Welcome to ROM

Great moments are to be remembered forever - your wedding dance, being entertained by great music and listening again to your "couple" song to complete the blessed night of laughter, happiness and smiles. Let me, your Wedding Singer, entertain you and your guests on the start of your journey to plentiful joyous moments ahead.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Nothing's gonna change my world

I would really love to get a camera. To take instances out of time and freeze them forever for me to remember. I just saw myself on a video that was taken on the 11th of May. Had a great laugh. And I still don't understand why. Shall find that out soon.

ja
if only I asked, I might have received
the problem was, I did not.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Museum

Newsflash.

Royale will be playing at the Asean Civilisation Museum tomorrow, 28 May, at 1.30pm sharp. The one near Boat Quay I think. We'll be playing alongside our alter-ego, Psychedelic 4. If you feel like dropping by and have nothing to do, that's the venue and time. Hopefully it's gonna be outdoor. Till then, coffeeboy needs to meet flowergirl soon.

Oh, btw, does anybody know how to put password on my blog?

ja
in times of insanity, one seeks refudge from the invisible
in times of happiness, one forgot where he got his sanity from

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Rehearsals

I rehearsed so many times on Chinook to make it perfect. What came out of my mouth, was just plain simple.

ja
coffee and me

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

The Sword has Two Edges



The StageIt play that I'll be watching soon. Do come down if you guys are interested. Should be interesting.

ja
kinky clorets

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

The smell of paint

My mom just paid my lil sis's friends to paint her whole room white again. Did quite a good job I should say for 14 year olds. Could have done better. Anyway, that's not the point. I went into my lil sis's room and this particular smell just invoked so much memories. The smell of paint reminded me of the time when we first moved in, the preperations for Hari Raya and the events that surrounded it.

ja
museum performance

Dewi

Disappointed? Neh. I understand. But nevertheless, what I learnt from Negotiation class is that, we ought to know the reason behind the acts or behaviour of another person before coming to a conclusion and deriving a certain impression. It's only fair.

ja
check on the other side of the wall to see why it is cracking. It could be ants or somebody's just whacking the hell on it. 1 million and one reasons and it might not be the one in your head.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Lion Head




Well, this week have been a real roller-coaster ride for me. Dreams, reality, half truth and half lies, anticipation. Let me start with my dream first. It doesn't help that the Studio Comm meeting in school ended with all of us trying to contribute to name our club. We wanted something unique, something fresh, something that doesn't sound "club"bish. Here's a few.

1. Stereo Gestapo
2. Fresh
3. Igetlaid
4. AVA Club (audio visual academy)
5. The Fifi and Gerard Extraveganza

I kinda like the Stereo Gestapo. It has a nice ring to it. Ok, then, went to Timbre to watch EIC play for a while and met Jean and Audrey, who were working in the arts scene. Happening. Talked about politics, movies and football. So all of us rushed home to watch Barcelona against Arsenal. Sigh, I felt injustice was done on Arsenal. They deserved to win more. I think I might be an Arsenal fan not because of any of the players but more of the passion and teamwork that I simply share with the team. And so I slept and soon wandered off into Lalaland. This is how football and the Studio Comm meeting contributed to my dream.

I dreamt about being placed on the ledged by evil people (must be the Gestapos, the STEREO GESTAPOS). Hanging by the ledge, lying down, facing up and knowing that any wrong move would be the end of your favourite Ja. But one person gave me and advice to just slide my way against the wall just right behind me so that I can sit upright. I can't believe it when it was Ronaldinho (this I don't have to explain right?) who told me that. Lol. And so I did. It worked. But on a brief note, it really amazes me on how real the feeling of dying, the feeling of fear. It's so surreal.

Then, I was this was the best part. After managing to escape from the clutches of the Stereo Gestapos, or so I thought, I found myself in a lab, with evil scientists wearing white robes and looking at me with evil stares. They grabbed my precious Vespa pendant and threw it into the test-tube under the bunsen burner. I was too scared to remove it. Didn't know why. I can't bear to see it melt into pure iron. Guess who came to the rescue? Ronaldinho again. I swear, he was like my hero. He grabbed the pendant from the hot test-tube (swoosh!) and gave it to me before leaving without saying a word. Haha. Truly, like Spiderman.

Ok. My dream. Next. I went to Zouk to work for a free pair of Camp Comedy tickets. I'm dying to do something different for a change. I've seen Kumar performed at Hard Rock before and I'm dying to see him does his stuff again. He really slams the Chinesee, the Malays, the Indians and of course, the Eurasians. He doesn't care and if people in that room is affected by what he says, he'll slam you too. My advice. Laugh and don't make stupid comments. I wanna hear him again but hopefully with new materials.

Ok. My Camp Comedy. Next. I was looking at Incubus frontman's hair and yearn to have his kinda locks. SOoooo.... I went to the hair salon and showed her the pic. I specifically told her that I want THIS hairstyle. She said, you want full body perm or not? Wait a minute, which part of Brandon Boyd's hair is permed? I repeated, "I want my hair like this" She said ok. Great. She got the idea. Little did I know that I was going to go through what every Tai Tais and most housewives experiences.

First, washed the hair. Then, she sprayed smelly liquid on my hair. Eww. Then, she used the curlers and curled up my hair and cilped them nicely. I began to look like swiss rolls except that it is on my hair. That was not the worst thing a man could ever go through. Then, she put those big spaceship heater cum thingy over my head. Alien steamer. Yes! It was freaking HOT!!! Steamyyyy. My head was like baking I tell ya. Nevermind. I just want a cool looking hair. A lil pain won't hurt.

When she took out the curlers, TADAAA!!!!! IT WAS CURLY!!!!! @#$@*%^@#_^#@%@^_$@(@^%_)$%(. This ain't Brandon Boyd's hair! She kinda reassured me that we need to wash it first then it'll look better. Phew... Hope. Washed. TADAAAAA!!! It's still THE FREAKING SAME!!! @)#@%^@#^(@^. I gasped in my heart. As I look in the mirror, I was trying to do some damage control to my hair. Now, it looks like a lion head, not as big as an afro but I have a mane now.

Talking about bad hair days. I know many of you are dying to see my hair now. Some managed to grab a glimpse. My straight hair is now kinda curly instead of wavy. Now I really can't wait for my hair to grow really long so that we can alter it. For now, I just want to rearrange my hair cuz I know I can do magic with it.

I became a songwriter because I hate some songs out there. Ya know what, I should be a hairdresser because some people just don't get the picture. Pun intended.

ja
curly wurly barley darlie

Good Mourning



You cannot make a difference if you think you're just a pebble at the bottom of the sea. You've gotta tell yourself, you're a boat in the ocean, and you are gonna create gentle waves; waves that people enjoy to swim in. Catch the drift.

ja
i'm hearing Mono in Stereo

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Do come

Singapore AIDS Candlelight Memorial 2006

The month that commemorates the loss of lives to the most dreaded disease of our time, HIV/AIDS.

Here are some cold hard stats to helps us ponder the gravity of the situation.

Worldwide in 2005 -

People living with HIV 40.3 million (38 million adults and 2.3 million children)

4.9 million newly diagnosed

3.1 million died

15 million orphans (children below the age of 18)

700000 children became HIV positive

In Asia -

1.1 million were newly diagnosed

8.3 million living with the disease

520000 died in 2005

Overall -

50% of the newly infected were below 25 years old, most will die before reaching 35.

95% all HIV live in the developing world

In Singapore, the numbers continue to rise unabated.

According to the Ministry of Health in the first ten months of 2005,

198 Singaporeans were newly diagnosed

90% male, 10% female

98% through unprotected sex with an infected partner (of these 69% straight, 26% gay and 3% bisexual)

3 children were born HIV positive

2 got it through intravenous drugs abuse

57% are 30-49 years old

954 have died since the first case in 1985

Do join me to the 2006 Singapore AIDS Candlelight memorial which will be held on 21 May 2006 7.30pm at Campus Green Singapore Management University (Bras Basah Road). This serves as a reminder to you and to me. Come to understand what it is all about.

ja
having casual sex or taking drugs may be good to some but staying alive and away from bad karma is what i would advise for all of us

Beware

I dunno bout you guys but I was just watching CSI New York and it suddenly struck me. The greatest criminals ever lived and never fail to baffle us with their wits and creativity, apart from their sick minds, are not the robbers, the rapists or the serial murderers. They are actually the scriptwriters. Shockingly enough, I think they are closet psychopaths. Come on! Who watched Ocean's Eleven, how bout the Inside Man? Great huh. Great storyline but nevertheless, as fiction as the story may go, it is still deliverable. It's just a matter of balls and guts. The next time you watch CSI or any movies, take note of who wrote the script. Just an interesting observation. I could be wrong.

ja
I'm not here to find out who the heroes are. I'm just here to find out who are the cowards.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Hypocrites



Do you have that sincerity in you?

ja
i'm not an open stage

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

It's aint easy



You think it's easy being a man? We go through too much stress trying to figure out what the Estrogen-filled humans thinks or wants us to do. When we get rejected, man, it's truly an EGO crushing roller coaster ride. Nevertheless, we try our very best because for most of us, trying to strike a conversation with a girl and trying to ask her out is truly a once in a blue moon kinda thing. Nerve wrecking to say the very least. Just to inform the ladies out there, my fellow testosterone-filled brothers aren't having an easy time. Give us some hope.

ja
on behalf of my fellow brudders

Monday, May 15, 2006

Cookies

Me know. Me have problem.

Me love cookies. Me tend to get out of control when me see cookies. Me know it not natural to react so strongly to cookies, but me have weakness. Me know me do wrong. Me know it isn't normal. Me see disapproving looks. Me see stares. Me hurt inside.

When me get back to apartment, after cookie binge, me can't stand looking in mirror—fur matted with chocolate-chip smears and infested with crumbs. Me try but me never able to wash all of them out. Me don't think me is monster. Me just furry blue person who love cookies too much. Me no ask for it. Me just born that way.

Me was thinking and me just don't get it. Why is me a monster? No one else called monster on Sesame Street. Well, no one who isn't really monster. Two-Headed Monster have two heads, so he real monster. Herry Monster strong and look angry, so he probably real monster, too. But is me really monster?

Me thinks me have serious problem. Me thinks me addicted. But since when it acceptable to call addict monster? It affliction. It disease. It burden. But does it make me monster?

How can they be so callous? Me know there something wrong with me, but who in Sesame Street doesn't suffer from mental disease or psychological disorder? They don't call the vampire with math fetish monster, and me pretty sure he undead and drinks blood. No one calls Grover monster, despite frequent delusional episodes and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. And the obnoxious red Grover—oh, what his name?—Elmo! Yes, Elmo live all day in imaginary world and no one call him monster. No, they think he cute. And Big Bird! Don't get me started on Big Bird! He unnaturally gigantic talking canary! How is that not monster? Snuffleupagus not supposed to exist—woolly mammoths extinct. His very existence monstrous. Me least like monster. Me maybe have unhealthy obsession, but me no monster.

No. Me wrong. Me too hard on self. Me no have unhealthy obsession. Me love cookies, but it no hurt anyone. Me just enthusiast. Everyone has something they like most, something they get excited about. Why not me? Me perfectly normal. Me like cookies. So what? Cookies delicious. Cookies do not make one monster. Everyone loves cookies.

Me no monster. Me OK guy. Me OK guy who eat cookies.

Who me kidding? Me know me never actually eat cookies. Me only crumble cookies in mouth, but me no swallow. Me can't swallow. Me no have no esophagus. Me no have no trachea. Me only have black fabric throat. Me not supposed to be able to even talk.

Me no eat cookies.

Me destroy cookies.

Me crush cookies.

Me mutilate cookies.

Me make it so no one get cookies.

Everyone right. Me really is cookie monster.

ja
baking with cookie monster

Brownie



I have a simple motto in life. If you don't know, just say you don't know. Honesty doesn't hurt. It saves lives actually. Some people try to cover up the fact that they don't know much about such stuff and act all knowledgable about it.

ja
chocolate OD

Adorable



Babies. If you wanna talk about superheroes, I think babies are real life superheroes. They have great superpowers that nobody has. Ever wondered how they can melt any human beings? I can't figure that out. Even the meanest guy in the world would be gentle to a baby.

Babies controlling the human mind... Scary... Luckily, they're unconscious of their superpowers. Can you imagine if they can make use of it? Goodness, they can get any girls they want. ANY GIRLS I tell ya. They can just go up to any uncle in the wet markets in Bangkok and get the lowest discounts on Vintage T-shirts. I wouldn't be surprised if they would get em for free.

I just can't imagine if they can start to think like an adult and begin to rule the world. Man... we'd have babies everywhere. Babies becoming presidents, babies becoming teachers and baby fire fighters. Baby cops and baby doctors. Baby zookeepers and baby drummers. Man... Scary...

ja
i just want my babies to be healthy

Saturday, May 13, 2006

One way ahead only

It's amazing when you have musicians sitting down at Newton coffeeshop after a hard night's work. We chatted, talked. About ambitions and fate and how many things were unplanned and you just can't escape your destiny if it's meant to be.

Right after Timbre, me Ngak and Timmy went down to Newton to chill. Reached there at about 2am. Tea after tea. Coffee after coffee, 2 groups were formed. One was the bassist and drummer side while me and Ngak belonged to the guitarist and songwriter side. What time did we leave? 7am. Yup. 7am. You can stop musicians from indulging in music stuff till the wee hours of the morning. It's a natural but unexplainable thing.

Before we left, we even managed to exchange a few ghost stories that left Khai shocked but hopefully not traumatized. Brandon and Ngak really did the damage, telling shocking fictional ghost stories that almost fooled me too. Nevertheless, Alan, Timmy's half German bassist, kept the table laughing with endless jokes and witty comments throughout the whole night. A night to remember. Gonna go and watch Timmy play again.

Scroll below and you'll see the mini MTV that I made for Royale. Nothing fancy but hey, it's our first step.

Till then, I've never been so focus in my life. No more distractions. Perhaps the flower girl whom I still dunno her name.

ja
3 songs down. 3 more to go.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

You can't hide

I really cannot understand how the world works. You plan for something to happen but fate just takes you away on another path. It's the same path but with different settings. Same road but different trees by the roadside and different people you meet along the way. I'm ever so focus now. With my belief on my right hand and my strength on my left, all I have is faith with hope that fate would lead us to where we should be.

ja
belief is the only thing that keeps your dream alive

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Happy Mirror

Spent the whole day running errands and chasing time. Woke up with a funny feelin but I told myself to switch my lazy mode off, at least for today. Went to the orchard today to get sunflowers, all the way from Woodlands to the area near MacRitchie! I have been planning to bake cookies since 2 months ago. So I popped by Cold Storage to buy the ingredients for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Then, went to the bakery to get a box and a bar of butter. Ok. Everything's ready. All I need is to mix em up and put em in the oven. Easy right? NO!

The oven had to die on me. Bitch. It managed to get heated but the whole house suddenly had a blackout because of the pre-heated oven. How to bake???? THINK THINK THINK. My sis told me to try the toaster. -faintz- My day isn't going well. I'd give anything a shot. So I did. I sacrificed 2 cookies. Looked fine from outside; golden brown. But the centre wasn't cooked. URGH!!!! Time to hit the emergency button. I called my favourite aunty and found out that she was home. She was the one who inspired me to bake ever since I was as young as 3. I remembered her self made bread. Damn nice. She told me her oven is still working. YES!!! -fist punch the air- there's still hope. I rushed to my aunt's place in Chua Chu Kang. Placed the bowl with the batch in Chinook's basket and sped away ASAP.

It was such great joy to use the proper baking utensils at my aunt's. Weighing scale, electric egg beater etc... Wooohooo!!! Ok, so I preheated her oven to about 200 degrees celcius. I placed the cookies in nice circular shapes on the baking tray. I placed it close so that I could fit everything in. I forgot one thing. They expand when they get heated. In the end, I got square and odd shaped cookies. Lol. -shakes head- While waiting, my aunt had a baking itch. She wanted to bake something too. So she took out one of her many baking books and flipped through. She wanted to try baking scones. Oklah. I shall try. It was very easy actually. I could still remember.

250 grams of self raising flour
80 grams of castor sugar
1 stick of butter
2 eggs

Yup! That's it. I'm very meticulous when I do things that I really love, mainly music and cooking. Must be perfect. If it said 250 grams, then it must be 250 grams. The area around me must be constantly clean. I think I'm better at cleaning the kitchen than cleaning my own room.

The scones turned out cute! It became bigger than I thought. Then, rushed home to get ready. Got the mirror and photos ready. Celebrating her 21st was way better than celebrating mine. Haha. At least we sat by the pavement on a mat, eating cookies and chatted the night away. Singing away to "Across the Universe" was truly the highlight. Finally got her singing! Yay!!! "Nothing's gonna change my world. Nothing's gonna change my world" Lol.

Well, I've done what I needed to do 2 months back. So I'm happy. As long as she remembers her 21st well, then it's good. I don't want her to be like me. I don't even remember what happened.

ja
happy mirror

Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Be Careful

A voice told me this while I was in the shower

"You have to remain pure"

It said to me 3 times.

ja
If I were a tear in your eye, I would run down your cheeks and die on your lips. If you were a tear in my eye, I would never cry in fear of losing you.

Monday, May 8, 2006

It's heating up



For the Royale supporters, here's our demos. Do spread the website around because we would like to be heard and even perform outside of Singapore. Please. Help our cause. We wanna be rockstas. We'll owe any of our success to you guys.

http://www.purevolume.com/royale_band

ja
the show is on

So Sick



For my home boy Neyo. We feel the same thing man.


Gotta change my answering machine
Now that im alone
Cuz right now it says that we
Cant come to the phone
And I know it makes no sence
Cuz you walked out the door
But its the only way i hear your voice anymore
(its ridiculous)
Its been months
And for some reason i just
(cant get over us)
And im stronger then this
(enough is enough)
No more walkin round
With my head down
Im so over being blue
Cryin over you

And im so sick of love songs
So tired of tears
So done with wishing you were still here
Said im so sick of love songs so sad and slow
So why cant i turn off the radio?

Gotta fix that calender i have
Thats marked July 15th
Because since theres no more you
Theres no more anniversary
Im so fed up with my thoughts of you
And your memory
And how every song reminds me
Of what used to be

Thats the reason im so sick of love songs
So tired of tears
So done with wishing you were still here
Said im so sick of love songs so sad and slow
So why cant i turn off the radio?

(Leave me alone)
Leave me alone
(Stupid love songs)
Dont make me think about her smile
Or having my first child
Let it go
Turning off the radio

Cuz im so sick of love songs
So tired of tears
So done with wishing she was still here
Said im so sick of love songs so sad and slow
So why cant i turn off the radio?
(why cant i turn off the radio?)

Said im so sick of love songs
So tired of tears
So done with wishing she was still here
Said im so sick of love songs so sad and slow
So why cant i turn off the radio?
(why cant i turn off the radio?)

And im so sick of love songs
So tired of tears
So done with wishin you were still here
Said im so sick of love songs so sad and slow
Why cant i turn off the radio?
(why cant i turn off the radio?)
Why cant i turn off the radio?

Does anybody have the song? Can send to my gmail please? Would really appreciate it.

ja
home made

Friday, May 5, 2006

Something was wrong

Fought with Chinook last night. She made a lot of noise. I just had to tolerate and try to apeasse her tomorrow.

ja
i was left hanging with a kiss and a chin

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Skin

i just love textures. Wool can make me go gaga. Girls who wear woolen stuff makes me notice them, first because of the fabric, then them. Woolen sweater, woolen shirt, woolen mufflers, woolen hand bag. Wool. They make the wool go round.

ja
i am sheepishly shy

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Animal Farm

A prose that rose for the undeserving rose

I've been tryin my best to break somebody's wall
And sometimes i feel
it's just too thick at times
Of what you said
Fear
I think ultimately
How much you want to let the other break down that wall
is up to you
But walls are good
It protects you
Walls are important
It is crucial
I can imagine your wall
It has yellow Post It sticky notes everywhere
Haha
With people leaving messages
and you'll go and read them
But your walls are still intact
Undisturbed
Perhaps behind that walls
Lies a girl
Who wants to escape
and see the light
Have a breath of fresh air for once

Because everybody is fearful
But everybody wants to love

ja
becoming more taciturn lately

Behind the Walls

For those reading this entry, do take a look at the picture below before continuing.

My prose rose for the undeserving rose

i've been tryin my best to break somebody's wall
and sometimes i feel
its just too thick at times
of what you said
fear
i think ultimately
how much you want to let the other break down that wall
is up to you
but walls are good
it protects you
walls are important
it is crucial
i can imagine your wall
it has yellow Post It sticky notes everywhere
haha
with people leaving messages
and you'll go and read em
but your walls are still intact
undisturbed
perhaps behind that walls
lies a girl
who wants to escape
and see the light
to have a breath of fresh air for once

ja
becoming more taciturn

Monday, May 1, 2006

It's not easy to be me



Not many have managed to break my wall. There are still many layers left standing for those who attempted.

ja
break down this Berlin wall and free me

Sleeping Awake

My phone is sometimes bombarded by wrong calls and messages. I constantly get calls by ladies who looks for Raymond Chia. Who in the hell is Raymond Chia???? It's not once, twice, BUT MANY. More than 10. I really wonder what his profession is. Hmmm, my guess would be, a banker, a financial advisor or a gigolo. Respect to Raymond Chia.

For SMSes, I have people, whom I don't know, telling me to come down to Cineleisure for free tickets to watch Pink Panther, there was one who wished me Happy Chinese New year and Merry Christmas and Easter. Must be for Raymond. The one classic SMS that I can't forget was about this guy, NS army fella. He sent wrongly to me. It said, "Dear, I'll be late to meet you later on. My buddy just committed suicide in camp" Hmm... Somehow, I just don't believe this guy. Lol. Maybe it's just me. I dunno.

I've had my share of SMS to the wrong person. Wanted to SMS Marlene to wish her good luck for her last exams but I sent it to my Mom instead. Lol. My mom came home asking me, "Who's Marlene huh". I wanted to laugh. I was half asleep when I read my Mom's message and accidentally replied it back to her, thinking I was sending it her. Wth... Lesson learnt, don't read or send SMS when you're half awake/ asleep because you'd never know whether you're asleep or still in LALAland.

I wanna rest my eyes now. Swollen on the right. Doesn't look too good.

ja
education is not for everyone