my_life

the last 48 hours

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:50:07 GMT

This is a record of the last 48 hours leading up to stand chart. Note: All timings are estimates and are as best as i can remember.

Sat, 5th Dec, 12pm:

Bryan and Vincent at my house. we finished discussing our plans for sunday, where to go and how to get there. just watched the bulls get their butts whooped by the cavs. great game, not as exciting as lebron didn't hit many dunks and didn't play that many minutes, but it was an interesting game. We watched FMA on animax before heading out to lunch at pastamania.

Sat, 5th Dec, 2pm:
Just reached home. was shopping at NTUC for bananas and 100plus. all loaded up for the run.

Sat, 5th Dec, 3pm:
Headed to meet the OGLs to celebrate Charissa's birthday. We walked from cine to ion to eat at fish and co. Shi Kai, Mian Jun, Xue Lin and I had to carry a lighted birthday cake past 3 stores and a crowd of people so that we could suprise the birthday girl at the table. Hilarious. The thai fish and chips were nice, spicy. But i think we all got tired after a while of eating fish and chips. Left at 7.30pm since they were watching new moon.

Sat, 5th Dec, 9.30pm:
Li Chien came and stayed over at my house. Saw Kobe's amazingly tyco shot to beat the buzzer and win the game against the the heat. Tried to sleep at 10.30pm. tossed and turned til 11.30.

Sun, 6th Dec, 3.30am:
Put my alarm clock to snooze twice and turned off the alarm. Thank god i had the foresight to set my handphone alarm. If not i'll be late. Woke Li Chien up, had bread for breakfast. Met Vince at the bus stop and cabbed to the war memorial.

Sun, 6th Dec, 4.30am:
Reached war memorial park. Bryan and Jiayi met us there. Saw Patrick and Rudi. Chatted for a while. Coconut overslept. -.-''' Had bananas and 100plus before depositing our bags. Bloody start line was at the opposite end of the underpass. Had to walk underground and get there. Haven't even start running already sweating le. The line queue for the portaloos was disgustingly long. The guys ended up.............. (Future MO and I were smart enough not to do that).

Sun, 6th Dec, 5.30am:
Flag off. Bloody DJ was trying to hype us, but we were too tired to respond. It was good. We were very on target to hit my estimated timings.

Sun, 6th Dec, 6.30am:
One hour in, feeling good, cleared 10km. Maintaining the pace i had set. 2 minutes behind but thats acceptable. Entering ECP, bloody Kenyan already exiting ECP. THAT's BLOODY 20KM FASTER THAN US. 12km mark, grabbed a banana. Hungry, but good food. Gave me the energy needed. Stopped by the portaloo at the 14km mark, disgusting. Singaporeans need better toilet manners. Lost Jiayi at the 14km mark. Lost Li Chien at the 16km mark cause i slowed down for Bryan, met Pao J-wei and Jason. Lost Bryan and J-Wei 1km later. Caught up to Li Chien at the 19km mark, saw him stretching at a tree. Hit the 20km mark, almost halfway through and was on target, 2.5 hours. Where the hell is the turning point. So bloody far. Met bryan while turning in.

Sun, 6th Dec, 8.10am:
Finally turned in. Li Chien ran ahead of us. Me and Bryan again. Where in the goddamn world is that 21km marker and my power gel? Oh i see it. Nice. Strawberry and banana flavour. Very nice, sweet. Run. Knees starting to give way. Knee injury kicks in. Knew i should have watched out for the hole in ubin 4 years ago. Kneecap's practically non-existent. Couldn't take it. Walked from 22km, met Jason again, and his probable GF? Bryan tweaked his ankle, cramped like every km from 23km to 25km. Thank god for first-aid training. Left him after 26km, ran a bit. Caught up to Jiayi at 28km. Walked til 30km. Damn, behind schedule already. Lagging by about 20 minutes. Acceptable parameters i guess. 6 hours is still acceptable. Saw some guy with his supporters tag reading: such a lousy race pack. lousy sponsors. Shame on you! i agree with him.

Sun, 6th Dec, 9.40am:
30km mark. Home stretch. Left Jiayi behind and ran. Lasted 500m before cramps started appearing. Dammit. Why now? Tried the 3min walk, 2min run strategy. Managed to maintain pace, somewhat. Why is the bloody turn at Kallang Leisure Mall so bloody far?!?! Met Jason again, hi-bye kind.

Sun, 6th Dec, 10.20am:
33km. damn tired. Must persevere. Saw some guy at the Kallang sports stadium on IV drips at the first-aid tent. The cooling tent was nice. Sadly it only lasted 5 seconds. 3min walk, 2 min run became 1min run, 3 min walk. Cramps came up after 1min of running. Bloody sun so hot. Yet i'm not sweating. I've lost almost every free molecule of water i can spare. Chugged 2-3 cups of water and 100plus at each water point. Oh, Kallang water park, kayaking course. Coconut, my 2 lunches!!! 36km, yes, i can see the flyer. It's almost the exact same route back like the Nike+ human race. Push push.

Sun, 6th Dec, 11.20am
39km mark. Almost there. Push, push. F1 pit stop. Sun so hot and bright. Ran through the Floating Platform. Nice view, got soccer field there. Cramps coming up again. Run/walk strategy working. Might make it a bit past 6 hours. Move. Move. Where's the bloody 41km marker? Wait a minute, this isn't the route i saw the 41km marker at this morning. Its at the bus stop at the opposite end of the esplanade! Oh well, i'm still on the right route with everybody. Run under the expressway next to the esplanade. Almost there. Some random ah pek was like: "they say the finishing line is near. Where is it?" I agree. Bloody hell. Some guy got cramps. Tossing around in the flower bed while his friends help him.

Sun, 6th Dec, 11.36am:
Finally, the goddamn finishing gantry. Passed the 42km marker. Wah lao, 195m where got so ****ing long one? Push. Last bit of energy. 100m in, cramps forming. So paiseh, walked 10m with so many people cheering. Push, finish. Stopped my watch. 6h 18min. ok timing. almost 45min behind my estimated timings, but i can accept it. grabbed my medal and my shirt. SWEET!!!! My first marathon. Chugged down 500ml of water and 500ml of 100plus in less than 20min. whew. Legs non-existant le. Got lost in the carnival. Stupid place so confusing. Massage must wait for 2 hours. Forget it. Moved on.

WTH!!! Must walk underground to the war memorial park?!?! With no escalators somemore. Bloody sponsors. Complain then they know. Collected bag. Saw vince baking under the hot sun. Got my bag. eh, hello? your supposed to cut the cable tie away? no scissors? WTF!!! had to tear open the plastic bag myself. 100plus never felt so good. Steiner appeared soon after. Rudi too. Bryan appeared, disappeared and reappeared again. Make us wait so long for him. Idiot!!!

Sun, 6th Dec, 1pm:
Met Jiayi at macs. No seats. Moving on. BK sounds good. Found a seat, nice. On the way to the counter, met kok loong. Chatted, then bought lunch. Freggin' hungry. Wolfed down my food. Went to get taxi. Bloody road blocks and queue made it impossible to get a taxi. Called coconut. Still at the fair. In the end we dragged ourselves to the MRT. sat to marina bay and back. Confirm got seat. Refused to move for any old ladies that might board, lucky don't have. Got off at bishan, cabbed back home with vince and jiayi. Went home.

Sun, 6th Dec, 3pm:
Showered. Iced my non-existant yet painful knees. Read the papers. Sleep, with my finisher's tee no less.

Sun, 6th Dec, 8pm:
Dinner. Fried rice. Flash forward. Internet, sleep.

Mon, 7th Dec, 9am:
Woke up. OMG. My back is in pain. My legs are sore. My whole lower body feels like lead. No exercise, at least for 3 weeks. WHy must my house be so big, 2 stories. Must climb up and down to get to my room. oh, my legs.

And i hope i can get rid of the soreness soon. nice run, excrutiating, but an experience i'll never forget.

be with me

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:20:22 GMT

so I've been lazy to update my blog. guilty as charged.

I've done my time in NS and have finally reached my ORD (this is the proper usage, not ORD LOH! that just doesn't make sense grammatically). time is spent looking at tuition agency ads, trying to get some tuition assignments so that i can earn some money even while in university. things are looking bleak of course, but the upside is that i have a job teaching at cat high next year. so that's good.

my time now has been spent reading and trying to prepare myself for the impending doom that is known as standard chartered Singapore marathon, which is taking place this Sunday. hopefully I can survive and walk back home after that grueling run.

I finally found the DVD for the most touching movie of all produced locally: BE WITH ME.

The film is pretty much a silent film, with only less than 3 minutes of dialogue in the whole 93 minute film. It depends much on subtitles, camerawork and post production to get the message across. The camerawork is really great, working the right angles and lighting was superb, and the actor's expressions were really genuine, and the music really adds to the scene.

This show is based on a blind-deaf woman's story (she acts in it towards the end) and the three stories portrayed in it are based on / inspired by her story. It takes us through three different stages of love: the teenage puppy love, the middle age infatuation, and the old age crisis. All of them are somehow linked through one person or the other.

The first story stars Ezann Lee and Samantha Tan, and it talks about how they end up falling in love and how Samantha's character moves away after realising that it's moving too fast. 4 years ago, the only thing I was interested in was the both of them kissing (admit it, back then the only thing you'll notice in the newspaper review is the fact that 2 girls kiss, in a local film no less). But after you watch it, you realise that it's more than that, and how much we try at our age to hold on to the ones that we call and hold dearest.

The second story stars Lynn Poh and Seet Keng Yew. Seet plays this fat security guard who is infatuated with Lynn and stalks her (secretly of course). His abusive childhood and inferiority complex plays a part in this of course, and it is well portrayed in the scenes that are related in this story.

The last stars Chiew Sung Ching as the old man, Lawrence Yong as his son and Theresa Chan, the woman who inspired this show. Chiew plays this old man who can't come to grips with the lost of his wife, his son (played by Lawrence) pretty much abandons him and it isn't until he introduces his father to Theresa that their relationship mends back a bit better. But that's just the sub-plot, the main plot is how even in old age, people still treasure the ones they love and moving on is very hard. It isn't until the end that the father manages to move on, after so many years.

All three each vividly displays the themes of love (Ezann and Samantha), hope (Lynn and Seet) and destiny (Chiew and Theresa Chan). And after watching it, it really touches you. I almost couldn't sleep after watching it last night, and it's one of the few movies I wouldn't mind watching again and again. It's really quite touching. One of the films that I'd give 5/5, a definite must watch.

ORD LOH~

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:50:03 GMT

It's hard to believe that 1 year 10 months flies by in the blink of an eye. It just felt like yesterday that i was entering the dreaded Tekong, lugging up 8 flights of stairs my field pack full of my army stuff, my duffle bag and my own bag, Jiayi thinking that i was some gangster with my golden brown har (i wasn't ok). It felt like yesterday where i entered SISPEC, getting unmercilessly screwed left right up down centre (with my section mates of course) by Shukri, eating late night cup noodles with a movie playing on the IPod, plotting on the a telted map our route to get lost in mandai the next night. It felt just like yesterday I entered TAB, leading a life unbefitting of a soldier, playing pokemon cards to pass time.

1 year 10 months have passed so fast, my ORD is in sight, another 2 weeks, 8 more working days, and i am finally reunited with my long lost pink IC, which has been kept in a dingy, dark storage room at CMPB. it's probably grown mouldy from the time in that dark room.

But i'm just glad that i have gotten through it. It's the day I and over 400 people have looked forward to since last year, 9th Jan. And it is finally here..... well soon anyways. In the meantime, it's good to start preparing to become an NSman.

One of them includes practicing my long rusty and mouldy piano. I'm making good progress with breaking free, though I'm still about a week away from fully learning the song, and at least another month away from playing it decently. And i've taking up the insurmountable challenge of learning merry christmas mr lawrence. so far after 3 days, i've managed to learn................. the first page >.< if you've seen the score, it's like an orchestra piece, it'll take months for me to play the entire song, let alone playing it decently. But i hope that i'll be able to do it. hopefully i can play it as well as Sakamoto Ryuichi.

while surfing facebook, i came across this video. interesting, so girls, if you can get your boyfriend's shirt, or some guy's shirt, you can wear it like this. I personally recommend the tube, it looks cool, just don't tie the sleeves around your neck like she did, it looks horrible.

Just finished reading the 3 trillion dollar war, after about 3 months. my first intellectually stimulating book. it reminds me that i have effectively returned all ym econs knowledge to Mrs Lim.

I could barely understand half the ecnons lingo in there. but it's an intersting book. the authors considered many factors, costs to economy, costs to country, costs of lives lost, and made it sound very cohesive. it's the long term costs that kill. and of course i don't agree about placing a value on life (it's quite unethical to do so, life is not quantifiable), but the authros brought up good points. it's a book worth reading, despite the fact that much of it is speculation, but economists deal with specualation.

after such a brain-draining book, i've decided to move on to something less draining (at least for now, until i move on to the next book, how ecnomics explains everything) called howl's moving castle. the book has been sitting on my shelf for 10 years, time to start reading it.

so it's time to move on, start planning for the future for which i'm uncertain, before life sets in again......

a good deed a day makes your day worthwhile

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:35:50 GMT

on the way home today, a nice little incident happened on the bus.

some lady fainted on the bus and then puked. so being typical singaporean, i was stunned for a while, like what is happening. but in the end, me in number 4 had to help her, make the calls to the paramedics and to her family. actually wanted to help her off the bus, but then she just puked. kinda scary, like how such things can happen on the bus. couldn't write my personal particulars properly when the bus driver asked for it, my hands were still shaking.

but at the end of the day, it's the fact that i did a good deed that counts. and i'll probably see my face on stomp sometime soon. lolz.

Addicted

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:26:30 GMT

Just decided to post up the vids of some songs i'm quite addicted to nowadays.

Beautful song. she's got a nice voice.

Like the tune. kind of makes no sense to me at times but my chinese isn't that good to begin with anyway.

of course we can't leave out the local talent, mark bonafide with don richmond and venessa fernandez. great song. love the effects. i wish i could do those with my mac.

and of course, this song is playing non-stop on my ipod, especially on the ride to work in the mornings.

today was a good day. with nobody (or rather few people) around in office, some of us decided to make it an NSF day. we just slacked around a lot, went to the mess to play table soccer, played basketball and soccer. it's a fun day. but not everyday can be like this. tomorrow, everything will be back to the status quo and we'll be busy with work.

who can we blame but ourselves for the mistakes we've made, and the time we have lost?

Interesting...

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:28:43 GMT

some things i read about over the past few days, weeks, months, who really keeps track of time when your in the army?

singaporeans are notorious multi-taskers. according to a survey done, singaporeans try to do about 32 hours worth of things within 24 hours a day. wow, we sure maximise our day to do the most of things. no wonder we are so stressful. multi-tasking to the extreme. just like what i'm doing now, having restaurant city running in the background, listening to the radio ad blogging about these facts. lolz.

let us thank the LTA and public transport council for making just eating a sweet or drinking a sip of water a crime. the recent debacle about a woman trying to drink plain water from her bottle in the mrt station got her slapped with a $30 fine. when transport minister (TM) was questioned about it, he made no qualms about saying that he fully supports the decision of his staff and reiterated that NOBODY should be eating or drink even the tiniest amount of any digestables in a station. if you are sick, kindly approach our friendly mrt staff for permission first before deciding to do so. wad next? asking permission to board the trains?

next up is MM lee's comment about singapore depending on foreigners entirely. he's comments that foreign talent is needed to drive singapore's economy and make up population numbers has me cracking up. almost a third of singapore's poplation is made up of foreign talent, not including PRs. that pretty much makes singapore foreign-pore. ever considered that he's stop at two policy was the cause of this?

and the last thing i found interesting, we're recruiting more pharmacists and doctors from overseas to boost our healthcare system. 30 years ago, for "fear of an oversupply of doctors", singapore cut the number of recognised medical degrees from overseas schools to around 30. now, they've increased numbers to 120+ because we need more doctors, about double of wad NUS produces a year. splendid. ever considered it's the 6 (now cut to 5) years of "housemanship" in singapore's system that is scaring people away, especially the GPs, whom you would need the most to take care of singapore's aging population?

the only reason i'm this cynical about the last point is because i'm looking at how things are going to turn out if i go overseas to study. study until i'm 26y/o, serve my "bond" with HSA until i'm 31, too old to open a clinic (and admit it, "housemanship" doesn't pay much cause you don't have clinical experience, how to save up enough money to open a clinic?), too young to specialise (not that i want to). what am i to do? get stuck working in a hospital as a GP? wow.

in any case, my ORD wishlist is to buy a new basketball (preferably spalding gold series, or something leather and decent, not the one i'm using now where it's practically as smooth as a new-born's behind after 6 years of pounding the cement floor of the court), a new ipod classic (admit it, mine is too old, too out dated, too small-memory-ed, and has problems syncing my photos with my mac), and a crumpler (the ultimate fashions statement, though i have yet to find a nice colour with a decent sized one, but this is the one that is of least importance). but most importantly, is to ORD in peace!

and i'm planning on buying a simple laptop (or netbook as they call the size i'm looking at) for uni. just to play games (uni life is stressful you know) and do some simple typing like homework. i'm looking at sony's vaio and probably something else. still looking. feel free to drop me your recommendations.

vulgarities make my day

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:06:28 GMT

according to researchers, uttering vulgarities when your in pain actually acts like an anesthetic, it allows you to endure pain a bit longer and your perception of pain is lessened. it takes your mind off the pain because of your emotional response, causing a fight or flight response. since our linguistic skills have hijacked our vocal cords, instead of yelling in pain, cursing and swearing takes over. so the next time your in pain, don't hesitate to let loose the occasional vulgarity. of course there is a catch. men tend to be less receptive to this than women, possibly because women curse less. the frequent use of vulgarities will lessen the effectiveness of this "anesthesia". so now you know why SAF personnel like to report sick for no rhyme no reason, because they curse so much it makes no difference on their psyche. haha. interesting fact.

so national day has come and gone. another public holiday gone. next up, 9 day hari raya holiday. less than 90 days to ORD!!! i can practically smell it!

but i made use of my 2 days leave. caught up on my reading, did the housework, watched TV. the old reruns on TV are really interesting. like growing up (if anybody remembers it) on channel 5. basically just lazed around. it's good to just stay at home and just relax, do nothing. just watch time go by. it's back to work tomorrow though. darn. it was good while it lasted.

overdue

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:00:34 GMT

so it's been almost a mth and a half since i last blogged. so in this mth and a half a lot has happened.

2 ICTs in 3 weeks was a killer. running ard, handling all the little details, answering questions, dealing with screwed up systems. well, at least it's all over now. no time to hit the gym also, so i've put on some weight.

the weight issue cld have also come thanks to the 5 days MC the MO gave me for my fever. it's become so common place that MOs just give panadol and 5 days MC as the standard SOP for fevers nowadays. so i pretty much just sleep at home, watch TV. at least i got time to catch up on my reading and gaming now. the funny thing is, i don't think it's H1N1, cause the fever miraculously disapeared the next day. just got the sore throat now.

and the past few weeks have also been filled with my 2 star kayak course, L1 abseiling, watching own time own target with kristy, class outing and dim sum biffet with some of the OGLs.

kayak was fun. the choppy filthy waters of the kallang river and you. what more could you ask for. besides the aching bodies, the sore arms, the chao da-ed hands, it was a fun experience. learned cool stuff, like how to do "drifting" in a kayak, and also how to empty the kayak without going back to shore, rescuing and recovering in the middle of the water. the 6km expedition to the marina barrage was tiring but fun. only thing i hated was the capsize drill, which sadly was the very FIRST thing they made us do for the course. *claps* really want to head back into the water again. some day. to practice everything.

abseiling was lame. instructor was a bit crappy. rained so didn't abseil down the wall. oh wells. at least now i know how to abseil and break properly.

own time own target was a great play. besides the minor mix up in venue (totally my fault i admit) it was a funny play. it was a NC-16 play but saw some parents bring in their 2 children. very good reflection of the army. all the vulgarities, all the blunders, all the "tai chi". although the first story was a bit far fetched, the second story was better. brought back the memories of BMT.

class outing at marina barrage. quite fun. epic failure in trying to fly the kite, but it was a nice catch up session. sitting around talking, playing cluedo. then dinner at shokudo, great food great company. what more could u ask for.

then on my leave day (before i fell sick), dim sum buffet with ziyin, charrissa and xue lin. nice talk cock session, sat in the restaurant for 2 hrs. but the food was only so-so. not that nice. but again, the company was nice.

less than 100 days to ORD, 50 working days (after subtracting my leave, long weekends, clearance and MC after wisdom tooth extraction). i can almost smell my pink IC. can't wait for uni to begin. yes, i tolerated almost 2 years of this when i cld have gone in like last year. i can only blame myself, but i just go to move on. it's just a bit more.

retro

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:28:54 GMT

after watching ghost of girlfriends past, which by the way was a hilarious show (despite the fact that we were almost late for the show, for once i am thankful for the fact that cinemas love to show 15 minute long commercials before the movie begins proper), i am now addicted to all the oldies of the past, the retro oldies that for some reason i knew for like almost 10 years but never knew the titles. one of the songs that was in the show was earth wind and fire's let's groove, which is one nice song. shall put up the MV for it, it really was representative of that era, with the grainy films, and low grade effects, smoke and flashing lights.

nothing much nowadays, i'm looking at diving classes. got to save up enough money and find people who are willing to spend that much money first. hope can take after i ORD.

talking to some of the guys over lunch and we were saying how asians work too much, one of the reasons why westerners hate us. cause we're too damn hardworking. look at chinese overseas and they work like 24/7, unlike the locals who close shop at 5pm sharp. maybe it's cause we are used to a competitive nature, that's why we are ingrained to work hard, and failure is not an option. think i should forget that thinking and move on. i've failed, time for plan B.

failure to launch

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:33:00 GMT

i've spent my time surfing the brightsparks forum, looking up pharmacy. i've realised that pharmacy has got many prospects, well as far as i can tell. i can go attachments, possibly even go overseas for a year (if i wanted), learn about drugs, pharmacology, stuff that should play more to my interest in chemistry. perhaps that's where i shld head to instead of medicine.

ot of curiosity, i looked at the medicine forums as well. and well, all i can say is the age old adage that failing to prepare is preparing to fail. in my case, i should have looked into the forum. there was so much information that i could have used to my benefit. i could have prepared myself better for the interview, maybe mentally prep myself for the essay, maybe fnd out more about the whole course itself. i can only blame myself.

so i guess i should make use of whatever the kind souls have typed on the forums and maybe land myself a scholarship with HSA for pharmacy. TTSH seems to have a mid pharmacy scholarship too. there's even a chance if i mug my ******** ass off, score a CAP of 5.0 for 2 sems, i can transfer (albeit having to repeat one year) to med, which is highly unlikely.

but now that i have found some goal in life, some other things are still lost. i tried my best, i really did. i did it because i didn't want anymore undue stress on you. i did it because it's what you wanted me to do. now that i've found out the reason why i shld take pharm, why i shld stay, why i even started to find out all the answers in the first place, i hope you'll forgive me. i've tried my best not to fall into the pit of self despair again, but it's hard, knowing that your not by my side to help me.