KK, CYa

end of this blog's journey

2011-05-02T18:47:00.002+08:00

Well seeing as how 01 is now almost non-existent in my day-to-day life and how this blog has been always been about 01, it seems just right to leave this blog where it is. However I will still blog, and this time it will be about my training (at least up till A levels) for triathlons. Just want to keep the 2 segmented, and leave this blog like how it is now: all about my 01 life from Sec 3 to J1.

Feel free to join me over here!

2011 is in full swing!

2011-01-23T21:28:00.001+08:00

schoolwork is picking up, and so is training =)

back from a 4 week hiatus, feels good to be back. this year will be AWESOME

new year, new specs, new phone

2011-01-05T14:50:00.001+08:00

my glasses finally gave way after it dropped and cracked. seeing as i will be in army in 1 years time, i got an army specs. hopefully i dont look too mugger with it.

and my omnia battery life was about 40 hours on standby, so it was time to get a new phone! was deciding between an army phone for the same reasons stated above, and a smartphone. decided to go with the latter, and what better phone to get than iphone 4 right? i’ve joined the 400000 people in singapore who own an iphone…thats 1 in every 10 persons you meet.

and its a new year! 2011 is here, and i havent really thought of any resolution yet, but an obvious one that comes to mind is to improve on my previous score in every common test, and ultimately have no regrets in As. oh, and also to podium in a race =)

school reopens next week, and im looking forward to getting back into mugging mode! slacked enough this holidays, no more slacking for the next 12 months.

thnks fr th mmrs

2010-12-24T11:28:00.001+08:00

its has been a long long 5 years journey. tens of camps, hundreds of nights, thousands of photos, and tons of memories that will stay with me until i turn senile.

after gtc we say its the end, after celes we say its the end, but i think now its really the end. the next few months will be weird, with such a big part of my last 5 years gone. studying and training may fill the time void, but nothing can replace it totally.

it will never be totally over though. once a scout, always a scout. its not that easy to get rid of me =)

suffer your own cheerful devotion

the greatest poop story ever written

2010-12-14T21:01:00.001+08:00

WARNING!! DISGUSTING STORY AHEAD. STOP READING HERE IF YOU JUST ATE/ARE GOING TO EAT WITHIN 30 MINUTES!!

Now, I know that there is a lot of embellishment that
occurs on this group and I am aware that a small
number of things are perhaps sheer fabrication, but I
have a story to tell that is the absolute truth.
Funniest damn thing that has ever happened to me. A
couple of weeks ago we decided to cruise out to Ryan's
Steakhouse for dinner. It was a Wednesday night which
means that macaroni and beef was on the hot bar,
indeed the only night of the week that it is served.
Wednesday night is also kid's night at Ryan's,
complete with Dizzy the Clown wandering from table to
table entertaining the little bastards. It may seem
that the events about to be told have little
connection to those two circumstances, but all will be
clear in a moment.
We went through the line and placed our orders for the
all-you-can-eat hot bar then sat down as far away from
the front of the restaurant as possible in order to
keep the density of kids down a bit. Then I started my
move to the hot bar. Plate after plate of macaroni and
beef were consumed that evening, I tell you - in all,
four heaping plates of the pseudo-Italian ambrosia
were shoved into my belly. I was sated. Perhaps a bit
too much, however.
I had not really been feeling well all day, what with
a bit of gas and such. By the time I had eaten four
overwhelmed plates of food, I was in real trouble.
There was so much pressure on my diaphragm that I was
having trouble breathing. At the same time, the
downward pressure was building. At first I thought it
was only gas, which could have been passed in batches
right at the table without too much concern.
Unfortunately, that was not to be. After a minute or
so it was clear that I was dealing with explosive
diarrhea. It's amazing how grease can make its way
through your intestines far faster than the food which
spawned the grease to begin with, but I digress... I
got up from the table and made my way to the bathroom.
Upon entering, I saw two sinks immediately inside the
door, two urinals just to the right of the sinks, and
two toilet stalls against the back wall. One of them
was a handicapped bathroom. Now, normally I would have
gone to the handicapped stall since I like to stretch
out a bit when I take a good crap. But in this case,
the door lock was broken and the only thing I hate
worse than my wife telling me to stop cutting my
toenails with a pair of diagonal wire-cutters is
having someone walk in on me while I am taking a crap.
I went to the normal stall. In retrospect, I probably
should have gone to the large, handicapped stall even
though the door would not lock because that bit of
time lost in making the stall switch proved to be a
bit too long under the circumstances. By the time I
had walked into the regular stall, the pressure on my
ass was reaching Biblical portions. I began "The
Move."
For those women who may be reading this, let me take a
moment to explain "The Move." Men know exactly what
their bowels are up to at any given second. And when
the time comes to empty the cache, a sequence of
physiological events occur that can not be stopped
under any circumstances. There is a move men make that
involves simultaneously approaching the toilet,
beginning the body turn to position ones ass toward
said toilet, hooking ones fingers into ones waistline,
and pulling down the pants while beginning the squat
at the same time. It is a very fluid motion that, when
performed properly, results in the flawless expulsion
of crap at the exact same second that one’s ass is
properly placed on the toilet seat. Done properly, it
even assures that the choad is properly inserted into
the front rim of the toilet in the event that the piss
stream lets loose at the same time; it is truly a
picture of coordination rivaling that of a skilled
ballet dancer.
I was about halfway into "The Move" when I looked down
at the floor and saw a pile of vomit that had been
previously expelled by one of those little bastards
attending kids night. It was mounded up in the corner
so I did not notice it when I had first walked into
the stall. Normally, I would not have been bothered by
such a thing, but I had eaten so much and the pressure
upward was so intense, that I hit a rarely experienced
gag reflex. And once that reflex started, combined
with the intense pressure upward caused by the bloated
stomach, four plates of macaroni and beef started
coming up for a rematch.
What happened next was so quick that the exact
sequence of events is a bit fuzzy, but I will try to
reconstruct them as best I can. In that moment of
impending projectile vomiting, my attention was
diverted from the goings-on at the other end. To put a
freeze frame on the situation, I was half crouched
down to the toilet, pants pulled down to my knees,
with a load of vomit coming up my esophagus.
Now, most of you know that vomiting takes precedence
over crap no matter what is about to come slamming out
of your ass. It is apparently an evolutionary thing
since crapping will not kill you, but vomiting takes a
presence of mind to accomplish so that you do not
aspirate any food into the bronchial tubes and perhaps
choke to death. My attention was thus diverted. At
that very split second, my ass exploded in what can
only be described as a wake...you know, as in a
newspaper headline along the lines of "30,000 Killed
In Wake of Typhoon Fifi" or something similar. In what
seemed to be most suitably measured in cubic feet, an
enormous plug of crap the consistency of thick mud
with embedded pockets of greasy liquid came flying out
of my ass.
But remember, I was only halfway down on the toilet at
that moment. The crap wave was of such force, and of
just such an angle in relation to the back curve of
the toilet seat, that it ricocheted off the back of
the seat and slammed into the wall - at an angle of
incidence equal to the angle at which it initially hit
the toilet seat. Then I sat down. Recall that when
that event occurred, I was already halfway to sitting
anyway and had actually reached the point of no
return. I have always considered myself as relatively
stable gravitationally, but when you get beyond a
certain point, you're going down no matter how limber
you may be. Needless to say, the crap wave, though of
considerable force, was not so sufficient so as to
completely glance off the toilet seat and deposit
itself on the walls - unlike what you would see when
hitting a puddle with a high-pressure water hose; even
though you throw water at the puddle, the puddle gets
moved and no water is left to re-form a puddle. There
was a significant amount of crap remaining on about
one-third of the seat rim which I had now just
collapsed upon.
Now, back to the vomit...
While all the crapping was going on, the vomit was
still on its way up. By the time I had actually
collapsed on the toilet, my mouth had filled up with a
goodly portion of the macaroni and beef I had just
consumed. OK, so what does the human body
instinctively do when vomiting? One bends over. So I
bent over. I was still sitting on the toilet, though.
Therefore, bending over resulted in me placing my head
above my now slightly-opened legs, positioned in
between my knees and waist. Also directly above my
pants which were now pulled down to a point just
midway between my knees and my ankles. Oh, did I
mention that I was wearing not just pants, but
sweatpants with elastic on the ankles. In one mighty
push, some three pounds of macaroni and beef, two or
three Cokes, and a couple of Big, Fat Yeast Rolls were
deposited in my pants...on the inside...with no ready
exit at the bottom down by my feet. In the next
several seconds, there were a handful of farts, a
couple of turds, and the event ended. Yet I was now
sitting there with my pants full of vomit, my back
covered in crap that had bounced off the toilet,
spattered on three ceramic-tiled walls to a height of
about five feet, and still had enough force to come
back at me, covering the back of my shirt with
droplets of liquid crap. All while thick crap was
spread all over my ass in a ring curiously in the
shape of a toilet seat.
And there was no ****ing toilet paper. What could I do
but laugh. I must have sounded like a complete maniac
to the guy who then wandered into the bathroom. He
actually asked if I was OK since I was laughing so
hard I must have sounded like I was crying
hysterically. I calmed down just enough to ask him if
he would get the manager. And told him to have the
manager bring some toilet paper. When the manager
walked in, he brought the toilet paper with him, but
in no way was prepared for what happened next. I
simply told him that there was no way I was going to
explain what was happening in the stall, but that I
needed several wet towels and I needed him to go ask
my wife to come help me. I told him where we were
sitting and he left. At that point, I think he was
probably assuming that I had pissed just a bit in my
pants or something similarly benign.
About two minutes later, my wife came into the
bathroom not knowing what was wrong and with a certain
amount of worry in her voice. I explained to her
(still laughing and having trouble getting out words)
that I had a slight accident and needed her help.
Knowing that I had experienced some close calls in the
past, she probably assumed that I had laid down a
small turd or something and just needed to bring the
car around so we could bolt immediately. Until I asked
her, I'm sure she had no idea that she was about to go
across the street and purchase me new underwear, new
socks, new pants, a new shirt, and (by that time due
to considerable leakage around the elastic ankles
thingies) new sneakers. And she then started to laugh
herself since I was still laughing. She began to ask
for an explanation as to what had happened when I
promised her that I would tell her later, but that I
just needed to handle damage control for the time
being. She left.
The manager then came back in with a half-dozen wet
towels and a few dry ones. I asked him to also bring a
mop and bucket upon which he assured me that they
would clean up anything that needed to be cleaned.
Without giving him specific details, I explained that
what was going on in that stall that night was far in
excess of what I would expect anyone to deal with,
what with most of the folks working at Ryan's making
minimum wage of just slightly above. At that moment, I
think it dawned on him exactly the gravity of the
situation. Then that manager went so far above the
call of duty that I will be eternally grateful for his
actions. He hooked up a hose. Fortunately, commercial
bathrooms are constructed with tile walls and tile
floors and have a drain in the middle of the room in
order to make clean up easy. Fortunately, I was in a
commercial bathroom. He hooked up the hose to the
spigot located under the sink as I began cleaning
myself up with the wet towels.
Just as I was finishing, my wife got back with the new
clothes and passed them into the stall, whereupon I
stuffed the previously worn clothing into the plastic
bag that came from the store, handing the bag to my
wife. I finished cleaning myself off and carefully put
on my new clothes, still stuck in the stall since I
figured that it would be in bad taste to go out of the
stall to get redressed, in the event I happened to be
standing there naked and some little bastard kid
walked in. At that point, I had only made a mess; I
had not yet committed a felony and intended to keep it
that way.
When I finished getting dressed, I picked up the hose
and cleaned up the entire stall, washing down the
remains toward the drain in the center of the room. I
put down the hose and walked out of the bathroom. I
had intended to go to the manager and thank him for
all he had done, but when I walked out, three of the
management staff were there to greet me with a
standing ovation. I started laughing so hard that I
thought I was going to throw up again, but managed to
scurry out to the car where my wife was now waiting to
pick me up by the front door.
The upshot of all this is that I strongly recommend
eating dinner at Ryan's Steak House. They have, by
far, the nicest management staff of any restaurant in
which I have eaten.

dreams

2010-12-14T10:22:00.001+08:00

What does it mean when you dream that someone is peeing on you…? Keep having weird dreams recently…

5k tt

2010-12-12T22:59:00.001+08:00

went for the 5k tt at macritchie, and it was pain indeed. did well in it, and for that i’m happy! hope to see improvements in future TTs

scms volunteer

2010-12-06T21:12:00.001+08:00

yesterday was singapore’s biggest running event, and I was part of it as a volunteer! first time volunteering for such events, and it wasn’t how i expected it to be.

the event officially started at 12.30am for volunteers as we had to get down to our areas and set up our aid station. most of the time from then till 3+ was spent playing asshole taiti (which im pretty good at!) with the rest of the dudes and dudettes who signed up with me. 30 minutes after the marathon started at 5am, it was busy all the way! runners just came and went, most grabbing a cup of 100 plus that we had to prepare. and we found out why they told us to come in dark coloured bermudas…not a nice way to find out though.

after the marathon people, we stoned for quite a while and then the 10k people started. even though there was about half the number of runners, we had to fill 2x the number of drinks. sounds weird, but true.

by the end of it, everything was drenched in 100 plus and sticky, even my shoes. staying under a tent in the padang that was getting cooked by the sun didn’t help too. but it was worth it, seeing the elites running by so quickly, and hearing “thanks” from the runners who desperately needed their drinks.

would i do this sort of volunteering again? probably. i’ll choose a smaller event though, and a different job.

oh and saying something a 100 times really makes it sound weird! good job, 100 plus!

gtc

2010-12-05T21:36:00.001+08:00

after 1 whole year, gtc is over and now only a bit more to go until 5 years of scouting comes to a close officially =)

even after 3.5 times of going to gtc, it still amazes me what it can do to your body and your mind. the distances were anything but short (85km in 3 days for me!) Even with precautions taken, I still got injuries in weird places but with a strong will can block these pain out. And of course hiok’s nappy rash cream =) everyone should bring it!! compulsory item in individual packlist

even though a number of people dropped out, i think its still super amazing that sec 1s can complete gtc, carrying a bag almost 1/4 their weight and hiking distances they never thought possible. i don’t think my sec 1 gtc was as tough, although carrying 6 loafs of bread around is quite a challenge

and lastly to all juniors reading this: all the best for your future years in 01! remember what you all learnt in gtc

initiative, sense of urgency, care and concern for others!

we have an answer!

2010-11-22T17:39:00.001+08:00

yes we do! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelf_life#Best_before

I WAS RIGHT!

best before/use by

2010-11-22T17:16:00.001+08:00

hey! i just just heard this cool thing on muttons on the move on 987 and they were discussing about food labels. one of them (either justin or vernon) was saying that he thinks that there is a difference between “best before” and “expiry date” or “use by”. And that is EXACTLY WHAT I THINK SO TOO!

See there must be some reason why there is this distinction, and why every single food label is not using the same phrase. I think that if something says best before, it means that you can still eat it after that date, but it just wont taste as good. However if it says use by, it means the food will turn bad after that date.

Food for thought. =)

century and more

2010-11-21T21:48:00.001+08:00

did my longest ride today, 116km. and i hit the wall for the first time too! it didnt feel very nice, and it just came suddenly. at least now i know how it feels like and what to expect if i hit the same wall again.

dear pw

2010-11-09T22:53:00.001+08:00

please just end and give me my holidays!

abbcc

2010-10-28T21:20:00.001+08:00

School is gonna end soon, and so is PW =) Last 3 weeks to go before its sayonara to this horrible subject.

Got back results on Monday, and I must say I’m very pleased! Did much better than expected, even though I didn’t study as hard as others. Can’t get complacent though…

01 is resuming again, and its the last stretch already. Next year will be suuper free, unless I decide to take H3 which I am considering. Hopefully it will be a decision I don’t regret.

And don’t you just hate it when people are overly sensitive?

ihc

2010-10-17T21:30:00.001+08:00

Signed up for polo, 1000m, and amazing race. Pretty excited and nervous at the same time.

Cycling in the heavy rain is super tough. Can’t really see anything cos the eyes just hurt like shit. Maybe next time I should bring a goggles too…

And I’m so glad the WR is finally done =)

Quad 2010 Race Report

2010-10-14T19:35:00.001+08:00

Finally found time to post my first ever race report!

The day started pretty early at 5am, and I woke up to flashing lights from lightning. Wasn’t a very good way to start the day, and I remember hoping that the sky would hold up for the next few hours. Ate some bread and kept a banana to eat later on as my run would be a few hours later. Didn’t have to wake up so early, but wanted to give myself ample time to prepare so I didn’t have to rush. Took a ride from Nic Eu and reached East Coast Park at around 6.35am.

By this time it was drizzling slightly, and we had to walk quite a distance to the transition area due to road closure. There wasn’t many people when we arrived, and it was still quite early, so we took shelter under a…shelter and waited for Joel and Mish to arrive.

When they came we did some final adjustments, stuck stickers, tried not to poke each other when pinning onto tights, and made our way to the transition to lay our stuff there. Then we went to get our bodies marked, and the volunteer screwed up the 5 on my arm. Soon after Mish went to warm up, and when it was 7.40 the Men’s Open were flagged off! 10 minutes later, and it was the Women’s Open, Men’s Relay, Women’s Relay and of course the Youth Relay. The horn went off and everyone rushed to the dirty waters off East Coast Park; pretty funny thinking of it that way.

I went over to the transition area, and it was very fun watching the leaders come out of the water and rushing to put on their skates before zooming away looking like professionals. The atmosphere was pretty intense because the 3 Men’s leader were quite close to each other and all eyes were on them as they left the transition area.

Soon after most of the competitors came in and we were waiting for Mish to appear. Took quite a while, but she finally did and Nic Eu went off! It was still quite a while before my turn, so I was trying to calm my nerves and enjoy the race atmosphere.

Nic Eu came back about 6th or so, and it was Joel’s turn on the bike. At this point I went to do a quick warm up to loosen up the legs and get ready for my turn. When I came back, found out that Joel fell at the end of the first lap. His second lap took really long, and for a moment I thought his bike had a problem and he had to walk back or something. I continued with my stretching and waited for him at the transition area.

After waiting for a seemingly long time, he finally came in and I zoomed out of transition! I counted 5 people ahead of me, and tried to remember their numbers (504, 507, 501 and 2 others I can’t really recall) so I know if I over take them or just over took someone slower than me. Through most of the race the 5 numbers were just running (no pun intended!) through my head, mostly so I wouldn’t be reminded of the pain.

I started off the race too quickly. The plan was 4:15 each for first 2 km, 4:20 for next 2, then all out for last 2. Legs felt slightly tired right from the start, but race day adrenaline pushed me through the first 500m or so in about 3:50 pace, and was like “Uh oh this is bad you need to slow down”. Went through first km in 4:05; still too fast. I was mostly catching people from the Men’s Open who were pretty tired from 32.5km of racing, and there wasn’t really anyone of my pace to follow, so it was just overtaking people. The route was also a out and back course, so I could see the Youth Relay runners. They were all pretty far in front, so there was quite a lot of work to do if I wanted to catch them.

Second km was in 4:16. Still on pace, but could feel myself slowing quite a bit. Legs were starting to hurt, but not too bad. I did not seem to be gaining or losing any time on the other runners.

Third km in 4:27. I knew things were going downhill (my race not the route) so the plan was just to run at the originally planned pace for as long as I can, and pace off someone slower when I was getting very tired. Everything was hurting, but there still wasn’t anyone gaining on me. I knew that the original goal was pretty impossible, and all I could do was not to deviate too far off.

Fourth km in 4:39. Eek! The effort felt like a 4:10 effort, but the timing certainly did not reflect that. I was hurting a ton now, and my focus, other than the 5 numbers, were just not to walk. Was reaaaalllyyy tempted to do so, but mental strength prevailed =)

Fifth km in 4:40. Overall pace was starting to stabilise, although at a much slower pace than expected. My only consolation was that I only had half a lap to go to the finish, and there was a big enough cushion to ensure that no one would overtake me.

Nearing the end, I finally found someone who was running about the same pace as mine and I gladly stayed behind him. About 400m to go, still stayed behind him and the pace started to pick up. I tried to remember to smile at the finishing line, but it was hard to do when everything was hurting like crap. I overtook him going into the finishing chute, which wasn’t that nice a thing to do but whatever. I forced out what I hoped was a smile, and crossed the line with a pace of 4:12 for the last 400m. I remember hearing the announcer say something about energy and youth (because I sprinted past the other guy), and he announced the team name and was like wow what a long name or something like that. After I crossed the line I was so glad it was all over, and the volunteers swarmed all around me like I was a carcass and they were the vultures or something like that. One passed me the medals, another took the timing chip, and I was just standing there grasping for air.

Rested for a while and drank many cans of 100 plus, then went for a short cool down jog. After bathing, we walked quite a distance to the food center, and ate an early lunch there. I ordered a huuuugeee coconut, probably the biggest I’ve ever seen.

You can see how big it is relative to the 100 plus and the lime.

It wasn’t super nice, but the meat and drink was never ending. That, together with like 5 cans of 100 plus, made me want to puke by the time I was done. Nic Eu and I walked to the bus stop, and stomach was feeling super bloated and uncomfortable.

Overall it was a wonderful race. Always very fun to go for such stuff, with so many competitors around you and everyone trying to outdo themselves and feeling nervous along with you. Being in a relay gave me time to appreciate the race itself, and look at all the competitors (as well as their equipments!) Although the race didn’t go that well for me and I expected to do much better, it was still quite an okay effort considering the lack of training in the weeks leading up due to promos, and also falling sick just days before.

Haha sorry for the super long post, think no one actually read the whole thing. Oh, and PW is nearing the end! Can finally see the light

PW

2010-10-12T23:32:00.001+08:00

and now the whole school is doing pw. every where you go pw is around. omnipresence. 1 more month!

10-10-10

2010-10-09T21:22:00.001+08:00

omg its tomorrow! so excited!! hopefully the adrenaline will keep me going strong. and it sucks to be sick =X

win-lose day?

2010-10-05T23:32:00.001+08:00

so much excitement! being the “anchor” got a lot to think about. what if i don’t even get to race because of unforeseen circumstances (rain, bike tire puncture, fell etc)? What if we were far behind and I caught up! Or what if…I lost time?

Nevertheless looking for a great day on 10-10-10, which is also lose the game day! Hehe :D

And 7 hours lan, not as long as it seems but super draining; mentally and on my wallet

3 down 2 to go

2010-09-30T20:44:00.001+08:00

living one day at a time =)

promos

2010-09-27T21:14:00.001+08:00

Promos starts tomorrow and I feel under prepared. =(

I could really use a wish right now

mugging madness

2010-09-20T21:19:00.001+08:00

1 week to start of promos, and the WHOLE WORLD is mugging. like seriously, no hyperbole used there. me included, although im failing most of the time.

and 3 weeks to race!

I LOST THE GAME

2010-09-13T21:54:00.001+08:00

http://ilostthegame.org/rules

HAHA WHOEVER READS THIS PLAYS THE GAME NOW =) Yay more people to lose with me.

Funny Ad

2010-09-11T10:02:00.001+08:00

Enjoy the last few days of holiday!

Day of thinking and talking

2010-09-07T09:19:00.002+08:00

Alternative titles "Nike hike" or "Life is no Nintendo game"

Last few activities as a GC...it's been a fast 1 year. Today's night hike was really fun, especially stoning at Macs with Hiok and his suanning haha. But before that, let's talk about the hike!
Started off eating an early dinner at BK at Tiong Bahru, and was reminded of the Wayne's funny incident at Carl's Jr where he ordereduts a Whooper Jr...The route brought us east from tiong bahru through city area, kallang, and finally ECP. Total distance was close to 20km, and surprisingly we didn't have to cut short the route or didn't reach the end point super late. Guess GTC won't be too easy for us...it was cool to see the teachers keeping up with the super quick pace!
Along the way talked a lot to various people about various stuff. Leadership, 01, sports, random stuff, it was really cool to just be walking at night and reflecting in the year that has passed and also what lays ahead. Thought a lot about certain pertinent issues, and reminisced about the past. 5 years seem short, but a lot has been learnt and experienced. And of course more importantly there was growth.
I counted the number of scouts camp I went for over these years, and it tallied to a total of 31, and counting! 5 overnights, 4 SUTCs, 4 ACs, 4 night hikes, 4 GTCs, 4 first classes, 1 Vcord, 1 VC, 1 PLTC, 1 VLC, 1 NPC, 1 group celes.
Life is gonna be soooo empty after this year. Need to find something to fill the void

Youth Olympic Games

2010-09-01T23:44:00.001+08:00

The YOG came and went, from 14 to 26th August. On the local news and television it looks really great, with fantastic media coverage on almost all the sports (but none on triathlon ): ) and lots of hype generated. However, on closer look, how worth it was the $387 million really?

There have been reports of poor volunteer food at some places, sold out tickets yet empty spectator stands, compulsory support from students…all these from here, here, and here. Very interesting reads there.

There have also been very little report in international newspapers, so it got me thinking just how good was it really? If the whole point was to generate tourism and interest in Singapore and to showcase Singapore to the world…seems like it isn’t working that well.

Sometimes I really wish sports would be a huge thing in Singapore, like in Oceania, but honestly the climate and environment is a huge put-off. And I also wonder whether it is possible for Asian countries, not just Singapore, to ever do well in sports that do not require as much technique but more of innate talent, such as (obviously) triathlon and long d track events. For some reason we are way way off the top (look at the YOG triathlon results). Is it because of poor training methods, lack of training, or genetics?

Anyway, its really interesting to read newspaper, as well as sites like temasekreview.com. Shows you all the debates on current issues in SG, such as the extra NS $$.

Race is in 5 weeks. Promos in 4. Holidays in 1!!

What do you look like?

2010-08-23T08:20:00.001+08:00

Did I mention how much I love Monday mornings?

patrol orienteering

2010-08-15T18:03:00.001+08:00

i swear dome shaped caves are super cool!

sick

2010-08-10T21:43:00.001+08:00

it sucks to have a 5 day holidays, and be sick for 4/5 of it. but sc2 is fun!

zouk!

2010-08-06T10:48:00.001+08:00

my first time in a club, and it was because of school. o.o

it was really sucky at first, because they were squeezing at least 1k people in that pretty small place. but once you got used to the fact that you couldnt sit, you couldnt put down your bag (which has my uniform inside), and the only view of the stage was between 2 heads, it got pretty enjoyable. the performances and programme was not too bad, and i guess the fact that we were in a club made the community singing that much better. although i think the tiramisu smelling gas contributed to the highness.

in the morning was the observance ceremony, and its my first time doing that haha. somehow last year I didn’t, but cant remember why. Did not screw up majorly, although my slow marching really sucks X_X

and now 5 days of much needed holidays!

foul play!

2010-08-03T22:31:00.001+08:00

http://www.universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=486462.html#lances+attorney+usada+offering+riders+deals

how is this even legal? all because he won the tour 7 times…

help!

2010-08-02T22:36:00.001+08:00

I need to learn conversational Cantonese that is specific to the following keywords:

“Chicken, rice, vegetable, extra rice, more sauce”

Towards cheaper Lum and Chan!

TDF

2010-07-26T23:30:00.001+08:00

No more late nights due to watching Tour de France. It’s really an amazing 3 weeks watching all 20 stages + 1 prologue, and after 3000+km of racing, the difference between Contador and Schleck was only about 400m!

It was really a pity that Schleck couldn’t win (he was THIS CLOSE), but I believe that soon he will! Just hope he won’t be another Jan Ulrich. And it wasn’t a fairy tale ending for Armstrong, but the end of his cycling journey may be the start of his ironman victories for all we know!

To be honest, most parts of the stages were boring, especially on flat stages. However, the final few km of every stage more than makes up for it! Many times I would just be lying on my sofa watching the peloton go under the Flamme Rouge (1 KM to go) and my heart would be beating pretty quickly. The power of television…Watching the HTC train lead the way for Mark Cavendish, imagining I am Schleck attacking Contador on Col du Tourmalet, cringing when Schleck’s chain came out right after he attacked! At times I even laughed at how easy the riders make it, trying to mimic them on my very own cycling expeditions on Sunday mornings and mostly failing terribly.

Enough words! Let the pictures do the talking.

Just look at those eyes…

Ouch on the cobblestones!

Postcard-worthy photos!

Look at the pain in his face!

Yet another stage win in the bag to make it 5!

Friendly competition

Finally, the man who has made it to the ranks of other greats

Via Ferreta

2010-07-17T15:49:00.004+08:00

Got back all my CT results.

Chem - B

Econs - S

GP - D

Bio - D

Maths - A

GP and Bio was unexpected, but overall I'm glad. Could've done better for sure though.

Today was my PE elective. Pretty cool to be able to do sports climbing for PE right! And best of all its free =) There was the via feretta climbing, as well as abseiling. Via feretta is actually meant for outdoors, mountain climbing. But since Singapore doesn't have any mountains (as much as Mt Faber seems like one, it isnt!), we have an indoors one at Orchard Central!

"Get high on the world's tallest indoor via feretta" This is the BorderX tagline, and I find it super ironic. Its like saying "Run on this hottest marathon route you can ever find!" Its obviously subpar, yet they make it seem so great. But I've got nothing against them! It was really interesting, and the aircon is always welcomed.

A few people abseiling down.

A few more random pictures

Dude sawing our poles. Super fast!

Joel and my bike. =)

Subway staff can't think

2010-07-10T10:01:00.000+08:00

Never thought of it, but its so true!

Goal setting

2010-07-02T21:14:00.002+08:00

http://rwdaily.runnersworld.com/2010/06/my-training-doth-hereby-commence.html

Imagine the looks on their faces, when they learn you're no longer training! And
what they'll whisper about you behind your back! (e.g., "He was training for a
race. Now he isn't. What a weak, weak person.")

So so true!

So heres mine: I'm Training (with a capital T) to qualify for Boston in 2014! And complete a half iron by then too!

Life's good

2010-07-01T19:40:00.002+08:00

Last day of exams today!

The week started with Econs, and the case study was a gone case. But thankfully the essay was much easier, just had to regurgitate everything that I remembered. And surprisingly there was enough time for this paper, well somewhat. At least it wasn't as bad as the lecture test (which I still haven't gotten back...)

Next was Chem. 100 marks, 135min. I think I did pretty well for MCQ, and I hope I did okay for the rest. Can't remember much about the paper now, haha.

Followed by Maths. I was pretty confident for this, maybe cos it was the one I practiced most for during the holidays. Immediately after the paper I felt pretty good, then as the day went on and I compared my answers with others...oh well.

And today was Bio. Absolutely the worse paper, along with super bad conditions to do the exam. For a start I didn't bring my calculator, and somehow there was like 3 maths related questions inside. And after the main paper there was MCQ. As I tried to shade the first answer...the lead went into the mechanical pencil. Usually this would mean that the current lead is too short and I have to switch to another one. So I took the old one out and...lo and behold, the rest of the MCQ I had to shade while (trying to) hold onto the thin thin lead.

[zhi] says:
wtf
someone up there hates you

Totally agree. The worst thing is right after the paper, when I had time to try and fix the stupid thing, it become alright immediately. As for the paper itself, I think I'm quite screwed. Should just spend all the time mugging how to identify cell structures from the stupid black printing.

After exam is really fantastic. Spent quite a while just chilling with Joel and Nic Eu. Really nice to just chill there with nothing worrying me.

Underdogs rule!

2010-06-24T23:56:00.000+08:00

And Italy is out! Very intense last 5 minutes indeed!

2010-06-24T21:27:00.004+08:00

Got my first 31 today! Slowly but surely, one day it will be 40!

1 more week and CTs would be over. Am thankful that it is only 4 days long and not some draggy thing. Get it over and done with!

Last time I used to wish holidays would never end and school would never come. But as I get older I sometimes hope that school will start sooner cos life just seems weird without school. Maybe it has something to do with me not spending my holiday time productively so I feel it is a waste? Please let tomorrow be a good day or I am quite screwed! Hopefully SUC meeting goes well tomorrow...lots of disappointment there =(

Enjoy what is left of your holidays people!

Oh yes, I never realised I got so many stalkers =D Hi all stalkers!

World Cup Fever

2010-06-22T00:29:00.004+08:00

Just saw North Korea get trashed 7-0 by Portugal. Must suck to be the goalkeeper of NK; well Portugal as well, considering he doesn't get to see all the action. Some people on the tagboard of the website (yes I watch it online, yes I didn't pay $70 to watch the soccer action) were saying how they hope the team doesn't get executed when it all ends. Pretty funny, but if it happens won't be that funny anymore.

Quite cool how everything is fixated around the World Cup recently. From soccer field like pizzas to MSN nicknames; you name it you got it. And in 2 months time it will all be forgotten. It's certainly quite unfair that some sports get soooo much more attention than others.

In other news, watching "Run Fat Boy Run" yesterday reminded me of Julie Moss. It's this story about this lady who- well watch it yourself here. If she can do it, any of us can! If Fat Boy can run (limp rather) a marathon in 3 weeks of training, so can we!

And in some other news, I'm getting spammed with emails. About 20 in less than an hour, and still counting. Not that I mind though.

And in the last news, I am currently on Day 8 of no-break training! Hooray!

notorious overtrainers

2010-06-18T21:25:00.003+08:00

Read something I connected with

"
“You’re all triathletes,” said the keynote speaker, a famous cycling coach, to a large group of multisport athletes at a conference I was attending. “That means that 90 percent of you are overtrained right now.” Triathletes, historically, are the consummate “if some is good, then an excessive amount is what I’m going to do” group of athletes. Steeped in obsessive lore, the most famous triathlon stories are usually about training instead of racing. And for those in the inner circle, it’s even worse. Once asked by a reporter from a triathlon publication what he did for training, triathlon icon Scott Molina replied, “I’m not going to tell you, because you’ll think I’m an idiot.”

Triathletes: you gotta love ‘em. At least I love ‘em. But then again, I’ve been called stupid/obsessed/crazy (among other things) over my training endeavors for most of my life. And yet it’s triathletes who, more than any other group, try my patience on the message boards. “Why,” they’ll ask, “can’t I train for an Ironman and do P90X doubles in my spare time? All I was going to do was sleep anyway.”

I mean, c’mon, we’re talkin’ about the sporting obsessed. Remember, the first triathlon wasn’t the sprint or even the Olympic version of the race. It started with the Ironman and worked backward to more conventional distances.
"

How true. BUT, I'm not at this stage. Yet.

CTs

2010-06-18T12:05:00.001+08:00

oh shoot, i got to study! a bit more than 1 week left...

Y-Camp Challenge June'10!

2010-06-15T11:24:00.002+08:00

Participated in my first Y-Camp, wonderful experience! So many cheers, extremely lively atmosphere due to the enthuness of all the leaders, plenthora of smiles from all the beneficiaries, and not forgetting the drops of tears when it was time to leave!

Being in Sylvester (miao!) was great! Got to know many many cool, like-minded people in the group who all wanted to do our part for those that are not so fortunate. Like Yining said, our group was really really caring towards the beneficiaries! My bene was Lim Cheng Han from Bishan Home, and although he was not responsive for most parts of the camp, I was certain he enjoyed himself when I saw him dance/sing on campfire night and when he waved goodbye with a smile. It would have been good to get a responsive bene such as Hong Heng, but isn't the reason why we came for this to get out of our comfort zones and help others?

My mind opened to many things during this camp. Watching Ban Joo hitting his head after climbing the rock wall, seeing John cry after he could not reach the top of the rock wall, high-fiving Hong Heng and witnessing his infectious smile. Even though I was not as attached to my bene due to his dao-ness, I was still really touched by all the love around on the last day. I'm guessing the tears of the volunteers and benes were due to the happiness that they had over the past 3 days, the sadness of parting, and the abundance of memories (good or bad) that they shared over the short 3 day period.

And not forgetting the YCon people! I cannot imagine them stepping back to the wrong path after going through this camp, crying when their benes were leaving, witnessing that there are so many people out there who suffer a worser fate than them. And Pin Siang, Naszri, and Yan are all such wonderful and fun people! To me, I think that the program has been a major success.

During the last night and the lunch at Just Acia, we talked quite a bit about random stuff. It struck me how all of us have varying backgrounds (jc, poly, uni, army, working) and yet are all united at this camp for the same purpose. I felt a connection speaking to them, like how we all want to do our part for society while we still can. I'm pretty sure I will see them much more in the near future =)

Going into the camp on Day 1 was also quite a surprise for me, or rather even at the briefing. The leaders were all so enthusiastic with their cheers! It was amazing in getting the mood up, and just as what Yining mentioned, we mirror each other's enthusiasm. While it could get pretty irritating at times (Marlon...), it was mostly effective. People like Gazalli can shout REALLY LOUD, while lesser people like Yining lose their voice by 2nd night =P

Debriefs during the night are good as they provide a chance for us to relive the day, and remember any learning points. And I realise the importance of having a good leader for a debrief, as it provides the time for volunteers to learn. Something I will remember is "Never forget the power of a familiar face". So true, especially for those that we are helping. If they see the same face at 8 Y-Camps, it must be because this person really wants to make friends with them.

On the whole, G-double O-D-J-O-B Good job to all the volunteers and main committee! I believe a large majority of the benes had a great time at Y-Camp, and so did the volunteers. Hope to see more familiar faces in future Y-Camps, oooookay? Alright!

Y Camp OEI!

Efficiency

2010-05-27T20:29:00.003+08:00

Let's start with my tips on time-efficiency!

Tip 1: Use Iris (the bus service thing)
It tells you how long more you have to wait before your bus arrives. If you have a few ways to get home, this could be very useful and save tons of precious time especially if you usually wait super long for the bus (example 156). It's extremely useful for me, and I think the 5 cents is very well spent!

Example of how to use: After act, I can either take 156 or take Circle Line to Serangoon then bus from there back home. Travelling time for both trips are approximately the same, although the waiting time is super different. At the canteen, I will sms to Iris (74744) and if it is less than 6 minutes or so till 156 comes, I will take it. If its more than that, I will probably take MRT.

Tip 2: Buy food in the second half of break
During the first half, the queues for all stalls will be extremely long! And if you choose to buy like Lum and Chan you will queue for like 20 minutes or something. The solution? Slack for the first half, and buy only when the queue has disappeared! The time spent queuing (about 10 minutes or so) could be better used (hint: mug).

Tip 3: Do work at the last minute
Disclaimer: Not suited for people who do not work well and produce sloppy standards under pressure. I am NOT RESPONSIBLE for any overdue PW work too!

For me, I love to procrastinate. If the deadline is 1 week away and I try to do the work now, I will probably do it for 5 minutes, and slack for 1 hour. However, if the deadline is next day and it is 8pm already, I will chiong it finish by the time dawn breaks. If you compare the time spent on the assignment in both cases, the latter wins! And I don't think the quality is compromised much in my case because I'm quite a perfectionist.

The next post should be related to this (right, Joel?). Anyway all of the above are just my thoughts and may or may not be true/useful for you. Ciao!

Help! I need somebady help!

2010-05-16T21:41:00.001+08:00

Oh man I'm losing passion. Its been too long a break.

Whats the point?

2010-05-11T21:46:00.002+08:00

No its not an emo post. Its another philo/life talk.

Joel asked me whats the point for doing so much, and being so fit. What for run so much, cos theres a certain level of fitness that would be enough if I just wanted to live healthily. I didn't have the answer immediately, and I realised that I, too, had asked myself this before. What's the point?

Then I thought about it. Sense of accomplishment came first. The feeling of breaking a PB, or just finishing a long run strong makes me feel good. And then it leads on to stuff like "If I can run a marathon, I can do anything" sort of thinking.

And then when I thought about it even more, I realised that running gave me self confidence, amongst many things. If one day I manage to reach some sort of goal I once deemed impossible, it would make me know that if I wanted something and I work for it, I could get it. It also makes me confident as I know that I can control my mind and do what I should do, not what I want to do. For example, if I had to choose between sleeping in on a Sunday morning and waking up at 5 to cycle, I would choose sleeping in. However, because I know what I want to achieve, I can control myself and drag myself out of bed.

And that leads to another point: running trains the mind. Most of the time its mind over matter; its easy to give excuses such as "There's a lot of homework" or "I already ran yesterday" or "One day won't make a difference" etc etc. When I go for a run I am actually blocking out these negative thoughts from my brain, or the "devil" that is present in everyone of us.

There's many other reasons why I run, such as destress and giving myself time on my own where I am free from distractions and I can let my mind wander. But ultimately I believe it has made me a better person, as I am sure all the other runners in the world will attest to =) There must be a reason why so many people are doing it, right?

That's the point

Random thoughts

2010-04-28T20:33:00.002+08:00

Today I took the MRT home (next 156 was 27min away based on IRIS) and saw something interesting and had a thought.

One of the exit (E) at Serangoon MRT required you to take 3 escalators up to reach the surface. There were also flights of stairs next to the escalators. Upon walking out of the gantry, the first escalator is right in front of you, so most people would take the escalator rather than the stairs.

Escalators are usually placed in opposite directions of each other, so to get to the second one you would have to turn left, walk a bit, and turn left again to take the escalator. The interesting thing is this: the flight of stairs were to the left of the second escalator. This means that for people to take the escalator, they would have to walk past the stairs first, then take the escalator.

Food for thought: was this made on purpose? For me, I may climb the stairs just because I would have to walk that extra distance to take the escalator. I wonder if it is part of the plan to subtly make people climb stairs - for whatever reason. It is a pretty smart move on the developer if that was their intention.

This led me on to think about some of the innovative ideas I heard about before. For example, making stairs that would play a note (much like a piano) each time someone steps on it. Or make rubbish bins play some sound when a rubbish is thrown in. Simple and effective ideas. Maybe all the problems that we face may have simple solutions as well?

And today, I took the stairs.

NAPFA

2010-04-27T21:52:00.002+08:00

Finally got my 30 points!

2.4 - 9:29
Pull ups - 18
Shuttle run - 9.7
Sit up - 50
SBJ - 250 (!!)
Sit and Reach - 51

The sense of euphoria I felt after jumping over 246 for SBJ was indescribable.

And a post on AS soon!

2010-04-16T19:56:00.002+08:00

http://www.universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=462834.html#gebrselassies+impact+extends+beyond+running

Amazing man, more people should learn from him. He could set up companies in other countries and earn much more, but he chooses to invest in his own company.

"I always ask (American) journalists, how many years have you been helping this country, how many years have you been sending food to Ethiopia or Africa?" Gebrselassie said. "But if we learn to help ourselves, we help America and Ethiopia. In the future, when you send something, don't send us things that make us lazy. Food, for me, is like a temporary solution. A solution that is long lasting must be something to transfer knowledge, something that shows how to change the situation, how to change the country. I like the saying, ‘Don't give a man a fish, show him how to go fishing.'

(Something that starts with S) Seventeen!

2010-04-15T22:41:00.002+08:00

I turned 17 2 days ago! 3 more years and I would have lived for 2 decades, thats pretty long if you think about it. Thanks to all who wished me happy birthday, doesn't matter if its early or late. And thanks to my class for the wonderful card! So fun reading all the messages =)

9 days to AS, then its a pretty long break. And NAPFA's next week!

its all good!

2010-04-12T22:24:00.001+08:00

1 1839 SAMUEL BURSTON Australia Arden High School 00:32:53 00:21:07 00:53:59
2 1858 LI JIANRUI Singapore SAF 00:35:56 00:21:49 00:57:45
3 1849 TAN JIAYU Singapore NGEE ANN POLY 00:35:21 00:22:47 00:58:07
4 1842 JOSHUA RUSSELL HOONG HSIEN RUI Singaporean Temasek polytechnic 00:39:00 00:21:58 01:00:58
5 1834 AUGUSTINE TAN CHENGFU Malaysia Hwa Chong Institution 00:40:46 00:20:20 01:01:06
6 1819 JOEL WONG JUN JIE Singapore Singapore Sport School 00:38:42 00:22:43 01:01:24
7 1800 ZACHERY LIM Singapore St Andrew's Secondary School 00:38:44 00:23:04 01:01:47
8 1840 BARNEY ONG PECK YUEW Singapore Temasek Polytechnic 00:39:59 00:21:56 01:01:54
9 1850 KENNETH KUAN CHEE YIN Singapore Raffles Institution 00:39:49 00:22:31 01:02:20

9th place! 2 more years...maybe I'll reach the top!

Osim Singapore International Triathlon 2010

2010-04-11T20:44:00.003+08:00

Months after signing up for this race, the day finally came. Back then it seemed like forever before 10th April would come, but eventually it did.

The day started relatively late for me, 7.15. Ate a simple breakfast of cereal, took a bath, and went off to ECP with my parents. Upon reaching at about 8.45, I saw that the area was pretty crowded and bustling with activity, as the Kids and Mini Triathlon were ongoing. Quite cool to see little children running along with their bikes out of transition area.

Went to get my body markings, put my stuff in transition, and visualised the race (where to come in from the swim, where to exit bike etc etc). Then went for a short warm up swim, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. After just a short time in the water, it was already 9.40 and I realised I was going to be late, so rushed to the transition, put my specs there, and hurriedly walked all the way (barefoot), past the carpark to the starting area.

When I reached the starting area, all the green caps were already ready to go. I was thankful I didn't miss the start. Went in, waited for a while, and the race officials told us to wait till 10 as there were lightning warnings, a thunderstorm about 100km off Singapore. At 10, they told us wait another 30 mins as it still wasn't good to go. So I waited with my parents under some tentage for quite a long time. At 10.30, same thing. This lasted all the way till 11. Then they told us the bad news; the swim segment will be cancelled as it is too late already and if we had the swim, the road closure would run out by the time the elites had their races, and they would have to cycle with the cars. Hence, they "sacrificed" majority of the people's races for the elites. Oh well.

With the swim cancelled and with 15 minutes before the next update at 11.15, I went back to the transition area to wear my specs and race belt. We would start at the same place, but now we would run across the beach to the transition and start our bike leg directly. So now the race was a duathlon instead of a triathlon. At about 11.20, all those in my age group started lining up at the start line, and could feel the adrenaline from everyone. We were all anxious to go after waiting for close to 2hrs. Finally at 11.35, they got confirmation that it was all clear, and we were flagged off!

Right from the start, some crazy ang mohs sprinted all the way to the transition area and equally crazy Singaporeans followed closely behind. I ran at a relatively slow pace for about 150m to the transition area. I was in and out of the transition pretty quickly, only screw up was that I couldn't really find my spot when first coming in. And I got to practice running with my cycling shoes, and also running with my bike.

I didn't feel very strong at the start of the bike, and was doing about 33-34 for most of the start. I reckon I was about 15th out of the transition, and tried my best to go as fast as I could on the bike. Overtook some people, and some people overtook me too. At the first U-turn, was pretty shocked as the turning was super sharp and narrow. Legs were spinning throughout the ride, felt like I wasn't pushing enough yet at the same time couldn't push more. After the first lap, the people from the other waves have also started and the bike course was slightly more crowded on the second lap. Pretty uneventful, although my speed went up slightly to about 35km/h. My bike was pretty slow compared to the other youths from my age group, so room for improvement there!

After the bike leg, I ran into transition, took off my shoes and helmet, put on my shoes, and I zoomed out of the transition pretty quickly. Surprisingly, my legs felt pretty good and I guess it was the result of the brick trainings that I did. For the first part of the run I was following this dude and we were going at about 4.15min per km I think. We passed some other runners, and I felt pretty strong. Then after the U turn, he sped up and I couldn't really keep up, so I ran alone at about the same pace. I passed about another 3 more people, but 1 guy (might be 2) passed me. Nearing the finishing line, I remembered to pose for the cameras (yay!) and sprinted past the line.

My watch timing was 1:02:53, which was better than I expected. According to my dad my position was 15th, which was very disappointing for me. Didn't feel super tired after the race, which probably meant I could have pushed more during the run.

I've lots more to work on, especially the bike. However, I'm quite glad with my run as I think this is my personal best for 5k (about 22min), even though it was after 20km of bike. Just got to cycle more with Joel. Was a good race, although I'm sad that we didn't get to do a proper triathlon. All in all, a good first multi-disciplinary race!

No pain, no gain

2010-03-23T20:54:00.003+08:00

First time this year I returned home from a normal school day before 5 =D

School workload is still normal and manageable, scouts is relatively (keyword) slow-paced, and trainings are going (pretty) well! It seems as though scouts and trainings are...competitive goods. Is that even right?

Next few weeks will be busy period once again, but OSIM is coming up! When I registered it seems so far away, and in a blink of an eye its in about 3 weeks!! And the worse thing is that NAPFA is also around then, can't imagine doing 2.4 1 day before OSIM. But the good thing is that I'm training for both at the same time. The thought of hitting sub-9...Then again, people say what's so fun about that, and I don't really have an answer. Maybe sense of accomplishment. Maybe I just like being fast.

closure

2010-03-09T23:43:00.003+08:00

Term 1 is about to end, and theres a much needed 1 week (more like 4 days) break.

Congrats to all who did well for their A-levels! In 2 years time it will be my turn. Perfect score? We'll see about that...

And today a bomb was dropped on us, in the middle of SUTC and finishing of First Class. Super stressful times man...hopefully our poles are not lost somewhere in the ocean.

skoo

2010-02-26T20:49:00.002+08:00

I guess I haven't really updated about school life, and it seems apt to talk about it now where things are pretty much in full swing.

School work is still manageable as of now, and making full use of time in school is super important, especially for me. I manage to squeeze time to do tutorials and mug a bit of each subject, so I guess I'm able to handle RJC life pretty well =)

But once my lessons are done, I'm always doing "scouts stuff". I feel pretty no life, but I guess thats the reality of it. I'm happy doing stuff for scouts, but not that happy that thats all I do. Sometimes I feel like I'm not making full use of my time in RJC because all free time I have is spent on 01, and don't really have time for anything else.

First class is tomorrow! Hoping for the best for all candidates, although I'm pretty sure half of them will fail.

india self suan

2010-02-25T23:15:00.002+08:00

My GP tutor showed us some super funny videos when he couldn't think of anything else to deliver to us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDa2K28G3eU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdesIbwOYAA

Enjoy!

its my laaaaaaiiiiiiffe

2010-02-17T22:03:00.002+08:00

Overnight is in...2 days! Hopefully nothing screws up and the first camp of the year will be a blast! Go GC!

On a totally unrelated note, GC is so rewarding =)

I'm better than that!

2010-02-11T20:12:00.002+08:00

I'm glad to say I have matured in thinking.

Today I was listening to my Shuffle, on the way home after getting some badges from HQ (finally!). 156, as usual, was pretty packed and I squeezed to the rear door after boarding. Being CONSIDERATE, I stood close to the door so that I do not block the aisle leading to the seats at the back. In the process, I may have unknowingly caused extreme distress to certain bigger sized people who were alighting as I was blocking half the door.

As the bus was nearing the stop after J8, the song I was listening to ended and I could hear what the people around me were saying. Then the door opened for people who were alighting at the stop. There was this Indian middle-classed man who was standing to the left of me, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR, who alighted. Just as he left the bus, he said something along the lines of "Don't block the way la you stupid -" At this point the next song played and I didn't catch whatever vulgarities he was spewing at me. At this point I was pretty bewildered because my purpose in standing there was so I DO NOT block the way. And that coward chose to say that just before he left the bus so I could not say anything to retort him. What a bugger.

And that wasn't the end of the epic drama (which actually lasted only about half a min). The bus drove away from the stop, and passed by that dude which probably had a really really bad day. He turned, looked at the bus, stared at me, and showed me how long his middle finger was. For the next few minutes my blood was boiling because I was not in any wrong at all, and he just made the rest of the people on the bus think I'm a 'typical' arrogant RI guy.

The more I thought about it during the rest of the bus ride, the more amused and proud of myself I got. First of all, I didn't shout back at him, and neither did I compare the length of my middle finger to his. Secondly, I was actually sympathising with the guy for having such a horribly bad day that he had to resort to scolding poor me.

I'm really glad that I am able to say I can take control of my emotions. And I will not stoop to his level and scold him back because that just shows how little self control I have. I'm better than that!

2010-02-08T22:51:00.000+08:00

walao this sucks.

you never know what it truly means until you experience it yourself.

orientation!

2010-01-30T16:14:00.002+08:00

Life is just so good, orientation is so fun, the world seems perfect.

Today went to canoe trials, and I'm glad I did. At least I can look back next time and say, once I was at this standard of fitness.

And orientation is really so fun! Fantastic OG and OGLs, and the most I've laughed in quite a while. For now 01 is taking a back seat.

School starts proper soon, hope I get a fantastic class!

level up!

2010-01-15T18:47:00.002+08:00

just one week of training and I feel soo much fitter. 7 days of exercise in a role? no problem! 20k run? no problem (i hope)!

now to find my sponsor haha

macritchie

2010-01-13T22:20:00.002+08:00

Despite getting lost, running in MacRitchie was pretty fun. Seems like I'm a trail sort of guy after all!

School is starting, and before I know it, AC will come, CTs will come, Promos, GTC, then poof! I'm in j2! Then poof again! It's after A levels! Poof! Army! Poof Poof Poof! I'm dead!

2010-01-11T23:39:00.002+08:00

Where can you ever find a dedicated team of old boys coming back to help, whose sole purpose is to improve each individual? Sounds like a FedEx ad, but its 01! Its amazing how all that we are doing is actually to maximise each member's potential. All that msn convos, emails, documents, minutes, proposals, acts. All for that.

In other news, B3. Good, and no good. But its over. I'm not retaking.

loooooong days

2010-01-07T23:19:00.001+08:00

Past 1 week or so has just been meeting up, lunch, discuss/act, dinner, go home, mass convo/email. And a hell lot of thinking.

GC has no life =)

happy new year!

2010-01-02T00:49:00.002+08:00

1 day overdue, but happy new year to all! Work hard, play hard, be rewarded!

Have a good one

Get Together Camp

2009-11-25T23:54:00.002+08:00

How nice would it be if it was a get together camp aka chalet instead of a group training camp. We wouldn't have to carry 7 meals and a ton of equipment. We wouldn't have to walk distances longer than a marathon and not get a shirt that says "I am a Finisher of 42.195". And we wouldn't have to eat sand.

But this is the last time I will ever get pumped/tekan until army comes. After this, I will be pumping others. Somehow it has been 4 years since I first got pumped. But at least GTC will be fun in a certain way. Not masochistic-aly, but just fun. Just like how kayaking was fun even though it's now causing wierd spots on my shoulder and neck that makes me look like the 2008 chair of info comm. But at least I got my 2 star without much trouble, and 3 star sounds really fun =)

After GTC, will be rushing the hike log, then going for vcord and hoping I pass, then rushing yet another hike log, then rushing survey area, then flying off for holiday, then coming back and planning some stuff for CCAL camp, then going for a real chalet, and facilitating CCAL camp, then planning acts for next year, and next year will start.

Holidays have ended

Spirit of the Marathon

2009-11-16T23:19:00.003+08:00

Just finished watching that awesome movie on youtube, thanks to that kind soul who uploaded all of it. Being a runner myself, I can really relate to some of parts of the video and what some of the runners are saying. Watching them run the marathon and finishing it, crying tears of joy and hugging strangers they never knew before but who also had the same experience as you.

One part of the movie mentioned something about an event that has over 30 thousand people all doing the same thing and having the same thoughts that you are having. This is truly the only sport around where anyone can take part in. And while the journey there may be tough, I've no doubt that it is also very rewarding.

In other news, today was another really shitty day! The first part of the day was really productive. I managed to squeeze in a blog post, photocopied all the documents I needed for Pre U scholarship, went home and snuck off to the pool for a quick 30min swim. Came back home, wolfed down my lunch and went to school to submit the application.

First horrible thing happened. I boarded the bus, struggled to get the wallet out of the small pocket in the RI PE pants, tapped the wallet to the reader and wondered why there wasn't that "di!" sound that was I always heard. Then I opened my wallet and realised that I had taken out the card and forgot to put it back...thankfully I had a ton of coins and paid 60 cents.

After handing in the application, there was act which was sweaty as usual. PT was pretty managable; at least compared to last week's. After act, I took the bus back and I prepared the 60 cents to pay for the fare. Upon dropping the 6 10 cent coins that I had into the money thing on the bus, the driver gave me an angry look and I imagined he must be thinking something like "WTF WHY GIVE 60 CENTS ONLY YOU @#^&%$@*#)(&@!!!" Then he told me it wasn't enough, I told him I'm a student, and he told me where's your card. Obviously I didn't have it, and he tell me I need it to prove that I'm a student. I mean if I have my card why would I bother paying in coins, wasting 16 cents and having to speak to someone as grumpy as him. I don't think I look old enough to be an adult, and I boarded the bus right outside RI. And he also said something about now its the school holidays. I was thinking to myself what has that got to do with me being a student or not. Holidays or not, I am still a student and wouldn't make a difference to the consession rate. At that point I didn't have any coins left, so he grudgingly accepted the 60 cents and muttered some complains under his breath.

On the bus, I slept and...overslept. Missed by 1 stop. I walked all the way home and...the lift was spoilt.

I live on the 10th floor.

I was carrying a laptop.

Oh well my life sucks. Maybe the lost karma will be used during tomorrow's interview. Or on the run.

Imbalance of life

2009-11-16T09:20:00.003+08:00

Last Saturday we had 2 star kayaking at Kallang Basin. The place is smartly camouflaged under a highway of some sorts, and being the good scouts that we are, some of us got lost a total of 2 times and we ended up being 30 minutes late.

Other than that minor hiccup, the rest of the lesson was pretty fun, with Tak being suay enough to capsize twice unintentionally, and Anurak who got targetted by Stanley due to his GLness. The instructors were all quite cool, strict yet fun at times. And the weather that day was unbelievably good, seeing as how the past few days were raining and it only rained during lunch time that day.

While we were kayaking, there were also the manly dragonboaters around, not just guys but also girls. We take comfort in the fact that the girls were doing assisted pullups, but some of the guys have such a sick physique. While watching them dragonboat though, I can't help but wonder; since dragonboat only requires them to pedal on one side, do they all have super imbalanced bodies? Or do they actually switch sides once in a while to offset the imbalance?

And to sidetrack, I was doing my Pre U scholarship essay yesterday, and inevitably I also thought that if we mug too much, will we become imbalanced? Do we have to switch sides, like the dragonboaters, and do something different (like triathlon)? Then again, maybe being imbalanced in life is not such a bad thing.

But I'm pretty certain it is a bad thing for the dragonboaters. Because then, they cannot camouflage into the crowd - unlike the WV outlet.

2009-11-10T13:59:00.003+08:00

You have been in my life ever since I was born.

I have had a love-hate (ok mostly hate) relationship with you since Primary School.

I have neglected you most of the time, but the past few months have seen the most interaction between the 2 of us.

Hopefully I will never ever cross paths with you again.

Goodbye, Chinese.

the butterfly effect

2009-11-05T17:14:00.002+08:00

a butterfly flaps its wings and a tornado happens in the other side of the earth. and its nothing to do with hasty generalisation or wtv cock

anw was just thinking of how if i screw up chinese next tues, i may not get a perfect grade, not get scholarship, not go overseas uni (if i want to) and my life will be a whole lot different.

and then again theres psle. what if i had made a careless mistake in 1 maths qsn, screwed it up, get less than 260, and not get into RI? then i wouldnt have been in 01, wouldnt have met a whole group of people, and again my life will be a whole lot different.

or maybe i would have gone hci and been in an even better cca (which i doubt it), make even better friends (possibly classmates), and life would again be different.

stuff like these are so cool, but thinking too much abt it can make you crazy. i had 60 laps in the pool today to think about it.

last day of school tmr, but it doesn't seem to mean anything to me. not sad that im leaving this class of mine, certainly not sad im leaving behind stuff like RE and random assembly programmes, but a bit sad to leave some friends. then again, looking forward to whatever RJC has to offer, which is quite a lot.

2009-11-04T22:24:00.002+08:00

is it better to try and screw up and face whatever consequences there are, or don't try at all?

today i was repairing my bike, some stuff wasnt right, and i tried to fix it. while fixing it, i accidentaly caused a new problem, and the previous problem was still there, and now there were 2 problems. after much sweating and worrying, i decided to leave it and go to a bike shop tmr to get it repaired.

and chinese Os are in a week. i know i should be studying, but i dont feel like studying, as usual. but then again i will study, eventually. after chinese Os...woohoo!

cos you had a bad day

2009-10-28T18:26:00.002+08:00

ever had one of those days where everything just seems to go wrong? today was that day for me

my mum woke me up at 5.45 cos she thought i had school. i did have to go school, but only had to wake up at 6.30

i stoned in school from 9.30 till 2.30 cos there was supposed to be act. but it got cancelled.

i went cycling and 2.4km in, my tire punctured and i did not bring wallet/handphone. i had to walk all the way back - in tights and cycling shoes

i came home and the door was locked. the only person inside was bathing.

i was bathing halfway and the water pressure just died on me.

oh well today cant get any worse i suppose.

i wonder what all those people whom i walked past were thinking. i was clad in full spandex/lycra, holding onto a nice looking road bike, sweating like an ass, and walking like a retard cos of the cleats on the shoes. must be an amusing sight for them

eoy is ending...

2009-10-22T17:46:00.000+08:00

tomorrow! (im taking a break from bio ;P )

last act before gtc

2009-09-16T21:04:00.002+08:00

today was interug half marathon and basketball. the very one that i missed last year cos of OIP at Hue. i started with high hopes of getting first, as we have a very strong team. but it turns out, 02 had an even stronger team, so kudos to them for winning

im happy with myself for overtaking bb and causing about 40s gap. and i felt really light wearing my zoot. and ernxu stop fanning over it goddamit

on another note, this is the last activity before...gtc. and that is the last gtc before we are the ones organising it. be prepared for hell lot of abraisions, blisters, mosquito bites and whatever else might come my way. of course a few hundred aching muscles, thats understood already.

and after gtc...well just say im not looking forward to then =s

rebecca!

2009-09-12T20:10:00.001+08:00

today's a cool day! went to visit ms goh and her baby, rebecca (goh!) lim. nothing much about the baby, except that it has a lot of hair and it knows how to make the poopoo sound =D

but the journey there was pretty eventful as well. we met up at tampines 1 to buy some presents + eat lunch, and also because we (zhixuan) thought that she lived near tampines. actually it was in simei, and turns out there was also a block 22X (blocked out for privacy! take that, stalkers!) in tampines. in the end zhixuan rememberd/realised there was simei mrt as well, but thankfully there was a direct bus from wherever we were to her house.

at her house, we said hi, ate a lot of ice cream (ben&jerry wow!), butter cake, and had some drinks. and we also talked a hell lot, updated ms goh on whatever has been happening in school, in scouts, in life etc. we really talked a lot, and also reminiscended about the past. oh and also ate some warheads, hehe.

after that we walked (correctly this time) to simei mrt, and i went to join my family for dinner at serangoon garden's aston's.

and last thursday i got a new shoe! zoot advantage, for $100+. looks fantastic. took it out for a run on friday, without socks, and got slight blisters on right foot, but this shoe will do alright for my shorter distances. as for longer ones, theres still my asics.

and hillary post will come soon, i promise!

hcs2009!

2009-09-04T21:14:00.000+08:00

hillary challenge is tmr. and the trials seems so yesterday, esp talking to mr ibrahim yesterday, reminded me of the puzzle game. i will give it my all, and hope for the best.

today was interhouse day, i took part in aquathlon. was a really great experience, showed me where i stood, and how much more i can improve from people like kenneth lim. but i met my own personal goals of doing my best, and while we didnt 100% deserve the gold medal, the end didnt really matter to me. it was just a interhouse race, not much of a big deal.

first of many races to come my way. good start to it =)

2009-08-27T22:50:00.000+08:00

It is ironic how, now, I do not wish for it to happen. Fear of the unknown? Probably.

what now?

2009-08-27T15:42:00.000+08:00

Did i make the right decision to join? Or should i have just stuck to my happy life, and spare myself all these?

I may not be viscous, but it does not mean I don't have a boiling point. Push me too much, things get ugly.

Help. Who do I turn to?

cool stuff!

2009-08-20T18:43:00.001+08:00

http://dailyviews.runnersworld.com/2008/10/next-barrier-th.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYg4CMJ6p-w

haha people have such FAAAANtastic sense of humour. reading stuff like these is just so funny =D

official timing

2009-08-18T15:54:00.000+08:00

Name: KENNETH KUAN CHEE YIN
Net Finish: 02:07:09.45
Category: 21KM MEN'S OPEN

hehe my watch got 2:07:11. so this will be the time to beat whenever I next join a HM =)

2009-08-16T22:42:00.001+08:00

Dear Participant, Your registration for the OSIM Singapore International Triathlon 2010 has been confirmed.

good luck to me =)

bay run 09

2009-08-16T15:09:00.000+08:00

i have completed a half marathon!

ok fine its 7 minutes off my goal time but at least i can say i can run 21km (almost) non stop. still awaiting the official results, but my chip time SHOULD be around there.

"pain is temporary but pride is forever"

race expo

2009-08-07T19:38:00.000+08:00

went to collect my race pack today, first time i actually went to collect it. quite a lot of people streaming in and out, but collecting was fast, although i stayed for quite a long time.

training today was also nice, first time since prelims that everyone came. quite pleased that i managed to reach the top of the rock wall, as being 10m+ above the ground isnt really my thing. good job to everyone today =)

10 days

2009-08-06T22:07:00.000+08:00

10 more days till my 2nd anniversary of SBR. 10k last yr, 21k this year. goal is 2 hr, but doubt i can meet that if my injury acts up. wish me luck =)

oh and whoever feels rich, can sponser me this. haha one can try

the end is near...

2009-07-31T19:03:00.001+08:00

its amazing how much impact an individual can have on others. in both ways.

past 2 weeks or so have been super busy, with physics and socdoc due on the same day. last thursday was spent entirely on socdoc, from 2.30pm all the way till 4.30am (:O) and me having a grand total of 1.5h of sleep. camperama was right after that. so you can pretty much guess how foamy my entire weekend was.

camperama itself was super fun, but my mood now would make it seem so unfun. anyway, anurak's litra entry about it is just so marvelous, so i shall just kop it.

"
Just a short post to recount Camperama.

Gathered after school.
Oreos.
Bradell Westlake.
Mini-Pudge.
Leonard Leng and his imba skills.
Sitting in the lorry.
Carpark.
OTOT is the new Dubyew.
Tying gateway.
Bony!
Red ants.
Deo flamethrowers.
$4 Hokkien mee.
Go Fish!
Pavilion.
Next day.
Putting up banners.
Tak's $4 knife.
Roti prata breakfast.
Kitchen tents.
Blasting music.
Tying balloons.
Balloons within balloons.
Balloons within balloons within balloons.
Pitching dome tents.
Retrieving the tent which went into the sea.
Prepare for campfire.
Reverse tepee.
Kerosene bomb.
Dinner.
Campfire.
Durian shelling.
Movie screening which we didn't see.
Cycling.
Cycling even more.
Park connectors.
Foam.
The bridge which we crossed the long way.
Getting lost in Bedok park.
Pasir Ris.
Snickers and 100 Plus.
Cycling.
Back to camp at 3am.
Sleep.
Wake at 7am.
Foam.
Breakfast.
Unpitch stuff.
Lorry.
Siglap CC.
Bradell Westlake.
Unload stuff.
J8 and lunch.
Good to go?
"

The last line is really just a perfect way to end it. and of course, if that isnt enough, theres still the beautiful photos that alvin took! link

and today was not good at all, have a lot to rant but it wont do justice to those coming here to cheer up. just hope the whole day spent tmr with 0106 will make me feel much better.

greedisbad

2009-07-18T20:04:00.002+08:00

how ironic. my previous post i was talking about how nice the cycling community is, and today i had a theft attempt on my bike.

my bro took used my bike to commute to the gym, and locked it outside. when he came out, the seat post was gone. a woman nearby said she saw 2 indian kids trying to steal the bike. and my brother saw those 2 secondary sch ppl just as he exited the gym, but didnt think much of it. he tried chasing, but couldn't find them, then somehow a while later the woman came back with the younger of the two, a secondary 1.

in the end, both of them returned the stuff they stolen, which was the seat post, seat quick release and pouch. apparently they had wanted to steal the bike as well, but was unable to break the lock, and ended up spoiling the lock as well. so they were just told to pay for the lock, and nothing else. no police report, never tell their parents.

although my bike is fine, clearly the integrity of some people aren't.

cycling community

2009-07-13T19:54:00.003+08:00

today was doing a short ride to explore, and saw this road bike cyclist doing loops around a certain area i was exploring. correction, saw him 4 times. first time, he just looked at me. second time, he waved to me. third time, he asked me (using hand sign) if i was doing loops as well. and the last time he just waved once again.

when you are on a bike and you see another cyclist and look at them, most of the time they will also be looking at you. theres a kind of unspoken...friendship? yet another reason why i love this sport of triathlon; the community is so fabulous.

first bi brick

2009-07-10T20:09:00.002+08:00

woohoo today's training was wonderful. everyone's performance was dam good, and its dam heartening to know that =p

on a not that nice note tho, i think my swim has a lot to improve on, especially endurance.

its been a long time since i felt so shiok knowing i trained hard and came out of it alive.

:(

2009-07-03T20:02:00.002+08:00

i hate my right knee. just 5km and the pain comes back. and sbr is in about 40 days...how?

term 3!

2009-07-01T20:33:00.002+08:00

=o its already term 3 of sec4. 2 more terms and im in JC!

june hols felt a bit different from past years, maybe cos im so much busier. finally i didnt get the slack feeling too much, which is extremely good as that feeling sucks and makes me think im a waste of space.

on a brighter note...i love swimming now! cos of my leg injury i stopped running and changed to swimming and im proud to say i self taught myself front crawl and (partly) total immersion!

its really dam easy to swim front crawl once the technique/form is correct. now i cant wait to brick train even more! hopefully next year i can do the ocbc cycle, sg bi, some sprints, and maybeeee if im ready, ocbc tri! then a 70.3, then ironman, then...

one can dream.

my scouting life thus far

2009-06-18T17:45:00.003+08:00

since today is such a boring day, i shall blog about my scout life since i joined in sec 1, 2006. ive been wanting to do this for quite a while, and this post is inspired by a senior =) have fun guessing who. oh and if you are a non scout reading this, good luck trying to understand most of it.

when we were told to choose our ccas in sec 1, my first 3 choices were sports (something like softball rugby judo i think). and my 4th and 5th choice i contemplated between putting 01 and 02, somehow 4th choice was 01 and im thankful it was 01. so my sports applications were rejected, and yea i was put in 01. remember it was a 4th choice, so i wasn't exactly very happy about it at that time.

the first ever moment i remember was sitting at a table in the shaw foundation ceremonial hall. then-stls hiokhong and alvinyong were there, along with ms goh and the rest of 01-06. ms goh asked us to say what we thought scouting was about, and i remembered saying something generic like outdoors, camping etc. (and i also remember sup saying guns and all of us laughing at his answer. typical sup =D)

i got posted to falcon, and i was in falcon all the way through till sec 3. my first impressions of my patrol were pretty good. koala and hq were just so hilarious in anything they do, and qianwei and benhong were exactly what i thought a senior should have been. first part of sec 1 was fun, just going for act every wednesday, pump a bit, laugh a lot, lala here and there. friday patrol meetings were non existent for falcon, it was just go den, take attendance, and zhao off. and the first part of sec 1 ended with SUTC.

SUTC was really a diferent camp from my idea of camps last time. sec 1 it was at balestier hill primary if i remember correctly, and my patrol was juggerknot (theme was dota). my fitness increased dramatically, my mental strength improved by leaps and bounds. but 01-06 still wasnt solid. i remember being more attached to the then-sec 2s, somehow always drifting to them rather than 01-06.

next major thing that came up was GTC. absolutely tiring, totally exhausting, but extremely rewarding. people keep saying GTC is life changing, and yea i totally agree with that. some memorable things were 1. hotel ubin 2. 6 loafs of bread 3. frickin long hikes 4. THAT night call 5. big petty jug

number 4 will be something i remember for as long as i can remember hopefully. its such a special moment that really kickstarted our batch bonding, and since its so special it cant be expressed in words.

and the last part of sec 1 was group celes. all i can remember was jianliang saying something like "i hope i have done a good job with the gc next year".

sec 2 went by in a blur. somehow i dont remember much except batch project. the endless hours we spent in the library tying our knots, the fun moments (how to save a life!) we had stoning in the project room once again, tying knots. and it was really rewarding to see our stuff being sold at AVSW, to know that we have actually helped the group.

oh another thing i remember about sec 2 is SUTC. the last part of SUTC was really cool, where we formed 01 while in pushup position. and the j1s were really fantastic to give each and every one of us cards with feedback on them. i still keep mine =)

gtc was painful, as always. just that this year was more painful than last year. the sense of relief upon reaching back to RI was just amazing, and the blisters and abraisions i had were just sooo disgusting. and the night call at west coast park...still remember how dam loud leonard shouted, how much it echoed throughout the night. and the crowding in the pavillion when it rained was just so fun, and ms goh calling us mother hens or something like that.

moving on to the more recent sec 3. being patrol leader was fairly stressful at times, especially at the start of the year when i was not used to it yet, and also during AC period where its just pure mentally tiring. i wished i had been a more fun person like how koala and haoqin were, but i guess its just how my personality is. sometimes i regret being too strict with the patrol on stuff, and wished i could be more like eagle where they just whatever everything and everyone has fun.

getting 1st for AC was a pleasant surprise, and it was made possible due to every single member in falcon. no one slacked, everyone worked hard, and yea the effort paid off. it made all the preparation seem so worth it.

and i have no idea why my sec 3 life seems so uneventful at this point in time. weren't we supposed to learn the most in sec 3?

and lastly, venturing is just awesome. having a chance to do something different from the past 3 years is nice, but having a chance to do something different WITH your best friends is just amazing. and im just hoping this year never ends, cos when we get to j1 its inevitable we will split up into those who get into gc and those who dont, and i really wish it doesnt happen. im so not looking forward to end of this year =(

and of course looking ahead, theres still gc to go, where it will be a lot of stress yet very rewarding as well.

im so thankful i got my 4th choice

the curious case of my desktop

2009-06-18T12:05:00.003+08:00

i was using my desktop normally last wednesday when the keyboard AND mouse just died on me. tried all methods to repair it, and nothing would work. even called up dell, but they didn't have any solution for this problem. so now my desktop is left rotting in my room, and im using my dad's desktop. it was really quite a bad time la, seeing as how my proposal for VPA was due on the friday to zx actually, so I had to redo it when i came back from...

VLC! yea basically thanks to everyone in VLC, ranging from 01-06, to other venture scouts, to the leaders, to the (very old) lecturers, to the people working at terror sea scout. some of the people are reallly wonderful, like justin, who is desperately getting people to add him on msn/facebook =p despite the 3 hrs of sleep, it was still dam fun (but suuuper humid!)

and when i went jogging 2 days ago, my right knee hurt after that, and after yesterday's super tiring swim training it hurt even more, then after a while the pain went away. no idea what is wrong, but ill limit my exercises to swimming as much as i can to let my leg heal. and i really hope it heals.

its already the 3rd week of hols. this june hols got frickin lot of projects, and glad to say at least SS is going well, although the rest are *ahem*. hopefully h1n1 causes sch to be closed even longer hehe

hillary

2009-06-11T22:25:00.003+08:00

k this is long overdue. 8 days to be precise.

so we won hillary! old news haha. but yea its quite cool cos i never really won any competition before, other than nspc heats for chariot race, but yea thats another story. up against 27 other teams, including raffles team 2, and im quite surprised we came up tops! was just hoping we could qualify at first, but yea it was a pleasant surprise to know we are doing good.

but the hc prelims itself wasn't that much of a challenge to be fair. most of the stuff we did didnt even require a leader or teamwork, it was more like if one person knew how to do it, you have already cleared the stage. so in that sense, yea we shouldn't be too complacent about the double 1st and 2nd for raffles, although its still a job well done.

oh and our team rocks. i shall refrain from using the team name, it makes me sound egoistic. DISCLAIMER: I SO DID NOT COME UP WITH THAT NAME HOR. I AM NOT AN EGO DUDE
haha but yea its all for fun so, whatever.

and i swear zann is the most hardcore girl i have ever known. she puts me to shame -.-"

pics from vc

2009-06-07T23:00:00.001+08:00

yea i was shitting or something. too bad

guess what this is

week 1 of hols!

2009-06-06T20:50:00.002+08:00

what a week. first of course was vc, followed by hc, then a whole day with 01-06, then nyaa, and today was hc training.

i owe about 3 blog posts now, 1 for vc, 1 for hc, and 1 for that super long thursday.

and i think i trained too much, starting to feel an injury in my right leg now, and my left leg's injury hasn't totally healed. need to be more careful from now on.

and who would like to sponser me? =D tri stuffs are really ex

Venture Camp!

2009-06-05T17:07:00.004+08:00

If you are looking for finger-licking good chicken to eat while sitting on the sand and defending the chicken from the stray bloodhounds eyeing your food, Pulau Ubin is the place to be. But before we get to that, we shall go back 1 day in time, to the start of Venture Camp!

To quote Zhongjun, "finally a reporting venue in the west..." And the honour goes to Mayfair Park! We were told to report here at 8am on Saturday, 30th May, and although the place was semi-unknown to many (except people like Zhongjun of course), most of us managed to report on time for the horseshoe. After the reorganising of groups and a quick inspection (and lots of ionised water droplets for me), Sup was to lead us to the start of our close terrain navigation. Fastforwarding past the boring and tiring walk along the long stretch of tar known as Rifle Range Road, we reached our start point/1st checkpoint and were told to look for a control card, which was a white piece of paper with 01's group emblem on it. Zhongjun lived up to his skills, and in a fashion where he would have said, "My gold orienteering not for nothing!", he found the cunningly placed control card, which was stuck on a random tree a few meters in from the road.

The next few hours up till 3pm was spent in Macritchie, where each group split up in search for even more cunningly placed control cards. My group, which consisted of Anurak, Soham, Leonard, Tak Wei and myself, stayed true to the purpose of this entire activity and practiced the skills we learnt, which was in essence just dead reckoning. There would be 1 navigator, 1 plotter, and 3 pacers, and we rotated the roles after each checkpoint. The basic navigation went something like this: After walking 100m in a straight line, the pacers would stop and shout "100m!". Hearing that, the navigator would say out the bearing we were walking at for the past 100m, and the plotters would plot this on the enlarged topo map version of Macritchie. Of course, this was the ideal case and what is desired does not always concur with reality. Often it went something like this: After walking anywhere between 95-105m in a direction thats off by a few degrees, the navigator will announce the bearing which is incorrect and the plotter will estimate the bearing and mark it out on the map. This was a perfect recipe to get lost, but being skilled venture scouts as we were, we managed to find the 1st checkpoint, although it was a good 70m away from where we thought it would be.

We reached the next few checkpoints in similar fashion. Note that reaching the checkpoint does not mean finding the checkpoint. This being Macritchie with all its crevices and revines and us not being people with GPS devices, it was fairly impossible to find a control card even though we know it is within a 50m radius of where we were. Sad to say, the first checkpoint was one of two checkpoints that we actually found on our own. One of the other checkpoint was somehow lost or eaten up as Zhi Xuan, who was following my group, could not even find it. Another checkpoint was skipped simply because the time we took searching for it was too grosteque. And the last checkpoint was found first by Sup's group, and we conveniently went to where we heard them shouting. The final checkpoint, however, was worthy of mention. We knew it was along a road, and we knew it was about 200m from a junction. Hence we paced that distance, and just as we reached the 200m mark, we turned left and immediately could spot the control card. This was an amazing feat compared to Francis's group, whom I heard took a long time to find the card, and who also tried to scam my group into believing its at the top of some random hill. Too bad! My group was just too good.
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ah screw it, takes too long writing properly. oh that was inspired by nyaa lesson, haha

some fun stuff that happened during close navi (note how soham is in all)
1. soham was plotting. after a break he said he couldnt find the protractor. a while later someone found it in his bottle compartment.
2. i asked where my permanant marker was. soham felt in his left pocket, and went like ohh shit. he remembers dammmm clearly he put it there, but somehow just couldn't find it. i asked him "does your pocket have a hole or something?" he went "oh ya shit...". and at the end of the hike, he found it in the netting of his long pants

oh well soham is just funny

going back to after close navi, we hiked to our night point which was the bamboo place. along the way we sang random songs until we forgot the lyrics, then switched songs! a dam good way to moralise yourself, but of course you need people!

night point was with zhongjun and leonard. we first chose an area to be our shelter, and we were thankful it didnt have ants, unlike some other (the suanning group) people. then we started a fire first, which was RATHER easy considering the amount of tinder and firewood we have. zj did the preparation, leonard did the cooking, i maintained the fire. we somehow managed to cook everything, including the rice! first few times in camp i could actually cook rice, except like ac or whatever la of course. for our shelter we did a basha like thing and covered it with leaves, but yea it was quite fail. oh well its more for the experience anyway.

sentry was siantry la. except i koped 1hr of zj's sleep and i had radio with me. hehe

the next day was pretty slow moving. in summary, we had a run from tampines to changi (8km), and a few ppl dropped out, but most made it alive. then we cooked lunch at the jetty, before proceeding to ubin!

thanks to the manymany firewood which we had cut during the preps, there were friggin lot of things to carry. we walked a short distance to some random beach, and prepared to cook our super delicious restaurant standard dinner! first up was digging an imba dig hole that could cover me, then dumping newspaper balls and kindling in, and laying tons of firewood on top, followed by balancing the pebbles we brought on the firewood. then, using a fuse that was soaked in j1's magic, we lighted the whole shit up and the fire was just hugeeeee, about a billion times bigger than my night 1 fire.

while all these were happening, people were also getting ready the food to cook. we wrapped them all in alum foil, then when preparation was done, we extinguished the flames, spammed the food inside the pit, and covered the whole pit up.

after i forgot how long of pitching bashas, the j1s took the food out and we were rewarded with a sumptuous dinner that also invited the ubin stray dogs. ya the food was more imba than cooking with mess tin, and certainly more imba than day 1 dinner.

rest of the day was spent lalaing, roasting marshmallows, and watching hioksupzihengamos suan themselves. i officially declare myself retired from the biggest suanner gang, hiok can take over my role. ironyirony. and night 2 was friggin long and cold cos we ended activity at like 8+, and had all the way till 7am.

the last day we had batch talk, reflections, experience sharings by j1s and zhi, and the final activity. we had to say a dream, a fear and a change. and of course one thing we would like to say to our batch

"I WONT PANGSEH" - Hiok Yang

everyone shall remember.

and of course mine: I hope we stay in contact forever.

01-06 is fantastic. They are my closest group of friends, they will be my closest group of friends, for up till NS at least, I won't know what will happen after that. Even if I get an accident and get a concussion and lose part of my memory, ask me who 01-06 is and I will remember. What sort of sucky life would I be leading now if I never knew this batch of amazing people?

last week of school =)

2009-05-28T17:37:00.002+08:00

hooray tomorrow is the last day of school, then the fun filled june hols will come.

my life will be really busy from now to next thursday. tmr will be hc training and vc stuff, saturday till monday will be vc, tuesday will be chinese + ac visiting, wednesday will be hc, thursday will be anderson + ac.

vc sounds dam fun, but im worried wont be able to recover in time for hc. im looking forward to survival night, the cycling, the run, backwoods, building shelter with leaves and other stuff, bashing through some random forest in singapore, and of course being with 01-06. but im soo not looking forward to abraisions, blisters, and most of all mosquito bites.

and now i think the hc side is dam like hq side. dam scrup. lets just hope sup is still in =)

passion run 09

2009-05-24T12:22:00.002+08:00

1:24:24! was a superb run for me, my leg didnt ache, the weather wasn't too bad, the water points were good, and i achieved my sub 1:30! my 10K time was 57:21 and 5K was 27:03. i paced myself around 5:45 per km, and the km markers were reallly useful.

now 21 seems much easier to achieve, and my aim is sub 2hr =)

tau hui!

2009-05-20T20:13:00.002+08:00

for those not in the know, i eat at least 1 bowl of tau hui every day. it costs 60 cents from the snack stall, and its filling and dam sweet. and today after act i was telling alvin about it, and he said it was the problem for hungry kids in africa. so on the bus i was bored and expanded on alvin's idea...

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P1 - Tau Hui is super sweet
P2 - Super sweet stuff makes you super active
C1 (P1 + P2) - Tau Hui makes you super active

P3 - Tau Hui makes you full
P4 - Tau Hui costs 60 cents
C2 (P3 + P4) - Tau Hui is cheap yet filling

P5 - Hunger and lethargy are caused by lack of food
P6 - Lack of food is caused by lack of money
C3 (P5 + P6) - Hunger and lethargy are caused by lack of money
C4 (C1 + C2 + C3) - Tau Hui is the solution for the problem of hunger, lethargy and lack of money.

P7 - The problem of hunger, lethargy and lack of money is called poverty
P8 - Poverty is a global problem
C5 (C4 + P7 + P8) - Tau Hui is the solution for a global problem

P9 - Any solution for a global problem is extremely good

C (C5 + P9) - Tau Hui is extremely good
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haha i should get full marks for philo

2009-05-17T19:56:00.002+08:00

physics is tmr but i havent studied. hyt made me lose all interest in physics, and there wasnt much in the first place, so that sucks.

and today apparently i lost 800 calories from cycling. average of 22.9 =D and its dam fun cycling without hands