how much will you go for a friend in need of your help?

How much will I go? I dont know. Perhaps it depends on the strength of our friendship and then depends on how far i have to go to help him. Of course, I'm more willingly to sacrifice for an old friend compared to a new friend, especially when our friendship goes way back.

How about a not so close friends of yours? A colleague perhaps?

Will you be willing to help him/her at the expense of your time/well-being/money/energy/mood?

Sometimes I find it hard to reject people when people approach you. I will try to help them, but then I'm not so noble and I will still complain at the same time. Most of the times though, I get over it soon enough.

I hate this kind of situation. It's tough being a nice guy.

les

"the girlfriend voice"

I was reading the Life section of The Strait Times and there was this weekly column that was quite amusing. It talks about how guys have this very special and unique voice, specially reserved for their significant other only. And it is only after they got attached, then will this voice appear.

Of course, we have all heard this special voice from our buddies/guy friends before.

A typical scenario . . .

A (to his pal beside him)

"So where are we going have for dinner?"

Suddenly his handphone rings. A digs out his handphone.

"Hello?"

Comes this weird, gentle, new tone that you never expected coming out of your buddy. To quote from the article, "This voice is a tender, sweet, half-whiny sort of sing-song tone . . . " And you know instantly from the tone that it is his girlfriend on the line.

After hanging up, A reverts to his old self again, speaking in the normal tone that you have accustomed to. This switch is automatic, the girlfriend voice comes up immediately when speaking to his girlfriend and disappear when he turns to his buddy.

The article ends off, urging us to stop this kind of subconscious behaviour and to control ourselves.

This is like so classic, you always hear this "girlfriend voice" from your buddies from time to time.

les

This movie looks cool, wonder if it will be released in singapore?

old classmate

I had supper with john, marcus (quite surprised he came, lol) and ds at Sr garden yesterday. I think we had not seen each other and other guys from 3a since our new year gathering. As usual, army was the mainstay of our topics. I always thought Sr garden was a cool place to hang out, especially at night if you just want a place to chit chat with your pals. I think the best place is the stretch further inside with cafe cartel and coffee bean side by side. You can choose to stay indoors in the comfort of the aircon or choose to sit outside and enjoy the night sky and the occasional cool breeze.

Anyway, there was this very old classmate of mine from secondary school that suddenly came to talk to me on msn. It seems that she is now in england, in the university of hull studying her law degree. She is in her third year now! And she's graduating this july 16 ???!!! And im still serving my national duty! I havent even reached one year of service yet. Times files man, she's coming back singapore this year too.

I was commenting about how fast she will be getting her degree and she replied that she had to in turn try to adaptinto a totally new place, different culture, making new friends and she had no childhood/secondary school friends to hang out with.

It must be tough, going there alone, leaving everything behind, her family and friends and had to face all the challenges alone.

Its eons ago where everyone in my sec sch clique was available for gathering. There is always this one or two guys that cannot attend or it was sometimes me who pangseh them, ahaha. But just now a miracle happened, everyone in my clique was online and we had a rather short mass convo, lol, we goof around abit then everyone went 'away' again.

It seems that the improvement in communication technology like IM, mobile phone, emails etc has increase the ease of communication. Distance and time is not a problem anymore. You can call, type emails, sms your friends anytime of the day, regardless where they are. But then the quality of communication doesnt seem to increase. Yes you have a list of contacts in msn, but you probably rarely talk to most of the people in your contacts. Maybe it got to do with time, as you and your friend become more and more like strangers, it is diffcult and strange to start talking again. Soon he will become just another hi-bye friends you have accumulated over the years.

*les

That superman song keeps ringing in my head.

lazy sunday

I just came back from town, after running some errands for my dad and sister. I felt quite sian initially. There are still lots of things I have yet to do, especially when Im such a great procrastinator. I have one major test the following week, and damn I have not even started revising. As you might have guessed, the punishment for failing is confinement 24/7 until the day u pass.

There was a guy (come to think he may be a gal too), working at the times bookshop counter. He seems to be over zealous and started to small talk with me while he was scanning my book. He even gave a small introduction and recommended me some other books. I dont know, usually such enthusiastic people don't exist.

I got psyched by the salesman at sim lim square to buy another item when the item I originally wanted was unavailable due to lack of stocks. His suggestion was not bad, it was cheaper and had a longer warranty. I decided to heed his advice. On the way back, I thought he was quite a good salesman, he managed to suggest another alternative and even convinced me to buy when he could have lost a potential customer instead.

I decided to take a bus back instead of the usual mrt-bus combination. It was quite a good experience, there was not many people to jostle with, I was guaranteed a seat and I even had some kind of scenery to see as it passed by kallang river. The best thing was that the fare was cheaper! Though the journey was somewhat longer compared to the usual route.

On the journey back home, I passed by quite a few circle line construction sites and saw quite a few foreign workers working under the hot sun. Then I thought, "wtf?! Its Sunday and they are still working under the hot sun, do they have a life?" Then I realized, most Singaporeans will probably complain already and rather not take this kind of job. Haha, me included. Maybe we are too spoiled.

I was browsing some pictures in some forum, showcasing the pictures of many major cities all over the world. Hongkong looked very nice, the European countries too, with the mix of those ancient buildings and modern landscape. I wish I could visit these countries some day . . .

Les

P.S. zc suddenly seem interested in meeting us.

Superman

I can’t stand to fly
I’m not that naive
I’m just out to find
The better part of me

I’m more than a bird...i’m more than a plane
More than some pretty face beside a train
It’s not easy to be me

Wish that I could cry
Fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie
About a home I’ll never see

It may sound absurd...but don’t be naive
Even heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed...but won’t you concede
Even heroes have the right to dream
It’s not easy to be me

Up, up and away...away from me
It’s all right...you can all sleep sound tonight
I’m not crazy...or anything...

I can’t stand to fly
I’m not that naive
Men weren’t meant to ride
With clouds between their knees

I’m only a man in a silly red sheet
Digging for kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet
Looking for special things inside of me
Inside of me
Inside me
Yeah, inside me
Inside of me

I’m only a man
In a funny red sheet
I’m only a man
Looking for a dream

I’m only a man
In a funny red sheet
And it’s not easy, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm...

Its not easy to be me

Five for Fighting - Superman

familiarity breeds comfort

The unknown is beginning to devour me. New superiors, new seniors, new environment, new type of work.

Well, its a lan lan kind of situation, no choice, got to endure all the shit, try to come out of it a "better person" and at the meantime pray that everything go smoothly.

Speaking of unknowns and the knowns, it is always daunting to venture into the unexplored new areas. All the questions start popping up in your mind, all the what ifs . . . Then you will start wishing the situation should/can have remained status quo instead. Why all the change you ask? Why go through all this mental stress?

That is the prelude.

The process, your first and subsequent step into the unfamiliar. Maybe you suffered. You could not cope, you feel like giving up.

But somehow you survived and went through everything.

Then comes the epilogue, you think back about the old stuffs. You thought to yourself, "hey! It's not too bad after all." It was quite a experience. And after that particular experience, you thought nothing could be any more tougher than this.

All the above are what an optimist will think, what about a pessimist?

The difference probably starts from the process.

They will think, "Shit! what's all this? Why am I in this kind of mess? Noooo! I can't cope!"
Then they will probably try to escape from it or just give up.

In the epilogue, they may be glad that they managed to somehow escape from it. Or maybe they regretted their previous actions and blame themselves for not hanging on for that extra bit.

les

Sian, i want back my freedom. Pink ic, can you come back earlier?

one last dance, 茶舞

I just came from watching the show, one last dance. A highly hyped movie in Singapore, due to it being a locally produced movie, and strongly supported by MDA.

The show was quite a cool flick, with francis ng ,吴镇宇 (he's damn cool in the flick, wearing suit and the way he kills, a cool assassin) putting in quite a strong performance. But the way the movie was shown can be quite confusing for the average audience, with all the flashbacks, jumping from one scene to another totally unreleated scene. The audience may to think through quite abit to catch the story. I had to read the synopsis at the offical site to truly know what was actually happening in the movie.

A cool but confusing flick.

http://www.mediacorpraintree.com/onelastdance/index.htm

les

陈奕迅 - 不如这样

天快亮了,
你的心呢?
她曾经属于我的,嗯...

我该走了,
你的手呢?
有没有一点点舍不得?

每一件不得不放手的玩具,
总算带来过快乐.
每一段不得不完结的关系,
只是一种选择.

如果美好记忆,
还算难忘,
为什么还会记得悲伤?

不如这样,
我们一直拥抱到天亮.
如果关怀是种补偿,
还有什么不能原谅?

倒不如这样,
我们回到拥抱的现场,
证明感情总是善良,
残忍的是人会成长.

来的来了,
走的走了,
我们还要求什么?嗯...

你是我的,
我是你的,
只是一首太温柔的歌,哦...
yeah,如果美好记忆还算难忘,
为什么还会记得悲伤?

Nice song . . . got the urge to listen back his older songs when news of him and his local concert came up in the media.

Anyway Im adjusting to shift work life now. Quite sian when you reach home late in the night and all you feel like doing is to sleep. Either that, or you have to wake up earlier than the birds everyday.
And I may called up for my regimental duties soon, hopefully its a weekday, then can get off. woot!

*Les

P.S. Low should be in Thailand now, good luck pal.

mundane weekend afternoon

Wow, its evening already. I spent the weekend doing some really mundane stuffs, playing computer games, tidying up my room, sleeping, watching tv . . . yawns. . .

Anyway I found out a way to play COH online using hamachi, so guys jump on the bandwagon quick!

A new year comes along with new plans for the many days ahead. New year resolution you may call them. Self discipline and strong determination seems to be in order.

Anyway, I just finished downloading the pictures of 3a gathering session last week and was organising our too many pictures taken over the years. 3 years worth of pictures, 2005 obviously had the most pictures taken. 2007 not too bad also, a folder of pictures already.

Shit, I got the itch to get a digicam. Wait. . . I want a bike too. My mp3 player is spolit and I need a new one too. And one fossil watch caught my eye . . . And I think my wardrobe needs an update.

Damn, lets pray nsfs get a pay raise this year.

*les

Interesting . . .

I thought this was funny . . .

Why girls' blog is more popular than boys' blog in singapore

Point no 3 is so true, I sweared I said "nabeh" when I finished reading the first paragraph of point 3.



*les

the first day of 07, we gathered...

It happened so fast man, it is now 2/01/07. This entry will be a long one, an eventful 010107 it was.

On the first day of 07, we had a gathering of sorts. Our passion for basketball was re-ignited. What better place to do it than none other than the place where we spent 2 years of our precious youth there - nyjc school compund. (though the hg central bball court was our usual haunt)

Low and I were late. (as usual, lol) When we walked past the familiar blue main gate, we saw our comrades (ds, yx, lim, hk, john, some pangseh! And zy conveniently went to malaysia without telling any of us ) , standing in a circle at the covered linkway.

First thought that came to me was that something is amiss. Our darkest nightmare had came true. Shit, the security guard (it was the indian lady...) forbid us to enter the sacred grounds on the grounds (pardon the pun) that we would be disturbing our friendly neighbours in the nearby HDB flats if we play inside. John was seen arguing with the guard. (as usual) He failed to convince her, we walked out of the gates, dejected, going on a quest to find other grounds for us to play on. (We began joking about storming the school compund, ala urban ops)

Our efforts were not in vain, we went to the nearby Braddell Heights CC and found a court with only a rather young looking plump guy playing in the lower half of the court. (The upper half was populated by secondary sch kids bengs wannabe) We played with the plump guy, his skill is not bad and he use his body size to advantage in aerial challenge.

My team (consisting of low lim ds ) got thrashed. Though we manage to lead 4-0 at one point, the day just wasnt our lucky day. Our shots went haywire most of the times, passing was fucked up. I thought it will be more fun if we played among the 3a guys, sadly zy marcus quek zc (again mia, was later discovered to be at home watching tv with his gf) just were not free.

After debates, arugments and some discussions, we settled on going to kovan for dinner. After dinner, we went full speed ahead to lim's hse. We went on a "wild goose chase" onboard 136 then 851 when we could take 854 instead from kovan to lim's house straight. But we managed to discover a rather grand looking macdonald cum maccafe outlet oppsite AMK library, perharps we should go there recee some day.

Soon the girls and a few of the guys were playing some games on the front porch of lim's house, the punishment is to drown yourself with a cup of vodka mixed with some gassy drink. Hk's face became red after that and remained silent for the rest of the night.

Marcus went out again to fetch ds in and me, low and our beloved host, lim went out with marc to the main road. We saw a chio bu along the way, but it was too dark to catch a better view of her.

When we came back, we received that some cockesters threw some "bomb pack" into lim's house, creating quite a racket. The neighbours even thought we were playing or something. They came again later into the night and this time everyone went out of the house to investigate. The police was called and arrived promptly and left rather promptly too. From the police, it seems that this incident had happened around the neighbourhood before and it was said to be the doing of a few boys.

Soccer matches we watched quite a few, cheong games we did, food and drinks digested. And off we went to dreamland.

The next day most of us woke up damn late, me lim quek low went cycling and took a peek at our Health Minister, Mr Khaw's house. There is even a guardhouse inside, maned by a policeman. He looked bored to me though.

Finally we said our goodbyes and went home. A few of use went to j8 to have our lunch. We were indeed lucky to see our ex Chemistry teacher, Mr Ng. We shook hands, said hi, wished each other, "Happy New Year!" said our goodbyes and left. The meeting was less than a minute. It was a pity we could not talk cock with him.

We went for pastamania for lunch. It seems eons since I last ate pastamania. It is since we graduated from ny last last year, I have never stepped into any pastamania restaurant.

*Les

P.S. We saw this MV last night, not bad imho. I rejected another of my secondary school clique gathering due to this event, hope to be able to see all of them soon enough. It has been eons since we met up