Why We Climb...
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Drool-ed
Dear TomHa,
Check This Out! Oh my god... I just virtually flooded my room with my drool. MacOsX Leopard is way too cool! Oh my god. Seriously, the only reason why I am still in Panther is because Tiger did not really impress me much as its capabilities are much the same as in Panther. But, with this new addition to the feline MacOSX family, I am so going to save up for my new mac next year! Woohoo!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Shacked..
Dear TomHa,
Bored from failing to understand mechanics of machines as well as what I would have liked, I went to do some of the abs programme that Joseph set us to do during HC days. Boy, I am like sweating like hell now and my abs are like screetching in pain. But it is a good feeling, a good sense of nostalgia, of remembering the good old days of a team of muscle-bounded men training in the dusty compounds of the Chinese High Swimming pool...
Pain is good...
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Retire
Dear TomHa,
I guess whenever any great sporting icon retires, there will be a tinge of sadness overflowing in the hearts of his followers. Afterall, sporting greats inspire confidence, superiority and many other emotions which my failing vocabulary could not describe at the current moment. When Michael Jordan retired, I admit that I felt so sad, it was as if my world was ripped apart. But luckily, when he retired, Lance Armstrong came about, inspiring a new era and defining new meanings to the word "impossible." But he is human noentheless and retired too. Pete Sampras, Micahel Johnson, Zizou, even Fandi Ahmad inspired this tinge of sadness in me. Now, Ian Thorpe had retired from swimming at age 24. No more Thorpe-Phelps rivalry, no more Thorpe-van Hoogenband(I hope I got the spelling right) rivalry. Well, at least he did not retire against a backdrop of failing sporting achievements.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Concentrate!!
Dear TomHa,
I cannot tahan anymore.... this inability to concentrate is killing me. I cannot simply put my mind to the tasks at hand! ARRRR! And my brother is watching so many interesting movies right now! Superman, Batman, Xmen, all the men that I had not watch yet! He said it is sort of a revenge on me watching movies during his mid-year and then I said that he forgot that apparently, I was at India during his examination!!! What am I typing anyway... Why am I here?
Anyway, the Cassia fistula trees outside ITE Clementi is in full bloom. Pink some more.. really looked like cherry blossoms. But... I did not have my camera with me... Damn...
Mata-ne!
Friday, November 10, 2006
Freelance
よ(yo)! TomHa,
Today was quite a day... went to pray 观音菩萨 at my neighborhood temple as i simply am not pious enough to make my way down to Sibei Road... Now wonder there wasn't any divine intervention when I was struggling up Hanuman Tibba. Anyway, that is not the point.. I am really not pious enough...
So, then I went for lunch at my favourite Hokkien mee stall in Bt Batok Shopping Centre (those kind with a lot of coffee shop and HDB stalls kind) and freakingly, I saw E-fung, Stephen, however you'll like to call him, anyway I don't think he knows my name even though we chatted for like an hour plus over his lor mee and my Hokkien mee. In then end, given that we are connected by the identity of having gone through the MIR program, we had to talk about mountains after all the talk about his impending North and South pole thing, his freelancing job ( He earns $5- 8k freelancing, voyeuring around - Now, WY you can stop medicine liao...), photography... Was surprised that I could talk so much to someone whom I knew through books instead of acquaintances.
Anyway, in the end, the conclusion was that mountain changes people. You'll look at things at a different perspective from before, taking more things seriously, although I must admit that I still got a long way to go before being a matured person, but, on hindsight, I realy see some improvement, however minuscule it is, in myself. In the past, you ask me to design a cover page, i would just ask you to fuck off, and even if I were to be so polite to accept it, the job would certainly be those kind of 2-hour finish job. certainly did not expect myself to spend 2 full days, pon-ning lectures and lessons, coop-ed behind my laptop or desktopdesigning that stupid thing. Must admit that I am super inefficient in design though.. so my 2 full day might only be someone else's half a day. I wouldn't expect myself to spend so much time researching on the monsoon, consulting even the Geog Professors who had no inkling of relationship to me! Shall blog my findings and research after exams... Man, I had changed, not that I had matured or anything, I had started to become more responsible in doing what that I like to do! Next improvement that I would like to see in me is to be more responsible in what that I don't like to do as well!
Quotable quotes from coffee talk:
Mountains... they make you realise what that you really want...
Stephen Chow.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
すてき!
Dear TomHa
Do pardon my atrocious ひらがな... I am still in the lousier than can be called a beginner phase.. and I am learning Japanese for the very wrong motive of wanting to read the really original comics and anime! Haha.. Also, recently, after watching Japan sinking, I am thinking of going to Japan to study geology after my bond has ended when I am an old but still a moderately rich man..
Anyway, that is not the point of this entry. Last week, I did not sleep more than 3 hours in total. Kaoz.. when the going gets tough, it is really tough! For my HR2002 project, I volunteered myself for the seemingly easier task of designing the cover page, which took me 2 full days to think and make. I am seriously not cut out for this design thing man... Kaoz.. But in the end, the pic that you see at the top is what I came out. Glad that the group like it, and on further look, I find that it is rather すてき (cool)! Haha, feeling proud of myself, I decided to post it here... It might look complicated but this are the materials that I used...
And then, I had to lasso here and there, clone here and there, recreate the Stewardess right ear to make it what it is! Man.. hard work, but nonetheless, still proud of it. Wanted to use macromedia freehand, but in the end, still decided to use what I am better at - Photoshop. It is still the best!
あさめしまえ?
Definitely not... Haha...
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Empathy
Dear TomHa,
Thanks to HR2002, I am starting understand myself better. I guess when I do empathise, I choose to take path 2. I am not totally altruistic, but neither am I totally egoistic. Like in army, do I actually help my buddy out of empathy? A part of me says yes, but another part of me says that I would get into deep shit if I do not help him, and if I do not help him, who will?
So that is me! Jya Ne!
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Dear TomHa,
Yep, there you have it, Breithorn, 4165m, an aim for next year June. Shifted focus from Mont Blanc as I realise that perhaps I am not good enough for it as yet, as firstly, hiring a guide there is like super expensive, and secondly, should I go for the next option of tagging behind some of those experienced climbers from the hut, it just does not feel right. Hence, Breithorn, at 4165m, seemed to be a viable choice. Firstly, take gondola to like 3000+m already, no need to trek in like what we did in India, and Switzerland leh... Lushing meadows and all the what nots, it's super cool! Besides, in Europe, as most of the climbable mountains there are facilitated with a hut at the middle of the mountain, a weekend mountaineering trip takes on a whole new meaning as you can like ascent quite a few mountains in a week. Hence, anyone interested?
Starting Point
Zermatt. The Petit Cervin gondola, 3820m From this point, 2 solutions... For the garang, a bivouac at Rossi e Volante, 3750m or the Guide della Val d'Ayas hut, 3394m
Difficulty
AD+, with a section of IV. Long mixed ridge, often with cornices.
it just means knowing how to rope up and glacier travel and know how to wear crampons and walk properly. Of course, you'll need to know how to arrest falls, which I am terribly good at.
Vertical gain
650m, a lot of ups and downs...
Season
June to September...
Time
One day.
Equipment
Standard glacier safety gears...
How to get there from Singapore
Take plane to Geneva, before taking the Swiss rail service I hear they serve a lot of chocolates on the train.. to Zermatt, then hire cab to the Gondola... Fairly simple.. Switzerland is a developed country...
And, I turned 21 not too long ago without much fanfare or whatsoever. The tranquility of it is simply a reassurance of my existance. Watched Grey's Anatomy until 12am, before declaring that my birthday is over and then reality hits in and went back to my desk to do my design project stuffs... Haha, the blant reality of life offset by the tranquility of a day. Nice... Hence, from now on, must conduct myself properly already. Do anything wrong will go jail one. I mechanical engineer, not civil structural engineer, so not as good to break prison as Michael in Prison Break... haha...
Welcome to the real world.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Friday, September 08, 2006
G'bbye mates...
Dear TomHa,
And so, it had been a week of mourning, perhaps more. The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, had died in a freakish accident after having his chest pierced by the barbed tail of a sting ray while shooting an underwater documentary in the Great Barrier Reef. What a way to die dude, you survived taipans, cobras, crocs and yet you did not survive the sting ray, a supposedly gentle creature. You had been a good man, helping those people in less developed countries to catch snakes and stuffs, your shows are really funny and I learnt a lot. Thanks!
My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine.....
And so, Pluto is relegated into a dwarf planet in a recent astronomer's meeting or something like that. Somehow, I am feeling sad. Sad that the Why did Mickey go into space joke would make a lesser imapact than before and as Newsweek aptly puts it, the ommission of Pluto would not upset the school children now, but those of us who had been brought up to the notion of the nine planets.
2 matters of little impact on my lives, 2 'Crikey' ways to fade into oblivion....
RIP dudezz...
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Kids...
Cheerful kid in climb adventure
Originally uploaded by Minas Morgul.
Dear TomHa,
Kids.. They really brighten or spoil your day.
This batch made me a happy man for the whole day!
Testing
Old scooter
Originally uploaded by Minas Morgul.
Test post.. my Flickr does not seem to work well these few days...
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Gold
Dear TomHa,
Congratulations!!!Wenyang struck gold in the Round Ubin canoeing marathon challenge after some rather interesting comeback. Read about it... Quite inspiring. Anyway, I also struck some gold two weeks ago. Yeah! I got gold my gold for IPPT yet again! Woohoo! Additional $200 to spend in October. Haha. This time it was rather freaky. I jumped over the mat for my standing board jump and then the PTI said no count, damn it. And then in my 2.4km, I reached the 2000m mark at 7:30, quite shocking and so I slacked off the last 400m, to the wrath of the conducting officer who gave me a dressing down for being so conceited. Anyway, I finished in 9:18.. Haha, damn it, It had been a long time since I went under 9min.
Today, I woke up at 6am and realised that I had woke up too late for AHM. Very angry with myself and went to run round my neighbourhood to burn off all the carbohydrates that I had loaded myself with yesternight. Ran about an hour before diarrhoea overtook me enough to make me stop. Recently, especially after IPPT, I decided to slack off abit in my excercising. I had not done stairs for like 3 weeks already, but I realised that running had certainly become a way of life even though I hated it. I felt uneasy not running. It is like going to clear bowels. I hate to waste time on things like this, but in the end you'll feel uneasy if you do not do it. Ok, quite a weird analogy.
Yesterday's volunteering service at Climb Adventure for the Touch community kids was really meaningful. Terence said that this kind of thing gives good karma, and well, the seniors were also the ones who like disagreed with our spending of funds on this kind of mountaineering-unrelated things. Anyway, many thanks to Faizhal for letting me be the speech guy for the event. It was a good experience.
Ok, I do not know what to write already. So bye!
Monday, August 14, 2006
Carpentry
Dear TomHa,
Something struck me recently... That I am not exactly as enthusiastic about my grades as what my other classmates are doing. I mean...They like freaking know how the module is tested, what is going to be the format for the examination, whether it is mcqs, essays or anything like that and projects in the middle of the sem are group based or individual-based, blah blah blah... Seriously, going by their standards, I am like the slackest person alive. I go onto CORS, look at the module listings, look at the description, see what they do, and the most enthusiastic thing that I had ever done is to THINK TWICE about taking that module. And if I like it and its tutorials and lectures and whatever else does not clash with my core modules and other commitments, I take it. No second question. Follow your heart...
A student just answered the most damning thing that I had ever seen in my entire in my life as an educator. Ahmad walked into the room and knew immediately that his mother had put on the air freshener in the house... What sense did he use to achieve this observation??Common sense... What.... I was so stunned... She is like mocking me....
Recently, I just spent a bomb renovating my brother's room, as I am about to move into it as my sister is growing too old to share the master bedroom with mom and dad. Hence, I had to move into my brother's room which is like bigger... How ironic... Anyway, it is almost complete... alright.. I admit that I started a long long time ago, but I procrastinated for a long time to get a working desk or table and finally, I settle for one of the tables in IKEA's Galant series. It is a wonderful table. Now my room looks so much like a office. And, as my lazy father would have done, in accordance with his Teach him to fish and he can fish FOR YOU So, I had learnt to use the drill, I can saw, I am now an uncertified carpenter, plumber, electrician, cleaner... The worst part is that my mother has unlimited wants for these professional services. Damn it, I want a son like me.
Sigh.. Just a side note... I want an arm like this...
Eh.. Hold on... It's mine!
Haha..
Happy New School Year!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Busy
Dear TomHa,
I had always hated the re-opening of school, and boy am I glad that it is only 2 more years afterwhich I can ditch this dreaded feeling for the monotony of a working-class life! Woohoo! Can earn my own keep, can go travel should the boss be benevolent enough to give leave and best of all, can finally be as responsible as I can be as an adult. Shall elaborate on this adult thing later, maybe in other entries ba...
I have so many thing to buy, not including the many textbooks that I have to get, which I might not in the end and spend precious amounts of time cooping in the central library freezing myself to cold eternal hibernation, you are not alone if you did not understand what i wrote jus now.. I have so many things that I want to buy. Couple with the fact that I always have this mentality that that if I have the latest in-thing like a crumpler bag, an ipod and things like that, I would potentially have MORE friends in University. But alas, I am too giam xiap to get any of those high end products. Hence, I think I should stick to be sitting in isolation.
A new pair of decent looking walking shoes, and stationeries are top on my buying list. Think I am going those ulu market to buy the shoes and spend a bomb in Popular soon, given that I never keep my stationeries and that I had lost like my 2021st ruler since I started learning to use one.
It was rather funny last week when I was educating a J2 boy regardding the intricacies of Faraday's and Lenz's laws regarding magnetic induction. My favourite-est topics in physics as I had never had had problems comprehending and applying those theories when I was in school. However, this boy over here had some problems and HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY!!!! Faradays law states that
the electromotive force produce is directly proportional to the rate of change in magnetic flux linking the coil...
Or something of the like... and no matter how hard I tried to explain to him, he just cannot seem to comprehend the aeroplane fly through magnetic firld generate current example. And hence, the smart alec over here, tried to be smart and used a little comic example. I illustrated to him that Magneto is a magnetic source, emnating magnetic fields out of his body and he needs force to fly himself or walk across anywhere... Hence, the interaction of this force and the magnetic fields that he controls would produce electromotive force and turn him into...
Electrico!!!!
He was not as amused as how I wanted him to be and we buried into TYS immediately thereafter.... Kids these days... no sense of humor...
Finally finished the MIR 5 video. Some parts are pretty shocking and funny, at least to the insiders. I wonder if they should still be on... hmmm... haha... Not going to give them until the very last minute!
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Of Farewells
Dear TomHa,
Well, Kelvin has left for the States, another one that I had personally sent off, and another one to the States... Can't they go to some more exotic countries like India or China to study. Duh! Haha, anyway, wish him the best of luck, he has been a really good man. Was really touched the other time when he agreed so readily when I invited him over for media launch. Was kinda desperate the other day, and some people cannot just say "no" and had to ask all here and there to say "no" in the end. I mean, I can understand if you are not free but you have no reason to be questioning till that irritating degree only to say no.. It meakes me feel like a freaking salesman. Ar.. whatever, perhaps I am overly sensitive in those stressful days of skirt chasing coupled with media launch and term tests...Anyhow, good luck Kelvin, yes, you have had a mean streak but you were a good man. Seriously.
Went over to ton-ed at Andrew's house yesternight. It was a very reminiscent feeling, especially since me and Junjie haven't stayed over at his house after our RV graduation. Andrew was still at his quirky best, with facial expressions that could rival Jim Carrey at his best. Belting out all his usual life stories only served to provide further entertainment that got me chuckling like crazy. Zengdi appeared rather depressed. Hope he gets over his problems real soon. Yihan, ar.. He's still the same, the blur cock who did not even know how to get to Holland V. Junjie though, still had not started bidding for his modules, which is like incredible. Wish him all the luck in University.
Watched a show called Equilibrium starring Christian Bale(Batman Begins) and Sean Penn(Borormir) which is basically about a distopian world whereby men thought that they had eradicated wars and ensured peace throughout the country by suppressing emotions through a medicine called prozium and burning all forms of artefacts, paintings, music, anything nice and can invoke emotions. It's been said that emotions is the one thing that divides humanity. Anyhow, Christian Bale plays Preston who is like the highest ranking cleric which is essentially very zai soldiers under the Father to suppress the rebels, aka those who had stopped their doses and are 'feeling'. Sense offenders, they are called in the movie. Sean Penn's character, like Borormir, was killed by a projectile again. Sigh... Ha. Anyway, somwhow, Preston forgot his dose and started feeling and started to fight back the administration and the Father. Very interesting and matrix like. There is this new form of invented martial arts called gunkata and it's been said that through millions of computer simulations, they are able to predict all the possible angles in which the projectiles will fire from and through this anticipation and repelling it in a very taiji manner, they can kill the enemy in a very zai way. The action sequences were really good. Another good recommended movie by Andrew, yeah!
And then they watched futurama, a cartoon that is probably too satirical that I cannot understand and did not laughed at too much things. Apparently, seeing brains flying around and making all people except for the dumbest person on Earth who turned out to be the hero in the end is not my cup of tea.
Oh Yah, had my La Mian at Crystal Jade yesternight. Felt so damn happy!
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Never ending crisis
Dear TomHa,
As the fighting in Israel continues, more people are going to die. As the earth rumbles under the crusts of Indonesia, igniting waves of terror, more people are going to die. As people carry on their daily work of destroying the Earth's natural resources, ALL of us are going to die. I am not painting a cock and bull armageddon story. It is a fact, one that is plaintiff for all of us to see. The 2-day ceasefire has ended, marked with the endless bombing of Beirut by the Israel air force. Well done, all that is left of Lebanon as I can see in the pictures are ruins and devastation. Is it even suitable to live in?
Hizbollah is not resisting Israeli occupation... They are attacking Israel...
Some American prof in NTu said something like that. It makes some sense, however, it can't really put reason to the actions that were carried out by Israel.. They are destroying lives, lives of the innocent who perhaps know of Hizbollah's militants as some people with weapons living next to me. Also, this is not the way to solve a conflict, isn't it? The more Israel destroys Lebanon, the more the resentment will escalate, the longer the UN procrastinate in pushing for a permanent cease fire, the more the lebanese will hold resentment for the outside world. What really left me in complete aghast is the how lightly UN let go of Israel's atrocious act of bombing a UN headquarter just because the US is still supporting the Israeli cause.
Israel is fighting a Vietnam War. A war in which they might win all the battles but lost the war. Resentment against them are sky high. No matter how good their artillery and whatever bombs may be, resentment and hatred are some intangibles that cannot be torn apart by the sheer scale of military power. Israel is breeding terrorists and militant groups when their aim from the start is to exterminate the threats from these people. How ironic...
I hope there are no mid term tests this semester. I am planning to go Padang, Indonesia to climb Mt Marapi (not the unstable Merapi) and relax throughout the whole week. I heard it is a good place to relax. The people are lazy and importantly, they make really good coffees! WoohoO!
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Of Thoughtful
Dear TomHa,
Today is a thoughtful day. When I say thoughtful, I do not mean thoughtful thoughtful. As in, I do not mean that I am being very sensitive and treat people very nice today. It just meant that I thought a lot today. Haha, went out early in the morning to NUS to decorate the MIR booth for matric fair but to my dismay, the Mac's at NUS is not open until 10am! Felt so sad, but luckily, I am powerful enough to psycho Darren and Weisheng to have Mac's at Clementi! Woohoo! Long time never had breakfast with friends le! The feeling is good.
Anyway, I did not think much during the whole decoration and breakfast thing. I was like pseudo-awake and when tying the banners up, I just kept tying clove hitch as it is the easiest to tie and untie. Anyway, went for educational commitments after that, educating the future pillars of the country which i think is rather bleak As he live in those new buildings and that there is lift on every floor, there are actually small glass panes on the doors of the elevators. I thought, as I recalled my brother's fear of taking those kind of lifts at night that pussy, wouldn't it be great if, in the dead of the night, I just squat down and when someone press the lift open button outside while still seeing no one in the lift to find out some freakish person jumping at him as the lift door opens, wouldn't it be great! He will be so scared or so freaked out that he will run away, or land me with a big punch!
Then, as I was crossing an overhead bridge, i saw this big feet at the end of an SBS bus only to find out that they were those new kind of 3D advertisements for kinohitmisu, some foot reflexology paste on thing. They looked rather coherent from the back, but when looking at the front, you'll just notice them as some freaky piece of foot plank (jiao3 ban3)... Anyway, I thought that I had thought out about something thoughful about this, but wellzz.. I suddenly forget... sorry to waste your time...
Ok I go sleep le...
Friday, July 28, 2006
Of Nothing good in the papers these days...
Dear TomHa,
It appears to me that there are nothing good in the papers these few days. As I flipped through the papers, through every single article and column, I don't find anything that is entirely appeasing and happy to read through about. In local news, some Hokkien stage singer had passed away, A'star is suing John Hopkins Uni or vice versa, I do not know, In world news, Israel just bombed a UN building and Indonesia just cannot stop having earthquakes. What is this world coming to? I have no freaking idea. Perhaps it is true, the end is really here. Repent and DIE Mortals!
Watched The Lake House last Saturday in Malaysia last week. RM 10 is pretty cheap for a Singaporean but to the Malaysians, I doubt that that would be cheap, as what my Uncle says, In Singapore, a construction worker earns $1500. Do you actually think that a Malaysian construction worker can earn RM 3000? Couple with that is the fact that a Malaysian's cost of living is actually higher than a Singaporean if you only look at the magnitude of the prices alone. True. They have it tough. But they are borned there, they'll have to accept and move on. Ok Anyway, about the Lake House. I did not watch the Korean version before, but given that one of the lead is Sandra Bullock, whom I still like despite her apparent age and becoming more fleshy, I did not mind watching it. You'll have to kill me to watch a romantic love story in Singapore. Anyhow, in the end of the whole thing, I just thought that it was a rather sweet movie. Kinda get me fantasising and wanting to get a mail box like theirs and start a long-distance or rather 'long-time' relationship with someone whom I cannot see or touch but love so very much all the same... Hmm...Well.. Ha.
I feel so tired these few days. For reasons I cannot fathom. If only I can do a Kage Bunshin no jutsu (refer Naruto) to clone another me to share my load of work, it will be perfect. Sigh, and the best part is that school is starting. Damn it. My mind is still overseas, in the mountains and rivers of the great beyond. Sigh.. stupid mohan the maggot have it good... he seemed so happy in the US. Perhaps I should have applied for NOC. Damn it.
Argh!
Friday, July 21, 2006
Of a Good Moan
Dear TomHa,
Recently, I had been reading a lot of the papers. Or rather, my life nowadays had been rather routine. Every morning, I wake up at 8, brush my teeth, wash my face, have my tea and breakfast and a good read of the newspapers. And by a good read, I mean that I am actually reading every single article nowadays. A phenomenon unheralded before in those heady days of rushing through the headlines and sports and the comics column only. and I predict that those days are coming soon Well, knowledge of current affairs is good. I guess I can tell you very accurately the number of deaths in the aftermath of the Indonesian tsunami and where in Lebanon is Israel attacking and that Abdullah had finally broken his silence over the Mahathir saga....
Anyway, in the Review section today, Lucy Kellaway talked about How to do a good job whining..She suggested 3 steps to a good moan. First of all, quotas must be set, to limit the amount of moaning time per day to about 2 to 5 per cent of the day. Anyone who is regularly over the upper limit should consider cutting back. Afterall, anyone who moans too much is a bore to themselves. Try to make the moan funny. Next is to vary the content of the moan. Moan about a wide variety of things.. Lastly, pick the moanee(the person you moan to) with care. Never moan upwards (dangerous), moaning downwards is even more dangerous as those people are supposedly worse off than you, hence, always moan to people of the same level. Given that a good majority of people started their blogs to moan, me included, I guess these are definitely great fodder for thought.
Planet Earth is in an ever worsening state, and sometimes, you just feel so helpless as what is there that one person can do? Can one person, against a backdrop of many apathetic majority, infect them with a sense of environmentalism given that all along, we, humans have been living in a serious state of denial about the state of the very plant that we call home to? NASA's climatologist James Hansen said that "we can't let it go on another ten years like this.... it will imply changes that will constitue another planet..." Less than ten years to reverse course. Not our children or grandchildren lifetimes. But ours. Yes, everyone who is reading this puny blog.
So, what can we do to delay ( I would not even try to use the word prevent ) this impending armagedon? First, the top imperative is for the leaders to stop denying and get going with projects that help to limit the amount of carbon that we are releasing to the environment. Listen and listen well to the scientists who are proficient in this field and take their advice. Next, the people of the world must realise that they are involved in this long fight to preserve this Earth for as long as we can before it gets too hot for anything to grow. I experienced Agra and Rajasthan. Bad enough. Please, don't let the whole world become like that. Third point, people, yes the people again, evil humans of the world, everyone, including me and you, must realise that many of our wants are simply... wants. Things that are not really necessary. Standard economic theory has long assured us that we're insatiable bundles of desires. Do we need a car? Do we need to urbanise so much? Do we need to eat durians when it is not in season? The energy that we consume to create such "anormalies" is surprising huge Do we really need an air-con? And many more...
Recently, I am at a freaking sub zero cold war with my dad as I kept asking him to sell the car and take public transport. He refused and I insisted, hence, we are no longer talking much anymore. Very terrible. He took my views in a monetary sense, that I am refusing to pay for the gasoline and taxes, well, I did thought of that, but my concern was that the car is really not neccessary and is just another carbon producer. I would not say that it is not convenient, but the financial burden, coupled with the fact that with every gallon of gas burnt, you release 5 gallons of carbon into the atmosphere, is something I cannot tolerate. Besides, we don't need it. Hence, I am going to persist in this cold war which as it turned out, does not have Mutually Assured Destruction, but never mind, to help in my cause. A little help goes a long way is my only motivation!
Set up recycle bins at home, my friends!
Most, in fact, almost all ideas taken from the recent issue of National Geographic which I bought just now... Hehe.. I not so insightful one...
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Photo's from outside Daming's house
Of Arkooloola
Dear TomHa,
Harry's done it again! Here's his latest entry on how to salvage poverty in our neighbouring fellow Asean states. Check it out! As he claimed that it is a social project, a part of me, the part that claimed that I know this guy well, says that he just wants to make a profit out of all these. Ha. Well, it is quite a lengthy essay, so make sure you'll have time for it. Hehe.
An article in the papers today talked about the growing concern in Australia over the dip in the water level that could see Australia experiencing a severe shortage of water if such a trend is not curbed properly. Really. Stalin once said Water that flows into the sea is wasted One of the real reasons why the Aral Sea is so much at risk of becoming one big salt pan with the then-Soviet governments taking their leader's words too literally and dammed off all the tributaries that supply the water to keep the fourth largest sea in the world as it is. Mexico is at risk of becoming a underwater world as they had drained off too much water from its underground aquifersor is it aquifuge? damn... returned all my geography to Mrs Chua liao As the water table's pressure had been the main force at keeping Mexico afloat, so as to speak, with rapid urbanisation and the building of all the what-nots and also, the draining of a lot of water from the water table, it is inevitable that Mexico may one day become the literal Underwater world.
Hence, as the saying goes, you reap what you sow, when there is a 'ying', there would be a 'yang'. You'll have to suffer the consequences if you take so much but not give back whatever is equivalent. The basis of alchemy Ok i admit i read too much Full Metal Alchemist Anyway, Australia by itself, have majority of its land locked in the Great Australian Desert, hence, there isn't much water in the first place and as a developed country, the need for water should have been known to be substantial enough to cause a concern for the government in question, so why the worry now? Poor water management? I think so. Water, is a renewable resource as what we had learnt since Primary 4, as it constantly renews itself through the water cycle. However, a lot of it is locked up and only 1% is fresh water. This is common knowledge but more often than not, us, humans prefer to go with the convenience, ignoring the harm that we had done to the environment that would fall back upon us in the future. For this, we should laud our Singapore gahmen for their efforts in water management. Although the efforts at educating us into not wasting water is not so apparently successful, their efforts at constantly looking for water is praise-worthy. Kudos to them.
Hence, with 'ying', there's a 'yang'. Should we harness renewable energy from the likes of agriculture produce, as what Harry had said in the entry I mentioned, would the farmers be too overwhelmed with the greed for money and ignore the damage that they do to their own land? When that day comes, wouldn't we be doing them more harm then good?
Daniel Powter's Bad day has a truly delightful music video. Sort of the romantic scene that would get all lonely souls fantasising about..
Enjoy
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Of I would never go to a salon again!
Dear TomHa,
I feel so bad today. That I betrayed the trust of the malay barber who cut my hair for since I was born for a salon in Jurong West just because I felt too hot in the mane of hair that trapped so much heat that I thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion anytime. Grrr... That salon cheated me of my hard-earned 10 bucks and gave me back my bowl-shaped hair with a small triangular cut in the fringe as a design. Damn it, now I look like a freaky RV-ish Qingwei.
Ar! Anyway, cutting hair in a salon is quite a freakish experience. The hairdresser walks with his hands like a velociraptor limbs (try to imagine it)it means like a sissy and holds all his combs and scissors in a pink bag. But alas! Trapped in the seat and the piece of cloth wrapped all over you, I had no means of escape. How ironic it is that the TV is playing a show with someone begging for mercy. He asked me how I want my hair cut and given that for the past 20++ years, I had let my barber dictate my hairstyle, I was rather stymied by this out of the blue question, hence, there was silence for a few moments, before he came up with a better question, layer or slope? Having cut slope for since when I was borned, I decided that I would try new things and try a layered cut although I have no freaking idea what that is. So he cut and cut and given that I am rather courteous, I decided to not respond to these professionals doing their job. But the product was terrible. Ar! I am so sad now... Guess I'll have to live with this shame and lower my head whenever I walk past my barber.
Some people say that I have the body of a 20 year old and the mindset of a 40 year old. I would not say that it is wrong, given that I have zero wish to look cool and hip, for example, like this:
And that my wish had always been to look like this instead, I have no case to refute that allegation
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Of why Brazil and England lost...
The conspiracy theorist's version
Dear TomHa,
It appears to me that the whole world is weeping over the apparent lost of the joga bonita and, well, the inventors of the beautiful game. Well, I have to dispute that, football is not exactly beautiful, compared to fast pace games like basketball and games of great passion like baseball, yes, I watch baseball, will get onto that later. Football can get pretty boring at times and highlights are certainly a better watch, but whatever, I watch it noetheless and quite ardently as well. Over here in this latest entry, in accordance to the ongoing World Cup which had deprived me of much sleep the past few days, I shall give you all my take on why Brazil and England lost, rather pathetically in the quarter finals.
Brazil lost because, apparently, as I reiterate this for the umpteenth time in this World Cup, This is not a NIKE year!!! Haha. yes, if you look at the World Cup from 1990 onwards, the World Cups have been splitted between Nike and Adidas alternately between each Cup. 1990, Germany (adidas), 1994, Brazil (Nike), 1998, France (adidas), 2002, Brazil (Nike). Yes, and hence, this was not to be a Nike year and in a game of attrition between a adidas and a nike sponsored team, 2006 proved that alas, it is the time of the 3 stripes. Woohoo!
England, the land of the English, the self-proclaimed inventors of the game yet still living in the memory of the 1966 win was never a title winner just looking at how they play to bore us to death. However, judging from how lucky they were in eking out wins over the minnows without having to play much, I seriously thought they could really ride on that luck all the way to the finals. But apparently, they were still lucky this quarter finals only that Sven made that one grave mistake that quite literally sent England's WC dreams to the grave. He allowed his players' WAGS, wives and girlfriends to travel with his players. That was a grave mistake as the players not only have to worry about the black and white ball rolling about the pitch, they also have to worry about the gold, black, platinum, whatever color card being swiped about the cash register as their WAGS went about a shopping spree in Deutchland. Ha. Alas, in the end, they just thought that a month of competition is too long a time to stay on and see their hard-earned euros get wasted down the drains. Hence, Lampard, Gerrard and Carragher conspired to put their penalties rather wayward to give Portugal the win. Owen Hargreaves, who pledge his trade for German club, Bayern Munich is comfortable with the fact that his wife, having been living in Germany for a good few years, have not much stuff to buy and hence, became the only English to slot in the penalty. All hail the WAGS!
You might ask, but Portugal? They are Nike sponsored! Yes that is true, but in the last 16 years, have you even seen a umbro shirt in the finals?
So, in the end, can the Azzurris break the cartel of Nike and adidas domination and allow Puma a chance to shine? That still remains to be seen. And given that the trend had always been a Nike and adidas final all these years, I predict a Germany - Portugal final with the Germans going on to win it.
Impossible is Nothing
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Yellow... Red... But where's the green?
Dear TomHa,
Oh my god, it appears to me that Russian referees are really good at dishing cards. Perhaps they had been too good at playing Russian Roulette and just can't hold themselves back to distribute cards? Wait.. Last thing I know, Russian Roulette is played with a gun.. Blah. Anyway, the Portugal-Netherlands match was like a super ugly match. 16 yellows? 4 sent-offs? No total football, no oranje or Portugese flair, barring the one moment of rather sublime touch from Maniche, who, ironically sucked at Chelsea. Anyway, it was not even a football match, it is ice hockey at its best! Hacking people from behind, hacking people from in front, headbutts here and there, Fifa might even impose rules to make soccer players wear armours like those American football dudes if all matches end up this way. Seriously, this WC second round is turning to be rather stale. Ever since Argentina's 2-1 win over Mexico, and Germany's double KO of Sweden, all the matches had been either 1-0 or worse, 0-0 as exemplified by Ukraine vs Switzerland yesternight or rather morning. Lucky I never get out of bed to watch. Come on, all people want from the World Cup is goals. Play beautiful, win in style, be more crowd pleasing like Brazil or even, Spain in the first round can or not? Last thing I heard, Marco van Basten was a striker and not a Muay Thai coach before taking the reins of Holland.
These days of Holidaying in Singapore had been going on rather monotonously. Days are spent between making choices of going to Sungei Buloh to look at birds and lizards, and well, to stay at home to watch, well.., either LOTR for the I-have-no-idea how many times or Full Metal Alchemist. I just simply do not bother myself with anything that has to do with MIR suddenly, I am the person who is supposed to do the video??. Designing a better layout for the website, as seriously, just looking at it puts me off. Don't believe? Check This Out Just looking at the gallery turns me off as well. No wonder we never had much sponsors after the MIR2. The website just shows a lack of passion and commitment. Afterall the seniors designed it... So other than looking at birds and lizards and the occassional plant that I had never seen before, I am reading up on HTML furiously. Given that just typing a link to other pages would have taken a lot of juices out of me, this commitment that I am showing to take up the post of website IC should be quite encouraging eh? Haha.
Ever wondered why 左 is written as it is? Is it because people of ancient china always use their left hands to work and their right hands to eat? Hmmm....
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Playing in the Cold
Dear TomHa,
Sometimes it gets pretty frustrating when you go up to an acquaintance, friend or anyone you know and wax lyrically about mountaineering, something you enjoy only to have them say irresponsible things like "Mountaineering very easy one", "No point one la", "I don't think it is a sport". Sigh... little wonder that few mountaineers have a very great social life. Our ideals just don't fit into the everyday people life. Social outcast as I would say.
Damn it, I want to go for Coldplay's concert but it is freaking sold out! Fuck it, sometimes when I want to spend money, people don't want to let me spend! Like my predicament when buying shoes like that. Everytime I see some shoes that I like, they do not have my size! Damn, like it is my fault that feet is so long. Well, here's a clip of Coldplay in action. Enjoy.
I just love it when the audience sing it together with the singer. The effect just makes hair stands. I think that's the best effect that a concert can ever conjure. No wonder Coldplay always say that they have the best job in the world after every concert.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
The Climb Down
Dear TomHa,
Look at those buggers' face. Yep, this is the scene right after we had come out of Tentu Gully, a freaking freaky place. The slopes are super steep, the snow is out of this world, and guess what, there are ashes, I think over there. Do not ask me how those black stuff found their way to such a freaky place, because I do not know. All I know is that they make the whole slope rather slippery and thus make the whole climb down more than !ncred!ble.
That's not all! As we progress painstakingly down that freaking slope, it becomes incredibly white-out. That's not all, Hem-ji and Weisheng, who are leading in front, disappear in this freaky setting. I super panicked. I increased my pace and guessed what, I could not see BJ who had been behind me! Kaozz... If you all had seen sleepy hollow before, that is exactly how the white out turned out to be in Tentu Gully. Worst still, a lot of the stones appeared to look like Hem-ji and walking towards them to only see that they apparate into stones is very traumatising. So, I called out to Weisheng. Not in the handphone or walkie talkie sense, but in the shouting sense. No reply, so I shouted again. This time there was a reply, but it was from behind. Had I passed Weisheng? A million questions raced through my mind, and compounded with the fear of getting lost in some god-forsaken land, I traced back, in the direction of the reply. I see BJ instead. Damn it. BJ must have heard some noise and replied to it instead. So back to tracing the footsteps in the snow and continue. Until a point when I walked out of the white out, some 1.5h later, I think, finally, I see hope. There is WS, some distance below waving. Phew... this is a classic case of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Glissade down the slope to see more people! Never have I been so scared and relief in such a short span of time ever before in my life. Super freaky experience.
Then, it was rest and relax, as we spent some days at Beas Kund and then Dundee and then Manali. I walked pretty fast downhill, through the rocky morraines and vegetation. It's always a happy experience to walk downhill, although it would mean saying goodbye to the mountains and hello to knee pain. Campfire was at Dundee. Had a super big lamb leg that is roasted over the campfire. Not very well done, but it was super tasty and extremely nice. The Indian guides were extremely generous with their whiskeys and there were like a lot more whiskies in the cup than the pepsi. Eeewwww... Given that I am an extrememly inexperienced drinker, I was so stunned by the amount of alcohol that went into my digestive system. The traditional rice wine was a lot worse. I think it is called rice wine because they put in 1 grain of rice into a whole bottle of alcohol. Super freaky. More freaky than the one I had at Manali village. Instant knockout. I became rather high, although I jolly well know what I was doing at the point of time. We danced and sang round the campfire. Super happy.
So that's all about the expedition as I am too lazy to type out the R and R in details. It was pretty boring, compounded by the fact that 7 guys had seen each other for too many days and nights! Luckily, none of us is a brokeback or Ang Lee would have called us up for an audition for Borkeback Mountain II: The Indian Experience.
Woohoo!
Saturday Night Live
Dear TomHa,
I wonder when is the last time I stayed home on a saturday night. Had a run, watched the evening sky on the rocks outside Gombak stadium, wondered into my old hunt at Little Guilin. Life's good.
I have many hobbies. None of which is what I would call fervent though. Of these hobbies, one had stuck with me since secondary I do not know what. That is to collect photos off magazines and newspapers and sticking them in scrapbooks. Haha... Quite a childish activity, I know, but what came off as a means by which to improve my photography skills in the past had turn out to be a rather enjoyable experience, cutting and pasting without the mechanical and rather contrived mouse, but with scissors and glue. Although I must stress that I have no idea where my past scrapbooks are, as my room is now in full emergency state status, but as I huffed and puffed my stuff over to my brother's room with an overwhelmingly many stuff (ironically, my younger brother has a bigger room) as my sister has grown up to sleep alone, I should think that I would be able to find them out, I hope, or I would have to enlist the searchdog's help to locate them. Perhaps, I should build up a database of the locations of my things at home... The Kheng-gle-hoo! search engine... sounds not bad eh?
Speaking of this hobby, today's papers is really a godsend. In the world section of the Saturday Times, I think that's what they call it, the ST published a photojournal of 3 ST photographers' work in Yogyarkata. I like most of the pictures. Very nice and meaningful. So what are the 3 boys doing up there? Afterall, I should be liking pictures that reflect more of the pictures that reflect the reality overthere. But what I see from this picture is cheer from a disaster-struck side. That these boys can still smile is really heart-warming. Not to mention that they are wearing SCDF helmets, an occupation that until now, is what I see myself to be doing after I finish my bond with the SAF. I certainly hope to join some volunteering mission to Yogyarkata this year end. Mum would not be too happy to hear me going to some other places with mountains and in this case, worse, volcanoes just a few weeks after India. EEwwww...
More National Geographic Adventure! Woohoo! Venture into deep and dark places through literature and picture!
World Cup...
Dear TomHa,
Woohoo! World Cup starts and I guess we would be seeing a lot of dark rings around many people's eyes from tonight onwards. Guess it would be a major worry for many bosses, supervisors and perhaps teachers when school starts. My money is for Netherlands, although they had never won a major trophy despite the talent. Oh and Germany just scored a goal against Costa Rica. Quite a cracker. The German crowd must be so pleased but they have like 85 more minutes. Haha, nothing's for certain. Let's just hope that the German's will to suceed will pull them through.
Speaking of World Cup, ie to say talking about soccer, people who are familiar about the Sports Column of the Straits Times shouldn't be unfamiliar with the name Rob Hughes. I had always liked his reviews and commentaries. Very insightful and takes you thinking. He wrote more about soccer but basically, he writes about every damn sport. However, his column on the Ethics on Mountaineering last saturday really sets me thinking. In case you have no idea what I am talking about, Costa Rica just levelled the score, last week, there was this Australian Everester who was on this expedition with a Russian-led team, when on his way down, I can't remember for whatever reason, on the way down after the summit, was left for dead by his team mates and sherpas, only to be saved and brought down to base camp comforts and treatment in Kathmandu by another team who spotted him while attempting the summit (Correct me if I had been incorrect about the chain of events). But that is not the point, Rob Hughes pointed out the ethics of mountaineering that should be adhered by mountaineers especially for an expedition of Everest-scale! Being a mountaineer-wanna-be, I was rather affected by his insights. The Germans scored again! A Klose tap-in Having tasted altitude not too long ago, I have some idea of how altitude can affect the physiology of a person's body. Particularly if you had lived all your life at sea level, at most, 168m. You pant like a dog, your heartbeat is at a faster tempo than Flight of the Bumblebee, you cannot feel your extremities (Toes, fingers, ears, nose), you have winds wanting to blow you out, snow that want to drown you, slopes that want to kill you. You are constantly fighting the conditions that aren't entirely friendly. So, in an event that one of your team mate is down. Would you give up your goal of summiting and accompany him down, forsaking all the hard work that you had done, and I am not talking about the work getting to that altitude alone, and worse still, when taking care of yourself is hard enough, would you even attmept to risk an extra burden?
Ok, back to watch more World Cup. I think I go subscribe SCV tmmorrow liao.
Woohoo!
Monday, June 05, 2006
Incradible !ndia... Really...
Dear TomHa,
I am back, finally, from an arduous journey into the west. Yes, I, like Tripitaka (Tang San Zang's english name I think...) and his fellow disciples, had ventured into India with a team of fine men. However, unlike him, who had an agenda to save the world from devastation, I went to India to climb a mountain called Hanuman Tibba, which will turn out to be an experience that I will never ever forget.
We went by Air Sahara, an Indian Airline company which had its stewardess in Sarees or Saris, however you'll like to spell it. The services were not bad, at least you won't get stewards who tell you things like "A lot of people die there" as what one of the Air New Zealand Stewards remarked when we told him that we were going to Mt Cook the other time. The food was not bad, and as there were very few people on the plane at that time, we splitted ourselves into occupying whole rows of seats, which means that you can literally lie down on three seats and sleep. very cool.
Incredible rating: 3 Dahls
Unlike in NZ where the cold that greeted us freaked us out, the sheer heat that accompanied the dust and wind freaked me out totally as I stepped out of the airport that is rather deserted on that Sunday afternoon. The heat was terrible. When I sat down, the heat that was trapped by my cotton cargo Giordano pants would then give my legs a 'sauna-tic' experience. Had lunch, which would turn out to be the kind of things that we would have for a lot of days to come. Nan, chapartis, dahl (lentils.. the team got so sick of it that one remarked that the sight of it would make him puke... funnily, I kinda enjoyed it... freaky...) and others. These are our staple for the rest of the time in India.
Incredible rating: 5 Dahls (full marks)
Toured around, saw the Gate of India, din think it was any impressive.. just a memorial structure that resembled the I forgot-what-name-thing in France, and surely, that is the only stretch of road which would make you feel that India is on its development track. You'll have old woman/man bringing their kids around to up the 'sad and poor' factor to beg you for money... I am super heartless towards beggars, I do not know why. Somehow, I just believe that you will always have to work for your money. No way am I going to give money for free. If you can walk and is healthy, you bloody go and find something to do. If you are crippled and disabled...ermm ok this one still can...
Well.. here is a picture of the Gate of India...
Incredible rating: 2 Dahls
Took an overnight coach to Manali. Freaking 16h ride. What the... But I slept through it anyway. Also, luckily, it is an overnight coach, time passes quickly and before you know it, morning comes and you open your eyes to great scenery outside the window. Some of the sights along the route to Manali resembled Namche bazaar. Kinda made up for not going Nepal.
Incredible rating: 4 Dahls
We went into a village at night in Manali as there is a festival going on and during this period, everyone is a guest and you can just enter anyone house and they will greet you with great hospitality. We went into a guide's house and binge on their food and drink, thus a free dinner that night. Haha, added quite a bit of rice... Very happy. A full man is a happy man has been my mantra for the whole of the trip and I made sure of that all the time. Haha
Incredible rating: 3.5 Dahls (Free food and festival and an in-depth understanding of Manali people only to be disheartened by the rain and traffic jam on the bridge)
Woke up next morning to the start of the expedition. So excited. Went to Irvinder's house and after some logistical nightmare, trek-in begins and wow! India is really a beautiful country that boasts scenery that you'll normally see in National Geographic Adventures. Really. The pine trees that line up the way, the valleys, the rocky hills and the snow-capped mountains. Woohoo! First day of track did not have us hitting snow. The speed was rather fast though. Our guides were mad which we would find out in the many days to come. Although nothing too difficult, I still huffed and puffed all the way up and down to campsite number 1. Guess I was still acclimatising. The porters were way fast, as they had already pitched the dining tent and set up the campsite properly by the time we reached. What a relief to reach campsite! It was a happy feeling for a weary first time mountaineer. Food was good. Ram-ji is a very good cook. The chicken was just out of this world. I had like 4 plates of rice. Super greedy and hungry. And so... my life for the next ermm... eighteen days would be the same in nature. Wake up, grab ice axe to do big business, brush teeth, have breakfast, break camp, move out, move a lot more, keep moving some more, stop to have a bit of lunch, continue moving, until camp site is reached. In a way, it is super monotonous but yet, I had never find it boring or whatsoever. It is funny, as all I had been doing is to put one step in front of the other all the time. Cannot put words to describe it. It is monotonous, yet so interesting. In any case, we hit snow on the second day at Ranni Sui. Started camping on snow after Phulan Got. It is difficult and more importanly, troublesome to pen down the happenings of all the trek, and hence, I shan't bore you with the details although to get to Phulan Got, we had to descend a slope that is really mad. We had to bash through thich rhododendrons and then a slope so steep that every step I descend makes me rather scared. But i plunged all the way down anyway. However, the porters had it tough. It was not a porter friendly slope. Called mum via the satellite phone on Mother's Day. She sounded extremely worried and I felt extremely unfilial. Sometimes I just feel bad to make the whole village so worried about me, which they will worry more as we are forbidden from using the phone henceforth as Mother's Day is just a special exception to our emergency phone. Walk and walk and walk and walk and walk. Hit Camp III. The penultimate camp for the summit push.
Incredible rating: 5 Dahls
Suffer and suffer. Pay good money to suffer. Sometimes, as the wind howls and the sky hails, you just wonder if it is Mother Nature's way of saying "Fuck off". 20th is summit day and from CampIII, Hanuman Tibba certainly does not look easy and it gets pretty worrying. You'll just imagine yourself to be going to war. Very sucky feeling. That in the end, you have to go to the frontlines to risk your life for an objective, albeit voluntary in my case, leaving your loved ones at home worried sick. Yeah. Woke up at 12 am, had tea, 3 bowls of Maggi Mee, pack up and left at around 0130. The pace was really fast and I could barely keep up with the pace. The speed was blistering and the temperature was sub zero. I thought I could not make it. Howver,it just turned out that I was warming up. As I caught my breath and started to walk more properly, I got to be so fast that I got fucked by Mohan. Fingers were numbed throughout and I doubt that I could feel my toes at that moment. It was that cold. Kept twitching my nose and ears to make sure that they are there. Walk and walk and walk. Side stepping with crampons is a very painful experience. My ankles, that were sprained god knows how many times hurt quite badly, but, it is more dangerous to go down at that point, and they do not hurt on flat ground, so I just hecked it and climbed. Everything was still within my physical limit until I could see the summit. I do not know what happened, but I became damn shacked out, spent. I slowed down considerably and Dannies overtook me. Then came a 70 degrees slope with soft snow. At 5800++, this is no joke. We begun to crawl on all fours, anchor ice axe, front point, anchor ice axe, front point and on and on again, like this as Weisheng took a picture of me from below. Guess I was resting off the anchored ice axe. I think I rested every 10 steps and pant and pant and pant. It is super tiring to climb up this way, although it is the safest. All that was going through my mind was that I cannot summit. It is impossible, I am at my limit. This is usually the scenario that god would appear and give you a divine helping hand as what we normally see in the movies and TV shows. But no leh, I don't have. In the end, Mohan was my inspiration as he was the front person after Dannies had fell off the slope, failing to self-arrest properly. Luckily, there is some area beneath the slope that was quite flat that stopped his fall. Discussed about not seeing god with Jiarong over MSN the other day and I remarked that I am going to remain un-pious towards my religion and she said that it IS because I am not pious that resulted in me not having divine help up there. Quite true... And then huffed and puffed along the fixed line and reached the summit. The pain, the suffering and the recollection of how I got there in the first place confounded into rivulets of teardrops. I wonder when was the last time I cried. Above me was nothing but clear, blue sky. The view was fantastic. But I did not bring my camera! Too tired to carry it... SLRs on the mountains is such a chore. Wonder how E-Fung did it with his on Everest.
So here is me attempting to front dagger my way up...
And here is Hanuman Tibba:
The climb down on the next episode....
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Of India Beckons
Dear TomHa,
I am going India this Sunday. How freaking fast is this? Just 2 weeks ago, I was just thinking that I am going to go Nepal. But now, In a manner of like 2 weeks or perhaps, 2 days or rather, 2 hours in Burger King, we decided to go India. Somehow, this meant that everything that we had been doing for the past 2/3 months for Mera had been rather wasted. Somehow, I am disappointed that I am going to take Air Sahara (Exotic right?) instead of Thai Airways (the only airline to go Nepal??) this coming Sunday. Somehow, Nepal seemed to be like a mecca of sorts for mountaineering people. And the 'best' place to start a full-scale expedition? Whatever.. who ask the king to do this and that and thus failing to help its people in gaining whatever GDP that we can contribute with our more than meagre money to support their tourism?
Exam ended yesterday, and boy am I glad. I think I would do rather well this sem. Whatever that other people can do, I can do also. Whatever that other people cannot do, I can do a little here and there to caokheng a little. Haha. But that's not the point. It's a testament of me surviving a semester of sheer mental torture. A lot of tuition hours spent, a lot of futile marketing hours for MIR, a lot of thinking about other things other than what I am supposed to, and of course, the hated weekly thursday meeting. Very long, very tiring, very very bad for brain cells. So shack that I always go home and sleep and cannot do any work. Enough of the complaints, as I never contribute much other than to talk cock in the meetings, but all has ended. And, after expedition, it will sort of be a moment of truth. I'll know whether the expedition had been successful, will know if I am a big bastard when camping, will know if I had done lousily for exams... So everything will be known after the expedition. Keeping my fingers crossed...
I'll still want to learn diving, still want to go trekking, still want to do this and that and I am thinking about Patagonia or the Alps next year. Bitten by the adventure bug.. Anyone wants to be infected?
Cheers!
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Of Sports
Dear TomHa,
Subcribed myself to another climbing forum, just to ogle at the beautiful pictures that are taken at impossible angles and altitude. Climbers and mountaineers are a really lucky bunch of people, whose passion (and of course, together with money) takes them to places beyond the wildest possible imagination. I am glad that I had joined such an interesting club, that opened my horizons to beyond Ophir, Tahan and Kinabalu. Woohoo! Life's an adventure, live it.
It is pretty amazing how friendly the mountaineering folks are. I mean, they might have an hidden agenda, but until now, I have failed to sense it, so I shall assume there are no hidden agenda! (I am an engineer in training.. I do lots of assumptions) Dannies just forwarded a mail from Charlie Hobbs, a mountaineer who opened an Old Mountaineers' Cafe in Mount Cook Village whom we met while drinking coffee in that cafe! (wa.. how come all my sentences so long one?) Anyway.. the mail's to check on how we are progressing with our trip to the Himalayas. So friendly and affable. Haha. Well, somehow, I have to agree a little with Cesare Maestri, the 'First' Cerro Torre summiter. If you even question 1 climb, then I'll have to question the whole of mountaineering It makes some sense. Although I am not going to agree on that he is the first Cerro Torre summiter based on the evidence featured, but, in this sport whereby the only trophy is your own satisfaction at overcoming yourself in a hostile Mother Nature environment, I guess trust is paramount in this sport! Otherwise, who is there to judge when, let's say, you solo Mount Everest? You trust the integrity of those who made summit claims and I guess that's all to it in non-competitive sports.
Robert quoted Ernest as saying that there are only 3 sports in the world. Motor racing, Bull fighting and Mountaineering. Reason being that you can die from these sports. The rest are just games. You can stop in the middle if you find something is amiss. The consequences from failing in these are just your pride and the abject disappointment that all your hardwork is nowhere comparable to the other competitors. Hence, it is games. Perhaps...
How would you define your own definition of Sport? I am still searching for it.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Dear TomHa,
Got this from the web...
Tourist lady: Does this train go to 9/11?
Man: what?
Tourist lady: I want to see 9/11.
Man: You mean World Trade Center?
Tourist lady: No, I mean 9/11.
Other tourist lady: Oh no, you want the E train. I had this problem yesterday. New Yorkers are so unhelpful
Stunned silence all the way to 42nd St.
--Downtown C train, 50th St.
Dear TomHa,
Exams finally here and I am extremely happy about it. A week and 3 papers more, and it will be over. So glad. Realised that the toilet is still the best place to refine your concentration, and yes, I am reverting back to those old O'level days of spending quite a long time in the toilet studying. In those days, it was C-lit and Geography, 2 of my most favourite subjects. The toilet shrouds you from every conceivable distractions and puts you through a hellish nasal experience. Lucky my sense of smell had never been very good.
I wonder what is the surprise about, that my sense of sight is actually my sharpest sense among all the other senses. I mean, people with perfect eyesight should understand that perfect eyesight does not mean that you have a very keen sense of sight! They must also understand that myopic people have perfect eyesight with their glasses on!! Is this too hard to grapple with?
7 more days..
Friday, April 14, 2006
Of Hmmm...
Dear TomHa,
I realise, in the end, that I am somewhat different a lot of my friends. Just finishd updating myself on WY and LDM's blogs and it appears to me that both of them seriously enjoys engaging themselves in intellectual workouts. WY more of the artistic side, LDM more of the philosophical, academic side. I have many other friends who are also like that. Like I think MOST of my MIR team mates are very technologically savvy, gasping at the utter amazement that I do not know what the hell dreamweaver is yesterday, Haha, and of course, I think I am just someone who had been thrown into an environment that was not really suitable for him and had to, like all humans in every situation, to try to survive as well as he can.
I am those kind of person who loves to slack, a kind of person whom I will call brain-dead. I don't like to think too much into things. I find it very troublesome and tiring. When you are tired physically, you sleep soundly on bed and feel refreshed the next day. However, if you engage yourself in too much intellectual stuff, you go to bed and get nightmares because your brain cells become too active and you wake up feeling more tired and in fact, scared. Yup this is my theory. And, like what I had said, how I even get into university, a achievement as I would note it to be is due to luck, not much of how good I am. I am just lucky that I can do the examination questions and get rather decent results after some due hardwork. I am those kind of person who would just love to sit under the scarlet evening sun, fishing beside a lake where some great mountains is overlooking. I am also those kind of person who love to walk amongst nature, cause the sweet air never fails to freshen me up. Yep, all in all, I am someone who aims to be a 'brain-dead' slacker with not a care in the world.
But, this world where got so simple one...
I have to make money, to help out my family, to support a family when I grow old and also, the money to slack. I need to have contacts, as no man is an island, need to have friends as you'll need companionship in the end, need to have education in order to have the skills to make money. Compound to all those would be the expectation of the society to have you being a responsible and capable man to be recognised, and many many other things, how to slack?
Only a person who had been through the worst can truly enjoy slacking, at least that is how it is, I think.
Jefferson that I know a little about everything, at least everything in what we had conversed about thus far, but I can be taken apart very simply if you just dive a little deeper into the topic of interest. To me, knowledge, never makes me feel satisfied spiritually, never. Perhaps it was due to how knowledge had been forced into my brain by myself, by external forces, but the main point is that knowledge never fills me up spiritually. My knowledge of many things is still my social tool. My superficial tool is just there for me to be able to strike conversations with people of variable interests. Superficial knowledge to get superficial friends. Nice...
However, I am still grateful to have friends. People whom I had been through shit and pain and beautiful moments with.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Of A Freaky Day
Dear TomHa,
Today is one of the weirdest day that I had experienced throughout the year. Yes, one of the weirdest as I had experienced worse. First, had my last CA for ME2101 which concludes this module. The very weird thing is that I know how to do all the questions, which is a weird concept ever since I entered Univerisity and that I tuitioned till late in the night yesterday! Wow, other than some careless mistakes here and there, I manage to solve some of those harder questions which the others are complaining about! Hmm.. but like always, simple questions are my downfall... Oh wellzzz..
Next, I went for the only lecture of the week, a marketing module, and always, I fell asleep in it, nothing to talk about, but I went to consult a Prof after that regarding some Frequency response concepts. Funny thing is that I had always hated his lecture and his nasal voice but I enjoyed consulting him just now. What... then he began to nag a little, telling me about why he just refused to provide solutions because he felt that students nowadays are not talking to each other as in his time, which is kind of true. The number of ME pupils that I know can be counted with 3 fingers.. in fact, other than Wenyang and the ex-canoeing team-mates and my current mountaineering team mates, I know no one else! Sad life. Sometimes I wonder what I had been doing all this while. My university social life is really sad..sad..sad... But i am too lazy to do anything about it! So, blame no one...
Well, the weirdest thing happened when I was running along Bukit Batok road. There was this stretch of mango trees and today, many of them are producing mangoes. No, I do not pluck them when I run, and the stench of mangoes that fell and break apart on the ground is terrible, especially when you are fighting for air when running. In any case, one mango fell on my head and it cracked open. How can such thing happen one? Alamak. My head hurt and I stopped a bit and let the pain go away for a moment and crap, opened mango + sweaty head is not an entirely pleasant nasal experience. Decided to finish running anyway, since got only a km more. But aiyo.. the stench was unbearable... It was one of the most freaky thing that can happen to you. To think that I thought I run rather well today.
Well, please stop your strikes, Nepalese. I know democracy is great but please get back to work as that is about the most practical way to help your country grow stronger than protesting.
Sigh.. Nquist plots follows.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Of Rebels and Peace
Dear TomHa,
Had an interesting conversation with my brother today. I do not know how, but we suddenly came upon this topic of the short form for brother, 'bro'. Do you pronounce it as 'Bro'? or do you follow the original and pronounce it as 'Bra'. Very funny. We then started to call each other bra to the very irritation of my mum. Haha, but if you think about it, it really should be pronounced as 'Bra', isn't it? Afterall, bro can mean bronze or things like that...Haha.
Anyway, I think I am rather obsessed with climbing these few days, as the insanity of the exam period is catching up on me. Been reading a lot of National Geographic and I realised that there is a branch of the popular National Geographic Magazine that is called National Geographic Adventure! A very cool read and I really recommend it to anyone who likes cool photos with action and majestic nature intertwined together in a single page. Woohoo! This is way cooler than a pack of Fluid mechanics notes. This month's issue has Cerro Torre, arguably the hardest mountain in the world, in terms of number of successful conquests. Just looking at its picture always make me realise how feeble man is in contrast to the majesty of Mother nature. However, I think the Razor of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica is comparable to this Patagonia's technicalest of all technical mountains.
Nepal is experiencing turmoil, at an increased degree as it is even covered on Channel U and 8 news. In the past, only Channel NewsAsia is concerned about it. And guess what, I am actually reading about it on Straits Times, which had ignored the existence of Nepal for as long as I can remember. Will be monitoring it closely.. Sighzzz... Humans are ugly... as always...
Oh yah, before I forget. Shouldn't Li Ao, as a politician and a thinker or whatever his profession really is, be more diplomatic in his words? Being so brash does not help anyone or in his matter, any ties between any countries.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Of The Time of The Sem!
Dear TomHa,
I think I had told you about this before, but do let me reiterate this point again. I just LOVE exams. It just so signals that It is the END Haha. Yeah, work hard for a few more weeks and then endless fun awaits, I hope. Haha.
Well, recently, especially the last 2 weeks, I had been pondering about somethings. First, it is why I would be wanting to go Nepal in the end, when my parents are not all that willing to let me go? Really weird. I was adamant that I would not go to Nepal, given what that was happening over there. Been pondering about this for a while and the need to find an answer was more so amplified when WS asked why I kao bei-ed so much at the beginning when in the end, I am going to make the decision myself. Hmm... Firstly, BJ's mail about his friend returning safely from Nepal was a great confidence booster. Next, Darren's father's Nepalese friend is not saying Darren is siao to go Nepal anymore, at least not that I had heard of it. My mum's not nagging about the matter, not that she is showing approval though. Lastly, I got inspired by the few National Geographic that I bought which talked about exploration. I will talk about them in another post, I hope, but yeah, all these summed up about all the reasons why I made a 360 degree u-turn in my stance about going Nepal. Maybe another reason is that I thought that money is not enough? Hmm.. But there's Aik Soon money then what.. although not as much... Hmm... Argh...
Been watching a lot of 大长今. Very nice show.Ignited my passion for cooking again. Cooked 饺子yesterday, 拉面the day before. My 拉面 still tasted like shit and look like 面粉果then拉面. Yucks. I wonder when I can make things as good as those palace girls. Hmm...
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Of Mis-Orientation
Dear TomHa,
I seriously do not know why I even signed up to be the web IC. I mean, I know nuts about designing a webpage and yet here I am, putting myself into a position of utter discomfort. I know nuts about HTML, as can be seen from my blog whereby the only things I really know how to do is to Bold Things, Italicise things and nothing else. The rest are just stuffs that you can do just by following instructions. Darn it. Perhaps I had wanted to learn something new, but at a time like this? With exams around the corner? Oh crap. Well, hope I can survive that without much hiccups. Removed something from the site and still cannot get it up. Hope the team does not notice it too soon. GRRRR... More googling and more books for me.
Well, been going easy on myself for the weekend, after that many tests and the sucky marketing presentation last week. Gosh.. They had really taken a great toll on me. Lucky I sprained my ankle last assessment and thus could find a reason to not exercise too hard. Thanks for the break. Blessing in disguise I think. But, the main point is that I had survived it. Very good. Kinda proud of myself, haha. If I can manage to figure out how to do the website properly, would be even more proud of myself, afterall, I had always been rather apprehensive of computer related stuff and that I scored better than average for my programming last sem was just because I had done good things in my previous life. That's all to it. Why am I talking about this IT thing so much?
Daming is getting more and more academic nowadays. Good for him if that's what he wants. He says that I still do not know what I want. Hmm.. Kinda agree with him. But there's been one thing that I know that I had always wanted. To live a carefree and relaxed life, just like Yoh of Shaman King. However, aswhat he says, only a person who had worked and pushed himself really hard will appreciate what a carefree and relaxed life is. Very true, and I guess what i am doing now is to push myself to my limit and see what happens...
A look back at my blogs of this sem. A revelation: None of them had been funny. All are rather whiny or just screwed attempts by me to illustrate my grandiose ambitions. Guess that pretty much sums up what that I am experiencing?
欲上青天揽明月。。。
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Of War and Peace..
DSCF0278
Originally uploaded by Minas Morgul.
Dear TomHa,
Long time never corresponded to you already. Really sorry. Not that I did not have the time, but I just did not have the energy to blog. Whatever, I am just lazy. Recently, I had been thinking about lots and lots of things. About what I am going to do after examinations. If all goes well, I will leave for Nepal to climb Mera, come back, work for a month, go for a diving course in July, go diving legally in some places, then go Cambodia. Lots of travelling that I would like to do. Afterall, you can only be young once. Guess, I had begun to see things more openly, and that money is not really meant to be saved in the bank, although my StanChart account really yield rather good interests. I had also though about my next semester. A semester whereby I hope that my Hall application will go through and that I will not join any freaking thing and just concentrate on the Singapore Triathlon and train myself up for an Ironman, if possible, by next year. A lot of reminiscence had also been done.
I remember my working days, as a gardener. A job which many people scorn off but I took it anyway, whether out of desperation or interest, I am still debating until now. Anyhow, I think throughout all my life, those were really THE days. I mean, they were really days that I had enjoyed thoroughly. Everyday, you wake up, have your coffee and breakfast, read the papers, then off to work. Toil and huff and puff and then 5pm comes and WooHoo! Time to relac one corner. I miss the evening sun, not that there aren't any now, but the evening sun when I could sit in one corner of somewhere high, sometimes a tree to read a story book or simply, take a nap and relax. Its those kind of really doing nothing after knowing that you had already worked hard and that you deserved the break that really appeals to me. Also, fiction is still the only kind of binded paper that appeals to me. Actually, action stories only please. haha.
The more I think about it, the more I miss it and the more I am coerced to think about quitting mountaineering altogether. Jieling said that life is just shiok after quitting, with the time that you'll suddenly have in hand. Wa liew, make me envious and tempted to step in her shoes. We'll see how it goes.
What happens if I cannot go Nepal, whether it is because I am just sick of the admin or because of the political situation in that country. I cannot really tell. But a plan is underway, a plan that will definitely make sure that I remained a fulfilled person at the end of the day. Coffee, sunset, a fishing rod, a pond and a good read. Man, I miss those days. Wake me up when this sem ends....
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