This date comes around once every 4 years...might as well post here to mark the date, right?

-random thought of the day: I'm bo-liao!-

A post on friday afternoon? surely something's wrong!!

well, no...not exactly. my CO gave us today off, which explains why i'm at home now.

*6 hours of CoH later...*

yes, as i was saying, i'm home on a friday. perhaps most of you (NSFs, anyway) will be thinking how lucky i am, and how you could use a day off like this. under normal circumstances, i'd agree. but this particular week isn't considered normal as i have to book in early tomorrow morning. i'd rather not go into the details, but fact remains that i have to be in camp at around 7am tomorrow. guess it's a nice coincidence that this off came at this particular time. at least i managed to get all my laundry done. don't know why, but washing your clothes at home is just better than doing it in camp. it's probably irrational of me to even bring it up, but oh well.

on the way back from camp last night, it was announced that singapore had won the bid to host the 2010 youth olympics. naturally, i heard the news. pretty hard not to, especially with broadcasts made every minute or so. anyway, what i guess i'm trying to say is, i don't get what all the fuss is about. maybe it's because i haven't been actively following the story in the news, and i don't know how much work was put into the whole project. at any rate, it doesn't really seem like a big deal. sure, it would be nice to watch the judo competition (if we're even allowed to), but that's still in the future, so i won't think too much about it.

at this point in time, i am in a rather contemplative mood. i think it's largely because i'm re-reading my old posts (as i've taken to doing in recent months). i'm also doing some reflecting on the past week in camp, which leads to some questions and doubts on issues regarding power, rank and job scope, to name a few things. incidentally, i can safely say that most of the issues people have with army stem from these root causes. think i should meditate on that for a while.

anyway, i think that's all i want to say at this point of time. i'll blog again if the urge strikes (unlikely). so, in case i don't, i'll see you all again next friday night.

-random thought of the day: I have an odd craving for BK. Must...resist...-

I have about 20 minutes to cover close to 9 days of activities, which is not that difficult, actually.

last you heard was that i was set for guard duty. lucky that's over and done with. it was actually pretty brainless, though there were a few hiccups here and there. i don't think i'd mind doing guard duty, as long as it's on a weekday. bonus was i got to sleep in on monday. heh.

the rest of the week wasn't that remarkable. demolition on friday finished pretty early, so that's a blessing. wasn't really that strenous, except that i didn't get enough sleep the previous night, which made me rather zombified.

we're mid-way through february! i suppose that's a good thing. i'll only know for sure after march ends though. wish time would pass a little faster.

i realize that i haven't been following my mahjong ban. given that it's chinese new year, i've let it slip for the past week or two. but now that the mood is over, i'll begin strictly enforcing it again.

guess that's all i have to say at this point in time. better go prepare for book-in and stuff. until next book-out then!

-random thought of the day: 9 and a half months left!-

New year is here, and so far it's been pretty...normal. did the usual stuff like visiting relatives and collecting money ($660! an improvement over last year). nothing really out of the ordinary, except a call from camp to test whether i'd respond to it or not. fortunately, it wasn't a real summons. guess the COS was feeling a bit bo-liao.

so, today's the second day of new year. i was planning on getting up at 6:30 for some CoH, but i (vaguely) remember snoozing my alarm until it got pissed off and stopped ringing. as such, here i am, 3 hours later, doing some blogging before going into Paragon City a little later. after that, it's off to a friend's house for some MJ before finishing up at my cousin's place for dinner. looks like quite a busy day.

tomorrow's forecast is similar...CoH, MJ, dinner at turf city before booking in for guard duty. what a way to end CNY. oh well. i'm out of material, so i think i'll start with my CoH now.

-random thought of the day: Happy CNY!-

References are often made about "the calm before the storm". i wonder, how many people remember that it's calm after the storm too?

reason i say this is because this past week has been relatively peaceful, as compared to the one before that. guess people tend to ease up a bit after they know a bomb's been dropped. nothing really depressing happened, and things were actually manageable for a change.

of course, this could also be the calm before an even bigger storm, because we're going to be shifting into high-key mode after CNY. exercises, averaging at one per month for february and march, could really be bad for health. that, in addition to loss of some weekends, may mean that i won't be a happy man after CNY. but oh well. i won't worry about that now.

13 months and 3 weeks. that's how long i've been in the SAF. it's definitely more than the 10 months and 1 week i have left, but the time remaining somehow feels longer than time elapsed. oh well. i'm losing my train of thought here, so i'll end off and hopefully update again tomorrow

-random thought of the day: I want to watch Sweeny Todd!-