Gloomy New Year

Singapore has turned the New Year countdown into a fund raising campaign. Those unfortunate countries that were struck by the tsunami would not be enjoying their New Year, thus we shall not too.

No country in the world is free from natural disasters, as we all share the same planet. A blue planet with different nations of different agendas, succumbing to the wrath of nature.

It is drizzling outside right now. I can hear the raindrops smack onto the cold concrete pathment, and a few vehicles passing by every few minutes. How peaceful. I can imagine the horror of the people when they saw the waves coming at them. I can picture the rescue efforts of volunteers who are working right now to locate any survivors and also tending to the wounded or homeless. When there is peace here, there will always be chaos somewhere else.

I just hope that for the New Year, mankind will put aside all differences to aid those in need. Conflicts should be suppressed, but mankind is too unwilling to compromise for harmonious living. Peace is just a distant hope.

Patriotic message...

Just before reaching home today, my collegue sent me this message:

我们是年轻的卫国军！
有的是满腔的热血！
有的是精力充沛！
相信我把新家坡！
我有无限的力量！
把它献于新加坡！
我要把敌人消灭！
相信我把新加坡！

I thought he was being very patriotic, but upon querying his intentions he mentioned that he was bored and wondering what reaction will his peers express after reading this message.

This message made me think about what serving Singapore is all about. I treasure my country for the peace that I've enjoyed, the multi-cultured society that I have experienced, the financially stable environment that I have benefitted from, the family and friends that I have, and many other reasons. Being granted so much privilages since birth, it is absolutely fair to serve my country. Even though I am physically challenged to a small extent, I am able to pack many punches in the form of binary codes. Every person has a role to play in Singapore. I have been assigned one and is dutifully carrying it out. How about you?

Renaming Time...

I just received an SMS from my friend that reads...

快乐如果与人分享：快乐会家倍！
痛苦如和人分担：痛苦会减半！
所以朋友请记得，月尾法薪，记得分一半给我。
那么你的快乐将会加倍，我的痛苦将会减半！

What logic!

Anyway, I was browsing through baby names and their meanings. I think it's time to change "Walter" to some other name, maybe to "YY" like many of my collegues call me in the office. For info, "Walter" translates into "Powerful Warrior", and I could not recall where I got this name from.

For those interested to find out what your baby name means, visit http://www.babynamesworld.com/

Malaysia! Truly Asia!

I just returned from a 4 days 3 nights trip to Malacca with my family. We all had purchased items that were of our liking, thus making this trip a fruitful one.

As usual, we watched a couple of movies at my grandparents' place as my uncle had a high-tech surround system deployed there. We almost tore down the whole house when we were watching Alien VS Predator.

Apart from staring at the television screen, we also stared at food. However, the difference is that we eat the food, and never the television. Food in Malaysia is so dirt cheap, with pun intended. The popiah, the laksa, the oysters etc taste the best when they are sold from roadside stalls.

Bowling is also available in Mahkota Parade, the shopping centre across the road from Mahkota hotel. It is $4.50 on weekends and $3.30 on weekdays per game of 10 frames. I am referring to RM by the way. You must be a student bowler with super subsidies to be able to play at that price in Singapore. The condition of the alley is comparable to those we have in Singapore too, thus eliminating the excuse that the ball rolled into the gutter because the lane is not oiled evenly or the surface is uneven.

We also went swimming in the pools of the Mahkota Hotel, and after that into the sauna room. It is my first time going into the room, and I really enjoyed the effects. My perspiration just kept flowing and flowing and flowing non stop until I left the room. I never knew my heat sink system was that efficient.

And of course we went shopping on the last day and bought what the car could carry and returned to homeland.

Home sweet home.

Go Kart!

I am on leave today, as I went go-karting with my brother and his colleagues. It is there that I knew that my brother was the winner of the race last year, and everyone was eyeing on him to win again this year. We raced in 3 separate groups, with 5 racers in each group. I was in the first group with 2 other 16-year olds who were the nephews of my brother's colleague, and 2 of my brother’s colleagues. We drove around the track with the second engine turned off during the 5 minute practice session, as it was just for us to familiarise the track. All went well during the practice, but during the time-trial session, my car spun out of control at a bend, and one of the cars just collided head on with my car, causing my bumper to fly off. It was a scary crash. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. It is not fully my fault though. The car behind me had ample time to brake and avoid crashing into me, but evidently failed to. As a result, I was not allowed to drive on the track any longer. So, I just sit around and watched the rest of the racers compete against each other, and also witnessed the my brother finish the race first.

Racing with 2 engines was neither so easy nor cheap. Even though the speed potential of the car is increased, the car handling is greatly compromised. Moreover, the price of racing in a dual engine car is $40 for 10 minutes. The cheapest price for racing is still $28 in a single engine car. Nonetheless, we all enjoyed ourselves to the fullest.

Update on my life...

I've been really busy in the office for these few weeks, partly because my unit has not obtained an updated copy of database management software that is compatible with Windows XP to assist me in my daily work. Today I am bombarded once again with task requests, and I feel so helpless and frustrated to not being able to give them what they had asked for. 3 weeks has passed since we sent our requests for the software, thus I really do hope DSTA finishes up with their software testing and grant us the access to the software soon.

After 7 months in my unit, I am certain that I am not wasting and will not waste my time in the army. Many people will hate me for this, but I have to say that life is wonderful in the army. Why do I say that? Because, I get to go home every night, except on those days that I am assigned for guard duty. No, I do not guard with a rifle. I guard in an air-conditioned lobby, while seated on a comfortable sofa and reading my favorite Popular Science magazine. On normal working days, I report for work in relaxing civilian clothing, then changing into the army uniform in the office before 8am. What I do there is classified, but what I can disclose is that it is highly related to computers and programming, which will be what I will be pursuing for my further studies after I have served my liability, and is something that I had always wanted to do. After work at 5:30pm I will change back into civilian clothing and leave for home. How fortunate, some might say. Screw you, others might say. Whatever it is, everyone has a role to play in the army, and I am playing mine to the best.

Currently, I have a few goals to achieve.

1) Go for practical lessons. I have just received a notification from the traffic police that I have passed my Basic Theory Lesson in driving, thus allowing me to apply for a provisional license such that I can drive on the road with the presence of an instructor. The next step is now for me to attend a couple of practical training lessons so that I will get used to handling a car.

2) Purchase a guitar. My brother’s classical guitar that he had bought 7 years ago has officially retired. The 4th string cannot be tuned as the tuning mechanism is damaged, and the 5th and 6th string requires a spanner to tune. Only, the first 3 strings are playable, thus I have only learnt to play Do-Re-Mi on the first 3 strings. Laughable, but at least that’s a starting point. A fully playable guitar will allow me to learn more.

3) Upgrade my C++ skills to C# level. I have learnt C++ in JC before, and since I have some free time on hand, I believe it should be spent on reading up that language.

4) Organise a class outing. It has been ages since I had an outing with my ex-secondary school classmates. Now should be a good time to get together as my former class mentor is back from his overseas further studies.

I shall focus my energy on these goals, unless something urgent crops up which require my immediate attention. Less likely though, as I am single :)

Gathering

I went for a gathering with my ex-primary school classmates last night at Jurong Point's Pizza Hut. By norm, the organiser would be at the gathering. However, last night's event was held without the presence of the organiser. What stunned us more was the fact that she was actually in town shopping for clothes when the event was taking place. What absurdity! Anyway, only a third of the class turned up, but we did have loads of fun.

We went to catch "The Village" screening at 11pm, which was a mistake but there weren't any other shows that any of us had not watched. The show is supposed to be a horror movie, but frustratingly, there were only around 5 scenes that attemped to shock the audience, and all were of the same nature - The camera slowly moves around the character plus the sound slowly increasing in intensity and after the second round the monster suddenly appears. Ahh. How scary. We hoped that this movie would keep us awake as it was already midnight, but ended up some of us almost dozed off during the movie. The existence of the village is mysterious at the beginning of the show, but as the story flows the village is revealed to be no more than a settlement somewhere in a nature reserve, and the monster was actually an evolved monkey who lost his way to the halloween party.

After the horrifyingly boring show, we just walked home from Jurong Point. Most of us lived in the Jurong area, so we just walk home is separate groups. It is only yesterday night or rather, early morning today that I realised that it is just a 20-30 minutes walk to my home from the shopping centre.

Beginning

There's always a beginning of anything. Today is the beginning of my blogging on blogspot.

Another Day...

Phew, another tiring but meaningful day I had today. I watched the movie "Taking Lives" today, and found that the concept of the murderer resembles that of another movie called "Face Off". In this movie, the murderer takes the identity of his victims after brutally murdering them, for he enjoys living a different life every few years. Being an NC-16 rated movie, the violent scenes were spared by the censorship board, but the sexual portion was not that lucky. How I wish the new ratings system was enforced sooner.

Anyway after the movie, the karaoke lounge at Chinatown was the next destination. It was there that I encountered a rude and unfriendly waiter that nearly blackened my day. If he had bothered to make it an effort to treat his customers nicer and with respect, I would have made the effort to patronise the lounge next time. In any case, the damage is done, and I'll stay away from that place for the time being.

I went to Sim Lim Square next and waited for my dad to bring the faulty motherboard which I bought 2 days ago. After the technician of the shop tested the motherboard, he mentioned that I had to come again tomorrow, for they do not have any stock left for my model. Disappointed, but felt quite consoled after the salesmen sincerely apologized to me, we left the complex and had dinner with my family at Beach Road. I should have called the shop first before going there! That's the lesson I had learnt today.

I'll be off and iron my army No. 3 uniform now. I'll be wearing it for the first time tomorrow to my office. Goodbye No. 4 :)

Golfing!

At last, I have signed up for my first online blogging service on Zorpia, thanks to my friend who invited me there. She will receive 50 bonus points for my subscription.

I am very tired at the moment, for I had been playing golf with my brother this late afternoon. Today is the first time I had ever played real golf at a range, so I am not really that good, but somehow managed to hit a few straight balls that traveled 50 meters. Beginner's luck that was.

Golf is a rich man's game as many would think, but playing at a golf range is quite affordable actually - $3.10 for 30 balls. That is about the price of a game of bowling during weekends, except that for bowling, the maximum number of balls that you can throw is 21. My brother told me that for a real game of golf at the course, the price is a shocking $100++ per head. Now that version of golf is a rich man's game, so for now I will just stick to the range. So this would be my first online entry of my journal. More will come as time goes by.