sorry! slipped into the pandemic of irregular updating. i'll try to update more often. =)

okay, so. a brief entry on the past week then.

hmm, last Sunday i helped Denise with her Final Project. it's a short film titled "Regret". it's about this boy, Kent, who dies and then he gets a guided tour of his past with the Angel of Death. he bears this grudge against his mother for supposedly chasing his father away. as he relives his past and finds out the truth, he then regrets not treating his mother better.

i found it rather fascinating though it was rather tedious. and i liked the food. =D thanks Denise! too bad i had to play the dad though. i had to say evil, soul-destroying lines that would make the recipient commit suicide.

here's one part:

"SCENE 5: Pavement – DAY

MOM and DAD are arguing.

MOM
How can you do this? How can you choose her over us?

DAD
You're always working.

MOM
I'm supporting you and paying off your debts. Or have you forgotten, now that you're with your pretty, little bimbo?

DAD grabs MOM.

DAD
She's more of a woman than you could ever dream to be.

MOM walks away but turns around.

MOM
I'll sign the papers."

i swear, i hope i'll never have to say, "She's more of a woman than you could ever dream to be" EVER. it's so bloody EVIL.

as if those lines weren't enough. my jack-ass dad character had to totally busted his wife. here's the other part:

"DAD is sitting at the dining table, MOM puts a plate of food on the table in front of him. She sits next to him and starts to eat but DAD just stares at MOM.

MOM
I think we should give this one last try. (Pushes brochure towards DAD) I know this counselor-

DAD looks at the brochure, swipes it away and stands up. He has turned away from Mom.

DAD
I don't want to have anything to do with this family. Just sign the papers, Denise and I will be leaving the country soon.

MOM
What about Kent?

DAD
What about Kent? He won't fit into our
life. You raise him.

KENT is shocked to hear this and turns to look at AOD.

MOM stands up to clear the plates.

MOM
Let's not start again. Kent will be home from school soon.

DAD
I'm leaving.

DAD stands up, grabs his luggage and leaves the house."

[please pardon the singlish but] wah lau, knn the father is really a bustedizing busted la. and apparently the dad leaves the mom for Denise. =D

so yeah. that was Sunday. [21/8] it was fun!

then on Wednesday we had a match against SRJC. i didn't play but what the hell, not like i would've aided their cause. but one thing is certain, we out-played SR like hell, though the score line did not agree. we went down in the first half by really bad marking during a corner. but we kept our heads up and pulled one back 5 minutes or so later. Sheer curled the ball in right from the corner. magical stuff. Hafiz also shined like a supernova. he was simply untouchable. he practically waltzed through the midfield and their defense. evading all the tackles that came in. it was as if it was pre-cognitive. like her KNEW what was going to happen. at one point, he evaded 3 people who were sticking legs out at him, trying to get the ball. what he did was so magical, i couldn't comprehend it. i only remember cheering really loud and watched as he passed the ball away. he also had his lightning pace, and his elusiveness and appeared to be everywhere on the pitch. simply untouchable. some of the other guys were saying he had a "Butterfly"on him; the DotA weapon that granted 25% Evasion. others said he had boots of speed, the other DotA item that granted 90 movement and teleportation. my god, i sound like a DotA geek, but really, i'm checking from the website. hee.

anyway, we really played well and should've won. we looked sharper and fitter. the individual talent was enough to annoy them and one of them got send off after two yellow cards. but that guy deserved it. he wasn't playing anyway. he just strolled here and there and shouted and clapped. didn't contribute. the final score really took the gloss off our performance. oh well, it shows promise for CJC Soccer.

which then brings us to today. well, nothing much.

oh yeah. Liverpool won the Super Cup. not the most exciting of matches. but Liverpool didn't play exceptionally well to win it. Cisse's goal were sheer luck and their performance during normal time was not convincing at all as European Champions. seriously, i do not know what a lot of them are doing. i have a feeling Benitez's purchases were a bit rushed and that the players do not have the quality he feels they do. Zenden? yeah, he WAS good but his recent displays don't demand a second look. Alonso's once mezmerising passing has also gone awry; punting balls too long many times. Gerrard has been rather erratic. he seems to be like a warp drive engine. going all out, ripping defences for a couple of matches, then, he needs to recharge to do it again. not like Lampard, who can go 20 games without burning out. sometimes i envy Chelsea, but then again, so does everyone else.

oh well. i don't WANT to talk about promos. so bye.

"i'll sing along
the whole day through
just do your best to hear me
it's all you can do"

a long long time ago, too long ago for a blogger, i donated blood.

yes, my school was hosting a blood donation drive. i guess it was more curosity than generosity that drove me to donate some of my crimson essence.

i first had to fill out a form which had rather peculiar eligibilty questions. all of which were yes or no questions.

some examples were:

"Have you ever had clinical or laboratory evidence of AIDS or HIV infection?
For men: have you had sex with another man, even once, since 1977?
Have you ever injected intravenous drugs?
Have you engaged in sex in exchange for money or drugs since 1977?
Have you ever received clotting factor concentrates for hemophilia or other clotting disorders?"

and,

"Have you had sex in the past 12 months with:

-A person who has HIV infection or AIDS?
-A prostitute?
-A person who currently or previously used intravenous drugs?
-For women: a man who has sex with another man (that is, a man who is bisexual)?
-A person receiving clotting factor concentrates?
Have you had syphilis or gonorrhea?
Have you received a blood transfusion?
Have you experienced an accidental needle stick injury or a blood splash to mucous membranes (tissues lining the eyes, nose, or mouth) or broken skin?"

well, okay. my parents haven't even met each other in 1977. and i pride myself in being a virgin. so practically every tick went to each "No" box. there were some questions pertaining to my recent travel history. i must admit that i lazily ticked "No" for some due to uncertainty on when i last went overseas. oh well.

anyway, after the registration, i went on to get my blood pressure checked. those with low blood pressure were not allowed to donate for they would not be able to pump blood into the bag effectively. after the blood pressure test was blood screening. there are many types of tests, including colorimetric haemoglobin test where a haemoglogin photmeter is used. it is a machine-read result from a chemical reactionon a testing strip. but a more economical and faster way of testing was the copper sulphate test, which was what was used. the concentration of haemoglobins is measured by dropping a drop of blood into a copper sulphate solution. the solution is calibrated so that concentrations above a certain amount would make the drop of blood sink. in other words, if your drop sinks, you're eligible. i sat there and offered my finger. without warning she whipped out one of those pricking things used to puncture your skin deep enough to bleed a significant amount of blood for testing. it stung like an ant bite for a couple of seconds. then, she started squeezing blood from my finger into a little tube. when enough was collected, she dropped the blood from the tube into the copper sulphate solution. i'm happy to say that my drop of blood sank like the Titanic.

she gave a prompt "Thank You" and showed me to the Evil Blood-Sucking Nurses (EBSNs). these fiendish beings were the ones who would suck you dry. anyway, i was ushered to a recliner and was told to wait. soon, i was attended to. one of the EBSNs took my registration form and with a few quick strokes of a pen, filled in the official stuff. she took my blood pressure again then went off to fetch some pills and brochures. she came back and shoved them to me. "Iron Tablets, please take them once a day. These are for you," she said, like how a bored EBSN who said it 9875616465 times before would. the brochures they gave were overflowing with words of great appreciation, of how important you are to have given a pint of blood, of how you can save a life. like, come on, it's just a pint of blood. it's not like i saved the world or anything. i guess they were just trying to make you feel important. nothing like a little ass-kissing to make you feel good about yourself. anyway, she used the blood pressure reader as a torniquet and pumped up the pressure on both arms to look for the vein most closest to the surface of the skin. mine was on my right arm, opposite the elbow

then came the crux of what the EBSNs do. she pulled out an empty blood bag and hung it on my tray. she untangled the ominous mess of tubes and singled out the one with the cannula, the fat-as-hell needle that they stick into you.

first, she disinfected my arm with what looked like the bigger brother of a ear cotton cleaner, which was soaked with a green alcohol-based disinfectant. she swabbed the area for about a few mintues - a good move considering how unsanitary my arm can be. then came the anasthetic. "This is going to sting for a while. it's the anasthetic. after a while it will get numb."

and just like the EBSN before, before i knew it, she stuck the damn needle in me. it burned more than it stung. the anasthetic formed a little lump in my skin. she waited a while for the effects of the anasthetic to take its course. then, with the cannula in hand, she stuck the fat thing into my arm. i was half expecting it to hurt a little, for she only waited a few seconds for the anasthetic to work. to my surprise, not only did it not hurt, i didn't even feel the needle get stuck in my arm. i had lost all feeling in that area. cool.

she then put a stress ball in my hand and asked to slowly squeeze it, so as to pump the blood out. so i sat there, squeezing the ball, feeling quite happy - oh yeah, with a fat-ass needle sticking out of my arm.

like what the hell? it's actually kind of freaky but cool at the same time. notice the dark colour of the tube? that's the blood. well, duh, yeah, but you should've seen the blood course through it like it was just another vein. you could feel the warmth of the red liquid through as it touched your skin. cool. when do you ever feel your body heat from the inside out?

i was quite fascinated by it and took another photo.

yeah. a close up of the fat thing sticking out of my arm. coolness!

it was quite interesting to see the blood flow down the sides of the bag into an ever-growing pool below. here's what it looked like:

coolness. kind of looks like Ribena syrup.

anyway, the process took shorter than i expected and any hope of skipping many many many many periods was immediately erased. in the end, she removed the fat needle - with me silently thanking God - and cut the tube and drained some of the blood into different test tubes to be sent to the laboratories for testing. she put a cotton swab over the hole in my arm and asked me to put pressure on it. like, hell yeah would i put pressure on it. if i didn't my arm would be like a damn blood fountain. so she patched me up and gave me this really cool green elastic bandage with chic dark green dinosaurs all over it.

don't you just LOVE the dinosaurs? although there were others which were equally cool. like the blue one with monkeys, the yellow one with bumble bees, the orange one with SMILEYS [I SO WANTED THAT ONE] and the pink one with purple hearts which was ass-ugly.

oh well, i got free biscuits, milo and a red cap for it and i wouldn't mind "saving another life" again if they came back.

"Found a box of sharp objects
What a wonderful thing"

ah screw it! i'm bloody tired of waiting for the bloody pictures of my bloody blood donation from bloody Darcy to bloody update. so therefore, i shall just give a normal update.

hmm well, apparently...

MY BLOODY BLOCK WAS ON FIRE TODAY. THAT'S RIGHT, POTONG PASIR BLOCK 137 WAS ON FIRE TODAY. who turned the caps on? bloody hell. yeah my block caught fire today! well actualli, it wasn't exactly like a 14 storey building engulfed in flames. the 13th floor caught fire. well, not the entire 13th floor but one unit on it. and it wasn't realli like flames pouring out of the windows, menacingly licking the neighbouring units. there was just smoke coming out of it. and it wasn't like thick, black columns billowing from the windows. it was just like, you know, little wisps gently floating by. alright FINE. so it wasn't that big a thing but how often do you see fire trucks riding into Potong Pasir?

outstretched arms lead by extended index fingers, accompanied by the sound of voices going, "ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. oh it's the thirteenth floor." here in little Potong Pasir things like these don't happen much - apart from the occasional ambulance for another senior resident with a cardiac arrest. sometimes i think we Singaporeans need a little excitement in our lives. you look to the U.S [once again. sheesh, the yanks are like the quintessential reference for almost everything] and you see high-speed chases, bank robberies, some daredevil doing some impossible stunt, planes crashing into buildings, oops a bit too far. anyway, my point is, Singapore: too safe to be exciting? you always have some rule for something that's presumably dangerous but at the same time may provide some form of fun or excitement. take for example, moshing. what's wrong with moshing apart from the fact that you might fall and get trampled on, or piss someone off and get a black eye, or just basically get hit all over which is one of the main objectives of moshing. well, you might say, "you just bloody said it dammit!" but think for a second. isn't moshing - FUN? i mean come on! how often do you get to dance-cum-shove-people-around? what's more to your favourite band playing live? i don't know about you but count me in. another example is body surfing. it's body surfing dammit! how much more fun can it get, aside from being groped by several sets of hands and maybe getting pick-pocketed. but body surfing! the last time i ever witnessed body surfing was during the free POD concert back in 2001 i think. then again, there was no security. but seriously, bands get a large portion of the energy they need to perform from the crowd. if you're supposed to be a high-energy, gut-busting act and your audience is just standing there moving their heads, how are you going to go on? they need to be jumping around along to the beat, singing along to the choruses. that's the complete gig experience. it's not just watching a bunch of guys playing songs.

anyways, National Day coming up. i hope i don't get to be one of the broze-painted ones who start Act 1 of the parade. i'd rather be on guard duty and protect bags and stuff.

okay, got match starting soon.

oh wait. did it mention that i've been MISSING PLAYING AND JUST BASICALLY HANGING OUT WITH ACFC? shit man, it's been like weeks. and i've been hearing about conflicts and matches lost. like what the hell? come on boys. we're a team. look out for each other. ultimately we work towards the same goal. try to look from each other's perspectives. come on, where's that spirit we have? i know exams and committments are coming up, but remember the fellowship yeah? always remember the fellowship. WOP! and maybe we can all dota together one day.

WOP!

"to hell with you and all your friends
to hell with you and all your friends
it's on"