Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The bosses are really friendly, and they don't seem to mind my lame jokes. Still, I should get better control over it before it reaches the point where I'm unable to switch it off. Not only for work, but for like everything. I'm not so good at knowing when enough is enough.
Anyway, I've managed to make friends with AV guy (I think he's actually amused by the lame jokes0.0) and have spent the past 2 weeks chatting about music stuff. Just talked a bit about my film composer dreams, and all the other fun outside-schoolwork music stuff I'm involved in. Yesterday he asked to hear some of my work cos he said he was curious about what stuff I could do, and if I could make it in the line I was interested in.
Except...wait what? WHAT work?! I dunno why, but I never seem to have any spare work I'm proud of with me. I can think of it in my head, dream about how to arrange it, tinker with it on the piano, but it never gets done. Maybe it's because the perfectionist in me that can never be happy that nothing is produced. Only for school do I start working, since there's the threat of deadlines and grades to dodge. Which is very possibly the reason I'm not as happy as I could be with my school stuff. Still, since I'd spent so much time working on it last year, my REMT project it was.
...
And instead of laughing at the corny lyrics, the horrible singing, and the ok-but-not-impressive mix, he said he was impressed. Well, I'm not so sure I'd call my genre of music progressive (wtf?! emo rock!), but after my rather disatrous presentation of it last year, it's nice to have some compliments. And, this could be a chance to finally do something I'm interested in, since he said I could try my hand at some composing hopefully by this week. =DDD
And now today. Supposed to be one of the final days on this MOE project, so after today or tomorrow we can all move on to new (and hopefully funner) things. Not a very eventful day at work, spent most of the time checking the site's links and streaming files. But after work it was dinner with Char and Kai!
We need to have more meetings. It's muuuch better for my mental health. Haven't laughed so much since like.......the last couple weeks. Spent all that time emoing and moping. Had dinner at Imperial Treasure at takashimaya. It's been like......the last time we all went there was in 2006 for Kai's bday. 
Last time you both looked like that! And since I don't seem to hav any pics of myself I'll just have to put this one of Char's suan la tang noodles.
We went down to Hokkaido Ice Cream for dessert. Arghs, since I read that ice cream article about the bubble tea flavoured ice cream last year I've been dreaming about it, but never seem to be able to go there. And when I do go there I never have any money. But Hokkaido one was pretty good. They had all sorts of flavours there, some of them I think I might try another day: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, caramel, strawberry&blueberry (the pink one). I picked sea salt-flavoured ice cream, since I'd read about it on wikipedia, and also cos its the ice cream they eat in Kingdom Hearts. It's not really made of salt, but apparently tastes really good. It's not blue like it was in KH, nor was it on a stick, but give a little taste....... 
YuMMYz~~=9 It tastes like milk ice cream, but it has a slightly salty aftertaste that makes it really refreshing! It doesn't taste flat like vanilla or anything, so I wonder what kind of flavourin they really use.
Time to get some sleep. Hope tomorrow will be productive and fun=)
STAND UP FOR SINGAPORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, February 15, 2008
Task: I was shown the lead sheet for Stand Up for Sgp, and I had to simplify the rhythm (there were LOTS of triplets) and make it "In a Swing Style". Sounds easy, yes? Well, it would have been, but there were some problems. First, they wanted it done in Sibelius (like Finale but with more features). That's ok, I'm fine with learning new software.
Second problem: the formatting of the file was completely wrong! It was supposed to be 4/4, yet somehow it kept on inserting or deleting beats and refusing to let me change it. When I first saw it, I thought it was some Dream Theater song (until I saw the title -.-)
Spent the 2 hours struggling to try and learn how to use and therefore fix it. It wasn't that difficult to learn, but since the file was messed up I couldn't get much stuff done. The guy then came over, and once he saw how little I'd done, I got big a scolding/lecture cos apparently the thing was due the next day.
So, then there were 2 options: Sit and emo, or Persevere and give myself a headache and worse eyesight.
And since I had stuff at stake (e.g. grades), sitting around is not a good thing to do ><. Fortunately, it took me only a while more to discover a way to get past the crappy formatting, and from there it was all good. AV guy came to see my progress and this time he was pretty impressed. Phew.
And all the computer problems I had in school really taught me the most important computer skill: SAVE. Save your work every 5 minutes, if you can. Keep ctrl+S-ing. Savesavesave cos you never know when your comp will crash.
It happened a while after I'd finished the piece, cos I accidentally clicked the mouse on the Help section. It was too much for the computer, and it quit on me. Pretty ironic, since AV guy was on the phone chatting to his colleage on how they were saved by the free labour. But sinced I'd SAVED nothing was lost and I didn't waste an entire afternoon's work.
Even though I finished working, I was stuck at his office for another hour waiting for my supervisor to come pick us ITP-ers up. In the end AVguy just gave me 10 bucks and told me to catch a cab. Blah not much for overtime pay. Took a bus back so I could keep the free money.
.................Losing my train of thought-.- Well, today was pretty boring, since my 2 coursemates got to go out to do work, while I was stuck surfing for prices. But TGIF! I can finally sleep in and relac. Maybe will go with ben to the Timezone tomorrow. I 've developed a liking for shooting games. Must....kill stuff......=B
Monday, February 11, 2008
By that time it was 8.45, so we were a bit pissed off. Anyway, once the guy came to let us in the room, we got our orientation lecture, and he started lecturing us about all the different products they were selling (Cubase isn't the only one).
The lesson went on until lunch time, after which we had nothing to do. So we all just sat around and read the Reader's Digests until our bosses came back. They had gone shopping for a table, and we had to put it together for them -.- From music technology to making tables. But the drill was really fun to use. Kekeke.
We then got a lesson on all the different types of cables they had, how to set up a computer (?!), and how to replace wires in a 3pin plug.
So the first day was pretty weird, since we didn't do much stuff related to our course. But he hinted we might get to do some arranging and composing, only any stuff we create won't belong to us ><
Might try to take nice photos of stuff, even though all you can see in the office are boxes.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Monday
Umm....can't remember what happened that day...... next!
Tuesday
Journey to the east: had to seek out my workplace, just to make sure I know where it in case I'm late next week onwards. The site says it's supposed to take 23 mins (19 for train, 5 for bus), but took over an hour to get there. Stupid full trains and slow buses. My company is super out of the way of Redhill, and the building is right at the end of a DEAD END road.
Then after that was down to Dhoby to meet Kai. Didn't manage to get any movie tix cos there were too many people ><, so just sat around in BK and chatted about happier times (hoohoo I'm so old). Quite sad that we all don't get to see each other as much since we all have different schedules now. We'll probably see each other less once we graduate since we'll be doing different stuff=(
But the funniest thing was to see Kai suffer in high high heels while I enjoy my sneakers =P
Wednesday
Reunion dinner at night. Suprisingly I'm getting used to the yusheng cos this year I actually ate the vegetables and liked it=O Usually I just dig around for the salmon and crackers and leave the veggies to the adules, but this year went back for a few helpings. Maybe cos I'm old and emo now I can appreciate the emo meaning of the happy dish. Cos if people are wishing for happiness and prosperity through their food, it must mean their lives are pretty miserable. So good that we have the same POV now=)
Rest of the food was the same as before: too fancy, too funny looking, and too little =X Was starving until I went home around 10+, so till then played Mariokart with some cousins. Nothing much else to do since the rest of the people were my parents' age or older and they were talking about whatever people that age talk about. My wallet had a good meal that night though=9
Thursday
Visiting day! But number of visits was greatly reduced since most of relatives were away on holiday V.V But went to the Low Casino at Grandad's house to get more money. Had looooots of fun, though I wish I could say the same for my wallet. I started out with $40, at my best I made $20, but by the end of the afternoon I made a loss $4 >< arrgh!!! And at one point I had 2 Blackjacks in a row!!! But nothing makes the world go round like money, so I'll be back next year ^_^
Friday
Nothing much =[ Oh ya! I remember Monday we had the meeting with Ning and the second one with the band's senior minister! Whoops.....
Saturday
Still nothing much, but foloowed Bro to Square 2 looking for Bubble tea. Shop was closed, so just walked around while he went to the arcade
Last day of holiday tomorrow! Must playyyyy
Sunday, February 03, 2008
I finally got my ITP company, and guess what it is?? Steinberg! I wasn't expecting anything too great, given my sort-of-ok grades and my pretty boring resume (I sound like some CCA-obsessed weirdo), so thank you cher!!
The other really cool thing (but sort of lazy thing) was that our MUST presentation was cancelled. Sooo so happy cos I suck at presentations. I can research, compile, and even make my work look pretty, but if you ask me to stand up and sell it I will suck.
CNY is in the air, which means lots of red packets and food. I like pineapple tarts now even though Mum says theyre full of transfats and will make you fat. Still...=9 Also looking forward to the Blackjack party at Shell's Grandad's house, its always lots of fun. $_$
Only a week left till ITP starts, so better enjoy it to the fullest....yup, keep lazing around..... ~^_^~