Hell of A Holiday

At the end of the A levels, I came up with a to-do list of activities, tasks and objectives that have to be met by the time I enlist. Just like Jim Carey in 'Yes Man', that list made me say yes to everything. And true to that film, it brought me to places and experiences that I would never have otherwise achieved. Say it once, say it twice, say it a million times more! Yes! Yes! Yes! It's quite an irony for the actor of Jigsaw in the Saw series to be playing a life coach in Yes Man, but the essence of the message is true. If you grab every opportunity that arises, you won't miss out on much.

Some people say that I'm living my last days as a civilian as if they truly are my last. I couldn't help but agree, seeing how my daily schedule quickly turns into a paradox as I try to cram in things. But I'm a man with a list to finish and not much time to do it. Some say I shouldn't rush everything, but why delay? Plan like you live forever, but live like there's no tomorrow, as a cancer patient once told me. Besides, it won't be long before I'm officially reaching adulthood and youth doesn't last forever.

When you set out with an objective to fill up every inch of your time, you'll realise that you don't really have to do all the planning. It would settle itself. For Christmas eve, I was more than set to spend it hibernating until Christmas morning since I was exhausted. Instead I woke up to a ringing phone with an invitation out on the line and six other text messages with similar invitations. There goes my hibernation plans.

I always thought that the closer it is to enlistment day, the slower time would seem to me, as what I experienced before. But this time it was really different. Time seems distorted in a way that it picks up momentum and speeds up, just that I'm having enhanced reflexes to pick up all the sensations along the way. It's a fantastically exhilarating experience to wake up in the morning to wake up to a text invitation in the morning, have brunch in town before you know it, off in the middle off the sea at midday, and end up having dinner across the straits at night.

All play and no work makes Jack a tired boy. A very tired one. While doing one fun stuff after another is a thrilling idea, actually doing them all consecutively is highly exhausting, as I've discovered. There were weeks when I would have less than ten hours of sleep for the entire week due to back to back chalets and midnight taunts. It came to a point when I was positively beaten senseless, but thinking back to stories from my diver friends of their 'hell week', I found it rather easy to brush them off aside.

With all that time and a dying pool of ideas, you start to look at every little creek of Singapore to squeeze whatever adventures and thrills it can offer. If you look carefully enough, you'd be amazed at what 'lil ol Singapore has to offer. There are still long stretches of greenery to cycle and trek at. And being an island city, there are numerous water sports like canoeing, wake boarding, sailing and parasurfing (I'm not sure what it's called, it's where you ride on a 'surf board' while being pulled by a parachute). This tropical metropolis even offer ice-skating and ice hockey for those who don't mind a chill. For group activities, there are a handful of boardgame cafes, karaoke lounges and LAN gaming centres to entertain the masses. See, outings don't have to be just about eating, even though that really is a Singaporean culture.

Some people get a little creeped out by this over-extrovertedness, as if I'm living the last day of my life. Well, it does seem like what a cancer patient would do. I guess if I were to die now, I'll die happy. But my personal motive was simply to connect back with the people that I have missed out on. Having a whole new school of friends, the exams to focus on, and now national service to face, I couldn't help but block out some people. However, it is not characteristic of me to disregard people, since I value friendship more than anything else in the world. There has to be some point in time where I get to experience everybody, without missing out on any one of them. So I dug out whatever time I could spare and gave a bit to everyone. Call it bringing my college life to full circle, I still relish the memories that has been created with everyone that I call friend.

And that, my friend, is how you end up with a holiday not wasted. The world holds an infinite list of things to do for everyone. Why not incorporate that into your own personal to-do list during your next holiday. 

They say your life flashes past your eyes before you die. They're right.

It's called living.

Back to Basics

Negeri Sembilan Homestay Program

When I signed up for the Negeri Sembilan homestay programme, I honestly did not know what I was in for or why I even wanted to go for it. Perhaps it was this allure to the old kampong life that still lives in my blood. One reason or another, I went for the programme regardless.

Being the type of person highly critical of Malays, my criticism started right from the start at the Tanjong Pagar train station. Actually, I had some company in complaining about the eyesore that the train station was in the middle of Singapore. That continued throughout the entire train journey until, of course, when we made our first purchase. The first purchase was obviously food, but it wasn’t just any food, it was Starbucks coffee and Dunkin Donuts! In bigger quantities and cheaper prices! I mean, my venti was like a tumbler! Yes! Malaysia is nice for something!

The only attraction seemed to only be the trekking on the second day. However, when I first settled into my adoptive house, I discovered more than what meets the eye. Take for example, my adoptive grandfather. With an hour to spare before reporting time, I braced myself to stone in the living room staring right through each other. But instead he talked with great hospitality, like any old geezer, and his story spoke plenty, about his children, grandchildren and his life back then in the British military serving in Singapore along with the types of people and experiences he encountered.

Hearing his story and advices here and there made me think about, well what else, the Malay people and their culture. The Malays have not always been the delinquent and underachieving people as what they are being regarded as in Singapore now. What we see today can be called degradation from what the Malays used to be back during the kampong days. There was once a time when they were respected people because of their high regard for values and courtesy. Above all else, their manner of speech were carefully spoken, bringing rise to the complex set of idioms that we know that was once used to soften any harsh comments. Perhaps that is also why for culture and identity.
The way they do things always consider others and family was of utmost importance. There was also a great sense of community and togetherness as there was a strong neighbouring spirit and community activities as part of their daily lives. These are the qualities that I hope the Malays will come to rediscover from within themselves.

Night was bustling with activities, starting off with a religious talk at the surau and cultural performance hands-on at the community hall. The highlight, however, was the last activity for the night; the night walk. Initially, I thought it would be like the cheap thrill that we had at the swim camp, but it turned out to be nothing of that sort. There was actually a trail for us to walk. But the thing is, we had to each do it alone. And it was beside the local cemetery. Yup, totally cool. That got most of the girls worked up, and some guys. I was secretly hoping that I would really see something, because you know, I can’t because of how I am. I didn’t even get much of an adrenaline kick out of it since I realised I have amazing night vision. Too bad I’m short sighted.

It was a trail of around 800 metres long along a winding path that was only guided by some people and white strings. You have to walk most of the path without any guide or company and the village kids who were stationed along the path will try to scare you from behind the trees or wherever. Regardless, the night walk did manage to achieve its objective, which was to raise self-confidence and faith. Some proved that by getting over their fright quickly after getting spooked and some laughed back at the village kids. Once again I proved my inhumanity as I simply raised my eyebrows whenever anything popped out. Seriously, I’m having issues with feeling the human excitement of fright. The dark doesn’t seem to scare me one bit but I have the weirdest phobias.

An important aspect of kampong life, or anywhere else for that matter, is meal times. Normally, I would not even choose to eat Malay food outside the house or even compliment it, but this calls for an exception. The Malay kampong food served was exceptionally delicious, probably due to the very fresh ingredients used. Also, during meals, as guests we were treated by the proper form of entertainment; conversation, something which I think should still be retained instead of the television. Our adoptive grandfather spoke plenty about education, courtesy, kampong life and also his life, obviously the chatty type.

At the end of the road, I guess the entire stay there has been quite fruitful. Existing friendships were tightened and new ones were made, even in the most rural parts of Malaysia that I would never have thought possible. We realise that however different we were from the villagers there, some things about us Malays will never change, like our natural bond and acceptance among each other. In the eyes of some, these villagers have nothing of value to offer. But we found out otherwise.

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The author Seraph is a not so average college guy kicking about in the pool, slugging on the computer and runs odd errands in the name of culture in school, and simultaneously saves the world and his personal life and writes about himself in the third person outside. At heart, he is a youth rights activist, an anti-feminist and an extremist ideologist. His essence runs Legal Grounds.

A Divine Alliance

Islamic Civilization Tour - Kuala Lumpur

Set against the backdrop of the world’s biggest mosque dome, a most unlikely alliance has been forged. Norms were broken as long held believes were shattered by the joining of the two sides. Even with the different beliefs of between the Methodists and the Anglicans, there is now living proof that it is possible to stand united for a common goal. That was the start of the Saints-ACSian alliance.
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In actual fact, they were all Muslims, thus the reason for them to be standing in front of Malaysia’s biggest mosque. The event was the Islamic Civilization Tour, the venue was Kuala Lumpur. There, the Perbayu of the Saints and ACSian clashed at our first meal. At first, the ACSians thought that we would be spending the trip among ourselves but it turned out anything but that. After the groundbreaking first conversation bitching about a fellow ACSian, we instantly clicked and well, formed a clique. The Saints, or Wali-wali Andrews, met with the ACSians, or budak-budak ACtion, to form the Wali-wali ACtion alliance. Then the rest was as they say, history.

Wali-wali ACtion – Breaking Societal Norms

This KL trip turned out to mean more to all of us than we ever anticipated. At the beginning, we expected making a few friends at most. In the end, it was a deep friendship and an alliance bridging both our Malay communities. I cannot really say that the road to our bond was long and hard though. It wasn’t long enough, as we found the three days too short, and it wasn’t hard, as we found it thoroughly enjoyable. Kept awake and high all night thanks to Tongkat Ali, Cik Fatimah, and an overflowing supply of soda and Halal Breadtalk, we initiated ‘diplomatic negotiations’ regarding virtually everyone we knew.

Through our talks, we found plenty in common, like our hatred towards a common enemy of unspeakable laughter who kept breathing down our necks. We also made a revelation that if you were to narrow down the people in Singapore to those in our age groups, Malay and studying in a junior college, we knew virtually everybody one way or another. The phrase ‘it’s a small world’ was an understatement there.

Being with like-minded people in a Muslim Malay country really got us thinking about what it really means to be a Malay in Singapore and what it means for us. As minority groups in our various colleges, we find the need to bond together to retain and uphold our identity. Being among the top elite group of Malays in our country, we realize that it is up to us to bring our race forward and progress towards excellence.

At our post-trip reunion (which was actually two days after the trip), we made had our formal negotiations over an excellent-serviced Pizza Hut, camwhoring at the Esplanade and coffee at McCafe. Talks regarding a joint initiative were under way. With the newfound alliance, we plan to bring together both our Malay communities together through bonding sessions. With future meetings already scheduled, such an ideal could really be made a reality.

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The author Seraph is a not so average college guy kicking about in the pool, slugging on the computer and runs odd errands in the name of culture in school, and simultaneously saves the world and his personal life and writes about himself in the third person outside. At heart, he is a youth rights activist, an anti-feminist and an extremist ideologist. His essence runs Legal Grounds.

Fighting Terrorism

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Fighting Terrorism - Preventing the Radicalization of Muslim Youth In A Secular and Globalized World
20 February 2007
A youth convention by Taman Bacaan

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On Saturday morning, 20 February 2007, 300 students across junior colleges, polytechnics, secondary schools, madrasahs and ITEs were gathered by Taman Bacaan to learn and share their views regarding Muslim youth radicalization post the 9/11 incident.

The youth convention was the first of its kind organised by Taman Bacaan to bring Malay youths specifically together to discuss current affairs that directly pertain to them. For this convention, the hot topic of Muslim youth radicalization was the focus. Professionals from their various areas of expertise were invited to shed light on the topic, along with other political figures to share their experiences.

Highlighting the event for many was the question and answer session before the event was closed, where many thought-provoking and provoking questions were placed before the panel of experts to be answered. This session was kept strictly off the media, to allow for more ‘open’ discussions between the students and the panel of experts.

As coverage for this blog, a summary of the talks by the various experts and highlights from the question and answer session will be discussed and shared below.


Official Opening – The Changing Face of Terrorism

In the opening speech, the overall issue of youth radicalization was addressed; which is the fact that it actually exists and actions need to be taken to counter that ideology. The face of terrorism has changed – terrorist recruits are getting younger and they are also using technology to spread their word. This has called for Singapore to step up to come up with prevention measures to protect what it values most. However, obstacles, such as the increasing income gap and distorted teaching has, hindered such efforts.


The Psychology of Militant Groups

Exclusive to this convention only, the MHA has divulged their findings on the psychology of terrorists to the public. It has been revealed that there is actually a methodology behind the brainwashing done by terrorists, which is done at five levels.

At level one, the victims need to desire good but are offered negative solutions. They are on the constant search for the meaning in their lives. At this innocent ideological state of mind, the terrorist groups present their ideas to them as pure, in religious terms, and do not reveal their eventual agenda just yet.

Cultivation begins at level two, where the thoughts of the victims get reformed. This is done in six steps:
1. Not having the victim aware of their thought reform
2. Controlling the physical and psychological environment of the victim
3. Making the victim feel powerless and dependant on the terrorist group
4. Suppressing the victim’s old ideology and attitudes
5. Instilling new ideology within the victim
6. Creating a closed system of logic within the victim

Level three introduces the victim to the terrorist organisation officially by having them controlled and undergoing an introduction rite, where they are made obligated to obey by a ‘religious pledge’ called the ‘Bai’ah’.

The notion of violence is taught at level four, where the victims are made morally disengaged for the purpose of establishing a utopian world against the enemy that makes violence appropriate.

Last of all, at level five, the victim is allowed to be involved in ‘achieving’ that utopian ideology.


The Threat of Terrorism: Challenges and Responses

This talk proved to be the most engaging among them due to the visual elements presented. In the talk, the speaker addressed the true nature of the threat. They are out to strive for a new agenda, to become global, ideological and operational. The threat now is not based on terrorism, but in fact, extremism. Operations are focused on the basis of 10% effective and 90% engagement. Thus, the government needs to counter their ideology by bridging the community and creating greater awareness.


Understanding the Threat of Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia

To fight an enemy, we must first learn all we can about them. That was the foundation for this talk, which began with the history of JI. Jemaah Islamiyah started off as Darul Islam in Indonesia, by SM Kartosuwiryo. It became JI in 1993, with the introduction of Abu Bakar Baashir. Their organisation structure sections off Southeast Asia into four ‘Mantiqis’, each with a different purpose, with Singapore being in Mantiqi I along with Malaysia, for the purpose of raising leaders.

The Singapore cell was started by Ibrahim Maidin and was crippled when 36 of them were arrested.

Their capabilities are far reaching. They reach out through religious faith, focusing on brotherhood. They were found to be training new operatives between 2000 and 2003 in guerrilla warfare and assassination. All this is done to fulfil their objectives of a utopian ‘Daulah Islamiyah Nusantara’ and imposing Syariah Law, learned by a textual manual called ‘PUJI’, or ‘Pedoman Umum Jemaah Islamiyah’.

As an organisation that focuses on doing the will of religious faith, they focus a lot on military warfare to achieve their means. They present several reasons as to why one might join them; persuasive leaders, misunderstanding, commitment to a righteous love and Bai’ah.


The Roles of Religious Rehabilitation Group in Singapore

Last of all, the last talk presents to us a countermeasure that Singapore deploys against this terrorist ideology. The operations of the RRG are extricated. They work directly with the suspects to replace their negative mentality with positive inputs. One of their aims is to correct the misconceptions of several concepts that terrorists has presented. Their twisted version of Jihad implies a holy war, like a crusade, while its actual meaning is a constant strive for excellence that is asked of every Muslim. The concept of Al-Wala’ Wal Bara’, that differentiates the believers, Ummah, from the non-believers, Takfir, is actually just an indication of uniqueness. Hijrah in actuality is a migration of self, to change for the better.

It has then come into concern to correct the perception of Islam. It is a religion of guidance where moderation is the right path as it is meant to be easy, not to be taken in an extremist perception. Most of all, it encourages peace, love, harmony and friendship.


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DISCLAIMER
Rerences to actual people in this blog is for reference purposes only. Comments, criticisms and coverage found are purely for the purpose of discussion and are not to be taken out of context. Materials are not to be used without the permission of the owner and are protected under the Creative Commons License.
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At the Fight Scene

Recently, there has been quite a buzz at school set off by an article in The New Paper about ACJC. I'll spare you the details and just look at the article to see what it's all about.

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Source article: Newspaper article from “Was it a 'Fight Club'?”, The Electric New Paper
Author: Liew Hanqing And Veena Bharwani
Date of article: 29 September 2006
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STUDENTS IN TROUBLE #1
Cops break up JC fracas

IF you thought fight clubs existed only in movies, think again.
First brought to the fore by Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in their 1999 film Fight Club, the concept of clubs, formed for members to fight for fun, appears to have arrived here.

In May, The New Paper reported two such incidents which were recorded on video by students from two secondary schools.

They were allegedly involved in a 'fight club' - where students fought one another for the camera.

In those cases, the fights happened on the school grounds.

Last Tuesday, yet another face-off took place here.

This time, a group of students from Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) gathered at the carpark of an HDB estate near the College.

The New Paper learnt from students at the college that at least 20 to 30 students were at the carpark to witness the fight.

And, despite the school imposing a gag order on staff and students, a number of students claimed that a 'fight club' exists.

They said that the group consisted mainly of first-year students.

The New Paper found two blogs written by students which also mentioned the fight club.

MANY MEMBERS

One first-year student told The New Paper that he had heard from friends that the club had more than 50 members.

He said: 'Some of them were involved in this fight club probably because they thought it was fun.

'Most first-year students should have heard about the club's existence.'

Another first-year student added that the incident occured at a multi-storey carpark opposite ACJC.

She said that most of the students were there as spectators and did not actually fight.

Although she wasn't present, she had heard from a friend that there were both boys and girls at the scene.

'We heard that the students dispersed quickly when the police arrived,' she said.

When contacted by The New Paper, ACJC principal Kelvyna Chan said that there is no fight club in the college.

'ISOLATED INCIDENT'

She described the face-off at the carpark as 'an isolated incident of mischief', and said that the students involved had been reprimanded and counselled.

The police confirmed that the incident took place on 19 Sep.

A resident contacted them last Tuesday about a fight at the carpark.

A police spokesman said they received the call at about 4.20pm. When officers arrived at the scene, they spotted students 'running into a nearby school'.

The spokesman added that the police had used the carpark's CCTV cameras to help identify the culprits.

The police have been in contact with the school regarding three students involved in the fight.

No weapons were used.

- Additional reporting by Lim Jun Xue

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,114543,00.html?

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Source article: Newspaper article from “No fight club in college”, The Electric New Paper
Author: NA
Date of article: 29 September 2006
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IN a faxed response to The New Paper, ACJC principal Kelvyna Chan said there is no fight club in the college.

'There was recently a fight in the multi-storey carpark involving three of our students.

'This was an isolated incident of mischief. No one was injured. The students involved have since been reprimanded and counselled. None of them were expelled.'

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,114540,00.html?

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Well, being me, I just couldn't sit still. So guess what? I wrote back to them. Check it out.

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At the Fight Scene
An article by Seraphim

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I refer to your article, 'Was it a fight club?' (29 September 2006, The Electric New Paper). To answer that directly, no it wasn't.

If you thought fight clubs existed only in movies, think again. If you think they exist in ACJC, really think again.

Study break on 28 September took longer than usual, as research reading for the next day's General Paper on The New Paper took all of the attention. Reading up for school turned out to be reading up on school. The article sensationalised the possibility of a ‘fight club’ back in ACJC.

Wow, a new club and it’s not even listed in the yearbook.

As a proud member of the school (like everyone else), I am obliged to set the record straight. The article mentioned that ‘This time, a group of students from Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) gathered at the carpark of an HDB estate near the College.”. So previously it was at the local dojo. That is hardly reason enough to think that there has been similar past incidents. About the 20 to 30 witnesses and a 50 member fight club, those digits are wrong. So far, there hasn’t been any ‘gag order’ notice on the school internet portal either.

I have to stand by the principal’s claim that there is no fight club in the college. It is interesting to ponder why this particular fight became a media focus. If you ask, say, an ITE student, I’m sure they can supply you with a weekly fight to content with. A previous May report already supplied two videos as evidence. A quick search on Youtube revealed 3246 more.

Fear not, this little conundrum has not discombobulated us students. It merely justified our GP teachers’ claims that the media does have engaging stories. Besides, it has become good inspiration. We’ve always wondered what could beat our special edition collegiate t-shirts. Imagine a limited edition ‘Fight Club’ t-shirt at our upcoming 99.90 store. (Oh! Like, that is so cool! And they cost peanuts!) Another good point learnt from the incident is that all of us can truly trust the local police. They have surveillance at carparks that will happen to focus on juvenile fights at high enough quality to distinguish faces. How efficient can they get?

We understand why there is a dire need for sensational scandals. Why else does Singapore need topless dancers, bar top dancing and casinos? Besides, we know that it might take time for the truth to be realised. Even the Ministry of Education needs time to figure things out. Jack Neo, ‘who spoke against the EM3 system in his hit movie I Not Stupid in 2002’, ‘took six years’ for the MOE ‘to figure it out’.

Quoting from my principal, ‘no one was injured’, so all is good. Even if the fight club were real, it won’t be us who should be worrying.


The writer is a first year student at Anglo-Chinese Junior College. This aggravated person has indeed not heard of the existence of such a club, reads satires for light bedtime reading and was not distracted from revision by any misleading articles.

A Race... Just for dignity

Alright, so last weekend, on Sunday 2 July 2006, I went to the OSIM SIngapore Triathlon 2006 as part of the Olympic Distance Triathlon relay open category, doing the obvious event - swimming. We actually participated just for fun, thus the title, which I will explain in a while. But in the end, at the event itself, we took it more seriously than planned, and ended up in a pretty good position.

For a brief introduction, the olympic distance triathlon relay is a race where there are three legs to the race - 1.5km of swimming, 40km of cycling and 10km of running - each done by a different person. I was down for swimming, senior Frank for cycling and fellow Pre-U Sem presenter Gerald for running.

Ah, back to the title. We arrived at the event pretty early, so we walked around at a leisurely pace. When we just got to the starting line (that's where the swimming part starts), we heard the following announcement: "Swimmers ready? GO!". So you do realise that at this point, there was a crowd of 56 other swimmers who just started the race, and we were just staring at them. Our faces clearly spelt "WTF". Man, I never undressed so fast in my life. And when I first touched water, my PINK swimming cap wouldn't come on properly. So there you have it guys, a race to fight for our dignity, to save ourselves from being last and to save some face for ME who was wearing a PINK swimming cap.

The organisers have no fashion sense.

So, a little commentary on my part of the race. Actually, I wasn't really the last person to start. There was someone else, and he made a futile effort to not remain that way by tugging on me to propel himself forward. Too bad it didn't work, cause he got a backward propulsion from my kick smack on his face. Yeah, mass swimming is really dirty, there's more kicking and pulling later on in the race.

The first sensation that was exhumed to me was the shock of realising that the water was pushing back! I mean, OMG! The water moves!!! That never happens during training at the swimming pool! Oh, and it was moving AGAINST me! In big waves! Yeah, it didn't really occur to me that swimming in open water would be so much different than the swimming pool. There were resisting forces, unpredictable waves, totally obscured seafloor, choking and blinding salty seawater and absolute blindness at navigation.

When you swim 300 metres offshore, its a bit hard to navigate as the horizon and shore looks curved. Navigating according to the parallel waves was quite hopeless, as the waves change directions according to the passing ships, so I found myself lead astray quite a few times.

Not to mention the seawater. Half an hour of endless swimming in the sea makes really burns your throat. Thirst was the only feeling. And extreme irritation. And of course exhaustion. Half my efforts were spent on surfacing, since the water level wasn't constant.

While I was swimming, I wondered why nobody swam past me. It didn't occur to me till later, that how could there be anyone passing me when I was last in line! HAHA. Laugh with me guys. So I could only overtake, not get overtaken.

All in all, it was quite a refreshening experience, as I did pick up some tips on swimming in open water. Like play violent when violence is used on you. And it was really cool coinciding my strokes with the swash, to give it an extra propulsion.

My other teammates had their own little adventures too. The cyclists almost rammed into the barrier threee times. One of which was cause by me and the runner, who shocked him with our sudden loud cheer at a sharp corner. Hey, it wasn't our fault. It was the shadiest and coolest corner around. He lost all feelings in his family jewels after all that. And the runner was a media magnet as he ran a full 10km at high speed with a JESTER HAT on. Yeah, we really joined this thing as a joke at first. For real. He got the joke of the day. "Hey, that joker can run!"

But in the end, we got quite decent results, despite the fact that none of us did any real training for it.

Bib - R297
Name MOHAMMED FARHAN BIN RAS, CHIN ZHAN SHENG, GERALD SOO ENG SIANG
Nationality - Singapore
Swim - 00:36:18
BikeCP1 - 4
BikeCP2 - 4
Bike - 01:18:07
RunCP1 - 2
RunCP2 - 2
Run - 00:42:17
Total - 02:36:41
Rank - 16

Yes, you read it right. After starting last, trying to hide a pink cap, gone on kamikazi crashes, ran like a crown, we still topped 41 other people to get ourselves the 16th placing. I calculated from the timings that I overtaken 28 others in the swimming round, and the runner owned 40 in his leg of the race (there were runners from other categories too, and I'm too lazy to calculate how many the cyclist owned). So like they say in dota, OWN-AGE!

00:36:18. Definitely not my personal best. How can it when I had to brave the shock of moving water, trying not to suffocate on seawater and propelling upwards instead of forward? 1.2mins per lap (over 30). Terrible time. But it's quite ok, considering it's my first open water experience.

Ok ok, I know you want this:



The colours are a bit off, since I had to digitally edit off the website link from the picture. If you want to find more, go hunt me down at http://www.sportsphotox.com. But please don't, cause this is the best picture and it's ugly. I look fat in the pictures after getting bloated up on seawater.

In the end, all of us are hooked onto the adrenaline rush of a triathlon and ended up with the promise of a more dignified return in next year's race. Too bad for Frank and his NS, we gotta find ourselves a new cyclist. Next year, we're really gonna train for it, and looking at the bunch of old people in that category, it'll be another TOTAL OWNAGE next year.

So go TEAM ACJC!!!