Friday, June 29, 2007

The top 100 ways to celebrate before your exam papers come back...

...And common test is over, for those in junior colleges in Singapore that is...
Most of us don't really want to see our papers again, lets face it, who in their right state of mind would say that they have been fully prepared for this common test? Most of us are being driven crazy during the holidays doing all sorts of stuff already, add up the large number of projects that we need to do, and you can get the idea...

But the papers will still come back eventually, and lots of people would find it nice to enjoy themselves as much as possible before... they "d-i-e", so while they are doing trying to enjoy themselves as much as possible, I've been pretty bored since my hobby currently is to cut up pictures and music and edit them...

So....

As an inspiration from one of my older posts, we go...:

The TOP 100 ways to celebrate before your exam papers come back:

100. Looking at your computer
99. Reading this blog post (My blog is interesting ok ^^)
98. Playing Maplestory when you know that you are too old for it
97. Trying to ignore the fact that you are too old of it
96. You remember the time some koreans looked at you in surprise when you talked about "Maplestory"
95. You remembered the reason they look at you
94. You rewatch the entire getbackers series
93. You attempt to imitate Amano Ginji with his lightning ability
92. You decide that you just cannot be the lightning god like Ginji is
91. You felt that the word lightning god doesn't suit the context of Ginji
90. Ok, you mean we need to use rei-tei right?
89. You decide to find out more about yfc from nicholas
88. You are bored so you decide to help them sell tickets
87. You are told to sell about 5k tickets for fun, laughter, peace and joy
86. You attempt to help them with their projects
85. You find yourself pressurised from all sides while helping them with yfc
84. Attempt to plan a outing for some group
83. Lets say the group is disco
82. You plan to have an outing to east coast park
81. Attempt to teach someone how to ride the bicycle
80. You remember the times when you teach people how to ride a bike until they injured themselves
79. You attempt to create mass havoc at east coast park
78. It involved the whole of Disco, a few bikes, a few bystanders, and a few sounds such as "OUCH!!"
77. Actually, the sound is more like "BANG!!!!"
76. That's because "BANG!!!!" sounds nicer
75. You decided to respond to people's tags who asked you to do surveys on your blogs
74. You remembered that the above point made it to the previous list
73. If you happened to forget what post is that, you went here
72. If you still don't know what the list is about, its about "The TOP 100 ways to show that you have a lot of time on your blog"
71. You decide to tease the person who tagged you by pretending that you never seen the tag
70. Hang on a second, did I see a tag?
69.Oh, I DIDN'T, do not attempt to ask me to do a survey, muahahaha!!
68. You read a very inspirational e-mail sent by your friend
67. You read and re-read again and again and again
66. You feel inspired by it, and you want to thank your friend for that wonderful e-mail
65. You also celebrate that there is less spam in your inbox and some good e-mail once in a while
64. You started a sounds fx editing frenzy
63. You looked to youtube as a wonderful source for obtaining all sorts of wonderful sounds effects that come from anime
62. You realised that youtube just isn't as good as before
61. You decided to celebrate that fact, as that means youtube will become lousy and be gone from the surface of the world wide web, the database, the server...
60. You went to salvage sound fx from games that you once had
59. You tried to open the folders that came from the installed game to extract the music file
58. You realised that 50% of the sound effects file that are found there do not appear to be a file type that windows media player can recognise
57. Hurl insults at window media player
56. You heard that audacity can open all sorts of ulu ulu file type
55. You wanted to edit some window media audio file (.wma)
54. You realised that audacity cannot open up any .wma file
53. You hurl insults again at window media player... and oh ya, at those developers behind those file type patents
52. OH COME ON!! If you don't want me to edit the files with external program, get me a nice editor that you guys create for those .wma file types...
51. For the sake of your new handphone, you go around creating a new wallpaper for it
50. You celebrate your many failed attempts at doing it as you are unable to fit the pictures correctly
49. You celebrate your lack of knowledge of the size of the screen
48. You found out the screen size after visiting the site of the phone company
47. You realised that the site is VERY well organised and you decide to praise those people there
46. You open Photoshop CS to edit some images that you want to put as the wallpaper of your handphone.
45. After many many tries and many many edits and re-edits and edits, you did it!!!
44. You try to show it to your friends your hardwork, but they don't see the joy of it...
43. Sigh~ to yourself, and celebrate that you are not common
42. Hey its nice to celebrate that you are yourself
41. You appreciate who you are
40. You know that you are perfect, because God created you to be perfectly the way you are to be
39. You refused to do the holiday homework that are being stacked up on your table
38. As a added insult to injury (to the teachers) you hold a "Burn it ALL" ritual
37. To add the salt to the wound, it included adding a large amount of copper salts to the fire
36. Imagine, burning homework with blue flames...
35. Hey, its the curse of the homework that is causing the blue flames, we should burn them all then we would be saved from the curse that are present in the homework.
34. You start getting prejudiced about SOME people
33. You don't get why about 99% of them are lousy idiots who refuse to help you at all in anyway.
32. You tell yourself that you'll never become this sort of people... EVER
31. Of course, you celebrate to yourself that this people will never ever make it in society
30. ... scumbags...
29. You remind yourself of the happy things in life
28. You remember the old days where life was much simpler and there are less of this... LOSERS...
27. You celebrate very happily that you aren't this pack of LOSERS who can't do anything forever
26. You decide to spend more time with good friends that can talk about the same topics
25. The topics drag very long and encompasses a wide range of stuff
24. You find happiness in talking about all sorts of stuff as you feel that you are back to the old days
23. You take a nice long nap
22. You slept...
21. and slept...
20. and slept...
19. and slept...
18. and slept...
17. and slept...
16. and slept...
15. and slept...
14. and slept...
13. and slept...
12. and slept...
11. and slept...
10. and you woke up!!!
9. You look at the new day and see a new beam of light leading your way
8. It shows you a tunnel which beckons you to come forward
7. As you walk towards that beam of light, your past fears and worries slowly disappear around you
6. You feel a sense of lightness in your steps and even in your thoughts
5. Relaxing and enjoying, you feel yourself drifting towards the light
4. The light, a source of hope for you, is something that you'll soon be able to feel
3. You see a place, where you don't need to worry about two days of the week
2. You don't need to worry about yesterday, as it is already over, and you can do nothing to it at all
1. You don't need to worry about tomorrow, as all it brings is unforseen challenges and difficulties
0. All you need to worry about is today.

Life becomes easier, when everything is dealt with day by day.
Take life.... one step at a time...

Discmon

Monday, June 18, 2007

Non-physical training camp...

Its been a tiring week...
In fact, that should be considered quite an understatement, when you take into account the fact that I had two camps back to back, with no chance to even catch a nap on my bed at home before I ran off to the next camp.
But anyway...

PA camp was excellent. I think its great to spend time with PA, and everything there. I finally got to learn everything else that I've heard about but have yet have a chance to touch. 3 days and 2 nights later, PA camp was over...
Ok, I'm deliberately cutting the part on the PA camp short because I have quite a bit of things to comment on the PLTC that I had just went through.

Ok, so what exactly is PLTC?
PLTC stands for Patrol Leaders Training Camp. It is essentially a training camp for scouts who are aspiring to become leaders of their patrol. Now then, many people would associate the idea of a training camp with physical training and mental training all at the same time, and personally, I agree with that definition.

Having been through a few june camps and one major PLTC, I know how powerful a physical training camp is when it comes to training you mentally to lead your patrol and to bond yourself with other people who are in your troupe and patrol. This year's PLTC however was different, it was different in that the emphasis is not on physical training, but was rather on just mental thinking...

I felt that this departure from the traditional formula of PLTC was a great idea at the beginning, but you still have to get back to the fact that it is a training camp. Lets have a basic overview of discipline in the PLTC this year...
Walking 99% of the time...
Firedrill, no one bothered to run and no one bothered to wake anyone else up
Final parade had really lousy showcase of footdrill
Serious lack of initiative on many parts of the campers.

Lets face it, many of this things are the exact opposite of most leaders. Leaders are the ones with the initiatives, the ones who are able to inspire and lead and pull his patrol through in the worse of times. Leaders aren't those people created through theory, but through practice and practical application. It is this people that are able to lead patrols.

In most PLTCs, physical training is heavily emphasised, with punishment dished out on a particulary normal basis. This PLTC, punishment was minimal, and even slow movement was quite tolerated. For many of us who went through PLTC, it was the thought that if one person never made it, it is equal to everyone not making it that drove us all to gain this initiative. It was when the training was really tough both physically and mentaly, do we start helping all the other patrols and helping each other to pull through.

When a camp is tough, you see the good and bad side of people. Some people are willing to help people pull through all the obstacles in the camp as one team, others are able to inspire and motivate the entire camp to endure all the crap that the planners throw at them. These are the things that makes the PLTC a viable training camp because its puts the "would-be" leaders in a situation where they have to take charge as much as possible to get everyone through it.

To me, PLTC wasn't about all the lectures and stuff, it was about the things that you learn as you are helping each other out to avoid additional punishment and to give help to those who are not really up to the standard. This are when leaders are made, they are able to work together with their patrol and care for the young ones, in this case, the people who are not physically able to make it.

For a quick example, in most PLTCs, the first fire drill, though usually not that good, would be quite average. People would be running around waking up as many other people as possible, shouts of "fall in" could be heard and even cries of where the patrol is located can be heard. People were running around, helping others to get there.
For this one, the first fire drill.....
30 seconds after the siren, 2 person woke up, bypassed all the other classrooms and just walked down the staircase at a leisurely pace...

You call that a leader??!

To me, each person has their own leadership style which they should discover themselves as they progress through their life. Some people would demand full and total control while others might try to get as close as possible but when things are bad, will have a sudden mood change...

Leadership isn't so much of a theory thing, but more of a practical application in the times.
I mean, when has there ever been a fixed set of rule for leadership??

Discmon

Monday, June 11, 2007

Unconventional post

Just a short post that would be quite uncharacteristics of what I have been doing so far.... but anyway...

Q: So... why do you have to wake me up in the middle of my sleep? ehh? ehhhh? ehhhhhhh?
A: Eh, for the fun of it!! [ouch] OKOK, it isn't just for the fun of it, but that's about 99% of the reason why I am doing this now [double ouch]...

Ok anyway, today marks the beginning of my first ever ... 7 days no home no bed experience.
What it actually means is that I am going to be in camp for 7 days. 3 days in PA, 4 days in PLTC...

Wish me luck guys that I come out alive, and don't get UUUU for common tests haha....

Discmon

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Warranty......

Remember those warranties that you always get whenever you purchase something?
That flimsy little piece of paper that allows you to fix your com up for free during the warranty period as long as its under the warranty period?

Now, a lot of people would say that the warranties are useless, come on lets face it, even Garfield agrees with all you people out there:

... ... ... ...
... ... ...
... ...
...

Ok [awkward silence] I forgot where is that particular comic strip, but I read it once somewhere before...
Basically, ehh, to give you guys a thematic overview of what that Garfield comic is about, its just about those warranty that is given to all those merchandise that you buy...

Garfield notices that every single appliances in his house is spoilt, and then he notices that today was the day that all the appliances warranty card expired...

It kinda makes logical sense in the world we have today. Very little products are able to outlive the warranty given by the various companies. Most products will spoil in some way within about 1 week - 1 month after the warranty period ends. To repair the product however, would require an absurd amount of money, such that buying a new product would be better...

Yes, its quite true that most companies have to do that to earn their profits, but you got to love the old days...
You'll know what I mean, in those days, warranties are useless...

But anyway, if your machine still happen to spoil before the warranty hits, you'll be really really happy. Recently, I decided its time to send my computer for repair...
And lets face it, when you realised you got free repairs, your entire mindset totally changes...

I realised that during this whole period of repairing, I pointed out every single defect in my computer system from the most basic to the most unusual. It just feels like what I should be doing to make sure that my computer is totally up to standard. I think its something that you do when you are assured of a free meal or a free lunch...

Heh, originally, it was just the faulty right speaker.
After the first visit, the battery problem was pointed out too (I got it replaced free of charge)
Before too long, the hanging taskbar problem was brought up
And just the last visit, even that non-irritating flickering screen problem was brought up too!!

At the rate I am going, I am sure that I am going to ask them to recoat my LCD screen very soon already...
Talk about taking advantage of free stuff...

Well, its still better then "the sale that you've all been waiting for" which according to my mother, isn't really that worth waiting for ^^

Discmon