Littering.

Ranting relieves the strain of the mind and this army computer is really horribly slow.

I've been leaping around trees trying to pinch off rambutan samples and it occurred to me that I don't really bother if I spit the seed or throw its skin on the grass patch. Such littering may be deemed as uncivilised but I deeply felt that our disconcern for environment orderliness and cleanliness is important for evolution to take place.

Are we perpetrators of random seed dispersal by nature ?

We litter foodstuff after we consume it, somewhere near the point of acquisition or near our shelter. We spit out seeds, dig out seeds, sequester them through various means and toss them randomly. If we were not that knowledgable, we coat the seed with excreta in the intestines and give them a good head-start in life. For the unfortunate plant life, they fail to sprout but become nutrients for the surviving.

Right. I'm disorganised at the moment. This com is giving me headaches.

My house's seismograph.

It can predict earthquakes days in advance, it's simple to intepret and easy to maintain, so does my mum say.
Though it can't tell you the magnitude or location, my mum says it has been spot on in predicting the possibility of earthquakes.

You have heard about elephants getting petrified way before the tsunami came, now you heard my goldfishes panicking, flipping and flapping water at my mum's face days before an earthquake.

The latest readings indicate a possible earthquake --- Stay Alert, Friends!


Are you a firefox user ? I just installed this extension from AccuWeather.com called ForecastFox and I feel that it's quite cool. It has radar which shows the regional satelites photos, though Asia doesn't really show up, but I still see Aussie with a bit of SG near it. It shows weather forecasts for 3 consecutives days from the present(inclusive). When you shift the arrow over the the weather icons, it'll show the location, temperature, wind direction and velocity and weather.
It just updated itself while I blogged, kinda cool eh?

11 more months to ORD.

The ingredients for passing time quickly would be to be at peace with oneself and what one's situation is like. Keep oneself occupied with meaningful tasks and positive thoughts.
I remember a platoon mate opening up his notebook and ticking a number daily. It was pointless ticking calendar dates like what he did, nothing can be optimistic when you know you have 700+ days of NS left to serve.
I like the dawn and dusk of each day.
The cooling morning breeze with bird chirpings, complete with idyllic atmosphere feels relaxing.
After the intense angulated orange beam draws near the horizon, it's glad to know after a sleep, the day has passed and ORD's closer.
11 more months.

What a harvest.

Yes, it's durian harvesting yet again!
This time we weren't that disappointed because we came back with more than 60 durians!
Neither was my mum for I brought home 6 durians!

But I doubt I'd go on another harvesting out in the jungle, I got attacked my tough, resilient mosquitos and most importantly, almost ran out of water. The weather was really really hot.

The myth that durians only drop at night as been debunked. We were shuddered but yet excited when we heard, " *rustling sound* THOBBBBBBBBB *rustling sound* ".
" Eh, Liu Lian Diao Liao !! "
" Wah, Xia Xi Ren.... ".
*palm hands together* and kinda like prayed to the tree hoping it won't drop again. Haha.

Some trees gave a yummy harvest. We kept on picking and picking and requesting for more and more bags. There was one particular tree that yielded super big durians, bet they'll fetch $15/piece.

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the feast. =)

Painful mess.

I believe that's what my friends would have thought of if they came to my room.
It's a tiny room with a single bed, 2 computer tables and various stuff that come close to a decade of existence. In the past, we were hestitant to throw away certain stuff, like the lao kok kok computer and its accompanying table, now it's perhaps that we do some elimination.
I strive for being minimal for my room style. But heck, that's just my fantasy.
The volume of receipts, A4 papers and published material simply increase everyday but thankfully I don't get pissed off looking at it that often. Managed studying through with this mess for my papers in the past. Haha.

I wonder how my new room should be like.
I hope to have my Apple Powerbook and acquire wireless network while at it.
When Powerbook comes, that means I can really free up my table.

On the table, I have papers spreaded across it, overlapping one another in a painful mess.
Ranging from my dad's stuff to my scribblings and guitar tablatures. Half-used tissue packets are another prominent feature.

Beneath the table, another painful mess.
Here resides the thick books : Textbooks since secondary school, LKY Memoirs, Dictionaries, Idiom collections, Folders, a pack of A4 paper, discarded plastic bags, YELLOW PAGES(super bulky, though they made a CD-ROM, I never bothered using it), SAF Pioneer magazines. -_-

Hmm... I think concealment of hideous things would be the trick. =)
Maybe I'll pack off to the hostel and pissed off my roommate with yet another mess.

I'm a minimalist- For I don't do much.

A modest harvest.

Though it's only 2, I'm glad my mum enjoyed savouring Tengah durians. I count myself lucky to be able to spot 2 newly dropped durians last night while on patrol. The craze for picking durians and jungle-trekking for them has probably died down after my mum ate the durians. Mission accomplished. =)
People have fallen ill after large doses of the yellow flesh, grown ulcers and personally, my voice lost clear articulation.

Faced with so many durians these days, most of us at the squadron have probably become experts in choosing and opening it: Smell the butt, feel the thorns, shake the durian; Jab the butt, twist, peel.

With regards to choosing fruits in general, I humbly put forth my views on general choosing.
1. Smell the bottom e.g. Honeydew, durian. There should be a sweeeet smell. Esters yea ?
2. Note the colour, that's quite duh.
3. Feel the softness of the outer skin.
4. Slap it to sense for level of 'wateriness' if it deserves wateriness. e.g. Watermelon (probably the only proper example)
5. Be like an animal. Let your primordial instincts do the job. Be in awe at your innate subconscious skills!

And next week, it's time for rambutans!

Durian Desperation.

After hours of extensive searching of durian trees and scavenging of jungle litter, we have found NO edible durians.
But it was a good experience, a very fun and kampung experience.
All in all we've located 7 durian trees and more than 13 rambutan trees. It can be said that rambutan trees are more common than durian trees after bashing through spider-web laced jungle tracks and virgin jungles in desperation.
My first durian tree was located in a heavily vegetated area with grasses as tall as me and as thick as a maize plantation. Our guiding light were simply those majestic weathered-looking golden-bronze durian trees. Some got to it earlier than us as one can obviously see the trampled vegetation. It feels good that for once, us city boys, managed to see a durian tree in all its splendour and beauty. People just go, " NehHH!! Ni Kan!! Liu Lian! Yi Li, Liang Li!! (Look! Durian! One, two durians!)".
But......... one'd also be pissed to find great-looking durians on the ground only to discover holes and legions of ants invading its underside. Even more pissed to see durians neatly ripped apart.
Well, we kinda got tired staring at durian trees all day, I even see them when I close my eyes.
So at night fall, we launched our operation and brought ladder to the trees. Our friend bravely climbed up and plucked one neat-looking durian down.
But as predicted, it wasn't ripe. Thatttt ripe yet.
Considering the no. of inedible durians turning soft and blackish on the ground, we couldn't be bothered, after all we got a fresh one and we could just wrap it up and let ethene do its work.

The lure of the durian is great!

Breaking.

" Eh SM! How do you break the cupboard lock ah ? You all normally use what ? "
" Eh, we all use ET stick. The fatter end. "
" Need ET blade ? "
" Nah. "
" What brand is it ? "
" Yale. "
" Try smacking it right in the face like your backhand squash stroke..... is it big or small ? "
" Quite small "
" As big as the thumb ? "
" Yah. "
" Ok, you know the U-shaped metallic part right ? Position it such that it looks like a C to you and lock it in place. Then whack it hard down on the gold lock and break the metallic part. "

Dan was on the line asking for help and you can see that in the army we learn to break locks.

Thambi!

As an avid fan of Goodness Gracious Me, yesterday's event in the lift left me utterly amused and appearing a lil' racist.
An indian uncle came into the lift together with my mum, adam and me.
" Your grandson ah ? "
" No.... God-son. "
"Oh! *tickles adam's cheeks* Ehhhh THAMBI THAMBI!!! ".
HAha. I restrainted myself from laughing too much and too loud. But it's just like a typical scene from GGM! With all its accent and racial cultural highlights.

I couldn't help but immediately follow suit, " EH~ THAMBI! THAMBI! ".
It was good, at least the uncle didn't seem to mind. Haha. Too spontaneous.

Speedy Gonzales.

"Arriba! Arriba! Ándale! Ándale! EEEHAH!".
I vividly remember screaming this phrase while I was young, especially during sprinting races.
It gave extra boost and made me believe I could seriously smoke everyone.
Now I wonder if the mexican Speedy Gonzales has anything to do with my obsession for things Flamenco.
Yes! Spanish's a spoken language there and root of Flamenco.

Alzapua's a flamenco guitar technique which I just barely learnt yesterday and it's tough and weird.
It only requires the thumb.
You only use your thumb to play the WHOLE song. If you were thinking about note by note music like Canon in D, it's far more like machine gunning.
There are, however, some experts using the index finger in addition to the thumb.

http://www.ctv.es/USERS/norman/pmiexc.htm

From the first guitar lesson, my teacher who studied in Spain, taught us to strum only with our index finger. It was a funny, awkward action. Stereotypically, I guess, strumming is more like swinging arms with a pick. However, now we have this hotdog-like finger flicking the strings.
The bonus of this method is that it has a greater percussive effect.

Flamenco techniques are simple and awkward. Extremely effective.

3rd Enlistment.

Today Danvin finally got enlisted.
I do not know whether it's good news or not because his Officer Commanding is a Commando.
Of all 3 enlistment ceremonies, Joseph's the first and mine's the second, dan's seems slightly different. Maybe because of the edited video.
Certainly more different and fortunate for him is that he'll be out in exactly 14 days. No more no less. The bonus : he gets to enjoy a very long weekend : Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun.
An even greater bonus is that after his POP, he gets 13 days of block leave. When old birds like us get probably close to 10. Or maybe 7 or 8 for some.

Personally, my OC in BMTC was an ex-commando and very much inspirational.
How many can actually give a lecture, albeit short, while hanging from the low rope ?
He speaks of coarse words, but with refined intents.
I'm certain that one of the most valuable things learnt back then was, " Check clear then load! ".
This need not apply only to the M16, but also to many things in life.
This quote's ubiquitous link was awakened in us when he humourously quoted it while we were complaining about the poor water quality.
" Aiyah, you all neber check clear then load, of course yellow lar! Next time everything CHECK CLEAR! THEN LOAD ! At first water come out can be yellow, so try again. Go field camp ah, take your boots, check clear! then wear ! ".

Let's watch Army do its miracle. May Danvin be slim.

Dreams.

It's been about the third time since dreams of a real-like nature occurred and I was conscious of it. Sometimes they feel damn real that I google all the terms encountered in the dream only to find that they don't. But this morning's dream had a term that sorta exists.
The ' Leon Award '.
I met a beautiful girl in my dreams and she passed me her bag. Somehow it was open, I took one of the binded books out and saw ' Leon Award '.
I turned further, " Golf has been a package of sex, money and tourism. ".

Then my alarm rang.

A google result reveal that 'Leon Award' has a couple of close matches, didn't really dug further to isolate the exact match.

Now I'll check on the golf part.

It's clean.

Anyway, another such dream was a maths tutorial teaching a geometric technique called something like, 'circumprobe'. And Miss Chan was the teacher. Haha. I was still with the old class. Same people, same air-con room, same quiet atmosphere.

What was I after ?

After reading so many blogs peppered with 'studying' and 'exams', memories of my last exam paper came back.
There was a sense of loss, which I probably narrated many times.
So on the bus ride home, I thought, " So what now ? ". Prom didn't interest me, it was just a way to prevent getting too nostalgic while idling at home.
The cultural, pragmatic and mind-settling function deemed of me and which I was interested in has been fulfilled, for my age that is.
Thinking back now, I feel it's important to be happy in the now. This very moment.
Because the past and the future are very big chunks of time filled with endless wordly affairs inevitably giving you stress because of discomfort recollecting memories and uncertainty ahead.
The past is an archive which is 'Read-on', so too bad, it's like a CD-R. The future is a mystery.
It's common sense stating and defining these 2 terms, but many are entrapped between these 2 things and feel miserable.
Don't be bothered by the past, maybe plan a little for the future.

Sweeten your mind.