Signal Warfare

Woah, and this week has been one hell of a week, and there are so many things to say that i doubt i can include everything that i want to say if i want to book in on time tonight (2200hrs)...

And well, perhaps one would realise that this is actually quite late for me to start an entry, but that is just because i've finally decided to take my panadol and now am feeling much better (even though i have to acknowledge that its actually merely pseudo-better).

Anw, i think this week wld hv started with a certain PUB scholarship interview that might hv gone totally awry, but i hv no regrets about it because i did what i set out to do - to be myself. N i noe myself to be amazingly unflinched when situations tend to go wrong.. anw, just hope that the assessors are nice. =)

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How do signallers fight? By communicating, perhaps? i think we did have a communication-warfare exercise with the platoon across the corridor on thursday. they came back at midnight, and "banged the doors and cupboard and switched on the corridor lights" and woke up a good deal of my platoon mates. But of course, me being the sleepy-head that i am, i didnt wake up lah.. but still it was quite enjoyable (thrilling) to partake in 20/05 (my platoon)'s revenge strike, albeit a small part. the revenge strike, of course took place in the morning, when the opposite platoon was recovering from their long night.. and there was quite a lot of noise coming from my platoon.. till they finally complained. but big deal lah, ultimately i think no point lah..

then on saturday saw all the badminton guys from anderson - 8 generations of them, in fact. all the way from MY seniors, to the sec 1's were there.. so even the most senior of the current andss batch were clueless as to who the oldest ones (who drove there) were.. which makes me wonder, soon i'll be the pakcik batch who comes driving.. woah..

Anw, that gathering, plus other activities carried out over the weekend and friday didnt do much to alleviate my fever, so well, i've finally consented to the panadol to relieve myself. and the ubiquitous reminders of "drink more water" (not onli the "drink more water" regulation of TSR)... yep..

Anw, TSR refers to training safety regulations which poses more of an inconvenience than a safety regulation. and i like the serious nature in which the TSR is referred to with.. anw, there's no point in taking an ATTEN B, course it really doesnt make much difference in SI.. surely the fever would break very very soon. i pray.

Oh well, i guess its back to camp and playing solitaire/minesweeper/microsoft hearts... =P

cheers~ n peace..

Life Waves.

Hey guys..

Sorry I haven't/wouldn't provide(d) a lengthy description of SI (signal institute) today, but I shall try to do so eventually. Briefly, it's where one trains to be a signaller for the SAF. Which is quite cool because we get to study engineering stuff, and I'm enjoying myself over there..

But I think I'm not particularly in a blogging mood.. Loads of stress with regards to loads of things, least of which being a scholarship interview/selection on Monday. My ONLY scholarship application. So yeah - counting on it.

And I changed my phone to a better model, quite cool. Only to realise abrubtly that I'm not allowed to bring the phone into camp because it has a camera function. So my phone got confiscated temporarily before I learnt how to use it. So, perhaps if you had tried to contact me and found me uncontactible over the past week, yep. Anw, I got it back already, so.. yeah.. contactible again. OK. toodles

NB. Photos? Of what?

SIG OPR

The moments spent worrying anxiously.. Would I be disappointed i.e. get into a combat unit? Would I be depressed i.e. get into SISPEC? Would I be devastated i.e. get into OCS?

All solved at 1205 hrs on 170306..

I knew for a fact, OCS, well.. methinks out of the question. Perhaps Sispec - that would have been a good alternative. But combat unit.. tut tut tut..

But, I don't know what to make of my posting -

Your Posting Order is listed below:


1.
You are posted to
SIG INSTITUTE.
2.
Your vocation is
SIG OPR - INFOCOMM2.

That should be Signal Unit right? But.. How can that be? 50% of the 4 Peeris Cousin's before me have been assigned to that unit.. Now, WHAT were the chances of me getting posted there too?

Anyway, soon (like arnd 2sec later) i by-passed the shock emotion, and entered the 'yay-i'm-not-depressed-nor-disappointed-nor-devastated' mood, and then shortly afterwards came the 'yay-screw-ippt' mood..

But of course all good things have to come to an end, as soon I realised that in any case I still have to remain fit. buhh..

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Anyway, I have two more days to prepare myself for real NS - and who cares if the camp is in ChuaChuKang, or that if its a stay-in (duhh!), or that I can only book out for weekends (duh again)? On the bright side, at least I'm on the correct island, at least I don't have to take a freaking ferry, at least i might have a glimpse of the civilian (human) world once in a while, at least there are BUSES there.. etc.

BUSES! - we can actually take a BUS to camp!

Anw, I hope that this army experience would be fullfilling and not boring. But not super-shiong lah.. whatever lah..

cheers~ n peace (Again)

POP-O!!!

hurhur.. yep, i'm blogging at this hour.

and i'm a private now.. and i realised suddenly yesterday that that actually makes me one rank higher than the rest of the recruits remaining at BMTC. but seriously, big deal.

anw, so concluded my stay at Pulau Tekong with a POP that definitely could hv gone smoother, without the RSM (regimental sargeant major) hving to shout the command for the parade commander. technically i doubt anybody who wasnt at the parade would understand wat i jus said so lets jus say that the parade commander made a mistake or two in the giving of commands.. so we were doing stuff we weren't supposed to be doing. so definitely i was super blur.

but other than that, as well as a few people taking the meaning of Passing-Out Parade literally (Sang Mentari i.e. Mr. Sun was blazing down on us relentlessly, daring us to give in..), the parade went relatively smoothly. and the fact that my parents were in the extreme corner didnt help them view the parade as me, i was at the other extreme end. suay..

plus when they came down to look for me they had to ask sgt rejab (who had to come up to me and tell me "i saw ur parents.." in a tone i cannot reproduce in this account. mischievous?) where i was. according to them, every recruit private-to-be, black and yellow, looked exactly the same with the SBO and helmet on..

Anw, tts POP. a brief army de-brief. (coincidental play on words there)..

OK, basically, all the technical things are fun, and all the physical things are crap. and i forgot one more but i'm lazy to include in the diagram - FieldCamp!. tts under technical so its what? yes, FUN!..

So when the minister passed me by and asked me how was BMT, i answered "tough but enjoyable".. standard answer lah.. but true. physical part is tough, technical part is enjoyable.

imagine.. playing with things that if misused or played arnd with, can kill u plus pple arnd u. yep. hand grenade. the standard joke, pull out the safety pin and throw it... =D.

so.. remember kids:-

make sure ur physically fit BEFORE joining the enhanced leadership batch. if ur not, take the easy way out. put on a little more weight and join 6-month BMT..

and u'd just hv to wait a little longer to burn and melt (and 'pass out' in both meanings of the phrase) under the blazing hot sun.. but 2months is short.. and the end comes very fast.

Boys Today, Men Tomorrow

Boys Yesterday, Men Forevermore...

POP-O!!!

let me leave you with some photos from P.O.P. Hopefully sooner or later (maybe sunday) i can upload more pictures after consolidating them.

The Parade itself. Hawk Company is behind. And i can't be seen... hmmm..

Maan.. met up for the first (AND LAST) time in tekong island. U see kids, 2 months is a really really short time..

Now this is jus plain cool.. anw, seriously, this is when my parents came down to put my jockey cap on. they say its symbolic of my "tough but enjoyable" training. i think its just symbolic as a freedom from the blazing of the sun on my eyes. hence the pose of course.

ok.. BMT is full of memories and i hope to get more of those (happy) memories elsewhere.. sumhow we tend to remember the crap we go thru better.. e.g. the shit (literally) at field camp. so let me end by recalling a defining moment in BMT.

*clap*clap*

*punch fist in air*

GOOD-DAY!!!

Ole

3 more days

3 more days

3 more days to POP.

3 more days

3 more days

3 more days to becoming a private.

3 more days

3 more days

3 more days to when army (supposedly) gets tough(er)...

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My POP or Graduation Parade is in three days time. so how was BMT..?

They hv so much complaints abt BMT, yet there is so much say that BMT is the easiest part of Army Life. anw, i don care. i jus go my unit (not command sch most likely cos i failing ippt) n see for myself. now, what unit should i go to? MEdic? Signal? or some another infantry unit?..

there are pple who say they dont care what unit they go to (obviously due to BMT-induced-xian-ness) but i'm not one of them. i mean, naturally, u wld care. but u dont need to care. cos u hv no say.

everytime i think abt that line i think abt that song.. "they had no rights, they had no say, they longed to be free one day" which i think simplifies the feelings of most NSFs into a song ironically composed in the name of National EDucation..

i guess perhaps tts an exaggeration. guess NSFs do hv their say in most things, n they do hv their rights in most things.. but i think definitely the final phrase is universally accepted as truth by all normal NSFs..

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come to think of it.. when i first came into NS, i was like.. "to POP! to POP! to POP!".. now with POP jus arnd the corner and the true meaning of what comes with POP finally fully appreciated, POP is not that attractive anymore. now, whats so attractive now is ORD. "to ORD! to ORD! to ORD!"

but maybe thats the way life works.. which wld explain why some pple in advanced ages wait earnestly for their own POP. to greener pastures...

POP >> ORD >> Graduation-from-Uni + Finding Job >> Retirement >> Final Passing Out Parade.

ahh.. tts life.

pre A levels..

i think loads of pple wld blog after/upon receiving their a level results.. but seeing as i doubt i'd be in any mood to blog after a levels - (either too disappointed or too depressed)

yeah no typo there..

anw... today is ash wednesday by the catholic calender and hence its a day of fasting and abstinence.. but i think perhaps i'd jus go for the what-some-pple-wouldnt-call-fasting way of fasting. but i think its okay lah..

anw, its hard for pple to fast. its even harder for an army lad to fast. i donno, i dont seem to ever get full in my stomach unless the serving size is huge..

~.~

i think army has drained the "life" out of me.. in all aspects.. puh-lease please sum1 tell me i'm mistaken bcos i think as i write this blog my face has no smile, no emotion. not sad, not anxious, not disappointed, not kancheong. jus nothing. perhaps thats what they mean about giving your "life" for/to Singapore.. and i think the army is jus not for me lah..

i wouldnt sign up even if they pay me to do so. (come to think of it, they do pay us to sign up..) ah heck.. i think its too punishing on minor mistakes. of course, they say that increases efficiency, yep.. but where's the efficiency in around 200 pple sitting/standing in threes WAITING for things to happen?..

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i guess i'm still waiting to develop the "Cologne Army" (clone army).. or lets not be too adventurous. lets develop a Droid Army for our nation. THAT is national service. pah..

then again, i think even IF we had a droid/clone army we'd still hv to go for NS. why? bcos we, as the infantry, the bedrock of our army, tend to neglect the fact that technology has progressed from beyond the state where people fight with sticks and stones in catapults. any NS-man shld be familiar with this abbreviation - BCCT.

with a raging battle cry we run and whack opponents with our rifle/legs/arms. Granted, it invokes aggression into you and fear into ur enemy.. but wait, there's more. with a raging battle cry we leopard-crawl, back-crawl n retreat to base camp. !$*&@#?@! perhaps its just Jaguar Coy who practise this attempt to make the enemy die of confusion and/or laughter.

ok i've said enough. cheers.. n good luck for a levels..!

be back shortly.. hurhur..

Hawk and More Hawk

Quite weird that the shiongness reputation of these two companies that differ by merely one syllable (2 letters) can be on so opposite extremes of the shiongness scale. So after being frightened out of my pants from the entertaining tales from MoHawk company, Hawk company's field camp paled in comparison to what i had envisioned.

Well so there was some minor erm.. problems. Some assholes (or rather one asshole) that couldnt be controlled. Note, i'm not calling anyone an asshole in the above statement. Well, not directly at least..

But rather, when i say assholes that cannot be controlled, i'm moreso talking about pple who shit all over the place. Common sense and commander sense alike wld tell u that if u want to shit, cover it up. But nooo.. Some pple/person nearly got the WHOLE freaking company confined for the weekend. The LONG weekend. As if the Fall-in, Everything-in-Everything-out, Full-Battle-Order Push-ups, numerous Skeletal-Battle-Order Push-ups, and major scolding directed at the whole company werent enough..

And even with the company staring down a company-level confinement, the serial-shitter (who rumour abound say is from the top-level platoon) didnt own up, even in private. hmmm..

Lucky our OC is a kind and forgiving man.. i think i was tearing with relief when he said the confinement was lifted. which jus goes to show jus how NOT cut out for OCS yours truly is.. sedih..

Anw, whatever lah..

Oh but i've only got 3 more weeks. or even less.. and its quite scary.. soon we'll be moving on to the greener pastures of OCS, SISPEC, or (for me) unit.. and by greener i mean more shiong, more field camps, more jungle, more no.4s, more crap etc..

Especially OCS. but i think i want to go SISPEC.. hehe..

okay cheers~ n peace..=)

boyz-2-men

Hihi

i'm gg to field camp so excited!

u noe how they say ns makes boys men.. each day that passes i doubt that more and more.. well, to tell the truth, i nvr believed that, looking at all the "NS Graduates" paraded in korners across most neighbourhoods (perhaps except chinatown and tiong bahru). anw, i still tried to believe it but i dont lah..

i think its because i hv a very different perception of what makes a "man".. i guess physically and mentally (sometimes) NS makes u a man.. but i think in other aspects (eg. emotionally, spiritually) it doesnt. the list of pple i truly look up to in all aspects in NS is quite short.

i think i'm getting quite tired of hearing f words and "chinese 700"s flying arnd.. i mean i truly believe that at least pple shld learn to control their temper and their mouth.

ok, i understand sumtimes the things some recruits do can be quite stupid. but i think it takes a great deal of self control to control ur tongue in ur utmost frustration. and i think seeing a commander doing that really impresses me. but i dont look down on commanders who lose their temper, lemme get that straight. sometimes i oso get quite pissed with things pple do. (esp when these things get ME on the floor doing push ups.) but i think my platoon mates arent the type who'd look for trouble - with the exception of one or two lah perhaps..

and i think i must learn to stop moving in the file. but seriously, i think its not polite not to look at someone who's talking to u lor.. plus i think i always try to learn from others' mistakes, and thats not easy when ur not allowed to turn ur head/eyeballs.

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anw for those who think army is tough or what, jus noe this. so far i've played hide-n-seek with commanders, and been a few times on the monkey bar (u noe, the one we used to go on in pri school..), and we bash up imaginary pple, n we run away from imaginary grenades. then i've also been to the "arcade" to shoot, etc. but of course there's fitness training part - a hell lot of chin ups, push ups, crunches (?), jumping jacks (??), and lots of other crap. but i think the best training is the PC's night training. or rather, in my case, watching the rest of the platoon train as i sat out with medical immunity.

and noe this. i'm arnd half way thru BMT. and it seems jus yesterday that i signed on was dragged to tekong..

ooh and i got injured during live firing! and so did a few others..






okay fine, not so drama.. i cut my finger with my jacknife while cleaning my rifle (loser right?). and someone else got stung by a bee. i think in all their angst to warn us abt the dangers of live firing, the commanders forgot to mention that there are insects who can fire live rounds at u.. and die after that. haha.. and i think i need sleep. seriously NOT enough sleep lately. urgh.. and each hour that i lose i will stop thinking at random times. which is dangerous when one is in the army.. urf..

oh well.. cheers~ n peace..

quick update on ns...

hihi guys.. jus saying that i'm fine n alive.

anw, first two three weeks of ns quite fine..

n omg its already 3 weeks! which means i've got like 6 weeks to get fit n attempt to enter ocs (Officer Cadet School). @#$%^!

it also means its 6 weeks to POP (Passing Out Parade). which is not a parade where everyone passes out, but jus where we all leave 9 weeks of crap (BMT) to enter the rest of the two years of deeper crap. so yep.. POP.

anw army life (i.e. army life of watching pple exercise and doing sai-kang [shit jobs] ) is quite fun.. i train for one day then get sick n don need to train for next 4 days. quite cool ah, army?

but i want to go train la.. otherwise goodbye OCS, goodbye SISPEC. maybe can go OCS thru SISPEC.. see lah..

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anw Hawk Platoon Two quite fun lah.. sargeants are fun pple, the lieutenant oso quite fun person. but of course can be serious too, but at least sumtimes they can talk cock with us, which probably reminds us that they're not slave drivers or what.. in fact they are more like teachers who we can talk cock with.. cos they're similar age to us lah.. oldest 6 yrs older lah..

then the pple are the best la.. damn funny. i found out Atten B. pple oso can kena pumping..
if they fart in public. O_o..

but the reason he kena 20 wasnt bcos he broke wind in public. its jus that he didnt shout "HAWK COY" afterwards.. which is a spastic rule invented by our dear PC.. O_o

best lah u go toilet in the morning n queue up for a toilet.. u probably by right shld hear "hawk coy! hawk coy! hawk coy!" from inside the cubicles..

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n there's also a night pee-er.. who soiled section 2. but i still don understand at all.. they guy whose cupboard kena pee-ed on actually woke up while the "crime" was being carried out, but didnt stop him. O_o.. mystery of army life..

but nobody noes whether it was a prank (more likely done by the infamously notorious platoon 3), or a sleep-walker-cum-pee-er (more likely done by infamously-cannot-sleep platoon 2 which is my platoon)..

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but see army life can be so fun.. esp with all the disgusting things floating arnd.. no wonder our company has a "sick platoon".. abt 50 pple are on status, which jus means that abt on average 25% of Hawk Company is on status (sick).. now.. what do YOU think abt tekong now..?

n its pressurizing being part of this "elite" 25%.. the lucky 25% with medical immunity against knock-downs (pumping, crunches or jumping jacks)..

i love my home..

okay.. cheers~ n peace!

oh yar, n happy chinese new year~

Jan IV: A New Hope. ???

hello hello pardon the long absence. i'm preparing u guys for an even longer absence coming up. one caused by NS!

Thunderclap*

right.

little iddy biddy poor souls out there still gg to school, i pity you. little big fellas out there who are my age and now paying (yucks) adult fare, go get a job lah. and those poor desolute souls enlisting over the following weekend, i feel ur pain. literally.

and i noe some fellas out there are like "woohoo NS! time to be sumbody at last!".. yeah, of course, we're training to be one of the millions of pple defending our good country.

being sumbody yeah?.. riiight.

i think its the wrong reason to celebrate ns. i'm no patriot, mind you, but i do know that i'll probably want to stay in this country for a good deal more time. think i've mentioned this before. i'm sure there's a lot of things "wrong" with this country, but tts inevitable. but i'm so sure that there are other countries out there that's much more "wrong".

so i'll defend this tiny island.. probably die trying, but that wld be a fancy end to the unillustrious life of benp.

ooh but i'm terribly frightened my lack of fitness that comes from a slightly injured foot wld be disadvantageous and disastrous and problematic in the upcoming weeks. n i'm sure i'm stuck in tekong for hari raya haji. but no big deal lah..

okay lah.. think i've said enough to incriminate me to serve lifelong ns.

wait a minute.

i already have to do that.

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okay happy new year all.. try to keep ur resolutions this year.. i know i wont..

okay fine let me make a resolution jus for the fun of it.

by the end of 2006,

1. england must have won the soccer world cup even without michael owen.
2. and i wanna be rich.

lets see.. (2) rich is a relative term, so i'm sure i'll be rich in my (cheap) eyes by the end of 2006. (1) england already have won the world cup in 1966. without michael owen...

i guess i will end up fullfilling my new year resolutions~!

cheers~ n god bless..

the sun, the sand, the sea. and the flies

G'day Mates.. I'm back from down under!

I'm waiting for applause, by the way.

Thank you. now that we've got that out of the way, lemme jus say hi again to this great bunch/handful/couple/individual of pple that frequent/chance upon my blog. how was melbourne, they might ask? or the gold coast?...

Melbourne

Australia is such a different place as compared to Singapore. and MY.. sumhow that surprised me. i mean, coming down from the plane, i saw a white cleaner! n well, perhaps some pple wld go "huh?" but i've nvr seen a white cleaner in ages. n there's definitely no white cleaner in singapore. tt i've seen, at least. perhaps chris thong might want to change that trend.

and stepping outside into the airport that neednt be air-conditioned, i was like.. "HELLO country that has Natural air-conditioning." yay!

so i msged a couple of pple announcing my safe arrival at the melbourne international airport. n stepped outside into the cold sunset at 9pm. and mind u, it was cloudless. n i was shocked, cos i dont often see a cloudless sky. i dont think many singaporeans have, for that matter.

den the next day we saw some interesting sights. went to queen victoria market where i got detached from my family for a day. n met wid keegan n there are loads of pics.

These is so cool a pic. reminds me of myself. victorian waste. thrown out of vjc. hehe..

ok lame, maybe but i think its cool.

n what i learnt. Australia is bloody expensive lar.. no wonder no xmas presents from keegan. food can cost 7.50. n tts the cheapest.. n today when i was buying by $2.50 mee pok i was thinking of the australian food, n chuckling cos i noe aussies are jealous of me. hurhur.

n oh my goodness.. the flies are murder. there are more flies in melboure summer than in malaysian roadside hawker. ouch. n there are some pics that are jus so cool n i cant believe keegan hasnt put it up online. keegan! i want the picture of my first alcoholic beverage.

n i think travelling all by myself unguided thru melbourne from keegan's house to hotel is really awesome lah. i mean ur heart keeps pounding cos u noe that u dont really want to get lost in a foreign land. and imagine my feelings when i passed by the vietnamese sector. n here i was brushing up my malay to myself to pretend i'm malaysian. hurhur..

n my bdae passed my quite uneventfully. we went to some science centre where i think we had quite some fun lah. the train ride was quite fun n i saw some reli quite funny signs which proves that aussies hv a much better sense of humour than singaporeans.

this one's a bit small so i guess u jus hv to click on it to maximise it. i mean, in singapore it'll probably jus be "no evading fares. fine $500" or smthg to that extent.

there were others which u'd hv to go to my fotopage to view la. so yeah..

n then we had to fly on virgin blue to gold coast n gold coast is jus wicked awesome lah.. the waves. the sun. the sand. the sae. awesome.. here's a pic from virgin blue while i was wondering why its called that. i mean, its australia, for crying out loud.

anw, i think i want to learn how to surf in any other waters than the ones at east coast park. jus being pushed arnd by waves feels fun, u noe..

my love, the sea.

okay, off to chalet now. toodles~ so busy.

The Land Down Under

yay! i'm gg down under tmr - to melbourne.. yay!.. havent been on a plane ride in such a long time despite certain priveledges entitled to us as a family. perhaps in a way its a good thing, cos due to numerous movies on plane accidents (Choi choi!) and sept 11 documentary tt i watched, i've been getting an increasing phobia of flying.

but that jus reminds me of joy who started writing her will before gg overseas.. hehe.. =D

Anw, i'm gg on the longest flight in some time - the past few times were onli to thailand or malaysia. longest before this was kiwiland... and that, mind u, was long ago.

oh well..

btw do u know that if one considers the product of (no. of pple killed in an accident) & (probability of an accident occuring) , ur more likely to be killed in a meteor striking the earth than a plane crash.. (choi choi)..

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i'm in a sour mood bcos i've been breaking windows. well technically i dont know if i did break the windows or caused its breaking even, but what i seem to touch seems to break. arff... i'm not gg to touch the plane tmr. nope.. wonder how long this computer can hold out for.

plus i broke the camera window. at least all the evidence points to me, though i dont seem to be able to convict myself. i didnt rap the glass. i didnt smash the camera. i didnt hope for it to break surely.. haii.. but fortunately we can still use the camera for the trip, though onli perhaps just as a normal old fashioned film camera.. i think that the warranty is still on. so yeah.. hopefully..

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anw, i'll be back arnd 18th dec. n then i'm hving sum x-mas gathering. but i know the minimal handful of pple that actually read this blog, so i shant publicise date and time here.. oh well.. ciao for now.. happy holidays.

happy birthday to me. rmb, melbourne is a couple of hours ahead of us.. hehe.. toodles~

Verdicts Passed

Am i expecting too much of my life? because i keep seeming to get disappointed with stuff that i was soo looking forward to. i.e. prom, and harry potter 4.

first, prom.

a waste of time, and it wld be a waste of money too had i not happened to be lucky enough to win a lucky draw prize.. hurhur.. very disappointing, compared to andss prom. photos; yes. but thats abt it. the entertainment, well.. perhaps me sitting way at the back cannot comment too severely, but i doubt it wld hv really been MUCH better in front. and the food... oooh to die for. *rolls eyes*.. 5 courses with decreasing levels of tastiness. i.e the first course tasted the best, and the last course we had to make ourselves.. tut tut tut..

i really wouldnt hv minded a nice cheap buffet at a nice cheap hotel like the oriental.

for those non-andersonians, i'm making a direct reference here.

anw photos are up on my photopage to which a link shall be put up from this site. unfortunately, as one might no doubt gather from the dismal size of my photo collection, my camera ran out of battery and i was forced to rely on other's pictures.. awww...

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now, secondly, i'm thoroughly disappointed with harry potter 4 the movie. i expected it to pale in comparison to the book, for that was very well written. but hor.. tt wld be ok lah..

the movie DESTROYED dumbledore's character; Voldemort was cuter than he was scary; and Hermione went back to the days of book 1 and 2 where she looked like she was gg thru acting lessons.

Dumbledore is supposed to be "the Man". He's not supposed to lumber into a room and point a wand violently up Barty Crouch Jr's throat. He's not supposed to grab Harry's neck in anguish. He's not supposed to panic. not EVER. He's supposed to spew confidence, a confidence shared with everyone else. He's supposed to emanate power and skill, not lumber into the room in a panic frenzy. Hai.. so disappointing.

AND Voldemort was so disappointing. he's supposed to be evil to the core, but the onli evil thing abt him was that he kicked a dead diggory's face. he was prancing abt like a fairy princess.. not twirling his wand maliciously like tom riddle did in movie 2.

But on the plus side. Fred and George Weasley rocked. Viktor Krum was cool. Dobby was non-existent. Ron was absolutely funny. Hermione was pretty. Diggory was handsome. Barty Crouch senior was just perfect. Ludo Bagman was non-existent. and finally, Rita Skeeter was just comically cruelly omnipresent - a portrayal even i hadnt imagined was possible.

oh well

and i watched aeonflux before harry potter. and aeonflux was jus totally awesome. good watch! =)

now i hv to rest. g'night.

n i onli now realise that aeonflux is actually a supermodel. cool! (i'm refering to the actor)

Chalets and ICE Cream..

1. Prom

I shall talk more abt prom in the next entry, cos then i can include some interesting pictures.. jus noe that it took place yesterday night - today morning, and it was a near-complete disaster, as far as i saw la.. more later...

2. Andss Badminton Chalet

Yar, two years on and i'm still (for some absurd reason) invited.. the juniors ROCK man.. =).. and as soon as i ensured that there was someone else from my dwindled batch of 6 pple (terence), i was so excited to go.

and we got lost, n we dont understand why downtown east chalet has a $1-entrance fee.. and why its called a chalet when its really more like a hotel room, n i still wonder how much it is - it must be MUCH cheaper than the costa sands lah..

but fun la, 20-plus pple squeezing into one room wid four small beds. till some pple got displaced n finally went downstairs to sit in the gazebo..

n we kept awake - this was a really hard thing to do given the soporific atmostphere - by playing cards.. n i think there are some pple in this world who are jus gifted in playing cards.. one junior who makes me feel so old bcos she wasnt arnd when i graduated - :O

anw her name is.. i cant rmb bcos its a chinese name - me being indian needs time to digest a chinese name - so for convenience i shall call her rose. bcos her name means rose in chinese la.

i'm not as erm.. cool as jon to issue pple english names at random..

but too bad i dont hv photos of andss badminton chalet as of yet - but rest assured, once i get them, i will upload them onto my photopages.. as i wld do for the prom photos..

3. Sister's Bdae

today is my sisters bdae - so as a treat before her training which she insisted on going for, we got to eat swensens! yay.. i noe i'm gg to make sumbody (or a few pple at least) jealous, but i had STICKY CHEWY CHOCOLATE. as a flavour in topless five lah.. unfortunately for my dear sis, she was late for training and hence had to run off half way thru the yummilicious topless five - onli to realise that she was so atypically not indian as she came before all the other girls..

and i realised that pple looking for porn websites could chance upon my blog.. tut tut tut.. not that i watch it (or even hv ever chanced upon it) [yeah seriously, wat luck eh?]. this scenario might be due to the italicised words in this para and the above para.. hurhur..

and well, "pictures" appear numerous times in this entry, including the last one..

oh whatever.. go sumwhere else if ur disappointed!

in any case, i think we hving surprise party later.. as usual till it doesnt become a party.. and also the family chalet.. hai. threathening to be soo boring.. mb teach my 15-yr-old brudder to play pool.. oh well..

and AMK snookerium is DAMN COOL man.. wad the.. seriously i've nvr been to a more cooler pool parlour (if thats the proper phrase).

and i must watch harry potter. n good luck to all my friends who are travelling overseas in the next few weeks.. i.e. wz, cm, mia, de, thong, scholars, n whoever i donno abt.. in any case i might be mistaken abt that above list. don hesitate to correct me if u bother..

okay..

cheers~ n peace

Shuddlecocks fly faster than Tennisballs..

MPTC badminton court booking is so ma fan lah.. first, must make sure u dont come when its closed. u come at 1.10pm on saturday oso cannot bcos it alredy closed at 1.00pm. and anw, u cannot book for advance week..

den secondly must make sure u come early in the morning to book. and den must take q-no. at least its not a dogfight to fight for q-no.s.. hurhur.. den must go pay the money..

actually quite cheap, la.. but onli if u book at the right time.. so complicated larh.. must ask kesmond go book for next time!..

ANW

auntina book for tmr - introduce uncleprakash to the badminton playing family that we are.. and sum more must place bet... tut tut tut. we dont gamble..

she: must put in money to play okay?
me: okay lor i play 5-cent 10-cents.. no problem..
she: as if. minimum bet $1.50..
me: (perplexed..) i dont bet
she: little bit can la
me: i dont bet.
she: how abt dinner..
me: now we're talking.. (licking lips)

so pple out there, u noe how to bribe me.. hurhur.. s'pore gov't definitely wont want me in politics =(..

i jus realised.. sekali one day i want to go into politics and den how? ya right... pple like me? in politics.. worth a joke.. where we living man? amrika?

and i relised.. like so many of my frens flying off these holidays for long long time.. china, india esp. no one gg aus wid me =(.. means no one to go out wid in dec! =(=(..

pple who staying in this lovely country say aye~

*silence* is deafening..

riiight..

didcha know?:

that royalty often refer to themselves in a plural sense.

jus a random fact we wanted to share with u..

k nuff..

cheers~ n peace

Pre-Exam; Post-Exam

Let me jus exclaim something - my exams are over!!!!!!!!

so, as my cuz said, i finally get a whole two years of break after 12 years of not studying... yep, no typo there...

but technically, i did study for the A levels, but perhaps not excessively so as to be branded a full-blooded mugger. i doubt i deserve that term - mugger-club is an exclusive club that doesnt admit many. and so is the closet-mugger-club so yep, i guess i fall under normal.

speaking of which, i tend to realise that the majority of us are generally prone to tend towards normality, in the sense that we tend to prefer to claim that we are normal. i mean, u arent likely to go arnd and claim that u'r very religious or ur not religious at all. or that if ur rich or ur poor. more likely that ur average.

but that just states that the average man prefers to be average.. riiight..

i'm so sure fish wld go "huh?" here and perhaps she wont be alone..

~.~

Anw, back to the topic of exams end. \
There's so many things to be done and so little time (i enlist on jan 7th). and theres a limited time to busy myself slacking arnd. N i have to ensurie that i, as well as others i may want to go out with, have a healthy balance of fun and work.. anw here's on my t0-d0 list:

1. go out with friend(s)
2. spend time wid family (recreation)
3. clean the house
4. get back fitness
5. train badminton
6. go morning mass (this is really hard as daily morning mass at SFX is at 6.30a.m.)
7. learn malayalam (my dialect)
8. relearn all the stuff that i knew long ago when i used to delve into maths o stuff...
9. learn sum physics for help in uni
10. and relax.

now here's the tough part. objective no.10 would come at the expense of the other 9, and hence there has to be a very fine balance. ah..

so, perhaps in this sense after exam is more stressful that before exam.. geez..

i mean, before exam, onli need to worry abt exam, and no one wld bother u to do house work, and u noe u can go out with anyone. so basically, all u have to balance with is study, and relax. but after exam, got TEN things to balance.. haii...

not that i'm disappointed that exams are over. i'm glad.

~.~

after physics S the other day, i heard a chorus going around the hall, so many people screaming "yes!!!" and such.. i didnt join in, but because i had already given a (near-)silent "yess!!!" immediately after i finished the paper... hurhur..

and i was so happy that i realised that i handed in four questions to cambridge. or rather, three-and-a-half. i did one question half way thru, and i accidently sent THAT to cambridge together with the other three option questions..

but mum says cambridge pple are nice. i hope... hehe...

okay.. i'm off to enjoy my post exam time.. probably option 1, with the parenthesized letter included.

cheers~ n peace

Five Ba(re)d Facts...

Yes, i know i still have physics s.. but do i look like i care? maths s was as i FEARED in my nightmares it wld be. arff how horrid. do you know a random point is that its said that u cant read in your sleep bcos u dream with ur right brain n read with ur left.. quite cool..

except that i've read in my sleep before. take that, u scientists and whoever else.. maybe i'm smart.. hahaha.. =P

Okay, anw, KJBow tagged me to do some 5-random-things-abt-me thingie, n it goes that the 5 pple that i tag to do it have to do it too.. i.e. jus write down five random things abt u..

i'm onli doing this because i'm tagged first.. hurhur..

So lets see..

one: I sometimes exercise during baths. yes. it maximises time usage, plus i don get sweaty. yes, i know its unhealthy.

dua: when i hear music sumtimes i shadow play imaginarily on a shadow piano. yes its quite fun..

mune: i like to make up words periodically. yes u just saw it right?..

vier: i sumtimes enjoy typing in the symbol font. I know it can get rather annoying but its quite fun to try and decipher it. anyone share this enjoyment with me?

lastly: i enjoy hanging upside down.. haha.. yes quirky.

okie.. cheerios~ have fun reading abt my quirkiness.. haha..

and oh yah.. those five unlucky souls who are tagged to continue this chain and write smthg abt themselves are...

...drum roll please...

1. vibha
2. joy
3. walaa
4. sha
5. N. (whoever)

up to u if u want to do it.. but seriously.. its quite fun examining your quirky self.. =P

cheers~ n peace

Premature Termination of Hiatus

Question: Why do i have to pick the 3 hours before the F-Maths paper to end my hiatus on this blog?
Answer 1: After FMaths is Maths S
Answer 2: After FMaths i'll be too tired
Answer 3: After FMaths no kick
Answer 4: I'm fed up of FMaths
Answer 5: If FMaths is easy, good, i can do. If FMaths is hard, good, i cant do, and then i can go sleep early during the paper.. muahahaha..

Anyway, the variation in difficulty of FMaths Papers can be shocking. The Specimen papers are like.. close eyes or open eyes either way oso cannot do, den some other papers are close eyes or open eyes either way oso can do. arf.. i hope the actual FM2 will be closer to the standard of the latter.

And today's entry will be very brief, seeing as i need to go get ready for school and the horrors of the FM2 paper.

But i'm looking forward to S papers. though i do NOT appreciate the mini-break of two days that i have between tuesday paper and friday paper. its torturous because they force you to wait more than 48 hours for a 3 hour spell where one probably ANYWAY isnt going to be able to solve many problems..

But once the papers are over, ah sweet bliss.. though i dont know what i'll be doing on friday itself. perhaps hallie-podda (harry potter). but rumour has it that those who vowed to keep virgin of the harry potter sequel by refraining from watching it jus to watch it with us have broken their vow. oh well.. they hv money to watch it twice perhaps? or time.. haha.. me have neither.

things to look forward to:

1. birthdays! (singularise)
2. end of exams
3. end of schooling
4. end of core papers today in 6hrs time.
5. beginning of final core paper in 3 hrs time
6. s papers
7. a break between s papers - jus to contradict myself. there's always reason to look forward to smthg.. i think..
8. HALLIE-POTTA n gobret of fier!!! yayy!!!

Okaaay..

cheers~ n peace

Generally Prepared. I Hope.

to my sudden dismay i read my entry proof. 5 down. how many to go? oh my goodness - thank goodness my brain's too fried from maths to count exactly how many are left. but its a scarily large number. in estimation. (maths again).

technically its only three down - the other two are jus spa practical papers. but what the heck, 5 is bigger than 3 - it sounds nicer.

Quick Update on the papers

Maths? hmm - harder than expected. but then, what was i expecting? sec 4 e-maths standard? hmm.. its gotta be harder than that innit? so fine. i'm ok. jus hope that further maths aint tt hard - i know it has the potential to be. but anw, we neednt worry abt THAT till next friday. Man, tt seems really far.

But think abt it. after tmr, i'd hv gone thru one week of exams - which means that i've already gone thru a third of my exam. 0_0... yep.. one more week and ah sweet bliss.

but before we can say that.. ARGH.. GP!! the damned subject that has nvr seen a blue mark. okay thats an exaggeration. but anw.. GP is sooo boring, and yet it can be so fun at times.. weird contradiction?

About GP

it jus depends on whether i'm at the crest or the trough of my mood swing.. u noe.. "m = k sin t"? haha.. not many pple WOULD get that, but yeah..

if i'm happy (crest) i am so absolutely thrilled by GP and the excitement of the prospect of examing the issues of this world that we live in. Globalisation, Education, Family Life.. all so enticing - how each event affects each other, how we are all connected in the chain of life.. How the world is so interconnected. what one person does affects another, how a slight event can trigger such a huge counter event (a.k.a. the butterfly effect).. beautiful...

if i'm down (trough) i am so disgusted by those exact same two letters and the constant reminder that the world we live in is soo damn far from perfect, and all the stupid things gg on in the world. and why cant we jus let the stupid pple doing stupid things in the stupid far reaches of the world go abt their stupid lives and leave us be? why do we have to examine yada yada yada shit? disgusting...

and the worst part is i seem to be soo fickle. (as demonstrated in the above two paragraphs..) my mindset can sway so easily.. oh well.. not good.

and the wave analogy (for those who cant see it, the wave crest and trough) is a nagging reminder that physics is on next monday. but well, its a weekend away.

and a weekend is such a great time for watching "avatar: the last airbender" and catching up on lost sleep and studying... preferably the former two.

Oh well, how to prepare for GP? How to prepare to ensure i'm in a good mood (wave crest) tmr? well, while i think abt it, let me indulge in some movies on star world.


P.S. if i were a foreign student taking the A level paper after the Singaporean students have taken it, would i profit from surfing blogs where Singaporean students complain on how hard the statistics Question [Whatever] about [Whatever] was? You know, i think blogging has made it possible for such a variety of cheats.. hehe.. the only reason i didnt succumb to my desire to publish some of the questions online is because i revealed my lack of ignorance. and besides, would i be that daft to help another bloke i dont know cheat?

but seriously, i believe (probability suggests) that there would be a few out there who dont mind revealing questions. so go find them, not me.. hurhur.. i cant be bothered..

Okay Add Oil for the last few Papers..

cheers~ n peace

Where Does Lightning Strike?

Its been a whole week since i last came here and talked rubbish as i so often do. So let me make up for lost time, by bringing this domain of people i.e. my readers up to date.

I shan't go through a list a la last monday, but i shall just briefly cover random points.

Liverpool finally achieved what was deemed impossible by virtue of statistics - they finally manage to win in the EPL following a champion's league match. Watching both the matches i begin to suspect a trend that the EPL is likening to the NorthZone Badminton Scene. Except for the fact that while the NorthZone has 3 powerhouses in SSS, MSS and MSHS, whereas EPL only have Chelsea. and Wigan. lol.

Note: That's the first and probably the last time you'll ever hear me using those initials. i'm not anti-conformist; i just think those initials dont bear the same impact as "haha" or "hurhur".

The North Zone used to be quite easy, if truth be told. Only MSS and MSHS competing for top two spots, leaving the wide assortment of other schools to vye for the third and fourth spot. And the fact that AndSS used to be one of the few 'coached' schools, it did seem relatively easy. But competition has heated up - every tom dick and harry team has a fighting chance. oh well..

But i digress. But where elitism is concerned, there's only Barca (touted by yours truly to clinch the ECLC this year) and Chelsea and maybe AC Milan. The rest, pretenders. Oh yes, maybe Lyon, but i'm not entirely sure.

But if lightning can strike the shortest tree in a forest (a metaphor describing Liverpool's win last year as a highly improbable event), i'm sure it can happen again. riiight.

Now to an event closer to home. Technically since the A levels are being marked way over in British Country, its technically NOT closer to home. But well..

Latest update on A levels.
Although i now realise that I am taking my A levels in 2 days time, I havent come to terms with that fact. I look in anticipation to 25 November, when poor unfortunate me hears the first piece of good news i would hear in the next three weeks - "The exams finished! My, that was fast..."

You know, technically exam period flies by much faster than any normal period, let this be some delight that one can derive from this terrible period. What prompts this Wild statement?

Well, we generally accept it that Time is a cruel thing - it crawls when we dread it to crawl (i.e. when we're anxiously sitting outside waiting for a disabled toilet, walkin' around, grabbin' our you-know-what); and it flies when we dread it to fly (i.e. when we're on a tight budget for time). Exam period is spent EITHER sitting at the accursed seat doing the dastardly paper and counting the dismal marks, OR preparing to do the abovementioned activities.

Both these options involve a serious budget for time - the actual exam itself comes with a deadline, usually X+ 0300hrs where X hrs is the starting time of the paper. (in simple terms, the exam usually lasts 3 hours.) And secondly, in the preparation time, we obviously have to be adequately prepared BEFORE the exam starts - its quite pointless to mug after the exams, right?

so any anti-conformists out there, if you want to do something nobody else would do, just mug after the exams. (and not before them)

OH well, i have to start training myself to wake up early - lately i've been quite nocturnal. not for long. hah..

okay...

Good Luck my comrades-in-arms. Brace yourselves for the briefest period of your lives.. A'levels, O'levels, PW's, etc.

cheers~ n peace

and note, in the light of the upcoming GP exam, i have refrained from initials and the so-called and widely-critiscised "sms-lingo". N so tt u guys out there wont think tt i'm sum neighbourhood sch reject. (note, i intentionally used that abovementioned lingo in the last line.)