I phoned up UCAS just before leaving singapore to cancel all my UK places.
"What, you want to withdraw completely?"
"Yeah"
"Why?"
"I've decided to study in australia"
"Fair enough. Your application number..."
L'origine de Bert
Tuesday, July 23, 2002
I'm VERY ANGRY WITH www.alcatel.com
IT CRASHED INTERNET EXPLORER AND I LOST MY BLOG ENTRY!!!!
Anyway i'm retyping what i remember.
OPTUS prepaid sucks. They have a SIM lock- which means that if you buy a phone on prepaid, then you cannot use any other SIM card with the phone for one year.
So i'm getting vodaphone prepaid- 1 cent a second, 22c for global sms
I can't get the secondhand nokia 8250- the owner moved out of her house already, presumably completed moving out sale. And i made a mistake- the nokia 3310 was $220 not $100. Hrmmph. And that's the cheapest nokia.
There are a few other ugly phones in the price range of $130-$200.
Am thinking of getting Ugly phone~ Panasonic Versio: what do you think?
http://www.panasonic.com/PCSC/PTSC/versio.htm
(as huijun helped me put it, ugly=cheap)
Will someone post me the Life! article on the lee tzu pheng poetry award so I can laugh my head off? Address is:
Ormond college
Parkville 3052, Victoria
Australia
Congrats shu jian!!
Chaowan's got a place in NUS med! Applying for hostel there. He's not coming to melbourne.
*I don't think gabriel's posts are too long.
What did screwed up girl need?
Peggy plus pris plus crys all were GEP students- which meant their fees were covered by MOE. Like you and me. Same thing in RI- overwhelming majority of the students don't pay the regular fees- GEP, or covered by EDUSAVE or others.
Singapore hardly has any good male singers. That might explain lack of male singers for NDP songs.
IT CRASHED INTERNET EXPLORER AND I LOST MY BLOG ENTRY!!!!
Anyway i'm retyping what i remember.
OPTUS prepaid sucks. They have a SIM lock- which means that if you buy a phone on prepaid, then you cannot use any other SIM card with the phone for one year.
So i'm getting vodaphone prepaid- 1 cent a second, 22c for global sms
I can't get the secondhand nokia 8250- the owner moved out of her house already, presumably completed moving out sale. And i made a mistake- the nokia 3310 was $220 not $100. Hrmmph. And that's the cheapest nokia.
There are a few other ugly phones in the price range of $130-$200.
Am thinking of getting Ugly phone~ Panasonic Versio: what do you think?
http://www.panasonic.com/PCSC/PTSC/versio.htm
(as huijun helped me put it, ugly=cheap)
Will someone post me the Life! article on the lee tzu pheng poetry award so I can laugh my head off? Address is:
Ormond college
Parkville 3052, Victoria
Australia
Congrats shu jian!!
Chaowan's got a place in NUS med! Applying for hostel there. He's not coming to melbourne.
*I don't think gabriel's posts are too long.
What did screwed up girl need?
Peggy plus pris plus crys all were GEP students- which meant their fees were covered by MOE. Like you and me. Same thing in RI- overwhelming majority of the students don't pay the regular fees- GEP, or covered by EDUSAVE or others.
Singapore hardly has any good male singers. That might explain lack of male singers for NDP songs.
Post ID: 79302715
E-learning centre post:
Restored Post
Since people have been complaining that I write too much, I will attempt to split my posts into shorter parts. So I will write till I'm chased out of my comfy chair at camp.
The next time my sister tries to use my quick credit facilities, she will be dismayed, for I have finally run out of money! The money in the hong bao in my drawer at least. Actually I still am owed $50 by my sister and tons more by others, and have $450 with my mother, but I think the time to break the seals on my bank vault is nigh!
For Tuesday's company run, everyone wanted to run, soI got to do cover. A win-win situation!
While covering the run, I saw someone who looked like Zhuang Yisa, whom I've not seen since 1998. In J1, Azim had told me that he had gone to VJC, and I've not seen him yet. I fondly remember the days of sparring with umbrellas in LT3, even though I was at a disadvantage because my umbrellas were always smaller than his. And speaking of Azim, has he entered into some marriage with a Bruneian princess? Maybe I will see him in the Straits Times one day.
How ruthless shall I be in imposing my linguistic preferences on others? Should I even be making minor concessions - like dumbing down my English level, or even, gasp, uttering 1 or 2 Mandlish sentences now and then? Or shall I just thrust forward relentlessly till all opposition is smashed, and I become the equivalent of the French cultural exception, or something near to it? And then my name will be established for all prosperity, and I will go onto the banana/potato/kentang/potato eaters roll of dishonour. [NB: If bananas are yellow on the outside and white on the inside, what is yellow both inside and out? The only thing that comes to mind is piss.]
I thought of writing 1 GP essay a week and posting it here, but the thought is just too tiresome to entertain. Unless anyone would like to send me some topics?
During lunch today I saw the 17th July issue of the Straits Times on the table, and I flipped through the Home section. Near the back was an article entitled, "RGS to raise school fees", and there was a 2 year old picture of Peggy Pao Peiyu, Priscilla Ng, Crystal Yeo Jingjing and friends hugging each other after getting their O level results. How unprofessional. Or maybe they wanted to show how happy these girls were, missing the hike by a few years, or not being affected, almost definitely being in the 80% of RGS students on a scholarship of one kind or another. Actually, the current rate is rather low - $100/month. RI has been charging $200/month at least since 1996, and in 97 SJI was asking $150/month (though I'm told this included photocopying fees!). This all excludes supplementary fees of course. But of course, Raffles Guys can raise money very easily by selling 1 square cm of their prime Anderson Road land everytime they want to raise money, so.
I got to send 2 patients to NUH today, one to check for pneumothorax and another to examine haematoma under a thumb. Exiting NUH, me, the Vehicle Commander and the Driver were accosted by 2 NUS girls, asking us to donate money for their flag day. Bah. Having some time, the other 2 decided to park the ambulance in a secluded parking lot in Alexandria Hospital and smoke - rather much trouble just for some nicotine I think. They then drove around Singapore for ~45mins, with me slumbering at the back, and we arrived back at camp just in time for lunch. How convenient.
I saw Junkai in the medical centre - he'd reported sick for some foot injury. He's training to be an Armour Engineer Specialist. Looks like everyone is going to outrank me! Excepting the half who are downgraded, of course.
Boon Wei was playing with a yellow stress ball. All pretty normal, till I saw that the ball had "Protection is your second best defence" on the side - urging servicemen to abstain from casual sex. So I theorise that whenever you feel like going to Geyland or Desker road, you just squeeze the ball and disspate the built up energies!
People like to refer to psychiatric cases as "P" cases. This might be due to laziness, but I suspect that it is actually an unconscious effort to distance themselves from the ugly reality - that people do go crazy while in indenture. No one cares, or chooses not to. It is never in the press, it is chucked aside and the only way you might ever see the victims is by visiting the SAF ward in Alexandria. And the ever useful US Army Policy on Gays is applied - "Don't ask, don't tell".
Last week we paid $2 each for a haircut. Even though not all of us - indeed very few of us, are going to use the services of the in-camp barber. Alvin tried, and his haircut was met with amusement. But then he's disrupting early September, so.
46SAR is sending people to cover (medically) people packing NDP funpacks. WTH?
For some reason, the radio in the documentation room was tuned to Power 98. Ideology aside, they did have an amusing ad - to promote this thing where they will get a NSF to co-host a Power 98 show. It went something like, "Go from this - 'Dari Kiri! Cepat Jalan!' - to this - '[some clip of a Power 98 show]'".
They like to call the Duty Medic the DM, and everytime I hear that acronym, I start thinking of Elves, Gnomes, Goblins, Dragons, Orcs and the like.
Quote:
"[On my wang4 wang4 milk tea and Oreos in the Pantry fridge] You're like on holiday"
I think they've found a way to block ICQ2go. Bah. Then again, the guy beside me is on ICQ, he says he had to try for an hour.
And I got this message lotsa times:
"Error 903
A message was not sent because you are over the rate limit."
So I think it must be that everyone else in this place is using ICQ too!
In other news, this blog's second top search keyword is "zaogeng". Whee.
The admin of the E-learning centre is humming along to "We will get there", and not very well too. ARGH. At least it's not the mandarin version playing on the radio. Which reminds me - since we have 4 official languages, where's the Malay and Tamil versions of all the yearly NDP songs? Racist!
On a related note, all the yearly national songs sound the same. The tune of this year's was in my head when it suddenly faded smoothly into "Moments of Magic", the so-called Millennium song. Another point: All the NDP songs so far, since 1998, have been sung by females, with not one male singer.
On an even less related note, I'm glad RJC didn't force us to learn and sing the yearly songs, as RI did. So I am blissfully unaware of the tunes and lyrics of "Shine On Me" (2000) and "Where I Belong" (2001).
Andrew Gan's reminded me that it's Racism Week this week! How could I have missed this special occasion, marked by 2Lers?
It might be just me, but it does seem that Screwed Up Girl only calls or SMSes when she needs something from me. Gah.
Restored Post
Since people have been complaining that I write too much, I will attempt to split my posts into shorter parts. So I will write till I'm chased out of my comfy chair at camp.
The next time my sister tries to use my quick credit facilities, she will be dismayed, for I have finally run out of money! The money in the hong bao in my drawer at least. Actually I still am owed $50 by my sister and tons more by others, and have $450 with my mother, but I think the time to break the seals on my bank vault is nigh!
For Tuesday's company run, everyone wanted to run, soI got to do cover. A win-win situation!
While covering the run, I saw someone who looked like Zhuang Yisa, whom I've not seen since 1998. In J1, Azim had told me that he had gone to VJC, and I've not seen him yet. I fondly remember the days of sparring with umbrellas in LT3, even though I was at a disadvantage because my umbrellas were always smaller than his. And speaking of Azim, has he entered into some marriage with a Bruneian princess? Maybe I will see him in the Straits Times one day.
How ruthless shall I be in imposing my linguistic preferences on others? Should I even be making minor concessions - like dumbing down my English level, or even, gasp, uttering 1 or 2 Mandlish sentences now and then? Or shall I just thrust forward relentlessly till all opposition is smashed, and I become the equivalent of the French cultural exception, or something near to it? And then my name will be established for all prosperity, and I will go onto the banana/potato/kentang/potato eaters roll of dishonour. [NB: If bananas are yellow on the outside and white on the inside, what is yellow both inside and out? The only thing that comes to mind is piss.]
I thought of writing 1 GP essay a week and posting it here, but the thought is just too tiresome to entertain. Unless anyone would like to send me some topics?
During lunch today I saw the 17th July issue of the Straits Times on the table, and I flipped through the Home section. Near the back was an article entitled, "RGS to raise school fees", and there was a 2 year old picture of Peggy Pao Peiyu, Priscilla Ng, Crystal Yeo Jingjing and friends hugging each other after getting their O level results. How unprofessional. Or maybe they wanted to show how happy these girls were, missing the hike by a few years, or not being affected, almost definitely being in the 80% of RGS students on a scholarship of one kind or another. Actually, the current rate is rather low - $100/month. RI has been charging $200/month at least since 1996, and in 97 SJI was asking $150/month (though I'm told this included photocopying fees!). This all excludes supplementary fees of course. But of course, Raffles Guys can raise money very easily by selling 1 square cm of their prime Anderson Road land everytime they want to raise money, so.
I got to send 2 patients to NUH today, one to check for pneumothorax and another to examine haematoma under a thumb. Exiting NUH, me, the Vehicle Commander and the Driver were accosted by 2 NUS girls, asking us to donate money for their flag day. Bah. Having some time, the other 2 decided to park the ambulance in a secluded parking lot in Alexandria Hospital and smoke - rather much trouble just for some nicotine I think. They then drove around Singapore for ~45mins, with me slumbering at the back, and we arrived back at camp just in time for lunch. How convenient.
I saw Junkai in the medical centre - he'd reported sick for some foot injury. He's training to be an Armour Engineer Specialist. Looks like everyone is going to outrank me! Excepting the half who are downgraded, of course.
Boon Wei was playing with a yellow stress ball. All pretty normal, till I saw that the ball had "Protection is your second best defence" on the side - urging servicemen to abstain from casual sex. So I theorise that whenever you feel like going to Geyland or Desker road, you just squeeze the ball and disspate the built up energies!
People like to refer to psychiatric cases as "P" cases. This might be due to laziness, but I suspect that it is actually an unconscious effort to distance themselves from the ugly reality - that people do go crazy while in indenture. No one cares, or chooses not to. It is never in the press, it is chucked aside and the only way you might ever see the victims is by visiting the SAF ward in Alexandria. And the ever useful US Army Policy on Gays is applied - "Don't ask, don't tell".
Last week we paid $2 each for a haircut. Even though not all of us - indeed very few of us, are going to use the services of the in-camp barber. Alvin tried, and his haircut was met with amusement. But then he's disrupting early September, so.
46SAR is sending people to cover (medically) people packing NDP funpacks. WTH?
For some reason, the radio in the documentation room was tuned to Power 98. Ideology aside, they did have an amusing ad - to promote this thing where they will get a NSF to co-host a Power 98 show. It went something like, "Go from this - 'Dari Kiri! Cepat Jalan!' - to this - '[some clip of a Power 98 show]'".
They like to call the Duty Medic the DM, and everytime I hear that acronym, I start thinking of Elves, Gnomes, Goblins, Dragons, Orcs and the like.
Quote:
"[On my wang4 wang4 milk tea and Oreos in the Pantry fridge] You're like on holiday"
I think they've found a way to block ICQ2go. Bah. Then again, the guy beside me is on ICQ, he says he had to try for an hour.
And I got this message lotsa times:
"Error 903
A message was not sent because you are over the rate limit."
So I think it must be that everyone else in this place is using ICQ too!
In other news, this blog's second top search keyword is "zaogeng". Whee.
The admin of the E-learning centre is humming along to "We will get there", and not very well too. ARGH. At least it's not the mandarin version playing on the radio. Which reminds me - since we have 4 official languages, where's the Malay and Tamil versions of all the yearly NDP songs? Racist!
On a related note, all the yearly national songs sound the same. The tune of this year's was in my head when it suddenly faded smoothly into "Moments of Magic", the so-called Millennium song. Another point: All the NDP songs so far, since 1998, have been sung by females, with not one male singer.
On an even less related note, I'm glad RJC didn't force us to learn and sing the yearly songs, as RI did. So I am blissfully unaware of the tunes and lyrics of "Shine On Me" (2000) and "Where I Belong" (2001).
Andrew Gan's reminded me that it's Racism Week this week! How could I have missed this special occasion, marked by 2Lers?
It might be just me, but it does seem that Screwed Up Girl only calls or SMSes when she needs something from me. Gah.
Post ID: 79300848
Hey! A word of the day that I actually understood in Lower Secondary. You're losing your touch. Nuah :)
Well now I don't feel quite as angsty as last night, but I'll just leave that lil' (is the apostrophe in the right place?) bit there. Talked to Julian just now - maybe I'll book a perm appointment for Tuesday nights. And he has F3 on his computer, which he claims is meant to be funny. At least it has no tentacle rape!
I hear the Us3 (whatever) remix of Cantaloop in the background now. Haha.
Well now I don't feel quite as angsty as last night, but I'll just leave that lil' (is the apostrophe in the right place?) bit there. Talked to Julian just now - maybe I'll book a perm appointment for Tuesday nights. And he has F3 on his computer, which he claims is meant to be funny. At least it has no tentacle rape!
I hear the Us3 (whatever) remix of Cantaloop in the background now. Haha.
Post ID: 79299353
Monday, July 22, 2002
Word of the day: "motet"
Well, someone else once wrote that blogging is great compensation for a flawed personal life. The people on the winterflame community, btw, however remarkable their individual writing talent, are perfect examples of the sort of blog aesthetic/writing style which (I thought) this collective-lobe-effort was supposed to be an antithesis to. We seem to be failing in that regard, particularly with the mugrims going on of late. *I'm* supposed to have sole monopoly over depressed-serotonin-reuptake behaviour in this brain stem!. Snap out of it! *I'm* supposed to be the angsty bitch!
Next thing you know we'll have pastel colours, obscurely-titled links, and faux-gravitas titlature for each journal entry.
And as a belated defense, I only wrote my (sic) "monster" post to make up for three months' absence, a sudden and unlikely-to-be-repeated period of time during work when I had nothing to do, and I might add that only in the most saccharine of worlds is "taking plenty of blue slips" considered "bad boy" stuff.
Unless those blue slips were LSD blotters.
Don't worry about the absence of a life. We have this blog, broadband access, and the fellow members of our beleaguered collective hive mind. *the ultimate damning indictment*
Well, someone else once wrote that blogging is great compensation for a flawed personal life. The people on the winterflame community, btw, however remarkable their individual writing talent, are perfect examples of the sort of blog aesthetic/writing style which (I thought) this collective-lobe-effort was supposed to be an antithesis to. We seem to be failing in that regard, particularly with the mugrims going on of late. *I'm* supposed to have sole monopoly over depressed-serotonin-reuptake behaviour in this brain stem!. Snap out of it! *I'm* supposed to be the angsty bitch!
Next thing you know we'll have pastel colours, obscurely-titled links, and faux-gravitas titlature for each journal entry.
And as a belated defense, I only wrote my (sic) "monster" post to make up for three months' absence, a sudden and unlikely-to-be-repeated period of time during work when I had nothing to do, and I might add that only in the most saccharine of worlds is "taking plenty of blue slips" considered "bad boy" stuff.
Unless those blue slips were LSD blotters.
Don't worry about the absence of a life. We have this blog, broadband access, and the fellow members of our beleaguered collective hive mind. *the ultimate damning indictment*
Post ID: 79255255
(I feel introspective. Not angsty, but you be the judge :) )
Sometimes I really feel that I have no life - why else would I view my referral logs with such glee? Also, notice how much crap I post here.
I can forsee future nights when, not interested in playing Playstation games in Japanese (or, indeed, console games in general), or watching inane and repetitive Chinese dramas, most dubbed (badly), I will go down to the E-learning Centre and waste my time. But then, compared to the noisy bunk, where it is hard to concentrate, that doesn't seem like that bad an alternative. I will be able to just hide in the semi-cubicle and plug myself in. And wait for the next time I can get out of confinement and go home and, to a great extent, plug myself in again, albeit with Blue Bear on my lap and my gargantuan playlist playing in the background.
School is nice. In school, with nary an effort, you can cavort with your friends. Arranging little outings is just so bothersome.
I managed to trap Tim and am having a tryst with him later before booking in. Muahaha.
Sometimes I really feel that I have no life - why else would I view my referral logs with such glee? Also, notice how much crap I post here.
I can forsee future nights when, not interested in playing Playstation games in Japanese (or, indeed, console games in general), or watching inane and repetitive Chinese dramas, most dubbed (badly), I will go down to the E-learning Centre and waste my time. But then, compared to the noisy bunk, where it is hard to concentrate, that doesn't seem like that bad an alternative. I will be able to just hide in the semi-cubicle and plug myself in. And wait for the next time I can get out of confinement and go home and, to a great extent, plug myself in again, albeit with Blue Bear on my lap and my gargantuan playlist playing in the background.
School is nice. In school, with nary an effort, you can cavort with your friends. Arranging little outings is just so bothersome.
I managed to trap Tim and am having a tryst with him later before booking in. Muahaha.
Post ID: 79250699
I was having lunch with my father in M Hotel in Shenton Way today when I heard the strains of "Variations on Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman" - for the uninitiated, varations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Mozart (K. 265). Prompted by that, I did some digging and found out that the lyrics were written in 1806, but it was originally a French Folksong about a child wanting candy. Details available at some NIEHS page.
For the past 6 years, I have been wearing whitish track shoes to school. Because I am lazy (mostly), I never bothered to acquire a pair of casual shoes to wear outside school, but just reused the school pairs. However, my current 2 pairs of 2 year old Puma shoes, bought when last I tread on Australian soil, are very battered and look like they are going to give up the ghost soon. And I am not inclined to use the New Balance shoes given to me by the slavemasters, kind though they are and nice though the shoes might be, as I don't relish the thought of wearing something emblazoned with the words - "Property of the SAF". Besides which, I'd have to lug them to and from camp. So today I bought my first (probably ever) pair of casuals, a pair of Weinbrenners. Apparently they were originally priced at $59.99, but I got them for $29.95 today. On the shoebox is written:
"Men's Casual
Crazy horse leather
Upper brown colour"
Crazy horse leather???
I happened to consider today, how although I did various subversive things in JC, I never did the "usual" bad boy stuff, like taking plenty of blue slips, or skipping lectures. In 2 years I took, I think, 2 blue slips, both legitimate - one for a dental appointment and one because I was really feeling sick (and for which I wrote down a whole list of ailments under the "reason for taking blue slip" row, including stomach cramps). As for skipping lessons, I believe I never did skip any, but perhaps this was because I wanted to take down quotes! My sister, on the other hand, skipped lectures extensively during her time in RJ to go shopping in Orchard Road. Ah well.
I do believe I've been blacklisted by Google due to my use of search engine linking service, as search referrals from there have levelled off in recent weeks - 20 in 5 weeks - and now the only way to find my page is to search for "Gabriel", "Gabriel's", "gssq" and the like. Goodbye Linkstoyou! It's been nice knowing you.
My father, hitherto sceptical of anti-virus and firewall programs, was pondering taking advantage of a DBS offer yesterday to purchase the above mentioned software from McAfee for $12. Probably the deluge of media articles on the above have finally convinced him. Anyhow my brother in law got the CD yesterday at Funan, and it turns out it is a "one year trial" of McAfee VirusScan v6.0 which doesn't include a firewall. Bah. Suppose I'll have t go for ZoneAlarm!
My sister, lusting after my 2 packets of Kettle Chips, actually had the temerity to devour them while I was in camp. One was a packet of Sea Salt and Basalmic Vinegar, one of 2 packets which Andrew Gan'd gotten for me. The other was a packet her friend'd bought - given to me in return for her devouring half to three quarters of the *other* packet that Andrew'd bought, without so much as a "by your leave". In her defence, she claimed, by SMS from Germany, that I "didn't want" the chips and was keeping them like "relics", but finally she conceded - "Yeah so next time eat faster. End of story" Ptooey to that.
I was sad enough to take Tim's advice, and attempt to complete a troublesome ringtone by installing Noteworthy Composer, importing the MIDI and examining the notes. In the end, after stripping away the supporting parts, I was left with some chords, produced by 3 voices - there was no melody line, so I've given up on the Menuetto e trio:Allegro molto of the Surprise Symphony.
The J-culture craziness has sucked many people into the abyss, and left others devastated by the effect it has had on society in general. I do sympathise with the latest casualty that I have discovered. I fear to do more, lest I get nipped :)
While I am stewing in Singapore, Andrew Gan, at this moment, is either stewing in his computer lab or frolicking on endless plains of lush grass with all his OCF friends at OCF camp. Ah, the joys of going to Australia and getting to know new people, most or many of them through OCF, which means they are mostly Singaporean or Malaysian and of Chinese descent. Err.
M1 has just spammed me for the second time. Needless to say, I am not pleased.
"Less is more". This is the bikini principle advocated by my sister for matters such as taking bits of cookie dough to mould into cookies. I've had complaints that my posts are too damn long and, though I cannot even begin to compare my posts with someone's monster dictionary, I do agree. What can I say? I am verbose sometimes. But mainly I take notice of the trivial overly much, and feel the compulsive urge to note down and eventually publish here everything of minuscule importance. The worse that could happen is that no one'd read this blog, except maybe the people looking for "Singapore JC girls in uniforms", "zaogeng", "Rikku in her underwear pics", "rgs bitches" and "only 5 6 7 years old lolitas showing leg wide open nude free pix" (my site appears fourth on the search engine results for that).
Though if I could write as well as the Hentai reviewer that we featured yesterday, I'm sure many people'd not mind. But then again maybe it's the subject matter that makes the writing so lively. It's just like, according to Tolkien, the most common complaint regarding "Lord of the Rings" is that it is "too short".
Words that perhaps every blogger could relate to:
"I have claimed that this is not an online journal and then proceeded to write entries that make it the worst kind of journal - meandering, vague, hinting at details which are too personal to share (and as Paul Tan the writer guy said, 'If it the writing is too personal to tell everyone about, then you shouldn't be publishing it'). Most online journals are of no conceivable use to anyone but the author and then only as a dubious means of recording events.
Truly what I need from this little exercise is not to broadcast revelations or truth to the rest of the world (although that would certainly secure my reputation). It is katharsis I seek. That is, to scream my lungs out, grind my teeth down to their roots, and divest myself of the hair on my head - preferably in front of someone who is listening and cares and who will eventually feed me warm water, cut my fingernails, wrap my gibbering husk in a blanket and then sing me to sleep."
Truly. (NB: Stolen from some frying pan)
For the past 6 years, I have been wearing whitish track shoes to school. Because I am lazy (mostly), I never bothered to acquire a pair of casual shoes to wear outside school, but just reused the school pairs. However, my current 2 pairs of 2 year old Puma shoes, bought when last I tread on Australian soil, are very battered and look like they are going to give up the ghost soon. And I am not inclined to use the New Balance shoes given to me by the slavemasters, kind though they are and nice though the shoes might be, as I don't relish the thought of wearing something emblazoned with the words - "Property of the SAF". Besides which, I'd have to lug them to and from camp. So today I bought my first (probably ever) pair of casuals, a pair of Weinbrenners. Apparently they were originally priced at $59.99, but I got them for $29.95 today. On the shoebox is written:
"Men's Casual
Crazy horse leather
Upper brown colour"
Crazy horse leather???
I happened to consider today, how although I did various subversive things in JC, I never did the "usual" bad boy stuff, like taking plenty of blue slips, or skipping lectures. In 2 years I took, I think, 2 blue slips, both legitimate - one for a dental appointment and one because I was really feeling sick (and for which I wrote down a whole list of ailments under the "reason for taking blue slip" row, including stomach cramps). As for skipping lessons, I believe I never did skip any, but perhaps this was because I wanted to take down quotes! My sister, on the other hand, skipped lectures extensively during her time in RJ to go shopping in Orchard Road. Ah well.
I do believe I've been blacklisted by Google due to my use of search engine linking service, as search referrals from there have levelled off in recent weeks - 20 in 5 weeks - and now the only way to find my page is to search for "Gabriel", "Gabriel's", "gssq" and the like. Goodbye Linkstoyou! It's been nice knowing you.
My father, hitherto sceptical of anti-virus and firewall programs, was pondering taking advantage of a DBS offer yesterday to purchase the above mentioned software from McAfee for $12. Probably the deluge of media articles on the above have finally convinced him. Anyhow my brother in law got the CD yesterday at Funan, and it turns out it is a "one year trial" of McAfee VirusScan v6.0 which doesn't include a firewall. Bah. Suppose I'll have t go for ZoneAlarm!
My sister, lusting after my 2 packets of Kettle Chips, actually had the temerity to devour them while I was in camp. One was a packet of Sea Salt and Basalmic Vinegar, one of 2 packets which Andrew Gan'd gotten for me. The other was a packet her friend'd bought - given to me in return for her devouring half to three quarters of the *other* packet that Andrew'd bought, without so much as a "by your leave". In her defence, she claimed, by SMS from Germany, that I "didn't want" the chips and was keeping them like "relics", but finally she conceded - "Yeah so next time eat faster. End of story" Ptooey to that.
I was sad enough to take Tim's advice, and attempt to complete a troublesome ringtone by installing Noteworthy Composer, importing the MIDI and examining the notes. In the end, after stripping away the supporting parts, I was left with some chords, produced by 3 voices - there was no melody line, so I've given up on the Menuetto e trio:Allegro molto of the Surprise Symphony.
The J-culture craziness has sucked many people into the abyss, and left others devastated by the effect it has had on society in general. I do sympathise with the latest casualty that I have discovered. I fear to do more, lest I get nipped :)
While I am stewing in Singapore, Andrew Gan, at this moment, is either stewing in his computer lab or frolicking on endless plains of lush grass with all his OCF friends at OCF camp. Ah, the joys of going to Australia and getting to know new people, most or many of them through OCF, which means they are mostly Singaporean or Malaysian and of Chinese descent. Err.
M1 has just spammed me for the second time. Needless to say, I am not pleased.
"Less is more". This is the bikini principle advocated by my sister for matters such as taking bits of cookie dough to mould into cookies. I've had complaints that my posts are too damn long and, though I cannot even begin to compare my posts with someone's monster dictionary, I do agree. What can I say? I am verbose sometimes. But mainly I take notice of the trivial overly much, and feel the compulsive urge to note down and eventually publish here everything of minuscule importance. The worse that could happen is that no one'd read this blog, except maybe the people looking for "Singapore JC girls in uniforms", "zaogeng", "Rikku in her underwear pics", "rgs bitches" and "only 5 6 7 years old lolitas showing leg wide open nude free pix" (my site appears fourth on the search engine results for that).
Though if I could write as well as the Hentai reviewer that we featured yesterday, I'm sure many people'd not mind. But then again maybe it's the subject matter that makes the writing so lively. It's just like, according to Tolkien, the most common complaint regarding "Lord of the Rings" is that it is "too short".
Words that perhaps every blogger could relate to:
"I have claimed that this is not an online journal and then proceeded to write entries that make it the worst kind of journal - meandering, vague, hinting at details which are too personal to share (and as Paul Tan the writer guy said, 'If it the writing is too personal to tell everyone about, then you shouldn't be publishing it'). Most online journals are of no conceivable use to anyone but the author and then only as a dubious means of recording events.
Truly what I need from this little exercise is not to broadcast revelations or truth to the rest of the world (although that would certainly secure my reputation). It is katharsis I seek. That is, to scream my lungs out, grind my teeth down to their roots, and divest myself of the hair on my head - preferably in front of someone who is listening and cares and who will eventually feed me warm water, cut my fingernails, wrap my gibbering husk in a blanket and then sing me to sleep."
Truly. (NB: Stolen from some frying pan)
Post ID: 79249226
Sunday, July 21, 2002
I hate ircz speakz.
The IRCz Speakz Hall of Infamy:
tomolo
skool
hiakz
wot
tokking
noe
lidat
kewl
Honourary mentions:
fer
sho
larz
shrugz
hafta
foto
liao
yu
My brother in law wants to get into blogging. He told me about this page - True Porn Clerk Stories.
Poking around, I found a hilarious review of some odd Jap flick called "La Blue Girl". This guy is hilarious - I take my hats off him (sic). I wish I could write so well.
Another funny review by him. That's enough gratuitous close proximity linking for one post, now.
" It has now become my life-long goal to inform as many people as possible about hentai. There are only so many things in this world that can truly make someone laugh so hard that they pass a kidney through their nasal cavity and I firmly believe hentai is one of those things. When I was introduced to hentai by my friend while he was on an acid induced hallucinatory trip I had one of those rare epiphanies in life. On that day I learned that it was possible to have all the good parts of anime like plots that make no sense and animation that looked as if it was produced by a head of cabbage, plus you could have all that and add to it copious amounts of sex and demon rape and suddenly there was a sort of utopia here on Earth. I had found something special that filled that gaping whole in my heart that had been their since I found out that Santa wasn't real and tried to stab the mall Santa to death with a G.I. Joe.
So when I started this site one of my biggest things I wanted to accomplish was to show that hentai is one of mankind's truly great things that can make even the most hardened of people grab their stomach and projectile vomit across the room. So far I think I've done a pretty good job of showing people this but I will not rest until I finish ramming it down everyone's throat, or until I am heavily sedated and dragged down the street and thrown into a garbage disposal by some fat mob boss. Why would a fat mob boss do this to me? I don't know, I just always wanted to work a fat mob boss into one of my articles."
The IRCz Speakz Hall of Infamy:
tomolo
skool
hiakz
wot
tokking
noe
lidat
kewl
Honourary mentions:
fer
sho
larz
shrugz
hafta
foto
liao
yu
My brother in law wants to get into blogging. He told me about this page - True Porn Clerk Stories.
Poking around, I found a hilarious review of some odd Jap flick called "La Blue Girl". This guy is hilarious - I take my hats off him (sic). I wish I could write so well.
Another funny review by him. That's enough gratuitous close proximity linking for one post, now.
" It has now become my life-long goal to inform as many people as possible about hentai. There are only so many things in this world that can truly make someone laugh so hard that they pass a kidney through their nasal cavity and I firmly believe hentai is one of those things. When I was introduced to hentai by my friend while he was on an acid induced hallucinatory trip I had one of those rare epiphanies in life. On that day I learned that it was possible to have all the good parts of anime like plots that make no sense and animation that looked as if it was produced by a head of cabbage, plus you could have all that and add to it copious amounts of sex and demon rape and suddenly there was a sort of utopia here on Earth. I had found something special that filled that gaping whole in my heart that had been their since I found out that Santa wasn't real and tried to stab the mall Santa to death with a G.I. Joe.
So when I started this site one of my biggest things I wanted to accomplish was to show that hentai is one of mankind's truly great things that can make even the most hardened of people grab their stomach and projectile vomit across the room. So far I think I've done a pretty good job of showing people this but I will not rest until I finish ramming it down everyone's throat, or until I am heavily sedated and dragged down the street and thrown into a garbage disposal by some fat mob boss. Why would a fat mob boss do this to me? I don't know, I just always wanted to work a fat mob boss into one of my articles."
Post ID: 79216615
-- today on icq while discussing the merits of various nokia handphones --
Sir David Lancaster: ... OH, one more thing, you can store about 250 names extra in the phone bk in the 8250, very useful. Plus the card, which normally can store about 150, you have 400 names in total. If not, the 3310 can only store 150 names...
Inchrist: i don't think i know that many people.
Sir David Lancaster: Eh...don't worry. It'll come in useful...
Sir David Lancaster: Trust me. =)
Sir David Lancaster: ... OH, one more thing, you can store about 250 names extra in the phone bk in the 8250, very useful. Plus the card, which normally can store about 150, you have 400 names in total. If not, the 3310 can only store 150 names...
Inchrist: i don't think i know that many people.
Sir David Lancaster: Eh...don't worry. It'll come in useful...
Sir David Lancaster: Trust me. =)
Post ID: 79215061
Saturday was the NDP "National Education" show, for the viewing pleasure of Primary 5 students. Even though I've been to many system runs and 2-3 rehearsals, I always find new things to write about!
The indoctrination and brainwashing is really quite disgusting. And it works - the audience was very enthusiastic about the show, even if they were gullible 11 year olds. On a larger level, from polls conducted, people's responses in the media and postings to forums, it would appear that all the National Propaganda, also known as "National Education" is working, and many people believe and accept the official line in many aspects like Racial Harmony and National Slavery. I do respect that some things need to be said, and the government's perspective provided, but the trouble is that very often, the flip side of the coin is not shown. So much for critical thinking. As I have quipped before, at least Nazi Germany and Saddam Hussein were honest when they created their Ministries of Propaganda. Here we call it the Ministry of Information and the Arts :) In addition, there are overtones of a personality cult - there's a part where videos of Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong talking are played. I can almost imagine the torchlit processions! Of course, all this jingoism might have an effect on me if I wasn't already steeled in my resolve by my current and future situation.
I arrived at about 12:30, and I was offered lunch. I'd already eaten, though, at the Jalan Sultan Prawn Mee (I love Hae Mee!) nearby, so I declined. They were quite generous actually, giving more than they'd had in past weeks. Unfortunately, they compensated by giving less for dinner - the already measly Pizza Hut portions were reduced further, with the slice of Pizza given barely big enough to cover the palm of a hand. Complaints were rife - "I'm never going to Pizza Hut ever again". And one guy was very unlucky - his father'd brought him to Pizza - and at Pizza Hut too - for lunch.
They are very cheapskate. There's a part where the Guard Of Honour fires a "Feux de Joie" (Fire of Joy), and incidentally, the Parade Commander's command includes the French words "Feux de Joie", which means that "Fire of Joy" has been added to the list of words or phrases for which there is no equivalent in Malay, which has, amonmg other words, "Spring" and "President" in it. Actually by right, "Ais Krim", "Coklat" and "Restoran" should be in it too. But I digress. Anyhow, I was wondering previously why the sound of their blanks being discharged was so loud until the NE show, when the sound was issued. But there were no people firing blanks! It turns out the evil people had pre-recorded the sound of rifles discharging!
Xaiver Ng, formerly from RV in my year, was stationed near my point as a marshaller, I believe. Too bad I didn't have the opportunity to go and talk to him.
I notice a lot of the participants and support crew for NDP wear the same pair of shoes, which is presumably given to them for free. Not bad.
More weird Malay commands - "Yang Lai", or something to that effect. Strictly speaking, I didn't hear that during any of the NDP rehearsals, including yesterday's, which is actually a rehearsal in disguise, but during SAF day. All the same, it is amusing, taking its place alongside (but below) "Punji Punji". I think the drill commands being in Malay lets me put some mental distance between myself and the reality of it all.
I saw one of the MDC guy's security pass, and it said that his rank was Lance Corporal. I set to wondering what Zaini's rank was, but his pass has no rank on it, not even "DXO". Maybe the MDC has a different ranking system for NUSAFs. Speaking of him, he was wearing a very odd outfit - a white shirt with a huge rose printed across the front, overlong pants and a gigantic belt. I wonder where he does his shopping.
I was flipping through Pioneer Magazine when I saw Melvin Tay in a BMT feature! Suspicious and shocked, I called Kairen. And as I suspected, he'd had a hand in it, recommending Melvin for this story. The article is terribly sanitised, as one'd expect of a publication of Pioneer's origins. Of course, Melvin denies it. I'd put in a link to the article on CyberPioneer, but it's not up yet, if it ever will be. In the same issue is a lame cartoon drawn by Chan Kairen about simulations. And analysing the output of my favourite Pioneer writer, I found some parts with minor errors and others stylistically irritating, possibly with shades of Chua Lee Hoong's influence! Even he cannot escape the depredations of our bondage! I really should scan these two items in - this is one issue I'm not going to shred!
I wonder if the radiation emitted by Signals Sets is carcinogenic. Poor Andrew Tan.
We had some time before the show started, so we took a catnap on the floor of the gym-turned-medical-post. Yeh. And I realised again why I shouldn't sleep on my back, but should lie prone or in the 3/4 prone (Semi-Supine Lying Position - SSLP) instead - it has a lower chance of disturbing people around me. No matter - I usually sleep on my tummy anyway, and it's more comfortable for me. And I'll lower the chances of obstructive sleep apnea occuring, I believe, together with the lesser nuisance of disturbing people when I slumber - the less serious form of the aforementioned apnea.
One medic from another unit, an ex-RJCian a year my senior, is keeping his mind alive! He called someone up to tell him why superconductors with nil resistance are not a good idea. Yeh.
One MO was playing with the rowing machine in the gym. I believe the last time I tried that I got scolded. Oh well, three bars on your epaulettes gives you a measure of protection.
When the pre-parade segment finally started, Goldman's name was revealed on the LCD screens - Mr Jeffery Tan. He really looks quite striking with his golden spiked hair and yellow trousers (and only yellow trousers).
The 4 MCs pranced around in Chinesesque robes, and donned glasses with giant yellow stars in front of them. And then they unmasked themselves in a dramatic fashion and started bouncing around the field. Weird. I wonder who comes up with these quirky ideas. Anyhow the audience was very excited and started screaming, so 3 of us decided to scream along with them!
The Primary 5 students kept throwing the coasters they found inside the "funpack" onto the ground. The coasters carried some ad for nursing homes, if I recall correctly.
Anna Belle was missing from the quartet of "talented young ladies" singing the remixed version of the NDP song. I wonder what happened to her.
The outfit the girls from the CHIJs wore for their item was terrible - it was a short dress with a white top, on which drops of paint appeared to be drizzled at random. I think maybe it's a requirement for performance attire to be either disgusting, loud or otherwise shocking - basically it's to be stuff you'll never walk down the street in.
The bagpipers in the Police Bagpipe Band are all female. I wonder if that has anything to do with our prudish and conservative nation not liking the sight of males in skirts, even if they -are- kilts.
I knew the SCDF and Police had a lot Malays, but I didn't realise just how many until Saturday, as I got to see a very big sample size. Especially in the former organisation, it is hard to find non-high ranking non-Malays.
Some of the people in the marching contingents wear Camo. Eck.
The Signing Choir was filing past, and this woman was asking them to close the gap. Very intelligent and sensitive, considering that most of them are deaf.
I believe I saw Winston Hodge in the crowd when the camera was panning past a group of people.
Some of the rest were discussing the star of the show, Jo'an Ow, and her interview on the news. Apparently she's quite bimbotic, using the dreaded phrase "and stuff".
I realise I've not had to actually sing the National Anthem since JC. Hurrah.
Today, Stefanie Sun didn't come down, so they used the backup, Jamie Teo. She modulates her voice randomly and seemingly at will, making her singing very torturous to the ear. At least she doesn't have the slight cheena accent that the other has. The star of the show was also not present, so some girl named Kelly Tuan was the backup.
Tony Tan was the reviewing officer, and beside him was a general. I didn't count the stars, but there were more than 2 so I assume it was the Chief of Defence. He was wearing one of the rarely seen outfits, probably No 5.
The Parade Regimental Sergeant Major is Timothy's favourite RSM - SWO Jeffery Chung from 3rd Division. Haha.
The costumes that the dancers for the 4 songs in each of the 4 national languages wear aren't done tastefully. Besides the preponderance of red and black, the skirts are so short, and slit so high that you can see the shorts worn inside to protect the dancers' modesty. This is in very bad taste, and defeats the point of showing flesh in the first place!
The singers of the 4 songs in the 4 languages, and indeed all of the songs with soloists, all sounded remarkably similar to the tapes - I suspect they were actually lip synching. My suspicions were more or less confirmed when, listening to performers singing the dance remix of the NDP song, I heard all 4 of the "talented young ladies" singing. But at least they have the decency to turn up. Though Vernon Cornelius appears to have difficulty doing the fundance!
Near the end, the star of the show gets into a hot air balloon with some guy singing "We can change the world" whom I called "the bozo in the balloon". Looking at the webpage, I now think that he is Dick Lee :)
When you see fireworks on TV, it looks very impressive as you are shown the helicopter view. However, when you view the display live, you see that the fireworks don't actually reach such a great height, but explode somewhere below the height of the lighting towers. On a related note, the fireworks grow more and more extravagant every year, at least from what I can tell. This year, the final blast of fireworks was so intense that the ground shook. Sadly, we from our position opposite the grandstand missed the bulk of the fireworks display, as the best fireworks were fired from directly above us, and we couldn't go out onto the field, so we had to content ourselves with looking at the LCD screen.
The person who sings the national anthem in an irritating, sultry voice was revealed to be Jacintha Abisheganaden.
After dismissing us, the Medical Officer we were with gave each of the 7 of us a pair of "Green" tickets (those to the grandstand area, I believe) to the NDP Preview. How kind of him!
Unsatisfied by what passed for our dinner, I went to try Burger King's "new" Chicken Whopper Jr. It is very disappointing, very tiny for the price, though the foil wrap to seal in the flavour is a nice touch. I miss the Broiler (which is probably what the Chicken Whopper is actually). And the lower prices that they used to have.
The bus service diversion was so confusing that I ended up walking the length of the Nicol Highway again. Rather invigorating, actually, when one doesn't have a heavy bag by one's side.
Perhaps it's the material, or it's a curse laid on them, but No 4 uniforms tend to make one sweat and stink a lot. Except for Officers, and possibly Specialists, of course.
Apparently Mr Sowden calls Mrs Lim Guat Ching, aka the Commander, the Commander too! No wonder she was so flustered and asked me to take her quotes down because she was being "teased".
"Everytime he sees me he runs away screaming... Is it because I'm too screwed up?" - Geraldine on David
Conversations with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named:
Me: "not in that way, not really
I think I miss her sometimes, but I'm not sure if I miss her as a best friend (and more, besides - we're still more than best friends but less than lovers) or a significant other
or if what I miss is more a relationship itself, not the particular person"
Him: "*sad smile*
you're learning fast.
and the next thing you need to learn is that you never really answer that question - no matter how far you move on."
This is very depressing.
Interesting things you find:
Bahasa Malaysia Christian Praise 7 (located at http://www.pujian.freeservers.com/lagu07.htm which is inaccessible, but still viewable in Google's cache)
And I found a specific part of the Economist's survey of why the Arab countries weren't doing well particularly amusing. The survey, rather, a survey of a survey done by some Arab scholastics, gives 3 reasons as to why the Arab countries aren't faring as well as they should - the lack of freedom, lack of knowledge and the lack of women's emancipation. Apparently lacking one or two of these may not hurt an economy - Singapore is cited as an example of a place where there is little political freedom, but the economy does well.
The indoctrination and brainwashing is really quite disgusting. And it works - the audience was very enthusiastic about the show, even if they were gullible 11 year olds. On a larger level, from polls conducted, people's responses in the media and postings to forums, it would appear that all the National Propaganda, also known as "National Education" is working, and many people believe and accept the official line in many aspects like Racial Harmony and National Slavery. I do respect that some things need to be said, and the government's perspective provided, but the trouble is that very often, the flip side of the coin is not shown. So much for critical thinking. As I have quipped before, at least Nazi Germany and Saddam Hussein were honest when they created their Ministries of Propaganda. Here we call it the Ministry of Information and the Arts :) In addition, there are overtones of a personality cult - there's a part where videos of Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong talking are played. I can almost imagine the torchlit processions! Of course, all this jingoism might have an effect on me if I wasn't already steeled in my resolve by my current and future situation.
I arrived at about 12:30, and I was offered lunch. I'd already eaten, though, at the Jalan Sultan Prawn Mee (I love Hae Mee!) nearby, so I declined. They were quite generous actually, giving more than they'd had in past weeks. Unfortunately, they compensated by giving less for dinner - the already measly Pizza Hut portions were reduced further, with the slice of Pizza given barely big enough to cover the palm of a hand. Complaints were rife - "I'm never going to Pizza Hut ever again". And one guy was very unlucky - his father'd brought him to Pizza - and at Pizza Hut too - for lunch.
They are very cheapskate. There's a part where the Guard Of Honour fires a "Feux de Joie" (Fire of Joy), and incidentally, the Parade Commander's command includes the French words "Feux de Joie", which means that "Fire of Joy" has been added to the list of words or phrases for which there is no equivalent in Malay, which has, amonmg other words, "Spring" and "President" in it. Actually by right, "Ais Krim", "Coklat" and "Restoran" should be in it too. But I digress. Anyhow, I was wondering previously why the sound of their blanks being discharged was so loud until the NE show, when the sound was issued. But there were no people firing blanks! It turns out the evil people had pre-recorded the sound of rifles discharging!
Xaiver Ng, formerly from RV in my year, was stationed near my point as a marshaller, I believe. Too bad I didn't have the opportunity to go and talk to him.
I notice a lot of the participants and support crew for NDP wear the same pair of shoes, which is presumably given to them for free. Not bad.
More weird Malay commands - "Yang Lai", or something to that effect. Strictly speaking, I didn't hear that during any of the NDP rehearsals, including yesterday's, which is actually a rehearsal in disguise, but during SAF day. All the same, it is amusing, taking its place alongside (but below) "Punji Punji". I think the drill commands being in Malay lets me put some mental distance between myself and the reality of it all.
I saw one of the MDC guy's security pass, and it said that his rank was Lance Corporal. I set to wondering what Zaini's rank was, but his pass has no rank on it, not even "DXO". Maybe the MDC has a different ranking system for NUSAFs. Speaking of him, he was wearing a very odd outfit - a white shirt with a huge rose printed across the front, overlong pants and a gigantic belt. I wonder where he does his shopping.
I was flipping through Pioneer Magazine when I saw Melvin Tay in a BMT feature! Suspicious and shocked, I called Kairen. And as I suspected, he'd had a hand in it, recommending Melvin for this story. The article is terribly sanitised, as one'd expect of a publication of Pioneer's origins. Of course, Melvin denies it. I'd put in a link to the article on CyberPioneer, but it's not up yet, if it ever will be. In the same issue is a lame cartoon drawn by Chan Kairen about simulations. And analysing the output of my favourite Pioneer writer, I found some parts with minor errors and others stylistically irritating, possibly with shades of Chua Lee Hoong's influence! Even he cannot escape the depredations of our bondage! I really should scan these two items in - this is one issue I'm not going to shred!
I wonder if the radiation emitted by Signals Sets is carcinogenic. Poor Andrew Tan.
We had some time before the show started, so we took a catnap on the floor of the gym-turned-medical-post. Yeh. And I realised again why I shouldn't sleep on my back, but should lie prone or in the 3/4 prone (Semi-Supine Lying Position - SSLP) instead - it has a lower chance of disturbing people around me. No matter - I usually sleep on my tummy anyway, and it's more comfortable for me. And I'll lower the chances of obstructive sleep apnea occuring, I believe, together with the lesser nuisance of disturbing people when I slumber - the less serious form of the aforementioned apnea.
One medic from another unit, an ex-RJCian a year my senior, is keeping his mind alive! He called someone up to tell him why superconductors with nil resistance are not a good idea. Yeh.
One MO was playing with the rowing machine in the gym. I believe the last time I tried that I got scolded. Oh well, three bars on your epaulettes gives you a measure of protection.
When the pre-parade segment finally started, Goldman's name was revealed on the LCD screens - Mr Jeffery Tan. He really looks quite striking with his golden spiked hair and yellow trousers (and only yellow trousers).
The 4 MCs pranced around in Chinesesque robes, and donned glasses with giant yellow stars in front of them. And then they unmasked themselves in a dramatic fashion and started bouncing around the field. Weird. I wonder who comes up with these quirky ideas. Anyhow the audience was very excited and started screaming, so 3 of us decided to scream along with them!
The Primary 5 students kept throwing the coasters they found inside the "funpack" onto the ground. The coasters carried some ad for nursing homes, if I recall correctly.
Anna Belle was missing from the quartet of "talented young ladies" singing the remixed version of the NDP song. I wonder what happened to her.
The outfit the girls from the CHIJs wore for their item was terrible - it was a short dress with a white top, on which drops of paint appeared to be drizzled at random. I think maybe it's a requirement for performance attire to be either disgusting, loud or otherwise shocking - basically it's to be stuff you'll never walk down the street in.
The bagpipers in the Police Bagpipe Band are all female. I wonder if that has anything to do with our prudish and conservative nation not liking the sight of males in skirts, even if they -are- kilts.
I knew the SCDF and Police had a lot Malays, but I didn't realise just how many until Saturday, as I got to see a very big sample size. Especially in the former organisation, it is hard to find non-high ranking non-Malays.
Some of the people in the marching contingents wear Camo. Eck.
The Signing Choir was filing past, and this woman was asking them to close the gap. Very intelligent and sensitive, considering that most of them are deaf.
I believe I saw Winston Hodge in the crowd when the camera was panning past a group of people.
Some of the rest were discussing the star of the show, Jo'an Ow, and her interview on the news. Apparently she's quite bimbotic, using the dreaded phrase "and stuff".
I realise I've not had to actually sing the National Anthem since JC. Hurrah.
Today, Stefanie Sun didn't come down, so they used the backup, Jamie Teo. She modulates her voice randomly and seemingly at will, making her singing very torturous to the ear. At least she doesn't have the slight cheena accent that the other has. The star of the show was also not present, so some girl named Kelly Tuan was the backup.
Tony Tan was the reviewing officer, and beside him was a general. I didn't count the stars, but there were more than 2 so I assume it was the Chief of Defence. He was wearing one of the rarely seen outfits, probably No 5.
The Parade Regimental Sergeant Major is Timothy's favourite RSM - SWO Jeffery Chung from 3rd Division. Haha.
The costumes that the dancers for the 4 songs in each of the 4 national languages wear aren't done tastefully. Besides the preponderance of red and black, the skirts are so short, and slit so high that you can see the shorts worn inside to protect the dancers' modesty. This is in very bad taste, and defeats the point of showing flesh in the first place!
The singers of the 4 songs in the 4 languages, and indeed all of the songs with soloists, all sounded remarkably similar to the tapes - I suspect they were actually lip synching. My suspicions were more or less confirmed when, listening to performers singing the dance remix of the NDP song, I heard all 4 of the "talented young ladies" singing. But at least they have the decency to turn up. Though Vernon Cornelius appears to have difficulty doing the fundance!
Near the end, the star of the show gets into a hot air balloon with some guy singing "We can change the world" whom I called "the bozo in the balloon". Looking at the webpage, I now think that he is Dick Lee :)
When you see fireworks on TV, it looks very impressive as you are shown the helicopter view. However, when you view the display live, you see that the fireworks don't actually reach such a great height, but explode somewhere below the height of the lighting towers. On a related note, the fireworks grow more and more extravagant every year, at least from what I can tell. This year, the final blast of fireworks was so intense that the ground shook. Sadly, we from our position opposite the grandstand missed the bulk of the fireworks display, as the best fireworks were fired from directly above us, and we couldn't go out onto the field, so we had to content ourselves with looking at the LCD screen.
The person who sings the national anthem in an irritating, sultry voice was revealed to be Jacintha Abisheganaden.
After dismissing us, the Medical Officer we were with gave each of the 7 of us a pair of "Green" tickets (those to the grandstand area, I believe) to the NDP Preview. How kind of him!
Unsatisfied by what passed for our dinner, I went to try Burger King's "new" Chicken Whopper Jr. It is very disappointing, very tiny for the price, though the foil wrap to seal in the flavour is a nice touch. I miss the Broiler (which is probably what the Chicken Whopper is actually). And the lower prices that they used to have.
The bus service diversion was so confusing that I ended up walking the length of the Nicol Highway again. Rather invigorating, actually, when one doesn't have a heavy bag by one's side.
Perhaps it's the material, or it's a curse laid on them, but No 4 uniforms tend to make one sweat and stink a lot. Except for Officers, and possibly Specialists, of course.
Apparently Mr Sowden calls Mrs Lim Guat Ching, aka the Commander, the Commander too! No wonder she was so flustered and asked me to take her quotes down because she was being "teased".
"Everytime he sees me he runs away screaming... Is it because I'm too screwed up?" - Geraldine on David
Conversations with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named:
Me: "not in that way, not really
I think I miss her sometimes, but I'm not sure if I miss her as a best friend (and more, besides - we're still more than best friends but less than lovers) or a significant other
or if what I miss is more a relationship itself, not the particular person"
Him: "*sad smile*
you're learning fast.
and the next thing you need to learn is that you never really answer that question - no matter how far you move on."
This is very depressing.
Interesting things you find:
Bahasa Malaysia Christian Praise 7 (located at http://www.pujian.freeservers.com/lagu07.htm which is inaccessible, but still viewable in Google's cache)
And I found a specific part of the Economist's survey of why the Arab countries weren't doing well particularly amusing. The survey, rather, a survey of a survey done by some Arab scholastics, gives 3 reasons as to why the Arab countries aren't faring as well as they should - the lack of freedom, lack of knowledge and the lack of women's emancipation. Apparently lacking one or two of these may not hurt an economy - Singapore is cited as an example of a place where there is little political freedom, but the economy does well.
Post ID: 79192007
Saturday, July 20, 2002
Bookout post:
Restored Post
Before booking in last Sunday for Monday duty, I watched Minority Report with Somchaya at Lot 1. Twas good, with only very minor plot loopholes. The explanatory sequence at the end was also good for those who were confused, and to correct any wrong guesses the audience might have had. The thing that really irked me, though, was the parts where you could almost hear Steven Spielberg saying, "Now kids, let's explore some issues!". Erk.
The doors of our bunk and indeed all the bunks in our company (and probably unit too) are very irritating - they are self locking. This is all much more trouble than it's worth, so we make the best of a bad situation and put the key on the ledge next to the door, easily accessible by opening the window.
My first ever Standby medic duty on Monday was rather harrying. Since no one else from 42SAR was around, not least the Treatment Room I/C, whose room I was in charge of and stationed in, I took rather long to accomplish my tasks. There are so many items to check on, and to note down the expiry date of too (the latter task is done only on Mondays, so I was unlucky in that respect). I was stupid enough to close the various logs at 11:15pm (writing that they'd been closed at 11:59pm), and found out later that the most prudent thing to do was to close them the next morning! It's all because of the stupid ISO, I tell you. It requires us to do so much paperwork and track a myriad of unimportant and trivial details excessively often. Not that anyone cares - I suspect everyone just writes the "correct" things on the various checklists with nary an effort, so all the meticulous records are all faked. It's rather ridiculous holding a military organisation to civilian standards, I must say. In future, they should get newly posted personnel to shadow others while they do duty so they won't screw up so much their first times...
Though during my duty I felt that doing guard duty was better save for the air-con and the radio (tuned, of course to either 88.9FM or 92.4FM), I think the next time I do duty I'll be able to finish early and slack for the rest of the day. Yeh. Though now I know why people like being on course - the lack of responsibility is somewhat invigorating.
Through the drudgery of it all, however, there was one bright light. None other than Private Lun Yaodong, Clarence! Yes, this irrepressible personage showed up on Monday complaining of chest pains - evidently doing light fatigue work for National Day stresses him so, but he still has time, through all the strain, to spike his hair - so he was strapped to the ECG machine. What should I have done? Used the rectal thermometer on him? Shot him with a 16 gauge venula? I was siting beside him and he saw me smiling, and asked me why I was "sniggering". Whereupon I ran behind the curtain to hide my mirth.
I asked Yaodong how come he was so lucky that he got posted to Sungei Gedong Camp, HQ/NDP, and he replied that, "I'm always lucky". He asked if I could pass IPPT and when he found out I could pass but one station, he said that "Maybe we can go running together one day". And just before leaving, he asked me to take care. Aww. Actually I realised that this is the first time I've actually spoken to him. He does seem nicer than last time, though. But he's as chao keng as ever - he appeared again Tuesday night complaining of asthma. When he was sent to Tengah Air Base, the Medical Officer wanted him to be IVed but he declined. Bah. And due to his constant appearances, he's reviled among many of the medics for being a skiver and a troublemaker! For tales of Yaodong during his SIT Test, you can read Shawn's account.
The robotic (both in accent and delivery) chinese that all people of Caucasian blood seem to have is really irritating. People of Chinese descent aren't stereotyped as speaking in a Cheena way in Western shows, why should Chinese shows be so parochial and backward in their attitudes?
I heard a radio ad for the latest edition of Cleo, where there was a spread of 100 hunks. Oh well. At last it's time to make their ogling a publicly known and admitted fact I suppose! And speaking of Cleo, PJ Girl's article for Cleo will be in the August issue! I should go check it out. But how much does Cleo cost anyway?
I was making appointments for various servicemen at Hospitals, and all of the 4-5 people I spoke to were females! What does this say about gender biased hiring or position allocation for the front end of organisations?
I saw a drawer in the documentation room that was labelled "Nineki's Cabinet". Laying aside the fact that it should've been labelled "Nineki's Cabinet", I set out to investigate why it was named so oddly. Asking someone who'd taken a bottle of F&N Orange from it, I got the reply that, "That's for me to know and for you not to find out". Opening the drawer later, I found nothing out of the ordinary except for the bottle of F&N Orange. Another mystery that will go unsolved!
Some of the powers that be are playing with my rank. One day, in the Routine Orders, I was mentioned 2 or 3 times - and was a Corporal. And in the meal file that we're supposed to sign to mark our consumption of meals, but which is signed on behalf of everyone by the first to consume his meal - even if no one else turns up in the end, I am unranked. Maybe, in their records, I've ORDed! Hurrah!
While I was reading the Routine Orders one day, the Company Sergeant Major came by and advised me to downgrade: "Good for you, good for the unit". Haha. I have a feeling that I'll get injured during all the Remedial Trainings. My MO's said he might downgrade me, so let's see what happens.
On Tuesday, our night off was taken away because we had to do paperwork! Gah. Well I think that beat sitting in the parade square during "Movie Night", where the movie in question was enthralling - a video recording of the last half dress rehearsal for NDP.
We had a SOC test on Wednesday morning. Erk. My number tag was taken away at the first obstacle, the low wall, because I couldn't cross it. Aww. My muscles - shoulder, arm and stomach - still hurt. Erk.
After SOC, I was hanging around the Armskote to send my arms in when I got to talking with a disruptee. He'd dyed hair, and had disrupted to study Accountancy at NTU. When I told him that at least one of my friends was going to pursue the same course at the same place, he said to "ask him to think again". Haha.
I visited Somchaya's den of unspeakable pleasures again! Yeh.
Zhang and I were having a debate (via SMS, of all media!) about free will and whether the situations we find ourselves in are due to God's will and we should accept it and live happily (re indenture of course) - if you're a child soldier, does that mean that He means for you to be one and you should go about your job with zeal? In the end, he either conceded my point, gave up or decided it was a waste of too much money :)
I was tasked, with Andrew, to cover the Batallion Run at East Coast, the games following that and the NDP System Run at the National Stadium. After coming back from my wednesday night off, I was rather drained, and waking up at 4:45am, with less than 5 hours of sleep, didn't help. During the run, I was stationed in the safety rover, which was parked near the halfway point of the route. And promptly fell asleep.
A Racial Harmony Day message was read out by Commanding Officer, about how the SAF promotes racial harmony. Rather tall stuff, considering there are no Malays in my unit, or indeed in the whole of Armour, Artillery, the Commandos, the Air Force and the Navy.
Later, during the games segment, they played "Pushball", a game involving 2 teams of 30 people each pushing a chin-high inflated ball around. It was rather violent and reminiscent of rugby - when the whistle was blown, people would run from each side of the field and crash into the giant ball. At many points, I saw people going under and the ball rolling over them. All in all, it looked like a rugby scrum with more people and a bigger ball! And all the while, I had in mind one of the silliest cheers ever - "Push Raffles Push!". Though it can't beat the "Oei, oei, sat sat" rubbish.
Later, we had some time before the system run commenced, so we lingered at Kallang Leisure Park, which I believe we're all sick of by now. But it beats the stadium, so. After we had our lunch, Andrew went to catch Forty Winks in the ambulance while I sat down around Leisure Park and read the Economist. While there, I noticed that Burger King has updated the look of their menus. Sneakily and oh-so-conveniently, the prices have gone up in tandem with the change. And the Broiler has vanished, to be replaced by a "Chicken Whopper Jr", or the like.
Before the System Run, the CHIJ kiddies were running around practicing their item. None of their T-Shirts were tucked in, but that didn't get them scolded. As they ran onto the tarpaulin, they shrieked and yelped, sounding like birds! And because they moved slowly, they got shouted at quite a bit by their teachers. I'm surprised they didn't cry, actually.
Andrew'd bought the New Paper, that trashy tabloid, to read, though in the end he mostly read his manga. I briefly browsed through, and learnt that NDP volunteers are paid $5/day, get Haagen Dazs ice cream, tim sum and get to win prizes in lucky draws. Gah.
For the Batallion run earlier, we'd been made to collect ice to treat injuries, when it was actually the job of the QM department. Of course, this created a moral hazard, and indeed, many people attained injuries which were suitably treated with ice. Later at Kallang, Andrew and I went to Shop And Save to buy drinks (including a carton of Florida's Natural!) and confectionary to put inside the ice box, so we had a constant supply of refreshments during the system run. It was then that I tried, for the first time, Dad's Old Fashioned Root Beer, which Tim had lambasted. It was okay actually, better than he had described. Though A&W's is richer, more flavourful and overall better. I also bought Allswell Rose Mineral Water Tea, but I think they overdid the citric acid because it tasted like Apple Tea with a hint of rose.
As with the last time, canoeists trooped in to change out of their wet clothing. SRJC has a shirt which says, "Veni, Vidi, Vici", the connection to sailing of which I don't see. And a RJ girl was wearing a "Raffles Dragonboat" T-Shirt - don't tell me they have a Dragonboat team now?
Bored, I SMSed part of the lyrics to "We Will Get There" to various people. Their responses were either along the lines of, "that sucks" or "what the hell is that". Looks like the media blitz isn't working.
When we got back to camp, I was confronted with the task of having to finish filling in the list of >250 names that I'd though I'd escaped previously... and I have finished finally! Flipping through dockets, I realise that very few people are Rh-negative. Though I have no idea what being Rhesus negative does. And on a few dockets was written "Social conduct dis-mild". Odd. Well, I don't have that on mine, so. And one person is allergic to, of all things, sulphuric acid!
Folie has been complaining that I've been going around smiling all the time and attributes it to RJC stress. Maybe I really am going crazy.
Tentatively, I have christened the Mandarin-English hybrid spoken in Singapore "Mandlish". And perhaps one reason why it exists is the fashion for Chinese Pop songs to include English words, phrases, clauses or even verses!
I am going to stay in HQ, yay! Though some say that the Company line is not as bad as it is made out to be - Lion is quite slack apparently. The downside is that I am to replace Yiliang as the Documentation I/C and an MOPA. Woo. Of course this is assuming I don't get posted out. Or get injured during the weekly SOC and IPPTt tests, and the probably daily RTs and get injured.
Our little Australia sojourn will be cut short - it is confirmed. So it'll be less than 2 weeks - yay! And it will include a 2 day "educational tour" too. And for the Army Half Marathon, we will be running 10km and not 21km, because since we're busy preparing for NDP, we don't have the opportunity to "train up".
I went for dinner with my parents after booking out, at Captain's Table at Raffles Marina. And I heard a familiar tune being piped in. After a while, I realised it was the tune to the "Chao keng ah chao keng ah chao keng chao keng. Chao keng ah chao keng ah chao keng chao keng. You say I chao keng you say I chao keng. Actually everybody chao keng chao keng hey!" army song. I should've realised that army people were not capable of composing even a tune so simple as this!
Quotes:
"[On someone who's seemingly been hyped terribly beyond the honour due to her as a published poet] What's so great about her? All she did was write a stupid book called, 'Katong and Other Poems'"
Quotes:
"[On RGS Girls] B(R)id(G)et Jone(S)... bridget jones is fat, neurotic, ambitious, strangely likeable. familiar?... likeable sometimes lah. not most. i mean c'mon, they're weird" (sms)
"SAF teach me to be racist (has taught)"
"You just bring your A4-sized photograph (passport)"
"You prefer me to call you Shuqi or Gabriel?"
"[On his reservist briefing] The minute I put on No 4 I felt my brains dissolve and an overwhelming desire to sleep." (sms)
One guy found my weblog while searching for the lyrics to the infantry song. I was rather amused, and found that nowhere on the web could they be found, so I have reproduced them here.
Background information: The infantry song is a song that recruits in BMTC, Pulau Tekong, have to learn to sing on their Passing Out Parade day. It was introduced the batch before mine, and the tune was most probably stolen from some other song. Apparently the lyrics were written by a Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel Chan.
"We are the bedrock of our army, wanting to keep our people free.
Committed to the independence of our nation, we are the men from the Infantry.
There will never be a mountain too high, or a route too tough for us.
We are about to rule the day and the darkest night, we will never rest till the wrong is right.
Chorus
From the land, air and sea, we will strike our enemies.
They have called us 'The Queen Of The Battlefield'
We are brothers-in-arms, we are brothers proud to be.
We are the first, the one and only infantry.
We are a special band of soldiers, raised to guard our nation's shores.
We base our lives upon a set of 7 values, to defend our nation's shores.
And when our country says she needs us, we are always there by her side.
We will protect the lives of every Singaporean, for Singapore we will give our lives
Chorus
Musical Interlude + Monologue (2nd Verse)
Chorus"
So the Infantry have a song, and so do the Medics. How about the Clerks? Or the Storemen? My favourite of the posters depicting the various branches of the SAF is "Logistics - we supply the Army".
Just what's the difference between all the different ISOs? Is 9002 superior to 9000? And 10000 superior to 1000? Or something like that.
Restored Post
Before booking in last Sunday for Monday duty, I watched Minority Report with Somchaya at Lot 1. Twas good, with only very minor plot loopholes. The explanatory sequence at the end was also good for those who were confused, and to correct any wrong guesses the audience might have had. The thing that really irked me, though, was the parts where you could almost hear Steven Spielberg saying, "Now kids, let's explore some issues!". Erk.
The doors of our bunk and indeed all the bunks in our company (and probably unit too) are very irritating - they are self locking. This is all much more trouble than it's worth, so we make the best of a bad situation and put the key on the ledge next to the door, easily accessible by opening the window.
My first ever Standby medic duty on Monday was rather harrying. Since no one else from 42SAR was around, not least the Treatment Room I/C, whose room I was in charge of and stationed in, I took rather long to accomplish my tasks. There are so many items to check on, and to note down the expiry date of too (the latter task is done only on Mondays, so I was unlucky in that respect). I was stupid enough to close the various logs at 11:15pm (writing that they'd been closed at 11:59pm), and found out later that the most prudent thing to do was to close them the next morning! It's all because of the stupid ISO, I tell you. It requires us to do so much paperwork and track a myriad of unimportant and trivial details excessively often. Not that anyone cares - I suspect everyone just writes the "correct" things on the various checklists with nary an effort, so all the meticulous records are all faked. It's rather ridiculous holding a military organisation to civilian standards, I must say. In future, they should get newly posted personnel to shadow others while they do duty so they won't screw up so much their first times...
Though during my duty I felt that doing guard duty was better save for the air-con and the radio (tuned, of course to either 88.9FM or 92.4FM), I think the next time I do duty I'll be able to finish early and slack for the rest of the day. Yeh. Though now I know why people like being on course - the lack of responsibility is somewhat invigorating.
Through the drudgery of it all, however, there was one bright light. None other than Private Lun Yaodong, Clarence! Yes, this irrepressible personage showed up on Monday complaining of chest pains - evidently doing light fatigue work for National Day stresses him so, but he still has time, through all the strain, to spike his hair - so he was strapped to the ECG machine. What should I have done? Used the rectal thermometer on him? Shot him with a 16 gauge venula? I was siting beside him and he saw me smiling, and asked me why I was "sniggering". Whereupon I ran behind the curtain to hide my mirth.
I asked Yaodong how come he was so lucky that he got posted to Sungei Gedong Camp, HQ/NDP, and he replied that, "I'm always lucky". He asked if I could pass IPPT and when he found out I could pass but one station, he said that "Maybe we can go running together one day". And just before leaving, he asked me to take care. Aww. Actually I realised that this is the first time I've actually spoken to him. He does seem nicer than last time, though. But he's as chao keng as ever - he appeared again Tuesday night complaining of asthma. When he was sent to Tengah Air Base, the Medical Officer wanted him to be IVed but he declined. Bah. And due to his constant appearances, he's reviled among many of the medics for being a skiver and a troublemaker! For tales of Yaodong during his SIT Test, you can read Shawn's account.
The robotic (both in accent and delivery) chinese that all people of Caucasian blood seem to have is really irritating. People of Chinese descent aren't stereotyped as speaking in a Cheena way in Western shows, why should Chinese shows be so parochial and backward in their attitudes?
I heard a radio ad for the latest edition of Cleo, where there was a spread of 100 hunks. Oh well. At last it's time to make their ogling a publicly known and admitted fact I suppose! And speaking of Cleo, PJ Girl's article for Cleo will be in the August issue! I should go check it out. But how much does Cleo cost anyway?
I was making appointments for various servicemen at Hospitals, and all of the 4-5 people I spoke to were females! What does this say about gender biased hiring or position allocation for the front end of organisations?
I saw a drawer in the documentation room that was labelled "Nineki's Cabinet". Laying aside the fact that it should've been labelled "Nineki's Cabinet", I set out to investigate why it was named so oddly. Asking someone who'd taken a bottle of F&N Orange from it, I got the reply that, "That's for me to know and for you not to find out". Opening the drawer later, I found nothing out of the ordinary except for the bottle of F&N Orange. Another mystery that will go unsolved!
Some of the powers that be are playing with my rank. One day, in the Routine Orders, I was mentioned 2 or 3 times - and was a Corporal. And in the meal file that we're supposed to sign to mark our consumption of meals, but which is signed on behalf of everyone by the first to consume his meal - even if no one else turns up in the end, I am unranked. Maybe, in their records, I've ORDed! Hurrah!
While I was reading the Routine Orders one day, the Company Sergeant Major came by and advised me to downgrade: "Good for you, good for the unit". Haha. I have a feeling that I'll get injured during all the Remedial Trainings. My MO's said he might downgrade me, so let's see what happens.
On Tuesday, our night off was taken away because we had to do paperwork! Gah. Well I think that beat sitting in the parade square during "Movie Night", where the movie in question was enthralling - a video recording of the last half dress rehearsal for NDP.
We had a SOC test on Wednesday morning. Erk. My number tag was taken away at the first obstacle, the low wall, because I couldn't cross it. Aww. My muscles - shoulder, arm and stomach - still hurt. Erk.
After SOC, I was hanging around the Armskote to send my arms in when I got to talking with a disruptee. He'd dyed hair, and had disrupted to study Accountancy at NTU. When I told him that at least one of my friends was going to pursue the same course at the same place, he said to "ask him to think again". Haha.
I visited Somchaya's den of unspeakable pleasures again! Yeh.
Zhang and I were having a debate (via SMS, of all media!) about free will and whether the situations we find ourselves in are due to God's will and we should accept it and live happily (re indenture of course) - if you're a child soldier, does that mean that He means for you to be one and you should go about your job with zeal? In the end, he either conceded my point, gave up or decided it was a waste of too much money :)
I was tasked, with Andrew, to cover the Batallion Run at East Coast, the games following that and the NDP System Run at the National Stadium. After coming back from my wednesday night off, I was rather drained, and waking up at 4:45am, with less than 5 hours of sleep, didn't help. During the run, I was stationed in the safety rover, which was parked near the halfway point of the route. And promptly fell asleep.
A Racial Harmony Day message was read out by Commanding Officer, about how the SAF promotes racial harmony. Rather tall stuff, considering there are no Malays in my unit, or indeed in the whole of Armour, Artillery, the Commandos, the Air Force and the Navy.
Later, during the games segment, they played "Pushball", a game involving 2 teams of 30 people each pushing a chin-high inflated ball around. It was rather violent and reminiscent of rugby - when the whistle was blown, people would run from each side of the field and crash into the giant ball. At many points, I saw people going under and the ball rolling over them. All in all, it looked like a rugby scrum with more people and a bigger ball! And all the while, I had in mind one of the silliest cheers ever - "Push Raffles Push!". Though it can't beat the "Oei, oei, sat sat" rubbish.
Later, we had some time before the system run commenced, so we lingered at Kallang Leisure Park, which I believe we're all sick of by now. But it beats the stadium, so. After we had our lunch, Andrew went to catch Forty Winks in the ambulance while I sat down around Leisure Park and read the Economist. While there, I noticed that Burger King has updated the look of their menus. Sneakily and oh-so-conveniently, the prices have gone up in tandem with the change. And the Broiler has vanished, to be replaced by a "Chicken Whopper Jr", or the like.
Before the System Run, the CHIJ kiddies were running around practicing their item. None of their T-Shirts were tucked in, but that didn't get them scolded. As they ran onto the tarpaulin, they shrieked and yelped, sounding like birds! And because they moved slowly, they got shouted at quite a bit by their teachers. I'm surprised they didn't cry, actually.
Andrew'd bought the New Paper, that trashy tabloid, to read, though in the end he mostly read his manga. I briefly browsed through, and learnt that NDP volunteers are paid $5/day, get Haagen Dazs ice cream, tim sum and get to win prizes in lucky draws. Gah.
For the Batallion run earlier, we'd been made to collect ice to treat injuries, when it was actually the job of the QM department. Of course, this created a moral hazard, and indeed, many people attained injuries which were suitably treated with ice. Later at Kallang, Andrew and I went to Shop And Save to buy drinks (including a carton of Florida's Natural!) and confectionary to put inside the ice box, so we had a constant supply of refreshments during the system run. It was then that I tried, for the first time, Dad's Old Fashioned Root Beer, which Tim had lambasted. It was okay actually, better than he had described. Though A&W's is richer, more flavourful and overall better. I also bought Allswell Rose Mineral Water Tea, but I think they overdid the citric acid because it tasted like Apple Tea with a hint of rose.
As with the last time, canoeists trooped in to change out of their wet clothing. SRJC has a shirt which says, "Veni, Vidi, Vici", the connection to sailing of which I don't see. And a RJ girl was wearing a "Raffles Dragonboat" T-Shirt - don't tell me they have a Dragonboat team now?
Bored, I SMSed part of the lyrics to "We Will Get There" to various people. Their responses were either along the lines of, "that sucks" or "what the hell is that". Looks like the media blitz isn't working.
When we got back to camp, I was confronted with the task of having to finish filling in the list of >250 names that I'd though I'd escaped previously... and I have finished finally! Flipping through dockets, I realise that very few people are Rh-negative. Though I have no idea what being Rhesus negative does. And on a few dockets was written "Social conduct dis-mild". Odd. Well, I don't have that on mine, so. And one person is allergic to, of all things, sulphuric acid!
Folie has been complaining that I've been going around smiling all the time and attributes it to RJC stress. Maybe I really am going crazy.
Tentatively, I have christened the Mandarin-English hybrid spoken in Singapore "Mandlish". And perhaps one reason why it exists is the fashion for Chinese Pop songs to include English words, phrases, clauses or even verses!
I am going to stay in HQ, yay! Though some say that the Company line is not as bad as it is made out to be - Lion is quite slack apparently. The downside is that I am to replace Yiliang as the Documentation I/C and an MOPA. Woo. Of course this is assuming I don't get posted out. Or get injured during the weekly SOC and IPPTt tests, and the probably daily RTs and get injured.
Our little Australia sojourn will be cut short - it is confirmed. So it'll be less than 2 weeks - yay! And it will include a 2 day "educational tour" too. And for the Army Half Marathon, we will be running 10km and not 21km, because since we're busy preparing for NDP, we don't have the opportunity to "train up".
I went for dinner with my parents after booking out, at Captain's Table at Raffles Marina. And I heard a familiar tune being piped in. After a while, I realised it was the tune to the "Chao keng ah chao keng ah chao keng chao keng. Chao keng ah chao keng ah chao keng chao keng. You say I chao keng you say I chao keng. Actually everybody chao keng chao keng hey!" army song. I should've realised that army people were not capable of composing even a tune so simple as this!
Quotes:
"[On someone who's seemingly been hyped terribly beyond the honour due to her as a published poet] What's so great about her? All she did was write a stupid book called, 'Katong and Other Poems'"
Quotes:
"[On RGS Girls] B(R)id(G)et Jone(S)... bridget jones is fat, neurotic, ambitious, strangely likeable. familiar?... likeable sometimes lah. not most. i mean c'mon, they're weird" (sms)
"SAF teach me to be racist (has taught)"
"You just bring your A4-sized photograph (passport)"
"You prefer me to call you Shuqi or Gabriel?"
"[On his reservist briefing] The minute I put on No 4 I felt my brains dissolve and an overwhelming desire to sleep." (sms)
One guy found my weblog while searching for the lyrics to the infantry song. I was rather amused, and found that nowhere on the web could they be found, so I have reproduced them here.
Background information: The infantry song is a song that recruits in BMTC, Pulau Tekong, have to learn to sing on their Passing Out Parade day. It was introduced the batch before mine, and the tune was most probably stolen from some other song. Apparently the lyrics were written by a Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel Chan.
"We are the bedrock of our army, wanting to keep our people free.
Committed to the independence of our nation, we are the men from the Infantry.
There will never be a mountain too high, or a route too tough for us.
We are about to rule the day and the darkest night, we will never rest till the wrong is right.
Chorus
From the land, air and sea, we will strike our enemies.
They have called us 'The Queen Of The Battlefield'
We are brothers-in-arms, we are brothers proud to be.
We are the first, the one and only infantry.
We are a special band of soldiers, raised to guard our nation's shores.
We base our lives upon a set of 7 values, to defend our nation's shores.
And when our country says she needs us, we are always there by her side.
We will protect the lives of every Singaporean, for Singapore we will give our lives
Chorus
Musical Interlude + Monologue (2nd Verse)
Chorus"
So the Infantry have a song, and so do the Medics. How about the Clerks? Or the Storemen? My favourite of the posters depicting the various branches of the SAF is "Logistics - we supply the Army".
Just what's the difference between all the different ISOs? Is 9002 superior to 9000? And 10000 superior to 1000? Or something like that.
Post ID: 79188770
My life is organised!
Schedule for tomorrow:
9-11am church
11-12pm brunch in college (provided the kitchen is open)
12-2pm continue unpacking or nap
2-6/thereabouts pm choir practice
6-6.30 pm dinner
6.30-11 pm sleep, 'net, read, unpack (in order of descending preference)
11 pm sleep
Michael just emailed me from Kiel. Yay!
I'm such a slob. Under the pretext of saving money i walked to La Porchetta's to purchase a large pizza for $8- half for my lunch, half for my dinner. *Resolves never to eat solely pizza again. "Man shall not live on .... " Even if china bar's twice the price ($7/$8 for a meal, but their portions are quite filling!). I still can't forget chaowan's comment on china bar- "China bar? Must be lousy food... i don't like the way china chefs cook food"~ (for those who don't know, china bar is this nice small restaurant just outside uni that sells malaysian hawker-style dishes- rice and noodles!!!).
Thereis just came to visit my place. It's raining! And i didn't even notice until she told me. Actually it's just drizzling.
Maybe i should call heather- to find out if her offer of leasing her mobile phone while she's away is still open. I hope she isn't already in london.
Haha.... i just realized my whanging headaches this afternoon set in at the time APM was starting in arr-jay-see. Residual memories from last year ... or psychic transferral from pj girl?
Schedule for tomorrow:
9-11am church
11-12pm brunch in college (provided the kitchen is open)
12-2pm continue unpacking or nap
2-6/thereabouts pm choir practice
6-6.30 pm dinner
6.30-11 pm sleep, 'net, read, unpack (in order of descending preference)
11 pm sleep
Michael just emailed me from Kiel. Yay!
I'm such a slob. Under the pretext of saving money i walked to La Porchetta's to purchase a large pizza for $8- half for my lunch, half for my dinner. *Resolves never to eat solely pizza again. "Man shall not live on .... " Even if china bar's twice the price ($7/$8 for a meal, but their portions are quite filling!). I still can't forget chaowan's comment on china bar- "China bar? Must be lousy food... i don't like the way china chefs cook food"~ (for those who don't know, china bar is this nice small restaurant just outside uni that sells malaysian hawker-style dishes- rice and noodles!!!).
Thereis just came to visit my place. It's raining! And i didn't even notice until she told me. Actually it's just drizzling.
Maybe i should call heather- to find out if her offer of leasing her mobile phone while she's away is still open. I hope she isn't already in london.
Haha.... i just realized my whanging headaches this afternoon set in at the time APM was starting in arr-jay-see. Residual memories from last year ... or psychic transferral from pj girl?
Post ID: 79186250
Friday, July 19, 2002
 | Yay! Woohoo! DumDeeDum! You are Spaceman Spiff! Zounds! You are the intrepid Spaceman Spiff, the engaging explorer ensconsed in an unending universe of exotic and evil extraterrestrials! You're brave, but you should give that dictionary a rest. Take the What Calvin are You? Quiz by contessina_2000@yahoo.com! |
Post ID: 79152769
I have a sudden urge to share a moving experience aboard the plane. I watched a French and Saunders' comedy, a spoof of Lord of the rings- Fellowship of the rings- and itwas so funny, i kept on giggling (or maybe it was the white wine) until the german lady next to me tapped on the shoulder, gave me a hard stare and spoke slowly and clearly in german-accented english "I Vant to Sleep"
It was hilarious! They couldn't decide on how to stimulate a battlefield with half a million soldiers being killed, so they lined the crudely created battlefield with ants, then killed them by blasting them with a big hairdryer. And then gandalf ("Grandalf") drove into the countryside in his little cart only to meet Tellytubbies waving at him from the picturesque hills. And the hobbit children were singing "Grandalf, we love you... won't you come to play!" And grandalf fired a parting rocket at them so they ran away screaming! Then frodo ("dodo") baggins (who was reading Harry potter 4) said "Bilbo doesn't want to see any well-wishers or malaysians today!" to which grandalf replied "How about old friends or award winning actors?"
When they got to rivendell dodo baggins revealed to grandalf that he had acted as Harry potter too (and donned the glasses!) to which all the other actors congratulated him on his *splendid acting*. When the company got to the Lady of the wood, galadriel showed Frodo what he could become with the ring (A Bono "Save the world" music video) and galadriel went "... i shall be a Queeeeeen" and did the dumb arms -flapping thing... and was revealed as a blobby thing singing "Murder on the dance floor"!
Um. I don't see how that's moving, but ah well. I was moved.
Tried to do a search on hair clay on google. Found this instead. Erm.
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Metro/4859/Joanne/TheBestIsLost.txt
... caressed his hair. Clay moved, and their lips met, bodies straining
together. Lester's tongue bathed Clay's lips, moistening them. ...
16k - Cached - Similar pages
Ugggghhhhh why does so many search engine hits have the words "hair" and "clay" together in instances such as above
It was hilarious! They couldn't decide on how to stimulate a battlefield with half a million soldiers being killed, so they lined the crudely created battlefield with ants, then killed them by blasting them with a big hairdryer. And then gandalf ("Grandalf") drove into the countryside in his little cart only to meet Tellytubbies waving at him from the picturesque hills. And the hobbit children were singing "Grandalf, we love you... won't you come to play!" And grandalf fired a parting rocket at them so they ran away screaming! Then frodo ("dodo") baggins (who was reading Harry potter 4) said "Bilbo doesn't want to see any well-wishers or malaysians today!" to which grandalf replied "How about old friends or award winning actors?"
When they got to rivendell dodo baggins revealed to grandalf that he had acted as Harry potter too (and donned the glasses!) to which all the other actors congratulated him on his *splendid acting*. When the company got to the Lady of the wood, galadriel showed Frodo what he could become with the ring (A Bono "Save the world" music video) and galadriel went "... i shall be a Queeeeeen" and did the dumb arms -flapping thing... and was revealed as a blobby thing singing "Murder on the dance floor"!
Um. I don't see how that's moving, but ah well. I was moved.
Tried to do a search on hair clay on google. Found this instead. Erm.
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Metro/4859/Joanne/TheBestIsLost.txt
... caressed his hair. Clay moved, and their lips met, bodies straining
together. Lester's tongue bathed Clay's lips, moistening them. ...
16k - Cached - Similar pages
Ugggghhhhh why does so many search engine hits have the words "hair" and "clay" together in instances such as above
Post ID: 79150580
This is rather disturbing - Yahoo! Auctions (Singapore): Uniforms
And more disturbing search engine queries:
"rgs girls singapore nude", "st.theresa's sexy college girls", "indonesian rape xxx vcds", "chu mei feng fuck", "keluar baris" and "tekong bmtc tips".
Gah.
And more disturbing search engine queries:
"rgs girls singapore nude", "st.theresa's sexy college girls", "indonesian rape xxx vcds", "chu mei feng fuck", "keluar baris" and "tekong bmtc tips".
Gah.
Post ID: 79148790
What the hell is "hair clay"?
I asked around my office and someone queried: "Is it some kind of hair-loss product? Some kind of clay you slather over your bald spots to look like hair? Or is it hair that has the consistency of clay?"
It's mildly distressing to see strong, virile males(cough) so fixated on cosmetic products.
Andrew - when I was there, I never considered any alternative to Optus yes! - I can't tell you how many 19 minute calls I made everyday to other Optus subscribers between 8-12:) Thankfully, I left way before the yes! Time promotional period expired. Generally though, most mobile phones rates are financially comparable unless you go for very specific IDD plans or those suburban-cell/region-cell special offers, which aren't worth the hassle.
However, you should consider getting prepaid only if you're the type of guy who receives calls more than making them.
And as for anime, not being into "big robots gawking around" and "gory stuff" seriously restricts your choices somewhat - but I suspect you'd be the type who would get off on drama/comedy series or decent mid-range action...
For movies or one-shots - I'd suggest milder offerings like Wings of Honnemaise, Nausicaa: Valley of Wind, Castle of Cogliostro, or the surprisingly whimsical Porco Russo(all of these are widely available at the various anime stores around) - these are good story-oriented animes with understated violence and not too much emphasis on technology. If you want to break into anime series, that demands a fair amount of time - here are a few suggestions.
Ruoroni Kenshin is a very common starting point for most neonate anime fans, but it's a LONG series (90+ episodes!). Start with the first 5-10 episodes to decide if you like the overall feel - it's got decent characterization, typical anime slapstick humour, good visual production values, and the story arcs are interesting without being too heavy. Fushiigi Yuugi and Slayers are another couple of decent titles in the medieval/magic vein. For really less serious stuff, go for Ranma 1/2 or Akazukin Cha Cha!
For comedies and drama series - I think you might enjoy Golden Boy, but it deals a little too frankly with some adolescent themes for your puritanical tastes. Most animes do, in one way or another, so it's difficult to recommend something decidedly inoffensive. Try Love Hina, or You're Under Arrest!
Japan Hobby over at the Chinatown shopping center(the one beneath the Chinese cinema) offers a very comprehensive range, and getting an account isn't too expensive. What I did was to band together with a few anime fans and borrow about 10-15 tapes a week on one account and pass them around. I'm sure you can find fellow enthusiasts there.
If you want to break into the hobby at a more serious level, head over to the Melb Uni anime society - WWWA(Weekly Watchers of Wonderful Anime). They have regular screenings twice a week(at Lowe and Latham theaters last year, but not sure where they've moved to now), and their weekly screenings are generally milder fare for obvious reasons. There are lots of very nice people there who will be willing to offer suggestions. Check out their screening times from the Student Union's daily event sheet.
I asked around my office and someone queried: "Is it some kind of hair-loss product? Some kind of clay you slather over your bald spots to look like hair? Or is it hair that has the consistency of clay?"
It's mildly distressing to see strong, virile males(cough) so fixated on cosmetic products.
Andrew - when I was there, I never considered any alternative to Optus yes! - I can't tell you how many 19 minute calls I made everyday to other Optus subscribers between 8-12:) Thankfully, I left way before the yes! Time promotional period expired. Generally though, most mobile phones rates are financially comparable unless you go for very specific IDD plans or those suburban-cell/region-cell special offers, which aren't worth the hassle.
However, you should consider getting prepaid only if you're the type of guy who receives calls more than making them.
And as for anime, not being into "big robots gawking around" and "gory stuff" seriously restricts your choices somewhat - but I suspect you'd be the type who would get off on drama/comedy series or decent mid-range action...
For movies or one-shots - I'd suggest milder offerings like Wings of Honnemaise, Nausicaa: Valley of Wind, Castle of Cogliostro, or the surprisingly whimsical Porco Russo(all of these are widely available at the various anime stores around) - these are good story-oriented animes with understated violence and not too much emphasis on technology. If you want to break into anime series, that demands a fair amount of time - here are a few suggestions.
Ruoroni Kenshin is a very common starting point for most neonate anime fans, but it's a LONG series (90+ episodes!). Start with the first 5-10 episodes to decide if you like the overall feel - it's got decent characterization, typical anime slapstick humour, good visual production values, and the story arcs are interesting without being too heavy. Fushiigi Yuugi and Slayers are another couple of decent titles in the medieval/magic vein. For really less serious stuff, go for Ranma 1/2 or Akazukin Cha Cha!
For comedies and drama series - I think you might enjoy Golden Boy, but it deals a little too frankly with some adolescent themes for your puritanical tastes. Most animes do, in one way or another, so it's difficult to recommend something decidedly inoffensive. Try Love Hina, or You're Under Arrest!
Japan Hobby over at the Chinatown shopping center(the one beneath the Chinese cinema) offers a very comprehensive range, and getting an account isn't too expensive. What I did was to band together with a few anime fans and borrow about 10-15 tapes a week on one account and pass them around. I'm sure you can find fellow enthusiasts there.
If you want to break into the hobby at a more serious level, head over to the Melb Uni anime society - WWWA(Weekly Watchers of Wonderful Anime). They have regular screenings twice a week(at Lowe and Latham theaters last year, but not sure where they've moved to now), and their weekly screenings are generally milder fare for obvious reasons. There are lots of very nice people there who will be willing to offer suggestions. Check out their screening times from the Student Union's daily event sheet.
Post ID: 79129284
Ha. OCF camp's starting in 3 hours plus. heh. But i can't go for it- am dead tired (i had a baaaaad plane trip, still feel like puking, movies didn't play properly) and anyway i have to be around for first choir practice on sunday. Hrrmphh..... that means all the ocfers won't be around the whole weekend. Hrmmmph.
Discovered: Seth green is astonishingly short at 5 foot 4"!!
Discovered: Seth green is astonishingly short at 5 foot 4"!!
Post ID: 79114571
Got the green light from parents to obtain a mobile phone. So ... limitations being
a) i don't already own a mobile so i'll have to sign up for a plan (2-years) to obtain a free one, since purchasing the cheapest one over-the-counter works out to over $200.
b) must be cheap cheap cheap!
This is rubbishly confusing.
Orange, a subset of Yes Optus, runs a CDMA network with possibly the cheapest per minute pricing. $5 subscription fee, with no free talktime, and flagfall (connection fee for every successful call) of 20c and 18c per 30 seconds. SMSes are 22c.
No free phones- but i can get a relatively un-ugly phone for $218 or $288.
Downside: CDMA phone would be useless in singapore.
Vodaphone:
Per second billing
Peak/off-peak separate charges. Off-peak is 8pm to 8am on normal days, and all sunday.
Connection fee of $71.50
Contract term of 2 years.
$17 per month plan:
Peak- 74.3 cents per 30 sec, flag fall 28.6c
Off-peak- 64.4c, flagfall 15.4c
$22 per month plan:
Peak- 53.9c per 30 sec, flagfall 28.5c
Off-peak- 20.4c, flagfall 15.4c
$33 per month plan:
Peak-40.1c per 30 sec, flagfall 28.6c
Off-peak- 20.4c, 15.4c
Prepaid: 30c per 30 sec. I think.
Yes optus!
Rollover unused talktime
Perk: choose from
a) Call any mobile network or landline, anywhere in Australia for just 30c for 10 minutes per call, 8pm to 7am every day.
b) Free calls from one Optus Mobile Digital to another, 8pm to midnight every night for the first 20 minutes per call within Australia. 'yes' Time is a special promotion available until 31 December 2002.
(b) is a big draw to my friends here- most of them subscribe to optus because of it.
$22 per month plan
$15 credit
Flat rate of 51.7c per 30sec, flagfall 24.2c
$33 per month plan
$33 credit
Flate rate of 44c per 30sec, flagfall 24.2c
If i subscribe to the $33 plan for 2 years i get the polyphonic panasonic GD75 free!
Then again i hardly know anything about different handphone models. Sigh.
a) i don't already own a mobile so i'll have to sign up for a plan (2-years) to obtain a free one, since purchasing the cheapest one over-the-counter works out to over $200.
b) must be cheap cheap cheap!
This is rubbishly confusing.
Orange, a subset of Yes Optus, runs a CDMA network with possibly the cheapest per minute pricing. $5 subscription fee, with no free talktime, and flagfall (connection fee for every successful call) of 20c and 18c per 30 seconds. SMSes are 22c.
No free phones- but i can get a relatively un-ugly phone for $218 or $288.
Downside: CDMA phone would be useless in singapore.
Vodaphone:
Per second billing
Peak/off-peak separate charges. Off-peak is 8pm to 8am on normal days, and all sunday.
Connection fee of $71.50
Contract term of 2 years.
$17 per month plan:
Peak- 74.3 cents per 30 sec, flag fall 28.6c
Off-peak- 64.4c, flagfall 15.4c
$22 per month plan:
Peak- 53.9c per 30 sec, flagfall 28.5c
Off-peak- 20.4c, flagfall 15.4c
$33 per month plan:
Peak-40.1c per 30 sec, flagfall 28.6c
Off-peak- 20.4c, 15.4c
Prepaid: 30c per 30 sec. I think.
Yes optus!
Rollover unused talktime
Perk: choose from
a) Call any mobile network or landline, anywhere in Australia for just 30c for 10 minutes per call, 8pm to 7am every day.
b) Free calls from one Optus Mobile Digital to another, 8pm to midnight every night for the first 20 minutes per call within Australia. 'yes' Time is a special promotion available until 31 December 2002.
(b) is a big draw to my friends here- most of them subscribe to optus because of it.
$22 per month plan
$15 credit
Flat rate of 51.7c per 30sec, flagfall 24.2c
$33 per month plan
$33 credit
Flate rate of 44c per 30sec, flagfall 24.2c
If i subscribe to the $33 plan for 2 years i get the polyphonic panasonic GD75 free!
Then again i hardly know anything about different handphone models. Sigh.
Post ID: 79113816
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