduates when we first entered! This end-of-work-week event was something I had looked forward to for it had been planned by Quek and Kai Loon for quite a while. Something like this once in a while certainly does wonders for the spirits =)

lim jiu ho!

Look to CSC for that healthy dose of life and friends.

My Side Of The Story

First there was August. My recollections of it are a blur. I spent my days helping out in preparation for an event. Work is work and there is no escaping it, not unless I can be independent of my worldly and familial ties. Then perhaps I can freely pursue some different path without a worry. Yet, the highly likely possibility is "perhaps not".

August did however, end on a high note in spite of the seeming-jadedness and routines. I had a play to look forward to, a story to experience that made me think, ponder and marvel. Theatre in a different light, from the grand production of songs and flair that was Wicked to this intimate setting of familiar stories and life experiences of Recalling Mother. An artist tells a story. What do I think and what is the point to it? What does it mean to appreciate life more?

I ask you a question, albeit slightly paraphrased from its original presentation at Recalling Mother. When you were young, when or how did you come to know the woman in the same house as you was your mother?

September marks my one-year mark in "the working world". Perhaps I should look forward to the F1 race. That is going to happen in town where I work and there is bound to be a cheery atmosphere of delight and engine-revving sounds. In the meantime, it’s meeting up and catching up with friends as usual, I think. Maybe I can do something by myself, like fly to some place on a budget flight for a long weekend and just be.

The world continues and I haven’t the slightest clue to my life…

* The title is a reference to the song by Hodges.

Keep Breathing

It’s almost been a month since I returned from my trip.
It’s almost been a month since I really blogged about anything other than my trip.
It’s almost been a year since I started working.
It’s almost been a year since so many different things happened, pulling me in different directions, flooding my senses and perceptions.

There are days in your life when you wonder why the heck you are who you are, doing whatever it is that you do.
Too many days, too many times.

Some days, you have no solutions.
Some days, the solutions you do have, do not work out.
Some days, you have a solution that no one will approve or endorse.

What do I do when such a time comes?

* The title is a reference to the song by Ingrid Michaelson.

魔幻季节

One trip made to the United States of America.

My return saw my luggage piled with two new black souvenir T-shirts and a white hooded sweatshirt among other things. I am the kind of tourist who likes to buy keepsakes as a form of memory, to remind myself and jog that vast vault of experiences trapped in the confines of the cranial cavity every once in a while. Though I have not gotten down to reading it, the most interesting piece of purchase for this trip has got to be the replica of the set of rules and regulations handbook given to inmates of Alcatraz. This is the kind of physical objects that link me with where I have been and what I have experienced.

I am not sure to whom I should direct my gratitude but nevertheless, I am grateful for a safe and sound trip. An ease of mind with no threats of dangers, I find, does wonders for the experience in travelling. Soak in the atmosphere of a foreign environment without a worry. I do admit I haven’t been out for most of the nights so that might be something I missed there. However, if you are looking to take a trip to America, I will recommend you San Francisco =)

Places visited and territories explored, I must say I loved the feeling. The feeling of being on my own, by myself, travelling with no one else, venturing on my own. That is not to say it is a hassle to travel with friends. The security and companionship are both extremely appealing factors as well. Yet independence compels and sometimes I posit it should not come as a surprise if I take time out of the blue to just fly somewhere on my own. The only problem being to find some place safe enough for me to travel by myself.

Back to the realities of life in a country I call home, I dare say I have gained, infinitesimal as it may be, an appreciation for the foreign and local. Here’s looking forward to the next trip out of the country!

* The title is a reference to the song by 梁咏琪.

Closing Time

Chance and coincidence.

A delayed return to home after work and a walk along an underground mall yielded four encounters with various friends. Singapore really is quite a small place.

First was Lijie and her friend. Incidentally, I will be meeting her again tomorrow at Denise’s Commencement. She asked a question and with my earpieces plugged in, I think I replied a "Yes" that reverberated through the tunnel. It’s little wonder since people tend to raise their voices when they can’t hear themselves. I really should relieve the ears of music before making replies in the future.

One stretch of walkway and an escalator down, I met Ching and other friends from CSC. Though I never really took note of the groupings during camp, I surmise he was on an outing with his fellow councillors from Ethelontêr VI. With some "Hi", "Bye", a few snapshots and some waves, I continued my way.

Another stretch of walkway and this time an escalator down, then up, I ran into two friends. First was Joseph from army days, whom I have not met in a very long time. I can only presume the girl beside him was his girlfriend. Many paces along, I bumped into Ivy from CNM and we chatted a bit, about her waiting for her friends and that today was the day of her Commencement ceremony.

What an eventful day it has been, to have met so many people.

* The title is a reference to the song by Semisonic.

History Of Everything

VI. The sixth incarnation of CSC’s annual camp.

I never really sit down to give serious thought as to why I keep turning up for the camps year after year. It’s more of a "it’s a CSC event", "my friends are there", and so I go for it like a catch-up session. Sure, the pool of strangers I meet grow by the year but I guess with friends there, the former doesn’t matter.

It was nice visiting this year for it brought back some memories of camps and events past. As for next year, I wouldn’t be so sure about giving it a definite no =) Not yet anyway.

* The title is a reference to the song by Barenaked Ladies.

Existence

Wow, that was some entry I wrote just the Sunday past. A blog entry on the blogging of the entry itself. The banality of it, if not apparent, should nevertheless be not lost upon you.

A simple online search with the correct search terms will yield you the tracks that comprise the game I have been quoting from for the past few months. Well, since March of 2009 to be exact. A quick run-through will show that excluding this entry, I have used up twenty-one titles. But of course the previous was a rhetoric since no one would have done as mentioned and I have promptly provided the statistics for the purpose of my following illustration anyway. That is, the options for my entry titles are running out if I continue my trend.

For the most part of it, there is a reason why I write the stuff I do or feel compelled to blog certain parts of my life. There are also those almost-completely random moments. The content materialises before I decide what is the best title to plug it as chosen from my repertoire representing the "theme" for that month. Actually I am rather proud to say I haven’t had a moment where I did not blog due to a lack of available titles or that I titled an entry randomly. Well, at least not yet anyway…

Three paragraphs later, I tell you there is a reason to this. There is a reason I name this post "Existence".

Colliding Worlds as taken from an old entry

Standing at the traffic junction, one look at the sky obscured by clouds and hues of grey and one look at the cars whizzing by, one wonders what the next course of action he should take. The storm is gathering; he is pressed to make a move. The traffic does not stop; it’s one side or the other. The centre of the crossroads is not a place for him to consider. Take one or the other but not the best of both worlds.

It’s not a suicidal thought when one asks oneself why there is this compelling need to live out the rest of his or her life. There are so many factors to life. As for me, I think I have pretty much categorised this entry under all the possible factors to be considered. The "why" and the enigma pervades, engulfing reason, thought, logic, identity and self.

From the real world, to the waking world, to the digital realm where it manifests in writing. Perhaps a mere banal entry, perhaps more. Such might be explained to be rooted in some Freudian sub-conscious theories, yet theories abound, where doth the remedies lie and what be your take on all this, my reader?

I stand at the junction waiting, continuing this wait for that which eludes me…

* The title is a reference to Assassins Theme from the game Guilty Gear XX #Reload.

D.O.A.

Sunday morning.

As I sit in front of my laptop typing this, the thoughts run through. They run out.

Ten past nine, I begin this entry. As I concentrate on this entry, I wait for the SD memory card to load. The thousand-over photos will take some time.

<ALT+TAB> <ALT+TAB>

Download, sort, compress, upload. The photos. The light passing through the curtains behind me, gradually fades. I presume the clouds have come to chase the sun away. The ‘Loading’ word still shows on the tab of my Firefox browser. 9:18AM…

Time passes…

Does one perform the dutiful thing and stay at home with the family? Is the home a metaphor for "safe haven" or "containment"? The mind preaches to leave yet knowing there have been no plans. I could call up or contact friends. Sooner or later, one or two will respond with a positive, whether awkward or otherwise. Hedgehog’s dilemma — I highly doubt I will be calling anyone.

Half-past nine.

Seemingly apt music playing in the background — HAV’s Hey Jimmy!. I think I feel like Jimmy…

* The title is a reference to Character Select Theme from the game Guilty Gear XX #Reload.

Fu-u-ga

The paint jobs continue.

Translates to: "Do not step on the yellow line!"

The team responsible for the amazing murals of flowers came back this week to finish up their masterpiece. No inconsistencies; only art. Their dedication and sense of responsibility was admirable, staying back till late to finish up their work, complete with outlines and all. At the end of the corridor was what I dubbed an OFO — "Odd Flower Out". The flowers there were completed by a different group of artists, albeit equally matched in talent but with a slightly different style. Nevertheless, the two groups worked together to provide the corridor with a fresh coat of life.

A rose completed. An orchid painted.

Paint-A-Home X also went down to flats to breath life to flats in need of new coats, breaking from the norm of only working at welfare homes. Something new this year was the re-emergence of two past Paint-A-Home Organising Committees to help with the task. I must add I was very proud of this senior bunch of us who did our work with all the "best practices" in mind and in practice.

Some P-A-H ‘06, some P-A-H ‘07, some P-A-H ‘08, some P-A-H X, and some new faces here and there!

Time shifts by and some things change while some things stay the same. People age and life seeps away from them. We step in and give them a helping hand. What has Paint-A-Home forgotten and learnt over the years? Legacy and gifts yet given, the gained and lost.

When the paint is over…

I will say it right now. Many factors considered, I don’t know if I will be going for Paint-A-Home next year…

* The title is a reference to the background theme of Anji from the game Guilty Gear XX #Reload.