My throat is so sore

Too tired to post yesterday after a whole day of singing and recording. There was yet another recording session for the same song. This time there could not be any mistakes or other problems as this would be the published recording. It was tiring and (honestly speaking) I don't feel like doing another any time soon.





Not only is my throat over-worked but my DVD-writer decided to die on me after 3 months. I brought it back to AOnePlus in IT Mall and wouldn't you know it - warranty claims would take around 4 weeks ... *sheesh*. They could have offered a one-to-one exchange but they were out of stock for that particular model/brand and I didn't want any other brand 'cos I needed one that could easily be hacked to become region free (I have DVDs from every region except 5).

Things just kept getting worse when I received an email saying my DVD order from UK was cancelled due to stocking problems at the warehouse in Hong Kong. Oh well, at least I got a full refund (minus a few sen because of the US-RM exchange rates) plus a £2 offer voucher. Only problem is that it expires on 11th August and I don't know if I want to use it or let it pass (which would be a waste).

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Wierd Friday

Friday was 20072007. Attended my primary school-mate's wedding dinner at her house. She's a muslim who is now married to a chinese convert (congrats Mrs. Khoo!!) and considering that she herself is half chinese with her mother being chinese and her father malay. The whole night, it threated to rain heavily but never did and instead only a slight drizzle lasted the most part of 15 minutes.

Later on in the night, the news reports on local free-to-air TV announced that MPH, Times and Popular bookstores in Malaysia were withdrawing their copies of the long-awaited seventh Harry Potter book and returning them to their publisher in the States(reported to be around 53,000 copies). Anyone who pre-ordered the book can still claim their copies or ask for a full refund.

This last minute announcement was due to the fact that two hypermarket chains (Tesco and Carrefour) were selling the exact same book (adult and child versions) at vastly discounted prices. You can get a copy of the said book for only RM69.90 in comparison with the RM109.90 price in regular bookstores. Earlier volumes of the Harry Potter series are sold at even cheaper prices (from RM19.90 to RM24.90). Even with the 20% members discount and early pre-order, it is still more expensive than the hypermarkets and therefore instead of competing for readers, they've collectively decided to withdraw.

This is the exact text email from Times Bookstores, sent at 11p.m. 20th July 2007.

Due to factors beyond our control, we regret to inform you that Times bookstores will NOT be selling Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows.

If you've already made a pre-order and paid for it, you may still pick up your copy from your pre-selected Times outlet (free tote bag given on a first come first served basis) from 7:01am on July 21. However, if you’d like a refund, we’d be happy to do so.

We apologize for this inconvenience caused, and thank you for your kind understanding.



Sincerely,

Times The Bookshop Pte Ltd

While the following was posted on the respective bookstore's online websites in reference to the local publishing distributor for the books.

With effective from 21 July 2007, Harry Potter 7 will not be available for sale in the following bookstores nationwide in Malaysia:

1. MPH Bookstores
2. Popular and Harris Bookstores
3. Times the Bookshop

We will honour the sale to customers who have pre-booked. The book can be collected from the shops from 21 July 2007 onwards.

All activities related to the launch of HP7 in the above stores have been cancelled.

We apologise for the cancellation of the activities and any inconvenience caused. Any queries with regards to this book, please refer directly to the sole distributor in Malaysia

Penguin Books Malaysia
Lot 2 Jalan 215
Off Jalan Templer
46050 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7782 0466 Fax: 03-7784 1739


From the managements of:
MPH BOOKSTORES (M)SDN BHD
POPULAR BOOK CO (M) SDN BHD
TIMES THE BOOKSHOP PTE LTD

And at the press conference earlier in the day
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/7/20/nation/20070720172429&sec=nation

I'm guessing tomorrow might be another wierd day as fans might find it hard to buy the book since they are now only sold in the above mentioned hypermarkets, Kinokuniya and Borders only. The ads from Tesco and Carrefour are shown below. Amazing full colour ad from Tesco too showing the price of all seven books.

Tesco full page colour ad

Carrefour half-page B&W ad

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A unique 07-07-07

Today is a special day for many reasons. It's one of those days on which you get to live a once-in-a-lifetime occurence whereby it is 070707070707 (7th July 2007, 7:07:07am). To commemorate the event, there is a simulataneous concert held around the world under the banner of "Live Earth".

What I did was pledged in the Phillips exchange a bulb programme "A Simple Switch". For every tungsten bulb traded in, you are given an energy saving bulb in exchange. I got 4 and managed to change 3 before the day grew dark. Previously, those 3 bulbs housed 80W incandescent bulbs with a total of 240W/hr. Now they run at a lower 33W/hr but pump out equal (actually brighter!!) brightness. Best thing ... I've reduced my pollution footprint by a whopping 984kgs of carbon dioxide every year. Since the bulbs are too bright, I might be using even lower wattage ones (5W seems adequate)

Recycling paper is also something which is easy to me. In 3 weeks, I manage to collect enough leaflets, paper ads and flyers to fill up one shopping bag. Frightening huh? This is not even counting the newspapers which are still collected by the newspaper man :)

I still have a lot to go in terms of reducing my ecological footprint. I still need to travel in a gas guzzling vehicle for 82km each working day (approx RM50 a week). That generates a heck of a lot of CO/CO2.

But then what have YOU done for the environment lately?

Recording!!

Saturday was a tiring day. DN needed help with a recording to be done and needed a choir backing to the main vocals. The purpose ... It was the draft version of a theme song for a government agency. The song will be used in a proposal which will be tabled on Monday which is where most of the problems surfaced. The original singers were weak and extremely pitchy (esp the girls). So I had to call upon the kolej choir members to help.

I'm eternally grateful to the 7++ that turned up to help flesh out the parts and strengthen the melody and hoping it was a 'learning' experience for them as it is probably their first time in a recording studio ... or somewhere close to that. The recording was done in the recording booth at PKUM and although we were scheduled to start early at 3pm, the thing dragged on until past 7pm. Only a small group was required as their voices would be doubled (or tripled, quadrupled etc) electronically (i.e. cut + paste, delay and reverb!!) Tada! A choir of 50 voices. At least they're getting a monetary sum for their time and effort :D

Who knows? If the proposal is sucessful, there may be a second recording which would probably need more polishing and touchup. There is also a second song which I have previewed and is, in one word, AMAZING. I haven't heard a Malay corporate theme this catchy or good for a while. It features one singer (from AF3 hint hint!) and one saxaphonist. The sax player already laid down his tracks live and it only took him one continuous take. I can't wait for the melody tracks to be laid down.

If everything goes to plan, the songs should be up soon for everyone to hear.

Entire Feseni 2007 Choir Competition uploaded on YouTube!

All 10 teams' performances have been uploaded to YouTube! for viewing. Audio has been marked to prevent unwanted copying/downloading. The original DVD can be purchased at CC or HEP, UM.

Links in competition order (opens in new window)
KK 6
KK 9
KK 5
KK 8
KK 1
KK 3
KK 2
KK12
KK 7
KK 4

Enjoy!

IBM DB2 Fundamentals training

I've been attending the IBM DB 2 Family Fundamentals training in preparation for the 730 exam for three days this week (Mon till Wed). Its not really hands on but more theoretical based. Even the trainers are not that very well versed in the actual programming/SQL coding. There is a lot of stuff to read .... the study guide and notes weigh in at an amazing 800+ pages and this does not even include the tutorial pages which show the SQL implementations of the examples in the guide. Printing them out would probably take two whole reams of paper :P
Lets go kill some trees!!

For those who have ever taken any DB subject, its mostly the same but obviously leans more towards IBM software. There is theusual tables, relations, keys, indexes and such. Many parts of the quick course focuses on how the functions of SQL are implemented in DB2 and also tends to compare with Oracle, MySQL etc.

Now I have approx 25 days to study before they come back and I sit for the first paper. Maybe I should start soon (hee hee!)>
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UMSO Royal Concert 2007 - Celebrating Love and Life

The UMSO performed last week (1st June 2007 actually) to a full house at the Dewan Tunku Canselor, UM in a royal concert themed "Celebrating Love and Life" with the chancellor, DYMM Sultan Azlan Shah and DYMM Raja Permaisuri Tuanku Bainun as the royal guests. Other dignitaries included ambassadors from various embassies and other invited guests from corporate and educational sectors. Heck! Even the press had at least 5 rows of seats reserved.

So how was the concert? One word sums up the show : LOUD
Don't get me wrong, it was good overall.

Performing a total number of 17 planned songs (not inclusive of the compulsory Negaraku to begin and end the show) the entire concert lasted over 2 hours. It began slightly behind schedule at 8.45pm with the arrival of the Chancellor and only ended at 11:20pm after the encore. Featured songs included 4 medleys of western classics, malay classics and jazz pieces, big-band swing style pieces and rock ballads .... the typical stuff that has been the standard repertoire of UMSO since its early beginnings (CCO-UM anyone?). The nights' performances definitely covered most genres of music.

Featured guest performers included Mus May on vocals, Man Kidal on guitar(s), Razif on the piano, Razak Rahman with saxes and clarinet, Akma AF3 on vocal and Nor Hasmidar with Nor Iydazura dueting on an Italian Art song, "Che vuoi di piu". Also not forgetting the sole UM representative as a soloist, Raymond Yee, who performed the long and technically difficult (for UMSO) piano concerto by Chopin (Op.11 I think .... could be wrong). It was hard to fault any of the performances or the players and soloists who really played their hearts out to the audience which replied with loud applause and cheers.

Once again, the concert was let down by the inappropriate Mubari sound system which was probably more suited for a bigger and open air venue. I'm wagering that the so called "sound engineers" only knows two concepts which is more volume=good and more bass=better. I know this because they sounded waaaayyy better at rehearsals sans any mic-ing or amplification. Mic-ing the bass guitar was also a bad idea .... I lost count how many times the bass line chord went wrong or came in late.

Lighting of the event was better with more control and less distracting although the front throw floodlights were a eff-ing stupid idea (see the pic below!). Every single time a song ended, they flood lit the hall causing my pupils to contract. I'm grateful they did a slow fade to black to allow my eyes to gradually adjust back to the darkness of the hall.

The smoke machine was a bad idea again. Pn Sabariah was totally against it since the beginning of the show (since the previous week at rehearsals) and was adamant at ensuring that it would not be used ..... guess it didn't work. The machine kept pumping out smoke at regular intervals causing the entire hall to experience an early jerebu season this year!! One thing though, the smoke did give a really nice effect to the strobe lights to give the entire hall an ethereal feel :)

The absolute worst item of the night were the video overlays. Song titles were wrong, player names were spelt wrongly and whose idea was it to keep the movie soundtrack ON whilst the orchestra is playing their song? Picture this - orchestra playing the theme from the Armageddon movie whilst the two side projector screens display the movie WITH the movie soundtrack on at full blast. This really spoiled the two songs affected: Engkau Laksana Bulan and I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing. Just plain stoopid (sic)

One final thing I noticed (and should remember to remind the next time) is that when a soloist is playing an instrument, the corresponding mics to the matching instrument in the orchestra should be softened or turned off. During this concert, the sax and clarinet played by Razak seemed to compete with the orchestra's own instruments causing it to sound a bit messy. Solos should be heard OVER the orchestra and need not compete with them.

The night ended with all the guests and the orchestra presenting the final piece, a re-arranged version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic Memory which featured all the players in turn at particular points in the song.

Only problem now is how do I get rid of the song Moment of Glory that has been playing in my head the whole week .....

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I have a blog!

Woo hoo! Finally jumped on the overloaded bandwagon and started a blog. Now the only problem is what to put in it and how often. I DO have stuff to rave and rant about but those feelings tend to be personal.

Oh well....I'll figure something out.

The blog header image is something I slapped together in PaintShop Pro to resemble the old skool graffiti artwork (or something close to it at under 1 hour of fiddling with tool settings). There are 8 raster layers involved and I thank god for the availability of the Funboy font else there would be a LOT more work involved. An earlier version used the Subway font but that was too thin to allow the colour to show.