So yeah I remembered the few days before my enlistment I was definitely spending much time with my close friends; like as if your days are going to end. You’ll realize that time is actually kinda short especially in the weekends. Oh and yes, I spend my night before enlistment packing all the stuffs I needed like the list which I’ve compiled before this post. Of course when I went in I knew that I could have brought more toiletries since you’ll spend 2 weeks in camp.

The first 2 weeks in BMT is also known as adjustment week, where all recruits are treated with care and age sergeants will definitely try to help you adapt to army life, to many, especially myself, army would mean waking up early. Yes indeed everyday you’ll have to wake up, wash-up and be prepared by 0500. Don’t worry about the sergeants waking you up in the middle if the night because that will never happen, in SAF law every soldier MUST have 7 hours of interrupted rest before their days activities so if thats one if the worries you could be rest assured

Besides the sleep hours and all, if you are not the obese batch you will definitely have night snacks during your confinement week for like 4 days, stuffs like hot Milo and cream marble cakes are available. Also, after your confinement week, depending on your Commanders, you might be able to bring in dry food such as energy bars, biscuits, milo, however, i wish to repeat that snacks such as pringles, potato chips and maggie mees are prohibited cuz they are unhealthy!

Also, i wanna wish all recruits the best in their army life as i can assure you, life is not what you think as difficult as it is back then in the army, theres lots of welfare for the soldiers these days so just remember to enlist with an open mind and dont expect to meet your old friends there; but rather be able to meet new people.

toiletries
1: bar soap/ shampoo / facial wash
2: tooth brush/toothpaste
3: shave cream/ shaver
4: cotton buds
5: comb/hairgel <== LOL JKJK
7: body lotion <= i have some dry skin problem so optional for others

clothes and stuffs
1: 8~10 hangers
2: 15 clothe pegs
3: 6 underwears
4: 4 white socks (dont have to bring, cause you will only wear SAF standard white socks)
5: powdered detergent + bar detergent for handwash

Misc
1: handphone
2: handphone spare battery
3: padlock (dont bring it, its an old packlist, SAF will issue you a sequence lock for your wardrobe)
4: ballpoint pen/ small notebook
5: $20 worth of coins (for drink machine, washing machine bla bla) not sure if washing machine is free tho
6: nail clipper
7: slippers (for bathing use)
8: swimming googles
9: spectacle box (spare or optional)
10: Snake powder (POWDER BATH IN BUNK LOLOL)
11: IC (Dont forget this or else you will cock up!)
12: you might wanna bring along the blue packing list along with the enlistment letter you were given

**What i think, no need bring civilian clothes, u wont be wearing it at all, if really need just wear the same clothes on your enlistment day

**Also avoid using numeric locks as your sargeant might wanna check your locker periodically if you're not around, so you might have to give one of the padlock key to your buddy and another one for yourself ofcourse, i recommend hanging the key on your dogtag

** I dont recommend bring ipod touch gen 2 or psp or nintendo ds unless you wanna risk them stolen, its common in camp so just watch out for your belongings, i started bringing them only after confinement week cuz we got approvals from our commanders.

Our project involves working with Google maps, creating a map interface for NTUC. This doesn’t seem easy at first look especially coming from someone who’s weak at programming. it took me some time before getting an idea what we were supposed to be working on, i believe it goes the same to my other group mates. But guess what! this semester’s only having 2 other modules other than my Final Year project. and they are,

1) Ethical hacking
2) Building Reusable Components.

Ethical hacking, the title spells its objective. yeah what we’ll be learning is basically how to intrude a vulnerable system and finding a way to patch it up. And thats the job of us “white hat” hackers. I have to admit, this is one module i would spend 5 hours straight mugging in the library. =p Building Reusable Components are vb.net so its probably my forte since i worked on a major project before for IBM and i was doing network programming. What i’m liking about this module is that.. THERE’S NO EXAM! yeah just practicals XD. SO guess what, im so aiming for triple “A” this semester. I know i’ve been slacking for the past few months, Its probably time for a change.

Two independent teams of physicists in the US have entangled three superconducting quantum bits (qubits) for the first time. Entangled trios are of particular interest to those building quantum computers because three is the minimum number needed to do quantum error correction – which is needed to keep quantum computers running.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/43903

Eldwin Schrodinger.

And yeah the worse was when we gotta serve cocktail, wine and booze to all the guests before they go in the ballroom. Your arms are like, carrying the tray the whole dang time with glasses of wine and booze. Wooots. Thats all but yeah, i told myself, ok no more serving banquet. LOL.

Yes its true about that. Its always better to be coming back home to your own country. I’m starting to miss the local cuisine, the people and of course my loving friends. I’ll be back home in about 9 hours so i thought i would do a short post.

Well, shopping here in Hong Kong isn’t as awesome as the places we’ve been in Taiwan, of course there are great shopping streets here in HK as well just you gotta be able to look out for. I bought most of my clothes, shoes from Tung Chung from great warehouse sales in the shopping center located just above the MTR station. There’s heck loads of branded stuffs including Ralph Lauren, Coach, Gucci, Burberry, Timberland and the list goes on.

I had an issue with a staff working there though and that totally dampen my mood to shop there anymore. I was at Columbia and i wanted to get some shoes for hiking, so i spoke to the woman in Chinese asking her if there’s Size 10 for this pair of shoes and she was like, “SORRY?!” It was as if I’ve offended her and her attitude towards me was fucked up. And i spoke in English “I’m looking for size 10, have you got them?” and she went “No size 10″ in a very rude and uneducated manner. Are Hongkies that uneducated and rowdy? Yes i think she’s a great example. So i was like, “oh piss off you small eyed Chinese face”. Don’t call me racist, I’m Chinese as well.

Tbh, this nation has got lots to learn in terms of customer services and proper treatment towards people of their own SKIN COLOR. Well its a fact that these people will readily strip for the whites and see them as LORDS. If you’re offended by what I’ve just said then i bet you’re no different from them. Police that attitude so you could prove me wrong. Why cant these nations learn from the Taiwanese or Japanese; or perhaps the Thais. heh. ok rants over. Time to head back to hotel.

Oh and p.s, I’m gonna miss you for a week since you’re flying to Perth for your workshop. We shall keep in touch. See you tomorrow! <3

I do not right now have a cable to directly transfer pictures from my phone to my netbook so im just gonna blog with words for now till i’ve updated it once again when i’ve managed to hook on to another wireless hotspot. Saturday was crap for me, I did last minute packing for my luggage while i was chatting with my belle dame well since its gonna be the last time i could talk to her before my flight. (hates to admit that he’s gonna miss her) It was so nice of her to accompany me till like 5am before i’m all done packing, i know she’s tired as well. uh. you’re so sweet. omg so mushy.

Im now currenly in Charming Hotel, ZhuHai which is located just a few yards across the checkpoint from Macau. I’ve totally forgotten that China blocked facebook and i was trying so hard just to access the website i thought i had issues with my internet connection. Eitherway, this’s a five star hotel just that their rooms lacked ethernet cables i mean i wouldn’t mind paying a few bucks just to use the net.

China’s an awesome place so long as you really know how to sync in with the people. its only when i lived here long enough i start to understand their culture and how they are brought up. A good example would be the roads. They don’t quite rely much of traffic lights so basically if you’re gonna have to cross a junction you just got to pump up enough guts and just walk across that “Zebra Crossing”. The cars will all just stop for you. That explains why the PRC in Singapore would simply cross the road even if its red-blinking light; cause we’re perhaps more orderly in some aspects(?).

Shopping in china is all about bargaining till you get the lowest and most decent price you could achieve. Don’t be shy that you’ll lose face when you bargain on goods because EVERYONE does the same! Well i was doing some shopping when i saw a shirt selling for $200RMB. i bargained for 100 at first, she said its already cheap, so i walked away, (Don’t worry she’ll call you back) yeah she did, and she said how about 120, i replied no. and she closed the deal with $80. Thats how you get things done here.

I shall continue when i’m back to Macau.

p.s: Why must you fly off on the day i’m arriving back to Singapore. tsk.

My definition of freedom is never about being able to leave the house, enjoying the party or go for a drink like what every other youths would do. My definition of freedom is being able to break away from the urban landscape, the stressful city life to just live out in a country side and gaze out to the vast open land with roads so empty its all for yourself. Singapore has been too restrictive with almost everything. I don’t know. Maybe its just me or i guessed there are others who feel the same way too? I wanna go surfing but Singapore doesn’t have waves – Plus the sea is polluted. Neither is Singapore a Skateboard friendly country either. Comparing to the states, Australia, I’m a long distance and a downhill Longboarder and i found myself trapped in an urban district where there are either too much vehicles or simple just impassible terrains.

I remembered a few weeks ago i was traveling with my board from Lavender to Bugis to Cityhall, Dholby Ghaut and eventually reaching Orchard and i found that it isn’t enough! Though i had lots of fun and gained all the attention from the passerby. Some were curious as they have never seen such a set-up before. While some skateboarders would admire longboarders for their unique sets of skills. Its after a month ago that i found that I’ve opened up a new world for myself.

Just a few days ago i’ve introduced longboarding to a friend of mine and it took me just a few minutes to get him poisoned into it. So on that day we headed over to the underpass from cityhall to Esplanade and he tried my sector 9. The minute he stepped on it the minute he knew he has got to buy one soon! So i told him. Get a loaded Dervish. its a really good board but it costs s$500 to buy a complete setup.

Mine costs 400 but its a little overpriced from where i got my board. its a sector 9 Bullet but i’ve heard bad reviews on sector 9 but i dont see whats wrong with it. Here’s my stats

Board: Sector 9 Bullet
Flex: None
trucks: Gullwings charger
Wheels: Retro Bigzigs 75mm 83a lime – s$85
Bearings: Bones Ceramics Reds – s$120

I upgraded the wheels and the bearings from the stock sector9 i found it too small and soft. The bearings were previously greaseball ABEC 5 and they sucks. So i brought Eugene to LSP just somewhere near Turf City. There’s literally no asians there beside Gary the shop keeper and us. the rest of the skaters were all caucasians. Eugene got his Landy Drop Speed. Lucky he got that instead of the Drop Hammer.

Board: Landyachtz Drop Speed
Flex: none
Trucks: Bear Grizzly 852
Bearing: Bones Reds Ceramic
Wheels: Retro Bigzigs lime 75mm 83a

Both are great boards and were good for freeriding and downhill. its great to have buddies who share the same interest as me. Otherwise i would have been alone all this while.

Sometimes when i read my past blog post where i blogged about the past of Burma, Myanmar. I think about your family and how are they doing back at your country. I’m curious to know whats life there and how people are living life each day, fearing the junta back the past. I’ve read lots of documented reports online and sometimes i shed my tears thinking about the victims of a military governed nation. Of course, its internal affairs but curious and i wanna learn your language. Cause i like it how you laugh at me when i try to speak Burmese. Its the same feeling when you speak English and it never fails to put a smile on my face.
hahaha!