rhaps meeting

met up with hall reps today.. quite an experience i can say.. first time i chaired a major meeting.. it was "major" at least to me lar.. haha.. normally in meetings i don't say much. but this time it is different.. i'm expected to lead the discussions. quite scary initially.. cos i felt that on our side, we haven't quite firmed out what the objectives and goals are.. what i wanted today was just to have their committment into this matter. to start doing things jointly, rather than drawing lines distinctly. that didn't happen, they seem more "interested in protecting their own interests".. haha... vince taught me a new word today. "Parochial", according to my little oxford dictionary it means "interested in a limited area only, narrow-minded".. fitted them to a T!!

well, whatever.. they seemed to have a rough idea of their own b4 they came.. didn't really wanna listen to us.. the last thing i wanted was to have 2 sides working within themselves, and only coming together for some meetings to "demand conditions" from each other.. but i guess this will be the way from now on.. no more idealistic ideas from me anymore.. doesn't work here.. what pisses me off is that they cant see the big picture.. guess i'm not a good enough leader that is able to carry this off.. i lack the charisma and eloquence.. i just hope that i can draw on my relevant experience and thinking skills to pull thru.. haha.. i think i'm gonna put in much effort in this. gonna be my last activity already..gotta make a good job out of it!!

(oh thanks vince!! for arranging to have the meeting at pa clubroom at such last min notice.. glad to have you around..)

doing stock-check now..end of the yr alr.. if i lent you something, let me know ok? don't have to return me yet.. i just need to know where all my stuff are..

i still have no idea what i'm gonna do for NYE.. i tried asking some pple out, but they got their own plans.. disappointing.. haiz.. i just wanna end the yr with a bang..

going to work tmr.. didn't go for 2 days already.. had diarrhoea.. dunno what i'll be doing there though.. half day.. probably just go pers to help my frens settle admin stuff..

a new year is approaching

a new beginning... how apt.. a chance to start afresh.. a time to try out new ideas..

well, these are the things that i hope to achieve in 2005:
1) learn how to connect with people ***
2) enjoy life ***
3) learn how to live within my means *
4) read more books
5) learn new things *
6) study hard, and pull up my cap **
7) play more tennis, and windsurf more often
8) come up with a wonderful rhaps system that future generations of NUS students can be satisfied with, a fair and transparent system which principles will remain fixed due to its significant relevance, and one that will encourage more participation and more well-rounded education for all
9) quit all nussu activities *

*: no of stars denote importance

hmm seems like a long list.. but i must work hard to achieve all of these... =)

Boxing day

today is boxing day.. i opened my biggest present.. it was the lord of the rings trilogy DVD.. and it was really beautiful.. the artwork and all.. haha.. i'm really glad i bought it.. even though it wasn't the only present i bought for myself.. there's the star wars DVD, my new spectacles.. my gundam model was supposed to be one too, completed the body on xmas eve and wanted to do the armaments and shield on xmas morning, since i had nothing to do in hall.. but i put one part in the wrong direction, and when i tried to take out the joint connecting it, the one-mm joint broke.. haiz.. have to wait to get plastic cement on mon from my fren...

anyway i went to watch kungfu today.. real funny, haha... great entertainment.. i truly enjoyed it... watched with jason.. watched national treasure with him too, on xmas eve.. oh, thank you SC for the tickets... next time got such good deals must tell me ah.. haha =)

caught jiehua on tv last night, after dinner at my grandma's place. he was on some channel U gameshow. but the cameraman doesn't like to focus on the contestants i think.. in fact they were rarely in the shots.. haha.. but ok lar.. you still look good on tv.. maybe when u come back from italy, you will capture some european "flair" from there.. haha... anyway i realised i haven't seem my relatives for a long time.. played with a small boy, my cousin.. really cute with his impish dimples.. haha.. hope to play with him more soon.. prob at the wedding dinner next month.. oh another excuse to dress up again.. hee....

xmas

i failed a module again.. mechanics of machines... haiz...even when i thought i'm good in mechanics-related subjects... and now i'm getting closer to failing my course... what am i to do??

all alone in kuok now.. eating biscuits for breakfast/lunch.. dun feel like going grandma's place today.. though i haven't been there for months.. it started raining here right after i viewed my results.. i wonder if it's an omen or something...

merry xmas everyone...

My collection

DVD
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Star Wars trilogy
All Quiet on the Western Front

VCD
Apocalypse Now Redux
Thin Red Line
The Longest Day
Black Hawk Down
Hart's War
Tigerland
Windtalkers
We Were Soldiers
SWAT
Remember the Titans
Chariots of Fire
Artificial Intelligence
Gangs of New York
O Brother where art thou?
Almost Famous
Fanfan la Tulipe
In the Mood for Love (special)
Band of Brothers (TV series)
Napoleon (TV series)

SLC

got back from slc.. quite a fun 3-day camp.. PRU did a really good job, even better than last yr. of course, some things can be done better lar.. like having raft competition on the last day.. the sucky food.. at least this yr dun have fright night.. hmm i must try to change my attitude.. i'm still carrying the "dir of proj" mentality.. realised this when the only thing i talk to gladys online these few weeks are all abt SLC.. haiz... 职业病... sorry ah...

anyway, it was really fun. seeing the same pple that i met in last yr's SLC, ken pan, ken tan, andy, etc etc, i thought to myself that they have grown quite a bit. hmm if i didn't sign on, i would have been their year.. dunno if i can fit in with them.. haha... but i guess this is the best time where pple can get the so called optimal "all-round" experience of CCA participation..

anyway my group got first in almost everything. first time i did a camp with such a winning group, haha.. i dunno why we won though.. not that our team was that amazing.. but i guess we worked together well.. there wasn't any single one who "dominated" our group. we just tried to listen to everyone and bonded together.. though from the second day on i tried to be more low-key.. i thought to myself that i'm old already.. time for the up-and-coming pple to take over.. haha..

anyway there was still the skit this yr.. didn't really like it last yr. but ok lar, our group was genuinely funny.. rash had really good comic timing.. and the other groups didn't even try to make sense at all... haha one weird theory that i came up with.. we won the skit cos we had mr nus acting in it.. today's society reward good looks more than talent and acting skills.. hahaha.. ok lar, enough suan-ing of him.. i think he's irritated with me, with my lame jokes thru out the camp.. oh saw him at clementi KFC today, with pak.. small world..

oh and there was the forum on the last day. glad that bizcom chair "suggested" having the forum at costa sands.. that was so thoughtful of him.. haha... anyway i screwed up myself.. didn't expect rhaps to feature.. i was just there to ask some qns, in the end kena shot by others.. and it was a qn that pulled in other issues as well.. anyway my ans wasn't coherent, i was trying too hard to shorten it, and i think i thoroughly embarrassed myself.. haha... but i guess i'll make up for it with my "staff work".. i guess that's the kind of path i'll go.. like what my navy fren said of me..

kinda miss SLC.. seems like it ended abruptly.. too short for me.. anyway sc was in another group.. think this was the first time we got separate. haha.. i told gladys that she cant put us in 2 diff groups.. but i dunno who missed who more.. he kept coming over to my group to look for me.. haha.. but i guess i was guilty of leaving my group for a few times.. but i think the email replying was such a killer.. i wished i was with my group instead, missed bonding with them. but i guessed it was rare that the 4 of us welfare cell pple could get together to reply that troublesome email. though we didn't really do an effective enough job..

anyway hopefully there'll be an outing soon!! i think it's difficult to make frens within 3 days. it's the following weeks that are more impt in building friendships. just like my slc group from last yr.. we are still good frens.. =) see u guys next week yah? one yr anniversary liao..

wonderful weekend

i feel so refreshed!! recharged at home for 2 days.. got a spare ticket to watch Umizaru. what a nice movie... touching, moving, inspiring.. i think half the navy was there. weird but warm feeling, to watch with exclusively navy pple.. but i think the DXOs didn't really understand and appreciate.. oh well.. that's another story, i shall observe more at work b4 writing out my thoughts on another day. oh, saw sinchang there too. i was looking at the postcards and wondering if i should take for sc. then he suddenly appeared in front of me.. haha, what a coincidence.. anyway i went to buy the LOTR trilogy DVD set after the movie.. hee... $239.95.. those who wanna watch can borrow in jan. (book early hor..)

went home, slacked for 2 days.. i'm beginning to see a trend here.. i guess this is how my working life is gonna be like.. oh well... anyway got derek to come over with his halo2, played on sat afternoon.. great game... gonna buy it soon. but i have to complete halo1 first.. =p

only 2 days of work this week. going for slc on tues-thurs.. i hope it will be fun... probably gonna be the last nussu event i'm taking part in... oh well...

wow... ate a lot today.. morning break with a few juniors.. then lunch went jack's place at bukit panjang plaza.. haha.. supposed to go downhill to reset the SAF card password, then the whole bunch of us decided to go out for lunch lor... 8 of us. the number getter bigger by the day.. almost can form one division liao... oh, then went dinner with jason.. magic wok restaurant at far east plaza. good food at a cheap price.. then walked around.. talked a bit.. then we bought durians from cold storage and ate outside taka.. still can feel it in my stomach.. wah.. VA is really bad for my waistline...

oh oh!! the lotr trilogy dvd set is out!! extended edition, 12 dvds altogether!! i'm definitely going to buy tmr, if i'm going for the movie screening. it's a HQ rsn thing, showing the movie Umizaru at cineleisure. supposedly this movie shows a few of the saf core values, so they organised a movie screening. some jap movie abt the elite divers of the coast guard. (not surprising right?) anyway there are limited tickets, so they were all given to the NSFs in the dept. but today at the SAVER talk, maj bernard told me there may be extra tix for me, asked me to bring CV attire tmr.. hopefully can go lar.. though i feel a bit guilty. supposed to watch with ivan. but the thing is that the movie timings are 12noon and 5:15pm.. cant arrange with ivan to watch.. hmm... anyway, if i do go in the end, i'm going to buy the dvd set, though it's $239.95... haha... been waiting for a year plus already.. and now that i can play dvds at home.. no reason not to buy it!!

work work work...

my third day of VA.. went sembawang camp with an encik and 2 corporals. never thought that i would have a chance to come back here again.. and see the places where i've been the last hols.. haha.. cos tracom is supposed to move over to changi naval base, but now it will only happen in feb 2005.. plus i didn't expect to work during dec.. haha.. didn't really have to do much today, mainly just give suggestions of camera shots and angles. met up with jerry briefly. oh, seems so coincidental that he's posted to wherever i've been too.. first was CDS, then now tracom.. same office somemore.. haha... then i went home from there instead of going back to hall.. I played xbox again.. had a wonderful dinner at home. chicken curry!! slurpz!!

anyway on my second day i met the other clerk, who was on leave on the first day. guess what? it was my sec sch fren!! got english name now, that's why i didn't realise earler.. what a small world.. he went poly after o levels, that's why he's serving ns now. oh, and he was in CDS a few months ago, but got downgraded recently. another coincidence.. i went to eat at crystal jade in taka with derek and rachel.. then we wanted to watch star wars at rach's place on sat, but she just told me 5 mins ago that she cant.. haiz.. and i only just brought the dvd back to kuok.. i could have brought more clothes for slc instead.. man...

i finally applied for leave for slc.. thru some strange calculation, i have 3 days!! the thing is, cos my attachment lapse the new yr, it is counted separately. so for the time till 31 dec 04, i have 1.3+ days. then for 1st to 6th jan 05, i have abt 0.4+ days. the actual total, as you can count, is only 1.7+ days.. but it has to be rounded up to a whole figure. somehow due to pure luck, it is rounded up per yr first, b4 summing up! so i have 3 days instead of 2!! and to think that i was pleading with a staff officer at pers for abt ten mins, b4 i knew how many days i have.. haha.. now i can go for slc.. but tmr i have to go check if it's approved first.. =)

first day of work

oh man... what a day.. did nothing at all!! sigh.. all the taxpayers money.. but i'll push for my work to be done.. just need to get pple to arrange for me visit to sembawang camp.. oh haven't said what my jobscope is, quite an irony actually.. haha... i'm attached to infrastructure branch. currently for this dec they need to take some pics of sembawang camp, b4 tracom moves to changi. sorta like preserve the heritage.. then some guy in another branch will set up a website for it.. it's actually kinda nice job for me.. considering i like photography you know.. don't think i'll use my camera though.. they need digital shots, though the office camera is really old and lousy.. hmm i'm tempted to buy FZ-20 again.. haha... anyway the good thing is that (not sure if this was planned or a coincidence) i was at tracom for my last vacation attachment, so i'm quite familar with sembawang camp. .. the irony though is that i watched shutter yday.. haha... and sembawang is like decades old.. eerie...

i'm glad i chose to stay in kuok this dec. it took abt 30-40 mins to get to my workplace.. i can't imagine travelling from punggol.. shudder... though it's pretty lonely here.. no one to eat with.. no one to even talk to.. haiz.. but just now was ok. saw some PA pple at munchie monkey. so i ate out of my styrofoam box together with them. then the 2 girls ate like less than half a plate each.. i wanted to tell them that 24,000 pple die everyday due to hunger.. but i dun really know them well, so i restrained myself.. haha.. erm actually maybe bcos i was still quite hungry lar.. haha.. but didn't dare to ask for their food... =p chatted with vincent.. he's staying in sheares this hols, so can probably meet up or something. oh, MM Lee forum is almost confirmed!! yeah!!! so looking forward to it.. hee...

i watched 2 movies today!!

first time in my life i think... watched 2 movies within a day.. haha.. watched the thai horror movie shutter with jer, then watched monsieur N. with jason.. the second movie wasn't really planned.. i didn't even know they still showing this movie. thought it ended together with the french film festival. what a pleasant surprise though. though half english half french.. a bit confusing at times.. glad that jason willing to watch it too.. it was a tightly-paced movie with thoughful layers involved. gave a new (though maybe fictional or speculative) insight into napoleon, seen from the last few yrs of his life.. my kind of movie i guess.. makes me think a bit.. haha... unlike shutter... just an excuse to pay money to "get scared".. or scream a bit.. 1/4 of the time i wasn't really looking at the screen.. but ok lar... it was quite fun.. haven't watched a real horror movie for a long time.. =) but next time i get to choose the movie ah...

starting work tmr already (changed my msn pic).. dunno what to expect this time round.. my first time in gombak. hopefully will turn out well lar.. get to know some pple.. do some interesting work.. have my name on some paper.. (hmm difficult lar.. only one month) i have to start thinking abt my career already.. definitely more impt than all these silly nussu stuff...

star wars!!

oh oh!! i finally gotten around to buying the trilogy DVD set.. cost me $89.. but i think it's worth it lar.. haha.. oh think i'm going to have a small party.. to watch all 3 movies!! asked rachel, derek jiehua.. if anyone else is interested, just call me ok? think it will be middle of the month.. most prob sat or sun... anyway next will be LOTR!! looking forward to it..

cut my hair just now.. look a bit more decent now.. haha.. oh and i went to make new specs.. though i only wanted to look look only.. collecting next fri.. still quite undecided on what camera to buy.. hoping to buy b4 SLC though.. almost bought FZ-20 at sitex. now i'm choosing btwn FX2, FX7, or ixus 40.. hmm... decisions decisions decisions..

oh oh.. someone posted this comment early.. looks interesting.. though i still haven't decipher the complete meaning...

Anonymous said...
ask not what you are to one. ask what is she to you?ask what have you done for her.ask what more can you do. ask what do you want from her.ask how can you let her know.ask how did it get this far. ask what do you really want. ask and look into your heart, for the answers lie within.

hmm anyway who is it ah? can let me know? i wanna discuss further with you.. =)

off to iraq

not me of course.. but my good fren CK... he sms me on the 27th, saying that he'll be away for 4 months. i thought it was just an overseas exercise or maybe mstd. so i just replied the usual well-wishes and "hope to see u when u get back.." till i saw the newspapers the next day. "SAF contingent deployed to help in Iraq. A crew of 180 SAF personnel are on their way to the Gulf onboard the RSS Resolution LST to support the multi-national reconstruction effort in Iraq." CK, all the best yah? i'll meet up with you (really!) after you get back. =)

had another meeting today.. feeling out of sorts.. keep asking myself "what am i doing here??!" i'm losing sight of what i want to do here in exco.. it's a place where talent is not recognized, much less retained.. where short-sighted pple are in charge.. where there's no vision, no direction, no clear decisive leadership.. no money to repair the van properly, but we can still spend a few thousand on external company to design our logo for us!! what is this man.. somebody tell me.. sigh... what am i to do now??

well, the only good thing is that wenhan is finally onboard. hopefully he can share some of the burden.. not that it's a lot.. but i'm just feeling the strain of it.. haiz... gonna be a long semester ahead.. have to depend on my classmates a lot..

off to iraq

not me of course.. but my good fren CK... he sms me on the 27th, saying that he'll be away for 4 months. i thought it was just an overseas exercise or maybe mstd. so i just replied the usual well-wishes and "hope to see u when u get back.." till i saw the newspapers the next day. "SAF contingent deployed to help in Iraq. A crew of 180 SAF personnel are on their way to the Gulf onboard the RSS Resolution LST to support the multi-national reconstruction effort in Iraq." CK, all the best yah? i'll meet up with you (really!) after you get back. =)

had another meeting today.. feeling out of sorts.. keep asking myself "what am i doing here??!" i'm losing sight of what i want to do here in exco.. it's a place where talent is not recognized, much less retained.. where short-sighted pple are in charge.. where there's no vision, no direction, no clear decisive leadership.. no money to repair the van properly, but we can still spend a few thousand on external company to design our logo for us!! what is this man.. somebody tell me.. sigh... what am i to do now??

well, the only good thing is that wenhan is finally onboard. hopefully he can share some of the burden.. not that it's a lot.. but i'm just feeling the strain of it.. haiz... gonna be a long semester ahead.. have to depend on my classmates a lot..

dec is here

finally my exams have ended... i hope i dun have to take any of these modules again!! they were all so tough.. again i wished that i had done things better... wished that i started earlier.. though this time i started earlier than b4.. good thing someone pushed me to study.. haha...

went to watch the incredibles after my last paper. erm ok, not quite "after".. i went for a swim first.. then was quite late.. shucks.. MUST break this bad habit.. anyway went home after the movie. lazed around for 2 whole days.. and played xbox all the way!! haha.. i tried star wars, gotham racing, topspin tennis.. it made me crave for real tennis again.. hmm i bought my racquet in july.. think i only used it less than 5 times since... anyone for a game?

gonna start work on mon.. took my uniform and stuff from home back to kuok. going to stay in kuok this holidays since i'll be working at gombak.. sianz... need to stock up on food.. and entertainment too.. anyone has good VCDs to lend?

K think i going to try my uniform now.. my mum told me to do so, i dunno why.. it's only been half a yr ago when i last put it on.. hmm.. think i just try it on. hopefully i didn't miss out anything.. i already discovered i forgot to bring kiwi and brush.. haiz...