Well hullo old, dusty, severely neglected blog of mine. I thought I would pop by just to give an update to this poor old thing of mine before I go back to camp later. Tis the 12th of August, 4 days after the lovely grand opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympics which I must say was a really, really damn good opening ceremony. Caught about an hour or so of it on tv and I was absolutely blown away by the sheer creativity of it all....clearly a lot of thought and hard work went into making this thing happen and that the chinese didn't just try to make it happen just by using their vast amount of people to well, just do a couple of things here and there and hope the huge numbers would be more than enough to overwhelm and quell any complaints. Nope, thankfully, the ceremony was a lot more than that.

9th of August, well, was a nation's bday...good ole singapore's birthday to be exact haha gotta give props to LKY, just the day before he attends the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony and sits through the entire thing for a gruelling 4 hours, before jetting back to Singapore to attend NDP...and doing all that at his age.....incredible man. But anyway, yeap, as stated in my previous posts, I was involved in this one, and kinda sad to see it finally finished. It was good it was fun while it lasted, and now that its finished, its back to hell again.


Having this for free for dinner every once a week didnt seem too bad of a deal eh


Black knights, this stunt was such a crowd pleaser


My post gave me an excellent view of the city district



Fireworks, in my opinion is what draws the crowds actually haha



Took this shot for fun!


My platoon


And yes I couldnt resist, how many people get the chance to do a headstand at the NDP stage hmmm?

Seems like I only bother to update once a particular course ends and this is no difference. The longest spec conversion course to transform me into an armor spec has been a long grueling 5 months. 5 freaking months of chionging as the infamous "xiong" AI...though some of the horror stories and myths surrounding being an AI were found to be quite untrue. But its still a hell lot more crazier to be one as compared to being a normal infantryman.

Taking it from the beginning, well, as usual, new course, new camp, new friends, bunk mates were awesome cause most of us were a bunch of really fun loving people. Made armor life a much easier place to live with and thank god majority of them have followed me over to 40 SAR...but bleah thats enough for army talk.





Outside army, well, sad to say, nothing much haha. I go home, clear my forever choked email inbox, catch up on the latest soccer, world, gaming news and yada yada yada. Catch up with friends during meal times, especially that oh so sinful plate of prata or roti john at night. Started to catch the occasional interesting movie now and then but sadly, its hard for you to find friends who have time to go watch...or when people do come calling, I myself am busy. Sooooo....most of the time its just good ole me and one of my sisters. Not that its a bad thing, but sibling/family bonding can only go so far. Meh.

Too bad I can't attend the first of two harmonica camps this year...because the first one happens to fall on a day when I have an army exercise going on so its a definite no go. The second one, well, is sometime in June...unfortunately, if my training schedule does prove to be reliable, most of my weekends are gone in June and July because of my involvement in this year's NDP. Now now before anyone goes wow, I am not gonna be involved in the actual parade, but rather I will be doing grunt work like gate sentry duties, packing of goodie bags, crowd control...yea that kind of stuff. And its precisely because of this that I won't be able to attend a lot of other events, not to mention spending a lot less weekend time at home and not being able to help be a main performer at this year's Virtuoso...they really look like they
could use some help. And I was also so prepared to go back to capoeira training as well....


*sigh*



So thats it. Sorry if anyone was expecting something big or sensational in this post. I just aint livin it up anymore heh.



I guess I will just end this post with a picture that I just felt like putting up. Not gonna elaborate on its significance....so....yeap


Later.




Elwanker!!! We are all missing you!!! Have fun in MSU!!!

After a long, long unofficial hiatus, yes I have finally got down to posting something in here.

Now that I have finally gotten down to doing this, I don't even know how to start. Well ok in a nutshell, if I start where I left off in my last post, basically yes I have been in the army ever since I enlisted on June 14th.


Warning: Its gonna be an army-intensive post, so if you are sick of reading posts about army life, then well, goodbye:)



BMT aka Basic Military Training, everyone says its the honeymoon period of your army life, THE phase in your army life that will leave one of the biggest, if not, the biggest impact in your army life. Well, not that I have been in the army for a very long time, but yea I would have to agree that I very much enjoyed myself during my BMT days.

Looking back, I guess the reason why so much bonding could take place was because there was always enough time for everyone to gather round the table, sit down and talk, and exclusive to my section, sing and screech at the top of our lungs even though we sounded horrible. Of course suffering together during training also contributed to the bonding process, but thank god our company instructors weren't too overly sadistic.

And so, I left Tekong with really good memories.





We were Games Day Champions, much to the delight of our OC who throughout the course kept hinting and "bugging" us to become champions. Well in the end we did, and we made history by becoming the first batch of Ulysses warriors to add a nice colourful streamer to the company flag.


To make things even sweeter, not only were we Games Day champions, we were Drill Competition champions as well. I was involved in this one, and man, the hours we put into drilling for 4-5 hours every night, it was sweet, sweet success.












My wonderful, wonderful section/bunk mates and platoon mates who made my transition to army life so much more fun. And of course, the person in civilian clothing was my PC, who has been the best commander to me in my army life so far.




Right after we passed out from BMT, we had about 2 weeks break before we had to report to our unit. The first thing I did was....






to go club with the army people. Yes I am now part of the group that everyone looks at and says "shit its the botaks again crowding the dancefloor".



While most people take a break from physical activity, I jumped straight into Batizado 2007. Was a great event, met up with people I had not seen for a long, long time, and the highlight of the event was getting my new belt/corda.








Rested my battered and strained body for awhile, then it was off with army peeps again for a 5 day trip to Bangkok. Thanks to several good contacts, we had the good fortune of staying at a great hotel, transport was easily settled, our daily itinerary was not hard to plan out as we all had places to go to. Shopping, clubbing, drinking erdinger at incredible prices, visting a capoeira school and even catching a gay thai movie!!!











Man it was one helluva trip.







And just when I almost started getting used to civilian life again, I had to book into the next phase of my army life, BSLC in SISPEC. The gods were being divinely kind as out of the 12 people in my bunk, 9 of them were from Ulysses, 4 of them from the same platoon and one bugger known as Yonghwa who went to Bangkok with me as well.





Once again, before I even realised it, BSLC was all but over. While life in Hotel Company was not as fun-filled compared to my BMT days, I daresay I still pretty much had some great experiences in there, even though life was much more hectic and slightly more harsher in there.



I celebrated my 20th birthday too...just threw a party at my house and invited whoever I could think of. Friends from all different social circles...from yuhua, from ngee ann, from capoeira, from army..all under the same roof. Great party, had loads of fun and even the arrival of the cops failed to dampen the party mood. To all those who came, big thanks for your lovely presence. For those who I missed out on, hey its only my 20th birthday, my 21st awaits next year......

Sadly I could not take any photos cause the bloody panasonic camera died when I came back from Bangkok, so oh well, too bad.


And there you have it, what has happened in the past 5+ months all condensed into these short paragraphs and pictures.

For now, I am enjoying a nice short break before having to report to my next unit.


Armour.


Yea, not really a place that I wanna go to but hey, not like I had a choice in choosing...but armour.....*sigh*

But yes anyway, I guess thats all that needs to be said....

I need sleep.


Later.

Adios Civilian Life, Hello Military Life

At long last its time to go serve the country. Heh, again, as I always tell people, I just wanna go in and get it over with. Not too overly excited or anxious.


So, its be gonna goodbye to my pink IC for two years.


Thanks a million to all those who have met up with me for the last time, really appreciate it.

God I have like, so many photos to upload but I am running out of time...so...yea, I will update in two weeks.



Later.

Tada!

Yo I am back, happier than ever before. Well ok not really true, but much much back to my normal self.

In regards to my earlier post, well, let's just say I went through a rough patch for a short period of time...please don't ask me about it...if I want to talk about it, I will. Otherwise, I am sure there are plenty of other things to talk about, like for instance this current spell of ungodly heat.




Well well well, nothing much again worth updating in my life. Been loafing around as usual, but I did manage to get my ass moving and did a job stint at the recent PC Show 2007. Huge thanks to sheena who managed to get me the job to help Harvey Norman to sell laptops. The only rather unpleasant surprise was that on the first day of the show, when I reported for work, I thought I was gonna be selling an array of laptop brands under the Harvey Norman store name. But oh god I got the a rude shock when the supervisor led me to the official Toshiba booth and told me that I would be selling Toshiba laptops for the entire show. Toshiba laptops!!! OF ALL BRANDS, SUAY SUAY HAVE TO SELL TOSHIBA.

For those wondering why am I so against Toshiba laptops...well...just ask any ex-Ngee Ann poly student from my batch who bought an m30.

Best laptop that magically converted to a *cough*tablet*cough* during our 2nd year.


at least they gave me a nice free toshiba jacket...though it makes me look like a bloody technician.

But yea, as with all these IT shows, bound to meet lots of people that you know there...both working or shopping.



SO. AS usual, when it comes to these shows...well...my wallet has to open once again. Come on you can't blame me man, its less that a month to the GST hike...its now or never man.

Introducing the new family printer to replace my antique epson inkjet, here comes the new sexy Samsung ML-1610:



Got it at an incredible price for a laser printer....may look big in the picture, but its sitting rather nicely on the space which used to be occupied by my old printer. Looking ever so petite too haha.


Next small purchase was a personal one. Tired of bringing several SD cards out at one time for the camera or having to share with my sisters...I bought a 2gb SD card, SanDisk Ultra II edition. I was initially looking for a Kingston Elite Pro equivalent because I thought the Ultra II series would be overkill since its a series for professional photographers. But surprise surprise, turns out that the SanDisk cards were going for a lot more cheaper than the Kingston ones at the PC Show.



And I am now one happy guy.


So the Harvey stint gave another cash boost, though I guess I can only collect the pay cheque after my 2 weeks stay in at Tekong.


Been keeping myself rather busy trying to make sure all the computers in the house are humming merrily before I leave for the army....unfortunately I can't do much yet because I am waiting for my ext HDD (My Maxtor mammoth heh) to come back cause its currently out on loan. So I have been mainly trying to resurrect my sister's computer because its been dead for a damn long period. But the most frustrating thing is that once I thought I got it repaired, something else gives way and now I am almost at my wits end cause while I think I have the problem narrowed down, I still doubt myself.


Argh.


Sometimes I just feel like throwing the damn com to the nearest neighbourhood pc shop and ask them to solve the problem instead. But then when I think about a potential 40 - 50 dollars thrown away just to solve a problem that I might have settled by myself....


Argh.


Ok. To end off this post, will just post a picture of my horribly messy desk because of all the computer repair work I have going on in my room. Was giving the new SD card a spin too heh.



Yes thats the toshiba jacket hanging on my chair...I couldn't be bothered to find a hanger to hang it somewhere...but I like it there anyway, gives me the geeky, techie groove HA



Later.

emo rant

It's tearing up my heart when I'm with you
But when we are apart, I feel it too
And no matter what I do, I feel the pain
with or without you

A sickness that starts by slowly twisting your innards in the most sickening way, devouring you slowly from the inside. Sleep is but a forbidden luxury as the moment you close your eyes, the image of her in his arms that is hopelessly burnt in your eyelids causes you to retch uncontrollably.


Such is the fate of the lovesick wretch.


Don't think you will see this cause you hardly ever come here, but zk, thanks for accompanying me and hearing me out...really appreciated it. =)

Oh sida ah, when are we gonna have that pint man....time's running out hahahaha

You know, just when you start to think that you are starting to enjoy reveling in your new found freedom, reality strikes you.


The truth is, while yes I am not complaining about my freedom, it does get a tad boring when you are at home lazing around. Sleep doesn't come easily and when it finally does, it normally at 5 am in the morning and you only awake when the hot afternoon sun starts to scorch your back at an ungodly hour like say, 3 to 4pm? Of course, the eating cycle is more or less affected as well.....but thank god at least I still manage to take meals on time....at least I think so.


All this, while I proudly proclaim that I am enjoying my last month of freedom before I go serve my country.


But hey come on, my life is not as bleak as it seems....this shit only happens when I have absolutely nothing on, and luckily it seems that I seldom get drawn into it cause somehow or another I seem to be able to get myself occupied with something.

So, to fulfill the purpose of this blog, what exactly have I been up to since the last update?



Finished with most of my jobs quite some time ago, didn't work for Pacific Internet because of some major reshuffling in their HR department and I couldn't be bothered to hang around to wait for them to give me a definite answer..figured that by the time they got round doing that, I would probably be able to squeeze in at best 2-3 weeks of work, and come on man, which company would want to employ someone with that kind of availability unless they were horribly desperate for people which I think, didn't apply for this case. So, yea the rest you guys probably know by now.

So its been basically going round doing stuff I have always never got round doing because mainly I was too busy working, too tired or just too damn lazy to move my ass. But yea, got most stuff done, like tidying up my room, tacking up new posters and the ones that fell off the wall. I have yet to tackle my side shelves that still hold some remnants of my secondary school life but heh, that will probably come later.

Been a bit busy going on the road to do capoeira shows for the capoeira association, and its cool that these shows are finally being held at places in the west, and not in the east. Guess these shows will most probably be my last few for the time being, as I am definitely not gonna be free to perform anymore when I enlist, let alone even train.

Unless I get myself downgraded to pes c heh.


And damnit man, mestre just has to go ahead and organise this year's batizado(capoeira grading ceremony) into full fledged show, plus several really famous masters as well coming down this year. And AAAAAAAARGH I am gonna have to miss the workshops......shit la.

Other sacrifices that I have to make because of NS also includes missing PLAY, a concert that has a full fledged orchestra playing pieces from game soundtracks....can you imagine, the Esplanade resonating with the sounds of Halo?


Its enough to make the gamer in anyone go weak man.


Gonna be missing out on NP Strings's big annual concert Virtuoso as well....big pity as well cause I would have loved to be part of the concert this year...pieces are really good this time. But oh well, life can be a bitch huh.


Just had a fleeting thought of me going botak not for the first time in my life for NS, and suddenly I thought of my most outrageous haircut I got during my secondary school days...for those who have never seen it before(its displayed on my friendster profile as well):

What this picture did not capture was a further design of a sun further down on the neck slope. Heh I will leave that to your imagination.


Well, seems like the current trend of my recent posts is to show off some new gadget, so....uh, yea kinda bought something new, but I hardly bring it out unless I go jogging but nevermind I will just "flaunt" it anyway:



Its the new Creative Zen Stone, 1gb worth of Flash memory for less than 80 bucks. Excellent price for a motivational purchase to go start getting my stamina back on track. Who needs that sorry excuse for a jogging mp3 player *cough*ipod shuffle*cough* that costs so much more.



Yea I got a nice set of Panasonic sweat resistant jogging headphones as well.


Speaking of fitness, yea sad to say my fitness has really gone down the drain, I am barely making it past the 3km mark within 12 minutes without panting like a rabid dog. Push-ups and sit-ups arent coming in easy now and I have to really take longer breaks than normal between sets.

Argh.


But I am sorry guys, before you start swamping me with invitations to go work out together, I really appreciate it but I like to exercise alone, with just my music for company.


And oh, working out to Don Omar really kicks ass.


Reggaeton at its best, first got to know him through the Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift soundtrack and while the movie sucked, the soundtrack was pretty decent. He did the song Conteo and woooo its easily the best song on the cd.



Tell me man, how can anyone not get his/her adrenaline pumping when you listen to this.


Ok I am on a roll here, since I have youtube opened in another tab, just gonna let you guys see what has been playing on my Zen recently.


First up is the fantastic Korean band called The Breeze, its bloody hard to find their stuff on youtube, but yea managed to dig up one of their videos. Their album contains some pretty hard rock, but they do alternative as well, and that scores big for me.


Its not a very interesting video, and the lead singer looks like shit, but who cares, their music's good.


Next one is Abingdon Boy's School, its a Jrock band fronted by the same singer from T.M Revolution. God knows how he came up with the band's name, but hey, again, as long as the music's good, I ain't complaining. I can also probably ask what the hell does the Goo Goo Dolls mean man haha.


Again, the video is nothing worth talking about. But the music. Woot.
For those who watch anime, its the OP for the fantastic anime Darker Than Black, with an excellent OP and ED (ED done by RieFu) and the OST by the godly Yoko Kanno(GiTS, FMA), you got a winner in your hands. And if you are planning or already watching this series, do the series justice and yourself a favour and watch it in HD...its absolutely beautiful.



Bah ok its 4 am in the morning, I am outta here.



and oh, jy, I don't care, you better meet me next week hahaha




Later.