Monday, January 30, 2006
I believe that after 21 years, I have grown jaded about Chinese New Year. I've never been this stoned during the festive season before.
For little runt lionel, CNY used to involve dressing up in bright red clothes, screaming with other kiddy cousins as we raced each other around the house, making a mess with yusheng as our poor parents tried to get us to eat. After which, happily indulging in the feeling of holding more than $50 all at once for the first time in ang pao money. Oh yes, and getting to stuff my face in pineapple tarts without fear of getting fat.
Today, cny is really different. Perhaps its the forced conversations and polite laughter that did it for me. I dunno when I stopped playing with the kids and joined the adult table, but that was a real big mistake. I'm forced to find topics to carry on the awkward conversations with people I barely know, punctuated with the swigging of F&N Blazt and wondering when the hell I'm gonna get out of there. I've answered all the usual questions about army and studying abroad (refer: 5 posts ago) about a hundred times. Polite laughter (the kind you make when you dont really give a damn about the conversation) is so ubiquitous in each household I visit that Carlsberg could've saved money by filming us. (yes, the adverts still give me the creeps)
Shit. Are we meant to be trapped in this cycle for ever and ever? Where year after year after year we subject each other to the same mutual torture, discussing topics long overused, watching our kids have the time of their lives, while we sip fizzy drinks and smile politely?
Oh yes, and for the first time, I'm feeling fat from all the pineapple tarts. I hardly touched bakkwa this year. Ughh.. disgusted with myself.
he rocked the party at 6:39 PM |
Sunday, January 29, 2006
On the advice of Isaac, I have narrowed the 21st birthday down to 2 concepts:
1) A hiphop themed chillout/mingling party at a cosy pub with finger food and subsidized drinks, or
2) A hiphop themed beachfront party
The beach one sounds like an obvious choice, but weather seems to play a big part here. If it rains it'll totally suck. However the pub idea would cost at least 5 grand. Gosh. What do you think, dear reader?
Any reccommendations/advice, anyone? I'm looking at a size of about 50 people. If anyone knows of any other great venue, i'd love to hear about it.
he rocked the party at 6:13 AM |
Friday, January 27, 2006
I am so never going back to chinablack again. I should've heeded the warning signs when I was queueing up: the sight of botak boys everywhere made me feel as if I was in Pulau Tekong. I had this irresistable urge to yell, "Knock it down!!" (which I did, masked by the blaring bad music, thankfully)
The music was awful, with the majority of songs coming straight out of a bad mambo night. (I'll bet even Class 95 has stopped playing "waiting for tonight" by JLo). Drinks were horribly diluted, bartenders were rude, and everything was just so.. wrong. Left disgruntled at 1.50am.
The only saving grace came in the form of fantastic company from my sajc dance juniors and oldoldold sji buddies mike, ck, jaime and newfound friend ray, with girlfriends in tow. It serves to prove what a bad friend-keeper I am.. My lack of effort in keeping in contact has cost me so many great buddy outings with many old friends. -sigh- Resolve to be more proactive in maintaining my friendships!
he rocked the party at 8:26 PM |
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
I chanced upon this GEMS card at Tampines Macs today. It's such a weird idea, I dont know what to make of it! You're supposed to fill it up and give it to a service personnel who made your day.
In case the pic's too blurred, the reverse side of the card says:
Dear _______, I'm happy with your service because you
~ Greeted me
~ Smiled at me
~ Thanked me
~ Others ____________________
My name ______________
I can be contacted at ___________
Hahah! So cute right. I'm sure the intentions are noble, but I think it's quite pathetic to resort to such measures to get service staff to greet, smile and thank people, understood to be the basics in good service innit?
And its quite funny cause the pink letters spell G.S.T. haha!
Perhaps the greatest use of this card would be a (shameless) way of passing my phone number to that cute salesgirl at Daniel Yan. hmm.
he rocked the party at 8:10 AM |
Monday, January 23, 2006
Old friends who have jumped onto the MLM bandwagon, who pester you nonstop, every day to ask you out so that they can show you a great moneymaking "lobang".
Yes, the only "lobang" I'd like to fill is that great big one in their heads.
Now, I dont pretend to know alot about MLM, or multi-level marketing, but I do know that if I do want to invest, that's not the way I want to go. (Hey, the book I'm currently reading now is "Investing for Dummies" so I have SOME idea. Haha.)
Honestly, if I had to work that hard, turn into a major pest to all my friends (seeing what I big one I already am), and throw away my dignity by begging shamelessly, I'd rather do without the cash, thank you very much.
And since when did investing involve you working you ass off to desperately win over more contacts? Isnt the whole purpose of investing to make money while you're doing something ELSE? (like a freakin job?)
If any of you make a million in a year, then I'd listen. If not, I'd place my bets in safer (and more respectable) good ol stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
he rocked the party at 7:45 PM |
Am on leave this week, and I've been trying to be a good boy and make good use of my time by doing things I wouldnt normally do when I'm busy with (stupidunneccessary) army stuff.
Like going for driving lessons - which i REALLY need practice in.
Like mixing mp3s - for the upcoming hiphop item i'm trying to choreo for aug's concert.
Like coming up with a freakin concept for the item - which hasnt already been milked for all its worth by other dance groups (if you have any ideas of what you'd like to see in a great hiphop item, dear reader, I'll be glad to hear from you!)
Ironically, as a result of my attempts to be busy, my room has returned to its old messy (read:biohazardous) state, 2 weeks after its major spring cleaning. I'm destined to live in chaos.
Been chatting with a few of the Penn international students as well, and it's been pretty cool to develop a conversation just hearing all about someone else's country, from India, to Canada, to Korea.. such a refreshing change from Singapore's boring, predictable questions, some of which I can name off the top of my head:
1. So which school were you from? (sajc)
2. What are you doing now? (army)
3. Which uni are you going to? (Oh i'm not studying in Singapore, I'll be heading to the US, to a uni called UPenn. - This almost always is followed by an "oh" because the other party has nothing to talk about it.)
4. When do you ORD? (in 9 weeks - followed by a "oh that's quite soon!")
And of course, the classic:
5. Oh do you know xxxx? He/she's in blahblah..
I mean, why the heck do people find it interesting talking about a third party in a conversation meant for 2 people? It doesnt make sense. So if anyone's thinking of msn-ing me with the above questions, there are the answers right there for you, now let's move on to something more interesting.
he rocked the party at 7:25 PM |
I drift through
The void of existance
Which I so desperately
Try to liven up
With all that I dream of
But it all
Seems so totally pointless
to me.
he rocked the party at 7:40 AM |
Thursday, January 19, 2006
I just heard on the news the other day that they're thinking of conducting another drill exercise to test the responsiveness of our healthcare personnel in the event of a bird flu outbreak. Ah yes, I can see it now.. just like Ex Northstar V, i'm sure it'll be a raging success with media coverage in the Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao, the New Paper, Army News, Friday Weekly and FHM.
Now why was Ex Northstar V such a success? Well first of all, it was really realistic because it was conducted in the wee hours of a Sunday morning, when there's no-one taking public transport. And we all know that despite 911 and the London bombings which happened during peak hours, I'm sure some influential person (no doubt a retired SAF colonel with nothing better to do) had negotiated with Osama and Co. and agreed that in the event that they DO attack Singapore, it wont be during rush hour so as to "minimize disruptions."
They will also give us ample warning, like telling us the attack will come "either this weekend or next", because only Robert Langdon would be able to crack that code and deduce that the painfully obvious answer would be the earlier time. The rest of us would be totally clueless and gasp in surprise when it DOES come, and everyone would pat Robert Langdon on the back and tell him how clever he really is, and he should really have someone write a bestseller novel about his adventures.
Speaking about back patting, I'm sure they'll feature lots of high ranking scdf/police/army/and in this case, healthcare personnel on Army News telling each other what a great job each other's agency had done. To ensure diversity and all-roundedness in the interviewees, they'd also feature some Corporals giving robotic, rehearsed, politically-correct answers, while his high-ranking Media Officer looks menacingly from behind the reporter. (I know, because I've done it before. Menacing glares does wonders for the complexion.)
I suppose they'll also get several recruits to play the casualties, just like how they did it in Northstar V, where a bunch of botaks with bloody make up stepped into the train and warned everyone what was about to happen. I wonder how they're gonna simulate bird flu.
They'd probably get a couple of guys in chicken suits to start sneezing in the middle of Orchard Road.
he rocked the party at 6:49 AM |
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
I never thought i'd ever be blogging about shopping, but I suppose the girlfriend's influence on what she blogs about has infected me.. I bought DANCE PANTS! For the first time ever, I actually reserved a piece of clothing because I wanted it so much, and I just aquired them today. They're called BONDAGE PANTS and they're from Samuel and Kevin, thanks to the reccommendation of hiphop dance classmate Marie. The straps hanging off the butt are surprisingly not tacky, but I suppose that's when they're worn in the context of dance class.
Dance class is getting better. People seem to be friendlier nowadays and readily carry out a conversation instead of staring weirdly at me. (Course, some of them still do) Finally made friends with 2 other guys, who are much more comfortable to hang out with than snubby girls from dance clubs.
Yes, and I absolutely HATE, and I mean HATE those tacky Carlsberg Chinese New Year advertisments. Gosh! Perhaps the only thing which could be more corny that those are those Cheesedale advertisments, and at least THEY had a laughable jingle. Carlsberg just has local actors with silly grins uttering corny phrases while they do predictable CNY activities, much like a primary school education (propaganda) video. You can certainly tell the difference between the locally produced ads and the ones from the States. Yet another piece of evidence of our sad, sad state of local advertising.
And one more thing, I think they're being silly arguing about this whole defaulting NS thing, which was in the papers today. I would say a whole lot more about it but I'm afraid some guy would read it and arrest me. Golly gee.
he rocked the party at 7:10 AM |
Saturday, January 14, 2006
1) Suay:
I was definitely suay last night. Perhaps it's safe to say that it was my most suay night of my life. What meant to be an innocent late night majong session with the guys turned into a mean gambling machine where I lost $45! (OK fine, so 45 bucks would probably mean peanuts to all you hardcore gamblers out there, but you're talking to Lionel Yeonhere, who's never lost more than ten bucks before.)
Well for those who know how to play majong, you'd know that there are 4 "winds" in a game. Well, for 3 "winds" I didnt even win a single game, whilst for the final "wind" I'd won only twice and earned like $0.80 each time. And its not as if I'd lost because I was lousy at the game either. Majong gamers, picture the scenario: you've carefully strategized such that you've accumulated 5 "tais" before you patiently wait for that final tile to appear so that you can win. Suddenly, some guy snatches that victory away from you by winning from a tile thrown by you. Now that, dear reader, happened not once, not twice, but almost EVERY SINGLE TIME. It's so disgusting.
2)Sway - As in "dance" kinda sway.
After watching the semis and finals of FUNKAMANIA 12 yesterday and today respectively, I was completely blown away. Happens to me everytime I watch a dance performance/competition. I resolve to attend more dance classes, feel inspired to choreograph, and bounce to my mp3 player all the way home. Wowee! I'm high over hip-hop.
3) Soo Wei
I've noticed that Power 98 no longer has Soo Wei on the night show. WHERE IS SHE?? That pretty lady with the absolutely BEST voice on Power 98.. Sadly, no dream date with her yet..
he rocked the party at 9:18 AM |
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Today, in preparation for my 5th parachute jump, I:
1)Woke up early
2)Got hold of my helmet and ankle braces
3)Got a call which told me I was half an hour late
4)Ran 500m to the airborne training sheds.
5)Waited another half hour before pre-jump training started.
6)Did my aircraft drills, prachute landing falls, emergency drills, exit drills..
7)Listened to the safety briefing
8)Ran in the rain
9)Changed my phone to a camera-less phone (they dont allow camera phones in the airbase)
10)Packed a book and mp3 player
11)Hopped onto a bus
12)Travelled for like, 1 kilometre.
13)Was told that the jump was cancelled due to bad weather.
Total time spent achieving absolutely nothing: 5 hours.
Army: The "Decisive" Force. Heh heh.
he rocked the party at 5:42 AM |
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Now I originally didnt want to do anything for the 21st birthday, but after the flurry of 21st birthday celebrations lately, namely John's, Jason's and Rohai's (sorry I couldnt make it Rohai! but i hope it went wonderful.. happy birthday!)..
As well as Isaac's kind offer to organize one for no cost at all, I'm suddenly very open to the idea!
So I need your help, dear reader, what's a great concept/theme for the grand 21st birthday cum post ORD party in late April?
he rocked the party at 5:57 AM |
Thursday, January 05, 2006
What kind of a name is Woodsville anyway?
Anyways, I was just checking out the pictures at www.standrewsjc.moe.edu.sg, and the Orientation photos are giving me the itchy backside feeling again. Have this sudden urge to play station games, conduct embarrassing stage games, do the lindy hop mass dance.. (Seems like each council teaches it differently..goodness knows what kind of version it has become by now...)
Its weird but the cafeteria looks exactly like how I imagined the cafeteria in the Teenage Textbook to look like.
he rocked the party at 8:38 AM |
Well, the title's technically incorrect since my closet's not really in my room and I spent the last 2 days cleaning up my (biohazardous) room. (And also because, if I ever DID get around to cleaning out my actual closet, I would be arrested for hoarding an obscene amount of cloth which could clothe the children of an entire Third World Country.)
Anyway, I digress. I took advantage of 2 days of Battalion off-days to tidy up my desk, throw away all my jc notes (except for GP, maths and econs.. to revise b4 uni.. aww, who am i kidding?), organize my yearbooks, compile and label my photoalbums, consolidate all the christmas, valentine's day, birthday, good-luck cards, send my carpet for cleaning, wiped dust, swept dust and mopped the dest away from my room... AND IT STILL LOOKS THE SAME AS BEFORE. I'm doomed to live in a pigsty forever. Am so gonna die when I go to Penn.
Inspiration strikes me at the weirdest times. I was suddenly inspired to write a compelling story about Bob the Dustball in the midst of sweeping off some cobwebs in a corner. And as Walid says in our SA Files video, "this is how the story goes.."
Bob the Dustball
A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, there lived a humble dustball named Bob. Bob was just like any dustball, insecure and small, simply biding his time before he got swept away like all the other loser dustballs that ever existed. One day, Bob was playing an inane game of hide and seek when he encountered a hole in the wall. Thinking that it would be a good place to hide, he rolled into the hole and discovered, to his surprise, that it led to a magical land called Nar-hia.
Excited, Bob called all his dusty merry friends and they all went over to Nar-hia because they didnt find the idea of being swept up and dumped into a bin a very appealing way to die. Over in Nar-hia, Bob and his friends had loads of adventures, most of them involving battling big, scary monsters like Cyclops, Hydras and retired SAF personnel who still hung around camps believing that they were serving the nation.
One day, their final climatic battle had arrived. It was, after all, prophesized that the sons of Chuzzle would come and save Nar-hia against the evil plague of the army of cockroaches. Preparations were all completed: Swords were sharpened, all the archers got their marksmanship badge, and Bob gave his pep-talk to the folk of Nar-hia proclaiming that they would not go quietly into the night, they would not yield without a fight, for today was their independance day!
Suddenly, without anyone noticing, the Big Newspaper decended from the sky and squashed all the cockroaches and buried them into the ground, and Bob thought the sight looked really pretty so he abandoned all this silly adventure business and started his own business selling parquet. And THAT is why parquet floors have those black spots on them.
Yes.. the dust is getting to my head. I need to lie down now.
he rocked the party at 7:40 AM |
Monday, January 02, 2006
Taken from today's New Paper:
"This is a good quiz to start the year:
1. Name the five richest people in the world.
2. Name 10 Pulitzer Prize winners.
3. Name five Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
How did you do?
It's tough to remember the headliners of yesterday. The applause dies and accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.
Here's another quiz.
1. List a few teachers who helped you through school.
2. Name three friends who helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy being with.
Easier? The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards.
They are the ones who care"
How apt indeed, especially for results-driven, experience-collection, over-ambitious me. Time for a little change in perception this new year..
he rocked the party at 6:32 AM |
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Warning: This is going to be one of those "i did this, i did that" posts which I so actively denounce whenever the subject of blogging comes up. Nevertheless..
31st December was spent:
Watching WALLACE AND GROMIT (a highly reccommended show! Even more impressive when I found out how it was filmed. Loved the subtle witty references in many of the jokes.) with the girlfriend.
Going to Eugene's house for countdown with the ever-dependable 25th. Turnout was disappointingly bad as compared to last year, and everyone blamed it on the bad luck brought by Iskandar's return to Singapore. -grin- Nevertheless, it did evolve into a fun-filled evening with viewings of the Grudge (with its totally un-scary ghosts), You Got Served, our very own hilarious (and embarrassing) SA Files, and Isky's Sandhurst photos (puke). Countdown comprised mainly of shouts of "ORD LOH!!!" to annoyed neighbours, Followed by senseless drinking number games where we saboh-ed isky into drinking 2 bottles of coke and green tea. Ah, lovely. The wee hours of the morning were spent at the prata shop and playing mahjong and tai dee while I did jumping jacks to stay awake till 6am.
1 Jan 2006 was spent:
Sleeping.
A trip with a few of the guys to Brewerks and rediscovering that Clarke/Boat Quay is actually a pretty happening place! Resolving to spend more time (and money) there than silly ol boring sarged-out Orchard Road.
Brewerks itself was great. We ordered the sampler, which consisted of shots of all their house brews:
Armed with 2 jugs of our favourite beers, we played a surprisingly hilarious version of that "Yi zhi qing wa, tiao xia shui, TOOM" (One frog, jumped into the water, TOOM)
Versions of it were:
1. One malay Officer, very cold, BREW (inside joke. Dont ask)
2. One naval diver, underwater, HELP! (said in a silly sissy voice with hands up in the air)
3. One policeman, his hip, VERY HIGH (because Ervin's hip is REALLY high)
4. One Eugene, his dog, HUMCHEE (because Cody only has one ball)
5. One Malaysian, study Australia, CHICHI
And my very own:
5. One commando, extend ORD, STOOPID..
I think I know why the favourite pasttime in the UK is drinking. There's nothing which lets the inner child out more than a night of good clean (drunken) fun out with the guys.
Happy New Year! :)
he rocked the party at 6:49 PM |
