This morning...
Teacher: *hands out copies of reading*
Teacher: the author is good, he says 'bad' when he means 'bad', there's also 'good', 'poor'...
Me: (thinking) huh... pour? pall? ... confused
Me: *flips page*
Me: (thinking) oh! poor!
-____-'''
Yesterday, after chamber choir rehearsal...
Some sopranos: *enthusiastically discussing and singing something, which sounded like it was from some Mozart opera to me*
A: *rolls eyes* sopranos...
B and me: *smiles*
Me: (wanted to say) hmm, so... are you a soprano or an alto??
[in joking manner, cos she's actually a soprano but she's been singing alto since we will only be a pathetic two in numbers if she didn't join us]
But I refrained from saying anything. What if the tone came out wrong? Or what if she took it too seriously?? What if she didn't think it was funny? And anyway, I didn't even know her personally, I only knew her name. I think jokes/witty stuff are easier to say when one's in the company of friends rather than we-just-happen-to-have-met people. Not like it was an extremely witty/funny remark anyway, which is probably the main thing that causes me to doubt its effectiveness and wonder about the what-ifs that could arise.
By the way, some of the conversation (or 'conversation') were paraphrases of the actual incidents. This aging brain of mine just can't keep up. =(
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Little anecdotes
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Happy Chinese New Year!
I just couldn't resist taking a photo in a pink tee, red pants, and on my red duvet cover, which in turn is on my red bedsheets. Heehee. How appropriate for Chinese New Year.
I was also very guai, I spring-cleaned! Now my room's really neat and tidy. It might have been even more tidy if I didn't have a 'clothes line', which is actually just a long piece of nylon rope strung from the bar above the curtain (what's it called? I think I used to know...) to the thing above my door (the thing that will ensure the door closes by itself even if you forget to... I'm sure I used to know the name for it too!). Seems like my vocabulary has decreased instead of increasing... bah. There's also a stack of books on my table waiting to be read, hopefully something I can start soon since the essay dateline is drawing ever so close.
At least I completed the string quartet for TMP as well as finished identifying the tone rows in the second movement of Webern for text. I'm just left with processing sounds for studio composition, and reading those books of course. There you go, a muggerish Chinese New Year for me this year. Ha not like I was THAT muggerish la, if I were I might have already completed all those homework and I'd probably have already started on the books. But oh well, at least I made some progress today.
Had dinner at Ruth's flat today, with Roger, JJ, Edmund and David. It was rather quieter than any meal I've had there, as noted by most people, cos of Zhuomin's absence. But it was still enjoyable, lots of laughs as usual. And good food too.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Long post again
Yet another post for me to lament and ponder about mundane stuff. Nothing interesting, skip it, you basically wouldn't be missing anything except maybe 'hearing' me talk more than I usually do in person.
The other day, Poot was telling me how she felt that the Christmas holiday and her trip back to Singapore was like a dream. She felt as though it never took place, cos now we're back to grinding our noses in school. At first I didn't really agree, recalling how I slacked everyday until I had to make a big rush to finish my final compo during the last one and a half weeks, how could that not be considered a decent period of rest? But later I paid more attention to how I was feeling at the very moment and I understood how she felt.
It's a continuous sequence of tasks to do, datelines to meet, etc. I guess it gets tiring after a while, because there just seems to be a mountain of things to do yet too little time to complete them. I'm quite sure it can't be attributed to school work, although the essays do require quite some effort, because even in secondary school or junior college we used to have even more school work. No, I think the lack of time may be due to the small little things we used to take for granted in Singapore, such as laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, etc etc. Things we didn't always have to do for ourselves. In addition, I've been washing laundry by hand to save on the costly cost of operating the washing machines and dryers in the laundrettes. So it really takes up lots of time. Hmm on hindsight, I guess it's also partly my fault for slacking, and then having to do last minute work, but I guess it's quite impractical to expect someone to work every minute that she's awake too!
It's also quite surreal in that I can't believe it's the second term already! Sighs. Someone should look into inventing some device that enables its owner to live in their own time capsules, to savour the good moments for as long as they want to. I know, impossible and ludicrous, but just let me dream. I would love to live in a world of my own. Seriously. I'm not autistic or extremely anti-social or anything, but I think I have more anti-social tendencies than an average person. Sometimes I just hate socialising with people, trying to be friendly with everyone, going out when all I really want to do is to stay in my room, and yada yada. Of course I could be on the other end of the spectrum, be really mean to everybody, angst-filled, offending anyone who tries to talk to me etc, but what's the point? Or rather, I think I'm just not made to be that offensive. I just can't do it.
I really enjoy having lots of time to myself, even if it's just a short 20-minute stroll 'home' from university. When you're walking with someone, (no offense Poot, since you're the person I walk with the most often) you pay attention to the conversation. When you're walking alone, you get to mull things over, appreciate the beautiful sky, the silhoutte of bare tree branches against it amongst other things, and hmm, it may be weird, but sometimes I do enjoy the cold breeze on my face. Like how today I was marvelling at the sky when I enjoyed my walk home in quite a cold weather. I regretted not having my camera with me, though probably even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to do justice to the breath-taking sight. Sadly, I'm not a professional photographer. At least I can still cherish the image in my mind's eye.
Now that I think of it, it's all the small things like these that are part and parcel of everyday life that may seem very trivial, but that go unnoticed all the time, which makes my heart skip a beat each time I notice them. And makes me regret not having spent more time admiring such things in all my life. But then again, we can't all just sit around relishing the wonders of life every single minute, life has to go on. I guess if I had all the time in the world to enjoy beautiful things, I may no longer find them so special.
Back to the point of living in my own world, I guess it might not be that good an idea. Of course right now, when I don't get enough time to myself, I crave for that sort of life. But imagining being a recluse for the rest of my life, I guess I can't do it. Not after 20 years of knowing my family, friends, and putting up with my fair share of socialising.
Haiya... I dunno what I'm rambling on and on about in this post, but if you managed to survive this post, kudos to you!
The other day, Poot was telling me how she felt that the Christmas holiday and her trip back to Singapore was like a dream. She felt as though it never took place, cos now we're back to grinding our noses in school. At first I didn't really agree, recalling how I slacked everyday until I had to make a big rush to finish my final compo during the last one and a half weeks, how could that not be considered a decent period of rest? But later I paid more attention to how I was feeling at the very moment and I understood how she felt.
It's a continuous sequence of tasks to do, datelines to meet, etc. I guess it gets tiring after a while, because there just seems to be a mountain of things to do yet too little time to complete them. I'm quite sure it can't be attributed to school work, although the essays do require quite some effort, because even in secondary school or junior college we used to have even more school work. No, I think the lack of time may be due to the small little things we used to take for granted in Singapore, such as laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, etc etc. Things we didn't always have to do for ourselves. In addition, I've been washing laundry by hand to save on the costly cost of operating the washing machines and dryers in the laundrettes. So it really takes up lots of time. Hmm on hindsight, I guess it's also partly my fault for slacking, and then having to do last minute work, but I guess it's quite impractical to expect someone to work every minute that she's awake too!
It's also quite surreal in that I can't believe it's the second term already! Sighs. Someone should look into inventing some device that enables its owner to live in their own time capsules, to savour the good moments for as long as they want to. I know, impossible and ludicrous, but just let me dream. I would love to live in a world of my own. Seriously. I'm not autistic or extremely anti-social or anything, but I think I have more anti-social tendencies than an average person. Sometimes I just hate socialising with people, trying to be friendly with everyone, going out when all I really want to do is to stay in my room, and yada yada. Of course I could be on the other end of the spectrum, be really mean to everybody, angst-filled, offending anyone who tries to talk to me etc, but what's the point? Or rather, I think I'm just not made to be that offensive. I just can't do it.
I really enjoy having lots of time to myself, even if it's just a short 20-minute stroll 'home' from university. When you're walking with someone, (no offense Poot, since you're the person I walk with the most often) you pay attention to the conversation. When you're walking alone, you get to mull things over, appreciate the beautiful sky, the silhoutte of bare tree branches against it amongst other things, and hmm, it may be weird, but sometimes I do enjoy the cold breeze on my face. Like how today I was marvelling at the sky when I enjoyed my walk home in quite a cold weather. I regretted not having my camera with me, though probably even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to do justice to the breath-taking sight. Sadly, I'm not a professional photographer. At least I can still cherish the image in my mind's eye.
Now that I think of it, it's all the small things like these that are part and parcel of everyday life that may seem very trivial, but that go unnoticed all the time, which makes my heart skip a beat each time I notice them. And makes me regret not having spent more time admiring such things in all my life. But then again, we can't all just sit around relishing the wonders of life every single minute, life has to go on. I guess if I had all the time in the world to enjoy beautiful things, I may no longer find them so special.
Back to the point of living in my own world, I guess it might not be that good an idea. Of course right now, when I don't get enough time to myself, I crave for that sort of life. But imagining being a recluse for the rest of my life, I guess I can't do it. Not after 20 years of knowing my family, friends, and putting up with my fair share of socialising.
Haiya... I dunno what I'm rambling on and on about in this post, but if you managed to survive this post, kudos to you!
Friday, January 20, 2006
Chicken day
Had quite a fulfilling day today, not that I accomplished lots of things, but I just felt that it was time well spent. Went to school in the morning to practise, then I met Poot and we went to the city centre together. First stop was Argos, where I got a pair of headphones for studio composition this term. Now I can finally stop borrowing Poot's pair, so bad lor, though I only borrowed it from her to use on three occasions. Sort of regret forgetting that I should have asked whoever went back to Singapore for the Christmas holidays to help me buy a pair of headphones. Cos at the price I got mine, I could have been able to get a pair of Sennheiser ones for the equivalent in Singapore dollars, albeit a low-end one probably. Oh well...
Next, we were about to head to Gregg's, where we usually like to buy baguettes for lunch. And their baguettes are really well worth the price. For just 1.5 pounds, you get a very very long baguette stuffed so full that I usually have trouble eating it without stuff spilling out of the bread. That was when Poot noticed the offer advertised in the window of the KFC outlet across the road from Gregg's. It was a 2-piece chicken meal at 2.99 pounds. I know I know, it's really expensive if you convert it to Singapore dollars, but it was the temptation of something affordable after not having eaten KFC for dunno-how-long. So too bad, we gave Gregg's a miss and had lunch at KFC instead. Lots of people were having the 2-piece meal too. They only have the original chicken though, no crispy, which is what I'll usually crave for cos the chilli in the crispy chicken is just too hauntingly unforgettable. But it was still good, oily, tender and piping hot. Their fries are nicer too, it's a bit chunkier than the normal KFC/Mac's fries. So it was the kind of fries I like, crispy but with soft insides. Yum. Heh I'm like totally not even putting any effort into my plan not to gain any more weight this year. Damn.
After lunch we headed for the indoor market where I got some nuts and to the outdoor market where I got some grapes. Then we went to Allegro Music to get manuscript paper, cos I used up quite a lot of what Zhuomin and Ruth gave us, and left Poot withquite very little. Oops, ok, it's entirely my fault, now I feel so bad for Poot. At first I was going to share a pad with her since I think I might still do paper composition next year, but I guess it was more convenient for us to each buy our own. Just feel bad that Poot had to fork out money to get manuscript paper when I used so many pieces of free ones!
Our last stop was the Central Library, to borrow books for our upcoming essay dateline. Sighs. Trying to switch back to mugger/nerd mode. But it was quite irritating cos there were only limited resources and quite a lot of the books that we thought might be useful were in the reference section. Bleah. We're going back tomorrow, armed with laptops, paper, and cameras! Don't care...
For dinner, we cooked chicken rice at Poot's place. The packet says it's for 3-4 servings, but after eating a serving each, there was still enough left for probably another 4 meals lor. They were probably thinking of people with huge appetites. Of course we also helped Poot finish up her yellowing broccoli, but it wasn't really that much vegetables. So it was definitely the rice and chicken. I took pity on Poot and 'helped' her by bringing three packets of potato chips (ok, here they call it crisps) back to my room in the end. We originally each bought a 24-pack bag of chips last term, when we were super busy doing our second essay and totally craving for such things all the time (or at least I was). She still has some left (as opposed to piggy me, who finished all 24 packets long ago last term), and she just discovered that they expire this February. I was telling her that my flatmates might think I'm mad (if they don't already think so), like 'she went out with her bowl, fork, spoon, and a freezer bag containing some black thing (Poot's headphones), and she came back with her fork + spoon (I left my bowl sitting in her fridge with 3/4 of the leftover rice), three packets of crisps, and a book (my score which I left at Poot's earlier). Maybe she ate the black stuff and cracked her bowl, so her friend gave her crisps to console her!' LOL
Next, we were about to head to Gregg's, where we usually like to buy baguettes for lunch. And their baguettes are really well worth the price. For just 1.5 pounds, you get a very very long baguette stuffed so full that I usually have trouble eating it without stuff spilling out of the bread. That was when Poot noticed the offer advertised in the window of the KFC outlet across the road from Gregg's. It was a 2-piece chicken meal at 2.99 pounds. I know I know, it's really expensive if you convert it to Singapore dollars, but it was the temptation of something affordable after not having eaten KFC for dunno-how-long. So too bad, we gave Gregg's a miss and had lunch at KFC instead. Lots of people were having the 2-piece meal too. They only have the original chicken though, no crispy, which is what I'll usually crave for cos the chilli in the crispy chicken is just too hauntingly unforgettable. But it was still good, oily, tender and piping hot. Their fries are nicer too, it's a bit chunkier than the normal KFC/Mac's fries. So it was the kind of fries I like, crispy but with soft insides. Yum. Heh I'm like totally not even putting any effort into my plan not to gain any more weight this year. Damn.
After lunch we headed for the indoor market where I got some nuts and to the outdoor market where I got some grapes. Then we went to Allegro Music to get manuscript paper, cos I used up quite a lot of what Zhuomin and Ruth gave us, and left Poot with
Our last stop was the Central Library, to borrow books for our upcoming essay dateline. Sighs. Trying to switch back to mugger/nerd mode. But it was quite irritating cos there were only limited resources and quite a lot of the books that we thought might be useful were in the reference section. Bleah. We're going back tomorrow, armed with laptops, paper, and cameras! Don't care...
For dinner, we cooked chicken rice at Poot's place. The packet says it's for 3-4 servings, but after eating a serving each, there was still enough left for probably another 4 meals lor. They were probably thinking of people with huge appetites. Of course we also helped Poot finish up her yellowing broccoli, but it wasn't really that much vegetables. So it was definitely the rice and chicken. I took pity on Poot and 'helped' her by bringing three packets of potato chips (ok, here they call it crisps) back to my room in the end. We originally each bought a 24-pack bag of chips last term, when we were super busy doing our second essay and totally craving for such things all the time (or at least I was). She still has some left (as opposed to piggy me, who finished all 24 packets long ago last term), and she just discovered that they expire this February. I was telling her that my flatmates might think I'm mad (if they don't already think so), like 'she went out with her bowl, fork, spoon, and a freezer bag containing some black thing (Poot's headphones), and she came back with her fork + spoon (I left my bowl sitting in her fridge with 3/4 of the leftover rice), three packets of crisps, and a book (my score which I left at Poot's earlier). Maybe she ate the black stuff and cracked her bowl, so her friend gave her crisps to console her!' LOL
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
on animals and tone rows
I'm having 'lots of fun' identifying the tone rows in Webern's Konzert Op.24, which is what we're supposed to do for text homework. The sheet of the tone row, its retrograde, inversion, retrograde inversion, and their transpositions in twelve keys that we're supposed to write out sometimes doesn't help. In the first place I was quite careless and I transposed some rows wrongly, sometimes in the wrong direction and sometimes I don't even know what my brain was doing when I made that mistake. And then there's that 'problem' of the composer's creativity, which is exhibited through his juxtaposition of different rows such that my brain gets a big workout just trying to put the notes into their respective rows and not mix them up. I'm only at bar 16! Slow progress...
My cousin sent me this today:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2006/01/18/1399667-ap.html
I wonder whether the hamster knew she was going to end up as food or was she very excited to have a snake for company? Maybe she could speak parseltongue and managed to escape death. Wonder how she feels when frozen rodents are put into the cage for the snake. It's like seeing your fellow humans being eaten up by aliens or something.
Oh ya, just recently I realised that my preconceived notion of two squirrels living around the trees I can see outside my window was wrong. The other day I saw three, no, four squirrels simultaneously running across the branches. Previously I've only seen two. Here's a picture I took of one of them:
My cousin sent me this today:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2006/01/18/1399667-ap.html
I wonder whether the hamster knew she was going to end up as food or was she very excited to have a snake for company? Maybe she could speak parseltongue and managed to escape death. Wonder how she feels when frozen rodents are put into the cage for the snake. It's like seeing your fellow humans being eaten up by aliens or something.
Oh ya, just recently I realised that my preconceived notion of two squirrels living around the trees I can see outside my window was wrong. The other day I saw three, no, four squirrels simultaneously running across the branches. Previously I've only seen two. Here's a picture I took of one of them:
Sunday, January 15, 2006
*sigh* Mahler...
After not conscientiously listening for a long long time, I decided that I better buck up and start mugging the crap out of my ears from now on. Last night I listened to Varese... erm, hmm, he's fine, there are some things I really like (and in fact some of the compo assignments got partly influenced by him), but there were also some parts that were too eeek for me. Unfortunately, I've been slacking for the whole of today other than practising in the morning. So I decided to listen to Mahler's Symphony No.1 just now. I love it! Perhaps other than a few cheesy moments... but maybe the 'cheesiness' occurs to me only because too many composers have copied his style for so long that these things have become yucky cliche stuff. Mahler is just superb for all the lyrical, long, 'heart-melting' (not as heart-melting as Sibelius' Violin Concerto heh), 'stretched', 'sighing' melodic lines! Haha those are just my own descriptions, I dunno why I never fell in love with Mahler before today, maybe it's cos I haven't been listening to a lot for ages, or if something was playing I just didn't actually pay much attention to what I was hearing. *Contented sigh* I'm glad I really listened today.
I guess from now on I have to listen to much more everyday, or I have no idea how I'm going to pass my exams next term! Yay. Nothing like a fresh start to inspire me to work harder. (Just hope it's going to last me the whole term lor... >.<)
I guess from now on I have to listen to much more everyday, or I have no idea how I'm going to pass my exams next term! Yay. Nothing like a fresh start to inspire me to work harder. (Just hope it's going to last me the whole term lor... >.<)
Saturday, January 14, 2006
First week
It's been a nice honeymoon week back in school. I wish it could just stay like this forever haha. Sigh. Nopez... it's going to be back to normal by Monday. This week was good although I was nervous about the composition submission and playthroughs, but once that was out of the way, I had quite a good first week back. Since official lessons for music only start on Thursday, I practically only had one lesson this week... cos I suppose a playthrough is technically not a lesson?? Hahaha whatever, I'm just babbling nonsense.
Yep, so it's been good, I only had studio compo this week. It was quite boring actually, to me it's more like something to stone to. It's so 'white-noise'-y... like just background noise that you might hear for the first 20 seconds or so, and then your ears and brains learn to shut it out. It's also quite hard work for the brain to concentrate on following the 'music' cos unlike normal music it's just made up of sounds. I tend to form some sort of 'movie' in the mind's eye according to the sounds I hear. But it can't work for everything cos some things just don't make sense in order for them to fall into a storyline. Luckily it's not going to be that bad, just anyhow edit sounds on Adobe Audition and I guess anyhow arrange sounds into a 'piece'??? Haha I sound like those who will stand up and indignantly say, 'That's not music!' But it isn't that bad, I can still appreciate it, but it's just different. Some of it really makes me switch off but some of it is really interesting! There was this piece in which sounds subtly melted into one another e.g. there were sounds of cars driving past, and then it slowly turned into sounds of water etc, it's all gradual and nice. So it's not as bad as it seems to be, from what I've been typing above... there are genuinely great stuff too. I guess I shall learn to like some of it by the end of the term. Yea... anything to get out of doing lots of essays next year man. Heehee
Yep, so it's been good, I only had studio compo this week. It was quite boring actually, to me it's more like something to stone to. It's so 'white-noise'-y... like just background noise that you might hear for the first 20 seconds or so, and then your ears and brains learn to shut it out. It's also quite hard work for the brain to concentrate on following the 'music' cos unlike normal music it's just made up of sounds. I tend to form some sort of 'movie' in the mind's eye according to the sounds I hear. But it can't work for everything cos some things just don't make sense in order for them to fall into a storyline. Luckily it's not going to be that bad, just anyhow edit sounds on Adobe Audition and I guess anyhow arrange sounds into a 'piece'??? Haha I sound like those who will stand up and indignantly say, 'That's not music!' But it isn't that bad, I can still appreciate it, but it's just different. Some of it really makes me switch off but some of it is really interesting! There was this piece in which sounds subtly melted into one another e.g. there were sounds of cars driving past, and then it slowly turned into sounds of water etc, it's all gradual and nice. So it's not as bad as it seems to be, from what I've been typing above... there are genuinely great stuff too. I guess I shall learn to like some of it by the end of the term. Yea... anything to get out of doing lots of essays next year man. Heehee
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Last day of hols
School's starting tomorrow... for music students official lessons only begin on Thursday, but the dateline for most assignments is 12pm tomorrow. And the playthrough for the first years' compos is on Tuesday! Final year performance students are also having a January Assessment. Shiong huh... scary, whole holiday no lessons no nothing, suddenly just have assessment when school starts. *Shivers* I'm sort of dreading the start of school... sighs. But wells, I guess I better try to get rid of this stupid feeling. Time to start being a nerd again!
Was just recording some band pieces from my MDs into the laptop using Adobe Audition, a programme originally called Cool Edit Pro but has been bought over by Adobe. The reason why I'm doing this is so that I can listen to band pieces without having to take out my MD and plugging it into the laptop, or using earphones to listen directly from the MD. Why can't I just transfer the songs into my laptop using the USB cable? Cos the sony NetMD programme only allows for transfer of songs between the MD and the computer from which the songs were originally transfered into the MD. So I have to use such a weird method. And anyway, I forgot to bring the MD's charger which is also where the USB cable is plugged into (I'm using external batteries to operate the MD). But no matter, I'm enjoying listening to the pieces at the same time! Makes me quite nostalgic though.
Was just recording some band pieces from my MDs into the laptop using Adobe Audition, a programme originally called Cool Edit Pro but has been bought over by Adobe. The reason why I'm doing this is so that I can listen to band pieces without having to take out my MD and plugging it into the laptop, or using earphones to listen directly from the MD. Why can't I just transfer the songs into my laptop using the USB cable? Cos the sony NetMD programme only allows for transfer of songs between the MD and the computer from which the songs were originally transfered into the MD. So I have to use such a weird method. And anyway, I forgot to bring the MD's charger which is also where the USB cable is plugged into (I'm using external batteries to operate the MD). But no matter, I'm enjoying listening to the pieces at the same time! Makes me quite nostalgic though.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
call me a lazy pig *oink*
Can't stand it... ARGH what's new, I woke up late again. It was 11 plus, so I didn't see the point of going to the library to photocopy my compo cos I dunno what time it closes on Saturdays. I don't usually go to the library cos there's a music library at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts. But I don't think the music library would be open today, or maybe it was, just that I'm blur. Anyway, the point is, I'm a lazy pig!
But I did spend my day tidying up my room and making it fit for living/studying for the next term la. Not that bad, coming from someone who always has piles of books/paper/stuff on her bed ok. I just move those piles to and fro the table/chair and the bed, depending on what I'm going to do i.e. study/use the computer, or sleep. Haha bet you didn't know I was such a slob. But I'm not disorganised ok, if I need something I usually know which pile of stuff the thing's in. Just gimme a minute to look through the pile la =P
Just checked the Barber website, yep, the library wasn't open today. I thought, heng ah, I'm not that blur afterall. BUT... I checked the main library's opening hours on the Bham wesite, oops, it was open from 10 - 2! Feel like banging my head against the wall can. Now why didn't I check those websites when I woke up late this morning??? The first excuse that came into my head was, but I only thought of that just now! Yet there's only one reason... it was cos the lazy pig in me just wanted to assume that they weren't going to be open for me to go and photocopy my compo. Nooooo this just has to stop. Ok, no way is there going to be somewhere for me to photocopy tomorrow, but I promise I'll go practice in the morning. Yes, I will!!! Ok, I'm going to sleep now! Hope one day's enough to get my body clock back on track in time for start of school. Bleargh.
By the way, the weather here's really great for lazing in bed. The room gets progressively colder through the night, cos the 'high-class non-gas' heater in the room can only be set to 24 degrees celcius at its maximum, which you might think, like air-con what! But combined with the weather here it really gets cold la. So they have this thing called a heater booster, which when pressed will make the heater's temperature rise until it hits some maximum... 30-something, I think. After which, it will switch back to the 'normal' mode of 24 degrees and so the room temperature falls steadily from then on unless you press the booster button again. So at night when I go to bed it might be quite warm, but when I wake up in the morning it's cold! Yet the bed is so comfortably warm that you just want to stay in it. Cos the booster's built along a row of wall-sockets by the table... which is considered very far away from the bed when I wake up in the morning!
Aiya, ok, good night. From now on I shall be more disciplined... if not I'll just die when school starts man.
But I did spend my day tidying up my room and making it fit for living/studying for the next term la. Not that bad, coming from someone who always has piles of books/paper/stuff on her bed ok. I just move those piles to and fro the table/chair and the bed, depending on what I'm going to do i.e. study/use the computer, or sleep. Haha bet you didn't know I was such a slob. But I'm not disorganised ok, if I need something I usually know which pile of stuff the thing's in. Just gimme a minute to look through the pile la =P
Just checked the Barber website, yep, the library wasn't open today. I thought, heng ah, I'm not that blur afterall. BUT... I checked the main library's opening hours on the Bham wesite, oops, it was open from 10 - 2! Feel like banging my head against the wall can. Now why didn't I check those websites when I woke up late this morning??? The first excuse that came into my head was, but I only thought of that just now! Yet there's only one reason... it was cos the lazy pig in me just wanted to assume that they weren't going to be open for me to go and photocopy my compo. Nooooo this just has to stop. Ok, no way is there going to be somewhere for me to photocopy tomorrow, but I promise I'll go practice in the morning. Yes, I will!!! Ok, I'm going to sleep now! Hope one day's enough to get my body clock back on track in time for start of school. Bleargh.
By the way, the weather here's really great for lazing in bed. The room gets progressively colder through the night, cos the 'high-class non-gas' heater in the room can only be set to 24 degrees celcius at its maximum, which you might think, like air-con what! But combined with the weather here it really gets cold la. So they have this thing called a heater booster, which when pressed will make the heater's temperature rise until it hits some maximum... 30-something, I think. After which, it will switch back to the 'normal' mode of 24 degrees and so the room temperature falls steadily from then on unless you press the booster button again. So at night when I go to bed it might be quite warm, but when I wake up in the morning it's cold! Yet the bed is so comfortably warm that you just want to stay in it. Cos the booster's built along a row of wall-sockets by the table... which is considered very far away from the bed when I wake up in the morning!
Aiya, ok, good night. From now on I shall be more disciplined... if not I'll just die when school starts man.
Friday, January 06, 2006
It's how you look at it
On Thursday night I finally finished writing my compo on manuscript paper. Whew. Then I was determined to write out the parts by this morning too, so that I could photocopy everything today. It was all going quite well, I finished all the parts except for the piano one by 5 o'clock in the morning. That was when my self-discipline failed me. I decided that I could get a quick shut-eye and wake up at 6.30 to finish the piano part before having breakfast etc and leave for school at 8.30.
I should have known better than to do that. I didn't even remember hearing the alarm clock ring, nor remember switching the alarm off. I was woken up by the postman ringing the door bell. Dunno why but I just jumped out of bed and rushed to answer the door. I'm usually quite bo chap about the door bell ringing, I'd just leave it to my flatmates to open the door. I signed the package for a flatmate, my eyes still quite out of focus from the short period of sleep after staying up through the night. Put the package and letter at the respective flatmates' doors and stumbled back to bed.
The next time I woke up was at 11. Horrors! I was supposed to meet Shuying downstairs between 12 - 1pm cos she's coming back to Birmingham today. Ok, so no time to finish up the piano part and get everything photocopied. So much for trying to settle everything by today. Nevermind! There's always tomorrow! (I know, this is a bad habit... there should never be a tomorrow...)
But all this not-getting-anything-done stuff was probably a blessing in disguise. When I was copying the piano part this afternoon, I spotted a gross amount of careless mistakes and omissions in the conductor's score. Some of it weren't in the piano part even. I suppose I missed them while I was copying the other parts. Guess when you look at it this way, it was fortunate that I didn't decide to just photocopy the completed stuff after being woken up by the postman. Then I would have photocopied all the mistakes. Heh always trying to take the optimistic approach =P
I've finally really completed the compo and sorted out what goes in the portfolio and what needs to be photocopied etc. I just hope there are no more mistakes!!!! Now all I have to worry about is the playthrough on Tuesday. I'm not that scared of my compo sounding horrible, I'm more scared of sight-reading my group member's compos! X(
I should have known better than to do that. I didn't even remember hearing the alarm clock ring, nor remember switching the alarm off. I was woken up by the postman ringing the door bell. Dunno why but I just jumped out of bed and rushed to answer the door. I'm usually quite bo chap about the door bell ringing, I'd just leave it to my flatmates to open the door. I signed the package for a flatmate, my eyes still quite out of focus from the short period of sleep after staying up through the night. Put the package and letter at the respective flatmates' doors and stumbled back to bed.
The next time I woke up was at 11. Horrors! I was supposed to meet Shuying downstairs between 12 - 1pm cos she's coming back to Birmingham today. Ok, so no time to finish up the piano part and get everything photocopied. So much for trying to settle everything by today. Nevermind! There's always tomorrow! (I know, this is a bad habit... there should never be a tomorrow...)
But all this not-getting-anything-done stuff was probably a blessing in disguise. When I was copying the piano part this afternoon, I spotted a gross amount of careless mistakes and omissions in the conductor's score. Some of it weren't in the piano part even. I suppose I missed them while I was copying the other parts. Guess when you look at it this way, it was fortunate that I didn't decide to just photocopy the completed stuff after being woken up by the postman. Then I would have photocopied all the mistakes. Heh always trying to take the optimistic approach =P
I've finally really completed the compo and sorted out what goes in the portfolio and what needs to be photocopied etc. I just hope there are no more mistakes!!!! Now all I have to worry about is the playthrough on Tuesday. I'm not that scared of my compo sounding horrible, I'm more scared of sight-reading my group member's compos! X(
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
I'm done!
Yay I can finally declare that I've completed my composition!!!! *Jumps around crazily* I just need to copy out parts and stuff. Oh ya, and think of a title... quote(Emz): You people are always the same, why no title one?! And arrange the rest of the compositions done during the term into a portfolio. The longest piece I ever written! Hahaha sorry, I'm too excited at having finished the compo. I really hope it will be playable, er it's already chicken feet compared to all those torturous pieces I used to write okay... in any case, I shall know during the play-through. Please please please let it be playable!!!
Ok, anyone who sees me online and feels like helping me think of a title, please message me... I'll send you the file. Heh will appreciate your help. I'm hopeless when it comes to thinking of titles! I remember KK suggesting funny titles when we were all rushing our compos for As... she thought it was so amusing to call my piece 'Zombie'! Hmph. Hahaha but we went crazy laughing at all the ridiculous suggestions... missing all of u!!!!! *Sigh*
But amidst all that happiness from having completing my compo, I'm still feeling a bit dissatisfied with it. Especially towards the end. Hmm or should I say, starting from 2 minutes onwards! It sounds so... squeezed out of nowhere just to fulfill the requirement of a 6-minute compo. But anyhow, it's all done now... maybe I'll just take a little more time to think through before I do the parts and photocopying etc.
Ok, anyone who sees me online and feels like helping me think of a title, please message me... I'll send you the file. Heh will appreciate your help. I'm hopeless when it comes to thinking of titles! I remember KK suggesting funny titles when we were all rushing our compos for As... she thought it was so amusing to call my piece 'Zombie'! Hmph. Hahaha but we went crazy laughing at all the ridiculous suggestions... missing all of u!!!!! *Sigh*
But amidst all that happiness from having completing my compo, I'm still feeling a bit dissatisfied with it. Especially towards the end. Hmm or should I say, starting from 2 minutes onwards! It sounds so... squeezed out of nowhere just to fulfill the requirement of a 6-minute compo. But anyhow, it's all done now... maybe I'll just take a little more time to think through before I do the parts and photocopying etc.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Italians also say 'towkay'???
Yesterday I read an email about an upcoming competition, International Contemporary Music Contest "Città di Udine" 2006 Sixth edition, organised by an Italian publishing house, Taukay Edizioni Musicali.
Was quite amused at the name of this Taukay Music Publishing House. Tried to translate 'tau', 'kay', or 'taukay' using my little Italian dictionary, but there were no such words. Maybe my dictionary is not good enough. So I tried the Babel Fish Translation website, but it didn't manage to translate the words too. Perhaps the towkay of this publishing house wanted people to know that he could speak more than just Italian.
Was quite amused at the name of this Taukay Music Publishing House. Tried to translate 'tau', 'kay', or 'taukay' using my little Italian dictionary, but there were no such words. Maybe my dictionary is not good enough. So I tried the Babel Fish Translation website, but it didn't manage to translate the words too. Perhaps the towkay of this publishing house wanted people to know that he could speak more than just Italian.
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