Miz Presents: Scarlatti Sonata in F

Scarlatti's Sonata K.455
(Performance and Visualisation by Stephen Malinowski)
Don't understand standard music scores at all? Don't know what are all the lines, black beansprout, funny shaped ears, fractions, and all the hexes are all about? Well, Stephen Malinowski had come up with the Music Animation Machine, which is the music scores for all listeners. See if you can visualise the music through this.

While you are listening and watching this harpsichord performance, see if you can spot any repitative parts on the music, meaning to spot for repeating melodies in the music, whether it is repeating with different key or with different pitch. This music has a lot of parts which sounds like someone is spitting some bullet seeds from the mouth very rapidly. Just listen and see.

The NewPaper Big Walk: More People Now

The NewPaper Big Walk
Well, another 4 more from my platoon had sign up for the NewPaper Big walk. Since I was at Toa Payoh that time, and there was a roadshow going on at HDB Hub there, I decided to register the 4 of them there. Well, in addition to 4 t-shirts, 4 coupon booklets and 4 number tags, I also received 4 packet of sunflower cooking oil from them as well. Think the sponsors are promoting the stuffs there...

Ok, I'll post the tag number corresponding to each person here.

Collected from SPH News Centre
12116 -> Ming Zhi (Me!)
12117 -> Shi Qing
12118 -> Dezhi
12119 -> Wei Qiang
12120 -> Tsuan Hsiu (might not be coming)
12121 -> Wenhao
12122 -> Kai Quan

Collected from HDB Hub at Toa Payoh
20880 -> Hui Huang
20881 -> Hong Joo
20882 -> Alex
20883 -> Haohan

I also asked Victor and Daniel to sign up as well, so think there should be another 2 more coming. Think I'll register for them next week when there's another roadshow at HDB Hub. Hopefully can get more people to join us. Anyone want to help me to get more people?

University Matters

University Package
Well, I just got the acceptance letter to Computer Engineering (Faculty of Engineering) from National University of Singapore (NUS) on Saturday. Well, used to be accepted to study Computer Engineering (School of Computing) in 2005, but I decided to reapply to Computer Engineering (Faculty of Engineering) this year.

Well, what's the difference to between the one in SoC and the one in FoE? Well, according to the NUS Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) website, the SoC offering trains "a computer scientist with a focus on computer hardware". The programme leverages on the strengths of the SoC in various aspects of computer science. In contrast, the ECE offering leverages on the electrical engineering curriculum to train students with a unique combination in electronic hardware and software skills.

I'm actually more interested in the modules offered in ECE than the one offered in SoC. Think I'm that kind that prefers to do those hardware stuffs rather than software stuffs.

Well, last time, that person sighs when I'm going to SoC with him as well, because he don't want to see me there. Since I'm going to FoE, think he must be very happy now that he don't have to see me anymore in SoC next time. :P

Hmm... come to think of it, since I'm reapplying my course this year, do I need to go for the medical examination again? Don't know if I need to pay another $25 just for another examination because I'm in the different faculty...

Sunday: Not the Day to Wake Up Late

Can't Really Wake Up Late
Ok, my parents will always wake me up for breakfast on Sunday morning. Argh... Feeling so tired... Not enough sleep... Haiz... never mind, I still go out with them for breakfast. Anyway, I had my breakfast at McDonald's at Ang Mo Kio, while my father and my grandparents at a hawker centre. Just don't really want to eat carrot cake with them...

On the Way for Lesson
Well, my sister had to do roadshow at Hougang Mall, so my father had to fetch her to Hougang Mall before driving me to Plaza Singapura for lesson. Well, she was, as usual, late for the thing. She was supposed to meet her boss at Hougang Mall at 12pm, but think we reached there at about 12.15pm. Well, that's her usual self...

There was a traffic jam on the way to Plaza Singapura, but at least the jam was not that serious. My father manage to reach Plaza Singapura at about 12.45pm, so I still have another 15 minutes for my lesson.

Violin: Always Didn't Practise...
Haha... our class just don't practise our violin. Well, at least we manage to clear our Study No. 9 after we had been doing for quite some time. Anyway, we didn't play piece No. 2 (Gavotte) from Suzuki Violin 2 as we did not practise much... :P So, the teacher again ask us to practise ourselves again for about 10 minutes, while he went out and drink water. Well, surprisingly, after that 10 minutes, we managed to handle the piece very well. Them he just kept saying that only if we practise we could handle the pieces well. Think he had been telling us for many weeks. Well, he decided to let us took up the next piece (Hunter's Chorus) and decided to leave Gavotte aside.

Finally Use My Borders Voucher
Well, my sister gave me a $40 electronic voucher from borders, but I had not start using that yet. It's about 1 month already she gave me the voucher, so I decided to buy a CD (Cello Concerto by Vivaldi) costing $28.95 from there. Thought that Vivaldi's cello concerto is quite nice. Anyway, I have about $11.05 left inside the voucher, so think I may need to combine my voucher with either NETS or debit card the next time I'm buying the CDs.

Happy Birthday, Haohan!!!

Haohan's Birthday Chalet
Well, Haohan had invited us to go to his chalet to celebrate his birthday. Had to bring quite a number of things there though, the NewPaper Big Walk things for the 6 people who sign up with me, my books, instruments and my clothings. I also need to meet Hong Joo at Dhoby Ghaut to go with him to the chalet. Haha... Had to ask him to help me carry my things as well.

Well, when I reached the chalet, I was already

XXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!!!

My head was already spinning... Just don't know why... Think I must be exhausted after I had to run to try to meet Hong Joo just on time, with my things on both of my hands and on my back. Just don't really have that mood to eat anything... Haiz... my mind was thinking about something else while in the chalet... Think it must all because of the work I'm doing...

Anyway, our platoon shared a present of Ipod Nano for Haohan as a birthday present. Did anyone said expensive? Well, it's cost about $400, so I supposed so, but we are celebrating Haohan's 21st birthday right, so of course we must give him something good, right?

I decided to stay 1 night at Haohan's chalet, since it was really very late when I arrived at the chalet, about 9.30pm if I'm not wrong. Think they meet at the chalet at about 6pm. That was like 3.5 hours late, but I had no choice about that... Sorry Haohan... :P

Ok, I decided to leave before noon, since no one was staying over there. Anyway, as Haohan was going to return the car to his uncle, which live near Toa Payoh, Kai Quan and I decided to ride on the car. Well, after returning the car to his uncle, the 3 of us decided to walk back to Toa Payoh bus interchange from there. As we were uncertain about the place, it took us more than 1 hour for us to reach Toa Payoh bus interchange. Haha... we actually walk on the wrong directions for quite a number of times... :P Think I must really get a handy street directory for my convenience.

The NewPaper Big Walk: Roadshow
Anyway, there was The NewPaper Big Walk roadshow today at Toa Payoh HDB Hub. Aye... should have help the 7 of us to sign up the walk today instead, since they are giving away free 150ml packet of Sunbeam sunflower (cooking) oil for each participant who sign up for the walk.

Well, never mind about that. Anyway, I helped 4 more people to sign up for the walk there, including Haohan. As Haohan was there as well, and he was going back very soon, I decided to give him the TNP Big Walk stuff on the spot, which is the TNP Big Walk shirt, coupon booklet and Sunbeam Sunflower oil. Haha... I forgot to give him the number tag though... Never mind, I can keep the number tag for the lucky draw that was coming up later. Anyway, for the lucky draw, as I forgot to request the form back for me to fill in their ICs, I decided to use my name for all the 4 lucky draw coupon... Haha... sorry about that... Never mind, I win a car, I might give it away instead... :P

There's also the roadshow lucky draw as well, where you could win one of the 6 Timex watches, 2 Motorola handphones, 1 AIBI eMotion and 1 Nikon Coolpix camera. Well, the numbers that I got was between 20880 and 20883 inclusive, but too bad none of the 10 numbers didn't match any of the numbers that I had here. There were numbers which are 2085X, 2087X and 2089X, but none were 2088X, so I didn't really stand some chance about that... Maybe if Haohan was here (being the birthday boy), he might give some luck about that...

Flute
I decided to go home and put all my things first before I go out for my Flute lesson. Well, Michelle was sick today. Hmm... think those 3 girls really like to fall sick. Anyway, I help to... well... "come up with a similar set" of Beginner's Flute Book 2 for Johanna, because she don't want to buy the book as she did not have enough money. Well, about the "enough money" part, I'm not really sure if that's really true.

Anyway, as 6 May 2006 (Saturday) is a polling day, it was declared to be a holiday on that day, so there will be no lesson next week (YES!!!) Well, my driving revision iis still on, so I have to go, but never mind, that's morning, so it's ok. Also, there will be a course holiday between 9 May 2006 (Tuesday) to 14 May 2006 (Sunday). That means I'll have no Flute and Violin lessons on that day (YES, YES, YES!!! HOORAY!!!). This also means that I'll have no Flute lesson for 2 weeks... Haha... I don't mind that. Yay... can sleep as much as I like... Haha... think I must be a lazy pig... :P

Friday Matters: In Work

Phew... there was fewer applications on that day. Just don't know why, Maybe because already too many people applied for the Maybank credit cards during the roadshow, so there will be fewer applicants in the bank.

Anyway, some of my colleagues and I decided to tour around Nanyang Polytechnic to buy lunch back to office. Well, there were quite a number of canteens and food centre there, some have air-con, others does not have. Anyway, I decided to buy back McDonald's from there. Didn't know that McDonald's in politechnics are cheaper than outside. Anyway, as we were buying food from different stalls and canteens, it took us quite sometime for us to finish what we need to buy. Also need to walk quite a lot as well, since we need to walk from our work place to NYP, walk between canteens, and walk back to our office.

Anyway, since there wasn't much work today, I could help Guan Si do a bit of filing. Haiz... the thing is sometimes the applications can come in so late that it's about time for us to knock off from work. Well, at least I manage to finish keying in all the applications that came in very late before in end my work day. Phew...

Well, it was Haohan's birthday as well, so I rush back and quickly pack my things, not really sure if I would to stay in the chalet or not, I decided to bring my instruments along just in case. Kind of a bit of troublesome to do so though.

Always Tired...

Whew...

Whoop!!! There were fewer applications that I need to key in today... Only like 40+ applications. Haha... I was a bit busy in the morning though, trying to figure out how to use the Sema on AS400 to print out customers inquiries and informations. Haha... think I print some of the things wrongly for Conie... but never mind, the people there are quite nice anyway... :P

Anyway, there were much fewer applications today as compared to the past few days. I finish all at around 5pm, so I decided to help Guan Si to do the filing. Anyway, the filing thing will never be finish, since there are way too many documents needed to be filed. Well, I can also take filing as a type of exercies, since I need to walk a lot and climb the ladder to find the file.

Acceptance Letter?
Well, I heard from my colleagues that she got a phonecall from her father, telling her that she had a NUS letter. She was hoping that it is an acceptance letter, and not any kind of brochure telling her there will be new courses coming up in NUS. Well, as I got home, I decided to check about my application status, and I received this.



Well, what do you think? Think people like Kavan and Hong Joo will be happy about that. Hmm... Kavan (my Pri school schoolmate, Sec school classmate and JC college mate) and Hong Joo (my army campmate) will be doing the same course: NUS Electrical Engineering. Think they will really make good brothers there... :P

Arm Exercise, Anyone?
As I was flipping through my CDs, I stumbled across this DVD called Achieving Success, which I bought it some time back. Well, it's a DVD publish by ABRSM Publishing, which shows video about some examples of the candidates performing for the Diploma exams, showing which students get a distincion, which get a high/clear pass or a pass only.

There's this section about the violin performances, where the girl play the violin for DipABRSM (1st level diploma, there's 3 levels for ABRSM diploma). Well, one of the piece she performed is Moto perpetuo by Bridge. Wow... this is one piece that requires very vigorous bow movement (in which you need to move you right arm very vigourously and quickly). Hmm... the movement is kind of like carrying a weight with one of your hands and move your arm up and down very quickly... Think this piece would be good for arm training... If that's the case, I must better train up on my violin skills more so that I can perform such pieces to exercise my arm... It might help in toning up your muscles, you know...

She also perform this piece No.2 in From my Native Country by Smetana, where she had to change the strings very often (bowing from one string to another). By doing this, you need to move your whole arm quite often (the movement kind of a bit like a chicken wings... :P). Think this is also good for your hand training...

Violin and Flute Exams

Up to the Standard Yet?
Haha... Don't know if I can make it for my violin and flute exams or not. Well, I put July as my exams month, but still not confirm wwhich month I'll be taking. Wah... just in case it is in July, don't know whether I'll have enough time for me to buck up or not...

Flute
Ok, my flute pieces are somewhat fine, sometimes I might stumble though, due to the shortage of breath (sometimes I might forget to breathe). But overall, I still can manage all my 3 pieces. BUT my flute scales are somewhat pathetic... Haha... I don't practise much on my flute, so didn't really to bother practising my flute scales. Haiz... Still have a lot of problems playing scales that involved high register, since I always press the wrong keys. The slurred scales are those that I worried most... I'll always get out of breath after playing a few notes. Still quite uncertain with the fingering when comes to the higher register... Hmm... think going to lose my 21 marks there...

Violin
Well, my violin scales are fine so far. Think maybe because I'm only doing Grade 2 violin, so I don't reallly have to deal with changing of positions. Anyway, our teacher will always let us do scales inside the class, so there should not be much of the problems. BUT, my violin pieces are still quite pathetic (well, just the exact opposite for my flute). Well, I'm the only one in the class doing violin exams, so I have to do the pieces all by myself... Haha... the thing is I don't practise much, so I'll play quite terribly, sometimes out of tune, when attempting the pieces... Think I must start practising ever night, or else I'll waste my money there (the exams don't come cheaply, you know...)

Aural
Forget quite a lot of things about music stuff after I'm in the army (it's all that national service thing fault... :P). Hmm... think must also start reading up more also, or I can't really answer the questions... :P

Anyway, I have started practising my violin pieces at night quite recently. Still can't decide between Märchen and Moon Sprites yet... Well, too bad I can't really let you listen those pieces, since I still cannot find the host to upload those midi files. Never mind, I'll post the scores for you'll to see and determine.

Argh...

XXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I'm sure there's a road show going on here.

Wah... at least I still manage to finish all the 90+ applications between 3pm to 6pm, that's like about 3 hours. Well, looks like Chae Yun will have to do a lot tomorrow... Wah... very soon you'll have to pay me a visit at Choa Chu Kang Columbarium... (haha... *touch wood*).

Got a headache today... kind of hinders my work a bit... Haiz... think I must be working way too hard for just only a peanut pay... Think I should change my work etiquette to suit the pay. :P Anyway, I heard that the perm staff don't earn as much as well, about $1200 a month. Well, maybe because most of them are ITE graduates, or those tha tonly holds N or O level certificates...

Today, I broke a stapler. Haha... anyway, the office staplers are really quite pathetic. They also get stuck very easily. Got cut by the staple bullets while trying to remove the stuck staple bullets with a scissors. I also broke one stapler as well. While using the stapler, the spring broke and came off from the stapler, so it became a manual stapler, where you have to use your hand to release the stapler.

Anyway, while doing some ransom search on the computer, I happened to find Daniel Aw inside the database. When I check out about the details, I found out that he used to have a saving account jointly with his father. Well, now the account is dormant, so think cannot be use to withdraw the remaining money inside. I also printed (secrectly) about his details, so maybe can share with you people (my campmates) this coming Friday and weekends on Haohan's chalet. Hope you'll won't "open your mouth very wide" when you'll are talking to other people... ;) Anyway, I didn't know Daniel's hanyu pinyin name is "Hu Weiqiang". Hmm... I thought Aw is usually known as "Ou" for hanyu pinyin surname... Wonder how that "Hu" is written in Chinese.

My Past Life... an Owl?
Think my past life must be really an owl. I can't really sleep at night, but I'll always feel sleepy during daytime. Haha... don't know if I apply the wrong credit cards for the customers... Anyway, I've already input their name wrongly for a few times, so don't know how are the applications now...

Hmm... there's a letter "Z" on my name, so maybe that's why I like to sleep a lot. Well, sleeping makes a great pastime, don't you think so? :P

Another Busy Day

ALSO SO MANY APS TODAY!!!
Think there must be a roadshow going on!!!
Well, today I have key in an overwhelming number of 86 new applications, plus 6 more other applications and 1 creditables to key in, which makes a total of 93 applications that I had key in today. There are also a few more new applications that I need to key in as well, but didn't really have the time to do so. By the way, there's no overtime for me, so even if I decided to stay up late to finish all the applications, I will not get any additional pay.

I was feeling very tired today as well. Made quite a lot of mistakes during work. I go and open up mails which I'm not supposed to. At least the people there are quite nice to tell me what I should to in a polite tone. Hmm... maybe I should be more attentive next time. Ok, now I should run to the supermarket and buy a few boxes of Essence of Chicken to help me to relieve my fartigue...

Today is Siew Mei's last day of work, which means that Guan Si will be alone from tomorrow onwards. Never mind, he's good at making phone calls by himself, especially when his night job is a telemarketer job. Anyway, the temp staff were discussing about the dinner this Friday during lunch time. They will also be inviting the previous temp staff as well. Too bad I have to go to Haohan's chalet on Friday (well Haohan's one is the top priority). Yup, it's only the first day of Chalet, but that day is also Haohan's actual birthday, so I have to go on that day... :P

Monday Blues...

Monday...
Haiz... the first day of the week... This is the day that I do not like most... Imagine there's still a long way for weekends... Anyway, I didn't really sleep well last night, maybe because I'm that kind of person that prefer nocturnal activities. Just don't know why, but I prefer to sleep in the day rather than at night. Maybe because my past life was... an owl? Perhaps so, that's should be the reason why I prefer to do things at night and sleep during daytime.



SO MANY APPLICATIONS TODAY!!! Think must be because of weekends... Well, the card centre is closed on Saturday, but the bank is opened. I'm sure that a lot of people will visit the bank on Saturday. Anyway, I have to deal with more than 70 new applications and more than 30 creditables today, so that would total up to be more than 100 applications to be keyed inside the computer. Just managed to finish on time before the shuttle bus left.

Anyway, we had our lunch inside the office instead, as the canteen was really full today... Can't find any space to sit, so we decided to buy the food back to the office. Well, at least I can take this time to open all the mails I collected from the mailroom.

Talking about mails, it's actually not really that fun to open them you know... Opening mails are more than opening any normal letters. People will just use the credit card application brochure and attach their photocopied ICs, payslip, CPF statement and so on onto the brochure and mail it directly to the card centre. Well, at least they do not need to use stamps by mailing it that way, since the postage thing is already on the brochure. Most people will just staple their attachments onto the brochure, and then fold the brochure and staple it. There are some people that will make my life more difficult by using an adhesive tape and tape all sides of the folded brochure, so I have to spend a lot of time trying to find the opening and to remove the tape. The worst thing people do is to use a glue and glue all sides and corners completely on the folded brochure. They glue it in such a way that I cannot see where is the opening, so I have to use another opened brochure to know where is the opening. Even if I managed to know the opening, I still can't really opened the brochure. Imaging if you use 2 pieces of paper, stick the 2 paper together by gluing all the 4 sides of the paper as shown below.

The blue part is where you use the glue on. After sticking them together, try to seperate the paper. See if you can seperate it. Anyway, this kind of letter will take me about 15 minutes to open. Kind of waste my time...

Rain Again
Today, it rained heavily again... Kind of nice to stay inside the air-con office when it rains. Well, I was also kind of worried whether the rain will stop when I go home. Haha... at least it only drizzles when I walk home from Bishan station. Don't really have to use my umbrella.

Anyone for a $100+ Burger?

A Truly Gourmet Burger
Well, I read this article from Lifestyle (23 April 2006) about this 101 burger from Uberburger that cost $101 itself. Yup, $101, for a burger without any sides and drinks. Also, there's no decimal points as well. No typo error, I have to emphasise. WOW... I wonder if anyway is willing to spend that much for the burger.

Anyway, I'll type out what it is written from Lifestyle about this burger, for those who do not have today's newspaper (The Sunday Times) and is interested about the burger.

Burger Bun
Not just your normal sesame seed bun, this is stuffed with black truffle shavings. Uberburger gets its truffles, which are an edible and decadently expensive fungi, for about $1800 per kg (this bun must be one of the most expensive bun).

Champagne Truffle Sauce
This designer dressing, which thie staff dispense generously, lends fragrance to the burger's overall taste.

Burger Patty
You geta hefty 180g of wagyu beef in a sirloin cut, which is the tastiest part of the cow. The beef is minced tohether with 25 to 30g of melt-in-your-mouth foie gras (goose liver).

What Lifestyle Said About this Burger
The meat patty is very juicy, thanks to the foie gras that has been mashed and mixed in it. But you do not get the aroma of pan-fried goose liver. The meat is covered with truffle cream, which has a very strong aroma. More subtle are the bits of truffle that have been baked into the home-made bun.

No wonder why the burger can cost $101. Anyway, Lifestyle gave this burger a 4 stars rating, out of the possible 5 stars for the taste. It's considered good, but still lose out to One-Ninety Wagyu Burger ($59) and Iggy's Iggy's Burger (part of a set lunch that starts from $35 for 2 courses).

Hmm... $101 for just a burger? With that money, I could have given 3 people for a treat at Jack's Place, Crystal Jade and soup Restaurant, 4 people for a treat at Fish & Co., 5 people for a treat at Swensen's, Ajisen Ramen and Secret Recipe, and so on. That money is also good enough for about one week's (7 days) meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), or maybe about 10 days lunch and dinner. I can also use the money to watch about 14 to 15 weekdays movies, or about 10 to 11 weekends movies.

Anyway, are there anyone willing to try this burger? If you are going to do so, hope that you can share with us the experience of eating this burger. :P

Happy Birthday, Ah Girl!!!

My Sister's Birthday
Haha... today is my sister's birthday. Anyway, we had celebrated her birthday last week at Genki sushi. Well, I gave her the cushion that I bought yesterday for her. Now she has more comfy stuffs to rest on. We didn't really celebrate her birthday today, because we had something else that we need to do as well today. Well anyway, she will be celebrating her birthday with her friends tonight.

Well, I always call her "girl" because she will always call me "boy". Well, think that's fair, right?

Sunday - Can't Really Wake Up Late
Well, it's Sunday today, but my parents will wake me up to go for breakfast with them. Haiz... so sad that I cannot sleep more... I'm just that kind of person that like to sleep a lot. Anyway, after my parents woke me up, I had to get off the bed lazily and unwillingly, and brush my teeth.

Sleeping and Dreaming
Well, don't you agree that sleeping is nice? You can just dream whatever that is impossible in real life, like you yourself flying in the air, casting magics, spells or hexes, and whatever dream that you like. But of course, there can be nightmares at some times. Well, the odd thing is that I will always dream of studies and exams. Inside my dreams, I will always left so much of unfinished homework, and the deadline is like a few days time, so I will start to panic and rush through my homework. In some dreams, I didn't prepare for my exams. In the end, I didn't know how to do a lot of questions, kind of freak me out. In other dreams, I had missed so much classes, lectures and lessons that I realised that I forgot all the work that I leanrt last time. Thinking that the exams were round the corner, I would start to get panic.

Haha... kind of an odd dreams... But anyway, after spending so much time inside the army camp, I think I might have forgotten quite a lot from what I learn for A Levels... Don't really know if I can survive in the university though...

Violin Matters
My Violin teacher always said that we don't practise enough for violin, so we would play quite terribly inside the class... Well, that's kind of true for me... I always don't think of practising violin... Me kind of guilty for that... But anyway, now that I have work, I didn't have that much time to practise. Haha... come to think of it, my Violin exams are getting nearer each day, but my playing still isn't up to the standard yet... Think I must really find my time to practise more...

After my lesson, I went to Music Essentials to get a Violin book, Kabalevsky Albumstücke (Album Pieces). I bought that book because I wanted to learn how to play Märchen (Fairy Tale). The piece is quite nice actually. Think I might be doing that for my exams (still considering). The book is quite expensive, costing $31.90. Well, music scores are always that expensive, since they are imported from other countries, usually European countries like Britain, Germany, etc.

Moon Sprites or Märchen
Should I perform Moon Sprites or Märchen for my exams? Well, I'm still considering. I'll be practising on both pieces so that I can really decide which one I should do for my exams.

For Märchen, the piece is nice. Märchen is more difficult than Moon Sprites, but is played more slowly. There are more ties to handle (a tie would means one bow stroke to play a few notes) in Märchen as well, but at least the whole piece just requires bowing only, unlike Moon Sprites, which requires you to pluck the Violin strings at the end of the piece. My transition from bowing to plucking is still quite slow, resulting the piece to lag at that part when I played that piece... Anyway, Märchen is generally longer than Moon Sprites in terms of the length of the piece. Haha... still can't decide what I should perform though.

Anyway, since I can't really upload the music from the Violin exam pieces CD due to piracy laws, I created a midi file by myself instead for both pieces for you'll to listen and see if you can help me to decide, and YES, I really created these 2 midi's all by myself. Kind of took me sometime to create the midi, especially the program I'm using is a freeware, which lacks quite a lot of features, so I can't really make the dynamics changes, and I have to spent a lot of time doing the ritardando (becoming gradually slower) part for Märchen. Well, the midi might not sound that good though, since it's midi...

Well, the midis are not ready for download, so just hang on for a moment.

How Should You Eat (From an article in 8 Days Magazine)

Get Your Food Proportions Right
Well, according to 8 Days magazine, you should eat 3 small meals (not more than 400 calories) every day, plus between meal snacks, and also eat every 3 hours. I'll type out what it is written on the magazine here, for those who did not buy the magazine.

Do's
>> Each meal should contain the following: lean protein (usually refers to meat) the size of a deck of cards, fruits and veggies about the volume of a stack of 3 DVD cases, carbs (carbohydrates like rice, etc...) the size of a Rubik's cube (puzzle cube that Nicky like to play) and a mineral-water-bottle-capful of fat.
>> Each between-meal snack should be about 100 calories. Non-fat yogurt or fruit should do fine.
>> Your after-dinner treat should be 50 calories or less, eg, a Hershey's miniature.
>> Breakfast should be taken within an hour of waking up.

Don'ts
>> Avoid large meals and junk food.
>> No eating 3 hours before bedtime.

Example of Meals

EXAMPLE 1	EXAMPLE 2
7am: Breakfast 10am: 100-calorie snack 1pm: Lunch 4pm: 100-calorie snack 7pm: Dinner 10pm: 50-calorie treat	9am: Breakfast 12pm: Lunch 3pm: 100-calorie snack 6pm: Dinner 9pm: 100-calorie snack 12am: Bedtime (zzz)

Well, they said that by doing this, you constantly reset your metabolism, and by spreading your meals into smaller one, you use less insulin, and the hormones that tend to trigger appetite are at a lower level. If you have more than 3 hours between meals, your body will starts to burn your precious fat-burning lean muscle, which slows down metabolism and speed up weight gain... (gulp...)

Haha... I usually eat quite a lot when I feel like it, and don't eat at all when I don't really have the mood to eat. Thinks my body is already going quite "crazy"... Hmm... so no wonder why I so unfit... Anyway, the article is based on a guide "3-Hour Diet On the Go". Those people interested in this can get the pocket guide it at Kinokuniya at $15.47.

Sleeping is My Pastime!!!

Sleep...
So nice... Today I don't have to wake up at 7am to prepare for work... Just keep on sleeping until around 8.30am, when my mother switched off the aircon... Well, once the aircon is off, I just feel a bit too hot to sleep, so I will have to get off from my bed and brush my teeth. Sorry, no breakfast for me on Saturday morning.

Fasting Day?
Think I decided not to have fasting day on Saturday. Heard that you might gain weight quite easily if you just skipped meals like that, and have one very big meal at the end of the day. Anyway, it's not really good for the stomach itself as well, just in case the hydrochloric acid burns the stomach away if you don't eat...

Ok, I will post on the next entry on how you should eat your meals. It is extracted from an article from 8 Days, and the article is based on the guide "3-Hour Diet On the Go". The pocket guide is available at Kinokuniya at $15.47, for those people who is interested in this.

Meals
Well, today I decided to have the Oriental Chicken salad from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Feel that I need to have a bit of change in what I eat, so I decided to have that. Haven't tried that before, so decided to try that now as well. Well, the Oriental sauce given seemed to be some kind of soy sauce. Well, I didn't spread the sauce properly, so when I ate the salad, it would taste kind of blend at the beginning, and very salty and a bit spicy when I'm going to finish. Now my mouth still have that smell and the taste of the soy sauce. Well, it salad wasn't that bad actually, so think I'll eat again for tomorrow lunch.

Flute Matters
Ok, all the people are present for the Flute lesson. Johanna said that she wasn't able to make it for the past 2 weeks because she had rehearsals for the upcoming school performance. She also said that all her friends sacrifice their tuitions and so on for the rehearsals, so she can't just don't go for the rehearsals and go for the flute lesson like that. Never mind, it's only about $20 per lesson, so it's ok to miss 1 or 2 like that (if you can afford it, that is).

Buying Presents
Anyway, after our Flute lesson, Jasmine wanted to buy a present for her mother, along with Johanna. Well, since there's nothing much for me to do, I decided go with them to the gift shop. As I went inside the gift shop, I suddenly remembered that I need to buy a birthday present for my sister. Well, her birthday is tomorrow, and I have not bought her anything yet. Oops... Anyway, she gave me a $40 electronic gift voucher from Borders as my birthday present, so must buy her something for her birthday as well. Don't really know what she wants though. Anyway, just like me, she also like to sleep a lot, so I decided to buy her a cushion for her to rest... :P Well, at least that's something, right?

Jasmine can't find anything good in the gift shop that I bought the cushion from, so we decided to go to Precious Thots to look instead. Well, the things there were quite expensive. Just in case you don't know, all the Hallmarks Christmas cards and birthday cards I write for you people were from Precious Thots, so if you want to throw it away, think about how much I spent on the cards, and how much time I spent to write the cards for you, before you decide to throw them away. Well, anyway, you can throw my cards away if you think that I'm just nothing much to you... :P Up to you people to decide... ;) Ok, back to the topic, Jasmine then found a teapot set that cost about $30, so she decided to buy that. Hmm... think that was not a bad idea for a mother's day present... I see how is it first.

As Jasmine was going back by Taxi, and Johanna was going somewhere else, I have to go back home by myself again. Anyway, just on my way home, I decided to buy dinner from Burger King. Aren't I'm greedy? :P

Miz the Sleeping Prince...

Tired...
Just feeling so tired recently. Anyway, I got to the bed so early last night... Didn't realy do much at night. Today, I was feeling kind of tired also... Just don't know why... Hmm... I wish I could sleep the whole day undisturbed... Did anyone say tomorrow or Sunday? Well, too bad I have lessons on these 2 days, or else I'll definitely sleep as much as I like.


I didn't type my blog yesterday, so I'll say what I did yesterday on this blog. Well, basically nothing much, just my usual routine. Well, have to eat my lunch with the girls again (yup, I'm the only male in the group, me being the odd one), because Guan Si would brought cup noodles to office to eat. I'm not really sure about Issac though, think he might be eating inside the office, or he decided to skip lunch. Well, all the girls talk in lunch again, talking about how they used to like or dislike things like teletubbies, Barbie Dolls, Polly Pockets... Of course they did talk about cartoons in the past like Carebears, Smurfs etc. Hmm... childhood memories... used to watch those cartoons when I was young... Kind of missed them now...

Anyway, in the afternoon, while I was punching documents with Serene and Chae Yun, we were still talking about any ghost stories or some kind of incidents happened in camp. Well, there's no ghost story that I could tell, so, I decided to tell them about the "train" incident (my campmates should know what I mean).

After I reach home, I got a headache and felt very tired, so I went to sleep straight away right after my dinner...


Basically doing the same stuff again. Recently there aren't many applications. not really sure why though. But anyway, I still have to help out Conie to match documents, calculate the yearly income and to key in the data.

Oddly, Issac decided to join us for lunch. Maybe someone asked him whether he want to join us, so that's why he came along. Again, the girls would usually talk among themselves about TV shows, their idols... Also discussed a bit about the coming political polls thought... Too bad I'm still not eligible to vote yet... :P

Later in the afternoon, I decided to help Guan Si and Xiu Mei to do the filing, since I've done with my key applications. Well, there are a lot of documents to be filed, don't really know when we could finish them. Well, there were some more applications coming in for me to key in while I was filing though, but never mind, since those applications were not urgent, I decided to leave it to Monday morning to key in. Anyway, there's usually nothing much for me to do in the morning, so it's ok for me.

Well, after work, I happened to met Haohan in McDonald's at Junction 8. Well, he said that he was going to his friend's house near Bishan Park Secondary School, that's why he was there. Well, I decided to have dinner with him at the food court, since he said that McDonald's were way too crowded. Anyway, we just discussed what we did recently (well, you should be able to guess what is it though). After dinner, we go to the contact lens roadshow in Junction 8 as Haohan was interested in buying them (he didn't have enough money with him though).

So Tired and Sleepy...

Tired
Sorry, no blog today. I'm just too tired to type one out. Going to sleep now. Good night!

Raining...

First Rain: Home
Haiz... As I just woke up from my bed, my sister was screaming, yelling, crying and whining angrily again... just for something (bad for her) that happened quite some time ago. Think she's having her periods now, that's why her mood swings very easily... Haiz... Really ah... Can't really stand that... Wonder if periods is really that bad... I only know that the girl may get stomach cramps during periods, but don't know how the mood can swings... Maybe someone can tell me about that?


Second Rain: Lunch Break (Real Rain, I mean)
Well, the rain was really quite heavy during lunch. Thought of asking for delivery, but since it was a bit late for me to order now, I just decided not to have lunch instead. The people then start questioning me about how I would be able to take it till 6.15pm without lunch. Well, actually I was quite used to not having lunch. I did not have lunch (and even recess/break) in school between Sec 4 to JC 2. In fact, I never tried aany of the food from my JC canteen before (kind of regret a bit now), except for the drinks from the drinks stall.

Serene was kind to offer me half of her lunch to me, but I decided not to, she paid for the lunch anyway... Well, Li Jie then decided to offer me some of her instant noodles she brought to work. Well, I decided to accept that, or else they will start to question me with all the no-lunch thing again...

Ghost in Army Camp?
During lunch break, Serene was asking me if I had encounter any ghost, or heard of any ghost stories in my camp before. Well, I know that people are hearing all those ghost stories, but oddly, even if I hear whatever they said about any ghost in camp, I just didn't really take that so seriously and didn't bother to believe that, maybe because I'm more Science-inclined person, so in order for me to believe, I need to be fed with facts, proves and true evidence. Don't think anyone had given me all those yet for their ghost stories, just rumours...

Serene also said that she heard from someone that you need to go toilet in pairs at night after we sleep for safety purposes. Well, think that one only applies to BMT. Anyway, I always go to the toilet myself even after midnight. Just don't know why, but I don't feel anything eerie or scared going to the toilet myself after midnight.

Data Entry Job, Anyone? (Possibly Third Rain: Other Job Offers)
While working just now, a woman from a job agency called me and offered me a data entry job. Didn't ask her about the company though. She said that she's looking for people very urgently as company needs staff very urgently. Well, I told her that I got a job already (which is digustingly low-paying). She ask me if any of my friends would want to take up a job, so I told her I see if I could help her find. Haiz... why don't the job agency call earlier... Think the job might have (if fact most probably have) a higher pay than what I'm doing now... Anyway, I can't quit my job, because I'm taking up a contract job, cannot just quit like that... Haiz... think I really need to sigh many times... Haiz... The river is really flooded... Can anyone help me to clear the floodwater away?

Ok, about the job, I'm asking anyone here who's looking for any kind of job, see if you are interested in taking up. Well, not really sure if it is confirmed a temp job, but well, there might be chance. If you want to try, then I give you the number through SMS tomorrow (I left the number inside the office), then you call her about the details. Sorry, I forgot to ask the person's name, record the number down onto my handphone, and ask more details about the job and job scope, as I was quite busy with my work just now.

Don't Know the Postal Code?

Postal Code Help
Your friend birthday is coming. You decide to give him a birthday card through slow mail, as you think it would be more sincere in that way. After you buy the birthday card, you write immediately and send the card straight away. You know where your friend lives, you know his address, but then you realised that you don't know what is his postal code. What can you do?

No problem! Just dial the Postal Code Hotline number as shown below.

1800-842-7678

The interesting part about this hotline is that you will link up to a voice-activated machine, rather than the operator. you don't just key in the address by keying in with your number pads, but rather you TALK to the voice-activated machine. So interesting that it can recognise your street name with your own voice. Well, you can try this out by using your address. Have fun! :P

More Mails!

In the morning, I have to match the movement charts on the applications I did yesterday. Nothing much. Since there's usually nothing much for me to do in the morning, I help Chae Yun to calculate the applicants yearly income. Just for your information, in order for the most basic credit card to be approved, your yearly salary need to be at least $30K (which is on average $2.5K a month). This applies to ALL banks which issues credit cards (unless or until the government decides to lower the amount). Anything less than $30K a year, the application will be rejected. For debit cards, there's no minimum income, so feel free to apply. :P

Again, there was a big pile of mails for me to collect in the afternoon. Not only there are credit card application letters, or some other suffs that I need to pass to other people, there were also 32 creditables for me to do the key applications as well. I decided to do the key applications for the creditables first before I proceed on to open the rest of the credit card application letters. while I was doing my creditables halfway, the server suddenly became down... And it was down for about 1 hour... Haiz... I was quite worried that I might need to leave a lot of the applications to tomorrow...

Luckily I managed to complete keying all of the credit card applications on time. Maybe I might have done my work faster after doing so much work that I need to complete...

Anyway, we will also get to have free packet drinks in the afternoon. Hmm... think maybe they give us lower pay so that they can give us free packet drinks... Generally, if you request for non-milky drinks like Lemon Tea, Sugar Cane Drink, Red Date Drink, Chrysanthemum Tea... you will get 2 packets. If you request for milky drink like Chocolate Milk, Strawberry Milk, Vanilla Milk, Milo... you will only get 1 packet. Well, I usually request for those drinks that you will get 2 packets, so that I'll have more to drink... :P But anyway, I'll usually bring my packet drinks home since I don't have the time to drink.

Miz the Panda

So Tired Today...
Can't believe that I have dark rings on my eyes, that can be very obvious if I'm not wearing my spectacles. Maybe because I did not sleep so well last night. Also feel tired and lethargic as I went to work today. Anyway, today is not my first day of work just for your information...


Well, my upper-study had left to continue with her poly studies, since her poly attachment had ended, the same with 2 of my colleagues (temporary) which came with me on the same day, Chae Yun and Serene. Now, the 3 of us are going to be on our own... Haha... actually the 3 of us are still quite blur with the things in work... I have to keep asking other people about a lot of things today. Well, Guan Si (those from Signal Institute from 01/04, Cheetah Platoon, should know him), who also came with us on the same day as the 3 of us (also a temporary staff), still have his upper-study to share the workload with him. Anyway, Guan Si upper-study will only leave next week. That's nice...

Wah... today... when I went to the mailroom, there were
ONE BIG HEAP OF MAILS
for me to open and sort.
OMG!!!
It took me more than half of the afternoon for me, Guan Si and his upper-study to open all the letter, sort those letters, sent some letters to some other departments or to some other people and also arrange and staple all the credit cards applications. I was so worried that I do not even have the time to start my Key Applications (which is keying in of customer datas and credit card applications into the computer). Thought that there might be too many applications for me to handle, but after all the sorting and those, it only turn out to be just a normal pile of applications which I could just be able to finish the rest of the afternoon that I have. Almost "fainted" in the office when collecting the mails...

You know, all the temp-staff colleagues of mind kind of remind me of my campmates in 46SAR. Last time in camp, when we were about to book out at 5.30pm, we would start writing the book in/out book at 5pm, pack up and start walking to the bus stop (the camp one) from 5.20pm (which is like some time before our actual book-out timing), so that we could catch the shuttle bus at 5.30pm. Now, as our working hour ends at 6.15pm, we (the temp-staff) will start signing out at about 6pm, and start to pack up and walk downstairs from 6.10pm so that we can catch the shuttle bus at 6.15pm.

Last time, when I'm in 46SAR, there will be some people to help us write the book in/out book for all of us before we book out. Now, when I'm in Maybank, there will be people to help us sign out and write the timing for all of us (the temp-staff).

Things in Maybank kind of relates to things in the army... There's confidential stuff in Maybank that we have to handle, just like in army... Isn't that so interesting?

Do You Know Which is Which?

Flute Piece and Violin Piece - Which is Which?
Here is a short test for you'll. Below are 2 short pieces of music, one for Flute, and one for Violin. Can you tell which piece is for Flute, and which piece is for Violin? If possible, why do you choose your answer?

Short Piece 1


Short Piece 2

Click to enlarge.

The pieces are extracted from Flute and Violin sight-reading books. Let's see if you can tell which one is for Flute, and which one is for Violin. Feel free to post your answer on the splashes (comments) or the sediments (tags) here if you want to. I'll post the answers another day.

Easter Sunday - Any Easter Eggs for Me?

Easter Sunday
Well, just another usual Sunday for me. Anyway, this morning I went to the temple in the city area (very famous one, forgot the name already :P) to pray with my family, well, without my mother and my sister. My mother is working as a permanent part-time cashier in NTUC Fairprice, so have to work on Sunday, whereas my sister was just her usual self, lazing around at home... :P Well, just pray that I can pass my university exams with flying colours... :P Since we were in the city already, we just decided to have our breakfast at Maxwell.

Violin Matters
Yay, now we don't have to do Suzuki Violin volume 1 anymore. Anyway, we also manage to clear the 1st piece from Suzuki Violin volume 2, so just starting to do the 2nd one. Still attempting the same piece for the Violin Studies though. We were doing some of the Grade 2 scales as well (but for me, I need to know how to play all the required scales for Grade 2). For the Grade 2 Violin Exam pieces, I have to attempt it myself though, since I'm the only one in the class doing the exams.

Anyway, I just bought the Grade 2 Violin Exam pieces CD yesterday and went through all the pieces. I realised that their alternative pieces (those pieces that are part of the Grade 2 Violin pieces, but not publish in the Grade 2 Violin Exams book) are generally nicer than the the one from the exam book. Hmm... should have bought the CD much earlier, so that I can make my choices. One of alternative pieces, which is Märchen (Fairy Tale) by Kabalevsky (Piece B5), sounds quite sweet actually. Maybe I might do this instead of Moon Sprites by Carroll (Piece B3). Well, I'm going to learn Märchen (Fairy Tale) anyway by myself.

Lunch at NYDC
After my Violin lesson, I met up with my sister at Wheelock Place to have lunch at NYDC. Well, she went to a gym with her friends at California Fitness before that. Anyway, I ordered a mushroom and ham baked rice. It tasted quite nice actually, maybe you might want to try that when you are free.

Dinner at Genki Sushi
My family decided to celebrate my sister much earlier instead, as my mother and my sister will not be quite free next week, which is my sister birthday. Anyway, we decided to have our dinner at Genki Sushi at United Square. The concept is kind of like Sakae Sushi, with the conveyor belt transporting the sushi and the food. Aynway, I also ordered an udon as well. Hmm... the udon is kind of salty... need to drink a lot while eating.

Think I ate a bit too much there, can't really walk properly after we finish our dinner and left the place. Haha.. when comes to all these kind of food, I can be a glutton, go and eat as much as I can...

The Newpaper Big Walk - For Those Who Sign Up with Me

The Newpaper Big Walk
For the 6 people who sign up with me for the Newpaper Big Walk, I have collected the items from the SPH News Centre.

As I need to fill up the lucky draw coupon over there, this means that I have set aside the tag number for you all (sorry, can't choose the tag number, if I can, I'll definitely let you choose). Anyway, I'll tell you your tag number here, for those people who want to know.

Tag Number
12116 -> Ming Zhi (Me!)
12117 -> Shi Qing
12118 -> Dezhi
12119 -> Wei Qiang
12120 -> Tsuan Hsiu (Roger) (Might not be coming)
12121 -> Wenhao
12122 -> Kai Quan

Sadly, Roger might not be able to join us for the Big Walk, because he might be going back to Taiwan during that time, so that leaves only 6 people. Never mind, I'll try to get more people to sign up.

I'll try to give you the items as soon as when I can meet you. Well, I might be giving the items to you during Haohan's chalet, so hopefully you might come for the chalet (well, I'll be going). Just to let you know, all the shirts come in the same size (haven't open yet, so I don't know how big the shirt is, hopefully it's a free size shirt).

Also, remember to bring your coupon booklet on the day of the Big Walk itself, so that you can claim your goodie bag.

For those people (especially my camp-mates) who want to sign up for TNP Big Walk, but haven't sign up yet, No Problem! Just come for Haohan's birthday chalet, and I'll give you the paper application form for you to sign up. I'll help you to send in the application.

If you have any questions, feel free to put down your comments or your tags here.

Holy Saturday - A Busy Day for Me...

Collecting TNP Big Walk Things
I just received an e-mail from Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) to ask me to collect the Big Walk items at the SPH News Centre (somewhere near Toa Payoh). Well, since I can only make it today, so I decided to make it the point to go to SPH News Centre. Since the place is near to my house (I can see the logo of the building very clearly from my bedroom), I decided to take a walk from my house to the news centre.

Over there, the person gave me a big envelope of items (the envelope is about B2 size), which contains 7 Big Walk shirts, 7 coupon booklets and 7 number tags (with lucky draw coupon attach to it). As I had to fill in the lucky draw coupon over there, I had to set aside the number tags for the 7 people (including me) for the Big Walk. I'll tell you the details in the next blog entry.

Since I have things to carry back home, I decided to take the train from Braddell to Bishan instead.

Apply for the new ATM Card
After putting down my things, I ten went out again to the POSB bank at Funan the IT Mall. I went to the branch there because the Bishan branch is closed for upgrading, and this is one of the POSB branch that opens until evening on Saturday. Well, the POSB bank at Funan is also closed for upgrading, but they change the POSB auto-branch to a bank (the ATM machines are placed outside for the time being).

The queue was quite long when I went there, but there was a person standing outside there promoting the new ATM Card, which is the POSB GO! ATM and Debit MasterCard. Well, I then approach the person and he ask me for my identity card and my POSB ATM card and write down the application form for me. He said that the card will be sent to my house in a few days time, meanwhile I can still use my blue ATM card until the new card comes in. Well, sadly this means that I cannot use my blue ATM card anymore, but never mind, I still get to keep it anyway, just like my grey POSB ATM card.

Well, since I was at Funan, I decided to look around for any games I would be interested in. Well, nothing much of my interest, so I left the place and went to Plaza Singapura

Fasting?
Initially, I thought of skipping lunch as well, but since I had to walk around quite a lot, and I didn't have my breakfast at all, I then decided to settle down at Yoshinoya and had my lunch there first. Well, too bad I can't really fast today, but never mind, I have eaten quite little for today. Anyway, I decided to have a meal to replenish the energy I have burnt from all those walking I did just now.

Flute - Another tktk (Double-Tongueing) Exercises
Well, today Jasmine was present for the Flute lesson. Well, she said that she had to prepare for performances for the school event last week, so she was not able to come. Johanna was not here today because of the school perfomances she had to prepare. Hmm... think Johanna and Jasmine can make really good sisters...

Anyway, we had our double-tongueing practices for Flute lesson. Kind of tiring and boring, and it's quite difficult as well. I don't really like to do double tongueing exercises. It just make your cheeks, your tongue and your mouth tired. Whenever I double-tongue, the sound will usually come out funny. Just don't really know how to do it.

Since Johanna was not here today, and Michelle had to catch a movie with her friends, we then decided not to buy the Crispy Chicken to eat today. Well, anyway, I decided to bought the one from Junction 8 instead. Well, just feel like eating one, think I must be quite obsessed with junk food... :P

Good Friday - It's So Good that It Rained...

Good Friday
It is the day that commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus. Still remember when I was still in primary school, or secondary school, the pastor would tell us the stories related to that. Can't really exactly remember the story though.

Anyway, Good Friday is just a public holiday for me. Just slack at home, and idle around my bed. I'm just feeling so tired today that I don't even want to get off from my bed. Well, too bad I have to go out to have my breakfast, or else I would sleep until much later.

POSB GO! Enhanced ATM Card
While surfing around just now, I happened to chance upon the POSB GO! card. Well, think they came out with this car just recently. According to the POSB site, this card has MasterCard Privileges, which means you can just use the card like any other ordinary MasterCard, which can be used in stores locally and worldwide which accept MasterCard. It also has the usual ATM benefits, which means you can use this card like an ATM card, and there's no card fee as well.

Well, basically, it is something like a Debit MasterCard. It has almost similar features as the normal POSB Debit MasterCard. The upside is that you don't have to pay any annual fee or card fee for the POSB GO! card, while the normal POSB Debit MasterCard requires you to pay $18 every year, unless it is your first 3 years of the application of the card, or you swipe the card at least 18 times a year. The downside? Well, you cannot use the POSB GO! card to do internet or mail-order-telephone-order purchases, whereas the normal POSB Debit MasterCard can be used for those purposes.

Anyway, I think I will apply for the POSB GO! card, because the card looks quite nice, which is blue in colour with a simple and nice design, unlike the normal POSB Debit MasterCard, which is just plain orange to yellow in colour. Moreover, it also fit into my card collections in my wallet because of the colour. Well, my POSB ATM card, UOB ATM card, UOB Visa TX Debit and UOB Visa Mini are generally blue in colour, so a POSB GO! card would really fit in nicely. :P

Debit Card
Well, what's the difference between a credit card and a debit card, some people might ask. Bascially, credit card and debit card are somewhat the same, just that for credit card, you pay your bills monthly, while for debit card, they just deduct straight from your bank account, something like NETS.

Ok, so what's the difference between debit card and NETS card, some might ask. NETS card is an online debit card, which is essentially an enhanced ATM card, which requires the person to use his personal identification number (PIN) authentication in order to make purchases, while debit card is an offline one, where the person is required to sign after making purchases. For debit card, it requires a few days for the purchases to be reflected on users’ account balances.

So, anyone intending to apply for any debit card? Don't know which one to apply? Well, I have to say that the one of the best debit card to apply is the UOB Visa Mini debit card.


Picture from UOB Group.

It may be just small in size, but the privileges are big. It's bigger in addition to the UOB debit card privileges. There's also no annual card fee for that as well. You can even use your card to do NETS purchases as well, that is if you choose to do so. Well, the downside is that you can't use this card on an ATM machines, or any machines that requires to insert your card inside, due to the size. Well, never mind about the ATM machines, I'm sure you will have your ATM card along with you, right?

Generally, UOB have strong debit cards (as well as credit cards). It offers many privileges and discounts locally here, especially food discounts and shopping discounts. Well, if you are that kind of person that like to eat a lot, maybe you can consider any UOB cards. But remember to take note how much you spent, especially for credit cards.

POSB Debit are somewhat quite useless, since they don't offer much discounts and privileges. Anyway, I applied of POSB Debit because I also wanted a MasterCard in my wallet (UOB Debit are all Visa or Visa Election only). DBS Debit and OCBC debit aren't that attractive as well in terms of that, and are not as good in my opinion, unless you are in NUS or NTU. Well, maybe someone can verify that, since I don't own DBS or OCBC debit cards? HSBC and Maybank only have about 1 type of debit card (if I'm not wrong), so... Maybe there might be a few privileges, but too little choices... Maybe someone could verify that as well?

By the way, before you apply for any debit card, you need to have an account for that bank first to link to (or else how are they going to deduct your money), so if you don't have a bank account there, you need to open one, or you can't really use the debit cards from there.

Well, maybe you could request a supplementary card from your parents? The supplementary card is a credit card, but it is link to someone else, which is usually your parents, or your close one. The bill will be billed to the person that links the card to you.

Just to say that my main account is the POSB account. My UOB account is just only a TX account, which is specially use for VISA purposes.

The Miz Quiz: How is it going?

The Miz Quiz
Any feedback on the quiz you want to give me? Anyway, this is the first time I'm creating the quiz about myself in Microsoft Excel.

I might come up with other quiz, puzzles or anything in this form next time. So, do check out this blog.

Anyway, don't get too upset if you get a D, or even an E.

For those who get a D, no worries, according to the type of possible friendship statues, you are still my friend.

For those who get an E or F, no worries, I'm still your friend.

There's no pass or fail for this quiz, by the way.

Any Challenges for Me?
If you come up with any quiz for me to challenge, feel free to do so. Post any quiz you make on this blog by putting down your comments or your tags.

:-(

Scared
I'm really scared now... What should I do?

I'm scared that I might perform badly...

I'm scared that I might neglect something, which results in great trouble...

I'm scared that I might forgot something important that I need to do...

I'm scared that I might break it...

I'm scared that I might pay $3000+...

I'm scared that I might need to pay compensation, which might not be affordable for me...

There's no one to talk to...

There's no one to share my problems...

There's no one to share how I feel...

What should I do?

The Miz Quiz: How Much Do You Know?

The Miz Quiz
How much do you know about me? Download the quiz here.

The Miz Quiz

I created this quiz in Microsoft Excel format. The total score for this quiz is 100 marks. There are 40 questions to be answered. Once you finish, click on the "Score" tab at the bottom to check your score.

Score
The total score is 100. There is also Grade, Types of possible friendship from the score you obtain, and also the remarks (don't take the remarks too seriously, especially if you done very badly). Let see how much you can get. Anyway, I won't be able to know your score, unless you tell me.

Anyway, no matter what score you get, I'm still your friend. :)

A Step Closer to University

Medical Examination at UHWC
Actually, I could have forgotten to go for the medical checkup, as the letter was being sent at the beginning of the year. It's only when I decided to reapply for the university courses, then I realised I need to for the medical examination for admission to National University of Singapore (NUS).

They as set aside dates of medical examination for different courses. Mine happened to be the very first day, which is today. Those NSF with reserved places and are enrolling in academic year (AY) 2006-2007 doing Medicine, Dentistry, Economics & Law, Materials Science & Engineering, Computer Engineering (School of Computing) and Applied Science are to go for the medical examination today at University Health and Wellness Centre (UHWC) in Yusof Ishak House (which is inside NUS).

Since I do not know anyone doing those courses as mentioned above, I had to go for the thing myself. Heng I still can find my way there.

The medical checkup/examination is kind of like the one we did before going in for National Service (at least they don't check on your body thoroughly), without dental checkup. They don't have the X-ray machine inside UHWC, so they will bring us to Bukit Batok Polyclinic to have our X-ray done (no worries, transport will be provided to the polyclinic). After that, we can choose to go back home from the polyclinic, or go back to NUS and go back home from there.

Basically, this medical examination is just somewhat similar to the one we had done previously. Oddly, when I went there just now, there wasn't much people inside. Maybe because of the small number of Medicine and Dentistry students, and also this is for NSF who reserved their places in NUS.

NUS Union Camp 2006 - Should I Go?
After the medical examination, there's 2 people from NUS Students' Union (something like our JC Student Counsellor) approaching me, and ask me whether I want to sign up for the Union Camp 2006, which is held from 11 July to 15 July. Well, I don't whether I should go or not. The leaflet says that there's "extreme fun not to be missed". Well, I don't know how extreme is extreme. I afraid they might come out with some funny ideas, which could be worst then the JC orientation that we have. Anyway, I'll see how is it first. See if anyone I know of joining this camp.

Anyone want to join this camp?

Weight: No Change
While taking height and weight in UHWC, I noticed that my weight still remains as 59kg. That's odd, I haven't been exercising much this year, and I seemed to be eating a lot of junk food recently. Thought there should be a significant amount in an increase in weight... Well, I supposed I might have skipped too many meals, or maybe because I'm losing out all my heavy muscles, and gain some fats, that's why my weight still remains the same.

Healthy Lifestyle
Anyway, I'll be joining the Newpaper Big Walk as part of the healthy lifestyle. I'm also started to take the stairs up instead of taking the lifts, from the 1st storey to the 8th storey (just for your information, I ALWAYS walk down the stairs from 8th storey to 1st storey, only use the lifts down when I have things to carry).

By the way, I can help people to sign up THe Newpaper Big Walk as a fun-walker, so those interested can SMS me your particulars.

Coming Up: The Miz Quiz

Coming up soon, The Miz Quiz. How much do you know about me? Take the quiz and you will know.

Uploading the quiz soon. Check out the blog!

Let's Start Walking

The Newpaper Big Walk 2006
Anyone wants to take part in this event? I'll be taking part as a fun walker.

For those people who are interested, the event is held on 21st May 2006 (Sunday), from 7.30am. The walk is 10km long. Registration fee for fun-walker is $4 per participant, while the fee for competitive walker is $5 per participant.

For those going to take part as the competitive walkers, please take note of the rules and regulations.

You can visit the TNP Big Walk 2006 website for more information.

So, for those that want to join me as a fun walker, please put down your comments or your tags here. You can send me an SMS message if you want to (you know my number... :P).

Sunday - Not Really a Special Day

Sunday
To some people, Sunday is somewhat an important day, because Sunday is usually a resting day. Maybe not really for people like me without jobs. Well, to me, Sunday is just another day to let it pass. While I'm still in the army, I will cherish my Sundays to do something more fruitful, more meaningful or anything, since I'll be spending another 5 days in camp and wait for the next book out. Currently, the things that I do on Sunday are just have my breakfast with my family in the morning, then to attend my Violin lesson in the afternoon. Basically, nothing much. Well, maybe I'll try to look out for something to do during Sunday, or maybe buy more games to play...

Violin
We still play quite badly for the Gavotte from Suzuki Violin volume 1. Well, maybe we didn't practise enough, but those parts with semiquavers can be difficult to handle, especially when we have to play the pieces quite fast. I'll put up a picture to illustrate this.



The pizzacato (plucking) part can also be quite difficult to handle, especially when we are not really trained to change from arco (bowing) to pizzacato smoothly.

Anyway, the teacher decided to give up this piece on us, since we have been doing this for so long, yet there isn't much improvement on us. Well, that's good news for me.

Lunch?
Well, not much appetite to have lunch. Initially, I just wanted to eat the Crispy Chicken from Ke Kou Wei at Plaza Singapura, since I didn't really have that chance to eat that yesterday, but I would also like to try the afternoon snacks from Yoshinoya. Well, when I started having my so-called lunch (which is by right afternoon snacks to them) at Yoshinoya, it's already 3.30pm. Well, who says you can't have lunch at that time. I even had lunch at 4+pm before (not really sure if I really had my dinner).

Well, at least there's something to eat. Anyway, the ramen is kind of like instant noodles, but at least it is better than the mee hoon soup that I had last time. The mee hoon soup is kind of hard and blend, so there's not much joy eating that... Well, you can try it out if you want to.

What about the Crispy chicken from Ke Kou Wei? Well, it is somewhat similar to the Crispy Chiken from Shilin, but they also add the sour plum powder onto the chicken, which makes it sweet, sour and spicy, that's why I'll usually buy them every week whenever there's chance for me to do so in Plaza Singapura. You can try it out if you want to.

Miz Presents...

Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? (Who thought up this little song?)
from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (A Young Magic Horn)
Hello, let me presents this sweet little song, composed by an Bohemian-Austrian composer, Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911). This song is written for a soprano voice (which is generally for a girl to sing), in German language. If I'm not wrong, it describes about this beautiful daughter of an innkeeper inside a house.

Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?
Dort oben am Berg in dem hohen Haus,
Da guckt ein fein's lieb's Mädel heraus,
Es ist nicht dort daheime,
Es ist des Wirts sein Töchterlein,
Es wohnt auf grüner Heide.

"Mein Herze ist wund,
komm Schätzel mach's gesund!
Dein schwarzbraune Äuglein,
Die haben mich vertwundt!

Dein rosiger Mund
Macht Herzen gesund.
Macht Jugend verständig,
Macht Tote lebendig,
Macht Kranke gesund."

Wer hat denn das schöne Liedlein erdacht?
Es haben's drei Gäns übers Wasser gebracht,
Zwei graue und eine weiße;
Und wer das Liedlein nicht singen kann,
Dem wollen sie es pfeifen.

Who thought up this little song?
Up there on the mountain, in a high-up house,
a lovely, darling girl looks out of the window.
She does not live there,
she is the daughter of the innkeeper,
and she lives on the green meadow.

"My heart is sore!
Come, my treasure, make it well again!
Your dark brown eyes
have wounded me.

Your rosy mouth
makes hearts healthy.
It makes young wise,
brings the dead to life,
gives health to the ill."

Who has thought up this pretty little song then?
It was brought over the water by three geese -
two grey and one white -
and if you cannot sing the little song,
they will whistle it for you!
Translation by Emily Ezust

Too bad I can't put the song here due to copyright issues, but anyway, you can look out for this song if you are really interested.

Anyway, feel free to add in any description, or any thing about this song. The music itself is meant for a girl to sing, but based on the translation of the lyrics, I'm not really sure why a girl would sing this... Correct me if I'm wrong...

Sweet Ratings: 3 sweets out of 5

Saturday: The Fasting Day

Too Much Food!!!
Again, I got scolding from my mother for not having my breakfast at all. The thing is that since I'm just mostly at home idling around, what's the point for taking in more food when they are just going to be stored as fats? Anyway, I was really quite full even after I woke up, because they always like to give me a lot of food for dinner most of the time. One thing, my body can only take in up to a certain amount of food. Any more than that, I may start to puke or vomit. I think I must really start reasoning with my parents next time about breakfast.

Actually, I thought of skipping lunch and dinner as well for today, but I don't know if my stomach was able to take the sudden reduction of food. Well, so, I decided to have a lighter lunch and dinner instead.

Ok, since I have Flute lesson from 4pm to 5pm on Saturday, I usually have my lunch very late, which is about 3+pm. For dinner, I would usually buy the Crispy Chicken either from Shilin at Junction 8 or Ke Kou Wei from Plaza Singapura, since my stomach haven't really fully digest the food for lunch.

So, after some consideration, I decided to set Saturday as my fasting day, which means throughout the whole day, I will just be taking very light snacks. This means no breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday, only light food, snacks and tidbits. Anyway, I don't really care about the type of food, be it healthy or unhealthy, that goes inside the stomach, what really matters is the total amount of food for the day.

Well, I'll start my Fasting Day next week, and see how is it going.

Exercise Anyone?
Haven't been exercising for quite sometime. Sooner or later, I'm going to grow bigger in size (horizontally). Think that's going to be a nightmare if it really happens. If fact, if I don't do anything soon, I'm really going bigger...

Think it's time for me to go for a jog in a park, or to do some exercises in the gym. I'm looking for people to go for a jog, or train in gym with me. Anyone interested? Those interested can come and tell me, then we'll settle the dates and the times to exercise.

tktktktktktktktk- The Art of Double-Tongueing
Recently, we were being taught how to double-tongue on the Flute. Think I'm starting to face some problems with that. Generally, when I tried to double-tongue, my "k" will sound generally weaker than my "t". Moreover, one, either "k" or "t", would sound longer or shorter than the other, giving an uneven playing. Haiz... this is just so difficult...

Anyway, when you play the Flute, you will have to tongue, by blowing with a "tu", rather than "fu" (no-tongueing, just blowing across the flute only). That's because "tu" will give a clearer sound than "fu".

In order to play faster passages (without slurs), we have to double-tongue ("tu ku tu ku..."). Single-tongueing will not let us play fast enough for very fast passages, so we have to double-tongue to make it faster. Well, the problem is that I still can't really double-tongue quickly, making my double-tongue sound only as fast as my single-tongue. My teacher can double-tongue as if he's just vibrating his tongue. Wonder how long will I take to master that...

More Absentees
Today, both Jasmine and Johanna were absent from the Flute lesson. I supposed they have something on. So, that means I would have to go home myself again. Well, never mind about that, since I'm already used to it already.

Anyway, the lesson will still go on, even if I'm the only one coming to class for that day. Basically we were doing technical works from our pieces and studies. Heng we were not doing double-tongueing. I can't really stand practising double-tongueing for like 30 minutes. Your tongue and your lips will start to have cramps when you double-tongue... Ok, ok, think I'm just a little bit exaggerating here... :P

The Miz River Needs You!

The Miz River
Well, I just started The Miz River not long ago, so maybe you can help me out a little for this blog.

Anyway, I just added some colours to my "The Miz River" banner, so that it look more interesting, and at least slightly more distinctive from my banner of my older blog (MiZiBlog).

Birthday
Anyone have a list of birthdays? Be it the list of my classmates from my alma mater (Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary School, Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School, Nanyang Junior College), my bunk mates from the army, or my classmates from Flute/Violin lessons, feel free to e-mail them to me.

You can also tell me your birthday by putting down your splashes (comments), or leave your sediments (tags) here.

Interesting Links?
If you have any interesting sites to recommend, feel free to tell me, and I see if I can link the site from my blog.

Any Bloggers?
For those people who have their own blog, and want me to link my blog to your blog, feel free to tell me your blog address. You can also link my blog from your blog as well if you want to.

Opinions/Comments to The Miz River
If you have any opinions or comments to make about my blog, or want me to add anything on the sidebar, feel free to tell me as well.

Thank you very much!!!

This Equals That?

Job Status
No job yet. Hmm... actually I'm considering taking some courses instead to upgrade myself. Well, let's see whichever comes first.

Are This and That the Same?
Well, I come up with this topic because there are some things that to some people looks alike. Well, let me start off with Oboe and Clarinet, which most of the people will get mistaken of with each other.

Oboe and Clarinet
Ok, whenever I visit Yamaha Music Shop to browse through the scores, I will always see people mistaken Oboe as an "expensive Clarinet". They will always comment on that "expensive Clarinets" about why they are priced between $3000 to $10000, while the real Clarinet only cost about $800 to $3000 (in average). It's only when they look at the price tag more carefully, which states the name of the instrument, when their friend correct their mistakes, or when they notice certain differences between the "expensive Clarinets" and the real Clarinets, then they start to know the "expensive Clarinets" are actually Oboes. Still remember Shengjie said that he can't really tell the difference between the Oboe and the Clarinet.

So far, I only heard of people mistaken the Oboes as Clarinets, BUT I haven't heard of anyone mistaken Clarinets as Oboes. Why? Because Clarinet is gaining its popularity around the world, in which now there are getting more Clarinettists. Very few people wants to learn the Oboe, due to the price of the instrument itself (generally about 3 times more than Clarinet). Also, Oboes are expensive to learn and very difficult to master. Frankly speaking, you will sound like a dying duck when you just starting Oboe.

How sad that there are so few Oboist currently. Well, actually I would like to learn the Oboe instead of the Flute, but because I do not have that money to learn that instrument, so I just learn the Flute instead.

Instrument	Oboe	Clarinet
Picture
Type of Reed	Double Reed	Single Reed
Bore	Conical	Cylindrical
Range	Bb3 to G6	E3 to G6 (Written pitch)

Pictures taken from Yamaha Music Corporation.
Range of the instruments are approximate. The lowest note is definite, but the highest note depends on the player himself/herself.

So, by comparing between those two pictures, you can see that there are differences in the bore, as well as the tip. There are also more keys and trill keys on the Oboe as compared to the Clarinet. Just for your information, the double reed of the Oboe is not shown on that picture.

Anyway, I think it will be better to compare the Clarinet with the Saxophone instead of Oboe, since both Clarinet and Saxophone are single-reed instruments.

Violin and Viola
These are the 2 instruments most people will get confused with, especially the Viola. People usually mistook the Viola as the Violin, as the are of the same shape. Actually, you can't really tell much of the difference between the Violin and the Viola, only if you are to compare them side by side, or by plucking the strings to listen to the tuning, then you will be able to tell the difference.


Picture from Wikipedia.

Generally, Viola is slightly larger than Violin, but we can't just judge between Violin and Viola by the size, since the 15-inch Viola is the same size as the full-size Violin. So, we have to hear the tuning and the timbre to tell the difference.

Still Jobless...

Jobless...
Sadly I still haven't found a job yet. Kind of feel bad when you had to have your parents giving you money. Haiz... maybe I should go for a long holiday like what some people do... But it's also important to get some job experience... Well, maybe I could get them through my Industrial Attachment? Anyway, since there's nothing much for me to do, I decided to post a blog today.

Gamecube Matters
Recently, I have being addicted to playing Tales of Symphonia. Well, it is a role-playing adventure game, where there are storyline as well. I really like the story very much. Initially, you may feel quite intense while playing the game, but after that, you may feel sad, especially when you choose the Kratos path, where you have to kill your ex-companion as he betrayed them.

Anyway, I just completed the game, so think I should do other things instead. If you don't know, I've been playing this game for from 9am to 1am continuously. I was playing so much on this game so that I could know what happen next, that I almost forgot about my meals until my mother came in and scold me. Ok, now, what game should I play next? Hmm... thinks my eyes are going to burn out sooner or later...

I was thinking of getting Zelda and Chibi-Robo, but well, I need to save up first before I can buy them. By the way, just for your information, there's NO pirated Gamecube games around.

I'm also currently playing Animal Crossing at the same time. What is it about, some people might ask. Well, basically, it's actually a game about life when you live in an Animal Crossing land, something like The Sims, but simpler and more cartoon-type. It's also real-time based, so there will be certain special events happening on the particular date (like New Year Day, etc).

Animal Crossing is also a game where you collects. Anyway, this is currently what I have up to now.
Airchecks (Music Midi): 16/55
Fishes: 28/40
Insects: 12/40 (Well, the insects are hiding during winter, what can I do?)
Paintings (for Museum): 13/15 (This one is buy luck, whether you can get them in shops or not.)
Fossils (for Museum): 25/25 (Completed) (Also by luck as well)

Happy Birthday, Weibin!!!

Violin
Finally, we are starting on Suzuki Violin School Volume 2. Kind of difficult to get through some of the pieces from Volume 1, like Gavotte by F.J. Gossec, where they are some quick semiquavers to handle with. Haiz... anyway, we still have to do Gavotte again next week... Hopefully we can clear that piece soon.

Anyway, about my Grade 2 Violin examinations, these are the pieces that I have chosen to perform.
A2 - Pezold: Menuet in G
B3 - Carroll: Moon Sprites
C1 - Anonymous (Irish): Napoleon Crossing the Alps
There might be some changes to it though.

Weibin's Birthday
Anyway, today is Weibin's birthday. Let us sing a birthday song for him first.

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to Weibin,
Happy birthday to you.

Since he like to play MapleStory, I decided to give him a MapleCash Card, with value of 10,000 MapleCash.

Ok, Hong Joo, Weibin and I decided to meet at Plaza Singapura for late lunch, since I have a lesson before that. After some consideration between Manhattan, Crsytal Jade, Secret Recipe, Ajisen Ramen and Swensen's, we decided to have lunch at Crystal Jade. Well, there no Xiao Long Bao pon the menu, which kind of disappointed Hong Joo, but anyway we ordered some noodles and sides to eat there.

After that, Weibin went to a gift shop and buy a birthday present for his friend, which happened to be today as well. So, he had to go to his friend's house to celebrate her birthday.

We also went to Carrefour to look around, and bought some food to eat. OK, think we have giant stomach which can hold a large capacity of food inside. Hmm... maybe should have gone for a buffet lunch instead.

Late Night Life

Late Night Movie
This is the first time that I'm watching the movie so late. Well, the thing is that most of the people are not free during the day, so I decided to meet them for a movie "Ice Age 2" late at night, at 11.30pm.

Acutally, I wanted to watch the movie either on 1.35am or 3.40am, but as DZ says that it's too late, we then decide on the timing of 11.30pm at Cathay building. Anyway, I meet ei Qiang, Dezhi and Shiqing's friend, Stanley, at Plaza Singapura. As usual, Shiqing would be late, so we told him to meet us at Cathay instead.

Well, didn't expect to have quite a lot of people watching midnight movie as well. Even though we were watching at theatre 1, which is said to be the largest theatre in Cathay of 500+ seats, the theatre was already half-filled when we were inside there.

As night buses were operated on Friday night and Saturday night, we then go home by taking the respective buses (Stanley and I on NR1, Wei Qiang on NR3, Dezhi and Shiqing on NR7). Well, WQ bus happened to arrive first, so Stanley and I thought that our bus would come any sooner. Well, the is that we waited for like another half an hour for the bus to come after WQ boarded the bus. Think the 3 of them would have reach home already when we just boarded it. Ok, there's more to it. After I alighted from the bus at Bishan, as I walk a few steps, I notice another NR1 just behind the bus that I boarded. Ok, now I get why the frequency of NR1 they stated on the bus stop is 15 minutes.

Flute
Think I haven't told you what are my choices for Grade 3 Flute, right? Anyway, these are the pieces that I would most likely perform for my exams.
A9 - Puccini: Are They Gone Now?
B10 - Sibelius: The Peace of Evening
C3 - Gariboldi: Study in F
There might be changes to my repertoire though.

Today, Jasmine was sick, so she was unable to come for the Flute lesson. As Johanna's mother was picking Johanna right after the lesson, this means that I have to go home myself. Well, never mind about that, since I'm old enough to go home myself. :P Anyway, we didn't buy the Crispy Chicken as usual after lesson, since one was absent, and the other have to go home first.

Ok, Michelle has this handphone there was shaped like a large lipstick. Well, there are no number pads on it, but there's something to turn on the handphone, so that when you make a phone call, or type a SMS message, you have to turn it to that number or alphabet. It was quite interesting though. Actually, I was wondering how long will it take to come out with an SMS message. Think that was not the phone for people that uses SMS extensively like me, imagine if all of the sudden people are to bombard me with messages and I've to reply them all.