Shadowing at work...

Hello people, welcome to my blog again... Today, i am going to introduce a new word to you...

" Shadowing "

Well, what does the word really mean?

According to Dictionary.com, it simply means:

1. To cast a shadow on; shade.
2. To make gloomy or dark; cloud.
3. To represent vaguely, mysteriously, or prophetically.
4. To darken in a painting or drawing; shade in.
5. To follow, especially in secret; trail.
6. Sports. To guard (an opponent) closely throughout the playing area, especially in ice hockey.

Hah!

That is exactly what I did today... For those who didn't know, I am working in NUS ok ? Today was actually the State of the University Address 2004. I was assigned to shadow the ex-provost of NUS. (Refer to option 5 / 6 above...) Quite a nice person, I would say as he chatted with me while I escorted him to the VIP Suite.

hmm... don't know why but I feel a strange sort of affinity with him... Err... maybe because we are both suffering from some sort of opthalmic problem? hmm...

Remember the movie " The Bodyguard " ? My role is some thing like Kevin Costner's.... But no... the assignment is not that dangerous and the person I am suppose to escort is not facing death threats or anything K? I am just suppose to take care of him while he's here for the event (remember the opthalmic prob?). I mean the bodyguard look lah.... The formal shirt - tie combination with name-tag and....

* drum-roll please.....*

The walkie-talkie of course!

Come on, which self-respecting bodyguard doesn't come with one ? It's a icon man.... Watch CNN, Channel NewsAsia... Now pay close attention to those guys standing in the background whenever the US president appears on TV. Those big hulking guys in suits with weird contraptions sticking out of their ears ?

Secret Service Agents....

All I need is a pair of sunglasses to complete the look. Oh yes, and wear that famous scowl on face... * act menacing *

Was shadowing him nicely throughout the event till the tea reception when he was suddenly swarmed by other guests who wanted to talk to him... He's a popular guy, i suppose, even the NUS president came over and gave him a pat on the back... All this while I was keeping an eye on him and scowling at anyone who looked over in my direction... It was fun man!

My scowling and menacing look did not work on the photographer apparently as he actually came over and asked me to look after his camera bag!

Drats! Just when I was entertaining fancy notions about being a bodyguard and everything.....

Working and Spending...

I always think that its fun working and earning your own keep. Why? The money of course lah... Money can be use to buy the things you want mah... For guys, that would be games, gadgets, gizmos.... For girls, that would be accessories, clothes, makeup etc...

Being human, we all have our wants.... Lets examine the spending of 2 friend of mine shall we?

Male friend A - dressed to kill type who holds true to the philosphy " Clothes maketh the man", decked out in the coolest clothing eg. quiksilver berms, disel watch, braun buffel wallet, project blood bro bag, quiksilver sneakers.... Oh yeah, add a creative muvo slim and Dell notebook to it.

Pretty impressive for a tetiary student... I admire him actually, not his undeniable style but rather his utmost willingness to spend. I just couldn't do it.... I would breakdown at the cashier man...

Male Friend B - Gadget freak who holds true to the philosphy " At the forefront of technology ", equipped with a PS Two, Canon Ixus, HP IPAQ, i-River CD mp3 player. i-River flash mp3 player, hardware magazines and many more....

Interested in the latest and coolest gadgets. Ask him if yo need any gadgets or appliance. Once, I got a female friend who approached him for his advice on hi-fi.... haha.... I also approached him when i was mulling over my decision on which pocket PC to get....

Together, they epitomise the spending pattern of a male poly tertiary student at least... I think. I am a male too and sad to say, I am something like them... checked my account yesterday and discovered that my pay is in... drats ! looks like I will engage in some form of spending soon...

After that, its back to being a pauper again...

Work again! Holidays over!

There goes the long weekend.

I am extremely shag after going out everyday for the long holidays.... Singapore is indeed small man. I see my friends no matter where I go....

On saturday, I saw my colleague, Cookie at Bugis Junction! She was shopping with her friend... hahaha! wonder if she bought anything ? Then I went to Kinokuniya to look at manga. I was waiting for the newest edition of " bowling king " to hit the stores. Drats ! out of luck again! The latest edition is still not out yet...

The bored side of me decided to go over to the magazine section to check out the magazines... out of the blue, i was given a pat at the shoulder, I immediately turned and saw...... ZHEN WEI ! hahaha! ZW is a venture from Fox Scout Troop... We spoke for a while on current happenings... he let slipped that he is going for his President Scout Award next year.... hmm... I must get ASL Nicholas to push the Ventures harder now....

Wandered to the Bugis Bazaar and saw Fenni and her BF! I was some distance away from her and decided not to yell out her name as the street was quite crowded and I was afraid to be mistaken as a lunatic. hahahaha !

Oh yeah! Today, I saw Fenni again at Tampines while on my way to the MRT. This time round, I stopped to talked to her a bit... she was doing a beauty promotion of some kind. Not very sure what promotion but sure hopes that she has a great time!

Whew!

Why do I keep running into friends huh?

Pre-enlistment checkup blues...

Went for the pre-enlistment check-up earlier today.... Took me almost an entire day! Where is the effciency man ? My slot is slated at 10.30 p.m, by the time I finished, it was almost 4.30 p.m man... My poor friend, Gary, whose slot is at 2 p.m had to come back another day just to do his computer evaluation test. Oh yeah! the test was damn difficult, I didn't finish alot of the questions and there was a section which i totally dun understand what they are asking me to do... It is the first time in my life that I did a test with instructions that creates even more abiguity after you read it....

Also, the stupid test was created in such a way that you can't go back to view the instructions after you pressed the start button. The start button is actually the "+" button on the keyboard. Once you finish the question, you press the "+" button to go to the next question. the same applies for the different section. Think "+" button = "Enter" button on the keyboard. I was pressing the "+" button too fast and i only caught a glimpse of the instructions for the language proficiency section!

* What the !%$&^@*&^ ! *

In the end, I decided to anyhow hantam the answers for that particular section. Since I might get lucky and get a few questions correct. But somehow, I am convinced that the system who evaluates me probably thinks that I am the most illiterate male about to be enlisted into the army in the entire history of SAF.

Hahaha ! Stupid right ?

Now to share my stupid PES status. I am PES "D". In the soldier's handbook, PES "D" is classified as a temporarily unfit status pending further medical review. Poor me was actually afflicted with allergy induced conjuntivitis, I was the first to declare my condition at the eye checkup section. Not because I want to keng NS ok? I was being honest man! what if I died while doing NS because I didn't revealed my condition ? or worse still go blind ? no point sacrificing so much just to do NS right? Anyway, those medical technicians there obviously didn't have any idea on what the condition allergy induced kerato-conjuctivitis actually means. Heck, they dun even know how to spell it! I know because I was the one who spelled "kerato" for them. To top it off, I was asked to wait for at least 25 mins so that they can decide on the correct procedures to deal with cases like me.

So exciting man !

Finally, while in the waiting area, a nurse came by, barked my name and asked me to go into the eye checkup room with her. An summarised excerpt of our conversation:

Nurse: Ok, now i am going to classify you under the PES "D" category. You will have to come back another day to do some medical test.

Me: Can I go to my specialist instead? I am seeing one specialist now at the Singapore National Eye Centre...

Nurse: No. Cannot.

Me: My specialist will know my condition better, I have been seeing him for a few years already....

Nurse: Just come back can? Got anything you tell the doctor!

Me: Ok... when?

Nurse: 25th November 2004, 2.00 p.m

Me: Err... Can i pick another day? I am working on that day... Can i choose a day in Dec?

Nurse: Cannot! you have to come back in the same month! Blah blah blah !

Me: I really cannot! I have been taking too much leave already! *guilt overcomes me*

Nurse: I am sure you can make it on that day! Because if you don't turn up on that day, WE WILL CHARGE YOU! ok? You want to be fined and convicted is it ?

Me: huh?

( Nurse takes form and points to Section 33 of the Enlistment Act. )

Me: *aggrieved* I see !

***

// The above excerpt is exaggerated! The gist of the conversation is the same nonetheless.... )



Now I know why everybody feels screwed when they are serving.

My sis is stressing me out with her lack-lustre results.... Argh!~

While rummaging through my stuff for the pre-entlistment check-up, I saw my secondary school report book and decides to have a talk to sis about her future options, considering her not so stellar results. Yeah. Sis is sec 2 going onto sec 3 and doing her subject selections.

The first thing I showed her was my extremely dismal results... failed maths for 2.5 years consecutively... Hahaha !~ I had forgotten my maths sucks when i was in lower sec... anyway, i was telling her that as long as you worked hard, you would be able to do it. With that, I will flip a few page and show her my math results for upper sec... There ! A marked improvement over my maths results, managed to change the tides from red ink to blue ink...

My sis was telling me that she is not sure if she wants to do A-maths or accounts. I told her to pick A-maths but she was very apprehensive about it. She kept saying that her maths is not good and that she will be better off doing Accounts. I told her that she would need A maths in future if she wants to go into JC. (With the type of results she's getting now, she will probably go into poly.... following in my footstep. but must bring up her morale mah!) She was very adamant about doing accounts and i could feel myself getting angry. Why can't she just see where I am coming from ? Damn it... I really felt like shouting at her at that moment. I didn't shout at her in the end, because it was quite late and i didn't want to work the neighbours. Shouting probably wouldn't work here would it ?

Actually the main reason that i felt angry was probably due to the fact that her choices are probably influenced by her so-called friends. I think that they are a bunch of losers from what my sis has been telling me about them. The worst thing is that she actually think that they are uber-cool and great pals to hang around with. Duh!~ Most of her friends are probably picking accounts and thats why she is choosing that as well.

At the end of the talk, I feel that I have wasted my time and would be better off playing a skirmish of warcraft 3 against the computer. Then again, can't blame her as I probably wouldn't listen to my elder brother if he tried to talk to me about my choices at that age. I can't remember, but did my brother even tried?

???

Opps!~ Lazy to Blog this few days... hahaha !~

Peeps...

Sorry to neglect my blog for the last few days...
I was suffering from writer's blog....

Hahaha!~

Ok... I am going to come clean.... I was busy with watching anime and TV *feeling guilty*

Hey!~ Can't I watch anime? Give a grown guy a break! I was watching Naruto. To those who have never heard of it, the story starts with a baby who was chosen by a village to be the carrying vessel of a monsterous nine-tail fox which goes around wreaking havoc. The fox was contained with seals in the baby's stomach. This baby boy grew up and went on to enroll into a ninja academy... The boy's name is Uzumaki Naruto... (hope i spell the name correctly) and thus began his life of battling with evil ninjas who is bent on destruction and world domination at the same time learning cool ninja techniques and dealing with the angst of growing up.... reminds me of myself... (sigh!~ the growing up part i mean of course!)

Haha... thats all i am going to divulge... watch the anime to find out more yah! It's showing now on SCV channel 56 and available in VCDs in the comic shop in Century Square... Oh yes, I have recommenced working after slacking for so long...

Did I mention that dad, mum and sis got me a bottle of absolut vodka from their Thailand trip? I asked them to buy for me and they really did! Can you believe this? My parents actually advocate drinking ?!!! yeah! its 1 litre of poison but why am I so happy to have it? Think I am going to be drunk this few days....