being a house husband

for the past few days i experienced how it feels like to be a house husband.

i woke up early in the morning to prepare breakfast for felicia. after which i sent her to the bus stop and then i went back home to make the bed and do the chores. mundane chores like hanging out the clothes, vacuuming and mopping the floor are a good time for reflections, hence this post. at the end of day i went to pick her up at the bus stop before heading to her house for dinner. on the bus she was in a foul mood because of the incessant demands of work. (i had to approach her with a 10-yard stick for fear of getting a venomous bite =p)

i really respect the men who are willing and able to set aside their careers and play second fiddle to their wives. the arena of bringing home the dough and putting food on the table is no longer a male dominated sanctity. of course i have been working through school and through the hols to earn some spare cash, but these 2 days of no work had really put the gears of thought into motion. how are house husbands able to meekly take orders from their earning wives? does this reversal of gender roles make the man any less capable? i suppose it takes a lot of trust and a whole load of love for the relationship to work.

a poem i wished i have chanced upon at a younger age:

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
- W B Yeats

pumpfest 09 - bouldering comp for climbers by non-climbers

the above statement pretty much sums up everything about the competition.

disclaimer: i am about to embark on a barrage of criticisms against pumpfest 09. what right do i have to critique this annual bouldering competition? well, i am a member of the rockclimbing community in singapore, and i am concerned about the level of professionalism displayed during events like this which showcase our sport. a well organised event could hopefully help raise the bar for the aspiring young generation of climbers .

in this post, you will see me using 'lame-ass' quite often. lame ass is my personal synonym for 'seriously fucked up'. i am trying to cut the use of vulgarities but sometimes, it is perhaps the best word to use to describe some seriously screwed up occasions of pumpfest 09.

first and foremost of my grouses, the reception was a disaster. we had to stand around like cocks waiting for the registration booth to sort out whatever they needed to sort out. only a few people were working while the others were basically vases. only useful for looking pretty. the girl attending to me also had a bad attitude. when i registered for the school team event on friday, this were the exact words i received,
Girl: "you open climber?".
Me: "yes"
Girl: "only can take one shirt you understand? cannot take 2!"
Me: "erm.. ok.. whatever"
it's like wadeva man. i didnt even ask for 2 shirts in the first place! the girl just jumped to the conclusion that i was going to take 2 shirts for wadeva misconstrued reason of hers. spare me. i just want to boulder.

there was also this isolation girl with some lame-ass attitude. initially i thought it was only me being overly sensitive. but when i overheard some people complaining about her too...

i also dont understand why they decided to put the ntu fun climb on a sunday. seeing new climbers(i do not have anything against new climbers) wearing sport shoes/not wearing shoes to climb on a sunday afternoon is a waste of precious time. the committee should sideline this nondescript event to a friday instead of putting it on a sunday - the day when the traffic is the heaviest and most of the climbing community in singapore is there. my point is further evidenced by the fact that there was virtually nobody watching the event. the crowd dispersed after the intermediate mens finals at 1pm only to gather again for the open womens competition at 6pm. these 5 hours could have been put to better use. like for example having more finalists in each event, or allocating more time to the open womens and mens competition (which undisputedly is the main crowd drawer). or use this time to train their route judges, which brings me to my next complaint.

the route judges were NON-climbers. which means they know next-to-nothing about the adrenaline-pumping, faint-inducing sport that is bouldering. instances of poor judging are listed down below:
1. jiawei's video replay clearly showing that he held onto the bonus tile TWICE for his novice men's finals, but the route judge decided otherwise. if that was counted he would have shot up the rankings to 3rd place. he decided against appealing. i cannot decide whether i agree with his decision. but i have to agree that given his poor judging, the inept route judge would have probably bungled jiawei's appeal. at the end of the day, we climbers just want to climb and have fun, not partake in some senseless dispute as to whether we held the tile or not.
2. there was this indian girl for the open womens route 2. xiaoxian is really the victim of this unfortunate series of events. she was the first up for a route that climbers will clearly see as a jump start. however the route judge insisted that she had to set on the hold WITH 2 HANDS. which is impossible. if i were xiaoxian, there and then i would have told her in her face to show me how to start with 2 hands on that small tile that is obviously a foothold which is placed below knee level. luckily for xiaoxian she eventually redeemed herself with a fairytale ending.
3. ben saw this fiasco and immediately insisted that xiaoxian be allowed to try the route again. however the lame-ass chief judge insisted that this major oversight on his part be carried on FOR THE REST OF THE OPEN WOMENS. bouldering is a spectator sport. it would be senseless to see 8 grown women fumbling with the FREAKING STARTING TILE. the chief route judge should immediately recognize the problem and address it. instead, his heated argument with ben carried over to felicia's turn and wasted close to 40 seconds of her time. i was there and just told her to do the jump start, because i am a climber and i can certainly discern correct route judging from wrong. when the rules are wrong you screw them and make up your own ones.
4. after which all the other participants did the jump start. until it came to shuang e's turn. for some reason only known to that indian girl, she allowed shuang e to start on the second hold. so shuang e just locked off on that hold while stepping on the first foothold to reach the higher tiles, without needing to jump at all! RIDICULOUS. any competent route judge or chief route judge would resolve this issue instantaneously by asking the competitor to come down from the wall and giving her one attempt. however, this is not done. in the eyes of the spectators this actually amounts to blatant cheating. i saw this and immediately reported it to the chief route judge. below is an excerpt of his mind-blowing, preposterous, absurd and irresponsible reply:
"i will settle this issue later. any appeals you do through your coach. i will handle this later."
imagine a similar setting at the olympic games. if the athletes contravened some rule, THERE AND THEN they are disqualified or at least penalised. why is this age-old rule inconsistent with the judging at pumpfest 09?
disclaimer: i admire shuang e for climbing with an injured ankle and for bravely finishing most of the routes. the route judge should have stopped her when she started with the incorrect hold. but as a national climber, she should have known better. if the reason for allowing her to start on the second hold was because of her injured ankle, then perhaps for the next comp i will scratch myself and ask for the same allowances. although i probably wouldnt get the same set of incompetent judges which ironically complemented each other!

climbing is a spectator sport. the whole point of the competition is for the viewing pleasure of the spectators. however, the double whammy of a high barricade coupled with a low tentage made it such that the spectators could only see the middle portion of the walls. whatever happened at the bottom and at the the top(which is the climax of each climb) is unknown to them. and is there really a need to place the boundaries so far back? as a spectator, i want to catch all the action. i want to see my climbing heroes in action. i do not want to have to kneel or stoop and shift myself around to catch the feats of strength and dexterity.

the new format of the competition, whereby the competitors climbed on one wall while the other wall was prepared for the next route is also messy and distracting. the flurry of activity at the mainstage area meant that the spectators attention is diverted from watching the action. the blaring noise of the impact drivers also distracts the competitors from focusing on their climbs.

my last and final grouse is the lame-ass 'spotting' at the competition. is this the epitome of lame-ass. in bouldering, because of the nature of the spot, we have 'spotters' in charge of guiding the competitors safely to the mats, hence the phrase 'spotting'. they are not supposed to SLAM THE GENITALS of the competitors. here i am forced to sucuumb to my desire to use expletives. i FUCKING dont care whether it was an FUCKING accident or not. the damage is FUCKING done already. i got hit in my balls and i crumpled to the mattress. the moment you get hit in your manhood the first reaction is to be FUCKING PISSED. the 'spotter' (i wonder if you can still call him that) is lucky that the injury is not serious. this is no laughing matter. i was seriously FUCKING TEMPTED to box him in the face. luckily i controlled myself. in this case i would rather i fall to the ground and sprain my ankles then get a dent, or rather a 'zham', to my chances to celebrate fathers' day. sometimes it is better to express your displeasure rather than keep it bottled up. i feel better after voicing out my angst. as of now i am still undecided as to whether i should repay that fellow the same pleasure with the effects magnified ten times.

the spotter in the football tee for the open mens final route is also a joke. he would spread his arms out sidewards and then drop his hands when the competitor fell instead of rushing out to guide him down.

the only gratifying thing about this competition is that we at nus central helped voiced popular opinion and made a dig at the emcees.

doodling in my brain

i want to be a F1 driver
i want to be a poet
i want to be a writer
i want to be a pianist
i want to be a psychologist
i want to be a vagabond
i want to be a museum curator
i want to be a philosopher
i want to be a professional pool player
i want to be a mentor
i want to be a rockclimber
i want to celebrate the potential of life

the way the life plays out

funny how i've become more busy after my exams. i didnt think it was possible to have a even more hectic schedule but it actually is. fingers feel like dropping off.

have not been bouldering hard recently. hope i'll do ok for pumpfest. but hope is not enough. hard training and preparation is more apt but i cant seem to squeeze more time out. whenever i see others attempting hard routes, i just wish i could be there to share in the fun too and slowly milk the juice. it really sucks to only have 20mins to power up before having to attend to another class again.

monarch of mountains,
crowned him long ago,
on a throne of rocks,
in a robe of clouds,
with a diadem of snow.

ord from nus year 1

those words you hear from your seniors to enjoy your time spent in the previous years? it's true! listen to your seniors. it's really no shit when jc students ask you to enjoy secondary school and when army peeps ask you to take your time in jc and when university undergrads tell you to nua in army for as long as possible. 1 year in nus flashed past in the blink of an eye. i remember that it was only just some time back when i was still worrying about accomodation on campus and whether there'll be babes in nus real estate. haha.

i decided to do a little recap on the modules that i've taken over the course of this 1 year and see whether a uni education is really holistic.

ST1131 Introduction to Statistics
nothing new really. learnt all these stuff about standard deviation and normal distribution back in jc. this module wasnt too hard.

PF1102 Visualisation in Design and Technology
ok fair enough this module is really easy. learnt about building elements (beams, columns, slabs, roof designs). the only thing pissing about this module is that the lecturer give stunt for the final exam. he said just refer to the past year papers as a reference as to the format for this year's paper but it was TOTALLY different. shock lah.

RE1801 Foundations of Real Estate Business
i swear that i didnt learn anything at all from this module. the lecturer spent most of his time during lectures telling us about how he brilliantly used leverage to secure 4 private properties and how he has been in the real estate industry for 30 years already and how he helped his son out of a tight spot when little jr flouted some traffic rule. the final exam was open book and i just copied chunks of his book (which he made us buy)(which is crap) into the paper. cant help but feel like he is some fraud.

RE1802 Real Estate Law
damn fierce module. made me feel like a lawyer. the lecturer made us do a full scale debate for tutorials. case laws and statutory laws helped me understand the legal history of singapore a little better. knowledge is power.

GEK1527 Genes and Society
fun to read and learn in your own time but not fun to mug for. in the end, i returned everything to my lecturer after the exam as with all the other subjects that didnt interest me from primary sch till now. 100 mcqs in 2 hours for the final exam is mind boggling. i had a headache after the paper.

EC1301 Principles of Economics
again this is jc round 2. did everything of this in jc before except that this module is all mcqs. no essays. hooray.

RE1803 Urban Land Use and Development
only useful if you want to become a urban planner. wont help you make any money at all. lecture 7 was a copy and paste of all the statutory boards website. spent lots of time on the project but the lecturer didnt like it apparently. only got average grades. which proves my point even further to just flood the project with pictures. lecturers are just too busy to single-handedly read through all 50 10-page reports. you give them pictures they give you A+. mutually beneficial.

RE1804 Fundamentals of Real Estate Finance
helped me understand the financial system better(about financial intermediaries and how various factors affect the current interest rate). the lecturer threw us into the deep end of the pool for this one. we had to pose as interested clients and contact several banks for their mortgage amortization schedules and compare and contrast the effective interest rates. very good module which will most definitely help me in the purchase of my first home in future.

RE1805 Real Estate Management
module is good for those interested in becoming property managers. which is the person in charge of the leasing, tenant selection and maintenance of a residential/commercial building. basically the odd-job-know-it-all for the building. the lecture notes are 6 years old. i know it cos i compared it with the materials of a senior. the lecturer must have it easy eh. just prepare one powerpoint slide and use it through his 10 years in nus.

GEK1001 Place, Environment and Society
geog module. similar to O level geog with human and physical sections. got A for 40% of the module (projects). hope i do sufficiently well for this module. on a side note, the readings are crazy. more time-consuming than my core modules. this is a reminder to me to be wary when choosing arts module in future. but no worries, i spotted topics for the final exam and i was spot on. i chose 4 topics out of 10 to study for and all of them came out. *keeping my hopes high for the final grade*

FL1101 The Little Things of Felicia Lim
getting to know her, getting to know more about her.
very tough module. mostly happy studying for it and some lessons are learnt the hard way (disclaimer: the abuse of the mugger-in-question cannot be sufficiently quantified).
i wouldnt know the final grade of this module until the time comes. what time? i was told that i will know it when the time comes.
*k.i.v this module*
da bao it till next sem..