Post No.262

I can't wait to get my hands on my student card so that I can go buy myself a Macbook Pro after tonight's Mac crash course by Jeff and finding out how awesome the Macbook actually is.

Anyway, I am back from camp. The near-fever-experience and cough and shouting has caused my voice to pay the price. I WILL SOUND FUNNY FOR NEXT FEW DAYS.

Well, it was a pretty fun camp! The only thing I wish could have been improved was the management with time. Time management was pretty bad, plenty of sitting-around-and-waiting-for-things-to-happen kind of scenarios. But of course, the most important thing is that I made lots of pretty cool friends!

It was pretty good mix of people of all kinds of personalities - the quiet type, the loud type, the funny type, the shy type, the active type, on and on. So well, it was fun to see everybody interact.

Besides, my OG got the Most Garang OG! (actually I know its because they got a prize for every OG so they had to give the prize a name) It must have been the medic who suggested this because we got the most number of injuries. Garang indeed. Yours truly was actually the first one to fall on the 1ST NIGHT while running and injured his feet. Hai... I had to be left out from quite a number of games, which was quite disheartening. But when the OG had to go through all the... yucks stuff (eg. rolling in soy sauce+detergent+watermelon which stunk ultimately badly), I felt it was a blessing in disguise... gosh, I am wicked. But when I had to be left out of the sea while at the beach, it was pretty sad.

Food was pathetic; with each meal consisting only of rice with 1 meat + 1 vege. Sadness. Army food was more filling. And we were provided with Pocari Sweat to drink, which I felt was pretty nice until someone mentioned it was EXPIRED on 120709. -_-"

Therefore, when we got to have lunch OUTSIDE of camp on our own because we were in an AMAZING RACE, the group went to eat at FISH AND CO. It was partly to celebrate a friend's birthday, but still, I think we were the only group which had such a big lunch during the race! I think we took nearly an hour to finish lunch and when we finally carried on with our race, the station IC was already bored stiff.

I felt like a 19 year old while in camp because the girls were 19, but when I left camp, I was 21 again - Reality of life.

School is starting in 2 weeks time! I feel excited already. After 2 years of lull, its finally back to studies. Discussed with the E-Lit seniors about what to expect and I get this feeling that the next 4 years are going to be very fulfilling ones. I am proud to be in a course that I actually like! :D

I promise that I will work hard and qualify for double majors! I said the same thing when I was in JC, but this time I will do it! ... will try to do it! ...

TO SQUARE ENIX: IF YOU WILL REMAKE FFVII, I PROMISE I WILL BUY A PS3 JUST FOR IT AND WILL SACRIFICE MY SLEEP AND QUEUE UP AT THE GAMESHOP TO BUY IT ON THE DAY OF RELEASE!

Post No.261

I'll be off to orientation camp in like... 6 hours, so please pray for me (safety, food, anything you can think of). Needless to say, there's going to be no need to click on this blog for the next 5 days because there's no way I could blog while in camp.

I think I must be playing FFXII too much, because I just keep on blogging about it! Okay, this shall be the last (I hope), because I will not be playing for the next 5 days.

A little trivia -

Vaan and Penelo are 17 years old, which is quite okay. Balthier is a good 22 years old. Ashe is actually 19, and Basch is... 36 years old! And here I was all along foolishly thinking Ashe and Basch could be together... -_-" The difference is actually 17 years! I cannot imagine myself being with someone 17 years younger, she would be... 4 years old. Oh yes, I do not even know how old Fran is... but considering that she left the woods 50 years ago... *gulp*

I strongly strongly believe that the story director of FFXII is a Star Wars fan. Not only because of airships and "pew pew pew", there's also the 'Empire' and 'Resistance' factions, similar to Star Wars!

Besides, the Judges always give this Darth Vader feeling minus the heavy breathing. Also, they hardly take off their helmets (Darth Vader and his storm troopers also don't take their helmets off)! Which prompts all sergeants in the Armed Forces to say "Eh, your helmet got air-con ah?!"

Woot! I completed FFXII, finally!

I didn't hit 99 hours, there wasn't a need to. The final battle at Bahamut didn't last more than an hour even. I think the Pharos Tower was intended to be the final dungeon more than the Bahamut is. And besides, the boss battles weren't too hard... probably because Vaan was lvl 79 and both Ashe and Balthier were above 75 (can't remember exact figures). There wasn't even a need to put Fran, Basch and Penelo (whom I levelled to 45 as a back up) into battle. :P

The ending was pretty nice. I liked it actually. :D

All the "pew pew pew" and air battles and airships flying here and there and more "pew pew pew" and "boom boom". I think the story director must have been a Star Wars fan!

Other than the fact that it was superbly visually satisfying, the ending was pretty heartwarming too. Well, no one died, thats one. Its a good ending actually, with the notions of redemption and hope of a future.

Someone fulfilled his dream of becoming a sky pirate :D and Penelo looks much prettier. Basch fulfilled his brother's dream, Ashe became queen and... I know Balthier and Fran made it, but I would have loved to see them in the ending.

When Bahamut was shown with all the vegetation all around, the Midgar in the after-credits of FFVII was in my mind. And then when Ashe comes out as a queen, Garnet from FFIX came straight into my mind too. Haha.

And and and (man its probably so gay to say this), Balthier is such such such a hero!

"Princess! No need to worry. I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man - he never dies."

PS: Am I the only person who found no need to use an Esper other than to open the door at Giruvegan?

I've not been blogging lately, largely due to the fact that there hasn't been anything interesting going on other than the fact that the regular exercise and gaming routine has resumed itself.

A little about gaming, well, FFXII in particular. ST was right, Pharos Tower was one SICK place. I have no idea how long I spent in there but it was pretty long. And then after you go through all that nonsense and reached the top where the Sun Cryst was, you find out that Judge Gabranth and Dr. Cid are there as well. That's when you start to think, "Wait, couldn't I have taken the Strahl and fly to the top like how the Judge and Cid probably did?!?!" Oh well, its all part of the game I guess. I still can't get over the fact that all my favourite summons in Final Fantasy series got turned into airships though, including my favourite Bahamut :(

I have been gaming too much. FFXII is a time-consuming game, definitely. I have clocked a good 96 hours on the game and I haven't even completed it! Blame it on all the mark hunting. I hope the game doesn't hang on the 99th hour.

My region's webcreate website was a disappointment. The article which I spent days writing couldn't be up because of all the web mojo technical problems with font at the last minute which I have no idea why the webcreator didn't rectify earlier. And then the photo gallery (by saying gallery, it means a display of various photos) had only 1 photo of me pointing at some A&W sign in Malaysia! Such awkwardness...

Still, credit is due to all the creative web flash gizmo with the paint brush moving about and stuff. I couldn't have done that.

Maybe I can post the article on the blog. Its about the church camp anyway.

I had to wear the chinese general costume again this morning because I was asked to look after the stall while the people from the main congregation view the exhibits we have put up. So I wore my costume twice, talk about value for money. And then it turned out that everybody thought I was one of the exhibits. Actually, I think I was one of the exhibits...

Throngs of people took pictures with me like I was a live Terracotta statue standing right in the atrium of Evangel Family Church. I am not complaining, its pretty fun and cute to take pictures with people ranging from old people to Filipinos to small little kids. But its a little weird to hear dialogues like

"Wow! Thats so nice! Lets put it as our wallpaper!"

And then there's this kid who went

"Uncle, what are you?"

"I am not an u... I am a chinese general." *smiley face*

"Wooooooooooow!"

I forgave the kid for saying I was an uncle after he did the 'wow' thing and was all smiles and excitement.

But do I really look like an uncle? Someone who walks painstakingly slowly, rush for seats at the MRT, talks loudly in the coffeeshop, stands at the door of the MRT train when trying to board, plays hokkien/chinese songs on his phone in public, have hokkien/chinese songs as his ring tone, spends at least 5 seconds to listen to his hokkien/chinese songs when his phone rings before answering... okay, I am generalizing very badly here.

Anyway, I have returned the costume. I spent some time thinking if I should take the public transport but decided not to. I rather spend some dollars taking a cab than to risk being questioned about why I was walking around with a spear that had bloodstains on it.

On a side note, I giggled when I saw "That's where I met my best friends in hall. Live in hall is never boring with them around!" on some brochure NTU sent me. Thank God I am not going to stay in a hall.

In closing, here's a message of hygiene for everyone

Curtains drawn. Lights fade. A round of applause. Cameras flash. The final act of my pre-university life has finally come to a close. A grand finale, at least that's how I feel.

ZHONG HUA YING XIONG. No, its not that chinese movie featuring a chinese hero in the 1990s. Its an event organised by my church and one which I found myself being very heavily involved in. 2 weeks of props preparation, booth building, costume hunting and drama rehearsing all came down to one single night - and a wonderful night it was.

It was the first time I tried putting on contact lenses. What a crazy ordeal I had to go through. Spending half hour in front of that mirror in the church toilet trying to poke my eye with a small plastic film on my finger.

"HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO DO THIS?!?!"

"JUST DON'T BLINK!"

"HOW CAN I NOT BLINK?!?! ITS NATURAL FOR THE EYES TO BLINK WHEN SOMETHING WANTS TO POKE IT!"

I did it eventually, I do not know how, but I did it. The contact lenses somehow made contact with my eyes without me finding out how I could stop my own eyes from wanting to protect themselves. As a way to show their anger for having their privacy intruded, my eyes were extremely red when I was worshipping.

Taking them out out was a worse experience than putting them on. It was midnight and I had to poke my eyes with TWO fingers. Again I could not stop them from blinking (contact lens users, please tell me the secret). I just put my fingers into my eyes at the fastest possible speed, hoping to take out the contact lens before the eye shut itself. I think I spent an hour doing that.

Imagine the horror when half a contact lens came out. I was like "OH CRAP. CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP." What happened then involved touching raw eye and hoping I manage to find the other half. Thank God I actually managed to find it. My right eye wasn't too pleased after all that.

Left eye was worse. I was just poking it when suddenly my vision blurred, meaning the contact lens was not on my eye anymore. I went "THANK GOD" but then I realised its not on my fingers! I searched the basin and floor for it but its not there either. So well, I don't know where it went to. It could still be at some hidden corner of my eye right now as I am typing this.

And why all that contact lenses trouble? You may ask. For the event of course. I was dressed as a general from ancient china, and had to play this hero called Yue Fei, and I believe neither Yue Fei nor any other chinese general had glasses on. So, the contacts.

The mini-dramas were all very fun to watch. I had a really good laugh watching everyone of them. And surprisingly, even when I was lead this time round, I did not feel as stressed as the previous drama. I think I, if not the whole cast, actually took on the "lets not do this to win, lets do it in the name of fun" mentality.

I think camwhoring (I don't like using this word, but I used it) time was pretty wonderful. Everyone in their different colours. Blue like the sea, orange like the blazing sun, green like lush forest, red like a burning flame, all melt together on the floor into a crazy mixture of colours and culture.

There were generals, princesses, maids, emperors, soldiers, nobles, rich men and women, convicts and even a beggar. But of course, that beggar was the sect leader of the beggars sect so he didn't get much sympathy from the rest. Besides, he had a PAU in his begging bowl!

There was live guzhen performance as well but one had to strain his ears to listen to the music because the multitudes of sound and laughter and chatter all around were very close to completely drowning out the music from the two very soft and gentle instruments. Still, kudos to Shu Ting and I don't his name boy for the fantastic performance.

Achieving the best dressed gentleman came as a pleasant surprise for me. I didn't really expected it. I was just talking to Andrea when I heard my name, and it only hit me that I won when I heard the applause. What a surprise indeed. Now I can go Ding Tai Feng with Dixon, the best dressed YCG leader, another general as well!

Of course, the different generals had a spar with each other, creating photo moments for everyone to take pictures of.

I must say, it was indeed a superb night. And a fantastic way to bring my pre-uni life to a close.

In less than 2 weeks, it will be my orientation camp and then school will start. Its another chapter in my life, another play, another role.

And well, the fact that I will be studying with people 2 years younger than me just hit me in a very weird way.

Izzat (my keep-fit buddy) suggested that I go learn my counting again because I was constantly losing count or miscounting the reps that we were doing at the gym.

So, I took a short crash course from Bram Stoker's Sesame Street. Now I can count like the Count! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha...

SINGAPORE, July 5 - Singapore will hold its biggest anti-terror drill on Monday, simulating the deadly Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people last year, ahead of hosting an Asia-Pacific summit in November. Exercise North Star VII will involve 2,000 participants from 15 state agencies and media outlets and simulate situations such as concerted terror attacks on hotels, malls and an underground train station, the Singapore Police Force said in a statement.

Sometimes, reading such news makes one want to go back to the army again. When one can be involved in all the big hoo-hah and feel that he's really doing something important.

But then again, there's also the 101 things that will make one not want to go back to the army as well.

Anyway, 'Faith Like Potatoes' on Friday was pretty touching, despite its super straight forward plot and extremely predictable ending.

When I found out at the end that it was actually a true story and that Angus was a real guy who did real things, I was close to tears. This guy is really awesome! Its so challenging.

And well, when I saw the tractor accident... the images of the cat tragedy (does anyone still remember?) just kept coming to my mind. Well, I'll omit the details, but I was really convicted to just let the guilt go. So ya... I am feeling better already.

I was wondering how hilarious it would have been if Angus was called Jack instead. His wife is called Jill and they were farmers. Best part is that they planted potatoes.

I was SMSing some people in the evening when my phone decided to die on me.

So I practically spent about 6 hours without my handphone, which is probably the longest time that I spent without a phone (other than when I was wearing green in the forest). However, I wasn't too affected, except for the fact that I have to tell my supper mates to "Please COME AND LOOK FOR ME when you guys are leaving. DON'T CALL ME. I have no phone."

Also, I had to call my sister to tell my parents about what happened in case they got worried. I went to the pay phone (I hardly use these things and was amazed at how different it was when I last used it!) and called my mother, who didn't pick up, and then my sister.

Me: Hello, is this Ang Pei Yi? (I had to make sure it was my sister, because I am bad at memorising numbers)

Sis: Yes... who is this...?

Me: Its me. Your brother. *acting out a tone as if I was in trouble*

Sis: What...?

Me: My phone got stolen, I mean, my phone's battery died. Can you please call dad and mum to tell them not to be worried if I get home late and they can't reach me?"

Sis: Aiyo, ma fan. OK lah.

And then, as if in accordance to Murphy's Law, so many people decided to look for me when my phone was dead.

What happened: Reached home, plugged phone into charger, turned on. And then "WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF" (My SMS tone is a dog's barking)

When a friend of mine gets a H1N1 positive... this is a first for me though.

[the no.10 ] Donny Boy says (12:06 AM):
if we go out on sat then i kana... surely kana scold one
sure will ppl say i asking for it, haiz

ben says (12:07 AM):
i wear mask?

[the no.10 ] Donny Boy says (12:07 AM):
i don't know if someone kana is he should wear mask or those around him should wear mask

ben says (12:08 AM):
everyone wear la

[the no.10 ] Donny Boy says (12:08 AM):
looks super stuid lo
stupid*

ben says (12:08 AM):
new trend

[the no.10 ] Donny Boy says (12:08 AM):
plus is go to someone's 21st birthday -_-"

[the no.10 ] Donny Boy says (12:09 AM):
i think wes will be super sad if everyone wear mask at his birthday

ben says (12:09 AM):
haha