I am starting work tomorrow. I have signed the contract, met the HR staff and submitted the documents. Almost everything is prepared and/or done except that I have yet to decide what to wear on the first day.

Went to school to play badminton with Marcius, Justin and Alvin this morning. This is the first and probably last time that I remembered to do warm-up before playing. Hope I don't have an aching body when I wake up tomorrow.

And so, I am quite sure that everybody I know whom are eligible for National Service this year have went for the medical checkup except Marcius. We are the only two special pre-enlistees who are going to have ours much later than the majority.

Don't ask me why. Ask the Ministry of Defence.

I am also planning to book a slot for the Napfa Test at Toa Payoh Stadium somewhere in June this year but the website has yet to open bookings for that period.

The only test item which is in my way is the widely-hated pull-up. I can garner at least a C grade for all the other five items. Maybe they should lower the passing mark for pull-up.

That's all. Wish me good luck in my job.

Starting tomorrow, another long (and possibly draggy) Taiwanese drama will be airing on Channel 8. Named 夜市人生 or Night Market Life, it consists of all the familiar faces from the ongoing [Love] drama being broadcasted everyday at 7pm.

[Night Market Life[ will take up the weekend timeslots while [Love] continues to dominate weekdays. Either way, Singapore's premier Mandarin TV channel is still conquered by the Taiwan typhoon.

Obviously, Mediacorp is trying to satisfy die-hard [Love] fans in advance by having this new serial. Expect a backlash of comments about missing [Love] after it ends if [Night Market Life] wasn't broadcasted beforehand.

What Mediacorp should do is film something like that on its own. They had [Your Hand in Mine] (想握你的手) which began in November 2009 and lasted for a record-breaking 180 episodes but achieved terribly low ratings.

However, the reason for [Your Hand in Mine]'s poor ratings had to do with its atrocious plot and mundane characters. The bottomline is the scriptwriter's quality.

Now, with Lucas Chow (the man with a white fringe) stepping down as Mediacorp CEO on 31 July this year, the company's criteria for his successor should be one whom encourages creativity and is willing to invest heavily on it.

Only with good scripts and entertaining stories can we win over the hearts of viewers once again. Notice that I used the word "we" as the subject in the previous sentence.

Mediacorp, you don't have to look too far for talents, yuan zai tian bian, jing zai yan qian.

I would like to announce that this blog will be undergoing some changes between 5 March 2100hrs to 7 March 0900hrs (GMT +8). During this period, you will be unable to view this blog as it is temporarily shut down.

I will be revamping the blogskin, tagboard, blog links, games. The only things that will remain are the content (of course) and the blog address (of course as well).

Also, I will be conducting annual maintenance to this blog which explains why there is a need to shut it down for the time being.

The reason why I decided to have a change is because change is the only constant in this world. Haha, actually the truth is I am a bit sick of the current layout and it's been stagnant for more than 2 years.

NBA

Yeah, Blake Grffin is the man!

But Kobe Bryant still rules the NBA...

First it was Tunisia, then Egypt and now Bahrain is up and coming. Who is next? Yemen, Jordan, Syria? Or how about Singapore?

Neh, Singaporeans are cowards but cannot blame them either since they are thoroughly brainwashed to be politically apathetic.

Oh, Budget statement is out, mainstream media is singing praises about it, equals elections are coming soon (for real this time)

Leyton Orient vs Arsenal

I got a strong feeling that Leyton Orient will pull off one of the biggest shocks of this season by defeating Arsenal in the FA Cup fifth round tomorrow. Who the heck is Leyton Orient anyway? Sounds more like some departmental store name. It is just another English club two or three divisions below Arsenal.

According to Singapore Pools' website, the current odds for Leyton Orient to win on the 1X2 is $8 while a draw only amounts to $5.25. For those who love taking risks, selecting draw-home for the half/full time double bet type will yield a profit of 20 times.

This has always been the case in the FA Cup for the past few years. An unsuspecting game where an elite team plays a lower division side usually ends up with an unexpected result. Manchester United and Liverpool are fine examples of what I mean.

People might think "the Gunners came from a goal down to beat mighty Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday, so what is Leyton Orient?". However, as I have always said, the ball is round so anything can happen. Furthermore, Leyton Orient have nothing to lose in this match.

I am predicting Leyton Orient to win this game with a 2:0 scoreline. My apologies to all Arsenal supporters.

Home MV

Not that I want to be a spoilsport and kill the joy but I have to say this.

Using "Home" as the theme song for this year's Total Defence campaign is like asking Kit Chan to take out the leftover fried rice from her fridge and getting 38 other people to fry it again with her, not to mention adding unnecessary extra ingredients to the dish.

Although, the organizers claim that it is a collective effort by 39 artistes, it is evident that everybody is trying to make himself/herself stand out as seen in the music video.

Actually, none of them really stood out except for one which I will talk about later. The only thing which really catches attention is the Dr Dre earphones that everybody was wearing on their heads.

Some of the artistes like Taufik Batisah and JJ Lin tried to be unnaturally mushy while singing which backfired. Others like Ah Do and Kit Chan herself who did it the "normal" way were those who succeeded in creating pleasant music.

As for the one artiste who stood out, it's got to be Sheikh Haikel. Firstly, it is his red colour costume which was already conspicuous. Secondly, and more importantly, was that he is rapping from the start to end of the song.

Sheikh Haikel was definitely the biggest winner in this project since the original "Home" song didn't had rapping in it.

One notable absentee from this collaboration was Corrine May. One of the most successful female singers from Singapore's absence in the MV is surely not a positive thing.

Well, it is still a decent piece of work compared to JJ Lin's super-failed YOG cheer.

Last day in SP

I would be lying if I said I am not having mixed feelings now. I feel sad and excited at the same time. When the sun rises up the next time, it would be my final day of schooling in Singapore Polytechnic.

For the last couple of days, I have been asking myself this question. Do I have enough good memories in SP to look back on after I graduate? I had lots of them from secondary school, too much that I believe I had forgotten some.

Also, this question has been popping up in my head lately, what difference will there be in my life if I had not enrolled into SP? The most obvious factor would be the people I had met/known while studying there.

So I thought, if I had not met this people and be friends with them, will there be any change in me? I think the answer would be a yes. However, whether it is a change for the better or not remains to be seen.

Throughout the six semesters, I have seen for myself what it means to be in a job for the sake of money and not passion or commitment. The lecturers there are the perfect example. They teach for the sake of it and not because they want to impart knowledge to others.

The poly life is too "computerized" and "standardized", there isn't any human touch at all. You do tests online, check your scores online and find course materials online.

When students enter a classroom for lesson with the teacher inside, the teacher acts as if there is nobody and continues to stay silent until 15 minutes had passed since the time the lesson was supposed to begin.

Back to my friends, it was nice friending, working and playing with all of you and also falling out with a few. I realized that almost everyone has fallen out with at least another person within these three years. You know, school politics.

Tomorrow will be the last day I am carrying my bag as an SP student. I have been carrying it for more than two and a half years. In fact, this is only the second bag which I use for schooling in SP, the first one was the free Acer laptop bag that lasted for three months.

I will carry it with my head held high up. Yes, I am proud to be a student of SP. Forever and a day.

Nobody nobody but her

Weird and outrageous style. Exclusively to Lady Gaga. Well, at least she did win 3 awards so people wouldn't criticize too much about the egg she was inside.

And for the first time in my life, I felt sympathetic to Justin Bieber. He (or you can say she) lost the Best Newcomer Award to erm, Esperanza Spalding? Spalding who? Who the hell is that? The company which manufactures basketballs?

SEEE D&D

Wah, cheap sia! Only forty dollars leh. A ticket to School of EEE's Dinner and Dance costs only that much.

It is stated in the email that graduating students are strongly encouraged to attend this event. I think the real meaning is to inform us that this is the so-called prom night for us.

I remember when I was still a Tanglin Secondary School student, the ticket price for the prom night was seventy bucks. Of course, me and many other smart people chose to boycott it as a protest against the high price.

If I did not remember wrongly, only half of my sec four class attended the function. This half were either student councillors (who were teacher's pets [dogs]) or vain people who just had to be present there.

This is the first time I'm seeing SP coming up with something at such a bargain price. Pay or not pay the forty bucks?

Last week in SP

This is the penultimate week of me studying in Singapore Polytechnic and there are still some no, a lot of tasks which I have to fulfil for the past three years.

Next week is the final week of the semester, the final week of me sitting in a lecture theatre and the final chance to do those things that I had always wanted to do in SP but forgot/had no time to do.

I have decided to list them on this blog to remind myself and hopefully I can get them done in a week's time. Warning, don't get a shock if those things seem retarded to you.


"Cope" plasters and other useful things from the first-aid box

Man, I have never done this before. I have "coped" stationery, papers, sweets, chilli sauce, wires and my friend's homework before but I had never thought of the first-aid box.

It was not until Maha told me that the first-aid box in the lab was empty that I realized that it is a wonderful source of freebies.

There are so many things inside a first-aid box, from the costlier items like medicine to worthless ones like bandage cloth. Cannot wait for Monday to arrive.

Playing pool

I have always been remembering to do this, just that the price of playing it turns me off. Whenever I pass by the Moberly building, my first instinct would be pool followed by "Is Nick inside there?"

Nick, you treat and teach me pool lah. Take it as a goodwill to end your SP life on a good note.

Try out every single food stall

I told myself about this when I was in my very first semester but sadly, the mission is still unaccomplished.

I have finished trying everything in Foodcourt 2,3,4,5. I'm only left with the Muslim stall at Foodcourt 1 and a few stalls at Foodcourt 6 located at the "mountain peak".

The Muslim stall is always boasting a long queue and I hate to climb up the "mountain", which explains why I have not tried out all the stalls.

Visit the principal's office

I am referring to a tour and not something negative. I know this one is impossible. One wonders what he has in his office. Stacks of cash? Karaoke system? Gold tap?

Work at the library (for one more time)

I have volunteered to work at the library in year 1 for my Character Development module (expectantly and unfortunately, it didn't better develop my character) and I missed it.

Many times when I stroll past the library counter or see a library staff working, I have the sudden urge to sign up as a volunteer again.

I would have been the top volunteer for SP's library if I did not oppress my urge each time.

That's all for now. The rest are all minor and trivial stuff which can be done at ease.

Following yesterday's post on alcohol, I would like to share another interesting science study today.

According to a study in America, obese people were more motivated to shed kilos if gaining/losing money was part of the weight losing program.

All those who participated received weight loss counselling. Some were tasked place a "down payment" in an account where the money was matched and awarded to them if they attained their targets.

Those with "down payments" lost a mean of 4.1 kg in a span of eight months while those who didn't fork put a single cent only lost 1 pound.

This is another yet another proof that money makes the world go round and it is the most important thing in this world (love, oxygen and dreams don't count as they belong to a different category) even when health is at stake.

A recent study from the Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand has found that one's health and well-being could suffer if he/she is constantly being around a heavy drinker.

Of the 3000 odd people who were surveyed, those with a family member, relative, colleague or friend who consumes lots of alcohol generally rated themselves lower in terms of health and well-being.

To add on, in contrast to those who don't possess a heavy drinker as a family/friend, those who did also achieved lower scores in general health and overall satisfaction with life.

See? The idea that exposure to heavy drinkers can cause someone's physical well-being to be affected to a certain extent is evident. There is surely a link between deteriorating well-being status and socializing with alcohol addicts.

So, if you happen to be the kind who gulps down beer or liquor on a regular basis (for whatever lame reason), do take note that as the empty beer bottles increase, the number of your friends may decrease.

Erhem, and this is the poem I had come up with

Why must you drink beer or liquor
when you can drink coke or water
which are healthier and cheaper
and make you stay sober

Just realized that I did not prepare any Chinese New Year special post for this year. I remember I had two last year. One was about CNY coinciding with Valentine's Day while the other was the three-part story that received many nice words from readers.

So if you are wondering if there will be one this year, the answer is erm, no. To keep this blog original and authentic. That's the answer you would get from me if you had asked why.

If I were to post CNY special posts every Spring Festival, this blog would look too predictable, like a daily tabloid. Only by being unpredictable can one succeed.

Oh yeah, this blog is scheduled do have a revamp somewhere in March. Expect a new blogskin, tagboard and sidebar with the same sarcastic, humorous and insightful content. More details will be revealed soon.

Here are some random photos which I found in my laptop. I shall post them here in case I get complaints that this blog is too wordy again.

Me standing at the corridor trying to act artistic with this shot

This one is really outdated, the sec school students who visited during then are already ending their year 1 studies now.

You can only get a picture in the library like this at 8.30 in the morning

Another classroom scandal

bak kwa

For whatever reason, I find that this year's bak kwa tastes exceptionally good, the best among those which I have savoured in the last decade. The one in my house is always from Wu Chin Leong except for one year when we decided to waste 1 hour and queue up for Lim Chee Guan.

People say it is because I have not eaten bak kwa for a year which explains the great taste I experienced. I beg to differ because I only eat it once every year but this is the first time I am making such a comment.

Perhaps you might not know but bak kwa is (and will forever be) my favourite Chinese New Year food. I can give up on eating abalone and everything else. For me, to abstain from bak kwa is like asking Jay Chou fans do stop supporting their idol.

A couple of days ago, the idea of opening a bak kwa shop did come to my mind. Hmmm, and what other words other than my trademark "Tok Kong" label would be a suitable name?

The decor of the entire shop will be red plus gold stripes and patterns. Uniforms of all employees will be in striking red. Plastic bags will also be red in colour plus gold wordings.

Wait till I strike the 10 million Toto first.

Damn it! The packet of peanuts got stuck in the vending machine. What a waste of my 60 cents...