At The Stroke Of Midnight

I initially planned for this post to celebrate both our nation's 50th year of independence and this blog's 100th post but it looks like that's no longer possible.

Why?

Because that would take way too long, and I feel like posting something now.

How is it that I can go for weeks without writing a thing when everyone's poking and nudging me about it, and at the same time decide to stay up late and blog when people are telling me to forget it and concentrate on studies?

I'm a rebel without a clue.

When just about every other sane person decided to sleep in on Merdeka, I woke up early and headed down to the Dataran to catch the parade. Well, it was really Li Wen's idea.

His reasoning? Well, that fact is most of us have probably never seen the parade up close our entire lives (and never will). I know my parents haven't. And since it was our 50th Merdeka - surviving the half century mark is meant to be an achievement of significance - he decided that it was now or never.

This made sense to me.

But I would have slept through it if Li Wen didn't call at 6.30 am.

Anyway!

On to the parade. I took like two hundred pictures while I was there. Some of these are displayed below, with commentary.

We arrived at around 7.30. By this time, the stands were packed almost to capacity, but we still managed to get some really good positions, almost directly opposite the grandstand.

Yeah. The government provided monkey bars.

I was the first one to go up, and I stayed there until we left. You could see practically anything, it was just a question of how far up you were willing to climb.

This guy here? Doesn't look that high up, does he? But he was camped on the bar above my head (you can see it in the previous picture). The entire structure was actually more than two storeys tall but no one was fool enough to climb that high.

At the parade, we met AZA and Miss Leong. Apparently, they came for the celebrations the night before, and didn't go home. They spent the night in McDonald's, open 24 hours a day.

I think I might try that some day. Sounds crazy enough to work.

Here's Peako, looking at a poster reproduction of an old Berita Harian.

And here's Li Wen from my point of view. Doesn't he look like an orphan?

About the festivities... well, some of it was kinda like Hari Patriotisme, with the singing of patriotic songs and pembacaan ikrar. But Hari Patriotisme on steroids. The guy they got to recite the ikrar sounded like he could have given King Leonidas a run for his money. I kept expecting him to suddenly whip out a keris and scream MALAM INI KITA BERSANTAP DI NERAKA or something.

Didn't happen, though.

The parade itself was pretty good, I guess. There were lots of groups I didn't really care about. Some secondary schools sent marching bands. I think this one is from Catholic High School. Could be mistaken about that.

Check out their uniforms! Kinda like that dance from concert. I think it was... Texas?

I wasn't really paying attention to these guys, until I noticed they were holding up replicas of Malaysian coins and stuff. I think they're bank employees.

Jun Ian: Fifty cents!
Li Wen: What where?
Jun Ian: There!
Li Wen: I thought you meant the rapper!

Yeah right. Just try imagine 50 Cent hanging around the Dataran.

Hell, why imagine? There he is.

Look closely dammit.

There were plenty of floats, but this one caught my eye. It was releasing bubbles.

Looks like a scene out of a love story, doesn't it? See... boy meets girl, girl meets boy. They fall in love, but they're at a parade and the girl is on a float.

You should know these guys from your textbooks. They're the survivors of Force 136, a volunteer army who fought the against Japanese during the occupation. And there are like seven of them left. They're like superheroes.

They trotted out lots of war machinery at the parade. These ordinary look trucks were probably... missile trucks.

More military stuff. Kept me thinking about National Service.

The planes were awesome. There was this one jet that flew skywards, then killed its engines and dropped like a stone right above our heads. Before it hit the ground, it fired up again and zoomed off. You don't see that kind of thing much out of the movies.

Transformer babies aside, there were dogs at the parade. I guess the four major races in Malaysia are Malay, Chinese, Indian and Dog.

Horses too. Well I don't really know what to say about them... they were well behaved and didn't poop on the roads?

Later that day, I went to watch the fireworks with my cousins. We got a pretty good spot, wasn't too crowded or anything.

To pass the time, I played some saxophone for everyone within earshot. This instrument is just awesome.

Still waiting for fireworks to start. There's no point to this picture being here, but I like it a lot.

I hope you appreciate how hard it is to get good pictures of fireworks, especially if you're a novice with a shaky hand.

When we went again on Sunday, we got stuck in traffic trying to leave for two hours, but that's another story.

All in all it was a pretty good Merdeka.

Did it succeed in making me patriotic? Well... yeah, kinda. A lot of people think being patriotic's kinda like making a commitment to the country, and they don't wanna do that when the country in question is less than perfect.

Well I've got news for you, my friends. So is everything else.

I'm not going to tell you that this is about as good as it gets, cause I seriously doubt that. But it's still pretty good. Ignore the fact that the government will make sure the bumiputera will screw you over in just about every deal you can imagine business-wise. Disregard for a minute how our entire education system is screaming for change from the top down. Forget everything you know about Malaysian time, Malaysian traffic, manners, efficiency, censorship and all that.

Then step back and take a deep breath. Looks good, doesn't it?

No? Well, I love piracy okay. I love how you can just walk out to the stores and pick up a new movie for five bucks. Slightly more these days, but that's just inflation for you. Or how you can drive down to Petaling Street and get a new rolex or a pair of superstars without having to crack the bank open. This is very important to people like me who never have any money. And the jerseys in that stall outside KL Sentral are almost indistinguishable from the originals.

I also love corruption. I don't think I have to explain this. Here's a bit of wisdom I got from a taxi driver three years ago, when I was fourteen.

Taxi Driver: In this country you can do anything if you have money la. If you have money you can even fuck the King's wife.

And there were five of us in that cab and we were all looking at each other like (o_O) he did not just say that. But it's true. Many of the things we take for granted wouldn't have been possible without bribes!

I love our malls. Who doesn't? We have so many! And I heard from my cousin Joo Lee, that on the eve of the Merdeka celebrations a whole section of 1 Utama blacked out for half an hour. People started stealing things. How awesome is that? Imagine what you could do if you were in a mall plunged into total darkness for thirty whole minutes. If only I'd been there, I'd have a PS3 sitting in my den, three iPods in my pocket, new threads and five different perfumes on all the time.

How does one make a mall black out?

I love our food. I'm sure you love our food. Everyone loves our food.

Even our weather is edible.

Well this has been a great patriotic essay, but I'm starting to feel really guilty about neglecting my homework for so long. So I'm off to do that.

My next post, this blog's 101st, will be some time in coming (I got trials). Doesn't mean you should stop visiting though.

Jun Ian loves Malaysia. And hell, it's about time.

Don't Panic

Jason: I'm sleeping in my parents room, cause my cousin's visiting from Canada and he's sleeping in my room with his girlfriend.
Jun Ian: Your cousin's getting it on in your bed!
Jason: Actually, he brought over another friend too. She's sleeping in the guest room.
Jun Ian: Tell me Jason, do you hear...animals sounds in the middle of the night? Does it sound like your cousin and the two girls are praying loudly in the next room, or maybe agreeing with each other a lot?

True story.

Jason's cousin is a PIMP, a man with the kind of night life every guy burns to have.

In other news, form ones are... making news. Not the good kind of news, but at least they're not making babies like last year's form ones.

Ancient history, that.

On to current issues, then. First up, Mrs Matthew's lawsuit.

Some of you might have heard that Mrs Matthews slapped a form one boy.

Some of you might have heard that the boy's parents are trying to sue her for it.

Your information is half correct.

Mrs Matthews definitely slapped Brian Thomas Silva for... well, details are vague but we believe he screamed out loud that he 'fucking hates Matthews' and was overheard and hauled to the office.

Not very clever of him, is it? While we might all feel the way he did from time to time, the difference is that we keep those feelings of resentment buried deep inside us, venting them in the company of friends or all over the internet in our blogs.

I think... I sound like a fag.

The point is, even if they had sued, chances are they wouldn't have had a leg to stand on. I certainly don't like our dear principal - I think she's an old-fashioned tart who takes forever to say nothing - but she was definitely within her rights to slap him that day.

I asked Pardeep (who apparently knows this degenerate) to find out if they were really suing her, and if they were, on what terms. Turns out they aren't.

Bummer. Even if they lost, it still would have been interesting.

Myth dispelled!

Exhibit B is Nicholas Gerard Kang.

They all have such interesting names. When I saw the Gerard I was like OMG thats like two famous guys (Gerard Butler and Steven Gerrard) but it turns out he's nothing like them.

Can't even toss a spear or kick a ball.

Looks like he has other talents, though.

Nicholas: Hey Sanjay, you wanna buy some porn?
Sanjay: What? Uh, no thanks.
Nicholas: How about a vibrator then? 75% off!

I don't even want to know where he would get his hands on such a thing. But Sanjay says he thinks the kid's not joking about the porn... I'm not sure if that's disturbing or what.

Last but not least, the WESLEY GOES GREENALL campaign is doing well.

If I did this for Sanjay last year, the theme would probably be BLACK IS BACK or something.

Today, I made a bunch of flags, and we waved them in the hall, while the Chinese guy was going on about what an idiot Zakaria was.

Now the rest of this post is going to be about National Service.

Again.

Shocking to see so many cots laid out at the admin building, two lines strung across and IV drips hanging from them. People lying bundled up in the green blankets, feet propped up on the cushions from the pink sofa set. They were - well - lying down and pretty much motionless. Some couldn't even move and had to be propped up and hand-fed. Many were out cold and wouldn't wake up.

The administration is trying to keep the whole thing hush-hush by reminding us of the "no talking to outsiders or members of the press about what's going on" rule, and also disconnecting the phones.

- operating instructions

That was an extract from the blog of an NS Trainee in the first intake. Doesn't reflect too well on the integrity of the camp administration, does it?

Well, don't let that scare you too badly, especially if you've actually been selected for the program... there are far worse stories to be found. However, the extent to which you allow these stories to affect your decision to defer or to go is completely up to you.

Well, the information on all these sites haven't been updated since 2004 and doubtless, the camp program has changed, most likely for the better. But if you're interested to find out about how to survive life as a trainee - or avoid it - you could do worse than to give the following sites a try.

operating instructions - The owner of this blog (known only as Kim) was a trainee in the first intake of National Service way back in 2004. Despite only having internet access in the third month of training, she managed to write almost daily entries that reveal much about the program, the camps and the instructors.

Although the experience described in these pages can best be described as 'hellish', reading through it is far from that, extensive though her accounts are. Take this story for example:

Other stories from Vera - some girls were caught fighting the other day. It started with just two people, who both happened to be, respectively, a karate black belt and a taekwondo black belt. "The sparring was very cantik one," said Vera. The room was turned upside down, water sprayed all over (from water bottles), chairs upturned, clothes thrown all over.

The fight soon expanded to seven against one, and the one girl somehow hid in the ceiling rafters above her room. The seven searched for her, and when they left, she quickly scurried down, ran down two flights of stairs, got spotted by the seven, and jumped from the first floor to the ground. Ran to the faci's room, tailed by the seven. And all eight got caught.

- operating instructions

Reads almost like the script of an action movie, doesn't it? I mean, I really like what she's written. Noble efforts indeed. Working tirelessly to bring the next generation an insider's account of camp... well when I go for NS next year, I'm bringing a notebook.

You know, to write blogs in.

PanGlobal Insurance - If you find it ominous that I'm linking you to the website of an insurance company in preparation for National Service, you'd be half right. Nothing I've said so far concerns deferment or exemption, does it? Well this website will explain how to do just that... it even has the deferment form ready for you, as well as some outdated information about campsites and stuff.

I'm not going to include any excerpts from this web, you can go and read it yourself if you want to.

Dinyahloreng - I have no idea what the name means, but this is a really useful page about what to bring, what to expect (yeah, just see above) and stuff. Eugene found me this site.

Here's an item aptly named How To Survive The Evil Jungle Forces.

Your trainers will teach you this, but it’s interesting enough to tell you in advance. When in the jungle at night, you SHOULD NOT call people by their name. Aiyah, you want to know why, go and ask your trainer yourself. Anyway, so you are lined up in single file and given numbers … like the person at the front, usually the leader is called D1 for example and the last person is D22. At points, you will stop and have a roll call to check if everyone is there, from D1 to D22. Just don’t be smart and call out an extra D23... You don’t want to cause panic in the middle of the jungle at night, trust me hysterical people are NOT a pretty sight.

- Diyahloreng

There's also this one crazy story about true love in NS, which I will not post here because I find it completely retarded, but you can go check it out.

And finally... one of the most disturbing things I've heard about National Service so far.

On Monday night, by the way, one of the things the soldiers yelled at us was the fact that 12 girls in Kolej D are pregnant, di manakah kehormatan kamu semua?! Hah? Kamu tak malu ke?

I was shocked to hear this, but Vera next to me simply raised her eyebrows and remarked, "You mean you don't know?"

I knew one girl was pregnant, but I didn't know about the other 11.

"So some people here are parents - together?" I spluttered. Vera confirmed this with a nod of her head. I felt like someone had just hit me on the head with a volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

- operating instructions

That's all for now.

Tomorrow I'm going to run off to the Dataran Merdeka at the crack of dawn, so... stay tuned for that.

The Sweet Escape

This took me about six hours from start to finish. Including pencils, inks, some reworking of the lines, colors and gloss.

Click to see a higher quality picture. Seriously, trust me on this and click it.

Here it is again with lights, since I can't decide which version I like best. Same as before, the bigger picture is way better so... click it.

That's out of the way.

And now, here's the post!

Dear Gwen Stefani,

I love you. Love you love you love you love you love you.

Yeah...

I've never gone crazy over celebrities. To me they've always been so far away they were practically in a different world.

And it's always struck me as odd how some people could invest so much energy into getting all worked up over things that were never going to affect their lives.

Today I touched Gwen Stefani.

Despite all the objections about her interacting with the crowd, and all the restrictions they forced on us to make sure we couldn't get too close, I managed to suspend myself between a bit of railing and someone else's seat to reach out and touch her arm, and then the top of her head. The girl next to me looked scandalized and was like, "Don't touch her!"

I resisted the urge to just vault over the railing. Even if I had made a dash for it and found myself face to face with Gwen Stefani, I would have had no idea what to say or do. Get down on one knee and ask her to prom?

Don't give me that look.

Anyway, I'm a fan now. Never been a fan of anyone before, and never thought the first would be Gwen Stefani, but there you are.

Thanks Brian for the tickets, he says my luck is just unbelievable.

First he found free tickets in his father's files, and I got to go with him... the first concert I've ever been to. For real. Then we found out the seats were kinda far from the stage, and we wanted to sneak off and find somewhere closer. In the end we didn't, and thank God for that, cause Gwen Stefani ended up performing right in front of where we were standing. And to top it off... yeah, I was the lucky one. Brian couldn't reach her, and the girls who got the seats up front, nearer to the stage, never came close.

Thanks to the usher guarding the stairs to the lower seats, for that classic moment.

Jun Ian: Hey, can we go in and use the bathroom?
Usher: Which one?
Jun Ian: I dunno... the male one?
Brian: What the FUCK?

Last but not least (no DUH) thanks to Gwen Stefani. Rock!

In Matters Of Interest

Dexter: Why are no two male sperm ducts the same?
Jun Ian: Why?
Dexter: Because of the vas deferens.

When I tried to pull this one on Azfar, he just screamed "VAS DEFERENS!" and then started griping loudly about how three people had already told him that joke. Then he wondered if he was responsible for the rising number of awful jokes floating around lately.

I wonder.

Azfar: What do you call it when I put my hands together like this?
Peako: What?
Azfar: Diameter! See? Radius and... radius!

If you don't know anything about Biology you probably wouldn't have gotten the last two, so to speak. However, appreciation of the following transcripts requires no such... specialization.

Jason: Are you tripping... tripping on pins?
Azfar: No, cause I got thumbtacks.

Crutches, Azfar. Crutches.

Azfar: What do you call waves in the black sea?
Jun Ian: Does this have something to do with Ribena?
Azfar: Black current!

He's made it into a sort of vendetta. Whenever Azfar opens his mouth these days, people just run.

Azfar: What do you call a Transformer's quest?
Jun Ian: If you say transmission I will end you.

But I got him back... sort of.

Jun Ian: What do Nathan and a boy wizard have in common?
Azfar: What?
Jun Ian: They're both Harry.

On a happier note, MTV's long search for its next rock star is now over. After Guan Xiong's live performance in Valencia a couple of weeks back, lesser artists everywhere are laying down their instruments to weep.

I'm proud to say I was there... though I was out of the room at the time and didn't witness the event firsthand.

Click to watch.

We predict runaway success.

Mdm Moses: So where are you all having your prom this year?

The class exchanges furtive looks.

Lisha: Er.... nowhere, madam.
Lih Fern: We're not having... a prom.
Jun Ian: What's a prom?

You know, that prom.

Oops.

I think we're not allowed to have prom. Like it's illegal or something. Well, no surprise there. The school doesn't encourage socialization anyway.

Mrs Matthews: Students in the lower secondary should not have upper secondary friends.

She really did say that... really.

Now I'm going to share a little bit about my mass communications talk last Career's Day. I've been meaning to do so for about a week, but the National Service mess took precedence.

Our speaker, Alfred, showed up about half an hour late, with a backpack, glasses and a ponytail. He was sweating.

Jun Ian: Guy looks like he ran here!
Daniel: No, he looks like he rock climbed here!

Lessons in Mass Communications #1

If you're an actor, success obviously is measured by how famous you become, but *COUGH*that*COUGH*is never*COUGH*going to*COUGH*happen*COUGH*in this country*COUGH*

Lessons in Mass Communications #2

My PC Gamer editor has the best job in the world. He plays World of Warcraft.
No, scratch that. My T3 editor has the best job in the world. See, it's a lifestyle magazine, so he gets to call up all these companies like BMW and Mercedes and ask for cars, and he calls modeling agencies for women to take pictures with the cars... I hate him.

Lessons in Mass Communications #3

So we having this exam, right. And at the beginning the examiner says to us, "Okay, you need to do whatever it takes to pass this exam. Now I'm going to go out for a while."
And we're just sitting there clueless, and we continue to do our exam like normal.
After some time he comes back in and says, "No look, I don't think I made myself clear enough. You need to do. Whatever. It. Takes. To pass this exam. Now I'm going to step out again."
This time, as soon as he's out of the room we all whip out our books and start copying like crazy.
Then suddenly, the door opens and this tutor walks in. Everyone freezes as we stare at him and he stares at us. Then he goes very slowly, "I'm not your invigilator..." and just turns around and walks back out.

He was a really interesting guy, funny and an engaging speaker. But his talk didn't do much to get us interested in mass communications. He painted a very realistic picture of the local industry - it sucks - and he never tried to hide that from us.

I guess overseas it is.

National Disservice

Number of WMS Drafted: 34 and counting

Introduction

sherylgan: ok, fellow NS-ers
Li-Anne: OMG DAMN SAD LA

No one saw it coming. We all knew, well, that the possibility was clear and present, yet we somehow believed that National Service could only happen to 'someone else'. Which is true. Unfortunately, as Liwen puts it, to other people you're 'someone else'.

In other news, local emigration rates hit an all time high.

And what about myself?

*help christine: u kena... omg!!
*help christine: check the site

That was the beginning.

Checking

*unicef Demon Bound: where DO you check anyway
[DisEnchanted]: on the NS official site
*unicef Demon Bound: yeah the site runs like a carcass

The site is http://www.khidmatnegara.gov.my/ but don't count on getting in.

[5corch]: i cant get in the site
[5corch]: freaking ppl stop checking
[5corch]: i bet ppl when they get chosen they are so horrified that they forget to log off the site and start screaming for help

There's a good chance you'll just turn up one of these.

*unicef Demon Bound: ...the khidmat negara site refuses to let me check my name
Screw Khidmat Negara: they didnt let u check coz UVE BEEN A NAUGHTY BOY dex

There exist several theories to explain the site's sorry state.

junian - national disservice: its jammed up everywhere
-?ui?q?s-: uagrgahghahghghghg
-?ui?q?s-: just because i went for tuition
junian - national disservice: you jammed the internet by going tuition?
-?ui?q?s-: the internet wasn't jammed before my tuition

Seems unlikely? Well, here's another one.

G u a n x i o n g : no
G u a n x i o n g : no
G u a n x i o n g : YES
G u a n x i o n g : DIDNT KENA
G u a n x i o n g : deng
G u a n x i o n g : suat cheat me
G u a n x i o n g : still dont know kena a not
G u a n x i o n g : cause the connection timed out
G u a n x i o n g : fuck!
junian - national disservice: ah yeah
junian - national disservice: mine also timed out
junian - national disservice: you try yours
G u a n x i o n g : mine also la
G u a n x i o n g : maybe too many ppl ady the page sot kau

But we're guessing it's the third.

*unicef Demon Bound: It times out
*unicef Demon Bound: Well now I'm DEFINITELY sure it's a site run by our government

Do we love it? Huh? I think we nailed it.

The List

junian - national disservice: LIWEN GOING MAN
boonguan: LMAO ROFL

I should probably find something more interesting conversation starters, but this is (sadly) about as good as it gets sometimes.

junian - national disservice: the best one liwen
lih fern: i didnt get it!
lih fern: ahhahaha
lih fern: OHHHH
lih fern: pooor li wen

There is no why, okay? It just is.

junian - national disservice: LIWEN!
sherene: OMG!
sherene: hahahahahahhahahahha!
sherene: SERIOUSLY?!

How did they manage to draft all the most unlikely people?

junian - national disservice: waikhuin!
junian - national disservice: nooo
junian - national disservice: its like... watching the news for casualties
peako - seditious!: omg
peako - seditious!: we have to set up a candlelight vigil

I guess it would be good for them. Wai Khuin and Li Wen gonna come home looking like this.

That's what 90 days of intensive does to you. Or is it enough?

This is the list. Eighteen in all... so far. Help me keep it updated.

1. andrew
2. angeline
3. brianyeoh
   
4. clarissa
5. chunshuin
   
6. denise
   
7. edward
   
8. eliot
9. hsini
10. jeckbeng
11. jenming
    
12. jiahui
13. junian
14. leongwai
    
15. lianne
16. liwen
17. mayling
18. meichyi
19. michelletan
20. michelleyong
    
21. pardeep
22. pikyeng
23. phinwern
    
24. sarah
25. sheryl
26. thengee
27. tzekang
    
28. waikhuin
29. weelik
    
30. wenjuin
31. wilkin
32. yinghwee
33. yiwen
34. yuanling

More girls than guys though.

Well that's not too bad right?

People are treating it like it's a list of casualties or something though.

Chronicles: wat?
Chronicles: THEY KENA
Chronicles: thts sad

They took Jimmy? I can't believe it... I only just saw him last week!

marc: and daniel
junian - national disservice: daniel didnt
marc: he did la
junian - national disservice: he did not
junian - national disservice: he's lying

Just for the record... he was lying.

●Ĵŏjő● в ř ό ĸ έ й ●: WAT THE HELLL???
●Ĵŏjő● в ř ό ĸ έ й ●: DONT GO JUN IAN!!!!!!
junian - national disservice: do you know anyone who went for it?
●Ĵŏjő● в ř ό ĸ έ й ●: my cous did
junian - national disservice: did he say anything about it?
●Ĵŏjő● в ř ό ĸ έ й ●: she
●Ĵŏjő● в ř ό ĸ έ й ●: she and my aunty were spending the whole day crying

The state of the internet at 2130 last night.

Reactions

*^Yi^* 9 999 939: ask them go die
*^Yi^* 9 999 939: ask abdullah go NS himself

A rush of patriotism to the head.

junian - national disservice: lianne you got NS?
Li-Anne: BUGGER RIGHT
junian - national disservice: join the party

Well, the local forecast shows gloomy moods, with a high chance of panic. Small outbreaks of relief are also expected.

Screw Khidmat Negara: all peeps high 5!!
junian - national disservice: oh i see
Screw Khidmat Negara: owh
Screw Khidmat Negara: jun ian oops

Meteorologists admit the coming storm maybe be bigger than originally anticipated.

junian - national disservice: not that many ppl i know are going
nasyekim: rly?
nasyekim: its like the whole bloody kampung is going here

Apparently, getting drafted causes a lot of sympathy. It's almost like I said my canary died.

libby: did you get?
junian - national disservice: yeah
libby: oh.. sorry

Most people tend to take National Service... well... badly.

* pik: fuck fuck fuck fuck

However, this is not strictly true, as we shall now see.

The Other Camp

The reaction to National Service isn't negative across the board though. Some people want to go. I guess you could see it as a sort of three month OBS or something.

It's like Outward Bound on steroids!

If you're really really optimistic.

?a?·u?i ?? ??LOVE: i wanna get in too
?a?·u?i ?? ??LOVE: is it wrong?
-?ui?q?s-: good for you
junian - national disservice: get into NS?
junian - national disservice: you mean people want to get in?
?a?·u?i ?? ??LOVE: =/
?a?·u?i ?? ??LOVE: i do
-?ui?q?s-: apparently so...
?a?·u?i ?? ??LOVE: no one is as lazy as your spotlight hogging ass junian

Well I'm sorry my spotlight hogging ass might want to go to college during that time.

Some Clarity Required

Here's an interesting topic that came up last night.

[DisEnchanted]: i guess the 300 bucks isn't much of a motivation, huh
*unicef Demon Bound: I'd pay THEM 300 to not go
Screw Khidmat Negara: haha
the seething: id double that
Screw Khidmat Negara: u can get 300 bucks 4 stripping a whole night at a club lah
[DisEnchanted]: how the hell would you know?
Screw Khidmat Negara: u dont wanna know
junian - national disservice: wait they pay us to go?
the seething: im going to eat now
[DisEnchanted]: yeah
[DisEnchanted]: you get three hundred bucks
the seething: i hope the food isnt salty... WITH MY TEARS

Can anyone confirm this for me? I haven't been able to find it on any official website, but I've turned up a few blogs mentioning it.

There's no point of this picture being here. I just think it's cool.

Here's another. I initially heard that only one sibling from every family could be chosen. If you get picked, chances are your brothers and sisters wouldn't. Eliot says that's not the case.

Which means little Jamin, Dylan, Shern and Alison could still see the inside of a training camp.

junian - national disservice: i thought it was like the imperial army
junian - national disservice: one man from every family!
the seething: nope
junian - national disservice: i will be like mulan
junian - national disservice: cut my hair short and wear a corset
the seething: leave ur comb on ur fathers bed
the seething: ride out in the middle of the night
the seething: wait till the bus comes after lunch
junian - national disservice: yeah i imagine thats how it would work
the seething: a lot of singing

I want this toy.

The Rebellion

I was thinking about it, and... well, National Service is kinda like school. There are instructors and rules and... well, what keeps us from breaking too many school rules? The threat of expulsion, normally. But I don't see how getting expelled from National Service is a bad thing if you didn't want to go in the first place.

junian - national disservice: whats the worst they can do?
junian - national disservice: i wonder
junian - national disservice: call your parents?
junian - national disservice: solitary confinement?
the seething: sodomy
the seething: brutal, brutal sodomy

Probability

sherylgan: i calculated d probability
Li-Anne: *sheryl no life*

Well, I'm not going into details, but the outcome of Sheryl's calculations was that 25 people from our form would be chosen, or one out of every seven people.

Li-Anne: PROBABILITY SO WRONG
sherylgan: YES
sherylgan: last year
sherylgan: damn accurate lor

At this rate, it looks like Sheryl's going to be proven right by the end of the weekend.

The Remedy

junian - national disservice: apply for ns
junian - national disservice: omg who does that
yihui: mr low
yihui: so sad for u
yihui: think about the good side, u may meet a really hot chick there!
yihui: i always think like that if i am goin for a borin trip
yihui: and i always meet one or two

That could work, but I really like Daniel's way better.

junian - national disservice: why dont i have to go?
Screw Khidmat Negara: u can defer so when ure older u can buy ur way out.......thank you corruption!!

Boom!

Sequel

[AmonDeis]: is there a second batch or something?
junian - national disservice: thats... a good question
[AmonDeis]: i'll have to live in fear for another 3-4 months