Yodeling Yodeling.. !!

I returned home just now feeling very much satisfied with myself. I'd sang a lot this weekend. Marcus painstakingly put together a book of songs recently and compiled a cd with all the sample MP3 and backup music for them. I can't denied my excitment to listen to them and to try my best to copy certain styles. I've never really taken a liking for opera. They didn't make sense to me. But as the days went, the more I listend to Marcus and his singing, and all the other sampling of fantastic tenor voices; being induced with a growing interest is inevitable.

I have a lot of things to improve in my vocal techniques. Began teaching choirs for like 11 years ago with zero knowledge. Along the way, there were much help to what a choral sound should sound like. I strongly advocate the belief in "Musically Sound Common Sense" and of its approach to musical interpretation. I believed that we don't have to be professinally trained all time. But boy was i wrong. I realised over the years that, some time, we do need to extra professional advice from somebody who does know their stuff.

I came from a wind band background and playing french horn and flute took up nearly another 8 years of my time. Never could I imagine that I would be working so hard on my vocal works, to master that musical instrument which is nearer to my soul. I very happy that I am improving. Along the way, Marcus had identified certain wrong techniques which I'd adopted, and some other things to polish on. Same as my other "vocalistic" friends, they had identified the same set of problems with my voice.

Basically, I lack air support, the high ringing and projectivity of a tenor voice, the italian/german flavor to opera and lots of other things. It takes time but I guess I will get there.

Semplice Simon

Things We Don't need at 30

One good thing about aging, is that when you come to a ripe "old" age of 30, you realised that you have put up with many nonsensical things in life. Finally, you put down your foot on it all and says to yourself, regardless of the consequences, I just don't need this anymore. On contrary to people who would think that they would cherish people and their sentiments more when growing older. I don't really think that works for me at this time. In fact, I have recently come to a conclusive end to a few good individuals in my life.

Not that I hate this people. But after a very very long period of time over years. It just seems that there are problems and hurdles which cannot be crossed. They keep coming back. And it makes one wonder whether anything objective or beneficial may result from this mad pursuit of harmony and peace in a human to human relationship. Do we need this at all, really? I am not too sure about that anymore. If it doesn't work for me, and it is not worth the trouble, and can be easily replaced with something of weightier significance and importance. Why not? Let's call it quits then. Perhaps the question is not really whether we need certain people in our lives, but rather do we need each other at this present moment? If a relalationship does not transact to a mutually profitable and edifying exchange of feelings and emotions, I dare say, we don't need it at all.

The other side of the coin would be this : would we be going from person to person, friend to friend, trying to find that few that can be included in our inner circle of friends. We would then seek a pleasing and harmonious relationship with that few elite while dumping everybody else that comes along first with their first signs of offence? Again I must insist, that my theory might work and is excusable. It took me many years to finally come to these conclusion about some people. Is that a good reason to justify life without them?

Semplice Simon

Statistics and Probability

Mathematics happened to be one of my favorite subjects in Sec. School. I easily scored top marks in my school for mathematics and the crazy old bag of a maths teacher seemed to like me alot. He invited me and MZ quite often to his house for a time of "discussion" on his mathematics solving skills and stock market strategies. (ie. I could never understand the latter) There was one particular part of maths which I never really could grasp well. Yeap.. StateyProbs.. My maths teacher never ceased to amaze me on how important, Stats and Probs can be. The light hearted examples being in playing Cards, poker, casinos and mahjhong! Stats and Probs plays a very important part in these games. Game Theory they called it? I was never too fascinated with it. Stats and Probs to me, had always been a very abstract branch of maths.

They basically calculate how "it could have been" s.. and what "it could become" s.. Don't make sense? Yeah.. it's doens't make sense to me either. I'm not trying to downplay this department but maths to me, should be something very precise and used for evidential purposes. In other words, to solve, prove and reason. Stats and Probs draws more grey areas than the black thick lines.

My colleague recently shared about the possiblity of striking gold if we have a thousand dollar to spare, keeps buying the same set of numbers for 4Ds.. It seems incredible and yet logical to me that it will work in the long run. After a chat with Marcus, I was put in a clearer perspective that, of all the scenarios availing from a 1000 dollar bill. Each number is of equal possibility. The only real difference, the how much one can spare to buy 4D, and how greedy, obsessed, determined, desperate etc .. a person can be. No matter how one tries to use Stats and Probs to plot out a winning streak for 4D and ToTo, the underlying reason can always be a simple human illogical obesession in striking gold.

Well, that's that. The last time I tried to use Stats and Probs, I was playing BlackJack in a friend's house during Chinese new. I manage to win back what I lost. Now that's, putting maths into pracitcal use.

Semplice Simon

Not A Very Good Friday

Friday was really a non event for me. Year after year Good Friday had been the same for me. Guess the only real difference this year, was that I was partaking service in another church. I left my church last year, and had since joined Cal BP for the past 1.5 years. I sang in the choir today. Two different songs. In my opinion, it was quite average. Wasn't that fantastic. Our second song "O Love that will not let me go!" was not that easy to do. The choir did not spend too much time working out the details also. I guess it's partly my conductress' father who's critically ill with lung cancer. I see her quite distracted nowadays during practice.

That's not the highlight of the day though. I met up with Marcus after service at Tiong Bahru Market for supper. On the way, we notice an accident on the road . Not having a clear view of the situation, I asked Marcus whether he should be helping.. Before I can clearly analyse any "extra-ordinarily troubling" implications, he jumped out from my car and dashed over the the scene of the accident... "OOOOooo my hero!!" LOL. I parked my car quickly (and illegally) and quickened my steps towards the junction. Woh.. the man, in his late forties, was lying on his side in a pool of blood fresh emerging from his mouth and nose..He had visible scratches, cuts and bruises all over. Laying on his side in an odd angle, he must have broken a few things. There was a mangled bicycle some distance off. Judging from the situation, the taxi crashed into the front of it and sent the man flying.

I was a bit shaken at the sight. I've never seen so much blood before. Especially in an accident. But surprisingly, a few things really hit me. Quite a number of people came forward to help. There were people redirecting traffic, calling the police and ambulance, putting up the sign boards to block the victim from oncoming vehicles, someone brought a roll of toilet papers to clean up the man etc etc.. Marcus decided it was best not to move the body as it might aggravate the injuries.

We waited a good ten minutes before the ambulance arrived. Marcus gave his SOP medical report to the CDF Medics, and off they went. We proceeded on with our supper for the night. Nothing much we could have done for the poor man besides praying hard that he had escaped the death that night.

What really struck me was the amount of fear and panic in the taxi driver's voice when he called his friend. He broke into tears. I am sure nobody had wished for this horrible accident, but I cannot help imagining myself or my friends in any of the three situations ie. The person who caused the accident, the victim of the accident, or the relatives and friends for both two cases. It had been a traumatising night. But it was really quite an experience.

Semplice Simon

Displacing my BLOG (Happy 7th Month Blog Anniversary)

I wish to announce this glad tidings of joy!! HO HOOOO HOOOO!!! With effect from today, I would be changing BLOG address! Meaning to say, I would cease to post in this address and will thus propel my blog once more into an unknown address. Into the obscure cyberworld where anybody can read it...

So if you are interested in knowing what's happening in my life lately .. CALL ME!! Goddamnit!!!! :P

Anyway, that's that.

Semplice Simon ( Fine for cookiben, and happy anniversary bloggggieee!!! )