why age and maturity isn't a neccessary for good company

just came home from meeting Eugene and BQ for a round of drinks @ Ice Cold Beer. it's always a weird feeling meeting up old army friends and doing the proverbial 'catching-up' after not keeping in contact for a significant period of time'. such gatherings always start with the customary phrases asking 'how you're doing?', 'hows your job?' and more often than not that just opens up a floodgate of unnecessary information bombardment from your overzealous platoon mates who're dying to impress upon you about how well they're doing. before you realise, an aura of unfamiliarity just premeates into the conversations and what seemingly was intended as a celebrate of the camaraderie of yesteryears just degenerates into a socialising agony entertaining every little annecdote with mock interest while your friend happily masturbates his ego in front of you.

i really didn't need to know how u spent $8000 on clubbing as u claimed ever since u broke up with that girl whom u were supposed to get married to, or how u well-connected you are such that you could walk into whatever club in bermudas without paying cover charge. neither did you have to insidiously insert random details about your schedule next week in between unrelated talk, bitching about how busy you are having to entertain clients at so-and-so bar cos' somehow ALL the foodcourts/hawker centres buys plastic bags from your father's company even if all you wanted was to fish some compliments for yourself. and you certainly didn't have to reply and given a pseudo indepth analysis of what you would have done to the manchester utd lineup if you were alex ferguson in english when i clearly talked to you in hokkien and mandarin as i always did in the good o' days. cos' the Eugene that i knew, was the most reliable indian chief in our hokkien peng platoon, the one who had to balls to call 2SG Crouching Balls a Poo Boh Kia in front of his face. i hope it really isn't that breakup that changed u. so what if she was an SMU grad who couldn't reconcile herself with the prospect of marrying an N level holder like you? so what if your plan of opening a joint savings account failed to keep her? u have nothing to prove to us, brudder. it was her loss. Bros over Ho's, brudder. Bros over Ho's.
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In comparison, it's seems so much more fun just hanging around kids two thirds my age dispensing with the diplomatic niceties. i spent the entire saturday together with the dictators watching them in the VJ Shield preliminaries before heading off to douby ghaut for an entire evening of gaming. the generation gap is apparantly when i played DoTA with them, especially when i totally clueless about what spells or items to buy and only managing basic ham ji way of attacking the randoms while Windwalking away whenever an enemy hero is in sight, but it's was awesome fun. especially when you have like 4 persons screaming together calling for team mates to go 'zham!! zham!!! rape them!!' . it's just so much fun hanging around the dictators talking the wrongest things speculating things like questioning the plausibility of Andre's claim to have grown some LJM or Andre's need to farm testosterone which will aid his LJM growth. Here's a picture of which epitimises why training at gong jiao is so fun...which unfortunately is at the expense of poor Andre at time...


andre, the cutest human action figure

apparantly despite his dimminutive stature Andre's quite the cassonova claiming to have dated 14 girlfriends before, and there's apparantly some truth in that especially when two Big Blue debaters actually came all the way to Douby Ghaut just to meet up Andre when we were LANing. And of course, they too left when Andre joined us for dinner. Being the vernacular seniors that we are, me and Kenneth Kang promptly sought to instill some chivalry in Andre by telling him to at least go and talk to the girls (which was the least he could do) and that he'll be forgiven even if he chose to hang out with the two girls while we go dine without him. Besides, Andre needs whatever female interaction he can get to hasten his testosterone farming which will consequently hasten his slightly belated puberty growth hahhaha.


the kids did themselve proud breaking into the semifinals defeating RI and St Nicks along the way before succumbing to loss to ACSi in the last preliminary match. We're gonna face RI again in the semifinal next saturday who along with ACSi and Big Blue being the other 3 who will be competing along Cat High for a chance of etching their names for posterity on the VJ Shield. The dictators have everything to prove for themselves next saturday and i can't underline how important a win is to the Cat High team. The kids deserve a victory to end an entire year of heartbreaks ranging from 3 consecutive semi-final exits and failing to qualify to the JGs knockout rounds on the a break that went right down to speaker scores last year. They're an exceptional team who have been pouring their guts out training week after week. Even Andre, the reformed slacker has made quantum leaps in both his debating prowess as well as committment towards training. i'm exceptionally proud of him. The youngest speaker on the team, Tze Kai was phenomenal throughout all three preliminary rounds. At sec 2, he's definitely the one of the most precociously developed debating talent i've ever saw. At his age, is already able to hold his ground against debaters a year older than him. It's his immense industry in case research that really impressed me more than his raw talents and it's amazing how he manages to juggle all this together with his editorial duties at this online magazine which he started. (Yes, he started a magazine when we was barely 13 years old!). Yet at the same time, my biggest concern for him and Bryan Chan - who's exceptionally talented too - is that there is a tendency for many precociously developed debaters to get complacent about improving themselves and end up stagnating their development. Debating is never about pure talent, it's all about hardwork. If Tze Kai could keep up his hardwork and avoid the potential complacency trap which plagued so many debaters before him, we'll be looking at a future WSDC debater along with Bryan Chan. In fact, the litmus test might not be that far. There's gonna be an international competition for secondary school debaters sometime next year, and with hardwork and focus, i Tze Kai and Bryan should be able to make the DEP international team.

it's all about the kids. as their temp coach, i feel a huge sense of responsibility to the dictators and Xander. to the dictators, i feel obliged to help them achieve their fullest potential in this tournament in whatever way possible. I feel their passion and desire for victory and i really believe that a championship victory for VJCs and beyond is well within the reach of this team which is why i simply cannot entertain any possibility of letting them down as a result of slackness on my part. and as for xander, despite enduring all the bureaucratic shit he's stuck with gong jiao for all these years and it might well be the final year that he's coaching gong jiao. it's probably time for the dictators to give xander and themselves what they truly deserve -that final missing piece in the trophy cabinet - the JGs championship. winning the VJ shield is would be a significant step towards the holy grail.

"When you really want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to
achieve it. "
--- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

propping up a dictatorship / dun you want a blue burqa?

i'm finally home! It's been a almost a week back, the and hiatus from mugging
lasted barely more than 2 weeks. for the second consecutive year, i'm am now
coaching the 公教 dictators for the VJC invitationals shield since xander's still launching his own crusade against the procrastination demons over @ NUS. i can't believe i actually spent the entire week mugging and trying to
fathom exactly wtf does cultural assimilation entails. Case prep week is really a bitch. Doubly so when u have to prep both for the prop AND the opp side for the same fucking motion. in chinese this is probably called 自相矛盾 or 'turning one's spear upon one's shield and see which koyak first'. every argument which you conjure for one side, only adds on to your paranoia regarding the cogency of ur arguments on the other side. and as if that wasn't enough, after all this shitload of work, only ONE of the three preliminary round debates is on the prepared motion, the other 2 are impromptu. KNNBPCB....

there're somethings which just never change with the gong jiao dictators. and if anything at all, it's that each batch just gets more and more wrong. ok, last year, there's kk who swallows his own fist, fengyao who sends the wrong vibes to pre-teen girls, and shaun who lied down in the middle of the road ostensibly to impress some girls after last year's VJC invitationals. not willing to bite the dust by their predecessors, the 2006 dictators are showing great potential of usurping their seniors' claim to being the wrongest batch in cat high's debate team history. first there's the ever impish andre (who's 16 next year btw) who despite his proud declaration of that he finally grew some LJM (go figure) still hasn't shown any signs of physical nor mental maturity, and finally there's bryan chan who would randomly start speaking mandarin in a super husky voice in the middle of debrief and pursues a passion in scribbling LJM all over Andre's trackbook. every training session will somehow end up as an indoor soccer game with andre kua running around half-naked doing all his weird stunts, and with the rest using him as a life-size action figure.. haiz... why...why like that one???

oh, and as if that wasn't enough, we've got a resident team retard ho wee seng who appears to have a very warped concept of mating rituals. ok, u see, IJ TP came down to our place for a friendly spar earlier today, and for like the first time ever, wee seng seemed unusually enthu about doing the timekeeping for the girls, and started sprouting random nonsense throughout the course of the debate, and even started pointing middle finger at Tze Kai why he was doing his speech. i understand 14 year old boys are inherently hormonally charged and would go to great extent just to get the attention of girls, but wee seng.... haiz...

speaking about the friendly debate, the whole session just seemed to be missing something. and it only hit upon me after the friendly that during my time, whenever we go down to someone else's place for friendlies, the hosts will always provide some refreshments for the vistors. which was probably why the IJ TP team seemed rather surprised that the friendly just ended at that. in hindsight, we were totally atrocious hosts, and when i questioned Andre about the protocol for friendlies now, he just gave a nonchalent 'yah, got drinks. but so? we boh chup one lah' social dysfunctionality - the dictators just upped their wrongness

and tomorrow we're gonna have another friendly spar with St Nicks. the original plan for us was that we wanted SN to come down for a friendly so it would save us the trouble of travelling all the way to the ulu ulu realms yio chu kang since we've travelled away for the last few times we sparred them. but NO! the SN ppl die die dun wanna come down to bishan. and the reason only became clear after i called up Bryan just now to confirm the venue for tmr's friendly. it appears that the SN liason told bryan that the parents of the SN debaters were reluctant to 'let their daughters step inside an all-boys school'. WTF?? it's either that SN is experiencing a change in their school philosophy towards religious fundamentalism, OR Cat High has recently established some notoriety as a institution that consistently produces sex fiends. u know it's yet another tragedy for gong jiao when even a sister school has lost faith in the morality of its brother school. why am i not surprised if SN decides to don the habit or the burqa together with their blazers for the debates on saturday *tsk tsk* hmm, a blue burqa with pinafore... hahaha that would certainly be the defining fashion statement of the year.

speaking of which, i actually found a photo i took way back when i was in 1st 3 months in JC. Long before Blinkymummy or King Meng's sartorial tribute to the blue pinafore, i already paid homage to the revered deep blue in my own little way hehe.

circa 2000. the virgin undergrad then. the quinessential Big Blue

now i wished i had wore another pinafore over my head as a habit or used it as a burqa.....

'Come on Aussies Comeon!! ' Off to Germany, Socceroos!!

For the first time in 32 years, and only just the second time in Australian history, the socceroos finally made it into the World Cup finals after overcoming Uruguay in the second leg of the Oceania-South America World Cup qualifier playoff in a match that went right down to the penalty shoot-out.

For us, 2 Singaporeans and 2 Malaysians, it was well worth our time and money heading down to the Champions Bar at Burswood Casino to catch a piece of action cheering for our adopted host nation. When it comes to the soccer, cheering for Australia is sadly probably as close as it gets to feeling any affinity or partisanship towards any team in a World Cup match. I just can't see how Singapore or Malaysia can qualify for the world cup anytime soon. So much for Goal 2010. FAS should just blow the entire Goal 2010 budget on hiring Guus Hiddink as the national coach. He's almost become synonymous to underdog overachievement. If only Fandi was less of a wuss during his younger days, he could have went on to achieve great things with Ajax instead of returning back to Singapore, homesick and ending up playing for Pahang or some other random obscure team. We could have had someone with decent football coaching credentials in Singapore, but no...someone just had to miss the Singaporean food. Ok, then again, if it was really all about the food, it's probably fair enough. Cos' i can't stop thinking about cheap hawker food back home now.

Anyway, back to Aussie-Uruguay match.

The match started with Socceroos 1-0 down from the away fixture at Uruguay a week ago. The first 15 minutes was really jittery for the Socceroos who almost conceded an early goal if not for Schwarzer's reflexes. It was interesting that Hiddink didn't choose to start with Kewell, and it wasn't until the 30+ minute that Kewell was substituted onto the pitch. Boy did that make a difference! At around the 38th minute Kewell ran rampant deep into the Uruguayan defence, did a cheeky backpass and went for a one two, and dribbled into the penalty box to set up a pass for Macro Bresciano (some guy who i've never heard before this match but played really well, managing a good couple of shots on target) to drive it to the back of the net. GOAL!!!
The whole bar went absolutely delirious.

I wouldn't say it was a really redneck crowd down at Champions bar, and they seemed pretty well dressed -which kinda made us feel outta place-, but boy the things that come out of their mouth were absolutely hilarious! It's really funny when you find yourself in the unlikely scenario of being on the same side as the rednecks. Like when a Uruguayan player goes down regardless of whether he was diving (which actually happened pretty often) or really brought down by an Aussie challenge, the whole crowd will start to shout 'U R Gay' as a spoof to the name 'URUGUAY'. And if that wasn't enough, when a certain black and bald Uruguayan player fell down after taking an seemingly innocuous challenge, the cameras focused on him who covered his face in mock pain, only to be caught by the camera peeking at the referee's reaction through his finger slits. That was soooo silly and everyone in the bar was actually more amused by his unaccomplishedl playacting abilities more than the unprofessional act of diving in itself. and so the the 'U- R- GAY' chanting eventually became a full song will the entire bar singing to some impromptu tune composed by one certain smart guy sitting in the front of the screen going 'U-R-Gay, U-R-Gay....U...R...GAyyyy......U-ARE-G-A-Y!!!!!!'


Australia had a couple more chances but simply couldn't find the finishing touch. By the end of the second half, the bedrock of the Uruguay attacking flair and defence, Alvaro Recoba and Pablo Montero respectively were subsituted for some inexplicable reasons. Mark Viduka who captained the Socceroos remained rather tame throughout the entire game. In the end, the match went down to penalties and the Socceroos found the back of the net in all but the fourth penalty shot which was taken by none other than Viduka himself. What a disappointment. Well anyway, the Socceroos won, and the crowd went mad again.

If Guus Hiddink could transform a South Korean team of inexperienced players into World Cup semi-finalists, just imagine what he could achieve with a team consisting of talents like Viduka, Kewell, Emerton, Omerod and Schwarzer who ply their trade week and and week out in the English Premier League or some other European teams. Good on'ya Socceroos!!!! Germany 06, we shall see.

done and done for

exams are finished. so am i. should have seen it coming.

whatever the result may be, i'm just gonna fuck it all. i dun intend to spend the entire summer wallowing in self pity. balik kampong lor!!

On the stereo
Listen as we go
Nothing’s gonna stop me now
Singapura here we come
Right back where we started from
Pedal to the floor
Thinkin’ of the roar
Gotta get us to the show
Singapura here we come
Right back where we started from

Singapura!!!! Singapura!!! SINGAPURA!!!
HERE WE COME!!!

random indulgence in nostalgia

if you're a guy in your early twenties with a lingering nostalgia for the times when TCS/SBC wuxia dramas were so much better, then you're probably gonna love this.

I present to you that elusive theme song from that classic channel 8 serial 最后一个大侠 which recedes in the deepest recesses of the minds of every singaporean boy who grew up in the early nineties. That is the absolute coolest SBC/TCS theme song EVER. (you'll probably have to wait for a while for the music to stream)

In memory of those less complicated times, where playtime with friends simply meant exercising one's imagination playing out roles from each wuxia serial and bashing each other up instead of playing multi-player RPG in front of the computer.

maybe that's why kids these days have so many issues. they'll probably need more positive influence from old school SBC wuxia dramas like 最后一个大侠 which constantly bombarded their predessors with a healthy dosage of unequivocal moral righteousness. 正邪不两立.

i would hate to imagine how this generation of kids who grew up watching cartoons like Cow and Chicken or that stupid 美人鱼 channel 8 show would turn out....

PS: Purple Killer (紫镙刹) has to be the COOLEST villian EVER in the history of singaporean telly-land.

sideblog/2 down 2 to go

it's an amazing feeling strolling back home while listening to my dear ipod mini. buoyed by the realisation that the mid-way check point is reached, the music and the stroll just makes it feel like i'm in MTV.

anyway, if you haven't realised, i justed added music and a sideblog at the sidebar to serve as an archives for the song's that i'm gonna post. i apologise in advance if that irritates the fuck outta you.

the skirmish is over, but the battle is still on. two down, two to go.

D minus 1, H minus 16 hrs

Preliminary recce has been completed. At D-Day 0900 hours tomorrow, a new wave of assault shall be launched on the Procrastination Armed Forces (PAF) . It will be the third battle since war broke out almost a year ago and it shall be expected to persist for at least another 1.5 years. Background information regarding what let to the outbreak of war, the declaration of war can be found in the Warning Orders and Ops Orders here which were issued a year ago.

The battle must be won. Freedom -and my entire summer- is at stake. For defeat will spell the enslavement of my people under the yoke of academic oppression, wallowing in mugging for the supplementary paper while our victorious brethren shall be enjoying their summer break. Field updates shall be limited, subjected to battle conditions. RTB expected at D+ 10 1400 hours. We must and we will CRUSH THE PAF.



'WHAT WE DO IN LIFE, ECHOES IN ETERNITY'

Mix - Feeding poor, hungry students since...erm..since (?)

it's official. i've sampled the entire $5.00 menu from Mix restaurant @ hampden road after subsisting on a Mix diet for lunch for the past 1.5 weeks. For the past week at least, i've tried the Sze Chuan Chicken rice, the Black Pepper Beef rice, the Tom Yum Noodle, the Satay Beef rice and my absolute favourite - the Nasi Bryani. See, Towkay Mooiness. i'm your loyal customer k, when gonna give me VIP card ah? heh heh.

I'm fucking sick of eating Chu Qian Yi Ding Noodles already. Even though it's the brand that me and my housemates swears by, the only ones which we buy are just the original flavour, the Tonkatsu flavour and the Shoyu flavour. even so, it tastes pretty disgusting after sometime especially when u have it consecutively for every meal (excluding breakfast cos' i never ever wake up for it) for a week. If the mugging didn't kill me, the MSG from a CQYD diet will certainly finish the job.

As i type, i'm happily masticating away in front of the computer on the Hainanese Chicken Rice bought from Mix while my box of Nonya Fried Rice is downstairs await for its demise during dinner time whahaha! The best thing about Mix dishes is that they bother to separate the gravy from the noodles/rice so it tends not to get soggy. The Hainanese Chicken Rice for one, is so much better than that in Student Cafe - their competitor down the road. Of course lah, Mix is slightly more expensive than Student Cafe which sells Chicken Rice for $3.50 only. But i confirm guarantee Mix chicken rice taste so much better. i think in economics they it can be described as higher marginal utility per dollar spent (argh, fuck economics. it's the root of my misery now). anyway, the difference lies in the rice cos' the rice @ Mix really got the Asian hawker centre standard, can taste chicken stock but the rice @ Student Cafe is just plain white rice only.

man, i dunno why i'm typing all this, it's like a culinary review or something. it has gotta stop, have to head to the library to resume my hermit regime again. sian...