Electronic is evil

After having fun with the electronic drums for some time, I realised that this was a very basic set which had its limitations. Couldn't do any cross stick shots on the snare (i.e. hitting the rim of the drum with the stick) or bell shots on the ride cymbal (the roundish part that where it is screwed onto the stand, giving the cowbell kinda sound).

Sucks. Electronics and the digital age are all evil, so the acoustic drum set still rules. If only I can fork out somemore money to get a drum techinician to look at the drum set in church. The drums there are in a sad, sad state. Heck, even I feel sad just hearing the flat thump they give off whenever I whack them.

Growing old

I hate to admit it. But we are all growing old and it's scary.

Just today, one of my RSAF ex-colleagues, Peter, called me up to tell me his wife is expecting their first kid in February next year. Being the blur sotong that he is, obviously he's getting worried cos he's not the parenting type (honestly, none of us ever are till we get our first kid; it's one of those baptism by fire things).

So there we were yakking away (me teasing him mostly) and he said something along the lines like, "Wah, last time we meet up is to go dancing and drinking, now we have coffee to talk about kids". Yes sir-ree! We certainly have come a long way!

Next thing we know we'll be talking about where to hold our kids' weddings.

Shite... It really is worrying to realise you're not getting any younger. It's just one of those aspects of life that you never really bother about until it just falls on you like a ton of bricks out of the blue. Then you start thinking about how you are going to see your kids through to university, will you be able to retire in Florida, will you live long enough to withdraw your CPF, etc, etc.

But it's okay, as long as I can age with style like Sean Connery... :P

Going electronic

So there we were on Sunday at FairPrice Finest (the atas NTUC targetted at the ang mohs, situated at Bukit Timah Plaza), grabbing some stuff to bring to Tua Pek's house since we had been invited there for dinner by his new Korean neighbour who was doing all the cooking. Then we saw an ad on one of those lelong notice boards that are commonly found in all these ang moh places (they seem to have an affinity for lelong-ing their unwanted stuff). It read:'TDK Electronic drum set for sale. I paid $3000, you pay $500'. Only an idiot would refuse this offer.

So we called up the owner, viewed the thing and ended up paying $800 for it. Yes, it was more expensive than the original price but still a lucrative deal. And it was a Roland drum set, no less, with an amp and headphones, some 'Drumming for Dummies' guide book and an instruction CD.

I know how badly our church needed a new drum set. The current one we're using has been there for ages, all worn out and rusty. One of the cymbals had even been cracked by an overzealous drummer. :P

Ps Don had been talking about getting an electronic one for the longest time. But cost had always been a deciding factor that held us back. Financial obligations aside, I think this was an opportunity presented before us to help build God's sanctuary. So I just grit my teeth, signed the cheque and shoved everything into my car.

Digital equipment always have cons when compared to analogue ones so it will take some getting used to, but I think we're gonna have a great time with this new toy.

Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Rockstar rocks again with Manhunt 2

Finally! After so much hoo-ha with the censorship boards in UK and various other countries, Rockstar has finally received the green light to release the highly anticipated sequel to the gruesome stealth game Manhunt! Not before slapping it with an 'M' rating, of course.

For the uninitiated, Rockstar is the publisher of various other notorious games that have changed the gaming world and made everyone sit up and take notice. For all the wrong reasons unfortunately. After the mildly successful Grand Theft Auto III, they took the free roaming gaming environment to a whole new level with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. But this it did with a lot of flak as gamers took on the role of a gangster bent on revenge after being framed for a drug deal gone wrong. A pissed off gangster, lots of guns, a strip club and the ability to jack cars, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the potential mayhem that ensues. Much like the negative publicity that plagued comic books way back in the 1950s, parents were worried, teachers got upset and Readers' Digest even ran an article about the dangers of video games highlighting a boy who shot his parents (or friends, I can't remember) after playing GTA: Vice City.

Manhunt was no different. Players took on the role of a serial killer on death row due for execution who, by some twisted plot of a deranged madman, gets captured and thrown into a reality snuff film where other equally deranged lunatics are out to hunt him down. His mission was simple: to survive and get to the guy who put him there in the first place. This awesome game, while gruesome, offered players some really solid stealth action gameplay which required more thinking and strategy than your average 'point-and-shoot' games. It again received flak for its gruesome killing tactics, among them stabbing an opponent's eye with a shard of glass, whacking his head open with a baseball bat (like a pinata) and sneaking up behind a guy and beating him to a pulp after wrapping a plastic bag over his head.Wonderful!

But at the end of the day, we all have to remember that it's all just a game. It's this same exact reason why we play video games in the first place, to thrust ourselves into an environment where we can do things we know are impossible to do in real life.

Time to kill! Virtually, of course.

Cracked cymbal

'Praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.'

Psalms 150:5

Sunday's praise and worship was really rocking. I think I just went nuts the moment we played Open Up The Gates. In fact, I was so engrossed in playing that I didn't even notice the crash cymbal was cracked! That's a first for me, never cracked a cymbal before. Guess I took Psalm 150:5 a little too literally.

Also, other firsts on Sunday - first time I cried while playing (the worship was that good) and also the first time I dropped my drumsticks while playing (apparently nobody noticed the abrupt break).

I hope this never happens again, save for the crying. It's good to feel the Holy Spirit moving so freely.

Xtreme Singapore

I had the chance to be in the thick of the action of Xtreme Singapore on Saturday. We had gone in with Mountain Dew as the official drink (the high caffeine level is meant to get your heart pumping, thus the linkage with extreme sports... or something like that) so I was there to make sure everything was in place and that the event company we hired was doing their job.

Before the event even began, Murphy's Law caught up with the organisers. The electricity supply screwed up so they couldn't start the registration without the laptops and printers to do the necessary paperwork. For us that meant we couldn't turn on our chillers. Fortunately, I had prepared cooler boxes and some packs of ice so we could still chill our drinks. And it proved valuable as the day wore on with the sun blazing down mercilessly on us.

Our sucky sales aside, it was full steam ahead once the event went underway. It's amazing the amount of talent some of these kids have. There were three main groups: BMX, skateboard and in-line skates. It brought me back to my skating days - getting chased by the police for crossing the road on our decks, getting our names taken down for sitting on the steps of the War Memorial along Queen Elizabeth walk. But back then skating was a sub-culture. Kids nowadays are so blessed, with proper skate parks to go to and government backed events to showcase their talent.

I sat on the floor below the box-jump ramp to take some photos of the flying kids. I didn't realise I was sunburnt until I reached home and realised I was cooked like a lobster when Vel said "Daddy, why your face so red?".

If the stuff that kids can do are anything to go by, I'm definite the finals are going to be a blast. I'm soooo looking forward to that.

Thank God for work

As cliched as it sounds, time really does fly when you're having fun. It's been almost a month since I've been at my new job. There's so much to attend to everyday that I don't even notice the minutes flying by. Almost got cross-eyed with all the reports to compile too! There are daily reports to look at, weekly reports to analyse and monthly reports to prepare for our meetings with the principals.

Faster than I can say 'housekeeping', my table is starting to become a mess. I've got tons of documents sitting in my in-tray (segregated into Work In Progress, KIV, Recycled Paper). I don't even know what my drawers are for, they are still empty at the moment save for the top one which is full of half-assed stationery (dried up markers, staplers that don't work, half eaten erasers, etc) left behind by my predecessor.

I've even started a little pantry of my own - consisting of a tin of Jacob's cream crackers (since I always have the munchies being the gremlin that I am), my favourite Monmilk which I replenish every Monday and my supplements (can't afford to burn out).

Now all I need are some photos, toys and posters to personalise my space.