RG's Reality in Dream

At last… reach the last day of year 2005…

Indeed, 2005 is a memorable year for me…In 2005, my life changed a lot… though it was not a perfect year free of any disappointments and troubles, I consider it as a great a and miraculous year… at least, I got something that I never put as my target before… and was given the chance to actually experience something I never expected and thought I would achieve.

Thank you God for always be at my side throughout 2005.. Thank you for the joys, surprises, friendships and opportunities you blessed upon me… Every hardship, every tests you put upon my path only enriched my experience in preparing myself for the harsh and brutal reality world waiting for me outside.

I have no choice but to begin my brand new 2006 with exam…have to sit for Mid-Sem exam for this semester 2 from 4 Jan to 7 Jan…

However, 2006 will be a crucial year… especially when all the uncertainties about studying medicine in Indonesian universities will be unveiled….

I hope 2006 will be a greater and promising year… and I have full faith in it…

Ok… hopefully after the exam, I can have time to do a detail post to review my 2005…

And lastly, With a peaceful and grateful heart... I close the2005 chapters of my life...

Thank you...



HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

As we know, the 1st sem’s result of matriculation had been released last week… a lot of Chinese students managed to get 4 flat…it’s great! In my previous matric college, Kolej Matrikulasi Kedah (KMK) for example…almost all jit sin friends obtained 4 flat…the same case happens in almost every other colleges…

Congratulations to all matriks friends who successfully get 4 flat…Maybe its late… but its still a sincere congratulatory wish from deep down my heart!

After knowing that such a large number of people managed to score 4 flat in matriks… again… I wonder whether I made the right decision to give up matriks and take this JPA scholarship…To study at here(KUTPM) & in Indonesia for next few years? I really had an enjoyable time in KMK… But after all… if I am still in matriks…am I still sure and confident that I can also get 4 flats as what many others had achieved too? For a moment… all kinds of positive and negative questions thoughts wandered in my mind…

I realize… there is no way for me to reverse the past…and at least…at here, it is not necessary for me to get 4 flat to be granted an opportunity to study medicine…though it’s unpredictable…I just hope everything will be fine…

I heard some friends said they are very excited after receiving the result as they didn’t expect much after the tough exam…However, it’s just half-way through this matriculation programme…Therefore, take it as inspiration, encouragement and confidence to get 4 flats for the whole matriculation programme… 1st sem’s result shows that actually you can achieve excellence too! Keep it on!

What I am concerned more is how are the feeling of those who are not fortunate enough to get 4 flats… Everyone, especially the 1st sem 4 flatters need to take care of their feeling… Being in a group where most people obtain great result but you did not is such an agony…though we can’t neglect the fact that failing to get 4 flats in matriculation means it’s quite tough to get your respectivedesired courses and place in local university, especially medicine… However, it doesn’t mean your whole life will be always miserable too… please continue your life to the successful way!

I do sympathise those who didn’t get 4 flats… They must be blaming themselves very much…for their effectiveness effort throughout the preparation for exam...for their lack of concentration in studies…for their inability to succeed at times when it matters most… But I found that if a person is still blaming himself from heart instead of blaming luck not on his side after failing on times like these, it means that he still have the will to succeed…he never give up the aspiration to succeed…

While almost everyone got 4 flats…while you are among the less fortunate ones to get results that are inferior to them… Just assume that YOU’RE DIFFERENT! Assume this failure as a blessing in disguise from God…believe that you have been chosen by God to have the chance to learn how to handle failure and how to get up from failure…Such experience will be useful in future… do the task as well as you possible…

If we give up after a failure…we give up every chance to succeed in our life…

Wanna comment a bit on Our Malaysia’s education system ….It’s really very cruel… Seem like It makes students feel like no 4 flats in matriculation or STPM, means no hope in future…

I have the feeling to write all of these…because… I often have to go through such pathway too…and I am still struggling… still searching for my best well-balanced life too…

Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Maria Sharapova achieved success in their life when they are 17 and 18…Bill Gates achieved success in his 30s’…Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi managed to become our Prime Minister only in his late 50s…there are more and more real life examples but all of them prove that Everyone have equal chances to succeed, and if you try continuously with perseverance, you’re destined for success… just that the time when success comes rolling in differs… some early and some late.. Therefore, patience and continuous efforts are the keys to ensure that success is rightfully yours…

Since recently I often filled my little free time by listening to songs in Jay Chou’s latest album…suddenly think of writing a post to express my own opinion on Jay Chou, a very popular and top songwriter-singer in our Chinese pop music industry…

First of all, I must state that I am not his hard-core fan…and I am trying to write on him from a fair side… and since I don’t have any knowledge and experience bout the aspect of commercial promotion and artist and album’s appearance which often play a role in determining the popularity of an artist in current pop music industry, so I will only talk purely bout his music and his making of music that enable him can be accepted by so many music lovers… However, from my observation, normally when talking bout Jay Chou, there will be two very extreme sides…first group likes him very much…likes everything of him…while the other group don’t have good impression on him, keeps on criticise everything of him…

Ok…for me, I just like his music…ya…his music, not songs…song is a piece of music with words which are sung…while music can be considered as a melody that without lyrics but played by musical instruments…Jay Chou is a very different composer if compare with other composers in Chinese pop music…Therefore, I think we must listen and judge his songs from a different perspective but not directly decline his music just because it is not in the common and familiar popular style…

I prefer to label his music style as ballad R&B…his R&B is very unique…Today’s R&B and Hip Hop normally has very strong beat, strong rap and loud accompaniment music (which don’t impress me a lot)…but Jay Chou’s music is able to give me the pleasure…his songs have very nice rhythm but without extensive strong beat…and maybe added his soft rap and singing…I feel pleasant and relax when listening his music…

Most importantly, I must highly compliment Jay Chou on his superb ability in doing background music arrangement for the song…I think the main point that makes his songs very nice is his great arrangement for the songs…He uses many relevant instruments in the accompaniment music…the drum rhythm is outstanding and bringing lively sentiment into his music…and a thing that attracts me the most is that his music accompaniment actually have a different melody than the song’s melody, unlike most pop songs that always just use chords and same melody for accompaniment…Some of his music arrangement has reached the world-class standard…I think if filling lyrics to his background music, it should be another good songs…This special feature can be easily noticed…try to listen for his songs’ music accompaniment and ignore his singing…

Let’s point out some obvious weaknesses of Jay Chou in music… one of the main weak points of Jay Chou is of course, his poor singing skill…Critics on his disability to sing the words clearly are very common already…I think the main reason is he don’t open his mouth when singing and this cause most of the sound still stuck in his mouth…and I think another weakness is his range of singing pitch is very limited…and this cause him frequently use so-called ‘fate voice’ to sing high-pitch notes…but then due to his poor skill in singing, such voice make some of his songs sound very weird and uncomfortable to me… ok…I don’t have much knowledge and understanding bout singing technique…so don’t want to analysis much on his singing… Normally I won’t mind much bout the vocal part…I just listen and emphasize more on the melody and music…

Often, I believe that Jay Chou is a special message of encouragement brought by the God to us…He don’t have ability to sing well, don’t have powerful voice, don’t have typical good-looking as what most hotshots in entertainment have and though he has great talent in producing music but the style of his music is very different than what is hit in current pop song ground ( I think if you have a different style in music, your music will not necessary easily accepted by listeners). He has many disadvantages in today’s music industry…But his success shows that it is not necessary that the person who has greatest knowledge or ability can only achieve greatest success...God decides our brain, capability and talent, but God also decides our future…What we can do are only have self-confidence and dare to keep on trying…Jay Chou still have confidence and courage to sing to the world on stage with a poor voice… A person with no vocal skill but has great ability in song writing and arrangement should be an established songwriter and producer who acts at back stage for other singers…but Jay Chou still can make the difference… and amazingly, now most of his fans like his songs because his ‘unique’ vocal… Life is like an unexpected dream…

When we criticise and question the success of Jay Chou, where are us and where is him?? Sometimes I like to compare Jay Chou with Wang Lee Hom, another great composer singer in chinese music, though I know such comparison is not very good…Lee Hom has prominent powerful singing skill, much good looking than Jay Chou and Lee Hom’s love songs are much better and touching, etc.…but why in fact, Jay Chou is more popular and well known, has much higher album sales and profit per year?...Success is really indefinable…

I watched an interview on Jay Chou one time ago…When asked bout one of his songs sound like a bit imitating from other music, I was stunned but impressed by his answer: “ In music, I won’t be influenced by anyone, I will only influence others…” Wow, his confidence and insistent in music are so astonishing…and notice that he mentioned ‘in music’ in his answer, I think he is not very arrogant of his accomplishment in music, he knows he still needs to learn in many other aspects of life…

Jay Chou is certainly not my idol ( I think I don’t have any idol in music, I support every good music, and I think that like everything of a celebrity is not very correct..)…but his achievements will always remind and inspire me to continue my journey to my dream though I am not the smartest, the most talented people…