Give Blood, Save (up to three)Lives!

Pardon me for the gap in between posts, time isn't really on my side right now. School ends at 5 plus everyday, and i'm dead beat when i return home.

The past week has been an eventful one, especially the occasion when i (first time in 18 years) donated blood in school. I didn't give it a shot last year, so i thought i would this year. Pretty charitable act by the way, according to them, one packet can save up to 3 lives!

I wasn't the only one in my class who wanted to contribute, but i ended up BEING the only one. My classmates didn't clear the last minute checks before the procedure. Some had recent fevers, with doses of medication in their bloodstream, some were not of suitable weight, and some had insufficient iron in their blood.

I went to each mandatory checkup, one by one. They tested you for fever, asked you a few questions about your personal health. They even tested your iron level by pricking your middle finger, to obtain a size-able sample(squeeze). I passed all.

It was down to the final act of drawing the blood. I would be lying if i said i wasn't afraid of the needle, considering its striking resemblance to that of a Yakult Straw. There were 2 injections. The first was for an anaesthetic, so as to aid numbing of the area where the 2nd needle would penetrate the skin. Surprisingly, the first(and thinner) needle hurt more than the 2nd. By the time the 2nd needle(Yakult Straw), went in, it was almost painless. Blood flowed like a river.


Flow, flow


Halfway


So there i lay, for around 15mins, waiting for the 450ml packet to fill up to its brim. There was the occasional pain when i shifted my arm and the needle contacted with my vein, but with the anaesthetic, it's like an ant bite. They gave me a stress ball to squeeze occasionally, to stimulate blood flow.


A Vampire's Favourite Food

At the end of the process, while waiting for the nurse to attend to me, i was actually hoping that the packet would not burst and splatter the floor. My fear didn't come true, luckily(i would be having high blood pressure if it did).


Yum

Some people became faint whilst donating, and the process had to be halted. But nevertheless, i applaud them for their effort! It's quite touching to see so many students contributing to the Blood Bank to help save lives, many who are doing their first, like me. After the donation, you were treated to some goodies, biscuits, milo and all. I helped myself. There was an inner feeling of happiness, once you realise that someone on the brink of death could be brought back by the mere packet of liquid that you just gave.

Hurray for blood donors! ^^



They gave a sort of bandage to stop the bleeding and identify you as a donor. I took it off at night, and here's what i saw.


Puncture

That about sums up my blood donating experience. Do give blood when you have the chance! Save lives ^^!

One day, at CMPB

"Machiam CIA leh!"

Well, i reckon i had better blog as soon as this laptop's powered up, or else i'd lose my train of thought. That usually happens when you have a long and quiet walk home alone, which in my case, is a daily affair.


Yours sincerely, Google Maps.

So today was the NS checkup at the Central Manpower Base(CMPB). Woke up at 5am on the dot(for once), and set off at 6.20am to pick Valerian up at Tampines MRT. My dad drove us all the way to the place.

After the safety checks and securing of handphones, we settled down at the canteen for breakfast. Zhihao came along soon and we reported at 7.50am (albeit a tad too early). Registration was quick, and on we went to our medical stations.

Number 1 : URINE TEST

(Pardon me for the lack of pictures, and dry text. If i was allowed the chance i would have snapped away with my phone relentlessly. But, CMPB's a serious place, so chance taken away.)

We had an interesting task at hand(literally). To pee on litmus-like strips of paper(luckily they're long strips, too). The tricky part was to wet the coloured parts and not get any piss on your hands. Valerian and I took the cubicle, while zhihao the adventurous tried his luck at the urinal ^^. A check with the medic denounced any fears of urethral abnormalities and we're done.

Number 2 : BLOOD TEST

The infamous test. Valerian got the old man, who persistently tried to distract him with light-hearted talk(but failed), while zhihao and i got the trainee, or rather, younger medic. We lost 2 vials of blood for the nation, willingly. The medic coughed while drawing my blood, and i swear i could feel the needle move inside the vein.

Number 3 : AURAL TEST

We sat in this soundproof cubicle and listened intently to occasional beeps on the headphones, raising hands to indicate left or right side. One of the easy tests.

Number 4 : X-RAY

Nothing much needs to be said here. Just had an X-ray of the chest. The machine was cold to the touch of bare skin.

Number 5 : DENTAL TEST

Had my teeth examined. Heard the dentist mutter something which sounded like "buckle space 47...". Nothing much.

Number 6 : VISION TEST

Pretty standard. Test of eyesight by reading letters off the wall.

Number 7 : ECG TEST

This one's interesting. Everybody went TOPLESS. 4 electrodes were plugged(or rather suction-cupped) to your chest. They took your heart rate. Unfortunate situations include having those electrodes attached onto your nipples. Thankfully, i'm not a victim(otherwise my heart rate would have gladly spiked). I noticed certain irregular spikes on my BPM(beats per minute) chart, but the medic said nothing, so all's well.

Number 8 : THE EVERYBODY-PULL-DOWN-THEIR-PANTS TEST

Hoho, this has spread far and wide. With only my pants on in the room, I was told to pull them down(yes, with the underwear), to knee level. Luckily the process took a mere 2 seconds(it was freezing cold!). The guy wrapped up by saying i was PES A, combat-fit and all.

I proceeded down to the final station, the tediously long vocational assessment. Physics, math, pattern questions, etc, had to be answered. It's the most draining of the tests.



Similar, except for the colour

After that was photo-taking. Apparently the photographer was a fan of the Armani hairstyle(spray water, comb straight up). No more tests, so we left at 11.45am.


I swear we were rocking to the beat

We had our lunch at Tiong Bahru plaza. Killed time by heading to Challenger and trying our hands at fifa street and the legendary GUITAR HERO III !

Returned to school at 3pm and attended the Math revision lecture at 4pm. I took 12 home with Guanjie, discussing about certain affairs, of which i will not divulge. We're planning to have a Stupid Video Competition, posting video replies of nonsensical videos which we see on each other's blog. Soon, guanjie, SOON. This post's getting too lengthy already. Sorry man!

A day(almost), at CMPB.

Goodbye.

The worst food(fruit) ever

The above has to be the absolute worst combination of food, ever. I was surfing the net when i came across this and even then i couldn't resist saying something about it. Durians with rice!? PUI. I'm not even a fan of durian to start with, just ask my classmates.

I have just realised that the time on my watch is EXACTLY synchronised to the one on Mrs Ang's laptop. What are the chances of that! By "exactly", i mean precise to the very second. I noticed our numbers in minutes jumped simultaneously. Queer indeed.

Okay, i shall start from last Friday.

Went with Valerian to cut hair. He couldn't resist sleeping while waiting. And as my hairdresser said, "got pattern one leh".


Pattern 1


Pattern 2

Next day, we headed to bugis to get new bags for school. Before that i answered nature's call at tampines mall, and saw some intriguing vandalism. I've got pictures but shall not post them up, they're abit explicit.

Bugis Street was filled with people as usual. Our walking slowed down to a snail's pace at certain points. Ended up getting a duffel sort of bag, and a shirt as well, after some exploring around.

Returned to tampines afterwards and settled down for some Yakun bread. Then, val went to get his badminton shoes at the nearby sports hall, and we were lucky enough to catch the Division 1 Floorball matches.


Our Referee aka Police Hockey aka Squirrels

Guess who we saw? Look above, center. Hockey guys remember him? Police Hockey Number 10(he's 10 in the Squirrels too, above).

Managed to catch some national players in action, both female and male. The girls team prior to the men's match above, had an unbelievable 30-1 scoreline. Some unknown grey team versus Springfield Sec. The 1 goal belonged to Springfield.


Pri 6 bros

Val left soon after, and i met up with my primary 6 friends again. We're actually STUDYING for the first time, together. Study group plan every week? SURE!

Today passed as usual. There's NS medical checkup tomorrow. Heard it's going to be very sian.


THAT LITTLE TERROR, seemingly harmless. ( and uhoh, Sam are you eating in the library? )

Studied in the library today with Sam, the others left early. We had dinner at White Sands where Guanjie joined us. Talked some cock, then Sam left while i walked with guanjie to his home before taking a bus myself.

I'm sorry if i'm blogging with incredible slip-shoddiness. I'm kind of drained of my thinking juice and mental energy lately, with so much on my mind. Sincere apologies.

Some interesting pictures.


Gi-normous Bananas


I thought these looked like artillery shells. (Physics Lab)

Drained

i'm feeling worn out, even though i've done nothing much on this particular Sunday.

I have to prepare my GP file for Mr Hsu's checking tomorrow, thus why i couldn't meet up with my primary school friends. Next week guys!

Yesterday was quite a day, spent with Valerian at Bugis. Shall update more later.

Check this space soon, tonight.

Scraps

Barbie Gone Terribly Wrong

(Laughs) Got this at Cowboy Caleb's.

I was blog-hopping and i came to Mr Brown. There's been another episode of "the WTF! show". He checks out the all-new Razer Pro-Type Keyboard. Everything, below.



"... We feel that because of this ah-beng blue light, that glows, it is the best keyboard in the world."

really WTF!?


I, crack the laws of physics

Physics practical was interesting today. For some reason, my percentage uncertainty of Planck's Constant was off the charts. As you can see, i got 1099547411 % of error. That's near 1.1 billion percentage error. It's not even supposed to cross 100 %!

SPC was sick today, 38 degrees. He rested in the sick bay before heading home in a cab. The taxi's sponsored by Miss Sim, she's so nice! Take care man, get well soon!

Revision lectures have resulted in a late day, everyday, for the year twos. 6pm's about the average time i reach home. Fatigue, fatigue.


Daily Commute

My retainers have been on for a month plus now, time to tighten those wires soon!

Goodbye!

Pathway through rain

It rained after school. For the unbearable hot weather nowadays, it was certainly refreshing. But that meant a walk in the rain on my journey home. A long walk(those who've been to my place, you know).

Quite some time since i've been caught in a downpour. Plus TJ uniform is kinda thick and makes you feel all stuffy inside, so i was lucky enough to be wearing polo today.

I wasn't alone on the path home. A dhs girl(nope, i don't know her), and a pasir ris crest sec sch boy were alongside. All of us kena soaked, man. My chem file was no exception(poor notes).

School was like any other Tuesday. PCME & GP tutorials took up a huge chunk. We attended the protected timeslot for Math, to allow the lecturer to finish going through the answers for JCTs. Mysteriously, headcount in LT1 seems to have diminished since the last lecture.

Again, many fell under fatigue.


" I told you Math makes a good sleeping pill! "

SPC and i bought laser pointers in school, at a mere 5.50 bucks! Last time i saw one of those things at the mall, they cost 23 dollars. It's a pen/pointer/LED as well. Now we'll have something to fool around with when we experience insomnia. Neighbours beware (:


Seemingly harmless looking


Ooh, lovely


Poor attempt to make the beam visible(thank you talcum powder!)

It emits red light, much to our disappointment. Green would be nice.

I've always had a fascination with lasers, but the above can't do much. It's peanuts compared to the ones i'm going to show you.

Wicked Lasers. They're military grade. They're THE weapons of mass destruction compared to the one i have.


Imagine the possibilities. ( Hehe )

The official site, here.

I need more seasoning for my blades, they're still causing blisters. Skating, anyone? I'm serious, if you want to rollerblade or something, call me along! I'd be glad to (:

Okay now its dinner time, goodbye!

Enjoy Youth Day, youths! (while you can)

Happy Youth Day, youths!

Today 05/07 had a class outing at East Coast Park. 11 people turned up. Fun (:

Started the day off by meeting Sam at Yakun, Whitesands. The bread was shiok. So were the half-boiled eggs. Hurried down to Bedok to meet the rest.

Saw shaza, cherylnn, teck, shanzhi, hanyang, zhihao, suzanne at the control station. We went to meet serena at the interchange(and take 196).

We got our bikes/skates at Ki Runners(they really do stock up on their bikes). Headed towards the Changi side, with me, sam and shaza skating, serena running, and the rest cycling. It didn't stay that way for long. Soon shaza's pair of skates went around among the girls, and teck had a shot at sam's pair. Me? I just prefer skating to cycling.


Graffiti (thats Zhihao in front)

Along the way, i saw this entire wall(or rather, metal sheets) of graffiti. I had no idea who was at hand, but they certainly look nice.


Pit stop

We had a few breaks here and there, at the breakwater even. The sea breeze was enough to make you sleep standing up. Harsh weather nowadays.

Risky Business

We met SPC on 196 and had Pastamania for lunch afterwards. It wasn't long before everyone separated and left for home. Tiring, but enjoyable workout.



Since i'm on the topic of skates, i brought mine along today to give it some seasoning. I got the pair for a good bargain(last Sunday). They were originally priced at $366 SGD. But, RollerBlade(the brand) had their 50 percent off sale, and so, luck was on my side. $183 SGD was more than worth it for an above-average pair of skates.


Rollerblade Crossfire TFS Skates Mens 07

The stats(there's a whole list, but i'll just list out the main ones)

Bearings: SG-7 (I'm satisfied enough with an ABEC 5, but this was a pleasant surprise)
Wheels: Rollerblade Lite Standard Hub 82mm 82A Wheels (just nice)
Design: See above.
Frame: Aluminum ALU-Tech Frames - Max Wheel Size 84mm (Seemed better than Composite ones)
Laces & Buckles: TFS Power Lace and Ratcheting Buckle Closure (no more lace-tying)

Diablo 3 has revived the Diablo fan in me, i've started on D2 again! But i'm not fighting alone. Leon, Sam and SPC are my regular playmates. It doesn't get any more fun than this. We're coming, Diablo (:




No screenshots(the above isn't one), due to D2 running in low-colour mode. Screenshots turn out with poor definition and colour. What a pity.

I shan't play too much though, there's work to be done, after my appalling results in the JCTs. I'm off to complete some Math tutorials, goodbye.