马大-大摇 24/2/2010

Dayao happened on the 24/2/2010, and ended on the same night. (lame I know)
Anyway,
Took me several weeks' work to complete the 3 songs, and it ended within few minutes. That's probably the saddest thing in life.. severe preparation ended with complacency within the audience, but that didn't happen really.

第一首歌：手

对这首歌还蛮满意的。 但是听说ALEX 有弹错一些些， 造成了小小的遗憾。 歌手的演出很不错。 鼓手也没忘记东西， 所以我给这首歌打个6。5分。

第二首歌：断剑


我对这首歌抱着很大的期望，可能是因为对去年的中国风非常不满，所以今年带着一个一雪前耻的心态来编这首歌。
音乐一开始我就听到钢琴慢了，贝斯也慢了。 有点不爽。。但是后面就慢慢的进入应有的感情，让整首歌生动了起来。
到升KEY的地方，琵琶有点问题，但是我没听清楚，然后歌手也唱得非常好，弥蒸(抱歉没有你名字的ZHENG)RAP的也不错，最后观众的反应还不错，所以我也不追究了，打个8。5分吧！

第三首歌：如果你爱的不是我


这首歌也蛮好的，没出状况，歌手稳扎稳打，鼓手打得好，钢琴也OK，只有贝斯在后面弹漏了一些。。观众的反应热烈，只可惜这首歌放太尾了，很多观众都离席了，不然他们就可以听到如此动听的歌曲。 打个9。0分吧。

所以这次的大摇我给自己编的歌打了8。0分。 但是ALEX的歌我就不方便给予评论了。。因为我个人是觉得他编曲的方式与我的非常不同，玩法也不同。他比较属于SOLO乐手，我就比较SUPPORTIVE乐手。


今年大摇开幕GIMMICK非常有创意，是一架IPOD！


国民要吸美诗的血。。


哲伟努力的飙，，乐手也不甘示弱


佩雯风骚的样子。。


可爱的司议们。。感谢他们当晚带动气氛，讲了很多冷笑话。


断剑


吃蛇。。。



不要老去。。俊宾，CYNTHIA，阿海，美诗



大功告成！~


大摇08/09年度主席-李志伟


宇航


古代有文房四宝，大摇有大摇四老。。佩雯，MI ZHENG，我，阿SAM


凤凰


宝文

今年的大摇，我所背负的压力不多，但是看到JUNIOR们这么辛苦，令我想起了当年我一己之力背上乐手组长位子。。但是今年他们有三个乐手组长，所做出来的东西自然也比我的好。。所以今后必须要有至少两个组长，以便分轻负担。。
大摇画上了完美的句号，而我呢?明年还要不要再上台呢?那时一个非常头痛的问题。。。到时再看吧。。因为祥熙毕业了，我和弥弥还有一年，佩雯也毕业了。。唉。。。。我真的老了。。

*第一次用华语BLOG。。好累喔。。

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year, the biggest event in the Lunar calendar, falls on the 14th of February 2010 this year, in conjunction with Valentine's Day.

As always, we as children traveled back from our respective locations and gathered together for the final dinner of 2009 of the Lunar Calendar.



After meal, someone took out this roll of something that cracks when ignited.

*evidence laid bare*




But hey, our neighbours were way ahead of us in terms of firing up to the sky, polluting the midnight air. We did our part of polluting, and good for me it's only a bit. Next year, I promise, no more fire cracker, not even fire works.. it's polluting the atmosphere and making the 1st day of CNY even warmer.. totally covered in smog..
This year, however, I noticed a significant reduction of fireworks. Unlike previous years, the firework show started at 1130pm this year, and ended at 1235, earliest ever in memory..

1st day of CNY, my house was packed.. busy gila





An army of 40 adults with uncountable kids..


Cute kid





From right;Bro, Sis, Mom, Dad, Myself




Anyway, I read the latest Discovery Magazine, and there was this article about Hobbits, a potentially new species of hominid existed in Indonesia. This species of hominid is believed to stand at one meter tall, weighing around 30 kg. 1 question: why were they so small?

There was this theory about Pangaea, and that divided islands normally preserve ancient species, such as marsupials in Australia, and Lemurs on the Madagascar. And so the Hobbits were a part of human evolution that was separated from the main colony during the division of Pangaea.
Also discussed was the discovery of Ardi, which I mentioned before, a 4.4 million years old specimen unearthed in Ethiopia last October.. it is the oldest hominid specimen ever found, and so Ardipithecus ramidus is considered as the ancestor of both the Hobbits and Homo Erectus.

So how did the Hobbits go extinct? On islands where Komodo Dragons roam freely, volcanoes and earthquake ready to erupt at any time..Did modern human ever encounter a Hobbit? Or did they go extinct because of the arrival of Homo Erectus? Or did they fall prey to Neandethals instead of Homo Erectus??

I couldn't remember all the details though.. was reading it on the plane back to Sibu.. Anyway this edition also showcased some Kenya cyclist stuff and also panda conservation thingy..
quite a good read.
But as we celebrate the coming of the year of the Tiger, we should not be overwhelmed by the festive mood, as I discovered when I was browsing through the Nat Geo website. There were too much thing to record really, as I really need to read this again next time, but I was simply too busy to type in anything useful. And this, is what I meant by overwhelmed.. intoxicated..

And am going back KL this Sunday, 21/2/2010..and DAYAO IS ON THE 24TH!!! A bit nervous la bro...

Happy Chinese New Year 2010...

=)
Malcolm

Returning Home..

Sibu, the place I call home.
Never in my life I thought I would miss this place. This small, fragile, filthy place.
Today, 12.2.2010, I'm going home for Chinese New Year.

On way to KL Sentral, and there was a massive jam there so I took the time to capture the buildings around.


Inside the KLIA express. Took 28 minutes + RM35


She's enjoying the ride~


Upon reaching KLIA



Bought a Discovery Magazine at KLIA


Kuching International Airport


Meal on board


She's busy watching movie


“最后一首歌要不要弹?”
安娣， 我知道你懒惰啦。。。


There are some massage chairs in KIA, and it is written there "no free seating"


Can be observed clearly from the photo that there are some ignorant Sibu ppl sitting on those chairs. Really ignorant la...

Anyway now that I'm home I'm really..... speechless. The food is nice. The shower is nice. Bedroom is nice(full of my scent).
Anyway Dayao is right after CNY (on the 24th Feb), and am planning to participate in the Aiesec Go Exchange Program and also Cheeseman Essay competition.. Am doing the latter two because I may not have chance for all this soon.. really have to appreciate every opportunity that comes by.

By the way, am delighted by the progress of Dayao now, cuz Siang Xi's band is almost done except for the theme song, Jason's band is steady~ his metal is done, not sure about instrumental. My band is done, just require extra polishing, and Alex....hmm...not satisfying but overall is quite ok. Hence I can say that this year the band system is doing well. Everyone's putting in effort to make it a success, except for Siang Xi, as he himself admit. He is, again dragging his assignments to the final hour.. My band, ok ok la~... Alex.. hm..need more attention on "Meng". Jason's band should be okay~ I haven't seen Jason's band and Siang Xi's band, but according to Siang Xi, Jason's band is stage-ready~! yEah~ good job ppl!

Anyway, Chinese New YEar is...The day after tmrw~
Happy Chinese New Year 2010 =)


Malcolm

Senior Junior

Had a decent talk with Siang Xi last nite~
Talked about song arranging(technical stuff), gossiping bout some ppl, talked about his future, and things are just right between us, just like mixing tea and milk producing excellent teh tarik

He plans to pursue a career in music, which is excellent, and he's planning 2-3 years ahead. If everything else fail, he will get back to teaching piano, and at the same time learning Jazz music. Anyway both of us agreed that some song makers are at times, annoying; i.e demanding this and that and giving us impractical solution. He's having hard time putting the theme song together, but I guess he should be able to deal with it anyway. Luckily I'm given only 3 songs, so yea haha :P

Anyway we also talked about the future of dayao, I can see that even the execs this year are still very dependent on us the seniors. Hmm... we are now merely members pal..we can offer our advice if u need us, but pls don't treat us like "hey where are this and that? Why are they not coming?"
well...I'm just another member of dayao now..how should I know? it's the band manager's job to get everyone to practice...
And also, there was someone who knocked one of the acoustic guitar at the bandroom yesterday and Clement isn't happy about it. It's a serious knock really, cuz the paint job was spoiled. And it was the senior i.e me who did the talking. Honestly I was kinda disappointed with the exec on duty because obviously they didn't care, like...it's none of their business. They worried more about the performance of the singers and their tutorial than their deteriorating relationship with the bandroom owner. It wasn't until I told them how serious the matter could turn out to be that they seemed worried.

Anyway, Siang Xi also got to brag about his keyboard Yamaha MO-6. It's an excellent keyboard really. And I got to brag about mine too Yamaha RGX 12125 :P Talked about some ppl who are proud, who improved a lot, who were unexpectedly good, etc... There are some juniors that surprised us this year, esp the drummer. We expect him to succeed the post of music exec (Jason are u reading this wuahahaha). He's mixing well with his bunch of frens, and "fren" is the main reason why we all chose to stay in dayao..
Other than that, there are also some junior musicians who failed to shine.. they are just..not good enough. And there are even some arrogant dudes who eventually got left out. I didn't know the whole story until last night hahaha~~

We talked crap until 2am, and yea.. he still amazes me although he's good. but he's lazy :P



=)
Malcolm

Cow Dungs

I'm really in love with my camera. Although there are times when I feel tired just to get the damn battery out and to move the pictures, but capturing captivating moment is much satifying than expected.




Anyway I saw an article in TIME magazine, about saving the environment. Interestingly it contradicts what most people believe; eat less beef to save the ozone.


Well this is their argument: cow emits methane due to their diet, which consists of roots, grass, potatoes, and virtually any plants. But if we limit its diet to only fresh, green grass, the level of methane emitted will reduce significantly.

As for me, I personally think that the method utilized by the Chinese Government to use methane cow dungs to power up rural houses is absolutely brilliant..

It's not an entirely new method though, but the Chinese government elevated their endeavor into subsidizing every family to install one of those tank (not all la...partial subsidy)
Firstly the animals answer nature's call and the defecate flows into a tank. In the tank the "soup" will undergo fermentation process, and produce methane. The gas will be lead by an outlet on top of the tank into the house to be used as cooking gas. I wonder whether the food will actually smell like the "soup"...

This is a fairly simple concept, and yet our government has yet to do something about it. We have hydroelectricity, biomass is readily available too.
Question: Can we use chicken dungs to produce biomass?
Answer: of course you can. Well to be honest, a single cow dung weighs as much as a chicken. How many chickens do u need to produce the amount of dung that a cow produce in a single excretion?

Anyway that was just random.

Dayao preparation

Right.. So Dayao is 2 weeks away.
My songs are 60% done, and yea.. sense of accomplishment is blooming in me.
Firstly the Chinese song isn't bad, the other 2 are pop, so yea... pops are always simple.. and 1 thing with all my songs, they all involves modulation.. so I'm the u-must-find-him-if-u-wan-your-songs-to-be-modulated guy. Modulation is good, it creates a wave of excitement, a climax for a song. But given a chance, I wont desire to have a song modulated..

The singers are better than last year, in terms of attitude. This year I hear no more complaints about singers forgetting lyrics, but the quality of their voices really drops.
Musician wise, we are lacking of drummers, bassists, guitarists. Yet I guess things are just fine because everyone can play pop, even the lousy ones, so yea.. Pop songs are ok. Chinese style song, in my opinion, is better than any other songs in this Dayao, because it blends RnB and Chinese instruments, much like Jay. Some might say we're copying, well there are only 13 notes in a scale, and there are so many musicians in this world. Chances are that we might end up having the same 1st line or 2nd line. But luckily only my 1st line is the same as one of his songs.

Chinese new year is a week away, so everyone's pushing their limit during this final week to get their things done. As always, Siang Xi is late again. But I guess he still maintains his quality.
As for Jason's band, I wouldn't want to comment there in the bandroom, because I'm not in the position to do so (somehow, I will still say it here, this is my blog wat). I guess they are kinda over-ambitious... cuz they take 5 songs, and so far only 3 are done.. and they are doing heavy metal and instrumental. Hm... as a senior I would say it's not a wise move.. as they have no musical basic, trying to make a instrumental within 2 weeks from now?? Hm.. not that it's impossible, but it's very very difficult to make one that is nice. No offence, I ain't looking down upon your talent, you guys are talented people, BUT let's face it... talent can only you thus far.. Taking 5 songs with 1 instrumental.. Perhaps 3 songs would be a better choice don't you think so?
Perhaps dividing me and Alex would be a better choice, then we would have 4 bands. And since Alex is kinda good at doing instrumental then probably should leave it to him. But doing this would create another problem: lacking musicians.. well then you should blame the publicity bureau for failing to publicize the recruitment drive last year. I talked about this yet I didn't see anything being done. So I assume my advice is ignored, or heard-but-not-listened.

Anyway, wont blame you guys for ignoring me at the first place, cuz you all are inexperience in handling an organization this big.. so yeah.. learn it the hard way =)

Lee Farn


Ying Chao

Ya Shan


Xiao Zhuang

Ah Hai

=)
Malcolm