Tales From the Hippo Enclosure

Long long overdue post

2007-04-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

haha. I've not blogged in ages! haha... so tired from all the nonsense that's been happening. hmm.. SYF coming up.. fingers crossed hoping for the best. haha. Frankly, I hope we can get a gold with honours at this year's SYF. I dont place too much hope in it but i would love to see a very happy secondary orchestra this year. The smiles on their faces at the accomplishment would be the best moment of my life because all the work would've been worth it. So yeah.. we'll see as the big day approaches. haha. cheers!

A long long recount...

2007-04-08T05:28:00.000-07:00

hmm... alot has happened since march 13th.. haha. Just i haven't had time to blog about it. yeah.. well i suppose the best news for me is the turn out we had in photo sales. $600something from just 4 classes! we might actually have a turn out of over $1000 from this project! haha. How cool is that.

Orchestra has had its ups and downs. I've got a busy week ahead as we prepare for SYF. We're going into concentrated sectionals almost everyday with 2 or 3 people a day. seriously lah, me and rayner should start asking for fees to do such things, because its literally like giving them violin lessons! on days where we do 2 people a day, its one to one, exactly like violin lessons! haha... I suppose its just our duty to the orchestra and to them that we teach them how to play better so that they gain someting out of joining the orchestra... haha. oh well....

School's been interesting too... but i've gotta start getting on top of work. O lvls coming... grrr.. so much to do, so little time to do it in.. must stop wasting time blogging.. :P haha

In light of that comment, i shall stop.. :D whee... signging off... cheers!

A long overdue post

2007-03-13T05:56:00.000-07:00

Hmm... the last two weeks have been so crazy. Frankly speaking i didnt really like the concert we did. It didn't go as well as I would've liked it to. We did make an impact i think.. but its not as good as it could've been. Oh well.. water under the bridge now..

I'm really not sure why this committee isn't working out the way chris' comm did. I'm not blaming anyone here. Seriously. If I were blaming anyone, it'd be everyone, myself included. Somehow item after item on our agenda just keeps failing and the worst part is that chris is always picking up the pieces for us. Its sort of not so nice that we needed somehow to teach us how to do our work... haha.. oh well.. but yar.. it's really frustrating having item after item fail. I dont know...

Aniwae.. Hagen Dazs was really good today. I've not been there in ages so that was a welcome treat. haha. Wishing Hoe Yeong the best for his NS days! Dont lose that musical talent you have while you're in NS! haha.. we probably will still need you after you come out of NS! Actually come to think of it, you'll probably be out of NS in time to see us through our 2009 SYF (and maybe the milestone we achieve in making sure chan doesn't walk out :P). haha. Aniwae... wishing all the best! :D

yar.. aniwae.. I still can't figure out why everyday i come home so tired. THis is like no where near as terrible as last week or the week before, yet i could come home at 11pm adn continue working until midnight. haha.. oh well..

As florence lee quoted to us on the last day of school: CARPE DIEM!! SEIZE THE DAY!!

cheers!

A quiz copied from yanhan's blog

2007-03-02T04:14:00.000-08:00

ok.. below shall rate the life of hippoh in the enclosure =D

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	5.8
Mind:	4.9
Body:	6.1
Spirit:	5.4
Friends/Family:	5.7
Love:	1.5
Finance:	4.8
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

And finally...

2007-02-27T04:28:00.000-08:00

Ok i haven't touched this place for like.. over two weeks.. hmm.. ok.. I'VE HAD A BUSY WEEK OK!!

haha

Aniwae... shall not recount the past 2 weeks happenings. Too much to recount... (and very unhappy two weeks). Instead, i shall rant about my stupidly busy schedule the next few days. Though actually tis week is the only stupid week. Next week its just wednesday and thursday that suck thanks to SOME PEOPLE!!

Grrrr.. oh oh before that, two advertisements:

2nd of March 2007: ACS (Independent) Life Sciences Symposium

I have a booth at the new bio labs in the new block so yar.. come down and have a look if you want. wheeee...
I think you all are allowed down there between 1 and 5pm so yar.. youre very much welcome to come by and have a look. :D

NEXT

8th of March 2007: Singapore Science and Engineering Fair

Day: Thursday
Venue: Singapore Science Centre
Time: 1pm - 6pm

Again, I have a booth there as well. So you are also welcome to visit. The fair is open to public this day. the day before is judging day so yar.. no one should appear except the judges on judging day. However, you all can appear on the day its open to public :D SO GOO!! hehe.. especially phil orch ppl!! Den you can join me for dinner :D (if that is any incentive hehe..)

Aniwae, yar.. that's the two big things for this next two weeks. Then everyday before that is all preperation for these two. In addition, there's one more advertisement:

An evening of classical extravaganza
ACS (Independent) Philharmonic Orchestra, in collaboration with SAF MDC and Central Band

Conducted by Maestro Chan Tze Law

at the Singapore Conference Hall

Friday, 09 March 2007.

Ma Hongye / Zheng Lu - Good News from Beijing Reaches the Border Villages

Gerald Finzi - Clarinet Concerto. [III.Rondo]

Chen Gang / He Zhanhao - Butterfly Lovers Concerto

-intermission-

Antonin Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’

Saturday, 10 March 2007

Ma Hongye / Zheng Lu - Good News from Beijing Reaches the Border Villages

Gerald Finzi - Clarinet Concerto [III.Rondo]

Liu Tieshan / Ma Yue - Dance of the Yao People

Wu Houyuan - Red Plum Capriccio

-intermission-

Antonin Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’

Tickets at $20, $16, $12. available from sistic from 31 Jan.

Yup. Ok i dont feel like posting anymore.. haha :P Too bad for all. I'll probably post tomorrow ranting about how badly we played etc. etc. So yar..

Bye!

Grawr.. another week over...

2007-02-11T03:47:00.000-08:00

wahh... this week was so busy... hardly had time for anything! test period sux man.. was so busy with orch stuff and still had to make time to study for tests.. oh well... tats life i suppose...

orch rehearsals own.. haha! secondary orch rehearsals quite fun.. especially when you sit at first desk. The whole orch appears much differently. You see things from a different perspective. Not to mention the kind of communication that can take place between teh front desks is amazing... I mean, just by watching each other, the whole reason why you should be watching everyone is actuallly much clearer. haha.. we should do that one day... maybe after SYF find a day, and let everyone in each section take up front desk seats and play walzer from memory so that they can look around adn see what's going on... haha.

Aniwae, acphil rehearsals are going ok.. i really need to get recordings of the stupid pieces. lol.. otherwise my part doesnt make much sense o.O.. haha. But its gonna take quite a bit of work to get the parts right =.=

aniwae, thats all for now. I hope all goes well in teh week to come...

sighs.. phy test..

2007-02-05T00:23:00.000-08:00

Grrr.. phy test today.. Dunno whether I did it right lah... i confirm pass lah.. but dunno.. i screwed up some of the answers damn it.. i noe i misread one question =.= den one of them i think wrong le.. cause the metal plate was earthed so when the charged ball touches it, it should earth.. i put it goes negative.. dunnno why... den last one the one where it asks to assess the risk of charges building up on pipe and petrol in singapore.. o.O. I tink that one wrong le.. anihow put an answer heh..

Grr.. and now its bugging me no end.. ahhhhh.... oh well.. gotta move on..

hmm.. CL on wednesday. hopefuly that goes better... sighs...

-end-

Tired....

2007-02-03T07:34:00.000-08:00

RAWR... so tired... this week was so tiring.. + orch is putting more pressure to get things done... grrr... This whole thing confirm collapse oen day...

Rehearsal on wednesday and today wasn't too bad.. i like today more though.... sounds pretty good our pieces... BUT MY SECTION STILL LAGS!! ahhhhh... dunno what to do.. cause i can't find the right time to hold sectionals. I know i need to but the lack of confirmation of my position + the time constraint = very hard to find sectionals time. I hope they confirm on wednesday lor.. den i can finally have official authority to hold sectionals.. haha. cause they all can't play and unless i do something abt it, we're gonna end up with a v2 section consisting of me, rayner, koonmin, ben ng and daniel ng!!! The rest.. they can go toilet and there would be no change in the sound (or maybe it would sound better =X)

Aniwae... aiya.. they need to practise lah.. if they bothered to go see their violin teacher or somethign it would help lor.. and they dont listen to instructions. tell them not to play wif their bow, just fingering so that i cna hear them, they wouldnt' listen =.= grrrrrr..

aniwae.. pray for better days ahead i suppose...

-end transmission-

2007-01-29T02:33:00.000-08:00

March Concert Ticket Prices are out!!!! Details are as follows:

Concert Date Standard Ticket Price Discounted Ticket Price
9 Mar 2007 $20 -
9 Mar 2007 $16 -
9 Mar 2007 $12 $9
10 Mar 2007 $20 -
10 Mar 2007 $16 -
10 Mar 2007 $12 $9

If interested, drop me an email at justinpws@gmail.com. :D

Secondary orch rehearsal....

2007-01-25T00:44:00.000-08:00

ok this is lag but yar.. reheasal today was the only eventful thing.. hmmm... not particularly sure what to do as v2 SL... I know my section has a problem. I mean, for one.. u can't hear them =.=. Yar.. the other thing is they dont read or follow properly. I dont blame them for not looking at conductor. Its still somethign i have to consciously remember to do. But some of them, hoe yeong is counting out the time and they still dont follow. hmm.. dunno lah. aiya.. I myself not sure where i can cue them to help them along.. or if cueing them even helps them. i was hoping we'd get time alone to sectionals cause den i'd probably like to hear them one by one adn help them along a bit, cause i can understand it gets quite intimidating when you can't play and you stop playign halfway through the piece. But oh well... my playing isn't perfect either so i suppose i'm really not in a position to help them yet.. oh well.. for now just hope next rehearsal they'll have bothered to work on it some.. then things might be better. I'm probably in for a hard time anyway.. haha...

Random post..

2007-01-20T18:38:00.000-08:00

Ok. Unlike what was promised, I won't continue the LDP post yet. haha.. too lazy to. I just thought i'll put in another post. Hmm.. yesterday's MDC rehearsal was fun.. haha. And finally, a day where committee related duties din turn out ugly. haha.. the last few times I sorta had a struggle to juggle everything. Not to mention the attendence list issue during the 2nd rehearsal. grrr....

Chinese ppieces are fun! haha.. they're all sight-readable. Just not at that speed. haha.. but they're quite nice. But the parts only make sense when the woodwinds and brasses are around. Otherwise, its a bit hard to understand your part.. hmm...

oh and comm meeting after that. Super funny. We probably spent half the time laughing, especially over how to get chan a metrenome that counts in 2 and 3. As in, counts 1-2-1-2-3-1-2-1-2-3.... that was super super funny.

Den lunch! haha.. most haven't lunch since rehearsal was 9 - 1 thing. So had lunch wif chris, ame, yinghao, fraser and thaddeus. Ended up at delifrance. Quite nice, especially since it was pretty much deserted up on their second level. Had quite a good lunch.. haha.. I think we were all quite hungry so any lunch would've tasted quite good. haha

Oh well.. better get on to my work. Otherwise i'm gonna get buried in it soon. haha.. Bye!

LDP 2007

2007-01-16T02:05:00.000-08:00

harlo ppl! just got back.. due to popular demand, I'm doing a post for LDP 2007 =D enjoy!

Day 1: Bus ride

Ok.. day 1. Actualy day one nothing much lah.. its just full of admin adn stuff. We left school abt 9am and got to malacca at abt 2pm cause we stopped for lunch and stuff.. so yar.. got in. Den the organisers were super disorganised (=.=) so we were at main camp for really long before we finally got thigns sorted out. We were split into two clans, humans vs animals (sounds like warcraft game humans vs orcs lol). 3 clans per side so total six clans.

humans were first to sleep in tents in another campsite so since i was part of a human clan, i had the tenting the first 2 nights. Quite fun actually.. haha just realy warm.. food sucked too.. grr.. even teh teachers weren't happy wif the food.. showers at teh campsite din have lights =.= so we went as pairs, one person hold torch light over the door, the other bathe... then one night down..

Day 2: kayaking and rafting

The great mud bath... haha.. ok.. today we took an again not so nice breakfast, den headed down to the beach for rafting and kayaking. We did rafting first. So they taught us how to tie the rafts together and all that.. then 40 mins to build a raft to carry abt 20 ppl. So we started, knot by knot. Den half way through, they realised we were damn slow.. so they changed it. Minimum carry 15 ppl. So ok.. we made the raft smaller.

Ok.. rafts made, they got us to get ready. So 15 ppl put on life jackets and grabbed an oar. Den on the whistle, the 15 of them (not me) pushed the raft into teh water. this was where it got damn funny. Cause no one expected the mud so all just chiong into the water. Den you hear shouts and "oh shit!" den everyone was up to their knees minmally in mud. lol.. den as you try to force the raft further into the water, the mud gets deeper. one guy was up to his chest in mud. lol Not much after that lah. just a realy stupid race that ended in alot of laughter cause the first team returned back to shore liao and the last team was still tryign to get their raft out to sea. LOL den one of their drums broke so no floatation so they were forced to return to shore. haha.. Damn funny and alot of fun..

Ok lunch den kayaking. Kayaking all participated. It was super funny. Because it rained just before, it rained so all the kayak's were flooded. So, in order not to be in danger of being sunk by the water, most ppl had to overturn the kayak to get out the water. And for some strange reason, one of the kayaks, when you turn over the kayak, there's a hole at the bottom which lets out water non stop, like a tap. So for a moment, the kayak was pissing on the beach.. =.= aniwae, after that, it was time to get out to sea. Now heres where the problem was.. the beach works like this. there's the sandy shore, den a huge huge huge strip of thick gooey mud, then the sea. To get the kayak to teh sea, you have to push it over the sand, over the mud, den into the sea. Easier said than done. The mudis up to your waist minumum, so you can't carry, + the kayak's were pretty heavy. So basically, everyone waded into the mud wif kayaks to get out to sea. The bigest mass mud bath ever! lol

Ok,i got to the muddy bit. I'll stop here adn continue in another post another time.

Bye ppl!

From the hippoh enclosure...

And the first week of school....

2007-01-05T07:27:00.000-08:00

hmm.. first week of school is over. I think comm duties have weighed me down more than school work is. But school work is here too... first chinese ce yan on monday. =.= 4th day of school ce yan liao.. wats this...

oh well...., i suddenly dun feel like writing so much. Was a fairly interesting week. yanhan and friends not here to help wif rehearsal so wednesday i was lucky to have chris cheong around to help. Tomorrow's rehearsal i'm really not sure whether it'll turn out well. I sure hope so.

Aniwae.. its super uber late. So i'll be going.

Gd nite world!

Tiring.....

2007-01-03T06:03:00.000-08:00

ok today was a damn mad rush day =.= stupid yinghao, dunno how he keep scores.. made us panic looking for scores.

ok i dun feel like posting anymore.. stupid first day..

grawr

First post for the new year!

2007-01-01T03:25:00.000-08:00

First post for the new year! school's starting.. grawr... aniwae.. another uneventful day. Last night's countdown sux on SBC 5. No fireworks no nothing, just idiots at vivo screaming their lungs out =.= I heard CNA's coverage was better. RAWR man..

Aniwae, finally got EOS done up today. I'm gonna leave ISO for when school reopens, so that's out of the way. My stupid chinese book I'm only half way done. Oh well.. that one is not so important. hmm.. played heaps and heaps of comp today though. haha.. played lan wif my brother on our network. hehe. so fun..

Aniwae.. that's it today. Super short post. Tomorrow must go for a hair cut before school starts =.=

Happy New year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2006-12-31T06:21:00.000-08:00

or at least almost anyway... I thought i'd make the 4th and last post of the year here. Imagine, this blog lasted 4 days in 2006 lol.. aniwae.. i thought I'd post the following song lyrics for you to enjoy. Hope you like them. You can listen to the song by clicking the red box next to the question mark above this post. That's the play button FYI. Dunno why it appeared like that. But aniwae, hope you like it. Happy new year from this now very happy hippo!

Song For You
by Michael Buble

I've been so many places in my life and time

I've sung a lot of songs and I've made some bad climbs

I've acted out my life in stages with ten thousand people
watching

But we're alone now and I'm singing this song for you

I know your image of me is what I hope to be, I've treated you
unkindly

But girl can't you see that, there's no one more
important to me

So darling, can't you see through me, 'cause we're alone now

And I'm singing my song for you,

You taught me precious secrets

Of a true love withholding nothing, you came out in front

When I was hiding, yeah, yeah, but now I'm so much better

If my true words don't come together, please listen to the
melody

'Cause my love is in there somewhere hiding

I love you in a place where there is no space or time, I love
you for my life

You are a friend of mine, and when my life is over

Remember, when we were together

And we are alone now, and I was singing my song for you

and when my life is over

Remember, when we were together

we were alone, and I was singing my song for you

Ok that's it. Lyrics may vary with different versions of the song. Hope you all enjoy this. Its a beautiful piece.

Hapy New Year!!!

Signing off from enclosure at the end of 2006, c ya on the other end of the new year celebrations!

3 days to school.... =.=

2006-12-30T03:49:00.000-08:00

hmm... 3 more days to school and I still have barely done anything. =.= grrr... and today wasn't that eventful either.. my fish pond (aka mud pool) got a servicing and the extension to my place (enclosure) completed. But other than that, I really haven't done much today. And to make things worse SSEF is hounding me now. Final reports to be submitted by 14th jan. :(

oh well.. 3rd Jan will be interesting. The first rehearsal of the year and F#, G major and G minor are all missing. Waliao... cause tat means i'd be the most senior comm member around that day. =.= oh well.. will be interesting to see what happens that day. haha. Must wish me luck :P

Then there's the stupid nominations for CM, ACM and V2 SL. I've got no questions abt CM. Definitely gotta be Wilford Goh. Dunno abt ACM, but V2 SL is the one that's bugging me. I can't decide whether to nominate myself or nominate someone else, like maybe jingyan. I really really really can't decide. grrr.. I can probably handle the pieces no problem in violin 2. Its the behind the scenes work and some of the things that regular players dont have to do. Spotting section mistakes, maybe even working with chan in that context is also something i might not be able to handle. Though i actually did get to know him better during the UK tour. Grrrr.... I don't know. I'm very worried I can't hold that position.. I dunno..... I can probably do things like sectionals fine because its just correcting personal mistakes which is easier to do. When you have to correct section mistakes and stuff, and pick out all teh tiny mistakes the section makes, it is something i dont think i can do... grrrrrrrrrrrrr.... GRAWR....RAWR.... I really don't know...

aniwae... that's enuf for one uneventful day.. OH! Almost forgot to do one other thing: thank debb. I really wouldn't have such a wonderful blogskin (even though the hippo cartoon on the left would be one thing we could do without) without debb's help. haha THANKS AGAIN DEBB! The permenant acknowledgement is in the archives for debb's info.

Aniwae... grr.. 3 days to the start of school.... grawr....

of work and play

2006-12-29T22:14:00.000-08:00

Today finally got to watch charlotte's web. haha.. pretty good.

9am went down to school to work wif yanhan on the t-shirt and other stuff. Took 10 mins on the logo den decided that it looked good enough. So, spent the rest of the 2 hours wasting time listening to my itunes library. =.= (Actually that was when we decided we wanted to watch a movie)

Den 11.45 or so met chris, den went recording studio where chris decided yelling my surname through the mic was amusing. So while waiting for Mr wong to show up, chris finished his recording, den mr wong appeared and got that recording done too.

Den best part of the day, the movie. Watched charlotte's web :D As chris and yanhan would agree, the funniest part of the movie was when they decided to describe the pig wilbur was up against in the fair as "half hippo" =.= I think we were the only 3 idiots laughing long after that scene was over. lol.. Aniwae..

Yar, finished the movie, den i followed chris to borders. Yanhan wanted to go home so he left first. The rest will be a bore to you.

Aniwae, my first real blog post. (I'm not sure, but this sounds like the chen yanhan style of writing :P ) Aniwae, 4 days to school.. sighs...

Test

2006-12-28T06:02:00.000-08:00

ok, the blog title is to humour all of you.. it actually fits this blog perfectly. Im supposed to be the hippo and i blog my life, which takes place in the enclosure.. hmm.. aniwae, i dun blog too entertainingly unlike debb so yar.. tis place does not = jokes.. not usually aniwae..

I'll post again when the skin is ready.. bye!