Project Super-Blind Star?

There has been a huge buzz about this mandarin pop idol contest on Channel U recently.

I don’t normally tune in because it’s CHINESE.

Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of my ethnicity and I fully embrace my origins however I always secretly harboured a thought or possibility that I may have hidden English roots somewhere in my family tree. My parents even remarked once that I was some sort of contraband item from the UK. I can’t decide whether this is a compliment or an insult.

Evidence: Check out my aunt’s name ‘Lillian Lim Jude Joseph’. After doing some investigation, I found out that she may have some Dutch roots. Interestingly enough, my Grandma did mention of some English boyfriend during her heydays as a pretty Samsui woman in the garden city. I really wonder whether I am a by product of this inter matrimony and what went wrong with my aesthetic make up. How cruel life is sometimes!!! Secondly how on this earth did she communicated with her ang moh ‘boyfriend’.

(FYI: My beloved granny only speaks Hainanese and she’s really good. I think I have learnt almost all the vulgar language in my mother tongue from her. Note the author is darn proud of the above accomplishment, you morons.)

The point I am driving across is that even though I am a Chinese by default, I am all English on the inside.

Back to the point, controversies surrounding a particular ‘blind’ contestant gaining sympathy votes triggered me to tune in to the individual finals last week. I was curious to see for myself how good he really is.

Boy was I impresses. This guy can really sing. I was really impressed with Wei Lian’s (WL) rendition of Rick Price’s Heaven Knows and ‘Tong Hua’.

To be objective and I feel that I have some rights to comment as I had taken professional vocal training before; WL’s vocal technicalities could still do with much improvement.

WL and I share pretty similar common mistakes made by many amateur musicians. I agree with the judges that he tend not to drop his jaw when singing as a result his words sounded very shrill and nasally.

I also felt that he was projecting too much of his throat than using his stomach power when reaching the higher notes. He was also constantly out of breath and his breathing was too heavy. His opponent Jun Yang (‘JY’) had a better control of his voice and his songs were almost near pitch-perfect except for his disastrous first song.

However on the whole, WL gave a better performance as his songs bear more emotions and feelings compared to his fellow competitor.

I agree that being pitched perfect and having the necessary vocal skills is important for a superstar, but the additional factor that a lot of superstars lack is being able to convey the emotions and feelings of a song.

The difference between WL and JY is that WL can always work and improve on his vocal technicalities with a professional music teacher however it would be near impossible to teach someone how to convey the feelings and emotions of a song. This is a natural talent that can’t be taught. Its either you have it or you don’t.

Does Wei Lian have an unfair advantage with his handicap?

It is not WRONG or BAD to admit that his handicap may elicit some sort of sympathy initially.

Human beings are kind at heart; it is natural for us to lower down our expectations towards handicaps. It is natural for us to be touched when a handicap performs. So naturally, people will vote for him even though he didn’t perform up to standard. However this sort of sympathy or compassionate effect is only short-term. Its like anesthetic, the feeling wears off overtime.

People have eyes and ears; they are mature enough to vote sensibly. Why would we keep on voting for WL week after week without fail? If it’s because of sympathy, I would rather betray my moral values and not vote for him.

If he was really very lousy, I would rather not vote for him than push him to an unrealistic expectation of his talents. I will liken it to throwing him over a cliff knowing full well the ultimate consequences.

However the truth of the matter is WL can really sing and I can safely say that he has the potential to make it big in this music industry and I vote for his future knowing how much use and inspiration he brings to all professional musicians and commoners. WL has taught me a lesson about courage that no dreams are too impossible to achieve.

What I cannot understand is how some people can be so mean and make insulting remarks about WL. If you think he’s not good enough, do whatever that is within your means about it.

Vote for WL’s opponent. Do not fault WL for getting into the finals based on the common excuse of sympathy. There is simply no basis that a voter would do something as stupid as that.

His voice is unique and appeals to a wider spectrum of age groups and besides that he has an interesting personality and most importantly he posses the X-FACTOR.

He may not be as good looking as the other contestants but looks are subjective. What may appeal to me might not appeal to you, and WL has a sort of charming aura that not many so called young and good looking stars have.

I am rather shocked and upset at some of the anti WL’s remarks posted on http://www.adec-online.com/2005/07/14/Project_SuperStar's_Tan_Wei_Lian_wants.html.

As for those people who resort to making insulting and personal remarks about WL, 1 word for you- BORN LOSERS.

Retribution awaits you especially so in this 7th month.

We are all entitled to an opinion. People are free to make comments .You guys can disagree to somebody’s comment but don’t try to change his/her views. And please exercise responsibility with freedom of speech.

Draw a line when airing your views; do not let your emotions lead you to insulting someone based on a physical or emotional deficiency. Let’s be objective and comment appropriately.

One thing I know come Sept 01, my vote would be for the superstar who can touch my heart with his/her song regardless of any circumstances. They are competing from a level playing field and may the best man or woman wins.

Jonah and the whale...

I always grew up baffled at the bible story of Jonah and the whale.

Amazing stuff, Jonah got swallowed by a whale and came out unhurt after 3 days to tell about God’s grace and mercy. I love that story; in fact I read it as a bedtime story for a period of time.

But as I grew up, I started to question the authenticity of the story. Is it just a fairy tale that never actually happened? But how can that be? The Bible is the absolute truth and it never lies. What’s the real deal?

Do you really believe the story of Jonah and the whale?

Of all the stories in the Bible, the one which people find the hardest to swallow is the account of Jonah and the whale.

Skeptics have a field day ridiculing the account of a man who was swallowed whole by a whale and lived to tell of it after three days and nights in such surroundings. In an attempt to avoid the seeming improbabilities of the story, some contend that this story was never meant to be understood literally, but as an allegory.

How then does one deal with the story?

The problem of viewing Jonah as an allegory is that the Bible nowhere treats it as such.

The story itself is a written as a historic narrative, with absolutely no indication that it was intended as myth or allegory.

2 Kings 14:25 refers to Jonah as a historical figure. Jesus Himself treats Jonah as historical, relating that Jonah was a prophet, whose preaching resulted in the people of Nineveh repenting.

He even compared the story to His own death and resurrection.

‘For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgement, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold something greater than Jonah is here.’ (Matthew 12:40, 41, NASB)

If one denies the facts of the story of Jonah, he (or she) must than assume ignorance or deception on the part of Jesus, who believed its authenticity. This would, in effect, destroy His claim to being God.

Having established that Jonah’s story was intended to be historical, it is now possible to deal with the problems of his being swallowed by a whale and the three days and nights he is said to have survived within the fish.

The first fact to deal with is that the Hebrew and Greek words which are translated ‘whale’ in the King James Version actually mean ‘large fish’ There are certain species if whales and sharks that are perfectly capable of swallowing a man whole, including the whale shark, white shark, and sperm whale. These giant mammals have been known to swallow whole animals that are larger than man. It could have been a whale that swallowed Jonah, but the Bible was not specific on the species.

The second problem to deal with is Jonah’s sojourn within the ‘great fish.’ In the 19th century a man named James Bartley is known to have survived a day and a half in the belly of a whale before being rescued. The anatomy of these mammals provides sufficient oxygen for survival.

There is also a possibility that Jonah died in the belly of the fish, and that God brought him back to life after three days. This would not be inconsistent with the teachings of Scripture, seeing that at least eight other resuscitations are recorded. However, this is not indicated in the narrative.

Source: Josh McDowell & Don Stewart, Answers and Reasons,2005

Additional References: Archer, Gleason. A survey of Old Testament Introduction. rev.ed. Chicago: Moody Press, 1979.

Morris, Henry. The Bible has the Answers, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1971

There is no place like home...

So. Amazingly. Enervated.

Its only Monday! 4 more days to go, time seem to fly by so slowly, I feel like I am living in a lunatic asylum.

The sense of déjà vu is overwhelming. The only form of escapade would be to scream a couple of vulgarities at my horizontally challenged sergeant major and spend the next few days singing my own national anthem in the detention barracks.

My brain is rotting away in national service.Honestly, I feel brain dead already. I liken it to being in a coma.

In the army, thinking is absolutely unnecessary. Any sort of opinion will render you liable to insurbordination. In a sense, we all become subjects without an opinion. Living with an opinion is like that of a democrat in North Korea. How are we going to promote the image of the ‘thinking’ soldier when we are still stuck in the old school of thought? What an irony!

I know my brain needs some sort of gymnastic exercise to keep it functioning properly. Any exercise to keep its life support going till my ORD day.

Putting my intrinsic negativity aside, the only thing that I am remotely looking forward to would be my overseas studies.

It has become such an obsession that I am turning into some kiasu university shopper-wannabe pseudo nerd. Wahoo!

I leave you with 2 reasons why I love Singapore:

1) Singlish. I have to admit its really embarrassing having to put up with the ‘lahs’ ‘wahs’ ‘wah liao’ and the whole vocabulary, but I am darn proud to say that at least we have a freaking culture and identity.

2) Merlion. This half mermaid and half lion creature is absolutely hideous looking. And its origins is really dubious, come on do you really believe the folk legend tale? Hello….However I have to admit, it’s innovative. Indeed uniquely Singapore.

Happy birthday!

The Sunset...

Sometimes God takes the simple things in life to baffle us.

I am truly amazed each time I see the sun set.

You must be thinking that I am losing it. What is so special about a sun set? It’s no big deal!

A sunset signifies a new beginning.

Isn’t that amazing?

Sometimes we end our day with so much anger, resentment, rejection, loneliness.

But why not we just leave all our problems and sorrow together with the sun set?

A new day brings with it new challenge, new opportunities, new feelings, new hope.

Let go of our past….just like a sunset.

The new is coming!!!!!!!!!!

War of the genders!

We are all a by-product of absolute freedom and free speech so I appreciate hearing from the girls their views even though most of the comments seemed rather negative and defaming *laughs* but that’s alright, I wont sue.

Gals I understand the fury and anger, its natural I kind of expected such responses after writing the entry.

I hope that stupid NUS Law spinster *hints* [specialising in family law] read my previous entry, I hope she gets a cardiac arrest of sorts… and besides its time for her to get some well needed rest….oh well

I have opened a Pandora’s Box on the ‘war of genders’.

Actually this controversial issue has been around for centuries, but not many people dare to speak about it publicly due to the fear of backlash and reprisal from the opposite sex however it must be spoken and we should not hide and pretend that this perception and ideology do not exist.

It would be impossible to eradicate this perception and thinking because of the culture we are living in however we can still work hand in hand to provide a mutual understanding and help ease the growing differences between the genders.

The males must grow to realise that woman are very intelligent beings and as capable as the males. We must humble ourselves and start to relearn the definition of ‘equality’ and treat women with the same amount of respect and dignity we bestowed on our mothers.

As for the females, please stop ranting on and on about the unfair advantage that the males have in society. That’s very childish, if you perceive that the males have any advantage, honestly deal with it! The world is unfair and everyone suffers but do we come to standstill, absolute NO.

God created women to complement men and vice versa (in no particular order). Let us than work together for the better of society.

Cheers to world and gender peace and PAP! (It rhymes and by the way this has no connotations to any political party)