i HATE computer jargon! (and pple who use them so freely!!)

Been feeling pretty stupid these few days whilst working with Yihao and Jeremy on my laptop in the project room... gosh...with them spewing words like proxy, ftp, BEUI, what the whatever... I'm like completely BLANK.. and my heading was swimming with all these information overload... and the last straw is when jeremy downloads so many programs which like now.. I dun even noe how to use 1/2 of the programs in my com... hehe.. guess that's where you say knowledge is power.. =(...

worse thing is, the instructors all around seemingly KNOW such stuff well as well... so i really look like some country bumpkin who is completely comouter illiterate.. (which is SO not true!).. aniwez.. after such humbling lessons.. my dad/mum suggested me to go learn up such stuff for "future use" and not just amble around discussing stupid things like reality TV and survivor... gawd.. it's that same old argument again.. oh well.. but me feeling small here...

but well it feels pretty important, privilledged and kewl to hide in the cool recesses of the project room and avoid all sorts of sai-kang whilst doing with comms mag stuf.. which i realise i dun actually have much time to do... sianz... but methinks for now it is still going on fine lah... 3 MONTHS TO COMMISIONING!!! HAHAHAHA.. NO MORE SUCKING OF THUMB LIAO!!! Cos really some of the Delta instructors are either darndedly stupid or just fricking rigid...(which makes me wonder how they even got into OCS in the first place.. oh well there ARE stupid cadets also what) Aniwez.. they will insist on doing things their way or in a set-but-in-the-scenario-irrational way.. which makes our life pretty sad actually.. i mean, now with AST getting 5 day week as well.. an d with somewhat more interaction with Foxtrot and seeing the amount of freedom they get.. u really sorrta wanna go there instead..

I mean, OCS is kinda getting ok lah.. fun lah i shud say, with the end-state quite close already, things just, well, seem better.. I dunno... maybe it's also because I'm getting close to many more people around in the platoon.. and yah.. it's somehwat like boarding school lah...

reGards
fRaNk

Singaporeans Ain't Got Da Groove

Ok... I just just finished watching that craptacular embarrasement-fest called Singapore Idol.. and.. ok.. the gradings first

Joint 1st : Maia/ Taufik/ Olinda
Each had their strengths which if maximised, could have nailed it for them as a wow! performance, but sadly, each well... sortta missed it at parts and hence, i can't say one is better than the rest or whatever.. but AT LEAST they pulled of a disco-ish perforamce that got the auidence interested and was in-sync with the theme...

Maia i thought did the best, she started the strongest but sadly well, focused too much on her dancing and couldn't hold her notes well enough at the later parts of the song... still.. it was good.

Taufik pulled off a disco-ish, pretty flawless performance with a great falsetto but well... it didn't connect well with me lah.. and didn't have that oomph! about it..

Olinda's dress sense killed her. Period. and well.. whilst the richness and vibrance of her voice suited this genre and the song, there were parts where the masculine edge of her voice just put me off... so..

4th : Daphne.. pretty flawless performance vocal-wise but lacked da groove... ok song choice but probably might have done better with a re-hash of her "I will survive"

Joint 5th: Jerry/ Sylvestre

Jerry.. tried. his. best... his song was simple but still couldn't hide the amateurish-ness and rawness of his untrained voice.. it was like a normal guy singing karaoke... what made it unbearable was her forced simles and cheerisness throughout the song... ugggh... so u listened to the "constipated" comment but this is waaay too much

Sylvestre SHOULD BE BANNED FROM SINGING DISCO... that was the MOST lifeless and unbearful performance of "Let's Groove"... even the music was more alive than him.. and.. he didn't seem to make ANY effort to remedy that.. just continued standing there like a stone and SOUNDING like one.. Pathetic, sordid effort that deserves to be slammed at last position.. but well.. his vocals saved him a lil' grace

Joint LAST : Chrisypoo/ Leandra

Leandra MADE A MESS OF A SONG... and what a wierd song selection.. with a off-ish rhythm and off-ish beats which was ill-suited to the genre.. and her voice cracked and faltered till it was truly unbearable at the last parts of the song...TERRIBLE for a talent like hers...

Chrisypoo.. i couldn't bear to listen... Taste of clothes : F, Falsetto singing : F... nuff' said.

And well... all in all I've realised that disco ain't a good genre for Idols competition... because it stands out as a genre that merely tests to flexibility and vibrance of one's voice.. how one plays with one's voice and how one soaks up the music and sings to it... that's the nature of music... why Singapore Idol hopefuls failed pretty badly was that, though they had pretty solid voices, they lacked the vocal skills and really LACKED DA GROOVE...

Oh well.. the only thng good about disco was that it evicted Jerry... even though i wouldn't say it was his turn this time.. but good work Singapore in getting the bottom 4 pretty right.. hee...=)

Next week's the spectaculars... wonder what they'll pull out this time... good luck!

FrAnk

Se7en, Horror Movies and Jerry Ong (NOT connected)

Ok.. was just surfing the net and clicked on Yahoo! Movies' "Really Scary Movies Guide", conveniently placed to "celebrate" Halloween... (Americans have wierd ideas)...and well, movie that caught my attention? SE7EN

And well, being the scaredy-cat me, knowing I wouldn't probably dare to actually rent the movie and watch it, yet really curious at how each murder for each sin was exacted out, I went to read the script. (Just like I did with Kill Bill.. but I wasn't scared of Kill Bill, it was just RA but it reeked ME.. the pop-couture addict.. hee hee...)

Aniwez, it's amazing what a lil' bit of imagination can do to a horror tale...I was not even really ready, just scanning the book till the murder scenes came (ala Angels and Demons)... NO.. i'm not psychotic or sadistic.. just that murders connected with a symbolism or so it just so warped and errm.. interesting? But aniwez, the end result was that I was gripped.. and well.. pretty terrified... so paranoid that i almost puked whilst drinking soup and finding a chunk of reddish meat in it... then an unknown person sent me an SMS going by

"Hi.. Frank whats up?.. How is your training? Can you core (cope) with it? Hey why you so moody everytime I see you... Whats wrong? you ok?"

I was freaked out, thinking along The Ring lines that I had received a haunting SMS from a psycho/stalker/serial killer and that I was the next victim in line and was about to die in 7 days... Maybe like a killer with the intelligence of John Doe (Se7en), stalked instincts of Annie Walker (Misery) and psychotic-ness of Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs/ Red Dragon --> which i DID watch and spent half of the time crouching behind my schoolbag in fear)....

so much for imagination... aniwez.. that was my medic-friend from Gryphon BMTC, Sazali...

aniwez, i've resolved that horror movies are NOT for me... ok.. maybe silly B-rated flicks like Resident-Evil : Apocalypse or something that doesn't really incite my imagination can.. but NO-NO to twisted movies like Se7en.. eww... i was really gonna be sick reading about Lust... ewww...

ok.. that's all i'm gonna say.. it's gross and i'm not spending anymore time wallowing in such a show.. which really well.. didn't much make sense in the end.. how the HECK does Detective Mills make a personification of wrath and well.. how does John Doe personify Envy with that lil' of envy that seemingly like developed within a few days since the start of the case... sigh.. seems like the director , for the sake of putting in a twist that would leave audience gasping, puts in a twist that well, hangs on a thread with the main plot of the movie... kinda like M. Night Shyamalan's The Village.

Okie, really gonna end this now.. I wanna have a good night's sleep tonight...going to watch Singapore Idoland Survivor 9 now and give my comments later.. hee hee.. Heard Jerry Ong went out.. and the newspapers had a field day gasping about "Justice has prevailed so on so forth", then the sad, humanistic story about Jerry Ong avoiding the newspapers during his Idol-chasing days in order not to be down-trodden by their scathing remarks also emerges... well? i mean, just like how scores of people blasted John Stevens for lasting so far in AI3, it's JUST LIKE THAT.. suck thumb.. sometimes even when you know you suck and you had a horrid performance that was so embarrasing you could pass out on stage, your inane rabid fans just keeping pouring their money away for you on the phones and prolong-ing your stay on and on...

oh well.. that's the side effects of such Idol competitions that one should be been aware of before joining rite? so.. well.. no pity for you Jerry..

Adios!
FrAnK

Reflections on Taiwan, Memento Style (Part 1-3)

1-R&R-Part 3

Day 2 of R&R

Our first destination after a drearily long ride was the Sun Moon Lake which was well, beautiful but a lil' bit common in my eyes liao, I mean, after seeing all these sparkling blue lakes with towering mountains being reflected on the river surface.. gee..

That was supposed to be a pee break stop, as described by my tour guide, so yeah.. it was short, right after that, we proceeded to the Aboriginal Village, which was a cultural centre cum theme park...we first went to a building near this mock-up European Garden which was pretty as a picture, though I felt the 4 towers in it looked tad like they had a chockful of Cambodian influence or something... spoilt the effect alas... But the misty mountain-view superimposed with the beautiful fountain and neat shrubs of the garden created a very unique, surreal scene. After lunch, (which was very good!) we went to take a cable-car ride to go to the aboriginal village upslope which was pretty fun as Hichael, Yazid and Fadli joked around about how precarious the cable car was slung onto a single cable and so on... We eventually decided not to get out on the top as well...hehe... we weren't too interested in the aboriginal culture but instead, decided to head for the roller coaster rides again. The most fun was the Maya Adventure, which was different cos the seats were suspended from the cable ie. this was oliterally "floorless", and hence we were swerving and swinging much more during the ride and it was very scary cos the tracks were REALLY close to each other... this one really made me quite dizzy after it (dunno how pple can take it like 3 times...) This place wasn't very interesting lah..

At night we finally reached Taipei where we caught glimpses of potential shopping areas, especially the beautiful lit-up and vibrant Xi-Men Ting area, which we were soon to realise was very near our hotel, Riverview Hotel. Xi-Men Ting really reminded me of Harajuku in Japan, with all the bright lights and familiar brands and the youthful couture all around, where bargains had to be unearthed through very hard work and very keen eyesight.. (Read.. ONLY for ACCOMPLISHED shoppers like.. eh-hmm Terence Pang and Harry.. who can memorise prices of Camper shoes and know whether the particular Adidas apparel is vintage and can pull off the best bargains... golly am i very very envious... but heck.. what's done is done) Whilst driving through this brightly lit, fun-filled district and hearing local-boy Jiawei describe the various characteristics of the place, I felt a warm feeling in my chest.. and knew I had come home (ala Becky Bloomwood style when she reaches a sample sale)... =)

Boo Hoo! All My Friends Have Gone Overseas!!

Sigh.. it's sad when all your friends start leaving overseas for study and you've seemignly been halted in your tracks by the big bummer called National Service.. =(

And yeah, u guessed it, they send e-mails of "new address notifications" filled with classy and kewl names such as Fallers House, Cornell U, Magdalene College, Cambridge and so on... grrr.. it sucks when u were in a medicine class with 20 girls and only 6 guys..

like outta of the 6 guys even, 2 have gone overseas to Cambridge to study whilst another 2 have disrupted thanks to the powers of med fac... SIGH.. leaving me and another guy who's having fun in amoured infantry...

ok.. self-pity session over.. =(
FrAnk

Reflections on Taiwan, Memento Style (Part 1-2)

1 - R&R - Part 2
So we commenced our R & R pretty soon, after some close shaves with the administration pple at Heng Chuan camp over missing fire extinguishers, missing metal trays, and dirty tentages (i mean.. what the!?!? who would steal metal trays!?!.. and succeed for that matter!?!)

My bus was like the VIP bus with LTCs and CPTs and well, the entertaining warrant officers.. and well, thanks to those AIs and WOs, Luke and I who came up the bus later were forced to the front, separated from the rest of the gang of Da Hua, Kaiwei, Terence, Thye Heng, Jack, Melvin, Royston, Chia Wei, Yazid, Boon Peng and Linus.. tsk tsk.. But aniwez no major harm done, cos most of us were still pretty sleep deprived and just dozed off whilst travelling on the bus.. well, until Resident Evil 2 came on screen (Milla Jorovich is KEWL!.. and I want to learn how to throw daggers!) Sadly, our tour guide was a guy, whose valiant attempts to incite excitement on us, well.. fell on deaf ears.. (Bloody Jeremy's bus got a cute female tour guide named Vivian...sigh.. how unfair)

National Aquarium-thingy
Nothing much here, just a short visit to this aquarium-ish thingy which showcases many beautiful fishes.. I was literally mesmerized at the sight of the throusands and thousands of fishes, the astounding sizes of many of them, the vibrant hues of the schools of fishes at the main gallery, with a whole glass wall for pple to view the fishies.. Kewl.. I could stay there a whole day and just glance at the fishes, sharks and so on.. The next astounding sight was when we went outside and saw the endless sparkling blue sea and the beautiful coast surrounding it spread out in front of our eyes... it reminded me of Australia.. well maybe because I first saw such scenes in Broome, Australia... maybe it's just cos we Singaporeans are too deprived in such natural majestic scenes... =( Another thing we saw was the Baby White Whales "performance", which I felt was well.. unnatural, contrived.. and well, sad.. they made the whales brush teeth, jump up, swim around like some circus acts... it's just sad... i wanted to see them in their natural glory, jumping around, looping around (maybe THAT'S unnatural too).. but well... it was disappointing..

JanFuSan Theme Park was our next stop (well, after lunch.. pretty sucky in terms of chinese cuisine.. you'll understand later) where the feckless and daring me went straight to the most terrifying roller coaster, the G5 and sat in the first row.. GULP.. The first few terseful moments whilst the roller coaster was climbing up the tracks to the top was only eclipsed by the few seconds of dreadful wait whilst we were suspended mid air, with my feet literally dangling forward and my eyes looking downward at the enormous drop. It was literally a vertical drop and when we fell... wooohooo.. it was like a neverending free fall feeling, face-down..(even turbo drop didn't feel so scary..) the feeling of leaving your stomach quite far above was well... shiok! and well, the ride was too short in the end... but luckily no side effects.. (Melvin and Yi Kiat din dare to try.. Melvin was more into the spirly-whirlies, spinning stuff which he and Boon Peng later ventured off to play by themselves when I said no more).. Next ride we took was some Floorless Rollercoaster which was probably the 2nd most fun ride outta the Taiwan trip. Aniwez, it was the first time i took such a "complex" roller coaster, with like corkscrew twirls and all the wierd variations lah.. normally my mom would just have banned me from going, citing my embarrasing Tokyo Disneyland Space Mountain dizzy experience.. (THAT was unfair cos it was due to my head being too small and not fitting into the head cushion supports nicely). Rest of the rides was nothing much lah, we all soon got pretty bored and ventured back uphill to well.. see Yi Kiat, Royston and Chia Wei shoot hoops at the basketball game machine.. (another Taiwan fascination) whilst Terence, Da Hua, Kaiwei and Kevin struggled with the bean bag game, courtesy of rich kid Kevin.

Our never-ending bus journey took us finally into GaoHsiung city late at around 7 -8pm.. where we checked in at Toong Mao Hotel. (apparently not as good as Kingdom cos Wing Comm wanted it nearer to the Liu-He-Er Street Night Market.. grr) Pretty decent still, Terence and I shared one room lah.. and it was 2 QUEEN SIZED BEDS!!! Good for all those late nite bridge and "dai-di" sessions!! But well, we went straight to the night market at Liu-He-Er Street and met up with our pals from Hotel 2. But well, this night market was pretty.. disappointing... (cos I soon realised it was yet again a tourist market) it consisting mainly of foodstalls selling similar stuff like Xiang Ji Pa and so on, as well as new additions like Ba Bao something that Yi Kiat and gang went to taste... There were also many game stalls (Chiyu won 4 stuff toys!!! and gave one to J Bay!! grrr.. I wanted a Piyo Chan!) and archade game stalls.. oh well.. There were were some cl0thing apparel stores selling imitation stuff like Hugo Boos, (gosh.. WHAT a name change) Abcdis (from adidas) and so on, as well as other more interesting shops selling trinklets, satchets of dried flowers (which Melvin mistook for as food=)), miniature puppies (WSM saw a 8888NT Shar-pei that piqued his interest), watches(Boon Peng kept haggling with the shopkeeper for a blue swatch watch look-a-like) and shades...

In the end, I bought like a pair of shades (called Baalism..wierd), and like one peanut Dou-Hua and well... that was about it.. went back to the Hotel to play bridge.. which I LOST terribly and was like the plague.. making everyone who partnered me lose... sigh... OH WELL.. slept at around 0200hrs i guess..

The next day awaits...
FrAnk

Reflections on Taiwan, Memento Style (Part 1-1)

Well, Taiwan to me was really pretty fun and interesting, because there were really many opportunities and experiences to learn from. (So stop msging me and asking me "did u die? are u dead already?")

1 - R&R - Part 1
Those who say people bond well thru hard times should maybe rethink it... cos I think all of us bonded even better whilst having fun shopping and in theme parks.. Let's start about the shopping.. phew! I cannot believe there's so many guys into shopping and how they exhibit all these seemingly "feminine" traits whilst shopping... First 2 nights out brought us to Xiao Ken Ting as well as Heng Chun town.

Xiao Ken Ting had a heavily americanized beach culture theme going about for it, in a sense that most shops were selling beach wear, billabong/op stuff, visors (those that Roy-roy, Yi Kiat and Yihao bought), kewl shades (Xiao Ning's big shades gang), seashells as souvenirs (which Mel Mel failed to grab hold of) and all the various beach trinklets and accesories (sandals, chokers, necklaces.. you name it).. But well, us not being too familiar with the prices, generally shunned buying bigger stuff and well, just headed straight for the food... Mel Mel was a TERRIBLE influence on me and we went around tasting Taiwan sausages, Roast Boar Meat, Roasted Mushrooms, Strawberry Crushes, Xiang Ji Pa and so on so forth.. i think i spent a whopping 400NT on food alone that day (which i soon realised was a BEEEG mistake)

Heng Chun Town was much more difficult to navigate, and we realy didn't know much where to go and hence quite much hor-landed at first, walking around dimly lit streets with closed shops seeing a the silly Ah-Ge-Ge betel nut shops and the corresponding Ah-Mei-Mei betel nut shops.. Taiwanese and their idea of creativity... hmmm.. Aniwez, i think the rest of the Delta 1 pple gave up and went to splurge on a Seoul Garden style bbq and a pretty chitzy restaurant whilst my group (Xiao Ning, Thye Heng, Boon Ping, Jeremy, Wei Yang, Jack) went to find the elusive night market. Apparently these pple in Heng Chun completely can identify that we're from Singapore and hehe. maybe raise the prices a lil' bit... Cos every single shop asked us straight up whether we were from Singapore, and when i countered asking them how they knew, they just said batches and batches of singaporeans have come already... bleah.. i think that translates to no more exotic cheap bargains.. =(

The night market of Heng Chun was pretty fun (besides the horrid stench emananating from the Chou Dou Fu), and this time i was out to have a good meal instead of just picking at different food stalls... we settled for some cheaper food stall that charged us i think $3 for a meal with steamboat and hot plate where we cooked beef and generally had fun soaking in the night market atmosphere.. kewl first time experience for me aniwez... The night market had bingo stalls, games stalls (we tried playing the bean-bag hitting cans game but wah-lau.. SUCKED like hell... couldn't even hit to cans at all for some.. what happened to our grenade throwing skills!!?), clothing stalls which Jeremy bought his Like jacket (haha!) and where i tried to bargain with the shopkeeper... but too bad.. poor skills..

Back at Heng Chun Town, we ventured to a cafe called MoonBeam Cafe (quaint and lovey-dovey sounding ain't it), which was tended by some pretty lasses and wow-wee their cakes were REALLY awesome... dunno whether it's cos we haven't eaten cakes for long but those cakes were good! Joshua and I bought the strawberry and lychee cheese cake i think, Yihao bought the chocolate cake whilst i think Yi kiat/Wei yang bought the cheese cake and all were scrumplicious!!hehe... we even spied Cpt Chua and his gang settling inside, having a fun time.. so there... good recommendation from me...

That's all for now
FraNk

A Thesis on the Perplexing Conundrum Regarding Singapore Idol

(otherwise titled : Why are we getting such crappy results and why Jerry Ong might end up in the Final 2.. *~shudder~*)

Fact One : SINGAPORE is a small country with an even smaller TV auidence and yeah... a miniscule population that would actually part with their precious money to VOTE for some silly contestants prancing on stage no matter how good they are.

Fact Two : 99% of the voters base their votes on their relationship to so-and-so and blah blah... cos she's the sister of my cousin twice removed from that uncle's friend so on... SUCH voters would care less than to see the rest of contestants walk on fire or jump off a cliff for them to change their votes... In fact, their preferred contestant could merely appear on stage, fart, walk off and they still get these voters' votes...

Which pretty much explains the results of the show doesn't it Singapore?? I wasn't around to see the disgrace of a show that spat out my fav Jeassea K. Thyidor or Beverly Morata, but well.. i wasn't too surprised when I heard of this from my sis. (mind u, i wasted much overseas telephone bill to hear this appalling news) Thing is, don't tell me Jessea was too cold or Beverly was too loud or something... they just had less relatives and relations, considering their eurasian backgrounds, and hence.. poof! they're gone...

Theories I have to debunk..

Theory 1: The LaToya Syndrome
Some who have watched American Idol 3 and saw a similar disgrace which led to Boomie (Jennifer Hudson) and La Toya's expulsion might be similarly convinced that this similar phenomenon is happen, that it was simply because the two divas (Beverly and Jessea) split up their voters' votes and hence lead to their demise... HELLO? Perhaps this is like in the infantile stage of the show and things such as voting bulk for each contestant has NOT been formed.. (though I doubt in this case it ever will) And well.. to put it in perspective, at least America had the decency to recognize their talents and vote for them, Singapore (us being well.. a lil' cheapskate) just appreciated and failed to vote... hence the result...

Theory 2: The "They Should Let Us Vote Against Contestants" Opinion
Wantin' to get rid of Jerry Ong i see.... but well.. the theory is flawed... why? Because what would then happen, is that rabid fans of certain poorer-faring Idol hopeful would band together and pick off the strong contenders one by one... ie.. the result would be something like Jessea, then Leandra, then Maia and so on... such that in the end, we have a Final 2 of people we scarcely know, and hence have scarcely been targetted.. (Ghastly Jerry would finally stir up enough hate to earn his expulsion mid-way)

ie. Final 11 : Jessea, Beverly eliminated
Final 9 : Leandra eliminated
Final 8 : Maia eliminated
Final 7 : Taufik eliminated
Final 6 : Olinda eliminated
Final 5 : David eliminated
Final 4 --> Sylvestre, Daphne, Jerry, Christopher (ewww)

Aniwez... what's all this talk in the forums and newspapers for!?! JUST SHUT UP AND VOTE for your FAVOURITES for goodness sake! The only way to defeat rabid fans to do be even more RABID!!! yeah!!!

Signing Off,
Dr. FrAnk Chan
(Phd, ReaLity TV AnalysIS and CriTIQUE)

Goodbye to..
Beverly Morata

Jessea K. Thyidor

David Yeo

Yay! Another Blog!

Ya' know how many millions of blogs die off every day due to neglect, disinterest and so on? I dunno =) ... but at the rate i change my blog.. hehe.. I'll be guessing quite many.. but I promise this will be good this time...

I'm writing cos I'm sick of waiting for my army journal to arrive.. and I have tons of things to gush about my Taiwan trip (DUn worry... i noe what's classified) and well tons of things to gush about the reality-tv world state... (I'm DA expert man.. Masters in Reality-Tv and critique, courtesy of Mess Hall, 3rd in Survivor:Amazon Fantasy)

So yeah.. i'll be tweaking the dates quite a bit to make my blog look authentique and.. well taken care of.. so there.. at LEAST i'm frank... so there...

Regards,
FraNk