Acoustic Angel

Actually, it's not easy to do self-study, but well, I'm determined to pick the guitar up again after a super-long layoff. I guess it's far easier to go for proper lessons and having a teacher to guide and motivate you, than fumbling along without assistance. But part of me is just pig-headed and conceited enough to think that I can succeed on my own. Let me try first anyway!

Even though my previous teacher Mr L (can't believe it was more than ten years since I last saw him!) taught mainly classical pieces and simple chords which we memorised blindly without really understanding much of the theory, it was good that at least I retained those basic chords in my head. This group of chords turned out to be very useful indeed and I think you can manage to play most songs with them, even though they may be 'watered-down' or simplified versions of the actual chords used in pop songs. To be fair to Mr L, it was pretty tough for him to have to teach big groups of about twenty people at one go, with only an hour or so per week.

With a basic group of chords in hand, I figured that my present task is to add more chords to my arsenal and as Lf advised, to learn the theory properly so that eventually I'd be able to play any chord that I want and any song in any key. Thinking a bit far ahead now, but that's my long-term goal!!

So I looked up online chord books and have now worked out the relationships between G, Gmaj, Gmaj7, G7, G6, Gm, Gm7, Gsus4, Gaug and so on. The G family alone is much more humongous than I realised, but eventually when I get through the entire pile, I should, theoretically-speaking, be able to transpose this to any key.

It'll be too boring to just keep learning chord after chord so meanwhile, I'm also learning some songs, starting off with what I perceived to be the simpler hocc songs. Think I can play 'Shampoo' already and the simplified version of "天使藍" (Angel Blue) and am fine-tuning "艷光四射" (Glamorous) and "如無意外" (Yumoyingoi). But I cheated a bit, cos the actual chords of "Angel Blue" are much harder, while I didn't attempt to play the latter two songs in their actual keys. I am bad at keys involving sharps and flats, so for the time being, will stick to my usual C, G and D.

Yeah it's difficult, but I will work hard. Wish me luck!

One Second (Yi Miao)

一秒 or one second could change a life forever.

After learning what they had gone through, I renewed my respect for the pathologists and DNA experts, for having to work with gruesome remains under appalling conditions. Makes me feel that I should get cracking too, to start spending more time reading journals and getting my long-stagnant mini-project going again, even though the stuff I’m doing is peanuts compared to their work.

Ganbatte. And cherish every second (even though it’s easier said than done).

You are now disconnected

Ever since becoming moderator for the hocc site, I’ve been online a lot more often than before, and even though it hasn’t quite become an addiction (i hope), it is now a daily ritual. So when my monitor died last Friday, it felt weird not being able to surf the Internet for several days. By the time I got back online, I had to spend some time catching up.

During the ‘Internet-less’ days, I turned to my long-abandoned books and VCD box-sets. I finished “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy” and started on “A Thousand Pieces of Gold”, two books that have been collecting dust for more than half a year since I got them. (Haha, both Sammi and hocc are avid readers so I shouldn’t be too lazy myself!) I picked up where I left off at "Files of Justice IV". I also tried to practise my guitar more often.

I realised that I was spending too much time online and there are plenty other things worth doing, so from now on I will take care not to waste time doing mindless surfing. But still, I was relieved when J managed to get a second-hand monitor for me. It really didn’t seem worthwhile getting a completely new one. Thks, J!

Also resolved to go to the gym with J at least once a week. (Yes, still keeping my NY resolutions in mind!) We used to go for tennis sessions, but after stopping for a couple of months in Nov/Dec due to lousy weather, we seemed to have lost the impetus. J's good at so many sports but I haven’t really got much talent in this dept, so glad that we got back to the gym routine or else I'll really be a terribly unfit, lazy bum.

Forget (Wang)

Nan’s memory seems to be getting worse. She asks questions that she had only just asked a few minutes ago. Fortunately she still remembers most other things. Perhaps it would be a good idea to jot down important things and events regularly, just in case we 忘 (forget) them one day, against our will, even though we try so hard to keep them in our memories.

Definite (Jue Dui)

Recent events have awoken me to the vulnerability of life. They serve as a timely reminder of how I should treasure my loved ones.

My parents are getting old. My dad had a serious illness some years ago but didn’t tell me. Think he’s ok now but he’s still taking all sorts of medicine and going for regular checkups. It costs a lot but I don’t mind (as long as I can still afford it). I feel helpless to see him getting more and more frail as the days go by, but I also feel thankful that he is reasonably healthy and mobile at his age.

My mum is in better shape but a recent checkup revealed a couple of borderline minor abnormalities. She’s still doing most of the household chores. I suggested engaging cleaning services to come in once or twice a week but she didn’t like the idea. I don’t want her to work so hard, but okay, I admit that I’m a lazy bum when it comes to housework. I vacuum and clean too infrequently for my parents’ liking and they would be horrified at my way of doing things!

Anyway, the message is: cherish your loved ones while they are here. After all, your parents are the people who would love you unconditionally and regardless of who you are or what you have done. That’s 絕對 definite. I’m guilty of taking them for granted all too often. I hope to do better from now on.

Home of Glory (Guang Rong Zhi Jia)

The protagonist in the song "光榮之家" (Home of Glory) is a relentless hoarder of things, including clothes, old newspapers, broken umbrellas and vinyl records. To her, there is a place for everything, new or worn, in her home. It is something I can relate so well to as I am also quite a hoarder of things that I have no more use for but can’t bring myself to dump. Many times, I had cleared out cupboards with the intention of making room for new stuff, only to shove almost everything back again eventually. So I still have, among loads of other ‘useless’ stuff, lecture notes, old (and mostly mouldy!) cassette tapes, yellowed magazines and a vast collection of stamps, bottle-caps, bus-tickets and matchboxes, all stashed away in some cupboard or hidden in a corner.

About ten years ago (or perhaps longer!), my mum got rid of some of my old video-tapes and toys. Now, the tapes, containing my favourite Japanese variety shows and concerts of Alan Tam and Anita Mui, among others, which I had painstakingly recorded, had turned mouldy and I didn’t play with the toys anymore, but they were an important part of my memories. I kicked up a big fuss and was angry for days. Now, many years later, even though there is still a very slight tinge of regret, I don’t really feel too strongly about those possessions anymore.

In any case, I had moved on to ‘hoarding’ other stuff. My current obsession is collecting memorabilia of my two favourite singers Sammi Cheng and Denise “hocc” Ho. For Sammi, it all started innocently enough with a CD called "大報復" (An Eye For An Eye) about ten years ago. After watching the “Sammi X Live” concert, I became a fan (albeit unknowingly at first) and began buying CDs and VCDs. As I became more obsessed, I found myself snapping up photo-books, movies, special singles, trading cards, Pepsi memorabilia and other stuff. Luckily (for the wallet), I wasn’t really into magazines and posters in the past as I found them a waste of money, with no space to display them anyway. So I only have a few of these. Even if I want to start collecting them seriously, by now, Sammi has appeared on so many hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of magazine covers and posters over the years that it would be a costly and futile attempt on my part. And my Sammi collection, though far from being complete from the true collector's point of view (being decidedly deficient especially in the magazine and poster department), is almost satisfactory for the current state I am in.

For hocc, it’s different. By the time she made her debut, I wasn’t a student with a tight budget anymore. And so, within a few years, I had amassed quite a collection, including what possibly only ‘The Die-Hards and Severely C-Syndromic’ (as I call it) would buy and most probably utterly useless to other people. To make things worse (for the wallet), I decided to start on magazines which hocc had graced the covers of, as well as posters. I wonder where I’m going to store the stuff properly, especially the magazines, which I had hardly even read except for the few relevant pages.

A proper collection shouldn’t be stuffed into a bag and hidden under your bed. It should be displayed nicely for other people to see. I would like to create a ‘Sammi corner’ and ‘hocc corner’ but there is no room at the moment. I guess I’ll have to do some major spring-cleaning and be heartless enough to throw some things away before I can carry out my plan.

Sometimes, I do regret my buying sprees and wonder what I am going to do with a few hundred CDs, or during morbid times, what will happen to them when I die. Then again, since we can’t bring anything with us when we bid farewell to this world, why not make ourselves happy? I mean, whether I keep the money in the bank, or use it to buy things that I like, it doesn’t matter because it’s going to be transient. So I might as well spend it on something that brings me joy, as long as I’m living within my means. Sure, there are many other more important things in life, but as long as a balance is struck and priorities are set and kept to, I guess I’ll still remain that relentless hoarder and collector, in my own Home of Glory.