Photos

Regretfully, I couldn't put the photos together with my posts... so here are the photos which explain what the heck was really going on in my previous posts...

That day when we went to Marina Square to watch "Road to Guantanamo", there was actually supposed to be an autograph session with Jolin Tsai at 8 p.m.. Wow. We didn't stay for it (except for Nick, who was playing LAN until about 8) unfortunately... but then again, it didn't really matter. If it's somebody else like S.H.E., then maybe I die die must stay lah.

Look at the crowd! We actually saw one TJC alumnus among the crowd... and both Jianyuan and I (the only ex-TJCians present at that time) knew her.

More crowd! The group sitting in front of the guardrails were what I heard to be the fan club members.

Forgive me for having a ceiling fetish... but here's what I took from Marina Square anyway.

Yuh Chian and Songyu, for whom the farewell was organised as they'll be going overseas soon.

The birthday cake!

Happy birthday...

Our blow-soccer we played on Friday. Hi Mr Toh.

Iruka* HOO~!

Haha... I've always had mixed feelings about playing capsule machines because there's a probability that you'll get repeated stuff.

Recently I saw this capsule series at Toys'R'us Tampines Mall which consists of Characters from Winnie the Pooh wearing suits of all kinds of animals. It's actually quite an old series which kept on having extensions... I remembered my friend having one of these tiny figurines... hers is wearing a super kyuute penguin suit.

Well there's no penguin in this extension of the series but there're animals like the dolphin (blue one being more common than pink one) and the ladybug.

These are just part of the series. I couldn't find the images of the rest of the suits.

Well, since it was only $1 and I decided that my handphone could use some decoration, I tried it out and got a Tigger in an apple tree. Haha.

And I was thinking that the dolphin one would be nice too.

Today I went to try my luck again, and I wasn't thinking of getting the dolphin straight away, of course. As long as it's not another apple-tree-Tigger it would be fine. I put in $1...

And out came little Pooh sleeping in the dolphin suit!

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Iruka: the Japanese word for dolphin.

R-OH

Yesterday we went for this BBQ gathering organised by my unit as a celebration for promotion of some of our officers.

When the whole bunch of us NSFs (including guys from the previous batch like Junming, YY and Yuh Chian) arrived at Changi Haven (where the gathering was held), we started off by watching some Korean movie followed by Mr and Mrs Smith (I found it to be quite an interesting show -- at least there was a "happy" ending). In between the movies we played this game which was like soccer involvng a tennis ball on a table... we scored goals by blowing the ball into the opponent's side.

Then we started with the BBQ! They actually ordered noodles from a caterer as well, so our dinner wouldn't be lacking of carbohydrates. Surprisingly the DXOs were the ones who got the pit started, and the NSFs were only "deployed" to man the pits after that.

The usual stuff like chicken wings were present, and also seafood like fish and squid (Yeah!). There were crabs too, and it was the first time I attended a BBQ session with crabs! Inexperienced as I was, I didn't manage to get much flesh out of the crab I took. Or maybe those crabs were meant to be that way... I actually saw one of the crabs being cooked alive! And it must be the expansion of fluids in the crab's body which gave a whistling sound that gave me the impression that the crab's screaming!

Ugh.

After some eating we naturally divided into small chat groups... I was with Jianyuan, Peng, Chorbin and YY, sharing with them some of the incidents that occured during our WOPC rehearsal. After that YY left and the remaining 4 of us were talking about BGR when one of our officers offered red wine to us. By sheer coincidence (or rather God's will... as it turned out to be a blessing in disguise in 2 ways) I didn't get a cup (well our Sir only brought 3 cups).

OK just to provide some background... During WOPC when I was, erm, "offered a chance to" drink half a can of beer I couldn't stand the taste and made a decision not to touch beer again. However I was curious as to whether wine would taste slightly (only slightly) better than beer.

Hence, when I didn't get a cup of wine, I was initially very keen to have a go at some of Chor Bin's share. I took a sip and

*bleah!*

Forget it. I'm done with alcohol.

So they drank. And they drank half a cup again... Jianyuan wasn't that bad... Chor bin was red in the face already... and Peng took it the worst -- he was really drunk! After that we went to the beach (quite a dangerous thing to do actually...) where I spotted some lone durian shells (erm OK...) and Peng was reciting verses and verses of cheena poetry.

From which I realised that most of the Chinese Lit stuff I've learnt were... gone.

We then headed back to the BBQ site. Peng didn't get any better and we started to get worried. In the end he threw up and we sent him home since he was still having a headache. I wasn't actually the only one who was sober, but I consumed the least wine, so naturally the 3 other guys came under my charge lah. (Hehe...)

P.S. Happy birthday Nick.

We paid.

We paid, for a peaceful journey home.

We paid to take the private transport so that we don't have to stand all the way home, and it's of course better if we can have a short nap on the way.

Of course, nothing is perfect.

Today is one of the days when Justin's on board. You know... the kid whose photo I took a few posts back.

Nobody who sat beside him had a chance to sleep. Even though I was one of the only guys that he would talk (very loudly) to in the first place (the "few guys" include my colleague Bernard), most of the time if he gets to his peak, even the aunties who were sitting beside him couldn't sleep also. Near the end of the journey I felt like apologising on his behalf to those aunties whose displeasure were pretty obvious.

We paid for this.

The Name Game

My E-mail address, is feralig87@hotmail.com.

OK... now what's the colour of a red house?

What's the colour of a blue house?

What's the colour of a black house?

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What's the colour of a Greenhouse?

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.

And what's my e-mail address again?

No way!!! You can't remember?

See, that's why I regret naming my e-mail address after a Pokemon (even though the Feraligator really rocks).

Sigh... I wish my surname is Pan. Then can name my son something like Jia-an. Then his initials will be J A Pan. JAPAN!

Cool huh?

Never mind... but if I keep my surname and name my son Ruixian, then it's not bad also. WRX.

Talk about cars... my platoonmatefrom BMT set up a forum about cars together with some friends. Its url is http://www.2uned.com/forum/index.php.

Hmm maybe I can learn more about car tuning there...

The End

Phew!

Recently I've been missing the return journey on my private transport because I've been leeving the office quite late. Today I finally had the chance to take my transport again, and the air-con had to break down! Haha.

At least after the journey, I wasn't as sweaty as I thought I would be.

Made a trip to the arcade again... and further proved my hypothesis that the less frequently I play Initial D, the better I get. Also, I got to see the ending scene of Time Crisis 4 after much wait... last time there was a guy who gave up during the very last battle, but then again, it's not very sensible to spend $2 just to give the final boss one shot and end the game...

The guy I saw today finished with 1 Hit Point. That was close, man!

Work

I realize that I've not been blogging about work recently.

But not much to blog about as well, except that things are getting better now, like the dawn after a long cold night.

Seriously, I still don't know what got into me that made me screw up Paradestate (basically it's taking attendance) 3 working days in a row. But that's the past. I hope.

Saw my upper again last Saturday when we went for Yuh Chian (Peng's upper) and Songyu's farewell (and learned that CPC has seen generations of good singers before us)... too bad I didn't take pictures (the Karaoke room was way too dark and my camera phone didn't have flash haha) that day... at least to let my dear readers know what he looks like.

Been doing a lot of exploraton these few days... trying to do some Foxpro stunts... no lah, just making data reports lah. But even that task cost me about half a day.

Lots of work to clear, but I gained a better understanding of how my upperstudy's programs work...

Isn't that what I say all the time? Haha.

Got lots of new games recently. Besides Pokemon Fire-red (which wasn't really recent "anymore"), I got a Megaman and a Zelda game too.

Passion for children

It's been ages since I left a mark here.

Well...

Crucifixion: A McDonalds Story

Recently I saw this thing at McDonalds which stunned me a bit. You'll remember this donation collection box for the McDonalds children charity thing at the counter of most (if not all) McDonalds outlets... while having breakfast there a week ago, I cast a cursory glance at one of those collection boxes and behold! I saw nail-pierced (or rather, screw-pierced) hands!

His hands! Take a closer look!

Goodness... they sure didn't know what they were doing!

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Naan desu ka?

On Thursday our unit went for a movie screening at Marina Square... the movie was called "The Road to Guantanamo", which was about a few Muslims living in Britain, who went to the Middle East for a wedding and ended up at Afghanistan (they went there out of curiosity, and to try those big Naans (some kind of Indian Muslim flat bread). They were really big, but considering the price they paid for it...) during the period of the post 911 Afghan war. They were subsequently captured by Northern Alliance forces along with other Afghan refugees and sent to various detention camps, the last stop being the one in Guantanamo.

Nick later said that one of the morals of the story was "do not do stupid things for big Naans".

The captives were treated inhumanely in those camps... I'm sure the real situation was worse than what the movie portrayed (I supposed they didn't bear to do the strip-them-naked-stack'em-and-take-a-few-shots), but a film is a film after all... Anyway, I think the film already portrayed 80% of the treatments given. what struck me most was the part where an individual captive will be chained in a dark room in which heavy metal music wil be played at a BLASTING volume just to break those captives down.

Other ridiculous-but-not-unexpected stuff will include the I'll-show-you-a-video-with-Osama-inside-and-point-to-any-random-turban-guy-in-the-crowd-and-say-it-was-you kind of brainless-but-we-have-no-alternative technique. I mean that's what interrogators do all the time; they'll only say you're co-operative if and only if you say what they want to hear.

... It's always logical to try breaking a captive down to illicit information, but it's about how far you're allowed to go. Who gives the permission anyway?

"As far as I'm concerned, they (the captives) are bad people... who didn't share the "values" we share..."

But please remember Mr President that most of the soldiers don't share these "values" either, and there's always a big implication for waging a war in God's name. I think the world is getting more wary of America and Christians in general even though American != Christian. Not that I'm saying that Bush supports those vices... he later said that the doers and supporters of those deeds were "not the America he knew". The America he "knew" was an all-Christian nation I suppose.

In reality it's obviously not the case.

Woe to those terrorists as well as they started this in the first place.

... ... ...|

Hmm...

A bit out of sorts these days...

Maybe because of work... or something else...

My life is getting more colourful, with new friends and new places to go and all... I'm glad for that.

But now it's not like last year when I can write a long and crappy story for every simple day...

Maybe it's because I can't use the net everyday... and as days go by, things that happened a few days back may seem now to be much less interesting to me, so I won't bother to put it down here when I finally get the chance to touch my blog...

?

That should be the reason.

Thankfully, I've been taking pictures these days when I'm not that free to record my daily life... and they speak for me.

Really sorry that I can't rant here that often now... both for those waiting for updates (I wonder who will...) and for the pity that some days of my life will just go by like blank sheets... forgotten...

Now for the photos...

O'nigiri, my favourite Japanese rice ball! At least there's half of it left...

Peng on his first skating outing! I wanted to take pics for others too, but my VGA phone camera kept giving me blurred images when I wanted to catch those fast SunnySat dudes...

Justin, the boy who takes the same transport as I do to and from the office (and prevented me from being able to sleep on the journey sometimes)

Haha... what a smile...

See you!

Wheely Wednesday and an Air-conditioned Saturday

On Wednesday I joined Sunny Saturday (inccluding Jonathan) + HP* for a regular skating trip at the basement near Esplanade (I don't know whatthey call it...). For me, Peng and Jonathan, iot was our first time there.

Peng bought skates prior to that, but I was still too poor to afford one... Yichuan was kind enough to lend me his for a while, so I could refresh my nearly rusty skating skills.

Hmm... I think that's a great chance for me to really get the hang of skating... after all, practice makes perfect!

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Yesterday was my first time doing weekend guard duty, where I have to be there at camp for the whole day! I would describe my experience there using 2 words: "Depot Chalet".

Well, after arriving there (and sweating like a pig), I rested in the air-conditioned duty rest room for about 2 hours (Pokemon Fire-Red for 1.5 hrs, sleep for 0.5 hr) and captured a Kangaskhan before doing 2 2-hour morning shifts and having a sumptuous Char Kuay Teow for lunch.

Kangaskhan

Then, I slept... and slept... for 3 hrs in air-con comfort...

Played more Pokemon... had chicken rice for dinner...

Slept for 5 more hours...

And did my night shift from 1a.m. right up to 7 a.m.! Cool!

Actually I should say "cold", since I did not bring any jacket to shield me against the strong air-con in the guard room...

Despite the long sleep I had prior to my shift, the full 6 hours was actually quite tiring for me (maybe I was affected by the lateness of the hour as well, compared to other shifts like 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.).

Nevertheless, a short sleep during my return journey on the MRT was enough to rejuvenate my senses!

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*Huang Peng, not Hewlett Packard!