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.

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.

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...

...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

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

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

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

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

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

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.