As Ugly As I Seem

I am as ugly as I seem
Worse than all your dreams
Could ever make me out to be
And it makes me want to scream
When it's halloween
And the kids are laughing

"I snort. I smoke. I killed a man, and I robbed. I am a man."

Just watched City of God (2003) on DVD rental. Must say it was a fantastic show. All spoken in Portuguese, setting in Brazil in the 60's to 80's. The above phrase is uttered by a kid who lives in the City of God, a slum where gangs are prominent. He is one of the many kids who join the gangs involved in drug dealing businesses. It tells the story from the narrative, Rocket, about the situation in the City of God, most notably the life of 'Lil Dice', a kid who grows up to be the gang leader.

It was 2 hours of great story telling. Nothing really extraordinary, but these days a good storyteller telling a normal story is hard to come by. The story unfolds in non-chronological order, and in the course of the movie you find out certain twists to the plot. The biggest twist, however, happens at the end. It is actually a real story. And it certainly was authentic and believable. The dialogue is also interesting and does not bore.

Certain scenes are very thought-provoking though, once you find out that all these really did happen. Like when Lil Dice ordered a young kid to kill 'one of the two kids' who happen to be in another "gang" called the Runts, in order for him to prove his worth in the gang. Very disturbing.

Great show. Go watch it.

Life is Pretty Good

At least these few days.

Booked in on Tuesday night. Booked out Friday night. In between, these are the things I did in camp:

Wednesday: Ate breakfast, lunch and dinner. Morning Sergeant tells us "actually we have nothing for you this week." The rest of the time is spent sleeping in bunk. No joke, but the sleep in much appreciated from Tuesday's early wake up and 5 hours of sleep. I think I more than 'slept back' what I lost. Completed Hebrews Chapter 7 Bible Study. Listened to entire album of 'Get Behind Me, Satan' (White Stripes).

Thursday: Morning completed Hebrews Chapter 8 Bible Study, and listened to entire album again. Afternoon Exercise Round Island, drove to Changi Village, had a sugarcane drink, drove back to Jurong camp. 115km total. Supposed to have nights' out, but came back late from driving. So watched 'Die Another Day' in company mess. Cool surround system, but the movie is mediocre and absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable and incredible and outrageous all at the same time.

Friday: Exercise Round Island in morning again. Another 115km. Afternoon rest. Then book out. Learnt that I need to go back on Saturday for more driving.

You know life is very good when you managed to complete 2 chapters of bible study in a week. Hahaha. And those long uninterrupted hours of afternoon nap... :)

Back to Studies

Just went to give "tuition" to Zen Xiong at Northpoint, since I had nothing to do anyway today. Today is my off day. And tomorrow is holiday. Can't remember the last time I don't have to book in on a Sunday night. You know how frustrating it is... esp on Sundays... Because sometimes got movies and I cannot watch it to completion. Probably leave halfway or something. How exciting to leave on a 2 hour bus-cum-SMRT trip when there is a movie going on.

Inverted comma "tuition", first, because I am not a teacher. Second, I don't think I taught much :X. Those things that I said, it is out of pure memory. And it is funny, because my Sec 4 work still serves me quite well. Must be because JC work is really building on O level stuff. But sad to say, my A levels work is 90% erased from my memory already. Haha.

And I lament the lack of Physics tutor-friends when I was in secondary school, and in JC. Nobody seems to know how to do Physics. But everyone is a Chemist or do something related to chemistry these days. Linda, OCH, WanJun, Minsen, Fabian... EVERYONE SINGLE ONE. In YFC. In Church. In School. EVERYONE. And when I ask physics, nobody can answer my question. And it became funny that I am teaching Zenxiong Physics now. Hahah. Let's pray that he will not fail because of my teaching :X.

I never had a flair in Physics. Never. But I had to admit it is probably the most beautiful (to me) of the 3 sciences I took. I always did badly for physics though.. until I work hard. See, Physics don't need flair one. You just need to be hardworking and be instilled with that little bit of enthusiasm. That enthusiasm happens to be, for me, appreciating the beauty of the precision of equations and laws that govern this universe. And somehow, this overrides all the boredom that Physics always seems to exude. Especially the boring Physics teachers :) Because Chemistry teachers can joke. Biology teachers can joke. English, Geography and any other subject teachers can joke. But my Physics teacher only talks about cosmology.

And Zenxiong made me laugh today. He wrote an answer as simply "Black radiates heat." And then I told him he needs to write more. I understand what he meant. I'm sure everyone does. But I would have written, 'Black surfaces are better radiators of heat."

Yes, black radiates heat. White also. In fact, anything with temperature above absolute zero radiates heat.

It's Just A Number

Or so I said.

The fruit of the first year of savings as an NSF resulted in a brand new laptop. Now I got what I need to go into university. And that leaves me, about $200 in my bank.
But I'm not sad. Because it is just a number :)

Now, I will continue to save for my second year of NS life, probably to pay for hostel fees... or maybe go on a holiday trip or something, as I had wanted even before I enlisted. I don't think I ever want to get allowance from my parents again. Let's see if I can do it...

I think it really requires a lot of discipline to save money, especially when you are an NSF and earn $450 a month, which is quite meagre (compared to what sergeants and officers earn, and even more so compared to what civilians earn). As my platoon mates always say, 'We don't earn salaries. We only have allowances.' Heh.

And there is a thin line between being thrifty and being stingy :)

Toshiba Satellite A100

So this is the new laptop I bought yesterday. Went to Funan with my sis.. saw that Acer laptop again, which costs 2,548 w/GST. Then went and looked at other Toshiba notebooks. My sis threatened me that she would only sponsor $400 if I buy that Acer. But I buy a Toshiba, she would gladly sponsor $700. So we went around those shops. Finally settled on a Toshiba Satellite A100, costs $1899.00. $600+ cheaper than that Acer one. And I was very happy with the product and also with myself. Because I paid for it myself. All 100% of it. I would have borrowed some money from Mum and sis if I were to buy that Acer. But alas, figured out I do not need such a high-end laptop after all. The essential specs for the laptop are:

Intel Centrino Duo @1.66Ghz
1GB DDR II RAM (after free upgrade)
15.4" screen
ATI Radeon Mobility X1300 with 128mb hyper memory
80GB Hard Disk
2 year international warranty

All in all....not a bad system right...going under $2000 too :)

Hidden in the Wisdom in the back of your tooth

"So now you're left, denying the truth
And it's hidden in the wisdom in the back of your tooth"

- The Denial Twist, The White Stripes, from the album 'Get Behind Me, Satan'

Welcome to my new blog. Another tribute to The White Stripes. In case you didn't know, 'Ball and Biscuit' was actually a song from their previous album 'Elephant'.

So, you might wonder why I started a new blog. Blogger has identified my previous blog, ballnbiscuit, as spam blog. I guess it's because I have typed too much rubbish recently. It's ok. I am not angry. Really. Really, I'm not angry. I just have an urge of smashing this laptop against the wall. Wahaha.

Speaking of laptops, the new Acer Aspire 5685 has caught my eye. Going at $2500+. I figured the Toshiba Qosmio is too expensive.