i want to skate. stop raining please...

growl.

:(

i'm back from hangzhou...

it was cold when we arrived, and vikko picked us up... we grabbed some chow, then managed to find some transport into hangzhou, but the van that was to ferry us to hangzhou was terrible, with the clutch slipping continually, the poor driver had to keep restarting the van...
but we did manage to make it to hangzhou safely, although we made a few rounds at a particularly big traffic interchange in hangzhou.. keke

checked in, went out for a very very good dinner, eating like kings, and then rushed off to meet some important people for the competition, a local dj who was the host, 2 mr zhangs... one a representative of the zhejiang skating federation, the other was zhang li, aka jia gou, who was the organizer of this current competition...

the grounds are fantastic, big, flat, with amenities nearby, the ground markings have lights below them that correspond to ifsa requirements... but it was so so so so cold... finally managed to catch some sleep at 2am

woke up and went back to xi cheng, (competition grounds), and we proceeded with the speed and pure jump competitions.. and the competition dragged all the way till 7pm... being winter, the sky turned dark at 530.. so it was quite difficult for the jumpers... who managed to hit a height of 1.1m... dinner was at a local restaurant nearby.. everybody crammed together, it was nice and fun... then we went down to wulin, which was the usual gathering place for all the skaters in hangzhou.. and a big bunch of people went to skate xi hu (westlake)... while most of us decided we should go back to the hotel to rest.. managed to catch some sleep at 3am.. hahaha..

woke up at 7am and rushed down to the new venue for the competition, which was a sports complex on one of the university campuses on the outskirts of hangzhou... the ground wasn't too good for slides as compared to the previous day, but it sufficed as the rain didn't come down on us, thus preventing the competition from going on...

the freestyle slalom competition had some hiccups in the morning, but it carried on well into the night, and the competitors were of a very very high standard... judging wasn't simple with the wind chill being at maybe -10 deg C... and me and eX sitting there freezing our butts off.... but it was a good competition, and the prizes were nice, and the competitors were friendly..

and dinner was at a restaurant nearby, with a big bunch of competitors attending the competition... taught them the yum seng custom... and then it started snowing! snowy christmas! a white snowy christmas! wooo... haha.. it was great with the snow.. and the next morning we went out to tour xihu with rain.... visited yue fen.. the tomb of yue fei... before proceeding to this ktv, qian gui, aka partyworld which served a buffet for people to eat and sing...

slept at like 4am this time... and woke up at 9 to go out to this temple... ling ying shi.. where the famous ji gong had his head shaved and became a monk... it was really snowing like mad this time, so didn't get to skate... but in the end.. we had a snowfight in ling ying shi... hurhurhurhur...

went shopping for shoes in town, followed by lunch at this xiao fei yang, steamboat restaurant... then after that returned to the hotel to nuah around, before rushing out to qian gui again.. this time there were less people but we sang till a lot of people fell asleep from exhaustion, and so we decided to return to the hotel to pack and prepare for the trip home..

and finally i'm back here...

photos and videos are on http://nytemare.lobang.net/Hangzhou

i will be away in hangzhou from 24th till 29th. till then.. toodles.. merry christmas! spread the love all around ya! :)

woke up wayyy too early, met up with princess at 715, that girl only decided to come down at 7.19 and we made a trip to campus where she was supposed to do her research project for her hyp... teased her abt not being able to make it by 8.. and she was whining and complaining.. but we managed to.. and then i drove over to cmpb... saf careers center for an interview..

damn was i surprised.. the only nsman there.. everyone else was FRESH out of jc, and really dressed terribly, cargo pants, track shoes, long sleeved shirt?! eeks.. so wrong so wrong.. i shld recommend moe do something about giving these kids in jc some etiquette and dress classes...

came home to sleep... ahaha.. couldn't stand waking up so early.. i did clear the interview, supposed to go for aeromedical on 3rd jan 2005... and i found out i shld start my CAAS course on the 17th.. so i'll just go for the airforce one since i have to go for a checkup befroe going for my ppl(private pilot's license).. hehe

went to watch kung fu hustle in the evening.. it's good.. go catch it.. maybe i'm biased but i am a stephen chow fan.. ahaha

be honest

1. Open up the music player on your computer.
2. Set it to play your entire music collection.
3. Hit the “shuffle” command.
4. Tell us the title of the next ten songs that show up (with their musicians), no matter how embarrassing. That’s right, no skipping that Carpenters tune that will totally destroy your hip credibility. It’s time for total musical honesty.
5. Write it up in your blog or journal and link back to at least a couple of the other sites where you saw this.
6. If you get the same artist twice, you may skip the second (or third, or etc.) occurances. You don’t have to, but since randomness could mean you end up with a list of ten song with five artists, you can if you’d like.

and so iTunes gave me for Christmas

1. Def Leppard - Breathe A Sigh

2. Vertical Horizon - All Of You

3. Erasure - Always (Extended)

4. Christina Aguilera - Come On Over Baby

5. Sammi Cheng - She De

6. Llorca - The End (Hepop Original)

7. Wildchild - Renegade Master

8. Depeche Mode - Only When I Lose Myself

9. Hefner - An Evening With Hefner

10. Nuyorican Soul - I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun (4Hero Remix Edit)


from Mr Brown

no not about my own ghosts from the past, but legend of the ghosts from pulau hantu. pulau hantu, actually made up of two islands at the southwestern part of singapore, near jurong island, comprising of pulau hantu besar, and pulau hantu kancil, rated top 10 dive sites in the world... and i got to dive there on sunday 19th december... well, top 10 worst dive sites in the world.. haha

arrived early at 715 at rsyc, met up with kint and jagr, and we saw our boat, the mv samudera quest.. a short 5 minute boat ride and we were at the dive site.. the weather was fine, with the sun playing hide and seek behind the clouds occasionally, we geared up and jumped in... my first time without a dm following me, i was to buddy up with jagr and kint.. so we descended, and we suddenly realised... woah.. this water is really murky! the visibility was at best 2m, and if you kicked up silt, it'll drop to zero... went down with the camera and proceeded along the reef... took quite a bit of photos... the sea life is interestingly quite abundant, considering the poor vis, and there were fish, nudibranches, good coral growth.. but sadly everything was covered with a thick layer of silt..

photos from the dive are available here

did two dives, ended around 1am and we made it back home by 2.. and i concussed from then till 730 when isaac messaged me about going to sarah's birthday party at pasir ris costa sands.. picked weiting up and went down... took more photos (have yet to process them) and after the birthday party, we went back to my place, cheen, me, dt, isaac and andrew... grabbed a few beers and went to ecp to chill out.. it was a good change of environment, well lit bbq pit, a nice gentle breeze, some background music from big splash... hung out till 4am..

the rest are snoozing and i'm here updating...

a joke, harmless as it may be
uttered without harm or malice
timed at the worst moment
incurred wrath like thunder
your silence, your indifference
causing hurt and guilt
that i deserve.

sorry princess.

Mandy Moore - Cry
I'll always remember
It was late afternoon
It lasted forever
And ended too soon
You were all by yourself
Staring up at a dark gray sky
I was changed

In places no one would find
All your feelings so deep inside (deep inside)
It was then that I realized
That forever was in your eyes
The moment I saw you cry

The moment that I saw you cry

It was late in september
And I've seen you before (and you were)
You were always the cold one
But i was never that sure
You were all by yourself
Staring at a dark gray sky
I was changed

In places no one would find
All your feelings so deep inside (deep inside)
It was then that I realized
That forever was in your eyes
The moment I saw you cry

I wanted to hold you
i wanted to make it go away
I wanted to know you
I wanted to make your everything, all right....

I'll always remember...
It was late afternoon...
In places no one would find...

In places no one would find
All your feelings so deep inside (deep inside)
It was then that I realized
That forever was in your eyes
The moment I saw you cry

Mandalay - Beautiful

You can depend
On certainty
Count it out and weigh it up again
You can be sure
You’ve reached the end
And still you don’t feel

You know about anything

Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful
You are, yes you are

You can ignore
What you’ve become
Take it out and see it die again
You can be here
For who’s a friend
And still you don’t feel

You know about anything

Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful
You are, yes you are

Innermost thoughts
Will be understood and
You can have all you need

Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful
Do you know you’re beautiful
You are, yes you are

outing day! wee. mom made me upset about my spending habits late on wed night... and i looked into the bank account... quite the horrible i have been... have to cut down on spending...

woke up to have a nice quiet lunch with her, where she enquired abt the shanghai trip.. and had some small disucssions about eating out, paying for your share, and how some people she know are miserly to the extent of wanting to treat people, but end up bringing them to low grade cheapo buffets, and when others treat, expect to be brought to first class fine dining establishments.. or don't pay for what they eat in a group...

went out to meet the Radio Academy-ers, met up with endy at 7 and drove down to orchard, well, the roads in orchard are so packed, like last night before meeting up with milk and crab and pooting, i had to spend a whole 10 minutes at the junction behind borders... but onward to the RA outing, met sab and aaron and james outside old chang kee at heeren, then mark and jill arrived too, and we went over to crown price swensons to look for the 6th and 7th batch people, (i'm from the 8th btw), had dinner, ice-cream, colin gomez was around too... phototaking.. i forgot my camera.. -_-, joy arrived during dinner and then after dinner we adjourned to rouge where there was some event, alan joined us there, arrived to see charissa mc-ing the event, and pug jelly performing... i dunno if i'm too old or just tired of the clubbing scene, but it wasn't exactly a place i'd like to go back to.. the dj couldn't mix properly, repeated songs, the drinks were terrible, at least the place wasn't packed.. and i had the great company of the RAers... we decided to call it quits around 130 and went over to lau pa sat for drinks... must be a bad night, cuz sab and jill ended up getting really sucky drinks.. teh ping that had too much milk and milo that had the colour of teh ping.. it didn't help i was having a bit of a head cold...
i had my cheng tng, and then did a joyride all over the island.. dropped sad off at bukit panjang, then alan at sembawang.. and all the way back to bedok for endy and home for me...

there's a allRA yahoo groups, and when i got home.... woo.. the administrator had already added the whole bunch of us... enthu!

just as i mention how this season seems to be dryer than last, it starts pouring incessantly... *growl*

went to catch eugene's birthday party on friday, we had a whale of a time, there were endless jugs of drinks, waterfalls, flaming lambos, sembuca shots burning in mouths.... and a very intoxicated eugene acting all pissy... keke... adjourned to arab street for sheesha with lw cheryl kc and cw... had great laughs watching them try to exhale the smoke... shld've brought a video cam..

and it was wet in the morning on saturday, so i spent the good half of the day at home till 5ish when i dragged myself out of my house down to ecp... didn't do much as well, really uninspired to skate.. i need a muse... sigh... highlight was being approached by eye candy who asked how to brake...

i had to wake up at 645 on sunday.. bought mcDs for breakfast and ended up at kallang for WWS duty, was assigned to drive a safety boat for the singapore canoe marathon... it was pretty mundane, cept i hit my back as the boat was blasting thru marina bay... and it hurt like mad.. still hurting now.... and we ended up with engine trouble... but it's good, i learn lots everytime i do duty... and it helps me keep updated with boating...

and it has been boring otherwise... as uninspired to skate, i'm also uninspired to write... grr...

and i'll be away from 24th - 29th.

what's the best/sweetest way to make up for missing an anniversary/birthday/appointment?

in your opinion, what would be the sweetest thing to see/greet/feel when you wake up in the morning?

My Diving Christmas Wish

D9 Computers
Suunto D9 is the world's first dive computer to integrate a digital compass and wireless tank data reception.
The Ultimate Dive Computer

Underwater a diver must monitor several gauges to receive the crucial information about the dive: depth, time, tank pressure, decompression status and direction to name just a few. Suunto D9 combines all dive-critical information in one instrument, conveniently mounted on your wrist. Instead of monitoring a multitude of gauges, you can concentrate on what is important - diving.

Suunto D9 is the world's first dive computer to incorporate a digital compass. The compass shows the general direction with a graphical compass rose, as well as the exact bearing with a numerical display. Headings can be stored in Suunto D9's memory for later analysis. The compass can naturally be used on land too.

By using Suunto D9's optional wireless transmitter, the diver can also monitor tank pressure and air consumption data from the wrist. The remaining tank pressure is displayed both numerically and graphically, and an estimation of the remaining air-time is given throughout the dive. This allows the diver to monitor the remaining air supply at the same time as he monitors depth and time. Real time air consumption is also stored in the memory.

Suunto D9 can be used with up to three different gas mixes containing 21-100% oxygen, allowing gas switching during the dive. Decompression calculations are based on the Suunto Deep Stop RGBM model, which provides iterative deep stops as an alternative to traditional safety stops. For those intending to go really deep, the maximum depth display is set at 200m [660ft].

In addition to basic dive data, the built-in dive logbook provides a graphical dive profile where real time water temperature and tank pressure data can be analyzed on the wristop computer. The sampling rate can be set to as low as 1s.

The beautifully designed Suunto D9 has a titanium housing and includes an USB-compatible PC interface and the Suunto Dive Manager 2.0 software.

Skaters - who are they? Researches of brave naturalists :)


Recently the meetings of people with unknown earlier beings became frequent. The basic distinctive feature of these beings is their hind legs. In distinction from other animals, these beings have unusual apophysises, supplied with wheels, that's why these beings are called skaters. Our fearless scientists-naturalists spent a lot of time, investigating these beings, some of them even managed to take root into their groups and to study skaters from within. We publish the first results of our researches - classification of kinds of skaters.
At once it is necessary to notice that there are 2 groups of skaters - so-called "fitnesoid" and so-called "agressivelike". Our research touches only "fitnesoid" group, because we don't have the authentic data about the "agressivelike" as the meetings with the "agressivelikes" are very dangerous and some of the scientists were lost, trying to study frightened away flight of "agressivelike" skaters.

So:
Baby-skaters
All skaters, even the biggest and the most terrible, develop from the so-called babies. It's difficult to imagine that the most outstanding individuals of running skaters and dodge skaters were babies some time ago. But it is true. The scientists assert that already at the baby stage there should be intraspecific distinctions but as all the babies are very similar and all keep together, yet it was not possible to establish external specific distinctions of them. Size of the babies is very similar to the grown-up's size. The baby's basic attributes are the straight legs, shivering knees and burdensome meditations - whether to remove a regular brake or to wash bearings. Scientists managed to establish, that with the help of meditations over the regular brake wise nature carries out natural selection of the babies. It is established, that in the skater's life the skater needs fast reaction. If a baby for any reasons possesses slowed down reactions during meditations over removal of the brake, it has not time to brake and he would be broken by the obstacles on his own way, or he would become an "easy meat" for the larger predators - so-called cars. Thus, from the genetic fund the unusable material is rejected at once. The value of meditations about washing bearings is not established yet, probably, they somehow prepare babies for the adult life.

Kinds of skaters:
Dodge skaters.
They usually live in the small closed territories. As a rule, it is not so far from the concentration of food and drinks. All free time they spend moving between the small multi-colored subjects scattered in territory of dwelling. It is considered, that such behavior should cause dizziness of the predators and is the form of protective behavior. Dodge skaters have the strongly advanced territorial instinct, and they aggressively protect the territory not only from essences of other kinds and other kinds of skaters, but also from the individuals of the same kind which don't belong to this flight. Distinctive feature of their appearance - absolute absence of horny apophysises on the knees of the back limbs which frequently skaters of other kinds have. Thus similar apophysises on elbows and the ends of the fore limbs can be seen frequently enough. Nowadays people try to cultivate dodge skaters. They make attempts to catch dodge skaters and even to arrange exhibitions of dodge skaters with delivery of diplomas and medals to champion individuals.

Figured skaters.
They are very similar to the dodge skaters, but need, as a rule, a little bit bigger territory. Also the territory shouldn't be covered with the multi-colored subjects. As a rule, the figured skater moves with the greater speed, than the dodge skater and during the movement frequently uses jumps, and dodge skater jumps very seldom.

Running skaters.
It is the fastest kind of skaters. They live on the extensive territories though prefer to appear in the certain places. During evolution they had obtained the superfluous wheel on the skate apophysis of the leg and a horn outgrowth on a head. It is supposed, that this outgrowth protects their heads from the predators' attacks and can be used during marriage male duels. The running skater has the brightest coloration among all skaters. Originally was considered, that such coloration serves for attraction of the individuals of an opposite sex, but the experiment showed, that it is very difficult to descry the moving running skater even with such bright coloration, and if the skater of an opposite sex can see the running skater, he (she) wouldn't ever catch him (her). Therefore the question about their coloring remained undetermined.

Virtual skaters
Are the most poorly observable skaters. One of the popular beliefs says that they do not exist, and it is a legend like the yeti as almost all found traces of their presence, but nobody saw them. Usually the traces of ability to live of the virtual skater can be found out in so-called forums - not investigated by science natural formations, which allow skaters to communicate on distance. No one has ever seen the virtual skater's and, and available numerous certificates of eyewitnesses are not proved.

Chaotic skaters.
The most widespread kind of skaters. It is characterized by the big number of individuals in flights. The usual behavior - chaotic movement through all territory of dwelling, that's why they are called so. Some scientists distinguish two subspecies of skaters chaotic - skaters chaotic settled, who occupy rather small territory (this territory is comparable to the territory of figured skaters, but in this case on this territory live much more individuals), and skaters chaotic migrating which migrate on rather extensive territories. But some observers specify, that the same individuals have been noticed both in structure of settled and in structure of migrating flights. Probably, here we deal with variations of skaters' behavior of the same kind. It is interesting, that movements of chaotic skaters settled represent such impressing show, that superstitious local residents think that these movements are some kind of spiritualism and that's why one of the folksy names of this kind is sorcerers.

All-weather skaters
Sometimes all-weather skaters refer to chaotic skaters as very frequently they migrate together, however there are essential differences which allow allocating these skaters into a separate kind. In dry and warm weather the behavior of all-weather skaters does not differ in any way from the behavior of chaotic skaters. But during the season of rains the chaotic skater usually hides in hollows and runs into hibernation, and when the frost begin he sprout a special organ on the back limbs for movement on snow. (This organ, for want of something better, has the working name "board"). The all-weather skater leads an active life the year round. Such behavior is effective enough both for hunting, and for protection against a predator as both the take and the predator, having met beings with skates in the winter, react equally - die away with surprise. After that the all-weather skater can eat the take, or leave slowly from the predator.

Bench skaters.
Widespread enough kind of skaters, but it is strongly distinguished from all set forth above. First time even was considered, that Bench skaters are not real skaters, but the individuals, pretending skaters. But after the scientists were asked a question: "What the hell someone pretends skater for?", prevailed the opinion, that the bench skater nevertheless is an offspring of skaters' evolution. Most likely, this kind has developed in conditions of abundance of food and while other kinds of skaters developed aside increases in speed and maneuverability for protection against predators, evolution of bench skaters has gone on the way of escalating of the body's weight. Therefore the bench skaters lead an inactive way of life, consuming whenever possible high-calorific food. Intensive researches of bench skaters are held now as if the hypothesis that organisms of bench skaters as a result of evolution can synthesize chlorophyll it would be the greatest development - the first fixed transition from the animal condition to the vegetative.

Written by
Victor Treshchalin

medical checkup on wednesday morning, and i had to fast from 9pm on tuesday for it.. the problem with that was the dinner i had before that, the sheng mian from dover, was so horrible... i'd have died a unhappy ghost if that was my last meal..

so i reported to the airport in the morning, received some paperwork that required me to find two surety's for my training deed.. and that i've been offerred the post of Probationary Air Traffic Controller subject to medical and security clearance, being cleared, i'd be offered a appointment letter...

the medical checkup took quite awhile, the raffles medical clinic at the airport was flooded with people.. sick people, people doing checkups for work, travellers looking for stuff... anyways the whole test started around 10 and ended only at 1... i had my blood taken (reason behind the fasting), and it wasn't just some pin prick and a straw tube sample, it was a whole bloody test tube... thank goodness he didn't have to poke me twice and my blood flowed nicely and filled the test tube..

then came the ECG, had some cooooold cream applied to my bodyparts, then suction cups, clamps all over me, and i was thinking, hrm, if he hooked up the tubes to the wrong machine, or like it was set to transmit instead of receive a strong current.. i'd be toast.. fried on the spot.. with a strange smell.. BUT, i got through it fine, then came the x-ray, and finally BREAKFAST.. ate with max and guorong, two others who were going to be hopefully on the same course as me, and then we went back to speak to the doctor.. which explained why the whole affair lasted till 1...

anyways everything being done, i went to get my hair cut, got it coloured, and i guess i look a little different now.. went home, got changed and boogied down to campus, but before that, i gave princess stephie a lift back home, and that girl went to whiten her teeth, not to mention she already had pretty neat teeth, now she's going to be hounded by so many more engineering guys.. hurhur..

finally managed to make it to school, in one piece.. was almost involved in a chain collision, idiots on the AYE stopped for no reason, and this stupid girl driving some daihatsu move behind me was looking at me in shock (me looking thru my rear view) as she realised she may not be able to stop in time.. i released my brake, rolled forward a bit to give her more space.. but it wasn't like i had anymore to roll, so i looked as she managed to stop, the car behind her managed to stop, the car behind that one managed to then BANG! a lot of smoke.. and yeaps! accident.. filtered out to the left while every bloody car behind stopped to look at the accident... and i was on my way to school...

met up with a big bunch of them, went over to paulaners brahaus for dinner cum end of exams celebration, we had chef jody yu's platter, caesar's salad, beer all around... and after a fancy dinner we adjourned to wine bar..

we managed to get a table when we were there, ordered a martini bianco 7-up, but some of them thought it tasted like cough syrup, BLAME THE MARTINI!

anyways managed to shift tables once, and eventually split up to two tables... the fun part was seeing feng, andrea, cuixia there... taking photos of them, with them.. was supposed to meet princess stephie but it was so freaking crowded it was better she just stayed inside, and not try to squeeze out and then back in, the flaming lambroghini i promised her wasn't worth all that squeezing effort..

anyways around 12ish, the bouncers had to take out their loudhailers and tell the crowd to go home, and only members were allowed in, and members had to queue.. hahahaha... how ridiculous..

we eventually left.. and i drove a bunch of them back home.. dropped bear back at srjc, dropped sarah back at tpjc, isaac at bedok ite, pooting at lor H telok kurau, and went home to shower before dropping by lau pa sat to buy some supper for the starving ghouls who went back to compclub...

and i spent the whole of thursday feeling blur, maybe lack of sleep, maybe lack of blood, maybe lack of ALCOHOL!!! but i was promised a very excellent alcohol infusion on saturday at compclub.. so i guess i can skip skating for that.. since i haven't been in the mood to skate... i went to edwin's shop on thursday, put on my skates then decided i didn't feel like skating at all.. how horrible.. totally unmotivated.... sigh..

i need motivation... and i need to see where my life is headed.. soon.. before i implode...