Wednesday, September 29, 2004
a ponderous time indeed
dere be 2 more days left. it's wednesday, and friday, at 8:45am, i am to be called into the service of my nation, singapore. woot, now wot does that mean? gonna find out soon! haha. i'm goin in with mixed feelings, a kind of strange anticipation, yet i know i'mma be stuck there for a whole 2 weeks before i can come out. i will get a nice tan, get fit, but i will miss access to church and friends. i will miss that, but the monotony of life will be broken(oh yea it'll be broken alright, in many ways). i will have mucho time, so i shall bring my bible and devotional material. i haven't been able to spend any good stretch of time with God before, so army's a good opportunity. no stupid internet, or stupid blogger hahah, or dumb gunbound to distract me. no dishes to do anymore, games to play, underwear to wash .. er wait a minute!! ok fine, TONNES of underwear to wash, -daily-, and it won't just be restricted to underwear. TONNES of things to wash in general, possibly in the absence of detergent. w00t.
i don't have many hours left(online ones, that is), and here's saying thanks for patronising this page the past many months, and posting comments, thoughts, encouragement for whatever was goin on, and even spam, yes spam. all is appreciated, and so i must bid farewell for a lil while to enjoy my freedom on a remote island off the shores of singapore where i'll be moshing with many other guys for a good 2 and a half months. i can't even look at beyong these two months, don't know what the future brings, but it's all in good hands.
will miss you guys terribly, BUT, oh well, it's parta life, all parta the experience, and i know i wouldn't wanna miss it. there's this silent thrill going on under my skin, and half of me is raring to go, but the other half is all melancholic. good stuff! ciao, see you guys in a few, and you take care! God bless. i leave you with an uplifting song!
*hugs and kisses* (where appropriate)
All Creatures #2
by David Crowder Band
All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing
O praise Him, alleluia
Thou burning sun with golden beam
Thou silver moon with softer gleam
O praise Him, O praise Him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Thou rushing wind that art so strong
Ye clouds that sail in heav'n along
O praise Him, alleluia
Thou rising moon in praise rejoice
Ye lights of evening find a voice
O praise Him, O praise Him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Let all things their Creator bless
And worship Him in humbleness
O praise Him, alleluia
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son
And praise the Spirit, three in One
O praise Him, O praise Him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son
And praise the Spirit, three in One
O praise Him, O praise Him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
O, alleluia, alleluia
paN!cker lost it at 1:15 am
Friday, September 17, 2004
KL, Malaysia
yup i'm here in KL relaxing with me family right now. it's 10:45am now, just finished breakfast, and it's the last day of our lil trip. Be back tmr, which is saturday. Been to see the twin towers, times square shopping mall(950 shops!!), been on their monorail, which is a small version of our mrt kind of, been stuck in their (in)famous traffic jams, and hopefully we'll visit the KL tower today, which has a revolving restaurant. we've also done quite a bit of shopping hehe. oh well, just great that there's internet here, although the backdrop of cigarette smoke is a bit spoiler la. well, seeya back in s'pore soon everyone!
paN!cker lost it at 10:36 am
Friday, September 03, 2004
listless
spent my -whole- day checking mail, after not checking for goodness knows how long. quite a bit of junk, as well as prolly 100 legit mails. in between checking, i squeezed in a bitta gunbound, song dl'ing and catching up with me oL wrath of absalom mates in IRC. seems to me almost the whole kingdom has changed, so many people i don't even know. 'tis time to say goodbye to utopia as i take on something a little more challenging in a month's time. mmmm
paN!cker lost it at 9:48 pm
ouch, ouch, and ... ouch
hurt is my middle name. was at my cousin vera's birthday party yesterday, and i could not believe how much a 19 yr old could enjoy block catching and blind mice that much (my cousin's 12 btw). we ran and ran and ran and ran even more. it was helluva fun.
got there at like 10:45, hung around a bit with rochelle, who's birthday we were celebrating also since their birthdays fell consecutively. actually the three cousin's who went all have birthdays running consecutively! so wow they're all in sync and i'm like uhh, arhm, yep, december baby here.
later on when hanting(my other cuz, it's a guy =P) arrived, we did nothing until about 1 when we went to gai gai at the sengkang shopping centre. when we got back, things finally started happening when da people started filing in. well, the fun started with round after round of block catching. i have not run that much in a really long time. sprinting all over the place actually. and her block is 15 storeys high! there's also an adjoining carpark, which means if you are the catcher, blessed be your soul because you are gonna be in for a ride.
now i know why sprinters are so buff and muscular, compared to long-distance runners. they gotta be man! my arms are aboslutly killin me. i feel like i did 5 hours of 200kg weights in the gymn or something. of course my calves, thighs and hamstrings are pretty sore as well, like duh. and usually even when i get aches, my calves are fine. this time the calves are right up there with the rest of the muscle groups i previously didn't know existed. the only time i can remember feeling even close to this was in sec 3 when i ran in our school annual x-country and came in 9th, which means one of the first non x-country peeps, which means i was reaaally pleased with the run. well for a -week- after, my body was in at least twice the pain it's in now. and in at least double the places. every sinew in the legs hurt, both arms hurt, my back hurt, and even my chest hurt! can u believe it, your chest gets a workout when you run, haha. and i'm like so skinny, didn't even know that could be possible. but actually call me sadistic or woteva, i kinda like this kinda pain, especially when you massage it and go "ow ow ow!!!" the pain is actually quite shiok la. shows that the workout taxed your muscles and you pushed hard(either that or you didn't warm up, which is true in my case lol)
owell, that's my painful teachers' day account, i'll leave you guys with lyrics to this really uber cool song that i linked to me blog. meaningful lyrics and nice funk to it!
Adding To The Noise
by Switchfoot
What's it gonna take
to slow us down
to let the silence spin us around?
What's it gonna take
to drop this town?
We've been spinning at the speed of sound.
Stepping out of those convenience stores
what could we want but more more more?
From the third world
to the corporate core
we are a symphony of modern humanity
If we're adding to the noise
turn off this song
If we're adding to the noise
turn off your stereo, radio, video, i dunno
what they're gonna think of next
genetic engineers of the most high tech
A couple new ways
to fall into debt
I'm a nervous wreck but I'll bet
that that T.V. set
tells us what we've wanted to hear
But none of these sound bites
are coming in clear
From the third world to the corporate ear
we are the symphony of modern humanity.
If we're adding to the noise
turn off this song
if we're adding to the noise
turn off your stereo, radio
paN!cker lost it at 12:35 am
Thursday, September 02, 2004
three cheers and three cheers!
and three cheers for ............. God! yabadabadoo! well guess that means .. I made it! Kinda late post la, pple congratulating me in the chatterbox and here i am "announcing" it, but i'm here and this is the latest!
i was mentally prepared to face the cool dude testers out there, with their renowned i'll-bite-yer-legs-off-if-you-even-if-you-EVEN!!!-dare-look-at-me-yes-yer-DOIN-IT-RIGHT-NOW! kinda look. i was secretly hoping that i would actually get a nice tester *gasp* but no it did not materalise and so yup.
it's all a whirl now as i play it through, but i know my warm-up session went pretty well, and i was thinking dang if that had been it, i'm through. dang why couldn't that be it! er except for failing to give way to one pedestrian (he was eons away and it was 50-50 if he would even cross, but he put his foot on the hump as my rear tyre was saying goodbye to the hump), great, so i should have waited. and what happens when u don't give way to pedestrians? no, of course you don't lose points. that's silly! you fail, outright. ack! so on hindsight, well ok maybe that wasn't sucha good run for a TP test after all. but i tell you it prepared me for the actual thing.
so we were back at the centre, i parked and hurried a little anxiously upstairs to wait before we were called into the testers room and were briefed. yes yes, all random, very nice. and i was like amongst the last(in the room) to be called so ok it was gonna be route 10, tester named Song. as in song bo?! OR, if u ponder a little further, song as in sing a song with me will you? then we sat down nervously and waited while the testers filed out to do dunno what. before long, the testers started poking their heads in, calling out names. this time i was one of the first to be called, and it was by none other than Song himself.
i hurried out, wondering whether i should follow the advice from my mum about greeting the tester, being nice and polite at all, showing that if he should pass you, you in no way would be an obnoxious and idiotic driver. as that played around in my mind, i realised Mr. Song was striding away as fast as he could and paying attention to not communicating to me in any way. uhhh, ok maybe no greeting today then.
down at the car, lo and behold, ian ortega emerges from his lesson and we bump into each other walking in opposite directions. i point dramatically in front of me at tester Song and he was like "ohh test ah? all the best!" then we shook hands, i thanked him and got into the car, number 3.
before i even gathered my senses, Song directed me flatly and plainly enough, "left". wha?!? oh uh yessir! i was like "ok" then proceeded to do a systematic pre-drive check, regardless of how he seemed to hurry me out of the lot. maybe it's parta the test! and so off we went, on a tour of the circuit. luckily everything went smoothly, but his abruptness took a little getting used to. the whole circuit has number notices at every corner so instructors can tell you where to turn, and that's all Song said to me. "37" here, "19" there, i felt like a robot. and i had to stay alert, because "37" actually meant "37, vertical parking", because that's what could be found at that turn. if i had been quite daft and just ohh 37 and driven straight to the junction after that and turned left, i wonder what he woulda thought. after trying to confirm 37, vertical parking..? and reciving a mumbo jumbo'ed "mm 37" reply, i proceeded to park.
the rest of the circuit proved uneventful, which is extremely good news, and i didn't see him opening his score sheet to give me any "bonuses". great, onto the road! my wiper had been on since there was a slight drizzle while i was in the circuit, and i had forgotten to turn it off now that the sun was out again. finally Song broke the silence and casually mentioned "know how to turn on wiper dunno how to turn off ah..." slightly embarrassed, it was my turn at mumbo-jumo replies going mm..oh, before proceeding to turn the wiper speed one notch up. alarmed at how this wiper worked at "Off", i sheepishly turned the switch the other way and whew that was the end of something potentially life-threatening!
now i came to this pedestrian-crossing hump, and i was almost ready to go when i saw this guy wanting to step onto the hump. learning from experience i slowed to a stop and heaved an inward sigh of relief. thank God! we headed back and i was rather happy and expectant of a favourable result. Song directed me to stop at the lots we were parked at before, and he got out immediately and strode off(he's pretty tall so it's quite a stride). i was left clueless in the car, with half a mind to actually park the thing. luckily the instructor in charge of testees and cars and all waved me to follow. i motioned whether he wanted the car switched off, but no he didn't so out i came, grabbed my bag and into the centre i swept to keep up with Song.
back in the tester's office, we sat opposite each other and with his scrunched up face(i wonder how they keep the act going all day), he complained about why i had lane changed and found i had to lane change BACK because a vehicle was parked by the roadside. before i could come up with a semblance of an answer, he put the scoresheet down, circled "Passed", told me to go downstairs for the video, and vanished as quickly as he had appeared in my life.
wow, what a day it had been.
paN!cker lost it at 1:26 am
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