My Display Shelf

My dad recently drilled my shelf in, the one that I had in my old house but didn't want to drill in here immediately because 1) lazy and 2) there were spatial concerns with my old CRT monitor.

I've turned it into a display shelf to show off my latest collectibles, which indeed they are - only two items you'll see are practically useful, and one of them is temporary. Let's have a look.

Click to enlarge

I have to say I'm most proud of my Sephiroth figurine and lightsaber. They are, and some would argue by no accident, the two most expensive items on the shelf, and are, to some inexplicably, a pleasure to look at everytime I get home from army camp. Domo-kun and Darth Stewie are just there for the cute factor. And the two practical items I mentioned earlier are the wooden katana and the olive oil, of which the latter is the temporary one. The olive oil because I can anoint people or myself; the wooden katana because I can crack it on burglars' heads.

That is, of course, only because I haven't bought my metal katana. Yet.

So just a post to say hi and tell you that I'm still alive. If you read this blog, I can't imagine why you would come back often unless you're a relatively close friend, sorry that I haven't been posting much. I'm already so busy (lazy) without the army, and now that I have it I hardly find incentive anymore to blog.

Ok goodnight. Rachmaninov plays Rachmaninov best.

Just thought you might have wanted to know.

A Cosy Mid-Autumn

So now that we've got much more comfortable and chilloutable facilities, my parents decided that we should go down to the poolside for abit to celebrate Mid Autumn Festival. Even though we ended up only spending half an hour downstairs, it was still probably the best midautumn celebration... thingy we had going on.



And yes, you are wondering what's that blue glow in the pictures.

So there's my brother's lantern, which he got in school when he celebrated MAF a week ago in school, dunno why. And that's the mooncake with the knife, which we saved in the end for another time to savor. That is the durian flavor; the tiramisu flavor used to sit in the empty box. Then there's my phone, just in case, and oh look, what's that? X-Minimax portable speakers. Click the link if you don't already know about them, they're a fantastic local brand producing awesome quality and innovative products.

Mini speakers coupled with my ZEN playing... what else? Traditional Chinese music. I told my mother shamelessly, "Isn't it great? That you have a son so knowledgeable in both music and technology? How many families do you see having crisp Chinese music floating through the air while gazing at the pure white moon and eating tiramisu mooncake?"

Oh, and that pile of things that look like used tissue, that's just pomelo skin.

If you ahem want the album, the title is Meditations on China. Look it up yourself.

Happy Mid-Autumn Fest.

A New Hope

Hokay. So I've decided to wait it out.

While waiting for the Macbook refreshes, my dad's kindly offered to pay for a reasonably priced LCD screen. In the future this will be my secondary screen... probably my SMS (Social Monitor Screen).


As you can see, it's taking me abit of time to get used to relative expanse of space that inevitably comes with widescreen. But as a result of the flatscreen, as many have discovered to their joy as well, my table is suddenly much spacier and neater now.


Ok well not much, but it still is a great improvement.

The Trial of Getting a Mac

Probably the only one who can be blamed in all this is Time. I don't want anyone to mistake this for a lashout at you, because I know that you're all well-meaning, but I just gotta let this out.

Everytime I happily announce that I wanna get a new Mac, specifically my Macbook Pro, people tell me to wait.

First I was shifting house. Then BMT approached and I thought well it's gonna collect dust anyway, why not hang on abit?

But my desktop is giving me increasing problems that are irritating the bloody hell out of me. First the processor can't seem to handle more than 5 tasks without slowing to a crawl, and then now the monitor's fuzzing out on me. So I decided you know what, screw it, let's just get it done and over with, I'll get my Mac now.

But my dotcomrades said wait. There's an Apple event in September, hang on for that before you miss out on great stuff.

Turned out to be an iPod event. (Sleek shit btw the new Touch)

So well never mind, better than taking a risk.

Now my best dotcomrades are saying wait. Announcements due in October. Possibly November. Could be MacWorld '09.

OMFG HOW LONG MORE DO I HAVE TO WAIT???

At this rate I'll be getting my MBP after my ORD man!

D'ARGHH!

My BMTC Experience

So it's the end of BMT, and we were made to write a reflection about our time here, for I don't know what reason. Posterity I guess. Most of them just wrote it an hour before submission time, but I obediently typed and printed it out just like my sergeant instructed, so I thought I might as well share it with you.

Gosh one does have to be OMG careful when writing about the army.

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I can hardly remember 4 months in my life that had passed as fast as these 4 months in BMT have. It seemed like just yesterday that we were morosely anticipating our first book out, and now I have just returned from my second last book out.

In this time, I have accomplished, as many have before me, things I never would have even thought about doing. It has given me a rewarding sense of self-confidence and esteem, which I guess is one of the outcomes hoped for of our training here.

I was just telling my bunkmate the other day, after our final route march, that BMTC should consider changing its motto to “Step by Step”. To me, those three words form just about the entire essence of our training program. Whether the Jacob’s Ladder, grenade throwing, or more practically the route marches, step-by-step training has helped deeply in understanding the necessary techniques. More importantly, step-by-step perseverance has made the impossible possible. Hundreds of thousands have done it before us, but that doesn’t stop us from being immensely proud of ourselves, and of each other.

-Okay, I had to remove this paragraph because it says relatively not-nicer things about the SAF. Anyway it's not about me, so you aren't missing out. :)-

It has been an unforgettable experience in BMT, and I am truly indebted to all my commanders for it. Now we only need hot water showers to make it perfectly unforgettable.