Feeling extremely unprepared, tired, and couldn't-care-less 2 hours and 10 minutes before my next exam paper.
Not good.
Did I mention I completed NFSC over the exam period? As in I got hold of and started playing the game during the study week, and finally completed it yesterday. That's probably going to have an impact on my grades.
[What did you expect?]
There has been some interesting news from across the Causeway as of late. As it seems, the minorities are not happy with the bumiputra rights. It's escalated to the point where leaders have to "threaten" the minorities not to question the bumiputra rights or the national religion.
What a surprise. No wait, it's not.
Let's call the bumiputra policies for what it really is - state sponsored racial discrimination. Why should the minorities be punished just because the majority...sucked?
Of course, what's going on across the Causeway doesn't really affect us in Singapore. Not directly anyway. I've had a good laugh in recent weeks at Mahathir's senility. Or stupidity. Whatever. But we are surrounded by Muslim countries, and it pays to keep an eye on our region.
And for those of you who caught the latest episode of Survivor: Cook Islands, isn't it nice to see people who were blind-sided/outplayed get pissed and swear during their farewell speech? Curse and swear all you want, you're still going home.
[Life in Singapore...]
There are three things I want to cover in this entry.
First: Yusry's latest entry is about a post he saw on Sammyboy. I don't visit Sammyboy, so I was seeing the post for the first time. I'm going to reproduce it below, because it sums up how I feel about NS, and sometimes life in Singapore in general. I changed the interesting parts to bold.
If I have a son in Sinkeepoor he will have to serve NS. Why must I be so cruel to force an innocent man to go through such a mind-numbing, self-deprecating, emotionally unfulfilling and socially stagnating experience? In NS the poor young chap will learn nothing at all. He will only learn to tolerate rude and brash superiors, endure the meaningless drills and tekan sessions, and forced to do all kinds of stupid, senseless things just to make his officers look good.
Worse of all when he ORD, he finds himself discriminated against by callous traitors who would rather hire a foreigner because an FT has no reservist liability. Then he finds that putting his own life and limb to defend his own nation is not something he can be proud of, but is something that is a liability to his own livelihood. He is being treated as a second class citizen in his own country that he was forced to swear to lay down his life for in times of war. He is putting his own head on the chopping board so that foreigners can enjoy the fruits and spoils of his (almost) free labour without compensating him anything in return.
He sacrificed 2-2.5 years (edit: it's just 2 years now) of his precious youth, then followed by a 13-year (edit: it's 10 years now) reservist cycle, and in return his girlfriend is molested by Bangala workers during New Year celebrations, he finds that his job is taken by FTs who don't have to do NS or put their lives on the line in times of national emergency, and he is seen by the PAP as just a digit, a statistic that can be milked for what it's worth and then expended and thrown away when useless.
Why should I bring a child into the world to suffer this fate. If I ever have kids I will migrate first. The pink IC is not different from the seal scorched onto the heel of cows and cattle to mark them.
The post is worded kinda strong, and I don't agree with all of it, but I feel some of it is quite true. Remove all the politically-correct filters instilled in your heads by...You know who....And think about it. Is it wrong? Or is it just...True?
There was a thread on HWZ's EDMW about the article published in the papers about the Finnish guy who came here to escape from the high taxes in his country (conveniently published as GST was increased to 7%), someone in the thread suggested making all the "foreign talent" perform NS. Then we'll see how many of them would still come to Singapore. A letter in today's Forum drew an apt comparison: Singaporeans who emigrate are called "quitters". Foreigners would were not good enough to represent their own countries at the sport of their choosing migrate here to represent Singapore instead, and we call them "foreign talent".
This issue is not going to go away anytime soon. Recently there has been a lot of grumblings in the Forum section of the local papers about it, from bursaries and scholarships to sporting achievements to NS liabilities. The powers that be need to wake up and smell the dissent. They can spin it however they want, but sooner or later, it's going to blow up in their faces.
Second: I've been moody of late. I realise that my mood usually changes before I realise the reason for it. I need to take a step back, think about it before I know what's really bothering me. I haven't done that for a while, and the vile feelings inside of me has been accumulating. Coupled with some very bad/disturbing dreams for the past 2 days, things came to a boiling point last night.
I lost it. I absolutely lost it.
The last time this happened was when I was in Army and was under tremendous stress. But at that time, I just shouted bloody murder and that was it. Last night, it was blind rage. Now I finally know what blind rage is. It's when you loose all control, and just needed to erupt. I knew I was losing it as I was losing it. Isn't that funny? It was a good thing the person I was angry at did not really retaliate. If he did, I'd probably have gone over and be physically violent with him. I know I kid about this a lot, but I really think I would have gone over and come to blows with him, especially since he did challenge me to.
I'm not sorry for my actions. It felt great. I'm not completely over my rage yet. As I type this, I can feel it coming back. I guess there's only so much you can take. I've been taking it for almost 25 years. Couple that with how lousy I felt recently, something had to give.
It did give me some satisfaction to find out that the incident that sparked off the whole episode was not my fault at all. He jumped to the wrong conclusion. But I realised that wasn't what I was really angry at, hence the anger still burns....
But I finally found out what's been bothering me. It's ironic...I realised what it was when I read something on another blog. What I read...Was something I already knew. It's something that's pretty much beyond my control. No, not the whole NS-reservist thing. I'm pissed about that, but not that pissed. My whole life, I've always wanted to be in control. Whenever I'm not, I get edgy. I try to regain control. This time round, I can't. Guess I just gotta deal with it. One day at a time.
Third: Keith caught me on MSN as I was composing this entry. He passed along a link of an incident on a bus.
The story went like this: The Indian guy did not have enough money for his fare. The bus driver said something racist. The rest of which, you saw in the video. The video didn't show the bus driver saying anything racist, and didn't clue us in as to whether the Indian guy had money for his fare or not. All we know was that the bus driver asked the Indian guy to "scan his card", and he got mad. What the video did show, was criminal intimidation on the part of the Indian guy.
[11 days...]
Drat and double drats. Thanks to the wonder world of IT, I received my call-up last night at 9:23pm, while speeding along a canyon road in NFSC, trying to take out Angie from 21st Street. I would be spending 11 days in camp come end-June.
I could go on and on about how that sucked, but I won't. No one would serve NS willingly, and that's just the way it is. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just kidding themselves. I don't mind giving them 2 years and 4 months of the most productive years of my life (actually I do), but what really pisses me off is that they won't leave you alone after that. They keep harassing you for the next 10 years, during which you're required to report back for training that you have already gone through once before. That's right, you get to "refresh" your skills. Translated into real-world lingo: waste of time. The only way out is to get downgraded. Not gonna lie, I've been having back and knee troubles for a while now. Once I have the financial means to do so, I would probably go get them checked out, and see if I could get out of the whole idiotic 10-year cycle.
End rant.
There is another problem. The current filter in my planted tank requires servicing twice a week. Who's going to do that while I'm away?
Guess this is a good excuse to start looking into Eheim canister filters.
[Worms and other stuff...]
Went to the supermarket today. When I reached the cash register, I saw this sign.
It says the NETS service was down at this terminal. Good thing I was paying via cash. They should really put the sign further away so that people could see it before they joined the queue. It wouldn't be very nice for someone with a ton of groceries to queue up and only find out that the NETS terminal was down when he or she was next.
I feed freeze-dried tubifex worms to my fishes regularly. Today I decided to take a video of it. You can see the cube of tubifex worms floating around, and how all the tetras made for it once it sank.
Keith sent me the picture above. Another seat hog. When I first started posting pictures of strangers I see on public transport, I could easily come up with some funny (I think) stuff to go along with it. Recently I've been drawing blanks. That proves it...There are just too many inconsiderate people in Singapore.
[Hacked!]
Saw a post on a local forum about some local sites being hacked.
Kiddies hacking poorly protected commercial sites. If they have a pair, they should try doing it to .gov domains. Then our news-deprived local media would have something to report about.
[Doppelganger...]
My sister brought home an advertising pamphlet yesterday because one of the people in it looked like me.
To be perfectly honestly, I'm still not 100% sure what the pamphlet is supposed to sell. I think it's clothes. Either way, if you can't get your message across, it's probably not a very good marketing campaign.
[A new way, an old nuisance...]
I thought I've seen it all. I was wrong.
This woman took seat hogging to a whole new level. I saw her on the bus to school this morning. She put her stuff on the inside, and sat next to it. This results in her stuff taking up 20% of the seat she's supposed to be on and her right butt-cheek taking up 20% of the seat she's not supposed to be on.
The best thing of all was that a pretty big guy actually sat on the remaining 80%. Probably 25% of his ass was left hanging off the cliff.
We received an email yesterday telling us due to an "important event" (or something, I can't remember the exact terms they used) on Thursday, shuttle bus routes were being diverted, roads were being closed, etc etc. I figured George W. Bush was probably stopping by, since he was going to be in Singapore. What I can't figure out was why they "closed" the field. The sign read "No Play Field Closed". No "play"? That's almost as bad as Bush pronouncing nuclear.
Maybe they were afraid people would hold demonstrations there or something. Whatever. The point is, did they really think that tying raffia string around the field at knee height was going to stop people from entering the field if they really wanted to?
[Not getting stabbed...]
My sister picked up this magazine thingy from the CC today. On the cover was a local actress and her husband (who's also an actor), Pan Lingling and Huang Shinan (I think, I'm not sure how to spell the guy's name). I told my sister that Shinan was once stabbed when he sent Lingling home while they were dating....
Sister: Wah! So exciting! Me: You think getting stabbed is exciting? Sister: (indignant) Tell me, what tops that? Me: *rambled on about this article in Readers' Digest that said 1% of all people are psychopaths and how my sister sounds like one now* Sister: So, what tops getting stabbed? Me: Not getting stabbed.
By the way, did I get my facts mixed up? He did get stabbed right? It was a long time ago. If I remember correctly, it happened after he sent her home, while he was waiting for the lift. If I'm wrong, someone correct me.
[My muse...]
Just when I thought things would slow down because exams are coming (see previous post), inspiration came from an unlikely (debatable) source.
I was watching the Manchester United match last night (they beat Blackburn 1-0) with my sister when she, once again, came up with some random, silly nonsense. In the past while watching football with me, she's came up with a detailed (read: hilarious) plan to sneak an extra player on the field, among other naughty things. Last night, she came up with three bits of wisdom, one of which had nothing to do with football.
She pointed out that Paul Scholes looked like Charlie Brown...
Finally, she rounded it up by telling me that sometimes when she lifts her hamster's cage up to check the hamster's asshole (yes, she said that) for wet-tail, her hamster kicks shit into her face.
Yes, this is her hamster. Sleeping. Looks dead, doesn't it?
[Slowdown...]
Things are going to slow down a bit here. Classes are coming to an end, and exams are coming. This means I'd be going to school less, hence less photo opportunities.
I've been thinking of getting a PDA phone, and I'm currently trying to decide between the Atom, Atom Exec and iPAQ rw6828. From all accounts, it seems that the iPAQ is the best deal. Maybe I should stick a pin in this until after the exams...There's still a lot of research and exploring to be done.
Saw the latest Spider-man trailer. Wicked. Can't wait.
Whenever I sleep with the air-con on, there's a 20% chance I'd get the sniffles when I wake up. When I do, there's a further 50% chance that it'd develop into a full-blown runny nose, like it did today. Good thing I only had 1 lecture to attend, and it wasn't too bad on the whole. Except for YQ putting a horrible image in my head. Good thing I wasn't into the same thing he was...
But I did have sort of a fright on the bus ride home. I can't really explain it...But sometimes when I'm really ill, after taking medicine I'd lie on my bed and I couldn't move if I wanted to. I don't think I'm describing it right...Anyway for a moment I thought I was losing control of my body and was going to fall off my seat. I had to fight (yes, fight) to stay awake enough not to fall.
Had a conversation with Jill a little while ago on MSN. She was asking me something about CS3255 (which I took last year), and one thing lead to another (not what you're thinking). By the end of the conversation I was feeling rather lousy with myself, and some of the issues I thought I had dealt with came rushing back. Jill: Not your fault, shit happens.
My head and my heart has been telling me 2 different things for the last couple of weeks. I decided recently that I should listen to my head. When one problem is solved, another appears. I wish I had a crystal ball. I want to see if the future is....Worth living for. Don't worry, I'm not suicidal or anything. I just can't seem to find the words right now.
Somewhere along the whole thing, my sister sent me a song she told me about a few days ago. It's an old song by Jay Chou. I've heard it before, but I've never looked at the lyrics. Reading the lyrics only made me feel more lousy than I already was. She then skipped into my room, happy as can be, and asked me to print something for her. I wonder how she does it. She's seldom, if ever, angry. Always in good spirits. Always so.....Happy.
Anyway, the lyrics are below. I was thinking of translating them into English, but I think I better prepare for my presentation tomorrow.
[Talking to myself...]
The western food stall at the Business canteen was selling the cream of mushroom soup today. It's my second favourite, right after clam chowder. I decided to get a cup.
It was probably the worst soup I've ever had. It's all...Lumpy. It looked a bit like vomit too. Did not expect this, because the stall has never disappointed in the past. I guess there's a first time for everything.
Nana had some sort of mee boon soup or yong tau foo or something. I don't know what the hell she had, to be honest. Whoever prepared the stuff in it decided to make a pig's face out of...Whatever the stuff was. Crap...I shouldn't have blogged about this. I don't seem to know anything about it, except that it looked like a pig. Actually...Is that a lamb? Or sheep? I don't know.
On my way home, I met a mentally-disturbed person on the bus. That's her in the red box. I would have taken a video of what she did, but the guy in front of me kept getting his head in the frame. What attracted my attention at first was her putting her feet up on the orange bar. That's right, she put her feet up on the orange bar. I can't imagine how that could be comfortable. As I was considering whether or not to switch seats to get a better shot, she put her feet down. Drats.
Following that, I heard something like...Children's songs playing on the radio. I tried to look around to see if someone was playing ring-tones on their mobile phones out loud again, but I couldn't spot anyone. After a while I realised it was that woman again. She was talking to herself! This was the point where I realised she was nuts. She talked to herself for the better part of her journey (alighting 3 stops before me), and at one point was gesturing like crazy. If not for Mr Potato Head, I would have an interesting video to share.
Speaking of which, he was a seat hog too. But I guess it's not too bad, since the bus wasn't packed at all. I realised that when I see seat hogs, it's not so much the fact that they take up 2 seats that pisses me off. It's the smug look on their face that says I-don't-care-I'm-taking-up-two-seats that pisses me off. Because if the bus wasn't packed, taking up more seats really isn't much of a problem.
[The colours of the rainbow...]
One of the girls in my lecture class today came in with a new look.
Rainbow coloured hair extensions! I was wondering at first if they were hair extensions or if she tied something under her hair. JF said they looked like hair extensions, and she helped me take the photo above because I was seated too far away to get a clear shot. By the way, that's not a flowing lock of hair extensions. They're in clumps, each with a different colour. So yes, lots of empty space in between different colours. The extensions scream LOOK-AT-ME...
But unfortunately, there really wasn't much to look at.
Broken for now. :( If anyone knows of a good way to display tweets without using Twitter's awful looking widgets, please let me know. Preferably something that allows me to retrieve my tweets in plain-text format.
What's this about?
Anything and everything under the sun. I write about my day, my thoughts, things I see in public, things to get off my chest, or sometimes just some senseless rants that make sense only to me.
About Me
30 year old male. Always with too many ideas in his head and too little time. For my 15 minutes of fame, I want to be a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Interests
Movies, TV, cycling, computers, planted tanks, cherry shrimps, P2P legal issues, Manchester United, WWE, TNA, UFC, etc...
Disclaimer
Best viewed @ 1280*1024 or above. Views are expressed are mine and mine only, and are not meant to offend or influence anyone. Designed for readers with a sense of humour. If you can't laugh at yourself, you probably won't like my style of humour.
