Whew, just finished the first cut of the soundtrack for that horror short film.

Disturbing, horror, scary music is fun!

Mhahahaa.

I've assimilated yet another genre.... excellent...



CY came over to record some of his songs on the clarinova, and we played ps2 for a while.

I'm beginning to see a pattern when I ask if they wanted to play marvel vs capcom 2.

First: Suprised, happy, cocky behaviour.
Insert game and proceed to rape player 2.
Then: Silence, "what the hell?" or "Oh my god!" expressions.

Sometimes I miss the good ol days with the shoryuken bunch.

Nate taunting me like hell everytime I lose, because it was supposedly a rare thing.

Stupid trash talking.

Suprising people with tactics or being suprised by other geniouses.


But alas, all good things must come to an end. I've moved on to other things, I suppose. A game which not only nerds with fast fingers can play. You need the stamina, willpower, and strength to execute your game - canoeing.

But new I am to this game, and the veterans are many. But that whats make it so fun.

Bought Onimusha 1 and 2 yesterday to ready myself for the english port of onimusha 3.

Finished Onimusha 1 in one day ahahha..

I better relak on Onimsha 2. What an awesome series.

My stupid webhost and nameservers finally sync. Now Pathos won't run out of bandwidth cuz I have a whopping 40gigs to blow. Hell yeah! http://www.reubenkee.com is live.

Enjoying this short break so far. But still.... waking up at 7-8am. *sigh* I just can't wake up late for some reason... still so much to do.

Went to row today. Finally, now I can go and row anytime I want! Anyday I want! The perks of training for nationals hehe. Kallang was crowded today again. Getting better in Cougar, but still am slower than the hwachong t1s... which is terrible because ks are supposed to go faster. Blargh, need to get my stroke back quick now that balance is much better. Its fun to row along sometimes, you can go and pace with whoever you like, no coach to give pressure. You can overhear the RJC canoeists complaining about the kaopei k2 hwacheong front rower, you can overhear the hwacheong t1s kao peing at their t2s...

Talked to FL in the school weights room on monday. Still considering downgrading. Especially if I get happen to don the national colors. OCS or the combat units I might get posted to will most probably not grant me enough free time to train. He talked about prestige in OCS. Well from where I see it, OCS has got thousands of entries every year, but the national squad only has... well less. So there, pride maintained, yet free time for all other stuff. What could be better? Then again this is just speculation. I need to actually get into BMT and see how fun that is, and how fun training with the national rowers is first.

But, one step at a time.

In memory of the Third Hokage.
http://mi.mgbr.net/In%20memory%20of%20the%20Third%20Hokage.mp3

I loved that old geezer, recorded something in tribute to him.

I dread weekends a little cuz I have to wake up at 7am on both days to head down to kallang for training, but at the same time, rowing's pretty fun.

Going much faster in Jehuty now, happily floated around kallang basin before I did pacing with sensei.... damnit he's fast. Then I my legs ket cramping cuz Jehuty's too small for me. First you feel a little numb, then it creeps up your leg, then your whole leg starts buzzing.... then it feels like electric current is being passed through your leg, then like 1000 people are squeezing it! But had to keep rowing... Till that last stage and I cried out to raft up with Sebas and Lance.

Learnt a new balancing trick, then headed back. Tried to push for speed, and on the way back, I heard the most divine noise.

Once I pushed as past a certain speed, Jehuty would start to whistle. Slightly, at first, but as I got even faster the whistling became more pronounced. It was magical.

Headed to Kallang market then home to wash up, then ran over to church cuz dragonboat trainings are cancelled for the study/exam weeks.

Funny how things never change.... or how things changed last time then changed back to their original size... like some pregnant women XD.

Went to faiths place to play basketball and.... Eat pizza! Aahahahah I broke the no junk food rule again! Crap >_<
Basketball was pretty fun. Felt like total crap because was super rusty at the start, but managed to win 2 out of 2 games, hell yeah. It was almost a travesty because Jimmy happily pumped his ball way too much, making it... extremelyX2 bouncy, hence some layup attempts and back board shots were foiled.

Had a headache... before basketball too... damn annoying. But I figured if I could row with a killer cramped leg, I can damn well ignore this stupid headache.

Fell asleep on the bus on the way back. Almost missed the stop. Went home, went to bed just to wake up to -

Rowing on sunday morning!

Sensei fixed up Cougar! So I got to use a more roomy boat. Hoorah! And damn that boat is light. Like Adnes said "There's only 2 of such boats in Singapore." Hehehe. I didn't capsize at all in Cougar, and we went damn fast.





Sensei told me about their evil schemes for me... about after the August race. Apparantly the singapore canoe federation secretary was asking about me... I dunno if I should join the national squad. Looking at the track record for the sea games... we're so behind the other countries.

Then there's always that hint of egoism I think all of us have.... to be the first to break that?

No more projects.

Can finally lie on my comfy comfy bed, pillow under my chest, controller in my hands, air con blasting, and play ps2. Wheeee......

But there's like nothing nice to play nowadays? I'm damn unlucky picking games or something... or maybe the ps2 market is too flooded with average games.



Thinking about projects... that last one was terrible. Here I am stuck with one team mate who can tell me "Ok, by monday I hand you the main character sprites."

Then monday night comes, and no word.

Then I send him a message on icq, no reponse.

I call him, he doesn't pick up.

I sms him.

I repeat this cycle several times then he finally msgs me saying "Why you so noisy lol?"

Wtf? Then I ask him how the sprites are


Loooooooong pause.

Finally "I haven't finished yet, tomorrow will have it done."

Then tomorrow comes, same thing happens.

This goes on until the day before the PRESENTATION.

WTF?

And this other team mate, takes his fypj as an excuse to not work on it at all. The NIGHT before the PRESENTATION he then comes and helps out with integration.

*smacks forehead*

Why?? Why?????


WHY WHY WHY WHY.

Ah heck.

I usually hope that people will motivate themselves, because thats the best motivation, but recently I've found someone people aren't in dmd to design games.

They're here to slack.

And to play games. Because DMD is the "cool" course.

Oh yeah, we're in games design, we design games, we play games, cool huh?

Why do things go wrong if I trust in them to do their part?

Then when I start to make noise it falls on deaf ears.


Forget it, just concentrate on the awesome projects now... yesss...

The MUGEN project shall proceed as planned.

Music for "Heavenly Sage: Immortals" game project.

Music for "Chakra" The laselle ninjaaaaa! trailer.

Music for "The 25th Hour" school's short film about a murderer.


Fun fun fun.

And training!

And PS2 if I can find a nice game!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.
Going to ride in Jehuty tomorrow, please don't throw me into the water....

Corrupted floppy disk made me lose a couple of good songs before I could back them up on the maindrive. This morning I just realized "Spirit of the blade" got lost along with the data when NVN smsd me about the Laselle ninja trailer project.

This let me to panic and desperately try to hit the piano and recall the tune. Its funny how sometimes you recall patterns, or try to make up patterns, but no matter how much you try, they just don't have any "spirit" or "soul" in the piece. Logically, the properties are there, but they simply do not possess any soul whatsoever.

Anyway, I found it again. Whew. Right before I was leaving the house it started playing in the head again.

This is one of those rare gems... not found even by experimenting on the piano. While I was reading the script it seems my sub-conscious pieced the melody, bass, harmonies, strings, brasses and suddenly presented to me this beautiful completed overture of adventure and love to me. It's like he's... TRYING TO OUT DO ME?!?!


In other news, this particular person annoyed me again in the afternoon. Sheez, its your own project, yet you procrastinate so much and expect people to conform and sacrifice for you when you yourself have not put in the effort to plan your time properly?

I don't care. If you can't finish in time and come to me, I'll have to tell you sorry I've got better things to do. Sometimes some people need to learn the hard way I guess.

I am 44% evil.




I could go either way. I have sinned quite a bit but I still have a bit of room for error. My life is a tug of war between good and evil.


Are you evil? find out at Hilowitz.com



Bwahahaha.

Now its not fair to judge someone from his past.

You'll never know evil until you have experienced it, I guess. Its from mistakes, that one learns, others, or yourself.

"This fantastically beautiful, high-quality piano medley arrangement from Shenmue comes courtesy of first-time contributor Reuben Kee (check out the cool Flash website with the playable piano key navigation metaphor - rather slick) - though it may be his first submission, it's a very professional (compositionally and production-wise) effort and impressed the panel with versatility and depth. Vigilante concisely opined:

"One of the best piano remixes i've heard. Post it."

If you need more than Jesse's economical sentences to persuade you: this is great work, with perfect touches like the full stop at 4'10" and then more delicate pickup, numerous flowing transitions, and in general a strong left-hand presence that keeps a solid bass and midrange foundation going a large portion of the time. Reuben can clearly play AND arrange, and for solo piano arrangements, both skills are in the end necessary, and are exhibited here quite admirably. This is an excellent piece that all fans of solo piano and Shenmue should look into and listen to repeatedly - it's very comprehensive, and for a medley, has a truly amazing sense of coherence and continuity.



- djpretzel"


Whee my first remix got approved by the judges and posted up on overclocked remix!
*Dances*
Oh dear... I hope Pathos doesn't die due to bandwidth exceed again >_<

Progress on Jehuty has been good so far.

He's so different from Redwind, but each day our harmony reaches new heights.

Today Sensei taught me a new trick.

I was rowing up and down the beach when he called for me to come over and said "Lets play a game".

At first I thought "Wooo! What kind of game?!"

Then he said "Balance in your K without the paddle."

And then I thought "What the heck crazy guy wants me to balance in this thing when I'm so unstable and can't even row 50 metres without slapping the water to regain balance."

And so it was that I spent the next few minutes capping over and over, then he made a comment which just thoroughly amused me. "The boat is stable, its you who are trying to be stable. And so far, the boat is doing a better job than you." Wth?

So I wanted to show him. I remembered what he said before about being one with the boat, because you cannot force the boat to do what you want. You have to think through it.

Then this week I'm learning to be one with the water, because if you force your boat through the water, it will create more resistance and make you unstable.

This is beginning to sound very zen or something... its difficult to put into words.

Well anyway I got back into Jehuty, wiggled abit, then let go of the ground. And I floated, and balanced, and paddled, and kept upright without the paddle for 5 minutes! Could even get my hands out of the water and balance. Damn fun.

Then later I managed to actually stand up in the K1! Omigod, for 1 second at least, before jumping out in fear/joy/excitement.

Skipping dragonboat today to work on the GS engine.

I think I'm getting fat with all this training skipping crap! Argh!!! Although managed to do 20 pullups during warmups, I gotta try to push to 25 at least, before I can beat hong's minimum of 30. Funny how there was a time that I couldn't think of anything else besides training, when he was still around. Now it seems I'm goal-less in the team, but have found new targets to beat in canoeing.

Its sad in a way, nevertheless the project will be over soon, then I can get back to train with them.

Last night I had a dream.

I can't remember the last time I managed to remember a dream. But this one... was scary.

I somehow managed to subconsciously recall bits and pieces as it woke me up at some point, but I can't remember everything.

It was dark. We had just moved into some new place.

The lights, they weren't on. There was something evil inside this house.

It didn't have physical form. But it could interact with our dimension and cause harm.

Lots of harm.

We tried some form of religious exorcism.

Things went bad.

Then, I awoke.



So here we go with the dream translation.

Logical point of view-

The new surroundings indicate change. Something I'm anticipating. Something so big as a house that surrounds me completely, a new lifestyle perhaps?

The evil represents some form of fear I have of this new change. My futile attempts to nullify it, but I can't because its part of the new change.

But in the end, a fear is just a fear and nothing else.

Weird point of view-

Its a warning of some sort. Some thing huge and bad is going to happen. Something that will cause harm to either me or those I love.

I hope that this is not to be.

Response to the DC trailer has been overwhelming.

For me this project makes my dreams for the past 8 years come true. Back in secondary school I started this silly comic called cyberbots. It sucked, but the designs went on throughout the years and here he is in full video game glory. Packed with my favourite engine and genre, MUGEN.

http://mi.mgbr.net/dcdemo.avi
Copy and paste.

Get the divx 5 codec from www.divx.com if you can't see it.

I must look like a huge nerd to everyone on the forums right now.


Met up with Norvin and Ken yesterday from NAFA, I've agreed to do the soundtrack for their short trailer which depicts lots of awesome ninja action. Can't wait to see how this turns out. Its very Naruto-y. Which is good :D


The projects are slowly clearing away, leaving me more time to do what I wanna do. Music, games, and training. Hell yeah.

Rowing with some seagames rowers on sunday. I guess I'll see how good national standard is. I just won't be able to take it if they are more powerful than Jason.

So once again I find myself facing a dilemna.

Planning for the future can be such a pain in the ass sometimes.

Now as its time to leave school, and time to head to Tekong, I wonder I should set out to do?

In retrospect, had I not joined dragonboat 3 years ago, I would probably still be a Pes B underweight, low haemogoblined, napfa-failing wuss. But now I'm a Pes A, have normal blood thank god, and can secure a gold for napfa, and I wonder where this can take me?

Should I chiong in NS, pursue the red beret and call myself a commando, or head to OCS? More retarded training for some pride? Is it worth it at all? That would mean I would have alot less time to work on my music and games, less time for dragonboat if I even get in the team in there and my OC doesn't let me off.

Or should I downgrade? It would be too easy. But then I'd be able to book out more often, more time for everything, more time for training, for canoeing, and even more time for the SAFSA dragonboat team. But that would mean that I could've done that in the first place had I not joined the team in year one.

Overheard a couple of SOF and commando dragonboaters earlier in morning at kallang. They were talking about all the propaganda that mindef is placing all over singapore to get people to sign on.
"Challenge yourself, they say."
"I think that if you can challenge yourself in NS you can challenge yourself in more worthwhile things out in life."
"Sure they will send you for upgrading, or move you up the ranks if you sign on, but if you go outside and work you can be better qualified for the future."

But unlike the secondary four crossroads, there are several more perspective at this juncture.

A: Prestige versus interest
1. Should I do the more prestigious thing?
2. Should I pursue my interest?

B: Pride and honor
1. Should I pursue pride?
2. Should I be a wuss and take the easy way out?

C: Challenge
1. Should I challenge myself physically and mentally?
2. Should I challenge myself creatively?

Uncertainties:
If I do chiong, what if my knee and ankle acts up during training? And I'll have less time for music, may miss out on important opportunities.

At the last juncture I chose to pursue my interest. Not sure if I should repeat that choice now.

The musical was a success.

I'm just so proud of stage arts, for their awesome acting, especially Devi. I loved Devi's character like hell, and I'm so proud of the pianists, to have composed and pulled off all the pieces so well.

It seems everyone had different favourite songs, some loved the bouncy beat of Ross's theme, some loved the indian and cheesy Devi's theme, some loved the evil Elaine's theme, some loved the melodic Chemistry, some loved the heart warming Someplace far away, and some loved the pieceful Autumns bloom. And everytime we played Play that Melody there was sure to be someone around who would start to sing.

It was an awesome show. Each of the melodies so different, and the arrangements... took forever to confirm but were damn worthwhile.

And the finale solo piano version of play that melody blew the audience away... and almost blew my fingers away too during the downward sprint on the keys arghh >_< When I went back to backstage after playing Yati and the crew were like damn cute, saluting me haha, damn paiseh. Nobuo would have been proud.

So many people passed me cdrs to burn them copies of the themes from the musical... piracy spreading even before the OST is published... I should charge for these.. will probably make a bomb XD



Playing the Overture now... seemed like it took a long time to finish it but actually it was done in 6 hours. My first real overture! Running across every theme in the musical... its so sad to hear it once everything's over now. 7:17 minutes... wow.



Well now that the musical's over its back to school and training. Wheee