EH. Got ticket anot?

Collected my convocation gown today. Collected Chingwei's too. I have no idea about his sizes so i took the liberty of choosing a "safe" size. Met up with a few friends I have not met in a long time too. There were Quek(Hello army boy!), Jeremy(ORD lo!), Evelyn(wah.systems analyst), Justin(Yes Sir!) as well as Ah Bao(evil as usual) to name a few. I also must not forget PIERRE, who i have not met for a really loooong time. His name deserves special mention because one of the first things he said to me after so long was that he enjoyed reading my blog.^_^

Actually I almost never made it back to campus today.
It all started in the morning at around 1000hrs when i was still dead asleep. my cellphone rang and the conversation went somewhat like this.....

ME       : (yawn)Hello?
?????     : Eh. You got extra ticket anot?
Me       : Extra ticket? what extra ticket? Who is this?
?????     :Me lah. Guojun lah. Convo tics...you got extra anot?
ME       : Oooh. Extra ah? don't have lah. I also need two what. not tomorrow collect meh.
Guojun : tomorrow your head lah. Today collect gown lah. I just checked the website yesterday lah.
ME       : Shit. Sure anot. what time?
Guojun : wah liew. from 9 to 11 lah.wah lan, you still asleep ah??
ME       : yeah. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. ok ok. thanks leh. heng you call me sia, else jialat.
Guojun : yah lah.yah lah. eh. you know who don't want their tics let me know hor,ok?
ME       :Hor, ok ok....

And so by some strange twist of fate(well not really, but i've always wanted to use that phrase), it was all thanks to Guojun that i even knew today was the day. its strange though, because i distinctively remembered the collection date was supposed to be tomorrow:-| Anyway, we talked for a bit more but that was about the gist of the whole dialogue. No prize guessing what the bulk of the conversation was about most of the time.(Hint: it has something to do with tickets)

Anyway, i did some spring cleaning after that and i am amazed at the amount of crap i have. I threw away about 6 shoeboxes filled with miscellaneous papers. that was not including one colossal stack of notes that dates back to my secondary school days. I also decided it was time to junk my prized paper bag collection.

The latter did made me held back a little. When i was younger, i enjoyed collecting those nice glossy paper bags. Over the course of my entire secondary school period, i have amassed quite a sizeable collection. There were bags from Armani, D&G, Gaultier, Versace, Ferre, Moschino, Valentino, Aigner, Gucci, Cartier, etc. some i got for free, and some were acquired through some purchase. Some labels i even have paper bags from different season's collections.
you name it, and if its branded, more often than not, i've probably got it( i meant the paper bag). It was dumb but i was quite the mindless brand name follower then>_<(well, youth is always a good excuse for irrational behavior!)

now i've realised i've probably got no use for them, considering they have been collecting dust for the last 8 years or so, so now they are all showcasing their designer chic at the neighbourhood rubbish dump. Well, who knows, if they're lucky, maybe some fellow paper bag aficionado will come along and give them a better home=)

LOST

Was talking to one of my friends the other day when it suddenly came to us that he was from the same NS unit as i was; 1 SIR. Only difference was he was wearing those olive green uniforms and there were still Israelis in the army when he enlisted. That was in 1983. I enlisted in 1999. It was interesting to know someone from the same camp, although there were about 16 years between us, since we could talk about places both of us are familiar with and which miraculously, had not changed at all in these 16 years. I can tell it was really nostalgic for him, as he relived to us his days of conscription. He seemed to have been quite the party boy in the army, most of his antics i shall not describe, lest it becomes study material for enterprising young men awaiting enlistment, but i shall let on that they mostly involves visits to the medical centre. ;)

Anyway, something kinda embarrassing happened to me today. I was sending a friend home today and she lived in Yishun, we were around the paya lebar area and i HAVE NO IDEA how to get there from where i am. it dint really helped that she wasn't very road savvy either. well, i just tried to go in the general direction and fortunately, we came to a point where she recognised the surroundings and it was all good from there.

However, it left quite a indelible mark on me. I think its quite humiliating not to know the way around a country thats not even 40km by 20km. i'm no good with roads and i think i'm screwed if i ever had to navigate through another gargantuan housing estate. thats one thing i guess i have to work on. i never really took the time to find out how to get to where from where. i'm OK in the west but i'm just no good everywhere else.>_<
i've always thought that for every place i don't know how to go, there's always the good ol' trusty street directory.

Though i seem like such a klutz, if i have to do that all the time...

Go Italia!!

Went to HMV today and got some cheap CDs. that's actually a misnomer because you can never find "cheap" and "HMV" in the same sentence. Its kind of sad that the only time when its feasible to get CDs from HMV is when they have some sort of a sale going on, like today. I mean, who pays 24 bucks for a normal CD when everyone knows that you can get the same thing for $18.90 or $19.90(sometimes even $16.90!) at a Music Junction or Gramaphone?  And the thing is all the rare export records go for 80 bucks and up-_-". they know no one else stocks those so they just jacked up the prices to kingdom come.

This sucks but whenever HMV has a sale, most of the time they have some drastic reductions. Its not uncommon to see  prices like $8.95, $5.95,etc.. Today was such a time. i bought 4 CDs for about 37 bucks. I don't know about you but thats a real bargain to me. that works out to about slightly more than 9 bucks per disc. Woot.

Anyway one album i bought worthy of mention is a bossa nova album by a Singaporean simply named Olivia. I've never heard of her before but apparently this is like her 3rd album. Anyway, for some reason, i've never thought much of local music; the last local album i got(and i liked) was Dick Lee's "Transit Lounge", and that was like 6 years ago if i remembered correctly. Somehow, i never warmed up to the likes of Corrinne May, Sun Yanzi, etc. i liked Tanya though, she has a unique voice.
Anyway, it helps that she looks kinda cute too.^_^

Anyway, now i'm waiting for the World Cup Finals. It sucks that Germany isn't in it. I was so sure they were going to get in. I don't really think the Italians play any better though it is disheartening to see how the Germans just collapse and stop fighting after the first goal, even if it is in extra time. Brazil on the other hand were kinda screwed up. All the same, i have the feeling that the general sentiment out there goes out to the French but i hope the Azzurri can pull it off. It has been a while since Italy last won the Jules Rimet trophy. Maybe it'll happen today.

Go Deutschland!!

Went for my cousin's wedding a few days ago. It sounds unbelievable but i only knew her name was Deon(cool name btw) on Saturday. All my life, i've known her as "Hong Hong jiejie". yeah, it sounds really corny, but thats how i address her everytime i see her. though I have no idea when was the last time i saw her before the wedding; i guess it was about 3 or 4 years ago. now that seemed like a long time. Anyway, going to weddings is fine, but its a whole different ballgame when you're somewhat related to the married couple.

The people asking you when is it gonna be your turn effectively doubles.

Well, that is just a general observation; didn't really happened to me, since the bulk of the people there are from my mother's side and i don't really have much of a chance to see them regularly, so i wasn't bombarded with queries about my marital status. Though i did found out that TWO of my older cousins are in fact, going to tie the knot later this year(not to each other). One is gonna be in September and another one is probably going to happen a month later. This, coupled with Edvan's(Batman!) impending wedding would mean i will have to go through another three yamsengs.

Well, i don't know whats so special about 2006 but it seems like a lot of people are getting hitched this year.>_<

Anyway, as i was telling a few friends of mine before(APNN!rem?), there are always two things you MUST do at any wedding.

FIRST->congratulate the blissful couple on their union.(this is very important)
SECOND-> enquire about the complimentary parking coupon. (you CANNOT not do this)

these are like the SOP of attending weddings.lol.

Anyway, the world cup has been in full swing for a while now and now there's only 4 countries left. As a matter of fact, i am making an entry now because its 0245hrs and i'm waiting for the 0300hrs match between Germany vs Italy to start. It's starting to seem like this just might be Germany's year, though i'm kinda sad teams like Brazil and South Korea didn't get in. England deserved to go home though. They didn't really looked like they were aware football is a team game.

Anyway its actually kinda hard for me to watch the world cup, considering i don't have cable tv at home. A friend of mine told me about this player thingy(thanks surfers!) at http://www.viidoo.com/ . Its actually a streaming player but it's a great tool for people who don't have cable tv. i can watch the world cup in a few channels(in Spanish if i really want to), and when there aren't any matches or when its halftime, i won't get bored with baseball at Sportscenter or those taiwanese variety shows. only downside is the size of the screen is fixed and it lags sometimes, but i guess its a small price to pay considering the damn thing's FREE.

Do the write thing

I was clearing stuff from my desk today when i stumbled upon 3 worn-out A5 sized notebooks i've tucked away for a long time. woot, my old journals. you see, i started the habit of keeping a journal way back in 1999, when i just got out of BMT and was posted to this crummy looking camp at Guillemard Road. Back then, my first thoughts were something along the lines of, "thats it, gonna have to spend the next 2 years of my life in this dump, i wonder what sort of stuff awaits me". And then I thought that it would be such a pity if i did not record what would happen to me in this next 2 years(blogging was quite unheard of back then).After all, you only go through NS once. I thought it would be an interesting idea to look back and reminiscence about it in the future, when i'm all old and wrinkly and could do with some bedtime reading.

So i went out and got a book and decided that from then on, i would keep a journal and update it with my thoughts, reflections and experiences. It was quite a religious affair for me; i would make entries regularly, or as often as i could. i remembered there was one time i even brought my journal out into the field with a ziplock bag just so i can "capture the moment". i guess i was convinced my creative juices would flow better if i'm writing about it while i'm soaking it in. Anyway, i was still making regular entries up till maybe 2004. After that, i guess i got lazy. i now make an entry about once every 3 days or so.>_<

That being said, i always wondered why speaking decent english is not a problem for most people, but typing it seems like such a major hurdle. maybe its just me, but i just can't seem to tolerate people using bad grammer when instant messenging or in online forums. i don't appreciate the pervasive use of internet lingo either. i mean, emoticons and simple expressions are fine, cos i think they add spice to a conversation, but i find it especially hard to swallow when i have to decipher messages that look like they're some colloquial leet speak. people like them, because they make the words shorter, ergo, lesser time to type. But really, how much time do u save from a few letters anyway? Is keyboard fatigue taking that big a toll on your fingers? i've always wondered about that.

Quote of the day: The pen is mightier than the sword, but collapses under the sheer weight of the internet.

Dae Han Min Gook!

Woot. It has been a while. couldn't really make any entries cos I've been in Korea the past week. for a country with the highest internet penetration rate in the world, it's kinda ironic that it sure is hard finding any computer terminals to access the net for free. managed to find one in a tourism office in the Insadong antique market area but its tough having to jostle for a turn with ten thousand other people updating their blogs so i just gave up.lol. damn, they even charge you for the plastic bags around here.

anyway Korea's a great place, friendly people, fantastic weather. u can walk for miles and not drop a sweat, makes me wonder how great it would be if we can have reservist training in Korea during the autumn.^_^ i can totally see myself coming to the Korean countryside for a holiday every June/July. tranquil surroundings, cool weather, nice scenery and not a sound at night. not really very exciting, but thats my idea of relaxing(yeah i know i very boring>_<)

anyway, these past 7 days in Korea has led to me to compile my very own Top Ten list.(don't you just love Letterman? )well, its not really a top ten list, just a list of ten things, haha.

1) They(we?) drive on the wrong side of the road.
2) Korea men are built big for Asian males.
3) Korean ladies are unbelievably beautiful.( you know those babes you see on Guess Guess Guess? you can see gals of those calibre on the streets by the bucket loads)
4) Most korean ladies have fantastic hair.(refer back to subpoint 2)
5) You are screwed big time if you can't speak Korean in Korea.
6) On the other hand, u can get away with most stuff with just "annyong haseyo" and "kamsa hamida", and then speak some English.
7) You are also screwed big time if you are allergic to kimchi.
8) You have to look really hard to find a record store in Korea. i couldnt find any in the whole of the Dongdaemon area and i am sure i looked really hard.
9) Koreans have a few Hyundai, Kia and Daewoo models that are exclusive to Korea. Korean automobiles account for more than 90% of the vehicle population in Korea. Its really hard to see a Japanese or an European marque.
10) Koreans are fantatically devoted to their national soccer team. we were still seeing entire match replays and reports of the Korea vs Costa Rica match for 4 days after the match ended. in fact, you can always see something on the Korean national team at some channel at any time of the day. Furthermore, every employee in every shop, store, toilet, etc around the country is wearing that Red "Korea Again" tee.(i got one too^^)

tada! there you have it.
anyway, now that i'm back and the trip is out of the way, i've really gotta spend my time trying to get some employment. i haven't really done much in this department for the last two months and its kinda starting to bug me.
wouldn't want to be the only one left behind though>_<.

Quote of the day: Time's a wastin'.

Good Riddance!

The day has finally arrived. Though not as dramatic as I thought it would be, considering everything happened when i clicked on the words "Examination Results" on the screen. Actually results were supposed to be announced tomorrow but everyone knows the results always comes out a day early. I thought it would be cool if its tomorrow though, cos then the date would be 06/06/06, not something you would forget in a hurry. Furthermore, i liked those numbers too as they hold some meaning to me. anyway there wasnt much theatrics, since there was only about a 2 second period of anticipation and apprehension before the results materialised before my eyes.

well, it wasnt too good and it wasnt too bad, I got all Bs. Actually, i'm relieved i got a B for the openbook paper(i know i screwed up), but kinda pissed i got Bs for the other two. oh well, no biggie i guess, considering it was sufficient in my case to just pass all papers. All As wouldnt have made a difference anyway.

The most important issue is that I can finally close the page to the longest chapter in my book. There were ups and downs(mainly downs), but i'm glad to say that i've came through, although not in the manner that i would have hoped for. I wasn't really a studious guy, but i would like to say i dint exactly slack off either. why things happened they way they did, i cannot fathom, though i believe everyting happens for a reason. its good to know these (seemingly unfortunate)series of events will only serve to make me a better and more sensible person.

anyway, now thats said and done, there is a more pressing issue at hand. I am the only person I know who still has not sent out a single job application yet. Every mother's son(or daughter) around me has at least went for one interview already and some have even had job offers. Now, i know I'm not beneath most of them in terms of ability or even resume writing talent, so if they can do it, i sure as hell can too. i hope i can at least get some replies before i fly off for Korea next Sunday. I have no idea why most people around me wants to go overseas but for the record, its a reluctant trip for me. I din't even plan the thing and i have no idea what am i supposed to do there. the only thing i know is we're going to the jewel in the palace film site, or something along the lines.

The worst thing that can happen is when some company replies to my application and can't contact me cos im not in the country; to make things worse, they can't get me cos i'm in a place where GSM don't work and i dun have a 3G phone. I have a feeling high anxiety isn't going to be enough to describe how i'm gonna feel.

anyway, nothing i can do about it, i'll worry about it when it happens.^_^
now i just need to get started on writing the next chapter of my life and for the life of me, i can't wait to see what happens next. As they say on the radio,"Good Night, and Good Luck."