Change!

The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation.
Meditation
Milarepa


Thus I conclude that rest is just transient for it is observable that shit happens again and again.
Seeking inner peace is worth a try to seek the solution.

Rhetorics.

Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury -- to me these have always been contemptible. I assume that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best for both the body and the mind.
Einstein, Albert
1879-1955 German-born American Physicist

Transfer of ownership.

The 2 aged skateboards finally found a new owner : My 02S54 classmate.
One actually belongs to my neighbour who didn't want it anymore and probably long forgotten this piece of wood.
Bearings still spinning reasonably well, sufficient to meet a newbie's highest demands and aspirations of doing the ollie.
The decks would last around half a year, depending on amount of training and abuse.
Hope Joseph doesn't get too obsessed with it (like I did) and neglect important bits of his life.

I hope I sensed correctly that the recent spate of vitriol spitting, paranoid guessing and negative emotions ended peacefully.

You haven't been open about it. But bro, hope it's ok.

3 shift descends.

The higher beings at the Squadron have begun their implementation of the 3 shift work duty for drivers after much contemplation and alternative ideas. How I wish they carried on thinking.
Anyway, it looks good and bad.
Day 1 : Duty
Day 2 : Dismount(Book-out)
Day 3 : Training (8-5)

It'd be splendid if Day 3 and 2 swapped places.
It indicates that I'll have to spend $20 more on transportation, see the base everyday, waking up around 6 am everyday for the following 1 year 3 months.

I sorta miss training though. However training has been ambiguous in its purpose, sai kang or training ? Train what ? How to wash vehicles ? Top up diesel ? Really work it out ?

I have to book in earlier than usual, fight with the kids for the train, stand for 1 hour every morning on bus and train, exacerbate my back strain, sleep with cigarette ash around me, get cooked by the heat in the bunk, face the current batch of NSmen that have a mysterious third hand, they also smoke, watch VCD/DVD and most importantly, they also retained the ability to chao keng.

Maybe I need some army ego to push myself on. Haha.

Defective neurological bridges.

The alarm went off and I slipped into my uniform and drove off with eyes like foggy goggles to the cookhouse. I was already a full-formed zombie. Having slept at 2 a.m. plus and waking up at 5:50 a.m. for breakfast duties, it was natural to doze off at every possible delivery stop.
Later at 8 a.m., it occurred to me that my mind was split.
A typical Chin Chong jest would warrant a 'go-away' arm swing from me when I didn't really want to, fortunately executed with minimal hostility. My volition and sub-consciousness didn't having a good normal cooperation.
Pretty much analogous to the topic on Corpus Callosum, "The arched bridge of nervous tissue that connects the two cerebral hemispheres, allowing communication between the right and left sides of the brain " (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition) .
The books have it that you get this cable snipped off, you read a book with your left eye and your left hand throws it away because the right hemisphere has little ability for language and gets bored. And you can't tell others what you're holding 'cos the right hemisphere doesn't know how to say ' Book '.

Teeth drilling.

" Ok, now I'm gonna do some scaling, there'll be quite a bit of water. If you cannot tahan the pain, please raise your hand. ", the Dental Officer commented with a light-hearted and professional tone.

The agony, soreness and pain passed.

I spat out an odd brown mixture of tea-like effluent with a red thick globule of fluid.
That was a first.
Every rinse still gave a brown effluent. Probably be the essence of my severe tea-drinking habit embedded in my enamel.

Now when I breathe in hard through the crevices between my teeth, I shiver with soreness and a sharp pain centralised at the teeth. Sometimes I think tartar was made to fill up such crevices and shield my teeth from such pain. Haha.

I thought I would have a grumpy DO, it turned out fortunately otherwise. =)

Blood emergencies.

You probably helped out or just encountered messages seeking help through blood donations, bone marrows for a patient nearing his/her last breath.
You would have also thought that it's a pretty slow process of gathering a sizeable donor group size, sometimes the emails you get are seriously and sadly outdated. And you probably doubted its authenticity.
What can be done ?
Pen your thoughts and maybe you'd want to express it out loud someday, to make a difference.

On repeat.

It's Norah Jones - Don't know why.
It's so jazzy it makes me feel like going to a pub.
Somewhere like Balaclava.
That place changed my perspective(biasness) on night hangouts.
It's a place for 25 and above, so I guess that's why it's much more classy than other places.
Great live gigs.

Sand and the Sun.

There is pleasure in eating outdoors barefooted.
Instead of having fluorescent tube light illuminating your food, sunlight makes it better visually.
While resting on the balding grass patch, I wondered if footrot ever existed if people barefootedly traversed in such terrains day to day, these heated sandy grassy patches provided enough natural luxury of warmth for my feet.
But only for that moment, there and then.
If being thrown into the mighty and scary Brunei Jungle, I would think otherwise.
Wet jungle floor with black-brown litter is just yuck for the barefooted.

Pre-schooler Bryan called me over to join him for a bus ride.
I obliged respectfully and boarded his bus according to his liking.
It's just a piece of long plastic log, but it's a bus to him.
He held the red hula hoop, honked and told me, " Kor kor, let's take the bus to Sentosa. ".
Marcus came along with a watering pot full of sand and exclaimed, " Kor kor, I wash the bus. ".
My shirt almost got 'wet' with his washing sand. Haha.
They are cute but if only I could understand them very well and communicate like them, it would be a lot more fun.

Lose your vocab.

It struck me hard to finally realise I contracted the lose-your-vocab pandemic in my NS stint. I couldn't describe the weird noise that came from the wheels while driving, a Chinese description was easier in this case. Left with no choice but to be ambiguous, " Abnormal noise heard while driving, sound more prominent when reaching 40km/h and above. "
And I doubt the compatibility of prominent with noise.

This is a personal reminder.

To never be too serious.
To not getting too tongue-tied at anything.

FOLED

Flexible Organic Light Emitting Devices' the name.
http://www.universaldisplay.com/foled.htm

Rhinoceros and SMRT.

*draws out Flixonase from cupboard and prepares for inhalation*
Poh : " Eh, this one my brother use before, it's for the the... Rhinoceros one right ? ".
Me : " (broke out in hysterical laughter) YEa yea! Rhinoceros! HAha. Rhinitis lar ! Poh! ".
Poh laughing back.

Anyway I've got this fetish of calling him Poh Poh like those kids imitating car horns.

Ever since SMRT took over TIBS buses, there hasn't been much ergonomic improvement to the air-conditioning. It's seriously feels like a mortuary when the bus's less than half-full and/or you sit near the window. After 20 minutes, you might feel pain in your finger joints and your palms becomes noticeably cold. After 30-35 minutes, your hands are no longer nimble. Got air-con better than no air-con. Haha. SBS buses are probably less chilling.

I haven't taken them for ages.