3.09.2003

 

for once im kinda proud that i idled a day away, particularly since i was in camp whiling time away cos i had to understudy the DO for the umpteenth time. (hm im exaggerating a bit.. but you catch my drift). i really do mean idled, since i spent the morning catching up on sleep - more on that later - and the rest of the day watching tv and a vcd of taxi. thankfully yesterday just happened to be the kind of day that just makes you want to curl up between the sheets or hide in some corner with a warm drink and just read, cos it was overcast the whole day and raining the other 60% of the time. and there actually was a cooling breeze blowing thru the room - i distinctly being uncomfortably hot on thu nite cos the air was just so still. for the record, my current bed is next to the window facing the parade square, and we have these nice blue curtains which are just thick enough to block the light from outside (and give *me* a little privacy since im right next to a relatively high-traffic corridor) yet light enough to billow whenever theres a gentle breeze blowing. and i absolutely adore having to bend a little to get out of bed, past the curtains filling up like sails fluttering on what we'd assume to be a normal day at sea. ah, the little pleasures of life.

anyway it transpired that on thu night i found myself 'invited' by my big boss to a signals dinner the very next day.. much to my chagrin, since 1) i specifically answered on behalf on all of my frens that we'd be caught up in UIP and hence be unavailable to attend the dinner, 2) it was a self-funded dinner, $75 a head, at the conrad, 3) i only realised earlier that morning that we'd be coming home on fri night (first time EVER, may i add) and since i was to bum away sat in camp that made fri nite particularly valuable. so on fri i find myself in the conrad, in a particularly smoke-filled reception (this is an army function after all) attending the dinner on behalf of my good old course commander from SOCC. and 10 mins later he shows up!! it appears that his 2nd-in-command couldnt come but they already indicated that they were coming.. so i became a seat-filler. and a self-paying one at that. lucky i had the foresight (heh) to bring along enough cash to pay for my own dinner. all said and done it wasnt too bad since i caught up with some old frens - about 5 actually - and picked up the only photo taken during commz pde rehearsals. it was a full dress rehearsal, too.. will scan it maybe next weekend. =)

started on jared diamond's amazing guns, germs and steel, the tagline reads "a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years", and its kind of a synthesis of history and archaebiology and.. hmm. i should quote from the preface, but im too lazy to do so. whatever it is its one of those fantastic multidisciplinary works. i stayed up til 0200 this morning to read (nowhere near finishing, its that thick) but its really that much a page-turner. and i felt compelled to post it here despite my usual misgivings about saying anything about whatever im reading before im done with it (actually i have no idea why i do that either. maybe im just really insecure and dont like to have my ideas challenged. i should grow up..) because of this game that's just come out - American Conquest - where, rather unsurprisingly, you play as various old world explorers from history trying to take over the new world. and im pretty much nonplussed by it since the book does portray the gross technological disadvantage the natives were at - not to mention how naive and innocent they were, or how vile and despicable the conquerors were. can you imagine - using the oldest trick in the book to meet with the Inca head of state Atahuallapa (mind, when i was in scouts, however briefly, i was from the inca patrol... heh) and then hold him hostage for vast sums of gold. and then reneging on their promise and executing said hostage.. well you can read up a bit on the Conquistador Pizarro and his exploits on this PBS website. im thinking of this along the lines of what i was mulling over last week (and did indeed share with pris) about how we were all un-ready for life in the real world. in the loosest sense of the word, Atahuallapa could have said to lack the street smarts Pizarro had - but that's only because we have grown up and lived our lives in a world descended from Pizarro's, not Atahuallapa's. am i losing you yet? that's not the point of the book, of course - its about how varying resources and natural environments shaped the way civilization turned out differently all over the world, rather than innate (ie genetic or racial) differences being responsible. as an ironic counterpoint to that - get a load of this: grandson of one of the original sherpas involved in the everest expedition to open an internet cafe on everest. wait, i think i lost my original point...

audioslave - like a stone

---

on a cold wet
afternoon
no room for love and emptiness
by a freeway
i confess i was lost in the pages
of a book
full of death
reading how we'll die alone
and if a god will lay to rest
anywhere we want to go
in your house
i long to be
room by room
patiently
i'll wait for you there
like a stone
i'll wait for you there
alone

and on my death bed
i will pray
to the gods and the angels
like a pagan
to anyone who will take me to heaven
to a place
i would recall
i was there so long ago
the sky was bruised
the world was black
and there you led me on

in your house
i long to be
room by room
patiently
i'll wait for you there
like a stone
i'll wait for you there
alone

in all i read
till the day was gone
and i sat in regret
in all the things i've done
for all that i've blessed
and all that i've wronged
in dreams till my death
i will wonder on

in your house
i long to be
room by room
patiently
i'll wait for you there
like a stone
i'll wait for you there
alone
alone

---

fyi - i originally intended to post like a stone with the entry i posted on the 5th at 0402 - but i decided to put cochise with that post instead, since it just felt more appropriate. same goes today - like a stone feels more appropriate today; im in a rather contemplative mood today and am thinking about all the things ive done (mostly bad!).. sometimes i just feel like im so bad. sigh.

oh, and turnout's coming this week, plus heavy running almost every day. will be an achievement surviving this week..anybody for lunch next sat? (must have some positive inducement) - sms me. =)

timestamp: anonymous 13:09 0 comments