Radical transparency is a management method where nearly all decision making is carried out publicly.

All draft documents, all arguments for and against a proposal, the decisions about the decision making process itself, and all final decisions, are made publicly and remain publicly archived. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_transparency)

Why is there a need to have a structure in an organisation, when decisions made “at the top” remains status quo? Do individual member votes count, if the people in power and authority decide to hold “further discussions” and ultimate decide to act against said decision, or to reverse a particular decision?

Hierarchial structures in an organisation, regardless of size, is of utmost importance because it legitimizes the organisation, and provides a clear leader, or leaders, for its followers, or members, to look to for guidance, advice, and to settle and resolve conflicts.

However, for an organisation to be truly legitimate and recognised as such, hierarchial structures are not the only things that would play a part, but should work in tandem with transparency and accountability.

Though the concept of transparency should be perceived as

Transparency is introduced as a means of holding public officials accountable and fighting corruption. When government meetings are open to the press and the public, when budgets and financial statements may be reviewed by anyone, when laws, rules and decisions are open to discussion, they are seen as transparent and there is less opportunity for the authorities to abuse the system in their own interest. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparency_%28humanities%29)

it can be “dumbed down” and seen as a means of holding individuals in positions of power accountable to decisions made by either by said individual, or by a group that includes said individual, without prior knowledge or consultation of other ordinary members of the organisation.

Some people may argue that transparency and accountability should only be important where the decisions made are of great importance, or if there’s money involved in the decision. But I say that’s total bullshit, because irregardless of the position you hold, as long as you make a decision, you make it an open, and a completely transparent decision, explaining to members and committee members alike why you made the particular decision. If you asked for a vote prior to decision making, yet changed your mind after a “discussion” with the committee members, then make that clear and make a statement explaining and detailing the factors that led to a “discussion”, and ultimately, the revamped decision.

It doesn’t matter how important you think your organisation is, or is not. It doesn’t matter how important you think you are, or are not. It doesn’t even matter how much of a difference you think it’ll make, or will not make.

We bitch, whine and complain about how much lack of transparency we have to endure as Singaporeans, and how the government only makes privy information that works in their benefit. How often have we took a step back and examined if we as logical, educated Singaporeans have made this leap of faith in our daily lives, and in the organisations and committees that we dedicate ourselves to?

I ditched my mac book pro for a dell inspiron 1420 (2.2ghz centrino duo, 4gb ram, 250gb hdd, geforce 8400 128mb video card), and took 1st runner up for the 10th XQRJ national song writing competition with Lara’s song of “Ai This Way”.

It was a pretty productive day yesterday, though it was rather irritating as well. The sound-clowns at NTU’s surf and sweat managed to fuck up our sound, and not know how to rectify it, and best of all, forget to bring a keyboard down. That meant our keyboardist had to sit out for the gig, and Ivan had to fill in her parts. But we still managed to put up one hell of a show, and the stage, we rocked. \m/

XQRJ at UCC was not much better, apart from the fact that we won. Too many goddamned Indian Chiefs, inadequete soundmen on stage, too many students on stage trying to boss us around, and fucked up monitors. My original plan was to use my 20″ k custom ride and my 14″ byzance hats, but I ended up only using my 14″ byzance hats and my yammie snare because I had all of 30 seconds to setup before the lights came on and we were live.

Zhang Pei’s song was amazing - it literally blew the audience away. The judges had nothing but praise for her during the comments section, but they did comment that her lyrics were a little simple - but hey, that’s chinese pop for you isn’t it? The 10-15 mins before the announcment of the top 3 winners felt like eternity to us (Gerald, Daniel, me)

We heard the Emcee call out our band for 3rd position, and we literally went crazy, flipping and jumping all over the place. The next thing we heard was the announcement for the grand prize. Before we could figure out wtf was going on, one of the organisers came to us and said “You’re 2nd!”

So yeah, we went crazy again. But we fucking deserved it after the amount of effort we put into it!

There are the kind that snaps at others in the morning for no reason at all.

There are the kind that probably didn’t have a good night’s sleep or had a quarrel in the morning, and decided to take it out on the first person who talks to them.

There are the kind who lack EQ, and the ability to know when to shut up.

I do not give a flying fuck if you didn’t have sex last night, or you woke up to find your boyfriend sleeping with some other girl in his room. I do not give a rat’s ass if you have lessons from 8am til 12am, or do not have a 2 day week like me. But most of all, I do not give a flyingfucking rat’s ass that you think you’re fucking incredible and talented, or that you have tons of fucking useless comments to sprout out every 5 fucking seconds.

It’s unprofessional, unneeded, unwarranted, unnecessary and uncalled for.

But most importantly of all, I don’t give a fuck if it was unintentional, unintended or unimaginably stupid.

Just do me, and the rest of the world a fucking favour, shut your fucking pie-hole, face a corner, and take a goddamned time out because I have absofuckinglutely no respect for “musicians” like that.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to just live in the present, living every moment as it comes along?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to forget everything and not remember anything?

I started out slightly amused at the way he greeted his wife with a hearty hello and a huge hug, the way he went, “Oh really.” and “Oh ok.” to everything his wife told him, from his sister’s wedding to his own son’s Ph.D. My amused smirk started fading when he said that he had “no memories, no dreams, nothing” and that his mind was “inactive and dead”. What struck me the most was the way he greeted his wife, asking her for a dance, hugging her tightly and kissing both her hands, because he “thought that he had been in a state of unconciousness for the past years, and that this was his first time seeing her in a long time.”

It may seem like a bad thing, having severe amnesia and having a memory span of 10 seconds, but then again, wouldn’t it be nice to be free of your past problems? Wouldn’t it be nice to live life without any regrets because you have no past? Wouldn’t it be nice to live your life free of stress, without the need to plan for your future and worry about what “might go wrong”?

Wouldn’t it be nice to love your loved ones the way Mr. Clive Wearing loved his?

First of all, let’s kaopeh about stomp.com.sg, a local weblog where citizens can live their fantasies about being a journalist (citizen-journalism at its very best eh), take secret photos of people doing allegedly “illegal” things, and then MMS or email their photos to said website, for fame and fortune, though the concept of fame and fortune may differ from person to person.

Props to SPH (or whoever was smart enough to come up with this relatively ingenious idea of tapping into an almost unlimited, or probably 4 million +/-, citizen-journalists, who were willing to “work” for no monetary benefits, cpf benefits, or employee benefits), for coming up with something like that, where the 4 million +/- kiasu people in Singapore get to put their latest 3G camera/video/lasergun/nuclear missile launcher/machine gun/sex toy phone through its paces, snap photos (legal and illegal) of people and cry foul over their actions.

Examples? 3 teenagers sitting down on a crowded train, 2 sleeping and 1 engrossed in his/her story book. Caption? “Teenagers refused to give up seats for standing elderly/injured/handicapped/lame/pregnant/downright kaopehkaobu”. Said photo is usually accompanied by a rather delightfully written paragraph such as, “I was on the train this morning and it was very crowded oh gnoes. I saw 3 kids sitting down and one pretended to sleep. Oh the horror of it all. There was 102934840 old pregnant women with only 1.5 legs standing as the train jerked and shuddered and derailed. Yet the 3 teenagers did not offer their seats to the needy. What kind of education is the Singapore education system giving our teens nowadays?”

I surf through stomp.com.sg occasionally when I’m angsty and bored and generally have nothing to do, simply to marvel at Singaporeans’ ability to find fault in anything seemingly innocuous.

Ok wait, maggi and smokes time, will kaopeh again later.

So… any kind soul out there who might want to be my Secret Santa? You can get me a HP TX1000… $1,400 after student discount. :-) Thanks mr Secret Santa!

p/s: mute math fucking rocks.

1. Etymotic ER25 musicians’ earplugs, custom moulded $150-$200
2. 20″ K custom medium ride $489 (on its way)
3. 12″ Pearl soprano maple snare
4. 16″ Paiste Signature Full Crash
5. Yamaha Flying dragon hihat stand
6. 2x boom arms
7. 80gb ipod video

If you can’t afford to get me my etymotics, feel free to get me the ER20 that isn’t custom moulded, yet is capable of reducing the noise by 20dB. All for USD$12!

Some photos’ll be up soon… as soon as I get my 20″ Zildjian K custom medium ride, 19″ Paiste Dimensions raw-medium crash, and a boom-arm for my other stuff. Oooh exciting I can’t wait.

Merry christmas to all you trolls out there too.

Specification: 14″ hihats
Weight: Medium-thin over Medium
Finish: Traditional

Extremely sensitive and crisp pair of hihats, well suited for anything from a softer to a medium-loud mix. Even though this pair of hihats aren’t as loud or beefy as the 14″ K regular hats, they work well for anything louder as long as they’re sufficiently miced out. When closed, it sounds extremely articulate, with a crisp, dark response. The semi-open “slosh” sound isn’t washy or “crunchy” like some of the heavier hats, which isn’t much of an issue for me, seeing how I already have a pair of 14″ A custom regular hats. The “sloshy” sound when played open isn’t overbearing, but cuts through nicely without an obnoxious feel or sound. The “chick” sound when played with the pedal is extremely articulate, but falls short of being overbearing.

Overall, the $600+ price tag attached to this baby is well justified. This pair of hihats definitely aren’t suited for hard-rock, metal or similar genres, seeing how it lacks the beefy crunch some of the heavier hats possess. If you’re in the market for a new pair of hihats that’re articulate, crisp, and darker, do consider and try out this pair of hats.

10 days makes for an odd time signature.

240 hours in 10 days makes for an odd time signature and an odd time.

an odd time makes for an odd week.

odd weeks makes for odd moods.

odd moods bring about the angst.

Sentences like that piss the shit out of me. Along with sentences like, “I need two rides that sound different, one for heavier stuff and one for jazzier and softer stuff.” What’s with the big hoohah over hardware, equipment and gear? It’s not as though having more cymbals or more snares will make you a better drummer. True enough, having more cymbals and snares give you a wider palate of sounds to play around with… but how often will this come into play?

Zzz. When will people realise that its the skill of the drummer that makes the equipment sound good, and not the over way around.

GRRR.

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.

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!

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’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.

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.

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

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.

Fuckkkkkkityfuckityfuck.

FUCKKKKKKKKTHISSHITALLAHSAVEMEPLSAHHH.

Nah, just kidding. I’m not that glad its over actually… was having a lot of fun jamming and practicing with the band (affectionately known as The Marblows), disturbing Janelle, kajiaoing Sherri, and annoying the living shit out of everybody else who happened to be around me during our tech runs and rehearsals. Heh heh heh so much fun.

Photos’ll be up when they’re er.. up, but great job guys, we rocked the fuckin’ house down (or in this case MPSH) and did a perfect job for the finale! Looking forward to working with you guys more often again in the future!

I’m not being ungrateful or lazy, but then how the fuck do you justify not providing your students with notes, or basic outlines for your lecture? How are we supposed to take notes, when all of us are taking this module for the first time, with no exposure to university life prior to this, and with no goddamned idea on what to take note of during his lecture?

It doesn’t help that he speaks like a bloody machine gun during his lecture too.

Goddamned it CCB. Doesn’t help that my tutor told us to “check with our lecturer” with regards to questions on the final examination.

Jesus H. Christ.

You walk into an empty toilet with three (3) empty urinals lined up against the wall. Urinal 1 is next to the left wall, Urinal 2 is in the middle, and Urinal 3 is next to the right wall. Which urinal would you pick to pee in?

If you selected either Urinal 1 or Urinal 3, congrats, you’re normal.

If you selected Urinal 2, congrats, you’re either fucking gay or fucking gay.

Logic behind this?

Urinal 1 and 3 have walls next to them, meaning you can shy away from the person next to you, and try to hide your dingalingalings as you do your weewee in the urinal. Furthermore, there’ll only be a maximum of ONE person next to you at all times. Urinal 2 is right smack in the middle of 2 empty urinals. You could argue that the toilet’s empty, but what if you were peeing, and two big guys (in more ways than one) walked in and used up urinals 1 and 3? Then you’d be caught in between a human sandwich, and they could steal glances at your pee-pee as you wee-wee-ed.

That would be damn gay.

In short? Don’t steal glances to your left or right when you’re fucking peeing in the toilet. Just look down and concentrate on peeing into your own fucking urinal.

I swear, I fucking hate banglas on bicycles, and banglas in general. Not being racist, (maybe I am larh, but who the fuck’s keeping score?) but cheebye I reall, really, really fucking hate them with a vengeance.

I’ve had one too many experiences when banglas dash out across the road at 3fucking am in the morning, causing me to fucking step on the fucking brakes of my car. Today’s experience was the ultimate, because he dashed out across bukit panjang road, where the road’s straight and there were no fucking cars on the damned road. So I had to fucking step on the damned brake pedal, pray to God and Allah that my car wouldn’t hit him, and decelerate from 90kmph to 0kmph. Yes, and my fucking car skidded to the fucking left, so it ended up slanted on the fucking road. Before I could even get off the car to give him 1x hohseh, he disappeared. Either I saw a fucking bangla hantu, or the bangla took off his fucking clothes larh.

Cheebye banglas. Knn.