You’ve Got A Friend

For a healthy dose of life and friends, look to CSC.

A handful of folks graduated turned up, like Weichung, Jasmine, Terence and I.

Thursday evening at CSC’s Annual General Meeting. It’s a simple matter, a formality that marks the handing-over and taking-over of duties where the baton is figuratively passed on. While the number of familiar faces I could hold comfortable conversations with numbered quite a bit, so did the number of unfamiliar faces. Nevertheless, the event served well to summarise the hard work the students contributed over the course of their term in service, and to inform me of all that has transpired and to remind of what we all have to eventually leave behind.

8-8-7-7-6-5-4

Friday night in the company of alcohol and music. EIC was playing in the background at Wala Wala and we ordered plenty of alcohol and chicken wings to go around the table of 6. A Thursday spent with the new generation of CSC members and a Friday evening with an all-graduated cast. We even bumped into a couple of other graduates when we first entered! This end-of-work-week event was something I had looked forward to for it had been planned by Quek and Kai Loon for quite a while. Something like this once in a while certainly does wonders for the spirits =)

lim jiu ho!

Look to CSC for that healthy dose of life and friends.

We Can

Presently, I have been swimming once a week.

In the past, whenever I decided to head to the public swimming complex near my place, I would make sure to do so at some sunny point of the day. I have consistently kept it this way for my annual or semiannual trip to the pool. The reason was simple: There would be maximum exposure in the sun to get some sort of tan. A bit of Vitamin D intake once in a while for someone like me who sits far too often in front of the laptop.

These days, I prefer the quiet of the late evenings where there’s hardly anyone else and I can swim freely by myself. To try for the sun would mean to go at the before-work timing or mingle with the lunchtime crowd. While both are viable options, it is the hassle of having to rush and change into working attire at the end of the swim that puts me off.

Too often we hear that exercising is good for the health and I wonder just what constitutes doing something beneficial for one’s health. Does climbing up and down hills count? Does walking distances matter? Granted the back is well taken care off, can carrying boxes and boxes of canned food be a form of workout?

Keeping fit and staying healthy. Well, at least there are some efforts that we as individuals can undertake.

* The title is a reference to the song by LeAnn Rimes.

Keep Breathing

It’s almost been a month since I returned from my trip.
It’s almost been a month since I really blogged about anything other than my trip.
It’s almost been a year since I started working.
It’s almost been a year since so many different things happened, pulling me in different directions, flooding my senses and perceptions.

There are days in your life when you wonder why the heck you are who you are, doing whatever it is that you do.
Too many days, too many times.

Some days, you have no solutions.
Some days, the solutions you do have, do not work out.
Some days, you have a solution that no one will approve or endorse.

What do I do when such a time comes?

* The title is a reference to the song by Ingrid Michaelson.

Closing Time

Chance and coincidence.

A delayed return to home after work and a walk along an underground mall yielded four encounters with various friends. Singapore really is quite a small place.

First was Lijie and her friend. Incidentally, I will be meeting her again tomorrow at Denise’s Commencement. She asked a question and with my earpieces plugged in, I think I replied a "Yes" that reverberated through the tunnel. It’s little wonder since people tend to raise their voices when they can’t hear themselves. I really should relieve the ears of music before making replies in the future.

One stretch of walkway and an escalator down, I met Ching and other friends from CSC. Though I never really took note of the groupings during camp, I surmise he was on an outing with his fellow councillors from Ethelontêr VI. With some "Hi", "Bye", a few snapshots and some waves, I continued my way.

Another stretch of walkway and this time an escalator down, then up, I ran into two friends. First was Joseph from army days, whom I have not met in a very long time. I can only presume the girl beside him was his girlfriend. Many paces along, I bumped into Ivy from CNM and we chatted a bit, about her waiting for her friends and that today was the day of her Commencement ceremony.

What an eventful day it has been, to have met so many people.

* The title is a reference to the song by Semisonic.

History Of Everything

VI. The sixth incarnation of CSC’s annual camp.

I never really sit down to give serious thought as to why I keep turning up for the camps year after year. It’s more of a "it’s a CSC event", "my friends are there", and so I go for it like a catch-up session. Sure, the pool of strangers I meet grow by the year but I guess with friends there, the former doesn’t matter.

It was nice visiting this year for it brought back some memories of camps and events past. As for next year, I wouldn’t be so sure about giving it a definite no =) Not yet anyway.

* The title is a reference to the song by Barenaked Ladies.

Existence

Wow, that was some entry I wrote just the Sunday past. A blog entry on the blogging of the entry itself. The banality of it, if not apparent, should nevertheless be not lost upon you.

A simple online search with the correct search terms will yield you the tracks that comprise the game I have been quoting from for the past few months. Well, since March of 2009 to be exact. A quick run-through will show that excluding this entry, I have used up twenty-one titles. But of course the previous was a rhetoric since no one would have done as mentioned and I have promptly provided the statistics for the purpose of my following illustration anyway. That is, the options for my entry titles are running out if I continue my trend.

For the most part of it, there is a reason why I write the stuff I do or feel compelled to blog certain parts of my life. There are also those almost-completely random moments. The content materialises before I decide what is the best title to plug it as chosen from my repertoire representing the "theme" for that month. Actually I am rather proud to say I haven’t had a moment where I did not blog due to a lack of available titles or that I titled an entry randomly. Well, at least not yet anyway…

Three paragraphs later, I tell you there is a reason to this. There is a reason I name this post "Existence".

Colliding Worlds as taken from an old entry

Standing at the traffic junction, one look at the sky obscured by clouds and hues of grey and one look at the cars whizzing by, one wonders what the next course of action he should take. The storm is gathering; he is pressed to make a move. The traffic does not stop; it’s one side or the other. The centre of the crossroads is not a place for him to consider. Take one or the other but not the best of both worlds.

It’s not a suicidal thought when one asks oneself why there is this compelling need to live out the rest of his or her life. There are so many factors to life. As for me, I think I have pretty much categorised this entry under all the possible factors to be considered. The "why" and the enigma pervades, engulfing reason, thought, logic, identity and self.

From the real world, to the waking world, to the digital realm where it manifests in writing. Perhaps a mere banal entry, perhaps more. Such might be explained to be rooted in some Freudian sub-conscious theories, yet theories abound, where doth the remedies lie and what be your take on all this, my reader?

I stand at the junction waiting, continuing this wait for that which eludes me…

* The title is a reference to Assassins Theme from the game Guilty Gear XX #Reload.

Fu-u-ga

The paint jobs continue.

Translates to: "Do not step on the yellow line!"

The team responsible for the amazing murals of flowers came back this week to finish up their masterpiece. No inconsistencies; only art. Their dedication and sense of responsibility was admirable, staying back till late to finish up their work, complete with outlines and all. At the end of the corridor was what I dubbed an OFO — "Odd Flower Out". The flowers there were completed by a different group of artists, albeit equally matched in talent but with a slightly different style. Nevertheless, the two groups worked together to provide the corridor with a fresh coat of life.

A rose completed. An orchid painted.

Paint-A-Home X also went down to flats to breath life to flats in need of new coats, breaking from the norm of only working at welfare homes. Something new this year was the re-emergence of two past Paint-A-Home Organising Committees to help with the task. I must add I was very proud of this senior bunch of us who did our work with all the "best practices" in mind and in practice.

Some P-A-H ‘06, some P-A-H ‘07, some P-A-H ‘08, some P-A-H X, and some new faces here and there!

Time shifts by and some things change while some things stay the same. People age and life seeps away from them. We step in and give them a helping hand. What has Paint-A-Home forgotten and learnt over the years? Legacy and gifts yet given, the gained and lost.

When the paint is over…

I will say it right now. Many factors considered, I don’t know if I will be going for Paint-A-Home next year…

* The title is a reference to the background theme of Anji from the game Guilty Gear XX #Reload.

Missing

It really has been a year since Paint-A-Home 2008…

This one is a bit unclear but it’s there…

This year… Paint-A-Home X. One weekend down, one weekend to go. We have come full circle to the home we visited three years ago, to put touches on places we have been unable to conquer the last time. Our train and fifty-four-metre murals have been kept intact, albeit slightly ravaged by the weather. Some of the art in the dormitories however, made way for a fresh coat of life.

Cracking walls, peeling paint…

There was something different about this Paint-A-Home from that of yesteryears, something the finger just cannot firmly put a point on. Perhaps it was the abundance of new faces or the lack of art or the need to compare because we are basically conducting the same Project at the same place. I liken it to contrasting a novel and its movie adaptation.

One done but the other unfinished =(

There were less colours this weekend past. Most of the time, volunteers white-washed, before coating the walls orange and doors chocolate. Two small walls and an unfinished corridor accounted for the variety in colours. It was a huge pity, in my opinion, that the painstaking chalkmarks of would-be art went unrequited as dusk swept over the home. Maybe they will be there five days later, ready to be worked on. Maybe they won’t and the new volunteers will have to redo them. Maybe the plan will be scrapped altogether. Consistencies and homogeneous blends, will the corridor feel like one piece of work when all this is over?

Paint and Art

One thing I’ve come to learn is that it is not just the paints, colours and exciting pictures we paint on the walls that make this Project. Even though it is "Paint-A-Home", the volunteers, helpers, and organisers all can make so much of a difference in terms of the experience. It’s in the people and perception factor. Maybe it’s because of all the Publicity work bringing me up and down, around and about, that has allowed me to glean so much more.

History of this CSC Trolley – Was newly purchased, very clean till it went for its first assignment: P-A-H 2006. There it subsequently gained its paint-splashed status =)

This one continues, this coming weekend…

* The title is a reference to Ending Theme 3 from the game Guilty Gear XX #Reload.

Meet Again

Friday out with five friends to Johor Bahru, specifically Johor Bahru City Square. Friday night in with seven friends for an overnight mahjong session. All in a day’s, and night’s, efforts, all with friends from CSC. I wonder if there’s a word, a word for making good friends who get together over the years after all the fun and party that brought them together has finished and to continually construct memories together henceforth, as though that dream had never stopped.

May is the month of movies with much exciting stuff that I had been looking forward to, coming to the theatres. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, J. J. Abrams’s Star Trek, film adaptation of Dan Brown’s Angels And Demons and the set-in-the-future prequel-sequel that is Terminator Salvation. Junhui, Renhong, Joo Chuan, Yun Cai, Denise and I caught Wolverine for RM11 per person which was really not a bad deal for a movie on a public holiday.

The show was passable so long as you gloss over the various characters introduced. My personal gripe would have to be Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool. He was so much less than what I had expected. Perhaps this exemplifies an instance a comic-book character that works so well on pages breaking the fourth wall and bantering while kicking the hell out of his enemies, should just remain on the pages. Wade Wilson rocks but I don’t know if the big screen is ready for him, or will ever be for that matter. Overall, the film is passable for slightly over one-and-a-half hours of entertainment.

I would not consider my day trip to Johor to be some form of overseas travel since all we did was confine ourselves to a shopping mall, without any sightseeing of the surrounding areas. The mahjong session saw the six of us joined by Xi Qian and Yiwen for a 2-table overnight session. We played till dawn broke! I haven’t had such a draining overnight game for some time. I think I’ll need a lot more time to recharge before embarking on something like that any time soon.

This long weekend I had hoped to be at some destination away from the shores of Singapore. But I guess, so long as one is with the company of friends, anywhere is fine =)

* The title is a reference to the background theme of Justice from the game Guilty Gear XX #Reload.

Boom Town Blues

Watchmen was a great show, compounded by the fact I had not read the visual novel prior to the watch. After the critically-acclaimed but personally-disappointing The Lord Of The Rings, I think it’s best if I start with the summary that is the movie before opening my eyes to the written work.

KTV on a Friday night is expensive. Yet the price was made worth by the company, and not forgetting the sashimi that was part of the singing and buffet package. More to work than just the 9-to-5 routine, the co-workers in our project teams. In fact the group of us all came from different departments, the common thread being we somehow knew each other from the same session of Orientation Module we attended for new-hires. If there were a cap of fortunes for work, I am indeed blessed to have been able to put quite a number of feathers in it. I don’t know about the future but as of this entry, I think the kind of people one is able to interact and hang out with at one’s workplace can really make or break one’s experience and morale. Ah, the words of a newbie to the working force.

Yet for all the triumphs listed above, what is it that has been persistently gnawing at my psyche for the past few days, forcing my thoughts?

* The title is a reference to Ending Theme 2 from the game Guilty Gear XX #Reload.

Simple Life

February gone, March arrives. The things we do today become memories of yesterday.

Neutron Dance

Life.
Trudge on.
No return.
Moments of fear.
Games and friends.
No indications of a bigger picture.
Work and music.
Glimpses of flashback.
No direction.
Trudge on.
Life.

* The title is a reference to the song by The Pointer Sisters.