the small small things

Life, right now, offers several nice small occasions which still give that impact of contentment in my life.

I experienced joy when I jammed at my friend’s studio- me and my housemate playing the trumpet, another senior friend on her saxophone, and the studio owner with his keyboard, and his fellow guitarist and bassist. Cool! I’m getting more and more confident in expressing myself with my trumpet now.

I experienced joy when I finally get three out of my six cavities filled, at the dentist. Now I feel a lot better and I enjoyed my meals like other normal people.

I experienced joy during the rehearsal at the National Theatre, when my friend the trombone player decided to hit the low bass note, to substitute the tuba player who was not there. Both of us even giggled because the sound of it was really nice. Call us nerd, but it was cool.

I experienced joy when I helped my friend buying a 39.90 artificial orchid, a square shaped glass vase, and small grey stones, and arranged them to be the new center of attraction of his apartment.

I experienced joy when I bought a new wallet for my dad’s birthday. In fact this would be my first birthday gift for him. I always used to perceive him as self sufficient successful man, “no need to buy anything for him”, but I gave up that thought and chose to be thoughtful anyway.

One says, “Find that miracle in the ordinary moments in your life.”

When you start to seriously appreciate and indulge what you’ve already got, insanely you will just find that moment of happiness. Happiness, after all, is not given, you have to generate it.

belasungkawa

After having fun with my friends in a club in KL, we stopped by the roadside, following the crowd, witnessing the scene of an accident on the highway towards Damansara.


It was about half an hour after the horrible incident took place.


Death is a certainty.
It kept me think again, how do I want to use my life given to me.

Do I want to catch my last breath thinking that I only filled up my life with drama and more drama-

or do I want to contribute and also be a successful person before I die.

So that when I close my eyes, I knew it was all worthwhile.

May the deceased rest in peace.
Al-fatihah.




NST- PETALING JAYA: Crash victim Mohd Firdaus Laily tried to pull his younger brother and friend out of their wrecked car but could only watch in horror as the vehicle caught fire and exploded.

Mohd Huzaini Mohd Anan, 30, and Mohd Ridzuan Laily, 21, both from Seremban, died in the 3.50am accident on the Sprint Highway here yesterday.

Fire and Rescue Department personnel extricated their bodies four hours later.

Mohd Firdaus was in the front passenger seat. They were travelling towards Damansara.

However, as their vehicle reached Eastin Hotel along the highway, it spun and crashed into the road barrier before plunging down to the road beside the viaduct.

Mohd Firdaus managed to get out and tried to save his brother but failed as Mohd Ridzuan was stuck in the passenger seat behind the driver, Mohd Huzaini.

It is learnt that Mohd Huzaini's feet were stuck at the pedals and Mohd Firdaus could not dislodge him from the driver's seat. He was forced to run for safety when the bonnet burst into flames. Seconds later, the car exploded and Mohd Huzaini and Mohd Ridzuan were burnt to death.

It is understood that both Mohd Huzaini and Mohd Ridzuan were business partners.

They had met at KL Sentral, together with Mohd Firdaus, before heading towards Damansara for a meal.

the concert KLPaC

Regardless that I was tangled with a lot of disappointments last week, there are events which made me remember again that I can always get something good if I am willing to be in action to direct myself towards it.



After nights of rehearsals, the KLPaC orchestra did perform well during the July concert. Some music experts view it as “there is a lot of space of improvement”, but I personally enjoyed the performance, and I’ve gain a lot from it.

This was the first performance that I had to be really confident and be in the limelight, since the main song featured us as the brass players, especially for the trumpets and the trombones. There is no space for me to hide myself, I needed to be bold, and out there showing myself in what I play.

During the rehearsals, thanks to the piano solo / educator,
I pretty much learned a lot about how we can reflect the character of the composer Beethoven through his piano concerto.



Beethoven was a very decisive person. When he decides something, he is bold, and he doesn’t care about what the rest might think of him. He is not scared of extreme contrasts in his music, and experimenting chords which would be strange during that era.

It was a nice concert. I’m proud that my name was listed amongst the others in the program book.

And yeah, I’m looking for more achievements in life.

to have integrity

Looking into my life these few weeks, I wondered what went wrong.

I now realized that I might have been a little bit lost.
I am already on track, but I instead of going straight ahead,
I wasted time removing the weeds on sides of the road.
I got carried away.

I’ve already gotten a few achievements-
To be in two good orchestras,
To kick start myself performing solo,
To get an awesome job as an exec in a firm.

However, there are a few core things that I need to sit down and think about.
What happened to my relationships?
If I want to treat my life as a whole,
I should be dealing with all the aspects of my life.

I could take the responsibility of restoring the way I relate myself to people.
To restore it, I can look into the root that caused this huge mess.
Instead of focusing into the whole drama, I tracked back to where it started.
And as I look into the core of it, I’ve learned something really good.

I’ve always been late!
To the extent of “it’s common to have me late”.
I’ve been late all the time for work,
I’ve been late most of the time for rehearsals,
I’ve been late for movies, plays, concerts.
In fact, I always didn’t manage to do my first duty of the duty,
To do my morning prayers.

If I were being late for God, let alone trying to be punctual for anyone else.

This week has been the starting point of the game.
Let's put my new Seiko and W610i alarm function in maximum utilization.

A leading IT exec and an excellent musician, will always be on time than anyone else.

how do you stop a war?

In a crisis between us and the people that we know,
how do we end it?

Some say sorry and some send flowers.
The other side would forgive and smile again.

But sometimes it gets too deep,
It's a messy chain of blaming one another-

You did this and that.
You were the one who started it all.
It's not my fault, it's yours.

It's a never ending process of hating each other.

Until a friend told me something which is so profound-

"It ain't matter if you're on the true side of the turf.
As long as you're sincere and you want to make things become better,
You would stop talking bad about people regardless that they might be wrong.
Believe in God, give it time, He will help in time."

Jumping out of the vicious cycle takes strength,
but it's worth it.

So I decided to give up my nonsense and drama,
and keep silent.

I see this as a space for me to develop and improve myself,
Chase my dreams, and look for opened doors.

Hopefully in time things would be restored.
However if it were meant that we don't walk the same path anymore,
Perhaps God have a better plan for all of us.

performance this weekend!!

(Click map of KLPaC to enlarge.)

Coming up this weekend, my first performance
as a KLPaC orchestra member!

Concert details:

Saturday evening, 12 July @ 8.30pm;
Sunday afternoon, 13 July @ 3.00pm.

DENNIS LEE & The KLPac Sinfonietta
(with Winner of Piano Competition Festival Finale)

Repertoire:
Piano concerto by Beethoven,
Aida (based on the opera) by Verdi.

Ticket prices:
RM60 / RM45 / RM30 and RM40 / RM30

Penang-born renowned concert pianist and educator,
Dennis Lee, performs with The KLPac Sinfonietta.
Concert also features the winner
of this year's piano competition
(Award ceremony during 12 July concert).

The orchestra is getting better and better
after each intensive rehearsal,
especially when Dennis Lee stepped in
and intricately guided us to play Beethoven.
He really knows about the piece,
and he also studied in deep
about the character of Beethoven.
And yeah, he literally memorize all three movements.

Click the picture above, for more details.

my new gadget. so happy... ^_^

I've already had it with my previous phone,
being spoilt for one whole week.

So I forked out some money,
and managed to buy this cute lil' thing.



It's not a W890 but it's still fine. :)

my seiko again.. hik hik

Photos taken by bibiknyonya.
See how clear the images are.
No wonder bibik's photo whore sessions are always tip-top dan very-the-vast.

mini aquarium

Photos of my apartment mate's mini fish tank-
taken with different cameras-
Sony camera phone, Minolta digital cam, Nikon SLR.
These ikan bilis fishes can't just sit still!!

my first live band show- the horror and the fun of it

At last, I entered the huge ballroom where the wedding dinner was held.
Wah! So grand the entrance.
Imagine if your house has doors like these.



I and the other musicians were all in black attire.
It was nice that we were served with food earlier,
so that we won't get famished while playing for the event.

As I stood there on the stage for sound check, I felt excited.
There was a condensed microphone just for me in the middle of the stage.
It's like me having a test drive on how does it feel to go solo like Chris Botti.
Hik.

And then the show begun.




As the couple entered the hall, I started blowing my trumpet, playing the song "Merenjis", till they get seated on the dais, in front of everyone.

But we were panicked when they did the "tepung tawar" ceremony.

*Tepung tawar is when the parents walk to the wedding dais, throw rice and flour on the couple's face as a blessing so that they won't throw stuff (like pots and pans and pails) at each other's face in the future, once they're officially married. Okay, just kidding. It's just a ceremony of giving blessings, that's all.

But for a few minutes during that tepung tawar thingy, there was no music!
I was being panicky, frantically asking my band leader what are we gonna play?!!
There was a deafening silence, and people were waiting.
It felt like a huge ugly concrete slab was in front of the audience,
and everyone's waiting for the slab to be removed out of sight.
Put it away! Put it away!

Luckily the technician up there saved the evening by playing some relevant music CDs.
How embarassing.

Then after that when dinner is served, it was smooth sailing-
Me playing Beautiful Maria,
and then we all jammed Just the Two of Us,
and also Kasih.

The wedding dinner felt so short,
couldn't manage to play other songs from the song list given by our client.

By the way, look at the cake, so beautiful :)



How I felt about the whole performance?
A bit dissappointed because I feel as if we don't really follow the clients' demands.
A bit relieved because we've made it through the whole night anyway.
Was excited too because, it was that moment I've got the chance to stand boldly, hundreds of people watching me play, like a mini concert for myself.
Shortly said, we could've done a LOT better, but it was fine.



As for the wedding couple and their family, they seem to be having a wonderful time.
And that's what matters most.

a reminder forwarded by my cousin

When your prayer is granted in an instant, He loves you.

When your prayer is granted late, He is testing you to be strong.

When your prayer is not granted at all, He has better plans for you.

Always think positively about His decisions in any circumstances,

Because His love precedes His wrath.

busy busy bee

Boy, really it’s hectic this whole week.
I don't even have time to cut my toe nails!

After work, I rushed to meet my friend, and from there he drove us straight to Seremban to a studio where we met two guitarists.

I’ve got to rehearse with a complete live band for the first time!
Our function falls this Saturday, on a wedding.
Heard that there’s going to be a demonstration on the next day,
Hopefully I won’t get caught in the jam caused by any possible road blocks.

Regardless that I was really exhausted
(especially my lips for playing the trumpet non-stop),
It was a fun experience to play something different.

Too bad couldn’t snap pictures,
Because my phone is at the workshop for the whole week.
Hopefully they can manage to repair it,
Otherwise, hopefully I can fork out money to get a new walkman phone.

Oh, time to go to the office toilet and cut my toe nails.
Surely people would frown and feel weird when they hear the clip-clip sound.
Hik.

i don't need to wait til weekend

It’s Thursday.
And tomorrow is Friday, a day deemed as holy in Islam.


When I decided to have a break and not meeting anyone at all, and just do the things that I want without having to hear what people say, I expected to feel peace, quiet, and having a smooth relaxing time.

Instead, I experience having my little voice in my head continuously thinking of how to prove that people are bad. Even at the moment when I said to myself “Let’s stop for a while and think of nothing,” the brain goes back to the same mode.

And as I continue judging everyone around me, I always ended up with the same conclusion. The more I want to run away from it, the more that I realize and admit to the fact that all the negative things about people is actually a reflection of myself. It’s just one of the unique ways of nature of giving you a valuable lesson in life.

People say that when a situation sucks, it sucks, and there’s nothing good would come out of it. For this whole week I’ve tried believing on that, but it just doesn’t work for me. Firstly, it’s no fun continuously being that way. Secondly, I am aware that I could get some benefit from any kind of situation, even at the most challenging times.

Take this for an example.
A few years ago, there was this story of brothers and sisters who secretly went to take a dip in a river. All of them were drowned. The news showed the mother, inside a truck, talking calmly and with care, asked the people to arrange the bodies of her children neatly inside the truck.

“Where’s my second child? Okay put my sayang over there.”

My friend argued that she’s already went nuts because she couldn’t cope with the loss of her whole family.

I saw it in a different view. I think she is a brave woman, who had the courage to accept what’s fated by God. She is aware that if she continues being depressed, nothing will change. In fact nothing good will come out of it.

She didn’t cry out loud and say, “Life sucks”. Instead, she dealt with the situation really well, and she is at peace.

She is more focused on fulfilling her duties as a loving mother, having the bodies taken care of, treated and ready to be put to rest in a proper funeral.

So. It applies to everyone, you and me.

Tomorrow will be a new day.
Let’s start it slowly from today, and restore and escalate to a lot of achievements of the thing called life.

are you dumb or something?

Sometimes it gets to the nerve of us IT staff when we are requested to solve computer issues that actually can be solved by the users themselves.

For example,
“My computer monitor is not showing display and there’s scary electric sound as if it’s about to blow into pieces”.

I went all the way to the user’s seat and the monitor power cable was loose.

“The server is down. I couldn’t get into the company’s email.”

I went all the way and discovered that the computer itself has NO network cable connected to the network port on the wall.

No cable, how to go to internet? Feel-feel pretend got wireless?

After I handed the user a network cable and the computer is connected to the internet, I said, “Let’s celebrate. The server is now up.”

Some users (who are of the professional class) simply have no patience at all.
At one particular second, all of the users in the department sent print jobs from their computer straight to the printer.

The printer, not capable to receive one thousand job commands at one moment, suddenly hang.

Then, I will definitely get a call.
“Sir, the server is down. Our printer is not responding.”


Server is down?
How about this.
Your brain is down.