Amateur Baker

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Wow!!! Weekends really feels much better now!!! Unlike when I was still in BMTC, even weekends feels shitty, really SHITTY!!!! The excitement that arises from book-out only last till at most 1800 hours on Saturdays. When the sky starts to darkens, I start to get one of the shittiest feeling that I've ever felt, thinking that I have to go back to that damn Tekong when I only return home for less than 48 hours, then go face all the shitty superiors with their shitty mouth and language, shitty platoon mates with their shitty attitude and shitty behaviour.....Luckily it was all over.....phew.....

And for now, I get to come home EVERYDAY!! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.....feels so like school now, but just that the duration is longer. Waking up before dawn and going back either before or during dusk, either by bus or train, or when I'm lucky, by the car of my Master Sergeant!!! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! My unit really rocks man....everyone quite friendly, then slacking for now until beginning of May.....Most importantly, I get to STAY-OUT!!!!! What more could I ask for???? But now there are other worries.....what if I get selected to be CQ (Company Quartermaster)????!!!!! God bless me, please don't let me become CQ, I don't want to become third sergeant, I just want to remain as a low and carefree private.......as the saying goes, 'With power comes great responsibilities', I'm not that kind of person who can handle huge amount of power and certainly not those who can shoulder a massive amount of responsibilities.

Another worry is going to Australia.....for a MONTH!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! When my company clerk said that we may be going to Australia somewhere round holiday season, the first concern that I raised was the duration.

I asked:

"How long will we be going?? A month???"

"No la, four weeks plus only...."

"Huh???!!! 4 weeks plus is 1 month what."

"Huh?? Really ah??(Surprised) Oh ya!(Raising eyebrows, enlightened look)"

-_-|| ..............apparently, it didn't hit him that 1 month lasts for 4 weeks plus.....he genuinely thought 4 weeks plus wasn't a month, you should just see his face......

Walau......1 month out of Singapore!!!!!! 17 days in Tekong which is still in Singapore has already driven me hard enough to start hitting people, how am I gonna survive the 28++ days out of Singapore and in ANOTHER CONTINENT???!!!!! OMG....I think by then I'll go crazy again and start to hit the Kangaroos and Koala Bears.......

So what now??? Can only pray that I could remain as a private for the remaining 20 months of my NS life.

Okay, this is a request by Fangling, so I shall do this second half of the post for her....we'll be talking about Kelly Clarkson this week.

As most of you know, she's the 1st winner of the long running reality TV series, American Idol.
Since her win in AI, she has went on to establish a highly successful career in which her 3 albums sold more than an estimated 18 million copies(Try to top that, Jay Chou!), having 7 top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts and going to win 2 Grammys, 4 American Music Awards and 12 Billboard Music Awards. All these before her, pardon me for saying this, act of IMBECILITY and IDIOCY regarding her latest album My December.

As many people know, there was lots of conflicts over My December between Kelly and Clive Davis, former President of Arista Records, President of J Records and Chairman of BMG U.S. Label Group.

It was said, and later confirmed by Kelly herself, that Mr Davis was displeased with the album and is planning to make major changes to the album or even going for the extreme of deleting the whole album. Kelly, not respecting Mr Davis' decision stubbornly refused to make any changes to that album as she apparently wanted her own album(she wrote most of the songs in My December) in which allow her to express her feelings and emotions.

Quite a few big shots in the industry like Simon Cowell came to side with Kelly saying "She made it absolutely clear that she wanted to steer the musical direction on this record. You just gotta say, 'You know what? This girl has given us millions and millions of sales.' You've got to give her that opportunity."

Reba McEntire, a good friend of Kelly's commented on the situation, saying "Back in the day, female artists were told to perform and then go sit in the corner. Thank God for people like Dolly Parton who took charge. Kelly is the same way. She knows what she wants. She's had a rough go of it in the music business. People think she just won Idol and everything else was easy. Not so. She's had to fight"

Let's sidetrack a bit here. Dolly Parton is one of the most successful country singers of all times, with 25 RIAA certified, Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum albums, 26 no.1 singles on the Billboard Country Charts, 41 top 10 country albums, 7 Grammys and 100 million records sold worldwide in her 4 decade career. She earned herself the nickname of 'The Iron Butterfly' due to the fact that she wouldn't allow anyone to influence her decisions, be it regarding her album production or her business. Once she has set herself a target, she goes all the way.

Back to Kelly. All I can say about her is that she's arrogant and ignorant. Just because Breakaway received phenomenal success doesn't grant her the rights to steer her directions on her career path.

Firstly, she's not certainly not Dolly Parton. Plus both of them specializes in completely different genres of Music. Kelly's music belonged to the more mainstream section while dolly specializes more in Country Pop. Being in the mainstream sector, certainly her company has high expectations when it comes to album sales, hence album which is as negative and dark like 'My December' most probably wouldn't suit the taste of today's listeners. Hence, it is only right that the profit motivated recording company refuses the album as it might have an adverse effect on the sales of the album.

Secondly, She's not Celine Dion or Mariah Carey, who've both been in the industry for more than a decade and have both sold over 160 million albums worldwide. Kelly compared to them is just a pygmy who sold only 18 million albums. So what if Breakaway sold 12 million copies worldwide ?? She's still a newbie to the industry, why would Mr Davis even think of letting her do her own album??

Thirdly, she's standing against the Legendary Clive Davis, who's responsible for the successful careers of Usher [Estimated Accumulated Album (EAA)Sales: 30 million], Westlife (EAA Sales: Both 40 million), TLC (EAA Sales: 55 million), Barry Manilow (EAA Sales: 75 million), Annie Lennox (EAA Sales: 80 million) and for the discovery of The Voice, Ms Whitney Houston (EAA Sales: 159 million). Therefore, I don't think he'll allow one arrogant young lass to ruin his reputation of carving amazing careers. By trying to stand against Mr Davis , Kelly is like a lamb trying to challenge a lion, she's bound to lose. Seriously, I really think she doesn't know what's best for her.

But I think she got her punishment. Due to her adamancy in releasing the album. Mr Davis seemingly took revenge by cutting down publications of her singles and the album. Even though the lead single peaked at no.9 of the Billboard Hot 100, it was largely due to her star power, resulting in a large amount of downloads. The song received little airplay. Her second single, fared significantly worse, peaking only at a miserly 110 on the Billboard Charts. Album sales were also appalling, it sold less than a million in U.S and sold only 1.6 million copies within 6 months in year 2007 (My December was released in June). Celine Dion's Taking Chances fared better by a mile, with sales of 3.1 million copies by the end of 2007 despite being released 5 months later in November. :D

So the point is, never stand up against a veto power, especially when you're still not equipped with the knowledge and experience. I think Kelly should have learnt her lesson by now.

Okay, as requested by Fangling again, this week, we're having Kelly Clarkson.
The song's entitled 'Just Missed The Train', from her debut album 'Thankful' The album was highly successful in USA, peaking at no.1 on the Billboard 200 and sold almost 3 million copies till date. However, due to lack of publication, the album did quite badly outside of US, with sales of only an approximate 900,000, where 1 of it was contributed by ME!!! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Just Missed The Train

Roll over baby
The time has come
To make a little bit more room
I’ve hung around you
It’s getting tough
I think I’m gonna break down soon
Cause I remember
Crying in the park
It was getting dark
Suddenly I looked up
You were my sky

So go on
And sleep darlin
Why don’t you pretend we were just a dream
It’s cool baby
It doesn’t matter anyway
Well I’m so sorry
We got to the station a little too late
Such a shame
We just missed the train
We just missed the train

Be quiet angel
Don’t make a sound
Save it for a rainy day
Oh can’t you see me
I’m such a mess
Trying hard to find my way
Do you remember wasting all the time
We were feeling fine
Though we couldn't walk a line,
We were all right

So go on
And sleep darlin
Why don’t you pretend we were just a dream
It’s cool baby
It doesn’t matter anyway
Well I’m so sorry
We got to the station a little too late
Such a shame
We just missed the train

Oh why did that train just pass us by
Didn’t anyone see we were stuck at the light
And we would've made it on time

Yeah
Yeah
Yeah

So sleep darlin'
Why don’t you pretend we were just a dream
It’s cool baby
It doesn’t matter anyway
Well I’m so sorry
We got to the station a little too late
And sleep darlin'
Why don’t you pretend we were just a dream
It’s cool baby
It doesn’t matter anyway
Well I’m so sorry
We got to the station a little too late
Such a shame
We just missed the train

|Shi Hao| 8:09 PM|

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