blanched

i feel weak and etiolated, and sometimes think I may have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? Why do I feel so tired out even after non-strenuous activities like reading (a lot)? I don't feel like twittering this, so blogger will have to take the shit, as usual.

好累。。。

No Black Tie

Hopped over to Kuala Lumpur for the weekend to chill with Koshy and YC, who brought me to the No Black Tie jazz club and bought me Sangria to go along! I took a video of Willy Rebano scating through his Korg R3 vocoder before Maria Angela Quiogue (his wife) began her rendition of Satin Doll. Electronic jazz ey - I wish my dad was there to watch it :) Pardon the crappy quality of the vid...

Other KL peektures here!

gasp!

From aspectratio's Canon 5D...

wenchuan memorial music

So a tantalizingly talented close friend of mine took only one 'whole' day to compose and arrange this memorial mix for the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan. It's a great electro-acoustic album free for you to download and enjoy. 

To show your humane gesture of easing the victims' suffering from the catastrophe, donate generously at the above widget. I hope Sonicbrat's musical efforts will inspire and encourage you to do a little bit by raising funds for his choice of charity, the British Red Cross. Thank you!

Please help with the situation in China with any amount! Condolences are not enough... 

I've got a gadzillion things I want to do! My heart beats rapidly just merely thinking of these things that all take tremendous time and energy to achieve a certain level of excellence. I will trudge on, no matter what. Even at this old age. Even if I can't turn back the clock. Even if it involves the pain of sacrificing other loves of my life to make sure I got my priorities right.

life improvisations

Tinkling and tinkering on the glass mug filled with Argentinian wine courtesy of Ave and Jussi, I am finally posting something meant for my one reader, rather than a regurgitation of intense emotions for self-expression.

Perhaps, this is an tiny update of sorts of what's going on since I came back to Singapore from Australia.

A hundred thoughts flash through my mind each day, though I think a more plausible number is a thousand, or few thousand, whatever. No empirical evidence whatsoever, but yeah, just know that there are a lot of thoughts...

Peeps on MSN start off convos with "how's life?" but I always hated the proverbial "fine" or "good". I've got an answer somewhat now. Life to me is like improvising on music - I try to plan for it but sometimes, the unexpected tune just hits my chord. Like, ill-timed serendipity. I scat through it, thinking I can be flexible, but mostly I scrape my throat.

I set foot again on this island I am supposed to call home after fourteen months away. I honestly don't feel an awashing of homeliness, really, due to reverse culture shock. My heart is of course tied to the people who I feel connected and drawn to - my dad, my cliques, my sworn sister, miscellaneous buddies who crater-impacted me...

Plenty of people have remained the same, with no significant changes except for more birthday photos on their website, or a new job title on their business card. Out of these, there is a [sub]Plenty of people who have progressed to a higher life stage with wedding rings, babies, houses and mortgages, but the core of their beings is same ole same ole.

Then there is a [niche]Plenty who did change as the songs of life modulates on, who happen to be closest to my heart, and because of that fact I discover a dwindling sense of closeness to them. It's hugely my fault because I couldn't keep in smooth touch with them under the bane of long distance. I finally get the taste of what opportunity cost is.

How am I going to improvise now? What to do now? I have no concrete idea... I do have many upcoming things on my plate:: a career in business broadcasting, a prose-writing mentorship, a start up of OHM underground webbie, a revision of vocals/violin lessons. Love (my Achilles' heel) will have to be put under the plate, until it is palatable.

In retrospect, I am glad I went away, despite the opportunity cost of going away. I have transformed to be much more selective plus focused on the stuff I spend my time on. I have decided to choose my circle of influences wisely, for they can make you sprint or keep you just stationary. I have learnt to listen, to really listen. Well, I haven't learnt it in totality yet, but now I intently want to listen to God, listen to speech, listen to sounds, listen to art - triply, carefully, honestly. I want to use the whole of my ear structure, from outside in from a passive to an active state.

These are my improvisations on life. I go with the flow, I follow my feelings, I react to my gut. I am not sure how the music will turn out being so unrehearsed and impromptu, but I know that at least I will be facing the music, and listening to it.

I am suddenly very angry with myself.

Why is there perpetually a thick layer of fog in front of me? Why am I so unsmart and unsavoury? Why is my level of passion for what I am passionate about fluctuating? Why do I always have to fight a general sense of malaise? Why am I so not artistically inclined despite my family background? Why have I accepted the social engineering that has turned me into a puny brain?

I guess this is good toxin riddance, literally.

我想明天，我的头发会因消沉而变白，我的眼睛会因哭肿而变瞎。

So drama one meh?

What Employers (Really Really) Want

In today's competitive job market, employers want more than just another polymath with a Ph.D., a Nobel Prize, the cure for Multiple Myeloma Cancer, a photographic memory, multilingualism, or the ability to arrive at work on time.

You need to come up with something that makes you "special", something that meets a vital human need. Can you… read your bosses’ minds?

No? Crikey! Get out there and put some effort into it. Here's a helpful tip: Watch What Women Want. When a fluke accident happens to Mel Gibson’s character (an advertising executive in Chicago), his ears are suddenly enabled to hear what women actually think.

His first target is Helen Hunt, who plays the very woman promoted to the dream position he wants in the company. Gibson decides to sabotage his new boss by reading her thoughts and selling her ad ideas as his own. A surefire way of conquering the employment world!

The movie was released in 2000, and you’d have thought a humongous number of employees everywhere will use the last seven years to master the secret art of employer mind-reading! But nobody did, so you better play catch-up right now!

For the cost of a few brain cells and the effort of passing this blog link to 100 other mates, here’s The Job-Heckler’s Guide to the Employment Galaxy.

Some job-hecklers find it hard to understand what employers really, really want and why they prefer one employee over another. They think employers practise favouritism or that the employee is bending over backwards to be favoured, trying to be the “teacher’s pet”.

Well, the Employment Galaxy is not like school or university. At work, employers try to identify the best employees because they get into the swing of business rapidly. This means employers can sit back and relax with a milky space-cocktail, as net profits increase / stock prices rise / annual salaries double / industrial awards given to company / promotions dished out.

Research undertaken in your area of the Galaxy - by the Business Council of Australia (BCA) and Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) - identified eight Employability Skills.

Employability Skills are defined in the Job-Heckler’s Guide as skills required not only to gain employment, but also to progress within an enterprise so as to achieve one’s potential and contribute successfully to enterprise directions.

Aussie employers want you to have:
• Communication skills for harmony between employees and customers
• Teamwork skills for productive working relationships
• Problem solving skills for creative outcomes
• Self-management skills for employee satisfaction and growth
• Planning and organising skills for long-term and short-term strategic plans
• Technology skills for effective execution of tasks
• Life-long learning skills for ongoing improvement and expansion in company operations
• Initiative and enterprise skills for innovative results

In simple galactic language, this means before you are hired, the bosses want to find out if you really know how to type or if you really have learned the engineering of effective car brakes. They want to discover how you will behave with other people while you are typing documents or designing cars.

They want to distinguish you as the type who will work hard rather than the type who looks for the easiest way out. They want to realize early that you will not be absent frequently but be depended upon to be there.

Now that you’ve been let in on the employers’ points of view, focus on them! In general, the Guide translates all these to your attitude. Your good attitude determines these Employability Skills, and establishes your high altitude in the Employment Galaxy.

The next time you please your bosses to your advantage, be sure to send Mel Gibson a handwritten thank-you note. He started the mind-reading.