Of Carelessness and Group Work and Random Hall Stuff

I have been very careless in the past week. First I lost my umbrella (fortunately I only brought it for $3.90). Then today I found out that I lost my Ez-link card with $$ inside! :( So I had to get a new one. Now they kind of merged Ez-link with NETS, so it's called Nets-Flash-Card instead. Alongside with the purchase $5 per card, I get a fridge magnet and a card pouch to keep the card too. There are also supposedly some shopping benefits associated with it (but don't expect too much). Here's the official website: http://www.nets.com.sg/netsflashpay/

To me the most interesting thing about the card is still the breezy-bee design. :) Yes, I'm still a kiddo in that sense, and I know it.

My hectic MNO project is finally done and over with. I'm getting quite tired of it - it's not really worth that much effort for 4 MC, I feel. Furthermore - videoing and presentations are not my thing. But it was fun knowing my team mates, they really made the effort quite worth it. Of course they were not perfect; but at least most of us have a joint responsibility for each other, and we would just turn up for meetings to support one another. Our video might not be a bomb, but still the experience was a bomb. I wouldn't ask for another like it though - it was rather too tedious for my liking. If I had took it in any other semester other than this one, I would have died.

DND was over and somehow the effect wasn't as explosive as last year. I went mainly because I had to write-up for Phoenix Magazine. It was okay, the theme was fun (Eclectic World - go google the word 'eclectic'), and the dress-ups were interesting. Anyway I went as myself in my one and only white dress. Mr Goh asked if I was trying to be Snow White, but no, Snow White was far more colorful than this. :) Pageant contests were not as exciting as the previous years, and the whole run of everything was rather mechanical and dry, in terms of the programs. I liked their small events but I suppose my expectations were built too high because of them, hence I felt a bit let down by the real thing. The food was quite good though.

Hmm. In case you're wondering, I'm not writing to rant over DND here. Last year's DND was really great, and that's why the bar was raised high. This year's DND has its good points too, but I'll leave that to my Phoenix writeup where I can only say politically correct things in. Will give DND due credit in that write-up of mine, but meanwhile, bear with this more politically incorrect, but much lesser read blog entry. I need loads of motivation to write the article though - been slacking a bit too much, I don't even feel like writing my lab report (because I have the wrong data in).

There's a Night Cycling activity next Friday. I kind of want to go, but I have too big problems.
1) I don't know what my schedule is like next week.
2) I don't know who's free to go with me.

And I've never been to night cycling in year 1 or year 2 due to academic concerns. I want to go at least once throughout my four years here!!!

I'm kind of stuck in FYP now. Rather in a blank state. Trying to research, not get lazy and complete my work at the same time.

I also have an interview with Merck and Co. this Tuesday. Okay, it's not really M&C directly, rather it's Schering-Plough that they've merged with. It's a company dealing with pharmaceutical products, a line I feel I'd be interested to go into at this point of time. However, I still need to go there to look around first before I can really decide if it's my cup of tea. My years in NUS taught me that many times, expectations and reality really don't match. Not in a bad way, but sometimes our 'conventional' notion of jobs that are not backed up with actual experience do create some misconceptions on how we view things. The thing is I have another company that has already offered me an internship (research work) to do in Singapore Poly, very near NUS. I must admit I'm severely tempted. And I don't know how to hold on to this one, and wait for the other.

In the end I decided to truthfully tell the Boss of that company that I'll be having another interview this week and I'll make my choice by the end of next week. He never sent me any replies though, so I guess silence means consent? I know about the 'bird in hand is worth two in a bush' concept - but still... I want to at least go to Schering P and know what this internship is about and their working environment first. And I don't want to have company one hanging to me all the time and in the end dish them you see. It was a rather risky choice perhaps? But I guess people who have been employing all the time in the working world should understand my situation. Anyway I'm not that worried - because i know God is going to give me a job that suits me best.

That's all my updates for the weekend. Hopefully I'll have time for more in the coming week.

Viva La Vida

Today was NUS Open House and Raffli sang Viva la Vida, and one other song that also sounded quite nice but I forgot the name. I loved the in-house performance in Raffles Hall, it was awesome! :) String instruments always sound extra nice in a band I think. There was Raffli on the drums (so cool, never seen him play drums; but he wasn't actually drumming, just keeping the beat and once in a while clanging a cymbal), Shawn on cello, Jing Horng on violin, and the very 'pro' Issac on acoustic guitar.

I was more impressed by this performance more than the actual one on Youtube by Coldplay, honestly speaking. Maybe it's just nice to hear things (especially strings) live. And with the alternate music arrangement - it sounded a bit different. Loved the drums effect. And this is without e-guitars for once haha. Maybe I have lower affinity towards e-guitars.

This is Tirza's favorite version on Youtube - Viva la Vida fused with Love story by Taylor Swift. Music only - this is an instrumental :)

Actual version by Coldplay, with singing:

I performed for Open House too, two in-house performances in Raffles Hall, and one of those performed in the Multi-Purpose Sports Hall.

For CME I fused Starry Starry Night, Wind Beneath My Wings, and You Raise Me Up; recycling Phoenix Fest's item.

1) Starry Starry Night - didn't exactly reproduce this, what we did was more 'sentimental' version of this. This is orginal singing is more detached, I feel. You should read the lyrics if you want. The message is a bit depressing - but they are all based on Vincent van Gogh's paintings.

2) Wind Beneath my Wings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrvodSr3JmA

Embedding disabled so here's the link. I can embed other versions, but this Celine Dion's is my favorite so far out of the limited number in Youtube. Song is nice -but not much of a peak - hence my idea of fusing it with You Raise Me Up (Starry Starry night suggested to be added by JH later on).

Most people don't know this song (surprisingly) so I added the Youtube link here. I like it's lyrics quite a lot :)

With He Li and Yifan's duet I did 一个像 夏天, 一个像秋天 by Fan WeiQi, and Zhao Wei's 好想好想 that Jon is currently still addicted with after listening to our practices.

一个像 夏天, 一个像秋天

Actually I'm not that much in love with this song, but the lyrics are pretty cute.

好想好想 (I put this here before, but anyway, just for a record).

Phoenix Fest 09/10

Maybe this is the last Phoenix Fest I'm going to perform in. Unless I perform as a final year, but one can't be too sure about that at this point of time.

Thanks Pin Yun, Farid, and Huimin who came to support. And thanks Kasun for sticking through the whole thing too haha. :) I don't know how I really did (three practices is a bit short for a big-scale performance like this, and I'm sure we should have done more). But my performance surpassed all those practices and I was able to put my heart into the music. I guess that's all that matters to me now.

All the other performances was spectacular. I remember when I was in Year 1 I enjoyed the performances so much that I wrote a sequential review of each in a blog entry. This year's one was generally much better than the previous years, in terms of atmosphere, residents who came to support and performance quality. But I'm lazy and I won't do the one-by-one review any more. Sigh. Enthusiasm dies when we go over. But stage fright doesn't. I've been performing for so many years running and I'm still getting butterflies in my stomach every time my turn approaches.

I'm always proud to be part of RH's cultural groups. Even though I don't think performing is the best way to express music. But I can't deny it is a good entertainment source, to share and showcase your talent. But when you're working with so many zai people, someone with slight inferiority complex like me still like to wait until the piano lounge (and preferably the surroundings) is completely empty before I sit down and play. Maybe this is selfish - but most of the time I keep my music to myself.

Anyway, Phoenix Fest has come and gone, and deadlines are approaching. As my final year in university edges closer, I just can't ignore the sad fact that I'm growing up, graduating and am going to face new challenges and shoulder new responsibilities soon. I need to be ready for that - and I need to start now.

人间四月天

Here's a song Dawn and I loved to follow during our late primary school/early secondary school days. RTM2 had a lot of sad dramas based on the Shanghai era at that time, and some of them though acted by not-so-popular movie stars were quite intriguing. 人间四月天 is about a famous poet 徐志摩 and his complicated relationship with his wives and two other girls. I don't like the fact that he is so unloyal towards his partners and that they are so dependent on him (except the second girl, acted by 周迅). He died in a plane explosion in the end. But the theme song was nice and Dawn and I used to have this pet list of theme songs where we would sing together. This is one of them.

If you can't relate to who 徐志摩 is, you might have heard of his famous lines:
悄悄的我走了，正如我悄悄的來；我揮一揮衣袖，不帶走一片雲彩。

Other dramas aired around that time (when we would usually eat our lunch), was like 星星,月亮,太阳; 像雾像雨又像风 (a very different 周迅 in here this time, song above), and other series written by Qiong Yao which could be way too cheesy making it a pain to watch sometimes. The first two I mentioned were set in the Shanghai era too. I like the costumes and the stories during that era more somehow. Can't remember too many titles, but once I come across the dramas I remember them.