An Outer Cover

5 Kiwi Cans Later

2011-10-16T00:52:00.000-07:00

That's the number of kiwi cans I have used up, out of the 3 issued from BMT, 1 from E-mart and an extra large tin from Thailand given by my parents, since enlistment day. I guess they have accurately calculated that each can would last about up to 3 months. After all, each can lasted for a course of about 9 weeks long each: BMT and BSLC (Actually its called foundation term, but what the hell I prefer the old terms like SISPEC rather than SCS, and ASLC rather than Pro Term) All the kiwi was used up mainly by myself, with some used by buddies or fellow section mates on some occasion.

I've also found out that one large soap bottle of Lifebuoy can last me a year, from the way I bathe.

Info titbits aside, for all those not in the loop as to what I'm doing to serve the country, I'm now in ASLC, relegated to being an infanteer (Wails of despair ensues, hurhur) and training to be an infantry sergeant.

Army life aside, can't say much has been going on. At around August last year I bought SC2, pre-ordered (Bad mistake). Took some time to relish the campaign, haven't got into competitive play, reason being too humji (LOL, scared to ruin W:L ration on Bnet profile.. Lame but yeah I gotta step out of this shell and just whack, unfortunately I'm not doing that still) Heh, guess you guys would know which race I'd pick to play.

A brief history in terms of serial numbers:

W4302, W191. Through Basics, We Excel!

M2214. MR60. With Pride, We Lead!

G2306, GR49. With Pride, We Lead! (Again, Lol.. Wished it were Advance & Overcome)

5SIR. Silent, Deadly, Swift. (Apparently the motto was ripped off from some US military unit lol)

In 5SIR I didn't get any permanent weapons assigned to me so meh..

On a sidenote: Since JC I've degraded in morals.. No urge for punctuality, no fear. Nothing..

041011

2011-10-04T03:47:00.000-07:00

Its been a good 3 months since the last blogpost and I guess for now things seem to look better for me. I managed to get my driving license on the first try, and my IELTs results came out 8 out of 9, though I bet I could have gotten a 9 if not for the writing and speaking component. Not one for creative speaking or writing. That kinda sums up the whole of August, these 2 landmark events. A freak accident occurred during that month that countered the increase on my personal happiness scale but I'll bring that up on another day perhaps.

For the month of September I spent the first half of the month in Kranji Camp, for my Company Marksman Course (CMC), basically a dissected Sniper course that made us half-fucked snipers. It was quite an eye-opening course, the 2nd course ever in my NS stint. It was a short 2 week course that involved basic technical handling and just pure shooting. No tactics involved or any sort of other military procedures or manoeuvres. Just pure shooting. I estimate shooting about up to nearly s$800 worth of 7.62MM LAPUA match grade rounds, one being around s$2 or 1 euro, according to the trainers there. The course was rather carefree, reveille at 0530 and leaving for the range at 0630 to shoot till about 1500 to 1600 and then having dinner. That was the rough timeline for each day of the course. We had nights out after that, usually and I would go home if time permitted. All in all time spent there was great, bonded with my guys somewhat and we got to learn a new weapon. Met some new and interesting people too; People from 1GDS, 1SIR, 2SIR, 4SIR and ADF.

Me Now, 270711

2011-07-27T01:33:00.000-07:00

As of late I've been experiencing heavy bouts of army blues. I guess I'd better properly define what "army blues" is to me before carrying on. It strikes me as a total lack of motivation to do anything after transitting to civilian life upon booking out. Apart from that it also afflicts oneself with a very overpowering sense of loss. I mainly attribute it to the lack of time or too much time out in the civilian world. As a result the person affected doesn't know what to do with his time or doesn't feel like doing anything with the time in his hands.

It has affected me in a sense that I have lost the fire to even play games. I'm just trawling the web for nuggets of interesting information that would pique my curiosity: say an upcoming game or interesting new technology, entertainment that would bring a smile to my face or finding the name of a song that eludes me.

All the extra work and duties has piled upon me, making me seem if I am busy when I'm actually not (I don't do much during the week, except for the duties which consume my weekends and ranges. Only take my men for meals and do menial tasks). I haven't the time to meet anyone at all, save for those online. Even those online I don't address, except for one or two playing games.

Looking back now, its been nearly 3 months since I saw anyone apart from my circle of army friends. Nor have I done anything of note within this timespan. I feel so useless at this point of writing, seeing that people have ambitions and ideals to fuel their lives on. I only have 2 short term goals at the moment: IELTS results and the TP.

PS. I find my previous blogposts summarising my army experience thus far horrible, disjointed walls of text with very little connective and transitionary vocaulary. Sigh

PariLima

2011-07-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

As of this post, I realise that I've been doing my time in 5SIR for nearly 7 months. 7 months since graduating from SCS on the 17th of December 2010. Wow, it sure does feel short. This span of 7 months can be broken down into 3 phases: UIP, PTP and BMT. Now I'm going through AIT, of which I'll summarise in the near future. Whew, what a load of acronyms just to represent 7 months of passage.

UIP stands for Unit Induction Programme. I must admit, ours was quite special compared to other units. Upon graduating from SCS and receiving the rank, we had no idea how we would be valued, treated and employed as junior commanders, or rather commanders at the lowest level who have the most interaction with the men. It was then made out to us that for all the work we have earned, it had placed us into a rut, were we placed into any other unit apart from 5SIR. Apparently, other unit's SOP for their UIP was to show the incoming specialists who was boss, what the unit expects from them and what they should do. They did it in ways like making the new specs knock it down in front of the men, throwing them into a field camp immediately upon reporting to the new unit and overall just treating them like shit. (Mostly hearsay from 1SIR and various comments from other people)

I felt that for our UIP, it was rather structured. The command team explained what their expectations and thing they would do to reach these expectations and how we would work with them to achieve these objectives. Then we had a month of lull time whereby we just woke up to do some PT and clear up the battalion. (The previous intake had left the entire camp in shambles for us, the new guys, to clear up. imagine a group of about 100 odd commanders, without any men under them to clean up the situation left behind and to start anew)

We had a field camp following this, that was supposed to last a week but only took about four or five odd days at Tekong (Went back there like twice already, wow! The first instance of course being this UIP) in which the command team used to evaluate our standards and to shape it into a standardised battalion model. We then had a section-level challenge to bond together, called the V-Trail (V being the numeral for 5, the number of our battalion) where we did numerous skills-at-arms challenges. If I remember it consisted of doing a 6km run within 36 minutes at the SanYongKong SITEST site. This was followed by changing from PT to FBO and making a 4km march to BMTC School 4, where we had 5 challenges: Combined SOC, Section-level PT Challenge (150 pullups, 500 situps, 500 pushups), a 50 MCQ paper based on the IBOS (Infantry Book of Standards), Weapons Technical Handling and a Claymore/Dipole setup station. Upon completion of the 5 stations we had to march back 4km back to the SITEST site where the fastest section wins. The field camp ended with a bang: McChickens and Canadian Pizza, prize presentation to the winners of the V-Trail (I think $200 dollars "BlackHawk!" branded backpacks from US each to the members of the winning section) and a formal presentation welcoming us to the 5SIR family, where we received the 5SIR belt and the 3rd Div formation patch. That was how they introduced the battalion's work ethic: Fast In and Fast Out (FIFO), work hard and play hard. This explains all the unexpected and lavish rewards like the food and prizes.

After which we had a mini block leave period and then we came back to receive our "Posting Order" to our companies. I think it was around the middle to end of January 2011. I found out that I was posted to Alpha Company, which kinda disappointed me (I wanted to be in Battalion HQ, out of this chiongsua business as my peers by this time of army life seemed to have mellowed out while for me no outlet was in sight...) What uplifted me was that I was given a temporary appointment of Marksmen 2IC in the company, of which I heard I would learn to use 2 sniper rifles which gladdened me by a bit. However on the same day which we received our posting, I was informed that I, along with 2 others from Alpha would be attached out immediately to Support Company. These 2 sudden changes made things quite surreal, and I was quite upset as I felt I was getting accustomed to being in Alpha, due to the nature of our UIP, where the people around me were mostly Alpha-bound and I felt slightly bonded to them. So I was ripped away, a vestige of Alpha, implanted into Delta (Support Company renamed). I did feel a sense of being unwanted from Alpha, because of my disposition (As usual I was a quiet observer who smiled and went along with things. Perhaps I was deemed to not have command potential. Which was good, since I was rather an unwilling commander and they seemed to have picked it up, I felt.)

And so, the first few weeks of February were spent cleaning up Delta Company. It was quite a shock, as I came to realise that all 4 companies in the battalion (A to D) were sorting out their own. It felt funny that previously when we were united in UIP, we were split up to perform different duties in our respective companies. From cleaning up and moving Alpha's accomodations, we were now moving Delta's (Felt used at this point). While doing all this we were reminded that our men would be coming in roughly a month's time. Time soon flew and before we knew it, it was 3 days to the arrival of our men. It was exciting to realise that we would have people under our command, yet trepidation lay ahead in what we were to do. We suddenly realised that, Hey, just how the heck do I control them? Would they be all gangsterly and disobedient? Our training in the institute totally did not prepare us in any way as how to deal with them.

Somehow we dealt with this and managed to normalise it into our daily routine. 2 months passed and PTP ended. We realised that the men were obedient, save a few bad eggs. They would be friendly and maybe talk a little, push the system and try to climb over our heads but that was it. A little punishment doled out (Sadly, not by me. I am considered quite slack hurhur) sorted things out. There were some people who were compulsive liars, some firestarters, crazy mental people and druggies even. By PTP's end we had weeded some and posted them out. Then we had BMT which by now we were used to. More or less the same as PTP except the training tempo was higher with more lessons. the 2 months for BMT passed moderately quick, and soon enough I was back in Alpha, experiencing a transitional culture shock from the shift in management in Delta to Alpha.

In hindsight, I felt my time in Delta was quite a good one. I enjoyed the management there. I didn't really gel with my men, as I didn't see the need to and I found them quite screwed up. Admittedly, I went through motions taking them men, just to gain progress. As long as the standards were met and my skin wasn't in hot soup, all was fine. I enjoyed the time in Delta due to the presence of my fellow peers. The community there was great and people there were cooperative. To summarise, we were all like-minded commanders somehow placed together to bring the men through PTP and BMT. I felt sad upon leaving and my time there is a definite indelible mark in my NS life.

This sorts of summarises the time period form January 2011 to June 2011. I'll continue on to AIT after I have completed it.

Turning Straight White to Bent Black

2011-07-10T04:24:00.000-07:00

I shall continue where i left off, being posted from BSLC to ASLC, or rather Foundation term to Infantry Professional term. This was one of the lowest points of serving NS, as I did not want to be an infantryman. I had preferred something more cushier (Who wouldn't?) like Signals or Artillery. Especially knowing that from this point on the remaining time in army would be either really crap (Going to a unit and chionging all the way), or monotonous (Sent to Tekong to do 5 batches of BMT). As I said in the post prior, I felt I got floored, then got curb stomped in the head when I found out a group of 50 other SCTs made it to become combat engineers and a portion would end up being 35 SCE specialists.

Dejected, I dragged my stuff from our old company line to our newer one. The feeling was weird as for the first time, I was moving from one point in camp to another to stay in. One would normally move out of the camp to another to live in, after all. On the bright side, the cookhouse was much nearer to us, compared to being the furthest company line away from the cookhouse. This was the 3rd time I've been through such a change. Having everything in your life completely change, in terms of changing in command and the people around you, still gets to me. I was introduced to our new PC and PWO (PS but they made it snazzy in SCS). The once bustling PLC was now like a ghost town, as only ASLC people occupied the place. Out of the 12 company lines, only 3 were staffed for ASLC. The 3 companies from A to M would rotate to do their own ASLC stint. From Mike, I ended up at Golf.

ASLC to me was rather turbulent at the beginning. As you know, I don't adapt to change very well. I can still remember the feeling of moving into the 'new' bunk, and seeing 5 unfamiliar G Coy BSLC turned ASLC SCTs who previously slept in this bunk in their foundation term. I didn't really talk to them for the first 2 weeks. I remember sticking to the other 7 Mike guys. In the first place they didn't really say hi anyway, IIRC. We also had this 5km run which eventually progressed to 10km near the end of the course. Finally there was the requirement of passing the old SOC, getting below 10mins (A requirement for first-year soldiers). The SOC requirement caused me to have Remedial Training, further sinking my morale. In the end after 3 RT sessions I made it, getting 9mins 37 seconds. Not too bad, not the best and I had to work hard as 9mins 30secs was what a 2nd year soldier had to get to pass SOC. Thankfully, for better or worse, they changed the SOC to the IOC. Its also tiring but I don't know, haven't done the proper full run. Apart from that, we had the usual BSLC style of going out into the field everyday and coming back at night. We also had a 5 day 4 night field camp out, except it was mission based. We transited from urban to conventional warfare I think. Besides that we also had range for GPMG and basic explosives. In ASLC, the LSM and LPS had a heavier role which I didn't relish the thought of doing. I ended up LPS once, thankfully on a low key week. My PC was known to have a terrible moodswing and temper, especially so if Liverpool lost. I can remember the few occasions where he will give a pretty loud outburst and everyone in the coyline would stop what they are doing, and stare at the unfortunate person at the receiving end of his tirade. You could hear a pin drop lest for his shouting.

The final highlight of ASLC was the overseas exercise in Taiwan. It seemed distant at the start of the course, frighteningly scary at the end of the course as we neared the day we would fly to Taiwan and unnervingly surreal over there. I found it crazy that I would be standing on foreign soil, holding a weapon and executing manouevres like plastic toy soldiers. Of the 18 days there, 10 were spent on outfield (10 days in a row, don't know how I did it), 3 for navigation, 3 for R&R and 2 in camp (Wtf right?). Near the end of the exercise there, I had an ND and was given 14 days SOL, which I served miserably in Combined Arms Term. Basically I didn't get to go home after my Taiwan trip. So it felt like 5 weeks away from home.

CAT was quite fun in a sense, not counting the SOL punishment. Met my BSLC peers again and also had a fun time just fooling around. We practiced for our Graduation Parade and then after the real GP was done, everyone went home while I said goodbye to my parents and waited for posting. I received my posting and to my dismay, it was 5SIR. Previously, it was made known to us that 1SIR was one of the places we could get sent to. They chose the top 30% of our cohort of infantry specialists, so I was quite relieved. I felt that I was in the clear, and could get sent to Tekong, which was the best place I could ever be in, other than chionging in a unit. For the 3rd time in my army life, I was devastated yet again... The only comfort I had was the new rank and pay, though it still wasn't much.

This closes the training phase of my army life. I'll go on to talk about unit life in future posts.

Passing the Halfway Mark

2011-07-02T22:34:00.000-07:00

It has been some time since being in the army and lo and behold! I've just passed my first year. I shall try to summarize what happenedin that timespan meanwhile.

BMT was a entirely fresh, new experience for me. Upon receiving my enlistment letter I was pretty hyped up to say the least. For some reason, I didn't dread going into the service at all. Perhaps because of the 2 month delay that I was so enthusiastic about picking up my bag and going. Of course, I wasn't THAT on the ball or crazy enough to push for OCS. I just wanted to do my time and return to some sort of level of equal footing so that I could be on par with my family and friends who had enlisted earlier than me. I went in with almost no expectations, really. Gotta thank everyone around me, especially my brother, I&G and Joseph for not "spoiling" anything about the army and making everything a real first experience with no prior background information to help me with.

I breezed through the 2 weeks adjustment period with relatively higher morale compared to others. My mentality then was "Yeah, I'm gonna benefit from this training physically. Hope to leave looking more buff than before." I could remember the first few days of in processing being very weird, on a totally foreign level. Just not used to all the new guys and the procedures to be done. Uniformed group sort of prepared me for this mentally, and I also found reprieve in the comforts of my bunk. When they started PT, I was struggling a little. Can remember how doing the first lesson, on warming up, could leave me with body aches! That was how weak we were I suppose. Always wondered if the gym sessions I had back in JC with the other guys helped me in any way in the army. I was lucky to be posted to Whiskey Coy, with Joel. The time there was quite great, the staff there facilitating our BMT didn't make it too harsh nor too easy. Although some outsiders would say otherwise, I don't know. All the tekan sessions and field camp, along with SITEST was mentally straining. Can remember countless times holding positions and breathing raggedly, waiting for the inevitable end to occur. When I left BMT though, I didn't really feel like a soldier. I didn't really know how our army would fight the enemy but I just knew things on the individual level. Apart from that, I managed to survive the other PT sessions which made me, to a certain degree, fitter. Heck my BMT version of me would probably own my ass right now. On parting, being in an enhanced leadership batch, we were forced to choose yes to being a commander. Little did I know how much this decision would bring me.. Someone opposite my shellscrape in field camp, an Air Force sign-on, passed a comment while we were digging our shellscrapes that I looked like a sergeant.

To my horror, I found out I was posted to SCS. I was quite shocked that I re-entered my details to have a look at the posting again. I felt that I didn't make the cut as a specialist. I was quiet in BMT and didn't show much initiative. Some of my friends then said that somehow, I just did things right and made it. Sort of a built-in sense of responsibility that made sure I did things right, which killed me. I had wanted to join my brother at 35 SCE but this was not to be. This posting also meant I had to go from east to west, to Pasir Laba Camp. In resignation I accepted this and made my way to my new camp on posting day. I was filled with curiosity, yet trepidation over what was to come. At this point, the reality of SAF's "inverse meritocracy" theory began to dawn on me. PLC was a very open, spacious camp. That was my first impression, as I entered. I saw many other newly promoted privates, looking as blur as me walk in to be processed into our companies. Joel also made it to SCS and we shared a cab there. I expected him to be separated at the admin point, where they will announce our companies but to my joy and surprise we were sent to Mike Coy together. W to M, a total 180 degress shift figuratively and literally in turning the alphabet. There, I found out that the entire company was composed of Whiskey Coy people and some minority from Eagle. Our training then began in the first week, a stark contrast to the first 4 days of in-processing in Tekong. Our senior cadets, told us calmly, welcome to SCS, you're one of us now and don't worry, its an okay place to be. Upon restrospect, I realised that yes, SCS wasn't that bad a place to be. Although we went outfield almost every day in the middle of the course, and had range that burnt sonme weekends, we were better off. No 3 week adjustment period like OCS. Everything ended by dinner, rarely any night training. The bunk was better than Tekong, we had more pay and wore a rank, something which gave me a semblance of pride, if only a shred of it. Only downside was that food sucked. We learnt a lot there, some new weapons and how to perform infantry manoeuvres. The only thign that I hated there was well, the leadership sytem. There were 3 appointments: LSM, LPS and LSC. Sergeant Major, Platoon Sergeant and Section Commander respectively. Going by nominal roll, people were given these appointments and had to perform their various scopes. I was LSC twice, I believe. It wasn't fun because of the stress placed on you. I preferred going into man-mode. I suppose I was averse to such a thing because I was chosen to become a commander rather unwillingly. I didn't really like my section in BSLC compared to BMT. There wasn't a sense of unity. We just did things for the sake of doing them so as to not get fucked. That was what I felt. The only person I enjoyed his company with was my buddy. Probably the best buddy in my army life in fact. The buddy back in BMT, liked to stick to his own clique who luckily for him, managed to be intact somehow. My BSLC one was a nice guy, who knew my old buddy. I remember my virgin guard duty experience occurring in BSLC, along with my first ever informal punishment of 1 extra which was due to a stupid mistake of forgetting to lock my locker. We also had a 28 km route march near the end of the course which was a killer. I hated that route march and felt that it was crazy to throw us such a big one after 8 weeks of not doing route marches. Apart from that, at the end of the course I found out I was posted to ASLC. I was crushed by this posting, and further devastated when I found out that some of my fellow cadets were headed off to ETI and will be joining 35 SCE as specialists too. It was at this point that I hated my army life and felt like crap.

Wow, what a giant wall of text. I'll leave it as this for now and come back to ASLC another time.

281010

2010-10-28T04:27:00.000-07:00

Today marks my status as a 6 month soldier. Alot has happened, would definitely post about what went on.

See Vee Life, Circa 2008 - 2009

2010-08-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

As usual, procrastination and laziness getting the better of me.. Sigh if this blog was to a brick wall, it would have been covered in a pretty damn thick layer of overgrowth.

That aside, I'm writing this to provide readers here a better look on how life for me back in XJC was, my state of mind and how I felt generally in that time period, of which everyone was so busy with their own things.

About a number of posts back, dating approximately 2 years ago, a younger me mentioned the fears and insecurities of moving on from secondary school to junior college. From that post on though, there was totally no proper mention of what actually went on in the time passed. Hope I can provide closure as well as close this chapter of my life.

As a new student of a junior college, the first few months of adjustment was pretty difficult for me. For those who don't already know, being thrown into a new social climate or anything totally different for that matter always threw me off the radar. Takes rather long for me to settle down too.

Orientation was alien, but felt well-planned compared to the juvenile feeling when i looked back at secondary school. The entire 2 year phase was a struggle between myself, in terms of willpower, physical strength among others. Also had, for the very first time, problems with CCAs (mainly due to my reticence) and even jumped from one CCA to another, much to my own surprise.

I felt that my social circle in JC then was rather cosy, if a bit restricted. There was some great people whom have I stuck with through till now: Ig, Wj, Justin and I shan't hide it, to a lesser degree, Za. Apart from them, it was just familiar strangers who shared the same combination of subjects, immediate classmates whom were less than acquaintances, as well as CCA mates and the occasional friend from Mark's school and of course Joel.

Education in jJC was screwed, and to my horror I found the distinction as to why schools did better than others. The teachers had varying standards in teaching. Chemistry was the ultimate catastrophe from my point of view, the department being tied down by petty teachers with politics. A few chemistry teachers taught the subject well, though I didn't have the fortune of them gracing my classroom. Mine was pretty crap in a sense because the method of explainingand teach to me, frankly was way below even subpar.

Maths and Biology were a joy to learn, I have no one but myself to blame though for results.

Economics was the second flop after chemistry, due to the change of teachers every term for some weird reason. Don't know why I did moderately ok for it though. Thanks to "munchy" haha.

GP was quite interesting, but if only there was reinforcement. Compared to others I still have a lesser degree of depth to what I think and express. I suppose that's why I didn't do as well..

The days in school were spent quite lackadaisically. Homework was never really done. Going back home meant consigning to myself that the day was over, I should rest and resulted in throwing everything to one side while recreational activities continued from the day before. Lessons had clandestine operations of pokemon, PSPs and all sorts of horseplay. We spent time in canteen and the PW room talking all sorts of boyish perversions, playing all sorts of games on handhelds, browsing the web and even card games like magic. Occasionally playing a ball game or two. That was life then, I guess.. School does really provide a sense of security, looking back now that I am in the service.

The events that went through these 2 years of my time weren't really very noteworthy though. Off the top of my head I can remember going for orientation, some ODAC camps, a school fair with lots of cupcakes made by fellow classmates. A newspaper collection stint, a CIP which we didn't do much for.. A birthday celebration, some visits to our maths teacher's house for remedial (Thanks for the help, but not much in the end). Sports day heats, owning the novelty race in sports day. PW being crappy, nights spent doing half-assed research and spending crazy last minute attempts at cleaning up the mess. Screwing up on PW day itself. Going to a friend's house for a class BBQ. Transitting CCA to hockey from ODAC.

Don't mind the rambling, all I can say was the the time in school then was a turbulent rollercoaster of conflict, pleasure and pain. I guess I could have been more sociable, more responsible for myself then.

Too Damn Easy.. (In a Bad Way)

2010-08-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

Once again I've managed to somehow or another let my blog decay

Once in my life, 1.83 years of my time

2010-07-09T05:20:00.000-07:00

Comd SAF BMTC wishes you all the best in your future posting.

Your Posting Order is listed below:

1.	You are posted to	SCS & SWAS.
2.	Your vocation is	INF LDR(TRAINEE).
3.	Your are to report to:	Pasir Laba Camp,BLK 276,Pasir Laba Road,637901,Singapore,SG.

Don't really know what to expect for this posting. A little disgruntled over the abyssmal distance I have to cover booking in and out, also worried about the uncertainty in times to come during the course.

Then and Now

2010-04-26T02:29:00.001-07:00

I remember feeling left out back in February, when almost everyone seemed to be taking off on their maiden voyage into the deep unknown: NS. Its murky depths has great dangers unknown to many, be it the infamous ghost stories, or equally infamous punishments to be doled out by sergeants. For guys enlisting at this time, I guess its our turn to step in and see how its really like.

Every time my bro booked out I always showered him with a barrage of questions of what it was like, sometimes irritating him to no end. Still, I never got the big picture as to what NS would be like from the answers I got from him, only fragments peppered with advice on how to tackle situations. Among other things, replies like "You go in and see how it's like lah!" were quite common.

Many times he would ask about the other side of things, whether things were happening during the time he spent incarcerated in Tekong. Sadly, nothing eventful has happened. Its just me on the computer, occasional visits to other people's houses and outings and minor events not worthy enough to be categorised as life-changing. Looking back, he said that I should have spent the time differently and in better ways. I suppose I should have, though there wasn't much motivation to do so. I wasn't having the time of my life, nor was it boring as hell. Not being a person who'd live a life of many regrets, all I can say is that I used the holiday to my so-called best of abilities (Lol, ability, not that I have much)

Moving Picture Musings

2010-04-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

After watching movies and TV series like Inglourious Basterds, The Pacific, Youth in Revolt, Kick Ass and more, I have come to realise that more and more flicks on screen tend to be better watched with friends and people of roughly the same age, rather than with parents.

There seems to be a lot of scenes gracing the silver screen that can be a tad uncomfortable and embarassing when seen with parents and much older people. Anyway, a list of upcoming shows to catch:

Ip Man 2

Iron Man 2

The A-Team

The Losers

Repomen

Quite a number to see, but with NS looming so closely in the future I hope to be given a chance to be able to see half of them.

You are Nothing!

2010-04-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

^ Said by Deathbringer Saurfang, as he slays a player.

Disclaimer: This is a /whine, emo, bitching post. So scroll up to avoid Wall of Depressing Text.

That's what I feel when I think about my results, or when any talk about university happens to spring up in conversations. Don't know if I'm able to get anywhere, no chance to repeat unless as a private candidate. (Based on the technicality that we've done too well to not repeat... To good to not repeat but yet bad enough to end up nowhere. In addition to that, little to no time to defer) Stuck between a rock and a hard place.. Life somehow goes on, and I always wondered how those in the situation managed to move on. I mean every year, the A-Levels are done, and some people end up in the situation as me: What happens to them? I have no one to blame really, except for myself.

What is a Male Sheep called?

2010-04-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

Lol@headline.

Okay, first of all, kudos to Joel! Really really thank you for making this trip a hugely fantastical success. Many apologies for causing the safe problem though.

It was THE shit, one of the many zeniths of fun anyone can have. Aside from various downtimes in transport and waiting which can't really be avoided, sheer enjoyment.

Driving ATVs, Paintball, Go-Karting: Total non-stop action and heart pumping adrenaline. (Must be the indemnity forms we had to sign. Especially since they were signed on the spot, it made me feel like it was a will of some sort.)

First of all, the lodging was beyond compare to any place I've been, both in price, luxury and space. 3 bedrooms, kitchenette, living room all at an affordable price. We all know who to thank hur hur =D

I must say the ATV part scared me some, because of the fact you could roll off the side of some hill and help being really far out in such a secluded place lent no comfort. Man, an ATV can really take you to places where even your feet can't go sometimes. Not to mention the power it holds... Rawr what a monster!

Paintball got my heart racing once again. A stark contrast from the battlefield in Singapore, it made me feel afraid somehow. Must have shrunk or lost some along the way, because I was quite worried about getting hit. It was really a different feel, and hard to see people on the field. Damn the weather though, really tired me out a great deal due to the heat.

Finally, I would say Go-Karting was an experience that I would never forget. It was the first time I could feel the Gs exerted on my body and the steering hard to maintain when turning. Not to mention driving a vehicle up to 80 an hour. Whew!

For some reason, the bookshops in M'sia are quite extensive in the content they shelf. Had a really big WH40k selection in the SF area. Pity they cost the same back here...

By the way, the headline was sort of a running joke throughout the trip. Apparently, we got it wrong guys. Male goat =/= Ram, its a buck or billy, while the sheep instead, =O is a ram.

Gotta strike these activities of the "Things you should try at least once" List. Off the top of my head, we gotta do scuba diving, bungee jumping (both normal and reverse) and skydiving/parachuting/basejumping/hang gliding (That would really scare the fuck out of me but gotta try it i guess)

Looking back at what I said really portrays me as an adrenaline junkie, but really, no I'm not. Wanna try them at least once, that's it. Heck I might even chicken out.

Once Again.

2010-04-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, yet another period void of posts and updates for this blog added to the pile. Hopefully it doesn't grow any larger. I must say I'm really guilty as charged for neglecting this blog this time around. The previous time was rather acceptable in my terms, because I was "busy" with school and such. (Heh, in "My" terms because, the rest of you guys were keeping your blogs relatively up-to-date even with commitments much more stress-inducing and time-consuming than me. Saying otherwise would definitely get me shot /wink)

Anyway, I plead guilty to this heinous act of leaving my post of publishing posts (lol) unattended.

So, what makes this act so heinous? Because the entire time period I was entirely free. In retrospect, I sort of have a somewhat sizeable amount of material to post.. Guess this shows how much self-esteem I have in the value of the blog material I have.

Anyway, that aside, I shall try to muster up all the "Content-Rejected" blog fodder from the annals of my mind and post them out here. Hopefully none of them have been wiped by my many minor ruminations processed each day. I will attempt to consign each significant event into their own respective posts, rather than throw everything into one lump of a megapost. They will be posted in no particular chronological order, to make things clear. lMakes it easier, as well as avoiding the chances of many tl;dr 's

SFR168J

2009-12-22T07:46:00.000-08:00

Watch with volume turned up for best results

I wouldn't mind laughing like that in real life in such a situation LOL!

Oh and the number plate used for the post title looks like surfer joseph for some reason..

The Death of Gaming and the Advent of -

2009-11-27T06:08:00.000-08:00

Ever since my primary school days, I always realised that people tended not to play games after a certain time. That time specifically refers to the age of eighteen years. (i.e. They just disappear after that point of time) You could attribute it to NS but I think otherwise. Something happens that makes RL more important.

Being eighteen now (for the past 7 months actually) and accompanied by first hand circumstantial evidence, I suppose it can be safely concluded that hormones for the most part contributes to the death of gaming. Also there is the want to properly project the "correct" image that they feel that they should look like in their community which has resulted in this particular phenomenon.

Keeping it simple, now is about the time where gaming is dead. I don't quite like this sentiment, but agree with it mainly because we would never have the time nor resources to pull off playing games for hours on end any more.

I used to enjoy having the hours go by through sitting out a Final Fantasy or the thrill involved in levelling up a character in an RPG. As of now I'm rather jaded in a sense. Things get too boring too easily for me. Instant gratification plays a rather big part in this as my scope of interest has been shifting from one area to another too quickly. Games are also becoming homogenised and casual to an extent where the ones who wish to partake in serious and strategic methods in their approach of the game are left behind. It has come to the point where games just don't manage to fixate my attention any longer.

To end off, I'd say that I hope that I would never come to that point in my life. It would result in the dissolution of the nuclear gaming circle. (Has it dissolved already though?) I mean after all we've been through much, experienced camaraderie through the numerous "battles" be it on garena , BF2 or on steam. But people have to go tend to greater things in life, and hence leave gaming for good. Gaming is one of the few avenues where I can offload stress on, and with good future titles to come, may gaming live.

I feel so...

2009-11-27T05:43:00.000-08:00

Liberated? Not at all! Its as if the time available now is akin to an extremely long weekend, rather than a well longed for reprieve after that harrowing onslaught of exams.

Anyway, since Monday (Same day which had chemistry paper 1) I've been going out almost everyday. Tried out drafting for Magic: The Gathering. Eye opening experience, but requires money as just everything else does >_> Much more fun as compared to fighting other people's decks with your own. (Which IMO gets damn boring after a while) Lots of strategy involved but thats a totally different story. Did enjoy myself quite a bit though it left me quite drained. Like i mentioned above, it's not the standard deck versus deck kind of battle but there's a more diverse and random factor. Without having the nee

Went for a haircut. Another first in a long time kind of thing, never been to a hairstylist/barber in quite a while. What? About roughly 7 years? Left me the usual impression I had on others who went to such places (To those who don't have that clean-shaven look) Costly. No difference. Small, but numerous snips here and there around your noggin, to justify the damn cost. As usual there's the retarded language barrier to boot. You'd think going to such a place and paying such an amount of money would allow no room for such a problem but.. fuck! Hard to communicate as for some reason they always seem to speak Chinese or something only, making the process difficult. I don't understand what advice the dude gave me at all. I was supplied a placebo explanation from a friend that "Oh, you'll see that it's a long term investment". I can only say "We'll see.. we'll see...".

Mark just formatted the computer to get rid of the bloat the computer has suffered from the numerous read/writes since we move so much data about. After the format I got my old games in backup, gonna install them slowly over time. Went to play a few rounds of custom maps on Warcraft 3. Brought back pangs of nostalgia, made it feel like sec four and before the A levels yet again, sans stress. Holy smoke (LOL) brought the public to their heels in bships, from full house to none just like the old days. Had jpark and td as usual and some really neurotic chat happening throughout. (cue "what school you come from?" and lots of "anass rhamming" innuendo)

Browsed for some electric guitars and went to check out Sitex 2009 in that week too. These events made for quite an interesting day as there was much to see and learn. It was cool to finally see Arj in like 6 years since primary school (Okay not counting the brief meetings in between be it NCC or chance encounters) and have a proper outing. Met him and his MJ classmate and went from east side to town and back again before heading to east coast. What a day with so much walking and travelling done. I must say there were some cool flying Vs and axes on sale, though exorbitant they may be. Hopefully we might be able to get a bass and an electric somewhere in the coming weeks, to complement the lessons that we're going for.

I found Sitex rather lacklustre this year compared to the previous years. Maybe for some reason it just became too commercialised to my liking. After realising how the hired hands giving out brochures had some sort of commission system going on, the impression that Sitex was the ideal place for clinching a good deal was dispelled. Saw Arj's friend get a printer only to get the feeling that he'd been ripped off by the ridiculous setup they offered. What to do? Imperfect knowledge man... The trend has been shifting lately to netbooks. Been seeing lots of tiny little laptop clones ever since the EEE PC came out, and the large influx at Sitex by the numerous brands left me with little desire to continue browsing at Sitex. (Once again, the catering to the masses sentiment kicks in) The AAR would be that Sitex offered nothing of great note except if you are in wanting of a laptop/printer/monitor/television. The games section was awfully pathetic, apart from the standard 360 setup there's no computer terminals boasting games like Borderlands, Dragon Age or Modern Warfare 2. (Srsly, wtf?!) Wonder why Nintendo is missing amongst the crowd. I guess this shows that PC gaming is dying out as people are getting less and less bothered to properly keep up to date with updating their specifications, preferring the convenience offered by consoles. (C'mon computers are really fun, don't be such a pussy!)

From this heavily opinionated post, I must say that the week in general was quite packed and thus fruitful to a certain extent. It had roughly the right amount of downtime in between events too, perhaps almost too long? Hope I can spend the weeks to come in a similar fashion and make the most of the time available. Heh, gotta crush the habit of playing till 4 or 5am and waking up at 1pm before it becomes a habit.

Listen

2009-08-05T06:32:00.000-07:00

From Natural Selection custom map fame =D Can remember sec 2 to 4 playing the game and hearing this over and over a few times. Glad to finally have found it.

Lyrics fit the title well, all I can say.

That Guild Wars dance compilation had this music in it, been looking for it for quite a bit.

In summary, techno/house/trance/europop or whatever shit you call it (Lazy find out) I've been listening to. Here are some things totally unrelated to the above "genre" (more like mish mash of heheh) that sends shivers down my spine.. though in a good way.

Hope I can watch a musical or play like that in the future.

Is that a violin right there? Can't identify music very well =/ Quite an epic game, played for quite a bit in sec school: Imagine 40 over main characters to recruit and play as, each with their story reasonably fleshed out. Plot is confusing but meh, at least not as screwed up as Xenogears or Xenosaga.

Feed your mind

2009-08-04T09:21:00.000-07:00

This is quite old but some you you might have never seen it before, hope it blows your mind away.

Feels quite disjointed at times but otherwise still epic. Endless loop ftw

Jaw-Dropping

2009-07-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

Spehss Mareens! Fuck yeaarrhhh.

Yeah its hack and slash but what the hell closest thing you get to play as a single space marine and not command a squad like in DoW1/DoW2

Teh Video Game Closet Cometh

2009-07-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

Finally assembled the glass display casing that got delivered yesterday - Here are the results.

Before: (Old Place)

Now:

Much more space now compared to last time, hopefully can fill it up even more with classic games like Starcraft and Diablo which I have never owned physically before.

Might need another one of these things to fit some of those Tamiya models and papercraft in the future.

Stuff

2009-07-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

Movies I would want to watch in the near future, not in any particular order or desire:

Year One (Jack Black and Michael Cera, what else can I say?)

GI Joe (Maybe? Its pure action lol, pretty mindless) Ahem, girls in bodysuits anyone?, quite chio LOL

Public Enemies (Based on an actual professional bank robber IRL)

The Hangover (Trailer was quite win, I wanna see how they got so fucked in the first place)

Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 'nuff said, though its a hit and miss as most of his films go)

Bruno (Borat 2, watched the original way before anyone else had, when it was released in the states)

Funny People (Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan, Seth of SuperBad fame)

All I can think of. There's a supposed 300 sequel coming up next year I think, really looking forward to it. Mindless as hell, but manly to an extreme degree and oh so stylistic.

Heh, what I'd hope for would be a Warhammer 40k movie, Warcraft movie or TF2 short to come out. Hell, maybe even Diablo. Wouldn't expect those to be great though, unless the game devs themselves were actually running the show.

Now, on to something else: How to find games not boring. (Greatly applies to people who I hear play old games and find them boring)

1. Know the plot. It really helps to understand the whole thing to make in interesting and immerse yourself in it. This rule really applies to single-player games and MMOs. You don't listen or read the damn story, fuck playing it. You'll either end up getting stuck, not knowing what to do (Ahem, single player games especially) or have no aim or direction at all (MMOs in particular)

Interesting facts to know would be like in WoW, or any other cheap F2P game made by Koreans, has some storyline embedded inside that long tedious quest list. Especially in WoW, whose story is properly developed and is character-driven to a good extent with certain recurring and pivotal characters well fleshed out like Arthas the Lich King, or Thrall the Farseer and King Varian Wrynn.

2. Love the mechanics, understand it and fuck around with it. This applies to those not interested in the storyline of let's say an MMO (Which i think is really critical) You could hate PVM/PVE but love PVP, yet get bored because you get owned/own due to little variations in what you do. Diversify and play around, try to get numbers and figure out damage formulaes or something. That way you'd be focused about how to build your character or what gear you'd want and in doing so find new life in what you do in a game with your newfound goals.

Knowing how important skill synergies are in making your build stronger, knowing the runewords to an item, finding out how magic item find % is damn important in getting good loot for D2 are examples. Knowing stuff like proper damage mitigation in PVP for WoW, Guild Wars and a whole other games certainly make the game interesting.

That's all the rules to not make a game boring.

That aside, would love to introduce to you some custom games by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. He makes super impressive games of his own on a simple game creator, that has actual interesting plot that would send quick shivers down your spine as you progress on the story. Check out here, under the games section for the games.

Recommend playing 5 Days a Stranger, Trilby's Notes, 7 Days a Skeptic and 6 Days a Sacrifice. Oh and Episodes 1 to 3 of 1213. Mindblasting, and fucking scary. Its point-and-click, and I highly doubt its most of you guys cups of tea, but I encourage you to try it out.

Finally, would like to show some music of which I've been finding solace in, to satisfy my boredom.

3 nice power metal songs

I like Warhammer and its games and associated books alot.

The Beatles are just awesome. Hope you enjoyed their frolicking and mucking around in their earlier and happier times.

That's all for today.

Word of advice to anyone out there: In need of help, always RTFM first, before you actually ask anyone. Don't be lazy, you could learn a thing or two and be a better person. What does that mean?

READ THE FUCKING MANUAL

Rigs: An Instructable Of Sorts

2009-07-02T00:10:00.000-07:00

For those that want to delve into the art of D-I-Y rigs, these should prove useful!

As you can see its all really easy. Video pretty much explains everything on what I would say if you were also diving into such an arena.

P.S. I recommend you try delving into this kind of shit if you're interested. Try new stuff like papercraft or something. Hats off to people like my bro, seph joel and chen for having their respective hobbies in graphic arts knowledge, photoshopping, beautiful novelties and mapping/coding. (You'd be kinda boring if you couldn't offer much thought or insight on something or show off something you can do IMO)

Its been a while..

2009-04-22T06:33:00.001-07:00

Quite some time has passed and many things have happened. Whenever I stare into the white expanse of the text editor that we use to update our blogs, I can't seem to place what I have felt as blog material down for you to read. Anyway here's some stuff that you guys might find interesting:

Alternate version of 'We didn't start the Fire' by Billy Joel, set to today's internet culture.

Original below and if you didn't find it in the least interesting then its a shame.

And here's something NSFW

Something thought-inducing

That's it for now. Maybe something worthy next time

0.o

2009-01-01T23:37:00.000-08:00

Hey, what's that there?

o.0 Starport?!

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

Took so long to put up a blogpost because of this. Bad storytelling skills or whatever aside, (My bro thinks it so, but I think its the best way to present it) I finished this papercraft model before 2008 ended, but had delaying issues over my bro taking his time to shoop the damn thing. Fucking hard to make, especially those little components that were a bitch to glue and parts that had to be rolled.

Anyway, gotta do that quiz my bro got me to do. Took so long because i was obsessed over building the battlecruiser. Spent a good few nights till 3am to do it. That's how Starcraft is to me anyway. Another side project added to my collection, increasing it to 2 handicrafts, the first being Mr. Cuddles the adorable headcrab. Ought to do a vortigaunt or something one of these days.

1. Age next year
18. Really opens lots of doors eh?
2. Place would like to travel to
Anywhere actually. The feeling of no stress while going on holiday and not having a sense of dread attached is what I seek in travelling, more so than the place I'm going to. Not much a person being able to appreciate scenery or places of attraction.
3. Favourite place
Marine Parade. It just somehow brings about a sense of nostalgia, though the new condominiums springing up about the place are showing the closing of a chapter in time and heralding a new one. That aside, had majority of our childhood there.But even if I weren't staying there or whatever, I just happen to like the place.
4. Favourite food
Meat. Smoked, roasted, fried, grilled/BBQ-ed/broiled,braised preferable. If necessary, well done.
5. Favourite pet
Dog. Or any other animal actually. Don't mind these guys though. An animal companion that reacts and responds is fun.
6. Favourite colour
Anything so long it doesn't feel gay. Noticed yself that I used to like to wear black but there's a nre trend going on recently in wearing lighter colours. Must be expansion of wardrobe.
7. Favourite clothing
Bermudas... Actually any clothing item that allows me to carry more stuff on my person while being hands-free takes the prize for being my favourite clothing article.
8. Favourite song
That I dunno. Some music I like, but never have selected a proper favourite.
9. Favourite show
Would have to be House MD? Yeah the only TV series/show that me and my bro have followed for a few seasons.
10. Place I live in
Singapore, east side.
11. IGN
Arelto. Conversion of RL2 to something more alphabetical.
12. First job
Never really worked so its student... For now.
13. Dream job
To play games everyday? To slack? To be so damn filthy rich that you could use shark fin's soup to gargle your mouth in the morning? Or to be a hitman? Hey its a dream job right? My more down-to-earth job though would be somewhere in the medical field. What it is though, I don't know. Like to help people I guess? Maybe that's why I always end up taking the defensive/supporter role in MMORPGs.

Haha, most of you might have realised that I didn't follow the way the quiz is meant to be answered... Well sorry. Was pretty damned lazy and also, if you realised, its also damned difficult to find the images that express the very answer you want to the question in the first page you Google Image-ed. Well that's it.

People whom I want to answer these questions:
1. Ian Chua
2. Eugene Lim
And whoever else blogs that I know who hasn't done this quiz? The rest on my links list? Meh the rest have already been asked.

December "Going-ons"

2008-12-07T23:34:00.000-08:00

Or should it be "Goings-on", like passers-by?

I was pretty disappointed as to how quickly the holidays passed. Its already December man. The same time last year, it would seem ages before school would start. Gotta start on holiday homework before last minute panic and school blues set in, something which ought to set the mood right if I ever manage to do it.

After the camp, there was pretty much nothing goin gon at home, apart from browsing websites and not having MSN on at all. I didn't even touch WoW for a week or two until a few days ago. Even the 360 seemed nothing to sate my boredom. Back to WoW and the 360 again though, a new thirst for earning achievements in both of them. Especially WoW, wanna hit level 80 and at least get a netherdrake mount.

Resident Evil fever just hit me the past few days: Its very first CGI movie, Resident Evil Degeneration and also the Resident Evil 5 Demo released. Zombies ftw man.

Rough Summary

2008-12-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

Man haven't been posting for quite a while now, so here's a rough detail of what went on during the latter half year that i think i should mention:

4E Chalet in June - It went on pretty okay, the first time where we had our very own barbeque as a class. Overall I thought the turnout for the class was good but however no activities done. Our 360 which I had brought along proved little fun as I still had a very limited repertoire of games.

Numerous outings with old friends - Lots of cycling done, the occasional LAN outing and movie. Fun things to do, though maybe we should try to organise something more epic?

Making it through the promos - Speaks pretty much for itself, though the imagery of being chambered into the barrel of the gun shows up when realising we're gonna be J2s and the incoming A Levels next year.

Games Harvest - This year truly is an epic year for many games releases. Managed to build up our 360 games folder from a measly 15 slots filled to nearly 40 slots filled. Still much more Awesome incoming.

Apart from that, would like to get off my chest some things about the recent camp overseas. (In no particular order)

- The camp left me horribly sunburnt and my skin is peeling badly. Basically my whole arms and legs lol!

- There was a lot of travel time involved, I would say more than 1.5 days worth out of the 4 days there.

- I went swimming about in a waterfall, came out and lo and behold! There was a little visitor on my foot. A leech had got me!

- Paddled quite a long distance in a river canoe.. Or was it a kayak? 40km wtf.

- Finally, a cockup in the schedule when we were supposed to reach Singapore by 9pm, but ended up back at college by 12.30am

Been going for hockey training after returning back from the camp. Boy are we in bad shape or what? Used to be able to take the heat and endure doing physical activities but now.. Can't do nuts. Just had a friendly match: TPJC vs ACJC. We lost of course, 1st match being a draw 1-1 while the second 4 - 0 I think. Meh need more practice etc.

Awesome

2008-10-20T06:05:00.000-07:00

Cool deaths in this freaky game

Whoa

2008-08-27T04:28:00.001-07:00

No shit.

Freaky

2008-04-27T07:06:00.000-07:00

Something in that sense just happened today. I was leaning over my bro's shoulder while he was on the computer, when one of my Dad's bird cages hanging outside the window fell off. Fuck! It really happened. There was this SNAP sound and the wooden cage with a tiny bird inside fell off. Immediately I exclaimed to my Dad that the thing had fell.

So, he said in reply: Fuck its finished. I'm going down to pick it up. He went down and minutes later came back up with the cage. The structure of the cage was mostly intact, except for the feeding troughs and the perch which were dislodged from their original positions and laid on the base of the cage. On one side of the bottom of the cage laid the hapless form of the bird.

Miraculously, as my dad scooped the body up into his hands, it moved! Woo! surviving a 12 storey drop in a cage was no mean feat (Must be due to the bird's relatively small size? About the size of half your palm.. The smaller they are the softer they fall?) It sat on his hand, looking stunned (Heh, it looked that way to me) and I urged my Dad to quickly place it in a nother cage.

The bird's still alive, now taking a nap with its head tucked under its wing. Pretty freaky experience man.

Stuff

2008-04-22T06:49:00.001-07:00

Outing pics from Saturday's cycling trips. Nothing much though, very little pics.

"Pai Kia" Stance

Stand-Off!

Group Photo

And here's some stuff...

Got gun?

More gun..

Gun and gun!

Also, here's the scope reticle for our L96. (Just to show what it looks like)

Lin Feng should be doing this by the end of his course i think..

^ (Something you might see in the near future) ^

Fading Backlog

2008-04-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Man, I keep wanting to post lots of stuff on the blog but end up forgetting or finding it unsuitable to put up.. Either way it usually ends up with me thinking that its too late to put it up and I don't.
Anyhow, gotta continue with that life story.

I quite remember from that point on, weekends were mostly spent over at our cousin's house playing the computer. Till about Primary 2 onwards.. (Gets a little fuzzy here) I think we got onto the handheld scene. The first major handheld we had if i remembered... Was it that Game Gear? It was a super clunky portable Sega system that used 6 AA batteries and had a CRT type of screen.. You could see the pixels liek that of an old television. Man power! And it ran flat easily... Games were pretty mediocre actually, though at the time we thought it was epic. Forget about those cheap knockoff Made-in-China tetris brick games and shit. Those handhelds were nothing. Around that time the Digimon and Pokemon craze was on high. I do remember liking the Digivices and bought a few of them also... Hehe out of point.

Anyway around this time, when I was in BWPS, I recall passing by a game shop. That was when I saw it.. The GameBoy Colour!!! If i remember that was the first thing I ever wanted so much. I saw that handheld next to a box with Pokemon Yellow at it. There was a super magnetic attraction to it I swear! (Must be Pikachu doing its thing) It cost a 100 bucks at that time.. Quite a large amount of money. In the end I got a GameBoy Light.. pretty nifty machine that had a light selector switch and you could play it under your blanket, bathed it its neon glow.

Whew. About Primary 3 onwards, console gaming has basically died (As in the Sega and Nintendo home consoles) as we never really touched it afterwards and it was boring, only having the computer at our cousins house for entertainment. Sony did something to revive it.. By unleashing the PlayStation.. An epic era that would bring out the true gamer in both of us. Seriously. The moment we watched our cousin play epic games like Final Fantasy on that thing, we lost it. Totally enthralled by those games, we decided we would have ours.. And got it just before streaming exams in Primary 4.. I think. Pretty much rushed FF9 when we got it, as the shop dudes were shocked that we reached disc 3 or 4 in about 2 or 3 weeks. (Ok maybe it wasn't quick but for kids back then I think they thought it was fast.. We don't play too many hours at a stretch at that time)

Once again.. It gets fuzzy but around Primary 5 or 6, the PS1 had basically stepped aside for the PS2, I think.. We didn't catch the new wave that was the PS2 and we jumped into PC gaming...

I think I gotta end off here..

Note: Computer to present time, including other consoles and mixed feelings.

Best Evarr!

2008-04-06T05:21:00.000-07:00

Imo the best chinese theme song ever. (Actually it isn't supposed to be called the Wong Fei Hong Theme, its something else)

Also, been looking at my dad's pet birds.. They're currently in the moulting phase. I think birds are cute in that period of time hehe. They looked puffed up when they preen their feathers, violently digging their beaks at their wings and stuff.

Zz I still haven't got to posting about the second era of our gaming history.. Hope to get it up soon. Anyway, most of the polytechnics in Singapore should have started by now.. Wonder how's everyone coping?

Outing

2008-04-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

Here's today's outing pics.

Usual squat pose.

Hey.. Don't ask me about that man. Signature pose from BB I think.

2nd squat pose.

Far shot of what's happening in the next few pics. Mainly to show whats around us.

Round that yellow signal thing we sit.

Shot of us wrapped around the thing.

Very reminiscent of those synchronised drill practices in BB.

Landmark fingered.

1st Milestone!

Lol

Who drew that?!

A little surprising to find our school acronym at OCH

"The Finger" by Mother Nature

I like the fact that we could see part of Singapore all greyed out.

Same thing.. Zoomed in.

Ignore that yellow line there.. Group photo at the Jetty.

What we ate at Fish & Co. Mind you it cost us a bomb.

My wound from last year that now is an ugly scar... Just for memories sake.

Gaming History

2008-03-31T07:31:00.000-07:00

Something I think which is fairly interesting. Would be fun if you guys recounted how yours began as well.

I should think it began at around.. 4 years of age. Entertainment was basically a mashup of different toys and the magic box. I remembered I liked engineer toys over that of doctor toys which my bro preferred.. Or was that vice versa? I also remembered Barney a lot.

However, that was all that about to end as we were introduced to (I think it was) the Sega Genesis. Epic games like Street Fighter, Power Rangers, Sonic and Chameleon Kid. It was epic. ( I didn't know they had the SNES or was it NES.. though) Mind you the games were in cartridges. Reminiscent of the days where you have to use compressed air aerosols to blow the dust out.. Or tissue papers with cotton buds and you had to jam it hard into the console.

Its a little fuzzy but around a year later the computer came into play! There were many educational diskette games that booted the moment it was inserted into the floppy.. They didn't have OS yet? That was before Windows 95 came out. I remembered Windows 95 around the time we played Red Alert, because whenever I heard that startup sound (called the Microsoft Sound) I would shiver in excitement. Around the time my other cousins were playing Warcraft I and II.. Fifa 95.. Doom and Wolfenstein. Pretty Epic. Some of these games had to be started through MS-DOS.. Shudder! There were those many "# IN 1" compilations by Atari and all those other ancient games companies too. Internet was 56k too! If i remember correctly IRC was pretty hot then.

Whew.. That's all I remember currently at the moment. Hope it was interesting reading all that. If you want more then I'll probably try to go down memory lane and take much more careful notice of all the sights there.

Reminder.. PS1 Era.

Envy

2008-03-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is something I mentioned earlier that I wanted to post about.. Let me cut to the chase on this one. I'm envious about certain people I know.

Here are some of these people: J&J, my bro, Arj and quite a few more.

Especially J&J of course. After all, I sometimes see them as an ideal example for what the both of us should be, apart from the arguments and weird fragmentation of their relations. In my opinion, they are both way more independent and more sociable. This is very much a stark difference from us and them. Plus they know what to do and have discipline. also I think they have that "high-class" sense of theirs. I mean they do know a lot about many different cultures and stuff.

Oh yeah, I do remember soemthing in Joseph's blog about being Fools for Love..

Here's something:

Hope to post something interesting (hopefully!) the next time round.

Still Unfamiliar

2008-03-24T06:21:00.000-07:00

I still haven't got over the fact that JC is vastly different compared to secondary school. Personally I think I need to be more independent but I still can't shake off the need to have someone prodding me in the right direction or spoonfeeding me a little.

I know for one thing that we need to be consistent in JC, and staying over at J&J's place made me see how their side of the story goes. From what I see they don't lead JC life as stressful as others think it is. After all, they've been pretty consistent, with most of their problems coming from what I think is a little lack in support and some arguments. Although sometimes I think they're over-extending themselves with too much commitments. Pre-U Sem? Council? Tennis? And the need to cover up the gap left by Pure Sciences?

The small classes in JC, non-standardised breaks, short span of 1.5 years and only seniors a year older make JC a wholly alien environment to me. You can't rush things in JC, due to how large the content is, compared to the O's. I haven't been consistent in anything, and I've been wasting my time the past month.. All I can say is I'm to blame, with myself having one foot in the water and another on the ground.. Not because I'm in a dilemma but basically because of my own self. I hven't woken up... not yet at least, and when I do.. I think its gonna be too late.

Hehe.. I think I sorta dug myself into a rut by relaxing till a sizeable workload has piled up and getting demoralised while trying to clear it and altogether stopping.

Next Post: Envy.... ( Better put something like this to remind me. Hehe it sort of triggers my subconscious.

Finally

2008-03-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

We've got back our concession for bus fare! Woo! No more travelling woes and grimacing over the money wasted when looking at the ez link counter after leaving the bus. Indeed, lesson learnt from not having concession for about 2 months.

Made me really realise how materialistic I am also. I badly want many things: New computer, new games and much more. In the end, in this time and age where everything gets outdated really really fast... Well pretty much everything bought about half a month ago is probably chucked into a corner. Note that I didn't buy anything for the past 2 months at all, the adult fares and countless times where I went out really made me ponder about all the money going down the drain.

Something Cool to Note..

2008-03-03T04:28:00.000-08:00

Would be the fact that the bus we take to and fro to school everyday is indeed a very coincidental route. And a nostalgic one at that, when I think of the past while commuting on the vehicle. I just realised that the route the bus travels actually passes by milestones of my life, including my brother's of course. We will pass by our primary school, secondary school while going towards and away from our junior college.. Although not literally, we still in a sense pass our old kindergarten. Cool eh? Might be a hint as to why our learning journey is more tended towards neighbourhood schools? I dunno.

Anyway thats one of the many coincidental things that happen in both of our lives. Its always either coincidental or bad luck most of the time. Once again, I have to add that we might have been blind to the many "normal" or lucky days occuring to us and we are merely giving unnecessary emphasis on our bad luck.

That Point

2008-02-25T05:07:00.000-08:00

What point I'm exactly referring to would be the point where general adolescent males begin to find games not entertaining at all, or totally find them not as welcoming any more. That's usually around the JC, NS or Poly period. Most gamers like me refer to this period as the retiring age for us players. Its a period where people's social lives take off a huge chunk of time or they begin to really harbour serious interests in the opposite gender.

I believe myself, though not entirely, to have reached that point. Then again I must be bluffing myself or am just lazy. Either way I not really in the mood to play games.

Must be my sub-conscious kicking in, telling me to work hard? I don't know. But I sure want to work hard instead of slacking though. I'm gonna bet some part of me is against that. Maybe I haven't reached that point yet. Maybe a plethora of conflicting feelings are causing me to think like this. Could be the transition from holiday to study life taking its toll hoho.

Sunday Depression

2008-02-24T04:52:00.000-08:00

There's always that sad feeling come Sunday, whenever there's school. Of course, this wave of sadness or disappointment occurs many times but I'm pinpointing the frequent occurrence of this phenomenon on Sundays-before-school. (Or any other holiday before a school day) Anyway, I'm still pretty much reeling from the quick transition from slacking to working. The transition is thankfully slow enough though. Any quicker than that, I would imagine the effect on us would be akin to plunging a superheated material into liquid nitrogen. An example would be if the posting results were to be released just a few days later, after submitting our choices before the 28th of February deadline. I'd say that would be fast.

Here's a video that caught my attention a week or 2 ago, and still does now.

Also, another great remix.

TF2 style. Gotta love it.

I Am Afraid

2008-02-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am. With the uncertain future and much tension building up, I am. The main thing I am worried about is the posting results. I have become rather unwilling about being posted to TPJC. Might have been influence from others that the place sucks and all. I dunno. I'm afraid of all the new people I'm gonna meet and things I'm going to learn also. I also hate the fact that everyone I know is going their own ways. Most to Poly, some to better (I think) JCs. This means I'm going to be alone, though not exactly. Even though the both of us are together, I have that nagging fear in my heart that we are still alone.

Sort of makes me wish I had done better. Would I have felt the same if I had a better aggregate?

What Garry Says... I Say Too!

2008-02-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

And... Garry Says.

That list is pure gold dudes, of course its missing some games though. An example would be Fallout 3 I guess.

Everybody's Changing... Though Some Haven't

2008-02-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

Hehe, this video just about sums up everything thats going on nowadays, especially a huge part of my social life, and soon to be life in general.

Over the course of 2 months, I have seen many changes and most of which occur with friends going out to work, attending school and not being able to see and contact them. Yet another shocking thing would be to actually meet them. It becomes so awkward and you can also see that they have changed somewhat.

Part of me childishly wants everything to be back as it were, and also hopes that the future would have everyone together. Hell, some part of me wishes to have friends coming over to the same school we are in regardless of aggregate.

I realise that most of the thinking about everyone being different from their old selves mostly target them, but not me, the author of all these thoughts. Maybe I've changed too, I don't know.

Anyway, as a sidenote, I was hoping some of these changes would be for the better, but a handful of these changes haven't done much.

Reciprocation, the phenomenon that starts with 1 over something

2008-01-31T06:26:00.001-08:00

One thing I'd like for people nowadays to do would be to reciprocate. I didn't see much of that going on for the past few years. Sucks to do things without any acknowledgement. That or the acknowledgement is sometimes put in a bad light, which pisses me a whole lot.

Even if you don't reciprocate though, a proper reaction towards whatever has been done is good enough. Just something to rant about I guess.

Short Term Deployment

2008-01-31T06:14:00.000-08:00

Lately, the both of us have been staying over weekends at our cousins place. We hang around there, playing our weekends away on our console through the wee hours of the night and then sleep through mornings like pigs, waking up in the afternoon only to repeat the cycle.

Well, I guess some might ask how come its so lax over there. Well, I can't really give an explanation. Whatever it is, its gaming heaven over there, especially combined with the equipment we bring. Around 4 different consoles and 3 other computers to use over there plus the ability to play your wits out without much supervision and three adorable canines to keep you company.. Oh man!

Personally I think we share quite a strong tie between our relatives and our immediate family. Pretty handy, with those extra pillars of support and its nice to lend a helping hand to them too. I still don't know why others of our generation generally keep close to their own immediate next of kin though. Much family politics going around? But hey, then again, I wouldn't say that our family is part of the type seen. Its more of a mix from the 1940s type of families than the current 1970s strain.

Accuracy.. Man!

2008-01-27T10:01:00.000-08:00

Just for curiosity's sake, I decided to try out that quiz on Mani's blog.

Results were... Whoa. Accurate man.

***What Tang Yee Peng Means***

You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life.
You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home.
You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.
You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic "Type A" personality.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.
You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.
You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

You are deeply philosophical and thoughtful. You tend to analyze every aspect of your life.
You are intuitive, brilliant, and quite introverted. You value your time alone.
Often times, you are grumpy with other people. You don't appreciate them trying to interfere in your affairs.

You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in.
You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising.
You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are influential and persuasive. You tend to have a lot of power over people.
Generally, you use your powers for good. You excel at solving other people's problems.
Occasionally, you do get a little selfish and persuade people to do things that are only in your interest.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Yeah.. That's my real name, doesn't contain Ben in it anywhere. Hehe.

Language Ineptness

2008-01-23T04:51:00.000-08:00

Well after seeing much of the posts on flakk's and mani's blogs, I must say they can really write. I still do remember around secondary 3 flakk wrote quite an epic science fiction story. Looking at mani's writings do amaze me. You should also check out his roleplays.. Pretty great works of fiction.
Compared to my brother and his lot, I doubt that I can actually write stuff.

Maybe the years over at my institute has caused some dumbing down in my prowess in the language? I don't know. When I hear things from my brother about his side, it always seems that the people there are more knowledgeable or more intelligent.

( Personally, Science Fiction is the only kind of book that really interests me. When I walk into a bookstore I'm usually nonplussed over what section to go to. My brother would immediately walk over to Non-Fiction and start fishing out War books. The next best category for me would be Fantasy.)

Crap. I think I need to do a megapost about Thailand soon enough. Need to follow up on what my brother has posted.

Nooogh!

2008-01-21T00:27:00.000-08:00

Aahh! It just struck me that the 'O' Levels results are just a few days away. That marks the end of our freedom and also gives way to a new avenue in life. I'm pretty worried about how well my results are going to be (or how poorly I've done). Strangely though, I have another problem adding to the fear of poor performance, and that's my dress code. I've totally no idea on what to wear. Shit.

Talk About Fail. LOL!

2008-01-18T23:34:00.000-08:00

LOL!

For Granted, Yes.

2008-01-13T07:50:00.000-08:00

We do take a lot of things for granted in life. To me, I think I really do, especially my own life. I think I am actually quite lucky. I have to be thankful to my parents for everything and also the many people around me.

There are lots of times I feel sad, thinking my life is horrible and all. I'd bet many of you do. But think of how lucky you to be where you are, if you do feel that way. ( Of course I think I'm going to contradict myself on such an issue like this in the near future. )

To tell you the truth, I think I'm a horrible slob, wasting away in front of my computer. I don't think I've ever shown proper appreciation to the many people who have managed to bring me up to where I am right now. I don't know how to show this appreciation but I do wish to, though.

Eheh, actually I don't know why I'm writing t his, but this is a thought that has been floating inside my head for ages. Just needed to write that down I guess.

Back.

2008-01-13T07:39:00.001-08:00

Well, I've once again decided to try my hand at blogging, after that very long hiatus. Ok, maybe not a hiatus, but what the hell.

I guess the only thing to write as a second post that would seem logical would be to talk about myself. People generally can't tell what kind of person I am, due to me being quiet. Unless they attempt to talk to me and only then would they notice.

I'm generally quite social, though not that much of a socialiser, but social enough. This is far from the me in the past. I was scared of talking to people back then, for fear of being told off or made fun of. A shred of that fear still remains though. In speaking with me, people would assume I have quite a "bochap" attitude. Yeah, I guess I do. Alright, Okay, Anything, Whatever. Pretty carefree unless it really affects me. Another trait that would surface after getting acquainted with me would be the fact that I am normally straightforward.

I'd hate to take places and show favouritism. I'd rather stand neutral, only taking sides when absolutely necessary, eg. trying to pull strings. I also hate it when placed under a situation where I have to absolutely make a clear decision. I'm rather fickle, you see.

Something important to note would be that I'm a rather obliging person. Yes and okay to alot of things. usually I need people to help me keep in check with that problem. I'm also quite simple minded, and contradict myself in many things because of this, as I never think back of what I have done earlier.

Well, that's the second post to accompany the maiden first. I do have much to post, but all those ideas swimming around in my head are currently placed in cold storage for now. Shit.

Blog

2007-11-26T06:13:00.000-08:00

The way I see it, many other people's blogs always comprise of around the 3 same things.

1. Their blog must have a tagboard.
2. Their blog must have some fancy-ass skin.
3. Their blog must have some retarded music playing in the background.

Another thing would be the lack of proper sentence structure and grammatically correct language with a sound range of vocabulary.

Well, all I have got to say is this: I don't see the need to have any of this in a blog. My blog is merely a place to voice out my thoughts and opinions and nothing more.