Welcome to NBox!

Yesterday was Welcome Tea 2007. Other than the usual speeches, presentations and performances, the EXCO prepared a short promotional video clip. It's not very pro but they gathered pictures of all the events that took place in recent years, and combined with audio tracks to entice the freshmen to join the orchestra - kudos!

After the welcome tea was over, NUSCO's very own NBox opened for business. Like it's cousin K Box, NBox features all the basic karaoke features but with an added edge. Here's a quick review:

• NBox features projector screens. Its cousin uses TV screens that cater to a room of maximum 20 pax. NBox's projector screen display caters to auditoriums such as the one in CFA.
  

• NBox features 4.1 surround sound system. Combine that with a Reavey Bass Amp, no other karaoke system compares.
  

• One of NBox proprietary feature is live music. Forget about using a remote control to scroll through long lists of songs. In NBox, just say out the song title and the music starts immediately. It's that simple.
• With live music comes dynamic pitch and speed control. Depending on individual vocal range, the music changes its pitch automatically. And depending on individual singing speed, the music follows accordingly.

• The heart of the lyrics database is Baidu. The search is performed simply by saying out the song title. Once found, the lyrics is transferred to Microsoft Word and enlarged for easy-reading.
• Once the music starts, lyrics will also automatically highlight, just like any other karaoke system.

• In short, anyone who picks up a mic in NBox sings his/her heart out.
  

March Odyssey

It's been a while since there has been an entry here. Before this blog starts gathering cobwebs, here's an article which I obtained from CFA, written by Quek Yong Siu. It was published in their quarterly newsletter, artzone.

---------------

Reflections of the Concert
by Quek Yong Siu, President of Singapore
Association of Composers, and Vice Chairman
of Singapore Chinese Music
Article translated by CFA

March Odyssey by NUS Chinese Orchestra
11 March 2007 5pm
University Cultural Centre Hall, NUS

It has been a long while since I last heard the NUS Chinese Orchestra perform. March Odyssey was part of the four-week long NUS Arts Festival. A sense of familiarity swept over me, performance standards are significantly higher than ordinary amateur Chinese orchestras. The audience was greeted by a tremendous welcome - the Orchestra's opening piece, Heroic Conquest of the Dadu River, with its boundless and grandiose spirit.

The Lan Huahua Rhapsody
Erhu Solo: Lum Yan Sing
Resident Conductor, NUS Chinese Orchestra

This is the most anticipated piece of evening. It has been more than 10 years since Lum Yan Sing last took to the stage as a soloist. I came with a wary heart and fingers crossed!

His first note put my heart at ease immediately Twenty to thirty years ago. Lum was already a renowned international erhu soloist in the Chinese music circle. His impeccable techniques were and still are. leading industry standards. As a soloist, Lum possesses a more acute sense of the piece with commendable skills in speed, cleanness, clarity and pitch. Detached notes and tremolos pose no challenge for Lum - the piece was tackled effortlessly with professional ease and poise. Lum left the audience in awe, commanding immense respect for this veteran performer.

The Golden Peasant Flying Out of the Mountain
Percussion Ensemble

The first halt of the concert ended on a high note with this exciting performance by the Percussion Ensemble. Indulging in the versatility of percussion instruments and complex rhythmic structures, The Golden Peasant presented a mischievous, lively and merry scene. The performers adopted cheeky actions to complement the rhythmic modulations, drawing laughter from the audience. One of the most successful programmes for the evening!

Finale: The Red Flag Canal
Conducted by Lum Yan Sing

The finale item depicts the mega construction of the water canal from the mountains into He Nan province. Built by the He Nan people, the Red Rag Canal was a magnificent sight beyond human comprehension. I visited the sophisticated waterway some 10 years ago and have witnessed this supreme feat of human engineering. NUS Chinese Orchestra has epitomized this miracle through this finale piece under the baton of maestro Lum Yan Sing. Each movement gradually climaxes to the next, building up the tension to a wonderful explosion of grandeur.

The NUS Chinese Orchestra has a strong section of suona players. They stood out in terms of pitch and fullness. The erhu section is neat, has an accurate pitch although individual standards may vary. Overall, NUS Chinese Orchestra is very organized, disciplined and achieved a perfect pitch with perfect balance between the various sections. Individually, members have good standards with high potential. I feel that the orchestra deserves more opportunities to showcase their talents and release their potential to the fullest,

The only strange thing is most members are women. Where are all the men?

tension in lab

Today seems like a fan4 tai4 sui4 day- pple are out of sorts and breaking down and unsmiling. Chosen to escape and hide in the office. Problems are stress and admin screwups, but what can u do? Its ok to feel stressed and act like u feel stressed.

Just marvelling at how much there is to discover. From the first piece of information since birth- grapes are sweet; the sky is blue- up to now- rainbows are surreal; white rabbits have red eyes; mosquitoes can cause illnesses; air columns can produce music; money makes the world go round; frens come and go; wounds heal-, there's certainly alot to digest. And pple keep making mistakes and honing themselves for the next hurdles, and we eat live drink sleep. Life just goes, until someday u might be lucky to make it to the home. How much have u seen? you cant have learnt all, but time has worn off the energy and polished off the youthful anger to forbearance and passiveness. Not that one doesnt feel; jus not that much excess to go to the muscular exertions.

stared at the screen for a good 5min for some topic or theme to surface, but there was none. so.

saw the sunset on the way home. it was real fast, and quiet. unassumingly, the deep pink hemisphere dipped softly into the clouds, counting down to the next 24h when it would swing to tt spot again. it was v bright jus now, for a 7pm.

the earth spins, regardless who's there or not.

here's a qianbianti: is the subway(train) male/female?

think she doesnt read this blog, so.

knew her since jc. she was very eye-catching- big, fair, rimmed specs, always alone, sulking. went over to her one day after plucking up all the courage i had in me, and chibabom! we were the best of frens. we sat together, crapped tg, went for crazy meals- always hungry man- and we did other crazy things- like taking the first bus tt came our way then dropping wherever we wanted; staying late for co then creeping to the locker to retrieve our store of fruit rolls and energy bars and choclate teddies and eating and laughing our heads off.

but we were too alike, our tempers. easily ruffled. quarrelled countless times, but always managed to patch it up, somehow. but glass is still glass. too many reparations mar it. cracks and glue all over. stress lines and fracture planes dominate the clear surface.

now she tells me: think we better not meet. feel tt we cant click any more- over sms, not even thru phone. ouch.

haha. we both saw tt coming actuali, back in jc. cos we were so alike, we wouldnt give in. and we Kept forseeing the day when we would quarrel so badly we would hate each other forever. now we are not there yet, but here we are, frozen. to prevent THAt catastrophe from happening. wth.

heck.

梁老师实习的日子（一）

故事（一）

自从被分配到上午班后，总是会在巴士上看到实习学校的学生。我身旁的位子总是空的，因为。。。
学生甲：Oei! That one is teacher leh!!
学生乙：Huh!!! Really ah!??（难以置信）
学生丙：You sure you dare to sit beside a teacher?! Stand lah, stand lah...

早上的巴士不管有多拥挤，我身旁的座位永远是空的。。。。。。

故事（二）

以下是真实的故事，从一起实习的EMS同事那听到的。。。。
她为了了解所教的学生而要他们填写一张关于他们自己的活动纸。其中一道题是：
Name the 3 things that you fear the most.
学生丁这么写到： pontianaks, ghosts, teachers
原来老师和“妖魔鬼怪”是可以一起坐下来喝咖啡的。。。

round and round

ups and downs, far and near, successes and failures, order and chaos- chicken or egg? while modern scientists are now pondering over which gives rise to which- whether from randomness there arises systems- chinese philosophy has been toying with this idea nearly 2 millenia ago!

The way begets one; one begets two; two begets three; three begets the myriad creatures.

Tao Te Ching
Roughly translated, it probably means nothingness gave birth to something, that turned out to be the world as we see it.

Though not as rigorously defined in terms of equations like the modern science attempts to in creating the Chaos theory, there seemed to be this passive understanding(or aknowledgement of the lack thereof) of the workings of the universe and the respectful bowing to Fate, things beyond the means of man.

The mockery seems to be pointed towards man- after centuries of experimentation that allowed some realisation of the laws of nature, from discovering gravity to the absoluteness of light to the minuscule quantum world, which had at some point of time promised to be the ultimate theory each time, we are goaded deeper by our innate curiousity and tenacity, and now, we arrive at an old patch, that had previously been cast as merely a passive way of life and modified to be a means of healthy living. Are scientists on the verge of abandoning and admitting the flaws of previous indoctrination that experiments can be conducted in closed-systems, that it is possible to ignore small fluctuation that would occur in real life so as to get good numbers to work with that give nice simple equations, and take into account instead things as random as a cough or flap of a butterfly's wings?