By the awakening of Markuzy

Hacked :D

2011-07-21T09:09:00.001+08:00

Hehehe, been a huge difference in my life recently. But now i wonder why isn't anyone replying my sms. I wish i will stop not going to school, and oversleeping. Can someone force me to school? Pretty please...

March-April Reflections

2011-03-13T17:10:00.004+08:00

Was at OBS @ Ubin for the TCIY camp. :)

I actually have more sleep and less stress in Ubin than at home ironically.

And wow:

Climbed to the top of the wall, 14km kayak + 2km trek (lol?? zzz) + Fri ECP 10 km run/walk (because of WALKING to the starting point lol).

26km total.

5 days and 4 nights out from home, long night meetings and proposal drafting from Fri to Sat @ Changi Airport and Jellybean's place.

I admit I will have rather brought my laptop (and ziplock it and stuff).

But I don't have a mobile internet plan so I can't check my mail.

I admit I smuggled my phone in, but I use it for urgent matters mostly. Somehow, if I have known of the current circumstances of things I will not have signed up for this trip. Well, unfortunately, my March-April activities are pre-planned from last year, so it'll have to stick.

I believe the same goes for the rest of my lovely board :).

I wondered if I could have enjoyed it more, or played a more active role, other than trying to save energy for the crap load of stuff for when I come back. It's quite an experience too haha I can say, on passive mode.

Like I said to my group mates, I'll say the same to the board:

Every one of you play an important part. We cannot survive as a whole without each other. Our roles are well defined, we are each responsible for keeping the organism alive and thriving. Like a well balanced meal, with appetizers, main courses, and dessert, and of course, forks, knives and spoons, and the waiter, plus the table and chairs, the drinks too, also the roof over our heads, the aircon, the ambience music, the air quality...

So many little things that are important, that we should not take for granted.

I wish that we all be passionate in the coming academic year, and remember why you came on board with me. Don't let that passion die out. Believe in yourself and your goals.

There will not be a salary.

This isn't even your main job. It's your co-curricular activity.

You have your studies to attend to.

You have your families too.

So who will follow this path without passion?

No one will, it's insane, it's crazy, it's suicidal.

But if you have, and of course you have, then don't let your flames die out.

Work hard, keep a fine balance, and love what you're doing.

If you don't love, how can you do this?

Remember your first love, and don't lose it.

I really want to see you guys more often the next series of holidays :)

Work hard ladies and gentleman!

We're all here for each other.

Fast forward from Vietnam

2011-02-21T20:19:00.005+08:00

It has been ages since my last proper post.

What has happened?

Well, I didn't post the bit about YEP yet, though I'll try to be short about something that happened ages ago.

Land of S$2.00 cocktails.

But then, we're in the provincial village areas, plenty of vegetations and avian chicks.

We did see some human chicks too though. ^^

Well, we were in Bentre province, layering a platform of concrete in a school courtyard so that they may have fun in a safe and cleaner environment. (their old yard was just dirt)

Basically, we learnt how to be construction workers without proper equipment. No cement mixer and that kind of stuff. Just shovels, bags of cement and a truckload of rocks.

So we learnt the various concrete recipes and making techniques, ahhhh, fascinating, a 2nd career if we don't make it in our exams.

Well, in this trip, I had the opportunity to explore group dynamics, both the success and failures of them.

Of course, then why this trip?

Isn't it actually more cost effective to hire local laborers and workers that are more specialized and skilled to do the job (and at the same time stimulate their economy)?

Is it feasible to spend LOTS of money on air travel, accommodation and food, on a bunch of unskilled students?

There are no short term advantages here, but how about long term?

Will it be expected that we are inspired to serve in the community because of this trip?

How and when? And will it be significant?

Only time can tell, till we mature on in the decades to come.

In Joey's Bedroom

2011-02-04T15:22:00.002+08:00

It has been a long time since I've last posted.

What a better way to start in than in the room of a mandarin orange?
She's wearing orange today, so that she practically presents herself as an actual orange.

Of course, we're not doing anything kinky, but hey, why should I post if anything happens??? :p :p :p

The cat is old, staring out of the window, very much like a human, you know in those old folks home.

Joey is eating again, but not anymore, cos she finished her food.

And she still doesn't know I raped her blog and facebooooooooooooooooooook.

lalalallalala.

Anyway, trolololololol, any requests for facebook rape? I have her fb account logged in :)

I can only hope that I'm wrong

2010-10-17T00:21:00.003+08:00

Sometimes I feel like I'm coming back to a world of strangers.

I might be able to say hi and make small talk, but yet I feel that it is superficial and forced. A necessity and a formality. A relationship doomed to fail.

I know from the very beginning that we have slim things in common, if barely at all. There is absolutely no way each of us can empathize with the other.

I do wonder what I bother even trying at all, you guys have your own lives already, and so do I. There is nothing more, nothing less that I can do.

I'll say that it is only natural for each of us to gravitate towards things we're comfortable with. Each decision I make to give time to one group of people is because of how much comfort I'm with them. It's only human. I'm still human.

So why should I suck it up? I can't be everyone's close friends, there are choices to be made.

A relationship is doomed to fail if both parties stop trying. I dare say I do try. But have you? The injustices I see from way back is still prevalent. The love you give is exactly as defined as mine. Ironic it may seems, the way we are torn apart is because of our similar views.

You give love to those you're comfortable with, something I admit to do so as well. But your compassion for others is at the expense of a minority (not me). I have warned again and again that immediate action is required, but nothing seems to be done. Again and again, the problem lays dormant for years a plenty.

It is disappointing how much you guys abandoned a man in need, when all you need to do is listen. It is disappointing how you do not make sure that person is being covered by someone else at least. It is disappointing how nothing changed for one whole year.

When you're busy serving in the community, do make sure you NEVER forget about the community you're serving in! It is one thing to be busy in other things and neglect your own home ground, but to serve in your own home field and neglect the very field itself???

Today, it is appalling how F---ed up you guys can be in your own world. Do look around you. Seriously, all the sermons deliberately preached to resolve this is only hot air if you feel that it is too inconvenient for you. Really, stop this half hearted pretense to be unconditionally loving when you don't carry it all the way.

I have said all I can say, there is no excuse anymore for being young and foolish, really, if you're old enough to legally have sex, then please make sure you live up to it.

A little bit of myself

2010-08-19T00:21:00.003+08:00

I feel like a mercenary.

Just that in my life, I cannot stay rooted in any spot for long.

I tend to have the tendency to move ahead.

Sometimes I feel a bit ruthless in a sense, taking a quick stance, or to put it in a more negative way, swiftly passing judgement over things.

I really dislike to waste time.

Though it's not always over time.

Perhaps over relevancy. (yet though, irrelevant things wastes time)

Guess I must dislike myself a lot.

I just feel that I not much time to accomplish certain things. There are times in my life where there's a lot of frustration because of it. There were times where I did not have control over it, and because of it, I did suffer certain losses. There were other times where I regretted not taking a stance earlier.

Every little second is precious time to do something, at the same time, each second is one step closer to the final second.

That is why I can be impatient at times and just write things off.

If life were a game

2010-07-19T13:12:00.002+08:00

Computer games come in many varieties and forms.

One particular genre is in a form of role playing games or a real life simulation kind.

Today I overheard some people talking about the DS pokemon games.

It is quite interesting as the goal is to "catch them all"; to catch/obtain all varieties of pokemon. Although some might want to play the game for the plot, there are others who will strive to accomplish more than the end of the plot.

They strive to accomplish all aspects of the game, to catch all the pokemon.

As a simulation game, it really reflects on human behaviour in real life.

In reality, some people take it easy, moving on in life is something that "happens".

Others work hard for certain goals.

Others want to be accomplished, to "get it all".

So far, no one has accomplished everything in life.

What will happen if that is to happen?

Well, let us look at what happens when someone finishes a game.

They have got everything that can be attained.

They have done all that can be done.

Will they still play it? Especially when they have exhausted all replay value.

I think the answer is no. They will go do something else.

And similarly in real life, if a person has accomplished all, then life will be meaningless.

But they cannot do something else, they are trapped in the physical restrains of life barring aspects of religions.

What will you do if you have done it all?

Why do people try so hard for an unattainable thing, when attaining it paradoxically defeats and extinguishes the core driving force behind ambition?

It's quite an interesting food for thought.

People might complain that they can't accomplish their goals and that the journey is tough.

But then, what lies at the end of the journey if you make it?

Sometimes I feel that it all lies in the journey, not the destination.

A rather long story

2010-07-03T17:14:00.004+08:00

Sometimes, I feel like I'm looking for something.

Mostly, it ends with me saying, "No, this isn't it."

I feel like this is something that I'll know once I've experienced it.

Yet still, I'm still looking for this pinch of familiarity.

Well.

The chalet went pretty well I think.

Though sometimes I've to remind myself yet again of the generation gap

Guess it's not really the same, though I do try to blend in.

We all watched Toy Story 3.

I thought that it was an interesting show.

Spoilers below...

It is interesting to try to project ourselves into the characters. More so when the characters themselves are toys; where mortality is hardly an issue.

It's really refreshing watching them do crazy things that many people will hesitate to do.

It's similar to watching children.

The unbridled energy, the carefree spirits, they seem to resonate within the characters. Yet though, they were stained by incidences of their past, most especially the antagonist of this movie.

Bearing that, this movie has a clear transition between child-like innocence and tribulation laden adults.

This is climaxed when the protagonists are faced with a furnace. After realizing that there are no way out within their control, they came to terms with mortality.

It is not fear or terror that paralyzes them into waiting for "death" to come to them.

It is an acceptance of sorts, that they were in peace, knowing that their existence will come to an end.

This scene was quite powerful in that sense, a pinnacle in the journey of self discovery that starts from the pure innocence in the start of the 1st movie.

Though they were rescued in the end. I am curious to know how will their character develop from this point (if there is to be a TS4).

Of 3 movies, the latest installment is the only that have a large number of the protagonist team being in a long enough time of mortal peril for them to reflect upon themselves the meaning of annihilation.

On a whole, I think this movie puts me thinking on what does it mean to be a child. It does makes me think a little on certain Bible verses regarding children though...

Regardless, a childhood is something I miss. I think everybody wants to go to a period of zero worries. At the same time, we are already bound by the baggages of life.

FiFi is resurrected!

2010-06-15T15:14:00.002+08:00

I was RIGHT all along!!!!!

Anyway the Fifi saga continued yesterday till today.

I went incognito to my friend's repair shop and asked for the quotation for the unknown dude manning the counter to save Fifi.

He mentioned something about motherboard failure costing $200+++++

O_O

Yeah, so anyway I will have opened the darn thing myself but because of too many people telling me that it will void my warranty, I decided to bring it to Toshiba.

After a long journey to the middle of nowhere, the technician fixed it in 5 mins.

From my memory of several weeks ago:

I suspected that something got loose inside and I remember begging my school helpdesk to lend me a screwdriver so that I can reseat my ram chips. But those people refused to help the dying Fifi.

Fast forward a few weeks, the technician unscrewed the bottom and RESEATED THE RAM CHIPS.

And Fifi woke up.

Goodness gracious me, and he said that doing it at home will NOT void my warranty.

Moral of the story:

Seriously though, I think most people think the worst case (or expensive case) scenarios.

Sometimes, the problem is so simple and potentially silly that no one bothers to think of it.

Oh ya, and I saved 200 bucks.

A hectic half a year

2010-06-11T00:14:00.002+08:00

I think this year has been the most hectic from Jan to June. I hardly remember getting much rest.

Lets see:

Jan-Feb: Got around a long winded bureaucracy to get a certain something that I should have gotten long ago.
March: Settled my ORD, settled leftover stuff.
April: School starts, settled new term paperwork and notes.
May: Mug for quizzes, mug for tests, mug for common tests.
June: Mug more for CTs, take CTs.

Fifi the laptop went into a coma because it fell half a metre onto the floor.

I suspected that it was a faulty wiring so I requested for first aid by means of a screwdriver.

The shops I went into were unhelpful of my predicament. One laptop clinic even refused to help Fifi stating that I should go to where I got her!

I tried saying that it was an emergency, and begged for the equipment itself. So that I can resuscitate her myself.

But it was not to be.

I carried her lifeless body up and down mountains for futility.

She lies still in a coma, I hope to visit a more helpful laptop paramedic soon.

Somewhere in this 6 months, one of my rabbits died. She was way past her expiry date.

Interestingly though, there wasn't much of a worry or grievances.

Busy I might be, it is something that I expect to be approaching soon.

Then more recently a few days ago, the other rabbit got kidnapped by unknown people when we let him out for a walk on the corridor.

I am 99% sure it was kidnap because he appeared right outside our corridor the next day.

Apparently those buggers have absolutely no idea what kind of creature they were dealing with.

It is a creature that chews stuff fiercer than Solomon.

It is also a creature that produces lots of shit.

Plus it sheds fur like crazy.

Yeah, that rabbit is our fat furball.

Cobbing together stuff

2010-05-29T18:35:00.003+08:00

Okay, I felt rather exasperated at the last practical where 2 of the other dudes I'm working with contributed to coating the lab bench with iron ions.

We earned a "you guys suck" from our boss after returning to her for the nth time to get more iron pills.

Nevertheless we somehow finished the whole darn thing faster than the rest which was pretty amazing.

In other news...

I went to the gym (yay~).

After a very very very long time where somehow the stars align, resulting in me popping by the school gym with the other apple lovers.

It was at that point that I weighed myself on their great machine that they so conveniently placed there.

~tada!

75.8kg

Somehow it's either that the daily mountain and staircase climbing burns fats like crazy or that I've lost muscle mass.

So yeah, not exactly a good thing.

And yeah, I checked with the weights, noticed that I can't do the usual.

Yeah, kinda sad, but it was fun getting some exercise.

What I hope for is that I can be more consistent with it.

Pretty difficult to find time around.

So yeah time for a poem:

My mission is to gain weight!

But now my body aches!

Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow,

I just can't eat cake!

Must really start to move,

Must surely start to groove.

Gloom is all above,

Boom! is when I fail.

I wish to more than flail.

Not like a drunken deer.

Can't bend too much lols.

Ah, perhaps LSCT society training can contribute to my good health (hopefully).

Intermission

2010-05-25T20:12:00.002+08:00

Mugging like never before these days.

It's been quite some time it seems, tricky to get back into shape.

I think these few days have been satisfactory, but well, I think it can be better.

Lets see;

I dumped dance sports as it starts to annoy me and I needed the time then to study.

I dumped French as microbiology is practically a freakin language itself (phosphatidylethanolamine anyone?).

So I did lots of dumping previous weeks back in addition to taking a dump daily.

and....

then got into LSCT society and ISAAC.

Hopefully it ain't that hard core lol.

Well, hopefully life will be more smooth sailing from now on.

I really want to post more frequently, but plenty of stuff have been getting in the way.

I'll rather post something with a pinch of thought in it.

Hmm, well, I guess I better get going soon, one more test this week to study for :)

Piak

2010-05-04T23:19:00.002+08:00

Okay, it's been a busy 3 weeks, lots of ups and downs.

Mostly trying to get my schedule in sync and get enough exercise so that my belt doesn't feel so tight.

On the other hand, I have to tighten my belt because of the absurd expenses on notes, books and stuff.

Contrary to plenty of sources that tells me that my life now will be slack, it is in fact NOT.

Anyway, after joining and quitting life saving because of it clashes with my French module, I took up dancesport AKA ballroom dancing last week.

And yeah I did have an amusing encounter of sorts.

Last week, we had an annoyingly frustrating day in school because of a long and fruitless search online for time duration needed to sterilize equipment with gamma/x-rays. (I later found out that it might be in an ISO 11136 document that cost over a hundred bucks, unless I get a research grant, it'll be impossible to complete the project ~_~)

So, I ended up in the dance room with hardly anyone that I actually know. Yeah well, it's not the 1st time I've thrown myself into such a situation, so darn it.

Okay the amusing bit that happened within 60 secs of me sitting down.

Girl: Hi!

Me: (stoning away...) ...errr.. hi?

Girl: You came here alone?

Me: ...well, yeah..... (oh, do I know you? Man, I'm tired.. yawn...)

Girl: Aren't you gonna tell me your name? Idiot...

Me: (!) okay... I'm Marcus, you?

Girl: IDIOT...

Me: You're an idiot? (jeez, I'm a smartarse eh...)

*PIAK*

Girl: I'm btw. (I can't remember her name lol)

After that night of cha cha, I'll probably never dance with her again...

Moral of story?

I'll rather eat cheese cake.

Social screaming

2010-04-18T13:19:00.002+08:00

Anyway, yeah, LSCT FOC was kinda okay.

I can't help comparing it to the NPSU one.

But yeah, I'm not a fan of cheering about stuff.

I can justify that with Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Well, all that aside, I'm a kind of person who prefers to do stuff instead of cheering about stuff.

I think their ghost walk has decent props, but their ghosts need more wigs and costumes, most of them look like a cartoon character that got blown up in an explosion, with black faces.

Plus I remember spending the entire walk walking past black faced people screaming boo into my ears...

Nice try anyways.

Anyways.... , I believe I went on the walk with the most formidable girl I've ever met.

Goodness, I felt very secure like a damsel in distress with her pointing out every ghoul around every corner.

It was quite a unique experience compared with the NPSU one. In fact, I think she contributed a lot to making the journey into a nice little morning stroll.

I still remembered the NPSU night walk, with twice the number of people per detail (4 pple).

I mean, 4 people should be a piece of cake right?

WRONG.

It was like a scene where everyone was grabbing onto one another, and the constant screams of our groups was at times more scary than the crawling lady with long black hair.

Holy cow, the next thing I knew, I was thrown to the ground in the dark, with the lot of them fleeing, while I realize that my shoe came off somewhere in the middle of a dark corridor with several robed apparitions staring at me.

Somehow managed to find my shoe.

Haha this reminds me of the difference between watching a movie in a cinema and at home.

The audience's laughters and screams can really make a difference in the atmosphere.

Knowledge: Power or Fence?

2010-04-18T12:34:00.003+08:00

Here's the deal:

Standing barefoot on metal drain grills is actually more comfortable than standing on concrete or running tracks.

The thing is that most people will assume that as metal conducts heat better and will thus be hotter.

Never did they realize that we're talking about standing on metal GRILLS, not metal plates.

Roughly 50% of our feet are in contact with air.

At the bottom of the grills is the drain itself.

As we all know, hot air rises through the grills, this causes a decrease in air pressure in the drain cavity.

As a result, air is sucked into the drains via the grills, heated up, then rises above the drains.

The airflow and the lower surface area contact between grill and skin contributes to a more comfortable experience.

A concrete floor will merely radiate and reflect most of the heat back upwards (as it isn't as good a heat conductor as metal).

Plus, most of our feet are in contact with the surface, causing lots of pain.

A 2nd example will be putting mutiple basins of different sizes outdoors:

|_| |__| |___|

When it rains, which one will fill to the brim first?

It is neither the smallest one, nor the medium or the largest.

All 3 of them will be filled to the same height.

Why?

Each basin will receive equal RATE of rainfall per exposed 1cm², the bigger ones will receive a proportionately larger rate of rainfall as they have a larger exposed area.

This results in an equal increase in water height.

Now why was I typing out these things?

It's because I feel that sometimes we let our prior knowledge of things be the very thing that blocks and restricts us from being open to new concepts.

I feel that following things book by book will only result in us staying by the book.

It is an invisible fence.

After all, most books are written by men alone, and we aren't perfect.

I just hope we can look beyond what we're used to and see new visions.

The first FOC

2010-04-06T13:44:00.002+08:00

Okay, NPSU FOC was fun.

They have this literal blind date thing, amusing times with blindfolds.

Their messy games are really full of oil, margarine, flour, fermented lunch stew and stuff.

Water games are great, but rather hot on my feet with a feet sizzling sun on the loose.

Oh yeah, the best bit was the haunted house night walk segment, complete with many long hair white robed ghosts, demons, crawling variants, loud bangs, mysterious music, disappearing spirits and the whole works of cliche stuff.

Boy, it's exactly like a horror film minus the da~da~da~DAAAAA sound effects.

In fact, it is much more scarier.

Good props, especially in the first elevator, nice use of attention focusing elements and multi angle shock techniques. Nice lighting and sound effects, with a great atmospheric mood.

Really, this should be videoed down and made into a movie of sorts because the set is amazing.

Haha, lots of trips and outings (though I might be getting bored of them soon enough yawn..).

A friend did say that this sort of thing is pointless anyway since we're mostly from different schools and will probably hardly see each other again.

Yeah, well, it was fun while it lasted.

ORD loh (since 2 days ago)

2010-03-18T00:12:00.003+08:00

Okay, the whole process is an anti climax.

Now that I have 24 hours of my life everyday to mix and blend...

It feels like I have a lot of space to breathe and fill it up with stuff.

Living a life of at most 14.5 hours/day, including sleeping time (-7hrs= 7.5!!!) .

So it's 7.5 hrs of time versus 24-(7hrs of sleep) = 17 hrs!!!

I gained 17-7.5 = 9 hrs!

This is something I can really appreciate, since I have more than doubled my free time (until school starts that is...)

I suppose in theory, this will mean that I should be more than doubling my productivity.

Generally, I think that's the reason why I got a gargantuan task that I believe I can't just defeat by propelling pebbles at it with a slingshot.

I've never used a slingshot before too.

But yeah, no harm trying. :DDD

2 things I learnt on a lousy day

2010-03-12T23:40:00.006+08:00

Okay, anyway, invested in a SSD and normal HDD hybrid laptop. It's a risk with such new technology, but yeah, I'm giving it a try because of it's potential to disk performance.

Just need to format it and reinstall windows 7 onto the SSD (the manufacturer preinstalled it onto the HDD instead =.=)

Well, pondering about stuff on the train does wonders.

Anyway 1st thing:

The power of sharing lives.

People usually share their personal experiences with people they trust.

In fact, sharing is an act of trust!

It builds bonds as each person is entrusted with privileged experiences of others.

Knowing each other is critical to loving each other.

Knowing our strong points, weak points, grievances, joys and thoughts, it encourages love instead of rejection.

Frustration and suspicion results from not knowing each other enough!

Example wise, I do remember an old secular overseas school trip made with a random bunch of students from different classes.

Naturally we stick with people we're familiar with.

Icebreaker games helped a little, but still, retreating to our comfort zones were common.

We had this sharing session midway in our trip. It was to share more about ourselves via a drawing.

I think most of us wanted to share trivial stuff.

Well, someone took a leap of faith and started sharing about her personal life, sharing about her troubles, her thoughts, her fears, her faith.

It was something... powerful.

What resulted was several of us ditching our drawings and started talking more about what we really feel.

We comforted each other, after knowing each other.

Loving each other.

The following day onwards, we were as close as old friends. After all, we did share more than just our tiny time together.

It was something that might have taken months to accomplish with a newly formed class.

But it took one night of sharing.

Yup. I remembered this after pondering about today's activities. The power of sharing is very important indeed.

2nd thing:

Prevention is NOT always better than cure.

We learn in schools and work and stuff, prevention is better than cure.

Whether it's about safety or good habits or even trivial things, we've been trained to prevent potentially risky or dangerous incidents from happening.

I feel that prevention of things do not necessarily result in the knowledge of curing it.

What happens if prevention fails?

Sometimes we might not even be experienced enough to know how to handle certain things, especially when we're very sheltered from certain circumstances.

It might be logical in certain circumstances like studying hard to pass exams, but end up failing (review your study methods lor...).

Or when your house catches fire when you do not put risky elements in it.

(Call fire brigade or put out fire by self.)

But bare in mind that's because you already know what to do when things do not go the way as planned!

It's good to have a wet weather plan, or at least ask yourself, what will you do when such things happen?

Will we be able to confidently answer that?

Left for dead

2010-02-21T17:13:00.003+08:00

Anyway, my blog posts will be very much reduced as I'm channelling my resources into other wordy matters.

Should be done in one month plus.

Last week, I have the experience of jogging with some people.

With the few other times, I remembered the experience as being different.

There's someone to watch your back, there's someone to compete with.

Mostly though, I'm running with no physical persons.

It takes plenty of guts to keep on doing something like that.

Running alone.

Sometimes I feel like my strength is waning.

When there is no one here.

It takes plenty of trust and faith, in the Word and promises.

The mob outside lurks.

They stand for everything that I'm against.

Yet it is only them or no other.

They tempt me to open my gates to them.

How much I wish for an accomplice.

How I wish there can be someone,

who I can share the joys, weep the sorrows.

How much can I protect the strays from the beasts at my doorsteps.

When I myself am ever so weary.

It is not the debauchery outside that pains me.

It is the quiet within that pounds at my walls.

How much more can I take in my quiet abode,

before conceding to the angry mob outside.

I know Who I can turn to.

But yet I am grieved, that it is only You who will understand.

Rojak of the last couple of days.

2010-01-31T22:00:00.004+08:00

Had a HORRIBLE bout of intestinal discomfort for Thurs and Friday.

Liquid stool and stuff, quite interesting since I also had a 39 degrees fever, but no sore throat or runny nose.

Yeah, I think food poisoning or stomach flu?

Interestingly, I also developed a backache.

But at least everything subsided by Saturday.

Hmm, so I helped mop the floor and watched Disaster Date TV marathon with my mom.

Really hilarious, XD, it's about setting someone up on a blind date with a catch:

That the guy/girl is an actor/actress and is has every bad trait that the other person dislikes.

The whole date setting is also rigged, coffee house customers, waiters are all actors, so we get rigged fist fights, and lots of crazy stuff that tries to get the poor victim to ditch the date within an hour. The victim gets a dollar an hour for sticking to the date for up to an hour.

eg:

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

Hmm, well, personally I find Friday's message meaningful, then again, I'm glad I already have most of it covered. (not being boastful, but well, it is as it is.)

MOSTLY thanks to me not succumbing to peer pressure it seems.

Personally though, I agree in having a well balanced life.

I can be fervent in certain aspects, but not so that it ironically contradicts what it stands for in the 1st place.

Well, there's still always room for improvement, so I'm upping the ante.

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

Great Sunday, I think there was a lot of progress that day.

Challenging nonetheless, but I believe it was all the more worth it.

Random thing of the day?

70 year old man approaching some of us and giving us some wise words about life.

And by reflex I took out my notebook right after I got over being stunned and started jotting down what he said.

Roughly:

1)Be good

2)Don't be evil (Like Google's motto)

3)Our hands are key to affecting our destiny

4)With the above 3, fear no evil.

Quite deep depending on interpretation hmm, but that dude broke the awestruck moment with a Superman (or maybe power ranger) pose and left.

No seriously.

That just happened.

In Singapore.

Yep.

Spending Sundays

2010-01-24T22:33:00.002+08:00

Unfortunately, I realized yet again that I only get 7 days a week.

I also realized that I have no idea which international committee regulates suggestions to change the number of days per week.

Guess there's bound to be red tape here and there.

As I reflect upon this Sunday:

12am-5am online gaming with friends
Chill out with Ron at JP
buy some stuff
swim at Ron's place (or have a long conversation soaking up the water, pretending it's a Japanese hot spring)
Play online AGAIN

Or on other Sundays:

Eat
Chill
Watch TV with family
Computer games

Well, I know that Sundays will change soon enough after my ORD.

Probably there'll be plenty else essential stuff to do come March/April.

Yeah, I wonder how will I slot entertainment into all this now.

Hmms, well, it's hard for me to say; circumstances will change, priorities will differ, how much can I predict how things will turn out?

I can't plan everything, but yeah, I'll make sure that when the time comes, my decisions will hopefully be wiser than the couch potato Sunday syndrome.

Oh, and it is extremely unwise to chill out in a swimming pool because I literally got chilled in the pool. But then, it's not like we have a easy-to-go-to hot spring around here.

Of decisions and choices

2010-01-18T21:15:00.002+08:00

Sometimes though, I feel left out of things. Then again, I know that of course, it's certain things that's holding me back.

I know I'll ORD soon, but, well, I do know very well that I'm only human.

Sometimes, I have to remind myself continually on what's more important now, because it's so easy to try to slip back to where it's comfortable.

I think it's rather effective, many times certain decisions I made that I doubted, only to ironically be decisive when I ask myself which is more important, what I desire or what is right.

One of those moments where desires are not on the same tune as righteousness it seems.

...

Anyway, mom bought a new speaker set for the TV cos the original are broken and we've been living with lousy computer speakers attached as some kind of frankin-TV monstrosity.

Yeah, so it's more Terminator like than Frankinstein's Monster now.

Ah, spend the evening singing Shahrukh Khan hindu songs with my mom who somehow loves them.

I really love to just spend one day doing absolutely NOTHING other than catching up with family.

I really find it ironic that sometimes, family is something I see rarely, even though we still live with them.

Yeah!

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

More Eating, Less wringing

2010-01-13T22:11:00.002+08:00

Don't call me spoilt, but I'm someone who dislikes using my hands to eat.

I rather have a fork and spoon.

I find that if I have to resort to using my hands, it'll only mean that the food is difficult to carve out with utensils.

That'll mean I'll take too long to process the food before it goes into my mouth.

Guess I can't really appreciate such food with my zing for practicability.

I prefer tasty stuff that's easy to eat.

Prawn with their shells are a billion times irritating than half a chicken with bones and all.

Really difficult to deshell unless you use your hands or you work part time as a surgeon.

Crabs... I can never understand why people even eat them.

So annoying, you practically need to use your hands or some of those crab breakers and a sledgehammer.

Plus the effort to meat ratio is too large, too much effort for too little meat.

Heck they cost a bomb too, gosh, I'm not patient enough for this sort of thing.

Why can't things be as simple as eggtarts.

Another round at Ubin

2010-01-13T22:05:00.002+08:00

Last Sunday, went to Ubin with family this time.

Mmmm, very hot day that was.

I look a bit chao tar now, but not too bad; medium rare.

Went Chek Jawa, saw a snake, saw a bunch of fiddler crabs, saw 2 FAT mudskippers.

Went around the whole place but didn't finish the western end with the biking trail and the shrines cos we were too tired by then.

But I must say it was pretty impressive that we ended by around 2pm @ Ubin, noted that we were at Pasir Ris at 10am.

Hehe, at least there's lots of time to rest at home hahaha.

Reflections and Deflections

2010-01-04T21:50:00.003+08:00

Few more months till ORD hahahahaha.

Saw this cool ORD shirt on facebook, hmm, wonder if I should order.

Okay, I don't feel very inspirational now. Hmm, did I learn anything useful?

I guess not, all I see is peer pressure motivating people to become more inept idiots than they already are. Bad influences and such, there's almost no light at all.

You know what, I think I did pretty well not becoming a fat turd in these times.

Yet I saw perfectly righteous people falling because they fought for justice, and justice did not come.

I see the hopelessness in their eyes, the condemnation that they are crushed with each and every day, until they can fight no more.

Their minds wrecked and ravaged, they were absorbed into the all consuming well of defeat.

I've kept myself sane only by keeping busy, gyming, jogging, doing things, working around all the people who do not even want to help themselves. A wall of sorts I've created, yet only open to those who knock on my door.

And few do knock on my door.

But those few are the ones who I can trust, those are the ones who are not yet consumed into the vicious cycle.

Well, I did learn one thing after all.

You can only be friends with, let alone help, comfort and care for those who accept you.

If one doesn't accept another,

how can one really feel the concern, feel the love, appreciate the works of another?

No matter how hard anyone tries, it is eventually up to the recipient to open the door.

And that's how 2010 started

2010-01-01T20:38:00.002+08:00

Spent new year's eve at Ubin and cycled a plenty, might be more fun if the roads were more treacherous though.

I think I'm the sort that gets a certain thrill from such things. But yeah, we almost had zero crashes that day (way to go Ascot =.=).

One thing I learnt was that mosquito are attracted to Ascot and some of us concur that it might because he had a red shirt, carried a red bag and rode on a red bike, making him look like a big red mobile blood station.

Saw plenty of wild life, fiddler crabs, a hermit crab, an eagle, a starfish, green mussels, mudskippers.

Yeah WOOHOO! It's great to have an entertaining exercise, usually I'll be jogging in the park on a normal Thursday.

Oh, and went Mark's place to play ping pong, then stayed overnight.

Somehow it's all guys and with the discovery of the NERF gun in their place, everything went wild...

I've always wanted to try one, though the price tags at Toy R'Us always puts me off.

But yeah, Tim has the one with tactical rail plus attached 1x zoom (no zoom lol...) scope, 5 foam bullets with magazine capacity for many more. It's a toy bolt action sniper rifle with support stand...

I think the fun thing was that it roughly simulates a real gun, haha, I think IA drills work on them, I remembered we had a few double feedings.

So we tried to play some complex board game, gave up because it's too cheem.

Then played indian poker, with the highest scoring one "executing" the lowest scoring one with the NERF rifle.

I fell asleep through IP man, and didn't notice kungfu panda.

But I can tell everyone slept later cos when I woke up, most of the guys were still sprawled all over the living room floor like the aftermath of some execution carnage.

And oh yeah, the fireworks were great, it's rare to see such things from so far off in Lorong Chuan, but well, we had a great view of the exploding wonders.

Plus we saw a leech downstairs, very sad thing, we threw it back into the canal where it's more damp.

The Perils of booking seats

2009-12-27T01:30:00.002+08:00

When you have a 7 man section at the absolute front of the queue, with one scout inside relaying seating intelligence to us, several others infiltrating the hall itself to book backup plan B seats...

You will have thought that we will get good seats...

But nooo...

The moment we went inside to the prehall holding area, we have to queue behind some of those who manage to infiltrate the front lines.

Then when we got inside the hall, most of the floor seating were already booked by people who somehow managed to get access to the hall.

Ironically we managed to get our plan B by the same method.

It is really saddening that with such an elaborate scheme containing many hours of queueing and gathering attendance counts, with a 7 man team manning the primary seat rush, with supporting groups in place inside the hall...

we only managed to get the further terrace seats.

What more are those who came like normal people.

Personally, I don't feel like complaining without giving an alternative, I'll say that this is the only pimple for the event. (Other than the women's toilet queues)

It feels that you need inside connection to get a decent seat.

And it's unfair for family groups that can't afford that kind of almost insane queueing parties, they might have kids, elderly and work commitments that discourage such tactics.

I know the ushers are doing a good job in pressuring people to release booked seats.

But I believe there is a better solution.

I'll try to think of some soon.

A buffet and time digesting some thoughts

2009-12-22T23:59:00.002+08:00

Okay, nvm abt the last post, turns out that the jigsaw doesn't fit after all.

Anyway, just somehow managed to tie a tie via youtube.

Anyway, had some kind of reunion dinner of sorts from my maternal side of the family.

A sumptuous dinner at Holiday Atrium, mmm mmm... :)

I noted that my posts are degrading to a blah blah blah record, but hey, busy times are times where brains can't wander off.

Well, I did follow JW's buffet guide that I remember reading quite a long time back and yeah I had an enjoyable dinner. (plus looking at those suckers eating rice and spaghetti)

Mostly we fooled around with brain twister games and some tricks and stuff.

Seems that we might have an expansion to this side of the family soon yay...

Well, I rather not mention such things online until things become more concrete.

But then... yay!

2 thumbs up.

==================

Okay, I allowed my brain to wander off... to a completely unrelated topic.

There are some times where my friends achieve certain things and such...

And I mean yeah, it's great, but there are times when I feel envious.

And to add salt to a kicked snail, I feel that some of them do not appreciate what they have at all.

How will you feel if someone achieved something you wanted to achieve and then practically squander it away (or in the process of it)???

I know it's not the most important thing.

I know He matters more.

The very least I suppose I can do is sigh.

Yet though there are times where I feel like in a Sirius Black situation.

Trapped but yet living a life through others.

There are times where I stopped myself when I realized that I might be putting people at unnecessary risks when I egged them on.

Isn't the mind complex, that I myself can delude myself.

It's a mystery even to myself who exactly I'm doing things for.

=.=

2009-12-20T23:49:00.002+08:00

I just noticed something really quirky.

One of my friends might actually become one of my cousins.

But anyway, the odds are extremely likely that I may be wrong...

But lol, the circumstances are quite neatly in place haha, I'll find out coming Tuesday hehe...

Okay, anyway, my shopping mission took me far and wide, and at last I got what's closest to a polar bear that's punched in the eye.

At least I got the company of Henry and Melina.

=.= And now Henry and Adam's block leave is over, Ron's in a land far far away.

I guess this is it.

Another year comes to an end.

I don't suppose we'll all really drift really far apart,

but nonetheless, it is the most obvious thing that'll happen.

But yeah, see how it goes. Life goes on.

Must try to memorize the carols, hope to make some progress soon.

Wandering like a lost sheep

2009-12-08T22:33:00.003+08:00

Had Sat svc, rather interesting. (will explain later)

Rushed off to meet parents for dinner.

On Sunday morning, went out with Nixon to NCC.

Svc message was extremely similar to Sat's, though give or take differences in focal points and quotations, the topic discussed was quite the same.

Had lunch at this steak place that I forgot the name, went with Nixon to his place where he taught me certain exercise tips and stuff.

I was rather worried about something (or the lack of).

So we had a little chat about it.

I wondered then if I should take the 16 PF test again (since the old one probably doesn't count now). But it cost quite a lot =.=

Spiritually though, I've yet to find any breakthroughs in career advisories.

Perhaps I need to carry on praying.

(Ron also lent me an interesting book that I hope to finish by this week)

Afterwards, said bye to Nixon cos he had to go book in.

Tried to look for my grandma at her workplace since it's nearby, might as well say hi. :)

Couldn't find her, probably not working.

Then went Dhoby Ghaut to play LAN (again =,=)

Yup same link again: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=67855834314&topic=12751

Batamic Gardens

2009-12-08T22:21:00.002+08:00

No, it became Botanic Gardens, it was because most people pulled out of the trip, Batam was not to be.

Not enough critical mass to be feasible.

So ended up at Botanic Gardens where almost everyone was late. (goodness)

That's why I always suggest to give a timing one hour earlier because of my interpretation of Murphy's Law regarding punctuality.

Seriously, I got very annoyed, perhaps next time I should be late to be on time.

Plus it's not setting a good example and might teach people bad things (read previous sentence).

Anyway, we got shifted twice, once because people came to paint the shelter we were at, 2nd because of the invasion of ants and H2O from the sky.

Found one with a watercooler and vending machine, making the day's event something like a very cheap chalet stay.

Had friskbee, basketball, and twister, but because of rain, nothing was used...

except for the twister mat as an extra mat to sit on.

So tried to make cards the entire day.

Difficult thing to do.

Yeah, rest is explained here: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=67855834314&topic=12751

My first OPM

2009-12-08T22:04:00.002+08:00

Hmm, very much overdue but, I had my first opm last week's Tuesday.

Felt horrible so late at night, like argh, I wanna sleep =.=

But I realized that grinning can keep me awake and flippy.

Well, in the end, I ended up more awake than I started.

Eh, I think the whole thing was okay, not really thoughtfully aware because I was kinda disorientated. Been a long time since I stayed up late.

Well, anyway went to play LAN after pre-breakfast meal.

Journey there was epic, since streets were empty.

Bunch of guys tried to scare each other and stuff, but I was more concentrated on looking for a toilet at that time.

Played LAN till daybreak.

Went home in morning.

Slept.

Woke up late noon.

Went to jog.

Then Wednesday ended.

Busing to many places in Malaysia

2009-12-01T18:23:00.003+08:00

Okay, I still maintain that I prefer overseas trips to be free and easy stuff.

I never liked tour groups cos it's always "rushy".

Nevertheless, I can say there are some good sceneries, and interesting food. But then again, what's a trip without the people you go with?

Yeah so we saw, cave side temples, several car crashes due to rain, mountain waterfalls, tea and strawberry plantations, a shopping mall, an epic journey weaving through a long 2 lane bi-directional road with a driver who drives like Jay Chou but with a bus instead of a car and where cutting into the other lane during turns means collision with oncoming vehicles, plus indigenous housing of Orang Asli, several shops, an epic jam on highway, another epic jam on 2nd link (not too bad, just 45 mins of chilling =.=).

There's this one place where they marketed strawberry way too much hehe, I think it was Cameron Highlands.

On the whole, I feel like I spent 3 days eating non stop. Feels satisfying that I can manage a run at the park today :)

Then of course, it's quite an interesting experience taking care of the young cousins. Getting them to bathe, getting them to sleep, then waking them in the morning and stuff. I believe that I've been pinched way too much these 3 days.

After the 3 days, I've decided that it should be easier having daughters than sons.

Haha, I think they'll grow out of it anyway.

A day at the pool

2009-11-26T20:02:00.002+08:00

Can't believe it, people go Wild Wild Wet also want to Chao Keng.

Having fun also want to cut corners =.=

It goes to show one thing though.

Bad habits, even if you only do them on certain occasions, do show up eventually.

People who consistently do the minimum will get used to doing so and thus end up subconsciously doing so even in fun stuff.

At least they're not being hypocritical, but ironically, that doesn't make it any better.

Quite sad that even in casual circumstances, threats have to be used.

It's foolish.

But I must admit, the peer pressure was horrifically strong, only 2 of us stood our ground at the beginning. When you see most of your peers running off, it gives you doubt.

Nevertheless, I liked the telematches, we didn't win, but we ended with a big splash.

There was one where we have to push a large foam float into the wave pool and have to balance 12 pple on it. At the last 2 seconds, most of us fell off and the whole float upended like Titanic.

Anyway, I went to meet Damian at TP to pass him something and he showed me around. Was really impressed that the whole layout looked neat and easily accessible.

Plus they have a nice reservoir right outside.

A pity that place is very far from my home.

Met Mister Lee too, had an interesting chat.

Hmm, very burnt out today.

Went for a jog at pre-evening too, felt very depleted now.

Will be in Malaysia for next 3 days, so wuhahahaha...

Yay, IPPT silver!

2009-11-24T21:15:00.004+08:00

Yay, after a long and tedious metaphoric journey (plus this being a very delayed blog post):

Dunno whether there's enough time to aim for gold, but yeah, I'll try my very best :))).

God is great :)

Earthly Significance

2009-11-16T19:03:00.003+08:00

Yesterday at Vivo, I chanced upon the rooftop floor littered with exhibits on projects ranging from environmental friendliness to new innovative inventions on other things such as a pill dispenser for the aged.

Ironically all the exhibits are housed in giant transparent plastic balls with the interior a third full of smaller such balls.

Though I didn't see a sign anywhere regarding those balls, I sure hope they recycled them or plan to recycle them.

And on another note, Singapore seems rather glittery for Christmas.

The Orchard Road decorations, the Mount Faber radio tower converted to glittery giant Christmas tree, etc..

My mom had this to comment, "Singapore is like a woman, needs lots of accessories to look good."

I suppose on the whole, this whole thing isn't really environmentally friendly, but on the other hand, does not lighting up Singapore actually makes a significant change to the environment?

I did read somewhere that the current rates of eco conservation and environmentally friendly practices are insufficient to reverse the downwards trend, only enough to slow it down a little.

I also read more recently in the news about some delegate saying in this year's APEC that environmental salvation is possible with more investment into new technology instead of trying to cut carbon emissions.

And if nobody takes the step soon, it'll be too late.

There's this saying that the evidence of the existence of aliens is that they have avoided making contact with us. :)

Each sees a rabbit's death differently

2009-11-10T23:16:00.004+08:00

The other day I was surfing randomly through youtube when I came across a clip of a snake being fed a live rabbit.

Naturally, I watched since the rabbit looked familiar lols.

I felt disturbed seeing the whole thing.

I tend to humanize rabbits.

I suppose we treat most pets like a fellow equal or as a friend. (I dunno abt fishes -.-)

Really though, what will my reaction be if I'm to watch chickens being slaughtered or being eaten by snakes?

Probably with less sentimentalism.

It's sort of hypocritical that we care about things we are attached to or we can relate to.

But that's entirely logical isn't it?

Communities form to address the needs of the group.

Tribes, countries and alliances form for the same reasons.

And to be emotionally or morally affected by certain things, one has to have a certain exposure to certain aspects of those things.

I can certainly see newspapers and media playing up on sentimentalism, which have a direct relation to public appeal.

There are many kinds of news, but the most popular ones get the bigger coverage.

Examples:

US army psychiatrist shoots up an army base

=front page.

terror attack in Iraq/India/Pakistan/Afghanistan/Sri Lanka/etc...

=filler stories.

Obviously terror attacks deal more death and destruction but unfortunately, interesting stories captivate attention and "sells", the shoot out in the US is rare enough, so it makes the news.

Furthermore, once we agree that such things sells, it can be taken such that the media is consumer driven and as a profit making organisation, it "die die have to make money".

Unless it's government controlled. (complains of propaganda comes, but that's another story...)

It boils back down to the individual person in the society.

Anyway, no idea or reason about why I typed out this topic, just some thoughts in my head.

It's lunch thus too hungry to post much.

2009-11-07T12:33:00.003+08:00

Great song here...

Anyway, I might be potentially changing my field of study after ORD...

My previous reserved one was a placeholder default selection of sorts.

But yeah, I'll try to check out the specifics.

On the VERY long term planning:

(I'll like to make a mental note that NUS's science fac's canteen is a horror with epic queues and with food quality that makes me prefer field camp rations over them...)

Nosebleed from hardware glory

2009-11-07T12:23:00.003+08:00

Ron's computer is epic... but he better keeps his aircon on or it'll burn up from the heat.

Lets see:

2x gtx 260 SLI config, some ASUS high end motherboard, Razor keyboard, Creative X-Fi soundcard, 4 gb ram, Quad Core 2.67ghz Intel L5 processor, a power supply that's twice as beefy as mine (! =.=).

Sigh, I have a long way to my next computer lols, cos my com still ain't dying yet.

I'll prefer to wait until 64 bit support and utility becomes more mainstream, plus more hardware/software utilization of multicore.

I played L4D2 demo on his system with all configs maxed up and SLI enabled...

extremely sexy.

Had frog's legs yesterday, my conclusion is that we need to breed bigger frogs with less bones.

But it was nice though the price might be a ripoff, really I get more food mass at McDonald's.

An hour makes the difference

2009-10-27T21:14:00.003+08:00

I like how last Fridays ended earlier.

Proper sleeping time is essential for good health.

To many online sources to quote so ain't quoting any.

I personally dislike late nights.

Here and there, fine.

But not on a continual basis.

It digs away my time the next day.

Plus lol lol lol, I'm not gonna pay for taxi fares.

I think it's good that there is a certain limit on how late things can go.

Or else things might just degrade into late night exclusiveness.

An unwitting side effect of segregating fat wallets (or spend thrifts) from more cautious or less cash laden people.

It might not be setting the best of examples in budget management...

And what are the odds that such things only attract the richer?

So yes, though even it might even be an hour earlier, it really makes all the difference in cost savings, physical health, subliminal perceptions and waking up the next day for Saturday morning cartoons. =p

Oddities

2009-10-22T22:49:00.006+08:00

Weekdays are always weekdays.

Identical days.

Yet full of odd scenarios.

There are times where I feel that doing right to one seems to do wrong to another.

And vice versa.

Yet other are times where keeping my integrity sacrifices interpersonal relationships.

Keeping my sanity.

Keeping my character from contamination.

Is A fight every single day.

I do my best never to go down to THEIR levels.

It's so easy to take the easy way out.

Sometimes it is easy to confuse between the easy and the right.

I really hope that by Friday, I will not be a deflated balloon.

Though seriously though, I've no idea what happened last Friday, serious.

Cars just wanna run me over

2009-10-13T20:40:00.003+08:00

Sigh, it happened again yesterday.

Wearing pixilated uniform seems to increase the odds of cars screeching to a halt as the almost didn't see me.

So I usually pause at the side of a zebra crossing in case a few cars didn't see and zoom pass.

(They usually do.)

Of course, there was that time where someone decided to slam the brakes though I'm not yet trying to cross the road...

And nearly caused the motorbike behind to rear end the car.

Maybe I need a brighter coloured bag.

Anyway, I'm going bananas tomorrow.

And via a source on health benefits..

Apparently banana works like prozac lols.

Plus quite a few topics about the vitamin B in bananas being an aphrodisiac..

Jurong is a big place...

2009-10-11T19:31:00.002+08:00

Basically I have no idea what happened...

Pttzzz, felt better since Friday.

I did try to pinpoint why, why, why...

but somehow, I still don't think that's it..

Nevertheless, today I found out that jogging from Clementi to Jurong is treacherous indeed under the afternoon sun.

But yeah, there's this kick to it that's much more thrilling than just jogging round after round after round at the same place.

But then I figured I'm unlikely to do that again...

Hmm, maybe the thrill is gone when I know what I'm expecting.

Perhaps I just absolutely hate doing the same thing over and over.

Bah, maybe I'll do east bound or something...

The bad thing for this sort of thing is that I'll probably have to take a train back unless I'm on for jogging all the way back.

Ow

2009-10-09T15:46:00.002+08:00

Sigh, somehow I injured my lumbar spine while playing bowling.

Hurts and sucks.

Hope it's just muscle strain =.=

And I can't run yesterday, felt like the evening air is icy dry and is cutting into my lungs with every breathe.

Probably because of 20 year old dusty stuff I've been handling.

On the whole, crappy week.

2009-10-04T20:39:00.002+08:00

Don't know why, but I'm in a bad mood these few weeks.

At least I maintained most of my composure.

Well, not really in a foul mood, but just have this feeling.... of grievance.

Sigh, what on earth.

Ballz

2009-09-26T12:09:00.002+08:00

Well, anyway, the bowling with the hearing impaired people was quite interesting to say the least.

I met language barriers though.

Cos I'm unfamiliar with sign language.

But then, I can sort of guess roughly what they're trying to "say".

I find it a little slow to do the notebook and pen communication so I'm mostly resigned to facial expression and body language during the impromptu bowling moments.

It is quite an experience, somehow it's no different from attempting to communicate with people when you do not know their language.

Personally though, I find that if one cares for someone, it is only natural that they might reciprocate it.

Then my team somehow won the competition yay.

Seriously though, I was as surprised.

I think our team mates were too.

Plus we had some male penalty point deduction cos some of us were unfortunately male.

(kinda silly, like it implies that women are bad bowlers.)

Well, in conclusion, it was an enlightening experience, though a short one.

Still, I don't think this is my kind of thing though =o

Boomz =.=

2009-09-26T12:01:00.002+08:00

Noticed the newpaper flaming our Ms Singapore World Ris Low for some past crime involving credit cards.

Yeah so..?

They are damning her for something long past. (though last year =.=)

Totally pointless flame attacks..

Really though, I hope most Singaporeans aren't the flamers, because it's such a shame that we are such judgemental hypocrites.

So much for the success of the yellow ribbon project if some girl who got supervised probation got damned for her past.

So what if she's representing us, she did pick herself up and went on to win the pageant.

I'll say she's as much a Singaporean as anyone one else.

If our government doesn't revoke citizenship for the crimes like these, then it should be good enough for us to accept her.

My butt hurts from bowling

2009-09-21T22:47:00.003+08:00

My butt hurts.

Weirdest muscle ache ever, since all I did was play bowling on Sunday lols.

I guess playing bowling somehow stretched my gluteus maximus to the limit.

Man, and as the butt is the biggest muscle ever, it's something that's usually neglected.

Kinda late already, so I'll cover the bowling stuff another time. :o

Sums up my weeks

2009-09-20T00:38:00.002+08:00

For the 1st time it seems, lol, I took the train home with no westerners, but a bunch of north-easterners.

Quite odd that I ended up being the last one there.

Hmm, bumped into Michelle and Madalene at Vivo while on the way home.

Getting quieter these few days.

At least Henry booked out today :)

Probably snoozing now, wonder if I can actually ambush him in his hairless state.

Bah, lol, got quite some stuff tomorrow...

Hmm, and somehow I got my reading passion back!

Wow, haha, the last time was way back in sec school, well, hmm, ah, this is an interesting side effect to certain issues.

And recently on a completely unrelated note, these few weeks, I've been having a battle with integrity. Certain situations makes me ponder how I should stand up against certain attitudes and procedures.

Certain times, I believe I must do what's right, but at the same time, there's an overwhelming force, or more clearly, overwhelmingly obvious disincentives against speaking up and standing up for certain issues.

I was worried.

Certain times I wonder will that mean that I totally reject the entire circle.

Or will it mean that the circle will ostracize me.

Or a combination.

Yet though, the matter at hand has never been so serious, the circle of people never been so large.

And now it is.

Seems to be the right thing to do, but seems never to be the easy thing to do.

Void decks are not void

2009-09-17T20:57:00.002+08:00

Today, I saw a Muslim prayer session and a Chinese funeral held at the same void deck at the same time.

Something that I believe is extremely rare in this world, and even in S'pore.

Hmm, that's food for thought.

I suppose we do have enough safety and security, such that such things are the least on our minds, and there are few places where radicals can penetrate.

Anyway, I've read in a book that differentiating by race is an artificial kind of labelling.

We are more or less genetically close to a person of another race than another of your own.

It's just the skin colour.

Might as well have differentiate between tall and short people, strong and weak people if we should group by race.

After all, if we do, then tall people should prefer tall people, and etc, but that is not so.

Yet though, it is a diplomatic and legal necessity.

Racial boundaries are grey areas that might merge with other boundaries, like cultures and nationality.

Communities tend to form through racial clusters, cultures might encourage these communities to be formed that way.

That makes it essential to deal with issues like this with racial labels and targets.

At the same time, it is important to be aware that these labels are for easier management and not for the purpose of long term segregation but instead, continually be focused on integration.

Bah, no idea why I even blogged about something as unrelated to my personal life like this here...

Well, I suppose overcoming racial segregation is something that has been done rather well by our government.

Time flies

2009-09-11T21:25:00.002+08:00

lol, was kinda busy this week.

Lets see, I forgot what I did on Monday...

That's a first that I forgot what happened in the same week.

Other days I remembered chilling with Ron and having a steamboat-bbq, watching a movie.

OH YA I remembered!

lol, "celebrated" Henry's soon to be NSed life on Monday.

Ron... well, gone, but then, on the long term, mostly gone.

=.=

Oh well.

Bah, maybe I'll blog next month or something when I have time..

Oh why the flippity flip flop

2009-08-31T23:23:00.000+08:00

It's a long winded road.

Thorns and thistles encroached.

I see no other way.

Sky darkened.

Rain threatened.

Faith battered.

Road darkened.

Encroached, threatened.

Way battered.

Always feel like it's a never ending battle, seemingly impossible.

Every little ounce of hope I grasp seems to vaporize the next moment.

I can always walk away from this.

But yet, a part of me want to defeat it.

I do not like leaving things unfinished.

But really, it isn't anything for me to accomplish, but only when your will wants it.

Final Destination: Home alone on steroids

2009-08-31T21:43:00.000+08:00

Watched the final destination movie with my parents.

It is full of gore.

I think it needs a disclaimer that it might cause PTSD.

The main characters see through enough friends dying gruesome deaths that they all should end up sent for therapy.

But they kept their calm amid all the brains, intestines, kidneys and flying limbs, impervious to mental trauma (except those who ended up with severe head trauma).

But the plot was typical of the series, but exciting as usual.

I gotta love how it's like in Home Alone, with all the neat traps.

However it's much more like Home Alone Extreme gore edition.

Yeah, well, gruesome :D

Horromedy front seats

2009-08-30T00:28:00.000+08:00

Oh man, Jack Neo mixed his humour style with a horror theme movie.

Where Got Ghost...

I read poor reviews in the newspaper about this one.

Poor computer graphics, yeah tick, but our graphics on the whole have a long way to go.

The horror had the standard modus operandi.

But one thing was that we were at the front seats.

So yeah, the ghosts were like in-our-face kinda way.

It's something that really scores with a group of people, it seems fun if everyone is laughing and cringing with you.

Though laughing in a horror film is kinda unnatural, the comedic horror mixture seems very rojak...

But yeah, beats better than watching alone.

I think the reviewers watched by themselves, that's why they rated it crappy.

Atmosphere counts too. :)

And I think this one got the right one.

Javascript stuff

2009-08-30T00:24:00.000+08:00

Wow, this is really amazing.

Really cool use of web browsers to do unbelievable things here.

http://www.chromeexperiments.com/

Like bouncing a ball through multiple browser windows:

http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/browser-ball/

A nice art software:

http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/bomomo/

And a 3D google image search:

http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/google-sphere/

It's amazingly fun, some of them are sort of addictive.

Ionic taxi stand

2009-08-23T10:04:00.002+08:00

Okay, random stuff that occurred some time ago.

The other day I was at Ion Orchard, food was good at Food Opera, but not that great.

Basically, they're all hawker food, only much more expensive.

Well, you can say it's like ordering chicken rice in Ritz Carlton when you can get cheaper stuff from outside.

On the other hand, is it worth it to cost a few bucks more for the same food?

It's free seating, so still the same as food courts and hawker centres.

There's aircon and a expensive giant wooden (almost trojan like) horse bought from the National Geographic stall in Vivo.

That should add a few points.

But at where I was seated, the multi story waterfall kept on leaking rain upon me.

Plus it's kinda crowded and it's all self service (some hawker stalls outside do serve you the food.).

I don't quite see the extra ooomph that justify it.

Ritz Carlton do provide room service and serve you your food.

But this... gives me the impression that the price is merely marked up to pay for the rent and the water bills of that waterfall.

I did try the hokkien mee with scallop, it didn't taste indecent.

The scallop was interesting, but then again, most of the food are hawker stuff.

Think noodles, carrot cake, chicken/duck rice, etc...

And the cream of the crop...

the TAXI STAND!

No taxies at all.

Plus 30 metres from that stand was another stand that was CHOKED FULL with taxies.

Why?

I went and asked the taxi uncle.

He said that the taxi bay slip road of Ion Orchard has it's entrance outside the ERP zone and it's exit inside the ERP zone.

That's the slickest thing ever.

Either a stroke of idiocy or money making genius.

But then again, taxi drivers don't really wanna get ERP charged.

Harvesting Failures

2009-08-16T21:59:00.000+08:00

I suppose everyone of us have failed one time or the other.
I myself too.

It is discouraging, to say the least.
Then again sometimes, when I look hard enough, there seems to be value in failure.

Even if you sow seeds on gravel or in the rocks, some of them will still sprout.
A grain of rice is still a grain of rice.
The knowledge gained in the journey, despite a failure, is still a gain.

I still gain invaluable things from failures.
Different, perhaps from success.
But still, a harvest is still a harvest.

Stepping on our neighbours

2009-08-16T21:47:00.000+08:00

The other day near Lorong Chuan MRT station, on the brand new concrete walkway, I saw hundreds (not exaggerating this time) of milipedes crawling all over the place.

It was fascinating, they are everywhere, and also rather annoying.
With most of them about 3cm long, it was horrific trying to get past them without squishing them.

I see many fallen comrades lying on the floor, too many were squished.
It was so plentiful that any dude walking 20 metres on the path would have sent to milipede heaven a dozen of these critters.

I remember a similar scene when they built a new batch of HDB apartments in Clementi.
Different place, same issue, natural inhabitants displaced by a far greater force. (sounds familar...)

The unintended genocide was a scene from hell, many joggers and fellow Singaporeans alike, walking down the road with barely a thought to look down at what they were walking on.

The least I could think of to comfort myself was that these people were also more likely to step on dog poop.

2009-08-13T21:00:00.000+08:00

-.- Apparently the strain of flu that I had is quite virulent.
Spread to both my parents already.

Hopefully the influenza doesn't hop to the rabbits -,-

7 days of mostly inactivity

2009-08-11T20:22:00.001+08:00

And today marks the end of my MC. -.-

And I now understand why everyone (of a certain place) LOVES to take MCs, they are so great!

Of course, I'm not that bad as to be a sickly cow till no one sees me for the next 7 months.

But yeah, it was more sucky than not since I was actually sick.

Sigh, I guess I'll be back there tomorrow.
Though I still think I'm waaay healthier on MC, freakin ironic.

Anyway...
I do love the sand and the breeze, the sun radiating upon my skin.
It's nice being alive for once.
Ah, the interesting thing about salt water and sand is that they always sort of heal me in some way.

Long time ago, I had this blood clot under my toe nail (aeuuggh).

More than a month and I have no idea how to remove it -.-
Then I went to the beach and boom, my toe became clear.

And more recently, I have this annoying bunch of rash on the bottom of my feet, I think the salt and the sand sort of sandpapered them off.
My skin looked slightly raw and pink but, smooth nonetheless.
Though I must conclude that I found several cuts on my feet.
Must be the random sharp trash that I stepped on...

Ah...

2009-08-04T20:44:00.000+08:00

No idea how I became sick so quickly...

Sian, I have a fever, argh, this sort of thing spreads like crazy..........

Anyway, today, found out that ironically, the people harder to deal with are the saner ones...
This is gonna be difficult.
Nuts, this is like My Name is Earl on steroids, AKA my name is *** **** ***.

More than enough

2009-08-02T21:55:00.000+08:00

I just deleted a whole chuck of stuff I was about to post.

I felt very very surprised and very appreciative just now.
It is not easy.
But I'm glad in the very end, you saw what is the matter.
And I'm glad that you know.

I'm glad you asked me this time.
I do hope this will all work through.

There has been a lot of disappointments, but then again, a mere response is enough.

I think, for the first time, I actually talked to your unveiled heart.

I do pray that it'll all work out in the end.
Though it's a long long journey ahead.

I do hope there will be acceptance at the end of the journey.
Please do.
---

Anyway, Phoebe, I have hardly opened the book yet.
Do I even need the book...
Perhaps.

Anyway, yeah, I'll send you the excerpts by email.

2009-08-01T22:07:00.000+08:00

Sigh, not worrying does not automatically mean that I will be happy.

Anyway,I hope I can squeeze in more exercises in the coming weeks.
Kinda sucky that the only free time is the time when I'm hungry AKA dinner time :(

But bananas do help though.

Hmm...

I don't know whether I have a high metabolic rate or what, but I so far don't look that fat, though I've been eating plenty these 2 weeks.

Might be because of my size, just greater fat distribution over a larger area.

The other day I was at some book fair in expo, just reminds me of the old times when I used to read a lot.
Gotta miss those times.
Times where people played soccer, times where this blasted thing called a computer doesn't exist.

Now we just rely on it and are almost symbiotic with it.

I wonder... now of days, I wonder if there is a gain on reading...

Of course I mean fictions, something that I can immense myself into.
Is it rather silly to wallow in things that don't exist?

Though I find non fics more productive, fictions seems more fun...
A form of escapism.

eh, I suppose it can't hurt if I replace my computer games with books...
Will save electricity too..

Hmm, ok, well, it WILL hurt cos there're withdrawal effects...

I think I should give this a shot.
Hope I can make it without going back to slaughtering zombies!

Sick on a weekend :(

2009-07-19T22:03:00.002+08:00

Bah, I'm sick...

Absolutely horrible.

Plus I got this thing for falling sick on holidays and on weekends...

Haha, if I factor in a rough viral incubation period, I'll say that my weekdays are the cause of it all.

On the bright side.

No fever... yet.

So far my symptoms are quite mild, so it's only rather annoying.

Seems like it might fizzle out.

Anyway, my mom made me pop pills like Michael Jackson.

Personally though, I think that some of them are quite irrelevant and are mere vitamins...

Oh well, I'm still alive -.-

Celebrating 20 yrs of my life... -.- I suppose? =p

2009-07-16T21:12:00.003+08:00

Hmmm, I liked the jp dude-cooks-the-food-infront-of-you-on-a-hot-metal-table place.

How else can I describe it... kinda forgot the name of the place.

Well, I do find the beef kinda okay, :)...

Thanks for that shirt guys.

And thanks for the book ron, hmm, have not read it yet though..

I suppose I should expect a weight gain -.-

Can't be helped though, I can always burn it off...

-,- And what does being 20 bring for me?

Hmm, I suppose one year nearer to being 21 haha..

If I put it to perspective and lets say... I'll die at around 80 years old, then I will have already passed a quarter of my lifespan.

Kinda fast eh...

So much things to do and yet so little time.

What have I achieved?

hmm...

What have I yet to achieve?

Next year will be a better year...

Next year is when I ORD haha...

I wonder how much of my brain cells did NS kill off.

Hopefully not much...

Hmm, can't really take things for granted these days.

When I'm old and wilted I wanna look back at all these, and smile instead of being regretful.

I do wonder whether I regret all that has passed.

Perhaps things that could had been handled better.

Perhaps things will be different, but then I will not be here now too.

And now if I were to be given a choice to go back to fix certain things, to repair certain things way back....

I will have difficulty making that choice.

If I can relive 3 years, I wonder how will it turn out...

But then I will probably not be here now if I do so.

I will probably not meet some great people.

I will probably keep on this road.

Perhaps I don't regret after all.

2009-07-14T19:14:00.005+08:00

lol...

Can't believe I forgot my birthday was coming.

I initially thought I got arrowed to do a sai kang.

Thanks MMI guys for springing up that surprise.

I was actually quite surprised :)

-.-

Thanks for the alfafa pellets too.

I wonder how I'm gonna spend my time tomorrow yawn...

Being off on a weekday with everyone else working or schooling makes for a challenging time to find stuff to do.

Maybe I'll go exercise or something in the day.

Inperfections

2009-07-12T19:29:00.002+08:00

Exhausting.

I suppose if such complex issues doesn't happen, then life ain't exciting. :D

Anyway.

IPPT's coming up and sigh, -.- I better get going some jogging and stuff.

Sometimes I feel satisfied that the world is so inperfect.

If everything is well and good, then what's the challenge in life?

What will there be to achieve when all is already achieved?

It's the very inperfection that keeps me going on day after day, making each day a better day.

Which makes me wonder, how will heaven be like to those who get there, and how will they react to it?

Such things makes life worth living, just like any computer games, life has it's challenges.

After all, who likes plays a game that gives you everything for instant success?

2009-07-01T19:02:00.002+08:00

Gruesome stuff in camp today.

Anyway I'm not gonna go on about that.

-----

I'm still kind of stunned by a certain piece of news.

I never expected that.

I'm very sorry about your loss.

But we'll all be with you man.

Be strong as you were dude.

You must.

2009-06-28T20:06:00.003+08:00

I suppose since a picture speaks a thousand words, I don't need to say much about the Malaysia trip.

Hehe, technically it means it is worth a thick book. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?page=1&aid=85595&id=526199666

The trademark Genting mist makes for a surreal L4D experience in real life, minus the zombies...

Hmms, I liked the food.

Most are chinese food I'm familiar with, kway teow, laksa and stuff.

Though the sauces, and ingredients are very much different.

Makes for unique stuff.

And the laksa is too generous with the hum such that it is fit for a vampire.

At least the Genting ride queues aren't as epic as universal studios queues in osaka.

Phew.

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

Hmm, anyway on Sat, went to class bbq right after svc, reached when almost everyone is out of battery... -.-

What better way to update each other before we can't even recognise each other?

Well, I wonder, because such idyllic things will eventually come to an end.

I don't know really, I'm not my parent's generations, maybe it will be different for the Y generation.

Lets see how it goes...

2009-06-19T10:57:00.002+08:00

I've packed my stuff, hmm, I wonder what else is there for me to do.

Oh well, maybe I'll polish my boots or something =.=

2009-06-14T20:58:00.003+08:00

I dedicate this poem to Nixon, who will be leaving us for the resort island of Tekong on the 16th this month:

Merciless, time flies.

Merciless, you swat flies.

Flying away is time of course.

Fly to it before all's sold out!

Out and away you shall be,

Outcast under a Tekong tree.

Trees and shrubs you shall see,

Trees of scents you shall breathe.

Breathe in all the freshest air,

Breathe while trapped in wild boar's lair!

Lairs that tests your faith and strength.

Lairs that you shall spend at length.

Length of runs you shall take,

Lengths in the heat you will bake.

Baking pies you shall dream,

baking your skin isn't your dream!

Dreams of home, still afar.

Dreams of pies, like a scar.

Scars of battle, you will taste.

Scars of schedule, must make haste!

Haste! Time's at it's close.

Haste! Journey's like a rose.

Rose with thorns that blister your grip,

Rose with fragrance at it's beautiful tip.

Tip of the day: pies ain't on trees.

Tip me a dollar, for this poetry!

Poetry, it ain't a cake.

Poetry, not easy to bake.

Bake.

Cake.

2009-06-14T15:10:00.003+08:00

http://jobscentral.com.sg scared the crap out of me with one of their emails they sent me.

I mean, I did not even fill up my online resume, job history or particulars or anything on that page.

Might be random, but lol, it gives me the impression that they might have been spying on me in camp or something =.=

MMI staff will know what I mean...

...

2009-06-11T22:27:00.003+08:00

Mortality doesn't hit you if it doesn't hit you.

We see the pains everyone have, but always we never really experience them.

We do not experience the suffering, the anguish, the aches...

Naturally, it meant that we do not experience true empathy.

When one is young and springy, it is like nothing can ever stop him or her.

The problems of others remain a distant object only to sympathize.

But the worst does come to us.

Eventually.

Some sooner, some later.

Our bodies and minds will age, and with that, come rushing in what was only a far away thought decades ago.

Sickness and disease.

An inevitable result, or I may say, our cause of our mortality.

It comes as a shock, a nasty surprise, when what you seems to be immune to suddenly pierces you.

Inevitable, but you might cry out, "Why me? I'm still so young! T_T"

Pardon the emoticon, I can't help it.

Yet though, whether now or decades later, inevitability will always stay.

Be young and brisk, and yet conscious of your own mortality.

How will we know when will it be that our time stops?

2009-06-11T22:24:00.003+08:00

Ok, gonna squeeze in a fast one here.

Can't really have the time and liberty to blog cos my computer is half dead.

On my bro's com now, so it isn't that comfortable haha ;p

Well, I'm gonna get a replacement gpu coming weekend at the pc show.

2009-05-25T22:17:00.002+08:00

The other day my parents bought a new bed for themselves.

Not yet arrived, but my mom went and repainted the master bedroom.

I managed to stop her from continuing with the living room and my room cos I figured there wouldn't be enough time and I thought she was getting high on the painting process.

Plus, as dusk approaches, it became an increasing reality to be sleeping in a room of intolerable fumes.

Ok.

Anyway, the other day I have to unplug my gpu from the motherboard because of dust problems.

Really terrible, I have to give it a wipe.

Or maybe my computer's just old.

Sigh... Technology.

I can only do so much to keep it healthy.

Regardless of health, age fatigue, wear and tear can still cause it to break down.

Much like humans eh...

Plus, Sakura looks very old.

=.=

Cos she is old.

Can really see the age even though she still looks quite firm and supple.

Mortality.

2009-05-23T10:44:00.001+08:00

Don't act like a spoilt child when you don't get what you want.

2009-05-19T21:19:00.002+08:00

I really appreciate the help that I've been getting.

Thanks for the support during this time.

Though it seems like the situation has been abandoned, I'm grateful that it isn't being left to be "played out".

It is difficult, and frustrating trying to salvage it, when at the same time, some are wrecking it.

It is discouraging, when one is met with opposition from the victim himself.

Who is the victim here?

Or who are the victims?

It is one thing to tolerate someone.

But it is another to accept him.

How is it to also make a stand without compromising or making war with the rest?

How is it to move on to secular means of actions?

We do live in a secular environment after all.

No one can tolerate forever.

I remember that someone said that army life will reveal the true colours of your friends in times of crisis.

It is times like this that rips of all skins of deceit, revealing the bare human soul.

It is imperative that we understand that not everyone have lives that taste like chocolate.

We all have flaws in our lives,

understand that some of us will inevitibly have greater flaws.

Understand that the agony and suffering some of us have are beyond your wildest imaginations.

You will help an old lady cross the road right?

How different is that from opening your heart to someone's bitterness, and guiding him?

Acceptance isn't tolerance.

I do feel that the current mood is geared towards tolerance.

Tolerance will wane with time.

However, with time,

acceptance will mature instead.

And as well,

I do hope that I can find my stand, and stand that stand.

2009-05-18T21:38:00.002+08:00

Yesterday night, my gum swelled and caused me an headache.

Ouch.

Somehow managed to sleep it off.

Feeling better now.

Anyway.

My family went to Geylang to eat.

Around mid noon, ate some bak kut teh and stuff.

Not really fantastic or anything, but I suppose quite a meaty meal.

Then walked that Changi Village board walk.

One side is the sea, and the other side is fenced up "government chalet" area.

I went to that S A F chalet before for some function and buffet quite some time ago.

But now, as civilians, the board walk is like some kind of squeezed up leetle thing that is some guy's after thought.

Really, not much of nature if one side is restricted and the other is mostly the jagged rocks.

Bah, I don't know what to expect.

Are my expectations too high?

I don't expect to see giraffes and dolphins, but all I see is the common grass and shrubs.

I'll say it's quite disappointing, unless you're one of those guys who like to stare at the sea all day fishing.

Yeah, there's one segment over water.

The most interesting thing to see were some red eyed black birds and plants growing on wooden stilts that protrude from the waters.

The plants were interesting cos they're probably there when birds landed on the wooden poles and shitted the seeds onto them.

I believe I accomplished exercise.

Ok.

Gosh.

Then we ate prata back in Geylang at night.

The vicinity was a bustling area, busy with lots of the male populations just wandering around.

I don't think all the guys there are looking for prostitutes or anything, seems like a good place to eat and relax after a long day at work.

Anyway, I enjoyed the Mutabak and prata.

Fresh...

Regardless, hungry people can eat anything. I probably don't really care what went into my mouth.

2009-05-13T22:51:00.002+08:00

These days... makes me feel like I have nothing in common.

How on Earth did I ended up with you guys?

I feel as though it is a tragic accident.

On the other hand...

Yeah, yeah, the "making-compatibility" argument.

But I'm not dating the whole lot of you =.=

I still feel like a foreigner.

2009-05-11T22:03:00.003+08:00

Wow, I didn't know that I slept that long... 14 hours... =.= argh...

Exhausting week, I was totalled.

Plus my handphone bill for this month doubled.

I really think I know where the problem is.

Anyway, yeah I checked my global sms bill from twitter, it IS cheap... haha.

I think that is justification to brutally cut certain things down.

Ok.

Anyway, regarding the so called doomed economy where people can't find jobs or are being laid off...

Well, some of you guys aren't looking hard enough or are just being a complete idiot.

I know from a relative of mine that there are job vacancies that are still quite vacant.

And it's not those road sweeper, dish washer, waiter, construction worker kinds...

Seriously, from what I heard, someone actually skipped work on that person's FIRST DAY of work!!!

Nuts, I may say.

You might think that people will be more appreciative or even more flexible.

Anyway on a separate topic, from another of my relatives:

There are bad customers that complain over a little thing that is a matter of opinion but not a lapse in service standard, but expect a full compensation for it.

There are customers who choose to push people's buttons because they are "king".

And the saddest thing?

Most are Singaporeans.

I do hope this is only the minority.

2009-05-03T23:45:00.003+08:00

And today, I went for svc, great message by a great man.

It's very visual dramatic type and not the academic lecture type...

Basically the message is

There will be offenses in your life no matter how Godly you are
Forgive thy enemy

But Stephan Munsey delivered it.

He showed that it is never easy to forgive when the crime is heinous, personal and painful.

He showed that true healing and wholeness is impossible to achieve unless one exercises impartial forgiveness.

He showed that non Christian rich successful people shared the same philosophy of letting go and forgiving.

Personally I feel and witness that this is easier said than done.

Especially when the offenses are still on going.

But then, it's a leap of faith to prevent oneself from falling into a trap of hatred and stagnancy.

2009-05-03T23:37:00.002+08:00

Went to Ritz Carlton Greenhouse dinner buffet for dinner with family.

It's good to be the one being served haha, I worked there before.

I held Poh Chong's food philosophy at heart today.

You paid for the food.

So enjoy it
and do not suffer by gorging.

Heaven on Earth.

A pity all the part timers that I know are gone...

Ooo, and the hotel bathroom, great octagonal window.

Even I myself can stand at the ledge and still have head room to the top.

Goes to show how big it is, and how exposed to the world you are when taking a bath haha =p

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81916&id=694521937&ref=nf

2009-05-03T21:49:00.002+08:00

An epic journey across the land on Saturday.

Quite epic on my EZ link too.

Make a stand or be diplomatic?

The opposition is strong.

The weak feels defeated.

Seems to be nothing to really fight for already.

The battle seems to be over.

I wonder how is powdering everything gonna be helpful.

The situation is NOT like that.

Truths are ugly.

Are there necessary evils?

I'm sorry if it ends up destroying you.

But I don't see how unless you know what is going on.

I know it isn't going to be encouraging to you.

But how am I to cause you to hear and see no evil?

So be it.

As an analogy:

Why try to recycle paper when everyone else is cutting trees down?

2009-05-01T20:58:00.002+08:00

3 minutes.

4 guys.

20 hotdogs each.

2 of them finished 4 hotdogs,

the other 2 finished only 2.

Eh?????

I dunno how that happened, but I kinda expected more epic stuff.

Maybe the selection was random or they all had stage fright.

Gotta be kidding me.

Right, anyway I was babbling about the Men's conference at JW.

Oh and there was this sumo challenge which involved men wearing huge soft cushions which made them look like gigantic plucked turkeys trying to shove and pin each other down.

Wow...

Anyway the actual contents are MIC; men-in-confidence, so it's secret to guys* :) .

Well, it was fufilling and covers our innate instincts, the effects of the modern media in the environment upon them and how to recognise and handle these circumstances in a proper and sanctified way.

2009-04-30T23:47:00.002+08:00

Very tired today, -.- gotta sleep.

Do hope that it will be a change for the better.

Gosh I can't even post, can't think much.

But anyway on a separate issue, I have to be awake by 8 every morning on weekends...

Very weird, but hey, no harm in risk minimization.

Anyway, today I somehow managed to do the minimun chin ups required to pass my I P P T.

Sweet.

Now I'm on a roll here.

2009-04-29T22:55:00.002+08:00

Sometimes, it will seem that there is no point in doing things.

It seems like things will go wrong no matter what you do.

But what will you do because of this?

Will you shrink away and hide in fear?

Will you abandon it?

You asked for advice, yet you fear it.

In respecting one's free will, the rest is up to you.

There can only be so many things we can do in that expect.

You seek for actions and not only words.

But you fail to realize that the actions you seek are the actions you will have to undertake.

See that there is no way to salvage whatever left, you will have to take the step ahead.

Sometimes I am at my wit's end, torn by a dilemma.

What am I to do?

The fallout from this might be greater still, the circumstantial limbo is a worry.

There are risks to any approach.

Things will happen.

It cannot be avoided.

I don't see how different is it from someone who is suffering from an infectious influenza.

In free will you let him decide to see a doctor, even if he refuses, you will accept.

Is that considered an abandonment of responsibility?

How much respect for free will can we undertake at what risks?

Even at the risk of others?

Then again, if the free will results in his death, is that amounting to respecting his euthanasia?

What is your stand on euthanasia?

What I believe is that free will is God given and must be respected, I agree.

However, I do not believe that free will be corrupted into a form of anarchy.

Let me give an example:

Your child wants to play with the computer at night even though he has an exam tomorrow.

Will you let him play because of his free will?

Or will you impose your will upon him, to teach him?

You might say, "it will work too by reasoning."

But I say, reasoning without any hint of the consequences of disobedience, or without any plan of the consequence is calling for disaster.

The child will take advantage that the dog has the bark but no bite.

Even the Bible wrote of the consequences of disobedience.

Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt is an example.

If authority are the ones God has appointed over us, then we should honour them as we honour God.

Disobedience to authority is dishonouring God.

For how can one obey God if one can carelessly disobey human authority?

I do not mean that we should be dictators.

I mean that there should be a limit.

Spare the rod and spoil the child.

There should be an understanding of the consequences.

There should be an ultimatum.

There should never be blindness.

Faith is never blind.

I will obey you.

But this is what I feel.

2009-04-29T22:24:00.002+08:00

Sigh, the swine influenza just made the busy busier.

Anyway... in accordance with DORSCON yellow:

Alert Yellow

Inefficient human-to-human transmissions of flu caused by a novel virus, requiring close and sustained contact to an index case. Further spread can be prevented through public health measures to isolate cases and quarantine contacts.
Risk of import into Singapore elevated. Isolated imported cases may occur but there is no sustained transmission.
Strategy is to prevent further import of cases, and to ring fence and isolate cases to prevent spread. The focus will be to provide treatment of all cases, and antiviral prophylaxis to contacts including exposed healthcare workers.

Action:
Alert Green action apart, institute home quarantine for close contacts of cases.
Institute temperature screening and impose restriction on hospital and clinic visitors.
Restrict inter-hospital movement, except in emergencies.
Healthcare workers to take temperature twice a day.
Institute temperature screening for passengers arriving from affected countries at border control checkpoints.
Travellers from affected countries given Health Alert Notices (HANs) and advised to monitor their temperature daily for 1 incubation period.

Taken from http://www.crisis.gov.sg/FLU/Alert+System.htm

Okay.

Well, I suppose public hospitals and other health care services are following the protocol.

Abit worried about my mom's side, I asked her about it and it sort of seemed that there isn't really a clear triaging going on, I suppose it might take some time to adjust, like maybe by tomorrow -,-

At least our system is tuned and in place, ever since SARS.

But the rainy weather ain[t helping, more people are falling sick from the so called normal flu...

I wonder whether this is getting bad or worst.

So far only people in Mexico plus one from USA died.

I gotta like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_swine_flu_outbreak .

The infected/death table on the page is helpful.

Singapore has 13 suspected already...

Just when things couldn't get worst eh.

2009-04-28T21:33:00.003+08:00

There was this time when we had this gigantic wind blowing down trees here...

Well, as I was walking along the west coast-vivo city trail, I saw that a gigantic letter "T" from the DSTA building sign has disappeared.

Wondered where it went and the damage it did below, since the huge sign was at the top of the skyscraper.

Oh and yeah trees were felled here and there, including one bamboo shoot already splintered right over our heads.

And between Mount Faber and Vivo, the entire guide rails of a platform segment were wrecked by what seemed to be a tree trunk that had since been removed.

There can only be one conclusion:

Mother nature farted.

Sigh, I better get exercising soon or something.

ignorance is bliss.

2009-04-27T21:27:00.003+08:00

Sometimes I see no progress at all.

I wonder whether if it is even constructive at all since the response isn't too optimistic.

Might I be even leading it the wrong way?

Well, I don't know, but I shall not let it affect my rest, affect my sleep, affect my exercise and affect my personal time and prayers.

Gosh, what the heck.

Anyway...

It is really tragic, -.- jeez, you 2, at least keep it down, you are scaring the pple unfamiliar with the circumstance.

I hope the younger ones don't get scared or anything, sometimes I wonder.

Anyway...

I really want somewhere new to eat.... -.- I suppose if we had no choice but to eat at the same places, then yeah, we can survive that.

Don't we all survive 10 years of canteen food in primary and secondary school?

2009-04-22T22:20:00.001+08:00

If you are ill, will you see a doctor?

If you are dying of cancer will you see a doctor?

I don't see why not...

2009-04-22T20:22:00.002+08:00

Ok, I was just testing Twitter yesterday.

The most uncomfortable thing was that overseas number that I have to text to.

I din really see official info on the pricing.

Nevermind, it'll be nuts to declare everything that I'm doing...

I mean, isn't it bordering on silliness to Twit on eating, sleeping, bathing (oops done that...).

I guess it justs spams content without depth.

Might as well attach a web cam to my head.

But yeah, kinda fun.

Still no real opportunity to twit about anything yawn.

2009-04-21T20:28:00.003+08:00

I think I'm already kinda knocked out.

Tiring.....

Can't really back out now can I?

Everytime I find out more, sometimes I wish I didn't.

My mom heard 5 road accident reports this morning on the radio.

eh?

I guess quite some drivers were surprised at the sudden downpour in the morning.

When was the last time it rained?

Well.

While at dinner today, I noticed that the hawker centre has placed tray return areas all around the entire place.

Plus the tray return sticker on the tables.

Good right?

Well, but most of the stalls serve us the food WITHOUT trays.

So even if we are epic and goody goody nice apple pies, there isn't a place to put our plates into.

Might as well just put them on the floor beside the useless tray return rack.

Great ideas but stupid ways to carry it out.

Plus the cleaners are ever so helpful to zip the empty plates away even before we even think of doing the good deed of cleaning up after ourselves.

It is ludicrous.

I bet that's what happens when you follow strictly the black and white without bothering with common sense.

It's the same thing with my lift upgrading.

They add lifts to spare old people the steps.

But they added STEPS from every common corridor to the lift lobbies....

Thank God they fixed it by building a slope over them.

Gosh, kiasi until like that...

I believe there is too much pressure in society for us to "lie low" and do the safe thing.

I remember my sec school teacher always say, "do it right the 1st time."

It's encouraging conformity to such an absurb extent.

It's penalizing people for trying something new.

It's stifling creativity.

2009-04-20T23:07:00.002+08:00

Ron, Henry and I had a prayer session at his place.

Well, amazing I got a prayer request on the phone right before it starts.

Guess the situation is improving. :)

I believe it can get even better.

The 1st step is for one self to recognize the situation.

No reason to cure it if you don't even know the problem exists right?

Then again, just when I thought I see the light...

BAM, it's only a glow worm...

Seriously though, I might be giving the wrong impression by egging this whole thing on...

I can only do so much.

One thing for sure.

I will not allow it to spoil my sleep.

Maybe a bit of my exercise time (T_T)

But never my mental state.

Sigh, before I get too distracted, Ron, Henry and I ate Mutabak and some nasi ayam stuff.

Yum, fattening...

2009-04-19T22:06:00.002+08:00

Slept really late and woke up really late.

Technically I slept really early since it was kinda already morning when I slept.

Well, whatever.

Henry and I brainstormed around Botanical Gardens.

Realized that at this late afternoon, not enough brain to storm.

Came up with an alternate idea hehe.

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

Anyway,

it is unfortunate that something like this has to transpire.

It is even unfortunate that it has resulted in ostercising.

It is the most unfortunate that the entire thing is caused by society itself.

All who despise the situation are the very ones who created it in the 1st place.

I am guilty of it too.

It is such a shame.

Do we really share the same DNA?

Let there not be any coups among us.

Hostilities are already happening among us all.

Be "aware" of it.

Let them not consume us.

It is easy to be destroyed when right and wrong seems to blend.

When truth seems to be blinded,

When truth seems irrelevant.

It is times like these where we must not scatter in the wind.

It is times like these where we must stand tall and strong.

It is times like these when we together must overcome the odds.

This is the time.

This time is now.

2009-04-19T02:50:00.002+08:00

oh yeah, i got the reservation acceptance letter from np!

Alrite!

Personally though the achievement is in a dozen emails I sent, one fax, begging 2 people to physically do 2 dispatches across the island, and 2 strategically taken leaves to deliver the documents to NP.

Phew.....

And I got one nice personally signed acceptance letter in return.

Hahahahaha, I got through THAT!

2009-04-18T23:40:00.002+08:00

I tried again and again...

A bit better yesterday.

It's difficult.

Anyway, well, the svc was an epic one for a concluding episode.

I say the last act by the drama team is a work of art.

Tasteful (mostly), and choked full with sexual innuendos.

I think it was carried out quite nicely, the younger pple wouldn't get it.

Well, I'm glad topics like this aren't avoided, though most of us aren't married yet...

Well, I guess....

it might come in useful someday in the future.

Well, today's message covered various aspects of marriage killers and dos and don'ts, plus with the fact that physical intimacy isn't avoided, the whole programme is rather frank and whole.

Personally though, I don't think I yet have the guts to stand in front of so many people and preach a topic like that...

Gonna miss the drama people.

Comparing all the reference to sex so far, this last one was quite tasteful despite sex being the core issue here compared to other topics in the acts before it.

2009-04-18T00:16:00.003+08:00

Quite a lot of people turned up at Ron's place today.

Thanks ron for being host and to the good food :)

Well, I did find out more things today.

It's even deeper than I thought.

Just when I thought "Hey, the pit is pretty deep.".

Well, it just got deeper.

Hmm...

I suppose I can't deny a person just like that...

Dunno, I try not to be an arsehole but there has been opinions that I SHOULD be a complete arse.

Well, I hope things will turn out better tomorrow.

2009-04-16T23:08:00.002+08:00

Am I too quick to forgive???

Maybe.

But then, lets see whether most are even able to forgive.

I wonder how it will end this time.

Anyway, I noticed a great improvement with that issue.

I hope it's considered faith, or else it's actually blind, dumb stupidity.

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

I do hope for the best.

Anyway, I've been reading the online Harvest Times.

Well, I'm glad they made the switch away from paper, so many trees they saved.

Besides, the flash player vitual magazine has ease of use and convenience.

There was this one topic that caught my heart.

It's actually the 1st article.

It mentioned that we should not get caught up with all the hustle and bustle of life and forget God.

Even if the hustle and bustle involves serving a ministry or fellowshipping.

Well, true, it is easy to take all the serving and fellowshipping like activities to "earn C.C.A." points.

But then, imagine it just like in any other relationship:

2 people who always doing activities together, having fun with leisure and entertainment.

They do not spend personal heart to heart time with each other as a result of time constraints.

What will result?

A loss of understanding between each other.

It is akin to backsliding.

2009-04-12T20:20:00.003+08:00

It's a pity.

I've been thinking things through.

The Final Solution drama gave me something to think about.

Faithwise or science wise?

I think if Phoebe manages to work this out, it will be an achievement.

Because, science wise, it has been a failure for cure, but instead only a temporary success in restraining the situation.

Where is God when times like this happens?

Long past are the times where Jesus walked the Earth.

At least for today, I felt peace.

My phone is quiet.

That's a relief.

But then, my phone hangs more frequently now...

You know, it is hard to explain the true circumstances...

Impossible...

Really, what else do you guys know?

I can no longer do anything...

Up to the others then.