Profanity

fuck  /fʌk/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [fuhk] Show IPA Vulgar.
–verb (used with object)
1. Slang. to treat unfairly or harshly.

–interjection
2. Slang. (used to express anger, disgust, peremptory rejection, etc., often fol. by a pronoun, as you or it.)

–noun
3. Slang. a person, esp. one who is annoying or contemptible.
4. the fuck, Slang. (used as an intensifier, esp. with WH-questions, to express annoyance, impatience, etc.)

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Moshi Cover

This laptop cover arrived for me while I was away. It is a very classy, and also overdue cover for my MacBook Pro.



I saw it at Sim Lim and it was going for $189. As much as I love to protect my belongings, it was not a price I was ready to pay. In this information age however, the producers are no longer the sovereign. I found it online for USD$65.

Including shipping, it costs around $100. I don't know if I could get it for cheaper but half-price is good enough for me. Now it looks beautiful.

Diving in Krabi

I am now a PADI Advanced Openwater Diver. I did it, bringing my diving education to another level.

This trip wasn't all about diving, although diving took a big part of it. It was also about my promise to myself that I will travel every six months. It was also about taking a breath of fresh air to ready myself for the coming work year.

True to my style, I managed to keep everything to a budget of $900+, including air tickets, accommodation and the diving course. In fact it would have been a lot cheaper, the course itself took around $500.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself on this trip, even though it was very short. Two days went to diving and the rest went to people-watching, reading and just enjoying the sea breeze on the beach.


I didn't feel that I learnt much from the course. I did Peak Performance Buoyancy, Naturalist, Deep, Navigation, and Boat Diving. Boat diving is nothing new, since all my dive trips so far had been from boats. Naturalist wasn't anything since I could still barely recognise the fishes I see. Navigation wasn't anything I didn't already know, except for understanding the effects of current. Peak Performance Buoyancy was something I really looked forward to as I felt that It was something useful and important for me to know in order to really appreciate the underwater world, but that too was disappointing. Deep diving was the most apprehensive for me as I didn't know how my body would react due to my condition but we only went down to 22 metres.


With all that said, it was not that I did not enjoy the diving. It was afterall, still a lot of fun and it opened up a whole world of possibilities now that I am certified an Advanced Diver. I just felt that I could have gotten more from it. Still, it adds to my experience and allows me to get better with practice.

One other thing that was disappointing, was that I didn't manage to do a wreck dive because they didn't want to conduct a Super Day dive, going to Shark Point, Anemone Reef and the Kingfisher Wreck. Also, I didn't get to see the sharks that so many others did.

Overall though, I still enjoyed myself. The first 3 days was travelling alone, which was really good. I didn't have to take care of anyone, wake up when I didn't want to, nor accommodate to others who had different interest, a.k.a. shopping.


The next few days was joined by Jeannie. It was nice too. The fact that she was quite a sport and didn't mind just sitting around wasting time, nor eating from eat local stores and walking around exploring made travelling with her very nice. For that I thank her. Of course, it helped that there was finally someone who could help me take pictures that included me in it.

Unlike HCMC last year, I could struck Krabi off my list of places visited. But I probably would go back again, at least till I explore the wreck.

Another Death

There has been a lot of deaths around me.

I returned from Krabi today, to be informed that a neighbour has died. Though we have been living in the same block our whole lives, we didn't become close friends.

Still, being a fellow rider, we often saw each other at the carpark. Sometimes, we would speak for some time on bikes and road trips.

He was a nice person, very friendly and kind, often giving me advice on riding. I often saw him with his mom, taking her on rides and sending her to places, because she had been ill with cancer and is now very frail. Out of three siblings, I only saw him do that.

His death come out in the papers. From the articles, I realised that he had been a real fighter in life. From a poor background and with a less than average childhood, he managed to get an honours degree and was working for A*Star. That place is hard to get in.

These things we never talked about and I never knew about him. From our interactions, however, I know only that he remained grounded and was a solid person. The worst was behind him, and the best was to come.

Alas, heaven would not let him have his way and he will never get to enjoy the fruits of his labour.

Dear friend, I hope you would be reaping what's owed to you in your next life, if there is one. I will miss hearing and seeing you coming back and parking in the lot beside me.

Rest in peace.

My Sister's Keeper

I watched this film in Krabi, where the guesthouse I stayed in put on movies every night.

It's been a while since I cried watching a movie and I couldn't believe how emotionally charged this movie is. When dealing with death, when is it time for people to let go?

It reminded me of Murakami's quote, "Life exists not as an opposite, but a part of life."

Today's trivial

Today's trivial is purely psychological; I heard about this in the university's introductory course to psychology before and vaguely remembered it.

Today's topic is about projection. In simple and layman's term, projection is putting your own thoughts across as somebody else's, to yourself. Sounds confusing? Well, here's an example: Boy likes girl. Boy projects his thoughts as girl's. Boy thinks girl likes boy.

Projection is usually associated with negative feelings, though not necessarily always so.

"Paleo-anthropologically speaking, this faculty probably had survival value as a self-defense mechanism when homo sapiens' intellectual capacity to detect deception in others improved to the point that the only sure hope to deceive was for deceivers to be self-deceived and therefore behave as if they were being truthful."

- Wikipedia

To this end, I had an epiphany today. What if a part of my life is a deception, nothing more than projection of my own feelings unto others? Have I been deceived for a large part of my life, believing what I believed to be true but was actually false?

Since I am largely capable of deceiving myself, who am I to believe? When even the last bastion in a world of innocence lost is no longer capable of protecting me?

Have I been living a life of lies, woven by my mind, nothing but a figment of my imagination? Am I to regress and subscribe to the Meditations of René Descartes and believe that je pense donc je suis, but for everything else, I could never be sure?

2nd Try

I did it again.

For the second year in a row I completed the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon.

With less training than last year, I went for the marathon hoping for a better timing. Instead of just running on my own, I sort of made up for the training by participating in more events beforehand, including Nike Human Race and Army Half Marathon.

With my new Nike Sportsband, I was also able to gauge my pace and maintain it. This helped greatly. With a steady pace of around 6 minutes per kilometre - this is inaccurate as my Sportsband was not calibrated, but what I wanted was consistency so the actual pace didn't matter so much - I was able to sustain a longer run.

For this year's marathon, I was able to continue running up to the half way mark, stopping only for drinks. In addition, throughout the whole marathon I only cramped once, a marked improvement from last year when cramps were more the norm than the exception.

I was pretty sure I would make a better timing, maybe even sub-six. Well, last year's abysmal seven and a half hours wasn't really a benchmark to go by. However, as Danny injured his knee, we stayed with him and eventually still ended over seven hours. But hey, Shi An didn't give up on me last year and I wasn't going to give up on Danny this time round.

To top up everything, Adidas made a better sponsor than New Balance. The new finisher's tee looks horrible, as was the race pack. I guess I'll have to start doing the Sundown Marathon instead. Given the looks of things, I don't think I'll try 84km any time soon.

Je joue du foot

I've finally got a picture of me in action.

Not the best player on the field, I try to improve every week as I play.
At least in this instance, the opponent didn't amount to anything.

My dad says I look big here. The other guy is just small.

How gay we look in that pink jersey.

Krabi, Thailand

I'm going to Krabi.

As much as I have talked about travelling, I have never really travelled alone before, getting from Country A to Country B to meet someone doesn't count, neither does JB.

I have booked my tickets, $169 two ways, and arranged my accommodation, $120 Baht a night, checked out the dive shops, and am ready to go to Thailand.

I had had and still do have many apprehensions. But I decided that I should leave for a while, and come back fresh, to face the new challenges in the new year. Whatever it is, it's time to take a step back and hit the reset button, before going in headlong into a new life.

I'll also take this trip to continue my diving education. Since SSI is too tedious, I will cheat and switch over to PADI. Going straight for my AOWD on what is only my second dive trip is not advisable, but I have to think about my pocket.

So here I am, looking forward to disappearing from the 9th to 14th. May the clear blue sea calm my mind and soul.

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye...

Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
I don't know when I'll be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go..."