An alto story

Being an alto is really hard, both in terms of singing and in terms of recognition. Singing these weird ass parts to compliment the sopranos in such a low range falsetto while trying hard to be heard over the sops is no mean feat. Its a pity no one else thinks so.

People often think Soprano, Tenor and Bass are hardest because of their extremities, very high falsetto, very high real voice and very low real voice. Which of course is true that they are indeed difficult. But no one usually compliments an alto for being "very pro" unlike the other sections. Ever heard of the 3 altos? don't think so. But you've probably heard of the 3 tenors. We have a very important part to play in the choir, being the chord makers and keeping the sops anchored, but not many people appreciate us, heck most people totally DAO us. I sometimes even feel Mr Kwei DAOS us, he rarely compliments and befriends altos and usually does it to the sops or tenors and even basses. Its just frustrating. I only know of one alto that stands out, and its because he sings soprano sometimes and has an operatic tone.

When a soprano blasts a high note, the audience will turn their direction to them and get impressed. Obviously no one is impressed by altos blasting low notes... But its exactly the reason why I love alto. We are like behind the scenes crew, putting all our efforts to help the main performance. Occasionally someone will appreciate us, and its all we need to keep on going.

But every section has nice parts, even alto. That's when people start saying we complain too much about our part even though its so nice... seriously want to slap their face. Anyways like I said each section has nice parts, so its only normal for me to like other parts to. Problem is, whenever I sing soprano, tenor or bass parts, people start suaning me and ask me to shut up. What the...fork sia, lols inside joke. Nevermind, anyways these people seriously get on my nerves. Its like High School Musical's message on the status quo, stick to it.

Which means I'm forbidden to sing soprano or tenor parts. I know I sound bad in them, especially in tenor according to my friends, but thats part of the point of me wanting to sing them; practice makes perfect. So what if I have a weird tone? Doesn't mean I'm 'tone' deaf, I'm singing the correct notes. But people who cannot absorb green light will start laughing at me, gradually influencing others to do the same when I blast in tenor. You know what? Screw you beaches, I sing whatever I want. Can't take it? Then get out of my range. Cause if you'd rather tone deaf people to weird tone people, I cannot help you. You have zero tolerance.

Here's another comic for your enjoyment. Sorry for the lousy quality, its kinda rushed.

The finale

2010 will give rise to a new beginning. As 2009 silently passes on, the winds of the O levels become stronger by the second, cutting into my skin and making me shiver with fear. Howling its warning to me, "bring more protection or you'll die of the cold". Prepared I must be, with at least 4 layers of clothing and a wind jacket, I battle against 10 winds, the various subjects.

Sigh...the holidays are coming to an end, but as much as I miss them, I feel it has prepared me for the year ahead.

Today I went to play soccer with my seniors and a few others. It was very much worth the exhaustion of 3 hours of soccer. I played so much my freaking sole came off my shoes. Which leads me to my mother bringing me out today to get new stuff for the new year. Woah, totally didn't expect it, but she told me she wanted me to get some better shoes since I'm playing a bit more sports... and hazahh I got a new pair of Adidas track shoes. Possibly the most expensive piece of clothing I own. Their terribly light I admit, which makes it nicer to run with. Really got to give credit to the makers, possibly little kids working in errr nevermind.

Just checked out my new timetable for 2010 and I'm like WTF. Seriously. They expect us to miss choir every thursday!! How could they!! What kind of retarded screwed up time table is this!! Choir is the thing that's been keeping me going this holiday and I can't just abandon it now...I'm definitely going to discuss this with Jia Lok, Jun Yew and Hendrik...

More bad news, Mr Daryl Tan and Ms Sharma ain't teaching us anymore =( nuuuuuuuu T.T. Classes just arn't going to be the same without them =( Sighz, the road to O levels is going to be much tougher than coping with secondary 3 but I won't be alone. The whole cohort are pushing together as one, instead harnessing the terrible winds of O levels into a sail, as a motivation to press on and work harder.

Some scenes of 2009, enjoy.

One of the last few sunsets of 2009

The flyer near the highest point

The newly renovated Siglap Mosque...on fire

A castle in China, near the Marco Polo Bridge

My attempted AEP exam drawing

Fun times almost over

Today was a fun day =D. Woke up early to go have breakfast with my dad and went to school for media club stuff. YOUR YEARBOOK VICTORIANS. But I'll admit I think it's better than shelving books to me, that's just boring slave labour. This ACTUALLY teaches you some skills about designing stuff ya know?

Ok I hope a certain toy zapping eccentric yak asking nothing good doesn't read this next bit. I went to parkway afterthat with bros to meet choir peeps JP, sperm, Manutdaredampro and Iskiprope1000timesaday guy. Had lunch and came my house after that for monopoly, mariokart, wiisports, halo3 and fifa10. I'll cut the crap and skip to Sherlock Holmes.

I must say, although the ratings weren't good, the movie did strike me as proffessionally well done. The camera wasn't crappy, the plot was well planned, was very original although abit Da Vinci Code-ish, had a proper, suiting the setting soundtrack and proper acting. Compared to New Moon, with so many cheesy lines and crappy scenes, Sherlock Holmes stands out as a witty action movie that suits me. It didn't suit sperm much, he couldn't catch anything. So If you don't like movies like Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons, don't watch.

I just read wikipedia on sherlock holmes, and to my pleasant surprise, the movie is doing a lot of justice to the real character. Those cartoons of him looking like a wimp in some chequered shirt are inaccurate, because he actually is good at bare-knuckled fighting and martial arts, which just makes me respect and like the character and the movie even more.

The plot was unnaturally good for a this kind of movie, although a hiccup is during the revelation by sherlock, the theories and all that are far fetched and not really meant to be solved by the audience, although I would say the clues are put fairly well together. I especially like the fact that its not just good vs evil but there's also a third party which is uncommon for action movies. The third party adds depth to the story, more mystery, an interesting angle and originality to the plot. Well Done to the producers of the movie. If you'd ask me to rate, I'd say 4/5 stars.

How sad the holidays are starting to pick up but coming to an end. I got to say that without certain photosynthesising friends around, I'm doing better socially haha. Just makes me dread him more.

Sorry no comic today =( didn't mean it to be an everyday thing anyway. If I do upload though, it need not be comics K?

Fashion Cents

"Li Keen you fashion disaster" was what Mr Kwei said to me the other lol. Well the fact is I don't buy designer stuff or care too much about what I'm wearing. As long as I'm appropriately dressed, I couldn't care less about branded tees or jeans. My mother instilled in me this habit of saving since young, so now, my shoes are from giants and bata, I never buy clothes unless their special from another country, a quarter of my clothes used to be my brothers' and yes I do wear slippers with jeans sometimes.

In fact, I almost never ask my parent's for anything. My mom begged me to get a >wii< to reward me for my studies even though I said an xbox game is enough. She bought a nintendo DS from Japan for me and now khooky told her I'm too stressed during exams so she wants me to play more. EPIC WIN!! lols. She even bought the entire age of empires series and more when she went to USA.

Of course, people laugh at me for being like that. People who are green and photosynthesise. Of course, I can't blame them, my cheap slightly over $10 earphones are full of my earwax =P yeah it is gross...to you. To me, its a unique little habit of mine to go for quantity over quality. I even play music on my DS. Yeah you can call me a nutjob but it don't matter to me, if you don't like a song you just ain't going to like it in better quality. Of course my songs do sound better on better players and I do get laughed at for my earphones and music. But you know, I'll be laughing when your living on the streets BEECHES =P

Here is another lame comic =P

The gradual steps out of isolationism

I told myself not to be so emo, so...drawing inspiration out of 'U Gene's' blog. I shall reinvent my blog a little heh, and slowly it'll be more personalised and less private heh. I'm still learning a thing or two 'bout blogging so it'll take a while.

I drew this a while back and I figured my blog needed to lighten up a little =P

Teenage complexity

You know in all those shows where teenagers are rebellious brats who say their lives are very complex and "no one understands them". I used to think that was stupid and unbecoming of a young adult. I still think so, and I may be calling myself stupid. Sigh, I can't help it, no matter how hard I try, I sometimes get the feeling that some friends and family are idiots and 'don't know me very well'.

It's a good thing I'm aware of these dark thoughts, and quite frankly I'm thankful I was a little emotional in secondary 1. It's got me reflecting and thinking about what kind of mindset and attitude I should have. It's made me more certain and assured of myself and my character. It's whats keeping me from succumbing to peer pressure and all sorts of unbecoming things. It's getting weaker though, so I need this blog.

I decided not to go for a $200 trip to Cameron Highlands tonight, which is what sparked me to write again. It made me pace the floor for an hour and I finally decided not to go. Yeah I'm pretty selfish. But it has awakened me to something. I now look foward to the weekend ahead, instead of dreading it when I thought I was going on this trip to tea plantation that if you have read the papers, are being razed = =". I always tell myself to learn from mistakes, but it always takes a long, painful on to finally set my mind straight about what to do next time, like the Sengkang incident hehe.

Was it the right thing to do? No one knows and nothing is ever just right or wrong. Although my mum thinks it was definitely wrong from the way she used an angry tone everytime I supposedly made a mistake. I know I'm being the teenage stereotype that I detest, which is why I'm keeping it only in this blog, but what I feel is that she 'doesn't understand me' and she should stop treating me like a child. I learnt from a parenting talk (Yeah I listened to one at suntec before cause I was bored) that when your child is a from say 6-12 years old, you should tell them what's right and what's wrong. When their a teenager, you guide them, as a coach and not an authority figure. My mother is probably the latter. It's wrong of me to judge though. So I apologize now.

She thinks I'm still a kid, and that her parenting style doesn't have to change. She screamed at me saying she was going to complain to Mr Kwei about having such a hold on me. But it's not really that. Choir has always been a place with people to meet and where I have good friends. Going to Cameron Highlands? No friends. I don't know, maybe I'm a desperate social looking for attention and love. I don't know. Maybe that's why I crave the simple life of ancient times. OK it wasn't that simple, but you wouldn't face these kind of emotional and moral problems of society I suppose...

Merry Christmas to myself

I'm an attention seeker at heart I admit. I feel lonely nowadays, maybe that's why I need this blog to cheer myself up that maybe someday someone will read it besides myself. I don't know, I'm just so lonely sometimes. I mean my elder brother already has his own set of friends and his in National Service so at home, I'm the only one in my teens. And unfortunately a lot of people aren't helping. That's why I feel happiest around my friends.

Maybe it's just teenage stuff, but I'm feeling less close to my family than to my friends, or perhaps dependable. Which is wrong, so I'm constantly reminding myself about that thank you very much.

Nowadays I'm so lonely I pace the floor thinking and reflecting... WOW. It was OK in primary school but now I'm kind of sick of it. It sounds stupid but I hate the thought of not being with my friends for something. Whether it's an outing or even an inside joke, I feel lonely when my friends talk about it and I can't relate. Doesn't everyone? Maybe that's why I go for so many activities.

Why am I bringing this up now? It's because I'm going to malaysia with my family, and I've just heard my dad isn't coming, which makes it my mother, younger brother and yes my nikon D90 which I consider more fun than both my mother and younger brother combined. Sorry about that, I can't help it, I need people my age. Another sad part is that I'm missing choir practice on saturday and sunday, and once again the thought of not being there weighs heavily on my mind, in exchange for a trip with my family and a whole lot of aunties and uncles. Pray that I find someone my age there.

Another reason, and I hope this doesn't become a fiasco like in primary 6...is that OK you know what, nevermind. Let's just say its another teenage thing that I cannot help. Ever heard of puppy love? My chinese zodiac is dog anyway haha. I probably have the same state of mind as during primary 6. I'm just going to say, way out of my league and probably going to end badly if it gets out like in primary 6.

I hope the green, photosynthesising one doesn't hear about this. His another reason why I feel lonely, since his turning all my choir people against me. If he finds out I'm like this, he'd suan me for being kind of girly, haiz, if that happens, I will be stronger than I am now. At least I'm not gay, seeing as I still fall for pretty girls hehe. Merry christmas people.

A healthy dose of Runescape

People often insult runescape players, calling them lame and what not. These people are fishing slowed down (requires musical knowledge to understand). Once in these people's lives they probably played it too, but they're "all grown up now" WOOOOWWWW all grown up now. If you think that way your probably a fork third acting cool.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with playing games you like, or acting like a kid, because being a kid means you accept that sometimes, kids are cooler than adults, that kids are innocent, your being matured enough to understand that there's nothing wrong about being a kid without a worry or vice in the world that clogs his carefree mind.

"Start acting your age" Hell I would man, act like a rebellious teenager who smokes and does crack? yah have fun dying of LUNG CANCER esso.

"I didn't mean that, I meant do stuff like learn the guitar, buy designer stuff and get a life" Oh so now I don't have a life is it? Please, if I was a person without a life I'd be at home playing runecape in the dark 24 hours, eating nothing but cup noodles. Yah that's pathetic, I agree. But do I do that? You tell me. Do I go out with my friends? Yes. Do you not go out with your friends cause you want to play runescape? No. Do you neglect other things for runescape? No. Are you FAT or malnourished? No. So shut the fort down about it.

Can't you be 'grown up' enough to accept that different people like different games, play different games? Not everyone has to learn the guitar or wear converse, levi's and $80 headphones to be cool, and its sad that people think that way. They laugh at me when I tell them I play runescape, that my shoes are bought from bata, that I'm childish. Whatever man.

I'm a casual gamer, I play things like Plants VS Zombies, Bookworm, runescape. I'm what my mum taught me to be, to save, spend wisely, I don't need material wealth to survive or to have fun. All I need is good friends that laugh with me, play with me, sing with me, to go out and have lunch with me, to share memories and joy with me. By the way, if you laughed when you read "play with me", your more childish than me.

The endless activities

Jack of all trades, master of none. I personally think that best describes me. I have been told many times that I can't do everything so prioritize and drop something. I agree but it's probably too late for me. If I had known any better, I may have not taken up so many things in my lower secondary school life. Back then, I was so free I didn't mind all the extra stuff I had to do. Not now. After helping out so much in Choir, Media Club, Scrabble and going the extra mile in studies, the results could be for good or bad. It seems all of these activities want me to strive and excel in them, but I'm at my limit. I just can't do it all and have fun and relax for even a minute. I'm still a teenager, I'm not even getting paid for all this "charity work". I hope it will pay off in the long run though.

"Just drop something and concentrate on others!" Unfortunately, I'm in so deep that I care too much if i just miss out on one of them, I have this cursed and blessed nature of wanting to be a part of everything. I've already had to make some hard decisions. Firstly, I think I'm going to drop Scrabble next year. (You see what I just did? I THINK...) I just can't bear to drop any of them... I care about all my CCAs and my studies. My friends and teachers are not helping either. Whenever I ask them if I should drop something or that I'm going to quit, say for example, scrabble, they are probably going to try and persuade me to stay. Maybe I'm being boastful but they may be depending on me to be there for everything. Exactly how I felt in primary 5 during the Robotics Competition where I was the only student programmer on the team... I got so frustrated and stressed I quit right before the competition. Sigh... I really don't know what to do. It's so unfair that my teachers and students encourage me to take up these CCAs and challenges and now some of them encourage me to drop if I'm feeling stressed. But I can't because I care about each and everyone of them.

"Do your best in all of em!" -_-" Are you that lame? I want that, but as a teenager I also succumb to things like video games and whatnot... I'll be too distracted and stress to handle all the responsibility... Why did I bring this topic up today? Because I just made a decision not to sing a certain song in choir because I'm too busy to learn it and I'm not interested in emo japanese songs either. Besides, I wanted to sing the song in the first place for the wrong reasons (e.g. peer pressure) not because I liked it. It still gives me a bit of a headache though. I'm still very uncertain about my decision. It's like a decision to pon training or something for your own benefit and fun, since if I try hard enough I can probably accomplish is but I won't have any time to play. It's for the best though, I'd rather give up now then later and let my whole team down like in primary 5.

I can't walk

Sincerely apologize if I annoy you so much with my lame jokes till you attempt suicide. However, there's a lesson to be learnt here. There are always people you can't stand. DEAL WITH IT BEACHES. Unfortunately for you, people are widely accepted to be morons at times since everyone is different. To err is human. Instead of asking me to stop telling lame jokes, which of course if you do I'll tone down a little around you, try tolerating a bit.

"Why should I sacrifice instead of you?" Cause that's life, its called compromise. Of course there are people I can't stand, but as a person some other people can't stand either, I accept that fact and still remain friendly to these people.

"Why can't you stop being lame? No one thinks your funny." It hurts when you say that. "Aww li keens gonna cry..." What the fizzle is your problem? Do I ask you to stop doing your bad habits, or stop being mean to me? Course I do, but when you don't cause you can't help it or you think I'm just being annoying I tolerate it. Sometimes. Hey to err is human!

You may think that insulting me is very fun and it doesn't hurt. It does. So wake up from your happy go lucky attitudes people and try to truly find out deep inside how people feel, cause I'm a touchy person, too bad.

Why do I tell lame jokes? Cause I'd rather that then racist or sick ones, but to my annoyance, people prefer those, so as a teenager, I go with the flow if I'm feeling lonely. So Fishing glad Alif is overseas.

Issues overload

I don't have a diary or maybe even a good friend to confide in some of my thoughts. Since it's been building up over time, its only natural that a lot will come out at the same time. As I've written earlier, today my 'friends' insulted me again. Maybe they don't know I'm feeling slightly hurt or angry... hehe being emo SIOL. I tried asking them why they insult me so much and all that, DAOED. You know frankly, its hard for me not to dislike them. I'm actually trying hard to avoid vulgar language and keep using some proper english. Sigh...why can't I find a friend like me...or maybe I've already found some but I just don't know yet. Isn't it weird I always argue over my thoughts? Its cause of something I told myself before, to not get all angsty and emo, cause there is no point. If you don't know, in secondary 1 I was pretty angsty and could not get along with my new classmates much. And maybe I'm restarting this blog cause I'm getting angsty again.

Anyway, if your wondering why I went out with them if I don't like them, to be honest, I don't know myself. So I told myself I'm never doing that again. The whole time, those two "friends" just talked to each other the whole way, whispered into each others ears, not showing me anything. IF THEY FISHING DON'T WANT ME THERE THEN JUST SAY SO AND DON'T DRAG ME ALONG DUCKERS...Sorry bout that. Its just, their seriously pissing me off. Bustops. Its also my fault that I went with them anyway... I just "don't wanna miss a thing". But I've learnt, you just can't be part of everything, you just can't. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I tell myself not to act so what I stereotypically say "teenagerish", I still do; I still try and hang out with the 'cool' crowd, I still laugh at my other friends although I know its wrong, I still sometimes tell racist and sick jokes just to impress my friends. But I'm learning, I always tell myself I must. That's why I tell lame jokes instead of those.

The secret reopening

Just like the calm passing on of limited self-government to Singapore in 1959, the reopening of this inactive blog will be a silent one that perhaps not a single soul except me shall know about. Indeed, I may soon return to inactiveness, who knows? I just had an impulse today and decided I should revive this blog. Why? Because I need to remind myself of what I've learnt... especially because of some people...people who just brought me to Sengkang today where one of them actually got tricked too but decides to turn against me as well by saying he knew all along and their just tricking me. Of course I know his kidding, don't flam me. It's just that they have been doing it for some time... and I can't understand why. Instigation you know?