hey now now

I'm sitting here with another five minutes to kill. Was just leaving my place when Janet msged to say that she'll be late. We're going to the expo book fair where they sell books at ridiculously low prices, and if you look hard enough, you'll find some pretty good finds, like Wolves of the Calla hardcover going for $8! And Harry Potter at $8 too. Oh and on that note, er, I finished reading the Half Blood Prince some time back, and now join the legion of Harry Potter fans waiting for the next installment. Haha .. I must insist I'm no fanatic though.

In reverse chronological order, I had mee pok for supper, went to phuture, balcony, and had bbq pork ribs stew at marche. Drinks were, teh-peng, sex on the beach, barcarrdi breezer peach, misc drinks from jugs, e33, submarine, erdinger.

It was Colin's belated birthday celebration, and Jessica's back! Welcome back girl. Clubbing was only attended by Japheth and Shaun dragging a very reluctant screaming-for-m.o.s-Colin to phuture, away from his beloved trance to r&b that he hates. He looked like he enjoyed himself in phuture though. Haha. And he was still relatively sober after two submarines in Balcony. Bravo. Justin was in phuture, already, as usual, and no clubbing night's boring when that maniac's around. =D

On a side note, Weeli didn't join us because he wanted to go back to his camp at SAFTI, just so he can run home this morning. I wonder how's he now. He lives in upper east coast, for goodness sake. That's damn #&@(*$@$@ far. Maybe I should smuggle him into my camp to run my 2.4km IPPT for me.

Ok, gotta run. No NYE plans as of yet. Help. Daryl's going for a Dinner&Dance. The little boy's all grown up now. -sardonic smile-

Chocolate Fudge Biscuits

It's now 7pm, and from the time I woke up till this very minute, my total food intake is no more than 4 chocolate fudge biscuits, and a particularly crunchy apple 20 mins ago. After an entire day of rotting at home, it's finally dinner time, and I've no food, again. Nobody's home except Jasmin and I, there's no food in the house as usual, Jasmin is sleeping, and it's raining outside(just heard thunder, my room doesn't have a view of the sky).

Hungry. Should probably go wake Jasmin up. Poor girl says she's sick though. If I were to be a great cousin, I would go to Hougang Mall, grab a quick bite, and buy back dinner for her. But er, unfortunately, I kinda want to go to Compass Point to do a little shopping.

Some time was spent looking through the C: of my old computer after successfully establishing a remote connection between the computer and my laptop. It's akin to looking through a box of old photos, or going through a seldom-opened drawer. Memories come flooding back. Photos that I got rid off from my laptop, polytechnic schoolwork, projects, test notes, minutes from my time as secretary in my church's youth committee, old emails, chat logs, received files through ICQ. And of course, times when I had nice long hair :D

I even uncovered a report I wrote for an Appreciation of Life Sciences module I took in poly entitled "Gene Therapy : Hype or Hope?". Here's how I concluded the report:

6. Conclusion: Hype

Gene Therapy is still in its infancy with many unsolved difficulties - both technical and ethical. Before these issues are solved, it is but a glimmer of hope surrounded by layers of hype.

An article on ABCnews website titled “The future of gene therapy: what seems exotic now will soon be routine” is a classic example of how bad the hype surrounding gene therapy is.

The article is filled with exciting and confident claims by ambitious authorities on gene therapy. For instance, it claims that by the year 2020, “you may actually be able to avoid certain illnesses through gene therapy”. Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health even boasts that “[a list] will say your risk of diabetes is five times higher than average … risk of Alzheimer’s is actually five times lower. There’s one you don’t have to worry about”.

The irony behind the claims is that during the time of writing, researchers were confident that there are approximately 100,000 genes in the human body. Of course, we now know that the figure has been lowered to 30,000 – but then again, who knows when the figure would be revised again?

Although the sequencing of the human genome is without doubt a great accomplishment, there is still a lot to be done. The gaps in the ‘draft’ map have yet to be filled while interpretation of the genome is still in relatively early stages, far too early for people to be making inflated, almost unrealistic claims about the potential of gene therapy. If anything, it hinders the progress of researchers as the focus is lost.

Too much hype around gene therapy also carries the risk of having too much emphasis placed on genes as the determining factor in health and cause other environmental factors to be neglected. Taking all the above points into account, I conclude with saying that in order to reap the benefits of gene therapy, we have to draw a clear line between fact and hype and work towards benefiting the majority of the world’s population.

-

Ok, time to wake the sleeping genius. Oh, talking about that, Janet did really really well for her exams too! 2As, 2B+ and 1 B-. There you've it folks, Janet Tang, smartest squid in Singapore waters =D

i bought this shirt online on yahoo auctions. transferred $20.50 to the seller's posb account. hrms..now can only wait and see if it's a scam. 

Ravings of a Nocturnal Maniac

It's really crazy, me staying awake looking through yahoo! auctions for Abercrombie shirts, digging around my room for my measuring tape, taking my measurements across chest, shoulder, giving up, and measuring one of my shirts instead, doing leg lifts(okay only a bit) and just doing nothing, all at 4am in the morning.

I need new jeans, new clothes, shoes, a better build, and a renewed spiritual life.

Sitting beside Aaron at FCBC this morning, sitting through a sermon about obedience, witnessing a typical city-harvest style alter call, marvelling at a live-band worship team, cynically scoffing at jumping youths, keeping an eye out for cute girls, and finding fault with yet another church, a couple of thoughts waded through the muck I have for brains.

Alter call. Salvation. Giving your life to Jesus. Who is Jesus? What does it mean to give your life to Him? Why do you even have to give up your life to Him in the first place? Why do we need saving? Take a step of faith. Close your eyes. Say the prayer. Raise your hand. Step out. Get prayed for. Step to the adjoining room on the right. Give your particulars to the friendly christian who wants nothing more than the salvation of your soul, slot you into a cell group, an added number to his church. Who cares whether you know the story behind man's fall. Who cares whether you even know what is Sin. Raise your hand! Step out! Give your life to God! Why do we need God? Learn in cell group meetings. Buy a Porshe before taking your basic theory.

Oh please. Please, please, please, give me a freaking break.

God created the heavens and the earth. God created all living things. God created the angels, God created us. Why us? What makes us special? God created us in His image, and probably the same image as the angels, for in the bible, the word "our" was used. "Let us create Man in our image". Perhaps the author meant for "our" to refer to the Holy Trinity, but I'm not sure the Holy Spirit has a form, and while we're on this topic, no where, in the whole bible, was the Trinity expounded on. Funny isn't it? I guess it's not really important.

Anyway, back to creation. Man was created, on the 6th day of creation, which, incidentally, is meant to be taken literally. The world was created in 6 days by our divine God, and not out of random chance through a couple train-loads worth of donkey years. Why were we created? The bible mentions somewhere in Genesis that we were created to be God's companions, to fellowship with Him, and of course to praise Him. When you're as mighty as He is, it's wonderful to be adored. I guess the angels spend most of their leisure time adoring Him, and I don't think they mind it the slightest bit. Take a look at the crazy fans of our secular artises, braving untold hazards to scream their undying love for their idols. Shouldn't God then be a far greater pleasure to praise and adore? I should think so.

But of course, I digress, as I usually do. God used to take walks among the Garden of Eden, spending time with Adam and Eve, chatting, fellowshiping. A pretty thought don't you think? God as your friend. However, good things, as we undoubtedly know, never last, and it wasn't long before Satan, our dear prince of the world came, carried out his duties of tempting mankind, and tricked Eve into eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the very tree whose fruits are forbidden by God to be consumed by them. Eve, out of the generousity of her heart, or more likely, seeking herd courage, gave a fruit to Adam, who, starting the trend of hen-peckness so pre-dominant among modern day males, ate it.

The discerning mind can now ask 2 obvious questions. What the bloody blazes was Satan doing on Earth? Didn't hell exist when, or before, the earth was created? The bible says God created the heavens and the earth, but made no mention of hell. Was hell even created? Why wasn't Satan and one-third of heaven's angels, after their failed coup, sent straight to hell(do not pass earth, do not collect souls)? Heck, why did Satan even rebel? I wouldn't. Back to our question however, why create a perfect world, populate it with little cute animals, lush greenery, chirpy birds..you get the idea; and throw heaven's rebels in there? Weird huh.

Now, an attempt to answer question 1, at the risk of forgetting question 2 after I'm done. First, we have to take into account God's omniscience. God knew, when creating Satan, and every single one of the angels who rebelled, that they were going to, well, rebel. He even knows when they'll do it. Was it after creation of the world, or before? Before, is my guess. But then again, where were they cast down to? Nothingness. Yes, that must be it. And when earth was created, they wandered in, thinking that they were probably unnoticed by God, and set about plotting creation's destruction, not knowing that they were playing right into the hands of God, doing exactly what God wants them to do. And now, a couple thousand years later, these same poor fools are still doing it, still doing God's will. Leading people away from God, bringing as many souls with them to hell as demonly possible, but at the end of it all, still doing God's will.

Isn't God cruel then, creating beings such as them to enjoy glory, be overcome with pride, rebel, fight, get their asses kicked, crash land down on nothingness, discover earth, spend their lives tempting Man, then getting hauled off to hell and spend eternity burning. They didn't have a choice. Or did they? We'll never know, at least not yet; all we can do is trust in God's infinite wisdom. Our ability at comprehension is so weak, that even if God chose to prematurely reveal His plans to us, we'll probably remain confounded.

Where was I? Yes. Answer to question 1. God believes in free will. And how can we claim to have free will when all we have is a single choice. Kinda like our politics in Singapore isn't it, we can vote, but well, there aren't many, real choices, if you get what I mean. So, Satan and his cohorts of fallen angels provide the alternative. Things aren't as plain as simply choosing God, or Satan. Ask anybody, and an honest choice would be God. Satanists aside of course. Weird folks. The dark side needs to resort to more subtle acts. Witchcraft, satanistism, the occult to claim the blatantly evil, or evil wanna-bes. Ah, now entering more sensitive grounds .. other religions, to claim the rest. Let's leave it as that ya? Fallen angels have power, Satan has power. They can be worshipped, they can grant wishes, and they can, and do manifest themselves.

Humans like tangibles, don't they. Satan accomplishes his purpose as long as you do not seek God through Jesus Christ. He doesn't care what the fuck you are. Atheist, agnostic, or a member of some vastly differently, or closely similar religion, Satan wins, as long as you choose not Jesus. Of course, this win is temporal, or rather, it's a bittersweet victory as all the prince of the air is doing, is gathering more souls to burn with him. Perhaps it'll bring the temperatures of hell a little lower if there're more souls there. Physics, I guess.

Answer to question 1 would then be - to provide us with a choice. Generally speaking of course.

Now, on to question 2. I just realised, that I've already, in my own warped way, answered question 2, which is, "why did God place the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden?".

I have lots more to say. I'll probably offend half the people who bother reading this ridiculously long post, and I'm getting sleepy, finally. 5:20am.

We need God. God wants our fellowship and our praises. He created us with an emptiness, a void in our hearts that only He can fill. We might try substituting His love with our worldy persues, secular love, mind-blowing sex, drugs, kegs of excellent german beer, or a dozen ipods, but at the end of the day, we're still empty. And back-slidden Christians, like yours truly, feel emptier day by day. And it's worse to feel this way, after experiencing the life-changing joy that comes with knowing Jesus. It's not better to have love and lost than to never loved before. It's better to remain ignorant of love if you're not going to able to retain to that love forever. But luckily for me, and other back-slidders, He who started a good work in us, will not rest, till it is completed. It might take a lecture, a slap, a kick in the balls, or a slamming against the wall, but He'll get my attention, one way of another.

I'm sorry God. I don't understand. I need faith, in, hrms, train-loads. A little knowledge, incomplete knowledge, is far more dangerous than ignorance.

Good night. Happy boxing day.

Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas

Happy birthday Jesus. Heh, of course we don't know for sure that december 25th was his exact date of birth, but it's the thought that counts, no?

Merry Christmas to the rest of the world.

Ate like mad .. ma la huo guo at Bugis. Midnight movie - Narnia. That's my christmas eve =)

"Countdown" was in the cinema. Haha. Daryl just leaned over and started wishing us Merry Christmas.

Rainy Day

Thank God I didn't have any outdoor activities planned for today; it has been raining since I opened my eyes this morning, and it hasn't stopped yet.

Today's slack at home day, with me doing nothing more than watch animes, Lost, surf around friendster, and, nothing else man. Chatted a little on MSN, that's all. Achievements? Finished watching Gundam Seed Destiny, caught up to episode 8 of Lost season 2, and .. that's all.

Lunch was an uninteresting box of Nasi Lemak. Ah, but that reminds me. I met up with my camp mates last night for dinner at Geylang lor 3, where we had the supposedly famous claypot frog porridge; buy 4 get 3 free. $33 got us 7 frogs and 2 pots of porridge, which were clearly only meant to be appetisers for 6 as we were still starving after that. Order $30 worth of Ceral prawns, $10 kang kong, and one bowl of rice each. Still a little hungry after that, so we walked down the road for durians =)

The durians were horrible. It was a good thing we ordered only 6, sharing between the 12 or so of us. Only 1 or 2 of the durians were edible, the rest were really terrible, tasteless and crap. After the absolutely unsatisfying durians, we continued walking to Rocher beancurd where we had a bowl of 60cents tau huey each. Nice enough, but they didn't sell you tiaos to go along with it, which I must say, is strange; I always thought they come hand in hand.

Ended off last night playing DotA at a Katong Lan shop, not exactly the most exciting night ah.

Jasmin's results were released yesterday, and I must say, I'm proud of that silly cousin of mine. She's always slacking, watching vcds, television, reading fiction books, and doing basically everything except study, even when exams are approaching. It's only during the 1 week or so before exams start that she starts to panic, and mug like mad, but even so, I won't be surprised to find her in front of the telly from time to time, claiming that she needs to de-stress. Haha. Anyway, her results came in, and she scored a pretty decent CAP of 4.1, I think. Well done Jasmin. Well done =)

Meeting my lovely hougang neighbour later for dinner, what should we eat. Hrms..

Quick little .. food update :D

Had Billy Bombers All-Star burgers two nights in a row. Last night, and the night before. One with Weeli, and one with Jianming, Jia an, and Qingwei. One at CS, which totally sucked, and the other at Bugis, _the_ place to go for All-Stars.

Had Banana milk shake with Weeli, and Root Beer Float with the gang. Cheese fries with Weeli, and Nacos, Cheese fries with american chilli with the gang.

Today's dinner was Wesley, Jasmin's brother's, treat at Crystal Jade Macau Cafe Restaurant in Bugis Junction. Ate like mad cause that particular branch of the Lim family consists of small eaters, so I had to be self-sacrificial and mop up the remenants, even after gorging myself non-stop since the first dish arrived. Ah .. the road to weight-gain is perilous and difficult.

Pre dinner dessert was Ben & Jerry's Pick and Mix, or at least I think that's what it was called. Chunky Monkey, Mudslide, and Chocolate Brownies, 3 scoops of sinful sweetness. Hrms, while we're on this topic, the 3 girls working at the ice cream parlour were, sweet-looking =D. Almost melted in there.

Anyway, I shared the ice cream with Weeli, who commented that it was a gay thing to do. Haha. But it was also economical, so what the hell.

Hrms, ok that's the end of the my food update. Oh, shopping update.

Abec 7 bearings and new wheels for my blades totalling $140, replacement spectacles costing $168, and a Billabong shirt that costs $44, off-set by Jianming's $20 Seiyu voucher, so that makes it $24.

Saw really nice jeans at Levi's .. tempted. $130++

Want a pair of retro sneakers. Saw a Nike pair .. $129.

And I had a really lousy hair cut at Millenia's QB-Shell. Mandarin-speaking Aunty turned my hair into a tuff of grass.

@$^@*#&^@*&#^*@

My right spectacle lens popped out, and smashed into a million pieces. Yes, it was glass. FUCK. And I'm booking in in 2 hours. FUCK. I can't see properly....
@(#*@)(*$()@#*$)(#($@#@!@#@

A Beer Prayer

A Beer Prayer

Our lager, which art in barrels, hallowed be thy drink, Thy will be drunk, (I will be drunk), at home as in the tavern. Give us this day our foamy head, and forgive us our spillages, As we forgive those who spill against us. And lead us not into incarceration, but deliver us from hangovers. For thine is the ale, the bitter and the lager. Forever and ever, barmen.

An attempt at emulating Jm's non-smiliness 

On the other side of the table ... we have .. Janet, and Zixin :) 

Jianming, Me, Erdinger :D 

Tagged

Janet "tagged" me, meaning that I unwittingly joined a game of "5 random/weird facts about yourself".

I must warn you that I don't have anything really funny to share, but here goes.

Five Random Facts About Me

1) I used to travel a lot as a kid. My dad was working as a ticketing clerk for SIA and our family travelled for free as a result. Well, on one particular over-night flight, I kept waking my dad up, saying that I needed to go to the toilet. The poor man had to wake up, walk me over to the toilet, let me in, and wait outside while I supposedly go out my business. After the 3rd or perhaps 100th time, he exasperatedly asked his 4 year old son why the heck he needed to go to the toilet every 5 mins. I innocently answered that I loved the way the toilet flush works, running blue-colored water into the toilet bowl then sucking everything with a loud "swoosh". Turned out that I didn't need to pee. All I did was to stand by the toilet bowl and press the flush a couple of times.

2) I suspect that I would have grown up with perfect eyesight if I had not, at the age of 6, idolised my elder cousin who is 5 years older than me. Wesley was bespectacled, and I thought that was cool. Many a leisure afternoon was then spent ruining my eyesight. Methods included switching on the telly and sitting with my nose barely an inch from the screen and reading lying down with the book inches from my eyes. I suspect it was the former that did the trick. At the age of 7 I was a happy owner of a pair of plastic glasses, power -0.5. Things spiraled out of control from there .. and today I stand .. almost blind without my specs. Right eye -6.5. Left eye -8.0. Sigh.

3) Talking about eyes. One of my eyes is actually a little smaller than the other. My left pupil kinda sticks to the upper part of the eye, giving it a slightly "lazy" look compared to its right counterpart. It isn't that obvious when I smile, so maybe that's why I'm always smiling. *grin*

2 more to go....

4) I had my first crush when I was 5, in the first year of kindergarden, and she came from a chinese-speaking family. I remember calling her, then yelling "WO AI NI!!!!!!" into the phone. If my memory serves me correctly, she ran straight to her mum and told her about the crazy guy on the phone. I think I got scolded. Haha .. can't really remember. Balls of steel, young Shaun. What happened to me now?!

5) Last one. Hrms. I can't remember the last time I went for an extended period without having a crush on a girl, feeling depressed abt unrequitted love, pinning over lost love, trying to court a girl, winning back an ex, or getting upset that I was failing. Now, I'm just, well, still girl crazy, but there's no one on my mind. Nobody in particular. It feels a little funny. Haha. Seriously.

All right. So. The 5 people to be tagged. I wonder if more than 5 people read my blog .. but here goes:

1) Cabbage Sha
2) K1 Jasmine
3) Funky Jayfif
4) - - Jeryd
5) Spellbinding Glenn

Eh actually I think Wanqi should be pretty free .. so ..

6) Pouty Woonchy

Rules: type 5 random stuff about yourself on your blog, then tag another 5 or more folks to continue. great time-killer.

The Dark Tower - Quotes

The universe (he said) is the Great All, and offers a paradox too great for the finite mind to grasp. As the living brain cannot conceive of a non-living brain - although it may think it can - the finite mind cannot grasp the infinite.

The prosaic fact of the universe's existence alone defeats both the pragmatic and the romantic. There was a time, yet a hundred generations before the world moved on, when mankind had achieved enough technical and scientific prowess to chip a few splinters from the great stone pillar of reality. Even so, the false light of science (knowledge, if you like) shone in only a few developed countries. One company (or cabal) led the way in this regard: North Central Positronics, it called itself. Yet, despite a tremendous increase in available facts, there were remarkably few insights.

"Gunslinger, our many-times-great grandfathers conquered the-disease-which-rots, which they called cancer, almost conquered aging, walked on the moon - "

"I don't believe that," the gunslinger said flatly.

To this, the man in black merely smiled and answered, "You needn't. Yet it was so. They made or discovered a hundred other marvelous baubles. But this wealth of infomation produced little or no insight. There were no great odes written to the wonders of artificial insemination - having babies from frozen mansperm - or to the cars that ran on power of the sun. Few if any seemed to have grasped the truest principle of reality: new knowledge leads to yet more awesome mysteries. Greater physiological knowledge of the brain makes the existence of the soul less possible yet more probable by the nature of the search. Do you see? Of course you don't. You've reached the limits of your ability to comprehend. But nevermind - that's beside the point."

"What is the point then?"

"The greatest mystery the universe offers is not life but size. Size encompasses life, and the Tower encompasses size. The child, who is most at home with wonder, says: Daddy, what is above the sky? And the father says: The darkness of space. The child: What is beyond space? The father: The galaxy. The child: Beyond the galaxy? The father: Another galaxy. The child: Beyond the other galaxies? The father: No one knows.

"You see? Size defeats us. For the fish, the lake in which he lives is the universe. What does the fish think when he is jerked up by the mouth through the silver limits of existence and into a new universe where the air drowns him and the light is blue madness? Where huge bipeds with no gills stuff it into a suffocating box abd cover it with wet weeds to die?

"Or one might take the tip of the pencil and magnify it. One reaches the point where a stunning realization strikes home: The pencil tip is not solid; it is composed of atoms which whirl and revolve like a trillion demon planets. What seems solid to us is actually only a loose net held together by gravity. Viewed at their actual size, the distances between these atoms might become league, gulfs, aeons. The atoms themselves are composed of nuclei and revolving protons and electrons. One may step down further to subatomic particles. And then to what? Tachyons? Nothing? Of course not. Everything in the universe denies nothing; to suggest an ending is the one absurdity.

"If you fell outward to the limit of the universe, would you find a board fence and signs reading DEAD END? No. You might find something hard and rounded, as the chick must see the egg from the inside. And if you should peck through the shell (or find a door), what great and torrential light might shine through your opening at the end of space? Might you look through and discover our entire universe is but part of one atom on a blade of grass? Might you be forced to think that by burning a twig you incinerate an eternity of eternities? That existence rises not to one infinite but to an infinity of them?

"Perhaps you saw what place our universe plays in the scheme of things - as no more than an atom in a blade of grass. Could it be that everything we can perceive, from the microscopic virus to the distant Horsehead Nebula, is contained in one blade of grass that may have existed for only a single season in an alien time-flow? What if that blade should be cut off by a scythe? When it begins to die, would the rot seep into our universe and our own lives, turning everthing yellow and brown and desiccated? Perhaps it's already begun to happen. We say the world has moved on; maybe we really mean that it has begun to dry up.

"Think how small such a concept of things make us, gunslinger! If a God watches over it all, does He actually mete out justice for such a race of gnats? Does His eye see the sparrow fall when the sparrow is less than a speck of hydrogen floating disconnected in the depth of space? And if He does see... what must the nature of such a God be? Where does He live? How is it possible to live beyond infinity?

"Imagine the sand of the Mohaine Desert, which you crossed to find me, and imagine a trillion universes - not worlds by universes - encapsulated in each grain of that desert; and within each universe an infinity of others. We tower over these universes from our pitiful grass vantage point; with one swing of your boot you may knock a billion billion worlds flying off into darkness, a chain never to be completed.

"Size, gunslinger... size.

"Yet suppose further. Suppose that all worlds, all universes, met at a single nexus, a single pylon, a Tower. And within it, a stairway, perhaps rising to the Godhead itself. Would you dare climb to the top, gunslinger? Could it be that somewhere above all of endless reality, there exists a room?...

"You dare not."

And in the gunslinger's mind, those words echoed: You dare not.

-

The man in black smiled. "Shall we tell the truth then, you and I? No more lies?"

"I thought we had been."

But the man in black persisted as if Roland hadn't spoken. "Shall there be truth between us, as two men? Not as friends, but as equals? There is an offer you will get rarely, Roland. Only equals speak the truth, that's my thought on't. Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of regard. How tiresome!"

-

Outback and Paulaner

11 ounce medium-rare steak at Outback's, 0.5l Munich Dark beer at Paulaner, 2 great friends - the receipe for a wonderful evening.

Dinner at Outback's with Janet, then beer at Paulaner with Jianming and, also Janet who didn't drink.

Both chickened out for supper :D

Supper was Punggol Nasi Lemak - which isn't that fantastic - with Timothy, his girlfriend, Sheena, and my cousin, Jasmin.

Rounded off the day with a couple of Bridge games at my place.

Now it's 5:20am, and I'm a sitting zombie. Hit the lights, seek the bed, let the sandman come.

da dream part ni

Hrms, the last time we checked in, our hero was chasing after his lost eyeball, finally finding it and stuffing it into his jeans pocket. The eyeball looked like a miniature brain from the anti-smoking ad. You know, the pink, bumpy thing with blue veins running ard? Well the eyeball was almost perfectly round, had that texture minus the blue veins, and had a hole the size of .. a couple of needle-heads. I know, it doesn't sound like an eyeball at all, but that was how it was like in the dream.

With the eyeball safely in his pocket, our hero(ie: me) decided to make his way to the hospital, the conventional way. Ambulances were out of the question for something as small as one's eyeball popping out and rolling away, so our hero called for a taxi. While waiting for the taxi, our hero kept splashing water on the eyeball with some weird notion that it would keep the eyeball, fresh. The taxi never came, and being the impatient joker that I was, I burst out into an acrobatic sprint towards the direction I reckoned the nearest hospital was in. Leaping over railings, side-skipping irritating obstacles like people walking innocently on the road and speeding cars, running across a busy courtyard, along fountains, and constantly wetting the disembodied eyeball with any source of water I could find.

I remember pausing for a conversation several times in the courtyard, pausing, grinning, laughing, and proceeding on again on a seemingly endless amount of stamina. Sigh. If only that was true in real life *grin*

Anyway, I made it to the hospital, produced the said eyeball to an insouciant doctor who restored it to my eye socket. Woke up shortly after that.

Not as morbid as Glenn's dream. That was ultimate man. Check out his blog .. an entry 2 months ago I believe.

-

I was just reading Harry Potter this morning and suddenly it occured to me. If magic can regrow missing bones, heal all sorts of ailments, and can basically do almost anything, why is Harry Potter still wearing specs? Why can't someone heal his eyes. And if magic can produce a chair from thin air, conjure up sauces when cooking, etc, why do people need money. And if post owls can find a person no matter where he is, without needing an address, then why are there still furgitives that successfully evade capture.

-

I'm Sorry

I can't help but notice .... I'm getting fat. Around the stomach region. Ok, at risk of sounding gay .. here goes .... I'm getting a tummy.

I hate doing crunches and sit ups, but so far .. at least .. till now .. I've been blessed with a relatively flat abdominal. Now .. Oh no.

I just ate a huge bowl of bak chor mee at katong. And Carl's Jr for dinner. And B-B2 burger set at Billy Bombers on Monday. All-star last Thursday.

Sigh .. I'll just go to sleep. And hope it doesn't get bigger when I awake. Reminds me of Everclear's Wonderful.

Dreams

I forgot to mention that I had a weird dream last night. I dreamt I took a taxi to church. While I was alighting, My left eye popped out painlessly and just rolled away. I was standing there wondering if I should go find it when someone I know saw it and just gave it a kick.

Ah well, I thought. It would be difficult to recover, might as well not bother looking for it. I was thinking how I'll look with only one eye, whether I'll (still :P) look good. In the end, practicality overcame my laziness, and I set out to recover my left eyeball.

part 2 coming up soon. i go help my cousin roll meatballs. grumble.

Series of unfortunate events

I booked in on Wednesday morning in jeans and a polo shirt. Walked to my bunk and proceeded to change to my uniform. Took out 2 pieces of No.4 from my bag .. stripped off my jeans, and realised .. both were shirts. Had to borrow a pair of pants from this guy whom I'm not particulary fond of, but since he was the nearest and I didn't fancy walking around pantless, I asked him for a pair.

Duty in the day was unremarkable.

Night duty was supposed to start at 2am for me, running all the way to 7am. I went to bed at 10pm or so..and set my alarm at 1:20am. I jumped awake to see one of my sergeant standing by my bedside, asking me what time my duty was supposed to start. One glance at my watch told me that it was 2:17. I was already 17mins late. Rushed like mad .. and reached my duty checkpoint at 2:45am.

No problem, apologised profusely to the guy I was supposed to take over and agreed that the next day I would come earlier to take over his duty - 12pm instead of 1pm. Ok, problem solved.

Come Thursday. I jumped awake yet again, this time to find my platoon mate telling me that .. I'm late. Again. Guess the time? 12:17pm. Rushed like mad, again, and arrived, again, at 12:45pm. Sigh, I didn't know what to say to my poor friend, so agreed to take over him earlier at night, and buy him a packet of Nasi Lemak when the opportunity presents itself.

Thursday night. I was supposed to take over him at 1130pm, half an hour earlier from the scheduled 12am. Stressed as I was, I couldn't sleep properly, and woke up early to take over his duty at 11pm instead. That eased my guilt a little.

Sigh, so much for being late for duties. Unforunately, that's not the end of my troubles. I was listening to Power 98 on my portable receiver, balancing it on the 1-inch ledge inside the guardhouse when for no apparent reason the receiver fell off the ledge and smashed on the floor. No problem, I thought, I'd dropped it several times before, and it still came out ok. Sadly though that was not to be the case this time. The connector between the speaker and the receiver kinda broke loose, and is now dangling by the wires. At least it's still working though.

Also on Thursday afternoon, I was stoning at the checkpoint, thinking about how the heck I slept through my phone alarms and not even remember turning it off, when the Base Commander drove past my check point, and well, saluted me. He was so accustomed to RPs saluting him as he drives pass the checkpoints that he assumed I was doing the same. Well, apparently I wasn't, and I just stared blankly while he saluted me. Sigh.

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ANYWAY. Today means Booze Party at home, followed by a night's out at Zouk - Jasmin's 21st birthday party. 6 months of student exchange in Denmark transformed my innocent cousin into a booze monster. Hrms. Not that I particulary mind. Haha. Free booze!

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Try too hard to look innocent and you'll only end up reeking of guilt. Beware of too-innocent expressions. One of the few things I learnt in camp. Very, very few things.

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Christmas songs playing over the radio stirs a warm little fire in my heart. Strangely though, the feeling's slighly melancholic; a loneliness sets in as the music softly plays, as if christmas is not meant to be spent alone, but with someone you love.

Reminds me of the song by Ben Folds Five, Lonely Christmas Eve.

I'm not so bad
I just hate to see a good time had
By everyone but me.
On this lonely Christmas Eve
I hear them up and down
And up and down the street.

They're making
Noise noise noise noise.
How I hate their happy noise.
There's only one thing I hate more
Come to think of it.
And that's the people who keep
Making it.

Feast feast feast feast.
They'll have more than anyone could ever eat.
Me, I'm stuck here with my cream of wheat.
There's no one here to feast with me
On this lonely Christmas Eve.

Don't they know I'm up here all alone
In my cave up in the hills?
How I wish that this would go away,
This dreadful holiday
That they call Christmas day.

When they're done with all their Christmas noise
And they've had their Christmas feast
Just when I think that I might finally
Get a moments peace they start to

Sing sing sing sing.
Now I'll never get no sleep.
I'm screaming out the window
But it don't do no good.
They sing and sing and sing
All through the neighborhood.
Sing sing sing.

They take their little break and then
They do it all again.

It's a lonely Christmas Eve.