Restored post
Minrui's going to be a Military Policeman, something Chinx was going to become before they decided they didn't like him and put him in SMM, the dumping ground of the SAF :)
The MPs take over the Police Force in times of war. Which makes one wonder what the police themselves do?
And they're no Malay MPs. Ahem. SAF. Racial harmony and equality. Ahem.
[NB: Chinx claims that there ARE Malay MPs. Well]
Yeh! Pictures from the RV Alumni BBQ are out.
Andrew Gan may want to see them - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rv-alumni/files/
When you can't live without bananas
Saturday, September 07, 2002
At the run this morning at Marina South, one officer said I was very professional, and those I treated (many, most of whom needed ice) commented that I was very gentle, unlike previous medics.
A vindication of my labour! :)
In other news, JCGuide, those people who murdered my RJ review (compare and contrast), have acquired pictures of Flesh Parade Night 2002!
A vindication of my labour! :)
In other news, JCGuide, those people who murdered my RJ review (compare and contrast), have acquired pictures of Flesh Parade Night 2002!
Post ID: 81271877
| ||||
Oh no. Can it be? I've fallen to the lure on online tests.
Post ID: 81270916
Friday, September 06, 2002
Found this site via Yaoi Girl.
50 REASONS WHY ANWAR IBRAHIM CANNOT BECOME THE PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA
(From the book by Khalid Jafri originally written in Malay. This book is now banned in Malaysia. Now translated into English.)
5. DESTROY MAHATHIR
Anwar vowed to destroy Dr. Mahathir in front of the late Haji Sulaiman Palestine because he was detained under the ISA when Dr. Mahathir was Education Minister.
10. SODOMIST
Everybody was talking about Anwar performing sodomy on his driver, Azizan, when the secret was out. However, Anwar�s hobby on sodomy is not new. It began when he was still in secondary school at the Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) and in college at University Malaya (UM). A lot of people would want to come forward to tell all. Just wait and see.
13. A CHEAT
Anwar not only have been cheating on his wife but is also a homosexual.
14. AGGRESSIVE
The name Anwar Ibrahim itself portrays fighting and warring (AN-WAR). As such, he is fond of creating chaos, crises, conflicts and wars.
16. DOOMED BY GOD THE ALMIGHTY
God the Almighty will not bless Anwar, for all his terrible sins. He will not be able to administer the country properly since God already dooms him.
18. LEADER WITHOUT VISION
Anwar is a leader with no vision. His vision is only on bad intentions such getting himself rich from corruption, power takeover through UMNO and homosexuality.
20. PUPPET OF THE UNITED STATES
A lot of people were shocked when Anwar was accorded a red carpet treatment complete with a 21-gun salute by the Americans as if he is the head of state when Anwar visited Washington DC. Dr. Mahathir was never given this special treatment although he is the head of state.
Similar special treatment by the Americans was also accorded to Boris Yeltsin while Gorbachev was still the President of the Soviet Union. Not long after that, Soviet Union disintegrated and Boris Yeltsin became the new President.
Is the United States planning the same for Malaysia? The Malaysian people can make many conclusions on Anwar�s special relationship with the United States. Is Anwar an agent of the CIA?
21. RIBA
As Finance Minister of Malaysia, Anwar failed to defend the previously excellent economic status of the country. The economy continues to plunge. But surprisingly, the Americans still regard Anwar as a brilliant economist.
Recently, Anwar was appointed as Chairman of the IMF Development Committee. IMF is the American financial institution that gives out loans to countries facing economic problems such as Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea. The loans were given out with very strict conditions specially designed to suffocate those countries. So, Anwar is party to the practice of �riba� in the IMF which is forbidden in Islam. Anwar can never make the IMF practice Islamic banking as practiced in Malaysia.
27. A HYPOCRITE
Anwar is a hypocrite and as such made many mistakes which made him an unsuitable leader.
28. A HOMOSEXUAL
God the Almighty forbids homosexuality. As a homosexual, Anwar�s character, personality and behavior are questionable since he is a sinner.
29. A SNOB
Eversince Anwar became a Minister, he has forgotten his Islamic ideals and struggles. His ideals and principles now are completely the opposite. If he can, he hopes to have an autocratic power and regime.
Once when Anwar was the Education Minister, he was invited to officially open a primary school in Masjid Tanah, Melaka. But sadly, Anwar said, "Why should I come?".
30. CONTRADICT THE PRIME MINISTER
Although Dr. Mahathir is still the Prime Minister, Anwar behaves as if he is already the Prime Minister.
Dr. Mahathir�s statements regarding certain projects or issues were frequently contradicted or even denied by Anwar.
31. CONTROL THE MEDIA
Anwar effectively controls the local media namely Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian and TV3. Anwar�s speeches were often front paged by these newspapers while Dr. Mahathir�s, although makes more sense, were placed inside.
33. FLAT FOREHEAD
If one were to observe closely Anwar's forehead, one would see that he has a flat forehead. According to "Fung Shui" predictions, those with this physical feature will never become a great leader or the number one man in a country.
34. WAVES
The book entitled "Waves" written by Anwar portrays his life as constantly wavy and unstable.
35. FALL OF THE RINGGIT
Prior to Anwar becoming the Finance Minister, the Ringgit stood at RM2.20 to US$1. But now, the Ringgit plunged to RM3.90 to US$1. The price of daily essentials soared up to 60% higher as a result of the drastic fall in the value of the Ringgit.
By Anwar being appointed as Chairman of the IMF Development Committee, it should influence the rise of the Ringgit not the continued plunge.
37. EDUCATION
Anwar Ibrahim only holds a degree in Malay Studies from University Malaya. He failed the first year. As such, he has no idea at all about business and economy. He cannot be relied upon to administer the country�s finances.
39. ABUSE OF POWER
Imagine if Anwar becomes the Prime Minister. Not only Malaysia becomes poorer and his families become filthy rich but also all youths in the country will fall prey to his lust.
The Youth and Sports Ministry will be forced to line up youths, especially gays each week to fulfill Anwar�s lust. All Ministers will be fired except those who are willing to let Anwar sodomise them.
Syed Hussin Al-Attas (a writer who is not a professor) will never accept a job from Anwar since he is not a gay and not a person who likes to steal other people�s wives. It would be different if Anwar offers him lots of money. He will grab it for sure.
40. THE PEOPLE OF THE PROPHET LUT
According to the local news, there is an estimated 20,000 gays in the city of Kuala Lumpur. The number increases rapidly and it is worrisome that Kuala Lumpur will become the village of Sadum in Palestine where almost its entire inhabitants were homosexuals.
The people of Sadum totally ignored the warnings of the Prophet Lut that God the Almighty forbids their behavior. Finally, God the Almighty except the Prophet Lut and some of his followers destroyed Sadum and its entire people.
We are afraid that God will do the same to Malaysia if the rapid increase in homosexuals in Kuala Lumpur is uncontrollable.
Anwar is mightier that the people of Lut since he can have sex with both men and women.
42. MALAYS BECOME POORER
Before Anwar became the Finance Minister, there were many wealthy Malays. But soon after Anwar took over from Daim Zainuddin, the Malays become poor. For five years they waited patiently for the economy to recover but it never did. The Malays will become poorer, the longer Anwar is the Finance Minister. Only Anwar�s families are the ones getting richer and wealthier.
46. EAT SQUATTING DOWN AND WITH CHOPSTICKS
Malay customs are usually associated with Islamic values. Anwar used to champion Islam when he was in ABIM.
But when he became a Minister, his Malay customs disappeared. Anwar was recorded squatting down while eating in public and even used chopsticks while eating with the Prime Minister.
49. DESTROYER
UMNO and Malay unity, which so far is very stable, will be destroyed if Anwar becomes Prime Minister replacing Dr Mahathir. This is based on the facts laid out in this book.
50. PROPHECY
Finally, the prophecy by Haji Sulaiman Palestine to Dr Mahathir before he passed away.
Haji Sulaiman Palestine was Anwar's uncle. He was also an UMNO veteran who had full knowledge of Anwar's secrets and weaknesses.
Due to this knowledge, he left a prophecy so that Dr Mahathir will not choose Anwar as Prime Minister because it will lead to the disintegration of UMNO.
Dr Mahathir was strongly advised by Haji Sulaiman Palestine to choose Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as Prime Minister if Dr Mahathir wishes to see UMNO in safe hands.
LOL
Really, I'm not surprised this book was banned. I believe the logic presented herein is even worse than that in the article telling us why we shouldn't eat pork.
I'm tempted to make some conclusions, but I think I shall be nice for once. Suffice to say that this school of logic seems to be practiced only in good ole Ma-laysia.
50 REASONS WHY ANWAR IBRAHIM CANNOT BECOME THE PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA
(From the book by Khalid Jafri originally written in Malay. This book is now banned in Malaysia. Now translated into English.)
5. DESTROY MAHATHIR
Anwar vowed to destroy Dr. Mahathir in front of the late Haji Sulaiman Palestine because he was detained under the ISA when Dr. Mahathir was Education Minister.
10. SODOMIST
Everybody was talking about Anwar performing sodomy on his driver, Azizan, when the secret was out. However, Anwar�s hobby on sodomy is not new. It began when he was still in secondary school at the Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) and in college at University Malaya (UM). A lot of people would want to come forward to tell all. Just wait and see.
13. A CHEAT
Anwar not only have been cheating on his wife but is also a homosexual.
14. AGGRESSIVE
The name Anwar Ibrahim itself portrays fighting and warring (AN-WAR). As such, he is fond of creating chaos, crises, conflicts and wars.
16. DOOMED BY GOD THE ALMIGHTY
God the Almighty will not bless Anwar, for all his terrible sins. He will not be able to administer the country properly since God already dooms him.
18. LEADER WITHOUT VISION
Anwar is a leader with no vision. His vision is only on bad intentions such getting himself rich from corruption, power takeover through UMNO and homosexuality.
20. PUPPET OF THE UNITED STATES
A lot of people were shocked when Anwar was accorded a red carpet treatment complete with a 21-gun salute by the Americans as if he is the head of state when Anwar visited Washington DC. Dr. Mahathir was never given this special treatment although he is the head of state.
Similar special treatment by the Americans was also accorded to Boris Yeltsin while Gorbachev was still the President of the Soviet Union. Not long after that, Soviet Union disintegrated and Boris Yeltsin became the new President.
Is the United States planning the same for Malaysia? The Malaysian people can make many conclusions on Anwar�s special relationship with the United States. Is Anwar an agent of the CIA?
21. RIBA
As Finance Minister of Malaysia, Anwar failed to defend the previously excellent economic status of the country. The economy continues to plunge. But surprisingly, the Americans still regard Anwar as a brilliant economist.
Recently, Anwar was appointed as Chairman of the IMF Development Committee. IMF is the American financial institution that gives out loans to countries facing economic problems such as Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea. The loans were given out with very strict conditions specially designed to suffocate those countries. So, Anwar is party to the practice of �riba� in the IMF which is forbidden in Islam. Anwar can never make the IMF practice Islamic banking as practiced in Malaysia.
27. A HYPOCRITE
Anwar is a hypocrite and as such made many mistakes which made him an unsuitable leader.
28. A HOMOSEXUAL
God the Almighty forbids homosexuality. As a homosexual, Anwar�s character, personality and behavior are questionable since he is a sinner.
29. A SNOB
Eversince Anwar became a Minister, he has forgotten his Islamic ideals and struggles. His ideals and principles now are completely the opposite. If he can, he hopes to have an autocratic power and regime.
Once when Anwar was the Education Minister, he was invited to officially open a primary school in Masjid Tanah, Melaka. But sadly, Anwar said, "Why should I come?".
30. CONTRADICT THE PRIME MINISTER
Although Dr. Mahathir is still the Prime Minister, Anwar behaves as if he is already the Prime Minister.
Dr. Mahathir�s statements regarding certain projects or issues were frequently contradicted or even denied by Anwar.
31. CONTROL THE MEDIA
Anwar effectively controls the local media namely Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian and TV3. Anwar�s speeches were often front paged by these newspapers while Dr. Mahathir�s, although makes more sense, were placed inside.
33. FLAT FOREHEAD
If one were to observe closely Anwar's forehead, one would see that he has a flat forehead. According to "Fung Shui" predictions, those with this physical feature will never become a great leader or the number one man in a country.
34. WAVES
The book entitled "Waves" written by Anwar portrays his life as constantly wavy and unstable.
35. FALL OF THE RINGGIT
Prior to Anwar becoming the Finance Minister, the Ringgit stood at RM2.20 to US$1. But now, the Ringgit plunged to RM3.90 to US$1. The price of daily essentials soared up to 60% higher as a result of the drastic fall in the value of the Ringgit.
By Anwar being appointed as Chairman of the IMF Development Committee, it should influence the rise of the Ringgit not the continued plunge.
37. EDUCATION
Anwar Ibrahim only holds a degree in Malay Studies from University Malaya. He failed the first year. As such, he has no idea at all about business and economy. He cannot be relied upon to administer the country�s finances.
39. ABUSE OF POWER
Imagine if Anwar becomes the Prime Minister. Not only Malaysia becomes poorer and his families become filthy rich but also all youths in the country will fall prey to his lust.
The Youth and Sports Ministry will be forced to line up youths, especially gays each week to fulfill Anwar�s lust. All Ministers will be fired except those who are willing to let Anwar sodomise them.
Syed Hussin Al-Attas (a writer who is not a professor) will never accept a job from Anwar since he is not a gay and not a person who likes to steal other people�s wives. It would be different if Anwar offers him lots of money. He will grab it for sure.
40. THE PEOPLE OF THE PROPHET LUT
According to the local news, there is an estimated 20,000 gays in the city of Kuala Lumpur. The number increases rapidly and it is worrisome that Kuala Lumpur will become the village of Sadum in Palestine where almost its entire inhabitants were homosexuals.
The people of Sadum totally ignored the warnings of the Prophet Lut that God the Almighty forbids their behavior. Finally, God the Almighty except the Prophet Lut and some of his followers destroyed Sadum and its entire people.
We are afraid that God will do the same to Malaysia if the rapid increase in homosexuals in Kuala Lumpur is uncontrollable.
Anwar is mightier that the people of Lut since he can have sex with both men and women.
42. MALAYS BECOME POORER
Before Anwar became the Finance Minister, there were many wealthy Malays. But soon after Anwar took over from Daim Zainuddin, the Malays become poor. For five years they waited patiently for the economy to recover but it never did. The Malays will become poorer, the longer Anwar is the Finance Minister. Only Anwar�s families are the ones getting richer and wealthier.
46. EAT SQUATTING DOWN AND WITH CHOPSTICKS
Malay customs are usually associated with Islamic values. Anwar used to champion Islam when he was in ABIM.
But when he became a Minister, his Malay customs disappeared. Anwar was recorded squatting down while eating in public and even used chopsticks while eating with the Prime Minister.
49. DESTROYER
UMNO and Malay unity, which so far is very stable, will be destroyed if Anwar becomes Prime Minister replacing Dr Mahathir. This is based on the facts laid out in this book.
50. PROPHECY
Finally, the prophecy by Haji Sulaiman Palestine to Dr Mahathir before he passed away.
Haji Sulaiman Palestine was Anwar's uncle. He was also an UMNO veteran who had full knowledge of Anwar's secrets and weaknesses.
Due to this knowledge, he left a prophecy so that Dr Mahathir will not choose Anwar as Prime Minister because it will lead to the disintegration of UMNO.
Dr Mahathir was strongly advised by Haji Sulaiman Palestine to choose Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as Prime Minister if Dr Mahathir wishes to see UMNO in safe hands.
LOL
Really, I'm not surprised this book was banned. I believe the logic presented herein is even worse than that in the article telling us why we shouldn't eat pork.
I'm tempted to make some conclusions, but I think I shall be nice for once. Suffice to say that this school of logic seems to be practiced only in good ole Ma-laysia.
Post ID: 81236023
The RV alumni Barbeque had rather less people than I thought it might. But all years were represented, from the Classes of 1996 down to 2001, bar 2000, presumably because their prelims are next week. But I was the only guy in NS, save for our valiant host Yongxiang the BSO, who came back late from a meeting.
Rule of choir gatherings: People will always start singing. And so they did, with kindred brothers Edmund and Sicheng making sleazy percussion sound effects :)
I got some things clarified. The one whose religion has something against kneeling (spoiling someone's bright choreo idea in A Musical Concoction 2) was Flora. And Choon Ping never tore a picture of Horse up. He -took- many pictures, but never tore any, so he says.
I'm told that Raffles Voices has sung The Snow in English. Finally, the desecration wrought by Wu Yi is undone, and redemption is achieved! Though I seemed the only one pleased at the news - the veterans of the Spain trip apparently were very attached to their Chinese version.
There were no girls (but Ms Chiang) to alienate with the ubiquitous army talk, so in some quarters it was flowing freely. However, the presence of the J6s and J5s, most of whom've ORDed already, and all the chao Medicine disruptees, meant that it was somewhat muted. Actually the S05A barbeque was, in my opinion, somewhat successful in this arena - the girls weren't *too* alienated by the guys talking about army stuff (or air force, as the case might be for Changge and Kai Leung) every single minute, though Chinx begged to differ.
Yijia now has long, wavy, highlighted hair. Yeh. And Yongxiang's dogs are cute. And that's it for pithy comments on the RV barbeque.
Restored post
By now, most of the Medics think that Yaodong is a bastard. I happened to see the letter referring him to a hospital, and it was very telling: "claims to have attacks 1-2x/wk but main descriptions are of chest tightness... study showed mild restrictive defect !? nt consistent with picture of asthma. Repeated visits to Medical Centre, also nt keen to be posted to combat unit"
Ahem.
The 42SAR canteen is rather dismal. It has the least food variety among the 3 canteens in Sungei Gedong camp. But it does have funky drinks like Snapple, Orangina, Stewart's Root Beer and Adam's Ale Sport. Okay, you can find them in Shell Select, but this is a SAF canteen.
I'm very happy that I have not been forced to glimpse any naked male members in camp so far! Of course, I notice that the number of "sightings" is roughly proportional to the number of Malays in my bunk.
I seem to be perpetually sending patients - Kiong calls me the "despatch medic". My mileage must be very high by now. And on one of my regular trips, I saw Aliff at NUH. He's now at DB. A driver for DB, that is. And he's now heavier than before BMT. Well. My joy at seeing him was balanced by my inability to go for a night off, though, as I'd been on the way back to camp from Alexandria Hospital when I was diverted to NUH to pick up 2 patients. We arrived back at camp so late, the cookhouse was closed.
Tuesday is probably designated "run day" in Sungei Gedong - on that day, it seemed half the camp was running. While slogging (it was my first Company Life Run), I saw Cai Yixiang. Jianwen tells me he's training to be an Armour Engineer, though whether he's an officer, specialist or enlisted man I know not, and Jianwen himself is training to be an Armour Officer at the Officer Training Wing.
Probably not by accident, I've been tasked by the Senior Medic to take care of the "Weight Management for Obese Regulars Scheme". Gah. And now I know what the rest mean by him "arrowing" everyone to do things, and pushing a lot of duties to others.
Mysteriously, the ET (Entrenching Tool) stick I borrowed from Wen Fa for 4NTM disappeared from my fieldpack, and the groundsheet he lent me became a poncho. Perplexing and disturbing this mystery is, and I'll have to bear the losses and replace his items! :(
Since our breakfasts are so lousy, these days we've been sleeping in till 645am, with one person going to sign the meal file. The meal file being a file for everyone to sign after they've consumed their meals. Now this is supposed to make us go to the cookhouse and eat, but in reality one person just signs for everyone in his platoon, so :)
I sprained my thigh muscles again during Unarmed Combat and they still hurt :(
Wenfa is very "notti" (Spelling provided by "Notti" Geraldine). I think it all started when he, me and Folie were in the bunk, and he started making suggestive comments about me liking Folie and chasing him. After 20 minutes of this, my face was red and I was trying very hard (and failing) not to burst out laughing. Later, he started sending me prank smses. His latest stunt failed miserably when I strode into the MO's room and saw him typing in a SMS to send via the Internet to "90483827" and which started, "Hi, I'm your secret admirer". Unaware of my sudden entrance, he continued typing for a while while those around him started laughing hysterically, and I finally exited the room with sounds of amusement. Caught red handed, I wonder if he'll try another funny anytime soon :)
By now, I seem to be immune to the smell of Medical Centres, a smell which used to hit me when entering SAF Medical Centres. This smell is, of course, the pungent aroma of Printol, which we use to mop the floor. Heavy duty stuff, that.
On Wednesday and Thursday, I was the duty medic for a marathon 48 hours, working my 2nd extra off on the latter day, so I have only 1 left to serve. But then, due to Weekend RT, extras don't hurt as much anymore. Well. However, I lost the opportunity to go for a night off on Thursday. Since I also didn't go for one on Tuesday as I came back too late from detail, and I'm assigned to cover the Army Half Marathon training on Saturday, losing my Friday stay out, this meant that I only got to go home once the whole week, on Friday, and didn't get to sleep at home :( Oh well, there's always the next Saturday Marina South run, and the Battalion Long Weekend (Stupid Thai Boy has a Company Long Weekend as well as a Battalion Long Weekend. Gah.)
As the title of the duty implies, Duty Medics have the most to do, not least the most mopping of the 3. If anything, the standing orders for Duty Medic I/Cs are even longer than for the other 2 types of Duty Medic, but everyone pays scant regard to them.
On Thursday night, we were merrily doing illegal things (like using the phone and the MO's computer) when an ambulance pulled up. I went to enquire if there was any problem, and it turned out that these were medical personnel from the 8th Singapore Armoured Brigade. Here to bathe and generally avail themselves of our extensive facilities. The MO walked in on Seetoh using the computer and asked to use it. He promptly started checking his mail, booting up ICQ2GO and charging his handphone, while the rest bathed first and watched television (surprisingly, Channel i and not a Chinese station).
I walked into the sick bay Wednesday night and one patient was reading 'The Dilbert Principle'. I must get down to reading it one day :)
Apart from activating an ambulance at 2am on Thursday morning, my night was peaceful, spent on my stretcher, since the sick bay was full of patients with sore eyes and I didn't want to catch the disease by using a bed slept on previously by one of the Infected Ones. Especially since I wasn't the one accompanying the patient :)
On Thursday I noticed one Warrant Officer who came to report sick had a long fifth fingernail, like an Ah Beng. So much for SAF personnel and short fingernails, ostensibly for hygiene purposes.
Lying and telling half-truths are an integral part of life in the SAF. The fact that I'm forced to partake in them to survive (and not even to prosper) vexes me sorely. Additionally, people like to evade work and push duties to other people, the former being christened 'siaming' and the latter 'arrowing'. Though I am not entirely innocent of such, I do do much less than my fair share of them. It's an irksome habit and one which causes certain people to get more than their fair workload.
One patient reporting sick asked if he could go and buy a drink. When I assented, he asked if I wanted one too. Aww. Ahh, the (small) rewards of duty!
Duty on Saturday was interrupted by a 6 hour detail duty, when Boon Wei, me and a few others went to recce the route for the Army Half Marathon (AHM) training on Saturday. Since all other vehicles were already dispatched out, we got a landrover which was spoilt, so we had to wait for it to be repaired before setting off. When we reached Marina South, the Conducting and Safety Officers started dallying and walking in circles. This, coupled with the 50km/hr speed limit of the landrover and a stop at Ayer Rajah Camp for lunch, meant that Yongsiang had to stand in for me for 6 long hours.
More about Ayer Rajah camp: The chicken wings from one of the 2 Malay stalls there is supposed to be so good, many SAF personnel have heard legends of it, and people drop by Ayer Rajah camp just to eat the chicken wings, and buy back many for their mates back at camp, as one of our officers did. However, I tried 2 and while they were quite crispy, it's nothing to write home about. I've had better, at Ikea and the Western stall at S-11 Bras Basah, among other places. Ayer Rajah camp is also where the famous OETI (Ordnance Engineering Training Institute) is, where 6 month stay out courses on the finer arts of being a technician are held ;) Also, there are many "camps" there - only some of them are so small - smaller than SMM even - that I wonder why they aren't counted as part of the one opposite ; Gloucester Camp for example, which consists of an office building and a carpark.
On the last weekend RT I attended, though 15 of us were supposed to book in on Saturday night to sleep in camp before the RT session on Sunday, only 4 did in the end, and the 11 others booked in Sunday morning. I'd do that, but I'm risk averse. Sigh, sometimes I feel like such a sucker - following the silly rules, not taking MCs because I am "sick" and such.
I've been hearing an array of complaints, from drivers and medics from my unit, and medics from other units, including Chris (from my BMT and SMM platoons) from 40SAR who was, with Kumar, attached to 46 for their Full Troop Exercise (FTX) (Hah!), about the people in 46SAR. Apparently the whole unit is dysfunctional - the people are all "pai kiahs" (lit: bad boys), aren't friendly or helpful and backstab a lot. Maybe that is why they have a whole lot of stupid rules (Lights off at 10:30pm, strictly enforced, with no talking on cellular phones allowed, for example). My unit *does* have a feud with 46SAR, but that doesn't really factor into my analysis, and there *is* the raft of complaints from other units, so.
I was smsing on Thursday and my officer said I sms as fast as he types. Wah.
Many of the people at Kaffir Company booked out at 3pm, because they had no dinner indented for them. HQ company is always the last to clear arms, and we've to wait for the Routine Orders to be published before booking out. Furthermore, our CSM is always very reluctant to release the book in/out books early. Life at the Company Lines *does* have its advantages.
I went to Som's store to rest and talk today, and I found that he has 2 new understudies, both JC students. One is one year our senior from RJC, and he revealed that he was a guest player in the recording of the College Anthem, done in 1998, that they always play. With his new company, he can't perform mysterious unspeakable acts in there anymore and more importantly, I can't go there to hide (or "tuang" if you prefer), but he can push work to them now.
For some reason, the incoming Brigade Commander (a Commando and a President's Scholar too) came to talk to us today to explain why we were cut from Exercise Wallaby. Apparently it has something to do with us protecting Singapore from terrorists. Anyway, for some reason he thought we were all very disappointed. Right. 99% of us were rejoicing when we discovered that we wouldn't have to roll in Australian muck anymore. Luckily our CO's pleas to let us go went unheeded :)
I hear our MO's trying to proselytise in the Medical Centre, but so far the 4 medics he's trying to convert haven't.
The irritating camp network has wiped Blue Bear from my desktop and the mp3s I had too. The thing probably didn't shut down properly the previous time. And I'm not sure of the disk space limits, so I don't know how much I can safely store on the network. Also about the e-learning centre: People like to book slots way in advance, so by the time I get there the slots are all filled. Luckily often people don't turn up.
My calculations were wrong. It's 7 hours of time off my weekend for each weekend RT session. Gah. Stung by my loss, I have resumed bringing soft toys to camp - Berliner Bear on Saturday and Polar Bear the rest of the week.
I don't know why a display of boobs gets most guys so excited. Their maxim seems to be: The bigger the better. Case in point: 20 Bikini Babes in September 2002's FHM. I found most of the shots disgusting, as many of the 20 look deformed. My expression of revulsion evinced a reply from Patrick though - "Are you gay?". Hah!
In a broader vein, why do girls read FHM? I doubt very many males read Her World, Cleo of Women's Weekly. Well I have, but I don't read them regularly, much less subscribe. Her are some reasons I drew up after a brief spate of meditation:
- They read it to understand men. The impression they'd get is, by and large, accurate. Sex, women, toys, cars and nice clothes (for some)
- To laugh at lame jokes. Rather, to laugh at how bad men's sense of humour is, that they'd actually laugh at the lamest and most un-funny jokes ever.
- To keep tabs on the competition, on the so-called firecrackers and their ilk
- To be amused at the so-called insights into the female mind. Re: September 2002 issue, where it is alleged that women think that size does matter, all of them wank and they all fake "it". All sounds awfully like what men desperately want to believe is the case. Except the part about jealousy.
Disclaimer: I only read FHM when I have nothing better to do. And I think most of the "firecrackers" and "babes" in there are disgusting.
I bought Seventeen on Saturday when I was with Ger, as I was sufficiently intrigued by the poster I always see when going to NUH or AH. I found it a little uninspired, but other people, male and female both, unanimously dislike it. Is it that bad? Apparently it's read by 55% of teenage girls in the USA. Anyhow it, like other women's mags, shows the truth of Tim's maxim - "Women's magazines are about women. Men's magazines are about women". Though there is this bit where a guy is "reviewed" by 6 girls who all want to date him (but who aren't particularly stunning themselves, somewhat ironically).
Someone drew my attention to JC Guide. It now has photos of Flesh Parade Night 2002.
A search for "Auspicium Melioris Aevi" brings up lots of results on Google. Seems Raffles wasn't very original in choosing a motto for his school :)
Quotes:
I don't horn people. I'm a very polite driver. I only let people horn me.
FHM... It may be in the toilet with all the sticky things on it (liquid)
[On Seventeen] It sucks. All the girls are too young.
[On the fringe benefits of duty] After office hours this phone is for you to use. The MO room's phone is for you to use. The computers also for you to use. Why waste your handphone bill?
[To me] Your best friend Clarence Lun will report sick again tonight
[On the Medical Officer] When he comes back, I will ask him, 'Sir, do you want to charge Clarence Lun?'
NB: All typos above are due to the fact that much or most of this was typed in camp.
Rule of choir gatherings: People will always start singing. And so they did, with kindred brothers Edmund and Sicheng making sleazy percussion sound effects :)
I got some things clarified. The one whose religion has something against kneeling (spoiling someone's bright choreo idea in A Musical Concoction 2) was Flora. And Choon Ping never tore a picture of Horse up. He -took- many pictures, but never tore any, so he says.
I'm told that Raffles Voices has sung The Snow in English. Finally, the desecration wrought by Wu Yi is undone, and redemption is achieved! Though I seemed the only one pleased at the news - the veterans of the Spain trip apparently were very attached to their Chinese version.
There were no girls (but Ms Chiang) to alienate with the ubiquitous army talk, so in some quarters it was flowing freely. However, the presence of the J6s and J5s, most of whom've ORDed already, and all the chao Medicine disruptees, meant that it was somewhat muted. Actually the S05A barbeque was, in my opinion, somewhat successful in this arena - the girls weren't *too* alienated by the guys talking about army stuff (or air force, as the case might be for Changge and Kai Leung) every single minute, though Chinx begged to differ.
Yijia now has long, wavy, highlighted hair. Yeh. And Yongxiang's dogs are cute. And that's it for pithy comments on the RV barbeque.
Restored post
By now, most of the Medics think that Yaodong is a bastard. I happened to see the letter referring him to a hospital, and it was very telling: "claims to have attacks 1-2x/wk but main descriptions are of chest tightness... study showed mild restrictive defect !? nt consistent with picture of asthma. Repeated visits to Medical Centre, also nt keen to be posted to combat unit"
Ahem.
The 42SAR canteen is rather dismal. It has the least food variety among the 3 canteens in Sungei Gedong camp. But it does have funky drinks like Snapple, Orangina, Stewart's Root Beer and Adam's Ale Sport. Okay, you can find them in Shell Select, but this is a SAF canteen.
I'm very happy that I have not been forced to glimpse any naked male members in camp so far! Of course, I notice that the number of "sightings" is roughly proportional to the number of Malays in my bunk.
I seem to be perpetually sending patients - Kiong calls me the "despatch medic". My mileage must be very high by now. And on one of my regular trips, I saw Aliff at NUH. He's now at DB. A driver for DB, that is. And he's now heavier than before BMT. Well. My joy at seeing him was balanced by my inability to go for a night off, though, as I'd been on the way back to camp from Alexandria Hospital when I was diverted to NUH to pick up 2 patients. We arrived back at camp so late, the cookhouse was closed.
Tuesday is probably designated "run day" in Sungei Gedong - on that day, it seemed half the camp was running. While slogging (it was my first Company Life Run), I saw Cai Yixiang. Jianwen tells me he's training to be an Armour Engineer, though whether he's an officer, specialist or enlisted man I know not, and Jianwen himself is training to be an Armour Officer at the Officer Training Wing.
Probably not by accident, I've been tasked by the Senior Medic to take care of the "Weight Management for Obese Regulars Scheme". Gah. And now I know what the rest mean by him "arrowing" everyone to do things, and pushing a lot of duties to others.
Mysteriously, the ET (Entrenching Tool) stick I borrowed from Wen Fa for 4NTM disappeared from my fieldpack, and the groundsheet he lent me became a poncho. Perplexing and disturbing this mystery is, and I'll have to bear the losses and replace his items! :(
Since our breakfasts are so lousy, these days we've been sleeping in till 645am, with one person going to sign the meal file. The meal file being a file for everyone to sign after they've consumed their meals. Now this is supposed to make us go to the cookhouse and eat, but in reality one person just signs for everyone in his platoon, so :)
I sprained my thigh muscles again during Unarmed Combat and they still hurt :(
Wenfa is very "notti" (Spelling provided by "Notti" Geraldine). I think it all started when he, me and Folie were in the bunk, and he started making suggestive comments about me liking Folie and chasing him. After 20 minutes of this, my face was red and I was trying very hard (and failing) not to burst out laughing. Later, he started sending me prank smses. His latest stunt failed miserably when I strode into the MO's room and saw him typing in a SMS to send via the Internet to "90483827" and which started, "Hi, I'm your secret admirer". Unaware of my sudden entrance, he continued typing for a while while those around him started laughing hysterically, and I finally exited the room with sounds of amusement. Caught red handed, I wonder if he'll try another funny anytime soon :)
By now, I seem to be immune to the smell of Medical Centres, a smell which used to hit me when entering SAF Medical Centres. This smell is, of course, the pungent aroma of Printol, which we use to mop the floor. Heavy duty stuff, that.
On Wednesday and Thursday, I was the duty medic for a marathon 48 hours, working my 2nd extra off on the latter day, so I have only 1 left to serve. But then, due to Weekend RT, extras don't hurt as much anymore. Well. However, I lost the opportunity to go for a night off on Thursday. Since I also didn't go for one on Tuesday as I came back too late from detail, and I'm assigned to cover the Army Half Marathon training on Saturday, losing my Friday stay out, this meant that I only got to go home once the whole week, on Friday, and didn't get to sleep at home :( Oh well, there's always the next Saturday Marina South run, and the Battalion Long Weekend (Stupid Thai Boy has a Company Long Weekend as well as a Battalion Long Weekend. Gah.)
As the title of the duty implies, Duty Medics have the most to do, not least the most mopping of the 3. If anything, the standing orders for Duty Medic I/Cs are even longer than for the other 2 types of Duty Medic, but everyone pays scant regard to them.
On Thursday night, we were merrily doing illegal things (like using the phone and the MO's computer) when an ambulance pulled up. I went to enquire if there was any problem, and it turned out that these were medical personnel from the 8th Singapore Armoured Brigade. Here to bathe and generally avail themselves of our extensive facilities. The MO walked in on Seetoh using the computer and asked to use it. He promptly started checking his mail, booting up ICQ2GO and charging his handphone, while the rest bathed first and watched television (surprisingly, Channel i and not a Chinese station).
I walked into the sick bay Wednesday night and one patient was reading 'The Dilbert Principle'. I must get down to reading it one day :)
Apart from activating an ambulance at 2am on Thursday morning, my night was peaceful, spent on my stretcher, since the sick bay was full of patients with sore eyes and I didn't want to catch the disease by using a bed slept on previously by one of the Infected Ones. Especially since I wasn't the one accompanying the patient :)
On Thursday I noticed one Warrant Officer who came to report sick had a long fifth fingernail, like an Ah Beng. So much for SAF personnel and short fingernails, ostensibly for hygiene purposes.
Lying and telling half-truths are an integral part of life in the SAF. The fact that I'm forced to partake in them to survive (and not even to prosper) vexes me sorely. Additionally, people like to evade work and push duties to other people, the former being christened 'siaming' and the latter 'arrowing'. Though I am not entirely innocent of such, I do do much less than my fair share of them. It's an irksome habit and one which causes certain people to get more than their fair workload.
One patient reporting sick asked if he could go and buy a drink. When I assented, he asked if I wanted one too. Aww. Ahh, the (small) rewards of duty!
Duty on Saturday was interrupted by a 6 hour detail duty, when Boon Wei, me and a few others went to recce the route for the Army Half Marathon (AHM) training on Saturday. Since all other vehicles were already dispatched out, we got a landrover which was spoilt, so we had to wait for it to be repaired before setting off. When we reached Marina South, the Conducting and Safety Officers started dallying and walking in circles. This, coupled with the 50km/hr speed limit of the landrover and a stop at Ayer Rajah Camp for lunch, meant that Yongsiang had to stand in for me for 6 long hours.
More about Ayer Rajah camp: The chicken wings from one of the 2 Malay stalls there is supposed to be so good, many SAF personnel have heard legends of it, and people drop by Ayer Rajah camp just to eat the chicken wings, and buy back many for their mates back at camp, as one of our officers did. However, I tried 2 and while they were quite crispy, it's nothing to write home about. I've had better, at Ikea and the Western stall at S-11 Bras Basah, among other places. Ayer Rajah camp is also where the famous OETI (Ordnance Engineering Training Institute) is, where 6 month stay out courses on the finer arts of being a technician are held ;) Also, there are many "camps" there - only some of them are so small - smaller than SMM even - that I wonder why they aren't counted as part of the one opposite ; Gloucester Camp for example, which consists of an office building and a carpark.
On the last weekend RT I attended, though 15 of us were supposed to book in on Saturday night to sleep in camp before the RT session on Sunday, only 4 did in the end, and the 11 others booked in Sunday morning. I'd do that, but I'm risk averse. Sigh, sometimes I feel like such a sucker - following the silly rules, not taking MCs because I am "sick" and such.
I've been hearing an array of complaints, from drivers and medics from my unit, and medics from other units, including Chris (from my BMT and SMM platoons) from 40SAR who was, with Kumar, attached to 46 for their Full Troop Exercise (FTX) (Hah!), about the people in 46SAR. Apparently the whole unit is dysfunctional - the people are all "pai kiahs" (lit: bad boys), aren't friendly or helpful and backstab a lot. Maybe that is why they have a whole lot of stupid rules (Lights off at 10:30pm, strictly enforced, with no talking on cellular phones allowed, for example). My unit *does* have a feud with 46SAR, but that doesn't really factor into my analysis, and there *is* the raft of complaints from other units, so.
I was smsing on Thursday and my officer said I sms as fast as he types. Wah.
Many of the people at Kaffir Company booked out at 3pm, because they had no dinner indented for them. HQ company is always the last to clear arms, and we've to wait for the Routine Orders to be published before booking out. Furthermore, our CSM is always very reluctant to release the book in/out books early. Life at the Company Lines *does* have its advantages.
I went to Som's store to rest and talk today, and I found that he has 2 new understudies, both JC students. One is one year our senior from RJC, and he revealed that he was a guest player in the recording of the College Anthem, done in 1998, that they always play. With his new company, he can't perform mysterious unspeakable acts in there anymore and more importantly, I can't go there to hide (or "tuang" if you prefer), but he can push work to them now.
For some reason, the incoming Brigade Commander (a Commando and a President's Scholar too) came to talk to us today to explain why we were cut from Exercise Wallaby. Apparently it has something to do with us protecting Singapore from terrorists. Anyway, for some reason he thought we were all very disappointed. Right. 99% of us were rejoicing when we discovered that we wouldn't have to roll in Australian muck anymore. Luckily our CO's pleas to let us go went unheeded :)
I hear our MO's trying to proselytise in the Medical Centre, but so far the 4 medics he's trying to convert haven't.
The irritating camp network has wiped Blue Bear from my desktop and the mp3s I had too. The thing probably didn't shut down properly the previous time. And I'm not sure of the disk space limits, so I don't know how much I can safely store on the network. Also about the e-learning centre: People like to book slots way in advance, so by the time I get there the slots are all filled. Luckily often people don't turn up.
My calculations were wrong. It's 7 hours of time off my weekend for each weekend RT session. Gah. Stung by my loss, I have resumed bringing soft toys to camp - Berliner Bear on Saturday and Polar Bear the rest of the week.
I don't know why a display of boobs gets most guys so excited. Their maxim seems to be: The bigger the better. Case in point: 20 Bikini Babes in September 2002's FHM. I found most of the shots disgusting, as many of the 20 look deformed. My expression of revulsion evinced a reply from Patrick though - "Are you gay?". Hah!
In a broader vein, why do girls read FHM? I doubt very many males read Her World, Cleo of Women's Weekly. Well I have, but I don't read them regularly, much less subscribe. Her are some reasons I drew up after a brief spate of meditation:
- They read it to understand men. The impression they'd get is, by and large, accurate. Sex, women, toys, cars and nice clothes (for some)
- To laugh at lame jokes. Rather, to laugh at how bad men's sense of humour is, that they'd actually laugh at the lamest and most un-funny jokes ever.
- To keep tabs on the competition, on the so-called firecrackers and their ilk
- To be amused at the so-called insights into the female mind. Re: September 2002 issue, where it is alleged that women think that size does matter, all of them wank and they all fake "it". All sounds awfully like what men desperately want to believe is the case. Except the part about jealousy.
Disclaimer: I only read FHM when I have nothing better to do. And I think most of the "firecrackers" and "babes" in there are disgusting.
I bought Seventeen on Saturday when I was with Ger, as I was sufficiently intrigued by the poster I always see when going to NUH or AH. I found it a little uninspired, but other people, male and female both, unanimously dislike it. Is it that bad? Apparently it's read by 55% of teenage girls in the USA. Anyhow it, like other women's mags, shows the truth of Tim's maxim - "Women's magazines are about women. Men's magazines are about women". Though there is this bit where a guy is "reviewed" by 6 girls who all want to date him (but who aren't particularly stunning themselves, somewhat ironically).
Someone drew my attention to JC Guide. It now has photos of Flesh Parade Night 2002.
A search for "Auspicium Melioris Aevi" brings up lots of results on Google. Seems Raffles wasn't very original in choosing a motto for his school :)
Quotes:
I don't horn people. I'm a very polite driver. I only let people horn me.
FHM... It may be in the toilet with all the sticky things on it (liquid)
[On Seventeen] It sucks. All the girls are too young.
[On the fringe benefits of duty] After office hours this phone is for you to use. The MO room's phone is for you to use. The computers also for you to use. Why waste your handphone bill?
[To me] Your best friend Clarence Lun will report sick again tonight
[On the Medical Officer] When he comes back, I will ask him, 'Sir, do you want to charge Clarence Lun?'
NB: All typos above are due to the fact that much or most of this was typed in camp.
Post ID: 81233859
SJC girls? Saint J? Convent?
Anita Sarawak is... freaky. And why does everyone in Singapore think she's so great just because she's a lounge singer in Las Vegas? Doesn't take much for that. They speak of her like she's a world famous entertainer.
Released from camp for a few hours today, my observations again tell me that the lian look is, sadly, very prevalent.
Ooo what sort of relationships with Raffles Guys? I smell the whiff of scandal in the air.
Shu Qi *does* look very slutty. At least in the few pics of her I've seen.
Weird blogs in referral list: Go visit them. Various friends.
What's "Eleison heart & mixture"?
And wt, you mean inimitable not inimicable right?
I know Dark Sun because I picked up Shattered Lands for ~$20 in budget packaging in a single CD-ROM at Funan (IIRC). Wonderful game, that :)
The Associate is welcome to visit (when I'm not at weekend RT). Just call my mobile first. I believe he has my number. Failing which he can ask Andrew Tan for it.
Anita Sarawak is... freaky. And why does everyone in Singapore think she's so great just because she's a lounge singer in Las Vegas? Doesn't take much for that. They speak of her like she's a world famous entertainer.
Released from camp for a few hours today, my observations again tell me that the lian look is, sadly, very prevalent.
Ooo what sort of relationships with Raffles Guys? I smell the whiff of scandal in the air.
Shu Qi *does* look very slutty. At least in the few pics of her I've seen.
Weird blogs in referral list: Go visit them. Various friends.
What's "Eleison heart & mixture"?
And wt, you mean inimitable not inimicable right?
I know Dark Sun because I picked up Shattered Lands for ~$20 in budget packaging in a single CD-ROM at Funan (IIRC). Wonderful game, that :)
The Associate is welcome to visit (when I'm not at weekend RT). Just call my mobile first. I believe he has my number. Failing which he can ask Andrew Tan for it.
Post ID: 81233106
I just come back for the first time since Sunday and as expected, my parents are deriving masochistic pleasure rearranging and "tidying up" my sister's room.
Their computer table collapsed and they bought a new one, along with a new chair and bed. They then asked me to reconnect the cables of her Mac. When I pointed out that my sister and brother in law wouldn't be here to use it, so there'd be no point reconnecting them, and they'd probably rearrange the room to their liking when they returned, my parents replied that they "want to do things properly". So I was engaged in superfluous activites, as usual.
They are currently vacuuming away to their hearts' delight.
Their computer table collapsed and they bought a new one, along with a new chair and bed. They then asked me to reconnect the cables of her Mac. When I pointed out that my sister and brother in law wouldn't be here to use it, so there'd be no point reconnecting them, and they'd probably rearrange the room to their liking when they returned, my parents replied that they "want to do things properly". So I was engaged in superfluous activites, as usual.
They are currently vacuuming away to their hearts' delight.
Post ID: 81232664
To the commentor of my last post - I did some research, shuddered away from the pictures, and - am a bit vague now. Anita Sarawak's mother was definitively Singaporean (famous for acting as the "evil stepmother" in shitloads of movies in the 50s and 60s). Sarawak Jr, however, was indeed *born* in Singapore, but apparently spent most of her upbringing in Malaysia.
Ah, the honour of Malaysia is restored; I should have known that such an abomination could only have originated from the island down South. Like Fann Wong. Or Zoe Tay.
Then again, Malaysian artistes aren't that much better; we do have the occasional good lookers like Camelia or Siti Norhaliza (highly subjective, I know); and on the other extreme.. we have.. Sheila Majid.
Ah, the honour of Malaysia is restored; I should have known that such an abomination could only have originated from the island down South. Like Fann Wong. Or Zoe Tay.
Then again, Malaysian artistes aren't that much better; we do have the occasional good lookers like Camelia or Siti Norhaliza (highly subjective, I know); and on the other extreme.. we have.. Sheila Majid.
Post ID: 81226682
Some very belated commentary on Gabriel's posts a while back about tracking:
"Making gay friends in johor" - easier than you might think, considering its proximity to Singapore's degenerate gay culture. Have already mentioned earlier a quote on "lipstick lesbianism"; anecdotal evidence suggests lesbianism of a mildly asexual quality tends to be more prevalent in girls' schools than gaiety is in guys' schools. Not that the latter doesn't exist; but it seems to me that MGS and SJC girls(as a stereotypical example) seem to have less issues with their classmates being dykes than guys from SJI or RI do with their buddies being faggots. Not making a judgement call here; simply an observation - if anyone wants to take up the issue further, bring the knuckledusters:)
"absolutely free malaysian nude college student" - Actually, I need to stress that a considerable proportion of Malaysian college students are non-Malay - because *private* colleges do not have bumiputra quotas. In government tertiary institutions like MARA, University of Malaya, UKM, yes, there is a disproportion towards the sons of the soil(even though Chinese are not non-existent there); but the more commercial minded ones like Taylor's, Tuanku Ja'afar (the Eton of Malaysian aristocracy; it has its own fucking golf course and bowling alley on the campus) are signifcantly Chinese. All the more so because these latter offer twinning programmes with decent mid-tier universities; some of us have to go for education on a budget. Our scholarship caste is not as richly developed as Singapore's is. *insert /irony tags* In addition, contemporary Malay college students are surprisingly easy to get out of their tudungs; if some of those minas at Backroom or Atmosphere are any indication....
"malaysian female singers free nude pictures" - Good God. Look up Anita Sarawak if anyone wants to be totally nauseated by this prospect. And the (sic) Malaysian Religious Police are known as muftis:) And don't diss Dikir Barat; it is a noble and enriching activity requiring much skill and practice - after all I was in SJI's much-maligned Dikir Barat troupe:)
"ah lians neoprint" - NEOPRINTS!!! THE SPAWN OF THE DEVIL IN PHOTOGRAPHIC FORM!!!!!!!!! *fulminates* NEOPRINTS ARE ONE OF THE IMPENDING SIGNS OF THE COMING APOCALYPSE, THE DEMISE OF SOCIETY, THE INCREASING MORAL DEGENERACY OF TODAY'S YOUTH, AND ARE SO VILE, UBIQUITOUS, AND UTTERLY EVIL THAT DANTE WOULD HAVE COMPOSED A NEW CIRCLE IN HELL FOR ANYONE WHO EVER TAKES ONE OF THEM. (I hate neoprints). What *is* the "lian" look though? Anyone care to characterise?
"uruk-hai,sex with women" - Uruk-hai were formed out of mutant elf experimentation. I'm sure this person was looking for research into some genetics paper or hybridisation experiment. Get your mind out of the gutter, Gabriel.
"balderdash" - Most of these were mine, Gabriel. I was looking for a particular entry. Nevermind.
"rgs blog", "'rgs' nude singapore - Relationships with RGS girls are essentially cultivating relationships with dysfunctional, angsty, sado-masochistic emotional drug addicts with flashes of whimsical humour, startling intellect, and the occasional moment of unsurpassed stupidity. *candid opinion* They would actually make good Wiccans, derivatives traders, suffragette activists, Bohemian cafe proprietors, or Satanic priestesses (this is *praise* coming from me, in absolute sincerity), if they weren't so bogged down with social expectations and scholarship chasing. Note to Gabriel: given that 99.9% of the female readership on this blog are from the classic RGS mold, I am moving in accordance with Operation "Whip Up Controversy For Balderdash" Phase 3. But seriously speaking, I have nothing against RGS girls; despite having had dysfunctional relationships with a few of them:)
I don't know why Shu Qi is so popular either, but I guess some people like the Cheena-slut motif she represents. (segue to the late lamented Canto club in Marina South for living, breathing specimens).
Incidentally, who are all these weird blogs I see in the referral lists?
"Hentai games sentimental shooting" - hm - a Sailor Moon FPS? (it exists - feel the horror. they have FPS-es for *everything* these days) But gore codes for a Pokemon-meets-Doom-2-and-BFG mod; I can live with that:)
"pm goh 2002 national day rally on poverty in malay" - Ah, a keen student of sociology has descended upon our sinkhole of racism and prejudice. Being a Malaysian, however, I have *far* more justification for racial vilification, I assure you. Racial politics is *fun*, as long as it doesn't get in the way of friendships. (Two weeks ago, when fetching a couple of my colleagues for lunch, one of them, a Malay, said, "A Malay being driven by a Chinese - now *that's* a change:) Still, am I the only one who wonders why Malay maths passing rates are dropping, *despite* Mendaki having more charitable contributions *per capita* for Malay education (admittedly, taking into account merely government subsidies point of view; private contributions and guilds are what put Chinese organisations over the top).
"safe gallows vest" - the eternal bondage fetish strikes again.
"sun yanzi japanese flag" - hm.. the traitorous bitch.
"neverwinter sex nude hentai" - This is an interesting patch which I'd like to see - nothing like a naked female dual-kama wielding monk with glowing blue eyes (Lvl 20 feat- Perfection of Self) getting down and dirty with some tentacle rape. (Do raping tentacles have THAC0 bonuses? Oh wait, that's 2nd Ed D&D.)
"meaning of antiscian" - amazing, one of my daily words! *beams with pride* It means to be on opposite sides of the planet, if anyone's interested:)
"light fading inkjet dye reaction mechanism" - hmm.. better off trying epson.com or canon.com, methinks. Although I have to confess, since I entered working life, I've grown rather proficient in the intricacies of photocopy and laser printer maintenance - and if anyone thinks wrestling with a fucking hot laser toner while trying to dislodge some vital paperjammed document from the innards of an ancient HP printer is fun, I'm going to scrotally infuse them bigtime!
"japanese technogeek term" - ah, an amalgam of the interests that constitute our blog's bread and butter
"Eleison heart & mixture" - No comment
"zhao wei nude sex pictures" - now *she's* better looking than shu qi
Final quote. "I regret not going to a Catholic girl's school. That means I'll never have any sexual stories beginning with; "and then she unzipped her jumper""
Final observation: Another disturbing thing about working life; having to call people two or three times my age by their first name. Utterly unaccustomed to it (except for some experience of calling Australian uni lecturers by their first name). I have colleagues who have *children* my age. Yet another disturbing thing; being called by my surname instead of my given name. All my life, that's what people have called my father; and now it's being directed at me. It engenders a certain cliched Gabriel Garcia Marquez kind of "rite of passage" disjoint.
"Making gay friends in johor" - easier than you might think, considering its proximity to Singapore's degenerate gay culture. Have already mentioned earlier a quote on "lipstick lesbianism"; anecdotal evidence suggests lesbianism of a mildly asexual quality tends to be more prevalent in girls' schools than gaiety is in guys' schools. Not that the latter doesn't exist; but it seems to me that MGS and SJC girls(as a stereotypical example) seem to have less issues with their classmates being dykes than guys from SJI or RI do with their buddies being faggots. Not making a judgement call here; simply an observation - if anyone wants to take up the issue further, bring the knuckledusters:)
"absolutely free malaysian nude college student" - Actually, I need to stress that a considerable proportion of Malaysian college students are non-Malay - because *private* colleges do not have bumiputra quotas. In government tertiary institutions like MARA, University of Malaya, UKM, yes, there is a disproportion towards the sons of the soil(even though Chinese are not non-existent there); but the more commercial minded ones like Taylor's, Tuanku Ja'afar (the Eton of Malaysian aristocracy; it has its own fucking golf course and bowling alley on the campus) are signifcantly Chinese. All the more so because these latter offer twinning programmes with decent mid-tier universities; some of us have to go for education on a budget. Our scholarship caste is not as richly developed as Singapore's is. *insert /irony tags* In addition, contemporary Malay college students are surprisingly easy to get out of their tudungs; if some of those minas at Backroom or Atmosphere are any indication....
"malaysian female singers free nude pictures" - Good God. Look up Anita Sarawak if anyone wants to be totally nauseated by this prospect. And the (sic) Malaysian Religious Police are known as muftis:) And don't diss Dikir Barat; it is a noble and enriching activity requiring much skill and practice - after all I was in SJI's much-maligned Dikir Barat troupe:)
"ah lians neoprint" - NEOPRINTS!!! THE SPAWN OF THE DEVIL IN PHOTOGRAPHIC FORM!!!!!!!!! *fulminates* NEOPRINTS ARE ONE OF THE IMPENDING SIGNS OF THE COMING APOCALYPSE, THE DEMISE OF SOCIETY, THE INCREASING MORAL DEGENERACY OF TODAY'S YOUTH, AND ARE SO VILE, UBIQUITOUS, AND UTTERLY EVIL THAT DANTE WOULD HAVE COMPOSED A NEW CIRCLE IN HELL FOR ANYONE WHO EVER TAKES ONE OF THEM. (I hate neoprints). What *is* the "lian" look though? Anyone care to characterise?
"uruk-hai,sex with women" - Uruk-hai were formed out of mutant elf experimentation. I'm sure this person was looking for research into some genetics paper or hybridisation experiment. Get your mind out of the gutter, Gabriel.
"balderdash" - Most of these were mine, Gabriel. I was looking for a particular entry. Nevermind.
"rgs blog", "'rgs' nude singapore - Relationships with RGS girls are essentially cultivating relationships with dysfunctional, angsty, sado-masochistic emotional drug addicts with flashes of whimsical humour, startling intellect, and the occasional moment of unsurpassed stupidity. *candid opinion* They would actually make good Wiccans, derivatives traders, suffragette activists, Bohemian cafe proprietors, or Satanic priestesses (this is *praise* coming from me, in absolute sincerity), if they weren't so bogged down with social expectations and scholarship chasing. Note to Gabriel: given that 99.9% of the female readership on this blog are from the classic RGS mold, I am moving in accordance with Operation "Whip Up Controversy For Balderdash" Phase 3. But seriously speaking, I have nothing against RGS girls; despite having had dysfunctional relationships with a few of them:)
I don't know why Shu Qi is so popular either, but I guess some people like the Cheena-slut motif she represents. (segue to the late lamented Canto club in Marina South for living, breathing specimens).
Incidentally, who are all these weird blogs I see in the referral lists?
"Hentai games sentimental shooting" - hm - a Sailor Moon FPS? (it exists - feel the horror. they have FPS-es for *everything* these days) But gore codes for a Pokemon-meets-Doom-2-and-BFG mod; I can live with that:)
"pm goh 2002 national day rally on poverty in malay" - Ah, a keen student of sociology has descended upon our sinkhole of racism and prejudice. Being a Malaysian, however, I have *far* more justification for racial vilification, I assure you. Racial politics is *fun*, as long as it doesn't get in the way of friendships. (Two weeks ago, when fetching a couple of my colleagues for lunch, one of them, a Malay, said, "A Malay being driven by a Chinese - now *that's* a change:) Still, am I the only one who wonders why Malay maths passing rates are dropping, *despite* Mendaki having more charitable contributions *per capita* for Malay education (admittedly, taking into account merely government subsidies point of view; private contributions and guilds are what put Chinese organisations over the top).
"safe gallows vest" - the eternal bondage fetish strikes again.
"sun yanzi japanese flag" - hm.. the traitorous bitch.
"neverwinter sex nude hentai" - This is an interesting patch which I'd like to see - nothing like a naked female dual-kama wielding monk with glowing blue eyes (Lvl 20 feat- Perfection of Self) getting down and dirty with some tentacle rape. (Do raping tentacles have THAC0 bonuses? Oh wait, that's 2nd Ed D&D.)
"meaning of antiscian" - amazing, one of my daily words! *beams with pride* It means to be on opposite sides of the planet, if anyone's interested:)
"light fading inkjet dye reaction mechanism" - hmm.. better off trying epson.com or canon.com, methinks. Although I have to confess, since I entered working life, I've grown rather proficient in the intricacies of photocopy and laser printer maintenance - and if anyone thinks wrestling with a fucking hot laser toner while trying to dislodge some vital paperjammed document from the innards of an ancient HP printer is fun, I'm going to scrotally infuse them bigtime!
"japanese technogeek term" - ah, an amalgam of the interests that constitute our blog's bread and butter
"Eleison heart & mixture" - No comment
"zhao wei nude sex pictures" - now *she's* better looking than shu qi
Final quote. "I regret not going to a Catholic girl's school. That means I'll never have any sexual stories beginning with; "and then she unzipped her jumper""
Final observation: Another disturbing thing about working life; having to call people two or three times my age by their first name. Utterly unaccustomed to it (except for some experience of calling Australian uni lecturers by their first name). I have colleagues who have *children* my age. Yet another disturbing thing; being called by my surname instead of my given name. All my life, that's what people have called my father; and now it's being directed at me. It engenders a certain cliched Gabriel Garcia Marquez kind of "rite of passage" disjoint.
Post ID: 81222598
Word of the day: "nescient"
Another week passes, sans blogging. It seems everyone this week is caught by a surfeit of sianness; the inclination to render into blog abated by the unceasing cares and demands of wretched Life. Have just purchased from Kinokuniya two of my favourite classics: Alexandre Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo and Herman Melville's Moby Dick; and it will not require too much literary insight to ascertain the driving leitmotiv behind these two great works - the ramifications of vengeance. It is also easy to see, I think, why these two works are amongst my favourite. (It also explains why my writing tone is a bit overblown.)
However, was damn pissed when it transpired that the edition of Monte Cristo I purchased was not the Penguin classic, but rather, a Signet edition which was severely edited by some unknown translator. The final punishment of Danglars; and the total omission of Jacopo as a character were but the most egregious mutilations of this great book. After exploding in fury after a quick browse-through (already purchased, unfortunately), I resolved to hunt down a proper, actual, unabridged translation next week.
Ah well.
"All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event - in the living act, the undoubted deed - there, some unknown but still reasoning thing put forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike; strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside but by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is the wall; sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But tis' enough. He tasks me; he heaps me, I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me! For could the sun do that, then I'd do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play herein, jealousy presiding over all creations. For with little external to constrain us; the innermost necessities in our being; these still drive us on!"
Reading of this kind of compelling hate is really what I need to put some motivation back in my listless existence. Nevermind that the circumstances of such hatred are also painted very vividly in both books; in Moby Dick, by the complete destruction of ship and crew (save the narrator, who survives by clinging on to a life-preserver built out of a coffin); and in Count of Monte Cristo, we see the moral emptiness of vengeance giving way to redemption - even if, gratifyingly enough, that occurs only *after* vengeance has been taken.
Am heading down to Singapore today after work for a brief sabbatical. A weekend carousing with some old university friends; maybe checking out a few career and business opportunities if I can survive the inevitable hangovers. Eric assures me that drinks at Amara Hotel are at Melbourne prices(!). Looking forward to the brief respite from work, as well some funky debauchery although it means that today will have to work doubly hard to clear my outstanding stuff from my in-box. Another friend also recently got engaged; the condemned wishes a final night out with the guys:)
More literary righteous fury was engendered in me when I glimpsed a hard-cover copy of the new Dune prequel; Legends of Dune (by the hack-work of Kevin Anderson and Brian Herbert, the latter who has desecrated his father's legacy beyond measure). I involuntarily exclaimed, "What the FUCK?" as I saw it sitting on the sci-fi shelf in ill-deserved place of honour, and upon reading the blurb, felt a surge of nausea which only true Dune affocionados will share. The new storyline revolves around the period of the Butlerian Jihad, and while in Frank Herbert's original this period is alluded to briefly as a few centuries of semi-religious fervour against sentient technology, the new book retcons (comic jargon: "retroactive continuity") it into some Terminator-like saga of actual physical domination by cybernetic AIs. It also paints the founder of the Bene Gesserit as the original Harkonnen noble's lover, as well as the original Atreides as a servitor to one of these machine overlords. Gag. Retch.
Although most of the readers of this blog and my fellow bloggers are in no means Dune fanatics, (except insofar as the original computer game Dune 2 is concerned - that venerable father of the RTS), I feel compelled to record my complete disgust at this instance of a contemporary writer completely bastardising and corrupting a richly drawn fictional world with modern hackdom and swashbuckling sensibilities. It's not just the factual digressions from established continuity which piss me off (Frank Herbert himself had a poor grasp of consistency between his original six novels), but .. it's the corruption of Frank Herbert's inimicable literary style that really gets my goat. That and the awful, *awful* characterisations of primary characters and organisations in the original novel. Not to mention the literary inclusion of cloaked spaceships, fighters, cyborgs and artificial planetoids; these were concepts that existed in the original Dune series as sidebars and technological concepts with social ramifications - whereas in the prequels, they exist as excuses for space battles and Star-Wars-esque pastiches. Above all; Frank Herbert's Dune was about social and metaphysical complexity in a feudal futuristic society; the prequels are about technological gadgetry and gratuitous blood-letting.
Ah well x2. Rant over.
I shall arrive in Singapore at approximately 2am. A friend of mine is grudgingly putting me up at such late hours; in exchange for having to accompany him on his out-of-camp run at Bishan Park on Saturday morning. Am filled with trepidation at having to humiliate myself in another display of my physical infirmity. Am also pissed off at the kind of "friendship" which requires me to take a cab from Golden Mile Complex at 2am to MacRitchie Reservoir. Bitch bitch bitch:)
This week I've been playing the PC port of Grandia 2; decided to choose a somewhat more oblique RPG as filler entertainment until a raft of new games is released on the piratical market. Grandia 2 is the typical Jap console RPG-lite; with all the conventions - fairly simple plot with complex trappings; characters who are oddly one-dimensional despite their gratuitous emotional conflicts, large-scale magicks, weirdly-cutesy textured models running around the gameworld; bizarre names for every attack and move, etc etc. The battle system is a unique mix of real time and turn-based which I find works very well - go check out the Grandia 2 review here for a decent summary.
Spent a fair bit of this week surfing through RPG sites - and I mean table-top RPGs. I was struck by just how little - *time* - there is these days for me to pursue my interests. I mean, I was never really a fanatic RPG-er, only dabbling in the occasional foray, but I enjoyed reading through the mythologies and source books and actually kept up with all the mainstream products by White Wolf, TSR, and Palladium for a long time in secondary school. These days, however, of all my nerdesque interests; comics, RPGs, computer games, movies, anime, and books - only computer games remains the actively indulged hobby. I simply haven't the time or money to go hunting for Vampire: The Masquerade source books to peruse; and unlike Melbourne where the libraries actually *stocked* RPG sourcebooks, and the comic book stores didn't mind you sitting around reading for hours on end, in Malaysia such sources are far harder to access. For one, there's no local equivalent to Elizabeth Street's Minotaur proximity to my apartment in Melbourne; most of the better RPG/comics stores are located in fairly hard-to-reach areas as far as my places of residence and work are concerned. For another, they *shrink wrap* every one of their damn RPG books and comics.
The mainstream bookstores don't stock RPG stuff as well, unlike Borders (albeit admittedly limited) in Singapore.
I mean, there is just so *much* I could be immersing myself in if I could just.. muster up the energy. Or have the money. Or time. I have zero familiarity with 3rd Ed. D&D, other than glimpses in Neverwinter Nights; I never got to explore most of the less famous TSR worlds in detail (everyone knowns Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms and even Planescape; how many people know Oerth, Mystara, Greyhawk, Athas - even Ravenloft or Spelljammer?). Virtually anything after Wizards of the Coast's takeover of TSR (a move I feel ambivalent about) is alien to me. What about the White Wolf offerings? I had a fascination with Mage: The Ascension; and of course Vampires: The Masquerade was hellishly popular in the period of post-Anne Rice gothic trendiness - but I haven't followed up on developments there in over a year. I've also completely lost touch with Palladium's Rifts (the only sourcebooks I bothered to purchase:) since the Tolkeen Siege story arc, and despite what people say about the triteness of the world and the hellish numerical complexity of the game systme, I *like* post-apocalyptic settings with character.
Even Dragonlance, which was my neonate introduction into the joys of fantasy fiction; well, I'm not too embarrassed at having outgrown it - but I really should at least obtain some passing familiarity with Fifth Age events, particularly now that Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have been lured back into the writing fold. Have been horribly tempted to buy the Annotated Chronicles; perhaps I shall if some of my more dubious attempts to supplement my meager income bear fruit.
Anyway, I was listlessly surfing away through Planescape and Dark Sun webpages; and I remembered just how.. fascinated I used to be, and still can be, by these richly drawn game worlds, their myriad complexities and mythologies, and how I used to be able to just devote time to reading the books, devouring all I could, even if I almost never played them. As a pre-adolescent, I was constantly lost in wonder in these worlds of escape; and I relearned with startling clarity *exactly* what Neil Gaiman means when he writes in Books of Magic: "These worlds do not exist; thus they are all that matters. Do you understand?"
Depressing; but nevermind. Mayhaps I shall prevail on Gabriel to let me peruse through his gamebook collection this weekend, if he can squeeze me into his busy social schedule.
Computer games coming out include Mechwarrior: Mercenaries, Medieval: Total War, Freelancer, Halo for PC, and possibly Hitman 2. I still have yet to watch Signs in its entirety, although I did catch XXX last week. The latter was a terribly loud, boisterous "asshole-James-Bond-meets-extreme-sports" affair - yet oddly fun to watch if one shut off one's brain and enjoyed the stunts. Although I couldn't hardly help but burst out laughing as Vin Diesel chases a hydrofoil in his GTO Oldsmobile (note; the so-called "solar-powered submarine" *never* voluntarily travels underwater). And what is it about today's pop-modern sensibilities where villains have to dress in hip leather, listen to dance music, and generally villainously sneer and watch the carousing crowd below from some elevated position in a trendy disco or metal concert? In addition, Rammstein looks as grotesque in real life as their music (of which I enjoy; Du Hast is particularly stirring) would imply.
I also haven't upgraded my drivers, software and PC for an interminablly long period of time. My venerable old P3-1 Ghz is starting to show its age. *tender affection* Perhaps I shall make the giant leap to AMD, as well as a decent graphics card. - once again, pending a resolution of my financial straitening. On the technological front, however, it seems my district may *finally* be DSL capable. Issues have arisen because the apartments where I live in have the temerity to use a non-Telekom exchange (Maxis) - and these independent upstarts apparently aren't allowed access to the local DSLAM multiplexers. That may change, however, my father received a proposal from some IT company which apparently has the connections (both figuratively and literally) to bypass this commercial stand-off and hook us all up at affordable rates (DSL prices in Malaysia are fairly draconian, dollar-for-dollar-wise, particularly the start-up costs). The joys of being able to download porno avis at two or three-digit kbps speeds on Kazaa are once again within my grasp!
Parents nagged me interminably about the excessive numbers of books threatening to overload bookshelf. I've already divested of many old games and VCDs to friends in an effort to clear space, but books inherently occupy more cubic volume. Argh! What's wrong with using piles of hardcovers as a nightstand??? In a related topic, I really need to find a decent history book to read - am getting just a tad tired of fiction.
Nothing of major import in the world financial or current affairs news to merit much comment; although I do hope we see a second war on Iraq. It makes good popcorn viewing on CNN.
And.. that's the blog for today. Banal, mundane, lengthy, and preternaturally self-absorbed; ie. par for the course. Shall report on my trip down south in a few days. Sub umbra alarum tuarum.
Another week passes, sans blogging. It seems everyone this week is caught by a surfeit of sianness; the inclination to render into blog abated by the unceasing cares and demands of wretched Life. Have just purchased from Kinokuniya two of my favourite classics: Alexandre Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo and Herman Melville's Moby Dick; and it will not require too much literary insight to ascertain the driving leitmotiv behind these two great works - the ramifications of vengeance. It is also easy to see, I think, why these two works are amongst my favourite. (It also explains why my writing tone is a bit overblown.)
However, was damn pissed when it transpired that the edition of Monte Cristo I purchased was not the Penguin classic, but rather, a Signet edition which was severely edited by some unknown translator. The final punishment of Danglars; and the total omission of Jacopo as a character were but the most egregious mutilations of this great book. After exploding in fury after a quick browse-through (already purchased, unfortunately), I resolved to hunt down a proper, actual, unabridged translation next week.
Ah well.
"All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event - in the living act, the undoubted deed - there, some unknown but still reasoning thing put forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike; strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside but by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is the wall; sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But tis' enough. He tasks me; he heaps me, I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me! For could the sun do that, then I'd do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play herein, jealousy presiding over all creations. For with little external to constrain us; the innermost necessities in our being; these still drive us on!"
Reading of this kind of compelling hate is really what I need to put some motivation back in my listless existence. Nevermind that the circumstances of such hatred are also painted very vividly in both books; in Moby Dick, by the complete destruction of ship and crew (save the narrator, who survives by clinging on to a life-preserver built out of a coffin); and in Count of Monte Cristo, we see the moral emptiness of vengeance giving way to redemption - even if, gratifyingly enough, that occurs only *after* vengeance has been taken.
Am heading down to Singapore today after work for a brief sabbatical. A weekend carousing with some old university friends; maybe checking out a few career and business opportunities if I can survive the inevitable hangovers. Eric assures me that drinks at Amara Hotel are at Melbourne prices(!). Looking forward to the brief respite from work, as well some funky debauchery although it means that today will have to work doubly hard to clear my outstanding stuff from my in-box. Another friend also recently got engaged; the condemned wishes a final night out with the guys:)
More literary righteous fury was engendered in me when I glimpsed a hard-cover copy of the new Dune prequel; Legends of Dune (by the hack-work of Kevin Anderson and Brian Herbert, the latter who has desecrated his father's legacy beyond measure). I involuntarily exclaimed, "What the FUCK?" as I saw it sitting on the sci-fi shelf in ill-deserved place of honour, and upon reading the blurb, felt a surge of nausea which only true Dune affocionados will share. The new storyline revolves around the period of the Butlerian Jihad, and while in Frank Herbert's original this period is alluded to briefly as a few centuries of semi-religious fervour against sentient technology, the new book retcons (comic jargon: "retroactive continuity") it into some Terminator-like saga of actual physical domination by cybernetic AIs. It also paints the founder of the Bene Gesserit as the original Harkonnen noble's lover, as well as the original Atreides as a servitor to one of these machine overlords. Gag. Retch.
Although most of the readers of this blog and my fellow bloggers are in no means Dune fanatics, (except insofar as the original computer game Dune 2 is concerned - that venerable father of the RTS), I feel compelled to record my complete disgust at this instance of a contemporary writer completely bastardising and corrupting a richly drawn fictional world with modern hackdom and swashbuckling sensibilities. It's not just the factual digressions from established continuity which piss me off (Frank Herbert himself had a poor grasp of consistency between his original six novels), but .. it's the corruption of Frank Herbert's inimicable literary style that really gets my goat. That and the awful, *awful* characterisations of primary characters and organisations in the original novel. Not to mention the literary inclusion of cloaked spaceships, fighters, cyborgs and artificial planetoids; these were concepts that existed in the original Dune series as sidebars and technological concepts with social ramifications - whereas in the prequels, they exist as excuses for space battles and Star-Wars-esque pastiches. Above all; Frank Herbert's Dune was about social and metaphysical complexity in a feudal futuristic society; the prequels are about technological gadgetry and gratuitous blood-letting.
Ah well x2. Rant over.
I shall arrive in Singapore at approximately 2am. A friend of mine is grudgingly putting me up at such late hours; in exchange for having to accompany him on his out-of-camp run at Bishan Park on Saturday morning. Am filled with trepidation at having to humiliate myself in another display of my physical infirmity. Am also pissed off at the kind of "friendship" which requires me to take a cab from Golden Mile Complex at 2am to MacRitchie Reservoir. Bitch bitch bitch:)
This week I've been playing the PC port of Grandia 2; decided to choose a somewhat more oblique RPG as filler entertainment until a raft of new games is released on the piratical market. Grandia 2 is the typical Jap console RPG-lite; with all the conventions - fairly simple plot with complex trappings; characters who are oddly one-dimensional despite their gratuitous emotional conflicts, large-scale magicks, weirdly-cutesy textured models running around the gameworld; bizarre names for every attack and move, etc etc. The battle system is a unique mix of real time and turn-based which I find works very well - go check out the Grandia 2 review here for a decent summary.
Spent a fair bit of this week surfing through RPG sites - and I mean table-top RPGs. I was struck by just how little - *time* - there is these days for me to pursue my interests. I mean, I was never really a fanatic RPG-er, only dabbling in the occasional foray, but I enjoyed reading through the mythologies and source books and actually kept up with all the mainstream products by White Wolf, TSR, and Palladium for a long time in secondary school. These days, however, of all my nerdesque interests; comics, RPGs, computer games, movies, anime, and books - only computer games remains the actively indulged hobby. I simply haven't the time or money to go hunting for Vampire: The Masquerade source books to peruse; and unlike Melbourne where the libraries actually *stocked* RPG sourcebooks, and the comic book stores didn't mind you sitting around reading for hours on end, in Malaysia such sources are far harder to access. For one, there's no local equivalent to Elizabeth Street's Minotaur proximity to my apartment in Melbourne; most of the better RPG/comics stores are located in fairly hard-to-reach areas as far as my places of residence and work are concerned. For another, they *shrink wrap* every one of their damn RPG books and comics.
The mainstream bookstores don't stock RPG stuff as well, unlike Borders (albeit admittedly limited) in Singapore.
I mean, there is just so *much* I could be immersing myself in if I could just.. muster up the energy. Or have the money. Or time. I have zero familiarity with 3rd Ed. D&D, other than glimpses in Neverwinter Nights; I never got to explore most of the less famous TSR worlds in detail (everyone knowns Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms and even Planescape; how many people know Oerth, Mystara, Greyhawk, Athas - even Ravenloft or Spelljammer?). Virtually anything after Wizards of the Coast's takeover of TSR (a move I feel ambivalent about) is alien to me. What about the White Wolf offerings? I had a fascination with Mage: The Ascension; and of course Vampires: The Masquerade was hellishly popular in the period of post-Anne Rice gothic trendiness - but I haven't followed up on developments there in over a year. I've also completely lost touch with Palladium's Rifts (the only sourcebooks I bothered to purchase:) since the Tolkeen Siege story arc, and despite what people say about the triteness of the world and the hellish numerical complexity of the game systme, I *like* post-apocalyptic settings with character.
Even Dragonlance, which was my neonate introduction into the joys of fantasy fiction; well, I'm not too embarrassed at having outgrown it - but I really should at least obtain some passing familiarity with Fifth Age events, particularly now that Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have been lured back into the writing fold. Have been horribly tempted to buy the Annotated Chronicles; perhaps I shall if some of my more dubious attempts to supplement my meager income bear fruit.
Anyway, I was listlessly surfing away through Planescape and Dark Sun webpages; and I remembered just how.. fascinated I used to be, and still can be, by these richly drawn game worlds, their myriad complexities and mythologies, and how I used to be able to just devote time to reading the books, devouring all I could, even if I almost never played them. As a pre-adolescent, I was constantly lost in wonder in these worlds of escape; and I relearned with startling clarity *exactly* what Neil Gaiman means when he writes in Books of Magic: "These worlds do not exist; thus they are all that matters. Do you understand?"
Depressing; but nevermind. Mayhaps I shall prevail on Gabriel to let me peruse through his gamebook collection this weekend, if he can squeeze me into his busy social schedule.
Computer games coming out include Mechwarrior: Mercenaries, Medieval: Total War, Freelancer, Halo for PC, and possibly Hitman 2. I still have yet to watch Signs in its entirety, although I did catch XXX last week. The latter was a terribly loud, boisterous "asshole-James-Bond-meets-extreme-sports" affair - yet oddly fun to watch if one shut off one's brain and enjoyed the stunts. Although I couldn't hardly help but burst out laughing as Vin Diesel chases a hydrofoil in his GTO Oldsmobile (note; the so-called "solar-powered submarine" *never* voluntarily travels underwater). And what is it about today's pop-modern sensibilities where villains have to dress in hip leather, listen to dance music, and generally villainously sneer and watch the carousing crowd below from some elevated position in a trendy disco or metal concert? In addition, Rammstein looks as grotesque in real life as their music (of which I enjoy; Du Hast is particularly stirring) would imply.
I also haven't upgraded my drivers, software and PC for an interminablly long period of time. My venerable old P3-1 Ghz is starting to show its age. *tender affection* Perhaps I shall make the giant leap to AMD, as well as a decent graphics card. - once again, pending a resolution of my financial straitening. On the technological front, however, it seems my district may *finally* be DSL capable. Issues have arisen because the apartments where I live in have the temerity to use a non-Telekom exchange (Maxis) - and these independent upstarts apparently aren't allowed access to the local DSLAM multiplexers. That may change, however, my father received a proposal from some IT company which apparently has the connections (both figuratively and literally) to bypass this commercial stand-off and hook us all up at affordable rates (DSL prices in Malaysia are fairly draconian, dollar-for-dollar-wise, particularly the start-up costs). The joys of being able to download porno avis at two or three-digit kbps speeds on Kazaa are once again within my grasp!
Parents nagged me interminably about the excessive numbers of books threatening to overload bookshelf. I've already divested of many old games and VCDs to friends in an effort to clear space, but books inherently occupy more cubic volume. Argh! What's wrong with using piles of hardcovers as a nightstand??? In a related topic, I really need to find a decent history book to read - am getting just a tad tired of fiction.
Nothing of major import in the world financial or current affairs news to merit much comment; although I do hope we see a second war on Iraq. It makes good popcorn viewing on CNN.
And.. that's the blog for today. Banal, mundane, lengthy, and preternaturally self-absorbed; ie. par for the course. Shall report on my trip down south in a few days. Sub umbra alarum tuarum.
Post ID: 81216869
Wednesday, September 04, 2002
Sorry, Andrew, I'm afraid I'm not a smart person. (Tries to dredge up remnants of chemistry knowledge lodged deep in a crevice in brain).
Who recorded the RJC school anthem? The trumpets are offkey right at the start, and are shakey at best throughout the whole song. Can't compare to authentic Rafflesians *coughcough*belting out the song at full volume. Urrrgh, I just reached the end, and the trumpet falls short there, too. What a nice rendition of Auspicium Melioris Aevi.
It seems like I'm less and less able to post long journal entries. I think my brain is dying as the army takes over my life. Maybe the workouts in the Gym really DO kill brain cells. Maybe I'm just spending too much time playing games and not thinking. Let's see, recently I completed Farland Symphony, and that's about it. It was a nice game, but the Omake patch requires one to re-play the ENTIRE game just for 3 extra stages that aren't originally in the game. That is a _bad_ way to implement Omake. Maybe I'll replay Farland Symphony sometime in the future, but right now I just don't think I can re-play a game immediately after I complete it. Even if it IS an excellent traditional isometric strategy / simulation game.
I finally figured out how to use the included IMEs for Chinese and Japanese in Windows XP! Very nice IMEs they are too, much better than cruddy olde NJStar Communicator that I was using previously to type out my Japanese Notes. Kudos to Microsoft for something very nicely implemented. However, my own typing speed in Chinese and Japanese leaves much to be desired, but anything is better than trying to read my own handwriting :)
Recently, much to Chinx's amusement, I translated Sakura Taisen's Opening Theme "Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan" into Chinese, to take a break from the studying of my Japanese notes. Compared to this translation, I like to think mine is just a *little* bit better :) I think I'll start a little website on which I will post up my translations. It's probably time something is done about horrible translations that seem like they were simply passed through some instant Japanese to English text translation service. I mean, how can someone translate this:
"akatsuki ni gekijou wo terashi dasu otome" into this? "The maiden checks in at the theater at dawn"?
When Gekijou actually means "emotional" and "terashidasu" means "to shine"? I'll probably post up my translation soon.
Who recorded the RJC school anthem? The trumpets are offkey right at the start, and are shakey at best throughout the whole song. Can't compare to authentic Rafflesians *coughcough*belting out the song at full volume. Urrrgh, I just reached the end, and the trumpet falls short there, too. What a nice rendition of Auspicium Melioris Aevi.
It seems like I'm less and less able to post long journal entries. I think my brain is dying as the army takes over my life. Maybe the workouts in the Gym really DO kill brain cells. Maybe I'm just spending too much time playing games and not thinking. Let's see, recently I completed Farland Symphony, and that's about it. It was a nice game, but the Omake patch requires one to re-play the ENTIRE game just for 3 extra stages that aren't originally in the game. That is a _bad_ way to implement Omake. Maybe I'll replay Farland Symphony sometime in the future, but right now I just don't think I can re-play a game immediately after I complete it. Even if it IS an excellent traditional isometric strategy / simulation game.
I finally figured out how to use the included IMEs for Chinese and Japanese in Windows XP! Very nice IMEs they are too, much better than cruddy olde NJStar Communicator that I was using previously to type out my Japanese Notes. Kudos to Microsoft for something very nicely implemented. However, my own typing speed in Chinese and Japanese leaves much to be desired, but anything is better than trying to read my own handwriting :)
Recently, much to Chinx's amusement, I translated Sakura Taisen's Opening Theme "Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan" into Chinese, to take a break from the studying of my Japanese notes. Compared to this translation, I like to think mine is just a *little* bit better :) I think I'll start a little website on which I will post up my translations. It's probably time something is done about horrible translations that seem like they were simply passed through some instant Japanese to English text translation service. I mean, how can someone translate this:
"akatsuki ni gekijou wo terashi dasu otome" into this? "The maiden checks in at the theater at dawn"?
When Gekijou actually means "emotional" and "terashidasu" means "to shine"? I'll probably post up my translation soon.
Post ID: 81131815
Tuesday, September 03, 2002
Monday, September 02, 2002
Word of the day: "callipygian"
Again, I haven't got the time - or energy - to muster up a proper blog entry; although one is on the way - "look on my works, ye mighty and Despair!". But in the meantime, here's the cheapshit approach with some more ranty quotes.
[On lesbian conversion]: "You know, I didn't just heed what I was taught, men and women should be together, it's the natural way, that kind of thing. I'm not with you because of what family, society, life tried to instill in me from day one. The way the world is, how seldom it is that you meet that one person who just *gets* you--it's so rare. My parents didn't really have it. There were no examples set for me in the world of male-female relationships. And to cut oneself off from finding that person, to immediately halve your options by eliminating the possibility of finding that one person within your own gender, that just seemed stupid to me. So I didn't. But then you came along. You, the one least likely. I mean, you were a guy....And while I was falling for you I put a ceiling on that, because you *were* a guy. Until I remembered why I opened the door to women in the first place: to not limit the likelihood of finding that one person who'd complement me so completely. So here we are. I was thorough when I looked for you. And I feel justified lying in your arms, 'cause I got here on my own terms, and I have no question there was some place I didn't look. And for me that makes all the difference.
"It's not who you love, it's how."
[On women]: "There's one bitch in this world - one bitch; with many faces."
[This makes a LOT of sense] "Archie and Jughead were lovers. Archie was the bitch and Jughead was the butch - that's why Jughead wears that crown-looking hat all the time: he the king, of queen Archie's world. Archie never *did* settle on Betty or Veronica."
"He never chose one because he was trying to get both of them into a three-way! Archie is *not* fucking Mr Weatherbee!
Deny, deny, deny - Read between the lines.
He's just offering to help Archie with his homework!"
(Later) "Mr. Weatherbee wasn't really trying to fuck Archie, was he?
Hell no. Weatherbee was Reggie's bitch."
[Related conversation on upbringing affecting lifestyle choices]: "[Upbringing affects you] somewhere along the line. It's a gradual transition to make - from doing what the majority does to taking a leap of faith and doing what feels more natural. Everything helps - from the way you were handled as a kid, to the way the boys acted in primary school, to the shoes you wore at your first prom.
Shoes?
Well, they were really tight."
[Insight onto trendy lesbianism - and if you think this isn't true, check out some of those hos in our girls' schools] "Lesbian chic. It's oh-so acceptable to be a gay girl nowadays. People think it's cute, because they've got this fool picture in their heads about lipstick lesbians."
"Men need to believe that they're Marco fucking Polo when it comes to sex - like they're the only ones who've ever explored new territory. It's a sick game. The world would be a better place if people would just accept that there's nothing new under the sun, and everything you can do with a person has probably been done long before you got there."
Again, I haven't got the time - or energy - to muster up a proper blog entry; although one is on the way - "look on my works, ye mighty and Despair!". But in the meantime, here's the cheapshit approach with some more ranty quotes.
[On lesbian conversion]: "You know, I didn't just heed what I was taught, men and women should be together, it's the natural way, that kind of thing. I'm not with you because of what family, society, life tried to instill in me from day one. The way the world is, how seldom it is that you meet that one person who just *gets* you--it's so rare. My parents didn't really have it. There were no examples set for me in the world of male-female relationships. And to cut oneself off from finding that person, to immediately halve your options by eliminating the possibility of finding that one person within your own gender, that just seemed stupid to me. So I didn't. But then you came along. You, the one least likely. I mean, you were a guy....And while I was falling for you I put a ceiling on that, because you *were* a guy. Until I remembered why I opened the door to women in the first place: to not limit the likelihood of finding that one person who'd complement me so completely. So here we are. I was thorough when I looked for you. And I feel justified lying in your arms, 'cause I got here on my own terms, and I have no question there was some place I didn't look. And for me that makes all the difference.
"It's not who you love, it's how."
[On women]: "There's one bitch in this world - one bitch; with many faces."
[This makes a LOT of sense] "Archie and Jughead were lovers. Archie was the bitch and Jughead was the butch - that's why Jughead wears that crown-looking hat all the time: he the king, of queen Archie's world. Archie never *did* settle on Betty or Veronica."
"He never chose one because he was trying to get both of them into a three-way! Archie is *not* fucking Mr Weatherbee!
Deny, deny, deny - Read between the lines.
He's just offering to help Archie with his homework!"
(Later) "Mr. Weatherbee wasn't really trying to fuck Archie, was he?
Hell no. Weatherbee was Reggie's bitch."
[Related conversation on upbringing affecting lifestyle choices]: "[Upbringing affects you] somewhere along the line. It's a gradual transition to make - from doing what the majority does to taking a leap of faith and doing what feels more natural. Everything helps - from the way you were handled as a kid, to the way the boys acted in primary school, to the shoes you wore at your first prom.
Shoes?
Well, they were really tight."
[Insight onto trendy lesbianism - and if you think this isn't true, check out some of those hos in our girls' schools] "Lesbian chic. It's oh-so acceptable to be a gay girl nowadays. People think it's cute, because they've got this fool picture in their heads about lipstick lesbians."
"Men need to believe that they're Marco fucking Polo when it comes to sex - like they're the only ones who've ever explored new territory. It's a sick game. The world would be a better place if people would just accept that there's nothing new under the sun, and everything you can do with a person has probably been done long before you got there."
Post ID: 81011010
Sunday, September 01, 2002
An article Geraldine printed out for me:
PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS:
How living in New York has illuminated for us the difference between the Singaporean Dream and the Singaporean Plan
By Colin Goh & Joyceln Woo
NB: The male author's the one behind Talkingcock.com and The Concrete Jungle, the New Paper strip.
If I were to post the article here, everyone'd collapse, so just go and read it :)
PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS:
How living in New York has illuminated for us the difference between the Singaporean Dream and the Singaporean Plan
By Colin Goh & Joyceln Woo
NB: The male author's the one behind Talkingcock.com and The Concrete Jungle, the New Paper strip.
If I were to post the article here, everyone'd collapse, so just go and read it :)
Post ID: 80984727
I went for a S05A class Barbeque yesterday night. Attendance was not bad - about 20 of us turned up. Of course, this is probably mostly due to the fact that none of the girls, afaik, went overseas and neither did any of the guys. Hah!
Many of the girls who kept short hair while in RJ have now grown it long, presumably because Mr Poon isn't around to force them to tie it up with rubber bands anymore. And they all had lackadaisical looks on their faces. And Xiaoshi's gotten a gigantic pair of earrings, whose diameter is at least twice those of Elf Gone Wrong's. Naturally, I asked if her ears would come off if I pulled them.
One way to tell the health (both mental and physical) of a male is by looking at his hair. And most of our hair is looking much better after the turmoil of BMT, and not only because of the longer lengths. Chinx, in particular, has undergone a massive transformation. His locks now, though not as long as they were in school, have regained much of their former vitality, their former sheen, body and life. Must be TSS stayout life. Though his English doesn't seem to have recovered - everytime I used a word of Secondary School and higher difficulty, he recoiled and repeated the word in an awed voice.
Gender interaction and differentiation is so fun. At one point, Xiaoshi was deboning and cutting meat, while Shuyu poured crushed peppercorns on the meat and Tong added BBQ sauce. Then the others would tuck in. A table away, Julian was eating bread with Barbeque sauce, Luther was consuming his with sour cream and my condiment of choice was 7-up. Fascinating.
Zhixiang revealed that Shawn Ban was his OCS buddy, and thought him funny. And Changge said that Melvin [Tay Poh Huat] "is the funniest shit alive".
And of course I heard tales of the one and only Yaodong. Apparently during Range he was pointing his rifle anywhere, causing people to take cover. And the CO of School 1 had to go down to his company (Foxtrot apparently) to explain to the rest of his company why he was allowed to pass BMT, even though, among other things, he attended only 1 day of the 10 day field camp.
Quotes:
"[On Yingying] Na4 zhang1 lian3. Wo3 kan4 le4, wo3 yao4 da3 [The face I feel like punching when I see it]"
Why do people like egg in their mooncakes? The price goes up and the taste quotient goes down. Eee.
I realised today, after going to Ah Yat's, just how expensive Abalone is. $20 buys one maybe 3 times the size of a mussel.
Though I appreciate Ger's birthday present, I do think it's in very bad taste. A pink bear. Ugh. Supposedly to be a companion for Blue Bear. I think he's hiding behind his paws now.
Many of the girls who kept short hair while in RJ have now grown it long, presumably because Mr Poon isn't around to force them to tie it up with rubber bands anymore. And they all had lackadaisical looks on their faces. And Xiaoshi's gotten a gigantic pair of earrings, whose diameter is at least twice those of Elf Gone Wrong's. Naturally, I asked if her ears would come off if I pulled them.
One way to tell the health (both mental and physical) of a male is by looking at his hair. And most of our hair is looking much better after the turmoil of BMT, and not only because of the longer lengths. Chinx, in particular, has undergone a massive transformation. His locks now, though not as long as they were in school, have regained much of their former vitality, their former sheen, body and life. Must be TSS stayout life. Though his English doesn't seem to have recovered - everytime I used a word of Secondary School and higher difficulty, he recoiled and repeated the word in an awed voice.
Gender interaction and differentiation is so fun. At one point, Xiaoshi was deboning and cutting meat, while Shuyu poured crushed peppercorns on the meat and Tong added BBQ sauce. Then the others would tuck in. A table away, Julian was eating bread with Barbeque sauce, Luther was consuming his with sour cream and my condiment of choice was 7-up. Fascinating.
Zhixiang revealed that Shawn Ban was his OCS buddy, and thought him funny. And Changge said that Melvin [Tay Poh Huat] "is the funniest shit alive".
And of course I heard tales of the one and only Yaodong. Apparently during Range he was pointing his rifle anywhere, causing people to take cover. And the CO of School 1 had to go down to his company (Foxtrot apparently) to explain to the rest of his company why he was allowed to pass BMT, even though, among other things, he attended only 1 day of the 10 day field camp.
Quotes:
"[On Yingying] Na4 zhang1 lian3. Wo3 kan4 le4, wo3 yao4 da3 [The face I feel like punching when I see it]"
Why do people like egg in their mooncakes? The price goes up and the taste quotient goes down. Eee.
I realised today, after going to Ah Yat's, just how expensive Abalone is. $20 buys one maybe 3 times the size of a mussel.
Though I appreciate Ger's birthday present, I do think it's in very bad taste. A pink bear. Ugh. Supposedly to be a companion for Blue Bear. I think he's hiding behind his paws now.
Post ID: 80984638
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