scene from tuition:
(Daniel starts hitting Dina for some reason)
me: no Daniel that's not right. Boys aren't supposed to hit girls!
(Daniel pauses, thinks for a while. He picks up a book and starts hitting Dina with it)
me (grabbing his arm): Daniel you're still hitting her! It's still counted even if you're not touching her!
(Daniel wrestles himself free from my grip and starts blowing into Dina's face)
me: uh that's better..I think.

In other news, Liverpool just sank Porto 4-1 this morning thanks to this man..
Fernando Torres! I want that jersey.

Oh and one more thing!
Have you ever laid eyes on something so horrific and painful to watch yet couldn't take your eyes off it because a latent masochistic tendency within you forces you to take in every excruciating scene, devouring your very soul in the process? Well it happened to me when I made the mistake of watching the MDA Senior Management Rap. You can watch it here: http://www.mda.gov.sg/wms.www/video1.htm

or right here:



Because misery loves company!

insaziabile

I must be careful what I wish for.
I'd just commented a few days before that I wish I fell sick more often so I could take MC. Well, this morning I woke up after my post night-duty nap feeling decidedly sick. In the end I spent the entire day alternating between skulking around the house and surrendering to the bed. The better part of the day saw me staring at the ceiling trying to pull off a Descartes. Inventing new philosophies while fixing your gaze upon a patch of white is harder than it sounds.
Anyway, 55 days to ORD. There are certain decisions that have to be made really soon. Like, whether or not to enrol for Special Term. And if I do, do I want to graduate early. Also, do I want MOE to sponsor me if I do. I need to work out something that keeps as many options open to me as possible.
Tomorrow's going to be the last full day I spend in office till 26 Dec! woohoo. It's also going to be the last week of tuition before the kids go home and I start making retailers happy.
Oh I tried singing Insatiable by Darren Hayes today. That man has an amazing, the most angelic (male) voice ever. Most other people just end up sounding like eunuchs (myself included). I think Justin Timberlake is wayy overrated.

chali chaiyya chaiyya chaiyya chaiyya

I still remember the day I waltzed into office happily one morning to find some Indian music coming from the Ops Room. I meekly peered in and saw Sara and Daniel Hui dancing like madmen to the song I now know as "Chaiyya Chaiyya".

One year on, I'm dancing like a madman in the Ops Room with Sara. Come join us!

About the new Radiohead album.

Radiohead has sent shockwaves through the music industry by releasing their latest album online, and letting fans decide how much to pay for it. And apparently, according to a study, 62% downloaded it without paying a single cent while the remaining 38% paid an average of US$6 for it. Here's the article: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/most_fans_paid_0_for_radiohead_album.html

Apparently this is RH's strategy to address the problem of declining CD sales, but I wonder if they are actually making more than they would have if they'd released it the conventional way. Okay this could be a very good idea because:
1. if they produced, recorded, mastered the album all by themselves then this would undercut the cost of having a label behind them. Cos as it is most artists are lucky if they get to smell even 10% of their publishing, cos the labels take everything else with all the marketing and royalties paid by radio stations.
2. By publishing it online, they save on packaging and shipping costs
3. People who would otherwise have been cautious to buy the CD might have downloaded it for free, given it a listen, then returned to pay a sum they thought was reasonable.

However:
1. RH are still signed to a label so their funding could well still come from the label..and if this is so then they still wouldn't see most of the money.
2. Owing to the huge download volume, they need to pay a LOT for server bandwidth.
3. people are generally a stingy bunch =x

So the bottom line is where the money came from to make this album. If they did it on their own then it's highly likely that they are making more. Yngwie made more under his previous indy label than with Polygram. Some more they intend to release the album later, so they are going to make even more money out of the sales from those. However if their label remains behind this whole thing then..well it doesn't really make as much sense anymore.

..what do you think?

..by the way, my sis and I paid US$10 to download it. I haven't given it a listen as yet, but that's besides the point..

Rosseau

Re-recorded another one today. This one's called Rosseau. The story: I happened to be studying Jean-Jacques Rosseau the French philosopher for GP A-levels when I got tired and picked up the guitar. And so this tune was born.

http://wongkangwen.googlepages.com/rosseau.mp3

The tune actually reminds me more of wine than philosophers. Incidentally, Rosseau is also the name of a French wine made from Chardonnay grapes, so it's all's good!

...I really like the phrase "it's all good"

the island closest to hell

Spent all morning on this but now it's finally finished! It's a remake of a tune I made last year, inspired by BMT and Pulau Tekong. The concept then was to make two tunes showcasing contrasting facets of Tekong. Because, in my nine weeks on that island I'd really grown to appreciate its beauty. Yet most of our memories there involved drills, morning 5BX, runs, field camps, range, route marches and such. This one was meant to reflect all of that.

http://wongkangwen.googlepages.com/islandclosesttohell.mp3

MY COMPUTER IS BACK

..although all my past recordings/compositions are gone. Lucky I'd managed to salvage most of them (albeit low quality). I spent the night reacquainting it with all the essential hardware and software required for recording stuff i.e. Fruity Loops and Audacity and my trusty lil microphone.

and thus from this day on I will return to the days of composing/recording again. Hope my inspiration hasn't run dry after such a long barren period. Anyways, I tinkered around with FL a bit for good measure after installing and this is what came out of it:
http://wongkangwen.googlepages.com/wen150.mp3

I am so drained

Been out/working/tuition and going home late (after 11 is my definition of late) every day of the week so far..that coupled with touch rugby and football yesterday is finally taking its toll on me today. Yet I like this feeling of fatigue and aches all over-- it makes you feel like you've been busy and making the most out of your days.

Colin wanted to watch Stardust so he got a bunch of us to go with him yesterday. Aston joined us too, and boy was he in financially dire straits! So he ended up eating a free Kid's Bait Meal courtesy of Zehan's voucher (lol). He warned us over dinner at Fish&Co that Stardust would be a date movie. In the end, most of us (mostly Zehan) were lamenting over how we'd just wasted a perfectly good date movie by watching it with five other guys. I thought it was a really sweet movie, though I'd very much prefer one that sets me thinking, or makes me cry. Not knowing much about Neil Gaiman's works, I was expecting something rather cheem--totally didn't expect a Final Fantasy-esque saccharine-laden adventure! But it was good fun nonetheless. I really loved Yvaine's speech to Tristan the mouse:

"You know when I said I knew little about love? That wasn't true. I know a lot about love. I've seen it, centuries and centuries of it, and it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable. All those wars. Pain, lies, hate... It made me want to turn away and never look down again. But when I see the way that mankind loves... You could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful. So yes, I know that love is unconditional. But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and strangely easy to mistake for loathing, and... What I'm trying to say, Tristan is... I think I love you. Is this love, Tristan? I never imagined I'd know it for myself. My heart... It feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it's trying to escape because it doesn't belong to me any more. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I'd wish for nothing in exchange - no fits. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too. Just your heart, in exchange for mine. "

Okay so I'm a bit of an idealist/dreamer. So sue me. Oh and to everyone there yesterday sorry if I got a bit quiet. There was..stuff on my mind.

联合公园

13th Nov

Cabbed down to Ken's house to jam with the band. (We never really got to name ourselves, but at the Air Force Officers' Graduation Ball we introduced ourselves as “the band”.) We did a bit of James Blunt, Britney Spears and this other song-forgot the title. Here's a lousy recording of us doing "Baby One More Time":

The Linkin Park concert was very short. And I think they were trying to be fashionably late on purpose, but whatever it was they were trying to do we had to wait an hour before the concert. After 55 minutes, I told my sis, “hey I'd better go to the toilet right now, because chances are while I'm in there the lights will go off, and Linkin Park will make their grand entrance with guitars blazing. Always happens.”

I thought about it for a while, but decided to wait a while longer. Two minutes later, the lights went off and Linkin Park made their grand entrance with guitars blazing. They then proceeded to launch straight into a barrage of songs, hardly stopping to address the audience. Save for the time Chester got rather annoyed. “You guys are ruthless. Stealing my jewelery and grabbing at my injured hand! Now I can't use this anymore cos it's broken.” he said, brandishing a broken bracelet before tossing it into the sea of ruthless people. In stark contrast to the mosh pit however, the people in front of us were dead. I couldn't believe they actually remained in their seats throughout the whole thing. Took a lot out of the atmosphere.

Next concert: Dream Theatre on 17 Jan, a day before ORD! woohoo! and then there's jay chou on 19 Jan, a day after ORD. do I dare?

most interesting..

Roslyn said the most intriguing thing the other day on MSN. I'd told her I was killing time online before going to bed at 1030. And she said this:

“isn't a man of your age supposed to be busy partying?”

I thought about it, and yeah, come to think of it when I was seventeen I sort of imagined people in their twenties to be out drinking/clubbing/at a rock show all day too. I thought they'd learnt the ways of the world and were a really sophisticated, worldly-wise bunch of people. Now that I'm twenty, I know otherwise. I know that at twenty-five people don't feel any different from when they were JC kids. Heck, some twenty-seven and even thirty-plus year-olds I know still haven't gotten most things figured out.

About the partying. I suppose there has been wayy more of that than in JC. But for the most part I'm still doing things like..killing time in front of the computer before I turn in at 1030. Anyways drinking is bad for the liver. And the wallet. Unless drinks are on the house in which case you throw caution to the wind and then hopefully live to regret it later.

But then she went on to say that well, she forgot that I was only 20 and that she didn't think 20 was that old after all. Haha! Case closed.

back to the industry

while waiting for the liverpool-fulham re-run on TV today I decided to experiment with a little industrial/dance music in Fruity Loops. Here it is:

http://wongkangwen.googlepages.com/industrial.mp3

plenty of metal influence in there.

apparently, industrial music originated in the 1970s from the artists under the record label Industrial Records. The aim of the musicians was to reject what the music industry at that time was trying to tell the masses what music was supposed to be. I approve!

I am jack's complete lack of surprise

Watched "Fight Club-A Chorus" last night with Hong Ying. I thought it incorporated some really novel concepts in there, but I also have my complaints.

The cool part was that they didn't just break the fourth wall, they smashed it in with a sledgehammer. For instance, most of the performers were planted in the audience, and they'd suddenly stand up and make their way up front. Some of them interacted with the audience, talking to them and giving out strips of paper which read "don't believe in everything you're told". At one point, after they had recited Jack's haikus, some of the people in the audience even received SMSes of the said haiku. I thought that was awesome. Pity that particular experience was limited to only friends of the performers. (waiwan forgot me HAHA) I also thought they did a good job of exporting quotes from Fight Club and transplanting them in a local context. Waiwan reminded me of Yen Chin when he did his monologue!

I was rather displeased with the word for word recital of every quote in the book. I was like, puh-lease, let's see some originality. Okay every now and then is fine; in fact it was quite essential. But the word-for-word recitals of Jack's recall coordinator monologue and the introduction to Tyler Durden's jobs were just painful to watch. And I thought it was rather ironic that after the whole explosion of frankness and catharsis of inner materialism, the show ended, they took their bows and promptly returned to their all-singing-all-dancing-crap-of-the-world selves with the rest of us. (So did Brad Pitt and Edward Norton by the way, but I'm just saying it becomes more apparent here.)
---
Been reading through my old blog and I can barely recognise myself. Every now and then I'd chance across something as inexplicable as this:

HAPPY DAY
I failed chem!!! first time fail chem. the only other sub i fail b4 was geog. hm worse things might lie ahead. We shall see.
I love guitar. I love 3F. RJ guitar + 1SO3F 2004 forever! it's good to be back in sch ^^
as for art club, no comment -_-*
and jazz...well ive only been for 3 sessions. then my finger disallowed me to go. hope mark doesnt kill me for this.
Current Mood: psyched up
Music:crickets chirping

I'd just got 30/100 for chem and I was in lysergic bliss. I was pretty cheerful about the whole broken finger episode too:

"my grandma n auntie juz visited in the morn to inspect my finger...then they gave respective accounts of their own fractured-hand experiences. I feel slightly better abt my finger now i guess =Þ
lazy sunday afternoon. gonna draw a comic later. i'll put it online if i complete it."

"I just experienced the latest in medical technology yesterday. It involves putting your hand in a machine full of swirling crushed walnut shells at 50 degrees celsius. It's called Fluido. Bizarre.

Beginning to enjoy physio =) now that the therapists Andrew and Jolene are now my buddies..."

You'd think that there were funnier things than jeopardizing an appendage on your body:

"I woke up this morning to find that I WAS LYING ON MY FINGERRR. It might be bent out of shape liao! haha"

..and it gets better:

Broken Finger Survival Guide
Hey kids ^_^* If you ever break your little finger during a basketball match during P.E....don't fret! I have all the answers you've been looking for!

=================THE ESSENTIAL BROKEN FINGER SURVIVAL GUIDE==========================
ver 1.0
by Kangwen

DISCLAIMER: some of the following methods are highly unorthodox and have not been medically proven. Use at your own risk. The author shall not be held responsible for any resulting consequences such as permanent dismemberment or paralysis.

A. GENERAL

1. Drink lots of milk. Buy a carton and gobble it down in one sitting. (like i did during ORA fun fair) Then your doctor can't blame you for insufficient calcium intake.
2. Wear an arm-sling. It reduces the swell in your finger. It also encourages ppl to keep away from ur finger.
(warning...might entice ppl to terrorize you as well...and put ur finger in danger..depending on who u r)

B. PRE-SURGERY

1. Don't change up into ur surgical robes just yet when they tell u to. U'll have to wait at least another 3 hours. Otherwise u'll have to suffer the extreme cold and perhaps extend ur stay in the hospital for pneumonia treatment.

C. DURING SURGERY (local anaesthesia)

1. Eavesdrop on the surgeons' conversations. They can prove to be very educational.
2. Try to imagine what is being done to ur finger. quite interesting. Effective in overcoming the monotony of the hour-long operation.

D. POST-SURGERY

1. Cherish the way they pamper you. You don't even have to walk from point A to point B. Let the wheelchairs and nurses do all the work.
2. A tissue dispenser and a pen can work wonders. Put that time to good us. Draw your hospital ward.
3. yeah they mean it when they say mobilize ur finger immediately. Try to move it.

E. REHABILITATION (occupational therapy)

The painkillers they administer do not work. But don't be disheartened. There are several home-made alternatives.
1. Listen to heavy-metal music while doing your exercises. This induces your adrenal glands to release adrenaline, which is a natural painkiller.
2. Sing a song and bend your finger to its rhythm. A good choice would be 'ten little indian boys'
3. do a war cry. same scientific principal as 1.
4. scream
=====================================================================================

may or may not update, depending on whether my finger eventually survives the above methods.

more LSD-induced posts:

"YES! they're removing the wires next tues!
and there's no operation! The doc said "Nah we're just going to use plyers to tweeze'em out. That's why we left them sticking out like that."
whee! more marcaaaaaaaaaine...

Current Mood:

psychotic

and the gripping finale:

"aftemath *graphic detail*

30 days after the operation, the k-wires have finally come out.
My whole family rushed down to NUH first thing in the morning. appt was at 9. After a routine x-ray, i was back in that same ol' clinic i'd been going in and out of for a month. Familiar faces all around. They kicked things off with 2 marcaine shots. Then they began.
My finger was numb by the time Jonathan got to work on my finger. He made light work of the first 4 wires, since they were fixated straight through the bone. Each time i felt a jerk..could actually tell that something was being pulled out of my finger but there was no pain. At this point i sneaked a glimpse of the wires he had pulled out. Surprisingly clean, save for a fleck of skin on it.
But the third one was quite tricky, since it was bent and was fixated horizontally, with 2 hooked ends protruding out of either side of the finger.
He wrestled with it for quite a while before breaking off one of the hooked ends to avoid infection when he pulled it out from the other end. But pulling it out was tricky business since my ring finger was obstructing.
"I wish i had 2 right hands," he said through gritted teeth.
hmm how should i describe this? there was blood everywhere...on his gloves, on the pliers, on the sheet of paper underneath. And of course, all over my fingers. A huge blob of blood had formed around the wire, and more was oozing out of the other 2 wounds above. At this point he attempted to bend my finger, with the last wire still inside. It felt weird lor...him manhandling my finger and i was bleeding everywhere and i couldnt feel a thing.
He resumed work on the finger and somehow managed to pull the last one out. i dunno how cos i had turned away again. Yay...done. A nurse had it cleaned up and applied some antibiotic on the wounds. I could actually see the 3 holes clearly now on either side.
ok so tt was how the procedure went...im surprised at how they can just pull it out...after all the wires had been fixated through holes drilled into my bone. So the bone would have grown ard it after all. and the wires should be in pretty tight. i dunno lah...
Its gonna be okay real soon..i can feel it in my bones. (cue: laughter)
dont mind me. its the anaesthetic again."

This is how army policy began

1. Start with a cage containing five apes. In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs underneath it. Before long, an ape will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the Banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the apes with cold water.
2. After a while, another ape makes an attempt with the same result - all the apes are sprayed with cold water.Continue until, when another ape tries to climb the stairs, the other apes try to prevent it.
3. Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one ape from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new ape sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the other apes attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.
4. Next, remove another one of the original five apes and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.
5. Again, replace a third original ape with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well. Two of the four apes that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest ape.
6. After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes, all the apes which were sprayed with cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no ape ever again approaches the stairs.
Why not?
"Because that's the way it's always been around here."
That's how Army policy began.
------
The entire run-up to the Linkin Park concert has been pretty bizarre for me and my sis. Every now and then she'd ask me "eh when is the Linkin Park concert again ah? We gotta remember to collect the tickets" and I'd say "I don't know". To which she'd reply "Remind me why we're going to watch again?"

We aren't fans of LP but they do have a special place in our hearts, since we discovered them long before the rest of the world did. That's why we're going to watch them play anyway next Tuesday. The last time they came around, we were camping around on the outskirts listening for free. Imagine gazing at the moon in the middle of the Padang, having Linkin Park play noisy metal music not more than 200m away. Oh and I was studying Physics. Very surreal.
------
Libin, who's been studying in the states for more than a year now, tells me that studying in the States is BORING. This coming from a guy who lived in Singapore for six years! Maybe Singapore is more happening than I thought. Or maybe not.

Jacq asked me the other day what my favourite country was. I dunno why I said Singapore. I felt kind of silly after saying that! Most of my friends would give anything to uproot and run away somewhere else. But then it's so easy to hate Singapore, when you haven't actually experienced life elsewhere. But anyway, I gave it further thought and yes, I think Switzerland and Korea have been two of the most overall charming places I've been to. It'd be nice to retire in one of these places one day. Or New Zealand. why am I even thinking about retirement! right now revisiting Europe with friends would be very nice.
------
EDIT: Okay I'm so friggin bored in office I decided to transcribe the lyrics to "Maria", the most politically incorrect song my SIP has ever written. Here goes:

Maria
Impromptu Lyrics by: Chee Keen

my name is maria
i come from philippines
i work as a maid
to send money home

i come to singapore
to work for my master
i want the money
because i have no ??

my name is maria
and i come from philippines
my name is maria
i work alone

my name is maria
i have to wash the clothes
i like to boil water
my sir say i lazy

my mum say i steal her money
actually its true
but i send the money
to the philippines

my name is maria
and i come from philippines
my name is maria
i work alone

l'chaim!

The past few days have simply been too fun/eventful for words. Having said that, I shall now make a paradoxical attempt to put them down in words:

Friday saw the most emotional tuition session I've had so far. The kids' PACT results were coming out that day, and I could sense the atmosphere of dread the moment I stepped in. For once they were excruciatingly quiet, some of their faces tear-stained even. And they never stopped crying. For two hours I struggled to find words of consolation for those who had broken down in tears, while trying to teach those who seemed to remain impervious to the whole thing. I didn't know if that was a sign of confidence or resignation to fate. (but soon found out that it was the latter) A part of me wanted to say to them, see, I told you to study hard when it mattered but now it's too late. But of course I didn't.

Saturday began with a talk at NUS, then I joined my family at Parkway for lunch. Parkway was having some anniversary celebration thing going on. The day then ended with band practice at Tovya's place, and a huge dollop of drama. Jeremy had this argument with Larissa halfway through the session and (as usual) I suddenly became a relationship expert, an Aunt Agony of sorts. It doesn't take much to give advice in these situations though-just the clear mind of an onlooker. I'm glad they're okay now.

Went to Menotti's on Sunday to celebrate..I don't even know what we were celebrating anymore. These days the we jump on any reason to celebrate. I ordered spaghetti aglio olio, which turned out to contain enough salt to make the Dead Sea float. However, the hazelnut gelato sort of made up for that little inconvenience. And then it was karaoke at Ten Dollar KTV Club at Chinatown - not the most glamorous of KTVs but boy was it a good deal - 5 hours of karaoke, free flow of drinks and a bowl of shark's fin soup at $10. Only Soon Heng has incriminating evidence of the lunacy that ensued in the KTV room. I hope he doesn't distribute it too freely.

And it was a good thing I managed to recover most of my voice by the next day, cos I was meeting up with Jacq. We were lucky to witness the contestants of the Subaru Challenge over at Ngee Ann City scramble for their breaks. Suffering is a spectator sport. We then watched Rendition, which was unnervingly similar to the stuff we read about at work. Don't get me wrong, it was an excellent movie..story well-told..but it just reminded me too much of - whoopscan'ttellyou. I love how they used time distortion in the movie. Oh and I love Cathay cinemas now..their tickets are cheap on weekdays and there's a 12% off for UOB cardholders AND they don't check our age! We then hung out at Orchard Library to explore FLStudio 5, which Jacq might use for her IS. Or to compose music for fun, if nothing else!

Yesterday. Returned to work and got this really last-minute piece of work due Friday dumped on me. had to do a duty swap and now I'm working Deepavali. Veery convenient for bosses to hang on to an assignment and then unload it on an unsuspecting lowly NSF, messing up his personal life in the process. But still, good thing about this unit is that you walk out the door leaving the baggage behind. And leave the stupid assignment behind I did as we headed to Bugis for ma la huo guo - once again to celebrate - Soon's bday/ORD. Then we went to Aston's bro's bar for drinks/pool. Both Soon and Aston agree that ORD s overrated - at least in our unit. For one thing, you get to clear leave towards the end so when the day comes you don't feel that much more liberated than you already are. For another, our job isn't all that bad after all. At least it's interesting.

temporary respite!

Had breakfast at Bedok BK after night duty..I swear there are few things more satisfying than a Croissanwich meal after duty. To think I've been torturing myself with the cookhouse rations for a year.
On the way home I passed by the day care centre and peered in; the caregiver was cooing "is this beautiful? beautiful? Yes you're right, this is beautiful!" as she held up a yellow skirt. Then she held up a different piece of clothing, asking "which is more beautiful? the other one?"
I wonder if this was how we were all taught to recognise beauty. I suppose we are all born knowing certain basic elements of beauty in its most obvious sense - colour, form, symmetry. But a lot of what we take to be beautiful is learnt.

Plenty of stuff coming up! NUS talk/jamming at Tovya's place tomorrow, Soon/Clong's birthday/ORD celebrations the day after, meeting up with Jacq on Monday, Soon's ORD treat on Tues, -maybe- a trip to the art museum on Thursday! And NO TUITION next week! hoho life is good! oh and I felt rather relieved yesterday when Soon told me how he too dreaded teaching those kids, how he never dreads teaching other students. I was beginning to think I didn't have the stomach for teaching. Guess it's not just me after all!
---
After watching Fight Club yesterday, I felt inspired to embark on a lengthy discourse on how it attacks consumerism and how people try to make meaning of their otherwise pointless existence through consumerism.

However, the first rule of Fight Club is..

..and so I didn't.

---

EDIT:

Everyone and his uncle and his pet hamster seem to have a video of themselves playing guitar on YouTube so I decided to record one of my own this afternoon

to put things in context, I have been neglecting guitar for the longest time so I'm as rusty as my strings. I overlaid the original recording (back when I could play) over the video because it would be too much of a chore to listen to otherwise