Why I love National Day

Last Friday, I got an email from the OSA (Office of Students Affairs), informing us that there is this competition going on. I quote: "The South West Community Development Council (CDC) recently launched the South West Blog on 29 July 2006. In conjunction with the launch, we have a blog post competition. As August is the National Day month, our topic for the competition is "Why I Love National Day". The South West CDC would like to extend an invitation to NUS students to enter our blogging competition."

I'm not keen in the prizes but I guess it wouldn't harm to devote a single post to this topic either.

First and foremost, I love National Day because it is a public holiday. It basically means I get an additional, bonus Sunday to do whatever I deem fit, albeit, short of passing anti-government remarks or making comments that can be construed as seditious. Just for the record, I spent my National Day this year with Dear at the temporary Chinatown hawker centre, enjoying a good meal, while thousands were waiting for the yearly fireworks.

Oh yes, speaking of the fireworks, the extravagance never fail to amaze me. I wonder how much money goes up in flames, literally, but hey! Compared to our massive reserves that takes some 50 man-years to account for, the money spent on fireworks is simply loose change, isn't it? Besides, the fireworks also remind me of the pyrotechnics employed by the WWE for their weekly shows and PPVs. Oh, did I mention I am WWE fan? Add up all the pyrotechnics that WWE uses for one calendar year and you get roughly the amount that we expend in a single day.

Another reason why I love National Day is of course the parade itself. Why, it is the crux of the entire event. Usually, there will be a Commando contingent; it's easy to spot them with their red berets standing out prominently. As I watch them display their impeccable foot drill in their whiter-than-white uniforms, I give thanks that I'm not assoicated with that unit in any significant way. I mean, the Commandos did cheated in their record-keeping. And let's not forget the reckless instructors who callously ended the life of poor 19 year old.

I love National Day because August is the only month, apart from the election/campaigning months, when I get to see all the MPs (Member of Parliament) who are representing my constituency at one go. Pictures of them flashing toothy smiles will be put up, urging us to "Join the celebrations, Fly our flag". On other occasions, there will only be one MP who will grace the banners to give us his/her regards.

Most importantly, I love National Day because with each passing National Day, I get closer to the answer of a buring question of mine: Does necromancy exist? Can a medically certified dead octogenarian (or possibly a nonagenarian) revive on its own, à la Resident Evil style, and terrorise the living? Common logic and thought experiments say "No" but I would prefer to wait and see.

National Day, a day for millions of Singaporeans to celebrate, a day for me to love.

Big Brother is watching - Pictures

As I mentioned in a few posts earlier, I'll try to get pictures of the surveillance camera and here they are.

As you can see clearly in this picture, the camera is placed in a strategic position. Not only does it overlook the lift landing, it potentially covers several other areas as well.

I have no idea where it is pointed at but I guess it's either the lift landing, public tap (which is shown in the next picture) or the letterbox area, which is exactly where I took this picture from.

Oh yes, pardon the black patches. I covered the notice boards as well as the block number, lest my neighbours cry foul of privacy, security, blah...

The same area, just that this is the angle taken from the lift landing. Although the pictures look vastly different, they are taken in a space of less than a minute. It's just the effect of lighting that is messing things up.

Notice that the public tap (in the background) is potentially under surveillance too? Perhaps one too many resident has been trying to keep his/her utilities bills down and exploited the public tap for personal use and the authorities are pissed enough to put up a camera as a form of deterrence. You know, same concept as a speed camera.

By the way, the camera cable runs all the way to a switch room beside the lift landing. Who has access to that room? I do not know but I have no wish to know either.

Small Cat Journal

I've decided to come up with a new blog, entitled Small Cat Journal. It will be a platform for me to put up the various cat pictures that I have lying around. Read more here.

Oh yeah. I've added it as a new link in the side bar to the right.

Adsense

I tried this thingy called Adsense. Supposedly, it places ads on my blog. Look at the part just below the title of the blog. See how nicely it blends in ? Pretty neat, I say.

OK, I know, I know. It has been around for ages. I'm just not as fast as in adopting certain things.

Status... Recovered!

After answering the call of nature, I beamed with joy when I saw the feces - it was solid. So, what's the big deal with solid feces? Almost everyone excrete solid waste everyday. Am I going nuts? Nah... You see, when you're having the runs (I mean real bad kind) for two straight days, it's really great to be passing out solid waste.

Chronology Start

Sunday. 0440
My stomach felt like there was a hurricane building up in there. I barely had time to make it to the toilet before soiling myself. Moments after I stepped out of the toilet, I rushed back in, only to fire a second salvo. After the second onslaught, I made it further this time - to my room. Luck was not with me, for a third round came, forcing me to dash to the toilet. The rapid and sudden loss of fluids combined with fatigue managed to knock me out. But not before I swallowed 2 charcoal tablets.

Sunday. 1150
I woke up from a bad dream. Can't exactly remember what it was but it wasn't good. My tongue and throat were parched. The cramps and pains were gone but I took 2 more charcoal tablets for good measure.

Sunday. 1430
I enjoyed lunch - a plate of vegetarian bee hoon with some barley drink. My stomach felt OK. Or so I thought.

Sunday. 1530
I repeated what I did in the early morning, this time round, with greater intensity.

Sunday. 1750
I vomited what is left of the lunch that was not expelled out earlier on. I felt my body temperature rising.

Sunday. 1940
Oral temperature registered at 37.8 degrees Celsius, approximately 1.3 degrees higher than my normal temperature. Mom passed me 2 paracetamol tablets and commented, "Hiya! Army boy how come stomach so weak?" Curled up in bed and shivering, I was too busy experiencing the debilitating effects of feeling cold and hot simultaneously to put up a rebuttal. I gulped down the meds and drifted off into intermittent sleep.

Sunday. 1140
Oral temperature registered at 37.7 degrees Celsius. Not much of an improvement there, so I downed another 2 paracetamol tablets. I had to get well, or at least well enough to attend class the next day.

Monday. 0648
The fever has gone down but I felt totally wasted. I managed to consumed a slice of bread, only to excrete it out in a mixture of runny waste and mucus a few hours later. Same thing goes for the lunch - a pile of gooey goo. I took 2 charcoal tablets before going to bed.

Tuesday. 0703
I took 2 charcoal tablets, telling myself, "This it it. If my next crapping session does not improve, I'm going to get some professional help and get myself examined."

Tuesday. 1440
Refer to the very first sentence of this post. Since I've more or less recovered, I shall forgo seeing a doctor. Unless things get bad again.

Chronology End

I did a quick check on the Internet based on the symptons that I exhibited and it turns out that I may be suffering from an acute case of bacterial/viral infection in the digestive system; that explains the fever.

I guess it's just another case of food poisoning for me. However, this is not the worst. The worst was when I vomited 8 times and had diarrhoea 3 times within a span of 3 of hours. Although I was not enfeebled by fever then, the sheer loss of fluids through vomitting was equally terrible.

Could it be luck? Or perhaps genetics? I seem to be pretty prone to food poisoning. Or maybe I should just be more careful of what I attempt to ingest. Oh yes, Mom had the same bee hoon that I ate, so the cause was something before the bee hoon. I suspect that it has something to do with my dinner on Saturday night. Oh well, I will just blame it on pure (bad) luck. After all, it is statistically possible for me to get food poisoning for every single food item I eat, isn't it?

I think I've digressed quite a bit. My aim of this post is to say how great it felt to be free from sickness - it really is. The feeling of knowing that I have somewhat recovered is... simply exhilarating. No more "peeing" via the anus. No more taking medicine. No more lying on the bed, feeling frail and helpless. No more feeling ill and sickly.

I had a small debate with Andrew some time ago on the issue of "health vs wealth". He is in the opinion that health is more important than wealth, while my stance is that wealth ranks first. His reasoning was that health cannot be bought regardless of wealth and if one is healthy, life would be much better than compared to being sick but rich. I countered, saying that assuming one has great wealth, a multitude of health problems can be solved. For instance, if a rich chap suffers from kidney or heart disease, he can simply buy a replacement organ off the black market. Furthermore, the rich can better afford to spend on tonics and what-nots to strengthen their bodies, thus achieving the effect of been healthy.

After this recent episode of food poisoning, I soften my stance a little. It is somewhat true that health matters more than wealth. Even I have infinite wealth, I doubt there's much doctors can do to alleviate my suffering when I was writhing in agony on my bed. Well, short of giving me a morphine shot to either euthanise me or to reduce my pain, that is. They simply can't offer any pancea that can transform me instantly from a sick person to one who is perfectly healthy.

As a Chinese saying goes, life sucks 80% to 90% of the time. That being said, I really want to revel in my newly recovered form, the rare 10% to 20% of life that is truly great.

Big Brother is watching

This is just a short post to while away some time, since there's roughly 20min before lesson begins. So, here I am, on the second day of the new semester, typing away furiously in the library's computer lab.

I noticed a new addition to the lift landing of the block that I live in. Guess what? It's a frickin' surveillance camera! Although it is encased within a plastic dome that is darkly-tinted, I presume that the camera is capturing footage of activities at the lift landing. So much for privacy, huh? So, what's next? Install a brain-wave scanning device in my room to check for dissident thoughts? *rolls eyes*

If the authorities (or whoever put that piece of crap there) were asked regarding the camera's purpose, most probably, it will be something along this line, "Terrorists... dangerous... ensure security... need to safeguard... blah blah" Aww, come on! Does it make any significant impact to bomb a residential estate? How does it further the terrorists' political cause? Besides, if the terrorists manage to make it that far to plant a bomb in a residential estate, then it clearly demonstrates the ineptness of the local customs. Sometimes, people just don't pause to think.

Oh yes. If the town council want us to pay for its new toy, I'm against it. Firstly, I did not recall asking for a surveillance camera. Secondly, even if it is in the interest of security, it's the responsibility of the authorities to provide this basic level of security and thus, unjustified that residents are made to pay. Seriously now, they don't really think a surveillance camera is going to deter terrorists, do they?

Gotta rush for lesson! I'll post some pictures, if possible. Remember now, Big Brother is watching.

Big (Not-so) Sweet Land - Pictures

It's been roughly 3 weeks since I last updated my blog. Partially, it's due to my laziness. Another reason was my lack of motivation to write. You see, motivation is everything. After surfing the web blindly for a few hours and reading a few random blogs that are pretty up-to-date, I decided to do something about mine too.

Hence, I completed the previous post, which I left off as a draft for 3 weeks. And now, this post will be composed of pictures that were supposed to be in the previous post. In fact, this post will be more like a "show and tell" kind of thing. Here we go!

In the previous post, remember how I said I continue someone's game? You can see in the picture below that there are 6 bars lit on the arm. Oh yes. That's the mechanical arm I've been talking about. You can see the mini-roulette at the top too.

When the person left, the machine was left in this state and Dear and I pick up the scraps from there. The number of bars flashing indicates how many bars you will start with if you play the game. In this case, the game starts off as at bar 6.

On the left is how the mechanical arm will normally appear. Notice that no bars are lit. Actually, the bar right at the bottom will flash occasionally but it just didn't do so when I snapped it. The reason why I used the phrase "normally appear" is that regardless of how many bars are lit on the mechanical arm, it will reset itself after some time, if no one continues the game.

Think of it like those typical joystick + buttons arcade games. In the event of a game over, there will be a timer counting down. If no one continues, the next game will start from scratch. Simple analogy there.

And this is how it will look like after a jackpot win. All bars will be lit and will flash intermittently. It doesn't matter if the jackpot win is gained from the mini-roulette or from the slow and arduous way; the display will still look like this.

If you are eagle-eyed, you will notice two signs on either side of the arm. Those signs states that you can exchange any of the jackpot prize before the game starts and no exchange can be made after the prize is won. Apparently, it is some form of stipulation set out by the management of the arcade. This stipulation may or may not apply to other regions.

Here are the vertical cylinders. Upon reaching the various bonus levels, the base of the cylinder will move up and the arm on the top will rotate in a circular fashion to dispense the contents.