Charismatic

Eva, one of the first people I met in Taiwan [on holiday 2009] The meal was her shout. HUGZZ Pesto chicken risotto. It's the yums! Fettucine with prawns and cream sauce Mojito - <3 my cocktails Layered cake Feeling so much better today. Thank God for friends who remind you of God's grace in beautiful ways.  One of the reasons I love my church is because it's full of people who understand and dispense God's grace. I've never heard condemnation and accusations. I've never heard my church friends around criticize other christians [though I've heard other ppl from other churches do it]. I hear honest feedback if one needs to change and grow. But they exude grace, love and authenticity.  I was whining to Eva today about how success seems to comes so easily for some people, and they don't seem to need to try very hard at all (e.g. mainly thinking about a pair of twins). Recently, one of them got married, an...

It's that time of the year!!!!! What time? The week before my birthday. Hah. Birthdays make me all reflective and feel 'blog-ish'. This time though, I am almost numb to the fact that I'm turning 27. I really don't want to grow older. It scares me like it never has before. Although I am slightly more immune shock of aging physically [the dark eye circles, the fat deposits that don't want to leave, the red spots and pigmentation that are slowly appearing all over my skin, the sore shoulders and back], I still can't mentally grasp that I'm more than quarter of a century old and I am still, according to my own standards, not anywhere near where I should be. But I am still on this journey. And it looks like there's no use in turning back. What will I have left if I turn back? He promises that there is destination. I take that in faith. And hope that the destination isn't too disappointing. It's a short and not particularly cheerful post. ...

青花瓷  Blue and White Porcelain I've been trying my hardest to regularly upload youtube videos, because right now, it's the only platform I have to do promotion or grow a fan-base internationally, except in China (a general rule, one has no access to FB and youtube there). But that is what my Tudou and Weibo accounts are for. Trying to figure my way around the China websites has been hair-raisingly frustrating. They are usually poorly designed, making it confusing to navigate around them. But with my sister's help, we got some videos up there and there and getting some views.  It's been difficult to produce a new video once in 3-4 weeks like I initially planned to do it. The time between videos more like 6-8 weeks. I honestly wished someone introduced me to youtube video making about 6 years ago. I think I could have made a living of it by now. Hah. Then, youtube was really about home videos and community. Nowadays, it's more corporate and more competitiv...

I am waiting for a set of sound samples to arrive. I paid for them 3 months ago. A hefty amount. I'm still waiting. I am waiting for the company to finish the final details on my website. The designer ran into some family problems, but still, it's been a while. I'm still waiting. I am waiting for my mentor to give me some lyrics he said he would refine. I am waiting for a time that he can fit me in to record vocals for one track. I am waiting for him to help contact another vocal producer for another 3 tracks. I am waiting for a guitarist in the States to send me guitar tracks for a song. I am waiting for an arranger to send me  a rough for another track. I am waiting for  Mandarin lyrics from another writer. I have been waiting for a long time for many things. This is driving me nuts.

Annoyed. That is putting it mildly.  I will preface this post by announcing that I am ranting. If you don't want read rants then maybe you should skip this post. I hate being taken for granted. I try very hard not to take what everyone does for granted because I don't live by 'entitlement' unless it is I'm already guaranteed something by a promise, a law, or by earning it.  A lot of people have pulled favours for me in Taiwan along the way. It's been 2 years of a lot of grace from people. But I don't take it for granted. I don't assume it's going to happen. In fact, I don't assume any of it would last or happen a second time. I only have an expectant hope that God will look after me no matter what happens around here. But the WAY He decides to look after me is really up to Him. I pretty much think I don't have much of a say in this matter.  I was asked to play for a wedding of the son of an important person in church. He and hi...

I spent an hour at 大湖公園 (Large Lake Park) Isn't this lone ducky cute? I can self snap with my eyes closed.... It's an art, I tell ya.... Unedited iphone shot of the park It's a bit of a let down when you leave the park and 5 minutes later, this is what you see This is close to where I live

.....my full-length English album, and my Chinese 'show-reel' seems to be taking forever. Perhaps family and friends are wondering why making an album seems to be such an ardous process for me. I thought I'd use a blog post  (or a few) to explain what I've been up to.  Making an album consists of the following steps: Writing/editing the melody Writing/editing the lyrics Arranging the song Recording the basic instrumental music Recording the main and back up vocals Overdubbing anything extra fills Mixing Mastering Album concept creation, photo-shoots and image styling Designing the covers/CD Manufacturing the CDs Yes, it's a lot of work if you are overseeing and involved in the whole process.  For a lot of pop artists, what happens is the record company will ask for songs from different songwriters, so they can speedily get 1 from 10 different songwriters that they like. And then, they contact 3-4 arrangers and get them to arrange 2-3 songs each. This c...