Dey, why u spray confetti at me, dey? Go back n spray water at your elephant la dey.

One of the many life lessons i've learnt during my 19 years of habituating this world of craziness is not to stroll down Downtown on a Christmas or New Year's Eve. Thus, you find me blogging this entry at this particular point of time.

Its very similar to the time when I went to Ling's concert at Stage@Powerhouse. The whole crowd was filled with probably Bangladeshis., except that this time the crowd was more well behaved. But it was totally dead, the crowd was dead. It made Ling's concert looked bad. On the contrary, these very same group of people filled every corners, every skid row of the streets in town during end of the year festive eves, tearing the whole fucking place down and spraying confettis at random people, pissing the hell out of ppl. It made the streets looked bad with these people.

So, I've made a rather wise and decisive choice not to roam around town tonight. Anyway, I dont really celebrate Christmas since i'm a Buddhist and find countdown to xmas really a waste of resources and a commercialized event for business to boom(saying merry xmas is a sign of respect). I have to wake up early tml to attend my late grandfather's death anniversary.

By the way, there's a tagboard on my blog now. People tell me they dont really bother about the comments link at the bottom of my post and there are also people telling me to put a tagboard here so that they can spam me when they are bored. Ok, so the tagboard is here for u to enjoy, enjoy!

Of Slackness and more slackness

Yo.
Its been quite some time since I blogged. Actually, there isnt really any thing to blog about unless you want the whole world to know about the minute details of your life. Thats like selling yourself to people, like real estate agents.

Entered the next paragraph. I sat cross legged, my eyes darting everywhere but the screen, my index finger tapping on the next key to start my first word of the next sentence. Nothing. Tap..Tap...Tap, still nothing. I picked my cup and drank some liquid from it. Tap...Tap...Tap, nothing. Then i sweared again. Oh shit, how am I going to continue my post by writing all these? Hmmmm. Is hmmmm going to help? Nah, still blank.

I was about to shit myself in my pants when I thought about the events that I'm going to tell everyone about in this post. Should I write about my graduation parade, my new unit or the time when I had a cold war with my friends or maybe about that time when my house was completely denied water from a faulty pipe made by an irresponsible government contractor?

How about emotions from people and myself? I wanted to write about the awkward feeling I had when my parents really did not come for my graduation parade. I wanted to amplify my satisfaction and belittle my envious friends on my new unit. By the way, I'm posted to 3rd Div Arty as an Int Spec where I will be staying out and will have no SOC for the rest of my NS.

Wow, thats alot. But then again, I decided that I'm not really going to write about them all. But rather, I have actually wrote about those events in a summary. Now its back to more tapping again for my next paragraph.

Goodbye? See you later? See you? Maybe. But before I really conclude this post which is really very irrelevant to the title I have given to this post, I must really make an announcement to music lovers in Singapore who truly appreciates local music to take some time off in the evening to watch Ling(I blogged about this local songbird few months ago) perform at Stage@Powerhouse near Esplanade to the tunes of various artists such as Elliot Smith, Damien Rice, Rachel Yamagata and many many more, including her own work, "Larkin Step". Its happening today at 7.30pm.

My post shalt end with the tunes of Larkin Step.




(Some cheebye went to hack her youtube account. boliao.)

yay, i got nights out today. the most boring of all the nights out because i have to go home to bring back half of my stuffs.
And, this week is also quite boring. Except for the cert presentation, photo-taking and some rehearsal for the POP, its wake up, eat and sleep kind of life.
After much thought, I think calling my parents down to watch the POP is not really necessary. Its a waste of time and I dont see any pride in passing out. Pride or rather pride in getting our ranks doesnt really exist in our course. Pride actually stands for "people rest I do extra". Worse still, we were told that we will be going to our new unit next Thursday and before that we have to come back to move everything from our old building to the new one. NA BEI!
It would be much better if it was like my graduation parade back in sispec. We were shagged like fuck after route marching like fuck and then have to stand sommore with the @#$% fieldpack still on for them to stick our ranks. For pride I will still stand straight lor but actually during that day i almost fainted, i was squatting down cos too tired sia.

my friend went siao after watching Enchanted lor. he kept singing the "happy working song" when he's doing saikang and he said it actually made him want to work.



This one is another song from the movie. Quite nice too.



ok got to go back liao. =(

Giant is Dead!

woohoo i finished my last field exercise as a trainee liao. After moving around the whole of the Northern Singapore, including one deployment ground that was so near my house and sitting inside the fucking hot, crampy and smelly command post vehicle, we were presented our beret.

I read Jesse's blog just now and he was talking about some things that made him nostalgic and filled with regrets. Basically it was part emo, part reminiscing of the past. Anyway, I just want to say no point in getting emo over the past, just move on. Not everything in life ends as happily ever after. Well, you might have missed your past madly but you could relive all these memories by meeting up with your old friends again. As for your love, I dont know what to say. For me, I've already forgotten that girl that I have so fanatically been infatuated with in school. Well, partly because she went away to some far away land to study. But then, i realise I dont want to dwell in such a sad and pathetic feeling everyday. Love supposed to be filled with warmth and happiness, not emo-ness, right?

anyway, listen to this bumblegum pop of the 70s. Its called Yesterday Once more by the carpenters.

When a human body is exhumed, the remains seemed so fragile, proving how feeble humans really are. It doesnt really matter how powerful u were or how good looking u were, you just become a heap of bones that really meant nothing but only memories that will only be close to your loved ones and friends.
So make those memories a good one. Strive towards your dream in life, love your loved ones like as if there's no tomorrow, dont be afraid to have fun in your life and so on and on.

Bah, Exercise Giant starts tomorrow. The grand finale before I graduate. Actually i am more stressed than thrilled. I'm not really sure of my stuffs cos I dont have good long term memory. My sgt major said i rank 2nd last in the whole course because I failed one of the test, arghh. I hope i still can pass out as a spec, considering i have pass my soc and ippt.

shit is going to happen tml sia.

HAHAHAHA

LOL!

Damn tired after 3 days of Khatib Chalet

I'm back with a pair of very rotten legs. Its really rotten with pus oozing out and then there are scars and wounds everywhere on my calves. Disgusting sia, i got exotic looking insect-bitten lesion all over my hands and I have not inhabit the jungle since bslc.

Zeus the Greek god has been rather busy nowadays, which in a way is good for all soldiers that are about to embark on a rundown with 11 obstacles along the way. I used to whistle one of Travis's song when im met with extreme bad luck but not for that day. Then suddenly i remembered Guns N' Roses's November Rain and I was overjoyed.

This week has been quite eventful. I went to slackmore camp, opps, its stagmont camp for a few hours of insomnia therapy. I returned home with difficulties in shutting my eyelids due to intensive shutting of the eyelids at both khatib chalet and at the therapy.

All of u students, civilian workers and fellow soldiers, i've got a good 4 days off and my pay day is in 2 days.

WooHoo!

=D

I had some major mood swings while clearing soc on friday. all the hokkien phrases just came out in a rush of anger. FUK MANNN! I cldnt clear low rope again. It sucks when you know u need just one more loop to touch the top but you just cldnt do it. It becomes more demoralizing when you see your section mates going all up and shout. argh.

i feel so ashamed to call myself a metal fan. megadeth and black sabbath came to singapore and i didnt even go! wth. I have to wait a decade for them to come again but by then they would be like eagles, old grandpas that could probably have some serious seizure while headbanging. To further degrade myself, i dont even have a single song from megadeth! OMG! They are like the bread and butter of anyone who started out listening to metal. GARGHHH!

bah. its a saturday night, or oh well sunday morning. i've decided to rot at home because i simply dont wish to go out. on this very weekend i longed for everyday in camp, i spent it all at home. before i go emo again, which i hoped it will nvr happen like in my previous posts, i bury myself in dvds and video games. Ah video games(not dota), something that i've not touch in a long time, it relinquish my inner self. Especially in the comforts of my own home, i was comfortable in screaming wildly and cursing at the screen when my character got shot by ze most invincible baddies with a 3000rds per sec mini machine gun.

sad to say, when i wake up tml, probably more than a million people would have died and another million ppl would have been born. the cycle goes on every minute and at any time you might be contributing to this cycle. SO, dont waste your time and start to do the things u might or had love to do, like playing block catching, drive a car without a license, gulp down 10 bottles of booze, visit your frail sickly former teacher and scold him/her your lifetime of beautiful cultured dialect phrases and so on and on.

WHAT WAS I THINKING? I dont know why i end my post in such a manner, i dont remember planning to end it this way.

Gazillion BAHs.

death in photos

Taken by Robert Capa, these photos captured death at its best moments. Just like the 1st photo, I think the guy didnt know what hit him and Robert Capa accidentally shot that photo at the instance he was fatally shot. I love his wartime photos, especially the ones at the Omaha Beach. I was surprised he wasnt shot or blown to bits after following the 1st wave of soldiers onto Omaha.

Watched too much documentaries with bloodshed and gore but i guess i am going to watch it and say omg thats so sad in a pitiful voice and then switch off my tv and go to sleep on my comfy bed and wake up peacefully.

Back to school...errr, i mean Artillery Institute

I feel like im going back to school again, busy with that calculator and attending lectures everyday. Just that I will be wearing military fatigues to lessons. Well, I'm posted to be a gunnery spec at artillery institute. My job is to calculate data and transmit them to the gunners to fire off. I dont even need to carry any shells or fire any artillery guns!

Shiok right? But then the course is damn boring ah, everyday lectures and lectures. Everybody is dying to enter our course. Our neighbours, the mortars and the 155 gunners are damn jia lat. Everyday see them sweat while we in lecture room. bwahahaha! But the course is kam pua long leh, freaking 13 weeks to get 3sg.

watched 881 and the rat show after bslc. damn song lor. i love that hokkien theme song from 881, actually basically all the hokkien songs in there even though the plot of the movie not really that nice. and the rat show also buey pai, the animation so outstanding lor. I advise u to eat until damn full den watch the rat show or not sure cannot take it one.

song ah, i book out on a friday seh, very long since i book out on friday. now for the whole 13 weeks i will be booking out every friday unless i do stupid things again la, then i wont even come home. But dun worry, i wont bring rifle plus live rounds out of camp. Thats really damn stupid sia! fucking hell, 1/4 of ur life will be gone at the far eastern side of the island and the backside just got slapped just by doing that. Then when finish liao, go to somewhere to carry sandbags and do pushups like its free and then do his remaining 1 month of being a soldier. Good deal sia!

im going for a run tml. omg, on a weekend especially after 5 days in an army camp. so hardworking right? but no la, i feel guilty for sitting around the lecture room for too long and i want that monetary incentive for ippt leh. muhaha!

for us and you and me.

I heard skid row over the radio just now. Its a surprise actually because most local radio stations dont really play 80's heavy metal. All hail power 98!

sian, tml i got army marathon run. But I would rather run than to do guard duty on Sunday. I was so damn lucky to escape it even though i have to report at 5.30am at esplanade.

1 more week left to end of bslc. I'm so delighted that its going to be over soon. Actually, I realised the training throughout the entire bslc isnt that tough. Eventually the day will end, the training will stop and you will still be alive. It isnt that bad actually.

What really makes life unbearable in sispec is the people. I am not talking about people being competitive, its about relationship. I think all those team based lectures and activities we attended didnt touch alot on human relationships. Almost all the time, everyone will be hating each other in the company. Instructors hates the OC, our PC dont like the instructors, instructors dont like each other and then they don't know how to talk to each other, leaving things unplanned and made our training really inefficient. Instructors, being experienced sergeants themselves are expected to show examples. But yet, they induce feelings that ignite more hatred towards our OC.

Things dont go too well amongst the trainees too. I hate my section but actually its only 1 person. It made me realise that the intelligence of a group is based on the collective intelligence of a person. Some people just talked too much. The i/cs are given the privilege to plan and manage activities during training. How they make decision is up to their abilities and they have many responsibilities to shoulder too. But yet some people would tend to voice their unhappiness and claim they could do better in this and that. Apparently, they hadn't been an i/c before and therefore do not understand the stress.

It sucked even more if you are a buddy of someone that the whole section hates. Yes, i know the section is frustrated with him for being uncooperative and selfish but that doesnt mean they have all the rights to bully him or ostracized him. The best way is to talk about it and see how can the problem be solved. Sometimes i find it difficult to react to situations when I have to be friendly to both sides. Its almost impossible. Talking to him makes me feel uncomfortable because the section will start to make noises and make some really juvenile comments that sometimes pisses me off.

I'm glad i'm going to leave sispec in a week's time. I dont think i will go to aslc because i said no to being a commander in the express interest form. Seriously, i just want a peaceful life in NS and all these people I have known for the entire 10 weeks in bslc will be forgotten forever.

The sun will shine and the birds will sing.

The other night before I went Tekong, my platoon mates were mocking at me about my embarrassing night at double O. It was so embarrassing that it will only happen if I'm under heavy alcohol influence. Blame it on the duty free beers at chevrons.

But on a different tangent, one of the mocking party went nearer to me and pat me on my shoulders and said something which I felt nothing for a split second and then felt really miserable during the after effect.

It was about this particular person. Somehow amidst the confusion that night at double O due to my soberness, I remembered us talking about her(I dont remember why we were talking about her) on the couch and he did the uninitiated. He went on to msg her asking whether if she knows me. If i were more conscious that night, i could have probably berated at him.

But that wasnt my point on why I felt miserable. But if I were to tell anyone that I have only known the existence of this person for the whole of my jc life and talked to her for less than 3 times and I felt miserable because this person is leaving for somewhere to study for a period of time, what will they say?

I mean I dont know why I felt miserable. That night my Ipod coincidentally shuffled to Jay Zhou - Kai bu liao kou and then to Dirty Vegas - Days go by. I know its a roll-eyes kind of thing but when these kind of songs starts to play and you already feel so emo about something, it just can't be help.

Sia la, so emo. If she ever reads this, i will be so embarrassed mann. I think she will just freak out and faint on the spot if I were to admit. She will never expect it lor. Its like whenever both of us walk past each other, it will be like a stranger to stranger kind of thing, like in the streets. No hellos, no smile, nothing.

Anyway, I got selected to go for a PTI selection course. How and why I was selected remains a mystery. I only obtained a pass for IPPT, not even close to silver mann. My hopes of going to airforce and navy was dashed when my friend told me if i fail my selection course, I will go straight to ASLC. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I can't believe me going to taiwan and dig holes and not shower for 7 days.

Bah, so much so for putting not interested to Inf/Guards in my express interest form.

Going back in an hour's time and my csm's words always resound in my mind whenever i walk through the gate, "Gentlemen, welcome to another phuck day in the army."

I am so excited

As what the blog title have mentioned, I am going to embark on a holiday on our very own outback, P. Tekong. Its a fun filled and laughter kind of holiday, a once in a lifetime opportunity for certain members of the society. Jointly organized and supported by the people loving and decades long ruling government of our beloved island and conducted by the super efficient and knows-how-to-wayang-the-right-way organization of our beautiful country.

Best of all, its FREE!
Dont ask me why, my fellow taxpayers.

The catalogue of this holiday read as follows:

The itenary of this exciting and thrilling trip ensures that you would not be idling around and doing nothing. Your legs will be sore with dead skin(natural exfoliation, girls are you paying close attention to this?) and your uniforms can be thrown away after this trip because it is impossible to wash away the stains. Most importantly, you will be meeting the indigenous habitants on this sunny island called P. Tekong. They are called Tekonreans. They have either sharp piercing thorns on their mouths or have 4 limbs. They roam around freely and loves to pop by and say HI!!!! when you are at the least attentive. Sometimes after saying hello, you will start to itch and a slight reddish bump will appear. Its ok actually but please do caution if you see a black and white stripes species saying hello to you. Furthermore, the ones with 4 limbs and looks like a pig says HI if you have food around you. So if you want to know more about them, please do not throw away your food the proper way and sleep half naked in the jungle.

Now, aren't you excited? We do provide personal body maintainance by making you do pressups(pushups) in the middle of the jungle. How nice. If you are homosexual and the voices of men shouting at you turns you on, dont worry. Even though you are faraway from civilian life, you can still feel at home because voices of men shouting at the top of their voice is abundant.

Do u love mud? Tekong has abundant sources of it. You will have the chance to be stuck in it, sleep on it and maybe have some of it around your lips.

Please do bring more underwears and socks. Do not try to bring your lovers along unless you are homesexual. If you think you are too obsessed with the female gender, this holiday will be your best solution psychologically because in this tour group, we believe in a single gender.

A 4days 3 nights trip which starts tml.

Come on everyone, repeat after me.

I L-O-V-E S*F
I L-O-V-E S*F
I L-O-V-E S*F

Hooray!

Im going to book in real early tonight. SO HAPPY! I feel sad if they let me go home, you know? I smile when they give me extra duties, you know? I smile even more when they burn my weekends and deprive me of the outside world. They keep me from all evils in the civilian life. SEE? I love being a soldier.

SO NICE!

Not Ready To Make Nice

If people were to ask me what have I learnt during my Army days, I would say i learnt to become more selfish.
Well i think its pretty true. Whenever I hear someone asking for help, my ears just shut off completely. It can't be help, especially when I am so shagged out and just found a nice and comfortable spot to sit and then just when I am about to doze off, somebody just had to shout for volunteers.
Sometimes when I just need a cold drink and there aren't enough for everyone out in the field, it will be an every man for himself thing. Unless its my section mates, I would not even bother sharing my drinks. Just can't be help.

Field camp this week was like a holiday camp. Revellie, breakfast, sleep the whole morning while waiting for our turn to do fire movement. Then lunch. then sleep again until its time for night operations. The only highlight of the whole field camp was the ambush ops. I got to move the whole section to do ambush at night. set up trip flare, claymore mines and wear night vision goggles and then wait for the enemy to appear. Sadly i did not manage to bring my section back to HQ because i was so disoriented at night. bah.

1 more field camp to go, which is at Tekong and 3 more weeks to the end of BSLC. Yay!

and yes, if you are watching that propaganda show about the army on channel 8, you can see my BMT company there. All of our sgts were involved in the filming and the part when the actor passed out from BMT is when our company took part in the filming too. That is the day when I had to give up my admin time for the filming.

jungle warfare

I booked out on a Saturday afternoon again. Thanks to the conjunctivitis outbreak, we had massive area cleaning for the whole morning and now our bunk smells like hospital. It seems like sispec is infected with all kinds of disease. Different coys have different kind of outbreak and according to the MO, our coy pawned everyone in PLC: highest number of soldiers attend C.

Field camp was damn fun. But it would be more fun if it didnt rain and our section commander didnt have sore eyes. I learnt alot during these 3 days in the jungle. I saw a trip flare for the first time and it was so damn beautiful. As a section we were tasked to set up a controlled trip flare at a junction. Thanks to my section, they saboh me to set it up. Even though i passed the tech test for trip flare, i confused it with claymore mines, so I wasted 20 mins of my time figuring out how. So in the end, my section mate took over me.

So we waited and waited, halfway through we saw students from nearby NTU taking their graduation photos. Clean, odour-free, pretty girls, civilians, knn. But still seeing the trip flare lighting up the whole night sky is an experience. The whole thing just exploded right in front of us, blinding me for a few seconds.

Fire movement was what we learnt during the camp. Have to bashed through all kinds of vegetation and admist the sounds of blanks fired during our movement, moans and groans could be heard as we tried to avoid the thorny mimosa. My SAW kept getting stuck with the mimosa and since I am a SAW gunner, I am the last man of the whole formation. Due to my incompetence of handling SAW, I was extremely clumsy during the movement. So clumsy I was, that I changed lane and almost shot at my friend. Got fucked severely by my PC, hahah.

Talking about SAW, I learnt how to operate and be confident with it the hard way. I misfired once during unloading of weapons. Because SAW function differently from M16 and SAR21, it was more prone to misfire. My SAW had 2 bullets stuck in the chamber, one expended and the other the opposite. So i attempted to clear it and instinctively I switch it to SAFE and took out my magazine. So i did and the next thing i knew, one round fired off. Again, got fucked. Almost cldnt go home this weekend and my name was recorded in the "shit-list" But SAW is an orgasmic weapon. With a gentle touch on the trigger, many many many bullets flew out. I emptied my whole mag in less than 15 seconds. Surprisingly, I was the only person in my section who managed to achieved orgasm firing the weapon. The others managed to jam the weapon or cldnt cock it when they tried the SAW.

Last day of field camp was the best. Our section commd came back. Training then became a stroll in the park. Our section health frequently(health is the codename for smoking hahah) with other section. Instead of "taking 5", we took 30. When we see OC driving in his rover, we will do a 'W' handsign, denoting wayang. In hokkien we called it, "zhou hee", meaning wayang. We will pretend we are shagged, sometimes we would pretend to be having AAR(after action review) and once in a while we would be running to take cover whenever OC appears. Have so much fun.

1 field camp over, 2 more to go. I am going to apply what I have learnt for monday's section live firing and fortunately I'm a SAW gunner again. What i'm afraid of is that I might shoot at my friend or worst still the opposite. But its ok, the SAW loves me.

On a different tangent, I finally got my guitar setup. My guitar teacher gave me a gd discount. It doesnt go off tune that often and my palm mute sounds better now. The clean sound seems to be softer but I'm ok with it. I will just save up and buy a new set of pickups, hopefully by the end of my trainee life.

im off to listen to bic runga crooning over my speakers and enjoying my last bits of late night supper.

Somebody's Daughter.

And so it is
Just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time
And so it is
The shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky


Booking in tonight, field camp will start. Can't pass SOC, no silver for ippt, my kneecap is still painful when i run, no motivation to become a section commander, dont even desire to don chevrons on my arms. But i make it through whenever I thought of your sweet voice and smile. Want to forget but can't forget. Why didn't you reply me???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

7 more weeks.

1. This weekend is my longest outside camp. Since i went into sispec, I had to stay an extra night due to regimental duties and not obtaining silver for ippt.

2. everyday in sispec is mind-fuck. although the instructors can be extremely friendly and allows many canteen breaks, they can be damn volatile too. Like the book out i had on Saturday night. it was both body and mind fuck. fuck everywhere until i book out all in mud.

3. physical training is tough. sweating before breakfast is normal, running 1-2km to SOC start point is only warm up. Running 4km is a workout for most of us but then to the PTI its only warm up as we need to do all 3 combat physical training after the run. every fucking place we go, we will either run, fast march or march round and round until we stop.

4. everything in SOC is upsized. i ran 700m like mad, only to bang the wall at the first obstacle.

5. food in sispec is really nice. the soup is the best. I chiong for 2 bowls everytime.

6. accommodation is better at sispec. Everything there looks so non-military. I like.

7. Doing a parade rehearsal before our navigation exercise is fucked up. doing it for a general whom we do not even know is even more fucked up. Informing us the night before is extremely extremely fucked up. It caused so much stress the next day that my enciks had a quarrel with the SSM. But what to do? our csm say suck thumb lor. I do it out of respect for the rank, not the person.

8. There's a female trainee in F coy that looks pretty cute. but too bad she's married(i heard)

9. I have one whole stack of handbooks, training manuals and guidebooks in my cupboard. I thought we wouldn't be studying anything in the army, but i was so wrong.

10. my platoon mates are all damn competitive. Most of them have silver and gold for ippt while i only have a pass. Seeing them breezing through the SOC makes me fed-up.

11. Bathing after lights out is normal. It becomes worse if you are a platoon i/c(we call it LPS in sispec) or company i/c(LSM in sispec). I was only a section i/c and i slept 2 hours after lights out just to settle some admin stuff.

12. 3 days navigating around the jungle convinced me not to chiong for ASLC or any infantry vocations. GIVE ME AIRFORCE, MP, OR ANYTHING THAT DOESNT HAVE TO DO WITH THE DAMN JUNGLE.

13. 7 more weeks to the end of BSLC. hopefully they post me somewhere else. PLEASE!

O-EM-EFF-GEE!! BLOCK LEAVE's OVER. GAHH!

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Ahem.
Sorry for my dramatic start.
But who doesn’t go crazy when you know your 10 days of civilian life is going to be over?

Damn, I heard there’s IPPT during the 1st week and I’ve been resting on my laurels for 10 days already.

Damn, my muscles are getting softer. Bah!

How to pass?

Hai.

Suffer in Silence and Plus Extra Confinement lor

Here we go again.

*beep*, *beep* , I *beep*, *beep* pass out liao!

Alas, my block leave is in effect. No more army for 10 days. It’s something to rejoice about eh? But then again, it’s pretty agonizing to think about the impending future for the next 1 ¾ years of National Service. I could imagine myself trembling on Friday as I check my postings. Perhaps, the army could allow us to hit F5 to refresh the page if we didn’t like our postings.

Ah, it’s a game, a game of randomness. I’m dreaming again, dang.

But life’s full of random stuffs, isn’t it? It could change your mood, your destiny, your whatever, the list goes on. It kind of makes things unexpected. It makes life more thrilling and unpredictable. It gives life a purpose, hence its beauty.

I could imagine some random institution sending me a letter that says I’m short listed for their scholars programme or maybe somebody I have been infatuated or lost contact with chats up with me at some random time of the day and making me smile with bouts of nostalgia. I could also just go banging on my table and shout, knnccb f this and f that at some random time, in some random place with some random people. The list goes on and on and it will neither be exhaustive nor definitive.

Do you see the beauty of it? The randomness in life? Without it, life would be pretty much boring and bleak. Scientifically, Man would not evolve because without randomness, life will be pretty much the same. Man would not explore further, civilization remained stagnant and the world will be a primitive place.

But yet, with randomness, people’s lives are at stake too. Natural disasters, scientific errors and on the contrary of the above paragraph, Man explores deep enough to develop killing machines to finish his own kind. Sad but true.

Ah, it’s all random, random and random. Unpredictable, surprising and arbitrary; life’s beautiful, aint it?

Ok, enough of my random ramblings.

Anyway, amidst all the female musicians I saw on youtube, I found one which has the most potential of being my girlfriend.

Nah, in my dreams only. But among all the females guitarists I have seen, most of them have the worst stoned face expression I’ve ever seen, some of them played without any soul at all and some are cleavage baring.

But anyway, this Korean lady is covering Larry Carlton’s Bubble Shuffle and she is using a Fender Strat.

Support Local Music. Rock For Wayne; Rock with me as I turn Private.

Rock for Wayne - A tribute to the drummer of The Suns who had passed away. A tribute to kick start the efforts done by him to spice up the local music scene. Renamed as Rock for Wayne, this tribute show will showcase some of the best local bands. Enough to rock you for good and enjoy the local music scene. Get your tickets from The Pavilion at Far East Square now!

you wake up every morning, just in time to watch the dark sky and the stars glitters. Somewhere across the horizon, the sun breaking out. Birds chirping, reminding you of home. But when you think of home, you think of your bed and when you hear the chirping sounds, you know its morning but you would just cover your blanket over your head, clutch your favourite soft toy and go back to sleep.
How nice.

Shouts bellowed from somewhere. My dreams of my own room and my home vanished. I see people running around, dazed. Somehow, I was moving. I couldn't feel my legs but I know I was running. Images of my friends, people I know and love, my room, my soft toys and my blanket threatened to make me fall.
I stopped.
I looked up, the skies still littered with stars. This has been my best comfort. The only thing that is beautiful and magnificent, the only thing that reminded me about the beauty of life.

I looked ahead. My arms swinging back and forth. I was convinced I wasn't mad. I was moving in steps together with people that were as dazed as me. They were people, aesthetically beautiful in their own forms, civilized and healthy.

They were my friends, my buddies, my acquaintances.

I woke up again to the dark skies once more, this time with a strange feeling. My foot tattered with dying skin cells and clotted wounds. My muscles stretched to its limit. Images of my home do not appear often but they still do and haunt me when I looked at the dazzling lights from across the sea. I have grown sick from hearing the loud roar of planes flying over us. And sometimes, I do wonder if people inside the plane could see us, awed at how miniature things could get from above and their beauty too.

My bunk was quieter when I woke up. 3 of us had left, forever not healthy anymore. In their own form, they have become uglier. Their backs deformed, blood vessels not working, the beauty of life for them tarnished.

Back to the present, the 24km route march was an experience. Experience that I would not want to go back again, ever. But could I? Graduation is in 3 days time and I am glad i do not have to board a ferry and go to an island so detached from everything. I spent my time in empathy, understanding the workings of SAF, how individuals can sometimes feel so numb.

But whatever it is, it is a rite of passage. Like the quote I always see when I book in, "Its not what you leave behind, its what you gained in the days ahead."

Something Good

Something good, an annual charity busking festival will be held from the 9th to the 17th of June. How nice. I can spend my 2 weeks block leave watching good street performers. Furthermore, the Arts Festival is also underway, which will make my block leave enjoyable. =D The sad thing is most of the performances during the Arts Festival is not free. =(

Anyway, not going to blog much. I'm going to pass out soon and this week will be my graduation route march. Hopefully, time passes this fast and 2 years will be over.

Videos ahead.

Ling. She will be performing during the busking festival and she's good. She writes like Bic and sings like Jewel(or so i think) and has the sweetness like Norah Jones.


Together with Amanda Tee. Heard Amanda is from CJ. (she still in J2) I heard rumors that there's this female guitarist from CJ by the name Amanda that can shred since last year. Maybe this is the same Amanda. Her website.

I know its getting pretty irritating to any frequent readers here that I'm talking about Bic Runga again. I hope nobody thinks I'm falling in love with her and tries to stalk her. hahaha! I'm really impressed with her talents. I have not heard a good female vocalist and songwriter since Jewel or Norah Jones or maybe Corrinne May or Rachel Yamagata. She's from New Zealand and she has Maori blood. The last time she came to Singapore was 1997 and hopefully she flies here again.

Anyway, Bic has an elder sister called Boh. She's pretty good but i still prefer Bic's music.

Bic Runga - Something Good


Bic Runga - Get Some Sleep


Bic Runga - Sway. I finally found the MV and she looked damn funny with her short hair sia.


My favourite song from Bic's latest album, Winning Arrow.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mlgi3iA_0Ws

And this is Steve Vai performing with Nelly Furtado. They are performing I'm Like a Birdddd.

"I'm likee a birdddd!"




And so this is the end of yet another post and sadly I will be back in there for another 5 days. Its really depressing and like one of my pltn mates had said, every book in is like PMS, just that we males called it a different name. We called it the pre-book in syndrome. Your mood just dropped tremendously and no matter how much inspiring music u play, it just cannot lift your spirit.

HAI

I survived sia.

Nabei, i can't believe I was in the jungle on a Saturday and then rushed like mad back to our bunks and prepared our bags to book out without bathing for a full 3 days.

Imagine how we stink sia.

I thought after our field camp, SIT Test wont be a problem. BUT i was so damn wrong. Field camp was heaven compared to SIT test(compared to Ninja coy, ours was total heaven). It was so damn tiring during the whole damn test as we moved from checkpoint to checkpoint. Then along the way we have to leopard crawl plus we got arty drills, depending on the officers' and sergeants' mood and then when walking to our next checkpoint, we would get lost somehow and got more tired. Sometimes along the way, some of the ppl in the team will get shot and then we have to carry the casualty to the next checkpoint. When we got tired we dropped the casualty and we have to go back again and restart.

I was so damn shagged sia, feel like giving up throughout the whole SIT test. But nevertheless I finished my SIT Test and BMT is so much easier now. I heard N coy had a bad time during their field camp. They had their field camp while we had our 4 days break and it rained almost everyday and the heaviest i think was Tuesday night. They didn't even get their canteen break and they had RO till 10.30pm. We had free time from 6pm to the next morning after our field camp. Ahaha.

Sian mann, i miss home every now and then sia. Tml have to book in again, next week booking out on a saturday again. Hai, I realise time is the thing I always take for granted sia. Its not really the comfort of the air con, my bed or the fresh food i get in civilian life. Its time sia. I got so little time everytime I book out, its beginning to be very difficult to do the things I enjoy during my civilian life. Like now, I book out few hours ago and I have to book in tml's evening and I have alot to do for my next book in. In the end I have to cancel my spiderman 3 movie and I can't watch tml either.

Damn it sia, i NEED more time.

Never mind, only 2 years nia.

I'm Back.

I am so crazy over Bic Runga. I even went to amazon.com and ordered her album when i can't find them at gramophone. Brilliant songwriter, soothing voice and charismatic, I'm still waiting for her to fly to Singapore and perform. Somehow i think she bears a certain resemblance to Jacintha Abisheganaden.

These 2 songs are my favourite. "Listening to the Weather" from Beautiful Collision album has very beautiful lyrics, a good vision of life and the love in it and "Sway" from the Drive album.

"Listening to the Weather"


"Sway" Not her actual video, but the background music is from her album. The lady in the video is not Bic but someone who is lip-syncing her.


I just got back from my 2 weeks confinement and enjoying my 4 days break. Field camp was an experience that I will never forget. It was more mentally tormenting than physically strenuous. Many of my platoon mates broke down, especially when digging the shell-scrape.

Argh, many more days to march 2009. damn it.

Bic Runga and Ana Free

BIC RUNGA!!

Sway is my favourite but she doesnt have a MV for it. This is the best live quality i can find.


This is Ana Free doing a cover of Sway.


And this song called Drive by Bic Runga is the song that made Bic famous.



Hai Today is my book in day, sian.

Bloody Conscript Army

There you go,
I'm a conscript now.
obligated to serve the nation and stuck in a far far place in the south china sea.
I am in B coy now or Bronco Company, the only company to have warrant officers as our platoon commanders.
All of them the same one, damn vulgar. The platoon 4 PC is the worst. All the tattoos spread over his arms and every single sentence got the F-word. Our OC also damn funny. Instead of pronouncing lanjiao properly, he keep saying lap cheong (he's an indian so dun blame him). Now because of that, my platoon is crazy over saying lap cheong.

My platoon also damn funny. u know every night the tekong night very starry one. can see the moon so clearly, can see the glittering stars and sometimes faint light from a distant planet can be seen too. anyway, we were falling in after night snack and as usual our sergeants were missing. So some of the ppl in the platoon start doing a hand motion and sang "Pei Wo Qu Kan Liu Xing Yu"(watch the shooting stars with me). They did it for around 3 times and a plane flew by. Because at night, there are lights at the fuselage of the plane, so it looks like stars flying by in the night sky. SO, my platoon mates all went "WOW!!" damn hilarious lah.

then there was conflict already in my platoon. like this person who always like to be the right marker during fall in and also he talks alot. So we called him RM, a.k.a right marker a.k.a recruit major a.k.a no. 1. Then one of my pltn mates got pissed off because he kana guard duty due to someone's SBO. He almost want to punch the guy lor. Then another incident was that our corporal saw someone pouring water from our platoon level. He asked all of us to come down and ask who did it. nobody replied what, so we kana fucked. So as usual, everyone was angry, everyone was suspecting everyone.

next week is the last week of ptp liao. so fast sia, how i wish ptp dun end so fast. im dreading bmt lor, it would mean less admin time, night pt and many more shit, summore i have another 12 days stay-in in 2 weeks time. argh! After thinking of the goals i wanna achieve in NS, i have decided to chiong for guards. I heard its very tough, everyday must chiong-sua down there but nothing beats the experience of fighting war in a chopper and rappel down from it and go fight a war. Also, i heard during the guardsmen survival training, u must kill a snake and drink its blood. But i want to wear the khaki coloured beret and don a guards tab on my left shoulder.

hahah, now its my long weekend, shiok ah!

BYEBYEBYE!

IM GOING OFF TO THE ARMY. SEE YOU PEOPLE IN 2 WEEKS TIME. BYE BYE!

A casualty of my own incompetence.

What if i tell you that this post is filled with depressing, angst ridden thoughts? Would you want to read on and listen to my self-deprecating comments on my life? Probably you would, because you wanted to read how pitiful and depressing this guy actually is and maybe had a good sneer in front of your computer's screen whilst chain of thoughts whizzed past your Grey matter in your skull.

Depressed, however does not necessarily mean sad or low in spirits, even though they are the conventional definition for that particular emotion. But it is also synonymous to being discourage; a sense of hopelessness and low self confidence.

But what exactly am I trying to say here? You must be wondering and probably expecting me to start off with a self-pity remark. I could have typed my wish to end my life so as to escape the realities of life because my results were bad even though i have a perfect family and life or maybe I could have typed that I am much healthier, full of vigour in real life but I am still unsuccessful and unhappy in life because what matters in this society is your education qualifications.

But come on, self-pity is for losers. Period.

It does amaze me that self-pity is a trait in which humans indulges in to find solace. Most of us do it subconsciously, some do it to find comfort. But this is not my point in writing this blog entry. My point is simple, i did badly for my A levels and i decided that to start off with a self-pity, depressing post about my bad results would turn people off. At the same time, I have been going through some introspective thoughts on my results and the only thing i could think of is that I am a casualty of my own incompetence.

Anyhow, I went for my last day of work on Thursday. I was reluctant to leave actually but both clement and I have no choice because we are going to be conscripted in 2.5 weeks time. Last meal there was sumptuous and the people there were as heartwarming as usual. I was pretty surprised that they actually gave us parting gifts and that really really touched me. Handshakes were exchanged when we left and it was emotional(HAHA but i wasnt joking). Fortunately, clement tore down the shelves as we were about to leave. We have to stayed back for 30 mins to move back the shelves and the files. It was tiring but we didnt mind.

Memories.....

Hmm..

Hello!
Its been ages since i last blog huh?
Damn it! I'm losing my readers!
But come to think of it, who would really want to read about the life of an average joe?

Anyway, i stumbled onto this website which amazes me because it really do justice to my motto, "Think Simple". Simple diagrams like them speaks more than i write on this post. Go and visit it @ http://www.indexed.blogspot.com .

I finally bought a new guitar. Unfortunately it isn't Ibanez JEM. My guitar belongs to the family of Ibanez Prestige series. Although its pickups are stock pickups from Ibanez, i love its tremolo lock. Beautiful, sexy and well polished, the Edge Pro tremolo lock is not to be messed with. It keeps ur strings in tune even after hours and hours of wanking with the whammy bar.

Headstock of my new axe. You can see my tremolo lock.















My axe's bed!














The bridge part of the tremolo lock. I know its not parallel to the body but luckily the tech guy helped me fix this.















Welcome to the family, heh.














Well, of course like every new stuff i bought, i have difficulties using the guitar initially. This machine is more complex than my old guitar because my old guitar is a fixed bridge while my new one is a floating bridge. Therefore, tuning the strings is a hassle and takes more time now and when changing a new set of strings, i have to be extra careful because im using more tools to change. When i first started using it, i have to tune it every 30 mins and it was extremely annoying but soon after it got better after the guitar tech guy taught me the essentials. =D

Ok, enough of guitars lah. I'm always talking about guitars, music and more music and it probably bore most of you off because i know you want to know more about my life. haha! Anyway, clement and I are going to work for the last week next week. I've never regretted going there to work and in fact im so grateful to be there. Besides the experiences gained from there, it has also showed me that the society is not that bad as it seems. The people are so nice, really nice(maybe because we are still kids, heh) but we do quarrel with them but in a more slap-stick manner, like Dilbert comics and the office show on arts central.

Probably going back there when i finish NS.

Anyway, i watched 2 new films this month. Both of them pretty sucked


I know nothing about Ghostrider being a character from Marvel comics but that doesnt mean i will not understand the movie. The movie has an extremely lousy plot and besides Nicholas Cage, i dont like any actors/actresses in there at all. The only thing that complements it is the CGI effects. Dont watch it unless you are a big fan of CGI effects.





Jack Neo's Just Follow Law did not do as good as his previous films. It is about 2 person, Lee Teng Zui(Gurmit Singh) and Tanya Chew(Fann Wong) exchanging their souls due to a freak accident. Along the way, the ironies of being a public servant and an insight look of the workings of endless hierarchies in a govt office is slowly pointed out to the audiences from the 2 main characters and their acquaintances using parodies and slap-stick humor. Personally, i think the parodies in this movie is really pathetic and some of them are really old. Jokes such as the CCTV-Gomez thing was used in a very distasteful manner. But of course there are a few memorable and humorous ones which would still tickle our funny bone. On the brighter side of things, the performance by the actors in the film managed to save the film. It was very fresh watching Fann Wong acting a very different character and personality in her years in showbiz. I especially like her crying scene at the last part of the movie because it was so raw, so honest. Love it. This time round, memorable figures like Mark Lee and Patricia Mok were not present but they were replaced by the quirky, law abiding Indian security guard. Watch out for him! Even though the plot manages to bring its point out, it has some difficulties ending the story. The ending was really horrible, it was as if the scriptwriter wanted a twisted ending but decided that he couldn't think of one, so he finishes off with a happy ending. bah! Watch it if you have money to spare.

I recommend anyone who is reading this to watch these movies. Its a must WATCH!

and also not to forget Donnie Darko. Heh! Im going to jchua hse to watch it tonight, yay!

Mosaic Music Festival

Ok this is a badly edited picture. You can see the uneven edges and the slanted border. Well its my first time using Adobe Photoshop since 10000 years ago.

And finally,
I have been waiting for this for 2 years already! This year, the festival will feature both local and foreign talents through jazz, world music, soul, electroclash, hip-hop and more. WOW! But i hate hip-hop and some of the traditional music from certain groups but there's always other artists that would compliment that! On top of that, i get to watch Rani Singam perform! She's a lawyer turned full time singer and was once dubbed the Nightingale of Raffles Girls' School! Our very own local jazz singer. BUT, i was so shocked when i heard that she's performing for the kids! WHAT THE HELL! =( . C'mon do u think the kids will actually appreciate and enjoy the jazz musician? Bah!

Call sistic now and buy those tickets!

http://www.mosaicmusicfestival.com















Just like how Singapore needs more street musicians, we need more street graffiti like this and this. They could liven up our streets with more improv-actors walking around, like them.

And..
Before I die or anyone who is reading this,
All of u should go watch the movie Donnie Darko. I have not watched it yet but its on the list of top 55 things u should do before u die and the movie's website is uber awesome. Winner of numerous awards, you should not hesitate to visit it.















Nice sia!

latest bites :)

I've realised why i should'nt change my blog layout and stick with the customized layouts done by blogger. New layouts from blogskins.com makes my life more difficult than ever. I can't even edit the HTML codes through the blogger's new tool, thus this new layout will remain as it is.

I still felt dejected and frustrated when I saw the price tag for the Ibanez JEM. How in the world would I be able to afford it? A couple of weeks ago, I went for my first day of work, thinking that at the end of the month I would be able to save up enough to buy that guitar.

"Finally, a job that is reliable and stable."

Fresh out of school, I thought having a job would be good before enlisting into the army. I went there with abit of over-enthusiasm because I was bent on working to my objective, my new electric guitar.

Still grinning, I decided to drop by at Swee Lee Music Store at Bras Basah Complex after work. I just could'nt stop thinking about it. My fanactism was so powerful that I could'nt control the urge of going there. I fantasized about how I would be able to produce the colourful, warm and thick tone Steve Vai always manages to produce.

There it was, gleaming in its whiteness. The pine tree of life on the fretboard was glowing, as if it was motioning me over. Its surreal scream and tone transcends all of human imagination.

Then, I saw this piece of paper hanging on the tuning pegs. It was'nt supposed to be there. I thought if this were to be part of the guitar, then it would be a fashion disaster for the looks department. The content on the paper seems to be clearer with every blink of my eyes.

It was like how a boy would feel when a girl rejected him. That feeling of lost, unwanted and broken soon overwhelmed me.

Tears soon welled up in my eyes...

***

ok. i was bored.

My Love.......so far away.

ka ni na bu chao chee bye....

Yes.
U cannot see meh.
I damn angry now.

I saw my first love
My heart melts
My world stopped moving at that instance.

I watched how she stood there.
Gleaming
Her skin so smooth, so pale.
Her body so solid, very slim and beautiful.

I like the way she turns me on.
But when i saw her with another man,
I was feeling damn cheebye.

ka ni nah bei chao chee bye - i thought.

all my love for her gone down the drain.
bitch
I've waited for her for years.

Everyday, i will travel to Bugis just to see her
I will stand by the window, watching her,
standing there minding her own business.

Many men lust for her.
but i know its just because they are damn horny.
But limpeh?
I'M FOR REAL!
I GIVE U TRUE LOVE.

I know i cannot afford to live with u.
I'm poor, i have so many problems with my family and all.
My family hates u, they hate u so much.
But i'm prepared to leave them for u.
I will work hard to live with u forever n ever.

hai.


















I just want to say

I LOVE U, IBANEZ JEM!



This is Ibanez JEM, my first love. Chio or not?













sorry people.
i know i've just wasted a few minutes of ur life. but i just wanna say i'm so pissed off with the ever increasing price of Ibanez JEM. Last year it was 1.7k, now its 4.7k. When will i ever get to play that guitar and be steve vai?

Like i said mann, i will stand at the window of the guitar shop to admire that guitar. Its designed by the legendary musician, Steve Vai. I swear by it and will never buy any other guitars mann. Waited for 1 bloody year and I'm still waiting, damn it.

=(

Chicks that rock!

This girl covered steve vai's song. can u just imagine it? She's holding an Ibanez JEM, played the full song(the crying machine) and she got more balls than me. But she made alot of mistakes here and there, her bending and vibrato was bad and she screwed up at the last part. But whatever it is, it doesnt matter. She's probably like 14 and has the damn courage to perform on stage. bravo man.

note: I would advise anyone who really want to watch this to turn down their subwoofer(but not shut it down) because its either the audio quality in the video that sucked or the band didnt do a good sound check.



for the REAL steve vai version, u can go to http://youtube.com/watch?v=SNrDWdVrnrU

Next is Vixen mann! Vixen is from the 80's and its one of the few female heavy metal bands still surviving. Steve Vai's wife, Pia Vai, was a former bass player of Vixen. \m/

Edge of the broken Heart. My favourite song mann! Too bad, i can't find their MVs anymore.


Crying


oh man. why dont they have this kind of music anymore?

Not Ready To Make Nice

This is why i love the dixie chicks so much.


Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

I’m through with doubt
There’s nothing left for me to figure out
I’ve paid a price
And I’ll keep paying

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I know you said
Can’t you just get over it
It turned my whole world around
And I kind of like it

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should
*(What it is you think I should)*

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting



You have all the rights to voice your opinions, girls.

If you're looking for witty, sarcastic Brit comedy, Black Books is the one.

Episode 1 Part 1


Episode 1 Part 2


Episode 1 Part 3