fantasie impromptu!!!

man, this blog is getting boring. have been browsing through other blogs, and it seems mine doesn't offer much...just a straightfoward, superficial-report-like description of the happenings in my life...

anyway, today is a cloudy/rainy day. though spring is already here. apparently, that is not the case...according to the weather forecast, it will snow the saturday...crazy huh?

just came back from the music school. fantaisie impromptu is getting on my nerves man...can't seem to master it although i try and try. and today i realized i totally cannot perform well if someone other than me is present. that's it!! there must be a change.

ok. let me set a plan, which hopefully will help me to master this not-so-difficult-but-dunno-why-i-can't-play-it-well piece.

every week, i will have two practise sessions at least.

each session will be at least one and a half hour long.

in the first 35 minutes, i MUST NOT PLAY ANY PIECES. it MUST BE STRICTLY allocated to fingering practice. Hanon, scales and appregios.....no negotiations.

- break (5 minutes). play nocturne in c# minor. (just to relax the hands)

for the next 5 minutes, i must limit myself to playing the cross rhythem section of FI. 5 MINUTES INTENSIVE PLAYING. MINIMAL REST.

- break (2 minutes). in that 2 minutes, practise the left hand part of FI. optional.

then PLAY the first 2 pages of FI for 10 minutes.

- break (2 minutes). do nothing.

- break (10 minutes). play rachmaninov's prelude in c#minor the second page.

play FI first two pages for another 10 minutes.

- for the last 10 minutes, try the ending part of FI.

end with something fun.

this must be strictly followed. hopefully, by doing this, i will be able to play the first two pags well enough in 2 months. MUAHAHAHAHAHA.......

good luck to me....nothing is impossible, impossible is nothing!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

*sob sob* today is my birthday....i am 20 already....ahhhh!!

really appreciate all my friends for coming to my room at midnight and spent this memorable time with me. as my room was too small, we have to go to the ethan lounge to hang out. glad to see mayying, yeefay, hungwei and teng here too. they were having their spring break i guess. we ate some chips, drank some pop and played some games (air hockey, table soccer) there. too bad i had to work early at the morning, so couldn't stay in the lounge for too long...

and yes, i am not yet done with the wichita mini sales school event yet!! but too tired to write it down now. continue on that later...

happy birthday to me, and happy world water day to the world!!!!!

still Wichita...

what a mess...jumbled up all the time of events. now it's in the right order, but still the time which the posts were posted is incorrect. nevermind though...

the third day was an eventful day (unfortunate ones mostly). like yesterday, we were fetched to the WSU. everyone seemed to be feeling nervous because of the impending competition. i myself was quite worried too, for i felt that i had not enough preperation. being unable to present out what i had memorized was my main concern.

when we reached the university, we were divided into 5 groups (8 ppl each). in my small group, i was lucky enough to be the 6th one to go out and perform. everyone before me seemed to be extremely nervous, and that somehow made me less anxious. when it reached my turn, i just went out and tried my best to act confident. surprisingly, everything went well. i didn't have much expectation though. i was asked to go out from the room for a one to one conference almost right after my turn. hadn't got a chance to know my result....

and by the time i was done with the conference, the room where the first round competition was hold earlier was already empty. i went to the big hall, and to my astonish, renjie congratulated me. i was picked to go into the finals! incredible, i thought. ah, since i was chosen, i wil try my best. out of the 10 constestant, i was the third to go up. when it was my turn, i did what i was supposed to do. no fear this time though. what a weird thing...but i don't think i perform well, and as predicted, i wasn't in the top five. yet, having the chance to go up and do something that i don't normally do was stasifying enough for me already.

after the competition, we were asked to listen to a few more presentation (becoming increasingly boring now) and a speech by an indian alleged (what a word!) to be the head of this program. he spoke so long that in hindsight, he was the one who caused us to miss our flight. (damnit!) yup, we missed our flight..again. and this time we were not so fortunate.

due to some wrong information, we were made to believe that we would be able to standby for another flight. we ended up in a motel in kansas city (MO) that night. qiming was so frustrated, because he needed to hand in an important assignment the day after. i had to work the next day too...but what to do? there we were, in a motel trying to sort out the mess...

kansas...

me on the stage...(now i realize how bad my posture was)

wichita (wichita state university)

ok, now im supposed to continue on my description of the wichita trip. nothing much happened the second day. the mini sales school took place in the wichita state university. there, we were seated in a lecture hall and had to listen to speeches and had some sessions in knowing each other. lunch was provided by them, and we were brought to a vietnamese restaurant for dinner. i ordered a pork chop with rice. the pork chop sucked, but the "mata kerbau" (a kind of fried egg) was delicious. long time since i last ate such orientally treated egg. (as you know, westerners have a limited creativity in dealing with food) after dinner, we went back to our rooms and started preparing for the sales talk competition. slept at around 2 i think? zzzz...

qi ming and i posing in front of a horse artwork in the wichita state university

Ann Arbor - Detriot - Kansas City - Wichita

phew~~~!!! what a week!

just had my midterms last week (3 of them altogether). have the ominous feeling that this time's result will be far worse than the first one. dunno what went wrong with me. i seemed to be busy all the time doing work (as in coursework) and yet, the results are not so desirable. was it because i had a poor time management? i don't think so. i think it's about my inability to concentrate in my studies...should i blame it to my lack of interest in the subject matter? hmm....i am still trying my best to convince that the brain is the most powerful tool...a tool can you can manipulate to believe whatever you want to believe in....

3/18/2005

on the friday, i left ann arbor for kansas city. it was kind of in a rush, and i was unable to tell my friend about my departure. qi ming and renjie went together with me too. after the finishing my linear algebra class, i came straight back to bursley and had my lunch, and straightaway (only have about 10 minutes to pack) left for the detriot airport. qi ming's friend (a black) fetched us there.

we had to go for the standby flight as we were late. we were supposed to board the plane at 8 sth in the morning, but it was impossible because i had a geosci midterm at 9. hence, we were where we were, trying our luck for the standby flight. it turned out that we were lucky enough to catch a plane to the kansas city, missouri.

when we reached kansas city, it was already about 6? (bad memory...sigh) hon boon, the guy who invited us to the minisales school met us in the airport, and it was then we realized that another chinese girl in the plane was also there because of this sales school. her name is called cecilia and she was from bowling green university in ohio. we met a bunch of girls from the northwood university in mich too. (ainee, may hui, aida, etc) from the airport, we went to mcdonalds to have our dinner.

after having our dinner, we were driven to witchita, kansas. it was a 3.5 hour journey. by the time we reached wichita, it was already about 12am. we checked in a fairly good hotel and then had some good rest there.

that day was quite a special relief from my boring schoolife, and such trip provided a much needed break in my hectic life. still, deep inside me i knew that i would be screwed eventually as i am having another important midterm in this week...i think i have to stop now as my mind is not working well right now. will continue some other day.

a storm front observed on the plane (detriot to kansas city)

wichita..in a hotel

Had my first lobster dinner!!

today is my friend's birthday, so we all went out to a restaurant called the seafood company to celebrate...it was a really classy restaurant (the highest class so far i hav been) and it offers mostly seafood. i ordered a dish called the "maine baked lobster", and it cost me about 28 USD. it was worth it though, as that was my first time eating lobster. and yes, before savoring the main course, we had snails as appetizer...they don't put it as snails on the menu, instead there is a special name for this kind of food...tasted normal to me though. but for the lobster, it was really nice. my dish consists of a lobster, some hashbrown and breadcrumb i think? haha..i guess this is the typical me. blur in everything, careless about details....

wonder how far can this attitude brings me? im sure nowhere far. i need a change...

a day worth remembering...

3/11 is a special day worth remembering. something happened this day in last year (i.e.2004). something that i can't possibly forget if i choose not to (selective memory can sometimes bury things you wouldn't want to remember). in the exact same day last year, a best friend of mine died...i think i still remember how i received the message. actually the death is kind of expected...cause he had been having lung cancer for months. i am sure that i was in INTEC at that time, and i am pretty sure that i had a c++ class and was heading towards the computer lab next to the cafeteria. suddenly, the message tone of my phone rang. nothing dramatic (no premonition, no signs, no ominous feeling). the sender was another friend of mine, and she said that he had passed away...i wasn't shock. in fact my mind was blank. i think i felt more surprised when knowing that he had the disease a few months back, and the feeling was quite intense then, but at the moment i knew that i had lost a friend forever, i felt nothing. it was weird, but that's my feelings at that time...

i guess you won't know how important a friend is in your life until you've lost him. the days of laughter, of degrading each other (our favourtie pastime) and of neverending nonesense are history now. it was actually months after his death that i felt his absence...i think i won't be able to get another such close friend in my lifetime anymore. such notion is almost a fact considering i m growing up, and being a grown up means that you need to deal with the pretentious world. no more pure friendships, no more simple motives. all i can see now is masquerades, and i think sometimes i cannot be so demanding. it's not people's fault for masking themselves in various disguises. i believe there is a need for doing that, and even they themselves are sometimes confused with their own identity. i think i have lost my true self in this world too...

i think i should cut the philosophical (in other words, vague and pointless) part now. but losing him make me realize how fortunate i am to have a chance to live in this world. WH, your spirit will rest inside us forever..we won't forget your laughter, your jokes, and the happiness you brought to this world. may you rest in peace.

Hi everybody!!!

haha..

this is my first post here. first of all, let me introduce myself. im a guy from malaysia, now studying in the states in a fairly prestigious school, majoring in a field called actuarial math (god knows what's that). im creating this blog because i feel that i need to vent my frustration or share my happiness once a while, or else the pressure build up inside me might eventually lead to an earth-shattering detonation...and here, i choose to remain anonymous. this (the anonymity) will not last forever though...eventually i will let my close ones know about my identity. (there is nothing to hide about myself though, im not a fugitive on run or whatsoever. it's just that i feel more comfortable in this way. maybe i can crap more naturally) haha. so enjoy guys.