The Crown

Was at the hospital recently for a medical review. I'm into my 5th year of post-cancer treatment. The thing with cancer is, the 5th year is a sensitive period where there is a possible relapse for some patients. I hope to get a full discharge this coming October if everything goes well.

Side note - in addition to blood tests, I also have to undergo physical examinations to check if the chemo side effects are affecting me excessively. As it is, I'm experiencing nerve damage, which is nothing new, but it's beginning to affect one of my eyes - this is new. It seems that the nerves there have deteriorated & affecting the ability of my pupil to dilate & react to light intensity. Over time, the excessive amount of light might cause retinal damage & manifest this type of blindness where there's a permanent dark patch in the center of my vision. 

That definitely killed my appetite for lunch. Did a quick escape to think things through over a glass of cold brew. By the way, if you are interested (depicted above), this is called The Crown, available at Whiskdom@OneNorth.

Wishing everyone the best of health.

Out & about

Had been spending the day with this one. This peculiar one, to be more specific. Why? Gibson said in its spec sheet, this sports a slim taper neck profile but it's somehow more comfortable to play for me especially. Then I realized that the 70s neck spec includes a slightly wider measurement as well so the slim taper + wide elements left an impression on me in terms of playing comfort. 

But Gibson equipped strange & rather repulsive capacitors in this guitar; a pair of blue, very small ones, no bigger than a baby's fingernail. It somehow made the guitar sound very bright. OK so the mini humbuckers do sound prickly by default but if I could do something inexpensive to this guitar to make it sound more appealing to me, then the capacitor consideration kicked in. These Orange Drops are the .033uf & they smoothened the top end nicely. Beez did this swap for me in under 10min.

Ended the day with a brief chill-out at Gloria Jeans (Esplanade). It was brief because there was a traditional dance event at the outdoor stage so it was crowded, compounded by the usual weekend crowd. Definitely not the environment for introverted people like me. I prefer coming here on a weekday. 

Wishing everyone a good week ahead. 

Easy does it

First weekend of the year, taking it easy- down with flu, bad throat. 

Mega destruction

Yet another addition to the BOSS nostalgia (not the last 😁). This time, it's the Mega Distortion (MD-2). What's the big deal here? Reality check- which BOSS distortion pedal has the most gain? Many of us would naturally choose a metal type serving, perhaps the Metal Zone (MT-2) might be the popular pick. However, such a pedal is a hard clipping unit, not something with extra gain. The MD-2 is a dual gain unit, the boost feature there is a deserving stand-alone distortion channel so when you have both going, it's massive. Also, I find this one to be more bottom end friendly, so all ye wielders who detune, this might be it for you.

Had some time for coffee at Swee Lee's Social Club cafe so the cuppa there. 😎

Haunted acquisition

Managed to grab this on Deepavali holiday. Happy. The coffee was good as well. ✔

Red 59

Might be an interesting weekend after all. 😁

Coffee unplugged

Was chilling after work at home when it suddenly poured outside. There were moments when I'm inspired to play & this was one of them. Nothing too complicated, just simple finger-picked  melodies. I'm just thankful that when ideas happen at home, there's a guitar within reach to manifest them. 

Be thankful for what you have before everything is to be left behind when you leave. 🙏