Looking Back on 2006

the Sagacious Sorcerer

the Sultry Seductress

In the midst of the myriad activities and going-ons that distract and occupy me, an opportune moment of vacuum has enabled me to bring on this new entry. My year end hols has been innundated with activities and things to do, even while slacking at home - if I'm not out with friends or at a friend's place or out with my folks, I'm at home watching tv, sleeping, playing literati, watching movies, reading, eating, snacking, talking cock with my folks or on the phone, stoning, looking out of my window, thinking (intellectual stoning), clicking around interesting websites, listening to songs and doing the occasional jog. Many of these activities provide instant gratification and are objective in nature - and in my humble opinion, it is the sheer nature of these activities that make them so doable and nice to do. Hence, tonight, in the vacuum of nothingness - my internet is screwed up and I've watched my stash of movies and I'm too lazy to read and I'm not in the mood to talk - I've decided to navigate through my browser all the way to this page so as to pen down this entry.

The year 2006 has indeed been the one with the highest number of transitions for me as well as the year with the highest cumulation of interesting things. It all begins with turning 21 on march 15 and although that was just a symbolic coming of age into adulthood, that was incidentally also the day that marked my official emancipation from the fetters of the army. To top off that special day, I had my first run-in on the road when a lorry driver tried to escape from me after grazing my wing mirror but that sorry bastard never got away cos I gave chase and got his license plate which enabled my dad to track down him down. Mar 21 to may 1 saw me morph into the moniker that Kenneth gave me - Gulliver. Heck of an experience. June winessed my virgin (unknowing to the unsuspecting and gullible moms) lessons as an english tutor and the 8th of June notched the 1st anniversary of my driving license. First taste of uni, albeit not as interesting as I anticipated it to be, on 21st aug. Got my first term gpa of 3.8 which exceeded expectations - apparently it's the cut-off for summa cum laude. haha. Maintaining it is gonna be a tough one. perhaps bettering it could be easier... haha! Got to meet up with most of my friends (at least those I care abt) during the hols, esp those who are back on vacation. And the highlight is definitely the spendid christmas season - the anticipation, the atmosphere, chilling out with the amigos, a havoc eve of xmas eve - most notably playing pool at 4am, a havoc xmas eve - feasting and playing balderdash to the excesses of alcohol, the aftermath on xmas day - sitting through xmas service and family lunch whilst enduring the ill effects of sleep deprivation and alcohol-ridden breath which evoked a snigger from my dad halfway through service. Looking forward to ushering in the new year. My wish is for us to blaze it with a trail of fire. Whooyeah.

It's nigh time for me to withdraw to the comforts of my bed and comforter.

Indeed, the year of 2006 has been, in a breath, big time. Yeah, big time.

Justin

The status

This is not the run of the mill post that resides among the interspersed entries of the blog. It is in fact, an indication of theamigosparasiempre's hibernating status that is in sync with winter. Though it is apparent that a vacuum of activity exists hitherto, I'm sure that everyone has progressed in one way or another, or possibly, added strokes of colour to his already magical life. Today is winter solstice so while the sun is out, carpe diem. For the significance of this day and most importantly, December 22nd marks the first day in a ridiculously long time I actually wake up just so to have breakfast out of home.
-Kenneth Wong

The Sleeplessness

Its almost 2am.. sleep is nowhere within my sight.. meeting malik in 7.5 hours time... just dont feel that i have accomplished enough for the day... i wasted most of the day away and havent done anything that i am particularly satisfied with... what will i do now? i could cave in and force myself to sleep... or i could try doing something fufilling, though im not sure what.. we will see...

-Luke

Interlude

Something to spread the christmas cheer...

The past few weeks whizzed past in a flurry of presentations, papers and more recently, revision, leaving behind in my mind a residual blur of things occurred. During the short interim wedged between the conclusion of my revision and my impending stats paper (something I don't particularly like and am not particularly good at) tomorrow, I've decided to interject with this entry cos firstly, I aint got nothing to do, and secondly it's been some time since I last did.

During the past week of study leave, I've had ample time to think about life. To me, christmas is really the best time of the year and I can't think of a season I enjoy more than christmas. In fact I love it so much that the anticipation of christmas is indeed comparable to the real thing itself. My christmas tree is up and and when I look at the lit up tree decked with the ornaments and all, I simply can't help but grin to myself. It's inexplicably therapeutic gazing at the christmas tree. After indulging myself night after night looking at my tree and thinking of the sumpteous christmas dinner that I'm gonna share with a few of my closest church friends, I suddenly felt guilt-stricken. Amidst all the joyous festive mood and the feasts and presents that await, there are humans beings out there who spend their life waiting for a glimpse of that adorned christmas tree, that morsel of honey-baked ham, that little present that would mean nothing to us. These are humans with an equal right to life and its abundance of resources as you and I. And I somehow felt guilty for having what they don't. I somehow felt that I'm having this abundance in life at the cost of theirs. Looking deeper into that, I realize that that's not the case. I feel guilty cos I'm not doing what I can to get that smile on their faces. I've been a selfish bastard who seldom lifts a finger to reach out to those in need of that christmas joy in their hearts. I hope that one day these rueful words will translate into action...

I'm gonna have a last scan thru my stuff now before the big paper tomorrow -after tomorrow the bane of my first term will be out of my life, hopefully for good! On a merrier note, merry soon-to-be christmas to all amigos and good luck for your exams!

Justin

U2

I went for U2s concert.. it was as awesome as i expected.. and they played with or without you and the saints are coming, which i was waiting the entire concert for.... happy! now its time to come home. here are some pics which hopefully will let u guys somewhat experience the concert vicariously... btw.. the second pic is the crowd doing a wave...


 

Irrefutable evidence

ok.. here is irrefutable evidence that elvin and widya are meant to be together... on my msn list... they are the only two people who have mixed in capital letters indiscriminately among their nicknames.. furthermore, they are also the only two people on my list who have stars in their nicknames as well... What other proof could one possibly ask for.

-Luke

The Room

Okayy good evening Amigos! As all of you already know me to be an inhabitant of a hostel, you fellas might be interested to find out about my room and its current state. In my objective opinion, I promulgate that it is of 'live-able' condition, though I anticipate many begging to differ by attaching adjectives such as deplorable and dilapidated in respect to my room. As there is always room for otherwise impressions, I choose to maintain reticence on this and proceed with words of description that would hopefully do justice to its state in the absence of pictures(explicit graphic content). Besides adumbrating the physical situation of this living premise, I'd also express my persuasions and sentiments on why it is like that and why I am completely satisfied with its condition.

In a thousand words: Upon entrance of this room and within the closest of proximities, a sink is situated to my left and directly oppositie it lies a 'makeshift' wardrobe which would probably scare the hell out of the lion and the witch. With further progression (2 steps ahead) lies the main part of the room where clothes and reading material are strewn all over the expanse(a very far fetched illusion of space). The bed is strategically placed at a corner of the room so I can comfortably nestle myself at the corner while using my computer on my bed-in-breakfast table(my purchase of 2007). Unlike the conventional function of a table, which is for work or to support a computer, I use it as a 'convenience depot' where grab and go items like my ipod reside on it. As I don't have a bedside table, I've turned my chair into one. Besides clothes, there're also other interesting items on the floor, such as my telephone, water boiler and electric toothbrush becasue their connecting wires aren't long enough for them to be placed on the table. And for the record, it's also little wonder why my curtains are ever so steadfastly drawn haha.

So as you've read, the bed is the central focus of my room. Nearly all activity is done and operated from my bed(control station). Yes, that includes the occasions where I study too and you might wonder why. First, the chair is just too damn uncomfortable as compared to the bed where pillows and the duvet just pave the way for the ultimate study experience. Yet, as expected, it naturally begs this question: How are these amenities conducive to constructive study since the slumberous effects are pretty much efficacious? Well, I like to employ reverse psychology on myself by emanating the 'positive mental element' of vigilance to triumph over my astronomically high threshold level of lethargy and slothfulness. Empirically, I've succeeded thus far. Next, exists the subject of maximizing space and resource. After converting my table to the convenience depot I earlier mentioned, I also used the 2 seats in my room as tables. So do I use the unoccupied portion of my bed to rest my books. Viola! The total surface area of occupancy has increased by a fair bit!

The vox populi(thanks V for teaching me that term), more relevantly of the parents of the world, is that a disarrayed room genearlly represents the disorganization and disorder that is imbued in ones life. In contrast to that, I'd rather propose that we learn to live practically and do our best to improve what affects us most. Pertinent to my case, dwells these desires of comfort and convenience, which are perfectly rational excellences to strive for instead of a less meaningful 'cosmetic' drive. What I've done is simply to make my life better as opposed to being dysfunctional and disorderly- In essence, I am living in an organised mess. I know exactly where my things are and how to get them in the shortest possible time in this intricate 'mess.' Of course, despite the physical randomness of arrangements(euphemism for mess), I'm nevertheless particular about health as well as sanitariness and I take extreme measures to keep myself from filth. To wit, I use chopsticks to handle crisps or tortilla chips because I don't like salt and oil to take residence between my nails and skin cuticle.

As you might already be convinced, I'm wholly satisfied with the way things are. Yet, there is really more, even so my existing content, to this cradle I nestle in. It is in this medium can I immerse myself in solace in face of the most disconcerting of times and get tranquilized from the pervading feverishness redolent of the maddening crowd. Being in my sanctuary truly grants me the great pleasure of being alone; I'm able to sort out my thoughts and issues without external influences, unrestraint and helplessly yielding to the emotions that pervade me, expounding on revelations learnt throughout the day as well as thriving on an imagination that unfaillingly brings an unparalleled satiation. Superfluous to that, being alone at home allows me to identify with the music i listen to and stuff I read. Above all, taking sanctuary lets me be totally, completely frank with myself. On a personal note, I, for some inexplicable reason, am not in the highest of spirits. Certainly of course, it doesn't give me good reason to directly rant in this blogspace on a whim. This is why I prefer to give vent to these sentiments by binging in philosophical thought and revelations and translating them to words for the carthasis to prevail. Therefore, in penning this entry down, I've also told you another story.

Though one may always seem to be in his cold, logical stupor, it's only a matter of time before his uncompromisable, final inch of humanity surfaces. The title of this entry is 'The Room,' and I'd dare say that it's impossible for one to always keep the door of his room closed to the lurking outdoors of vulnerability and susceptibility.
-Kenneth Wong

The Time of the Year

My one week mid-term break (or rather what was left of it) flew by in a flash and once again I'm hurled mercilessly back into the frenetic cesspool of smu. During the next 4 weeks, I've 4 presentations and 1 speech to deliver into the gaping, razor-lined jaws of smu to avoid incurring her venomous wrath. 2 weeks following that, I've my finals to sit for.
It is time to ready my panoply and psyche myself to blaze the trail.
One thing that's making it all worthwhile is anticipating fervently the impending yuletide gay.
In such times, to my fellow amigos who are also facing these surmountable challenges, God speed.

Justin

The Impending Christmas

Too early to write about Christmas, you say? I beg to differ, having started playing Christmas carols a couple of weeks back and having already bought my first Christmas decoration for this year. I have had to tone down the anticipation a bit though.. cause i still have my exams to do.. but soon i will be back home and forcing my mum to decorate the tree and make Christmas cookies... Anyway.. This Christmas, I hope we all keep in mind how blessed we are and that there are many people around us who are not as lucky as ourselves... Some people won't have homes to sleep in this Christmas... Some people won't have loved ones to share the season with.. some people won't have any presents to unwrap.. and some won't even have a decent meal... While we get swept away in the joy and merriment of the season, I think we should spare a moment to think of these people who are less fortunate than ourselves, and hopefully do something about it... It doesnt need to take any money or even much time... All it takes is to show love and kindness where you see it is in want... Also this season, lets save a prayer for all those whom we can't help ourselves.. Surely we can squeeze in one prayer for these people among all the prayers we say for ourselves. Let's do what we can to spread the happiness of this time of year before it is too late. Love and Joy to all. =)

-Luke

The Tutorial

As part of the natural, rhythmic flow of events in planet Earth, the fallowing season has just ceased and with no intermission in between, I've just faced off with my nemesis- the academic term. Although this might very be the first day of the rest of my life, I certainly am not intent on allowing this medley of impediments to mar my varsity life, detract the potential my future holds and in essence, orchestrate my plight. Anyway, as pertinent to the title, this entry would entail the tumultous events which've led up to the tutorial as well as a few indiscriminate issues related to school.

My foray into this academic arena after nearly 3 years of intellectual vegetation has been nothing but daunting and tantamounts to 'tumult' in every sense of the word. First of all, I had a tutorial today which naturally implies adequate or at least decent preparation. Being once uninitiated and for the benefit of the current ones, gearing up for a mere 50min tutorial embodies the reading of extensive cases compounded with completing a couple of related questions which require painstaking effort and exhaustive analysis. Though I'm probably only fired up on one out of all my four cylinders, I found myself further handicapped because I lacked prior knowledge to law and was expected to deal with legal cases where everything seemed foreign and I knew I couldn't count on my superficial extrapolation of meanings as well as arguments at all. However intimidating, I just bit the bullet and took practical measures to combat this behemoth of a problem by forcing myself to actively read despite feeling so sleepy. I don't know if you believe it, but work is most definitely the most potent of tranquilizers and its somnolent effect perniciously lingers to the point where when you wake up from that dream, you know you're screwed beyond belief. For the record, I spent 3 hours reading and answering questions pertaining to this case which contained convoluting paragraphs that constantly required inference; in the sense, I have to constantly succinctly describe in my own words what the hell the judges are trying to say because they hardly contain topic sentences.

In retrospect, the aftertaste of my first 2 days at law school has left my confidence levels of my abilities in the balance because i did feel stupid and lacking when I had to re-read certain portions of my case just to comprehend its facts. I hope that my confidence levels would pick up in the near future, where I'd be able to actively think as I read while already being adept at basic comprehension.

So, today was D-Day. I had my very first tutorial and had 6 other students with me seated in a round table with my prof. Though my understanding of the case was not completely thorough, I'm pleased enough I got the questions I did right. The other students were pretty competent in their knowledge of the case but i've really yet to meet someone who is so insightful in thought, discerning of the most similar of issues and trenchant in opinion or critisism. Very frankly speaking, I'm actually quite relieved that I managed to escape unscathed. Thank God!

Since embarking on this path of education derives so many issues a normal man would shun, why stay on it? My opinion is that many people in this world repel challenges and thus always fall short of their expections in life. Despite the existence of a possibility that I may alter my current intransigent stand, I'd dare say that I'm gonna stick to this path I've chosen by continuing my walk off the beaten path where denial, failure and quitting don't exist in my vocabulary. I guess the most common and convenient reason I'd provide for studying is the pursuit of excellence which is an end to itself. I personally don't think it's an entirely wrong or unfair statement but more importantly and relevantly, the following 2 questions have surfaced. Do we study just FOR the exam or do we study to SHOW everyone that we're better than them? I believe that at this stage, you readers might be perturbed, especially with the latter, but despite the depth of life one's got, is it even possible that the presence of a superficial motivation is totally obliterated from him? I vaccillate.

Venturing into this once-familiar realm of academia comes with a plethora of challenges yet it can also bring the delectations that accompany success. So far with hindsight, I've resolved not to allow a day to slip by me, no matter how surreptitiously, without an immediate goal in mind. This means that I want to wake up every morning knowing
distinctly what I have to do so that I'd emerge triumphant on a daily basis by acting on them. Finally, not only out of pure neccessity but from which it stems from the much vaunted quality of ambition, I hope to muster sufficient discipline and resilience which parallels to an iron grip, and pilot my life through the cloudy and unpredictable skies ahead. Like I always mention in the game of bridge, 'taking control' is important because it really is a much better bet than leaving the success of events to stem from fortuitous opportunities and arbitrary means. Okay, this is the end and I hope that you amigos will excel and say 'ditto' or 'snap' to this!
-Kenneth Wong

The Nothing

ok ppl... i dont really have anything interesting to blog about but i thought i would just add an entry to fill up the time and space before an inevitable entry from kenneth about his sexcapades with some hostel chicks, which i am sure are in progress... My exams are coming up soon, starting on the 6th of november and i will really have to do some massive amounts of work before then... On a much brighter note, I will be watching U2 on the 18th and returning to sg on the 20th. eh.. the word, "note", there makes a pun when perceived in a musical sense... not a very good one though... in early dec i will most probably be heading to europe for a holiday... and hopefully, crossing over to las vegas to wrap up the trip... eh elvin.. can u pls update us regarding your amorous attempts on anastacia... ok.. thats it from me.. back to work.. cya guys!

-Luke

The entree

Hello from afar! I believe it has been more than a distant moment since I made my last post and since then, the events that ensued weren't far off the high extremes of the 'havoc' and 'interesting' scales. Before I begin proper on broaching the intended content of this entry- my impression thus far- you might want to checkout my philosophy of the day; nothing in this world comes for free. In conjunction to that, I've caved myself this opportunity to stray from the maddening crowd and pen my thoughts down , albeit in retrospect, by giving the possibly truncated next 1 and a half hour introduction to Law Faculty a miss. With the preceding apprehensions and ambivalence abandoned in Singapore, I departed for the United Kingdom and I've been consistently psyched up since!

Indeed, despite having only resided in Bristol for 3 days, the hostel experience has left but an indelible impression on my mind. In direct contrast to the common restraints reminiscent of most social environments in Singapore, the residents at my hall overtly engage in free spirited and intense interaction with one another, especially at our resident bar- The Three Horses. And for the best of everyones interest, this merit of concentrated intermingling has permeated through the various levels of South Wing and might I say, the entire hostel. This undoubtedly is pleasant because of the variation of gender it adds to the segregated floors of my wing HAHA. For informative sake, I live on 'G' level which happens to be the 'Cellar' for more than one reason and is concomittantly christened as 'G-unit.' Notice the incongruous language used in the previous sentence with intended sarcasm.

'G-unit' is the name of our faction and I believe it's underlying intention is to create an identity that would hopefully attract a stream of girls to our floor. Like in the many social scenarios, displaying ones defining trait or identity is rife. Two instances of such would be the night of escapades to the Carling Academy where we were donned in long sleeves and loose ties in fashion of a drunk hobo, as well as the emblazoning of 'G-Unit' across our chests in last nights pub crawl. Not surpsrisingly, others from the different floors started getting themselves branded. The culture among G-Unit is pretty interesting; we often congregate at someones room for a host of occasions such as pre-party gatherings where we unfaillingly immerse ourselves in goodwill and spirit(pun intended). Also, despite the association of idealism among 2 of my dormmates who're pursuing theology and philosophy, they've exhibited hints of pragmatism- using knives as door stoppers. To provide you with slightly more than a glimpse of what's happening, we played pictionary at Nick's room while en route to intoxication. Being 21, I'm pretty familiar with all this high school bravado and therefore simply enjoy the superficial entertainment its pursuers can offer.

In closer and less general terms of this social element, I'm selectively outgoing and made friends with a handful thus far. Not that I usually make distinctions, but in this case and for specifics, I made a whole lot more of acquaintances. My current infinitesimal sphere of friends is a confluence of folks that are of german, italian and cheifly british descent and extraneously, our interests are tapped from the common resevoir of booze and merry making. At this age, i believe i'm adequately wise and discerning to realise that hanging out with the faction or Clifton Hill House at large cannot always replace friendships as individuals. Therefore, on my first day, I perused and sized up the various personalities and decided on those whom I reckon are trustworthy. I hope the future won't detract and taint my judgement, but the few friends I made are plausibly reliable and hopefully these friendships would be based on integrity as well as the mere pleasures of one anothers company, rather than just arising out of propinquity.

Theories aside, I've mingled with pretty interesting characters. Mike the theology undergrad who has a penchant for issues pertinent to religion or the lack of believe in it, has a havoc room where his collection of books on Christianity is effortlessly juxtaposed to his mega-poster of 'The Periodic Table of Mixutres' on the perpendicular wall. This again, illustrates the incongruous concoction of sanctity/holiness and decadance that is prevalent throughout the university. Integrating into a foreign community can be pretty daunting, but with knowledge of social dynamics, the simplicity of heart as well as humour and wit off hand, these situations can be managed. Oh and not to forget, I've met with the Singaporeans on few occasions hitherto and for good measure, I should gather with them more often.

As most activites are held at the Junior Common Room which is actually a hall with a bar, consolidated gatherings have made it easier for me to conduct adequate and unbiased visual sweeps of the herd and more specifically the lasses. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it's my considered opinion that the appearances of girls leave quite alot to be desired. Contrary to my more extreme view, my brit friends think they're reasonably good looking and that some merit the title of 'fit' which is synonymous to 'hot' in vernacular British. Fortunately, despite the widening disparity in the looks department, there arre the few who constitute the saving grace and redemption of the overall quality. Most distinguishably, this asian girl whom I reckon brought only a havasack of clothes because everything she has been cloaked in seems to be downsized. You know, it's cool to take micro to the next level, which is nano HAHA. As I've yet to know her, I'm waiting for the opportune moment to get acquainted, trade numbers and know her real name other than what I refer to among my friends as the short skirty girl.

All the events to this point have gone according to script- in the sense every day was filled with more sensible activities such as city tours and nights that were alcohol fuelled and brimming with heathy interaction. However, lessons begin next week and if we don't haul ourselves out of the illusions of varsity, we're only doomed to a path that leads downhill and to hell. I guess that we're of good, a more ripe and matured age to recognise that our immediate actions dictate the paths of life we trod. I believe it is our duty to take active and practical measures to prevent ourselves from wavering and instead, walk the line.. to the end point of excellence. My hope extends to my fellow amigos to persist in your journey and keep your eyes focused on your purpose of studying at university.
-Kenneth Wong

O Capricious Mind of Mine

I find it really uncanny that my mood and general state of mind can be negative for a period of time, however long or momentous, due to either a culmination of factors or just one big factor like how SMU is wasting my time, effort and compromising my happiness; and yet switch to hints of positivity due to a single incident of which relevance to the current situation is peripheral. My situation is not alleviated but somehow that incident can actually induce me from being moody to being mildly happy.

One of the ridiculous things that has been bogging me down is the ridiculous fact that we're supposed to pair up for our political science term paper, but very very unfortunately, my partner who happens to be in yr 3 didn't get her bid for the course and I was left partnerless. After slcaking around for 2 wks, I was suddenly jolted by the fact that I still haven't got a partner when my prof reminded us that we're choosing our topics soon on a first come first served basis. Hence, the mad scramble began and I realized all the people I know had partners. Before I knew it, the topics were out and I was still hunting for my potential partner so I was delayed in choosing my choice topic, which was already snapped up by extremely 'on' groups, which pissed me off even further. However, today, my friend told me that there's a girl in my class that ain't got a partner too cos her partner bastarded her for his friend, leaving her partnerless. I was extremely apprehensive about it cos as you are fully aware, choosing a gd partner is extremely imperative in ensuring the success of your paper and general happiness during the course of work. I hadn't the slightest inkling on who this girl is - what if she's stupid? what if she's irritating? what if she's a stalker (ok that's a little extreme but possible)? What if she is smelly and has warts? So, I related my problem to my prof whom I happen to be on gd terms with and he replied my email saying that she seems like a nice girl, how he found out I don't know - perhaps he just made a wild judgement from her profile photo. Haha. So, I started considering her seriously and decided to snoop around friendster and try my luck finding out more about her. Ha... jackpot - she was from rgs, rj and apparently looks not bad at all. And she's single. Hahaha. So I called her after getting her number from my friend and we carried on an interesting conversation right from the start. Cool.

Although this incident does not seem to ameliorate the general shittiness of my current circumstances (although it solved a problem), I'm suddenly a happier person. This reminds me of the time when Kenneth was relating to me his betting adventures and he was facing an all-time low point in his life when he was screwing up his studies and everything; and winning that lump of cash would just make him damn happy and totally obviate his sad situation although it's totally irrelevant in alleviating his circumstances.
I've realized that these are the little shafts of light we must grasp and appreciate - little tenuous victories that we score along the way, but nonetheless are victories anyway. These are the little things that will make the ride a little less bumpy. Hopefully we all can discover our little victories along the way and make the most out of them.

Justin

The Light at the End

It’s gonna be a number of years before we see the light at the end of the tunnel, a few more for Luke.

What is education? Everyone has his/her own unique notions, preconceptions and biasness about this concept. But I don’t really give a shit what people think. In my opinion, education is the training, moulding and stocking-up of the human mind as well as heart to serve the individual in his life duties, responsibilities and continual integration and re-integration into social and familial life. In view of my sagacious and incontestable definition of education, is the education system doing me that favour? The answer is obvious and just to confirm it, it’s a no to a large extent.

In Singapore, we’re culturally and historically deficient. We’re consumed by authority, autocracy, subservience, extreme obeisance – in short, trammeled and fettered by the whole goddamned system. To make up for our deficiencies and elbow our way to global recognition, we have taken an unnatural and rapid path to success from the humble beginnings of a 3rd world British colony. The ramifications and by-products are obvious. We have developed a screwed-up culture of kiasuism, frenetic work paces, a rabid societal rat-race, and how would I dare leave out the general unfriendliness and lack of warmth in our citizens – with the extremely wise government having to resort to marketing Singapore with the 4 million smile which requires a whole separate entry for me to bitch about. Our general quality of life is lower than other developed nations, esp Europe. Choice is definitely something that is ridiculously lacking – just look at our political scene: we vote for the PAP not only because they’re good and serving us well, but really because our opposition is either under-powered, purely incompetent or downright retarded. Look at free speech. Look at our national service. Blah blah blah.

Hence this leads me to my point. We lack choices even in something we choose: our education. I lack a choice in what I want to study in the degree I’m pursuing. And of course, lacking a choice in what I’m studying just doesn’t make sense. Doing senseless subjects like Communications that doesn’t teach me what I don’t already know and having a lecturer whom I think I can replace, Leadership/Teambuilding which is a ludicrous waste of time and serving no purpose vis-à-vis its own name, and of course, Statistics B which is B because I happen to be stuck in a course that is not A which implies fraternizing with a class full of F maths freaks. All these shithole modules are not gonna make me a better person or enhance my education. Yet I’m somehow I’m wasting countless hours doing them, with an opportunity cost of doing a whole lot more useful things that could benefit my future and further my happiness.

I’m having trouble visualizing the light at the end of the tunnel. I would like to think that we have to constantly try to detect the very tiny and negligible shafts of light peering through the tunnel we’re sojourning through. But the thing is, I’m getting disillusioned by the bumps, darkness, stench and impediments dotting the tunnel. What does the light at the end look like? I thought I had an idea of it. But I feel like I’m losing my ability to envision it. I hope it comes back.

Justin

The Ball

For those of you who didnt know, i went for the med ball on friday.. It was a great night and the haze of enjoyment and fun lingered on to the next morning... Dinner wasnt very good, but that wasnt the point anyway... Who needs dinner when you are coming up tops on games of pretend blackjack, have friends trying to bite each other, complaining of "tunnel vision" after drinking dilute cranberry rum, people stealing chocolate from other tables, and you get to ride in a bus with disco lights .. The bus took us over to a club called depot for the after party... Although the club only had a $1000 tab for the party, which was quickly exceeded, i continued to buy drinks till i was pleasantly high, after which came the dancefloor... Summer Rain is an awesome song.. hahaha.. a while later, we stumbled into a cab to head to another party... where we stayed till about 345 before deciding to go home... by the time i reached my place, it was 430... i was throughly tired, but feeling on top of the world.. all days should end like this... i have kept my descriptions brief because it would be impossible to recreate the transcendent atmosphere of the night... anyway, here are some photos from the night...

The Ball photos

Me and Melissa, Justin's favourite girl...















Me and Sudesh, a year 2 feeling good.. and by good, i mean high...













My gorgeous date, Celestine...














Celeste posing with my rose...hahahaa...

The Ball more photos

 

The Fortnight

Hello Amigos, I'm back from hell and am once again, raring to scorch and torch the chronology of theamigosparasiempre with inflamed online footprints that would hopefully put the highest order of Malike's charring bbq skills to shame, and leave more than a lasting impression on your minds. From my perspective, this most recent fortnight embodied a confluence of paradoxical emotions- glee and melancholy, involuntary apprehension and stillness, condescension and veneration, as well as raptures and the inexplicable but dreaded emptiness- which broke the constant hum of monotony in a tumultuous, yet pleasant manner. With many a nimble touch of my keyboard buttons, allow me to paint yall in nearly a thousand words, a depiction of events that added yet another dash of glowing orange to my predominantly grey backdrop.

To begin with, the abrupt torrential rain last Sunday marred our afternoon of soccer by forcing everyone into an undesirable, lengthy hiatus of intense restlessness as well as impatience. As expected, the minute the impending signs of subsiding manifested themselves, all hell broke loose in an unbridled fashion. Anyway, the flames within me towered into a conflagaration due to disrupted soccer that was compounded with a couple of extraneous factors. Consequently, this inferno exponentially increased my aggression factor and took my raging desire to score/tackle/injure to another level. Unfortunately, my team kena a highly adept and physically challenging opposition of Malays which never failed to pput the remainder of teams that were present, out of business. Basket man, I was constantly on the back pedal and on numerous occassions, I hadda resort to illegal bodychecks and other variations of foul play. Malicious tackles, spitting and even altercations were commonplace at that instant, and fortunately in spite of my punch-meriting fouls, I was elusive of the events that tainted the game. For the record, my intemperate rage melted into nothing but utter despair when our team kena kicked out at the death(just before nightfall) after defending so damn well for 1/2 an hr. basket man we were damn sway. Highly competitive individuals somehow accentuates the overall quality of the game i guess.

As a representation of the barren social aspect of my life, I met with various people over the past week such as my former track and field teammates, 2 girls from my jc class and malik most recently. In all these 3 encounters, strange and interesting things happened. First of all, Hilary(track n field) was outlandishly havoc; On that day, she displayed spurts of insanity when she started slamming everyone around her and that includes me(though I disagree she was successful haha). Nevertheless, even if i were the object of slamming, i'd always welcome frivolous, cheerful banter that comes with a hint of persiflage with open arms. Oh and Hilary got fined bec she didn't pay for parking during the day HAHA! The best part was she thought she didn't have to pay for parking(this is the bigger joke). Yup, as always, I thoroughly enjoyed the company of my trackmates..nic, nic's gf, hil and yusheng!

In a similar fashion to getting stunned by Elvin with his illogical and disjointed comments, I was baffled by 2 of my former jc classmates cheryl and jacqueline. As though I'd been hit by a rock from behind, I was totally unprepared for this calamitous(but they were laughing!) event of photo taking or 'photo-whoring' in the parlance of the 21st century uptown girl. Apparently, I had been living under a giant rock because it was only through this eye opening happening after 21yrs of existence, did I realise that photo taking actually qualifies as an 'activity' among girls! Hell, i got slammed once more. Yeah in the fashion of Eminem dissing himself, I shall follow suit and air to my readers at large my embarassing weakness that I have no defence for- As some of you already know, I can't smile for the camera! And when I try to contort my muscles to produce one, I appear unnatural and some might say, constipated. Though I may not have a concrete defence against this weakness, I have a very plausible explanation that might mitigate further slamming; It inherently lies in the fact that I am unable to display a specific facial expression unless it's source- the rudimentary and genuine emotion- generates it. This means that I'm unable to smile unless I'm truly happy. Therefore, if you wanna take a picture with me in future and don't want me to sully the photograph, crack me up and i'll do my best to prolong that emotion :).

While Justin defines the aesthetics of the female species as Da Best and unfaillingly saves the best for last, I've decided to reserve the final portion of my protracted entry for the events which lead to my forthcoming university life. I met with the seniors as well as prospective Singaporeans headed to Bristol over tea at 'Flutes at The Fort' last Saturday. In that transient gathering of surprisingly limited interaction and therefore little perusal of their characters, I managed to arrive at a conclusion that they're a pretty decent bunch. The parochial selection of girls is still a major turn off, and hence faint hope silently resides in my heart that the Brits who constitute the bulk of the multitude come in visually pleasant shapes and sizes that perfectly mirror a cola bottle. Incidentally, as international exposure comes with numerous intellectual and emotional rewards, I'm intent on actively preventing myself from being sucked into this blackhole of the insular culture among Singaporeans by intermingling with people beyond the few that share the same nationality as I.

Despite feeling largely indifferent towards departure for quite a long while, I cannot say the same as of current. On one hand, I anticipate and embrace the new lease of life Bristol has to offer. Yet on the other, I find myself in combat against my natural inertia which is most significantly responsible for my reluctance to leave- theamigos, family, other friends and even the minute things such as my peculiar running route I take for granted on a daily basis. As u can see, the struggle to balance, let alone reconcile these 2 issues has become turbulent and I guess right now in my heart, they exist in disharmony and in an uneasy equilibrium.

UPDATE @ 1700 GMT +8.00! For informative sake, this is not a superfluous but the final paragraph that is being penned a havoc 12hours after the 2nd last because i fell asleep on my half-done job at 5am. Also, i've no choice but to conclude this entry of slightly more than a thousand words in retrospect since i'd pre-decided to end 'The Fortnight' like this- impetuously and hurriedly- as i capture the moment on an all time high. Howya doin' Amigos?
-Kenneth Wong

In Lust We Thrust

Ok man, once again I'm compelled by my fellow amigos as well as my moral conscience to add in yet another entry for the entertainment and updating of all of you lusty lads out there.
So far, school's been quite a ride - it's a convergence of good and evil, passion and disdain. I'm pretty dissed with the 2 modules that exist in the form of communications and leadership/teambuilding. They ain't telling me what I don't already know for comms which pisses me off cos I'm sitting in class wasting my time with a bunch of mostly fools save for a few and 'learning' things I know naturally at the back of my hand ince I was in nappies. Haha apologies for the exaggeration but thats my point. Leadership/teambuilding is just a pure waste of precious time with lessons on leadership and teambuilding interspursed with our community project planning when the final goal of the module is to execute a community project that we're suppose to plan for during these couple of months. This in my wise opinion, is a lousy exuse for the morally-scrupled SMU brimming with moral rectiude and compassion to make an impression on the community at large and foist community service hours on us for free. Lo and behold, once again they ain't teaching me anything abt leadership and teambuilding I don't already know and if anything I should grab everyone of these fools, including the well-meaning profs, by their artificially-bleached-white collars and haul them off to the deep of the pasir labar jungles and teach them a thing or 2 abt leadership and teambuilding OCS style.
Moving away from that, I have to say that I'm thoroughly enjoying my sociology and political science modules that have served to fuel my inherent interests in these disciplines and despite the volumnious and heavy readings, I must say that I'm enjoying myself. My Dutch prof for pol science is a really cool albeit slightly eccentric dude who vaguely resembles Kane the wrestler. Haha. He's like bloody knowledgeable and is one of those bona fide, unorthodox self-made academics who never went through the conventional academic system but instead self-taught himself most of the way through a ridiculous amount of reading and grit. I'm absolutely inspired by him and hope that I can come close to if not surpass that level of knowledge, enlightenment and coolness he possesses.
Now, lets move on the aesthetical portion of the entry - as always, I unfailingly save the best for last - the icing on the cake as some may say. After 2 weeks in SMU, I would have been an utter failure if I hadn't soaked in the sights and sounds and had the chance to lick and get a taste of some candy. I've seen my fair share of hot chicks and apparently, many are from business. Hence, I'm at a severe disadvantage as im not in business and don't share classes with many of them. However, I'm definitely not giving up hope and I'm sure that the merciful hands of Fate and Chance will contain enough largesse within the next 4 yrs to bestow me with fortuitous opportunities to procure the lion's share of the candy. Well, so far, there're currently 2 lasses that are within the sphere of interest. One is the ex-vj girl and the other the girl whom she was talking to whom I mentioned earlier in the jackpot entry. By some funny coincidence, the former stays at tanah merah and the latter lives less than a 5 min walk away from me. The 3 of us plus another 2 girls and a guy had lunch on wed at a thai place at cityhall and we had fun talking cock over lunch man. Apparently, the second girl has a sunny personality and she and I are getting along pretty well. Hence, yesterday I seized the opportunity to casually mention as an off-hand remark that we can meet for lunch someday cos both of us are free on thurs, and she said yeah sure we could meet for supper anytime too since we live so near each other. Haha. Sounds like a mini jackpot with 20 coins dropping out.
So, that's it for now from my side and looking forward to hearing more varsity tales.

Justin

The Night of

Hello Amigos! I'm finally back from Calista's birthday celebrations yet still pretty distant from being sloshed despite taking slighty more than 10 glasses of mixtures. As I hadn't injected a single drip of alcohol into my bloodstream for nearly 2 months, I strode into the club apprehensively, bearing in mind that I might fall victim to the snare that has consumed Elvin- Getting fully intoxicated on a mere teaspoon. Unsuspectingly and inadvertantly(like real lar!), glasses of booze readily flowed through my parched throat and furnished my mental state with a surreal haze. Generally, I'm glad to have met the few who were present to share the joy of Calista's birthday and incidentally, had the opportunity to talk to this girl for the briefest of moments despite she being unable to remember me. Melia you were right about the incredibly low and remote probability of this occurance, but when u read this, shut up! HAHA. That's all you needa know and for the record, this encounter leads to nowhere. Goodnight! Oh on a totally unrelated note, I just wanna study law and see my long term future in aviation. Yo Ho Yo Ho.. a PILOTs life for me!
-Kenneth Wong

The Fucked Up Day

Some of you reading this may perceive this entry as whining.. and that is exactly what it is... today was a fucked up day... at first, i was drawn in unsuspecting, by the seemingly harmless facade of the day.. then i was fucked over for letting my guard down... it started during prac... prac was completely useless and i was so damn sick of looking at dead bodies... not sick sick but bored sick.. so i spent 3 hours just prodding around aimlessly... after an arduous 3 hours of standing around, i came home and realized i forgot to clear the trash and my apartment smelt of garbage... anyway.. i cleared the trash and went upstairs to do some final editing of my essay.. which is when i scratched my left hand on the edge of my table.. the cut was damn deep.. it only looks like a small scuff now cause it has been doused repeatedly in cold water to reduce the blood flow to the area.. anyway... i decided to go buy some dinner... i went to a chinese restaurant downstairs and bought some black pepper beef noodles.. but the chef must have gone mad with the black pepper cause the entire thing tasted like a bowl of chilli padi... anyway i forced half of the stuff down my throat for the sake of nutrition and went back to my essay.. an hour later.. my laundry that i had put in earlier was done and i went to put it into the dryer.. which is when i got my finger on my right gashed by some fucking metal thing inside the dryer... what are the chances of cutting yourself on a household items, let alone two times in two hours??? anyway... i have decided to stop everything to avert further disaster, and on kenneths advice, sleep my irritation off... and my hands still smell of whatever chemical they use to preserve bodies, which is disgusting... some days, u are just fucked...



-Luke

The Perfect 7

After sweating it out on the jogging track for 7 weeks, I can't help but seek greater motivation for better athletic performance in more places other than the pursuit of my fundamental fitness goal. Running a grand total of 210km over the past 7 has reaped rewards that surpassed my expectations. In tangible terms, my stamina has improved considerably and is pleasantly complemented with a leaner, 7kg lighter frame. In respect to non-material progress, I mentally cope better and more readily with increasing quantities of stress. Also, these runs inexplicably facilitate the unlocking of certain mysteries of my mind such as my recent revelations on physical beauty- what defines it as well as why this word shouldn't be loosely used- as I've been rating the appearances of girls rather inconsistently. Without further digressing from my topic sentence, the theme and source of greater motivation for tonights run is Courage. If a man is defined by his labours, then above aptitute and skill, courage notwithstanding the presence of other qualities, is most pivotal to attaining personal success and sets the weak apart from the mighty . Indeed, it also takes courage to set high targets and to steer oneself back in his intended direction in the event he stumbles. Therefore, attaching this merit of courage to this race elevates running from a crude, energy diminishing activity to a more meaningful one that also encompasses a life significance I'd like to grasp in greater measure. In this case, I'll run my ass off as a demonstration of courage agaisnt my inherent slothful/dormant nature and also for the significance of chasing this moral excellence.
-Kenneth Wong

The Midnight Tales

At the finishing point of my regular run, I met a fisherman who initiated this encounter by commending my strenuous effort as reflected on my flushed and exhausted countenance. After a while, this conversation took a mysterious twist with this stranger telling me tales about fugitives who've once trodden on part of my running route(which I'm glad to follow their glorious footsteps HAHA) in their escape from captivity and his peculiar encounter with the third kind at The Village(Kampong then) which was on the opposite bank of the canal. Being a naturally inquisitive and curious person with time to spare, I decided against hastily ending this conversation and listened on with cautious as well as skeptical interest. The added fact that I am so familiar with and frequent the places these bizarre encouters took place further urged me to stay and hear him out. Yet, at the back of my mind, I constantly reminded myself to take whatever had been spoken with a pinch of salt..or two.

Right now, I shall re-tell these stories to u amigos in the 3rd person, as well as provide my personal commentary and opinions on them.

Tale #1.
This fisherman who apparently regulary parks himself along the canal, has claimed to have manifested an apparition darting across the expanse of the kampong in the period of '94-'95. To add a further detatil, the apparition resembled a shimmering, luminous satin cloth violently tossed by the blustery winds.

Commentary
As it was my first time hearing such a tale, I can't help but think that it was a poorly spun one. Also, such an event seemed ever too cinematic! Though this story appears to have been too conveniently created based on these elementary details, or perhaps a genuine figment of his imagination, I think i'd go against my better judgement and give him the benefit of doubt just in case.

Incidentally and on a totally unrelated note, this stranger witnessed this flying figure in the same period I intruded and fled from the golf course adjacent to the canal, with wild abandon o course. I swear, the village was terribly, hideously terrifying man; with glass shard strewn all over its ground, dilapidated and standing against a pitch dark background then. The combination of uncertainity, danger and of course adrenaline fuelled my mad dash home and unfortunately the village was the only way through. In case you don't know, I was already chased by a furious caddie who discovered i trespassed. Holyshit, it was like being IN 2 concurrent horror movies that I am not intent on re-enactign.

Tale #2
In an unspecified number of years ago, 2 fugitives scaled the inner walls of Changi Prison and managed to reach the perimeter fence. The guard on duty slept on his job and they broke a weak-link in the fence wiring. Through that opening, they fled for their lives. Somehow, they reached the canal, darted across the bridge into the village and disappeared in the wild forest. Surprisingly enough, the connecting chains that linked each of their cuffs were broken too..

Commentary
This is absurd! Changi prison is how freaking far from my canal man! Escaping without getting caught while handcuffed is in itself a miracle, but to gain access to handcuff breaking equipment and later travel that far by foot? My foot! This fisherman sure talks too much cock and failed pathetically at lying.

Tale #3
Once upon a time, there was an illegal immigrant that hailed from Java who docked at the mouth of the canal. It is along Changi beach. He got caught by the police coast guards and thrown into the shell. One night, he asked his fellow inmates if they wanted to escape and told them he knew how to. Nobody believed him. This Javanese used his sharp fingernails to etch a figure of a boat on a wall of his cell and alledgly performed an incredulous feat of black magic; his body vanished into the boat figure as though it were a portal to somewhere else. For the record, the fisherman claimed that to this day, the etched figure still exists, but not the body.

Commentary
In FrozenThrone(Warcraft 3 expansion) the computer game, I know that the Way Gate(teleporting gate) exists and had been my saving grace on numerous occasions. However in real life? I find great difficulty in coming to terms with it. Physical prison breaks are possible though extremely improbable; like the exemplar Andy Dufrene in The Shawshank Redemption(btw it's based on a true story) who caved his escape with a simple and small rockhammer. With that mentioned, Tale #2 seems even more plausible compared to this. I must also admit that I'm unable to grasp the supernatural or the spiritual realm because I haven't experienced anything first hand in that respect nor have i had the luxury of dealing with any evidence of such. Yet, the lack of such knowledge usually leaves me ambivalent and at times, disconcerted.

Just to let yall know, I do my routine running dead into the night while most are already deep in slumber. Yeah, I operate in a similar fashion to the BFG(Big Friendly Giant) in respect to our common topsy turvy waking times! Somehow whenever I cross the bridge to the barren region of the razed village, I never fail to be consumed by this foreboding evil and darkness which inevitably translates into larger and quicker strides as a physical manifestation of my horror.However I must say, that I'm rationalising these premonitions away because I know they're unfounded and stem from no definite reason. Yet just for the sake of good measure, a tad of such a lingering fear might actually be constructive as it provides me with the impetus to flee in the event I feel like ceasing a workout due to tiredness/laziness.
-Kenneth Wong

The results thus far...

Thought i would just update u guys on my gym progress.. Costa has lived up to his promises and proven himself to be worth every dollar im paying him, increasing my weight by 1kg in 4 weeks of training. We are right on track to reach an increase of 10kg in one year and im finding my sessions with him extremely productive and entertaining... ok.. thats it from me... cya guys!

-Luke

Hostel-ity

Hey peeps. I haven't been bloggin for a long time so here's one for u guys.
As u all know, Malik and i are probably much settled down in NTU after 3 weeks of school. To begin with it all, let's start of with the 1st week of school. I skipped all the orientations that were held by my hall, various groups in school and lastly, those wasteful talks for new students. (obviously they were a waste of time la because much can be read from the school's webby)
Lessons began on the first week with no tutorials so the lectures kicked off first and to my horror, half of the lectures i have to attend hold the cure to insomnia. (lecturers juz talked into the microphone as if they were recording an autopsy or something and it was so freakin boring..i succumbed to my slothful nature)
My course lacks babes and eye candy by the way. They should have lectures organised by the business school and my faculty should learn from them instead. The unspoken standard "uniform" the chicks in the business school dawned was like denim skirts that were so damn short, not to mention, they seemed to be all dressed up for clubbing (instead of lessons) perhaps they were having lessons on clubbing. But either way, they still look pretty hot. Engineering gals are either made in china or somewhere else in the world...includes indonesia and india..
The first few days in school were damn horrifying cus it was so hard to find the lecture theatres cus our lessons scheduled in the timetable had their lectures held in lecture theatres ranging from one end of the block to the other end of another block.. and to get to the next lecture meant dat u have to walk freakin far..climb many many many many steps (up/down) to attend the next lecture. However, i have come to realise..that i can actually juz watch my lecture over the comp since they recorded it and posted it online..so dat means u dun have to attend the lectures.. u can juz fast forward all their bullshit until the part where they reveal the more vital details of the lecture.. i juz did dat yesterday actually (now's week 3).. haha..
Parties are constantly held weekly by the various schools in the campus.. cus i have received invitations to a few already.. but never had the interest to party (i have tuned up to mugging mode lately)..
Hostel life is pretty alright. the rooms are big enuff actually since i realised that most of my time spent is at the library. My room mate is this LSA guy from some SIR who disrupted to further his studies in triple E. Seems like a disciplined guy. He allowed me to use his laptop since i didnt have a comp. There are few babes in my hall.. but sometimes other babes from other halls will come by to my canteen for their meals...cus the food in theirs suck. The baes in my hall are hard to come by..cus they are always mugging in their rooms i think.. dunno abt dat..yet..
SO far school's pretty alright.. getting used to it already.. realised dat u need to study consistently.. cus the rate of the lectures/tutorials are like 1-2 topics per week. My tutorial teachers are quite havoc..i have a fresh grad teaching my class for physics...a chinaman for math...and a guy who looks like darth sidious for materials science.. interesting huh? Oh yeah..talk abt tutorials.. my tutorial group comprises of half the strength being made in china...a quarter made in indonesia... and abt an eigth made in singapore..the rest are either made in malaysia + other countries (eg korea, vietnam)
actually the china girls are prettier than the singaporeans...i realised.. more pleasant looking..and the indo girls are damn nerdy looking..haha.. oh well..it's damn drastic la..that's the main point i'm driving at..
There are many people in NTU whom i know even befor uni started..so dat made uni life less dull for the first 2 weeks.. had a few gals' contacts given to me cus i was at this booth (which sells playing cards) at one of the school's activities (comprising of stalls set up by the undergrads to sell stuff)... my friend (ex victorian) was running the booth...so he was like.. "u cud flourish and draw the crowd".. so dat's wad i did..and there really was a small crowd..(or u can say a gathering)...yep..sales went up for that 10 mins or so when i was there.. so it was a good thing...it was even better when some chicks came up and asked for my number.. while the others asked if i cud show them a trick or 2.. (they gave their numbers after dat and asked if i wanted to go clubbing...like wth)
oh..juz yesterday i was eating (with my study mates..all guys) in the canteen...and this gal and her friend came up to me and asked me if i was a freshman..so i was like "yep".. then she asked if i needed textbooks..(i have gotten my textbooks already so i ddint need any)..so of course i said no then she went on to ask me to spread word to my friends if they needed textbooks..to find her..and she gave me her number after dat.. i asked her if that number cud be used to spam smses...(jokingly).. then she said.."yeah..only urs right".. anyway she's been msging me ever since.. but..dun get the wrong idea...although she's from business school..
my hall people seems to be quite "on" cus they have been organising outings which i have declined to attend due to having my weekends tied up with other social meetings with my magician friends. lessons have been both interesting and boring..interesting ones are the life science ones, forensic science and this module titled...effective communication...hahaha...i was like..i dun need dat..wad i really need "effective slamming avoidance communication"...
oh yeah... i've only seen malik once in school..in 3 weeks.. haha...even though he's attending the same maths lecture...the same boring maths lecture by this honkey tong.. (luke's prolly wondering...but maths is fun wad)...hahaha..it is la..but the lecturer CMI..
oh well..i've gotta go to school to attend this stupid shit called union day...it's some election day for various committees in the school (sounds damn political...darn right is...) they have some posts called honourary secretary general...(like wtf?) and business manager and logistics officer..dunno wad shit they can come up with...totally bogus..i need a good luff...so.yeah...going to check it out..fill u guys on more upcoming events..btw i'm having continual assessment on the week of sept 11...so is malik..hahaha.. so i prolly shud be mugging like hell then..hahaha..15 % of the score...for 1st sem..haha..must grab...
hope to see u guys soon man..have fun..

-Ur number one slam-target
Elvin

Of Skirts and Words

Alright. At the behest of Kenneth Wong, well that’s part of the reason besides the inspiration drawn from my newfound life in SMU, I have decided to churn out this entry to update you Amigos on the SMU situation through the objective and unbiased eyes of yours truly.

I went for 2 orientations, the first being the social science one (my faculty) and the second being the official freshman one involving the whole school. The first was a 2 day 1 night thing held within the smu compound and the surrounding town area for the couple of amazing race like activities that were part of the rather slack camp. Well, to my disappointment, I saw ok looking girls but failed to spot a hot enough girl that will actually make me turn my head and say ‘whoa’. However, the camp was ok and I made friends. The second orientation was 3 days 2 nights held at Changi Adventure Camp and it definitely wasn’t a pleasant adventure as the site’s name suggests. It was specifically called Team-Building Camp and not Orientation Camp and that fact was constantly reiterated to us. So, as you can expect, the camp turned out to be more than a phantasma of irrelevant games and activities that were ill-catered to the proper nurturing of team-building (the camp’s main objective), which is in any case something we already know by now and for those who don’t, it’s obviously pointless instilling it now. The games and activities also required a reflection/feedback/AAR session after the completion of each individual one which became a bloody pain in the ass and a foolish waste of time. Since you have an idea of what this camp was like, I’ll spare y’all the lurid details save one: the bloody toilets were clogged by the time my group and a few others had our turn to bathe, hence we ended up bathing in the few miserable cubicles with our feet submerged up to our ankles in the grime, slime and filth infested water. And to top off the torrid tale, the girl situation was the same as the one in my first orientation camp. However, I made friends once again and this is the only consolation to a hellish 3 days of quasi-army rigour (ok I’m exaggerating). Haha.

This week is my first week in school and I’m still trying to find my footing in the classes I’m attending esp the Stats module since the mathematical recesses of my brains have been washed out by the VJ arts stream and more recently, army. I’m still trying to get used to the 5 diff modules/classes I’m attending a week this semester as it is rather peculiar in smu that we have discussion groups of 40 as compared to the more familiar few hundred-a-lecture in the other unis, thus our timetables are randomly arranged which results in barely a few ppl sharing similar timetables without minor or major variations. So, this implies that I have to constantly readjust to a new class of ppl. But I’m already beginning to spot repeated faces here and there and successfully locating the right seminar rooms among the multitude with ease. I’m starting to enjoy my classes esp the sociology, communications and political science ones.

Best of all, I’m starting to experience the proverbial and much vaunted about smu girls that are the drooling fantasy of many deprived Singaporean boys. Yes, today has been the main inspiration for me to detach myself away from my stack of readings to spare some time for this inevitable entry.
Today has been an interesting day indeed. I had a class in the morning up till lunch (my classes come in blocks of 3hrs 15min) and another at 3.30. Incidentally, this not bad looking, funny and intelligent girl, who happens to be from VJ and topped VJ in French, from my social science orientation group happened to be in the same class as me and I bumped into her before class. She was talking to this other girl she just got to know and I said hi to her and sandwiched myself between them and got to know the other girl, who is incidentally really nice, friendly and faring pretty well in the looks department. I got both their numbers and for the record, THEY were the ones that asked me for mine on 2 separate occasions. Haha so that counts for 2 jackpots in a row. The next jackpot was bagging a lunch with the first girl (the one I already knew briefly from orientation) since incidentally again, I had a class at 3.30 which gives me 3 hrs to kill and she didn’t have anyone to have lunch with since her sis decided not to have lunch with her. Yet again, the jackpots persist in their roll: while having lunch, an above average looker albeit with unsatisfactory complexion from my social science orientation came up to my table and said hi and introduced herself. The next jackpot in my rapidly growing strikes of the day appeared in the form of a 3rd yr student sitting beside me during the next class cos the school missed her out during yr one hence her joining of my class. Again, a humourous and good natured girl who joined me in sneaky criticisms and making fun of our classmates, she eventually became my project partner cos both of us didn’t bother choosing so in the end we realized we didn’t have partners after class and became partners. Perhaps in the course of the project, we’ll be more than project ‘partners’. Haha. Ok. Last strike of the day: This attractive girl whom I recognized to be from the social science orientation happened to be in front of me when I was walking out of school. I’ve always wanted to strike up a conversation with her but failed to cos of lack of opportunity and her always being with her grp of friends. However, the tides turned when she turned and recognized me and to my pleasant surprise, she even knew my name from the orientation. I was embarrassed not to know hers but later reflected that that fact actually gave me leverage over her since she knows mine but I don’t know hers. Haha. Who da man.

As y’all can see, today has indeed been an eventful day. A day of skirts and words. Hope that the rest of my fellow Amigos, with the exceptions of the one going to Bristol and the other who is already well settled, are coping well with this new phase. And for all, hope that everyone is happy where they are including Kenneth who is venturing into a relative unknown, and that we will stand the test of time and flourish along with it.

Justin

The Bristol Build Up

In nearly a month, I'll be jetting off to London with Bristol being my eventual destination. Though initially eager and raring to go, I am now somewhat nonchalant and cavalier towards this imminent prospect.

Anyway, after such a long time, I unexpectedly(after a while of waiting, I was numb to any expectations) received my accomodation confirmation in the mail at mid-day. Be it by sheer fortune, coincidence or skill at culturing some bullshit in my accomm application, I was granted my choice of hostel.

To give yall more insight on this matter, there're only 2 regions in Bristol where the various Halls are located; One is accessible by a 10min walk to/from Wills Memorial Tower(Law faculty) while the other is slightly more than 45min, by foot once again. All but one of the fully catered(comes with cooked food) halls are located in the more distant region.

Naturally, I wanted to lodge in the more accessible region and in a hall with cooked meals for convenience sake in face of the predominantly adverse and gloomy climate of South-West England. Therefore, I did what I thought would most significantly influence the Accomodation Officers to place me in my desired hall. In the specific disability and reasons part of the accomodation application form, I mentioned(more aptly, blew out of proportion) the severity of an average asthma attack as well as it's perennial frequency. Most importantly, I linked my disability to being unable to travel unreasonably long distances in the cold(to logically locate me somewhere nearby) and my strong preference of having readily cooked food in the event an asthma attack impedes me from cooking(for that specific hall). And despite being given the option to list my order of hall choices, I filled Clifton Hill House as my top and only choice. Somehow, things worked out.

Right now, I am satisfied that every of the necessary documents has been settled and finalised without any tangos with the local and Bristish bureaucracies. Not that I had lost sleep over those issues, but with all these practical depature stuff straightened out, I can only declare that I am physically jet set. Mentally and emotionally wise? I'm nearly there, with my eagerness kept in healthy measure against my reluctance to leave Singapore. But one thing for certain- Despite the miles that seperate every of us, I'm confident my friendships, with theamigos as a whole and as individuals, would the very least be well preserved and also with realistic growth potential, based on our online cross country communcations and whatever limited time spent here at home thus far.

The Plan

Listen up fellas, you all have just nearly more than a month to learn up 'Amigos Para Siempre' because we're gonna make a music video that is bound to encapsulate deaf defying out-of-tune feats as well as bad Spanish, yet vocalised in harmony all at once. The prospective plan is for each of us, bar(with witty intent) the consistently sober Malike, to guzzle from the nozzles, to the depths of the bottles, on Ile de Sentosa(a la Jack n Johnny, Sparrow n Depp) till we fall behind and beyond the vanishing point of drunkardness* HAHA! Well, at least citing intoxication as a bad excuse in place of admitting to having poor vocal chords may perhaps be our saving grace. Yup, so let me close with these 2 vital points..

1) If the prospective events follow the script, we'll end the day in a music video. If they don't, we'll prolly end up in shit if we steal those 2 bikes and ride them into sea. Or someone might just end up dunked. Speculate.

2) I bet a dive, in underwear only and head-first into the sea, if Elvin doesn't get high first. And Elvin, I'm waiting for u to up the ante man.

Welcome to hell. Its hinges break loose dead into the night on Sept 22nd.
-Kenneth Wong(sober for 21years and running)

* The scale has various levels- Sober, High, Drunk and beyond. So like Buzz Lightyear says: To infinity and beyond. Hell yeah.

The speed of light

Hi everyone... it has been a really long time since I did my last blog entry, but thats because nothing interesting was happening in my life. This entry that I am making has nothing to do with cold plays hit song. It has to do with my first day of my varsity life. I only had one lecture today, and it happened to be a physics one. The lecturer was talking abt optics, which is about light and its properties. I took a seat beside 2 china scholars, because I did not se anyone familiar in the lecture hall and also the center seat seemed like a good seat. Make no mistake, I did go to uni to study hard. I was browsing around for familiar faces for the rest of the lecture. Alot made late entries.

Then suddenly, just as the lecturer made the statement that the speed of light is 3 times 10^8, I saw UZY. Serious. He is doing common engineering. He was seated beside casper the friendly ghost. I waited till the end of the lecture before i went over to say hi. Casper was apparently not going home with Uzy, and since i also had no company to go home with, we decided to go home together. It was a long walk to the bus stop, andUzy was extremely patient with me and my ludicrously slow walking speed. I did ask him some really stupid questions during our long conversation. For example, after asking him if he was staying in the hostel, which he was'nt, I said he should consider since he was living so much far away. I felt really stupid after that... I mean whats bedok to jalan bahar for someone who can run at the speed of sound right. I know my title is speed of light, and i just told you that he travels at the speed of sound. Truth is, noone knows exactly how fast he can run. Also, he is still training with his VJ team, so he could have improved many times since the last time we knew him. The reason why it is impossible to see him when he is running is because the light emitted from him never reaches our eyes! Now this is an application of physics theories. So we finally reached the bus stop. While waiting for the bus, he gave me this particularly interesting theory. I asked him if he still kept in touch with luke and kenneth and the rest of them and he said no. So I was telling him that ken was going to bristol while luke was already in australia. Then he suddenly said, Luke should just give me some money. This reminded me of kens theory of how everyone owes him money because remember that time... Anyway he later said that since Luke is so rich, he should just give Uzy some money so that he too can go study overseas. He said that the money spent for Lukes education in australia was equivalent to peanuts for Luke. Then he edited it by saying it was probably more like a bag of peanuts. Then he further edited it. Get a load of this. He said it was like a cadbury bar. I am not a huge chocolate fan, but I do not remember any cadbury chocolates having peanuts. Then again, he could have imported them from the US!

Anyway the bus came, and we took it to head to boon lay interchange. On the bus, a second shock awaited me. 5000*5000=25000000. Thats how much I would have won from ken if I had bet a single dollar on this day. I saw Harith! Harith was looking for hall 7. So we were talking for a while on the bus, when i realised that Harith should get done soon or else the bus would head back to boon lay. Harith was actually on this bus from Boon lay, and looking for his hall from the bus. When we got to the last stop before the bus headed to the PIE, I told Harith to get down. He obviously thought that the bus keeps going around NTU until he finds his hostel. Obviously, he had got into the wrong bus( Hariths personal tour bus was nowhere in sight). So he decided to get down. When everyone had already got off, he still took a leisurely stroll form the end of the bus to the door. It might be difficult for luke to understand what I am saying because he never takes a bus. So just try to imagine from my vivid descriptions Luke.

Finally we reached Boon lay.. Me and Uzy took the train. I alighted at queenstown. During the journey, he also asked me if i knew where hanafi was. I said no, and he said maybe he was in Lebanon. At that point, I had reached queenstown, and decided to get off. I took the elevator down, and before entering it, I took one final glance at the train, but Uzy was nowhere to be found. Just like that, (spoof!), he was gone!
-Malik

The More Meaninglful Entry

National Day beckons. After playing soccer I pondered upon what patriotism really means and am impelled to display my thoughts. Its significance undoubtedly stretches beyond the parading of flags, singing of anthems with pride, sensational feeling of belonging as well as charging forth with bad national decisions blindly. The concept of patriotism can be a misleading tool if selfishly harnessed to shore up national(more likely political) support at the expense of a country's interest by unification under this 'virtue' that had nothing to begin with. Also, it is wrong to exhibit condescending behaviour towards foreigners under the 'umbrella' of patriotism as a bad excuse, because it never did and shall never entail such an atrocity.

Patriotism, from my perspective as an individual, is about thinking rationally and critically about material national issues with the benefits of your country as your top priority, as well as courageously projecting them to those who've access to the corridors of power, with wisdom. Yet, it's also crucial to consider that in spite of a country consisting of merely patriots, we must recognise those're also individuals, and that can incite dissension among ranks and within nation in the likely event that combustion of the variants of opinion occurs. Therefore, it is not only my hope but more importantly wise that we Singaporeans treat the exchange of all issues and one another with great sensitivity. Also, don't misconstrue or undermine its depth, for patriotism is not merely about being an opinionated loud mouth in society; it is true courage because it reflects genuine effort in refined, objective and critically analysed thoughts, as well as balls when the occassion calls for the damning of a bad decision despite whatever impending eventualities it might bring.

I, therefore implore to everyone at large this national day, to set aside the many differences that have divided the Singaporean population and wholeheartedly indulge in the significance of this event by trying to love our country more, even if it doesn't come naturally. Be good celebrating citizens and patriots all at once. I hope this idealistic entry provokes each one of us to think about our function in society and how we can keep this fabric consistently intact.

-Kenneth Wong(I swear I didn't get paid to write this)

*I realised if the President could come up with some bullshit which we HAD to endure during army camp parades on the eve of National Day, so can I churn some too. Eh my tip of the day to all u NSFs is to take MC on Aug 8th.

The Evasion

For those of you who do not already know, i have a 2500 word essay to complete... by when i am supposed to complete this, im unsure... yet, i refuse to check the deadline, which is clearly written down in one of my books which is currently no further than 30 cm away from me... it would not be strange for one to wonder why i refuse to check.. the reason is simple... for the same reason that i am not checking the date of my upcoming exam... because if i do check, i will have no choice but to actually get down to doing some work. so rather than being laden with guilt, and bullying myself into studying, i shall remain in this state of ignorance which i shall use as my unfailing excuse for lounging about watching tv and making a blog entry when i should most probably be engaging myself in more academic pursuits. Anyway... philosophy aside, its time i updated u ppl on the state of my life.. i am currently going to gym ard 3 or 4 times a week... 2 of which are with my trainer, costa, who should be working at a dungeon or sth as a slave driver... i have been trying to evade the singaporean gang in school, and talk to other ppl. it would truly be abysmal if those 8 or 9 ppl are the only ppl i talk to for 6 years.. which is often the case, as kentaro told me. i met up with him on friday and had a much more enjoyable weekend with his company alone than i could possibly have with the 9 ppl of the singaporean gang. it is important to note that the singaporean gang's idea of going wild is a night of bridge at someones house. Nick Yap.. if u are reading this, dont go telling all of them about it... anyway... i have been talking to some of the graduate students lately and been finding their company at the very least, refreshingly different. my place is currently in a state of extreme disarray, and i resolve to clean it by tomorrow night. also, the earliest flight i can and will be taking back to sg in september is the latest flight on the 21st, which means i will be arriving in the morning on the 22nd... kenneth, i hope u wouldnt have left to the uk by this time.. ok ppl... thats pretty much it for this update... cya!

-Luke

The Catapult to Elation

Waddup all you slothful and predominantly dormant people of this blog! As if nearly coincidental to Luke's most recent post, I am hell psyched! This by the way, comes with an enormous morale booster as I was edified by consciously relying on one of my lifelong philosophies- Nobody but yourself can haul you out of the shithole you're in!- which once again I must repeat, pleasantly resulted in nothing that fell short of success. However, unlike the many other spontaneous record breaking moments of elation, I saw this big wave coming a few days ago and nothing beats the anticipation of being totally charged up for anything. During those few days, I physically strained myself with relatively immoderate running distances(With that kinda heat generated, not only did I substantially melt that glacier of boredom but also probably did power a platoon of machines towards zion for a day Haha!), held meaningless msn conversations(I swear it works, at the expense of..haha) as well as a near-futile attempt at singing an Italian song which I thought might come in handy when the need haha to serenade a beautiful girl arises. I also treated myself like an object of an experiment(guinea pig lah) by carefully varying the stimuli i'm subject to. To wit, my selection of more aggresive, staccato-like and life injecting music I pump my audio receptors with. An example is Pop That Booty by Marques Houston. Right now, apart from being psyched, I'm also physically rejuvenated, and from the stuff I managed to conjure and later laugh to myself about while being shackled to boredom, I also feel that my most recent of labours have inadvertantly fertilised this expanse of imagination in my mind. Yup, therefore amigos, boredom is but a state of mind and whenevre we find ourselves trapped in the many negative circumstances(despair..sadness..lack of motivation..whatevr), we have hope to extricate ourselves, only if we believe and try. Yay! I just saw 5 red cars in a row...hope I getta deja vu... yeah right..it's just a glitch in the matrix.
-Kenneth Wong

The High Feeling

I have tonnes of work to do... I'm feeling slightly nauseas from a dinner of questionable hygiene... I feel a mild flu coming on... And my body is aching from yesterdays ridiculously tiring gym work out... But... I'm feeling great... I'm feeling so high, nothing can bring me down... I have decided to push my work aside for the moment and am chilling to the light hearted, cheerful tunes of Oh What A Night by Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons, No Woman, No Cry by Spunge and So Happy Together by The Turtles, all of which i recommend u guys download if u dont already have... Life is great and I am invincible. Hope this ecstasy is contagious... Cheers! =)

-Luke

The Lack-Lustre Saturday

Suffice it to describe my recent self, I've been plagued by a lingering vacuum of boredom which has effectuated a long streak of restlessness and directionless frustration. As always though, Boredom never took long to find a friend in me, and somehow always found itself ever too comfortable to stay. Please don't mistake me for one who irresponsibly uses this blog for unjustified and persistent emotional carthasis, because throughout this period, I have made painstaking efforts at ridding this parasite of boredom. Also, if you notice from the short but sufficient history of Theamigosparasiempre, it is evident that I'm far from one who whines and wails. Anyway, the measures I've taken to eradicate this clinging vine of boredom include setting ridiculous goals like getting significantly tanner which the general population would consider ludicrous and unimportant, getting lost in those incredibly long runs(got inspired by Nate in John grishams 'The Testament'), reacquainting(even with ppl I've hardly seen in the past half decade but nevertheless enjoyable enough), watching rubbish clips on youtube.com by robin williams and feasting on the many a delectable dishes as often as I can. Yet, to this moment, I am still entranced in this lasting spell of boredom and wayyy remote from being delirious. However, today was slightly different because the pre-departure visit for UK bound students served as my first concrete activity I've had in a pretty damn long while. As I turned up at the meet late, I didn't manage to conduct an adequate and fair visual sweep of the girls who were headed to the UK. As much as I can gather, there were many randomly scattered across the ballroom even though university booths lined its perimeter, and only a handful were pretty. Yet, it was consoling enough to know that most were decently looking and you might say.. dance-able. My hopes of having a long stream of attractive girls flowing in the direction of my university's booth were dampened by the harsh reality that the booth was more often than not, vacant. Probably, the most interesting of this dull event, was talking to this yr 2 Singaporean girl who frequently holidays and also studies law at Bristol, about travelling and havoc things to do there. We promised to enchant one another with our adventures in our next meeting and I don't see myself falling short at spellbinding anyone with my string of adventures overseas and at home. To this point, I am unfortunately still frustrated with a general lack of direction, even after sapping all the joy I could muster from todays event and as always, hoping for something better every brand new day(in this case I refer to the element of hope before this event). Like in every reflection, something is learnt each time. Today, I learnt with greater relevance to my life, what I thought about a few weeks back about the story of Pandora's box, where Hope(the final resident before she reopened it), unlike what it promises, can be(not all the time though) equated with the worst and most deplorable of all evils. This is because Hope when accompanied with the fore-knowledge of an imminent negative event, deludes the individual by providing the corrosive comfort of a false 'hope,' since it is improbable he can alter the outcome of fate. Albeit contradictory to what i learnt, I am gonna get my hopes high that by sheer fortune or whatever, the natural flow of events in my life would break this unbearable cycle of boredom and steer me in a specific direction. Goodnight Amigos at this inappropriate time again. When the time is right, I will enthrall yall with a more less stupid, more silly, action packed and entertaining post..
-Kenneth Wong

The Saturday of Studying

Today was absolutely the most abysmal example of a good day of studying... Im completely sick of biochemistry and chemistry in general... I made a valiant attempt at forcing myself to study though... I refused to leave the house the whole day... However, after 10 hours at home, i think i know at best, an extra one mark of information as compared to what i knew at the beginning of the day... which is not good.. i bid u all good luck in enduring days like these which you will no doubt stumble upon and stagger aimlessly through, in your impending university life...

-Luke

The Crib

ok ppl.. i finally got some time on my hands and used it to take photos of my new place for u guys to see...

ok.. that should give u guys a good idea of the place... even though my photo taking prowess is less than ideal...

im throwing in some pics of the bbq for good measure... and a pic of me and mel for no particular reason...

ciao!

-Luke

Means and Ends

So what does this mean and how does it end, you must be asking yourselves. Haha, I sincerely apologise for my intellectual humour and failure at clairvoyance. Really, this is an entry that marks the unofficial end of the 2yr 8mth hiatus from my original route of life - the means to the eventual end. The SAF stint is nothing but a detour, a detraction from the means, that I have just mentioned, to my particular end. Sure, it has taught me things, among them being how to be independent, mentally tougher and gave me an insight through personal experience into how much our amazing physical bodies, that God has bestowed upon us, can actually be pushed to near indefinite limits. It has also taught me how fucked up organizations and the people that are part of them are. And the thing that scares the shit out of me is envisaging the highly probable future of me and you working for a lousy organization for the bulk of our lives and being one of their rats. Big or small, thin or fat, clean or dirty, black white or grey, smart or stupid, you're still a rat. Period. This leads me to my next point.

But before that, allow me to elaborate a little on what I’ve done and learnt during these 5 mths of non-stop slacking. I’ve read political philosophical and socio books that have granted me insights through the minds of remarkable politicians and thinkers and enabled me to have a better understanding of our world, society and men. I’ve gymed and jogged and more or less got rid of the ‘uncle’ body and image that Luke had insisted I possessed before he left for studies. I’ve watched many movies, probably almost 40, which I’ve missed out on and learnt many lessons from them besides the cinematic pleasure. I’ve caught up with friends that matter to me and even rekindled a couple of stale friendships. I’ve traveled to India and China and drew a wealth of lessons, knowledge and experience from there. So, it was really a cool 5 mths of pleasure, carefreeness and some growing-up. Yes, I certainly hope that I’ve been progressing in life and that I’m ready to tackle the next phase – yet another means to the desired end.
Back to my previous point. No, I don't intend to be an eventual rat. Maybe a temporal rat, with it being an inevitable part of the means I mentioned earlier, but not a permanent rat - a rat so full blown in its maladies and filth that even the sewers shun it. Speaking about means and ends, I must admit that I adopt the Machiavellian philosophy with a slight twist. The end is definitely more important than the means to me and part of achieving the desired end includes committing a necessary evil to root out a greater one, of course done with extreme discretion. I’d like to take this opportunity to state it down in black and white for recording purposes that I intend to fulfill either one or a combination of these 3 means/ends in life: 1. Be my own boss eventually so I’ll never have to look up to anyone. 2. Have such a fulfilling career that I actually don’t mind looking up to someone. 3. If all else fails, retire by 40 a multi millionaire.

Before I conclude, I just watched A Bronx Tale which was directed by Robert De Niro and also starring him. Just a background of the movie set in the Bronx of 1960s, De Niro is the morally upright and strict dad and Chazz Palminteri is the cool mafia boss who plays godfather to the boy cos the boy saved him from the cops. Both impart different yet similar values to the boy, the dad with his morally accurate and no-nonsense values, and the godfather with his gangster brand of values. Both these men helped shape the childhood and young adulthood of the boy as well as his thinking and values. At the end of the show, the boy narrated this: ‘Sonny and my father always said that when I get old I’ll understand. Well, I finally did. I learnt something from these 2 men: I learnt to give love and get love unconditionally; you just have to accept people for what they are. And I learnt the greatest gift of all: the saddest thing in life is wasted talent. And the choices that you make will shape your life forever. You can ask anybody from my neighbourhood and they will tell you this is just another Bronx tale’. I’ve learnt something from this show and I just wanted to pass it on to you guys.

I chose this time to add in this entry cos fri marks the unofficial start of the new phase when my social science orientation commences. So yeah that’s it from me, thanks for bearing with me, and rock on, Amigos.

Justin