2008 - here it begins

Wanted to update this yesterday before 2007 ended, but internet was just jammed up so badly I couldn't even view my blog. Anyway, you would have noticed that my previous USA posts have been erased. Reason being that my Flickr was getting a little disorganised, so I did a Marvin thing and erased all the pictures and re-uploaded them. Took a solid 7 hours. By which time it was 10pm.

So, here is a combined long post to start the new year. With pictures in chronological order.

Me and my mom at LA International Airport. This was after a (in the words of my brother) 15-hour ass-breaking flight. After the 15 hours, we still had a six hour transit at the airport (yes, we sat at that spot for about 4 hours) and after that another 4.5 hours flight to the other side of USA.


My brother's new sax. Cost as much as my Taylor. He is somehow oblivious to the cold.


My brother's dog shaped cushion. The shot below is how big it actually is, relative to me. It was heavy!!!!!




There is even a table tennis table in his apartment?!?!


Outside my brother's apartment. Nice place.


That amount of food there was for 3 people. 4 of us could not finish it.


At the Science museum; something like the Science centre. That's me in front of a mobius strip; topology was the subject of my Honours Thesis.


At one of the Christmas tress at Quincy market on Sunday. We went there for dinner before heading to church.


Good chinese food to get your bowels moving again after all the junk stuff.


It snowed after dinner. This was the next morning (of our 4th day in US), the car was covered in snow, had to brush it off first. We were on the way to the airport for a trip back to LA on the other side of the States. This one was a 6 hour horror of a flight.


Later that same morning in Hollywood. This is in front of the famous Chinese Theatre. As you can tell, the weather is a lot better.


The next day at the Taylor factory gift shop. =D Spent quite a bit here.


The Taylor secret stash of wood. Some of the colouring of the wood here was out of this world! But I guess most of the really great stuff would now be at R Taylor now.


My brother with a new Taylor solidbody blank. I wonder who it's eventual owner might be!


Rows of guitars! The factory has become like a Mecca for guitar freaks around the world. Sure was good to be there.


After the tour, we headed down to Buffalo Brothers. Taylor's biggest dealer stateside and probably in the world.


This was the next day in Las Vegas! That's New York, New York; a hotel. Everything in Vegas is just BIG!


We stayed in the Venetian. That's the toilet. Its as big as my room.


At the Grand Canal. It's really very small, unlike what all the TV documentaries show.


The MASSIVE Fountains of Bellagio.


The Sphinx at the Luxore.


In Disneyland!






Six Flags at Magic Mountain. This place is crazy!


The Dejavu. You see the two towers in the background, they basically raise the carraige up one tower and drop you and you ride through the whole course facing foward till you get to the 2nd tower. There, they raise you up backwards and drop you back through the same course but in reverse order. Confused? You'd feel that way after riding it.


The big treat at the end of the trip was this. I visited the Luthier who is building my new guitar, and I got to see it in person. AMAZING! More than that, tried one of the guitars he made. The sound was out of this world!!!!


Well, that was my USA sojourn.

A new year begins; let's see what happens in 2008!

Leaving on a jet plane

... but I do know when I will be home.

Typing this post from T2's free internet kiosk. Waiting for my flight in 45 minutes. Off to US to visit my brother. A nice break from Singapore. Will be back on 11 December; then the mad rush of December begins. SRC, LTC, then back to school and at the same time there is One Voice retreat, leadership retreat etc.

Long December indeed.

For all you peeps, don't attempt SMSing me, it will cost!

Cornerstone update #4

There are a lot more pics in my Flickr. But this one really shows how far it is progressing. 

Terminal 3

My Dad flew off to London this evening for a business trip. Interesting thing was that his flight was a test flight from the new Terminal 3 building. Well, took the opportunity to take some pictures of the place. 

The layout and scheme is pretty nice, just that the shops aren't open yet.

This is the check-in area. 

This leads to the viewing gallery. Nothing much to see at the gallery actually. 

A birds's eye view of the check in area. 

Here is the arrival area. Lighting was very poor here. 

Cornerstone Update #3

Realise that I didn't post a lot of the pictures that I've been posting on Guitar4Christ or AGF. So here are some!

The back being braced.


The back fully braced and voiced.


The dove shaped soundport. It's like a second soundhole.


The back glued on! :D


A look at the neck!

SRC advert

Starring our good friend Shaun!

Cute!

Looks like my form class finally discovered my real nickname. I actually prefer it to teddy bear; which was my nick before mashimaro. The latter somehow sticks better.

Here's Wenya's masterpiece:



Cute! HAHA!

Here's Ryan's from two years ago:

Chicken Nuggets, popcorn chicken...

This is mainly for my form class.

This is a recipe for chicken nuggets. But if you cut the chicken down to a smaller size, it will become popcorn chicken. The good thing about it is that it does not involve any frying.

Ingredients:
- Chicken fillets
- Biscuits / crackers / bread crumbs
- Plain Yoghurt
- Pepper, salt, chilli and coriander power


Step 1:
- Cut the chicken into small bits
- That's just 4 pieces of the chicken fillets


Step 2
- Prepare the marinate
- Mix the yoghurt, salt, pepper, spices together


Step 4:
- Crush the biscuits
- Mix the chicken pieces into the marinate
- Prepare the tray


Step 5:
- Coat the chicken pieces with the crumbs


Step 6:
- Bake on very high heat for 20 minutes


This is the end result. That's good for 3 or 4 servings. One tray of chicken should make a solid 12 servings at the least. It is far cheaper than buying pre-cooked stuff.


'

Above All

The anonymous spammer thinks I don't update often enough. Well, will try do so a little more now, since I am a little bit more time now.

Anyway, this is one of the best videos I've seen on Youtube. I'm still amazed each time I see it.

The calm before the storm

It the nice calm before the storm, a storm of marking that is! It is interesting to sit on this side of the examination after being on the other for a good portion of my life. I have to say, teachers get stressed during this period just as much as students. Some signs of stress:

1) Dreamt that the neck of my Taylor broke and the bridge was torn off (more like a nightmare)
2) Dreamt that my Cornerstone's top broke in mid-construction :(
3) Dreamt that I managed to sell my Ibanez and Maestro, only to wake up to find that haven't been sold yet :(
4) Dreamt of "someone". Honestly, it was a little disturbing... cos rottan class...
5) Didn't dream on some nights... those were pleasant.

Signs of stress in the common room... convo between Mr A and Mr E:

Mr E: Mr A, you reminded to remind you early this morning about something.

Me A: Please remind me about what I reminded you to remind me this morning. (Sounds like Jack Sparrow isn't it?)

Mr E: I forgot.

Anyway, I thought the show "Fan Chan" (My girl) was pretty good, even though it was in Thai. I was smiling through quite a number of parts of the movie, really sweet. Honestly, the whole story reminded me of something (or someone rather) in my past. Like what the protagonist in the story said at the end, that he will always remember the girl in a certain way, I don't think I will forget those pink plastic specs (hahahaha...). I wonder where she is now.

Cornerstone update #3

It's been quite a traumatic morning so far. So here's a post to get things off my mind!

Here is a picture of the back bracings. The back has been completed. Nice!


Here is a picture of the two tops being glued. The vacuum bag is supposed to apply an even pressure throughout the top during this process. I think.


The top being prepared for bracing. The top is a double top, a technique used mainly in the construction of classical guitars. Two sold pieces of wood thinned and joined together to "get the best of both worlds". Underneath this lighter layer of wood, parts of it were drilled to created hollow spaces. From the reviews so far, this significantly increases the volume and the quality of the tone.

How time flies...

Met an old secondary school classmate earlier in the day. It just seems like yesterday when we were all in the same class teasing and interogating each other on our crushes. Seemed quite the norm to do that back then, hasn't really changed much.

Well, he's now married with a 14 month old son. I can't quite imagine that.

Cornerstone update #2

Since quite a number of people have been asking me to update. Here is an update. Was going to sleep, but then I received the following pictures in the mail. Woke up instantly and decided to update!

Kerfing going on to the guitar!


The end graft. I love the book-matching even at the bottom!


The rendition of the dove soundport!

Happy Teachers' Day 2007

I usually dedicate a post every Teachers' Day. This year is really different, as I am actually comemorating this day as a teacher. Last year, I was still in NIE, and it wasn't exactly a fantastic one due to salary adjustment annoucement. I wasn't affected, but plenty of my collegues were. Anyway, that was last year.

Well, this year, has a been a real learning year for me. Even teachers have teachers and this post is dedicated to my coorperating teachers at Temasek Secondary School, Mrs Lim Swu Yun, Mrs Rebecca Loke and Mr Toh Wee Kwang who really helped me a lot in the first half of this year.

Cornerstone update #1!

Finally finding a short breather to update the blog, this one is on my new guitar and is an update a long time in the making. Long story, you can check the forums if you are really interested!

Englemann spruce top being glued. This will be used in a top construction technique known as the double top. It will make the top vibrate more freely, giving better sound.


The rosette being inlaid to the sinker redwood top. The Englemann piece will be on the reverse side of this top.


A full view of the top.


A closeup of the rosette.


The back being glued up.


The 5-piece neck being glued up.


The neck all glued up, waiting to be cut.


The sides being bent.


The sides fully bent waiting to be joined.


The box is taking shape!


Happy GASing!

Back online...

Spent the last few days formatting my laptop, now it's back in a decent working condition with a few new modifications. Was acting strange and could not shut down properly, due to having about 60 different thumbdrives inserted into it within a two week period in July. Hopefully I've added another year of life into it. My other 5 year old laptop is still in working order, so I'm sure this one can last a little longer. Will format it again in a year's time.

It sure feels like school is supposed to reopen tomorrow, but in reality its Friday! So two more days of break... or rather marking.

Here's a nice shot of the whole school.


More good food!

This is the Japanese restaurant at East Coast Park. Interestingly, after living in the east for so many years (basically my whole life), I've only stepped into this place twice. The first time to meet up with my primary school mates, but I didn't eat anything then. The second time was 2 days ago, and I can foresee that that won't be the last time.

Out of this world presentation!


Out of this world portions!




Don't be fooled by the size of the bowl though. The amount of food isn't any more than other restaurants. It's just an optical illusion, but a damn good one.

Some pictures...

Here's a view from the Equinox! 70th floor of the Swissotel, formerly known as Compass Rose. I never thought I'd be able to ever set foot into that place. Was playing at a friend's wedding. No angpow... the but food more than made up for it! Too bad I don't have a shot of the food! :(

Anyway, nice place to be watching this year's NDP, but, unexpectedly, not a very nice place to be watching the F1 race next year. While you can see the track, you can only see a small part of it! Have to run from room to room to catch the whole thing!



Here is a shot of the Indoor Stadium before Festival of Praise started. Wasn't that crowded, in fact I only reached the Indoor Stadium at 7.30pm. This was only on Friday night of course. Crowd was noticeably older, and I'm getting a little old to go everyday! Gone are the days when I could queue from 2.30pm to 7.30pm on all three days of FoP.



Good food!