OK I just realised I have so many mixed feelings about turning 21 that I don't even know how to compose this entry properly. So I guess I'll keep those feelings to myself :D But nevertheless, thanks to all those who remembered and sent their well wishes. They certainly helped brighten my otherwise rather dreary day in school! (:
consilio et animis
2/24/2009 09:53:00 PM
chart rants
today's charts took me by a big surprise, and i was never so displeased by 933 charts before. it started off fine, with fairly reasonable debuts... no 15 was tai yang, which i was hoping would rise a little more than that, but i felt it was quite fair, given cheer's popularity. and then i heard a familiar tune haunting the charts. it is none other than olivia's RU YAN, at position 14.
i used to really like the song, but then, it started getting hyped up by 933 and little nonya, and i started getting sick of the tune. the incessant reboundings of this song on the chart is really starting to get on my nerves. i was so happy to see it drop till 18 last week, and i was thinking... wow FINALLY this ru yan song is going to drop out the chart. but no.... it rose 4 ranks again this week, extending its stay on the charts to 11 weeks, which is a really remarkable feat for a first hit, AND also for a hit that only peaked at position 8. seriously is this song worth voting for such a long time?
and then, the no 13 song was... chun tian de na han. OMG. the song just hit position 8 last week and it fell 5 ranks this week. it is really quite unexpected, given mayday's popularity. plus this song is very energetic and very characteristic of mayday's rock songs... i would expect it to do better than peak at position 8.
then came the fresh section, which i was looking forward to, since we finally have some more famous singers releasing new songs, ie jj's new song biao da ai and jolin's new song shua da pai. BUT both of the songs werent even introduced in the fresh section, and instead they introduced ayumi's JAP song, which will never make it on the charts because jap songs are disallowed. so i really dont know what was going on there.
next up was the top 10. there are surprisingly many songs that have spent 10+ weeks on the charts and are still hogging around the top 10. some are really nice songs, i admit, but with the lack of new songs recently, i would really expect newer songs coming from more famous singers, eg fish's mei you ru guo, to have a great leap. but instead it is only at position 6, and seems to me like it will need at least 2 more weeks to clinch the champion title.
no 4 is liang wen yin's zui xin fu de shi, which i feel is another hyped up song. it is a nice song, but at the rate which 933 plays it (just slightly less frequent than the rate which they play ru yan, which could be heard in every, or every other shi2 duan4 on 933), i think i might soon get sick of it too. perhaps they should consider voting her second hit, just to bring in something fresh into the charts haha.
no 2 was ru guo ai, down 1 position from last week's no 1. seriously, i felt that this song was quite undeserving of a no 1 in the first place, and now that it had gotten no 1, it should just make a quick exit on the charts. hanging around at no 2 means it has a good chance of rebounding next week (which i hope it wont).
but even the no 2 song isnt as bad as the no 1 song - FLH's yue lai yue ai, which rebounded back from 4th position to no 1, making it a 2 x champ. this song is nice, but certainly doesnt deserve a rebound, much less a rebound to no 1. there are so many other worthy songs to champ, but of all songs, it had to be this. eeew. singers like yanzi, angela and ah mei should really release their albums asap to prevent all these atrocities on the charts LOL.
anw, my parents are buying a new car, and i went to take a look at it today. seems like dad is buying manual this time, so in a few months time, ill be back to driving manual. oooh it will be challenging... but fun too! (until i end up stalling haha) cant wait to put my clutch techniques back into use again!
consilio et animis
2/22/2009 05:21:00 PM
karaoke @ changi beach club
i was feeling rather unwell for the entire of this week, as i just recovered from a fever, and then became down with sore throat. and it certainly didnt help that i went karaoke-ing with a few of my council mates: charles, amelia and guanghao on wed night. but it was definitely good singing with my "kbox kakis" again :D
instead of going kbox, we went to this karaoke room which charles booked at changi beach club. he drove us there, and we reached the place at around 8. it was the first time i was singing at anywhere other than kbox. i was a little doubtful of the standard of the song list there at first, but when i checked out the song list, i discovered that it had up till stanley and FLH's new songs, so it was considered rather updated! was quite impressed with their large song library, and the sound system wasnt that bad either. and the best thing of it all, after singing for 3 hours, the bill was only $31. how often do u see this kind of figures at kbox haha. oh actually, it is impossible to see this kind of figures at kbox.
anyway, i got to sing many of the songs i had wanted to sing for a long while, like o mai ga and tu ran hao xiang ni! also sang stanley's zui hou zhi hao tang xia lai... which had a really amusing MV. we left at 11, and went for supper at this bedok hawker centre, which took quite a while for us to find. had oyster omelette, which was very delicious, but oily, so i didnt eat much lest it further aggravated my throat condition. i also ordered lime juice (since i havent had a nice sour drink for a long time), but got sugar cane drink instead. -_-" i wonder how the drink vendor could mix up these 2 drinks. oh well.
got home at 1+, and quickly downed a cup of warm honey water before i went to shower and then catch some sleep. my throat felt really bad the next day, but surprisingly i was still able to carry on with my 2 lessons.
generally, once this week began and tutorials started, everything just seemed really hectic. sometimes, after having 2 back to back lessons, i will just return to my cubicle, sit down and just stone for 5 min to catch my breath before i do anything else. every tutorial is really like a race for time, as i try to reach the target set for the tutorial lesson itself. and for some reason, ill always run out of time. maybe i did too much explanations or something like that haha. but now i fully understand how teachers sometimes asked their students to give them 5 extra minutes, which often turns to 10 or even 15 minutes ): hopefully ill be more accustomed by the time next week begins!
anyway, jolin's new song 耍大牌 shou-boed this week, and frankly speaking, i was a little disappointed. the first hit is nice, but it is no different from jolin's previous fast songs. after such a long wait, i had quite high expectations of the first hit, but there were totally no surprises at all. BUT it is still generally very groovy and energetic, so i still like the song! (: ok i think im just biased towards jolin haha.
consilio et animis
2/22/2009 12:00:00 AM
耍大牌
WOW I have so many reasons to be excited right now!
Firstly, jay chou is going to zi dao zi yan another film, titled xiong mao ren. sounds quite interesting, but a panda hero sounds a little corny haha. [http://ent.sina.com.cn/v/m/2009-02-17/14182378884.shtml]
next, jolin's new song will be shou-boed tomorrow! FINALLY, after such a long wait, jolin's finally back! cant wait to hear how her new song, shua da pai sounds like. probably some groovy dance song haha :D but i hope to be surprised!
lastly, theres kbox tomorrow! KBOX :D if only my voice isnt dead b4 my day at school tomorrow ends.
consilio et animis
2/17/2009 09:31:00 PM
AR14!
my first tutorial lessons today! haha i got quite nervous just before my first tutorial began, but thankfully everything went fine. now i just need to start remembering names and faces :D which definitely isnt going to be easy. over 100 faces to remember. haha feeling really tired now, after having 3 tutorial lessons today. was really very tired at the end of it all, especially having 2 tut lessons back to back.
met loads of batchmates, including rongen and chengchai. it was certainly a pleasant surprise, but sadly none of them were relief teaching in the math department together with me. chengchai and i shared our semi-disastrous first lesson experiences just before we left the staff room.
went home and watched amazing race! haha that was something that i was looking forward to at the end of the day. there was this task which the teams had to complete, where they had to climb up a hill, and then bring 200 pounds of cheese down a hill. at some point in time, several contestants dropped their cheese and it just rolled all over the place, which was quite amusing.
it was also quite pitiful to watch several contestants struggle with that task. there was steve and linda, an old couple, and steve was soooo mean to linda, and kept forcing her to push on when she was clearly past her limits. she even collapsed on her way up the hill, yet steve just kept scolding her. i felt it was really pitiful for linda to continue on to the next leg of the race, as she is definitely not physically up to the mark, and is really exhausted already. haha. i would guess that linda will be the next to be eliminated.
was impressed by the performance of Margie & Luke. Luke is deaf, but he still joined the race as he wanted to show that hearing impaired people can also do exactly what normal people can do. the spirit is certainly commendable, and despite being handicapped in some tasks, they were able to reach the finish line first today! really proud of the duo :D
consilio et animis
2/16/2009 09:42:00 PM
我不是你想像那么勇敢
im starting to like this song alot! i feel that it is much nicer than her first hit, as it is more packed with emotions, and the sad mood of the song is well conveyed through wen yin's voice. the song also allows wen yin to express her voice power and potential much better!
P.S. just realised my vday post was my post no 400.
consilio et animis
2/15/2009 03:50:00 PM
今天情人节
Today's vday, and 933's playlist is also more love-themed. Heard mayday's wo you chu lian le at least twice, and liang jing ru's yong qi 2-3 times too. For some reason however, i did not hear liang jing ru's "jin tian qing ren jie". Which makes me wonder why the djs chose yong qi over jin tian qing ren jie which is alot more appropriate for today?
Anyway, survivor returned yesterday, and I am extremely pleased with this new season already! They finally brought back the trek to camp portion. The players had 1 min to unload whatever supplies they could from the supplies truck, and were then given a map, and had to trek to camp, bringing their supplies with them. The weather was scorching hot, so the castaways were already physically exhausted by the time they reached camp... a very good way to "disarm" the castaways right from the start. I'm pretty sure many of the girls were really tired, especially after lugging heavy loads for 4 hours under the hot sun. But the game had already started and they had to try their best to appear strong, while trying to assess their fellow contestants and try to formulate a game plan. This is why I like survivor.
In terms of looks, my favourite castaway so far is Erinn. But from online mugshots, Sydney looks prettier, just that I did not see much of her in the first episode. Sierra is also another possible eye candy... just need to watch more of their shots to decide :D The rest of the cast are also very interesting, and I think I'll really like many of the castaways this time. However, there's one person for sure who is not getting into my favourites list, and thats Sandy.
She was deemed the weakest based on first impression, and was singled out before the trek. When she heard that she will be getting a copter right to camp, she cheered and laughed happily, which I felt was totally childish AND was kind of sealing her own coffin. Then, when she reached camp, she started complaining, then crying, then looking smug. By the first 15 min, i was kind of convinced that Sandy is a nutcase. And when she got a piece of paper telling her to either build shelter, or look for the Hidden Immunity Idol, she further confirmed my impression of her as a nutcase by doing NEITHER of them. zomg. and then she hid the piece of paper inside her bra, and asked the audience if her boobs looked even.
the next day, when the rest of her teammates were building the shelter, sandy smartly abandoned them, cos she FINALLY decided to look for the HII. lo and behold, she managed to find the first clue. the next clue was pretty obvious... walk 10 paces towards the lone palm tree. BUT SHE DIDNT KNOW WHAT A PACE WAS! omg. and she started doing frantic digs around the place, like a mad dog haha. i really wouldnt mind if she gets eliminated next week!
consilio et animis
2/14/2009 10:20:00 PM
舍不得短短副歌
i seldom put MVs on my blog, but this is one of the nicest MVs i have seen in the past few months, so id like to share it! featuring 梁静茹's 情歌! (:
consilio et animis
2/13/2009 10:53:00 AM
an eventful day
post no 398. haha. should have posted 2 more posts before this so that my 400th post can be something more exciting.
today was one of my most interesting days since i ORD-ed. its back to waking up in the early hours again for me, because it is my first day on my relief teaching job. thankfully i walked in to school at the exact same time as cheekie, so i managed to use the staff lift to get to the staff room, and to enter the staff room without having to wait outside for someone to open the door for me.
got to see the teachers' materials for maths, and then drew my own set of GC. wow the school is really nice to the teachers. they got the silver edition GC haha. ok. i admit i dont really care much about the extra RAM which the silver edition offers, so the only perk which the silver edition GC has to offer me is the sleeker design.
after that, ms wang brought me around to introduce the various math department teachers to me. said hi to a few chem tutors too, since the chem department is situated so close to the math department. had flag raising after that and i realised the announcement podium changed, to a proper one now. after flag raising was breakfast HAHA. got to meet more math teachers there, before going back to the staff room with ms wang.
she brought me around to more places, and helped me get various materials and resources like whiteboard marker, and temp pass and laptop. however, the temp pass and laptop were not ready. hopefully i can draw those items out on thurs. cheekie said that once i got the laptop i will be MSN-ing the whole day in the staff room haha...
sat in the math lecture after that, conducted by ms wang. she was setting the ground rules, which included having to attend every lesson and to be attentive. she then quoted me as an example, saying that i was a councillor and so i missed some of her lessons, but i was still attentive haha. doubt many of them knew she was referring to me though. she still cracks occasional lame jokes along the way, and will still say something funny without realising it haha.
after the lecture, i met the math hod, then stayed in the staff room to read the bookshelves of math reference books. wow it is a really extensive library. after a while though, i noticed that there was a large collection of i-weeklys, and sort of deviated from there. went to have lunch at noon, and couldnt get back to the staff room because none of the teachers were using the lift at that point in time. had to take a lift from the canteen side to fourth floor, walk to the library staircase, and then walk down the staircase to the staff room.
hung around the staff room till i clocked my hours, then went home to freshen up before i went to hotel royal for my APCC meeting.
there werent many people, but it was still a very engaging and fruitful session. i was the oldest there, from the '99 batch. come to think of it, its been 10 years since i went to japan as a junior ambassador. how time flies haha... anw, i met the BRIDGE club president, and one of the coordinators, and learnt how i could actually continue to contribute to promoting world peace. if possible, i would really hope to go to fukuoka again one day, not as a junior ambassador this time, but as a peace ambassador.
the president also expressed his dream of setting a BRIDGE club in singapore, and i hope that this will be realised soon. he is also a very inspiring man. in the short insightful chat he had with us, i can already feel the passion to spread the "omoiyari" (thinking about others) spirit, which is the vision of the BRIDGE club.
on a side note, there was this small incident where this RG girl couldnt express her thoughts to the president as he couldnt understand her question in english. i tried, using my rusty jap, to rephrase the question in japanese and i cant believe i actually managed to get across the message. the president and the coordinator were quite surprised that i knew japanese haha, and invited me to go to japan to study japanese at this language centre. all these sound like really exciting plans. i really wish that ill have an opportunity next time to contribute in one way or another to this meaningful organisation.
consilio et animis
2/10/2009 08:22:00 PM
爱就宅一起!
ok... after so many episodes of campus superstar, i have a major gripe on one of the judges, and that is xiaohan. i admire her as a great lyricist, but as a judge, i dont think she will make the cut. the problem is, she always lets her maternal instincts affect her, so the score she gives is not an accurate indicator of the performance of the contestant. rather, it is an indication of how much the contestant manages to appeal to her sense of pity or affection.
i find it frustrating that contestants who did not perform well get a high score from her just so that she can bring up the overall score a little, and the contestant will not feel sad. in other cases, little boys like jarod appeal to her maternal instinct, and she has a natural tendency to overrate him. personally, i felt jarod performed poorly today. he even missed a few words because he was out of breath, yet the judges did not point that out. he certainly deserves a much lower score. i mean, this is a competition after all. as the saying goes, 比赛是残酷的. those that do not meet the standards should be prepared to face the possibility of being booted out.
huishi also performed averagely. she sang a really simple song. seriously, almost everyone, including people who listens to english songs, knows gu dan bei ban qiu and can probably sing it too. AND she didnt attempt to remix the song or add in her own style. ok. maybe i could close an eye on that if she sang the song close to perfection, but unfortunately, her yin1 zhun3 was nowhere near that. so it really puzzles me how she ends up as the number 2 contestant of the night.
jiamin continues to perform consistently tonight. but i personally preferred aijia's performance more, because it was the liveliest performance of the night, and she managed to sustain her breath despite incorporating a few dance moves. i do not see what is wrong with singing another kuai4 ge1 (and doing it well), yet the judges feel that aijia did not bring them any surprises, after hearing her sing di yi tian in her first round, which was another fast song. i felt that was quite unfair, because if she is ranked against the other contestants of the night, she is definitely one of the better performing ones. i mean, if fast songs is her style, and she sings them well, it should be fine. even professional singers arent all rounded too...
last but not least is my favourite benita! haha. she performed averagely tonight, by her standards. she sang a song that was just slightly challenging, and was generally able to sing the song well, with the exception of a few high notes.
my personal ranking of the night: 1. aijia 2. jiamin 3. benita 4. jarod 5. huishi
on a side note, channel U will be showing 爱就宅一起 soon! tong bu shou bo with taiwan! omg. another rainie show so soon :D
consilio et animis
2/09/2009 09:18:00 PM
太阳
did one last round of bai nian at my dad's friend's house yesterday, and that probably marks the end of the last chinese new year ill be celebrating in singapore for the next 4 years! ):
anw, tai yang charted on 933 today, and i am extremely pleased! hopefully more people will show cheer some much-deserved recognition and support!
CSS rants...CNY Visit @ Mr Lee's... and a weird encounter
i thought that the standard of most of the campus superstars today were sub-par, with the exception of jocelin.
since the first episode, jocelin is amongst the few that caught my attention immediately, particularly because her voice has much bao fa li. her performances are very entertaining, and so far, she hasn't disappointed me yet. i love her previous performance too, even though the judges think she overly used the power of her voice. haha. i think she fits well in shen mu yu tong. hope she will be the final 2, with benita of course.
shelly's performance was really bad, probably because she tried to incorporate a dance. she really does deserve bottom spot. however, i feel the second last spot should be occupied by ridwan instead. i thought he is a little overrated. i do understand that as a malay, there are several inherent difficulties when participating in a chinese singing competition. but i really hope the score which the judges give ridwan does not get boosted simply by the fact that he remembered the lyrics. maybe i was oversensitive, but i felt it was unfair to the other contestants when the fact that ridwan remembered the lyrics was worth mentioning by lin qi yu, who is known to be highly critical of the contestants.
song wise, ridwan chose an easy to sing song, and yet he did not bring out the feelings of the song enough. in comparison, jeremy and rachel, who sang songs that were more challenging, and could successfully complete some of the toughest parts of the song, should have been commended and awarded higher points. jeremy in particular managed to sing a really nice jia ying, and i was quite surprised only lin qi yu acknowledged the fact (mebbe because lin qi yu himself is the king of jia yings HAHA).
in my opinion, the rankings of tonight should have been: 1. jocelin 2. jeremy 3. rachel 4. ridwan 5. shelly
which differs from the actual rankings by quite a bit, cos i didnt really look into the technicalities, and their pronunciation (jay chou also 咬字不清 ok!) i rated the superstars based on their performance vs the standard of song chosen, and also how entertaining it was for the audience. my prediction is that shelly will be leaving tonight, and the curse of C1 will continue (yup, so far the contestant eliminated has always been C1).
anyway, we went mr lee's house yesterday for a cny visit. had to visit an aunt in the late morning, so i arrived at tiong bahru mrt station reeeally late. yikes ): felt really bad that i kept zhaowei and matt waiting like that. when we reached the void deck of mr lee's place, mr lee just alighted from his car, so i guess we were sort of on time :D went up to his house and played with ethan who is so cute and has an obsession for balls. haha. and ethan has a cute and memorable smile! ;) < -- something like that, just that its with the left eye HAHA. i was glad to be able to meet up with several of my classmates too: zhaowei, matt, liansheng, esther, and yuxin. thanks for turning up! i was surprised when yuxin turned up, since we all thought she would be back at her uni. oh yeah, we also had a fun session of asshole taiti too. it has been a while since we engaged in 1D's favourite activity! really enjoyed myself yesterday, and big thanks to everyone for making it a fun-filled afternoon.
on my way home, i had an interesting encounter. i met this guy wearing a shirt which says TWENTY SIX, printed exactly in the same style as my TWENTY FIVE council shirt. it is undoubtedly a council shirt belonging to one of the 26ths, but the person wearing it was quite old, probably the parent of the 26th. it was a while since i saw a shirt like that, so i was actually staring at it (and thus staring at the man too). haha. by the time i realised it, the man was also staring back at me, probably wondering why i was looking at him like that, and so i walked away quickly.
P.S. HEROES VOLUME 4 IS FINALLY BACK!
consilio et animis
2/02/2009 09:28:00 PM
Rock 'n Roll
The Hero
about chorkiang. 22. pisces. chorkiang@gmail.com.
school [cambridge 10-12] fitzwilliam. mathmo. cumsa.
[rjc 05-06] 2S01D. shiemarrakan. jacharis. 25thcouncil. harmoc. mathssoc.
[ri 01-04] 4R. ripb. scouts. mathsclub.
[cat hi 95-00] 6K.
work MHA (Jun/Jul 09).
RJC Math Dept (Jan-Sep 09).
♥ Hearts
loves candy. chocolate. ice cream. sour stuff. kbox. silver.
singers SHE. hebe. genie. joi. fish. angela. stefanie. jolin. rainie. mayday. FIR. jay. wilber. jj. joanna.
actresses crystal liu. charmaine sheh. linda chung. jeanette aw.
favourite tv heroes. TW ou xiang ju. HK crime story shows. amazing race. survivor.
