430# Revival

A total absence of 1 month.

I thought semester 8 was honey moon. Apparently not. Too many things kept me occupied.

The minor postings itself are stressing. The so called "minor" isn't too minor for us. Not only they are new fields or us (otorhinolaryngology, dermatology, ophthalmology, emergency medicine), but the time consuming part is the PowerPoint presentation for the common seminars.

Average 2 presentations or more in a week. Reading is alright, but certainly not the slide preparation.



Firstly I was busy over the preparation for our research's presentation and poster design. I started doing my one week break, then printed it out in the university, and then got rejected by my supervisor and re-do it again.

After re-doing the poster, i had to reprint it again, and publish it in the notice board. That sounds easy but the whole thing was a one-man-job even I have 4 other research group mates.



Luckily Eley was helpful enough to write all the words for the poster, and I got Nick to do the presentation, or else I'd be crazy.

Our group got the 3rd prize though. And just when I thought research is over, our supervisor told us that he has submitted our research abstract to a conference in Malacca, and he asked me to do another new poster for the competition...

Secondly, I was nearly suffocated by the extensive practice for our university's 10th anniversary dinner performance.



I started practicing 3 weeks before the performance the moment I got my hands on the instrument. The extreme practice only kicked in during the week before the performance, where we practiced from 5pm to 12am almost everyday.

It was the first performance of me for such solemn event, it was the first performance of me playing 3 songs at one go, it was the first performance of me playing standing, and it was the first performance of me playing the bass guitar.



Again, performing an instrument which is not my primary (electric guitar). All my previous performances were drums and this time I play standing!

This time we got Aaron to handle the drums and conga. So that was why I played the bass, since no one could handle it that time.

It was not too hard, although I had previously taken a 2 hour bass course for my elective 2.5 years ago, but it practically didn't serve any help during my practise.

The 5 string Ibanez bass plus the 65W Ibanez amplifier were a perfect matched killer. I really love playing it. Too bad they were not mine. I went to buy it with Gabriel and they are university property :(



The hard part was that the songs we performed, as usual, were classical.

I have no idea where are the METAL cells in me have gone. For so many years I have never perform a metal song before, not even a rock song. All these while the songs I performed on drums where like bossa nova, Xmas song, oldies, classical and pop.

Oh well, I'm not complaining. I have not seen a metal player like me since the pass 4 years. That explains all.

Libertango, Besame Mucho and Mandy Moore's Only Hope. These were the three songs that I practiced again and again until my fingers hurt so badly where I couldn't use chopsticks for more than one week.



The performance turned out to be a success. I hope the audience enjoyed it.

Alright, I did blunder a bit during the fast bassline but hey, no one could even notice that because it was too fast to be noticed, haha.

KLCC's banquet hall was a great place to be in. It was a great experience for me to perform for such important event and in front of those people where their total IQ more than the number of cells that I have in my body.



And now, after all those time that I spent, I must concentrate on my studies.

4 minor postings exam at one go in 5 more days. Finish 1 book in 1 day each?

After that elective is next. I'll be recording a song titled "Intermezzo Liberte" as a one man band where I'll play the lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, drums and effect all by myself.

And it's an expensive elective project for me.

Broke...


PS: Oh wait. I still have to practice Goo Goo Dolls "Iris" and "When the starts go blue" on drums and bass for this Friday's jamming. God, I need more time please!