addiction?

it's a little sad when i'm slightly addicted to whacking mushrooms off my screen. haha. (well, at least that's what my parents say) honestly sometimes i wonder what kind of world my parents live in... surely they have heard of other kids either playing through the night or just whiling the night away at some dingy pub place drinking themselves silly..

and here I am in my nice comfy room procrastinating against having to pack for Japan whilst whacking the sadistic zombie mushrooms when i dad bursts in and says I have played for nearly every night for so darn long, and how he's so worried that when I go US i will have no self discipline and what.

gee. that's a stretch right? it's not like I have stuff to study now rite? not like my teaching stuff is overloading me that I'm dragging essays back home to agonize over rite? thing is, i'm pretty free. so.. really.. sigh. I dunno.

heck... better start packing..

apparent misery

hmm.. i'm a lil' miffed and envious...

2 of my close army pal's have departed on a asian road trip from malaysia to china, which honestly is DARN cool. like WOW.. that's alot of mileage to cover.. and its like all my talk of a stupid europe trip came to naught after considering the frightful cost and here are people really pulling off such a nice tour.. kudoz to ed and jack man...

then most of my camp dotaz gang and close frens are in ROC enjoyng their R&R phase after a dreary exercise.. probably gorging themselves silly with the XXXL chicken and shopping like crazy.

then suddenly the schedule of certain people from my old gang now makes meeting them even more difficult than meeting the Pope. honestly... it's quite pissing off to keep trying to plan smth in vain. so I'm hecking now.

so all I'm left with is my drooling over Katharine.. haha.. which ain't such a bad deal.. but.. hmmmz

aiyah.. honestly i'm just grouchy.. i'm leaving on a jet plane myself soon next week.. but nothing's planned in Japan still.. it's like free and easy to the extreme. which honestly smells like disaster to me.. err.. hope not lor.

back to my dreary life of horrid essays and compre papers... bleah

mcpheever raging

OMG... Katharine is SO HOT.

simply flaming.. i'm watching Youtube video over and over to see her sultry, sexy, flaming performance..

WOW.. i don't think i even really heard the song.. haha.. MY..

those who dun geddit.. see this:-



i'm in love. and honestly this is the first time I'm so enamoured by a contestant.. haha.. and it's a very superficial reason.. but WOW.. what a visual treat

oh i just realized that with the exception of La Toya, EVERY SINGLE of my AI favourites has now sang "I Have Nothing".. hmm.. Trenyce, Jennifer Hudson, Vonzell and now the smokin' Katharine... (and i thought the black diva support streak ended.. haha)

and yeah.. all the judges were on crack. honestly, when you praise Kellie for a disastrous "Bohemian Rhapsody" you don't go telling Katharine her version of IHN was off-pitch. disgraceful man. what were u all watching/listening?

ok.. her video..

intellectual renaissance

my 100th post! haha..

aniwez, some reflections on being a GP teacher..

honestly, i'm pretty glad that I got the job(thanx BS), cos honestly it is surprisingly switching my analytical skills back on and bringing about like a renaissance in my cognitive abilites.. haha

u see, in teaching GP, i'm actually the one learning the most cos i have to plough through tons of torrid essays and read the perspectives from various students, then further disect the question proper and ask myself about the fundamental definitions in the question...

which leads to many hearty discussion with my fellow GP relief teachers.. (haha.. due to the free time, we spent 3 solid hours talking in the canteen about 'GP' stuff.. basically anything).. We commented regarding the stupid names celebrities give their children, like honestly, calling your kids Raffles, Regent and Ritz is unforgivable, so is likening your son to a bridge/city(Brooklyn), a mish-mash of words(Maddox), a toilet-sounding term(Suri), or the worst - a donkey(Brayden). I think Brayden wins worst name hands down.

Then talked about like genes and how it affects people, like how maybe TomKat's child will be a complete mercenary mediawhore whose favourite pasttime would be jumping on couches...

Then about enforced stereotypes in the society like the old spinster who heck-cares about her dress sense and lives with 13 cats and how sad such a life is.. how women get emotional trauma over being left on the shelf, and hence give up on looking presentable and become very irritable, hence reinforcing existing stereotypes and ultimately making it a vicious cycle.

ok.. if u are still follow me, then well, thing is, it's so darn refreshing to engage in intellectual conversation with sane, thinking people after a general mind-numbing experience in the army where people generally thinking with their biceps. that or their cigarette sticks.

students can't offer much good opinions too cos half are wrapped up in their gormless, miserable lives of doing homework and mugging for important chem test or so on whilst the other half just plain switch off and heck care.

the whole point is, after being a GP relief teacher, I start realising the significance of what I'm teaching.. which is rational thinking and analytical skills. and whilst you can forget all about mathematical formula and chemistry stoichiometry, you will take along what you've learnt in GP for quite a while...

haha..

the family stone

honestly now that i'm driving my dad's auto car quite abit, i feel darn stupid having taken manual car lessons.. cos, yeah.. auto is SO DARN EASY. it's really quite cool zipping down the roads, overtaking people effortlessly and flouting every single spastic rule that you have been forced to conform to during your apprenticeship.. (oops)honestly, when you have been literally forced to cap your minimum speed at a paltry 50km/h and having to see lumbering trucks and bicycles overtake you, the feel of 80km/h++ is quite shiok

hmm.. niwaez met my extended family today cos it was "grave-sweep" day (literal translation.. ha).. was nice seeing my cousins again and realizing that my cousin is a lvl 101 assasin in Maple story, who's laughing at me still fighting silly mushrooms the whole day.. geez. so yeah, maple's passe as well, with those addicted having reached unattainably high levels already.. but hey.. dota's becoming darn sian as well lor..

i dunno.. people who just started playing and are like gushing about their fav intel hero like lina inverse and cm.. bleah.. like please lor, most pros can like memorise the location of every single neutral creep liao and are bored to death with the game when the new creatures that are released are pretty much.. bleah..

ok... i'm talking crap. got much heady and serious stuff to talk about like other people's rants about army life during fellowship.. hmm.. but it's err.. quite late and i still have to figure what to teach my class tmr.. hmmz.. haha

automobile enhanced!

yes! yes! yeeesss!

ok.. pardon my ecstacy.. but just.. so full of relief i no longer need to take that stupid 93 and blunder my way down to Ubi and face the horrid circuit anymore!!

I PASSED! finally.. think i'm like one of the last amongst my frens liao to join the automobile-enhanced club.. even the bitch lk was saying caustically that passing driving is like so passe and out of fashion. slut.

i was pretty confident before going for my pre-lesson, but then during the lesson i was like hitting kerbs galore and just leaving a lasting dent in the circuit.. confidence really shaken and my instructor was like shaking his head every few minutes when i infringed on yet another rule..

then went out to the road where I took the irritating route 7 again, one that requires a elaborate filter across a busy street TWICE, then a u-turn. -_- honestly i was asking my instructor why he kept picking the most difficult route for me to take cos it's like a low chance I would kena that particular route.. if kena then really cuiz lor.. cos can really be hellish when u try to filter..

so guess what route i kena-ed for my test?

route 7. sigh.. OH WELL. but hehe.. did fine =) was still quite panic when I had to make the filters but turned out fine. THANK GOD.

so yeah.. i'm so estatic and relieved.. waiting to finally take my dad's car and go for a spin.. =)

go play maple liao...

being lazy

i skipped school today cos i was feeling distinctly unwell when i woke up.. hehe.. it was a case of too-much-bending-over-the-com syndrome coupled with lazingitis. ok.. enough of crap. aniwez, after 2 weeks of work, i'm really start to MISS the carefree life that I had for like a few weeks.. actually, the BEST part was the clearing leave weeks where you did nothing and your bank account was still being topped up by SAF.

miss the waking up at 10+ and then dilly-dallying about till lunch.. well, but then i got darn bored after a few days.. which is what compelled me to work. haha.. i'm such a paradoxical person.. or maybe it's just that green is always greener the other side. bleah.

oh.. can anyone suggest nice, unique places to go in Tokyo or the nearby region that's not too touristy and not the usual attractions? or like some mud-bath on-sen? cos i was reading Bill Bryson's "Neither Here Nor There" and felt very energized to go wandering down quaint alleys and really experience Jap culture again. hmmz

smirking in pink

olibgatory pink IC flaunt shot.. haha

everytime i flip open my wallet and see that flash of pink, have to suppress the rising grin.. haha.. it's really quite unimaginable that 2 yrs 4 mnths before I was woefully surrending my pink IC at tekong. sad. but in the past.

started playing maple story out of sheer boredom and have since ellicted alot of comments that basically goes along the same line of thinking that my IQ had dropped to half or smth.. (but as some would say, i never had much)

honestly, it's pretty cute lah.. and i have a secret agenda against all mushrooms cos I detest them.. simply hate mushrooms cos when I was a kid my mom used to force me to eat chicken rice with mushroom.. i dunno.. I just HATED it.. hence the revulsion nowadays.

and i realise my psychomotor SUCKS big time. just cannot coordinate properly to complete a simple maze that requires one to jump around and avoid irritating furry balls.. i cuiz liao.. dunno how next time.. i think thankfully i'm not going to become a dentist or surgeon.. haha

oh well.. time seems to have slowed down slightly these days.. waiting for the japan trip, waiting for June with the DSTA programme, waiting for Aug to fly off.. WAH.. quite soon actually.. hee =) abecrombie & fitch, here I come!

(btw, if u're wondering why I'm not blogging anything abt my teaching.. it's cos hehe.. IN CASE some students actually find my blog, they also dunno what I truly think of them.. hehe.. preventive measure)

stupid girls

haha.. "stupid girls" is darn cool. too bad she missed out the reigning queen of ditz (paris is the princess)... MARIAH

how can anyone do a video of stupid girls and forget to include the quintessinal mariah "spirit fingers" and splashing of water? or the blanked looks when tougher questions are launched at her? or the hideous catwauling noises that come out from her mouth when she tries to reach her non-existent high register?

=)


Added note.. OMG.. i did a search of "mariah carey spirit fingers" and guess the returned searches?

1. Mariah Carey is an embarrasment to herself
2. Mariah blames 9/11 for failure of 'Glitter'

excerpts from the article-

"The talk shows needed something to distract from 9/11. I became a punching bag. I was so successful that they tore me down because my album was at number 2 instead of number 1. The media was laughing at me and attacked me."

honey, they need not find ANY reason to laugh at you. LOOK at yourself


"The crooner also said that the flop was just too cutting-edge for it's own good. "Glitter" was ahead of its time, she explained. Today it's 'in' to make 80s music."

OMG..this woman is completely insane.

this is getting too funny.. i better stop.. =)

pink is in

ok.. i can officially confirm my complete transformation back into Mr Chan liao with the re-emergence of my Pink IC.. pink was never so in fashion! haha.. couldn't even remember the photo on my IC liao..

i'm getting busier and busier and it's a little annoying at times cos it's nearly impossible to fit in outings with a large group of people cos we have such conflicting timetables.. i was literally like listing open slots (badminton court style) to see when an outing could be coordinated..

was discussing ice skating with a colleague today.. wanna really go and see whether my skating cuiz already, or i can still do a waltz jump or even attempt an axle.. HAHA.. but then.. hmmz. got alot of talk but the idea of heading to jurong is still very "turn-off"ish..

i'm going to sleep liao.. i cannot maintain the "every night sleep at 1 plus and next morning wake up and go to work" routine that i did in NS.. cos the thing is, I'm actually having to work my brain in the early morning liao.. it's darn tiring and sian.. =( ha..

blogging about blogs

hmm.. was just looking through my previous blogs after anonymous commented about me lambasting staff on one of my posts... (wow, that seems ancient now)

there's survivorfan-99.blogspot.com, which was how everything started.. and reading back, haha.. i'm quite amused to see how obsessed i was about blogging at that time, tirelessly putting pictures and writing commentaries about EVERYTHING i did..

btw, that blog closed down cos I lost my blogging muse at one time and felt like I was writing shit, very boring shit. a reason for that was also cos I started censoring my posts in hopes of not revealing too much about myself and to offend people like the infamous "blog wars" incident

then i realise there was a misguided attempt at starting a blog with survivorfan99.blogspot.com which died out within one post... hmm.. actually i think that was my first first blog.. =) @ BMT one

oh.. and there's also the secret blog which has since vanished after i obliterated it out of the blogosphere when I realised unwanted people were stalking that blog. of course, i drew flak from others who said I was darn media-whorish and wannabe-ish so yeah.. was darn sian.

realised my style of writing has changed liao. matured? haha.. no. i think i'm more careful with what I write and what opinions I might have. Also, the initially enthusiasm has faded away to a more sensible "blog-only-when-you-feel-it" attitude. so yeah.. boring? i dunno.. (oh i realise i'm less whiny too! yay!)

yah.. a pointless post.. heck

ORD loh!

ORD loh!

10 Dec 03 - 09 Apr 06

BMTC 'G' Coy
OCS 'D'
SOL
3 Sig Bn


haha.. looks like an orbituary or wad.. aniwez, yeah, TODAY is my official ORD date. doesn't feel anything besides a weariness of having gotten through a whole sunday fm 7.30am to like 11.30pm without returning home.. sianz.

hmm.. i want to recap the most memorable events that transpired in NS.. to do justice to the 2yrs 4mnths i spent there.. yes.. it's NOT a waste of time afterall..

1. BMTC Taurus mix-up
First shock was the trip to the medical centre where I was appalled to find out I might be too FAT to stay in Taurus and might be transferred to an obese company. Honestly, that time I quite couldn't take it cos it was like just 10 days in and adjusting the intially army life there was bad enough.. so to add in an ego-plunging thing like this for an arrogant person like me was.. a little too much to bear.

When i finally had news that I WOULD be transferring, I was indignant, frustrated, anguished and more.. think I called back home and actually teared up, complaining to my parents that it was unfair of God to let me settle down 10 days in and get to know my section mates well and now pluck me out relentlessly and throw me to somewhere else.. (speaking of which.. HAHA.. i dun even remember a single of my 'T' section mates liaoz)

i pulled quite alot of stunts during this period, requesting to see PC to complain, then when i transferred over I was in complete misery, requesting to see OO and so on.. then finally reality sunk in. =)

2. Gryphon OC Night
The whirldwind of planning out a pantomine that including american idol mimicry and a whole slew of crap performances.. haha... there was guang yi designing costumes out of army wear and the 5 moulin rouge 'girls' practicing out their sleazy routine.. hmm.. interesting cos i think this solidified the friendship btw me, gy, fairus and sazali.. and was a fun time to unwind and have fun.

3. Entering OCS 'D' for the first day
jialat man.. really was.. i remember really completely dreading everything from the push up regime to the briefings from Staff and all the warnings, instructions, orders that was passed down. first night i went to see my PC and told him point blank that I felt worried that I wasn't able to cope with the training as i "could not run, do SOC or shoot".. felt so completely outclassed in every aspect and really dreaded every single day, be it the PT training, or just the insane turnouts or the morning hell 5BXs..

4. Parents Visiting Day @ Week 2, OCS
was really so grateful to see my whole family troop down and offer me so many words of advice.. i still have it in my diary, each of their supportive verses from the bible telling me not to fear, not to give up and just trust in the Lord. I was really running low emotionally and physically after the 2 week confinement period where everything was still hellish. furthermore there was IPPT right after the parent's visiting and I was really afraid I would fail as all the push up regimes had nearly destroyed whatever arm power i intially had.. so yeah, I was miserable and God saw to it. =)

5. Finally passing SOC with an amazing timing of 9.29
I was desparate, hopeless and really dejected liao as the previous SOC i took i had a record time of 20+ minutes and fell out cos I really couldn't take it already.. that SOC made me feel like it was really impossible and yet again I was going to get kicked out of OCS for not passing the requirement... so it was with this defeatist mentality that i started to try and 'prep' myself for the next SOC, feeling even more lethargic and worried.. but surprisingly, (i use the terms "God put wings on my feet") i just ran and ran and ran, completed the obstacles in quite decent time and then just run the life out of me.. i thot i fail liao cos the instructor counted down 5,4,3,2,1 before i hit the finish line but when I finally heard my timing, I nearly balked.. 9.29... I DID IT!

hmm.. blog about the rest another time

6. ROC, on the defense mission battling the frigid cold with Melvin
7. ROC, EX Red Beret, trapped on the mountainside, shivering in cold and kena wake up when we realised an animal was circling round our campsite..
8. Brunei, Day 1 of ChillHermit, my LOWEST of lows, where it just rained and rained and I realised I really might not be able to complete the 5 days of survival when i looked at my swollen, engorged and painful feet
9. SOL days on a whole - playing soccer nightly, going out for supper in the regulars' cars, having discussions of pretty pointless topics, the stressful EX Scimitar
10. NDP days - working with pple like Shijian, and the final sense of achievement and accomplishment when everything ended. for once i felt patriotic
11. 3 Sig mess days - bumming around with Kiat during exercises watching Ch 8 shows, trying my hardest to defeat Derui @ table soccer, going out to eat in Tang's van, singing songs like "Home" to un-subtlely hint to CO that we wanted to go home,
12. 3 Sig dota outings that grew in size and became something regular..

have alot of frens along the way to acknowledge.. haiz next post lah...

tiresome

something tells me my body ain't doing too good these few days.. have the bloody sinus again today, causing me to sniff, sneeze and wheeze uncontrollably as our usual gang loitered the alleys of taka and paragon.. (of which lk had an unfortunate outburst of saying he wanted to buy at Gucci wallet(bah!), and upon entering the cool premises of both Gucci and LV, chickened out and left with the apparent scorn of the saleswomen trailing after him.. HAHA!)

ok honestly now that i have almost official ORD-ed.. stupid pink IC isn't with me for bragging rights cos my chief clerk had chosen friday to fall sick and conveniently forget about the ICs.. oh well.. no matter.. friday was the last day at 3 sig, where I packed up my stuff silently and left.. cos everyone that mattered had already flown to ROC..

as i was saying, i suddenly realised that.. hmm.. there really isn't much hoop-la in ORD when you really finally reach it.. all the euphoria and excitement you conjured to appease yourseld when you first started BMT has probably faded away as you started clearing leave and got bored of being stuck at home.. for me i was probably real tired out by work and everything..

which i honestly don't quite understand.. how can working 5 1/2 hrs at a nice comfy place, where i just need to teach like for an average of 1 hr per day, tire me out so much that I'm lamenting about the bleakness of life ala lk style? hmm.. and it was to my shock how my body couldn't quite ta-han the one night of little sleep on thursday where I went to downtown east to join my OCS buds for some mah-jong and "watching jack own halo 2" fun? I was like dozing off at every possible second whilst I was at work the next day..

hmm... maybe it's my brain that has degenerated so much that simple researching and teaching are darn taxing.. not used to the information overload i guess.. somehow i realise it ain't about the money as well.. it's more for the experience, and the fun of reliving school memories (of how appallingly nerdy i probably was last time), and the fun of making snide and sarcastic remarks to people who actually understand.. haha

hmmz.. i shud go sleep.. my nose still ain't too good. plus tmr will be a long long day again.. tiring leh.. post-ORD days.. who would expect.

stop sucking, amazing race

honestly TAR9 stinks to high heavens...

with a succesive elimination of 3 of my favourite teams who honestly had NO CHANCE to redeem themselves.. TAR9 has sunk into completely boredom and irrelevance

why not just fast forward to have BJ & Tyler, Eric & Jeremy and Mojo as the Final 3 and let's continue with TAR10? gosh.. what's the point of having a leg when you completely do not allow ANY chance of the slower teams to catch up? Wah.. like EVERYONE literally remained in the same ranking..

sigh.. this season has such nice locations.. yet the cast left honestly is as appealing as stale fish to me.. and PLEASE get the two alpha male teams off the top spots.. they are SO not fun as well.

sheesh.

oh.. and honestly i dunno why i'm talking about such frivolous stuff.. maybe when I finally get some sleep after 2 days of wakefulness I'll write about my reflections at ORDing (YAY!!!!), Edgar's chalet and my relief teaching fun! haha..

life's surprisingly tiring after ORD.. didn't expect it.. pooh

first impressions

first day was surprisingly smooth, with fellow relief teachers expressing similar concerns and axieties. =) thanks to everyone who prayed for me.

it's quite a nice job up till now.. got things planned for the whole term liao.. quite happy that i'm given quite a free rein to teach what I can teach to the students.

learning lot'sa things about teachers... fun to be back in a school environment again, nice to eat food at dirt-cheap prices even though.. hmm.. doesn't taste too good. =) nice to be in SUCH a relaxed environment compared to the army camps, and perhaps the best is that after dealing with the complete lack of motivation from my guys in camp, it's a refreshing change to have students that are at least mildly interested in what you are saying..

ha.. maybe my standards were dragged too low liao.. but it's a good thing. Thank God!

remembrance and thanksgiving

THANK GOD!

honestly, with alot of talk about me being born with a silver spoon and being pampered etc etc.. then the debacle regarding how leaving things to God is a very irresponsible way to live a life (not true seriously - cos the act of leaving your burden to God doesn't mean you just sit back and dun do anything)

aniwez, this is a post of thanksgiving and really MUCH PRAISE to GOD.

thank God for Brown's and Cornell's acceptance, thank God for His provision of a job as relief teacher even when i thought it was a null offer liao

still a little apprenhensive about relief teaching considering how i'm not too much older than the group of people i am teaching.. especially with kiat saying like i'd be EATEN alive by even the girls if I went to teach in his secondary sch.. haiz.. just gonna pray for confidence and intelligence to teach what I need to teach =)

still on a high today, very happy and RELIEVED actually. after worrying for 2 years that I still don't have a school in US and might kena rejected by everything due to SAT screw ups, thankfully it has finally come to an end.

honestly, now with a concrete SCHOOL in my mind, I start to realise how my time in Singapore is actually slowly slipping away... will I miss the bustling city, the rude people who block MRT doors, the glorious food, the K-box sessions, the endless dota sessions and how people who boast inevitable kena OWNED like sia? (haha.. me) I'm starting to realise how fast 3 - 4 months might actually be before i fly off..

went back to camp on friday to settle my final clearance matters.. feels so detached liao, but I'm so glad to have made so many friends there.. it's quite amazing.. i spent like 6 months+ being a hermit-like QM and not getting to know anyone except probably Fred but then after that it's like the nightly mess sessions, the endless tiffs with little boy, watching Ch8 shows with Kiat during exercise period (with the pretext that I was "on shift"), the silly table soccer analysis with old and new officers, the bitch sessions with Junwen then Daniel, my continued presence in TCC2 then TCC1 which made the OCs comment that I was a multi-company PC, going out to eat in Reagan's car, and OF COURSE, the dota sessions which honestly became quite a ritual starting this year with the complete OWNAGE of Waikit's Broodmother, Kiat's PA, Noel's Lich, Reagan's SA...

nice collection of memories there... will really treasure them. thanks to everyone who made my 3 SIG experience so fun! =)