"Oh no! Sh*t!", I shouted in my head when I saw the message Alex sent me that morning. It was just the break of dawn. My eyes almost burst out of the sockets in disbelief. They wanted me to SING during the coming Annual CMPB Dinner and Dance, to be held at Amara Hotel.
Aiyoz..How am I going to do it? Er.. I tremble and stutter on stage (that's from my experience in secondary school when I had to narrate a class play on teacher's day concert) I don't have a fantastic singing voice (not like those lead singers in my secondary school choir), although I am not tone-deaf. The Commander, COs (commanding officers), Branch Heads, will all be present! What if I zao xia (hokkien for go off-pitch). Will I be teased if I do badly? All these were the concerns when the facts settled in... I don't think I have a choice, do I?
What can I sing? Mandarin or english? Which genre? What will suit my vocal range? How am I going to represent myself? Am I thinking too much? Should I just take it easy, and switch to a happy-go-lucky mood? No... I don't want to be CMPB's infamous William Hung...
Help! What song is good? Tag your thoughts people!
NEW Workout Plans
The long MC that I am currently on is killing me! I have been grounded (even more so due to the escalating PSI figures) for 3 weeks so far. That means 3 more weeks more before I can stretch my limbs again...
Well, for those who don't really know. I have started to workout religiously for the past few months to gain some body mass. For the past 2 months I have been following a 4 day work-week weight training routine hoping to put on muscle mass. Things went pretty smoothly until I went for the Squint Surgery. I must say the trainings are tough and costly, considering the amout of time and money (such as gym entrance fees and nutritional supplements) I had to invest in to see gains.
Why did I start working out? There are 2 reasons - dissatifaction, and family/peer pressure. Technically, I belong to a group called Ectomorphs. There are 3 diffrent classifications - mesomorph (the muscular ones), endomorphs (fats ones), ectomorphs (skinny ones). Like me, some common traits of ectomorphs are: high metabolic rates, long limbs, small rib cage. Ectoomorphs have little inherent ability to build muscle and hardly store up fats, leading to skinny frames. My body mass index (BMI) was 16.0 (2.0 below the acceptable value) when I first started out - that classifies me under "poor physique" category. I needed a change man!
OK... I've drawn up a new lifitng plan which I thought I can post here....
Mondays and Thurdays
Machine Abdominal Crunches ( 3 Sets)
Obliques Crunches (2 Sets)
Tricep Extensions (3 Sets)
Reverse Barbell Curls (3 Sets)
Seated Cable Rows (Middle Back) (3 Sets)
Lats Pull Down (3 Sets)
Calf Press ( 3 Sets)
Tuesdays and Fridays
Flat Bench Press (3 Sets)
Inclined Bench Press (2 Sets)
10 Degrees Flys (2 Sets)
Seated Military Press with Smith Machine (4 Sets)
Upright Barbell Rows (3 Sets)
Barbell Curls (3 Sets)
Squats (3 Sets)
Deadlifts (3 Sets)
Leg Press (3 Sets)
If you are looking for bodybuilding resources, I recommend www.bodybuilding.com Hehe...hopefully no more skinny joel soon :)
Well, for those who don't really know. I have started to workout religiously for the past few months to gain some body mass. For the past 2 months I have been following a 4 day work-week weight training routine hoping to put on muscle mass. Things went pretty smoothly until I went for the Squint Surgery. I must say the trainings are tough and costly, considering the amout of time and money (such as gym entrance fees and nutritional supplements) I had to invest in to see gains.
Why did I start working out? There are 2 reasons - dissatifaction, and family/peer pressure. Technically, I belong to a group called Ectomorphs. There are 3 diffrent classifications - mesomorph (the muscular ones), endomorphs (fats ones), ectomorphs (skinny ones). Like me, some common traits of ectomorphs are: high metabolic rates, long limbs, small rib cage. Ectoomorphs have little inherent ability to build muscle and hardly store up fats, leading to skinny frames. My body mass index (BMI) was 16.0 (2.0 below the acceptable value) when I first started out - that classifies me under "poor physique" category. I needed a change man!
OK... I've drawn up a new lifitng plan which I thought I can post here....
Mondays and Thurdays
Machine Abdominal Crunches ( 3 Sets)
Obliques Crunches (2 Sets)
Tricep Extensions (3 Sets)
Reverse Barbell Curls (3 Sets)
Seated Cable Rows (Middle Back) (3 Sets)
Lats Pull Down (3 Sets)
Calf Press ( 3 Sets)
Tuesdays and Fridays
Flat Bench Press (3 Sets)
Inclined Bench Press (2 Sets)
10 Degrees Flys (2 Sets)
Seated Military Press with Smith Machine (4 Sets)
Upright Barbell Rows (3 Sets)
Barbell Curls (3 Sets)
Squats (3 Sets)
Deadlifts (3 Sets)
Leg Press (3 Sets)
If you are looking for bodybuilding resources, I recommend www.bodybuilding.com Hehe...hopefully no more skinny joel soon :)
Love Letters 101 (REJECTED)
My Dear Love,
Yesterday, I was passing by your rectangular house in trigonometric lane. There I saw you with your cute circular face, conical nose and spherical eyes, standing in your triangular garden. Before seeing you, my heart was a null set, but when a vector of magnitude (likeness) from your eyes at a deviation of theta radians made a tangent to my heart, it differentiated.
My love for you is a quadratic equation with real roots, which only you can solve by making good binary relation with me. The cosine of my love for you extends to infinity. I promise that I should not resolve you into partial functions. But if I do so, you can integrate me by applying the limits from zero to infinity.You are as essential to me as an element to a set. The geometry of my life revolves around your acute personality.
My love, if you do not meet me at parabola restaurant on date 10 at sunset, when the sun is making an angle of 160 degrees, my heart would be like a solved polynomial of degree 10. With love from your higher order derivatives of maxima and minima, of an unknown function.
Yours ever loving,
Pythagoras
Yesterday, I was passing by your rectangular house in trigonometric lane. There I saw you with your cute circular face, conical nose and spherical eyes, standing in your triangular garden. Before seeing you, my heart was a null set, but when a vector of magnitude (likeness) from your eyes at a deviation of theta radians made a tangent to my heart, it differentiated.
My love for you is a quadratic equation with real roots, which only you can solve by making good binary relation with me. The cosine of my love for you extends to infinity. I promise that I should not resolve you into partial functions. But if I do so, you can integrate me by applying the limits from zero to infinity.You are as essential to me as an element to a set. The geometry of my life revolves around your acute personality.
My love, if you do not meet me at parabola restaurant on date 10 at sunset, when the sun is making an angle of 160 degrees, my heart would be like a solved polynomial of degree 10. With love from your higher order derivatives of maxima and minima, of an unknown function.
Yours ever loving,
Pythagoras
The Pharmacist
I was surfing the net at home, trying to kill some time when I stumbled upon this. Enjoy! =)
DSICLAIMER: READERS BELOW 18 ARE TO SEEK PARENTAL ADVISE BEFORE CONTINUING....
A girl asks her boyfriend, to come over to her place on friday night for a have dinner with her parents. Since this is such a big event, the girl announced to her boyfriend that after dinner, she would like to go out and make love for the first time.
Well, the boy is ecstatic, but he has never had sex before, so he takes a trip to the pharmacist to get some condoms. The pharmacist helps the boy for about an hour. He tells the boy everything there is to know about condoms and sex. At the counter, the pharmacist asks the boy how many condoms he'd like to buy: a 3-pack, 10-pack, or a family pack. I'm really going to give it to this girl, the boy tells the pharmacist. I intend to go for hours and hours. The pharmacist, with a laugh, suggests the family pack, saying the boy will be rather busy, it being his first time and all.
That night, the boy shows up at the girl's house and met his girlfriend at the door. "Oh I'm so excited for you to meet my parents, come on in," the girl ushered his boyfriend into the house. The boy goes inside and is taken to the dinner table where the girls parents are seated. The boy quickly offers to say grace and bows his head. A minute passes, and the boy is still deep in prayer with his head down. 10 minutes passes and still there is no movement from the boy. Finally, after 20 minutes with his head down, the girlfriend finally leans over and whispers to the boyfriend, I had no idea you were this religious. The boy turns, and whispers back, I had no idea your father was a pharmacist.
Special thanks to www.killsometime.com
DSICLAIMER: READERS BELOW 18 ARE TO SEEK PARENTAL ADVISE BEFORE CONTINUING....
A girl asks her boyfriend, to come over to her place on friday night for a have dinner with her parents. Since this is such a big event, the girl announced to her boyfriend that after dinner, she would like to go out and make love for the first time.
Well, the boy is ecstatic, but he has never had sex before, so he takes a trip to the pharmacist to get some condoms. The pharmacist helps the boy for about an hour. He tells the boy everything there is to know about condoms and sex. At the counter, the pharmacist asks the boy how many condoms he'd like to buy: a 3-pack, 10-pack, or a family pack. I'm really going to give it to this girl, the boy tells the pharmacist. I intend to go for hours and hours. The pharmacist, with a laugh, suggests the family pack, saying the boy will be rather busy, it being his first time and all.
That night, the boy shows up at the girl's house and met his girlfriend at the door. "Oh I'm so excited for you to meet my parents, come on in," the girl ushered his boyfriend into the house. The boy goes inside and is taken to the dinner table where the girls parents are seated. The boy quickly offers to say grace and bows his head. A minute passes, and the boy is still deep in prayer with his head down. 10 minutes passes and still there is no movement from the boy. Finally, after 20 minutes with his head down, the girlfriend finally leans over and whispers to the boyfriend, I had no idea you were this religious. The boy turns, and whispers back, I had no idea your father was a pharmacist.
Special thanks to www.killsometime.com
Going Under the Knife
Hi (again) to all faithful readers of my humble little blog... haha. Okay, I am done with the final touch-up to the layout of the site. I hope you are satisfied as I am :P Pls leave your thoughts on the tag board ok?
For those who are not from my army unit (medical classification centre), I am actually on 6 weeks Medical Leave, post-surgery recovery for my left eye. That explains why I started this blog - cos it's certainly a time killer! I am bored to tears! ha... my eye looks much "straighter" now, so I don't think the word "squint" would be used together with "Joel" for a while from now (at least that's what my goofy but friendly surgeon said).
Well, being the avid science student you know I am, let me explain what happened to me. I have a condition known as congenital esotropia. That means I am born with my left eye globe misaligned, deviated inwards (see picture below). How does this arise? The muscle (there are 6 pairs of them around each eye globe if I haven't mistaken) on the inner side of the left eye is pulling the eye globe too far inwards. So docs at SNEC (Singapore National Eye Centre) recommended a Squint Surgery.
27th SEP was the day. On arrival, I was put through pre-op assessment where blood pressure and other readings were taken. The nurses helped change me into a blue colored clean gown and disposal underwear before I was brought to the operating theatre (OT, they call it) wearing slippers provided. The place was freezing and immaculately clean, with trailing smell of antiseptic. They put me on a bed in the middle of an array of medical equipments (looks somewhat similar to those in the show ER). The nurses hooked me up to all sorts of equipments, to monitor pulse rate, BP, and thankfully, a heating mat around my thighs to keep me warm. When everything was done, my surgeon arrived in surgical outfit. She tapped me on the shoulder as a sign of encouragement - I had so much adrenaline then that my pulse was racing at approximately 105/min!
We waited for briefly before the anaesthetist arrived. He introduced himself as Dr Yong. Shortly after his arrival, he started getting into his work. This room was completely silent except for the beeping of the pulse meter. Dr Yong inserted an Intravenous (IV) Catheter into a vein on the left forearm (ouch!), through which he infused a colorless liquid. He started asking me a series questions which I had greater difficulty in answering as I grew drowsier by the seconds. The last line I heard him saying was "I am a Mindef reserve MO...", before I slipped into a world of oblivion.
I woke up with a spiking pain in my bandaged left eye and a horrible stench of chemical in my respiratory tract. I felt really nauseous and weak. Shortly after I gained consciousness, I felt a tap on my shoulder and Dr Yong came into view. He gave me his well wishes and left soon after. The nurses then wheeled me into the recuperative ward where I could recover from the anesthesia before the second part of the surgery. The after-effects of the anesthesia actually caused me to throw out twice before I was wheeled up to Dr Chia's room to do the fine adjustments before the stitches were tied. The whole process was swift and painless (I was on localised anesthesia) as I cooperated with Dr Chia. At the end of the process, I was given instructions on post-operative eye care and told to rest well, without strenuous activities for 6 weeks.
The few days following the operation were harder to get by due to the pain, and bloody discharges from the eye. The operated eye was sensitive to bright lights and painful with too much movement, so I had no choice but to stay in bed.
2 weeks down, I've regained my normal eye functions except with the remaining redness which is expected to fade 1 month after the operation.
For those who are not from my army unit (medical classification centre), I am actually on 6 weeks Medical Leave, post-surgery recovery for my left eye. That explains why I started this blog - cos it's certainly a time killer! I am bored to tears! ha... my eye looks much "straighter" now, so I don't think the word "squint" would be used together with "Joel" for a while from now (at least that's what my goofy but friendly surgeon said).
Well, being the avid science student you know I am, let me explain what happened to me. I have a condition known as congenital esotropia. That means I am born with my left eye globe misaligned, deviated inwards (see picture below). How does this arise? The muscle (there are 6 pairs of them around each eye globe if I haven't mistaken) on the inner side of the left eye is pulling the eye globe too far inwards. So docs at SNEC (Singapore National Eye Centre) recommended a Squint Surgery.
27th SEP was the day. On arrival, I was put through pre-op assessment where blood pressure and other readings were taken. The nurses helped change me into a blue colored clean gown and disposal underwear before I was brought to the operating theatre (OT, they call it) wearing slippers provided. The place was freezing and immaculately clean, with trailing smell of antiseptic. They put me on a bed in the middle of an array of medical equipments (looks somewhat similar to those in the show ER). The nurses hooked me up to all sorts of equipments, to monitor pulse rate, BP, and thankfully, a heating mat around my thighs to keep me warm. When everything was done, my surgeon arrived in surgical outfit. She tapped me on the shoulder as a sign of encouragement - I had so much adrenaline then that my pulse was racing at approximately 105/min!
We waited for briefly before the anaesthetist arrived. He introduced himself as Dr Yong. Shortly after his arrival, he started getting into his work. This room was completely silent except for the beeping of the pulse meter. Dr Yong inserted an Intravenous (IV) Catheter into a vein on the left forearm (ouch!), through which he infused a colorless liquid. He started asking me a series questions which I had greater difficulty in answering as I grew drowsier by the seconds. The last line I heard him saying was "I am a Mindef reserve MO...", before I slipped into a world of oblivion.
I woke up with a spiking pain in my bandaged left eye and a horrible stench of chemical in my respiratory tract. I felt really nauseous and weak. Shortly after I gained consciousness, I felt a tap on my shoulder and Dr Yong came into view. He gave me his well wishes and left soon after. The nurses then wheeled me into the recuperative ward where I could recover from the anesthesia before the second part of the surgery. The after-effects of the anesthesia actually caused me to throw out twice before I was wheeled up to Dr Chia's room to do the fine adjustments before the stitches were tied. The whole process was swift and painless (I was on localised anesthesia) as I cooperated with Dr Chia. At the end of the process, I was given instructions on post-operative eye care and told to rest well, without strenuous activities for 6 weeks.
The few days following the operation were harder to get by due to the pain, and bloody discharges from the eye. The operated eye was sensitive to bright lights and painful with too much movement, so I had no choice but to stay in bed.
2 weeks down, I've regained my normal eye functions except with the remaining redness which is expected to fade 1 month after the operation.
First Post...
Hi everyone. This is really my virgin attempt in blogging after long contemplation to make one. Think it looks kinda dull at the moment, but will come up with more posts after more foundation works are laid! Cheers!
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