Happy Lunar New Year!

Sorry I haven’t been blogging much, been fairly busy with uni / orientation prep / outings / errands… Have to a do a few catchup posts of the KL weekend with Jo, Cecilia’s farewell and afterparty, and many more fun moments.

BUT NOW:

:) Just a quickie to wish everyone a blessed Lunar New Year of the Ox! Gong xi fa cai! Please have safe journeys to and from your hometowns, and eats lots to get that prosperous look~

For the young ones (like myself, ahem), may we have a wonderful time receiving those well-loved “blessings” in tiny red packets, hee hee.

And for the older ones, let it be a time of fun, family, and friends–aaaand sharing of the blessings of the previous year.

:D Can’t wait for the yee sang and mahjong. Wheeee~

p/s – Ladies’ night on chor 4 of New Year, are we up for AHR? Heh.

Distracted (Horribly)

I’ve not been myself lately.

Can’t seem to focus on anything.

CVS lectures. CSU sessions. PBL sessions.

God. Church. Sermons. Worship. Prayer. Cell group.

Talking to my parents. Even hanging out with friends. Chatting. Chilling. Texting.

Something’s been bothering me in the back of my mind, but I can’t put my finger on it.

I lose track of my thoughts and words, can’t even fish out phrases or sentences coherently. They get stuck.

However, without fail, when I sit down to my piano and worship chordbook, everything else just vanishes. The same thing happens when we’re working on the song and the guitar’s just going on and on and on…

I’m doomed.

Thoughts on Songwriting

My mind is exhausted, yet I feel fulfilled.

It’s been madness, but a happy kind, where Ming & I sit for hours–him with the guitar, making up lines, and I biting the pencil (or repeatedly smoothing and crumpling the paper)–conjuring that magic which we call music.

Strum, sing, think it’s good, write it down. Try again–doesn’t fit this time, scrap it. Ok, strum again, make up words again, cringe at the cheese, then retire to coffee or tea (or me?) while looping the melody in our heads.

CVS is completely absent in my brain at this point in time. CVS? What CVS? :)

What’s present, however, are lyrics that you’re hesitant to voice aloud because you have no idea how it’ll be taken. Yet, in due time–what the heck. :)

Cue sudden mutual realization–What’s the theme again? What are we singing about? Oh no, realized too late–roll eyes and laugh at ourselves. Try again.

Improvise: Think punk? Colbie Callait? Jazon Mraz? Forget what we’ve been stuck with and try something else? Ooookay!

This’ll take a while.

But what a time–and what a way to hang out of the ordinary. Beats conversation any day (except when you run out of things to sing about and just want to GET TO BED WHEN YOU REMEMBER THE PBL SESSION you have scheduled in less than 8 hours).

I love medstudentsingersongwritervocalist life.

Bring it onnn.

p/s. Swing dancing @ Aliyaa, Bukit Damansara. 8-11pm, today Jan 13th, Tuesday. See www.klswing.com for more info.

PEARS DON’T HAVE BOOBS!

Laydees and gentlemen.

You know body shape classifications? Not the whole endomorph, ectomorph stuff, but the “apple”, “pear” and “hourglass” thing?

For YEARS, I have thought I was a “pear”. Why?

Because I have a heavy bottom (or so my mum declares on countless shopping outings). Pears suck. I mean, they taste good, but they look funny.

But yesterday, when I was looking at this ad that showcased apple/pear/hourglass shapes… I struck upon this amazing, freeing revelation.

I am no longer a freakin’ pear. I AM AN HOURGLASS BABY!! Just a fat hourglass.

And whyyyy?

BECAUSE PEARS DON’T HAVE BOOBS and I do.

:D Oh happy day~

Procrastination Woes

It is gloriously 3.54 a.m., Friday morning. I sit before my buzzing, bright laptop screen, my own mind buzzing, too, with caffeine ingested hours earlier at OldTown White Coffee, Kelana Jaya.

Knowledge of the electrocardiogram, WHERE ART THOU? And yea, thou sly and knavish drug, O atropine, hast hideth thyself within the tubings of the internette. Also, such atrioventricular blockades hath never been gazed upon… Henceforth, reveal thyselves!

…Last minute PBL research, hooray. Thankfully, I’ll be collecting my saving grace tomorrow morning — Lilly’s “Pathophysiology of the Heart”, 3rd Ed. Thank you, Sowmya, for the early tip!

Besides putting research off until now, I also had a lovely day “yesterday”–Thursday. My morning began with brunch with Ming, this guy I met at the Debfung & Alarice songwriting workshop last December. Uncannily, we have a lot in common, and have had similar experiences of sorts with God, relationships, people, and stuff in general. :) He’s a cool guy with a big heart for God. And an amazingg voice & musical talent!

Much later, after dinner, we met up again for more yumcha and sharing about life, relationships, and everything in between. Awesome stuff. Encouraging stuff. Super excited when the time for writing the song comes around. I have this feeling it’ll be this spontaneous inspirational moment… Yeah. (and then the long tweaking process)

The afternoon was then sorely invaded by dear Dr. Nyunt Wai’s lectures on arrythmias and the cardiac cycle… He has the most unique slide arrangement AND lecture style, bless the man. Sometimes, he uses the most random metaphors to explain a concept, and one can’t help but smile. But most of the time, he goes along on his own, leaving one in a state of woeful, expectant confusion as to what he referred to the tiny sun graphic as… or what he said about the lines being “pawweww” (parallel). May the EOS be kind to us Semester 3’s! :D

The evening petered off with Jo & I traipsing into LT2 for some catchup time, while I played around with the grand piano in my little n00bish way.

When dinnertime swung around, Jon, Jo & I headed to Cova @ Gardens Midvalley for some much-anticipated hangout time! :D Don’t think I’ve laughed that much in a while (or said/heard that much dumb stuff in a while).

Upon seeing the brightly-colored yellow and red pussywillow centerpieces, I quote Jon’s brilliance (or not): “This is what you get when you cross a plant and a rabbit!”

Cue uncertain, quickly progressing to loud and disbelieving, laughter. Sometimes, things get so dumb you can’t help but laugh at how LAME they are (your sprain, Jon, hmm?). Jo, for some reason, was on par with Jon’s, er, sudden burst of “creative” wit. And I, being the nice slash boring one, bore the brunt of it. :P

ALSO ALSO I DISCOVERED ONE OF MY ANCESTORS GOT HORNY WITH SOME CAUCASIAN RACE BECAUSE APPARENTLY I’M NOT PURE CHINESE!!!!

Being mixed is a popular trend. I try to be trendy, yeahh. :D

In reference to the post title, this blogpost is -also- another form of procrastination. *headdesk* OH CVS. D: OH MANNNN.

Swingin’ My Heart Out!

So far, I’ve managed to go to two swing gatherings organized by KL Swing… and WOW, were they fun! :)

The first one was a workshop & social afterward with guests Ed Fai & Chengos Lim at the Shall We Dance studio in Bangsar, and then the second one was just a fun social at the Aliyaa restaurant in Bukit Damansara, near HELP university college. Met some really fun people, and they’re all awesome at swing dancing! Watching them is a treat, dancing with them even more so… Siigggh. My life is complete. :))))

:)) Swing simply never fails to bring a smiiiiiillleeeee to my face! All the happy chemicals in my brain emerge, and stay there for hours, preventing me from getting the sleep I *should* be getting for the next day’s events. Ah well. So happy even now. So fun. So wonderful!!!

Matthew came for the taster class, and he had fun, albeit some trouble with the steps and where to move to and end up at… And how to move his hands, and how to fit the 6-step swing to 4-beat music… LOL. Oh Matt, don’t think too much when swingin’! Just move to the beat and have fun. Don’t become an overly theoretical doctorrrrr.

Yes, so… Dear God, THANK YOU for the wonderful gift of dance (especially swing dance, teehee). :) It really, really, really makes me so happy.

Fresh Resolution Resolve

New Year resolutions are strange things; the majority of people make a grand list of “Things I Must Achieve For the New Year”, which by the end of said year are either half-heartedly half-fulfilled or lost somewhere amongst the sea of other tasks they picked up along the way. These illustrious lists tend to be populated by ambitious, yet good, statements such as Be more social and friendly at work or the ever-popular Keep fit and lose however many kilos by such-and-such a date.

If people don’t plan on really getting these things done, why make lists in the first place?

Because it makes us feel good, seeing those good-looking statements on paper and knowing we’ve got a year (“Oh, so much time!”) to get down and dirty with them.

The rush I personally get from aiming my life for a year is undeniably pleasurable. I count my chickens before they’re born, oh yes I do. :) If I resolve to lose weight, I gleefully imagine my skinnier, fitter self as I scribble the promise down. If I resolve to improve my singing technique, I allow my mind to wander towards the floating, soaring arias that I’d potentially sing! Why, if I resolve to do anything, I can do it! I feel like I’ve got the world in my grasp just sitting down at my desk, penning that grandiloquent list of feel-good (un)achievements.

So once again, with resolved steeled by the advent of the brand new year, I’ll remake my list, and (hopefully) get through at least half–never you mind that most of my “new” list was carried forward from last year’s.

Three days in already. Here’s to another new year! :))

Jade’s 2009 Resolutions: (in no particular order, maybe)

#1. Lose weight for my 21st birthday (yeah, you know this one), and KEEP IT OFF!

#2. Stay on track with my Bible readings to finish the Bible in 3 years!

#3. Organize my time better & keep my room clean–and not be late for anything anymore! (if I can help it, ha)

#4. Improve my singing stamina/technique and experiment with jazzier nuances.

#5. Become awesome at swing dancing (despite it being the 8-step that I must get used to!)

#6. Get into doing casual gigs with other like-minded musically-inclined friends.

#7. Interview my maternal & paternal grandparents to record their life story.

#8. Compose & record a song. :)) (Ming, do you see this?)

#9. Maintain my grades in med school (no, there isn’t a reason why STUDIES COME LAST, tee hee)

And that’s it! Nine short n’ sweet resolutions, for the year two thousand and nine (even though I cheated with #3 and put like 3 things in there). :) We’ll see by December if I’ve kept these at all.

Also, as an encouragement–I just want to share with you guys the verse my pastor received for 2009. It’s truly God’s answer and promise to any difficulties or obstacles that will come in the new year! I want to assure you that even if you feel like God’s abandoned you, it may just be that you’re not being still enough to tune in to His voice! :) Find the frequency–just be still in His presence. Ok, enough blabbering. Here it is, and God bless:

‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’

- 2 Chronicles 20:09 (NIV)

And if you read further, you’ll find that: the battle is not ours–it is the Lord’s. Isn’t that amazing? :))