Exams results - a pretty lousy biomedical engineer but a biomedical engineer nonetheless.

Terrible, terrible results.

But ah, at least the scare and suspense is over. Back to reality and finding something else worthwhile doing.

Meanwhile it's just kendo, swim, monitoring the emails and trying to find something worthwhile doing. Rejected the previous job since I thought it wasn't really worth the spur of the moment working while potentially having injuries due to kendo the day before work. Serving customers while having kendo foot problem definitely isn't gonna score points, so meanwhile I'm still waiting for tuition assignments to take up. And so far, those I've got aren't that good either so I didn't take them up. Still waiting.

Meanwhile, I've got my laptop prepped up for media editing - Audacity, Adobe After Effects, Photoshop CS6, Movie Maker, Sony Vegas 12, etc. All just waiting for that push of a button to start media work. Anytime.

...maybe I was getting ahead of myself. Anyways, to keep my holiday occupied, I've gotten myself a Logistics post for this newly set-up Big Martial Arts Carnival committee - but really, what I wanted was a publicity post, but ah well. It makes no difference, since I should be able to tank both sides of the work - what with the publicity cell - I prefer to call them "wings" - actually approaching me for help. So I said okay, and here I am. Really wanna get to working the late shifts, at least it'd give me something that I can say I can do best among all of my usual abilities that turned dormant ever since the holidays started.

Better throw me something worthwhile doing - I'm getting bored!

Holiday Mode - yet again without a proper aim

Sooo.... it's the end of the Year 1 exams just two weeks ago. And maybe I'll just head back to the urban hermit lifestyle again. No, I'm honestly going to head back to the urban hermit lifestyle. Or hikikomori mode. Or whatever suits your fancy naming style.

But argh, that's just plain sad and boring, achieving nothing for the next three months - what a waste!

I'm going to step outta my own comfort zone, do something out there. Starting with the regular kendo practice, I'm gonna get a job out there - no office jobs for me, I'm sick of them already. And then, I'm gonna do a little bit more of online study in my spare time. And I have just the avenues for them.

For starters, I've enrolled for online courses in Coursera, and they're probably more about learning stuff for fun than actually getting a certificate of achievement. Learning something outta your own faculty is sometimes cool, and I reckon I could use a bit of calculus revision since I didn't really do this well for math during this uni exams last semester, and I reckon its effects will start eating into the modules next year. Never hurts to be prepared, right?

And there's the ever annoying job hunt. No office jobs, this time! Time to actually stick my ass outta the chair and actually do retail work or something that makes me move around.

Well, it wasn't the case two weeks before, actually. Before the exams I actually wanted to participate in the BME Summer of Code offered by my faculty, which actually does programming in C++ throughout the summer holidays before school starts. Trouble is, the reply and notification period was during the exams - how would anyone be free enough to read emails during crunch time during exam prep? And so, I missed it and suddenly found myself to have a large pocket of time left empty.

Nuts. And my usual allowance was cut in half so I wouldn't splurge. Aaaaand holidays are EXACTLY the reason to splurge. Tch.

Alright then, a job it is for me then. Can't keep asking for money anyway, time to make myself useful too, so I went for job hunting. First job was for a cashiering job at Singapore Expo, but they wanted people with no commitments, so that was a big bummer, considering that there was still kendo practice for me and all. Besides, I wasn't so keen on disrupting what I started out on to begin with.

Second job was for promoting mobile apps, but the interviewing lady rejected me because I wasn't proficient enough in using iPhone. I mean, seriously, in this day and age?? I mean, though I use Android phones only all this while, but hey seriously, just how difficult can operating iPhone get anyway? Gimme 2 hours fiddling with an iPhone, I'll get your stuff up and running in no time, but nah. I'd rather prefer she enjoy her ignorance of the existence of digitally-flexible people, saves us both time and money.

Aaaaand so. I found myself hanging around at Ministry of Food - and I wasn't that particular about the pay either. I was still daydreaming about the prospects of being among the working crew inside a restaurant or cafe - I still have ambitions of setting up my own restaurant bar and picking up some nifty recipes - all while trying to finish this teapot of ocha they served for the next two hours. And it was like - I don't know. Luck maybe? Ministry of Food was hiring part time waiters. Why not?

Next thing I knew, I signed up for the job. Hopefully that'd gimme something worthwhile doing instead of rotting at home.

ORD LO! Time to stand toe to toe with harsh reality

It's finally the time I've been waiting for. Finally ORD. And enjoying every single moment of it.

For a start, shortly after 1 week after ORD, I got myself signed up for driving lessons, and now I'm multitasking between studying driving theory and doing my best in my new job I got at Pacific Conferences, just earlier this Thursday. Awesome. Now I'm getting somewhere. And soon it'll be my 21st birthday, and the day after will be a 3 days 2 nights holiday out at sea at Star Cruises. How's that?

Sure, everyone's asking me the same question - will I miss those days in army? Yup, but being civilian is waaaaaaaayyyy better than being some random grunt in the army. In the past, I had to do lots of shit in the army, and being paid $650 a month as a NSF Corporal didn't help much. Now I'm earning twice that amount, which would probably make my own personal finances a bit healthier and much more financially independent. Well, at least until I go to uni anyways...

I hate having to ask people for money, even more so from my own family. After all that money disputes arising from my father's problem gambling in the past, I decided that enough is enough. Nobody controls my finances unless I allow them to directly intervene, and I most certainly ain't gonna give away my financial independence this easily. I will make sure I clear my family from debt - one way or another, even if it takes years. I used to spend heavily during my teenage years, now it's time to make a difference for the sake of my family.

Sigh, this gotta mean I'll never be able to see a bank balance healthy enough for me to buy a flat or car or raise a family of my own. Even if it does, it'll take years, and by the time I eke out a decent living, everyone else would be already having their own businesses, wealth and the like... Still, one thing at a time. No rest for the wicked. Chiong all out for survival, or die trying.

Time is not on our side

Just the other day, on a fine Saturday, I figured it was too darned boring at home, and it ain't helping that I'm still worrying over whether I'll be able to hold a decent office admin temporary job for the next few months after I ORD and before university school term starts. So I asked Mom out for a jalan-jalan session to the airport.

Of all places, the airport. Hmm... Maybe it's just that the airport was just about the perfect place to work in if I were to hold a job as a Starbucks or Coffee Bean barista - I'd be able to talk to many people from many other places and countries, learn about stuff and so on... In any case, we were about to set off when my grandma wanted to tag along too. Welcome to the party, grandma!

...only that due to her old age and weak legs, she can't travel that far. I guess age has taken a heavy toll on her legs - she can't climb stairs as well as she used to, the way she does like about 10-odd years ago. Dilemma soon popped up - she hasn't gone to the outside world for about as long as I can remember, other than that she travels back and forth from her lonely 2-room flat in Chai Chee to our house in Tampines, and occasionally puts up at my 4th uncle's place at Woodland. Yet even then, she takes his lorry to and fro, so she doesn't really move around much except stay at home.

So in the end, we went Tampines Mall instead - easier on her in terms of travel time and there's no lack of stuff to see as well. Gotta admit, being on her own at such an old age without being able to move around much has its inconveniences and she's missing out a lot more than we'd expect. She needed this trip to freshen up and feel young again - if even only for a short moment.

And after a while, we dropped by Old Malaya Cafe and had prawn noodles at that place. Nice cafe, with all that rustic furniture that resembled kampung days, it seemed like the perfect spot for a revered old grandma to take a rest from those walking and looking at all those oh-that's-all-so-new thingamajigs that make up today's retail outlets in our shopping malls today.

And so it was, we hung around and had a little three-generation chat, and then proceeded to bring our good grandma to the rooftop water features at Tampines 1. Along the way, she had to hobble here and there, move around against waves of people moving in the opposite direction, and climb stairs really slowly, with both legs resting on the same step first before moving on to the next...

Just observing her trying to move around with so much effort, wanting to look at the things around her, see how much the world around her has changed, I couldn't help but think - is this the way everyone else would have to be? Grow old, and then suddenly find themselves unable to do even the most mundane of things, to the point that even walking around seems to be a problem without a walking stick (she used an umbrella instead, says it's too obvious if people saw her using a walking stick).

Then it occurred to me - time is definitely not on our side. It ticks past us so mercilessly, yet so stealthily that we don't realise that hey, 30 minutes have passed. Next thing we know, we're already weeks past this event, that incident, bla bla bla... And when you realised it, the glory years of your life are already gone, and what's left is but a weathered body and a weary soul, wanting to accomplish much but is just unable to do them.

So here it is, looking at the kids running around the water feature having the time of their lives in their swimsuits, having the rooftop wind around the area didn't seem like a bad idea at all. Especially if it took such a simple day to bring forward a lesson to teach us to make the most use of our time in our lives to accomplish great things that we would otherwise have never bothered to if we procrastinated.

Seize the moment, and do the things you want to do most, for when you grow old, you will look back at those times and say "Hey, back in the day, I did this, I did that, bla bla bla..." and leave something behind for your future generations to look at, and have some achievement in your life to be proud of, be it big or small.

A meal from a rundown place

It was a terrible traffic Friday last week, what with terrible weather as well, so as usual, we either had to wait it out, let the heavy rain stop or get smaller before going back home on the bus, or hire the taxi. You know how it goes... Everyone calls at peak hours, and Kim Fook and I tried almost all the cab hire numbers already and nobody was picking up. So nope, we had to wait it out instead. Lousy luck.

And then the idea hit me. What about this ulu area just outside camp? We could go eat there and get some coins from the change for bus fare. Ok lah, steady go!

Place is damn rundown, like the old kampung buildings of the 60s and 70s, not too shabby but could use some maintenance. Ah what am I saying, this place isn't seeing a lot of customers anymore. Well maybe it used to be a hotspot back when Seletar Camp used to be way bigger than what it is today...

That being said, their nasi briyani is not too bad, delicious in fact. Hardly the kind you'd expect from a rundown place. Ironic that it'd be my first time eating there when I'm almost gonna go ORD this coming March. Still, at least I'd be able to tell others that hey, this place still exists in the Singapore map.

 

Just normal coffee-shop fare, and uhh... don't be put off by that half-eaten plate of nasi briyani. Before I remembered to take the photo down, half the mutton was already well moving into my stomach already by the time I realised.

 

 

Man, this place is ancient! Note the spray-paint on the metal sheet at the shack. That's where the coffee-shop is supposed to be, but nuh-uh. It's on the right, where the car is. You can see the doorframe to the coffeeshop from here, and that's exactly what it looks like from the side of the road.

 

 

 

Yet another view of this run-down coffeeshop. Maybe this one looks a little less ulu... 

Chicken Essence and Scratch in the Face

Just got back from swimming. Leg is tired, but hey, that instructor is right - essence of chicken really does keep you warmer in water. Kim Fook had another method, eat a lot of meat for protein before swimming. Funny, I don't get as many cramps on my foot this time. Maybe it's that chicken essence...?

And argh, wherever I go, bad luck always follows. And it's not like I always do stuff like hang underwear over my head or walk around seeing black cats everywhere, you know. It's only my fifth day of using my New HTC Desire X and the screen's scratched for some reason after tossing it into my bag for the swim. Wanted to try squeezing my nutsack for that goddamned scratch to miraculously disappear, but nope, that ain't happening. It'd be making me even more stupid than I already am. Heartache.

A entertainment shrine in my own house...?

Another boring day in camp. One day closer to ORD. Well, at least there's the Annex Room to hang around in. Simply put, this Annex Room is the company mess room. "Why hang around with those dumbfucks at the Yacht (battalion mess hall) when we can do so in our own Annex Room?"

Not probably the best place of choice, but it's about the closest thing to home when you see those sofas and the big TV with the PS3 in this place. Ultimate combo. Enough said. Oddly enough, it's made me think of my future living room.

Okay, maybe not all that odd. When I can afford my small little piece of land in a HDB (highly dangerous building) flat, it's not gonna be all that big and spacious - too much hassle to clean up. But it's gotta be a no-nonsense home theatre with, of course, a PS3. Or whatever newest gaming console there is in the market.

Maybe Mom'll kill me for getting a PS3 during uni period, but heck. It's not like I'll be playing much by the time I get that machine either. Look, I've got a PSP and the games are getting damned boring or insanely difficult. I just wanna have fun. Heck if I'm the lousiest player out there.

With my family shifting house this coming May, I might just get a chance to do so, but there's just something shiok about having your own personal space with the choice to do whatever the hell you want with it, eh?

New phone and data plan

Just wasting time in camp for now. Pretty much the same thing - day in, day out. Not for long. 5 more weeks to ORD. Gotta hang in there.

Just got my new HTC Desire X last week and, gotta say, this phone is a far cry from the old Samsung Galaxy Ace I got. Controls are different, but I like the Beats Audio more than anything else in this phone. And oh, the data network access. Data plan is friggin' addictive.

Only thing though, when I charge it, I gotta first kill all the applications running in the background - damned one time I couldn't get outta the house because I had 17% battery left. The apps sapped more energy than could be charged, apparently. I'll be damned if it happens while I'm off for important stuff in the future, but this is otherwise a good phone that I'll stick around with for a long time. Well, as long as there's no better upgrades for $0 that is. I'm a cheapskate.

Crazy PT week

Like a shag. Shag only.

This week was mainly pissant week - full of muscle soreness, bad luck and well, money flying off to random places into oblivion - not to mention a few KNNBCCBs rocketing in random directions at supersonic speeds.

First there was Muay Thai trial lesson at Liang Court two days ago. It was raining, and I was still too sleepyheaded to care what time I turned up so I went there late.

A bit stupid, really. There wasn't really the need to rush anyway since it turned out to be a tekan-during-chill session. Three minutes of running around the gym, then burpees, then duck walk, then push ups... next thing I knew was that I grabbed that blue stuff you call Ventolin. Pretty bad shit and bad luck, its been almost a year since I last used it. Gives you a nasty dry mouth afterwards but you breathe better.

Next on the menu is the literally menu-reading at Saizeriya nearby. Italian food, mainly pizzas, spaghetti and uh. Escargots. Good juicy fat escargots, but I swear I could've enjoyed the food there better if it wasn't for that spur of the moment that made me want to lose weight and start dieting at a friggin' Italian restaurant that cost me $17 and a half-full stomach with mostly shrimp salad which apparently was a stupid low calorie dish that made me hungry for the rest of the day. A stupid waste of money - looking back, I'd rather grow fat there and then, and do something else about it later.

Maybe there's just something about the Muay Thai that makes you momentarily stupid and unable to think for just that few minutes and giving away cash for raw vegetables when you could be having much more...

Then came swimming - and oh, the pain from doing Muay Thai on sandbags just about started to really squeeze your muscles hard. Sore muscles. Sore only.

Gotta start reporting sick before my legs give way. And no, no handstands or wheelchairs, please.

A New Beginning

A new beginning is probably what I need right now to kickstart my long lost hobby of blogging since a few years ago. Frequent writer's block durig my days as an NSF means I wasn't writing much at all. Hell, much of that experience isn't worth writing anyway - the Army doesn't like people like us giving away free information for obvious security reasons.

But just as well. I'm finishing my military service stint pretty soon, time to write more.

I'm assuming a new identity here - this snow wolf theme probably pretty much sums up my personality at this point in my life, and its probably gonna stick, but oh well. Its good enough to live with, I think.

Pretty much anything goes though, and I can say that up till now my life so far has been pretty unlucky, lousier luck than most people. Still, I ain't dropping dead yet. Perhaps that way I still get to write, damned if I don't. So there, I'm just getting started.