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.

Easy to say.

Had another stay-home day.

And gonna ball again tomorrow.
Pretty much of balling already this week though.

Hmm let's see.... shall start from Monday.
Don't think I did much on Monday, relaxed at home and breathe in some fresh air while thinking that I'll finally not have to drop by NAS for these few weeks due to CCA suspension for mid-year exams.
Mid-year exams. What a long time since I've heard of this term. Will get on more about it later.

Other than that, I think the only thing I did was to chiong through episodes after episodes of Criminal Minds Season 3, managed to finish with the season finale before heading to bed.

And I was supposed to sleep early, due to driving in the next morning.

So had my second driving lesson in the morning.
Nothing much. I don't think I'm all that good at it though. :/
Sigh hopefully with more practice I can get it done and over with soon and just get my driver's license already. :O
Reached home by lunchtime, had lunch and pretty much slacked all the way.
Went to ball with RW and Terry at night though, a suddenly initiated session by RW.

Some good balling session with them, haven't played with them for quite a while already, along with Pan and the others too.
Great times playing at 209 in the past. Hopefully will get back there to ball even more soon.

Another balling session on Wednesday with SH, Matt, Diane and Lenny at Kembangan park connector, or rather, Telok Kurau Park if it's the real name for the place.
Started playing quite late and ended late as well, went to nearby for some drinks and even Denie came by to visit since he's back from JB already.
Well, it was really tiring to play ball two nights in a row though.

Still, didn't exactly sleep early that night, again. Sigh.
Can't ever find a strong enough reason to make myself sleep early, yet I can always somehow come up with dozens of reasons to keep myself awake to the time where people are getting off their beds already.
Watched "10 Things I Hate About You", really nice show.
Wasn't sure how I came into contact with it but downloaded it few days back so when I thought, why not watch a movie before I sleep, I just happen to pick this up.
Watched a few movies recently.
Watched both "The Hangover" and its sequel for the first time, managed to finally watch Stephen Chow's 西游 降魔篇 as well.
After quite a long while of not watching any movies, or even going to the theatres, I'm starting to push myself to watch more movies again.
Perhaps to offset the negative atmosphere I always put myself in from watching Criminal Minds.
Was really wondering if I should watch more sitcoms and funny shows instead of chionging Criminal Minds as I am 'cause it's really weird to do so and while it's a really great series it doesn't do much to lift my mood at all especially when I watch like 2, 3 or even 4 episodes in a row or in a day.

Anyways, finally went to bed after watching "10 Things I Hate About You".

Woke up just in time for lunch, again, then spent the day not doing much again.
And by not doing much it usually means time spent watching Criminal Minds, perhaps doing Scouts stuff, and other random little things.
Not very productive huh.
Well, I don't think I'll be finding a job anyways, other than maybe really short term ones, can't see how I'll be a lot more productive than I am now.
Today was pretty much like yesterday so that sums up the past five days already I guess.

And speaking of jobs, and mid-year exams, the person replied to everyone regarding the external invigilator job for MJC.

Really kinda weird to do this though as I can somewhat foresee most of the people were actually MJ students while I'm not.
If only TJ is looking for external invigilator, I would've gone for it.
Sadly I haven't heard of any news regarding this.
Well, $7.50 for what I think is a not-too-tough job is worth it though, what's more is that it's only for limited number of days, with a reasonable location as well.
Hmm good enough.



And even April is coming to an end soon.
So many things happened and I can't even remember how it felt like a month ago when April was just approaching and the fact that I'm gonna turn 21.

Time really flies man.
And even though I'm not exactly working or doing things people consider productive or even constructive to their lives, it somehow still feels like many things are going on in my life and it's enough for me to handle at the time being.
Or perhaps I'm just trying to convince myself that I'm busy and occupied enough with things necessary to deal with that I don't feel too guilty about not working or doing something else.
Or maybe I'm just forgetful and all these things happen too fast for me to record everything down.
Whatever it is, life goes on and I can't change a thing if it's in the past already.
What I can do it, to mould my future the way I want it to be like.
Easy to say, not as easy to accomplish though.
But at this stage, what else can I do but work harder?















Byeall.

Free flowing.

Went for my first gang show in a long long time.
And hopefully it will be the first of many more campfires/gang shows to come.


Missed out on Kenneo's birthday party though, not that it should matter much to him anyway.
Really wonder why do all of my friends' birthday parties always clash with Scouts' activities though......

Ngee Ann Founder's Day dinner, Job Week, Survival Camp, now RI gang show, one in June gonna be the same time as June Camp, sigh is there even anymore birthdays to attend for which I will be able to do without trying to be at two places at one time?


Anyways, it's the end of the week and gonna be the start of yet another week again.
Don't really think I did much on Monday, not that I can remember of.
Had my first driving lesson on Tuesday.
Cool. Finally first time handling a vehicle.
Not truly handling it myself, with the help of the instructor obviously, but at least I finally started on learning driving.
From now on it's probably just slowly getting the hang of it, then try to increase the pace of lessons and to chiong for it.
FTT's on 3rd June, hopefully I'll be able to book a TP around end-July latest if not then August, would probably be more than ready to take the test by then.

Went down for Scouts' meeting again on Wednesday.
Did some sort of pioneering for that meeting.
Moderately successful I guess.
I realized it's not exactly possible to gauge the successfulness anyway.
Not at their level at least; and bringing things to our level just means that we have to step in, something I'm not too keen on since it would bring us further away against the direction we're supposed to head towards.

Thursday was most likely another zuobo day again, followed by Scouts' meeting on Friday.
Foot drill day but did not really accomplish much too.
Will probably really need an entire meeting solely just on foot drill for them to be able to brush up their standards and improve on it.
It doesn't seem to be of the highest priority as of now though.

RI gang show just now, not too bad, heard that it was much better last year though.

Don't understand why did we arrive so early, not as if we can fight for the early bird award when 02 will easily be the first Scout troop to 'arrive' and register.
Ended at around 9plus and reached back Tampines by around 10.30pm.
Decided not to go for Kenneo's birthday and went to supper with Chandan.
Stayed back after he left to meet Freddy for supper, still at 201.
Well if I couldn't make it for the birthday to meet up with the rest, at least I met Freddy hahah.

Been a while since I really met up and talked to him anyway.


And we finally have some progress on our overseas trip to Vietnam, hopefully things can be settled soon and it will seem like we are really going to go on an overseas trip together instead of just all talk and no action.


One more thing I realize, either kids nowadays really have no respect for people, don't know how to show respect, or they just have to be taught the hard way.
It's not helping at all.


Around three more months to University.
These three months are gonna go by really fast.
Hopefully I'll be able to land myself some really slack and good short term jobs sometime soon to at least balance out my expenses for the past few months.
And hopefully I'll be able to spend the next three months without regrets because this could possibly be the last period of time I'll really get to do what I want before life goes on and I get sucked into the no return path of adulthood and towards life in society.
Really really not looking good at all, life ahead for all of us.
Then again, somehow we will survive.
Some will do well, excel in life, perform, find what they want; some might barely survive.

In the end, we are all different but the same.

We walked similar paths, crossed each other's lives, and affected one another in ways more profound than any of us can possibly understand or bother to realize.
And while each of us end up on different sides of life and towards different sets of goals to achieve, the fact that we are all connected somehow in one way or another will stay true no matter how much time has passed.

Good luck all.
Because we all need it.













Byeall.

Entitlement.

Had wanted to blog like yesterday, I think, or few days before.
Somehow didn't manage to do so then.

Let's just start with a typical recap to my life continuing from the previous post.

Down for meeting on Wednesday as usual; pretty much nothing much to talk about.

Thursday, went to finally catch a movie with Chandan, JJ, GY at tmall.
Watched Oblivion.
Been so damn long since I've been to the theatres.
Not too bad movie, not exactly brilliant either.
Just nice I supposed.

It somehow sparked an over-usage of the phrase "are you an effective team?" by Chandan though.
That aside, hopefully that more good movies coming up will bring me to the cinemas slightly more again.
Not that it's somewhere I would like to visit every two weeks or so, but catching a movie at the theatres provides a different experience to watching one at home, in front of your computer or the television; especially if it's a good movie.
Next big thing coming up should be Iron Man 3.
Was never really a big fan of Iron Man, didn't even catch the first two movies in the cinemas; instead, I watched both in my bunk on my bed before sleeping using my Walkman Z.
Typical movie nowadays which attract people with the same few factors; dramatic visual effects, not-too-bad storyline, injection of humour every now and then, and the use of charisma by the actors/actresses, in this case, Robert Downey Jr.

And of course superheroes movies like these would typically attract comics and superheroes lovers as well.
Using the mega blockbuster that is "The Avengers" as a ruse to create more hype in all the movies filmed under the same cinematic world of course worked extremely well to their advantage too.
That being said, "The Avengers" is certainly still a really well-made film by itself and would probably garner just as much attention and hype even without all these.

Well enough of being a movie critic and stuff.
Still, one thing I just have to say is while I understand that everyone is entitled to their own views, I certainly still cannot get how people cannot understand that.
And also the fact that they just have to voice their opinions out loud to the world as if what they believe is not just their view but what they think should be 'correct'.


To many of such things, movies, food, games, shows, plays and stuff, there's no real definition of good or bad, but really to whether you like it or not.
Popularity is really more of a factor which determines how 'good' something is.
Then again, if you're trying to be objective, criteria, clear and well defined rules, these are what help to determine the quality of something, not simply based on opinions and thoughts because everyone thinks differently and sees something from a slightly different angle.
One simple way to explain this is just how a movie deemed to be good by international judges, professional critics and such might not be to your liking at all; while really popular shows and the ones that generate huge revenue might not even be consider to be anything more than an above average film.

I guess I still can't learn on how to cut down my words, still circling around this topic after many many lines of typing.

Sometimes, thought, getting things out of your mind is probably one of the better things to do because who knows how much can your mind really hold anyways.
And that's what blogging is for.


Moving on, it's another Scouts' meeting on Friday; finally the first uniform meeting of the term.
School's activities had been really disruptive though, cutting down so many meetings from the already small amount of meetings we could have.
Went to dinner at Mac's after that with few of the PLC members and Chandan too.
It was then only that I realized that it might have been quite a while since the last time I had Mac's.
One month, two months? Or even more than that maybe.
Thousand island fillet wasn't exactly much tastier than it's normal counterpart though, not that it was really important anyways.

Didn't do much on Saturday, just another rest day for me.
Although the week wasn't really hectic, I still feel that it's always good that I spend at least one or two days at home entirely without doing much to recharge a little and get ready for more things in life.

Well, not that I'm expecting much, and this sort of hinders with my productivity too, but spending some time watching shows, reading, or simply finding things to do could actually help to increase productivity when I'm doing work.
Okay and right when I thought of that, I just realized it could have just be a form of rationalization and occurs due to cognitive dissonance.
Alright, I read about it before but still had to Google it up for the exact terms.

Just imagine when I start school and really start learning more about Psych, I will be analyzing myself all the time. :O
Good thing, more self-discovery; bad thing, I'll probably just confuse myself more and more lol.

All that aside, I still truly believe that I need some rest at some point of time.
Reason being, everyone does.
If you tell me that you can work tirelessly 24/7 for whatever cause, I will truly salute you for it and you deserve to earn what you set out to get more than anyone else.

Truth is, even if there's anyone who can do so, not many can.


Met up with RW they all on Saturday too, at night, to discuss about our supposed overseas trip.
Made some progress there and it actually sounds like we are gonna pull it off soon.
Perhaps, as long as someone is actually willing to start doing something, or rather, everything for everyone.
RW was pretty unhappy at the start though, and he was so hungry too that I can't decide if he's more hungry or more unhappy at the fact that everyone's late despite Terry claiming that he's gonna reach in 15minutes.
He took four times longer than that, by the way.
Went home at 10pm to catch the Arsenal match.
Typical match by Arsenal of recent times.
Like what Fattah put it, Arsenal puts its fans through a lot of emotions in a game.
Usually frustration for more than half the game, in this case, almost throughout the game; followed by a sense of relief at the end of the game.
I don't get how it's so easily to get tensed up when Norwich had to defend their one goal lead for more than half an hour while we only had to defend our lead for 10minutes or so.
I guess, it's just the ability of Arsenal that puts its fans through all these emotions.
Well, at least they won.


Went to ball this morning, Eunos CC due to the bad weather in the morning.
Really really tiring session today though.
Felt sleepy almost throughout the entire day after that.
And keep feeling hungry as well.
Am hungry as I'm typing now with my supper in front of me but which I do not wish to start on until I'm done with this post in order not to disrupt my train of thoughts, if there's any, at all.

Okay and thinking about food just sort of disrupted my train of thoughts...

Anyways, came home and had been watching Criminal Minds for most of the time ever since.
Completed another 4 episodes of Season 3 and probably at least one more when I start on my supper.
Should probably catch up to the latest season before I start school.
Well, August's still kinda a while away from now actually, especially since I'm not working, not 8-5, Mon to Fri at least anyways.
Would really be good if I can find more short term jobs to maintain a certain amount of income though, and probably to keep myself occupied when there's not Scouts to worry about.

Passed my BTT and booked my FTT to be on 3rd June as well.
First driving lesson to be on Tuesday.
Hopefully I'll be ready for TP by mid-June or so, or end-June, since by the time I get to book I'll probably get July or August earliest anyways.

Okay, shall stop here for now.
Off for my supper and more Criminal Minds.














Byeall.

Many a time you move on in life, not because you chose to, but because you have to.

Almost always, actually.


With time as the biggest factor, and one that is non-constant, ever-changing, always moving ahead of oneself, how can one even take a moment out of one's life without realizing that one is slowly lagging behind what life has in store for him or her.

Was having a good long chat with Chandan, as usual.
Well, more usual in the past, thanks to the ever-famous MSN Messenger; which shaped many of our childhood and teenagehood.
The adolescent phase of our life is one that is extremely important in shaping us as a person, developing our character and almost entirely the reason for us in becoming who we are in the future.
You don't have to study psychology, sociology, or any other social sciences or related disciplines for that matter to understand this.
Because this is a phase everyone goes through, and thus everyone should understand how it affects each of us ultimately.

And for the people in the 90s, my generation, our lives were greatly affected by the now approaching demise Windows Live Messenger, formerly named MSN Messenger which would possibly still be the name it shall become to known as for years to come despite its official retirement after these many years.
These thirteen years.

And this is exactly the topic of our conversation just now.
This is exactly the topic which I believe would evoke the memories of many, many people simply just when the word "MSN" is being mentioned. 
It was fun while it lasted, but perhaps it's time we move on.
Or perhaps we already did, or so we thought; only to realize that we never did moved on at all.


Out goes MSN, in comes Facebook Chat, Whatsapp, tons of other IM clients and apps.

And now Microsoft is doing a last ditch effort in migrating MSN users to Skype, hoping to retain the users and their trust in Microsoft.
It however just seems like they're taking a step back.

Anyone who used MSN (well I know it was called WLM for years but c'mon, how many of you address it as WLM and how many of you would call it MSN, even now?) would certainly be well aware of the functions and options it provide for us.

Compare that to Facebook chat.
Now ask yourself, what did MSN do or didn't do exactly that landed it in the current situation?
I cannot give a perfect answer, and while I believe there was indeed a number of contributing factors, I can never understand which was the trigger which made Microsoft decide to close down MSN for good in favour of Skype.
Skype.
In favour of Skype.
And now that I am finally trying out Skype, in hope that Microsoft has a chance of gaining my trust back, it turns out that I'm not convinced by its efforts at all.
The limited options it has compared to MSN is just pathetic.
If it were to hope that with an "upgrade" to Skype would help retain or attract back its old users of MSN, it should definitely give Skype a real upgrade.
And the easiest way to do that? Bring Skype to become a closer version of the old MSN.

MSN to me was the optimal IM client.
It was simple and very IM-oriented, arguably the best platform for people to chat with one another; yet also providing us with a variety of options, allowing us to customize almost everything we can think of.

Of course, that was also helped much through the external client of Messenger Plus!.

Compare Facebook Chat with this. Now just think back to why you ultimately preferred Facebook Chat over MSN, if you did.

Yes it ultimately started going down hill, but at its peak, MSN was simply the one thing everyone is looking out for whenever they get home, or whenever they get to go on the Internet.
Phones weren't that advanced back then, aside from iPhones, there weren't many smart phones floating around and not everyone was holding on to an iPhone or any other smart phones; unlike now, where even a primary school kid can bring an iPhone around everywhere he/she goes.
Times have changed.
So have we, and of course the entire landscape of the Internet, technology and instant messaging.


I believe just in a very recent post I've brought up the possibility of Facebook getting phased out eventually, just as with every other social network.
Blogging was the example used.
And yet I forgotten that another prime example is MSN; an example even more suited for this as it is officially retired by Microsoft after thirteen years of extremely good service.

At least I still have my whole archive of blog posts dating back to March 2007 to look at; yet for MSN, sad to say, I have only chat logs of 2011 onwards to reminiscence about.
By then MSN was already on a steep decline and even judging by the frequency of chats I had through MSN, it was easy to tell how MSN was dying slowly from 2011 onwards.
Frustrated how my computer broke down back in 2011 which caused me to lost a whole bunch, few years worth of chat logs on MSN; the years which were also the peak of MSN, at least to me and possibly the people around me.
Nothing any of us can do about it now though.
Sigh.

And with this, it's just another showing from life that we are constantly forced to move on.
Sometimes by life itself, sometimes by time, or rather age, sometimes by all these various factors in our life.
May them be people, technology, places, politics; anything; everything.
We can be affected by anyone or anything we let into our lives; positively or negatively.
The only thing I'm sure is that, once you let someone or something into your life, it will be there, and it will affect your life in a way which you might not even learn about.
But it will, that is for sure.

Read this quote elsewhere, which goes "Once you have feelings for someone, it will always be there. You may not like them anymore, but you still care."
That is true.
Completely true.
Be it that you grown to not like them as much, or they left your life, or it's something and not someone.
You will still care, or it will still affect your, or had affected you in some ways.

Ohh gosh and the thought of social psychology is coming into my mind now.
Behaviourism too, but not as much applied to this context. Just came up on my mind zzZ.
Can't believe how I gonna cope with life in the next few years and onwards after I go even more in-depth into psychology.

But anyways, that quote almost exactly says how I feel about people or things, or life, in general.




Aiya, line of thought got broken somewhere somehow.
But I probably did manage to put most of my thoughts opinions views down already.

Bottom line is, just damn sad that MSN is gone; to put it in a general perspective, just damn sad that we are constantly forced to move on in life and seldom get a chance to choose.
While we do often encounter decisions to make in life, it is not always that we make the right ones and more often than not, again, we are forced to make decisions and just move on.

Okay but life's not that miserable actually, we just have to accept what comes in our way and live with it, deal with it.


In other news, I'm getting super hungry. :O














Byeall.

You wake up, another year is gone.

Ahhhhhhhhhh and I'm finally twenty-one years old.


Not that I was looking forward to it.

But many many years of not looking forward to growing isn't gonna stop me in that at all.
In fact I'm more or less halfway there to the stage in my life that I never ever wanted to reach.

Well that doesn't mean that I want to die before that but I would like for time to stop for us when I'm still at an age where everything and anything in the world doesn't matter to me and I can do anything I like anytime.

Guess that's never going to happen eh.


Just a peaceful simple day it was, went to ball in the morning somemore, just like any other normal Saturday morning.
Went home for lunch and did everything just like any other normal day.
Yes somewhere inside me tells me that from this day onwards, I will be known as an adult, at least legally, officially, because I've reached the age of 21 and it's not just my own business thanks to laws, regulations and stuff concerning people and the age of 21.
Well I shouldn't be able to see the effect of being an adult yet though; at least not so looking at the current state of my life.

Somehow "current state of my life" automatically makes the state of my life sound worse off than it actually is.
Well I'm actually quite enjoying this phase of my life aside from the fact that I'm not having any income...
At least I get to do what I want to do, and I know that I'm not completely wasting my time too.

Anyways, things were normal and I was left with 30 minutes before my birthday was up, while watching Arsenal - WBA match which Arsenal was up by 2-0 at that time thanks to a Rosicky's brace.
The next thing I knew, Andrew Sir gave me a call asking me to go down, and upon reaching the void deck Chandan, Terry, RW and JJ were all there, seemingly anticipating my appearance for a while already.
What a surprise it was to me.

Well the fact that Andrew Sir was the one who called sort of contributed to the element of surprise too.
Everything else can then be summarized by the video took by Chandan posted on facebook.

Went for supper after that at 201 and that marks the end of my 21st birthday.
Really appreciate all of these and all of them for taking the time to come down and spend the final moments of my birthday with me.

Never thought that they would come up with something like this and didn't even expect anyone to do something like this for me at all.
Really great knowing that I will always have this bunch of brothers by my side no matter what happens and where we were in life.

And although I did not organize some big shit event like how people do, somewhere inside I know obviously I want it to still be a memorable birthday, since the 21st birthday is supposed to be something of great significance, well, as sort of explained earlier.

The entire day was just like any other normal days, but what they did for me is already enough to claim that my 21st birthday was indeed an unforgettable one.


Then again, adulthood doesn't seem too much fun or exciting.
Not that I'm hoping for it to be so; but just saying that life still goes on and everything still continues.

It is now the start of another week and while maybe for me it doesn't mean much since I'm not working or schooling, there will be tons of people experiencing the Monday blues come tomorrow and the normal everyday routine carries on for everyone.

Life for me now is simply taking a step at a time, doing what I have to do now and planning what I gonna do next constantly.
Don't wanna plan too far ahead because plans change, and over-thinking about the future doesn't help at all.
Don't wanna just plan as I go along because the feeling of not being prepared isn't one that I really favour.
I guess the current pace of my life is almost just nice and things seem to be going well too.

Well, of course, like I've stated, except for the fact that money's flowing out of my pocket and I'm not getting any resupply at all.
Okay, at least for that small amount of money I earned in the OCBC job and the $200 from Year 0's IPPT Silver.
Year 1's window is officially opened now and I shall try to clear Gold standard as soon as possible.
In other words, as soon as I up my discipline again enough to train myself to be as fit as I was when I got Gold timing last year, or better still, much fitter than I was in NS.
Okay at least I know I don't have any problems clearing any of the other stations at all.
Not just knowing that I have the ability to clear the static stations, but knowing that I would have absolutely no problem in doing so.
This at least makes me happy a little in the fact that I'm not doing PT regularly but am still able to maintain my fitness in every other aspects aside from running.


BTT tomorrow.
Shall apply for PDL and book FTT right after, start chionging driving lessons and hopefully get my license just in time before Uni starts.

Ideally that should not be a problem; even more ideally, I will be able to get it in end June or early July.
Sounds crazy I know but if it's possible, why not?
The only regret is not starting earlier, if not I could already be like Terry now, already waiting to take TP test.


Failing to sleep early is probably still one of the problems I'm facing now.
And had been facing for years.
Sigh.
Then again, I guess it's already not as bad as previously and not as frequent.
Still, sleeping at 4plus two days in a row isn't exactly that great either.
And when I sketch, I tend to do it in the middle of the night where it is obviously a lot quieter than in the day or morning; using that as an excuse to sleep late isn't helping me to sleep much earlier at all though.

Still got no solutions on this.
Seems like this can potentially become worse when I enter Uni as well.
Damn.
Shall not think too much about it for now and just get to the bed to finally sleep.

May everything go well tomorrow and for the rest of the week; not just for myself but for everyone as well.















Byeall.

Some things you have to look deeper.

Took IPPT today. 
Missed Gold standard timing for 2.4km by a whole total of 1 minute.

Well, actually slightly more than that.
Disappointing run. ):
Especially when I can see myself acing all the static stations still.
Guess I really gotta start running, build up some stamina and train myself to be really fit.
Really want to get Gold for every IPPT from now on.
Probably won't get to re-test again for my Year 0's window, but Year 1 onwards, it's Gold all the way.

Year 1's starting after this weekend though.
And that means training must start soon rather than later.
Best to clear this kinda stuff as soon as possible after all.



I guess after so long, all the time's that's passed, all the changes to things, people, myself, I still do enjoy blogging.
Logging down moments of my life so that I do not forget them later on, writing down thoughts about everything, recording how my views and opinions changed over time; I'm a very forgetful person, and people, generally, lose sight of themselves as easily as how they lose sight of things right in front of them.
And I guess, I just enjoy writing in general as well.
Even with my sub-par proficiency in the English language and low level of expression.


Or this just stems from my inability to move on from things in life.
It seems like people has gotten over the stage of blogging; perhaps to them it was just a phase in their life, and now they have grown up, changed, matured, blogging isn't something for them anymore.

It's not the 'in' thing anymore, at least not like in the past, not the trendy stuff you see people talk about and do every single day.
You have Facebook, twitter, Instagram, pinterest, linked in, so on and so forth.
Social networks providing a level platform for everyone to share their thoughts, interests and stuff.

More options, more functions, larger audience.

At the same time it's not really tough to visualize how these will eventually fade away in the future too though.

Like blogging, like friendster, like every other things people abandon once they realized they don't need it in their life anymore.

And if Facebook happens to just survive till a hundred years later somehow, it would become a giant online cemetry for millions of people. :O
Read that somewhere and thought it was extremely true as well.
Things like this, they grow at such an accelerating pace that one day no one will be able to control it anymore, and when that day comes, things will start to go into decline at a surprising rate.
Whole same cycle again.
Rinse and repeat.


Just read about Nikola Tesla a while ago.
Chanced upon some facts of him on tumblr and thought I'll do a quick Google about him.
It turns out that he was such a great man, but one that could possible be forgotten by the general public as easily as how people sees strangers passing them by everyday on the way to work.

His achievements had indeed reached us all though; and his mind is definitely out of the world.
A great man is certainly not judged by how smart he is, although Nikola Tesla was totally in a league of his own, save for a few special others, but what defines his greatness is his personality as well.
I shall not spend too much time trying to act all Google or Wikipedia on him, so do search him up using those to find out more about him.

Alternatively, this will be a really interesting and good read on him as well:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

It will perhaps even give you some insights to Thomas Edison too; know widely as the inventor of light bulbs.


These two days had been really alright, not as hectic as how I would've imagined it to be.
The crazy sudden downpour sorta spoiled my plans yesterday though.
Scout meeting tomorrow again, only once this week thanks to Combined Sports Day on Friday.
Weird reason to cancel a CCA session though.


Next up would be BTT next Monday, and probably from then on chionging of driving lessons to keep me occupied of the time not spent on Scouts or other personal stuff.
In other words, time not spent sleeping.
And that is exactly what I'm going to do now.














Byeall.