For the first time in almost 3 months, i had a completely stress-free weekend. it's mainly because my student couldn't make it for tuition (for both yesterday's and today's sessions), so i had some extra time to myself over the past 2 days. i suppose it's a good thing, since i have to leave for camp in about an hour's time. yes, you read that right. i have to be at company line at 7pm, which means i'll be changed and out of the house by 6:10 latest. luckily, this only happens once in a while, and it's because there's live firing going on tomorrow (i think). guess the moon's been really blue recently.

friday was spent at east coast again. we were organizing the healthy lifestyle run, and just because we were organizing it, we arrived there at 2:00am to set stuff up. faced some lack of sleep issues, but it was nothing major. if i'm reading my body's feedback right, i've probably got over it by now. so...yes. nothing too special for the run. after falling out (and showering and some other mundane stuff), i went to meet my cousin to watch The Dark Knight. i really liked the movie (which had the usual good quotes and occasional humour thrown in), especially the villains. both Joker and Two-Face looked really different from their traditional cartoon and previous movie incarnations. Two-Face's origins seemed more believable in the movie than in the comics. i mean, how can a guy splash acid on exactly half of your face?

back to the mini-review...the actors really played their parts well too. if i didn't know it a long time ago, i would swear that there was no way Bruce Wayne and Batman could be the same person. but then again, that's good acting i guess. the Joker actually reminded me a little of that clown dummy/dummy clown from the Saw series, and it wasn't just because of the face paint. he was that creepy i guess. anyway, it was good entertainment. only little issue was that perhaps it was just a bit too long. then again, it would be difficult to squeeze all that content into anything shorter, so i guess it was unavoidable. don't think i'd want to watch it again though. it's no fun when the Joker becomes predictable. the psychological roller-coaster effect's gone when that happens. i'd highly recommend this movie, but i'd advise to just watch it once.

following that, saturday was pretty normal. met a junior at the turf city gathering. well, not exactly at the gathering, since he followed our transport down, but you get the idea. i was quite surprised to hear that he was the one who approached my coach and asked to come along. but well, it's a good start. more young faces showing up these days. then had the usual mahjong (won $10! FINALLY! then again, there was a new bird at the table, so results may not stand) and crashed over at my friend's place. tried my hand at Ninja Gaiden 2, which i like, as well as Conan, which i like significantly less (though the gore is nice). right now, it just sucks that i'm stuck at a boss in Ninja Gaiden, and i only have ONE healing item. did i mention it's the weakest one too? oh well. i'll try again next week i guess. worst case i can restart. i've only put less than 3 hours into it, so it's not that great a loss just yet.

playing Ninja Gaiden has made me wonder if ninjas from the good old feudal days really could run up and along walls, hang on to pipes without ever losing grip and stay underwater for what seems like forever. one of the books i read before says they used all sorts of gadgets and tricks to achieve these impossible stunts, but they must have been really smart to do so. makes me wish i knew some of their secrets. heh. would sure help in avoiding arrows.

anyways, it's getting late (for me anyway, looking at my schedule). better pack up and get ready. can't afford to be late, right?

-random thought of the day: I have to visit RJC and SCGS soon.-

Double XP weekend began on friday night, and is expected to last until monday night. by right, i'm supposed to be on CoH right now, running missions and earning money. yet, i find myself in my cousin's house, blogging about how i should be spending my weekend. well, at least i'm here for a good reason, because i just gave tuition last night and this morning. my plan to install CoH on one of the computers here has more or less flopped, due to the fact that the computer is even slower than the one i'm using at home. don't even get me started on how badly fragmented the hard drive was. i knew it was a lost battle when the defragmenter showed more red than blue. so, i'm missing out on some good experience and money. oh well. slight consolation is that freedom server (i.e. my home server and the most populated one) is full and everyone else not already inside it is locked out. either way, i wouldn't have been able to play.

games aside, i think i'm falling sick. it's the typical cough and sore throat combination; only really worrying thing is the blood that sometimes gets coughed up. oddly enough, the blood only shows up in the early morning. otherwise it's just green for the rest of the day. normally, it only lasts for day or two, but i'm guessing the cold showers in camp are prolonging this particular bout of illness. well, guess i'll wait till evening to see if it clears up.

right now, it's 2+pm. have to go visit a relative at 3, and hopefully by the time i'm home, freedom will be unlocked already.

-random thought of the day: Luck has not been with me these past few days.-

Even though it is already slightly past 9:15pm, i am completely unprepared to book in. now, before "AWOL" comes to mind, i must clarify that it's because we were given the liberty of booking in tomorrow morning. it's a nice change to not be rushing for time on a sunday night, and not feeling the book-in blues (just yet). incidentally, this is the first time in about a year i have stayed out on a sunday (discounting stuff like off-in-lieu, leave etc.).

this weekend was one of my happier weekends in recent memory (except for a slight dampener, which i'll talk about later). saturday was the standard routine of turf city and mahjong. lost $6, which is kind of wasted, since i could have prevented it. in fact, i think i should let everyone know what happened, so the full extent of the wasted-ness can be seen and appreciated.

*people who are unfamiliar with mahjong may want to skip the next paragraph.*

i had 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 of the same suit left in my hand. naturally, the first impression is that i'm waiting for 4 and 7 to game. but after some rearrangement, i realized i was also waiting for 2, 5, and 8 concurrently. sadly, i only found this out after the 2 had been thrown, and it was too late to declare that i wanted it. and someone else gamed a small hand on another tile (thankfully not thrown by me). so, that's a one-colour limit hand (inclusive of flowers) gone down the drain, which translates to a profit loss of $9.60 (excluding payment for the small hand). could have come out slightly on top too, if i had cashed in on this one. but oh well. it was one of the more interesting hands that i've been able to build in the past few months. calling/waiting for 5 different tiles is quite rare, but not unheard of i guess, especially when the maximum numbers can go up to 9, or as high as 13.

so, conclusion? must sharpen my mental reflexes a bit more.

now that that's off my chest, i can move on to other stuff, like tuition. i'm going to be honest here. this week's lesson was my deciding one, on whether i would give up the tuition assignment or not. i don't know whether it was pure luck, or whether the student could read my emotions/thoughts/body language, but today's lesson was (in my opinion), the best one i've had so far. ideas seemed to flow better, and i didn't have to repeat myself that often. i just hope she really understands what i've been trying to put across. had a talk with her mother after the tuition session, and i'm really grateful (not to mention happy, heartened, motivated, encouraged, etc.) that she's so supportive and understanding. the little chat we had gave me the confidence to promise her that i would stick with it all the way, not give up, and try to guarantee a pass, if not better. i know "try to guarantee" is kind of contradictory, but i'm still searching in my magical bottomless top hat for the miracle that i have to pull out to 100% ensure a pass minimum. i think i finally realized the importance of parental support, especially from a teacher's point of view.

i'm a little distressed right now. well, i've been quite distressed for the past 2 days, but let's not bring back bad memories. it's mainly because in the past week, no less than 3 people have remarked that i've gained weight after not seeing me for a month or so. i strongly believe that this started during the ops period, where there was a reduction in frequency of physical training. oh noes! better start running more in camp.

well, it's raining now, which i'm guessing is a sign for me to turn in early. then again, who in their right mind would sleep before 11pm on a weekend? i'm thinking of logging back into CoH for a while, though i doubt anyone will be online, given that there's school/work tomorrow. we'll see how it goes, and when my eyes start to close.

-random thought of the day: I have a plastic watermelon!-

Time in camp has accelerated to a more or less bearable pace, and i'm grateful for that.

my previous post talked about outfield and east coast. well, not everything turned out the way i thought it would. for one, i didn't have to go outfield since i'm no longer a combatant (more on that later). and i didn't even have to run today at east coast, partially due to the same reason. so essentially, today was pretty much a waste of time. at least i reached home by 11+am, and had a little afternoon nap to recharge.

now, about the part about me no longer being a combatant. remember i got downgraded sometime in may or june? well, it was to a non-combat PES. as such, from this month on, i'll be getting $100 less from the SAF. not only that, they deducted the pro-rated combat allowance from last month. so, result is i'm receiving VERY little this month (think slightly more than recruit pay). but it'll balance out again next month i guess. maybe i should push for my promotion. $30 more never hurt. on the bright side, that means no more SOC, IPPT or outfield. worthwhile trade? i don't know. probably i guess.

in case i haven't mentioned this before, along with the downgrade came a revocation. which means i'm officially no longer the company signaller. but unofficially, i'm still handling some (well, most, if not all) of the stuff until i can show my understudy the ropes and make him comfortable with everything he needs to do. speaking of which, i do need to come up with a list of stuff to teach him and the scheduled deadlines.

"power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" i first read about this quote in the spider-man 2 novelization (a cookie if you know who came up with the quote). right now in camp, i'm beginning to see that it does make sense.

it's already close to 2am (blame CoH for that), and i have to be up at 7 tomorrow morning. better go get some sleep.

-random thought of the day: Still haven't gone to the library...-

I had planned to head down to the library sometime today to borrow some books to bring into camp. sadly, that plan doesn't look like it'll materialize, since it's already 8:40pm. oh well. it's not like i'd have time to read anyway, given the coming week's schedule.

my tuition session this morning didn't go quite according to plan. now more than ever, i'm thinking of dropping this assignment. attractive as the money is, the stress and frustration just isn't worth it. i don't really consider myself that demanding; all i asked for were proper definitions (in sentence form) of partial pressure and dalton's law. and one week later, i didn't even get that. and don't even get me started on the organic chem outlines that were due months ago (and have not been handed up yet). i don't know whether it's lack of effort or genuine inability on the student's part, or if i'm just cui as a teacher. one way or another, i'll make my decision whether to continue or not by the end of this month.

mahjong was originally scheduled for today, but got cancelled as someone couldn't make it. so, my day was spent on CoH, where my new character has hit level 15 (or was it 16?), gaining 11 (or 12) levels in slightly more than 5 hours. quite an achievement, if i do say so myself, especially considering the fact that he's about 2 days old.

yesterday was cat high's homecoming day. unlike last year, i didn't have the motivation to go down, and besides, it was raining. anyways, i seem to recall someone mentioning that this year's event was less successful than last year's. so maybe it's better i stayed home?

ok...last thing on my mind before i go for a shower and pack my stuff for book-in. next week's schedule is kind of screwed up, with an outfield exercise (3 days 2 nights or 2 days 1 night?) and a 14km (or 16km?) run at east coast. on the bright side though, friday's a half day. so i'll have more time to relax and recharge. right now, it's close to 9:15, which means i'm cutting my time really fine here. guess i'd better go now.

-random thought of the day: In a rush now.-

Since i didn't blog last week, i'll do a (slightly) longer post this time round to make up.

Last week

it was the first time in my life i caught 2 movies in 3 days. went to watch kung-fu panda on friday after book-out, and zohan on sunday before book-in. both movies were good, though i think i liked panda better for the jokes and educational message. zohan, on the other hand, was typical adam sandler stuff. funny, slightly educational, but mainly good for laughs only. i guess the main reason why i was crazy enough to watch 2 movies so close together (and burn $20 in the process) was because that particular week seemed to drag on forever. probably needed to destress.

as i mentioned on facebook and in a previous post, the new alpha company just came in. reminds me of the time when my guys just came in too. a bit blur blur, a bit scared, and totally clueless about life in the unit. i mean, their posting order told then to just bring a set of PT attire for their first day, resulting in everyone getting a free night off to collect their stuff. unfair. anyways, i suppose they should have acclimatized by now.

ok...i'm due for a mahjong appointment, so i'll save this as a draft and continue about this past week when i get back tonight.

*4 hours of mahjong, 3 hours of shopping and another 3 hours of CoH later...*

This week

time seemed to pass faster than the week before, which i am thankful for. ran and ran, and observed SAF day too. not many highlights this week, except that my CO is now wearing 2 crabs, and someone in the company made a very serious (in my opinion) wrong move that managed to piss yours truly off to a very large extent. it's only 5 months more. 5 tiny little months and he'll be out of my hair. bear with it. oh. we had chemical defence too. did all the "gas! gas! gas!" stuff again, but thankfully, we stayed out of the chamber. kind of rusty after not doing it for a year, but i think we all survived the worst of it.

after chemical defence, we were screwed over for "slow movement". i don't know about how the rest feel, but someone has been getting on my nerves ever since he took on his new appointment. oh well. it'll all pass eventually. no point getting angry over it right?

Present

it's close to 11:20pm, and i'm due to give tuition at 9am tomorrow. guess i'll head off then. probably will blog tomorrow, but then again, who knows?

-random thought of the day: Feeling sleepy...-