The Duriany Blog Of FatYanDao

Whine, Bawl, Whatever

2009-10-01T08:33:00.002+08:00

Competitive Ultimate

Keeks did say that the only way to improve fast is to play competitive ultimate with a club... but I just can't swallow the fact that I get screamed at by a guy that makes mistakes themselves.

The other topic will be on psyching yourself up when you suck. 95% of time, I'll be mentally cracked already. I wonder how does Weiliang and Derek manage to keep their spirits up in such adversity.

Oh wait... they are damn good at the game already...

Work

Wah piang, I had a dream last night that I was called back to the same workplace on a non-payment basis for a day. I know my dreams are often forecomings, but I hope this really DOESN"T come true.

Relationships

Not my day. I applaud the courage of people who ask the question, and getting rejected. If they think it's no big deal, I'll surely love to know why it is.

Being an emo Cancerian ain't fun. Being an inexperienced Cancerian ain't fun either.

......
Bah, whatever. I think I'll be better off being a hikkomori.

a new phase in life

2009-09-13T10:33:00.001+08:00

*facepalms* ... not again.

Alienation

2009-05-06T22:20:00.002+08:00

One club seems to alienate me.

Can't believe they sent such a good team to the 2nd tier, aka less competitive pool.

It may look like you want to win everything, but get a grip; we'll be more likely to cheer for the second/third team, rather than yours.

Boo.

one down, two to go.

2009-03-06T10:59:00.002+08:00

one misunderstanding down,

two more to go.

and it got me seriously thinking about the previous post. AGAIN.

I guess playing pickup and hat tournaments are the only ways to go for me...

Moving On

2009-03-04T01:42:00.003+08:00

Looks like there are no more barriers after tonight's conversation.

I might be forming a team.

Life has to go on; I don't think rewinding to 2003/04 will work out that well, considering it's a series of superficial agreements and all. Mainly, that old feeling is no longer there.

In other news, I really suck at giving hugs. Which person gets himself hugged, but doesn't dare to do so in return?

I'll love to talk about Bangkok, so much fun and all... but I'm just too lazy to type it out. Want it? Get it out of my mouth!

4 pillions

2009-02-16T10:22:00.001+08:00

4 pillions and counting.

and I finally tried out riding between the vehicles.... along the dotted line. It's really dangerous especially when you need to brake fast, and effectively have a fast reflex.

Pillioning

2009-02-13T10:42:00.001+08:00

I have officially taken 3 people on the bike so far. :D

the last two for their trip back home, and the second pillion rider was 100 kg!

Woohoo!

So many things happened.

2009-02-11T06:46:00.000+08:00

I finally got a real taste of the parking fees in Holland V.

$1.30!

And I finally went to 2am bar for desserts after seeing Veggie and Friends! Simply Awesome! I ordered Twix, and it's really nice!

And I nearly poured diesel into my fuel tank. luckily, the petrol uncle stopped me.

And I finally booked a season parking lot at the carpark opposite my house! :D

Treating dinner on the wrong date.

2009-02-10T12:48:00.004+08:00

Feeling bad about not picking up a friend, and suggested that I treat her to dinner over the weekend.

It was a series of vague SMSes and miscommunications that caused this incident, but still feeling pretty guilty because no one has pillioned on my motorbike yet.

Anyways, not a good move.

It's valentine's day this saturday.

Oh yeah. did I mention it's friday the 13th too?

Hard to Take

2009-02-08T21:02:00.002+08:00

Looks like this isn't going too well.

I vaguely remember the last time i had a 1-1 talk with regards to the first incident. It left me feeling like a loser, like I'm really at fault, and it got me frustrated. It also gave me an important lesson on drawing lines between trying to help someone and committing to help someone.

This time round... not so sure. Gives me the vibe that you have to pay a lot with regards to learning mahjong, and playing the game isn't what is enjoyable, and winning it does.

Sorry. This isn't working out for me for now. I'll be looking some other alternative entertainments then until further notice.

Only less one player, right?

Deja Vu

2009-02-07T06:23:00.004+08:00

I'm trying to wonder what made me burst a vein in my temple this morning.

Because this has happened to me before.

Talked with Andre and Anand about the first incident at the benches at Farrer Park in 2007, and managed to chill and relax, and shrug it off my shoulders and move on.

But it happened again, and I'm really, really turned off by this incident.

I seriously have no idea on how to describe the cause of this happiness and get the idea across.

Credit Cards

2009-02-06T11:23:00.001+08:00

I must control..... stop buy so many stuff using my credit cards....

Dream on

2009-02-03T09:33:00.002+08:00

Dreams... never had one that is still so clear in my mind.

dreamed that daniel chong got a Dahon Foldable Bicycle, and announced on facebook that he got one, via the status update. Heck, he even changed the profile picture as well.

followed by 100++ comments on it.

Moving on

2009-02-02T12:17:00.003+08:00

Another two of my friends bit the dust... and it looks like one more is going to go too.

Other than Ultimate at SIM, i do not know what best to get together with them.

I weep inside, in sorrow. Maybe I really didn't get to know them enough.

Why quit Ultimate?

2009-01-20T17:39:00.004+08:00

It breaks my heart, and this is something I will never understand.

Why quit Ultimate?

This is the third girl friend who I know, that has personally declared hands off her disc.

You can play Ultimate. It does not need to be very competitive, where you have to get fit to play ultimate, not playing ultimate to get fit. If league and varsity training is not your thing, there are always pickup games!

Unless the main motivation is not disc, then I cannot see why you would quit it altogether. It can be a very fun sport even if you cannot run that fast, or catch that well.

This is very discouraging, especially for me as a non-club ultimate player in singapore.

You don't have to be a in club/varsity/team to play ultimate.
You don't have to keep fit just to play ultimate.
You are in control of your life. I can't force these stuff down your throat, but please, take my advice if you see this.

Touching words from an ex-teammate

2009-01-20T14:20:00.003+08:00

Last Saturday, Ben Ho met up with the guys for beach pickup at Sentosa. On the way back, we decided to take a taxi, because I can make a claim for it, and we live quite near each other.

The talk went quite well, until Ben talked me up about going back to club training.

He was saying that my level of play was quite ok, and my reading of the game situation is quite good during pickup.

Ben has always been giving honest opinions whenever possible. I take it as a compliment.

I know that I've been avoiding this topic for a while now... but I have been staying off clubs whenever I can. I mean, which club would want me? There are better players, and that's what they want.

If I want to run hard, it is because I love to, not because the club wants me to. Sure... this way, the club will improve the players...

Maybe I just don't like to be overly submissive to something I don't like to do. In this case, I'm a really lazy man.

If I were to do such things, I'll rather do it with a group of people who can share their joy/sadness with me. Someone who is willing to go through thick and thin together. Someone who knows to better themselves, rather than have themselves being pushed.

Maybe this is the barrier that Ben has been talking about.

Why did I break my ACL before my first Singapore Open with my poly friends? It is a point in time which I still regret, and as everybody knows, you can't turn back time. D:

Expletives

2008-12-09T18:51:00.002+08:00

I don't know what spurred me to say the F-word.

I know it was directed at myself... but it obviously doesn't look like it.

All i know is that I have no idea the other party was fuming about this incident, but I'm here affected by this one event.

Really damn stress to play yesterday, even though it was meant to be just fun.

For a moment

2008-11-04T19:11:00.001+08:00

I'm seriously dead beat on being just a spectator during league.

Especially Women's League.

:D

Cobwebs for a year

2008-10-29T15:59:00.002+08:00

Awesome.... I have cobwebs for a year... I wonder why. not as bad as Derek Wong though... that means I really have a life... like him, or I'm too lazy.

I really lost the passion to blog... there is no more reason.... with so many social websites up and humongous loads of content on the web.

Facebook is one, Digg is another, and finally, the source of manga, OneManga, and anime, Anime-Media.

But I think I have one thing to announce after so long.

"I do love disc. But the pace is so fast... I just won't last."

My lower body joints are all creaking... and my left ankle is irritating me like hell.

Maybe I'll get my weight down to the 90s, and give it a try again.

But for now, it's just aerobics and careful eating... and the rat race.

Maybe add in a little throwing and watching of disc.

Then again... I have some topics to write about since I'm in on this. But I know once I put it down, it'll take a while to take it up again.

Failed my paper

2007-10-04T01:13:00.000+08:00

Shocked beyond words.

I failed my paper.

My math is good, but calculating probabilities with lecturer that blabber on and on without explanation just doesn't get it to my head.

40%.

Now I have to appeal and hope for the best.

Funny, I somehow remember a friend of mine who wanted to jump off from a building because I couldn't do his assignment. Now this friend is on the way to graduation.

Vestige of the Birthday Bike.

2007-10-04T01:01:00.000+08:00

It just had to happen.

I have been replacing parts on my bicycle until almost all of it got changed, save for the frame, suspension, lights, and the dérailleur.

Yeah. I changed a lot of stuff on the birthday bike. Changed the wheels for slicks for speed, pedals to SPDs for more power, rear rim 'cos it broke, seat post and seat for it got broken, and after that, stolen, brakepads as it wore out, front gear as it got bent, crankshaft as it got loose. And it got to the point so frustrating that I just had to do it.

I transfered my wheels, rear cassette, lights to Cheryl's bike, and threw the rest away.

There were some parts that were salvageable (seat post, seat, handlebar, stand, crankshaft), but I had to throw the rest away.

It's very sad.

Now I'm really thinking of getting a hybrid bike to get around, as Cheryl's bike frame is too small for me. Bike experts have warned that my seat post is really vulnerable to breaking into two without me knowing it.

600-1000 bucks.... saving it up...

New Milestone

2007-08-05T22:15:00.000+08:00

I... quit my job! Yeyyyyy.....

I'm.... actually struggling with my studies..... NOOOOOOOOOOO....

I got my Class 4 and 5 License! All thanks to Peter for introducing me to CDAC, where without it, I'll never try for those two licenses.

Yes. I can now drive literally any 4-wheeled (or more) vehicles.

LOL.... I think I'm the only person in my batch of drivers who actually got a Class 4 & 5 within a year, which was why I was almost hitting everyone on the head with my license, and yes, including GOLI, the SNAFG.

Goli: "han nah han nah! you got class 5 so good ah!"

That's all for today....

My Birthday Passes. Another milestone.

2007-08-03T19:41:00.000+08:00

What'z happening?

My birthday went past me. It was on 20/07/2007. It's a great day to celebrate, but it's a pity I didn't take me leave. Still I had a great time with my colleagues, who celebrated with a huge chocolate fudge cake. Haha.. I took.... one quarter.

Photos for that coming soon... I'm sure you'll enjoy it. The photos are really.... candid.

And this is just one of them.... :-)

Then Saturday. It's my first time at Sushi Yoshida. And I was there to taste the legendary O-Toro Sashimi, AKA Tuna Belly Meat with Marbled Fat that melts in your mouth. I hoped the six that came enjoyed themselves, because:

It's good, expensive food
It's on the house (just call it 'my treat')

Yeah, it's been a long eight months, and after getting a paid salary for 8 months, I finally got a chance to treat my friends. Funny.... Peter seems to think I hit the Jackpot or TOTO or something. Anyway... it's a real pity QianHui couldn't come. And Derek never responded...

The main thing is, that I actually have to savour the sushi version of O-Toro to actually know what it meant to have it melt in your mouth. Also, the horseradish (wasabi) wasn't too hot, and actually has a little sweet taste!

We took some photos here as well. Peter has some at his blog... Meanwhile, I can bet that Gen is procrastinating or sprucing up the shots with photoshop...

After that, we had an another meal at Maestro Bistro @ Cineleisure. PLEASE DON'T THERE.

The food sucks. Full account here.

But I must say that it is the most happening Saturday/post-birthday party celebrations, because in the day, I participated in the Ultimate Frisbee League Finals, and after the Dinner with WL,Peter,WY,Gary, and Nigel...

I went for a karaoke session with Soh WH the aspiring clothes retailer, James the aspiring LPG logistics man, and Michael, who just came back from Shanghai!

And it is such a good time to show off my Class 5 License (which I passed on the first try)... Muhahahah....

The sweet thing about birthdays is that I get presents! I got a helmet from my mum, Lights from Gen and Gary (ok the front light isn't that bright, but the rear is super!). Which makes my bike....

MT/Road Hybrid Bike Mk. II.

Buahahaha......

O-Toro Here I Come

2007-07-17T21:03:00.000+08:00

Most of my friends should be aware that I'm celebrating my belated birthday at some sushi restaurant, savouring the fabulous tuna belly sashimi, AKA o-toro.

Also AKA expensive.

Well, got 5 people going so far, but the rest isn't responding....

Hmmm can't wait to enjoy my otoro.... :-)

Riding my Bike is like riding on air...

2007-07-08T01:47:00.000+08:00

That's right...

Welcome to part two of My Bike Remake Mk II.

Was cycling to the city when I realised that my left pedal is getting loose. The lack of brake pads are frustrating me too.

More over, the rear wheel still has the problem of misalignment.

So I cycled past Newton Circus along Dunearn Road, And kept looking left and right for a bicycle shop, and ended up at Little India. I had expected to see some bicycle shop after seeing so many parked bicycles.

Still, no shop to be found. I carried on, and found myself at Boon Keng.

All Motorcycle shops.

No bicycle shop.

Desperate, I called TX Yap (he lives there BTW) for help. Thank god there is a bicycle shop in the area.

So I spent 43 bucks more and got:

my rear wheel hub, and spokes replaced
replaced brake pads for my front and back wheels
replaced bear bearings in my pedaling crankshaft,
and tightened my left pedal as well.

And It comes with free greasing and advice as well!

Not too bad... I actually cycled from the city back to SIM in 1/2 hour. And it took 1/2 hour to cycle back home from there.

Riding my bike is really a floaty affair.... :-)

New Wheels, Advance Birthday Pressie

2007-07-04T23:28:00.000+08:00

I got myself a compilation cd by X for my self-giving present around this month in 2005, so I was thinking, why not get a damn present for myself this year? And after finding out that my bike's rear axle is about to go out of commission, I dropped by a bicycle shop at Clementi to change it before going to SIM for studies.

And what do you know, I felt it's a good time to try road tires for a change... And TA DAH!There is my bike, with brand new wheels! one wheel for 26 dollars. then axle cost was 15 bucks. then an extra change of tube in the front tyre (because the old tube which is made in china is too fat ) costs 7. All in all, 74 buckeroos.

Oh yeah, the bike behind is Cheryl's. Okay...... was Cheryl's. Used by my brother, and when romantic things kick in (he's not single... shit!) he and his girlfriend take my bikes both for a ride.

Good thing about the tyres is that it now takes less effort to cycle. I can cycle at my maximium gear ratio easily. Which brings me to my wish list..... :-)

A helmet
Bling-bling so that cars can see me
A better rear gear. (So can go FASTER!)
A better front gear (The rails keep getting derailed now, but still, tolerable for the speed.)
Pedals and matching boots ( the clicking-in-place ones!)

Funny... I think my life is more or less satisfied... I have no desire for a motorised vehicle... yet.

2007-06-28T22:25:00.001+08:00

My dear friends, you wouldn't know this, but this bike that you bought for me is the best birthday gift I've ever got.

Really. Thanks.

And thank god you guys never got that Pedometer for me. Oh, that pedophile-meter is reserved for Weiliang....

Well.... that Vertikal Moonwalker backpack that my poly-classmates got for me? That's the best until the bike took over. Still using and liking it though.

I doubt anyone will see this.

2007-06-28T22:10:00.000+08:00

Yeah I bet that.

It's been 8 months since I blogged here. Well, good reason to do it now:

I'm free. I have no life. yadda yadda blah blah.

Here's a milestone to my life so far:

Got my Class 4 license (The lorry), and trying for a class 5(The crane and cement mixers) (These licenses have NO expiry date, which is why I'm taking them now.)

Studying for SIM in July this year. It's a part time course for Comp. Sci., Digi. Security. Paid my fees already just before the GST spike, saving me a 100 bucks in taxes. I swear, the GST rebate is definitely NOT enough.

And speaking of which, Electrical Bills increases 9%. Thank you all for voting for PAP.

Anime downloaders, especially from SingTel, and getting their Bleach/Inuyasha fix are getting their pants sued in Singapore. Boycotts are happening. Me? At least I still support CLAMP's works....

Training for the World Beach Ultimate Championships 2007 in Brazil , although I'm doubting this will happen to me. Hey, I'm an unfit guy who is trying to play at the international level man. And with less than 5 months to go, and dwindling attendance, I'm really thinking whether this is possible.

A campmate of passed away two weeks ago, no thanks to Stomach Cancer. I regretted not thinking of visiting him sooner. The last time I saw him in Dec 2006, he still looked okay, although he was looking frail. and 6 months after that....

I still have no reservist yet, and I do not have to take IPPT.

I lost my Mountain Bike in Start-June, Bought a bike from Cheryl, and found my old bike back in Mid-June. I am hoping to change my wheels, get a helmet, and plenty of bright lights.

I got a damn higher seat though. hehe.... Gives me a perkier ass? :-P

I tendered my resignation letter. Everyone is sad. My bosses are sad. Me? I'm thinking for my company man.....

Most importantly, I'm really going to miss out on Ultimate Pickup on weekdays.... Gone are the wednesday fixes. No thanks to the studies....

Going to Genting on next Fri for Soh Ta Pia's birthday.... Ai yah..... regret again. Now I am going to miss two days of lectures.

That's all. And I think this blog will gather dust again, as I am getting really busy next week.

Left only a bit of money.

2006-09-24T18:33:00.000+08:00

only NT$1000++ to spend on for R&R.... what to buy man...

Might have to withdraw money... but I only have Maestro, NETS, and Cyrius.

Damn.

You know the cook isn't doing his job...

2006-09-24T18:30:00.000+08:00

...When braised chicken in soy sauce seems to taste like braised duck to someone else.

...When I think that duck and pickled vegetable stew tastes like chicken.

Yes. NSF Cooks and NSMen Cooks are alive and kicking in Taiwan.

Sterotyping

2006-09-21T19:30:00.000+08:00

14 days into Taiwan has taught me a lot of things about the drivers I went together with. And also, more about myself.

I used to treat all drivers as people with real problems, like 'hokkien pengs' who are simply looking for trouble. This resulted in accusations of them playing punk and such, and I wasn't even aware of my own doing! Yeah I know.... I'm a driver myself too. Sounds like a paradox right?

There were two items missing then upon the second day in Taiwan: a fire extinguisher, and a first aid box. Worry was the first thing that came into my mind, but I thought, it couldn't be stolen, as the only drivers needing this kind of stuff is us, and them, the perm staff at the MT line. But disbelief of my own people has led me to think about them playing punk and hiding those stuff, and their counter-accusation: that the perm staff at the MT Line could be the ones in need of those two items.

Another report came two days later; two Land Rover cushions were missing too.

I just cracked.

With the drivers rallying against me, and the MT Line people piling the pressure of the missing items on me, I simply gave up. It doesn't help that one of the drivers kept pushing me to doing petty errands like buying snacks from the outside, when I don't have a phone to call the locals. Also another driver who seems to be able to make use of the laws in driving and use it against me, frustrating me yet again.

And of course, one driver that seems to only care about himself, and nothing more.

Thanks the skys above when 4 days later, upon the unloading of stuff from training, the two items magically came back, because of misplacings from a trainee.

And the cushions! it was actually used for another vehicle earlier on!

A sigh of relief.

And I just realised what I have been just doing: Sterotyping.

Still, the drivers are still okay after this lesson I got, although they have tendacies of missing out on girls in this male-dominated enviornment, expressing it on people like me, pulling lame pranks on me like heating my foot up with a lighter.

There is still one driver that got me quite pissed though; the driver that seems to only care about himself, depends on others to do small stuff like getting new uniforms and rations daily, eating mileage, and nothing more.

Quailty Friends and Quantity Friends

2006-09-21T19:22:00.000+08:00

It seems that most of my friends, save for two or three, know about me only skin deep.

Was talking about it to my fellow driver while we were chilling out over and under-cooked dumpling and a cup of tea-o.

He seems to imply that the friends I have just catch up with what happened recently in my life about me, idle banter about work and stuff, and that's it. This point which my poly classmate has been trying to get into my head, has well, finally got another helper.

What's the use of knowing friends, when all you know about them, is just their names? They are just bloody aqquaintances trying to network with you, so they can look for you if you have lobangs! Will you do the same when you need help? Do you know what they can help with?

Ok, ok I get it.... but it's quite difficult to part and go our separate ways, and forget it all, for we were once friends who knew each other.

Lame

2006-09-21T19:21:00.000+08:00

It sounds bad.

The previous two posts about SOTG and Thursday's Pickup.

The earliest one sounded like a story hoping for a happy ending.

The next sounded like a whine, whining about what happened and not what should be done. And yes, a holler for attention.

Mood Swings in Taiwan

2006-09-18T11:43:00.000+08:00

It's frustrating being an I/C.

Faults of others go through you first.

The drivers are literally asking me to do petty little jobs for them, or else they will hold some kind of revolt.

I was oweing people money. Now they are oweing me money. Getting fussy about it. maybe it's because they owe around NT$50 or so, and I only brought NT$4500.

The only things they sell in here are fried stuff. Cookhouse food is done by reservist chefs, so please imagine. Of course we buy from outside lah. The food they seem to sell are only chicken cutlet, fried chicken, fried calamari, fried tofu, fried chicken ass, fried chicken skin, fried stuff, and tea, tea, tea, and more tea with milk.

Was a little tense at the beginning in Taiwan, but now it seems that I just let the rain flow down my shoulders.... ORD soon anyway.

Nigel was here, and it was hot. I'm here, it's fucking cool and windy here. Songz! Kudos to the change of seasons and the incoming typhoon!

Alrightly.... gotta go.... be back with more...

CX School VS RX School & Bad SOTG

2006-09-14T21:22:00.000+08:00

Yes, things keep floating up one by one, and it never stops.

this time round, it's about two schools playing against each other during a competition. The two schools were under two different coaches: RX School was under someone I know relatively, while CX was under an unknown.

The time comes for the competition. Both schools took part. CX was rough and tough, and it appears that they think Ultimate is a real contact sport. Before the match between CX and RX, they were playing against another school, SX. The players representing SX are physically smaller compared to the people at CX. But nevertheless, there was still contact. and lots of it. I remember seeing one big CX guy pushing a petite SX guy down upon the restart of play from a turnover. But no foul was called from either sides. The audience went crazy over it, and a foul was called. Similiar fouls were committed during the game, but it went unnoticed.

Then comes the clash between CX and RX. Both teams are skilled, often relying on tall players and hucks on a counter attack to get the score. Problem is, the spirit of RX was quite ok, until CX, once again, rears its ugly side.

Normal reaction was to follow suit, and yes, RX lost its cool too. They started playing the game like it was a game of contact rugby.

What happens when schools, or generally people, expresses bad SOTG in Ultimate?

Will they get shunned? They can just get on playing, and people can't say no when they come to pickup. How can this kind of bad spirit be discouraged?

I know my audience doesn't really pay attention to this kind of thoughts that I am having, but do comment. There doesn't seem to be a forum discussing about reactions to bad spirit, so I'm writing about it here.

Thinking about Thursday Pickup

2006-09-13T19:07:00.000+08:00

I feel a tinge of guilt.

It's surprising that now, I'm thinking about Ultimate Frisbee.

Here I am in ROC, and bloody hell, there are tons of things to worry about.

And I'm still thinking about the Thursday's Pickup.

Remember me talking about the near accident with Nicholas?

Well, after pondering about it, I do think that it is a foul, and it falls upon the most basic of Ultimate: that it is a no-contact sport. I kind of shrugged it off though, thinking that it is normal.

I realised later on, there was no point in getting the point; it's just a normal pickup game, but there were a few overwhelming personal barriers I have to go through at that moment of scoring:

1) Calling a foul against yourself? That ulitmately means losing a point that could be scored, and at the beginning, it really feels like you are shooting yourself in the foot. Then, the feeling kind of grows onto you.
2) The people on the playing field? Will they feel negatively about missing out on a score, after they have run their lungs out to assist in scoring the point? I myself also feel the same, when, after running near the end zone, what looked like a score became a 'wasn't', and I had to run back all the way after a brisk conterattack by the other team seemed imminent.

But ultimately, if I carry on my game like this, this will go nowhere. I myself play this game because I hate to play sports that require lots of contact, and often, injuries occur because of that. People, I believe, get really pissed after getting their ligaments torn, or their bones broken after getting hit with a bad tackle during soccer. It didn't happen because of the player himself, but more of a careless clash that could not be avoided in the game.

And in Ultimate, people can avoid it, in the name of SOTG.

Now, to think about it, during the last few pickups I had, I think I had a few clashes, like two people running and clanging against each other while trying to get the pass from someone while doing a cut.

I guess SOTG really has to begin with people with oneself first.

Blogging At Camp

2006-09-11T20:41:00.000+08:00

I'm not sure if Nigel knows about this, but the camp has internet! NT$10 per half hour. Shiok!

But dunno got time lah.

Bunks are a bit squeezy...

Blog some time later...

Ultimate Pickup on Thursday.

2006-09-08T13:12:00.000+08:00

Other than getting run out by Weiliang, when he went on offense to deep, and scored one, and the near accident with Nicholas during the grab for a disc, and getting chased by a guy in red when on the offensive break, and yeah, passing 5 metres wide left of Mondster when it could be an easy score, it's a good game. who can forget the beer too?

Well, Mondster's face looked pretty black when that happened (and it seemed pretty dark already), and Nicholas looked like he wanted to say nothing about the incident. The silent type, maybe?

Stupid as it may sound, but I feel like, once you concentrate on the game, it's quite difficult to care about the people around you. And there's the feeling about not disturbing people, when their mood isn't really that good anymore? Oh well...

Funny thing is, only one keg was only more than half depleted, when there are more than 40 people there.

Hmm.

Birthday Present #4

2006-09-07T15:21:00.000+08:00

Thanks for the Mountain Bike people. Just got it on Last Tuesday.

I know.... lousy quailty, lousy aiming, lousy stuntman, but credits go to my brother and his Sony K750I.

Up till now, this is the best birthday present so far for 22 years. Really. It gave me the itching to try out bicycle stunts, one less excuse to go for night cycling when I'm 'jio'-ed by my friends, and of course, to cycle almost anywhere in Singapore, and yeah, the prviledge to get hated by drivers in the leftmost lane.

I took it for a test drive around my neighbourhood, before coming back home via Woodlands Road. that's a good 5km. A nostalgic ride to my Secondary school.

And today, a little run to Lim Chu Kang Rd via Neo Tiew Road, while listening to a mish-mash of J-Pop Songs, including some Hirano Aya Singles.

Kranji Reservoir has a gentle and cool sea breeze. And I bloody got lost after assuming all LCK Lanes do link Neo Tiew Rd to LCK Road. In actual fact, only lanes 1 and 3 do.

And don't worry, the bike is in good shape. :-) No puntured tyres, no broken frames.

Thanks Weiliang, Peter, Anand, Gen, Nigel, Rumei, Cheryl, Hong Wei, Wenyao, Qian Hui, and all who contributed to this present! :-D

Biking History

2006-09-07T14:26:00.000+08:00

This shit is pretty nostalgic shit for me, not really for you people, so it's not really advised to read it. But you might want to skip this to find my four videos where I threw marcus' and friends into the sea.... haha.

---------------------

It started with a small two wheeler. With two assisting mini-wheels at the back.

A new one came in for the old one, and my current bicycle became a BMX. I once travelled in it from Hillview Avenue (The equivalent of MINDEF's location) to the heart of Bukit Batok to buy some action cards. I received the hair dryer treatment from my Mum for that. I was 10 then.

I finally got my Mountain bike when I was Secondary 3. It came from my father's friend, who got a phobia after meeting an accident on the road, riding his Suzuki.

It had some kind of a support at the back wheel, and my father suggested to install a compartment at the back. Great idea! Now I can store my stuff at the back, instead of the filmsy basket at the front.

That bicycle became my current mode of transport from my new home in CCK to... yeah, CCKSS, my secondary school. The public transport fee of $1.00++ (and sometimes, $5) soon became $0.

I did quite a number of stunts with it, inspired by my friends, Xie Zheng and Kai Jing. Xie Zheng had a bunch of BMX Biker friends, whom always did stunts along my workplace. Kai Jing? He just had a passion for cycling on uneven and hilly roads. Lim Chu Kang was his haunt. Mountain Bicycle stunts was a passion for him, and I tried to learn some of the stunts from him. Bunny Hops were impossible; I was too heavy. But there was a glimmer of hope in do the Wheelie, although it's a half fuck one. Luckily there was the compartment at the back of the bike, which gave me a good way to counter the intricate the balance needed to make this move.

That bike went through thick and thin with me, breaking a handlebar along the way, and a few punctured tyres. It finally croaked its last, when the ball bearings at the axles of the back and front wheel dropped off one by one. I just started my tertiary education.

Sorrow and need for a new set of wheels, as well at envy of my father's brand new silver suspension bike, died off, when I got a new bicycle from my dad. Apparently, he got it from signing on a new deal with Starhub.

"Ai yoh, Starhub give this bike for what, only 99 bucks at Carrefour. Should have given me some better deal," my father said then.

Once again I found a reason to cycle. Although it was seemingly limited to trips to the MRT Station, before I go to school.

I did a bit of long distance cycling with it though:

The first was a trip to Bishan Park. I wanted to find a way to strengthen my muscles surrounding my knee. Travelled to Sungei Kadut Industrial Estate, got out of it to Woodlands Road, and entered Mandai Road and Mandai Ave from there.

The road was long, especially along the Mandai Road stretch, but the scenary from one spot was fantastic. At Mandai Ave, the Landscape View of Upper Seletar Reservoir was captivating... for a while.

And I reached Bishan Park from Upper Thomson Road, to Ang Mo Kio Ave 1. I got rebuked for travelling so far, especially since my knee ligament wasn't exactly reconstructed.

The route was pretty much the same, except that it is in the night time. No lights at all, no reflective material on my bike and me, and I'm wearing dark clothing.

The perfect unknown target for lorries and trucks to ram me.

Luckily nothing happened.

The next long distance ride was a one way trip to my Camp. The purpose of the trip was to utilise the bicycle more in camp, and an on the way trip to send my camp mates two packets of Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee.

The road is fucking tiring, especially with the uphill/downhill bends to Lim Chu Kang Road. Lim Chu Kang Road was a really long and boring road, with 8 lanes, graves on the left, and camps on the right. Songs from my phone entertained me all the way, and I reached the camp in one piece.

The bicycle was useful, especially for to-and-fro errands from my company line to another unit in camp. But unfortunately the ball bearing problems came again. Apparently my campmate was on my bike and crashed my rear wheel against the ramp of the Multi-Storey-Car-Park.

No mood to take care of it, spare parts were taken out, tyre tubes and such, and it was scrapped.

I never had a bicycle to cycle on for a year plus. Until I got a new one now.

A little prelude to SUO06

2006-09-04T21:04:00.000+08:00

You wonder... but this gives a little hint of Ultimate Frisbee, and yes, Singapore Ultimate Open 2006 is coming this weekend! Both days, from 8-5, at the Marina South Fields!

Sentosa Fun / Alvin Pang's Bday Celeb/ His Class gathering

2006-09-04T20:01:00.000+08:00

It's yet another beach bum day for a person hungry for frisbee, and hot girls in bikinis.

Response wasn't that good, even though there were people tossing disc around.

But! either it is all the beach bums and ladies there are shy, or people think we are damn expert and they are damn newbie, despite numerous assurances, OR, people seem to think my face look too fierce.... Haha... not funny lah brudder.

So, in the end, after the guys rested after a game of violent soccer with two bengs from Malaysia, and a botched game of Beach Ultimate before that, we got down to a very simple game.

Guess a number between 1 & 100 loh. Guess correctly, get thrown into the sea loh.

Thrower? Yours truly.

And that's the second series of video casts I did. The last one was the Singapore Open 2005 trailer, I think...

Marcus gets F5 for guessing my 88

Marcus' Friend, Charles got Power Bombed.

Marcus, congrats on getting it on the first turn. And I couldn't think of a better throw other than the Triple H's Pedigree, after you almost got your head plonked from my F5.... hmm...

Alvin Ng gets totaled....

Alvin Pang didn't get thrown, he got a free swim.

And we took some group photos...

Marcus couldn't make it for his class gathering, so somehow or another, I got roped in... So I got some kind of a surprise, when I met quite a number of OGLs...

Jasmine, Kandy, Sin Yee, Jason, Alvin Pang, Meijun, Alvin Ng, and Ananthi!

Oh man... Di is looking good, braces and all, and Sin Yee is studying. The others are having a great time in Settler's Cafe, where the Games, A heart attack-sorta game, Articulate, and A card game of Growing Seeds, were played. Good fun. Food serving wasn't that modest, but the draw was definitely the games. Everyone were forsaking table manners for games.

You know.... the one about not doing anything else while eating... hehe.

But the biggest surprise came when....

Yah! It's Alvin Pang's birthday celebration too! Ai yoh, should have thrown him a few more times into the sea man! Just hoped he had a great day then. :-)

After that, it was drinking at the pub; time slots are allocated for tables at settler's cafe, and ours ended at 9pm. There were a few encounters with ardent Liverpool fans. Jason and I were escorting Di to the MRT station, whilst looking for an excuse to withdraw money, and go to the gents. On the way, we met:

1) An ang moh Liverpool fan who shook Jason's hand

"Great game eh?", the Ang Moh in the Reds Jersey says.

"Yeah, 2-1 right?" Jason replied coolly...

"You'll never walk alone!"

2) A blackie wearing a Liverpool Jersey, wearing the number 7, and the Name, GOD.

Hahah.... we were just giggling our way out after passing that guy.

And it got kind of eerie, after watching a sea of Reds smirking at us as we walked by... eerie I tell you.

And we just dispersed after that.

Sentosa Beach Frisbee Fun 290706

2006-09-04T19:41:00.000+08:00

Another day in the sun at sentosa palawan beach... I was never the beach bum. I never really enjoyed Redang... But I do love playing Beach Ultimate Till I get really shagged. We had a bit of soccer in the day, before finishing the evening with a relaxed game of Beach Ultimate with these Indonesian people. Great people I say! Really open people man.

We shopped around a bit in Harbourfront Centre, and ate a bit as well. Expenses for the day skyrocketed once in a long time. We started with dinner at Yoshinoya: The new deals are definitely not filling, and the price is exhorbitant. Only consolation is the beef. Yeah, only a little beef. Nonetheless, we got a good deal. Actually for eight meals, you can get a free pack of rice, but we got it for only six!

Jason was shopping around for some apparel, and me? I happened to chance upon some frisbee. Felt like the Ultrastar 175. Upon closer look:

KNN! So Expensive ah! And it's really Ultrastar! The design not good enough la, I'd rather buy it from Disc Shoppe loh.

And we were still hungry (actually, I was), so we stopped at Shilin Snacks to grab some good food. Yeah, it's good tasty snacks depite costing 3 bucks each.

First time taste oyster mee sua. Really good stuff. Should give more mah. Singaporean leh.

Chicken cutlet was still good, when compared with another snack shop in PS. By the way, please do not buy snacks from that snack store, especially the sweet potato snack. Salted or sugared, it's not good at all.

And the mushroom/cheese egg crepe Marcus is licking his tongue with is absolutely delicious. Absolutely. Initially, I thought it was a waste not ordering meat based stuff. But guess not... :-)

Think... Turnoff.

2006-09-02T03:54:00.000+08:00

Damn. I couldn't sleep on Friday Night.

A little remark goes a long way, and now, I can't sleep.

7 years ago, thought was always the first thing that comes to my mind.

Think before you move. Yeah, people might call you slow, and unresponsive, but think. Somehow, people seem to get the idea that I have a certain personality, but it slightly differs. it's really uncomfortable, and I cracked easily when people seem otherwise.

2 years later, I gave up. I just got to do whatever stuff I felt like doing. I have a sarcastic tongue, although my range of vocabulary wasn't that extraordinary. I thought about myself, how unlucky things could get me into, cursing whatever things come into my way.

Of course, people get pissed. That's why "waking up to your idea" comes in, and I just thought it over again, but this time, being silent seems to be a good idea. Topics in my clique were rarely interesting, save for a few. The good thing is that things didn't hurt me anymore. Nothing happens to me, nothing happens to things around me because of me. It felt good for a long while.

Now, that I think, it's better to let off steam for a while, a little at a time, and open up to people once in a while, but in the end, when people seem to think the least that their statements were acidic, their statements were always right, their statements were not a cause of a previous action that contributed to such a scenario, it's good to let them know, that I was a bit disturbed, and could respond with something better.

Not just squatting in one corner, obilivous to what's happening around you.

Next time. I will respond. With a voice.

Damn... I just cannot sleep.

Overseas

2006-08-29T16:41:00.000+08:00

I guess almost everyone is going overseas...

That's my secondary school classmate.

I guess the only reason we got close was because we lived relatively near to each other, and we exchanged quite a few tips between each other, mine being computers and all that.

But with him going off to Taiwan, remains of my relationship with my secondary school, and all that has faded almost completely. At most, I'll just know their names, but no further than that.

...Almost everyone I know is going farther farther... into their own circles of life.

Class 3!

2006-08-29T16:27:00.000+08:00

Yes!

I finally got my class three photo license today, 12 days after I'm allowed to drive civilian car...

Songz!

Well, my submission was successful and I successfully converted my military license to that of a civilian one. Well, except for a few bumps here and there... I had to obilge because i scared my one and only application might fail.

Here's my photos I planned to submit; I planned to get rid of all those photos.
The second one was impossible; I am still an NSF.

So I submitted the first one, and got rejected.

"Please take a new photo," so said the auntie (of traffic police department receptionist).

And I took such a cock photo for 6 bucks. I had wanted to take my time at the self-photo kiosk, but the uncle bleeding the money out from the machine hastily asked me to take the photo.

I got too close to the lens, and thus, the result.

Oh well, here's to my incoming ITE certificate in Basic Vehicle Maintenance!!!

ORD Loh!

iNeed

2006-08-05T03:36:00.000+08:00

I need a bicycle to cycle around...

Carrefour, and some other Hypermart is selling at SGD$99.00, and $79.00 respectively...

I want a pedometer...

AIBI sells it at SGD$39.00.

Fucking expensive. Saw this at Froogle at US$3.00, excluding shipping..

Cashing on the market ah, fucking AIBI....

But it's not really important....

Pressies / 'Click' Movie Outing

2006-08-05T02:31:00.000+08:00

The presents that my friends gave me are quite useful! Thanks people, especially Qiyou! Saves me a lot of trouble man~

Here are the presents (not in any specific order):

Present #1 - Addias Dri-Fit Top
--------------------------------

Qiyou (the one in the striped shirt) says he picked the shirt for the design, but he didn't realise the real usefulness of the shirt sia~

But upon turning the shirt inside out...

Double sided one! That means I can play on the dark or light side with just one shirt! Not two! And it's dri-fit some more! No more soggy shirts! Muahahaha.....

Then my friend Weichang gave me two of this...

A closer look...

A pair of drinking glasses!

Imagination is more important than Knowledge - Albert Enstein

Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art - Andy Warhol

Wah seh..... a bit on the creative and business oriented side hor... not bad ya!

So that's...

Pressie #2 - Two drinking glasses with noteworthy quotes
-----------------------------------------------------------

Pressie #3 - Handphone pouch with two rubber chewy Doraemon thingys
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Mum made a pouch from my old socks, and the two Doraemon things are from the cake that my camp mates brought on Thursday. At least, now there's a use for them. Thanks mum, Yeo, Kelvin, Kenny, Zhihong, and Wee Hiong!

Oh yeah, and today, We caught 'Click', starring Adam Sandler. The reviews were a little right... If there was an intention to make the film a tear-jerker, don't try to do it like a half fuck comedy that would soon become a sad ending; it spoils the mood of the movie goer. Dunno whether to cry or laugh....

Oh yes, I managed to pull in a special guest for the movie... 2 years plus never see him liao.... The 3SG Commando Medic, Siva!

Mai Shen Siao, I nearly wanted to rein in Alex Heng too, and that would make half of the Publishing Committee loh! But alas, he confirmed his status too late, so he missed the movie...

And here's another shot...

Can't wait to see Tokyo Drift!

Saturday Celebrations Part 2

2006-07-27T11:36:00.000+08:00

Yup.... The LAN Party...

Got poked a bit before by Peter for mass-organising meetups...

Normally, people ask out people within their own circle of friends to go out...

Me? haha.... I practically SMS everyone I know in my address book, and that's how I fufill my underused SMSes for that very month.

Ranging from old neighbours, to poly school mates, poly classmates, to camp mates, to frisbee kakis, and to bmt recourse mates and bmt course mates, I'm sure you can imagine the number of people I sent invitations to....

And the length of the SMS? 260 characters... almost like an open letter to everyone.

"hello clarence Zeng Ziting here. thinking of lan party next sat to celebrate birthday. most likely CS and DOTA. Going or not, pls reply and suggest other possible games we can play. details to come."

Something like that lah...

Among which are the answers...

From a BMT section mate:
"Sorry I overseas"

From a BMT recourse section mate:
"Sorry I cannot make it"

From a BMT buddy: No reply.

From a BMT recourse buddy: No reply.

From my poly school mate:
"Ok, I can go. CS is good for me."

From a lot of poly mates currently serving NS:

"sorry la I got NDP rehearsal"

From one of my poly classmates:

"I got ndp you ass"

I narrowed down the numbers to 14 from there... and got a bit of change at the last minute... one person say cannot go also never say.... liewz.

1) Me
2) ~~Mr .W~~ Friend of Weichang
3) ~~Mr. B~~ Friend of Weichang
4) Weichang
My Primary School Mate, eventually becoming my neighbourhood friend when I moved house. Really long time never see him... 7 years? The vivid memories I have are:
i) losing to him in WWF Wrestlemania Arcade on Sega Megadrive all the time,
ii) the yearly birthday bashes he holds at his house,
iii) or the times why I often challenge his brother to Starcraft over the modem one to one, overwhelming him in the beginning, only to lose to his carriers in the end?
iv) swimming at B. Batok Pool showing off his aero propeller?

Haha... Good Old times....

5) Hwei Yong the great sniper
6) Peter

It's been a while since I've saw Hwei Yong... They say he's looking great, which is true! ... What, whoever says otherwise wants to get hoot ah? And he's a top fragger in CS.

Same Old Same Old CS El33t .

7) Jason
8) Marcus

9) Alvin
Yup, one of the few friends that engage in Gundam talk with me besides Marcus.

Zaft no Tameni!

10) Qiyou "CS is good for me" Ng
11) Wee Hiong
12) Yeo "I kick ass in CS" TH
13) Tan Ah Kow
14) CH Lim

We started off a game of CS, which was great fun. It's a long time since I've played such a classic game in a while...

Starting with the classic de_dust, good old natured chiong sua fun....

Then on to cs_assault, another popular, but unliked for cowardly hiding of terrorists...

Then to de_dust2... and to de_prodigy, another unliked...

Then to as_oilrig, the assasination map I thought would be nice, but not by the others, and de_aztec and cs_italy.

Oh yeah, Qiyou "CS is good for me" Ng took off midway to play Winning Eleven because it got too dizzy...

Still, CS is good old fun before playing a tired game of DOTA.

Tiring.

I do play this game, but I don't get it.... Where's the fun in taking the control of only one hero, and along with the flow of periodically spawned underlings to enemy territory, taken down enemy buildings and heroes?

Ugh... Please give me a good game of Warcraft III or Starcraft plz.....

And a long game of Battlefield 2... I think that was what killed me off....

I was quite surprised that after the LAN Party, Daniel Nicholas actually took the time down to find me, to catch up with old times. All the way from Singapore Expo loh!

Wah lau... how can I say no to a game of pool to him?

And on the way... we met.. Lo Min Ming. Gah..... forgot to ask him where the hell is he now? Residing as a white horse now perhaps? *cough cough...*

Oh yeah, Wee Hiong decided to tag along, and regretted not bringing his wrist support along...

Ai yoh.... it's just a game of fun.... no need to be so serious bah?

It sure was a great Saturday...

Oh yeah.... Daniel finally sent me the photo from that first visit to The Cathay on Hong Wei's birthday celebration...

Hello Gen... upload your photo leh....

Saturday Celebrations Part 1

2006-07-25T23:23:00.000+08:00

Well, for thursday and friday.... The photos and video were mostly taken by Gen, and my camp mate, so I'm not sure if I could post it up....

But!

I brought in my camera for Saturday's Lan Parteee......

Heh heh...

Actually I thought I cannot retrieve the photos anymore... the memory card was a bit corrupted.... but with the help of Open-Source Software like PhotoRec, it really saved my day... or two, three days.

LOL.

Oh well...

On Saturday, I woke up quite lazily at 8am, and got to the tim sum restaurant at 12pm. 4 hours of spare time sia.... wasted.

In the end, left two hours to eat before the LAN party, but in this span, we had a lot of fun poking at the duty specialist for that day... hmm...

The steamed spare ribs...

And it almost finished.

Or how about the juicy xiao long baos?

Or the tasty prawns in the siew mai?

Hahah.... the above is really nothing one.... What we really sent via MMS to him was:

A picture of my echo company mate, kenny making a meal out of a siew mai..

And my fellow campmate taking a dig at it at the same time...

And the best of it all...

Ultimate Joy...

And Ultimate Satisfaction

We were laughing our asses off while thinking about the possible expressions that were forming on the duty specialist right then....

Here are some other pictures we took there:

Our batch of storeman #1 Ah Kow

A candid pic of him gesturing something real wrong

The Echo Trio.... Kenny, the one in the background, actually had a whopping 1 1/2 years of accumulated medical leave, due to an ankle fracture/ligament tear by slipping off the staircase at Echo Company.... poor guy...

Then there is William on the right, who is stricken with slipped disc, and couldn't get a opportunity to drive. He later became the clerk, and was one of the few people that went through thick and thin all this while. the record of 3 months MC is really little for an injury of such calibre...

And of course, me. Hit with a ACL tear in my right knee, total MC 9 months....
All from echo one, pai ka pai chu one, here there got excuse one, only no excuse grass. haha!
And we took another boliao photo...
And another...
And another....

All in all, the food here is great, considering it's a buffet at $10++... But they really take their time in serving it... scared we finish the food too fast?

FYI, it's located at Exclusior Hotel, 4th four, on the right... the restaurant name.... forgot la... river bank something something restaurant...

And we took taxis to Selegie for the LAN Party...

To be Continued~!

Meanie Tweenie Zeng Ziting

2006-07-25T15:43:00.000+08:00

I was blogging about the LAN party only just now, and thoughts started flowing back to the Friday at GV, before watching Nacho Libre.

Cheryl was wishing me a happy belated birthday.

I thought of saying something else other than "Thanks". It kind of gets to me when things get too repetitive.

I said then, "Thanks, although it's a bit late."

*tries to smack head against wall*

Where got late??!! Wah lau only 1 day late say until like that??!! You're lucky someone remembers your birthday!!

I got kind of weird after that. I just got... too uncomfortable.

I just hope she does not take it too seriously... My atmosphere was pretty dead after that, I pretty much tried to avoid human contact after that.

Things to do #2 / click me for more

2006-07-25T14:07:00.000+08:00

Lol....

Now I'm on leave and off for a month and a half... it seems that I have tons of things to do, including things I want to do from day to day....

1) Create a driver detailing system that is better than the current one, in order to clear away the 3 extras and any extra tripovers I incurred during that one NDP rehearsal and the days after that (Yeah, I did a lot of stunts after that fateful day)... (Fuck you LAB.) Some Logistics Asshole Branch...

2) Write up the blog on my birthday bash from Thursday to Saturday.

3) Improve upon the sgfrisbeesports website

4) Get my moolah from some Sgt. S. and Sgt. K., and Sgt. C, and Sgt. J, msg them my accounting details.

5) Get my moolah from the person behind the proposition of sgfrisbeesports.

6) Get my Class 2B license.

7) Update my resume.

8) Volunteer for the SingaporeUltimate Site, and improve upon my portfolio that looks really bare now.

9) Get off the computer and get running out. Oh hell tidy it up too.

10) Polish my muddy boots.

11) Tidy up my duffel bag for ROC.

12) Combine my two old salvaged PCs together and give it to my cousin

13) Buy new clothes.

14) Find a software that can convert OGM, MKV files to AVI container format.

15) Clear my SAF cupboard of everything. including that.... commando dri fit shirt...

16) Play all the games I can play, like Godfather and Kingdom Hearts 2

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a mountain of things to do, considering the first task to be the toughest... it has a deadline (!), and the fact that the scripts will work on the severely restricted PCs there... (!!!), and it's involved in a tangle of webs with the SAF.

Day to day stuffs are a lot too: I have frisbee pickups on tuesdays and thursdays, and league on sundays.... not to forget I'm going back camp tomorrow to settle some stuff.

There's also problems at home.... Remember the sad sad story I'm talking about the last time?

... It's still ongoing now.

Finally! 7083KM!

2006-07-12T11:21:00.000+08:00

Yes! After a hectic detail to send invitations to senior commanders, I got 183km of mileage. And that, completes my 7000km of mileage required to get my civilian license.

Things to ponder about:

1) Thinking of a LAN party, but seems like I'm not free to do it.... then again maybe procastination?

2) Because I'm gonna clear my leave and off next week! Yup, 17 July onwards, CPL Zeng Ziting will be very non-existant. Then again, I might be attached to a reservist battalion to go outfield for 6 days.... no....

3) next thursday is my birthday... which is really bad or good depending whether I got kanna outfield detail or not...

4) I'm very scared that my application will get rejected... People are saying I should have a bit of surplus in front, like 7400km just in case some of the mileage are invalid... but... i'll just wait and see....

459 then, and minus 330km now. Oh yeah, and Uberburger sucks.

2006-07-10T04:58:00.000+08:00

That makes.... 129km left before I get my bloody license!

I'm almost there!

Alright alright, but I really sacrificed a lot of stuff just to get this far....

Imagine changing back into your smart 4 at millenia walk after a short dinner with your friends lasting two hours?

Imagine the stares you get when you literally walk through the halls of Suntec wearing those clothes?

Wanted to change at Kallang, but after thinking of the sheer amount of people there (NDP Full Dress Rehearsal 2, + Family Day invitations) using the toilets, I guess it can't be helped.

Oh well...

Basically I was free on Saturday, after coaxing my detailing spec not to put me on detail. But things took a turn for the worse...

The ambulance driver on detail, was supposedly to be accessed on that same day, but the Senior Transport Supervisor could not pass him to certify that he can drive the ambulance. In the end, my MTL was one ambulance driver short.

15 ambulance drivers. Almost all say cannot make it. Do you know how frustrating that can get? Calling 15 numbers and only to get two to come down?

In the end, one of the Minibus drivers at the stadium, took over the ambulance, and I, took over the bloody minibus.

Lan Lan Suck Thumb.

And all because of the detail, I'm late for the dinner, and has to change to my military uniform in the city.

Anyways, my friends and I celebrated dinner at Uberburger.

Err.... not that Uber.

When I talk about uber, I'm talking about how many crazy frags one can make using his carbine when playing CS... it kind of gives a good vibe, but Uberburger?

NO FREAKING WAY MAN.

I think they provide good service to those rich people who pays 101 buckeroos to eat a tiny burger.

First off, there was no air ventilation. The weather outside was already so bloody hot, and they still didn't turn down the thermostat?

Then the service got to me. Or rather I got to them. The restaurant wasn't that busy, but the people working there are really slow in attending to me. I think they assumed that once the table has taken their orders, everybody's orders are already made. Or maybe they ignored my presence when I entered the restaurant.

Because I'm wearing a NYP T-shirt and thought I could not afford to have a meal at Uberburger?

In the end, I went up to them and took the pork-beef burger. Sorry for being crude, but I can't remember the name of the dish that I don't take a liking to.

THe patty was medium rare, but still hard... probably the outside was overcooked.

The salad was okay, as well as the separate special sauce that had a tinge of lemon, mustard, and a wasabi aftertaste.

But service at Uberburger was really really bad. Even for me who is service tolerant.

Hell, Billy Bombers at the Heeren is even better.

1049km more. and a month to go.

2006-07-04T01:22:00.000+08:00

My head is going in circles after driving so much.

Many suay things have happened over the last weekend...

Sorry. decline to comment here. You might want to ask me personally...

Oh well...

So much has changed, and time passes by so fast.

A blink ago, Andre was talking about going overseas to study.

Blink.

He's going off on 17 July.

A blink ago, Peter and I were talking about how to celebrate our birthdays.

Blink.

His birthday just passed by, and I'm still half-heartedly thinking about how to organise a LAN-party for my birthday bash.

All the while chasing after a Class 3 Civilian License.

I need an organiser in my life...

I really wanna have a LAN Party.... I don't think there are plenty of opportunities to do it in the future... as everyone walks on in their own paths.

1419km more.... 1months 10 days to clear leave??!!

2006-06-29T06:27:00.000+08:00

Yup, you heard that right....

It sounds just like a case deja vu... except that I'm more desperate for mileage.

I've got a ROC exercise for a whole month of September, which means.... my leave plans are dashed.

The wish of finally going somewhere further than Beijing has come, as with the wish of going on an overseas exercise too..

Supposedly, I'm supposed to clear my leave in September, but not to forget, this exercise also comes with off, so, I've got a bit more than a month to clear 1419km of mileage....

I really need help now. Either that or work real hard for my mileage. I'm gonna enjoy myself in ROC...

Sprained my knee AGAIN.

2006-06-26T02:09:00.000+08:00

Argh... fuck. I sprained my knee again. It wasn't as bad as last, where I tore my ACL, but this time, I can feel it.

I can feel my thigh and shin bone shifting back and forth...

What can I blame on?

Feeling really heavy this week, with a real lack of aerobic exercise?

Lack of warmup? Before the game, I could jog a few rounds, make some practice passes, but another problem comes into the picture; the lack of players.

Could I have come earlier? Well, yes I could but owing to the fact that I had a hectic night before, got me dozing until 2pm, where my uncle woke me up to..... surprise surprise, polish his son's boots.

Apparently he put the soaked-to-the-core boots to dry by the compressor of the fridge for too long, causing the boots' leather to wear off... Of course, with a little magic from my little brother, who is of NPCC calibre, the boots were shining bright again.

But I digress.

The main thing is that I got to Sengkang right on time for the game, without any adequate warmup, causing an old injury to recur again.

Frustrates me to the core man.

And the score! Oh my, the score, it was just terrible. The opponents were poaching our team without any effort. Add in my lousy throws, and it ruins, what could have been, a beautiful game.

Turnovers after turnovers, imcomplete passes, offense that is going nowhere...... Argh!

And monday is my medical appt with my specialist.... I don't think he is going to be happy seeing my knee after so long....

1900km more....

2006-06-25T09:47:00.000+08:00

I think I'm starting to burn my weekend for National Day...

I went to the National Stadium.... to just unload medical stores. Well, that's 50km clocked. Then we got really bored and ran around the stadium road. Then we got more daring, and ran around Mountbatten Road. And eventually blending into the traffic at the outskirts of Geylang...

And I got 50km for running in circles.... WOW.

LOL. Which reminds me... I beat a Subaru, when the traffic light turned green. Not once, but four times in a row!

Yeah, the 5 Ton has a speed limit, but it does not lose to most cars on the street in terms of acceleration.

Supposedly, if I clock 100km a day, I'd just need 19 more working days to get my license. Which should be more than enough time... I hope?

Let's just hope my duty obligations do not get my momentum off track... I did 7 specialist duties, and two weekend driver duties.

New Face

2006-06-18T21:44:00.000+08:00

Oh yeah, I got so sick of the profile photo I took at the BMTC Parade Square in December 2004, that I finally replaced it with a new photo ... take a look....

Courtesy of my Cheap China WebCam.

2440 km more....

2006-06-18T21:32:00.000+08:00

That means I clocked 4560km over these 7 months since october 2005, sparing March, as well as April 2006.

What's more amazing is that I've clocked 644 km in a week ALONE. Which is quite amazing considering I drive vehicles that go at 50km/hr max all the time. Think of all the concentration needed to get that mileage whilst driving endlessly...

Be back with more entries... I got back at 10am today, and fixed up http://sgfrisbeesports.com/ , Uncle Ra's site, and went for a Double Header Game at the Ultimate Frisbee Summer League today.....

And when all these are finished, there are the formalities of accomodating relatives who came to visit my maternal grandmother.

And speaking of the above..... comes a very sad story in my life.

Till later.

Now that i'm awake....

2006-06-10T13:39:00.000+08:00

Feeling much better... but, still not in a mood to write...

Somehow, what I'm doing is becoming the existence that I've come to hate....

A Indecisive, Procastinating, Ignorant brat.

Things have already happened, and I hope things won't get sour or anything.... will it?

Now I'm pursuing my goal to get my 7000km... but am I getting too over zealous?

Just a moment ago, I accepted a request to be on duty on sunday, because there is simply no one to do the duty...

Of course I got an off day for that.

but... I missed my league game for that.... and of course, loads of running fun.

DAMN....

3050 km more....

2006-06-10T09:16:00.000+08:00

I clocked 420 km in a week.... outfield.

I thought I could clock more... but alas....

Shack like hell...

going to sleep...

First League... Technically

2006-06-04T20:45:00.000+08:00

Hahaha.....

Yeah... it's my "First League"... the last Sexy Summber League in 2004, I supposedly dropped out due to my knee injury, and how about the fact that I dropped dead asleep after a bout of heartburn at the League Pary...

------------------------------------------

Anyways....

Ran like crazy today...

Damn fun.

Well, we lost, but the team buildup was smooth after the middle of the game.

While Weiliang was thinking about how some players were "under-rating" themselves during the registration... More worrying was the lack of numbers....

I think my team only had, like 8 players? Before one from the opposing team came over to float...

12-8 was the last score I saw, and we got 8.... but as I said, I believe in ranking "gameplay" in priority before "winning"...

No point winning when you know you did shit to get that foul or score... Of course, our opponents were doing great too! >_<

In other news, I really should thank Lance for guiding our team... Calm, not that aggressive, but often giving advice whenever possible, positive or negative. And with a flurry of questions coming from a player that was out for two years plus, he's really patient.

Thanks Lance...

Rant Rant on a boring Monday Night

2006-05-29T20:41:00.000+08:00

I'm ranting....

I just POC, and the first week day is my duty day...

Lots of things have changed, and I hope for the better.

But changes require a lot of manpower to do it, and I seem to get in this whirlwind of to-do stuff.

First things first:

I'm a driver by vocation. No matter what education background I have, I desperately need to complete 3600 more km worth of mileage to get my class 3 license.

With the main goal in consideration, and seeing how difficult the goal is to reach in 4 months, people can just ask me to set this aside for their own aims, and get me to:

1) Type out, by hand, a intricate excel spreadsheet of Q & As.
2) Find a receipt for the toshiba projector like finding a needle in the haystack. Heck, even rumours of the needle getting swallowed up came at such an right time.
3) Use, and type summation macros for my superior to wayang to the authorities on our statistics of our MT Line. 10 TIMES.
Ever heard of teaching the man to fish, and giving the man a fish?
4) Kanna duty on the first day of the work week at my unit after so much of a hiatus?
5) Kanna high-key utilisation of vehicles in this period of time?
6) And resulting, Kanna problems in vehicle mix ups and breakdowns?
7) Have no chance of resting, and having to work immediately after duty ends?
8) Have no chance to drive newer vehicles like mini-bus now? ("Your skills are rusty after so long, CPL..")
9) Build a computer for my current FM's son?
10) Kanna not one, but two officers whose "honeymoon mood" haven't subsided yet?
11) Have no more chance of doing driver duties, and get dragged to do duty specialists, because of a whim of a 3SG?
Come on lah, CPL may be one rank short of a 3SG, but the difference, monetary and play-rank wise, is way far apart.
We CPLs can't get beer in the mess like you do loh....

Ai yah.... to hell with it all...

ORD loh...

Writer's Block

2006-05-28T20:22:00.000+08:00

Lazy to blog.

POC loh.

Sunday pickup today was really disapointing... not much ppl was there.

going back to camp later on....

gonna driver for my 7000km.... without accidents.

ORD loh.

First Time RS in NS

2006-05-07T19:54:00.000+08:00

Haha...... this is the first time... I reported sick on a weekend...

Told the COS that I'm on MC today and tomorrow.

Surprise surprise...

The COS is my current Section Commander....

And I'm the section I/C....

Then he told me to tell my buddy that I'm on MC...

Surprise surprise....

My buddy is on MC too....

LOL.

Att C / Anime To Watch

2006-04-27T21:24:00.000+08:00

I got 38.8 Degree Celsius for oral temperature.... that gets me out of tekong, and a whole day of camo cream spreading.

I got a spanking new Samsung 250 GB drive, and so did Alex, my polymate/Armour Camp mate, and my BMT buddy....

And.... Wenyao has been asking me about new anime to watch....

Here are my current rated Anime...

1) Ouran High School Host Club

About a group of rich boys in a school of affluent students. They hold a "host club" for female students to make a profit off them, as well as to pass time. The adventures are still continuing as of Ep. 4.

This is a nice show, gives me a feeling like Fruits Basket. Basically Shou-Jo Comedy, for the girls, but once you get past the girly stuff (read: beautifully drawn boys), it's a real lovely series... :-)

My current fave.

By the way, the "light bulbs" in the first episode were actually hints, but I didn't get it until I saw it the second time... it's cracks me up when I find out that the "King" lit the bulb / found it out last.

Oh yes... try not to read up intros.... they might spoil the first episode.... heh heh..

2) Fate/Stay Night

About a group of 7 different people from different backgrounds with special powers fighting each other to gain the Holy Grail, the main prize...

Based on a screen to screen game from Japan, I guess it's just anime for guys, looking at the fanservice it provides... girls in various costumes, baths, you know.... *rolls eyes*..

Looking at the game, I thought it could really look like a good MMORPG... but it's a doujin soft game, a small game project.... which is just a screen to screen adventure game with some ero stuff. Luckily the game was not made to be like some Japanese dating game, or else the whole thing will be ruined with interruptions of girls squeaking, and you, the main character getting all the girls in the end.

And Speaking of Doujinshi.... they actually made a game out of this!

http://dojothemouse.livejournal.com/2005/12/03/

3) Mai Otome
The sequel to Mai Hime.... Yes I'm pretty convinced it's a sequel in the far future, although most people refer it to an alternate universe.

Watch it if you like the Mai Hime Series.... don't worry, the Background music will get to you in no time.

4) xxxHolic
Yes... the series from Clamp.... The opening is nice... seeing Yuuko smirk in foreground of Watanuki, and the next screen of Watanuki looking really doubtful and apprehensive of Yuuko in the background got me grinning for a bit.

Some people say that the ending where Mokona dancing is cutesy, but all I can say is that the ending got me tricked for a while.... Mokona was sleeping face down in the dark, and later, sleeping face up... all I could see was just the paws and the ears...

... I don't think anyone will understand the previous paragraph, but the anime isn't that convincing compared to the manga. I guess it's because of the stick-figure like body appearance in every character, and the non-violence/self-censorship in every episode...

But, still a good watch...

5) Blood+

Airing in the same slot like last time populars, for example, Full Metal Alchemist, Gundam Seed, Gundam Seed Destiny(okay forget I said that series...)

Another good watch.

6)Bleach

The show is paused, as it's almost catching up to the manga timeline, but the filler arc now is quite good, as compared to the naruto fillers.

7)One Piece is good............

8)Naruto

Argh.... naruto fillers... when will it end? If you want to let the audience know you are having a pause, at least come up with something or end it and come back again in the next season.... Don't blame yourselves if people buy DVDs that are not inclusive of the filler episodes.

9) Joshi Kosei High School Club
10) School Rumble Ni Gakki
11) Suzumiya Haruhi

Never watched the last three shows yet, but I'm sure it'll be hot stuff as well; they are getting popular too.

Till my next book-out day...

Good Friday

2006-04-16T14:32:00.000+08:00

I used up my good public holiday....retracing the steps on how i got lost....

Tons of pics, but here are some extras that I saw on the way:

A innovative way to kill mozzies

It was raining heavily on Good Friday, and the weather really dampens the mood. In the end, I got off at Orchard Rd after parting ways with my botak cousin. passed by some shopping centres.... Orchard Emerald looks old and torn down, and so the centre beside it... what is more surprising are the insides:

1) two sex shops
2) five massage centres
3) one hobbyist shop
4) two foot reflexology centres..

And all they need is a little good marketing....

Then I saw this 'machine' during a stroll along Centrepoint, passing by some DIY shop. They actually attract the mozzies in, suck them in down below, and wait for them to die of dehydration?

wow... why gah-men nv promote this ah?

The rain finally stopped, and I continued retracing my journey... and I hit into some historical places...

Central Fire Station and Armenian Church

plague

Yes... Central Fire Station.... the things that can keep a boy so captivated... by all these machinery.... the gungho... the heroics... the.... trucks? (read: Hammie in Baby Blues)

the legendary clock

This clock has been preserved.... and the heritage centre closes at 5pm. Thanks for telling me ah, 2WO sir, but no need to be desperate to get back home right?

Did I mention that the movement of the seconds hand is so fluid, that it's unbelievable?

wheel ladder

Pump engine

Water Pump

steam fire engine on horse

first firetruck in SG

from the side

Street Fire Alarm

hand crank siren

mini fire engine

Historical shit

the transition

to this

to this wayang-nie

the various barang barang

the medals blah blah

And the armenian church.... Do you know that the roof is actually dome-shaped... Too bad for the structral problems.... it got replaced with a spire sloped roof... although the interior still looks like a dome to me...

Armenian Church

armenia compared to the caspian region

And I thought the culture of the Middle East isn't that diversified..... So is the armenian church the same as a normal church? Do they have the same beliefs?

It's gonna take a lifetime to understand what everyone believes in...

Welcome to Pulau Tekong .... Again

2006-04-16T10:55:00.000+08:00

Now in Krestel Coy (Yeah, they dun call it Kilo, and not Echo either, so much for revisiting old times...)

My PC is jump over from SISPEC Bravo Coy... one outdoor adventurous guy....

Other than one Project Officer who himself is motivated to make us real soldiers, and a Sgt Maj who pokes us now and then... there isn't really any problem here....

Now all I need is a Field Camp, and my BMT recourse is complete...

Oh and my cousin is in Bronco Coy... Damn proud of him....

More info next week.... got to go back camp...

Web Cam testing

2006-04-09T20:49:00.000+08:00

Oh yes!!!

I have a working webcam right now!

Here are some pictures.

That's me before I'm going to tekong and cut my hair botak, and the movie voucher that peter gave me for going down to kranji to pass him the FIFA cd...

Thanks for the voucher, but the trip down to kranji, it's really nothing la Brudder.....

Tested it out, and by chance, and geeky curiosity I got to use my brother's MSN to video-chat with another of his juniors.

Well, it's wrong on my part to abuse the brotherly trust and indulge in his privacy, but after he mentioned about having to have a sense of distance, between the senior and the junior...

I just think...

This is just wrong...

That's how I wasted my one good year in polytechnic, where I could have a better chance to mingle with more people...

Hong Wei's Belated Birthday / Long Time No See Gathering

2006-04-09T03:01:00.000+08:00

Not Bad.. some photos to preview... details to come, when motivation comes. First Time Organising the outing, kind of stressed, thankfully Weiliang and Peter came to help with some useful pointers and burden taking...

Update: Marcus lost his phone.... so that's why... might as well not pursue him for the present thing.... haiz...

Did everyone have a great time? I hope they all did.

At Curry Favor
I can't believe we forgot taking group photos at the table...

{Place Holder for Group Photo from Gen's Camera}

At The Cathay 2

The Cathay Building! First Time Here! First Time to get rejected by security guard for taking photo! as if terrorist is going to bomb this place...

The Box Office Chill Out Area

Now we are at the fifth floor, Daniel and I just heck care and take some more... cos no more security guard mah

Woo... History, my worst subject

Weiliang Snoozing in the Cinema

Well, this, came as a surprise. I know the movie, Inside Man, is a bit boring, especially for those who were expecting some kind of action, like Harrison Ford's Firewall, AKA New Age Indiana Jones.

But .... LOL, Weiliang actually slept! and in deep sleep some more! Derek put his dialing phone next to his ear, Daniel, Peter and I were taking photos of him.... And he won't wake up!

Too bad the attendant came and shook him awake.... damn...

And before we left the cinema....

After which we went to Kopitiam and talk a bit of cock...

One attempt with a photo

second attempt... i give up

And I absolutely suck at photography.

The group broke up soon after that, some went for pool, and the rest went straight home...

The Episode where I got lost, Revisited

2006-04-07T22:13:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I've been so so lost. I've always made it a point to refer to maps before I went to places I have never been before.

I'm very infamous at getting lost in the city, especially during the night, when almost all bus services are down.

But I swear, this is the first time I got lost in the city, in daylight. Wah lau seriously...

Before setting out for town
---------------------------
Tried looking at hints for the way to Timbre, where Gen is celebrating her birthday...

Some of which include:

"it's beside Substation, is the ex-Fat-Frog, lies opposite the famous char kwey tiao stall on Armenian Street, right behind the old S11 hawker stalls, metres away from the old National Library and ... whatever. trust us, it's there! )."

"Somewhere opposite SMU, the old fat frog, besides substation"

A map of Armenian Street:

First Assumption: location X shows Armenian Street. Apparently, it looks like a very small street, and location Y shows Queen Street. A big hint to take the bus 170.

I was out in the west wearing my formal shirt and jeans to settle some business. After which, I took a the bus 190 down to the city. And that's where all the confusion started.

Upon Alighting from the bus
---------------------------

I didn't know.... I simply alighted from the bus upon seeing the words SMU on the building.

The Bus Stop

Yeah, I'm now at bras basah Road. Got into a call with Nigel, and it starts.

Nigel:"Where are you?"

Me: "Eh.... I'm opposite SMU...."

Opp Bra Basah

Nigel:"What school, dude?"

Me: "Well, let me see.... *squints* I think it's school of Economics and Social Science"

Beside School of Social Science

"And the School of Information Systems..."

Construction on my far left

Nigel:"What? Over here it's the School of Accountancy... got any other clue?"

"Oh, oh, oh, And there's also some LTA construction on my left, ..................and i think it's the Plaza Singapura on my right."

On my right, PS.

Beside Bus Stop

Nigel: "Dude, I can't really help you leh, there's also construction on my side..."

Me: "And there's Kopitiam across the road!"

Then I did a 180 degree turn, and PS is now on my left, and the construction is on my right.

....

Singapore History Museum

I forgot to mention that the Singapore History Museum is north of me.

Ok... on to the Singapore Arts Museum.

Detour to SAM

It's a freaking detour!

Cannot cross the road!

SAM

water cooler

And I'm at the Singapore Art Museum. Might as well take a swipe at free water here.

And in the middle of crossing by the SAM...

Queen St

!!! Queen Street? Am i near? Am I not? I looked left and right of the street.

On my right is... obviously construction near the SAM, and on my left, doesn't look like the Larkin-like bus interchange I always see before I go home...

Oh well... I finally crossed the construction bloackage. and Nigel came on the line again...

Nigel: "Yo, where are you now?"

NTUC House

Me: "Err... I'm now at NTUC house...."

Nigel: "NTUC house? what's that? got more clue?"

Me: "Woo! I see another SMU around here.... It's the administration building...."

smu admin

Carlton

Me: "And the Hotel Carlton is across the road....(junction)"

Cathedral

I forget to mention the cathedral of the good shepherd across the road....

Nigel: "How is it now?"

Me: "I'm at ...Chijmes?"

chijmes

My current Location:

Afterthoughts: Armenian St, Marked by X is soooooo near my current location! LOL, and I missed my clue for Queen St. wah liew...

And It's just the beginning of my hor-lan journey......

To be continued....

Things I'll do once I ORD

2006-04-07T21:22:00.000+08:00

I realise there are a lot of things that I can do once I ORD. Call it the rant before I cut botak and 'training to be a soldier' again...

Might as well list it here...

1) keep long hair
2) get a fringe, and from there...
3) get dreadlocks (yeah yeah i ripped it off from derek's idea...)
4) get an ear piercing...
5) get brazilian wax
~~6) get a tattoo~~
7) dye hair (subject to parental approval)
8) play frisbee like crazy
9) play beach frisbee like crazy
10) get my class 3 license (if i can't get my 7000km in time)
11) drive someone's car once I can drive
12a) get into a uni
12b) go to work (if 12a is impossible)
12bi) as a frisbee instructor
12bii)as a IT programmer

Anything worth looking over on this...?

Random Rants

2006-04-06T20:37:00.000+08:00

xxxHolic TV Promo is out: but the animations does not seem to be as good as the manga.... the manga is better, as with most of the other CLAMP series...

The new Bleach Op is out! Kuchiki Byakuya looks like Laguna in the OP, and Urahara looks great in casual wear.... Surprise me man Kubo-san....

HYDE's Season's Call is my current fave of Anime OP/EDs...

Mai Otome just finished airing, and it seems to be a hot show... well except for some stuff...

-lolicon lolicon everywhere
-sailor moon like transformations
-melodrama at the end...

Nagi's sick-o quote:
"If we need a new Shinso, we'll have plenty soon enough..."

You are sick man Nagi! Luckily you lose the war...

Quickie Movie Review

2006-04-06T20:28:00.000+08:00

Ultraviolet is not nice.

Tyhoon is a good action movie, despite what others think...

Ice Age 2 is way better than Ice Age 1.

Transamerica is a good movie, with its cold yet witty humour, and it really goes in deep on the queer relationships, and dysfunctional personalities.

Field Trip

2006-04-05T21:04:00.000+08:00

Last Friday....

The only free exhibit, at the entrance, the many types of ball propellers

Went to Singapore Science Centre with Peter... Well, I'm MC, and there's really nothing to do at home, thus the educational trip.... The main thing was to visit the Star Wars Exhibition, and take a look around the Centre itself.

$18 dollars.

There must be something worth of so much money, so I brought my digital camera along for the ride, and take some photos while I'm at it.

Here are some photos:

star wars model

white soldier

dead star

Hell, disallowing photography with flashes can be a pain in the ass, and my film exposure rate cannot be set to a longer time... So I gave up taking the pictures, well, except for one..

reaction game

Peter got a high score of 48, but he couldn't get any higher than that.... As you can see, the highest score is the maximium of 99.

"One light spoilt lah~"

haha... okok ok I know, it's just a game....

fat x wing

On another note, do you know about the game, X-Wing VS Tie-Fighter? It actually got me thinking it's a spinoff of X-Men VS Street Fighter!

Now you see that I'm oh-so-not a Star Wars fan?

There are some photos that I could have taken, but the irritating phone calls are already distracting me... Really regret man..

Boring stuff
----------------

Then there are the commentaries on the tiny LCD monitors whispering its way out on the tiny speakers....

Do something about the volume man... I had to lean near the monitor, and people were thinking I'm actually paranoid...

I can't believe I paid that much money to look at a bunch of 100 : 1 models.

But yeah, of course, there ARE some stuff that is interesting...

Foley Studio
-------------------

Foley -- Machine used to generate sound effects for movies, the effects nowadays usually prerecorded or electronically synthesized but originally created using mechanical noise making devices such as springs, flapping cards, beaters on wood blocks and cloth, etc. Named after Jack Donovan Foley (1891-1967) who pioneered the art of adding sound effects to movie soundtracks.

Basically, it's a studio where improvised sound overwrites the movie sounds that actually happen.

In scenes where massive amounts of people are interacting, it's simply impossible to position a microphone right above the action. Well, that's when objects are used as noise instruments to substitute for the sounds that are needed.

A simple foley act would require:

-1 ang moh rustling leaves
-1 ang moh banging the hot plate with it's wooden base
-1 young man stepping on a foot pump lookalike
-2 young men and a school girl making 'war cries' on the mike
-3 other school girls carrying two sponges in place of swords, as well as pieces of stone from a broken spice pounder to encourage the war cries from the school girl

-1 big guy making solid claps on mini cymbals (reducing the resonance/echos)
-1 big guy banging the hot plate with it's wooden base

-A scene where tons of rebels are fighting tons of white soldiers in the forest

And we make the noise.

The school girls started throwing the stones at the school girl who started shouting 'Ow', one of the young man making a donkey ass sound near the end of the scene, and the rest make their sounds at their own pace.

What's surprising:

-Whatever sounds we have made, actually hits a note with the whole thing!
-The actual sound, is actually some kind of music playing in the background, as well as the director giving word that they fight more seriously, and vague, vague sounds of plastic clashing against plastic...

Woo........

Ball Game
---------------

ball game
Like a concentration game... where two players relax, sleep, daydream to get a tiny ball along a line, moving their their way to either end.

The relaxed ones will emit some brainwave that the headband will pick up, and cause some kind of response to the ball.

Peter and I were trying to get a deadlock, but it's freaking impossible... I was way way too excited, and Peter seems to be damn relaxed.

*Laughs Out* I think in the end I lost, as the ball ended up on my side.

But funny lah, the game say, whoever is the most relaxed will get the ball on his side, and the person taking care of the station said that Peter won, and he's the most relaxed.

Wat Da Fark?

The Force
---------------
Oh and there's this screen game, where you make movements with your hand, getting rid of the baddies on the screen, and getting some lame quotes out of it.... the losing quote wasn't so bad.... it's quite creepy in fact.

YOU LOSE
I sense much fear in you

Reeks of Gollum...

But when you win:

YOU WIN
Already reached your highest level (it's something like that for the first part)
No more further training that you need

Wah Lau! The winning part is so, so lame.... doesn't sound victorious at all loh!

The Science Centre itself
----------------------------------------

And after which, we went to the Science Centre to take a look at the existing galleries... Well, to see if there are any new stuff...

I've got free access to the place, but not Peter, because his entry to the exhibition was a hush-hush matter, and no tickets were involved.

So Peter, with no tickets nearly lost the chance to enter.... until I smoked the counter girl that he had free access...

Peter also joined in on the smoking.

Hahaha... the girl seemed to relax the whole thing, and let us enter.

Ah, the Singapore Science Centre.... a place where no one will really pay to enter.

Luckily, there are some stuff that are actually catches my eye:

peter pixelated

This image of peter, is made up of many many images. trying it best to blend in. But it fails, ultimately looking like the crystalized version of him.

me before

Oh well, it won't hurt, but I forgot about the 'after' photo.... wah kaoz

hydro power

splosh

The splashing power of the block will cause an increase in water pressure, causing the dynamo in the tube to move, creating electricity! wow... amaze me man...

circus stuff

me this time

Peter and I getting turns to try out the hammer.... old circus thing you won't really see in singapore amusement parks.... lol

dunes

Dunes! Another one of the exhibits that caught my eye.... wooo... nice sand.. so that's how dunes are formed... now let's try directing the sand at one side to create a tornado!

Now the interesting part... the water playground! interesting crap...

Now there's one part where there're these boxes, with questions about water on the front covers.

Don't open it! If you do, water will spurt out from the insides, and the box will make sounds of baby giggling. People will take notice and look at you, and children will laugh out at how you fell for such a simple thing. Later on, passerbys will think how the hell you got so wet on your pants.

On my scientific attraction of the day!

air blower

You start with this air blower: a tube with warm air, that propels a ball into a cylinder looking like the next...

water puzzle
The cylinder, has an eye in the middle, and the ball goes through without a hint of trouble...hmmm....

The Launcher
And after which, it ends up here... to get propelled by a jet of water.... into the cone...

the rod is straight!

no it's not
and the hell..... i know how it happens, but it's seemingly impossible man, like some trick picture coming to life....

guess the numbers

And guess the number on the second row, 1st in line... If you can read something out of it, it can only mean one thing:

You're color-blind loh!!

Week...End?

2006-04-05T19:44:00.000+08:00

It's a busy saturday, sunday and monday.

I swear, I've never been so busy during the weekend before. It's usually stay at home and slack for the morning, before catching up with people in the afternoon.

Saturday
--------------

Well, it seems to be a very exciting morning. Or so I thought before.

"If you're not in the team, don't bother helping them."

"There's no point preparing stuff for a team that doesn't care about you."

"If you had a wish, it's just your wishful thinking."

I actually had a near sleepless night. Guess what I'm supposed to do in the morning?

Take the Shuqun Secondary School Team on the school bus, and to the Padang.

I've just been with them for a day of training, and they are the shortest in height of all the schools playing in the tournament.

But I just had some kind of attachment, something like I wanted to belong. To play with people I can relate with.

On the bus, I got their names down, and proceeded to produce a statistics sheet for them.

As well as a short briefing on the formation they are going to attack.

On a positive note, they actually listened. Then they warmed up, and swinged the discs around. I felt kind of elated, thinking that I could actually help them.

But things are not as it seems to be, and it disappoints me.

In the first round, they were thrashed by Regent, 11-2.

Their turnover rate was damn high. And the opponents scored from there.

After the match, I told them not to give up, and start on practising the go-thru drill while they had the time.

They seemed to give the "who the hell are you" look and proceeded to play by themselves.

For me, it went downhill from there. I don't know about them, but Uncle Ra said to let them experience this tournament and go to the next.

It kind of reminds me of The Singapore Opens 04. I went there, and cheered for the team, helping with the 'up' calls. But in the end, I feel like it has no meaning at all. Hell, I'm not even sure if they appreciate it. It feels like that you're not in the team if you don't even share the hardships with them. Like it's some kind of redemption for yourself.

Oh well.... some stupid things aside, I had to run the publicity thing for Uncle Ra. Acting as the middleman, I had to tell the DJ to announce stuff about Ultimate Frisbee. Wah lau.... and out of the sudden, the DJ came to me with the wireless mike, saying he's speaking to the organiser of the tournament.

I freaked out from this point. Where is Uncle Ra?

But the thing has started, and what I said had quite a lot of 'errrrrrrrrrrrr..................' s in it, as well as stammering. Wah lau, even Nigel Lim tried to hide away from the DJ, leaving me alone.

I just mentioned about getting more information on www.singaporeultimate.com. And that's it.

And we found out that Uncle Ra went to Penisula Plaza to have a cup of coffee. WTF.

Off we go to the rest of the day....

Watched Ultraviolet with friends from camp.... should have watched the movie during the weekend. More on it later. After which is a little steamboat dinner at bugis, which got my friends from worrying about me being disorientated in AMK (the previous meeting place for the steamboat) to hopping mad because I switched off my phone, played HOTD4 until 7.30pm, and had to queue up for a table. But it all ends well... catching up on stuff... besides it's been a while since I had a steamboat.... Seoul Garden doesn't count! hahaha....

Couldn't go clubbing because Daniel Tan's down with the flu, and I got too sleepy waiting around for Weiliang to call me... I think the League Party @ Timbre went through the night.... either they or that got too tired to carry on, especially after the League Finals in the day.

Sunday... and Monday
------------
I actually agreed with Peter Zhong to help out with his IT assignment.

...I can't believe he's studying a Part Time IT Degree from Monash. Butttttttttt, according to him, it's the fastest way to get a degree quailification, and he wants to understand at least a bit.

The starting was pretty easy.... I taught him to list down what are the requirements of the problem, and figure out a way to solve it. The problem left is the techique to solve it... It involves trees, which got me stumped too.

His learning curve was too gentle, and I don't have the time to sit it out and go debugging at his pace... here's some pieces of dialogue that shows my sheer lack of time estimation... I initially thought I could finish it on Sunday Night at 10pm, and get back home for Monday's Medical Board.

"Don't worry, hopefully if you're fast, we can finish by 6pm"

"Maybe 10pm..."

"What's with this bug? Let's sleep first, and get rid of it, first thing in the morning. Then I'm going for my medical board."

"Alright, let's just say I reported sick for diahorrea and hope they call my handphone. If they do, you drive me back home. Immediately. Let's just hope I can finish by 6pm."

"What? All of these is finished, and you want to implement the save/load feature in too? Okok.... I'll explain everything to you when I'm done. Hopefully we can finish this by 10pm."

And I finished, explained in haste, the whole thing, it's already 12am. Tuesday Morning.

After which I went to Nigel Lim's house, and fixed up his modem, as well as his router...

By the time I reached home, it's already 5pm.

What.... a week...end.

Theorical Bullshit

2006-03-31T21:25:00.000+08:00

I suddenly feel like whatever views that come out of my mouth, to a general audience, is just bullshit.

What if someone actually believes it?

What if someone clarifies what you say and finds out you're wrong in a sense?

It feels like the person is crying wolf. His credibility gets more and more vague.

Well, that's what I'm feeling like right now...

Rant and Rave of a Frustrated Guy

2006-03-31T08:06:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I've gotten such a headache......

I should have done it sooner... Discussion of monetary matters is such a sensitive issue...

"What's with you guys and all these 'hidden' charges? It's his idea right?"

Come on loh.... it's open-source software, surely there will be problems. If it's just setup and design, I would have finished it a long time ago.

Then you ask me to go down, and gather content, as well as photos...

That's where all the 'hidden' charges go.

But the original part, where you asked me to upload / moderate content by you, goes unnoticed?

Why?

Why did you assume it's part of the hidden charges?

I'm just doing my job.

I just want to get paid for the effort I've put in.

I'm not trying to take a huge fat slice of the pie out of you.

Oh well... it seems that you can't care to look after all...

Just what can I do to explain to you what the hell I'm charging you for, when all you can think is the 400 dollar budget?

I have already prepared a draft explaning everything in my email, and it's just standing there, waiting for the 'send' button to be clicked. Now I think a one to one talk with a cup of coffee is the solution now.

Now that the whining has started on both sides, I just can't gather back my motivation to do the write up on the event on saturday...

I just want to get back to just doing my original job, of uploading / moderating content...

... Should have discussed the event way before the whole thing, or after the big day this saturday.

Random Pictures

2006-03-28T09:57:00.000+08:00

Taken From the Bayern Munich Club Singapore @ Toa Payoh. Germany Ambassador is the official guest of honour for the event. Somewhere in Nov 2005.

*Looks at Peter's Blog*

Who needs tickets? I got in for free!

But then again... the World Cup I have taken a photo with suddenly looks so fake. Either that, or the World Cup Travels to Singapore a lot of times...

It's a empty vintage bottle of alcohol... not that I care about drinks... what's a remy martin?

Anyway, My mum tilted the bottle upside down, and left it on .... the mop bucket..?

Yeah, the part where you squeeze dry the mop.... funny place to put, but as she says, it's clean....

Mum's the word.... so...

What happened next was that I'm supposed to mop the floor, so I moved the mop bucket, without realizing the glass bottle is still there... Without the support of the nearby wall, the bottle fell from 20 centimentres...

And broke its neck.

LOL.

Got nothing to say liao.....

The rest is boring shit, you might want to skip it if you want to....

And the following are the contents of the goodie bag from Singapore Ultimate Open's 2005

Pictures... you figure... i guess it's a waste of time, except for the last one.... a convenient way to brush you teeth.... I have a bad habit, and it's not being able to brush my molars with my brush. With this, it's an easy task to do....

Balm..... never use at all..... must... use....

Honey Lemon Tea Sweets... very popular in my fridge.... now left half packet liao... and EnerVon C... kept me concentrated throughout the fated field camp... well... until the last day....

Milo Drinks and Fruit Bar... the fruit bar is actually nice.... the lime cancels out the raw flavour you get from eating processed fruit bars.... and my dad drank up my beloved milo hybrids...

And not forgeting the sponsor of Sing Opens: Brewerkz!

My mother nearly used it for pre-CNY chores...... WTF.

And the STi cap.... guess my clothing is a good promoter of Subaru Products... Only thing is that I feel strange, wearing the symbolic blue Subaru Shirt, and the distinctive STi cap, walking around in MRTs....

Random Comments.

2006-03-19T00:35:00.000+08:00

Late at the FRS Ultimate Frisbee Mini-Tourney... managed to catch a game of frisbee between Goh Chuck Ting and Muddy Grass. It's a good game, but alas... I seem so out of place... with the wrong clothes...

Maybe I'll try taking a look at the fields again in time, when I'm certified fit to play a game of frisbee... No point going there to demoralise people who are already playing...

But who will support the game if people like us don't?

Seems like all the people there are players and zero spectators.... left soon after that for Bugis to meet colleagues going to Ex. Pinnacle.

-----------------

And we... went to Seoul Garden today. Feeling was great, it's been a while since I've been there.

But things have changed.

The food is actually nice, until the pan's surface has a huge layer of soot on it.

"What, they are not changing the pans?"

"Where's the butter? What? The meat will ooze oil on its own??!!"

"Where's the atap chee?"

Yes, the legendary atap chee rocket incident. Yeah, I gasped at it the first time it happened. And Viridis did too ...(but that's nothing to be proud of... haha) Basically, at the end of cooking, you get the pan to high heat, and place a piece of atap chee on it. Depending on the surface area heated, it will rocket into the sky, with a spectacular 'pop' sound.

It's a tradition to try it out at every visit to seoul garden. But I guess, there are no more atap chees to play anymore. Haiz... and there's no alternative... the closest in appearance, the graceful aloe vera, doesn't work too... Too bad... I don't think I'll visit this place again... Besides, the price is a killer...

------------------
Took a bus home, SBS 170 from Queen St. Bus Terminal.

Looks like the Larkin Terminal in Johor. Looks so Malaysia... haha...

So does the bus stop with looping queue lines opposite Kranji MRT...

Busy.

2006-03-17T22:31:00.000+08:00

Yeah... I'm on MC, and I'm too busy to blog...

Funny right...

No lah... NFS:MW hardcore now... 7 more races, 100% complete!

then there is this website i've got to finish by this month.... the release date is 1st April. what a joke man...

and... all the anime, all the manga, all the ... oh nvm that.. haha.

And the real reasons why CLAMP (yes the most famous manga-ka team of 4 in the world) is holding back X, why the drawings are so simplified nowadays, and all the photos of the artists who always hide in the backstage.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature.php?id=245

At least... there's a bit of X candy... : Tsubasa Chronicles... Syao Ran gets to one world, and the end of that world is shown... at least a bit.... and woo Kamui is around, so is Fumma... woo moe moe moe~!~!

Generally, Singaporeans are bastards.

2006-03-02T14:15:00.000+08:00

Ok... Sometimes.

Ok maybe....

Somehow I feel like shooting myself in the foot as I'm writing this article.

"Please give your seat to those who need it more than you do."

Unless you justify your more important needs like resting your fat arses, sleeping, talking on the phone, looking at the floor, studying for tests, and looking at the other side wearing dark shades.

The trip to Simei MRT:

To Jurong East:
Seats were ample, but looking at the faces of the disgruntled passengers, I guess they haven't gotten their share of the Singapore Progress Package yet. Took a seat, and caught a bit of 40 winks.

To Simei:
Looking at the crowd approaching the doors, and the few seats left, I know for sure, I have to look oh so pitiful to get a seat.

Hahaha.... no point.... everyone is just too tired.

On the way to Queenstown, three seats opened up, but one over sized auntie, a busily-talking-on-the-phone professional white collar worker, and a pouty-looking female litterally scrambled for the seats.

I think all the while in the train, their main focus is looking at people who are about to leave their seats.

It was until Tanjong Pagar, that I finally got a seat....

My god.... Shame on you man.....

Fried Human Brains...

2006-03-01T21:32:00.000+08:00

Ok it's official....

I'm so fucking tired....

I deserve some credit...

Trying out something new, and's it's called Mambo. Some kind of a content management system, or blog depending on the complexity. It looks pretty good, and being open-source, it's free too. Along with other nifty modules, and components, it makes content-based websites easy to build, rather than starting from scratch.

But.... as of now... it officially fried my brains out... the learning curve is steep... I kind of went over that... I think. But when it comes to customizing the site to the tiniest detail... My brain just wants to give up.

Anyway, I'm comtemplating on whether to personnally make a hack on the original system code to suit my needs.

I've made one before, and it made my head grow more white hair. Now I'm thinking whether I could avoid this, and make another turnaround...

Guh.... Mambo is great to use, difficult to master.

Weird Dreams Again

2006-02-26T12:12:00.000+08:00

Haha.... I actually remembered this dream from yesterday, until now.... Because by this time, memories of the night would have already faded.

I dreamt that I was in the back carriage of a 5 Tonner. There aren't any wooden chairs behind, but lush comfy sofas!

... And there is my itchiness to release the air-pressured handbrake... the vehicle moved a bit, and I activated the handbrake again. It jerked a bit, before I released the handbrake again.... this time... Vincent the driver chided me for such a bad habit....

But.... the sound of activating and releasing the handbrake in a 3 Tonner or 5 Tonner is so damn Shiok.... hahaha...

NYP Scandal Hits

2006-02-26T12:11:00.000+08:00

Been reading up on the scandal, regarding the NYP cheerleader who got her sex video publicised on the net. My dad is lapping the news quite well, and happily at that.

Now malaysian vendors have got the clips, they sell it on VCDs across the border.

It got splashed on two full pages of The Sunday Times. Haiz... and two pages later, I see our beloved Melvin Tan as the new face for NYP's leading diploma in the Infocom Industry.

And to random readers thinking they could get a glimpse of 'Tammy' here...

Haha. TOO BAD.

I don't have the video either.

Procastination...

2006-02-25T21:14:00.000+08:00

has a fatality. Period.

Guh.... I called my Personal Mentor in NYP on last Thursday afternoon to ask for an apprasial form from him, as well as an testimonial for my resume.

He requested something from me, which I painstakingly typed out.

My academic record in NYP, as well as my CCA Record.

The task seems so tall, so I relaxed until today, and realised that I have to send it sooner or later, and there you go, I sent an email to him with everything written down.

With that, he has two working days to fill up the online apprasial form for my NTU application, and less than a working day for my apprasial form for my scholarship.

Then there is the testimonal...

Now it will be an uphill chore for him, and a very good time for me to cross my fingers, on both hands, and on both feet.

Well... if this doesn't work... there is only one thing left: work, and study for a uni while I'm at it.

Oh yes... I'm now on an post-operation MC, and my right leg is totally immobilised in a Jones Bandage.

And I effectively got MIA from the impending LRI check for my armour unit...

I heard there are a lot of embarassments going on there.

Like how MSD caught red-handedly our I-NET computer for having so much illegal stuff, that my Sergeant Major could just, well, blush.

Or how shredding of the MT RAC form (some form before we go to drive) requires the recording into a book, and we are dated back by at least 6 months. (and each weekday, we get about 15-24 driving details a day)

Or the fact that most of drivers are not paid their driving bonus since like 4 months?

Thank the heavens above that I had an operation in such a timely opportune.

Tis' a good time to cross fingers...

Lucky

2006-02-19T02:51:00.000+08:00

Read a few posts here and there, and felt like posting something that relates to me.

Guess I'm just... lucky. And I should be happy.

For being born into such a caring family.

To be endowed with friends whenever trouble brews.

To have such a good computer.

To be tall, and healthy (other than being obese still)

To live in such a big home.

To have a supply of clean water, and electricity.

To have such an excellent sanitation system.

To live in Singapore.

I should be happy, and lucky.

People elsewhere are not getting such good stuff.

And I'm not laid yet... ahaha... the 21 year old virgin.

I should always think on the bright side from now on....

drum roll splat splash muck

2006-02-19T02:06:00.000+08:00

And presenting... the two vehicles that are stuck in the mud...

This is the second vehicle that got stuck in the mud. In an attempt to rescue my first vehicle, it got stuck.. the wheels on the left side of the rover got in deep... Further attempts to get it out, got the wheels in deeper...

Damn... I should have done it in dry weather.... like two days later...

Another view of the second vehicle...

Now this is the view that got me astonished. The vehicle is actually slanted towards the left side, but the body of the rover looks as if it's distributed equally, causing the suspension on the right to work its hardest. The front looks okay, as the right front wheel is like... half way in the mud. But the one behind isn't... in the end, it looks as though the rear axle is about to break into two, and the right rear wheel looks like it's gonna be lodged out from the planetary drive....

The rear left wheel of the second vehicle.... 3/4 deep in the soil.
And we finally get to the first vehicle. My vehicle. The first vehicle that got stuck in the mud. Both wheels on the front digged their trench successfully (and that wasn't what I wanted). But the wheels behind were on pretty firm ground, and we tried using our weight to pivot more grip on the rear weights...

But still fail...

Yes... it's someone who is trying to get my vehicle out. Yes.. he's my Vehicle Com, the attached Company roving officer that defines the BMTC standard in our mono intake BMT. And you can see that the mud got a splash on my vehicle. Did I mention the wheels got the mud into my cabin like paintball shots?

The second rover again....

The front right wheel of the first vehicle... haiz....

The other side of the second vehicle...

Valentine's

2006-02-15T01:00:00.000+08:00

SAF really stripped me of my memories... making me really numb... or is it really just age, or an indifferent person moving on?

It's already 1 am in the morning, an hour past the last hour of Valentine's Day.

The past people that I always message on this day, are really forgotten... a mere strand of thought remains.

To whoever visits this blog, I wish you felt love around you yesterday...

Ewww.... I can't believe I said something that someone said before... but the thought counts, right?

Now all I have to do is to find love... before my mother finds it for me...

Eww... matchmaking sucks....

And the vehicles are back.

2006-02-15T00:36:00.000+08:00

MES brought a 7 Tonner Wrecker (a 5 Tonner weighs 16.384 tons with load) across Tekong, and recovered my vehicle! Well... okay... a vehicle that overturned, landing on the driver's side, another vehicle that got stuck in the monsoon drain of the BIC area... hmm... Wah... last weekend must be a suay day for the vehicles in Tekong...

Getting the vehicles was already a chore: the vehicle were taken out at 1200 hrs. But we had to wash the vehicles (at least the exterior) and we missed the RPL at 1230 hrs. Then me, a fellow driver (he's driven 30,000km to date, trying his best to drive less details, reducing the chance of an accident, drove a GP Car with my MTWO and me to SFT to collect the vehicle), and my MT WO.

Suay lah... my fellow driver drove the second sunken Land Rover, and I drove the first one. Wah lau... of course la, my encik cannot possibly drive a Land Rover right? of course he drive the GP Car lah.

The vehicles were clean except for one thing.

ANTS.

Lotsa ants. There are ants crawling on both vehicles. most probably, they thought they found the best spot to take shelter from the sun, or found something sweet on the vehicles. Mine wasn't that badly hit; my fellow driver was practically scratching himself all over durng the journey back to ACMTL.

The extent of the damage wasn't much: the left rear bumper of both vehicles are slightly dented, but.... the mud acculumated were like thick patches of paint: difficult to wash off, difficult to scrub away. ESPECIALLY on the DISC BRAKES! Yes The Brakes!

I really regret the intent made by my infantry roving officer to drive into the soft, wet mud of the trench digging area.

Photos are coming up... Now where are the photos my friend had...

Apart from this, we ordered roti john from the CCO Canteen in Pulau Tekong... woo it's damn good. And lingering thoughts of my encik being greeted "Good afternoon Sergeant Major!" by a platoon of recruits were one of the lame jokes that filled the air of three Armour soldiers until the 1630hrs RPL.

A Recruit's Field Camp Through the Eyes of a Driver.

2006-02-12T20:21:00.000+08:00

6 Feb, Pre-field camp
---------------------
Supposed to park down my Landrover at 1500hrs, but realised my vehicle is down from the previous batch's field camp. Desperate for a new vehicle, reeling from the shock that the remaining vehicles are LRI-freezed vehicles or V.VIP vehicles. Gah.... Waited and waited, and finally got a Land Rover at 2200hrs.

Parked down the vehicle at 42SAR at 2300hrs, with shagged face and a few trips after attempts to get a signal mounting board and attempts to tell the specialists there that there's no signal mounting board (and from there, thoughts of "what the fuck is the ACMTL store doing" flows through my mind. Just what the hell is the store doing...)

Got all stuff prepared, but needed to pack all of that into one field pack, and two plastic bags... Stuff are mainly:

-3 sets of No. 4s
-Numbers of Underwear
-3 tins of snake powder
-2 packs of mosquito coils (and each pack has 10)
-Mess tins
-Archived 8-Days Magazines and a bloody fiction novel
-Medicine
-Samples of Centrum Pills (7 to be exact, from Sing Opens 05)
-Towel / Soap
-No toothbrush / facial cream
-6 packs of Koka Instant Noodles
-A Tin of Biscuits, Mainly Choc Chip Cookies (And crackers, and choc cream cookies)
-2 cans of luncheon meat

By the time everything is packed, it's already 0100hrs and everyone is asleep. Grr...

7 Feb, Field Camp Day 1
-----------------------
It's so predictable. I'm fucking late for the field camp. Commencement at 0500hrs, reached at 0515hrs. Drove via PIE to SAF Ferry Terminal, to Pulau Tekong. Took a RPL (holy shit vehicles crossing the sea on a float raft!!) to Pulau Tekong, reached the campsite. Drove back and forth to recce abit, and the recruits were already hit with a surprise: after a sleepy trip on a commerial bus from west to east, and a fastcraft trip (and probably the first one for them by the way), they are greeted with a 8km route march to the campsite. Tsk Tsk Tsk...

Already, at least 5 people in one company reported sick after the march, but alas, the highest form is medical help is a Medic. Okay.... two medics. Permission to the Medical Centre (the highest form of a luxury point) is only available through the OC, and the OC is a damn GARANG person. Later you'll know why....

Lessons are taught, Tekan-ing is already underway, Land Rover Recce with my Encik is on the way. Went through and forth between lotsa places, but the main places are always BMTC (where all the specs say about receiving the CO, RSM, HQ CSM, Explomo, Insert Important Persons here, but always doing you-know-what), and the campsite. And the trips on Tekong Highways always garners the most mileage... muahahah....

I thought all the Men (which means, the soldiers with ranks other than Recruit) can get fresh food rations, but no.... the OC demands that all of us eat Combat Rations. Thank GOD I had my tin of biscuits with me, and a extra big pack of sugar crackers. Noodles are a bit of a hassle to cook... since i'm always shuttling here and there.

It was basically a peaceful day, and damn satisfied driving like crazy for the whole day.

Got enlightened on the best sleeping posture in the landrover, and had a good night.

8 Feb, Field Camp Day 2, Grenade Day
------------------------------------
Yes... the recruits actually go to throw grenades during the field camp, saving them the torture of outfield training. Damn the recruits, now who says that the Mono Intake of recruits are bad?

Ok lah... the training they received actually differs a bit from SOP BMT @ BMTC.. the recruits are actually trained for their future vocation: most likely Armour Men @ 42 SAR.

E.g. : Bashas are not set up just for accomodation, but for tactical reasons too. Tsk Tsk Tsk...

Anyways, it's only the second detail of the Grenade throwing and already there are blinds. Explomos are already laughing their way to the bank as a total of 3 blinds are made.

No 5tonner transport was offered by out unit, but they got the help of Tekong 5 tonners to get the recruits around. And the recruits were actually late for the transport. Higher Up politics are already underway...

9 Feb, Field Camp Day 3, Super Shiok Day
---------------------------------------
Today was a normal day, aside from the fact I finally cooked two packets of noodles, and got a few nice extras from my superiors. Shiok...

10 Feb, Field Camp Day 4, Super Suay Day
---------------------------------------

We got Fresh Rations! Yeah yeah that's good news, but when compared to the fact that the recruits ALSO got Fresh Rations, we go "WHAT THE FUCK!!!"

Now that's what I mean by damn welfare.

It's raining like crazy. Sure, it feels great when a Land Rover splashes into a big puddle of muddy water. Constant Recce-ing of Pulau Tekong has got me close to 600 km of mileage, including 52 km from the West-to-East Trip.

Then it happened. The Si-Bei-Suay thing happened.

My vehicle wanted me to recce around the the reclaimed land area... well to be exact, the trench digging area.

The rain just stopped. The land is soft and muddy, the Perfect Ground for planting Padi.

The Perfect Ground for getting a Land Rover Stuck in the Mud.

My Land Rover got stuck in the mud.

That's nothing... We got another rover to try to get the stuck rover out of the mud.

THAT Rover got stuck too.

Attempts to contact my superior was in vain: no reception, no phone call made.

Attempts to do the different drive mode are made. Four-Wheel Drive, Low Range Gear Ratio, Differential Lock, you name it, I did it. The damage got worse. And night time has already arrived.

I spent the night like a soldier without a M16 Rifle.

The other soldier ended their day with a barbeque of seafood caught on Tekong, and meat from Mainland Singapore.

11 Feb, Field Camp Day 5, Super Sian Day
---------------------------------------

Turnout happened. The recruits were given a dose of reality. Even the medics, who are sickened by the increasing number of recruits reporting sick, joined in too.

I didn't really care. I was too worried about getting my rover out of the mud. To get it moving again.

The recruits went for their BIC. I continued my rest.

After which is the Trench Digging. The scorching made Heatstroke victims out of recruits. Desperate, the Remaining Land Rover was summoned to get water.

Crazy Ideas to get the Landrover out of the mud was made.

Using a 5 Tonner to tow a Landrover from afar, using 16 toggle ropes and a tow bar.

Failed. Two toggle ropes actually snapped.

Attempts to dig out a deeper trench to get the mud under the Vehicle out, much like a underground carpark, was made.

Failed. Oh come on, I'm not a OCS Infantry Trainee loh...

Attempts to anchor grip on the wheels using the spade, wooden branches, stones, and plastic lids were also made.

Failed. We smell smoked rubber.

12 Feb, Field Camp Day 6, Super Pissed Day
---------------------------------------

Trouble is brewing. I finally contacted my MT WO and MTO about my situation. Sensed reluctance to send help from their side. I smell politics again. Grr....

And to think my MT WO actually suggested staying by the vehicle until it's recovered. WTF? and get bitten by the mosquitoes and sandflies again? See my people book out of camp? See the Police Gurkha Land Rover Drive Past Me??? KNN CCB lah...

Now in camp... with nary a chance to book out, much less get a new change of clothing.

And with my vehicle in the Mud, in the Trench Area, in Pulau Tekong.

Happy Lunar New Year!!

2006-01-28T21:53:00.000+08:00

ok... too intoxicated to say this now... but Gong Xi Fa Cai to my friends and those who visit here!!!

drowsiness is kicking in.... must... SMS..... greetings....

Thoughts

2006-01-15T18:28:00.000+08:00

Suddenly I remembered about things...that I wouldn't want to remember... that I wouldn't want to say to people about...

Call me a wimp if you want, but when something unfavourable happens in my vicinity...

I never confront people to discuss about the frustrations that I have. Neither do I express my disapointments directly.

I just... run away.

I started working at McDonald's when I was Secondary 2. I was so desperate to get the job, that I often came to ask the manager of the store on whether I clinched the job.

Even with a measly pay of $3.00/hr, I was still satisfied with what I had.

But... as time passes, Expectations get higher. I got quite a few friends of mine to work there, and it was a great time. However, one of my friends who was the same age as me... got promoted really fast. That got to me, and I started wondering why my pay was so disapointing, so little. Then my friend was promoted to floor manager, with a hourly pay of $6.00. I was extremely envious of him. My morale got really low.

Then my "godfather", and my "godmother", my store manager, and assistant store manager went off in search of greener pastures.

Along came a new manager, Mr I. I can't remember how his character was, but working with him was very... taxing... it was basically a lose-lose situation for the both of us. Both of us weren't really on good terms.

On one day, when I have worked for close to three years, and was about to go into poly, I got tired of it all.

I didn't show up for work as scheduled on the next weekend. My managers kept calling me, but I refused to hear from them, and used my mother as a front to reject their calls.

In the end, they finally gave up. Ever since, it's been at least 4 years that I stopped visiting the restaurant.

One of my colleagues in camp worked in McDonald's too. Apparently he got to know about my "godfather" too. Within two years, he got to become a floor manager, with his ways of tongue-lashing at other McDonald's Crew who worked below his standard..

He bragged about his career in Mac. I followed along too.

Bragged about being a manager and all that.

I was just too conceited to say that I was just a normal crew like everyone else.

Gah.... I guess I'll write about this another day...

Wonder why I'm writing this now...

Standards

2006-01-15T18:18:00.000+08:00

To moderate a website, add content that will be provided by the client to the website, and do it once a week for two hours.

And get paid for it??!!

All the more that makes me feel that my standard of work might not meet his standards....

And all the more that makes me more stressed...

Let's just hope it works out...

hmm...

Book in day

2006-01-12T18:31:00.000+08:00

Boring....

Time seems to fly by so fast when you are enjoying things.

Oh well. Will be rambling on a few topics now.... sorry for the very generic yet unrelated title. Touche~

I seem to yearn for the time when I ORD, more than ever.

It wasn't the same when I first entered NS, into BMT. I thought if life was this simple, although tough, I think I can survive this phase like a dummy.

And life got really good when I got posted as a driver in my unit... Just do as you're told, do not tread into unknown territory where you'll get caught, and nobody will disturb you in this 0730-1730 job. On other hours, you are free to do what you want, and you just have to make sure you do your bunk cleaning properly when you're told to do so (and it's during office hours too.) Life seems to be easy... until now.

As my company changed from supporting a camp, to supporting at least two camps, thing became more ruffled... and it couldn't be worse now.

Last time, all my friends were saying, "Wah! So good, become driver! Can slack, just drive, and get your bloody license at the end of your term!"

WRONG.

Apparently somebody complained about this job that seemed so good to be true, that we drivers now have a tougher job.

Now we have to wake up earlier in the future; a Musturd Parade (mind the typo) is being held monthly (This parade is like a Pass-Out-Parade, or Commissioning Parade, with you in your smartest dress, shiny boots, ironed shirts), Bunk Cleaning is held during lunch, eating into your lunch hour, and superiors are conducting exercise without any regard for safety (well, they always think their exercises are nothing but strenous)

This sucks.

Then the LRI check. Finally one of the upperstudy who ORDed five months ago, came to teach us about what LRI stuff we need to do in the office. So we have, like 80% more to go before we can heave a sigh of relief?

... TELL US EARLIER MAH. Three days left before the check leh. At least if you tell us before you ORD, you can have a good rest.

But! People must be appreciative, so thanks to George the Great who came by to help. And curses to Edmund the Greatest for messing up our docs before abandoning us for his SISPEC days.

Then the soreness I got from the Physiotherapist.

Gah.... shouldn't have bragged to the physio that I last went to the gym in early december. Got too full of myself too, and went all the way.

The soreness doesn't feel like the time after I spent two hours brawling with heavyweights in the dojo.

Neither does it feel like the time after I went for conditioning with DK...

It feels like the time I did biceps curls set after set, in the YCK gym with Derek and Weiliang, where I didn't even have a clue on what to do with all those weights.

Yeap, three days, and it's still so sore.. cannot extend my legs fully, because if I do, it feels like my quads and hamstrings are being torn apart.

Overtraining on my part, and I didn't even know. Thank the gods it didn't get into some strain.

And today is my book in day... this sucks.

I feel like I'm a jerk.

2006-01-11T18:08:00.000+08:00

Why would I agree to help Uncle Ra, when I have no prior experience in setting up a local Php server? And I haven't even treaded through even one part of Mamboserver.

Why would I avoid signing in to MSN Messenger until now? To avoid people and questions?

Why didn't I make sure my SMS is sent? I know my friends will think of me as an ignorant person if there's no answer.

Why didn't I ask more details about the paintball event? Yet another self-assumption that they'll call me about it....

Why did I go back to camp, doing stuff that doesn't seem to have any effect on the results?

Why did I delegate my work to my colleagues when they do not really have the time to do their own? Why would I add additional stress on them?

I suppose with all this, I'm really a jerk... a loser... a self-orientated person.

Wasted Holiday

2006-01-11T01:14:00.000+08:00

Damn.... burnt almost a whole day to prepare for LRI... and I was on medical leave too!

After seeing my documents that the LRI is coming to check... I shake my head and think, "How the hell are my superiors gonna survive this minefield?"

Should have enjoyed my day today... no point wasting my time there... all I did was check at least 70 driver records for error, and all I can do is report to my MTO for further action... and that's it! wtf....

Going for MRI check this saturday to confirm if my medial menicius tore... crap man.. and because of LRI checking this monday, my weekend is burnt... how to explain that I have an appointment, without any physical proof to show my blunt superior?

Weakling

2006-01-09T17:00:00.000+08:00

I feel weak.... a visit to the physio proved to be a killer. 3 hours of leg exercise, most of which, I had to take a break in between. 30 reps of leg press? it becomes 2 sets of 15 reps, and 4 plates for one leg only... kaoz....

and I haven't gone the other exercises.. yet.

leg curl? 3 plates.

knee extension? 2 plates.

doing a wide squat with 3kg medicine ball? 2 sets of 15....

crap... and I thought going to the gym and missing out the physio for 3 months would not affect me much.... argh....

Boring shit

2006-01-09T16:57:00.000+08:00

Gah... my PS2.... spoilt.... my brother accidentally pulled the cable to the ps2, yanking the PS2 along with it... while most things are ok, the dvd-rom drive was not.... in short cannot play ah.... fuck...

Also it's been a long time since i ironed my clothes... that also means it's a long time since i wore formal wear, or prepared my smartest 4.... hmm... blah blah blah