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.-