Nonsense of the day:
Friend: Hey Qingwei, wanna anything to drink?
Me: Yar, mug....

Nonsense of the day:
Friend: What business do u have in business?
Me: Ermm...Just here to do business loh...(hands pointing to the toilet...)

IN VIEW OF THE INCOMING EXAMS, I WILL TRY TO UPLOAD A NONSENSE A DAY TO TRY TO LIFT EVERYONE'S MOOD. HOPE IT HELPS, AND IF IT GETS TOO LAME... HEY YOU MUST HAVE KNOWN ME PRETTY WELL TO KNOW OF THIS BLOG ISN'T IT?CHEERS!!=)

NONSENSE OF THE DAY:
If you think life is hard, check out the iron rods...

Of stress are building up?!
Dear TomHa,
Aiyo, now that everything is milding down, the real Halloween starts. No more labs, no more Auto-CADS, no more tutorials, and my week is going into a 3 day work week, not considering the 2 public holidays next week, you'll think that I am going to have life easy.

FAT HOPE

Team selection results for the Make It Real Student Mountaineering Program is only to come out this coming week, if I get in, I will have to start paying the vast amount of money for the New Zealand trip, a 50% weightage quiz is coming up, and to top it all up, I have 5 modules to prepare for the exam. Sounds exciting? Wow, bloody hell, please wake me up when the horrid November ends. Terrible month.

Actually I am really not sure what to write for this blog entry. You know, it had sort of becoming obligatory for me to write something online that sometimes I just come online and stare at the blogger dashboard thinking, geez what the hell am I doing here? What the hell am I suppose to write? You get serious blogger block when your life becomes as monotonous as a black and white erm zebra whose only hobby I suppose is to eat, sleep, shit and run as fast as they can away from those lions and hyenas. I seriously do not know what to write. And then, when something creative comes up when I am sitting alone in the bus listening to my mp3s, I just simple forget about them when I get home. It is just great. You go home feeling happy that you had thought up of something great only to find out that your screen is empty and WILL remain empty. And then you go complaining about how hard life is, standard blogger writestuff. I do not want to complain. But, there is seriously a lack of stuff to write if I don't complain. A viscious cycle starts, and you just want to complain about it. And then it goes on and on....

Been listening to a lot of Green Day these few days. A very good band, a very good blend of rock and soothing ballads. I like it. Check out wake me up when September ends and the marathon 9min++ rock song Jesus of Suburbia, two of my favourite songs in the album. The rest are great as well, but these are the 2 that made me go ga-ga about.

ARRR....

Of Risks
Dear TomHa,
It's been said that those French climbers who, while attempting to summit Mount Kanguru in Nepal and met with an avalanche are all but dead. My heart goes out to them as even their foreign minister is accepting the fact that they are dead, given the scale of the avalanche. A miracle is unlikely, but I hope that it does happen.

Thus is the beauty, majesty and cruelty of mountaineering as a sport whereby you are not fighting with anybody but Mother Nature. It is a sport wherby any wrong decisions on your part can get you killed. Have you heard of any athlete, whether he is canoeing, running, playing soccer, basketball etc getting killed in their pursuit for an Olympic Gold? Highly unlikely, except for those sad cases of sudden heart arrests and wrongful intake of drugs I guess. However, all I can say that at least they can get out of what they are doing at the snap of the finger. Giving up would not take your life. But in mountaineering, it is different. Going up is optional, going down is mandatory.. You climb Everest and you give up at 7000m but you still have an even arduous path of going down. That is perhaps why no one will label you sissy or whatever for giving up in the mountains. You give up only when you had reached your limit. However, you still have to face the elements again at that state of physical condition while going down. How tough is that?

Another example, of all those who had climbed K-2 and died trying so, more than half died during the descent. Sad but true fact. Thus, another aspect of mountaineering would be in risk assessment. You can't say you are a good climber if you can't assess the risks that are presented to you. You are flirting with death and really, the god of death is more than willing to send you to hell. It's been 51 years since K-2 was first summited. The number of climbers who had survived it is only a tenth of those of Everest. Imagine, there were NO attempts on K-2 in the 2001-2004 period. Such is the beauty of the world's hardest climb. And with a casualty rate of 26%, compared with Everest's 9.3%, it is an Olympic Medal meant to kill.

So enough crapping and back to studies. Let's hope that Miracles do happen.

Of Pre-exam Period
Dear TomHa,
Just right, I lost what I had typed and really, damn it, it was one of the funniest blog that I had ever typed. Just great. Stokes of genius don't come by so often you understand not, Blogger... Triple damn it.

So, I really hate the pre-exam period. If there is anything that I hate most, it is the pre-exam period. The madcap rushing of syllabus, lecturers and students alike. This is the period when the only definition of being productivity is to go though even more pages of your textbooks, even more pages of your notes, drain even more pens and foolscap paper. However, friday, saturday and surely now, sunday were wasted through going for tuitions, climbing, runs, painting of the Make-It-Real storeroom, alumni band, and of course, tuition again. My textbook are as new as those that are lying in the Co-op(ie our NUS bookshop) as remarked by Vincent (thanks man!) and my notes are as crisp and neat as though they were just printed (come to think of it, they were really freshly printed, oops!), and my pens and foolscap papers are still full of ink and in unused state. Wow! Sometimes, I just amaze myself about how I can waste my time...

Watched the newest Apple promo event 'One More Thing' on friday and first of all, I must really compliment Steve Jobs for being such a incredibly charismatic speaker that I stayed fixed on the computer screen for slightly lesser than 2 hours (Told ya I am terribly good at wasting time)watching him dishing out all his ever cooler gizmos that had me salivating at the end of the thing. I want the new iMac G5 and the new cool and chic black iPod! Partly, I should think that he is such a good speaker because of his confidence in his products. Afterall, if you had survived cancer, Bill Gates and Sim Wong Foo would be nothing. Argh... I think Daming deserves to be shot. He bought the new iPod and he like don't know anything about it and he was like taking it so nonchalantly! I would have gone heads over heels had I got one! What a waste iPod is on him! Haha..

Played Cartoon by Paul Hart at Alumni Band yesternight. Must say that it is a rather looney piece especially the series of trombone glisses at some parts that reminds of some cartoon that I cannot remember. Never mind, I don't have those parts.. only the first and seconds got it. Dang! That is like so fun! Never mind lah, can forgive Paul, afterall, he gave me a solo! Haha, albeit it is only 2 beats. Dang! Never mind, Ailin wasn't there yesternight, so I had quite a lot of solos as a result. Hehe. Impersonating Andrew, 有听到我的solo吗？Haha.

I want MovieOKE! Haha, there is this person in school who shares the same level of liking for LOTR as I do and we were like playing out the scence of the movie in boring lectures all the time, whenever we were sitting beside each other. Whether it is the gaying between Frodo and Sam or just simply the Rohirrim Charge along Pelennor, we done it all. However, what that makes me sad is that at the end of the day, I realised that I am a really good Orc actor compared to him who played the Rohan horsemen really well. Dang! And then I keep getting killed by him! We promised that should we have money in future and if no Singaporean has the brains enough to bring in MovieOKE (think KaraOKE), we will do it. To quote Russel Peters, Be a man, do the right thing!

Oh my, wasted another 2 hours... Ding Dang Wham Bang....

Of X
Dear TomHa,

She called me yesternight.

Haven't had her call for damn long a time.

Not much to say except for asking about each others' happenings.

She is not having it well recently.

Stress from school, work, family.

We reminisce the days we had together. Short but sweet, I must admit.

Afterall, how many first loves can you have?

Now, I can only love her as a friend.

Hope that she will survive these ordeals healthily.

All I can do is to cook herbal tea for her and wish her the best.

Just a change in the name of relationship that you share with someone can mean so much signisficant difference.

Sigh.. Yes, I know this entry is shocking, but don't ask too much questions about it.

Of 19th Oct 2005
Dear TomHa,
Somehow, I am going to remember this date for a long time to come, and generally, when someone says somthing like that, it only means 2 things: that too many bad things had come to him or the reverse. I am the lucky bastard who got the latter. Feeling so high from all the good experiences.

Why was I so high yesterday, as you might ask. Perhaps it is the 6 cups of caffeine (forgot how many coffee and how many tea) that I drained with fantastic effects as it kept me awake throughout all the lectures that I attend! A considerable feat, considering that I had NEVER been awake in those lectures and that I slept at 4am the previous night and woke up at 7am. Stupid lab reports and a looming examination equals no liberty to sleep for an engine student. Would not have slept much earlier anyway. Haha.

But this isn't what that kept me in a good mood for he whole of yesterday. What that made me really high was the fact that I was able to complete my unseen tutorial for the first time in history! Oh man, the last time I almost did it, the computer hang and time's up and I forgot to save.. So yah, very happy.

Next up was training climb adventure. Did abseiling and prussiking. Abseiling always sends your adrenalin rushing while for prussiking, somehow, I remembered how to go up but forgot how to come down! Was like hanging there for 10 min sweating my way trying to loosen those stupid prussiks. It was a good experience though. Since I was there already, decided to attempt the wall that I failed last saturday. And gosh, I don't know what is it with me that day or perhaps there were steroids in my food or something, but I completed it without breaking a sweat. Somehow, the relative ease was too scary to be true. But yeah, I was like happy like mad and jumping up and down like a monkey.

It was also yesterday that I finally decided that should I pass all the assessment and is allowed to go to New Zealand and stuff like that, I would definitely go all the way for it. Decided that I am going to part with my hard-earned savings and achieve something since I am like still freaking young. Wait for me.. NZ and Nepal and please let me stay healthy for the assessment...

Now that I had made the decision, did good for a test, climbed difficult walls and had the famous peanut ice-kachang, there is still something more that really made my day. I went home hungry after supper with the team (Oh yar, did I mention that I am starting to bond with them liao?) and there was leftover curry chicken! Ar.. the sweet things in life makes people really happy for a good long time.

Of Shuffle..
Dear TomHa,
I find it really funny somehow, that mp3 player, the Creative ZenNano (Alright, it came out before the Ipod nano, and seriously, it is not really good..)when switched to the shuffle mode, only churns out songs from 3 artistes: Linkin Park, SHE and Robbie Williams. I mean, of course I like these artistes but the point of the shuffle mode is such that I won't have to listen to those songs over and over again and have some variety in my quest for some entertainment on boring bus rides? How to overtake Apple like that, Mr Sim?

Got the photo from one of the North East line train and somehow, I find that the parallels between the father and daughter and the emperor penguin and its chick very cool. Now for some revelation, my favourite animal is actually the emperor penguin since I was a very young kid. Afterall, it is by far the only animal whose parenting touches me the most. I mean, imagine you braving the harsh colds of the ANTARCTICA for weeks with an egg between your eggs! I would have freaking cramps all around me and screaming like a whiny young girl! It is just so unimaginable! Jia gave me a pictorial of these birds on my birthday and all I could say is just 'Wow'. One fine day, I am just going to stalk those National Geographic photographers...

Discussed with Jiarong yesternight about tree climbings as she is like designing a clubhouse for the Sunshine tree climbing club (The club which I climbed trees with!) for her architecture project. I was like.. wow.. you have projects??(Typical mechanical engineering student I am..) Haha. But, seriously the chat evolved into a deep discussion of nature in the end (As I am totally screwed in designing that needs aesthical appeal) She said something along the line that in the end, we are the ones who needs nature, and nature does not need us one bit, BUT, we are the freaking ones who are spoiling it. Isn't that ironic? That we are spoiling things that we rely on to ensure our survival. The discussion went on and on so much that in the end, even I am rather ashamed of myself, a self proclaimed nature lover whose regular outdoor campings are just another mean, no matter how careful I am, for me to toy around with nature. We agreed that in the end, maybe humans should be locked into some huge asylum that can take 6billion people and let some tsunami drown all of us, for the sake of nature. Haha, sounds diabolical, but yet all so true.

Sigh, bore a huge hole in my climbing shoes today. Another thing to buy, over 100 bucks gone, money money money

Forgive me.. I am not exactly working well at this time..

Of Devastation
Dear TomHa,
Another Earthquake, thousands more dead, tens of thousands affected. So, in a space of like a month or 2, Mother Nature had unleashed its wrath on the lowly beings of earth, killing everyone and affecting anyone who happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Pakistan got most of the tremor of a 7.6 earthquake yesterday and like what all geography textbooks say, it ain't pretty for a developing country to experience deadly disasters. Lack of expertise, money, amenities, but a whole lot of problems and sufferings left hanging in the air.

It is comical isn't it? Just last week I was discussing about the Himalayas with Wenyang, trying to get some physical geography knowledge which I had accummulated in my 6 years of geographical study about plate tectonics and how Everest gets its height and how, amazingly, the fact is there that Everest is still growing upwards. And yet the same place and boundary is wrecking havoc now this week. The same principles applies anyway for plate tectonics. You have plates moving about and they either collide, pull away from each other or rub against each other. Every kind of motion has a chance to release vast amounts of energy which the plates accummulate as their motion against one another is never smooth. And the longer it takes for them to release this energy, the larger this amount of energy gets and, sadly, the greater the destruction that it can unleash. Plates in South Asia had stored and contained their wrath for too long and it really appears to me that they are starting to release them now. Pray for those people.

Of Schizophrenia

Solitude
Originally uploaded by Minas Morgul.

Dear Qingwei,
Sorry that this came rather late but...

Happy 20th Birthday to You!

What a terrible person I am isn't it? You have been writing to me for goodness knows how long and yet all I that I have been doing is to chuck your sentimental entries into some desolated, and godforsaken corner in my vast palace of the Internet. But, now that you had reached the next phase of your life, I feel that it is really time for me to speak up and advise you a little on what you should or should not do as you step dangerously close to the grounds of Adulthood.

So, what that I had observed from your intimate confessions to me these past few years is that you are a terribly wishy-washy guy when it comes to admitting that you like a certain girl. Not that you are awfully great at making decisions when you are at work or in the army, but at least you won't deny yourself of your rights and am able to express yourself feelings rather sufficiently and diplomatically. Although not quite there yet but at least some effort was there. However, when it comes to matters that might affect you decision as to whether your career lies in the mundane world or in the delivering of sins in another different world, you are just such a pussy. Come on, be brave. What? Say that again! You think that being friends is enough? Hmm.. to quote one of your friend, Xinru from her blog, "I can only like you this much as a friend" Oh please, Qingwei, when you like someone, it is not enough to be only a friend, cause there is a limit as to how much a friend can do to his/her friend.

Another thing, why are you so terribly shy and reserved? It is not going to help you in anyway. If you think you know this person, but not sure if he/she is the right person you had thought he/she out to be, just go and say hi, are you blah blah? People would not call you a crazy kid or a siao ding dong just because you got the wrong person, or would they? Anyway, just go up and say hi or anything. It would not hurt. Don't give people the chance to say you are the 'dao kia.'

Still not convinced about the major character overhaul that you should undertake to become a better person? Look at the picture above. What does it show? Solitude as what you would name it in Flickr? Hell no, I don't think so, in fact, I think that old man is enjoying his time in the spotlight. Although I must say that this would have been a better photo if the background were dimmer, but, anyway, I think he is feeling more happy than moaning about his loneliness. He knows that once the spotlight is off, he would be off home, to his loved ones where he can spend some moments of family bliss that should be the happiest thing that man can have. So, yeah, I presume you are clever enough to get the rough idea.

Another thing, I find you a strangely bad friend, now you better dig deep and think about what's needed to be done or else, you will be much more lonely than just a man without companionship and offsprings in the future.

Till then..