Im back!!

After soo long not updating this journal, im back again.

Sorry about that, i just dont have the time to update this journal, with soo many going on around me..... school, cca, friends, so many things that i just couldnt keep up with time and contemplate and do some serious reflection.

Anyway... a brief description of whats happening around me.....

School is stressful( no wonder government spends billions on education ) and ive been basically staying back in school till 6 almost everyday! With Singapore Youth festivals coming around the corner, i have no choice but to practice and do my best for the competition. As Band Major, i must set an example and must always serve the band and the members. Thus far, ive been in this post long enough, but ive been contemplating and reflecting...... am i a good Band Major? Have I done my part in contributing to the band? Have I done enough? What will happen during SYF? Are we gonna get a bronze and condemn my life in Northland forever? Questions....... questions that needs answering, yet im unable to see it. How ironic.

I also have remedials everyday coz im doing my 'O' Levels this year and must do my best to aim going to a JC but my target is a Polytechnic. I want to take education life step by step and i want to study overseas and have lots of other great friends from other countries, bring back great experiences and joyous moments while i was there. Life is indeed wonderful. When youre chewing on life's gristles, always look on the bright side of life.

I think my main motivation in doing well is to be able to get the Oakley glasses that i always wanted : Juliet®. Its soo sleek and worn by the X-men, Cyclops. ITS SOOOO COOL. Check it out at www.oakley.com
It cost sooo much, i think about 600++ bucks here in singapore. MUST HAVE IT!! IM OBSESSED BY IT !!!

Raf hadnt been doing too good. I dont want to say anymore.

Song Dedication 'Simon' by lifehouse

Song Dedication 'Simon' by lifehouse

Catch your breath hit the wall scream out loud as you start to crawl back in
Your cage the only place where they will leave you alone 'cause the weak will
Seek the weaker until they've broken them could you get it back again
Would it be the same fulfillment to their lack of strength
At your expense left you with no defense they tore it down and i have
Felt the same as you, I've felt the same as you, I've felt the same
Locked inside the only place where you feel sheltered where you feel safe
You lost yourself in your search to find something else to hide behind
The fearful always preyed upon your confidence
Did they see the consequence when they pushed you around
The arrogant build kingdoms made of the different ones
Breaking them 'til they've become just another crown
Refuse to feel, Anything at all refuse to slip, Refuse to
Fall can't be weak, Can't stand still you watch your back,
'Cause no one will you don't know why they had to go
This far traded your worth for these scars for your only
Company don't believe the lies that they told to you
Not one word was true you're alright, You're alright,
You're alright

School is Reopening...... A long story about myself

School is Reopening...... A long story about myself

In a week, a new year will begin and a new school year will start. New principal, new teachers, new classroom, new layout of the school and many more.More challenges, as an individual, as a class, as a school. Activities and events happening in school will repeat again. Total Defence Day, Teacher's Day, Youth Day, Chinese New Year, Crosscountry, Speech Day, Prefects Investiture and Singapore Youth Festival.

To a student's point of view, the last year that he or she will be studying in the school is often dealt with the most toughest challenge... The 'O' Levels. Its coming and its coming fast. No time to play and little time to relax and contemplate. No turning back now. High hopes and expectations has been set for this year's batch of students, my batch, the least number of Express students in the school. Every student is important. A failure in the cohort can mean a drop in a 1 to 2 percent in academic results achievement as a school. This is a heavy burden the teachers, the school and the students have to bear. I dunno what lies ahead. Whether it is grim or glorious, no one will know. Many things can change and will change. We must adapt to it. The school is transforming. For the past 3 years, we changed principals 3 times. That is a disturbing thought. It means that we need to change ourselves to adapt to the new principal's way to management and expectations. Friendships made, friendships broken. It doesnt matter, for we will go on to our seperate ways in the future. But the one principal that i will always hold on dearly no matter what... friends never say goodbye. Ive made neither my resolutions for year 2003 yet, nor my goals or mission statement. Its overdue. I have no time actually. Ill try to find time for myself and review my mission statements, the most important thing that i must do. It is a reflection of yourself, what youll do for the year, what are you goals and task that you must achieve for the new year no matter how small or how big. Achieving a goal is no simple task. Many things will hinder you. I myself had been through a very tough part of my life. 2 years ago, and from now to the end of my secondary school life. I think that everyone is going through their most difficult and toughest part of their life on their final year of secondary school, but i feel that im the one suffering more than the others. Many people have too much and too high expections of me. I fear that i cant achieve their expectations and the fear is growing everyday. Whenever i find time to contemplate, its difficult for me to find and remember the joyous occasions that i had with my friends and family. Also if my friends has a certain expectation that they want from me, i cant see it. What are their expectations as a friend, a companion, a helper? What will they think of me if i dont meet their expectation? Ive not recieved any remarks or rumours about my behaviour or attitude or anything about me (not that im bad or anything). And i always assume that the way i reacted to things and behave towards people and things is correct, but its a disturbing thought because you dont have a mirror in front of you ,telling you what is right and what is wrong.Im a non violent person, cheerful, always love to hang out with my friends, avoid confrontations, and sort of a 'yes-man', "anything-will-do" kind of person.
i dont resort to violence and revenge. Im the forgiven type of person. But the things i do, the job that im taking, as a band major, is against my nature! Man, im crying while im typing!! I cant believe this! This has never happened to me before!
I have a lot to say but i cant continue....

One month later... almost...

A summary of whats going on in my life this past month:

Band Exchange and Honor band concert:

On the 30th of October, my Band had a band exchange with 2 other school and an honor band concert, which is basically picking out the best players from the 3 schools, combine them together and play music together in the concert. The concert was a full house and it was a great experience and we did very well overall. I am proud of my band and myself as i had never before explore beyond my learning capabilites in the aspects of music making.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri:
The fasting was over and i get to eat and crave to foods which i had not eaten for the past month and we also celebrate the joyous occasion with my friends and family and get to visit each other's houses and collect green packets.

Holiday bored as usual:
Nothing to do and bored as hell. Im not depressed though and thats a good thing. Some people are so bored at home that they do stupid and odd stuff but fortunately i can keep my sane long enough..

No time to write must hurry!!

Crash and Burn

This song is dedicated to my friends, and everybody who is reading this journal entry. To those who are lonely, bored, or doesnt have any loyal friends to be with you when you need them most, do not despair...


Artist: Savage Garden
Album: Affirmation
Song: Crash And Burn

When you feel alone
And the world has turned its back on you
Give me a moment please to tame your wild wild heart
I know that you feel like the walls are closing in on you
It's hard to find relief and people can be so cold
When darkness is upon your door and you feel like you can't take it anymore

Let me be the one you call
If you jump I'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn
You're not alone

When you feel all alone
And a loyal friend is hard to find
You're caught in a one way street
With the monsters in your head
When hopes and dreams are far away and
You feel you can't face the day

Let me be the one you call
If you jump I'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn
You're not alone

Because there has always been heartache and pain
And when it's over you'll breathe again
You'll breathe again

When you feel all alone
And the world has turned its back on you
Give me a moment please
To tame your wild wild heart

Let me be the one you call
If you jump I'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn
You're not alone

Graduation song

I know its too early to post this song and dedicate this to my friends, but i couldnt wait to the day it arrives, so i just paste it anyway:

Graduation (friends forever)
And so we talked all night about the rest of our lives
Where we're gonna be when we turn 25
I keep thinking times will never change
Keep on thinking things will always be the same

But when we leave this year we won't be coming back
No more hanging out cause we're on a different track
And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day

Cause we're moving on & we can't slow down
These memories are playing like a film without sound
And I keep thinking of that night in June
I didn't know much of love, but it came too soon

And there was me & you, & then we got real blue
Stay at home, talking on the telephone
We'd get so excited, we'd get so scared
Laughing at ourselves, thinking life's not fair
And this is how it feels...


As we go on, we remember
All the times we had together
And as our lives change, come whatever
We will still be friends forever

So if we get the big jobs & we make the big money
When we look back now, will our jokes still be funny?
Will we still remember everything we learned in school?
Still be trying to break every single rule?

Will little brainy Bobby be the stockbroker man?
Can Heather find a job that won't interfere with her tan?
I keep, I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly
And this is how it feels...

As we go on, we remember
All the times we had together
And as our lives change, come whatever
We will still be friends forever

La, la, la, la
Yeah, yeah, yeah
La, la, la, la
We will still be friends forever

Will we think about tomorrow like we think about now?
Can we survive it out there? Can we make it somehow?
I guess I thought that this would never end
And suddenly it's like we're women & men

Will the past be a shadow that will follow us round?
Will these memories fade when I leave this town?
I keep, I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly

Why why why?

Why why why?

Here I am, sitting at Macdonalds Restaurant, writing my entry on paper. Its gonna be a long entry full of rantings and negative thoughts of what had happened to me recently. The reason why i wrote this entry in a restaurant is because im bored at home. Hopefully i can meet some of my friends, new and old passing by the busy corridor as i look through the glass panel. Its 2 in the afternoon and it gets pretty crowded during lunchtime.

The last few days had been stressful, negative and terrible to experience. Not only in band but the teachers and friends. Its the holdiay season but i'm still getting all these things. Dont they know what does the word holiday season mean? It means that we get to relax and hangout with friends, away from school as much as possible. Still im going back to school 3 days a week for band. What have i done to deserve this? Why am i getting these treatments? Why am i getting negative feelings? Why am i feeling hopeless? Why am i getting frustrated? Are my principles that i have hold on to for sooo long finally begining to abandon me? Have i change my attitude that drastically? Have I change alot, or is it the environment that im in? Are my choice of friends the right ones? Am i a good leader? So many questions, soo little time, soo little opinions, soo little help.


In band: My-teacher-in-charge will be leaving next month and soon the band will have a new teacher in charge. Again, I have to adapt and make necessary changes to suit the environment. Its barely a year and again i have to make changes and adapt. My present teacher in charge is not very happy with me. For no good reason, she just overreact and shouts at me in front of the whole band. What i think is right for the band is wrong to her. I cant seem to take initiatives on my own without the intervention of the teacher. It seems that i have led my teacher down and also the band down because i have not been a very good leader. Never in my life i oppose a teacher. Throughout my life in school, i always thought that the teachers are saviors who always make the right decisions but now, i just couldnt take it anymore and feel like shouting back at her but im afraid to do it.
She is a stuck up bitch. She even dared ask me whether i was mad at her when she shouted and overreacted at me the day before. argh!!!!!! She is doing injustice to me. Im in a dilemma right now. Being a leader is extremely hard and i dont think i am a natural born leader. Its hard to accept that you are a leader when you have led your teachers and members down many times.

I feel that im not a really good leader and that the teachers and peers have made a wrong choice. Im just too emotional and often take criticism too personally. These negative emotions are really compromising my dignity and principles which i have held up high for the past year. Being happy, proactive towards everything, make many friends, patience, endurance, commitment and working hard as reward is near. These are some of the priciples ive upheld. Now, it dont know whether im principle centered anymore.

This is a story about how a book changed my life:


Exactly one year ago, when i got my end-of-year-results, in Sec 2, my dreams were shattered when i realised that i couldnt get to a better class, triple science, double math. Although i was second in class position, i still couldnt get in because of my math, i failed my math badly. This result in going to another worthless class, with worthless students, worthless subjects, and a worthless future. That was what i thought at first. Some of my friends dont deserve to be in the first class, and some even failed their english but still manage to get in!! Some of my best friends whom i helped them alot in many ways, got in the better class, leaving me with nothing. From that point on, vengeance, hate, jealousy, frustrations, hopelessness and anger sets in. And i indulge into these emotions throughout the holidays. During the holidays, i felt frustrated and hopeless all the time. I rejected good friends' invitation to hangout with them coz they are enjoying it since they are all in the better class, so why should i hangout with them?(vengeance and hatred) I stayed home and did some serious pondering and reflection on myself and quite some reading too. My social life and social interation was a flat zero back then.

Then one day, i went to Kinokuniya and was browsing some self help books on the shelf and came across this book entitled "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens"
I read a few pages and found out that this book will help a teenager change his attitude and become a better teen. It was such an expensive book since it was a bestseller but i bought it and began reading hoping that it could change my life.

2 weeks later, upon finished reading the book, I realized that this book has a lot of life lessons to learn. Its also very updated because the author knows how teenagers are faced with difficult challengers in the modern world nowadays. The book teaches you how to manage time and stress and how to balance your life and renewing your body, soul and mind. They book also thought me the power of writing goals and missiont statements that would reflect you during the year. I began settling down and began writing out a list of the goals that im gonna make the following year when the school reopens, and a list a mission statements that would reflect what are the things that im gonna do in that year to improve my attitude, and improve on a lot of things and accomplishing tons of opportunities are will be thrown to me during that year. It took about 2 hours to really think hard and write a these lists down. This is my mission statement for 2002:

1. Do not judge a book by its cover.
2. Be proactive.
3. Be principle-centered, the best way to get through your life.
4. Set reacheable goals.
5. Never take the simple things in life like friends, family trust and love for granted. You never know when its gonna run out or dissappear forever.
6. Appreciate other people's differences and see their differences as a great advantage.
7. Go for every opportunity.
8. Do something different everyday.
9. be independent. Relying on you friends all the time just sucks! Trust me.
10. Don't be afraid. Just do it. Don't turn back as reward is near.
11. Treat every setback as a road to success and greater opportunity.
12. Use momentous moments to reach your goals and even exceed your expectations.
13. Think win-win, for I am a grape.
14. Be a prioritizer, not a procrastinator, Yes-man or slacker.
15. Plan ahead. Be balance.
16. Seek first to understand then to be understood.
17. Accept challenges and take risk.
18. Take time to renew yourself, your soul, your body and your relationships, with your friends and families.
19. Be a role-model in whatever you are at.
20. Your greatest fears can be your best friend if you know how to handle them well.
21. Don't worry, be at you best.

With these mission statement that I have created and from that point on in my life, it changed my life completely. With that book, it changed my life totally, as if i had been reborn again and about to start my life afresh. Without it, i would not do well in my studies as i have shown it now, due to lack of inspiration from anybody and probably would do many nasty stuff, like breaking school rules and the likes. This book inspired me to reach my goals and do well in whatever im in.

Throughout that year, i perservered and its not easy mind you. Balancing so many things at one goal is no easy task and im amazed that the author who wrote this book understands how teenagers are faced with various problems nowadays as compared to teenagers 20 years ago. I began accepting my fate and began a new journey in friendship making, attitude-improving, principle-centered, academically-successful and many more, rather than to indulge in my past, negative emotions and the mistakes that i have done, since it no use turning back. By the end of the year, i made a lot of friends, stress-free, and basically happy at what i am in at that time. When the end-of-year-results were released, I was amazed! I got 1st in class position!! Never in my life have i acomplished such a daunting task. I must thank my friends who has helped me a lot during the process. Basically, we all help each other to acomplish their task (hopefully we did). All these hard work had been paid off! Statement 4,10,13,9, and 3 really worked well for me. I was so proud of myself and blessed that i made the right choice. During the course of that year, i continually strengthen my principles and spotted many paradigm shifts.

Oh gosh forgot my daily entry for NCO

Oops! It seems that i forgot to write the journal on a daily basis and to give an account of each of my NCO In-Camp training. My compter crashed recently and took me 3 days to get everything back up again, and since my NCO took up the whole day and rarely had the time to treat my wounded computer. Anyway, a summary:

Today is the third day of the five days in NCO. Its quite fun being in a Band Majors Course, making friends from other school and learning new things like conducting techniques and new leadership skill that i can inculcate in my band. Its no easy job but ill try to do my best. We discussed alot of things and i get better insights about the band from other school. Its an interesting experience and a paradigm shift. I always thought that this camp would be sooo boring that id rather go to hell than to attend this grueling 5 day camp the whole day! But it turns out that its very interesting camp though there is not much to do for a Band Major, since we just play and practise the pieces for the Passing out Parade on the last day. The conductor is a very experienced one. He his in his early 40's , judging from his looks he is an eurasian but stayed in singapore for a very long time. He has been teaching band for 22 years and knows alot of things about band. As he always said, he lives and breathes band. He has a good sense of humour and i like his teaching. His teaching is far different from any other conductors and always try to simplify difficult parts through many approaches to different challenges. By the way, his name is Mr Gloss.

He gave a great insight about being a conductor of school bands and has been teaching numerous school bands. He is retiring early, in about 2 years time and ill never forget him. He never gets angry and always smiling and liven up the spirit of the band. It great being around with him.

All in all that is my long summary of the 3 days in NCO. Ill elaborate later if i have the time.

Complete Idiot!

Today is the second last day of school and just got my report book back. Im quite happy with my results except for my maths becoz i failed by only 4 marks!! If i passed my maths, i would have passed all my subjects with no red marks in the result slip.

Something unfortunate happened today in my class. My friend, Jun Chong, was playing around in class, coz he was bored so as the rest of the class and he and another idiot classmate who WAS my friend bumped into each other and hurt thier head. Zhi Hao, who was my friend was acting so immature, like an 8 year old kid, started to take revenge on Jun Chong and they both started fighting! I witnessed the whole incident and i saw that Zhi Hao started it all. The class went into a state of pendomonium and chaos everywhere. I had to stop them and calm Jun Chong but i was surprised that he did not want to fight with him and was acting cool all the time. On the other hand Zhi Hao, the alleged trouble maker started cursing and whats more, crying!!

So childish! i never seen a person so emotionally swayed. This is not the first time he started fighting in class this year. Its uncountable. I just hate him. He is sooo vengeful that he'll take a fight at anyone, big or small no matter what the circumstances might be. But of all the fight that he picked, he never won a single one. He did lots of other childish and rude things. Just read the entry dated 10.28.2002. That'll give you a better idea on his character and personality. argh!! I just hate him. Dunno why he is destined to be with us.... or worse... fate.

Bye October, Hi November

Hey guess what?

I just got my results for my final year papers and i got great results! I passed all my subjects and got 3 'A's!! Im top in the class and im feeling happy!

My NCO camp is coming on the 5th of November till 9th of November. Im kinda nervous because I've not been practising the music pieces that are gonna played on that day. As for the Assistant Drum Major, good luck in throwing your mace with ace in the field! Just hope that you will do the school and the band proud!

Return to Innocence

Enigma, Return to Innocence

This song is dedicated to my friend who has cause so much suffering to another friend unintentionally and without realizing his mistakes at all. I hope this song help you in realizing it and hope that you will not make the same mistake again. What you did sparked a chain reaction of negative events and you must accept the consequences. Nevertheless, this song will help you to find your way to return to innocence. I hope you have learnt your mistake.




Love - Devotion
Feeling - Emotion

Don't be afraid to be weak
Don't be too proud to be strong
Just look into your heart my friend
That will be the return to yourself
The return to innocence.

If you want, then start to laugh
If you must, then start to cry
Be yourself don't hide
Just believe in destiny.

Don't care what people say
Just follow your own way
Don't give up and use the chance
To return to innocence.

That's not the beginning of the end
That's the return to yourself
The return to innocence.

[Don't care what people say
Follow just your own way
Follow just your own way
Don't give up, don't give up
To return, to return to innocence.]

[If you want then laugh
If you must then cry
Be yourself don't hide
Just believe in destiny.]



Thanks to the person who invited my friends to her housewarming. Your house is sooo great!. We had a great time with you and you hope that this memory will last forever.

Exams Finally Over!

Exams are finally over! Now I can relax a little bit. As usual, I think that im gonna fail my math, MT and F&N. The English paper 2 is kinda easy but the paper 1 is kinda hard. Today is the first day of the three day marking day and im enjoying my so called holidays. Band practices during the holidays are JAMMED PACKED! I have NCO Camps to deal with, fasting and those crappy band pracs! Can someone please help me to use all my available free time to the fullest! I have nothing much to say except that our class, no matter how fun and carefree they are in thier end of year exams, i think more or less students will be retained or demoted. I hope i can get all of them safe and sound next year and hoped that there is no 3C next year. One of our fellow schoolmates has just passed away, before completing his "O" levels. A lament for him...

Exam Fever

Exam Fever

From next week onwards will be starting the exam season for the year and you know what? Im neither getting serious about it, nor ive done any serious studying for the past few weeks and the first paper is about to begin next friday. Im feeling too overconfident about the paper being easy and this can be dangerous. Secondly, Band and other CCA has stepped down because of the exams and this can be a blessing. Firstly i dont have to see that bloddy In-charge anymore for quite sometime and that for once in a long time, i can forget about band and put other things first. Lately, ive been studying as a group in the library and other fast food restuarants that have a comfortable place to study but i dont find it too serious of "In-head" thing. All is just talk about the subject and forgetting most of it when getting back home. And i also dont have the inspirations and effort to study as hard in this time of the period. Dont know what to do. Ive been doing group study with some of the good friends in class, males AND females. We are a very socialble group. So exams coming, band away from my shoulders and friends ahead of me. Tommorrow, again ill be doing group study at Burger King with the same group of friends (hopefully) that were present on thursday, when we did the group study.

"Life is Beautiful"

Im dedicating this song to my friends in my class, who has been through alot as a class, the ups and downs we have been through and this song is to tell everybody that life is beautiful, so treasure it in anyway possible. Best Wishes and good luck for the upcoming exams.

~ Life is Beautiful ~

In the morning I feel the breeze
The sun washes over me
The sound of water, the crashing seas
Is it only me?
That feels alive
It's all ahead of me
Cause it feels so right
Just open your eyes and see

That life is beautiful
(so beautiful)
It's beautiful to me
Life is beautiful
(so beautiful)
It's beautiful to me

Life can take you anywhere
It don't know where it leads to
But you know you're not alone
Just open your eyes and see

That life is beautiful
(so beautiful)
It's beautiful to me
Life is beautiful
(so beautiful)
It's beautiful to me

Song dedication

This past week has been quite plain, nothing outstanding had happened, except that 2 of my friends who were best friends did not talk to each other this past week. They are in conflict with each other as they accused each other for not doing their task in the group project. Now im involved and its my duty to straighten things up and make sure that they are best friends again for time to come. My friend and i will be asking them to meet up at MacDonalds to have a little "chat". Oh boy, its gonna be a long chat , with so many things to talk about but in the end i just hope that they are friends again.

This week in band, nothing much has happened. A flute has been lost!! Previous weeks, a clarinet was lost too! What bad luck i have as a Band Major. Just elected this year and these thing happened. Someone must have gotten in the band store and stole the instruments and mind you, they are not cheap. If the thief stole it and sold it to another person, he could make a lot of profits.

This is a song dedication to my friends who are in conflict with each other :
"Affirmation" by Savage Garden

I believe the sun should never set upon and argument
I believe we place our happiness in other people's hands
I believe that junk food tastes so good becuase they are bad for you
I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do
I believe that beauty megazines promote low self esteem
I believe I'm loved when I'm completely by myself alone
I believe in Karma what you did is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you dont know what you've got until you say goodbye
I believe that trust in more important that monogamy
I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul
I believe that family is worth more than money or gold
I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness

Class of 3E2 (2002) Description of my class:

Hyperactive
Can be creative
Has the potential of being very united as a class but i dunno how to unite them
I still prefer my previous year's class, though as time goes by, I feel more attached to my present class.
Funny.
Pervert at times.
Carefree. Relax in doing school work (Unlike our counterparts, 3E1, full of geeks and nerds, struggling to keep their heads above water.)
I had a alot of good and bad experience while in my class, making me a wiser person, (unlike our counterparts, 3E1, always studying. All they know are mathematical formulas, logics, and perfection)
Fun class to be around.
Less stress than our counterpartsClass of 2E2 (2001) Description of the class:I miss the good ol' days being in that class
Some of you may have noticed that some of my friends were not in the 2002 picture coz' they have promoted to a better class.(BAH!)

~3E1~
The sense of ~uhmuhm~ is still there, i could be in that class but an unfortunate thing happened that changed my life radically.
NERDS AND GEEKS UNITE! (ugh~)
Always studying and reading, procrastinating worrying and rule abiding students

Oh My Gosh!!

Yesterday, I slept at around 11pm. I have school tomorrow but I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking and asking myself what must i do to discipline the band.
I thought of many ways, from threats to earning respect to plain old shouts. Then I thought of one good strategy that would not enable me to shout but they will respect me and discipline at all times when someone is making announcement to the band. As you know, i dont like to shout and im a very cheerful person. I feel bad if i make someone unhappy and hate to see them suffering but what can i do, im a Band Major and i must do something to discipline band. This is my plan:

When im in front of the band, and when the whole band is not paying attention of the person in front of the band, I will start counting upwards. The number where i stop is the number of push-ups or pumping the whole band owes me when they do drilling. The first 3 numbers are not counted and I start counting but on the 4th number and so on, they will all owe me rounded up.

Today, I tried this strategy and i had no choice. Guess what? It worked!! Out of the blues, i started counting and they immediately responded and quickly kept silent. They know that something bad would happen to them if i count. I explain what would happen to them and also i was shouting to them! I couldnt believe it that i started shouted in an angry tone for the first time in front of the band! Soon after explaining about the new discipline technique and after a few announcements, the whole band started to make noise again and its getting louder and louder. Again, i counted loudly up to 3, since they all kept quiet at the count of 3. It was a success. This is the first time that i made a band quiet at my command!

NCO Precamp Log: Day Three

NCO Precamp Log: Day Three


Today is the last day of the NCO precamp training. We practised the score called "Grease" and it was great!
The music was beatifully played and arranged. Im sure that our parents who were crazy about Grease during their time would enjoy our playing.

Anyway, today was enjoyable indeed partly because it's the last day of the training and now i can relax!!
My section got each other's contact number just to keep in touch and they are band majors from Beatty Secondary School, St Nicholas Girls School, Si Ling Secondary School and many others. I made some friends along the way, especially my partner who played the same trombone part.

Technically in playing music, i have improved tremendously and i can sight-read a score better and my techniques are improving.

NCO Precamp Log: Day Two

NCO Precamp Log: Day Two

Everything went fine. Nothing special, though we tried to play the four-page score, "Grease" and its really tough. I have confidence that I will master that score in about a month and a half, when the real NCO camp starts in November. Tommorrow will be the last day of the precamp and then ill be able to enjoy the rest of my holidays with my friends.

NCO Precamp Log: Day One

NCO Precamp Log: Day One

Today marks the first day of my NCO Precamp training. This precamp training is a three-day camp, whereby Band Majors of different schools from all over Singapore attend this precamp. During this three day period they are to know each other in their own respective section and they are given scores that they are suppose to practise for 2 months before the real NCO camp training starts, which is in November.

Today, is pretty interesting. Everybody was nervous when they were there, and the location of the precamp was somewhat inaccessible. There are not much public transport that will take you there. The most convenient mode of transport was by taxi, which is extremely expensive.

Anyway, the instructors were not bad, kind and understanding, but the scores in which were given were very challenging. We were given some professional marching pieces and a concert piece called "Grease" based on the original movie that our parents went crazy about during their time.

My section is alright. It takes time to get along with each other and im sure that we will get to know each other when the real camp starts. Im playing 3rd trombone part which is quite disgraceful, I mean that part was supposed to be really easy and the notes very low but nevertheless, I was surprised that the notes on the scores given were quite high for a third trombonist.

After this precamp, I have to concentrate on the pieces that were issued and hopefully I would have mastered it in 2 months time, November, when the real camp starts. It will be a five day camp, but not overnight stay. We start off in the morning and dismissed by evening. Gonna be tiring and quite embarrassing if you do not practise your individual parts. Hope the best and farewell.

What a wonderful experience...

Today, I had a wonderful experience! I went back to my primary school after 2 years!!

The school had change alot but many things were preserved and wonderful memories dashed through my mind when i went back there. Most of the teachers that taught me are still teaching in the same school 9 years ago!

When I came back, I came alone. I entered the school and I can already see some of my old classmates. I walked up the stairs leading to the hall and i came across my form teacher when I was in Primary 6! He came recognized me in an instant and started saying, " Jasrie!! Where have you been all the time for the past 2 years!??! I was getting worried about you! You came at last!! Now you are in secondary 3!!"
I replied, "Yes yes indeed, its been a long time. I was far too busy all these time and now im here finally!"

Ive never felt so happy and nostalgic. I saw many classmates when we were in the same class. Along with my form teacher, I also met my second language teacher, who had been teaching me for 4 years, and many other teachers who have taught me. All of my teachers were surprised to see me because for the last 2 years, I was not present during teacher's day.