Odyssey No.8 - Driving, The Guitar Store and Harmonica Orchestra

Two Guitar Club ex-seniors came back to school today, can't believe the coincidence :O

I'm sure they're quite shocked to see the difference we've made over half a year. 

I drove to school today, feels kinda cool :D . And after Music Club activity I drove another 4 person to Metro Point =_=. I never knew my car can fit in more than 3 people.

The main reason we went to Metro Point is to have a look at the exhibition, well...More importantly to look at the Guitar Store counter. It was good, the guy over there gave some show and lecture. And what's exciting is that Guitar Store is coming into Metro Point soon! And as soon as they come in I think I am going to take my electric guitar lessons there (and so long suckers to Yamaha :P ).

The guy, Leslie, talking and demonstrating a lil'.   We saw Hwa over there too.


After lunch we got back to school, for orchestra practice with the harmonicas. It's the first time I heard them practicing, and it was brilliant.The coach, Ah Chuan, conducting. He's a cool guy, I never really see him lose patience ever though they've been practicing for a long time and is making some mistakes.



Ahaha... Song Guang's mouth itchy. Decided to play saxophone together. Notice the guy right beside Song Guang, I recognized him as one of the performers from the UCSI Modern Band concert, also playing Tenor Saxophone. Refer to this post, the 6th picture, it's the same guy xD. 


And I might be playing Bass Guitar with the Orchestra. Cool! And maybe a jazz song with Xin, and another song with Jinyi. :D

And so...That's all for today, it's been a short and busy one.

Before signing out. Here's a snapshot from yesterday. Nothing much to show yet. 


Till next time, cheers~

21st Century Breakdown

Ahh!! Green Day is out with their new album and I still haven't get it LOL! Will be getting it this holiday :D   I hope it's good, but then again, their songs are always good (at least to me).

I like them, because they are not afraid to try new things, and they sing what they want, criticizing the government and stuffs without restriction. And they are a good  funny bunch too...

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Anyways, Music Club performed in school today. It was one of the best one we've done, in fact I'll put it as the best until now. 

And now the ratings and simple review >:D

Me: 8/10 - I don't know, the first song sounded a bit mushy...Maybe it's the effects, maybe it's me, but I doubted it xD. The second song "More Than Words" was great! Didn't make mistakes like I did with Trisha and the others.

John: 8/10 - Kudos for practicing on the last day and still manage to play it, though not perfect, it's enough to blend through the whole song. 

Ji Lien: 9/10 - Good, the guitar was perfect, but have to improve on the strumming a bit.

Zhu Yi: 9/10 - Flawless drumming, just that he rushed a bit in the middle part. But just a little, not enough to be noticed.

Meroshana: 8/10 - Ahha...Forgot when to enter in the second verse. Otherwise it was great!

Tjoe: 8/10 - Hmm...My sis said he lacked of appeal LOL! It was good for the first song "This is me", the second song was a bit shaky :)

Lixuan: 9/10 - I didn't really notice her sing. I think it's alright,  the singing matured a bit since last year xD

Song Guang: 10/10 - Ten out of ten for being a good support team, period~

I'll post some photo's of the performance when I get the photos, soon...



Ah, I forgot, THE HOLIDAYS STARTED!!!

Good thing, school is getting depressing.

So what are my plans during the holidays? Here is the current schedule for me:

30 May - Music Club, visiting Guitarstore counter at Metro Point.
31 May - Golf
1 June to 3 June - Leadership Camp, photographer on duty.
4 June - Music Club
5 June - Free :D  ...Most probably going off for a movie or just plain old golf practice day
6 June - Music Club
7 June - Golf
8 June - Free. Call me to ajak me, I can be driver LOL!
9 June to 11 June - Most probably free, might drop by at school to help to take photos in the Chinese Cultural camp.
12 June - Music Club
13 June - Music Club / Harmonica Performance
14 June - Golf
15 June - School Starts! Aww...

So then. I wish everyone a Happy Holidays. Have fun and play safe! 

Till then...Cheers~

Career?

Went for band practice this morning. It was... it felt so like last year, all too familiar... except that we have a bigger family, a more energetic force that pushes us forward.

But still... I'm pretty disappointed. Not that the practice was bad, not that you guys are not good enough. In fact you guys, every single one who spared time for this and each previous practice sessions, are brilliant - Dedication and skill wise.

I'm just disappointed of what our school has come to be. A school, just a school. Nothing more, nothing less. It seems like Yu Hua is getting more and more...Lifeless. Gone were the days when big yearly events makes stand on our toes while waiting for it to come. Campfire? Yu Hua Idol? Those were just some of the events, axed, by a person who had visions he thought outshines the previous policy.

Most of you would agree. That our school now became "Just another school", all too boring. Things that once defined Yu Hua became undistinguishable from other schools. The new policy on co-currirular activities is not accepted by the students well enough, each and every ban would only result in more disatisfaction among us. And I still don't understand, why would anyone love this new being that came to govern our school a couple of years ago? Why? Just...really...Why?

And this is infectious. Even the teachers now prefer mere simplicity in school rather than quality. When asked if we can perform in school, teachers would go saying," Oh...You're the music band guy? I think cannot, because setting up the stuffs would take too much time and too troublesome (and I'm too busy and stupid to arrange so that your things can be set up faster and seamlessly), so I think cannot, but if you got anyone who would like to play the CD and sing along the song it's fine. You must understand ah, because you have exam, and no rehearsal, so I scared will have a lot of problems."

Such ignorance...In my opinion, the school teachers is just not ready to accept live band performances, THEY ARE JUST NOT READY! Why, of all the cultures in school, you are not ready to accept this?

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Haiz...Today mom asked my casually," Son ah...Actually what you want to be when you grow up ah?"

I never answered, as usual :/

It's not that I don't wanna give an answer, it's just that I'm not sure enough. What I'm sure is that, whatever I chose to be, my parents will most probably disagree, because they'd expect something more from me.

Well... This is a list of what they want me to be involved:

• Business
• Engineering - Of any sort, but my father is into cars, so he want me to be automobile engineer
• Doctor/ Life science - Any parents' dream?
• Aeronautics or Airplane Piloting.

I kinda laughed when I think back the days when they ask me to study hard so that I can become an aeronautics engineer...

And then here's a list of what I want to be involved:

• Music - Be it performer, composer, part-time or full-time.
• Audio Engineering - Hey, at least it's engineering. Combines technology with music, which is just the right thing for me.
• Mass communications - This one is new for me, when teachers (4 teachers to be precise) said that my voice have commercial value xD ...Don't agree LOL! But this seems interesting.
• Physics - Inspired by Dr. Michio Kaku, I want to study Quantum Physics and ultimately solve the "Theory of Everything" :D
• Business - At least I kinda agree with my parents, but only in business related to music.
• Filmography - Ah...I like directing other peoples >:D, I'd like to be a director.

As you can see, the difference between the two lists is obvious. Haha...

Anyways, I still can't make up my mind what to study in university. All seems very tempting to me :( 


Advices are welcomed LOL!

Dr. Michio Kaku and String Theory

I'm writing this all out of worship and admiration xD .

Anyways, I'm sure none if not only some of you had ever heard of Dr. Michio Kaku. Well who is he you asked? 

There you go...


Looked familiar? Well of course, he's quite a famous TV personality, usually featured in science documentaries, especially if it's about physics. 


Here's a brief description of him:

"Michio Kaku, b. January 24, 1947,  is a Japanese-American theoretical physicist specializing in string field theory, and a futurist. He is a popularizer of science, host of two radio programs and a best-selling author."

More info of him here - Wikipedia



So, what's he famous for? He's known for engaging in the String Theory, or the would-be-known as "Theory of Everything", he's especially insightful in this field of physics.

Ah...To write about him would take a lot of time. Anyways, I actually wanted to share some videos of his interviews.

Warning: These are good interviews, but not recommended for those who sleeps at  words of physics.










And here another set of documentary that talks about String Theory

BIGGER WARNING: This will be much more hard to comprehend than the vids above. You are warned~

Odyssey No.7 - Cameron, Cameras, Cameos, Came and Went

Phew, finally got most of the important photos uploaded. ;D

Okay, as the title suggests, this is all about the Cameron trip made by Photography Society on the 9th and 10th of May.

That Saturday morning we gathered at school at about 6:15 a.m. to wait for the bus to Cameron. Everyone was there except for Lee Yang who was late for 15 minutes =_=


And so we started our journey at 6:45 in the morning. The bus was crazy, everyone was excited, well, most of us :P

Cameras was rolled out early in the morning to take photos in the bus. Here are some of the photos that I took along the way.

This was Samson with Down Syndrome ( LOL, like how he describe Lixuan last time ), he stuck his tongue out for the whole trip XD.

Things got a bit cooled down as we went on the highway. There wasn't many cars that Wesak Day, nice!

This was the typical view you'll get along the PLUS highway. All skies, all palms.

We stopped down at a rest station beside the highway for our morning breakfast. Had some sandwiches before continuing the bus ride.

This is a random photo at the rest station.

Peoples started to sleep when the time hit 10 in the morning. The bus quieted down a little. This was Ali hugging Kah Fai while sleeping LOL!

Ah...And so the waterfall stop was canceled because of some inconvenience. We exited the highway at Simpang Pulai (Where Clearwater Sanctuary is o_o) and went for the road to Cameron Highlands. The climb took around an hour or so, not so winding as I thought but because it's the new road, so... :/

We reached the first town, Brinchang or whatever it was. It looked cozy and quiet, but it was not for long. Further down the way the cars started to get crowded. Plantations were all over the place, peoples too of course.

We continued on for another hour before we reach Tanah Rata, where I think our "Guest House" was. We'll we finaly found the place.

It was...Uh...wtf?!

Well, it's not what I've expected, in fact, it's not what everyone of us expected. The place was somewhat of a disaster. I went ,"crap!" when I saw that place LOL!

Turns out it was okay. Remember, you get what you pay, what do you expect from a RM120 2 days trip? :/


The first thing that caught my notice is the sunflowers at the garden of the Guest House. It's the only thing that's beautiful there XD

So I took out my Canon IXUS 80 and started shooting.

This was the close up photo of the sunflower.

This one looks like a studio photo :D

Sunflower, literally

Experimenting with the colour accent mode in my camera, turns out to be a fine photo. It only registers yellow colour and the others will turn black&white.

This was the colour swap mode, I swapped yellow with blue. This photo feels a bit saddenning, with the blue petals of sunflower matching the grey sky.

Same thing, but this photo is not that special =(

Unknown flower.

Ah...Spidey resting on the leaf of the sunflowers.


And so the photography seminar started. It was presented by the professional photographer Mr.Wong Kim Keat. It was informative, though I already know some of them, doesn't hurt to revise right? :P The session gave me some ideas for photography that's useful.

This was the photographer demonstrating the difference between compact and d-SLR.
Verdict: d-SLR owns compact no matter what situation :( (Note that I am still a compact user.)



Later in the afternoon we visited the local Cactus Valley. It was a few minutes ride out.

The entrace before the real entrace.

The view of the town from the top of the hill.


So we've got around 45 minutes to walk and capture photos in the cactus nursery. Well, it's not really a cactus farm, there were also other plants. Anyways, here are the photos from Cactus Valley.

Hmm...I don't know what is this plant, looks horny...Oops, I mean...Thorny.

Can you say "Flat fresh carps with flesh" very fast three times?

"Look mom, I'm riding Pikachu!"

Some cactus.

Bruce Lee v.s. Karate Boi...
"Argh, my leg owns yours"

Looks like something...hmm...

The twin tower from above. Wait...where is the other tower?

The cactus cactilla cactissimus valley

Let me introduce you to Hairy Potter.

Palm that looks like starfish :O

Wow...Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Up above the sky so high.

The other side of the town from the top of the hill.

Wait, it's impossible, nobody can bend more than Beckham! XD

The worker was watering the plant from above. Looks somewhat like a waterfall.

I scream Ice-cream.

Stairway to heaven.

Super duo?

Joyce posing. Doesn't fit though =_=

Hwa, Shyuan, Ying, under the big flower.

Budding flower.

Ah, this flower was interesting. The colours is just not natural.

This is a kind of aloe plant...uh...right?

Flower rain. Or should I say purple rain?

Purple Illusions.

More Purple Illusions. Morning glory.

Colour accented the red, looks sick but ugly LOL!

Mini group photo. Sam looks like a leaping frog?

Green leaf, red heart.

This plant looks funny. If I were to give it a name it'll be "Ribs tree" because it looks like ribs.

Wee Lon proposing? OMG!?

OMGWTF!!? Now Lee Yang's turn?

OMGWTFFTW?!? Wait, this society is getting upside down, girls proposing to boys? :D

This one really widen my eyes haha...Our teacher really took a lot of photos during the trip.

"The bouquet of the broken heart"


Ah...Lots of photos there. After about 50 minutes we exited the Cactus Valley and gathered around at our bus. Mr.Yong the teacher said that the other farms are closed down now so we have to walk around the pasar malam from 6:30 until 8:30...Aww...

Mr.Yong,"You heard me, now get lost and trample the pasar malam!" XD

The hotel beside the pasar malam. p.s.: This hotel has a Yamaha Music Shop?!

The pasar malam was already crowded even though it was not night yet. Which is a good thing since compact camera sucks at night, in fact any pictures taken at night by a compact camera will be blurred. +_+

And so we walked around the pasar malam, bought myself something to eat, though not that really good :/

So I decide to take photos instead.

Yellow accent, this photo is brilliant :D

Oh that's all the photos I took before night fall...How pitiful. Next we walked around the pasar malam and found the other members having their diner at a store.

Group photo, told you compact sucks at night :(
I have something to add for this photo. If you look carefully, and notice Vonvon and Kah Fai, you'll see that the love on Hwa's shirt is in between them LOL!

Ali, Kah Fai, Oscar.

I got fed up with compact at night, so I put my SD into Nigel's D80. That's more like it :D

Whirling effect taken with Song Guang's camera.

"Come and stay in our hotel....................................................................................please?"

Street lights, fast and furious style.

This picture actually looks funny :P ... I liked it though.

"Life on the fast lane."

"Life on the faster lane." XD

So we went back to our guest house and reached there at about 9pm. They started barbecueing while me and Song Guang took out our guitars for a sing-along session...More like sing-not-for-long session :(

This was Mr.Yong giving us a briefing on tomorrow's activity. We're going jungle trekking, yay?

After the briefing everyone went to sleep. (I think)

The night was cold even without air conditioner =_=


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The next morning was even colder! Argh, it was freezing. But most of us took shower anyway.

Early in the morning we left the town for the jungle trekking. It was quite far away, about an hours bus ride.

The morning breeze was soothing though, so it's worth the while.

On the road.

The morning view. I liked how the clouds breakup in the sky.


Finally after an hour or so we reached our destination. I am in group B of the expedition, and we get to go to the forest last. Aww...They get to ride the 4x4 first.

Meanwhile the tourguide said we should give the local kampung orang asli a visit. So we did.

Introducing our casts

Lee Yang +_+

Oscar.

Ying.

The bitch.

The bamboo. wtf?

And the fly.

"Hehehe..." (Look at its hands)

"Imma stand with my hands...Oh wait...I...I...Argh...I can't!"

"Meh...Who needs to stand with your hands when you got six leg?"

And the cameo the ant.

The tall tree.

This little fella hitchhiked my towel.


After round 15 minutes the jeeps came back. And we aboarded it for a bumpy ride. I mean real bumpy. No, I mean it, really really bumpy. :D

And we finally reached a place where we have to cross a bamboo bridge after we went down the jeep.

This was Mr.Yong crossing the bridge. Well, he wasn't scared, or so he claimed, he was just acting like he's afraid. He even jumped on the bridge LOL!

And so the tourguide gave us a quick briefing. He said we're in the state of Kelantan, wow...Can't imagine we reached Kelantan though. After that we started to walk into the abyss of the jungle. And I took quite some photos.

Don't know what do you call this plant.

"This plant looks like little squids." (Not real dialogue)

Nice caterpillar, too bad this picture was out of focus.

The sky frame.

Voices of the jungle.

Another good photo but out of focus. *Puts the blame on Canon IXUS 80*

Twirl and whirl and swirl.

Finally reached the Rafflesias after an hours walk. It was worth it! Sort of...

The rafflesias was not that big, approx. 1 meter in diameter. And it doesn't stink like the books claimed. In fact it's just plain beauty.

The inner part of the plant. Thorny but in fact it's really soft.

The two blooming plants.

Caught this ant on the tree beside the rafflesias.
"Behold the blessed ant?!"

Ying posing with the rafflesias.

Too bad I didn't take more photos. Aww well...We continued our way to the waterfalls. But we're too late though, the guys was there for about an hour and when I reached the waterfalls there was not enough time for the last group to go down. Crap...

So we embarked on our way back to the jeeps.

More trees.

One of the toughest climb of the trek.

Found this cute little guy walking on a leaf.

Fly in action.

Hmm...Don't know how to describe this photo, I'll leave it to your imagination.

Argh...We get to ride back to the bus first instead of group A. Yay :)

This time we revisit the orang asli village and there we get to see a demonstration of the sumpitan.

Wait, before that, this was Hwa giving out the biscuits to the natives. Turns out we gave ALL of the biscuits to ONE of the families, there were many others LOL! A bit "Pian Xin" :/

This was the guy explaining the sumpitan. Orang Asli now aday also know how to use words like "try" and "hospital"...Don't play play you know?

The guy showing Kwong Yih how to use it.

Lee Yang acting like pro, got looks only :P

"Do you blow the pipe, or you let the pipe blow you?"

I tried it twice, the first time the missile was flawed, so it didn't travel much. The second time I his it just below the target :D. But some bloody ant was on the blowpipe and went on to my hands while I was blowing the sumpitan, it bit me. It was painful, and itchy at the same time. Sucks to get bitten.

Look at what it did to my left palm.

After a while we left the place for our guest house again, for lunch. The next stop on the agenda was the tea plantation.

The plantation was HUGE! It made use of every slope of the hills.


Red accent, random photo.

And so we took our group photos there before leaving Cameron for good. Phew...Long was back home.

We stopped by at Tapah for our dinner.

This was interesting, it was in the toilet. I thought it's a bit strange :/

Had my dinner at Dunkin Donuts. Crossaint with Sausage, mediocre =_=

There was a little bit of club politics there during the stop :D

After the meal we began again our trip back home. Reached the school at about 9:30 pm. There it ends the trip to Cameron Highlands of Photography Society 2009. Kinda miss the moments, even it's been only a few days ago. I do hope we can have another trip like this, preferbly a real camp where we camp somewhere. :D

Well, maybe next time. To the next term AJKs - Don't forget to invite me to go if there's another photography trip! XD

Haha...This is Alba, signing off...Till next time, cheers~