This is a long overdue post!!
Thursday, June 29, 2006
The last 1 week was rather hectic.. coz it's Choosing-Freshies-Week! Was really happy with the choices actually.. got almost all that we wanted.. and of course the admin of squeezing ppl through Masters List.. Waiting List.. compiling contacts.. emailing freshies.. emailing seniors.. organising meetings.. blah blah blah..
Ok let's get on with the backdated events...
2xp card
Think it's about a 2 weeks now since I bought my Maple 2XP card.. yea it's a $15 dollar patch where you I get double the experience points for all the monsters that I kill.. and it has become more of a dread than fun.. like I spend all my time trying to level up than doing quests and exploring around blah blah blah it's getting quite boring.. esp so when I have to train alone coz my training buddy kills fire boars better while I kill undeads better.. Oh well.. so I was going at about 1 level a day till now I'm Level 42.. a long way from my 3rd Job at level 70
(Sorry for all the maple talk)
But yea.. I want to hit 70 before flying off.. but it's getting rather impossible now I guess.. with rag dance kicking in everyday.. it ends at 10pm so after slacking around I reach home at around midnight daily.. can't play long coz the next day gotta work.. ya so my life has been rather monotonously boring for the past few days.. (7am) wake up for work-->(7pm)Rag dance-->(12am)Maple-->(2am)Other admin-->Sleep-->(7am)wake up for work....
I want to quit my horrandously boring job.. just that I sorta signed a contract to work till end of july.. but there was the if-want-to-quit-must-inform-2-weeks-in-advance clause.. oh well.. shall talk to my boss on Mon
Wedding!
W and CT got married! In MapleStory at least.. oh it was a sweet thing.. hah though it's really only virtual.. and only another way for AsiaSoft to earn bucks.. but it was a great gathering time for everybody and look man.. there's even like a chinese wedding banquet restaurant for the event!
Aint this sweet? So many people attended the wedding! Feels almost like the real thing... 
Mapling Shearites! Jeyee, Summer, Suzy (Szeyi), Phoebe (Ruoling), Kenny, Junsheng, Me, Weijie and of course.. the 2 lovebirds..
It feels like almost the real thing.. guess it's a prelude to really getting married.. hurhur *wink*
Organising stuff
That was the week where there were millions of gatherings to be organised.. somehow I wonder why they all came around the same time.. and it didn't help that I only had weekends to slot these activities.. considering that most would be working on weekdays..
Kena arrowed somehow by Ravern haha to organise AOCC gathering.. then there was Weijie's birthday plans (we actually tried to plan something but couldn't decide on what to do in the end.. so there wasn't anything grand.. so in essence.. Weijie planned his own birthday dinner at Brewerks.. where I spent $70 on beer and food.. and gained 1 kg the next morning).. and tried to organise a Block D batch outing...
Haven't mastered the art of organising events though.. coz pple take you for granted.. they don't reply.. they expect you to know whether they are by-default-coming or by-default-notcoming.. haha.. retribution I guess.. coz.. I'm also guilty of all these practices hehe..
- Email sucks. Yea.. it either ends up in the junk mail folder or is left rotting in the Inbox as pple read once and forget about it. Though there's this cool website at http://www.einvite.com which helps organise events.. it's hardly helpful coz no one visits it.
- SMS sucks less.. but is expensive. At least people do reply.. of course there are those that don't... these people suck.. coz at least I bothered to waste 5cents messaging you can you please reply? It's the Theory of Mass SMSes.. you think I won't know if you don't reply coz it's a mass message right? THe truth is.. I KNOW. People only reply to personalised SMSes.. that start with their name for example.. *slap them*
- If you don't wanna come, don't paiseh, just say. Crap excuses like see-who-going-1st = not-coming. And why the hell should it be see-who-going-1st? Shouldn't it be lemme-get-pple-to-go-with-me?
Oh well.. if any one has better luck/skill in this area.. please teach me a trick or two.. but er.. I would avoid organising events from now on.. more so after I step down. =)
AOCC Gathering
Somehow being the person years ago to gather contacts and send the 1st email to everyone made be the perfect target to arrow to gather pple for a gathering.. it was a great idea to meet up.. but not at the expense of the organisers woes as described above.. to make things worse.. most of us lost contact..
Oh well.. but the gathering was a nice one anyway.. caught up with all the buddies that had gone on to NUS.. NTU.. overseas.. Melvin's getting married in November.. almost everyone drove to Jianwen's place.. Alex was still the devil.. telling us about his trips to lasupKTV blahblahblah.. we cracked the same old jokes about MAJ Victor and Kelvin Bong and his swayness... about instructors.. Unit life.. and of course.. a new topic that emerged was certainly about ICT...
A short gathering.. but it certainly brought back many memories.
Once Armour Always Armour
I guess if we were to meet up every year it would be the same topics and same jokes year after year.. but hey.. some legends like MAJ Victor's jumping jacks and Bongs birdshit-on-nose should never be forgotton... hehe..
IPPT
I'm going to take it on 29th July morning.. thinking that I should take it before I go overseas.. coz when I come back I'll definitely be fat like crazy and would probably fail.. but the thing is.. I still have to take IPPT after I come back coz it'll be past my birthday..
So.. I booked IPPT for nothing.
Which means to make the best out of it I should train up to get the $400 rite?
But with rag dance everyday.. where got time to train?
Hope dance helps.
Money Woes
I've been spending lots lots lots recently.. on silly things like taking taxi to work coz I dillydally too much in the morn (should stop these now that cab fares are rising).. to more meals outside now that I don't have dinner at home.. to spending close to $200 on both my parent's birthday dinners and cakes recently.. and the humble ol' EZ Link ain't merciful either.. think I spend like $20 a week on bus/MRT.. which is $100 a month!
And I want to spend more! I want to buy my iPod.. with the camera connector.. I want to upgrade my laptop memory.. I want the Imation 2GB thumbdrive.. I need new spectacles.. I need a new watch.. I have to pay for hall stay (if I manage to hijack Kayping's room) myself.. and I'M GOING OVERSEAS!!! And when I come back I'll need to buy new shows.. I want to buy a Pocket PC to replace my mysteriously missing Palmtop.. I need a bicycle to travel to school now that I'm hall-less........
Someone donate to the Pamper-a-Chio fund.
Signed off at
9:46 pm
▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Sunday, June 18, 2006
I personally like this pic a lot.. haha like taken from a Gongfu show.. =)
Signed off at
10:26 pm
▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
SECC ended more than 4 days ago.. and as promised here's a post on it.. though this should have come much earlier but the temptation to maple was much higher than blogging..
MY LAST SECC
Much as I wanted to make this one a smashing good one for myself.. there was some sort of regret lingering in the aftermath of the camp.. Maybe I should have not crashed as a freshie at all.. I should have been a senior-councillor and adopted an OG like meiqiang did.. yea probably I'd have enjoyed myself more.
Yes, my crashing stint failed totally. Haha.
I came late and tried to look like a blur cock. Thinking that most of these kids would be JC kids I thought that adopting the identity of would be foolproof. (haha yah it was a mix of Jeffry Thumbunanto cum Veron Chua here) Before reading on you have to admit it's one of the best anonymous identites to adopt right? I couldn't be serving army coz I totally lost touch.. Besides, being old at 23 years old would mean my world would have totally no similarity from theirs.. But oh well.. everything seemed to go wrong haha
Qijun (councillor):
"Hi so which Poly you from? Nanyang Poly ah?"
Me:
"Oh no Singapore Poly." *smiles*
Qijun:
"Oh *points at 2 pple* we have 2 OG-mates from Singapore Poly too!"
~diao~
One of the campers:
"So how old are you?"
Me:
"I'm 23. I'm born in 83. I went to work for 2 years before being accepted into NUS."
Camper:
"Means you are the same age as Rodney la *points to the 'fellow' Singapore Poly camper* He's 83 also."
~diao~
Rodney (The SP guy):
"So what course are you studyin in NUS?"
Me:
"Pharmaceutical Science."
Rodney:
"Eh? Sure or not? You managed to get a place in that one? Very competitive right? Did you apply by website? Coz I'm sure if apply by website there isn't the option of choosing Pharmacy for Poly students."
Me:
"Oh.. I er.. had to write in to the Dean to let me take the course. I couldn't stand Chem Engine la.."
Rodney:
"Whoa that means your results must be damn good la? How many As you get? How many points? 30?"
Me:
"Haha so long ago don't say already la."
(I don't even know what the poly system of counting points is!!)
Rodney:
"Say leh say leh? Whoa must be really very good!"
Me:
*keeps quiet and smiles*
~diao~
Another camper Sam:
"Oh you're Indonesian? Means you never serve army la?"
Me:
"No. I was working the past 2 years."
Sam:
"Issit? You mean they allow you to work? You are a foreigner wad...?"
Me:
"Er.. yah I applied for work permit."
~diao~
And of course there were the hordes of Shearites who couldn't resist talking to me..
Andre (from Block B, outside Fong Seng):
"Hey chio later you can take my car back, I drove here."
One of the camper girls:
"How did you know him?"
Me:
"Er.. Seconday School classmate."
~diao~
Jackson (on the breakfast table, and I was sure I reminded him I was a camper the night before):
"HEY CHIO!"
Me:
*Kept quiet and hopes he will go away.*
(I introduced myself as Clement instead of Chio)
~diao~
Ruoling:
"CHIO CHIO CHIO CHIO CHIO CHIO CHIO CHIO CHIO!"
Me:
*SMSes her that I'm crashing as camper*
~diao~
It was the Sentosa day when I couldn't resist the temptation of declaring my identity.. I mean.. I was stuck playing boring ol' Dog-and-Bone with the campers when Weijie and the rest of the gang were running around ponding pple. How much I wanted to run an join them but at least I decided to hold on to my identity till the end of Beach games. After all.. after the night before I was sure some of the OG were already suspecting my dubious identity haha.
Yes, I declared myself during Lunchtime.
Taught them a makan cheer to make up for cheating them hurhur.
So the rest of SECC was spent with the SWOC councillors gang.. partly coz of my laziness I didn't join the freshies.. but mostly coz it's so much more fun going round sentosa with them.. and yea we played as the 5th group in the Amazing race.. solved the puzzles.. gave the station masters a whole lot of trouble and dug out 245 bonus points!
Not like it really mattered.. hahaaa
Check out photos here!
That was the sentosa day.. the rest of SECC was just weird.. for me.. for us seniors. While on sentosa day a lot of seniors like Summer, Lawrence, Junlong bla bla came back the next few days were just the few of us wandering around like lost souls.. finding people to entertain us or simply finding games to play. We went to west coast park not knowing what to do.. Worse still the misunderstanding between Jianhui and the rest of the gang made the whole mood sucky.. and we went to Cineleisure to chill out instead.
At least we came back for finale night.. At least there was the Cheer Marathon which gave us our much-needed fun..
So SECC ended like it never happened.. at least for me.. I didn't manage to know my OG very well.. though they still asked me out for their OG outing and stuff but the feeling was still weird coz I didn't go through everything with them.. There wasn't the anticipation of having new blockmates to look forward to coz I know I will be choosing pple from other OGs as well.. people whom I am totally not familiar with.. SECC, to me, was more like taking a 3 day break from work to stay in hall, to hang out with fellow Shearites again after so long.
Which, come to think of it, was a good thing.
STAYING IN BLOCK B LEVEL 6
This was a saga I had to pen down haha.. terribly interesting.
Yes, I stayed in Block B level 6 during the 1st 2 days of SECC.. which is a girls level.. which didn't really matter coz my neighbours were Wendy.. Christina.. Jeannie.. Yingeng.. none who would scream and freak out of a guy stayin in their level. This residence was, of course, secret.
Until the 2nd day morning when I opened the door only to see the Block B Auntie outside. And she immediately asked..
"你住这边啊? "
"没有，是我朋友住这边。" (duh.. it was a girls level)
"那这间房呢？有人住吗？" as she pointed the to the adjacent room, which was WH's, and she was in CT's room at that time.
"有，有。我朋友咯。"
"是不是这个人？" and she showed me a list of names and the room which was supposed to occupy the room was another name. But I was sure WH booked that room.
"哦，不是。我们昨天刚刚注册，可能还没有update吧。"
And at that moment, Weijie who was staying opposite 'WHs Room' opened the door. I tried to shoo him back into the room but Auntie had realised and turned around.
"那你leh？你住这边meh？" I could tell Auntie was getting a bit confused now.
"哦，对。因为有camp嘛.." Weijie answered.. he was still half-asleep with a towel over his head.. though it was a dumb answer coz it was a Girls' level.. but oh well Auntie didnt realise so i kept quiet.
"好好，我去check。因为如果你们不是住这边你们就要搬走。"
AND I PACKED UP MY STUFF WITH THE FASTEST SPEED I COULD AND RAN TO WENDY'S ROOM, locked the door and me and weijie (and angie who was already inside) made no noise inside.
Haha.. so when Block B Auntie came up with Valli to see the empty room she was kinda furious.. like kinda cheated like that.. and made her stupid in front of Valli coz she told valli someone was staying in the room when it appeared to be empty.
And she complained and complained and complained.. WH came down with CT to explain.. Jeyee unexpectedly came down and got embroiled in the complain session.. Block A auntie her good friend was around.. and of course Ruoling pretended to "hear the commotion from level 5" and came up to settle the matter.. haha.. check out this photo...
Through the keyhole.. Block B auntie.. WH.. Ruoling.. and hidden Jeyee.. CT.. Blk A Auntie.. haha
COBH
Seeing how packed the hall calender would be once school reopens made me realise how much I'd be missing hall once I go for SEP.. I'd be missing most of SWOC coz of Rag I suppose.. I'd prob bum around durin IBG but can't play much.. see the JCRC step up.. then I'll fly off le.. I'll miss Buaya Week which I wish I could play...
Even the day after SECC when I was dozin off at work I kept on thinking of hall life.. of SECC during freshie days.. of Year 1.. of bring a councillor.. my tour as Block Head.. Though if I stay hall for 1 more year it'll be the same events repeating but it's te people that matters.. I guess I would wanna enjoy a life as a responsibility-free Shearite just taking part in hall activities..
Maybe I should come back in Year 4.
Sigh.. for now.. I just hope SEP would be worth the miss in hall.. in hwachong events.. in the friends left back behind here...
Oh well..
To end off this post here's a video for all to enjoy.. something habits that Mafbrothers cannot change.. haha
Signed off at
7:44 pm
▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Fortnightly blog
Monday, June 12, 2006
Oh well.. the only reason that I'm blogging now is that..
The Maple server is laggy
Haha
At the rate I'm blogging.. it'll become a fortnightly blog.. Everytime I want to type something it feels such a drag.. coz as the days passes i have so many things to say but it doens't do justice if I don't record themselves properly.. yet my brain is in a shut-off mode nowadays and can't really link my experiences/feelings to words coherently.
What a boring Sunday alone at home.. it's perfect weather to slack at home though.. actually getting quite sian of mapling already coz i'm always playing alone nowadays.. and I've run out of quests to do already.. and I can't level fast coz need to wait for Summer but she's busy pak-tohhing with........
WORK
Already working for 2 weeks now.. it's a terrible job actually.. highly boring.. dunno how many times I fall asleep during the job already.. and it's in Toa Payoh far far far far away from my home so i leave home at 8am every morning.. My colleagues are aunties and uncles and the worst part is I listen to CAPITAL RADIO 95.8 everyday....
AUNTIES
Yeap.. my colleagues are all aunties. I have lunch with them everyday. They are actually a nice bunch to be with.. despite the really apparantly 'generation gap'. And as with all aunties the only link to relate to me (any my other colleague 1 year younger) is with their kids. But aunties are all the same.. at least from what I've observed so far. here are some characteristics
- There's only the world of the 'Young' (你们年轻人) and the 'Old' (我们老人).
And it's characterised by what me and my friend does. When I bring my usual huge water bottle to work, it equates to 年轻人喜欢喝很多水; When i don't eat bananas, they assume 年轻人不喜欢吃水果，现在只喜欢吃chocolate; When I type fast on the computer or manage to dig out the game Solitaire on the computer, they conclude that 年轻人电脑很厉害. Haha. Interesting. - Common topics = Good food, Cheap food, My children is a ... , Sales...
Believe me, they are usually walking price lists. They will know where has the cheapest chicken rice.. how much fruits cost.. blah blah blah. But their definition of cheap food is really cheap.. like $2. I once ordered sang mee for $3 and they deemed it expensive already. Hmm.. that's like quite reasonable for me la haha. And like all parents, they love to talk about their children. - Suckers for minimarts.
Yes. It's an minimarts are auntie-magnets. I always end up window-shopping at minimarts after lunch while they will somehow get a bargain out.. even if it's 6 cans of Jia Jia Liang Teh.
958城市频道
This is the real torture at work. From the moment I step into the small office I listen to this horrandous channel from 9am all the way till 6pm! Ok to give it justice it's actually not a terrible in terms of content but it's just not my cup of tea!!! For one thing of the 8 hours on this channel I bet there are less than 1 hour in total of songs!! All other times it's just talking and talking and more talking. Sometimes some of the deejays overly immaculately perfect chinese kinda pisses me off.. maybe it's my pet peeve. And the news is repeated like every hour.. which if not good if it's the same 5 pieces of news!!! Can't they say different things at different times? Like Home News, World News, Business News.. NO! It's always the SAME THING EVERY HOUR!! Whoa can die. And the worst worst worst part of this is that it's essentially a complain channel. YES, there's even a segment called 打小人 when listeners can call in and rant their grievances to the DJ who will obligely scold the ones that have offended to the compliainee. For those who don't manage to call through this seemingly popular segment of the show, there even a 24 HOUR HOTLINE called 有话自己说 where listeners can call in and (guess what?) complain. And what topics have got onto the hotline? People feeding cats on the void deck.. Ba Zhang prices raised during DragonboatFestival (like duh??).. Neighbours kids making too much noise.. Singapore sucks and they want to emigrate.. Celebraties reading Harry Potter (?!?? like what's their problem??) and the most incredible one so far.. snail-mailing Lottery Tickets to herself coz she was in the East then and she lived in the West (?!??) and the mail never got to her and she struck lottery! Whoa.. I must admit I have a low tolerance for brainlessness.. so yeah.. imagine the torture to my ears...
I'm going to get my iPod next week.
UNATTENDED BAGGAGE
We always see posters urging us to reported unattended baggage when we see one.. or even to the extent of calling 999.
But if you really see one, what will you do?
I did. I got on the bus and there smack in the corner of the standing area was an unattended haversack. Though there were people standing between me and the haversack there wasn't like a visibly obviously owner (whom i assume will stand close enough to the bag). The closest guy was sitting down by the side but he wasn't even looking at the bag. I kept staring at the bag.. and around it to hopefully deem an owner to keep myself from worrying.. I even wanted to walk to the sitting guy to ask him if the bag was his.. but..
Seriously, is it really my problem? Why aren't the people closer to the bag caring at all?
If they guy doesn't turn out to be owner, am I saying he looks like a suicide bomber?
It's easy to say I should have confronted the guy.. or should have told the bus driver.. but it really takes some guts to do it. If it's a hoax then the rest of my bus journey will be rather embarrasing.
But what if it's really a bomb? I could be saving the whole bus, and of course, myself.
Boo-boo. I didn't take any action. I kept my fingers crossed till the bus reached home. I put my life in danger. Face vs civic-mindedness, I chose face.
Another 3 Boos to myself. =(
LENA
Destiny is unpredictable. No one would have thought that she would have passed away just like that. In such a shocking manner. Though I wasn't particularly close to her, the news did slap me hard coz we bore the same rare surname.. and her accident happened overseas.. and yes, I'd be going for SEP in 2 months time.
I was in Taiwan when the I received news of Enhuai's tragedy. He was the first of 'my generation' to pass away. But it was more of a sad fact then a tragic shock coz I wasn't close to him at all. Probably never spoke.
Lena was a nice girl. We often joked that we were siblings.. from Hwachong.. and BlockHeads.. and the gullible won't find it hard to believe. Somehow.. I feel that tomorrow I'd be attending the wake of a very distant family member.
Rest in peace, girl.
SECC
After a much boring period of holidays.. SECC is something I've been really looking forward to. Have always wanted to crash as a camper so that I can know my potential block juniors better.. but well.. prolly not now. Turn of events.
The same cloud in the sky, it may look like an angel to a person but it may look like an animal to another person standing on another location.
It's the Block Head mentality. Even last year when I was in the committee I always thought that SECC was the platform to pre-bond the block.. the jumpstart to bringing the rest of the batch together. My SECC camper experience has been the strong block spirit.. when seniors like Jianfa, Emily, Rhyss will come back and help out alongside councillors Edwin, Ben, Cesheng to have fun. I didn't know what a 'Block' was at that time but all I knew that the group of councillors and seniors were very close.. which led me to believe totally the 'warm and friendliness' of Sheares Hall.
But on the otherside of the coin, there others who see it from the 'Hall' point of view. SECC's purpose is to bring in potentials into Sheares Hall, regardless of Block. Somehow the demise of a very close Shearite came into the present decision as well. Probably other factors which I do not know of, but the councillor and camper groupings won't be by Blocks now.
"the last thing u al want the freshies to think is "wah.. this hall is so split up (into blocks) la..."
But it's the truth. Block culture is the very foundation of Sheares Hall.
I've made my stand, but in all respect to the organisers and leaders, it's their decision. After all, it's really none of my business. I'm not staying in Hall anymroe.
Oh well, I'm still going to enjoy myself thoroughly the next 4 days regardless what.
NEXT WEEK
will be SECC week. Whatever it is.. I've taken leave from boring work which is a very very comforting thought already. I'm going to buy my iPod. I'm going to settle my SEP stuff. I'm going to get my islander card. I'm going to get a tan.
Thanks for reading.
Hopefully I'll post after SECC.
Signed off at
11:25 pm
▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
Sunday, June 11, 2006
I must upload this! it's so rare that so many of us are present.. even had to force 5.5 to come haha.. only absent: Bong. Poor thing he's working OT =( Think this is going to be on my desktop for a long long long time. Presenting.. THE MAF FAMILY!
Signed off at
12:40 am
▐▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▌
