root cause

the other day i went to hit a few green fuzzy balls again after an enforced break of 6 weeks.

same gear, same strokes, same player, same opponents but all i got were just disastrous results: weak forehand, tentative backhand and practically no serve. it was all too familiar yet all too foreign.

in my mind i was trying to recollect all the shots i had hit in the past, trying to remember how to approach different shots, and how to basically not suck. but it was futile, though things improved a bit at the end.

i think that when you stop doing something for some time, the brain connections for that particular activity also freeze; they might even regress if you completely stop for a too long period of time! you see, the brain builds knowledge by growing neural-connections. think of it as a tree root: the stronger the root, the deeper the knowledge. and the greater the cluster of roots, the wider the knowledge.

so i guess i need to start working on rebuilding up my tennis roots again, and probably swim bike and run as well if i want to start participating in races again in 2011.

the last supper

Show encrypted text

2010

hey world what's up its only been 6 weeks but it feels as though its been years.

in a little over 1 week i hope to be back home to close out the year. i guess 2010 hasn't been that bad to me afterall: little setbacks here and there, but on the whole there has been more ups than downs. so i guess there's reason to celebrate afterall. =)

so before i get home and get lost in all the festivities, its time to take stock of the past year once again.

2010:
started out the year relatively calm, albeit busy at work. got a bit more serious in tennis and managed to make it into the SAFSA team. ran my fastest ever 2.4km, probably as a result of the crazy ARR training. discovered my love for thai discos and ktv; amazing, when you consider the level of my mandarin proficiency. picked up volleyball along the way and got to know S, who will always remain a fond memory. went to germany again and also visited the pyramids in egypt. came back and volunteered as a french announcer for the yog. met J, and the rest is history. went to bangkok again to see Nadal play, but didnt manage to speak to him. didn't manage to do any triathlons; in fact i only managed to run 2 half-marathons. went overseas again in nov, and probably will not report back to work until 2011.

what a great way to close out the year. bye 2010, shalom 2011.

final lap

look at what just got in the post: snow grounds flights in germany

wow with just about 1 week to go before my flight, this has to happen. dear santa, i've been a good boy all year; please grant me my only wish and let me be home for christmas?

alphabet trip

a is for athens

b is for bangkok

c is for cairo

d is for duisburg

e is for eilat

f is for frankfurt

g is for geneva

h is for hiroshima

i is for incheon

j is for johor

k is for khumbu

l is for london

m is for manchester

n is for nice

o is for osaka

p is for paris

q is for qiryat gat

r is for rajasthan

s is for sydney

t is fortaipei

u is for ulanbataar

v is for valence

w is for weimar

x is for xian

y is for yokohama

z is for zurich

wonder when can i compile another around the world list 2 with another 26 different cities.. =)

office politics

disaster is bound to happen when you have so many people in the same place doing the same things for an extended period of time.

only three weeks, it seems that in-groups and out-groups are already forming. not suprising, when you consider that for one to go up, another has to be shot down. really, its a dog-eat-dog world out here.

its difficult to like everyone in the world, or worse, get everyone to like you. but i guess the least anyone should do is to separate their work and personal lives. work is already so difficult, why make it even harder?

countdown

exactly one month to go!

OFIS

oh wow its saturday night already. need to cherish what's left of the weekend and then its time to book in tomorrow morning.

frankly speaking things have gotten better after settling in and getting used to the system here. no more 18-hr workdays i hope!

other than the weather, everything's been great. even then, my only complaint is that it can get a bit too chilly at night. the sunny days are fantastic, the people are friendly, and the food is ok. and did i mention about the beach babes? haha.

---

went for an epic 18km run in the morning then went to suntan in the avro. didn't manage to play beach pong as planned but i don't think my legs were still up to it at that point in time. managed to catch harry potter today as well. luckily it wasn't in some foreign language! haha. but the movie sucked anyhow; too draggy and too much conversation. BUT overall it was still a good day! booking in tomorrow morning and looking forward to the weekend ahead! =)

poddycast

wow over the weekend i must have stumbled upon the 2nd most important invention in the world (with the first being beer): podcasts!

woots woots didnt know that there was so much music available free online.. no need to buy albums already, especially when there are so many trance mixes online!!! then there are video podcasts of happy tree friends as well. amazing!

must thank my buddy for this, especially when life can get quite boring in camp. now at least i can get constant new updates of music or video during the weekends for weekday life. =)

back to bedlam

d-day!

flying off tonight and will be back on christmas eve! dun forget to buy me gifts!!! =D

and its going to be a looong flight tonight so let's hope that there will be no snakes on the plane!

d-2

and the countdown begins again..

mike sucks cock; call 99134529 for free sex

011110

happy binary palindrome day! 0 1 1 1 1 0 is read zero one one one one zero both forward and backwards!

yaay i survived dengue. the test results came out and yes indeed it was leukopenia. no wonder i felt so weak! but the worst's over now to concentrate on properly getting well quick and coming back twice as strong as before.

anyway wow its november already. where did the rest of the months go? another week and it'll almost be 2011 for me. time for the final countdown!

the death of me

the only times i would wish for rain is during times like now. yes now - when i'm cooped up sick at home and unable to go for a run, tennis, whatever. if i can't have it you guys are not going to get it either!

being sick at home on a fabulous day is a bit like a child who has been left behind. the feeling of loss and loneliness as the outside world cruises along in the brilliant green.

surreal to be at home for 4 days now. still running a slight fever and blood test results are going to be out this evening.

like a sick chicken

die. have not felt so sick for such a long time already. cough, sore throat, runny nose, tummyache, fever; you name it, i have it: all the symptoms of full-blown flu.

saw a doc yest and got 2 days of medical leave. but argh i still had to go back to work today. not that i'm complaining, but why did it have to be such a coincidence. the medication made my head so woozy that i sure hope i didn't screw up the presentation just now!

going to call in sick tomorrow at all cost. might not survive to see wednesday if i don't do so.

purify

forget about F1, the IRs and biotech parks; 10km-wide gigantic air purifiers are just what we need now to save singapore

ms7

after about a year of windows-ness computing, that dreaded fenêtre is making a re-appearance in my tech toy list again.

yes, i caved in to work pressure and got myself a aspire one netbook yesterday. i had wanted to get myself an ipad, but after learning about how useless it would be work-wise, i decided to get a netbook instead. indeed, it seems that windows/openoffice is a must for any good public servant.

specs:
1.5 ghz intel atom n550 cpu
ms windows 7 starter edition
1gb ram
250gb hdd @ 2500rpm
10.1" display screen
1.25kg

but oh well at least its a lot cheaper than the ipad and it would be less of a bitch typing-wise. and it boots on android as well, so at least there's still some hope.

*update on 181010*
damn i realised with a piece of shit i bought. the ms7 starter edition means that windows deliberately locked lots of features just to force people to upgrade to the ms7 home edition. never have i ever had to hack into the registry just to change my wallpaper! and what's up with all the trialware? thanks microsoft, for screwing yourselves up; with such retarded marketing practices, its no wonder apple is where they are today. end of rant.

survival of the fittest

so i was driving home from the bowels of sungei gedong, along tengah airbase, when i saw those ubiquitous white blinking lights: it was a solitary biker on a tri bike zipping down the gedong highway. it was a sight all so familiar yet so foreign.

i tried to recall when was the last time i had cycled down the same route - maybe about 2008 perhaps?

then i realised that with the increasing workload and/or other commitments, i was or am probably the fittest that i will ever be already. as it was, i was driving home from a meeting at 2230hrs and not yet had dinner; i can't even recall when i last drove home in daylight! so tell me, how to have a proper training regime? nowadays, i just try to squeeze in an hour's gym at the end of the day whenever i can make it. and maybe tennis on the weekends.

i wonder when can i ironman again.

mission impossible

il voudrait tellement que j'aille le rejoindre
mais je ne le puis même si je le voulais
qu'il n'aille pas s'imaginer qu'il est le moindre
sait-il seulement que bien loin je me trouvais

dans l'or du beau soleil de cet après-midi
j'ai le cœur brisé au plus profond de mon âme
de penser qu'il trouvera le temps infini
peut-être croit-il qu'à l'horizon, je me pâme

pourquoi pense-t-il que mon silence est cruel
car pour moi, parler n'est pas très habituel
mais il faudrait mesurer la température

le mystère peut permettre encore l'espoir
un jour se rencontrera-t-on dans la verdure
mon ombre ne va-t-elle pas le décevoir

金曜日

_ ___Where's

_________________ _________________YOUR

______ _______ hèad

________________________________________________________aT

____________ ?

excuse moi, mais où est la toilette?

ok, so its official: i have the runs. what is it caused by? i dunno. could be gastric flu, food poisoning, or alcohol poisoning. or any permutation of the above.

the only thing i know that my sphincter muscles have not felt so loose in awhile now.. ahhh.. the feeling of anxiety in looking for a toilet then the relief thereafter. priceless.

we. ek end.

and so i'm back already from my weekend bangkok trip. 4 days and its never enough anyway. always new things to discover, new experiences to be had and new friends to be made.

in a parallel alternate universe i wish i could be thai. hey, what's not to like about them? they are friendly, have an unique language of their own, have royalty, protests, a proper surface area for a country, great shopping, fantastic curries, cheap beer and alcohol in general, cute girls, exotic islands, and the list goes on.

สวัสดี!

was amazed though to find out that so many things had happened over the weekend as well, mrs lee kuan yew's death notwithstanding. oh well at least she's finally free from her locked-in state since 2008. i remember reading le sépulcre et le papillon, and i was both amazed by the author's determination to live on yet sad that he had to carry on with his life in his physical body prison for 2 years. my brother also was briefly locked-in during his illness, and i remember him tearing almost everyday from the frustration of being unable to move.

what would you do if you were locked-in? i think i would not even last a weekend because without movement, life would have lost all meaning for me.

en retard

free f1 tickets arrive after alonso and gang had gone home

argh so that's what happened to my f1 race pass. fml and what a waste of money! no wonder the budget ballooned to thrice the original forecasted amount.

actually it would not have been so bad if they had not promised us the tickets. but i guess after USS and the heightened expectations of getting, many of course would naturally be disappointed if they did not get to go after all. and i heard some of my friends had actually cancelled/postponed other appointments or gatherings just so they could go for the f1.

well, for me i had the girl's dance party to go to anyway. but if i had the tickets i would have gone for the f1 AND the dance party. hell yeah.

accident

and i,
gazing at stars,
stumbled over you,
______________________tripped
and
fell painfully in love,
couldn't get up
______________for ages.

spontaneous

this would have made grumps proud.

defence of the dark arts

voltaire had dips on the original quotation, but i love this one even more.

---

so finally f1 weekend is here - tgitw! didn't get the free yog-f1 tickets to catch the race tonight but i guess its not that important; i will just head to the same spot to invest in a couple of pints of beers and listen to the maddening din and smell burnt rubber at the same time.

looking forward to the next weekend as well! finally made the decision to head to bangkok for the thai open! cos i had read the newspaper the other day and it said that nadal, for once, had finally made it to bangkok. yaay!!! omgomg i can't wait!

pet peeve

some people, you can instantly click with at first sight. and then there are some people who can irritate you just by virtue of their presence.

keep bumping into one such person in my camp lately. its amazing that he has this amazing innate ability to just piss me off through everything he does: from his speech to his actions; the way he breathes and maybe even the way his atoms vibrate about their fixed positions in order to still keep him intact as a sentient being capable of constantly irritating the shit out of me.

just can't believe how can someone be such an absolute jerk and not know about it. surely he must sense the antagonism from the people around him? anyway i am not the only person who feels the same way towards him.

grah and he is in a way, my superior as well. life is going to be so exciting from now on.

ah but well i think i annoy him as much as he annoys me anyway. so we are even.

210910

i guess i had better file this somewhere for reference.

just in case. =P

calculation

+$200
-$150
- 6 demerit points
------------------
$#%%^&%^*&*$@!

<-->

sometimes the difficulty is not in the abundance of choices,
or the lack of them.
it is in the courage to make a decision,
then sticking by it come what may.

weeeeeekend

fed out of the us open! yaays. well the final would be less epic but oh wells what matters is nadal winning the grand slam at the end of the day.

ahm! running into marina bay sands was not as nice as i expected and did not achieve another PB but at least i completed within my baseline aim, with my ankle issues and what not. not in the top 5 but let's wait and see for the official results to see if there is any improvement in the overall timing.

now time to head off to brewerz for some good ol' curry and beer! =)

blue//black

i tried to do handstands for you
i tried to do handstands for you
every time i fell, i fell for you
now i'm permanently black and blue,
permanently blue for you

---

they say that if you are lucky in love, then your financial luck will suck.
and the reverse is true as well.
well, i am glad to say that the above rule doesn't apply to me! i don't see myself becoming a don juan anytime soon but yet:
1. wing mirror died on me yesterday. probably will have to get down to vcs on monday to resolve it.
2. bb midplate cracked. time for some minor repairs and maybe get another casing.
3. sharp ankle pain that suddenly developed from nothing on the eve of ahm. what gives?

i can choose to look at it negatively and say "fuck, life sucks", or choose to interpret it a bit more positively and think that "hey, maybe that means lady love is coming".

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

point of no return

i wonder how some people can be so irresponsible. and how come there are so many random blardy fuckers around.

quite disappointed with certain people today. i mean, we are all mature adults already and why the fuck are you still playing random mind games with me? and why at this moment?

well, the tasks had already been delegated long ago and i had carried out my duties this far. i guess i had done the best i could and anything else is own personal responsibility and pride. you want to come and help out? yes, please come. you are not interested? well then, fuck you and fuck off.

circle of control > circle of influence > out-of-bounds area.

clearly, this is out-of-bounds zone for me already. i can try to facilitate and help you out but if you do not want to be helped, there is nothing much i can do already. just like i can bring the cow to the river but if the cow does not want to drink, it will not drink, no matter what.

its sickening to have to keep on begging people for something which should have already been settled. but i will persevere, and see this one out because i've come too far to let it fail. because it probably means that much more to me than it ever will to you.

because this is the point of no return.

sbrahm10

ahm's this weekend! pretty busy running about and coordinating stuff so that the team's effort put in so far this year will not go to waste. phew! wonder how encik eric dealt with all these administrative and logistical nightmares last year.

well at least this weekend's route will take us into the marina bay sands. have yet to visit the bay area without having to pay the stupid levy and erp so i guess it'll be interesting somewhat to run through it for free. just remind me not to take the wrong turn and end up at the casinos.

sub 1:30 again this year. achievable?

ball boy

i would seriously be annoyed too if something like that happened to me.

foreign

its official. je ne parle plus français.

your promise

wonders why chinese songs always have to be so emo.

你答应我的我都记得
但是你却忘了你的承诺
不是说好彼此都不再联络
谁都别再犯错
是我的固执让你难过
但是分手却也无法选择
我走了以后
你要好好生活
不要想我 也别再哭了

suspense

the jh was right: BIS really does kill the "you've got mail" moment when i turn on the imac.

the bb does the job of pushing mails to be so well that i rarely even use the mac anymore. and there's the ipod touch for internet radio and facebook. so the physical keyboard + mouse is only for work. and perhaps blogging.

but what productivity! i realised that in the time i waited for the bus to go to the gym i had already sealed a $1.7k deal, wrote a couple of french emails, and made some random facebook comments.

after being exposed to the dark side, i wonder how did i ever survive 3G-less in the past.

wwnd?

dear aunt agony,

i got to know this girl at the yog and somehow let out on the fact that i was a "dancer" and i "took salsa lessons". she is a nice girl and is now asking me out to dance. turns out that she is indeed an advanced salsa dancer.

how do i turn her down yet maintain the friendship? will her view of me change now that i am not the tango latino that she thought i was?

the man with two left feet,
jeremy

the weight on my shoulders

TGIT. thursday is the new friday.

so i finally succumbed to the evil singtel 3gb BB data plan. first impressions: its expensive! but now my phone has a whole new dimension of functionality, although it took some getting used to for me. i guess i'm still not that used to whipping out the phone and surfing the net on it. but the verdict is still out on how long this novelty will last me.

---

stones taught me to fly
love, it taught me to cry
so come on courage, teach me to be shy
'cause its not hard to fall,
and I don't want to scare her
its not hard to fall
and i don't want to lose
its not hard to grow
when you know that you just don't know

ah. cannonball by damien rice. one of those emo songs for a sunny afternoon at the park. alone.

i dunno, but it feels awfully lonely surrounded by all these people.

yohmigosh!

just catched the nail biting table tennis girl's gold medal match just now. a pity that we lost, but hey we lost to the world's junior champ! no shame in that, really.

sprouting out from extreme negativity, sporting fever has suddenly gripped singapore as the yog draws to a close. last burst of fire perhaps? or maybe it was due to the performance of our brave young athletes. yes, we may have lost, but given the way those boys and girls went down, i guess they have already proven themselves and demostrated that there is no shame in defeat.

if she continues playing the way she is played tonight, i am sure isabelle li will be a household name come the london olympics.

same for soccer. i have not seen players with as much hunger and perseverance as the young cubs last night for a long time. and what a mixed bag of players: chinese, malay, indian, eurasian. really cmio at work.

and what about darren choy? he's already the world junior champs and he's on his way to an olympic gold!

anyway i am really glad that most of the young athletes were born and bred locals. shows that the government is not just going to import foreign athletes and blatantly buy gold medals.

and what about the volunteers? mostly busy working behind the scenes, i think all 20000 (ok, 19999 excluding me) all deserve gold medals as they were the extra player on the field who ensured that the yog could run smoothly.

oh yeah! oh yeah! oh yeah!

monkey power

this is dedicated to one of my friends who is a wildlife lover, and will be embarking soon for her research gap year in the forests of malaysia.

remember, just because it has large anime eyes and is smaller than you doesn't mean that it is harmless - it may just be a trap. just like some of the women at geylang..

yog2010

20000 workforce
3600 athletes
26 sports
13 days
1 goal

and so it seems on the tele-commercials. i wonder how come they forgot about the $200 million budget overrun and the time wasted in traffic jams due to road closures.

at least my job as a french announcer is finally over today (unless i get activated again as a last minute replacement for the other announcers at the other venues). i was really getting quite sick of announcing "mesdames et messieurs, les jeux olympiques de la jeunesse singapour 2010 vous souhaitent la bienvenue a la xx-ieme journée de la compétition en triathlon. ce matin vous pourrez assister au triathlon sprint individuel/relais mixte a 4 qui commencera a 9h".

now to spend the remaining 1 week of the games watching some matches, and also to visit the yov and mmc since my pass allows me to enter all the yog venues. yaay.

marikita

i was just wondering today: how many of us actually know the meaning of our national anthem?

in a land where only 15% (and diminishing) speak malay, it is not surprising that fewer and fewer people can sing, less understand, our anthem.

just the other day, i had a prc transport operator who did not understand a single word of my evacuation route brief. after i had gone through with him the entire journey from east coast park to changi general hospital, he looked at me rather sheepishly and said "可以讲华语吗?". as it turned out, he had lived in china all his life and had only come to singapore 1 week prior being drafted into national service as his parents were already PRs and i guess that they did not want to lose their status.

luckily i can still 讲华语.

language differences aside, i can only imagine how confusing singapore must be for him. coming from a rather homogenous society, i guess he has never had to come into close contact with anyone of a different race and cultural background. i wonder how does he cope with the malay military commands, or what does he make of our local patois - singlish.

ah well for the benefit of everyone young or old, local or foreigner or tourist, ang moh or prc or eurasian or even singaporean, here is the english translation of majulah singapura. indeed, may we come together this national day and progress towards One Singapore.

Come, fellow Singaporeans
Let us progress towards happiness together
May our noble aspiration bring
Singapore success

Come, let us unite
In a new spirit
Let our voices soar as one
Onward Singapore
Onward Singapore

Come, let us unite
In a new spirit
Let our voices soar as one Onward Singapore
Onward Singapore

chaota

jeremy is officially dying from saturday's fabuloustan. brillant.

eepic eejeept

surprisingly, only a ditzy spectacle of laser lights illuminating the dark desert landscape greeted me as i flew into cairo at night. fun fair? night bazaar? it was only later that i realised that it was the light and sound show™ at the giza pyramids. in fact, almost every large egyptian historical site has its own light and sound show™, and the associated souvenir shops, touts, tour guides, and pollution that come with it.

welcome to egypt - land of the beleaguered tourist.

immediately after i got out of the airport the touts started pouring in. if you want to feel like lady gaga on the red carpet at hollywood, egypt's your best bet. no matter where you go, what you are doing, what you are dressed in, what language you can or cannot speak, egyptians will want to know who you are and where you come from and where you are going and possibly also your bank card pin number and your sanity. all in the pursuit of one thing: baksheesh. for the uninitiated, baksheesh, or بخشش, means a gift or a tip in arabic. for many egyptians, the combination of inflation and corruption means that the only way of making ends meet is by pestering tourists and hoping to make some money through baksheesh.

the plot is simple enough: helpless tourist meets helpful local, local helps tourist, tourist goes away happy, and local makes some money. but its never that simple, is it? in egypt, the burgeoning population means that everyone is fighting to get a piece of the limited baksheesh pie. so most tourists get needlessly pestered and harassed, all in a bid to snag a taxi fare, felucca passenger, tour grouper, or hotel customer.

so anyway to travel in egypt you need to have either thick skin, or lots of loose change. you figure out which approach works for you. for me, i took the former. =P

anyway i have even more incredible tales of the baksheesh. too long to elaborate here; go ask me in person or on facebook.

-----

the nile is indeed the source of all life in egypt. indeed, i covered the entire length of the nile during my travels as most of the notable towns were just situated along its banks. cairo -> night train to aswan -> minibus to abu simbel -> felucca to edfu -> minivan to luxor -> night train back to cairo -> train to and fro alexandria and cairo. 9000+km in 9 days! talk about wanderlust.

but that's the only way to travel in egypt i guess. most towns are dead (and full of touts anyway) so other than the historical sites there's nothing much else interesting to do. unless you like being conned and walking around in the baking 55°C heat.

so now the nile is controlled by the aswan high dam (3rd largest in the world), and the crocodiles are kept at bay. makes sailing in a felucca a lot more pleasant experience, without whatnot having to worry about waking up with all four limbs intact.

-----

the return of the 5-times-a-day call to prayer! didnt help that my hostel was just next to a mosque. and it was much worse with all the echoing effect down the nile. do they really need all those reminders to pray that many times each day, everyday? i think all it takes is just a watch and maybe some determination.

muse

1. inception is pure mindfuck. loves.

2. i realised today at the ktv that 90% of all songs are about breakups and regrets. we were all directing our collective sorrows at the tv. fuck i'm yours.

3. playing tennis regularly doesn't mean that you can still run a 1hr30 half marathon.

4. i realised yesterday for the first time that human hibernation is possible.

5. je ne vais faire qu'annonceur pour le triathlon pendant les JOJ. yaay.

the bold, the ugly and the beautiful

quite busy to update anything these days. most days (and nights) i am either in camp, or out playing tennis/gymming/drinking/etc.

finally got a new phone - a BB 9700! first non nokia phone in my life! oh well the e51 was good, but it was dying after 2 years of good service, so i had to source for a replacement before it died. too bad nokia didn't come out with a e52 or e72 non cam version if not i would have gotten it. anyway, first impressions:

- pushmail is very quick and uber easy to set up. just input your email address and password and voila!
- quite an ease to synchronise contacts as well! just make sure that you have a 3G sim card and you have less than 1000 friends.
- BBM is a good (and free) way to message your friends, but only if they are also BB users, and are on BIS. if you're reading this, please get a BB and add me on BBM (PIN 2273A77D) so that i can save on my handphone bills!
- there seems to be some soft and hardware glitches with the phone. may be due to my relative inexperience with BB, will update more later but they are bothering the hell out of me at the moment.
- i miss T9! gone are the days when i can still multitask and message while doing (ahem) other things. a firmware/app upgrade to include T9 input would make it so much more user friendly.
- speaking of apps, there seems to be not much apps for BBs after browsing through the jh's android phone last week. *jealous* anyone knows where i can download 3rd party apps other than from the BB app world?
- singtel's pricing plan sucks. $10.70 for 1gb only allows you to get pushmail. if you want to subscribe to broadband on mobile you need to get the 3gb plan for $24.80. but who the hell uses 3gb every month? madness.

le quatorze

joyeux bastille!

11072010

what a day! tennis, family lunch, birthday party at the istana pgr, dinner and drinks, then to cap it all off there were the world cup finals. not a bad way to usher in my 26th year of existence, methinks.

not forgetting the celebration the night before and all the well-wishes from all my friends. you all rock! =)

oops i did it again..

supported france for the group stages.
it was england for the round of 16.
then came brazil's turn.
tonight argentina was my latest victim.

who should i support next? =D

brick game

some days this is what we all go through.

juillet's coming..

.. and i'm not even settled with juin!

phew what a week it has been! barely a day after i got back it was back to work for me again. seriously, these people really expect you to hit the ground running! and on the flight back, all i could think of was how to rest and recuperate after egypt. haha.

which explains why i only had time to just get the photos up.

---

nadal's top again! whoopee! i hope he wins wimbledon; he's been playing a lot more consistently now and he puts in so much energy and soul as compared to the swiss crybaby!

---

and england's out! but what's new anyway. the italians were too arrogant, and the french were, erm well, french. game on tomorrow for spain and portugal! ronaldo ftw! =D

take me to the moon and back

omygosh its been 6 weeks already. in those six weeks i dreamt of audis, became carnivorous, learnt the difference between a flat tip and an open end, tamed leopards, walked the path of ancient pharoahs, shared a train cabin with the addams family, and gave lots of baksheesh.

---

in a parallel universe during those six weeks:

1. Mr Goh Keng Swee passed away.

2. the cost to watch world cup soccer at home increased from $70.62 to $94.16 (gst inclusive).

3. a mrt carriage was vandalised.

4. exco of city harvest church gets probed for misuse of funds (finally!).

5. orchard road saw itself as the epicentre of one of the worst floods in the last decade.

ただります indeed.

pining for the past

"Memories are what warm you up from the inside. But they're also what tear you apart."
-kafka on the shore, murakami

recently i've been thinking about the past. i always get flashbacks when i'm overseas. maybe its because my loneliness strips away all the protective armour that i have with all my friends back home. maybe because it was the untenable situation then. or maybe because i still have not left the shadows of the past.

the unbearable lightness of being.

what are memories anyway but useless emotions. mostly they are as fidel as men and as accurate as rumours. they make you contemplative but yet regretful.

then you realise that things are not the same anymore and then it kills you. slowly but surely. again and again.

damn those memories.

la merde en erfurt

thuringer. how do i even begin?

1.
the weather has recently begun to look more like summer. as recent as wednesday it was still cold and dreary, then all of a sudden the clouds went off and the sun came out and now the girls are in short skirts and eating gelato in the streets is not such a distinct impossibility anymore.

2.
"tell me someting," she said. "do you love me?"
"you know i do"
"will you do me two favours?"
"you can have up to three, madame"
she smiled and shook her head. "no, two will do. one is for you to realise how grateful that i am that you came to see me here. i hope that you will understand how happy you've made me. i know it's going to save me if anything will. i may not show it, but its true."
"i'll come to see you again," i said. "and what is your other wish?"
"i want you always to remember me. will you remember that i existed, and that i stood next to you like this?"

"always," i said. "i'll always remember."

3.
the other day we went to the park. it was the sort of day where you couldn't tell the time - the clouds hung low and everything was in monochrome. put down a tablecloth from the hotel and sat down. luckily somebody had the foresight to suggest bringing some beer. bitburger; scheisse but better than nothing. music from figaro blasted from one side of the park. the dj speaks in german but the songs are always in english. they said that only the old folks listen to german music. why? where have all the young german songwriters gone to? or is mtv a more powerful force that i had previously thought?

on the other side of the park dogs are barking and running about. here in europe nobody leashes their dogs. perhaps the wide expanse of space here makes them less angsty. or maybe the cold weather gives them their cool temperament. its difficult not to draw a comparison with singapore, where humans and their pets alike compete for the same 645 square kilometers of space. sometimes i think we need to leash some people in singapore. grrr.

oops, it looks like a light drizzle is upon us now. shall we leave, or is it tolerable. luckily my nike is waterproof. seems like they would like to go. yes, now for wet is bad and warm bed back in hotel is good.

4.
german food is incredibly salty. wurst is salty, frickadeller is salty, pommes frites is salty. no wonder they have all that beer to wash it all down. why can't they learn from the french - croissant and baguettes, jambon beurre, fondue, bourgignion. ok not steakfrites but you get the idea.

5.
ok well at least the germans have their technology going in their favour. audi, volkswagen, mercedes benz, blaupunkt, bmw, faber-castell, man, liebherr. and let's not even get started on the supercar brands. man its just like watching porn on the roads - hey the old lady down the block drives a heavily modded TT! its enough to make me miss my gti. =(

and now, for something completely different..

out for a beer. be right back! =)

erdinger erfurt

so it has been one week here in erfurt. its great to be back in europe. where the beer is cheap and the sun sets at 9pm. =)

so far it has been pretty routine: reveille at 0615hrs, on course from 0800-1700hrs, then own time own target after that. usually that means i'll go for a run, drink beer, then its lights out by 2200hrs.

what a difference from my lifestyle back in singapore.

went to prague over the weekend as well. that's the best part about europe; with so many countries in such close proximity in the eurozone, that means a fun-filled weekend in a cheaper neighbouring country is never far away!

another great part of being in europe over in summer: sports. currently there's the giro, inter just beat bayern yesterday, roland garros just kicked off today, and there's still the world cup and le tour to come!

4 more weeks to go. yaay.

choices

so long, suckers!

life and death

today i saw a super long and elaborate funeral procession, stretching like about 1km+ end to end and replete with banners, costumed paraders, stilt-walkers and hearse bearers.

and oh, did i mention the super huge and intricate coffin which was carried by at least 8 people?

in ultra-modern singapore, seeing such a elaborate and traditional ritual is bigger than winning 4D. in our rush to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation, most of us have had no choice but to leave our roots, identity and ancestry behind. because change waits for no man; and because the very notion of being singaporean is to change. and change quickly.

in the 50s, we were still a fishing village. in the 60s, industrialisation set in. by the 70s and 80s, we were part of the asian dragons club, poised to take over the world. the rest, as you know, is history.

today, transformation is everywhere. just compare orchard road circa 2009 vs 2010. sleepy seletar? ditto. even the SAF is not spared as the winds of change howls mercilessly into the soul of the everyday man. everyday we strive to hit the benchmark, just to find that when we get there, the goalpost has been shifted. yet again.

and so yusof ishak is now what defines us. or rather, the national identity is the constant struggle to meet new government initiatives and economic targets. currently, as what our manpower minister said, we have to be "faster, cheaper, better". what next - "arbeit macht frei"?

there is a saying that it is better to die than to fall sick in singapore. because of the constant emphasis to be economically productive and rising cost of living, one can barely afford an extended stay at the hospital, or worse, afford not to work due to illness.

at today's funeral, nobody was thinking about these issues. but one thing is for sure: they would have, if they could, all paid a king's ransom just to see their dearly departed one more time. but what use is of money at the end?

to xxxxx

just sent a very good friend of mine to the airport again. its the nth time she has come back to singapore since she "moved" to germany 2 years ago to stay with her boyfriend.

looking back, it is amazing how time flies. there we were, at the airport reminiscing about all the crazy things which we did in the past. if you had asked me then, i would never have guess that our lives would turn out this way.

we met in the most unusual of circumstances: at a bus stop on a bike ride. i had agreed to meet some friends there and she was also waiting for some other friends. somehow we started talking and something clicked. we met more regularly for training after that as we were training for our virgin IMs then (she somehow had persuaded me to sign up for langkawi 07). she was cool and spunky and independent and had a great sense of humour and that was where i guess we sort of fit together like two odd-cutting pieces of a puzzle.

swim bike run and many trips up north for races later, i went to france for my studies. during that time, she went through many difficult periods in life, but still continued training. and in the most extraordinary of situations too, she met her now-boyfriend.

fast forward two years later, she has been all over the world; no longer the same girl whom i used to pick up at pasir laba camp after work nor the housemate whom i used to watch monty python with. while i used to be the one making the overseas phone calls at noon, now we have switched places.

and now she's trying for a baby. amazing. as i said, i would never have imagined this two years ago. another IM? definitely. german boyfriend? maybe. getting married and starting a family? hell no! haha.

anyway you go girl and all the best. show them what ironwomen are made of. =)

like father like son

mom's birthday today and guess what - both my dad and me bought her the same gift!

she had been hinting that she wanted a foot massager for some time and i guess both of us took the easy and unimaginative way out. and we even got exactly the same brand same model. only the date and outlet of purchase was different.

so anyway now we have two foot massagers at home. time to set up a foot reflexology shop perhaps?

thinking soldier

i am a motivated soldier who gives 100% at work.

20% on monday
20% on tuesday
20% on wednesday
20% on thursday
20% on friday

TGIF!

al cho hol

fri - ratchada
sat - le bar
sun - wala

happiness indeed.

clay king

after 11 long months, the king of clay is back!

bravo to rafael nadal, who today reminded us again of his technical superiority, his athletic capabilities, and his thirst for victory. it doesn't get any better than 6-0 6-1. vamos rafa!

10nis

some days you feel like nadal. some days you feel like safin. and some days you feel like serra. and then some.

me? today i felt like almagro - the pathetic pushover of professional tennis. grah!

mee pok man

a letter from today's ST: don't let poly grads fall through the cracks.

a simple heartfelt letter which points out so many wrong things in singapore.

for me, while i can say that many (even i) have benefited from the local system, i recognise that there are just as many, if not more, who have come out bruised and battered, with nothing to show for their efforts.

fuck first world country, if you cannot even provide for your own countrymen who have given 2 years of their lives to serve their nation, then i say you fail.

starnet

regretted getting a starnet account.

now not do i have to check my oa email, i also have to check my internet email after working hours. means that work never ends. means that i am now permanently 24/7 operational. which sucks. fml.

on a related note, it sure feels weird working on official documents on an imac. maybe its the faster processing speed. or the colours. or the fact that its midnight and i'm sitting in my room staring at a chunk of numbers and a list of names and trying to piece everything together with facebook in the background and family guy buffering and the speakers blaring separate ways by journey. work-life identity crisis.

singawhore

was selected to be a french announcer/interpreter for the yog this aug, so i went for some training yesterday at nyp.

was surprised to see that most of the yog organising committee were foreigners; a majority of them were even on contract service who flew in specially for the games. spoke with a few of them and got to know that while they had some experience in event management, for many the yog is going to be their first time managing a sports event. which led me to wonder why are we getting these people into singapore in the first place: are there no singaporeans who can possibly fill their roles? surely with the increase in sporting events in singapore there must already be a core group of people who are already familiar sports event organisation here, so why the need for foreign talent?

nevermind the angmoh > local part, what really got my grape was their pay package. erm let's just say that for mid-level management staff, their housing allowance is already more than half of my pay! this, from the government who refuses to increase the $350 handout to the poor and needy. and in the end the same government wonders why there is a exodus of citizens, and why housing is so expensive for the everyday man.

oh well. i guess you just can't trust singaporeans to get the things done - not with all our complaining and whining about how hard life is, difficulty of the tasks, etc. besides, ang mohs really make things look more professional and credible in our colour-blind and multiracial society, no? after all, it is no secret that the government's policy is ns for singaporeans, jobs for foreigners!

239

cm that is, that i managed to jump today.

so it is Gold again, after so many years. =)

sun day

just like beer, there are sundays, and there are sundays.

today was definitely not a sun day, what with the incessant rain washing out my usual sunday springbloom tennis session. grahz.

so anyway the rain has stopped a little although it still looks mighty overcast. hooray for temasek club! i just received my membership card last week and already i've tried out most of their facilities; not too bad for a officers' club methinks. so anyway tennis at temasek later if the weather holds!

in other news, i will be on course for the next month or so. which means 0800-1700 course, 1700-2230 work. =(

arr2010

early morning
not yet daylight
yet something is
abuzz
in the midst of the dead
and the desolate
something is
stirring
from the depths
of the deep west

soon
the sun will rise
birds will chirp
trucks will zoom
and runners will
run
like the wind
like demons possessed
like no tomorrow
for the sake of
duty honour country
platoon company battalion

batons passed
runners passed
soon the blazing sun
in the sky will
make anyone forget
how it was ever dark

all this
will not be lost on
the gods of mindef
who will be running cheering
and assessing
to see if anyone
has the potential
to lead to excel to overcome
to take over
the ultimate baton -
the baton of command

uʍop ǝpısdn

˙ʍou ǝɹǝɥ ʇı ʎɹʇ

˙ƃuıןıǝɔ ǝɥʇ ɟɟo ƃuıƃuɐɥ ƃnq ɹo pɹɐzıן ǝɯos ǝʞıן ʇsɐǝן ʇɐ ɹo

˙puɐןɹǝpuoʍ uı ǝɔıןɐ ǝq oʇ ǝʞıן ʇı sı ʇɐɥʍ ןǝǝɟ noʎ ʇǝן oʇ ʇǝןddɐ ǝןʇʇıן sıɥʇ punoɟ ı unɟ os

アルコール

there is beer, and there is beer.

as an alcoholic, i am strangely quite choosy with my choice of poison.

beer > whisky > vodka > wine > tequila> xo > gin.

kilkenny > asahi > ipa > murphy's > paulaner > kwak > stella > san miguel > yanjing > water > piss > rat poison > tiger.

went to bar bar just now and was pleasantly surprised to see that they revamped the draft beer menu - no more london pride but they have a new one tetley's which is a lot more drinkable! and they even have 1664 on tap. hearts. looks like i need to get a new liver soon.

the guru's new clothes

When the guru’s initial efforts failed, he accused Mr Edamaruku of praying to gods to protect him. “No, I’m an atheist,” came the response. The holy man then said he needed to conduct a ritual that could only be done at night, outdoors, and after he had slept with a woman, drunk alcohol and rubbed himself in ash.

read more about it here.

LOL! amazing what what blind faith and self-delusion can lead to. i never understood the need for spiritual sustenance which some people have. what i have is a healthy curiosity for the unknown and the desire to explain the unbelievable.

in any case, indian skeptic for the win! =D

koc

through the alleyways to cool off in the shadows
then into the street following the water
there's a bearded man paddling in his canoe
looks as if he has come all the way from the cayman islands

went for the kings of convenience yesterday at the esplanade cos of the mosaic festival. wow they sound even better in person! seriously i could have just closed my eyes and floated off to harmonics heaven, but in the end i was also singing and dancing along. they make such intuitive music that you wonder why nobody had thought of it earlier. then you remember that they are the kings; the kings of convenience indeed. seriously smashing.

last year i also attended the mosaic festival - went to watch skye at the heineken room. was really good as well. and cheap! i think the mosaic festival has been doing a great job so far in bringing in some of the top indie acts in the world at fantastically low prices!

now for some nada surf perhaps? =)

shhh..

what i deal with almost everyday

crash and burn

went to kino yesterday to get some books cos I had some vouchers which were expiring soon. gosh, ended up buying 3 books, 2 of them by murakami and 1 in the french translation instead. i really need to get over my murakami addiction; its one thing to enjoy reading his books, its another to actually look forward to getting hammered by waves and waves of his deliriously melancholic and surreal prose.

back to reality, things have really been trying. lots of work and no training makes jeremy an angsty boy. been sick for most of last week, which made things worse. after almost a year, work expectations and production is at as steady state as it should be already; metro, boulot, dodo 5j/7. so yeah, nothing new in life, what's next to look forward to? ah its not that work sucks, but rather, its life outside of work that sucks. after 25 years, certainly there has got to be something else other than just this current state of affairs. but what?

whataya want from me?

LUP

my eyes gaze up and down
and sometimes somewhere else
fingers fidgeting feet forgetfully fretting
finally it comes
you barge in, "6" you say
a brief moment of warmth
my eyes are fixated on steel now
we all look ahead
strangers in an empty shell
hurtling through infinite space and time
only to arrive here now

unrelentless

if i were
there would you see
the tears in my eyes
as i struggle to keep them
in

if i were
there would you hear
the gasp from my mouth
silent from not having been
emitted

if you were
here would you dare
to reach out for my hands
as though as it were the end of the
world

if we were
here together would we
be able to withstand these
unrelentless waves of
separation

?

appreciation. something which we dun see that often nowadays. something which somehow means the most but which we take granted the most for.

on those days where work is unceasing and everything seems to be shouting now now now and deadlines have all been crossed, sometimes a simple pat on the back can work wonders.

same with our loved ones. how often do you thank your mom for making breakfast for you in the morning so that you can sleep in 15mins longer? how often do you say "i love you" to your gf/bf? and what about the friends around you who make life that much more interesting?

time for some thanksgiving, methinks. =)

chiongsua

spent the last 2 weeks outfield for ICT.

seriously its been such a long time since i last went outfield but somehow everything still looks familiar. i guess its either that bad memories last a long time, or that singapore is really small! still remember the times at tekong, OCS, and later on, mono-intake with 5 SIR.

new things this time:

- going outfield with NSmen. initially i thought that NSmen would be unmotivated and uncooperative but it proved the contrary; active personnel can sometimes be the weakest link instead! made lots of friends and got to know some interesting stuff about them: for e.g. my signaler is the owner of fashion.lab. useful to network around in case i get retrenched!

- lbv. managed to get myself a set of the new lbv (the 2nd generation one, not the latest one with armour plates) and so i brought it along with me. first impressions: lots of compartments so i could store lots of stuff. however the straps sat quite heavily on my shoulders and caused some discomfort. maybe i just need to wear it more often to break it in.

- pixelised uniform. not that new actually given that i wear it on a daily basis. however first time wearing it in a field environment. the material is quite rough and does not dry quickly, so i got myself rashes in quite a number of places. just like the lbv, maybe i just need to chiongsua more often.

- maintenance ops. well, i never went through LOCC or BLOC so i had to learn everything on the job. was a little confusing at first but luckily i had a good PS to help me out with the job taskings and paperwork so all was fine in the end.

next chiongsua in 2 weeks time. hooah!

peeved

feeling quite angsty these few days.

mainly due to work related stuff. lots of stuff to be done, but no one seems to bother about the proper delegation of responsibilities. all everybody wants, i guess, is just their 5 minutes of fame. so while on one hand you have people rushing about like headless ants, you have people bored to death like me because everything is deemed out of your level.

so i end up with all the saikang. not that i exactly mind (since i am relatively junior), but to be treated like a mindless and soulless slave is another thing.

and since after some other pesky commanders came in to interfere with my subordinates without doing some courtesy checks, i have decided to just fuckcare things already: why should i be so pro-active when no one seems to bother to keep me in the loop? i should learn how to be a NSman instead. eat.talk cock.canteen break.mess.book out. life would be so much simpler.

and happier. let the fuckers go worry themselves mad instead.

la rentrée

scheiße. time flies when you're having fun.

after 5 days of eating, drinking, 拜年ing, clubbing and more drinking, its time to return to the daily grind again tomorrow. but hey i've only just started!

argh. inertia. and furthermore its going to be a busy week: tekong, court martial, plus outfield for the next 2 weeks.

can't wait till the next holiday! kinabalu anyone? =)

喜喜

first of all, gongxifaicai to everyone! ok, less gongxi, more facai in the year of the tiger!!! roar!!!

anyway quite a coincidence that v day this year also falls on 初一. talk about double happiness! but at least not for me.. i think its the first v day in a long time that i will spending it alone.

i guess i was quite an early bloomer; i started celebrating v day pretty early, around sec 2. then it was one steady relationship for the next 7 years, then after that i have been spending it with different girls for the past 2-3 years. this year, it has come full circle.

somehow, the girls i fancy always seem to want to fly off, are flying off, or have flown off overseas for work or study. this sucks if you ever want to make anything out of the relationship, and its difficult even if you want to start anything. i have had my share of LDR, and i can seriously say that they do not work out.

bah. being single is not all that bad actually. i can do anything i want, at any time i want, and with whoever i want to do it with. but its just that now and then that a blardy invention like v day comes along and socks you in the balls that reminds you what a sad insufferable solitary soul you are.

ouch.

un énigme

dès fois, elle n'arrivera jamais; dès fois, c'est juste une question de secondes.

elle arrive toujours très soudainement, sans avertissement.

elle peut te faire voler, et elle peut te faire tomber aussi. mais on la partage avec tout le monde.

qui est elle?

look carefully

a picture can paint a thousand words. or, in this case, depict many things. what do you think this is?

airshow 2010

wow it has been years since i last went to an airshow. last one must have been like.. 2005? or 2006? can't remember, but at that time it was still called the asian aerospace.

this time i had a trade visitor pass so it was great not having to jostle with families with crying babies, get wacked on the head by umbrella toting obasans, and join the incredibly looooong queue lines for the F16s.

anyway i had a great time at the show. great aircraft, great weather, great company; what more can you ask for?

hearts the F111. the dump and burn routine must have been incredibly expensive and pollutive, but who cares when the plane is like zooming past you and fire-farting in your face?

hearts the A10. tank killer? yeah you bet with that insane weapons payload.

hearts the F35. a pity that it wasn't on flying display. looked magnificent on ground too though.

hearts the aeromacchi M346. italian design: small and cute.

hearts the RSAF. we seriously have one of the best air forces in the region!

hearts the boeing booth for being the most generous with freebies. then again probably because we invested so much money into your F15s.

hearts the french booth. all on grève!

looking forward to 2012. hopefully we'll get to see the B52 bomber then.

310110

gosh how time flies. feeling pensive at the end of jan. 31 days have passed into the new year and what have i been doing / have done thus far in 2010?

hmm..

samedi aprem

ça fait un certains temps que j'ai écrit quelque chose en français.. peut-être c'est à cause de la paresse, ou peut-être c'est à cause de l'incomptabilité du clavier mac avec la français! par exemple il n'y a même pas d'une touche pour le ".". haha c'est vachement stupide que je dois utiliser crtl-c ctrl-v pour le faire apparaître.

néanmoins aujourd'hui je vais vous présenter une poème écrit par le grand Charles Baudelaire qui a scandalisé tout la france avec ses poèmes car les images sont trop choquant et perturbant pour les gens de son époque.

voici une de mes favoris:
L'Homme et la mer

Homme libre, toujours tu chériras la mer!
La mer est ton miroir; tu contemples ton âme
Dans le déroulement infini de sa lame,
Et ton esprit n'est pas un gouffre moins amer.

Tu te plais à plonger au sein de ton image;
Tu l'embrasses des yeux et des bras, et ton coeur
Se distrait quelquefois de sa propre rumeur
Au bruit de cette plainte indomptable et sauvage.

Vous êtes tous les deux ténébreux et discrets:
Homme, nul n'a sondé le fond de tes abîmes;
Ô mer, nul ne connaît tes richesses intimes,
Tant vous êtes jaloux de garder vos secrets!

Et cependant voilà des siècles innombrables
Que vous vous combattez sans pitié ni remords,
Tellement vous aimez le carnage et la mort,
Ô lutteurs éternels, ô frères implacables!

goal2010

wow anyone still remember goal2010? then-PM goh chok tong spoke about Singapore getting into the world cup by 2010 on the back of foreign talent during the national day rally of '98.

fast forward 12 years. now it seems that our goal2010 is not to send Singapore to South Africa for the world cup, but rather, to try to bring the world cup from South Africa to Singapore.

yes, thanks to singtel and starhub, Singapore may not be able to broadcast any world cup games live!!!

but heck, why do i care anyway? i will be in germany during the world cup season! =D

hurhurhur

why we will never understand each other

parking pontianaks

sianness to the maxness..

got 2 parking fines in just as many days! grah. and one of them was even in an erp carpark! reason for fine? parking on double yellow lines - hey, if you cannot provide enough carpark lots for your clients, then dun fault them for parking at the roadside. i even took pains to park at a location where i would not obstruct any traffic; in Europe most cars park on the kerbs at night.

driving is indeed an expensive affair in Singapore! vraiment putain de merde.

avaduh

and so i, like the rest of the human population who have done so before me, have watched james cameron's 10-year masterpiece in the making - avatar.

i do admit, yes, it was that good. in fact, i wouldn't mind shelling out another $13 just to watch it again in its full-3D glory.

i think the success of avatar is in its value for money. just think about it: where else can you watch a movie which has pocahontas meets man vs wild meets an inconvenient truth meets mechwarrior meets aliens vs predator meets dancing with wolves meets the matrix?

and i find that the storyline is strikingly close to the singaporean-expat experience: ang moh comes to a foreign country, initially sent here to exploit the locals, but ends up falling in love with the local culture, and of course, a local girl. meanwhile back home, his company gets frustrated with his dismal quarterly sales figures and threatens to post him elsewhere, which forces him to quit and start his own business. no matter what he does, just because of his skin colour and BBC-accented english, ang moh guy succeeds in his business and decides to live forever in fried rice paradise instead of freezing through yet another european winter. in the meantime, the lovelorn local boy gives all his savings to the local girl and either lives out the rest of his life in abject poverty and loneliness, or he just straight commits suicide after the girl rejects him. in the end, the ang moh becomes an elite MP and lives happily ever after with his singaporean girl in some Bukit Timah home with their 2.1 mixed children and 1 dog.

ta-dah! there you have it; james cameron may have conceptualised and filmed avatar, but sir stamford raffles was the original jake sully.

sala salsa

omg today i got told off by my partner at salsa class - apparently for not leading her on enough!

seriously, whoever invented salsa is some sadist. not only do you have to strictly follow certain dance steps and moves, you also have to be able to segregate different parts of your body and still be able to communicate with a partner and the greater environment, all at the same time!

salsa 1B? no thanks! i think that for now, i'll just be content to perfect my basic 3 and simple turn.. =P

dépit

was amused to see the headline of prime in ST today: french elite universities rebuked.

seems like a case of sour grapes to me: i can't get into these schools; therefore there must be something wrong with the selection process.

it has always been a vicious cycle: the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. and by extension of that, the rich have more means to amass even more riches while the path to success continues to get narrower and narrower for the poor. that's a fact of life, a fact of capitalism, and also a fact that we asked for it.

that's the way it is, in life there are too many "what if"s regarding human potential. you could argue that someone could have been the world's greatest musician if he had the means and was exposed to the violin when he was a child, but because he was living in some mumbai slum, he was unable to realise his hidden talent and thus the selection process at the music conservatory is unfair.

the world is inherently unequal; deal with it, or if we want to truly be egalitarian, vote in the communist party instead.

compare and contrast

its the end of the holidays! argh one minute its still all fun laughter peace and joy, and the next moment its work datelines stress and overtime.

i think i am suffering from post-holiday depression.. dreading the commune back to camp again tomorrow - that's why i am still online and hanging onto the last bastion of the new year long weekend! =D