Sanguine

This is one of the better June breaks as far as I can recall. One of the reason is because I've did more work than I could possibly imagine within the first half of the holidays - an unprecedented feat considering the source of my motivation - my mum being at home. If she's at home --> I can't play --> might as well do some work.


Went out to Raffles Quay for dinner with some classmates last Friday to break the boredom of staying at home. We TRIED to take a photo with the Merlion but no one's phone camera could given its extreme coolness. Kidding, duh. It was only because the spotlights underneath it shone so brightly you could do a Batman movie with the bat symbol over it. We then spent the next hour or so walking around the Esplanade, browsing through the souvenir shops which had amusing fridge magnets. We played cards for the next hour or so and called it a day. It is a nice outing - don't take my dull description seriously.

Wednesday was a rush. I had to go for NS medical checkup in the morning to get myself graded for enlistment. I knew where I stood anyway but there was a compulsory vocational test that begged me for effort to be invested so that the army will have an easier time "allocating resources". I'm going to try to recall as much about the test as I can here:
Section 1: Understanding the relation between words. E.g workshop:carpenter is given, and then you'll have to select the correct choice that has a similar relation, i.e. clinic:doctor. THIS IS A VERY DIFFICULT SECTION. At least only for the last 5 questions. I really couldn't find a matching answer for spoon:fork, so I picked something along the lines of milk:spoon, which actually seemed the most logical to me. I just pray that I don't get labelled "retarded" and be assigned a toilet cleaning job after this.
Section 2: Maths. Piece of cake. Consists mostly of primary school stuff, although I couldn't do one of the problem sums involving money debts (something in P6). The advanced questions go on to polynomial divisions, while the hardest one without doubt has to be differentiation. Which was easy anyway.
Section 3: Visualisation. I TOTALLY DIDN'T GET THE INSTRUCTIONS. A pattern is provided with a tilted picture. You're supposed to imagine what happens to the pattern when the picture is tilted to a certain degree. Well I only got it after the entire test is over. 0 marks here. GG
Section 4: Following instructions never seemed harder. They blew my mind away with mentally exhausting, yet painfully simple tasks. One question would be like -" find the number next to the word with the least number of alphabets. If it's the smallest, type ...." Yes. They aim to drive all the mentally "inept" people into Woodbridge so that they can "allocate resources" "efficiently" in the future.
Section 5: PHYSICS. They provide diagrams and ask you stuff like which bridge is sturdier, which door is more robust, which pulley is more/equally effective. While I'm sure that I got all the hydraulics one correct, I'm pretty sure I random-ed all my other options. It's so difficult it's not even funny, because I had to laugh at my lack of common sense through out the test. I actually wondered if circular motion applies to pulleys. (. . .)
Section 6: Funniest of them all. Numbers 1-9 are arranged in 3x3 box. When the box is highlighted, hit the corresponding number on the keyboard thrice in succession, with the aim of completing it ASAP. I couldn't finish this twisted version of whack-a-mole because the SAF believes in ninja reflexes pathetic beings like me can't possibly possess. How are you supposed to even press the button thrice when the highlight lasts only 0.1s? Fortunately I can't be the worst candidate for this test - someone I know tried CLICKING on the monitor and was wondering why he was faster than the system. Real neat.
Section 7: The test that convinced me that the army hasn't "allocated resources" "efficiently". This test truly differetiates the stupid from the smart (asses). The task here is frighteningly simple: a series of digits (starting from 3, ends with 8 or 9) will be flashed on the screen, and then another screen full of gibberish text will replace it, after which you have to recall what the original sequence of digits is. This test is F***ING STUPID because they gave you a piece of paper and pencil before hand to work out the P6 maths. All I did was click "next" and scribbled down whatever was flashed, wait for the gibberish screen to pass, and poof, scored full marks. Ok fine maybe it is a test of integrity of all (then I'll fail miserably). I do have to give props to whoever set the gibberish text - I tried my best not to ROFLMFAOLOL at whatever was screened. They used phrases such as "GET OUTTTTTTTT", "HELP ME", "GGGGGGGGGG", "SHUT UP", "LOLOLOLOLOOLOLOLOL" spammed across half the screen to get you distracted.
**I finished the 2hr test in 45 minutes. (actually completed all the 35x5 questions). This is NOT an achievement, because many others I know actually got too bored and left halfway. I actually witnessed one person falling asleep ten minutes into the test. So much for vocational testing.

I left CMPB in a hurry to rush to Suntec for the InterJc- finals that we were sent to get gutted. We were only notified two nights before the event took place, so no training whatsoever took place. Watched nice games and played bad ones, but it was really fun because it was FREE LAN. And FREE PRIZES too. I wouldn't know if the team we replaced wanted the prizes - they're only worth something in the pernicious world of Maplestory.

And here it is today, Friday, second week of the holidays coming to an end. I just know the second half will get better. Because I seriously hope this is the best June holidays I ever had, as it is also the last real break before the gay levels.