con camp
well con camp so far has been quite fun... we've finally managed to complete bartok, and mrs li's lesson today was well.. extremely high.
complex numbers yesterday was oh so reminiscent of last year, light speed and not very high morale, and vectors today was also light speed. its all coming back slowly.. i hope. must practice the questions they gave.
if only school was like that.
but even at the start of the hols, i just know and feel theres no time already. i'm ready to forsake a few marks at mid years to push my ioc into safe waters. 10 poems, and 20 lear extracts.. thats a lot even if you mug 2 a day. which doesnt seem like its going to happen at the rate i'm going.
econs is probably going to be the most manageable at 4 chapters, maths needs practice, physics needs serious work, english is.. uh.. no comment, and music.. urh..... we'll see.
ns checkup tml. then after that its back to sch for more con camp fun.
AND IT'S HEEEEAH!!
yes kids, school's out and its time to..
study.
but rest first lah.
the feeling of the arrival of another hols has never been so exhilarating.
and the last day of sch is finally approaching!!
throughout this week the attitude of 'the holidays is coming, i'll wait till then to set things in order' has been growing. which isnt the best thing. but lets face it, we need a break from all the IAs and tests.
in reality, i dont have much holidays to study for common tests. 1st wk i intend to attend some of the maths con camp sessions, and music must also go back. 5 june theres psychometric test, 6 - 9 church camp. and if you minus all the sundays (i dont like to do work on sundays), that isnt a lot of time. plus i also intend to focus on the IOC extracts, cos i think at the moment thats more important. mastering the syllabus can wait just a little longer.
after today i think we really cant compare sports with music competitions. in sports your opponent is up close, tangible, and there can only be one winner. or well at least thats what it seems. you cant really have a 'spirit of music' going around where there can be many golds and things about other teams you enjoy. music competitions are essentially a competition against ourselves, pitting ourselves with our potential to improve. sports? hmm.
well then i think thats it for today. really looking forward to the holidays to rest.
classical music to impress, pop music to connect
hello, its been some time. long post coming up.
apart from massive fussing over phys pracs and econs ias, and in the process churning out another at least 1600 words, we've found the time in school in between lessons to just sit down and play the guitar. and of cos saying hi to brendan who's birthday was on sunday ;)
going back to guitar to see whats going on (and to clear up cas) was quite an interesting experience, going back on tuesday and opening the m2 door to find a bunch of sec 2s and 3s playing soccer with a tennis ball was well.. interesting. i heard ms ng called off practice tho, mr gaspar wasnt around. going back on thursday, there was a much more serene atmosphere as compared to previous times. plus the interesting piece chung cheng was playing for syf. haha.
this week i've been reading the book 'boy meets girl', and its written by a certain Joshua Harris. what i'm posting here isnt the best representation of the book, if you all get a chance you should go read it.
in the environment around us, we see many couples and people who get attached. but for what reason? why get attached now? so as to 'try' people out?
well honestly, i think that 80% of these relationships would not last. at this age, we do not have the maturity, or the financial capability to sucessfully commit to a relationship that will lead up to marriage. i cannot say for sure about this because i have not been in a situation myself, but i feel that these relationships are based on selfish interests, and thats why they cannot hold. starting a relationship so early when we're not ready for it merely sets up a trap for disaster, where the friendship of two people are damaged because of sharing too much emotions with each other, because of impatience to want to get close to each other too quickly.
well sure there are some like siddhartha who say 'i wont know how it feels like until i've been through it', and thats another point of view worth considering; yes you can go ahead and try it now, but i feel that we all are answerable to God on judgement day; what we did with our life, and that includes our youth.
well i guess my complete view of the issue cannot possibly be summed up in 1 blog post, but i feel that we all should use our youthful energy for better things than pursuing relationships that will collapse.
june hols are in 2 wks!!
had an interesting outing with a certain few people trying guitars at excelsior shopping centre.
acoustic guitars are really nice sounding instruments, especially those in the 1k+ range. but too bad my classical technique doesnt really allow me to play them ;)
and i tried a $950 guitar that sounds louder than my own lah. either 1) his shop's acoustics are very good 2) my guitar has degenerated or 3) both.
but nehmind lah. its
technique that matters more than the instrument =P
heyy.
i try not to study 1h before i sleep, cos if i do that i tend not to sleep well, because my mind is still racing something like a wrx sti or evo IX.
well done to the choir; the odds were not in your favour but u all did your best. and thats all that matters.
speaking of music, it appears that guitar orch will probably be quite different when it resumes, especially after syf. hopefully it will change for the better, and i'm quite optimistic it would. i just hope to see more effort on the part of the conductors, to develop not only the sound of the orch but also each individual guitarist as a true player. i don't mind if the orch can put off the learning of my (harder) arrangements if everyone can enjoy themselves and can really learn to be a good guitarist through playing simpler pieces. and of course i hope the teachers in charge would be more responsible and be there to help at the correct times.
i've also been thinking about the current music class. although i admit its not as cohesive as i'd like it to be, when i graduate i think i'd really miss all the music lessons we spent together. the masterpiece of bartok interspersed by out of point injections during ms ng's classes, the interesting world music (and comments) during mrs li's class, and how could i forget the lessons spent entirely on chasing people for homework.
but moreover i'd really miss the personality and talent of my classmates.. among them the ability to have perfect pitch to CHORDS, i wish i could have that any day; pianistic abilities and fingering techniques that far exceed mine, stunning knowledge not only in the classical genre but in jazz and pop too, and of course the emo music, inspiration of compo III, haha.
and even though i havent really started maths and the preparation for huckfinn and siddhartha test isn't looking too good, sometimes i think its just best to take the time off to relax a while.
the heat is crazy.
muahahaha i've finally finished reading huckleberry finnnn.
the last part was really a drag, tom sawyer is really out of point. the ending too. but i've finished reading it, ALL 368 PAGES of it. that makes for the longestt book i've read since.. er.. harry potter and the goblet of fire.
Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so
hello again.
and so the first week of may is past. that makes us a little more than half into term 2. sleep patterns are almost back to normal, although they were never normal to begin with, and tests are swarming in, with phys and econs past and english and maths incoming.
but of course with more time on my hands, i must say that life isnt so hectic and stressful as it was, with syf and stuff. speaking of guitar, 1st mvt of classical symphony is past phase 1 - arranging and phase 2 - spacing the score. now is phase 3 - fingering, which will be the most sian thing to do.. but i'm quite sure it will help in learning to the piece to a certain extent. the producers of sibelius should come up with a programme to find the best fingering for a guitar piece. haha.
these days i've been saying that i'm disappointed that i dont have as much time to play guitar as last time, and i dont even dare to call myself a real guitarist with the amount of time i put into practising as compared to last time, but then again i've never had as much fun playing guitar in my life. my guitar is getting more seasoned and its tone has never been better; i can more or less sight read anything grade 5 and below, and i can revive any exam piece within a week. i guess its also more fun to not practice a piece to death like what we did with double violin and take the a train. i get to actually enjoy the music that is coming out of my guitar, as compared to last time during atcl where i was just tired of the pieces by the time of the exams.
so which one is better: to not reach your real potential and have the opportunity to play and enjoy imperfect music as an when you please, or to push yourself all the way to be able to make good music but having to put in all the hard work and even neglecting the enjoyment of the music?
frankly i dont know. but one thing's for sure: i probably wont cut it as a recording artist, at least not in the next 8 years or so.
and within the next two years, i'd probably lose 80% of my playing ability that i've accumulated. but at least i'd still have a cert and a few recordings to reminisce about.
and now, its back to huck finn. >100 pages to go!! almost there.
tommy emmanuel's angelina is a great piece, if only the power tab weren't so messy.
you know, we all seem to be trapped. robbed of our freedom. kind of like huckleberry finn and jim.
trapped in the cycle of ib; no rest till the exams.
trapped to do ns.
trapped in society, where certain things go and certain things don't.
and who knows what. which makes one think, how much freedom of choice do we actually have.
of course theres always the usual periods of freedom, like june and dec hols, the occasional mc or public holiday, or even shingles during common tests.
anyways,
i can't seem to get past the exposition for the 1st mvt of classical symphony. too sian already lol. we need some funky stuff in the development.. power chords and strumming? lol.
the marshmellows in my hot chocolate melted.
i should study physics while i have a bit more time.
i want to play guitar.
