Went out with one of my BMT section mate - he's been the only one in my platoon I have ever hanged out with. We reminisced about the good old days in BMT over lunch. The outing was short-lived though because I felt so lethargic after a while and decided to go ahead with my other plans for the day, which basically involved some miscellaneous stuffs. So sleepy lor, it's not as if I had sex yesterday or engaged in some vigorous activities of sorts, haha. Only reason being pointed to the stifling afternoon heat.
scribbled at 6:05 PM
A few weeks ago, I was still mulling over my long-lost reading habit - it seems that excluding the Harry Potter series, my reading list looks quite empty. But I am both glad and relieved that my interest for reading had rekindled of late. Probably thanks to the engaging love stories and the infectious writing styles of Nicholas Sparks, which broke the spell surrounding my dormant reading routine. His books are really compulsive reads for people who like love and family-oriented themes.
Anyway, I finally bothered to go running after spending 3 weekends goofing around at home. It felt great and I hope it could help me in recovering from my occasional fits of neurosis. Haha. I'm not mentally ill yet though.
scribbled at 10:33 PM
The busy week ended with a tint of sadness and disappointment.
The combat shoot yesterday left me feeling regretful. I thought I didn't stand much chance of achieving marksmanship after I finished my flawed zeroing, where the "clicking" of the rifle was inconsistent and my group size appeared to be quite large. Surprisingly, my performance in the day shoot was rather satisfactory and after collating the scores of the individuals in our detail, we found ourselves within the boundaries of marksmanship! I was of course ecstatic, so much so that I actually bore the hope of surpassing our day shoot results in the night shoot, which was propelled much by the pulse of confidence injected into me. To my dismay and anguish, I became the one who actually pulled down the total score of our detail. When the night shoot commenced, the fact that the firer in front of me scored zero points already made me falter. After missing all five targets in the first magazine, the sinking realisation that I will fail terribly in the night shoot set in. I felt a knot in my stomach as I continued helplessly with the rest of the rounds. Sure, the smoke that fogged my sight as the rounds were expanded should be taken into account for but after factoring all the possible excuses I could derive for myself, I still could not live it down. :( Though, I must admit, combat shoot was fun.
Just as things were improving in CCC block, with the lights in the toilets repaired and the newly-discovered entertainment - table tennis, our platoon had to shift our bunk to the filthy HQ block, which was no doubt more inferior! One evident shortcoming being the water-coolers were workable only on Level 1 and 2, which made life so much inconvenient. I guess we were allocated to the dirtiest bunk in the whole building, since nobody did much cleaning except us. Or is it our fetish for cleanliness?
Today is CPT Shane's last day in 3 Signals. I must say that he had done reasonably well as a PC despite the few occasions that I did not see eye to eye with his actions. Anyway, Gary suggested that I should broach the Pinnacle issue with him, but I chose otherwise because it would seem thick-skinned for me to ask. I shouldn't be hankering after something that was not mine in the first place, right?!
scribbled at 7:26 PM
Just as I was brooding over what to blog, a black-and-white pamphlet that was resting on my table arrested my attention. A closer examination proved it to be a flyer with Campus Superstar Revival contestant Lee Yin Wei's photo on it and the slogan "Unleash the RAFFLESIAN pride!" Things turned out as I guessed - RI boys went to RJC and handed out flyers, probably in their final desperate attempts to amass support for Yin Wei. Haha. He didn't do badly yesterday, a pity he couldn't make it eventually. But by my reckoning, a large factor was due to the blatant biasness of the 3 supposedly professional judges! Their partiality wasn't demonstrated right off the bat though, it was until Geraldine's appalling score was shown then it became real brazen. How could she attain such high marks when her performance was so disappointing? A rubbish High High High?!
Anyway, my father just brought home my original 8310 that had been repaired for a cheaper price of $25 I think. Hope that it really has been absolved of all technical faults.
scribbled at 8:06 PM
Saw this quote published online by somebody. It is from 仙剑奇侠传, a show I watched before and is now shown on Channel U. Thought that it was very meaningful and since I happened to see it, might as well record it down on my blog.
相爱不如相知
与其执着痴念
不如化为祝福
不要让你爱的人被你的爱所磨蚀
反过来以你的爱让她得到力量
展翅高飞
如果真的有缘
就算分隔两地
心也会在一起
真正爱一个人
必定以她的幸福当作是你的幸福
若然有人能比你给予她更大的幸福
你就把她送到那里去吧
I hope I will be able to do it too if I ever encounter such circumstances in my future love life! haha.
scribbled at 8:59 PM
It's embarrassing and humiliating enough for me to be carrying a black-and-white revolting Nokia 8310 when people around me are utilizing the advanced telecommunication technology in today's world like nobody's business. What with the camera and bluetooth capabilities, MMS functions, and the highly-sought-after 3G phones! Worst still, my worthless 8310 started giving me problems last week and after seeking the opinions of a handphone shop, my father told me repairing it would cost around $60! Definitely not value-added! Thus, the poor me have to humble myself with a much antiquated Motorola second-hand phone with unfriendly user interface, awful unmelodious ringtones and a repulsive physique until I ORD in 8 more months!
scribbled at 7:06 PM
I breezed through guard duty on Wednesday without any turn-outs, bomb drills and stand-to again (there was a bomb drill but I was prowling, therefore missed it! :P) , not that I'm complaining though. After some initial unpleasant guard duty experiences at SI and Jurong Camp, peaceful and smooth-sailing guard duties ought to be my reward. However, it will be much better if I can enjoy a duty-free month since from the look of it, I seemed to have done many more duties than the average person in the platoon. :( And no words can completely describe how much I abhor guard duties in Jurong Camp!
I made a difficult decision to go for ROC after Gary declined the well intentions of PC. But I'm quite doubtful that PC will be successful in achieving a place for me, since there had been no further updates for the past 2 days. And thinking about it, actually I'm having mixed feelings about going for Ex Pinnacle. I'm afraid it will have some dire influences on my scholarship applications. Well, I'll see how it goes...
scribbled at 7:37 PM
Relieved that Yuyang moved on to the semi-finals in yesterday's Campus Superstar although he really did not fit the bill as could be seen in his missing jia yin, making his performance to be the most lacklustre. (I used 'most' because the other male contestants were lousy too, haha)
For someone unattached like me, Valentine's Day seems like almost any other normal day. Hanged out with another single friend at Orchard. But it is also a day to show your appreciation to your loved ones I suppose.
This is the passage written in the card:
Although a greeting such as this
Can never fully tell
How much you're
loved today,
and every day, as well,
It still can show,
in some small way,
What's more than ever true -
It's really special for
me to have
A Mom so dear as you.
Happy Valentine's Day to all! :)
scribbled at 6:56 PM
I finally appreciated what Zhengjun said couple of days ago. The more I tried to scrimp and save, the more I seemed to end up spending more. Today being a monday, I decided to take advantage of the $7.50 cheaper movie ticket price to catch My Kungfu Sweetheart at Westmall. I don't know what came over me to cause me to hail a taxi to Westmall in the end.
After the movie, I went into a gift shop and chose a Valentine's Day card, which was personalised for Mom. There was no price tag and thinking that it wouldn't cost more than 10 bucks, I went ahead to the cashier. Just when I was about to flash out a $10 note, I noticed the numbers on the cash box showed $13!!!
I passed by a bakery that was located in a neighbourhood and bought 3 waffles, since the prices were cheaper than that of Prima Deli's. Little did I know that the shopowners could be so dishonest as to sell me waffles that were charred in the interior! 2 of the waffles were thus discarded by my mother for health reasons.
The only comforting event this afternoon was that the optical shop I patronised since I started wearing spectacles charged me nothing for a change of frame of my army black specs! Anyway, the reinstatement of my army specs after it was damaged for numerous months was due to the combat shoot that will be conducted next week. It will be a bonus if my specs can assist me in attaining marksmanship and that attractive $200! Haha. I was a best shot after all.
scribbled at 6:29 PM
I thought I would have a peaceful 元宵节. It proved otherwise.
Just as I was finishing my dinner and preparing to spend the rest of the night lounging around in my room, the doorbell rang. A last-minute visit by a relative and his 2 kids before the end of the 15 days of CNY. (I never bothered to clarify the relationship between us and even if I did, I would had forgotten since we would meet only once a year) But it was quite embarrassing, or at least I felt it was. They apparently had not consumed their dinner and the dishes we had were leftovers from lunch, which did not look very palatable indeed. But I don't suppose they mind since we all came from average families. Anyway, a $4 final addition made to my ang pow money, which totals up to $320!
I don't fathom why people like to make last-minute visits so much. A pleasant surprise when my aunt called on us with her husband and 5 children, adding to the mini crowd in my tiny living room. Conversations revolved round the common topics of studies and 'O' Level results of my sis but I made an astounding discovery! One of my cousins studying in Manjusri Sec actually happened to know the Campus Superstar candidate Hong Yuyang and she will be going for the live filming tomorrow! Further probing uncovered that Manjursi gave out tickets for the students to support Yuyang, who won in the Talent Search conducted in the school. As an avid supporter of Yuyang myself, hereby wishing him all the best for the competition tomorrow!
Campus Superstar candidates seem to be hitting the news quite frequently these days. Flipping through last Thursday's Wan Bao, I read about how the ITE Clementi West male candidate was beaten up by a few seniors outside his school, resulting in serious injuries. The antagonists were alleged to have kicked and stepped on his face, causing him to lose consciousness. One of the probable motives stated was jealousy! How brutal and naive these teenagers could be! Just because of some BGR issues? I suggest they watch Fearless but then, I doubt they would understand the true meaning behind the movies.
Blogging can be a double-edged sword. In the same papers saw another male candidate Zhilong apologising for his extreme and relentless criticisms of the Superstar winner Tan Weilian in his blog. Personally, I felt it was very unbecoming of him to make personal attacks on any individual in his blog, let alone Weilian, who had survived all odds against him to make it to the champ. But I guess we have to forgive him for his ignorance then since he was blinded by his unwavering support for Kelly, who spoke up for him too in the report. What nonsense! All initiated by a seemingly innocuous contest...
scribbled at 8:35 PM
Just spent around 3 hours searching for a new blogskin and editing it in a way I want it to be. Would be faster if I was a tad more proficient in html. Anyway, reasons for the change in layout being partly to kill time and partly because a friend appeared to encounter difficulties navigating my previous blogskin. (though the latter doesn't seem to stand because any blogger in the world, even non-bloggers, should know how to click on 'blog' on my previous imagemap to access the entries, haha:P)
Oh no! I just discovered a glitch. I do not understand why when I clicked on January 2006 under 'archives', the link would bring me back to the old blogskin. Anyone out there know how to solve this problem? Kindly direct me!
scribbled at 5:53 PM
A gratifying L1R5 of 12 - an improvement of 5 points in comparison to her prelims! She can remain in Raffles, though that was not the concern at all since her admission was based on her stellar performance in cross-country. The current issue is whether she will be able to strike a balance between her demanding curriculum and stressful CCA requirements, though Gary ever mentioned that her predecessors from Commonwealth actually survived quite well in the Raffles environment. Hope she can do the same.
scribbled at 6:25 PM
Just woke up from a deserving sleep after a seven-and-a-half hours singing marathon at JEC kbox and an exhausting hangover at the 24-hours Macdonald yesterday, or should I say this morning :) The experience could be even better if not for the mild diarrhoea incurred after the expensive yet unclean satay rice.
Anyway, the first thing that came to my mind when I became conscious was my sister's 'O' Level results! Had been anxious about her results for the past few days, because she did not achieve very decent grades for her prelims. Hope she could attain at least a L1R5 below 15... Good luck, sis.
scribbled at 2:17 PM
Had a busy night-out. Assurance by my Chinese Sinseh at Bukit Gombak followed by a haircut at Pioneer Mall before reaching home to catch the second half of Superhost. Weixiong actually proved his capabilities once again to return to the compeition although I thought Xinyu was better for the debating part because she came up with very strong and valid points to support her stand. The others were merely blabbering nonsense, trying desperately to "smoke" the judges probably due to their lack of preparation.
The weather these few days has been unbearable especially in the afternoon! The immense heat could simply make me sick if I was a tad negligent in hydrating myself throughout the day. I wonder how long this kind of weather is going to last. Sigh.
Oh, and my blog could be made as a reference blog for SAT! This is what Teddy had been saying of my blog since yesterday, reason being he could see and learn application of SAT words in my blog. As much as this might be a compliment in his eyes, I certainly do not endorse this spastic usage of my blog. :(
scribbled at 9:12 PM
Didactic. But I'm slightly puzzled why its box office could be leading that of I Not Stupid Too in Singapore.
I HATE to return to that cold and unfeeling place.
scribbled at 5:13 PM
Lost this post accidentally but thought I should try to recall as much as possible to recover it, since it was not a long entry. So here it goes...
Watched I Not Stupid Too TV special, learnt of the term "Appreciative Teaching", certainly something for future or budding teachers to ponder on, including me, whose indecisiveness has caused my options to remain open. Do I want to spend 6 early years of my life doing research in exchange for money to complete my education? Do I really have the passion? There are so many questions burning inside me. I want to have a plan! (But then again, do I have what it takes to attain a scholarship?)
What an uneventful chu 7. No outings, no yusheng, and no live performance of Chingay. Only aimlessness and fear...
On this special day, may Buddha absolve mankind of all their sins!
scribbled at 8:00 PM
I am degenerating into a couch potato subconsciously...
First...
Then...
Finally...
In view of the recent entertainment tidbit on newspapers reporting that the box office for I Not Stupid Too seems to be lagging behind that of Fearless, I decided to catch this movie with my sister today, hoping to give a minor boost to its box office. Well, the effect may be neutralised though, because I may be watching Fearless any time soon. Haha.
It was good - stressing the ever importance of good parenting skills (which I hope to acquire), sending a glowing report card to the MOE (I suppose Teddy must had acquired lots of thoughts after watching this show) and emphasizing the values of kinship. Touching moments, gigs for gags and food for thoughts, all well developed. :)
Erps, but why were many scenes exhibiting places in the west, Jurong West Police Station, Jurong Point.... Haha
scribbled at 8:53 PM
Most of my family members, relatives and friends already started work or school from yesterday onwards but here I am gratefully enjoying an extended CNY break. All thanks to the 3 days of clear-offs initiated by some kind soul out there, leading to an extremely long vacation of 9 days. Nothing interesting I could blog yesterday. Insufferable boredom - that's precisely how I felt. Not that I had nowhere to go though - there was an outing organised to Samuel's house but I did not bother myself with going. I was not enthusiastic for any of the previous ISP outings and never will, even more so with the relationship between some of us turning sour just because of the jealousy felt by some platoon mates. How ugly man can be! Whatever! I just want to serve the remaining of my NS life peacefully and proceed on to more meaningful parts of my life.
Went for klunch with BY, Gary and Yongjie at Paradiz Centre today. As usual, looks of disbelief and contemptuous remarks were thrown at me whenever I tried attempting more challenging songs, making me dispirited and thus doing even more horrendously in those renditions. So discouraging lor! Humph! Sigh! All despite me trying hard to improve...
By a twist of fate, I went back to Marina Square for the umpteenth time, this time to bowl again. Thankfully, I achieved something there by brushing a new personal best score of 112. But judging from the erratic nature of the results for both games, most of us appeared to be mediocre bowlers with the exception of maybe BY.
This may seem a bit stupid but I actually went to LOT1 Laserflair to rent vcds - somewhere so far away from my house at Jurong West. Perhaps there exists some rental shop in my vicinity but I have apparently yet to unravel the place. Anyway, wanted to watch vcds to kill time tomorrow.
My chest is still aching although the pain has subsided quite substantially... have to wait for my Chinese Sinseh to resume work.
Some nice photos we took! Haha :P
scribbled at 9:32 PM
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