actually looking forward to school tomorrow...

gee. that's a feeling you never thought you'd experience wouldja?

but that's exactly how i feel.

finally getting away from the tedium of 9 to 6 life and being able to roam freely on a weekday does make studying seem rather appealing. i can finally ditch the long sleeves and pants for jeans and tee for one whole month and then some. no more slaving away in front of the computer staring at orders and spreadsheets!

now i know why so many people tell me that school days are much more fun. once you start working, whatever energy and time you have is dedicated to running the rat race. hell, even when there's no one to compete with, you're still running cos someone's making you run, whether it's the boss or the customer or the client or whoever.

for now at least, i can actually dedicate some time and energy to actual running. working life just makes you pile on the kilos with reckless abandon.

i don't know how i'll do it, but i think i'll actually try and take some sagely advice from others and cherish what little time i have left with the books.

back to the old skool...

if i haven't told you already, drop by the transformers wiki, teletraan-1 and just search around for some really funny stuff. a great starting point would be about us, from a transformer's point of view of course.

yep, transformers geeks have a wicked sense of humour.

anyway, back to the title. i just got myself a copy of contra 4 for my ds (why not download? i did, and i liked it so much that i decided to pay for it. there *are* things worth paying for. woot.). and boy, it's a real trip to the old school days. even the manual is written in such a manner.

don't remember contra back on the nes? try recalling 2 bare bodied men clad only in blue and red pants running around with guns getting shot at/charged at from all angles. if all else fails, there's the classic up, up, down, down, left, right, left right, a, b, start konami cheat code.

if you don't remember it still, well, there's always wiki.

contra has always been a challenging series. contra 4 is challenging to the extreme even, no less like it's predecessors. it's hardcore old-school fun and unforgiving action at its finest. and unapologetically so. there's nothing like trying and trying again because of one misplaced shot or jump and eventually getting it just right and succeeding.

old school's never been cooler.

heartwarming

saw something today that just made me go "awwww" inside.

was having dinner with mom, granma and the two aunts at a coffee shop along katong, off telok kurau. really great hokkien mee by the way, the prawns were really fresh and i had some deep fried pork ribs to go with that. tasted kinda bacony... great stuff.

anyway, there was this elderly caucasian couple having dinner there as well. thing is the lady was in a wheelchair and when they decided it was time to go, the man got up and started pushing her chair. it was no small feat, considering his advancing years.

it didn't take long for the pair to disappear as they said their farewells to the waitresses who had served them, but not before he negotiated some unflat ground, which seemed kinda tricky with the wheelchair. it didn't take long tho, and before you knew it, they had disappeared.

imagine that... in this day and age, it's just incredibly touching and sweet to see a couple like that. i don't know their story, but surely, with all the usual dynamics of a relationship, they must have quite a story to tell. from that first attraction, the first date, the first kiss, the first fight... to where they are now after all these years... wow. it's just mind-boggling when you think about it.

i just wish i could be like that when my turn comes: to love that someone through our darkest and brightest moments of this sometimes crazy, sometimes wondrous thing called life till i'm grey and wrinkled.

a rare moment of peace...

i actually don't have anything to do in the office. my email's down, so i can't do a heckuva lot of other things. and on the other hand, no one's coming to me today with work. wonderful, wonderful afternoon...

i've been reflecting a lot on the events of the past 2 weeks or so. i've come to terms with yap's passing. it's just so sad and such a waste that he's gone over something that i find so small when it comes to matters of life and death - a girl. it also makes him the third person i know who's done themself for the same reason, a statistic that i hope and pray stays where it is till it's my turn to go. to me, if the girl's the right one, it is worth dying for her, not because of her. there's a huge difference there. go figure.

i'm gonna miss that fella. i chanced upon the blog of a friend of his, and it reminded me of he'd always come up to me in camp and go, "hey sergeant, ho seh bo?" he was one of the few who actually gave a damn that we were all in it together, crappy as ns could be.

my friend, i hope you've found your peace...

this one's for you. thanks to jo for the lovely song...

Radios In Heaven
Plain White T's

Your time has already come and I don't know why
The last thing that I had heard
you were doin' just fine
It seems like just yesterday
I was laughing with you
Playing games at Grandma's house
well you taught me well, didn't you?
I hope I'm just like you

Do they have radios in heaven?
I hope they do
'Cause they're playing my song on the radio
And I'm singing it to you

You left before I had a chance to say goodbye
But that's the way life usually is
it just passes you by
But you can't hold on to regrets and you can't look back
So I'll just be thankful for the times that I had with you
I hope I'm just like you

Do they have radios in heaven?
I hope they do
'Cause they're playing my song on the radio
And I'm singing it to you
If they don't have radios in heaven
here's what I'll do
I can bring my guitar when my time is up and I'll play it for you

Tell me can you hear me now
if not, then I can try to sing real loud
What's it like up on the other side of the clouds?
I hope I'm just like you
I hope I turn out to be as good as you

bittersweet

ollie nailed it right on the head when i told him fabregas's 5 fantasy points were 5 points i didn't want. and that's exactly what this day has been for me.

i should be happy. i have a new lappy, which i got from mike for free. and it's a pretty decent lappy to boot. plus i'm free of exams and school for a month.

but the sucky paper (dammit, i can't believe i wrote so crappily for a paper that should've been oh so easy for me...) kickstarted the glum saturday and immediately after that, i got the news that yap passed away. sigh.

i guess i couldn't have done much about it, but still, these three letters have just haunted me all day long: w, h and y. yap was one of the better guys in the platoon and one of the guys i was closer to. i just can't believe he's gone...

damn it all.

just one of those mixed emotion days...

i have a paper in seven and a half hours... but what the hell.

i'm not really in that much of a mood, with my mood swinging like a pendulum.

i'm somber, cos one of army friends is in icu right now. and i have no idea what the heck is going on there. if only i didn't have this stupid exam and damn assignment, i could be there at cgh right now. and i just saw him a few weeks ago. damn, damn, damn.

all i can do is pray he pulls through.

it kinda just snaps things in perspective and slams reality in your cold hard face.

on the other hand, i've been looking at some really funny stuff that's stopping me from becoming an emo-nemo. transformers fans have a real wicked sense of humour. it just had me in stitches. non-transfans may not get it, but read the captions for the pictures. they're hillarious as hell.

sigh. the sooner this week ends the better.