it's up~ most of the photos i took for the past few days are up~~ they're all at my yahoo! photos site at http://photos.yahoo.com/jumbosale . do drop by and take a look. haha... if u want any bigger ver of the photos, do give me a message k? i use msn by the way. ;)

~

it was anney's birthday on wednesday, so we (bunkmates) celebrated his birthday on tuesday night (actually, it was wednesday morning... 1am...). had mooncakes to stand in for birthday cakes, played around with lanterns while yanhui and i became the photographers of the night snapping scandalous pictures. haha~

~

it was wenjing's first stay in night then too. had a hearty chat wif her. discovered i havent really chat wif her for a very long time. well, she's starting to learn about the politics in here. i'm happy to know she's knowing things she shd know before she 'free' herself from training wing. she shd be prepared.

~

on tuesday aftnn, went shopping wif bernard to look for anney's b-day gift. found something which was sooo anney, so decided to get it. shared the gift (together wif the jing4 bao4 birthday card) wif wei jyh, both terence-s, shihao and bingren.

was the first time going out wif bernard, chatted wif him while shopping. quite a fun trip as we bitched and talked abt weird stuff... haha.

~

wed + thurs: ocs parade reh. i still dun get it. why must ocs parade hav so many rehearsals? but then, the cadets are the lousiest at their drills. one whole week of reh next week. i tink i might go mad.

fri: POC. nothin' much. juz hot, very hot. *fan myself*

~

went to ntu band prac yesterday wif anney. woah, jing4 bao4 repertoire! quite stressful tho. knew a few more ppl there, like nicholas, christopher, etc. shall be going there next wed. *mental note: wednesday ocs reh is in the morning*

had dinner wif yh and aloy at BK in town. kokwee joined us. chatted till quite late... *yawnz*

~

read my fren's blog. interestingly, i'm not the only one pissed wif someone (not at the same person, i must clarify). my frens advice to me: ignore him. he's jus somebody not worth my frenship anymore. riiight. easily said.

~

boring day today. not that i'm complaining tho. it's 2pm and i'm still slacking at home. tink i'm going to take a nap again. wanted to go down to sim lim, but den so sian~

no more money to spend.... terrible.

shall be staying in tonight. bye frens~


yawnz,
Johnzzon

 

For more MAF photos, pls click here. I uploaded smaller ver of the pic for easy viewing. If you like any of the photos, pls request from me personally and i'll send u the bigger resolution version.

Sorry, blog... and my readers... for me not constantly putting bits and pieces of my fragmented life here... there are jus some things i dun wish to share wif some of the ppl that shouldn't hav known this address in the first place. (all thanks to my soft heart for allowing myself to give in to the persuasion when somebody kept bugging me for the address...)

let's jus say, i dun wish to let ppl know too much of me now. am i preparing myself for the media? am i jus becoming big headed? or am i jus a selfish person. ppl know me will know, and i shant bother to tell those who dun.

and for those who really care, thank you so much.

enjoy the photos~

drinking-luo-han-guo,
Johnzzon

 

8th September 2004 The date that will be etched into my mind forever. I am now beginning to live the dream that i've wished to hav for the past 8 years. a lot of ppl are happy for me, i am happy too~ especially thrilled. but still, like i say, it's jus a beginning. it may turn out into a nightmare... haha... yea yea, i know it will turn out to be a very nice dream too~ ;)

perhaps hard work and persistence really do pay off. after joining like *count... count again... urgh... give up* countless song-writing competitions, i tot nothing's gonna work out. in the end, i was like "so wut if one day i do win a competition? wut will happen? is someone really gonna be giving me a contract after that?" i became to feel despair and everything, and i started taking up habits i forbade myself to start (close frens will know wut).

anyway, after the failed attempt at the xin qing rong ji competition (a well-established local song-writing competition), someone from the organising committee actualli added me to this online Yahoo! Groups called lunasea-songwriting. out of curiosity and the feeling of learning something related to song-writing, i decided to join it. to my disappointment, the group was idle all the time. (did i mention all the time?)

i gave up. i wanted to jus stop writing. but oh wells, my guts kept asking me to go on. so i did another song, and it turned out to be so alternative that i deemed it unacceptable by mass media. in fact, it was an arabic tune. interestingly, i managed to garner a good comment from my most critical critic Kok Wee. haha. so out of pure fun, i sent this song to the only song-writing competition then: Music Express 10. that was in April.

one month later, results were back. i din even pass the 1st screening. haha~ nevermind, i din really think the organisers wud wan some Egyptian tunes anyway. i laughed out loud and forget abt it.

weeks later, somebody invited me to join this Yahoo! Group *again* call Skyblue Songwriting Guild. oh wells, with the same reasons, i joined the group. this time round, the group is more active. apparently, the moderator in the group kept organising outings which not much ppl seem to be turning up. he organised a couple of ktv outings and one music workshop. music workshop? hmm... interestingly... is it free? OH~ it's free?! oh wow, hmm... i wonder wut they talk abt during the workshop. oh gosh~ i juz missed the first one? shucks... so, i juz busied myself in the forum by taking parts in the polls (which contains questions that sometimes have nothing to do wif music). haha~

Skyblue's 2nd Music Workshop. i decided to take part. and i emailed the moderator Skyblue three of my songs to take part in the workshop. i also managed to pull Soon Wei and Zhenqiang wif me, juz in case anyone tried to kidnap me or something. in this workshop, i was introduced to a group of songwriters, including the moderator of the Yahoo! group Skyblue, who is a local songwriter in Singapore who has sold 4 songs to date (3 songs at the point of time of the 2nd workshop). i was pretty honoured to be meeting these ppl. i learned hell lots of things during the workshop. i learned abt the tricks and trades of being a songwriter in asia, how the whole publishing thing work, how to get works published and sold, etc etc. i even learned that my arranging skills are actualli better than my songwriting skills. haha~ i oso tot it was the other way round. after the workshop, i befriended a lot of ppl. Don, Kerwin, Nicole, Kokguan, Linchin, and including Skyblue, whose real name is Beldin.

Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd workshop, don and kerwin were interested in how i do my midi arrangement and visited my house. i was feeling pretty honoured, like ppl actualli idol me for my skills. haha~ i feel good honestly. they were quite impressed, but were disappointed when they found out there's gotta be a hell lot of difficulties for them to pick up the softwares i've been using. (i've been using them for 8 yrs, obviously i'm very comfortable with my softwares... haha... a bit of BHB there... keke) anyway, i decided to tag along since the two of them wanted to go to Beldin's place after leaving my place. This is my second time meeting Beldin and i managed to see how he works. wow~ it is VERY impressive. his computer has all the things that was needed and his demos are very good quality ones even tho he took onli like 30 mins. gosh~ *faints*

3rd workshop. i reached the venue (a chalet this time round) pretty early and there was only Beldin there. went shopping for tidbits and everything wif him and we kept making lame comments to each other. tink i'm beginning to warm up to him. he's a real nice guy who really wanted me to treat him as a fren. thruout the whole workshop, he kept making sarcastic remarks abt me. but i only take that as he feel comfortable being frens with me. i feel good actualli. but something expected came after that. he offered me a contract after listening to the fast song i sent for the 3rd workshop. i never expected that. i was very happy, yet feeling really confused and worried at the same time.

for 8 years, i've been waiting for a contract. none. so i told myself, guess this really isnt my cup of tea. now that i've joined Beldin's songwriting guild, i was expecting to learn under him and go thru his courses and lessons b4 i cud officially get his offer of a contract. the time frame i gave myself was up to 4 to 6 years. i din expect this month. i din expect it at all. it was all turning out to be too well, and well, superstituous side of me seemed to be telling me something's bad is abt to happen.

still, i wanted to sign it. so, i kept bothering Beldin and found out more abt the contract. den i got the contract in my hands before i knew it, and i signed it and got my mum to endorse it as well. did it sound fast? cos it felt that fast. it all happened in a week. everything i hoped for for the past 8 years happened in jus a short span of a week! gosh~

now, Beldin sent my fast song over to taiwan, hoping either Tanya or Stefanie wud sing the song. den we're working on my Arabic tune cos Stefanie wanted a yi4 guo2 feng1 qing2 song, so we're hoping this song might work out too. er... if u're wondering why 'we', Beldin is helping me re-record the vocals cos he hoped that this song cud be sold. oh gosh~ i so owe him much!

during the past few days, i'm in close contact with Beldin, with him teaching me his way of arranging and me showing him my way of doing things. it's like two different wuxia triads exchanging tips. it's so enriching and so fulfilling~ and it doesn't bother me a single bit to be talking to him abt anything under the sun. (he was always the one who's starting the lame X35 jokes... urgh)

it was the best i ever hoped for. i am now signed under a music publishing company whose head is now a very good fren of mine who gives me advice not only on songwriting but oso ways to being an adult too. am i afraid to step into the adult world? less afraid i wud say. not trying to be acting gay* or something, but i really feel like singing out loud a particular song "Don't Rain on My Parade": Hey~ World~ Here I Am~~~~~

8th September 2004's the day i submitted my signed contract containing my signature, my mum's signature and Beldin's signature.

life's-candy-and-the-sun's-a-ball-of-butter,
Johnzzon

P.S. hopefully i dun sound egoistic in this blog. juz hope that i hope to write such memorable things down in my blog. so sorry if i like make anyone depressed or something. cos i wanna make it clear that everything happened like so unplanned for. things do happen, it's jus if it's earlier or later. for all the ppl who is reading this blog: live your dream courageously, and dun give up on it. hope i become an inspiration to many. :)

P.S.II. * If u din watch "Connie and Carla", they sang this song in a gay bar. so i tot this song sounded quite gay to me after that show. (Even tho it's like one of my fav songs of all time~)

 

i wonder if becoming sick actually made myself more sensitive to ppl's behaviour arnd me. have been becoming more and more angry at certain things.

wonder if life has indeed made a good turn. got scolded by beldin for not listening to enough songs (i dun listen to jolin tsai, and he ticked me off when i looked confused as he mentioned one of my songs sounds like her type of songs.)

wonder if there are some ppl who indeed have this way of living life: "hey, today i wan a sporty look, and i need to be sticky with this this person; tomolo, i wan a more office look and i will talk to this this person; as for the rest of them, if they're not fitting into my image, oh gosh~ dun let them talk to me~" like i say, too sensitive~ but nevertheless, i feel disgusted.

wonder if i am a real good listener. ppl hav been coming to me to speak their souls, and recently i've been in a quite bad mood that i cud only listen but not give advice. ya ya, i know sometimes ppl dun need me to give any advice, but somehow, i feel really helpless.

wonder if i am really ai4 que1. keep having crushes. this has to come to an end!

*thoughtful*,
Johnzzon

 

There's something abt morning stationary stores that i like. the quietness, the peacefulness, and the freedom to shop without some irritating and idiotic kid holding ur leg like ur some supporting pillar meant to aim them to walk.

was bored jus now after i went to BBDC to transfer money into my driving course account, so i decided to do a bit of stationary shopping since i'm running low on certain things (or practically none in some aspects, like staple bullets... dun ask). anyway, it was still 11 something and Popular Bookshop jus began it's business for the day. since it's school holidays, i reckon any normal sensible child wud be up so early and stepping into a stationary store which is opened for business until 9:30pm at night. so~ i happily wandered into the bookstore and breathed freely.

no bumping into parents. no stepping on children (esp on those irritating skater shoes). i freely roamed the store in search of wut i wan. and in the case of my forgetfulness, i cud roam the same spot like three times jus to make sure i din leave out anything i needed. (where the hell are the correction fluids?!?!)

when i was heading towards the counter, i was quite relieved to find there's is practically no queue at all. normally at night, there wud be irritating parents who used their children to cut the queue and pretended anybody else behind the queue were invisible.

gosh~ i must be quite disgusted towards parents and school kids to be thinking this way, but it's not my fault that i'm actualli stereotyping them, is it? it's like i really dread going to stationary stores at night and on weekends becos of the many weird things that happen to me everytime i go there. (my legs have been practically treated as pillars by toddlers EVERYtime... *ops* i mentioned this before?!) so, urgh~

oh wells, perhaps i shd make it a point to head for stationary stores every available monday off. haha~ crazy, ain't i?

admiring-my-newly-bought-organiser,
Johnzzon

 

*ding* dictionary for the non-saf-band-members: C.O.G. (noun) short for Changing of Guard Parade. held every first sunday of the month at the istana gate. the main parade band will have to march down together with the provost (army police) and the new guards from the Heerens all the way to the istana. after the parade, the main parade band will den march out together with the old guards all the way to the road leading to the car park of Plaza Singapura. as the band marches, songs and drum solos will be performed as the provost will do their silent drills.

anyway, had another COG today, and we're the main band. so we get the honor and privilege to perform in front of public, which is something parade bands seldom do. haha. glam leh! the trainees came to watch us today, and so wenjing was arnd to. managed to rendezvous with her and create more gossips! haha... ;p with staff zack hold the mace, me and fazil feel more comfortable and we cud lauf abt the stupid mistakes he did. yesh~! revenge for wut he did to me for the past one week! pui~

was having a crazy time on the bus back to camp after the parade. tink the bus driver oso quite pissed wif us for creating so much suggestive noises. keke~ wut? guys will be guys wut... haha...

went to have prata together with quite a lot of ppl, mainly my batch (minus jun & woei kee) and the prev two batches. and loads of fun gossiping and chit-chatting... nvr enjoyed so much in a while liao, jus laufing my life away. feels good to be laufing whole-heartedly. :)

Muahaha~,
Johnzzon

 

Somehow, i din really enjoy the kimseng band anymore. too much newbies, and apparently they seem quite amateurish in their playing as well. some of them can't really get the notes right even when the rhythm is slow and simple. the tuning's mostly off (which in the end caused me to tink i'm out of tune when i'm not). the overall sound is totally raw and unenjoyable. terrible. especially when we practising one of my fav band piece: Alfred Reed's Alleluia! Laudamus Te. Sighz. told Sonny abt it, and he said i shd take time to adapt. *shake head*

~
celebrated sonny's birthday today together wif lawrence, amy, makato & kiyomi (actualli got one more person, but i dun noe his name. *ops*). had dinner at the infamous chicken rice stall at novena and sonny ordered LOTS of food. two whole chickens, one dish, three bowls of soup, four plates of rice, one large plate of hong kong mee!! wa~ seven of us din really manage to finish off the food altho we kept stuffing ourselves to the end.

after the dinner, sonny insisted we had a drink at California Bakery Deli @ novena square. i had my fav camomile tea (it was ok onli~ not as nice as esplanade) while sonny once again ordered LOTS of food. gosh~ we jus kept eating and talking and eating and talking. haha~ sonny mistook kiyomi's words and ordered another coffee for her. gosh~ she doesn't need to sleep tonight sia~ keke.

makato left discreetly to get sonny a birthday card and two packets of condoms as birthday gifts. er... let's jus say it became a very sexy conversation. haha~

happy birthday sonny! be happy always, be older later~ ;)

totally-full-and-bloated-once-again-after-kim-seng-practice,
Johnzzon

 

yi : i was as constant as the Northen star. and i said, constantly in the darkness. says:
"虽然说突然的机会总是让我们害怕，而且越多希望，越多失望，但有时候总是要放开自己心里的包袱，勇敢向前！不回头！不退缩！"

hopeful,
Johnzzon