First Week Of School

One week of school has passed, and I’m still in holiday-mode =(. Well, I resolve to fix this by next week (which is the start of the tutorials and labs and everything else).

On another note, I realised over last weekend that the time I have to spend with Geri is really little =(. Add my family and friends to the list of people I’d love to spend time with, and there’s simply too little time. Nonetheless, I believe with proper time management I’d be able to find more time =).

Sometimes I think what I lack is hope.

Soh Ru Tan

I am Soh Ru Tan, thanks to a certain idiot =P.

I’ve resolved to spend at most $10 a day, and it seems to be working well so far =).

School Starting Tomorrow

:’(

Alphaville – Forever Young

I wish our generation had more meaningful songs like this, instead of the usual raging hormones kind of songs. Or songs that sound so happy although it’s about a sad breakup. Bla bla.

AMK Hub, Singapore Zoo, Marina Barrage, Changi Airport, All In One Day

Today's damn tiring, but it feels good to try something different every now and then! I woke up around 8.30AM, fell back asleep till 9AM, and met Geri at Bedok MRT Station at 9.50AM instead of the initially planned 9.30AM (sorry dear =P).

Took the MRT to Ang Mo Kio, and reached around 10.40AM or so. Mac and Greg had already reached (surprise =X). Anyway, I got quite irritating irritated by the DBS staff, for being so helpful in telling me that the machine has no cash after I've queued up for 15 minutes? It didn't help that the DBS machine at AMK Hub's basement has a minimum limit of $200. Thankfully, Mac lead us to the POSB machine nearby. Took a cab down to the Singapore Zoo, where the adventure began.

I might post some pictures up once I get hold of them, although I think I'll probably just direct you all to either Geri's or Mac's site. Lol. It was really fun, although my legs were really tired. We walked literally non-stop from 12PM till 6PM, except for a 20 min lunch break. The white tigers are really majestic. The lions were lazy though. During the feeding time a piece of meat actually hit the lion right in his face, and he didn't even bother. On the other hand, the white tigers leap/jump to catch the food using their paws/mouths. Lazy lions =(.

The rest of the animals were very interesting in their own right, especially the Hamadryas Baboons. Greg, Geri, and I saw something that's not very nice to see. Lol =P.

The Zoo trip was really fun, except for two incidents. The first incident when this asshole had to say really loudly "No flash allowed" to his friend, after I took a picture with flash. I know it's not really right to take pictures with flash, but that picture was seriously an exception. I told him straight that I was the one who used the flash, and instead of talking to me like a man should, he acted like he didn't hear me and started telling his friend that if he uses flash the animals will get angry. Look, not everyone gives a shit about your DSLR and l33t photography skills. It's really amazing considering you or your friends even declared loudly that "Monkeys come from humans." =) Seriously, if you want to be an ass and all, talk to me in the face.

Secondly, the Ben & Jerry's at Kids World. WTF? That's all I can say.

At the end of the zoo trip at 6pm, I think most of us wanted to go home, but after some discussion, we ended up taking a Ah Beng Uncle's taxi back to Mac's place. That uncle was talking on the phone about a lot of crap that's not really nice for his customers to hear. ATTP asshole. Anyway, Mac then took his car keys and drove us to Marina Barrage. The journey there was a navigational experience for me. Lol. Marina Barrage is nice. Nice wind, nice lights, nice all. Just remember to bring your own food. Seriously.

We then decided to head down to ECP for dinner, but along the way, Geri decided for us to go to Changi Airport instead. We had Popeye's, and met one of the most ungracious people ever. Basically, we had all gotten our food and were already eating. This asshole sitting beside us stood up, and as he took his bag and turned, his bag hit Greg's drink, which caused it to topple and spill all over his food. This asshole's wife saw it happening, and instead of apologizing (I thought she did, must be dreaming), she simply told her husband, "Eh your bag." So what did this guy do? He turned around, said "Oh", DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO APOLOGIZE, and walked around. I don't know why Greg and I said "Never mind", but I think it was the right choice. Mac and Geri were very insistent that we should've told them off, and got that asshole to apologize, but I seriously feel it's a waste of time. No point talking to this kind of people, wasting our time, and possibly screwing up the mood even more. Still, now that I think about it... _|_. The best part is he's with his wife, and a kid. Talk about setting a good example.

We then walked around for a while, before Mac sent all of us home. Reached home around 11pm. Lol. Thank you Mac for the free tickets to the zoo, and the rides =).

Friends

Met up with my HDKs after such a long time, and it's always nice to see your old friends =). I've known Kel for 13 years, and Boon and Jove for 8 years or so. Although it's true that the quality of a friendship is more important than the quantity, it's always good to know that these are friends who've stood by you through the years. Had dinner at Downtown East's Food Court (Joven and I wanted Subway, Kelvin was neutral, but Boon was VERY against Subway), which is something very uncommon for me. I just don't like food courts for some reason. Coffeeshops are okay, but food courts are no-no. Thankfully, the chicken chop I had was quite good.

After that, we went to Pasir Ris Town Park and had some drinks, chit-chat for a little while, before I left to meet Mac, Greg and Raj. Similarly, these 3 are friends I've known for 5 years or so, and everytime I look back it's a wonderful feeling.

Although I do not always agree with what my friends choose to do with their lives, I'm always thankful that they never force it upon me, nor try to convince me that what they're doing is right. In fact, some of them probably know how not right it is, but well, it's their choice, and just remember, don't ever do things that you'll live to regret.

Kel will be flying around a lot this year, while Boon will be hard at work, and Jove will be working and studying. It's going to be hard to meet up, but well =).

Raj will be leaving for Australia on 1st Feb, Mac and Greg will be starting school on 19th Jan, Jeremy will be starting school soon (can't remember off-hand), Patience will be starting school on 5th Jan, dearest Geri will be starting school on 5th Jan, while I'll be starting school on 12th Jan. It'd be hard to meet up too, so yup.

Life still goes on. One lesson I learnt today is when you're in a bad mood or feeling down, it's always good to talk to your friends about it, because your friends usually feel it too, and it'd only spoil the mood more the more you try to hide it.

Sometimes getting detached from certain people, even your parents, is better for yourself. Emotional attachments will indirectly cause you to have expectations, to have hope, and when that fails you're only going to feel angry and disappointed. The worst part? You seldom take it out on the person who caused you these feelings, but almost always take it out on the people who actually care about you. So it's always a vicious cycle.

Today I also realised that sometimes I'm very unfair to others.

Hello 2009!

2008 has been an eventful year for me. I ORD-ed after serving 2 years of National Service, went back to school, made some new friends, lost a couple of friends, etc. Every year's the same actually, lol, except for the ORD-ing and schooling part.

With that being said, I just want to thank all my friends and family for staying with me, and of course to my love, Geri =).

Happy New Year! =)

2009 here I come =)!

Twilight (Just My Opinion)

Just had to do this. I think this is the worst movie I've watched in a long time. Seriously. I'd rather watch some lame "Date Movie", or something. I didn't really read the book, couldn't force myself to go on reading after the introduction.

Anyway, the movie was horrible. I didn't like the acting, it was so lame. The "love" between Edward and Bella is simply too amazing for my liking. Bella has the "I need you inside me right now" look everytime she looks at Edward, and seriously, it's really stupid to have a family whereby everyone is OBVIOUSLY PALER THAN USUAL, and not have anyone suspect anything.

Taken from Wikipedia:

Meyer says that her vampire mythology differs from that of other authors because she wasn't informed about the canon vampires, saying, "It wasn't until I knew that Twilight would be published that I began to think about whether my vampires were too much the same or too much different from the others. Of course, I was far too invested in my characters at that point to be making changes... so I didn't cut out fangs and coffins and so forth as a way to distinguish my vampires; that's just how they came to me."

I think that's such a big lie. EVERYONE KNOWS VAMPIRES HAVE FANGS AND HAVE A WEAKNESS TO SUNLIGHT. It's so obvious she made her vampires different from others on purpose. Even my cousins (who are like 5 or 6 years old) know vampires have fangs. They've skin that glitter/whatever in the sunlight? Seriously, what kind of crap is that?

I don't even want to comment on the character development, which is non-existent. The love between them? Seriously, what love? I don't mind fantasy/fairy tales, but this show failed miserably at it.

I can't believe this is a show that some people squeal over (YES, guys too what the hell).

So what did I like about this show? The fighting at the end, because there finally was some action, and more importantly, because I can't wait to get out of the cinema.

Worst show I've watched in the past 2+ years (at least). Horribly unbelievable (even as a fantasy) crap. I can't believe on the movie posters they actually said it's the most epic love story since Titanic.

Twilight fans, don't get offended, it's just my opinion. I'm not offended when I see you all squealing and saying retarded things in public like,

"Love should be intense like this."

"Love at first sight should be like this."

"Characters like this are so hard to find in real life."

It's quite cute to see the dreams you all have. Unfortunately for myself, I don't live in such an unbelievable dream world.

Which I'm actually thankful for.

On another note, I'm a big fan of vampires/werewolves movies, but Twilight is definitely out of the list.

Numero Uno

We usually make friends, relationships, and hope that they remain close to us forever. It's just like when we were younger we wanted our mother, father, whoever to be the most important person to us.

But feelings can change, and it can happen really quickly. When you get married, is your mum or dad still going to be the most important person to you? Or is it going to be your spouse? What about when you've kids? Of course, some of you will be quick to say that all of them are equally important, but are things really that simple? What if you have to make a choice?

Similarly, at our age right now, we want this girlfriend, or friend, of ours to be the most important person in our heart. But it's not going to be an unchanging fact. Sadly, for most of us, it's hard to accept that. It's hard when you realise that your friends no longer mean the most to you, and it's also hard when you realise that you no longer mean so much to someone. The important thing is REALISING that, and learning to accept it, on both sides. Be honest with yourself. You might feel like shit that your mum is no longer the most important person to you, and your mum might probably feel hurt knowing that. But it's important to be honest to yourself.

It's not just a feeling, it's a decision. At least, to me it is.

It's a decision that, when you've already decided that someone is a friend to you, when the time comes for you to be there for him/her, you'd be there. Even if the most important person to you is your spouse. Even if you've decided that someone is number one in your heart, surely there are others who are important to you?

This reminds me of a post Mac posted a while back.

'God determines who walks into your life. You decide who you'd let walk away, who you let to stay and who you refuse to let go.'

Have a Merry Christmas my friends =).

On another note, I'm quite happy with my examination results, except for one subject, but oh well =).

Results Will Be Out In Approximately 11 Hours

Wish me luck =|.

Just Some Music Videos

Senses Fail - Family Tradition

Listen to the lyrics, it's really meaningful.

The Maine - Everything I Ask For Music Video

Just found the lyrics kinda cute. Lol.

Photobucket Browsing

Random

Results will be out exactly a week from now, and the holidays have been really boring so far. I can't seem to kick the habit of sleeping late, although I've been trying (and failing most of the time). To add to that, I haven't been accomplishing many of the goals I've set for myself this holiday, mainly because some last minute shit will always crop up that completely screws my schedule up.

But I'm to blame, because at the end of the day, I'm in control. I just hate it when my schedule's not going according to plan, and tend to let it affect me a little more than necessary. I've been exercising quite a lot, but I can't really jog as my old injuries seem to be acting up. I'm still hoping to be able to get to Genting before school starts =).

Anyway, a lot of things are affecting me, or rather, I've been letting a lot of things affect me unnecessarily (again). An idle mind is the devil's workshop, as they say, and it's really true. I should seriously do something about my life now.

Sometimes I wish people would care more about others, and sometimes I wish that upon myself too. Feeling disappointed, but it's okay because life's full of ups and downs.

Wish me luck for my results =)!

N95 Died =(.

After just 1 year and 2 months of using my trusty (no longer) N95 8GB, it suddenly died last Thursday night. The screen just refused to display anything =(. Thankfully, I was still able to connect it to my computer to copy all the contents out.

Anyway, on Friday, I went down to StarHub Tampines to get an InnoV8. Actually it's more of a gift from mum =). So far it's been really good! The build of the Samsung InnoV8 feels solid, compared to most of the N Series, and although I'm having problems installing a lot of software on it, the bundled stuff work well enough for now. I guess it's just a matter of time before some applications get updated for the InnoV8. The build quality's awesome, the camera's superb, and well, it's good =)!

I'm just sad that my N95 decided to abandon me so suddenly. I'll be taking it down to the (usually lousy) Nokia Care Centre later. Hopefully things have improved.

On a different note, with hope, comes expectations, and with that comes... disappointment?

Anyway, the LOML will be ending her exams tomorrow =)! Can't wait to spend time with her (finally)! =P

Random Thoughts

Sharing your deepest secrets with a person you barely know is definitely one of the ways to form a strong bond between the two of you. Unfortunately, a lot of people mistake this as friendship, and even worse, some people do this knowingly, to make use of you, to fool you into thinking that there's now a special bond between the two of you.

^_^

I've been planning to buy a Fujitsu T5010 Tablet over the past month, as I felt that my current laptop was simply too slow/unresponsive, especially when I play my mp3s and do my work concurrently. Although I've always suspected it to be a hard disk issue, I also felt that it might be due to the sound card itself. I got this laptop (Compaq C744TU) for a very low price during one of the StarHub deals, and my mum actually bought it for me as a preparation for Uni. Thus, I've also held myself back from buying a new one, and it's quite good to begin with. Unless you're seriously into gaming, which I'm not, the C744TU should suffice for some programming, and everyday tasks.

Anyway, I went to NUS IT CO-OP on Monday, hoping to purchase the Tablet PC. I'm quite disappointed with the service, as one lady told me there were stocks, and another lady came up with some reason as to why she can't sell them to me although there were stocks. I can accept the reason, I can also accept/ignore the fact that she's not honouring her colleagues word, but I can't take her screwed up attitude. I don't want to elaborate too much. Let's just say that it takes a lot for an AUNTIE to piss me off, and even then I didn't lose my temper at her. The worst thing was when I made a phone call later on to confirm when the stocks would be coming, her tone was ridiculously rude.

I always believe that things happen for a reason, and thus, it seemed like I was given more time to do something about my C744TU. Yesterday, I decided to reformat and set up the whole system, but it just kept giving me errors (during installation). I thought it was the CD, so I tried another one, still giving me errors. It was extremely frustrating when I just slipstreamed SP3 into the school's MSDN XP (which is SP2), and I can't install -_-. So I decided to install Vista (which was the original OS with this laptop), and it didn't work as well. I figured it had to be the hard disk, and soon enough, I heard weird sounds from the computer (hard disk).

Thus, I went out today to buy a Seagate Momentus 5400.5 320GB HDD, installed Vista on it, and everything's smooth so far! It seems I might not need to get the tablet PC after all (although I REALLY want to own a tablet). The need just isn't there for now =).

Things always happen for a good reason, you just need to give it time to see the goodness of it. Haha =). Maybe I should thank that attitude-problem auntie.

Back From Desaru Fruit Farm Trip

Hi all, in case some of you didn't know, or forgot (like DF and Pate), I went to Desaru yesterday morning with my maternal family. I left home around 8.30AM, and then set off to Changi Ferry Terminal, where I took a ferry to Belungkor Ferry Terminal in Malaysia. Once there, there was a minibus that happened to fit all 14 of us. Anyway, ALL pictures are taken with my trusty N95 8GB, as I forgot to bring my digital camera (because I woke up nearly late). Lol.

Even if my friends forget, I don't forget, so here's the FIRST picture I took once I reached Malaysia:

Plate No. Of Minibus

Be thankful it's not 85. I can't believe, even in Malaysia, DF wants to "disturb" me. We went on to Desaru Fruit Farm for an educational tour, and it was interesting to learn many new things =P.

 
Dragon Fruit! I love eating the white variant of it. The red one looks too weird to be eaten.

Chili Padi. Nothing amazing actually =P.

No idea what it's called in English, it's some banana. Anyway, in Hokkien, they call it "Gong Tao Jiu/Jiao" or something. The tour guide said that this banana is frequently used in black magic. My family members said the same thing.

Papaya Tree.

 
Thought it looked kind of nice.

Custard Apple

 
Beautiful fish pond.

With A LOT of Koi. A LOT.

I went on to take some exhibits on their kampong history.

 

^_^. After that, I went on to:

 
Take a picture of the Koi pond again!

Just snapping away.

Blackcurrant (I think). You can literally smell Ribena.

 
Jambu? (Water Apple?)

After seeing a lot of plants, we went on to the mini-zoo section in the Desaru Fruit Farm. You see mostly kampong animals, and there's this cool monkey:

 

Basically, he snatches away the drinks if you offer it to him, and he drinks it.

 

 

 
Fighting Chicken

After walking around, I went back to the monkey, and caught him drinking with a draw! Unfortunately, by the time I snapped:

He had taken out the straw.

And is once again, drinking.

We then had buffet lunch at the Fruit Farm itself. The food was good, and I saw a lot of Singaporeans. It was also during then that I decided to sms some of my friends about the monkey, because it was really cute. And I got a really nice reply that I'm drunk in the afternoon =(. I also saw one monkey helping another to dig his ear =\. The fruit juice at the fruit farm was NOT good as they all left a bitter aftertaste. Apparently, the skin is part of the fruit juice as well. Imagine just grinding an entire orange (with the skin), and drinking it. It's not that bad, but it's NOT good.

After lunch, we went to our resort, The Pulai.

The room I shared with my grandfather:

 
My Baby Cousin

We went for dinner around 5PM. Dinner was good! Anyway, after dinner, we went to Sungei Lebam to see fireflies! It was awesome. You sit in a boat (in a river, of course), and by the sides are the trees (which have a lot of fireflies). Managed to catch some in my hands, but of course, released them back into the wild. Some trees look like Christmas trees =P. Unfortunately, my trusty N95 was unable to capture ANYTHING at all in that darkness. However:

The boat (person facing it) we sat on.

That marks the end of Day 1. Educational trip, really fun =P.

For Day 2 (Today), we went to some museum in the morning (can't remember the name), where I snapped some photos:

 

After the museum trip, we took our bus to Desaru Fruit Farm for lunch:

 
Different bus. I guess the JLB bus was too dumb to be used.

 
Appetizer

After lunch, my grandfather, mother, and I were driven to Belungkor Ferry Terminal where we boarded the ferry home, while the rest of my family members went back to The Pulai for one more day!

Throughout the trip, my aunt and her husband were recording almost everything on video, and thus, we didn't take any photos of ourselves, except for one which my mum took of me (at the museum):

I should add that The Pulai has awesome beds. I slept with no problem at all! Haha. It was a short and fun trip =)!