Reason why I haven't been blogging:

Life's dull.

Sunday, in pictures

5am: Was in a half-asleep dazed when AS messaged me on the phone to tell me he was insomniac. To quote: "Damn, i never knew insomnia could be spread thru msn conversations.." and "U arsehole, i'm not at all surprised that u r still awake.. Next time keep ur diseases to urself haha". Cracked me up!

Managed to fall aslep again, and woke at 7.50am.


Coffee and newspapers.

Decided to just slack at home today. Weather ain't too good anyway.



Surfing the net, playing around with my phone and getting videos on it with the assistance of todaealas on MSN! He recommends SUPER convertor.

After whiling away my morning, time for lunch!



And an apple.



Speaking of apples, Death Note anime. It's not too good, whatever's covered in the manga and movie are just repeated, and it's sorta pretentious and Light's characterisation is rather weak and artificial.



Watched Prison Break Season 2 episode 1 too. Not too good. I didn't like it. Without the prison, prison break isn't half as fun!

Helped out with painting the home again. Yay only the balconies and half a living room left!



Arms and hands are all splotched!



Readers' Digest. I wonder why my dad still subscribes to it, cause it's so expensive and the articles are getting crappier by the year. More of those silly sob-stories, lame jokes in the joke sections and the health articles aren't too enlightening either. Really miss those real-life action adventure articles from 5 years ago and before.



And oh well, I had better touch my textbook later tonight. Sigh! Monday's looming again.

Hard to admit it but

Today's a good day! Woke up feeling much more refreshed than usual. Having a super tiring 15 hour school day previously probably tired me out just enough to have a good sleep.

Gotta thank my friend QY for listening to all the weird crap I talked about throughout the school day too! I think it reallyreally helps for me when I have someone to talk to.

There's so many kinds of unhappiness - despondent, angry, numb, worried, et cetra. But there's only kind of happy - happiness itself. So I guess there's not much to talk about it!

Thus ends this entry, but hopefully the happiness doesn't end here. Yay!

Oh.

I haven't blogged in a while! Neil and Kevin's bugging me on the cbox to blog a new entry. So here goes.

Honestly I don't know where to start. Have been mulling over it for a while. Do I start off on my craptastically crappy Tuesday? Or on the STOMP Foodie Outing yesterday? Or school today?

==

I think I'll start with the cat. The pudgy cat that I see very often in Bishan Park with really thick fur.

Just before the Foodie Outing, I took the chance when it stopped raining for a while, to get a quick run in Bishan Park. Saw that cat towards the end of my route.

That cat has a fur coat of white and black patches, and when I was a kid I used to call them 'cow cats'. I have this thing for cats so I stopped and did the typical rules of engagement of cats:

1. Inch closer and make sure it isn't scared
2. Keep eye contact, but only intermittently
3. Get close enough to stroke it, then stroke it on its back and on the top of its head
4. If it turns around and walks between your legs while rubbing its fur against you, you've made a new friend!

Haven't had a cat befriend me that way for a really long time! Maybe because it's cause I don't wear my spectacles when I go for a run, and I looks less intimidating that way. Yet another reason for me to want to switch to contact lenses - the cats love it.

It feels really great to have a cat follow you and stuff! It's times like this when I feel like I'm not alone on this Earth, at least the cats do notice me and want me around! Even if the human beings don't!

Rushed on to have a shower and got ready to go for that Foodie Outing!

"I'm going out tonight
I've got my hair just right
I'm always looking good
For the spotlight" - Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV

==

Foodie Outing. Already know most of them so could mix in quite alright. Nice meeting those I haven't seen before previously! That includes Ryan and Kevin!

There's this thing about me. I can't seem to talk to people I meet for the first time well! It's like, I don't know what to say, how to say it, etc. So I always make crappy first impressions. Man this sucks. Feeling damn guilty about not talking much to Ryan! And it's like, the rest of the people there weren't helping my making me feel all awkward because some, uh, furry animal, wanted to see whether him and I look alike! Obviously I don't. Me ugly.

Strangely, by the second time I meet a same person, it's perfectly alright! Still need time to get used to social occasions again. It's like, I've been so deprived of social situations for the past few years, I need time to know the right things to say and stuff.

Social situations are such. Some people tend to use the same topics over and over again, but me, I'm still trying to find my style. It's easier to just rattle off the same stories and stuff all the time, but it's not very fun to me.

OK back to topic. Venue was Botak Jones Ang Mo Kio, which is hidden in a secluded corner of Ang Mo Kio, both Mr Black lived in and around AMK since young, but didn't know of that area before. The food's great. at $13 for a 200g steak, it's a steal.

Oh and Mr Black and Kevin got us drinks! And Kate got the Cheeeeeeese Fries for everyone too! I gotta repay the favour man!

Some of us went on to this bar in Upper Thomson to just chill out. Don't recall much of what was happenning, but it was alot of joking around and stuff! Finally left at almost 1am when they were about to close. Then reluctantly shared a cab back home, since I watched my last bus zoom by just minutes before I could walk to the bus stop. Dang!

Was feeling quite hyper still, so in addition to my sleeping problem, only got to sleep after 2.30am. Was desperate enough to use my brand-new textbook to try to get myself to sleep!

I'd blog about today some other time. Too much for one day already!

Monday

Monday of a new posting at school. What can be worse. Woke up with great trepidation. Part of me wanted to believe that if I didn't get out of bed, Monday didn't have to begin. But oh well, it's so not true, so with a great I reluctantly got out of bed.

Breakfast, and got ready for school. Running madly around house looking for all those stationery and stuff I had left haphazardly around during the 1-week break. Was going to be late dammit!

Got on the bus with a sleep-deprived stupor and drifted in out of consciousless while the engine droned on.

Reached NUS 5 minutes late. Luckily the lecture hadn't begun. Lectures.

Break after lectures. Was just musing with my classmates how I'm bored and how about watching a movie? Surprise suprise and HC, J and KW are already planning to watch Death Note! But they already booked tickets, so had to book separately and hope to get seats that are close enough! SH joined in too.

But alas, the seats were for another screen! Well, since I really wanted to watch I decided to just take them...

Lectures.

Oh and since the NUH Blood Donation Centre was asking for blood, SH and I went during lunchtime!

It's like this. First you gotta fill up a questionnaire to confirm that you're not at risk of HIV/Hepatitis B/STD/etc infection, then it's a declaration that says you'll be locked up and jailed if you lie.

Then they take your blood pressure, haemoglobin count of your blood (i.e. how 'thick' your blood is - done via a pinprick) and weight. Saw the scale and nearly fainted. Gee I'm _that_ overweight?

Then they make you lie on this couch thingie, and they swab your vein site really cleanly then they inject a little anaesthetic and put in the needle. The actually blood donation's pretty fast - before you know it it's done!

Then they give you a cup of milo and some biscuits. And you sit in the waiting area for 10 minutes or so. No giddiness, no lethargy.

More lectures.

Home. Dinner, shower, slack. For a short while. So went online and crapped around STOMP forums and stuff. Oh and bozo posted a thread on VRZone linking to the Stalking gonococcus thread on STOMP. Yikes!

Was bored out of my mind after a while so decided to take the bus out to Orchard early. The bus was depressingly quiet and empty.

Borders. Took a look at the latest fiction, none of which looked familiar to me since I'm so out of touch! Saw Graeme Obree's autobiography. He's this bicyclist who's not only a great writer, but has a really creative and intelligent mind. He built all sorts of weirdly-shaped bicycles that were more efficient than what was being sold, then raced them himself and won. But the cycling regulatory bodies weren't too happy, and banned his contraptions. He had his bouts of self doubt and even tried to top himself twice, but managed to pull through, fortunately.

Tempted to buy the book, but it's almost $40.

Journey to the East! Walked all the way to Plaza Singapura cause I'm too damn cheap to pay the bus fare! When I was younger I used to take rather long walks across Orchard to City Hall, since there's so may places to stop by along the way. Trying to catch that feel again, but the crowds were just too huge.

Reached Plaza Singapura just while the shops were closing. So just sat outside and watched all the happy couples, the lovely couples, all the lucky lucky people who're walking around Orchard feeling invincible together.

And one by one the mates arrived! And guess what I managed to change the tickets to the same hall as the other 3 friends'! And just opposite the walkway. What's even better was that there was some sort of orangey dirt on the seats we got, so I asked the staff there what could be done and they decided to put the 2 of us right behind the 3 friends! Yay! I'm really appreciative of that.

==

DEATH NOTE - Death Note's a great movie. Although advertised as a horror flick, it actually is more of a psychological thriller than anything.

We got Light, an aspiring lawyer who learns of the injustice of the world and how the law isn't always powerful enough to solve them. On one particularly bad night, he finds a black book with DEATH NOTE emblazoned on it, with instructions inside it which read:

* The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
* This note will not take effect unless the writer has the subject's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
* If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the subject's name, it will happen.
* If the cause of death is not specified, the subject will simply die of a heart attack.
* After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds. (ripped from Wikipedia)

Amused, Light writes the name of a criminal that was mentioned on the news and in the next day's newspaper, he realises that that exact criminal had died of a heart attack.

Light then sees the powers he is suddenly entrusted with.

We have L, a mysterious superdetective who works under a cover. The police had noticed the recent spate of mysterious criminal deaths and thus engaged L to find out the truth.

It becomes a cat-and-mouse game, with Light and L trying to outwit each other. Light and L slowly realise they aren't too different afterall.

I'll spare the details. Any more and I'll be spoilering it for you! But note that this is just the first of 2 movies in the series, so don't expect a hasty ending to this movie.

As for criticisms from me and my mates who watched the movie together:
Androgynous actors. Well. Jap film. What can ya do. The Japs love them Bishounen (pretty boys). But hey, Light's hairstyle is really cool and I want that.

Naomi Misora's (FBI lady's) motivations. What are they actually? She seemed more like a madwoman on a rampage.

The artificial, cartoon-like Ryuuk (the CGI-animated God of Death) doesn't go down well with many audiences, but I just think it's a nice tribute to the manga series!

Also, Light's slow descent from honourable justice to evil isn't explored much, which is quite a pity.

And, while L is the one shown biting his nails all the time, the extreme close-ups of Light's hands show actual bitten nails. What this implies isn't too clear. Maybe it's some sort of imagery to show the similarity between L and Light?

And, RHCP's Dani California totally stuck out like a sore thumb during the end credits. Bleagh. Use a Japanese song instead!

But all in all. Grade: A

==

After the movie, SH had to leave, so the 4 of us walked to the Kopitiam in City Hall area and just talked up to 4am! And HC and KW really devoured alot of Hello Kitty marshmallows:



Yeah it was nice catching up with stuff and all, but heh I'm sort of the odd one out - when they talk about Ayumi or Wang Lee-Hom I just had to do the smile-and-nod-thing since I'm like totally ignorant of all those enbtertainment gossip stuff.

Oh and we spent a great deal of time trying to figure out whether the 2 tall skimpily-dressed people were females or transvestites!

We already agreed to watch Death Note 2 together next time so that's great!

About Sunday

OK here I am at home after a rather long day and I'm going out soon to watch Death Note yay!

Actually it was like, I was really bored in one of the breaks during lecture and suggested watching a movie. And this classmate of mine said that he's already watching Death Note tonight, so yep, I jumped on the opportunity.

OK back to Sunday. Sunday was crap cause I was feeling real down about life, the universe and everything. Last day of the 1-week break, and I was really sleep deprived after the chronic insomnia, and in short, I woke up feeling totally crappy and teary-eyed. Was thinking about how my social life was in shambles, and how badly I was coping with school.

Messaged a couple of friends on the phone to try to find someone to go out with and just hang about, but they were busy. Then I felt even more down. I dunno, it's like when I was younger, I could just turn to anyone in school and they'll be nice and cool about it, but now I hardly got anyone to talk to.

Watched the last 4 episodes of Elfen Lied. Quite a tragic ending really. But that's to be expected from a story that spares no characters from the evil invisible tentacles of the Diclonus.

Every time I finish a series or a game or whatever, I feel this tinge of emptiness in me, like there's one less thing to look forward to, and that I know I'd miss this series or something in the future. I wonder if anyone feels that way?

Anyway, there's so much violence and gore and nudity, you little kids please don't watch!

And then it was sad all over again, as I just didn't know how to cheer myself up. Put up a brave facade and not let parents know I'm going crazy! Had to do that. Pretend everything's OK, then help out with painting the house again.

So I went to STOMP forums, which was a good idea, because all the cheerfulness and joy of the place was an excellent distraction. Since I have no real-life people I can talk to this really comes as an excellent alternative for me! There's the people I met from the previous outings, and there's the people I've never met before but it feels almost like a real friendship. It's a friendship close enough for me to be willing to share photos of myself online! (Trust me I'm quite shy about my own photos.) Thanks Ferret, kor69, Ryan, twinkle-toes, mourinhoisKING, Neil, finite_samaritan, Victor, sprgenius and everyone else!

Yeah, felt alot better after that. Things got better when I finally had a quite OK sleep that night. Not as good as last time, but definitely than the previous days of tossing and turning!

Thus concludes the story of the Sunday. The story of Monday coming up in future!

Flashback July 2006

Mid-July, 2006

Another day of running around like headless chickens, being the newbie students we were in our first big posting in the hospitals. And so we scoured the list of new admissions and decided for each of us to talk to one of those patients on the list, learning about how diseases manifest in patients.

I went downstairs to meet the patient. She was this lady in her 50s, English-speaking. Whew. I converse alot better when the patient speaks English, because my Chinese is poor and my knowledge of dialects is pathetic at best.

It was easy to find out from her that she had some nonspecific pain that was maybe suggestive of a gallbladder infection.

Then, the two of us, patient and student, 'connected'.

==

I mean, it's like most of the time we just go around interviewing patients on their symptoms, their medical history, the medications they take and stuff. But sometimes, there's this very human aspect that shines. It becomes a conversation.

Sometimes, I talk to the patient with trying to understand let's say appendicitis in mind. But what happens is, the conversation veers into something totally different, when the structure of patient interviewing gets thrown out of the window and both parties gladly be themselves and share their own honest ideas.

Examples being:
Singapore Idol 2 and whether Hady deserves to win.
How evil pharmaceutical companies profit off the poor.
How to make money.
Motorbiking, accidents and fate.

I dunno why but I'm smiling as I write this. Those patients that 'connected', I remember them vividly. Sometimes they remember me too, I can tell. It's so sweet, so human. And somehow, it seems like it happens to me more often than my groupmates. I've asked. I wonder.

==

Back to the patient who I had 'connected' with. She confided in me that she had been doctor-hopping to feed her dependency on benzodiazepine sleeping pills, midazolam/Dormicum to be specific. Well then, it's normally not a student's responsibility to give advice - and sometimes it's dangerous because we'd be giving unqualified advice - but then I expressed my concern that she was doing that to herself.

She continued to say that she had found life pretty meaningless for the past 50 plus years and was doubtful if living had been worth it.

Right then the alarm bells started to clang, because I didn't know what to say. What was I going to say? That I found life meaningless so far too? That I myself was terrified of living for 50 years only to find out that I can't find any meaning after all those decades?

I only managed to mutter something about family and all, because that's what we pick up early in clincal attachments - talk about the patient's family and usually they'll have sweet memories to reminisce about. And she says her children have grown up, so it's a bit lonely and boring at home. The typical empty-nest scenario I assume?

Wormed my way through by promising to forward her concerns about her own benzodiazepine dependency to the doctors there. It felt uncomfortable. It chilled me how it was possible that I'd end up like her, 50 plus years old and still finding life meaningless.

Approached the MO in the patient's team - the MO being one of the more junior doctors - those who would listen to what students have to say. Was told that it was out of General Surgery's scope to do anything in the current admission, but that she could mention it in her outpatient visits in future for a referral.

I didn't dare to go back to the patient to tell her that. I didn't dare to look at her, because she reminded me of myself, and possibly what I would become in future.

==

Yeah I just had to get this off my chest. It's not a thing that I can really talk about in real-life. Knowing my classmates they'd just either say I'm 1. over-reacting, 2. crazy or they'd just shrug and pretend they didn't listen. Alot of my classmates just shrug and change the topic when they listen about tough issues like this. People seldom want to get their hands dirty.

Back in July I didn't have any sleeping problems - or even see myself having any. Now I have and I can see that ending up dependent on benzodiazepines may actually happen in the end. Now I'm even more freaked out. Those antihistamine tablets the doc prescribed me? They have almost run out, and they don't really work anymore.

After the paint job

Empty room.



My camera can't reproduce the shade perfectly, it's sort of a light lilac-purple.

Vent

Everytime the email client on my notebook emits that dreaded chime my heart skips a beat because it's usually only 2 things, spam or emails about school. Emails with headings like 'CHP and marks' and 'posting reporting details' and stuff. It's never good news. Even on the phone I got this message that there's a lesson on Saturday - of all days regarding that stupid CHP thing.

I'm not going.

And for the next posting I'm the guy supposed to make all the calls and stuff for the whole group so this is not going to be easy. No way. 4 write-ups for the next posting and I don't know who thought of this crazy way to torture students.

School's starting and I just want to hide under a damn rock or something.

Everyone else seems so happy, so content, so engaged. All the popular people have places to go, things to do, and they're loving every minute of their exciting lives. I just dunno why I just can't seem to fit in yeah? I don't get asked to join in for movies or stuff and dude, to be honest, I just don't know why I'm so damned unpopular. If a square peg can't fall through the round hole, then where are all the damned square holes?

There's so bloody much in my mind to say and talk about but no one to listen. And how many readers are willing to read through this chunk of text?

And my family repainting's the flat and that's one thing to worry about. Where all the furniture goes when repainting, all the messy icky stuff, all the little steps one has to take like taking down all the curtains and emptying all the delicate stuff in the cupboard before even attempting to nudge it.

I don't know where to start, I don't know where to end. But what I know, I need to vent somewhere, and it be here, cause there's no where else. Sorry dudes.

Back under the rock I hide.

The Big Preparation

Don't feel like writing much, so here's just some pics. Preparation for the repaint means taking down the posters and photos, and I took the chance to do some rearrangements too.

Before:



Plans:

Gotta consider space limitations and also acoustics. Every great success has an even greater plan.

After:


Now I can be right between the 2 speakers when I use the computer.

Blutak from all those photos and posters:

Sleeplessness

Manic Street Preachers - Sleepflower

Morning always seems too stale to justify
Lament blossoms, hours minutes of our lives
Broken thoughts run through your empty mind
At least a beaten dog knows how to lie

I feel like I'm missing pieces of sleep
A memory fades to a, a pale landscape
You were an extinction, a desert heat
A blind illness of my anxiety

Endless hours in bed, no peace, in this mind
No one knows the hell where innocence dies
Fragments crawling like cobwebs on stone
Blows away the safety only a sleeping pill knows

I feel like I'm missing pieces of sleep
A memory fades to a, a pale landscape
You were an extinction, a desert heat
A blind illness of my anxiety

I feel like I'm missing pieces of sleep
A memory fades to a, a pale landscape
You were an extinction, a desert heat
A blind illness of my anxiety

This song is probably one of the best, most accurate depictions of sleeplessness.

Yeah, had another bout of sleeplessness last night. Why don't I use the word insomnia? Trivial but sleepness is a symptom, insomnia is a disorder. It's just like we don't go to the doctors saying 'I have a respiratory tract infection" but rather "I have cough and fever". Anyway it's just trivia.

I'd be trivialising illnesses like cancer and heart disease if I were to say that sleeplessness is one of the greatest tortures one can ever experience, but it definitely feels that way.

Tossing and turning in bed, trying to get some sleep, not knowing if to just give up and read a book or to push on and try to fall asleep. Hugging the bolster tight and covering the ears with the pillow to try to block out all the outside disturbances. Listening to the MP3 player as a distraction, hoping that at least one of these methods will work.

And after getting restless and interrupted sleep, jolting awake without being fully-rested. Being groggy the whole day, unable to function, trying to shake away the mental haze but nothing really works. Everything just seems so chaotic, every car whizzing past tires the mind. Music seems so much duller and muted. Even afternoon naps don't do the trick - that is, if it's possible to fall asleep in the first place.

It's torture. I've been experiencing this on-and-off since early September, so it's about 6 weeks so far? The triggering factors for the initial sleeplessness - some worries - have since passed but somehow this sleeplessness problem still lingers.

This time round, I have been sleeping very well for the past few days, always getting exactly 7.5 hours of sleep before I wake up by my own feeling well-rested. But yesterday, I didn't feel tired until past 12, then I tried to sleep and it took more than an hour of tossing and turning before I could get some interrupted bouts of sleep.

Usually my sleeplessness is characterised not only by 1. taking a hell of a long time to fall asleep 2. a reduced amount of sleep 2. drowsiness in the day but also 4. early morning awakening.

4 is particularly worrying. Let's see what Google has to say:
"early-morning awakening is a hallmark of the mood disorder"
"In some cases, early morning awakening may be a sign of depression"
"The most common reason for this symptom is drinking too much alcohol too late in the evening. The next most common reason for early morning awakening is depression."

That counts as one cardinal symptom.

Now, that's fucking worrying. Because I've been feeling particularly unenthusiastic about stuff lately and would rather just laze and do nothing or do idle stuff online. Man it takes me effort even to just read a book or check the top 40 UK music charts, things I'd do religiously all the time. (2 symptoms).

And I'm tired all the time too, people in my group in school would know with my skipping lessons cause I just felt worn out all so often. (3 symptoms)

And also my concentration is crap, since nowadays I can't even read a textbook for more than half-hour blocks at a time. Not even fiction. And I space out all the time in conversations but I dunno if that counts. (4 symptoms)

Lets review the diagnostic criteria:
Diagnostic Strategy

Depression does not always present as sadness. It can also be characterized by somatic symptoms or at times physical symptoms with no clear-cut organic basis. Similarly, not all sadness is depression. A definitive diagnosis of depression requires satisfying criteria listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). To make the diagnosis of major depression or dysthymia use SIGECAPS, a mnemonic system which is a concise version of the DSM-IV criteria. Both disorders require active treatment.

Major depression = depressed mood or interest + 4 SIGECAPS for 2 or more weeks

Dysthymia = depressed mood or interest + 3 SIGECAPS most days for 2 or more years

Sleep increase/decrease
Interest in formerly compelling or pleasurable activities diminished
Guilt, low self esteem (Sometimes I feel totally wretched and like I don't deserve any concern does that count?)
Energy poor
Concentration poor
Appetite increase/decrease
Psychomotor agitation or retardation (I tend to pace around madly when bored but I don't think it counts.)
Suicidal ideation (Does going berserk ocassionally and tempting fate on the bicycle count?)

Yay I guess I qualify? Now this is seriously creepy. I mean, the diagnostic criteria all point to it, but heck, I don't want to be labelled you see. It's likely that I'm just paranoid, you know, the med student hypochondria thingie.

But this sleeplessness thing, I dunno about what I really want to do but whatever it is, I just don't want it anymore!

==

In other news today, dragged out to Orchard by a friend at the last minute just to talk and stuff. And halfway through I got a SMS from Ferret which made me realise that I was spotted by her right there and then! Yikes! I just hope I didn't look too freaky or something.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Grade: B

First things first. This isn't really a horror movie in the traditional sense. Those looking for creepy horror scenes and all will be better off just fast-forwarding to the exorcism scene and losing the whole plot anyway.

While I do not agree with the leap-of-faith theme of the story, this movie plays out the dilemma between siding with science or siding with the supernatural when there the evidence points both ways. I can't say I empathise with that dilemma, but it was elaborate and well-thought.

The pacing generally was quite slow, and the acting a little wooden, but in general it's alright, but not great. The courtroom scenes were surprisingly engaging, whereas the horror scenes turned out to be a corny CGI-fest that mocks the whole story. Even The Exorcist from 1973 betters the atmospherics of the horror scenes, and without the aid of CGI.

So all in all, a B. Slightly better than Hotel Rwanda.

A day in the life of a free day of a gonococcus

7.30am: Eyes snap open. Dad's leaving for work. Drifted into sleep again.

8.00am: Drifted out of sleep. Didn't feel like doing anything. Felt lazy. Drifted in and out of sleep a few times.

8.30am: Laid in bed wide awake. Grrrrrrr. Just didn't feel like twitching a single muscle to get up. Reluctantly got up, then breakfast was whatever I could rummage from the fridge.

9.30-11.30am: Honestly I can't seem to recall what happened within that time space. I went online for some time, then read the papers, but I really can't remember.

11.30am: Prepared lunch - with whatever else was in the fridge. I'm resourceful! I whipped up something with brocolli, onions and canned salmon.

12.00am: Fixed up the new bike tyre! Had to rotate the current front tyre to the rear, put a new one on the front then pump them up.

1.00am: Went out to Thomson Plaza - rented 3 DVDs, window shopped. There's this armpouch to carry a phone when one's jogging, but I dunno if to commit that $20 on it! Didn't spend it in the end.

3.00am: Watched Hotel Rwanda (view previous entry)

5.30am onwards: Online again. Seems like all my classmates are having the time of their lives in my 1 week break and here I am at home, feeling all crabby with no one to hang out with and stuff.

There's this classmate who MSN'd me to ask if I heard about Saturday's outing, but I have no freaking idea what outing that was! Before I could ask, she's offline. Bah. I'm probably uninvited.

Feeling utterly crabby. Seems like my company's never welcome! I want to fix that but I just dunno how.

Oh and just found out the details of the new posting for next week onwards. It's going to busy and tough. Sigh.

Tried to snuggle up in my bed and read a story book, but somehow my brain's not able to concentrate at all. It's weird. My concentration isn't what it used to be anymore. Could remember spending hours on a book last time, but nowadays it'd be impossible for me.

It's frustrating you know, to want to do something but the brain just doesn't agree. I could go back online, but it'd be so sinful and I won't particularly enjoy it too. I could watch another DVD but I won't be able to appreciate it either.

My brain's fried. Think I should get some sleep or something.

Hotel Rwanda

Grade: B-

We all know that UN isn't exactly omnipotent in situations of civil conflict and stuff. But this movie really over-sensationalises it, and there's too much of the one-hero-saves-the-day kind of crap. Prefer those movies where they tell you how every member of the team works together to get themselves out of the situation.

Oh and did I mention? Th ending sucks. It didn't give any closure to the main issue (the genocide of the Tutsis) but rather gave some sappy crap about bringing back some orphans. Sure, having scenes of little kids singing will bring them brownie points, but does it add to the movie? No.

This movie is overrated. It's a great true story mangled into a barely-passable movie.

Rental DVDs!

Oh c'mon doesn't anyone want to watch with me these 3 DVDs?

Bukit Timah Bike Ride

I'm not going to bore you with the details, but here goes.

This morning I rushed off to Kallang to meet 3 pals to go to Bukit Timah Trail. Actually wasn't too keen on it because I didn't really feel like tiring myself out and risking even more abrasions. But still I went. I mean, I gotta be a reliable pal yeah? And this is a rare chance for me to go for a long ride with people. Long rides alone can bore one out of one's mind.

Met the 2 other pals in Kallang and speeded off to Bukit Timah Road. Owwww. Urban warfare! R was leading and he sent us into riding in the wrong direction of the road and bombing the pavements. Stuff that I swear I'd never do by myself.

And so we waited at Sixth Avenue for D in a small prata shop. I didn't buy any. Eating too much in long bike rides makes me feel nauseous.

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And so the 4 of us met and we speeded off to King Albert Park to have lunch. Macs. That's like the official eating place of anyone on their way to BT Trail, since they have open-air seats. The foldover thingie is not bad, I like the taste of that shell thingie. Better than just yet another burger!

Then we headed to BT proper and boy oh boy, was I unprepared. Sorta died along all the slopes, had to walk my bike up and down, and the skidding rear tyre wasn't helping. It was seriously worn and affected my ability to brake properly or take narrow ruts safely. Almost lost control at one part and had to ride up a slope and 'fall' gracefully on my palms rather than losing control totally on one of the steeper and longer downslopes.

Bah I felt weak and wretched. Was feeling nauseous and woozy towards the later part. Guess I'm not too used to offroad.

Why did I forget to change over to the new tyre? I wonder.

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Oh and halfway through there was this open area where you can see the granite cliff really clearly. Took photos with my camera phone, but the one I took failed - dammit my phone made that shutter release sound, so I moved it away, but it was only after I moved it that it started recording the picture! Bah. Can't stand laggy cameras. It's a SE k750 if you want to know. Oh and weird, my hair turned up brownish on the photo but not my friends'.

And after feeling really tired and listless we reached the end point. Got some water to refill our bottles, and I bought a bottle of Gatorade to replenish the electrolytes. I find that on long bike rides, sports drinks help alot. Maybe it's just the sugar, but I won't know.

What struck me about the ingredients of Gatorade that was one bottle contained only about 60mg of potassium, which works out to around 1.5mmol. The average person beeds about 60mmol of potassium a day. When we exercise and work hard we lose sodium through our sweat and all, but we do lose some potassium too. And being dehydrated, our kidneys throw out potassium in order to keep sodium in the blood - so that it can keep the liquid in the blood vessels by osmosis. So it's sorta weird that there's only such a miniscule amount of potassium in the drink.

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Soldiered on, while I was wondering how soon I would fall off from a cardiac arrest from the lack of potassium. Parted ways with the rest since they going to NUS first, so I went on and went home via the Bukit Timah Road/Adam Road/Lornie Road way.

And yay, the sweet sweet sugar in the sports drink kicked in! Not only managed to keep a good constant speed along Bukit Timah Road but I swear I kept a 30kmh average on Adam and Lornie Road. Those 2 roads aren't bicycle friendly - so one has to go as fast as possible in order to keep up with the traffic and not to be overtaken dangerously too many times.

And the rest of the ride was quite boring, just the typical. And the typical tiredness follows, and everything else's typical. Why am I blogging about typical things?

Vivocity - I don't like it

All that violence for 10 for $1.98 oranges

1. It's crowded - with loud and loutish people who keep pushing and shoving. Somehow the people who go there tend to be particularly nasty and pushy.
2. Many of the shops aren't open yet
3. There's a total absence of signboards - absolutely no way to find your way around without referring to a map

Nuff said. I'm not going back there unless I'm being dragged.

I need direction

Just completed the last episode of Prison Break Season 1, and the ending was one hell of a cliffhanger. New plot developments just added in more untied ends, so it was one hell of a mess. Not good. Season 2 is halfway being broadcast in USA, and from the synopses in Wikipedia, they don't seem all that interesting.

What held Prison Break together was the unique idea of having most of the show within the prison walls and Season 2 is going to change that. It's just going to be about a bunch of fugitives running about trying to evade capture while solving the scandal of The Company.

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And the Ghost Tour is over, so that's one thing to look forward to. Honestly I don't have much to look forward to these days. No more Prison Break, no more Ghost Tour to countdown to, just the next school term next week.

A bunch of schoolmates are planning a mountain biking trip to Bukit Timah, but I dunno if I'll feel up to it then. After the 2 crashes, I'm really wary of going the whole 9 yards and doing BT straight.

I dunno, life just seems quite a bit plainer now.

Sorry 800x600 users

Sorry dudes, gotta forsake your surfing convenience such that the higher-resolution majority do not have to scroll that much. And with this change, I can use bigger, higher-resolution photos instead.

I hope you folks understand!

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STOMP Ghost Tour!

Yay, so tired after a whole night of beating through forested areas, climbing up and down in the dark, trekking through areas and stuff!

6pm. Reached Longhouse just in time! A few of us were already there, so we just made idle chat. Mr Black's there so I didn't feel too out of place, since we've met before in a previous gathering.

Turns out, Mr Black's a friend of the Western Food stall owner! The last time I ate there it wasn't too good but the standard definitely has improved. They still tend to overcook their stuff a little though.

So on to Thomson Community Centre. We were given this pink goodie bag with snacks and water and stuff inside. So here's the people:




After some photos, we boarded the comfy bus with the Asia Paranormal Investigators and Thomson CC people and the cameramen and STOMP crew!:



First destination: Hidden tunnel in Marsiling
It's quite a long trek up a forested area to the place. Everyone was sweaty by the time we reached there - and that was only the first part of the tour! Apparently this place was manned by the British and Australian Navy long long ago when they had to secure these oil pipes in the bunker. It's a few dark flights of steps down to the pipes. It's littered with glass and stripped cables. Nothing much there. So there was this rumour that the tunnel itself connects to Johor, but it's not true since it just leads to some dead end.






Second destination: Boyanese cemetery in Bedok, next to a HDB playground
This is a small cemetery right smack in Bedok South housing estate, right next to a playground (under renovation) which was sorta weird. So why is it there? The HDB bought over the land for that place, but didn't need to use it yet, so they just left the tombs alone.






Third destination: Muslim tombs in Kallang – oldest tombs
These are the oldest tombs in Singapore. There are families guarding and manning these tombs - and they do live in that area. You can see their kettles, stoves and stuff there, it's almost like an open-air home. Stories abound about these tombs. For the latter one it's a warrior's tomb, and it's said that people who harbour evil intentions are physically barred from entering by the spirits themselves.





Fourth destination: Abandoned house in Tyersall
Haunted house! Took quite a while to find the place. It took a long trek on a gravel path and on the way we saw a small abandoned building and an abandoned car.

But the main thing was the Tyersall Mansion which was abandoned for a really long time. The roof tiles were all shattered on the floor and the stairs inside gutted by fire. The main house was large and creepy. One of the other members of the tour commented that it was cold in some parts of the room and I moved 3 steps and felt the change in temperature. Well, the scientific reason is that the window's there, but you'll never know.

Got some orbs on one of my photos too, but it's just the dust. Or at least I hope.











Last destination: Sime Road Cemetery – including largest tomb in Singapore
Another long trek. They were filming some show at the entrance of the place, so it was sort of amusing. Deep inside, we saw the tombstones of influential Chinese Singaporeans from the 1800s. There's one that's really huge - it's as large as the floor area of a medium apartment. Weird thing is that it was overgrown with shrubs for many years and was only re-discovered recently.




And at 1.30am it ended, all of us tired but yet happy. Since I had a long walk ahead of me I decided to leave early. On the way home!



Assuming that the distance of a 10-minute bus or bicycle ride would translate into a reasonable walk wasn't such a good idea. Kept on walking and walking, empty taxis zooming by with every minute. And only after a very long while - more than 10 songs' had passed as I listened to music on my phone - did I reach home. Chose and edited the photos, then uploaded them and went to sleep.