Today was our posting day, when we discovered where we will spend the next 2 years of our indenture.

Restored post

After the restful block leave, Obedience School was already starting to seem like just a really bad nightmare.

And today, I got posted to the School of Military Medicine. As a Combat Medic. Whee. Apparently what we have been told at various points through BMT isn't true, that the (morbidly) obese recruits will get "lobo" postings. Most in my platoon got Combat vocations.

So I am a COMBAT medic. It wouldn't have been so bad if I was a service side medic, but now not only will I get to be injected (the School of Military Medicine is near RJC, so RJ students will hear my screams of agony as I'm lacerated, and the thump of my body as it hits the ground) and see lots of blood, when I get posted after my course I'll have to charge up hills with a stretcher and other tools of the trade on my back, in addition to my rifle, helmet and webbing. And I'll only be able to come out on weekends.

Wenda tells me that it's "the best of the worst", combat, that is. At least I didn't get Rifleman, Combat Engineer or Pioneer, which I am given to believe are worse.

If it gets too bad, I can always try to downgrade. AHAHA.

But there is a chance of converting to a Service Medic, as some of the Medics on the Island of Doom were originally Combat Medics.

As they say in the Army, "suck thumb".


I'm quite slow. Apparently now part time slavery is till the age of 45. Yet another push factor for emigration.

Hi... munching on figs in the computer lab... hope i'm the only one to notice Andrew consumes most of the perishable food ( that he stores in the pantry fridge) within the confines of the comp lab... but he's Very Careful not to spill anything or spoil anything!

(sigh) Expected fresh figs to taste nicer than dried figs... maybe it's just this batch.
Aside from that, I'm very happy with my peaches! Kitchen decided to buy cartons of peaches for us poor international students to eat at mealtimes, and i've been munching on them joyfully (= Beats the normal fare they serve...
Inevitably,
Sunday dinner: Roast (insert random meat)
Friday dinner: Fish (fried, broiled, steamed, in batter) in deference to the catholics.

Oh, and i treated myself to the famous lygon st gelati!! Dunno why but this is the first time (since summer school) i've eaten it... the jamaican chocolate (alcoholic) wanyan recommended was unavailable but the ones i ate- rum crunch, honeycomb, tiramisu and hazelnut were fantastic! And they had soy gelati as well (for people who don't take dairy products i assume) but apparently they're not as good

Su chun just got a fridge!! Another college mate is renting a fridge for $40 a semester... i never knew u could do that.

Okay, this is weird, another blog full of food references.

Went down to dandenongs for photo taking cum sightseeing cum car ride cum looking at touristy things e.g. speciality shops cum dinner. Some of my photos are up (= if u know where to loook

If i'm not wrong Panadol soluble dissolves in a glass of water... intended for pple to drink the solution as an alternative to the pill. From a medical point of view there's no difference AT ALL in effect... more merchandising gimmick... since some pple might feel more comfortable with a liquid than a tablet.

And yr new theory sucks (= generation Y's hooked onto music (not just modern music) like never before but so many factors come into play
just like "TV violence causes real violence" can never be fully refuted or validated

I've come up with an explanation re: SMS replies. Maybe it's because there are too few chicks amongst the pple u smsed! =p

Andrew gan

Seetoh on why I should have gone to watch Blade 2 with the Section just now: "u shd haf gone... itz not a show for the lighthearted... ttz y u shd haf gone... u wld haf freaked out truout the show... den we can enjoy watching u freak out"

Apparently Kumar's organising a Section Outing after posting on Saturday. I last went to Sentosa the Monday before enlistment, so it does seem entirely appropriate to visit it after passing out :)

I had a late (as is usual when I dine with my late-rising sister) lunch at Don in Tanglin Mall today. The Teppanyaki set lunch is Cheap & good! For $9.50 you get a choice of 2 of the following: Chicken, Beef, Catch of the Day and Cuttlefish, and for $11.50 you get to choose from prawn or salmon too for your 2 dishes. Miso soup, fried beansprouts and rice are free. And for $2 you get coffee or tea and a scoop of Green Tea Ice Cream (now sans applesauce, thankfully!).

I saw a poster for 'Panadol Soluble - For Faster relief'. But I thought normal panadol was supposed to work its magic in 60 seconds. I doubt that a significant number of people are all that impatient.

Being angsty about angst, as I do with the Associate, is fun. I venture a new theory: Singapore youth are so angsty because they listen to modern music, most of which is angsty!

My brother in law theorised that many chicks like Jewel, so to get chicks to like you, just say you like her. Amused, I sent out a mass SMS relating this, and his theory was refuted by most of the people who replied, who either didn't like Jewel or liked her but vaguely. Som had no idea who Jewel was :)

I fear the worse - it seems A&W Root Beer is no longer sold. I haven't seen it around for a while, and when I entered a gas station, the only Root Beer in sight was the Mug Rich and Creamy Root Beer. I must go around and search. Or go to an A&W outlet to buy some. If my efforts fail, I will even call Yeos to enquire.

Ahh I found the page with the RJ Council Campaigners' Mission Statements.

I'm currently copying them down for Improve Your English. Oh no, now 3 generations of Councillors will know of me.

I particularly like (read: dislike) these:

"Fun like the Banana Republic. Never so fun before." (???)

"Improving reception."

These 2, though, are quite sweet:

"Add a little sunshine to your life."

"Making people happy."

Someone stole her secondary school motto:

"To Master, To Grow, To Serve is my secondary school motto - I want to continue realizing it with you right here in RJC."

New age management kitsch:

"My council mission is to contribute to my fellow students by proactively identifying needs, creatively seeking ways to fulfil those needs and to continuously obtain feedback in order to promote and strengthen the RJC community; I seek to incorporate diverse views and opinions in council deliberations. "

This smacks of xenophobia and school-based cleansing:

"To help build and nurture an authentic Rafflesian community here at RJC."


"hahahaha silly faces
i heard rj council is screwed up" - Sec 4 RI Junior

Other people:
"haha not that bad lar..
some of their mission statements are quite bad
banana republic = fun?!"

"To be part of a miracle of humanity ?! what the hell?"

"woohoo~ i love the council campaign posters."

"'To Master, To Grow, To Serve is my secondary school motto - I want to continue realizing it with you right here in RJC.' sounds like the nominee's in sec 5..."


My referrals have now lead to the page being temporarily taken offline by Tripod due to excessive bandwith consumption =)

Ooo, Alvin Tan linked to me, and my trusty referrer tracking counter picked it up.

Following the links from there, I got into another whole host of angsty sites (ohhh boy).

But there's some interesting and potentially compromising stuff out there. Like this.

"Did you guys ever notice how disgustingly despo sec 1s tend to be? I hope I wasn't like that last year... wait I wasn't like that last year. Sec 1s... *sigh* seriously deprived of guys... and they rant on and on about the opposite gender, making them so obviously despo. I kant stand guys except for maybe some. I seriously don't understand what's those sec 1's problem leh... they like call each other up to see whether guys are shuai or not, when its so obvious there's no shuai guy from RI. Okay. not that it really matters whether guys are shuai or not, but that was the main topic of their conversation you see.. shallowness.The ri guys on the other hand, are mostly pissing. There was this ri sec one as well who was pleased to see more sec 1s of the other kind... and plus they keep babbling on about each other. RI guys? I dunno. They leave the buaya/nerd impression. They go around making so much noise trying to attract some attention.. The VS ppl are lyke obviously so much better den them..."

HAHAHAHA.


Naxos has samples of seemingly all their catalogue online. Whee. Now I can listen to the jewels in Naxos Historical like 1930 recordings. Or undated Casals. Or Fischer's honky tonk piano, played extremely quickly (at least on the one track I heard). Of course there's the weird stuff, like The Complete National Anthems of the World. And I've found out that there are Teacher's Choirs. Perhaps the most shocking of all was the discovery that Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (together with Poulenc's The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant and Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra) is available in both Mandarin and Cantonese.

"Lousy recording quality" - My brother in law. (...)


Snippet of an ICQ dialogue with Myo Li:

Me: all who pass out go on (forced) leave. mon-fri
She: pass out? as in faint?

Doh.

Yeh, I've enabled Caller ID on my mobile so I -know- when people call. Expensive, though, $5/month.

Haha:

"flesh parade is DANCE rite?
their shorts are REALLY short...
practically indecent.

ughz
you can practically see half the bum.

I like their legs tho..
haha...

when's dance night?
I wanna join!!!"

Watching Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi secundum Evangelistam Matthaeum, in other words, St Matthew's Passion now. Mmm. One female soloist looks rather constipated.

"The St Matthew Passion, acknowledged to be the culmination of Bach's writing for the Church, was first performed at St Thomas's, Leipzig, on Good Friday (15 April) 1729. It is a massive enterprise and employs six soloists and double chorus. Technically, emotionally and devotionally it is the greatest work of its kind ever written, a deeply moving combination of joy and grief which attains the utmost heights of expressiveness."


I'm currently trying to dissuade, rather unsuccessfully I might add, 2 J1 friends from joining the evilest of the cults in RJC, the Council! :)

Sunny bookshop is goooood!!!! Way to go sunny!!!!

Creative writing club has never had its meetings in 1-1... it's traditionally been room 1-10 [Ed: Duly noted and corrected. My mistake]. Move to TS started v. v. late in my tenure, mostly by popular demand amongst the J1s. And it currently doesn't have a chairMan (ref: previous 2 yrs), it has a chairPerson hahahahaaaa

Went to watch Lifex3 by myself this afternoon, matinee performance, student rush ticket for $20 (= very very funny, very entertaining. Audience full of OAPs (old-age pensioners), apparently weekday matinee performances are patronised almost exclusively by them. Written by Yasmina Reza, it tells the tale of a disastrous dinner between 2 couples, played out 3 times differently. Hilarious!

Then walked around town. Tempted to buy the body shop honey lip balm. And got caught in the rain.

Andrew gan

I hate the Nokia 8310. Everytime I try to use my father's, I can never turn it on because the power button is so tiny. Hell, I can't press any of the keys. Or rather I press more than one key at a time.

I saw Xephyris' Playstation 2 yesterday. Ooo. However, the top is incongrously larger than the bottom so it looks a little weird. Metal Gear Solid 2 is tongue in cheek - You can hide in a cardboard box and move around. Oh, and you have cigarettes as an equipable item. And opening a locker early in the game shows a poster of some Chinese woman.

I saw Timothy Ang at Cineleisure yesterday when I went to watch Waterboys with the usual crowd (Sister and brother in law). The movie is fun.

There was some girl with puffy lips, and who pursed and thrust them out. It took me some while, but I put my finger on it. The other person I knew of who did that - Zhengyu. Though I'm not sure about now, if he still does that. I mastered the art of pursing and thrusting my lips out like him sometime ago, and I think I still do it quite well.

My second waking today was at about 1pm =) My sister brought me to lunch at about 3 and then went to work, so I went to walk about Orchard Road.

Down the road from RGS, one finds the SDU. Hrm.

I love Sunny Bookshop. Bought the Feist/Wurt's Empire series today and Magii of Cyador. The former was mint and the latter near mint. Even their mint quality books are sold for cheaper than major bookstores! And their selection is always good.

I was too late for the Secondary School dismissal crowd, but I did get some stragglers, and JC students.

Later, Screwed Up Girl asked me to go to RJ to talk to her. Because I was bored, I went, and when I reached she informed me she had choir. !@#$%^&*(). I then decided to make today "Look For RJ Guys With Shaven Heads Day" [Ed: I am told that they are waterpolo players]. Earlier in Orchard I'd seen one, walking with a schoolmate who was clothed in purple. I found 3 in RJC itself - one ex-AC kid, one in the canteen in PE Uniform and 1 in PE shorts and with a T-Shirt which I couldn't see close up but which said "XVI" at the back.

I also bumped into some people. Johann hailed me as I was walking to RJ. His sideburns look rather untidy and tangled. A ways down I saw Yingying walking by while I was talking to Gengyang, who has grown a shadow of a moustache. I'd grown used to seeing her with Wang Yi, so it was a little weird seeing her unaccompanied. Her hair is VERY obviously dyed now. A03 in an A01 class! Later, I saw Shiming aka "sparkly eyes" (I didn't come up with that). They are actually quite sparkly :) but lately he has gotten some red bumps (aka pimples) on his face. I told him to beware stalkers. Hehe. And I was told that "You look much fitter".

Me: Do I have a look of torment?
Him: You're not showing it.

Shameless week is currently underway! Someone took a picture with the statue of Stamford Raffles. Eugh. I'd actually been informed of it by my source, but it was worse than I'd thought :)

There was this group campaigning on the platform of, of all things, toilets. Like they're going to be able to do much. I'll believe it when I see them cleaning the infamous toilets :)

Exhibit A, one of GSM[aka toilet group]'s posters:
want ya doors to lock?
want toilet paper?
want nice-smellin' toilets?
VOTE FOR GSM'02!
YA BUSINESS,
BIG OR SMALL,
IS OUR CONCERN

I was looking at the boards at the back of the canteen where they put the biodata, so to speak, of the campaigners. For some reason, they all have mission statements this year. The evil of new age management kitsch! Some ex-MGS girl decided to be cheapskate by stealing a MGS motto - "For M*, For G*, For S*", where I've forgotten what should go in place of the asterisks and claiming that it could be applied to RJC :) This other guy was looking at the board too and I asked for his opinion on the most dumb mission statement. He offered "improving reception" and I must say I agree :)

To my horror, I've found out that yet another of my juniors is running for Council - David, who lives in my estate. Horror, shock. A warning that I sent him:

"ahh I shall regale you with anti council propaganda
and you will be glad I'm not in RJ :)
because I was the no 1 enemy of the council!
hehe"

Muaha.

Much has been said about "Half-U". In Secondary one, Yong Chin used to parade his version of Half U after PE - white shirt with PE shorts. I saw this put into practice today - this girl was walking about with the purple RJ blouse and PE shorts. Ugh.

As part of the short-long-short-long hair cycle, Mrs Kwan is now keeping her hair long. It's now long enough to tie up! While I was talking to her, Mdm Teng was at the other table. She mentioned the "walking skeleton" matter, but seemed rather amused :)

CWC's broken their sacred tradition! They no longer meet on the sacred day (Friday), instead having their coven on Tuesdays. They also do not convene at the usual altar (1-10), instead assembling at a new sacristy (TS 3). So says their Chairman, who was wearing Hot Socks but fervently denied it, claiming they weren't hot because they were visible and that they didn't expose her ankles in the morning. Bah :)

I think I've found a successor to 11 year old girl. Tentatively, I've assigned her the age of 10. She has conservative taste in shoes (black and white).

I happened to see Flesh Parade performing again. Needless to say, I found it mirth inducing as usual. This time there were 3 guy-girl couples rehearsing for some dance. One fo the guys got kicked by his partner, eheh. I found the parade rather interesting on an intellectual plane - the usual moves in guy-girl dances have the female performing the submissive moves, accompanied with deferring gestures, but the dance they were performing had a roughly equal balance of male and female dominant moves, at least to my untrained eye. The performers seemed amused too, chuckling and laughing, while one even fell onto the floor in mirth. Looks like I'm the only one who is amused by Flesh Parade, though I do suspect the reasons they were so agitated were entirely different from mine :) Especially since I heard irregular, deep breathing from them when they were rehearsing.


Onion, chives and parsley or a variation thereof is a very popular dip flavour. Mmm.

My friend in my younger sibling school tells me that a question for her Secondary 3 Orals last year was "Describe your ideal husband". Looks like those who follow item 44 of How Girls Waste Time, Drawing up elaborate lists detailing their "ideal" man and exchanging them with other similarly emotionally disturbed girls, gained a distinct advantage!

Got locked out of my room again. I left for the com. lab with the keys on my desk. Had to have my room opened with the master key by the porter on duty.

Will try calling pple back in singapore tonite... it's around 9-ish in singapore.
I feel guilty, i should update my homepage again.

Andrew gan

Hello! Am working from a computer labelled "Camille" (wanted to take Gershwin but it looks as if someone's using him)

Okay I did not plow thru any archives.... so u have nothing to worry abt jane. Just read abt doggies and sharksfins and old chinese sayings. But why bother erasing archives.... if u've already put something up. Imho (andrew thinks "imho" should qualify as an english word) there's some truth to "heaty/cooling" foods; andrew's point is ..... somewhere in the 1400s there were these theories of foods existing on a scale of dampness- wet or dry, as well as on a scale of spiciness or something like that. Which meant it was "good" to eat blanc-mange (i haven't tried it myself... first time i heard abt it was when reading LM Alcott's "little women") but "bad" to eat too much meat.

This is my 2nd time in the com lab today... came in morning to check email. The reason i'm here again just walked in.... chaowan asked me to come down, he wants to chat with pple on my icq. Hope he won't get too freaked out if melvin sends another message asking for "sperm donations" for a "dying young girl"

Andrew gan

aiee! don't go near my blog, andrew, you don't want to - it's ostensibly noxiously puerile. especially do not plow through the archives; (makes mental note to self) have to do a little erasing soon!

Hi,

Just back from ocf easter camp. And my writings just got wiped when the computer labelled "Elgar" started to whine from too many java applets. Plowed thru email and Balderdash, then went on to purpleprose and flippant (haven't finished reading those).

And ankle socks don't give me sore ankles, all my shoes are low-cut. And the theory of ankle socks making legs look slenderer and longer only works if yr calves are very slender and thin to begin with

And may i ask where on earth u heard that snippet from a porn video from??

Physically worn out and staying up too late for my own good, so i will leave just 1 anecdote: for april fool's the camp comm decided to rewrite the list of groups scheduled for cleaning up the campsite.... so the programme officer read from the list... "okay, the group cleaning up the function room is fire hydrant...."

Andrew gan

Happy April Fools.

I will be visiting the musuem of old consoles later to meet with the curator, the erstwhile poster Xephyris.

Oh no, worm writers are getting smarter!

Early this morning, I got a mail from Mariko, with this as the body:

"Hi, I have some cool joke - worms so have a look at it (no virus)

mariko"

and a file attached.

Since the English wasn't too bad, and her name was at the bottom, I thought this was probably not a Trojan. After running it, weird coloured worms went across my screen and there was some message about having to restart my computer to close the application.

Later, being suspicious, I used msconfig to check the startup programs and found something mildly suspicious - Kernel Loader, C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntkrnl.exe -LOADDRIVERS=TRUE, so I disabled it.

And now I've gotten a message back. She didn't send me anything. Oops.

Worm writers are getting better. This does not bode well for the future, if even people such as I were fooled. Bleah.


Mr Lim on GP 8005:

"application q not that easy. even us teachers are figuring how to teach it as it's new." Ugh.


Ooo, my guestbook got signed for the first time in 2 months. Unfortunately, it was with a criticism:

"Name: Conscience
Comments: it's national service, not slavery. you're selfish."

Bah.


Things you learn from referrer information: Searching "Shuqi" with Lycos brings my page as the first hit. Woo.


Was out again for a substantial period of time today. Lunch at Neptune (the place where they have topless dancers at night. And where the spring rolls are almost all skin and no filling - gah) and then went to stone while waiting for Kheng Hwa to come and watch the Count of Monte Cristo.

In a shop at Lucky Plaza, I saw an optical mouse that can read and write memory sticks. Made by Sony, naturally. Gah. Beside that outlet was a clothing joint which had mannikins more realistic than those normally seen (both male and female).

I noticed that the 'House Of Condom' is for those aged 18 years & above only, so the dare Zhongyong offered me in 1998 or 1999, when we were on a AVU trip, to go in and ask, "Auntie, zhe4 ge4 you3 mei2 you3 hong2 se4, ribbed de4" (Auntie, is this available in Red and Ribbed?) couldn't have been accomplished. I was actually offered 7 MacDonalds Adult Ice Cream Cones ($1.40 in value), not bad indeed.

People watching is quite fun. I had to wait almost 2 hours so that was how I killed time. So I went around with an amused look, scribbling feverishly on my hard Graffiti area. And there were some unpublishable observations :) There are a lot of couples walking around, I never really took notice. And there were a lot of lians. Yeech.

Near there was a sight not often seen, an old man busking. The type with action, not just pithy singing or playing of an instrument. He was on red clogs and shuffling forward with his clogs making tap sounds, while repeatedly throwing a tennis ball in the air and catching it and playing the harmonica. After he finished his act, he took out a box with 2 photos to pray to them, wore a red beret and walked off.

At Cineleisure, I overheard these 2 guys' conversation:
'Do you think guys can wear these?'
'Cannot lah'
They were talking about floral printed Hot Shorts, with white flowers on a light green background.

It's quite inspiring how much energy and exuberance some older folks have.

Giant cardboard movie displays are amazingly useful to sit behind and SMS.

There was this 2nd Lieutenant in Smart 4, who was having somewhat intimate contact with his girlfriend. Tut tut.

The Count of Monte Cristo was a bit Hollywood-ised. They cast a few blacks for political correctness, and one, the titular Count's sworn servant, was inserted for comic relief. Oh, and the gunshot wound Mercedes sustained on her shoulder miraculously healed without a scar, so she could stride on the top of Chateau d'If at the end of the movie with a flawless shoulder. [NB: Trailers are evil. I just downloaded the trailer for my sister and the line, "In return, I offer you something priceless. Knowledge." became "In return, I offer you something priceless. The treasure of Monte Cristo."]

I love Planet Hollywood, they update their menu quite often. The food is nice and not unreasonably priced, though the merchandise is expensive and dumb. It's the only place in Singapore which hires so many Filippinos. We took a walk off beaten trail and ordered Oysters Rockefeller and Stuffed Mushrooms (which were tiny). The other appetisers are much better, which is why they are the ones on the Appetiser Sampler. And now I know why the chain's losing money - they have a Restroom Assistant. A man in the washroom to press tap for you and hand you paper towels. And now they provide you with hair mousse, styling gel and spray deodourant. I was bemused, so I tipped the guy $0.50. I think if he was female he'd get tipped more actually.


Signs Power Rangers has matured:
- The set has become more convincing and the budget has gone up
- Someone actually *died*. Albeit a villain, Scorpius. But later in the season Kendrix is going to die too. Good way to get rid of unavailable characters, instead of lame excuses like them being sent to a Teen World Peace Conference in Geneva
- A villain (Villamax) actually kept his word this time, and let the others go in exchange for Leo's surrender. But the other things they added in to show his 'honour', like his giving Deviot a dagger as a token of, friendship (?).
- They had one episode without any zords, without any of the traditional foes. One whole episode just to introduce a plot device, the Galaxy Book.

This almost makes up for the plot loopholes, the most niggling of which are why Terra Venture is so big (They don't -need- to look for a new world after all, they already have it!), how come Terra Venture is so easily infiltrated by monsters, how the rangers holding important posts in the space station manage to escape their duties to go and fight the monsters without eliciting suspicion, how the Astro Megaship manages to fly in and out of Terra Venture without suspicion on the part of the authorities and why Terra Venture is not destroyed with all the combat taking place, especially combat between giant sized monsters and zords. If Scorpius wanted to destroy Terra Venture, or at least cripple it, all he needed to do was to instruct one monster to shoot the 'sky' (the top of the dome).