Friday, August 29, 2008

My guitar specs

After 8+ long years of wait, my order of a Ruck guitar is finally close to becoming a reality!

You can only imagine the excitement with which I opened up the large brown envelope which stated that the letter was from a "Mr Robert Ruck" from the United States.

In it, Robert Ruck informed me that my guitar should be constructed in early 2009. Meanwhile, there are quite a number of options which I had to decide on, depending on my preferences and obviously - my budget!

If this had happened just 3 months back, I'd have gone for the "kill" - basically taking up all the added options, which would include:

1) Guitar case: Karura - prob cost about USD1,000
2) Guitar tuners: Rodgers, of course! - another USD1,000
3) Guitar top wood: Composite top (according to Bob, this is made up of 3 layers of cedar!) - USD3,000
4) Guitar finish: French Polish - USD500
5) Guitar side wood: Madagascar wood (supposedly gives a sweeter sound) - USD800
6) Guitar construction (ie. the guitar itself) - USD7,750

If you add all these all... it comes to a whopping.... USD14,050 !!

Of course I am aware that there is a certain "investment value" in such an instrument. If sold in the guitar dealer shops (mostly the US sites), this would probably cost upwards of USD25,000. But the thing is, I most likely would never sell this guitar (for as long as I play the classical guitar, that is!)

Fast forward to the present...

With the impending gargantuan amounts of money needed to fund our new home (renovations, furnishings.. etc, not to mention the scarily large mortgage loan we are going to be weighed down by), I have to face up to reality (sob..sob).

Still, there ARE some 'upgrades' which would have to be done, in order to make my long wait worth its while!

*gleefully rubbing hands *

Finally...

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

吃屎

老师问学生:人生自古谁无死...你接下一句!
学生答:人生自古谁无屎,有谁大便不用纸!
老师很生气.叫学生罚站.

隔年,老师又问回同样的问题...学生回答

他答:人生自古谁无屎,有谁大便不用纸.
若君不用卫生纸,除非你是用手指.


老师很生气, 又叫学生罚站!老师看见窗外下着雪,就遗憾的说:
天上下雪不下雨,雪到地上变成雨.雪变雨来多麻烦, 为何当初不下雨...

学生又回复老师:老师吃饭不吃屎,饭到肚里变成屎.
饭变屎来多麻烦,为何当初不吃屎...

Monday, August 25, 2008

The Olympics are over

After 16 days of exciting sporting competitions, the 2008 Beijing Olympics are finally over.

I had upgraded my Starhub setup box to the HD box, and yeah! - the HD5 channel was really bright and colours were so vibrant! Made me very gian to go and get a Blue Ray player (or the PS3) and start watching some Hi-Def stuff... *rub hands in eager anticipation*

(Sigh... but with our impending moving house and renovation costs hanging in the air, I hesitate to spend on such luxuries leh.. )

Anyway, things I'll remember about this Olympics (other than the beautiful Hi-def pictures):

1) Singapore got our long-awaited medal after 48 years (well done! Feng Tian Wei, Li Jia Wei and Wang Yue Gu, of the women's table tennis team)

2) Michael Phelps' 8 Olympic gold medals is simply awe-inspiring and should serve as great motivation and inspiration for young swimmers world-wide. (NIKE's motto comes to mind: Impossible is Nothing)

3) Usain Bolt's record breaking 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay sprints. Is this guy even human?? yeah... maybe he "ain't no man"...hohoho

4) Guo Jing Jing's beautiful diving and ice-cool winning style. (need i say more..?)

5) Nastia Liukin's beautiful gymnastics and her moves on the uneven bars and beam. This impressive and graceful American young gymnast is just so unlike the tiny and puny little wonder "kids" representing China ( though i must say, these "kids" are good at what they do!)

6) Liu Xiang's missing out on giving the Chinese (or in fact, Asians) a representative for the Gold medals in the track events. Such a disappointment (more so for the Chinese people..) he couldnt compete due to his injuries...

Anyway, now that the Olympics are over - it's time to get back to the BPL!

Go Man U!