Well, this blog is not dead as yet. As days, months goes by, I've seen much of the blogs are dying off or already dead.
This can't be happening here. Therefore, after being a 1 year soldier, it's time to give some ventilation to it. New and super duper simple skin template. But still, i have to say that I can't blog as often as during poly time, where I blogged daily. Oh man! Sounds like I'm some daily reporter on Strait times.
Blogging is so hard to be commercialized now. Bo lui...
to facebook!! It was an incrediable feat and now, I have to transport into fuller more complex details into my blog about the venues, exact location and my feelings towards some places.
Meanwhile, do keep a look out for Food and Travel magazine as I'll be featured in a small part in the mag.
Crazy it seems but never do I know that I would attempt a marathon 5 or 10 years back in primary or secondary school. In the past, running idealogy was very different then. I loathe running, i would really try to cheat / bluff / do whatever things along with my khakis to avoid running. One of the main reason was also I fear that my asthma attack would come back again, another reason was, I was plainly lazy and a fat bump.
Failing shuttle run and 2.4km was a norm thing to be, nothing much to be surprised or sorrowful about it as sports to me was like, why the hell should we do it?
Over the years, when I got older, I found many life experiences that reflects sports rules,
endurance and mentally fused well together. I wasn't faithful to one sport, first it was swimming then later I've changed to some badmintion. During my poly years, I've tried frisbee then later on volleyball. Different rules and different techniques, but there's one common thing in all the spor
ts i've did, which was having fun and the patience to learn.
Back in the poly years, I admit that I had many things on my mind. Tried out many hair colours and styles, went various saloon to get my hair cut. Clubbed, Danced, Sang, Performance, studies etc. It was a huge rush and 24 hours wasn't really enough (at least though it's still not enough, it's much better managing my time now). Tried many kinds of craziest business ventures with many people, some failed some went well etc.
Once I got into the army, I realised that I really could not maintain the lifestyle that I was having before thus I went 'Back to the Basics'. I've got a really simple hair cut now, get a cheap spectacles (with good lens though) and I've not worn a contact lens for donkey years. When was the last ti
me I've clubbed? It was like 10 months to a year back then. Life is more serene and sort of more focus in things that I'm doing. Most of the concept that I am following now is taken from Apple, where their designs are simply so simple, yet very complex.
Now, joining marathons, runs and etc is the craziest and most contridicting thing to do. I hate running in the past, why the hell I started off running the Kallang Expressway Open House 10km and suffer under the humid and hot tunnel? It was the feeling that you can't experience when your chip, your entire body thrust forward to the finishing line. The feeling I could simply put for now is "YES! I'VE FINISHED THE RACE AND GOOD RIDDANCE!" Yea, that's really the simplest way i could describe my feeling.
During early december, I was helping out at the Standard Chartered Marathon 2008 Expo and there was a booth heavily advertising for Sundown Marathon with their early bird special fees etc. Intially, I remembered that I wanted to join subUrban 10km run only as Hivelocity was organizing it but never do I know, due to the awesome freebies and discounts for sundown marathon, I've also joined a full marathon. After all the trasaction was done there, I was like "Melvin,
you are in for sure.. no way of turning back but only to waste your money if you're not particapting it. "
So I thought, there's about 6 more months to go and I thought I could really train for it. But soon after, many obstacles came into my life. Tourettes, my new vocation, new peers in army with tonnes of politcal stuffs (much more of what North Korea is having with US now.) I didn't progress anything or gain anything significantly through this 6 months. It was hell and I've no mood to train for 10km too.
Every single day, my physical fitness was rotting away. Btw, I'm much fatter too, due to lack of exercise in my vocation too. I was practically rotting my 6 months, doing jailbreaks for people (it's a really successful venture you know!), doing my work in camp, meet councellors and neurologist etc.
Till 29th May, it suddenly struck my mind, oh.. I've a marathon to run tonight. What have I done for the past 6 months to prepare for it? Oh yes, the 15km Passion run which was just a week before. And hell, my legs was like 95% recovered from the 15km Passion run.
What I have prepared before the race?
No brainer was that I should load as much carbohydrates though I was plum already. On Friday, I had huge curry fish head feast with my parents and loaded quite a bit of rice into my diet. On saturday, I had mee goreng and puffs for breakfast while attending Asian Youth Games briefing and due to the busy and hectic afternoon of getting a desktop computer for my parents, I had to skip lunch.
I had dinner with Siew Yee and Kewei, at Botak Jones really had the most last minute awesome carbo loading dinner with fries, pasta and fried fish. Actually, during that evening, I was beginning to be worried. I had many thoughts in my mind and one of them was "Melvin, are you very sure that you've joined the correct time? Look, you've not done 21km yet but you're trying for 42km? Your mother has already told you that you're really siao to run for this, are you sure"
I wasn't very sure then... Not until I finished the entire ordeal.
My adventure begins...
Both Kewei and I were late for the marathon, we missed the flag off timing and we were like 10 minutes late from the flag off timing.
I started really slow pace on the first 1km, because I've 41km left to run. Within 30 seconds we started running, I lost kewei and he's far up hopping, jumping and speeding ahead. I've read online about social pressure and nothing's gonna beat or influence me to keep on par with him. I know my limits and continued at my own comfortable pace.
I realised that night runs are much better to run compared to morning.. You need not have to worry about the sun and etc. It was quite cool yet humid when I ran.
The complaints.
At the east coast park, there was a U turn back to the 21km point. they should have a check point there because I do see people cheat when they took a shorted U turn! That tempted me to U turn and cut through to 21km too but I resisted and was scared. Because what if there was indeed a check point at the U turn range? I would be forfeited and running meaninglessly for the rest of the marathon. BUT THERE'S ISN'T! WHEN I REACHED THE U TURN POINT, I WAS LIKE DAMN! DAMN YOU ALL LUCKY CHEATERS!!!
But well, at least I did really run the full marathon.. oh wait, actually MUCH more than 42.125km.
I was really proud of myself at the 33 to 35km mark, during that time, it was around Siglap park connector where I saw many, really many people taking a seat at the playground, benches and took off their shoes to massage as they couldn't take the intense muscle ache. All thanks to my long stamina of standing and running about in my Japanese Restaurant for 13 hours max, I could actually 'tahan' walking and jogging non stop sia! I didn't know that I could take it, though slow but I didn't stop to take my shoes out or massage my legs!
The long, endearing last league of the race
It was hell i tell you. My legs were really feeling the full impact of the numbness, pain and so many other gruelling things to describe it but unable to explain it. Starting from 38km, the journey took so long to reach 39km. Kewei and I suspect that there was some problem with the signage because practically, it takes like many LIGHT years for me to slow jog / walk from 38km to 42km.
At the very last 600m, those 6 hours and above had to run a very different route. And it was EXTREMELY different and grueling shit. They have diverted the course to so much longer than 42.125km. I'm very sure those participants will complain that they cant finish it earlier by crossing the elevated bridge but instead, have to go one huge round the damn river to reach the finishing line.
Upon reaching the finishing line, my mind was blank but only 2 things in mind, get the finisher tee and medal and GRAB A BANANA.
Lastly, I want to thank my parents for letting me going for such a crazy marathon. Though my mother said I was crazy to join such race, but she still allowed me to go. Thanks!
Whoosh! What a sudden rush of event that make me feel like I'm back to normal in my poly days.. I said the word "feel" though.. not really back to the post army days as I still have funny commitments in the army.
I'll keep you guys updated again. Cheers everyone!
Ever wonder why she captured and stormed the world with her songs? She was the highest, most searched singer on search engine and her legend lives on.
Why her songs are so catchy? Because mainly and plainly, her songs are satanic and evil.
Everyone do know about "If You See Amy", formally known as "If You Seek Amy". Her original lyrics is "all the boys and all the girls are begging to If You Seek Amy". Who the hell has such english paraphrasing and sentence structure? "to If You Seek Amy"?
Well, you will only understand you see it in this angle ""all the boys and all the girls are begging to iFyoUseeKme" which literally translate to "all the boys and all the girls are begging to F-U-C-K me"
That's her main goal. To breach the censorship and deliver her obsene songs without being edited to the masses. How smart is she? Well, she's extremely smart in conveying evil messages.
Remember the song "Gimme More"? It was extremely catchy and we thought she came out of her total craziness, depression state with this song. Never DO I know that she's venting her hatred in this song.
Here it goes, "Gimme More" played backwards as she talks more about her life in depression state.
What about If You See Amy? She didn't mind singing it again and inserting the word from "Seek" to "See" that makes the whole song cleaner. But how clean is this song?
Her song played backwards are full of satanic phrases and sing phrases for satans.
The new reversed lyrics: Al al al alal al al al They hate me, seek me, touch me/ you make me sick Just 'cuz I have an invisible husband Hey matrosjka, senorita This are a mistake, noo Hey matrosjka, soo.
They hate me, seek me, touch me/ you make me sick Just 'cuz I have an invisible husband Exile we streak, in fear he run
Mwahaha hihi haha ho Dis ist ganz nicht But at least she got da boobs, boy And a normal cigar
And here come the forwarding, yaha Oowha, who else was I, gone easy, buy me west Ooho, oohoo, galis dans ich nooit met jullie bear Mymy, that musical good Myea, let's take the queen's and shake that baby baby
Hoo hell suck my nipples magician, North apimacion And this be many super heavy, but baby
They hate me, seek me, touch me/ you make me sick Just 'cuz I have an invisible husband Hey matrosjka, senorita This are a mistake, noo Hey matrosjka, soo.
They hate me, seek me, touch me Just 'cuz I have an invisible husband Exile we streak, in fear he run
Mwahaha hihi haha ho Dis ist ganz nicht [German for "This is totally not"] But at least she got da boobs, boy And a normal cigar
And here come the forwarding, yaha Oowha, who else was I, gone easy, buy me west Ooho, oohoo, galis dans ich nooit met jullie bear Mymy, that musical good Myea, let's take the queen's and shake that baby baby
Hoo hell suck my nipples magician, North apimacion And this be many super heavy, but baby
Al al al alal al al al
Now, do you underestimate Britney Spears? Can Christina Aguilera or Katy Perry create such magnificent songs that able to decode the hidden messages? I wonder...
"It's only a matter of time" - said the health officials of Singapore about the H1N1 flu being spread as a community in Singapore. For this, they are so certain that there will be a casualty in Singapore.
What about Mas Selamat? He has escaped 3 times and will there be another time?
Can Singapore afford to lose him due to security lapse again? Will Defence Minister quote the Health Minister's saying "It's only a matter of time."?
Hello everyone! What you guys have been up to? Okay, i think the answer would OBVIOUSLY be, please check out my blog lah!
But hmm, after going rounds into my friend's blog, I conclude that there's only like 20% of the who blogs about their lifes and spaces and in the 20%, about 2% of them blogs extremely thoroughly, i thought i was reading their life's Wikipedia.
Anyway, enough of the funny crap. I presume that I can resume my frequency of blogging now. Nuffnang hasn't been giving me ANY advertisements from their banner but I can't complain lah, though my viewership is still the same as before BMT Times (interestingly), but I guess that nuffnang would not give advertisement if you haven't been blogging for a long time (with some commercial means tho).
First and foremost, I am proud that I was invovled in this cuddly, cute'sy event, Inter-School Aquathlon 2009 where children from primary school, all the way up to university students took part in this light aquathlon.
Now, WHAT THE HECK IS AQUATHLON? IS IT A AQUA (GAY/LESBIAN) thing?
It's simply, swim like you've never float before and run like you never walk before.
Preparations were made for this event and I am really proud that I was the shirt designer for the event. Loads of brain cells and creativity were lost during this event. The design of the shirts were a blast and well-received by participants! That positive comments from participants and organizers brought my designing skills into another level. Remember hunkies, and babeies, I wasn't from a designing course.
Smack! This was the design that i LOVE the most. Based from the controversial MRT sign, I've design to create this for 400+ participants and 300+ volunteers because it's catchy, retro and media oriented.
Primary base.
Shirt Front
Shirt Back
But organizers found it really 'media oriented' and excessively retroistic. It does not really cater for children, esp primary / secondary school children. I tried to change the colour and fonts to make it slightly more childish but still, catchy in the eyes of the public to be more AWARE in such sport event.
Therefore, my second draft for my organizers.
Front side
Back side.
I've bumped and kicked the colour up, fresh lime green with childrens' hand writing font, in short, Kristin IC lah.
This was controversial and having loads of mixed reviews. Some loved it yet some still found it to adult looking. The final verdict? For a thought, i thought that the organizers played Amy winehouse song, Rehab. "They tried to bring me to rehab but i said NO NO NO.."
This rejection does really dented my heart and motivation to design something though. But i preservered and did something simpler yet more catchy and direct an obvious message to the public.
Though i spent like 30 minutes creating this image, it took me half a day to brainstorm something so cute and simple.
This concludes something, being and creating something simple isn't easy. Just like life and gadgets, to create something simple and easy to be liked, it requires a lot of effort to deal with it.
Front Side.
Back side.
I was not confident that this design would pass by the organizers initially. I didn't have as much high hopes as the previous design.
But unexpectedly, THEY LOVED IT AND APPROVED THE DESIGN. It was a defining moment because once again, after the OSIM map designing, this T-shirt design is another breakthrough to my designing skills.
What an awesome specifications for slightly higher end performance! Now, im starting to loathe my laptop performance and want to head on getting a macbook pro.
Where's all the motivation to blog? Where is it? The main reason I am blogging now is because my sister had just asked me why i am not updating my blog for a long time. LOOK! My template is still stuck with the valentine's day thingy.
I've got so much to tell, really.. about my life, about my social circle in National Service, ex school mates, volunteer mates. But the main reason isn't about all this social gatherings or events that I am yearning to blog and stick a memory of it. But rather, about my life in National Service. It's really a hard one and I'm pretty sure no one (including councilors) do understand the mental ordeal that I'm experiencing. People who listen to you will definitely goes " Oh yes Mel, I understand your plight because I sorta went through the same ordeal with you. It wasn't great and blabla..."
Not to be a pessimist, but I feel that a true listener does ask you relevant questions based from your confides about your medical condition, domestic woes and etc. But hell no, forget about even confiding using MSN, the messenger that changed peoples' internet habits and communication. Confiding via MSN seems to be like punching a sand bag and it retaliates back (by hearing the other party's reply going "oh", "oh no, that's bad...") and basically they are playing or multi-tasking in other computer activity such as facebooking and etc, if I have God's senses to overlook what they are doing. Even having a personal face to face counseling session with someone isn't going to work, trust me. It just gives you a brink of hope, sorry, did I say hope? I meant false hope.
Therefore, I have to tell you all, or rather, to confide my blog or facebook notes that I indeed have Tourettes, muscle tics. Nothing fanciful of being insane or not in a sane mental state, it's just that my brain motor doesn't operate as well as before now. I get muscle tics when I get anxiety, depression or a slight discomfort from the environment. If you are curious about Tourettes, read on then.
" Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder characterized by repetitive, stereotyped, involuntary movements and vocalizations called tics. The disorder is named for Dr. Georges Gilles de la Tourette, the pioneering French neurologist who in 1885 first described the condition in an 86-year-old French noblewoman.
The early symptoms of TS are almost always noticed first in childhood, with the average onset between the ages of 7 and 10 years. TS occurs in people from all ethnic groups; males are affected about three to four times more often than females. It is estimated that 200,000 Americans have the most severe form of TS, and as many as one in 100 exhibit milder and less complex symptoms such as chronic motor or vocal tics or transient tics of childhood. Although TS can be a chronic condition with symptoms lasting a lifetime, most people with the condition experience their worst symptoms in their early teens, with improvement occurring in the late teens and continuing into adulthood."
If you are fine and able to accept my 'special ability', just read on and see the video further.
This was an evidence that I was having tourettes, a milder version of eye blinking.
Therefore, this post will reveal it all about me, my syndrome and my life that I am living now. It's not meant to hurt anyone here but rather, I just wished that there's someone out there who really understands what I am going through and able to put me into their shoes and go through such ordeal.
I have Ptosis. What is that heck again? I have lazy eyes, and that means that I have bilateral lazy eyes thus to those who first met me, they will have the impression that I do not express interest/attention to them. Instead, they think that I am sleepy. However, majority who reads my blog now are viewers who know me for long and do know that I am not sleepy every time and have shown acceptance to my lazy eyes.
Let's back track a few months back about my life.
In November 2008, I was posted as an Amour Technician. A technician that I have to deal with Bionix, m113 huge tanks that weighs about 17 to 30 tonnes. The engine or rather the powerpack weighs about 5 to 7 tonnes and if the engine falls on you, you'll just die like Hotcakes in Mcdonalds. I endured 9 weeks of my technician course as a TANK technician and one day, I told myself, "Melvin, stop this endurance now. Your eyes just doesn't seem to help you to be a tank technician where you have to bent low inside the tank body chamber, unscrewing stuffs in a dark environment." It was totally unsafe and I sounded off to my instructor who anxiously reported it to my Platoon Commander. It was then I went to the Medical Officer and he got me out of the course of being a technician. Out from this course wasn't a smooth one too. I counted myself as a bad luck guy i guess. I have no idea why when I have a valid 'black and white' paper to certify that I'm out from this course due to my ptosis, my chief clerk still insist to recourse me for another 3 months and do the same thing again. I found no logic but according to her, her logic was that there wasn't a recommendation from my specialist that I should be out of the course. But hey! My MO did and recommended. Thus, I photocopied the same thing, submitted my documents to her the 2nd time and she finally posted me out. The ironic thing was that it was the exact documents that I've submitted her the first time, but it wasn't approved by her initially. I do not know why when she requested the documents the 2nd time, she took action to find me another posting. Was the reason that she didn't read my documents? Or she lost it? I didn't probe it further because finally, I'm not a technician.
But alas, I was out from that course and I was glad that I was out of it. My peers who stuck through the course, are complaining that they want to get out from this by any means.
In early January, I was posted as an armskote personnel and the hours were extremely irregular. At times in the middle of the night, the armskote personnel have to wake up and retrieve all the arms from the cadets and yes, it's a stay in job. In fact, Sungei Gedong camp is a stayin camp with some exceptions.
I couldn't take such pressure especially what's happening at home and my condition, tourettes. In fact, the beginning was I could not accept the fact that I am posted to the place I didn't want to be at; Sungei Gedong, the most out of civilisation camp in Singapore where you are only greeted with wild boars, tropical trees and weird, bright coloured birds there.
Since posted to this camp, my tourettes became extremely bad due to some anxiety problem too. The environment there wasn't for me and inevitable, I had to go to Neurologist and counsellor for help. Yes, I went all those, just to get my tourettes surpressed and domestic problem 'fixed'.
Because of my ptosis, I was PES C1L9 and there was not a single reason that I should be in armskote because i was technically excused from firearms. I had no idea how the SAR 21 works because during BMT, I wasn't trained on it. In fact, I was excused from all kinds of firearms; rifle, grenades and etc. Therefore, how could I bear the responsibility fixing / maintaining those arms with my eye condition like this. What if something went wrong because of my partial vision lost? Besides my tourettes was really affecting my social, mental and physical side of me. Who would want to see a guy who always twitch without any warning and twitch more when there's some stress level involved in the activities like being a armskote personnel? What if I make someone lost their life due to chamber explosion in their rifle? So am I to be blamed?
I fought hard, actually really hard to be posted out again and finally, settle down with being a clerk, overlooking a computer lab. I went to see specialist from Tan Tock Seng and the doctor found my condition really rare though he heard about it. He had no idea what to do to me and referred me to a younger specialist doctor who was well learned and informed about Tourettes. He made the necessary prescription and written a memo to my Medical Officer to excuse me from staying in because it does aggreviate my syndrome.
Till now, I guess I am still fighting out from this by taking medicine daily to suppress my 'already aggreviated' tourettes. I don't have much friends in my existing wingline mainly because in the entire computer lab, I am alone inside the lab which means slightly more freedom. Those from my wing line are stay in and this group of people have known each other for many months (in fact almost a year) in that unit thus the unity is so unbreakable, I couldn't blend into their clique well. I'm fine about it and well aware that I was the special case one, muscle twitching, not staying in the same bunk as them do make them feeling I am the inferior one.
But I don't mind, as long as I do my job and duties with no more weird complains from my superior, I am very well happy with this kind of army life and pass out from this in 1 year 3 months time.
Not much expectation within this 2 years, I simply just keep a low profile and a simple army life. I'm not going to care about the ranks, friendships in this camp but only stay true to the friends that I truly think they are.
I have the feeling that a lot of people are going to despise me. But it's just a feeling only, I should not care much though. I just want my tourettes to be suppressed fully and have a peaceful life, that includes my family.
“You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting
yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make
others happy.”
Well, I'm just a Singaporean who loves Singapore and anticipate on
what's life is about to come front of me.
In the past, I used to write those 'teeny' stuffs on the favourite
food, places and my nicknames on about me. Now, I found them quite a
'twit' (Singapore slang : Childish).
Yes, I do always look very sleepy but that doesn't mean I am really
sleepy or rather a Sleeping beauty prince.
To know me further, click either on my facebook or friendster
profile. That doesn't mean you cannot click and befriend with me. =)
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