music has charms to soothe a savage beast.: September 2006

OH on a happier note, i took pics of my boss's cat.

you see, next door to our workshop is a design studio.

graphic design.

yeah. i could get lobang for attachment.

if i go into graphics. *pukes*

yep boss's wife works there. and this is their cat, holland.

holland is named holland, because they found him along HOLLAND ROAD. CUTE RIGHT?! HAHAHA.

sorry i couldn't get a frontal pic of her, she WOULDN'T KEEP STILL.

hehee.

cuteness. playing with cats makes me smile.

oh but of course, monatherapy makes me smile more. heehee. =)))

teh-flautist. ewenn @ 2:46 PM

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aights! hello!

lots has happened since my last post, which was last thursday. =)

come to think of it, i don't remember what happened on what day.

mona was in lots of the days though. =)))

anyhow, i'll let the pictures speak. remember the elephant ad rant? i got the pictures.

SEE? can you SEE THE CHAINS?

lol i bet no one else really noticed it. so i think. its a bit overbearing to complain about it on the papers. do i need that much limelight? HA.

yeps. also.

every musical instrument repair technician has good days. but of course. how would he know its good... if he doesn't have his bad days?

on tuesday afternoon, while straightening one of the rods in a flute i was repairing, i whacked my left hand index finger. two blood clots appeared almost immediately. i wasn't really bothered about the pain, more of the ugliness the spots caused on my finger. sooooo.

i heated a needle with my torch, put alcohol..

and proceeded to stab the bigger bloodclot.

weeeellll. it appeared that the clot was deeper down than i thought. so i had to poke real deep. it didn't help that the needle was rather thick. (for a needle)

then i squeeeezzzeedd all the blood out. and then. the stupid hole healed back. then it clotted again. lol fuck.

anyway. here's how it looks.

yeaaap.

now the one on the left is gone. after lots of washing, i guess. but the other one's still there. oh well.

thought that was really bad? check these out.

yeah. that bled bad.

the headcork was stuck in a headjoint. lazy me, didn't want to grab a hammer to whack it out.

sooo. i pushed. when it did come loose, the amount of force i used caused my thumb to ram into the top of the flute headjoint.

the skin came off. like. the whole layer of skin, then you can see like, the red fleshy stuff inside.

i should have taken pics at the point of the injury, would have been more graphic. but i was more concerned with the amount of blood coming out. lol.

sickness.

oh well. i went to see a doc for it. he said just apply his antiseptic shit.

i wonder if i should have gotten a tetanus jab, since i was handling rusty stuff the whole day with the same finger.

lol if i get lockjaw, someone save me.

aights, all that happened on TUESDAY.

yeah, both. fucking %&#*&%#*) right?

well. on thursday, i went to aunt laura's (HAHAHHA SORRY LAURA, I HAD TO CHANGE NAME FOR PROTECTION. SEE HOW MUCH I THINK OF YOU?! HAHAHAHA) house, cause she made nice nice stuff for dinner.

wah really. dinner was damn nice.

aunt laura is my mom's friend. senior at school last time.

she has. special powers. we'll talk about it later.

yeah then there's a hairdresser they call in once a few weeks, who's her friend.

she's those sort who has lots of friends, from all walks of life. that's probably because she's so charitable and stuff.

so some of the aunties got their hair cut and dyed. then one of the aunties specialized in some old fashioned face massage and facial.

so my mom had that.

i was watching in her room when aunt laura and the hairdresser came in. she was about to give him a back massage.

she had me hold the balm for her.

so she started. i kinda felt something wasn't normal.

one, aunt laura crossed her legs like a man.
two, she made popping noises with her lips.
three, she did the whole massage with her eyes closed.

now, i had heard about her special powers and thought this was part of the process. yeah so after the massage she came back to her normal self. smily, chirpy, bright and all.

then.

'ewen you want massage too?'

so i said yes.

this time.

i realised while doing the massage.

she was in a trance.

i think aunt laura doesn't know how to do massage in her normal self. but she became an expert in that trance.

that's not all.

after her first touch on my body, these were said to me.

no. they were whispered in another voice.

'this boy, his body is strong, big. fit. but inside. inside empty.'

'you, hehhh. got back aches and problems never tell the mother ah? no good.'

'you! smart! can study but everyday play only!'

'his heart is hard, but when he finds a girl he really likes, he will let go.'

and his/her final revelation to my mother.

'hahh. but tell the mother don't worry. he will be a rich man. very rich.'

all this left me, of course, horribly shocked. my mom too, though she knew about all the stuff that aunt laura does, she was watching me 'being done'.

i thought quite a lot about it.

especially about what she meant by empty.

poor health?

low internal energies?

or just devoid of any kind of happiness or feeling or whatever?

yeah i wondered quite a lot.

i don't see me being rich coming anytime soon.

oh and if you think coming to talk to me in person will let you know who this person is, uh-uh. maybe i'll tell my closer friends about it, but yeah. i'm supposed to keep all this shit a secret in the first place.

maybe now i've said it here, i won't be rich anymore.

AHHAHAHA.

ah. lets see.

oh! i'll have to go back to her for constant massaging.

heh. bye!

teh-flautist. ewenn @ 1:58 PM

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THIS POST WAS MEANT FOR A FEW DAYS AGO.

today's post shall be about what i do at work! =) well. yeah. since i didn't do anything but work today anyway.. hahah.

oh wait i shall talk about yesterday, tuesday. our match against UWC was pretty bad. got thrashed quite bad by their under-17 team. like. wtf. fuck. sian. yah. 30something-nil i think. oh well. anyway after the game i went to town for dinner.

mona, singyi and steve were already slacking at macs @ forum so i just joined em. blew like $10 bucks at macs on food. yes. wonderful.

then slacked a lot, before going home by MRT. accompanied mona to yishun, where i took 169 home.

i would have walked you home, but i don't know why i didn't.

oh well. there's always another time.
i hope.

oh yes anyway, WORK.

i work at this place.

WindWorks.

i repair flutes there, in case you didn't know. =)

well yes remember the flute in the last post? i cleaned it up when i got to work, had to use acetone.

yes. acetone. its a very volatile substance, meaning it evaporates very fast. i had rubber gloves on, but wtf, the acetone melted through them. my bosses say they use bare hands cause they're used to it. apparently the evaporation is so fast that all the heat is taken away from the skin, causing it to dry up and eventually start peeling. well. not after being swollen at first.

i'm lucky i only used diluted acetone. yeah.

then i did a whole polish thing on it, using autosol, an abrasive silver polish cream thingy. check the flute body out.

NICEEE? =D compare hard with the last post. yay!

anyway. let me go on. to repair the flute, one must ensure that the pads in the key aren't leaking air. if so, the notes won't come out nicely, nor easily. the flute is a sensitive instrument, so a leak of perhaps 0.01 inches will still be felt when one is playing on it.

here's the inside of the pad.

the white and orange thingies - they're called shims, and the different kinds range from 0.001 to 0.1 inches thick- are glued in using shellac to increase the level of the pad, to make it seal the tone hole as completely and evenly as possible. yep. there are quite a few pads to seal, as you can see from the bigger pictures.

now, how do i detect these air leaks? i use a cool blue light.

LIKE LIGHTSABER RIGHT?! heheheh.

to look for the finer leaks, i use a chopstick, with some special film that's super thin glued to it. then i put it under the pads, close and test the tension, or amount of pull i feel on the chopstick.

other kinds of repair include de-rusting, straightening metal rods, soldering sometimes.

all these require a strong flame. and here is my gas torch!

see the cool bluish flame? its really strong. i'm mortally afraid of burning myself with that. lol.

and my hands get really dirty with metal/silver dust after polishing.

usually dirtier than this. hahah.

also, as part of the cleaning process, i boil water, put the flute in an aluminium foil wrapped container, pour the water in, put salt, put baking soda. the tarnish will stick onto the aluminium foil after a lot of fizzing around. then i give the flute a bath with mild soap to neutralise the PH. i think its partial electrolysis. chem students, enlighten me will you?! =)

yep. when everything is done, i put the flute together.

YEP. nice and clean now. and perfect working condition. the flute was so nice to play on after that, that i decided to MAKE A VIDEO OF ME TEST PLAYING THE FLUTE. =)

i'm playing bullcrap in there, though if you listen hard enough, you'll catch snatches of familiar melodies. =))

i used my handphone camera. sorry bout the sound quality, especially on the high notes. =)

and if you're wondering why i recorded in the toilet, its cause the workshop itself is noisy, even without the radio blasting in the background.

OH. if any tkss flautist chances upon this, gosh that miya you have is damn nice. its the one with uh. a star soft toy attached to the carrying case! yep!

that's about all!

teh-flautist. ewenn @ 12:29 AM

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today...

today a lot of things happened.

today is supposed to be monday ah, not tuesday.

anyway. some things i noticed today.

i was on the way to work today. um. in the MRT from cityhall to aljunied. i sat down and stoned. my eyes eventually crawled to the advertisements. tired and drained as i was, the clockworks of my ~~amazing~~ mind began chugging to life.

a travel ad caught my eye. it was some travel exhibition happening at expo or something. but it was the ad that caught my eye.

in the picture, there's a couple happily pointing away from them.

pointing. at a herd of elephants. with a man sitting on the foremost one. the elephants were bound together. by IRON CHAINS.

i felt damn wtf, so i looked around for other signs of screwed advertising, but there were none. just that one.

poor elephants.

mona thinks i should write to SMRT. i'm thinking of writing to ST forums just to make noise lol.

oh and mona also thinks its.. religiously insensitive, cause elephants are sacred animals to hinduism. aren't they?

hmm. and there was a whole lot about hindu and thai revolts that would eventually lead to world war 3.... but uh. lol. NEVERMIND, YES? yes. =)

alrights. so i think i might write in to ST, unless someone beats me to it. hmm.

anyone? =)

well. at work i finished the yamaha 581 that belongs to SASMB. it plays okay i guess. then i did another yamaha 381 from bukit merah sec. hmm.

and then. and then. my boss passed me a miya from tkss to do.

i tried it in its spoilt state. i was really. OMGGGGGG.

nice. like. i can have such a nice tone zomg?

i can't wait to repair it and play nice stuff on it for a while. like a reward. a proper reward. anyway i took pics of it in its bad condition. like before and after thing. just to let you people know what i do at work, kinda. lol.

MIYAZAWA PA-401

note the ugly black stuff.

check back soon for a clean flute. =) maybe soundbites of me playing on it. who knows? hahahh.

its time to go to bed! goodnight!

oh wait i left something out.

i don't get how things just happened like that.. quite. sudden. lol. but i guess if things are meant to happen. they will.

i'm still quite lost, forgive me.

i think you're special,
so very special.

teh-flautist. ewenn @ 2:28 AM

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i need to stop my vices. even if only for a while.

lacking money. i want to do my hair. i want my straight, soft hair lol.

not just because of money and hair.

i've been coughing incessantly. and the phlegm is endless, although my throat isn't infected anymore. the coughing actually stops only after i smoke.

weird? tell me about it.

rugby IVPs are coming. i know i won't get into the team but i think i ought to stop for at least during the period.

and because i think. i want to let my barrier down. i know i shouldn't. i know i musn't. but i don't know why i am doing it.

i finished my last stick from the box today. no more buying. of course, the occasional free stick i welcome warmly. heh.

life is weird. really it is.

well. i went to work this morning/afternoon till the evening. completed a half-done flute. i'll be on hourly pay this week. my 'warmup' period. haven't been repairing for months!

then i went for alumni.

enriching evening of sightreading. lol.

benji can compose well, in my opinion. well. in comparison to other singaporean composers at least. rofl.

came home after supper.

i still think life is weird. really.

i am tired. i need to sleep earlier, i can't afford to sleep when the sun rises anymore. because by the time i sleep, work would have started.

goodnight world,
and you.

teh-flautist. ewenn @ 4:28 AM

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lovesick ranting.

if you think you can't stomach it, please don't read on.

sigh. maybe you've been in the back of my mind all the while, while all the other shit in my life has been going on. maybe, just maybe i'm just infatuating.

you occur in my mind. well. more than just once in a day. if i think of someone before i sleep. its you.

you've got it all, personality, looks. brains too. maybe that's why i'm so drawn to you.

this time, it isn't the eyes.

its been going on a while now.

the last few months in my life has gotten to me pretty bad. i want to tell you so much. so so much. but i think of the consequences, i just tie my tongue. i'm scared. i don't want to get hurt again. i don't like it. not one bit. it's not just emotional pain. i physically hurt inside too. i don't want to feel it anymore.

even more so, i'm scared of hurting you. or anyone, for that matter.

your background, your environment. i think its not good that i put you in a predictament that's. unfavourable.

but i just want you to know.

i like you a lot. a. lot.

i don't think its mutual. and i hate having to mask my feelings so much. it sucks. it just makes me fall deeper.

oh and if you're gonna ask me if its you i like, i'm going to tell you the truth.

if you think you don't want to know.

please. don't ask.

if only i could lay here...

teh-flautist. ewenn @ 10:43 PM

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hello all. my life's been a bore at the present. i've been at home everyday, rotting in this chair, staring into the computer screen.

i've been sleeping at like. after 730am everyday. unhealthy and shit, but.. ah. well. lol.

i should be practicing flute, i know. but HMM.

anyhow.

last saturday, there was an alumni bbq at sas. i went. it was kinda. a normal gathering, for updates and catching up.

mr glosz insisted that we drink the beer he bought because.. he said everyone was dead or something. so he come pick on me first. i think he sees me as the alcoholic of the band or something. but anyway, yah. i shall DIGRESS.

sometime 2 years back, a couple of us went for sajcband's concert. it was the one with the musical. yeah. i bought like. bourbon coke. the 16% one. lol. drank in the hall. interval, i went out to say hello/byebye to the sas band, who was guest performing.

guess who appeared behind me? yeah. mr. glosz. then he started making noise about illegal drinking, then he tell my teachers.

apparently i was supposed to get into some sort of trouble back in school, but nothing happened. =/

oh well. i wasn't even in uniform anyway.

but yeah. i think i got pretty high on the stuff, because i think i was red and shit. and yeah alcohol tolerance at sec 4... is pretty low. hahh.

BACK to present. yeah so he got us all to drink. i downed like a can of carlsberg with my dinner, and another after dinner. didn't do much to me. heh. uh. everyone was really high and all.

we have a new alumni president. and we have another concert, tentatively february 10th.

and a lot of new developments. saints alumni wants to become bigger, better. ah well.

and. practice starts. this. saturday. lawl.

i can't say i'm complaining though.

oh yes, there was a band dinner on friday, which i didn't go for, because i felt i didn't belong. hmm. yeah. and i was kinda broke anyway. it was at hotel rendevous. they gave out medallions for last year's syf. benji passed me mine at the bbq. here's what it looks like.

it was made by MoE, i think. the medallion itself is the same as the medal on the piece of wood that is presented to the band. it says around the medallion,

"SINGAPORE YOUTH FESTIVAL INTER-SCHOOL BAND COMPETITION. MINISTRY OF EDUCATION"

and on the bottom label.

"SINGAPORE YOUTH FESTIVAL 2005
CONCERT BAND PRESENTATION
ST ANDREW'S SECONDARY SCHOOL
GOLD WITH HONOURS
TOP 3 BAND"

as i typed that out, i felt my heart swelling. i am proud. proud that we achieved this last year. proud that i was PART of it.

achievements like these aren't a one-man-show.

like any sport, band is teamwork. music is the game ball. there is no opponent. its about. i don't know how to explain it. its about everyone in the band.

SASMB batch of 2005, we have left a legacy, created a legend for the next batches to talk about.

obviously, i don't want them to talk about it.

i want them to create their own legends.

i think many have seen this somewhere around, but here it is again anyway.

the Band shall be heard on high,
music shall tune the skies,
never will the music die!
long live the SAS band!
united we stand,
we love our band,
and until the end...

we'll walk hand in hand.

teh-flautist. ewenn @ 10:08 PM

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found this on sabby-sab's blog.

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

i think its.

quite.

amusing.

teh-flautist. ewenn @ 4:43 AM

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hello. surprise. i'm up at this time. surprise. yes.

yawns. its been long since i blogged. no mood to do blogging anymore. perhaps i should just stop altogether and let this blog rot here.

anyhow. i am sick. i think there are a zillion holes in my throat, because it hurts like shit. and everytime i snort and spit. its like. green.

and brown.

and red.

timmy is dying. AND SO ARE ALL OF YOU WHO ARE ALIVE AND ABLE TO READ THIS.

right. so i'm sick. and yesterday at training, after warmup. I SAW STARSSSS. (oh they were yellowww...) yeah, i saw stars. then almost collapse ah. but after a while ok already. lol i am unhealthy. very.

and i cannot catch or pass for nuts. FOR NUTS.

i need to buy a ball.

OH and for those of you who didn't know.

my flute exam is rescheduled for 14th sept, wednesday. at like. paragon. yeah. because. the bitch at the door, ie doorbitch, didn't want to let me in though i was a MINUTE late. %&#* i was like wtf how this kind of thing happen.

so.. yah. nvm now i have more time to practice. and yes. practice i shall. in fact. i shall go practice now.

ta~

teh-flautist. ewenn @ 11:45 AM

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i am teh saxophonist, hear me roar.

roar.

okay thanks.

lol, anyway tim's blog is over one year old already! congratulations tim! wait, is there really anything to congratulate you about? oh well. heh heh.

tim officially hates r&b and hip hop. that's what he said last night.

anyway, i found something really kinky while surfing friendster profiles, and it has something to do with timmy, heh heh.

read all about it at pseudopath.org.

-adam kerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

ps: i can't sleep cause i woke up at 9pm last night.

teh-flautist. Adam Kerr @ 6:07 AM

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