Pre-ICT
Sunday, June 25
Going back to ICT soon... ICT = In-Camp training = Reservist (Not Reservice)...
My close friends will know I dun really detest ICT... in fact, I enjoyed my past 2 ICTs. Really, if ICT is being done with my close army buddies, how seriously bad can it get? Except for some of the cb commanders. I take it as a period to bond with my army friends once again and recall some of the good memories in army back then. If certain things like ICT can't be avoided, why not make the best out of it? Can still remember last year, when I took many silly videos of people being forced into cupboards, being stripped and being stuffed into the duffel bags. *Lol* (No more such videos this year! V3 sucks in taking videos as compared to E680!)
But... the one thing i hate is packing. It was last minute packing for my Taiwan/HK trip, very last minutes packing for moving out of Hall, and now very last minute packing for ICT. I packed for 5 mins, got tired of it and went to surf net for 1 hr. Packing for ICT is worse, coz there are a number of compulsory stuff to bring. I started to take my things out in the noon at 2plus, and now I am still only 50% completed in packing!
Will be back on Friday... Gimme a call if u miss me. *Muacks*
Author: Don » Comments:
Bored me...
Friday, June 23
The bored me went online for some MJ therapy. Good thing is, i'm the winner there, sad thing is, there's no real money involved. For MJ, nothing beats the real thing... (*hint hint* surely u guys wan to take revenge? =P). Oh btw to my MJ kakis, I realise I do have a MJ table (but no MJ set) @ home, and although it is very old, it should be still in good condition. Bad thing is, it's not very convenient to play @ night at my home. So the point is? We might still need to travel back to that faraway paradise for a session.
Havent played MJ with army buddies for a long time too. I really feel like bringing a set of MJ tiles to ICT lor! But i guess this seems ridiculous... Even though the schedule should be quite slack, but I can imagine the eyes of my platoon mates if I do take out mahjong tiles...
MJ ah MJ... Where art thou??
And the bored me also surfed forums as usual...
Note: IT refers to Incredible Tales
Haha! If u watched SI for the past few weeks, u'll get the idea. I thought any of the pre-finalists of Project Superstars sounded better than any of the SI wannabes... Eh no, those above were not my postings.
There was one particular contestant, i forgot her name so i shall call her bitch.
Ken: You have a weak voice. (something along this line)
Bitch: (indignantly) I certainly do not have a weak voice.
Bitch: (later after Gurmit comes up) - Forgot what she said exactly but if I remembered correctly, her tone wasn't that polite and she didn't thank the judges as well -
BITCH!!
Update: And then I realised smint posted this on her blog too! Aaaaaa... this proves that the contestant is really a BITCH with a capital B!!
Now remember that on Wednesdays, Incredible Tales is a whole night thingy. AAaaahhhHH!
Author: Don » Comments:
Cali
I stepped into the gym for the first time in 5 months, i think... My last gym time was during CNY coz I needed to look good. So when I stepped into the gym again, I was quite stunned... As in, I never been to this gym before and also, I forgot how to operate some of the machines. I tried to be cool and not embarress myself in the gym. Imagine all the *KLANG* *BOMP* and everyone's eyes...
And I decided, I need a gym membership... Heard from my bro that Cali currently has a promotion for their lifetime at $2488, which is the lowest I have heard (normally is $2888 liddat). But I still cannot forget the horrific marketing experience I had in Cali a year ago...
Well I was supposed to have a week's free trial and I brought along my friend. But the first thing when I was there was to have their staff marketing to me their policies. He seemed so desperate to sell us plans and I really think we got one of the lowest prices then.
Me & frd: But we only students...
He: There's this student rate...
Me: Still quite exp...
He: Ok can lower price... But can only come at these timing and cannot go all branches...
Eh that was only "Me" in the latter part of the dialouge. My friend had already indicated he wasn't that interested and me, as usual, was hesistating although my heart and pockets said "No!" while the body said "Yes!".
And then he showed his tactic: He told us to use fake names and addresses! He even printed out our fake names and addresses and showed us, saying that with this, we could terminate our contracts after 3 months coz the prices he offered us were for one or 2 years. *Stunned dio* Me and friend were going "wow... desperate sia... and a bit scary sia..."
So in the end we didn't sign up for any plans, leaving a pek chek sales officer and 2 pek chek customers who entered and left the gym with their gym attire dry and clean. And without the 1-week membership too. My friend later kpkb that I should say dun want if I dun want earlier, then we won't have wasted so much time there... but it's me mah...
Aaaaah that was one year plus ago. Today, Cali has a branch in Bugis which is more convenient for me and it has many interesting classes too like kickboxing. But the problem is, I have no money now for any gym memberships lor... Should have requested to start work earlier to save me the trouble of looking for temp jobs now... Coz... "Freedom without money is prison."
Author: Don » Comments:
Monday, June 19
It's been quite some time... Last week was quite a busy week for me, meeting up with people here and there, eating good food as well as a 15-hr MJ session with soccer in the background (aka RS's nick now... haha).
It's been about 11 weeks since I started on my keyboard lessons @ Replugged Music. Nice place and I suppose my progress should be quite okay. Well I am still in the beginners stage so there's still a bit of unsmoothness here and there. There's another guy in my class who seems very pro despite in the same stage. He's awaiting uni admission so I guess he has all the time to practise his keyboard now. But wait, I'm not the worst okay. Because, there's also a working adult and i think she doesn't have much time to practise... But she's very funny... Ha. And erm, since I have all the time in the world now, I should really spend more time... hmmm... eh hmmm...
Smint has this sudden urge to learn salsa. Well I desire to learn a new skill too, just that I thought I should learn some vocal skills to better perform in KTV sessions. But seriously, salsa sounds like a good idea too, just that I dun know if I'll have the time and energy to continue taking lessons when I start working... Seriously, auditing can't be that no-life right, or am I still in denial?? I should really start seeking other options, ah...
Reservist next week and i hope I will be able to achieve my silver IPPT. I need the cash!
Author: Don » Comments:
Settlers n Brewerkz
Thursday, June 15
I finally went down to Settlers Cafe yesterday! I have always long wanted to go down there have a look and relax while playing some games so... finally!
The first game that was recommended to us was this simple reaction game... It's not hard, it's just confusing. The objective of the game is to lose all our cards, and it's confusing because there are many similar but not identical shapes. Eh dunno how to explain la, the game gets more exciting as it progresses.
This was the second game we played before xp came along. It's a painting game that we have to bluff one another. It's not that bad, but i dun think it's ever possible to finish the game...
This, is an advanced version of Cluedo... Sibei confusing. Very chim for me, so i thought it's a bit boring... I kept hinting, wanna change game? See HMM working on it so enthu? Yep he was the winner coz he was the first to find out who was the missing character! This sort of games too chim for me le... haa...
Actually its quite cheap, coz they have a student package for June from 2 - 6 for only $6, free flow of drinks. After ordering some finger food, it wun get too exp too! Quite wu hua if the right games are being picked to play...
Then in the evening, we were pondering if we should stay to play games or go Brewerkz eat, drink and watch World Cup. We didn't manage to get a reservation so we decided to try walk-in at Brewerkz and see how... And we managed to get a seat, in front of a screen somemore! The only bad thing is, our side there dun have sound for some reason... It was a commentary-less soccer game. Still, the game was exciting because of the 4 goals by Spain!
We ordered 2 towers this time. We mistakenly thought that there's 50% off for beer during happy hour... But we managed to finish almost all the beer la, playing a bit of cai quan at the end...
The 2 chio beer girls!
The 4 suave guys at the table!
Author: Don » Comments:
Wednesday, June 14
U are invited to a friend's party and boy, u really want to attend it because there are friends there whom u have not seem for a long time. Even though u are terribly busy, u agree to your friend's request to attend it and even perform the best talent there. Even though this means rushing back from another country u are currently in. Even though this means cancelling your clients' appointments, and even risk compensating some money.
However, on the day of the party, a series of unfortunate events happen. Your flight is delayed. You lost part of your luggage from previous transit flights, which contained many important things, such as costumes for your performance later. You only have a few hours to sleep before you prepare to rehearse for the big event. And it was only a few hours before the party that you managed to rush to get back your luggage.
So it's the big event starting! Everyone is having fun, and is looking forward to your performance because you are the so-called King (or Queen) in this item. And it's your turn finally! You step on the stage with pride and proceed with your performance, hoping to awe everyone. Unfortunately, the worst nightmare occured and you cocked up your performance a bit here, a bit there, and perhaps to some, a lot everywhere. ARRGH but you proceeded to finish it off still! The crowd still cheers, but the next day, rumours start flying about your mis-performance. U wished u die...
Isn't this sad? U rushed all the way to show face for the party, yet ended up being criticised horribly by everyone. Of course, criticism is inevitable as honestly, the performance wasn't that great. But won't u be disappointed even more if everyone chooses only to focus on that performance and not on the sacrifices u have made? U are not making excuses, but honestly, u wished people would see your sincerity as well. On how u have rejected some clients (and even possibly pay compensation) to attend this, on how u chose to sleep less to rehearse more, on how u have managed to make it on time for the event despite the rush.
The horrible side of the media is, it doesn't report your sincerity, It only reports your end result. Because everyone would be more interested in how come the reputed performer has failed miserably. Besides, they have no incentive to publish the other side of the story.
Everyone has encountered such incidents before, and we tend to judge people by their results. It's in the nature of people and our education system only made it worse. Get straight 'A's and u r smart. Otherwise, u really are not, never mind if u excel in other areas such as sports and music.
Life goes on despite disappointments. The only way life can be happier is when we live up to our own expectatations and not living for others.
Author: Don » Comments:
Monday, June 12
What the?? Aus kept scoring against Japan in the last 10 mins... Me not a soccer crazed guy, but since the TV in my house is always tuned to the sports channels, n now channels 27 & 28, I do watch occasionally. What's more, now's the World Cup season, need to be in sync...
Actually watching soccer isn't that boring... It's just that i feel there are other channels with programmes that seem more interesting to watch alone, like some taiwanese variety shows or talkshows or gameshows.
And as i am writing this, Czech scored an early goal against USA. Wah~~~~
Author: Don » Comments:
台湾第17届金曲奖
Sunday, June 11
While the whole world is on World Cup fever now, there's another major event bustling in Taiwan that just ended not too long ago: 第17届台湾金曲奖, The major award ceremony in the Mandrian pop scene! Since I am quite free, let me bring you on a brief picture walkthrough!
Karen Mok looks super x 3 GLAM in this golden dress on the Red Carpet! She was going to give out the award for Best Male Singer again this year! Haa she gave out this award last year too and was partly responsible for the blunder involving Lee Hom.
Golden Melody Hosts, 小S & 陶子, on the Red Carpet. Super hot mummies, and their hosting skills are still the best, so it's great to see them hosting together!
Miss Cutsey Pop Princess Rainee Yang, showing one can be chio and cute at the same time! With her black oriental dress and black gloves, an element of cheena mystery was added onto her tonight! Dun miss her 35-carat diamond necklace too...
陈绮贞 & her bf 钟成虎. Oh I didn't know that her bf was also the producer of her album 《华丽的冒险》, which had many wonderful media reviews and which I loved a lot too.
3 male powerhouse singers, 陈奕迅、张学友、庾澄庆, posing together! Eason perfomed with Yanzi, belting out previous golden hits in the ceremony, while Jacky sang a medley of Teresa Teng's songs. Wow!
Sidetrack Update: Yanzi didn't perform to her standard. I read that she only had 3 hours of sleep because she reached Taipei at only 4am on the day of the Awards. This is due to her losing her luggage which was fortunately found in HK. Plus the fact that her appearance at this Awards was very last minute and she still has ongoing concerts in China, she hardly has time to memorize song lyrics by other male singers. Thus, she should be pardoned for her less than optimal performance.
As for some of the winners...
最佳国语女演唱人奖: 蔡健雅 《双栖动物》
Congratulations to Tanya Chua!!! She deserves this award for the album for which she performed really well! Penny Dai and Cheer Chan should be the other stronger competitors here, so I'm really glad that Tanya managed to garner it coz in S'pore, Tanya hardly receives any recognition. Tanya never really expected to win, so she was really stunned dio!
Tanya: "我妈妈今天拿到了母亲节她的礼物，这是献给你的." And Tanya's mum was there too, brimming with pride and joy!
最佳国语男演唱人奖: 王力宏 《盖世英雄》
Lee Hom, congratz!!! He did well in this album too, and he was highly expected to win. This year, he didn't go up the stage mistakenly like he did last year, but I thought he talked a lot of crap in his thanksgiving speech at the end. Before the award was given out, I was most amused at the part when 小S & 陶子 presented a video clip, popping fun at various people for last year's Male Singer blunder by putting the blame from Karen Mok unto Jay Chow, unto Machi, and even unto the audience. What a great way to ease the tension! 最佳国语流行音乐演唱专辑奖: 陶喆 《太平盛世》No pictures coz David Tao wasn't there. His dad received the award on David's behalf, where David already prepared several speeches for his various nominated awards, so his dad just read out the right speech accordingly.For more pictures, come come here: http://ent.163.com/special/00031TN9/goldensong.html
Author: Don » Comments:
Grandma cat op n Taiwan 2
Friday, June 9
There's this strong temptation in me now to look for other options, but the problem is, I dunno what... But I also dun want to wait and see, coz if I wait and see, then confirm I will wait until August and go Penang see see liao. So now I'll just actively keep an open eye and an open mind. Hmmm anyway the reason why I entered Acc in the first place was because I thought, Go Acc confirm got job in the future, save the trouble of self-looking. Sounds so lazy ah... haa. Now since I have nothing else to do, so might as well look for something better if there is.
Anyway I went to Eastshore Hospital today with my mum as my grandma had to do a cataract operation. There was a moment of shock initially when...
Nurse : Left eye?
- translate-
Grandma : (in canto) No it's my right eye that has problem!
Nurse : Huh?! But your letter said left eye...
- translate-
Grandma : Can't be... My right eye is the one that has problem....
Nurse : I go check...
No la the doc didn't make a mistake. After contacting my grandma's doctor, it turned out that my grandma's both eyes' cataracts also got problem, but her left eye was worse. But there are some floaters in her right eye so she thought it's her right eye that was to be operated. My mum wasn't very sure too, but never mind, the issue was resolved quickly.
Me and my bro thought that a cat op would be very fast, coz it makes use of laser, similar to Lasik, which is over like in 5 mins. But nooooo, cat op takes a much longer time. We reached hospital at 9.30, registering took 30mins+, then pre-operation eyedrops every 15mins or so for 2hrs. Soon it's 12.15pm, op time...
The op appararently took 0.5hr only, but grandma had to stay in op theatre for another 1hr for observation or so. When she reached back to her ward, we had to wait for almost 2 hrs before the bio report was out and she could be discharged.
That must have bored you, but the good thing is my grandma is fine after the op, although she is a bit unhappy over the waiting part at the end. And also over the 4 or 5 eyedrops & some pills issued to her. Btw, I thought that the staff there were all very helpful and friendly, especially the doorman and the nurse attending to my grandma. Great service.
--
Speaking of eyes, I would consider my eyes to be the most important part of our body... Thus, in the sun, we should always wear sunglasses to protect our eyes from UV rays!
This pic was taken on our first night in our hotel room after reaching Taiwan! I bought mine at the Yu Ren Ma Tou while Smint bought hers at the Shilin night market. Regretfully, that night, we only had like 2 hours or so there in Shilin! U tell me, 2 hours only, shop wat?? Shop wat??? Somemore, saturday shilin is horribly congested. So we went there again ourselves on another night and it was much better and shoppable!
We were waiting for the bus to drive us to Jiu Fen (?). I remebered there were quite a number of Chou Dou Fu stalls... However the scenery up there is awesome...
Can see the sea, some offshore islands and the sky... I love Taiwan when it's not raining...
One unforgettable part of our Taiwan trip was the long and longer bus rides from one place to another. I think we spent the whole afternoons travelling on some days. Well, there's our witty tourguide to entertain us onboard but most of us 4 people seem to be sleeping most of the time. We managed to play tai tee once though, and ate mango and shui yong on the bus on another. The fruits there are pretty juicy and sweet!
Author: Don » Comments:
Taiwan part 1
Thursday, June 8
Got my laptop back from 8 Flags... The HDD cable was spolit, so the guy changed the cable and the problem was solved. That spoilt cable left me without much internet access for the past few days though. But I still somehow managed to check my results on monday and there, a pleasant suprise for me. Makes me wonder if its the effective blessings of Kong Zi in Taiwan, and if so, must I go back Taiwan to return blessings?? Very far leh...
Speaking of Taiwan, I finally uploaded the Taiwan/HK and ZQ's bdae photos into my com. Some photos are really nice, and I dun mean just me, haha... The scenery in Taiwan there was really beautiful, with the mountains and rocks... Take for example, this...
Very nice! Not because u cannot see my face, u idiot, if this is what u wan to say... haa
It's as though I was admiring some calligraphy picture, which I could just walk inside and it becomes real. I forgot the name of this place, it's a scenic spot where the bus stopped for a while just for us to take pictures.
This is another scenic post where the rocks came in different sizes and shapes and looked like bee hives. I forgot the name of this place too, but I saw this on TV too where I think Tay Ping Hui and 715 were advertising for their new show and they were speaking in this place too. I dint like this place much coz it was raining when we were there.
This pic has nothing to do with beautiful scenery, but the man-made structures are magnificent.
This was the temple where there's a dragon and tiger. Erm that's a stupid description I know, but i think this is what the temple is well-known for. And our guide said that whoever touches the tooth/teeth of the tiger when exiting the pagodas will get to live one extra year. Well that could be either a blessing or curse but who cares, just touch la...
Through these pics, I realise I never really remember the names of the places that I have been to. I should make a greater effort in remembering the names of the places, rather than snapping pictures... I guess it will make the pictures more meaningful.
Author: Don » Comments:
Friday, June 2
I'm in the school library now, probably for the last time? My lappie failed again, most likely is the hard disk problem like last time. So I have to come back to school to find my invoice and send it to 8 Flags as well... And my home PC has failed as well, for quite some time le, I dunno, maybe it's a HDD problem too? The CD drive was spoilt as well for quite a long time, so I also dunno what's worng with it. Probably the motherboard. I was thinking maybe I should just sell the remains of my PC away and see how much it can fetch.
And this is why there's still no photos from my trip yet here... there's no computer for me to upload my photos now! Pathetic... Results will be out 6 June, wondering even if I have a computer for me to check my results then...
Author: Don » Comments:
X-Men
Thursday, June 1
I watched X-Men last evening!
Actually I won't say I am a fan of X-Men... never really watched the X-Men cartoons when I was young. But I did watch the movies X-Men I & II and wished I could have some powers like the mutants too. Like Storm... whipping up some lightning and killing the bad guys. Or Iceman, whose powers will be terribly useful in our hot SG. But not that porcupine head guy though, he's kinda scary to have needles popping up everywhere from his head to his toes.
Anyway I thought X-Men III was great as I thoroughly enjoyed watching every second of it. I dunno how hardcore X-Men fans will find it, maybe they think the plot isn't thick enough, maybe they think some scenes should have been emphasized more, but personally I love it. Maybe it's because it's a X-Men movie afterall, and I am especially attracted to the screen whenever Storm displays her powers. Woah!!!
X-Men was adpated from a cartoon which probably has an underlying meaning other than plain entertaining. There are always X-Men living amongst us, fighting for a certain cause in our society. Respect for one another is the key to survival.
PS. if u are going to watch X-Men, dun be in a hurry to leave after the movie ends... Wait until the credits finish rolling and u'll catch something...
Author: Don » Comments:
