when in rome, do what the romans do.

when you're an officer, just change what rome does.

maybe the reason why the music industry in singapore is relatively stagnant as compared to the bustling taiwanese music industry or the one in malaysia etc, probably could be simply people don't gel with the locally produced music. i was listening to rainie yang (which took me quite some time to get used to) in the minibus last night and found it rather difficult to appreciate the music. in fact knowing she had a rather big fan base in many asian countries, that made it all the more odd because i couldn't understand why people would love her singing and all that. having parallel thoughts with the One Million Star reality competition here, i soon realised why. it's simply because the industry here is flexible enough to allow different people to recognise with the music. look at the states with their wide range of music genres- classical, rock, punk, pop, even heavy metal, eww. people recognise with these genres, they see themselves as the music is produced. isn't that what music should be all about- allowing people to express themselves through notes and lyrics? linking that to our local music scene, it's sad to note that singapore idol winners are Possibly just another image of another international artiste. people don't connect to their music, and because of that, we failed.

this entry is terribly written. it's all because sushi beckons and i'm going off now. toodles.

SAF is turning 3G right?
so i do believe i make the cut to be a combat engineer.

why?
i play minesweeper all day in office.

this is a toned down version of the actual feelings and emotions bottled inside right now. i'm pissed off. okay, that sounded lame. but yes, i am. i never realised how sickening the bus system is at taoyuan international airport (i wrote the full name of the airport on purpose so people may consider boycotting it and cause the authorities to do something about it, like immediately maybe) until the experience i had today. i sent francis and his friends off at the airport terminal one this evening and started my unexpected long wait at 1745h for a bus to zhongli city. reason why i say unexpected is because the last time i took a bus to zhongli from the airport was after i completed my duties at the airport and that barely took 15mins. so i stood there, back against the wall reading the flight schedules for thai airways and those for the airport. i soon got impatient, i mean frankly just that few pages of useless information could hardly get my mind off the arrival and imminent departure of the bus to zhongli, and started confirming, double-confirming even triple-confirming whether i was waiting at the right area and for the right bus. i would have blown my heads off if i realised i was wrong all the while but come to think of it, i'd rather have had my head blown than wait that agonising while for a bus that i didn't even plan to take in the first place. at 1845h, one hour since i started waiting, a bus that would terminate at taoyuan bus terminal/train station arrived and i decided to board it just in case the driver of the zhongli-bound bus fell asleep at some binglang store. so i took that bus, and got myself to taoyuan city after enduring another 45mins. i took the next train, literally running for it after getting my tickets and helping a couple of indon females to the train to taipei, and soon found my ass in zhongli finally at 2000h. my friend, that took me more than 2hours to get from the airport to a city which was within the same county as the airport; in comparison, it probably would take me less than an hour to get me to taipei city, which is in the neighbouring county, from the airport. urgh, somebody do something about this

i've always been looking forward to the annual singapore arts festival every year and sadly, year after year i've been disappointed time and time again. without a doubt, there has been much changes since the inaugural with the introduction of bringing the arts to a greater portion of the community with an emphasis on the heartlands. this year, it was no different. the opening ceremony will be held in boat quay, and the closing ceremony held at bedok reservoir. both are water themed events so if not for my being in taiwan, i would be really looking forward to the water spectacular event. so i was mentioning about my disappointment, despite all these wonderful changes. the local arts scene in singapore is a bustling one; we boast of world-class orchestras such as our national orchestra and even smaller community ones such as the philharmonic winds; we also have world-class dance groups, and musicians and visual artists and fashion designers and whatelsehavewe. but yet we always tend to forget, we referring to the larger majority of the local population, that we too have a young and bustling arts scene amongst our youths! if our dance scene and music scene is not enough to woo audiences, and for that matter i'm not too sure of their international reputation as well, i'm pretty sure our choral scene is more than 'happening'. when you have a local school choir, aka the Victoria Junior College Choir ranked fourth in the world, or Victoria Chorale, ranked thirteenth in the world rankings, it's surprising that we don't get to perform in this seemingly world-class event; at least, that's what the organisers try to make it to be. look, maybe i was bias in quoting those examples of which i was and am still part of, but nevertheless my point is clear. how come year after year we're not promoting our local youth arts scene, to the world? with the coming youth olympic games in 2010, i really do hope that the organisers can look into this issue at hand. at least give us the oppurtunity to do our part in bringing singapore to the world, because right now you're not.

i realised i really am proud to be a signaller; for some unknown reason, i just am. maybe this is known as successful brainwashing of the organisation i serve my liability in, but i doubt so. there wasn't much brainwashing that was done during my short few weeks of training and i didn't even do much signal work here, so i reckon it could be some unknown reason. then again, come to think of it now, maybe it's because i'm like the only signaller-man i know of here in taiwan. oh wait, i am the only signaller in taiwan. BIATCH.

guess what?

i just sustained another small graze on my knuckle.

i realised i've been getting a lot of unknown cuts recently and i only find them out during the shower when a sudden part of my skin, most of the time my hand, burns in cool running water and a quick look will have that new cut be discovered. thing is, i don't even realise i sustained that cut most of the time. even if i hit myself against something, i don't really stop and do a full body check of any new cuts or bruises. life goes on. i very recently stabbed my middle finger with the end of the metal ruler and goodness, it bled. two alcohol wipes, a quick run under water and then a nice plaster over it had it all taken care of and now there's a cute little hole there where the end of the ruler found its place there just a few days ago. i need to take better care of myself- for the sake of myself, and who knows, the person waiting for me at the altar?