Karma in the jungle

And here we are, 10 days after my last entry. Today's a big day for me, because we have a big All Indian Comedy Show tonight called Karma Komedians. I'm excited and nervous about it. Not stressfully nervous but just excited nervous. I don't know what to expect and I have to do a whopping 40 minutes tonight. I'm really not sure how that's going to happen but it just will.

So I've been reading the book 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot and I am loving this book! Sure last entry I said I wasn't blown away but now I am! Some of the things it talks about are really fascinating, comparing things like does Mozart's music have long term effects on your intelligence? And many other interesting thoughts that popular culture has us believe in a certain way..... I'm almost done with it. I read about decision making yesterday and it talks about concepts of letting your sub-conscious make the decisions and how to work with that. If you haven't read that book, I recommend you check it out, it's quite an easy read, especially since it touches on so many topics and basically tells you what you need to hear, not a long lecture that you'll probably forget.

The next book that's on my list is the newly bought (also with gift vouchers heheheeh) Sun Tzu For Success: How to Use the Art of War to Master Challenges and Accomplish the Important Goals in Your Life. I couldn't help it, it looked too tempting and the amazon reviews seemed quite good about it. And heck, it's Art of War people!!!!
This month's been a real shopaholic month for me, with a new Kindle on its way for my mother (she uses my Kindle DX which means I don't get to use it while it's with her). I was also (once again) this close to buying a new phone for myself because I am just so freaking fed up with my current one but the sad thing is, it still works, I'm just fed up with it. Kind of like saying I could use a makeover but it's not something I need :P

I also indulged in a new Hallmark bamboo scented diffuser and it really is awesome! My room smells like..well the jungle! Ahaha but the cool thing is, every night I combine it with the lovely sounds generated by naturesoundsfor.me and voila! I enjoy the sound of the beach, owls, etc. in the middle of this concrete jungle I live in... and my Phillips living color set to green combined with the bamboo fragrance sure does wonders after a loooonnnggg hard day!

The thing is, work has been quite wild for me lately, I've been helping out the guys over at 8five2.com set up some blogs. Things are still work-in-progress but the cool thing is, they've been very helpful with suggestions and enhancements (like ideas for better display on the iPhone). Man it's getting to the point I feel like I need to get an iPhone just to test out apps and websites on it... this is insane!! I got to find an emulator to use.....

Things have been awesome with the band lately and we've worked on 2 brand spanking new songs with one of them really challenging my endurance (at least my ankle speed) but not so much that I'm out of control. I'm glad things are working smoothly again and we've all matured as a team. Things are so much more fun now, I really do look forward to jamming ever week. And speaking of the band, we're heading over the Macau tomorrow. Ahaha talk about  a packed weekend!

Anyways, the next 10 days are going to drive me mad but at least I know no matter how crazy it gets, I can always hide out in my humble little jungle, close my eyes and enjoy it :)

Time to get ready for tonight's show!! Rock on!

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 near

And here we are, the mighty month of June, hinting the arrival of the mid-way point of 2009. It's fascinating how these "dates" act as some sort of miracle turning point for a lot of people. Like new years suddenly empowers thousands to change their ways, all in a day. I admit, I'm one of them, but I often use it as an excuse to make changes. Kind of like I tell myself "alright man, it's a new year, a new mind-set and a new level of success" rather than "ok ok I'm going to do this starting 1 Jan!" the thing is, and if you read my previous posts near the new years' time, I often like to do a new years test run of all my resolutions for a few weeks to work out the kinks of everything before I really go with the "ok starting 1st Jan, I want to..." chant.

Speaking of chanting and repetitions, I've been continuously doing a lot of research about fitness and healthy eating and it feels good to get to a point a lot of the books seem to be repeating themselves. That means I've fully got the concept behind a lot of this. Of course, there's still a lot to learn, but the point is, I can now confidently plan out my meals, my workouts, etc. knowing exactly why I have to do everything. I mean, I've been studying factors such as how fast/slow you should lift a weight as well as let it down. In fact, after knowing all this, a lot of things make sense. I can even feel differences in my body and it no longer is "oh I feel sore", but it's a different type of sore. It's like I've better understood the different types/levels of soreness through understanding the reason behind this soreness. Like now, I'm in a phase of "slow tempo lifting" where I'm working my slow-twitch fibers and this often depletes the glycogen stored in your muscles much more, requiring your body to refuel with more glycogen, thus filling up your muscles more and making them bigger. I wake up feeling sore because I feel like my muscles are empty. After a hearty breakfast, I'm back to normal. The funny thing is, I realize now the benefits of this workout and to be honest, from a strength point of view, this isn't the best choice because I'm neglecting my fast-twitch fibers and eventually I'll be weaker than before. Partly because I'm lifting lighter weights and doing it slower. As they say, lift slow and become slow. But aren't your muscles getting bigger? Yes, that's true, but they're getting less efficient, in other words, my mind-muscle connection isn't being trained. Tell me to punch a guy, and I'll probably not be too forceful. It's a funny reality we live in.

I've found the best way I can improve is to understanding why I improve. Much like how I spent time learning about muscle-memory, I've seen my drumming skills improve a lot ever since I conciously understood why I was practicing a certain way. Sure I wish I had more than 30mins to an hour a day (at most) to practice, but it's still good enough. Oddly, drumming is all about the mind-muscle connection so training my muscles to get bigger helps my drumming in almost no way if you ask me, however, it does help boost my self-confidence, which in turn will boost my on-stage image/vibe and thus probably help my drumming in the end. However, it still comes down to plain ol' practicing in this field.

For comedy, this is yet another thing, body language, voice, tone, expression, etc. all combined! I'm hoping to do a one-man English show this year and it'll probably be at the end of August. I'm not sure if I can make it by then, but that's the goal for now. I've got 10 days to confirm this with myself and get to it. I've been constantly gathering ideas and stuff but haven't had a chance to refine any of them, but it's alright, an idea-gathering phase is very important in itself anyway. So I'll let you know what's going on there in my next post.

And this brings me to my point of being in the middle of 2009. I can see where I was on 1 Jan and where I am on 2 June. It's a good progress, kind of like this year has been a time for me to answer all my "why is it like this" questions, and hopefully the rest of 2009 will be for me to fulfill the "do it like this" part. :) So here's to another 10 days of achievements and successes to everyone :) Enjoy!

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.

Back on Track

And finally, my life is back on track. Well almost.

After my trip to New York, I had so much catching up to do, it wasn't funny. I then realized, I was falling back into the old ways where I'd get stressed out because I kept looking at my never-ending to-do lists and felt like there was always something waiting for me, even if it wasn't due today.

I then did what most people would do to give themselves a fresh start. Well, most geeks really. I did the equivalent to a girl getting a haircut to shed away her old memories or a guy buying himself a new cap. I reformatted my computer and boy does it feel good! It gave me that fresh feeling that made me feel like it was time to throw away my old ways and get on with the new. I sat down and went through all my work processes and figured out all the problems I was facing and listed them out, and solved them one by one. I've also started on a book called The Mind Map Book. A clear classic and figured I could use with the extra information this book has on Mind Maps. I mean, no one really needs to be taught mind mapping, but it's more like how to best use them. Kind of like no one ever needs to be taught how to do make to-do lists, but it's how to effectively use them, or make them more efficient that helps.

I must say, I've got back into my GTD ways and it's rocking my world like it did before. Especially since I've modified the way my to-do lists are displayed to me, hiding anything that isn't due today, until I want to see it (ie. when I've finished everything there is to do today :P). I've got myself into a fixed routine of practicing drums around 30 - 40 minutes a day, as well as a good, efficient workout routine that gives me days off without the psychological guilt trip many gym-goers get when they take the day off for rest.

I've also figured out a bunch of ways to keep my mind constantly growing in all my passions, from my love for everything metal to learning about the most effective way to do a bicep curl. I've also got myself going back into drawing but that's where I still have to work a bit because I still suck :P. I can't even seem to draw stick men properly.

My band, Eve of Sin, had a gig on 11 April 2009 during Easter weekend and boy was it awesome! Oh man, the crowd was freaking insane! I loved it! Thank you so much! We filmed it down but it's really quite dark. I should have used my night-vision setting, even though it makes everyone seem like green zombies, it's better than looking at a patch of black. But after some post-production, I can see the crazy moshing and oh man, my favorite, wall of deaths! We didn't expect it during one of our songs, but the crowd just spread apart like the Red Sea in the story of Moses! And before we knew it, BOOM! Ahah, I have to get the video to the other bandmates before I get everyone's approval to upload it for your viewing pleasure. Please be careful, it is still metal so mind those ears! :D

Comedy's been going good and I had 2 good shows this weekend, with English on Friday and Chinese on Saturday :) I hosted the Chinese show and it's a lot of fun, even though I'm not very used to starting a show, but the coolest part of hosting is that you get to keep going back on stage :) So if you ever forget to say something, you can go back and do it! :D There is a 2nd chance! :D i even got invited to go on a TV show called Sunday Whiz (Check out the 19 April 2009 episode) as a guest to talk about racism in Hong Kong. It's in Cantonese, but it was quite interesting. I guess the thing is, if you ask me to point out racist events in my life, I could go on and on and on, but at the same time, I don't feel that racism really. I just feel it's racist only if you take it as racism. Calling someone a gwailo, in my view, is racist only if it's said offensively or if you want to make sure it's distinguished that you are not them. But there are a lot of people who feel good being called that, it makes them feel like they are part of society, now that they have terms like that that are specifically for them. But oh well, I respect everyone's opinion :).

I'm hitting a slight plateau in the gym though, so my routine's probably going to need to get changed in a week's time, however, the coolest thing is that I'm getting some pretty good gains though. I think it has to do with the way I plan my meals before and after my workout and so far so good. I have to say though, I've come to realize, my flexibility isn't balanced though, my left side is muuuuccchh tighter than my right, which sucks but also makes sense seeing as my right side is stronger and also from my drumming, using the computer, it's my right side that moves the most, left side usually stays there, hence the muscle tightening. Sigh :\

And everything else is so far so good. Today I get to take it a little easy and I've got myself a slice of salmon. Did I ever tell you how much I love salmon? You have no idea, whenever I buy it, I literally have a singing tune in my head as I wait to get back and cook the hunky piece of juicy fish :). Maybe because it's good for my heart, it gives me that warm fuzzy feeling you'd get when you saw, say, a handbag of your dreams and you fell in love with it :)

Mmm... salmon *drools like Homer does*

Floating in the clouds from New York

Hello hello from thousands and thousands of feet in the sky! That's right, I'm actually typing this on my laptop on the plane going back to ol' Hong Kong! Boy it has been a sweet 2 weeks in New York! I fit right in (except my inability to differentiate coins unless I take them out, look at them, and go "oh a dime is 10 cents!" :P)

So here I am, with almost 14 hours still to go before I land back home and I figured after this lovely vacation (with some "work" thrown in for good measure), it's time to get back in the groove and have a head start on stuff. And what better time to begin than now?! :) I was watching some stuff on Studio CX which is Cathay Pacific's in-flight entertainment (which I must say has completely blown me away! I'm used to flights with 1 TV screen everyone shares) but figured I can reward myself later on in the night when everyone's sleeping.

For those of you who's managed to somehow get info. about my time in the big apple, you'll know it's been one crazy but fun time. The key features of my trip are all the food I ate! I got to perform in a few real New York comedy clubs! I shopped a whopping 23kg worth of stuff! I've become a master at using the New York subway and of course, I'm exhausted but well rested mentally. Exhausted because I have not had a day during my trip where I've slept for anything over 7 hours combined with the food I've been eating (ranging from pizza to pancakes, to fried chicken, to cup cakes), I can feel my body crying for proper rest and nutrition like before! But mentally, I'm ready to rock! I can't wait to get back and get into the groove of life in Hong Kong!

You know, the odd thing is that New York is really actually quite similar to Hong Kong. As Jami Gong, the founder of TakeOut Comedy says, it's "New York on steriods", which in many ways I admit is true. The only part HK loses to NY is in the artistic side and their variety in food and shopping. The supermarkets in NY are unforgiving! If you go in without a specific shopping list, you're screwed! I've found myself wandering around, looking at the 3503853052820539 types of cereals they carry, thinking "oh my goodness, I'd never get anything done with all these options!" But at the same time, it also means you have no excuse for limiting yourself. Heck, everywhere you go it has nutrition labels attached to it! Starbucks, McDonalds, etc. all tell you how many gazillion calories they contain. Oddly enough, people are probably immune to those numbers and you still see them munching happily away at 29035503 doughnuts each weighing in at 300+ calories. And speaking of calories, they're serving lunch now, so I'll continue this in a bit :)

Ahh and we're back. Dinner alongside the movie "Body of Lies". Another one of those movies that I just can't seem to follow and probably need to re-watch. Oh well, so we've got around 11 hours to go and it's quite odd, seeing as it's 8am Sunday in Hong Kong but I'm still attached to New York time, making it 8pm on Saturday night. I hope I don't get too much jet-lag. It's funny about flights nowadays, especially long flights like these. You find yourself "hanging out" a lot just because you've sat for too long and really need to walk around to get that blood flowing properly again. Oh and speaking of flowing, I never realized they have power sockets for your laptops on the plane! OMFG do you realize what this means? I can have my laptop on all flight long! Woohoo! I went to use the restroom just now and oddly, on the door there's an ashtray. This is of course after they've repeatedly warned us that this is a non-smoking flight and should you be caught smoking, you will be fined up to HK$50,000! But if you're going to do it, at least don't get the ashes everywhere.

Going back to my story about NY vs HK, one thing I liked the most about NY was the fact that you're on your own. You'll have weirdo's, people screaming and dancing in the middle of the subway, literally full blown bands playing, and you know what? No one's going to stop you. It's not so much people don't care, but it's more like no one seems to frown upon that behavior, it's taken as being normal. If this happened in HK, even though chances are no one will stop you, they will give you the stink eye and dirty looks. That's definitely one thing I like a lot about NY, however, what I don't like are things like sales tax (freaking 8.375%! WTF?!), the price of food (I eat on average at least US$5/meal, which makes it like HK$40! I'm used to HK$25 - 35 tops!). But I suppose I could definitely see myself living in New York, for around a year, just to really dig into the "you're on your own, you make your life" vibe.

Speaking of being on your own, I got to do three 5 minute sets of comedy in New York! Do you know how insane that is?! Not only i that almost unheard of because stage time is so darn rare there, but for me, a dude from Hong Kong, having done comedy for around 15 months, to come over, not have to do any street barking (ie. give out leaflets) or work my way in the club, to get a spot, that's hardcore crazy! But boy what an experience, as I've told lots of people, it's like I moved into the big leagues. The guys in HK are great, but in a comedy show in NY, everyone is top notch and polished and boy you do not want to have an off night, especially not for me. And man I was nervous, it'd been a while since I was this nervous really, especially since it was only 5 minutes. I'm used to 10 - 20 minute sets in Hong Kong but being at a whole new place and an unknown audience sure sets your heart beating fast. I got to perform at the famous Comic Strip, Ha! Comedy club and at 5-points variety show :) I also did a friendly bi-lingual show for Jami Gong and his friends :)

I got to explore all over NYC on foot simply because it's all flat land. I mean I would literally come back home with aching feet and sore legs from hours and hours of walking non-stop (with the occasional food and toilet break). Oh, speaking of toilets, NYC really loses compared to HK with regards to the availability of public toilets. But I somehow managed to find one in times of need, or at least I knew where to find one (eg. I could be found going to the M&M's store in time square many times solely for the use of their nice toilet :P).

So well here comes the end of my vacation and I guess I do understand why people need to just "get away". Had I just "taken 2 weeks off" in Hong Kong, chances are I wouldn't be a mentally rested as I am now, nor would I be so charged up to start everything and get back on track. So I guess this is one of those "small step back to take a big step forward" deals where I kinda lost out 2 weeks of getting stuff done, but hopefully I'll make up for it in the coming time. And if I don't, well at least I'll have fond memories of shivering in the cold of New York and enjoying soul food and just witnessing blue skies over and over again. Oh and getting to enjoy graffiti everywhere. Lots and lots of lovely graffiti. Hey, at least I got to smile for 2 weeks :)

Hong Kong, here I come!

2 years. Where was I?

Woah, it's been 2 whole year as of today since I started this blog! It's so much fun travelling back in time and reading these sorts of logs to see where I was and where I am and how much of it was "pre-planned" and how much of it just happened. Poof, I can honestly say, whatever's going on in my life, at most 30% of it was planned 2 years ago when I started this blog. The rest? Well the rest is as with anything in life, it goes with the flow.

It's times like these that makes me happy to know I'm a person obsessed with leaving my footprints and marks of my history for the future me to enjoy and recall about :). To be able to see how I had treaded up the mountains just to scream my lungs out not knowing that in a matter of months, the emotional turmoil I was going through would be nothing compared to the craziness that I'd be thrown into. To know that the emotional turmoil I'd once gone through was actually a blessing in disguise revealed to me a few entries later. Heck, every entry of mine surprises me with something I didn't expect. So what's to come in the next 10 days for me?! Who knows! :) And that's the great thing about life, you just can't get bored of it.

A lot of times people need stability, they need a routine, hell, I need a routine too, I can't wake up every morning not knowing if I'll still have a bed to sleep in. However, I do wake up every morning not knowing how my day will unfold until it does so. I may give myself a rough outline of the day's schedule, but rarely has it ever followed precisely and I've come to accept the standard rate of error (you know those +/- 5% sorts of things) in my time management. I no longer freak out when I'm 5 minutes behind schedule, I simply appreciate that I'm not 6 minutes behind and charge on.

I guess in the last 2 years, a lot of me has grown and improved. Kind of like a person with a better haircut doesn't make that a different person, it's still the same person but with improvements (or if it's a bad haircut then the other way round). For one, I've come to establish that I can do what I want to do as long as I genuinely know I want to do it. There's no faking passion, as I've said time and time again in my posts. The things I do cannot be faked, you can't fake enjoying heavy metal, you can't fake being fit, you can't fake being funny and you sure as hell can't fake having a passion about something. Reading through my entries in these last 2 years, my passions have remained somewhat the same, however, I've grown in terms of depth regarding them. My drumming's improved, my fitness has gotten better, my comedic performances are more enjoyable and well heavy metal music still is like a brain massage to me :) Speaking of which, if you haven't already, you must check out Lamb of God's newest album Wrath. It's one of those discs that need time to absorb and enjoy. You can't enjoy red wine without letting it breathe a bit, the same goes for this album. It's really, really good and now has become my mental gear shifters for the gym. I turn this on and boom my muscles are pumped with blood and ready to dance with dumb bells like it was Saturday night live.

I won't let this post go on for too long but I just wanted to share with you the joys of having this blog that has been a part of me for the last 2 years and if you don't already do so, start writing a blog or a journal. You may not see the point now, but in a few months when you look back at where you were and where you are, you'll be very, very happy about it :) Trust me.

Enjoy the fine Wednesday and look forward to the weekend, it smells like a good one!

Logs, logs, logs, logs and more logs

I've come to realize I'm the type of guy hat loves to keep logs of everything I do. I keep records of my comedic performances on video tapes, I log my drum practice sessions, my fitness workouts, even what I eat every day! Heck, I'm (b)logging right now!

The other day, I was at the gym, lifting weights when one of my fellow iron pumpers came up to me (he's seen me there and always smiles and occasionally has a small chat with me) and told me to stop logging everything down (I carry a notepad and pen with me to keep track of how much weight I lifted compared to my last session, so I don't get lazy) and told me to just lift as much as I could and I'd get stronger. It made me think, was this overkill? I mean to keep track of things to this point, does it take the fun out of the whole deal? When I log down everything I eat, do I forget to enjoy what I eat because I'm so busy worrying about the nutritional content of what I'm eating?!

Honestly, it took me less than a second to realize, no, I love logging what I do. This way, I have a starting point from where to keep progressing. Not to mention it gives me more motivation to try harder because I've got written proof of where I was and where I am now. I mean, if I re-read posts in my blog that are like almost 2 years old, I'd even read about how I felt after having arguments with people, I'd remember those memories of struggling with my 1st comedic act, heck, I even have a post where I was so excited that I did 20 minutes of comedy in Cantonese! Now I can do a 1 hour show! :D Hell, my fitness log keeps me in check every time I'm at the gym because if I'm not getting better, I know something's wrong. Then I can go back to my food log and check if I've been eating right and perhaps it'll explain why my energy levels were lower than usual. Come to think of it, I feel like an Area 51 experiment but without the scientists around me, but instead, inside me.

I do admit, sometimes when you have logs of everything, you have a tough time maintaining these logs. It takes me time to actually stop, write down my drum speeds and progress and compare them to previous practice sessions. Time I could have been using to enjoy the sunshine or reading a book instead. Speaking of reading books, it's been so darn long since I actually read a book. It's crazy. I used to read my books on buses and trains but now I've almost always cut out taking the bus anywhere because I've come to realize it takes me just as much time to walk to the closest train station as it would if I waited for a bus, took the bus, then took the train. Not to mention I get that little walk and save some money! Win, win I tell you! :D Especially now that it's still a bit cool, I'm not all drenched in my sweat from walking around, so I might as well make the most of it while it lasts. I'll miss this when summer comes.

And when I'm on the train, I usually have my music playing and I'm just giving my brain the massage it deserve with some nice music. Ok, nice is a relative term I must admit. Last night I was out with a friend for dinner and we were talking about our musical preferences. As many people know, I love metal. And when talking about it, it made me realize (and I've probably said this before) that metal is one type of music you can't fake enjoying to be cool. Unlike, say, hip hop or jazz, it's not that easy on the ears so if you don't like it, after a while, it's going to show. Don't get me wrong, I listen to jazz and hip hop too, but given a choice, it's usually metal first :) Recently, my workouts have been always fueled with Lamb of God's album Sacrament or a collection of my favorite Chimaira songs. It's gotten to the point that I have a psychological switch when these songs come on. Like I'd be walking on the road and when one of the songs, such as Lamb of God's Again we Rise or Redneck comes on, my mind will suddenly have images of the gym and weight plates. I've recently even been learning the drums to that song and it's a lot of fun, not too hard to play, but does require some focus because of the fills.

Speaking of drumming, so here we are in February and I had a new year's resolution of constantly working on my drumming skills from month to month. So here's the breakdown for those of you (read me):

• Blast Beat #1 fastest stable speed: 150bpm
  
• Stable double bass pedal for 1 minute: 155bpm
• Song learned: Lamb of God - Redneck
• Song perfected: Chimaira - Power Trip
• Song in progress: Lamb of God - Now You've Got Something to Die For

So there you go, more logging on my part. At least I'm living up to my word. The thing is, with these numbers, 1 year from now, when I look back, I'd probably laugh thinking "I could just do 150bpm only?!" because that's what I often do when I go back to some of the old drum exercises I used to do and marked it as "80bpm max" and now I'm hitting like 140bpm :) So logs, even if overkill, put a smile on my face after all. And thus, they'll keep going, on and on and on. At least if I do lose my mind one day, I'll still have my logs to tell me where I was when I was still less insane. Have a good next 10 days and you know what? Why not keep track of something and see where you got to in just a measly 10 days. Honestly, 10 days is a loooonnnggg time! :)

I doubled my funnies :)

This is a quick post and even though it's like 4 days late (it happened 4 days ago, on Saturday night), I won the English Comedy Competition and became Hong Kong's funniest person (in English) in 2008 :)
So now my trophies stand proudly on my shelf, side by side:

• 2007 - Funniest Person in Hong Kong: Chinese
• 2008 - Funniest Person in Hong Kong: English

I'm a happy (but very, very exhausted) chap :).

Inspired...finally

Yes. I'm back on track. My sleeping cycles have gone back to normal and I'm feeling more inspired than ever! So much has happened in the past 10 days, I don't know where to start.
So I have an early morning tomorrow (Wednesday) but I figured I really ought to stay on track with my blogging, after all, once I fall behind my schedule, I'll keep tumbling like before.

Tonight, I got to enjoy a great, great drum clinic by the magnificent Marco Minnemann and boy oh boy was he mind blowing. I mean, it was crazy enough just watching Mike Mangini yesterday, but Marco just finished me off! As much as deep down inside I'm thinking "man, they're so lucky to be able to play like that", I know there's no luck involved, it's all hard, dedicated effort they've put in over the years. I mean these guys have been playing drums for over 15 years so I'm nowhere close to them with just a bit over 3 years under my belt. The cool thing is, this is exactly the kind of inspiration I needed recently. I've been really busy filming for a documentary I'm hosting for RTHK that I haven't had a chance to sit in front of my kit and just play let alone practice!

Speaking of practicing, I haven't had a chance to rework my set for this Saturday's English Comedy Competition Finals! Yikes! Filming has been non-stop since Sunday and every evening I've had the drum clinics and here I am on the verge of going to bed so there goes any chance to work at my material and refine it even more. For those of you who weren't at the heats, this year's competition is very, very stiff! Everyone's upped their game and this is exactly the way I love it! May the best man/woman win! I really appreciate a good, hard competition because it makes the victory all the more worth it, not to mention even if you lose, you know you lost to some of the top notch people available! :D So in many ways, I've already won. In fact, this reminds me of this time last year when I was just getting into stand up comedy. Before the Chinese competitions, my friend Bun asked me once on the phone "Just tell me this Viv, what will you do if you don't win the competition?" and I responded "You know, the fact that I'm just able to do stand up comedy is a victory for me, it was a dream, now it's a reality, winning the competition is secondary" and in many ways, the same applies this year. I mean, sure, it'd be great if I won, I'd love it and all, but if I don't, so what? I mean, I'm the type of person that grows through both success and failure so both ways I will come out strong so I'm not really worried in that sense. I'd only feel bad if I knew I could have done better. In fact, isn't that what kills most people? Not the feeling of losing, but the feeling of losing when you could have won if you just did your work better?

I've been recently reading some stuff about fitness and it had a whole chapter talking about goal setting. Sure, every book always touches on that topic but this one included some really good points as well as quotes and I'd like to share them with you here.

In his book Watermelon Magic, Wally “Famous” Amos wrote:
“Mistakes are natural. Mistakes are how we learn. When we stop making mistakes, we stop learning and growing. But repeating the same mistake over and over is not continuous learning – it’s not paying attention.”

Legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi put it best when he said, "The dictionary is the only place success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must all pay for success."

And finally,

In developing the martial art of Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee worked hard to quantify and formulate a philosophy for self-defense and personal growth. His formula was: 1) Research your own experience, 2) Absorb what is useful, 3) Reject what is useless, and 4) Add what is specifically your own.
“Formulas can only inhibit freedom,” said Lee, “They are externally dictated prescriptions that only squelch creativity and assure mediocrity. Learning is definitely not mere imitation, nor is it the ability to accumulate and regurgitate fixed knowledge. Learning is a constant process of discovery – a process without end.”

I guess when you put all these together, it kind of tells you the same thing, everything requires effort. There is no quick fix nor a short cut. Marco Minnemann never got to where he was from just mucking around, he spent hours and hours working at his technique and refining his musical mind. But effort really isn't enough. Like Bruce Lee says, learning is not mere imitation, just repeating something that already can be done is useless, why would anyone find you to do something they could find someone else to do? It's point #4, adding what is specifically your own that makes me smile. It's this point that differentiates us from anyone else.

Even in my comedy, I know it when it's my style, that's my goal, to have my own style, my own signature, my own stamp that people can recognize immediately. The same goes with my drumming as well. Of course, don't get me wrong, I personally think imitation is a form of learning, much like how you have to learn the rules before you can expect to break them. With drumming, you got to learn the basic rock patterns before you expect to create your own. Like Bruce Lee said, after researching, you absorb and reject the information, then you personalize it. I do this a lot with my comedy, I observe my surroundings, absorb, perceive and acknowledge it, then let my perspective on it sink in and see what I get out of it. Very often I get nothing. Sometimes, however, I get a great bit and that goes into my arsenal of humor. Heck, sometimes I could be showering and an idea comes into my head and I'm rushing to write it down or I keep repeating it so I don't forget. If there's one thing I really don't like, it's forgetting an idea. Great or not great idea, I hate forgetting it because there's a difference between being great now, or being potentially great. They're both great, just at different times. Just like asking, which is better? Sun rise or sun set? They're both good in their own ways.

So, as usual, my inspiration is limited by the same thing as always -- time. It's Tuesday night and I feel like I've accomplished so much, yet accomplished nothing at the same time because things I wanted to do haven't been done, but things that needed to be done, have. Well on a brighter note, tomorrow I have a quick medical scan, then I can finally sit and catch up on my work. I've got a lot of stuff lined up, so hopefully I'll be in the cranking the widgets mentality and get it all done as fast as possible. And now, I'm off to bed. Have a great night's sleep and happy hump day! :D

The hardest week this year.

It's Saturday and this week has officially been the toughest week I've had so far in 2008. Poof.
I'm literally physically and mentally exhausted today and I can feel the strain of even having to think so I figured I might as well just free my mind and write whatever flows... kind of like stretching exercises for the muscles I suppose.

Speaking of exercises, it's been a week since I stopped to practice my drums and may I say even that I wasn't motivated to do properly today. I found myself wanting to skip certain exercises and stuff because they were "boring" when normally I'm always enjoying the most boring of exercises. Sigh, it's discouraging when I find myself struggling through stuff I'm normally comfortable with. Like today, my double strokes were just total rubbish! Yikes. Anyways, I won't bore you all with this.

So yesterday was the first Chinese Stand-up Comedy show in Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong. It was quite good, though I have to admit the last show at Champs (29-Feb-2008) still is unbeatable :) not to say last night wasn't fun, just the setting made interacting with the audience tough, after all, a lot of my set is about interaction where I mess around with people and get them to talk and add to the comedy :) And tonight I've got English stand-up at TakeOut Comedy Club so once I'm done with my set, I'll head back to CLIQ (where we performed Cantonese stand-up last night) to check out the English show and then probably hang around a bit after that. I really am tired today but I don't want to say something like "oh I'll watch the show and leave" because I know that won't happen, people will want to sit down and chit chat which is only fair :P.

Tomorrow's Sunday and that means I need to catch up on all the stuff I have pending so far. One of them is clearing my room up. I think half my energy gets drained when everything is a total mess. It's not the mess that gets to me, it's the sense of being disorganized because I know as long as I know where everything is, the visual outlook doesn't matter but right now it's like I have boxes on the floor, paper everywhere and it's just all out of order! Ahah, I think I will clear it up a bit more when I finish this post. Just need to sit and relax. Thank goodness for my lovely Aeron chair, it's so comfy but even right now, my body's so tired/aching that even this chair isn't enough. I could really use a good proper massage.

So what else is running wild in my life? Well my band Eve of Sin is playing in Underground #56 at Club Cixi so I'm really excited about that (always get exciting playing drums... as you must know by now), I've got more comedy gigs lined up, and my freelance web design work is taking off even more. Which is also another reason why I'm burning up faster recently. I guess I've got to take a few more pauses every now and then and make sure I can see the whole picture and manage every small bit involved rather than trust they will manage themselves properly.

So how is everyone doing? The weather's still a bit cold and so I got a jacket on right now but at the same time I was sweating while drumming. I've been lazing around today watching comedy roasts on YouTube most of today, a lot of Don Rickles involved, very, very good stuff, woah. It really amazes me how his whole persona comes across as being genuinely grumpy :P I try to be funny and cocky in my stand-up routines but like I said before, there's a fine line between being an asshole and being witty and I try my best not to step over the boundary. I feel in last night's show, a bit of me stepped across the line every now and then, I guess out of nervousness because of the relatively difficult space we were in. I always worry pissing people off too much but I guess they understand it's all in fun :). Anyways, to all of you who came to the show last night, thanks a lot, I really appreciate the support and laughter, for those of you who's seen a lot of my set before, I'm writing new material but it's hard to have top-notch stuff all the time, but I think it's better to have 2 really good jokes than 10 mediocre ones :).

Let's see how I feel tomorrow, because it's a Day 10 entry...

It's Day 10 already!

Wow! 10 days already since my last entry. Time has really, really flown very fast this time. It sure doesn't feel like 10 days! My last entry was a major entry so I guess that's why I don't have too much to say. But if I think back, once again, a heck of a lot has happened.

First, I had a killer set at Champs on 29 Feb 2008 doing Chinese stand-up comedy! The whole night was a good show in general with a full house and very interactive people in the audience. Some of the ladies sitting near the stage were really nice and played along to our jokes. It's really quite a challenge to make sure you as the comedian try your best to always stay one step ahead of the person you're talking to in everything you say. In many ways it's like you need to outsmart and outwit them while staying funny and not offensive. I've found sometimes I need to really take care and not cross the line of being rude. But I guess in the end, it's still fun and people come with a laughing mind and so whatever may seem rude comes out as just being a joke. Also, after every show I make it a point to go back to those who played along and thank them because after all, if it wasn't for their sense of humor, the show wouldn't be as fun. I very much like interacting with the audience because it brings a fresh feel to the whole show even if a lot of my material is my old stuff. It's tough writing new material for every show and so I try to make sure people who return don't see a completely identical show. Then again, there are people who come just to re-hear some of my bits and even "sing-along" at times ;) It's quite encouraging.

So that's my comedy update for this entry. Now on to my drumming......*drum roll* I got a new snare drum! Check it out, and yes, even I was shocked when I finally chose this one because anyone who knows me knows that I really, really, really, really don't like getting signature models of anything (ie. stuff that was designed for someone else) but this snare was just perfect in price, in sound, in power, in look, in everything. I went to the store and tried out snare after snare after snare without letting budget limit me, but in the end, this one was the one. And the funny thing was, this was supposed to be the first snare I would try but I didn't because I told myself "It's a signature model, I don't want to get a signature snare!" So here you go, I'm the proud owner of a brand new Joey Jordison JJ1355 Snare drum:

Mwahaha!! Yesterday we went jamming and I finally got to put this lovely snare drum to the test. It definitely fits my drumset and my band's sound and while playing it, even I feel more empowered! It's kind of like shedding the extra bucks for a better guitar and in the end, with the better sound you're inspired to play differently and realize a lot of things that you felt didn't sound right now do. Like a lot of my drumming that I felt just didn't have the power to go with the angry guitar riffs now seems to be able to keep up. Again, as I'll always say, I still have a long, long way to go with my drumming, I'm much happier now! :D Speaking of drumming, I've gone berserk with practice lately, like suddenly I've got this new motivation to really work out my technique, like you'll see me playing quarter notes on the bass drum at 50bpm! That's like less than 1 beat per second, imagine doing that for over a minute, it sounds boring, but it sure let's me make sure my technique is proper. I need to find the perfect relaxed technique so when I go to higher tempos I'm not wasting any energy because when you're hitting 200bpm at 16th notes, we're talking making clean 13.3 beats per second! Sounds impressive eh? Ahaha that's my dream to hit that number :) I can do a very clean 140bpm now (ie. 9.3 beats per second) and the fastest I've clocked is 165bpm (ie. 11 beats per second) so there's still a long, long way to go. I don't even want to imagine people who are hitting like 225bpm (ie. 15 beats per second!).. yikes got a bunch of phone calls... got distracted.
Wow, I need to practice some drums today before I go for my comedy gig tonight :)...

So it's 10 days since my last entry, a lot has happened, my life's getting more and more focused and more and more broad in the sense a lot of going on once again and it's a matter of me keeping track of everything.. well not really keeping track, but more like trying to manage and not get overwhelmed by everything. My fitness routine's improving, I'm really noticing some jumps in my strength now because I've finally gone past the initial beginner phase of going to the gym where you're still searching to balance all your muscles so you can be optimally coordinated when doing any exercises. I have to admit, I've been spending more time on the weights than I do for aerobics but at least it's still a fair trade because the time I'd spend doing aerobics, it goes to my drum practice which really is quite tiring to all my limbs :) Not to mention all the concentration sure drains my brain out, but I love it.

So here's today's words of wisdom. Stick to it. Much like any habit, the hardest part is sticking to it in the beginning, breaking through the initial inertia and finding your momentum in what you're doing. Once you've found it, you'll just flow, much like when I'm standing in the greenroom before any comedy gig, I'm nervous no matter how prepared I am, but once I'm on stage, I let it flow, flow and flow some more :) The point is to be like any great manager, get the parts moving, and step aside and let them do their thing. I had to manage myself, and yes at times I had to intervene to make sure all the parts were moving properly, but once they have, I just step aside and enjoy the ride :) It's a lovely experience.

This tops it all

I have to say, out of all the great things that have happened to me in 2008, this has topped it all. Check this out this entry on Cantophilia!

I thought my comedy on YouTube with over 100,000 views topped my list of accomplishments but I was proved wrong when I stumbled upon this site and realized that someone took one of my bits, broke it down, transcribed it, added "ping yum" and used it as material to teach people Cantonese. The best thing is that foreign-born Chinese people are learning Cantonese from a HongKong-born foreigner! Talk about a totally twisted reality! :)

I look forward to more weird, hilarious encounters in the future! Thank you Cantophilia, it was a good move, yes I agree with you!

I did 20 minutes of Chinese!

Woah! What a night! We did a Cantonese Stand-up Comedy show (first time ever in Hong Kong!) at Champs Bar in Charterhouse and boy it was awesome! It still hasn't registered in my head right now that it happened but woah! I loved every bit of it! You have no idea how nervous I was before the show, the pressure, the expectations from others as well as myself! Yikes!

The cool thing is I'm getting more and more comfortable playing with the audience now. I guess I get an edge because I can mess with people without worrying about getting my ass kicked because after all, we're at a comedy club right!? People were really friendly tonight, I mean they all really played along even thought some were shy. I knew there would be shy people so I tried to work it out with them, it was all good in the end really.

I have to say this is a proud and happy feeling right now. It's slowly sinking into my head that this happened tonight because like I said before, this is all a dream to me, now it's like a bonus of a dream! I'm just so excited that this whole thing is taking off like this! Tonight is a historical for all of us Chinese comedians because it's the first time something like this has ever happened in Hong Kong, but at the same time this is a milestone in my life as well! I mean, now I can officially say I've headlined both in English and Chinese! In many ways the pressure is so much more because you know people are totally expecting a certain level of quality from you and I mean to be honest, I know I'm not bad, but because this has all happened so fast, it hasn't sunk into me properly what level I'm really at. I mean let's compare this to my drumming. Now I'm not boasting because if you asked me to tell you what I need to improve on, I could go on and on and on, but after 2 and a half years of drumming, I've gained a certain amount of confidence in my skills that even when surrounded by others, I know at least I'm at a certain level. But with my comedy, I guess I just need time and experience and it'll sink in, but until then, it does me no good to doubt myself or anything so I just go with it and do my best. Hey like I said, this is all a dream, if I end up totally screwing up, I'll just pinch myself and wake up :).

I'd rather burn out than fade away

I read that somewhere and it overwhelmed me completely! I love that phrase and it's my motto (for) now! To be honest, I'm really mentally exhausted, I've been out and about all day long since the moment I woke up and now it's around 1am and I can finally allow myself to stop and relax. In fact, I don't want to relax, I want to sleep, but I'm so used to late nights now from work and stuff that 1am feels like telling myself to sleep at 8pm, you just psychologically can't do it. But I'm going to try today because I need to have a full, long day tomorrow.

I think my energy levels have been going down because I haven't been doing my breathing exercises properly lately because the building renovation crew is painting the outside walls, so I don't want to be filling my lungs with the fumes from their paint. I know, I know, I could easily go to a park and get some fresh air, but when I'm out and about, I'm always on the go! I never seem to have the chance to stop!

Wow, I'm really exhausted to the point I can't even get myself to do hand drum exercises tonight! I've been kind of slacking off with drum practice lately because of all this work I have ahead of me. I don't blame laziness, I really have been busy. I have a lot of stand-up comedy performances lined up and then nerves are slowly building up because everytime I perform I want to be better than my previous show and this creates a certain level of pressure within myself. It's good pressure though, don't get me wrong, because without this, I'd never improve and I have to keep striving for excellence. I'd rather burn out than fade away :)

But on a brighter note, my lovely TD-12K drumset has arrived!! Waaaaahhooooo!! Check it out, the boxes are huge!!
Seriously, they're humongous! When I got home, I looked at them in awe and thought "Wow, poor delivery guys!" But I'm not going to allow myself to unpack them until this Sunday because I know once I open the box, I can say goodbye to the next 4 hours from the moment I break the seal. Speaking of drumming and crazy work, today is going to mark the last day I can relax. From tomorrow onwards, I have so much stuff lined up for myself it's not funny! I have to prepare for the Friday Stand-up comedy show at Champs. Then I'm having a late-night jam session with my band which means 12am onwards... oh goodness. Then Friday's the big day. Saturday I've got back-to-back comedy shows of Chinese followed by English. Sunday will be the day I catch up on all the work I missed out on Friday/Saturday. Monday, I've got a long meeting with a client during the day, Tuesday will be my day of preparation for my gig in Macao. Wednesday I'm at Macao all day. Thursday I'm back in Hong Kong and opening for Paul Ogata at night. Friday is my MC performance. Saturday is finally my day of rest and relaxation..... Sunday my friend Ka Chun is probably going to come to pick up my old electronic drums and then we're back to Monday and well I don't want to look that far.

So like I said at the start of the year, bring it! And let me just add, I'd rather burn out than fade away. This is a lot lined up but I'm ready for it. Don't forget I cannot and will not neglect my freelance projects, too. So I need to keep myself in tip-top condition and energized to the max at all times and on that note, I think I'm going to go for a nice hot shower, get into bed and get some snooze. I'm honestly plain and simply exhausted. Help :\.

Chinese and English Stand-up Back to Back!

Poof!! I'm totally exhausted! I finally have the energy to even log in and type an entry here. I've been sitting here dazed and confused and just brain dead for the past hour because I'm so tired.

I did a back to back Chinese and English stand-up comedy show tonight! It was awesome! The English show sold out probably because of all the publicity it received in the South China Morning Post that featured an article about me, so we had a great, great crowd and I finally felt confident enough to play with the audience and mess around with them. I was so nervous at first because I'd been sitting on the stairs near the toilet area writing some new jokes I just thought of because I wanted to make fun of the audience. There were a lot of Indians, Chinese and White people so I wanted to try to cover all grounds, I think I did it quite well :)

I have to say, the stress I went through most of today (Saturday) was crazy! I was on the verge of breaking down and even moments before I had to perform, I just wanted to die and be done with it! No matter how much you prepare, you're still nervous before a show, no matter what. But when you're done and the audience is laughing and applauding, it's a good worthwhile feeling. All that hard work and pain pays off in the end!

I'm excited but also stressed because I know I still have a long, long way to go, but hey, I've only been doing stand-up for around 3 months now, so I think I'm doing pretty good so far. I have to say, I've been thrown into the deep end of the comedy pool but in many ways, after all the shit I've been through in life, I'm ready to fight it out and make sure I don't drown. It's really, really tough but as The Road Less Travelled says:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I'll only be able to excel if I take that tougher path. Kind of like my decision to take the pitch black route on my hike to the peak on New Year's night. It made all the difference to me. Honestly. I feel like sitting down and just crying right now, not because I'm sad or frustrated, I just feel so open at this moment, like I'm surrounded by a bulletproof coating but naked underneath. I know I'm safe right now, but I know there's a lot more to come.

Tomorrow's going to be a big, big day for me, I have a lot I want to get done so tonight, I'm not allowing myself to do anything except relax. I wanted to practice some drum hand exercises but I'll just frustrate myself and it will be wasted so instead, I'm going to load up a movie, enjoy and fall off to sleep.

One week into 2008, and so much has happened already!! I hope the year is going very, very well for you all so far! :D

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

My first corporate stand-up gig

Wow! I just got home and I'm mentally burnt out! Being super nervous takes a big toll on you and your body! I feel like I just finished a week's worth of continuous exams!

But it's all worth it because tonight I just had my first corporate (read paid) stand-up comedy gig in the Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen! It was a multi-lingual one where I did 60% in English and 40% in Cantonese. Quite good fun, although I must say I was freaking nervous as hell because some of my material was quite fresh and so I haven't fully digested it and so to be honest, 1/3 way through my set, I actually forgot my next bit and so I just tried to fill in with something off the top of my head. When it came to me, I was on a roll again!

The crowd seemed to love my Chinese bits, maybe because it was easier to understand, but at least they had a good time and laughed loudly at my humor. It's quite encouraging when you get energy from the audience like that.

You know, the more I do this, the more other things are feeling like less of a pressure. I mean this past Saturday, I had a drum gig in Kwun Tong again with Crazimals and I was not nervous at all! I guess after doing Stand up comedy, where you're on your own, when you're with a full band, it feels like no big deal really because anything goes wrong, you've got whole crew of guys to cover you up. Then again, maybe I'm just getting more confident in my drumming.

Another thing I've learnt is that it is indeed all about timing! Woah, I need to learn to use pauses and stuff in my stand-up much like I do in my music! They're so similar because without precise delivery, the whole thing is ruined! But I guess as a stand-up rookie, I've got a lot to learn and refine. I have to admit though, ego-istic as this sounds, I think I'm pretty good for a guy barely 3 months into this :).

But speaking of timing, today was a total test of timing! I mean, you have no idea how tight I was on time when it came to my writing my material since last night! I haven't worked this hard at one stretch in a long, long time! I remember this time last night I was still going mad trying to organize my set for tonight's gig. I even went out for a walk at 2am to clear my mind as it was really blocked. I'm not talking about being tired, I'm talking about really not being able to think at all! All day today I spent refining my material as I wanted to clean up bits that were lacking a good punch and improve on my tried-and-tested jokes so I could fit it in different ways. My goal is to really get my material digested into my system so I have a vault of topics to pick at whenever I want. Finally, I left the house with around an hour to go and after-work traffic sucks ass! I was writing my material on the bus and throughout my journey to the restaurant! Even on the freaking boat to the floating restaurant! I was a nervous wreck! But one thing that saved my life was when I reached Admiralty, I saw the number 70 bus behind and I knew I had to catch that or else I'd be late, so I got off the bus I was on, and ran like never before! But I did get the bus and phew I made it on time (well a few minutes late, but blame the ferry, not me :P)

Today's not really a Day 10 entry, but I just wanted to share with everyone my milestone. But I have to say I regret one thing, before my set, I was so nervous I forgot to take out my camera and get photos/video of the gig!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lesson learned :|.... anyways have a good day and as Jami says, keep laughing! :D