OoOokay, cuz of all the criticism from peeps about me having “only” pictures of myself up here (what else would you predominantly put on your blog), I’m gonna finally put someone else’s photo on this thing: everybody, meet 2LT JEREMY KHOO.

My oldest and most constant friend through the years - basketball teammate (and then inter-zone rival), ex-bandmate from our now defunct nu-rock supergroup, The Schwan Stabilo Boys, and ever-present partner in crime in catechism class at St. Francis Xavier’s church… seen here in MILF-HUNTER-wannabe pose. Classic.

2LT Jeremy “MILF HUNTER” Khoo

See, I’m not the only army boy who takes silly photos of myself outfield. I’d post the rest of his cheesy stuff but nahh… Mr. Jeremy just got back from EX. WALLABY in Australia, which I went for a year ago.

Good place, that. Think a lovely secluded camp in the middle of the Australian outback, with a hot (if aging and verrrrrry shrewd) canteen operator, Judy Wong selling Superdogs & cheap beer (victoriabitter is really goodd)… how much better can it get??

Sigh, if I was a greyed-but-still-dashing Richard Gere-esque Colonel, (like my old division commander whatshisname) I soooooooo would’a turned on the uber cool charm that would’ve naturally come from having a coupla ‘crabs on my shoulder (ie. rank). But alas, am just a lowly 3rd seargant. Without much rank or money. Pffah.

oh btw my physiotherapist cleared me to jog yesterday! and swim (only free style) and cycle and what not!

soooo today i went to the hart house (vvvv cool place in school) gym and did 30mins of cycling, jogged 2km and did crunches n stuff! amazinnnnng. will work out 2 or so times a week, depending on schedule.

plus if cranky eco professor doesnt call friday classes have whole friday morning to work out! how good is that. very sweet. time to get back in shapeee.

the disturbing thing though is that i had the shortest shorts in the entire gym. male or female.

funnily enough, two years ago i wouldnt be caught DEAD in short shorts. after the army though i have realized how nice it is to walk around with short shorts, how cooling and free you feel.

*plus* when you play bball and go between the legs on crossovers, having baggy pants is just plain irritating and embarrasing when the ball gets stuck mid-crossover and causes a turnover!

anyway there came a point earlier this yearwhere buaypaisehness (read: shamelessness) overshadowed my inhibitions and like, i went around whenever i could get away with it wearing as little as i could in singapore (shortshorts, polo tee and my martian sucker-pad sandals). its so blooooody warm there that i mean, unless im going out or meeting someone important there just isnt a point being dressy so why bother, ya know?

the dress sense in the gym for guys seems to be pretty homogenous: loose tees and basketball-ish berms/jersey bottoms. not that i dont have those. i have a gazillion old bball jerseys n tons of bball gear, plus some nifty nba stuff. but i love my short shorts!

hmmm. so shall i do as the romans do? or continue my buaypaiseh shortshortness at risk of faggotiness???

I just finished this opening paragraph on Plato’s Gorgias debates. It’s not terribly polished but I’m handing it in:

Socrates And The Ideal Political Equilibrium

In Plato’s Gorgias, a powerful commentary on the motivations and morality behind politics and government, the triad of intense debates culminates in Socrates declaring himself the one true politician of his time. He self-righteously proclaims that he aims only at doing what is best for his fellow citizens, without regard to satisfying their base pleasures. At the same time, Socrates condemns Callicles for doing just the opposite: he accuses the orator of giving Athenians what they desire –instead of what they truly need from a man of his position, “moderation and justice” (519-A).

Unfortunately for Socrates, history has proven that his very own political stand, despite being worlds apart from Callicles’, sets him along the very same perilous path to doom that Callicles’ and his ilk thread. Equipped with good intent alone, the “true” politician will inevitably fall, just as surely as the panderer does.

How far indeed can noble intent alone bring a leader? For all her well-meant intentions, poor Cassandra of Troy – the cursed seer whose prophecy of the Trojan Horse went unheeded – could only hide in Athena’s temple as her beloved city was razed to the ground. In fact, our Lord Jesus Christ came to earth purely for our salvation, yet He died on the cross by the hands of the very people He saved, betrayed by one of His twelve Chosen.

Therefore, the hallowed road to true political excellence lies somewhere between Socrates’ and Callicles’ extreme standpoints… but how should one go about seeking this transcendent equilibrium? Is it even humanly possible to reach this Zen balance of political perfection, when even Jesus couldn’t?

I hope my professor isn’t too churchie… or this’ll be the last essay I write before I get burnt at the stake.

“the mud on my face is soil. our soil.”

now, its early monday morning, the weekend’s two hours dead and i’m infuriatingly still awake despite grand plans to start new week with proper rest from the get-go, chewing away at a toasty-warm cinnamon apple pita (which slightly derails my workout two hours ago… but what the hey)… typing away at my laptop.

anyway, mr joel’s short term goals for next week are as follows:

1. since no test this week will utilize days productively and catch up with work
2. proper workouts at home this week
3. sleep properly instead of chewing away at toasty-warm cinnamon apple pitas and typing at laptop into dead of night
4. possibly hit the gym on friday or thursday when have more free time
5. find out if can get eyesight checked in school at student centre
6. hydrate lots and eat apples & yoghurt for snacks; eat at regular hours instead of feeling starved/bloated alternately
7. not haul self around school like week-dead resident-evil undead zombie being

amen! off to bed now!

So there. A week ahead without tests shines brightly over the horizon, for the first time in what seems like an aeon, and I’m relatively on top of my work, which is a far cry from the state I was in a few weeks back - a fortnight behind in practically every subject. And that’s the last you’ll hear of work in this post.

I had the besssst sleep last night, even with all my lights on. Somehow though my eyes and head were in this dazed, dreamy state half of today… not good. In semi-awareness spent much of day playing Final Fantasy 6, (again), and actually realize a whole lot of new stuff about the game I’ve never thought about, even though I’ve completed it like, 5 times or so.

Stuff about character stats and everything. I think in the last three or so years, in terms of strategy and RPG games, I’ve become a statistical maniac - I’ve stopped being able to just sit down and “play” games without worrying about maxing out hit points or something.

It’s like, stuff just isn’t fun anymore unless I know I’ve gotten the “most” out of a game without cheating. Think Monica Gellar. I *have* to win, and when I beat a stage boss I can’t just squeak past him: I have to out-level, out-smart and well, dish out cartloads of serious ownage on his ass for me to feel good.

Which is why my FF6 characters are now seriously overpowered. I used to level them up by increasing their stats here and there to have lovely looking all rounded characters, but (especially after learning about “competitive advantage” in school) I have grouped my Final Fantasy heroes into two groups - magic and strength characters - and have UBER-buffed them out in either direction, resulting in craaazily powerful heroes…! Will stop rambling on about FF6 now.

Chuh… I don’t know what’s with me today. I’ve been just really, really pensive tonight and thinking so much about, well, everything. I haven’t had the time to think about anything at all and it’s all like swirling around my head now - I know I sound like a himbo now more than ever. One thing that keeps popping up today is… I keep thinking about what I left behind in Singapore. I don’t miss it, not really; it’s just that I wonder how things would’a gone differently if I had stayed back and gone to NUS instead of being here right now in the U of T.

Not that I would change things - I love the way things are right now, and the U of T has so far been absolutely amazing for me, especially in terms of being an academic challenge, and the sheer mix of great people and characters I go to school with everyday.

Then again, it’s just that… nah. I don’t even think that these “coulda-beens” are worth being typed out, even less than my long super nintendo raving.

I’m going to sleep now. Amen.

hanamichi jo-kuragi

haha well there went one entire weekend spent reading commerce notes =)

that sure was a lot of stuff though; i think i had a pretty productive weekend considering i underestimated the enormity of one month’s worth of commerce readings… am on pace to finish note-taking by late tomorrow or early tuesday latest - leaving me with a whole day plus to do practice papers for thursday’s test so phew…

friday was remembrance day, or veterans’ day (as some people call it i think?) where people here honour the soldiers who laid down their lives during the world wars for their countries. what was funny though is that i didnt know about it but unwittingly was wearing my grey a-r-m-y tee shirt in school on friday, just cuz its nice n soft n warm…

anyway, they opened the hart’s house tower in school - which apparently is the soldier’s tower, and what i thought was a chapel is actually in fact a little war memorial room. with painted glass windows showing not biblical pictures but soldiers in action from various wars. i actually spoke to some really old war veterans who were in their (very decorated) uniforms too, which was pretty surreal when you get to thinking about it…

very cool. and well im being realistic here but i actually did do my part to uh, keep the world a peaceful place, right? in particular, that one month (jan 2004) spent guarding a key installation in singapore in which, come to think of it, i FOUGHT THE WAR ON TERROR! how cool is that.

so there. so i didnt fight in a world war or anything but i did do my part for the uh, peace and stability of the post-911 world. not too glorious a stint but still.

freedom!! merdekaa!!!

Yeah, I know it’s been forever since I did this, but what the hey n things’ve been particularly hectic, what with a slew of tests over the past coupla weeks. The second COM110 test which once seemed to lie an ice age away now looms just next week! And I thought things’d get easier after my psychology test yesterday… yeeesh.

At time of writing I am sitting in the cafe at Morrisson Hall along St George in classes, people watching while typing sophistically away and listening to music in one ear, emanating uber-chic-ness in waves of utter metrosexuality; thank God for earphones because without these babies I wouldn’t be able to listen to cheesily smoochy Andy Lau oldies. Haha.

Anyway, for the record, am doing aaaaight right now in my classes… unfortunately not without opportunity cost. I think I’ve come across to friends/whoevers as being aloof when I was just totally drained and spent. Not good.

Gotta keep up the studying! I think that the willful little RI boy who Iíve kept under wraps for the past nearly three years has clawed his way out of his hole and is back with a vengeance. Studying for SAT tests ñ and then taking them ñ just for fun, gobbling up books like a motha, even to the extent of bringing thick “dictionary-length” books out into the field to read in 5-tonners (army trucks) and while slumped in a hammock…. yeah, I’ve tried my best to fight the brain-rot.

It didn’t really work though; the essays I wrote early this year for some university applications are horrible. And I have to admit my earlier writing for Club Pets magazine was pretty awful. Thankfully, my editor and boss gave me a chance to improve and well, the rest is uh, history.

Hmm.. I finally have the time to get my thoughts down and I find myself devoid of any hmm substantial ones. Which leaves me with no better conversational alternative than to talk about the WEATHER. It really is getting colder and windier, and I know this is really overdue and we’ve enjoyed a longer summer than we/ve deserved, but still…

Yesterday’s weather was just plain - for lack of a better word - whack. Stormed all day while I was at school and it seemed to rain heavier whenever I was walking under the unsheltered sky, strangely alleviating whenever I took a step into a library or cafe. I don’t think hurling Hokkien under my breath blasphemously at the dude in the sky helped my cause one bit though.

Aha time for commerce class. Will update over the weekend! Very pleased with own behaviour today for unmentionable reasons heh heh… =)

sunday night. again.

a week just went by, just like that - wow.

i pretty much didnt sleep very much at all cramming for maths till wednesday night, then tahan-ed through thursday cuz i had to finish an essay…

… and then hibernated through half the weekend while - get this - playing Chrono Trigger for the Super Nintendo for like half the time i was awake. not a good weekend productively but a necessary evil i guess, after the onslaught of recent tests.

and personally, i think i was at a low point over the past week or so… nothing that requires elaboration here, though.

whee! ripped all my namie amuro (yes) cds and my old classic andy lau stuff too. feel like such a ‘beng but dont care. namie is hottttt.