The Travelling Expensively Takahina

Just to let you peeps know, Takahina has got a new bicycle!!! Costing around $175 along with a chain lock and 2 keys. Bells and Honks each sold separately.



Yes I camwhored with my bike... YOU GOT A PROBLEM!?!?!?!?!?!?!

You may ask why did I suddenly buy a bicycle? Well the answer is simple, work.

I thought to myself 1 day as I was working through my financial accounting for this month and I come to realise that I'm allocating like 1/4 of my monthly pay to transport and LTA, mainly thanks to the fact my school is like in Clementi while I live in Tampines. Presumably I travel everyday to school, to and fro, via MRT. Den I go to work, in bus, to and fro.

My transport fees, and possibly most other university students who aren't Wu Lui Kia and dun have a car and don't have a driving license, hits to $120.

I allocate $120 to my transport in a month. Thinking of it, it's quite normal.

FUCK U IT ISN'T.

LTA belongs to PAP which means Pay And Pay, so I can kinda see the trend. So LTA, which stands for Leeching Travelers' Assets, will do comparatively the same thing. When I was in Primary school, travelling to Paya Lebar to my Grandpa's house is like $1.20. Now it's $1.40 + that $1 for the card thingy.

But then, you guys may not know, that card thingy, is a trick.

You see the foreigners/people who don't sit transport regularly/APNN (Ah Pu Ne Ne), it's meant to leech their $1 for them not knowing that you can get that $1 back. Why for all you know some foreigners here on holiday may take the card and keep it like it's some freaking present.







So you can see, all those things asking you to pay $1 for the card and blah blah blah, like a lot of arcades/food courts are doing now, is a scheme. For all you know 1 day one of Singapore's souvenirs to tourists, are SMART-cards.

My Econs teacher said that Singapore has never experienced a deflation before, so to many Singaporeans, there's no such thing as deflation at all. Even if property prices fall, or COEs prices fall, people won't view that as deflation, but rather...

"Oh it's a speculative Drop in prices, better buy now for it'll INFLATE in the future."

Oil prices up-ed in prices during the oil crisis, so public transport prices up.

Leeching Traveller's Asses said, "Bo pian, we have to up price. People, you wanna continue sitting MRT, imma let you know you gotta pay more. If not, the only people you'll see taking over our MRTs are the APNN on Sundays, China students who can't get used to our comparatively MUCH MUCH MORE polite driving in Singapore and politicians that wanna show support to US!

So, make your choice. Either you rich dudes and tai tais can take your Toyota Corolla and risk getting into an accident due to Toyota's breaking down in the middle of the road, or you NS people try to hitch-hike a rover and risk getting confined, or take my transport hell yeah."

What to do, LLST. We still need to pay LTA for passing through like the center of Singapore due to Every Road Pay...



So to say if I wanna go to Orchard for some shopping, I've gotta pay like $2. Hokay...

Then for god's sake, please stop building all the nice nice and very advertised stuff in that area. I tell you it's all a conspiracy. Huatness.



But now oil prices dropped quite a bit compared to that time, transport fees, no doubt dropped, but somehow the effect to us people seemed very minor.

LTA, "We decreased 2cents off your daily bus road trips thanks to the drop in oil prices. Halleluya."

Yes, and the increase in prices is like almost 10cents... well almost.

And now I heard they may wanna take away long bus routes.

*_*.

Why? Frankly I'll be very sad if they take away buses like 168 and 27. Imagine now traveling via MRT from Tampines to City Hall, then changing to Red line to Woodlands. I can flow down PIE from east to west in a taxi or Tian Wei's car when he's serious TWICE!



Look at me. I'm Serious.

I'm looking forward to the circle line frankly speaking. Opens more faster routes for me, since I can change at Paya Lebar. But I can't help but think of the possibilities, den I saw a possible outcome of the future MRT.

Behold, MRT in Singapore 2050.



Kudos to you Jason Chua, this is a piece of art. Value Added by Takahina...

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Since we're on the topic of travelling... here is a brilliant song you can listening while traveling.



Utada Hikaru - Traveling

It's live. And well, let's just hope she isn't as big sized now as before :/

PS: I know I have no rights to say others... but seriously, I'm Takahina, I don't give a damn.

The Lethargic Takahina

Sorry for the very very late post. This actually reflects on exactly what my title is expressing.

I'm lethargic.

And it seriously kills. It unknowingly saps out your inner energy, physical energy, mentality, and time.

This isn't the first time it happened, neither do I think it's the last time it's gonna happen. Being burned out, being lethargic, happens under few consequences.


- When you're simply sapped of energy.

You have been pushing and rushing yourself suddenly to a lifestyle which you're striving for and committed too. But after a month or 2, you found your energy level to be too low to continue on and you start to slack off, eventually falling into a state of emptyness. Note that it's mentally low, you just don't find the energy to concentrate and focus anymore on that goal.

Burned out.


- When you have a change of mind.

You are working towards something, when suddenly, you felt like it's not right anymore, this isn't the route which you want to go for, you feel that you're meant for something else and this time you used to spend on can be substituted with other stuff, opportune cost is at it's highest.

Burned out.


- When you're out of motivation.

Not that you have a change of mind, it just happens when suddenly, that fire has gone out, puffed and blown. Not that anyone has influenced it in you, but it just happens, mainly due to your lifestyle being so affixed to it, the freshness of it dies off and it becomes a standard routine in life.

Burned out.


From what I've seen, this are the 3 main culprits of causing lethargic/burned out feelings. People wanting to quit school because they found the course boring/uninteresting anymore, people suddenly stopping and quitting a low of stuff and having a low commitance level due to the lack of energy... It happens. And it's dangerous.

Up to date, Takahina has experienced rather lot of times of burned out-ness, that's why Takahina doesn't like to chiong something too intently at 1 time, cause it saps away the ingenuity of it. I don't really repeat songs which I like all the time, unless I just wanna irritate someone. I don't really encourage an exercise regime too rigid like jogging everyday, cause it causes an easy burn out for less disciplined people like me. I always mix a whole bunch of stuff inside my daily life, so I don't grow out of it.

It could be due to this nature of mine, that I find it difficult to commit for a long long time. I'll fall into a state of lethargic-ness like now.

The fact that I know I'm lethargic now, shows enough that I am in quite deep shit. The blogpost which I've told myself to update weekly, has actually stooped down to like missing 2 post. My clothes are stacking up in my room and I have not really done much cleaning. Project work and learning new music for my band, I take a real long time to do it sadly.

I dare to say my current condition, is due to my work at TNT. Note that it's not that the work sucks, but simply, the work takes off tons of mental prowess from me. You spend tons and tons (TNT) of energy concentrating and transferring all the energy into your fingers in typing and eyesight to the brain to type, bi-concentration takes lots of energy.

Of course compared to workstuff which involves more moving around, more stress-level involved, it's a different scenario. Such work causes a fatigue nature, mine which is a stress-level low, and relatively easy job cause a lethargic nature instead.

An action/event/move/situation which requires concentration, yet simply and unchallenging in nature, is lethargic in nature.

My daily routine everyday on a normal school day.

1000 - 1045: wake up from my bed and prepare for school



Yo... Benji... wake up lor....

1045 - 1200: leave for school



Spot me, Des, Sam, and all of my jc classmates here...

1200 - 1500: lecture



if every econs teacher is as "interesting" as her, lectures will be fun.

1500 - 1615/1700: Go home/Project meeting



Most of the time will be going home, for a small nap. Note my room looks different now.

If there is project meeting, 30 mins will be spent looking for a place to sit and discuss. SIM needs to expand. Either that or kill more students and pretend they are accidents :X

1615 - 1745: Reach home/Project meeting



Shhhhh... napping Xiao Mei in progress....

Slack a bit, use computer a bit, and nap a bit, but not before leaving home with a cup of coffee...

1800 - 0000: Pure work time...



Some of my colleagues at work... No racist jokes please. :)

0015 - 0200: Slacking time



Dinner time for me... Of course they don't always look this good. >_>
Nonetheless, eating leftover rice for up to almost 4 months has made me like leftover rice. Cause it gives you the freedom to finish it all without caring about anything in the world.

0200 - 0345: Nodding off in front of the computer



Yes, and I grow fatter. At the same time my head will be nodding in conjuncture to sleep. Most of the time I'll nod off, till my head hits the table, I wake up and go for a bath. Then I sleep.

0345 and later - 1000: Sleep



I love my bed.



So this is my daily life. In fact blogging write now is eating into my sleeping time... So you get why I'm lethargic?

Seriously, lethargic can kill. Full-stop.

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Song Recommendation:

Tokyo Jihen - Seasons Sayonara



From Tokyo Jihen's newest album Sports, they seem to move away from that slack form of cool and classiness they have now, and adding in some insanity and mad creativity in music. Sounds like that, yet doesn't sound like them. In a sense you can be sparked out with their sense of playing and composing music, yet in a sense you miss the classiness they had with their Adult album.

Seasons Sayonara is one of my favourite song in the album, cause it has a sense of epicness/emergency in it compared to the many songs they made. Very jammable too. Noudouteki Sanpunkan is nice too with a cool MV. The rest is well... not superbly interesting, but notable as usual for their uniqueness and the musician's magical touch with their instruments.

Compared to Variety, Sports imo, is a better album.

Random Thought

Just wanna say something.

Firstly, I'm a very "wanna say whatever, will say whatever" person. But it doesn't necessary mean I will say it to your face. If I feel it's so, I will say it's so. Thus so my words will be harsh at times, but they meant no malice whatsoever. You can gossip/bitch/complain about me, it's fine with me. Cause I do the same about people all the time.

Secondly, due to my nature I WILL upset others, this I understand and I will take actions for whatever I have done wrong. But if I felt that I have never done anything wrong, I will never say I have done anything wrong, I will only apologize for things which I have done wrong.

Thirdly, I'm a very "retarded" person. You need to explain to me whatever I have done wrong, for me to know where I'm wrong. I'm a standard male like all others who are slow in understanding stuff.

Fourth, some matters I compromise easily, some matters I can be real stubborn. For such, I will try to understand matters more, but at the same time I hope people offended by me can try to understand matters more.

Fifth, a lot of conflicts in the world is caused by mis-communication, mis-reading others' action, lack of understanding of each other's character/purpose. So if relationships/friendships/brotherhood/links/networks are destroyed due to such little happenings, it's a pity.

The Forgotten Takahina

This is like a continuation into the "Used/Help" factor mentioned.

Am I forgotten? To friends currently around me, don't think so, Rurouni, Uni-clique, people in my work place etc etc, for now I won't be forgotten. But what about in the future?

One thing which Takahina openly admits, is that I take a note to whom I remember, who I don't remember, who remembers me, and those who don't remember me. Being vain or something, call it whatever you want.

And my upcoming birthday, is normally one of the best indicators as to whether people still remember me or not.

Takahina confesses, he has a lousy memory. In fact my memory is pathetic, I can't remember what my friends/brothers said, I can't remember any form of theory which others seem to be able to record in their mind so well. How I got past JC and now uni is quite a mystery to me. I can only remember things through one way, and it's experience.

Thus so, I always forget things like people's birthday, except for people really close to me.

If you notice, Takahina always has this "notebook" along with me, because it's one of Takahina's brain, without it I'm perpetually like an old man. I record birthdays of people I care inside, or birthdays of people within proximity to me.

So, enough about Takahina being able to remember people or not. The next thing is, is people able to remember me after things happened? Whether we're not in proximity or not? On a side note, Takahina expects the people of those he had noted in his notebook to remember his birthday, so if those people didn't like even greet Takahina on that day, it'll be disappointing to him and rest assured your name won't be in there the next year, unless you're within my physical proximity in some sense.

Takahina has quite a huge amount of names in his notebook by the way...

Anyways, whatever about people who forget about people? I mean I forget, but I make the effort to remember your stuff in my notebook. How about those people?

That is the one thing to being a friend. You make so much friends in your lifetime you aren't able to remember them all, you only keep a few ones close by your side and ignore the rest eventually as time goes by.

So easy to say, true friends stay under a format of:

- Friends you remember
- Friends close to your environment

Forgotten friends/Can be forgotten friends stay under a format of:

- Once friends close to your environment but lost contact, don't find the need to get back in contact

- Friends whom have "use" to you, but you don't really bother to include them into your lifestyle

At least in my own Takahinic way, I try to remember everyone to the best context possible, if I can't or don't, I'm sorry but please do know that I didn't mean to forget you. If I didn't like you, I won't even bother replying you at all.

But what about you? Have you forgotten about people? Have you recalled any friends and forgetting about them whole eventually, despite that person still remembering you?

It kinda sucks doesn't it, when you suddenly get a message/present from a long time ago friend, whom you even forget about their presence. You totally forget about their birthday and yet that person still bothered to send you a gift for your birthday, at least a greeting, initiated without any prompt.

Rather than saying that a person just wanna makes use of you, why not say that everyone makes use of everyone? It's just the appreciation anyone has for you after that differs in level, depending on how they look into you and your application into their life, the pain and disappointment which arises after helping a person is that the person simply forgets your goodwill/kindness/friendship/companionship in the future. Even after that you try to be a little more memorable, you'll still be just a shadow, beneath everything else, yet undisappearable and indispensable. You will always have some use to that person, for networking sake in business terms.

Thanks for facebook and the various internet purposes, at least it's less obvious now you'll be forgotten, since when your friend has a birthday, you can just simply pop in their wall and type:

"Yo, Happy Birthday dude! Have a great one!"

Look at the many birthday greetings, out of 10, at least 1 will be like this of some sorts, is it sincere or not? No one knows, I mean at least use more originality when greeting someone, like my Rurouni's, always so brilliant at it. So what about those people without internet/facebook/friendster/MSN... whatever there is now? Good luck to term, their "Clientele"/network base is smaller by a big margin. Lesser amount of people for you to make use of.

So what has this got to do about being used? Nothing much actually, it just kinda shows your position in that somebody's heart and how you can never get too much into it.

If I wanna go deeper, I can keep on trying, whether that person opens up or not is another thing. Some people have a small threshold only, to only allow that little bit of people into their life, if they wanna include anymore into their life, they need to get rid some already in their life. At the age of 20 onwards, probably the threshold should be full for a person with a small threshold.

Some of you guys may say I'm a bitter person for writing this. In fact I am, I have never liked being forgotten at all in my life, I mean who likes it? Just that I'm very honest with it in my blog.

I don't mind being made used of, cause I'll be making use of someone some other time eventually, what goes around comes around. But it's the realization of knowing you have been forgotten, of knowing they don't really care enough about you to include you in their threshold despite them being in your own threshold and your efforts done for them. That is the thing that hurts.

The thing about know that you have a minimal and dismissible threshold for including others, this in itself is...

Deplorable.

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Song Recommendation:

Shiki no Uta - Minmi



I have been listening to this song all the while as I was typing this post. Very smooth and emotional feel presented in the song. Also one of the few R&B/Hip Hop music which I seriously like.

The Used Takahina?

Was I used?

I can't help but wonder. On the surface it looks as if it's the case, but think it through again, is the intention there or is it simply just a case of misunderstanding.

As Takahina is slowly progressing his life, reaching his 22nd year in this earth, I have been through a couple stages in life and various situation resembling mine as such now, to be actually spending time and money for someone.

Being a "Singaporean Foreign Student" for about a week being the latest case. But then, it kinda happens continuously actually.

When in Secondary school, I was the same, actually helping someone unconditionally to be fed back without an "adequate" return. (k, shit too much of the comm law stuff is stuck in my heaD)

In my normal life now, it's the same. Example helping some of my friends with their Japanese language, going to study with them together when I don't really "need" to, I can simply study at home my Japanese since I only need to revise as my notes are all prolly within my grasp and understanding.

There are many favors you do for people. There aren't many who will repreciate it back to you.

But then, is there really a need to be done back a favor?

I have looked at the horoscope lately, on Pisces, summarising it kinda just says Piscesians are all self sacrificing bozos with mask on their face to protect themselves....



In other words we're just 2 Gim Hee (Goldfish), go to 1 end of the fishbowl and forget about the other end.

That's good wadddddddddd........

Does it matter that you know you're being used?

To the very utilised Takahina, it doesn't really matter that much anymore. True in the past when I know I was remotely utilized, I grew mad and gave the nickname of "Ficmen" to label all fickle woman who used people whenever they are useful, and switch to another person as long as that person is saturated.

So sadly to say, Takahina has been made used for since a long time ago, for my uni cliques, need not worry, it's not the first time and won't be the last.

My late tuition teacher once said that when you do something for someone, it's out of goodwill, and you don't expect returns whatsoever. You can do something to someone, going out all the way and be forgotten by the next week by that someone. It's natural. Because if you expect something in return, that's not good will anymore, that's a purposeful intention.

So what, I help out Little Kid *hint hint*, I expect her to like me in return? I printed lecture notes for the Ipoh Princess, I expected something in return? In the past I helped out PP, I expected her to like me in return? I helped out my Japanese lesson friends, I give cheap drum lessons, I tutored my cousin, , I lend money to my brothers, I organized events for all my brothers, I do all this and all that, for all of this I expect something in return? Be it even materialistic, tangible returns or not.

No. That is not helping out in the Takahinian sense. I even expect most people to be unwittingly unappreciative to the things people have done for them. For my cousin example, I gave her only 1 tuition, I think she could have forgotten about it?? I don't know.

The simple sense in helping people, is to just help, and ignore whatever comes afterwards. True it could be frustrating that people take you for granted, as most you just stop helping, no one would blame you. Unfortunately, Takahina can't, taking into both personality wise and horoscope wise, I'm too "self sacrificing" for my own good? Naahhhh...

It's just because Singaporeans are somehow borned calculative, we have that gene/DNA within us that says never do things for free.



Like what Joker-cat has said, "If you're good in something, never do it for free." So conclusion wise Singaporeans are all jokers la.

If there is one thing in media that can relate to this, it has got to be those donation drive that says...

"Donate... and stand to win this car!!"

Fuck, can't the organization just donate the car? KNNBCCB. It only shows how commercialization bastardizes everything remotely good.



Fat Ass on the right, "I won the car!! OMFG!! WOO HOO..." *Jumps around like some mad gorilla.*

Host on the left, "Yo bitch, give him the toy car, his donation is only worth that much. Besides we will never give the car away, it's our boss's car used to con idiots like black dudes, Singapore aunties and Bush..."

To all those who thought that Takahina only helps pretty girls, you're like so wrong.

The Takahina's Law of Helping:

1. Must be for a valid reason why you can't do it yourself

Self-explanatory. People have to be independent as much as possible.

2. Not too troublesome at all for me

Self-explanatory. You don't expect me to go all the way to Joo Koon library (if there is 1) to help you return a book on my rest day at in Tampines right!?!!?

3. The level of "closeness" I have with you is directly proportionate to the level of help I'll give you, this is attributing due to awkward reasons, and responsibility reasons.

You don't ask your not so close friend to help you do things like settle HP bills, extend Visa etc etc right??

4. My expertise in the field of topic.

There is no way you can get me to give you a tuition on parking cars. Neither will you want Junrong to teach you how to drink and drive... I mean his driving makes my brothers all SKAAAARREEEDDDD...



Look at this face, you know you're scared.

P.s: Shion Wah... what are you doing behind??

As long as the help/favor meets the above requirements, everything is fine. :)

So in a note, please don't mistake my kindness for some sort of evil intention. But at the same time, please don't assume you can take Takahina for granted. If you reach the level of (-) in terms of relationship, I won't only not help you, I may hurt you...

Heh Heh Heh Heh... Har Har HAr HAr....

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PS: Due to Serene wanting a list of my "wants/needs/desire", I'll put it up in my blog for this month until the 16th.... Shamelessly...

Be Right Back

Sorry for being late in the weekly blog post. Due to school and various reason, I haven't been able to get the time to sit down and write what I wanted to write for this week.

For now, please await for a bit more, the next post will be coming right up. :D