| Friday, February 06, 2009 It is Friday evening, I am stuck at home with a sore back and nothing left to watch and there is no way I will touch my coursework with a 10-foot pole. So here I am on blogger and I think I shall write about something that has crept into my thoughts of late: my reflections on BTC 04. Yes, dear readers: here are my five-year-overdue thoughts on the matter. Specifically, one issue has continually been bugging me; festering at the back of my mind. Alas, I shall now lay it to rest. Perhaps we did it in the name of tradition. Perhaps we wanted to bestow upon the club, and hence ourselves, an aura of prestige; a measure of exclusivity. Perhaps we did it in the misguided belief that it would make the "survivors" better off - at least that is how we justified it to others and to ourselves. Or perchance the lamest possible excuse: we did it simply because it was done unto us first. I am of course talking about the dreaded "selections" that are, in actuality, the whole objective of BTC. Five years on, looking back at the event and the first thing that springs to mind is "Judge not, that you be not judged." In sum, the whole BTC is a farcical exercise in judging: peers judging peers, seniors judging juniors... Who's to say that we would pass when judge with our own criteria? Were there even concrete criteria? I'm sure there were, but they were so paper-thin and lightweight that I, for the life of me, cannot even remember the first thing about them. And, most embarassingly, I suspect I was the one who laid out these criteria. My two years in this club have taught me a few things about the dynamics of how we operate. We never leave a single person behind. There was no need to cut anyone on the grounds of fitness. Interpersonal frictions reduce over time; differences resolve themselves through adversity. Why cut someone on the very subjective basis that he or she does not get along well? Experience has also shown me that those not suited for the club eventually leave at their own accord. In that case, why do we even cut at all? So what did we manage to achieve? The square root of f*** all, as the Brits would say. Well, perhaps not - we did manage to bruise a few good egos, and enhance our clubs reputation for elitism. Great job, then. To the juniors that we cut, if you are reading this: I proffer my sincerest belated apologies. May your sense of self-worth not be diminished by others' perception of you, least of all those who are in no place to make judgements of this magnitude. |
Sunday, January 14, 2007 faster than yx!! nice to have met up again!!  dinner at fish & co  the grinning face  the love   and the nita with interesting poses |
Saturday, November 25, 2006 hi guys. something happy and exciting! (: we're thinking of going to belumut over the 9-10dec weekend. we intend to leave on sat morning and return on sun evening. the trek shouldn't be too taxing, so don't worry about being unfit. dates can't really be changed, cause jayce the planner is only free then. just need to bring the usual things, a hammock if you have one. if interested, please contact jayce at 92994005 asap! hope you all come! we haven't gone anywhere in a long time! can check this out: http://www.boac-online.com/activities/malaysia/belumut.html we are Not joining the tour. just following their itinery a bit. |
Friday, October 13, 2006 hi, finally an update. but this really isn't much. its just that i wanted to inform you guys that the tagboard was down so i took it away. i'll try to get one up as soon as possible yeah. |
Wednesday, August 23, 2006 is it just me or is this year's national day song particularly good? it ranks up there with the sun yanzi one (remember the days, together we set forth in faith etcetc) that's the hopeless patriot in me speaking. the same one who signed 6 years to ensuring u people sleep soundly at night. People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. george orwell said that, u know. could almost apply to me. except maybe replace "rough" with "tubby" and replace "do violence" with "press buttons and fire missiles". yes! and i believe i have been somewhat of an enigma since the batam trip, which was ohsolongago. and i ponned odacia. gulp. anyhow here's an update, in order of importance: 1) i'm still the man, but u see i'm a they =) yup. bonus points for which song that is from. no cheating. 2) i'm going to LSE. its confirmed. i'm leaving on the twenty-first, staying with friends, blahblahblah. i'll survive (i think). 2.5) on the same note, for those of u who know what this is, after much sweat and blood and toil, i got my awarded my SMS, here. and thats me in the picture sporting the fiendishly long and unkempt hair. 3) i just went to perth. its the reason i missed odacia. sorry, no pics yet... but it was fun. and cold. and nice to look at. and i love australian supermarkets. its like being a kid in toys "r" us. 4) i enrolled for my Open Water certification. im this cheapo who is paying 490 for the whole package, training in singapore, dive in m'sia. anyhow if anyone wants to know more, its a pretty good deal plus really flexible and minimal hours involved if u want to chopchop get certified and do it during school/nsf time. everything is at night/weekends so its good. next time got diving trip jio me. see la go sailing never jio, i forgot every-bloody-thing about the dinghies already. 5) i did ensign for fleet colours during saf day this year. not that anyone wants to know anyone wanna do something before i leave? i've got quite a bit of time so i wouldnt mind planning for a nite-cyke or something. (k i just invented that term, which i think is funkay) ya i'm in this magical and wonderous period of my life known as "clearing leave". trust me, it rocks. there's nothing quite like it. this year's ndp singer is this woman called kaira gong. i've never heard of her, and i think she has a rather sad name. talking about sad names, i was watching mtv channel today (see, the wonders of "clearing leave") and this person called Chelsea Fan sent in a request. to my surprise, the VJ read the name as Chelsea Faan rather than Faen, and it occured to me that if u had the surname Fan, u could technically name your daughter Chelsea and have a Chelsea Fan in the family. of course, that would suck if u didnt support Chelsea, but who would want their daughter to be named Arsenal? or Manchester (middle name: United)? i digress. |
Tuesday, August 01, 2006 as i have promised.. my lean and mean vehicle.. rawr!! it is kind of cool.. so different from anything i have done in the past.. searching for the ever-elusive lock nut, not seeing the right size hexkey lying under your nose.. working with the mill and the lathe for 4 hrs only to find out that the precious baby that u have just produced from the machine shop does not fit the vehicle.. another 4 hrs. a year's worth of work by 30+ ppl summarized in one complete picture. it is just way too cool. |
Saturday, July 15, 2006 waiting.. our flight got delayed by 2 hours!!so by request of pock here's a new entry..hello!!!!hi!!!!ok boring..we have nothing nothing to do now..the budget terminal is not bad..ruiming is eating his bk..tiff n shihui r slacking in one corner..so here i am using rm's account to blog..sianzz.... k bye!! |
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