Updates for Oct/Nov

Ytd's workout wasn't as intense as it was meant to be cos LJ ponned the session haha so it ended up with a light workout which was just as well for Boxing Day I guess and with my lack of proper sleep, my performance was dismal... Tue's one promises to be different though but I suppose it depends if LJ turns up haha.

Had a last-minute dinner arrangement ytd with some secondary school friends whom I've not seen for some time and we had steamboat buffet dinner at Joaquim's Buffet Restaurant at Suntec and I thought it was just so-so for the price we paid ($30). The seafood wasn't exactly awesome and I don't think the prawns and crabs were as fresh as I expect them to be - the meat wasn't really firm like some of the ones I've eaten elsewhere. Wouldn't be going back there anytime soon I would think.

Anyway, seems like the few of them have been dabbling in stocks and my ex-bridge partner who's currently a doctor at the blood bank has been taking exams related to becoming a property agent, which we thought would be an interesting move given that he could provide medical consultation services also to set him apart from the other property agents haha. They were discussing also about some of the rich people who really live it up and they heard stories of their friends about people who played at our casinos for like 100k, 200k, 400k per hand (of blackjack I think), which is just insane. And they also talked about people who bet their factories when they play golf and they even have the lawyer ready at the venue so that right after the golf match they can transfer the factory immediately... Seriously rich! But I wonder sometimes how happy some of this people are if they need to resort to such measures to keep themselves excited and entertained. I get pretty excited already just playing 20/40 mahjong lol. They also mentioned about casinos providing escort services and apparently they have a list of numbers to call for escort services for various nationalities, quite an interesting industry I must say...

Ok, time for some really late updates that I missed out in Oct/Nov:

(1) JC1 Bash on 8th Oct - Had our JC1 Bash in school which was a little different from the last few years. It was a mass BBQ session which we co-organised with the CGEB (CG Chairpersons Executive Board, for those who have been out of touch with our leadership positions) and also had a mini-concert with performances by the students and also myself with another teacher. We sang this song called "Celebrate You" by Corbin Bleu which we thought was quite an appropriate song for the occasion cos it's to celebrate the end of the promos. Then I went to do my work until nearing the end of the event when we helped to clear up and by the time we were all done it was past 11pm! The turnout was ok I think - supposed to have 250+ people but it didn't look like it... But at least it looked more lively than the previous JC1 Bashes and it probably helped that we worked with the CGEB so that they tried to get more of their classmates to turn up...

(2) Ankle injury on 9th Oct - So after that late night due to the JC1 bash, I overslept for the soccer training the next morning and cabbed down to MJC so that I wouldn't be extremely late. Was pretty angry with myself already for oversleeping cos I wasted like $20 for taking the cab and also cos I had told Jon and company to join us so it felt worse that I was late. What's worse to come was that having played barely 10 min, I managed to injure myself in one of the stupidest way - I was shaping to shoot when I was blocked and I sprained my ankle when both our feet hit the ball at the same time. I felt the sharp pain and it was terrible though I managed to limp around then but it got worse as the day went on and I had to hop around and get support from Jon and De Sheng to eventually make it back home. Anyway, a few days after that I saw a Chinese sinseh and I can say the treatment was utterly excruciating - the way they pulled and twisted my ankle to try and relax it, poked needles around the area where there was a blood clot and then used this thing to squeeze out the blood. The second time was even worse and the guy used this wooden stick to press hard around the area - it was seriously $%&*# pain and I don't think I ever want to visit a sinseh again! The injury's pretty bad though and I probably have some serious ligament damage cos even now, about 2.5 months after the incident, I still feel a pain around the area and my friend said it's likely to take some time to recover especially at my age. Tragic! Ya, so that's why I haven't been blogging in Oct cos I was too angry to write about that...

(3) Post-promo corrections - Very xian week and the kids just didn't seem to be really in the mood to listen probably cos they were nervous about the results and it didn't help that I wasn't in a good mood either cos of my injury so it was really kinda xian...

(4) Good food galore! - Had a lot of good food from 21st to 28th Oct where we went to feast and chill out at places like Miss U Cafe (at Simpang Bedok), Imperial Jade, Wine Company (at Dempsey's Hill), One Rochester (around Buona Vista), Sun's Dining (at Central), and Peach Blossom (at Pan Pacific)... Eating spree!

(5) Review of Bioshock 2 - Bought this game cos it looked interesting and seemed to have good reviews (though not as good as its predecessor it seems) and though it's a FPS, it's pretty different from the rest in the sense that it involves genetics and DNA stuff so apart from the normal shooting using guns, which is pretty much what every other FPS is like, you can do other cool stuff to the enemies like electrifying them, freezing them, setting fire to them, bewitching them and shooting insects at them. Plot was quite good though pretty convoluted and there are also alternative endings so there's some replay value. I also like the achievements section which seems pretty common nowadays to give gamers a sense of satisfaction but the downside was the multi-player didn't seem to be able to work. Finally I liked it that I had no problems throughout the installation and gameplay (it's so basic but important to me so that I don't get upset over such things) so it's a 8.5/10 for me =)

(6) Review of Batman: Arkham Asylum (Game of the Year Edition) - Another interesting game and this one's an action game which was really enjoyable, especially so if you're a fan of Batman (and I'm not but I still love the game). The plot is simple - basically The Joker allows himself to be caught and brought to the prison but it's all part of an elaborate plan where he's set up a trap for Batman and unsurprisingly, he manages to escape and hence begins Batman's search for him to bring him to justice. Some of the best parts of the games - (a) ubercool fighting sequences which are quite frequent and can be rather challenging at times - whether you're fighting some of the tough bosses or involved in a mass brawl with 20 over guys which makes you feel like Bruce Lee cos you'll be dishing out some combo moves and can do stuff like throwing Batarangs to stun, pulling people in with your Batclaw, stunning people with your cape, throwing people, evading them by somersaulting over their heads, countering their attacks, and doing instant take-downs. It's really challenging but you get a great sense of satisfaction when you pull off the combos and make the baddies eat dust hahaha, not to mention the slow-mo when you perform the finishing move. Sometimes you also need to use stealth and perform silent takedowns to avoid setting off alarms so it's not all just brute strength. (b) Thanks to The Riddler, there are also plenty of intellectual challenges as you try to find some of the items that he has hidden and solve some really interesting riddles which requires you to use lateral thinking and even skilful positioning to solve them. Again I get a kick out of solving questions so this was a huge plus point for me! (c) A list of really interesting achievements which were challenging and fun to perform (although frustrating at times especially the fighting ones) and there are also quite a few challenges which tests your speed and skill and you can see how you rank in the world!

All in all, a very unique game which allowed me to learn a lot more about Batman and perhaps the only downside is that we didn't get to hear about Robin nor fight with some of the really iconic villains such as The Penguin so it's at least a 9.5/10 for me - awesome!

(7) Staff Dinner on 12th Nov - Theme was "Masquerade" and I went to this shop called "Masquerade" (surprise surprise) which was quite near my place and around Lavender to find something and got myself this simple silver mask but I would never go there again nor advise anyone to go to that shop for a mask cos it's extremely expensive - $15 just for rental of that mask! Many of my friends bought masks for a much cheaper price so oh well, lesson learnt! Dinner wasn't great - we were at Carlton Hotel (NOT Ritz-Carlton) and the food quality wasn't exactly the best... Nevertheless we had fun amongst our group and some of my friends said I looked scary with the mask, dunno why haha.

Went to City Space after that for drinks and chat and somehow my friends ended up talking about introducing female friends to me though I wasn't that keen and the other interesting thing was when a friend offered to do some fortune-telling for us through palmistry. I normally take such stuff with a pinch of salt but he was surprisingly accurate (or at least at that point of time) and he told me that I will only have a "transient relationship" and not get married so I asked him how long is that "transient relationship" and he said 5 years, which was spot-on haha so we were quite amazed. Then he predicted another 2 of my friends which also appeared to be true so it was all quite fascinating stuff haha.

(8) Wedding Dinners - attended 2 weddings in Nov - (a) an NIE friend who's teaching chemistry at Dunman High (his wife is also a chem teacher there). Wedding was at "The Legends" at Fort Canning Park and there was quite a good spread of food, which made me feel I underpaid! There were like only 5 people at our table cos many people didn't turn up so there were plenty of food for everyone! Met another NIE acquaintance there and her husband (both also teachers - I've seen so many teacher couples!) and 2 of my NIE friend's uni classmates, one of whom is in the petrochemical industry and the other is a financial analyst... (b) my fellow council TA in MJC whose wife is also a teacher and also a council TA in SAJC (another teacher couple!) Wedding was at Sheraton Hotel near Newton MRT station. They showed really funny videos of their story and also the wedding rituals and I expected that since he's always the joker amongst us... =)

(9) Class Chalet from 14th to 15th Nov - my CG booked a chalet from 14th to 16th Nov actually but nobody stayed on the second night so it got cut short. Only met them for a few hours cos I had a wedding dinner on the 14th so I didn't go that day and met up with the councilors to discuss about orientation on 15th afternoon so only went for the dinner. Most enjoyable part was playing WII which I lugged down from my friend's place back home and then brought out again and we enjoyed playing the popular games like Raving Rabbids, Mario Kart and WII Tennis - though this time the biggest laughs came from tennis because of all the screaming and grunting and dramatic movements as we went for the shots haha.

(10) OGL Publicity, Interviews, Briefing, Camp - Finally, throughout these last 3 months we have been busy with all the preparations for Orientation 2011, which btw is called "My(Space) 2011" as we used it as a pun for the website and also to denote MJC as the student's own space.

Started meeting with the councilors in charge of the OGL Camp to kick-off preparations for publicity and recruitment, getting ready the presentation slides, posters, and forms, then came the sorting out of forms to prepare for the interviews, preparing the interview process to try and see what's the most efficient process while working harmoniously with the House Comm at the same time, analysing the results, getting feedback and discussing with the relevant people and finally doing our first cut of the selected OGLs. Learnt a lot during this process of interviewing and I helped to do a proper and detailed AAR so that hopefully future council TAs and councilors will have a clearer picture of the problems and my thinking process. I think too often even though AARs have been conducted, the way they are discussed or noted down is so sketchy that the learning points get lost and forgotten by the time it reaches the next batch and I hate it if all the problems we faced and solutions agreed upon don't get through to future batches cos it would be a huge waste of time.

Had some problems even after our first cut cos some people wanted to drop out or supposedly had to drop out due to certain issues and we have plans to tighten this process in future to avoid such situations. Had my main OGL briefing and apparently I was a little scary cos I was very strict and then we broke up the OGLs to the various sections that they were in charge of. In the weeks to come, we went for recce trips for our MMM segment and then soon to come we were busy with getting all the logistics ready, the food arrangement sorted out and also tidying up all the proposals for me to submit the camp file to the VP. All pretty stressful stuff I must admit and I'm never a fan of admin work but I've grown to learn to deal with stuff and it has been really interesting to see all the issues that can crop up when managing such large events.

The camp itself was pretty ok, some bad behaviour occasionally esp with littering and I really feel that there are so many immature students in this batch esp the guys who do all kinds of stupid crap stuff that puts themselves and others at risk or just makes things unpleasant for everyone. Had to scold people at times which wasn't nice but no choice cos they were just asking for it. There are definitely much more improvements that need to be made over this few weeks before school starts so that orientation will go smoothly and our councilors also need to step up and be more confident cos I think too many are getting pushed around by others and not pulling in their weight... The good side is that I think some of the activities and games were really fun and refreshing so it should be pretty enjoyable for the freshies though my concern is the running of the event and for our councilors to be proactive in rectifying things if there are any screw-ups or unforeseen circumstances during the orientation itself...

Ok, these are the main things that happened in Oct-Nov! Will update again tmr if I think of anything else interesting... Meeting up with Jon and company tonight for some post-Xmas dinner and my next few nights are also full with dinner appointments so it's time to chill! =)