Existential angst

I know that isn't the term for it. I'm so bored but I don't want to start doing homework. It isn't froody. But I don't know what else to do. So I'm writing fake commonwealth essays.

This is the first of my fake commonwealth essays. The topic is "I live in the Commonwealth. Let me introduce you to my family..."

I live in the Commonwealth. Let me introduce you to my family...’s collection of odd furniture. (Author’s note: did they say we had to talk about people?) I have a large conductor-shaped flowerpot. It’s been in the family for so long it counts as one of us. Made in China of china, it nevertheless has a design more akin to the tribal totems of the Lake Bennett aborigines in Australia. It is covered in pale Japanese words, which we understand from an antiques collector to be vulgarities aimed primarily at lawyers and Microsoft. However, a second opinion from a student of the peculiar Quechua tongue was sought some years back. According to him, Quechua is a colour-specific language – which means that in writing, words in red have different meanings from words in green, or neon pink, or those written in blood. Further, Quechua is also medium-specific – meaning that words written on lavatory walls have different meanings from those tattooed on a person’s back. He believes that the words read

These are the numbers of pi, to the 10000th place, calculated by Bob at Wieringermeer, AD 1337

This would make the pot extremely valuable, except that the ‘numbers’ read “3.14159 McDonald's Corporation operates more than 31,000 quick-service restaurant businesses under the McDonald's brand, in 121 countries around the…” and continue in much the same vein, pausing only to compare the McSpicy with KFC's Zinger. Right now the pot costs $5.45, but you can add 50 cents for an upsized bunch of flowers and ultra-funky watering can (they call it moisturiser).

DIE!

String ensemble ended at 5:40 today. Instead of 5, when it was supposed to. I guess it was all the rubbish about student conductors (that could have been done another day, without addressing the whole ensemble) that did it. that and the suk. blast suk serenade. we've been playing that for 2 years and why can't we do dvorak instead. or dag wiren's weird serenade. the chamber music initiative/thingy-thing-thing has just died.

Apostrophes

I've always wondered, what happens when you write stuff like "'acciaccatura' has 4 'c's," how do you represent the plural of the letter 'c'. 'Cos when you write "c's", that's bad punctuation: apostrophes don't stand for plurality. But when you write "cs", it becomes ambiguous: just think of "as" or "is". How about "'c's"? That seems the most acceptable.

I remember reading Douglas Adams' "The Private Life of Genghis Khan" where Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged says "Right number of aitches, then?" while addressing the khan. There should be a standardised spelt-out form of each letter like aitch - for 'h' so that we can all happily avoid all that convoluted mess in the last paragraph.

Eat your broccoli

Or the green slimy monsters will get you. Muhahahaha!

Origami. *points and laughs*

Folded a seal on a rock today. Massively complicated origami. First time I ever tried it, so it turned out more like a tortoise on a rock. haha. If I ever find the time I shall post pictures of the blasted thing. It's made out of a single piece of white paper. w00t!

Origami is fun...

Reasons why you shouldn't quit playing the viola

Hi Zhaohan,

I think you should seriously consider staying on the viola.

1. If nothing else, it's a smart career move. We're more short of violists than teachers/nurses/trees.
2. There're so few violists around you can easily stand out from the rest. Far out.
3. Dvorak was a violist.
4. If you put more effort into finding stuff to do on the viola you might get recognised.
5. Bach was a violist too.
6. Teasing and viola jokes are part of life (is it just me or is my grammar questionable there?). Change that by doing a good PR job for the viola.
7. There's no use indulging in self-pity now when you've already gone that far.
8. You can change things. Influence trends. Make it funky to play the viola. Like "I play the viola and I'm proud of it"

Rise up to the challenge. You can do it!

I don't want to be a bassist anymore - a parody

I don't want to be a bassist anymore
Oh I don't want to be a bassist anymore
Cos they've wasted 3 years of my life
Cos I really wanted to play the kazoo
Cos I'm getting laughed at
Cos it's a damned nuisance to lug around
Cos I'm being used as a tool
Why don't I become
a spanner in the works?

I WANNA PLAY THE KAZOO

Because of the bass i can never
be a kazoo virtuoso
Because of the bass i can never
get recognition

I WANNA PLAY THE KAZOO

I've been brainwashed
Why didn't they get someone else
I just don't understand
I just don't comprehend

I WANNA PLAY THE KAZOO
I WANNA PLAY THE KAZOO

I just don't understand
I just don't comprehend
I just don't understand
I just don't comprehend
(fadeout)

What happened before String Ensemble camp

well there was the chamber recital.

Before I talk about that... SHAWN CHUA WHY DIDN'T YOU COME YOU PIECE OF CRAP?

Yeah ok... there was the chamber recital. First it was trout. My bass was really flat... don't know why really, but there it was. Sigh... sort of ok-ish. Saint-saens was good. Shaggy did well yay for him his teacher was sitting in the front row... haha she really knows how to turn the pressure on. Oh then it was Poulenc. Before we started Zhaohan said a bit about how he was playing the violin not the viola and something else can't remember. I remember telling Shanghui i should have given him the A right away. He did well too, I messed up that one. The piano theme died.

Keyper. It was so bad. First the bass started slipping. Then the intonation screwed up COS the bass was slipping - i had to support the bass on my thumb, and wedge the instrument like a viola da gamba (I don't want to go into specifics, some people may get the wrong ideas). So i couldn't change position properly (I can just imagine some people laughing their butts off already).

And then there was the page turn. Missed a bar or so. and piano was relentless. Well ok i can't complain about the piano, i was worse earlier. Got my act together and then the harmonics didn't sound properly. AND turned out all out of tune. I was so desperately trying to stay calm and relax then. Screwed around with the bowing to audience bit... Zhaohan was standing behind the stand, don't know why, might have been pissed or something.... whatever

I'm playing for ABRSM's high-scorer's concert yay! Alan Ridout concerto, 1st movement. If you manage to get tickets do go. I will not screw up again.

String Ensemble Camp

So it was String Ensemble camp from Monday to Wednesday. I missed one third of it because I was keyboardist to the RP/ELDS cancer awareness production/CIP. That was funky. Heh... still remember the fuss about the heartbeat.

String Ensemble... well Messiah is taking shape. Good. Happy. Well.

We should ban guest players from night games... they have no conception of how quiet the night is, and how easy it is to be heard. Or how to stay hidden. Or how to run away.

Well.

All the fuss about the... rain... well if they don't want to be... rained on... then leave them alone. Sigh... and at the same time, those who didn't want to be rained on spoilt the atmosphere quite a bit. I mean, if you don't have a change of clothes then say so I don't think we'd have dunked you. But it really was too bad.

I shall leave string ensemble camp aside and talk about happier things.

c'est la vie

Save my liver!

To do:

1. Update blog
2. Redesign blog
• Add a tag board/Port the previous one over if i can find it
  
3. File my stuff up so that I won't ever need to touch it for the rest of my life
4. Redesign my graffiti.net site
5. Read Euclid's The Elements
6. and not die of a liver complaint