Starting from number 3...
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Number 3: TNT and all my colleagues.
The Full Timers
The Part Timers
And everyone one else who had been there and are still there.
Having worked almost a full year (I'm still 2 weeks short of working there for a year), I've learned a lot from it. The simple fact that having needing to go there on almost every weekdays has forced me to grow up a lot and seriously understanding a lot of things within such as work politics, how to "book" leave and the mentality of a working adult.
Last year during my holidays, I was looking for a job which could suit my school's timing. I realized that I needed to work, firstly to alleviate my father's financial expenditures on me, secondly so I can have more $ to spend on myself. I have a strangely relatively high expenditure so just the normal allowance that my father gives will not be enough. Just the transport fees can kill off half of my allowance, not to mention other stuff such as HP bills and food.
Also, I thought that having a job would increase my social and work experience that I need. Since I'm thinking of entrepreneurship in the future, I would have to know how it functions in a big multi-national company and what the lower-levels staff will experience. Similarly I would need to know how to play the "politics" game, so getting a job is a must for my future.
Thirdly, I'm sick of serving in a F&B industry during my 3 months in Korean BBQ Chicken; the pay is low and the workload frightening. I rather be a manager in it, so screw waiter jobs, I'm going for office types.
My lectures normally starts from either morning or noon timing, so essentially, I need a night job. Normally that will be jobs which involved drinking and serving, therefore just to find this job, I took a whole month to find it... or at least Recruit Express took a month to find it for me. TNT's data entry department fitted my conditions for a job. You don't need to wait on people, you don't really need to interact much with people, you just sit and type. It won't be boring, it will be quite intense due to the increasing amount of work load. Just what I like ;) Sure the pay wasn't too high, but it was enough to get by and please I won't be able to find another job with the same environment and timing.
In the end, I became registered as an official employee of TNT and have been working there since.
Working there had me learning on human relations indirectly, because we will be co-operating with other branches and departments, blame games will fly around. Politics between colleagues will happen and you can somehow see a strange trend of people coming and quitting in a matter of days. It gets quite enlightening as I see various type of people, local, foreign, multi-racial, lazy, diligent, spiritual, ghost!!! etc etc. Now that I'm a "lao jiao", you would have think I saw it all, but at times things still amuse me.
You also see things such as morale, form, situations, circumstances, mood in people. Example like how a instruction from the high-up want to cut-cost can easily make the whole office look like a grave. It's quite refreshing and a good learning experience for me if I want to enter managerial positions in the future.
Also, negatively, entering TNT has increased my smoking volume by leaps and bounds. >.<
The main colleagues that have helped me throughout this year includes...
Ah Sam, my smoking partner as well as a very good friend.
Feng Jie, the ever so hardworking supervisor of ours, like a big sister of mine.
Ah Man, the joker in the full timers section. Articulate in his work, but at times very careless. >.<
Kiki, the "beauty" of our company. She's the only one among us to receive flowers continuously from guys. And she loves to sing "Baby" from Justin Bieber.
Sarlas, one of the more funny worker among us. Her weak point is her stomach, she offends you, just poke her.
Ah Yong, a sports enthusiast and very loud typer, like to rush things too but efficient in his work.
Azli, my buddy in TNT and "go-home" kaki. Life in TNT would be so boring without him. He has many nicknames, but for now it's KOS, King of Shit.
Jen Jen, the very loud-mouth mother of ours. Efficient in her work and loves to scold her daughter on the phone.
Xiao Xuan. Another mother of ours, apparently she's working, purely because she's bored! The only constant driver among us.
Susie, the true lao jiao of our department. She has been in it for 7 years. 7 FREAKING YEARS AND ONGOING TO 8TH! OMG...
Of course there's still the boss, Hasnah, but I can't find any pics of her at all I swear.
They have seen almost every face of mine in this 1 year and probably will continue to see them until either I can't work there anymore or when I quit this year end as I enter the last sem of my university.
They will be a memory of mine and thus will stay with me for life.
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Number 2: Patricia Tay
It's not a mystery now to most people who know me very well that I like her. But it's kinda weird to say how I like her, in a sense even though I knew her since quite some time ago like 2 years ago, I didn't react or act until recently when I got to know she broke up.
I'm quite a wuss though. Takahina never tries to get close with any girls whom he knows has a boyfriend, only exception are people who I have somehow declared to myself as sisters, such as Stella, Priscilla, Serene and Feng Jie. These people I dare to play with them, ka chiao them, of course only to a certain extent. But other than that, most other girls I try not to get too close to them unless we need to like job purposes whatsoever, such as Kasumi.
For Patricia, I overwent the limit. I taught her drums, brought her and her boyfriend to Genting, asked her out to Arcade etc. Of course all of those took her boyfriend at that time into consideration, but still it wasn't without any intent, just that I didn't tell anyone, not even myself.
I started falling for her when she kept persevering for her drums, somehow this girl proved to be something special eventually and I always look forward to the time when I'll be teaching her. But I didn't want to admit this emotions because I'm not supposed to under my own "rule". So I just ignored it.
Therefore once I got news of her breakup from Priscilla, I started to react. Purposefully asking Patricia out, not trying to go overboard, agreeing with stuff with her, trying to interact more with her; that was my way of doing it in hopes of not overdoing it. I was worried with "pulling the fishing rod too much" that it'll break and throw her away.
Marina Bay Sands has been my greatest "investment" in any courtships I've put in, I didn't mind, nor regret it, but I was pretty sure if it was anyone else at that point of time, I won't have done it. And now I see tons of people and couples seemingly doing a similar kinda thing... So somehow I think it's my "influence" that made many people follow suit I guess. Regardless, MBS has been the happiest part of my life and also probably one of the most memorable ever this year. It brought a whole sense of weird feelings to me which I know won't ever come to me again.
She made me very emotional the last quarter of the year and easily everyone could knew something was wrong with me, even Patricia I guess because I was overzealous with her. At this point of time, she's in Taiwan and probably on her way back. Every day and night she would be on my mind. Although the anxiety and worry isn't that big now, it still affects me regularly. "Missing someone", this phrase really caught on to me as I struggled to push and pull her away, if possible I'm willing to sacrifice quite a lot of myself to her, of course logically.
She's number 2 in this countdown, because she's the new "love" of mine ever since Priscilla. Shuqin was more of a liking, Xiao Tong is more of just a infatuation, Patricia's was more undeniably a one sided affair from me. But it felt very surreal as I can only really understand it myself when I got to know it she broke up.
She's not number 1 in this year's countdown, because even though she's my love, I can't say she has truly influenced me that terribly. I felt pain and sorts of emotions with her, but she hasn't changed any of my thinking or lifestyle, Takahina is still Takahina, with or without her. Just through this, I know I have matured a bit more than I expected.
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Number 1: Resonance and Square Table feat Ume
Resonance
Square Table feat Ume
First, I'll intro the band members for Resonance:
XenoJin, rhythm guitarist
Chris, bassist
Taka, drummer
Robbin, lead guitarist
Lina, vocals
The band members for Square Table feat Ume
TZ, bassist
Han Liang, keyboardist
Taka, drums
Robin, lead guitar
Ume, featured vocalist.
Both Resonance and Square Table feat Ume just finished a gig on the 12th December 2010 at End of Year Cosplay/Anime festival at Republic Poly. It's the "biggest" gig for Takahina so far with more than a 100 crowd watching, the biggest stage I've ever stared in, had the most "fan support" this time. Even though Takahina has had quite a few gigs before in places like Stfest, this one was really authentically a "concert" with seats and dressing rooms available.
History of Resonance:
It began quite long ago when I played with Chris in another band, we click quite well and had similar aspirations for being a musician. The band soon didn't work out but luckily we kept in contact. Soon enough another person named Vincent sought me out in Soft. Coincidentally Chris was playing in it as well and thus we came together again in the same band. It's around this time that I got to know Lina. The Vincent band once again didn't work out.
Eventually, Chris's band, Resonance's drummer quit/changed/couldn't play, for some reasons which I forgot. As they already registered in for a gig at Kampong Glam CC organized by Alliance Music Group, Chris needed a drummer quite urgently and got to me. Seeing their urgency, I went to help them out. We played Don't Say Lazy, Tookumade, Glamorous Sky, Alchemy in this gig.
Lina ran away too fast after the gig it was annoying.
Michael was the lead guitarist at the time. Soon enough after the gig he quit the band to commit on other stuff. Me, as a substitute drummer, also went away to concentrate on other stuff as my "contract" was only up till the gig.
Resonance was up and about looking for drummers to play along and guitarist as well, but they can't really get anyone. EOY was approaching soon and Lina apparently wanted to play in it really bad, hence I was approached again by Chris to help out. Coincidentally Robbin who was in another band with me (Square Table feat Ume) was approached as well, therefore both of us got into Resonance. Eventually after weeks of training and auditioning, Resonance got through the audition with God Knows, and we'll enter the gig. In the end after much practice and selection, we chose Shunkan Sentimental, God Knows and Shine Days as our performing songs.
Actual Performance during EOY.
Resonance is a "growing" band as I would like to call it. They started off with little experience as they have showed me during the AMG times, but they have this undying attitude in that they are willing to go on and on and on and on with any songs despite much negativity. Rather than just give up on a song, Resonance tries other ways to work the song out such as maybe playing in another way, or changing the progression etc. That is what impressed me in this band. Lina can keep on practicing like mad and try her best to remember every words and lyrics as much as possible, it's damn rare to see a vox try this hard. Therefore in the end, we managed to enter EOY, managed to become the "sound check" band, managed to become quite a lot of things that I hadn't thought was possible when I initially entered this band.
I have joined a lot of "growing" bands, but this is the only one that I have actually seen improvement. As long as this attitude is there, and with a good "mentor" or someone with experience, they can go far.
History of Square Table feat Ume
I don't know how the band began or how it had this concept. All I know is that the drummer before me was kinda like a professional, so for me to enter this band and last in it till now is kinda amazing.
It began for me when Robbin first contacted me through Soft as well. When he first got to me, truth be told I was a little skeptical because jammings kept getting postponed, the vox can't show up, the guitarist can't show up etc etc. It was a little frustrating at first as well when I kept getting wind that they were playing with their previous drummer. But luckily Robbin was pretty patient and that I can click with him real well in msn and real life. I found them to be a pretty weird bunch when I just started with them. I had never played with anime fans and enthusiast, so it took me a bit of time to merge in. Gradually, I understood their thinking and friendliness, taking it all in I came to like this band a lot. Partly maybe cause they brought back the Otaku-ness I had in me when I was young, partly cause they made jamming fun again, partly cause I love the sound of Han Liang's keyboards. ;D
Robbin is a very good band leader during jamming, he controls the band flow, sequence and protects the members well such as letting Ume rest frequently to protect her voice while he full-force slaughters the rest of us in practicing instrumentals. This method, I think, is an excellent method and I can definitely use it in the future if I'm in a band. Han Liang and Tingzhi are good musicians and with time they definitely can improve more.
In other ways, knowing Robbin and co kinda opened my network to a whole new circle of people that have similar interest, be it in Anime or music. Networking man, networking... ;)
Square Table was pretty straight forward actually, they have only 1 gig in mind, and that is EOY. So we had almost half a year to prepare for it, thus imagine playing the same few songs continuously for that long, if we don't sound good we would have seriously failed. The songs we chose were Anata ga Ita Mori, Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari and Hey Erin. All are anime songs so seriously I don't know any of it at all except for Anata ga ita mori, because I had watched a bit of Fate/Stay Night before.
Energetic Performance during EOY
I really wanna say this, performing with Square Table feat Ume is the first time I had felt really excited, mainly because of Ume. Ume is kinda a small celebrity figure in the local cosplay/anime scene and had a small fan group. For the first time in my life, I had fans jumping around and dancing around as we are performing. Truthfully, Ume hadn't sound her best during the gig, but she's the most energetic one I had seen and performed with ever, and therefore I had thoroughly enjoyed myself while performing. That's why you see me smiling and grinning all this while.
I had a small private intent with me, and that is to have Square Table continuously perform in various gigs such as Stfest and not just in anime gigs, all the while to change/switch vocalist that suits the theme of the gigs but retain the same few musicians. That however, is not for me to decide and it's just my little evil intention. :x
If there was only 1 thing I wanna point out, it's the in-confidence of the group members, have more confidence in yourselves and you would be able to bring out the best of it.
These 2 bands, have got over me this year for a few purposes. I don't know how long either bands would last, but then they got back a feeling that I had lost from don't know when...
I began to enjoy my passion once again. I had played in bands, but I didn't enjoyed them. Not until these 2 bands came into the picture.
Last year I concentrated on fighting reality and the route to earn $, this year they nudged me into knowing how to enjoy fighting reality. For a moment, I lost my momentum in drumming and I could tell I was going downhill. But now, with new found interest I began retraining more than I had did last year added up together. Whether I had improved or not I don't know, but I know that now this "musician" feeling is inside me and I shouldn't lose it, no matter how hard I'm striving for my future whatsoever. That's also partly a reason why I treat EOY so importantly, because it's an official "event" that can get me back on track to what I wanted in life really, to perform in front of hundreds and thousands of people in a band and having fun together in the performance. This time the crowd may be just hundred plus and it's a mixed event gig, but eventually I'll strive to the standard of having a open concert with my own band performing to thousands of people that came to see us.
Now that EOY is over, the next thing coming up for us would be the post-gig drink/dinner. Where or when is not yet planned. At the same time, it's a pivotal point to see how both bands would react now after this is over. Wherever the band would go is not yet planned as well, the destination reached. Do I end my "contract" with Resonance or sign on for a longer period? Do I form up my own band now playing songs that I want to play? Will Square Table continue to play strictly Ani-song or enter other genre? What will we aim for now, where do we go on from now to reach that goal that I want? Seriously I do not know.
But for now, it's on a short hiatus period as we enjoy a short holiday from the great performance we gave. Until the next time we meet up and discuss, it's another story for another day.
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The rankings for 2010:
1. Resonance/Square Table feat Ume
2. Patricia Tay
3. TNT
4. Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook
5. Ah Ning
The number 1 in past years:
2007: Robert Kiyosaki
2008: Priscilla Phua
2009: Rurouni
2010: Resonance/Square Table feat Ume
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