October 2003 Archives

*Warning: Tech Talk. If you don't play the guitar or is intimidated by hardware talk, you probably won't understand the crap I'm blabbering below...heh*

Not up to anything lately, except for a lot of anticipation and excitement in waiting for my orders to arrive. Over the last few four or five months, I think I've spent close to $4K on my new guitars and gear. After getting the 'guts', it's time to concentrate on the 'cosmetics', which are the effects pedals. So far, I bought most of the pedals second-hand, which is a good thing cos it's a fraction less than the original costs. Also, effect pedals are so durable and tough that people always comment that they'd still work after being run over by vehicles or dropped from twenty storeys (from harmony-central.com) *lol*

Based on my band's original songs and common songs we're playing, I'd figured that 7 pedals will be really sufficient (for now..heh). My tentative setup will be (subjected to how it all sounds after I've put everything together):

Guitar
|
v
Jim Dunlop Crybaby
|
v
Loooper (line selector)
--> Loop A (Rat 2 distortion-->Boss BF-2 Flanger)
--> Loop B (Boss TR-2 Tremolo)
|
v
Boss CH-1 Super Chorus
|
v
Boss DD-6 Digital Delay
|
v
Amplifier

There's a lot of Boss pedals in my setup...mainly due to the affordable cost and also, Boss pedals provide a very good base for sounds. I don't need boutique pedals that cost a few hundreds for now. Since I'm very new to using pedals (I was using a multi-effects unit), I'll settle for the basics and experiment as I go along. I've managed to win a bid for a 'classic' made-in-Japan Boss BF-2 pedal on Ebay. I've also placed order for a cheap hardcase to house my pedals and lastly, ordered a custom-made loop pedal that manages the other pedals more efficiently. I've got the rest of the pedals, so now I'm anxiously waiting for the arrival of these 3 babies! :P Toys for big boys!

So, if anyone's planning for my future Christmas/New Year/Birthday gifts, I've kindly included a list below for your convenience *lol*:

-EHX Small Stone phaser pedal.
-EHX Big Muff distortion pedal.
-Ernie Ball 6166 Mono volume pedal.
-Nady 1002 MK2 Instrument Wireless System.

Thank you!

Ughhh...Mr Postman...where are you when I needed you most?

As I'm typing my entry right now, strong winds and heavy rain stirred up the peace outside, with the occasional thunder growling like wakeup calls. But all is still and mellow here on the inside. Eason Chan's 'Shi Nian' (Ten years) is playing softly on my pc.

The harshness of the rain, in contrast, seems to bring out the coziness of things. But why does the rain also bring about the array of melancholic feelings? Yes, I'm always lamenting on how lonely I am whenever certain thoughts crept up on me, and people are tired of getting that from me. But they're not me, and I don't think they'd understand. Friends, family, work, activities, hobbies, etc can take up my time and get my mind off the negative thoughts. But they can never replace the missing aspect of my life. At the end of the day after I had my fun, enjoyment, entertainment..etc, it still comes back to me that I could use a little companionship and someone to share that intimate part of my life.

P.s no more 'you'll find someone/someday your special person will come, etc' type of comments, okay? They're the most repeated lines and the least useful things to say *lol*

Feeling bored, I listened to some old recordings of my band and suddenly realised something:

The reason why my band never made it to the local Getai* circuit

It's easily one of the most hilarious impromptu jamming session we've got (accompanied by wrong notes, mis-timing and corny conversations)! *lol*

Still cracks me up whenever I listen to it...gahahahah! There goes my band's image! *runs and hides*

*7th month ghost festival performance

The 'Professional Image for men' course that I attended today was really interesting and informative. Just like those 'Business Etiqette' modules I used to attend in Poly. It's funny how we have to be taught things like that...somehow reminds me of Julia Roberts in Pretty Lady *lol*

Anyway, today's course enlightened me on a few things and I think it's made some impact on me that I wanna change part of my lifestyle...

Firstly on nutrition...

4.00am-8.00am :
Cleansing period (6 glasses of water and 1 glass of fruit juice)

First thing after we wake up, drinking water is ideal. This is the best period to cleanse our body and the fresh fruit juice (not those commercial ones!) helps greatly in the process.

8.00am-8.00pm :
Energy food (Carbohydrates + Veg)

We require energy food but usually we'd eat a combination of carboh and Protein (as in rice and meat). But it's not ideal for our body as the acids and alkaline in us neutralise when processing this combination of food...probably causing some buildup in undesirable stuff in our body, so it's good that we take carboh and vegs for lunch.

8.00pm-4.00am :
Generating new cells (Protein + Veg)

During nighttime, we rest our body and regenerate our cells...Proteins take a long time to 'process', thus it is ideal that we intake our protein for dinner so that they can be broken down during our sleep. So, meat and veg is enough for dinner.

Hmm...time to slowly start to change my diet if I wanna look and feel good :P But it's gonna be tough...so, hopefully can take it slowly and change subtlely for a start :)

We were also given a 'colour chart' that's worth $80 (or that's what we were being told *lol*).

I'm 'diagnosed' as a SPRING person according to my skin tone and all, so my colour scheme will be based on the SPRING tones...light, warm and bright (hmmm...though all along, I'd prefer WINTER). Realised that it's not really a matter of what colours I like, but what colours LOOK RIGHT on me. So, many times, feeling and looking are different :P I think it's a really useful guide and along with some conditioning, I'll be able to shop for colours that matches all my wardrobe.

There are so many other things that the course touched on, but they're quite brief and require many more days to cover. But it's a 1-day course, so we can't have the best of everything ^__~

By the way, I violated almost all the rules when it comes to PROFESSIONAL IMAGE cos I've got long, dyed hair (bleached somemore, and not conventional style), wear an earring, wears boots and cross my legs like a lady (hahah...that is, knee to knee....which is a no-no for men *lol*) Hahah, it's funny how they selected 3 persons in class and asked who fits what roles based on their looks and they stereotyped me as a 'singer' or someone in the creative business *laughs* (yeah, I play the geetar :P)

...which make others think why I'm working in NUS as an admin...hahah. Let's just say I'm pretty happy doing what I'm doing at this point as long as I have my jamming sessions during the weekend :)