NYAA updates.

1. We have all completed out physical recreation

2. We are halfway through our skills.

• All guitar people has completed 25 sessions, a total of 18.75 hours as of 28 september
• Zhan Liang has completed 20 sessions, a total of 88.5 hours as of 30 september
• Thomas has completed a total of 80 hours as of 28 may
• Seth has completed a total of 20 hours as of 13 June

3. We are halfway through our service.

• Calvin has completed a total of 9 hours as of 6 September
• Zhan Liang has completed a total of 29.5 hours as of 6 september
• Thomas has completed a total of 32.5 hours as of 6 september
• The rest has completed a total of 35.5 hours as of 6 september

The complete picture can be obtained here if you have any doubts.

Note

Seth and Thomas has not submitted your complete picture for skills.

NYAA Entry - September - Electronics and Electricity

Date: 2/9/07 - 3 Hours

• Theory on three phase circuit diagram.
• Usage of Wattmeter.

Date: 16/9/07 - 1.5 Hours

• Phase Test

Date: 30/9/07 - 3 Hours

• Practical on Capacitance DC circuit
• Theory on different capacitor such as mica capacitor and electrolytic capacitor and its usage

NYAA Entry -Overview for September - Guitar

7th Sept
- Revised on Slurs
H.O is a smaller to bigger note progression
P.O is a bigger to smaller note progression
slides- fast progression of notes played

-grace notes
illustrated in very small numbers
very fast progression in playing,
such that it does not add onto the beats in a bar
can be left out if very complicated

-individual assessment of Dang Ni Gu Dan Ni Hui Xiang Qi Shui
Jiawei, Calvin, Joseph went through first page of tabs in a one-to-one session with Chris
due to time constraints, Edmund and Boon Kiat will be in the next session

14th Sept
Edvox Term Holiday, no lessons for the week.

21st Sept
-individual assessment of Dang Ni Gu Dan Ni Hui Xiang Qi Shui
Boon Kiat, Edmund went through the first page with Chris in a one-to-one session with Chris
Calvin, Jiawei and Joseph went through the second page of tabs during their session

28th Sept
-individual assessment of Dang Ni Gu Dan Ni Hui Xiang Qi Shui
everyone goes through the second page of song, third page will be in following lesson.
-learnt new song: Lao Shu Ai Da Mi

Guitar Update

Hi to all,

Although i am not in charge of this section, i want to do a post regarding this in order to record down what has been going on with the Guitar: Skills people recently. Please post or tag if you have any doubts, queries or changes with regard to this post.

- Guitar lessons @ Edvox to finish by end of October
Due to the many overseas trips and hectic schedules that involve all of us, we have decided to quit the music school Edvox before this period should we be unable to commit ourselves. We have also decided not to continue in the year of 2008.
So far, we have told the counter lady that we are planning to leave on the 21st of Sept, which gives us 1 more month to learn under Chris. We will have 5 more lessons, namely on 28th Sept, 5th 12th 19th 26th Oct which are all on Fridays. Note that we have to make 1 more payment on 5th Oct and that we can only collect our deposit earliest on the 26th of Oct. (Put 26th of Oct on the leaving form and hand in next week, with your last payment of 50 dollars)
According to the order of posting, I will be in charge of the month of Sept while Joseph will be in charge of the last post in the month of Oct.

- Future Plans
As our skill requires us to develop and improve over a span of 18 months, we will need to sustain it for the next 1 year or so in order to pass. (We started on the 1st of Mar 2007, and will end on 26th Oct, maybe about 7 months?) We have learned the basics of Guitar playing which is substantial for us to carry on learning independently for our skill.
So far, we have suggested to meet up once every fortnight to update and plan for our skill entries. We can also play the same songs together and meet up to practice and evaluate our skills for easier coordination for the diary entries. We also plan to cover at least 1 song per month during this time, to show constant improvement and learning. Our estimated date of completion would be around 2008 Sept or so.

For the Skills: Assessor's Report, we will have to come up with a report on our progress throughout this period of 18 months that Calvin will be in charge of. Chris would be our assessor and would be required to sign our award diaries and acknowledge the report, thus all of us should ready our award diaries to be verified within the next month or so.

Updates

Hi,

Actually this is not much of an update. But just would like to fulfil my role as your NYAA Co-ordinator (if u still remember)

First, i was at the National UG Youth Leader Conference today then they had this seminar from NYAA Gold awardees to talk to us through which i found out about the things they did for their gold.

It was actually quite straight forward from what i see la.

One was collecting newspaper from all around singapore for his service and his residential was organising a charity drive of some sort. he jumped from nth to gold fyi. His PR was soccer and skills was driving.

The other involves adpoting a school in malaysia (sth like us except she went back 2 more times). They did painting as well and donated books.

And most importantly, for their expedition/explorations, they stayed in well sheltered guesthouses which were super nice. =)

There was another thing i would feel prund to say, that is our pictures if you remember the one that npcc used for front page cover in the mag, they used it for their slideshow to show ppl about the global-mindness of UGs in singapore. so great job!

work hard and we will strike gold! (literally)

Thank You,
zhan liang

note: this post is to instil confidence in ur gold, not to tell u tt u can slack.....

NYAA Entry – Service ll

Date: 6th September 2007

Venue: MPFSC

Duration: 4 hours (1000-1400)

People involved: Boon Kiat, Edmund, Joseph, Seth, Zhan Liang, calvin and jia wei

The day started at 1000 when everyone reported at the MPFSC function room to prepare for a mini gathering party for the seniors in the area. We shifted chairs into a circular arrangement for about 20+ seniors who is expected to arrive at around 1100. The guitar people practiced their performance item which they have learnt during their skills training in the meantime.

By 1100, we began with a simple game of pictionary in chinese and malay with the seniors with simple words such as chicken rice and fruits which they can easily associate with in their daily lives. Many of them enjoyed the game very much.

After that, we proceeded with the performance item by the guitar people. They played Di Tanjong Katong, 500 miles as well as Seasons in the sun while the rest sing by the side. The seniors even danced whilst they were playing the song.

The gathering ended with a simple lunch afterwards at around 1230.

From then on, we carried on with our outreach project, as me and edmund visited once again our kind senior whom accepted us as befrienders. We chatted with her for a while about our lives and so on as she introduced some pictures to us. Jia Wei and seth on the otherhand, sent their senior to CGH as he fell down conincedentally.

NYAA Entry – Service

Date: 3rd September 2007
Venue: MPFSC (Block 6, 15, 16 Marine Terrance)
Duration: 6.5 hours (1000 – 1330 hrs, 1530 – 1830 hrs)
People involved: Boon Kiat, Edmund, Joseph, Seth, Thomas, Zhan Liang, Calvin

We reported at MPFSC at 1000hrs to continue our outreach project, but unlike the last time, instead of visiting rental apartments, we were to visit three-room apartments at Blk 6 (where Good Life @ South East is located). We were briefed by the personnel in-charge on the details, what to do, what to ask, and what to find out from the residents, for about half an hour, before starting out on our outreach project at around 1030 hrs. Our focus of this outreach project was somewhat the same as that we did the last time, to investigate the living status of senior residents at the block. Each pair were to visit unit-by-unit, covering 4 floors, to find out their names, whether they heard of and whether they are members of Good Life @ South East, who they are living with in the unit, their support network of relatives and friends, how they pay for their expenses, their medical conditions, their contact numbers so that MPFSC can contact and inform them about activities, and for those senior residents living alone, whether they will be interested in delivery of meals at two dollars per meal and whether they will be interested in joining a club where senior residents can meet weekly to interact with one another and make more friends, expand their social circle. As we wanted to find a senior citizen per pair to attach ourselves to as befrienders, but the centre could not find sufficient senior residents for us to attach ourselves to, we took this opportunity to approach and look senior residents who were willing to accept our befriending services.

What we experienced this time was somewhat about the same as that we did the last time, except that, more people were not at home but out at work or doing grocery shopping, conditions of the apartments were better, lesser occurrence of language barriers as most people knew how to speak the universal language English, as such lesser people rejected and closed the door on us as they could understand our explanation of why we were there visiting unit-by-unit. However, there was an especially significant difference in the needs of the senior residents of the three-room apartments we were visiting, as compared to that of the rental apartments we visited the last time. Senior residents of the rental apartments we visited the last time were more in need of basic financial support (eg. money for food and other basic needs) while senior residents of the three-room apartments we were visiting were more evidently in need of social support network, as although these senior residents are relatively richer, most were living alone, having very small social support network and were lonely. Our focus was thus to find out about and record their social support network so as to identify those who might require assistance in social support from the centre, and also to look for those who require social support and were willing to accept our befriending services.

We managed to finish our outreach project in one and a half hours and went back to meet at MPFSC at around 1215hrs, to discuss and conclude on our findings with the personnel in-charge, for about half an hour. Only one pair managed to find a senior resident willing to accept the befriending service. Knowing that we wanted to do befriending with senior residents, the personnel in-charge then found us each pair two units at Blk 15/16 from the records, who are more in need and may require befriending services, to approach and ask for whether they were willing to accept our befriending services. We left at around 1245hrs and visited our respective two units for about half and hour before meeting back at MPFSC at around 1315hrs to discuss and conclude on our results for about fifteen minutes. All of us got rejected and we did not manage to find any senior residents willing to accept our befriending services. We left for lunch at around 1330hrs.

We came back from lunch and reported at MPFSC at around 1530 to help the YAH! Community College to do some paperwork (folding and stamping of letters to be sent to their students). We were briefed by a personnel in-charge from the YAH! Community College on what to do. We were to fold two sets of papers (yellow set on top of the pink set), slot them into envelopes and have the envelopes well-stamped. We had helped MPFSC to somewhat of the same tasks before (folding of newsletters, slotting them into envelopes, having the envelopes well-stamped, pasting the addresses of the recipients onto the envelopes and thereafter dispatching the envelopes into post-boxes and mail-boxes) and thus recognized that we have to divide our tasks (Edmund and Joseph doing the folding, Thomas doing the slotting into the envelopes and Boon Kiat doing the stamping of the envelopes) in order to achieve the highest efficiency, and complete the tasks in the shortest time possible. After a while, there were insufficient stapled yellow set of papers, while there were insufficient stamps to stamp on the envelopes thus Boon Kiat changed tasks and went to staple together the yellow set of papers, before changing back to stamping after more stamps arrived. We learnt to think quickly, make use of all the manpower available and be flexible to change when unexpected incidents occur, in order to sustain the highest efficiency and complete the tasks in the shortest time possible. We completed all the paperwork in about three hours, stopping at around 1830hrs.

NYAA Entry – Overview for August – Guitar

10 August 2007
- Practised plucking of notes and plucking/strumming of chords for Qing Fei De Yi
- Learnt the stumming patterns (all strings, for two chords in one bar: down-up-down, change chord, up-up-down-up; for one chord in one bar:down-pause-down-up-pause-up-down-up) for the chords and the different chord sequences for different parts of the song, the introduction and chorus verses (C-G-Am-Em-F-Em-F-G, ending of chorus: F-G-C), bridge (Am-Em-F-G-C), and ending verses (D-A-Bm-F#m-G-F#m-G-A)
- Played notes of Qing Fei De Yi individually

17 August 2007
- Practised plucking of notes and plucking/strumming of chords for Qing Fei De Yi
- Learnt combination of plucking and stumming of chords for Qin Fei De Yi
- Played notes and strummed chords of Qing Fei De Yi individually
- Played song (from introduction verse to chorus verse) as a whole group then switched between notes and chords grouping
- Learnt the uses of a capo, how it changes the key of the notes played to become the key of the notes heard (eg. Play: C, Capo: 2 -> Key: D)
- Learnt the common chord sequences of certain keys (eg. Key C has common chord sequence C-Dm-Em-F-G-Am)
- Learnt what the time signature means (eg. 4/4 -> 4 beats in a bar)

24 August 2007
- Practised plucking of notes and plucking/strumming of chords for Qing Fei De Yi
- Final assessment of Qing Fei De Yi (playing the notes and strumming the chords of the song individually and as a group)
- New song given: Yu Jian
- Learnt and practised plucking of notes and chords for Yu Jian

30 August 2007
- Practised plucking of notes and chords for Yu Jian
- Learnt plucking of chords for introduction verse of Yu Jian (timing of plucking and holding the chord)
- Assesment of Yu Jian (playing the notes and chords of the song individually)
- New song given to practice at home for next lesson: Dang Ni Gu Dan Ni Hui Xiang Qi Shui

Entry For Skills--Competitive Swimming--August 07

Entry For Skills
Swimming Training For August

Participants: Thomas

Overview:
- Techniques for Freestyle

Venue: Geylang East Swimming Complex (Mon, Wed)

Date: 1/8, 6/8, 13/8, 15/8, 20/8, 22/8, 27/8,
Hours completed: 18 hrs

After the competition, we rested for about 2 weeks before returning back to the normal routine and training. As our results were not up to expectations, we needed to work even harder in preparation for the next competition. We had to push ourselves even further to achieve better results as compared to our current timings. Thus, the coach decided to start off by teaching us the correct techniques to our strokes as every little detail accounts for a great difference in our speed.

Starting off with freestyle, he begin with the techniques for the upper body. First of all, our arms had to stretch out straight and reach forward in order to stretch and glide well in the water. Secondly, our fingers had to be closed up at all times to ensure that we pull through the water with maximum force and thus result in a greater distance moved as we glide through the water. Thirdly, we had to ensure that our hands do not cut into the water surface when reaching forward as our arms enter the water to pull ourselves forward. It has to enter the water surface with grace and try to stretch forward. This is to also ensure that we glide through the water with a greater distance covered. As an indicator to whether we are performing the strokes with accuracy, there should be minimum splashing of the water when we sprint through a lap of 50m.

Going on to our lower body, our feet would have to be constantly kicking to ensure that we are still moving in the water when our arms are not pulling. In order to kick and move with maximum distance covered, our feet would have to move like a dolphin or in a wave motion to push us forward and cover an extra distance. We would also have to ensure that our feet does not bend inwards as it would instead cause the swimmer to be pulled backwards and slowed down tremendously.