Army daze

Sorry for not using something original...

Dunk.. thanks for your insightful comments. I'm sure Ns is more than beneficial to most people. It was a little different for me back then, i call it the darkest days of my life to date. Some may argue that even in the darkest times, valuable lessons can be learnt... hmm... what if you were raped? ok... not that serious... i'm just making a point there. I did learn a thing or two in NS, but the whole thing did not change me to a better person. Perhaps I should talk about my NS life.

To prove my point, i'll type in the whole thing in green and see whether it'll irritate

Unlike most of my friends, I was enlisted into PES E scheme after an episode of epilepsy. That changed my life in some aspects, mainly restricting the activities that i do. I cannot donate my blood for the rest of my life for the needles may trigger an attack. I cannot go diving or rockclimbing without supervision. I was not allowed to hold a rifle.

Hence, I worked in CMPB as a clerk, doing filing and data entry everyday. Life wasn't as bad as i used to tell my friends, the only thing that was unbearable was the small amount of allowance i had to live on and the fact that all my other friends were in combat unit. My pride was hurt badly. A week into enlistment and i immediately asked for an upgrade, and was finally upgraded after a year.

BMTC was more than what i could ask for. After being persistent and pesky to the MOs and finally having my dream true, I was deteermined to work hard in BMTC. Though I knew it was unlikely that i would go OCS, i was still pinning onto that little hope that they may consider me. I badly wanted to be an officer. Hopes dashed after BMT, when i found I was not chosen for OCS.
My Sgt then told me that i would be given another chance in Sispec (stands for suffer in silence plus endless confinements). Far from what i was told, Sispec was the most pleasant place in my NS days. With my instructors all understanding and my hard work being recognised. I thought that i could cross over to OCS then as i met the grades... however, my PC told me that i had too little time left, he would not put me on interview unless i sign on. I've decided against it.

ok... now in dirty green... the darkest of my NS days

And so, I was dumped to a remote corner of the country. At first it was not that bad. It was until i decided i've done quite enough for the country and i needed the last few months to plan for my civilian life outside NS. I needed the break that was my entity, which to their dismay, crashed with the training schedule. hm.... I'll not go into details, let's just say i was dumped around and saw many dark sides of the organisation.

I blame the organisation for many of my bad habits that i'm trying hard to change. Like learning how to siam and being irresponsible.

Wednesday night with Dr Wu and Dr Su

We had an interesting discussion tonight.

Junjie: Do you think the girls in our class who are 2 years younger are on par with us?

Of course, we're not only talking about studies, the discussion is on how we manage our lives.... the 21YO guys vs the 19YO girls

Junjie: ... that is despite the fact that we live 2 yrs longer

Me: hmm... But age isn't a factor, compare the yr3 girls to the yr1s... they're quite similar as well...

Junjie: But guys should be different, how else can you account for our existence in the last 2 years? Have we been stagnant at a point?

Makes sense... If guys have gone through so much more than the girls, why are we at the same level? What's the significance of the 2 years of sufferings that we went through?

Me: Hm... I guess we just had a 2 years break in life, the 2 years of experience is irrelevant in what we are doing today. In a sense, we had been stagnant, learning things that are inapplicable to civilian life, now that we're in a new environment, we're back to square 1.

HL803. Cinematic Pleasures & the Question Of Identity

If i had known better, this would never be a choice of my PE. My initial intention was to take up something slack, cinematics gave the impression that one just have to watch movies and write about them... how tough can that be? Apparently, the lecturer forgot to include movie screening time into his timetable. He decided that he has too much to say in the 3hrs of lecture every week and expect us to watch the movies on our own.

That makes a big difference to my original plan in this sem. My timetable is so packed that i hardly have time to rest in the day, and the night is full of co-curriculum activities. Even if i ever have time to watch a movie, i would want to watch something like 'meet the fockers', not 'gentlemen prefer blondes'. The biggest problem is that most of these movies are not available in stores, so I do not have the luxury to watch them in my own free time. My friend however, have a (VCR) tape version of one of the movies.... I will watch it as soon as i find a VCR (which may be harder than the movie hunting, my younger cousins may not even know such invention once existed)

To put a word of fairness, apart from the incoveniences it is causing me, it is one of the more interesting subject i'm taking for the sem (comparing with physics, maths, chem, blah blah blah).
I am confident that I can now do evaluation of a movie better than the past. I watch movies at a different angle, with a broader perspective. Movie watching requires thinking, deducing, and analysing. Every single shot, every movement of the characters, every dialogue has a meaning. If you are able to analyse, you walk away with greater rewards.

Take for example, the wizard of oz filmed in 1939, a time of major economical depression and the start of war world 2. It wasn't an ordinary children movie. The director wanted to educate the audience, telling them that being together with family is very important. That concept, viewed in modern time, may not arouse as much interest and emotions as it did in the past. Some have gone as far as arguing the movie has implications of homosexuality, bcos judy garland was labelled as a gay icon. Whichever the case, wizard of oz is entertaining to audience of all time.

Apart from the new horizons, the lecturer himself is a factor that makes the course interesting. His mannerism is exactly like the lion in wizard of oz (if u have not seen wiz of oz, I must tell you that the lion is very different from the impression of lions you have). His body matches the image exactly, big chest, big bums, and a little fats. He talks with his elbow bent (the other hand supporting that elbow) so that his hand seems to be hanging and his fingers dropping dead, when he reach an interesting point or becomes very excited, his hand and fingers will suddenly spring to life and motion a wave (like paws of a cat), while he laughs menacingly or stares flirtatiously at some males.... orgasmic.....

going for lecture.... will continue this when some interesting things happen

My com is attacked!!!

ARRRGGGGGGG

Loggin into singnet took 15mins... loading inbox took another 15mins... sending an email took a decade.... and when all the loading was done.... ERROR!!! CLICK ON THE REFRESH BUTTON!!! (that was at least a 300 words email)

For once, i shouted KNN at an object that will never respond to my frustration ..... (my mom, however, responded quite violently... a smack on the head). I felt strong urge to throw my metal bottle at the monitor screen...

My home PC is such a disaster.... after countless times of remedy work and virus scanning, there are still so many hidden viruses that my software can't detect.... i can't choose my homepage... my connection seems slower than a 56k connection, opening my winamp takes forever and the computer will hang right after.......

pls dun tell me i have to reformat...... ARGGGGGGGGG

Everyone is sick, is it the weather?

Hm... i thought it was NTU flu, Apparently everyone else in singapore is sick as well.

What is wrong then? Is it the weather? The temperature seems to go to the extremes in matter of a short time.

At least i know something... it's not due to the fact that my room is dusty... see! ppl who have not been in my room are equally sick...

Weird things happening tonight...

Look closely at the crescent moon tonight. You will be surprised to find facial features like those seen in disney's book of bedtime stories, the side profile of a grinning moon with a long crooked nose of a witch smiling at nearby stars....

zzz... it'll be a busy week ahead

testing~~~~~

今天风和日丽， 辛福的阳光照射着整片大地，到处充满着春天的气息。就连平时贪睡的我也不由至嘱从被窝里爬出来，感受着美好的一刻。

... too troublesome. I'll do that again when i'm really free....

sch term has started and it is a busy term for me. I could hardly breathe last week and that wasn't even the full impact. With the tutorials, labs and competitions starting this week, i think i can forget about breathing at all. Oh yes... i have countless meetings too...

BUT THEN... it's strange how my world changed. Like friends becoming very supportive, making many new friends, work and studies going smoothly, and ntu seems to be full of pleasant looking girls suddenly. Life is full of hopeful events.