HC String Ensemble

HOBO DAY

2012-01-09T21:35:00.014+08:00

HCSE BATCH 1112 HOBO OUTING!!!!!!!!
Instead of the regular and common december outing (chalet), our batch have decided to go overnight hobo-ing instead.

HERE IS THE ORIGINAL PLAN:
1) MIND'S CAFE EAT LUNCH AND PLAY
2) WALK WALK TALK TALK AROUND DHOUBY GAUT
3) WOODLAND'S WATERFRONT PARK:D
4) CHANGI AIRPORT HOBO NIGHT WHOOOO!!!

haha although things did not go exactly as planned, we have had lots and lots of fun!!! Sorry to those who were overseas, sick, stuff on etc.. :(( ITS OK:D WE PLAN TO HOBO AGAIN BECAUSE IT WAS SO SUCCESSFUL:D rmb to stay healthy, keep your days free and then join us okkk:DDD <3 :D

Starting at the MINDS' CAFE~

We played in the Minds' Cafe all the way until 6pm:D Then we went over to SCAPE to play arcade~~ we stayed in the arcade till near 8pm and we left for woodlands waterfront park.

WAITING FOR THE BUS~

LOOK AT THE PRETTY SCENERY:D credits to enying:D

CAMWHORING :DDDD
The time we spent in Woodlands Waterfront Park is what we call "Return to Childhood:)" where we played games we used to play when we were kids:)) such as Ice and Melt:D
We also climbed the massive structure in the park

ALL SUCCESSFULLY ON BOARD:D

AT THE PLAYGROUND
We left the playground at near 11.oopm, thinking that we would be able to catch the last train. BUT we were so unlucky... we missed the last train to city hall from woodlands... We had to take a detour to Jurong East. We were furiously checking the timings of the last train from Jurong East to Changi Airport. Just as we entered Jurong East, another train on the green line travelling towards Pasir Ris entered the station.

BUT BUT BUT the train left without the doors opening :O

ONCE IN A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE><

AT JURONG EAST INTERCHANGE

LUCKILY, kailin's house was super near Jurong, at West Coast... So We decided to spend the night at her house since there was no else we could go...

On the super empty 51A at 12. 15a.m

Unfortunately, 51A doesn't go all the way to Kailin's house as it was the last bus as well. Thus we alighted midway and had to walk:D

It was an awesome walk in the dark as we told countless ghost stories and enjoyed the chilly wee hours wind together^^ After about an hour plus walk following the park connectors, we arrived in Mcdonalds in West Coast Park to eat our Supperish Dinner.

At Mcdonalds at 2 a.m plus :D

NIGHT VIEW FROM KAILIN'S HOUSE:)

We spent a sleepless night at Kailin's house as we chatted and played many simple games:)) Early in the morning at 7 plus a.m, we decided to set off to travel to Changi Airport which we have set to be our Final Destination.

GUYS "DYING" IN THE MRT

FINALLY WE ARE AT CHANGI

We FINALLY reached Changi Airport!! We went Swensens to eat breakfast and Ice Cream:DD
And then we travelled to terminal 3 to eat Lunch:DD at Pastamania:DD

CRAYON DRAWING FUN:D

We successfully spend 24 hours together:D It was a really really fun outing and hopefully in our next hobo outing, everybody would be free to join us:DDDD

Strings is soooo fun:D

BANNER PAINTING

2012-01-09T21:27:00.005+08:00

BANNER PAINTING
EVERYTHING IS OVER. SCHOOL IS OVER. AND SO WE MEET AGAIN TO HAVE FUN:D
We are painting this banner for our Open House 2012. It is a very pretty banner designed by our very talented YongChang and painted by those who were free to come down!!!:D

SNEAK PEAK

PLAY HARD PAINT HARD

SUPER ARTISTIC SHOT HAHA:D OF OUR BANNER

YAY OUR FINAL PRODUCT:D
(in case you don't understand the design, it is really different parts of a violin painted on the banner:D)

BE SURE TO COME FOR HWA CHONG OPEN HOUSE 2012 HCUNITE TO HAVE A BETTER BIGGER MUCH MORE AWESOME VIEW OF THIS WONDERFUL BANNER!

JTS

2012-01-09T21:19:00.003+08:00

JTS (JUNIOR TREAT SENIOR) CHALET AT ALOHA CHANGI

gosh! sorry back track a bit!! i left this out!!! ohkayy so we had our JTS at ALOHA CHANGI! we hope that our seniors had fun as much as we had enjoyed ourselves quite a lot during our short stay at the chalet!!

Travelling to chalet~~~

heehee girls having fun~~~~

For more cool pics of our chalet, feel free to stalk

ATHENA FAC OUTING

2012-01-09T21:07:00.004+08:00

ATHENA FAC OUTING

YAY PROMOS ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!:D NOW 9 OF US ALL ATHENIANS ARE ALL PREPARING FOR ATHENA FAC OUTING!!!

PIECES WE ARE PLAYING ARE GOLLIWOGS CAKEWALK and HUNGARIAN DANCE NO. 5. An interesting thing part about this performance was that it was a MEDLEYYY:D made up by ourselves (Y) haha;D

PS look at our awesome cardboard score holders

AWESOME 9 PEOPLE ARE: ELISSA AMBER KAILIN ZHIYUAN AARON DARREN JARED ZHERYIN TERRE!

Teachers' Day Concert & Heartbeat

2012-01-09T20:34:00.008+08:00

TEACHERS' DAY CONCERT AND HEARTBEAT
Our next few concerts after L'arcenciel was the Hwa Chong Annual Teachers' Day Concert and Heartbeat!

We played two pieces for both concerts: Viva La Vida and Explosive.

Here are some photos of the awesome us:D
This is us playing hard in our Heartbeat

This is us playing during Teachers' Day Concert

Here is a picture of some of us having fun after the concert!

And another!

VIVA LA VIDA BY HCSE

EXPLOSIVE BY HCSE

we admit that we did not play extremely well ... but but but we have had alot alot alot of fun playing together! We promise to improve and practise really really hard for 2012! :D

APOLOGIES AND WELCOME BACK:D

2012-01-09T20:29:00.004+08:00

APOLOGIES AND WELCOME

HELLO VISITORS TO OUR LOVELY BLOG:)) I APOLOGISE REALLY REALLY SINCERELY FOR THE LACK OF UPDATES ON THIS BLOG AS OUR BATCH IS CURRENTLY USING FACEBOOK TO UPDATE EACH OTHER:)

BUTBUTBUT WE SHALL NOT LET THIS BLOG DIE. :D ANYWAY!!!!!!:D I'M HERE TO TELL ALL OF YOU ALL THE FUN THINGS WE HAVE DONE SO FAR!!!!!! SO NOWWWW FOR MY SUPER DUPER DUPER LONG UPDATE POST TO MAKE UP FOR EVERYTHING!!!!:D I'LL GO IN ORDER KK:D IN ORDER OF HOW THE POSTS SHOULD HAVE BEEN!!!:D STARTING FROM THE NEXT POST:D a very very sorry kailin

First post :)

2011-08-20T15:54:00.003+08:00

Hey HCSE:)

I'm here to do the very first post since our seniors left the CCA>< Our blog is so very dead....... and you can all see that it's been spammed by some person for the past few months LOL

Do come and visit the blog for information and retarded posts! I know we have our Facebook group for discussions among our batch but we can all make use of the tagboard here as well right xD ahhahhaaaa

Stay tuned for more stuffs here! Meanwhile, study hard for upcoming Econs timed-assignment and coughs.... PROMOS! ^^

Can't wait for CCA mugging session,
Rachael <3

Crazy month of may for HCSE

2011-05-02T11:58:00.003+08:00

Hello HCSE!

Awesome performance for the month of April, especially in SYF, where we indeed made our seniors, teachers and everyone else proud of our excellent result!

Anyway May's gonna be a crazy month, so let's brace ourselves for it yea? Arts Fest 2011 'Best of SYF' Concert is to be held on the 25th of May, and our very own L'arc-en-ciel concert on the 27th of May.

For the J2s, it would be your last month with HCSE :( But no worries, it shall be an exciting one. STJ's on the 9th of May, and we do look forward to JTS as well ;)

OH, and we are featured on HCunite if you guys do not know, do check out our 'competition report', written by our very dear Zicong :D

And if it does make any of you happy, OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD!! LOL ok random. But something we should all know since we all take GP/KI right?

Anyway, a nice symphony for you all to indulge in:

From a to-be-forgotten Senior

2011-04-22T21:56:00.012+08:00

Hello HCSE '11!

This is Wilfred here. I'm the senior who was present for your rehearsal last Saturday and who a lot of you don't actually recognise. Even if that is so, I am writing this on behalf of my batch (and probably a long line of seniors) to communicate what we have not been able to tell you personally.

Last week, while on my way to Republic Polytechnic, something struck me. I always thought that the SYF 2 years ago would be the last SYF for my batch and I. But I realise now that there will always be at least another SYF that you are concerned about and “taking part in”, even if you didn’t get retained. The point is this: With all the exciting things happening in your JC life now, it is easy to overlook how HCSE has left its mark on each of us and how all of us slowly but surely identify ourselves as being “from strings”.

After SYF and A Levels have passed, and you suddenly find that you have graduated from HCI with many different paths ahead of you, you will definitely meet many new people and go for different interviews for university and whatnot. Whatever the scenario, I find that the question you probably will get quite frequently (besides “Hi! I’m … what’s your name?), is “What was your CCA?” To which I like to answer, “I’m from strings!” and then wait for the puzzled look that most often comes up while he/she decides between asking what exactly I do with strings in my CCA and acting like he/she knows what I’m talking about. After clarifying that I’m from the String Ensemble and I play the viola (“which is like a bigger version of the violin, played like the violin but lower in tone and most actually find sounds nicer”), some people might then ask you, “So what was so special about your CCA?”

So what do you think is so special about strings?

For me, it has nothing to do with how we have consistently achieved great results at SYF since our humble beginnings. It is not even about the concerts we manage to put up or the events we organise. What is special is the collective passion that I can feel and that I will remember. It’s about the people on your left and your right who has improved with you, spent countless hours practicing and slacking with you, and who will dare to dream and do impossible things with you. These are the people who made strings special and who you will remember even when your memories start to blur.

When Thursday comes, everything will past by in a blur. Despite the effort put in, there’s only a mere 10 minutes on stage and we will be judged by everything that happens and does not happen in that block of time. But before you enter the hall, just think about the ensemble and who or what you guys will be playing for. Understand that and everything should fall into place.

Honestly, I think that the ensemble sounded good especially when you were being sensitive in your playing, listened to the other sections and adjusted your dynamics accordingly. All of you have come a long way and it is time to be confident in yourself and the entire ensemble! Your seniors will be rooting for you as always. Jiayou!

Wilfred Ngia

April

2011-04-01T00:31:00.002+08:00

Don't know how many of you actually do read this blog, but I'm just gonna ramble about random stuff here.

Its the 1st of April, just a few more weeks to our SYF on the 28th. I believe we would all have differing views and ideas about SYF, different expectations and different goals. I will attempt to talk about how we should view SYF over here, I will be talking to all of you soon about it. But I would appeal to all of you to rethink the significance of this taboo 3 letters.

Understand it has been a rather hectic year for you all, with crazy rehearsal schedules and more to come. Nevertheless, let's put in our hearts and soul for the coming month, both for SYF and the concert after. We are HCSE, and we are definitely capable of making quality music, of making things happen.

Just some random thoughts..

STJ!

2011-03-30T21:15:00.003+08:00

I figured if I posted STJ information on the blog... people would have to come and read the STJ information!! Then there would be increased number of people coming to see the blog (evil plan right?)

But that will have to wait till I get STJ details (aww...)
So stay tuned for updates! Venue is booked and now food just needs to be settled! :D

CNY!

2011-02-08T23:35:00.003+08:00

Hi all!!

CNY's over so fast!! Hope all of you had a GREAAAAAT time during CNY (cos I sure did :D) Anyway I'm supposed to babble about what happened during our JC2 'bai nian' session on sunday :D For those who didn't go for it, the itinerary was first to visit Kimberlyn's house, thereafter Joan's house and finally Alwyn's house. At each of the stopovers we would hand our oranges respectfully over to their parents before eagerly awaiting the arrival of the lovely red packet that would come sailing over into our hands (comeon who doesn't like $$$??) Other than getting nice stuff, we also got to EAT nice stuff.

For lunch, it was pizza hut + sushi + Old Chang Kee assorted food. I can tell u that it was fantastic and we ate to our hearts' content ;) Imagine popping a sushi roll, filled with that luscious tuna melt, fragant and delicious rice together with small pieces of crunchy and juicy cucumbers into your mouth before slowly chewing and savouring it, feeling the euphoria coursing through every inch of your veins, letting the flavours mingle and overwhelm your tastebuds and enjoying the process of mastication before the little bolus rolls down your throat, aided by the wave-like muscular contractions we call peristalsis... ahhhh pure bliss! :D:D

Anyway, no matter how exaggerated that was, it cannot be denied that we did really enjoy our food. And let me stop here to add in the comment that Kimberlyn is rich. O.O Her house is like some classic landed property, concealed cleverly behind rough brick walls. Enter her house and you will just stare in shock cos you would NEVER expect something like that in a HDB ESTATE!! Lo and Behold! The grand piano sits in one corner of the living room (actl it takes up half of the living room). We plonked ourselves on this nice long 'king-like' chair which supposedly only royalty sits on and demanded to play the Xbox we saw.

We later went over to Joan's house located in Pasir Ris Drive 1, a stone's throw away from White Sands. We went up to Joan's house and entered it and immediately you see this bigbig space in the living room being unused. Enter Joan's room and you would see this beeeeg mirror staring at you (hmm one wonders what it might be for... wana make a guess?) together with an extremely rusty stand that Joan claims is 13 years of age (wow...) Being the traditional mugger she is, her tabletop contains a neatly stacked pile of this year's work (notes, worksheets, time etc.) all ready to be grabbed and completed (if it wasn't already completed). In her room she also showed us her treasure trove of books which she 'claims' she had not read recently. As with all girls' rooms, her room was painted a nice shade of pink (to me I have no idea why girls like pink...)with a cupboard containing numerous awards. Contrary to popular belief (including her own mistaken belief, to one's amazement and amusement), she HAS kept long hair before as could be seen in a photo on her desk. We then watched Madagascar and Shanghai Noon and ate manymany CNY goodies as well as drank drinks kindly provided by her family before we left for our last destination.

Alwyn's house is nicely located near the Red Light District for his own easy access and just a 1min walk away from his home is a bustling street that contains places to shop. Coming out from the lift, he waves to his maid located in the kitchen while he whips out his house key and opens the door. His mother and father make their appearance just as we were about to enter and we made a mad rush for our oranges located safely in our bags. Upon retrieving them, we entered his house cautiously, armed with our two oranges, each clenched in one palm. What a sight for sore eyes! The steamboat table was almost set! It appeared that we were anticipated for quite awhile. While waiting for his family to make the final preparations before we began the war, we switched on the television, just in time for our favourite soap, Ai! We sang to our hearts' content, drinking the delicious starfruit juice drink as we sang! Oh what a dazzling display of singing prowess! His parents stared, 'awestruck' for moments, before finally uttering "you guys also got follow arh?!" We turned our heads to them and nodded, vigourously before twisting our heads back to catch the show.

Steamboat was delicious, with strips of abalone, clams, scallops, fishballs, vegetables, sliced chicken, sliced fish, mushrooms and many many many more! It was a feast! We tucked in, mouths full of food. The war had begun...
(sorry post cut short need my sleeeeep :D not thinking straight)

Signing off,
HCSE News Reporter #666

New Year!!

2011-01-24T01:24:00.002+08:00

Yo pple!
Long time no see eh? XD
(as in on this blog...)

Hope the new year has been good so far?
We should actually be rejoicing cos well... school has only started for 2 weeks (for J2s) and we're already gonna have HBL! And to top that, a long weekend in the week containing chinese new year! YIPPEEE!! So many holidays in just a month! XD

Anyway, the orientation for prospective J1 CCA mates was conducted about two weeks ago? It was quite funny really cos the main purpose of the orientation was to get the HC side and the NY side familiar with each other since two years together is a very long time and we ourselves benefitted from the orientation we had last last year. Somehow... there seemed to be a great divide or something lol and each interacted with their own circle of friends ( as in NY - NY and HC - HC ). But no worries, the year is still young and theres still many opportunities I hope... >.<

J1 Orientation is approaching! Part 1 will be conducted from 27th Jan to 1st Feb (ie from Thursday to Tuesday). Thereafter we'll have our delicious lao yu sheng which the school kindly provides FOR FREE (given the stinginess of the school that in itself is quite a miracle) and our bazaar. But you know whats the sad thing... CT orientation doesn't start till AFTER chinese new year... which means that we won't be able to persuade (force) our junior class to buy our goodies which means that we can't make $$$ =( =(

Hope you guys have been enjoying the rehearsals so far. I dunno how the concertos are gonna be but I hope they'll be good. Imagine duetting with someone and with the orchestra omg hahaz good luck to the people (and erpx to the orchestra too...). Downland suite is nice! I like all movements (except the 2nd)... I particularly like the 1st and 3rd in order of preference. 4th is ok... but a tad bit weird... Oh on second thought, I hate elgar and schnittke! :D Hope some pple reading this have the same feelings as me >.<

Anyways, if you would kindly look at the time, its already like, the next day. Time to do HBL work... after I sleep of course!

NITEZZZ!

Inspirations XI

2010-11-11T23:40:00.002+08:00

Hey Guys,

Hope post PW has been cool so far!

Anyway schedule for hol rehs should have/ will be sent out to all of you via email, do take a look and mark down those dates!

Our next concert will be held on the 28th of february 2010, at the Esplanade Recital Studio! If Im not wrong, its HCSE's first time playing in esplanade, so something to look forward to yea!

Anyway, first half will be concertos, and we have/ are in the midst of finalising the details, you will all get to know them soon!

So well, have fun and enjoy life :D

This is the only real holiday before JC2 starts, and we all chiong for our final destination.

Keep Cool!

Alwyn

Enjoy Life pple!

2010-10-19T21:08:00.003+08:00

HEYO!!

This post is meant to remind you to ENJOY LIFE!

Don't care about the screwed up weeks before (with the EXCEPTION of SOME people...) but instead delve into erm... erm... books? or maybe practise just a teeny weeny bit more than your usual practice?

I think we should go and visit our 'long-lost' juniors! Perhaps one day all the ex-nanyang stringers shld go back and visit NYSE and all the ex-hc strings should go back to visit HCISO. For more info on HCISO practice schedules, pls do checkout the hciso blog.

I'm kinda not in the mood for jokes...

On a happier note, WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
(You can infer that I have no idea what to type here)
Ohoh! Non-chinese pple pls wish the chinese pple GDLUK for their (our...) exams! We'll need all the good luck you can give. If the amount of good luck is lacking, we'll drain it out of you guys k? XD

I'm kinda missing prac abit cos everyday I reach home and I'm just playing games and slacking... Need 'motivation' so that I'll actually play some music. (If a double bass even creates music... OOPS! XD)

Ok this is becoming more like a personal blogpost...

PW IS COMING UP!! Don't you guys feel supersupersuper EXCITED... zzzz
Hope your WRs are coming along well now :D
After OPs, lets have a nice WHOLE DAY outing! (Sorry to those who need to go back to their home country... maybe another outing when you guys come back? =D)

Yea thats kinda it...
Even though I bet we're all not in the mood for it, think its time the books came flying back into our hands... haiz...

To finally end on a happy note, WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
XD

STOP Mugging!

2010-09-14T00:09:00.002+08:00

I'm here to tell you guys that excessive mugging is terribly bad for your health. Mug in moderation always and do NOT overmug! Later we have dead zombies, although scoring full marks for GP, lumbering in for rehearsals O.O now how horrible would that be?

A recent study carried out by the economics exco, Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore, has determined that if everyone does not mug, then by game theory, everyone would benefit. Isn't that wonderful! Studying makes life boring. At least have some relaxation!

And today's form of relaxation is.... TADAHHH!.... JOKES! (zzz)
Regardless of whether you passed or failed your most recent test/exam, one should learn to enjoy the abundance of wonderful 'little things' that occur in our everyday lives. Put away your "Maclaurin's Series" notes or your "The Sargasso Sea" and jump right into these jokes O.O

Musical terminology jokes Part II

Gregorian chant: A way of singing in unison, invented by monks to hide snoring.

Half Step: The pace used by a cellist when carrying his instrument.

Harmonic Minor: A good music student.

Harmony: A corn-like food eaten by people with accents (see above for definition of accent).

Hemiola: A hereditary blood disease caused by chromatics.

Heroic Tenor: A singer who gets by on sheer nerve and tight clothing.

Hocket: The thing that fits into a crochet to produce a rackett.

Hurdy-gurdy: A truss for medieval percussionists who get Organistrum.

Interval: How long it takes you to find the right note. There are three kinds: Major Interval: a long time; Minor Interval: a few bars; Inverted Interval: when you have to back one bar and try again.

Intonation: Singing through one's nose. Considered highly desirable in the Middle Ages

Isorhythm: The individual process of relief when Vire is out of town.

Isorhythmic motet: When half of the ensemble got a different photocopy than the other half

Lai: What monks give up when they take their vows.

Lamentoso: With handkerchiefs.

Lasso: The 6th and 5th steps of a descending scale.

Lauda: The difference between shawms and krummhorns

Longa: The time between visits with Vire.

Major Triad: The name of the head of the Music Department. (Minor Triad: the name of the wife of the head of the Music Department.)

Mean-Tone Temperament: One's state of mind when everybody's trying to tune at the same time.

Messiah: An oratorio by Handel performed every Christmas by choirs that believe they are good enough, in cooperation with musicians who need the money.

etronome: A dwarf who lives in the city.

Minim: The time you spend with Vire when there is a long line. Breve: The time you spend when the line is short.

Minnesinger: A boy soprano or Mickey's girlfriend in the opera.

Modulation: "Nothing is bad in modulation."

Motet: Where you meet Vire if the cloister is guraded.

Musica ficta: When you lose your place and have to bluff till you find it again. Also known as 'faking'.

Neums: Renaissance midgets

Opus: A penguin in Kansas.

Orchestral suites: Naughty women who follow touring orchestras.

Ordo: The hero in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings".

Organistrum: A job-related hazard for careless medieval percussionists, caused by getting one's tapper caught in the clapper.

Organum: You may not participate in the Lai without one.

Paralell organum: Everybody standing in a double line, waiting for Vire.

Pause: A short period in an individual voice in which there should be relative quiet. Useful when turning to the next page in the score, breathing, emptying the horn of salvia, coughing, etc. Is rarely heard in baroque music. Today, the minimum requirements for pauses in individual pieces are those of the Musicians' Union (usually one per bar, or 15 minutes per hour).

Pneumatic melisma: A bronchial disorder caused by hockets.

Prolation: Precautions taken before the Lai.

Quaver: Beginning viol class.

Rackett: Capped reeds class.

Recitative: A disease that Monteverdi had.

Rhythmic drone: The sound of many monks suffering with Crotchet.

Ritornello: An opera by Verdi.

Rota: An early Italian method of teaching music without score or parts.

Rubato: Expression used to describe irregular behaviour in a performer with sensations of angst in the mating period. Especially common amongst tenors.

Sancta: Clausula's husband.

Score: A pile of all the individual orchestral voices, transposed to C so that nobody else can understand anything. This is what conductors follow when they conduct, and it's assumed that they have studied it carefully. Very few conductors can read a score.

Sine proprietate: Cussing in church.

Solesme: The state of mind after a rough case of Crotchet.

Stops: Something Bach did not have on his organ.

Supertonic: Schweppes.

Tempo: This is where a headache begins.

Tempus imperfectum: Vire had to leave early.

Tempus perfectum: A good time was had by all.

Tone Cluster: A chordal orgy first discovered by a well-endowed woman pianist leaning forward for a page turn.

Transposition: An advanced recorder technique where you change from alto to soprano fingering (or vice-versa) in the middle of a piece.

Trill: The musical equivalent of an epileptic seizure.

Trope: A malevolent Neum.

Trotto: An early Italian form of Montezuma's Revenge.

Tutti: A lot of sackbuts.

Vibrato: The singer's equivalent of an epileptic seizure.

Vibrato: Used by singers to hide the fact that they are on the wrong pitch.

Virelai: A local woman known for her expertise in the Lai.

Virtuoso: A musician with very high morals.

Interesting Vid

2010-08-12T22:48:00.001+08:00

Hi pple my fren shared with me this of Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) in a comedy!

And from there I found a link to an even funnier one! Its about conductors

Have a good laugh and enjoy!!

Music vids

2010-08-08T00:27:00.004+08:00

Hi pples, not in the mood to put up any jokes =P
Instead, I'll just crap about the pieces we MIGHT be playing cos Dr Tan was talking to us about them during rehearsal :D

John Ireland (1879-1962) - A Downland Suite

I just listened to the minuet in this piece. Its damn nice!
Its something I bet we can all appreciate can we? XD

The piece is lyrical and nice! Oh btw theres a cello melody soli at about 2.18 onwards. Do listen and get an idea before the scores arrive. I feel like playing this right away haha! XD

The 2nd piece I'm gonna share is the Libertango thing

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)- Libertango

It sounds nice and just a piece of info, in the video, the only string instrument lacking is the VIOLA! HAHA!

The 3rd piece is Elgar's Introduction and Allegro :D

Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) - Introduction and Allegro

Its not the complete piece of music, mainly because its late and I dun wana keep trying to find good recordings. This is not a bad one by BBC Symphony Orchestra =) Do take a listen and see how ~~bad~~ good Elgar actually sounds like! Although missing the end parts, the front half will give a good idea of what the piece should sound like :D

Thats all, my first time posting vids...
ENJOY!
Hope these will aid in practising the pieces :D

XD

2010-07-23T23:06:00.004+08:00

Hello pple!

I'm posting this randomly for no apparent reason :D
I'm not so creative as to create some story about some scandal,
nor am I intelligent enough to spout some random equation up here.
However what I CAN do, is write nonsense and utter crap which has no particular relevance here at all :D (actually everyone can do that)

Block tests are over, and the worst part of block tests - receiving the results - are also over! XD cheers! Hurray! This means FUN!!!

BUT nooooooooooooooooooooo

The school refuses to give J1s a break. After the hectic block tests, up comes a math lecture test and a chem lecture test smacking us right in the face. There goes the collection of TONS of notes ( I <3 organic chem!! :D) that fill our bags to 200000000kg. And when you have sadistic/nonchalant tutors teaching u subjects related to languages/humanities, sometimes you just wana curl up and die. When you receive your paper and see this big red mark staring back and laughing at you, you just want to kill yourself and commit suicide! :(

But then again, we must all relax once in a while, regardless whether you did well or not for block test.

ENOUGH CRAP!
LAME JOKES TIME!

Accent: An unusual manner of pronunciation, e. g. "Y`all sang that real good!"

Accidentals: Wrong notes

Ad Libitum: A premiere.

Agitato: A string player`s state of mind when a peg slips in the middle of a piece.

Agnus dei: A famous female church composer.

Allegro: Leg fertilizer.

Altered Chord: A sonority that has been spayed.

Atonality: Disease that many modern composers suffer from. The most prominent symptom is the patient`s lacking ability to make decisions.

Augmented fifth: A 36-ounce bottle.

Bar Line: A gathering of people, usually among which may be found a musician or two.

Beat: What music students to do each other with their musical instruments. The down beat is performed on the top of the head, while the up beat is struck under the chin.

Bravo: Literally, "How bold!" or "What nerve!" This is a spontaneous expression of appreciation on the part of the concertgoer after a particularly trying performance.

Breve: The way a sustained note sounds when a violinist runs out of bow.

Broken consort: When somebody in the ensemble has to leave and go to the restroom.

Cadence: When everybody hopes you`re going to stop, but you don`t.

Cadenza: The heroine in Monteverdi`s opera "Frottola".

Cantus firmus: The part you get when you can only play four notes.

Chansons de geste: Dirty songs.

Chord: Usually spelled with an "s" on the end, means a particular type of pants, e. g. "He wears chords."

Chromatic Scale: An instrument for weighing that indicates half-pounds.

Clausula: Mrs. Santa.

Coloratura Soprano: A singer who has great trouble finding the proper note, but who has a wild time hunting for it.

Compound Meter: A place to park your car that requires two dimes.

Con Brio: Done with scouring pads and washboards.

Conductor: A musician who is adept at following many people at the same time.

Conductus: The process of getting Vire into the cloister.

Counterpoint: A favorite device of many Baroque composers, all of whom are dead, though no direct connection between these two facts has been established. Still taught in many schools, as a form of punishment.

Countertenor: A singing waiter.

Crescendo: A reminder to the performer that he has been playing too loudly.

Crotchet: 1) A tritone with a bent prong. 2) It`s like knitting, but it`s faster. 3) An unpleasant illness that occurs after the Lai, if prolation is not used.

Cut time: When you`re going twice as fast as everybody else in the ensemble.

Da capo al fine: I like your hat!

Detache: An indication that the trombones are to play with the slides removed.

Di lasso: Popular with Italian cowboys.

Discord: Not to be confused with Datcord.

Drone: The sound of a single monk during an attack of Crotchet.

Ductia: 1) A lot of mallards. 2) Vire`s organum.

Duration: Can be used to describe how long a music teacher can exercise self-control.

Embouchre: The way you look when you`ve been playing the Krummhorn.

English horn: A woodwind that got its name because it`s neither English nor a horn. Not to be confused with French horn, which is German.

Espressivo: Close eyes and play with a wide vibrato.

Estampie: What they put on letters in Quebec

Fermata: A brand of girdle made especially for opera singers.

Fermented fifth: What the percussion players keep behind the tympani, which resolves to a `distilled fifth`, which is what the conductor uses backstage.

Fine: That was great!

Flute: A sophisticated pea shooter with a range of up to 500 yards, blown transversely to confuse the enemy.

Garglefinklein: A tiny recorder played by neums.

Glissando: The musical equivalent of slipping on a banana peel. Also, a technique adopted by string players

...see more in the next post... to be continued...

Regards,
Vinyl

new blog design

2010-07-05T16:26:00.002+08:00

Heyhey :)!

I changed the blog design, comments please :D you can just leave a tag on the tagboard or tell me personally on msn or something.

Thanks!
cn

Batch Outing

2010-07-03T23:28:00.002+08:00

Yozzzzzzz!

Just to inform those who din know or wasn't able to make it that we had an AWESUM batch outing on 2/7 Friday! Sorry run out of ideas so this post will be more slanted towards the 'normal' kind of post.

2/7 marks the end of block tests and a great reason to celebrate!! (=P to J2s HA!)
Anyway what we did was we trodded to the bus stop and said our goodbyes to serene and kimberlyn before deciding to go to this thing called Al-Ameen to obtain some delicious food. There was supposedly a communication breakdown of some sort when ordering the food. It went something like this...

Characters:
Table 1 (Yunqi, Joan, Tianhao, Alvin)
Table 3 (i forgot who... but i know got congning can alrdy LOL)

T1: ok we're done ordering. Heres the menu!
(After 1min)
T3: Hey you guys ordered the 'family meal' right? or what meal did u guys order.
T1: Oh we ordered individual dishes cos we counted then family meal more expensive cos got alot of other random stuff that we dun really like =)"
T3: OK thanks!

(After 10mins, food arrives)
T3: EH WTS I THOUGHT U GUYS ORDER INDIVIDUAL!
(Each person on T3 has one plate of fried rice in front of them)
(T1 contained hotplate tofu, fried kailan with meat and seafood, sichuan fish, egg with chicken and 4 plates of steaming hot rice)
T1: YA we order individual wad... then we all share
T3: OMG WTS IS THIS OMGOMGOMG...
*stares at their fried rice*
LOL

Oh and I'd like to acknowledge Yunqi's kindness and generosity cos she absorbed the drinks cost for Table 1. THANK YOU XDXDXD. The teh cino was nice but a tad bit sweet...

After that we decided to play LAN amidst the rejections of some pool lovers such as congning and zicong. In the end... we all played LAN LOL. IT WAS UBER FUN (at least from my perspective hehe).
Quotable quotes:

CN: WAH SHIOK MAN!!! KILL PEOPLE WHEN THEY DON SEE YOU DAMN FUN LA MUAHAHAHAHA!

In game events:

1.
Terrorists (TE) have planted the bomb
Counter-Terrorists (CT) killed all the terrorists. Counterterrorist side left tianhao
CT: QUICK DEFUSE THE BOMB
WTH: HUH?? EH HOW U DEFUSE THE BOMB. EH SHITSHITSHIT HOW WAD YOU PRESS OMG!
*Many many seconds pass*
*Bomb explodes*
*WTH dies*
*Terrorists Win!*
WTH: SHIT!
Others: NOOB!!!!!!

2.
*Glen dies*
Glen: OH THEY COMING FROM THE WATER QUICKQUICK GOGOGO
TE member: OMG QUICK GO WATER THEY COMING
TE member: OMG WHICH SIDE
TE member: OMG DUN ALL GO
TE member: OI OI OI DUN SHOOT ME
*Creates a super loud ruckus*
*TE loses*
MUAHAHAHA

3.
*CN dies*
CN: WTS I GOT KILLED BY JOAN!!!! SHIT LETS CHANGE MAP! OMG CANNOT FACE PEOPLE LE!

4.
*Joan is the only one left in TE*
CT: Hey only joan is left quick go sure win and she sure in water one, every round also in water!
TE: JOAN DUN LOSE ARH WE RELYING ON U BUT NO PRESSURE DUN WORRY WE ALL LOOKING AT UR ACTIONS
Joan: OMG...
Joan: AHHHH OMG SO MANY
*HEADSHOT*
*Joan dies*
TE: aiya...

OK NOW THE IMPORTANT PART!
There will be a batch outing to play LAN at IRC near beauty world on THURSDAY after school 8/7/10 (Half Day)
Meeting Place: Joan's class bench
Time: 11.15am
Projected ending time: About 5pm as many people have rehearsals after that at 6.30 or 7.00 pm. However, others can stay on at IRC if you guys want to continue playing.
Possible things to do: LAN
POOL
If you guys sick of LAN then play pool (Cos 5 hours abit long LOL)
Please tell Mok ZiCong about your availability. Best case scenario is MORE THE MERRIER.
If you have not played LAN before, don't worry, more than half of the players on friday never played LAN before, but it was super fun and enjoyable. So grab the opportunity to interact and bond as a batch. Hope you guys can come... and keep your Thursday, 8/7/10 FREE!!!
See You There!!!!

Rdgs,
Anonymous

Chapter 3 of the series “The chronicles of Yrag and Anywde”: Final Fantasy

2010-06-17T22:47:00.004+08:00

Presenting...

The final installment in "The Chronicles of Yrag and Anywde"!

Chapter 3 of the series “The chronicles of Yrag and Anywde”: Final Fantasy

Location: Somewhere in Singapore

A family huddles around a television set, having reluctantly forked out $94 to watch what they were watching. On the screen, twenty-two men chase a ball, much to the excited cheers of the crowd. Suddenly, the screen blanks out, and is replaced by a news reporter. Amidst colourful Hokkien expletives, she delivers the following report:

“We apologise for interrupting your scheduled World Cup match (but I’ll be a prophet here and tell you here that Spain got owned) to deliver some breaking news. A groundbreaking report just released by the Association of Astrophysicists, Astronomers and Astrologists (awesome alliteration) shows that the Sun has greatly increased in mass, despite being pretty heavy to begin with already. Its increased gravity has pulled the planet Mars towards it, and both of them are now on a collision course. It is unknown how the impact would affect the universe, but the Association speculates that it will throw the Earth off its usual orbit, ending the world as we know it.

“In related news, the increased mass of the sun has led to previously unseen solar radiation on Earth. Scientists speculate that the radiation could lead to genetic mutations, although humans have not been affected by it yet. So far, the only animals reported to have any unusual behaviour are the stallion, which seems to have developed an unprecedented love for cameras, and is behaving unusually happy and giddy; as well as the bull, which has been seen to carry around a camera to satisfy the stallion. The wolf and the owl have been reported to be showing unusual symptoms of weakness, but these may be unrelated to the solar radiation as they have only been reported in the area of the Bukit Timah forest.”

--

Location: Hwa Chong Instutition

To the casual onlooker, life seems to go on as normal, but the perceptive observer will notice the subtle hints that betray the fact that not everything is all right. Students who don the colours of blue and green are far more wary than usual, their eyes betraying the fatigue that comes from being on the alert all the time. At the same time, the force field of romance and intimacy that surrounds the strings room has gotten so strong that only the most hardcore and brave of nerds dare enter the library to study, and even then only through the metal staircase. Above all, an air of silence seems to have descended on the school, and students and staff alike seem only to wait in apprehension of what comes next.

--

Location: Hwa Chong Institution, sometime later

A murmur.

A chant.

The crescendo.

Dark clouds loom. A flash of lightning splits the sky, then the world is returned to darkness amidst the rumbling thunder.

And in the middle of the Central Plaza stand the figures of Yrag and Anywde, chanting long-forgotten scripts and employing forbidden magic.

Atop the bridge, Super Mario stands, his weight barely balanced by the entire weight of Block A. Struggling to be heard above the raging winds, he shouts, “What are you doing!”

“So! You have appeared! But is all for naught! It is too late to stop us now!” Yrag turns and yells back.

“It is the culmination of months of careful planning. No longer shall Ares and Apollo stand divided! Where there was once four, let there now be only one! Today marks the beginning of … Anywdeyrag!” [Note: I took the liberty to reverse the names; just to let the first letter be “A”. Also, ladies first, hey?]

Around the left and right wings, students stand, too astonished to speak. They had known this was coming, but…so soon?

“The Four Faculties of Hwa Chong are held together by very strong magicks, you young upstart! To undo them would bring untold damage onto the fabric that holds our school together!” Super Mario calls.

“Then let these magicks today be undone!” Anywde retorts, “We who were once two seek now to become one! And let the other two who stand in our way begone! After today, Hwa Chong will have less than three! (<3)”

“That’s just your opinion!” Super Mario declares.

“…Wait, what?”

“I mean, tamper not with forces beyond your understanding! Once unleashed, these forces may threaten this entire dimension! I implore you; stop before it is too late!”

“It is already too late! Behold! The portal opens!”

And open the portal does, which looks oddly like a wedding arch, complete with flowers and everything. Hand in hand, Yrag and Anwyde stride through the “portal”.

“Know you even the magic words that open the mortal portal?” Super Mario laughs haughtily. His laugh dies in his throat as Yrag and Anwyde look into each other’s eyes and simultaneously whisper “I do”. With a flash, Yrag and Anwyde disappear, the storm clears, and silence reigns in Hwa Chong once again.

--

Location: Mount Olympus, home of the Greek Gods.

Zeus, father of Apollo, Ares, Artemis and Athena, god of the skies and lightning and lord of the gods, sits majestically atop a mighty throne. Beneath him, Ares and Apollo stand, each flanked by Anwyde and Yrag respectively.

[Having ended up in the realm of the gods, the narrator is forced to narrate in a manner most befitting to the majesty that surrounds the mystical realm: Shakespearean style]

Ares:
Hear me, O father:
These mortals come hence to let us witness their love,
And ask permission to let their love be expressed in our realm as well.

Apollo:
Ares speaks true.
With thy permission, father, we will let our avatars in the mortal realm become one.

Zeus:
‘Tis forbidden, sons mine
And thy both know it well.
Pester me no more on this.

Apollo:
What was once forbidden can yet happen
If only thy wilt lend us thy power.
For art thou not king of the Gods,
Ruler of all that thy survey?
These mortals hath won us over;
I pray thee, father,
Listen to their words.
Thou might find it in thy heart to accept them as well.

Ares: (unsheathes sword)
Forgive me, father;
But I am willing to fight on this.
God of war I am, and will always be
Red is my colour;
And today passion mine burns
Not only for war, but for love both.

Apollo:
My brother doth speak for me as well.
The sun is mine to control;
And today I may use it
In defence of a love whose flame doth burn brighter than the sun itself.

Zeus:
I hath heard enow!
Nay my answer was, and nay my answer still is, and wilt be!
Let those who persist in earning my ire, sons mine though they be
Feel my power:
The Thunder God’s Wrath!

A period of awkward silence ensues

Zeus:
What manner of villain hath entered majestic Olympus?
My thunderbolt, my power, my very being
Hath been denied me!

Percy Jackson: (enters)
And returned to thee.
Though I hath been to Hades and back simply to do this.
Thy thunderbolt, Zeus,
Is thine once again.

Zeus:
I thank thee, Percy Jackson;
But there shall be time for proper celebration later.
Now though…

Zeus hurls a lightning bolt at Apollo and Ares. Suddenly, a force field appears, dissipating the lightning bolt.

Zeus:
What force be upon us now?

Aphrodite:
Only mine, father.

Yrag:
Aphrodite!
The fabled fifth faculty of Hwa Chong
Appearing only in legends,
And even then only as passing mentions,
Like an ethereal mist.

Anwyde:
And it appears the legends are true.

Zeus:
Aphrodite!
What is thy role in all this?
And, more importantly,
How did thine powers overcome mine?
My lightning bolt is the most powerful weapon ever known.

Aphrodite:
Know thee well, father:
That us gods are only as powerful as mortals believe in us.
And these two mortals Yrag and Anwyde have alone given me strength enow
To become the most powerful goddess in existence.
But my power is love
And mine aim be but to stop the violence that I see.
I propose that Yrag and Anwyde be given a realm of their own;
A world where they can live with each other
To enjoy an eternity of intimate bliss.
Their love need not interfere in the lives of others.

Zeus:
Thy idea doth hath merit.
Aphrodite:
I apologise, Yrag and Anwyde;
For the faculty system in Hwa Chong must hold yet.
But I trust that mine proposal doth appeal to thee both.

Anwyde:
We are satisfied.

Zeus:
Thus it hath been settled.
With the power that is mine to command;
Let Aphrodite’s words now become truth
Let fantasies take flight!

A flash, and Yrag and Anwyde disappear.

Aphrodite:
And thus the universe returns to normal.
Little did Yrag and Anwyde suspect
That their love was so great it threatened the entire cosmos.
Mars, the equivalent of Ares
Shall now return to its usual orbit
And the sun be its normal size.
Everything is now as it once was.

--

A new generation rises from the ashes of the previous.

A chapter ends, and a new one begins.

The baton has been passed.

Who will be tomorrow’s star?

Guess who!

JTS!

2010-06-13T01:33:00.003+08:00

Yo pple!

JTS was held on 9th June 2010 (--> 10th June 2010)

I hope everyone enjoyed JTS 2010 because this is the best JTS ever held in the history of HCSE! O.O (muahahaha)

Hoped seniors liked our small yet meaningful gifts sincerely from the bottom of our hearts. (srsly our hearts are so deep u can poke a violin bow in and u wun reach the bottom i promise. Shows how meaningful the gifts are)

One eventful event that happened was the night biking trip for the J1 batch pple who went for the chalet. Seriously it was super super fun, so fun that their @sses was aching after sitting on the damn bike for 4 hours in a row. Cycling and singing songs and then telling kimberlyn stuff like

Jia Quan: omg i luuuurrrve the sound (SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH, SCREEEEEECH)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jia Quan: OMG look at the sea got WATER MONSTER!
Kimberlyn: OMGOMGOMG AHHHHHH STOPSTOPSTOP AHHHHHHHH OMGOMGOMG (palindromic words o.o)

Jia Quan: OMG to ur right the grass there got eyes keep following us
Kimberlyn: *SCREAMS*

Jia Quan: OMG got RATTATA!
Kimberlyn: I GOT BRING POKEBALL HA! (O.O)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WTH: HEY! got map leh lets look (suddenly stops bike)
Alvin: OMG! (BOOM CRASH BANG)
Shirlynn: AHH TIANHAO MOVE MOVE MOVE (BOOM CRASH BANG)
The Rest: OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG X100 (SCREEEEEEECH)
WTH: SORRY!

Wow look at the time srsly its damn late, weary tired
Post more tomorrow!
Stay tuned for more updates

Love,
Anonymous

2010-05-15T15:00:00.011+08:00

Hello HCSE!

here's an update on stj haha.

STJ was a very fun and enjoyable experience. Cause everyone had fun singing :) Mok and Cong ning inherited haomeng's title of k ge zhi wang:) Cong ning loves singing love songs. i wonder for who huh?:) (Note: Welfare doesnt use smiley faces, i only use weary good.)

Anyway, concert's this Friday, and it's the last concert for J2s:( We hope that you juniors will miss us! Which we are sure that you all will, right?:) So since it's only a few days left to concert, let's all work hard and jiayou yeah? Let's make this concert a good and memorable one!

The next exciting thing that's going to happen after concert is electIons,and JTS (JUNIORS IT BETTER BE GOOD K HAHA:D ) Results wIll only be released on JTS, so if JTS not good then no results okay? HAHA okay joking.:) It's gna be chalet btw, right juniors? so anyway, good luck to all the juniors for exco elections!:)

HCSE Tabloid section

***** Please read chapter one (found in a previous blogpost) before reading this --- found in RED *****

Chapter 2 of the series "The chronicles of Yrag and Anywde": The truth

It is a day since our unfortunate correspondent was brutally murdered without a trace. A fresh journalist by the name of ZCT sets out to uncover the truth behind the lost information -- starting off by surveying the crime scene.

Stepping into strings room, ZCT discovers the murdered correspondent's mutilated corpse, with blood splattered everywhere on the walls and instruments. In his comprehensive search for evidence, he rummages through the stacks of scores and albums on the tables and accidently uncovers a secret notebook containing an insidious plot to alter the existing faculty system in Hwachong.

As ZCT flips through the notebook page by page, his eyes widen in apprehension and shock. Whoever the murderers were, they were plotting to marry Ares and Apollo in a bid to create a new orange faculty known as "yraganywde". This new faculty would then overhaul the entire faculty system in Hwachong and establish an oligarchy with its headquarters based in strings room. A force field of romantism and intimacy would then be set up all around strings room to repel potential visitors, and the privileged few in the oligarchy would then hold private "meetings" in the comfort of strings room.

The consequences would be far-reaching. The abolishment of the faculty system would spell doomsday for Artemis and Athena. Worst of all, the force field would transform strings room into a forbidden location cut off from the rest of Hwachong, since no student would dare step in ever again.

With the seriousness of the insurgency surfacing gradually in his mind, ZCT makes a desperate dash for the door in a bid to disseminate the priceless information. Yet approaching the exit, he looks up at a gigantic figure standing in the doorway and realizes he is all too late. As ZCT opens his mouth to scream, the yellowish silhouette raises a 50k violin high up in the air before cruelly slamming into his face...

As fragments of the shattered violin fall to the ground alongside ZCT's lifeless body, deafening silence resonates throughout the Hwachong campus. Just what is going to happen next?

To be continued...

Your beloved welfare rep XD (and two people:) )

2010-04-16T21:19:00.005+08:00

Hello HCSE!

It has been a while since i updated the blog haha. oh well haha hope that everyone is doing ok with their studies and stuff haha. Just to update a bit, STJ will tentatively be held on 2nd of may hope everyone's fine with the date. Cause 3rd of may is most likely a holiday in lieu of labour day:) I will send an email to ask everyone again haha. It will be at ChayChoong's very very small house and I will post the details at a later date haha. :) btw cc's house is at hmmm. near. ECP so we can all go and play there first haha :D

On a side note, everyone jiayou for the upcoming concert ok :) to all the j2s this will be the last concert before we prepare for our weary exciting A levels haha so please try and enjoy haha

Anw juniors can help update e blog with interesting updates too kae hahaha. I will do a longer post when zc is beside me lol

2010-01-13T12:59:00.007+08:00

Hello everyone!

Due to my extreme efficiency, your beloved welfare rep presents to you yet another Strings update! HCSE orientation was held on 7th Jan 2010, and i'm sure everyone had an unforgettable day of fun and laughter, including innumerous enjoyable and innovative forfeits. Take for instance, the creative and interesting forfeit featuring our prospective HCSE members, a dead Haomeng, and the handsome yellow Navi! Enjoy! :):)

ChengTeng's contribution ends here.

HCSE Tabloid News Section

Please read this before chapter 2

Chapter 1 of the series "The chronicles of Yrag and Anywde": The discovery

It is 4.01 pm: On what would otherwise have appeared to be an uneventful day, our correspondent who happened to be mysteriously hiding in a bush situated outside room B103 in Hwa Chong Institution (College Section), have uncovered a secret rendezvous that threatens to decimate the face of planet Earth as we know it.

It is 4.02 pm: Two minutes has passed. In a desperate attempt to spread the news, our correspondent dashes up the stairs towards strings room in search of his cellphone.

It is 4.04 pm: There appears to be movement in B103. Yrag and Anywde emerge and head towards strings room.

It is 4.05 pm: Our correspondent reaches strings room, fumbles with the lock, slams the door open, clumsily trips over the double bass, grabs his cellphone and starts relaying the message to the rest of the world.

It is 4.07 pm: Yrag and Anywde reach strings room and notice the door is ajar.

It is 4.09 pm: A bloodcurdling scream echoes throughout the hwachong campus. The relayed message ends abruptly: It seems our unfortunate correspondent has been brutally murdered in an abortive attempt to disseminate the precious information. Just what has happened?

To be continued...

2010-01-06T09:51:00.015+08:00

Hi everyone!

There will be an orientation for the new incoming J1s on thursday, 7th Jan. Anyone who's interested can come:)

Details will be as follows:
Date: 7th Jan

Time: 10am-3/4pm

Reporting venue: Strings room (A block 4th level)

Attire: Any school shirt (half sch u)

Schedule: Icebreakers, followed by lunch, and then treasure hunt

Our beloved welfare wants to remind everyone to remember to bring some $$ for lunch:)

Next, here's a reminder to all who have not voted for your favourite concert name:) reply to elizabeth's email asap.

The HCSE Tabloid News Section

Recent Movies: Gary and Edwyna recommends everyone to watch Sherlock Holmes. They say that it's extremely nice to watch :)

ISYF Updates: The upcoming ISYF and ongoing Centad research projects has not only kept some of our members preoccupied and rendered them incapable of attending strings rehearsals; it has also altered the way some go about their school life-- Eg -- due to the recent busy ISYF work sessions, chay choong is looking for a new partner to accompany him in his school life.

HCSE proposed seating arrangements: Zhichao says that he should be sit outside. Weary good, Audrey says okay, so as to allow her more lively interaction with the person *wilfred* she would be sitting beside :) Furthermore, Chengteng feels it is absolutely essential for him to sit at the back so that he has more time to sms DG.

Public Transport: The recent hike in MRT fare has crippled haomeng financially (and emotionally), leaving him in extreme distress -- His monthly MRT fare has climbed from a few million previously to a record of billions of dollars.

Fine dining: The pres/vice-pres and their 1st/2nd ladies would like to encourage all HCSE members to visit prince at coronation more frequently. The dazzling bright lights, scrumptious meals, and the taste of romance in the air make it undoubtedly THE place to develop your friendships after an exhuasting day at strings!

2010-01-01T08:48:00.002+08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR HCSE (:

2009-11-03T17:42:00.009+08:00

Hello!
Many interesting things have happened since the strings outing on 30th-31st oct:) like cough cough scandals:) which obviously has nothing to do with audrey:)

The hours of marital bliss....

group photo:) chaychoong's dog is really cute!

the birthday boy didnt get to blow out his birthday candles so he is blowing...instead

lively interaction

K ge zhi wang Yip Hao Meng ((:

the bear can sing too! pro

wilfred is weary awake

Dreaming of public transport home via _ _ _...

*** Hmm (Imagination works wonders... or is it too obvious for speculation?)

P.S Bixuan saw Zhichao typing part of this post:)

Chay Choong: Audrey u're up to Zhi Chao's shoulder!

Zhi Chao: 真的吗? 不错 :)

**Chay Choong related the incident to gary**

Gary: I dont understand chinese

(zhichao has a picture on facebook)

Random girl from 09S74: SO CUTE SO CUTE!! (hyperventilate)

source: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=730172&id=1031280620#/photo.php?pid=730173&id=1031280620

Another random girl from 09S74: "Audrey!! you so lucky!! zhichao looks so cute drinking from a straw!!"

During the stayover: Wilfred kicked Audrey aside after sleeping with her and denied doing so. (Verified by BiXuan, 2009)

Audrey: Its no big deal mah

Zhi Chao: Indeed. 司空见惯 (check dictionary if you dono) le.

Cheng Teng: Audrey sang the most. Hao meng tried to sing the most.

chengteng says weary good.:)

My deepest regards for my beloved secretary :D:D,

XXXXXXX XXXX

P.S additional info:

this is evidence that zhichao is trying to take revenge on audrey HAHA

a certain girl from zhichao's class 09s74 says that zhichao looks very cute drinking from a straw.:)

♫ HCstrings ♫ - zhi chao ----- i sought refuge in solitude says: (9:04:53 PM)what the crap

♫ HCstrings ♫ - zhi chao ----- i sought refuge in solitude says: (9:05:29 PM)audrey you watch out

♫ HCstrings ♫ - zhi chao ----- i sought refuge in solitude says: (9:06:06 PM)its war

♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:09:47 PM)eh yah but i drink with straw too HAHA but dunno why cannot be like you hahahahahah
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:10:01 PM)LOL
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:10:12 PM)zc has special body and facial structure
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:10:19 PM)i have analysed alr
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:10:22 PM)firstly
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:10:42 PM)his neck allows the straw to be proportionately in place to his mouth
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:10:49 PM)for accurate drinking
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:11:00 PM)and thus will become v cute
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:11:04 PM)HAHAHA OMG
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:11:06 PM)hahahahahahahahaha
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:11:19 PM)secondly
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:11:20 PM)if you put on strings blog HAHAHA omg hahahaa zc kena suanned hahahaha
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:11:25 PM)zc is weary cute
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:11:30 PM)LOL
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:11:33 PM)HAHAHA omg
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:11:39 PM)he gna kill you
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:11:40 PM)hahahah
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:11:49 PM)but cannot la
♫ HCstrings ♫ - zhi chao ----- i sought refuge in solitude says: (9:11:49 PM)you two
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:11:49 PM)zc taken alr
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:12:01 PM)LOLOLOL
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:12:10 PM)hahahaha the new scandal?
♫ HCstrings ♫ - zhi chao ----- i sought refuge in solitude says: (9:12:16 PM)taken?
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:12:19 PM)ya
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:12:21 PM)taken
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:12:26 PM)has 2 meanings
♫ HCstrings ♫ - zhi chao ----- i sought refuge in solitude says: (9:12:31 PM)what
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:12:34 PM)ahha what two meaning
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:13:02 PM)zc has taken the art of strawing drinking to a whole new level of cuteness
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:13:04 PM)first meaning
♫ HCstrings ♫ - zhi chao ----- i sought refuge in solitude says: (9:13:11 PM)thats crap
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:13:13 PM)second meaning is
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:13:13 PM)HAHHAHA
♫ HCstrings ♫ - zhi chao ----- i sought refuge in solitude says: (9:13:15 PM)its not in context
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:13:17 PM)omg hahhahah
[09S7G][♫ HCStrings ♫] 振庭ユムチｪﾝテﾝ [CenTaD][h€þR.ð9][<3TIP] says: (9:13:19 PM)zc is taken lor
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:13:22 PM)-.-eh damn funny hahahah
♫ HCstrings ♫ - zhi chao ----- i sought refuge in solitude says: (9:13:40 PM)audrey whats so funny huh
♫ HCstrings ♫ - Pretty in pink! ❤ says: (9:13:45 PM)hahahaha

and you all must view this page. it's too funny:)
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3993092&id=530674135

okay end.:)

2009-10-20T18:13:00.002+08:00

Hello everyone!

Are you screwing promos like me? Are you wallowing in senseless self-pity due to a U in GP? Or are you weeping over the inability to apply for a H3?

Fret not! Your beloved welfare rep is here to save the day!

There's gona be a strings outing on 30th to 31st october at cc's house(: everyone go okay! stay over too it'll be fun! we can play with his dogs and kbox:D anyone has guitar heroes?? or xbox/wii/ps2? bring all your fun games so that we can play:) :)

the next day we'll go to ECP for outing... for cycling/beachball/catching/volleyball/eating/drinking/rollerblading/eating ice cream at macs!!:D:D

Haha everyone MUST come -- especially for the overnight stay! Haha OK?

Weary good! See you there!

GUESS WHO TYPED THIS POST AND YOU'LL STAND TO HUG CC'S DOG TWICE!!!! HEEHEEHEEHEEE

Yours sincerely,

Wilfred :)

2009-08-10T20:59:00.001+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOANNE LUA!

and happy national day to everyone haha :P

Tickets for Singapore Youth Sinfonia Concert

2009-08-06T20:59:00.003+08:00

Hello all!

We've been cordially invited to the following concert with up to 10 free tickets. Do let me know if you're interested in going.

Singapore Youth Sinfonia
“All That Pomp!”
Sunday 6 September 2009, 5.00pm
$5.00
Victoria Concert Hall
Conductor: Lim Soon Lee

Joseph Haydn	Symphony No. 94 in G Major, “Surprise”
Edward Elgar	Pomp and Circumstance, No.1 in D Major, Op.39

Wilfred

2009-07-19T22:12:00.005+08:00

HELLO EVERYONE!!!

COME FOR HEARTSTRINGS!! it's good and educational for all of you! you get to listen to good music and learn how to play better heheheh:D

The second of the INSPIRE'09 concert series, HEARTSTRINGS promises an exciting evening of performances with genres ranging from classical to pop.

In just one night, you will get to enjoy a varied program of chamber groups, solo performances, choirs and a cappella groups!

Catch some of Singapore’s local and youth talents on stage, such as the Singapore National Youth Orchestra’s chamber quartet. Presenting to you also...

Just Brass Ensemble
Duet Pianists Jonathan Shin and Chan Chi Ling
Pianist Clarence Lee
Violinist Alan Choo
Vocalist Matthew Quek
Anderson Secondary School Choir
A cappella Groups: Key Elements and Tone

Date: 25 July 09
Venue: Singapore Poly Convention Centre
Time: 7.30pm
Tickets are priced at $8 each.
All proceeds will be donated to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.

You can get tickets from me(: okay, or wilfred but i'm more desperate hahah and we still need to sell alot of tickets SO PLEASE COME IF YOU'RE FREE(:

Audrey

Pay up!

2009-07-12T12:51:00.000+08:00

Hey people,

Yinglu says:
These few people, please remember to pay orch fund ASAP! ($50)
-Cheng Teng
-Choong
-Fiona
-Gary
-Larry
-Leona
-Naifu

2009-07-05T23:00:00.001+08:00

Hey everyone hope you blks went well:)

here's a funny video hahaha LOL

ct

2009-06-25T18:25:00.001+08:00

happy birthday to leona!

we'll celebrate after blocks :p

Viola Fail

2009-06-22T00:00:00.004+08:00

Hi everyone!

Stop mugging so hard for Blocks and relax! Violist Yuri Bashmet visited Singapore recently and had an amazing concert! But anyway, that's not the point =D

Enjoy!

Wilfred

2009-06-17T10:53:00.001+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LIZARDY BIRD! :D

p.s. we will celebrate after blks!

ct

2009-06-15T23:39:00.004+08:00

HI EVERYONE!

To all hcse enthusiasts who find meaning in visiting this blog regularly, heres a post that will make your trip here worth the effort! :D [Haha chengteng sorry for displacing your "first post" so quickly :P]

First and foremost, to those who havent already visited our strings room during the holidays, I'm pleased to inform you that it has already been tidied, thoroughly cleaned, and reorganized. So if you happen to pop by school you might like to take a look at our new strings room! Also, i suppose most of us would have noticed how dusty and messy our strings room was before any spring cleaning swept away the dirt and blew away the unpleasant smell. Therefore, in order to maintain its cleaniness, the set of rules and regulations for strings room has already been drawn out and are as follows:

Instruments are to be left either on the table, under the table, or placed on the floor in front of the radio.
All litter is to be thrown into the dustbin and not left lying around. Any mess made on the floor [smashed rosin, food crumbs etc] should be cleaned up on the spot.
No dirty, smelly, wet clothing is to be left in strings room. Any such clothing found in strings room will be thrown away immediately.
Strings room is not a storeroom – please refrain from dumping personal belongings in the strings room for long periods of time.
All objects [stands, gig books, board games, etc] are to be returned to their original positions after use.

Although currently there will not be any fines and punishments, hopefully everyone will abide by the guidelines so as to keep our strings room tidy and clean. It is, afterall, OUR strings room XD.

Good luck for blocks everyone!
Zhi Chao

2009-06-15T21:45:00.003+08:00

Hey hcse!

Wa my first post. :)

Finally there has been some kind of update with the hcse blog. Haha i know the skin is not perfect, due to zhi chao's persistent requestS (he say he mug finish blks alr nth to do at home every 5 mins refresh the blog), i did something to the old blog. Will be looking to improve it after blks when i have more time haha yea.

Abt the strings outing on 6/6/09, i'm sure everyone who went had fun :). Hmm i will try and post updates and pictures on it when i have time? haha yea. The next strings outing should be after blks or smth because i'm sure everyone want to study for it (unwillingly).

Yea... so thats it for now ppl :)

ct

The "I'm Forced to Post" Post

2009-06-04T22:46:00.003+08:00

Hello!

Even though I'm not even sure if this place still gets visitors, I would like to thank everybody for helping to organise JTS this year! It certainly would not have been possible without everybody who stuck their foot in and gave it a kick.

Special thanks:
Xiong Chen, Joanne Loo, Elizabeth, Liu Yi
For taking time off to purchase the presents and patiently wrap everything. All the more so because they had to lug the presents to school, a few per day, and meet up to wrap them!

Joanne Lua
For the much-needed booking of her function room for JTS. I think everybody will agree that her function room is so great that we'll probably need her help for next year!

Larry Lau, Zhi Chao, Naifu, Audrey, Chengyan, Edwyna, Chay Choong, Tse Yean, Cheng Teng, Yi Jia, Yi Fan
For your invaluable help in organising the games and getting the notebooks and testimonials ready and done.

Gary James
For ordering the catering and making sure that the caterer set up properly on the day. Yea, and for his "I own the place" pose on the top of the stairs with the light shining against his head.

Fiona, Leona, Bixuan
The banner was great! I think this is the 1st JTS to actually have a banner. =D Thanks for all your hard work put into designing and painting the banner!

Angela Teng
For her prescence
(I'm sorry that the gig ended late >.<)

Yinglu, Haomeng
For collecting money from everybody and making sure that none of it was lost.

Thanks for making JTS possible and fun!

Wilfred

Inspirations IX: Reminiscence

2009-05-14T22:59:00.004+08:00

"...definitely a good performance"
-- Dr Tan

Seniors' feedbacks:
"Suk was good, Britten was excellent and the encore was the best"
-- Alan Choo

"It's kinda weird. I never liked the Britten and 3rd movement of Suk but I enjoyed (HCSE's) performance (of those pieces) alot"
-- Kenneth Lee

("It's hard to please Kenneth."
-- Alan Choo)

Other feedbacks (forgot who said them):
"Sibelius was very powerful..."
"Suk 4th movement sounded very cool!"
"Finally I get to hear a live performance of Adagio for Strings, and I thought it sounded better then my mp3 recordings"

free to add more comments you've heard to this post!

:D cheers
CC

Updates as promised last month

2009-03-26T20:03:00.002+08:00

Hello, now that i have a few more seniors trying to kill me i guess i'll make another post =)

STJ & STRINGS OUTING was originally planned for 11th Apr (Sat) but it might have to be changed cos some people can't make it. Any suggestions for better dates? (yes you now have a reason to tag). And if you guys have any suggestions for the location (esp juniors) do let us know yeah. Strings outing will be to gramercy though, not my idea don't ask =.=

ANY ANECDOTES OR INTERESTING INCIDENTS that seniors might recall? We need info for our upcoming concert because it'll focus on the history of hcse. If the seniors have any contact information on even more senior batches it'll be appreciated! Send them to audrey ng at
audreyng1220@hotmail.com.

Bjorn

UPDATED HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA

2009-01-28T23:13:00.004+08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

hi guys, really sorry its been a while =) and i'm finally getting off my (fat) butt to update this !@#$ cos Audrey has 'kindly' 'reminded' me about it.

I'll be updating the blog with events from the past... ..year, but I can't do it in one post. Will anyone with any pictures or recollection of any strings events whatsoever please contribute? haha. Like send the pics to me or smth.

More updates coming ssrsly ssrsly.

Bjorn <--- your welfare rep

2008-11-04T21:11:00.000+08:00

You can all guess who i am! :D

win!

THAILAND TRIP-- MEMORABLE INCIDENTS!

2008-06-06T21:45:00.009+08:00

Remembering the humorous/happy/provocative... and everything else that defined our trip... =) Do feel free to add on!

Why Drinking Gin is a Bad Idea
After drinking gin on the plane and close to touching down at Changi airport... Zhiwei sees random Singaporean boy standing beside the toilet door and walks over...

Zhiwei: Sawadeeka! *smiles sweetly*
Random Singaporean boy: *stares and daos*
Zhiwei: OI! WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE?

lol...

Kenneth + Jacqueline = Eternal <333
After concert at Payap University and Sarah decides to share the giant bouquet with everyone...

Sarah: Hey Kenneth! *gives rose* For Jacqueline!
Kenneth: *takes rose and puts inside cello case with Jacqueline*

Aww... so sweet!

More on Kenneth and Jackie (a variation of the Orange Juice Joke)
During BBQ/steamboat after Payap University concert...

Kenneth opens cello case.
Random person: Hey Jacqueline, beef? Or chicken?

*Turned out Kenneth was taking out the Khantongs' card... Oops... =S

Songs We All Know by Heart Now
Courtesy of Fatty-You and Handsome Yap

'Wouldn't it be nice if the world was Tian Yi...'
'I've been dreaming of a Tan Tian Yi...'

When Being Helpful Goes Wrong...
Setting: D-Town Inn. Random Girl 1 wants another girl to accompany her in the shower in case of a guest appearance by Ju-On. Random Girl 2 agrees.

Girl 1: Eh, can accompany me now?
Girl 2: Wait ah... I must find a book to read...
Helpful Kenneth: I can go if you want...
*stunned silence and Kenneth realises what he's just said*
Kenneth: NO! I mean, I can go shower first!

Tsk tsk tsk... Kenneth... =P

Most 'Man' Award
Setting: night of riots in Bangkok and we're all called back early. Diyou is called upon to share a cab with Farrica and Jane.

Before they enter the cab...
Sarah: Eh... Diyou, be a man...

Farrica and Jane sit at the back. Diyou tries to squash himself with them at the back with this 'frightened kitten' look on his face.

Everyone else: OI! DIYOU!

Big Is Beautiful
Setting: 6 people try to squeeze in a cab. Diyou tries to squash himself in the backseat (yet again).

Taxi driver: *points to Diyou* You... Big... Sit in front...

HAHA!

What Boys Do When Girls Go Shopping
1) Eat 7 plates of beef [i think it was 10+ plates :P]
2) Hunt for mango sticky rice

Consequences of eating too much(New!)
Setting: Bangkok airport, on the way home
*Bjorn and Kenneth enter toilet*
Kenneth: "GG. Stomachache."
Bjorn: "Me too! >< Let's not use adjacent cubicles so we won't smell each other's stink."
*Kenneth goes into first cubicle. Bjorn goes into third cubicle.*

*short pause*

Kenneth: "Oh no. I got diarrhea..."
Bjorn: "Me too. I think I ate too much spicy food."
Mr Foo(IN SECOND CUBICLE): "Is that why it stinks so badly in here!??"
Kenneth and Bjorn: o.O!!!!

Moral of Shopping Trip
Girls shop to fill their hands with bags of things, guys shop to fill their stomach with lots of food

Memorable Quotes!
'I should have worn this tomorrow!' ~Lin Diyou

Everyone's Favourite Greeting!
'Sawadeeka, hong nam!' ~Annonymous

'Hello Jun Hong Nam!' >.< Lubby (Gin Rummy... whatever!) Spamming
We must thank Pinyan and Kuanhua for introducing this highly interesting game and it took the ensemble by storm.

And Kuanhua decided to play a prank on Pinyan by making a cold deck.

After the immense planning on the flight from chiangmai to bangkok, the deck was constructed and the deck was screwed so much so pinyan won in the end. But it was still nice to see her reaction after she was told the deck was stacked =)

part 5

2008-06-06T21:23:00.004+08:00

concert group photos! individual pls go find the pics yourself. haha. harrow missing other sections, only have violin 1 and violin2, all the way at the bottom at this part. if u have others photos that you wish to add, feel free to edit these posts. i too lazy to post now. thanks

I.Fung

part 4

2008-06-06T21:08:00.002+08:00

tcc practise and year photo

part 3

2008-06-06T20:47:00.002+08:00

going to MRT and getting out of the aiport

part 2

2008-06-06T20:34:00.004+08:00

after 1 hour of the flight, half the people are asleep zZz..

Thailand photos PART I

2008-06-06T19:39:00.007+08:00

This is part I, of pics from the land of smiles! heres everybody photos on the first flight to bangkok.

2008-06-06T15:23:00.004+08:00

whee hopefully everyone had a great time in thailand haha

on behalf of farrica, if you have photos with Proud (the fellow Thai guest players who also played in our Singapore and Chiangmai concert) in it, please send it to this email: proud_proud.555@hotmail.com

thanks! and btw 2 photos haha

whee our imba bangkok friends

2008-05-28T20:57:00.003+08:00

look like what mr foo said just now was pretty true haha, googled hcse bangkok and came out with this few interesting webbies haha. go read it for yourself! haha

our concert webpage thingy

press release 1

press release 2

sk=)

2008-05-24T23:29:00.002+08:00

Hello J1's!

Now that the new EXCO has been formed, I would like to say a few words.

For those who didnt manage to get a post, I hope that you all will still put in your best for the CCA and contribute as much as possible, you are still part of the ensemble and everyone treasures each and every one of you.

For the EXCO, cooperate and solve disputes in the manner that you guys wrote in "Describe your conflict management style". And some of my thoughts that went almost completely unnoticed by my batch, It is the inclusion and involvement of everyone that gains your trust and enables everyone to cooperate and communicate with ease. It is also this inclusion and involvement of everyone that will, no matter if they are willing to contribute or not, lead to the eventual strengthening of the bonds between strings members.
Remember, opinions do matter and how to improve yourselves is to listen to people and recognize your weakness.

Of course, since you have already gained the votes and support from your batchmates, please do not make them lose confidence in you by slacking off or not fulfilling your duties.

For the front desks, Sometimes, it’s alright to give weaker players more chances to play out, and also, learn to empathize with them and view things from a different perspective. Do not look down on players, if you do that'll be your number 1 failure as a section leader.

Yep. Nothing much else to say. Hopefully you guys have a better life. (:

ZX

2008-05-24T23:04:00.004+08:00

lol yea haha i thot it will be nice if i post something on this wall and actually its gonna be my first post on this blog too haha.

hopefully everyone enjoyed the jts just now at sakae haha, cos i thought it was really nice to see all of u guys attending the jts and eat together haha.

to think about it about 5 months is going to be over so fast and our seniors are going to retire soon, i guess i personally really had a great time being with the ensemble with our seniors n peers alike haha. shant get to detailed here lol.

oh yea and although the new strings room is small but honestly speaking i think if we really do a good interior design, it will look really warm and homey yea. tts very random lol.

and to end off, i guess i wld like to share our violin section group photo here. we rock WAHAHAHA! =DDD

plus the imba receipt haha

so i guess thats about all i have to say for tonight! its late already n i guess everyone's tired, so good night everybody =)

sk

Celebrate!

2008-05-12T22:30:00.002+08:00

Hello Everyone!
Would just like to congratulate all for making this concert a success yada yada the usual y'know hahahaha especially the violin 1's for putting in all the effort into extra sectionals that Sarah has so responsibly conducted and held!

Special mention!
Sarah for being a wonderful standpartner plus announcement maker HAHA and
Yingpeng!!! (yes you are in tune, yes you are playing the correct notes and yes you get better grades than me for lit hahahaha) Farrica! Huifen! Gloria!
Kuanhua and Shoukee who practiced hard at home!
and Zara and Nick.

Been a great year/term/dno how long working with you all haha and well I'll only be playing with you all for Arts Fest and not going to Bangkok trip, so i'll just like to take this opportunity to xie xie ni men once again for being a wonderful section. hahahaha dont make me take back my words after arts fest hor. i think ill end up making all the mistakes anyway. :)

Violin 2's! FungI for being tolerant and saikang-ing for our concert!(nice work with all the stands :P) plus all the fun and stuff hahahahaha. Wanfang for being our on-the-ball welfare no.1!(and for being there) Britt for LOLs (aiya crap i wanna be back in v2s HAHAHAHA funny shit)

Violas! Albert. hoho. I guess we all know what hes best at, and being a wonderful violist heh heh heh. Tianyi, for being accomodating and trying to get everyone together! (Difficult job, y'know). Gui! for all your dota arrangements i think i only played with you once. HAHAHA quite funny.

Cellos! Kenneth for being imba; What a name, imba lame from the day he came, and boy did he maim the dames on his claim to fame; we will never be the same and whos to blame? Good Game! (hey this rhymes) hahahaha Eunice for the memories, Audrey, my fellow arts student and oh-my-goodness-i-hate-chinese-er HAHAHA and of course Jane hahahahah i look at you and i want to laugh i dont know why HAHAHAHA

Dennis! wahlau stop calling me ah chaaaang can hahahah its like stuck in my head already you arh hahahahaha
and Bryan bridge! + thanks for printing + (slack) bassist! hahahaha

Havent finished but!
okay im sleepy. bye everyone! haha

ZhiXiang

2008-05-02T22:13:00.002+08:00

HEY PEOPLE. THIS BLOG IS QUITE DEAD SO HERES SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!

THERE IS ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT THE CONCERT!

AND 27 DAYS LEFT TO TRIP!

so pls, start practising harder. Like our dear GUI (small fat)

Fung.I

2008-04-19T00:05:00.005+08:00

hey... just some videos from last year to help you guys remember all the fun we had...
have fun watching! =)

Hope you guys liked it! =)

-wf-

EL TANGO DE ROXANNE

2008-04-10T23:20:00.002+08:00

Watch and be inspired! =) As of today, I haven't found any Youtube video of any orchestra in the world playing this tango, so yay! We can be the first! There are plenty of fanvideos featuring 'El Tango de Roxanne' though... The list gets more and more outrageous! Ranging from Phantom of the Opera, Harry Potter, Shrek, Naruto, Teen Titans, Ouran Host Club to Disney (?!?!)

Enjoy!
<3 Sarah

2008-03-25T19:14:00.004+08:00

Was searching for programme note material for the Schnittke and came across this.
(Turn on your sound before watching=p)

Moral of the story: Don't bottle up your inspiration!!!

And from FungI
who support the no smoking campaign(dun smoke in ur econs essay)

-K

2008-03-15T17:40:00.003+08:00

TO ALL J2S!

Here's wishing you all the best for blocks!Let us all look towards the future with great expectations!

-audrey

And it's the FINAL COUNTDOWN...

2008-03-15T02:32:00.005+08:00

Just for fun (i.e. cellists, please don't kill me... xD)! Isn't the title of the song extremely timely!

Haha... If you ignore all the head-banging (I was wondering when the middle guy was going to accidentally whack his head against his cello... and don't they get sprained necks after such performances? o.0), it actually seems rather interesting in a bizarre way! xD LOL... one guy's spectacles actually falls off from all the head-banging... Nice arrangement though... Enjoy!

-Sarah

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-02-28T21:07:00.001+08:00

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Free genealogy - Geneology search

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-02-28T21:06:00.001+08:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-02-28T20:56:00.001+08:00

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Lost relatives - Geneology

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-02-28T20:52:00.001+08:00

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family album - Family history

Lenard Cheng

2008-02-17T22:57:00.005+08:00

=)
Here are some photos that i intend to use to blackmail our previous president Mr Lenard Cheng cheng cheng chenggg..

ok that was lame. WAHAHAH.
oh man i couldnt' recognise him at all lah!!! O.O

presenting to you,
Mr presidon at the Chingay...

ahem. ya

what do u guys think.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
ROFL.

HOW TO COOK A CONDUCTOR

2008-02-16T00:23:00.004+08:00

Ingredients:
One large Conductor, or two small assistant conductors
Ketchup
26 large garlic cloves
Crisco or other solid vegetable shortening (Lard may be used)
1 cask cheap wine
1 lb. alfalfa sprouts
2 lbs. assorted yuppie food, such as tofu or yoghurt
One abused Orchestra

Instructions:
First, catch a Conductor. Remove the tail and horns. Carefully separate the large ego and reserve for sauce. Remove any batons, pencils (on permanent loan from the Principal Second Violin) and long articulations and discard. Remove the hearing aid and discard (it never worked anyway). Examine your conductor carefully - many of them are mostly large intestine. If you have such a Conductor, you will have to discard it and catch another. Clean the Conductor as you would a squid, but do not separate the tentacles from the body. If you have an older Conductor, such as one from a Major Symphony Orchestra or Summer Music Festival, you may wish to tenderize by pounding the Conductor on a rock with timpani mallets or by smashing the Conductor between two large cymbals.

Next, pour 1/2 of the cask of wine into a bath tub and soak the Conductor in the wine for at least 12 hours (exceptions: British, German and some Canadian Conductors have a natural beery taste which some people like and the wine might not marry well with this flavor. Use your judgment). When the Conductor is sufficiently marinated, remove any clothes the Conductor may be wearing and rub it all over with the garlic. Then cover your Conductor with the Crisco. using vague, slow circular motions. Take care to cover every inch of the Conductor's body with the shortening. If this looks like fun, you can cover yourself with Crisco too, removing clothes first.

Next, take your orchestra and put as much music out as the stands will hold without falling over, and make sure that there are lots of really loud passages for everyone, big loud chords for the winds and brass, and lots and lots of tremolos for the strings. (Bruckner might be appropriate). Rehearse these passages several times, making certain that the brass and winds are always playing as loud as they can and the strings are tremolo-ing at their highest speed. This should ensure adequate flames for cooking your Conductor.

If not, insist on taking every repeat and be sure to add the second repeats in really large symphonies. Ideally, you should choose your repertoire to have as many repeats as possible, but if you have a piece with no repeats in it at all, just add some, claiming that you have seen the original, and there was an ink blot there that "looked like a repeat" to you and had obviously been missed by every other fool who had looked at this score. If taking all the repeats does not generate sufficient flames, burn the complete set of score and parts to all of the Bruckner symphonies.

When the flames have died down to a medium inferno, place your Conductor on top of your orchestra (they won't mind as they are used to it) until it is well tanned, the hair turns back to its natural color and all of the fat has dripped out. Be careful not to overcook or your Conductor could end up tasting like stuffed ham. Make a sauce by combining the ego, sprouts and ketchup to taste, placing it all in the blender and pureeing until smooth. If the ego is bitter, sweeten with honey to taste. Slice your Conductor as you would any turkey. Serve accompanied by the assorted yuppie food and the remaining wine with the sauce on the side.

WARNING: Due to environmental toxins present in conductor feeding areas, such as heavy metals, oily residue from intensive PR machinery manufacture, and extraordinarily high concentrations of E.coli, cryptosporidium, and other hazardous organisms associated with animal wastes, the Departments for Conductor Decimation (DCD) recommend that the consumption of conductors be limited to one per season. Overconsumption of conductors has been implicated in the epidemiology of a virulent condition known as "Bataan fever." Symptoms of this disorder include swelling of the brain, spasms in the extremities, delusions of competence, auditory hallucinations and excessive longevity.

Enjoy! =)
<3 Sarah

2008-02-13T23:24:00.003+08:00

Hey stringers!!! =)

We're watching P.S. I love you this Friday night!
i heard it's damn nice! =D
So here are the timings for Friday 15th Feb, at cineleisure:

4:30pm 7:00pm 9:30pm

We would most probably be catching the 7pm show.
here's the plan:
meeting venue: strings room
Time of departure for cineleisure: 6.20pm

anybody wanna eat dinner?
We can meet up earlier for dinner! =)
oh ya, where shld we eat dinner ahh hmmmz. at cine? =)
any questions just sms me/guanhui ok! yeapz. that's all for now. =)

-wanfang-

C1s:
you all know who i am rite? anyone dunno who i am?
i'm WANFANG. long hair. with specs. errrr. er. kinda dark. errrrrr. pink reebok shoes...errrr.
YEAH. come find me if you got any questions ok?

i very nice one =)

UPDATED River Hongbao Gig Details

2008-02-08T17:29:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone!

Hope you guys had a wonderful Chinese New Year with lots of bak kwa and pineapple tarts :)

Here're some details about the River Hongbao Gig next Monday:

SCHEDULE
2.00: Dismissed from lessons (Those who need an excuse from lessons, Mdm Chen the strings teacher IC is sending an email out to teachers to inform them of the performance)
2-2.30: Lunch/change
2.30-2.45: Assemble in strings room, prepare whatever else you need (e.g. change if you haven't, arrange scores etc)
2.45-2.50: Go down and assemble near tennis courts
3.00: Bus leaves
4.15-5.00: Rehearsal at River Hongbao (Esplanade Park)
7.00-7.30: Performance
About 7.45: Bus leaves River Hongbao to return to school. Those who want to leave from there, you can do so as well.

REPERTOIRE
In order: 迎春花；菊花台; 玫瑰玫瑰我爱你；大地回春；Happy Valley
We play the above TWO times.

ATTIRE
Red/orange/yellow shirt or blouse with jeans/dark-coloured pants, and school shoes

OTHER ISSUES
1) Please remember to bring a file to put your sheet music in (preferably black file). Discuss with your stand partner and decide who'll do it.
2) Dinner will be provided.

Yes that's all, please feel free to ask if you've any queries.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and see you guys on Monday!

Regards, Tian Yi

Rehearsal Schedule Term 1 and River Hongbao Gig

2008-01-30T21:03:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone :D

(1) Here are the few upcoming rehearsals/events..please take note and pass the message around.

1 Feb, Fri--Viola, Bass sectionals (3.30-6.30pm)
4 Feb, Mon-- Violin 1, violin 2, cello sectionals (3-5pm) and combined, LT1 (5-6pm) [PS yes violas please do stay back..we won't be having sectionals cos some ppl have lessons till quite late, but we'll still need to stay for combined]
6 Feb, Wed--CNY, NO REHEARSAL
8 Feb, Fri--CNY, NO REHEARSAL
11 Feb, Mon--River Hongbao gig (see below for more information)
13 Feb, Wed--CROSS COUNTRY, NO REHEARSAL
15 Feb, Fri--Viola, Bass sectionals (3.30-6.30pm)
18 Feb, Mon-- ORIENTATION (3-6pm)
20 Feb, Wed-- COMBINED, LT3 (3-6pm)
22 Feb, Fri-- Viola, Bass sectionals (3.30-6.30pm)
25 Feb, Mon-- Violin 1, violin 2, cello sectionals (3-6pm)
27 Feb, Wed--COMBINED, LT1 (3-6pm)
29 Feb, Fri-- Viola, Bass sectionals (3.30-6.30pm)
3 Mar, Mon--Violin 1, violin 2, cello sectionals
5 Mar, Wed--COMBINED, LT 3 (3-6pm)
7 Mar, Fri-- Viola, Bass sectionals (3.30-6.30pm)

(2) River Hongbao Gig
Date: 11 Feb (Monday; 5th day of CNY)
Venue: Esplanade Park (near City Hall area)

3.00pm Bus leaves (you'll be excused from lessons)
4.15-5.00pm Rehearsal
7.00-7.30pm Performance

Attire: Red/orange/yellow shirt with jeans

Dinner will be provided. CIP hours will also be awarded.

Repertoire: Sight-readable Chinese-related gig pieces (in the midst of arranging them..we'll be looking through these next Monday. But they're quite easy so don't worry)

Yupp. If there's anyone who cannot make it please inform me or Zhi Wei asap :) Feel free to contact any of us if you've any queries too.

Yay. Nice colourful post! :D

Regards, Tian Yi

P.S. C1s, if you've gotten the form regarding your personal particulars, please submit them to your section leaders/any of the seniors during pracs ASAP. If you haven't gotten it, pls inform us and we'll pass it to you. Thanks!

2008-01-20T19:05:00.000+08:00

Hey ppl!!!! =D

please go and write the belated birthday/early birthday/super early valentine's day notes in the strings room! =) then we'll have a massive celebration some day ok!

ok?

ok! =)

long time since we ate a cake yeah?
or you guys want something else? hmm?

and where did all the origami paper go ARH.
like got dunno how many hundreds....all... O.0 dehdeh.

ok. everybody happy piahing for physics test.
i just finished the stupid csc lun wen proposal and it suxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
byebye!

*BOOM shake shake shake the room*

-wf-

2008-01-19T21:59:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone,

A couple of announcements:

1) Suk Violin 1 Sectionals
Violin 1 sectionals have been rescheduled to Monday due to H3 absentees on Friday. Violin 1 juniors, please take note: the next practice is on 28th Jan 2008 from 3 – 6pm.

2) Seating for Suk and Golijov
Refer to the list below.

Please note that while the section assigned to you is confirmed, seating within the section is subject to rotation before it is finalised at a later date. For Suk, all names are listed in alphabetical order (excluding front desk).

Your section leader will inform you of the specified seating arrangement at the start of every rehearsal. Also, if you have not collected your personal scores for Suk/ Golijov, please let your section leader know.

A hard copy of the seating list will be available for your reference on the strings room notice board.

Sarah (on behalf of the Music Comm)
____________________________

SUK

Violin I
Sarah *
Zhi Xiang **
Carrie
Farrica
Gek Khim
Gloria
Hui-Fen
Nicholas
Shou Kee
Ying Peng
Zara

Violin II
Zhi Wei *
Man Lok **
Brittany
Chen Kai
Chia Kai
Diyou
Kuan Hua
Pinyan
Shi Hou
Valencia
Wan Fang

Viola
Tian Yi *
Albert **
Bjorn
Guan Hui
Jun Hong
Marissa
Rachel
Zheng Wei

Cello
Kenneth *
Eunice **
Audrey
Jane
Min Jun
Ting Zhen

Double Bass
Dennis *
Brian
____________________

GOLIJOV

Group 1 Violin I
Sarah *
Man Lok **
Chia Kai
Wan Fang
Gek Khim
Ying Peng

Group 1 Violin II
Nicholas *
Shou Kee **
Farrica
Kuan Hua
Carrie

Group 1 Viola
Albert *
Marissa **
Zheng Wei
Jun Hong

Group 1 Cello
Eunice *
Jane **
Ting Zhen

Group 2 Violin I
Zhi Wei *
Zhi Xiang **
Gloria
Brittany
Shi Hou
Valencia

Group 2 Violin II
Zara *
Pinyan **
Hui-Fen
Chen Kai
Diyou

Group 2 Viola
Tian Yi *
Guan Hui **
Rachel
Bjorn

Group 2 Cello
Kenneth *
Audrey **
Min Jun

Double Bass
Dennis *
Brian

* = SL
** = ASL

2008-01-09T23:36:00.000+08:00

Two short notes:

1) To J2s: Spring cleaning of strings room on Monday 14 Jan. Arrive at any time between 2 and 4. I'll be there at 3. Participation not compulsory but if you're free do try to come as I'll need a bit of help. Tasks: clear all the junk that's lying around, clean furniture, mop floor. Mop will (probably) be obtained from the school, if not I'll kop one from somewhere else.

2)Cello sectionals on Friday are starting at 3pm. (unless someone decides to hold combined rehearsal.) I'm not sure whether original timing was 3-6 or 4-7 but I'm setting it at 3 so we can finish earlier. J1s welcome to crash.

3)Random fact: Ever notice that Rameshon is an anagram of Horseman? Certainly says something about his speed...

That's all. Thanks for reading!

-K

HOW TO BE EFFICIENT WITH FEWER VIOLINS (How a Literal-Minded Efficiency Expert Reported on a Symphony Concert)

2008-01-07T16:58:00.000+08:00

For considerable periods the four oboe players had nothing to do. The number should be reduced and the work spread more evenly over the whole concert, thus eliminating peaks and valleys of activity.

All the 12 violins were playing identical notes; this seems unnecessary duplication. The staff of this section should be drastically cut. If a larger volume of sound is required, it could be obtained by means of electronic apparatus.

Much effort was absorbed in the playing of demi-semi-quavers; this seems to be an unnecessary refinement. It is recommended that all notes be rounded up to the nearest semi-quaver. If this were done, it would be possible to use trainees and lower-grade operatives more extensively.

There seems to be too much repetition of some musical passages. Scores should be drastically pruned. No useful purpose is served by repeating on the horns something which has already been handled by the strings. It is estimated that if all redundant passages were eliminated, the whole concert time of two hours could be reduced to 20 minutes, and there would be no need for an intermission.

In many cases the operators were using one hand for holding the instrument, whereas the introduction of a fixture would have rendered the idle hand available for other work. Also, it was noted that excessive effort was being used occasionally by the players of wind instruments, whereas one compressor could supply adequate air for all instruments under more accurately controlled conditions.

Finally, obsolescence of equipment is another matter into which it is suggested further investigation could be made, as it was reported in the program that the leading violinist's instrument was already several hundred years old. If normal depreciation schedules had been applied, the value of this instrument would have been reduced to zero and purchase of more modern equipment could then have been considered.

Enjoy! =)
<3 Sarah

2007-12-31T21:03:00.000+08:00

KENNETH WISHES YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D

2007-12-25T18:55:00.000+08:00

xmas/eoy outing details

date: tmr
time: 6pm~6.30pm meet
venue: changing appetites @ Marina Square
notice: movie outing before dinner (for those interested, contact guanhui)

annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd.
yeah.
the woman say cannot make reservations.
so zzzzzz try go earlier hor.

weeeeeeee happy holidays!

and merry xmas!
today's a wonderful day isnt it! -erps-

hwk.....

AHHHHHHHHHHHH
bye

-wf-

2007-12-11T21:23:00.001+08:00

hey ppl!!! i've got a splendid idea!!! =D

let's have a xmas dinner thingee somewhere near xmas! =D
-grinz-

pump me with ideas/suggestions of where to go ok!
=D
hope you guys can make it coz it'll most prob be the last time we'll see some of our seniors before they set off to...everywhere o.0
yeah?
please try to come for this outing as i have a really nice video for all of you but due to the sucky DVD player during the chalet, i wasnt able to show you guys. a lot of effort was put into the video and compiling it so hope you guys can come ok! =D

adios!

-wf-

2007-12-08T14:31:00.000+08:00

blog blog blog. yanmin wants someone to blog. so i shall blog, and POST PICTURES! hahahahah everyone loves pictures i suppose? these are the ones i took with my camera phone and eunice too some too! haha bert bert!
.........

everyone's after the squishy rainbow pillow! wanfang's giving a toothpaste ad smile! =D
emo people. albert's an unhappy clown. =]
fee fi fo fum!

see? the kite's FLYING.

britt's a video game whiz!
if i had an axe, i'll .......
yeah yeah gui is so shuai!
sleazy people sitting on the bed.

strings boys carrying umbrellas for each other! so sweet!

I'M OFF TO THE AIRPORT! BYEBYE!

-aud

2007-12-02T14:33:00.000+08:00

YAY. ok i sent all of u an email already but i scared u all nv see so yeap, i shall post it up here again =D

for the chalet, here's the meeting time and place yada yada.

Date: 5th Dec 2007
Time: 1.45pm
Place: pasir ris mrt control station.

pls tell me whether you're meeting us there or going by yourself so that we'll know who to wait for. alternatively, on the day itself, the place is quite easy to find so if you're lost just give me or xiaopang a call yeah?

just in case some of you are wondering,
we're staying at Aloha Loyang (Garden Terraces)

J1s please get your food ready ok! Just a reminder of what you guys are doing (there were some minor changes)
V1s: staple food
V2s: balls
Violas and DBs: sausages and drinks
Cellos: dessert etc

we've already ordered the meat and stuff so dont worry, we wont starve.

please try and stay within the budget if not it'll be coming from your own pocket =)

yeap thanks! seniors have a nice prom! =)
you guys will be seeing us there though. erhem.
yeah. i hope that's good news. hahahahaha. =)

ps. any suggestions/questions/comments just call me (dont sms coz i'll nv reply according to experience) or email me yeah? thanks!

-wf-

Survey

2007-11-21T19:01:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Just a short note to everyone(that is, 2007 J1s) to take the survey on strings and new furniture which I sent out - and to try to finish it by the end of this week. I'll be compiling the wishlist for the new strings room and storage room based on it.

The link to the survey is here if you're lazy to check your inbox for the link I sent there.

Thanks for the help.

QM

2007-11-20T17:35:00.000+08:00

hello!

mr foo has invited us to tea with him TOMORROW 21 NOVEMBER! yay! those who are going please let me know via sms! seniors are welcome too! we are to meet him at taka's fountain at the basement @ 145. he will be coming down after work and he suggests we go eat lunch first then have tea with him. so eat your lunch first k!

bye! and WHOOOHOOO to those seniors who have already finished! congratulations on liberation!

-audrey

2007-10-31T23:03:00.000+08:00

ppl PLEASE take these surveys!!! =) if you've taken them already, thank you!!! =)

For C1s:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=NSpNyDW0c9OrUsZ2sC5viA_3d_3d

For C2s:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=htFOtPCjyYWoUQhbxhBuLA_3d_3d

thank you! =)

-wf-

Stock taking

2007-10-31T23:02:00.001+08:00

Hi everyone,

Just a short notice to you all regarding the stock take on 8th nov. The school will be checking all its property which we are holding on that day, so I'll need to compile a list of all the school stuff that we have in the strings room. Presently I am not too sure what belongs to who... what with the missing instruments and extra unmarked ones that have turned up. Therefore I advise everyone to evacuate all their instruments and instrument related belongings from the room by 7th nov(wednesday, our next rehearsal)... otherwise I will be marking any case I don't recognise as school property.

Alternatively, you can label your case with your name so I know who it belongs to(I'll leave some labels on the glass table tomorrow and you all can use those.)

Thanks for your cooperation. And sorry for any inconvenience caused.
QM

(Apologise for the lack of cold jokes in this post. Over-spammed during rehearsal today. XD)

2007-10-29T22:43:00.000+08:00

Hi guys,

Latest news... MR FOO IS BACK!!! Muahahaha... So long to the days of faking and air-bowing! I'm going to miss those fantastic pianissimos, though. *ahem* We don't get such tremendous dynamic contrast very often. Mind, the gummie bear rule still applies. Haha... no practise = no gummie bears! And if all of you don't hurry and claim your share of the gummie bears, I assure you they're all going to disappear mysteriously. Then everyone will be going, 'Where are the gummie bears? I didn't see them! Hmmmmm... Are there still gummie bears left???' By then, the gummie bears will be in a happier land known as Myst Omach.

If you want recordings, I have sent you guys the YouSendIt links for Suk recordings. Alternatively, they're available in our Gmail account. Please hurry and download if you haven't. The links are going to expire soon. Mendelssohn recordings, provided by Man Lok, can also be obtained from your SLs/ ASLs. Listen, Learn, Practise! =)

And to our long-suffering cellists, I promise we won't play Pachebel's Canon in a long, long time. I suppose that's good news, but if you still want to play it, just tell us and I guess no one's going to stop you. =P

Pachebel Rant...

Enjoy and HAPPY PRACTISING!!!

<3 Sarah

strings outing alert!!!

2007-10-26T15:14:00.000+08:00

hey people!!!! was stagnating and home and tot, we shld have a strings outing!!!
on on? yeah,
will be a few days after our op or immediately after our op or sth liddat lah. will tell u guys the date later. but first let's decide wat we want to do!!!!

ok, i've got a few choices here

watch movie go out shopping yada yada arcade lunch yada yada
GO BEACH!!!! YEAH MAN.

think about it k? and give ur suggestions/opinions! yeah. thanks!

-wf-

2007-10-09T17:46:00.000+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALBERT! *WEEE WEEET!* :D

BANNER UPDATES #2

2007-10-06T21:38:00.000+08:00

hi to all,
the small banner has been completed. it was originally intended for us to have 1 small banner, but due to our extremely strategic booth position :D (07S61 class bench, or the bench just opposite the corridor linking the canteen to the right wing), it was decided that we should have 2, back-to-back, such that people facing our booth as well as people standing at other wings would have an opportunity to realise that our booth was there. below are photographs of what was done:

first banner: we corrected the original design as shown in the previous post due to space limitations and such. sorry if you don't like it, but who asked you to be non-present today? ha.

second banner: this one is done on pure white cloth as compared to the previous one, which was on cream white cloth. this is because it was thought that pure white would appear too funeralish. unfortunately, the uncle did not have sufficient creamy white cloth.

so together, they look like a very cute comparison of one banner done in the 1960s and one done in the 2000s. a mother-and-daughter banner, someone mentioned. much thanks to all those who turned up to help: albert, farrica, guanhui, huifen, jane, kenneth, manlok, sarah, tianyi, wanfang, yingpeng, zhixiang.

see you on monday, 1200-1500 at the amphitheatre.

brittany

BANNER PAINTING

2007-10-05T22:01:00.000+08:00

Hi to all,

The final choices on banner designs have been decided, and we will be launching painting immediately and here is the plan:

Saturday 06/10 SMALL BANNER
Monday 07/10 BIG BANNER

tentative design, to be upgraded and finalised

For Saturday, the majority of the banner committee will be meeting at 1300 to start work. Anyone who is available is strongly encouraged to come down because we are needing manpower. Also, we will be discussing and finalising the Big Banner design (due to a number of suggestions regarding it) and you will get a chance to impose your views ha.

On Monday, the Big Banner will be chalked and painted. This will take place from 1200 to 1430. Even though banner-painting is the "official" responsibility of the banner committee, I really hope that everyone will come down to help because we are really severely lacking in manpower. Even though some of you are involved in PW from either 1100-1300 or 1300-1500 (and after that is FOS), I've tried to slot the painting period in such a way that you can come down and help. ~~AND I KNOW ALL YOUR CLASSES AND THE POST-PROMOS TIMETABLE OKAY HA.~~

Yours,
Brittany

PS Please call me when you are coming down, or if you have any enquires about anything.
PPS Please ask me for the password to view the survey results if you're interested.

2007-10-04T18:11:00.000+08:00

this blog needs some humor... so i present to you an episode of SHAUN THE SHEEP!

-audrey

2007-09-23T15:20:00.000+08:00

HEY PPL.
yes i know mugging's the cool thing now but.
LOL. i only need a few minutes.
people please take the strings t-shirt design survey because i'll be printing the shirts right after promos yup =)
if you guys want to know how the design looks, can just come find me and i'll show you ok? =)

and seniors who want the new strings t-shirt, please inform me/guanhui/audrey/albert ok! =) thanks! erm ok. let's set a time limit. like. yes. before 29 sept. YEAP. okok?

29 SEPT.
yeap.
ok. that's all.
=D
happy (if possible) mugging.
sighx. sighx. sighx.

-wf-
TATA.
=)
*btw, zomg. go watch hanazakari no kimitachi e!!! it's like SO cool. ZOMG i watched it until 2am last night. it's ZOMG sooooooo cool. zomg. -fanfan- *

2007-09-18T23:48:00.000+08:00

and some of my own, to liven up the party=)

A stubborn composer refused to change a repeating sequence of notes even after being asked to repeatedly. People eventually started calling it the "Obstinato".

Music is the only subject in which passing notes are allowed during exam.

Too much string plucking has a tendency to pizz people off.

Your momma's so dumb......when someone asked her to check out Youtube, she came back with a bend in the water pipe. =)

And one pictorial joke which I put on my dp as well.

It doesn't matter which way you look at it. All angles subtended by the same chord are equal.

Hope everyone had even more laughs.

Kenneth

2007-09-17T21:51:00.000+08:00

I SHALL SAVE THIS BORED AND STAGNANT BLOG....by spamming lame jokes. dont read if you're going to diao me or start moaning and groaning. haha. this is just a precaution.

What do you get when you drop a piano down a mine shaft? - A flat minor.

Two peanuts were walking down a sidewalk. One was assaulted…

What do you call a fish with no eyes?
A fsh

What does a fish say when it runs into a wall?
DAMN!

Why was the Energizer Bunny arrested?
He was charged with battery.

ARGHZ I DONT FEEL LIKE GOING ON.

anyway, hope you had a good laugh. its nice to relieve yourself from this pre promos tension sometimes.

bye

audrey

2007-09-10T14:41:00.001+08:00

HEY PPL!!! =D HEHEHEHEHE

i changed the pw of the blog le!! =) if you want the password, please come and find me (with a chocolate/a very nice something) and i'll consider giving it to you =)

HAHAHA. NO LAH.

just sms me or anything yeap =)
sry for inconvenience caused! =)

-wf-
HEYHEYYOUYOUidunlikeyourtootfriend
NOWAYNOWAYithinkyouneedanewone

*k sorry, i'm kinda hyper*

2007-09-06T21:16:00.000+08:00

stupid yet funny!
xD
-audrey

Open House '07 and Other Admin Matters

2007-09-01T21:06:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone!

Yeahh thanks for that great performance guys. My friend just told me that he's addicted to explosive..lol! :D:D Ok back to proper stuff.

Firstly I'd like to thank Zhiwei and the Open House Comm for their creative ideas and suggestions for open house'07 :) Ppl who haven't read it, please scroll down, it's very comprehensive!:)

I just got some information from the council; and just to add on!

1. There will be an Open House performance in the central plaza, whereby each group will be given some time to perform. The music comm will be discussing about what pieces to play, and it'll be updated on the blog;

2. The overall layout of the Open House booths (ie. where each booth is going to be) has not been finalised by the council yet, so we will be discussing about it as well. We will be either in the left or right wings/outside the auditorium.

3. The ideas proposed in the prev blog post do seem quite interesting; I think the mobile publicity idea would be rather effective. Anyone with more suggestions please feel free to email Zhiwei, Farrica or Huifen :)

Next, some admin stuff to settle!

1. End-of-year scheduling: Could everyone email/sms me by Friday 7 Sept to inform me of your plans for the Nov/Dec holidays? This will facilitate the planning of the End of Year activities, such as gigs, as well as outings etc with potential J1 members to get to know them better. Please tell me how long you will be away, the specific dates if you have them already (if not approximate timings would be appreciated as well), as well as what you will be involved in (e.g. research attachments, family holiday, overseas immersion programmes, OCIP etc.).

2. Welfare Comm survey:
Click Here to take survey
This survey is regarding the strings T shirt. Please do it ONCE only so that we can have an accurate overview of your opinions, thanks!

Yupp that's all for now, thank you for your time! Good luck for promos and take care!

Regards, Tian Yi

Open House '07

2007-09-01T19:26:00.000+08:00

Hello HCSE,

Congratulations! You all played very well last friday. I received praises of our performance being very 'cool' and 'chio', so its double thumbs up for all of you:)

I know promos prep is getting everyone on their nerves, but before you all launch into wholesale mugging.. let me update you about our next important event: Open House '07!

Date: 12 Oct 07 (venue of our booth's location has yet to be confirmed).

There is still time left for us to do the necessary preparations, but we should get the whole plan done up before promos, so that we can make final arrangements, shop/get our necessary items etc straight away after promos. We will only have a couple of days then to get everything ready.

I'll like to highlight some points from the open house working committee's proposal for now; more details will be released at a later date, so keep checking the blog :)

We will have a few forms of publicity on that day:
1) Station Publicity
2) Mobile Publicity
3) Advertisement Gimmicks

Station Publicity
This will through the booth that we will be given on that day. The main features will include
-HCSE banner
-Speakers to play music (similar to what the 06 batch did for CCA orientation this year if you all were there)
-Sign up lists (since it is open house, we can include those who are interested in joining strings if they come to HC, and ask them to contact us after their prelims since admission will not be verified till then. through this, we can help appeal for more to get in to HC via strings)
-Table cloth
-Mounting board with details of HCSE (general information, achievements, past involvements, future plans, comments from members, wacky photos etc)
-Basket of sweets

To do up before promos: banner, sign up list, details to be pasted on mounting board

Anyone with designs for banner can always contribute! The duties for the rest will be allocated later.

Mobile Publicity
This will include having people to go around during open house to make our booth known to others (so hopefully more will visit our booth). It will also be to promote HCSE to others.

To do before promos: collate suggestions for different forms of mobile publicity (eg having people like albert and guanhui walking around with huge signs wrung around them publicising our booth etc)

Anyone with suggestions please contribute too!

Advertisement gimmicks
This will be the usual, issuing of mini goodie bags/information cards about HCSE (the information stated should be more of 'fun' facts rather than the official ones.

To do before promos: plan materials to buy and write out 'fun' facts

Anyone with suggestions of materials or ideas/fun facts please contribute!

Also, we have to finalise the performance details. I thought it'd be quite nice if we'd had a quartet or so performing at certain times and hopefully it will attract more onlookers:) This will be finalised by the music comm. However the participation in the actual performance will include everyone in the ensemble.

I came up with another suggestion: to have a notebook at the booth showing videos clips of our past peformances/wacky videos, or have a slide show of HCSE photos, what do you all think?

Do think about it during the holidays! suggestions and designs will be really appreciated:) do not hesitate to email/inform me or Hui-Fen(head of open house working committee) if you have anything to say/contribute:)

thank you everyone for taking time off to read this! duties will be allocated soon.

lastly, i'd like to thank the open house working comm for their effciency:)

alright! have a great holidays ahead everyone!

Regards,
Zhi Wei.

Friday's performance

2007-08-29T19:29:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone!

Hmm firstly I wanna thank everyone for your cooperation and understanding, given that today's run through wasn't as smooth-going as expected. Yupp :)

Next, below are things to take note of for friday's performance:
1. Attire: FAC SHIRT and jeans
2. Reporting time: 7.30am, Auditorium, with instruments, cases and scores. (We will be leaving the cases downstairs). Ppl who can come earlier pls do so to help move the stands down.
3. We are excused from assembly and aces day workout. The list of names have been sent out; but pls still tell your CTs that you'll be missing assembly.
4. There were no stage lights after the curtain closure today. However we have requested for working lights (red lights) to ensure smoother entrance and exiting.
5. After our performance ends, we will proceed backstage with our stands and instruments. When we're done keeping the stuff back in strings room, we will then join our classes for the rest of the show.
6. SMILE and ENJOY the performance :)

YUPp that's all for now. Thanks so much! See you on friday.

Regards, Tian Yi

UPDATED 29 aug TD rehearsal :D:D pls read

2007-08-25T23:50:00.000+08:00

Hi guys!! (some amendments to the prev announcement, the councillors just sent another email)

Yeahh exams are nearing :(:(:( But jiayou!! one more rhsl to go :)

Yupp it'll be 29 aug; but we'll just be participating in the run-throughs and there wouldn't be any practice in the LT. These are the arrangements for wednesday:

3pm report to strings room, then we'll move down to the audi without instruments for a mass briefing. After the briefing, we'll be having free time until 4.15 when we report to the audi with stands and instruments for the run through.

Run through: 4.15-6pm (although we'll be able to leave earlier if the run is smooth)

It will be a full dress rehearsal so do remember to bring attire (solid coloured tshirt and jeans; the tshirt should be quite plain i.e. not with big words/prints)

Yup that's all! Please pass the msg around thanks!

Regards, Tian Yi

2007-08-25T12:00:00.000+08:00

hello again!

the prelims are nearing and so are the promos too! mugging is pretty annoying and stressful i know. and this week, me helen sarah have ditched our bridging, pranking, slacking habits to turn over a new leaf! and we have started to exert POSITIVE INFLUENCE on one another!

AHEM AHEM. SEE?

anyway, its understandable that everyone is will be pretty down in spirits and drained from the stress of impending exams. BUT STRIVE ON PPL!

because here are the details for an event that will definitely make your current mugging marathons worthwhile!

END OF YEAR HCSE CHALET (three days two nights)

WHERE?
Aloha Loyang tentatively
(wf is currently settling the booking)
WHEN?
6-8 DECEMBER

those who are going please sms any welfare person (wanfang, guanhui, albert, audrey) ASAP so we can settle stuff like food etc etc... also indicate if you're staying over!

that's all for now.

strive hard ppl!

-audrey