Life works in funny ways. just when i thought things couldn't get any worse in the office, they did. guess i forgot to factor in a very important variable, i.e. the other party's response. oh well. frankly, i'm not too worried abount any stunts being pulled or stuff like that, mainly because i'm more lao jiao than the other person, and also because i only have to put up with this nonsense for another 6 weeks. sounds good, doesn't it? 6 weeks to ORD. heh.

now that my army life is coming to an end, i'm starting to think of stuff to do next year. there's an NUS early matriculation briefing coming up 2 saturdays later, and i'm still considering whether to attend or not. it supposedly lets you start class early (in may as compared to august). at this point, i'm going for maximum slack time, but my thinking may change next year, when there is too much free time. i think i'll go for the briefing to clarify my doubts. after all, i don't think attending it means school will start early, right?

meanwhile, in the slack space between army and school (which will either be 5 or 8 months), i'm thinking of giving tuition and/or helping out as an assistant coach to earn $$. if there's one thing about NS i'm grateful for, it's the opportunity provided for you to earn your own money and become that much more financially independent. right now, i've done some calculations, and if everything goes according to plan, my tuition idea will be giving me slightly more than NSF officer pay per month. that's why at this point, i'm still finding the idea a little too good to be true. we'll have to see how it works out in the future.

i'm feeling a little listless now, main'y because nothing interesting's happening in my life at this moment. guess i'll log in to CoH and complete my halloween event.

-random thought of the day: Happy Deepavali!-

So, i'm 20. or rather, i've been 20 for about 2 days and a bit already. there isn't much difference, actually. the earth still spins, and life still goes on. turns out i didn't get totally drunk on the day itself, though i did drink a little bit as an yi si to mark the occasion. thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes through SMS, facebook, friendster, blog, and phone!

so, what else did i do? booked my basic theory for one thing. the earliest test date is in december, which is 1.5 months away(!). if the trend continues, i think my target of getting my license by march next year isn't too achievable. but who knows? i may get lucky and have someone give up his/her test date for me, just like my cousin (whom i am still a little envious of). oh well. have to play it by ear and make the necessary concessions in the new year resolutions list.

i don't know why, but i've been prone to bad moods recently. oddly though, the majority of it seems to happen in camp. could it be a new twist on the term "ORD mood"? who knows?

tomorrow's a day off, because i took leave on my birthday, which happened to be an off day. so i got a bonus day off. i'm thinking of going to run some errands, but things may change, depending on mood and weather. we'll see how it goes.

lastly, remember what i said about banning monster hunter in camp? it actually happened!

-random thought of the day: Some people in camp have discovered my blog. Oh noes.-

Right now, i am exactly 55 minutes away from turning 20. on one hand, i'm excited as this is another milestone in my life. yet, i can't help but feel a little old and kind of sad (some people i know would say "emo") that i'm hitting 20. quarter life crisis i guess. oh well. i'm going to stick to my original plan and get drunk (or at least not 100% sober) as the time comes. hopefully, i'll feel well enough to post about it tomorrow.

-random thought of the day: It's been a generally bad day today.-

Before i start on this week's post, here is something that i intended to do (but conveniently forgot about) for my first post in october:

WAAAAKE ME UP...WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS!!

now that that's out of my system, let's begin on the post.

oh my...what an interesting week it has been. things have finally come to a head in the office, and someone (FINALLY) realized he's not on my "most likable people" list. long story short, i hate his guts. to think that i have been trying to see the good in him, to give him the benefit of the doubt when he screwed up something important, and generally saying "give him a chance to prove himself" all the way from may till september. well, he's proved himself all right...to be a real pain in the neck, that is. in hokkien, i guess you could say that i'm chin-sim (literally: cold/chilly hearted) towards him now. still, it's fun to say "piece of scum" when he's in close proximity. juvenile, i know, but i frankly couldn't care less at this point of time. oh well. 2 more months and he'll be out of my hair. no point losing sleep over it (though sadly, it's happened already).

another interesting thing that happened this past week is my cousin getting his driving licence. now, i'm not going to lie. i am EXTREMELY envious/jealous of him, because he did something i'll never be able to do in this lifetime, that is, getting a driving licence before the 20th birthday. well, there is a slight chance for me to do that, provided i pass my basic theory, final theory and practical tests all within the next 4 days (by the way, at this point, i haven't even registered as a learner driver yet, so there goes that particular dream). to think i beat him at PSLE, O-levels and A-levels (i'm really only saying this to make myself feel better now), and he got this ONE major win over me. damn. oh well. one good thing is i now have a personal chauffeur when i really require one. heh.

tomorrow's the cat high annual dinner, and i'm not going. somehow, my leave plans didn't make it through the grinder. oh well. from what i understand, this year's turnout may not be as good as before. hopefully the quota's met.

despite only having 8 more weeks of NS (or 30 working days, to be exact(!)), i still haven't officially handed over any part of my job scope yet (so much for 1 september, huh?). since the LRI went pretty smoothly, and the higher-ups are (hopefully) in a good mood, i think i'll tactfully broach the subject with my superiors and see how it goes.

i believe that's all i have for now. too bad i have to spend my last few days of teenager-hood in camp. i guess all i can do is try to enjoy it. shouldn't be too hard i hope.

-random thought of the day: I'm motivated to get my licence!-

Can you believe that 3 whole days have passed since i booked out of camp on tuesday night? i can't. time has a nasty habit of accelerating when you're not doing things you don't want to do.

anyways, the past few days were nice and slack, like all rest days should be. played mahjong on wednesday, where another guy in our group did a shi-san yao. that's 3 of us now. that same guy ended up being the ultimate winner, taking away $75 in total (i.e. $25 from each person). kind of crazy, but oh well. you just can't stop some people when they're lucky.

yesterday and today were spent doing almost nothing productive. just gaming and stoning around. was originally supposed to go do some research on driving today, but waking up at 12:00pm sort of killed that idea. so, i guess that'll have to be postponed to next week.

something's been troubling me recently. it's about this particular person whom i've only come to know of this year. it's quite a complex problem, but i believe it'll pass soon. well, it'd better. if i have one more dream like the one i had on tuesday morning, i'd wash my eyes in acid or something equally drastic.

well, it's past 6:00pm. i think i shall head down to the library to return my books, and possibly borrow a few more.

-random thought of the day: Hopefully, I won't get activated over the weekend.-