controlled chaos and quiet confidence

understanding

2010-01-30T21:37:00.000-08:00

Ping Sern.. i forgive you. you're leading a very hectic life as of right now. i no longer wish to harp on a dead issue any longer.

i don't care so much even if we are galaxies apart in terms of long distance relationships. i also understand i might've been asking a tad much for that kind gathering of friends....in view of your schedule. had i known this i would've done something else.

what's over is over. while the scars of 2 previous performances are still there, the explanation is a pain-killer enough to ease it away. my only regret is being unable to learn of people's schedule ahead of time via confirmations.

there i feel much better having done this and patched up with you.

return to the salt mines

2010-01-04T02:01:00.000-08:00

i guess its been an ok year. not the best i've had but could've been better. as of next week i am officially back in college but unofficially i'm back at college today. see i have a wall/mural painting project to do, so planning helps a lot especially when you consider the need to coordinate with a large group of people and at least get your idea heard across the board no matter how temporary or insignificant the contribution seems. my crew's pretty much settled on an idea we all can agree with and are now making final variations of it. we'll be using those and selecting the best of them to be used as our stake on influencing the outcome of our class's mural painting.

Now then, onto less serious matters. never ever park in malacca streets....never. see, my dad had to go down to kuala pilah in NS, to do somethings and my mum said make a roadtrip out of it and go all the way to malacca so we could do some sightseeing. sounds all hunky-dory till you can't figure out which place is jonker street, famous or in my case, infamous for the crowds and stalls spilling onto the streets to harp and sell their wares. We got out of the car after we parked on jonker street. if we knew it was jonker street we wouldn't have parked there...too bad some numb nut decided to change all the street names and we didn't know we ended up there. when we got back, the stalls and crowds have already settled in for the night in the street and quite literally, around our car. safe to say, we had a hell of time getting a 4 wheel drive out of the narrow street made narrower by the hawkers, not mentioning yet the ignorant people who still ease their butts outwards despite an oncoming car. we did manage to get out thanks to an opportunistic hawker; he went home RM20 richer for helping to clear the way a bit.

Next up....a deteriorating friendship. i've seen some of my friends i grew up with take wing and leave because there are better things out there in store for them. i've also seen friendships that simply went out the door just like that. in fact, so far i've only had one friendship that went that way and we patched up some 6 years later when we became more mature and met up by coincidence. it was kind of a wake up call for me then, an experience i knew that would play out differently now that i knew the ropes. in fact it happened again not too long ago during my term break back in malaysia...

ping sern... i am not sure if we can be friends anymore... i am saying this now for i am no longer certain and would like your valuable input into the matter as of now. i haven't yet erased you from any of my friends list on anything with regards to you. my questions are simple ones.... i'd like to know... how you would want to be treated as a friend and how you would expect others to treat you. if you'd like to know the few events that have disturbed me so, i can tell right now with a straight face. the first true event was sometime during our final year of school. i believe the term 'fong fei gei' would be right in what happened. you told me to turn up at a predesignated meeting point, i showed up. you didn't until much prompting later and some outside influences. the second one that truly had me questioning was when i got back to malaysia very recently... i don't like being treated like a guest of honour but certain things should be done right. in fact i was questioning myself... the reason i sent you the sms informing you that i am back in KL 1 week after i did get back was to get my head together and decide whether you have indeed changed. you did. i sms you, telling you i'm back and you ask me to arrange for a meeting with yourself and yuen haw. shouldn't it be the other way around?

i never did like sounding like a douchebag, but courtesy dictates that friends who return from abroad should be welcome home with open hands, not the other way around... if you somehow spot this ping sern... my e-mail addresses, you have them. my MSN addresses you have them. my STEAM ID you know who to look for. my blog itself has 2 types of feedback systems. if you truly are reading this, if you really consider yourself my friend. prove me wrong. tell me how you'd like to be treated and how you think people would want to be treated. also tell me something... do you truly value our friendship enough to warrant a change in this...detrimental and highly reprehensible attitude? i ask you as of now because i am no longer sure whether i should walk out on this friendship or not.

for the rest of you who are not ping sern and reading this....well let's see how the drama plays out. i'm all ears.

WE SEND ITTY BITTY KART ALL THE WAY BACK HOME!

2009-11-23T22:42:00.001-08:00

k i'll be going back home...the malaysian one. just need to finalize a few things and then home.

going to try and do up some of the requests you guys asked for before then too X3

also went to AFA 09. lots going on, lots of people....too many... came in the morning of the 1st day and i'm greeted by at least a 100 over people lining up for tickets. thank god i followed victor, eclair n shanlyn to go n get tickets a day before. as expected the gundam section took up a full 1/4 of the hall as compared to the smaller sections of the various artist groups and exhibitors. the cosplayers came in full force on the second day as did the crowd. apparently the king of cosplaying was in suntec...i think his name was kaname...i have to ask eclair. didn't have much money on me at the time so most of my time was devoted to gawking at stuff and silently observing things....also meeting up with friends! XD

i did manage to glean a bit of very important information..digital painting! got it from the Imaginary Friends Studio guys who had set up shop in their own little nook. met ArtGerm there too. lol didn't realise it was him till he began doing a commish for victor, a pepper sketch. XD
anyway, the tips i got from them i put to use as some of you have noticed in the 2 newer pieces i submitted. also props to mike for some of his earlier advice regarding erasers and layering over.

dah! this will work!

2009-11-16T00:46:00.001-08:00

omigod it's finally over! i can finally take a good long fucking rest. after 3 months of little sleep and headaches all around i can sleep as much as i want and drink till noon...or something...friends here recommend bacardi..i 'unno.

anyway, today is my assessment. scared? no. worried? nah. tired? very. almost gave myself a self-induced heart attack by running full tilt from the Novena MRT station to back to the apartment so i could pick up my bandage plaster cast hand == why do that you ask? well first and foremost, i didn't take the MRT since i didn't have time. i took a cab and i told the guy more or less where i wanted to go. the place doesn't register in his brain very well, so i had to opt for a more general stop...the Novena MRT. idiot....srsly, he goes in another way so i have to pay more...doesn't even know where united square is...my god...whatever. least i got it.

set up everything and it looks pretty ok. will post up a picture of my stuff soon. room's in a total mess. didn't sleep at all last night by my choice and as of now, i just woke up from a nice 5 hour nap, about an hour more than i get some nights =p

it was pretty cool this morning...a combination of overexertion and lack of sleep can somehow make you high...i felt kind of drunk. never ever been this loud in public and i could tell i think i slurred a bit...sry guys XP

ok so i'm just going to go and pack up my room stuff and then later tonight tf2 like crazy. internet should be fine; it's a school night, all the little itty bitty kiddies will be working their asses off and then sleeping early so least ways i do get some internet speed and slots on the only available servers to me....starhub...srsly would be so ironic if i, as a starhub user cannot connect to their server. then again it has happened before ==

whatever. oh right, right, right. i'll back on doing the requests i haven't finished up seeing as i have much, MUCH more free time. ^^

requests still to be finished:

on the schedule board

2009-11-08T16:16:00.000-08:00

t'was not very long ago my room was covered in dust bunnies after 3 weeks of neglect and this was rectified about a week ago from now. everything's going as planned so far. tonnes and tonnes of work. so far, i've managed to finish 2 big headaches. the problem is, they're for the same subject, so my overall number of worries is still the same. i'm yet to finish tuning up my drawing sketchbook and tonight, i have to complete 4 fingers for a new 3D hand project so as to be able to buy me some time over the next few days to finish up on my drawing.

fortunately the break is coming and i think most of us need it. the bad news is that we are kind of expected to work through the holiday. if this college had a very significant amount of local students, i can understand the expectation; however, this is not the case. anyway, it should be plain and simple. all we have to do is be split into groups, brainstorm for a mural idea and then comeback together as a class and do it. the irony is that we split up and then come back again just to ensure that everyone's part of the mural is in sync; hardly a point for splitting in the first place. Nevertheless, there is some time next year to go over that and i plan to.

ah well, onto personal issues to make up for the lack of updating. i was recently able to finish DLing Supreme Commander. Its a brilliant game and everything....perhaps too brilliant. i get side-tracked from what i'm doing a lot because since this game is a spiritual successor to Total Annihilation, this game can and will eat up a lot of time. the game immerses you deeply enough that you can't come back out till you've finished something in the game and that's how good it is. i've lost a lot of time thanks to the wonderful game but not that it worries me too much. thankfully, i've already planned out what needs doing so that's more than half the battle won already. on the other hand, gaming for 3-4 hours non-stop can be relatively relaxing, though it feels shitty to find that out in the middle of the night and you figured out what needs doing hasn't been done yet. no matter. just pulled an all-nighter if that's to prove anything.

can't wait for this shit to blow over....seriously.

the weird and wonderful world we live in

2009-10-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

huh.... well i'm almost done with a long and hectic assignment and moving onto the 2nd one next week. everything's fine. also taking some requests to kinda kill time for the week after.

well what i do want to talk about is something that happened a few days ago. see me and my classmates, we went down to the college green or fake grass patch on the campus ground floor. there's this buncha....i'm not sure...sikhs? indians? anyway weird guys in their turbans sitting in the middle of the patch. not that we minded. the fake grass patch is large and we don't normally sit in the centre anyway. so we just strode by and sat ourselves down in a group. not sure what possessed them to kinda stare at me... so in response. i said out loudly : "O HAI!" they sheepishly greeted back quietly and resumed doing their own thing....

by this time i had moved to the other end where my other classmates had already set themselves up and were working on some assignments. so i sit down and we begin talking about some random thing and then one of the turban guys asks me if to come over to to them. Now you must be thinking, why would i go and sit next to some turban guys i don't know of. i asked myself the same question but i figured, all the bases have been covered. sure they're big, but not that big and not that young....in fact most of them looked 60 going on 70. so i sit down and ask them: "yes?"

so then a really old turban guy...i think he's like the oldest in the group starts telling me something.... and if i heard correctly asked if he could get my opinion or something on the matter.... i couldn't hear what he said, so i looked at the group...they weren't very helpful since they were probing my face for some sort of emotional response...technically i was hoping they could help me understand what he was saying but i figured they probably wanted me to listen so i said: "ok"

so the old guy launches into his....speech or something. not that i'm being rude or anything but i'm straining to hear what this guy is saying. he's got a monotone so much lower than mine and i don't think his thick, scraggly beard is helping the sound come out any louder. i could hear 80%...no 90% of what he was saying. the only time i kind of figured out what he was saying was when he mentioned something about the body being the embodiment of some spirit crap like that and the trunk of the body was......tree? ok i was totally lost then, and then he asked me what i thought. how do i respond? well i just said: "uhh...yea ok." actually, most of the time was me trying to listen to what he was saying and looking at the group for some kind of translation.

they let me go after that... not that wasn't interested in what he was saying, but it's just that i can't hear what he's saying....but now i look at it in retrospect, it was probably some religious crap or something. i kind of saw the the similarities between this guy and one of the pastors in the Assunta church, who despite the microphone and PA system is relatively inaudible and the most you hear is something like someone muttering on the pedestal, kinda like the turban guy despite me sitting only about less than a foot away from him.

old inaudible men aside, things have been going....slow no trouble but slow. too slow. if it's anything i miss about home its the internet. i can't tf2 for shit over here unless i'm sitting in starbucks or in the campus library with my headphones. even then, it's not the full experience, i can't speak in the library and starbucks is too public...in 2 ways. firstly, little privacy. secondly, there are always people waiting and if you happen to come by at night, it'll most likely be at around 8pm when the crowds are gone and they close shop in an hours time.

now that i've stayed in Singapore for almost more than 2 months, i can finally start to see some of the more subtle differences in not just the way of thinking but also the culture here. if anyone said singapore has no culture, they are severely mistaken. Singaporean culture happens to be something akin to Japanese work mentality, work, work, work. not that it's a bad thing. i get the right people i want to work with more often here than i did when i was in TOA. pfft....thanks tatsun and debbie for being such asses. on the other hand, this probably breeds the singaporeans i see most of the time; fashion driven engines of inexplicable obliviousness and...of few english words though in mandarin it's plentiful. in crowds you get pushed and pulled by the tide....especially the buses, curse you bus people who cram into the bus and not wait like i do ==

these people can also be seen at food courts. the work mentality is bit more obvious there from my experience and its mostly from the women working there, they show you the ugly side of things, and it's not just their face....seriously. most of the time, you need to choose what you want to order not just cos its your wallet, rather in my case, its also how it tastes and yes, KL does indeed make better coffee shop food for most of the part. these women don't really care much about what you order, they just want you to do it quickly and sometimes when you do ask for some of the little things, they just balk and say whatever. they also end up doing the things you told them not to; i asked one for a 100 plus less ice, she tells me rudely don't care about the ice...$1.30..(no please) not big surprise to me but, it's mostly the women so please don't call me sexist.

now, back to the college scene. i'm a little bit more amazed how some of the people i work with can either be so amazing or...just fucking dumb. i've got this person i know of who can ask you what the answer to this question is despite the answer being in front of her....directly. she also happens to consider herself quite trendy... now if it was just one person, i wouldn't mind, when i get confronted by more than one, i truly am surprised. there's this other person who can ask you for some of the things she doesn't know how to do despite the instructions being in the place i told you where it was....the bloody 'read me' word doc is in the folder i gave you dear....please. not too sure how this is but it probably is...she is also apparently very likely to take people for granted. the final straw was when i found out these people were heading into fashion...god bless that department.

now...for the guys...i told you all, i'm not sexist. let me start with the bad ones. there's this guy i met...he'd be pretty cute or some shit like that IF he was not a GUY. biiiig if...even then. firstly, i'd like to be frank. i can't stand high pitched squealers....and this guy is worse when he attempts to do that. it's ok if you do it every now and then, in fact, it breaks monotony which i am glad for...but it becomes monotonous if you do it eveyrtime i fucking see you... also he doesn't exactly behave like any other person his age should. now i haven't too much of a problem with that also if you do it every now and then but when you combine this factor with the squeal and somewhat dumb factor...you've got yourself a rather annoying 12 year old...who at least knows what he wants. the only redeeming factor i see in you mate, is your foresight and writing capabilities....but until you can shape up i don't think anyone's going to take you seriously.... a fact i will deliver to him personally and if need be, sever ties...can't stand these people no matter how good they write.

now for the other half. now these guys, i know through my campus class...in fact classmates. they not only behave like any person reaching maturity or rather reached it, they are so much more aware and experienced than....some people i've met thus far. it's these guys i look up to. ok there are also the girls who can be counted into this group whom i'm making a close bond with but that's besides the point. these people say what they can do and they will do what they can do and get the job done. also they handle themselves well in most situations mostly due to experience. so if my parents were wondering who i'm associating myself with, you can be assured it's not some pansy ass i'd rather not.

and that about sums up the absence of updates for the past few weeks.

lost and found

2009-10-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, Sean the Vista laptop was sent to the Toshiba doctors for a motherboard organ transplant. The results were grim but we got by and for the moment, Sean is amnesiac.

I think what i'm trying to say here is that Sean's hard drive has been reformatted no thanks to a bug in the system that won't let me start up with my normal profile. =_='

Curse them, those who made vista so integral in new computers! but thank goodness i still have Jean the XP who i'm using to type this out now. sighz, i only hope that Windows will make Windows 7 more user friendly and not the RAM monster vista is. I've no contempt for the company but the absurdity lies in forcing people to accept an unreliable system. its like telling a soldier to use a rifle which has an ammo clip that keeps falling out.

well on a brighter note, most of my work there is more or less backed up or is off little importance to me. sure i lost the flash video i was working on but then again, i never had time for it and i was also planning to overhaul it so no biggie there either. yea sure i lost most of the songs there i DLed over the past month but i have this guy here who has at least 75% of the similar songs so again no stress.

Oh and speaking of songs, i've recently found this new band called Machinae Supremacy. For those of you who cannot stand rock and metal mixed in with some classic game music and sfx, LEAVE NOWz for i am about to expound a bit on the band. its a swedish metal band which mixes in some classic tunes from classis games to give them a nice retro or unique sound. Also their singer isn't that bad. if i compare this band to some of the other bands, i find this band nicer, they've got a brand new tune i've never really heard anywhere else and i can finally hear the words of a rock/metal band singer other than a few notable ones like linkin park. also unlike other bands, they do give a nice set of free downloadable music. check it out if you're interested here.

boredom relief and of old indian women prejudice

2009-10-03T02:38:00.000-07:00

lolz never had this much fun since i got to SG; played tf2 till 6.45am today then went to bed, exhausted but happier than ever. should be interesting to note that for the last leg of this week, i was feeling rather drained and listless....also pretty much bored for most of the part, then i played tf2 for about 4 1/2 hours yesterday and was totally re-energized....fancy that, i think we all just found out the role games play in life these days.

on the other hand, there appears to be more rude old indian women in SG than i previously thought possible. again on the bus. i'm loaded with sketchbooks, my lappie, a portfolio bag and a toolbox full of paints and brushes. the bus is also full as hell. so the walkway is also full, i'm trying to get to a handrail and hold on till the bus stops and people can get out. then this old fat indian woman(oh yea another one), gets on and i thought she had actually settled on holding onto to one of the handrails when the bus starts moving, but NO..no... she must go and try to get to back where its full as hell.
"oi, move your big bag! people trying to move!"

soz i look and her and i'm not in the mood to argue so i says, "oh, sorry lo" and move the bag as best as i can. i mean i understand my bag is in the way of the walk path because its bulging with books, but would it hurt so much to just say "excuse me"? well in her case, if i wasn't feeling myself, i would've just said: "i'm sorry that you're so fat." besides even after i moved the bag, there still wasn't that much space since there are also other people in the way. i'm not sure how she managed to get a seat though i imagined that the lady sitting there either decided to move before she herself got scolded or moved away because she can't stand indignant old people such as her. i'm not sure why i'm running into so many stupid old indian women lately, it's like i offended the hindu goddess of old age and knitting if there ever was one. i'm personally starting to feel a strange prejudice against old indian women....and also begin to view them more as an annoyance than anything else.

so please, all you kind singaporeans out there, if would kindly help to re-educate some of your mates, i think you'll be making singapore a nicer place for everyone.

spasms and dust bunnies

2009-09-27T00:26:00.000-07:00

well well.... the 1 week 'break' is over and is back to business as usual.

the break wasn't even a break. working till late into the night and for what? to make a crappy looking 3-d face? well, i did accomplish one thing here though; the face. and for me that's good enough. to make it closer to my own face, i'd think i'd need about a month given the amount of work that's been coming my way.

speaking of work, 2-d hasn't been a cake walk either. we were tasked with re-doing a section of picture in a magazine or a printout with paint. While I admit that it was fun, it was stressful and i spazzed out in the last leg of Niko Bellic's jacket. Oh right, who is this Niko Bellic guy? Main protagonist in GTA 4. if you want anymore then go and find out for yourself on wikia since, i only know that much.

on the other hand, i did manage to get my room cleaned up, finally. lots of little dust bunny empires behind my bed and work table. =='
i'll admit my room does indeed look much better after 3 hours of cleaning up. ^^

i guess that about wraps up this update, albeit rather uneventful one. new update coming up next week in view of the 3d face i dub homer simpson

the burning ride

2009-09-19T00:13:00.000-07:00

one week of hell's just been finished and now the snow cone ice cream on the waffle week is coming up. i'm taking about 2 more personal days off so i can get my brain in line for the coming term and to finish up some outstanding work during the snow cone week.

it's kind of funny how things work out. you expect to be the worst in class yet you are not. and then when you think you're the best in class you are not. well fortunately, i never did think of myself as any of these in the first place. but i do seem to be able to see the follies of my classmates better now. i can see the groups forming and all manner of whatnot. i won't comment on who is in what group or who is supposedly more popular than the rest or who is the best in class. i will leave that judgement to those in class. on the other hand, i do see myself improving in areas i thought i wouldn't be. i am actually able to best some of my classmates in drawing and on some rare occasion sketchup class.

well then, i'm off to go and take what little break i have left. it's often the little things in life that make up for all the big shit that goes down.

bundeswehr open haus pix

2009-09-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

haha sorry about the text my singaporean mates. i just happen to like German sometimes. i also know that the SAF is not called bundeswehr in German, i just call it that for fun.

anyway pix time:

mrr...ffrggrgr!

SAR-21, good rifle.

lol thanks for the photo op, but i'm more interested in the apache XD

SAF version of the rocket warthog XD

unprejudiced headaches, i have them

2009-09-09T23:49:00.000-07:00

ok wtf just happened this morning? i get on the bus and there's this empty seat near this old, fat indian bitch right? so i sit there since the bus has some ways to go before it reaches the place i'm gonna get off at. i sit down for just 5 seconds and begin adjusting my bag so it goes in front and i have room to sit and then the bitch goes off just like that. all i did was slightly nudge...no not even nudge; touch her sari with my elbow and then she goes off.

her dialogue roughly:
"aiiiehhh! WHY YOU SIT HERE?! GO! GO AWAY! GO TO THE BACK AND SIT DOWN! WHAT YOU DOING HERE?! *some incomprehensible rubbish i believe to be a mixture of broken tamil and english, she's pretty much all bluster here* ARE YOU GETTING OFF AT THE NEXT STOP?!"

so i look at her and my face is like the joker's in the dark knight movie just before he gets interrogated by Gordon, tilted and just staring at her blankly with my lips in one direction, to the left. then i said, "noo..."

then she goes back right at it:
"*more incomprehensible tamil/english* TEE-NNNAAGGERRR...."
then she looks away. *PMS'd!* XD

ok c'mon ya dickweed, if you wanted to get off the bus at the stop i got on why didn't you? if you wanted to get off and the next stop just say so. if you're having PMS, then shut the fuck up, i mean for seriously. it's a rare occasion i actually get to speak to someone i don't know on the bus, but this was not what i was expecting, not this early in the morning. you know, its people like you, that give people like me the wrong idea about singaporean society. but lol, had she gone on ahead and continued ranting, i might've done this:

me, "anyone here got a camera? i think she'd make a great addition to youtube! i mean lookit her, pure gold, i mean i'm laughing a lot here, quietly, we'd get so many hits i might actually be able to sell merchandise. but hey, not my fault she's making herself look stupid not just in my eyes, or your eyes and not just on this here bus, by the time we upload this, she'd be making herself look stupid in front of 6 billion people worldwide."

if that don't shut her up, then i guess the homer simpson move might.

speaking of prejudice....i have no prejudice against women whatsoever, but i do believe the term dumb blonde might soon be replaced with dumb hoe here. walking along suntec yesterday, trying to get into orchard to see all the fanfare. i'm going thru the atrium near the exhibition halls on the ground floor and this lady, she looks like a secretary type, the lazy ones. big sunglasses, high heels and work suit plus skirt. so she comes up to me and asks where the MRT is. I just need to turn my head to the right and there's a big signboard saying 'MRT this way'. so i tell her its that way. she says thanks and then walks off. i just happen to be following since i too need to get on the MRT. so we come out, and if you turn left, you can see the tunnel to the MRT. this lady, got on the phone, started talking loudly, and just kept on walking straight. wow...dumbness and unobservant...i used to think i was bad, then i saw her and it made me feel a lil more superior for a change.

the REAL headache is preparing for review week. work has been flowing in steadily and the pressure is mounting to get a decent sketchbook ready. My 3d sketchbook is looking a'okay its just a little short on pictures which i can print out and stick soon and also just needing to fill up the satay stick construction section. the headache for that subject comes from the fact i need to make a mask/head out of art card, no easy feat, but i have plan for it! >X3
no problems for 2d either, just needing to fill the sketchbook with some fabricated research material which i can do after reading a few reference books of wiki them and looking for an old video game mag with TF2 in it. apart from those headaches, making a new colour chart shouldn't be too much of a problem for me.
drawing is looking ok as well. my sketchbook is in tip-top shape with i believe sufficient research material which can be supplemented easily soon. no headaches here other than the need to do up some figure drawings and some additional research as well as some contour line practices.
no apparent headaches in my google sketchup class. i've decided to reduce the workload for my sketchup class since i already pumped in so much effort making a cityscape. all that's left is to fabricate some pictures research, do up a report and make a cd as well as texturing what's left of the city since i already have an animation that only needs some slight tweaking.

ok going to grab a beer to dumb down the pain. cheers mates. o right, army and rifle pix coming soon, still awaiting victor's help.

the things that happened

2009-09-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

if anyone's interested to know, the Singaporean army's open house convention/expo was yesterday and i think is still ongoing today. now you guys must be wondering, what the singaporean army would have besides most things superior in terms of tech. apparently lots, superior. i do believe using malaysia as a yard-stick alone would be rather...unfair and that's only putting it mildly. rather than contradict myself, i will use the whole SEA region as a yardstick. also i met some of victor tky's mates, nicholas tan and his bro brendan and his friend wai leong.

if it's anything of a surprise the ambulance services, police, fire brigade and all branches of the army all work together as a single large entity and isn't really divided in anyway other than specialization. the homeland securuty shows that and i must admit, was something more of a propaganda tool, the way the MC went about narrating the things; had he kept quite for some of the part, people would enjoy it more and think less ill of the SG government, the locals especially, but i think they're jaded enough to withstand this.

my analysis prior to coming to singapore was indeed correct, most of the weapons and vehicles the singaporean armed forces use are made by their local weapons company, the Chartered Firearms industries. among the more well-known weapons seen is the now iconic, SAR-21 rifle/singapore assault rifle-21. its a magnificent rifle. it fires standard nato 5.56mmx45 rounds which are kept in an AUG style transparent plastic magazine which allows the firer to know roughly how many rounds he has left. the magazine houses the standard 30 rounds and if anything the gun and magazine should be able to withstand being rolled over by a 10 ton truck and still function. the scope is also pretty useful, definitely improving the accuracy tremendously but for most of the part, the rifles given to us had their scopes fixed at 1.5x magnification. overall the rifle is easy to use, lighter than the M-16 and definitely easier on the shoulders of my smaller build. oh yea, i managed to 'kill' someone with a headshot using this rifle.....yes i like this new weapon~ heavy

meet the army

the mechanized arm of the army is also in pretty tip-top condition. while they still do have landrovers, at least their version is much more comfortable and has an open top cupola for a gunner to pop at people with an FN MAG 7.62x51mm. while malaysia is currently enjoying the fruits of their labor for creating a new troop carrier vehicle for their ground forces, SG has already made a multi-purpose troop carrier vehicle, the TERREX. the vehicle has some similar functionality to the american M-113 battle taxi which can be converted for different roles and the russian BTR-T. the standard equipment is a 40mm grenade launcher and a co-axial 7.62 FN MAG mg mounted on a small turret as well as another manned FN MAG just behind the turret. the vehicle can hold up to 11 people including the driver and vehicle commander. also in their arsenal is the SEA region's first home-made armoured figthing vehicle. the design seems to be mostly based on the M2 bradley and the armament is about the same with some variants filling in the role as light tanks mouting a 120mm gun. the main battle tank of the SAF is the German purchased, leopard 2A4. While it is not as handsome as the russian or american tanks, it is solidly built and is among one of the best protected tanks in the world and armed with a 120mm main gun.
another icon of the SAF would appear to be the AH-64D longbow apache attack helicopter. its armament is pretty standard: 30mm machine cannon under the nose, 8 hellfire missiles and 2 19-tube rocket pods. the other configuration would drop the rocket pods in favour of 8 more hellfire missiles or vice versa with the rocket pods. the heavy lift chinook also serves the SAF well as a mover of material and troops as well as the occasional artillery piece.

so how did my day go overall there? let me do a quick recap. watched the homeland security show with the not so subtle propaganda overtones. went to take a look at the various AFVs and air craft on display and saw some of the riot control gear including a 6-round drum fed american grenade launcher, looks a lot like the demoman's one except it has an all metal construct and a pistol grip. went for a live-fire shoot at the firing range and tried out the new SAR-21 rifle. nice recoil and is definitely an accurate weapon: 3 headshots and 2 body shots on the target. next went to go and try out the laser tag game. this is the simulation game where laser tagger bits and fixed onto rifles which fire blanks and the armor vests you wear are the pads that detect whether you've been hit. scored a headshot on victor and never died once, though i did suffer from a jam at the last second. my team lost because we weren't exaclty working together and everyone preferred to kill than get the flag. expended only 25 of the 50 rounds given. checked out the army's giftshop and was sad to find that there weren't any fake gas masks on sale. finally we went to try out the VR simulator. i was the M-203 grenadier for the team and quite frankly i could see why the SAF made the SAR-21 their rifle of choice. the M-16's butt is too long for me and i had trouble getting my shot to connect with any of the VR enemies, also due to that my grenade's trajectory went off a lot, but i'd pin that on lack of experience. the VR simulator also shows soldiers when to reload and how to shoot well. next time i get the M-203 i shoot like the demoman. was pretty tired from the experience and the helmets the SAF guys wear is no joke, it's kind of heavy and leaves your neck in a krimp for pretty much a few days. but i had fun. and that's AWESOME!

now i have lots of new ideas but unfortunately for war and military related themes. i'll be putting up pictures shortly after, my cam ran out batt that day so i had to rely on victor for some of the shots. my bad.

eggs, straws and rooms

2009-08-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

it was supposed to be an omelette but whatever, at least i managed to cook something.which is nice for a change.

oh right. the egg drop was a success. modified the design slightly to enable it to survive the additional 10m.
the thing was meant to be dropped at around 15-20m. no one knew that the straws that helped form the struts would actually help in catching air and help glide the thing down....also i will affectionately call the ball of straws sandvich. Sandvich was basically modified again after the initial success phase to ensure that it wouldn't crack open at around 15m. i guess my paranoia paid off in a adrenalin pumped sort of way.

anyway, this is my place. of course, it wasn't this tidy when i first came in. renovating see?

so these pix are at least 1 week after renovation of a room was completed. the living room looks a mess or at least in my opinion not as bad as it once was because there's a guy living there. decent chap he is.

over here we have the laundry drying place. the windows are a big plus when you need to dry stuff despite the weather. also much tidier after the renovations were finished.

this here's the kitchen...kind of a mess and there's a salmon fish lying on the chopping board. not sure who's it is but that person had better finish cooking less the fish turn bad. quite cluttered but has a homely feeling to it. if you don't mind the fact that despite having a hose in the wash area for cleaning and draining mops, mop buckets are drained in the bigger sink and also the semi-sticky floor and the dustbin next to the sink, i suppose its much better than my previous dig's 'kitchen' that is if you could call it that.

this be the toilet. there're 2 in the apartment but because there's a small family also living as tenants in the place, the smaller toilet was given to them to use. the rest of us use this fine room here. i can't say its the best toilet i've ever seen but if i need to compare it to again, previous digs, this is fucking and i stress fucking much better. personal space, you don't get the run-off from other people's cubicles coming into your shower space and also the toilet is ever so clean. god i love this place.

now we have my room. quite spacious. bed's comfy. nice table for studio work and drawing. 2 big cabinets for storage. fan and air-conditioning work. nice little chest of drawers for my little knick-knacks. also i get a pretty decent view of the school and field nearby. yea i think i'm about set for the time being. still thinking about getting a HDB but i have no idea where and when.

the day of blood and other things

2009-08-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

about 2 days ago, i woke up in the morning and went to the bathroom to shave and then cut my face. the blood didn't stop flowing until about half an hour later. NICE. lol i had a pretty weird looking face for a bit, nice bandage under my nose. Next, went to college to help a coupla friends do up their pin-hole cams. cut my thumb open when i was cleaning a pair of scissors. nice biiiiig gash. ok not really. it was a lil deep and the blood soaked the first plaster like sponge in a slaughter house. NICE!

it's not that i'm emo or anything, just so happens i got real clumsy that day. on another note, google sketch up is pretty hard to use for the un-3d-initiated. anyways, meeting up with all sorts of people in singapore. it's pretty cool considering how diverse the situation is in college. met up with people from performing arts the other thanks to my friend there. also managed to get hooked up with a lot of new friends via MSN, lol furs, can't really live without them, considering how open they are.

interestingly, if you ride on the MRT or bus enough you start to notice the various categories of people there. no, not race dammit.

EVERY CATEGORY IS DIFFERENT :

some people are very tired
       some people are very sleepy
   they just snooze and snore like no one cares in the train

some people are very bored
       some people are very fidgety
             these people silence the world with their music and games
                   not that its a problem anyway

some people are very immovable
   some people are very quick
             these people are like stones, they roll and hit you and then when they settle down, you can't move them.

some people do not smile
      some people are full of frown
you smile at them they look away like they've been hit
                you smile at them they glance at you like you're ill in the head and then look away

HOWEVER!

some people are very nice
some people are very polite
these ones are to be praised
                  these ones are the REAL people

some of them have courtesy
      some will return your smile with a friendly gesture
            these people are far and few in between
                  these people are a dwindling breed that should be preserved

ok that's about all for now, sorry i just felt like doing something doctor seuss-ish XD

EVERYONE FEAR MY GIANT NEW EGG MACHINE!

2009-08-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

ok not really. i got this awesome new assignment in school where we have to make an egg survive a 10-15 meter drop using only straws, rubber bands, staples and string. we are not allowed to use any glue, masking tape or adhesives. most people had a headache on the first day. egg casualties were at best 99.1%

now i will show you all what happened after the first crash at 5m:

the next day

testing the new cradle idea

still testing o hay, safety belts.

1st prototype....it went squish, top heavy.

2nd prototype, built 5 minutes after destruction of first one. this one also went squish. the 4 pillars you see? the made scrambled egg after you apply gravity and impact forces on the sides.

the next day

I HAVE NEW FRAME! it is so thick! the 4 tube idea from the previous crash reused here.

the safety belt idea reused here also.

its coming together

finito

the ground you see here? it is the landing pad. also it is the tomb for this egg.

after that fiasco, you can see the new cage design i built here. the straws cage the egg and give it space to move around so when the thing falls, the egg can help dissipate its own inertia and mass. the new internal frame is also suspended by rubber bands like the cage inside it.

adding on the extra layers.

the internal cage.

this is the before i dropped the egg cage thing.

this is after. note, there are no egg stains on the plastic bag. and yes, i did use the WARNING WET FLOOR sign to keep people away...some people just happen to be silly ok? 'nuff said.

little eggman is safe.

roll classic TF2 song now plz

ITS TEAM TIME DOCTOR!

2009-08-21T04:00:00.000-07:00

first few weeks of school and things are really getting down. the pix you see here is the end result of various experiments done in photography class. We were asked to go and mess around with photo paper, a enlarger machine or somehting like that and make some photograms. i made this one using the wet tissue i used to clean up some black paint with.

comparatively, we in foundation are getting it easy as compared to the seniors. not exactly good news but we are getting our money's worth and i have no compunctions with that. compared to TOA? this place is teh shitz.
learning all sorts of interesting stuff.

oh and BTW, listening post's been fixed. feel free to poke it.

my plans for the coming days ahead...finish my assignments.

big move time

2009-08-13T00:32:00.000-07:00

it is time. at noon on saturday, i'm officially out of the temporary hostel and into a nice little apartment unit in the Novena/Newton area. The area itself is kind of desolate despite all the flat and apartment units in the area. Potentially because of the lack of people wandering the streets. S'pose Suntec, Vivo and Bugis have drawn the crowds off. The area is good. Ample food joints, ease of transport; i can get to Bugis in possibly 20 minutes or less depending on the crowds on the bus or the MRT.

My room? i am yet to put up photos of it yet. i will do so after i have made it mine.

school-wise everything is proceeding as planned and the only thing i need to update with them is my address and phoneline. oh and if you are reading this mickey sern, there happens to be a treasure trove of gundam kits here. come and get me XD

oh hay, i also found this awesome gundam shooter in Suntec the other day, check it out.

the arcade shooter is called mobile suit gundam: spirit of Zeon. the game is gorgeuos despite the obviously aged looking graphics. the game follows a team of 2 Zeon ace pilots Kurt Roswell and Robin Bradshaw of the Dual Stars of Carnage unit. Gameplay is fast paced and very intuitive. they've covered all the bases.

the gun is the centre piece. by moving the gun away from the screen, your MS or zaku hides behind cover like in the timecrisis games, minus the foot pedal. the zaku is also able to use a series of weapons like the heat hawk or axe, the classic machine gun, the bazooka and its famous cracker grenade.

the heat hawk/axe is the most powerful weapon available next to the grenades. the axe cleaves an enemy who's in the target reticule. timing is needed to press the buttons on the handle and trigger area in order to avoid shooting the bazooka instead. another prerequisite is the fact that the target has to be close by. use this attack preferably as a counter to the enemies' own melee attack since the zaku doesn't move much.

the machine gun will be your primary weapon throughout the game. the weapon will work like any other light gun shooter in the arcade, point and shoot. reload it by moving the gun away from the screen.

the bazooka is your power weapon and is to be used sparingly since the weapon's ammo is limited to how many you can collect throughout the game. it has a nice splash damage radius but its power lies in the direct hit inflicted on said target. can be used to clear the harder enemies or clean up a mass of weak enemies clustered together. use it by first hitting the handle button and then pressing on the trigger and ta-da you've made a hole in a GM.

the grenade is your ultimate weapon and should be used eqaully as sparingly as the bazooka. additional grenade ammo can be collected, but it should be saved for the problem areas. to use the grenade, get your zaku into cover by moving the gun away from the screen and then pressing the handle button. the zaku will get its grenade out, ready to throw it. throw it by pressing the trigger button.

gameplay wise, levels are quite challenging and you have the freedom to select the path the pilots will take. all the levels occur during the one year war period and you will be able to see some of the more noticeable faces of the original anime like Dozle, Char and Amuro. you'll also be able to see some of the new side characters introduced for the game.

overall its an awesome game any hardcore fan of the anime would love. for people who do not know specifically what gundam is, it should still make for a pretty good experience too since the game introduces melee combat, kind of a first for an arcade shooter and the ability to bomb your enemy while you maintain cover yourself.

the soldier update (TF2)

2009-08-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

the news spreads like wildfire, the soldier update for team fortress 2 is coming. the forums have been choked full of ideas. some good, with obvious benefits and gameplay tweaks for the soldier. some not so good or worse, pathetic for very obvious reasons.

i've seen some odd and good ideas, i will list some of those few. a rocket launcher that spits out not 1 but all 4 rockets at a go, a rocket launcher that launches rockets at 2 different speeds, a shovel that does damage proportionate to the amount the player's received, a guided rocket launcher, iron boots which help in rocket jumps and a hand held rocket which blasts the soldier into the air. however, i have also bore witness to some of the more silly ideas: an assault rifle and SMG which infringe on the rights on both the heavy and the sniper, a mortar which clearly defeats the purpose of a demoman, an electro-sapper launcher that negates the use of the spy, grenades which ruins the point of the developers not giving the characters grenades in the first place, an obviously suicidal stick bomb and lastly a tank which by all odds shouldn't be in the game at all since TF2 is not part of the Battlefield series.

i have also hopped on the bandwagon since i too play the soldier in TF2. here's the link to the steam forums page i opened up regarding my ideas.

weapons i have developed
the patriot
the general pattern
the salient

lalalala......

2009-08-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

everythings ok here in s'pore.

foods fine if you go to the right places. people are people only much more friendlier than where i'm from.....ok not so much friendlier, feels just right. all my materiel is ready and the commutes aren't bad except during peak hours, ie: 6.30am, 1-3pm, 5-6pm. squishy-squishy like lil gumballz in a dispenser.

anyways, i'm doing ok o'er here. no signs of mental stress or fatigue.... yet....

so what else can i say....

i saw a man whose eyes went limp being helped onto a seat,
i saw a cat which was dead but it wasn't so,
i saw the people's sardine can and factory,
i think i'm ok with what i've seen.

cheers.

BLOG IS CREDIT TO TEAM!

2009-07-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

the blog is up, let the mindless rambling begin.

think i'll start with the reason i put up this blog.
it is not because that i wish to join the bandwagon. no, i do not wish to lose myself to herd mentality. this blog is for me to keep people updated on things i feel is necessary.

i might go on about how my studies are going from time to time, i may do some reviews on the odd movie or game. heck, i might even post some tips and tricks for games.

art is subjective, this blog will emulate that and if you do not like what i post up, do yourself a favor and leave after deleting all your cookies in your browser so that you may never find this blog again.

to the rest of us,
CHEERS mates