okay so schools gonna start in under 3 weeks, and this was 2½ years in the making waiting. been clearing just about all my off and leave to attend school-related stuff. smu likes to mark lots of talks/workshops as compulsory on weekdays, conveniently disregarding the plight of miserable nsfs. so recently i've been out of camp more, and finally making some use of that stay-out privilege that has been a white elephant so far.

i'll be completing my compulsory 80 hours of community service tomorrow, with starringSMU's finale. done with cleaning 1-room hdb flats for the elderly, painting a children's home, washing cars to raise funds, and assessing wheelchair accessibility for the physically challenged. well, for now anyway.

i also just survived freshmen teambuilding camp, which was pretty fun. but then again, fun is a perspective (: the core activities of the camp were quite frustrating, but human nature induces intrinsic joy from getting over and done with the phase. at the end, it was super energetic and everyone was damn hyper somehow, without any alcoholic influence. umzz umzz techna techna good job domo-ians!

not so fun though, was being annoyed at myself the whole freaking 3 days for dropping my phone in the bus on my way to school. what a relief that i decided not to bring my new toy to camp. i'm a very pocket person, so i don't like putting my wallet/phone etc anywhere else. and shit happens when you have to wear shorts for camp, still stick to your habits, and wake up in a daze from your morning nap on the bus realising you reached your stop.

but seriously, sbs has a shitty lost and found system. firstly, they don't work weekends; so i lost my phone sunday morning, and it was pretty much my own concern. second, their voicemail is there for the sake of being there. no, nobody's gonna call you back if you leave a message. third, the dude who eventually picked up my call today (two bloody days later) simply told me to call the interchanges myself. so why do they employ some bugger to sit there and answer calls 9 to 5 when they can post an FAQ online and list the interchange numbers? well, end of the day, nobody returned my phone. how surprising. that loser who took my phone will have karma so negative it'll burn. anyways, turning my m600i off rendered it useless with the sim and phone locks. so yeah. need to find another non-camera phone

on the other hand, singtel made me a tad bit happier by replacing my sim card for free and helping me activate it instantly. plus since my contacts are synced from outlook into phone memory, i didn't really lose much. singtelshop gives my m600i a $10 trade-in value. oh well, till next time..

july has started, and along with it the avalanche of admin stuff to settle. the bulk, if not all of my remaining leave and off days (plus weekends) are burnt on school-related matters. so thats more or less not much personal time for myself. the issue of whos paying my tuition fees is still being debated, but i feel it isn't going the direction i planned. my stay-out privilege starts next week, but its not like i'll shuttle between kembangan and khatib before dawn everyday.

apparently after all the crazy effort i put into clearing all of my nsf obligations, they still won't leave me alone; denying my leave for silly reasons only a regular can comprehend. mindef has already made the first mistake of placing my enlistment in sept, then it went on to enforce a ridiculous disruption policy of 7 days prior to course commencement, and now its denying me the fundamental freedom of forsaking personal entitlement to further my academic progression. to aggravate things, systems created to protect people who did their job can simply be overwritten at whim just to satisfy the selfish desires of the power-hungry.

and they call this a third generation force. front page news indeed.