Just for draft sake
my ATCL programme is gona look like this
Bach Partita No 1 Prelude and Gigue (3 min)
Beethoven Op 13 Pathetique Sonata (17 min)
Chopin Revolutionary Opus 10 no 12 (3 min)
Liszt Liebestraume No 3 (5 min)
Copland Cat and Mouse (4 min )
Maybe I need one more piece. ARGH
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Seek. Strive. Excel
I still find no link between the above 3 words.
Ignore it, if you must.
I have piano lesson in a few moments time. Preparing for my diploma recital from sketch is going to be so not easy. I only have friday nights, saturday noon and sunday to practice! Maybe I can only squeeze some weekday night from that oh so not enough number of nights out we get. And when I get back to Seletar, I start to ponder about the feasiblity of travelling home just to clock some hours on the piano.
And yes, for those who know. I am playing the Pathetique Sonata by Beethoven, and Liszt Liebestraume. That is so far what is more or less confirmed. Maybe my teacher will toss in some Scarlatii and maybe a 20th century (but seriously, I am not very fond of 20th Century). I hope I'd fit my Chopin Etude in.
Bleh. Boring post people. Very soon I'll be counting sheeps on my blog. You know, I'll be the best hypnotism blog around. BORRRINGG
Ignore it, if you must.
I have piano lesson in a few moments time. Preparing for my diploma recital from sketch is going to be so not easy. I only have friday nights, saturday noon and sunday to practice! Maybe I can only squeeze some weekday night from that oh so not enough number of nights out we get. And when I get back to Seletar, I start to ponder about the feasiblity of travelling home just to clock some hours on the piano.
And yes, for those who know. I am playing the Pathetique Sonata by Beethoven, and Liszt Liebestraume. That is so far what is more or less confirmed. Maybe my teacher will toss in some Scarlatii and maybe a 20th century (but seriously, I am not very fond of 20th Century). I hope I'd fit my Chopin Etude in.
Bleh. Boring post people. Very soon I'll be counting sheeps on my blog. You know, I'll be the best hypnotism blog around. BORRRINGG
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Phase Shift, once again
I realized it's been like a thousand million decades since I've blogged. What happened to the frequent blogger here who was actually addicted to blogging. For goodness sake, I can't find anything to blog about nowadays.
Basically, as the date and time suggest, it's impossible for me to have interest access if not for something quite like an oasis in a desert-Nights out. It's pretty good to have the opportunity to stay at home for like the night and go back in just to fall asleep on my semi smelly bunk bed.
The week's been pretty hot, and I got quite sun burnt. My face is red now. I look like a tomato. Oh aw.
This week been pretty 'eventful'. I don't like this week. Stressful, scary as a series of unfortunate events continue to plague me! I really hate this week, to be honest. It was nerve wrecking. severely.
Other that the series of unfortunate events, course ending next week! I really did not expect us to have nights out for the week!
And tomorrow's book out day!
Okay. just for the sake of blogging.
Basically, as the date and time suggest, it's impossible for me to have interest access if not for something quite like an oasis in a desert-Nights out. It's pretty good to have the opportunity to stay at home for like the night and go back in just to fall asleep on my semi smelly bunk bed.
The week's been pretty hot, and I got quite sun burnt. My face is red now. I look like a tomato. Oh aw.
This week been pretty 'eventful'. I don't like this week. Stressful, scary as a series of unfortunate events continue to plague me! I really hate this week, to be honest. It was nerve wrecking. severely.
Other that the series of unfortunate events, course ending next week! I really did not expect us to have nights out for the week!
And tomorrow's book out day!
Okay. just for the sake of blogging.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
A hole in my map
I hope this post doesn't reflect too much of my current cynical perspective of life. Perhaps I should try to be cheerful for once.
Been a really long time since I actually had any physical exercise (actually last week). In camp, I don't get to exercise much.(irony) My platoon mates are mostly lazy and only a few are willing to run. Maybe they don't see the point or they don't really enjoy it that much. Running is fun, I really need to run. I still have my debts from jeep course to pay back. (ah layers of fats! be gone!) Throw me IPPT now and I'll die flat. The thought of SOC alone will make me cry.
Last week was pretty relaxing. In fact, this is the most relaxing course ever. I get more sleep in camp than out-camp. I'm currently withdrawing from my lack of afternoon naps!
Went Jurong Point again for nights out. Pretty bad experience because it was constipation week for me. Almost exactly the moment we got out of the camp gates, my stomach started hurting insanely. It was this gripping sour acidic flinching type of pain which inflicted pain and irritation to the night! I could barely enjoy my few hours walking around in the mall.
And I must be pretty smart to go add a Swensen frosted chocolate malt into my burning stomach. But no, it did not extinguish the fiery flames of my stomach ache. Instead, I had to half-cringe half-flinch back to camp.
I'm typing my "report" for my game for YF camp right now. I tell you, inspiration is something so hard to find. Maybe about 0.01 percent of my thoughts are inspiring ones. And amongst which, only about a tenth are workable. Do the math. I'm so uncreative! I need more inspiration!
This must be the most random thing ever. And this just happened:
My brother wants to take a book from a high bookshelf which happened to be in my room. He calls me over. I says "yeah what?". He says lift me up to take his book. I thought okay why not. And so I did. I balanced him on my forearms. (50+ kg is no joke!) But it was manageable still. And guess what. The book he wanted to take was like hidden behind several books. In his attempt to retrieve the target book, he dropped like a dozen books on me. For a moment, it rained books and instinctively I let go of him and we both dropped to the floor. How nice. On second attempt we got it though. What a sore forearm I have now! :X
Been a really long time since I actually had any physical exercise (actually last week). In camp, I don't get to exercise much.(irony) My platoon mates are mostly lazy and only a few are willing to run. Maybe they don't see the point or they don't really enjoy it that much. Running is fun, I really need to run. I still have my debts from jeep course to pay back. (ah layers of fats! be gone!) Throw me IPPT now and I'll die flat. The thought of SOC alone will make me cry.
Last week was pretty relaxing. In fact, this is the most relaxing course ever. I get more sleep in camp than out-camp. I'm currently withdrawing from my lack of afternoon naps!
Went Jurong Point again for nights out. Pretty bad experience because it was constipation week for me. Almost exactly the moment we got out of the camp gates, my stomach started hurting insanely. It was this gripping sour acidic flinching type of pain which inflicted pain and irritation to the night! I could barely enjoy my few hours walking around in the mall.
And I must be pretty smart to go add a Swensen frosted chocolate malt into my burning stomach. But no, it did not extinguish the fiery flames of my stomach ache. Instead, I had to half-cringe half-flinch back to camp.
I'm typing my "report" for my game for YF camp right now. I tell you, inspiration is something so hard to find. Maybe about 0.01 percent of my thoughts are inspiring ones. And amongst which, only about a tenth are workable. Do the math. I'm so uncreative! I need more inspiration!
This must be the most random thing ever. And this just happened:
My brother wants to take a book from a high bookshelf which happened to be in my room. He calls me over. I says "yeah what?". He says lift me up to take his book. I thought okay why not. And so I did. I balanced him on my forearms. (50+ kg is no joke!) But it was manageable still. And guess what. The book he wanted to take was like hidden behind several books. In his attempt to retrieve the target book, he dropped like a dozen books on me. For a moment, it rained books and instinctively I let go of him and we both dropped to the floor. How nice. On second attempt we got it though. What a sore forearm I have now! :X
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Void of direction
I wonder if it's time to shed my cynical paradigm for something glittering with optimism. Survey course started last week, and we had to change camp. Basically, it was surprisingly relaxing. We almost never had to clean the bunk, most of the admin time were spent snoozing. There were afternoons where we literally had afternoon naps. PT was almost nonexistent except a few runs here and there. Mainly we had lectures, on basically navigation. The most intriguing thing was that there was actually tests after each lecture and the tests actually does involve maths and map reading. (ouch. painful nostalgia from old school geography days waves past). Navigation was pretty fun, but doing it on foot sometimes can be a pain in the groin (literally) because it somehow takes 10+++ km ideally from point to point assuming you don't get lost. Getting lost is a scary thing because everything around you looks the same. I have to be mentally prepared for more navigation exercises.
Wednesday I had my nights out virginity broken. We actually went to Jurong point for the night. Coffee bean coffee cheesecake! I can't wait for next Wednesday to go there again. I've always thought of nights out as something lame, something non-practical. But now I realize that it's so refreshing!
Wednesday I had my nights out virginity broken. We actually went to Jurong point for the night. Coffee bean coffee cheesecake! I can't wait for next Wednesday to go there again. I've always thought of nights out as something lame, something non-practical. But now I realize that it's so refreshing!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Filler
I wanted to blog. But I think I'm too sleepy right now. It's way past my bed time.
Survey course has been fine so far and I still have no idea what's installed for me next week. nights out to jurong point is quite a fun experience.
I'm going to sleep! HAHA
Survey course has been fine so far and I still have no idea what's installed for me next week. nights out to jurong point is quite a fun experience.
I'm going to sleep! HAHA
Sunday, September 20, 2009
To become a pokemon master
There are so many complicated thoughts, intricate emotions swirling in my head these days. That this blog is so public that it would be deemed inappropriate to post all of it down here. Maybe I should set up a private blog soon.
I drank half a can of beer on Wednesday night which induced great vertigo in me. C'mon it's my first time drinking. Thanks to everyone who cared for me that night because apparantly now I can't remember remember who I talked to. My tolerance for alcohol apparently is super low. Maybe I should convert it to carboxylic acid first before I drink. Ouch! I remember booking out feeling not so sober. But the fast march to the gate made me feel much better.
Friday, I went with my brother and church peeps to the airport to send Lorraine off. Bad planning somehow led Ye, Glen, Joseph, Ronald and me to be stranded somewhere far far away from home without access to bus or mrt home. I only remembered I told them the bridge riddle and they were having hard time with trying to solve the riddle and at the same time solve the puzzle of " how to get home ". I was already feeling sleepy because it was way past my bed time (which is 2230 unfortunately!). Me and Joseph were considering doing a Road march home but it was insane so we decided against it. So eventually we hailed a cab which (out of mercy) agreed to take all five of us home at one go. It was actually forty bucks, imagine hailing two cabs. Ouch.
I got to book in soon to pack my field pack with ten pack items. Never imagined I would have to pack field pack and go FBO again. Course starting tomorrow. Enjoy your Hari Raya people! I'll be doing a jeep convoy with all my duffle bags to Jurong Camp. Can't wait! It's gonna be so much fun. (or at least I hope).
That's all for today. I'm feeling more depressed than I ought to these days. Hope booking in will cheer me up. :)
My title has no link actually!
I drank half a can of beer on Wednesday night which induced great vertigo in me. C'mon it's my first time drinking. Thanks to everyone who cared for me that night because apparantly now I can't remember remember who I talked to. My tolerance for alcohol apparently is super low. Maybe I should convert it to carboxylic acid first before I drink. Ouch! I remember booking out feeling not so sober. But the fast march to the gate made me feel much better.
Friday, I went with my brother and church peeps to the airport to send Lorraine off. Bad planning somehow led Ye, Glen, Joseph, Ronald and me to be stranded somewhere far far away from home without access to bus or mrt home. I only remembered I told them the bridge riddle and they were having hard time with trying to solve the riddle and at the same time solve the puzzle of " how to get home ". I was already feeling sleepy because it was way past my bed time (which is 2230 unfortunately!). Me and Joseph were considering doing a Road march home but it was insane so we decided against it. So eventually we hailed a cab which (out of mercy) agreed to take all five of us home at one go. It was actually forty bucks, imagine hailing two cabs. Ouch.
I got to book in soon to pack my field pack with ten pack items. Never imagined I would have to pack field pack and go FBO again. Course starting tomorrow. Enjoy your Hari Raya people! I'll be doing a jeep convoy with all my duffle bags to Jurong Camp. Can't wait! It's gonna be so much fun. (or at least I hope).
That's all for today. I'm feeling more depressed than I ought to these days. Hope booking in will cheer me up. :)
My title has no link actually!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Quantum Leap
I finally got my new phone. Sony G700 business edition. I finally managed to defeat the demon of procrastination.
During BMT, I told myself. Heck, after I suffer through the hellish field camp I'm going to spoil myself with a new phone. (which I thought would be Nokia E51, c'mon NSFs do not have a wide spectrum of choices which includes iphone or any other phone with an eye at it's back cover that goes snap).
I didn't.
Then I told myself. Once I pass out from tekong. I'm going to get a new phone. A whole block leave of 10 days could not defeat the demon of procrastination.
Then I finally got into unit. I told myself, after my combat engineer course I'm going to get that phone, like finally. Nope, I still didn't.
Milestone after milestone. I told myself after jeep course I was going to get but i laughed it off like immediately because I knew I wouldn't.
Then finally, the coup de grace came when one day when I was making a seemingly innocent call. My phone actually blacked out. I thought it was one of the tricks my phone used to play on me when it was unhappy about me over smsing throughout the night or lack of 7 hours of uninterrupted rest of charging breaks, but no. I just lay there, blacked out. No pun intended.
So I took out the battery, put it in again. Repeat and rinse, but to no avail.
It was a fruitless attempt I swear I couldn't find an apple nor an orange to save the day.
After yelling 'never say die', then repeating the "take out battery, put it in, on phone". Finally it works. Sometimes. Keyword is sometimes. Then sometimes as I'm happily typing good night and sending to my buddy sleeping one bed away my phone blacks out. Oh wow. How wonderful.
So it was finally time to whisper RIP to my red nokia phone with worn out keypads. Thanks for being a wonderful friend, through BMT. But now I have my stronger better faster Sony G700. Omgosh, I feel so mean. (even to a phone!).
Had a superbly slackish week last week in camp. So relaxing! Oh well, survey course begins next week!
During BMT, I told myself. Heck, after I suffer through the hellish field camp I'm going to spoil myself with a new phone. (which I thought would be Nokia E51, c'mon NSFs do not have a wide spectrum of choices which includes iphone or any other phone with an eye at it's back cover that goes snap).
I didn't.
Then I told myself. Once I pass out from tekong. I'm going to get a new phone. A whole block leave of 10 days could not defeat the demon of procrastination.
Then I finally got into unit. I told myself, after my combat engineer course I'm going to get that phone, like finally. Nope, I still didn't.
Milestone after milestone. I told myself after jeep course I was going to get but i laughed it off like immediately because I knew I wouldn't.
Then finally, the coup de grace came when one day when I was making a seemingly innocent call. My phone actually blacked out. I thought it was one of the tricks my phone used to play on me when it was unhappy about me over smsing throughout the night or lack of 7 hours of uninterrupted rest of charging breaks, but no. I just lay there, blacked out. No pun intended.
So I took out the battery, put it in again. Repeat and rinse, but to no avail.
It was a fruitless attempt I swear I couldn't find an apple nor an orange to save the day.
After yelling 'never say die', then repeating the "take out battery, put it in, on phone". Finally it works. Sometimes. Keyword is sometimes. Then sometimes as I'm happily typing good night and sending to my buddy sleeping one bed away my phone blacks out. Oh wow. How wonderful.
So it was finally time to whisper RIP to my red nokia phone with worn out keypads. Thanks for being a wonderful friend, through BMT. But now I have my stronger better faster Sony G700. Omgosh, I feel so mean. (even to a phone!).
Had a superbly slackish week last week in camp. So relaxing! Oh well, survey course begins next week!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Bumpy
I can't think of a title.
Anyway. I've been like going out everyday from Thursday to Saturday. This is so not me. When I'm at town, I sometimes wonder if I took a plane there.
Just to be chronologically sound. Went out with survey platoon last Thursday. The gist of it-food,movie then drink. I skipped the drinking part because I'm a good boy. Jon puked and Timothy could not maintain friction with the ground. And yes yes, there was this big pipe like thing with a hose for people to suck on. It's like smoking, but they claim it's non addictive. Oh well, I kind of value my lungs so I never tried one puff. But still, I think it was smelly, to be honest. I wonder how it makes people high.
Friday I tried Swensen's Ice cream buffet at Ion Orchard. I thought 8 scoops was actually commendable effort considering I ate waffles and cakes too. I love the cereal toppings like those fruity stuff. My happiness lasted until my brother told me he ate 20 scoops the last time he visited. Oh well, I don't have a huge appetite. I did not consume lunch, and my stomach was gelid cold from all that slimey freezing substance sliding down my throat My braces actually caused an area of effect freezing field right inside my mouth. But cost wise, it was super worth it.
Today I made an effort to repair my pieces. REPAIR! cause they are all rotting like garbage. I have to do something before they decompose. My brothers are playing stuff like pathetique sonata now for diploma and i'm so jealous. I will probably take mine the same time as theirs. And yes, I also want to learn the pathetique sonata soon though I think it's actually quite simple. My scores are all over the place, I can't even find my liebestraum score now. I cannot even remember a single bit of that Chopin Ballade and G flat etude which I was learning before I enlisted. This is one big thing I hate about army. I should find out if I can smuggle a weighted keyboard into camp so I can at least learn some new repertoire. It sucks playing the same thing over and over again, worst still, seeing them rot into nothingness.
Anyway. I've been like going out everyday from Thursday to Saturday. This is so not me. When I'm at town, I sometimes wonder if I took a plane there.
Just to be chronologically sound. Went out with survey platoon last Thursday. The gist of it-food,movie then drink. I skipped the drinking part because I'm a good boy. Jon puked and Timothy could not maintain friction with the ground. And yes yes, there was this big pipe like thing with a hose for people to suck on. It's like smoking, but they claim it's non addictive. Oh well, I kind of value my lungs so I never tried one puff. But still, I think it was smelly, to be honest. I wonder how it makes people high.
Friday I tried Swensen's Ice cream buffet at Ion Orchard. I thought 8 scoops was actually commendable effort considering I ate waffles and cakes too. I love the cereal toppings like those fruity stuff. My happiness lasted until my brother told me he ate 20 scoops the last time he visited. Oh well, I don't have a huge appetite. I did not consume lunch, and my stomach was gelid cold from all that slimey freezing substance sliding down my throat My braces actually caused an area of effect freezing field right inside my mouth. But cost wise, it was super worth it.
Today I made an effort to repair my pieces. REPAIR! cause they are all rotting like garbage. I have to do something before they decompose. My brothers are playing stuff like pathetique sonata now for diploma and i'm so jealous. I will probably take mine the same time as theirs. And yes, I also want to learn the pathetique sonata soon though I think it's actually quite simple. My scores are all over the place, I can't even find my liebestraum score now. I cannot even remember a single bit of that Chopin Ballade and G flat etude which I was learning before I enlisted. This is one big thing I hate about army. I should find out if I can smuggle a weighted keyboard into camp so I can at least learn some new repertoire. It sucks playing the same thing over and over again, worst still, seeing them rot into nothingness.
Friday, September 11, 2009
One thousand and one
I just booked out on Wednesday night from a grueling perpetual battle against army open house. Well, the thingie itself is quite manageable, but I never seen so many stores in my life before. Stores are evil scary things. Imagine, a 5-tonner, and two 10 tonners full of heavy bulky stores. Table, chairs, countless poles and weird funny stores. and the bane of mankind-camo nets! Scary! Loading and unloading is still very man power intensive. and the work that has to be done is tremendously wicked. load unload load unload WASH load unload. and move it from place to place It was mainly like classic strength trainnig plus a nice bake under the sun. And did I mention that the sun has been relentlessly blazing for the last few days.
So I got my weekend burned. (no, not by the sun). This week, thursday friday are off days. And next week, thurs and fri are off days as well. Compensation is always very nice. Double consecutive long weekends are so sweet. Yesterday when I awoke, I never felt so much civilian tranquility. So peaceful.
Yesterday I watched the movie 9 with my fellow surveyers. In my humble opinion, the film was average. The plot could be much better, there was actually potential in the whole concept but a 1.5 hour film wasn't enough to totally unleash it all. It could have been much better if it was in a series, where individual characters were developed properly. The show was rushed, but I think it had a nice sense of flow. I didn't feel bored, but the ending was abrupt, which made the whole film seem shaky with lots of mysterious left unclear. I liked the concept, but they rushed it, and blewed it. Well, but I've seen much worst movies so I guess this one can be considered decent though it does lack some meaning.
So I got my weekend burned. (no, not by the sun). This week, thursday friday are off days. And next week, thurs and fri are off days as well. Compensation is always very nice. Double consecutive long weekends are so sweet. Yesterday when I awoke, I never felt so much civilian tranquility. So peaceful.
Yesterday I watched the movie 9 with my fellow surveyers. In my humble opinion, the film was average. The plot could be much better, there was actually potential in the whole concept but a 1.5 hour film wasn't enough to totally unleash it all. It could have been much better if it was in a series, where individual characters were developed properly. The show was rushed, but I think it had a nice sense of flow. I didn't feel bored, but the ending was abrupt, which made the whole film seem shaky with lots of mysterious left unclear. I liked the concept, but they rushed it, and blewed it. Well, but I've seen much worst movies so I guess this one can be considered decent though it does lack some meaning.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Painful
Someone said
You truly own what you can protect.
I played.
My fingers never felt so out of control before. La campanella was overwhelming me. I completely forgot one whole passage. My first run was horrible. I stumbled, faltered and whatever you call that. I can't even play through the whole thing without stopping or without warm up.
AUGH.
I hope this is just a bad day.
If not, I actually feel like crying.
You truly own what you can protect.
I played.
My fingers never felt so out of control before. La campanella was overwhelming me. I completely forgot one whole passage. My first run was horrible. I stumbled, faltered and whatever you call that. I can't even play through the whole thing without stopping or without warm up.
AUGH.
I hope this is just a bad day.
If not, I actually feel like crying.
A spilt second of fire
I feel like playing the piano suddenly.
Omg, that's like the most neglected feeling ever.
Omg, that's like the most neglected feeling ever.
Something cool
Oh man I thought I would not be able to book out this week. I booked out last night, and then this afternoon again. Half day is actually a pretty pleasant surprise. Very tactical indeed. They did not want us to tire out before the open house. Today's quote of the day should be, "I know you guys are already very sick of this place. the truth is, it hasn't started yet. " I don't know if it's a blessing in disguise because I was held back at driving tests for like about a week so I get to evade a week's worth of shit jobs. Setting up tents, carrying rocks, carrying camo nets, all sorts of dirty work under the sun. But of course, we get plenty of sleep under the shade. Sometimes, there's totally nothing to do.
Tonight, I'll be booking in into a eight day saga. (or maybe nine). Five days of Open house and 3 days of cleaning up after the public and closing the whole entire thing. Then I'll finally get off for a super long weekend. Delayed gratification, again.
Life's getting meaningless. I'd rather be rotting around at home than going out with my friends. I wonder why. I've been wanting to watch a movie but too lazy to get out of my house. I finally decided today all that indecisiveness have to come to an end, and I decided to. *drum rolls*, play Pokemon.
Life's going to be boring. Most people somehow find themselves glued to their monster hunter on PSP when they have slept till the point of saturation. Despite my seemingly limitless capacity for sleep, I still maybe should find something useful to do with my time. Knocks myself, playing Pokemon is useful?
NSF life is so cruelly restrictive. I realized I cannot even book in my theory test for driving in peace. Weekend slots are all fully booked. Damn, can't those civilian people sacrifice a little and take the weekday slots. Or maybe cause I'm too late. Hey, I'm just going there to waste like several minutes of my time and get my pass.
I suspect I'm a little sick now. Sickening rain. I drove an auto jeep without any cover (or doors) on the expressway in the rain last week. I tell you that is one scary experience. Safety comes first, right. Very true when I was actually driving in the middle of two lanes. Or wait, I can't even see the lane markings. My jeep doesn't even have a windscreen so how the heck are there supposed to be wipers. That is almost equal to riding a bike in the rain. Except my helmet doesn't have visors. My goggles get wet like every nanosecond, my hands ain't so free to double as wipers. That sucks. Bleh.
Life is so boring now. But I'm pretty sure the coolest thing now, is to aim to become a pokemon master.
PS:sorry I couldn't find something cooler than becoming a pokemon master.
Tonight, I'll be booking in into a eight day saga. (or maybe nine). Five days of Open house and 3 days of cleaning up after the public and closing the whole entire thing. Then I'll finally get off for a super long weekend. Delayed gratification, again.
Life's getting meaningless. I'd rather be rotting around at home than going out with my friends. I wonder why. I've been wanting to watch a movie but too lazy to get out of my house. I finally decided today all that indecisiveness have to come to an end, and I decided to. *drum rolls*, play Pokemon.
Life's going to be boring. Most people somehow find themselves glued to their monster hunter on PSP when they have slept till the point of saturation. Despite my seemingly limitless capacity for sleep, I still maybe should find something useful to do with my time. Knocks myself, playing Pokemon is useful?
NSF life is so cruelly restrictive. I realized I cannot even book in my theory test for driving in peace. Weekend slots are all fully booked. Damn, can't those civilian people sacrifice a little and take the weekday slots. Or maybe cause I'm too late. Hey, I'm just going there to waste like several minutes of my time and get my pass.
I suspect I'm a little sick now. Sickening rain. I drove an auto jeep without any cover (or doors) on the expressway in the rain last week. I tell you that is one scary experience. Safety comes first, right. Very true when I was actually driving in the middle of two lanes. Or wait, I can't even see the lane markings. My jeep doesn't even have a windscreen so how the heck are there supposed to be wipers. That is almost equal to riding a bike in the rain. Except my helmet doesn't have visors. My goggles get wet like every nanosecond, my hands ain't so free to double as wipers. That sucks. Bleh.
Life is so boring now. But I'm pretty sure the coolest thing now, is to aim to become a pokemon master.
PS:sorry I couldn't find something cooler than becoming a pokemon master.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Here we go again
Next week. No book out for me. There are rumors that Tuesday is half day. Oh well. My life is still as meaningless.
Just enrolled for my basic theory test for driving. Can't wait to get onto the civilian car and start lessons At least it feels much better walking into the driving center and applying knowing that you have actually driven a P plate onto the real public road before. And yea, expressway! I'll hope within 2-6 lessons I can go for my TP test and by a few months I'll be driving around to where ever I want. HAHA, finally no need to cab around. But some stuff are new, like parallel parking in the test itself, and the speed limit. GOSH, it's no longer 50!
Just enrolled for my basic theory test for driving. Can't wait to get onto the civilian car and start lessons At least it feels much better walking into the driving center and applying knowing that you have actually driven a P plate onto the real public road before. And yea, expressway! I'll hope within 2-6 lessons I can go for my TP test and by a few months I'll be driving around to where ever I want. HAHA, finally no need to cab around. But some stuff are new, like parallel parking in the test itself, and the speed limit. GOSH, it's no longer 50!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
My exit is clear, I have to go
I thought that I should have typed a post or two since I'm about to book in. It's Thursday night and I officially graduated from Jeep course after having received my license as well as my certificate of achievement. It was a tough (understatement) five weeks. Grueling stress, excruciatingly painful streaks of failure to the extent I suffered break downs. I never knew I had problems with stress. I just knew I was BLUR and I had quite bad psycho motor coordination, but driving eventually came natural to me.
I remember the funny things that happened while driving. Being one who passed at the fifth attempt, I had to go through grueling hours of what they call failure training. I think the mileage and time I've clocked with my L plate is legendary. (well, almost). And I failed not because I was incompetent, but rather, I made the foolishest of the foolishest mistake under test condition.
(disclaimer Since driving is universal, I don't think blogging about this is breaching some official secret acts or law or something right.)
Driving has almost become numb to me. We're trained to deal with anything on the road. Expect the unexpected, thats what they call it. Very nice. We cannot blame taxis which cut into our lane and then cause us to fail because we cannot slow down in time. We cannot blame vehicles who irresponsibly and blindly dash out of the side road without stopping at the stop line. Anything that happens is like always our fault. We have to watch out for so many things at once.
The dumbest thing ever is to fail cause of stupid reasons. For my first test, I never made it out to public road. It was a five minute joy ride with the tester. How nice. For those who have experience in driving circuits you should be acquainted with something called the directional change. guess what, I turned out of the wrong direction, going against the flow of traffic and failed my 1st test. Five minutes, and I'm out. Not even 1 Km.
Well, I was disappointed. But things did not get better. The 2nd test, I was all poised to strike. Armed with red bull, I leaped onto the jeep. (53, was the back 2 numbers of it. I thought, damnit, that same vehicle again). it was okay. I had problems at the start, rolled back slightly at the slightly sloped carpark lot where the test started. I went smoothly out to public road into bedok area where I survived for a fair amount of time. UNTIl I was about to go onto the route back, I engaged reverse gear accidently at a traffic light and almost banged into the car behind. how nice, that was a immediate failure of course. And to think I thought I drove quite perfectly up to then.
The third test, I was already all shaky. It was the day where 1st and 2nd test passers graduate. It was almost definite that my course is going to extent and I cannot graduate with my fellow coursemates. It was surely not an exciting feeling. I just felt I had to pass this test, so that I don't graduate at a remotely far away date from the rest of the course. I was scheduled for the tester on the same damn 53 jeep. I leaped on it again having drank like half a can of red bull. Guess what, I couldn't start the engine. For like thousnd of times I crank start the engine but it wouldn't turn on. I paniced. Oh wow, guess what. the clutch wasn't fully in. So I went on to fail that test with spammed demerit points. What killed me? The negative impression, a couple of wide turnings that caused the tester to be dead pissed with me. Using the wrong lane after a junction. I U turned all the way out of the pedestrian crossing boundary. Okay, I probably just deserve to be shot. I didn't drove my standard.
After failing the 3rd time I almost wanted to kill myself. I had no confidence in my driving at all. And this dragged on to the fourth test where my morale was rock bottom. I got onto the 53 jeep again (tell me why I have to always go on that same damn jeep!) with a can of red bull in my stomach. Oh wow. I moved on at 2nd gear in the circuit. And that concluded my 1 km test route. Back to the circuit! and back to the failures bench.
Now, I tell you. failing so many times is so horrible. For fourth test failures we have to write a statement because we are suspected of deliberately failing tests. Now if it's so easy why would there be nine people left after four tests out of fourty men at the start. That's easily a quarter!. So we went for the so called unofficial interview.
For every test we fail, we have to go through what we call driver failure training which easily adds up to about 200-500 minutes and about an average of 70Km on public road. this mileage is no joke because we don't go straight on expressway (hell no L plates not allowed on those boring straight roads!) it's like a traffic light every some few metres. And instructors tell us to turn left turn right like no one's business. Everyone know turning left and right is more complicated than going straight all the way. (at least it uses more brain power right! pttf!).
Now. Finally. We all have clocked a legendary amount of training hours (which transcends that of the 1st test passers). We all don't suck. In fact, we all can drive pretty well and control the vehicle quite well. We all can drive. just that some people forget to put seat belt during test and some people get struck by a bicycle from another dimension. Some people stop at the green light because it's 7th month. or maybe some people see a platoon of ants marching across the zebra crossing. there are multifarious reasons why people fail. And most of them are somewhat inevitable. (and stupid!)
About stopping on the green light, yes. I committed that one on a driving assessment. (a small test which one have to pass before they're allowed to go on an official test).
Now. My fifth and final test.
I was a struggle the night before, two nights before. Sleep was good. If anyone would to fail this test. He would have to sit around doing nothing from 8-5pm and have training from 5-7pm because the new batch have already arrived and our instructors now have to take care of their new poor disciples. it was a life determining battle.
When they annouced that they're going to let us choose which vehicle we wanted for the test, there was a heated debate among all 9 of us. Some people actually wanted 53 but I strongly rejected it. I came up with a lame reason like the signal is not working properly and I finally managed to get them to use another vehicle.
Guess what, that vehicle has a name. And it's prior owner Jonathan, who happens to be a very nerdy and (weirdish) air force private who just passed on the 3rd test and left us said that his vehicle 35501 is called Sarah. To pass the test, one have to become one with his vehicle and shout out his vehicle name before mounting it.
Finally, without drinking red bull, and driving Jonathan's Sarah, which had a new set of gears because Jonathan broke it (!!). The biting point was also smooth. I glided on that momentum and passed my fifth test. Nothing happened, it was forty minutes of hell tension until I came back and was asked to park in the carpark lot.
I tell you. after failing so many times. The point is not to give up. There were many points of time where giving up, Out of course! was so promiment amongst my thoughts. The motto of the jeep platoon. Never say die! Is something which I would remember for life. This course had thought me many things. Amongst which. I remember a quote.
Only idiots do the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
I guess the breakthrough was not drinking red bull and finally having a different vehicle. One with great aura and power to even have a name.
I've met so many good friends here in this course. Some funny, some nerdy, some quite fun to be with after all. This course is full of test, and they're not the ordinary army test whereby going through the motion will get you a pass. Some tests can have failures up to the fourth-fifth-sixth attempt. Now tell me if it isn't scary.
I remember the funny things that happened while driving. Being one who passed at the fifth attempt, I had to go through grueling hours of what they call failure training. I think the mileage and time I've clocked with my L plate is legendary. (well, almost). And I failed not because I was incompetent, but rather, I made the foolishest of the foolishest mistake under test condition.
(disclaimer Since driving is universal, I don't think blogging about this is breaching some official secret acts or law or something right.)
Driving has almost become numb to me. We're trained to deal with anything on the road. Expect the unexpected, thats what they call it. Very nice. We cannot blame taxis which cut into our lane and then cause us to fail because we cannot slow down in time. We cannot blame vehicles who irresponsibly and blindly dash out of the side road without stopping at the stop line. Anything that happens is like always our fault. We have to watch out for so many things at once.
The dumbest thing ever is to fail cause of stupid reasons. For my first test, I never made it out to public road. It was a five minute joy ride with the tester. How nice. For those who have experience in driving circuits you should be acquainted with something called the directional change. guess what, I turned out of the wrong direction, going against the flow of traffic and failed my 1st test. Five minutes, and I'm out. Not even 1 Km.
Well, I was disappointed. But things did not get better. The 2nd test, I was all poised to strike. Armed with red bull, I leaped onto the jeep. (53, was the back 2 numbers of it. I thought, damnit, that same vehicle again). it was okay. I had problems at the start, rolled back slightly at the slightly sloped carpark lot where the test started. I went smoothly out to public road into bedok area where I survived for a fair amount of time. UNTIl I was about to go onto the route back, I engaged reverse gear accidently at a traffic light and almost banged into the car behind. how nice, that was a immediate failure of course. And to think I thought I drove quite perfectly up to then.
The third test, I was already all shaky. It was the day where 1st and 2nd test passers graduate. It was almost definite that my course is going to extent and I cannot graduate with my fellow coursemates. It was surely not an exciting feeling. I just felt I had to pass this test, so that I don't graduate at a remotely far away date from the rest of the course. I was scheduled for the tester on the same damn 53 jeep. I leaped on it again having drank like half a can of red bull. Guess what, I couldn't start the engine. For like thousnd of times I crank start the engine but it wouldn't turn on. I paniced. Oh wow, guess what. the clutch wasn't fully in. So I went on to fail that test with spammed demerit points. What killed me? The negative impression, a couple of wide turnings that caused the tester to be dead pissed with me. Using the wrong lane after a junction. I U turned all the way out of the pedestrian crossing boundary. Okay, I probably just deserve to be shot. I didn't drove my standard.
After failing the 3rd time I almost wanted to kill myself. I had no confidence in my driving at all. And this dragged on to the fourth test where my morale was rock bottom. I got onto the 53 jeep again (tell me why I have to always go on that same damn jeep!) with a can of red bull in my stomach. Oh wow. I moved on at 2nd gear in the circuit. And that concluded my 1 km test route. Back to the circuit! and back to the failures bench.
Now, I tell you. failing so many times is so horrible. For fourth test failures we have to write a statement because we are suspected of deliberately failing tests. Now if it's so easy why would there be nine people left after four tests out of fourty men at the start. That's easily a quarter!. So we went for the so called unofficial interview.
For every test we fail, we have to go through what we call driver failure training which easily adds up to about 200-500 minutes and about an average of 70Km on public road. this mileage is no joke because we don't go straight on expressway (hell no L plates not allowed on those boring straight roads!) it's like a traffic light every some few metres. And instructors tell us to turn left turn right like no one's business. Everyone know turning left and right is more complicated than going straight all the way. (at least it uses more brain power right! pttf!).
Now. Finally. We all have clocked a legendary amount of training hours (which transcends that of the 1st test passers). We all don't suck. In fact, we all can drive pretty well and control the vehicle quite well. We all can drive. just that some people forget to put seat belt during test and some people get struck by a bicycle from another dimension. Some people stop at the green light because it's 7th month. or maybe some people see a platoon of ants marching across the zebra crossing. there are multifarious reasons why people fail. And most of them are somewhat inevitable. (and stupid!)
About stopping on the green light, yes. I committed that one on a driving assessment. (a small test which one have to pass before they're allowed to go on an official test).
Now. My fifth and final test.
I was a struggle the night before, two nights before. Sleep was good. If anyone would to fail this test. He would have to sit around doing nothing from 8-5pm and have training from 5-7pm because the new batch have already arrived and our instructors now have to take care of their new poor disciples. it was a life determining battle.
When they annouced that they're going to let us choose which vehicle we wanted for the test, there was a heated debate among all 9 of us. Some people actually wanted 53 but I strongly rejected it. I came up with a lame reason like the signal is not working properly and I finally managed to get them to use another vehicle.
Guess what, that vehicle has a name. And it's prior owner Jonathan, who happens to be a very nerdy and (weirdish) air force private who just passed on the 3rd test and left us said that his vehicle 35501 is called Sarah. To pass the test, one have to become one with his vehicle and shout out his vehicle name before mounting it.
Finally, without drinking red bull, and driving Jonathan's Sarah, which had a new set of gears because Jonathan broke it (!!). The biting point was also smooth. I glided on that momentum and passed my fifth test. Nothing happened, it was forty minutes of hell tension until I came back and was asked to park in the carpark lot.
I tell you. after failing so many times. The point is not to give up. There were many points of time where giving up, Out of course! was so promiment amongst my thoughts. The motto of the jeep platoon. Never say die! Is something which I would remember for life. This course had thought me many things. Amongst which. I remember a quote.
Only idiots do the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
I guess the breakthrough was not drinking red bull and finally having a different vehicle. One with great aura and power to even have a name.
I've met so many good friends here in this course. Some funny, some nerdy, some quite fun to be with after all. This course is full of test, and they're not the ordinary army test whereby going through the motion will get you a pass. Some tests can have failures up to the fourth-fifth-sixth attempt. Now tell me if it isn't scary.
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