TADA!

Because someone wanted to read rubbish, I decided to conjure some up. Heck, I'm don't even need to try that hard.

In this picture, you'll get to see that I'm obviously (fill in the blank) while there are LOTS of people out there who prefer that I cough up the necessary change. I get Paramount Pictures, Time Warner Telecom, Universal Studios, MediaSentry and the whole lot on that traffic list all the time. To prevent paranoia from being induced a dozen times over, I choose to not watch the list grow twelve feet long by the minute. Yes, there was once the list got chocked full within 5 seconds ._.

The interesting part lies in two entries that are logged there - one that refers to the "ministry" of of some Baltic country, the other referring to some military institutition (NAVY FYI). I hereby swear that I'm not a hacker; I know as much about hacking as I do about good/fashionable/appealing/what-have-you-not clothing. Am I a threat to national security? Of course not. Then why are these big guns in suits checking me up?

They aren't. At least they aren't the ones doing so. Somehow, I got this gut feeling that some geeks behind the computer (I'm not one of them k thx) who knows alot about zeros and ones are the real perpetrators behind it. They're so brilliant at this puppetry that only one who has been treading in equally deep waters can hope to find out where they are. If you believe that seeing is believing in this frontier you probably believe in Santa Claus.

I can't thank enough the hero(es) ( I shan't insult them with geek) who happen to be equally savvy in this field.

On a side note, luckily I didn't teach my father how to be a pirate, eye-patch/wooden leg and all.The last time I checked, his computer didn't have Universial Studios probing around.

Wry

Sorethroat struck first but it wasn't something unforeseen. Sometimes you just get too lazy to drink water, and then it decides to creep up from behind. I couldn't sleep the whole night because breathing properly became impossible.



Upon pulling myself to school the next day, I walked around like a zombie, discovering to my horror that I couldn't speak up thanks to the sorethroat. I decided to take care of myself by sleeping immediately upon reaching home instead of doing ANYTHING.

But the most important part came at night when my mum actually took leave upon knowing I fell sick. I actually yelled "GAY SHIT" in my mind because that means a full day of playing...gone.

I recovered really fast thanks to her blended orange juice and what not. She was the one who wrapped towels around my head to cool the fever off too. And then she didn't get bored of refilling my water bottle.

I was back the next day still being half-dead but at least not d e a d like on Tuesday.

Life likes to kick me in the balls time to time.



















Thanks.

Castle

Hope is the very first step on the road to disappointment. NO I'M NOT GETTING EMO. I happened to download Dawn of War that had this unit named the Librarian who goes about saying that pwnage sentence over and over again.

It is frighteningly true. There can be nothing worse than being in mired in despondency; one who despairs is already at the precipice of sanity. The concept of hope is grounded in postivity, which paradoxically can only exist under negativity. Taking the tale of Pandora's Box to be true, then perhaps we're better off than if her curiosity wasn't inherent.

I watched a couple of freak shows today while at Yixin's house to celebrate birthdays (including mine which takes place tomorrow). Saw 3 was the only striking one. Jigsaw throws *unappreciative* people into damning situations in order to change their lives. While it's not his say as to how others should live their lives, where would we be without recovering from a downturn?

Have we lived a life if it was as flat as being dead? Just how much inaction on one's part can be quantified to be someone who "has no life"? Herein lies the catch - haven't we all wished for a better life?

Hope and wish have been used so interchangeably that their meanings have been diluted. The *subtlety' involved is ignored too often, but I'm not one to clarify the distinction.

Wishes are plentiful these days, hope in less abundance. Thankfully I'm starting to hope - not exactly for a complete change from my compulsive habit - because there's simply nothing better to do at the moment. I hope the next year will be different from the previous one as always.

I wish it will be a better one as *always*.


Here's why my wishes don't usually get granted:





JUST KIDDING. I wish for more significant things than that =D

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.

Propriety

Tests are over.
~
I happened to be late for school a couple of times this year. Like any institution that calls itself as one, it metes similar punishment to everyone regardless of the 'valid' reasons they might have. Its aim, albeit not a noble one, is to instill the virtue of punctuality in each and every one of us. Obviously it has a pragmatic purpose - if you can't be punctual for school, you can't be punctual for work and then you're screwed.
I always thought I had valid reasons for being late, with one case being the exception where I continued sleeping after the alarm rang and woke up an hour earlier. The other times I actually came late were because I couldn't board the bus at all, or rather I couldn't be bothered to. The buses that came looked so jam packed that only four to five more could attempt to board, with dozens other queueing up behind.
By the time I reached school I had to hide in some unobtrusive corner until classes began. On one occasion, however, I tried walking by the main gate and was stopped together with thirty others by the guard who requested that we write our names down. Being the last one in line, I pretended to write something down when the guard was looking elsewhere and left quickly soon after.
Fortunately, I didn't feel guilty at all about cheating the system, the reason being me disagreeing with the punishments itself. Detention is especially painful because it's a waste of time for someone who has already wasted loads of it, but it doesn't ring a bell because it doesn't make much sense.
Being intelligent in creative ways, human beings have become selective and flexible in what morales they should strive to have. Ironman illustrates this fact clearly when initially he did not see the crimes he had committed indirectly through selling weapons. By the way, I'm just advertising for that nice movie =D
My dad believes that I'm en route to trouble because cheating is pernicious in nature; I'll only be emboldened to accomplish similar acts under riskier situations. However, this is simply because I told him I wrote someone's else name down instead of my own. I thought this would be a more sensational story after having heard it myself from someone else. Honestly speaking I did have the intention to try that out the next time I have to walk through the main gate again. I guess I have changed my mind now.
Chronic latecoming is an endemic problem that has no simple solutions. That's because changing one's mindset isn't that easy.

Vicissitude

No idea which part of Jan was it when the idea kicked in, but it was probably within the first week. Ch said he didn't want to join because he wanted to mug which was a 'valiant' attempt - he went back to sourcing in the end. We had to look for a replacement which came in the form of Jiaming.
The story in between till now is irrelevant. By Gamesex finals I already saw everything. At the njcg semi's they hadn't changed one bit.
The finals was one 'good' game. Good because we tried our best (can't do anything against broken bb), bad because the number of retards present have grown nearly two-fold. In the end, I still got to thank a few people:
Ivan - for carrying and farming like a China farmer (I'm not discriminating China) for all the games, and being capable of playing all the carry stuff I thought we might end up using.
Mingwei - for being 'kingler' so many times with his H3 in condemned physics together with the countless times he was oppressed by his older brother. I actually wanted to thank him for being uber obedient in all the games so far and playing the best SF I've ever seen. (tb luna not included because he's cui with those =D JUST JOKING)
Shem - for being the most aggressive bastard who can't resist not stunning anyone by level 1. Best sandking and tiny (jugg not mentioned because he only picks that when I'm on the opposite team -.-')
Jiaming - for fixing his computer by the end of March holidays and being ultra good support. Most memorable match was when we fought the China team (really, I don't hate China) and he warded the nc spots in order for us to eat luna up. Nevermind that he and Shem screwed up at the start
Henry - for turning up on every single match and buying nice food for us on each occasion; he was like the seventh member of our team. He monitors our progress and provides his input at every given opportunity, while offering his unwavering support like amazing friends do (not being a kingler). But he wasn't being a maphack, so I can't see why one retard bothered to try to silence him.
Cihui - for being so "fulking" "no impolite" when he carried while I was feeding with the feeder dragon =D
Chee Wee, Soon Kiat, Xian Yong, the AJ people, and the China team (see, I really don't hate China) - for standing behind us the whole time.
I'm proud that I succeeded in keeping this team together despite both Shem and Mingwei wanting to 'kingler' me from Jan to March. In case you don't know, 'kingler' comes from the fact that Mingwei is KING at abandoning people =D
My prediction for the drafts came true. I just didn't know my (our) plan will fail right from the start. But then that was the one of the best game of DOTA that I've ever played, and it was being played with the team that nearly never was - FREEEEEEE FRAGGGGGGGGSSS FTW

*yawn*

One more week.
Not to the common tests, I'm not interested in that.
It's to the end.
Not really the end if we win -.-
I actually took 20 minutes to come up with the above oO
And it doesn't even rhyme one bit...
DIE LA I'M BECOMING LIKE SOMEONE WHO THINKS SHE ROCKS WHEN SHE ONLY STONES (i.e meigui)
I MIGHT come up with something more interesting in a few day's time ><
*goes back to sleep*