Originally decided to update before going to sleep, but fatigue won out in the end. going to save this as a draft and continue in the later part of the morning.

after many hours of sleep, being in camp, and CoH...

turns out that i could not update before booking in as per my original intent. at this point of time, i've spent my last night in camp, finished signing all the clearance that i can possibly sign at this time, brought all my belongings home, and in general, prepared myself for ORD as much as possible. only thing left to do is finish up and send some emails/letters, backup some files, and i should be able to leave in peace.

now that i'm slacking at home most of the time, i've begun to watch late-night/early-morning TV quite a bit. in particular, i've become quite fascinated by various cooking shows, mythbusters, and miami ink. though i wouldn't dream of getting a tattoo in the near (and quite distant) future, there are no absolutes in life. so, i figure watching it is good background knowledge in case i get VERY drunk and decide to get one someday. besides, it's interesting watching the various people come in for tattoos and discovering their background stories and getting insights into their reasons for wanting the tattoos. quite a few people get tattoos to remember deceased friends or family members (someone even got one for her deceased horse). there are the more interesting stories, like an old lady who got a nice curly "A" done on her arm. her reason: if not now, then when? makes you wonder sometimes.

thought-provoking TV shows aside, i've also logged into my fanfiction.net account, which had previously been inactive for 4+ years (come on! how to write fanfiction in JC? you've got to be kidding.). looking back at my attempts to write something worth reading, i can't help but cringe a little every few lines or so, much like i do when i read my older blog posts again (and most likely what i'll be doing in the future when i re-read these posts). surprisingly, the stuff i've put up there have got quite a few positive reviews, and some of them are asking me when i'll continue. don't know if they've given up waiting yet, but i think i should have a new chapter out soon, provided i don't pull the rest down for editing, and also provided my background knowledge of the characters is as good as it was in 2004. worst case is, i'll start developing one of my original fiction ideas. there's no need for any background knowledge, since the characters are yours anyway.

briefly looking back at my posts for the entire year reveals that i have not been to east coast for my annual pilgrimage yet. and no, going to east coast for army activities doesn't count. i think i'll fit a trip in sometime in december, though i'm not sure what good it'll do me, since i think i can safely say that all of this year's major hurdles have been crossed already. oh well. planning for the future i guess. it'll probably do my heart/soul good to take some time off for a walk along the beach too.

well, i guess that'll do for this round of updating. will probably be going to popular later to get some stationery and other stuff (like Eragon book 3). think the fresh air will help to generate/develop new story ideas too.

-random thought of the day: I can feel my wallet self-destructing.-

Now that i'm on leave, i'm trying to increase the frequency of my updates. it doesn't show (yet), but i guess it will by the time i get my IC back.

all of a sudden, my to-do list has lengthened by about double. it's mainly because of the friend who i met in J8 last week (mentioned in my previous post). in our subsequent meet-up yesterday, we've talked about a wide variety of topics, including bowling, ice skating, tuition, mahjong, cycling, and other pretty random stuff. it was...interesting, to say the least. looks like my upcoming 8 months or so of slacking isn't going to be as boring as i'd thought.

went to thomson plaza yeaterday for 2 reasons. first was for the meet-up, second was to get a lightbulb for my lava lamp. background info: it's about 4 or 5 years old (!) and it was imported from the US. sad thing is, USA runs on 110 or 120V electricity (can't remember which) while singapore runs on 240V. so, if i plug it straight into the outlet, i'd get a short circuit, blown bulb, and if i'm reallly unlucky, a fire. so, i went to get a 240V-rated bulb for it instead. now, it just doesn't light up at all. the physics student in me is saying that it's probably because the wires and switches can't handle 240V, or the switch is spoilt, whereas the handyman/technician/guy in me says it's because either the new lightbulb's too small, or doesn't fit right, or simply because the plug's a weird shape which does not exactly fit the socket. confusing...definitely have it give it more thought. worst case is i'll get a transformer. it'll waste energy as heat at all that due to inefficiency (see? i do remember my physics!) but the therapeutic effect from watching the lava go up and down should offset/make up for that (now i'm bringing econs into the picture. go me!).

i suppose a side effect of not adhering to the army lifestyle is that my sleep routine is quite thoroughly screwed up. what's been happening for the past few days is that i've been sleeping at 4+ am (!) and waking up around 10 or 11+. definitely not that healthy, but oh well. at least i'm getting enough sleep to get by. will probably have to re-adapt just for ONE last working day.

speaking of which, my last working day is wednesday afternoon/thursday morning. kind of an odd choice, but i suppose it helps to maximize the chances of running into people for clearance signing. well, either way, i won't say anything as long as my last day is peaceful.

meanwhile, let's not cross that bridge until we get to it. to distract myself from army stuff, i'm going to watch madagascar 2 later! fun stuff. and to keep you all distracted, here's Bon Jovi's Livin' on A Prayer performed by the chipmunks (unfortunately, there's no video, but it does sound cute):

see you all when i get back!

-random thought of the day: I'm on a pretty tight budget due to unforseen costs. Sian.-

Pardon me for the lack of updates. spending a weekend in camp means no internet access for about 9 days, hence the short dry spell over here.

anyways, i'm beginning the process of clearing my leave, which results in me having very little working days all of a sudden. it's most definitely a good thing, but boredom does come into the picture sometimes. that's why i'm trying to keep myself occupied in various ways, be it a library trip, walking around J8, playing CoH, or simply blogging. kind of sucks that i'm still unable to put my post-ORD plans into action despite having all this free time. but as it says, "post-ORD". so, just have to wait i guess.

with any luck, this past weekend will be the last weekend i have to burn in my NSF life. my longer-than-usual stay in camp was mainly due to the fact that my comapny was on exercise from friday to monday. still have no clue about the results, though. rumours are widespread and quite contradictory sometimes, so no point speculating now.

yesterday, when walking around J8, i had a sort of weird feeling that i would see a particular friend somewhere. it wasn't too unprobable actually, since he's staying out. true enough, i ran into him outside the cinema. turns out he was on half day off. heh. talk about premonitions.

the next few days are (hopefully) going to be more interesting. have to go run a few errands later, and maybe drop by a friend's place. have to see how it goes i guess.

-random thought of the day: I can't believe I spent $100+ online!-

Deviation from my usual saturday routine is not something i do too often, but yesterday was special (sort of). had a talk at NUS in the morning (hence explaining my absence from turf city). met a few old secondary school and JC schoolmates/classmates there, along with the occasional army friend. quite scary to think that these people could potentially be in my tutorials/lectures next year, especially after we've seen each other so much in school/camp already. as for the talk, it was short but informative, and highlighted a few points about early matriculation which i hadn't thought about. having heard what they have to say, i think i'll most likely enroll for only one part of the special term, or choose to be ordinary and start the school year the same time with everyone else. i know it sounds crazy to even think of starting school early, but i suppose it would be good to, as the nice speaker said, "ease into school life again after 2 or more years of not studying." well, we'll see how the orientation package i'm supposed to receive at the end of the month influences my decision.

after the talk (and slacking at home a bit), i went to give my LAST tuition session. it was nothing out of the ordinary, except that i got a watch as a "thank you" present. wasn't expecting that at all. if there's one thing i feel regretful about, it's the loss of this particular source of income. oh well. at least one of my major sources of stress is gone, so i suppose it balances out. at any rate, i hope that i'll get good (or at least tolerable) news regarding the results next year.

to round off the day, i went to attend my cousin's son's (i.e. my nephew's) first-month celebration dinner. normally, i don't meet up with my dad's side of the family unless there is a wedding, funeral (touch wood), or unless it's chinese new year. so, it was kind of nice seeing all the cousins and assorted nephews and nieces that usually only appear when the moon is blue and the planets align. in the course of the dinner, i found that my cousin (whose son turned a month old), was in the same officer cadet course as my previous and current COs. i think this is, to date, the biggest coincidence i've experienced, be it in or out of army. heh. i wonder how my CO will react when i tell him? should be interesting.

ook...i've been on the computer for way too long. just let me wrap up. next week will definitely be the longest week i've had in sungei gedong since around march or so. reason being there's an exercise stretching across the weekend. better make sure i have enough uniforms and other stuff. on the bright side, i'll be booking out the following monday night/tuesday morning for my dental FFI, followed by 7 days of not being in camp due to off/leave/weekends. quite looking forward to it. but let's focus - exercise first, long long weekend later. but before the exercise, i figure i have time for a library trip now. see you all whenever!

-random thought of the day: After this week, I'll have less than 5 working days left!-

My oh my, what a week it has been.

this week has had me feeling angry, sad, excited, impatient, hopeful and a little embarrassed, all at different times. the negative feelings are mostly reserved for within the camp compound, while the rest is for outside camp. let's go into details:

even though i have only 5 (or 3 working) weeks left in camp, army life is becoming less and less bearable. it's mainly due to that certain someone's antics, which have levelled-up over the weeks. but that's not all. recently, other things have come into play. these other things are trivial compared to the major pain, but they're still rather depressing nonetheless. i just want to get out of army fast. is that really so hard?

the other (mostly positive) emotions are due to life after army. the only negative emotion attached to this is impatience, since i have to ORD first before i can execute any of these plans! the worst thing is, they sound so do-able and fun, and that's probably what's making the remainder of army seem like a drag. in fact, i'm highly anticipating 2 such plans, namely giving tuition and assistant coaching. the rough outlines have been drawn already, and we just have to smoothen the details out as we get closer to the start date.

in anticipation of my ORD, i've come up with a checklist of things i have to do before i can ORD in peace. it looks something like this:

1. Blood FFI

2. Dental FFI

3. Final FFI

4. Hand over all job scope

5. Write farewell emails to certain people

6. Clear all personal belongings from bunk and office

7. Sign clearance forms

8. Impart last words of wisdom

so far, i've done 1 and 4. i'm also midway through 2, 5, and 8. other than this, there isn't anything much left for me to do in camp, except to accept the odd arrow in preparation for the upcoming exercise (for which i'm thankfully not going outfield). oh well. 5 more weeks. definitely passable.

-random thought of the day: I'm getting really sian of army life.-