When I was still stuck in the army, I always thought that I'd be the happiest person once I ORD-ed. Of course, I'm so damned glad that it's finally fucking over and I don't ever have to report to or see certain superiors ever again. Or at least, even if I do ever see them again (touch wood), I can bloody well say to their stuck up faces 'I fucking quit!' instead of having to bend over backwards (NOT literally of course! ugh!) to please them or else face another precious weekend facing fellow sweaty dirty and ugly young men carrrying rifles instead of spending time with my girlfriend.
The problem on hand always seems to be the biggest and toughest to tackle. When you were young, it was being able to speak and walk, the most basic skills. Then it came to primary school, where every final year exam seemed like the hardest thing of your life. Primary 4 - Streaming. Primary 6 - PSLE. Then you got to secondary school where O levels seemed like the most important thing of your entire life. Then, depending on whether you went to JC or poly, your A levels or projects or FYPs were the most pressing issue ever. After which, for unfortunate Singaporeans who were born with a X and Y chromosome instead of a double X chromosome, came the dreaded conscription.
However, I digress. A lot. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, no matter how life is, being humans, we tend to complain or worry about what's next. Is there ever an end? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Everybody has problems of his own. It may be big or small, it doesn't matter. To the individual involved, his problem will be the most fucked up and hardest to resolve.
Now that I'm no longer under the chains of the SAF, it still feels kinda surreal. This new-found freedom, the feeling is just amazing. I can do whatever I want, whenever I damn well please. No more signing my name in some dumb book, peeing in my pants trying to request for that ONE pathetic off day from my PC.
So life is perfect now, wouldn't you agree? Wrong! I used to think that when i ORD-ed life would be a bed of roses. Yes, my life is definitely better, without a shadow of a doubt. But it's really just a cycle of life. You face big problems, you get through them with varying measures of success. And then you face brand new problems. And when you get through those, guess what comes around again? You guessed it! Brand new ones!
This is the standard life of an adult Singaporean. It may be severly generalised, but here goes. You graduate from Uni. Secure a job, find a mate, get married. Pay downpayment for a HDB flat and a car. Get a small dog. Give birth to a kid. Promotion and pay rise comes. Upgrade to condo, upgrade car. Join a country club (which has everything your condo already has but you join anyway). Give birth to another kid. Promotion comes around again. Spend even more money, constantly upgrade house and car. Is this what life is about? Maybe. At least that's what the government wants us to believe.
I'm not really complaining. I guess I had so many things that I wanted to achieve when I ORD-ed but haven't really gone about doing it. Maybe I shouldn't set so many goals for myself. Fuck.
You know The Sims, that game where you move little people to do life's mundane tasks. I feel like a fuckin' Sim right now.
Life sometimes rocks, sometimes sucks. It really depends on when you ask a person.
Labels: life singapore ord o level a level psle
edwardsam
9/30/2007 01:45:00 AM
after taking a step back from author to reader of my blog, i realized that i really need to work on many things. the whole blog looks awful, plain, wordy, unwitty and boring. i really need to pimp it out a little. hell, even my sources don't have links to the website itself! i used to know that but i totally forgot how to. ok i should make a list instead of squeezing it in this chunk of a paragraph.
1. choose a nice font and format. i don't really have a sense of writing style at the moment. i'm still developing so please bear with me.
2. have more pictures. of course, not with cam-whore shots but shots that relate to my post of the day. Linguistic skills (or lack thereof) are simply not enough sometimes.
3. pimp out the web page style. all i see are words at the moment. i don't even know how to freakin get a comments box! so please leave comments on the 'leave a comment' link at the moment.
4. Type with capital letters at the front of a sentence. Yes,
u you may think that it doesn't matter but when you read it, small letters and short forms lk dis jus mk my blog lk unprofessional. Don't you agree? Anyway my purpose of blogging is to build up my writing skills also, so i should put in some extra effort.
5. Be more witty. Easier said than done. I realize I'm not as funny as I'd hoped to be. Of course, I don't proof-read my blog like i do my essays and assignments so it definitely would not be as good an article. Heck, all I do is just type what I feel like in less than an hour.
6. Be interesting. I hope I am already, I don't really know for sure. But please, if i do manage to entertain you, let me know! We all live for validation!
Hmm that's quite a good quote now ain't it? I shall elaborate more in the future. =)
edwardsam
9/24/2007 12:35:00 AM
after finishing my previous entry and reading it, i noticed that it was too lengthy and the paragraphs were too long for anyone to maintain interest. as such, i will make a concious effort in my future posts to be short and understood.
first of all, i'd like to say that i have so much things to bitch about that i had thought of updating it everyday. but then another thought struck me. what if i ran out of things to bitch about? so i decided to update every once in a while only. like when i feel very strongly about a particular thing at the moment. come to think of it, the blog should be entitled 'my bitchings' instead.
anyway, with the disclaimer shit outta the way, i will now proceed with my entry proper. i'm sure that most of you have heard of the Anya Hindmarch 'I'm not a plastic bag' bag. and to the uninitiated, it was created "to use our influence in a positive way to make it fashionable not to use plastic bags, to raise awareness of this issue and to encourage people to make small changes in their behaviour."
(http://www.anyahindmarch.com/division/environmental_bags_faq.aspx#a)
it is very noble of Anya Hindmarch, an upmarket UK retail store that sells tote bags for hundreds of pounds (£1 = S$3+), to make an effort to care for the environment. for example, the cheapest tote canvas bag i've found on their website is £215 (S$648.63)! heck, the original retail price for the canvas 'i'm not a plastic bag' bag was a mere £5 ($16.60)! (http://www.thebaglady.tv/2007/02/anya_hindmarchs_1.html) sure, it may simply be a PR gimmick just like every other 'save the world; care for children; cure disease' campaign, but who cares? at least they
are trying.
just to clarify with you readers, i'm not against taking plastic bags from stores and i have no qualms about it. and i really don't care if you do or not. but please, don't carry this 'fashion statement' bag with you
and carry a plastic bag. it hurts your rep. a lot.
pity those women in singapore who don't give a shit about their bag says. in less than two short weeks, i've seen at least 3 instances of women carrying the Anya Hindmarch bag in one hand
and a plastic bag (or more) in the other. c'mon, even if u don't give a shit about using a plastic bag, at least please
act like you do, and hide that 7-11 plastic bag in your very
atas Anya Hindmarch bag
laaaahfirstly, everybody knows that you're probably carrying a very fake Anya Hindmarch bag because the bag is very sold out at the moment even in the UK, let alone Singapore where they don't even sell the damn bag. secondly, you are showing the world how shallow and ignorant you are by blindly following the latest fad, but not even knowing what it is that you carry. it's bad enough that you're a fake, and now you're taking it one step further by being ignorant by carrying a damn plastic bag. that takes the cake man.
so please, if you want to be a fashionista, make sure you don't do it blindly. and make sure you don't bring your fake 'i'm not a plastic bag' bag when you intend to use plastic bags outside. it is so not cool to pretend to be cool and reveal your stupidity. u might as well label your plastic bag 'I am a plastic bag' then you'd have the best of both worlds!
Labels: anya, hindmarch, i'm not a plastic bag, plastic bag, singapore
edwardsam
9/18/2007 02:31:00 PM
There is a saying, nothing in life is certain except death and taxes. Adapted from this very true saying: nothing in Singapore is certain except death, taxes, and bus fare increase adjusment. anyway here's the full article fyi:
Adult EZ-link fares for buses up from October
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 11 September 2007 1221 hrs
SINGAPORE : Adult EZ-link fares for buses will increase by between one and two cents from 1 October.
Senior citizen concessionary EZ-link bus fares, which are flat fares pegged to the lowest adult fare band, will go up by two cents.
But the Public Transport Council (PTC) has decided there will be no increase in train fares.
It said the public transport operators had applied for an increase in bus and rail fares in August 2007.
After deliberating on their proposals, it approved an overall fare increase of 1.8 per cent for bus fares, but no increase for rail fares this year.
Gerard Ee, Chairman, Public Transport Council, says: "The formula is very simple. It takes into account two very important factors - the Consumer Price Index and the average wage increase. Based on that, if you look at economic growth in Singapore, it has been on the uptrend, it has improved.
"If you look at the affordability factor, that has also improved, the figures have come down to 6.5 per cent. That means that of the households being tracked, about 6.5 per cent of their incomes are being spent on public transport. So based on these two factors which are prescribed by the framework, we ought not to resist awarding 1.8 percent increase in fares."
The PTC added that the majority of commuters will see no increase or a small rise in fares.
Taking into account all public transport trips, five in ten trips will see no increase while one in ten trips will see a rise of one cent.
The remaining four in ten trips will see an increase of two cents per trip.
The last time the PTC approved an increase in bus and MRT train fares was in October last year when they went up by between one and three cents.
The Council introduced a new set of performance standards in 2006 and has tightened it further this year.
Mr Ee says: "That's the reason why we are insisting that during the peak periods when commuters are most in a hurry to get to their destination, the headway has to be reduced from 15 minutes to ten minutes, knowing that it requires the bus operators to put in more buses on the roads, that's why we have allowed them two years to achieve it.
"So you can see SBS Transit in addition to existing commitments have committed a further S$145 million for 400 new buses which should be in place by 2008. All these new introductions must surely benefit the commuters."
The government and the public transport operators SMRT Corporation and SBS Transit have set aside S$3 million in public transport vouchers to help needy families cope with the latest fare increase.
The government will draw down S$2.4 million from the Public Transport Fund, which was set up to provide help to lower-income households on their public transport costs. The public transport operators on their part have set aside S$0.6 million.
Cedric Foo, Chairman, GPC for Transport, says: "I am pleased that for the first time since the fare adjustment formula was introduced back in 2005, the Council has not approved any fare increase for rail transport. That's a good outcome.
"One of the features which I would have preferred not to have happened is (the hike in) the senior concession fare. That would be subject to increase along with the other bus fare increases. Senior commuters would be one group of people who would be least able to afford any increases." - CNA/ir/ch Let me just give u some official numbers:
The SMRT has announced a profit after tax of $135.8m for financial year 2007, an increase of 31% from the previous year.
In the years 2003 to 2007, SMRT’s profit after tax are as follows:
2007 = $135.8m
2006 = $103.6m
2005 = $126.6m
2004 = $90.2m
2003 = $72.2m
For SBS Transit, its profit after tax for the years 2003 to 2006 are as follows (obtained from its website):
2006 = $56.1m
2005 = $51.5m
2004 = $49.2m
2003 = $19mok enough facts and figures, time for my comments. well if anyone of you has ever taken a bus, i guess u should have pretty much your own set of complaints. smelly bus, MIA bus, old bus etc. over the years i have accumulated soooo much animosity toward buses that i don't even know where to start. 1. there was this once i was waiting for bus service 67, and 3 or 4 of every other bus passed, 1 hr passed, and still no bus in sight! Lo and behold, 3 67s came aft tt! and while i was sitting on the 67 of my choice, all FOUR other 67s overtook my crawling bus. this is by far, my worst bus experience ever. i was super late, i was slower than 4 of my buses, and i'll never forget this.2. do u only travel downtown? then u must see all the beautiful, fully air-conditioned buses, some even handicap-friendly! wow! many a tourist must think that Singapore has superb bus service and quality! bullshit! during my army days (which wasn't long ago), i took this bus service 182, non air-con, smelly, in fact i could see that it was a bloody used 170! how? the posters stated 'pls remember to stamp your passports after alighting at the causeway' or something along that line. ok i know that 182 mainly serves the Bangladeshi workers in Tuas and the odd army personnel, but c'mon, couldn't u all even have bothered to take down that stupid notice? plus, the cuhions of some seats were tore off, windows were spoilt, it was a sorry sight well confined to the depths of Tuas.3. vibrating and super hot buses. there're some of these buses (mainly SMRT's fleet in my experience) that suffer from these symptoms. when it comes to a stop, the bus will vibrate like nobody's business. brrrrr brrrrrrr brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. and sometimes if u happen to sit right at the back, your legs will be treated to a free suana from the engine. seriously there were a few times i happened to sit right at the back, and my legs were sweating within 5 min. ok there're millions of other bad personal bus experiences but i'm gonna limit it to these 3. so i'm just curious, what justifies the fucking fare hike adjusment!it's not like the bus companies were losing money, and they're not even earning less! their earnings just go up and up and up. just look at my figures provided. why am i so pissed at bus fare hikes u may ask. 'c'mon la 1 2 cents only' but it's not the money, it's the principle. if there were better service, more buses available aft fare hikes it may appease people somewhat. but i've never experienced any significant increase in service standards after ANY price hike. nope none at all. what is my main issue? u don't see me bitching about McDonald's increasing its prices every once in a while. because i can simply chooose NOT to eat there. I have a bloody choice. if any other thing increases price, i can simply DON'T BUY. but bus? how? walk ah? take cab ah? buy car?? this is one serious problem of monopolization. people don't have alternatives and have to just accept whatever the monopoly decides on. it was like Singtel a couple of years ago, when they were the only telco provider, and they charged exhorbitant prices for their mobile services. in came M1 and Starhub, and how much are your bills now per month? look, not everyone can afford the fare increase. there are needy and poorer families out there, where every cent counts. and you bloody companies aren't losing money at all, you just want more fucking millions! and u think this goes to the poor bus driver... well you can make your own deductions.BUT ANYWAY, you all know what will happen, as with EVERY other pay hike. - pay increase announced.- people not happy, company already earning still increase. - go all ape-crazy in blogs, forums, coffeeshops, newspapers and complain and give their 2 cents worth (no need give 2 cents worth, next time a lot of 2 cent to give everytime you take bus).- 'relavant authorities' will fight back and justify increase by giving some figures and about rising oil prices, gst, employees wages blaa blaa blaa.- they will 'offer help' to the needy and maybe give the needy $1 million out of the $25 million they'll be earning (figures are estimated).- increase will go on as planned and people will forget about it.- next pay increase will be announced and whole cycle starts again.what to do? as a very popular army phrase goes 'lan lan suck thumb lor'.Labels: bus, fare, hike, increase, SBS, SMRT, train, transport
edwardsam
9/12/2007 11:18:00 AM
Hello world, I'm back!! yeap i have been dutifully serving my national service for the past 2 years, and now i'm finally out, free and ready to blog. but before i start, allow me to just let everyone know roughly what to expect from my blog.
1. As the title suggests, these are MY rantings and opinions. u do know the meaning of 'MY' right? i don't strive to be politically correct or subtle, i just want to make my opinions on things. and i ain't gonna be very apolegetic about it. and no, i don't care about your opinions if u disagree with me. if i don't like your comment, *poof* i'd just delete it. 'MY' blog, remember?
2. this is not a usual oh-i-woke-up-late blaa blaa blaa-omg-i-had-so-much-fun-today! kinda blog. i'm not too keen on telling everyone what an asshole john doe was and how hot i think jane doe is. nonono this ain't ur run outta the mill blog (at least that's what i hope to achieve). this is not another one of those meme blogs. this is a bitchin blog, where yours truly gets to bitch about anything under the sun, from why those damned teenage girls on buses just can't shut up, and why the hell make stairs come before/after escalators instead of the whole way up/down.
3. I've just ORD-ed from army. in case u haven't been to army, let me tell u that we really don't use much standard english over there. i've learnt a wide variety of rojak english/chinese/malay/hokkien but it sure doesn't do much for what my secondary school English teacher would expect from me. plus, i haven't done any writing AT ALL for the past 2 years. So anyway, please forgive my tardiness and bear with the not-too-witty, simple vocabulary, bad-grammar-at-times english.
4. HTML. i used to think this was short for How To Make Love, until i learnt that it was short for... wait i still don't know what the hell it stands for! what i do know is that it's some sorta website design thing-a-majic that makes ur website look cool/pretty/cute/childish/low-class depending on how adept you are at it. well, as u can see from my layout for the time being, i forgot what little i know of HTML coding, so please bear with the simplistic layout at the moment and simply marvel at my fabulous linguistic ability (LOL).
5. ok before i say anything else, yes i don't like the government, i don't like the army, i don't like singapore, i don't like SMRT etc etc. but as far as politics go, u can rest assure that this is not a socio-political blog or whatever they call those political blogs. the most you'd get from me is a simple 'fuck the government laaaaaa' and simple layman shit like that. so i'm harmless!! pls don't charge me with the Internal Security Act!
so in a nutshell (ok it is a pretty long nut), this is what you can expect from 'my rantings'. i'll write in whenever i can and when i have the inspiration, hope that people will actually enjoy reading and not cringe. and no i will not have a customary 'sign off message' like everyone else.
................
ok but i really have a burning urge to say this so i'd make an exception for this entry:
"ORD LOH!!"
edwardsam
9/10/2007 12:41:00 AM
