i smiled today at 1:26 AM


In the news today (30 October 2007)... interesting and random stuff taken from today's newspaper in Singapore that you might find amusing (or not).

Number One -
A woman passed away, family is mourning, and comes the time to deal with her assets. Mystery man suddenly appears, claiming to be the woman's husband. Family never had any idea she was married. But investigations slowly show that she was indeed married to that man. Secret marriage? She never lived with the man. They were not divorced. In fact there was proof they communicated for the past 25 years. Now this certainly complicates family matters. Wanna scold the dead woman for not inviting everyone to the wedding also cannot, she's dead!

Number Two -
Orchard Road in Singapore gonna get a $40million face-lift. Makeover to start in February. Start planning your 2008 Christmas to be in Lion City. Might be worth your money even more than now.

Number Three -
Girl in Penang made up a story that she was kidnapped. She asked this VCD seller, a woman, whom the girl knew, to take her back to the VCD lady's house because she was scared of her mother. Girl was a liar. Mother never abused her (no proof). She lied to VCD lady. Disappeared for a few days. Then finally went back home and told everyone she got kidnapped. The little girl should start writing a book with that kind of imagination.

Number Four -
In Malaysia. Lady's car got smashed by Mat Rempits. She horned at them because they were blocking her. Never horn at Mat Rempits. Scary. They even threw some chemical fluid on the car window to make it smash more easily. Scary. Mat Rempits are serious people. Scary. Never make fun of them when you are driving. Scary.

Number Five -
Lim Goh Tong, the founder of Genting, passed away. He was a strong believer in windwater, I mean feng shui. Even at his funeral, the sign warned that "those born in 1947, 1950 and 1972 should be aware that their ages clash with Lim's year of birth and his zodiac sign". Enter the funeral at your own risk.

Number Six -
JK Rowling in trouble, again, for making poor Dumbledore a homosexual. The last few movies face high risk of low ticket sales. Who knows, might even increase sales?

Number Seven -
You should be scared of Arsenal, ye people of Manchester United. Very afraid.....

And that wraps up the news for today.
I'm Dominic for DLLnews.
Good bye and have a pleasant day.


If I ruled the world, every day would be the first day of spring, and every man would have a new song to sing!


i smiled today at 1:57 AM





i smiled today at 10:13 PM



It happens so very often to many people. You drop your food on the floor.

Then as quick as you can, you try getting the food back up - before the bacteria gets in and contaminates our valuable food.

We try very hard to make sure we don't let the food have direct contact with the floor or dirty surface for more than 5 seconds.

5-Second Rule, right?

If we don't make it in time, we make sure it doesn't exceed 10 seconds.

10-Second Rule overrides the 5-Second Rule if we can't rescue poor little foody on time.

5-Second Rule states that if food falls on the ground, it may be safely eaten as long as it is picked up within 5 seconds.

Uhhh, why?? Bacteria needs 6 seconds to travel from dirty surface to your food??

After that, what, we fall sick if we eat the dirty food?

And when we can't pick up our food on time, bacteria miraculously takes 11 seconds to contaminate food?

It gets worse.... I was walking in Junction8 last week (a mall near my place in Singapore). These bunch of students, sad to say all boys, had dropped a packet of Cheezels. I mean, it's Cheezels - the best kind of -zels you can find! Anyway, so....

They tried opening the whole packet, you know, with force, because the first guy couldn't open it, and the second guy couldn't (ya, funny!), so the third guy had to prove to everyone he was the strongest of them all. So he pulled open the packet with all his might and strength.

KAPOOOuuuMM-akalak-BpusHHshhh-plak-pliktoing!!!

It all burst and spilt out onto the floor.

They hurried to try pick up every single surviving Cheezel they could. But it was a huge packet, and there was a lot scattered around. But they tried, like all boys do. It took them a while though. And I thought it was over, until one of the guys said:
"Still can eat right? 30-Second Rule, remember?"

I laughed. Now suddenly, bacteria takes 31 seconds to travel to your food? How convenient.

I guess you can make up your own laws anyway. No law against that. But being stupid is a crime. It really is :)

So as every smart person would do, I went to Wikipedia to look for the truth....

The rule applies to foods that have fallen to the ground. Normally, customary rules of hygiene dictate that food that has fallen to the ground should be discarded in order to prevent ingestion of disease-causing agents acquired from the dirty surface. The rule states that if the food is picked up within five seconds, it can still be eaten.

In reality, it is usually safe to eat food from a relatively clean floor. However, the notion that germs from a dirty floor will not reach food for at least five seconds is false. For this purpose, cleanliness is a matter of bacterial or parasitic contamination rather than visible dirt, although the two often go together. For example, sick people visit hospitals, with the result that a hospital floor which has not been decontaminated properly can appear to be relatively clean, while actually being more contaminated than the dirty street outside.

The five second rule is proven to be true depending on what kind of floor you drop it on and the moisture of the food.

A study in 2007 using salmonella on wood, tiles and nylon carpet found that the bacteria were still thriving after twenty-eight days of exposure under dry conditions. Tested after eight hours' exposure, the bacteria could still contaminate bread and bologna in under five seconds, but a minute-long contact increased contamination about tenfold (with tile and carpet surfaces only).

Sometimes humans can be such cute things.



It's all in the mind!



i smiled today at 5:28 PM


It is interesting how the world works. Fascinating, in fact.

I say this because I am talking about karma.

Karma is believed to be a sum of all that an individual has done, is currently doing and will do. The results or "fruits" of actions are called karma-phala. Karma is not about retribution, vengeance, punishment or reward; karma simply deals with what is. The effects of all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain and joy it brings to others.

Read that paragraph several times and you'd realize that often times in life, it is very true. Weird, but true. Or maybe not so weird. Depends.

Karma, strictly speaking, is a word from Hindu beliefs. However, it is a belief common across most religions and philosophies.

Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.

Familiar to many people. Sometimes they call it the Golden Rule. Makes you wonder why it is the Golden Rule. That phrase comes from the Bible. The Golden Rule and Karma both imply the same thing...

What comes around, goes around.

The Mosaic Law mentions something similar: "What is hurtful to you, do not do to any other person".

Confucius said: "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself".

In the Quran, it says: "That which you want for yourself, seek for mankind."

Judaism has something very similar too: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow."

Bob Dylan had a song that sort of implied something like that too (Bob Dylan isn't a religion or philosophy by the way): http://bobdylan.com/songs/doright.html


It is important to live life remembering that what we do today for our own selfish personal happiness, could lead to our own sadness tomorrow. Being rude to the guy who cleans your office toilet today, could lead to something unpleasant that you do not want to face next time. Being stuck-up today could lead to your loneliness 5 years from now.

After all, karma is here to stay.

Watch before you leap!


i smiled today at 4:29 PM


Yes yes I know.....

It has been at least two centuries since I last wrote something here.

Yes yes I know....

I have been receiving your SMSes asking me why this blog has not been updated lately.

I have been very much involved in this thing called the real world.

I have been savouring what we call 'reality'.

So below are my valid reasons for not being active virtually lately.

1. Life in college has been nothing but the following three words: busy, busy, busy.

Once in a while, albeit my good time management skills, I do still get tied up with lots of things to do in college. It is normal to go through a busy phase once in a while during our study life although being busy defeats the purpose of college life ;-)


The past week has been hectic in school. The whole week was Project Week, a week where we do all sorts of projects, hence the very creative name - Project Week. We had so many rehearsals every day, no joke. I woke up at around 7.30 every morning this past week, snoozed about 10 times, got ready and hopped onto Bus 166, got to school, and arrived home at around 8 or 9 at night. The Final Year students also had to present their thesis research topic and report on their progress, so we were busy doing some research and perfecting our Powerpoint presentations. We had to present our thesis methodologies, topics, time lines, bibliography etc to a panel of lecturers, who in turn bombarded us with all sorts of mind boggling questions like "why didn't you think of doing this?" and usually the answer would be, "huh?". We were told not to argue with the panel, and just say "I will take your advice into consideration, thanks."

Anyway, that was a stressful event because although we just started working on our thesis, we had to show that we could answer questions posed by the audience and the panel. So if we showed any doubt, well, off with your head!

We also had Concert Practice on Wednesday. It is something like a concert, but only a practice, hence the very creative name - Concert Practice. Selected people present their music, like a concert, then after the whole thing is over, comments will be given by your peers and lecturers. I was busy because I was put in charge of Concert Practice. Which meant I had to coordinate all sorts of things, from the chairs (myself and 2 other girls carried 40 chairs to the concert room), to the entire programme (SMSing and calling and BEGGING people to perform), all the way to making sure there were pianos to be played on that day, to informing the Facilities Department about what we need, to making sure the programme would be printed out, and ensuring we would have an audience. I am proud to say we did a good job after all that. I was flat out tired after Concert Practice.




Apart from that, we performed Bach's Wachet Auf, and Handel's Zadok The Priest. Which also meant rehearsals, sectionals, and practices with the orchestra.

I also still had my singing lesson, so I had to practice my songs so that I would have at least some good things to show my teacher during class.

The jazz and pop students had a lunchtime concert every day too. So I had to be there, because I had to take attendance for the Final Year students.


Honestly, when Friday ended, I was happy. Now it is back to normal classes for the time being - classes that you can skip and go late for. Ooops, I better delete that last sentence before my parents check out this blog entry!!

I still have my Creative Project to work on. It is a project that we need to come up with that involves creative elements, hence the creative name - Creative Project. My creative project is like this: I will be taking some well known classical and old-time favourite songs, and modify/rearrange them ala Kadazan. In other words, I will add Kadazan sounds to these Western songs, so you'll get the gongs, the sompoton, the kulintang, and all those interesting instruments from Borneo. Yes, how so very creative of me. I should have been called Creative Dom.

The weather also has been terrible lately. I blame it on Global Warming - Global Warming blames it on humans - Humans blame it on other humans - c'est la vie!

2. Nothing else has been keeping me busy, except school work.

3. I actually have so many things to blog about. My blog thoughts have been accumulating inside my unusually large brain.

4. So when I finally get around to blogging properly, rest assured there will be many entries at one time, and overwhelmed you shall be.

Enjoy life!




i smiled today at 12:40 AM


Many students learn to play the piano.... I mean, there are really a lot of people learning piano, too many. which is good. The thing is, are all of these piano learners learning it the right way? If you are learning the piano, below is a list of questions you should be asking yourself and your teacher. This will help you ensure that you get the best out of your piano classes. Having studied music pedagogy and music education, I feel it is important to think about the following question/issues...

1. Does your teacher force you to follow the fingering on the book? Did you know that those are merely guidelines, and you should do what you feel most comfortable with your fingers as long as it doesn't make the song sound disrupted?

2. Do you know how to sing the melody of your songs or at least know what the melody sounds like? The melody would be what the main tune of the song sounds like without the chords and harmony and other embellishments. You should be able to play the single melody line or sing/whistle it to help you understand better what the harmony is doing.

3. Do you approach all cadences the same way? If you do, then you shouldn't. Cadences play an important role in each phrase. You should know what their function is and play accordingly.

4. Does your teacher teach you theory without applying it to your songs? Theory and your practical playing are one whole thing called music. They should never be taught entirely separately. Can you identify a melodic scale in your Chopin pieces, or a harmonic minor in your Bach preludes? Do you know what the scales sound like? Can you find the leading notes in your pieces, or the 7th note of a chord, or identify a German 6th? Everything you learn in theory must be quickly 'seen' in your pieces.

5. Do your teacher or you refer to your pieces as 'A2' etc according to the exam list number? The pieces do have names. Use those names. Then find out what the names mean if they are not in English.

6. Do you play your pieces all the same way even if they are by different composers? You cannot play Bach the same way you play Ravel. You cannot play a piece from the Renaissance period the same way you play a piece from the Romantic period. There are variations in the touch, the dynamics (a mf for Bach's music could be different from the mf of Beethoven's). Pieces from different periods are to be played differently, and even within the period it depends on the composer. If you have not heard of Performance Practice, ask you teacher what it is.

7. How do you end phrases, and begin the next one? Phrasing is important but many teachers do not teach it. How about the musical direction of your phrases? Where is the focal point?

8. Have you heard of finger pedaling and half pedal? If not, ask your teacher how they are to be used. They are used widely in piano music.

9. What should you do when approaching a diminished chord in your harmony?

10. Where do you breathe, literally breathe, as in take in air through your lungs, as you play your pieces?

11. Does your teacher check if you know anything about the composers? Checking the composer's background helps you understand how the song should be played. What piano did the composer use to compose his songs? For what occasion was your piece written for? Was your piece written to be performed on a large stage in a large hall, or for a chamber environment?

12. Not all ornaments are to be played the same way. Did you know that certain composers liked the ornaments of their pieces to be played a certain way only? This needs research and do that also by asking your piano teacher too.

13. How does modulation take place in your pieces? Where is the pivot chord and how do you approach modulations? What is the relationship of the new key? There are names for modulations too, so find out what they are.

14. Are your pieces written for piano originally? Or were they written as an orchestral piece? If they were originally for orchestra, what instruments were used and in which part of the song were they used?


So you see, the list could go on to 100. I realised many piano students don't know how much more they can learn. Many grade 8 piano students haven't even played an atonal piece of music before or haven't even heard of the term.

So if you are learning the piano, discover how much fun it can be to learn so many more amazing things that can make your piece so much better and score that distinction!


i smiled today at 7:35 PM



This week for our lunchtime recital at La Salle College of the Arts, we had the chance to listen to Mozart's famous work of music, the Clarinet Quintet in A Major K581. It was performed by the Cadence String Quartet, and with Mr Lindsay Vickery on the clarinet. Mr Lindsay is the head of the School of Contemporary Music over here at La Salle.

It was a fine breezy afternoon, a very lazy afternoon actually - just right for this kind of music. The performance was fun and relaxing as we watched them perform the best they could.

After performing all four movements, they did a little treat for us. They played some excerpts from the same piece, but this time with some added effects - thanks to the wonders of music technology. So as they played, the sounds were recorded into the computer, and Mr PerMagnus altered the sounds as they entered the computer, and played them a few seconds later to get an electro-classical sound. You usually get these kind of experimental music here at La Salle anyway.

Pictured above: Mr PerMagnus using his computer and some equipment to distort and change the sounds so that we hear all sorts of varied electronic sounds through the speakers as the musicians continue playing.


i smiled today at 5:20 PM



Carl's Junior is opening up, in KL, at Mid Valley Megamall.... Yay!

Of course, these pictures were not taken in KL, because it has not opened yet. This was in Vivocity, Singapore, when Richmond came over for a visit.

He had a triple bacon mushroom something something with extra cheese, extra bacon, beef something fries with upsize combo.

Try it out when it opens up in KL.

Watch out.. it's gonna get messy!


i smiled today at 11:52 AM


NOKIA has come out with some new phones, again. SONY ERICSSON too, but the new phones are really beautiful. I think MOTOROLA also just came out with some new features as well.

Anyway, they're all just phones.

As long as you can call out and SMS, it's good enough.

Haha, nonsense! If you are one of the many people who keep saying that, people will laugh at you because you are not being honest.

You're smiling now, aren't you?

Nowadays, phones are no more just phones. It's life put into a battery-charged gadget that, without it in your pocket, you'd would feel like your heart was no longer ticking. That bad? More or less, wouldn't you say?

You've got phones with video features - watch movies, video clips, MTVs, any moving image that exists. Phones now let you watch TV channels too, anywhere, with "widest" coverage. Phones now can tell you which direction to follow if you are lost on some highway. 5 years ago, that only existed in James Bond movies. We go online from our phones now - checking email, blogging, searching the net, cheating in exams (oops!).

Seriously, it's not even stopping or slowing down. I am not sure what to expect next in mobile phone technology. And it is moving fast.

At one time, mobile phones were huge. Really huge. They say you could throw your phone at a dog, and it would die, instantly, no mercy.

Then they got smaller, easier to carry, easier to lose.

Then when 3G came out, they got bigger again. Bigger, but still stylish nonetheless.

And now, everyone one, from a 2-month old baby, to a 110-year-old great-great-great grandmother has some fancy mobile phone. OK, maybe not that bad, but everyone seems to have one, and I mean like primary school kids, and even kindergarten children.

You know, back when I was in secondary school, the mobile phone trend was just more or less blooming in Malaysia. It wasn't a big deal if you did not have a mobile phone. I mean, if you look at today's society, this is what could happen....

STUDENT1: "I don't have a handphone".
STUDENT2: "HUHHHHH?!?!?!???!?!? Where the hell do you come from?????"

Sorry to those who really do not own your own handphone, you are blessed.

During my secondary school time, it was like this....

STUDENT1: "Eh eh eh, I brought a handphone to school!!"
STUDENTS WITHIN 1-km VICINITY: "Wuahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! See see see!!! So nice!!!"

Having a mobile phone back then was big news. It was rare. Students never brought a phone around unless their parents lent them theirs just to easily locate their kids when fetching them from a party, *for that night only*.

Back then, mobile phones were fancy, no matter what they looked like or what they did. Simply because they all had the same functions and looked more or less the same.

I remember even in my first year at college, my housemate had this phone (no colour screen yet, not very fashionable yet, not affordable yet).. and it was a simple phone, small, normal, BUT, you could use it to listen to the radio. And we were all fascinated, because, a phone that lets you tune in to radio stations. WOW! Then that phone had this button you could press to silence your phone ringtone if it suddenly starts ringing and you are in class or in a meeting (if you forgot to silent-mode your heart, I mean phone). And with that silly function, everyone was shocked that a phone could do that.

Now.

Huh.

You know what phones do now.

When Allister, my friend from long ago, had a phone with colour screen, he was worshiped by everyone. Because no one ever owned a phone with a colour screen back then. You had to be rich. You had to be, well, rich, that's all.

Now.

Huh.

You know la.

When I was studying for my computer diploma in 2002, this phone below was considered very modern, and if you had this phone, heh, popular ye shall be...

Even still, during that time, not everyone had their own mobile phone.

I even remember back in 2000, SMSing was not popular at all. Because there was actually no such thing really. I mean there was SMS, but no one bothered to use it that much. It only worked if you sent SMSes within your own mobile network. And still, not every phone had the SMS feature too. And most people had no idea how to type in a message using a phone.

Now, even when you are in the same classroom, you SMS.

Wait, now, there's bluetooth. Save your money, bluetooth a message over to your friend who is nearby. So much fun, isn't it?

Walkman phones, camera phones, GPS phones, PDA phones.....

Don't say you don't mind any phone as long as you can call out and SMS.

We all know the truth :-)