It’s Thursday late afternoon and I’m sipping my usual Tall Americano in my no other choice usual coffee joint, Starbucks. Today marks the 9th day I’m in Singapore and 4 days more to South Korea. My time in Singapore has been short but eventful. From the things that I need to do, to the people that I want to meet. The weird thing is, the usually ‘short’ week was felt like a month. Yes, it felt that I’ve been in Singapore for a month. I guess it’s due to my fully packed activity?

But as well, I’ve yet to finish some of my things in Singapore

• Record and edit and upload my demo
• Send emails
• Meet up with Jasmine, Swanie and some other people
• Writes lyrics to my new song and finish the arrangement
• Packing (will be spared to the last minute i guess? ha3)
• Finish ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Season 4 =P
• Watch Heroes Season 4 (should I? don’t really feel like to .. it gets boring)
• Vocal Lesson

And I just have this feelings that I still have lots of things to do … hum … what is it ya?

Anyway~! I can’t wait to head to South Korea …. some people said that it’s my hometown .. lolx, who knows? but I really can’t wait to be there …. and meeting my friends there … and hopefully to meet some music people there … ^_^

DEPARTURE DATE: Monday 17th January 2011 20:25 VN0742
I’ll be at the airport from around 4-5pm, so If you wanna catch me there, see you there!

ps: i won’t be back to south east asia until 28th February 2011 1925 VN0743 (Changi Airport)

I always have this fascination with Macro Photography, where we saw this world that we live in with a very different view, different angle, and of course, different size.

I stumbled upon this trick and discussion about Reverse Lens Macro Photography. It’s a trick where you can use your 50mm or in my case it’s 42mm lens to do Macrophotography by reversing it, albeit ‘cheap Macro’ lens.

It’s amazing on what I can do with this trick, and note that I haven’t even buy the ‘reverse ring’ to attach my lense ‘on reverse’ to my camera (but I simply held my lense with lefthand and my camera body with my right hand). here are some pictures from today’s experiment while doing my life activity =P

First try with Flower, it’s so hard~! I can’t get any still picture as it was very windy and my 2 hands are occupied! (remember what my LH and RH are doing?)

2nd Subject … Guess what is this?

Here’s the answer~! It’s Crushed Pepper~!

Allright, 2nd quiz! …

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

It’s my friend’s laptop case … She wanted to know how it looked like … ha3

allrite, so anyway … today’s post is about photography! A hobby of mine that is alive again now since I’ve bought my Olympus EPL-1 ^_^

ps: say Hi to Geraldine Sim~! my partner in crime who provide me with handheld ‘macro lights’ .. LOLX

Yesterday evening I went for photo-hunting to Chinatown when there is this one shop that strike me hard. Really hard to the past in my primary school years. Guess which character did I found?

Yes~! It is Tintin~! I can’t count how many Tintin books have I read. How many cases we Tintin have solved together …. And to find this shop in Singapore is just amazing!

During the short talk with the owner, He told me that the Tintin Shop has just recently open and the Grand opening was 1 week before christmas. I was surprised! Honestly, I loved the character but I didn’t know that they have the shop like this! The owner told me that there are only 7 Tintin Shops in the world, Singapore being the 1 of 2 shops in Asia. (the other one is in Tokyo btw).

So if you liked Tintin and happen to come to Singapore, YOU have to visit this place~! Right now they only carry lots lots and LOADS of merchandise (pretty and funny ones) but starting end of January 2011 they’ll start carrying the English version of the books as well. Exciting~!

Here are some pictures of the shop that the owner kindly let me take (for blogs~! of course!)

It’s quite cozy inside ^_^

TINTIN~! Don’t run!!! 하지마~!

Welcome Board .. very interesting!

Figurines! The one from the series where Tintin went to the moon is my fave!

The special & pricey collector’s edition … *gulp*

Yes! another scene re-enacted~!

They sold some beverages and had a place for you to sit and rest at the foyer of the shops as well~!

This pleasant findings is really nice! Ha3, didn’t knew that I would find this here …. As a fan, of course I had to buy something, and I did ….. I bought a postcard for a friend! hahaha ^_^

THE TINTIN SHOP – SINGAPORE

56 PAGODA STREET

059215 SINGAPORE

SINGAPORE

Phone : +65 647 24291

Fax : +65 633 90123

Email : info.tintin@gmail.com

I was trying to find my best partner in Crime to help me start blogging again. This time, with no particular reason as why I want to blog. I guess, it’s just a good let-out? ^_^

Now as you all know, blogging can take quite a lot of your time, so in order to speed up the process and make things easy for myself, I tried to look out for a program for my Mac that lets me compose, edit, upload media easily and FAST!

Here I am, with Blogo …. just downloaded it, and still trying to use it to it’s fullest potential. Hope this works fine~!

ps: my sis had a jigsaw puzzle night just now … lolx

and hey~! guess what! I uploaded that pictures effortlessly~! ahaha … kies … Starting to like this program.

I’m so blessed by God to have this opportunity to see the world. This journey that I will have early this late late 2010 and early 2011 is so fantastic and I’m just at the tip of it. I’m only at the beginning of it. I believe that the year 2011 will definitely changed my life.

This post will be about my short trip to Malaysia, and hopefully pictures as well! (I really need faster internet to upload all the photos).

I’ve boarded the Bus heading to KL last saturday (2 days ago) @ midnight from beach road. This is my 2nd time boarding a coach to malaysia (first time being to Penang) and it’s my first time going to Kuala Lumpur. Everything went smoothly despite my crazy luggage that I bring with me. A luggage full of music equipment, a backpack full of electronics, and a trustee of mine 73keys Nord Electro.

Ah! before I get into that, I want to thank all my friends that really made my day by sparing some time of their important life to come and visit me at Holiday Inn Atrium for a goodbye, and for those who manage to see for supper, breakfast, or whatever. I really love you guys! Not in order of importance, I want to thank Pst Aries, for putting aside time to chat with me and to pray with me, Dimas for being a great friend and for the documents on Indonesian Tax. I wanna thank Michael Tan, Dominic Cai, and Daniel Loke for meeting up with me (in a crazy non-sleep night) for supper and making it all worth it, especially to Daniel for sending me (and my much too important luggage) to Beach road for the bus ride. I wanna thank Shane Tan for the dinner treat! was great man spending time with besties … thank Celest for all this 3 month working and playing together, Please let me know when u’ve reached Seattle! I also wanna thank these lovely siblings, Swanie and Ishak Budiman for coming to the hotel to see me off, for the bear, and Famous Amos that kept me warm inside! Many thanks for the surprise visit by Grace & Vania Gumala and Harry as well, you guys were definitely a great surprise! Thank you to my 3 triangle lover student, Cailing and the twins Geraldine Sim & Ker, thanks for the cards, and thank you for the gift! very much useful! Thank you for my student Eunice Ang as well, you were a great student/friend. Keep the fire burning and chase that dream of yours! Last but not least, thank to my sister for letting me stay at her place, and her ‘memorable’ goodbye, the morning i went away. ha3

Allrite, lemme continue with my travel then!

Arrived in Berjaya Times Square @ the wee early morning 5.30 am~! This building amazed me, and the sole reason is the humongous pillar that they have.

<insert image>

and guess who picked me up this early? My long time 5 years maple/online friend Sandra!! Ha3 … thanks so much! what will I do in KL without you? lolx ….  So, since nothing is open that early in that morning …. we decided to grab coffee from nearby mcDonalds …. and take picture of course =P

<insert image>

I decided that I wanted to see KLCC and tries to fight my way to buy the ticket to go up to the skybridge.

<insert image>

See the amount of people queueing 1 and half hour before ticket is sold?

<insert image>

I hope I’ll get my ticket!

and guess what??

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I didn’t!!!! … -_-” … so, without further ado … we decided that I’ll take all the pictures from the ground. Successfully forcing Sandra to be my model to test the setting, I She took a picture of me on the foreground of the twin tower (just for a proof of me being in KL, hahaa)

<insert image>

Test shot

<insert image>

Final product ….. errr … lolx

I look around at KLCC as well and found out this very cute shops with amazing display. (more pictures in facebook ‘Travelogy’)

<insert image>

Somehow grew tired of walking and walking in the mall … I decided to go and wash up, plus lunch … ha3, but one of the highlight of the days was meeting my Lady …. Look at her! isn’t she pretty!

<insert image>

And guess what, I think i’m such a movie freak that even when in malaysia, I have to watch movie ….. really, i have to! So I did, we watched ‘TRON’ and it was awesome. I’ve watch the 1982 version and this one continues the story nicely with mindblowing music and effects.

Lots of people will ask me, “what did you do in KL?” … my answer? taking pictures …. and taking pictures…. lolx! i think this will be a habit of mine that won’t be scrub away. I took tons of pictures of christmas decoration and malls around Kuala Lumpur. Sandra did a great job accompanying me …. I wouldn’t live in KL without her and her trustee car. ha3

<insert image>

more pictures at ‘Travelogy’

The day ends with meeting my childhood primary school friend Ferial, and eating Nandos at the same time. Ha3 It was really nice to see him again after so long and catching up on so many things. And he was also the reason why I successfully save money by letting me crash at his place. (THANK YOU!) hahaha ….

Nite was short yet long … I slept for 12 hours (thanks to the lack of sleep 2 nights before) and only woke up when Shaz … (thank you for coming out all the way to Cyberjaya) rang me to pick me up to lunch before his work. We went to Padi House and I tried both Padi House food and Old Town white coffee. ha3 … pictures!

<insert image>

<insert image>

It was short but sweet and Sandra picked me up again to send me to the airport for my next destination. (see what i mean by i won’t live without her? hahaha … thanks soo much Sandra! You must let me have my turn hosting you in Bandung! … -shaz as well)

It was raining but thankfully I had the chance to take a picture in Putra Jaya and this is the only pictures that I like …. (alien building?)

<insert image>

While waiting for my flight, we ended up spending some time in Black Canyon Coffee! one of my fave, and I drank my Thai Americano on Ice! lolx …and discover these Panda drink … so cute!

<insert image>

<insert image>

Now …… here I am at the time of the day I wrote this…. LCC Terminal, waiting for my flight. I’m having fun not having anything ‘routine’ in my day and this is what I like …. (the reason why I’m a musician in the first place)

and YES! They’ve called me to board now …. see you guys some other time! Pictures will be added soon, as soon as I got a decent internet connection!

God bless, I’m out living my life again ^_^

When you reach a certain age in your life, you’ll always definitely find yourself in a junction of life. A place where you have to make a big decision over what you want your life to be. For example:

1. What course you want to take in University (or rather, for some of you, what your parents want you to take)

2. Which Job to take after you graduated with a Degree.

3. Whether you should marry the guy you are dating now …. or whether you should marry the girl you are dating now =P

Life is filled with choices upon choices. Now, as a Son of God, (aside from everyday life choices that you need to make) how can you make sure that the path that you chose are the one that is designed by Him? It’s definitely a tough question to answer. And I must admit, I don’t have the sure-kill answer as well ^_^

To further point out my example, I hereby laying out my map of life up until now.

In secondary school, I was the Techie guy. Always hangs out with computer and stuff.

Life changes for me when I went on a holiday to Singapore. As I was watching a performance in Esplanade Concert Hall, The stage’s seduction takes it’s first action on me. I was really excited about being on stage! ….  so I aspire to be a classical pianist.

Come NAFA, I studied really hard, practiced really hard to be a classical pianist. When I got my diploma, I realize that being a classical pianist, I won’t be able to touch the Stage that much. Therefore, I started to play in a rock band.

Playing in a rock band, I realize that I was really mesmerized by the magic moment exist in Jazz music. I started to listen to Chick Corea, CASIOPEA, and all those stuff, ending up transcribing Hiromi Uehara’s work and compete in a band competition playing her work. (am really thankful to all my band mates!) I receive the ‘Best Keyboardist Award’ for that year’s competition.

Time was great! ahahaha, ending up pursuing my degree in Jazz piano in Lasalle afterwards. Was really having fun with Jazz and composition. It’s really fun! … ha3 … I was having a lot of chances to perfom, but then I realize that I really felt alive on stage!

Now comes the last stage of it …. Was involved with a band, did the recording, published the album, did the promo tour, but in the end,  I realize that doing that band, even though it was a good gig, doesn’t really fulfill me. I crave for something more. I crave the direct connection with the audience!

Realizing that direct connection leaves me without a choice (and btw, I do love singing =P ) I took up the challenge and train my vocal, and now I’m pursuing a dream to be a singer! …… Global Influenced Singer. ^_^

Now tell me, how on earth am I gonna do that? ha3 …. I have steps in mind, I have plans, I have wishes, and I have dreams and speculations. But when a person asked me, what I’m going to do now, …….. in my mind i was like….  ”errr ….. how the hell i know? lolx …. ” It’s kinda hard because everything in my mind now, it’s all a flexible plans. Nobody will know when or how I will get the big break,  Nobody will surely knows and I myself are not sure. My plans are always flexible. Yes I have a place where I want to go, Yes I have a goals, but the road that I take to achieve that goals, is not as clear cut as most people do.

The only thing that I can do, and I’m doing is …. WORK HARD, PRAY HARD, and TRUST GOD.  I believe that He was the one that planted all the seed for all my dreams and He is Jehovah Jireh my Provider. And I believe that He will bring me from glory to glory, from one step of life to another one and lifting me up in the process.

So now …. I’m at the junction again ….. the formula is something like this.

D = (I/K * WH * (G + 0) * D) / (((CH*4n)+C3)) * T)

^_^ life’s been good!

오늘은 난 진짜 행벅해 … 친구를 많이 힘이 줘요. ^_^ 아, 근대 … 내달에서 한국애 가고 싶어요. ㅋㅋㅋ 예이!

I have loads of friends (according to facebook, around 1560+ friends and counting). Do I?

Have you ever wonder about the indicator of friendship?

Truthfully, now I’m in a ‘messy’ state of life, kinda because I’m in a season where transition has to happen, decision needs to be made, and action needs to follows through whatever I’m planning and decide. I often got frustrated, not of myself, not of my future or whatever, but most of the time, of people.

These people, should’ve been the one that’s close to me. They’re the one that should have been care for me the most, they’re the one whom should’ve supported me all the way, the way I tried to be to them as well. Although I don’t know where things go wrong, I don’t know where does the line that divided ‘obligation’ to meet up and be together, and ‘wanting’ to meet up lies.

Have we ever meet up outside of the ‘obligated’ time slot? I can’t really recall that much …… o yah! i did recall … and I was the one who called it up. Then again, now ….. what is friendship? This question always come up on my mind.

I have some great friendship! ….. people from various stage of my life is my real great friends. No, we don’t meet everyday. We don’t have the possibility to meet often due to us staying at different countries. But when we do meet, It’s just great friendship. It’s as if we’re never even separated before. They’re great friends, we’ve always supported each other, believed in each other, telling each other when things sounds wrong, but always believed in each other dream.

And here I am, with people who supposedly care about me, people whom I care about, but there isn’t a single thing from them that says ….. “I support what you are doing, and I believe you could make it”. I even went to the extent of sending something to their email and guess what? Nobody replied. Nobody says a thing, nobody even says … “gosh, that sounded awful, but nice try!” None! … no reply at all …..

Okay, you might be busy, so you all didn’t get that email, but …… heck. I saw that you are very active in facebook, but even when I ‘touched’ your facebook ….. you never ‘touched’ mine.

When I told you my dreams, you discourage me saying that it isn’t a good plan, that it’s better to do B. Saying I can’t, telling me to stick with what you know I’m good at. How could this possible translate into ‘you care about me, you are my friend’?

But THANK GOD, I have Him. The ultimate God, Friend, Caretaker of my life. To whom and by whom I’m alive now. The one that has given me my dreams, the one that has been taking care of all my needs. Jesus is my true friend! and I’m super thankful that he gave me that handful people , my family and best friends (you know who you are guys … I love you all!).

As for the one that I wanted them to care about me, vice versa, but that ain’t happenin? ……. I don’t care as much as well. ^^

ps: i don’t think they’ll even stumble upon this or read this anyway ….. ^_^

Yo! I’ve just finished my late nite run, the first in it’s series of installment =P

Due to my moving, I need to find new spot for my run and just so happen, Bedok reservoir is very close by. The temptation of stepping my foot over there is big, and I did landed there in the end.

Everything was dark, and I can only see the beautiful still water with the occasional park lighting along the dirt path. Breeze was nice and I was full of energy, so i thought to myself “One full round across the lake (big reservoir)!” Full of ego and confidence, I ran … ran …. and ran ….. everytime I looked to the left, I see nothing except distance …. more distance. I can’t see where am I and was actually kinda lost. It was almost like running on a treadmill with no change of scenery. (although it is a beautiful one). I kept thinking that it’s still far away. And far it is.

Along the way, I often was tempted to stop and run my way back. I kept thinking and in the end, ‘the unknown’ distance … tempt me to go back. Luckily at that point of time I remember the principle of having a goal. Big goals, and smaller goals along the way, and I did just that. I told myself where the big goal is, and then refuse to look only at the big goals (as it’ll make you lose strength looking at the distance). I focus myself on a smaller goal (the Park Lamp) where I was hitting my goal again and again. It gives me strength and confidence.

I kept running and when I thought I still have another half way to go, I realize that I’ve reached my goals, and therefore, eligible to heads home.

This is a really good reminder for me as now I’m in a time where I should decide what is my big goal, and to set my small goal. I’m at the place where I have to set my dreams and decide what I will do with my life. =)

like how the run ends, I believe that no matter what, I will achieve my goal (no matter what it is), as long as I start to pace my run, do the first, second, third step and continue running. Achieving my smaller goals. Trust me, with no time you will achieve your big goals and be happy about it.

RUN! ….. JUST DO IT!! (not representing N*K*) =P

So far, I had fun in Jakarta by spending my first night here attending the Jam Session @ IMDI (Institut Musik Daya Indonesia). It was a night full of swing, bebop, and simply FUN! Ha3 I figure that in every music college, (to be specific, JAZZ stream) the people in there will be the same, no matter where I am. Singapore, Jakarta, Bandung or even Berklee i believe. The craziness of us, people indulging ourselves in the tradition of swing and bebop stays true no matter where we are.

I reckon this is indebted to us playing, indulging ourselves in the tradition of our masters, be it Miles Davis, Chick Corea, John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, or just any other Jazz greats.

WE ARE CRAZY

yes, I’ll repeat, We Are Crazy! …. ahahaha, all we want is to have fun on stage and off stage, have fun with hard work as well.

Love being on stage and performing ….. gotta brush up my bebop! BeeeeeeeeBOP!

Currently I’m situated at gate C17 waiting for my plane to be ready and fly back to my own country.

There is something special about this trip that I felt right down in my heart. It’s been awhile since I return back to my home country, my home town, for a holiday. Yes I know I travel a lot to Indonesia Jakarta (according to someone =P ) but most of those trip was made for fun business purpose. Either for recording in jakarta, or for mission trip or for 3PM promo tour. So I don’t really have a lot of free time to enjoy myself nor spending loads of time in Bandung with my family.

And now I’ll be able to do that! I’m free from any work related stuff from today until 2nd of July when I’m back to Singapore! IMAGINE THAT! … hahaha .. Ivan, will have 12 days off work and enjoys his time……… too good to be true, and too stupid as a lie to be trust =P

It is a holiday, but as you know, I can’t really be separated from my work for a period of longer than 1 week (especially since now i’m single available) So, i shall write down for my own sake, the purpose of my visit to Indonesia now!

1. HOLIDAYS!

2. Spend time with my family

3. Visit my friend’s baby nicole =) yay!

4. Visit loads of my friend in Jakarta and Bandung

5. Establish grounds for work related stuff in Jakarta

6. Research about some ‘stuff’ =P

7. HAVE FUN! …. hahaha

ps: dun forget to finish up the score for your arrangement. It’s due! …. recording in singapore awaits, as soon as you are back.