start of a new sem

am beginning on year 2 now. hoping that 6 modules this sem wont kill me.

this sem i'm taking:
RE2801 Urban Planning
RE2802 Real Estate Economics
SC1101E Making Sense of Society
WP2201A Expository Writing: Language Death
PH1101E Reason and Persuasion
ES2007D Professional Communication

having 3 arts modules makes me feel more like an arts student rather than a real estate student. some people have asked me why have i taken a real estate degree, when i should really take an arts degree because of my love for reading and writing. i guess it's because i find more practical use in a real estate degree. i could always pursue the arts at a leisurely pace on my own accord.

frankly, i'm a little intimidated by my WP2201A class. it is a pilot project run by USP. the workload is rather heavy - 2 seminar style lessons a week 2 hours each time plus all the readings. furthermore, my other 14 peers come from fields like sociology, philosophy and political science. but whatever. the first lesson was really fun. the tutor is vastly experienced in linguistics and language. he helped broaden my perspective on language and also taught us how to avoid disastrously boring sentences in our writing. so far so good.

climbing has been good for me. staying at okr is a god send (just metaphorical). the spacious and airy room, and its proximity to the climbing gym will go a long way into helping me pull my CAP up. i'm able to get down to the gym for a dose of bouldering before hitting the books without the hassle of waiting for the freaking shuttle bus which comes at 30mins intervals at night. i can feel my bouldering improving slightly already.

i may not know what i want eventually out of my university education. but this i know. i know that i want to be that frog which crawls out of the bottom of his well. i want to travel to crags all over the world and climb my hardest. i want to climb up to the 8b level in the future. and i also want to get top 3 for an opens men bouldering competition in singapore. after all, if dreams arent far fetched and proposterous at first glance, then are such dreams worth chasing?

krabi round 4

hello blog

i havent filled in your pages lately. possibly because i'm busy with this and busy with that. possibly because i couldnt find the inspiration for a decent post. but whatever. here i am now enjoying reflecting and penning down my thoughts.

what better way to begin than by describing my experiences at krabi round 4 from 19th july-3rd august?

the trip started out rather eventfully with a conman taxi out to cheat us. the plan was to take the airport bus from phuket airport to phuket bus terminal. a bus from phuket bus terminal to krabi bus terminal. and a song theao from krabi bus terminal to aonang. we had already rejected the advances of countless taxi drivers who hounded us at phuket airport. there was this particular driver who kept hounding us and eventually offered to send us to krabi bus terminal for 200baht. i should have known that it was too good to be true . that conman dropped us off at some ulu bus stop and told us to give him more money to drive us to krabi bus terminal. wtf. we decided to just sit at that bus stop and just wait for the bus. the rickety crickety bus came 30mins later. i curse the taxi driver have all his teeth drop out for lying to us. but this is not the end of the story. three quarters through the journey, the rear wheel of the bus popped. ME AND FEL WERE SITTING ABOVE THAT WHEEL. the entire vehicle vibrated like crazy. and the driver continued driving! i must say that thais are some really garang people.

we reached aonang some time in the afternoon but the adventure was only just beginning. we were the only 2 people waiting for the long tail boat to bring us to tonsai but the boat doesnt leave till there are 8 passengers. just as we are resigned to either stay over a night at aonang or pay for the difference for the boat ride, some angmohs joined us and made up the number. the boat ride began. but boy were the waves CHOPPY. i've been to tonsai 3 times and i've not experienced waves that were choppy to this extent. the current lifted the boat almost 70 degrees up and slammed us down back to the water. this was the scenario for the entire duration of the journey. we were freaking drenched. next time no need go disneyland for a roller coaster ride. an aonang to tonsai boat ride is a much cheaper and more nausea-inducing alternative.

we stayed at krabi mountain view resort for the first part of the trip and did all the crags along the side of tonsai - the nest/wild kingdom, fire wall, melting wall. i brought fel multi-pitching up groovetube and we abseiled down. she kept moaning that she didnt want to die. haha.
i sent britishly white. but the rope drag almost killed me. luckily felicia helped me to second up the route to clear clips. i had to heave at the rope with my entire body weight to pull it down like 1 metre. repeat that process to get the rope down that 20plus metre route and you have a seriously pissed jansen ko.
i also tried cross eyed at melting wall. this is one seriously 'balls' route. need to multipitch up 2 clips first and have fel belay me off a precarious position to even start the route. the route is a fight all the way to the top. halfway through i stuck my hand into a jug and lo and behold! a furry bat flew up and batted angrily around my head. in my opinion, this route is WAY harder than tidal wave in terms of 'balls' and mental strength. singaporeans who travel all the way to krabi and spend all their time on tidal wave dont know what they are missing out. i must say i am guilty of this too. for my first 2 trips i spent countless attempts on tidal wave. i always feel like i cannot move on unless i finish it. i now realise that if you are not ready, do not go and jump on a route. i crushed tidal wave on my 3rd trip and even campused up the 4th to 5th clip. but i suppose this is a growing up phase. i certainly hope i've grown wiser.

for the second part of the trip we shifted over to tonsai bay resort. we stayed in the aircon hot water bungalow for the first night and it was perfect. my body was aching for hot water. the next 2 nights we stayed in the V2 house and it was horrendous. first of all, the tap wasnt working properly. whatever residue you spit into the sink leaks onto your feet. secondly, BED BUGS! the scars on my back are an enduring reminder to myself to scutinise the freaking room first before accepting it. sleepless nights. cold nights spent on the beach instead of inside of the room wrapped under a warm blanket. crappy feeling.
we spent these 3 days climbing along the beach.
i sent society of gravitational studies. this route taught me an important life lesson. i finished the route but didnt feel happy at all. i better write it all down here to remind myself not to make the same mistake again. i brought the clips up the route. because of the nature of the route - the intensity of the moves and the 'gek-sai' clipping positions, i needed very precise belaying. i needed the belayer to give me rope quickly when i needed to clip in and to take in rope quickly when i dropped it and brace swiftly when i fall. i guess i should have discussed the finer details with fel before jumping on the route. guess i was anxious to send the route - this having been my long term project. i kinda vented my frustration at her a little when she didnt give me rope fast enough and made her upset. i am a freaking idiot. what's the point of sending a route if the important person at the other end of the belay line isnt happy? on hindsight i should have just kept my cool. i eventually sent the route but it was no biggie. send and move on. if i'm too pent up about it i'll never move on to bigger and badder routes.
i sent cafe andaman. some 7b route that feels more like a 6c.
i flashed tiger queen. watched some taiwan climber of 20 years do the route first and gathered enough beta to flash it. i learned alot from this climber. he has taught me the importance of humility. life is a series of experiences, each of which makes you wiser.
i tried tantrum. my best attempt was to lead all the way up to the 5th clip. on that final and best try, everything just clicked together. the dyno, the figure 4, the campusing across the roof. now i just need to work on my endurance to send that route. unfinished business, yet again. i look forward to the day when i am strong enough to go to each crag and send all the 7s there in one day. and then at the end of the trip compare the varying difficulties of the 7s at all the different crags in krabi - which is exactly what that taiwanese climber was able to do. respeckt.
and for those who are interested, an extension has been added to jai dum.

the last leg of the trip was spent at yaya resort in railay.
i sent quarks. nothing much to say about the route. short and savage would have been a more apt name for it.
i sent narsillion at low tide on my second attempt. very nice and long route featuring a variety of moves. need to keep your head together if you want to onsight this, which is something i failed to achieve. i will work on my weakness. sometimes you need a certain amount of daredevil-ness and derring-do to amuerte with the route. jansen ko is still too weak and has much to learn.
i worked on knights in white satin. this route is seriously a balls route. when i said that cross eyed is scary, i was exaggerating. the fear factor of cross eyed pales in comparism to knights in white satin; given the longer run outs and the very well placed bolts. i give this route 2 thumbs up. this was the only route which i had to scream to clear clips. i needed to scream to shut out the fear and enter the zone. i'm glad to have finally tried this classic. the old birds tell me that you cannot say that you have truly been climbing in krabi if you didnt try this route. i certainly cannot dispute the truth of that statement. i am psyched to finish this route on my next trip.

after the stay in krabi we went to bkk for some shopping. chatuchak weekend market and platinum fashion mall kinda settled my clothing needs for the entire year. we shipped back 10kg because our luggage was bursting at the seams. fel infected me with her shopping genes. cheap cheap shopping there. i never ever want to shop in singapore again.

ok that's all for this post. till we share again, dear blog.

3rd krabi trip

for this 2 week roc trip i feel that i've improved tremendously. i've grown alot since my maiden trip there in jc 2. still there is so much unfinished business. there's always something harder. something to look forward to. something to obsess about then despair then cherish. the roller coaster ride of emotions which accompanies the entire life cycle of a project. for the sake of keeping record lest i become an old man and lose my memories, i shall list down the routes i either sent or attempted to send this trip.

sent
hang ten - this route seriously almost pissed me off. took 5 tries a day for 3 days in a row to send it. which makes the send even more precious because all that hard work paid off. i celebrated like a mad man on the beach for 5mins.
tidal wave - crushed this pissing route which gave me problems for my first 2 trips
baby gorilla
voodoo doll - lots of hard work but well worth it
mai mee fahn
humanality

attempted
old chicken makes good soup/dragonball
phet mak - yixiong made this route look easy
society of gravitational studies - am much stronger since my pathetic attempts on this route during my second trip. almost sent it. will send it in the near future.
reminiscence - the crux at the top is quite something
asia shadow play
blind, deaf, dumb
lars and lars

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.