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.-