finally, finally done with my brown university application. happy with the whole thing, so off it goes at last.

tomorrow's my event at the national library. for those of you who missed the earlier announcement, it's a dramatisation of some of my poems by some youth performers. it's just for fun and i'll be giving a lil speech at the end of it. do come down if you have the time and if you haven't picked up a copy of my book and would like to, this is a great opportunity to. it starts at 7pm at the courtyard of the main branch of the national library (stamford rd). hope to see you there!

happy birthday, flea.

and happy eightmonthiversary, cx.

does anybody know a fast, not-so-expensive way to send a small box of stuff to the states? spare me the humour, please. and provide me with valuable details if you can. your help is greatly appreciated. (woohoo. viewer participation.)

--

occasionally when i pass through buona vista or peck hay in the morning, i see the long line of cars filled with anxious parents and their prized children and think about how it used to be in rj. after their children alight, most parents would suddenly be possessed with a critical sense of urgency. they'd attempt several daring escape maneuvers such as swerving in and out of traffic and making quick u-turns to scramble their vehicles back the way they came. it's as if the need to get back home as soon as is humanly possible has gripped them. by god, somebody could die if they don't hurry. so there they sit, spinning the wheel like it's on the last cabin door between them and a gaping hole in the side of titanic, firmly aware that their actions could lead to them running over several of their child's classmates. it's no small wonder that parents seem more stressed than most kids these days. it starts early in the morning every single day.

--

tmrw's the end of the exercise i'm on right now. bumped into samson and zameer at the camp i'm in right now, at pasir laba. zam's on an auxiliary close combat course right now, so that when he goes back to mandai camp (home of 'stompy, the raging war elephant') he can instruct his troops clearly and explain to them the basics of what he's just learnt. this, of course, as all the guys who know him would agree to, is a futile endeavour that the army has kindly taken upon itself to pursue. we wish all parties concerned the best of luck.

samson, on the other hand, passed out of bmt recently and he's being trained as a lifeguard. sounds like a dream job, but might i remind you that it's only as good as an episode of baywatch, except that every female character has been replaced by a man as ugly as david hasselhoff's chest hair. this is the army. dreams are shattered here, and the small shards are given to you to either cling on to or to kill yourself with. join the club, bub.

all the same, good luck to them both. may they have rewarding stays in their respective vocations.

--

nothing like staying in a room with 20 or so officers (majors and lieutenant-colonels) for 48 hours straight. more to come tomorrow. i love these new-age officers. they insist on doing things themselves, the learn quickly and they share knowledge with one another. what does this mean for our nation and it's defence?

no work for me. that's what.


g'night folks.

Showing the kind of journalistic spirit that CNN is famed for, their website carried this headline prominently amidst other such pressing issues such as 'voters take the stage' and 'three u.s. soldiers, iraqi interpreter killed near baghdad':

'moroccan teacher throws pupils out of window'

in the article, a vivid picture of the morroccan education system is painted. it states that an angry moroccan teacher threw two of her students out of the first floor classroom's window. it was their punishment for being too noisy in class. in her defence, she is quoted as warning them beforehand that she would throw them out if they were not quiet. i don't think it occurred to them that she might not have had the classroom's doorway in mind.

the principal, showing the kind of tact that a certain local principal would be proud of, solemnly added, "they did not listen. they should have listened. she suffers depression."

more to follow as this intriguing case unravels.

so all the plans were/are wrecked. damien's bro's hip got acquainted with some drainage and since i'm probably heading to new england in 2005 anyway, it's not worth going there now. i might, however, visit the older england in july.

oh, and damien and i have plans to head up to new england (and duke, because he's dying to see someone there even though i insist that it's out-of-the-way) to visit all the people studying in that area. that means we're planning to visit
1. brown (lishan)
2. wesleyan (chengz and kenneth)
3. yale (ervin)
4. harvard (shiming and sinwei(?))
5. new york (the city so nice they named it twice. erlina's there)
and
6. duke (because.)

if there's anyone we missed out, it's because we don't like you all that much.

but seriously, if you're in the area and you're reading this and we know you (recommended).. drop me a line or visit damien's site and bug him instead. he likes strangers alot. alot. especially the 'problematic' roommates of friends. just ask lishan.

alright. enough shameless blog plugging.

we're planning to head down in may, just after all of em are done with their exams and are preparing to come back home. we'd go earlier but i'm not free from january all the way until may because of commitments to exercise planning and execution at my division. we've got this major exercise coming up that's gonna turn everyone into a shrivelled, dirty rag. sounds like fun to me.

fun.

so this friday night i'm heading out to zouk with damien "j for juvenile" gomez to see if he can really

do a dance,
make a little love,
get down tonight,
get down tonight.

it's something i have to witness with my own two eyes, really, cuz i just don't believe that guy's stories. i guess it's cuz he's in a different 'mood' (so he says) whenever he's around the guys so we never see the flirtatious, ladies man in him. by the way, i find it highly amusing how he passes off remarks concerning how hot and irresistible he is to the ladies with an amazing amount of nonchalance and without a second thought about it. i mean, he's not kidding. this man seriously, seriously knows he's sexy. and that's unfaked confidence for you. how true it is, is another question. i guess that this friday i'll just have to see what he's really made of.

let the social experiment begin.