Are You Open?

I went for the EMA scholarship interview yesterday and it was a complete disaster.

So, I woke up early in the morning, 7.30 to be exact (I usually wake up at around 10, and so to me 7.30 is extremely early), to prepare myself for the interview. Had breakfast with my parent before they fetch me to the custom. There were not a lot of people at the custom, thank god, and I was able to pass the custom and Singapore immigration swiftly, without having to wait.

The place of the interview is at Somerset. Originally, I intended to take a Taxi, but after some google search, I realised that the building is just right next to the Somerset MRT station, and in an attempt to save precious money, I decided to take MRT instead. The journey from Kranji to Somerset took around 40 minutes, and I manage to arrive at the place just on time, 11am, which is SUPPOSEDLY the time for my interview. While I was sitting on the MRT, I realised from the MRT map hung on the wall that there is now a new yellow line added to the map. I did not manage to get a closer look at the picture, but I guess that it is the line that would pass through our school. Correct me if I am wrong.

Back to the interview, it turned up that the interviews before me started late and there were still 2 more person in front of me in the waiting area, waiting for their turns to be interviewed. After a routine check of my IC and academic certificates, I was told by a lady to wait at the waiting area for my turn. I waited, waited and waited, guess what time was my interview, 12.30pm. I was starving at that time, for I only ate a little bit before I came to Singapore.

Inside the room, there were two ladies, one Indian and one Chinese. I stumbled quite a lot during the interview and sometimes I just cannot find the exact word to express myself. The interviewer even said that I speak English very well, as I just told her that I have never speak English before I came to Singapore and that I came from a Mandarin-speaking family, but I believe that she was just trying to make me feel better, how nice of her, I must say. Anyway, the main reason I think that I screwed up the interview was not due to my inability to speak fluently, but the fact that they are NOT looking for a Chemistry graduate. Why the hell would they shortlist me in the first place if they do not want a Chemistry graduate? I applied for the scholarship because the website clearly stated that they accept ALL courses, except Medicine, Dentistry and Law. And so, I have prepared certain answers, especially to those like how can you contribute to the organisation, with the basic idea that my scientific knowledge and passion for research would benefit the organisation. What a waste of my time, waking up so early and waiting for so long for the stupid interview. They even asked me if I am open to the other courses like Engineering and Economics. Engineering? Did they even look at my application form that I did not take H2 physics? Economics? Please, it would be a surprise of a century if I choose to study a non-science degree.

Well, with all that in mind, I have list down there reasons why I would definitely fail the interview.

1. I am not Singapore Citizen and PR.
2. I was nervous during the interview and I stumbled a lot.
3. I applied for a course in Chemistry.

I was quite pissed after the interview and I decided to go back Malaysia straight away, without filling my empty stomach.

And so that was my first experience of a scholarship interview. It went pretty bad, in my opinion, and I am quite confident that they will not call me down for a second round of interview.

I hope that my subsequent interviews, if there are any, will be better.

Motown Comes to Town

Idol celebrated the 5oth anniversary of Motown music on a special Wednesday time slot this week. I have absolutely no idea about Motown before the show, to be honest. But essentially, Motown is just a recording company who has produced numerous legendary black singers, including Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Stevie Wonder. To put it simply, the Idols would be singing Black Music, and so I expected to hear R&B and crazy vocals from the contestants this week.

Most of the contestants have performed well this week, though last week's country performances , in my opinion, were slightly better than this week's performances. The best performance of the night goes to, no surprise, Adam Lambert's amazing rendition of "Tracks of My Tears". He has demonstrated a skill that I never thought that he possesses, vocal restraints. He didn't scream through the songs unlike the past few weeks. Instead, he delivered an emotional and authentic performance with his beautiful falsetto and tender vocals. The end of the song, when he ended on a half note, was simply breath-taking. I cannot say much more about this incredible performance, you have to witness it yourself to feel the emotional connection Adam had with the song. Adam looked especially handsome this week without hisl black eye-lining and black nail polish. He kind of reminded me of Elvis Presly, very nice and chic. Other stand outs of the night include Kris and Allison. I adore Kris, he is just so cute and sexy at the same time. His rendition of "How Sweet It Is" has really showed us his sweet and fun side. The song suited him completely and the ending of the song, where he ended on a high A, was just spectacular. Allison performed last on the night, with "Papa Was a Rolling Stone". Kara even commented that she looked that she has been singing for 400 years. It is just mind-boggling to hear such a strong and powerful voice coming out from this 16 years old teenager. I seriously wonder why was she in the bottom three last week.







Michael, Megan and Scott's performances were the worst of the night. I shall not talk more about those performances, for there was really nothing much to talk about, except for some negative descriptive words like horrible, horrendous, hideous, rubbish, awful, etc. Look for their performances on youtube if you are masochistic and would like to torture your ears.

Simon and Paula were super funny during the performance show. Paula pulled out a crayon and a few coloring books for Simon, who has been acting childishly during her comment. And childish Simon took revenge by drawing a mustache on Paula's face with the crayon Paula gave him near the end of the show. I think both of them have great chemistry on screen and I am definitely looking forward to what the both of them would do in the coming weeks.

The result shows was boring, and nothing spectacular happened. Michael Sarver was eliminated, thank god, he should have gone home long ago. But the fact that Matt was in the bottom two together with Michael this week was simply shocking, especially after Simon's comment that he has officially become the front-runners of this competition on the previous night.

Next week's theme for Idol is iTunes top 100. Wow, the range is almost limitless and I wonder what the contestants would choosesing next week, but one thing for sure, at least the songs would be more relevant and current. After all, iTunes did not really have a long history, as compared to Motown and Grand Ole Opry.

Save The Day From Zero Gravity

I have recently found two new David Archuleta's tracks online, one of them is "Save the Day", which is included in the Japanese Edition of his album as a bonus tracks, and the other "Zero Gravity", an unreleased track from him (I wonder how the people manage to get the studio recordings of this unreleased track, after all, is it UNRELEASED). Well, I don't really like the two songs, to be honest, and I am glad that there were not included in the original main album. He had performed both of the song on his tour, by the way.

Speaking of his tour, there was apparently a rumour, which I believe it is now confirmed, that David Archuleta would be coming to Malaysia and have a mini-concert in mid-April. I wonder why would he come to such a random country and have a tour, even though I realised that Jason Mraz just had a concert a few weeks ago in Malaysia, but that is not the point, it is still quite surreal that David Archuleta would actually be coming to Malaysia. He recently released a video blog, saying that he and David Cook would be having their tour in Jakarta. The idea the he would be coming to Malaysia should not be too far-fetch, after all, Jakarta is just few hours away from Malaysia.

Enough with all the commotion about DA presence in Malaysia, here are the download links to the two new songs.

Save the Day
Zero Gravity

Some minor update about myself, I would be going to Singapore on this Friday for Firefly Scholarship interview. Ha, I did not even think that I would be shortlisted, for I just applied for the scholarship for the sake of applying, because it did not specifically state that it is only open for Singapore Citizen and PRs. I was quite shock when I received the all, actually. Anyway, I would just give it a try and I hope that the interview will go well, but at least, it will give me a taste of how a scholarship interview would be like before my actual shell interview, that is if I am shortlisted, of course.

Tender Dog and Matt Buble

Haha, it was so funny when Randy called Kris tender dog.Anyway, here are the performances by Kris Allen and Matt Giraud, the best of the night, in my opinion.





I do agree with Randy that Matt is sort of a mix between Michael Buble (his vocal) and Justin Timberlake (his look).

They have now both become my favorites, and I really hope that they will do well in the competition.

It is slightly annoying that next week's Idol would be on Wednesday, instead of Tuesday, due to some Obama speech. Well, we will just have to wait for the good stuffs.

Idols Going Country

The theme of this week's Idol is Grand Ole Opry. I was so excited when I found out that the contestants were going to sing country songs this week, for I am really a huge fan of country music and I especially like Carrie Underwood and I certainly hope that I would hear one or two of her songs during the performance night. Having said that, I was actually quite worried for a few of the contestants, for instance Adam and Scott, as I can not really imagine them singing country music. It is just not their style, I guess.

I was really impressed with the performances this week, as many contestants have sang and performed very well. My favorites are Kris and Matt. They were both so emotional, sincere, authentic and honest. I was blown away by their incredible performances on the night. Without his guitar this week, Kris performed the song "To Make You Feel My Love". I have never heard the song before, but I really like Kris's interpretation and vocal performance on that song. Guess what Matt sang this week, it was Carrie's "So Small", one of my favorite songs from her second album. He was just so fantastic with his piano and Simon even thought that he out-sang Danny this week. Danny, on the other hand, was a bit of a disappointment to me, even though I really like the song that he sang, which is "Jesus Take The Wheel" by Carrie, again, and that all the judges seemed to like him very much. The front part of the song was simply boring and terrible, and I think that he shouted too much on the later part of the song. Another really great disappointment of the night would be Lil or Little as Simon would like to call. She is just not suited for the Country genre and she seemed really uncomfortable performing "Independence Day" (Hey, Carrie sang the song before on season 4), even though I must acknowledge that she really has a big pipe. Anoop Dog really surprised me with his rendition of "Always On My Mind". He was quite determined to prove Simon wrong this week and to show that he definitely deserves to be in the top 11. Simon even said that he went from zero to hero and wished to take back the words he said to him last week. Talking about surprises, Adam's performance on the night was the most shocking and, to some, strange. I hated the arrangement of the song, to be honest, even though his vocal is, as usual, spectacular. Scott was quite funny on the night when he said to Paula that they could bring the piano closer to the audience. Is he a retard?? I did not really like his performance this week, and I absolutely agree with the judges that it was too similar to last week's performance. Incidentally, in my opinion, the worst performances on the night all came from all the perceived early favorites of the competition, namely Adam, Danny, Alexis and Lil. There was even a rumour that they will definitely be in the top 4, how ironic.

Sadly, Alexis was eliminated this week and the judges did not decide to save her, saying that she was good but not good enough. I don't really think that she should leave so early, for there are others, namely Michael and Scott, who performed worse than her.

Carrie performed "I Told You So", together with this week's mentor, Randy Travis on the results show. Carrie is just so good at what she does, and her vocal was simply flawless. Randy, on the other hand, pales in comparison to Carrie. Nonetheless, it was still a good duet.



Next week theme will be the music from MoTown, whatever it means, and I am really looking forward to seeing more incredible performances.

黄老师

Well, this may appear random and shocking, but I have found myself a job, though technically it is only a part-time job, as a tuition teacher at a neighboring tuition center. My mum forced me to go for the interview on last Friday, as she heard from her customer, who is a full-time tuition teacher at the tuition center, that they are looking for someone to do part-time. I decided to give it a try, despite initial hesitations. I did not even dress up on the day of my interview and I was like wearing my pajamas (white shirt and blue shorts) and slippers and with messy hair. I was asked to fill in a form and the person in charge asked me a few questions, ranging from my availability and results, and I was straight away employed. Haha, but the pay is rather pathetic, three Riggit per hour, and they don't need me to come everyday and guess what is my job scope, I will be teaching primary school students Malay, despite my multiple attempts to tell the person in-charged that I am not very proficient in it. I even told him that I will be more comfortable teaching Science and Maths, but he seemed to have ignored my request and warning blatantly. The good thing is that I don't really need to teach per se, I only need to supervise the students while they are doing exercises, help to mark their paper at the end of each session, and occasionally answer their queries and assist them when they encounter difficulties.

I am assigned to come on every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. The sessions on the weekday are of two hour long and the one on the weekend is of a duration of three hours. And so in total, I will be working only 7 hours per week, that's even less that a normal working day hours, and with such a low wage of 3 Ringgit per hour, I cannot even earn 100 Ringgit in a month. Today, I was told by my boss that I will be getting a raise based on my excellent performance (of stoning and staring at the students) and I will be getting four Ringgit per hour instead of three. Slightly better, but still pathetic. I just treat it as some regular volunteer work to spare my free time. After all, the job is quite relaxed and I don't really to do much.

That is it, nothing much happened to me. I cannot wait to watch American Idol tomorrow.

Home Sweet Home, Carrie Underwood

This is this year's farewell song for the American Idol, you know the song that is played every time during the video that showcase the journey of the eliminated contestants. The song is originally covered by Motley Crue, and I believe Carrie Underwood has done an amazing job on the song. I love the melody and I absolutely adore the vocal. This song is just so beautiful and I am getting addicted to it.

Here are the download links to this amazing rendition of Home Sweet Home. Enjoy.

Link 1
Link 2

My Life Would Suck Without Kelly Clarkson

I have not blogged for a week. I guess I just don't have the mood to do such stuff where I am bombarded with all the university and scholarship applications, which incidentally all have similar deadlines. Well, I was pretty surprised receiving my results on last Friday. For those who have not done well, I hope that you all will not be too disappointed. After all A level will be useless after we enter University, and I hope that we all can get into the universities and courses that we intend to go.

This week is the performance show of the top 13 and the theme for this week is Michael Jackson. I have not listened to MJ much, for I was really deterred by all the negative news surrounded him, even though I know that he was the king of pop in the late 80s and he has produced numerous hits while he was still famous and had a proper nose. Most of the contestants this week have done excellent jobs. I was particularly impressed by Adam's Black or White and I think that he has once again proven himself to be the one to watch in this season with his incredible vocal and amazing stage presence. Paula even predicted him to be in the top 12, I certainly hope that her prediction would come true. On the other hand, I was actually quite disappointed with Danny's performance, even though all the judges love him and Paula even predicted him to be in the finale, for I think that he shouted quite a lot during his performance and I absolutely agree with Simon that the dancing was utterly hideous. Major disappointment of the night, Anoop and Jorge. They are not terrible singers, I just think that they chose the wrong songs.

Following the surprise of top 13 last week, there is now a new rule to this season of American Idol introduced this week, the Judges' Save. The judges can decide to save an eliminated contestant, once in the entire season, and the decisions must be unanimous among all the 4 judges. No one will be eliminated if the judges decide to use this power and two contestants will be eliminated in the following week. This new rule, however, is valid until the top 5 week and the judges will no longer have any say on the fate of the eliminated contestants there after. I believe that this is an excellent rule, for many talented contestants, such as Chris Daughtry and Jennifer Hudson, had been eliminated too early in the past seasons, and with this new rule, we may be able to avoid such regret and shocking eliminations. Notice that I use the word "may", because shocking elimination may still be possible if the American still decide to vote them off the show in the subsequent weeks.

The contestants eliminated this weeks are Jasmine and Jorge, no surprises, as both of them have underperformed during the performance show. No judges' save was used in this week.

The special guest this week was Kelly Clarkson. She sang My Life Would Suck Without You. Ryan tried to sing the chorus of the song and it was hilarious, no wonder he is in the field of hosting and not singing.



Next week will be Country Week! Hope that Adam will still continue to impress us. Go Adam.

This Is Annoying

I am utterly disturbed by the fact that I still haven't receive the email from school regarding the collection of A level results, which I believe many of my peers have already received it long ago. Perhaps the school computer system has accidentally left out my name, I really don't know the reason behind all the stupid crap. I don't wish to keep my hopes too high, for I am really not confident in my GP and Economics. Having said that, I still certainly wish that my results will not be too bad either.

I am not ready in the mood of blogging this week, as you can see from the lack of American Idol related blog post. By the way, Lil, Scott and Jorge made it into the top 12 this week.

Good luck to everyone who will be getting their results back tomorrow.

Oh My

The day that we have all been waiting for.

From the website of Ministry of Education, Singapore

Press Releases

March 2, 2009

Release of 2008 GCE A-Level Examination Results on 6 March 2009

1The results of the 2008 Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level Examination will be released on Friday, 6 March 2009.

2School candidates may obtain their result slips from their respective schools from 2.30 pm on 6 March 2009.

3Private candidates will be able to obtain their results through the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board website from 2.30 pm on 6 March 2009. They will also be notified of their results by post.

I am scared.

Adam, Allison and Kris

In case you have missed the result show of this week's American Idol, the three persons through to the top 12 are, in the order at which the results were announced, Allison Iraheta, Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. I was actually quite shocked that Kris made the cut, for I do not think that he did his best on that night, and I thought that Megan would be a much more deserving candidate to be in the top 12. Having said that, I still like Kris, and I think that he is adorable. He reminds me of David Archuleta to a certain extent. Ha. On the other hand, I was quite pleased that Nick was not in the top 12, even though he is definitely entertaining, he is just not suited for the stage of American Idol.

Here are their performances, Allison, Kris and Adam, on the result show. All of them, in my opinion, have performed better this time as compared to the ones they did on the performance night. Adam Lambert was seriously crazy. His last note was insanely high and I really admire his vocal ability.







Now that half of the top 12 have been chosen, I am starting to worry about the proportion of males and females in the group.Out of the six finalist that have made it this far, we have 4 males and only 2 females, and given the poor performances by the girls on the two performance nights so far, I predict that at least two of the three spaces available via the wildcard round are going to be filled by male contestants.

Next week will be the final round of the semifinals and I am really looking forward to see Lil and Scott. I wish they will do well and, hopefully, get into the top12.