diary of a madman

When night falls and the warmth of the day fades away to nought, it’s hard not to contemplate and think about the past, reminiscing and regretting, so some extent. Aromatic, yet pungent, acrid yet soothing, the cigarette smoke that wafts through the night sky, blurring your vision. Silence all around, safe for the occasional passing traffic. It’s not difficult to think and wallow about uselessly in past memories.

But all’s been said and done, there isn’t any point crying over spilt milk is there? Decisions, choices, mistakes, regret. It’s funny how the past can get so intertwined with the present, and probably with the future as well.

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up… To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up… To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up… To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up… To more than I can be.

You raise me up… To more than I can be.

…to more than I can be.

One of the few poems that I really like…

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Some one had blunder’d.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash’d all their sabres bare,
Flash’d as they turn’d in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder’d.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro’ the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel’d from the sabre-stroke
Shatter’d and sunder’d.
Then they rode back, but not,
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder’d.
Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

Okay let’s start with the pleasant stuff - the 3rd floor STEAMboat. Really quite steam… a lot of dodgy talk and a lot of jiaowei around (literally, penis talk, aka rubbish).

I’ll not bore you with my uber l33t literary abilities, but I’ll let the photos do the talking.

The pre-STEAMboat preparations:

Ivan and Khairul hard at work to get the boat to steam:

More food:

Laremy’s feast:

Dodgy-ly:

KumsungmalongCORN:

Overall it was amazing, thanks to Laremy for organising this very steamy steamboat, and to everybody who came! (Especially the konfused korean who called me a cheebye, cheebye to you too HAHA)

Ok to the more kaopeh stuff - the NUS cultural activities club did a gig at Holland Village on Sunday as part of some program organised by the RCs there, and I was amazed at the turn out, more so at the number of annoying people who complained about the “noise level”. All of the kaopeh people were residents of a condo situated just behind our stage, and all of them were Chinese.

I wonder what happened to tolerence within the community. Nobody complains when there’s a Chinese funeral, and we all know how noisy and loud it can get at unearthly hours of the night. Nobody complains when its Chinese New Year and bazaars blast cheesy chinese music daily. So why complain about a 2 hour performance?

What amazed the most was the fact that the police actually responded to the complains. I’ve made numerous police calls regarding dodgy characters loitering at my block’s void deck, delinquents playing with sparklers and vandalising public property, and the fastest response time I’ve had to date was 1 hour +.

That’s two police officers, defenders of peace and public safety, talking to Rosli, our band director. I do not condemn the police for taking their jobs seriously because we were obviously a public nuisance and making old people in the condo suicidal. Oh maybe we made some little kids pee in their pants and interrupted some adults’ love-making session. This is why our parents are required by law to pay taxes in order to pay for their salary.

But anyway, I’m going for breakfast and I’ll end my kaopeh session here. More photos:

The gear I had to lug from KR all the way to YIH where the band room/bus pickup was at:

And this is the drumset that we used. A yamaha stage custom with the older lugs (resembles a recording custom), my yamaha maple custom absolute snare (14x5.5, 6ply maple), 14″ k light hats, 15″ k dark thin crash, 17″ a custom crash, 22″ a custom ride, 10″ k splash and my yamaha dfp9310 double pedals.

Okbye.

I want to rant about people who’re chock full of self-righteousness, and people who generally think that everything different is bad - smoking, for instance.

I’m quite sure that people will read my blog and kaopeh kaobu but I extend a great big fuck you to all your clowns who’re gonna take offence at what I’m about to say.

What’s wrong with smoking? True enough its not beneficial (heck, its actually harmful) for the smoker. True enough the 2nd hand smoke is bad for whoever’s around the smoker. True enough, it makes you stink. But hey, ultimately, its our choice that we want to smoke. It’s an integral part of our daily lives, and part of our civil liberties and human rights - the right to choose. We’re young voting adults, I don’t see why we can’t choose to fuck our lives up if we have the right to decide on who rules over us with an iron fist.

I’m not denying that 2nd hand smoke is bad for whoever’s around the smoker… but if you stand near to a fucking lion, you’re bound to get mauled. So why stand near a smoker in the first place? Why bother standing near to a smoker, then wave your hands and crinkle your nose to signify your fucking displeasure? And nigga pls, the smoke from my cigarette dissipates into the fucking air faster than you can say “i love watermelons”, so if you happen to be staying one floor above, how affected can you be? If you happen to stay one floor up, and on the opposite site, what the fuck are you complaining about?

There’re more cancer causing carcinogens in all your fried food, BBQ-ed dishes, and drinks combined as compared to the damned smoke from my cigarette. Why’re you making such a big fucking hoo-hah about cigarettes and smokers anyway.

Fucking self-righteous cheebyes ought to burn in hell.

Wear the grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what we will or will not tolerate.
Desperate to control all and everything.
Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.

Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Justify denials and grip ‘em to the lonesome end.
Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Terrified of being wrong. Ultimatum prison cell.

Saturn ascends, choose one or ten. Hang on or be humbled again.

Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Justify denials and grip ‘em to the lonesome end.
Saturn ascends, comes round again.
Saturn ascends, the one, the ten. Ignorant to the damage done.

Wear the grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what we will or will not tolerate.
Desperate to control all and everything.
Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.

Wear your grudge like a crown. Desperate to control.
Unable to forgive. And we’re sinking deeper.

Defining, confining, controlling, and we’re sinking deeper.

Saturn comes back around to show you everything
Let’s you choose what you will not see and then
Drags you down like a stone or lifts you up again
Spits you out like a child, light and innocent.

Saturn comes back around. Lifts you up like a child or
Drags you down like a stone
To consume you till you choose to let this go.

Give away the stone. Let the oceans take and
Transmutate this cold and fated anchor.
Give away the stone. Let the waters kiss and
Transmutate these leaden grudges into gold.
Let go.

New addition… say hello to Mr. Maple Custom Absolute with noveau lugs! (Pictured with 14x6.5 Pearl Sensitone Custom Alloy snare for reference)

All links open up in a new window/tab
Maple Custom Absolute #1
Maple Custom Absolute #2

Just felt like posting up the total amount I’ve spent on my drumming so far. If you’re about to call me a show off, or a goddamned attention seeker, but the bottom line stays - I have the goods and you don’t, so suck it up and fuck off. Otherwise, feel free to ask me questions about anything related to my equipment.

Drumset:	Tama Stagestar (Jetblack) (SGD$800)
Snare:	14x5 Phattie Custom Maple Snare (SGD$760) 14x6 Pearl Sensitone Custom Steel Alloy Snare (~SGD$400)
Cymbals:	14″ Zildjian A Custom regular hihats (SGD$420) 14″ Zildjian K light hihats (SGD$610) 15″ Zildjian K dark-thin crash (SGD$350) 17″ Zildjian A Custom brilliant crash (SGD$290) 22″ Zildjian A custom ride (~SGD$550) 10″ Zildjian K splash (SGD$210)
Peripherals:	LP Jamblock (SGD$72) LP Low-pitched blastblock (SGD$70) LP Black Beauty Cowbell (SGD$66) Yamaha DFP9310 double pedals (SGD$610) Tama multi-clamp (SGD$72)
Grand total:	SGD$5,280
Older stuff that I had:	14″ Paiste Soundformula hihats (~SGD$370) 16″ Zildjian Avedis Thin crash (~SGD$250) 18″ Zildjian Avedis medium crash (~SGD$300) 20″ Istanbul Alchemy Professional Sweet ride (~SGD$210) 9″ Zildjian K custom hybrid splash (~SGD$210) 13″ Zildjian Avedis Newbeat hihats (~SGD$420) 14″ Sabian AAX Stage hihats (~SGD$480) Pearl P-2000B Eliminator single pedal (~SGD$198) Yamaha FP9310 Single Pedal (~SGD$200) 14x4 Yamaha Absolute Maple Custom snare (~SGD$530)

I’ve excluded the total amount spent on older hardware, cymbals and pedals, my drumsticks, my stick bag, my practice pad and my various drumheads used over the years. At the same time, I expect the total amount to increase significantly when I am finally able to justify blowing SGD$190 on a 16″ Istanbul Sultan crash, and another SGD$290 on a 20″ Istanbul Sultan ride.

I am proud to announce that I am fina-fucking-ly done with my goddamned political science essay, with a proud total of 1630 words. The time is 0500 hours now (5 fucking am for your non-army nubs) and I have a lecture on pol science (surprise!) at 10am, which means I’ll have to wake up at 9am to wash my face, do my fucking hair and head down for lessons. I also have a EL1101E tutorial at 1300 hrs (1pm), where I’ll probably receive my fucking test back which I do not think I did very well for.

Fuckkkkkkityfuckityfuck.

FUCKKKKKKKKTHISSHITALLAHSAVEMEPLSAHHH.