Author: Wilfrid

Categories
I See I Write

If There is One Thing I Can Change On How Singapore Retail Market Operates … OK, Make it 10

I love my country but not certain aspects of our retail market.  I am not an economist, just a layman consumer on the ground.  My everyday observation as such.

Recently I bought a camera.  If you are to buy the exact same one I have at a major chain store, you would have to pay 25% more compares to getting one from a small shop.  Same camera.  Why pay more?  It’s not a plate of chicken rice here that you have to pay S$1 more because you are in the Orchard area.  We are talking about adding a few more zeroes to that.

The moment I discover instances like this, I vow not to buy anything from these chain stores unless absolutely need to.  You should vow the same too and say no to daylight robbery (unless you are loaded with $$).

I used to purchase books from the major bookstores in Singapore.  Then I discovered the vast difference between buying one here and ordering one from Amazon.com (even with shipping fees and your items are likely to arrive in a few days’ time).  Take one photography book (ISBN 0321555619) as an example.  Times bookstore sells it at S$70.  Amazon.com sells it at US$30.  Even with a US$10 extra on shipping fees, you would have saved S$10.  Or 14%.  More savings when you order more books online (US$5 is fixed regardless on the number of items).

So, I vow not to buy anything from the bookstores here unless absolutely need to.  You should too.  What has gone wrong with these stores?  Maybe you have a clue for I have none.

Maybe you think … hang on, we are paying for the superb knowledge of the salesmen right?  Observe our sales people next time.  How many of them are label readers?  You ask a question, they read the label, and tell you an answer.  You ask which one is better, they read each label one by one, and you still cannot decide.

Not all are label readers, I must admit.  But do our salesmen use or have passion on what they sell?  Most of the time, I got the answer no and the most common reason is: I don’t have time for this.  Ask the sales person next time: do you actually use anything you sell?

Cynthia needed a Korg chromatic tuner (the pitchback series) for our gig.  And we finally got it just days before our live performance, after we have placed the order for 3 months.  I have been hunting for the Nikon zoom lens for ages.  No way I am going to pay 20% extra to get one from a chain store.  I literally have to camp over a few camera shops in order to get one.  Countless time I called in or walked into the shop only to find that a walk-in visitor just bought the last piece.

Gosh … I’m tired of waiting.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the newspaper agent littering “Today” at our doorstep.  Over the years, I have called them so many times to stop “Today” from appearing.  But every now and then, perhaps as and when they need to up the readership, “Today” piles up at my doorstep.  Every weekend, we have to take the unread “Today” and dump them away.

Huh?

The price we pay for a dead cold fish in Singapore, we could have gotten a live fish in Hong Kong.  Do the small camera shops actually want to sell me anything at all?  Of all the salesmen in Singapore, the ones at the camera shops rank the lowest in my book.  Seriously, photography isn’t that expensive as a hobby.  My guitars ain’t cheap.  Neither are my computer components.  Music instrument stores and computer stores welcome me to camp over their shops like a long lost child of theirs.  Maybe you do, but I don’t get it.

And hence, I sigh at our retail market, though I love my first world country.

PS. A random picture of my first lens taken with my second zoom lens.

Categories
Fragments of My Dreams

Fragments Of My Dreams Episode 5 – Demoleculerization

Fragment of my dream

I should have known that my girlfriend would leave me one day (who?!).  And she has, leaving me with an empty apartment in this University campus.  I open the door and the apartment looks grim. There is a note on the wall saying: keep those paintings of yours and the curtains too.  I take down the curtains and stare at those paintings I drew for her.  Those paintings … sigh.  She does not want to keep.  Not even for memory’s sake.

I take those paintings of mine one after another and I take down the curtains too.  There are still random belongings of hers scattered inside the apartment and I wish to keep them all.

I look out of the window, feeling melancholy.  The street is dark outside.  From a distance, I see a vehicle emitting enough fumes to cover the sky!  I rush down and chase after that vehicle (but why?).  I see a street full of cars of the 50’s and before I know it …

… I am “demoleculerized” … being decomposed into molecules and resembled back somewhere far far away.  And I see my mother, my father, and my sister …

We are walking in a somewhat fast pace.  My mother says to me: I want to travel via demoleculerization too!

Good Lord … what a way to travel.

I love being at my home town.  And I am in an intimate relationship with a girl with fair skin.  I took her with my motorbike and with our digital giggles, we are racing in between the high-rise housings that look like buildings from a video game.  The streets are deserted and I am lost.  We sit at a bench looking at the darkness around us wondering where our motel is.

I ask her to take a seat at the bench while I drive around to see if I can find our destination.  When I return, I see a guy standing right beside this girl of mine and she looks unhappy, with me.  Fine, she is yours.  Just take her with you.  The girl looks at me in disdain and returns the shopping bags to me (who is this dude?!).

After they are long gone, I look into my shopping bags in horror: Where are my keys?

I head back to my apartment thinking of calling a locksmith to open the gate and the door.  Silly me, they now have access to my apartment.  I need to change the locks!

Call the locksmith I should.  Change the locks I should.  I am running out of time.  I need another dose of demoleculerization, like now.

~ May, 2008, A Dream

Categories
Diary

I Faced the Moon As My Block Leave Began

Camera : Nikon D700 Lens : AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED Exposure : M mode, 1/1000 second, f/4 Sensitivity : ISO 200

I have been holding back on writing the crazy drama and frustration I faced at work questioning why some people have this lens that see the perspectives in life that is so different from mine.  But I choose to focus on the happy things in life.  It was hard till the very last few hours countdown to the start of my compliance leave and it is all worthwhile.  I always see my work environment like a game of survivor.  Season 2 begins unexpectedly even before I wrap up this meant-to-be a wonderful year at work.  I still hold firm to my belief that do the right thing and I will be taken care of.  So I do just that and the moon has smiled at me tonight.

So I am happy, very happy today.  I can’t tell you too much about a Singapore entity I am involved that is officially registered today, nor I can tell you too much about the fruition of this global initiative that I have poured in 18 months of blood and sweat.  Just take my word.  I am a happy man.

My brother-in-law-to-be called me if I would be his best man for his wedding with my sister in Hong Kong.  Certainly I am honored to be.  I have known him for so many years ever since I have stepped into Singapore.  I can’t think of a better man on moon earth to marry my little sister.  That reminds me.  Wasn’t I the emcee for my guitarist’s wedding with my band manager just earlier on this year?

Life is good.  I am happy.  By the time you read this, I shall be inside a jeep taking pictures of the wildlife in an Indonesian Safari.  I still want to see the volcanoes although Cynthia told me that recently, these volcanoes have coughed out poisonous gas.  Some tourists have died.  Maybe we could … wind up the windows and hide inside our jeep?

I will have Internet access, however limited it is going to be.  So, do keep the comments coming.  This is going to be an exciting block leave.  All the way till Jan 4 next year.

~ 12/12/2008

PS. A casual picture taken from my window.  No post production work has been done to the … moon.  Actual image resolution after cropping.  The picture of the moon does look better on a Google browser, less jagged than on IE.  I wonder why.

Categories
Hard Rock & Metal Music Reviews

Axl Rose, You Are My Hero! (I Know I Have Said it Before and I’m Saying it Again)

So called 17 years in the making, 15 years I have waited for another Guns N’ Roses fix, hell yes I have enormous expectation on “Chinese Democracy”.  And the good news is, I am so delighted that this most expensive album never made has finally see the daylight.  To the naysayers who toss a few stars lesser than what “Chinese Democracy” deserves, do you even love Rose’s music in the first place?

Axl Rose is my hero, my inspiration.  Sure, he heck cares about his fans and if not for the lyrics of the last song “Prostitute”, I wouldn’t even have a glimpse on what the heck Axl Rose has been fighting for, for 15 or 17 years (depending if you are counting from his band’s last studio album or cover album).  If his music has been in your head for the last 2 decades, you should have no problem relating to the music and the lyrics of “Chinese Democracy”.

First, let me clear the air here for those who say G N’ R is no longer G N’ R.  I own both albums by Velvet Revolver (formed mostly by the ex-band members of Guns ‘N Roses).  Guns N’ Roses without Axl Rose (read: Velvet Revolver) sounds nothing like Guns N’ Roses.  Even with one original member left, “Chinese Democracy” still sounds very much like a G N’ R production.

I think most exceptional artists are kind of eccentric.  Axl Rose is no exception.  What Guns N’ Roses has done with “Use Your Illusion I & II” is exceptional, unheard of.  A simultaneous release of two mega rock albums?  In recent years, Red Hot Chili Peppers released a double album “Stadium Arcadium”.  That is the only production that remotely reminds me of “Use Your Illusion (1991)”.  Still, songs like “November Rain”, “Don’t Cry”, “Civil War”, and “14 Years” have such a deep impression that till today, I still listen to.  Rewind to “Appetite for Destruction (1987)”, which electric guitarist wouldn’t be tempted to learn playing “Sweet Child o’ Mine”?  I have.  At least the beginning bit.

In fact, one of the first few songs I learned after I picked up guitar as my new hobby in my UK days was “Patience” from the “G N’ R Lies (1988)” album.  Lovely acoustic piece.  And strange to say, I do like the cover album “The Spaghetti Incident? (1993)” a lot.  Not their commercial success, I suppose.  But it is a rare gem.  Being able to execute so flawlessly in one cohesive album, only G N’ R can do it.

14 songs in “Chinese Democracy” total up to over 70 minutes of solid music.  The reassembled G N’ R has been touring for decades, without an album.  Hence, there is no surprise that the songs from this album sound so tight.  Pay attention to how the pieces of instruments weave together, pay attention to how well each piece balances with one another, no band these days make albums like this anymore – both from the music and recording perspectives.  To demonstrate my point on sound engineering, pick up an old rock CD (like one or two decades old) and play on your audio system.  Now, pick a recent rock CD and play.  Don’t you think that music these days are loud and in-your-face?  From the sound engineering’s standpoint, “Chinese Democracy” sounds just like a good old rock album.  Very well balanced.  Good stuff.

From the music standpoint, “Chinese Democracy” certainly contains more variety probably due to the countless number of band members coming and going and returning over such a long period in time.  One number starts with a Spanish guitar; all the songs come with solid memorable guitar solos; some I enjoy listening to the keyboard and piano tracks a lot.  The slower measures such as “If The World”, “There Was A Time”, and “Madagascar” are great tracks.  When Axl Rose sings the lines “It was a long time for you, it was a long time for me”, I can’t help but to smile at this subtle sad irony though the song appears to refer to something else.  And in the song “Sorry”, listening to the lines of “I’m sorry for you, not sorry for me.  You don’t know who in the hell to or not to believe”, I can’t help but to imagine this subtle message from him to his ex-band members.

When I first read the song title “Prostitute” (last song), I took the song at face value.  So it did seem that the song is about a prostitute.  Then the following line hits me: Ask yourself why I would choose to prostitute myself to live with fortune and shame.  That just occurs to me why Axl Rose may have been fighting with his record company or the system for so many years.

No doubt Axl Rose’s recorded vocal track sounds better than all that I have previously heard of.  The signature high notes are everywhere, overloaded with the signature pitch bending.  There is a nice tender side that shines, and the harshness that adds texture to his vocal track.  I can feel the emotion when he sings, as though he means everything he sings.  Awesome.

Today I am a happy man.  15 years of waiting is over.  Isn’t life simply awesome?

External Link: G N’ R Official Site

Categories
Whacky Thoughts

A Series of Interviews – Of Blogging and Journalism (So I Have a Digital Badge)

I don’t know which is more mentally challenging, the competition or the interviews thereafter.  Fortunately, my mind was very much heightened with the essence of at least two chickens I took in the morning.  One reporter pulled me outside for an interview.  Well, I had no clue that when she asked me the first question, it was meant to be a warm up.  So after I poured my heart and soul in answering that first question, she pulled out her camera and said, “Let’s do the video recording now.”

Ah ha …

One reporter traveled from Malaysia and I have to be nice!  Besides, it is still my dream to have my band playing gigs in Kuala Lumpur.  Ha ha ha.

But seriously, all my answers are from the bottom of my heart.  Journalists are the smart, hardworking, and observant ones.  You really can’t trick them.

Many friends after sending in the congratulations (thank you!), they would ask what kind of questions I was being asked.  I won’t repeat what I have already covered in my previous post.  Will I blog about the event?  Sure.  And I told them that I had two versions in mind: Yes We Made It and No We Didn’t.  Will there be another blogger competition like this?  BRANDS should absolutely continue this effort.  I would if I was the CEO or MD of BRANDS.  BRANDS could easily own the mental competition branding as the pioneer of the event.

Why wouldn’t they?  No brainer really.

What do you get the most from this event?  It has to be the great opportunity of meeting the bloggers in person, both in Singapore and Malaysia.  Is it that big a deal to meet the bloggers?  Sure.  There is only that much you can know about someone from what you read.  The texture of the personality tends to be one dimensional.  Yes, face-to-face is still the best way to bond.

Blogging versus Journalism

Of all the questions thrown at me after that intensive mental experiment competition, the questions of when and why did I start blogging and my view of blogging versus journalism – new media versus traditional media of newspaper, magazine, radio, and television – are the most challenging ones.

If you take away the obvious, going back to the basic, these outcomes from different media channels are all stemmed from the passion to write, are they not?  The desire to observe and to share is imbued in all of us.  Some choose the path to transform thoughts and observations into words; some take pictures that speak to people’s heart; some paint; music is written because of this desire; and others choose to converse.

I consider myself a writer before a blogger.  Blogosphere is one of the by products of the big bang of the Internet era.  Technology changes the way we connect, the way we get our hands onto information.  Sharing information is king while keeping information may not in many instances.  In this era of virtual connectivity, suddenly all those who write and share online become bloggers.  But peeling away the label and going back to basic, both journalist and blogger have a passion to observe, to write, and to share.

It would be naïve to imagine that the landscape of journalism will be the same with the ever evolving, ever expanding blogosphere.  Many consumers these days are more knowledgeable than the salesmen inside the stores who may not even use the products they sell (trust me, that’s the very first question I ask).  Many travelers these days bypass the travel agencies, plan and book their own tour routes and means.  There will be more readers out there taping onto the Internet to look for what they wish to read, blurring the line of censorship and control.  Maybe the most up-to-the-second information, maybe independent views, maybe keeping constant touch with a personality admired is more intimate than reading the celebrity news.  I personally have stopped reading product reviews from the traditional media long time ago.  Whatever the reasons are to be, we only have 24 hours a day.  An hour spent touring the blogosphere is an hour less to do something else.

Future journalists will have to be a lot smarter, revealing insights that awe the audience.  The future of the blogosphere is bright and promising, as we are marching towards affordable mobile broadband access and the convergence of how small a computer can get and how rich in functionality a hand held device can be; and as we the bloggers gain enough critical mass to make a difference, to compliment the traditional media.

“Bonus” Materials

Enough of deep thoughts.  Here are extra photos taken during the event.  Big thanks again to my new friends at Burson-Marsteller – Selena, Genevieve, Matthew, and Ingmar.  Also, don’t miss a lovely article written by Deborah Choo at Youth.sg.  Those pictures crack me up big time!  Thanks Deborah.  And BRANDS has posted an article too!

Related Entry: Team Singapore Won BRANDS Blogger Challenge, And I Was There

Categories
My Hobbies Photography

Photo Shooting at Singapore Night Safari – No Flash, Hand Held, Total Madness

Knowing that I will visit Taman Safari Indonesia next week, I managed to purchase the perpetually sold out Nikon zoom lens and wanted to give it some practice at our Singapore Zoo or Bird Park during the long weekend.  I stared at the sky everyday and willed the rain to go away, without success.  So one evening I took my Nikon D700 with my new lens and headed to Night Safari, alone.

I have totally underestimated the challenges ahead.  Before I left home, I was very pleased to finally leave the flash gun behind since it is morally irresponsible to shoot these lovely animals with flash.  Flash photography has been a steep learning curve for me; shooting moving wildlife hand held with no flash in near pitch dark and less than ideal light source is very hard.  It is hard to describe unless you try it out yourself.

I have seen many visitors gave up after some test shots (all black, grossly under exposed).  Looking at my LCD, they were amazed at what I took; but I was less than thrilled by the results of this trip.  Sorry guys, I promise to do a better job next time.  Perhaps with a monopod and a different setting.  Below are 28 pictures selected out of close to 500 shots I took that one evening (no Photoshop, no cropping).  I have put in some captions to better describe the condition.  If the OVI player moves too fast, feel free to mouse over it, click pause, and manually forward the slide.

After the first few auto shots, I was stunned by the result (in a negative way no fault of Nikon).  Bear in mind that I have just invested don’t know how many years of my future Christmas present budget into this one lens, I stood still trying to figure out what to do next.  Auto focusing option is out because it was too dark for my camera.  The animals kept moving and the shuttle speed could not be too low.  Some animals kept moving towards and away from me and I had to keep changing the composition (i.e. zoom) and the focus.  Basically my left hand was busy with the two rings on my lens.  I have to go for full manual mode anyway because it is not a question of getting the right exposure, it is a question of how low you can possibly tolerate.  I learned as I shot.

Most of the shots I was shooting at a focal length of 200mm (widest aperture of 2.8 for all).  That works out to be an ideal shutter speed of 1/200s for hand held condition (please let me know if I talk rubbish)?  VR – vibration reduction – can slow down the speed for 3 stops for those who have steady hands (I leaned towards stationary objects whenever possible) and I had to go even lower than that.  Most of the shots, I used a speed of 1/15s.  Some I manage to up it to 1/30s.  Still, it is very hard to get a good shot with that speed at 200mm.  I tried to get a better ISO whenever I could but rarely could I go below 3200.

I had no prior experience nor read anything on manual setting prior to this trip. Most definitely, I have committed a lot of laughable mistakes.  My last manual focusing practice session was when I was a very small boy.  I did the best I could and figured the above out through experiments on the spot that one moist evening.  How glad my scientific mind kicks into action when I need to make my art works.  As always, all online and offline feedback is welcome.

Categories
I See I Write

Lingerie Shopping Spree at Brüttal, Bangsar Village 2 (Malaysia)

After I have posted my rather unsightly photos taken inside my friend Adeline’s lingerie shop October this year, here are my responses to some of the commonly raised comments.

  • Yes, that 10% discount on the brutally chic n sexy lingerie by merely saying the passwords of either my name or “that Singapore blogger” is true.  In fact, I fought so hard for you all lovely readers that it is still valid.  Christmas is round the corner.  A great opportunity to spice up … your life.
  • No, I really don’t have the X-factor to model for lady’s lingerie.  Hence, I am bringing my new troop to get the job done this time.
  • No, I do not intend to pursue my career as a male escort for men, nor for the ladies.  But if that is the only talent I can make money in this economy downturn …

Ever since those pictures have made public, once in a while or rather very often, Cynthia would poke me and ask, “Why didn’t you get that for me?”.  Good question.  Why didn’t I?  I was too engrossed in taking pictures.  Adeline was too engrossed in showing me what picture to take.  And we both forgot to get Cynthia something.

Recently, we have made a trip to the lovely Fraser Hill (more photos to come later!) and have decided to make a stop over at Bangsar and visit our friend’s shop Bruttal.  I pulled along my old good friend Kah Lok and he gamed for it.  Lovely!  Time for a serious shopping spree!

I think all men on earth should put aside a healthy budget for the lingerie shopping of their loved ones.  Come to think of it, who else on earth are going to see these lovely flimsy pieces of garments that tantalize our bodies and minds but us.  I personally have a monthly non-cumulative use-it-or-lose-it revolving lingerie credit line for Cynthia.  You should have yours too.

There have been quite a few new items added to Bruttal’s collection since my last visit.  There is this red colored wings that a girl can strap onto her back.  Great for a party costume I suppose.  Practically, I can only think of one or a few realistic … erm … positions (time to consult the Kama Sutra manual).  Speaking of costumes, Adeline shared with me that Malaysians are really big in wearing those for parties of all sort.  Adeline, if your customers need a photographer for the event, you know who to recommend.  Thank you!

There is this super plus size bra that has to be a cup size of H or J.  According to Adeline, it’s quite a popular item.  Hmmm.  And there is this nurse outfit that comes with the stethoscope.  That crotchless lingerie is out-of-stock.  Gasp!  See that lovely necklace that Cynthia was trying on?  She wore it during our band’s gig at The Heeren.

Do check out these affordable brutally chic n sexy  lingerie at Brüttal (RM18 to RM159.90 or S$7.50 to S$66.60) the next time you visit Bangsar, Malaysia.  Spread the words and don’t forget to get your 10% discount by mentioning my name … happy shopping!

Special Promotions

  • Christmas Sales: From Dec 15th to 25th, with every purchase of RM 250 and above on a single receipt, you will get (1) free imported hard case gift box and (2) RM 50 discount.
  • Boxing Day Sales: Dec 26th, 50% storewide discount + best buy items.

External Website: Brüttal.us (tel: +603 2287 7172)

Categories
Linguistic My Hobbies

Nokia N96 Test Drive Episode 3 – Coffee Break Spanish

Orhhh … Look at this dreamy picture of that one true beauty, don’t you want to … take one home?  I love listening to podcast on the Nokia Nseries.  It enables me to download video and audio episodes in the morning wirelessly through my home network way before Apple has figured out how to implement wi-fi connectivity into their over-hyped, overpriced products.

And as this lifestyle continuous, years later today, I am counting on my Nokia N96 to save me from failing an examination that I cannot fail.  If you notice, I have not been blogging about my Spanish class lately.  Onto level two, though it has not really gotten that much tougher than Beginner 1, my poor foundation seems to have cracked under the weight of these 10 new lessons.  There was no examination at the end of Beginner 1, but there will be an examination at the end of Beginner 2.

Having an examination, in principle, is a great idea.  Who would practice music without a gig?  Would would treasure a computer game without the long wait, long queue, and 8 flights of stairs up?  Who would study … without an examination?

I cannot fail my Spanish examination because:

  1. Everyone including Cynthia will move onto Elementary 1 …
  2. … while I have to repeat Beginner 2.
  3. And I will miss my old classmate a lot …
  4. … have to re-take the examination again.
  5. And pay an extra S$323.

¡Qué horror!  Time for more green bottle mental booster!

One evening, I was really stressed out.  Cynthia has started listening to a podcast channel called Coffee Break Spanish while I was still staring at the two Spanish books I have bought, but haven’t started reading.  OK, my strategy certainly was not working.  An idea struck me, how about subscribing to that channel that seems to have captivated Cynthia using my new Nokia N96?

The process was so simple that I banged my head onto the table for my procrastination.  I took out my phone, navigated to the podcast application, and entered the phrase Coffee Break Spanish onto the search bar.  And voilà!  80 odd episodes to be downloaded onto my phone with a click of a button from this award-winning beginners’ Spanish show.

Both Cynthia and I love this channel because the pace is good and the presentation of the materials is interesting.  We have gone through 10 episodes in details listening to the Spanish teacher Mark working with his student Kara.  The episodes are packed with exercises for the listeners to orally practice with Mark and Kara, interesting long dialogues to practice our listening, and they do seem to interject the Spanish culture into their materials whenever possible with interesting guests from Spain and Mexico origin.

Speaking as such, let me download the next 10 episodes now.  Wish me luck on the examination!  And you know me.  Pass or fail I will post out the results.  By the way, I notice that Nokia N96 has done a much better job in handling simultaneous download of multiple podcast episodes compares to its predecessor.  And it seems faster too.  I am glad that Nokia N96 comes with 16GB memory (+ another 16GB externally if you want).  I reckon it can fit all 80+ episodes nicely.

Related Tag: More Nokia N96 Test Drive Episodes

Categories
Memorable Events

Team Singapore Won BRANDS Blogger Challenge, And I Was There

In the morning of the blogger challenge I woke up feeling fresh, popped one bottle of BRANDS, opened up the training kits provided, and started looking at the exercises while I was ironing my shirt.  Sheylara has worked through all these exercises and more for the past 2 weeks.  I flipped through the sheets of exercises in between my starching and ironing, staring at one rather high-end Sudoku I said to myself … Uh-oh.

Five of us for the ”˜Team Singapore’ met at the Coffee Bean that I happen to visit every morning and the friendly lady from Burson-Marsteller was explaining to us what the competition would be like in between my cup of caramel latte and warm scone and my fiddling with my new toy (camera).  I must have got her quite stressed up due to my lack of concentration.  Sorry!

And while I was distracted by my own camera, the rest of the Singapore bloggers unanimously appointed me as the team captain.  Huh?!

But with a team of such talent – EastCoastLife, Mr. Endoh, Aaron Ng, and Sheylara – my job was easy.

The Malaysian bloggers actually flew into Singapore the day before for this challenge!  Wow, I thought it was going to be hosted over the Internet via a webcam.  And it was with great pleasure to have met these very popular bloggers here in Singapore.  I have a lot of respect for them.  Did the Malaysia government recently jail a blogger or something like that?  How brave they are to blog in such an environment.

Of all the questions the press has asked me after the competition, my favorite would be: What came into your mind when the Singapore team was lagging behind? 

Singapore Table Tennis Team at the Olympic (if you know how much I love my country, I was more referring to their fighting spirit than anything else)? Hmmm.

Round 1 – a game of arranging random alphabets into a word – our team was having one point lead against Team Malaysia.  Round 2 – a set of mathematics puzzles – was a draw.  Round 3 required us to watch a BRANDS commercial and memorized the key frames.  And we lost a gazillion number of points to the Malaysians on that one game.  Oh no!

Round 4 was yet another one-on-one challenge to guess the missing words in one sentence (like ‘the 12 S of the Z’ … what are the S and Z?).  I did a mental calculation that we needed five straight wins from the five of us in order to marginally reverse the trend.  I tried to steady our team; we did our best in that round but that didn’t happen; we were still behind.

Onto round 5 of 7 and things were not looking good to the Singapore team.  It was yet another group challenge and if we were to lose this round, we would have little chance to win the competition.  Immediately, I practiced what I preached when the host asked about our strategy: I popped another BRANDS Chicken Essence on the spot.

In round 5,  We had to form as many words as possible with the letters given (believe it or not I actually formed the word “porn” and someone asked if there was such a word … they must be shocked).  We gave it all that we have, filled the entire board with as many words as we could humanly think.  I have to give it to the Malaysians that some of their words formed are pretty original.  The judge summed up the words and we had more!

Hooray!

Round 6 was bizarre.  It was some sort of computer game that we have to focus on the movements on the screen.  We won some, we lost some, and onto the final round, Team Singapore had the lead but anything could happen.

Another video was played, questions were asked, before we arrived at the final question, we knew we did just enough to clinch onto the title.  Nevertheless, Sheylara took the last question, which I thought was kind of very tough (a faint banner in the video background with the words “Robot Soccer Club” or something like that). She did observe the details and got that right.

Gosh!  You go girl!

Maybe it was the Chicken Essence we took, maybe it was the home ground advantage, maybe because all of us were having fun (EastCoastLife and I constantly jumped off our chairs whenever we gained points), I am happy to take home the grand cash price + more BRANDS products as well as a T-shirt I wore with that little Singapore flag stitched onto the sleeve.  I love that shirt!  It’s the flag more than anything else!

Thank you for reading.  And thank you BRANDS and Burson-Marsteller for the invitation – a very well-run and fun event, EastCoastLife for the nomination and her hubby to help up with the photography, great meeting the Malaysian bloggers Red Mummy, Sultan Mufazzar, KY, Suanie, and Capt’n Hook who was standing in for Babe in the City – KL.  Yes, we shall meet the next time I drive up!  And thanks for all the warm wishes from my friends and families too.

Above all, congratulations to my teammates, you have done us proud!

Categories
J Pop Music Reviews

YUI – My Short Stories – Did You Know This is a B-Side Compilation?

No I didn’t.  Nor the Oricon chart cares.  21 years old Japanese singer songwriter and one-time actress releases a b-side album and it charted at #1.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw her 4th album “My Short Stories” at HMV.  Wasn’t it this April when she released her last studio album?  I am still regularly listening to “I Loved Yesterday”.  By April 27, I have listened to that one song “LOVE & TRUTH” no less than 400 times.  By June 13, I estimated the played time of the same song to be 5,000.  Today, you connect the dots and tell me how many times “LOVE & TRUTH” has killed me softly again, and again.

I couldn’t contain my excitement when I first listened to YUI’s “My Short Stories”.  But something was missing, something didn’t seem right.  I was desperately looking for the rock identity (“Rolling Star” anyone?) that YUI has evolved from her shy, simple, pleasant debut but I found none; I was desperately looking for the new symphonic sound (like my beloved “LOVE & TRUTH”) and I found none neither.  YUI seems to have returned to her root in the first few tracks (kind of too early for a budding 21 years old artist don’t you think?).  Onto the fifth song “Jam”, the rock identity seems to surface.  And I am falling more in love with the album as the track number increases.  “I Wanna Be”, “Cloudy”, and “Crossroad” are some of my favorite tracks.  The last song, a nice slow one – “Why Me” – wraps up the compilation nicely.

There is still no “LOVE & TRUTH” that I so long for.  But as an album disregarding that it is a b-side compilation, I wouldn’t be able to distinguish it from the rest of her studio albums in terms of production quality.  I am indeed delighted to learn that this is a b-side compilation because now I get to better appreciate another side of YUI, to relive her growth once again.  PS. The below nicely done video, “I’ll Be”, is the only new song from the compilation.

Accompanying her CD is a DVD collection of three video clips and a set of live recording.  OK, I am not going to defend her vocals in a band setting because it is simply not her strength.  Simply put, YUI sounds much better with just YUI and her guitar and I suspect she composes her songs with just that (on that note, I think I can personally relate).  In some of the live clips, a few cameras were following her wandering the streets of Sapporo, Sendai, and Hiroshima with her guitar.  In one classic act like she used to do before she becomes famous, she sat down in a quiet corner, took out her guitar and started singing.  Gosh, she is my inspiration.  Need not to say, it didn’t take long for the crowd to build up during those live recording sessions on the street.

Some artists are just worth the effort to follow their music careers with, to quietly and patiently observe how they grow.  If you are new to YUI, start with her movie “Midnight Sun”.  It won’t go wrong.

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