=559= Five Word Posts: Stuffed

Stuffed

Ruffle

Future

Many

Lift

=558= Word: Let Me Pick The Teams

I DIDN'T DO I TO BE FUNNY.
YEAH? SO YOU DID IT TO, UH, TO WHAT? TO BE EDUCATIONAL? IT'S NOT FAIR.
OK, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND.
IT'S NOT LIKE ANYONE FORGETS WHO GETS PICKED LAST.
I'VE ALWAYS BEEN PICKED LAST.
EVERYONE KNOWS.
GIRLS KNOW.
AND THE THING IS, I MIGHT NOT BE BAD.
I NEVER GET BETTER BECAUSE I'M NEVER GIVEN THE CHANCE.
BUT I COULD BE GOOD.
YOU KNOW, I MEAN, I KNOW I COULD BE GOOD.
BUT IT'S NOT MY FAUL YOU GET PICKED LAST.
YES, IT IS.
I MEAN, YOU'VE GO ALL THE POWER.
YOU COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING.
AND HOW WOULD I DO THAT? SIMPLE.
LET ME PICK THE TEAMS.

JEAN, IS THE GROCERY STORE OUT OF NORMAL FOOD? IS THAT THE PROBLEM? THIS IS NORMAL FOOD.
NO.
NORMAL FOOD IS POT ROAST.
NORMAL FOOD IS MEAT LOAF.
IT IS DEAD ANIMAL, AND IT IS NOT ON FIRE.
NO! NO! NO, NO! MAYBE SOME OF US ARE UP FOR SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT AROUND HERE.
DON'T YOU WANNA LIVE LIFE, HAROLD? OR MAYBE YOU'VE JUST TURNED INTO A MEAN OLD MAN.
[SOBBING] DON'T YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME! WHAT'S WRONG WITH US, HAROLD? WHAT'S HAPPENED TO US? WE NEED CHANGE, DON'T WE? THINGS NEED TO CHANGE.
I DON'T WANT US TO JUST BE ROBOTS.
WE ARE NOT ROBOTS, AND THINGS DO NO NEED TO CHANGE.
I LIKE HOW THINGS ARE.
I LIKE EATING THE SAME THINGS.
AND YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE THOSE ARE THE THGS I LIKE.
I LIKE CHICKEN, AND I LIKE POT ROAST.
AND THAT'S HOW I FEEL ABOUT YOU, JEAN.
OH, PLEASE.
YOU LIKE ME LIKE YOU LIKE A POT ROAST? I LOVE POT ROAST! GOD, YOU JUS DON'T GET IT, DO YOU?! I GIVE UP! I QUIT! IS THAT RIGHT? YES! YOU DON' APPRECIATE ME.
MAYBE I'LL GO BACK TO SCHOOL.
WHAT ABOUT THAT? YOU THINK I DON'T APPRECIATE YOU? WELL, I DO.
EVERYTHING I DO, I DO TO SERVE YOU.
I THINK OF YOU WHEN I'M STOCKING FISHING POLES, AND I THINK OF YOU WHEN I'M ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOU CROSS-COUNTRY SKI WAX.
MY WHOLE LIFE IS ABOUT SERVING YOU.
AND I LOVE YOU, JEAN.
THANK YOU.

=557= Reflections: Less Is More

Musicians has this phrase that everyone says, “Less is more.”

What this means is that sometimes when you don’t play certain notes, it may actually help serve the music.

Today I learned another fact about the statement, “less is more.”

I wanted to get the album all mixed to my liking you see. I was left with 4 songs to mix. So I decided to mix the song with the least channels, “Here Because of you.”

It only had 1 Lead Vocal, 1 backup, (used for delay) 1 stereo piano and 1 stereo pad.

4 channels, probably really easy to mix right? Well, to some extend yes, I only have four channels to balance. However, because I only had 4 channels. I needed make sure that each channel is perfect.

Being my perfectionist self, I really wanted to modernise the sound of the song. Adding a modern piano, adding modern pads to the sound. And the magic of MIDI was that what was played 8 years ago could sound totally different when I changed the patch.

The stereo piano was using the mini grand plugin. So I decided, I wanted a newer and nicer piano, so I used the kontakt’ Alicia Keys. The funny thing about this piano sound was that it is was sampled with Alicia Keys’ own piano, so even all the flaws that came with the piano was sampled. You can hear the squeaking of the piano and all. Very cool.

Then for the stereo pad, it was using the Xpand2 plugin, I replaced it with the very new analog strings that we just purchased for the new album. It was so much fun to add in the new sounds. There were so many options. Man. The only draw back was that the recorded MIDI Xpand2  actually had some automation recorded from the playing. So like the blending of the. Sounds and all were all gone. 

It was very hard to choose the right sound. There were so many. I could really made the song almost EDM-ish with the type of patches I had.

Then, I discovered EXHALE. WHOO. Siao cool. It is this voice simulation thingy. Kinda like those choir pads, but way cooler and more fun. I chose the Merfolk patch but tweaked the sound a bit because the high artifacts were interesting but too much.

With very little instruments, it is very hard to hide flaws and like mixing with balance in mind. I had to consider things like should I pan this here? Should I add a plugin to make the mono channel stereo?

I found it harder to mix for this song than a lot of the other songs because of the sheer amount of options I had with the MIDI library there. It was a lot of fun of course, but it was quite draining.

Finding the right patch. Then I needed to find the right patch that goes well with the other patch. Man I must have done so much experimenting man, once I was done with the song, I didn’t even want to mix. HAHA.

Less channels = More options = harder to mix. HAHA, less channels is more work.

Nevertheless, I did it, hopefully it sounds half decent.

I even duplicated a channel then I transposed up one octave to make the sound a bit different and have it come in only in the chorus. Pretty nice! 🙂 HAHA! 

Very hard song to mix because it had very few channels.

Then came mastering. With bass, the mastering process is straightforward. All I need is more or less a straight line until it dips at about 8-10k. However, without Bass, it is very hard to estimate or learn what I need to do just by looking at the analyser. 

Haha, and I learned the difference in file formats.

I have been listening to the AAC version of the old files. Now that I ripped out the Apple lossless file, man, the mixing and all were actually very good. Some of which I just don’t think that my version is better. Mine may be clearer in essence, but the earlier versions of the songs were really good. Like legit good. I got rather discouraged.

Oh well, I just hope that my versions will be half decent compared to its’ predecessors. Modernising the old may not make it better, but yeah, just want it to sound good! 🙂

Loving my new dog plushie! 🙂 Thank you! 

-Kelvin-

=556= Thanksgiving: Mei

Hahaha, as I am writing, man, I am just so touched by my new Mei. HAHAHA.

I guess before I share this platform with her, I shall just record down my thanksgiving for her.

She is just so sweet lah. HAHA. I melt Sia. Never had such a sweet younger Sister, man, just so nice. HAHAHA.

So cute Sia. Hope I have some time one day to go buy a turtle for her! 🙂

I dunno when you will read this lah Mei, just know that I appreciate you a lot! 🙂

-Kelvin-

=555= Word: Overworked

Well, I think I can finally say, I am overworked and I am tired. These few days, man was just days of toil and I just got SOOO tired.

I am a chronic hard and over worker. Even my own parents think that I am crazy. Going back to work on my off day. Etc etc. Honestly, man, after all of this, I am really overworked and the consequences are catching up to me.

I was so tired when I knocked off from work that I just couldn’t keep my eyes open on the train.

Rest is a discipline, I really need to learn how to rest. -sigh- Kelvin let’s take care of yourself for a moment shall we?

Go to cell for community.

Practice drums.

Read a book.

Exercise when you get better from your cough.

Meet people to have a nice chat.

Come on Kelvin, stop killing yourself with what you want to do.

-Kelvin-

=554= Reflections: Legacy Issue

2 years back, during my Video Technology module in school. The most patient teacher in Ngee Ann, Mr Loh Chin Fei, talked about analog signal vs digital signal and interlaced video signal vs progressive video signal.

The whole topic talked about why was interlaced video signal created and why it is still a standard today.

For those who don’t understand what interlaced video signal is, let me explain. Before the standard LCD TVs that we are so used to today, the old analog TV was the CRT TV, Cathode Ray Tube TV. 

How it works is that it is one point of light and it draws lines downwards to form a picture. However, the TV is unable to scan lines fast enough for the picture to form. So the solution was interlaced video signal. It will first scan the odd lines first(1,3,5,7) then it will scan the even lines. (2,4,6,8)

Anyone that has any interaction with video will know that there is a standard frame rate for video. 24 frames per second to trick the eye to think that it is a natural moving picture. In interlaced video signal, to replicate the same effect, it has to provide 48 fields per second for the picture to look natural.

Soon, LCD TV came into the market. LCD TVs works differently. It has a light in the TV and it has a LCD display to block light. Do you know those displays you have on calculators? Those are LCD screens. Hence, interlaced signal now becomes a problem because the LCD display does not flicker like a CRT and people can see the difference.

Hence, video signals went back to progressive. However, since that is the case, why are we still using interlaced video signal today?

Legacy issue.

You must understand, when progressive signal became popular, there were still many people with the old CRT TVs. To completely thrash interlaced signal altogether is impossible because there are people still using that format.

Just like now, there is a transistion from analog video signal to digital video signal. It is impossible to move from one format to another format without transition.

Just like how TV’s standard input nowadays is HDMI, so why should I put in three RCA inputs too?

Legacy Issue.

People have been using RCA inputs for so long, there is a need to put in a RCA input in case that the customers wants to use it.

There has been some heated discussions about how the terms “Eternal Death” and “Eternal Life” are inaccurate.

Their point is that your existence is still there living, but you are either in hell or heaven. I tried explaining legacy issue to them, but they just don’t seem to get it.

I guess, what you call death and what you call life is very important. A very simple analogy I like to give is the phrase, “生不如死.”

Literal translation is “death is more preferable than life in this situation. Would you call this kind of life, living?

If you definition of death is “to end your own existence.” Then I am sorry, there is no point for the word, “death” at all. I mean, if your soul lives on, then your existence lives on. There is no such thing as death if your definition of death is as such.

However, if you definition of life is, “to be with God.” Then your definition of death would be, “to be away from God.”

That makes things very different.

Sure if you want to REALLY accurate, Eternal “death” may not be a term that is accurate. Perhaps “eternal torment” will be more accurate. However, will you call “eternal torment” life?

I also bring in the issue that, they understand what each term means, but, what about those that aren’t educated? How do you explain “eternal torment” to them? People think too linearly if they think they can explain everything everytime. To coin the two concepts of eternal seperate on from God and eternal existence with God. The two terms, “Eternal Death” and “Eternal life” are adequate.

Perhaps soon this two terms may become outdated when more and more people get educated and wants to be VERY accurate with the words used. However, there are legacy issues that they will definitely meet. These two terms have been used so often through the years that people have already understood those concepts with the terms.

Honestly, instead of fighting over the terms used, come on. Understanding and knowing the meanings behind the terms are way more important. 

It is just a legacy issue that has a problem with the young. I just don’t think it is that big an issue. Whatever lah huh. Let’s not argue over something so trivial when the meaning behind the term is way more heavy. 

-Kelvin-

=553= Reflections: Retreat 2017

I guess I cannot get away with not reflecting upon retreat. So yeah, let’s just do it.

Many people asked me why am I in the YA but still part of a youth group during the retreat. I would then explain that I want to rest on this retreat.

It isn’t that I don’t have a burden for the youths—I love the youths—I just wanted to take some time out to recharge and actually receive for a change.

When pastor Doug talked about how he has been pouring out for years and had no self care. I could actually relate. Not that I poured out as much as pastor Doug, but indeed years of pouring and close to none self care has caught up to me.

The funny thing was that even after getting permission from Bro Ken, Daniel and I went down to meet the group anyway. Once we were there, the group leader instincts took over and we found ourselves sticking to the group.

As a joke, I would whine to Daniel, Elsa and Tiff that “we are stuck!” Then “blame” it on EnMing, saying, “What have you done? Making us go down for briefing and now we are stuck!”

Please know that it was all jokes ok! AHAHA! I really rather enjoyed myself in my group, Hillview. I made quite a few friends and managed to share my life with them. Making them laugh and all was just fun for me. Not to mention, I now have a Mei! 😂 Before this, I only have a few older sisters, now say hi to my first younger sibling. 😂

I think that both Daniel and I, have our hearts with the youth. So it was really rather hard for us to leave the youth side even though we wanted to try the YA side.

I was so concerned with what would happen if I left and gave no guidance to the new leader with little experience. I don’t know, I really got a bit angry when I saw the young 16 year old trying to handle the group all on her own with no assistance or guidance from someone more experienced.

Let’s just say I cannot stand bad attitude, and irresponsibility. I was rather apprehensive leaving the group like that because the attention was split and just couldn’t handle the group.

Nevertheless, because of how tired I got, I missed Singapore on the second day of retreat. I would rather do work. Of course, I do enjoy work very much. So thankful to be able to do what I like to do.

Hence, I just decided to go over to the YA side because, one, I was very tired. Two, the game wasn’t a very group game. So I just decided that it would be appropriate to go attend the workshops at that time.

To my surprise, the workshop that I attended—because I crashed the workshop that Claire was attending—was taught by Pastor T, last year’s youth speaker! Just very nice! 🙂 good to hear all the message again. Then, we went out to Mid Valley with Shaun and Keith. Was rather glad that I could go out so I jumped at the chance. Walked around, got our room quite a lot of snacks and bought Elsa bubble tea.

Then the next day, when I went out, I bought herbal tea for a few people and bought Gui Ling Gao for ourselves! 🙂 Also bought magnum for Miss Tan, but it melted by the time it got to her! So too bad, liquid ice cream for you.

I got rather mad when there were so little time to digest and swallow the word that Pastor Doug preached. I was so annoyed that the game was just so forced. I really wish for a fluid program structure. That one would plan/overplay games and activities, but when the spirit moves, the programmes will have the option of bypassing/pushing the programme aside so that the spirit can do its work.

I saw the scene again, it was like a war scene. We were all on the floor crying, but we have won the battle. I just wished we had more time to stay there and reflect.

One thing that really really made me happy was that I met my ex cell kid that backslided. Man, seeing him in the retreat just made me oh so happy. I didn’t even want to scold him, I was just that happy that he is back. Man. I invited him to my room, had some supper and snacks and played exploding kittens.

The funny thing was that I fell asleep before he left the room! Ahaha, but yeah, I was happy.

The next day, found out that Claire was sick. So I just brought my remaining one Gui Ling Gao for her and passed it to Emmy. Then I went out with my new cell. Had lunch with them, Miss Gao and Yi Xian. Was really nice. Got to know my cell people a lot more. Then we went to have magnum. Goodness. It was heavenly. SOOO good Sia. 😭

Just so fantastic.

Then bought like Herbal Tea, Gui Ling Gao, Gong Cha and Ribena for people.

Then Daniel and I made it just in time for the final scene of the life game. So I sat down and watched. Visually, it was really quite scary.

Really makes you think of eternity you know.

Another thing I that has been returning to me is legacy issue. HAHA! People seem to not understand what does legacy issue mean. Ok, nevermind, this is for another post.

The games were nice! Met this parent that was REALLY competitive. Like siao one. I dunno, I saw that and I was rather concerned. 

Retreat this time round was really more of a time of rest and discovery.

Really enjoyed spending time with people and resting.

Ok, thank you God! 🙂

-Kelvin-