since my insomnia's working up again, figured i'll draft my 2006 new years resolution (for fun's sake), which is loosely based on my 2005 new years resolution. here goes: original 2005 resolution (and results)! 1) run on days where i don't have anything on at night. NOT FULFILLED.(managed to do it for the whole month of jan 05. then the enthusiasiam just fizzled away.) 2) discipline myself. go earn some money via tuition. FULFILLED. (special thanks to tuitionone.com!) 3) go get a driving licence. NOT FULFILLED. (passed basic theory though.. ) 4) go learn advanced diving. NOT FULFILLED. (kena snoooked.. not my fault LOL.) 5) apply for scholarships and medicine. FULFILLED. (applied but rejected heh. but still counts!) 6) stop surfing porn. NOT FULFILLED (grrr.. i'd be clean if not for that collection X and Y gave me.) 7) stop smoking. NOT FULFILLED (this is harder than i thought it'd be) new 2006 resolution!! 1) run on days where i don't have anything on at night. COS duty counts as something on because i'll reach home late unless it's earlier than 1845 hrs. 2) discipline myself. go earn some money via tuition. 3) go get a driving licence. and pass it by 3rd try. 4) play more games. it enhances the mind. 5) stop surfing porn. 6) minimise smoking. 7) be calm in all situations. 8) fulfill at least 4 of the above. ok now, wish me luck. and to the meddies, all the best for your upcoming CAs~!

had the BEST sleep in months! 8 hours, uninterrupted, and for the first time i actually feel invigorated! never mind that my nose is still blocked and my throat still hurts. reported sick yesterday and got myself one day MC. i told the doctor i had sore throat, and blocked nose throughout the day. the doctor looked at me quizzically and laughed, before telling me that exactly one year ago i reported sick with the exact same symptoms. was it a conspiracy or something??? then i looked at my history card. current: 28th december 2005 - sore throat, blocked nose. previous visit: 29th december 2004 - sore throat, fever, blocked nose. two day mc. (rats, so that means i failed to achieve a one year mc-free status since i RS one day earlier this yr. LOL!) told the doctor it was pure coincidence that i happened to be sick arnd this period all the time. he didn't seem to believe me though. hey, he checked my throat and it's really RED what, isn't that enough to show LOL. at least he's willing to close one eye... Doc: So.... you want to rest tomorrow right? Me: (shit!!! bullseye!!! -sweatdrop-) Yea. Doc: Ok, I'll give you One Day MC. $25 for one day mc and some lozenges isn't really worth it, but i'm just too lazy to queue up in a polyclinic (amongst other reasons). ah well, we always spend more during festive seasons. that should justify ...

why is it always that everytime i develop a flu, i cannot report sick the next day because of stupid reasons such as COS or go OOC. slept a measly three hours yesterday because the sore throat was too distracting. then i have COS tomorrow... cannot report sick, as much as i want to. ARGH. maybe... -takes deep breath- ....i should accept the truth and admit that i really should cut down on smoking. mervyn was telling me he shld downgrade from a regular smoker to a social smoker. i told him i'll be one step ahead. i'll become a non-smoker by the time i ORD. well, except during clubbing cuz it's hard to resist. erm.. and maybe after a day of hard work or something... hey wait a minute, isn't that social smoking already? sian... i really have to put in a bit of effort, since the least distracting moments of my life these days are when i light up a stick. not that i'm taking care of myself in other aspects as well. in spite of my sore throat, i still joined the 3J dudes in dinner at Cafe Cartel in Cine today, and had all the sinfully heaty food like seafood platter. nice to see them again, after abt two months of hiatus. janice was telling me that i sound totally different on my blog, as compared to myself in real life. i didn't realise that actually, but have been giving this some thought and figured that the way i look, and i speak makes it sound as if i'm not being trustworthy or serious, even if i really am. left the crowd early at arnd nine plus, to follow richie and guojie for chinese new year shopping. spotted a few really nice looking shirts at Topman shop which i intend to buy the next time i come. ha... now i know which guys to approach when i want to make sure that i buy the correct shirt / pants. before that, watched King Kong with yizhuan and shi qing, my primary school buddies. (thanks, shiqing, for the very nice gift. and again, sorry din buy anything for you. damn.) didn't want to watch actually, since i am supposed to watch with beng. but ended up watching still because they were really so enthu about it. fortunately, the show is nice enough for me to view it again. and i realised how stupid i am, to believe beng's cock and bull story about how king kong and the girl went to a tropical island and... married each other and lived happily ever after. HOW THE HELL DID I ACTUALLY FALL FOR THIS?! oh wait.. i dont think i'm the worst. when i told zhipeng abt this during the dinner, he was telling me how someone told him that king kong became a handsome prince after the girl kissed him and they lived happily ever after.. and he believed it too. on a personal note, to you... hmm. there is no reason to despair or feel that you are trash. esp. since you are so appreciated by the people around you. there is worth in you... as i have gayly put it across on the phone. i hope you know what i mean. everything else... is secondary. money, time etc... not a problem at all. CHEER UP. ok, signing off to sleep. before my sore throat aggravates.

it's one of the worst christmas i have had, though there are good moments. :) the other christmas that came close to this was two years back, where i had a nice dinner at breeks with a bunch of guys before hastily rushing home and consult Joel for advice on what to do before enlistment. (you see i enlisted on the 26th december) this week started out fine. watched "the descent" with kelvin and richie on monday. uber gory... to my liking! and a nice dinner at thai express (again?! the fourth time in three weeks) with guojie and jovita on tuesday. the christmas concert spk jioed me to attend on thursday was nice as well. i love the music (as in, the music), and the stagework. haha... the concerts at his church never fail to impress me. friday was when things became really bad. i was assigned to do overnight duty on the eve of christmas eve. (and fri duties have no compensation). i have been adopting the "big deal, it's not even the holidays proper" mentality until my branch head announced that everyone could go home early on that day!! and me and beng just looked at each other and go -_-. but as i said, there were good moments. beng was stupid enough to exchange duty and end up doing the same day as me... for which i am secretly quite happy about (oops!!). imagine spending the whole day (holiday eve eve in particular) with someone you don't know.... the thought of it alone is plain torture. at the very least, i know there's someone to chill with at the "smoking point", and suffer with me in more ways than one!!! saturday was equally disastrous. due to lack of sleep, i concussed the moment i reach home all the way until 2 plus. spent the whole afternoon and night playing comp and reading newspapers. IMAGINE! then at night, met up with zhiyang and kangyeow without deciding which place to go for the countdown. mark and friends were already in dbl-o, beng and friends were in zouk, and he refused to let me "suffer" with him and yauhong and friends were in liquidroom. we initially wanted to join yauhong but reached the place ten minutes before christmas and when we arrived at the entrance we realised that yauhong etc had already entered. and the queue was freaking long. and it was full house. celebrated the countdown walking down the street back to dbl-o, only to discover it was full house as well. went to rush, but realised that they jacked up the entrance fee, making it really not worth going. and in the end, we made the stupidest decision of all: planet paradigm. if we had wanted to go to an rnb place, we really should have gone to cheeky's instead. and we were snooked by the bartender as well. he charged us $22 for a jug. which was 3 minutes before the announcement of $25 for 2 jugs offer came. the bartender was unable to revert our order and offered extra mixer : read>> COKE<< for us. like.. WTF!!!! after that, we carried on our search for the "perfect" place to celebrate christmas. walked all the way to park lane, and realised all ktv, pool and LAN outlets were closing very soon. eventually found an egames lan shop which would close in one hours time from our arrival and decided to play a round of dota. read: three beginners playing dota. zy and ky against me. and at the start, all three of us arrived at mid lane and ridiculously attacked each other. and all died, under the hands of.. CREEPS!!! it was really funny. but fun. christmas day... spend the whole day sleeping, or msning. up to four hours, been whining to ppl how bad my christmas eve was. shit. really sorry to darryl that i'm unable to attend his christmas party. if i go, it'll only be me and zhehui and we probably don't know the rest... would be quite out of place i think. yauhong called while i was sleeping, to jio me to go LAN with him and the other med fac guys, just like he did on wednesday, when i was sleeping, and friday when i was doing ops. so this means three consecutive times i have been given a chance to go LAN with the med guys (and also prove to yauhong how lousy i really am) but couldn't make it. and from today on, the meddies have to start studying again for the exams. argh... they're perpetually busy. maybe it's a good thing that medicine faculty didn't want me :) then it was time to go for ktv... with kangyeow again! and two of his friends. i have difficulty opening up during ktv sessions in front of people i dun know.. because of my horrendous voice, which is why i didn't enjoy myself as much as i thought i would. but all was not lost! at 11 there was this soda drinking competition going on at kbox and i got saboed to take part. the rules were simple. for four rounds, the number reflected on the dice would represent the number of glasses of soda we would have to drink. at the last stage, the remaining parties would have to compete with one huge glass of soda to see who could finish first. being very suay, i keep throwing huge numbers and ended up drinking 12 glasses of soda. (the most amongst the 6.) eventually i finished third, and won myself a very cheap camera, but not before rushing to toilet and puke everything out. my puke was reddish in colour and for a moment i was worried that i have liver damage or something... until i concluded that there's no pain in my body whatsoever and realised that i just drank a very reddish-coloured mocktail drink. much to my relief! and i love my new camera! (I'M THE SODA KING!!! :D) today, just came back from another unpleasant ice skating experience. went with yizhuan, my primary school buddy and yankai, my obs teammate. kangyeow and two of his friends were supposed to join us but due to unforseen circumstances (overslept) his friends did not pick up the phone and kangyeow had to come alone, much to our irritation. and as much as i love children and i know it isn't their fault or anything (children are always innocent) i was VERY irritated by the huge crowd turnout, esp. children (and pros) who keep moving counter direction and blocking the whole fucking traffic or appear out of nowhere or remain lying on the floor after they slip and fall in the rink, such that every time i had to attempt to siam or avoid cutting their fingers with my blades. then we went to the LAN shop after that, and realised that they don't have DOTA. what's wrong with JEC? lol.... then went to arcade and played puzzle fighter, only to succumb to donovan at level 5. sian... but at the very least, i managed to meet up with buddies whom i have not seen for more than a year. nice to see them again. and thanks to yizhuan for the very nice shirt he bought for me. (damn, din buy anything for him.) and was it an uncanny coincidence that i have spent three consecutive days with kangyeow?? picture the two of us losers searching for something to do but eventually realised that there was nothing for us at all. bleah...

merry christmas, one and all.

it was an eventful yesterday... i'm glad i applied leave. Dim Sum Brunch went with beng and eveline to this restaurant in marima hotel. because of my heavy breakfast i couldnt seem to eat much over there, which was a waste because it was a buffet lunch! kinda brings back the nightmares in hong kong (when esther and i just kept ordering, thinking the servings were very little. but ended up feeling bloated like anything and developed a temporary dimsumphobia.) but most of the food is still nice though. after that, went shopping, due to some unexpected incident (hiak!). Richie's Birthday quite a lot of hiccups at the start. there were no reservations because the staff told us it would not be a problem for us to get seats, which was of course far from the truth. but to be fair, it would be hard to get a last minute seating plan for 9 guys. but they shuold've told us beforehand that there was a company's function going on! luckily, the service and food more than made up for it. there was no "actual" live band performances because of the function, but the musicians did play lots of 80s retro, as if they were helping us warm up for MOS. LOL! of course, there were the usuals for birthdays; presents, cakes and all. but the cake-in-the-face incident went a tad out of hand. the first time, kelvin tried to smash a piece of cake (courtesy of anthony) on richie's face, but he realised what was going to happen. (kelvin is slow. LOL!) not very fun... but richie got smeared all the same. then when richie was in the restroom cleaning up his face, the free birthday sundae arrived. seeing that the topping consisted of only cream, we decided that it would not be a waste to .. do the stunt again! so beng and i had a plan. beng was responsible for the diversion; i would be the ambush guy. this time, he was caught unaware! yay!! but, if only the whole thing ends here. after that, we wanted to shift target to guojie. beng was giving me hints, but because i'm slow, i couldn't catch the hint. in the end, while he was explaining to me what his intentions were, kelvin smashed a piece onto my face. again, if only the whole thing ends here. we were all quite adamant in making sure guojie's face would be dirty at least once. but damn, he discovered it before the cake could land on him. and he siamed. and guess what, the cake fell, hit the glasses which dropped to the floor and all the cream splattered onto my shirt and pants, while guojie escaped unscathed!! think the waitresses were quite pissed off at this point of time. after hastily cleaning myself up, we paid up and left. Ministry of Sound "Opening" Day note the quotation marks. it opened officially yesterday, but before that there was a soft launch, and though the opening time was 2200, they already let in a hell lot of "invited guests" way before that. we almost couldn't enter, and it was pure luck that we managed to, in the end. we reached there at 2145, and the queue was already super long. we cut queue to where kelvin's friends were stationed, and by 2230 we were still at almost the same spot.. i pity those bunch of people behind us. then we realised that beng's friends were almost at the front of the queue. they were tired of waiting in a stagnant queue, so they passed 4 invitation cards to us. admission for 8 ppl, just nice, including kelvin's friends. we replaced them in the queue, thinking that we would be able to enter soon. but we waited.. and waited.. until about 2330 and we were still standing there. that's when things became right for us. the door bridges were asking those with invitation cards to hold the cards high in the air, which we did. and we entered the place without paying for cover. after that we realised that if we were to stay in the original spot (which we thought was so near the entrance already) we would not be able to enter because not long after it was full house and everyone else got apology letters from mos. it was time for exploring!! mos is a huge building, with like 6 or 7 rooms, each playing a different genre. the main floor was trance and the music was deafening. we took the escalator (yes, there is an escalator!!) up to the second storey. the opening night was probably the only night where the age restrictions were not in place. went to studio 54, which was supposed to be opened to only those aged 25 and above. studio 54 is a replica of the infamous 1970s american club, minus the sex and drugs of course. this was supposed to be the retro / pop room. the whole place was really colourful. retrospective indeed. but not many ppl over there, and we couldn't identify all the retro they were playing. sigh.. double-o still better in this aspect haha! looking forward to double-o tonight LOL! then we went to pure, a vip room (again, would not be open to us on other days.) and spotted david working as a bartender there. erm. still can't imagine him serving drinks to customers. he just doesn't look like a bartender to me. LOL. there was this gigantic hand made of ice, which i thought was a bit out of place since it kept dripping water on the floor and the staff had to continuously clean up before anyone slipped. and then, there was a few others in the second storey. finally, we went to this rnb room in the first storey. the dance floor was caged, and the dj was spinning using some high tech mp3 format (dunno how it works, sorry). and his scratching skills were out of this world!! but again, couldn't identify any of the songs they were playing. didn't buy any drinks and left after we finished exploring. so we spent a grand total of $0 in MOS. some of us were a bit disappointed (probably because the music at the main floor was trance, which didn't work for many of us.) for me, studio 54 and the rnb room look promising... and i will consider going if they remove the goddamn age 25 barrier!!! after everything, had supper at tcc (i only ordered plain water.. save money), wowed at the mechanics of reverse bungy jumping before we went on our separate ways since there were no theatres showing "the descent" which we had all wanted to watch. and i made a discovery! NR1 reaches my house, and NR1 can be found near ministry of sound, muhammad sultan, music underground!!!! that means cab fares saved!!! goody!!!

seems like such a long time since i last reported to camp. actually, only three days; but it was hell of a packed weekend, so maybe that's why. applied leave on friday. initially wanted to enjoy some long weekend, but last minute commitments cropped up; kelvin asked me to paint his room, together with beng and david. woke up slightly before 7 to go his house. had breakfast and lazed around until about 10 before we officially began painting. took us about 5 hours or so to coat his room with a new "sky blue" (or is it "clear day?") colour. my thumbs are still numb from the pressing of rollers hard against the wall. we finished the whole thing at around 3 or so. for the standard of amateurs (and first-timers, like me!), i must say we did quite a decent job. after that, rushed home, changed up before meeting ping khuan at kranji mrt station. i could have been earlier, but i overslept and woke up at choa chu kang. -_-. anyway, that was not the only thing that delayed our trip to johor. we actually took the bus in the wrong direction and only realised it when we reached bukit timah. and then, with all the customs check, we ended up reaching city square at 1830. too late to catch the chronicles of narnia at 1820; hence we bought the 2120 show. in the interim, went for a dinner at some jap restaurant and sourced for movies and games at all the friendly shops in city square (it's amazing how you can find friendly shops stationed just beside non-friendly ones - right smack in the middle of a reputable shopping complex! only exclusively at johor!) the chronicles of narnia is very enjoyable! probably because this is only the second book, and all the parallels of revelations and armageddons are not there. really liked it a lot. and the soundtrack was composed by none other than Mr Harry Gregson-Williams, who also produced breathtaking scores for other games / shows, most notably Shrek, Kingdom of Heaven and Metal Gear Solid II! went back to singapore past midnight. had an almost harrowing experience at the customs because we brought in quite a number of friendly stuff (the full pack cigs triggered the whole body search) but thankfully the officers were willing to forgive and forget, a very important virtue of humanity. :) it was then i realised i did not apply overseas leave. wtf! just hope nothing happens when i return to camp tomorrow. met up with zhongyang and qingxiang, (the "original trio" back in the upper sec days) for lunch and spent two hours spouting rubbish. yep, just like the 3B-4B days! only without ben and edward this time. at about 5, qingxiang and i went to catch "saw 2"; as zhongyang has already watched (he has watched everything) he left us at that point. after the show, met up with beng and anthony for dinner. and after a long painful thought-process we decided to go Acid Bar to chill instead of dbl-o as loo had asked us to go. acid bar is a really good chilling place; i like the performers there. the last time i went, there was this really talented band who played all the new rock songs. and yesterday, the solo performer was this soulful female singer cum pianist who had a very impressive ability to play all pop songs and christmas carols in the form of jazz. although i don't really like jazz that much, she still won me over in the end with "toned-down" renditions of Metallica 's Nothing Else matters and My Chemical Romance's Helena. imagine these two songs (esp. the latter) on PIANO! well, she did it. and it didn't sound weird at all! due to lack of sleep, concussed all the way back on kelvin's car on the way home. had several bouts of sleep today, (10 am to 1 pm), (4 pm to 6 pm), and am fully refreshed for tomorrow.

wasteland - 10 years

change my attempt good intentions.... crouched over.. you were not there, living in fear. but signs were not really that scarce. obvious tears... and i will not hide you through this i want you to help. please see the bleeding heart perched on my shirt. die, withdraw, hide in cold sweat, quivering lips, ignoring remorse. naming a kid, living wasteland this time you've tried. all that you can turning you red crowned hopeless, the article read living wasteland this time you've tried. all that you can turning you red but i will not hide you through this i want you to help. here we are with your obsession... heave the silver, hollow sliver piercing through another victim turn and tremble, be judgmental, ignorant to all the symbols blind the face with beauty paste, eventually you'll one day know change my attempt good intentions limbs tied, skin tight. self-inflicted his perdition. should i..? could i..?

on melvyn tan: the thing is that he didn't evade national service because he didn't want to serve in the first place but because he had a passion he wanted to pursue. that is selfish and ... we are ALL guilty of it. he didn't specially leave for britain at the age of 18; he went there when he was 12. having spent his whole teenagehood in britain he probably also didn't see the significance of national service as much as us over here. and besides, a look at all past cases of ns dodgers will reveal that everyone got away with a fine as well. why kick up such a big fuss only now when there are people (dodging ns for the sake of dodging) who are more guilty imo, and received the same lenient penalty. seriously... to hold a banner to protest during his performance? that's as stupid as saying hey you're going to hang one of my country's men so i'm going to punish you by imposing trade sanctions on you. one may disapprove of his actions, but it isn't exactly fair to denounce his talent because of what he did. "so what if he's a talented musician?" ... erm.. duh???

it's kelvin's first (or second) time playing Dota, so we sort of psychoed liwei to host. the original plan was, liwei and me, vs his cousin and kelvin (that will sort of balance up the team a bit<< Read me and kelvin are CMI). however, the server liwei created was a public one, and in no time ppl start filling up the slots, very fast. and kelvin joined the server without downloading the latest map; which was bad. the moment one person voiced to have him kicked out of the server, the rest all followed suit. such is the culture of the gaming community, unforgiving and unforgivably practical. it hasn't changed much since the 1998 diablo days where ppl pk their allies for no particular reason and then proceed to unleash their own set of verbal abuse ammunition onto their victims. yet, i find it very weird as to how come every single gamer behaves in this manner. at least at the dota server just now. i can understand if one or two impatient peeps cannot wait for this newbie friend of mine to download finish the latest map (because the file size is so gigantic (2mb) and will probably take a very long time (maybe 1 minute or so) to complete the download.) but i find it hard to believe that everyone is equally impatient. c'mon guys, get some sense of identity pls and stop following the fucking crowd!