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.-

Yesterday (at the time of writing this post), saturday 27 september 2008, was a historic day. that was the day where, for the first time in my life, i pulled off a shi-san yao! it probably doesn't sound like much to most people, but it personally means quite a bit to me, seeing as i've missed this particular boat quite a few times (more than i care to remember, actually). of course, the added benefit is that i'm only the second person in my group to do so. bragging rights, here i come! luckily today was one of my better days. made $40, which could cover my $20 loss last week. but covered for a friend (who i gamed 3 limit hands off of, poor guy; makes me feel guilty) and ended up with a tidy $30 profit. not too bad for 5 hours' work. i just hope my luck can be sustained through the upcoming weeks.

speaking of weeks, i can now officially say that i have less than a school term left in the army! 9+ more weeks to go, and i'll be a free man again. feels good saying that. adding on to leave and public holidays, i have an estimated 40 working days to go. everything's more or less handed over already, and all that's left is the formal acknowledgement and accounting for stuff before i can kick back and relax. i hear stories of how my ORD-ing friends have already handed their jobs over, and are nua-ing every day. lucky guys. oh well. it'll be my turn soon. patience.

carrying on from last week's post, i have to talk about heatwaves and the cat high dinner. the afternoon weather for the past 2 weeks has been quite a killer. i'm faced with a wall of heat the moment i step out of the office. just walking 300 metres to the cookhouse for meals can induce perspiration. good thing that it rained a few times this past week (compared to zero 2 weeks ago). if not, i think i'd just wither up and die.

about the cat high dinner, the original plan was to give it a miss. but due to some changes in circumstances, we may have to go down after all. i just hope that my leave gets through ok. worst case is i'll have to give it a miss.

right now, i think that's all i have to say. i may update again before booking in, and then again, i may not. who knows?

-random thought of the day: Time to go into CoH.-

Have to rush a bit, because i'm on a tight schedule.

the past week passed pretty quickly (thankfully), and we're into the latter half of september. nothing interesting happened in camp, except for even more office politics and a once-in-a-blue-moon early book out on friday. i seriously think we can turn what happens in the office into a soap opera. without mentioning any names, or ruining any reputations, all i can say is i'm grateful to be going off in 11 weeks' time.

in last week's post, i mentioned that nobody can have a perpetual winning streak. that remark has come back to bite me in the ass this week, seeing as i lost my entire drawer of chips (amounting to $50) in one round of mahjong. the worst part is, i didn't get bao-ed or anything. just normal playing. luckily, my friends were nice enough to give chance, and i managed to recover $35 out of the $55 that i lost. while i would have loved to make a full recovery, it was quite impossible at that time. so give and take i guess.

this coming week looks quite uneventful, except for range on thursday. hopefully nothing screws up this time round.

there are other things i had wanted to talk about, like the malfunctioning water supply, afternoon heatwaves, cat high dinner, and other assorted stuff. but, i find myself to be running short of time, so i'll end off here and elaborate on them the next week.

-random thought of the day: Monster Hunter should be banned in camp.-

Despite me taking half a day off on friday, this weekend still felt way shorter than normal. must be the theory of relativity at work i guess. this weekend was rather crazy, since mahjong was organized for 3 consecutive days. net outcome: lost a dollar. would have been lost $26, but someone was nice enough to cover for me yesterday since i bought lunch. now more than ever, i believe there's an almost magical/mystical air about the (or any, really) mahjong table. for instance, one superstition is that your luck will change if you set up for a shi-san yao but don't game on it. sadly, that happened to me. was a tile (jiu wan) away, but didn't manage to complete it. by the end of the game, my $12 lead (before i attempted that stunt) was reduced to a $25 loss. my bad luck continued today, but to a much lesser degree. managed to set up some good hands, though i couldn't cash in on 100% of them. guess nobody has a perpetual winning streak.

that aside, quite a lot of significant events fell within this past week. in chronological order, september 11, victor's 1-year anniversary, and the mid-autumn festival. first up, september 11. 7 years on, i personally have come to think of it as a typical day again. in fact, i wouldn't have remembered it if i didn't glance at my outlook calendar. i don't know how they're commemorating it in the US, though it may not be top priority with the hurricanes and all that.

next, it's been around a full year since victor's closed down. in fact, i believe today's the anniversary. not having victor's in my life for the past one year...honestly doesn't make that much of a difference, because i'm in the army and don't really have time for bowling. but i still feel sad that it's not there any more. well, at least i know where to find some of the old staff and the pro-shop owner (who incidentally, is cat high's bowling coach). so, it's not that bad i guess.

lastly, mid-autumn festival. i nearly let myself get away with typing "mooncake festival", but i've learnt that it's not just about the mooncakes. we had an informative history lesson on the festival's origins and stuff on saturday at turf city, so i'm able to appreciate it a little better. don't ask me to repeat it though; almost 3/4 of it has slipped out of my mind. luckily it's all recorded in an email for easy reference when the need arises. tonight's moon is supposed to be the roundest in the year, but clouds are obscuring my view. how to appreciate the moon like that!? i guess i can do it during the walk into my unit later tonight. sian.

ok, i'll leave it here. there are 5 more minutes until i have to go shower up, so might as well get an early start, right?

-random thought of the day:

Someone up in the sky appears to be having mood swings, because the weather's been fluctuating even worse than the stock market. just imagine - it can go from sunny to rainy, back to sunny, turn rainy again, and end off as sunny, all in the space of a day. it's probably wreaking havoc on everyone's immune systems, because there are quite a number of people falling sick these days. thanks to the environmental changes, global warming and whatever, it's become increasingly difficult to predict trends and weather patterns. hopefully people find a way to clear it up before it becomes too late...if it hasn't already, that is.

this past week in camp was not that tough, but not that slack either. had range, which i thankfully did not have to go for. apparently, this range surpassed last december's combat shoot to become the worst range in AETC history, seeing as a few people didn't even get to shoot. then again, many of the lanes were faulty, so i guess it's just good (or bad?) timing. for once, i understand what it's like to remain back in camp while the rest go for outfield combat training and whatnot. definitely not as easy or relaxed as i had imagined.

also, this week, we were made to do a very bo-liao, thousand-word essay which nobody had wanted to do in the first place. rather autocratic, extra, unnecessary, and generally time-wasting, but oh well. when the big ones give instructions, the tiny fish at the bottom obey.

going back to the usual saturday routine after missing out for one week felt good. mahjong is now more challenging, with the limit going up to 6 doubles, amongst other rule modifications. still managed to win $5 though.

ok...guess i'd better be going, there's tuition and a beach road trip tomorrow, so i definitely need to recharge.

-random thought of the day: I made a lot of typos while writng this...guess I'm too tired.-

With effect from this past weekend, i'm finally able to say that i have less than 100 absolute days left in army! it's definitely a great motivating factor, and it's doing wonders for my heart and spirit. all i want is for these 13+ weeks (or 90+ remaining days) to go smoothly.

sadly, that may not be the case. a call from camp today told me that some things which i was assigned to do were not done properly. they really know how to dampen the mood. problem is, i believe i did everything according to instructions. so...have to iron it out tomorrow. somehow, i get the feeling it'll be my fault anyway. it's not that i don't have confidence in whatever i've done, but past experience shows that when stuff like this happens, blame usually attaches itself to me. oh well.

this weekend has been pretty relaxing. no tuition and a slightly longer-than-normal time out of camp makes me a happy man. to tell the truth, i'm quite reluctant to book in tomorrow morning, especially since the left arm of my glasses is broken. up till now, i still have no idea how it happened. i was just sitting quietly at my computer when i heard/felt a small pop at the left side of my face. apparently, the spring gave way. have to get it fixed on friday, since they can't do it in time for my book-in tomorrow. meanwhile, superglue is the temporary fix. yay superglue.

guess i'll end off here then. maybe i should go read some books which i just borrowed today, or get on CoH for a while. or perhaps i should just call it an early night for once?

...nah.

-random thought of the day: My glasses are misaligned. Not good for my vision.-

Recently, words always seem to fail me when i open up blogger's "create post" window. today, i shall try to overcome this little block and produce something sensible, no matter how long it takes.

ok then...what's new? my last update was about 8 days ago, so that leaves quite a bit of ground to be covered. first up, army and its related activities. the past week in camp was...enlightening, for lack of a better word. finally got some political issues more-or-less resolved, and even better, i have a concrete date to look forward to - 1st september. that is the day i hand over the signal part of my job scope to the new spec.

aside from that, it's been a pretty typical week...except for booking in on saturday to sleep for the AHM. today's off balances/cancels that out, so i guess there isn't much to say. speaking of AHM, it was held yesterday, and this year was the first time i went down (i couldn't make it last year due to some...inconveniences). didn't get to run the 21km due to some PES status-related issues, so what i essentially did was look after bags and provide the runners with bananas. it wasn't completely a waste of time, since i met some friends who have been posted to different units, including one of my seniors. did a little catching up after the event, and then headed off to give tuition.

my student is really not giving me much hope. i can't believe she's going to take her exam in about 2+ months' time. from the questions she asks, i'd expect her to be in the middle of J1, and not at end-J2. i suppose it's partially my fault too, since my teaching methods don't seem to be working. if she was, well, not female and not a family friend, i'd have screamed (loudly) at her for not knowing what she needs to. but that approach wouldn't improve anything, except maybe to make me a little less angry. so...we'll see how it goes i guess. i definitely have to have a post-prelim review with her and possibly her parents.

right now, i'm feeling a little screwed up. not emotionally, but mentally and physically. it's actually largely due to the fact that i was up at 3am on sunday morning in order to get to the padang by 5:30. add that on to the fact that i didn't get any sleep until 22 hours later, and the result is my sleep cycle being totally screwed up. even now, my eyes still feel heavy. but i guess that could be attributed to the glare from the monitor too. another contributing factor is that i've caught a slight cold/flu due to the recent cold weather and being momentarily exposed to the rain while waiting for the AHM to begin. i know how weak this makes me sound, but well, it's true, so no point pretending it isn't.

next week is quite bad for the morale, since we're booking out on saturday. still unsure whether it'll be in the morning or afternoon, but the fact that it's SATURDAY already dampens the spirits. prior to this, i think my last saturday book-out was...last year? so yes. at least the following monday will be an off-in-lieu too. that's some consolation.

so far, it's taken about an hour and 15 minutes to come up with this block of text. hopefully thoughts flow better the next time i blog. guess it's time for me to head into CoH for a bit, and if there's time, i'll drop by the library too.

-random thought of the day: Macadamia nuts are good!-

Just thought i'd blog a bit, simply because i can.

the week has passed pretty quickly. now that my company has a new signal spec (well, he's been with us for 2 weeks already), i find my job scope shrinking. i suppose it's about time i started handing over my stuff and passing on my knowledge, because with only 15 weeks to go, it's high time i slackened a little bit. furthermore, i can't go outfield any longer, so i have to make sure he knows what to do when he's out there and i'm not. well, he could always call me from outfield, but that wouldn't leave a good impression with the higher-ups, would it? at any rate, i do feel a sense of bonding/kinship with him, since he is (like me,) the only person from his course to be posted into my particular unit. so, i can sort of understand the kind of lost feeling a person gets when he comes to the unit, especially when your course doesn't fully prepare you for your actual job scope in the unit.

the olympics have been going on for about 9 days now, and i've only been keeping up with the more sensational news, like michael phelps and his insane 7 (8? or did he hit 9?) medals. of course, there is the great news about singapore's first medal since 1960. personally, i find it to be rather over-hyped. i understand national pride and all that, but am i the only one who sees irony in this? singapore's first olympic medal in 48 years, won by a person/people who weren't born in singapore. it just seems...odd to me. then again, it's that whole foreign talent debate thing. i have no issue with singapore winning a medal, but i just wish it was one of our local athletes who had won it, instead of the imported talent.

there's a scene in The Dark Knight where Two-Face makes James Gordon reassure his son that everything will be all right, even though he has a gun pointed at his head (confused? go watch the movie). today, during the little chat i had with my student and her mother after tuition, i think i momentarily experienced what Gordon felt at that moment. given her standard, i'd be extremely happy if she passed. given her knowledge, ability, hardworkingness, tendency to make careless mistakes, tendency to misread/not answer directly to the question, and the probability of the school setting a tough paper, not to mention a possible lack of sleep the night before, i'd say a pass hangs delicately in the balance. it's possible if the planets align, she gets sufficient sleep the night before, can retain everything she's studied, and is energized throughout the paper. hoping that the school set an easy paper wouldn't hurt her odds either. anyhow, i'm prepared to accept any outcome. so i should stop stressing about it.

next week actually looks pretty manageable, have to finish teaching the new spec and do up some other office stuff. only thing is that the weekend's activities will require some reshuffling, due to the AHM. oh well. we'll see how it goes.

-random thought of the day: I didn't return my books today. Have to do it soon.-

The book-in blues have finally kicked in, and i'm not feeling too happy as a result. right now, i still have approximately an hour to an hour and a half before i shower, pack my stuff and leave the house. luckily i checked my phone, because there was an SMS which informed me that today's transport was cancelled. this means that i have to leave the house slightly earlier than usual. to think i was contemplating logging in to CoH for a little bit. as you've probably guessed by now, that won't happen tonight.

you know, it's kind of scary. how did my remaining time in NS become only 16 weeks? that's like the duration of a BMT and less than half of a signal course. wish i could go back to tekong though. it's actually quite a fun place to be in, if you don't mind being the lowest life-form there, that is. at any rate, i'm sure that time would pass faster there than it does in my unit. well, either way, it's 16 more book-outs (assuming no extras or whatever). i'm hoping time will pass a little more quickly. meanwhile, just tong.

these days, it's kind of rare for me to specially set some time aside, sit down and do some blogging. so i'd better treasure this opportunity. actually, there's not much to be said. the most exciting thing happening in my life now is probably being tekan-ed in camp. guess i really should get out more. haven't gome on a retail therapy session in a long time. but i believe that's for the best, since i already have my budget for the entire year planned out. oh well. bitter first, sweet later.

it's close to 8pm, which leaves me with about 45 minutes of free time. i don't really know what else to say now, because as i've mentioned before, my life isn't exactly the most happening. so, i guess i'll wrap up here and enjoy my last few minutes of freedom before another week in camp.

It's nice to get a long weekend once in a while. the existence of this particular long weekend, is of course, due to singapore celebrating national day. unlike previous years, this naional day was pretty painless and in fact, i'd go so far as to say i enjoyed it. didn't catch the parade though, since i was out of the house (and without TV access) at that time. don't think i missed much though, since i have never been in the habit of watching NDPs.

since there was a long weekend (and it was pay day yesterday), i went to do some shopping for in-camp essentials, like toothpaste and some other stuff. also went to the library and finally borrowed a few books. they're mostly comics, and i've finished all 4 already. looks like i have to make a second trip later today, but only if time permits.

right now, it's 2:10pm, and i've been up for about 6 to 7 hours already. guess i'll pop into CoH and work on a few badges.

-random thought of the day: Nothing on my mind at the moment.-

Previously, i posted about getting a new macbook. well, today's the first time i'm firing it up to try it out. it's been quite a culture shock so far, considering i'm a windows kid by training. so, i'm just stumbling around, trying to get used to all the different stuff and making some sense out of it. guess i can take my time though; i have until uni begins to figure all the little details out. better get going now...there's tuition in the morning at 9am. definitely inadvisable to be late.

-random thought of the day: I want to watch Olympic Judo!-

Before i begin this post, i'd like to say that the next few (potentially nasty) lines are directed at a person whom i have great respect for. it's just that for some reason, he's done a few things that have annoyed practically everyone in my company. things like area cleaning in SBO, messing with book-out timings, shouting over tiny little things, and generally being a hundred times more guai-lan than usual. i mean, i was just quietly laminating some stuff in his office, and i get hit with a grenade the moment he steps in. it's really quite uncalled for, and a huge deviation from his normal behaviour. i don't know what he's playing at, nor do i want to find out. i just hope the situation in camp improves soon.

as you may have guessed by now, this week was one of the worse ones i've had in camp. in fact, i think it was the worst week i've had in about 2 to 3 months. but it's over and done with, and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. we'll survive.

nature seems to have a funny way of balancing the good and bad bits in life. maybe i'm saying this just because the contrast is too obvious in my case. you see, after the horrible time in camp, i did pretty well at mahjong (one colour pong-pong game...i think it was my nicest hand to date. still lost $3 though), and on top of that, my aunt was at some computer sale/promotion thingy and bought 3 macbooks. 2 for my cousins, and 1 for me. it was a classic "WTF!??" moment when i heard the news. though i would have very much preferred a gaming-quality laptop that ran on windows, i'm not exactly complaining about this either. i'll probably try it out tomorrow though; i'm a little wiped-out today. better get some sleep, since i have to give tuition at 9am.

-random thought of the day: I need to call Starhub about my router.-