my photo blog

ORD lo!

2009-12-03T22:29:00.002+08:00

Tmw is my ORD date! Finally! After 2 yrs of service to the Nation, i can finally get back my pink IC! More posts to come! =) So happy!!!

Bored

2009-03-27T15:32:00.006+08:00

its been 3 and 1/2 weeks since i broke my wrist and i think its recovering quite nicely. can type with 2 hands now and i can move my left thumb.but still cannot flex it backwards or too much to the side.

i think i've been infected with the BBB (buy buy buy) bug. too much free time and start to think of wad i can buy if i save some money. haha..

been fantasizing abt this camera on and off since it was launched last yr in jan. my ultimate dream!! haha. cost quite a bomb back then but with the current exchange rates of the YEN, the price for the basic kit has fallen below the sub $1k range. so i think its quite affordable if i can save $200 for 5 or 6 mths.

so very nearly bought this on wed. the guy wasn't very honest upfront and kept changing his pricing and package rates. obviously wanted me to get his package price of $335. siao. screen protector, casing memry card all can get quite cheaply from Ebay. as for games, no need to say la. wad attracted me to the DS Lite was the game play and how the player interacts with the game through the interface of the DS Lite. its very hands on with the stylus instead of just button mashing with the PSP. still keeping 1 eye out though its not likely i'll get it.

the Playstation 3, every boy's dream console. haha.. its been my childhood dream to own something like this and then can sit in front of the TV and play games just like how i used to do it at my friend's house. the primary game i'ld like to play is Gran Tourismo 5. touted as the ultimate driving game. haha. get a steering wheel/pedal set and it would complete the dream. the start-up costs are very high. a console with 1 controller costs ard $576. additional controller costs $70. original games cost ard $50-$80. steering wheel/pedals cost ard $150. it will be like $200+ short of $1k.

the dell XPS 16 laptop. Core2duo processor with DDR 3 ram and a 512 MB HD ATI graphic card. the version i want costs $2.3k cos of all the upgrades like a faster processor, larger cache, tv tuner card. plus its a 16" laptop. watch movies or do work on it would be like using a desktop. the design is very nice also with a backlit keyboard and track pad. i'll need a laptop next yr when i go poly and i hve no doubt that by that time the quadcore processors would be out and this laptop though near the top range now would be slightly old. plus the warranty would run out by then. i'm just waiting to see when my current P4 desktop would conk out. that would give me an excuse to get a new computer.

will be at home for some time

2009-03-04T14:20:00.002+08:00

fractured my left wrist on sat night while doing guard duty. it was raining and the ground was slippery. was walking back to guardroom and slipped on one of the metal drain cover. stuck out my left hand (wrong thing to do) and fell very hard on it. heard a loud crack sound and thought that something broke. was just the sound of the walkie talkie coming apart into 2 pieces. (don't worry, it works fine).

i immediately tried to flex my wrist. can move leh, means nothing broken or dislocated right? or so i thought.. it was damn pain initially.. hard to describe.. just.. breathtaking. haha. a different kind of pain took over after abt 5 mins and the swelling started. it swelled at the point where the wrist bone is and the wrist sort of slant to the left. cannot straighten no matter wad i tried.. at that time still thought it was just a bad sprain. morning after fall out go see chinese doc for a rub can le.. it din get any better though the guys did bring some ice for me to put on the injured part. had alot of problems wearing my shirt and LBV.

din alert the DO as we were 1 man down and i did not think this was so serious. its not the right thing to do in theory but it made the most sense to me. ah well.. managed to make it through guard duty and went to changi hospital in uniform to see the doc.

took x-rays and doc said that i had a wrist fracture. gave me 8 dyas mc till 9th and arranged for me to see the specialist today.

was very difficult to adapt to working with 1 hand and having the other hurt from time to time. its definitely not the easiest way to keng mc. googled my diagnosis and this is wad i got..

distal radius intraarticular fracture or simply a broken wrist. dunno wads the difference between broken and fractured. this was 'upgraded' to comminuted distal radius intraarticular fracture today as the bone din just break. it broke into 3 or 4 little pieces each with its own fracture. so now instead of 1, i have abt 4 pieces of bone to heal. according to doc, if the bones remain where they are, i wont have to go for surgery. if they shift, then bye bye to me. haha. in any case, i'll be out of action for at least 6 weeks to 12 weeks depending on how fast the bones heal.

for now, my mc was just extended to 11th pending another review and x-ray next wed. for sure i'll down pes and may lose my combat vocation. but how low i'll go depends on the medical board. and there's my work too. someone will have to take over me and my guess is that the said person won't be too pleased.

Breakfast

2009-02-22T11:42:00.003+08:00

long time no post!! haha. my 1st post of the year..

shall start with a picture of my breakfast..

seems quite nice hor?

croissant warmed up in the oven, some baked beans and a nice fresh salad consisting of purple cabbage, lettuce, dried oregano, olive oil, coleslaw dressing, salt and pepper. finished with a glass of soy bean milk.

i think this is much better and healthier than the fried stuff that makes up a Mcdonald's breakfast.

ideally, i should be eating this sort of food everyday, but reality is much more different. i'm in a stay in camp, so dont have access to this sort of ingredients. might not have the mood to do it also. so i think the best i can do is to eat such stuff at home during the weekends.

another piece of good news.. i've been accepted into the aeronautical & aerospace technology course in Nanyang poly!! i'm quite happy as it means that there's something i can look forward to after i ORD. it also means that i'm 1 step closer to my dream as being a aerospace engineer. i've applied to reserve a place in next yr's intake as there's no way i'll defer my NS stint to go back to sch. since i'm doing very well in camp now, i don't see the point in defering and then having to return to serve in what might well be an alien unit since all the people that i'm working with now might leave in the next couple of years.

One year on..

2008-12-23T17:39:00.012+08:00

long time never posted on my blog le.. got all sorts of excuses la, but i guess i just wasn't committed enough.. this photo blog become like a normal text blog le.. haha.. no photos.

honestly, there were many photo opportunities that i've seen in camp whether its during the times i'm standing as a sentry or rest times or in bunk after work. but as usual, no camera, so no pictures lor. i'm not going to run afoul of the rules that prohibit cameras just so that i can take some nice pictures and post them here. the penalties are severe and its just not worth the few seconds of thrill..

have a few new toys to play with, chiefly my new phone.. the nokia E51.

my first symbian phone!! its the non-camera version, which is wad i can bring into camp. the phone accounts for nearly 60% of the phones in my camp! other phones include the various cheapo nokia non-cam phones with zero functions or the other smart phones like the Sony Ericssion M600i or the SE W960i. the newer G700 business edition phone hasn't caught up much cos i guess the price is damn high. was tempted to get that phone, but i prefered having wireless capability. =D

i can do many things with this phone.. read ebooks, surf the new with wireless net, play mp3s at the sentry post when i get bored with the radio, put documents into the phone and use it to view them, keep notes abt wad i have to do/know etc. the java has many games, but the gaming really suck. i rather play games on my psp. =D

for me, the psp and E51 sort of complement each other and help to fill the gaps when 1 or the other run out of battery. the psp is great for viewing movies, shows and playing games but its wireless capability and music loudness really suck. haha.. the E51's screen is small, so not really suitable for watching stuff on the go and i need a dedicated adaptor to plug my earphones in.

the psp has been my best companion since i've passed out from BMT and posted into this stay in unit. there's no TV in my bunk and so there's really nothing much in the way of entertainment after work. Thus enters the PSP. i can watch movies, documentaries, Tv shows and anime on it. i've watch many many movies that i would have otherwise missed had i had to go to a cinema since the tickets are so damn expensive nowadays. =D

of tv shows, i've been watching Iron Chef, WRC, F1, discovery channel documentaries, national geographic documentaries and a few japanese dramas.

wad i like abt these japanese dramas is that they are mostly short, 11-12 episodes. and of course very funny and light. not like the hongkong or taiwanese dramas that are at least 30 episodes long and drag the story here and there.

the show is abt 2 women, one rather flat chested and the other very well endowed. quite funny to watch as they fight with their own insecurities and they are also rather cute! haha..

adapted from an on going manga, Nodame Cantabile is quote from drama wiki:"

Megumi Noda, or “Nodame” is a piano student at Momogaoka College of Music. An extremely talented pianist who wants to be a kindergarten teacher, she prefers playing by ear rather than reading the music score. She is messy and disorganized, takes baths several days apart and loves to eat, sometimes stealing her friend’s lunchbox when it is filled with delicacies.

Shinichi Chiaki, is Momogaoka’s top student. Born into a musical family, he is talented in piano and violin and has secret ambitions to become a conductor. An arrogant multi-lingual perfectionist who once lived abroad in the music capitals of the world as a young boy, he feels mired in Japan because of a childhood phobia.

They meet by accident. Nodame quickly falls in love, but it takes much longer for Chiaki to even begin to appreciate Nodame’s unusual qualities. Their relationship causes them both to develop and grow. Because of Nodame, Chiaki got the opportunity to lead a student orchestra and begins to have a broader appreciation of people's musical abilities. Because of Chiaki, Nodame faces her fears and enters a piano competition. Opportunities open up as both begin taking risks, stretching themselves far more than they ever thought possible."

hee.. lazy to type so much la.. but this is the gist la.. i've just finished watching this series and its rather nice with lots of touching as well as light hearted moments

this is wad i'm currently watching.. a romantic commedy like the other 2, this show is abt this girl (above) who wants to be a Cabin Attendant in JAL (Japan Airlines). the training is long and hard compared to the other trainees as Misaki Yoko (Ueto Aya) was raised amongst three brothers. she's boyish and bull headed and always manages to come into conflict with her trainers and seniors.

screen shots from the drama. she's damn cute too! haha..

haven tried watching any Korean dramas yet..

now is Block leave period, so have 2 weeks to stay at home and watch dramas and movies!! haha.. don't have to convert the shows and watch it on the smaller PSP screen. at least for now.

4 mths later..

2008-09-26T21:46:00.002+08:00

haven posted for 4 mths le.. but i guess its still business as usual for me at my unit. getting fatter day by day.. guess i've gain back all the weight that i've lost during BMT. ah well.. i just like food.. =D

curently under going my RP course and will graduate as a 'REAL' RP after the course. since i've been 'working' as one for the past 4 mths, i'm sort of lao jiao in the class. can't really post anything abt the training that we undergo.. but its quite fun la.

i get to see wad's the difference btw wad's taught at the training sch compared to wad we do at the unit.

din really intend to do a blog entry.. just killing time before i watch the F1 race practice.. =D

Re-vocated

2008-05-19T19:00:00.003+08:00

i remember saying something about going to caombat in june or after my CTS is healed. now i've been re-vocated to RP or Regimental Policeman. lol.. the universe has a wierd way of doing things. i've wanted to go combat, and now i'm in a combat vocation. $100 more per mth and more credits top up per yr compared to a service soldier. haha.. i guess the extra money could come in handy.. so many things i wanna get..

just upgraded my computer again.. 3rd time in 2 yrs le.. haha.. my 1st com was a compaq presario P3 599Mhz running 512mb @ Pc133Mhz SD-Ram with a 40 GB hard drive and 2 CD Drives with a CD writer.

2nd one was also a P3 this time clocking 997Mhz with 768mb @ PC133Mhz SD-Ram also. hard drive this time became a 80 GB master with the 40 GB slave from the 1st com. got a samsung DVD writer with the cd writer as the slave cd drive. got a 250 GB external hard drive as a back up for all my barang barang.

current com was from my uncle who got fed-up of fixing this computer and gave me the whole set! currently running a P4 clocking 2.2Ghz running 1.5 GB @ Pc133Mhz DDR-Ram with a 160 GB hard drive with the 80 GB slave from the previous com. dvd writer was carried over with a newer cd writer replacing my old one.

with the external drive, my total storage capacity is 160 GB + 80 GB + 250 GB = 490 GB!!

that's half a terabyte!! haha..

many nice movies this period.. but the tickets all very ex.. :(

one of the film i want to watch.. haha.. a romantic comedy.

another one.. i'm sure it will be very nice.

anyone wants to go to the movies with me? haha..

Life after Tekong..

2008-04-27T15:31:00.002+08:00

its been 1 mth since i've been posted to my new unit, 3rd SAF TPT BN. i'll have to say life is good. no more cheonging mountains or running about like a infantry.. Pt is 3 time a week and i think i've gained back the weight that i've lost during BMT.

haha.. i miss my BMT days.. not for the pt but for the fact that there was this big group of chao recruits and we suffered and had fun together. so i guess we were quite close la..

running around was tiring, but at the end of the day there was always energy left for the sprint to the toilet for the bathe. now, at the end of the day, i feel so sian already. guess the lazyness sets in.

now i'm just waiting for my MRI and the surgery that is to come after that. after that maybe i'll go to ATC or combat?

POP lo!!!

2008-03-21T11:49:00.034+08:00

finally had my pop (passing out parade) on wed. damn tiring and happy. tired cos of the many rehearsals we had prior to the parade. happy cos i'm finally a private and out of Tekong.

was raining quite heavily before the parade. so much so that it became Cat 1 and we couldn't have the final rehearsals. aiya. everyone was tired and the rain allowed us a chance to rest.

they had to cover the rostrum to prevent the mike from spoiling.

parade RSM..

RSM (right side marker) of my company. every company got 1. they march in on order from parade RSM.

gryphon RSM still marching.

dunno which company is this.. perhaps G..

the wheeling is always the tricky part. all must turn together. if not not nice.

neat straight rows. taking dressing from the left.

Dragon company!

my OC (MWO Chan C.S) marching beside us.

facing the front, with weapon high port.

down arms, taking dressing from front as well as left.

at parade rest.

Guest of honour, Tekong CO, a full colonel inspecting the parade with sch 2 co as well as parade commander, Apache OC.

inspection finished. finally. sun came out and it was getting hot.

award winners coming forward to get their prize. 3 of them each representing the company best.

hentakaki before they berhenti.

Dragon company best. the section commanders of the best recruits standing behind them.

moment of honor for him..

all company best get their prizes le..

GOH giving a speech. Sch 1 CO LTC Loong behind. the speech is the same for every batch that passes out. just that the person giving it is different.

shoulder arms again.. for march pass.

individual OC of each company marching to the front of the company. to lead them on the march pass.

OC in place, ready for march pass. the solder standing on the stand is my platoon sergeant, 3SG Seetoh.

Moving off!

head tilted to the right as a salute to the GOH.

my company marching by.. haha..

the run in, 2nd part of the parade. we were led by out company best this time. after marching out, we 'throw' down our rifles, helmet and LBV (load bearing vest). when we ran in, we were singing training to be soldiers.

in position and ready to turn to face front.

we spread out so that our parents/relatives could come onto the parade square to put the jockey caps on for us and take some pics.

my dad putting the cap on for me..

my and my mother.. Ling (company best shot, my section mate also) is behind me.

family photo. sister was in sch.

after our parents went back to the grandstand, we ran forward for the infantry roar.

about to throw our jockey caps..

PRESENTING THE TRAINED SOLDIER!!!

everybody very happy.. haha..

after celebrating, we still have to fall in..

award winners including company best, platoon best, best shot etc all left for photo shoot with GOH and sch CO.

while other companies marched off, we did our company cheer.. our CSM (company sergeant major, Staff SGT Ridzwan in front of us).

We are the warriers of BMTC
we will fight for our victory
fight with all our might
fight for our glory
We are the men from DRAGON company!

eh ah eh oh we are the DRAGONS!
the bloody mighty DRAGONS
and we will never quit! ARG!

eh ah eh oh don't mess with US!
don't try and test us!
Cos we are the best
in the SAF!!

sounded very stupid initially, but well, we were quite proud to do it during the POP.

my and my PS. =)

group photo.. L to R. Nelson, SGt Seetoh, Ah Hock and XL (xuan Li).

larger group photo.. CSM with his kaki beret and pace stick in the middle.

catching the PS to throw.. he said that CSM say cannt throw.. cos got parents around. but with fuck care him.. haha..

calling for more men..

wee!

L to R. WC (wei chuan), ah chao (wee chao), quek (xun yi), james and chris.

ah hock, WC, PS, ah chao, sotong, sherman, chris and james.

me and sotong

his name is jason. but we call him sotong cos he always very blur and slower than the rest. haha..

Happy new year!!!

2008-02-04T17:54:00.000+08:00

haven been posting for half a mth le.. haha.. since my field camp, i've had a back that hurts when i stand/sit too long and a right hand with numb fingertips. wah lao eh. din know that field camp can give so much problems..

i've seen the doc at changi hospital twice le and i have an appointment for the specialist on 6th march. in the meantime, i've been excused upper limb activities by my camp MO (medical officer) for 35 days!! this also means that there's a high potential for me to OOT (out of training) since i cannot do anything that involves the hands (which is basically everything).

only when my right hand started feeling numb and hurting that i realised how reliant i am on that hand. everything have to use my right hand. cleaning rifle, packing my bag, eating etc. all the fine motor movements that my right hand can do i must now train my left hand to do. now, i sms with my left hand.

anyway, my right hand has been diagnosed with the carpal tunnel syndrome. it occurs when the nerve controlling the index, middle and forth finger is compressed my some of the ligaments. so i feel numbness and pain in the 3 fingers only.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/carpal_tunnel/detail_carpal_tunnel.htm

sometimes it hurts like fuck. most of the time it still hurts, but i try to ignore the pain.. hope that my left hand will be ok as i have been relying on it for most of the time these period. if my left hand also pain den i also dunno wad to do le..

stayed at the hospital from last tue to thur so that the docs could diagnose my back as well as hand pain. back pain they say there's nothing wrong with the back, so its only the muscles. but still very pain leh..

got discharged on thur afternoon and went back to endorse my mc on fri since its more than 3 days. had quite a good rest these few days and my back is better though its still painful.

will be booking in later and booking out tmw for the long chinese new year weekend.

will post some of my field camp experiences at a later time when my hand does not hurt as bad. as it is, i'm only using the index finger of my right hand to type and its damn slow la..

confinement again..

2008-01-13T17:07:00.000+08:00

i'm back this weekend.. haha. came home yesterday and i'm going back to camp tonight. have live range next week followed by field camp the following week. so my 18th to 20th weekend will be burnt in the camp preparing for the field camp.

ah well. was quite upset yesterday. but i guess i've accepted it already. clothes gonna have to be worn more times le. at least the field camp will be something different from the initial 2 weeks confinement as 5 days will be spent outfield.

going back to camp

2008-01-07T15:17:00.000+08:00

jaw doesn't hurt that bad le.. in fact, i'll say i dun really feel the pain except for the gum area.. can open my mouth and eat solid foods!! going back to camp this evening. feel a little sad cos i'll be missing home again. happy cos i'll be back with my buddies and can continue training. wonder how much i've missed out these pass few days and if i have to pay back with my upcoming bookout anot..

anyway, SGT Hafiz came for a house visit on sat. he just called and said that he was outside the house. WTF.. purposely one.. wanna see if i got go out anot. lucky i din go out. he went to the wrong unit la.. haha. he came for abt 10 mins.. very fast. talk abit then i fill up a home visit form and he left le. brought me some grapes, strawberries and mandarin oranges, courtesy of the SAF. haha.

been sleeping alot these few days and i feel that i'm ready to cheong with the rest! haha.. though my fitness is definitely lagging behind cos i haven been able to do any stretching or running. 5 BX also cannot.. =(

really hope that i can complete the syllabus objectives this week and not have to stay back for the weekend. cos if that happens i'll have to handwash my clothes. and i'm damn lazy to wash my clothes la. rather rot in 1 week old clothes. =D

mc days..

2008-01-05T11:41:00.000+08:00

hi everyone. now is the post op + 3 days. the swelling around my left jaw bone has reduced and it doesn't hurt much when i chew or open my mouth. been taking the painkillers so i dun really know how much it would hurt without it (not that i'm willing to try).

so anyway today is the time the rest of my company books out for the weekend and its abt the time that they are free from the clutches of the SAF. haha. life is quite ok at home. been sleeping most of the time due in part to the medication as well as boredom. there's only so much websites you can surf b4 getting bored.

so i'm quite bored now and cannot go out also, since Att C means to rest at home. dunno the consequences of getting caught. dun wanna try anyway. shawn and ronald are enlisting into the police force soon and i wish them all the best. haha. dun think theirs would be as tough as the army, but even different people have different definitions of wad is tough. so is really up to how well they can cope with the transition from civilian to "military" life.

run out of things to write le. haha. time for my medication. will post more the moment i remember some funny things abt life in Tekong.

Wisdom tooth extraction

2008-01-03T17:11:00.000+08:00

i'm home!!! sorry ah.. din post the last time i book out as i was quite lazy.. haha.. =P

anyway, i got 5 days Att C from today till 7th jan cos of my wisdom tooth extraction. this wisdom tooth has been causing me some problems since last yr when it grew out.. i thought once it grew out it will be fine. since its always painful when the tooth comes out initially. but things are not always the case la. the gum area started swelling very badly and it became quite painful to chew and bite. so no choice. i had to go see the dental officer abt it.

1st time i went he was on leave. @#%@!#$@%! so no choice, had to make an appointment on the 2nd jan to see him. after seeing him on 2nd jan, he confirmed that it was indeed the wisdom tooth that was causing me problems and that i had to get it removed or else it would repeatedly cause me problems whenever some food bits get stuck inside the gum area.

after seeking approval from my PC, i went back to the dental center to make and appointment and to take a x-ray of the area. the we had BCCT and then the 4 Km route march with FBO. that was tough man. i think my fieldpack din adjust properly. after i wore it, my right arm slowly became numb. very pain lor. with the rifle slung on the neck and the fieldpack on the back weighing down. almost wanted to give up. but the thought of doing the route march on a sunday with only a few people made me soldier on. endure endure endure. come back the feet all the blisters. haha. next time must wear 2 socks.

so anyway i went for my appointment at 9.40am after some weights training and extra physical exercise. sitting at the dental center, i nearly fell asleep cos i was quite tired from the training le. one of the medics gave me a leaflet to read abt the precedure and wah lao eh, i got a shock. something abt drilling into the jaw bone and splitting the tooth. gave me the chills man. had to sign a indemnity form b4 i could begin the op.

so the DO (dental officer) met me and started explaining the whole procedure to me and telling me the risks as well. i asked a few questions and then we got started. i had 3 jabs of anaesthesia into the jaw area as well as the gum and tooth nerve itself. the left lower part of my jaw including half my lip went numb in a few mins. the DO then poked around to see if i could feel anything. no feeling leh. if he were to cut my whole jaw out i wouldn't feel anything la.

then he and the assistant donned the surgical garb that you see docs wearing in the TV shows. green in colour one. they covered me in green cloth and left only the jaw area exposed. even covered my eyes. haha. come to think of it its very cool. procedure was quite fast. think he cut open a flap of the gum and then pressed twice on the tooth and it came out. the stitches part took longer.. could feel the thread being pulled around in my mouth la. damn scary feeling i tell you.

after the op was done, they remove everything and he showed me the tooth. wah kao! the whole tooth is white and the height is abt 3.5 cm la. width was abt 1.5 cm. it was bloody and all. somemore ask me wanna keep anot. siao.

so i rested for a while while he wrote the prescription list and my mc. gave me some painkillers and antibiotics and 5 days of mc at home. the DO was very calm and patient. not bad la. go to tekong dental centre to remove your wisdom tooth if you want. haha.

the numbness around my jaw lasted abt 4 hrs after the minor surgery. couldn't eat solid food for dinner as it hurts when i open my mouth to chew and the pain is not worth it la. in the end i drank a few cups of milk.

i'm back. from Tekong.

2007-12-21T15:47:00.001+08:00

hah! i'm back from 2 weeks on Tekong!!! haha.. actually this is my 3rd time back on the mainland since in enlisted on 6th Dec. 1st time was when i was sent home due to fever. din do any posting as i was quite sian.. 2nd time was when i was given time off to go to NUH for body scan by DSO. many people have asked me, eh, Tekong life how? siong anot? my reply is ok la, got fun and got siong. why not you go try? haha..

the moment our parents were herded back to the mainland, we were herded from place to place to get our equipment and to check them. very sian. cos the duffel bag, field pack, big ST plastic bag and our own Civvy bag is very heavy. and somemore we are the obese batch one. not really used to carrying heavy loads. luckily all my clothes and boots, shoes fit. the measurements were accurate and i din gain much weight. from the time i was weighed in CMPB to the day i enlisted i gained abt 4kg.

its very easy to spot enlistees one.. carry many bags, cannot march properly and all got hair. haha.. had my head shaven at abt 7+pm. cost me $2 and it was not even la. got some part longer. !#@!%$#!^!% the auntie shave our hair like shaving sheep lidat.. whoa lao eh.

then we were sorted into our platoons and sections and told our bed and 4D no. mine is D3403. which stands for Dragon company, platoon 3, section 4, bed 03. everywhere we go we just say our 4D no when they ask for name. is very easy lidat. all our bags and bottles also got write the 4D no. in a company, different platoons got different colored tape for the bags so as to differentiate the different platoons.

in the army, 1 guy told me that its rush to wait and wait to rush. after 2 weeks on Tekong, i cannot agree more. give us 2 mins to fall in at the company line then we have to wait there for 15 mins for sergeant to count strength and water parade etc. so i think we spend more time waiting than doing things.

in the army, 1 or 2 guys can screw your day up. how? i got 2 examples.

1st example was when we were having a lecture by one of the warrant officers. everyone was quite sleepy and some of us even fell asleep. he was just talking normally to us. and there was this platoon 4, which was sitting right at the back of the lecture room. they were talking quite loudly. the volume was rising all the time. the enchek keep tell us to keep it down. but those idiots heck care him. finally he blew up and fuck us all. he pull those 2 idiots down in front and fuck them. then the whole company (abt 200 of us) kena shouted at and told to go down and knock it down. 2o push ups later we were told to go up to the bunks and change into smart 4 in 5 mins and fall in again. everyone curse and swear and rush up and change. i was still sick that time and i ended up quite breathless. very shag. needless to say after we went back to the lecture room everyone was sweating and quiet. you can hear a pin drop. those 2 idiots became marked in my company forever. no one really wants to have anything to do with platoon 4.

2nd incident was due to one guy in my platoon, platoon 3. that day after last parade we were allowed abt 1 and half hr of admin time (own time to call home or to shower). i was in the shower and about to finish when i heard people calling for this nicholas to heads out (means to stick his head out and listen to instruction). many people were shouting here and there. then when i went back to my bunk i heard that we were told to fall in in front of the company line in our admin attire in 2 mins. everyone was very confused. hurry up changed and rushed down.

when we fell in our platoon sergeant started fucking us upside down. scolded us for abt 10 plus mins. apparently this nicholas had drawn the annex room key and din return to the COS ( company orderly sergeant). he just passed it to another sergeant. my platoon sergeant couldn't find it and after abt 5 mins of calling for him to heads out got fed-up and fell in the whole platoon to fuck us.

after we were dismissed, most of us were very pissed as we had just bathed, some haven even bathe and had to fall in in our dirty admin clothes again. many people wanted to beat the nicholas up. the sergeants had to call the whole platoon to gather and sit down so that they could ascertain the whole incident and calm us down. the situation was really tense. the sergeants were nearly losing control of the situation. luckily some of us were calm enough and managed to cool the rest down b4 anything ugly happened.

nicholas said that he had returned the key very early in the evening and that it was not his fault. but the crux of the problem was that even though he was bathing, when he was called for, he should have stuck his head out. some of us were right in front of him yelling for him to heads out, and yet he flat ignored us. continued to shower. stupid right? and then he slowly walked back to his bunk to change. when everybody was screaming for him, he flat ignored us and caused abt 50 of us to have to fall in in dirty clothes. he had to apologize 3 times and even then the sergeants had to hang around for 5 - 10 mins to make sure no one beat the hell out of him.

i myself was quite pissed but din want to beat him as i din want to go DB (detention barracks). i din even change. just went to sleep in my dirty admin attire. after all, wad's the point in changing back to clean clothes when you are sticky and sweaty again? asshole.

from then on, i've heard rumbles and whispers abt how this nicholas is very selfish and slow and that he's going to drag us all down one fine day. i think its true la.. judging from his attitude and way he do things, its apparent that he's trying to hang on to his civillian way of life. slow, pampered and selfish. which is what the army trys to dispel from the 1st day. its really up to him la, but he will surely suffer both at our hands (his platoon mates) and at the sergeants' hands if he still doesn't wake up his idea.

the army is not really a conducive place for people to fall sick in. they put you on status ( excuse or attend B) and dun allow you to take part in activities like PT, ET or any form of siong activity. but they dun account for the fact that when you are sick, you take medication which makes you sleepy and you really need more than 7 hrs of sleep to recover. so for the whole day you will be fighting sleep, trying to participate (eye power) and following the rest of the company around and changing into wadever attire that everyone is in. its really tough to fall sick in the army, despite wad those chao keng people might say.

you know, many times i've asked myself wad the fuck am i doing here in Tekong doing this bloody pt in this stupid stinky pt vest. i din have the answer. i only found the answer when i 1st booked out due to my fever. it dawned on me fully these few days when i came home and saw everything that i used to take for granted. the air-con SBS buses, the shopping centers, kopitiams, shops, HDB flats and all the Civilians going abt their own business.

it dawned on me that wad i or we were doing in Tekong and all the other army, navy or air force camps was to ensure that life as we know it could be allowed to go on. so that the uncle can wear his singlet and take the lift down every morning to buy kopi and have breakfast, so that the boys and girls can go dating and holding hands in Orchard Road.

this might sound like bull shit but i really believe that if no one served, we would be at the mercy of the big countries surrounding us. they would, at their own whim cross over into Singapore anytime to take anything, do wadever they wished and we would be powerless to stop them because we have nothing to stop them with. the police can only do so much with their pistols and MP5 sub-machine guns. as such, i tell myself that i'm helping to ensure that the Singaporean way of life can go on when the going gets tough or when we have to do shit. this sorts of gives me the motivation to push on.

during the morninig 5BX runs, we can see the Changi Airport Control Tower from the track. when ever i see it, i think of home. and that wad i'm doing here in Tekong allows the control tower to stand tall and straight. whenever the planes that take off from Changi overflies Tekong, i tell myself that wad i'm doing allows the planes to take off safely from Changi. this might sound like hero stuff but i guess this is what keeps me going on. everyone has to have his own motivation and i draw mine from the physical things that remind me of home.

there are many things that i can write abt life in Tekong, in my bunk and the sort of shit that we do together. many are fun, many are the type that only army boys experience yet they are the type of memories that we will cherish when we pass out from BMT.

the types of people you see, the way they speak, they way curse, scold vulgarities, all these make up our BMT life. even the sergeants are unique in their own way. some are quiet by nature, some more out going. but all of them can curse and swear and fuck us upside down in the blink of an eye. CHAO CHEE BYE, FUCK YOU, KAN NI NA, FUCKING HELL, BLOODY HELL, NA BEI, are some of the most commonly heard terms in my company. many of them commonly uttered by us no less.

but i suppose that is wad bonds us. cos everyone is going through the same shit, doing the same thing and everyone misses home and our civilian way of life.

there's this song...

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED
WHY MUST WE SERVE?
BECAUSE WE LOVE OUR LAND
AND WE WANT IT TO BE FREE, TO BE FREE YA!

our own version...

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED
WHY MUST WE SERVE?
BECAUSE WE HAVE NO CHOICE
SO WE LAN LAN HAVE TO SERVE, HAVE TO SERVE YA!

see the diff? haha.. now i'm abit sian of typing le..

come myths i'ld like to dispel abt Tekong.

1) its a holiday chalet.

right. only if you are a officer or a civilian visiting the island. other than that, it only looks like a chalet cos the buildings are 'relatively' modern and got some colours. that's all. nothing abut the lifestyle or food screams CHALET!!!

2) got washing machines

yeah. again only if you are a officer or sergeant. recruits all have to suck thumb and hand wash the clothes which takes 3 days to dry (if you are lucky). that's why most of us wear our clothes for up to 1 week.

3) the food is great!!!

yea. if you have live on scrapes all your life then its great. for most of used used to hawker fare, its nothing like you have every tasted. i guess the No 1 reason it sucks is because you have no control over wad you eat. cook house serve wad you eat wad. want smaller or larger portion can.. just open your mouth lor. if you want something else must go canteen, which only during canteen breaks can go (seldom happens or is very short one).

4) officers are great, sergeants are fun.

yea. when they are not fucking you or pumping you. even the bloody clark or private posted there treats you like dirt. all the medics talk to us like we are criminals lidat. everyone there is bigger than us. so all the recruits in Tekong just suck thumb and suck it in.

5) the bunks are great.

yea.. if you dun need to sweep the floor, keep the mosquito net, pull the bed sheets real tight and wash the toilet. yours sincerely is the toilet cleaner/ toilet 2 IC. means i have to wash the toilet up to 3 times a day if there's inspection or stand by area. #@$%#!$@^!#@ those idiots. think is maria wash for them. anyhow shit, pee and do their business. toilet paper drop on the floor let it be. then i and 4 others have to wash and mop the toilet everyday. fucking hell.

i got more things to rant abt.. just cannot remember.. will post more in the days to come. i'm going back on the 25th evening.. oh yea 1 more thing. i lost 2.2 Kg in 2 weeks since i enlisted. =D

NSF

2007-12-05T22:52:00.000+08:00

tmw going army le.. that's it for me. haha. won't be able to post for at least 2 weeks. if i'm lucky, i'll be back on the 19th of Dec. anyone wants to reach me just email or sms me. i'll try my best to reply (to the sms). take care everyone! =)

pics and more pics..

2007-12-05T13:02:00.001+08:00

haiz... tmw going army le.. feel scared and excited at the same time.. ah well.. had to come sooner or later. i've posted some of the pics that i took during Sunday's Ag outing as well as yesterday's walk around Orchard road..

looks like a man.. see closely..

like the way the bark flakes out..

stupid bee.. keep moving about.. had a hard time focusing.

blue fluffy clouds!

uncle fishing.. or trying to..

flower.. trying to do a bokeh. but cam cannot focus..

view of the causeway and johor..

had to insert my cam all the way inside to take this pic.

meow!

pics taken yesterday..

meeting up with my ex teacher

2007-12-02T19:48:00.000+08:00

met up with mr tan, my D&T teacher from bedok green and some one i take to be my 'mentor'. taught me lots of things outside the textbooks. these 3 yrs got keep in contact from time to time. last time we met up was last yr, when the singapore fireworks festival was on.

was supposed to meet him at orchard. but venue was changed to chinatown point. ok lah. easier for me also. went for a meal and then took a short stroll at Clarke Quay.

some sort of Christmas tree.. haha. focus is out.

the 4 support pillars of the bungee cord thingy..

one of my best shots.. the rest all off focus or too bright.

think this pic exposure is just nice. would have been great sans the chinaman.

after we part, i took a train down to vivo city. dunno why. i've been drawn to this place quite often recently. haha. went to take my GV member's card and decided to go up and take pictures of the night scenery and christmas tree.

too dark to make out the details..

much better!

quite dark up there and it was very hard to take pics without the flash. the flash spoils everything cos it gets too bright.

after many many pics and countless times of tweeking, finally got the exposure right.

famous seafood restaurant.

very nice ambience inside. saw many a family tucking into crabs.. haha..

left not too long after, since i had bought somethings from Giant and it was lugging me down. there were fireworks later, as part of the Vivocity 1st anniversary celebrations. din know, so din get to shoot or see. anyway, the fireworks shots will also turn out like shit, since got no tripod.

Changi International Airport Terminal 3

2007-11-28T21:26:00.001+08:00

went for the Terminal 3 or t3 open house with my uncle and grandmother. i'll rattle off some of its facts as i go along..

the walkway to t3.. got 2 travellators so that won't have to walk for a long time..

1st thing i saw...

very big big big departure hall.. there are 900 over skylights in the rooft of the terminal and it allows natural light into the terminal. on days where its very bright, the louvres would close off some to prevent glare. the whole thing is computerised.

the future crystal jade restaurant.

rows and rows of brand new baggage trolleys..

the departure gate.. a common gate for all flying off from t3. as its a open house and to raise funds for some cancer charity, $1 will allow you to enter the restricted area and walk around yourself. $3 will be a guided tour inside.

the immigration counters.. all brand new and under covers. i guess to prevent people from tempering with them.

self-check in counters.. just scan passport and thumb print can already.

water feature.. very nice. in the background can see the chairs still under wraps. clearly construction is still on going.

another view of the water feature area.. just to give you an idea of the space there.. check out the people below.

one of the many places where they put plasma screens for people to sit and see.

back view of my tour guide.. the trees are real one. the skylight rooft allows sunlight to filter down, so the plants can be green and healthy.

new aero-bridges. the walkway is all glass one.. so will be very chio when walking to board the plane.

koi pond sans the koi..

this is the reason why no koi..

one of the many air-con vents to channel cool air to the ground..

many people walking around. visitors, construction workers etc.

the many amenities offered to the visitors..

plants are everywhere too.. orchids especially.

my little tour group.. got quite a few senior citizens. went for the chinese tour due to my grandmother. personally i'll prefer the english one.

the waiting area before boarding the plane. according to the tour guide, this place can seat 4 planes worth of passengers.

i like the design of the lights.. very nice. =)

discrimination..

waiting area.. we took a 10 min toilet break here.. toilets are very nice and clean with auto taps.. haha.. the seats are very plush and real comfy.

see! plants everywhere.. haha..

the green wall. or 5 stories worth of 25 species of climbing plants. all real one and i can only remember the money plant being among them.

even the escalator embodies the design concept. glass everywhere to give the very open and airy feeling.

another shot of the skylight.. just love it..

the immigration counters for arrival passengers..

the design on the glass panels are painted on with a template and then dried with the hot air gun. thought is use sticker one.. chey.

a scale model of the airport. lens not wide enough.. can't capture the whole model. the whole airport cost $1.75 billion and took 9 yrs to build.

how can go airport and then not take pic of the control tower? haha.. taken from t2 after i went there for lunch.

end this post with a beautiful sunflower.. taken from t2 also.

vivocity!

2007-11-27T22:45:00.000+08:00

went to vivocity yesterday to walk walk. still find its damn big.. haha.. went into the samsung shop to play with the camera. then i went to the canon show room and play with the DSLRs on display there. 400D was awfully small. the 40D had a heavier and better feel. anyway, i took some pictures.. though i'll post them here..

the view from the 3rd floor of vivocity.. look over the small area of sea and can see the cable cars run here and there..

on the other side is the keppel harbour. big big cranes.. obviously very busy.. hope it stays that way..

can also see the sentosa bridge from where i'm standing.

Carlsberg sky tower..

the iconic merlion..

the sentosa express.. very cute. in bright colours too!

some boat they make to look like those ancient chinese junk.. ship was going to dock..

backing down her engines to prevent from langar-ing the dock.

a much sleeker and chio-er sea ferry

like the design of the stairs.. has a very modern yet a little touch of the traditional

teardroped plot for the tree. seems quite popular, judging by the number of couples seeking shade under it..

giant christmas tree.. think it will look very nice at night..

many kids playing at the wadding area.. water looks murky and dirty. but its not. its the colour of the floor below

wind was quite strong.. can see the ripples on the water surface..

thus ends my vivocity tour.. haha.. next up, Changi International Airport Terminal 3!

Got my license!!

2007-11-27T21:58:00.000+08:00

hahahaahahahaha!!! went for my test today.. i passed!!

below is a copy of the actual test checklist.

as you can see, i got 12 points in total. not too bad la hor? even if 18 points i won't mind.. as long pass can le. =) my circuit was ok. very smooth, i purposely went super slow so that i won't miss the sighting points. e-brake wasn't very well done cos i had just finished shifting up to 2nd when he slam the dashboard. other than that i guess i'm ready for the road. =) still feeling high.. haha..

heh. since i'm feeling happy, might as well do a point by point commentary. went to the centre and reached at abt 12.20 lidat. so i sat at the customer service area the chairs and wait. at abt 12.25 i went into the 'warm-up' room. its just a place where they cordon off for the people to sit while waiting for warm up. got a lot of things there.. like top 5 immediate failures or top 5 demerit points etc. see le easy to feel depressed. so sit for a long time. people come and go. soon, the warm-up instructors came to take us to our cars. mine came late. so i was like the last guy. anyway, my car was no 208. din notice the license plate, if not can buy 4d.

along the way he told me the passing rate is high. i was like, WTH.. so random. never mind. so i enter the car and started the engine. den adjusted everything. so drive around and did a few items. after that drive out of the centre. while driving out, there were many people at the zebra crossing, so i had to wait. but wait like damn long. so i move a little. den the instructor ask me if i in a hurry. of course not la.. so have to wait lor. the warm up was rather uneventful, except for the butterflies in my tummy. =P

went back to the centre and had to wait from 1.15--1.35 before i could go into the traffic police room and wait. rather than endure all the cigarette smoke and heat outside, i went into customer service there and sit. listen to mp3 for a long time to calm myself up. in the end only managed to get more pumped up since all the songs were very fast.. haha..

so at 1.30 i went to see my car again.. was hoping that it won't let me down or me let it down. after that i went to toilet and then walk into the tp room to wait. they took a long time la. in the end i got test route 2, which was quite ok when i look at the map. easy. =D was feeling very confident now. i felt that i had to feel confident and pumped up, or else i'll fuck up and screw up something.

the tester was an elderly gentleman by the name of.. tester. =P forgot his name le. i think he was trying to set me at ease cos his voice wasn't very fierce and he always gave the instructions early. very good. my kind of person. haha.. the first thing i did was the slope. after that came the long directional change. i'm quite weak there, cos the sighting point for turning i'm not very clear. got one time kena the curb. so this thime i just used my instincts and cross my fingers that i won't hit the curb. the car was ok la. a bit more to the right. cos turn too early.

after direction change came the s-course. also not a problem for me. crank course was next and the testor crank down the window to see if i got kena the curb anot. i din hit, but i suspect i was rather close, judging from the positioning of the car. then came vertical parking. did it super slow as i din want to mess up the sighting and turning points. finally was the parallel parking. he went down to check if i hit any poles anot. with the tester gone (not in my car), of course i relax a little and told myself since he's not inside, nothing to fear. haha.. parallel parking was also ok. no poles were hurt in the process. i think the entire circuit items took abt 10-15 mins only. very fast. and all the regular L-plate cars gave way to me since i'm on test.

went out to the road and things were far better there. the tester gave his directions well early and reminded me when the time came to make the turn. so everything was ok. no heavy traffic, no irritating motorcyclists and no stupid bicycles. haha.. there are many traps on the test routs and since i've been driving around there for a few days, i could anticipate them.

after a short spin, went back to the centre and went to the de-briefing room where the tester sat me down and said : "can pass". wah! i tell you ah. i could have hugged him there and then if he wasn't an elderly gentleman. then he pointed out my mistakes. e-brake din do well etc.. after that went back down to the warm-up room to get back my student booklet and also to sign a form to refund me my balance in the account. felt super high already by then. so bought a drink to cool down and started calling everyone to tell the good news. haha..

after that had to watch a 10 min safety video. which was very fast and i then went to take a number n075 to apply for my new license. tell you ah. there only got 3 counters, which are manned by overworked women. there were alot of people there.. applying for PDL, conversion of foreign license and new license. those foreigners take a shitload of time to do their thing. one person can be stuck at the counter for 15 mins ah. when my turn came, i took abt 2 mins? confirm my address, give my ic and atm card and key in my pin to pay the $50 for the license and i was done. the lady even said my ic number was nice. haha..

all in all, today was very good. the weather was good and the gods above were kind. =D when the photocard license arrives 2 weeks later, i'll be a botak in army green. but i still got my license. and that's wad matters.

exams are over!!

2007-11-22T00:01:00.000+08:00

hahaahahaha!!! exams are over le!! now suddenly got nothing to do. all these while was busy studying. now that exams over, like got no aim lidat. now left exactly 2 weeks to my enlistment!!! haha.. very sian.. but i'm much relieved la..

weekend

2007-11-18T22:38:00.001+08:00

haiz.. sian. overslept on sat morning. when i woke up, the sun was already in my face.. so wasted. had really wanted to go for the parade, even if it meant going alone. clemence told me later that they had rides on the tanks!!! grr....

anyway, woke up very early today to go market with mother. haven been to the wet market for a long time. actually since the prelims started till now. bought lots of fish and veges.

a platter of seafood.. lol..

crayfish.. haven had one since i was in pri sch.. really dirty, need to scrub and all. the fish monger had helped us hack it into half, so its easier to cook.

one of the many groupers that we bought.. cost $5.50 per kg. i think its really cheap.. very fresh too.. had one for breakfast. just add a little salt and wine and steamed it.

dunno wad you call this fish.. lol.. the fish look damn sian.. :P but its also very fresh. the eyes are very clear..

ROJAK!! dat time was at jurong east having dinner then shared 1 plate with ronald. $2 so little, like kena scam lidat. so today at the market bought the you tiao, bean sprout, cucumber and the rojak flower. since no one eats the tao pok, we din buy lor. its quite easy to make la. cost per plate also lower, so feel more bang for buck. :D

lazy day today..

2007-11-16T23:48:00.000+08:00

din do much today.. woke up quite late and went out for lunch. then i went to sengkang library to return magazines and read book. stayed there for an hour and a half.. so was a rather uneventful day today..

tmw i'm going to clemence's 2nd parade. the one in which he gets his black beret. black for armour. and i'll be going alone, since shamir doesn't want to come this time. all the better la. i one person won't be late.

YAH!!!

2007-11-14T22:58:00.001+08:00

the 3 tough days are finally over!!! had econs paper 1 and 2 just now in the afternoon. after paper 2 was collected, man it felt good! =) feel so 'free' and relieve now... =)

tough week coming up..

2007-11-09T23:45:00.000+08:00

today went to JE to study econs.. next week gonna be tough.. monday is physics paper 2, tue is econs paper 3 and wed is econs paper 1 and 2.. guess i need to strategize again.. wilson smsed me just now asking my if i could make time to attend the super import nights car show.. as much as i would have wanted to attend it ( i've never missed a major car show), can't spare the time and energy to go.. even if go my mind will still be on the exams.. can't fully enjoy the experience.. lots of hot babes and cars, but i'll have to give this one a miss la..

1 more mth...

2007-11-06T09:30:00.001+08:00

later having my maths paper 2 at 2 pm.. i'm actually supposed to be studying but heck... time really flies so fast.. 1 mth a go i received my letter and posted it here.. not left 1 more mth to go, with 14 exam days which means i have 16 days to R&R b4 i go overseas... ah well...

a lazy day...

2007-11-03T23:04:00.001+08:00

din study much today.. woke up quite late, had lunch and went back to sleep.. haha. very unproductive... i know. but it just feels so good to be able to sleep the whole day.. :) tmw going to JE to study with ronald they all.. tue is maths paper 2!!

A' Levels...

2007-11-03T01:02:00.000+08:00

just had my 9233 maths paper 1 in the morning... pretty screwed up i'ld say.. the mathematical induction question had 3 topics in it!!! differentiation and trigo!! how to do sia? ronald did a check of the 10 yr series ahd it had never came out like this!! 1st time come out 3 topics in 1 induction question.. anyway, its over la, so lets just look to the future..

really looking forward to the end of this exam.. its very draining... i'ld rather sleep in a foxhole in Tekong with my M-16.

went to Jurong East to study today.. i'ld say today is a rather slow day... spent the day talking abt this and that and not really doing much. i did realise how useful the Venn diagram can be in solving probability questions. must draw out then can 'see' the probability..

hmm.. the toll so far is physics paper 3, both GP papers and maths paper 1. still have maths paper 2, physics paper 2, econs paper 3, then 1&2 and finally physics paper 1 on the 20th nov. its also the say i wear MI uniform for the last day... a bit sad and happy.. sad cos i'm leaving my sch, a place that i had know for 3 yrs. not all happy years, but i'm nonetheless grateful for the education that i've gained with the school.

no pictures to post... din go out and brain quite addled to take any nice pics. so pls bear with me... i'll bring my cam on my enlistment day so that my parents can take some pics and i'll post them here..

haiz.. very shag... not just physically, but more of the mental stress.. everything i see those sec and pri sch kids playing in the JE library, i feel like strangling them.. no manners... especially those girls and boys, touch here touch there.. Eeeeee....

i know its a little early for Christmas, but my wish this yr is for a Canon 400D. you suppose Santa will give it to me? haha... chances are not much, but its human nature to hope.. :D

countdown to exams..

2007-10-22T23:23:00.000+08:00

went to sch to study today. after that went to jurong library after dinner to continue.. haiz.. very sian. wanna play also cannot enjoy fully. its like the shadow of the exams being perpetually cast upon my mood..

come home that time started raining.. sian. until now still raining.. feel a little down already..

anyway.. a little recap on my little happenings..

went for my cousin's wedding at some orchard hotel on 10th oct. pretty nice atmosphere.. had to wear a tie for the dinner.. so stifiling.. anyway, i brought my kodak there since i could try taking some pics there. besides, my other cousin's boyfriend is a professional photographer.. so i can learn some stuff from him.. he was using a 40D with hotshoe flash that night. was expecting something like the 1D Mk3 or some other monster.

anyway, i'll be looking for him once i have enough $$ to get my 400D as he would probably be able to get me a better deal. having someone who knows wad to look out for is also good..

tried taking many pics and for the first time i realised that the pics taken using the normal cam with flash and all that wasn't wad i would call very nice. perhaps i've been viewing the pics taken by the professional photogs on clubsnap and have come to demand more from my pictures. so i tried taking manual. damn hard leh.. very easy to shake, hard to get the optimum exposure and have to set the white balance myself. the camera sensor would confuse it and cannot get the same lighting conditions in the pics as i see. the shuttle speed was also a challenge as too long a shuttle speed would surely blur the pic as people would move about, no matter how small. too short and there won't be enough exposure and the pic would turn out under exposed. so i sort of understood the limitations of my P&S. its great for normal occassions out in the park or to some outdoor exhibitions. but come to indoor shots, my kodak would be totally outclassed.

i think this has made me all the more determined to get the 400D so that i can take pics that are approaching a better quality.

to show wad i mean, check out this pic. taken in auto mode with the flash off. the sensor totally screw up the lighting. its like totally flat.

this pic was taken in manual mode. the shutter speed was too fast 1/8 of a sec. and i should have compensated for exposure.

this pic is much better. brighter by alot. super slow shutter speed of 1.3 sec. but at such slow speeds the hand tends to shake and this pic if magnify sure gone one.

here's a photo of my cousin's wife (dunno wad to call her) and his daughter. the front of the pic is pretty well exposed due to the flash, but the rest of the pic is gone. wad do i mean? the rest of the details like the lighting and stuff in the room is all so dark that cannot even see.

this pic is one of the better ones. of course my cousin's hand is blur cos he moved it during the time it took to take the pic. but other that that this mode allows the details of the room to be seen. like the lighting, other people etc. so this is wad i mean by the pic having 'depth'.

anyway, now that i've realised the limitations of my kodak, i'll try my best to work my way around them so that it will be the cam limiting me, not my lack of skills from preventing me from taking good pictures.

Enlistment Letter

2007-10-05T20:27:00.000+08:00

My enlistment letter come le..

wah. i see already sian diao. 2 weeks after the last A'Levels paper going in.. not much time to play or work..

going to BMTC sch 1.. but dunno which company..

map to get to pasir ris mrt and a list of things to bring..

hello again..

2007-10-04T00:37:00.001+08:00

long time no post le..

Aircraft Waranty Document

2007-09-30T01:11:00.001+08:00

got this funny email from dom and i thought it will make a light post..

OFFICIAL WARANTY DOCUMENT

PLEASE KEEP FOR YOUR RECORDS

Upon Purchase Of Aircraft - Registration Document

Thank you for purchasing a McDonnell Douglas military aircraft. In order to protect your new investment, please take a few moments to fill out the warranty registration card below. Answering the survey questions is not required, but the information will help us to develop new products that best meet your needs and desires.

1. Your Details
[_] Mr.
[_] Mrs.
[_] Miss
[_] Lt.
[_] Gen.
[_] Comrade
[_] Classified
[_] Other
First Name:.................................................
Initial:........
Last Name...................................................
Password: .............................. (max. 8 char)
Code Name:..................................................
Latitude-Longitude-Altitude: ......................

2. Which model of aircraft did you purchase?
[_] F-14 Tomcat
[_] F-15 Eagle
[_] F-16 Falcon
[_] F-117A Stealth
[_] Classified

3. Date of purchase (Year/Month/Day): 19....... /......./......

4. Serial Number:...............................................

5. Please indicate where this product was purchased:
[_] Received as gift / aid package
[_] Catalogue / showroom
[_] Independent arms broker
[_] Mail order
[_] Discount store
[_] Government surplus
[_] Classified

6. Please indicate how you became aware of the McDonnell Douglas product you have just purchased:
[_] Heard loud noise, looked up
[_] Store display
[_] Espionage
[_] Recommended by friend / relative / ally
[_] Political lobbying by manufacturer
[_] Was attacked by one

7. Please indicate the three (3) factors that most influenced your decision to purchase this McDonnell Douglas product:
[_] Style / appearance
[_] Speed / manoeuvrability
[_] Price / value
[_] Comfort / convenience
[_] Kickback / bribe
[_] Recommended by salesperson
[_] McDonnell Douglas reputation
[_] Advanced Weapons Systems
[_] Backroom politics
[_] Negative experience opposing one in combat

8. Please indicate the location(s) where this product will be used:
[_] North America
[_] Iraq
[_] Iraq
[_] Aircraft carrier
[_] Iraq
[_] Europe
[_] Iraq
[_] Middle East (not Iraq)
[_] Iraq
[_] Africa
[_] Iraq
[_] Asia / Far East
[_] Iraq
[_] Misc. Third World countries
[_] Iraq
[_] Classified
[_] Iraq

9. Please indicate the products that you currently own or intend to purchase in the near future:
[_] Colour TV
[_] VCR
[_] ICBM
[_] Killer Satellite
[_] CD Player
[_] Air-to-Air Missiles
[_] Space Shuttle
[_] Home Computer
[_] Nuclear Weapon

10. How would you describe yourself or your organisation? (indicate all that apply:)
[_] Communist / Socialist
[_] Terrorist
[_] Crazed
[_] Neutral
[_] Democratic
[_] Dictatorship
[_] Corrupt
[_] Primitive / Tribal

11. How did you pay for your McDonnell Douglas product?
[_] Deficit spending
[_] Cash
[_] Suitcases of cocaine
[_] Oil revenues
[_] Personal cheque
[_] Credit card
[_] Ransom money
[_] Traveller's cheque

12. Your occupation:
[_] Homemaker
[_] Sales / marketing
[_] Revolutionary
[_] Clerical
[_] Mercenary
[_] Tyrant
[_] Middle management
[_] Eccentric billionaire
[_] Defence Minister / General
[_] Retired
[_] Student

13. To help us better understand our customers, please indicate the interests and activities in which you and your spouse enjoy participating on a regular basis:
[_] Golf
[_] Boating / sailing
[_] Sabotage
[_] Running / jogging
[_] Propaganda / misinformation
[_] Destabilisation / overthrow
[_] Default on loans
[_] Gardening
[_] Crafts
[_] Black market / smuggling
[_] Collectibles / collections
[_] Watching sports on TV
[_] Wines
[_] Interrogation / torture
[_] Household pets
[_] Crushing rebellions
[_] Espionage / reconnaissance
[_] Fashion clothing
[_] Border disputes
[_] Mutually Assured Destruction

Thank you for taking the time to fill out this questionnaire. Your answers will be used in market studies that will help McDonnell Douglas serve you better in the future - as well as allowing you to receive mailings and special offers from other companies governments, extremist groups, and mysterious consortia. As a bonus for responding to this survey, you will be registered to win a brand new F-117A in our Desert Thunder Sweepstakes!

Comments or suggestions about our fighter planes?

McDONNELL DOUGLAS CORPORATION Marketing Department Military, Aerospace Division

IMPORTANT: This e-mail is intended for the use of the individual addressee(s)named above and may contain information that is confidential privileged or unsuitable for overly sensitive persons with low self-esteem, no sense of humour or irrational religious beliefs.
If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is not authorised (either explicitly or implicitly) and constitutes an irritating social faux pas.
Unless the word absquatulation has been used in its correct context somewhere other than in this warning, it does not have any legal or no grammatical use and may be ignored.
No animals were harmed in the transmission of this e-mail, although the kelpie next door is living on borrowed time, let me tell you.
Those of you with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will be gratified to learn that there is no hidden message revealed by reading this warning backwards, so just ignore that Alert Notice that just popped up.

However, by pouring a complete circle of salt around yourself and your computer you can ensure that no harm befalls you and your pets.
If you have received this e-mail in error, please add some nutmeg and egg whites, whisk and place in a warm oven for 40 minutes.

a day at home..

2007-09-24T22:18:00.000+08:00

had no school today cos got 2 days off as marking day. so spent the day studying lor.. clemence got his posting orders.. not as a tankie but as a armour infantry. those soldiers that sit in the APC and provide cover for the tanks one.. lol.. he said that he damn sian and want to change vocation.. good luck to him man..

40th SAR BMT POP

2007-09-18T12:46:00.000+08:00

went for clemence's passing out parade (POP) last sat with shamir.

woke up at 5.30+am and then took a quick shower and den went on my way down to chua chu kang MRT to meet shamir. the bugger. late. say he 7.30 will reach. ended up he reached at 8am. i even had time to walk around , recce the place and have breakfast. i eat so slow, took me 20 mins to finish a bowl of noodles. :) den the shutter bus left.. so we took a cab in to his camp, flag the 1st cab the uncle dunno where. den the second one also not sure, so we try lor. turns out is just next to the HTA, so next time if need to go there can use there as a reference.

when we got there, the parade had already started. grr..

3 armour vehicles, 2 M113s and a sibei old SM1 in the middle. clemence told me that their sergeants drive there the day before one.

all formed up... 2 companies of men

camp CO speaking to his men.

a group of the recruits marching out to receive awards for exceptional performance

the battalion's best speaking..

the camp RSM i think.. as you can see, very stout and solid one.

Clemence!! chao recruit and his dad.. haha.. that aside, his dad does seem quite proud of him..

looking very tanned and much fitter..

brother wearing his cap for him..

by wearing the cap, he's no longer a recruit. become private already.

photo time!! shamir, private chang and me.

family photo..

with his platoon sergeant. clemence still has a long way to go to getting his black beret..

POP!!

after the privates marched out, everyone cheong to take pics with the tanks..

i din cheong. i walk.. lol..

shamir.. got more 'style'

wanted to take pic of this M113 only, but the chio bu ended in it also..

clemence's quarters..

unit badge..

marching back to the bunk from the parade square..

very standard their marching..

they like taking photos.. lol..

another one..

tossing their PS..

brothers..

that's it.. was raining when we left the place.. on clemence's dad's toyota dyna.

another post.

2007-09-13T20:51:00.000+08:00

dunno wad to write for a blog post.. haha.. today was maths paper 2, the stats part. wasn't as easy as i thought it to be.. gonna screw up again..

on a lighter note, i have no papers tmw, so its a 'off' day for me. haha.. :)

going for clemence's pop on sat morning.. quite excited.. haha.. long time never meet up with him and shamir already.. can also take some pics.. camera getting rusty..

Prelims

2007-09-11T21:56:00.001+08:00

nearly 1 week since my last post.. now in the midst of prelim exams.. went back to sch on 2 days during the sept holidays to study..

this is a bubble that i blew.. from those tube one? supporting a swiss knife and my shuffle.

the same bubble, this time with my nokia 2626. had expected it to have a hull breech by now, but no.. it din burst.. haha.. had alot of fun with this bubble..

Clemence's pop (passing out parade) is this sat. i'm going with shamir (sec sch classmate). i'm bring my cam there since he told me can bring. he also tole me that got tanks on display. SM1 and M113. though not the new leopard, but still better than nothing. haha..

SM1..

the M113 armored personnel carrier pics not nice. so i din post. will post mine when i go on sat. :)

Social issues..

2007-09-05T22:30:00.000+08:00

my sch kena complain by a member of public in the straits times forums. den it triggeres a shitload of posts in my sch forums...

my 2 cents worth.. i think that the students were really dumb.. if got civil defence vehicle with siren on, i jump also jump out of the way.. haha.. for wad you cat walk across the road? especially while there's an emergency vehicle in front of you rushing off somewhere? haha.. although the feller was right in highlighting this, i think he shouldn't have generalized us MI people.. not all are bad eggs..

there's the case of a corporal AWOLing with his SAR-21 rifle with a few live rounds. i dunno wad he was thinking when he decided to awol but i'm sure the police and mindef would have picked his brains clean by the time they are done with him. left 1 more mth to ORD.. haha.. i shouldn't try to comment on his actions cos none of us have been in his shoes (boots) and thus wad we say may not be right.

maybe i should start posting some past photos that i've taken but din post? if not my this photo blog the title must take down le.

yogurt maker

2007-09-02T22:09:00.000+08:00

went to sentosa for steamboat dinner at a chalet that my aunt had booked. costa sands one and it was damn small la. at least the air-con was cold. anyway, there were many things to eat..

everything must bring from home.. bowls, extension wire, forks and spoons, blah blah blah so that a steamboat meal can work out.. lucky my uncle got van, can send us all there..

one of my aunts bought durian puffs..

very power one.. i had 3 and the next day throat sore le..

my aunt (bring puff one) also brought home-made yogurt for us.. den i hear le abit wierd.. how to make yogurt yourself? let the milk curddle and ferment? den lidat eat le sure got problem one.. so i saw the bottle and got brand one.. den when i got home i google the brand on the container..

somemore got official website.. i'm impressed...

enough to get my mom to try a set..

bought from phoon huat one.. cost $25 plus.

instruction book...

there's a pack of yogurt mix that has to be dissolved in cold water.. need to shake like mad..

so after shaking put into this while container and let it set for at least 6 hours.. put under the table cos no one will go and disturb it. i just check at 10pm, haven set yet. still watery..

the yogurt mix.. they gave 2 packs, mango and strawberry.. we bought another 2, peach and berries.. the yogurt mix quite ex.. $4.50 per pack.. but i think it would be better than those bought from NTUC or Shop&Save..

i guess have to wait till tmw morning den can know if the experiment was a success or failure..

another joke

2007-09-01T00:58:00.000+08:00

in response to the wife abt husband complain, another joke was put up on husband abt wife.

Girlfriend 1.0 to Wife 1.0

Request for Technical Support, Incident #99-02-14-01

Last year I upgraded Girlfriend 1.0 to Wife 1.0, and I can find no documentation on several features.

For example, Wife 1.0 installs itself into all other programs and launches during system initialization where it monitors all other system activity.

Applications such as RunAnywhere 10.3 and StayOut 2.5 cause freezes.

Also, the new program has spawned a couple of unexpected child processes that have taken up a lot of space and resources.

I was considering going back to Girlfriend 1.0 but there does not seem to be a "revert to previous state" feature.

Can you help me?

Registered User #10-1-13-5-19

Response to User #10-1-13-5-19, Incident #99-02-14-01

We receive many inquiries to this perceived problem. However it is almost always the result of a common error.

Many men upgrade from Girlfriend 1.0 to Wife 1.0 with the idea that Wife 1.0 is merely a Utilities & Entertainment program.

This is a serious misconception.

Although Wife 1.0 includes many Utilities and Entertainment functions, Wife 1.0 is actually an entire Operating System. It has been designed to run everything.

Warning! Do not try to: un-install, delete, or purge the program from the system once installed. Trying to un-install Wife 1.0 can be disastrous, resulting in the loss of valuable system resources.

You can not go back to Girlfriend 1.0. Wife 1.0 is not designed to do this.

Many have tried "workarounds". These only complicate the situation.

For example, some have tried to install Girlfriend 2.0 or Wife 2.0 and found the problems persist.

Others, in an ill conceived attempt, have tried to run Girlfriend 2.0 in the background while Wife 1.0 is running. This almost always results in serious system conflicts, possibly leading to a non-recoverable system crash.

We recommend you keep Wife 1.0 and adjust a few user input parameters.

I might also suggest you read the entire section regarding General Protection Faults (GPFs). Should a GPF occur, the best course of action will be to push the Apologize Button then Reset Button as soon as lock-up occurs.

The system will run smooth as long as you provide needed maintenance time.

To free up CPU time and improve performance be certain that you have terminated your several search and scan routines.

Because each copy of Wife 1.0 is a uniquely configured system, no single manual will cover all enabled features.

New users should first consult with those who have been running Wife 1.0 for many years before installing a copy yourself. You should consider joining one of our established local users group to discuss your specific configuration.

Remember, the installation of Wife 1.0 can allow maximum system potential, particularly when used with supplementary applications. For example, killer apps Contentment 2.5 and Reliability 6.12a have been known to max out when run with TLC 2 and Communicator 5.0.

There are no plans for upgrades; Wife 1.0 was designed to work for a lifetime.

End of response

FTT passed!!

2007-08-30T21:25:00.000+08:00

hahahahaahahahha... pass my FTT liao! damn happy.. last time din bring IC cannot take.. this time pass. :D

book my test date already. 27th Nov. just nice after A levels. can everyday drive till my test date..

came across this joke that was posted on the clubsnap forums:

Dear IT Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and
noticed a slow down in the overall performance, particularly in
the flower, gifts and jewellery applications that had operated
flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 un-installed many other valuable
programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, but
installed undesirable programs such as Formula One 5.0, NBA 3.0
and World Cup 2.0.

And now Conversation 8.0 no longer runs and House Cleaning 2.6
simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to
fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate Housewife

Reply:
Dear Desperate Housewife,

First keep in mind:
Boyfriend 5.0 is an entertainment package, while Husband 1.0 is
an operating system.

Try entering the command C:\ I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME and
download
Tears 6.2 to install Guilt 3.0.

If all works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically
run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, overuse can cause Husband 1.0 to default to
Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Late Night Teh Tarik 6.1.

Late Night 6.1 is a very bad program that will create
SnoringLoudly.wav files.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-Law 1.0 or reinstall
another
Boyfriend program. These are not supported applications and
will crash
Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have a
limited
memory and cannot learn new applications quickly.

You might consider additional software to improve memory and
performance. I personally recommend Hot Tasty Food 3.0 and
Tongkat Ali 6.9.

Good Luck,
IT Support

i think its damn funny.. lol..

hello again..

2007-08-28T23:40:00.000+08:00

have been neglecting this blog of mine for a long time le. long time din go out and so got no photos to share. but the army open house is coming up this weekend and i really want to go.. who wanna come along? haha..

anyway, should i go, i'll post all of the pics that i take. :) that's it for now..

a friend's wake

2007-08-16T23:54:00.000+08:00

just came back from my pri sch classmate's wake. had never expected to have to attend a friend's wake so soon. after all we are all so young.. 18/19 yrs with lots of time ahead. but things are not always what we perceive them to be.

for so long, almost 7 yrs have not kept in touch with my pri sch friends le. the only contact we had was through friendster and even then that was only with a few.

was checking my email and reading news when one of my ex classmates told me that wei choo, one of my p6 classmates had passed away. initially i thought he was joking. but he seemed dead serious. so i went to check out her friendster profile. there were many condolence msgs. he was serious and she had passed on. for some time, i was stunned. lots of questions came to me.

what happened?
why commit suicide?
Is it so serious?
what was she thinking?
why? why? why?
lots of questions. but i guess many will remain unanswered.

for that moment i thought i was going to cry, after all this was the 2nd time that death had affected me directly. the first time was my grandfather in 2003. my grandfather's health was poor and although his death came as a shock, at least we knew what caused it. wei choo's death was really out of the blue. i felt more deply this time perhaps because we were classmates for 2 yrs and i had spoken and interacted with her many times. never have i thought she would choose this path. then it dawned on me that she would never check her friendster account again nor would she be able to see the msgs left there for her. in the end i din cry.

seeing her picture in front of her coffin made everything very real. she had really died and there she was lying there. her coffin was 1/3 open but i din want to look at her for long because i didn't want to get too emotional. the 4 of us who went, we din speak much about her but i guess we had many questions in common.

some of the feelings that are going through me as i'm typing now i can't describe. its like we have always taken each other's presence for granted and only when the person is gone do we truly feel it. i wasn't close to her and if i feel this way, i can't imagine her family's pain..

i dunno how to continue from here...

881

2007-08-12T21:17:00.000+08:00

hmm.. long time no post le. haha. haven been going out much these recent weeks. must study more.. study is never enough.. haha.. babbling already.

anyway, i enjoyed the NDP weekend very much.. had a great time watching the parade. very grand. :)

had wanted to watch 881 with shawn on friday. but somehow, it din come through. 881 is a local movie by Royston Tan abt the getai industry. its ups and downs. i think the launch of the movie has sparked a new interest in the getais that were always somehow around during the 7th mth. today's newpaper on sunday carried an article on it and it also showed some of the getais that the readers could attend. had always wanted to attend one, if not for the atmosphere then to brush up on my hokkien which sad to say has become more jialat.

din go out, so no photos to post. haha. :P

anyway i did some reading up on the American sub-prime market yesterday. din even hear about the crisis until i heard the news yesterday. apparently it has brewing for quite some time le. its worrying in the business world as the credit crunch could lead to a lower economic growth blah blah blah. i'm pretty confident that MAS would be able to handle this crisis should it need to pump more Sing $$ into the money markets.

One week old post...

2007-07-24T22:26:00.000+08:00

heh. one solid week never post le... i've been staying in school for night studies since monday. till 9 pm. i dont think i've been very productive the whole week. just can't REALLY REALLY focus. there seems to be something that will be more interesting blah blah blah.

heh. my sister just got banned from using the com by me. for one week. for being rude. :)

wad to write?

2007-07-18T20:24:00.000+08:00

i've sort of run out of topics to write about.. now whole day think abt exams, prelims and A levels. though i'm not doing wad people would call insane mugging, i still study and i can feel the pressure mounting.. haha.. everyday got people stay back in sch and study till 9+ pm.

i don't like the idea of staying till 9 cos i'll be 3/4 dead once i reach home. so i have to force myself to study at home. haha. which is rather distracting given the fact that the com is in my room. haha..

now gotta do econs case study.

wad's for dinner...

2007-07-16T18:51:00.000+08:00

came back slightly early today so i had some time to prepare dinner. decided to make baked rice since the sch also got sell and i've been wanting to eat.

fresh from the oven!! haha..

there's mushroom, green pepper and lots of ham! haha..

last time i made baked rice i put all the ingredients on the top. this time i thought i'll layer the rice. as in 1 layer of rice, then ham, then rice, then green pepper, then rice, then mushroom and the balance ham with the sauce.

quite tasty this time just that there's always not enough sauce. and its a little wet at the bottom.

can see the layers? haha. not very clear this picture.

need to work on my lighting. haha.

My internet speed

2007-07-14T22:34:00.000+08:00

should i or should i not?

2007-07-14T20:34:00.000+08:00

someone left me a comment in the morning. C'est la vie. meaning "That's life or such is life". hmm. i couldn't agree more with that. every thing in life has its ups and downs. but if i were to be led along by it then i'll be quitting on life.

i think some how i have to control what happens to me. after all its action = reaction. newton's 3rd law of motion. :P

sound so cheem. haha. shawn made a bet with me yesterday. to churn out 2 25 marks essay by monday for mrs lau to mark. heh. if i start now, also considered late le. should i try? i'm thinking no. but its 7 weeks to prelims and if i dun do it now, i'll never make it.

haiz... people say that the A levels is the hardest exams of your life. i din agree initially. after all, which exams are easy? its only when you look back/reflect that it seems easy. but now i think i'm beginning to agree that its damn tough. the process leading up to it. its very difficult to get started.

i want to watch the latest harry potter movie. but i dun think shawn will watch with me. and i dun want to spend too much on a wekend movie. more like $7+ on a weekday one. any takers?

i'm using this pic as my current wallpaper.

time is running out..

2007-07-12T21:26:00.000+08:00

got back my mid-yr results le. all are extremely discouraging. make me feel like quiting school. but then, i've come so far and spent 3 yrs in MI le. now back out is a waste of time and money as well as all the hopes that everyone has in me..

normally i'll be looking forward to the weekends. but now, the future seems so beak..

NDP videos

2007-07-10T19:13:00.000+08:00

managed to edit the videos on my camera into smaller sizes and then posted them on youtube.

march past part 1:

march past part 2:

march past part 3:

fireworks part 1:

fireworks part 2:

NDP @ Marina Bay 2007 CR 3

2007-07-08T11:40:00.000+08:00

went for the NDP combined rehearsal with wilson ( sec sch friend) at marina bay. this is the first time we are having NDP on a floating stage and its the world's largest floating platform... blah blah blah. aiya. you can go read up on the official word la.

anyway, in the spirit of the NDP, i've revamped my title. now its gone! replaced by a baner taken from the NDP site. had wanted to put the flash banner. but dunno wad's wrong. cannot accept html. wtf. anyway, i took quite some pics and a few videos. this year's parade promises to be something very different from the previous years. cos there's water all round, the organisers made full use of it to make something entirely new and fun.

singapore flyer.. damn big wheel. wheel structure is done. but the cabins not up yet.

can see the merlion from where i'm seating, the green area.

soon to be IR...

as you can see, the seating is sort of permanent. like cast in concrete. only space for 20K plus people compared to the 60K capacity of the old national stadium.

the organisers found a novel way for the hosts to arrive. they put then on speed boats and race then to the stage from under the bridge....

and they are gonna load them onto the Fiat Puntos...

and ferry them to the front of the seating area. notice the hosts are poking through the sunroof? haha. very novel..

some local artiste is supposed to sing some song. but she not here. so the poor girl got to go up in her place and hold a card bearing her name. and she gotta stand there for 3+ mins. if is me i sian diao..

there was supposed to be a dragon boat race between Bukit Panjang Govt High, TPJC and ACJC. but some how this being a CR they no shot. so they put 3 flags on the speed boats and get them to race each other while the emcees work each other up cheering for the boats. -.-

the Tang Quartet also performed to a modified version of Singapura.

see them red dots? the red lions!!

smoke trails marking their descent. stupid wire. spoil my picture.

1st jumper. with the video cam on his helmet.

INCOMING!!

a job well done. always the crowd pleaser..

marina wave... adapted from the kallang wave.

dancers from the SAF music and drama company..

parade RSM.. think he's ordering the support contingents to march in.

supporting contingents marching in...

forming NDP '07

RSM handing over to parade commander. as usual he's a LTC but this time is NS. so i dun think he's a regular.

colours party marching in. i've read that the job of the escorts is to protect the colours and that should the flag bearer faint, he must catch the colours. flag bearer die also never mind.

guard of honor contingent. colours party followed by navy and then the army contingent. army is from the 1st commando battalion.

the other side also marching in. air force followed by SPF.

notice the supporting contingents men. the way they hold their rifle. dunno wad position is this..

guard of honor forming up.

colours party fanning out.

parade at sedia. the men are shouldering their rifles and the officers are holding their swords.

parade at senang diri. the men are hugging their rifles and officers are leaning the swords on the shoulders. last time when using M-16 is put the rifle on the floor and hold by the bayonet.

men from the singapore artillery stand by to fire the ceremonial cannons. every year only use 1 time for NDP.

state flag flying in via the Chinook and escorted by 4 Apaches. also din announce gonna sing national anthem. see the choppers fly in then they play le. everyone was caught unaware and have to stand up and sing.

nice tight formation.

bomb burst by the F-16s. looks slanted. haha. air force needs more practice.

presidental land rover..

artillery firing during the inspection.

as mentioned. this yr quite different. this time the president rides on the rover and inspects the parade. not like last time walk le then board land rover for a drive round the stadium.

Feu-de-Joie ( fire of joy) by the guard of honor contingents. they fire from left to right and back 4 times per shot command.

very smart..

i din take any pics of the march past cos i was taking video. had wanted to post it on youtube. but its too big. anyone knows how to chop/edit quicktime movies?

the commandos repelling from the Sheares bridge into the water. part of the NS 40 demo.

Chinook flying super low... its like a few tens of metres above the water?

they are dropping naval divers into the water through the rear ramp though i din manage to catch any of them on the camera.

fast craft interceptor. can go at 40+ knots. which is pretty damn fast.

cute right? i think it was adapted from the army's Bronco All terrain tracked carrier. looks very similar. this is used primarily to fight forest fires.

Apache flying here and there...

see. there's 2 of them. executing high g manovures. they even flew upside down. which is possible. but din manage to get any shots as they flew quite fast.

saluting the nation. they sort of 'bow'

let the show begin.. very nice right? the towers' lights all can change colours one.

jelly fish!! haha. like rubber balloon. pulled around by army guys on boats in the bay. wonder how they co-ordinate.

cool right? looks like molten gold pouring into the sea... haha. the boat is used for another act..

the stage is very very nice..

the 'boat' docking with the stage...

den it move onto the stage as part of an act..

as you can see, when you enlarge the pic, its getting more and more blur. cos it's getting dark pretty soon and the camera will need more light to take a proper pic. so the shutter stays open longer. and since i'm holding free hand, it will shake. which makes the pic blur. its nearly impossible to take sharp photos at night. unless one is using tripod or a bigger cam like a DSLR.

the different colours of the stage...

that's it.. no pics of the fireworks also.. cos is taken in video.

my next cameras:

Canon EOS 400D

OR

Nikon D40X

both are entry level DSLR costing: Canon $1.6K & Nikon $1.1K respectively.

i think the DSLR will allow me to take better photos in that i have more control over my pics and in manual mode, it won't be as bad as my Kodak as i dun have to use the tripod everytime i go into manual mode.

will have to wait till i enter army b4 i can buy either one of them.. well.. for now, i can just look... lol..

hee...

2007-07-06T14:56:00.000+08:00

now i'm just waiting for time to pass before i go to compass point to return my books and den to comfort to drive for 100 mins. lol. my previous lesson on wed was quite smooth. just need to work on the speed of my gear changes. i dun think i need to change gear so fast so i take my time and shift the gear. but since the instructor says that need to shift fast to make use of engine brake when slowing/stopping, so the gear change also need to speed up.

read up on double clutching yesterday and saw a few videos on youtube on how it was done. there's even videos that teach you how to drive. so if you watch those videos, technically you should be able to drive le. den no need to spend money on driving lessons be it with the school or private. haha. no such thing lah. these years i've watched my dad drive his cab; the toyota crown. and i thought i knew how to drive. after all is just clutch in, change gear, release clutch and step on the oil nia. but once i did it, not so easy ah. must feel the biting point, how much oil to step etc.

maybe i'll try out double clutching later. its suppose to prevent wear to the clutch and allow for faster gear changes. since the drive shaft will be rotating at the same speed as the engine or something lidat la. haha. dunno where the feller will bring me later. later is the same tampines area. turn one round go back to school le. so sian. or maybe i'll request another route. dunno if he will let me go the test route anot.

just now go for the trial test and i do until kena locked out by the system. cos the system record my id as logging in too many times. so lock me out. #@$#@!#@$ kena forced to do the powerpoint test. which is no fun. even if you anyhow, they will show you the answer.

so for the trial tests, my score average is 99.999%. the missing 0.001% is due to me not doing the last question. not i dunno, is i miss out in my haste to finish. anyway, i'm pretty confident of passing my ftt on tue and being to book a prac test date by then and hopefully i can get my licence by this yr and before i go army.

Good Morning!

2007-07-04T08:55:00.000+08:00

hey! Good Morning! i believe this is the first time i'm blogging in the morning. haha. kena woken up by some phone call.. -.- den now cannot sleep.

went to watch trnasformers with cedric, one of my sec sch buddies at the Bedok Princess Cinema. the ticket only $5 nia. haha. ambience confirm lose the new cinemas one. but who cares. the ticket is cheap, somemore can bring food like mac in. last time i eat le will just leave under the seat let the uncle clear. but now i'll bring out and throw. the uncle so old le, i leave under there for him to throw like very cruel. somemore i'm 19 le. not some young kid.

the movie is quite good la. some parts very funny. but i like the effects the best. bomb here bomb there. den when they change from the car into the transformers dat time also very good. think this kind of film need to watch in the better cinemas for the best effect.

went for 4 trial test lessons so far le. i'm still nervous abt next tue's ftt test. if i fail it will set me back by another mth at least and i may not be so lucky to be able to find an empty slot and shift forward. so i must pass. after my driving lesson got tutorial lesson. i'll go there and see wad i can learn. friday got another 2 trial tests. heh. at all costs.

pretty bored these days. is either i stay home and study or i go out walk walk. no sch. very sian.

Sunday!! lol..

2007-07-01T21:31:00.000+08:00

hmm.. din do much things today... woke up at abt 10+am and then went to bath and had breakfast. after that read the papers and play gunbound. its a game that i played some 3 yrs ago. very fun. shoot here shoot there. i'm proficient in big foot only. the rest i dunno how to use.

went searching for free-ware today. got a shitload of them on the net.

can see the clock on the top right corner? the darker blue one is the com clock. the light blue one is the countdown timer for the F1 French GP. gonna watch it on RTM 2 later.

as mentioned, tmw and the rest of next week i got no sch. i'm so very looking forward to my lesson on wed. sure fun one!! for now, i want to go watch transformers. who want come with me!!?? looking for company.

its my birthday...

2007-06-29T22:59:00.000+08:00

sometime this day 19 yrs ago i was born...

i still remember my early birthdays. all full of fan fare. all the relatives will come my house and celebrate. got food, presents and fun. as time passed, i grew older and less emphasis was placed on celebrating birthdays.

at home, the best was a cake and dinner out at hawker center or coffee shop. in pri sch, no one knew. i guess i wasn't very sociable then. but still i had hopped that someone would wish me happy birthday.

when i went to sec sch, i thought that things would improve since people always say sec sch will be the most fun and got alot of friends one. but sadly sec 1 and 2 were like fuck. much grief and sorrow. then i moved to bedok green. those days were the best of my sec sch life. good friends, teachers and i got my first birthday card from someone other than my relatives. was very happy cos to me it meant that they cared.

now at MI, got no card nor presents for the pass 3 yrs. the best was last yr when all the girls in class spam me with happy birthday smses. this yr also nothing different. got abt 7 greetings from people.

as i mentioned, last time got cake to blow candles on. in the recent yrs the cake become a slice. this yr got no cake at all. not even a slice. got no candles to blow. sad right?

heh. sounds like i'm wallowing in self pity. i can't help but wonder, how many people like me. every yr pass birthday like a normal day? and how many people who celebrate theirs with friends or family at some restaurant with much fanfare and gifts. sounds like a dream. but i'll really like to experience that someday.

on a slightly lighter note, i had my 5th driving lesson today. since i 1 mth nevery drive le, i drove 2 rounds around the circuit to refresh. this car no 187 the clutch is higher that the previous car. so need to release quite abit to let it move. den we went out onto the road.

i tell you man, driving on the road is much better than driving on the circuit. can speed up some more. but also more stress la. got to watch mirrors and manage the gears plus keep in lane. some more ubi there got heavy traffic. den the car stop, move stop move stop lidat very tiring on the left leg. but i think its really fun. to be in control. drove at kaki bukit towards bedok reservoir, den turn into temasek poly.

yah! exams are over!!

2007-06-28T20:33:00.000+08:00

hah! had my last 3 papers today. the sch very sick one. all my papers cramp into 4 days.

see... the best one is both physics and econs together. like tue and today. both papers sap brain juice one.

you know we are supposed to crush all out rough paper and throw it away after we leave the exam hall? well, i din. :P since i got not much thing to write, might well use them as blog material.

these are the rough work i did for the econs essays on tue. very tedious.

i did the question on free and merit goods, externalities, international trade, monetary & fiscal policies and inflation. do until i wanna vomit blood...

this is the one for maths paper 2, just yesterday.

and the one for today's physics paper 3. totally screw up.. haiz.

some rubbish pics i took throughout the week...

a cup of tea. haha. taken at shawn's house. was there from sat night till monday morning where i went to sch straight from his place.

as you can see, not very clearly from the LCD display, this pic was taken on last sunday at 9.55am.

was using the rings to re-inforce my stack of statistics notes on tue night.

super macro photo. taken using the cam and then cropped on the cam also.

see the time!!??

haha. been leading a super mad life for the past week. everynight study till like 1 or 2 max 3am then sleep till 5.30 wake up & go sch for paper.

now that exams are over and i got 1 week of break, i gonna catch up on my sleep. in 3 more hrs will be my birthday liao. who's gonna give me presents for this yr? haha..

Exam period

2007-06-27T19:08:00.000+08:00

heh. haven blogged for 5 days le. now having mid yr exams. damn stress. cos whole day study till quite late ( 1 or 2 am). so sleep only a few hrs each day. tmw is the last day though. den frim friday till next week got no lessons as the arts people still got papers. now gotta go revise econs and physics. see ya!

got my PDL!!

2007-06-22T11:50:00.000+08:00

hahahahaha... passed my BTT le!! :)

same paper as before. just realized something. the station number is the reverse of the one i sat on previously.

see?

This time i sat between 2 uncles dunno from where one. i think from China judging from their face.

was pretty confident as i had 2 straight days of trial test and for yesterday's session i got nearly all 100%. so this time i told myself not to be over-confident (like last time) and take my time to do it. the questions were just like in the trial test and i din have much difficulty as i already knew how to do. still, i forced myself to read through and check and re-check 3 times. took abt 30 mins. actually i abt 5 mins finish le. but must check. so i check lor. when i was done i ended the test and i passed. no surprise la since i'm quite confident. but still, i'm relieved cos now i can move on to module 2, the road training phrase.

result slip that i printed from the machine. initially the machine jam, den many people print also cannot come out. after that a TP officer went to fix it and the printer started churning out slip after slip. one malay auntie printed abt 4 or 5 times den got a few copies of her result slip.

had to queue for a long time to apply for the PDL. got a form to fill in and then need to pay $25 for it. @#$!^!$@~@#$~$ so expensive for 1 piece of paper. no wonder TP got so much money to buy new cars and hire so many men.

the vaunted PDL that allows me to drive a L-plate car on the roads. the blanked away part below the name is the home address. this piece of paper need to use 6 mths sure become tattered and torn one..

late night post...

2007-06-22T00:39:00.000+08:00

going to sleep soon... haven posted the pics of the BBQ yesterday.. lazy ah. anyway, went to comfort for the trial test again in the morning. this time my results were better. i'll say a 100% average for all 6 tests. of course got a few is not perfect, cos do too fast or careless. but i'll pass my BTT tmw!!!

Class BBQ/Chalet

2007-06-21T00:03:00.000+08:00

heh. tried a test just now..

Your Blogging Type is Unique and Avant Garde

You're a bit ... unusual. And so is your blog.
You're impulsive, and you'll often post the first thing that pops in your head.
Completely uncensored, you blog tends to shock... even though that's not your intent.
You tend to change your blog often, experimenting with new designs and content.

What's Your Blogging Personality?

i dunno whether this is true anot.. why dun you tell me? haha..

anyway i'm back from wan's BBQ. went pretty well this time. compared to the previous time. alot more of us turned up. including the new additions from the JCs. any i had a great time and though i din stay over, i din regret it cos if i did, i'll probably be miserable in my stinky long sleeve shirt.

quite tired now.. so i'll post some of the pics that i took from the BBQ tmw.. since my sister's going out, i can blog in the day!! :)

liv tyler is very super pretty!!

2007-06-20T00:08:00.000+08:00

din do much today. sleep, wake up, do some reading and watched tv. after that eat soba noodles and then go back to sleep. woke up for dinner and then watched some tv. din study much. haiz..

using this pic as my wallpaper. i think liv tyler is super pretty. especially in her role in the lord of the rings as the elf Arwen. super pretty. she like always got aura surround her.

another one... her blue eyes are very expressive.. like can talk lidat.
watched the 3 series of the lord of the rings recently. i think it can be considered as one of the epic trilogies of all time... very good the screen play. the story also not bad. just that its a bit long. i think the fight scenes are particularly good. so many orcs vs so few men.

saw this outside my flat just now.. so mac is hiring people... not tempted to work there as the pay is rather low.. but still, their paper is very colourful.. typical macdonalds'.

a recipe from the newpaper on sunday. had to scan it in 2 pieces as my scanner can only take A4 max. think i'll try this one day.. sounds very easy.. but the floor sure very oily one. den later need to mop like mad again. very hard to read right?

the power of image editing. used arcsoft to sitch the 2 pictures together. not perfect cos i anyhow do one. haha.. anyway the image is damn big.. abt 3.4MB.

tmw going for BTT trial test and class Chalet/BBQ @ Changi. i'm only going for the BBQ. eat already go. shoot and scoot. not staying over for chalet as i dun really like staying out. also dunno wad to do the whole night. hate playing truth or dare. keep asking who you like la blah blah blah.

2nd post of the day...

2007-06-17T20:16:00.000+08:00

update: the praying mantis is still there... dunno doing wad. maybe its injured? or is someone's pet den kena thrown there?

had curry fish for dinner just now. home cooked! also tried a new type of rice. ever had nasi bryani? the rice they use for it is the basmati rice or long grain rice. i've long wanted to tried it. so bought 1 packet (1kg) and try.

the packaging. looks very nice right? but its expensive. $2+ for 1 kilo.

the grain on the left is the normal fragrance rice. the right side one is the long grain rice. its slightly longer and thinner than the normal rice.

i cooked 1 cup and had it with dinner. not bad la. quite fragrant. just that its very hard. so for people like me who like the rice hard and dry, its great. the rest of my family dun like hard and dry rice. they prefer it to be wetter and softer. hmm... dunno where i picked up the habit of eating hard rice..

going to watch the united states GP later at 12.45 on RTM2. since i got no cable, could not watch F1 for many many yrs le. but this yr i realized that the malaysian channel is broadcasting the race. so i try to catch it whenever i can. i'm rooting for Hamilton to win. since Schumacher retire le, no one to support. everyone loves the hero la..

ronald's doodle when we were in GP one day...

lol.. very bo liao

praying mantis

2007-06-17T14:59:00.000+08:00

was walking to the rubbish chute to throw my rubbish when i saw the praying mantis on the parapet. at first, i thought is some toy people put there one. den i took a closer look and saw that its real!! my god! den i faster run into the house and take camera and shoot.

taken from quite far away.. abt half a meter. looks very aggressive. like gonna pounce on me lidat.

den it turn its head and look at me. no matter where i shoot, it turn and look at me.

see wad i mean?

its seriously scary....

front view. if i were some insect, i also wouldn't want to mess with it...

can see the wings? clearly. folded back.

before i posted these photos, i went back out to see if it was still there. it was! had wanted to bring my tripod out. cos the camera put on tripod more stable. but i still scared the mantis pounce on me. :P wad if it scratch my camera lens? so i dun dare..

another browser

2007-06-16T20:37:00.000+08:00

was reading an article in stomp just now. then saw that the safari browser from apple is out on windows. so i decided to try out. most of the people who replied on the forums had mixed reactions abt this browser.

the download file was abt 8mb and it took 1 or 2 mins to install. i realise the functions are vastly different from firefox.. firefox like simpler to use. or is it cos i'm used to it le? haha dunno. but one thing is that the pages load faster than firefox. dunno whether is the net at that time fast or cos the browser loads faster.

but it takes up more resources. open 2 tabs nia take up 130+K resources according to task manager. firefox open 1 dozen tabs den take up that amt of resources.

here's how it looks like..

the page loading bar is acutally the address bar. when loading, the address bar will have a blue highlight moving from left to right showing the load progress. i'll say its quite nice la. but looks alot like the itunes menu.

also, when i posted the pic above, very leh chey. must drag down. in firefox, i just cut and paste it where ever i want. still remains to be seen whether this browser will stay in my com anot. i tried opera b4. but din really like it and din have a need for it either. so i got rid of it.

was reading up on contact lens as i plan to get a pair to try out. what's it like not to have to wear specs for 1 mth. been wearing specs since i was 5. abt 14 years le. quite envious of those who have 20/20 eyesight. so good. no need to spend money on specs and to have to endure the inconvience. ie when its dirty or falls off.

there are 4 spec shops in CompassPoint. the prices all quite high actually. 1 shop wanted to sell me 6+1(free) sets of contacts for $180. if 1 set by itself is $45!! that's for the 1 mth disposable one. daily disposable is $120!! cos my degree differs for both eyes. so need 2 boxes (30 pieces x2) which cost $60 each. siao ar. so expensive!! lidat per pair is wad? $4? nuts...

and to add on to it, both my eyes got astigmatism. means that if i get contacts, my lens have to get the more ex one. sian. i thought could get one pair for $18 (wad my sister said) + maybe $10 more for the solution and casing and try for 1 mth. now turns out the cheapest is $25.7 (the 6+1 offer mentioned above).

sian. wad for i get 7 pairs of contacts when i only wanna try? no point right?

heh. or i can save up all my pennies / coins and go for Lasik. did some checking up. turns out there are quite many medical centres and hospitals offering lasik. i think by far the cheapest is the National Eye Centre. even then, the cost is abt $1320 PER EYE. multiply by 2 and add $140 for pre-precedure consultation and $40 (x5) per follow up consultation and you get...

$2980!! where to get the money sia? work also need to work for along time.. that's assuming i dun spend a single cent of my salary. imagine this..

$5 per hour for 8 hrs per day with a 5 day work week. 1 mth is abt $800. so at least $4 mths den can get abt $3K+.

or i could save up my army pay for the 2 yrs that i'm in army and get it done after i come out. cos $350 (recruit) x 24 mths = $8160. $3K go to eyes, left abt $5.16K can buy a new com. :) not very likely. sure got lots of things come in and conplicate matters one..

heh. i might strike 4D (though i din buy) in the future. or i buy big sweep kena the 1st prize! haha.. or i pick up a $1000 note lying on the roadside? who knows man? infinite possibilities...

going abit nuts already. the holidays stretching too long le. and i still haven prepared for mid-years yet!!

maths maths maths...

2007-06-14T21:45:00.000+08:00

today was a rather boring day. the only major thing i did was to do maths. woke up quite late. abt 11+am. den went to bathe and took 2 buses to shawn there to do the 2006 maths mid-yr paper. din actually start when i reach. but dilly-dally abit then went to Tampines Mall the popular to buy the maths guide book. quite alot of books to choose from but we picked the copy that have the most things. cost $17.56 after a 20% discount. so ex.. i dun dare to check my bank account. cos recently spent alot.

so started to do the maths at abt 3 pm. progress was very slow... 1 question per hour? do until 8 pm also the paper not done yet. den i came home lor. since it was quite late and there was school tomorrow. took bus 81 then 88 home. had to wait some for the buses.

when i was walking across the road, i received a surprise call. Ms loke called to check if she had told us the timing for tomorrow's maths remedial. she did tell us though i think most of the class forgot le and said she din tell us. so she posponed the lesson till monday after the mock exam. means that monday whole day will do maths. sian. but this also means that i got more time to do the 2006 maths paper.

wanna watch Ocean's 13 and Fantastic Four. but got no money. anyone wanna treat? haha..

too fat le...

2007-06-12T20:55:00.000+08:00

my PES status is B/P. means i can do most vocations but need to go for 15 week BMT to slim down. haiz. all these years of skipping pe and junk food finally caught up..

had breakfast at my house there the kopitiam and then took 2 trains down to redhill to meet up with ronald and shawn. ronald had a friend with him though. :) we then took bus 145 for 6 stops and alighted. CMPB is not the only building. still got the defence towers 1 & 2 where i think DSTA and DSO National Labs are housed. DSTA and DSO are the 2 home-grown defence research agencies.

had to walk all the way to the main gate to sign in. then shawn and ronald had to lock their phones in the locker as cannot bring camera or cam phones inside. my kodak also went into a locker. except for the sentry in FBO with the SAR-21 rifle, the place would look like any other office building and business estate.

have to walk abit in to reach the CMPB building. so after registering, first stop was photo taking. need to wear the army no 3 to take photo. quite strict. no coloured hair, forehead cannot have hair touching, cannot see the shirt beneath it blah blah blah.

den proceed to medical center for reg. first was hearing test. had to go into a sound-proof booth and wear headphones. then they will play very low sounds into each ear. when hear raise hand. my hearing is pes A. after that go eye test. also pes A. then went to the lab where they did the urine test and drew blood.

had to take a container and test stick and go toilet to pee into the container and dip the stick into the pee. then had to show the medic the stick. after which i had to sit down and wait. soon after the medic called me and asked me if i had any allergy. i say got then he give me a letter to give to platoon sergeant when i enlist in NS. so have to wait and wait to draw blood.

the medic could not find my vein as my arm quite fat. so he took a long time. finally poke in but no blood. -.- den push the needle in some more then got blood come out. by then there was a damn long queue at the lab. cos all the other stations process fast. all jam at lab there. got >20 guys.

the dentist was the next stop. got a pretty doc and one army guy. the moment i laid down on the bed and open my mouth, the doc started rattling in the stuff she saw. damn fast. before i had a good position i'm done le. same for chest x-ray. damn fast also.

after that did went for ECG where have to take out shirt, shoes and socks and walk around. den measure height/weight and blood pressure. my BMI is 31+. finally went to see the MO. there, had to show him my *ahem. then he ask got any allergy and things need to declare blah blah blah. and he sent me off with a good luck and a PES B/P status. -.- all the docs i've seen are captains.. funny.

anyway went to the last station and had to wait some. saw ronnie there. then went in to do the aptitude test. the programme is like damn old one. those programmes running off the IBM coms 10 yrs ago one. but they very brutal one. give you like 35 qns must answer in 15 mins. even if you not done, they move on. got questions on number sequence, maths, physics, shapes and orientation, memorize number etc etc. the more i do, the more sian i get.

finally finish all tests and i got a recruit book as a farewell gift.. haiz.

solid right?

after leaving CMPB, we went to mac for lunch. then walked back to red hill to take train to city hall to buy my camera stuff. ronald and his friend wanted to watch Ocean's 13. me and shawn din want. so we split. @#$!@%#!@#%!% he was supposed to go with me la! ditch me over his friend... @#!^$#%$@!!&*!%@^!$

so i bought a new bag for my camera at Pennisula Plaza.

my first Crumpler. haha. look and look for a very long time and finally settled on this cos its big enough for my camera stuff and i feel its solid enough to withstand some knocks here and there. cost my $36. can put my camera, 6 AA spare batteries and 2 SD memory cards in the bag. :)

the board that came with it. for quality assurance i guess.

picked the brown one as got no black and i felt the rest of the colours sucked.

cute logo.. but damn expensive.

the model..

then i bought a screen protector for the LCD, lens cleaning kit and tripod case for my SLIK tripod. i had emailed Cathy Photo for a price quote and i brought the email down. sure enough, i got a discount on all the items. :)

screen protector..

cleaning kit...

tripod case.. before, when i brought my tripod out, i had to hang it on my bag. now no need le. :)

this is it...

2007-06-11T21:55:00.000+08:00

jia lat. tomorrow is medical check-up at CMPB already... abit scared. dunno wad the mindef docs will do to me.. my appointment is at 9.30 am. must bring IC, health booklet, medical questionaire and wear pt kit. i think i'll go there in jeans and then change somewhere..

someone requested a repost of the Mars VS Venus theme songs..

Would you be there by Ridwan Ali

幸福双人床 opening song

ok. reposted. again, they are good for 100 downloads or another 7 days.

today got no photos to post, cos i run out of ideas on wad pics to take.

PASSED MODULE 1!!

2007-06-06T23:38:00.000+08:00

din do much work today. woke up at 11+am. then went for run with sister. thought would be very easy, after all i'm fitter than her. or so i thought... target was 3 rounds around the rivervale. i only lasted 1 round. when i got home, i was panting so deeply that i cannot talk... jia lat. really damn fat.

had intentionally wanted to go down eat lunch. but sister say cook at home better, some more can save money. so i thought, why not? cooked 3 cups of rice and warm up a can of peanuts, preserved vege with fish and curry chicken. and a cup of ice milo. :)

along the way i cut up the left over red pepper and king mushroom and a onion. cook them with some remaining spaghetti that was left in the bottle. i was afraid that the red pepper will spoil, so cook into the sauce can last longer. :) turns out when i tried to put the red pepper back into the bottle, it keep splashing sauce all over, so had to use a pair of chopsticks to put them in one by one. same for the mushroom. all in all, the sauce expanded from 1/3 bottle to a bottle. can use it tmw for lunch. :)

went for my 4th driving lesson today. turns out i had the same car which meant the same instructor today as i had on sat. as usual, drive around and shift up and down. today's focus was on intersections and lights. so spent quite a lot of time stopping and going through the traffic junctions in the circuit. he also thought me how to turn correctly so that will end up in the center of the lane.

i stalled the car twice while turning a sharp corner which required full lock on the steering. the purpose was to apply slight buy firm braking to slow the car through the bend. i braked too hard and the speed drop too low. so the car stall. so pai say. both occasions also the same. too much braking. guess i need to work on my braking. cannot brake too hard initially or else the car will jerk. and it wont be smooth. i also had to pay alot more attention to the mirrors and blind spot. have to keep looking left and right, here and there so that won't hit anybody. in the previous lessons, the instructors did most of the looking and told me when to turn and so on. but i guess this Mr Cheong was training me to be independent and not rely on the instructions of the instructor.

throughout the lesson, he was asking me questions on the car and all that. i thought he ask for fun one. turns out he was asking for the evaluation. since i knew most of was he asked, he passed my evaluation part which meant i pass the entire module 1!

haha. yah! 4 lessons and module 1 clear le. now i must pass my BTT on 22nd june so that i can drive on the road next lesson. which is on the 1st wednesday of july.

he also taught me 2 new things.

one, was that i din have to pay when i used the centre's toilet. cos they got one guy sitting there collect 10 cents. so i've been paying for a few times le. when he's not there, i act dumb and just go in. today, after my lesson i just walk in. :)

two was how to jump start a car. this method only works for manual cars. need at least 2 people, one in the driver's seat and one pushing. before the car move, turn the ignition to the start. then engage the clutch. once the car start to move, engage end gear and release to half clutch and step on the accelerator. the engine will start. cool right? i din know that. tried it twice and it worked! for auto cars, need to jump start using cables connected to the battery terminals of your own car as well as another car. he says that the other car has to have a bigger CC or more horsepower for the jump start to work. i din ask him how to do that though. next time i will ask during my next lesson.

quite fun la today's lesson. i'll make my notes on driving now...

stupid beetles!!!

2007-06-04T23:07:00.001+08:00

stupid beetle!! wad's wrong with them!!? whole day keep flying into my room. this is the second one this week. fly here fly there. just when i closed all the windows and turned on the aircon. den hear this thing flying around and land on my curtain. nabei. had to walk into the kitchen and take the plastic container to catch it. normally i use a bottle. but this was on the curtain, so need the lid to force the beetle into the container.

the last time the beetle came visiting, his friend the bee came too. also fly here fly there. in the end i had to wait till mid night to ensure that they left b4 i can sleep. can you imagine when you sleep some insect zoom around your room and land on you how? normally i'm not squirmish abt insects. but this kind really cannot tahan.

Mars VS Venus theme songs.

2007-06-03T22:14:00.000+08:00

rather uneventful day today. spent the day watching tv and videos on youtube. my sister is nuts over the 幸福双人床 song. spent over an hour downloading from some link. stupid. ended up cannot even listen. spent a rather good portion of my time searching around too. well, i managed to get a version that is quite good.

here's the link:

Would you be there by Ridwan Ali

幸福双人床 opening song

the links are to yousendit.com and are good for 100 downloads or 7 days.

a few photos from the show.

normally i dun post such stuffs abt dramas. but i think this one is quite funny and touching. :)

3 cheers for singnet!!

2007-05-30T17:54:00.000+08:00

woke up this morning feeling not too bad. saw a letter from singnet on the dinning table. cannot be the bill, cos i just paid not long.. after opening it i saw...

haha.. must be my reward for paying my bills on time.. :)

went to comfort for my e-trial test today. i had originally booked 4 sessions one short. then on hindsight, i shifted 2 other sessions 2 days b4 my BTT. was rather relaxed today, cos i knew i had unlimited no of tests. can keep doing and doing. for the results, i was averaging 92, 94, 96, 98% with only one test coming in at 86%.

i dun think this test can do much except that i not totally forget the materials for the BTT. going to popular later to get a 300 photo capacity photo album to keep my prints. was planning to buy b4 i went to comfort. but i had a 20% discount popular voucher at home and i also din want to lug the album around.

end of an era..

2007-05-30T00:12:00.000+08:00

had the farewell lunch for AVIT yesterday. i guess i should feel sad.. but i wasn't. i'm just happy that i have served to the best of my abilities and i have learnt a few interesting tricks. mr hisham ordered 4 large canadian pizzas. i had 2 slices, with the rest of the members sharing the balance.

the yr 2s prepared this card for me.. so sweet!

very creative. lol..

just hope that the current batch of yr 2s as well as the new yr 1s will do a good job..

on another note, i had my second lesson today! from 6.50 -- 8.30pm. it was pouring cats and dogs when i was walking to the bus stop. my whole body was drenched even though i got umbrella. then when i wait at the bus stop for 87, the rain stop. @#$!@#$#@

reached comfort at 6.40pm lidat. so i went to check which car was assigned to me. car no 183. the instructor is very much different from the previous lesson one. he is more fatherly lidat. had quite abit of problems with my clutch control. couldn't really feel the bitting point and as a result the car always jerk when i move off from start. learnt how to change gears also. from gear 1 to 2. much easier to change gears when the car is moving, cos is easier to feel the bitting point. so i clutch in, release the oil and shift to gear 2. after that release the clutch to bitting point and step oil. so is a smooth transfer of power. :)

it got really bad at one point. i was supposed to turn left at a traffic junction. when i release the clutch, the car jerk like fuck. so i tried again, and again. jerk like 4 times lidat. very violent. #@$!#@#$@^% so instructor asked wads wrong. i want to go toilet!! haha.. faster park the car and cheong in. after i come out, feel so much better. the driving also better. the car din jerk much this time round. and i managed to pass this part of the module. the moving off become very smooth. i step a bit of oil, den release a bit of clutch and when i feel the clutch vibrating through my left feet, i step more oil and slowly release the clutch fully. rather looking forward to this sat's lesson.

ALL AHOY! NAVY OPEN HOUSE 2007

2007-05-28T23:12:00.000+08:00

this post is turning into something very long.. so this one is for the performances and * attractions.

duck tours!! the navy has 6 on duty for tours. average waiting time was 86 mins!!

entering the water..

we are in the water!! well, not really. but technically yea..

dance by the SAF music and drama company.

i'll say their dances are very energetic and hip.

naval divers performing the divers' beat.

the navy divers carrying rubber boats weighing 100kg with 8 men to a boat.

so heavy somemore run. these men are damn tough.

doing PT on the burning hot tarmac..

there's one man standing on the boat cowboy style while the rest run back where they came from..

next up is the anti ordinance/terrorists exercise.

'terrorists' / intruders preparing their bomb.

2 of them were killed while the last one was arrested by the base security personnel.

the unexploded bomb..

the remote control explosive disposal unit.. can be piloted up to a distance of 100m.

detonating the bomb..

explosive ordinance disposal technician (EOD) checking to make sure the bomb is really denotated.

the banner says it all.

so after the NDU demo, me and ronald sat there for abt 20 mins waiting for Fiona Xie to make her appearance.

fiona xie!! this was taken from the seats. 5X optical zoom.

at first there was only 1 guy taking photos of fiona xie close up... then..

a crowd gathering in front of the stage. mostly males of course. so i decided to move closer also, after all, wad's there to lose?

i'll say this is a rather 'seducive' look...

close up.. her dressing is rather conservative, given her image on tv.

another pic..

end of song.. she sung "la la" by Ashley Simpson.

there was this guy using a PSP mounted camera to take pics. ronald was very envious.

there were 2 types of naval canon on display. i'll guess this is the older one.

the larger more modern gun. this is similar to the gun found on the US Arleigh Burke class destroyers.

WWII era canon.. there are 2 pairs flanking the flag pole facing out to sea.

ALL AHOY! NAVY OPEN HOUSE 2007

2007-05-28T23:09:00.000+08:00

US! now for the photos of me and ronald.

yours sincerely. i'll say its not too well taken. the ensign kena block by another flag.

ronald's pic is better. taken by me of course. :)

mess is very nice but small..

face getting oily..

cute right? i mean the cartoon..

on board RSS FORMIDABLE.

me too!

in front of PERSISTANCE

ALL AHOY! NAVY OPEN HOUSE 2007

2007-05-28T20:31:00.000+08:00

the ships of the navy open house 2007.

had arranged to meet ronald at bedok interchange at 8.30, have breakfast then make our way to expo. somehow there was a comm breakdown and i ended up waiting there while ronald was at expo. so i had wan ton mee and packed fried noodles for wee wee.

got alot of people going to expo for this event, despite the early hour; abt 10+am only. after reaching expo, i walk like mad lidat. cos ronald say got alot of people. so i panic also. den reach there, we were ushered into hall one where we had the security scans and den queue for the buses.

as you can see, its blur. too long no take pics le.

the amt of people in front of us.. insane. many foreign workers and nationals too. not to mention the young, very young and old.

ronald eating his breakfast. i'm quite amazed. how can one hold the paper packet in one hand and eat?

the sight that greeted us.. this view reminds me of the US Navy's ships tied to the berth. very smart.

the mine counter-measure vessels.

various activities... like the mini bungee cord..

76mm Oto Melara naval canon.

RSS VALOUR, Missile Corvette Hull no. 89.

main mast of the corvette. i think its very nicely angled.

look at the number of shore power cables... also, on the right you can see the harpoon launcher. Valour has 2 harpoon launchers. can also see the triple torpedo launcher.

2 old county class LSTs which were bought from the USA. dunno they berth there for wad. can also see the small boat and banana boat in the foreground.

the Formidable class frigates. our navy's pride and joy. the flagship, RSS FORMIDABLE.

Hull no 69, RSS Intrepid. saw Hull no 70 and 71 too. they were berthed further offshore.

the RSN ensign. flying proud and free.

the main mast of the frigate. designed to reduce radar cross section.

helo hanger.. very big and spacious.

big assed potoons to prevent the ship from hitting the docks when she rises and falls due to the tide.

navy guy with M-16 rifle. every ship has an armed sentry.

anchor door can be closed after the anchor is kept. this stealth design is really all encampassing..

RSS KALLANG. looks very menacing bow on..

100 tonnes bollard...

wireless router!! lol.. can play cs condition zero on the ship wide lan.

the bridge of RSS KALLANG.

the view out of the bridge over looking the bow.

officers' quarters.

battleship row. RSN style.

RSS CHIEFTAIN. one of the 4 Challenger ex-sjoormen class submarines. too bad no visitors were allowed aboard.

saw some ships departing the berths. i guess they are bringing the visitors for joy rides..

one of the minesweepers backing astern..

LST row. lol.. the 4 ENDURANCE class amphibious transport docks.

the HUGE bow doors..

super big hinges.

insanely huge hydraulic piston.

RSS PERSISTANCE. last saw her during the NDP 2005 celebrations at marina bay.

the Republic of Singapore Navy ensign.

Driving!!!

2007-05-21T22:14:00.000+08:00

sch was rather smooth and routine today... physics as usual was boring.. ended up me, shawn and ronald were taking turns keeping each other awake..

after that, shawn accompanied me to comfort driving centre at Ubi. went there to register as a school student as i heard that i could learn to drive on the circuit without a PDL. had to pay quite abit as a registration fee.. had to change me BTT date as it clashed with the mid-year exams.

turns out that there's an early slot on 22nd june at 9.15am.. i think comfort got keep slots for their own people one... those who take private have to wait damn long... like me. but no longer. :) ran into daryl... he passed his btt and applied for his PDL le.. tmw is his first lesson..

the folder that comfort gave.. thought it wad.. like got alot of secret manuals lidat..

turns out is the BTT and FTT books.. -.- i got le lor. now got 2 sets.. who wants? can sell you..

they gave me an optical mouse too! damn cute... takes the shape of a car..

in the dark.. got headlights one!! haha..

den got this record book that need to bring to everything lesson.. charts your progress..

every student is issued with this card.. the pic looks damn toot la.. wanted to retake. but the girl printed it already.. #@$@!@#$

the girl who was doing my reg mentioned that today got slot at 6.50 pm. so i called mother and she said can. so i took it and had to wait roughly an hour. did my maths while waiting. so when time up i went to the car park and enter the car. the instructor was some 40+ yr old uncle. not bad la. quite funny. learned how to keep the car center, how to engage gear 1 and move off, engage reverse gear and how to stop without stalling the car.

initially could not really feel the accelerator. so had to step on it a while and match the engine revs to the techno to get a feel... then had to engage the clutch and gear one. stalled the car a few times as i forgot to clutch in when the car is stopping. the car also stalled when i forgot to accelerate after releasing the clutch.

so after roughly correcting these mistakes, the instructor allowed me to drive around the circuit for 1/2 hr. got a shitload of cars and my speed was no more than 30km/h. but it felt damn fast la.. den i stalled the car twice when i forgot to clutch in while coming to a stop. :P throughout the 100 mins, the instructor keep saying if want to learn, must put in the best and learn properly.. true la. pay so much $$.

he said that i was a fast learner but need to work on clutch and accelerator co-ordination. he also advised that i get my PDL b4 signing up for more lessons as the circuit is very restricted and cannot do much. if got PDL can go out of circuit and learn how to change gears, lane keeping etc.

well.. it was a fun experience for me. can't say i wasn't scared. but heh, i'm finally learning how to drive. i think i'll hold back on further lessons till i pass my BTT. den i'll go for 3 lessons per week..

tmw got physics mock... haven study yet.. shit..

Scammer...

2007-05-19T20:23:00.000+08:00

i've just received an email from some guy claiming to be from Angola. aiya... wad for i type so much...?

sounds like fun to me... i'll bait him some..

just replied to him..

Gp...

2007-05-18T23:56:00.000+08:00

had GP paper 1 and 2 today... i think its some MI culture or wad. GP paper is ALWAYS on a friday and the whole school would have it together. For the past 3 yrs, it has proven to be true. last time we had to stay till 5.30 pm to finish the paper as we would have lessons in the morning. this yr i think cos got sports day dats why got no lessons in the morning.

don't think i will do too well in the GP exam. will be so jia lat as to fail but wont get too fantastic results too. btw, i got 32/50 for my last essay. school ended at 12pm today. so we had lunch in school. then we went to jurong west regional library to while the time away... shawn was doing his maths while i was reading my books with alternate trips to the loo. drank too much water. after that we had dinner and went back to school. the stadium was a bee-hive of activity. everyone was just so psyched up... we were supposed to split into our various houses. but in 05S5 tradition, we stayed together in 1 corner of the stadium watching the races and events.

it got quite boring after a while and we left at 9+pm. so now here i am typing something for the blog..

shawn told me about this.. it seems that microsoft has bought over firefox!!! EEK!! could this mean the end to freeware?

NOT!!! :)

check out the system requirements.. -.-

which browser would tot super fast download speeds for porn as part of its feature? its a fake... some bugger came up with the spoof website.. but its damn good la.. the flash animations work and the links all work (most of it anyway..)

was reading a book today entitled: "OUSTED". this book was on the run up leading to the merger and separation of Singapore from Malaysia.. apparently what we studied in social studies in sec sch does not cover these areas.. only the really rudimentary.. anyway, it gave me new insight as to what really set the 2 leaders apart. Tunku Abdul Rahman and Lee Kuan Yew. the way they were brought up and initiated into politics was vastly different and i believe this has resulted in the difference in the way they perceived the entire affair. i'll end here. dun want to launch into a tirade..

LKY said: "For me, it is a moment of anguish. All my life, my whole adult life, I have believed in merger and unity of the two territories."

i dont think that he would find anything to be anguish about now should he look back... we are doing so much better on ourselves.. i think things would have been worse if we had been under KL.

"Whereas it is the inalienable right of a people to be free and independent, I, Lee Kuan Yew, prime minister of Singapore, do hereby proclaim and declare on behalf of the people and the government of Singapore that as from today, the ninth day of August in the year one thousand nine hundred and sixty-five, Singapore shall be forever a sovereign, democratic and independent nation, founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of her people in a more just and equal society." - Lee Kuan Yew, 9 August 1965, 10am, radio broadcast.

Forever and independent nation.. this word has profound implications.. would i be willing to go to war to defend Singapore? i believe yes. everything that i own is here. everyone that i know is here. if i dun defend it when the time comes, den it will all be gone.

lol. sound so serious.. ah well. when and should the time come, we shall know.. pretty late already.. i shall retire to my bed.. :)

monday!!!

2007-04-30T20:50:00.000+08:00

woke up at 7am today... cos every monday school starts at 9.10am, so can sleep abt 1 1/2 hours more.. thr journey to school was rather routine.. stand all the way from Sengkang to Khathib and then from there to Bukit Batok. the bus to school also need to stand, cos no place to sit. GP today was rather boring... 2 lessons and 2 lectures.

for break went for Lunch Time Training (LTT). this is something extra for the students who cannot pass all the items in the NAFA test. so i went to do pull up today.. the teacher was quite nice, very encouraging.. of course i cannot do normal pull-up. need help one. so shawn help me up and i think i did abt 10 lidat...

so for physics also very boring.. cos was feeling very sleepy. nothing much happened in physics... so after LTT, my wrist began to feel like no strength lidat.. carry bag also feel hand like wanna break.. so sad..

anyway tomorrow's a public holiday.. YAH!! in keeping with the tradition with this blog (i try), here's a pic of the sun setting... can see the moon.. :D

Holy shit...

2007-04-29T21:53:00.000+08:00

was watching tv just now in the hall... den wandered into the yard for a look see. my mom told me that the dryer and washing machine suddenly stopped working. so i went to check.. and detected a burnt smell!! like got plastics melt lidat. the only thing that will melt there is the plug or fuse, so i pulled it out...

looks like any other ordinary multiple plug.. can plug 3 appliance into it right?

this is wad happened to it after the melt down.. one pin totally melted away... and the fuse went with it..

had to use a pair of pliers to pull this out of the socket...

the fuse is 'fused' to the plug le..

mess of melted plastic..

i think the plug overheated due to the fact that both the machine and dryer are high voltage equipment.. and it has something to do with the I²R heating effect? lol.. tomorrow ask Mr Chang..

new thumbdrive

2007-04-29T18:30:00.001+08:00

i think i had lost my trek 1 GB thumbdrive 2 weeks ago.. i guess i plugged it into the sch com and forgot to remove it... $59 down the drain... go home that time wanna use cannot find.. @#%!$#@%$#!

went with Cedric to Sim Lim on thursday to get his RAM. was at the shop where he bought the ram and decided that i ought to get myself a new thumbdrive.. since the 1 GB one had proven to be inadequate sometimes, i decided on a 2 GB one.. Cost me $35...

the USB port can keep inside one...

port extended..

plug into com got red light one!!! haha..

the interface is rather unique.. i'll liken it to a 2 GB hard drive. can install programmes inside one!! damn cool.

when plug into com, they will request password. if not cannot access the drive.

i have Xfire, Firefox, WinRar, a mahjong game as well as a programme somewhat like MSN installed on the thumbdrive. they occupy abt 90Mb. so now got 1.88+Gb lift for other stuffs...

something extra..

2007-04-28T22:46:00.000+08:00

was just reading through my past entries... den i remember that the P said that our sch did very well in the marathon last yr.. we got 2nd for the distance challenge!!

haha.. we are the only A Level institution.. beat that Hwa Chong and RJ!!!

hmm...

2007-04-28T21:00:00.000+08:00

hmm... from wad blogger shows, i haven made a post for 1 month le... well.. anything that i say will just be excuses and more excuses.. haha.. quite a few changes in the past month...

for my CCA the infoComm club, we have 13 new yr 1 members. this is quite a big jump from 4 yr2s and 8 yr3s. i'm quite pleased with this new lot as they are still very bubbly and fun loving.. very willing to do duty and learn.. they still have a long way to go.. 3 more yrs and i hope that they dun lose this zeal..

went for my BTT on 20th april last wed... was full of hope that i'll pass the first time and can start learning driving asap. i guess i was hasty and when i saw people leaving, i also want to leave. so i faster do finish and i failed la... i had counted 7 questions that i got no confidence of confirm correct. so wasn't really a surprise la.. den went to book another date. 28th june. 1 day b4 my birthday and smack in the middle of the mid-yr exams. i'll just have to see if the dates clash anot. ronald took his BTT this morning. he also fail. haha... his date is 7/7/07. LOL..

went over to princess elizabeth pri to teach the P4 infocomm students how to set up an email acc and how to send email, upload pics etc. the school is very kiddy and reminded me of my pri school days... it felt like those days were eons ago... to be precise, abt 11 yrs ago.. how time flies.. when you are young, wanna grow up fast. old le wanna go back to last time.

anyway, there were abt 20 of us VS 30+ to 40 of the P4 students. mix of boys and girls. most of them were rather well behaved. only a handful were quite mischievous. so we taught them wad was on the notes and i have to say that things went quite smoothly overall. the yr2s were the trainers and i'll say that they were too soft. cannot hear them over the din. i think i would have done better, after got louder voice. but its time to let the young ones take the stage and strut their stuff. so the session ended on a ok note with the students being quite enthu abt the upcoming session on blogging..

the GP mid yr is drawing near and i'm feeling some of the jitters already. had to hand in my GP essay yesterday after sch. GP teacher made it compulsory such that we face a fine of $1 and 1 detention if we din hand it in yesterday. i wrote on whether the world is too dependent on oil. well.. GP demands that we present 2 sides of the view, else we will never pass..

so for the side of being too dependent on oil, i said that yes b'cos:
1) countries have been to war over oil. Japan in WWII cos the US cut its oil shipments.
2) when oil price rise, people panic and it affects everyone. like 91' gulf war that time.
3) if no oil, everything grinds to a halt. cos most power stations burn oil to boil water and drive the steam turbines which generates electricity. no oil = no electricity = nothing. no lights, fans, water pumps or MRT.

as the the opposing view saying that we are not reliant on oil:
1) got alternative forms of energy like water (hydro) or wind. no oil still can use wind turbines to generate electricity.
2) scientists and companies have come up with devices to save energy. means need less electricity to power. this would mean that the demand for electricity would be reduced and there won't be a need to burn so much oil.

hope can get a high 30s for this essay..

i think my room is situated in a very good position... can see the moon at nights and the sunrise in the morning..

taken at night..

another one taken slightly earlier on another day.. moon slightly obscured by the clouds..

i remember this photo.. taken on a monday morning just before i went to school.. was looking out of the window and saw this view.. i think the colours are very nice and the texture of the clouds with the light shinning through them.

this about sums up this long post. i'll make an effort to post more often..

signz......

2007-03-26T21:01:00.000+08:00

now is already nearing end of march. can feel the heat already... class is starting to mass in front of lessons. since when is there a trend to sit in front?

got this letter from mr chang in the morning.. this means that i'm no longer on condition and am considered to be clear of any conditions that the school had laid down for me..

it feels ok la, one weight lifted off.. but still got the A levels looming..

1 more day of holiday left

2007-03-17T23:43:00.000+08:00

someone sent me this link...

http://www.secret-loves.com/index.php?test=483203

try it out.. it worked quite well for me.

another post..

2007-03-13T18:14:00.000+08:00

was trawlling through youtube for videos. can across this SAF NS video. i think its very meaningful...

very nice...

2007-03-13T14:15:00.000+08:00

as usual, haven been blogging in a very very long time... since its the holidays, i thought that i'll do a post on the happenings in my life...

after the chinese new year, had the usual sum of hong pao money. haven had such a large amount in a long time and i began to be extravagent...

bought a G-Shock watch... had always wanted one... part of the macho image i guess. i only wear my 25 hrs watch when i go out now. Casio is for wearing to school...

went with my sister to marina one sunday to spend her $100 creative voucher. when she spent, i also spent. bought this new set of speakers from creative.

the speakers on my table... rather large sub woofer.

the remote control, for bass level and volume. i would say this speakers are very solid... the volume is incredible. can hear from the hall. watch movie really got cinematic experience.

at the behest of shawn, i went to sim lim to buy a piece of 512MB Pc133 SD ram. now, my comupter had only 320MB, which wasn't enough as it was always lagging and kept hanging. so i thought, maybe the ram will make it so darn fast.

went home happily and tried the ram. the bios woont even boot. went to shawn's place and tried it on his IBM. also cannot. so we concluded that the ram is probably broken. as such, we went to kingston yesterday. the guy tested the ram and it was working. den i argue with him. i put into 2 computers but cannot use. den how? so he asked for my com model number. he went to kingston to check and it turned out that my this com can only take a total of 512MB. so a 512MB ram wont work. must split into 256MB X2.

so we had to return to the shop to change. the indian charge me $10 service charge for breaking the seal. so i got a 256MB ram with another SD card and i had to top up $3.

so now my com has 512MB total ram and that's the max it can go. so i already upgrade my com until it cannot tahan already. 1 network card, 1 PCI USB 2.0 card, 512MB ram, 40 GB hard disk, DVD writer and CD writer.

i'll just hold out for another 2 yrs when i come out of army and get a new com. Quad core or wadever.

so after all the retail therapy, i'm back to being a poor person. totally broke now...

many new things...

2007-01-21T14:33:00.000+08:00

one week din blog liao... the week has been rather routine.. school, home, school.

had opened the mail box on friday and discovered a shitload of letters... my father din check the letter box for nearly a week!!! among the bills, i found:

and my ibanking device:

press the red button and it'll generate a string of 6 numbers as a 2nd pin for the ibanking. According to the combinations formula, 9x9x9x9x9x9 = 531,441 possible combinations!!! so throughout its lifetime, the devise can generate 531,441 strings of numbers to be inputed.

went to mustafa on wed to get a new calculator. after 6 years of faithful service, my CASIO FX911Z finally decided to call it quits. the display had spoilt/degraded to the extent that i can see wad numbers i'm typing in.. very frustrating.

and so i went on a quest to replace it.. popular sells such scientific calculators at > $30... i got my 911Z for $18. then salman and shawn suggested MUSTAFA. so why not? if i could save a shitload of money, its worth a try.

so after CCA on wed, i met up with salman at little india. we went for a thosai. i think its very nice and fresh... at $1.20 per servinig, very worth it. somemore damn filling. after makan, we walked to the mustafa. quite far, but since got company, so its ok.

when we got there, we had to tie up our bags with the cable tie... apparently this prevents shoplifting. so we went direct to the calculators section. got alot of models. but dun have my FX911Z. damn... i quite like that calculator. in the end, settled for the FX85MS.

911Z on the left, 82MS on the right

the buttons are rather similar, so i chose this as i din want to learn how to use another calculator. plus, i like the solar panel on top.

as mentioned b4, the 911Z had cost me $18 6 years ago. now, the 85MS cost me only $13.90!!! if i had to buy it at popular, i think it would surely cost me >$30. bottom line: go to mustafa to buy calculators.

got this bottle of spray for $2.90!!! i think its damn cheap...

yesterday was my grandmothers 86th birthday. as per tradition, the entire LEE family gathered to catch up and celebrate her birthday.

4 generations of us.. less abt 3 people due to work commitments. the small girl is the latest addition to the family, my cousin's 1 yr old + daughter enya.

my grandprents had 5 sons. 1 passed away due to cancer when he was young. so left 4. these 4 sons had 2 kids each. so got 8 of us cousins. 1 out of 8 of us had a daughter. so is:

1+4+4+8+3+1=21 of us in the family.

the 8 of us are split into '2 generation'. 4 of us being older and 4 of us being younger. out of the 4, 1 is a Captain in the army, another a chemical engineer with Seagate, another is a showroom manager with Subaru and the last being a cheft? that 1 i dunno. long time no see him.

the last 4 of us all still studying.

there's going to be another gathering next month on chinese new year at my cousin's new place at ang mo kio. so look forward to seeing his 138 SQ flat...

finally...

2007-01-15T21:36:00.000+08:00

reached school at abt 8.30 lidat.. the journey was rather uneventful... wehn i reached the class, saw 2 ikea shoe racks and a few potted plants in the class...

was damn surprised... how did the stuff get there... then i realised is use class fund buy one... chey. but got 1 money plant, and 4 small cactus. sort of brightens up the class slightly. we din have flag raising as it was drizzling. then we heard that all the yr 3 classes were supposed to relocate to the container classes. wah lao. very happy... finally the school heard our complains and decided to shift the stinking yr 1 up...

then we got confused, cos we din know whether is move for real or just temp, so everyone was in a panic... then Mr Chang came in... he said that our class was 1 of 3 classes that will be staying put. no container classroom. no aircon room. we were obviously unhappy... protest and all. then mr chang said that the school will turn on the aircon for the entire block in the afternoon. means we must endure the heat till noon where the office will on the aircon. then we can study in comfort.

so for chinese, we went to o5S1, the container class. there is nothing la. the class is smaller, and the aircon like not powerful enough lidat. only the people under the aircon will feel it, the whole class is very hot and stuffy...

so after HT, ronald went down to the office to remind them to turn on the aircon. then we happily close all the windows. nothing. after 10 mins, shu yuan went down to check again. turns out they forget again.

finally the aircon on, then we could study in relative comfort. the room took some time to cool down, but after it did, was very comfortable and condusive..

just now i mentioned abt the 4 cactus right? one of them fell down 3 stories after it slipped off the ledge. some smart aleck went to put it there so that it could get more sunlight... then jamas went to retrieve it. one part of it broke off.. so i took it home and replanted it in a glass with some soil.

looks very poor thing.. dunno if the roots will grow out anot..

i'll leave it in my room... a few hours of light a day should be enough..

A new week tomorrow....

2007-01-14T21:45:00.000+08:00

the weekend came as a relief.. a promise of late mornings and early nights with little work in-between. but i was wrong la.

received an email oh thursday from one guy in NTU asking for the 10 page technical report with regards to the NRP... sian la. thought the NRP was dead and long burried le. now it come back and haunt me... had emailed Dr Tan immediately for advise when i saw the email. on friday, he said that it was better that i sent in something, else there'ld be really no record of us ever participating in NRP... and the programme is prestigious... all the students from the branded JCs and schools... not even anyone from the regular JCs like JJC, TPJC or SRJC... you don't believe go take a look:

http://www.ntu.edu.sg/nrp

so i rushed the report lor... but how to come up with something out of nothing? i re-read my log book of the

experiments and the NTU-JC Challenge report for help lor.. i also re-read the abstract of the Challenge...

initially it was very hard to get going la... damn sian. on a sat afternoon, who got so free to type 10 page report? but then i had promised the prof tan, mrs kuek and mr ting dat i'll get it done by friday night. (i went to sleep.. cannot come up with anything) so anyway, i die die must complete it on sat so that can send to the teachers and prof to read then sunday, today can send to the NTU guy.

and so i typed. and typed and typed and typed. i managed abt 1,723 words in 5 hours... including bibliography, titles and so on... very taxing man... but in the end, is worth it la. feel a sense of accomplishment.

the dryer came yesterday... the Fisher & Paykel guys were very fast.. 10 ten mins, they had unpacked the dryer, carry it into the yard and left. BWK... bo wei kong... the dryer is abt the same dimensions as the washing machine... but a little shorter and is front loading.

and so we tried it... the 1st load came out still damp after an hour.. then my mother says the dryer is useless one, not even dry. i said to try again, since is new wad. so 2nd load went in... after an hour, come out damn hot. and dry. haha... my mother's turn to BWK...

like a new car's engine, the dryer has to be broken in ma.. means to let the parts season and warm up... then it can function at its optimum... so with the new dryer, we managed to clear 2 weeks of accumulated washing in a night. damn shoik. now the yard is empty... no more pilled up bed sheets or dirty clothes waiting to be washed and dryed. just wash and dump into dryer spin 1 hr can wear immediately.

control of the dryer very simple... the knob, just turn clockwise to the setting you want. blue zone for delicate materials and black zone for normal clothings.

the shoe rack that we can put into the dryer when need to dry shoes... cos the rack won't move, so the shoes will stay on the rack, with the drum moving round it..

fisher calls it lint.. i also dunno wad to call it, so i'll just call it lint too. i think this comes from the fibres of the clothes that come off as the dryer drum spins round and round...

the stainless steel drum.. can see inside still got alot of lint.. later need to go remove, if not will increase energy consumption as it prevents optimum air flow throught the dryer..

this is the 'net' collecting the lint.. its hidden in the area below the door there.. everytime before using the dryer, must clear it, cos apparently the lint is a fire hazard..

the net can be taken out and opened up like this so that can clear off the lint...

dryer will make life much easier la.. no need to be at the mercy of the weather gods anymore!!!

i had decided to select my 100 photos that i will need to send for printing yesterday.. so i spent the whole night selecting the photos and touching them up using photoshop. very tiedious and boring. i wasn't familar with photoshop, so need to keep flipping the manual. couldn't finish yesterday, cos too shag le. ended up finishing the job just now at 5+.

then i had burned the pics, 100 of them onto a CD-RW and then brought it to the Kodak photoshop at Hougang Mall. initially the lady told me i must pay a charge of $2 per piece. i got a shock la. $2 per photo? that's $200!!! then i think i huh damn loud...

turns out she say wrongly. i must pay a admin charge of $2 per voucher. as i had 2 vouchers, i had to pay $4. each voucher allows me 50 free 4R prints. means i got 100 free prints lor. if i had to pay, would be

100 X $0.35 per photo + $1.50 admin charge. means a total of $36.50. i saved $32.50.

haha... tue collect the photos... wanna see how some of the photos will turn out, after they do touch up and i did my own touching up.

just sent the email to the guy from NTU. one load off my mind... =D

and just checked my timetable.. tmw start late... can wake up late too... haha.. got time to go for breakfast then go school!!

Learning a new language...

2007-01-12T18:33:00.000+08:00

went for 2 periods of tamil lessons yesterday... as we had taken our Ao levels chinese, we din really have anything to learn these 2 months b4 the results are out... as such, we have only 4 lessons per week. these 4 lessons are spilt up into 2 chinese lessons on monday and 2 other language lessons on thursday. we had a choice of malay or tamil. since the whole class wanted to sign up for tamil, i tagged along...

was rather surprised that the class was full. was expecting the class to be half empty, with the rest of the students learning malay or chinese...

the teacher was very nice la, very patient and i think he really wanted us to pick up something, rather than just to pass the time.

here's the handout that he gave us... it's half completed as he din want to go on for fear that we won't be able to absorb...

besides, by the end of the 1st period, half the class was not interested already. haiz... whether is wasting time or not is another issue. what matters is that we can learn something new during this time. its not as if the school will let us home early if we find that this is time wasting. they'll still want us to stay in sch till the day is over.

i find that the lessons is ok la, just have to be very careful with the pronounciation of the words as each syllable has to be enounciated clearly and they speak damn fast la... like machine gun lidat... lol...

today it rained like mad... morning rain, now also rain. rain non stop... then hisham cancelled the training cos he had something on... @#$!@# make me stay back for nothing...

then had to walk out to the opposite bus stop to take bus... was sharing an umbrella with sheila, the yr 1. when we reached the bus stop, my shirt was half wet and the back was also wet... then the shirt will stick to the body one... very uncomfortable..

video of school on the news...

2007-01-10T23:49:00.000+08:00

is really a high tech world that we live in...

2007-01-10T22:36:00.000+08:00

the school issued us (students) with the contactless cash card today. it works just like the EZ-Link card lidat. just have to tap can already. the old one have to slot into the reader. and the disadvantage of this is that need to top up from atm. means must keep depositing cash into the bank acc.

personalised cashcard... the school says that it costs $8.50 per student cos have our name and NIRC. only the 'permanet' students have. the yr 1 from the PAE batch don't have. they have to go outside buy themselves. if not cannot eat in the canteen. too bad. they're noisy, slow and take up resources that can be channeled to us regular students.

the card has a new feature... notice the logo beside the 4 hr heat resistant thingy? that denotes that its contactless...

just hope that by paying with the cashcard, the canteen queue will shorten. is damn long now. people cut queue, the allow others to join them. then the others will allow their friends to join them. wah lao. like a geometric progression lidat... the number keep increasing. then we honest people queueing behind, the queue will not move at all for 20 mins.

the situation is damn fucking bad. queue until will feel damn pissed one. since no one reads my blog, i'll just rant... and i won't mind naming those who did cut queue... sally from o5s1? and her friend min hui i think. yea. those idiots. she cut the queue of a person's friend's friend who cut another person's queue and then got her friend to join her and buy food. wad an idiot la. in the first place, you already cut queue. dunno cut how many people's queue, and then you somemore get your friend to join you.

Its like you go rob an old lady. then you also get your friend to go rob the old lady. very unethical right? damn rude also. pity is not like sec sch, where the DM got the time to go patrol the canteen... then can catch those dumb fucks that cut queue.

"... is suspended infefinitely from the institute..."

2007-01-07T23:44:00.000+08:00

received this letter on friday... apparently my hair was too long and the edge touched my collar... so we (me and shawn) were told to go get our hair cut and we could return to sch as soon as that was done.

but seriously la, who would reject the sch allowing us to go home early? so we went back la. to my house. so that shawn could collect the dumbells which i sold to him for $5... then we went to compass point, with the hope that the queue at the posb bank won't be too long so that i could get my atm card... but when we reached there, it was damn long la!!!

so fine, we went to pasir ris to cut our hair instead. the auntie use scissors to cut, but it looks like it was shaven lidat. now my hair is damn short. there's no way i can get caught for long hair again. ever.

haha... after cutting hair took a bus 81 to shawn's house. then took a shower and had lunch... at abt 3, we went to the bank to get the card done.

i used my own name to open a new account, so that i din have to touch the savings in my other account. as of now, i have $14 in it... but there's greater freedom. i dun have to bother my mother to top up my cash card or to wait for her to buy the bus concession for me. she can transfer the $$ and i can do it myself.