Sunday, April 30, 2006

JKYH Top 20 (43)



01. SOS - Rihanna (+1) 4

02. Hips Don't Lie - Shakira ft Wyclef Jean (-1) 4
03. Control Myself - LL Cool J ft Jennifer Lopez (+3) 2
04. Girl Talk - Dhani Lenenevald (+1) 4
05. Beep - Pussycat Dolls ft Will.I.Am (-2) 8
06. Wo Yao Kuai Le - A*Mei (+4) 2
07. Say Somethin' - Mariah Carey ft Pharrell & Snoop Dogg (2) 3
08. What's Left Of Me - Nick Lachey (2) 2
09. Savin' Me - Nickelback (+2) 2
10. Kiss Goodbye - Wang Lee Hom (-1) 2
11. Gai Shi Ying Xiong - Wang Lee Hom (-7) 5
12. Pan Duo La - Angela Chang (+4) 2
13. Lie To Me - Daniel Powter (+6) 2
14. The Fallen - Franz Ferdinand (-1) 6
15. Amazing - Westlife (+2) 2
16. Red Dress - Sugababes (-4) 7
17. Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae (+1) 2
18. The Ghost of You - My Chemical Romance (+2) 2
19. Meng Bu Luo - Sun Yan Zi (-5) 7
20. Thunder In My Heart Again - Meck (NEW)
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Mariah Carey - Thin or Curvy



Now here's a comparison of Mariah's body. On the left, that's her in Jan '04. And the right picture was taken in January this year. I'm tempted to suggest that she's undergone some surgery for her golden globes, but I shall try to refrain from being nasty, and assume that it's all natural. I can't believe I was bitchily discussing it yesterday; must've been very bored. Ooh, and I listened to The Emancipation of Mimi yesterday - good stuff. Anyway, Terence and I were discussing her assets when we were on duty yesterday, and he seemed to remember that in the Against All Odds video, a certain member of Westlife was staring down at her bust.

I think I'm going to go to youtube to take a look at that video!

These comparison pictures appeared in Celebrity Living this year, and it seems that 77% of the women liked her skinny while 61% of the men liked the curvy image. So which one do you prefer? I'll have to go with the curvy one! Looks much more huggable.

Click for the full image of the skinny one, and the curvy one!
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Saturday, April 29, 2006

Rant

First of all, I'd like to start by saying I'm absolutely repulsed that I have duty tomorrow. To add salt to injury, I had a late book out today (which meant that I have only about 12 hours out of camp), and I'll be missing Wang Lee Hom's autograph session at IMM. I've been waiting all my life to see him in person and this has to happen. Of all days that I could have duty, it has to be when I'm lucky enough to earn the ticket to the autograph session. I mean, usually I wouldn't give a hoot about it, but it's because it's him and because I finally felt that I had a chance to go... Damn.

I cannot begin to describe how disappointed I am.

Then there are the other things which happened this week. We had an exercise, which was followed by a real activation. I think we have more chance of actually having an activiation that many other units, so there was a kind of thrill involved. We were just got our food when the siren rang, and had to abandon it on the table and run back to our companyline. After that, we returned only to be told that we had 5 minutes to finish our food and to go prepare our stuff. That was certainly one of the more exciting times being in the unit. But of course in the end, the situation was clear.

Other than that I'm quite happy that I had Junior to talk to this week in camp. Certainly a breath of fresh air from everything.

Oh, and this morning we had an 8km run. I think I did rather okay, and was satisfied with my efforts. My legs are aching now though.

I am so tired now. Despite the fact that I thought I should stay up all night and watch Desperate Housewives or something, I think I'll go to sleep. It's not good for health to miss out on so much sleep! But I'll be pretty much bored to death because there'd be nothing to do! Sigh. What can I possibly bring in to entertain myself?

Oh, and I can't blog till Sunday afternoon at least. Have a badminton session with a couple of my platoon mates in the morning. On Monday I hope to go to KBox.

This long weekend is HOPELESS.
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Sunday, April 23, 2006

Pushed My Button

Alright, I'll just put across roughly what I've been doing today. In the morning I met Wee Lee to go to gym. It's quite empty at 11AM and we both got to get an OK work out. For some reason, both of us were not on form, and felt rather letharic. Maybe it's the Nasi Lemak I ate just before going to the gym! Haha! We didn't chat much because we weren't even concentrating on exercising! I went with him to Marsiling where he took a bus to M'sia to go shopping.

After that I went straight to Yishun SAFRA. The entire place was surrounded with dark clouds and it looked like rain was imminent. However, I just went there to find Sern Hong. We chatted for a little while before Daniel and Terence made their grand entrance. It was a very normal swimming session and we talked about a lot of crap stuff, like last week's CFT! I have to agree that it develops espirit-de-corps (or whatever that's spelt!). After that we went to Northpoint to have a meal. However, Sern Hong felt he was going to be late for service so he left without taking a bite of anything! We took our dinner and played around with Terence's camera after that.



Okay, I know, it's a bit too much on the act-cute side. You'll never ge to see it again.

Anyway, I've got a little bit of a sunburnt after swimming yesterday with Jie Yu and today. The tan's a bit on the dark side, but it's sure to last a bloody long time. Haha... Oh and I've been stoning online till now. It's not very good for health. I'll be going to bed at 2315 if possible. Don't want to lose too much sleep like I usualy do during the weekends. I'll end up like a zombie tomorrow.

Okay, so there was a little something that a friend said to me that left me rather disappointed. By what he thought of me. By the image that I gave others. We were merely talking about the Singapore Biathlon, and I said it would be a good once-in-a-lifetime experience, and not a waste of time. It'd be something worth doing. He then said that that's because I "don't have much important things to do during the weekend".

Partially pissed off, partially disappointed I just told him that it was untrue. Then he asked what I did during the weekends. I didn't really wish to argue with him and defend myself. Yeah, I hate confrontations. I'm an escapist. I realised that again and again and again.

Anyway, it really made me reflect on my weekend activities. What have I been doing? Okay, so maybe the keyword for him is commitment. Well, yeah. I commit myself to relaxing during the weekends. I commit myself to exercising, and keeping myself fit. I commit myself to writing, to improve my language. I commit myself to pushing the boundaries of my life and discovering new things. I've done the Vertical Marathon, I've gone to Macritchie in search of the Tree Top Trail in the wee hours of the morning, I go to places of Singapore that I don't usually go to to eat. I'm cooped up in camp the entire week so I take the weekend to broaden my perspective of the world. Hell yes, and I take the weekend to catch up with gossip and whether Britney will be having another kid (because it fucking matters; everyone will be talking about it whether you like it or not, face it you vultures can't stop talking about her) and keeping myself entertained and relaxed. I've done everything I can to make my weekends eventful, stay in touch with the people I care about.

And by saying that I don't have much important things to do during the weekend, it just seems like you feel whatever you do is above me. I think I'll open up another of worms if I suggest what I believe he's thinking. So I won't.

Yes love, I have tonnes of commitments during the weekend. I'm not the one who complains that I'm bored. I don't want to confront you and force my opinions down your throat. Is this the only way I can put the point across to you?
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Uninspired

I know I want to blog. But I don't know what to blog about. It's the case of being uninspired. I don't have the ability of spouting brilliant rubbish. And I know I'd always take my time (especially when writing essays or compositions) to write. I'd give myself half an hour to daydream and come up with ideas, before getting to the job. But I realise that the art of writing is equal parts discipline and devotion, and inspiration. A good idea is nothing if it's not expressed.

Maybe I need to read the newspapers or something. Bah.
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JKYH Top 20 (42)



01. Hips Don't Lie - Shakira ft Wyclef Jean (2) 3

02. SOS - Rihanna (+4) 3
03. Beep - Pussycat Dolls ft Will.I.Am (4) 7
04. Gai Shi Ying Xiong - Wang Lee Hom (-2) 4
05. Girl Talk - Dhani Lenenevald (+2) 3
06. Control Myself - LL Cool J ft Jennifer Lopez (NEW)
07. Say Somethin' - Mariah Carey ft Pharrell & Snoop Dogg (+3) 2
08. What's Left Of Me - Nick Lachey (NEW)
09. Kiss Goodbye - Wang Lee Hom (NEW)
10. Wo Yao Kuai Le - A*Mei (NEW)
11. Savin' Me - Nickelback (NEW)
12. Red Dress - Sugababes (-8) 6
13. The Fallen - Franz Ferdinand (-8) 5
14. Meng Bu Luo - Sun Yan Zi (-6) 6
15. Lights and Sounds - Yellowcard (-6) 9
16. Pan Duo La - Angela Chang (NEW)
17. Amazing - Westlife (NEW)
18. Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae (NEW)
19. Lie To Me - Daniel Powter (NEW)
20. The Ghost of You - My Chemical Romance (NEW)
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Saturday, April 22, 2006

Bin' A Long Week

It has been a pretty crappy week in camp. First of all, my off for Monday and Tuesday had been cancelled. This effectively means that I haven't taken a single day off (on my own accord) for this entire month. I'm repulsed. On Monday, we had a table talk. I can't even remember what we did on Tuesday. Ooh, it was a briefing for the combat shoot. Why make it compulsory when someone can tell me the details when I come back?

On Wednesday it was the shoot itself. Had a great time eating a lot of food (I'm getting fat), namely the chicken rice, 2 ice creams, cheese rings and potato chips. That's a whole lot of junk food really. We had the craziest of conversations like what we would do if we had a lot of money. Answers include painting the White House black, turning the Pentagon into a circle. Stuff like that. My detail did decently enough for the day shoot, but barely made the night shoot. It was alright. Oh, yeah, and we had a hilarious time making me speak Chinese. Although I don't feel proficient in the language, I'm not uncomfortable when speaking it! Managed to listen to a few chill out tracks on Samuel's discman from the 50 First Dates soundtrack. Great stuff.

But it was because of the range that we missed nights out. And adding to the fact that I had no off made this an unbearably long week.

On Thursday we managed to rest for most of the day until the night where we had a long briefing for the next day's MOPP 4 4km route march and 2 km mask run. Charles was my buddy. It wasn't too bad and I enjoyed the mask run a little (I think I'm sick). It was really very endurance-testing. The time when I started feeling very tired came like 2 hours after the entire thing. I could barely keep my eyes open!

Today I went to register for my Basic Theory Test with Zhicong and Daniel, and after that went to have breakfast at Delifrance with Jie Yu, followed by a swim. I think I look a bit too dark because I forgot to bring sunblock with me and the afternoon sun was less than forgiving with its UV rays. Spent the next 4 hours shopping at Junction 8 and Causeway Point.

I cannot believe my luck. Yesterday I blogged about J. Lo and today, I see her 5-year-old On The 6 album on the shelves for 10 bucks. Okay, so what if it's the China versh? At least I finally got my hands on it. However, as expected, the album tracks were embarrassingly less listenable than If You Had My Love, Waiting For Tonight and Feelin' So Good. Still, it was a good buy. Ooh, and I got a white singlet. Apparently they labelled it M on the box when it was an L. I'm going to bring it back to change tomorrow. Bah.

And for the first time in my life, I might actually save 200 dollars for the month. But I may have to go without contact lenses soon.

The horror.
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Pic of the Week


Due to the fact that I'm going to be on a trip to Thailand soon, I've decided to dig out some of my old photos taken on my previous trip. In 2003, I went to Thailand with my JC-mates for OCIP. We formed a group named Rigel, after a star. Maybe I'll start telling the story in a more organised fashion when I have the time.

This photo was taken at the village we lived in in Chiang Rai. Jia Hui and I stayed with this young couple, and the guy between us is the man of the house. They don't have any children, which is rather surprising. He is seldom at home, because he works in the city as a chef if I'm not wrong! Jia Hui's sort of my buddy for this trip. I remembered us saying to each other that we thought we wouldn't be able to get along, because he was such an extrovert and I was pretty quiet, especially at the beginning, but we got along just fine right from the time we set foot into the house together. We had plenty to talk to each other about and confided in each other about quite a lot of stuff.

Also I remembered once when I was supposedly "missing". He went all over the village looking for me, and it was starting to get dark. He tripped over a drain or something and sprained his ankle. And I was found sleeping in the house, under all those thick blankets. Okay, one reason I was there to begin with was that I was in a sort of a bad mood (there were a couple of times that I felt like that), but I wasn't hiding. Was kind of touched by his concern and how he looked out for me during the trip.
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Friday, April 21, 2006

LL Cool J ft Jennifer Lopez - Control Myself


LL Cool J has a career which spans two decades and shows no signs of stopping. His stage name is an acronym for "Ladies Love Cool James", his real name being James Todd Smith. Other than having an illustrious musical career, the two-time Grammy award winner has dabbled in a bit of acting like 2003's S.W.A.T., which wasn't too bad). He also hosted the 2001 American Music Awards with Britney Spears. The man turns 38 this year, and is set to release his tenth album, aptly titled 10.
The track chosen to open the album with is none other than Control Myself.

The track kicks off with some quick beats, followed by a spoken introduction by Jennifer Lopez. Despite the rather cliche opening, the song scrambles into action with LL Cool J fronting the rap. The chorus is has Jennifer Lopez purring in rather cheer-leaderish style. In fact, it doesn't even sound like her!


In her recent interview with Bazaar magazine, she said that she admired Gwen Stefani's style, which would probably explain why she resembles her vocals-wise for this track. She'll be releasing a Spanish album, followed by a ska-tinged pop album. I hope she manages to save the pop career that she built but killed off with the release of Rebirth.

Anyway, the track is a slow burner. Also, I really like the lyrics!

I'm battling desire
Lord help me douse this fire
This internal inferno
Hotter than a shot of Cuervo
Her top was short and purple
We were dancing in a circle
When I feel like this I can't resist
Babe don't make me hurt you

The song has a very impressive run on the Billboard Hot 100. It entered in the bottom end of the chart and stayed around there for three weeks. Following that, it dropped out completely. However, due to digital downloads being considered, it made a huge re-entry this week at #4. In fact, it sets the record for the highest re-entry ever. It is no surprise that there're huge expectations placed on this track since the last time the both of them collaborated on J.Lo 's All I Have, it stayed at #1 for 4 weeks in 2003.

You can take a look at the scans of Jennifer Lopez in the recent Bazaar magazine here, check out the video for Control Myself on youtube and also LL Cool J's official website.
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Sunday, April 16, 2006

Treetop Trail

Due to the shackness acquired after the trip, my lousy command of English and the fact that I took forever to get the photos into place, this'll be a somewhat short entry. (No promises, I may end up typing a 5 billion word report.)

This morning, Mak gave me a morning call at 5AM. I woke up to answer the call, only to fall asleep again. I got out of bed at 520AM and from there it was a mad rush to make my cereal, brush my teeth, stuff my contact lenses into my eyes and change my clothes. I got to the train station rather early. In fact, there wasn't even a train that was going towards JE when I arrived so I went to withdraw money. The train finally came at 559AM when I was supposed to meet Mak at 555AM! And I was thus accused of being late! Outrageous! Luckily for us, we didn't have to wait for a cab as there was one right in front of us when we crossed the overhead bridge.

We started our tracking when it was pitch black. And the freaking moon was still in the sky.



Yeah, something like that! I couldn't see much and it really reminded me of field camp. There were numerous times where we had to travel with minimum light along the jungle paths. I couldn't see much of what was on the ground, other than the fact that some of the soil looked darker than the others because it was wet. We managed to escape a huge puddle just in time too.



As it got closer to 7AM, the sky started to lighten up, but only to reveal that there were thick clouds crowding around in the sky. We were optimistic that we were going to reach the Tree Top trail before it rained, but it seemed that we would have very little chance of reaching back home dry! We continued walking and walking and walking on the dirt track, surrounded by trees on both sides.



Occassionally there'd be a clearing and we'd get a good view of the Macrichie Reservoir. We actually wanted to witness the sunrise, but due to the plentiful number of clouds and the fact that we weren't in the right places to begin with spoilt that plan. After walking for a rather long time, we finally came across a map.

And we realised one terrible thing. We'd just walked one huge round around Macrichie Reservoir! We could've reached our starting point in half an hour; one hour at most. However we went in the wrong direction and tracked the 11km route instead! Well, we were quite surprised that we hadn't reached it, but at the same time, the adventurous spirit in us enjoyed every moment of it. After all, we've been through worse outfield experiences, like BMT fieldcamp and Brunei, which couldn't be compared to this!



This was taken somewhere rather near a particular golf course. I think I've a good eye for the composition of photos! Along the way Mak showed me an edible flower and some berries. He learnt about it during his jungle survival course. I tasted both of them. The flower's pretty tasteless, while the berry tasted pretty good! But I haven't exactly acquired the habit of picking off wild plants for food.

We set our target as Jelutong tower. It was 2.6km away (while the Treetop trail was 4km), so we decided that it'd be our checkpoint! Helps to keep us from getting demoralised and seem that we're travelling nowhere! Anyway, we reached the top of Jelutong tower after a very dizzying climb up the stairs.



Hmmm... the view up there was picturesque (even better than the Treetop trail!). Again, we could barely see the sun because of all the freaking clouds. We could only catch mere glimpses of the sun rays peaking out from behind. Oh, and the tower is really rather tall. We caught sight of some very farway HDB flats.

The Jelutong tower is a famous landmark among NSFs who've gone through the Navigation Exercise.



For the sake of those who actually went through all that sh!t, looking at this can trigger lots of memories. Being at the place itself made me feel as if I went back to that time when I was carrying the heavy fieldpack and how relieved I was to stop for lunch. It was a place where we really got to rest. In fact I remember us having lunch with oranges and then sprawled all over those benches for a nap. The winding staircase was crazy as well; I was too tired then to climb all the way up to see the view!

After taking a brief breather, we continued walking. And walking. And walking. It was with great delight that we finally saw the wooden planked steps that led to the Treetop Trail. Again it reminded me of the time where I was lugging the fucking signal set up all those steps and that my buddy helped me carry it down from there! Haha... It was 810AM when we saw a sign that told us we were 0.1km away from the Treetop trail!



The park ranger who took this photo for us (look at my drenched shirt!) was also kind enough to inform us that the place only opened at 830AM, and that we could take a walk around the area before going there. He was going to do a "pre-ops" check kind of thing, to ensure the monkeys didn't do anything to the bridge.

Yeah, that's what he told us!



It is with crazy impatience and anticipation that we paced around the area waiting for time to pass. You can see it written all over Mak's face! Enough said.



When we finally entered, it was a little bit of an anti-climax. The 250m structure did look bloody impressive and was really a suspended bridge. It shook a little every time we took heavy steps. However it was a bit of a short walk, and there wasn't really much to see even though we looked very thoroughly for animals. I'm not a plant lover myself and the bridge wasn't that high above the ground. It was very safe. The view wasn't that magnificent, but still good. The only animals we managed to see were these two birds with red-ringed eyes. Took our time to take a couple of photographs while they tried their best to dodge out from our line of sight. Boo.



And we were ecstatic to have reached our destination and conquered the track to have reached the place! After that it was a long walk out from there.

We reached this certain intersection where this photo was taken. We then took a right turn and walked, hoping to meet so main road where we could take a bus or something. As we walked, it started to look startlingly familiar, and we ended up at Singapore Technologies. Rifle Range Road. The starting point of Exercise Wild Cat.



To say I was shocked to death is an exaggeration but I knew what laid ahead of us - a bloody long walk. I remembered that the tonner took forever to reach this place from the main road. I was feeling a tad desperate (luckily Mak offered me Clorets), but yeah, I was sure as hell that there'd be plenty more walking. And there was this truck that I wanted to thumb a ride from. Couldn't possibly get into a car in such a stinky and sweaty state! But in the end the only truck we saw zoomed past us, without even slowing down!

We walked past the Rifle Range flyover and saw two large satellite dishes and the expressway just below us. And we finally saw some mammals - monkeys. They were performing acrobatics on the electric wires, blatantly ignoring our presence as we stood there taking snapshots of them. So we continued walking. It's a pretty simple thing really. We just followed where the road led.

We walked.

And walked.

And walked.

And walked and walked and walked. By that time we've already been on the move for 3 and a half hours or so, and covered approximately 15-20km. My legs were starting to ache and I was becoming just a little cranky.



The long and winding road. It never really did seem to end. Bah!

Okay, I should quit whining. Even though it was a really long walk outside, I quite enjoyed it. Pain for pleasure maybe? Or maybe the fact that we couldn't experience that kind of relief when we saw CIVILISATION after walking on the road that had towering trees on both sides and passed by weird places like the Ammo dump and HQ for transport and something, and some gun-range. When we saw houses, we were like...



WOW. On the top right picture is Mak confirming the fact that we'd be reaching the end of the bloody road! We came across this train track and it sort of reminded me of the Tintin comics where people'd be tied to the track and maybe get killed by a passing train.

Just a being a little bit morbid there.

After that we went to the once-gorgeous place known as Beauty World. There wasn't much/any upgrading done to it, and it looked pretty much the same as 12 years ago. I could still see the places that I'd jump around on, hide in and played the monkey at. Ahh... those were the days. Anyway, we were craving for breakfast after the terribly long walk and we had...



After that, we went to play pool for a little while, followed by lunch at the foodstall on the opposite side.

Went on to meet Wee Lee for gym, and now I'm back here, my entire body aching like mad.

Hope you've enjoyed this entry as much as I've enjoyed writing out my experience today! Had a hell lot of fun, and yes, it was worth every minute of walking!
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Saturday, April 15, 2006

Bedok Hawker



Okay, I'll have to make this a quick one. I spent too much time chatting and editting the photos and now I'm left with a mere 20 minutes or so to update about what I was up to yesterday! I'm supposed to meet up with Terence, Daniel and Sern Hong later for a swim, but the sky doesn't look too good. Anyway!

I met Si Hua at Sembawang and we made our way down to Somerset to look for Sequeena. We then travelled to Bedok and took bus 14 down to the hawker centre. It was only after alighting that we realised that we were still far from the place. I was bloody hungry because I didn't eat much the entire day. I only had one chicken wing, one prata and one bun. Luckily, this dinner was satisfying enough!



We had nothing better to do while waiting for the food to come so we camera-whored just a little bit. Sequeena's wearing her cap because she was working at Rocky Master with her cap on and her hair was super flat.

We ordered stingray, squid, omelette oyster and sugarcane drink. Oh yeah, and kang kong as well. I was actually quite stunned to see everything virturally dripping with chilli. I'm not too good at eating spicy stuff even though I like the taste. So I was a bit apprehensive upon setting eyes on the food but after taking a bite of everything, I just couldn't stop.



In fact, I can't even pick a favourite! I liked all the dishes. Needless to say I was the first one to finish my drink, with sweat dripping down the sides of my face as I ate the last pieces of stingray meat. Yummy. We sat there for a long 2.5 hour chat. R21 stuff! I was a bit concerned for the kids sitting around there, and having their dinner innocently! Anyway, we left the place at around 8 and sat a bus to Suntec. It was a crazily long bus ride, and I felt terribly sleepy then. Initially we wanted to go to Bugis, but it was too much of a walk so we hung out at Suntec for awhile.

After that we decided to go for desert and thus made our way to Marina Square's Swensons! All of us were still pretty full, but we went ahead with our order of ice-cream. I've decided - I don't like Lime Sherbet. The name's quite cool, but the ice cream doesn't really do anything for me.



Oh, and we ordered Calamari instead of fries. We took a bloody long time to think of what we wanted to eat and it took an even longer time for us to get the attention of the waitress! We got ourselves a regular Earthquake. While waiting for our food, we continued our chat and did a couple of silly stuff here and there. When the Earthquake came, Sequeena actually took a fork to eat the ice-cream!



It tasted really good. I can't wait to go back to Swensons again when I have the money! Haha! It's just lucky that the pay came in not too long ago. After that we walked around a bit more before sitting at the steps of the MRT station for one last round of chatting. Caught the last train home.

It's after talking to them that day that I got more and more insights on why my last relationship failed. It made me realise that maybe I'm just not grown up enough to handle one. And maybe I've overlooked too many things. I chose to ignore the problems. Even when I knew it was coming I couldn't get down to solving it. I just felt helpless, and afraid of failure. So maybe it is true. I'm the kind of person who runs away.

I now know what I should've done. But it's already too late.

Damn.
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JKYH Top 10 (41)

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01. Hips Don't Lie - Shakira ft Wyclef Jean (+6) 2

02. Gai Shi Ying Xiong - Wang Lee Hom (-1) 3
03. Beep - Pussycat Dolls ft Will.I.Am (3) 6
04. Red Dress - Sugababes (+1) 5
05. The Fallen - Franz Ferdinand (+1) 4
06. SOS - Rihanna (+3) 2
07. Girl Talk - Dhani Lenenevald (+1) 2
08. Meng Bu Luo - Sun Yan Zi (-6) 5
09. Lights and Sounds - Yellowcard (-5) 8
10. Say Somethin' - Mariah Carey ft Pharrell & Snoop Dogg (NEW)
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Friday, April 14, 2006

A Boring Week

For the life of me, I just can't understand how this week can turn out to be so boring. In fact, it was so lacking in memorable moments that I must've rotted through one week of my life just by being in camp. Monday was a day for recovery after an entire weekend of staying up late and watching Desperate Housewives. Nothing much happened on Tuesday except for the fact that there was a technical handling test for the combat shoot next week. It was also the day where there was physical training at the end of the day, but I was lazily laying asleep in bed. And I went to the canteen to enjoy a chicken burger after waking up. Sinful. On Wednesday morning there was circuit training. We ran two rounds around camp and I did much better than the last time I attempted it (7.45 + 9.30 vs 7.45 + 7.15). It was cut short due to Jun Yong. Still, it was a very tiring session.

The rest of the time was spent in bunk. When I'm not losing my 100th game of Chinese chess, I'd be reading up and taking notes on Bangkok. I think that planning the trip and heightening the anticipation of going overseas again is going to be as enjoyable as the trip itself. At least it's giving me something to look forward to. Lately I've been feeling that I'm wasting my life because there's no self-improvement and what I'm doing now is of minimal help to me in the future. On top of all that, the only OFF that I applied for for next Monday has been cancelled. I'm super disappointed.

Yesterday I had orderly duty. I didn't know I'd be lucky enough not to do CFT training, which consisted of route march in MOPP 4 and a mask run, which they didn't do due to the rain. I was guilty I wasn't going to "suffer" with my platoonmates. I know usually when people realise that they don't have to go through the shit, they become delighted and forget about others. Hmmm, I took a box of biscuits just before I left the bunk and told them they could have it and everyone was like saying, "No need!" So it was to my surprise when I returned only to find 2 more left, and that I didn't even get a bite of it in the end! Sad! The only consolation was that I bought in a cup noodle for the night. Also, I missed a platoon BBQ thingy held yesterday. Argh.

I know I shouldn't say this because there're people (in fact quite a few whom I know) who just enlisted last week, but I just can't wait to ORD. BOO.
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Sunday, April 09, 2006

Language

I'm disappointed that my proficiency in language is dropping. Time to take some desperate measures.
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New Song, New Movie



First up, Britney has a new song. It's not confirmed if it will be part of the upcoming album that's due for release later this year. However, it's written as a present to her sister Jamie Lynn. On her official website, she wishes her sister a Happy 15th Birthday. Also, there's a clip of her dancing to it. Apparently, those who are in her fan club get to see the full video. For the rest of us, www.heybritney.com has a download of the video as well as a 51 second clip of the song.

The song is titled "Just Yesterday", and the lyrics sort of portray the relationship between her and her sister. I think it's kind of sweet that she's doing little side projects of her own, like the recording of this track. It would totally sound out of place on In The Zone, but at least she's not letting herself slack into oblivion. In the video, Britney also dances bloody well despite not being in fantastic shape. Her body's seen better days. (No argument, if she bothered to do something, she'd kick ANYONE's ass.)

It seems that being a Britney fan rocks, because she's up to something every month. This year has seen her celebrating Mardi Gras with girls whose homes had been destroyed by the hurricane, her new fragrance In Control is going to hit shelves soon, her guest appearance on Will & Grace and now this!

Oh and Madonna recently said this in an interview where she revealed her reply to her daughter when she asked her if she was gay because she kissed Britney. "No, it just means I kissed Britney Spears. I am the mommy popstar and she is the baby popstar. And I am kissing her and passing my energy on to her. Like, kind of a mythological fairy tale." How cool is that?

For the hell of it, here's the link to youtube of a guy playing the violin to I'm A Slave 4 U. One of my favourite songs of all time! Pretty interesting!



Edison Chen is making his way to Hollywood. That's right. Due the recent success in the box office of Ju-On in the US, he is set to star in the sequel, Ju-On 2. The Jap director for the movie had a good impression of him after watching Initial D and thus asked him to star in the movie. He mentioned in his blog on the 25th March that, "i am filming a movie in TOKYO................. my first HOLLYWOOD movie, i am excited yes i am so dun mind me". If he really makes this one, it'll be the first horror movie that I'll be asking people to watch instead of the other way round!

Other than that he has staged a concert which I'm not really that impressed by. However, the drive behind the concert is the message of anti-piracy, so he's really doing something worthwhile. He's also the spokesperson for Motorola's new phone, and clothinglines like BAPE and Levi's.

Alright, that's about it, I'm off to watch Desperate Housewives already. I'm at Episode 9 or something like that. Of the first season. Bah.
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Saturday, April 08, 2006

Heroes of Earth



Alright, I'm here to give my two cents' worth on my favourite album of the moment, Wang Lee Hom's Heroes of Earth.

Zhai Mei Bian
This is a great track to kick off the album! Moderately paced and groovy sounding, it gives the listener a peak at what the rest of the album is about. The lyrics are written by Mayday's Ah Xin, and I especially like the feel of the repeated words during the chorus. It ends off with a speedy rap written by Lee Hom himself, and I've got to admit that I find it rather meaningful. It basically says that we're losing a part of our culture because we have no time for it amidst our hectic lives. The speak at which he raps this part is utterly impressive.

Hua Tian Cuo
In this song, he brings a unique style of singing, that has a bit of Jay flavour in it. What I like about it is the chorus where he sings a melody that is usually used for chinese instruments rather than vocals. I don't really know how to put it in words. It's like a single word is sung in a string of notes. Also, the repeitiveness of the title throughout the chorus makes this a very memorable track. Oh, and this is the track that's guilty of having the cheesy line, " Listen to my er hu." as mentioned by Life! a few months back.

Gai Shi Ying Xiong
I've got a lot to say about this song. The meaning behind the song is simple - to bring chinese music to an international audience. I know that the music sounds a bit too 'black' for some people to handle it, but to me, it's like the ultimate combination of a nasty bassline and clangs of cymbals to make this song. There's a lot going on in it, making it sound very unique and interesting - sultry female backing vocals for the chorus, an electric guitar solo and a rap by Jin. Jin's style of rapping is very characteristic of Eminem. I won't call it copying but the resemblence is there. The video is bloody good that you've got to catch it.

Kiss Goodbye
This one'll be the standard piano-driven ballad totally written by Lee Hom. No surprise then that it's very well-received by the general public, just like all the ballads from his previous albums. Another powerful love song emoted by his voice, with minimal instrumentation. It shows off his vocal range, and of course his piano skills at the bridge. The style hardly varies from his previous works (it sort of reminded me of Wei Yi), yet I haven't got a feeling that I've heard it all before. Quite the opposite - it leaves me wanting more.

Wan Mei De Hu Dong
This is a power-packed song boosted by the presence of Rain and J-Lim. The start has Lee Hom introducing both of them. J-Lim gives a sexy "oh" while Rain purrs "hmmm", before Lee Hom calls himself "Huang Lu Hong" (yellow green red), which sounds like his name. Okay, so it's a little lame but it made me laugh the first time I heard it. Impressive performances by the two Korean guest artists made the song sound really cool. The way English lyrics were incorporated into the song with ease also earns it a couple of points. Love it when J-Lim sings, "Guys listen to what I say, don't fight for nothing important, don't be a VIP left out." Good stuff.

Da Cheng Xiao Ai
This is a laid back track that's lovely in its simplicity. It's soothing and... that's about it!

Di Yi Ge Qing Chen
I was superbly unimpressed by the lack of proper use of the wonderful Shu Qi for this video but let me start by commenting on the song first. It's another ballad but one that really pulls at the heart strings, for me at least. Lee Hom sings the song very tenderly. I think the song's about the uncertainty of love at its infancy, and waking up beside that person after spending a night together. And now back to Shu Qi. She looked gorgeous and everything, but all they did was just sit around the bed with Lee Hom playing on the guitar. There was lack of romantic chemistry in the video. Shu Qi did try very hard to make herself look like she was blissfully in love, but Lee Hom continued playing the guitar and ignoring her! Outrageous.

Ge'r Men
This upbeat track lacks the stuff that went into making Gai Shi Ying Xiong and Wan Mei De Hu Dong. It's listenable, but hardly impressive. And one of the songs not to have a video accompanying it. Looks like they meant for it to be a filler too.

Rang Kai
This is the kind of song that you'll either love a lot, or hate it to bits. And I love it. It doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard before. Maybe it's acquired taste. Not many people can take the rapping. On top of that, the seemingly random blasts of the horn and the drum playing on the offbeats create a rather unconventional sound making it straddle dangerously between the zones of crap and cool. The rap sounds very spontaneous and lively. I have to say I like the new sound and am proud that at least he's making the effort to do something different.

Ai Ying Wei Zhai Xin Zhong
For the life of me I do not understand why this is not a bonus track. Instead, it's used as an album track. For such an experimental album, this being its ending chapter is rather disappointing. This track was written and sung by the fans for Lee Hom in 2005 as a birthday present. It's a great singalong, and the various unique voices in this song make it sound like Shou Qian Shou II, just without screaming divas and such. It's a heartwarming effort by the fans, but to include it as one of the ten tracks in the album just makes me feel that Lee Hom couldn't come up with a better masterpiece to be included on it. For that, I'm disappointed.

Overall, I like this album a lot. I feel that it's much better than the previous one and contains more surprises. Fantastic stuff. Wang Lee Hom was the first chinese singer to ever make me sit up and notice chinese music. It was so bloody long ago, but I still remember that very moment. I was watching Channel 8 and there was the trailer for PSC Nite. The guest star was a guy in sleeveless-T, spinning around in white space. The song was upbeat and catchy.


I decided to watch PSC Nite that week and his performance impressed me. Plus the fact that he was an ABC (and I was a super kantang back then) made me feel that I could relate to him. Gong Zhuan Zhi Zhuan remains one of my favourite songs by him. That was in 1998, 8 freaking years ago! And he's going to turn 30 this May. Gosh, how time flies. He's also a fab live performer, but now that I have the money, there's no concert VCD/DVD of his in the market whatsoever! The only way is to do a massive search in one of those second-hand stores...

And I think I'll be going to his autograph session at IMM come 29th of April with Wee Lee! Can't wait to see him in person for the first time in my life!
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