2011: just a year between 2010 and 2011.
started the year off with a great experience as a linesman for the singapore atp challenger series (now i know how hard the pros serve). trained damn hard again for MSER and ARR and the team(s) achieved the best results ever like in the history of the unit; thanks guys for teaching me how to stand strong in the face of adversity and rise above seemingly insurmountable odds. needless to say, i smashed my own 2.4km record again, though i only achieved a silver cos of the sickening sbj. went overseas again for work in april; great exposure and experience which reinforced my belief and passion for the job (except for the sickening sbj though). went through 2 "watershed" elections - both times the results did not turn out the way i would have liked, but that's democracy for you and well done to aljunied! along the way i was also posted out to another unit; would not have minded to stay in my previous post but i did not want to be pigeon-holed into a particular niche and thus make it even more difficult for me to be posted out further down the road. and did i mention the 2 accidents that i had unfortunately got myself into? both times, same circumstances, same disastrous results. grah. i need to check my blind spots quicker. on the sporting front, i played a lot more tennis this year and had the chance to participate in quite a number of overseas friendlies (ipoh, batam, penang). maybe one day we might just make it to roland garros! =) also did my first triathlon after 2 years at PD; now i remember again why i fell in love with the sport back in 07. PD12, i'll definitely be back! the big trip of the year has to be north korea; looking back i'm glad i made it there before kim jong il's last hurrah - things will just not be the same without Dear Leader.
and now we're staring right straight at 2012 in the eye. 2011 had been a year of many firsts; nothing sensational nor revolutionary but probably just an evolution of how things were in 2010. somehow, i have a feeling that some bigger things are going to happen in 2012.
bring it on!
samedi, décembre 31, 2011
vendredi, décembre 23, 2011
merry christmas 2011
in the vein of the arab spring and occupy wall street protests, have yourself a very merry made-in-china christmas! =)dimanche, décembre 18, 2011
haus hunting
recently, i have started looking for a place of my own (cannot stay with parents forever mah). for those who have done it before, kudos. for those who have yet to do so, good luck.
because finding the perfect house in singapore is like striking the lottery. for all practical reasons, i am only coming from the average everydayman's viewpoint here since a well-to-do person can use his wealth to mitigate the difficulties that i am going to list down below.
first of all, there is the BTO lucky draw. if you're lucky enough to even get chosen to select a flat, chances are that you will probably have to settle for some place in the outskirts of singapore. you may argue that no where is too far anyway since singapore is only that large, but nothing can be further than the truth than that. our public transport system is patchy at best; it is efficient only if you live near the transport hubs, and only to a certain extent. connecting buses seem to take forever to come, and trains are not as reliable as they seem after the recent breakdown saga. even the BTO's only saving grace that they are cheaper than resale flats have been diluted due to the current practice of pegging BTO prices to market value.
and if you are one of the successful ones in the balloting exercise, congratulations - you only have to wait for another 4-5 years for your house keys!
second, resale. this option gives you the opportunity to choose relatively larger houses in mature estates, but oh - the COV has become somewhat a means of legal extortion. coupled with unavoidable agent and renovation fees, a resale flat might cost more than an arm, a leg, and maybe your firstborn son. and just like men, all the nice units have already been taken up. the good but unsold ones are probably haunted or loanshark-marked; leaving only the lousy ones on the market.
looking at this rate, i think it'll be a long time before i become a flat owner in singapore.
because finding the perfect house in singapore is like striking the lottery. for all practical reasons, i am only coming from the average everydayman's viewpoint here since a well-to-do person can use his wealth to mitigate the difficulties that i am going to list down below.
first of all, there is the BTO lucky draw. if you're lucky enough to even get chosen to select a flat, chances are that you will probably have to settle for some place in the outskirts of singapore. you may argue that no where is too far anyway since singapore is only that large, but nothing can be further than the truth than that. our public transport system is patchy at best; it is efficient only if you live near the transport hubs, and only to a certain extent. connecting buses seem to take forever to come, and trains are not as reliable as they seem after the recent breakdown saga. even the BTO's only saving grace that they are cheaper than resale flats have been diluted due to the current practice of pegging BTO prices to market value.
and if you are one of the successful ones in the balloting exercise, congratulations - you only have to wait for another 4-5 years for your house keys!
second, resale. this option gives you the opportunity to choose relatively larger houses in mature estates, but oh - the COV has become somewhat a means of legal extortion. coupled with unavoidable agent and renovation fees, a resale flat might cost more than an arm, a leg, and maybe your firstborn son. and just like men, all the nice units have already been taken up. the good but unsold ones are probably haunted or loanshark-marked; leaving only the lousy ones on the market.
looking at this rate, i think it'll be a long time before i become a flat owner in singapore.
mercredi, décembre 14, 2011
i shot the sheriff, but i didn't shoot the blogspot
its not my fault.
really.
ok, other than really being quite busy with life and 1001 other things recently, i do not think that i had done anything criminal. it is difficult not to be seduced when you have a platform that continuously feeds you live updates of your friends and their friends and their friends' friends, and another service which encourages you to be succinct in 140 words.
yes, ladies and gentlemen, i am sad to announce that facebook and twitter killed the blog. in a society where situations get overtaken by new events faster than the next britney spears scandal, and mobile apps that foster an an-update-a-minute culture, who can blame me for not updating as frequently as i would like here? afterall, anything posted here would probably just be a rehash (but probably also more well-thought out) of what i posted earlier on some other social network.
i admit there are still cases of bloggers going strong, but i guess those are the ones who have also incorporated other elements of social networking into their blogs to remain relevant and interesting. or that they just write damn well.
either way, i'm sorry that i've not been updating la merde en direct as much as i would have liked. it started out as a way for me to document my life, my travels, and other interesting things that i had noticed in the real or reel world. slowly, it became a place for me to rant and let off steam. now, it has reached its dying embers and i'm not sure how long can this go on.
perhaps we've reached the end of the road now blogster, and welcome to 140-word land.
really.
ok, other than really being quite busy with life and 1001 other things recently, i do not think that i had done anything criminal. it is difficult not to be seduced when you have a platform that continuously feeds you live updates of your friends and their friends and their friends' friends, and another service which encourages you to be succinct in 140 words.
yes, ladies and gentlemen, i am sad to announce that facebook and twitter killed the blog. in a society where situations get overtaken by new events faster than the next britney spears scandal, and mobile apps that foster an an-update-a-minute culture, who can blame me for not updating as frequently as i would like here? afterall, anything posted here would probably just be a rehash (but probably also more well-thought out) of what i posted earlier on some other social network.
i admit there are still cases of bloggers going strong, but i guess those are the ones who have also incorporated other elements of social networking into their blogs to remain relevant and interesting. or that they just write damn well.
either way, i'm sorry that i've not been updating la merde en direct as much as i would have liked. it started out as a way for me to document my life, my travels, and other interesting things that i had noticed in the real or reel world. slowly, it became a place for me to rant and let off steam. now, it has reached its dying embers and i'm not sure how long can this go on.
perhaps we've reached the end of the road now blogster, and welcome to 140-word land.
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