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.-

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.-

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.-