My LiFE, mY stOrY

I’m back from my confinement! My first 17 days in NS just flew by. A big thank you to everyone who supported me through my confinement period.

Right now, I seem to be adapting pretty well to the army. I couldn’t get to sleep the first night, probably because of the huge environment change. But subsequently, I managed to sleep like a log every night thanks to the fatique I get from all the training. 17 days is long, very long. I didn’t bring my iPod in, I missed music so much that army songs just started sounding good to me.

The training improved me physically and mentally. I managed to complete my first 2.4km run/jog. I’m not saying I’ve never completed it, I just never jogged the whole way. It was a first when we took our IPPT Cat Test. I managed to jog the entire 2.4km, I did hit a wall towards the end where my legs just gave in and wouldn’t keep up the pace even when I’m jogging ever so slowly. I distracted myself by singing ‘We’ll Be A Dream’ in my head and completed the run. After that, I felt invincible. About a week later, we did a 3km run and I managed it with some motivation from my platoon mates and commanders.

My 2nd weekend in there was pretty enjoyable, we had 2 movie screenings. The first was Army Daze, and the 2nd was Sherlock Holmes. Both entertaining movies. The sad part, almost everyone in the company fell sick. Some lost their voice due to the excessive song-shouting, some got a flu, some got a sore throat. I was among the bunch who got a flu and a sore throat.

The evening before my book out was memorable. We were having a ‘lesson’ at the company line and looking at the sky in a distance, we saw a beautiful rainbow, someone said it signifies our first book out the next day. I couldn’t stop looking at it, truthfully speaking, I haven’t seen a rainbow in probably a decade. I was trying to concentrate on the lesson but I keep staring back at the rainbow, it was so beautiful and distracting.

Booking out for the first time was an experience that no words can describe. One of the officers told us that he was amazed at the sight of an SBS Bus during his first book out. Everyone laughed when we heard it, but when it did happen to us, we just went ‘Woah, SBS Bus!’. The morale was extremely high that day, we couldn’t wait to go home.

As I got home, I took off my boots and went straight into my room. I actually felt disoriented in my own room. It took me a little getting used to when I started using my computer again. I queued all my downloads, unpacked, and went out for dinner with my family. I then spent the rest of the night and the entire morning today catching up with my emails and the TV shows I missed during my absence. I missed everything at home, my room, my bed, my computer, the bathroom, the kitchen, and especially my family.

I bought a new iPod Shuffle to bring into camp since they disallow iPod Touch in camp due to the games and video capability. The new earphones are fantastic. I took a listen with the new earphones and it sounded so good, so natural, it sounded different compared to the earphones I got for my Touch. I’m pretty impressed with the functions on that tiny little device. Today, I updated my iPod Touch OS and I’m so glad I could finally edit my playlist on the device. I am also happy to find that they finally allowed apps to run in the background.

Well, that’s all for today, I have to try to stick to the sleep timing these few days. I’m almost 2 hours late for bedtime. Off to bed!

I have 2 days of freedom left and I actually have nothing planned. I stayed home the past few days watching shows and playing Facebook games (as I’m posting this entry, I’m also playing poker on Facebook). But at least I managed to take a short vacation, even if it was only to Genting.

The feeling of enlisting sucks, big time… But on the bright side, at least I’m going in on the first poly batch, even though there’s PTP involved.

Anyway, I realised I have yet to blog about the Genting trip, I didn’t even tweet about it because of the roaming charges. We had quite a bit of fun there, but it did make me feel old.

On the first day, right after getting there, we went to check in and have lunch. After we got our room, we changed and tried to get into the casino. Apparantly, I look old enough to get in, they didn’t even bother to check me. But some of us had difficulties getting in. After trying the different entrances around the place, they gave up and went to take a walk around the place. We only came out for dinner and after that, everyone was back in the hotel resting. We had 2 rooms, one for the guys, one for the girls. While the girls rested in the room, we tried to get back into the casino. I managed to get pass, the other 2 were stopped. So I called them and they said to wait inside while they tried the other entrances. I went ahead to play by myself while waiting. At 12 midnight, I decided the I’ve waited enough and went back to the room. There they were, sleeping… I changed into my sleeping wear and went to bed.

An hour later, at 1am, Selina called me on my handphone. I woke up, sat up, confused. I was thinking ‘What the heck is that sound?’, I couldn’t even recognise my own ringtone, 1 hour of sleep is simply not enough. I walked over to the source and saw my phone ringing, I answered the call to realise that the girls were asleep the whole time and just got up. I told them I jus got back to the room not long ago and we’re all asleep. We hung up and I went back to bed.

Another hour later, at 2am, Selina called me again to ask us out for supper. At that point, my mind was thinking ‘This is getting ridiculous.’, I asked the guys while I decided whether to go. They were too tired, but I went ahead, since I was already up.

The next day, we went to the temple just a little downhill from the resort. The view was great, as always. This time round, we could see better since the last time I was there. After the visit, we went for breakfast back at the hotel. After that, was another visit to the casino. This time round, everyone got in but Joshua. He walked all around the resort and even made a few friends who couldn’t get in as well. He asked me to play in his place, so I just doubled every bet that I placed and won a few hundred. We went for lunch awhile later and after that, he managed to get into the premises through the corrupted system. They learned about it the day before when someone told them that they could just ‘buy’ their way in. So we got in again and he didn’t want to get out seeing that it took him so much effort to get in. While we were there, the girls were at the theme park. We did eventually go out for dinner and after that, he got back in even though he lost hope. The smoke in the casino was so heavy my eyes were a little red when we got out, it felt irritated the whole trip. That same day, I seem to have injured my leg or something. Coincidentally, an escalator we take very often when we get out of the place broke, and I had to walk down the steps.

Next day, I felt worst, I now had a sore throat along with the injury and the eye irritation. On the bus back home, I felt a little feverish but it passed. Bad news was, along with the fever, I now had pains on some parts of my body, making sleep impossible. I lied there awake for the rest of the trip home. By the time we got to the restaurant for dinner, I hardly had any appetite and I had problems swallowing. I ate just enough to satisfy my hunger for the rest of the trip home.

While on the ride home, my phone battery dropped to 1 bar and was running out fast with all the messages and calls I’m getting for the night’s plan (I had made plans with JD and Xav to go to zouk that night). By the time I got home, my battery was dead, I charged it a little while I changed and headed out again. As we met at serangoon, I was already half-dead from the sleeplessness on the bus and the general lack of sleep for the entire trip. We got to Zouk at about 11pm and waited around for Xav, after that, we got in and got a drink to quench my thirst and to get me high. It didn’t really work but it did quench my thirst. We stayed till about 3am before heading off. I got home, changed and just KO’ed on my bed.

So that covers half of the craziest 6 days I had. There was the chalet but nothing much to talk about there. It was the usual highlight of BBQ. I’m off to do some last minute shopping for army. Be back in… I’m not sure, really.

Got the call today, the date’s correct, and I’m accepting the fact that I’ll be enlisting on the 7th of June. Now, onwards with the 5 stages.

Depression: I spent the whole of Sunday lying on my bed. I only got up to get drinks or to go to the bathroom. Thank goodness I have Grey’s Anatomy to watch, to cheer me up.

Acceptance: By the end of Sunday, I thought it through and I thought to myself that I will accept the fact if it’s confirmed. Looking around on Facebook and Twitter, people were posting their enlistment dates and school, but I can’t find one that is similar to mine. The closest I got was having friends enlisting to the same school. So if anyone’s going to BMTC School 4 on 7th of June, let me know!

So I guess we have a month left. We ought to treasure the time we have left. Anyway, I got a job offer and landed an interview for a 1-month job. I’m seriously considering whether to take it. On one end, I would have something to do and the job is good for the resume. On the other end, I have 1 month left and I want to just have fun. Interview’s tomorrow, my agent sent 2 similar emails about the job and the interview tomorrow and none of them reached me yet. Is this a sign telling me not to take the job?

Guess I should wait for the details, show up at the interview and consider then. Well, off to wait for the email while watching Grey’s Anatomy, man that show is good.

EDIT: Just as soon as I hit submit for this post, I received the email. What coincidence.

Since someone pointed out that my blog is feeling cold and alone. I shall go through my five stages of grief over my enlistment here.

As we all know, the 5 stages of grief covers: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. For my case, I’ll be adding 1 stage in the first place: Shock.

Shock: So I was happily playing Mahjong at my friends place and for probably the first time ever, I was winning. At about 5pm, my mum called me and told me that my enlistment letter came. Apparently, I will be enlisting on 7 June 2010. I should state that my family booked a trip to Taiwan a week ago and we were set to fly off on the 13 June 2010. I was shocked at how soon my enlistment date was. Considering that the letters I have heard going out recently are for the August batch. I was in too much shock to continue playing, so I told my friends that I should get home to clear up the mess. So we played to the end of the round and I took off with $13 of winnings after clearing my debt. As I was still in shock and in a hurry, I took a cab home. It was peak hour, so there was the peak surcharge. Then my cab got caught in a jam on the expressway. When I got to my place, the meter ran at $18. I made the payment, stepped out and the next step I took was into a puddle in the grass. I was pissed, but the matter at hand was far more important.

Denial: I got home, I realised, my family was out. I walked into my room expecting the letter to be on my desk, it wasn’t. I gave my mum a call and she told me she got the letter as they were heading out for dinner and it’s with her. I was pissed, but I figured I should play a game with Xav to get my mind off the matter for a bit. I After the game, I decided to do something productive, I checked online to see which batch I belonged to, but I just couldn’t find a 7 June enlistment. So I prayed hard that it was a mistake. My mum came home awhile later and I checked the letter, it was all there: 7 June 2010, 1045am, BMTC School 4.

Anger and Bargaining: According to the NS booklet, the enlistment notice should be sent 2 months before the enlistment date, so I was a little pissed off at CMPB for messing this up.  Given the new information of which school I was posted to, I checked the enlistment schedule posted on the MINDEF website, but apparently, they only have the information up to School 3 as the 4th school is newly built and they have yet to update the website. I called up their hotline to see if there’s anything I could do. I was told that since I had already booked and paid for my trip, I can try to appeal for a later enlistment, although the chances are slim. Alternatively, I may try to attain Silver or Gold standard in NAPFA by the 3rd week of May to take off the PTP and still go on my trip. Now, that was my bargain, I had 2 choices. I hung up, prepared for the appeal email and 5 minutes later, while I was scanning the documents, the guy called back and said there might be a mistake and I should hold and wait until Tuesday. He will get someone to clarify the date with me. So I’m currently stuck on the bargaining stage. I shall update my blog again when I receive the call on Tuesday.

P.S. This may have been a little weird since the 5 stages of grief is usually meant for tragedies.

Well, it’s been a month since I last posted. Been busy with the project showcase and Chinese New Year.

It’s been a busy but fun 1 month. MeetingYoungMinds went really well and graduation night was great. I was involved in the production of one of the items for the show and it was incredibly fun. It was busy and hectic but when everything went perfectly on Wednesday, it was all worth it.

Grad night was a lot of fun. Time really flies when you have great company. It was probably the best event dinner I’ve been to. Best part of all, my photo count on facebook almost doubled thanks to the 2 events.

Now comes the usual vacation plan: get a job and plan for a holiday before vacation ends. So if anyone has any job recommendation, do let me know! Off to enjoy my rest day, follow me on Twitter via http://www.twitter.com/limcheeyong!

After a long battle, I am finally done with school. This has been one crazy semester for everyone. Whoever said poly was easy is either not a poly students or not in my course (some courses are having an easier time). Anyway, all that is left now is a series of briefings and interview on Thursday, followed by the project showcase on 3rd March and I am officially free.

Well, it’s a relief really. For the past week, I have been grumpy, cranky and sleep-deprived thanks to all the work they packed into the final week. On Thursday, when my last presentation was over, I should have been happy, but I was far too tired for that. But I did spend my whole time on the bus creating a playlist on my iPod to suit the mood. I couldn’t sleep on the bus cause all my playlists all had songs that are simply not suitable for sleep.

I spent Thursdayand Friday night just celebrating on my own. Enjoying my free time after a super busy week. Too bad some of my coursemates still have one more assignment to go, if not, we could have went out together to celebrate.

Received a piece of news the other day. Apparently, I was nominated to become either the MC or the speaker for the showcase. One of my groupmate was nominated as well. We were wondering who was behind it, guess we’ll find it out on Thursday. We saw something interesting in the list of nominees. There was 2 very interesting names in it and we are planning to support them to become the MCs (evil laugh). I doubt they read this blog so this information is safe.

Anyway, if anyone is interested to attend the showcase on 3rd March (Wednesday), do let me know. It’s from 2pm to 5pm at TP. It’s a showcase of all the FYP done by my course this year. Also, if you go, you get to vote for my project! Wait, strike that, you have to vote for my project! So, do let me know if you wish to go.

Time for me to go, shopping today! So glad that I finally have time to do my new year shopping.

Was at their concert last night. It was legendary. Been waiting for it for a very long time and they lived up to the expectations. Since they announced that the concert on the 28th of January, I thought it would be a great way for me to celebrate the final presentation for my FYP. That was a hundred bucks well spent.

I was too busy being squeezed and holding Kes’s file and my book to bring out my camera to take photos or videos. Besides, the crowd was so crazy it was almost impossible to take a nice stable shot most of the time. It was pretty chaotic but we all had a great time. We did not even have to push our way in, when the show started, everyone just pushed through and we got so far in front from where we were originally.

Anyway, I have been pretty busy with all the projects in school. They loaded a hell lot of stuffs this term just to make up for having no exams. Today was my last individual submission. Next week, there are 3 group submissions and 3 presentations to go through. They are actually trying to kill us before we leave the polytechnic. But I once got an advice from my tutor, always have the end in mind. Everytime I get tired of all these crap, I just picture myself relaxing and taking a vacation after everything. The next couple of days are going to be tough, but after that, I am officially free. Our 3 years in TP is finally coming to an end. Time flies like an arrow.

Well, I am off to make full use of this rare rest day. Man I have so much planned for my vacation, I can’t wait.

Well, got my results back. I did relatively alright, all of them were in the 30+ range out of 50. This term is going to be hectic. With only 3 weeks of school left and 5 more deadlines to go, I have to recharge for the final ‘battle’. 2 of those deadlines are about 70-100 pages worth of documentations. I doubt I have done anything like it before. I have been pretty much resting for the week that just past. Hardly doing any work since we are fans of last minute works and there were no deadlines last week. I went for a great dinner at East Coast with my coursemates on Thursday, I have no idea what the reason was. I just went along with it since I had nothing to do. Man, I really have to start working on my projects.

Anyway, I am so looking forward to 28 January. On that day, it will be my final presentation for my final year project and I am going to celebrate it by going to the Boys Like Girls concert. We have been looking forward to it since they last came to perform at the Nike run which we did not go for. After that day, I will only have a couple more reports to hand in and 5 February will be the unofficial last day of school. The last week happens to be elearning, so the official date is 11 February. I am so psyched that the long vacation is coming up. But that means I have to go through the process of looking for a job again. I think I will squeeze in a holiday trip with a couple of friends, before we lose our freedom to the much-dreaded NS.

It will be sad to leave TP though. Because for the first time in our lives, we have no idea whether we are going to continue studying or we will start working for the rest of our lives. My grades are not exactly impressive, so the chances are, I will not be accepted into the 3 main universities. On one end, I am psyched that I will not be studying for the next 2 years, but on the other end, I feel lost. I guess it is time to step out of our comfort zone, “listen to what the world is telling you to do and take the leap”.

By the way, that quote was from How I Met Your Mother. Just watched the 100th episode recently, there was a musical number in it and Neil Patrick Harris is freaking awesome. Next week, Amanda Peet is going to be the guest star and if I remembered correctly, Neil is going to be the director for the episode. It is probably my 2nd favourite ongoing show right now, right after The Simpsons.

Time for me to get to work, I have a small journal to write which is due tomorrow.

Well, Christmas just past, next up, New Year. Been on a short vacation, which got me sick again, but it’s been a long time since we took a family vacation, so it was worth it. Being sick sucks, I haven’t really recovered fully from a single sickness before falling ill with another. Had a headache for like 2 weeks, went on vacation, came back with a very bad cough and possibly fever for another week, so that is 3 weeks of being sick, coinciding with my 2 weeks of term break. At least I got to relax and have some fun, that’s always good.

Genting is pretty cold this time of the year, mainly because of the excessive clouds and strong winds everyday, we went a little downhill to a temple on the second day and I swear the wind was strong enough to push me while I was walking. But what a view that was! We had a couple of photos taken, I haven’t uploaded my share but neither did my cousins, most of the photos are with them so I hope to see them soon. We hardly had fun at the theme park thanks to the weather, it was raining after a couple of rides and the queues were super long. We queued for the Space Shot ride for pretty long, watching people get sent up and drop down on the ride as the clouds gathered and blocked our view several times. It is so different from taking that ride elsewhere, because at Genting, you actually see clouds below you when you get to the top, and the place is built on a slope, everything seems to look so low from far, adding to the thrill. There was a guy sitting with us on the ride that was cursing and swearing the whole time. We just found it freaking funny.

Christmas went without a countdown, I hardly noticed it was already 12am until someone sent me a message, I was too busy playing games with my bros. Sounds like we’re lifeless, but we’re all broke for the month, so everything was on budget. Staying home playing games is the cheapest activity. We did meet on Christmas though, JJ, XC and I headed to JD’s for dinner, booze and some mahjong. It was pretty funny playing mahjong high. Finished after 12 and I had to take a cab home to continue the celebration (played a game and went to sleep). Although it was only 4 of us, it was fun to hang out and eat pizza for dinner with my bros.

School starts tomorrow, I had fun for the past 2 weeks despite being sick, now comes the concequences for paying ever so little attention in class: test results! I’m pretty sure I did alright, although I’ll be thankful that I even passed for one of them. Time to hunt for my next activity on my last day of my break.

EDIT (28/12/09): At the point of posting, 2 of my clothes were known to be destroyed to me due to some other shirt’s dye during wash. I realised another one was missing today. So a great gift for me next year would probably be clothings. Also, if anyone is going shopping, give me a call.

I was out today, despite my killer headache, fever, cough and sore throat. I wanted to get out to go enjoy, for the past few weeks I’ve been overworked, stressed out and just tired of everything. Was planning to join JD for Zombieland despite turning them down yesterday because I desperately needed rest. I woke up feeling shitty but my urge to get out was far greater. They moved it to Toa Payoh, so I turned them down again. So when Donn asked if I wanted to catch the movie with Nick, I agreed almost immediately.

Planned to watch the 2.10pm show at Vivocity, they were going to have lunch at 1.30pm, when I heard this, I told myself they are never going to make it despite Donn saying it will work. But I ignored myself and agreed to meet at 2pm. I showed up, they were still having lunch and told me to wait for 5 minutes. 50 minutes later, they were finally done and met me. By then my headache was killing me and I was feeling really stupid for not listening to myself. But we went on to buy tickets to The Storm Warrior. What a waste of time that was, my head almost exploded during the show with all the high-pitched sound effects. We finished the movie at 6pm, walked all around until we were outside Vivocity, then I asked where we were headed, it was only then that I know that Donn was spending the night at Nick’s and they were going to head back already. When I heard it, I couldn’t help but feel fucking stupid and laugh at myself. I walked off to the direction of the train station and headed home.

On the long way home, I couldn’t stop thinking how things would have turned out if I just listened to myself. I went out today needing a friend, I was looking to slack, hang around, talk, anything to get my mind off work. I needed to destress. But I came home feeling so much worst. Disapppointed at both myself and my friend. I cannot remember the last time we ALL just hung out together as a group. I’ve been trying to plan but in between all my work and being sick, I simply don’t have the time to persuade everyone of them. If there is one thing that Scrubs taught me, it is that it is okay to let yourself take a break every once in awhile. I’ll be going on a short holiday next Sunday, hope it takes my mind off stuffs.

It’s almost Christmas and I can’t feel it coming, unlike the past couple of year where I looked forward to it, I’m numb this time round. This has been a sucky year and I can’t wait for it to end. Since I don’t post much recently, here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, may 2010 be better than 2009.