Handicraftin' for some lovin'

I suck at coming up with gift ideas, but every once in a while, this little light bulb goes off in my head, usually followed by a sleepless night of cutting cards, pruning paper and sticking sthings stogether.  The last time I did something like this for the girlfriend was back when we were only about one month into our relationship; that time it took me about seven or eight hours of trial and error before I managed to come up with this little beauty:

 

  

 

 

This was the second pop-up card I've ever made, and since then I haven't bothered making more because it takes forever.  And if I made them too often, it gets old really fast, too.  Anyway, I'm still really proud of this one, though.

On the other hand, I got a major epiphany for what to make as a belated Valentine's Day gift for this year.  So, last Friday night, after testing a modified version of Kyle Sanchez's Bant Mill deck until 2.30am for Sunday's Grand Prix: Kuala Lumpur Trial (holla if yer a Magic playa!¹), I started working on my next project; a mix tape (or in this day and age, a CD):

 

Front cover

Back cover

 

Side A

 

Side B

For those not in the know, this was a reference to our favourite musical, Avenue Q².  There's this song in there called "Mix Tape" which was, for the most part, a list of songs from a mix tape.  So, from the vast, powerful pool of knowledge and piracy known as the internets, I procured the playlist and pressed my own CD.  Of course, I've already done this long before I started working on the CD cover.  With such projects, I usually begin with an idea, go out and buy the materials, and then figure out the specifics.  Needless to say, I made a couple of errors along the way, but thank goodness I didn't screw it up too much³.

In any case, the CD cover project took slightly over four hours.  I ended up sleeping at 7am, and then waking up again at 9 because I was gonna meet her at 10⁴.  And if you're wondering why the hearts on the CD covers are orange (I know it doesn't exactly look like orange in the photos but I promise you, it does in real life):

And now you know!

Footnotes:
1 - My testing went to waste somewhat, as I audibled after watching Tom Ross's Naya Boss being shown on Deck Tech.  Obviously, at least six other people thought likewise for the tourney.  Oh, and I went 4-2, placing 9th and missing the Top 8 due to tiebreaks.
2 - Have you heard of the song "The Internet is for Porn"?  The one that became a smash YouTube hit? It's from Avenue Q.
3 - For example, I needed the "C" on the orange heart about half a centimetre to the left.  Unfortunately, I used double-sided tape and thus couldn't redo it.  Pros of double-sided tape: Neat.  Cons: If you screw up you're screwed.
4 - It was quite an epic weekend; in between testing and playing Magic, visiting Carrie's relatives, choir practice, etc. I had only nine hours of sleep over the course of two days.  It's not as crazy as my times back in Monash, but it's actually nice to feel positively alive every once in a while, even if it means sleep deprivation.

This Day of Remembrance

I know I just posted a while ago, but the occasion is right and I'm in the mood, so...

At one time, I tried my hand at writing poetry.  Three years ago, just a couple months after my first breakup, I found myself single again for the 20th straight Valentine's Day of my life.  Feeling a little down, I wrote a poem and blogged about it; you can read the poem (and another, even older one) by clicking the link above.  For your convenience, though, I have Ctrl-C-ed the poem here.  But first I gotta warn you, it has a slight tinge of emo.

This Day of Remembrance

And so it arrives, knocking at the door,
The day of remembrance of an overlooked saint
Whose name remained in popular lore,

Yet causes unwarranted stress and strain,
Birthed from tales of sacrificial lambs,
An excuse for birth of affection feigned.

Though love so pure can from normal men stem,
More often than not, the heart does lie,
Catastrophes blamed on bodily phlegm.

Pitiful are flowers that wantonly try
To draw in a bee with petals of flame
When nectar alone will get them by,

For even Venus beat the fly at the game.
So thus I lie in waiting for the one
Who pierces my being by the whisper of her name,

And then I shall make this day of this month
No more or less important than another;
Every moment burns, fiery like the Sun.

The foolish are not mistaken, but rather
Seizing the day for unconditional love.
I too realise the folly of my endeavours,

But never will I let the florists and cardmakers gain
From this day of remembrance of an overlooked saint.

I'm significantly less poetic now, I believe.  Maybe that's because I'm actually kinda happy with life the way things are going (especially since I'm no longer single, yays).  I'm not miserable; the best artists are often really miserable people.  Seriously.  Emily Dickinson, Vincent Van Gogh, Michael Jackson...  They're all wackos in one way or another.  Come look for me again when I'm a thrice-raped paraplegic burn victim with lung cancer and a bowel infection.  Oh, and syphillis.

Touch wood.

Oh, and Happy Chinese New Year!  I'm sweltering here in Melaka, though...  Thankfully, I'll be heading back to Subang Jaya in about 18 to 20 hours, methinks.

Talking can't be that hard, right? (Part One)

(I started writing this almost a month ago but only got around to finishing it now.  I know, I still have another part coming up...  A thousand apologies!)

By now, it's kinda an established fact that people often call me up to emcee stuff for them.  Not blowing my own horn here¹, but I've been getting somewhat good at it.  However, I still have to admit that I don't think I'm that good enough yet to begin charging for my services.  Seriously, the part I dread most while emceeing is being asked to come up with filler material while stagehands are setting things up; it's nerve-racking coming up with random things to say while waiting for stuff to happen.  Last year, while emceeing the Monash Dance Fusion concert, for filler I just blurted nonsense which, although really funny for some, may have rubbed others the wrong way, to the extent that there was about three to five seconds of awkward silence from which I had to dig myself out of.  Those were some of the longest seconds of my life.

I have a feeling that the best emcees probably have a joke book tucked away somewhere from which they'd just recite in case of such an emergency.  I guess this means I have to start one too, that'd be pretty useful...  Or maybe not.  As it is, it's not like I'm being asked to emcee at corporate functions or anything, so I guess I can put that book thing off for the moment.

Anyway, onto the storytelling.  A year ago while I was helping the choir out² at the YCA Choralthon³, I received a phone call from Jin Hwa⁴.  He basically asked me for two favours:
1) Help him emcee the ASEAN International Buddhist Youth Exchange (IBYE) Concert in January 2010
2) Help emcee David and Aderina's (mutual friends of ours) wedding, also in January 2010

As I enjoyed myself emceeing something similar back in December 2007 (felt like it happened just yesterday!), I said yes to doing the concert almost immediately.  The wedding gig, on the other hand, I was a bit hesitant because I've only done it once, and even then, to an audience that was admittedly easy to please since half of them didn't speak English.  Flattered that David thought so highly of me, and considering that I probably needed practice anyways, and the fact that these opportunities to test myself aren't going to come as often once I leave uni, I accepted.

Flash forward to 9 January 2010.  The ASEAN IBYE Concert was a collaboration between a few Buddhist associations, and like all collaborations, had a propensity for communication and/or organisational breakdown.  There were so many changes made over the course of the day that I might as well have skipped all the previous meetings I've had with some of the key planners of the event.  Oh well, in situations like these, what can you do but your best?

Thus began a day of frantic information gathering, marked by all the usual questions; the "What do you want me to say?"s, the "Whom should I acknowledge?"s, and sometimes, the "Can I make fun of this dude?"s⁵.  Thereafter armed with the required data, I scrambled to prepare my cue cards (lifesavers, these things), which I didn't manage to complete by the time of the so-called dress rehearsal (I was still in my shorts!).  I winged almost half the entire thing, much to the chagrin of some of the performers who were waiting their turn in the peanut gallery.  I've never made so many Freudian slips in my life; at one point, I actually said something along the lines of "They've performed in sixty-sex cities around the world".

It didn't help that, just 30 minutes to the doors opening, people whom I've never seen before were coming up to me and informing me of changes to the program.  Obviously, when stuff like this happens, I have to reconfirm the changes with those people whom I have seen.  30 minutes before the show.  While I've yet to finish preparing my cue cards.  And I was still in my shorts.  The biggest bomb of all dropped about 15 minutes to doors opening while I was in the changing room, when I discover to my horror that I have left my black pants at home.

Cue series of expletives⁶

Of course, things always have a way of working themselves out.  I managed to borrow a pair of black jeans from one of the stagehands, prompting some friends to ask "Why the hell is Zhen in a suit, shirt and tie but black jeans?"  I also managed to get through the entire show with only a minor blunder⁷ but lots of laughs all round.

Black jeans conveniently hidden from sight

I went home that night feeling a lot better about myself, life, the universe, and everything.  It was an exhausting but ultimately rather fulfilling experience.  I began wondering if I have to engage myself in something like this every once in a while just to avoid rusting and stay sharp.  And yet, I still don't think that I'm good enough to start charging for my services, but who knows; maybe I will, someday.

Anyway, tune in sometime later this week as I talk about talking at David and Aderina's wedding, and about how I wasn't as awesome there as I was at the concert (but still awesomer than my usual level of awesome).


Footnotes:
1 - I can't reach it anyway. Ba da bish!
2 - I only just remembered that I was asked to emcee for Jin Hwa and David while I was also emceeing for Susanna...  Seems like I'm doing this a lot more often than I thought.
3 - Got a random story to share with you guys:  I took the afternoon emceeing slot, so in the morning I helped out by manning the charity book sale booth.  It was pretty fun(ny?) being a book salesman.  I read the blurbs and then dazzle passers-by about how awesome the book is despite never reading it.  It works for the most part, especially for the children's books.
4 - Three footnotes in a sentence! Jin Hwa, for those of you not in the know, is a friend I got to know during my stint participating in the Subang Jaya Buddhist Association's activities.
5 - The answer to that was a "No".  I guessed as much, as it was a Buddhist concert.  Luckily, I'm not too bad with self-deprecating humour, which I used to great response.  Almost every Chinese-speaking Malaysian can appreciate a routine on being a banana, i.e. yellow on the outside, white on the inside.
6 - Mostly FUUUUUUUUUCK.
7 - I interrupted a Thai girl mid-speech, but to my defence, she was silent for almost 10 seconds before she continued!  At least she's cute, or I may have held a grudge.




Oh, and just in case, I'm kidding about the grudge thing.  Some of you have no sense of humour.  But she really was kinda cute, though.

In the Heights, I can't survive without café

If you've seen the season six premiere of House, you'd probably know Lin-Manuel Miranda as the manic-depressive rapper, Alvie, who became our doctor's roommate in that episode.  Me being me, I had to turn to Wikipedia to find out more about the actor.  Imagine my delight¹ when I discovered that Mr. Miranda was quite a name on Broadway; he won a Tony Award for composing and writing In the Heights, which itself won Best Musical for the 2008 season.  It didn't take long before I proceeded to downl obtain through perfectly legal channels the cast recording of the show.  And man, was I blown away.

Note that my perception of the musical is based almost completely on the music alone, since I've not actually seen the show (duh, we don't all live in New York), but man is the music fun.  Oozing with Latin-American influence, some of the songs here you can actually dance to, in a non-choreographed, lyrical kinda way; think along the lines of embarrassing dance moves you'd see in a club.  I may also be somewhat biased² due to the amount of rapping in the musical, but hey, that's what happens when the guy who wrote it is a rapper.  If you liked Rent, you'd probably like In the Heights (Lin-Manuel himself admitted that Rent was a major influence on his work).  But hey, enough chatter-whatter, let's let a video do the talking (ignore the flashes of Alec Baldwin and Judi Dench):

Unfortunately, Carrie thinks that the musical's far too noisy (there are ballads too, y'know!), so for the moment In the Heights is my personal guilty pleasure.  Attempts to convert people have largely failed, though, but likely not for long!  A film version, starring most of the original cast, should be making its way to cinemas before the end of the year.  You heard it here first!

Eventually, I started obtaining through perfectly legal channels the cast recordings of other musicals, including:

1. Stephen Sondheim's esoteric Into the Woods, based on the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.
2. You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, a funny, family-friendly piece based on the characters of the Peanuts comic strip.
3. Urinetown, a very unconventional musical about people paying for the privilege to pee.
   
4. Chicago.  'Nuff said.
   

If you'd like to listen to any of the above (and a host of other musicals), you can obtain them through perfectly legal channels by way of me.  In short, just pass me a thumbdrive, or shoot me up with an e-mail or Facebook message.

Oh, and before I end this post, there's also something else that you might like to get from me.  This one goes out especially to all you choir peeps; first we had Glee, now we have The Sing-Off!

I wouldn't say that they're the best a capella groups I've ever seen, but the show sure is fun to watch!


Footnotes:
1 - Delight comes in many forms, but an example of the Zhen way to show it can be seen in the following photo:

2 - The very first cassette I bought, back in Form 2, was Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP.  I listened to nothing but rap music for almost two years, and friends used to make fun of me for that.  Surprise!

No shit, Sherlock

You know how, in primary school, there was this section in your report card where you had to fill in your cita-cita?  I remember writing, over the years, a whole range of professions; astronaut, cartoonist/artist, scientist, etc., but one that I can recall being greatly drawn to was that of a detective, in great part due to reading the Detective's Guide published by the Singaporean Bookworm Publishing House¹.  It seemed to me a glamorous vocation, going around solving cases, catching crooks² and generally looking like a much smarter cookie compared to your peers.  Once I even stole borrowed a magnifying glass from the science lab to practive my investigative and observation skills with.

Okay, I admit, I pretty much stared at random, innocuous stuff through the lens until the occasional friend walks past and then I explain to them what I was doing so that I could enthuse about detectiving.  A few friends even borrowed the aforementioned Bookworm book to equip themselves with the appropriate knowledge, such as dusting for fingerprints and learning big words like "modus operandi" and "alibi"³.  I even tried to write my own version of the book, but I ended up mostly copying verbatim what was already written.  I wish I still had that copied book somewhere (I also wish I still had all those gamebooks I drew, but that's a story for another time)...

A year or two later, I ran into a few Sherlock Holmes short stories edited to be read by kids (i.e. he wasn't addicted to cocaine and the English was much simpler and the short stories were even shorter) which resulted one of those "So this is what the guidebook was talking about!" moments.  Flash forward to today, and I am now finally in possession of the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories (no Hounds and all that jazz) by way of Carrie never bothering to read her copy.

After reading Holmes in Conan Doyle's own words, I have come to a singular conclusion; Englishmen of the early 1900s ejaculate⁴ a lot.  Every other page you'll have Watson ejaculating:

"What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated, after I had twice read over the extraordinary announcement. - The Red-Headed League

It must have been a really extraordinary announcement if it can cause someone to ejaculate after two readings.  Yeah, yeah, I know that back then 'ejaculate' was commonly used in the same vein as 'exclaim' or 'utter', but if you don't find it just a tad funny, you have no sense of humour.

Speaking of which, on Christmas eve Carrie and I went to catch the Sherlock Holmes film starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.

As much as it veered so much from the traditional Holmes that we know, I enjoyed the movie.  I guess that's because when I entered the theatre, I didn't expect a traditional Holmes; otherwise we'd just get Adrian Monk less the OCD (which is what makes Monk so funny), and that just won't do well at the box office.  If you want traditional, go read the book.  Plus, Robert Downey Jr. was especially entertaining as Holmes, not to mention the awesome soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.

Oh, and to all you House fans out there; I know that House and Wilson are based on Holmes and Watson, but wasn't the latter couple's relationship in the film so much like the one between the former?  There were so many points in the film when I could've ejaculated "That's what House would do!"


Footnotes:
1 - I discovered, many years later, that the Bookworm book was a thinly veiled rip-off of the Usborne Detective Handbook, complete with similar covers.  I'd provide a visual comparison, but unfortunately I was unable to find a picture of the Bookworm cover.

2 - Back then, the crooks were the bullies of the school!  Not that I was bullied much, but someone had to be a champion of justice to represent us physically inept kids, right?
3 - I'd smudge my fingers with chocolate, leave prints all over the kitchen, then, armed with my mom's makeup brush and some powder, dust for them, and then check against a fingerprint file that I kept.  Kinda pointless, because the file only had my own fingerprints that I made using my mom's compact because we didn't have ink pads in my house.  Oh, and which kid doesn't like to learn pointless big words which they can, on the very rare occasion, use in their essays?
4 - I'd hate to be the kid who learned the word 'ejaculate' from Sherlock Holmes and used it in his essay before he learned the other meaning, though.

Guess who's back?

Hello and welcome to my new blog!  It's about time I changed, though.  Much as I loved the old layout, there was just too much baggage for me to update the html layout to xml, so I figured that the easiest way to start anew is by, well, starting a new... blog (har har).

So, I thought I'd start this new blog off with a big one, especially since the last time I actually blogged proper was back in April.  That's almost seven months worth of updating, so I'm gonna get started without further ado¹.  First of all, I must admit that my final semester at Monash wasn't as exciting as I hoped.  It was pretty much more of the same, actually.  There was the Monash Music Festival that had great bands coming to play, and not forgetting too Peck Yun's mom's surprisingly awesome kebabs.

From Leanne's Facebook photos

This was followed by the annual MUISS Cultural Night, wherein I performed a little something-something (naturally).

From Victor's Facebook photos

And finally, after more than a year's absence from Chiling, the MNSM peeps raided the poor waterfall again.  Sadly, the usual suspects of Leanne and Cze Wien weren't around to liven things up.  Izuan wasn't on camera duty either, hence the dearth of pictures (even on Facebook).

From Ying Xuan's Facebook photos

Some time later I helped emcee the Dance Fusion club concert, though I can't seem to find any pictures of me online.  I also emceed the Monash University Medical Student Society's "Shave Me, Save Me" event, which was a resounding success despite the simple premise of collecting donations to get your hair cut/shaved (they raised RM35,000!).  Icky, who was my partner in crime, even took the plunge that day, shaving his top for RM100!

From Victor's Facebook photos

And that was it, as far as Monash events went.  However, what came after was probably the most fun I've ever had studying for my exams (srsly).  This semester, I decided to join Izuan, Kenzie, Jerry, Desmond and the rest in studying til late at night in uni, invading classrooms and camping there.  The latest I ever stayed was until 1am, I think.

From Ju Li's Facebook photos

One day, we spotted a tower crane at the construction site next to Monash being raised.  Haven't you ever wondered how a tower crane's height is raised?

From Izuan's Facebook photos

And then there were the many ways we wasted time, one major culprit being Plants vs. Zombies, over here being played by me and projected onto the screen in front of the class we were in.  Sometimes we'd freeze the screen and leave the projector on despite nobody playing it just to discourage other students from entering the class!

From Izuan's Facebook photos

One day, Izuan and I stumbled upon games from our days of yore; Choujin Sentai Jetman and Contra, courtesy of an NES emulator (although, back in the day, we played them on Micro Genius clones).

From Izuan's Facebook photos

Of course, since we already waste so much time not studying, we had to come up with a method to save time.  What we discovered was that we spend too much time deciding on where to eat, so one day we came up with a brilliant idea: We do it randomly.  It started with Izuan writing down a list of places to eat and then using a calculator's random function to determine it.  Eventually, he even wrote a simple program to do it, and we called our new 'religion' Listology and the calculator/program the Deus Ex Machina (okay, maybe I was the only one who called it that, the rest just simply called it God).

Aaaaaaanyway...

I did okay for my final semester, netting a High Distinction, two Distinctions and a Credit.  Was hoping for better but what can you do, eh?  At least I made up for it by pulling off an awesome stunt at my graduation ceremony.  When I went up on stage to receive my scroll, I shook hands with the chancellor, Alan Larkin...

...and then I faced the audience, held my degree high up in the air and yelled "I'VE GOT THE POWER" in the best, booming voice I could muster.  And most of you (all three of you who read my blog!) know how loud I can get.

If you look closely, you can see the senior lecturers on the back LOL-ing.  The look on Alan Larkin's face as he turned back to look at me though, is priceless.

So that's about it for my final semester at Monash.  I have to admit, my three years of uni were some of the best I've ever had in my entire life, and had a lot to do with shaping me into the person I am today (ask almost anybody that knew me in high school; I've changed a lot).  I was so reluctant to leave that the week after my final exam, I started working at Monash's International Students Office, a gig that lasted from July to September before quitting to look for a 'real' job.

But first, an aside.  Some of you guys may know me for being quite an avid player of Magic: the Gathering.  On the 4th of July, I participated in my very first Malaysian National Championships.  I never thought I would do well enough to compete in the Nationals, but this year I managed to qualify (yes, you have to be qualified).  To my own surprise, I managed to go undefeated in the first day of the competition, eventually making the Top 8 out of 84 players after 12 rounds of competition.  Very few people manage to make the Top 8 on their first Nationals appearance, so I guess it was only appropriate that I got knocked out in the quarterfinals by another National Championship virgin² ,Bryan Chen.

From QJ Wong's blog

Nevertheless, I finished 6th and won myself a cool USD350 for my efforts, vindicating the time and money I've poured into the game (a hell of a lot more than USD350, though...) for the past 11 years.  I can't ask for much more than that.  Rest assured, I will be trying much harder next year!

Back to work.  Work at the International Students Office was interesting, as I had full contact with the students, many whom were friends and acquaintances.  Additionally, part of my job entails going on trips to the airport to greet and guide new students through immigration³.  At the same time, I was able to meet up with Izuan, Desmond and the rest during lunch and whatnot.

But of course I didn't intend to work at that office forever.  After much encouragement from my mother (read: nagging... oh, hi mom!⁴), I spent an entire month shooting my resumés out for consideration.  I almost became a bank employee, but instead I took up an offer at IBM.  You probably can't go wrong with an MNC (or as they like to call themselves, a "globally integrated enterprise") for your first "real" job, I guess.  In fact, so many Monash graduates had the same idea that my 20-person department has two other Monash graduates.  By process of exaggeration extrapolation, I conclude that there are approximately 3,974,201 Monashians in IBM (and growing by the hour!).

So, my studies... Magic... Work...  That leaves me with choir.  Rhythmic Roots, our annual production, happened during my second week of work (also the second week of November), pretty much throwing a massive wrench into my biological clockwork.  I work from 6am to 3pm because I service Australian clients, you see, and having to shuttle between One Utama and Lot Ten (heh, shuttling from One to Ten) every evening for dress rehearsals and shows and only going to bed at 12 seriously messed up my health.  I've had a cold and had been coughing up phlegm for 34 days (yes, I counted) now, and if you were wondering, yeah I'm still kinda sick.

But this year's show was totally off the hook, though.  The choreography was sweet as, courtesy of the insanely talented and insanely funny Lakshman "Lex" Balakrishnan, plus we were directed by the legendary Joe Hasham.  If you missed this year's show, you suck!  Damn right, son.  I hope I get access to the video recording of the show soon, though.  We didn't really have an official photographer come in this year (at least, not that I know of) so all you get are stuff ripped from the pages of Facebook.

From Alvin's Facebook photos

From Alvin's Facebook photos

From Carolyn's Facebook photos

The girlfriend and I are still going strong by the way, thanks for asking.  In any case, you (all three of you) are now officially updated on the life and going-ons of Zhen for the better part of 2009.  Let's just hope that I find the drive to keep updating this blog on a regular basis from now onwards.

It's the home stretch for 2009, guys.  Let's make the last weeks of the last year of this decade an awesome one!


Footnotes:
1 - It's "without further ado" and not "without further adieu."  Ado means fuss or delay, while adieu is French for goodbye.  It's one of my English pet peeves that I sometimes can't bring myself to correct lest I seem like a douchebag.
2 - You might say that Mr. Bryan Chen (the guy in the photo) deflowered me.  That sorta makes that photo porn, doesn't it?
3 - New intakes of international students aren't allowed out of the airport unless they have a representative from their college/university to clear them through immigration.  For me, driving to the airport takes only about an hour, so I can make it there in a jiffy in the off-chance that a student appears in Malaysia too early due to changes in flight plans.  But what about colleges in, say, Melaka?  There have been so many cases of students getting stuck in the airport immigration office for days on end when they fail to contact their agents.
4 - The three people who read this blog are my sister, my mom, and you, whoever you are!