Finally, the time has come! let's get started on the last post of the year.

2007, to be perfectly frank, was not that great a year. i have several theme ideas, but ultimately, i think i will be going with "a year of transitions". in this year alone, i have stayed in 3 different camps, learned many new things, some of which apply to real life as well. i think the most organized way to do this is to go by different aspects of my life this year.

physically, 2007 has been kind to me. my overall fitness improved, and i can now do some stuff which i previously thought close to impossible. didn't fall sick that much either. in fact, i think my report sick instances and number/length of status taken this whole year is less than 90% of the people in my company. 2 MCs, and zero report sick in camp. no light duty or excuses. i think that's something worth mentioning. so...yes. in that aspect, 2007 has been great.

financially, the year has been good too. met (or exceeded, actually) my savings target, managed to control my spending within reasonable limits, and i'm definitely more self-sufficient and financially independent as compared to when in school. there's this sense of empowerment, know what i mean?

spiritually, not much comment. i don't have a religion, nor am i in a hurry to get one, so everything's normal, as far as that goes.

mentally, it's been rather taxing in daily life, and even more so during exercises/outfield. but now, i can look back and laugh (sort of...well, more of cringe than laugh). hopefully my mental strength improves, because i'll definitely need it next year.

relations with family and friends have sort of improved. i'm still keeping in touch with secondary school buddies (a few of whom are in my unit, making it easier), as well as JC friends. i'm happy that i managed to send my christmas cards on time, because it helps in the bonding. in general, it's been ok for the friends i rarely see, and not so good for the friends i meet up with regularly, because they say i'm becoming more unreliable than before. that's not to say untrustworthy, mind you, it's just that timings are being stretched a little outside acceptable limits. really going to have to work on that.

now, for the biggest aspect in my life at the moment: army. it's not something i'd voluntarily do, though i might say differently if my posting has been different. i do wish my course was longer, because i find that in general, an NSF is happiest when he's on course. may not apply to everyone, but it does to me at least.

in the past year, army has taught me quite a lot of stuff, not all of which are pleasant. there are the life lessons, ridiculous theories (eg. your brain cells are stored in your hair, because after the initial shave in tekong, all your intelligence is gone.), and illogical nonsense. that aside, it has also taught me some seemingly basic stuff, like how to appreciate the sunset, especially on book-in day, and how time seems to pass faster when you don't actively count the seconds going by.

to link army back to the theme of "transitions", there have been several of those in my life. from tekong to stagmont, and then to sungei gedong, all within less than 6 months. adaptation is difficult, as expected, but what to do? comparing between different phases of army life, i think i was way more positive/optimistic when i was a recruit. i do realize what people say is true, that BMT is probably the most fun time of NSF life. i believe the reason is because you don't have any responsibilities or deadlines to meet in there, whereas these things suddenly jump out at you in unit life.

i'm probably venturing into dangerous waters (or at least sensitive territory) by talking about unit life. not that i'm in a classified or secret unit or anything, but there are probably quite a large number of unaired grievances and too much rigidity. on a happiness scale of 1 to 10, i'm around a 3.5. i believe i've said enough to cover the reasons why in the past few months. so...i won't elaborate on that any more.

anyway, i think this is the most detailed year-end post i've written to date. there's actually more stuff i want to say, but due to their nature, i can't seem to fit them in anywhere. they're already on paper, so i guess there's where they'll stay.

looks like i'll be counting down to the new year at home. i suppose it's for the best, me being sick and all. hopefully my cold and flu panadol comes quickly, so i can pop a few and suppress the symptoms.

well, that's all i have for now. look out for tomorrow's post, where new year's resolutions will be drawn up, and an overview/forecast for 2008 will appear. until then, enjoy what's left of 2007!

-random thought of the day: This will be the first time I'm sick going into the new year.-

Nothing makes you appreciate the civilian world more than an upcoming book-in. i'm grateful that i get to book out (hopefully early) tomorrow afternoon/evening, because it will definitely take a while to adjust back to army life after 2 weeks of total freedom. sadly, i think this is one of the very few times that this will happen in my NS life, because next year looks like trouble (more on that in the new year post).

you know, i sometimes wonder if the HDB did the right thing by upgrading the blocks so that the lift stops at every floor. nowadays, i see perfectly healthy people take the lift from the ground floor to the second floor. it gives a kind of "WTF!?" feeling. i mean, i'd understand if the person was carrying something heavy, or was old/sick/disabled/injured, but to take the lift up ONE storey when nothing wrong's with you seems a bit overboard, if you ask me. shows man's reliance on technology and appliances i guess.

i am really itching to get started on my year-end post for 2007, but since it's not the last day of the year yet, i have to wait. despite my eagerness, i can't help but feel that i will be at a loss for words tomorrow, when i actually get down to writing it. oh well. we'll see when the time comes.

a flu/cold bug is flying around in the air, and i seem to have caught it. could be due to the sudden change in weather, or i've come down with gedongitis, more commonly known as book-in blues, where you feel depressed and generally not at 100% condition, especially when camp is very ulu and very far from home.

imagestation is closing down, and i was asked to rescue my pictures stored there. they're still downloading now, but if memory serves, i haven't updated my albums there for at least 2 years and counting. nobody's been visiting there either, so no big loss i guess. looking back at some of the pictures, i find it's amazing how we've grown and how different most of us have become, as compared to those cat high days. i'm getting inspiration for another point in my big post tomorrow.

at present, it's about 8:35, and i have about 40 minutes to go before going to shower up and get ready. my book-in blues still show no sign of clearing up. it's probably compounded by the fact that i lost at mahjong again today. sian. i'm guessing that they sort of affect each other. dreading the book-in makes you lose, which makes you even more reluctant to book in...follow me? well, on the bright side, i'll be out again in less than 24 hours (hopefully), and 2007 is coming to an end! so that's something to look forward to.

-random thought of the day: My nose is still not clearing up.-

3 days have slipped by in a flurry of activities. christmas is now over, and the sobering realization that all good things must come to an end is slowly but surely creeping back into my life. still, the past few days have been filled with joy, laughter, and the occasional friendly drunk episode, so this is most definitely one of my better christmases.

i still have about 2.5 days to enjoy myself. i really have to make the most of my free time, because i don't foresee having much of it in the upcoming year. oh well. i have a date with alvin and the chipmunks at 12:35 later, so maybe i'll log on to CoH for a bit before then. see you all soon!

-random thought of the day: My favourite Christmas song:
-

Block leave days are slowly diminishing. as of now, i have about 6 days to go until i have to go back. no point stressing about it now i guess. can save the mood swing for the night itself. for the first time in a long long while, i'm actually wishing time would slow down a bit. i'm not that eager to return to camp.

anyway, there are still 6 more days of freedom, so i'm going to concentrate on that for now. for some strange reason, i seem to be unable to fit all my plans into these 6 days. think it's probably due to 3 days being chirstmas and weekends, so that's sort of reduced the flexibility a little. let's see...in the upcoming period (effectively about 3.5 days), i plan to:

- meet up with friends/classmates
- go to beach road
- possibly more mahjong?
- play CoH
- catch 2 movies
- go shopping

that's about it for now, but i can't help but feel that i forgot a few items. oh well. it's not that hard to accomplish everything, though travelling to beach road will be rather boring/draggy. not to mention there's that little worry of the shops being closed this close to christmas. oh well. i believe things will resolve themselves.

went to take a little walk to j8 today. original plan was to go see alvin and the chipmunks, but no good seats were available. so, i ended up floating around the area, and into one of the CD shops where i bought the High School Musical 2 sountrack and the Ratatouille DVD. not regretting it (yet), because i have very good impressions of these 2 movies. however, i do think the songs in HSM1 were generally catchier than those in the sequel. but this is like comparing gold with silver. both are good by absolute standards, but one is better than the other. still, "both are good" is what matters.

i'll end off here, partially because i have nothing else to say, and also because the CoH servers are up. time to be a hero!

-random thought of the day: Christmas crowds are scary.-

Writing christmas cards isn't nearly as easy (or fun) as my memories from previous years seem to indicate. this year, my cards seem to follow a general template, something along the lines of "hello, how's NS (for guys)/university (for girls and guys not in NS)? i realize that we're both busy and haven't really been in touch. have a great holiday season, and take care!". of course, there are bound to be variations, like personal messages, but the text above is present in about 70% of them, maybe in different order or something. it's easier to follow a pattern, i guess, so once something looks halfway decent, people tend to stick to it.

i realize i'm REALLY affected by what happened this previous saturday and the possible repercussions, so much so that it ("it" referring to certain snippets of the yelling, plus potential loss of weekend freedom and other bad stuff) pops into my head quite frequently. what i wouldn't give for a memory-erasing machine right now. to be very honest, i'm tired of taking all this rubbish. i had half a mind to scream back, but it probably wouldn't have been good for my ORD date. so...i guess i'll be talking to my OC soon after block leave. wish i could shake the dark cloud hanging over me though. i know it's just me, and i shouldn't worry so much, but i can't help it. ARRGH!!!

ok...around a third of block leave is over. it's actually been a very relaxing 3 to 4 days (discounting the above paragraph). yet, for some reason, i find myself sleeping and waking up pretty early (by civilian standards). should go find ways to screw my body clock up a bit while i can. for now, i'm going off to do some other stuff before sleeping. tomorrow could turn out to be a long day. perfect opportunity to begin upsetting my SAF-moulded sleep cycle.

-random thought of the day: Time to mail Christmas cards!-

The internet is becoming a scarier place. i say this mainly because more of my relatives (the older generation) are joining facebook. now, this is not altogether bad, because it helps us stay in contact, especially with people overseas. but this also means that my "family world" and "friends/social world" are in great danger of colliding. scary thought. makes me almost wish i hadn't signed up in the first place. almost.

i believe i've said this before, but i do wish that i had some significant rank in the SAF. yes, i know i'm not supposed to think about army stuff on block leave, but the reason i'm mentioning this is because the people who enlisted around the same time as me and subsequently went to OCS have just commissioned as officers not too long ago. it's quite depressing, really, especially when you see their photos and congratulatory messages splashed everywhere. but then again, they worked for it, so there's not much i can say. well, i can at least take comfort in the fact that army isn't my career, and it won't mean anything after ORD.

ok...went to do some shopping yesterday, and made a few realizations and purchases. firstly, in line with my savings target, i can only spend around $140. secondly, i've already blown around $40 on christmas cards and the Hairspray soundtrack (more on that later). next, i won't be getting that ipod touch after all...not yet, anyway. you know, a lot of things are all relative. for example, if i had just said i have $140 to spend, you may think that's it's a lot. but when i added that i wanted an ipod touch, it suddenly becomes not that much (and even inadequate) after all. so...yes. perspective matters, quite a lot. just as you can see here. click on the link, and if you can spare an hour and a half, watch the video. i strongly believe it'll change your views about life.

now, about the hairspray soundtrack. i knew it would be good, because i have the DVD, so to me, it's money well spent. i still think John Travolta did a great job in the movie. and who knew Amanda Bynes could sing? only minor little issue i have with the album is that i was hoping for to hear some songs exactly as they were in the movie, but this is evidently not the case. oh well. small problem, easily overlooked.

my schedule has been more or less thrown to the wind. it's now more of a "things to do where some things must be done sooner" list. at this moment, topping that list is writing my christmas cards. i am EXTREMELY behind time. this is, of course, assuming that the last date i can post them before they become late is friday. it seems like a lot of time, doesn't it? 3 and a half days. once again, perspective comes into play. if only you could see the meetings, events, and celebration i have on my list. factoring those in, 3.5 days becomes about 1.5 days? inclusive of sleeping, eating and other entertainment, mind you. so...it's really going to be a mad rush this year. mainly because christmas is so close to the weekend. oh well. time to invoke the last-minute miracle again.

i really should be going...have a dinner appointment tonight, and it wouldn't be nice to be late, wouldn't it? especially when you haven't seen the person you're meeting for close to half a year or more. so...off i go to shower and get ready. until next time then!

-random thought of the day: The Hairspray soundtrack is really addictive.-

"A man was invited to have dinner at his colleague's house after work. As they walked up the driveway, the man saw his friend place both his palms on the branches of a tree growing in his yard before going into the house. Curious, the man asked, "Why did you do that?"

His friend replied, "This is my worry tree. I hang all my worries and problems accumulated through the day on its branches before I go into the house, because the wife and kids don't need to know about any of them, and so that I can fully enjoy my time with my family. Also, for some reason, when I pick my worries back up the next day, most of them will have grown smaller, or disappeared entirely."

i don't know how many people will be familiar with this story, but i remember reading it in either readers' digest or chicken soup for the soul, quite a long time ago. i can't find the original article, so what's up there is reproduced from memory. not 100% accurate, but the gist of the story remains. i think the lesson in this story is especially relevant to me because some friends have highlighted that i'm thinking too much about army, even when in the civilian world. very bad for my health.

for most people, the saying "third time lucky" applies. then again, i'm not "most people". my 3rd extra was by far the worst one in my army life so far. not going to go into details, but it involved staying up until 2am in the office doing stuff. totally ruined my plans, because i didn't finish something quite urgent which i tasked myself to do. still, what's over is over.

anyways, as i mentioned before, i'm not going to brood on army stuff, especially since block leave's beginning! 14 solid, consecutive days out of camp! i've been trying to line up activities in this period of time, and so far, there's been quite limited success. seems like everyone is either in camp, working, having other appointments, or just...unavailable. so looks like i'll be spending a fair bit of time at home, just relaxing. like now. i'll try to update soon, when the need strikes again. one thing's for sure - it'll definitely be sooner than next week.

-random thought of the day: Must go shopping later.-

One down, two extras to go.

this past week was quite sian...it's really no fun booking in on sunday morning. sadly, i'll have to do it again this week in order to bring the extra count down even more.

other than that minor...inconvenience, the week was tolerable, but barely. just routine stuff with a hundredfold increase in stress factor due to auditing. not to mention the 24km route march. to think i was under the impression that i only had to do it once in my NS life. in all fairness, it wasn't THAT bad, but i could certainly do without the resultant aches and pains. luckily we had pre- and post-march sleeping time, so we weren't so fatigued.

actaully, the route march was pretty much the highlight of the week, because i honestly cannot remember much else. maybe it's because i'm trying my best to forget about army stuff when i'm in the civillian world, or i'm just too tired now.

incidentally, today is my one year anniversary in the SAF. it's quite unbelivable that 365 days have passed since i first set foot on tekong and took the "WITH MY LIFE!" oath. but well, it's true, and i'm still here to tell the tale. i'll not talk too much about my experiences/lessons learnt in the army, because i still need to save some material for my end-of-year post. so, readers will be left hanging for the time being.

saturdays are a great source of distraction, happiness, and other non-NS associated stuff. this is especially true when things go your way. like in mahjong, which is turning out to be a semi-regular thing. hopefully, i can keep my winning streak up. so far it's been 2 weeks and counting. won $5 this week. not too bad, but as always, room for more.

i'm actually quite sleepy now. think i'll go off and update again next week, when my block leave starts.

-random thought of the day: I still haven't checked my bank balance yet.-

Despite being shorter than normal, this weekend has had its fair share of interesting experiences.

firstly, the reason i say that it's shorter than normal (even though it's only saturday) is because i'll be booking in tomorrow morning thanks to the 3 extras i got. though i'm not too happy about it, i'll still serve them because i was given the flexibility to choose the dates. so...yes. you can't win them all, and in this case, i'll settle for second-best, because it's better than nothing.

yesterday was one of the most interesting days in my year so far. it's quite an experience to spend $92 on DVDs (the sum was partially offset by that $30 voucher i mentioned previously). as i handed my ATM card to the cashier, i was thinking, 'DAMN!! there goes my savings target.' to make things worse, i called my friend to tell him about the extras i got, and we somehow came to the conclusion that we should grab another friend and go drinking. initially, our budget was supposed to go up to $50 or $60 per person maximum. i will never understand how, through the course of the night, that rose to $85 each. well, at least they paid me back, so that helped to patch up the gaping hole in my wallet. i'm actually quite afraid to check on my account balance, because i think i'll be in for quite an unpleasant surprise. still i'll have to do it sooner or later, probably this afternoon. i'm preparing to be traumatized.

as christmas approaches, i'm suddenly feeling the holiday spirit. it's not that great an influence yet, mind you, because i still have combat shoot and a route march over the next 2 weeks. but looking at my outlook calendar serves to remind me that my block leave is coming, and that i'll have 15 glorious days away from camp. of course, taking a walk in the town area also helped to put me in the mood. i like this year's lights. they're subtler than usual, i think, and that works for me better than the loud red and gold lights that have appeared previously.

well, i don't really have much to say now. guess the prospect of booking in way earlier than usual has killed off my blogging spirit/enthusiasm. not to mention i still must visit the library and get dinner for a friend before i go. sian.

-random thought of the day: 24km route march this coming Thursday. Oh noes!-

Quick update before i go back to camp.

didn't run those errands after all, thanks to the rain. it feels like such a drag going out in wet weather, especially when there's high odds of you getting wet. this means i have to die-die do everything i need to do on friday, because that's the due date of my books, and also the day that the vouchers expire.

which is more important, time or money? the reason i ask that is because i'm sacrificing about an hour of my personal time to book in early, all because i don't want to take public transport. i think it's mainly the convenience factor.

anyways, that's about it. told you it was going to be a quick update. see you all next bookout.

It's been slightly more than a month since my last monday off. luckily for me, the timing of this particular off couldn't have been any better. the main reason i say that is because i realize i still have to run a few errands, which i have put off for quite a while. things like returning library books, spending a voucher from HMV, amongst other stuff. looks like i'll have to step out of the house for an hour or two later in the day.

yesterday was pretty memorable, because i hit my first level 50 in CoH. it's been a long time, but i'm finally there. benefit is i get to mess around a bit more, since my main objective has been fulfilled. and the bragging rights don't hurt either. now, time to decide - what to do next? i feel like creating a sotong (which is another class of hero, not the aquatic animal), or maybe work on some of my existing characters, like my mastermind. oh well, i'll decide on that later.

slightly more than a year has passed since the end of my A-levels. hard to believe that this time last year, i was slacking 24/7. somehow, i don't think the me from last year could have accurately predicted how my army life would turn out.

other than the abovementioned stuff, this weekend wasn't anything out of the ordinary. oh well. i'm suddenly quite gian for mahjong, but the odds of getting people on weekdays are rather slim. besides, if i were to play, i think that would drain what little motivation to book in i possess. ok. planning time. if i go out to do my stuff at 2, i should be back around 4 or 5, which gives me about 3 hours for CoH. quite possible. we'll see how it goes i guess.

-random thought of the day: It's going to be a 3-day week. Please pass fast!-

Looks like i did a pretty good job of forgetting my army troubles. this weekend was more enjoyable than most, largely due to my good mahjong luck, and some other contributing factors.

i'm starting to see a relationship between camp life and mahjong. seems like the more i suffer in camp, the better my luck will be when i play. for instance, after the absolutely lousy time i had in camp last week, i managed to win $13, and diao zheng 5 times consecutively. 2 personal bests in a day! it doesn't seem like much, but remember, i'm not the most pro player in my circle of friends, let alone the earth. so...i guess it's something to be proud about. now, wouldn't it be nice if i could do that all the time? sadly, the one thing i learnt about mahjong is that you can have your moments, but so can your opponents. just have to leave it to fate i guess.

yesterday was the first time i went to my cousin's house in quite a while (around 2 months, if memory serves). things are more or less the same, except that there have been a few changes to a few rooms. and you know what? i really don't know why i'm mentioning this, so let's move on, shall we?

seeing the christmas trees, decorations and lights as i passed by orchard road and the general town area yesterday made me realize how close to christmas it was. too bad the festive mood doesn't seem to be contagious, because i still feel rather subdued.

i had a sudden thought. you know the formula for gravitational force? F=GMm/r^2? it's sort of applicable to places you don't like. the closer you are to them, the worse you feel. of course, you could say the same for a lot of other formulas and situations. kind of pointless, no?

well, i think i've said enough for one post. come to think about it, it's really sad. i hear my friends saying how slack their life is in paya lebar air base, tekong, stagmont camp, and some other places. i could have been like them, but well, i got posted to sungei gedong, and i'm sure you know how the story goes from there. hopefully, i can muster the courage to talk to my OC and tell him about my decision. for now, i'm going to try to enjoy my last few hours of freedom before i go back in.

-random thought of the day: I think I'd rather take A-levels another time than serve NS.-

"Sir, would you support my decision if i told you i didn't want to do admin work any more?"

various forms of the same question have been popping up in my mind for the past week or two, but i only decided to voice it out yesterday. i haven't actually done it yet, because this is the single most mentally exhausting week in my NS life. i have had just about enough of doing meaningless stuff. why meaningless? because once i finish something, the format will change and i'll have to do it again. it's tolerable the first few times (depending on the task) but now, it's getting tiresome. oddly though, it doesn't seem so bad once i'm out of camp.

i think i have to familiarize myself with the SAF directives and stuff like that, because i get the feeling that someone is taking advantage of me. of course, it could be because we've just shifted and everything needs to be set up again, but i don't remember being this busy even when the guys came in. oh well. i think i'll talk it over with my other superiors and see whether a compromise can be reached.

route marches are getting rather uninteresting. and painful, let's not forget that. wearing boots over your blisters is really not good. hopefully they clear up over the weekend, because 16km is next thursday.

facebook really is amazing. while idly browsing, i've found out that some officers and specs in my unit have profiles there. not that surprising for NSFs, but regulars? captains and majors? stunning. i'm so tempted to go up to them and say, "hey sir! i found you on facebook!". i wonder...is it a worthwhile trade? potential 7 extras just to see the expression on their faces. don't think i'll be crazy enough to try. it's entertaining though, reading through their profiles. lucky i didn't find any blackmail material. heh.

anyways, it's the weekend, and i'm temporarily a civillian for around 2 days. so, i shall put my little bundle of worries in a dark, forgotten corner (probably where my homework from 10 years ago still lies) and only look at it again when i'm about to book in. with any luck, it'll shrink by itself. or maybe i'll be so good at forgetting and it'll remain there until i ORD.

-random thought of the day: I'm liking army less and less.-

More than half of my to-do list has been done, so i guess you could say that the last 2 days have been quite productive. to a large extent, the stuff on that list are things that i've been wanting/needing to do for a very long time, which brings a more-than-usual sense of satisfaction when i do do them.

went back to school today to collect my A-level certificate. i must say, i'm quite impressed with the folder i got. it looks so professional! i'm rather amused whenever i read my testimonials. personally, i feel that they're quite exaggerated. call me modest. heh. sadly, i still feel that slight pang of regret when i see my C for maths, and band 3 for PW. they're the 2 things that screwed up an otherwise decent-looking set of results. still, i have to lan lan, as nothing i do can change that. all i can do is hope my prospective employer/interviewer focuses on the AAB A2 instead.

swimming was interesting, to say the least. prior to this, it was 8 months ago when i last stepped into a pool. took a little while to get accustomed to the fluid dynamics again, but it was generally ok...except for this sharp pain in my lower back when i got out of the water. it's all but gone now, but it sure was scary then. i have my theories on how it developed, but let's not bore anyone to death here, shall we? one thing still puzzles me, and that is how competitive swimmers can hit such high speeds in water. guess i generate more drag force as opposed to them. oh well. physics of fluids has never been my forte.

most of the other stuff is pretty mundane. i mean, how fun can checking up on driving, ipods and a university be? ok, i'll admit checking out the ipod was pretty cool, but the other 2 were pretty unremarkable. if there's one thing i can conclude from my research, it's that i'm going to be quite short of money in the coming year. this is, of course, taking my savings target into account and making necessary concessions. even then, cash flow's still going to be restricted.

well, 2 days gone, 2 more to go. life is on the verge of becoming sian, but i shall not complain, because anything is better than being in camp. aside from those mentioned above, there haven't really been any interesting experiences. on an unrelated thought, 6 months in gedong down, another 13 more to go! now tell me, is that supposed to provide motivation or cause despair?

-random thought of the day: I really really need a new template.-

Perhaps i was a little too optimistic about this week.

though the working week was only 2 days long, certain factors made it a pretty bad week. what surprised me was that people were asking about my well-being, which was a first for me so far in camp. in essence, i relived my experience of setting up an office, but this office requires more stuff than the previous one. in addition, i don't have the luxury of taking things slow like i did last time, because the company is (or rather has been) up and running already. so...yes. the past 2 days haven't been that fun. and the fun forecast for the upcoming period is not looking good either.

on the much brighter side, there's 4.5 days of holiday! at the point of writing this post, 0.5 days has been sacrificed for rest and relaxation already, so that's an effective 4 more days to go! this is my idea of a planned week, one where you're out of camp more often than you're in. anyways, one (out of many) bad habit(s) i notice i have is that i make a lot of plans, then abandon them due to lack of time. so, to act as a reminder, i'm going to list down the things i want to do over the next 4 days. they are as follows, in no particular order:

- go swimming

- go shopping for some army essentials

- meet up with T20 guys (tentative)

- catch a movie (tentative)

- go for an evening walk

- borrow some books from the library (eragon?)

- get in touch with old cat high friends

- do research on the ipod touch

- play mahjong!

- get in touch with NUS (if they're open)

- collect my A-level certificate (provided the school's open, and they haven't trashed it yet.)

- research driving lessons and consider my options

- write (as in pen/pencil on paper type of writing)

- go to east coast (tentative)

- anything else which i may have forgotten at present

i must be quite ambitious to make such an extensive list, but certain points can be combined, like "go for an evening walk" and "go to east coast", forming "go for an evening walk at east coast". there are other possibilities, i'm sure, but i won't go into them. hopefully i get all of the items done.

today was quite a satisfying day. went to seletar camp for the engineer formation healthy lifestyle day or something like that. long story short, it just meant running 7.2km in less than 50 minutes. nothing unachievable, because if i can do it, everyone else in my unit can. AETC also took home quite a number of prizes, which made my RSM a happy man. only minor downside was that my shoes got extremely wet before and during the run. luckily, i brought my book-out shoes, so that helped quite a lot.

well, that's about it. pretty long post for such a short week. i'll most likely update a few more times over my 4-day break, so...stay tuned, i guess.

-random thought of the day: In case I don't update tomorrow, it's my 6 month anniversary in Sungei Gedong!-

Just like that, my slackest 2 or 3 weeks in sungei gedong are over. now that certain people are back in singapore, my quality of life could go down really quickly.

a few significant events happened this week. first is bunk shifting. now that the new block is completed, we (obviously) have to move in. spent monday night moving the bunk, and thursday moving the office. both are not easy tasks, trust me on that. the major change is that i'm sleeping on the third floor now, and with 6 other guys, instead of on the second floor with only 2 others. it'll take some getting used to, but it's nothing i haven't done before. as for the office, it's pretty much still no-man's land, seeing as we're not fully done with the organizing and all that. but my first impression is that it's a little too narrow, and the architect probably didn't plan carefully enough when designing it. still, i'll be there for most of the next year and a bit. better get used to it. the biggest drawback i have experienced so far is that it takes an extra 5 minutes to book out, since the new blocks are located even further back in the camp.

another event this week is range. since i passed my ATP earlier in the year, i didn't have to participate. lucky for the rest of the guys, since i think it would probably have rained all day if i went for the shoot. anyways, my job was mainly to plant myself at the ammo point and load magazines/oversee drawing of ammo/generally make myself useful. if there's one thing i took away from this range, it would be that there is a distinct difference between SSG and MSG. past experience from BMT shows that MSGs are generally nicer, even though they're higher ranking. odd but true. guess SSGs have to re-learn how to be nice in order to be eligible for promotion. moving back to the topic of range, the feedback was that this range was one of the worst that the unit has seen. only 1 out of 97 firers got marksman, which is really quite sad.

i'm really getting quite tired of office work. sometimes, i wish i could be thrown into a platoon. sure, the training may be tougher, but it wouldn't require thinking at all. just do, and if things screw up, it's becuase your superior is incompetent (assuming you follow the instruction exactly). but then again, being in the company HQ comes with some privileges which make life in camp more bearable. so...as usual, it boils down to pros of one vs. cons of the other. at present, i'm still pretty undecided on the issue. maybe something which will help me make up my mind will happen in the future. until then, i'll live with it.

i think i'll end off here for the time being, as i cannot really think of anything significant at this point of time.

-random thought of the day: Fridays off are good.-

So much for this week being slacker than the last...if anything, this week was the most physical one in sungei gedong to date. the thing about having a guardsman as your army chief is that suddenly, the army's very health- and fitness-conscious; more so than before. as a result, we're now running every single day of the week. it's 3km most of the time, but tuesdays and fridays are 5km. nothing i can't get used to, though i must admit the first few days were a little rough.

over this past week, my respect for my OC has increased drastically (again), all thanks to a little conversation i heard. not going to say what the conversation was about, but it involves fairness/equailty.

route march this past thursday was quite nostalgic, considering that my last route march was about 7 months ago. i guess i haven't been marching for too long, because after the whole thing, i discovered 3 blisters on my legs, close to the heel. my feet need to re-acclimatize. other than that, it wasn't really that bad. and the barbeque function after that sort of made it better too.

yesterday was a little depressing. lost at mahjong again. $5 or $6...i can't remember. but well...consolation is, i'm not the biggest loser, who lost 4 to 5 times more than me. it's kind of exciting, yet annoying to be waiting for the last card. exciting is when you get it, annoying is when you don't. i think i need more practice/exposure.

anyways, next week should pass faster than this one, which seemed to crawl by. 1 day of IMT, 2 days of range (all not for me!), and bunk shifting. hopefully it'll be so fast i don't notice it.

-random thought of the day: My 3 slackest weeks in camp are over...-

Today is the third consecutive monday i've been on off. i really could get used to this, but then again, i think this will be my last monday off in a couple of months. the reason i got this particular day off was because i spent yesterday at poyan range, watching (or rather listening to) people blow stuff up, and feeding mosquitoes (as usual). quite a sian way to spend sunday, really.

it's hard to believe that almost a year ago, i was busy preparing for the A-levels. i can't even remember most of the econs theories and maths formula any more. looks like i need to do some serious catch-up work after ORD-ing.

life is all about cycles, from day to night, the change of seasons, everything moves in a circle. sooner or later, people get influenced and even their lives begin to follow a set pattern. the reason i say this is because i realize that something odd happens to me every mid-october. though there are about 2 more months until the end of the year, ideas for my year-end post will come to mind almost every day. more often than not, they are repetitions, but new ideas do come in once a week on average. as much as i would love to launch into what these ideas are right now, i can't, because the standard time for that is on the evening of 31 december. so...i guess the readers will be kept in suspense until then.

this coming week is supposedly quite slack. with my CSM still in australia, i can see why. but then, we'll be moving into the new building, so it may require a fair bit of physical exertion. not to forget, there's a 4km route march on thursday. i can't believe i was naive enough to think i saw the last of route marches after BMT. oh well. hopefully things go well this week.

-random thought of the day: I don't want to book in!-

"N" is for "nineteen", which is what i am today...

yes, as the above line says, i turn 19 today. it's kind of a scary thought, because this is the last year my age will begin with the number 1. it's a sign of aging, but as they say, another year older, another year wiser. so...that's ok (right?). anyways, here's a big thank you to everyone who has sent birthday wishes through friendster, facebook (i succumbed to temptation and signed up after all), SMS, and all other means.

you know, this post was nearly late. for some reason, starhub decided to do some maintenance work, and the modem was behaving oddly for the majority of the day. in the end, things worked out, because i realized the TV wasn't screwing up, and thus guessed that the internet was ok too. that's why you see this post in front of you now.

today didn't go quite according to plan. by right, i was supposed to go run a few errands, maybe buy something for myself, but as you may have guessed, all that didn't happen. i'll have to do all that stuff tomorrow.

for some reason, i feel "written out", i.e. nothing else left to say. as such, i shall end off here and see when inspiration next strikes.

-random thought of the day: Thai food isn't all that bad.-

My feet are seriously killing me. the left one, in particular, is quite badly blistered and feeling quite raw. it's probably time for me to see the MO in camp to get some status. then i can get him to look at the other cuts, abrasions and assorted insect bites i have at the same time.

so...like i said previously, quite a few interesting events have happened between then and this post. let's start off with saturday. since i had the great fortune of booking out on a friday, i was able to make it to the morning turf city gathering. maybe it was because of the dinner later on in the day, but attendance was higher than usual. after the gathering, we went back for a round of mahjong. for once, i made money! ok, so it was only $2.60, but it's an improvement over previous times. i realize that odd as it is, what my friends say is true. you fare better at mahjong when you play faster and don't think too deeply. sort of a "follow your heart/instincts" thing. now, i just have one little doubt, which is about the "bao" concept. hopefully i don't have to learn through experience, because that way, i won't really be doing my wallet any favours.

thanks to meticulous planning and great timing, we arrived at the meritus mandarin for the cat high dinner with plenty of time to spare. the meritus mandarin is a place i'm rather familiar with, since both my secondary school and JC held their graduation dinner/prom there as well. so...the sense of novelty was sort of missing. nevertheless, the school spirit and closeness was still strong (we sang the school song twice!), and as an added bonus, i met some friends and juniors there. that took me completely by surprise, because i wasn't expecting to see anyone near my age at all (except the guys at my table). in addition, i also spotted a few familiar faces at the teachers' and retired teachers' tables. as i told Mrs. Chaillan (as i've mentioned before, say "shay-lon"), it's a wonderful feeling when teachers can recall your name quickly on the spot, with no prompting whatsoever. only thing is, she took it a step further and remembered my class too, all the way from sec 1 to sec 4. amazing, especially since i graduated 2 years and 10 months ago. some other teachers i met included both Mr. Gohs from the PE department (who remember me as well), Mrs. Tan, my lower secondary science teacher (likewise) and Mrs. Long (who knows me from bowling). didn't get chosen for the lucky draw this time round, though. kind of sucks when you get chosen and the condition is to guess the price of a DVD player, but nobody calls your name when there are no strings attached.

was feeling quite tired after the dinner (mostly due to the 2 bottles of wine at our table), so i crashed over at a friend's place. we ended up going to BK for breakfast the next day (the second time in 2 weeks). the stuff they have there isn't half bad actually. in fact, i'd say it's pretty good. following that, we went for a walk to the computer games shop to look for Overlord. very sadly, they were all out of stock, which means i may have to plan a trip to funan to get it soon.

had dinner at Botak Jones yesterday. it's most definitely a different experience, and it was also the first time i have seen anyone spend above $15 at a hawker centre. i think i'll be going back there again soon, though i can't say exactly when, unpredictable schedule and all.

well, i think that summed up my most happening weekend in the past...2 months or so. i'm hoping that the next most happening weekend will happen (excuse the lameness) sometime soon, though that particular stand may change, depending on activities in camp.

on an unrelated thread, i'm suddenly thinking of starting a facebook account. only problem is, as people who know me for some time will have probably guessed, i have this...reluctance to post pictures of myself online. yes, i have friendster, but there's no picture of me on my profile. so...i'm still undecided. luckily this isn't a really pressing issue.

incidentally, today is the one-year anniversary since i switched from tagboard to cbox. you probably can't tell, judging from the number of messages, but i thought i'd just say something about it, in case i need reminders in the future.

this coming week could turn out to be the best one i've had in AETC, and probably in my time in the SAF, mainly because i'm only working 2 days. today is off, and i'm taking leave (which was originally supposed to be off, but oh well) on wednesday and thursday. thus, i'm effectively only spending tuesday and friday in camp. the odds of getting into trouble is thus reduced 60%. also, since important people are going to australia for wallaby, that further reduces it by 50%. so, assuming there is a 30% chance of me receiving anything bad in any given week, the probability that something bad will happen this particular week is...6%, which i reckon is pretty good odds. of course, they could summon me back to camp in the middle of my leave, but let's not give them any ideas. at this point of time, i guess that i've proabably bored most of the readers to either sleep or tears, so i'll end off here.

-random thought of the day: I'm not much of a wine person-

Been too busy to blog for the past 2 weeks, so i'll try to lengthen this post as much as possible.

Last Week

had CD (chemical defence) training on monday and tuesday. to me, it's quite a hassle to remember the drills and decontaminate everything once every 20 seconds or so, and having a really scary MSG as your instructor doesn't really improve your odds. lucky i'm not in 39 SCE. standing in the smoke chamber was a pretty interesting experience. despite what others said about ears burning and all that, i felt quite comfortable until i had to remove my mask. i still find it quite amazing that gas can be that irritating to the eyes and nose. had fun being ultimate warrior and shaking the fence like crazy. all in all, not an experience i want to repeat that soon, if at all.

after the CD training, i had a rather nasty confrontation with a 3SG from my company. i honestly can say i'm liking him less and less. three stripes is not that big a deal. remember what i said a few months ago about basic respect and all that? well, he still can't get my name right. there are some things i wish i could say or do to him, but most of them would result in me being charged or jailed, so i'll tolerate until he goes off in may next year.

nothing really that remarkable happened after that, though time did seem to pass rather slowly. got screwed over quite badly (read: in full view of almost everyone) for some inconsequential thing which was partially linked to the above incident, but things were ok after that. finished a book in camp too. quite productive.

This Previous Week
this week can be summed up as, as i've taken to saying recently, "face green green". it's a phrase which has been directly translated from hokkien/chinese, which means that a person is flustered/busy/swamped in work. i am thankful that that doesn't apply literally, because i went outfield with alpha to support their ETEP. the original plan was for me to be attached to a platoon, and be a participant in the exercise (i.e. camo on, FBO, the whole package). but thanks to my OC's timely intervention, i was pushed to be chief safety...'s signaller. i really love that guy. he's got me out of more potentially inconvenient situations than i care to remember. so, all i did was monitor the radio for any cries of help or distress. thankfully, there weren't any. one drawback about being a safety signaller (or medic, or safety anything, really) is that you don't get to sleep all that much at night.

still, the 3 days and 4 nights are up, and i'm back at home. so, no hard feelings for this particular outfield. as support personnel, my role is naturally slacker, but i've still managed to walk (limp?) away with quite a badly blistered left foot. even green grass oil doesn't seem to be working its usual miracle. maybe it's because the blisters came on top of existing unhealed ones from bold sappers. i'm happy though, that i got about 25 mosquito bites total this time round, as compared to the 100+ from the previous exercise. SAF repellent is really good stuff.

turns out my ops spec decided to postpone his operation, so we're at almost full strength again. that's good, because we'll be needing all the manpower we can get these couple of months.

Present
well, it's just past 12:00am. time for me to get some sleep, i think. tomorrow is definitely a long and interesting day, what with mahjong and the cat high anniversary dinner. i'll blog about it after it actually happens. until then, goodbye.

-random thought of the day: Tired.-

Now that the previous week is over, i can safely say it was almost as bad as i'd expected.

monday was reasonably ok, with the COC parade (which i didn't participate in). it was pretty interesting, as it was the first parade i've seen to involve vehicles. as for the rest of the week, i was either rushing around until face green green, or being annoyed so much until face black black, literally, because i had to camo on again. as for the exercise itself, it was reasonably ok. my job wasn't that hard, but outfield is tiring, since you sleep 5 hours average per night. still, the exercise was completed with nothing missing, everyone intact and still functioning. as an added bonus, the new CO seems to think we did well, so that's good for us. only drawback to the whole thing is that i have several irritating ailments, such as close to (if not more than) 100 mosquito bites all over my body, most of them in uncomfortable areas, along with a few blisters and assorted other stuff. should clear up in a few weeks' time.

this weekend felt a bit more normal-paced than previous ones, though it was packed with activities. turf city, mahjong, getting rather drunk and a movie, all in one day. seems like my mahjong luck has improved a little, as i wasn't the biggest loser for once (though i still lost). oh well. one step at a time. next target, break even.

as for the movie, we went to watch Balls of Fury. despite great anticipation, it turned out to be a little short of my expectations. most of the jokes were rather lame, though there were genuinely funny bits. my final verdict? don't watch it unless you're really bored and need some brainless entertainment.

well, i think that's all for this rather brief post. the coming week should be slacker than the previous one (i hope and pray with all my heart). i highly doubt it though, what with the ops spec going for an operation and subsequent 6 weeks' medical leave, leaving 2 people to hold the fort for that time.

oh. one last thing. i heard this song a while ago, and thought i'd share it, because it's kind of meaningful.

Lee Ann Womack - I Hope You Dance
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat, but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance,
I hope you dance (dance), I hope you dance (dance)

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin’ might mean takin’ chances, but they're worth takin’
Lovin’ might be a mistake but it's worth makin’
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out, reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance,
I hope you dance... (time is a wheel in constant motion always)
I hope you dance... (rolling us along)
I hope you dance... (tell me who wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
I hope you dance... (where those years have gone)

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance,
dance (dance)I hope you dance (dance),
I hope you dance... (dance) (time is wheel in constant motion always)
I hope you dance...(rolling us along)
I hope you dance (dance) (tell me who wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
I hope you dance.. (dance)(where those years have gone)
(tell me (dance) who wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
(where (dance) those years have gone)

-random thought of the day: I think I may have forgotten a few points for this post.-

This particular weekend seemed to pass faster than usual...and i don't know why.

well, i didn't really do that much with my 2 days of freedom, just stay at home, do some gaming, catch up on reading and sleep, sleep some more, watch a movie, and blog. nothing really that exciting. in fact, you might even call it a little mundane. but as i've said before, how fun can life get when you only really live 2 days of your week?

now about the movie i watched (it's Ratatouille, by the way. and i'm amazed i can spell that without consulting a dictionary). it's a nice show, good animation and all that. but the thing that really got me (aside from the cute rat) was the message behind the whole tale. in essence, the moral of this story is that greatness/talent/skills (whatever you call it) can be found in the most unlikely places, and that people should not let their talent be restricted by their appearance, social standing, or any other factor. in fact, people should chase their dreams, even if it means making sacrifices. i can't really provide corroborating evidence for these statements without spoiling the story, so i guess you'll have to take my word for it for now. though if anyone has any doubts, i'd be happy to discuss them privately. i'd give this movie a pretty high rating, and i'm definitely getting the DVD.

i saw one of those predict-your-character-from-your-birthday things in my email. since my birthday is october 17, it says my tree is the maple tree, and i have the following characteristics:

personally, i think most of it is true, though i know people who would disagree with the "good memory" part (i'm in the army! how good can my memory be!!?). but "proud" sounds so negative. and i don't know how to take it in a positive light. someone care to enlighten me?

visiting one of my friend's blogs has made me chance upon this rather interesting piece of text. "unfortunately i feel that i've become more cynical over the months seeing first hand how the organization works. as much as i try to make full use of my time there, one can't help but feel stifled and suppressed in an organization where rank is everything and other things are secondary to that, a place where there is no appreciation for extra effort, only disciplinary action. its things like this that make you just want to do the bare minimum possible, to cover your ass so to speak." as you see, nothing is quite as perfect as it appears to be. and yet, we carry on serving. heh. i think i was way more optimistic and positive when i was a recruit. not to mention life was way easier too.

but also, as i myself have written about 10 months ago, "just another 2 weeks. that's all. i can survive this. why? because i'm pro. simple as that. right? of course. as you can see, self-affirmation is the key here. we all need encouragement once in a while, no?" this was during A-level period, when i was feeling rather demoralized. i guess it applies in my NS life too, all i have to do is replace the 2 weeks with 15 months, which is approximately 30 times more.

met an old friend today at j8. he's in the NDU now, which means he should be extremely fit, and suffering a lot. now that i've been in AETC for about a third of a year, the drive to be more active has more or less evaporated (along with a large proportion of my fitness, i think). i really should exercise more, but it's hard when you leave the office no earlier than 10 pm.

well, that's just about everything i want to say. there's still quite a few things i have to do before sleeping to save time tomorrow, as i cannot afford to be late. next week is not looking good. COC, exercise in the later half of the week, plus other potential negative stuff makes it a very dangerous week to be in camp. wish i could take leave, or at least become invisible.

-random thought of the day: I really do need a new template/layout.-

Falling sick on a weekend is totally not fun, especially when it takes up your book-out timing. but as you've probably guessed, i'm on MC today, so i can't really say anything about it. anyway, i've been throwing up quite a fair bit (thank goodness that's stopped) and generally feeling more dead than alive. still, i think i'll make it back to camp tonight with no major mishap.

so, as my previous post said, i'll be blogging about quite a few things today. first on the list is evan almighty. it's not a bad movie, but i still think its prequel was better. maybe it's because bruce almighty referenced more biblical stuff, whereas evan almighty only took material from the noah story. nevertheless, it had its good points (like the 40 year-old virgin reference), and i really enjoyed seeing morgan freeman play god again.

next on the list is victor's. while i did go for the party, i didn't bring a camera with me. luckily, one of my seniors did, and i may upload some of the photos that were taken once i get hold of them. i think the organizers did a great job with the whole event, because they did it in such a way that it focused on remembering the good times, rather than on the sadness of the place closing. there was a nice powerpoint presentation, with music and commentary, a fun bowling session (moonlight bowling too!), dinner, and most importantly, catching up with all the staff. it was...bittersweet, in a way, because it was probably the last time everyone would be gathered together like that. though it may not be physically there any more, victor's will always be special to me. as a commemorative token, i took away a bowling pin with several signatures. i can't decide which is the most important (as they all have sentimental value), but i think the FIQ president's atuograph ought to rank up there somewhere, no?

demolition live firing this past thursday (my mistake for saying wednesday in the last post) was kind of unspectacular, mainly because i spent most of my time at the waiting area. even though i was so far away, i still felt the shockwaves from some of the explosions. this particular live firing was harder on me, mainly because i had to lay lines since radios weren't allowed. and i learnt a very important lesson, which is to tape up all joints properly, because getting cut on D-10 cable really hurts. but it was a good experience, as i got to fully unroll all 4 reels of line and to check them for faults. it was fruitful too, as i did manage to find and repair a break in the cables. so now, all my reels are fault-free. yays.

mahjong night got cancelled under fear of possible confinement, so there's not much to say about that. only thing worth mentioning is that there'll be a potential reschedule to an upcoming weekend in the near future.

september 11 this year was rather unremarkable. maybe it's because we don't really commemorate it in singapore. either that or it's because it's been 6 whole years already. even the newspapers are saying that it's time to let go a bit, like making memorial services simpler and shorter. i'm not particularly affected, so no comment here.

T20 had a dinner/gathering thing this past saturday. only about a quarter to a third of the total strength came. kind of sad, but still good to see old buddies. most of them that enlisted in january have now passed out from sispec and vocational training, meaning that they are now wearing 3 stripes on their arms, and are outranking me by a good 2 ranks. i guess it's the inferiority/annoying thing kicking in again. luckily, they behave the same way as i remember them in JC. it's good to have friends who are serving together with you, though it will suck when they ORD a month earlier. also, i've heard that 2 of them have crossed over from SISPEC to OCS. i swear, they make it look so easy.

well, it's just about time for me to stop. i'm still supposed to book in later, though i'm not sure of the time. the coming week looks ok, though it's next week that will kill me.

-random thought of the day: 63 more weeks...-

9 months already? not quite. more like 9 months and a day. that's how long i've been in NS. things are still tolerable, though i believe certain people don't have to shout for/at me all the time.

i've been doing some calculations recently. no, nothing like integration or vectors, but simple addition and subtraction to find out how much disposable income i'm actually getting. assuming my salary never increases, and i get $500 a month, it becomes about $470 after those SAF deductions. i (try to) save $300, spend $30 on transport and $60 on food, necessities, and other non-special things. that means that $80 can be spent on whatever i feel like buying. reasonable deal, actually. and when i ORD, i should have minimum $4500 in my account, excluding whatever's in there now. my financial situation isn't too bad, actually. makes me wonder how people can be out of money a week after pay day, especially when their pay's higher than mine. then again, i don't blow hundreds per night on drinking, so to each his own i guess.

victor's is closing down. the farewell party's on 14 september, which is this coming friday. i feel kind of sad that they're going for good and not relocating elsewhere. but then again, it's kind of odd to imagine victor's being anywhere else other than marina south. from sec 1 to J2, i went there at least 5 times a year, be it for training or assistant coaching, or even just to bowl socially with some buddies. so, i guess it's rather obvious that i'll miss the place. i'm thinking of getting a camera and taking photos, but something (mainly the fact that i don't have a camera) tells me otherwise. oh well. we'll find out on the day itself.

due to a-levels and NS, it's been around a full year since i went for the saturday turf city gatherings. so i finally went down yesterday. things haven't changed that much. i'm STILL the youngest, we still feel pretty comfortable around each other, and the food's the same too. it's nice to do something together with other old boys. i guess school ties transcend generations...sort of.

despite not being in a real blogging mood, i'm surprised i managed to drag this post to this length. as a reminder, next week i may blog about september 11, demolition live firing (which will take place this coming wednesday), the victor's party, possibly mahjong night, my buddies who became specs and more. right now, i have to get ready for book in, because my entire company is supposed to book in at 8:00 pm, thanks to the "certain people" mentioned above.

-random thought of the day: Panic buttons are fun.-

As much as i wish i could honestly say that time is flying and that i am thoroughly enjoying myself, i can't. because i'd never be able to live with telling such a big lie.

i don't know why, but i'm feeling some tension between me and my CSM. probably both parties are to blame, but i guess it's me more than him. he's kind of a nice guy, except when he asks you to do something that someone else has already done beforehand. it results in duplication of effort and wastage of time. but, as he rightly puts it, no matter how unhappy i am, i have to lan lan and do it anyway, because he's older and higher ranking. so oh well.

went to the army open house today. it was...ok i guess. nothing i haven't really seen before, except for the large numbers of commandos and guardsmen. way cool. a part of me still wishes to wear the brown beret. anyway, the exhibits were pretty interesting, especially the signals, air force and MP ones. i finally got to play with a working 900A set, which is something relatively unheard of in my camp. and it felt good to talk to some of the SI staff. signallers tend to be more comfortable around people with the same vocation.

while taking the MRT home, i was doing something all NSFs love to do, namely, counting down the days to significant milestones. next on my list is my 9th month of service, which falls on september 8th. it's always good to have something to look forward to. in the process of counting, i found out that i have another 60+ weeks left to serve. subtracting leave, off and weekends, that works out to about less than a year of workdays. yays. motivation.

speaking of leave, it turns out that i wasn't granted compassionate leave to attend the wake. the 3 days came out of my leave balance, and this means i have 7 days of leave left to claim. while i'm not too happy with this...way of doing things, the leave directive does state that compassionate leave MAY (not WILL) be granted, so i can't complain. besides, it would be unfair to the other guys who had their leave deducted for similar reasons. so...it's up to me to spread 7 days over 3 months. assuming that we aren't forced to take block leave, i plan to burn 2 to 3 days in october for my birthday, and the remainder over the christmas/new year period in december. the one thing that i can't understand is why i only have 10 days of leave left. i took 2 days' block leave after my POP, fair enough. what about the other 2? maybe one over the CNY period, but that still leaves one outstanding. my guess is that it was used up in BMT, and i probably don't remember it now. so oh well. i can live with 7 days of leave.

it's been exactly 10 years since Princess Diana died. i remember that they were running news programs, documentaries and loads of other stuff for quite a while. at that time, i didn't really understand what the big fuss was about (i was a primary 3 kid then). 10 years on, i have a slightly better idea about why it was such a big deal.

for some reason, i feel the need to be isolated for quite a while. too much human interaction makes me want to withdraw into a little corner for some "me time". i think it's because i haven't made my annual trip to east coast this year (LIVE day doesn't count). i really do need to get away from it all. maybe on one of my off days next week or something. heh. enough living in the future. time to come back to the present and enjoy my weekend.

-random thought of the day: Prince William has his father's nose.-

Booking out on wednesday morning is a pretty new experience.

i haven't been in camp for close to 3 days already, reason being my grandfather passed away on tuesday night. quite stunning initially, but well, it's just about sunk in already. that's all 4 grandparents departed. to think i thought that they would at least see me enter university. this particular passing doesn't really hit me that hard, because i was more or less mentally prepared for it to happen within the year. so...like i said earlier, came out of camp, then went down to marine parade to attend the wake. maybe its because i didn't spend enough time there or something, but i felt rather extra. or it could be because i wasn't too close to this particular grandfather for the past 8 years.

the problem about not blogging for too long is that you want to cover all the events with details which will usually have escaped the confines of your mind already. for instance, the fireworks festival held a little more than a week ago. the gist of it is that i had to rush from camp to home, then down to the esplanade, where i played the roles of OC's runner and information counter to the public. i swear, singaporeans must think they're the only ones on the island who will buy tickets for a fireworks show. the vast majority of them refused to believe that the mass of queueing people were also ticket holders. one girl (my guess is that she's any age from 15 to 19) went so far as to ask 3 times. i swear, if i wasn't in no. 4, i'd have a few choice words (phrases? sentences? paragraphs?) for her. also, i don't understand why people can't wait to hear my answer, especially when they're asking the same question. i repeated the directions into the floating platform so many times, i can still remember them now.

as for the show itself, to quote someone important, "if i paid $8 for the ticket, came here and queued for 3 hours just to see that, i would say..." what he would say is for me to know and for you to find out, though i assure you, it's nothing pleasant.

went outfield with alpha the week before. as a signaller, i never thought i'd have to hear the words "camo on" again, let alone have them apply to me. but then, fate doesn't like me, so i dutifully camo-ed on and joined the rest of the guys. i am infinitely grateful that my vocation is signaller, and not armoured pioneer. my outfield duty is so much more slack than theirs, unless i have to lay lines. i must admit though, it was fun to sit in the bronco, especially when you have a pretty skilled driver who hits speeds of around 40 km/h.

so far, life has been manageable, no major incidents, except for a toner issue. but hey, it was inevitable anyway, just that it happened sooner as opposed to later. it's already august. another 15+ months to go. you know what would make me really happy? if it was august 2008 now.

-random thought of the day: Funerals are held more for the living than for the dead.-

Happiness does not go together with national day. not for me, at least. for the past few years, national day has been either uneventful or painful (think gastric flu while watching the NDP). so, i think it's understandable if i don't like it all that much. apparently, there are fewer flags flying as opposed to last year. guess people aren't too happy about the GST increase.

this year, the combat engineers organized the NDP. since i'm part of the engineer formation, i got roped in to help. we didn't do anything that glorious, like march in the parade. we're more behind-the-scenes, giving away flags, caps, and stars that light up and make noise. i swear, if there's one magic word that will turn even the nicest singaporean into a bloodthirsty vulture, it's "free", which is only behind "limited edition" and "in high demand". there was already a crowd gathering when we were unloading and moving our stores. the moment we opened the boxes, they started crowding around and grabbing whatever they could. it got so bad that we had to stop distribution and get the police to step in. amazing, isn't it?

amidst the chaos, i noticed that there are a few different categories of people that will rush for free stuff. they are, from tolerable to worst:

1. the harmless one: mostly foreigners and/or senior citizens. they'll ask, and leave quietly when you say you're out of stock. occasionally makes you feel bad for turning them away, especially if they're above 50 years old.

2. kids: may or may not be under direction from their parents. mostly harmless if you're nice to them. 100% singaporean.

3. the harmless, persistent one: he'll ask, but will only leave after confirming 5 times or more. mostly singaporean.

4. the silent one: sticks his hand out, takes the toy, and leaves. completely zero human interaction. comprises of male citizens, with the odd tai-tai thrown in.

5. the one with kids: usually female, they'll use their crying kids to incite feelings of guilt. easily shaken off if you're firm enough. malay people form the majority here.

6. the persistent one with kids: ...you get the idea. mostly chinese citizens (i.e. from china).

7. the repeater: will queue once, hide their freebie, and queue again. quickly deterred if you're observant. also mainly chinese citizens, but singaporeans are guilty too.

8. the bao-ka-liao one: takes as much as he/she can carry, and asks for additional stuff not in the bargain, like cardboard to sit on. can be persistent, though not all are. chinese citizens and malays are most prone to this behaviour.

9. the unreasonable one: this particular one refuses to hear you out and will stand there until you call for reinforcements. usually harmless, but extremely irritating. requires patience to not come off as rude. chinese citizens too. wow.

10. the violent one: will push barricades, kids and adults alike down to get their hands on the free merchandise. usually met with great disapproval from the public. very prone to shouting after being embarassed. may require police intervention.

in particular, one case stands out. we had cordoned off a passageway (with police tape, no less) for quick transport of stores. one malay guy, kid in tow, pushed his way past the NCSS volunteers who were guarding the entrance. when he tried to get out of the tunnel, he was met with one platoon's strength of people blocking his way. he then proceeded to shout, be generally unpleasant, and act like it wasn't his fault, holding his kid all the while. damn, with influences like that, that kid's going to be in jail bfore he hits puberty. i was sorely tempted to present him with a few choice words, most starting with F, A, C, P, Y, or K (happy guessing), but then, coming from a guy with the NDP shirt, that could lead to much more bad publicity. so...tolerance and common sense won out. i wish i had at least given him the finger though.

it's funny how the celebration of the nation's birthday can bring the worst out of its people. i swear, we need to reduce, if not eliminate, the kiasu mindset. it is, at the same time, one of our common shared "values"/identifying factors and also our greatest weakness.

as per the preview, the parade was barely visible. only caught the parachuters and fireworks. nothing i haven't seen before in the preview, so it lost some of its magic. after the parade, city hall station was jam-packed, so i took a walk to dhoby ghaut. it's amazing how a 2-minute journey by train can stretch to 30 minutes on foot. well, it's good exercise, so i can't complain.

my recent experiences with taxi drivers haven't been that fantastic. it's mostly because my camp is so ulu, and they haven't heard of it. even then, isn't it their job to take us to our destination? i think singapore's the only country where a taxi driver will get annoyed with you if you can't give specific, precise directions or descriptions. to top things off, they have a virtual map/GPS thing, which remains mysteriously unused. so...i guess this is motivation for me to learn how to drive, and to get a car.

outfield with alpha company next week. oh noes. their OC totally depressed me when he said, "if you don't have camo cream, go buy." damn. the last time i camo-ed on was in BMT. the best part is, it's the 7th month already. fun, no?

-random thought of the day: I need a day off.-

Nothing really seems to come to mind at this late (early?) hour. booking in in about 6 hours and 30 minutes' time, and i wonder why i'm not asleep yet. well, i'll be going soon...just waiting for the computer to finish defragmenting.

the past week was, true to my expectation, a rather sucky one. i guess you can say i'm officially "broken in" as a member of the family in sungei gedong. you see, i finally signed my first extra a few days back. well, i didn't actually sign, so my record's still clean. but i did get confined for a day, and for the stupidest reason too. not going to reveal what it was, lest you all die laughing. anyways, my neck's sunburnt, because i was baking in the sun while clearing weeds from the road during said confinement. uncomfortable, but survivable. as long as nobody touches it, that is.

re-read harry potter book 7 while stoning in bunk. i still feel that the ending could have been more conclusive, and i'd like to know a few more plot details. but we can't have everything in the world, so oh well.

went to give chem tuition to a junior today. sometimes, it's hard to explain things in a way that people understand, especially when you have additional A-level background knowledge that should, by right, simplify the job. guess what? your background knowledge actually makes it tougher. go figure. i was so tempted to launch into d-d* transitions and other transition metals stuff when explaining coloured compounds. but, from what i remember, i had no idea what an orbital was in sec 3 (let alone that there are different types of orbital), so i held back on that one. it's good to know that most of the stuff in my head's still intact, except for the occasional minor slip. still, nothing really challenging or unsolvable. i really think i should start charging fees.

well, it's close to 1:00 am, and that means i have to be up in...5 hours? guess i should run. the coming 5 to 6 days ahead appear to be extremely busy, what with national day and all. i'll update after it's all over.

-random thought of the day: Going off to sleep.-

Once again, i'm running short of time before book-in. so, i'll try to write as much as i can in as little time as possible.

NDP preview on saturday was...ok. all i saw from my station at one fullerton were the big floating jellyfish and the fireworks. pretty impressive, but i didn't see anything else, so my judgement may not be the most accurate. anyway, my job there was to maintain comms (which i didn't have to do in the end), and to give out those clapper stars. it's surprising how strong the herd mentality is. as soon as people saw others with the stars, they came rushing over to get one. well, i won't complain that much since it works to our advantage. we are supposed to give out as many as possible after all.

i finally went to watch the C div bowl. and guess what? i got roped in to do some assistant coaching, and i had the chance to wear the "Coach" pass and go down to the lanes. cool experience...i never realized standing there watching people bowl could be that tiring. hopefully i can do it again next year.

this coming week has the potential to be the worst so far in my time at sungei gedong. potential signing of an extra, higher expectations, and superiors' horns growing could seriously endanger my free time and weekends. sadness. oh well. there's only 16+ months left. things will turn out ok, as long as i believe so.

-random thought of the day: I can't wait for ORD...-

I'm blogging! nothing special about that, but here's the thing - i'm blogging on monday! haven't been able to do that since, well, a really long time ago. for those who are wondering, i'm not AWOL-ing. it's the off i get back for burning the sunday before. next to ORD, the next favourite 3-letter word in the SAF is most definitely "off".

i think the extra day off came at a rather appropriate time. the past week has been quite screwed up. mostly my fault actually, but oh well. it's going to be a new book-in, and a new week, so i should try to forget all the bad memories/things that happened.

sometimes, i wish that i had pushed myself a little much more in BMT, so i could be posted to SISPEC, if not OCS. why? because the rank i get from SISPEC would put me on par with the sergeants, while the bar from OCS could be used to flatten my CSM. believe me, they need flattening sometimes. but since i wasn't posted to any of those places, all i can do is suck it up and vent on my blog. sad, isn't it?

from a young age, singaporeans are taught to strive for excellence in whatever they do. now, that's not a bad thing, but i think we overdo it sometimes. there's too much emphasis placed on leaders in the SAF. very clear lines are drawn between "commanders" and "the rest". as you can tell, i don't really approve. guess i'm still used to the civillain mindset of treating your superiors as friends. never mind. 1 year and 4+ months more of bearing with it and it's over. no worries. i can handle that.

live range this past week was quite a sucky experience. so far, every time i'm involved (i.e. shooting) in range, it has to rain. proning in a puddle is not fun, and neither are the mosquito bites that are sure to follow. as it stands now, i have about 8 bites in...sensitive areas, and much more elsewhere. rain screws up my shooting. it made my goal for marksman become a struggle to merely pass. sad but true. still, i passed, and i don't have to go for re-range, thanks to the nice people from 3 signal battalion. signallers rock (blatant self-praise)! i think i'd be happier there, though i can't be sure. generally, people are nicer to attached-in units, so maybe i haven't seen their horns grow yet.

oh. the highlight of my week - harry potter book 7. after waiting for about 2 years, and 6 hours of reading later, i finally got to find out what happened to everyone. it was a pretty conclusive ending, though i wish the final battle was a little more exciting. seems like there's room for a sequel, but the author ruled that out. i bet there'll be tons of new fanfiction. some things that were promised never made it into the book though, like which non-magical character would preform magic in later life, or revealing what dudley saw in the dementor attack. i must admit, i'm surprised that some of the pretty far-fetched predictions about some plot elements really came true, and as usual, some minor details in earlier books affected the story in a really big way. not too happy about the characters that died, but it helps provide a sense of reality to the story, and reminds readers that it's not a fairy tale where the good side wins a decisive victory with no casualties. i'll definitely be re-reading it in camp, provided i have the time, that is.

national schools' C div competition was today, and i was supposed to go and watch/support cat high. but, reading harry potter until 2+ and subsequently staying up until 3 or 4+ meant that i overslept and missed it. no prizes for guessing who feels horribly guilty now. a small measure of comfort is that they're competing next monday as well, and i can go for that.

the coming week look ok-ish, though something from last week could come back and bite me. saturday's burnt for the NDP preview, so we get the next monday off as well. yays. book-in time draws closer, so i better go get prepared.

-random thought of the day: Shopping sprees feel good.-

Time is against me this week, so i shall have to type faster than i have ever typed before.

this book-out is particularly short-lived, as the trainees are going for their live range tomorrow. yes, you read that right. live range on sunday. that means i will have to book in later tonight, after spending less than 24 hours out of camp. but well, it's not all that bad. i do get an off-in-lieu back the following week, so it balances out. still, i can't help but feel sian.

you know, since my posting to sungei gedong, i've been doing more office work than signal stuff (something like a ratio of 97% office : 3% signals). kind of odd, considering i'm a signaller by training. then again, there are so many "by left"s in the army, and this is a great example of one of them.

i guess it's time for me to get mentally prepared for a longer-than-usual week in camp. on the bright side, it's not confinement. and harry potter book 7 comes out in exactly 7 days, so that's something to look forward to.

-random thought of the day: ATP next week.-

"Respect is what you earn, not what you wear."

those are famous words spoken by my OC. i'm starting to see his point much more clearly now. there are certain people (or at least one person) whose rank i would love to tear off and burn. the most basic courtesy you can do is pronounce a person's name correctly (jokes aside), and the person i'm talking about can't even do that. the 3 stripes he wears does not elevate him THAT much above me, or the trainees for that matter. yet, he uses this really...patronizing tone to talk to us. i have this urge to do something drastic, but i don't know what yet. time for me to get creative and find something that would embarass him, but is still within SAF regulations. if any of my schoolmates in SISPEC now became like him, i would totally kill them.

went to catch Transformers today with a few friends. most definitely brightened up my week. in fact, i think i want to watch it again. as for when, i don't know. probably 2 weeks from now, if it's still showing. only little issue i had was that it didn't explore the robots' characters that deeply. and the chinese subtitles were a little screwed up (i mean, Starscream as "xing xing jiao"? oh please). i like the transforming sequences, though they could have been a little slower so that interested people (like me) could see where all the parts fit. all in all, it's been one of the more memorable movies i've watched. definitely going to get the DVD.

this is something one of my friends pointed out to me. compare Megatron:

with Lord Recluse (from CoH):

if you colour Megatron's eyes red (as they were in the movie), the two could almost pass off as lookalikes, except that Recluse is more organic-looking. and that covers my pointless fact of the day.

well, that just about wraps it up. i was intending to write a much longer rant about the person i have issues with in my camp, but i sort of lost steam halfway. the weather right now is really good for sleeping; i only hope i wake up in time for book-in tomorrow.

-random thought of the day: Sometimes, people are better off not hearing certain things.-

Thought i'd post to mark this special, once-in-a-lifetime date. heh.

-random thought of the day: This is actually a bo-liao post.-

Weekends are way too short. it's difficult to squeeze 5 days' worth of stuff into just 2 days. for instance, i've been wanting to go to the funfair near the interchange for slightly more than 3 weeks now, but i couldn't make the time. i'd love to go today, since it's their last day here, but i have to book in by 11:00, so that plan's been shot down in a blaze of glory.

another thing which i wanted to do was to catch Transformers this weekend. watching the movie is pretty significant to me, since i've always been fascinated by the thought of robots disguised as vehicles and other inconspicuous gadgets. in fact, as a kid, one of the first cartoons i watched was Transformers, and that left quite a deep impression on me. as such, i will kill anyone that spoils the movie for me.

to be honest, the reason this weekend felt shorter than usual was because of what i did on saturday. i only found out that it was cat high's homecoming day the night before. so i had to reshuffle (read: push to next week, or even later) some of my other plans in order to go down and support the school. i met quite a few old friends, teachers and juniors there. so far, nothing has come close to beating the feeling of being inside the school, walking around and saying hi to people i know. as an added bonus, every single time i go back, i'm still amazed at the number of teachers who remember me. makes a guy feel good, you know?

and after homecoming, i got dragged along to go bowling. it was one of those spontaneous decisions that only cat high guys can come up with, so it totally caught me off-guard. at this point in time, i think i should inform everyone that prior to yesterday, i hadn't bowled in close to 9 or 10 months, possibly even longer. so, calling myself "a little rusty" would be way too kind. it took about 3 games for me to regain my form and re-catch the timing. then again, i'm not 100% to blame. since i passed out of BMT, i realize that the things that used to work may not work any more due to my different body shape. so...adaptation has to come in, i guess. the good news is that my score didn't go below 100, so i'm not totally screwed yet. only problem is, as an unfortunate side-effect, i'm aching quite a bit. but it's nothing a few good stretches can't fix.

we went down to Victor's for the abovementioned bowling outing. i think it was particularly meaningful, seeing as that entire area will be cleared to make room for the IR. i'm actually pretty upset by that thought, as Victor's was considered "home ground" to us. in my time in cat high bowling, i rarely trained (or bowled) outside of Victor's. there's a certain attachment to it. so...it'll be quite hard to say goodbye to it, i think, at the end of the year. i plan to go down there a few more times before it closes...sort of to soak in the atmosphere, if you get what i mean.

this past wednesday (or was it tuesday? can't really remember), i got a shock while reading the new paper in camp. it reported that Chris Benoit, his wife and their son were found dead in their home. while the evidence does point to double murder and suicide, i really hope that they're mistaken. it seems like such an odd thing to happen. it's pretty alarming news. i'm not entirely sure about how to react to it. offering words of condolence would be awkward, seeing as the whole family's gone. at any rate, i hope the rest of his loved ones find peace soon, though i think this will be a hot debate topic for quite a while.

i really shouldn't listen to this song before book-in:

Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you.

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.

it makes the world outside of camp so appealing, which in turn, makes me reluctant to go back. but well, we all have to do it, because we love our nation, and totally not because we're afraid of being charged as AWOL (right?). at least i'm not a trainee, so my life isn't totally screwed up, though it comes close enough sometimes. guess not everything's as smooth-sailing as i'd like to imagine. that's my weakness; i'm optimistic to a fault.

kind of a long post for a no-life army boy to make eh? better get showered up and pack my bag. being screwed for being late just isn't worth it.

...and i still wish it was december.

-random thought of the day: R.I.P. Chris Benoit.-