after today i'll have 98 days of army left, excluding my leave.
that's about 14 more weeks till i can kiss that shit all goodbye.

8,467,200...8,467,199...8,467,198...8,467,197...

i was on yahoo answers just browsing when i came across this question and an answer to the question that i felt was really good.


the question: if you were god for 1 day, 24 hours, what will you do with it?

the answer: my first hour as god, i would end world hunger, redistribute the world's wealth, and kill all despots and hatemongers throughout the world.

the second hour, i would cry after seeing the same peoples who had starved before, begin to starve again; and i'd cry after the same people who had the wealth and power before, reclaimed it, i would also cry when despots and demagogues found new ways to appeal to the people Ii had washed free of hate.

the 3rd hour, i would recreate the earth's geography so that every continent had the exact same geography and natural resources, that way no group of nations could once again control the distribution of food and wealth, i would also erase all differences in humanity, so there would be absolutely no racial, linguistic, sexual preference or religious differences that might inspire hate or conflict.

i would then spend the 4th hour wondering why there were no more poets, artists, monsters of ingenuity, great lovers, or great leaders, revolutionaries, visionaries, or great teachers.

the last hour of my ominpotent reign would be spent undoing all that I had done, restoring it to its original state, and lastly, writing a painful letter of resignation.


isnt this a powerful answer? i love it.

i am featured in an article on page 6 of today's digital life! this is so cool!

i'm gonna be on the next issue of strait time's digital life. how ironic that i get featured on the one section of the newspaper i'm least interested in. lol.

i got a call from a guy from yahoo south east asia this afternoon asking me if i would be interested in talking about yahoo!answers to the guys from digital life. i was floored. first the dopod and now this? obviously i said yes. so the guy from yahoo gave my number to one of the people from digital life and an hour later, i was having a phone interview with some reporter from digital life. it was really cool!

she asked all the expected questions:
why i chose to answer kf seetoh's question, why i started going on to yahoo!answers, how did i feel when i won, what kinda questions do i usually answer... they were your typical questions and it'll probably be some small article but gosh it felt so cool!

so instead of pushing that digital life one side, pick it up this tuesday and look for me. haha. no pictures though. i hope they make me sound good and not like i'm some geekish freak.

and to think i started yahoo!answers just because i needed something to pass the time while convalescing.

it started out as a really troublesome day. had to wake up really early just to make my appointment with ttsh. so i had to drag my ass out of bed, step into the shower, dress myself and make my way to novena. god, why was it so damn far away?

to top it off, with it being really early and all, i had to share the train with blue collared nine to fivers. not that i have anything (major) against them, it's just rush hour frustration. as you can expect, getting a seat at that time was as improbable as stephen hawking taking part in riverdance.

the trains chugged on its dreary route and the stations whizzed by until i finally reached novena. i was so tired. (note to self: sleep earlier).

just as the train was decelerating the irritating ringtone that i had went off and the sound basically screamed from my pocket and bounced off the train walls into my ears. horrible. i was tired and totally annoyed and gave a sharp 'hello?' to the caller.

'hi good morning! this is maggie from power 98. is this kishan?'

'yes' (already snapped to life like i was on an IV of pure expresso)

'congratulations! kf seetoh picked your answer as the best for the question he posted on yahoo!'

for a moment i seriously has no idea what she was talking about. but i finally understood what she meant and said,

'oh. really? are you for real?'

'*laughter* yes this is for real. in fact i need you to do me a favour. i know that your answer was quite long and i need you to summarize it down to about a couple of sentences for when we go on air.'

on air!!!! five minutes ago i was a coma patient, and now i was pacing up and down the platform of novena mrt station like i badly needed a fix.

to be honest, i forgot most of what i typed down. i didnt even think that i'd win, i just wanted to contribute because i thought it was a really cool question. but i summed up what i remembered and presented the answer on national radio. it was really fun.

at the end of it she went, 'what's your favourite radio station?' and i blanked out. for a brief moment i truly and honestly didnt know and wanted to say 98.7fm! thank god i snapped back and said 'power 98!' in that this-is-soooooo-my-favourite-station cheery-cheerleader kinda voice.

oh and by the way, the question was posted on yahoo!answers and i was on a few days back, just passing the time helping out some kids with their math homework online (i know i know) when i saw the question. so i answered it and voila i won. the question was posted by kf seetoh, the founder and author of makansutra.

the question was: what would you do or feel if the singapore government decided to close down all the hawker stalls and instead all the stalls and dishes reappeared in restaurants and cafes with prices to match?

i thought it was a good question and decided to have a go at it. the question was only 1 of 15 that will be posted daily i think. it's part of the y!ureka contest where local personalities give questions from their area of expertise and normal people just answer them. the best answer wins. simple as that really. today's question is by fashion guy vincent q from flesh imp and its: what do you think singapore's fashion scene will be like in 5 years.

what did i win? a dopod (look, its a palindrome) phone. honestly this phone is too high tech for me and i'll probably sell it off.

go here if you wanna participate and maybe win for yourself a phone too.

gosh, i've been on a dry spell havent i? convalescing's been mostly uneventful.

nat did come back though and we went out a few times. we sat on that dhl balloon thing down at bugis junction too. it went like 150m up and the view was really great. you could've seen the bayshore from where we were when we were all the way up. nat was half afraid that i would freak out or faint or something when we were up there because of my fear of heights but it was smooth sailing.

the whole bunch of us also went out to celebrate my birthday last saturday i think. we ate at outback and went down to this place at the esplanade for drinks. simple and fun. after which i stayed over at darius' place to watch the 3rd place match between germany and portugal but i fell straight to sleep on his freaking couch and only watched about 6 mins of the match. pathetic.

i applied to uni of melbourne for medicine last week. my parents have always been pestering me to apply to foreign universities and i always told them no because it would just cost too much and i dont want to risk everything. it seemed so unsafe and reckless at that time. but last tuesday, i decided to just do it, else i'll forever be having what-ifs and lingering questions stuck in my head, and i really really dont want regrets.

i decided between uwa and umelb, both of the university medical programmes were very appealing compared to the rest. unfortunately uwa's application had closed. so umelb was my only choice which wasnt too bad. results of my application will come in in november, so it's still about 3 months away.

sometimes i still feel unsure and that i shouldnt do this. if i stay in singapore, my university studies will be fully paid for by moe because of the scholarship and my parents dont have to fork out much, or anything at all. my career will be all set and i'll be teaching in about 5 years. all nicely laid out and all i have to do is follow the yellow brick road. but if i go abroad, they have to spend much more, and i HAVE to do well. i'll be basically on my own, which has its ups and downs. and medicine is going to be severly demanding. questions mixed with a whole lot of doubt with no answers.

but i really want to do this. i think i'll be fine in terms of a social life (which is much needed by the way considering that it's a 6 year course) and monetarily. i know i can study. i may be a tad bit rusty because of the army but damn it, my a level results didnt just come out of my ass.

i can do this. right?

today marks two decades of my existence (which is actually a really unnecessarily silly way of saying that its my birthday) but it really doesnt feel like it.

as usual the alarm on my handphone rang at precisely 9:37 am this morning, the time of my birth, a habit that i've cultivated for years. i know it's kinda dumb but it's fun to know exactly when you move up an age. (i feel you're judging eyes...)

so far the day has passed just as any sunday would've. honestly though, i never really made a big deal out of any of my birthdays so i'm actually nonchalant about the whole thing. it's just another year and i really abhor all the attention so easily given. the cutting of the cake that i barely eat (cake and me have never really gotten along) and the really stupid song that people sing, where for that brief minute or two that the song takes centrestage, you too are under the spotlight. and let me tell you, it's very uncomfortable to be in the limelight with the birthday song. it makes me feel like i'm on the disney channel, and dont let me get started on disney and the false hopes...

but i (as i usually do) digress...

nonetheless i have to say that there's nothing like a birthday to force you into retrospection, even if youre not up for that exhausting walk down memory lane. they're like biological checkpoints you cant run away from. people just think about what they've done with their lives and what they've accomplished. what they can cross out from their must-do-before-i'm-dust list. who they've become and what's coming up for them. it's like the new year, where everyone promises themselves a fresh start and what not, only this one is more personal.

i'm just gonna stop here before i carry on babbling. it's my birthday after all and i'm freaking 20.

the mediocrity of my existence this past few days was finally and most thankfully put to an end.

my day started at 9 freaking am. considering that it's a saturday, it was just way to early but i had to get up to fix breakfast for my younger brother. irritating and uncharacteristically domestic. i really wanted to go back to sleep but i just couldnt. i'm sure you know how it's like; you're so sleepy one moment and after completing some (tiresome) chore that needed you to get up so early for in the first place, you're good for the whole day. a twisted biological function if you ask me.

after lunch i went to the national library, wanting to read up on the concept of irony and its uses, purely for the sake of interest. i know, it is a tad nerdy but that's me, what else is freaking new? so i found the book, simply entitled irony by catherine something-or-the-other, and settled nicely on the carpeted floor against a wall. soon enough, because of the lack of sleep, the words became blurry and sentences, incoherent. nothing was going in my head after a while and not wanting to doze off in the library with book in hand, therby, ironically, becoming a victim of the literature i was perusing, i went down to the fiction section, borrowed beckett's waiting for godot and was outta there.

was suppose to meet kit and mel in town but with ammendments made, i only met up with kit back at tampines. so i had to travel all the way back and reached early, spending the extra hour or so at starbucks.

it was so great just lazing and reading at the coffee house. the wind was blowing, people were scurrying by and there i was, just sitting and reading a good book and sipping coffee. it felt good. a definite must thing to do (and make habit) to unwind and relax when army is over and done with.

met kit, went to vientai for dinner. nothing much to report there except that the food was good and we ate plenty. kit became slightly high after dessert. and here i thought sugar high was a myth. we became really bored after the pig-out and came up with half-baked weird-ass ideas to have fun. we finally decided to head on down to fisherman's village to just drink.

we spent the rest of the night drinking and just having fun. on the way back, as we were walking through pasir ris park, i took out my mp3 and we started singing out loud, mostly songs from the moulin rouge and carols. i'm afraid to report that we massacred some parts of it with our blithe singing but it was damn fun to just let go and not care. we sang, sang, sang and sang till we were finally home.

it was fantastic to be spontaneous and care-free. it made me really impatient with the remaining months i have with the army and all the responsibilities that i have. we have to do it again someday woman. we can butcher more songs and frighten more people.