Letter to My Friend IV

Dear J,

Yup, if you noticed my slower and slower reply, it usually means that I have a little too much on my mind right now. I have just handed in all my reports and assessments done last night. Although we have done all the work, we're still expected to turn up for tutorials in hospital. I am a but annoyed, but on the other hand glad that I am getting some good teaching.



I am going to watch Stomp 09 tomorrow night. THAT I have been looking forward to for about a month now. And since all my work is done, I will not have much worried left and I can fully enjoy the show. I've talked so much about why I love Stomp, I won't waste time typing it out... BUT I LOVE STOMP. heh. I do wonder do you get to see any theatrical stuff over there. I'm pretty sure you can watch all those orchestral stuff there. Which reminds me of the Lord of the Rings Symphony that was going around back when it was a hit. Did you manage to catch that?



A few other things that are on my mind... It's been over a week now since I've heard from her. An optimistic notion would be that she has not been online for that amount of time. I know it has been getting a bit busy nowadays... The pessimist in me also says that she's avoiding you because she's not looking for a relationship... with you... But realistically, I am just going to wait and see. It is a mind numbing wait.



Now with my internet cap resetted, I managed to obtain some old movies for my entertainment, and that has been occupying my time when I am stressed. I also managed to catch the season finale of Heroes. It really has become twisted, and there are things that I wish were back to normal. Peter's original ability was the best, same like Sylar's. In Villains, the storyline became really perversed. I liked Villains on the other hand because they made everyone's powers both good and evil, and it really depended on who had it. That was the core message that Heroes had. I also liked the fact that there are always ways to kill even the strongest of the Heroes. Now, for Redemption, I am not looking forward to it as much anymore, as my favourite powers are gone. But it just made me think more.



My phone was giving me problems this past week. At first, I thought it would be cool not to be reachable, but it wasn't. I had to make so many phone calls to the phone company to get it settled. Hopefully everything is solved now. The only thing left is the $30 credit that disappeared during this transaction. It is just so annoying.



Right, sorry this letter is mostly about my worries and thoughts. I will get to replying your last letter in my next. Until then...



Ken Rhee

Train

When you type /train while playing World of Warcraft, you get one of the most annoying sounds in the game. Well, second to the gorillas in STV, at least for me...

The reason I brought it up is this train of thought I had today. It started this morning while I struggled to customize my Neverwinter Nights 2 character. I wanted to make my existing character an Arcane Archer, but it was taking so slow that I went to search online for tricks. I found the page and it gave me a really good build. I was so stucked on my previous NVN1 build with wizardry and ranger style that I did not realise that there was another arcane caster, the Bard. And instead of just a Ranger, it tells me to use a Rogue for extra skill points. I mean, wow, I never knew that. So, in other words, my build will be Rogue (3), Ranger (4), Bard (3), Arcane Archer (10). So I decided to create a new character and try it. I made a Human Rogue and built it from there. I got to the Arcane Archer part... and found out AA are only meant to me Elf or Half Elf. Sheesh. So I went on to try on my existing Character and reseting the levels and everything. Alas, no Bard coz my alignment was Lawful. So I changed that as well and then... I lost one of my followers. Screw it. I decided to start from scratch... again... and since I don't have the luxury of doing that right now, I decided to screw the game for now and uninstalled it.

After that I sought for another possible game to play. The one that I chose was The Witcher. My friend had it and I after copying an image of the DVD to my computer, I tried to run the game. I couldn't. I made a guess and thought that it was my virtual image program that was causing the problem, so I uninstalled it and installed another virtual drive. Again it didn't work. And now, I am left with 2 virtual drives with much annoyance.

I tried to get rid of it, but even uninstalling it and deleting the drive, it still comes back whenever I restart my computer. I searched the web for solutions and I luckily, the steps to remove it were easy. It didn't cause any problems after that.

I didn't want any traces of the program anymore, so I decided to scan my computer, for spyware and viruses, and to clear my registry. Each took about 40minues to complete. It was all clear though. After that was done, I was thinking, might as well clear stuff off my computer. So I went on a hunt to organise my folders and cleaning it out. After that was done, I proceeded to clear my external harddisk. I got rid of about 100mb worth of duplicated files and junk. I decided to call it because there was just too much.

As I went through my folders, I stumbled upon all my work throughout my life. From my adventures in Singapore to the dramatic IMU and the introduction UWA time. Wonderful moments captured on film, events embedded in powerpoint presentations, and journals and poems. I miss the times I had acting wild and free... sigh... While talking about things with Raj online about how crazy we were back then, I recalled the interesting stuff he used to bring us. One of them being a movie clip called Russel Peters.

So I decided to go look for that video. I had my laughs for about 20 minutes, which left me to go search for more Russel Peters. I found the CD that contained the 45 minute version and watched that. Yup, it was definitely worth it. He is just hilarious. I mean, he makes fun of all the races of the world, but nobody thinks that he is racist. I guess he opened with insulting his own race, which is the most tactful thing to do, right?

Anyway, another thing on the CD caught my eye... Stomp Out Loud. So I decided to watch that too. I wrote so many times before how much I love Stomp. Well. I STILL LOVE STOMP. After that 40 minutes of rhythmic beats I went to look for more online. I found another movie, made my the creaters of Stomp, Pulse: a Stomp Odyssey. It was about rhythmic beats of the world. It was briliant. Every nation, every history, percussion is the basis of their music. Brilliant. I so want it...

While looking through Stomp, I recalled a blog post by KenJ about a spider. I realised that other than mosquitoes, I can NEVER stomp an insect. I just can't. I have the power to do so, but I never have the heart to squish anything. I cannot imagine squishing an ant, I cannot imagine swatting a fly, I cannot imagine stepping on a spider. It's not that I am afraid of them, I just can't kill them. Call it Buddhism.

Here ends my train of thought for the day. I end with, I cannot harm another living thing.

I went again to see this marvelous show. STOMP really defines me and my character. I like everything about it. I am everything out of it.

Percussion: I was only in the percussion section for 1 1/2 years, but it has affected me greatly. I still remember how I handled the drum with lots of beads in it, to make sounds of the waves in Song of Sailor and Sea... I remember I had to play the bass guitar in I remember I had to play many instruments myself and any mistake I make would be made known to all... I was never a solo player. But I actually learnt to be confident with myself and go all out. Confidence is what I still lack, but I will slowly get there. Slowly.

Percussion also made known to me the wonders of rhythm. I grew to love rhythms more and more and the deep resonating hums of the drums always get me going. It reminds me of the 'lub-dub' sounds that keeps us alive. I love the necessary accessory sounds, which gives the piece a sparkle and liveliness...

Dance: Another form of activity in which I enjoy doing. I have not danced in a while... and watching STOMP brings back many memories, from my first attemps from watching Backstreet Boys', 5ive's, and N'sync's music video back in secondary school, to Orientation in NJC, to cheerleading times in IMU. I wish I could learn more, I wish I could do more.

Trash: I love trash. One man's wine is another man's poison. Or rather, another man's poison is my wine. I keep everything, and my mother always complains that I keep all these junk. But I never like throwing things out, coz everything I see has some purpose. You will never know when you just might need the use of a paper cup or straws. Straws I make into flowers. Cups I make into... cups. but you catch my drift... In STOMP, everythings can be made into music. Throw in a few trash cans, some brooms, some basket balls and heck, even the kitchen sink, and you will have an orchestra of wonderful noise.

Comedy: Everyone needs comedy. But it is something that does not come by practise. You can try, like me, but if you have it, you have it. If you don't, sometimes it's hard. I was always in company of person who has interesting and funny things to say or do. And I've always enjoyed a good laugh. I love watching comedies, reading sarcastic wit, and just acting crazy. Everyone loves humour. Laughter is contagious, and it is the best medicine.

Been busy. too much to update.

But lately, I've been feeling nostalgic...

It's been 3 years since my last run on a proper track.
It's been 3 years since my last event with percussionists.

I like to run. There is the feeling of the wind blowing in your face, there is the rhythmic beat of the strides, there is the acidic taste of carbon dioxide in your blood. I like sprinting. The moment I hear the words 'race' there will be an adreneline rush. I feel my face flushing, my heart rate goes up, and I get jumpy. I also get it when I'm dancing, during cheerleading sometimes. And even with all my aches and lethargy, I still managed to surpress that tiredness and pain to carry out the racing and the cheering.

Cheerleading has always been a tiring situation. Mentally and physically. But it is almost worth it. Last year's was disappointing, but after looking at the video of us, yeah, we sucked. But what I am proud of is MY segment. MY own idea. It pulled through and it was great!

This year, nothing like that this time. I wanted to put in jump ropes and balls and bats, etc, aka Stomp style. But it is already very tiring and compact.

Which reminds me, I had forgotten how interesting it was to be in a percussion section. It's not just about making noise by hitting things. It is about hitting things in harmony. I miss that. I will always love it. That's why I love Stomp so much. Stomp is the very essence of how I live my life. Stomp is about making something out of nothing, out of junk. Who knew that a plastic bag can be made into a piece of music? Though I wish the show was a bit longer, it was already satisfying. People dream of being in a band, or a ballerina. Me, a Stomp actor/musician.

Stomp, for the heart of percussionists...