BLP

I will be away from the 1st - 4th.

If there's anything urgent, contact me on my mobile ok?

Gonna miss all of you...

*excited and scared*

LOL

Quick Rant

The SAF administration officially sucks. I just received a call-up for Jan 2008. Now this sort of thing is not supposed to happen because it's right smack in the middle of term time. From my understanding, this sort of thing never happens because the SAF plans all of their ICT trainings and what-not such that it all coincides with the major term breaks of the local universities.

So nevermind all that, I go ahead and apply for eDeferement via the NS Portal website, and there I find out that it is severely inadequate. It assumes that anyone who is applying for deferment is doing so because of IHL/industrial attachments. This is fine, but it's SUPER STUPID when you look at the electronic form, and realise that the entire thing is actually skewed towards those with industrial attachments. I mean, come on, how am I going to fill in the section that says. "Date of return from overseas attachment" when one, my attachment may be local, and two, I night not even HAVE an attachment. And this is a MANDATORY FIELD mind you...freaking stupid. %%*(&^$(&^#$#^

Anyway, I figured something out, and sent in the application anyway, and yesterday I received an SMS stating that I needed to fax in supporting documents. I was like, WTF? What supporting documents? The SAF has called me before to check up on what I am currently doing, and I've reported my status to them dutifully. Well, I called the wonderful helpline, and the extremely unhelpful (and might I add, 'dead') woman flatly told me that I got called up in Jan because I did not apply for IHL (Institute of Higher Learning). I was like, but don't you guys already know I am in NUS i.e. an IHL?

She went on to explain (after I told her that I was not aware that there was such an avenue to apply for IHL status) that this information is not given out to NSmen, and that only upon asking will such a request will attended to. This got me really riled up. Not only is there no connectivity between the universities and SAF, there is also no inter-connectivity between the admin branch which manages NSmen, and the freaking helpline. If there are so many grey areas within an organisation, it is no wonder there are so many disgruntled people out there.

I wonder if I will get slapped with anything for lambasting the SAF, but I quite honestly am very unhappy with the administration. Now I have to go and find a letter that says I am in NUS, so that I can prove my current status as a student of the university...preposterous!

ARGH!

I hate stupidity...hate it hate it hate it...

Time Waster

Another fun way to waste time! Wheee...

(I like what I read here though...sounds good yeah? HAHAHA)

Lets101 - Free Online Dating

Pictures of November

Here's a quick photo update of the things I've been doing this month:

Seafood Paradise from Billy Bombers!

[compliments of Aiman who I spent one whole day with catching up. It was great fun! ^_^]

Teriyaki Chicken Don (far above)
Unagi Don (above)

[Dinner at Yisheng's Dad's store just outside Fong Seng. Most of us had these two dishes. Excellent excellent food, and very generous servings! Thanks Uncle! There was even home-made bak-kut-teh soup! It was very light, and boast of many herbs and extras to keep us growing boys strong and healthy! ;) ]

Kikyou Set at Waraku

[More Japanese food at Waraku where we had a nice birthday dinner for Lionel! Yums!]

[This is Mish's dog, Dashie, tied around my thigh while she went into Provenance bakery in Holland Village to get something for herself. He really is the cutest thing, and I didn't even mind the allergic reaction I got on my skin after playing with him.
The things we suffer for cuteness. Hehs.]

Chocolate Chip Scone & Custard Cream Cone

[These two wonderful creations are from Provenance too. These I had with Samuel, and it was our after dinner dessert. The scone was only SGD$1.00 and the cone was SGD$1.30! Very affordable yeah? I'm beginning to fall in love with that bakery...so many nice breads there...sigh]

Alex and his new goggles.

[This is what happens when you dare me to put up your pictures. For the world of me, I have no idea what's so exciting about buying a pair of goggles that you'd send me an MMS of yourself in them. It was quite the shocker though...so here's the embarrassing post I said I'd put up. Heehee...enjoy folks!]

Me & Me

[This is what happens when you're jealous of your Mom's new Sony Ericsson K770i...you begin to play (i.e. camwhore) with the 3.2 megapixel camera which your VGA Motorola L6 OBVIOUSLY does not have...this sucks, I want a new phone too! Argh!]

Well, that's about it for the month of November for me. I am quite sure there won't be much else happening the rest of this month as it's exam month. I'm going to head down to school to mug now. Wish me luck! ^_^

Good luck to all those having exams this month! JIAYOU!

PS: As Dan would point out, I think I have too many exclamation points in this post... (as always)

Stardust

Just finished reading the book...it was really nice. Here are some excerpts which I really liked (damn! the romantic in me strikes again):

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"But I almost took you through with me!" said Tristan, aghast. "I tried to, last night."

"Yes," she said. "Which only goes to prove that you are indeed a ninny, a lackwit, and a...a clodpoll."

"Dunderhead," offered Tristan. "You always used to like calling me a dunderhead. And an oaf."

"Well," she said, "you are all those things, and more besides. Why did you keep me waiting like that? I thought something terrible had happened to you."

"I'm sorry," he told her. "I won't leave you again."

"No," she said, seriously and with certainty, "you will not."

His hand found hers, then. They walked, hand in hand, through the market.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I love the familiar banter between Tristan and Yvaine...sigh... =)

Now to watch the movie...sighz...

Courage Trumps Pride Everytime

I'm glad I reached out again...it was a good feeling.

It wasn't too hard, and it felt good knowing that it was still there. It never really left, and I could feel the reciprocity as well. Things should be okay again... ^_^

The care and concern were still there...as how friends should care and be concerned for each other.

Old School TIBS Bus

I woke up early today and took a nice bus ride down to Depot. My brother was with me, and he was on his way to church. We got on bus service 855, and I was amazed that it was one of those old school TIBS buses! ^_^

Check it out!

Check out the retro bell! All grey and tiny-buttoned. LOL.

The old school window clip thingy...you needed to depress both clips on the left and right of the window to get it to open. Troublesome, but excellent retro material. ^_^




Check out the old school PVC seats! My bro and I commented that seats in the past were so much smaller, and that sorta entailed that people were smaller? HAhaha..maybe it's just that we're two fatties. Heh.



The floor is classic. I don't know what you call this pattern, but I've always thought it was 'pimple-something'. Well...yeah, it was a blast riding in that blast from the past...literally. =P

Wonderful wonderful wonderful trip down memory lane...whee... ^_^

My IT1001 Assignment!

I am proud of myself this morning. ^_^

TAKE A LOOK!

Coloured Threads

The feelings placed in those threads are now weak.
The intention behind the weaving is now frail.
He does not know why the weave was made...
Vague memories, light and airy, like a meringue hovers gently at the edges of his mind.

Teal, sky blue and forest green intertwine into a simple, yet strong mesh of purpose.
But it now lays half finished in Timbuk2, in darkness, behind metal teeth which keep it from the light.
Almost as if seeing it would create that aftertaste once more.
Hated and desired, all at the same time.

The 'twang' of the middle ground is symbolised by the blasted mesh,
"Curses! I did it again!" shouts that little voice of I-did-it-again-ness.
Should it be finished? Or should stay that way...it is pretty, but still...
You know...

*annoyed*

Unhappy

"...you're such a solid presence..."

I am?

Recently, I haven't been feeling really solid. It's really hard...I think I finally understand how it's like to be one tiny person, carrying a facade meant for 100 people. I usually can do it, and I think I do it pretty well, but now, I just feel as if everything is sliding away from me. It really sucks...

I'm feeling small, but it feels as if I need to be bigger...bigger for everyone, bigger for myself. And the worse part is, I know it's totally just a personal issue, and no one is really needing me to carry anything for them. I just hate that people have to see me like this...and even when I do allow them to see me in this state, I know they may not fully understand, or I know that I do not want to burden them by making them worry about me...

I was up at my favourite/secret spot just now...it has been such a long time since I've been up there. Really peaceful and serene, but when I tried to calm myself down, it was really difficult. The cool night air was blowing all around me, cooling me down from my evening run, and the sight of city lights was beautiful as always. Yet, I could not tame the turmoil that lurched around inside.

I then tried to flow with it, but that didn't really work either.

I am feeling slightly lost...

Where is my sky...where is my strength...where is my...everything...

Argh...

High School Muscial Week

This week was High School Musical Week for me. I had a lot of fun singing the songs to myself, and annoying my friends in various settings. Like in project meetings, study sessions in the PA room, and even during my first AGM as part of the 33rd MC for NUSPA. Wahahaha.



This is the song I like best from HSM2 (mostly because I can hit all the keys...they sang one octave lower mah..hehe). Anyway, the week's almost at an end, so I can stop singing all the songs (and torturing all my friends).

I was so crazy last weekend I even went to search out the lyrics for the tracks I really liked, and even reformatted them in Word, and printed them out to carry around with me. Hehe. Siao right? ^_^

FREAKING MAD...

Disclaimer: This post contains strong language, and doesn't display me at my best. Please refrain from reading this if you feel strongly about profanities/vulgarities etc.

This is it...the final straw...I think I've had it with this shit of a tuition kid.

The fucker calls me on Wednesday night to say that he cannot make it for my Thursday afternoon class. This is because his father is supposedly arriving early in Singapore (Thursday, instead of the previously said Friday). After a slightly heated debate with the fucker (hey, I mean he interrupted me during Hairspray, so yeah..I was miffed), I called his guardian to confirm whether or not his father was REALLY coming to Singapore at all. Apparently, there was a lot of miscommunication, and she couldn't confirm with me one bit. So in the end, he said that the only time he had for class was Sunday. Of course, we were still talking about Thursday's class yeah? So, I said, sure thing, Sunday, 2pm it is then.

Now...this is what happened next. I was getting ready for my class with him today (yes, there was another class today, Saturday, which was not mentioned). So since we did not discuss it, I am right to assume that there was no change to that timing. I even sent him an SMS on Thursday, stating that our remaining classes for the rest of the week, would be on Sat (11-1) and Sun (2-4). This fucker, then has the cheek to message me (like 30mins ago), to CHECK whether I was coming for class. And then he adamantly insists that I should have understood that today's class was included in the 'discussion' we had on Wednesday night.

His argument was totally NOT LOGICAL, and he even had the audacity to call me 'STUPID' for not understanding that he meant to include Saturday's class into our 'discussion' as well!

I'm going down for my class with him tmr, and since his father will be there as well, I will gladly DESTROY him. EVERYTHING about him will be torn to shreds, and I will make sure that he DIES (unfortunately, not LITERALLY). How can a person be soooo UNMOTIVATED? I don't even understand.

When I have the time, I shall be reflective and contemplate which parts of him, in me, I really hate, then I can do some self-improvement as well. As for now, I've pretty much had it with this bastard, and I don't think I want to have anything to do with him anymore.

I think I will call Mrs Soh to complain a bit. Sigh...

I can cook Chinese!

I cooked dinner today. I managed to put together a not-too-shabby Chinese style dinner for my brother and Alex! Quite proud of myself sia...here are some pictures (courtesy of Mr Lim).

This dish doesn't look like much, but it sure tasted good. I fried snow peas, fresh shitake mushrooms and prawns together, and the only seasoning I used was vegetarian oyster sauce. It looked a little...errr...brown, after I added the sauce, but it smelled and tasted great! My brother and Alex both approved of this yummy dish. The snow peas were surprisingly easy to cook. You just need to rinse them and stir fry them in some oil until they all puff up and look plump.

The fresh mushrooms are exceptionally juicy lor...I don't think I will ever truly like dried mushrooms ever again. Wahahaha...

Now this omelette was an excellent lesson for me. Here's what I learned about long bean omelette frying:

1. Stir fry the chopped long beans lightly in oil first to cook them thoroughly. This brings out the sweetness and makes it easier to combine the flavours of the beans and the egg.

2. Mix the fried beans into the beaten egg mixture to ensure that the beans are evenly spread throughout the egg mixture. (Failure to do so results in the above omelette - looks like the Earth where the beans make up the land, and the egg make up the water)

3. Use a non-stick pan to aid in omelette frying and do so on medium heat.

4. Flipping the omelette takes skills and practice. Without these, you may end up 'chipping' off a piece of the omelette leaving less than round. (See above for 'chipped' omelette)

This picture is a bit blurry (blame the photographer...HAHAHA), but it's a sample of the soup I cooked. It's really easy to make yummy soup. Just boil dried ikan bilis in water until fragrant and the ikan bilis is soft. Then add a little salt (or in my case, I cheated and added one chicken stock cube). Add diced potatoes and carrots and boil till soft. Then roll minced meat (I used pork) into little balls to add to the soup. Voila! A hearty soup with lots of ingredients to chomp on! ^_^

Three happy boys!
From left: Alex, Xing Wei and me!

After dinner, I was trying to sharpen my knife (it's too blunt already...cannot cut things properly...). And while I was doing so, I managed to 'persuade' Alex to do the dishes and to hang my laundry! Wahaha...manipulative me! Heehee...

Here's proof:



I love cooking...what shall I cook next? Hmmm...

*think think think*

GuildWars: Eye of the North

Today I delivered an ultimatum to my shit of a tuition kid. I'm sick and tired of setting aside time for his tuition sessions, only to have him cancel/postpone on me. Argh! I told him he's going to set the timing and then I'm going to appear regardless of whether he can make it or not. Yeah...

Anyway, onto cooler matters...

GUILDWARS: EYE OF THE NORTH!


This weekend is the preview weekend, and so far, it's been a blast! The new characters are looking cool and some of the new skills are not too bad. I'm trying to play as much of it as I can...don't think I can finish all the available quests though...ah well. Fortunately, they are letting us keep whatever we get during this preview period, so that means when the game actually starts on the 31st of this month, I will have a slight head start already! Woot!

Here are some screenshots from the new game:

From top:

Hot new Norn babe Jora,

Her possessed brother who cannot change back to human form,

Shamanistic ritual to summon ancient bear spirit

&

Ancient bear spirit (appropriately and unimaginatively) named......Bear.

I sense a conspiracy...

I always surf www.magicthegathering.com and the new set's theme decks seem to indicate some kind of 'collaboration'...I may be wrong, but don't you think the artwork on the box looks suspiciously similar to The World of Warcraft? Maybe Wizards poached WoW's artists? Or maybe the artists' have been free-lancing (which is normal) and they ran out of ideas, so they started to sell to both Wizards and Blizzard?

Heheh...just speculation of course, but one thing's for sure... The new set looks incredible! ^_^


Very WoW-esque right? I'm quite excited about it actually...but I don't know if I should splurge on the new set or not...jialat...another dilemma. Sighz..

Movie Marathon + Shopping Madness!

I watched TWO movies yesterday!

First up, it was The Simpsons at GV Plaza! Hilarious I tell you! I guess since it's nearing the end of it's run, that's why the cinema was generally empty. Also it was a weekday afternoon, so I'm not surprised. My friend and I were the ones laughing the loudest I think...also because I don't think everyone in the cinema got all the jokes and references. Ah well...the humour was lost on them I guess.

To be objective, I would say that the movie was not something that we could not have enjoyed on TV...so Homer was right, right at the beginning at the film. AH well...good laughs, are, well..good laughs, so I'm not complaining. =)

At Plaza Singapura, I also picked up a copy of the latest and final expansion for GuildWars! Blew $59.90 on that sia...but it's worth it lah... If not I will whine about it till the end of days anyhow. So might as well satisfy myself right now! Heheh..so excited about it. I get early access this weekend....all that new game content! Confirm mind-blowing I think...heehee

Later in the evening I met up with Xinwei, Max and Yiting to catch 881! Another excellent movie produced locally! I laughed and cried and enjoyed the Hokkien though I didn't understand about 2/3s of it...but I tried my best to recall what little Hokkien my mom had taught me, and it wasn't too bad...at worst, I resorted to the convenient subtitles lor...hehe

The emotional scenes really struck a chord with me, and I teared quite abit in the cinema. I wish I had someone to lean on though...heheh..ah well...all in good time. =) Before the movie, I realised that the pair of shoes I was eyeing at Pull and Bear had received a second mark down! It's now $39.90 from the previoue $49.90! I was so excited lah! So how? Buy lor... WAHAHAHA.

In total, I blew close to a $100 on shopping, and I don't even dare to add the movie tickets to everything lor...

All in all, I had a great day and really enjoyed myself! Now I have to go and pore over my readings liao...sigh...

9am class tmr...sianz...

Pol Starmaker the Diva Elementalist

I haven't really posted much Guild Wars lately...so here's a little something for those gamers out there.

"Watcha looking at?"
"C'mere! C'mere..."
"You wanna piece of me?"
"Nah uh..." *Diva finger wave...*

Who says MMORPG mages can only cast spells and look sexy in next-to-nothing armour? LOL!

First Day of School!

Heyhey ladies and gentlemen!

This is the mandatory first post of the semester. I had lessons from 9am to 2pm. And they were generally really fun! I enjoyed myself, and I had enough company as well.

The new FASS canteen is swell, and though I've yet to eat the yong tau foo (cos' of the long queue and limited lunch time), I still loved my entire 35mins I spent there. ^_^ The view is now spectacular...can see the sea now leh. And there's now a nice new staircase leading to the guildhouse! Wheee...

I should go and sign up for my gym membership soon. Will wait till the end of August so that I maximise my time, ya know?

Just went to Big Bookshop in Clementi to do stationery shopping and bought everything I needed for cheap! Shiok lah! Glad I went there instead of the CO-OP. I'm now in my CCA room wondering what else I should do. Bored bored bored...

Songs of the Sea

Went to Sentosa to watch Songs of the Sea with HX, Ding and MM. It was soooo LAME can? LOL. But fortunately the company was excellent and we had a lot of fun talking and being silly and nonsensical.

Generally, I felt they should've done away with the terrible storyline and just focus on the pretty light, fire, water and sound effects. I mean, a rehashed musical fountain would be much much better than some lame-ass story plot about reviving ancient spirits of fire, light and water right?



Beautiful evening sky...so nice right?



Strolling along Tanjong Beach before the show...Wahahaha....and there were many many cute dogs too! ^_^



Water! Lights! Sound! Songs of the Sea!



Wahahaha...silly picture we took with the lame ass lionfish, Oscar.

That was my National Day for you. Fun fun fun. Glad we still have time for silly things and great friends. ^_^

Silly Things Nice Things

Some random pics from here and there... :)

Big Kids! (Silly and Nice)


Beyonce and Audrey Hepburn! (Nice)



Lim Bo Seng disciplining his students. (Silly)

Those unafraid to dress up! (Nice)


Lazy Marketing...Same faces for different languages. (Silly)


Abracadabra...(I'm SO not convincing anyone...lol) (Silly)


Slitty-eyed, drink in one hand, mic in the other...CANNOT be good. (Silly)

I'm obviously red from alcohol consumption and scaring somebody...bad bad bad (Silly)


Totally not ready... (Silly)


Much much better... (Silly and Nice)

I think that should be enough photos for today...lazy to write = post pictures lor....wahahaha.

PS: The above pics were from events held during the past two months or so, and are in no particular order.

Dinners

I've had a couple of great dinners the past few days. Sadly, I only pictures of Monday night's dinner at home. Mom cooked quite alot..and it was all good. Hehe..here are some pics.

Chicken Meatballs and Tomato Sauce

The chicken meatballs were not made from mince chicken bought from the supermarket ok? My mom actually bought lean chicken meat and chopped it up herself. I guess it's more effort, but at least you know exactly what is going into your meatball. Regular mince meat has all sorts of additional stuff together with the meat lor...skin, fats, bone, etc etc.

The tomato sauce was made with tomato juice as a base...quite interesting actually. No tomato paste also...yummy.

Meatballs with Pasta (they go well together!)

Besides pasta, Dad made these cheese buns to go with the meatballs also. They didn't taste half bad! The recipe is quite simple also I think...just flour, eggs, milk and shredded cheese...must remember to ask Dad next time.

Funky Cheese Buns

Of course we must have our greens...and my mom stir-fried my favourite! SPINACH!!! Wheee...it was done without any seasoning whatsoever! Cool right? Only some dried ikan bilis and sring onions. Very 'light' tasting. ^_^

'Light' Tasting Stir-fried Spinach

That was Monday's dinner...I love home-cooked food. Always a joy to eat (or more like OVEREAT..it's always like that in my house...haha).

Tuesday, I had dinner with Matt at The Asian Kitchen. Sadly, it was a tad disappointing. The chicken was tough lor..and my Pineapple Curry had no pineapple. :(

Just now I had dinner with Grace and Eugene at Sizzler. Been soooo long since I had a meal there. Sadly, I was a little off form...so I didn't whack the buffet with my usual fervour which I reserve for buffets. Sooo sad...and Eugene just laughed genially when I complained about my lack of form...HAHAHA

Later today, I'm going shopping with Ray for our theme dinner this Saturday. We're gonna go PRIMARY SCHOOL!!! Hope the auntie doesn't frown at two grown men trying on Primary School outfits. Heh...so gonna have fun tmr! Mwahahaha.