10 days after reflecting

Ah, Sunday, finally it's Sunday. Unlike most people TGI Friday isn't a good thing for me, it's TGI Sunday and more like "please Time, stop, stop for a moment, I need a day off but don't let that day be Sunday, make it like a Sub-Sunday?" :P
So here I am, 10 days after my big self-reflection after 3 years of blogging. The coolest thing is seeing that Rain workout video again and then realizing that my new workout (thanks to the Power Training book) is awesome! My goal was to reduce my workout times from 1 hour to 45 minutes, but the workouts in this book take me 1:20 minutes to complete! Yikes! But in it's own way they're good and at least I'm not completely burnt out at the end of them like before. I have a bad feeling my old workouts I created were over-training me somehow.

Anyways, on with the next love of my life, comedy! I did 2 gigs on the last 2 weekends where I tried out some new material and so far things are looking good. I was a big upset last night after my short set because I had this new bit I forgot to do while on stage!!! I just realized that is in fact more frustrating than having a bad set because a bad set allows me to watch my tapes and review where things went wrong! When I forgot a bit, there's only potential, potential I wish I could turn into actual footage I could review! ARGH!!! I was thinking about this my whole trip over to the Radio Station for my midnight guest appearance on a show called 我得你都得 (if you can, so can I) where I shared some life stories and ways I faced challenges in life, etc. It was really fun to talk about this and I've come to realize I really do enjoy sharing this stuff with people, I guess also because many times I enjoy hearing about other people's journeys.

For example, I was at the MaD Reunion and we were reviewing the whole MaD conference that happened in Hong Kong. It was great to share views on the whole event with everyone and hope to improve it even more. The cool thing is when we were asked to give our idea of what MaD would be like in 5 years and I felt it was definitely going to be a necessity! I mean, stuff like this helps people broaden their mind and hopefully inspire them for the rest of their lives. I'm a firm believer of how little things today can have a great impact in the future for you without you realizing at that moment. Things some teachers told me 10 - 15 years ago back at secondary school, are having their greatest impact on me now!

I guess I've also come to realize that the term "get the ball rolling" is very true. I'm not talking about stuff like "oh, if you will yourself into success, you will succeed", I'm talking about just getting things started. Often times in any productivity book, it'll say the hardest part of anything are the first 5 minutes of the task. Once you get your flow going, you're not going to want to stop. The same happens with me and writing comedy, drumming, designing and also procrastinating. Once I sit back and say "later, after I watch some comedy" it'll be another hour before I guilt myself back to work mode. Heck it's even worse when the end of a 20 minute episode says "to be continued..." yikes! :P

So here's to keeping your ball rolling and if not, get it rolling damnit! :D Time to make things happen for the next 10 days! :D

Switching off the light of 2009

And here we are. A couple of days away from the end of 2009. What a lovely year it has been, I'm looking through my calendar and just seeing all the appointments I had already blows me away. I mean, did you know that 2009 was the first time I ever went to the US? And to top things off I went twice! Once on my own with my manager, the other sponsored by the US Consulate!

2009 was also the year I went to Singapore and performed comedy there, went to Shanghai for some business, given lectures at universities and secondary schools about how I coped with being a local foreigner, the same year I screwed up my knee by dislocating my knee cap and also hit the lowest body fat % I've ever reached in my life. It's also been the year where I met many new and interesting people as well as the year I realized that when I look back at some of my older blog entries, I understand the importance of the process of success.

There was a video I made on 23 April 2007 (see this entry) in which it was pouring with rain and I hiked my way up the Morning Trail near home. I remember constantly mumbling to myself "greatness awaits" as I tried my very best to psych some self confidence back into myself. Till today that day lingers in my memory because it truly was a low point in my life. Things didn't seem to be working out at all for me and I just felt lost as a person, with no direction nor hope. The only thing I had was myself and that was the turning point of my life. In a couple of years look where I've gotten to!

This year has also been the year I've learned to realize that life is much more than what meets the eye. I'm not talking about God or anything like that, but things like the human touch, how body language can make or break a person, how just smiling can affect a person's day and how the environment you surround yourself in can energize you or tear you apart. For a long time I used to wake up and feel mentally bored with my work environment. It just didn't have that vibe I was looking for. I'd flip through tonnes of interior design books at bookstores and libraries and get inspired by other people's offices, yet once I got into my room it felt dead. I tried re-organizing my stuff, playing with placement and adjusting everything but somehow it just felt dead. I used to spend a long time at different stores and wonder why it was that somehow anything in a particular store just felt so cool while perhaps the same item in another store felt so bland. I started subscribing to a lot of photography websites before it finally hit me. Lighting. It's all about lighting. Great photography must be assisted with great lighting, great restaurants don't just server nice food, they serve nice atmospheres. Why is it that everytime you see photos of geniuses at work they only have a table lamp and surround themselves in darkness? It's about lighting and how it can help you focus.

Much like how make up is nothing more than creating the illusion of perfection, lighting helps me create the illusion that I'm in a different room. If I can't see something, it seems like it doesn't exist. So what I did was re-think the way I lit my room up. For a long time I used to have a flat white light shining over my desk which would basically move my focus to this area while keeping the rest of the room dark. That worked great, it got my mind into work-mode, however, the light made my desk very... flat. Lit up, but flat. While working, I'd be focused but uninspired... which caused me to rethink how I wanted to work on the lighting while I was at my desk. So check it out while it's boring and flat.

Booorrriinnngg! Sure things are organized but do you feel creative sitting here?
So after some adjustments, this is what I look at while working:

For those of you wondering what that purple light at the back is, it's the uber lovely Philips Living Colors LED lamp. When I added it to my room, it totally blew my mind at how it has got me inspired.. alongside the lively lava lamp, I finally don't feel like I'm alone and rotting to die in my room anymore, it feelsl like I'm in a hip lounge and I've got the company of bouncing goo in my lamp :)

I also adjusted my bedside reading area so now it has a lamp from Leitmotiv and my plant. This is what it really is:
This is what it is like with the lights off and just the lamp on:
Yummy eh? Would you want to sit there and read for a bit? I know I would, and I've been doing so before sleeping. A great way to end my day.

Which really brings me to what I want to say, the one thing I learnt from this whole experience is that it's not so much just about shifting your focus, it's creating the environment to suit what you're trying to accomplish. I've always been a big stresser about satisfying your 5 senses and I'm currently doing so with these lights, my scented candle, great lounge beats, a comfortable Microsoft ergonomic keyboard and comfy Logitech mouse and my Aeron chair. I've given up the idea of having tasty snacks nearby because I honestly don't have the need to snack while working, just my trusted bottle of water will suffice.

The 6th sense that no one can identify, in my opinion is that overall feeling when you've touched upon all 5 senses. Right now, I feel at ease. I'm in no way stress free because I still have a pile of to do's to take care of, but I think I've finally reached a point where I don't feel like I need to keep making adjustments to get comfortable...I'm finally working in harmony where the only stressful factor is work and that should be how it is really.

So this is why I say I'm ready to switch off the lights of 2009 and step into the dark world of 2010 and enjoy it as my path gets illuminated by my surroundings. I've already got a lot lined up for the coming year and I've got a bunch of personal goals to achieve. I'm fairly confident this is the year where these dreams of mine are going to be realized. I've built and worked with enough systems to keep my personal growth on track. All these logs I use to keep track of everything has finally paid off allowing me to better understand my life and accordingly make adjustments to better suit it.

And now, I can begin starting up all the things I've planned for 2010, so I'm one step ahead of my expectations... and so should you! Enjoy the last few days of 2009 and I wish you all the success, laughter and happiness that is in store for 2010. Write down how you feel today and compare it after 365 days. You'll be amazed at how far you've gotten from this moment. I know I have :)

Macbook pro!

Yes!!!!!! I am the proud owner of a brand spanking new Macbook Pro! I had a big debate in my head between the 15" and the 13" and eventually settled for the 13" which acted as a great upgrade from my old (but classic) white Macbook. It was time it retired.

With the new Macbook Pro comes new ways of working and a lot of "new" lifestyles for me. I've re-arranged all my toys in my room (I love action figures from mcFarlane Toys) and adjusted the way my room is lit. After doing a lot of research, I discovered in interior design, lighting, to my, is king. You can have the worst furniture in the world with a layer of dust on it, but add some good lighting and you can visually add so much to anything. It kind of explains why restaurants and bars are so dim and why clothes look better in the store but suddenly are disappointing when you wear it at home. It's not the mirror, it's the lighting! Speaking of mirrors and lighting, I saw a really cool hanging light from Tom Dixon called the Mirror Ball. It would be perfect for one of the corners in my room because it'll give me a great fish-eye view of my whole room. Heck, one of M. C. Escher's famous drawings was thanks to a mirror ball.

I've also rethought how I follow the advice I got when reading Think like DaVinci about satisfying the 5 senses.

Smell
Scented candles have become a new addition to my room. Now that it's winter, I don't have to worry about the fan blowing out my candle. I'm also going scented candle shopping later tonight because I've come to realize scented candles from Ikea just don't cut it anymore.

Sound
I've become an avid fan of both Sky.fm and Somafm.com with my lovely Foobar 2000 keeping my ears satisfied with grooves ranging from Smooth Jazz to zen-like Indian beats.

Sight
As I said, I've re-arranged my toys so now my desk is actually clean! Also, I've tied up all my wires in a little black tubing so, even though I can't hide them completely and look like I'm wireless, I can still keep them less distracting.
I've also decided that I'm probably going to repaint the wall which I face while working a neutral grey (RGB 128, 128, 128) and get myself some Idea Paint for one of my walls. I've learnt the power of having a plain wall and adding simple decals to it.
Oh and have I told you my recent fascination with Bonzai plants? I'm still in the process of deciding where I will keep it in my room. Hmm.

Touch
My lovely Herman Miller Aeron chair is more than perfect although it needed a little tightening, after all, I sit on this like every single day! Also, for my new Macbook Pro, I went with an Incase hardshell cover. It has a rough surface so there's extra friction/grip which is good because sometimes when I'm on the go, I have the Macbook Pro out by my side, under my armpits.

Taste
Here's where I'm still kind of lacking. I've set up charts with suggested snacks that are quick and easy to make such as Cheese toast. I've even got its calorific values as well as the amount of time it takes to make so I know if I only have 5 minute, certain snacks are out of the question. I considered getting some green tea ready so I could sip at that while working, but I realized, I'm still more of a water person. I consume so much water, I actually find myself spending quite some time refilling my bottles and jars every day! To the point I even tried to fill up 3 - 4 bottles in the morning and have them next to me before I start work, so I'd always be nice and hydrated. Otherwise, I don't snack on anything tasty like Chocolates or candy. I don't like to.

What do you do for your 5 senses?
So now I have 10 days to give this "setting" a work out to iron out all the teething problems. I already encountered one, that is the high-level of work it take to keep my desk clean! Yikes, I have never had one night, before bed, where I had an empty desk. Somehow things just creep on here! But on a brighter note, I've recently ordered a new bed-frame which'll give me 2 extra draws on the floor that will allow me to use them as spaces to just shove everything I want to deal with later there. Kind of like a GTD inbox, but for real objects that I don't want to see when I wake up.

Speaking of waking up, the people upstairs are still renovating which means I wake up to crazy drilling every morning!! I must admit, at first I thought I could ignore it, weeks into it though, I've found it's really, really irritating. Oddly, when I leave and go out, the normal noise of the roads, vehicles, people talking, sounds like silence to me. Hmm :P Which makes me wonder, if I make my room too nice for myself, will the outside world look like shit? I hope not.

See you in 10 days!

Update:
I got inspired by Kimmy_ to take pictures of my desk and share it with everyone. So here it is in all its glory :)

The lock up

Woah, that took a while to do my Day 10 entry! I'm only4 days late. But for a very valid reason. I've been busy. Whoever didn't guess that needs to wake up and smell the coffee of life and the fine line between excuses and reality.

I've finally got some time today to catch up on all the 530538068042042853058350369018539 things I have to do because I've locked myself up in my room and I'm not allowed to leave this apartment until 8pm tonight when I go jamming with my band. This weekend is a big test of me sacrificing for my interests. So Ted Alexandro is in Hong Kong and he's performing at TakeOut Comedy from today (9 July 2009) to Saturday (11 July 2009). I opened for him last night at a show at the Hong Kong Football Club and it was awesome! As much as I want to go watch him again tonight, I have to practice with my band because we're scheduled for a recording session at the end of this month for Underground Compilation CD #3! And on top of that, a metal band called Rudra is performing on Saturday 11 July 2009! The kicker is that my band was invited to be an opening act for Rudra and due to the clash with my comedy, we couldn't make it. So I guess it's one of those "you can't have it all" deals.

I've been doing some thinking recently on the idea of when it is ok to not do something because you couldn't do it even if you tried (eg. no electricity) vs. not doing it because you're can't do it (eg. brain dead) vs. not doing it because you just don't want to do it (eg. frustrated and don't care anymore). I've reached all 3 moments in a lot of things and it's like I keep bouncing from one to the other until the job is done. Usually when I hit the point of frustration, I'm propelled back to why I can't do it and what's stopping me and if that's not the case, chances are I'm brain dead which frustates me because I want to get stuff done. In some ways, this mentality of getting things done is a blessing and a curse to me. It's great because I have achieved oh so much more than I ever did, but a curse because it's like a nagging boss never letting you go. I was talking to someone today about how it's already July and I heard the typical sense of unhappiness that the year has gone by so fast and it feels like nothing has been accomplished. I guess for me, it doesn't really happen anymore like that, I no longer feel like my months are getting wasted away, but more like did I maximize my time? I know I accomplished stuff, but could I have accomplished more?

I had begun on the 4-hour workweek but stopped it because it felt like it was going nowhere. Instead of going with my usual attitude of "get it done" by finishing it, I just stopped and moved on. I'm currently toying with a book called Train Your Brain More because I'm a firm believer that the brain is a muscle that needs to be worked out as much as the body to stay in shape and sharp and healthy. On top of that, proper nutrition is essential which is why I've been getting into the habit of eating almonds and nuts which contains good sources of essential fatty acids at least 1 serving a day. Usually at night before I sleep alongside my casein shake. Speaking of training your brain, I recently read an article by Jerry Seinfeld on Lifehacker talking about his productivity tip/technique which was interesting. I can't say it's uber-original or really special, but it makes sense. He basically says to have a big calendar that is stuck on your wall and for everyday you accomplish your goal (in his case, write comedy), you put a bit red X on that date. Over time you'd have this chain of X's which you'd grow fond of and you would not want to break the chain. In doing so, you build the habit of working towards your goal daily and also have the pressure of not ever breaking the chain. I've been using an online tool called Joe's Goals which is similar except it's not a whole calendar long but still lets you keep track of what goals you achieved in a day. I've been using it for a while and the main things I keep track of are:

• Practiced Drums
• Went to the Gym
• Ate well

I used to have a longer list of things to check but it didn't work because if I had 10 things and I only missed 1, it'd seem like I still did 90% of what I set out daily. The problem was that I'd slowly lose that "oh my God I need to work at it!" mentality because 10% was such a small amount. Whereas now, every item is 33%! Fail at one and I've screwed up 1/3 of my daily goals! It's a different mental-effect. Interesting how our minds can whip us into shape when given the right stimulus.

The interesting thing about all this is that at the end it's a matter of just taking the step and doing it, which is often the hardest thing for someone who doesn't have a whipper/boss standing behind them at all times. You're your worst enemy and best friend really. And speaking of friends, my friend Bun is back to Hong Kong! After almost 2 years of photography work in Germany he's here! Wahoo!

Well, I'm off to continue my lock-up and crank out all these tasks and widgets I want to get through before I go mental at my drums tonight! Have a great next 10 days!

The end of a chapter

Finally, I have finally satisfied one of my curiosities enough to move on to another. I have read enough books on fitness to proudly say I know enough about this topic to achieve my goals. Now just a matter of executing the knowledge and realizing my dreams. I've read tonnes of books and each book has its own point of view as well as new information to either completely throw me off my path or renew my faith in believing in what I'm doing.

So this begs the new question, which other curiosity do I satisfy? Much like what I read in my fitness books, at the end of the day, we get fit to survive and this leads me to functionality. I know it's always cool to get all buffed up and ripped, but at the end of the day, having huge arms does nothing but intimidate people and potential threats. From a usability point of view, they're quite useless unless you're trying to be a paper weight :P I have nothing against buff dudes, heck I admit I'm working on adding mass too but I guess at the end of the day, you got to do stuff for he bigger picture.

So, seeing as how I've progressed so much in both my fitness knowledge and physical being, it would lead me to pursue my drumming life and work on improving that. In fact, today while I was practicing drums, I realized I'd been spending far too much time on isolation exercises and my ability to just play the drums had gone down. So I decided it's time I got back to playing the drums and just followed the musical exercises in my books and kept at it. I'll do more research about the best way to advance my drumming later, because if my drumming never improved any more, I'd still be able to live.

What I won't be able to live without is my web design skills. I've recently been looking at improving my skills and got introduced BluePrintCSS. When I took the time to understand this framework, it took me back to a while ago when I used to read book after book about the best ways to make HTML websites and boy has that come in handy. All the neat little tips and tricks have helped not only save me time, but made me a living. All those cool frameworks I used to dab and learn about, stuff like jQuery used to make me all hot and excited because of all the cool things I could do with it! And then it all stopped, I got so caught up in the actual work, I got a bit out of touch with the new tide of the web. The funny thing is, I can still do my job, just there are better ways of achieving the same/better thing. Kind of like saying you can still get your message across via snail mail, but email just makes it soooooooooo much faster/better/easier.

This begs the 1st question of any quest: Where do I start?
Well, to be honest, I don't know. I'm ready to run back all the way to the basics, but that's not what I'm worried about, it's the source of this knowledge/refresher that I need to be certain about. I am a big fan of Friend of Ed (heck I'm a moderator on their forums, that's how much I love them) but I've been so out of touch I don't even know where to start with their books! But fear not for the web I have....the web! Yes, the mighty Internet to the rescue! I guess with any project of mine, it all begins with research. So here we go, for the next 10 days, my quest will be to find the best first step to re-invent myself as a new media designer/developer. Oh and a kick-ass drummer and comedian and you know the rest :P.

Oh and I've recently started on the book 4 hour work week. Long live audio-books! I'm only in the beginning and well so far I'm still not 100% sure what the book is going to be about but I do know that a lot of people are raving about it, so let's see what's the big fuss :P If anything, at least it'll make those mundane trips on the train a bit more productive. Sigh, I love and hate productivity. It's like a drug to me. Kind of like that addicted feeling you get when you work out and suddenly stop? Oddly recently I've managed to mentally avoid that weird feeling because I've finally convinced myself the importance of rest from exercise and I have results to prove its usefulness! Now if only I could convince myself of the importance of some "do whatever" time :\... oh well maybe this book'll be the magic pill!

Periodization

Periodization has been a very interesting concept to me recently. Mostly because it's been something I've been reading about a lot in fitness training manuals and books. I recently finished reading a book by Ori Hofmekler called Maximum Muscle, Minimum Fat and I must say I'm really beginning to dig this biological stuff! He goes into the deeper details of fitness to the level of hormones and how our bodies are actually pretty damn balanced. I mean, it's very hard to get it out of whack unless you keep it that way chronically. It was quite interesting to finally really understand the biological processes that your body goes through that explains the reasoning for a zig-zag diet and how many extreme diets, like the low-carb diet are eventually going to come back and bite you in the ass. I've never been a fan of taking information at face value, I want to know why this information works before I'll truly believe it. I mean, learning about the mitochondria size of different muscle fibres and how they affect the ways your body burns fat is really interesting and brings a whole new level of insight into the ways I can design my own workout routines. Too often you see people say stuff like "oh I just follow this workout because it works", sure that's great, but eventually you're going to run into a brick wall because there are only so many generic workouts that'll work for you. Eventually you're going to get more and more specific with your goals and you'll have to work that way as well. Learning how different muscle fibres work and how they get trained has taught me to better understand why there are times when I'd feel like I had a blast working out and times when I'd feel fatigued at the gym. Woah :) Knowledge is awesome! I'm currently reading The Poliquin Principles and it goes into the finer details of things such as the science behind different speeds of lifting weights. It's awesome! I knew there was a lot to this point but most people are so focused on the exercise, they ignore the form!

I respect a movement's form because it ties into a lot of other things I do. My comedy requires a lot of body language and as they say, majority of your message gets communicated through your body, and only through a mind-muscle connection can you properly execute a smooth expression with your arms, legs, face, etc. The key here is to be as relaxed as possible so that you are in full control of everything. When you're under tension, it's harder to control things. It also ties into my drumming which always, always, always emphasizes on the idea of staying relaxed. Even at high speeds, the more tense you make your muscles, the harder it is for you to progress. Only through relaxation are you able to execute each movement properly and smoothly. At the same time, slow movements allow you to conciously notice the details of inbetweens. Just like when you watch a slowed down instant replay of a sports event, you get to see things you conciously missed (even if you subconciously noticed) and then really absorb everything.

I've slowly been noticing how my body isn't balanced physically. I'm not talking about the typical right arm stronger than left arm issue a lot of right-handed people suffer from, I'm referring to my level of flexibility. My left side is actually tighter than my right which in turn affects my posture as well as daily life. For example, for anyone who's bumped into me, you'll notice I almost always have a back-pack with me. I rarely ever leave the house without it because it contains my laptop and maybe a book, some snacks, my music (yay for big headphones!) and in the summer, a spare t-shirt and of course, my very, very vital water. Everytime I look into the mirror, I see my left-side strap lower than my right. As much as I balance the strap lengths, my shoulders seem lipsided. Yet when I'm standing straight without anything on my back, my shoulders are balanced. Then I started noticing my posture from different directions, most notably from the sides. It seems that due to the tighter chest muscles on my left side, my left shoulder leans a bit more forward than my right, thus causing an imbalance in my bag's weight. And so here I am constantly conciously reminding myself to force my left shoulder back a bit more so as to make it into a normal habit of mine. Muscle memory at work once again.

The more I dig into this, the more I'm noticing how my forearms are different too. I've recently been studying my left and right hand movements during drumming and my left hand is definitely a lot less flexible than my right and so I have to conciously force it to turn a bit more so as to stay in balance with my right hand. The joys of perfection. Sigh.

Going back to my title, periodization to many is the period of certain things happen, but to me it's a block that signals an expected time of a goal being achieved. It's like a period of time of going to work before you get your paycheck, I'm focusing on the paycheck so as to make each day seem worth treading through. Honestly, it's barely any fun watching your left hand do single strokes but I know as long as I work at it, by the end of a certain period, I should have matered the technique properly. And to be honest, my hand drumming speed has improved a lot recently through my single stroke practicing. Though I'm slowly feeling that I can't keep neglecting everything else :( Much like any training, the key is good for combined with holistic training that works everything. My biggest challenge is to better understand how long it takes for the Central Nervous System to usually recover from a tiresom training session before when I can train it again productively. So here goes another 10 days. By then, I should hopefully have moved onto the lovely double stroke rolls which my feet are dreading but have to master. Speaking of which, I think I'm going to hit the drums for a bit of practice. Especially since it's so darn gloomy and rainy outside, I don't want to think about the rest of the day :(.

So let's see how the next 10 days unfold, and how many of my goals I achieve! :D Charge!

Digging up the roots

So here I am in the middle of the night. Technically a day late for my Day 10 entry, but at the same time, I count my days from the time I rise to the time I retire. So I'm still on time :).

Recently, I've been going back to my roots and foundations and exploring whether or not I need to re-evaluate everything so I can further progress. I've noticed this necessity in my drumming, especially after I watched Benny Greb's The Language of Drumming. It's been a while and I'm still working on my single-strokes, pretty much the first thing any newbie drummer will learn to do. After all that research about muscle memory, I've been paying a lot of attention to the finer details of every movement I make. It's a tough test of patience but it does pay off. I can't wait to move into double-stroke territory.

My ankle has also healed pretty much 100% and I'm glad to say this has been the fastest recovery ever. Partly because I took care of it and followed the RICE guide although I skipped the ICE part but used one of those Japanese muscle pads (like Tiger Balm) and boy oh boy did that help! Also, I've been taking omega-3 fatty acid supplements so I'm guessing that contributed to the healing process pretty well, after all, it's good for joints and well, I hurt my joint. So with a healed ankle, I could finally work on my feet at the drums and I realized my feet progress is around 50% that of my hands. Like my hands can increase at around 40bpm each session, but my feet go at 20bpm/session. It also takes much more mental energy and concentration for me to keep my feet focused and disciplined so I can hit the mark of my metronome on the dot. For all of you drummers out there, I use the Boss DR-90 Metronome which has an in-built accuracy tester and I've kept it at the hardest. I mean, if I'm going to be practicing, I might as well do it right and perfectly. Like they say, perfect practice makes perfect. Not just practice.

Let's hope in the next 10 days, I can move on from single strokes and start with double-strokes!

Another thing I've been re-visiting is my comedy. I've been going back through some of my old bits and refining them. It's a very, very time-consuming process but the outcomes is worth it. One of my famous bits used to be good and now it's nice and tight. It's a great feeling when you know you've created an A+ bit that a lot of people remember you for. It's one of those signature bits :). I'm planning on going through all my other bits and watching my tapes, re-writing the wordings and making them tight, tight, tight! I'm talking machine-gun punchlines! Also, my goal for 2009 was to have a one-man show in English, which means I need a good 1-hour set. Right now I'm at a solid 15 minutes or a pretty alright 20 minutes if you include B-grade material. I recently got to watch Paul Ogata, who in my opinion has completely blown me away time after time and is the 1st live stand-up comedian I got to watch and ever since that has been a target I'm trying to achieve. It's great seeing him on stage and being able to speak to him off stage. He's a humble guy and as much as you ask him for advise, it comes down to one thing -- writing. And he's so right. I could read all the fitness magazines or listen to every drummer alive, but until I hit the gym or practice my drums, I'll get nowhere.

He said comedy is like a muscle you have to keep training and boy is that true. People don't get rusty for no reason, just like your body gets out of shape so does your mind. That's why I'm trying to go back to my beginnings and work from there again. The good thing is, having been there and done that before, I know what to expect and what to avoid, so it makes the process of progressing so much faster. It's like being fit once, and getting out of shape, oddly your body has a (different) kind of muscle memory that remembers the fitness level you were at before, and you can easily get back to that with a bit of training. It reminds me of my return from New York. I had put on a good 4lbs and oddly enough in a week's time I shed 70% of that new weight! Woah! I suppose it's like riding a bike, you might kind of need to warm up after not having ridden one for a long time, but it's a much faster process that it was when you first started learning.

I've also gone back to enjoying Buddha Bar music. No Phantom of the Opera for me for now. I've also been reading a lot of books on mind-mapping, hoping to find some awesome trick to improve them but in the end it seems I just have to go and map what's on my mind. I had made one on a large sheet of paper, but the speed of my thinking is much faster than the speed I can write at, I can at least type almost as fast as my thinking so that helps. I'm evaluating iMindMap to see if it fits what I'm looking for. I've found a lot of other mind-mapping software both open source and commercial but all of them looked too technical and seemed very creatively limiting. Tony Buzan talked about how we keep using our left-side of the brain and don't stimulate our right side enough because we often lack colors, images, sounds, etc. so I'm trying to make sure my right side gets strong too by incorporating all these into my mind maps. I've realized one limiting factor is my inability to properly draw what I see/think in my head. I've tried but it just doesn't work. I had talked about this being something I'm going to work at every night but I've come to realize leaving something to do at night is not a good decision because usually near bed time, I'm quite burnt out or exhausted mentally and being told to learn something that doesn't require just passive reading or watching is really not attractive at all and by this time my level of discipline has dropped too due to my low energy levels.

On a reading note, I'm currently ploughing through Beyond Brawn and so far the initial chapters are full of stuff I consider nonsense. Not saying the author is not good at delivering his message, I mean it's still I already know and it's basic motivation repeated in different words. I'm planning on following this book with Weight-Training Technique because I'm starting to get into much heavier weights and before I injur myself, it's best I make sure my technique is perfect. This is also the phase my imbalances will start getting exagerated, like my stronger/bigger right arm is more noticable now and so it's time I upped the level and really killed myself at the gym. The last time I had a leg day, I came out totally trashed, in a good way. Not "oh my goodness, I'm so tired I want to die" but "oohh, I can feel my legs are exhausted after a good, hard workout". I felt good. Which is often how I feel like at night after a long hard day of work, work, work and achieving!

So far going to the foundations has been helpful for me and may be good for you, maybe you should spend a few hours and re-evaluate the steps you took and make sure they were perfected before you progress even further. Heck, no one wants to climb back down a hill because they realized they left something at the bottom, right? At least not when you're near the top.

The Year End/New Year Edition

And we're back. Another wonderful Day 10 entry and this marks the beginning of my new year's resolution. Yes, I know it's still not yet 2009, but I usually start mine approximately 10 days before the new year so I can work out any bumps along the road. I find that if I say I want to start on 1 Jan and once I find a problem, I feel like it's a big dent in my resolution and it crashes into my confidence and just makes the whole thing seem like a mess.

So how are you and what are your resolutions? But before we go into that, how many of your previous years' resolutions did you manage to accomplish? This is always a sensitive topic. Well I'll admit, there are a tonne of things I didn't manage to accomplish, for example, it's been over 2 years since I told myself I really want/need to master the use of Adobe Illustrator and till today, I'm not confident in using it like I am with say Adobe Photoshop. However, I have to admit, putting this next to all the things I did accomplish makes it seem like a very minor set back. For one, where I am as of today has completely surpassed where I aimed to be, at least with my comedy and my band as well as my self-confidence. I've said this over and over again, success breeds success and the more you succeed, the more you believe you can succeed and in doing so you succeed more. And it goes the same way, failure breeds failure. The more you screw up, the more you will screw up. Think about it, the more you feel depressed about say, your body composition, the more you're going to avoid the gym and hit that tub of yummy ice cream and end up hating yourself even more.

For those of you following my blog, you'll realize that I'm one to believe in invest now, reap tomorrow. A prime example is my drumming. Had I not picked up those drum sticks and invested in an electronic drum set 3 years ago, I'd still be dreaming about playing drums today. I will never, ever forget the days I used to stare into the mirror and air drum thinking it was the coolest thing since slice bread but feeling hopeless as I knew I couldn't drum so who was I really kidding? But then again, no one was born with the ability to drum or do a lot of things for that matter, it's something you just have to start now and keep working at it. Then you have those excuses of oh but I'm too old to start. It's like that with any musical instrument. I started playing drums at 23, that's a pretty darn late age to start seeing as every other 23 year old drummer I knew put my skills to shame. However, with disciplined practice all the time, I've managed to grow fast in the last 3 years. At least I'm proud of my drumming abilities for a 3 year old player. Another great example is someone who doesn't know how to ride a bicycle. It's a shame if you're my age and you can't ride a bicycle. Imagine needing training wheels when you're old enough to shave yourself? How embarrassing is that?! But to be honest, embarrassment is really all in your head. Sure, it's easier said than done, but it really is. Take for example a guy who has to dress up for work, say in a clown suit. Is he embarrassed to be in that suit? Perhaps on the first few days, after that it just becomes normal. I try my best to keep reminding myself of that idea. Especially when I'm at the gym working out during the time the trainers are. Just keep reminding myself that at one point, these trainers were as weak as me :) I'll get there. Oh and keeping a log really, really helps. Like I have a training log that reminds me what weight I was pushing in my last work out and that definitely puts a smile to my face when I see myself pumping a tad bit more today than I did last time.

So what are my new year's resolutions? Well this year I'm going to try to take it as seriously as I can. Not just putting down points "Learn illustrator". After reading countless books on achievements and goal setting, I've come to realize, goal setting is a bit more than just setting a goal. You need to work out the full strategy of achieving that goal to make it happen. Like, how many times have you said "lose weight" and just sat there staring at the goal and doing nothing about it? :\ Also, I've come to really appreciate the idea that there is a different mindset for different things. For example, you have to get into a different mindset when planning stuff out versus when you're actually doing those things. For example, when I sit and think about how to do something, I'm writing it all out based on the ideas I have and what should work in theory. Of course, we all know, rarely do things happen as planned and that's why we need this guide to help us stay on track so that we don't need to worry about that part of the issue. When things don't work smoothly, we know what our next step is and so we find new ways to getting towards that next step we already defined in our think it out phase.

I'll give you one break down I've created to accomplishing my new year's resolution. I've always had the dream of being Hong Kong's best metal drummer. Sure this sounds quite far fetched, after all, I've only been in this for 3 years but so what? It's not how long, it's how well you adapt. I've seen people work out all their lives and still never get that six-pack they aimed at achieving when they first got their gym membership. Reason? They didn't do their research properly and ended up just going in circles. They'd work out great but not eat properly, or else they'd work out badly and starve themselves. So here's the break down.

What makes a good metal drummer?

Well playing drums for metal music is basically about speed and power. A lot of it is about creating that adrenaline rush and feel like an engine roaring. To achieve that you need to really hit people with the lower end of the sound spectrum. In other words, it's about the bass drum constantly fire. This means I need to have lightning fast feet while playing. The normal goal for metal is to have 200 beats per minute, right now I can hit 160 and on really good days 165 beats at most.
So now I know I need to increase my bass drumming speed by 40bpm in a year's time. That might seem scary at first, but if you break it down, it's really (40/12 months) approximately 4 bpm per month only. I think that's achievable.
So now I have my first goal:
Increase bass drum speed by 4bpm per month

Wonderful. What else? Well it's about blast beats. They really bring out the brutal sound of drums gone wild. What are blast beats you ask? Well here ya go:



Crazy eh? Yep. So now the next thing I need to do is learn my blast beats. How can I go about doing that? Well there's the various books I can buy, the DVD's I can purchase or simply falling in love with the power of YouTube and all the free lessons you get on it. I'm going with YouTube. Lovely.
Learn 1 type of blast beat per month

Now I've also got to have crazy speed fills to help my musicality. I've found one of my weaknesses in drumming are fills. A lot of my fills I create are groovy. Not as in cool, but like bouncy. I really like playing drums that make people want to bounce (hip hop drumming is fun!) but I need that intensity sometimes, like a car engine roaring, not bouncing, so I have to work on my single stroke rolls. Single stroke rolls?



Saw the ending? See how the seemingly boring beats suddenly became so brutal all because it was done super, duper fast?! Ive got 2 chapters in one of my drum books teaching all about drum fills and incorporating hands and feet together, exactly like you see in the video. So I guess that's where I'll have to go.
Learn 1 drum fill a week
Do a recap of all 4 drum fills learned in the month and apply them to various drums/songs

Lastly, I need to learn to be musical with my drumming as well. With speed and power doesn't come musicality. I could be the fastest drummer ever but no one wants to hear noise, they want to hear music. This requires my studying different music and learning from the masters. Seeing as I want to develop my metal musicality, I need to work on cover songs in my genre. One of my favorite drummers is Chris Adler of Lamb of God. I like his taste in drumming as well as his goatie. Yes. I wish I could grow a goatie like that. So the best thing for me is to try to follow him and learn what he does best. Playing drums
Play 1 Lamb of God cover song per month

Now here comes an issue, since Lamb of God songs are so darn complex and fast, how the hell am I supposed to be able to hear out exactly what he's doing? Well here comes the awesome-ness that is Lamb of God, they've come out with a Producer Edition of their latest CD which includes separate tracks of all their instruments. In other words, I can hear the drums and only the drums for each track. Accompany this with my search for drum tabs and voila, I can train my ear as well! Fantastic!

Hopefully by following the above, I'll reach my goal by the end of 2009 :)

And there you have it, one example of how I make my resolutions and my hopes of it being the way of my achieving them too :)

I could go on and on and on but seeing as I've just spent the last hour thinking/typing this out, I'll stop there.

So you've got 10 days to go and I strongly suggest you start your planning and begin within the next 5 days so you still have 5 days to take care of any teething problems with your resolutions. Good lucky and Merry Christmas! :)

Better late than never - Day 10 + 6 Months + 100th Post

For all of you who have been keeping track of my blog and wondering why the hell it has been oh-so-long since I last posted, well I've been going through a phase of lack of focus alongside crazy surprises complimented by weeks of constantly new challenges which have left me either mentally exhausted or plain ol' too lazy to blog. I actually felt bad because I missed a 6 Month entry as well as a Day 10 entry not to mention this is my 100th blog entry! 100! Woah I didn't even realize till now to be honest.

Seeing as this is a 6 Month entry, that means I need to evaluate where I was and where I am and since it also is a Day 10 entry, I need to have some wisdom to share with everyone. Oh how much fun that sounds :P

The truth is, my time has been shrinking more and more as I find myself getting deeper and deeper into the things I love. Have you ever noticed how the more advanced you get at something, the more time you have to spend towards just maintaining that level? For example, with my drumming, if I don't practice for say 2 - 3 days, I can see how my playing degrades and I find myself wasting 1 practice session catching up so I get back up to speed. This is a real waste of energy as not only have I missed 2 - 3 days worth of practice time, I've had to pull myself back up to where I was 3 days ago, making it 4 days wasted, not to mention I could have improved today, making it 5 days wasted, which then ends up being a week lost. Wasted time is one of my pet peeves that really frustrates me and ends up discouraging me which then makes me lose my focus, thus wasting more time to get back on track. Yes, it's basically a vicious cycle. The problem is, sometimes I fall into these vicious cycles and just can't pull myself out easily because I've forgotten what it was like when I was in the good cycle and I forget that sense of satisfaction I had when I got my work done or accomplished something :(.

Satisfaction. That's something I really want to dive into and talk about. I live everyday by my motto of "I don't want to wake up tomorrow regretting today". I think this line is really powerful because it forces me to work hard today, but still know that there is a tomorrow. So what I want is to wake up the next day satisfied with where I am and where I was. This is definitely a very, very difficult thing to do because very often I find myself greedy for more. You'll see in many previous entries, I talk about how I'm greedy to live even more. I really am, I always want to do a bit more than I did and this in turn makes me constantly look forward, but then I often forget to appreciate what I've accomplished behind me :(. However, at the same time, deep down inside me, I'm still satisfied with what I've accomplished. It's like I have this mix of emotions where I'm satisfied but not quite all at the same time and I suppose this is where all the frustration comes up which then works against me.

So am I satisfied with what has happened in the last 6 months? To be honest, I am and I'm not. I feel like had I not been bombarded with all these surprises all the time, I'd have been able to better maintain my focus and probably end up accomplishing more. I suppose it's times like these that make me really stop and reflect and realizing that you know what, sometimes things are out of your control and you need to accept the reality of the situation rather than wish it wasn't so. At the same time, it also reminds me that it's good to always have a leeway of space for things to creep up when you least expect it. As I mentioned before, I'm a freelancer, which means that my life is a constant blank canvas waiting to be painted the way I want to paint it. In fact, just today, I was on my way home from watching Cheung Tat Ming's latest Comedic Performance when one of my friends/comedians asked me what time I had to go to work tomorrow and then I told her I was a freelancer and she kept telling me about how lucky I was but how I had to be uber-disciplined to pull it off. It kind of struck a cord in my mind because I realized recently, my discipline has been less than satisfactory.

Discipline. Yes, that's another thing I want to touch upon in this entry. I've realized that my discipline is in sync with the way my environment is. When my environment is a mess, I'm a mess and my discipline falls along with it because I feel like I'm constantly being bombarded because everywhere I look, it seems like something needs to be tended to. I once talked about the art of keeping things simple and to be honest, that's the way I seem to work best. Keep it simple, if I don't need it, I don't need it! And I suggest you think the same way. Almost everything could be useful but is it really useful now? No? Then get rid of it. If I've managed to survive for say the past few months without noticing something, I convince myself that it is unnecessary. The less I have, the less stimulation I have, the less distractions I have and the more I'm able to focus.

Focus. This is a hot topic I always cover in my blog because I'm constantly trying to manage this part of my life because it's like a muscle that I have to keep tamed and trained and continuously improve and make more efficient. I've talked about how I'm an efficiency-aholic and one key aspect of efficiency is to maintain good focus so that the process can be carried out without obstacles such as distractions and unnecessary problems. When I'm in-the-zone, I find I'm really motivated to work, in the sense, I'm not working because I want to get the job done, but instead, I work because I'm enjoying the progress I'm making and it is this progress that is giving me the satisfaction I crave. And in achieving this satisfaction, I remain focused like a donkey who managed to get a bite of the carrot dangling in front of him. I read in many places that it is usually the first 5 minutes of any job that is the hardest, once you get your wheels turning and the work flowing, you just keep working and this is so true for me. I just need to get past that initial inertia of no desire and then I'm all good.

Desire. I always find myself desiring a bit more than I have. Yes, I'm greedy, we all know that. I always wonder what if I had just a bit more? Like a kid wondering what it'd be like if he just had 10 extra minutes on his newest gaming console. I always desire improvements in myself and I often have the ability to map out what needs to be done to achieve those improvements. Of course, mapping it out and actually practicing the plan is a different game. Take my fitness for example, I'm currently in an anabolic phase of my workout routine where I'm bulking up. I try my best to stick to the workout plan as good as I can because I know if I get lazy, my whole plan fails and I'm back to square 1. However, there are times when I just can't help it, like say tomorrow, I normally should be going to the gym because tomorrow is my legs day. However, due to my schedule, I'm unable to do that because I have to be out most of tomorrow and I'm jamming with my band's new guitarist tomorrow night in preparation for jamming on Wednesday with the rest of the band. Not to mention I have to go reset my drum set because it's all a big fat mess. So there goes my gymming out the window. Is it because I lack the desire or this is just reality after all. You can't always get what you want. But I suppose, I'd much rather have a desire for something and not achieve it, than have no desire for anything at all. Woah, imagine life without any sort of drive.

And now a review of where my life is.
And you know what. I'm going to allow myself 12 hours to think about this and finish off this post then.

A week later

Oh man. Did I say 12 hours?! I probably should have said 12 days! I haven't had a chance to sit down and just spend some quality time with my blog for the past week! Sorry about that.

So now my review of everything. The thing is, we're already in October, which kind of makes this a 2008 review so let's start from the beginning. I've found myself, through my stand-up comedy, in a lot of newspapers and press articles. I've been invited to help HK celebrities perform in their promotions, I've been a guest at corporate events where I was treated, literally, like a VIP (still feel weird when people do that). I'm going to be entertaining a lot of Indian people in Hong Kong soon when I perform for the Progressive Diwali Ball this year and I have a lot, and I mean a lot of gigs lined up in front of me :) So my comedy life is really taking off now.

My band, Eve of Sin, got to play our first gig in February 2008 and we're scheduled to play again on 28th Nov 2008 so we're all excited about that! We've been practicing very hard and working out new music as well as improving our skill in general. At least I can say my drumming's gotten much, much better, although I haven't reached my goal I set for myself to hit before the end of 2008... darn. But at least I haven't gone backwards :)

Drumming, well yes, I've been slacking off practicing for the last week just like I slacked off typing up my blog because, seriously, I've been so busy. I mean I'll admit, I've had times when I've found myself literally hanging out at a coffee shop for 2 hours, but that's because I really was mentally exhausted :( I mean I just lost that motivation to work. In fact, to be honest, when I look at my drum set, I just think like "ahh, my body's feeling tired". I know it's a lame excuse I've been giving myself, but I just can't seem to break out of it.

However, fitness wise I've been a good boy. Oddly enough, I think it's just getting out of my room that is the trick I need. When I get out of house, I feel energized and ready to rock, once I hit my room, it's like I don't know where to start. I recently joined Fitness First and now I'll be saving much more time going to the gym, it's like 15 mins walk away from my house which is fantastic, because now it takes me only 30mins to go and come back from the gym! It used to be like 1:20 hours before! :P Almost an hour saved is a big, big deal to me. I think I'm going to stick to weights because I've built up my stabilizing muscles to the point I'm able to control my form properly and am really getting the best bang for my buck it seems. My routine actually has not hit a plateau because of the highly mixed up exercises I use which keeps things really fresh for my muscles :) I love it.

I suppose now is my time to exercise my beloved art if keeping things simple. Instead of me going on and on and on about a topic or talking about how I need to improve life or get more stuff done, I'm going to end this entry here and go practice some drums. Talking the talk is great, but it's walking the walk that counts :)

So have a good day and I'll see you (fingers crossed) in 10 days :)

The art of KISS

Nope, I'm not about to get all romantic on a Sunday night/Monday morning. KISS as in Keep It Simple Stupid.

A lot of my blog entries have been looonnngg posts with an automatic-writing style to it and in some ways, it's tiring for me to even re-read them after a while let alone anyone who's curious about what I'm thinking, so I'm going to try my best to get to my point as soon as possible here.

So I've been spending my whole day re-organizing my room/work area and everything else so that I've created more empty spaces. Oddly, I've always been the type of person who aims to just fill up any empty space with something because I feel that I'm not making the most of a shelf if nothing's on it. But I was thinking about its relation to design and even music. If anything, it's the empty space in a design and the non-notes in a song that allow people to stop and enjoy what is occupying the space/music. And so I started telling myself to keep it as basic and simple and minimalist as possible and so far so good! My room feels more spacious all of a sudden and I feel like I can even kind of go for a walk if I need to do a 'ponder stroll' :P It's quite nice, just having what is necessary and chucking away all the rest. Of course, there still lies the problem of me needing a lot of things! For one, I've got 3 freaking screens on my desk! :P I've managed to connect all my many computers so I only have to use 1 keyboard and 1 mouse thanks to the crazy power of Synergy! I've streamlined a lot of my drumming area. Like I used to have a little flat area to keep my macbook for recording/practice and another area for my mp3 player for play-alongs and another area for my exercise books. Then I realized, I never ever use all 3 things at the same time! They're mutually exclusive! If I'm reading from an exercise book (by the way, for all you drum freaks, I'm working on Afro-Caribbean Drum Grooves, I remember like 9 months ago, I tried out the first exercise and just gave up because of the insane coordination/limb independence it required, but now I can do it and it's a lot of fun!) Ahaha, I can appreciate the finer details of this type of music now! I never realized how complex it was! The accents, the crazy hand/foot patterns, it really forces you to divide yourself into 4 parts!

And this whole mutually exclusive thing made me think about how much this can be a good factor in my arranging my life, which kept leading me to the whole KISS attitude. I went berserk and started throwing away drum catalogues I had collected as knowledge/references because I figured if I ever needed to read something, I could download the PDF's! I threw away name cards of people because I have all that information stored in my contact database, so what's the use of the card? I cleared up my desktop and re-mapped some of my shortcuts (yay for AutoHotKey) combined with ol' trusty ObjectDock but I still have Launchy installed for times when my hands are on the keyboard so I don't ever need to move away or to the mouse if I don't need to. Yes, if you haven't noticed, I'm a productivity/efficiency freak. If you're wondering, my macbook is similarly set up but I use QuickSilver (I prefer it over Spotlight). Though I still haven't found a good mind-mapping software that I'm happy with (so if you got any suggestions, please let me know).

Alright, KISS! Mutually exclusive, it's another thing that came up when I was researching some more about the typical "I want to lose fat and gain muscle" routine. In fact, those 2 things are mutually exclusive! In a nutshell, to lose fat, you need to burn more calories than you consume. To gain muscle, you need to consume more calories than you burn! And the only proper solution is to do them at different times. In other words, in phases. You burn fat first (but also risk burning some muscle) then you pack on some muscle (but also risk packing on some fat), then go back to burn fat, repeat. In the end, your goal is to come out with more muscle and less fat after a few phases.

So now we got the KISS attitude, we've got the realizing that things that are mutually exclusive can help towards KISS and now we have the concept of phases. This brought me back to when I first dove into GTD, one thing the author David Allen talked about how you end up wasting a lot of energy in the process of changing tracks. Like if you tried to over multi-task you end up wasting more effort because your lack of strong, deep focus on the thing you're working on results in a weaker outcome. As a lot of people know, I'm a multi-task lover. I try to make sure I'm pushing everything to the limit, I try to eat while I walk rather than sit down, I leave my reading to the bus instead of sitting in my room and wasting precious work-time, etc. But this phases concept brought me back a lot because I do agree, I've suffered from a lot of over-multi-tasking and ended up more confused with what's going on than I expected.

KISS, mutually exclusive, phases, not over-multi-tasking and focus. And that's my goal for the next 10 days, to keep it simple by making sure I focus on phasing all my mutually exclusive tasks while trying my to make sure I know my multi-tasking limits. This is going to be a tough 10 days because it'll require quite some discipline on my part because I know I get really greedy sometimes and just wanna do so many things all at the same time which sounds possible on paper, but from my experience usually fails :P. Like telling myself I'm ready to go do cardio for an hour straight at the gym! Sure, I'm fit enough, but 1 hour later, I'll be dead. And the rest of my day/night suffer.

So here we go! Woohoo! A (relatively) short simple post! :D Have a good week + 3 days!

In bed

Technically, yesterday was my Day 10, but I'm not really late because I haven't gone to bed yet, so it's still, in my terms, Monday to me right now :P

So I thought I'd share some good things with everyone, seeing as a lot of my posts are usually me sulking about how tough life is or how I need to improve myself to attain a certain level of satisfaction. Lately, I've been really noticing improvements in my drumming because I've gained a lot more control (and speed) over many aspects of my music. Stuff I remember totally going "no freaking way" a few months ago is like "woohoo I did it!" now! It's a great, great feeling if you know how impossible something felt, yet you can do it now, makes you really feel like the world is your oyster. And indeed it is! I've always been a firm believer that nothing is impossible, it's just a matter of putting in the effort to attain what you want to attain. I still remember a few years ago, I was looking into the mirror air drumming and thinking "it'd be so cool if I was a drummer!! I'd be like this awesome rockstar rocking it out!" and guess what! I am a drummer now and I do rock out! Ahaha even when I'm at home, just practicing, I really get into it and go insane! :D It's really good to just shut the world off for 1 hour and go berserk for that period. For some reason, once I get on my drumkit, it's like nothing else matters, I don't care if I have 305353535030392004 things due, I'll tend to it when I'm done with my practice/jamming. It's a good feeling, especially when you pick up exercises you did a few weeks ago, and try them now and totally blow yourself away with how easy it feels! The other day, I was practicing some hand exercises. The last time I did them, I was hitting 180 bpm (beats per minute), and when I picked them up again a monthe later (sometimes I do other exercises in between if I get tired of one book) I was hitting like 220 bpm! I actually stopped and re-checked my notes to make sure I was doing this right and I was!! 40bpm in a month! Now some people might be tapping their thighs right now thinking "er, I seem to be doing 300 bpm, what's the big deal?". No. I'm not talking just 220bpm, I'm talking 220bpm at 16th notes, which makes it 220 x 4 (don't asky why, it just is) = 880! Woohoo! Sure, there's bound to be another drummer who thinks this is no biggie, well it really isn't that good, but to me it's freaking awesome I hit 880 hits per minute! 1000 hits, here I come! :P You know what? The guy with the fastest hands in HK is at 974 hits per minute, so 100 more hits and I might get the new title :P Exciting. Another thing I can tell you is when I first started drumming, I thought 900 hits a minute was totally, ridiculously out of this world! Like I couldn't conceive how the hell a person could do that in just 60 seconds! Let's say 900 hits in 60 seconds means each second you need to be doing 15 strokes! But like I said, nothing is impossible and my drumming has always reminded me this, and lucky me, I keep a log of my progress which means I can always look back and compare where I was and where I am. Don't get me wrong, this hasn't happened overnight, nor has it happened without its fair share of frustration for me! I've had so many occasions where I've been fed up with my drumming abilities, always feeling like I'm just lacking in so many things, and you know, being a metal band doesn't help because metal is all about power and speed, 2 things that only come over time! Even now, when I'm jamming, I can still feel there is so much more I need to improve on to reach the level I want my band to be at for our music. Sigh, but again, I'm not upset about this, this constant need for improvement and change actually is a good thing, it makes sure I never hit a rut or a plateau in my playing, much like my fitness as well.

Anyone who's looked a bit into personal fitness knows that after a certain period, our bodies hit a plateau when it comes to fitness and your progress kind of slows down a lot. You have to constantly change your routine and give your body a new challenge before it'll respond with improvements. This also keeps things fresh and also makes sure it weeds out those that really want something, and those that are just in it for a good time. I'm not saying it's wrong to just scratch the surface of stuff, everyone's got their own style and everyone's got their own passion. I scratch the surface of a lot of things, not because I'm not a passionate guy, but simply because I may not have the same amount of passion towards something as the next guy, and it's not wrong in any way. Heck, I'll give you an example. I've always wanted to draw by hand, I think it helps me express my ideas if I could draw properly, I want to get all these images in my head on paper. I've tried working at it, but never really got much success because I always end up stopping halfway because I'm busy. Now those who know me, know that I'm one to say there's no such thing as "no time", you make time. You find ways to make the time. I can make time to improve my drawing skills, however, I chose not to. Heck, if I really didn't have time, then surely I shouldn't have time to practice drums either? Get my point? I've come across a lot of people that actually tell me how they're frustrated with their life because there's so much they want to do, yet they can't because they have no time to do it. You know, you can still get good at something even with 10 minutes of practice a day. Heck, if you really want to push it, make every commuting minute time to learn that one thing you always wanted to learn. Take off those headphones and stop staring into blank space, and just go learn that thing you wanted to learn! Even if it's 5 minutes a day, in a week, you've hit 35 minutes, in a month you'll have spent 2 hours! 2 hours in a month may not seem a lot, but spread over 4 weeks, your mind is given time to digest what you learnt in 5 minutes each day and you'll be shocked how much you can improve already! :P

Yes, I'm going on and on and on once again, I know, but this is a topic I really enjoy -- self-improvement. I always believe people can improve. Again, a little info about me. I'm one of those guys that don't believe people can change. By this I mean, once a crook, always a crook. I have yet to meet someone who has truly changed. I've met a lot of people who can control themselves better, but they're still the same person as they were before at heart. Like a drunkard is a drunkard to me. You can stop yourself from drinking, but deep down inside you're still the alcoholic you were. Again, I hope to be proved wrong one day because I do believe this is a rather grim way of viewing the people of this world :\. Anyways, going back to self-improvement. However, as much as I believe people don't change. I do firmly believe people can improve and upgrade themselves. A crook can upgrade him/herself to be a more sophisticated crook. A comedian can improve himself to be more spontaneous and natural. You get my drift. And this is something I aim to do daily. I know my personal quota of learning everyday is 2 hours approximately. I know after 2 hours of reading, I hit a point that I'm reading for the sake of reading and it's really a the point where I'm getting diminishing returns of knowledge really. So knowing this, I try my best to take advantage of those hot 2 hours each day and fit in whatever it is I'm trying to get better at or learn. Oh, these 2 hours are the amount of time I can spend reading about something. My drumming practice goes by another system. Just FYI, after 1 hour of drumming, I also end up wasting time. By 1 hour, I mean 1 hour of honest, intense practicing, not mucking around and jamming and stuff. 1 hour usually gives me 3 solid exercises to work on alongside an initial warm up routine.

Hmm, my eyes are slowly closing, I suppose being in bed is sometimes too comforting and that probably explains why I'm typing so damn much in this post. Ahaha, I just feel like I've had all this time to think about so many things, I want to spill them all out and get them written down asap. But if you've read so far, you might as well read on, heck you've spent all this time already, it wouldn't do you justice to stop now. Actually that's another thing I was thinking about. You know how sometimes you're at the bus stop and you're waiting for a bus and it just doesn't come. 20 minutes later, you're thinking if you should just go and find an alternative way to get to where you're going, but you're worried that once you leave, the bus will come, and you end up waiting for an hour, when you could have been home had you just walked from the get go? That, I must say, is something I really hate happening, which also explains why I much prefer walking everywhere than depending on a bus.

So going back to what I was saying, today, is my celebration of where I'm at. I think you should do that for yourself too. It's not often we stop and turn around and look back with a smile. Most of the time we only see where we haven't reached or we only notice all the paths we didn't take, but we don't retrace our steps and appreciate the path we did take and where it's lead us. Sure, this is easier said than done, but it does help to have a log of your pathway. Like I said for my drumming, my log book has been gold in keeping me motivated and encourages me to keep pushing because I do see results! It's a (good) vicious cycle. I see improvements, I want to work harder, I work harder, I see more imporvements! Woohoo! So yes, stop and be happy to be where you are, heck, just be happy to be alive! If your life seems to be in the shitters right now, just put on your favorite song, stop for 1 hour and tell the world to go down the drain (what I do when I go to the gym or when I'm drumming) and just do what you love. I'm serious. It'll do you good :).

Of course, when that 1 hour's up, you have to step back into the craziness that is your life. But before you do, ask yourself this, how many people get to be you? Much like everyone says their family is the worst/craziest, everyone thinks their life is the toughest, but you know deep down inside, your life is the toughest out of them all, so how many people not only get to be you, but survive being you, on a daily basis? Not many, and for that, you deserve a pat on your back.

And I deserve a massage. Hmm, I really could use 1. Have a good day! :D Off to snooze it up!

It's Sunday, the day of rest

Well, it's Sunday and technically should be the day of rest. In many ways, it still is a day of rest for me as I'm doing all the things I enjoy, even though they require voluntary effort on my part and take up my whole day.

Oh, by the way, after writing the previous post last night, I got up and was swept away with exhaustion and decided I would just go to sleep. I was actually so tired, I couldn't even fall asleep! Have you ever had these before where you're too tired to even sleep!? I hate it when that happens because I really am wasting my time but at the same time, I can't do anything else! I slept a good 9 hours and woke up. All my early morning plans had to get shoved aside or pushed to the afternoon, but that's alright. So what do I have planned for today? As usual, a lot of course:

• Do my breathing exercises
  
• Practice drums (Drum Set, Hands, Feet)
• Sort out my to-do's for the rest of the week regarding all my freelance work
• Finalize all my gym workout routines (and get a work out while I'm at it)
  
• Finish sorting out a few more processes on my computer
• Go play my drum gig tonight
• Update this post to see how much of this I've accomplished :P

You know, the more I try to do, the more I agree with one statement that said you are as productive as you are relaxed. I used to be a big fan of intensity where I thought the more intense I was, the more work I could get done. But that's like saying the tenser your muscles, the more you can get them to work. Muscles work by getting tense, not being tense! Same for me being productive, by starting off relaxed, I give myself all that room of building focus and intensity as I become productive.

Speaking of being focused, after a lot of hard work and discipline, I've managed to get quite focused now when I practice my drumming. I can sit there with my practice pad and metronome and do a series of control bounces at the same speed for a whole 10 minutes without getting bored. How? Well Rhythm Coach on my DB-90 metronome helps a lot because it keeps things happening, one moment I'm on the dot, next moment I'm too fast or too slow so I have to keep up constantly! In the beginning this used to get discouraging, but now I love it! Makes me really focus on hitting the mark of every beat perfectly! I'm not saying I want to be a drum machine, I'm saying I want to have the option of being a drum machine when I was to.

Wow, that brings me to another point. I was watch the Modern Drummer Festival 2006 Saturday & Sunday last night and in the interviews section, Thomas Lang talked about his performances and how he improvises most of his performances and it made me think of one thing. Many artists and people who always claim to want to break the rules in their creativity and so choose to do things with no regard to the rules. Now I'm sure you've heard the statement "To break the rules, you need to know what the rules are first". That goes the same with my drumming. For me to play drums with a human touch (ie. not like a machine), I need to be able to be a machine, too. Basically, instead of saying I don't want to play like a machine, so I don't practice as strict as I do, is wrong. It should be "I can play like a machine, but in this situation, I choose not to." Jo Jo Mayer said the same thing when he talked about using a drum stick's bounce rather than trying to do the full down and up motion by yourself. He says not to think of this as a crutch where you rely on the bounce to get the job done, but more like you realize the bounce is going to happen, so why not work in harmony with it rather than waste the potential of the stick's bounce? So true, so true! Ever since I started doing a lot of the things I do, I've learnt to see the world around me in a different perspective. Things that used to discourage me because I'd feel let down by them now pump me up even more because it reminds me how much it all comes down to me and myself.

One day while walking in the MTR, I thought of one phrase which I really like: "Only I can hurt me". This is so true! Things that used to upset me or hurt me only bother me because I let them into my system and do their damage. It's just a mental shift that is necessary for me to push them out or turn them into energy for me to go even further. When I did my corporate stand up comedy gig, I was nervous as ever. I think the most nervous I'd ever been in my life because I was really, really, on my own. But that experience made me also realize the potential that was in me when it came to relying on myself. It reminded me how much I can do as long as I shift my focus in the right direction! I mentally prepared myself that night and just let it flow and it worked out! :D This was one thing I learnt from the book Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within where the author talked about why musicians did drugs and stuff and about how the best performances were those by musicians who just let it go and play. It's so true. Many seasoned musicians will tell you the same thing. Practice all you want, but when it comes to performance time, throw it all away and just play the music! I do that very often now, I go with my feeling rather than the vocabulary of licks and grooves I have in my head. But to do this, I need to have that vocabulary to start off with. It's much like a person who learns the alphabet and a few words can never write a masterpiece. I need to have my vocabulary digested into my system to really be able to play-at-will! The same goes with my stand up routines. The more I do it, the more my bits get digested into my system and I can pull at them whenever I want and execute them at will. And so having done that corporate gig, it makes me realize that shows at the comedy club are relatively nothing (stress-wise) comparatively and so whenever I perform there and find myself getting nervous, I remember how I managed to survive through the corporate gig and I'm calm again.

This brings me back to the things I have to do today. Don't get me wrong, there have been many, many, many days where I wanted to do 100 things and only accomplished one. Heck, last night was a perfect example. While writing my entry, I had all these things lined up. After pressing the Publish Post button, I just went to sleep! But this doesn't discourage me because I also know there were times when I wanted to do 100 things and I ended up doing 101 things! I know it's possible so I keep at it and take advantage of it whenever I can. If I can't, I accept it and move on! :)

But one final note before I go and get on with my day and stop making this a super long post, is that what I say here is theoretically straight-forward and true. Like any other human, I have times of weakness where I find myself just emotionally wrecked. All the great ways of thinking and positivity just can't help me. This, in my opinion, is normal, it reminds me that I'm still a fragile human being that is alive. It's at times like these I appreciate the days when I'm truly a happy, happy person because without a few crap moments, happy moments will get normalized and you'll get used to it. So on days when I feel bummed out, it's really a blessing in disguise because thanks to that day, the next day when I feel better, I'll really feel better, not just be better.

Anyways, let's see how I get through today!

Update at 4:19pm.
I've done the following:

• Breathing exercises
• Drum practice (Drumset)

I'm about to go shower then hit the gym, so on my way I'll try and sort out the following:

• Sort out my to-do's for the rest of the week regarding all my freelance work
• Finalize all my gym workout routines (and get a work out while I'm at it)
  

Going to be a long, long day.... :)

Update at 01:19am (31 Dec. 2007)
Wow, I just got home. The show went well and boy was I glad I went to the gym before hand! I sorted out all the different variations on exercises I can/will be doing, so I'm all set for a routine. I'll be back tomorrow to work out my aerobic exercises. Still debating if I should go jog around the race track or just stick to the gym. I don't want to strain my knees too much but at the same time, the race track just rocks!

Alright! So I still need to accomplish the following:

• Drum practice (Hand/Feet exercises)
  
• Finish sorting out a few more processes on my computer

I didn't fully finish off writing out all the work I have for my freelance projects and also I still have my hand and feet exercises I need to get through for my drums. Speaking of drums, I got so much time to jam tonight on stage! I love jamming! This is the time where I really just throw away everything I've practiced and just play from the heart. I'm not scared to muck up nor am I worried I'll miss the beat. I have faith in my jamming abilities and tonight it went nice and smooth as usual! All those rap beats I've learn came out and I funk'ed up what was supposed to be a totally metal show! Hehe!

I'm off to finish off the remainder of today's to-do's! :D

Update: 04:09am (31 Dec 2007):
Woohoo, finished!

• Drum practice (Hand exercises)
  
• Finish sorting out a few more processes on my computer

Ok, I admit, I didn't do my feet exercises because I really was just too damn tired I couldn't help it. I just got out of the shower and am about to hit the sack. I have a long, long day ahead of me tomorrow before I say goodbye to good old 2007. I still remember starting the year with the phrase "2007 is the year for change". A lot has changed! A lot! Some of them were intentional and voluntary, while others were unfortunately forced upon me. But I can only take them all as blessings because if not for them, I wouldn't be where I am today. So much has happened that it makes me really curious as to where I'll be this time next year. For once, I look back at the year and don't feel "wow, the year's over already?" but instead smile because I know I really made the most of the year, just like I made the most of today.

I had my highs and obviously I had my lows... but today, I'm at peace with myself. As of right now, I know I did my best and that's all that matters to me, that I did my best and that means tomorrow I'll be better than I was today because as long as I keep working at something, I do nothing but improve.

I wish all my readers the best of luck in 2008 because let me say it now, 2008 is the year everything happens. I can feel it in my blood! I've worked too damn hard for it not to and I know I can, so it's just a matter of doing it now! Watch out world! :D