Letters to my future self

20050429

Letters to my future self

29th apr - more bizzare tales from the workplace

jus came back from work this morning, the past duty is tiring and very fustrating, yet at the same time alot of strange things happened during the hrs of duty.

we had a case at around 2+am, a lady (presumed to be a foreign maid) found lying at the foot of a hdb block (the back). there was blood on the floor, cuts on her face and shortening of 1 of her legs. certainly signs of a fall, however, we couldnt quite make out where she fell from, cos its most definately a trip-fall kind of fall. more like the 'fall from height' kind of fall. at the same time, she's not totally unconscious, more like semi-conscious, so she could have fell from very high.

the next puzzling thing was ... when we looked up directly from the spot where we found her, we found it to be where flights of stairs led all the way up the block, instead of directly below a hdb unit. assuming she had jumped on purpose, wont it make more sense to jus jump from the back window of the unit? as opposed to getting out of the house going to the stairways then jump down. besides, if its a attempt at suicide, wont it make more sense to jump from a higher place?

anyway, she was unable to communicate with us thruout, so i suppose those mysteries will nv be solved. but give her injuries, it quite safe to say that she wont die, thou it will be a long way to recovery.

on the 2nd night, at around 11+ we had another interesting case. picture this: hdb unit, door locked, all windows closed. attempts at knocking the door and ringing the door bell yielded no response. strange thing was? huge amts of water (presumably from a tap) was contantly flowing out from the small gap btw the main door and the ground.

as a matter of fact this is the 2nd day since the abnormal phenomenon began. the police was 1st called to the scene, followed by the fire service, we were called in last to standby, jus in case.

they tried all means to see if its possible to get into the house without cutting any locks or breaking anything, but to no avail. eventually the fire service used a power saw to cut the padlock apart then a jack to pry the door open.

much to everyone's relief, the house was empty, its occupants could have been out on a long trip but have forgotten to turn off a tap or something. looks like they'll be in for a surprise when they return to find that they have to replace their door and padlock. not to mention the hefty water and electric bill for the 2 days of free flow tap water.

personnals wise, one of my superiors seems to be in the mood for 'the time of the month' and she was damn anal abt lots of small things for the 2 nights. yet at the same time, she was doing alot of other things that i simply cannot agree with, to such an extend that i talked back to her jus to make her shut up. it reminds me of wad i read in a thick 'dilbert' before on how everyone's an idiot but yet we only see the idiocy of others and not ourselves. she follows strictly every protocol and directive, except when it comes to herself, for her own benefit.

will not elaborate further lest it threatens once again the existance of this blog. *sigh*

alright to bed, lots of sleep to catch up with *yawns*
-out-

20050426

Letters to my future self

26th apr - a disaster

got a haircut yesterday, it was awful. ><"

all i did was say "high slope", she asked "4 fingers?" having no idea wad 4 fingers really is, i nodded.

now i have a haircut that resemble melvyn's. ack.

not exactly my own fault, cos the last time i had the haircut at a different branch, the "high slope" wasnt as steep.

argh.

not to mention, halfway thru the haircut, there was a power failure at junction 8. the 10 min haircut was really 15 mins. 10 mins haircut, 5 mins sitting in the darkness.

^$%@$@^$^&

-out-

20050423

Letters to my future self

apr 22th - fun with bowling

uni applications at SMI was a success, got the admission letter a couple of days back and went down today with adrian to submit it. reserved a place for next yr.

went downtown to meet ryan, cassiel and indra. went over to the singapore swimming club to do some bowling. it all started yesterday when ryan brought adrian and me to the swimming club, where he's a member, for dinner. we went over to the bowling alley area to jus sit and chill when he started to tell us his stories with bowling... then we decided to come again today for bowling. heh.

according to ryan he used to be a damn gd bowler, but aft a rest period of 6 yrs, he's totally out of shape and struggling even to hit properly. i myself dont bowl much either, that last time i did that was like in sec 2 or 3. my overall average hovers around 90+ to slightly over 100. much like ryan, my shots flew all over the place today, my all night high was merely 80+.

still, the both of us did better then the rest of them. lol. adrian being a 1st timer threw almost all his shots into the gutter and kept complaining how the kids (7-8 yrs old group of kids) are doing better then we are (which is pretty damn obvious, cos they put up the guide rails). it was a damn fun experiance thou, shd do this again sometime. sitting down all the time for card gaming is quite boring.

anyway we've really got to thank ryan for these 2 days of activity. he covered all the incurred expenses for the group of us, food, drinks, bowling. u prob wont be reading this, but still... thanks ryan.

ok, time to pack up, its back to work again tmr
-out-

20050419

Letters to my future self

18th apr - saw rui en today!

yea man, life's great. went to meridian today, late evening went over to post office to ship some cards off, then headed for cine to find ah long and hairul. needed to return the latter some gundam vcds and some cards.

went with adrian down to the taiwan snacks shop at the basement lvl, when we noticed a small commotion at cafe cartel next to the taiwan snacks shop. apparently it looks like there a someone shooting some ad or something there. while waiting for our food, we went over to take a closer look at wad was going on... then... wait a min, that looks like... RUI EN. OMG.

/me melts

she prob didnt notice me thou, pity i didnt bring anything along with me if not can ask for autograph. sigh.

oh well, life is gd, at least for today that is.
-out-

20050418

Letters to my future self

17th apr - yet another top 8

made top 8 again today, thou its probably the worse way ever possible.

i started the round with a bye, so it basically equates to a free win. won the next 2 games. lost the game jus b4 lunch to orry. ack.

back from lunch, i lost a game to chapman cos the idiot made a mistake and i didnt capitalise on it.

won the next game, then it came to the decisive 7th game. whether i make top 8 anot depends on whether i win this one. win this and i'm a sure in. if not i'll have to compare tiebreakers. my opponent turns out to be jon koe, who is already a confirm in.

he proposes to concede to me, however he wishes to buy the TTG promo from me that is give out to the top 8. not wishing to qoute him a price i propose to trade it for 2 of his wild sentinels. he rejected, saying it was too high for him and he's willing to part with at most 1 of them and... say 10 bucks, which i think is a bad deal. we proceeded to play the game.

i would have won the game easily when i recruited dr strange on 7 with init and he missing his 7. instead some random judge had to walk pass and pt out to us that strange has loyalty and thus i couldnt recruit him. be to fair none of us noticed it. that utterly screwed up my turn 7 as i had to play a couple of small drops to fill up the void left by the 7 drop. wads worse was that i has chosen to KO punisher with titanium blade (and a relevant powerup in hand) over blackheart the recovery phase the turn b4. i'm so kicking myself in the nuts.

ack, needless to say i threw that game away. jus before we signed the result slip, he made 1 last offer. my TTG for his wild sentinel, 1 for 1. *sigh* i took his offer, since that would put me in top 8 with at least 6 packs and... the wild sentinel instead of missing top 8 and getting like 2 packs.

that was not that result i was hoping for and i wont even have to get to this stage if i havent made so many blatant play errors in my earlier swiss rounds, esp against orry and chapman.

my top 8 draft deck was actually gd. but i had to bump into jon koe yet again and got beaten to pulp by his amazing hand and me missing drops, despite have a very gd curve of chars and even 2 fixers. i'm sorely disappointed.

this shdnt end this way. *sigh*
-out-

20050416

Letters to my future self

15th apr - erh... my name is not lee keng yin

i went to the SSDC (singapore safety driving school?) today but i ended up not taking the test.

y?

apparently there was a screw up when i registered for the test.

anyways heres wad happened today...

it had to freaking rain. it always has to, esp when i seem to be running late. and i was wearing slippers. i'm beginning to understand y they really are called slippers, cos they nearly cos me to do sommersaults multiple times on my way to the SSDC.

brr. anyway i made it on time to the classroom. on entering, all the ppl taking the test lined up to ... erh.. take attendance. when its my turn, i passed the lady my 11B ... and she couldnt find my name (!!!). i took my reciept and took a close look. date, correct. time, correct. name... lee keng yin. WTF!!

my god. i went to register the test together with kengyin, aft all the eye tests and the paper work, he realised that the next nearest date for the test is well, today, and he would already have enlisted, thus he didnt register for the test. i did.

it seems that the lady at the counter had a mixed up and put his name instead of mine. well done.

went to the informations counter to see if they could fix it. a really nice young lady (who looks abit like hirosue ryoko, the jap actress in beach boys) went to chk with who i would assume is the supervisor or something. end result: i cant take the test today. however they would pay for my next booking which would have to be on the 13th of may (jus great, friday the 13th).

oh well, looks like i took the day off today for nothing. hmm... better then taking the day off AND losing the money i suppose.

bleh bleh bleh. there isnt an inch of my body now that doesnt hurt. ok, not hurt, but rather sore. all my joints are creaking. my body aches when i sneeze. stupid ippt. not to mention, i think i injuried my left thumb more badly then i think i did. it actually hurts and its not the muscle ache kind of pain. i certainly hope that its not some hairline fracture.

ack.
back to work tomorrow, pcq awaits on sunday.
-out-

20050415

Letters to my future self

apr 14th - doing the impossible

i found it quite impossible to do previously, but i somehow managed to do it today. i actually failed my 2.4 run... by like 23 secs. the last time i failed 2.4 was 9 yrs ago when i had to make the swtich from 1.6 to 2.4. flabbergasted is exactly how i'm feeling right now.

in addition, i failed my all time bao fail station - standing board jump. ack.
the next time i do the retest i'll have to take every damn thing again... NOooooo~...

damn sian.
i suppose eating all these junk food had to account for something, except the price seems abit too much to bear.

sigh.
basic theory test tomorrow. hope i can pass this one.
ack.
-out-

20050410

Letters to my future self

10th apr - a spit in the face

heh, today i was referred for the 1st time in my entre life as a cheater. even though it could have been meant as a joke, it was a spit in the face. its like saying a samurai is not worthy of his sword.

i wasnt at all angry at anything thruout the whole day until that happened.

i've always pride myself with fair play, nv seeing a need to 'rules lawyer' my opponents. having to win an opponent because he didnt understand the rules as well as i did is not an honorable victory for me. despite my penchant for winning games, if i have to win via some underhand methods, i would rather not win at all.

other gaming news sees me losing 4 games straight with my BnB today going 0-4 at the CKT tourney ending last place out of 6 players ><". quite a bad day i must say. still, the day made a turn for the better when i cracked both fizzle and have a blast from both my prize boosters in addition to the mimic EA and tim drake EA.

date for manila has been fixed at 4-5 june. time to start planning.
-out-

20050407

Letters to my future self

7th apr - a screech followed by a bang, over and over again....

today is one of those wierd days where by trauma cases exceed the number of medical cases. the wierdest part however of these cases is that... its all road traffic acidents... on the same stretch of road.

coincidence?

it started at 10 lasted until close to 2. 3 different cases, one aft another, same stretch of road, all traffic accidents. bike crashes into taxi, lorry rams into van, lorry rams into bicycle. in fact somewhere btw the 2nd and last incident, there was actually yet another traffic accident along the same stretch, except there were no injuries thus we werent dispatched.

the 1st 2 cases were quite fine, we sent 1 guy to the hospital and the rest suffered very minor injuries, opted not to go to the hospital.

the last case however, was unique. it was my 1st case of a cardiac arrest of traumatic origin. it was not a pretty sight. on arrival, her head was in a pool of blood and she's not responding. very bad head injury, maybe even a fractured skull. there was alot of blood, perhaps the most i've ever seen up to date and it didnt stop there. en route, it jus kept flowing and flowing, even into the A&E department. poor thing, she was only abt 20+. the worst part, she had no identification on her, say for a handphone. so the hospital couldnt even inform her family members. she didnt make it...

not to be supersitious, but some say supernatural forces are at work.
strangely enuff, the road became quiet again aft the lady departed.

*shudders*

last night kun asked me abt my decision to sell my boardgames, asking if it had anything to do with wad he wrote in his blog.

the truth is, yes indeed.
i should have stopped when i could, but i didnt. i should have sensed it when all we did during the weekends at my place was to sit around and ask "wad next?"
i choose to think that a larger variety of games would solve the problem. how naive.

we dont even share the same defination of fun. all of u would perhaps enjoy pure fun and laughter, i on the other hand prefer the depth in gameplay, the intrigue challenges, outwitting each other. we are that far apart in our thinkings.

at the end of it all, a boardgame can nv be a 1 player game, like how it takes at least 2 hands to clap. even if i like the games alot, if i'm the only person who likes then, then i'm jus one very sad individual.

like the warcraft sets, i loved them, but the number of times they were played can be counted with the fingers on 1 hand. i would agree the base set was pretty random due to the resource system. the expansion fixed it, thus i thought i might be able to reintroduce it into the group again. that weekend that i 1st got the set, i read the rules in the aftn. but when i suggested it in the evening, all i got was a pair of "huh, warcraft arh" faces, which prompted me to make the excuse that i forgot abt the rules and it will be a pain in the ass to go thru it again.

which explains y my warcraft expansion set is open yet untouched (*insert sales pitch* so does anyone wan to buy it now?)

my intial reaction to all this was anger (then again, i react with anger most of the time anyway...) i mean, all the time, money, effort... then i realised that i can fault no one except myself. i allowed all of it to happen despite knowing that it would... eventually.

so pls ppl, i would geniunely wish to see my sets go to some new owners that can fully appreciate their contents instead of them staying with me and jus collecting dust. everything is still pretty much still up for grabs except for the pueto rico set, which i've decided not to sell for sentimental reasons.

i'm tired... very tired
-out-

20050405

Letters to my future self

5th apr - giving up on some of the pleasures of life

i've more or less... well... decided. i'm giving up boardgaming. i'll no longer buy anymore... and if anyone's interested to buy any here's wad i have for sale:

1) warcraft boardgame(played less then 5 times, pieces are intact except for a single purple flight unit, which is... well... broken, but it in its package that way, so there wasnt anything i could do abt it.)

2) warcraft expansion (opened, but never played before, brand new)

3) evo boardgame (played mutiple times, slight deformities in the inner box, contents intact n undamaged)

4) pueto rico + expansion boardgame (played mutiple times, but well maintained, contents intact n undamaged)

5) talisman base set (the most recent remake, played mutiple times, contents intact and undamaged except for the swashbuckler figure, whose sword has broken off. miniatures are glued to base but unpainted)

6) betrayal at house on the hill (played mutiple times, contents intact and undamaged)

7) modern art (played less then 5 times, close to brand new)

8) coloretto (box slightly dented, contents in near mint condition)

9) bang! (contents in near mint condition)

10) when darkness comes (played less then 5 times, close to brand new)

11) fluxx (heavily played, cards in good condition)

12) dungeoneer: tomb of the lich lord + dungeoneer: vault of the fiends (cards sleeved, in near mint condition, original boxes not included)

13) nodwick (seen some play, conds in gd condition)

sometimes u jus have to learn to let go.....
all things will eventually come to an end, like it or not. not every story has a happy ending....
it pains me to have to make such a decision, but wads got to go, go to go..... no pt hanging onto it.

ps. guys who are interested, pls email me at webspinner_1@yahoo.com on the item u're interested in and a qoute, thanks

pps. mel and kun, if u're reading this, pls find a day to pick up ur games from my place. mel: lotr monopoly, kun: munchkins, munchkins fu, chez greek

-out-

20050403

Letters to my future self

3rd apr - rainy days

bah, i loathe rainy days. its like a total disruption to my normal routine and habits. it makes me not wan to go out. even if i do go out, it causes me great inconvinences.

take today for example, all i wanted to do is to chk out a gaming shop somewhere in ang mo kio before like going to work at night. jus before i left my place, dark clouds were already gathering. jus right aft i stepped out of the lift, it began to pour. and the ipod choose this perfect moment to play sun yanzi's "tian hei hei" *rolls eyes* 1 in 132 songs in shuffle mode, wad are the chances man.

i had to take a different route leading to a different bus service which i intended to take and only because the way to that bus stop is sheltered most of the way while the other isnt. barely walking 10 steps, i finally remember y i hate going out in the rain so much. my preferred footwear = slippers. slippers dont go well with wet floor.

ack, i had to struggle to get to the bus stop without falling down, which meant that i can only take small steps. it seems to take ages getting to that damn bus stop. i dont have a habit of walking slowly, so taking small steps is a torture to me, not to mention, normally when i walk, i'm the one overtaking others. today its the other way round. argh, i'm not very used to that happening. in addition, small walkways become extraordianarily crowded, while on dry days ppl dont mind walking around it, on rainy days ppl are contend with jus being sheltered even if it means squeezing with everyone else.

walking/running in the rain is even worst. eventually it has to come to a certain part in the journey whereby u have no choice but to walk in the rain cos... theres no freaking shelter. its a test of skill really. if u walk slowly, u'll end up drenched. if u run, chances are u slip and fall... and end up drenched... lose-lose situation. therefore u can only half run/half walk ur way thru while at the same time avoid puddles of water. muddy puddles of water dont go very well with slippers or my feet.

as it is, aft a torturous journey, i finally get to ang mo kio. aft walking around the town area trying to locate the shop that i'm looking for and avoid falling flat on the ground at the same time i finally locate the small shop. only disappointment is that the number of yugioh players there outnumber vs players like... 10 to 1. that 1 is me. -_-" ok, to be fair i think some of the players there play both, but i wasnt too eager to muck around with the ppl there, tsk i didnt really hang around and ask.

ended up walking around, bought some comics and books, looked around the area. i really havent been to amk for quite a while. i find it amazing that its one of the fewer big towns around that dont have a big shopping complex ... yet. i used the word yet because it being constructed as we speak now. anyway despite the non existance of a big shopping complex, the town itself is still pretty much crowded. alot of changes have taken place since i last came here a few yrs back. like for example, the departmental store in the middle of town seems to have changed ownership for the nth time. the gaming arcade next to the current interchange has closed down and now in its place is breeks and soeul garden.

the rate which things tend to change in singapore nv fail to impress me, maybe i'm easily impressed.. oh well...

k, time to prepare for work
will be all for now
-out-

20050402

Letters to my future self

2nd apr - uni applications and cashless transactions

yea, finally got my uni applications submited 2 days ago, thou not without alot of fustration.

was supposed to meet adrian at 4 at clementi then take a cab there. left my place at abt 1+, having to go take some passport photos, go back to nyp to get a transcript, then head down to clementi. sounds like i'll make it there jus on time.

walked over to the plaza near my place to take the photos. from some strange reason, i ended up as not the only person trying to take passport photos, as a result, i had to wait abt 10 mins to take the photos. as i was paying, she told me to come back in 20 mins (!!!) my god... 20 mins?

i stood outside the shop for abt 15 mins, then i saw her trying to packing my photos and went in to pick them up. hurriedly rush to the bus stop to catch a bus down to nyp. the bus ride seems to take forever, to make things worse, as soon as i got off the bus, it began to pour. ARGH.

run thru the rain to the nearest shelter, lucky thing that from there, its sheltered all the way into nyp. having called up the student service counter earlier b4, i headed straight there and pressed for the queue number. saw that there were a few ppl ahead of me, so i decided to take a walk to the ATM while waiting. i mean aft all, i'll have to pay for the transcript and its pretty likely that i'll have to take a cab aft this to clementi. ><"

at the ATM, i drew all the possible amt i could out, which... well, isnt alot. headed back to the counter jus in time for my turn. at the counter, aft making my intentions clear, i was asked to pick up a form and fill it in. while filling in the form, i noticed that under payment there were only 2 checkboxes - cash card and nets. uh-oh. if thats the only form of payment they take then i'm officially screwed, i jus drew all the money out of my bank acct no more then 5 mins ago ><"

it turns out that was i hoped not to happen, happened. bah. they refused to take cash, even though i tried to explain that i could not pay in any form of payment that was offered to me. double ARGH. quickly i made a few phone calls around to try and get some money transfered to my acct, i HAVE to get the transcript today, if not i can save the uni application for next yr. *sigh*

ok gd thing celia was able to respond in time to help. still, by the time i'm finished with the transcript, its way past 4. ack. stupid cashless transactions. my transcript looked horrible, my results already werent stellar and they had to add in all the modules i didnt complete and put a F next to it.... thanks alot arh.

out of nyp, i tried to hitch a cab, it was fine, except 10 mins into waiting... a random couple appeared like no more then 30m ahead of me. i swear if i have a baseball bat or something, i would have walked over and gave it to them.... brr... i'm already in a rush and..... ARGGGGGHHHHH.

i walked to another road further down in the opposite direction, crossed at the traffic light and i saw this cab stopping right in front of me. aft a quick exchange of hand signs (no, not the finger) i was sitting in the cab headed for clementi. a phone call to adrian to inform him of how late i am and a final reminder on wad to bring, which was lucky, cos he forgot entirely abt the photos.

at abt 5, both of use made it to SIM and headed for the applications office, which didnt take very long to find, it was jus next to the entrance. took a queue number for the 2nd time today. while waiting, adrian had this damn cock idea of presing out a whole stack of queue numbers and selling them to ppl who come in "would u like the next queue number for $2 or would u like to press urself and wait over the next 200 numbers?" heh. wth.

the application itself was quite a breeze, had it completed in no more then 15mins.
oh well, at least its all over for now...

-out-