The Post which Have to Drink More Water

I woke up this morning at 7:01am precisely. It's been the earliest I've woken up since nearly two months ago, because I had to pop down to MOE for a briefing.

Sitting with a cuppa by the window, I was suddenly reminded of my blog's existence, or rather non-existence for the same amount of time. Gripped by an impulse to write and type, I started to mentally draft out this post.





"So here's just a quick narcissistic update on the owner of this blog post. Hopefully I'll come up with more exciting the next time round, and till then take care everyone!"





Well, I'm sure glad that many things have happen since 5th of May, which was when the previous post was, so here's a quick update!

I spent a few weeks, reading up, buying stuff, and generally preparing for my epic journey to Australia. I'm not going to pretend that I'm a seasonal traveller, with many countries under my belt and this is just yet another to add to my extensive collection.

In fact, it's the first time I'm going overseas in nearly four years, travelling alone to the furthest country I've been to date.





Australia was simply a huge step out of Singapore, into a brand new playground, with the slides and swings. I deeply enjoyed every moment of living in a different country, immersing myself into the famously relaxed culture, tasting the morsels that the streets have to offer, and spending a splendid time with my girlfriend.

I admit, though I'm the perhaps one of the more homely guys you can find, that during the trip, the thought of migrating to Australia when I'm old, rich and retired (or IF I'm old, rich and retired) did filter into my mind more than once.





The next trip out was to Bali, with a group of six other friends this time round. I went there expecting a lot more, but we weren't the millionaires we thought we were, and the social setting was much more slow paced than the club-like vibe we hoped for.

Still there were many mountains, hills, rice padi fields, and beaches that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing for my own eyes. The water rafting experience was perhaps the most exhilarating outdoor experience thus far.





After which, I've been leading a rather sedentary lifestyle. Facing my computer far more often than I should, and far more often than my father's temper would last, I've been toying with my new laptop, toying with my new ukulele, toying with the expectations of university life.

Recently I'm picking up my notes and books again, trying to recall the knowledge that have slowly eroded and withered into nothing during my two year stint in the army (Modern Warfare 2 has been catalytic in the process too- I admit). I've also attended the meeting at MOE this morning, informing us of the future duties we hold and the expectations of our performances in university.

I can safely conclude that the days of Nuah-ing at Home are near the end now. With a little more than a month from today, I will be starting school and I sure hope I can hang on for dear life.





Just a last bit of thought.

It seems to me we're at the age of leaving.

I see friends leaving for overseas CIP programmes and exchange programmes for half a year. I see friends leaving to study in overseas universities for a few years. I see family leaving to start new families, this time for good. I see myself leaving intermittently in the next few years for trips, studies and even work. I can't help but feel a certain sense of nostalgia, longing but not without a sense of purpose and adventure.

I spoke to my mother about this, and she said to me "Sooner or later, we have to get used to you all not being around."





I guess this is somewhat true. Gotta get ready for more adventures for the epic years ahead.

The Post with the Black Cat

What up again people!





It's been a while since I wrote here. Although unemployment is treating me well, I realise it often causes the lack of content to put up on blogs. I guess other fellow blog writers will experience that kind of problem from time to time?

I wonder how people can think up of things to talk about ALL THE TIME. I don't mean random ranting posts, drab descriptions about the everyday goings in life. I prefer to write only when there are sensible, insightful, funny incidents that provide highlights in an otherwise ordinary life.




Today I shall bend a bit of my self imposed writing rule and talk about something less interesting - myself.

I left Starhub more than a week ago. I finished my last shift, which incidentally was a afternoon shift. It felt nice, familiar in a sense that I left the company the same way I went in, quiet and dignified.

I made a lot of friends inside, all of whom were decent, hardworking, funny and easy going. Somehow it's a little like National Service, because in our line of work, temporary staff come and go, and it's hard to keep track and catch up with everyone.

I shared the pain of working over all the public holidays during my five month tenure since December (Chinese New Year being the sole sad exception), endured late nights and long overtime hours, blasted and lamented at every appointment and outing we had to cancel with our friends, and celebrated together at the sight of our deservedly bigger paychecks.

Here's a huge shout out here to the members of the Starhub family, Derek my team leader whom I owe a lot to. Vivian, Joanna, Weisiong, Xinhui, Szemin, Mag, Teckhua, Gracelyn, Jun An, Amanda, Daryl, Meihui, Shiqi and all other permanent staff. I doubt any of you still read this blog, but I really do appreciate our moments together in my first official job! ^.^




I've decided not to seek employment again for the remaining months till I enroll into university. It's a huge period of three whole months, which to some might seem a little wasteful of time and money.

Somehow it doesn't seem that way to me. I feel a greater sense of purpose, more events and outings to look forward to spend my time in. There's jamming with my friends, preparing for university life, studying again, MOE commitments, exercising, and of course a much anticipated trip to Australia.

Even for the first week of "holidays' that I had, I managed to catch up with a few friends whom I've barely met since my employment, get going with some sports, spend more time with the folks back home. And it feels really good!




So here's just a quick narcissistic update on the owner of this blog post. Hopefully I'll come up with more exciting the next time round, and till then take care everyone!

The Post which is a Ghostbuster

Hey folks what up! Once again I'm back from my small little hellhole from work and doing up an increasingly rare blog post.



Not surprisingly, I've been holed up at Starhub for the past 2 weeks, facing the computer up to 10 hours each day, logging data, provisioning application forms and tolerating each day. And man, it's really tough physically, challenging mentally, and damaging on a social life.



The other day I was about to take a lift up to the 6th floor where I work, in my T-shirt and jeans, carrying a cup of coffee, looking like I slept on the streets the night before.

This well-dressed office lady with a nice leather bag strode into the lift as I did, looking alert and immaculate, and she proceeded to the 4th floor to Nucleus Connect, this Starhub subsidiary for doing up the broadband networks in Singapore.

There lay the stark difference from both of us. For the first time in life, I felt like a techie. Not the Dota mine-laying goblins. I'm talking about the geeky, nerdy teenager who stares at the computer 20 hours a day, smelling like yesterday's clothes, whose fingers can type faster than they can form a coherent sentence in their heads. Those typical kind that you read in books and comics. I didn't really feel happy about that.



It's been nearly five months of working, and it both feels like a devilishly long, seasickness- inducing bus ride and a blink of an eye at the same time. Before I ORDed, I heard others saying that, many guys who started working outside start to feel it's better to be back in the NS days. I didn't believe it at first, but two weeks after working in December, I can't help but feel the same.

I thought it'd be the prime of our lives. Freshly out of the army, loads of free time before university, hungry for adventure and experiences, brave and perhaps a tad reckless. Who knew it would turn out this way?



It feels as though my life was a game of Snakes and Ladders. I rolled the dice, moved up the squares, hit a ladder and went 10 years ahead of my personal schedule. Wake up in the morning, two cups of coffee and a hot shower, take a bus to work and brave the barrage of work coming in. Dodge the political daggers flying from all directions (thankfully it's at a minimum level here), dust yourself and head back home. Have dinner, log onto MSN, relax a bit, get some sleep and get ready for yet another round the next day.



I guess it's like a sneak preview into the dreaded common adult working life, and to be honest I'm a little scared at what I saw.

Sure the money's great, but the opportunity cost for return wasn't pretty. I felt that my friendships with close friends, time with family, health and fitness took a blow from spending majority of my time at work. And I don't know if men do say it out, or if they even feel it in the first place, but I'm a little sad about it, and I have no choice but to knuckle on sometimes.



I typed out and finally handed in my resignation on last Sunday. I'm going to quit for real this time. (Sounds like I'm quitting drugs or something, haha) But I hope I can catch up a bit on the other facets of life that I've missed out, have an awesome three months before school start, and dive into my university life.

I don't know whether I should say sorry, or whether there is a need to, but I do want to apologise to the people who I've turned down countless times for the outings I should have been there.



8 more working days to my second ORD!

The Post which Farts Silently

This week I declare it is No Gaming Week!

In the previous post I mentioned that I bought the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I've been dwelling on the idea of spending $75 on a CD game. I finally succumb to its allure, bought it last week and I've been playing ever since!

Just a tad too much though. I find myself delaying meal times and other things I have to do to spend a bit more time shooting down opponents on the screen. Sometimes when I get home, it's to switch on my laptop, log on to Steam and get playing straight away.



My dad has been keeping quiet about it, but I remember I had a similar gaming addiction to Defense of the Ancients about two years back. Man, that was really bad. I practically spend every two hours at night after dinner for several months watching the Nightelves, Undead, Orcs and Humans beat the crap out of each other.

One day my dad had it, pulled me to one side and gave me a dressing down. To call it a dressing down is to put it lightly. He basically used every damn thing in his arsenal to break me down and I thought then, holy crap, I'll stop gaming for good.

Well, I did started to play again after that, but at reasonable amounts of about one or two games a week, as opposed to every single moment when my dad has his back turned.



Now I'm not an avid gamer. I'm really not. A fella addicted to gaming skips school and
social events just to play games. They don't exercise, they stare at the computer for hours and never tire, and they rabble on incessantly about how many levels they gained online.

Lucky for me I'm not. Simply because I can't even concentrate on playing for more than two hours at a go (my eyes get tired from watching flashing images after longer periods).

But when you only have two to three hours at home each day after school, camp life, or work, and you spend those away in the virtual world and neglect your other commitments, it's hardly worth it.



I did a bit of reflection this morning during my usual cup of quiet coffee, and I conclude that holding onto my trusty SCAR-H rifle in the world of Modern Warfare is taking up too much of my precious time. Maybe it's time to set those smokin' guns down, and pick up those unread books I have instead.



SO EVERYONE, I SHALL NOT GAME THIS WEEK. WATCH ME!

The Post which is Bang

Long time no see Internet!



Well for the past weeks, you would have seen or heard me boastfully proclaim that this weekend would be my last week at Starhub after three and a half month tenure. The pay's decent, the work's simple, but the learning experience is limited and the hours are deadly.

This goes to show that even the best of us must swallow our words from time to time. For those who don't know yet, I've done an amazing U-turn to extend my employment for another month.



It may seem a little absurd, or even hypocritical, that I have decided to continue work at a job which I continue to lambast every now and then for its sheer amount of hours of mind-numbing work.

The last time I spoke to Sean, I dubbed it "digital age hard labour". Yes, I know this sounds snotty and a little disrespectful to my colleagues, but the combination of facing a computer for ten hours a day, for five months, right after National Service, isn't the best preparation for a challenging university life ahead.



After much consideration and advice from my parents (read: nagging from my mom), I thought it would be more prudent to continue working for the time being.

And the four simple equations I've learnt in my brief flirtation of leaving work is:

A) Shitty Job > No Job

B) Shitty Job > Shittier Jobs out there

C) Slog hard at Shitty Job = Money

D) Money = :D



There were a few other ironies that came with the end of this saga. I've managed to keep my plans of leaving really really quiet. I wanted my supposed last day of work to be dignified, quiet and no frills. Funny enough, when the word got out that I've decided to extend, people started to hear about it and asked me why I wanted to leave (when I already said I'm staying).

And the very last cruel joke played by Karma Police would be that, shortly after I told my boss I'm staying on, he told me that a big bunch of my closer friends in Starhub will be leaving the company, ON THE VERY SAME WEEK AS I WANTED TO LEAVE.

Owned.



On a totally random note, to give myself a well deserved present (I'm really not ashamed to say that, haha) I bought myself Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2!

Not that this game is brand new, but I've been yapping about how much I love it and how badly I want to buy it. I had a mini orgasm when I picked it up on the shelf and paid for it. I'm playing it on my free days and getting a real kick out of it. Hooah! :D



Alright gotta get back to work. I was drafting this post during those killer PM shifts at work. I hope my boss doesn't read this.

The Post which is Teams D

As promised.

Happy four months to us!

The Post which is Unagi

Read this book called Blackwater, quite sometime ago.

It's about the founding of a powerful private military company, based in USA, led by a rich businessman and former US Navy SEAL Erik Prince, and it writes about its rise and falls throughout the turbulent years of early 2000s.



There's an exceptional quote inside, which I'd like to share.

"The lion wakes up in the savannah in the morning, and knows that it's gotta run after the gazelle, or else it'll starve at the end of the day."

"The gazelle wakes up in the savannah in the morning, and knows that it's gotta run away from the lion, or else it'll be dead at the end of the day."

"Moral of the story is: whether you're the lion or the gazelle, when you wake up in the morning, you'd better start running."



Nothing like a good morale booster in the morning. Off to work! *rawrs* Haha.

The Post which will Swear it All Over Again

Waiting for the return flight, one year later.

The Post which is a Kiddo

Today I saw Karma at its wicked best.




A week ago, I was falling ill. After the remonstrations from my Starhub colleagues, I finally went to see a doctor. He did his stuff, prescribed medicine, and the total bill came up to $45.

I told my colleague, Xinhui, about this, and she exclaimed,

"WAH so expensive! Where got so expensive one!"




Three days later, she ate something wrong (presumably), had an upset tummy for the next few days, saw a doctor and took a few days MC.

She came back today and told me her bill added up to $75.

I laughed at her. "See, that's karma!"





I went home after knocking off, developed a huge headache, and had to see the doctor again. Apparently the vestiges of my sinus problem hadn't cleared, so Dear Ol' Doc had no choice but to give me another round of pills.

Bill: $25
Total bill: $75

Lesson: Never laugh at anybody too much.




I realise I'm good at organising farewell parties, but I'm not good at saying goodbye.

The Post which is Eating the Cat Rice

I've always been a fan of watching sunrises and sunsets.





When I was a JC kid, I had the habit of going home around 5-6pm in the evening. As I climb down the last flight of stairs leading to my home, I'll usually have the chance of catching the sun's dying moments in the day.

Using my camera handphone, I captured many of those pictures. My favourite kind would be those that occur after a typical Singapore late afternoon shower; I'll describe it as a bloody orange hue, slowly spreading over the backdrop of cloudy ridges.

Sadly, I somehow lost the memory card containing all those pictures, and till this date I still cannot find it. =(





Just around fifteen minutes ago, I woke up to a moody black sky. I made my usual cuppa, and when I turned around, there was a sunrise, right out of my window.

It occurred to me, it's been a long time, perhaps way too long, since I saw a sunrise.

So I pulled up a chair, sat right by the window, had my quiet coffee and watched pinkish blob of warmth and light greet a new Tuesday morning, my five minutes of sunrise.





To me, the funny thing about sunrises and sunsets is that, they seem to last an eternity when you look at them and marvel at their colours.

But all you have to do, is to take a sip of coffee, do something else or even just to close your eyes for a second, it seems as though to have moved on, to have taken another form of their own, speedily reaching the end of its fleeting lifespan.





I can't help but think of it some what reflective of the life that I have.

I'm sure there are times we spent, where you felt sure that this is the lifestyle you want to lead. Like those moments in secondary school, fooling around in the gardens of Chung Cheng High, or the period in TJ during volleyball training sessions.

But just when you thought you had a hold of it, you turn around, you do something else, or you close your eyes for a mere second, and it's gone.





Somehow, I learnt in these two months in that such moments are fragile, and I got to live more in the moment, and stop worrying of what lies ahead for once.

Or at least during my five minutes of sunrise.

The Post which is Doing A Macarena

In a limbo.

The Post which is Looking at the Sun, Moon and Stars

It's just a temporary job right?





Then why am I waking up each morning sluggishly, wondering why the hell I have to work shift hours..

Why do I have to stare at a computer for hours everyday, and have occasional headaches pounding from reading countless forms and pages..

Why am I struggling to meet up with my friends, who I haven't gone out with for their birthdays and other holiday celebrations..

Why do I feel a tinge of jealously each time one of my colleagues leave my workplace because of a new job or to pursue their studies..





Because I have a dream. Some far away, distant dream which seems out of my reach, but I'm determined to make sure it's not mere wishful thinking.

I will press on!

The Post which is A Vegetarian

Presenting to you: The Xiujie's Guide to Surviving A Hike





















1) Extra bag of clothes - What's better than a nice kit to go hiking? Two kits!

2) Deodorant - Look like a man. Act like a man. Don't smell too much like one though.

3) A last minute medical kit - Because if someone can accidentally tear and almost lose his finger on his way to collect Mac Delivery (true story), anything can happen on a hike.

4) Water- Half full water bottle.. DRINK UP!

5) Food - Confucious says: Hungry man is an angry man.

6) Army bag - Cause you'll look silly carrying everything in plastic bags.




And the only thing you need when all else fails..