Tachikawa NO JIRETTAI BURO-GU!

Damn that has just gotta be the most mentally exhausting exam in the past 2 years of my life! I just finished the entrance exams for the Chemical Engineering degree programme offered by the National University of Singapore.

Just to gain entry.

They tested me on what I’ve learnt for 3 years in my Diploma programme in poly, and they revised everything in 3 months! I’ve been in the army for 2 friggin’ years, and being thrown into the fray like that is really exhausting. I swear to god. Slogging my ass off day and night, not knowing what questions they would ask. They can only ask so many questions in 2 friggin’ hours.

3 FRIGGIN’ YEARS IN 3 MONTHS. AND A PAPER LASTING 2 HOURS.

God, I must be insane.

I swear I was gonna cry. So many complex fucking questions in Chemical Engineering and they just had to ask simplified questions with nothing to convert, nothing to refer to, nothing intensive to calculate. WHAT THE FUCK? All that.

…*ahem*. I’m not saying I could fully answer all the questions. heh ^^; but. sigh. I should be able to scrape by with at least a B.

…I hope. haha.

ANYWAYS.

Its been quite a post-National Service experience for me so far. Studying and all, but I’ve been getting a lot of time to do stuffs I’ve been wanting to do as well.

My Japanese classes are going well so far. Been learning a lot of technical aspects of the language. Even though I’m relatively ok in the language, learning the in-depth methods of converting the base words into other forms gave me a new understanding of the current knowledge I have. I’m loving it! I’m hoping to go for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 3 next year. Wish me luck! (:

Oh, and my driving’s been great. I’m nearly at Stage 4 (There are 5 stages. The first 3 stages have 10 sub-stages each, the fourth has 5, and the last one has none). I’m done with my Advanced Theory as well, and my test’s in November. I’m close to driving on my own. Watch out world! heh heh.

My gym routine’s fine. A minimum of 3 times a week, with options to do it daily, and with the help of muscle-building protein shakes. Its been about 1 and a half months now, and the buildup has been quite steady. Increase in the toning of my muscles can be seen little by little, and the weights have been increasing bit by bit. I’m getting there, slowly but surely : D

My swimming’s been cut down by quite a bit. Once every 2 weeks with about 30 laps in about one hour per session. Sadly my distance timing hasn’t improved, but then my burst speed in short 10 lap bursts has improved a LOT. Soooo cool! : O

Oh, and with the help of my parents and that special someone, I got myself a Timbuk2 bag! Its like Crumpler, only BETTER!

Timbuk2’s a bag manufacturer based in San Francisco who’s been making high quality messenger bags since 1989. Not a lot of people have em’ in Singapore, and I thought they didn’t have retailers in Singapore. Their prices are slightly more expensive than a Crumpler, and they’re much more exclusive. I was surprised (pleasantly) when I was shopping for a new bag at Queensway Shopping Centre when I came across this shop called Bonkers. Browsed inside and VOILA! Timbuk2s! Oh, and I got a free shoulder pad worth 26 bucks! haha

I got the Large All-Black Classic Messenger bag. Its like, damn big! Specs are 57.15cm (Width) X 31.75cm (Height) X 21.59cm (Depth), and costed 180 bucks! I’ve been looking for one big ass bag for a long time, looking at how my arm’s been tearing apart with the loads I’ve been carrying around Singapore, heh.

Here it is! Edited the background since my floor kinda sucks, lol.

Its really solid and made of ballistics nylon and waterproofed. Feels really sturdy and solid. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a messenger bag. Crumpler’s too common and overrated. Get Timbuk2! (:

Got myself a new Nokia 5300 Music Xpress Phone too! Rocks! : D

And to end off this blog post, a comparison to how I was 4 years ago, to a relatively accurate picture of me now:

What a ride! What a ride. heh.