Well well well. Here we are again. Shall we begin [the storytelling] then?
I started the day loading up my slim hip flask with Maker's Mark, and discovered that it was leaking. I then went on to have the best sushi that I can find, and 750 ml of sake. Then I made my way down to check out New Bahru, and found it a little too bougie for my taste. I had a coffee there with a breakfast set and a big pitcher of water, never likely to return because it demanded I pay by entering my payment information in the web browser from which the orders were made. I headed off to Sentosa, intending to have dinner there, but was told by the folks there that it was ``take away only''. Annoyed, I just went to Siloso Beach, and sat on the sand in my jeans and boots, just staring out into the sea, sipping out all that was left in my hip flask, and listening to the lapping of the waves. As the sun started its journey down, I walked back from Beach Station first to the Lego to ogle at the Concorde and Space Shuttle transport, before heading to VivoCity via the causeway on foot, and ended up at Brotzeit, where I had a 0.5 l of bier, a negroni, and chicken-cheese wurst with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. And at each point where I stopped to eat, I played tangrams with the pocket tangram puzzle from Shire Post Mint, or read Foundation & Earth. The day ended as I finally took the train back home from Harbourfront.
Folks came out of the woodwork to wish me happy birthday, and for the most part I was thankful. I wasn't really expecting anyone to do that, and even for one I lapsed back to my usual refrain of not really wanting to remember when it was that my birthday be. Because realistically, while I have turned a slightly different attitude ever since my odometer rolled over to begin with a four, some habits just die hard. But the damage was done, and I see no reason to try and salvage it since it is minor at best.
And I remember it all as it was yesterday.
------
Cycling. Went for it. It's been nearly half a year since I last did my cycling. Three things stood out as to why: I was rudely propositioned by a man while I was cycling bare-chested due to the heat; my usual cycling time of Wednesday lunch time was rudely disrupted when someone decided to cancel the flexible one-day-work-from-home due to some rumoured pettiness; I had a weird chest pain to the left of my sternum that I had been monitoring and have concluded that it was costochronditis and not something relating to my heart---it got better once I started to switch the way in which I was lifting my stupidly heavy bag [with my left arm]. Of the three, I do not know which was the worst.
The tyres were deflated, and my pump was also a bit messed up with its own gauge---I filled up the front tyre, saw the gauge losing pressure even as the tyre felt turgid, got afraid, emptied it all and refilled it back to the 100 psi that it was to be. Thank God, it worked well, and I went back to the usual North-East Riverine Loop, albeit with a course correction to avoid the still-in-progress construction just before the entrance into Punggol Primary School. Pacing was fine, and there seems to be nothing unusual to report. I did have to take a nap, but that was normal given the circumstances.
And now I'm writing short entries here.
------
Gjb qnlf ntb, V gnyxrq jvgu Cnfgbe. V cvatrq uvz n qnl rneyvre gura ng fvk va gur zbeavat, tvivat uvz n ebhtu bhgyvar bs jung jnf tbvat ba abj, naq nfxrq vs ur unq gur gvzr bire gur arkg srj qnlf jura V jnf ba yrnir gb zrrg, pung, naq cenl gbtrgure. Jr zrg, naq gnyxrq n ybg nobhg jung vg jnf gung jnf ohttvat zr. Gur fvghngvba ng jbex jnf n gevttre, ohg vg jnf abg gur pnhfr---V jnf ybfg nf gb jurer vg jnf gung V fubhyq or urnqvat. Cnfgbe'f nqivpr sebz gur Ovoyvpny crefcrpgvir jnf gb svefg xrrc va zvaq fgrjneqfuvc znggref, naq gura or jvyyvat gb rkcyber orlbaq jung vg jnf gung V jnf pbzsbegnoyr jvgu. Sbe V zragvbarq gur tenqhny qvfvyyhfvbazrag bs gur pbecbengr raivebazrag, naq jnagrq gb frr vs gurer jnf n jnl gb gnc vagb jung vg jnf gung Tbq tnir zr gb uryc crbcyr. Abg gung jungrire V jnf qbvat jnf abg urycvat crbcyr, ohg gung V jnagrq gb frr vs gurer jnf fbzrguvat ryfr bgure guna orvat sbeprq gb pyvzo gur pbecbengr ynqqre gur jnl gung n erprag zrrg hc jvgu nabgure crefba bs n zber pbecbengr-fynag jnf fnlvat. Cnfgbe tnir zr znal guvatf gb guvax nobhg, naq V guvax V fubhyq ernyyl guvax nobhg gurz frevbhfyl. Bar bs juvpu jnf n phevbhf dhrfgvba nf gb gur angher bs zl perngvivgl: jnf V n perngbe jub eriryyrq ng znxvat guvatf narj, be jnf V na nffrzoyre jub chg guvatf gbtrgure va perngvir jnlf gb fbyir ceboyrzf (nyy grezf zl bja).
I picked up The Big Flute from WindWorks, who had been praised to be of a good make. Mechanisms were cleaned, re-oiled, and adjusted, and the tarnish has been made gone. Played with a modified aluminium dizi in F too, and that was fun. Aurelia had her footjoint tenon looked at due to roughness, and that had been resolved too. Had dinner at Collin's at Woodleigh Mall, and then home I went.
------
Four days earlier, I heard the confirmation that some folks were leaving, and just felt a pang of sadness. It was normal, and nothing to be too worried about, I think. Other machinations were happening beyond my control, but I have done what I could within the ambit of my control, and now into God's hands I leave them.
------
Three days ago, I was finishing up with the follow-up of various things that I needed to do before I embarked on ``I'm forty-one bitches!'' break. I treated folks to lunch with some of the fun money I had set aside, and they reciprocated with a troll-y and ironic cake that featured gold and money on it. We all had a good laugh, and had good cake. Dinner was at Brotzeit, where I had two 0.5 l of bier, shared a wurst platter, and eventually downed whatever I had left of my 18-year Glenfiddich (probably 4 to 5 shots).
------
Five days ago, I was serving in the Music Ministry, and as I cleaned out Aurelia at the end of the worship service, a Brother came up to thank me for playing, saying how much he liked the sound of the flute. It gave me a soft glow that I could not understand, but it pleased me.
------
Nine days ago I was asked when was the last time I was happy, and got confused, saying that I don't remember being happy for quite a long time, but had been contented. I was pressed a bit more, and then I realised that the last time I was truly happy was six years ago, and ever since then nothing has ever been the same.
------
Gjb qnlf ntb Cnfgbe gnyxrq jvgu zr, naq n jbexvat qvntabfgvp jr unq jnf gung V jnf qbvat pngrtbevfngvbaf bs eryngvbafuvcf hapbafpvbhfyl, cbffvoyl nf n ernpgvba gb gur fpnef gung jrer cerfrag sebz fvk lrnef ntb. Gur bgure nqivpr jrer tvira haqre gur pbagrkg gung vg jnf abg n ynpx bs pncnpvgl gung jnf ubyqvat zr onpx, ohg gung bs pubvpr.
------
Guerr qnlf ntb, V pbasvqrq jvgu fbzrbar gb gryy gurz gung V unq pbagnpgrq Cnfgbe ng n gvzr jura V jnfa'g shyyl oenvavat whfg fb gung V pbhyq fgneg haqrefgnaqvat gur pubvprf gung V unq znqr, dhbgvat sebz gur Benpyr bs Gur Zngevk gung V unir nyernql znqr gur pubvpr(f), ohg V arrqrq gb haqrefgnaq jul.
------
Five days ago, Golan Trevize chose Galaxia over Foundation and Second Foundation in Foundation's Edge, and he's trying to find out why he made that choice in Foundation & Earth.
------
Today I sit here, thinking back what transpired before, and trying to put things down here as a glimpse of what happened, while trying to leave enough out so that I can have a peace of mind. I remember the conversations, the thoughts, the few dreams that came up these few days, the connections that occurred here and there. I know not what else to talk about, and this is then where I stop before I head on to continue my playthrough of Persona 5 Royal, having completed Mad Max nearly a week before.
Till the next update.
Showing posts with label aurelia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aurelia. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2026
Thursday, December 25, 2025
Welcome to Stupid O'Clock
Oh hey, check it out---it's stupid o'clock. It feels like it has been quite a while since I had an entry out at stupid o'clock. These things, you know, you've got to have just the right mood before things will fall in place, and the words that befit stupid o'clock will show up.
So the day just passed was a long one. It's the last official day of work for this year (I've broken my usual rule, and have decided to actually take a bloody big block of leave at the end of the year), and since I was playing at the Christmas Eve service out at PPCC, it just made more sence logistically to wake up at the usual nonsensical hour, spend half a day in the office working, and then chilling there for another few hours before hopping on a short bus ride down to church.
What happened during service is not important---I brought Stella instead of Aurelia, and managed to flub the soaring bits of Joy to the World because I didn't write the bloody part down.
The important part was that it was the last day of work for the year. And now I'm sitting here, nursing a 18-year Glenfiddich after showering and having listened once more to End of a Life by Mori Calliope, and having all these weird feelings that I need to expunge.
Of course it doesn't help that I was reconstructing my original ``Loved.m3u8'' play list after having reconfigured my entire [offline] music collection, and ended up listening to quite a few of the songs that were unironically pretty damn emo.
Oh, and I finished reading Komi Can't Communicate the manga, where Shoko and Hitohito were getting all lovey dovey here and there, with all the other usual childhood stuff from high school gloriously drawn and drawn out over the 500 chapters.
Now that the setting is made, let's proceed with stupid o'clock.
------
It's funny. There was a time where I made the realisation that with the effective excommunication that my family made with their various factions of families, I was a man without a history, which meant that I could choose how to shape my own future. I was back from my second scholarship run (left it because I finally realised the I didn't want a PhD that badly enough to want to sacrifice everything, and that for what I truly wanted to do, I didn't really need a PhD), and was serving out my bond. I thought of an old friend whom I sort of lost contact, reconnected, and one thing led to another, and we dated for a while.
And I thought I was going to have a future with her. I thought we had aligned our values well, and communicated our expectations, I thought we approached the relationship with the level of maturity that was to be expected.
That day, a part of me died utterly. And today, some donkey years later (I'm not going to ``do research'' to figure this shit out precisely for obvious reasons), I still maintain that that part of me has stayed dead.
I kinda lost interest in creating a future for myself. And I definitely lost interest in creating a future for myself where there's a spouse involved, though that took a few more years after that to figure it out a bit more. Turns out that the kind of woman whom I am attracted to, are precisely the kind of women that I should never start a life together with.
``MT, is it because they are smart?''
No, it's because they... are different kinds of weird. I like weird---it's interesting. Weird has a way of building up that kind of synergistic passion that is usually lacking in most prosaic conversations with the normies. Unfortunately, if they come in the package of ``woman'', then the subsidiary sub-system that doesn't usually trigger called ``libido'' turns up eventually and starts to mess with my brain, and then I get all attracted, and have weird thoughts of ``maybe this person is dateable?''
Spoiler: they are not dateable. Good for conversation, great for doing random shit with, just don't fucking date them.
You know, just treat them as friends. But whether one is actually friends with them is a whole 'nother philosophical question. Because to weird people, other weird people are just blips in the sea of noise---they don't necessarily register as ``people'', let alone ``people one tries to build a relationship with'', i.e. befriend. Weird people are weird because they are weird (i.e. not normies).
Took me forty years to figure this shit out. But at least I managed to figure it out.
Can I stand normies? Of course I can stand normies; I just don't see myself dating them.
Anyway, the point isn't about whom I'm intending to date, but more on that ``future'' part of things. I didn't really have big ambitions to begin with, always being the people pleaser that I was when I was a child (pleasing adults seemed like a better idea than trying to out-argue them at times where they are clearly in the wrong---no adult will ever acknowledge that a child makes a better point than they have). I wasn't born/living in a hyper-competitive environment---even my secondary school was more of a phase of life than something that I was trying my best to ``beat'' and turn out champion. Do enough to get paid enough to pay off the bills that are needed for existence and to serve my hobbies---that's about it. Still stand by that.
But it is funny, isn't it? I was having chicken chop, and I was looking at the hawker stalls. We're talking about stalls that have been there from anywhere between one month and thirty years. The people who serve at the stalls have been there for almost as long as the stall has been---day in, day out, doing the same work, reproducing the same services, producing the same goods, all day, every day.
Is that their ambition then? Do they even ``have'' ambition? And no, ``winning the lottery'' is not the kind of ``ambition'' that I am referring to here.
I examined myself. I don't think I can run the same thing day in, day out. In other words, I cannot see myself running operations. To put it bluntly, it is boring as fuck [to me]. I like trying out new things, challenging myself to new things. As part of doing these new things, some ``short period, high intensity'' type operations are probably fine, but running operations for a whole year and beyond like in the IT department or data centre operations or anything that is primarily structured around the routine... just sounds like death to me.
So, is this inner urge to do something new and challenging is ambition then? If not, then in many ways I should find commonality with the folks who are still at the hawker stall, cutting up chilli padi in the evening to mise en place for the next day's cycle of the very same.
But I don't. And not because I'm working in an office and not at a hawker stall---it's about the routine-ness.
Yes, I sound like a snob, but there was never an intention of being a snob.
Like I said, it has taken me nearly forty years to figure these things out for myself, and even then, I'm unconvinced that I have the full answer on what it is that I am. And frankly, I think that for most people who need to figure out what it is that I am, they might have similar issues.
But future. Funny thing that is. If today, I were to just keel over, dead, everything still goes on the way it does. There will be a slight pause as the information of my death propagates, but once the waves start travelling far out enough to decay to irrelevance, the world reconfigures itself quickly, and then everyone moves on, even as I ash up from the cremation and lose all corporeal form.
So in some sick sense, perhaps ``ambition'' and ``future'' are both overrated as things to have/possess. It may just be better to do whatever we want/can, now.
``MT, what's the point you are making here?''
No point---it's stupid o'clock. Think of it as a trite observation and nothing more. As I mentioned, I just wanted to dump out some thoughts that have been floating in my head, just so that I don't have to think about them when I officially chill out during the upcoming week and change from the block leave at the end of the year.
------
Recently, I went out to Decathlon out at City Square Mall to get one of those foldable safari chairs. Considering that I recently fucked up my ability to download videos from YouTube for offline viewing without having to log in, I decided to lie low during this period, and just use the logged-in download mechanism only for things that I cared about, like music releases, or some of the Let's Play series from my favourite VTubers (like Pavolia Reine), or even Karaoke (looking at you, Alpha Betta and Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame).
So in the meantime, I'd replace background YouTube offline viewing with some new Steam games I bought, and the ridiculous backlog of books to read, of which not all are of the e-book variety.
Which is where this foldable safari chair comes into place. It unfolds into a low chair with arm rests that I can put in the middle of my room so that I can sit there like a Boss and read.
``MT, what about reading it on-screen on Eileen-III?''
Sometimes, it is just not the same. Part of the reason is that there are physical books that I want to read, and reading that on-screen is impossible while reading them on a table is annoying considering that the angles are all wrong. ``Book in lap'' is a really comfortable position in comparison.
So I got the foldable chair. Nothing funny there.
But while walking about, I learnt of a new shop: Puzzletopia. This is opposite my favourite shop in City Square Mall: Super Dario Lasagne---the best damn lasagne in SIN City. I've known about Super Dario Lasagne, and it was one of the places that I had gone with her when we were still dating. I cannot remember if I went there alone after that and before the recent outing just to create new memories and therefore associations of the place, but I severely digress.
Puzzletopia. Dangerous place. Lots of fun puzzles, and there were some that was in their retail. I went in, looking for a portable tangram set. Their small ones were still 3 inches across (while being out of stock), while the one that they had stock on was still 5 inches across.
I wanted something smaller.
I already have a nice 6 inch set that came with this Tangram puzzle book that I recently sanded down more properly. The problem is that when the packing square is around 6 inches a side, some of the puzzles will end up taking linear dimensions of nearly a foot, which is... bad. Earlier this year while doing my ``I'm forty bitches'' week, I tried to play some tangrams while having a nice lunch... and it didn't work out well because of the lack of space.
I was looking for a much more compact version of tangram. And I couldn't find it. And Puzzletopia didn't have a small enough one.
That is, until I stumbled upon this little gem from Shire Post Mint. The damn thing is downright perfect. Naturally, I placed an order for it, and it's making its way to me through the mail even as we speak.
``MT, thought you could find this easily.''
Nope. This was only released in 2025-08, so the search during the months immediately after ``I'm forty bitches'' week would turn out nothing.
Praise the Lord!
In theory, I could make it out of thick cardboard, or even leather pieces, or heavy felt, but the sharp-ish 45° corners from the parallelogram and triangles are likely to fray under heavy use. This little gadget? It's copper---solid metal. It has enough mass to not fly away, and enough stiffness to not fray. And at 1.8 inches (with container), it is small!
And so, instead of debating what fancy-pants flute to get for my upcoming birthday gift to myself, it will be this. And there's also this other tangram book that I have, which will further increase the amount of fun I'm going to get with manipulating these tangram pieces while doing pattern matching/decomposition.
Now I'm debating whether I want to drop by next week (that's when the Puzzletopia staff said their new stock of the smaller tangrams will arrive) to show my discovery so that they can stock those up should anyone else want something that tiny.
It is at times like this that I wish I had enough space/resources to have a small workshop. Nothing much I suppose---a work table, hand tools, maybe a lathe and a press drill. Should allow me to mess about with making headjoints, simple flutes, and do other crafty work like making my own tangrams out of aluminium/brass.
------
And as I reach this part of the post, I find that my shot glass of Glenfiddich is done, and that I more or less have run out of things that I want to talk about during this stupid o'clock. Tomorrow (eh, you know what I mean) is going to be a new day, and I would like to start it by sleeping well, and then doing whatever the fuck I want.
Like maybe beating Last Judge in Silk Song.
Till the next update.
So the day just passed was a long one. It's the last official day of work for this year (I've broken my usual rule, and have decided to actually take a bloody big block of leave at the end of the year), and since I was playing at the Christmas Eve service out at PPCC, it just made more sence logistically to wake up at the usual nonsensical hour, spend half a day in the office working, and then chilling there for another few hours before hopping on a short bus ride down to church.
What happened during service is not important---I brought Stella instead of Aurelia, and managed to flub the soaring bits of Joy to the World because I didn't write the bloody part down.
The important part was that it was the last day of work for the year. And now I'm sitting here, nursing a 18-year Glenfiddich after showering and having listened once more to End of a Life by Mori Calliope, and having all these weird feelings that I need to expunge.
Of course it doesn't help that I was reconstructing my original ``Loved.m3u8'' play list after having reconfigured my entire [offline] music collection, and ended up listening to quite a few of the songs that were unironically pretty damn emo.
Oh, and I finished reading Komi Can't Communicate the manga, where Shoko and Hitohito were getting all lovey dovey here and there, with all the other usual childhood stuff from high school gloriously drawn and drawn out over the 500 chapters.
Now that the setting is made, let's proceed with stupid o'clock.
------
It's funny. There was a time where I made the realisation that with the effective excommunication that my family made with their various factions of families, I was a man without a history, which meant that I could choose how to shape my own future. I was back from my second scholarship run (left it because I finally realised the I didn't want a PhD that badly enough to want to sacrifice everything, and that for what I truly wanted to do, I didn't really need a PhD), and was serving out my bond. I thought of an old friend whom I sort of lost contact, reconnected, and one thing led to another, and we dated for a while.
And I thought I was going to have a future with her. I thought we had aligned our values well, and communicated our expectations, I thought we approached the relationship with the level of maturity that was to be expected.
I thought, you think, who confirmed?Long time readers of this blog will know what happened eventually. Spoilers: we're not together anymore. I think that I can converse with her normally by now, but I am not strong enough to try for a whole tea-break of chatting, and have no reason why I would want to test that out.
---Every Encik in SAF
That day, a part of me died utterly. And today, some donkey years later (I'm not going to ``do research'' to figure this shit out precisely for obvious reasons), I still maintain that that part of me has stayed dead.
I kinda lost interest in creating a future for myself. And I definitely lost interest in creating a future for myself where there's a spouse involved, though that took a few more years after that to figure it out a bit more. Turns out that the kind of woman whom I am attracted to, are precisely the kind of women that I should never start a life together with.
``MT, is it because they are smart?''
No, it's because they... are different kinds of weird. I like weird---it's interesting. Weird has a way of building up that kind of synergistic passion that is usually lacking in most prosaic conversations with the normies. Unfortunately, if they come in the package of ``woman'', then the subsidiary sub-system that doesn't usually trigger called ``libido'' turns up eventually and starts to mess with my brain, and then I get all attracted, and have weird thoughts of ``maybe this person is dateable?''
Spoiler: they are not dateable. Good for conversation, great for doing random shit with, just don't fucking date them.
You know, just treat them as friends. But whether one is actually friends with them is a whole 'nother philosophical question. Because to weird people, other weird people are just blips in the sea of noise---they don't necessarily register as ``people'', let alone ``people one tries to build a relationship with'', i.e. befriend. Weird people are weird because they are weird (i.e. not normies).
Took me forty years to figure this shit out. But at least I managed to figure it out.
Can I stand normies? Of course I can stand normies; I just don't see myself dating them.
Anyway, the point isn't about whom I'm intending to date, but more on that ``future'' part of things. I didn't really have big ambitions to begin with, always being the people pleaser that I was when I was a child (pleasing adults seemed like a better idea than trying to out-argue them at times where they are clearly in the wrong---no adult will ever acknowledge that a child makes a better point than they have). I wasn't born/living in a hyper-competitive environment---even my secondary school was more of a phase of life than something that I was trying my best to ``beat'' and turn out champion. Do enough to get paid enough to pay off the bills that are needed for existence and to serve my hobbies---that's about it. Still stand by that.
But it is funny, isn't it? I was having chicken chop, and I was looking at the hawker stalls. We're talking about stalls that have been there from anywhere between one month and thirty years. The people who serve at the stalls have been there for almost as long as the stall has been---day in, day out, doing the same work, reproducing the same services, producing the same goods, all day, every day.
Is that their ambition then? Do they even ``have'' ambition? And no, ``winning the lottery'' is not the kind of ``ambition'' that I am referring to here.
I examined myself. I don't think I can run the same thing day in, day out. In other words, I cannot see myself running operations. To put it bluntly, it is boring as fuck [to me]. I like trying out new things, challenging myself to new things. As part of doing these new things, some ``short period, high intensity'' type operations are probably fine, but running operations for a whole year and beyond like in the IT department or data centre operations or anything that is primarily structured around the routine... just sounds like death to me.
So, is this inner urge to do something new and challenging is ambition then? If not, then in many ways I should find commonality with the folks who are still at the hawker stall, cutting up chilli padi in the evening to mise en place for the next day's cycle of the very same.
But I don't. And not because I'm working in an office and not at a hawker stall---it's about the routine-ness.
Yes, I sound like a snob, but there was never an intention of being a snob.
Like I said, it has taken me nearly forty years to figure these things out for myself, and even then, I'm unconvinced that I have the full answer on what it is that I am. And frankly, I think that for most people who need to figure out what it is that I am, they might have similar issues.
But future. Funny thing that is. If today, I were to just keel over, dead, everything still goes on the way it does. There will be a slight pause as the information of my death propagates, but once the waves start travelling far out enough to decay to irrelevance, the world reconfigures itself quickly, and then everyone moves on, even as I ash up from the cremation and lose all corporeal form.
So in some sick sense, perhaps ``ambition'' and ``future'' are both overrated as things to have/possess. It may just be better to do whatever we want/can, now.
``MT, what's the point you are making here?''
No point---it's stupid o'clock. Think of it as a trite observation and nothing more. As I mentioned, I just wanted to dump out some thoughts that have been floating in my head, just so that I don't have to think about them when I officially chill out during the upcoming week and change from the block leave at the end of the year.
------
Recently, I went out to Decathlon out at City Square Mall to get one of those foldable safari chairs. Considering that I recently fucked up my ability to download videos from YouTube for offline viewing without having to log in, I decided to lie low during this period, and just use the logged-in download mechanism only for things that I cared about, like music releases, or some of the Let's Play series from my favourite VTubers (like Pavolia Reine), or even Karaoke (looking at you, Alpha Betta and Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame).
So in the meantime, I'd replace background YouTube offline viewing with some new Steam games I bought, and the ridiculous backlog of books to read, of which not all are of the e-book variety.
Which is where this foldable safari chair comes into place. It unfolds into a low chair with arm rests that I can put in the middle of my room so that I can sit there like a Boss and read.
``MT, what about reading it on-screen on Eileen-III?''
Sometimes, it is just not the same. Part of the reason is that there are physical books that I want to read, and reading that on-screen is impossible while reading them on a table is annoying considering that the angles are all wrong. ``Book in lap'' is a really comfortable position in comparison.
So I got the foldable chair. Nothing funny there.
But while walking about, I learnt of a new shop: Puzzletopia. This is opposite my favourite shop in City Square Mall: Super Dario Lasagne---the best damn lasagne in SIN City. I've known about Super Dario Lasagne, and it was one of the places that I had gone with her when we were still dating. I cannot remember if I went there alone after that and before the recent outing just to create new memories and therefore associations of the place, but I severely digress.
Puzzletopia. Dangerous place. Lots of fun puzzles, and there were some that was in their retail. I went in, looking for a portable tangram set. Their small ones were still 3 inches across (while being out of stock), while the one that they had stock on was still 5 inches across.
I wanted something smaller.
I already have a nice 6 inch set that came with this Tangram puzzle book that I recently sanded down more properly. The problem is that when the packing square is around 6 inches a side, some of the puzzles will end up taking linear dimensions of nearly a foot, which is... bad. Earlier this year while doing my ``I'm forty bitches'' week, I tried to play some tangrams while having a nice lunch... and it didn't work out well because of the lack of space.
I was looking for a much more compact version of tangram. And I couldn't find it. And Puzzletopia didn't have a small enough one.
That is, until I stumbled upon this little gem from Shire Post Mint. The damn thing is downright perfect. Naturally, I placed an order for it, and it's making its way to me through the mail even as we speak.
``MT, thought you could find this easily.''
Nope. This was only released in 2025-08, so the search during the months immediately after ``I'm forty bitches'' week would turn out nothing.
Praise the Lord!
In theory, I could make it out of thick cardboard, or even leather pieces, or heavy felt, but the sharp-ish 45° corners from the parallelogram and triangles are likely to fray under heavy use. This little gadget? It's copper---solid metal. It has enough mass to not fly away, and enough stiffness to not fray. And at 1.8 inches (with container), it is small!
And so, instead of debating what fancy-pants flute to get for my upcoming birthday gift to myself, it will be this. And there's also this other tangram book that I have, which will further increase the amount of fun I'm going to get with manipulating these tangram pieces while doing pattern matching/decomposition.
Now I'm debating whether I want to drop by next week (that's when the Puzzletopia staff said their new stock of the smaller tangrams will arrive) to show my discovery so that they can stock those up should anyone else want something that tiny.
It is at times like this that I wish I had enough space/resources to have a small workshop. Nothing much I suppose---a work table, hand tools, maybe a lathe and a press drill. Should allow me to mess about with making headjoints, simple flutes, and do other crafty work like making my own tangrams out of aluminium/brass.
------
And as I reach this part of the post, I find that my shot glass of Glenfiddich is done, and that I more or less have run out of things that I want to talk about during this stupid o'clock. Tomorrow (eh, you know what I mean) is going to be a new day, and I would like to start it by sleeping well, and then doing whatever the fuck I want.
Like maybe beating Last Judge in Silk Song.
Till the next update.
Monday, June 09, 2025
...the Sequel to the Gorram List
It's stupid o'clock once more---let's go!
The first thing to note is that I am clearing that off-in-lieu for Saturday's public holiday on Monday. Which means that in theory, I can stay up for as long as I want.
In practice, I'll just crash out after writing and posting this entry. Because I'm too old to trash my sleep schedule for any reason any more.
With that out of the way, let us continue the rant that I started ``yesterday''.
Consider what I said about ``the most valuable thing'' that someone can give is time, it should be pretty obvious what is an instant turn-off for me: poor time discipline, and more generally, an air of irresponsibility (or worse still, actual irresponsibility).
Now, I know that there is a fundamental difference between controlling the timeline for work, and doing stuff on one's personal time---the former has much stricter requirements, and tends to affect more strangers (or at least, acquaintances), while the latter is usually more fluid, with higher chances of spontaneity, coupled with possibilities of outright procrastination. I am well aware of that, and do not demand the kind of professionalism that one would be at if it were part of a job.
But at some point, it just gets fucking ridiculous. I have called off a date with an ex aeons ago primarily because she was (1) late for more than 15 min while I was trying to pick her up in a car that I had access to at a place where waiting for long was A Bad Idea; (2) and decided to change the destination willy-nilly. I was annoyed at another ex when a pair of tickets to a show that I was intending to go with her, I let her have both because her sister was visiting and they wanted to go together, only to have their plans changed at the last minute, and having the tickets wasted. I was also upset at another ex because she mis-planned some things, and ended up with me just sitting around trying to kill time, even when it was meant to be ``us-time''.
The common point here isn't that plans change---plans always change when they come in contact with reality. The point is that the communication of the said situation was either not done in a ``us versus the problem'' way (i.e. unilaterally), or that there was no communication on the thing in the first place.
That really grinds my gears.
So, the first time I meet someone, if they suck hard at being punctual, or fuck up meeting locations through random-ass re-statements (and not a case of being genuinely lost due to unfamiliarity with the place), I get really annoyed. Yes, I have some friends who are just bad at being punctual, but I'm hardly ever planning anything critical with them for the most part (or throwing enough slack into the mix for when things are critical), thus rendering their tardiness irrelevant; I just spend the extra time I have catching up on my reading.
For someone I barely even know, and they pull such a stunt, it is already a red flag to me---it's a bit like how if someone treats the wait-staff poorly they are walking red flags, no matter how sweet/polite they are treating ``me'', since the apparent personality is to treat everything as transactional and discriminative along the axis of the apparent level of power.
``MT, getting awfully specific now, aren't we?''
Yes, of course. Why argue about hypotheticals when I have actual examples to draw upon? When I said that I sit and think, I didn't mean just running through hypotheticals in compulsion, nor did I mean overly ruminating over what has already passed continuously to seek meaning. I meant thinking through what happened, what I can learn from it, and then dropping the whole issue once I have filed the lessons away somewhere in my mind.
Last time, I said I hated people. That isn't wrong, but it wasn't quite complete: I hate people a priori only because your average person is effectively a numskull in the context of modern society. It's not about how smart they are (though that plays a role), but it is about how they interact with the world, and how they treat others who are not them. Most people treat others pretty poorly, though not necessarily in a blatantly obvious way. And yes, I think that I am guilty of such behaviours as well, particularly when I have run out of spoons for the day, and am running on fumes just to race through to the end where I can hide, and then rest/recharge my social batteries.
Thus, demonstrating gonk behaviour that reinforces this innate hatred is not helpful, everything else be damned.
Going back to the main point, irresponsibility irks me in a way that borders upon the irrational. Again, I am well aware that no one runs a gorram Gantt chart to run their personal life, but come the fuck on, have some kind of plan, and then remember to communicate it out early enough so that folks have enough time to figure things out and get it done. And considering how marriage is ``us against the problem/world'', having an irresponsible partner is just the worst thing that one can do.
And now, for something tangentially related, and borderline controversial.
The reason for this sequel to the rant is based on what I heard at the sermon today. Much of the church is elsewhere for church camp, and I did not go because I do not have a valid passport (technical reason), and did not feel close enough to folks to want to be at a camp of any sort (the ``it's not you; it's me'' reason). I like my church family---a couple of brothers had reached out quietly and tentatively to thank me for serving in the music ministry with Aurelia, and while they don't necessarily get the terminology right (some called Aurelia a Chinese flute for whatever reason), their heart is in the right place. I don't know how to take compliments well, so I just smiled, thanked them, and try not to think of myself as a good flautist/musician.
So the sermon was on 1 Timothy 3:14--16. The crux of the sermon was ``what was the church?''. The pastor preaching talked about how 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus were basically the manual for how to run a church, of which one of the things was that the church preachers were not meant to be women (1 Timothy 2:12), with subsequent verses calling back to Genesis to explain why that was so. That made me think back to Genesis as a whole, and how (at least up to Ch 15 which is roughly where I am at now with the ESV Study Bible) in many cases, the men in the stories were doing their own stuff, but ended up fucking up bad because they decided to follow what their womenfolk said (Adam eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from following Eve; Abram fucking Hagar to make a child according to Sarai's suggestion).
The point that I am awakened to here isn't about misogyny (biblically defined gender roles are about division of labour; Eve was flesh of Adam's flesh, and was a helper, not a slave), but the realisation that if God gave a command to be completed to me, I shouldn't go round listening to other people's interpretation and rationalisation of the command, for as they are not God, the chances of them corrupting the meaning with faulty memory/reasoning is high. Or the more diplomatic way is to still listen to what they say, but make up my own damn mind about what needs to be done based on what I know about God/the situation, and weighing the provided evidence accordingly, Bayes style.
Therefore, it behooves me to choose wisely. On preferences, we can agree to disagree (or ``compromise'' naively so that no one is happy), but on the truly important matters, we must stay firm to our convictions. Biblical or secular, being an irresponsible sort is never something that is well-tolerated, and thus it makes sense to ditch that kind of turd and move on.
``MT, are you so upset about what happened on Friday that you are coming up with excuses to rationalise things?''
No, not really. In fact, I am glad that it happened in such a polarising way---no more of that melodramatic draggy bullshit that is an absolute time waster and emotion grinder.
I'm not a horndog that is willing to trade in hard-learnt standards for a competent adult/partner against the world/problems for tail.
Looks like this entry is getting long too, so no other updates for this for now. Till the next update then.
The first thing to note is that I am clearing that off-in-lieu for Saturday's public holiday on Monday. Which means that in theory, I can stay up for as long as I want.
In practice, I'll just crash out after writing and posting this entry. Because I'm too old to trash my sleep schedule for any reason any more.
With that out of the way, let us continue the rant that I started ``yesterday''.
Consider what I said about ``the most valuable thing'' that someone can give is time, it should be pretty obvious what is an instant turn-off for me: poor time discipline, and more generally, an air of irresponsibility (or worse still, actual irresponsibility).
Now, I know that there is a fundamental difference between controlling the timeline for work, and doing stuff on one's personal time---the former has much stricter requirements, and tends to affect more strangers (or at least, acquaintances), while the latter is usually more fluid, with higher chances of spontaneity, coupled with possibilities of outright procrastination. I am well aware of that, and do not demand the kind of professionalism that one would be at if it were part of a job.
But at some point, it just gets fucking ridiculous. I have called off a date with an ex aeons ago primarily because she was (1) late for more than 15 min while I was trying to pick her up in a car that I had access to at a place where waiting for long was A Bad Idea; (2) and decided to change the destination willy-nilly. I was annoyed at another ex when a pair of tickets to a show that I was intending to go with her, I let her have both because her sister was visiting and they wanted to go together, only to have their plans changed at the last minute, and having the tickets wasted. I was also upset at another ex because she mis-planned some things, and ended up with me just sitting around trying to kill time, even when it was meant to be ``us-time''.
The common point here isn't that plans change---plans always change when they come in contact with reality. The point is that the communication of the said situation was either not done in a ``us versus the problem'' way (i.e. unilaterally), or that there was no communication on the thing in the first place.
That really grinds my gears.
So, the first time I meet someone, if they suck hard at being punctual, or fuck up meeting locations through random-ass re-statements (and not a case of being genuinely lost due to unfamiliarity with the place), I get really annoyed. Yes, I have some friends who are just bad at being punctual, but I'm hardly ever planning anything critical with them for the most part (or throwing enough slack into the mix for when things are critical), thus rendering their tardiness irrelevant; I just spend the extra time I have catching up on my reading.
For someone I barely even know, and they pull such a stunt, it is already a red flag to me---it's a bit like how if someone treats the wait-staff poorly they are walking red flags, no matter how sweet/polite they are treating ``me'', since the apparent personality is to treat everything as transactional and discriminative along the axis of the apparent level of power.
``MT, getting awfully specific now, aren't we?''
Yes, of course. Why argue about hypotheticals when I have actual examples to draw upon? When I said that I sit and think, I didn't mean just running through hypotheticals in compulsion, nor did I mean overly ruminating over what has already passed continuously to seek meaning. I meant thinking through what happened, what I can learn from it, and then dropping the whole issue once I have filed the lessons away somewhere in my mind.
Last time, I said I hated people. That isn't wrong, but it wasn't quite complete: I hate people a priori only because your average person is effectively a numskull in the context of modern society. It's not about how smart they are (though that plays a role), but it is about how they interact with the world, and how they treat others who are not them. Most people treat others pretty poorly, though not necessarily in a blatantly obvious way. And yes, I think that I am guilty of such behaviours as well, particularly when I have run out of spoons for the day, and am running on fumes just to race through to the end where I can hide, and then rest/recharge my social batteries.
Thus, demonstrating gonk behaviour that reinforces this innate hatred is not helpful, everything else be damned.
Going back to the main point, irresponsibility irks me in a way that borders upon the irrational. Again, I am well aware that no one runs a gorram Gantt chart to run their personal life, but come the fuck on, have some kind of plan, and then remember to communicate it out early enough so that folks have enough time to figure things out and get it done. And considering how marriage is ``us against the problem/world'', having an irresponsible partner is just the worst thing that one can do.
And now, for something tangentially related, and borderline controversial.
The reason for this sequel to the rant is based on what I heard at the sermon today. Much of the church is elsewhere for church camp, and I did not go because I do not have a valid passport (technical reason), and did not feel close enough to folks to want to be at a camp of any sort (the ``it's not you; it's me'' reason). I like my church family---a couple of brothers had reached out quietly and tentatively to thank me for serving in the music ministry with Aurelia, and while they don't necessarily get the terminology right (some called Aurelia a Chinese flute for whatever reason), their heart is in the right place. I don't know how to take compliments well, so I just smiled, thanked them, and try not to think of myself as a good flautist/musician.
So the sermon was on 1 Timothy 3:14--16. The crux of the sermon was ``what was the church?''. The pastor preaching talked about how 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus were basically the manual for how to run a church, of which one of the things was that the church preachers were not meant to be women (1 Timothy 2:12), with subsequent verses calling back to Genesis to explain why that was so. That made me think back to Genesis as a whole, and how (at least up to Ch 15 which is roughly where I am at now with the ESV Study Bible) in many cases, the men in the stories were doing their own stuff, but ended up fucking up bad because they decided to follow what their womenfolk said (Adam eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from following Eve; Abram fucking Hagar to make a child according to Sarai's suggestion).
The point that I am awakened to here isn't about misogyny (biblically defined gender roles are about division of labour; Eve was flesh of Adam's flesh, and was a helper, not a slave), but the realisation that if God gave a command to be completed to me, I shouldn't go round listening to other people's interpretation and rationalisation of the command, for as they are not God, the chances of them corrupting the meaning with faulty memory/reasoning is high. Or the more diplomatic way is to still listen to what they say, but make up my own damn mind about what needs to be done based on what I know about God/the situation, and weighing the provided evidence accordingly, Bayes style.
Therefore, it behooves me to choose wisely. On preferences, we can agree to disagree (or ``compromise'' naively so that no one is happy), but on the truly important matters, we must stay firm to our convictions. Biblical or secular, being an irresponsible sort is never something that is well-tolerated, and thus it makes sense to ditch that kind of turd and move on.
``MT, are you so upset about what happened on Friday that you are coming up with excuses to rationalise things?''
No, not really. In fact, I am glad that it happened in such a polarising way---no more of that melodramatic draggy bullshit that is an absolute time waster and emotion grinder.
I'm not a horndog that is willing to trade in hard-learnt standards for a competent adult/partner against the world/problems for tail.
Looks like this entry is getting long too, so no other updates for this for now. Till the next update then.
Sunday, May 25, 2025
Eliana's First Proper Gig
That was... confusing.
So, despite having Eliana since 2021, I have never really taken her out on an ``official'' gig---I play on her a lot in between as part of the long-standing principle of ``cross-training'' that sifu has taught me nearly two decades ago. But for a proper gig, that has never happened.
The reason is much simpler: alto flutes need their score to be transposed a perfect fourth lower from concert pitch. The reason for this is practical---unlike the crazy recorder players (with all due respect of course), flute players tend to like playing using their ``instrument'' keys, mostly because the music for the flute tends to be very technical, and thus writing in the same ``fingering pattern'' (i.e. the instrument keys) makes it much easier for the regular concert flute (or C-flute) player to adapt accordingly.
But most music isn't transposed, so it becomes hard to just grab an alto flute out to play to scores originally written for concert flute. There's also the issue of ambitus, but that is usually more obvious---the highly technical stuff will span the full three octaves and thus cannot be easily transposed for playing, while most ``singable'' things stay within two octaves.
Which brings us to today.
Aurelia and Stella have traded places with Davie, and are now atMusicGearWindWorks undergoing their annual servicing (clean, oil, & adjust). I could bring out Azumi, and I was trying her out again last night as part of preparation for serving at the music ministry. But I sounded poor on her---and there was something clacky about her keys that made me draw pause. I dropped in some heavy key oil (probably too high a viscosity), and it helped a bit, but that was when I had a thought.
Why not bring out Eliana?
The pieces were in D-key, B♭-key, A♭-key, and C-key. The tempi weren't too drastic (they were hymns, and therefore needed to match up to what your regular church-goer can sing), and were therefore the best pieces to pick up transposing on-the-fly on Eliana.
It all worked fine, except when times I was confused with concert high-C, concert high-D♭ and concert high-E♭.
Oh, and a surprise hymn requested by senior pastor that was in G-key.
The trick, it seems, is to forget all the rubbish theory that people tell you ``oh, it's like reading the bass clef's top space onwards'' and just play the damn thing, remembering that the default scale runs with F♯ that needs to be taken care of. It's about reassociating where in the [treble clef] scale the fingering patterns are located, and just going without thinking too hard.
With enough repetition, it becomes easier. I dare not say that it becomes ``second nature'' until I can hot-swap between C-flutes and alto flute within the same gig without going nuts.
And that's all I wanted to talk about to day. Am still recovering from whatever the hell I had caught on Friday.
Till the next update.
So, despite having Eliana since 2021, I have never really taken her out on an ``official'' gig---I play on her a lot in between as part of the long-standing principle of ``cross-training'' that sifu has taught me nearly two decades ago. But for a proper gig, that has never happened.
The reason is much simpler: alto flutes need their score to be transposed a perfect fourth lower from concert pitch. The reason for this is practical---unlike the crazy recorder players (with all due respect of course), flute players tend to like playing using their ``instrument'' keys, mostly because the music for the flute tends to be very technical, and thus writing in the same ``fingering pattern'' (i.e. the instrument keys) makes it much easier for the regular concert flute (or C-flute) player to adapt accordingly.
But most music isn't transposed, so it becomes hard to just grab an alto flute out to play to scores originally written for concert flute. There's also the issue of ambitus, but that is usually more obvious---the highly technical stuff will span the full three octaves and thus cannot be easily transposed for playing, while most ``singable'' things stay within two octaves.
Which brings us to today.
Aurelia and Stella have traded places with Davie, and are now at
Why not bring out Eliana?
The pieces were in D-key, B♭-key, A♭-key, and C-key. The tempi weren't too drastic (they were hymns, and therefore needed to match up to what your regular church-goer can sing), and were therefore the best pieces to pick up transposing on-the-fly on Eliana.
It all worked fine, except when times I was confused with concert high-C, concert high-D♭ and concert high-E♭.
Oh, and a surprise hymn requested by senior pastor that was in G-key.
The trick, it seems, is to forget all the rubbish theory that people tell you ``oh, it's like reading the bass clef's top space onwards'' and just play the damn thing, remembering that the default scale runs with F♯ that needs to be taken care of. It's about reassociating where in the [treble clef] scale the fingering patterns are located, and just going without thinking too hard.
With enough repetition, it becomes easier. I dare not say that it becomes ``second nature'' until I can hot-swap between C-flutes and alto flute within the same gig without going nuts.
And that's all I wanted to talk about to day. Am still recovering from whatever the hell I had caught on Friday.
Till the next update.
Friday, January 17, 2025
Junker Flute
In response to an anonymous participant on Flute Forum seeking affirmation for using a ``cheap piccolo off Amazon'' for one ensemble class while being a flute major:
It's not a good flute in terms of maintenance for sure, with even Chara voicing out when she returned them to me after I loaned it to her to practise flute adjustments as junkers of little consequence (I have Azumi and Aurelia by then, so the Amazon flutes are effectively retired).
But between no flute and cheap ``junker'' flute, sometimes the ``junker'' flute is the better option. I won't say much about dizi, but for concert flutes, the dimensions have been well established for a century by now, and anyone with half a decent manufacturing process who can follow the schema can make a flute that plays... well like a flute.
Not like a good flute for sure, but definitely as a flute.
And I do not disagree with everyone else---junker flutes are not something one wants to hold on to as their ``forever flute'', but they can be a cheaper gamble than tossing three times more plus extra time to get a higher quality starter flute, at a moment in time where either one is desperate to have some flute, or when their commitment to a flute hasn't been confirmed.
That bit of leaving the ego, also true. Musicians are among the most egotistical people on the planet, and that's fine. And sometimes that ego gets in the way of their problem solving abilities. Knowing when to hold that ego, and when to drop it is something that everyone (including musicians) will need to learn at some point.
------
Anyway, now marks the start of ``i'm-forty-bitches'' week. Naturally, it begins with some messed up upper respiratory tract infection.
🥴
Balls.
Till the next update.
Friend, do what you have to specific for your circumstance. I sure as hell won't judge you.Just a little back story---actually true on the bit on playing in the Kiltie Band out in CMU on a 200-dollar Amazon flute. I first bought a C-foot flute, and later on, a B-foot one. The C-foot one went with me to march into the snow and what-not, and it did surprisingly well, given its pedigree.
Just because almost everyone condemns "musical instruments off Amazon" here doesn't mean that you cannot buy from there and use it.
``Buy a second hand {insert-flute-brand-here}!'' is also another common call for action.
They aren't wrong, when looked from the perspective of longevity of use of the instrument.
But time is money. Looking for a second hand flute (or piccolo in your case) can take time, and a bit of luck, compared to the guaranteed delivery dates from Amazon. And sometimes, you just need it right now, and you also don't know if it is something you want to spend the extra effort for right in the beginning for commitment.
As long as you are well aware of what you are buying, and the limits of what these instruments can and cannot do, I don't think it matters. Just leave your ego at the door and enjoy the music making process.
If you are playing it often enough that the flaws are more obvious to you, and are hampering you actively, you will know that you definitely need to get a better instrument, and thus should spend that time/effort to get something better.
As some wise person on the 'net once said: ``I'll buy a cheap tool to start with, and if it breaks, it means that I use it often enough that I should get a better one.''
And for the record, I survived two years of marching band in University playing on a 200-dollar Amazon flute. I sat directly in front of the band director, and he has never complained about intonation nor dynamics from me.
It's not a good flute in terms of maintenance for sure, with even Chara voicing out when she returned them to me after I loaned it to her to practise flute adjustments as junkers of little consequence (I have Azumi and Aurelia by then, so the Amazon flutes are effectively retired).
But between no flute and cheap ``junker'' flute, sometimes the ``junker'' flute is the better option. I won't say much about dizi, but for concert flutes, the dimensions have been well established for a century by now, and anyone with half a decent manufacturing process who can follow the schema can make a flute that plays... well like a flute.
Not like a good flute for sure, but definitely as a flute.
And I do not disagree with everyone else---junker flutes are not something one wants to hold on to as their ``forever flute'', but they can be a cheaper gamble than tossing three times more plus extra time to get a higher quality starter flute, at a moment in time where either one is desperate to have some flute, or when their commitment to a flute hasn't been confirmed.
That bit of leaving the ego, also true. Musicians are among the most egotistical people on the planet, and that's fine. And sometimes that ego gets in the way of their problem solving abilities. Knowing when to hold that ego, and when to drop it is something that everyone (including musicians) will need to learn at some point.
------
Anyway, now marks the start of ``i'm-forty-bitches'' week. Naturally, it begins with some messed up upper respiratory tract infection.
🥴
Balls.
Till the next update.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Maintenance...?
And so, this weekend is about to end.
It's the weekend of maintenance. Aurelia, Stella, and Picc are off to Windworks for COA; my bicycle went to B-Spokes for maintenance, and one of my longest run geocache needed some maintenance [from me] as well.
In theory, things would have been peachy by Saturday, but there was something innately wrong with the rear-shifter for my bicycle that necessitated my bringing it back today for rectification, which resulted in me having to skip out on church today.
``But MT, why must it be today? Couldn't it wait?''
No, not really. It was just after a major maintenance---had I waited for longer, it would have been a bigger mess than it really is now.
Sadly though, a new line of dead pixels have started showing up on Eirian-V. Why and how that happened, I have no idea. But as at now, it isn't completely annoying just yet, so I might just live with it; sort of like my Brother laser printer showing random low-toner density (I think the drum is kaput, but haven't had enough wherewithal to pull up the money to buy a replacement to test the hypothesis).
I also took the chance to use my air-blower to clear out the dust on Eileen-III, as well as my work laptop, something that I had been neglecting to do for about five months now.
Then of course, there is some self-maintenance. I finally chopped my hair down to the right length [of stupid short] with the hair clippers, and am relying on occlusive treatment to force the weepy and inflamed skin on my fingers and palms to calm down. I also replaced my toothbrush, which was at least two months overdue.
Mentally though... I think I might not have done well there. Feeling a little overwhelmed with the barrage of new ``fun'' that came in from the work side. It's not bad, it's just... a lot to take in at once. Not to mention the whole set of loss of spoons from being involved in two large gatherings of people.
I probably should just turn in earlier tonight, after re-packing my backpack to set it up for work, as opposed to errand-running mode.
Sorry this is a short entry---till the next time.
It's the weekend of maintenance. Aurelia, Stella, and Picc are off to Windworks for COA; my bicycle went to B-Spokes for maintenance, and one of my longest run geocache needed some maintenance [from me] as well.
In theory, things would have been peachy by Saturday, but there was something innately wrong with the rear-shifter for my bicycle that necessitated my bringing it back today for rectification, which resulted in me having to skip out on church today.
``But MT, why must it be today? Couldn't it wait?''
No, not really. It was just after a major maintenance---had I waited for longer, it would have been a bigger mess than it really is now.
Sadly though, a new line of dead pixels have started showing up on Eirian-V. Why and how that happened, I have no idea. But as at now, it isn't completely annoying just yet, so I might just live with it; sort of like my Brother laser printer showing random low-toner density (I think the drum is kaput, but haven't had enough wherewithal to pull up the money to buy a replacement to test the hypothesis).
I also took the chance to use my air-blower to clear out the dust on Eileen-III, as well as my work laptop, something that I had been neglecting to do for about five months now.
Then of course, there is some self-maintenance. I finally chopped my hair down to the right length [of stupid short] with the hair clippers, and am relying on occlusive treatment to force the weepy and inflamed skin on my fingers and palms to calm down. I also replaced my toothbrush, which was at least two months overdue.
Mentally though... I think I might not have done well there. Feeling a little overwhelmed with the barrage of new ``fun'' that came in from the work side. It's not bad, it's just... a lot to take in at once. Not to mention the whole set of loss of spoons from being involved in two large gatherings of people.
I probably should just turn in earlier tonight, after re-packing my backpack to set it up for work, as opposed to errand-running mode.
Sorry this is a short entry---till the next time.
Sunday, January 14, 2024
Soreness
Ah man... played the tenor part at my first church service with Davie, and I am absolutely sore. The soreness isn't from having to lug Davie and the bass clarinet stand that doubles up as my bass flute stand from home to church with a busted up left forearm while still carrying my usual gig backpack of Aurelia and Stella, as well as my own music stand.
The soreness is from the unfamiliarity of reading the bass clef for the tenor part and translating it to playing on Davie.
Let's face it. As a whole flutes are an entitled bunch the way saxophonists are---no matter how high or how low an instrument we are playing, we expect it to be transposed so that we can play it a la ``instrument key''. This means that notes that would really be in the bass clef when considered in concert pitch will be rewritten into the treble clef just so that it can be read and performed. This is true even in consort playing.
This is unlike the poor recorder player (and the !@#$% nonsense picked up by those who wanted write dizi music in staff notation) who is doomed to stare at the parts in concert pitch, and figure out how to play. This isn't too bad for the gang of `C'-recorders (Garklein, Soprano, Tenor, Great Bass, and Sub-great Bass), but is absolutely horrid for the `F'-recorders (Sopranino, Alto, Bass, Contrabass, and Sub-contrabass).
For the hymns, I could transcribe it off hand in LilyPond, but apart from the the obvious effort, I just think that I should develop the ability to transpose from any commonly seen clef right there in my head.
And thus came today's little experiment. I don't know why, but I picked a day where two thirds of the hymns had four to five flats in their key signature (A♭=major, and D♭-major), with only on that has a single sharp (G-major). That probably added to the soreness.
Well, that's that.
I don't really have much else I want to talk about for now, so till the next update.
The soreness is from the unfamiliarity of reading the bass clef for the tenor part and translating it to playing on Davie.
Let's face it. As a whole flutes are an entitled bunch the way saxophonists are---no matter how high or how low an instrument we are playing, we expect it to be transposed so that we can play it a la ``instrument key''. This means that notes that would really be in the bass clef when considered in concert pitch will be rewritten into the treble clef just so that it can be read and performed. This is true even in consort playing.
This is unlike the poor recorder player (and the !@#$% nonsense picked up by those who wanted write dizi music in staff notation) who is doomed to stare at the parts in concert pitch, and figure out how to play. This isn't too bad for the gang of `C'-recorders (Garklein, Soprano, Tenor, Great Bass, and Sub-great Bass), but is absolutely horrid for the `F'-recorders (Sopranino, Alto, Bass, Contrabass, and Sub-contrabass).
For the hymns, I could transcribe it off hand in LilyPond, but apart from the the obvious effort, I just think that I should develop the ability to transpose from any commonly seen clef right there in my head.
And thus came today's little experiment. I don't know why, but I picked a day where two thirds of the hymns had four to five flats in their key signature (A♭=major, and D♭-major), with only on that has a single sharp (G-major). That probably added to the soreness.
Well, that's that.
I don't really have much else I want to talk about for now, so till the next update.
Monday, January 01, 2024
Quick Summary
So, a quick summary of what I had written in 2023:
That's an average of 0.151 pieces of writing a day, compared to 0.211 last year.
2023 was a weird year. I lost a team member, gained a whole section's worth of subordinates, got a new team member, transited from solely being an engineer to a leader/manager-engineer (running appraisals and all the other crazy things asssociated with the managerial-class work), caught/recovered from COVID-19, completed my set of dizi, pulled the trigger to get Stella before the price increase (and before the master maker passed on due to age), started serving in the music ministry of PPCC with Aurelia/Stella, performed with the TGCO in a couple of performances with quite a few newbies, and a whole bunch of other things that I cannot remember precisely.
What else is there to say about 2023 in retrospect? Nothing much, surprisingly. I think I'm fast reaching the age/period of life where I just don't bother looking back any more, not because I'm some kind of visionary (I'm not), but more that the past is starting to become something that is just not worth looking back one. I mean, when we look back at the past, it is usually to reminisce about something that was from back then that made one feel all nice and fuzzy about.
But for me, I don't have much to look back into the past any more. The ``good times'' are long gone, and no thanks to the great time separation that has been humourously called ``before COVID'' and ``after COVID'', the ``good times'' feel even deeper in an era that bears almost not resemblence to who I am now.
The running theme that seems to be with me is that of isolation. Yes, I may be serving in the church, I may have a care group to work with, and yes I have may have made a couple of newer close friends as compared to before, but somehow I was always alone. Okay, Jesus is with me, but He doesn't talk back the way regular people do. It's kinda okay though; while I may be alone, but I'm never truly lonely, if you can understand the difference.
For those who cannot understand, I'm afraid that I have no other means of explaining it. It's like the crude but effective metaphor of ``I can teach you to take a dump, but in the end, you'll need to do it yourself to figure it out'' (a similar concept works for gaining enlightenment, no matter your predilection for beliefs).
``MT, are you then resigned to your fate of not having a significant other?''
Yeah, I suppose so, though I have not completely killed off the possibility by taking what I would call ``irreversible changes'', like reallocation of my budget that were originally set aside for prosaic things like the wedding ceremony, the joint spousal account and the like. Call me a hopeless romantic, but maybe a miracle may happen, though like all people who sort of understand miracles, I cannot see how one might occur if all I do during times when I'm not working, or at rehearsals, or serving in the music ministry, is to stay the hell at home and do whatever I want without leaving my room.
🤷♂️
Anyway, that's as much retrospection that I'm willing to allow myself for now. The year 2024 is upon us, and there is a lot to be done. Work-wise, we are starting to see some of the stuff that we need to deliver, and so there's that. Music-wise, we need to ramp up [a little] on our performances just so that we can rebuild the much decimated TGCO due to COVID and other life priorities of the members that got in the way.
As for my personal life side, may the Lord be merciful.
Amen.
- 1 poem posted here
- 52 essays/rants posted here
- 0 prose/stories posted here
- 1 NaNoWriMo winning entry available here
- 1 pieces of compositions/rearrangements posted here
That's an average of 0.151 pieces of writing a day, compared to 0.211 last year.
2023 was a weird year. I lost a team member, gained a whole section's worth of subordinates, got a new team member, transited from solely being an engineer to a leader/manager-engineer (running appraisals and all the other crazy things asssociated with the managerial-class work), caught/recovered from COVID-19, completed my set of dizi, pulled the trigger to get Stella before the price increase (and before the master maker passed on due to age), started serving in the music ministry of PPCC with Aurelia/Stella, performed with the TGCO in a couple of performances with quite a few newbies, and a whole bunch of other things that I cannot remember precisely.
What else is there to say about 2023 in retrospect? Nothing much, surprisingly. I think I'm fast reaching the age/period of life where I just don't bother looking back any more, not because I'm some kind of visionary (I'm not), but more that the past is starting to become something that is just not worth looking back one. I mean, when we look back at the past, it is usually to reminisce about something that was from back then that made one feel all nice and fuzzy about.
But for me, I don't have much to look back into the past any more. The ``good times'' are long gone, and no thanks to the great time separation that has been humourously called ``before COVID'' and ``after COVID'', the ``good times'' feel even deeper in an era that bears almost not resemblence to who I am now.
The running theme that seems to be with me is that of isolation. Yes, I may be serving in the church, I may have a care group to work with, and yes I have may have made a couple of newer close friends as compared to before, but somehow I was always alone. Okay, Jesus is with me, but He doesn't talk back the way regular people do. It's kinda okay though; while I may be alone, but I'm never truly lonely, if you can understand the difference.
For those who cannot understand, I'm afraid that I have no other means of explaining it. It's like the crude but effective metaphor of ``I can teach you to take a dump, but in the end, you'll need to do it yourself to figure it out'' (a similar concept works for gaining enlightenment, no matter your predilection for beliefs).
``MT, are you then resigned to your fate of not having a significant other?''
Yeah, I suppose so, though I have not completely killed off the possibility by taking what I would call ``irreversible changes'', like reallocation of my budget that were originally set aside for prosaic things like the wedding ceremony, the joint spousal account and the like. Call me a hopeless romantic, but maybe a miracle may happen, though like all people who sort of understand miracles, I cannot see how one might occur if all I do during times when I'm not working, or at rehearsals, or serving in the music ministry, is to stay the hell at home and do whatever I want without leaving my room.
🤷♂️
Anyway, that's as much retrospection that I'm willing to allow myself for now. The year 2024 is upon us, and there is a lot to be done. Work-wise, we are starting to see some of the stuff that we need to deliver, and so there's that. Music-wise, we need to ramp up [a little] on our performances just so that we can rebuild the much decimated TGCO due to COVID and other life priorities of the members that got in the way.
As for my personal life side, may the Lord be merciful.
Amen.
Monday, December 25, 2023
Getting High in Church, and Elden Ring
Whew... that was something.
So let's start from the beginning. Back in April this year, I got Stella. There were some logistic issues and what-not in getting her, but those were eventually settled. In that same entry, I talked about serving in the Music Ministry. I played a simple hymn in a quick audition on Aurelia, and had a quick chat with the music coordinator, her husband, and the deacon in charge of the music ministry. It was a very casual chat, and they were just trying to see how I could fit in with the current structure of the ensemble, seeing that I was bringing in a flute to a piano-[electric-]organ-violin ensemble. I started playing every other week, then building up towards playing every week. I came in earlier to rehearse with music coordinator to get a better sense of the play style and the repertoire of the hymnals, and that was before we had the usual rehearsal with the playing group before the service itself.
I built up confidence over time with the ``feel'' of the hymns, and got used to the keys that I had not played much of since my Kiltie Band days (hi A♭-major, E♭-major, and D♭-major) on Aurelia. My goal was to play good enough to blend in with the ensemble---the music works with the congregational singing to praise the Lord, and therefore it was not necessary to stand out in any way.
That changed for these couple of days, namely for the Christmas eve service and the Christmas service. I pulled out Stella, and for the carols, just went high as needed, going 15ma as opposed to the usual 8va that I would play with Aurelia (hymns tend to stick within the grand staff, with the main melody staying completely within the treble clef, but largely having middle-C and lower, making it impractical for the concert flute to play as is without the 8va).
Stella was wonderful. I didn't play everything at 15ma---much of the carols were played at the usual 8va, but since Stella is 8va higher than Aurelia, it means playing in the first register. This is where Stella's access to B4 was amazing. I would sneakily play Stella at how I would play Aurelia, before bursting into full technicolour 15ma for that added sparkle and sweetness.
The feedback for the two days' playing this way was positive; the congregation apparently loved it, and had fedback to the music coordinator about it. Even Paul, who is self-declared not musically-inclined, finally made a comment of hearing me play and liking the lilting sparkle that Stella imparted.
Was it vindication? Vindication of what though... that I could control myself and sound sweet at 2 kHz range? That the MINI (not really a piccolo, but I just called it that to avoid a looooooooong discussion point) is the perfect instrument for this range?
Nah... I mean, my personal bar for myself is kinda high. While I have about 12 years of piccolo experience (damn it has been 12 years?!), it is the 31 years of 笛子 playing that is pulling much of the weight. I go ridiculously high all the time with my dizi playing, and I think it has conditioned me to handle the 2 kHz range with greater control than I would normally have without having done that.
But, at the risk of being smug, it is nice to be appreciated.
------
In tangential news, the bag that holds my special music stand finally ripped the seams beyond the 50% mark. I spent part of yesterday afternoon sewing that stitch back, before using fabric glue and some spare fabric salvaged from an old T-shirt to strengthen the seam more. It held out well today, but only time will tell.
Part of the reason why the bag gets ripped at the seam was the way that I'm carrying it. Previously, I would sling it on my right shoulder like normal, but I didn't like it. With the backpack gig-bag, it was always in the way whenever I had to switch the backpack to the front before sitting down at a seat on public transport. So I started to cross sling the music stand bag in the front, with the left shoulder being the higher holding part. And this is where additional stress from the poke-y bits of the folded up stand act on the seam on the bag, which is already supporting the entire mass of the stand (it's heavy) due to the position and design.
Having the bag slung in front allows me to just quickly switch my backpack between the front and back.
------
Aaaaaanyway, I talked about waiting to see if Elden Ring was on sale.
It was.
It had a 40% price drop, which was pretty large. I took the opportunity to get the Deluxe edition just so that I would have the soundtrack as well.
And since I was already buying something, I bought a few more other games from the Steam sale. But you probably don't care about this.
Elden Ring. Oh yes, fucker's hard... but it is actually still fun. There's just so much to see and do, and each fight is like a timed puzzle.
Don't get me wrong, this fucking game is hard, and there were some bullshit moments [when fighting the Tree Sentinel in the beginning area] that I thought was unfair (got trapped in the scenery, for crying out loud). Runes are used for everything, and dying does make one drop it all. Hollow Knight does that as well, but what Elden Ring made better was to allow that dropped runes be persistent between gaming sessions until either one picks up their dropped runes, or when one dies again.
The routing to the Boss that one died to in Elden Ring also tends to be straightforward, allowing resets to happen faster and not overly punishing the player to redo the entire dungeon to get back there.
The levelling up system is slow as molasses, but then I realised that it would be exactly like how I would want to create a game that tried its best to mimic reality while keeping the fantasy moments. The action RPG nature of Elden Ring means that apart from just the numbers, there is still that meta-game of actually being skilled at the mechanics.
And I like it. It scratches the kind of itch that rogue-likes have, but without the perma-death that can frustrate one who is a little more time-sensitive. The use of the numbers to replace the skill meta-game is interesting without taking the fun of mastering a gamme completely, and I like it.
A lot.
And anyway, that's enough for now. Till the next update.
So let's start from the beginning. Back in April this year, I got Stella. There were some logistic issues and what-not in getting her, but those were eventually settled. In that same entry, I talked about serving in the Music Ministry. I played a simple hymn in a quick audition on Aurelia, and had a quick chat with the music coordinator, her husband, and the deacon in charge of the music ministry. It was a very casual chat, and they were just trying to see how I could fit in with the current structure of the ensemble, seeing that I was bringing in a flute to a piano-[electric-]organ-violin ensemble. I started playing every other week, then building up towards playing every week. I came in earlier to rehearse with music coordinator to get a better sense of the play style and the repertoire of the hymnals, and that was before we had the usual rehearsal with the playing group before the service itself.
I built up confidence over time with the ``feel'' of the hymns, and got used to the keys that I had not played much of since my Kiltie Band days (hi A♭-major, E♭-major, and D♭-major) on Aurelia. My goal was to play good enough to blend in with the ensemble---the music works with the congregational singing to praise the Lord, and therefore it was not necessary to stand out in any way.
That changed for these couple of days, namely for the Christmas eve service and the Christmas service. I pulled out Stella, and for the carols, just went high as needed, going 15ma as opposed to the usual 8va that I would play with Aurelia (hymns tend to stick within the grand staff, with the main melody staying completely within the treble clef, but largely having middle-C and lower, making it impractical for the concert flute to play as is without the 8va).
Stella was wonderful. I didn't play everything at 15ma---much of the carols were played at the usual 8va, but since Stella is 8va higher than Aurelia, it means playing in the first register. This is where Stella's access to B4 was amazing. I would sneakily play Stella at how I would play Aurelia, before bursting into full technicolour 15ma for that added sparkle and sweetness.
The feedback for the two days' playing this way was positive; the congregation apparently loved it, and had fedback to the music coordinator about it. Even Paul, who is self-declared not musically-inclined, finally made a comment of hearing me play and liking the lilting sparkle that Stella imparted.
Was it vindication? Vindication of what though... that I could control myself and sound sweet at 2 kHz range? That the MINI (not really a piccolo, but I just called it that to avoid a looooooooong discussion point) is the perfect instrument for this range?
Nah... I mean, my personal bar for myself is kinda high. While I have about 12 years of piccolo experience (damn it has been 12 years?!), it is the 31 years of 笛子 playing that is pulling much of the weight. I go ridiculously high all the time with my dizi playing, and I think it has conditioned me to handle the 2 kHz range with greater control than I would normally have without having done that.
But, at the risk of being smug, it is nice to be appreciated.
------
In tangential news, the bag that holds my special music stand finally ripped the seams beyond the 50% mark. I spent part of yesterday afternoon sewing that stitch back, before using fabric glue and some spare fabric salvaged from an old T-shirt to strengthen the seam more. It held out well today, but only time will tell.
Part of the reason why the bag gets ripped at the seam was the way that I'm carrying it. Previously, I would sling it on my right shoulder like normal, but I didn't like it. With the backpack gig-bag, it was always in the way whenever I had to switch the backpack to the front before sitting down at a seat on public transport. So I started to cross sling the music stand bag in the front, with the left shoulder being the higher holding part. And this is where additional stress from the poke-y bits of the folded up stand act on the seam on the bag, which is already supporting the entire mass of the stand (it's heavy) due to the position and design.
Having the bag slung in front allows me to just quickly switch my backpack between the front and back.
------
Aaaaaanyway, I talked about waiting to see if Elden Ring was on sale.
It was.
It had a 40% price drop, which was pretty large. I took the opportunity to get the Deluxe edition just so that I would have the soundtrack as well.
And since I was already buying something, I bought a few more other games from the Steam sale. But you probably don't care about this.
Elden Ring. Oh yes, fucker's hard... but it is actually still fun. There's just so much to see and do, and each fight is like a timed puzzle.
Don't get me wrong, this fucking game is hard, and there were some bullshit moments [when fighting the Tree Sentinel in the beginning area] that I thought was unfair (got trapped in the scenery, for crying out loud). Runes are used for everything, and dying does make one drop it all. Hollow Knight does that as well, but what Elden Ring made better was to allow that dropped runes be persistent between gaming sessions until either one picks up their dropped runes, or when one dies again.
The routing to the Boss that one died to in Elden Ring also tends to be straightforward, allowing resets to happen faster and not overly punishing the player to redo the entire dungeon to get back there.
The levelling up system is slow as molasses, but then I realised that it would be exactly like how I would want to create a game that tried its best to mimic reality while keeping the fantasy moments. The action RPG nature of Elden Ring means that apart from just the numbers, there is still that meta-game of actually being skilled at the mechanics.
And I like it. It scratches the kind of itch that rogue-likes have, but without the perma-death that can frustrate one who is a little more time-sensitive. The use of the numbers to replace the skill meta-game is interesting without taking the fun of mastering a gamme completely, and I like it.
A lot.
And anyway, that's enough for now. Till the next update.
Sunday, September 24, 2023
Control and Another Experiment
So I completed the main story of Control. The end-run was a little unexpected---I thought there was going to be a major fight with some end-boss, but it ended up being a gauntlet followed by another gauntlet instead.
Don't get me wrong---the bosses in Control are bullet sponges, but judicious use of a maxed out Launch skill trivialises many (not all!) of them. In many ways, the gauntlet fights of the Hiss are much more aggravating, with each type of Hiss having their own ways of defeating them over and beyond just blasting away at them with Shatter (Control's name for the shotgun). It doesn't matter if the Launch skill is maxed out---some of the mobs have enough dodge that the Launch skill is completely mitigated, requiring some careful gun play to take them out.
But perhaps Control's true end isn't at the end of the main story; I have started on the other DLC, aptly titled Foundation (I've completed the other DLC ``by accident'' as part of the exploration phase before advancing the latter parts of the main story). I'll probably continue that some time later this week as I have other things that I'd like to work on in the meanwhile.
------
Today it was cool and humid, well, cooler than what one might expect from what SIN city has to offer. It rained heavily in the morning as I was making my way to PPCC, and it rained intermittently thereafter. I find that it really isn't the temperature that annoys me, but the humidity.
In other words, cool but humid is still terrible. It took me a good 15 minutes just to cool off enough to stop perspiring all over Aurelia and screwing up my embouchure.
I ran another experiment today---instead of keeping Aurelia fully assembled on the stand and waiting for 45 minutes (or however long it takes for the sermon to complete before the closing hymn is needed), I took the headjoint off when I went to sit among the pews, having it wrapped up on the microfibre cloth and held it close to me to keep the whole headjoint warm. The reason for this odd behaviour was to reduce the amount of condensation that would gather within the headjoint when my humid and warm breath contacts the cold metal walls when playing that last hymn after having Aurelia sitting out in the cold. Condensation within the headjoint near the embouchure hole made controlling the intonation at least twice as hard, and that was something I didn't want to have to deal with.
The experiment was a success---the condensation occurred nearer the C♯ vent hole, and I found that I retained control of the intonation much better than when I didn't do that.
So that's something new that I learnt.
I suppose that's about all for now. Till the next update.
Don't get me wrong---the bosses in Control are bullet sponges, but judicious use of a maxed out Launch skill trivialises many (not all!) of them. In many ways, the gauntlet fights of the Hiss are much more aggravating, with each type of Hiss having their own ways of defeating them over and beyond just blasting away at them with Shatter (Control's name for the shotgun). It doesn't matter if the Launch skill is maxed out---some of the mobs have enough dodge that the Launch skill is completely mitigated, requiring some careful gun play to take them out.
But perhaps Control's true end isn't at the end of the main story; I have started on the other DLC, aptly titled Foundation (I've completed the other DLC ``by accident'' as part of the exploration phase before advancing the latter parts of the main story). I'll probably continue that some time later this week as I have other things that I'd like to work on in the meanwhile.
------
Today it was cool and humid, well, cooler than what one might expect from what SIN city has to offer. It rained heavily in the morning as I was making my way to PPCC, and it rained intermittently thereafter. I find that it really isn't the temperature that annoys me, but the humidity.
In other words, cool but humid is still terrible. It took me a good 15 minutes just to cool off enough to stop perspiring all over Aurelia and screwing up my embouchure.
I ran another experiment today---instead of keeping Aurelia fully assembled on the stand and waiting for 45 minutes (or however long it takes for the sermon to complete before the closing hymn is needed), I took the headjoint off when I went to sit among the pews, having it wrapped up on the microfibre cloth and held it close to me to keep the whole headjoint warm. The reason for this odd behaviour was to reduce the amount of condensation that would gather within the headjoint when my humid and warm breath contacts the cold metal walls when playing that last hymn after having Aurelia sitting out in the cold. Condensation within the headjoint near the embouchure hole made controlling the intonation at least twice as hard, and that was something I didn't want to have to deal with.
The experiment was a success---the condensation occurred nearer the C♯ vent hole, and I found that I retained control of the intonation much better than when I didn't do that.
So that's something new that I learnt.
I suppose that's about all for now. Till the next update.
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Experiment: Success!
The scraper that lives on Amazon is back, and there's nothing that I can do about that. I just hope that they aren't using what they scraped for nefarious reasons.
Anyway, I ran an experiment earlier today while playing during worship service. Instead of playing Aurelia, I switched over to the AF-1 Grenser one-key traverso. Three of the hymns we played were ``simple'' keys (C, & F), with the only problematic one being A♭. Since its a one-key flute, the single toughest note on the simple flute system, E♭/D♯, is easily handled with the single key. As for the other chromatic notes (A♭, B♭, and D♭) are ``easily'' handled with cross-fingering patterns similar to the ones I put up for the AF-3 Stanesby Jr.
Note that the word is ``similar'', not the same. Have a look at the PDF of the fingering chart. Due to the different tuning (A440 vs A415) and possibly different geometry (AF-1 is based on the Grenser, hence the name, while AF-3 is based on the Stanesby Jr., hence that name), the cross-fingering patterns for the AF-1 Grenser is much simpler and systematic as compared to the AF-3 Stanesby Jr. I actually derived quite a bit of inspiration from the one-key flute fingering patterns while building my own 12-tone fingering chart for the 笛子.
Now, the reason to raise all that allegedly diversionary tangents is just to point out that I was really in my element when doing all the funny chromatic stuff on my AF-1 Grenser, even for the A♭-key hymn.
The experiment was a success. No one complained about intonation and other issues, and I found that even without the much louder set up that was Aurelia (and other modern concert flutes), I could still play the upper envelope without being drowned out by the four violins, one piano, and one electic organ. I suspect that was due to the other instruments staying out of the upper octave that I was in than how the AF-1 Grenser was ``loud enough''. In fact, the music coordinator remarked that when I was doing my runs for warm-up before the quick group rehearsal sounded much smoother than when I was with Aurelia.
I think that smoothness just came about because the reaction time of a simple system flute was always faster than that of any keyed ones.
I was really afraid of intonation, but thanks to what I have realised to be non-broken ears, that was within control. And therein lies on of the reasons why the one-key flute isn't as well used these days as compared to the concert flute. The music ministry group that is playing at the worship service is sufficiently small that I could still control the intonation carefully, and I can see how it can get progressively harder to do so as the number of players increase.
All in all, this just means that I have other options to bring to the table whenever I'm rostered to play.
Till the next update.
Anyway, I ran an experiment earlier today while playing during worship service. Instead of playing Aurelia, I switched over to the AF-1 Grenser one-key traverso. Three of the hymns we played were ``simple'' keys (C, & F), with the only problematic one being A♭. Since its a one-key flute, the single toughest note on the simple flute system, E♭/D♯, is easily handled with the single key. As for the other chromatic notes (A♭, B♭, and D♭) are ``easily'' handled with cross-fingering patterns similar to the ones I put up for the AF-3 Stanesby Jr.
Note that the word is ``similar'', not the same. Have a look at the PDF of the fingering chart. Due to the different tuning (A440 vs A415) and possibly different geometry (AF-1 is based on the Grenser, hence the name, while AF-3 is based on the Stanesby Jr., hence that name), the cross-fingering patterns for the AF-1 Grenser is much simpler and systematic as compared to the AF-3 Stanesby Jr. I actually derived quite a bit of inspiration from the one-key flute fingering patterns while building my own 12-tone fingering chart for the 笛子.
Now, the reason to raise all that allegedly diversionary tangents is just to point out that I was really in my element when doing all the funny chromatic stuff on my AF-1 Grenser, even for the A♭-key hymn.
The experiment was a success. No one complained about intonation and other issues, and I found that even without the much louder set up that was Aurelia (and other modern concert flutes), I could still play the upper envelope without being drowned out by the four violins, one piano, and one electic organ. I suspect that was due to the other instruments staying out of the upper octave that I was in than how the AF-1 Grenser was ``loud enough''. In fact, the music coordinator remarked that when I was doing my runs for warm-up before the quick group rehearsal sounded much smoother than when I was with Aurelia.
I think that smoothness just came about because the reaction time of a simple system flute was always faster than that of any keyed ones.
I was really afraid of intonation, but thanks to what I have realised to be non-broken ears, that was within control. And therein lies on of the reasons why the one-key flute isn't as well used these days as compared to the concert flute. The music ministry group that is playing at the worship service is sufficiently small that I could still control the intonation carefully, and I can see how it can get progressively harder to do so as the number of players increase.
All in all, this just means that I have other options to bring to the table whenever I'm rostered to play.
Till the next update.
Saturday, August 12, 2023
Saturday...
Ah... Saturday.
I love Saturdays.
I love Saturdays because they are mostly the days where I actually get to relax, on leave or otherwise.
Generally speaking, I spend my Saturdays just sitting about the room, reading, playing some games, or rehearsing some music. If I'm slated to play for church service on that Sunday, then the Saturday before was often when I spent some time rehearsing the pieces, annotating [in pencil] on the score problematic areas that I need to pay closer attention to. That occurs often for Hymns of Praise for rhythm because for some reason, none of the eighth/sixteenth notes have connecting beams. This meant that the usual visual cues of how the rhythm look like are pretty wonky. Thankfully, there's 简谱 at the top, and it allowed me to ``cheat'' and grok the necessary rhythms as needed. As for The Wilds Songbook, the problematic areas proved to be some of the more unfamiliar interval progressions that seemingly defied what my inner music voice was telling me, where I ``knew'' that the next note should be this, but the score laughs at me with a ``Nope!'' and makes it that.
There's TGCO rehearsal in the evening, and I usually turn up about 30 min earlier to ``warm up'' outside of the music room, mostly because my 笛子 is literally powerful enough that warming up indoors while the other folks may want to do their warm up is not a good idea.
Well, I call it ``warm up'', but it really depends on my mood in terms of what I would play. Most times it was an actual warm up in the sense of playing etudes to set up my embouchure and limber up my fingers. Sometimes I would take the time to play through some repertoire pieces. Or maybe I would do like what I did earlier today, where I sight-read a new piece (《月夜》by 胡结续). There are also times where I just noodled on my 笛子 in a ``head empty no thoughts'' sort of way.
Today's rehearsal was fun in a couple of ways. We finally have something that resembles a proper 二胡 section, which is remarkable because our 二胡 section had been decimated when most of the regulars disappeared after COVID-19 (some got married, some developed different interests; it's the usual attrition issues that got accelerated by the pandemic nonsense). Granted, the section was made up of really new and really green players, it was definitely better than nothing. Hopefully this first performance gives them enough of an interest to stay around, level up their skills, and continue playing.
The other fun thing was that I finally had a reason to learn the E7 fingering on the concert flute. I mean, I have consistently used D7 on Aurelia before (it's basically the 5′ in 筒音 as 5͵ for when I'm playing the part of the 梆笛 while on concert flute), but have not really had the need to go for E7 until today (because I needed to play a 6′ in 筒音 as 5͵).
Of course Aurelia can have that note appear---she's a well-made Muramatsu flute after all. It's really more on my getting used to the specific embouchure, air stream direction, and the amount of force to push, transiting smoothly from the prior B6 to the E7.
And that's about all I want to talk about for now. The other thing that happened this day was more progression in Halls of Torment, but I suppose it's getting a little too repetitive to keep talking about that.
Till the next update then.
I love Saturdays.
I love Saturdays because they are mostly the days where I actually get to relax, on leave or otherwise.
Generally speaking, I spend my Saturdays just sitting about the room, reading, playing some games, or rehearsing some music. If I'm slated to play for church service on that Sunday, then the Saturday before was often when I spent some time rehearsing the pieces, annotating [in pencil] on the score problematic areas that I need to pay closer attention to. That occurs often for Hymns of Praise for rhythm because for some reason, none of the eighth/sixteenth notes have connecting beams. This meant that the usual visual cues of how the rhythm look like are pretty wonky. Thankfully, there's 简谱 at the top, and it allowed me to ``cheat'' and grok the necessary rhythms as needed. As for The Wilds Songbook, the problematic areas proved to be some of the more unfamiliar interval progressions that seemingly defied what my inner music voice was telling me, where I ``knew'' that the next note should be this, but the score laughs at me with a ``Nope!'' and makes it that.
There's TGCO rehearsal in the evening, and I usually turn up about 30 min earlier to ``warm up'' outside of the music room, mostly because my 笛子 is literally powerful enough that warming up indoors while the other folks may want to do their warm up is not a good idea.
Well, I call it ``warm up'', but it really depends on my mood in terms of what I would play. Most times it was an actual warm up in the sense of playing etudes to set up my embouchure and limber up my fingers. Sometimes I would take the time to play through some repertoire pieces. Or maybe I would do like what I did earlier today, where I sight-read a new piece (《月夜》by 胡结续). There are also times where I just noodled on my 笛子 in a ``head empty no thoughts'' sort of way.
Today's rehearsal was fun in a couple of ways. We finally have something that resembles a proper 二胡 section, which is remarkable because our 二胡 section had been decimated when most of the regulars disappeared after COVID-19 (some got married, some developed different interests; it's the usual attrition issues that got accelerated by the pandemic nonsense). Granted, the section was made up of really new and really green players, it was definitely better than nothing. Hopefully this first performance gives them enough of an interest to stay around, level up their skills, and continue playing.
The other fun thing was that I finally had a reason to learn the E7 fingering on the concert flute. I mean, I have consistently used D7 on Aurelia before (it's basically the 5′ in 筒音 as 5͵ for when I'm playing the part of the 梆笛 while on concert flute), but have not really had the need to go for E7 until today (because I needed to play a 6′ in 筒音 as 5͵).
Of course Aurelia can have that note appear---she's a well-made Muramatsu flute after all. It's really more on my getting used to the specific embouchure, air stream direction, and the amount of force to push, transiting smoothly from the prior B6 to the E7.
And that's about all I want to talk about for now. The other thing that happened this day was more progression in Halls of Torment, but I suppose it's getting a little too repetitive to keep talking about that.
Till the next update then.
Wednesday, August 02, 2023
The One About the 盐酥鸡
August: here we go!
I hate being right on things. So, remember this recent post on hero worship? Well, as if on cue, we have this little bit of news on Lizzo. Now, being sued doesn't imply guilt (that's for the courts to decide), but usually people do not sue another person unless there is some perception of grievance.
``MT, why are you picking on Lizzo?''
I'm not. She just happened to be a recent example. She's a media darling, with many from Flute Forum actively idolising her outright as a hero.
She's alright as a flute person. But it's okay to just appreciate it without going into hero worship.
But on to different things.
August is a month that promises lots of things. First up is an engineered long weekend starting from National Day. Then after that, actual courses/training on Manager 101.
Am I excited? ``Trepid'' might be a better word. It's definitely going to be a start of some rather harrowing work, what with my first annual appraisal exercise for the six under my charge. But it is something that needs to be done, and the we are doing important work; projects that need to be moved forward to ensure that we help with SIN city's future.
It is unfortunate [for me] that I'm just the most senior engineer among the group, and is therefore de facto manager/leader.
Work stuff aside, TGCO is likely to see its first performance in a long while. We're not as big as we were, possibly even smaller than our smallest so far as some of the married members start having children, so this performance is going to be a good morale booster.
I'm also starting to get the hang of the hymns that we are playing for worship service, and am slowly making my way to being a more regular player in the ensemble on Aurelia. I did mention to the coordinator of the possibility of bringing out Davie (my vertical bass flute) to play the tenor parts with the cellist whenever he may be available, and it would seem that it was likely to be in November.
The only caveat is that I need to brush up my ability to read the bass clef. I'm getting much better at it now, having to ``count'' only every time the pitch skips larger than a fourth or so. But that can be a rather interesting skill to develop.
There's also a pasar malam that is running along the street, and I am getting severely addicted to the 盐酥鸡 from one of the stalls. It's deep-fried chicken bits in light batter, dusted with sour plum powder, and paprika(?) powder.
Apart from that... I suppose there isn't anything else to talk about for the moment. And so, till the next time.
I hate being right on things. So, remember this recent post on hero worship? Well, as if on cue, we have this little bit of news on Lizzo. Now, being sued doesn't imply guilt (that's for the courts to decide), but usually people do not sue another person unless there is some perception of grievance.
``MT, why are you picking on Lizzo?''
I'm not. She just happened to be a recent example. She's a media darling, with many from Flute Forum actively idolising her outright as a hero.
She's alright as a flute person. But it's okay to just appreciate it without going into hero worship.
But on to different things.
August is a month that promises lots of things. First up is an engineered long weekend starting from National Day. Then after that, actual courses/training on Manager 101.
Am I excited? ``Trepid'' might be a better word. It's definitely going to be a start of some rather harrowing work, what with my first annual appraisal exercise for the six under my charge. But it is something that needs to be done, and the we are doing important work; projects that need to be moved forward to ensure that we help with SIN city's future.
It is unfortunate [for me] that I'm just the most senior engineer among the group, and is therefore de facto manager/leader.
Work stuff aside, TGCO is likely to see its first performance in a long while. We're not as big as we were, possibly even smaller than our smallest so far as some of the married members start having children, so this performance is going to be a good morale booster.
I'm also starting to get the hang of the hymns that we are playing for worship service, and am slowly making my way to being a more regular player in the ensemble on Aurelia. I did mention to the coordinator of the possibility of bringing out Davie (my vertical bass flute) to play the tenor parts with the cellist whenever he may be available, and it would seem that it was likely to be in November.
The only caveat is that I need to brush up my ability to read the bass clef. I'm getting much better at it now, having to ``count'' only every time the pitch skips larger than a fourth or so. But that can be a rather interesting skill to develop.
There's also a pasar malam that is running along the street, and I am getting severely addicted to the 盐酥鸡 from one of the stalls. It's deep-fried chicken bits in light batter, dusted with sour plum powder, and paprika(?) powder.
Apart from that... I suppose there isn't anything else to talk about for the moment. And so, till the next time.
Sunday, July 02, 2023
It's July Already?
Woah, the second of July is upon us. As at noon-ish, literal halfway point of 2023.
Not sure how/what to feel about this. On the one hand, we're getting closer the end of the year, and with it perhaps we will get to cast the dark shadows that came from the COVID-19 pandemic away from our collective trauma, to redevelop a new sense of optimism.
That new sense of optimism is important in this time and age. The doom-saying has been on overdrive for the past three to five years, and it really does show, at least for me.
I cannot seem to live the day without getting blasted with information on global warming, some new development in the spats that come from geo-political posturing/brinkmanship, ever-increasing threats to the livelihood of the vast majority of the white-collar workers through ``AI'', uncontrollable price increases ``due to inflation'', and all the associated over-corrective behaviours that some of these events trigger.
No wonder I'm feeling down more than half the time.
I personally cannot tell how some people can maintain their optimism. Everything just looks so... bleak. The ``Me! Me! Me!'' world that we have today is just such a cavernous echo chamber that there are many times where I cannot even hear myself think.
One might say that I can always walk away. And the truth is, I have been doing so.
Of the few [online] communities that I have been a part of, I've more or less walked away from them all. Some I left because the members became too militant and extreme in their desperation of defining their own safe space, which often times end up creating a similar toxic environment as the one they are acutely hurting from. Some I left because the nature of the community has changed---from an indie passion-project where I could interact nearly personally with and willing to support with whatever I have, to a complete commercial entity that only cares about their shareholders, who incidentally prefer using an unpaid-for third-party ``community'' environment that I didn't agree with.
But these are all about the past---thinking about them isn't bad per se, but if all they are giving are these bad vibes, I really shouldn't be thinking about them, if possible.
(sigh)
With the next half of the year coming up, what should I be looking forward to?
Well, there's always NaNoWriMo in November. It'll be the fifteenth year I'm a part of it (URL will point to the correct place some time in November 2023, so don't fret). The community there was always fractured along the axes of old-bird versus newbie, professional writers versus amateur writers, the non-students versus the students. It's... not a bad thing, but just something to take note of. I'm an old-bird amateur writer who is not a student, and am probably one of the few old-birds that have not done fiction writing professionally (i.e. getting paid to publish).
There are couple of engineered long weekends here and there through careful set up of my leave, so that's always nice. I'm steadily building back my stamina and strength in cycling, and am slowly incorporating cycling back into my set of activities. Nothing hardcore with the road cycles and what-not---just me, my Brompton from November 2017, and wherever I can go, depending on the time of day/week. So some longer trips during the off-peak periods from the engineered long weekends are going to be a part of what's happening.
We're probably going to get a couple of [small] performances coming in for TGCO, which is always a treat---I've always felt it weird if a performing arts group... doesn't perform. Aside from TGCO, I'm starting to prepare my way towards being a more regular musician (with Aurelia) for worship as a part of the music ministry of PPCC.
Aside from all that, more reading, I suppose, and more games to be played on Eileen-III. Nothing on the horizon for the dating front, because honestly, I don't have a good feeling about dating and getting in a relationship. At my age, it feels like... the pros of being with someone are no longer as superlative as the cons. When young, one's future is much more vague, making it easier to meld/remodel it according to the shared expectations of one's partner.
When one gets older and more set in their ways, there is almost no room for negotiations---the keyword being ``almost''. So... the odds aren't good.
As I might have mentioned before, when it's my time to go, it'll be my time, and I'll just... go. I don't expect to be remembered, so it's okay to be alone in the end.
I just kinda pity whomever is going to do the final clean up because I probably won't be able to settle things properly before my time's up. Sorry in advance to whomever that is.
Anyway, I ran out of momentum with what to write. Just wanted to rant a little at the half-year mark for 2023, before I become completely dejected at the prospects of life in general.
Till the next update.
Not sure how/what to feel about this. On the one hand, we're getting closer the end of the year, and with it perhaps we will get to cast the dark shadows that came from the COVID-19 pandemic away from our collective trauma, to redevelop a new sense of optimism.
That new sense of optimism is important in this time and age. The doom-saying has been on overdrive for the past three to five years, and it really does show, at least for me.
I cannot seem to live the day without getting blasted with information on global warming, some new development in the spats that come from geo-political posturing/brinkmanship, ever-increasing threats to the livelihood of the vast majority of the white-collar workers through ``AI'', uncontrollable price increases ``due to inflation'', and all the associated over-corrective behaviours that some of these events trigger.
No wonder I'm feeling down more than half the time.
I personally cannot tell how some people can maintain their optimism. Everything just looks so... bleak. The ``Me! Me! Me!'' world that we have today is just such a cavernous echo chamber that there are many times where I cannot even hear myself think.
One might say that I can always walk away. And the truth is, I have been doing so.
Of the few [online] communities that I have been a part of, I've more or less walked away from them all. Some I left because the members became too militant and extreme in their desperation of defining their own safe space, which often times end up creating a similar toxic environment as the one they are acutely hurting from. Some I left because the nature of the community has changed---from an indie passion-project where I could interact nearly personally with and willing to support with whatever I have, to a complete commercial entity that only cares about their shareholders, who incidentally prefer using an unpaid-for third-party ``community'' environment that I didn't agree with.
But these are all about the past---thinking about them isn't bad per se, but if all they are giving are these bad vibes, I really shouldn't be thinking about them, if possible.
(sigh)
With the next half of the year coming up, what should I be looking forward to?
Well, there's always NaNoWriMo in November. It'll be the fifteenth year I'm a part of it (URL will point to the correct place some time in November 2023, so don't fret). The community there was always fractured along the axes of old-bird versus newbie, professional writers versus amateur writers, the non-students versus the students. It's... not a bad thing, but just something to take note of. I'm an old-bird amateur writer who is not a student, and am probably one of the few old-birds that have not done fiction writing professionally (i.e. getting paid to publish).
There are couple of engineered long weekends here and there through careful set up of my leave, so that's always nice. I'm steadily building back my stamina and strength in cycling, and am slowly incorporating cycling back into my set of activities. Nothing hardcore with the road cycles and what-not---just me, my Brompton from November 2017, and wherever I can go, depending on the time of day/week. So some longer trips during the off-peak periods from the engineered long weekends are going to be a part of what's happening.
We're probably going to get a couple of [small] performances coming in for TGCO, which is always a treat---I've always felt it weird if a performing arts group... doesn't perform. Aside from TGCO, I'm starting to prepare my way towards being a more regular musician (with Aurelia) for worship as a part of the music ministry of PPCC.
Aside from all that, more reading, I suppose, and more games to be played on Eileen-III. Nothing on the horizon for the dating front, because honestly, I don't have a good feeling about dating and getting in a relationship. At my age, it feels like... the pros of being with someone are no longer as superlative as the cons. When young, one's future is much more vague, making it easier to meld/remodel it according to the shared expectations of one's partner.
When one gets older and more set in their ways, there is almost no room for negotiations---the keyword being ``almost''. So... the odds aren't good.
As I might have mentioned before, when it's my time to go, it'll be my time, and I'll just... go. I don't expect to be remembered, so it's okay to be alone in the end.
I just kinda pity whomever is going to do the final clean up because I probably won't be able to settle things properly before my time's up. Sorry in advance to whomever that is.
Anyway, I ran out of momentum with what to write. Just wanted to rant a little at the half-year mark for 2023, before I become completely dejected at the prospects of life in general.
Till the next update.
Monday, May 29, 2023
Dead Tired
So ends yet another Monday.
My left shoulder is busted up... again. I suspect it's a mix of sleeping badly, and possibly twisting it one too many times when moving my [heavy] backpack between the front and back carrying orientations. I can lift my arm normally, but trying to reach my back is where the pain kicks in and causes me grief.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day [for this busted up arm].
------
Yesterday was the second time that I was playing Aurelia at PPCC as part of the music ministry during the worship service. It was still a pleasant experience. I am starting to get used to the hymnal repertoire. Part of the difficulty that I was facing was that the lead sheets were often written with STAB-chorale in mind, which meant that the soprano and alto parts, though still in the treble clef, tended to cluster near the lower ledger lines.
For a flautist, that's quite an unnatural thing to look at, considering that we were more used to staring at stuff on the upper ledger lines. I obviously cannot play all those low notes (only the clarinettists can pull that off), but instead just played it an octave higher. So many of the cock-ups from me came about when I misread a low B as something else.
Generally though, it was easy to avoid the cock-ups by practising enough, pencilling notes at the problematic areas, and actually paying attention when playing.
Slowly I will be part of the regular crew playing the worship music. But we'll let time take care of that.
------
I recently bought quite a few items from both Amazon Singapore and regular Amazon. It matters little in terms of what I ordered, but it does bother me a little in terms of how they got delivered.
The long story short is that the Ninja Van lived up to its name of being a ninja---delivering the packagess at the door step, before disappearing almost immediately the way a ninja supposedly operates. It's not bad per se, but it's still a little annoying that they don't at least ring the bell to indicate that they had stopped by.
------
And that's about it for now. I'm dead tired---the wave of psychic damage hasn't quite completed yet. Till the next update.
My left shoulder is busted up... again. I suspect it's a mix of sleeping badly, and possibly twisting it one too many times when moving my [heavy] backpack between the front and back carrying orientations. I can lift my arm normally, but trying to reach my back is where the pain kicks in and causes me grief.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day [for this busted up arm].
------
Yesterday was the second time that I was playing Aurelia at PPCC as part of the music ministry during the worship service. It was still a pleasant experience. I am starting to get used to the hymnal repertoire. Part of the difficulty that I was facing was that the lead sheets were often written with STAB-chorale in mind, which meant that the soprano and alto parts, though still in the treble clef, tended to cluster near the lower ledger lines.
For a flautist, that's quite an unnatural thing to look at, considering that we were more used to staring at stuff on the upper ledger lines. I obviously cannot play all those low notes (only the clarinettists can pull that off), but instead just played it an octave higher. So many of the cock-ups from me came about when I misread a low B as something else.
Generally though, it was easy to avoid the cock-ups by practising enough, pencilling notes at the problematic areas, and actually paying attention when playing.
Slowly I will be part of the regular crew playing the worship music. But we'll let time take care of that.
------
I recently bought quite a few items from both Amazon Singapore and regular Amazon. It matters little in terms of what I ordered, but it does bother me a little in terms of how they got delivered.
The long story short is that the Ninja Van lived up to its name of being a ninja---delivering the packagess at the door step, before disappearing almost immediately the way a ninja supposedly operates. It's not bad per se, but it's still a little annoying that they don't at least ring the bell to indicate that they had stopped by.
------
And that's about it for now. I'm dead tired---the wave of psychic damage hasn't quite completed yet. Till the next update.
Tuesday, May 02, 2023
May Too?
I could, in theory, have taken my off-in-lieu for previous Saturday's Hari Raya Puasa some other day.
But I chose to take it today, the day immediately after Labour Day, for the sole reason that it will be a day off on a day that isn't a day off for most people.
I would have spent it at MusicGear just putsing about, but since I already did that last Saturday when I took some of my ladies (Stella, Aurelia, and Eliana) in for a look-see at WindWorks. Stella was due for her tune-up after the first month of playing, Aurelia was in for a worn out bumper for the B♭ lever, and Eliana was in for... too many clacky sounds due to worn out bumpers and imperfect regulation to begin with. And Sean has brought in something interesting that I play tested---not sure if I would buy it since it involves electronics and I'm not particularly kitted out for that, but it definitely does bring some rather interesting possibilities. The other classically trained woodwind players in the shop found that interesting thing a little tough to work with though, possibly because they operated from the absolute pitch world of music, as opposed to the relative pitch one that I worked with most of the time.
That and probably because the interesting thing used the simple system as opposed to the keyed systems that most woodwind instruments these days have.
Anyway, an additional day off, and I went cycling along the North East Riverine Loop once more. The Loop... each time I go cycle on it, it shows changes. This time round, some parts of the tarmac were converted into pure concrete, and damn it was hot when I went over it in the morning on my bicycle---I could feel the infra-red energy just blasting at me; it was not at all comfortable.
But cycling is fun. I should do more cycling. I used to cycle to my office, but thanks to all the constructions now, that is not possible any more, and so the next best thing is to actually make an effort to cycle around my side of the island.
Cycling made me think of an old acquaintance with an unusual name, and as such, I shall simply call her ``E''. I met E back when I was still active in Aikido, and she was a fun person to train and hang out with. She got married (of course), and while I don't actively chat with her, I still follow her adventures of cycling all over the world with her husband.
It's interesting because that whole cycling persona was something that she developed much later, after her short foray into Aikido, and her longer one in outdoor adventures in general.
I did muse to myself if there was some new persona that I would like to take up, not with the intention of getting hitched of course, but as a different means of living yet another type of life.
No answer to that now. I suppose one dependency on it was whether I wanted to run my own household. I'm past the age in which the government gives a crap with respect to housing, i.e. I can, if I wanted to, get ahold of some brand new one-room/two-room apartment, be chained to a multi-decade mortgage, and have all the space that I need to run all the interests that I have.
But it also means that some fifteen or so years later, I will need to somehow come back to my childhood apartment to take care of matters after my parents have passed on. Not to mention my quiet worry of my parents living alone without some kind of alert observational supervision the way that I am doing now---they aren't dumb people, but sometimes they are so set in their ways that they need a proverbial bonk in the head to wake up a bit more and look at the world for what it is.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. The mark of an adult, especially when the decisions matter. And when the decisions start to matter for more than just oneself, be it family or subordinates, maaaaaaaan it starts to be Serious Business---the mark of an adult in middle age.
Anyway, that's enough for today. Tomorrow, I'm back to the office, and there are things that need to be done. Meanwhile, playthrough two of Nier: Automata awaits.
Till the next update.
But I chose to take it today, the day immediately after Labour Day, for the sole reason that it will be a day off on a day that isn't a day off for most people.
I would have spent it at MusicGear just putsing about, but since I already did that last Saturday when I took some of my ladies (Stella, Aurelia, and Eliana) in for a look-see at WindWorks. Stella was due for her tune-up after the first month of playing, Aurelia was in for a worn out bumper for the B♭ lever, and Eliana was in for... too many clacky sounds due to worn out bumpers and imperfect regulation to begin with. And Sean has brought in something interesting that I play tested---not sure if I would buy it since it involves electronics and I'm not particularly kitted out for that, but it definitely does bring some rather interesting possibilities. The other classically trained woodwind players in the shop found that interesting thing a little tough to work with though, possibly because they operated from the absolute pitch world of music, as opposed to the relative pitch one that I worked with most of the time.
That and probably because the interesting thing used the simple system as opposed to the keyed systems that most woodwind instruments these days have.
Anyway, an additional day off, and I went cycling along the North East Riverine Loop once more. The Loop... each time I go cycle on it, it shows changes. This time round, some parts of the tarmac were converted into pure concrete, and damn it was hot when I went over it in the morning on my bicycle---I could feel the infra-red energy just blasting at me; it was not at all comfortable.
But cycling is fun. I should do more cycling. I used to cycle to my office, but thanks to all the constructions now, that is not possible any more, and so the next best thing is to actually make an effort to cycle around my side of the island.
Cycling made me think of an old acquaintance with an unusual name, and as such, I shall simply call her ``E''. I met E back when I was still active in Aikido, and she was a fun person to train and hang out with. She got married (of course), and while I don't actively chat with her, I still follow her adventures of cycling all over the world with her husband.
It's interesting because that whole cycling persona was something that she developed much later, after her short foray into Aikido, and her longer one in outdoor adventures in general.
I did muse to myself if there was some new persona that I would like to take up, not with the intention of getting hitched of course, but as a different means of living yet another type of life.
No answer to that now. I suppose one dependency on it was whether I wanted to run my own household. I'm past the age in which the government gives a crap with respect to housing, i.e. I can, if I wanted to, get ahold of some brand new one-room/two-room apartment, be chained to a multi-decade mortgage, and have all the space that I need to run all the interests that I have.
But it also means that some fifteen or so years later, I will need to somehow come back to my childhood apartment to take care of matters after my parents have passed on. Not to mention my quiet worry of my parents living alone without some kind of alert observational supervision the way that I am doing now---they aren't dumb people, but sometimes they are so set in their ways that they need a proverbial bonk in the head to wake up a bit more and look at the world for what it is.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. The mark of an adult, especially when the decisions matter. And when the decisions start to matter for more than just oneself, be it family or subordinates, maaaaaaaan it starts to be Serious Business---the mark of an adult in middle age.
Anyway, that's enough for today. Tomorrow, I'm back to the office, and there are things that need to be done. Meanwhile, playthrough two of Nier: Automata awaits.
Till the next update.
Saturday, February 18, 2023
Singapore Flute Fair 2023, and What I Did There
A week ago today was the Singapore Flute Fair 2023 hosted by MusicGear, with her sister companies. The draw of the Flute Fair was the assembly of flute and accessories sellers/distributors from around the region, together with the appearance of Muramatsu and Miyazawa flute technicians to do light servicing on concert flutes, either in-brand for the respective company flute technicians, or out-brand, as long as the flute itself is not made of inferior materials. That last bit might sound a little elitist, but the reality is the these light services are more akin to fine-tuning than performing major correction, and many of the lower-valued flutes are made of materials that do not subject themselves to fine adjustments, and more importantly, do not keep said fine adjustments should they be somehow applied.
There was also a recital, but since it was to happen in the evening of Saturday when I had my rehearsals with the TGCO, I bowed out from attending it.
This year was the first time in as many years of COVID-19 being the obsession of the world that it has been held. The scale was small-ish, but it still managed to attract a healthy number of participants, based solely on my now third-party observation.
I had fun over the two-day exhibition, trying all kinds of piccolos, and playing with various flutes. I'm not really in the market for buying a new flute (Aurelia is my End Flute anyway), but I am definitely scouting around to learn more on getting a better piccolo. I've tried a Powell Signature, the Burkart Resona and Elite samples, one Bulgheroni Piccolo, and a couple of Haynes piccolos.
Conclusion thus far: the traditional embouchure cut is excellent for wailing like I wanna completely emulate the dizi, but trying to get soft dynamics out of it for the high notes tend to be tougher, compared to wave cut. The wave cut ensured that the air stream was well targetted to provide that sweet sweet pianissimo dynamics for concert pitch G7 and higher. As for low notes, both cuts across all the piccolos were alright---that old problem I faced with a somewhat non-projecting concert pitch D5 was due to me not angling enough of the air-stream towards the embouchure hole to bring it out. There are some slight differences in the timbre, but they tend to be a bit more minor compared to just getting the fullness of the right-hand low notes (i.e. concert pitch F♯5 and lower) out in the first place. Again, the wave cut has a tendency to bring out a more centred (i.e. purer) tone, while the traditional cut allowed a little more noise surrounding it, which does make the tone seem fuller without necessarily contributing to the harmonic content.
Piccolo trying aside, I met a few new people, as well as caught up with some old ones. It was definitely different from before---I was running around as myself, as compared to the past flute fairs where I was running around essentially as her plus one. She was there at the fair, unexpected but unsurprising to me, helping out with being the minder of the Muramatsu technicians and generally being involved with the logistics of the light repair service. That is my guess, based on what I saw.
We exchanged no words. What was there to say, anyway?
Two days of standing about, talking to many people, playing piccolo using dizi repertoire to tease out the compatibility between me and the instrument while keeping the dynamics soft enough to not incur a warning from Brando... it was a very tiring yet very fulfilling weekend. Musospace, the location for this year's edition of the Flute Fair, was an interesting location, to say the least. Good to learn of yet another cool place that I may end up wanting to consider, should I ever decide to put together a personal recital as a private celebration of more than three decades of actively playing on the dizi.
A man can dream, can't he?
There was also a recital, but since it was to happen in the evening of Saturday when I had my rehearsals with the TGCO, I bowed out from attending it.
This year was the first time in as many years of COVID-19 being the obsession of the world that it has been held. The scale was small-ish, but it still managed to attract a healthy number of participants, based solely on my now third-party observation.
I had fun over the two-day exhibition, trying all kinds of piccolos, and playing with various flutes. I'm not really in the market for buying a new flute (Aurelia is my End Flute anyway), but I am definitely scouting around to learn more on getting a better piccolo. I've tried a Powell Signature, the Burkart Resona and Elite samples, one Bulgheroni Piccolo, and a couple of Haynes piccolos.
Conclusion thus far: the traditional embouchure cut is excellent for wailing like I wanna completely emulate the dizi, but trying to get soft dynamics out of it for the high notes tend to be tougher, compared to wave cut. The wave cut ensured that the air stream was well targetted to provide that sweet sweet pianissimo dynamics for concert pitch G7 and higher. As for low notes, both cuts across all the piccolos were alright---that old problem I faced with a somewhat non-projecting concert pitch D5 was due to me not angling enough of the air-stream towards the embouchure hole to bring it out. There are some slight differences in the timbre, but they tend to be a bit more minor compared to just getting the fullness of the right-hand low notes (i.e. concert pitch F♯5 and lower) out in the first place. Again, the wave cut has a tendency to bring out a more centred (i.e. purer) tone, while the traditional cut allowed a little more noise surrounding it, which does make the tone seem fuller without necessarily contributing to the harmonic content.
Piccolo trying aside, I met a few new people, as well as caught up with some old ones. It was definitely different from before---I was running around as myself, as compared to the past flute fairs where I was running around essentially as her plus one. She was there at the fair, unexpected but unsurprising to me, helping out with being the minder of the Muramatsu technicians and generally being involved with the logistics of the light repair service. That is my guess, based on what I saw.
We exchanged no words. What was there to say, anyway?
Two days of standing about, talking to many people, playing piccolo using dizi repertoire to tease out the compatibility between me and the instrument while keeping the dynamics soft enough to not incur a warning from Brando... it was a very tiring yet very fulfilling weekend. Musospace, the location for this year's edition of the Flute Fair, was an interesting location, to say the least. Good to learn of yet another cool place that I may end up wanting to consider, should I ever decide to put together a personal recital as a private celebration of more than three decades of actively playing on the dizi.
A man can dream, can't he?
Monday, October 24, 2022
Recalling the Last Four Days
As I write here, the day is ending.
A trite observation in some sense, but then again, this is one of two ``mandated'' long weekends for this year from my employer due to the addition of a gazetted break day to the government declared one.
So four days. Across these four days I...
Head is comfortably empty; I feel fairly relaxed. With that new mattress, there is definitely a break between before this four-day break, and the last quarter of the year.
Oh, and NaNoWriMo is coming up. I've a rough idea of my new novel, currently titled Dig It All Realisation. Still needs to have the draft structure set up though... which I think I will do some time later this week.
I think that's about it. It's a really short post as these posts go. Just wanted to make a note of it here so that perhaps some time in the future, I can look back on this date and summon up the memories that I didn't write in here.
Till the next update.
A trite observation in some sense, but then again, this is one of two ``mandated'' long weekends for this year from my employer due to the addition of a gazetted break day to the government declared one.
So four days. Across these four days I...
- Finished re-reading The Sandman;
- Caught up on the latest for One-Punch Man manga adaptation;
- Caught up on Komi Can't Communicate manga;
- Completed A Hat in Time;
- Completed version 1.0 of Vampire Survivors;
- Replaced my 12-year-old mattress with a new one;
- Finally started on The Complete Calvin and Hobbes: Book One (1985--1988);
- Completed the perimeter wall shape for my castle project in Minecraft;
- Hung out with some friends old and new playing games (Singapore Dream, Splendor, and Unstable Unicorns);
- Finally picked up Aurelia to doodle on---I've been meaning to do so, but kept being distracted on other instruments like Eliana, and Mio;
- Accidentally partook in the Deepavali lighting festivities out in Little India while on the last bus heading home (the police presence was heavy with deployed riot police command centres);
- Continued with a summoning build that I started quite a long time ago in Grim Dawn; and
- Catch up on some of the Hololive/Holostars EN folks.
Head is comfortably empty; I feel fairly relaxed. With that new mattress, there is definitely a break between before this four-day break, and the last quarter of the year.
Oh, and NaNoWriMo is coming up. I've a rough idea of my new novel, currently titled Dig It All Realisation. Still needs to have the draft structure set up though... which I think I will do some time later this week.
I think that's about it. It's a really short post as these posts go. Just wanted to make a note of it here so that perhaps some time in the future, I can look back on this date and summon up the memories that I didn't write in here.
Till the next update.
Sunday, March 27, 2022
A New Gig Bag and Other Diversions
The last weekend before March 2022 goes away into history. What shall I talk about today then?
Let's start with some good news. We are finally starting rehearsals proper---we have actually started meeting up as a group at the beginning of the month, but having not rehearsed together for two years or so, we spent the first three weeks just sorting out our instruments. The cupboards housing them were opened up and aired, the cobwebs were metaphorically (and sometimes literally!) dusted, the mould on some of the old wooden instrument cases were treated with anti-mould and left to air, strings were checked on and replaced/retuned, and the works.
Sifu is now at a stage of his life where he can come back to play with us again, and I am really happy about it.
Of the ``core pillar'' players, we got back about 60% of them or so, the remaining 40% being less able to commit their time due to the changes in their life that have occurred during the past two years of pandemic nonsense. Naturally, the more transient members who were students have attritted away, hopefully just for now, but given the entire drought of actual extra-curricular activities (calling it ``co-curricular activities'' is what I now see as yet another fig-leaf manoeuvre to pretend that the school system in SIN city truly raises people who know how to both play and work hard) involving group activities, I really am not expecting these numbers to return any time soon.
TGCO isn't flashy, it isn't large, and it isn't some award-winning and highly visible organisation compared to some of the other community orchestras (Chinese instruments or otherwise) out there. None of us are true professional musicians, and we definitely lack the resources and the connections that those who do it professionally have, mostly due to our ethos of keeping the orchestra as a place for those who are interested in playing to gather and play to their abilities, without demanding superlative qualifications.
Only time will tell what will happen. For now, we're just putting the band back together so to speak. That thirty-year anniversary concert isn't likely to be happening, and maybe we'll see if we can live up to our fortieth instead.
It's always good to be playing the dizi again in an orchestral setting. Playing alone has its perks, but ultimately music is meant to be played together as a group---no single instrument can sound better alone as compared to being with others in a well-composed piece. And a performance group is not really one if it doesn't perform---that's the immediate goal that I think we are striving for. Maybe once we get our first performance post-pandemic out, we can start to bring in some more members, for however long they choose to play with us.
------
In other news, I had to finally retire my music backpack, the one that I have used since 2015(?) to move the flute/piccolo stands, flute (Azumi and then later on, Aurelia), piccolo (usually Picc, sometimes S.O.S.), and scores. After more than 6 years, the main zipper have finally given way completely. The bag was used extensively over the years, being taken out weekly on rehearsal/performance excursions. A side zipper's slider had failed and was replaced, the pleather handle flaked off and had a new fabric cover sewn on it, one of the two sliders in the main zipper failed the interlocking and was left unused while the other did the rest of the tour, and the elastic that held the flute box had loosened and was recently replaced. And now, finally, even that last slider failed to hold create the interlocks properly, with the only fix left being a complete replacement of the entire zipper, which was... just not going to happen.
The gig bag lasted as long as it did for the price I paid for. It did its job well and faithfully, and it was truly time to retire it.
o7
Some might find it dumb that I can get sentimental over things, but well, in a world where no one really knows what each person is thinking (even with letters that were supposed to share what one was thinking), the only things we have left are the things that we exchange and hold on to. And for the things that served as our tools of the trade, for whatever trade it is, there's a certain part of it that has become an extension of ourselves to the point that we unconsciously grow an attachment to it. I can't say that I take the greatest of care for my stuff, but I do generally try to do so. It isn't the fact that I spent my own money on them that makes me treasure what I have, but that having these things working means that I could do what I wanted to do with them more effectively and painlessly that makes me want to treasure them more.
The new music backpack is also from ROI MUSIC, as brought in by MusicGear. It definitely has seen some improvements over the years, with the most obvious being the `X'-stitching pattern on the interior that holds the padding together (compared to the original vertical-only stitches). The material does feel a little stiffer, but it's not clear if it's only because it is new or if there was something that was changed.
I suppose only time will tell.
------
The Great Aquarium has its water filled in, and the kelp has all been harvested. I tweaked the deepslate smelter into a kelp smelter by replacing the furnace with a smoker---I didn't realise that the kelp could be treated as a food item and therefore the smoker would smelt it faster (by time) as compared to the furnace. From that tweak, and leaving things to run throughout the day, I have completely smelted all the kelp.
I took part of today searching for a Ocean Monument. I needed to find it to get the materials needed to make that conduit in my Great Aquarium. Well, I found it---it was a ways away from the frozen river where I had dug up my ice to fill the Great Aquarium with. After building a nether-portal in the overworld, I cleared a path towards the nearest minecart station (the frozen river exit) and built a cover over it in the nether to prevent the Magma Cube spawns from clogging up the place.
And that's about it for this post. Till the next one.
Let's start with some good news. We are finally starting rehearsals proper---we have actually started meeting up as a group at the beginning of the month, but having not rehearsed together for two years or so, we spent the first three weeks just sorting out our instruments. The cupboards housing them were opened up and aired, the cobwebs were metaphorically (and sometimes literally!) dusted, the mould on some of the old wooden instrument cases were treated with anti-mould and left to air, strings were checked on and replaced/retuned, and the works.
Sifu is now at a stage of his life where he can come back to play with us again, and I am really happy about it.
Of the ``core pillar'' players, we got back about 60% of them or so, the remaining 40% being less able to commit their time due to the changes in their life that have occurred during the past two years of pandemic nonsense. Naturally, the more transient members who were students have attritted away, hopefully just for now, but given the entire drought of actual extra-curricular activities (calling it ``co-curricular activities'' is what I now see as yet another fig-leaf manoeuvre to pretend that the school system in SIN city truly raises people who know how to both play and work hard) involving group activities, I really am not expecting these numbers to return any time soon.
TGCO isn't flashy, it isn't large, and it isn't some award-winning and highly visible organisation compared to some of the other community orchestras (Chinese instruments or otherwise) out there. None of us are true professional musicians, and we definitely lack the resources and the connections that those who do it professionally have, mostly due to our ethos of keeping the orchestra as a place for those who are interested in playing to gather and play to their abilities, without demanding superlative qualifications.
Only time will tell what will happen. For now, we're just putting the band back together so to speak. That thirty-year anniversary concert isn't likely to be happening, and maybe we'll see if we can live up to our fortieth instead.
It's always good to be playing the dizi again in an orchestral setting. Playing alone has its perks, but ultimately music is meant to be played together as a group---no single instrument can sound better alone as compared to being with others in a well-composed piece. And a performance group is not really one if it doesn't perform---that's the immediate goal that I think we are striving for. Maybe once we get our first performance post-pandemic out, we can start to bring in some more members, for however long they choose to play with us.
------
In other news, I had to finally retire my music backpack, the one that I have used since 2015(?) to move the flute/piccolo stands, flute (Azumi and then later on, Aurelia), piccolo (usually Picc, sometimes S.O.S.), and scores. After more than 6 years, the main zipper have finally given way completely. The bag was used extensively over the years, being taken out weekly on rehearsal/performance excursions. A side zipper's slider had failed and was replaced, the pleather handle flaked off and had a new fabric cover sewn on it, one of the two sliders in the main zipper failed the interlocking and was left unused while the other did the rest of the tour, and the elastic that held the flute box had loosened and was recently replaced. And now, finally, even that last slider failed to hold create the interlocks properly, with the only fix left being a complete replacement of the entire zipper, which was... just not going to happen.
The gig bag lasted as long as it did for the price I paid for. It did its job well and faithfully, and it was truly time to retire it.
o7
Some might find it dumb that I can get sentimental over things, but well, in a world where no one really knows what each person is thinking (even with letters that were supposed to share what one was thinking), the only things we have left are the things that we exchange and hold on to. And for the things that served as our tools of the trade, for whatever trade it is, there's a certain part of it that has become an extension of ourselves to the point that we unconsciously grow an attachment to it. I can't say that I take the greatest of care for my stuff, but I do generally try to do so. It isn't the fact that I spent my own money on them that makes me treasure what I have, but that having these things working means that I could do what I wanted to do with them more effectively and painlessly that makes me want to treasure them more.
The new music backpack is also from ROI MUSIC, as brought in by MusicGear. It definitely has seen some improvements over the years, with the most obvious being the `X'-stitching pattern on the interior that holds the padding together (compared to the original vertical-only stitches). The material does feel a little stiffer, but it's not clear if it's only because it is new or if there was something that was changed.
I suppose only time will tell.
------
The Great Aquarium has its water filled in, and the kelp has all been harvested. I tweaked the deepslate smelter into a kelp smelter by replacing the furnace with a smoker---I didn't realise that the kelp could be treated as a food item and therefore the smoker would smelt it faster (by time) as compared to the furnace. From that tweak, and leaving things to run throughout the day, I have completely smelted all the kelp.
I took part of today searching for a Ocean Monument. I needed to find it to get the materials needed to make that conduit in my Great Aquarium. Well, I found it---it was a ways away from the frozen river where I had dug up my ice to fill the Great Aquarium with. After building a nether-portal in the overworld, I cleared a path towards the nearest minecart station (the frozen river exit) and built a cover over it in the nether to prevent the Magma Cube spawns from clogging up the place.
And that's about it for this post. Till the next one.
Thursday, December 16, 2021
Scratching That Aburi Nigiri Itch...
Mmmm. It really is much easier to realise what one has missed once it is gone out of one's life.
And I'm referring to awesome aburi nigiri sushi that I have been missing since my favourite sushi place has wound up.
Today, I scratched that itch again by heading to the Sushi Tei out at Serangoon Gardens Circus at the odd hour of three in the afternoon. It was fairly quiet; I was one of three customers that were present in the restaurant. I had some aburi nigiri sushi, and had me some ootoro.
Mmmm. That was nice.
It was not the same as my favourite sushi place, but it did scratch the itch.
In other news, I have decided on the birthday gift to myself for 2022---a pair of customised musician ear plugs. It's not exactly cheap, but compared to the price of a new instrument, it's about a tenth the price, but with an effect that is probably worth 10× more---a more comfortable and complete protection of my hearing while I play my 笛子. It is something that I have been thinking of getting for a while, but have been delaying for one reason or another. I am currently using some Vic Firth musician's ear plugs; they work well, but I'm just looking for... something more.
It's like Azumi all over again---she works well, but I ended up looking for something more, and thus ended up with Aurelia.
I said that it works well because with all the restrictions that have been in place, test playing of new instruments is not allowed. Apart from that, I also don't have the budget for any new instruments anyway, since my income for this sabbatical year is zero.
Anyway, that customised musician ear plugs require impressions of my ear canals, and so it will be a trip to the audiologist to get it done. Because of that, I am getting myself this gift right now, before the start of work makes it harder to run about meeting appointments.
That's about all I want to write about. Till the next update.
And I'm referring to awesome aburi nigiri sushi that I have been missing since my favourite sushi place has wound up.
Today, I scratched that itch again by heading to the Sushi Tei out at Serangoon Gardens Circus at the odd hour of three in the afternoon. It was fairly quiet; I was one of three customers that were present in the restaurant. I had some aburi nigiri sushi, and had me some ootoro.
Mmmm. That was nice.
It was not the same as my favourite sushi place, but it did scratch the itch.
In other news, I have decided on the birthday gift to myself for 2022---a pair of customised musician ear plugs. It's not exactly cheap, but compared to the price of a new instrument, it's about a tenth the price, but with an effect that is probably worth 10× more---a more comfortable and complete protection of my hearing while I play my 笛子. It is something that I have been thinking of getting for a while, but have been delaying for one reason or another. I am currently using some Vic Firth musician's ear plugs; they work well, but I'm just looking for... something more.
It's like Azumi all over again---she works well, but I ended up looking for something more, and thus ended up with Aurelia.
I said that it works well because with all the restrictions that have been in place, test playing of new instruments is not allowed. Apart from that, I also don't have the budget for any new instruments anyway, since my income for this sabbatical year is zero.
Anyway, that customised musician ear plugs require impressions of my ear canals, and so it will be a trip to the audiologist to get it done. Because of that, I am getting myself this gift right now, before the start of work makes it harder to run about meeting appointments.
That's about all I want to write about. Till the next update.
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