Times like this.

Haze was just getting worse a few days before, around the time of my last post.

Getting worse but not as bad as now.
PSI in Singapore hits record high just this afternoon, peaking at 371 and stayed around the range of 300+ which is considered hazardous while approaching the very hazardous range of 400 and above.

Well, at least this is something new and something you don't see everyday in Singapore.
Probably not something we would like to see in Singapore for more than a day though.

First time getting out of home last night after the haze attack, since it only worsen after I came back from DPC.
And I did not even dare to breathe when I got down the stairs.
Had to run to chase for my bus after that and what a cool experience it was.
At least the haze makes me feel like I'm not in Singapore anymore.
I'll really appreciate it if the haze can subside and PSI to drop below 100 by this weekend though.

Many people complaining about the haze now.
Well I can't comment much since I'm just too lazy to read all the news and find out exactly what happened, but purely blaming Indonesia for this is definitely not what I gonna do.


Only slightly related to this matter, but seeing how Singaporeans complain about other Singaporeans is really annoying me.
And here I am complaining about Singaporeans complaining about other Singaporeans there, oh the irony.
Okay getting a little complicated, shall just keep it at here.



NBA Finals later on, hopefully I'll wake up in time to watch and hopefully there will be a really good online stream.
I don't even know what's worse, waking up late and realizing I've missed the game or waking up in time but not able to find a good stream to watch.
Both will be kinda pissing anyway.
But the worse is probably for Heat to beat Spurs.
If I really happen to not be able to watch the match, the very least I would hope for is for Spurs to beat Heat and bring the title back.


And in other sports news...
BPL fixtures is out, and Arsenal supposedly is closing in on Higuain.
Well whatever happens, Arsenal finally seems to be slightly more consistent compared to the past few season.
Still a good 2 months before the new season starts, and by then school would have started already.



Supposedly going out tomorrow night to meet Steven they all.
Really been a while since I saw them; since sending the men for Brunei if I'm not wrong.
And then there's ORD function at the end of the year.
Probably gonna clash with exams but I don't see how we can miss it.
ATEC coming soon for 2SIR so hopefully everyone will do well for it.
One thing I know for sure is that they must have been enjoying life quite a bit now due to the haze situation, and also because ROT 5 just ended two weeks ago.



Meeting with Ventures this Sat, then probably Leaders' meeting next Sunday.
I guess we should really sort out what we have to do till the end of this year, for NPC and also what is gonna happen to the Troop after we start Uni.

A plan is only as important as how good it is and how well it is being carried out.

A good plan with actions and actions without planning is not going to lead us anywhere.













Byeall.

Hazy lazy.

And the first half of year 2013 is coming to an end in less than two weeks.
Last week had been just about camps; well not sure if I can say that when last three weeks had really been just about camps for Chandan.

Don't know how he did it, but even if you enjoy doing something, I guess sometimes it can be too much still.

Glad that I went to DPC.
Even though there's only two patrols, it's still somewhat an interesting camp to be involved in.
And Sarimbun is truly the home of all Scouts.


TP dates are already into October now.
And if I don't book a test date soon, the dates will be after my PDL expire and it really isn't worth it at all to extend it if I just need it for a few days more.
Well, unless, I fail my first test.
Ideally, that should not happen though.
Hopefully I'm making good progress and will be able to pass on my first try.
Then all it took from passing BTT till then will just be six months.


Really listened to Chinese songs much less from few years back.

Partially due to not so popular songs nowadays as well as more external influences in listening English songs.
Shall spend some time listening to newer Chinese songs and finding the nice ones to store in my walkman these few days.


Haze in Singapore is getting real bad.
When you see something trending on twitter, or half your friends posting similar Facebook status about certain things, you know it's either really good or really bad.
Just wanted to start running every other day from this week onwards to train my fitness back up, then come the haze sigh.
Hopefully the haze goes away soon, really bad for everyone's health.
And together with the situation on dengue fever, it suddenly seems like we all have to really take care of ourselves wherever we are and everywhere we go; even if it's in Singapore.



Guess I won't be going out much again this week, partially thanks to the haze as well.
Currently nothing planned yet for the week either.
Been a while since the last time I stepped into the theatres, doesn't really matter too considering how seldom I went to the cinema long ago anyways.
Will just probably have to leave Hangover 3, Now You See Me and stuff at home on the Internet then.

Not exactly keen on Man of Steel since I'm no fan of Superman, but well, it should be acceptable, hopefully.


Countdown to starting school soon...













Byeall.

Finally back from June Camp.
Long while since we've camped in Sarimbun, definitely another great experience.
Don't think I'll be able to pen everything down here, but I'll try; not today, perhaps tomorrow or some time this week.

Would not say that it's a damn good camp, but still, it's possibly one of the better camps, training and experience-wise the Troop have had in a while; partially also due to the location being Sarimbun Scout Campsite.

Was so tired that I slept from 5plus straight through till 11.
Probably won't stay up till too late, perhaps another hour or so before heading back to bed.

Gotta keep the momentum going.











Byeall.

Pre-June Camp

June Camp again tomorrow, this time finally at Sarimbun once more.


Well it might not be like the old days due to various restrictions and screw ups, but it's definitely an upgrade over camping in NASS or a mobile camp; especially when we can't even camp in school now.


Hopefully everything goes well and we achieve what we want for the camp.


Shall try to really sleep earlier tonight, possibly by 11plus to ensure that I get sufficient rest for the next three days.
Doubt we will all be able to sleep much for the next three nights anyways, really gotta work hard this time since we still won't know if we can still commit this much this time next year.


Well I should be back by Monday with stories to tell and another enjoyable camping experience; then life goes on again from there, inching even closer to start of school and stuff.

















Byeall.

Sometimes it just doesn't end well.

Had a kinda long day yesterday, in my case, since I'm seldom out for the whole day since morning recently.

And it wasn't a whole day anyways, not exactly close to it either compare to other people.

Went MJC early in the morning for the invigilation thing.
Reporting at 7.20am when I only have around 4 hours of rest is no joke; it sort of reminds me of life as a student though, but it's just so different now.
So different that knowing an examination is coming, and I'm walking in not in any school uniform and not to sit in the examination hall but to be the one invigilating the exam.
Really miss the secondary school and JC days though, as those are the days we will never be able to get back and experience again.
College's just so different because everyone grew up; well, obviously there are people who haven't mature yet but that just doesn't make it any closer to being a secondary school or JC student.
Being a teenager and a student, we were experiencing many things for the first time and constantly discovering new things and learning new stuff.
While we are still relatively young at this age, being a college student is just gonna be different because of how things work, how we interact with one another, and how we've already seen enough of the world and society to change our mindsets forever.
Of course, the world is ever-changing and one can never see enough of the world; what I mean is just that somehow when we pass through the gateway towards maturity, adulthood, with one foot already stepped into society, it's a one-way trip and we can never return to the way it was before.
Not physically, and definitely not mentally as well.
We will just be moving ahead constantly and while changes will occur in our lives and our minds, none of it will be able to bring us back to the past.



Had a paused for damn long, went to play Tera Online.


Train of thoughts utterly broken now so I shall just carry on from where I left off, after the invigilation.
Went home, settled down and slept for 1hour.
Freakin' tired, probably due to lack of sleep the night before as well as excessive walking up and down the examination hall.
After that went out to CDC for FTT e-trial which was followed by the actual FTT itself.
So I finally passed my FTT too, and all that is left now is to clock the lessons and take the TP.
Only my seventh lesson tomorrow sigh.
Should've chionged much much much more lessons when I had the time.
Wonder if I can take enough lessons in the next two months or not.
Hopefully I will do like twice or thrice a week when I got nothing on so that when school starts I can probably just take twice or thrice a month till TP.
And that will probably in September as heard from some of my friends, well, hopefully I can somehow get an earlier slot though.
Whether I'm ready to take or not however will still depend on my progress for the next two months.
Ideally I should just take and pass it before my PDL expire which is early October.


Woke up early again this morning to go NAS for store packing for June Camp.
Didn't really feel like getting up at all when the alarm rang.
Early morning go school sian-ness.
Fortunately we didn't take till 4pm, managed to finish by 2pm or so even though the Scouts didn't have lunch yet.

Came home after buying KFC for lunch and basically lepak till now.
Was really kinda tired somehow, due to sudden increase in activities two days in a row, three if you count in waking up early on Sunday for basketball as well.
But still didn't nap and although I didn't really wanna game and end up still typing here so late at 2.05am, still gamed for quite a while until now.
Shall try to finish this first, go on tumblr then go to bed.
Driving lessons tomorrow afternoon, better try to reach early.
And iris better don't freakin' scam me on the arrival timing of 28 again.
Always reaching early all the times before and then ended up reaching just on time the last two times I headed towards CDC zzzzZ.

Anyways, finally completed season 4 of Criminal Minds just now as well.
Season finale is just so damn depressing sigh.
On the bright side, 4 more seasons to go!
Really reduced the watching of Criminal Minds just before going to Hanoi I think, or maybe just after I came back.
But season 4 is done now and hopefully I will move on to season 5 and get started on 6 possibly before July.
Just such a wonderful and amazing show, not saying that what they portray are entirely right but the show is just interesting in its own ways.
Season 4 finale is however really a huge blow to the BAU team and its viewers I guess.

"How many more times will they be able to look into the abyss, how many times before they won't ever recover the pieces of themselves that this job takes?"

And the line about not having smart quotes all the time....



Will be sleeping soon I guess.

Hopefully in less than 30 minutes.
Shall try not to wake up too late tomorrow, get ready for driving early, then after that finally have a meal with RW and the PLCo7 minus GY again after that.
Thursday should be a really good rest day and packing day for June Camp.

Speaking of June Camp, I still have yet to search for a good haversack to bring over.
Sigh and that means I'll probably have to bring my old not well-conditioned one.
Also, was planning the hike checkpoints, and realized that I should keep my own copies of plotted checkpoints as reference.
And while it's okay to not have transparency, I can't freakin' find my marker set and got so freakin' depressed about it ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Two sets of markers from NS, one that I brought from home and one that they issued.
And I have totally no idea to where it is right now.
Pissing me off, totally.
Guess I'll try to buy markers tomorrow, maybe transparency, and haversack as well though the last one seem kinda impossible to find by tomorrow.
No point buying tomorrow too if I gonna go out earlier to buy stuff, go driving straight then go dinner; 'cause if so I'll be carrying a bag and a new haversack along just for dinner.

Okay must really end this for now.















Byeall.

Understanding thoughts.

First of June today.

Been absent here for almost three weeks already.
Take away the week I went Hanoi, two weeks have gone by without blogging.
And then it's June already.

Already entering the end of the first half of year 2013.
Too fast, too soon.


First, let's start off with Hanoi.
Hanoi was really an interesting place to visit.
Not somewhere that comes off your mind as a place to go for holiday, to shop or what; but definitely a place that one should visit at least once in your lifetime.
The sceneries are really breathtaking, and while many other places offer similar sceneries or maybe even better ones, it should be consider an achievement to one if you manage to visit Halong Bay, among many other sights you can see in Hanoi or Vietnam.

And having stayed a night in the boat at Halong Bay, it was definitely an enjoyable experience despite several other issues which made it just slightly less than a 100% experience.

Still, the whole trip, and not just Halong Bay, was indeed time well spent with a good company as well.

Being able to walk around the Old Quarters, visiting and looking at their old architecture, watching the renowned water puppetry show; I can safely say that I've been to Hanoi, Vietnam, and experienced their culture there.

And one of the cultures in the Old Quarters just happened to involve "living dangerously", as one would definitely agree to that once you visit Hanoi at the Old Quarters.
Of course, disappointments such as not being able to enter St Joseph Cathedral exist, as well as the railway station; thought I can probably still visit any railway stations anywhere else since there are plenty in the world anyways.


Ever since being back, it just felt like things are kind of different.

First and foremost, obviously because school exams are over and Scouts' meetings are in again.
And then also, June Camp is coming up as the next big thing and there's still so many things to be done.

Continued my driving lesson after having not done so for two weeks, and there's still FTT in two days' time which I almost did not bother about up till a few days ago.

Gotta go to MJC as external invigilator too, hopefully the job's easy and it will be some quick money for me since I haven't been working at all after the six days temp job at OCBC.
And continuing my streak of having friends' birthday celebrations clashing with Scouts' stuff, just had one yesterday when I'm down for Scouts' meeting, and also two more coming up, both during June Camp.

And I don't know if it's something to be proud of or should I be absolutely irritated by this weird fact.



Well, all I know is I'm feeling kinda lost now and unmotivated to do anything at all.
Feel like I got tons of things to do or can do, but I'm just not doing anything about it because they are not absolutely necessary either.
Probably one of the problems with me, that when there's something big coming up I just cannot focus enough to complete my tasks; when it's just me telling myself that I cannot do so and nothing else is stopping me in actuality.

Well, actuality is sort of a cool word.

Just have to understand and put it into practice, that while planning for the future is important, what's just as important is facing what's right in front and dealing with present issues.

No point looking far beyond ahead when there are obstacles just right in front of you and being too concerned with what's coming up next, you are in turn unable to deal with what's coming onto you now.


Understanding something is one thing, understanding it then changing your actions based on this understanding is another.

Put thoughts into words, words into actions, actions into habits, and eventually it will shape you as a person and your life as well.













Byeall.

Routinely.

Somehow stopped blogging for this long period of time once the month of May arrived.

And here we are already almost halfway through the month.

Perhaps being less busy, having less things to do just constitute to having less "bloggable" stuff.
Even my thoughts had places to go and are not just being restricted to my head and this blog.


Still, no matter how boring my life is, something's got to be going on and I have to try my best to note everything down now, so that in time to come I'll be able to look back and see myself from before as clearly as possible.

Be it to recognize the changes, to learn about myself from before, or simply to reminiscence about the times from the past and the good old days which might not fully be good anyways.

That being said, I will try to get back to the frequency of at least a post a week, and if possible or necessary, even two or three posts a week.

That will probably happen only when I start to get more busy, or even when Uni starts though.

Only probably because when either of the two happens, the two possible outcomes through chain reactions are that I'll either blog much more due to more things to record down about, or that I'll blog much less because I won't even have the time to catch my breath.
I had been trying to convince myself that even a short post will do though, sometimes it's really tiring to type few hundreds or maybe even thousands of words just for a post.
And when it gets too much I won't even feel like blogging at all until probably something occurred and I just had to get it down.


Now looking back at the past week and a half, there isn't really much worth mentioning since as I had mentioned, CCA is suspended due to Mid-Years and since my life is pretty much about Scouting, balling and few other random stuff, a huge chunk of "things I spent my time on" just got cut off.
And to be honest, I'm pretty pleased with the break but it sort of cut my momentum as well.
I just hope my motivation level get pushed back high up again when things need to be done.

That will be really soon, by the way, seeing that MYE should end by this week or so.

Playoffs of the NBA started, nothing much to talk about.
Lakers got kicked out by Spurs the first round, that's kinda expected but their whole season had been a surprising one still, sort of similar to the one when they had Payton and Malone.
This teaches us to never have too much of an expectation because no matter how good something appears to be on paper, in theory, or on surface, the substance only shows when it is being put to test.
The rest of the games are pretty normal so far but the second round of playoffs is really intriguing as most teams are evenly matched and anything can happen.
All four series were even in 1-1 after two matches were each played.

Soccer wise, SAF finally retires after so many years, as Man U clinched their 20th title.
And Arsenal is still simply chasing top four with two matches left.
Every season they go in with a squad probably of being the best if they are on their day, but started off like a team who just got promoted and then finally fighting their way back to the top once more, struggling like they shouldn't have been.
Hopefully they will do much better for the next season as their squad is improving and will supposedly be stronger than they are now in few months' time.

Kinda getting sleepy now, which is really good, so I shall try to make this fast.
This should be a normal thing since it's already 3.27am but I shouldn't even be awake in the first place at this kind of time.
I think I really need a timetable, a schedule, something for me to follow and adhere to, with a reason or reasons strong enough for me to wake up every morning and sleep early every night.
If not this will just go on for who knows how long and it will take too much effort for me to adjust my body clock back by the time I'm forced to do so, be it because of work or any other things.
Still, being able to stay up late has its incentives, it's just that it's not like I'll need to do so every night currently and yet I'm doing so simply because I can.
It's not really even I want to, it's just because I can, and since I hardly see any reason to wake up early I don't exactly force myself to sleep early too even when I constantly tell myself how bad it is to stay up late all the time.

I wasn't someone who liked routines.
I would feel bored with them. I dislike having plans because I thought it doesn't help since most of the time they don't get followed anyway.
But somehow I guess the me now believes that planning is essential and that routines are somehow necessary as well, in certain cases only of course.
We are all trained, or rather, conditioned to follow a fixed set of timings.

Through the natural process of waking up at sunrise and sleeping at night after sunset; through the timetable which was introduced to us in school, something we have to strictly adhere to; basically the whole concept of time was there to help us and ensure that everything follows a proper flow and to keep things in order.

I always believed there's an order in the chaos.

Now I sort of believe that there's an order in the orders.
Of course, my chaos will always be present, due to my laziness or my attitude.


Problems always exist, but they can possibly be avoided/prevented/solved if you know the root of the problem.
Knowing that plans don't get followed and not planning is avoiding the problem entirely, but creating an even bigger problem.
Knowing that plans don't get followed, but trying my best to devise a good plan, with follow-up actions, and means to ensure that I follow my plan; that's an attempt to minimize the problem to the smallest extent after identifying the root of the problem.
And I always knew the root of the problem, I was just approaching it in the wrong way before.
Or perhaps it's due to army as well, but I realized that having a routine can really help since routines help form habits, and good habits formed over time can really ensure that you do what you want and need to, and in turn achieve what you are trying to achieve in time to come.



Well I guess that's enough for now as my brain is slowly shutting down while typing all these.
Took me quite some time just to try and translate the thoughts in my brain into words over here in the last two paragraphs.

I guess it's now time for me to let it power off the normal way instead of overheating and burning down or to have an improper shutdown.















Byeall.

Life goes on.

Balled on Saturday, did nothing much on Sunday.
Same for Monday as well.

Had driving on Tuesday, freakin' hot day again.
Then at night went to Denie's house for stay-over with Xuan and Lenny.
Watched "30 Minutes or Less" and "Too Fast Too Furious" before finally sleeping.

Woke up early morning in hope of catching the GSW-Nuggets game and it's not showing, again.
Somehow always happens when we go to his house to supposedly watch the games.
Still, thanks to the magic of Internet we managed to stream the game and connect to the TV to watch.
Sucky game for the Warriors and Curry man, could've just ended the series right there but the Nuggets did just enough to pull off another win.
Went to have a sort of brunch during half-time break as well only to return just in time to catch the whole fourth quarter.
No crazy comeback by the Warriors though, almost, but Nuggets did their thing.

Went to ball straight after that.
Fengshan CC's open but the rims are locked together so no choice but to go for Bedok CC.
Tons of people over there, not much as we arrived but they just keep coming in afterwards.
Really never thought that so many people would start playing at lunchtime or just after lunchtime, even though it's public holiday....
The damn good guy was there as well, Fengshan CSC, just too damn good man.
Perfect mastery of whatever he's doing.
Well anyways didn't play much due to the sheer number of people present, left at 3plus and got home by around 4 plus I think.

Used computer for a while, went to nap with the intention of taking a 20minutes power nap.
Ended up only woke up just before 8pm.
Woke up several times in that duration with the though that there isn't really anything much important and necessary for me to wake up anyways.
Still, woke up in the end and realized it totaled up to about a two hours' nap, thought that it would be more though.
But napping at around 5, 6pm then waking up before 8pm doesn't look too bad after all.



Been thinking quite a bit these few days, or even few weeks.
Actually, just the whole time.
And I realized, that even now, after this much time having ORD-ed, I still can't fully grasp the changes in my life and in the world that occurred in these two years.
Seriously, it might not look much but just think and look.
The rise of smartphones, the demise of MSN Messenger, the way people work, communicate and stuff, even to not-as-important thing, like games such as Maplestory, which I realized to still be playing just less than two years ago, received several mega-patches and updates since then and evolved into something really unfamiliar to me now.
And many more.
The technological advancements itself probably already can account for a number of changes which took place over the past two years.
And the rise of smartphones was really overwhelming as before we enlisted, the mainstream smartphone out there was probably just iPhone.

People only bought Blackberry and HTC for the non-camera purpose for army, these brands were already on the rise though, but not so much at that time that everyone adopt a smartphone for themselves.
As time goes by however, while many of us are still stuck in army with basic Nokia phone or non-camera smartphone, more and more people started using smartphones, and every single brand out there had developed their own unique smartphone line or various smartphones to suit the needs of consumers.
The rise of smartphones, Android OS, and its helps also coincided with the fall of MSN Messenger.
Even until late 2011 and early 2012, I find myself using MSN but just not as frequently as before.
Still, one can't really foresee how fast the decline will be just as how popular whatsapp and various other IM apps became, not to mention Facebook chat as well.
And speaking of Facebook, while it already had a huge pool of users back in late 2010, its popularity only increase even further, with ridiculous number of changes being made in these two years and many functions being added to it as well in hope of searching for the right formula to please its users as well as to increase revenue.

This also brought on the other social networks as competition became stiffer and everyone seeks to do the same thing in their own ways.

Twitter, pinterest, tumblr, Google+, and many more.
Some changes were gradual, some were quick but easily accepted.

But when you look back and think, and compare the differences between life two years ago and now, the changes we had in our lives and in the world, how everything we know became everything we knew, as new things were introduced into our lives constantly, sometimes in a subtle manner but sometimes forced upon us; we know that while some things never change, the others did, all the time.

Things change and life will never be the same, and the only thing we do, is to adapt.
I still cannot fully grasp the changes I had in my life, I was just a student before enlistment yet now I'm an adult, yes I still have four years of student life before being forced to step into the society but at the same time it's not wrong to say that we already have one leg in the society at this moment.
Perhaps life in NS had somehow shrouded the differences in life, making them less obvious and allowing me to ease in back into civilian life more easily. 
Perhaps it was the adaptability of human beings that allow us to not notice these changes as much to let it affect us all.

But I know that when I think about it, I simply am unable to see through the changes and understand all of these.

Then again, maybe there isn't really anything for us to grasp or understand at all.

The only thing we need to know is that things change, and life goes on.
















Byeall.