IPPT 2007

Nearly died from IPPT and totally suffering from body aches now. :S Here's the details:

1st Station: Shuttle Run - 9.6s
Pretty clueless and non-strategic of me to go and take this as the first station. Nothing was actually going through my head la. :( I should have at least taken the Broad Jump first before taking this station. But oh well, it landed me the only 5 points of the entire test. haha..

2nd Station: Sit Up - 38
I still can't believe what used to be an easy easy 5 points became a struggle today. Was aiming for 40 but try as I might till the last second, only landed myself with a 38. Sigh.. I really need to shed that layer of fats around my tummy. :(

3rd Station: Broad Jump - 213cm
My weakest link dated all the way back from primary school. :( Totally can't grasp the technique that they mentioned even back in army, and it seems I'll be forever plagued by it. With the tiredness accumulated from the shuttle run earlier on, I only managed to jump 213cm, and got myself a "glorious" 1 point. :S

4th Station: Chin Up - 10
I can't believe it, and neither should you. It had been so long since I last did any chin ups due to my wrist injury. I wanted to inform the Physical Training Instructor (PTI) of my condition but I thought I just give it a shot. :D Who knows! haha.. Thing is, after I came down, my wrist gave me a short numb which only went away after a few minutes. :S Still happily lala-ing though. *glee*

Special thanks goes to Geri! Seems like the physiotherapy occupational therapy that she gave me back then did help my condition! *w00t!*

3rd Station Revisited: Broad Jump - 225cm
Seeing that my Shuttle Run, Sit Up, and Chin Up stations all had fairly good results, I requested a retry for my Broad Jump. I'm still filled with both satisfaction and regrets now, here's why.

I had to jump 4 times because the machine kept throwing me "Line Fault" and ask me to "Clear Platform". :S By my last attempt my knees were already shaking and beads of sweat kept falling off my forehead. I believed I hurt my back during one of the jumps, cos now I can't even sit or walk with a straight posture. Making my back straight sends a pain signal throughout my entire body. :S Think I need physiotherapy for my back now. *lol*

At last, I cleared with a final 225cm. 3 super-hard-earned-and-possibly-making-me-regret points. *phew*

6th Station: 2.4km Run - 11:43 min
Just 3 stupid seconds away and I would have gotten a 3 points. Ended with a not-so-desirable 2 points. *sigh* At least I survived after not running for about 3 weeks, which I consider to be ok le la. haha.. Consoling myself. :P

Yay!! So I passed! :D

Though I feel I can improve on many areas, I'm not going to stay in that spirit. I'm actually very happy that I survived and made it on first attempt, and the next time will be next year! Finally MINDEF will stop bugging me with their SMSes/emails/letters spam. :P

Time to rest for now...

(OUCH! My back...)

Rocky Balboa

Rarely has a film so inspired me. Rocky Balboa is already in his fifties, but to pursue his burning passion, he decided to come back from retirement and get in the ring with the current heavyweight champion, Mason Dixon.

This dialogue between Rocky and his son, particularly moves me. His son was complaining that his dad, getting into the ring at his age, was a joke, and he being his son, will also be made together with the joke. Here's what Rocky said:

The world ain't all sunshines and rainbows.
It's a very mean and nasty place,
and I don't care how tough you are,
it'll beat you to your knees
and keep it there permanently if you let it.

You, me or nobody...
...is gonna hit as hard as life.

But it ain't about how hard you hit.
It's about how hard you can get hit,
and keep moving forward.

How much you can take,
and keep moving forward.
That's how winning is done!

Now, if you know what you're worth,
then go out and get what you're worth.
But you gotta be willing to take the hits.

And not pointing fingers saying
you ain't what you wanna be
because of him, or her, or anybody.

Cowards do that, and that ain't you!

I can't imagine how I'll feel if my dad tells me such powerful speeches. T_T

Kudos to Sylvester Stallone, for writing an amazing script that develops the characters, producing it, and finally, being himself. I think after shooting five movies about Rocky, he must have put his heart and soul with him as the character while making it. Absolutely amazing.

It ain't over 'til it's over.

N95 SGD200 Cheaper?!?!?!

Talk about feeling cheated. I just heard this from my god mom and checked it out over at Singtel's website.

For those who dint know, I bought Nokia N95 on 22 Oct, just a day less than 2 weeks ago. The motivation behind this was because Singtel sent a mailer that I could save SGD30 on my next 3G phone with it. I had to use the mailer before 31 Oct, if not the promo will be over, and since I had to head to Japan on 25 Oct, I had to use it before I leave. It had been 21 months since I changed my phone, and added with the fact that I wanted a phone that I can play Flash Lite with, I invested SGD568 on the N95.

WHO KNOWS!?!?!

Singtel came up with this surprise that threw me off balance. My god mom messaged me today that for this week only, the N95 is going at SGD200 lesser! WA KAO!!! Can you believe it???? :( Instead of saving me SGD30, I spent an additional SGD170 just because of that mailer. :(

For the rest of you guys, lucky for you. Go get this phone this week before Singtel ends the deal. Feeling totally dumb and cheated. BAH~~~

If Singtel reads this, I hope they can offer a percentage rebate (like what Steve Jobs did with the iPhone price cut) to those who just bought the N95 (say.. 2 weeks ago?) before this current offer, I will be so happy with them I will kiss the Singtel logo in their AmkHub store.

Really! I'll do it!

[Update 04/11/2007 23:03]
I've just emailed Singtel with a "complain", and I hope something good comes out of this.

Hi,

I've just upgraded my handset to N95 less than 2 weeks ago (~22 Oct), and paid SGD568 for the new phone.

Just saw your new hot deals this week that N95 is going at SGD200 cheaper, and I can't help but feel unhappy with the entire event.

Having been a loyal consumer of your good services till date, I hope that something can be done to make a paying customer happy again.

If an example is required, please kindly refer to what Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, did after the price cut of the iPhone.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/

If customers are informed of future offers, say for those within the next month, we would have a better idea of when to get our desired phone, and such unhappy events can well be averted.

I look forward to your reply.

Thanks in advance.

Lionel

Disarray

Suddenly I find my life in an utter mess. To be specific, my luggage is still not yet unpacked, my room is still messy, my digital life is so lagged behind it's getting unbelievable, my geek blog has been left untouched for nearly 2 months already when I have so much to say.

The entire November has already planned itself for me till it's fully packed. Funny how things fall into place even when you have nothing planned in the first place. Getting hard to convince myself already. haha..

And yet, other things that are inconvenient to blog about are happening that's throwing the direction in my life a little off course. For concerned friends, please don't worry. It's nothing bad. :) They are just things that got me thinking a lot broader, a lot deeper.

Really need to set aside time to list and plan things out, though time is again, not a luxury. But I know I can rest assured, that God will keep my life intact and in control. :D

Back From Japan!

The time flies when you're enjoying yourself. - Mr Bean

Well how true. haha.. Japan is a wonderful place to visit, especially during this period when it's their autumn season. The weather is superb, services are top-notched, people are friendly, and really, it has been a very good experience.

The 8 days tour took me around so many places that I believe will take several blog entries to detail them. Throughout this trip, I took about 7gb worth of photos(!), and it's gonna take me a while to sort them. My schedule is darn tight at the moment, so don't expect these two to happen soon. I really hope to bring Japan to you soon as I'm able to. :)