Marksman and Confinement

Just came back from my SAR 21 range today.

And to my surprise, I actually got Marksman! Even though it was a group effort, and my group seemingly consisted of random people, we still did it! The first batch of Marksman from TDS, haha. I guess I should be proud of it.

The happiness from getting $200 and 2 days off didn't last long. After the range my PC told me that I need to serve 2 x confinement. Why? Because my rifle was stunned by him... Okay, I admit it's my fault. I went to throw rubbish and it just slipped my mind. But 2 confinement? Haiz...

Didn't think I would still need to suck thumb when I'm going to ORD soon...

Countdown to ORD

<--- 42 more days to go...

Going for my last range tomorrow. Hopefully I will get marksmen since it's SAR 21.

Will be going for my last 7 days this Thursday. Must really prepare well, since after that I won't be staying in anymore...

And I got to start planning my life after ORD... Getting back to normal Civilian life is no easy task, you know.

Goodbye, Usui-san. Goodbye, Shinchan

先日軍にいたとき、新聞をよんで、クレヨンしんちゃんの作家、臼井儀人がなくなられた事を、知りました。 

とても、ショックだったです。 

シンガポールに来た後は、漫画とかアニメとか少ししか見てないんですけど、日本にいた時はほぼ毎週見てました。オレはしんちゃんが大好きでした。あこがれてました。真似もしてました。友達との話題にもなっていました。しんちゃんの姿をみて、感動もいっぱいありました。 

笑いもそうですけど、何よりクレしんが好きだった理由は、しんちゃん一家が、ずっと幸せな暮らしをしていたからです。ちょっと下品なところもあるけど、クレしんはすごく家族の愛をあらわしてる作品だとおもいます。オレもそんな家族がいたらいいなあ、いつかそんな生活したいなあって、いつも思ってました。 

多分もうこれでしんちゃんとはお別れだとおもいます。すごく残念です。 

今後クレしんをみるときは、涙がこぼれるとおもいます。 

臼井先生、これまでの笑いや感動、ありがとうございました。あなたがいなければ、多分オレは、あんなに楽しい子供生活をすごすことができなかったと思います。 

ご冥福を祈ります。

Having booked out on Thursday, I thought I would be happy. But it seems that I'm not. Because too many sad things are happening around me.

The mum of a friend of mine just passed away due to Breast Cancer. It must be a huge shock for him. To lose a person so close to you, no matter how much tears you shed it won't remove the pain. I can't imagine what I would be if I were to lose my mother suddenly like that. So guys, please treasure your family.

When I was in camp a few days ago, I read the newspapers, and found out that Usui Yoshito, the author and creator of the famous manga, Crayon Shinchan, was found dead under a cliff in Gunba-ken. It seems that he accidentally fell while climbing the mountain. 

It was a huge shock to me also.

After I came to Singapore, I didn't read or watch much Shinchan anime or manga, but when I was in Japan I watched it almost every week. I loved Shinchan. I admired him. I imitated him. He was the topic of discussion of everyone. I was also touched by his actions many times.

The manga/anime is funny, but the main reason I liked Crayon Shinchan is because the family of Shinchan is always leading a very happy life. There maybe some parts which are a bit indecent, but overall the manga is about family love. I always thought of being in such a family and leading a life similar to that of Shinchan.

It's a pity that probably I will have to say goodbye to Shinchan.

The next time I see Shinchan on book or TV, I think I won't be able to hold back my tears.

Usui-sensei, thank you for all the laughter, joy and happiness you have brought us over the years. If it weren't for you, my childhood would have been half as fun.

Rest in peace.

Stay-in for 10 days

From tomorrow onwards, I won't be around for 10 days... And I do mean it. It's the time of the year again, and we will be tested for 5 days followed by another 5 days of normal duty. Haiz... I feel sianz, but thinking that this is the last thing I will go through makes me feel better. Yes, after this week, I will be the king! 

So today, basically I was preparing for the 10 days stay-in for the whole day. I was doing things like looking for my PSP charger and putting games into my PSP. Yes, I'm going back to using PSP again, because I feel that this time iPOD Touch will not be enough. I will try to do some reading, though. There are so many books that I have read halfway... I'll also continue to do my weiqi training in camp, using the magnetic Go board.

Hopefully by the time I come out, I will have more freedom, and will be a happier person. But for now, let's hope this thing goes smoothly first...

Sharing some funny videos here. "Ideal" for those who wants to learn Japanese but are lazy to go and learn the words... LOL Watch the last one especially... It's damn funny...

National "Youth" Team Selection

Saturday and Sunday was the selection for the Weiqi National Youth Team. Even though there was a word "Youth" inside, people who are older than 20 and even one guy who was older than 50 joined the competition... Well, never mind about that, since I think the definition of "Youth" can vary. Anyway, we played 5 games in 2 days, and for the high dan group 12 out of 13 people will  be selected to be in the National Team. It also means only 1 person will be eliminated. Upon knowing that, I was able to play with much less stress, though I still wanted to achieve the best result possible.

In the end I won 4 games out of 5. I lost 1 game to JC, by 3.5 pts. This game was quite smooth for me and I was sort of leading until middle game. Even after I made a serious mistake I still had a chance to win. But then due to byo-yomi I played a move that became a gote and after that I also lost some more points in yose, resulting in him leading the game. Haiz, I got to improve more in byo-yomi and judgement skills... Always cannot calculate the points properly...

I was able to win Sionghwai, Yuxiang, Damo, and Mr Zhao. Some games were really dangerous, but luckily I still managed to win in the end. As a result I got into Group A of the National Team. If I'm not wrong, those who are also in Group A include Sionghwai, Yuxiang, Shihao, Chee Hiong and JC. Alvin unfortunately got 7th so he got into Group B. Sad... 

When the training starts, I guess it's also time for me to seriously start honing my weiqi skills...

Recent Events

There has been so many things happening recently... And due to my addiction to this game called Red Alert 3, I haven't been able to update my blog... I really like the C&C series, and RA3 is really a nice game. I like to use Empire of the Rising Sun. It's units are really versatile, and Yuriko Omega is total Ownage... From what I see Soviets are more on the offensive side and Allies on the defensive side. But some units are really fun to use. I heard Command & Conquer 4 is coming out next year. WOW... I guess it's time for me to start playing my C&C3...

Ok, back to topic... First event is the Farewell party for Yanglaoshi @ Hwachong. This one is organised by our Juniors for Yanglaoshi. While it was a chance for them to say goodbye to YLS, I also happened to meet most of my Hwachong weiqi friends. With everyone busy with army etc, it's very hard to find a time when everybody is free... After the party we went to KAP to eat, and promised to have another gathering for the weiqi people at the end of the year.

Next event is the Japanese Summer Festival (夏祭り) at a Japanese Primary School at Changi. This is the first time I went to this event. Last year I think due to Army I couldn't make it. It was quite fun! Even though there were a lot of people and it was almost impossible to move around without bumping into anyone, the whole mood was there. I also managed to rent a yukata to wear. Kind of hard to walk about though, and I could have picked a better one... But some people really looked nice in yukata. I also did a bit of bon-odori before going back. Hope I can go again next year! And if I possible I want to go to the real matsuri in Japan!

ゲゲゲの鬼太郎！

Very nice mood~

People dancing on the stage~

After the Summer Festival I rushed to this place called Amaranda Gardens to celebrate Teacher's Day for YLS and KLS. It was organised by SWA. Kind of early for Teacher's Day, but since I was outside camp, I decided I should go and drop by also. Who knows the moment I reached there, YLS filled me a small cup of XO. He said he had been keeping this bottle for very long, and everyone drank 1 cup already. Having no choice, I had to drink the XO sip by sip, because I really couldn't take it... It was kind of... spicy. Anyway some people were playing weiqi, and the moment I reached they started taking photos. Zhixiong got into trouble again, by being thrown into the pool... Haha. But this time he brought Sionghwai along with him, who sadly had his phone, mp3 player and wallet inside his pocket... 

Happy teacher's day, YLS and KLS! (KLS left before I reached there...)

Last Thursday, there was a platoon BBQ organised by our PC. It was held at East Coast Park, which was very far from my house... And since it was on a weekday, it was even harder to get there... I tried to take bus from Bedok, but it seems that I had alighted at the wrong stop. I couldn't find the underpass at first... And after I found it I reached ECP but it took me around half an hour to walk to the BBQ pit... Haiz~

But the BBQ itself was nice! Some people kept eating, some people kept cooking, while some people just sat there to chill around. There were also people there whom I didn't expect to see. It's nice to have this kind of cohesion once in a while~

Singapore Weiqi League 2009 concluded on last Sunday. Even though it was the last day there were still a lot of happenings. I thought that after the previous few rounds, the final ranking wouldn't change anymore, but things didn't turn out the way I expected. First of all Yaxin lost to Song Yufeng from NTU, which of kind of unexpected. This way 棋局弈山河 lost 1 小分 and I think they lost another 小分 after that, and became on par with us. Hwachong on the other hand lost 2 小分 due to FCC losing 2 matches, and we were leading them by 1 小分 before the last game. And as if to make the finishing move, in our last match against 酒, Li Chao won Zhou Xiang by 1.5 points, and we managed to finish the day without losing a single 小分！Since our 小分 is the same with 棋局, and we won them by 2-1 when we played them, we actually got the team champion! Woohoo! 3 cheers to 长春二队！I'm sure Mr Fu will be so happy that his team finally got champion. This was our only chance to get champion, and it actually came true. I'll have to thank Li Chao for that also. Also not to forget my other team mates Sionghwai and Shiaw-yen. Good work, guys!

On this day, I let Meiyu help me take photos while I was playing games. I told her to take more because I will select among them, but I didn't expect her to take hundreds of photos... Haha, nice photos though. Maybe next time I'll look for her help again. In the end I became lazy to choose, so I uploaded almost everything to facebook. The gallery can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=116929&id=545686096&l=dc8e4390c6

酒VS棋局弈山河

Probably one of the highest level games there

Wonder what she's looking at and what she's thinking...

Photo of us 3!

Ah, finally I have someone to help me take photo~

Is he thinking about the game or about the Prelims...?

So many audience...

Another high level game...

Good one， Li Chao!

Yay! Team Champion!

长春二队rocks!!

I guess I was kinda happy also~

League Champion trophy. This year it's quite nicely made~