wallaby part II

Apologies for being late. Everytime I think of the time needed to upload the photos I get put off haha.

As mentioned before, we had more freedom this time round to explore different places, made even easier by the fact that there were Supply and Transport personnel under our Group who could easily get hold of vehicles.

Within the training area there was the Freshwater Bay:





A few days later I went there a second time...





Down the road not too far was Seahound:





No beach, rather a jetty-like platform.

Going out of the training area we went to the nearby coastal town of Yeppoon!


The wind was so strong, my camera flew!

Ok that was a dumb joke, but really the winds there were very strong...

...the trees by the coast had been shaped such that they remain in the same positions even when there is no wind.







The quiet little town beside the beach:









I kind of like Yeppoon; imagine living in a house that faces such a nice beach, waking up every morning to the breeze.

Last but not least, the different creatures I met along the way...


What are you staring at!?!


It was a gigantic turtle. Really huge in size.


Just like humans they cannot take heat, preferring to be under shade most of the time. If you disturb them, you will see them hopping from one shade to another.




For the record I didn't spot any.

I will have a concluding Part III soon! Wrapping up my entire Wallaby 2008 trip will be my R&R, and some other extras~

whoa

Nacht der Untoten

The fifth installment of the Call of Duty series has well lived up to the reputation it has built up over the years, both the good and the bad! Haha.

I think this game simulated war really well; even though the game was still rather linear, there were still some instances where I was left wondering where I should go or what I should do. When I was told to shoot enemy tanks down, they rained so many shells all over me that kicked up so much dirt, I could not see where the tanks were. Explosions would cause the ground to shake so much that 'I' as a sniper could not aim properly.

Then there were the @#$%! Japanese soldiers who @#$%! killed me so many times from behind; because their bayonets were already into 'me' before I could press the 'V' button.

Banzai~~~! [Or maybe I'm too slow haha.]

Plotwise the game very well brought out the might of the Soviets [just like the Soviet music of Red Alert 3]; the constant yells to charge at the enemy reflected the 人海战术 the Soviets employed to fight against the Nazis.

Bad points wise, just like the previous games, it was still way too short, despite having a two-year development cycle. I completed the game in less than a day; too short to be fully immersed into the story haha. Also there were a couple of bugs that resulted in me having to restart the level.

Whereas COD5 is no doubt a great and fun game, I don't find COD5 a better game than the previous one; I put both at the same level.

Thinking about it, the better a game is created, the higher the expectations the fans will have with regards to the next one. COD4 and 5 has raised the bar very high, which makes one wonder how far the two developers can reach and surpass this bar in future games.

I just reached a new level in gaming today! While I was at the game the house telephone just next to me rang and I was unaware of it, while my brother heard it from inside his room; and I had no idea my brother had left the house until almost an hour later.

Two games down, four more to go!

too fast! not my desktop though

My lovely desktop is almost two years old, and over the two years the desktop has went through various stages of upgrades, almost until the stage it can no longer be zhng-ed anymore.


As can be seen my RAM is my weakest link, for the motherboard only supports maximum 2GB of RAM running at a mere 533MHz. Besides no dual channel feature is present.

Pentium D is essentially two Pentium 4s dumped together, so performance is not that great.

Sadly technology waits for no man, and more importantly, no poor man. While two years seem like a short time for a desktop mine is already showing signs of aging. One great example is games. While games from Electronic Arts, as mentioned in the previous entry, aren't that great, at least their demands for raw processing power aren't ridiculously high. Recent games like Tiberium Wars and Red Alert 3 still run fine on my desktop [although there is the occasional crash here and there]



Company of Heroes, a two-year-old:


Some games, however, are not that forgiving:




As can be seen my lovely desktop is barely passing the minimum requirements, and I saw for the first time today, a game that has minimum requirements higher than what my desktop offers: GTA4! It requires, among others, a Core 2 Duo minimally.

I still remembered back in the good old days of secondary school where Challenger still existed in the town centre beside the MRT station, the game section used to be a hangout for me; the standard of those days was a Pentium 4 [and the AMD equivalent], and sitting in my house was the earliest Pentium 3 product. So everytime I went there it would be a case of 'can see, cannot buy'.

Soon history will be repeating itself. Haha.

But I still love my desktop!

On a sidenote,


As if having minimum and recommended requirements for a game like Minesweeper was not strange enough, ESRB actually went to rate the game! Too much time in their hands? Haha.

Last but not least,


A little cleanup of the desktop, the background programs that run at startup, and the wallpaper to welcome the new year.

selamat hari raya haji

I finally completed all three campaigns in Red Alert 3!

To be honest Red Alert 3 is not exactly that fun; its nowhere near Company of Heroes despite the latter being around for already two years, but that was sort of expected for a game coming from Electronic Arts haha.

But I appreciate the effort put in by the team to come up with all the seemingly silly, but rather interesting features to make the game fun; that was unlike Tiberium Wars where the game was almost to the point of boring [until this day I have yet to complete the campaign, let alone start the expansion haha.]

To digress, I was disappointed when I realised Tiberium Wars came only with video cutscenes but no animation. Back in the glorious days of Tiberian Sun when I was a Primary Six kid:



Sure animation standards weren't as high as what we see today, but in those days they were enough to make me go wah!

[To digress more, Company of Heroes had plenty of them!]

Even the cutscenes from Tiberium Wars [and unfortunately, also Red Alert 3] aren't as exciting as previous games.

This time round Red Alert 3 came back with limited animation, nowhere near the games of yesteryears but still better than none.

Plot-wise one will rarely find a game where stupidity and fantasy are woven together into a package, like using sonar-equipped dolphins to down ships, attacking present day bombers using future day Japanese-style mechas that switches between land and air and sea modes, or building choppers that freeze units or shrink them into 'embarrassingly small sizes'.

Even the menu and the music is refreshing for a change!


The singing without the music. Sets the tone for the mighty Soviets. I like!


Kiddish enough to set a not-so-dark atmosphere, but decent enough to appear in a 21st century game.

All in all Red Alert 3 is not bad a game; at least this time its not 拿旧的概念翻炒一遍。

****************************************************

Being overseas for two months [oh ya reminds me I have yet to do my Wallaby Part II] has left me out of touch with my dearest home. Yesterday when I wanted to ask my friends out for a movie, I realised that Yahoo, and also the papers, no longer carry the showtimes for Overseas Princess!

Turned out Overseas Princess has maybe/likely/could be/there's a chance/I think so closed down! And it happened almost a month ago!

In the end we watched Bolt at Tampines Mall, after squeezing through a horrendously large crowd.

Gone are the days where one movie ticket cost $5 during weekdays and $7.50 during weekends. Gone are the days where I had to catch bus 69 to meet my friends there [because they live there and only I live here!] [and I remembered taking a taxi once because I was too late to take the bus haha]. Gone are the days where we could ahem, openly bring in McDonalds haha. Gone are the days where we did not need to sit according to the seat numbers we were allocated.

Despite all the complaints about the place being dirty with rubbish and spills and whatnot[which might just be true given that the place was already dark when we go in, so we can't see anything] I, in good fortune, had not encountered any. In fact I thought the surround sound system in the bigger theatre was quite good.

Just like what the dramas and movies always say, when things are in place we will take them for granted. Only when they are gone do we realise the importance of their roles in our lives. Yet like spilled water, once they are gone, they may never return.

But after watching so many dramas and so many movies and listening to the same 'words of advice' so many times, we still commit the same mistakes.

So ten years down the road, a new cinema will by then have already been up and running and is part of everyone's lives. No one will remember the old cinema anymore and all the nice memories that came about because of it. Humans can just...drop everything so quickly.

got no time to watch TV ah! but got time to do PT ah!

Due to a very short weekend I shall postpone my clouds, beaches, water and animals some other time. As they say, 慢工出细货。

Doing COS duty on a Saturday was very easy; although it was still a waste of time [burn one day of my precious weekend somemore!], at least there wasn't much things to do. This should be my last ever duty though [yay!], unless I sign extra [choy!].

Previous week in camp was spent on running and more running, including my first ever full obstacle rundown which I failed miserably. Then there was also the preparations for the upcoming annual auditing [to ensure our poor taxpayers' money has been well spent!], and early book out of Friday to attend the E-Prep roadshow [ORD coming soon! yay]

Outside in the world was equally eventful. May the good prevail.

I need to start my game now! Before its too late to do so!

wallaby part I

[Anything that I should not put here please tell me then I take down. Please don't charge me!]

[Haha I'm having some difficulty trying to complete this, partially because I was either out with friends or playing Red Alert 3, and partially I was losing motivation in getting this done with each passing day. Hopefully I get this up before I book in this Sunday. =(]

After two days of recovering from the slight jet lag and Red Alert 3 I'm finally sitting down to talk about my longest overseas 'trip' so far!

[Haha according to Wikipedia a fair guideline for the recovery rate of jet lag is 'one day per time zone'. So zhun!]

My trip this year served a different purpose compared to last year; last year I was there as a training troop; this year I went there to support the training troops, reaching there earlier than them to get things ready, and coming home later than them to tear down everything, which explains my longer period of time there.

Unit I was attached to.

Unlike the training troops and last year, we took commercial flights instead, taking SIA [yay first time! Sorry ah I mountain tortoise]...

Terminal 3 yea! [sorry mountain tortoise x 2]

to Brisbane...

Had to take train from the international terminal to the domestic terminal, with our luggage in tow! =(

before transferring to a Jetstar domestic flight to Rockhampton.

Onboard Jetstar!

We did not go in immediately, but stayed at..

...for a day before setting off.


The hostel room I slept in for a night. Comfortable!

Basically my job there was to establish various types of communications so that everyone can talk to everyone else, although we ended up with many other different tasks which were unrelated to us but which we did anyway.

Continuing to uphold my unit! [Pui!] And rank! [Double pui!]

One of our important tasks; going up to the hills!




Reminds me that due to social pressure I have to start learning driving soon.


I so wanted to chop down all the trees blocking the otherwise beautiful view.


I so wanted to chop down all the trees blocking the otherwise beautiful view II.


I so wanted to chop down all the trees blocking the otherwise beautiful view III.

Because we were not the training troops, we had more freedom compared to them, and also myself last year, like the ability to travel out of camp to other areas, and even out of the training area to town on certain days to take a break from the monotonous work.

My first time out of the training area was to the airport to receive some personnel, because I was the...

They were throwing almost everyone into this, which I guess was from the lack of proper planning.

Along the way I was happily snapping away..










Would have looked better if not for all the reflections from the windscreen I think.

For actual breaks from work I went out a total of three times.

I didn't try the food though, because it was way too expensive, 8 bucks for rice + 3 dishes, although its the norm there.


Post office! Which I thought was still in use but later realise it wasn't anymore.


Like last year there was really nothing much to do in Rockhampton except shop; this was one of the shopping malls we went to [although R&R turned up a surprise which I gladly welcome].

There's still plenty for me to say but too little time, so I shall stop here first then continue next week. Next Wallaby entry: more clouds, beaches, water and animals....

birthday

My blog is five years old today! Happy birthday to you!

Currently I'm still in the process of switching my body clock back haha. Last night I collapsed on my sofa just after 10pm [body clock just after midnight], then woke up at 4am [body clock: 6am]; had to force myself back to sleep. Haha.


I need more hard disk space! =( Who wants to sponsor me hard disks? =D

For now, Red Alert 3!!!

countdown 5

Three more months to ORD loh! Can see the light at the end of the tunnel le!

If I am still alive now, Exercise Wallaby 2008 should be ending, which also means my work will be ending too, which means I will be coming back to Singapore soon! I should be missing my lovely motherland and everyone alot!

time machine

Quite an old song, but I still like it a lot; especially the lyrics.

好后悔好伤心想重来行不行
再一次我就不会走向这样的结局
好后悔好伤心谁把我放回去
我愿意付出所有来换一个时光机
对不起独自回荡在空气没人听
最后又是孤单到天明

你和我还有很多的地方还没去
为何留我荒唐的坐在这里

bon voyage 2

Don't know when exactly they are going off, so just put it here:

Have a safe and fun trip to those who are flying off! Come back safely and we shall start counting down to ORD together! =D

unsung heroes

This trip to Wallaby has allowed me to interact with the one bunch of people whom I will usually has totally zero contact with: The Maintenance personnel, and it really opens up my eyes; like the backend work at the workshops and MT Lines that are usually not seen by us. They do not put in any less work than us, supposedly the combatants, and I salute them for the hard work they put in everyday to ensure our vehicles run.

countdown 4

Countdown continues in my absence!

4 more months to ORD loh!

Right now I should still be alive and kicking in Wallaby. Hopefully its not too xiong there!

not my last words

[to be changed to a more appropriate title if and when I return home alive and kicking]

I never knew that the recent financial crisis could actually affect me, a tiny human in this big world. Because the bailout plan proposed by US was rejected, the Australian currency dropped against our local currency, so I got a better exchange rate =D

This time my trip there will be twice the duration compared to the trip last year; Australia will be officially the 2nd longest country I have ever stayed in. Haha.

Again I don't like this feeling of uncertainty; no idea what I will be expecting there; hopefully everything goes right. Seven weeks is a little too long, starting to regret a little haha; but I guess it beats staying in unit.

This should be a good time for me to treat my addiction to technology. Haha.

I will miss everyone and everything back here; good luck have fun! May everything turn out well and good!

singtel singapore formula one grand prix

Very exciting! Made my day yea!

Its a good thing Singapore has brought in Formula One, because now that more people watches it, I am no longer the occasional odd guy who yells F1 and everyone thinks I am asking for help. On the other hand I have been out of touch with Formula One for a rather long time, ever since the free-to-air TV channels stopped broadcasting races live and also the fact that on race days, I have to leave the house for camp halfway through.

And then there is Massa's incident that shows how technology can and will never replace humans. All hail the Lollipop Man!

Hehe maybe next Singapore should bring in the World Rally Championship! Although I think the only place they can race on is the live firing area haha.

Vroom!

pointless ranting

Today I was suddenly hit by a wave of reality from a gathering with some friends and a MSN nick by another friend:

"drawing the 2nd last NSF pay soon"

Come November and December most of the friends around me will become the happiest people in the world for at least a while, as they finally retrieve their respective little pink identification cards that were forcefully taken from them and confiscated on their first days to the little beautiful island to the north east of our motherland.

All these happening while I'm still packing my bags, leaving my lovely little home 9pm on Sunday nights and only returning on Fridays, and having all the weekdays of the week in the new pixellated uniform facing the same old people doing the same old things.

Its not as bad as it sounds actually, for my saviour comes in the form of Wallaby 2008, which allows me to be away from my unit for almost two entire months, although two months seem a little too long haha. But I just feel kind of sad I will still be stuck in my bloody unit when others get their liberation and freedom.

I'm kind of regretting not watching the Formula One at the scene; although I still prefer watching on TV so I can see the entire race. Then again it is quite an experience to be at the scene getting a high from the roar of the racing cars speeding past. May Vodafone McLaren Mercedes win!

Finally got my hands on a camera! Not mine; it belongs to my friend. Hopefully I can bring some decent photos home from there. I want to learn photography leh.

exchangeadministratorsqlserverenterprisemanagersqlqueryanalyserinternetservicemanageractivedirectoryusersandcomputerswhydoesntthetitlewrap2thenextline

As mentioned before, the last lap of a six-lap 2.4km run has always to me been the longest and the most difficult lap of all; the end seems just so far away.

This week was one of those 'last laps' again, as preparations for the upcoming event continued. Lack of experience and proper equipment meant we had to redo our preparations many times. Again like mentioned before, computers are so dumb; when errors occur they can continue to run like the Sun rise and set each day; so as this week came to a close we were only about half done, and from next week onwards I can't be around to help anymore.

I salute the new birds for their perseverance and determination to get their jobs done. Facing those dumb unfeeling dead objects I don't think I can hold out as long as they could. On the other hand though they are already showing signs of raising the white flags in the faces of these stubborn machines, and I wonder if they can survive this very major event.

Thursday's COS duty, only my third [and I wondered is it my last?], can be considered one of the worst duties ever. Raising the flag during S3's parade was easy, recalling people back from their offs to participate in a dumb half-an-hour parade was also easy; getting people into trouble and punishments when partially I was at fault wasn't.

Formula One Singapore Grand Prix! I am too poor to purchase tickets to watch the race up close, but then I prefer watching on TV where I can see the whole race than sitting in a fixed position and watching the cars vroom past every minute. Hurray to Channel 5 for telecasting the show live. It has been many, many, many, many, many years since Formula One races were last telecast on free-to-air TV.

Besides the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix another event was also jostling for newspapers headlines the past few days: the China milk scandal. Some of us went crazy [half jokingly] after we realised that we had consumed some of the products tested positive for melamine. One of them was



in which I had also eaten one packet from. One packet consisted of ~5 pieces of potato crackers, and our dearest Government agency has stated that I have to eat at least 520 pieces of it in order to kill myself. Others were crying over the tubs of contaminated ice-cream and bottles of contaminated milk they had consumed in the past, and of course, who can forget the famous, now infamous, 大白兔奶糖?

To stop here, because I have run out of things to say.

because i love you

对这个世界如果你有太多的抱怨
跌倒了就不敢继续往前走
为什麼人要这麼的脆弱 堕落
请你打开电视看看
多少人为生命在努力勇敢的走下去
我们是不是该知足
珍惜一切 就算没有拥有

还记得你说家是唯一的城堡 随著稻香河流继续奔跑
微微笑 小时候的梦我知道
不要哭让萤火虫带著你逃跑 乡间的歌谣永远的依靠
回家吧 回到最初的美好

不要这麼容易就想放弃 就像我说的
追不到的梦想 换个梦不就得了
为自己的人生鲜艳上色 先把爱涂上喜欢的颜色
笑一个吧 功成名就不是目的
让自己快乐快乐这才叫做意义

******************************

青春是手牵手坐上了
永不回头的火车
总有一天我们都老了
不会遗憾就OK了

伤心的都忘记了
只记得这首笑忘歌
那一片天空很高风很清澈
从头到脚趾都快乐
我和你都约好了
要再唱这首笑忘歌
这一生只愿只要平凡快乐
谁说这样不伟大呢

有多少错误重蹈覆辙
有多少苦痛还不是都过来了
想起来甚至还会笑呢

青春是人生的实验课
错也错得很值得
就算某天唱起这首歌
眼眶会有一点湿了

******************************

May I survive the coming week!

to hell with the smokers

When the smoking point is not clean, whose fault is it?

The smokers who threw the cigarette butts there after their frequent smoking sessions or the people who had to add that to the list of places they had to clean up regularly simply because they had to clean all other areas on the same level as well?

Nothing much for the past week, although bad news seemed to come pouring in like never-ending water. From "teaching the new birds and letting them prepare for the upcoming exercise themselves", it has now become "preparing for the upcoming exercise together with the new birds".

And then there's the less-than-satisfactory combat fitness the new biggest boss whom rule us all has come to notice.

Ah its ok. Just two more weeks!

Late by a day, but better late than never, five more months to ORD loh! For now I still can't get into the mood yet. End of September yea!

Currently there's a tiny sense of guilt in me, because I got my friends addicted onto LAN gaming. Haha. Since I introduced Company of Heroes to them we already had a total of five LAN sessions in the past three weeks, each stretching three to five hours. In each of the first three sessions there would be at least one new bird to the game whom I had to teach. Haha.

************

I read The Sunday Times today and there was this article on a day in a hospital's emergency department. Below is an excerpt.

Then there were those who arguably could have sought help elsewhere. At 4.20pm, for instance, Dr Foo saw a 20-year-old national service man with "back pain".

Wearing a look of pain, he said he needed painkillers and a medical certificate(MC) to excuse himself from camp duty.

Earlier in the waiting area, we had seen him laughing and joking with a female friend. He later left, visibly dejected after being given some pills but not an MC.

....NS boys often show up on Sundays. "Some come in laughing and holding their girlfriend's hands,"..."For every 10 boys faking it, there could be one real serious case so we have to be careful. But we know when not to give MCs,"....

ROFLMAO!

why chrome riot google oh hatred please why one week off

....have I never heard of the Imagine Cup before? Now that I have come to know of this, I am stuck in @#$%! NS and I cannot participate!

Under the Rules and Regulations one part says:
"You are actively enrolled as a student at an accredited educational institution that grants high-school or college/university (or equivalent) degrees at any time between January 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009."

@#$%!

I shall participate one day!

**********************************************************************************

I watched with utmost amusement the news on the coverage of our beloved Speakers' Corner. Today marks the day the rules are relaxed; demonstrations are now allowed at the Park and speakers can simply register online at NParks' website instead of stepping into the horrifying police station.

I find it amusing that in our lovely motherland where the laws are well known by many around the world to be ultra strict, the government has carved out a small piece of land and let us demonstrate.

There on the news the reporter at the scene tells the viewers that a small crowd is forming up to "观看示威", where in other countries 示威 means have to run liao. And a person labelled a 示威者 below his name is being interviewed by reporters. I can't help but laugh at the report.

Its a good thing after all; the government has now opened up more when it comes to free speeches. Of course hopefully the Speakers' Corner will remain as it is: a peaceful park.

**********************************************************************************

Super fast, super clean user interface, super easy to use, super cool! I love it!


Where's the title bar, the status bar and the menu?


Built-in task manager[not the one in Windows] which shows the memory and CPU usage by the various tabs and plugins.

"Stats for nerds", which opens a new window giving more detailed memory reports. Haha they sure know where to add in the humour!

**********************************************************************************

To achieve before the new year comes: cancel my Internet subscription.

**********************************************************************************

This month each platoon takes turn clearing a week of off and leave, and my platoon is allocated the past week.

Highlight for the week before the last was again acting as enemy for a second battalion full troop exercise; two days outfield where the first day was spent doing nothing besides sleeping in the training shed and getting bitten by unknown creatures.

For the past week Tuesday was Sentosa followed by a LAN session and Cyborg She, while Friday was company cohesion - paintball! Not too bad, but we had too little paintballs, and the field was too muddy to really enjoy the session. After that was yet another LAN session till night =S

The rest of the time was spent at home.

It has been a good rest; not seeing and wearing anything green for a week has freshen me up slightly. Unfortunately good times passed fast; tonight I will be booking in, and worse tomorrow is my COS duty, which I am still not very used to doing. Upcoming for the rest of the month, getting the new birds ready before I'm gone in October.

To those who are having 'tough luck' recently, hopefully they do not dwell on them too hard, for different people have different luck at different times. Some other good things may just come out from those missed opportunities.

In the past I used to have the same 'train of thoughts', but later I prefer not asking questions but simply do what I am supposed to do, firstly because if questions arise, I know that I have done my part and so, 对得起自己, 对得起大家. Secondly, I think getting the job done and making everyone happy is better than not getting the job done and everyone is unhappy with each other. Who gets the job done is rather secondary.

And to those who are still struggling in their work, the ends will justify the means! Especially in computing haha. Its very much like mathematics; the process of solving and working kills, but once everything starts appearing correctly, the sense of achievement and happiness is so great it cannot be described in mere words. Haha.

Hopefully I don't screw up my COS duty tomorrow.

bon voyage..

..to my good own[yucks! I mean old.] gay friend! Hope to see you soon!

got no time to blog this week ah...

...but got time to do PT ah!

The big acronym that kept me busy on Thursday: COS.

But before I get got down to talking about "Corporal Or Sergeant", I am going to have had my weekend burnt for the other big acronym, AHM.

Will be back on Sunday afternoon. Came back on Sunday evening.

************

COS means Company Orderly Sergeant. As the name implies, this job is actually done by a specialist. But in my unit where there is not enough specialists to go around, the men with the rank of Corporal have to do this too. Hence the running joke "Corporal Or Sergeant". The difference lies in that once we the men start doing COS duties we no longer have to do guard duties.

COS is the running equivalent of a general desk reception clerk in the corporate world. Basically I am the point of contact of all matters on that day, answering all the phones that ring in the office and disseminating information to concerned personnel, which means the contact list is my best friend for that day.

From being at the receiving end of saikang arrows I am now at the shooting end. During duty everytime someone asks for people to help him I need to provide him the manpower, but being the bad guy and calling up those who are free.

On that evening I pull the flag down, and the following morning the flag up, together with the other two COSes, and everyone knows that handling the flag is probably more important than handling your own life. The flag must not touch the ground, the flag must be hung the right side up ["Red is up or down?"], the flag must be folded nicely etc etc.

Keeping track of personnel movement in and out of camp is also my job. I need to know who is on MC, who is going for medical appointments, who is in camp, who is not.

COS duties aren't that easy to do as I have come to realised; my first duty wasn't that bad because most of the regulars were out of camp. Comparing guard duties with COS duties, both are hard work. Fortunately I don't have many months left [Choy!].

***************

This was the second time I was involved in the organising of Army Half Marathon, since my unit was the organiser for both last and this years. Like last year I was attached to the same senior specialist to help out at the command post, like setting up and tearing down the command post, laminating printouts, helping the commanders buy coffee, get them food etc, because you don't expect the commanders to do so.

Arrived on Friday afternoon to set up the command post, this time at Padang instead of the floating platform last year. Stayed back until nighttime to watch the Fireworks Festival before going home, reporting the next morning, all the way until Sunday afternoon where we tore down the command post and went back to camp to unload the stores.

It was a miracle that the run proceeded on as usual, because it was raining for most parts of Friday and Saturday. Even as we monitored the weather on Saturday night the forecast was still expecting thunderstorms the following morning. Luckily the skies cleared in time for the run, coming down again only after the race when we were halfway tearing down the command post.

The only complaint many had was the mud at the Padang field, no thanks to the rain from the previous two days and subsequently the 30,000+ participants' feet that helped turned the once green field into complete brown mud bath, with many cursing and swearing [I could hear them] as they walked through the field in their sports shoes.

I made possibly one of the best decisions in my life when I decided to turn up in my combat boots on Saturday. Haha.

Upcoming this week, yet another battalion full troop exercise, hopefully it will not be too xiong. Can I start smelling my ORD air?

如果我们能在一起

我只想此刻的你的孩子气的笑眯眯
陪我未来的风雨

"can clear off some other time?"

Congratulations to Michael Phelps for his eight-Olympics-gold-medal haul at age 23, Tao Li for her fifth place finish in the finals at age 18, Ai Fukuhara who is borned in the same year as me and is already playing table tennis for her country, and numerous other youths who have achieved different medals in different fields while still in their teenage years.

I have lived for twenty years; what have I achieved?

My hopes for a good week last week were all dashed when both my off days on Thursday and Friday had to be cancelled because of last minute useless things which either did not benefit me in any way or I had totally zero interest in getting.

Upcoming next week, all things else aside, there will be my first ever COS duty.

Hopefully I don't screw anything up.

when do you stop asking

How many times the same answer "I'm not going" does one needs to get from a particular person before he decides that there is no longer the need to ask that particular person anymore whenever he organises a gathering?

six

[This is a scheduled post because, aiya you know why lah.]

*****

Tuesday:

While the whole world went slight ga-ga over 080808 I am here celebrating the big six!

6) Six more months to ORD loh!

6) This is my six hundredth post!

6) Its 6.06pm when this post was published! [Ok fine that was simply to add on the coincidence and has no significant meaning to it. Kind of 勉强 I know hahaha.]

Due to various circumstances I have not gotten down to the first step to handing the baton over to the new birds: teaching them. Hopefully this can be done soon, so that after the Army Half Marathon at the end of the month and an exercise in September I can start seeing the light at the end of this horrible tunnel.

The past hundred entries had been hard to come by, because access to computers has been limited to weekends, and where I am now there is really nothing much to say; either that or I don't really wish to recall whatever had happened. Its nowhere near the yesteryears of school life.

*****

Monday evening before I set off for camp [I had to save on entries or the above cannot happen. 601st post just doesn't sound right.]:

The cupboard beside my study table, while being easily accessible and all, has been left untouched for quite a long time, and now it has become some sort of a time capsule. While I was cleaning the study table I decided to clear out the cupboard as well, and out I digged some rather interesting things. If I should still be in the mood when I return home and I can get my hands on a camera I may put some photos up here. Otherwise, consider it never mentioned before.

Spent the weekend completing Frontlines: Fuel Of War. For most parts of the game I was a armoured infantry, driving tanks to provide armour for my comrades and taking out the major targets, then dismounting to clear the objectives. Mount, boom!, dismount, clear, mount, it goes on.

Alot of gadgets to play with, ala 3rd Generation army [It is.]. When running into heavily defended objectives I could remotely control mini robots or mini choppers in to clear them out. Fun! The game also decided to ignore logical reasoning when it came to its armoured car. When I mounted the vehicle I controlled both the vehicle and the machine gun, although the graphics clearly showed two persons in the vehicle, one driving, one shooting.

Loading times took a little too long, although it was my computer that was slow [Can I blame the game for over demanding specifications?]. The bots that fought alongside me were too dumb, almost at the same level as the bots in the Battlefield series of games. Couple of terrible bugs were present, like after I shot down an observation tower, the sniper standing at the top did not trumble down together with the tower, but continued shooting at me standing in the air.

Overall not a bad game; good graphics, good sounds, good animations, good storyline, good gameplay. Kept me entertained for a Saturday.

Finally they decided to build a fourth university, and on the eastern side of our beloved island at that. Unfortunately it was too late for me now; I will be spending my four years of tertiary studies travelling to and fro [almost] two ends of Singapore. I would have seriously considered this fourth university if it is going to offer decent courses at decent fees.

Naming the New University

Ahahahahaha given previous experiences in naming Marina Bay Marina Bay and naming the Budget Terminal, well, the Budget Terminal, I won't be surprised if they decided to call this new university, the New University, if the title of the above page is anything to go by.

Ok la they can't be that stupid. I'm betting on 'Changi University'.

The past two weeks had been peaceful; the green flashing man did not appear, my mobile phone did not ring. May our beloved island remain peaceful forever.

the last lecture

The book is yet another reminder that time that is gone can never come back again and we need to seize every single moment that we have now.

Very cliched saying, but somehow for me I never seem to pick that point up and I still waste all my time away.

Picked up this book because I am familiar with some of the terms that appeared. Computer science was the author's speciality, I know the university he taught at because the super smart geek studies there, and I came across the Entertainment Technology Centre he set up there when I looked through my university options in junior college. [The concurrent programme in Interactive Digital Media offered by NUS and endorsed by IDA includes a masters degree there in 1.5 years.]

'Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams' was the title of the last lecture he gave, which was inspiring enough, but I take note that he was a middle class citizen to begin with; money was not really a issue for his family, so I think he did not have much problems achieving some of his dreams.

I still think the place you are born into plays quite an important role [I actually mean luck], but he had a point that 'we cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand'. I think besides time, I have also wasted many opportunities.

Through the years I have met many people around me who have taught me a great deal and inspired me alot, but sadly I myself had not passed anything good on to others.

brainwashed

Happy birthday to my beloved country!

I still remembered in the Harold and Kumar movie where 'George W. Bush' said to the two, "You don't have to believe in your government to be a good American. You just have to believe in your country."

Its not that I don't believe in my government; they have run the country pretty well [at least I don't need to fire live rounds except when I'm at range], but just like everyone else around the world its more convenient to point fingers [middle ones at that] at the government when the citizens are unhappy. Rising cost of living, influx of foreign talent that makes competition ever more bloody, getting stuck in a place doing everything except defend the country, gloomy future etc, I do wonder if something can be done to make life easier.

But the country is not just made of the government. The country is also made up of each and every single one of us, all our stories, our tears, our laughters, our friends, our languages, our cultures, our everything.

This is the place I kicked tennis balls with my friends at the basketball courts during recess, the place I walked down the slopes with my friends to the MRT station after school, the place I cheered the school on with everyone in soccer finals, the place I learnt about computers, the place I gave two years of my youth to in the name of peace, the place my mother caned me, the place my house is built on. Its all the memories and experiences that is collectively put together to form my unique 'Singapore' that is different from everyone else. Or simply put, there is the sense of belonging for the place I grew up in.

Most, if not all, people and places have changed forever. Most, if not all, of the things I did before will never be done again. [For instance the cane has not been used for many years.] But its all of the memories and experiences that stay with me forever that I call this place my home, and not anywhere else.

So just like the movie said, I believe in my country. Isn't National Day also about believing in your country? I celebrate her birthday because the country and I are still fighting fit after one year, and at the same time I renew all the hopes and faith I placed in her, and pray for the very best that everything will turn out well again, for her, for me, and for everyone around me.

Its a bumpy year ahead; I think everyone can see for themselves and no one needs the Prime Minister to tell us. Hopefully the country will survive through.

It should I guess, she has weathered worse storms before.

On a random note, apologies to borrow more than just your MSN nick:

'what is ironic is that in the army, all you get is a 15 mins observance parade.one that made us read the pledge and then go thru a BRIDGED version of national anthem which we are not suppose to sing along with.'

Haha didn't know the exact same things that happened to me happened to you too.

Happy birthday again!

等下一个天亮

I think I need to take back my words a little. It still holds true that anything beats staying in unit, but acting as enemy for battalion's full troop exercise seemed to erase a little good out of it. [Now that I think back, I was still under my unit when I went outfield!]

It all started when the other company sent most of their personnel to either a bike course or pack goodie bags for Army's Half Marathon, yet still agreed to be the enemy for the battalion, so they decided to send in the signallers and the HQ personnel, people who have not done fire and movement since after Basic Military Training.

Well maybe they did not have the option to say no to be the enemy, but like what my mother used to scold me and my brother, 没有这么大的屁股，就不要穿这么大条的裤子。

Many around me claimed being an enemy was slack, 'just sit there wait for them to find you'. But in last week's outfield perhaps I got one of the worse deals when I was assigned a machine gunner, so I had to walk around carrying [and firing] one. For all three days we woke up every morning between 0200 to 0400 to move out, in order to get ready before our 'enemy' came. And we definitely did not just sit there and wait for them to find us.

Worst of all was how they were out to take advantage of us. Like what my friends said, "makan until very full, dabao somemore".

The best comment I heard was at the end of the exercise, when the encik ordered:

"Signallers! Load up the signal sets on the tonner!"

Its like when you move house, and you call for a technician from the TV maker to help you put the TV up the truck.

Now that its over I'm actually half-glad I am not going to Taiwan, because those who are going will be taking orders from that same people from that same company.

Hurray for the coming week! Off on Monday because National Day fell on a Saturday, going out for road marshalling at Marina on Wednesday, and off on Thursday and Friday!

In one of the neatest of those e-mails I have received:

BRITISH NATIONAL LOTTERY

You won the sum of £1000,000.00 GBP in Our Anual Yearly Online Programm. For claims, contact: Mr. Chris Brown
Provide the Following Information
1:Full Name
2:Country
3:Home Address
4:Sex
5:Age
6ccupation

Regards

'i used to have dinner with my wife every night'

Should I say that I used to have dinner with my family [ok fine, maybe not so much of 'family', but at least at home] every night, until I was enlisted?

Past week was spent under the ridiculously hot weather perfecting our drills for the one big wayang show; finally its all over. Amidst the baking sun and the constant berating from the not-so-pleased bosses I actually did not mind doing it, because I could ignore almost all requests for help in the name of preparing for the parade. Haha.

Then there was also the fieldpack inspection on Monday evening, conducted by the big bosses to make sure we were ready for the green flashing man.

Money Not Enough II isn't too bad a movie; I'm actually quite surprised they retained the filming style from the first movie; I can't put it in words, but they are similar.

I also find them to be rather bold enough to add quite a considerable amount of animated graphics in the movie. The abundance of CGs in Hollywood movies these days made Money Not Enough II's animated scenes look like suicide, but I do know the amount of time and effort needed to get even such effects out, given the relatively low budgets local movies get.

Saturday was dinner at Marina Square at yet-another-restaurant-which-I-probably-will-not-step-into-again-for-a-long-time-to-come to celebrate my upperstudy's birthday. Luck was on us when we were able to catch the fireworks from the nearby National Day Parade rehearsal. Beautiful!

Good news and bad news for me. Good news is that I will be acting as enemy for battalion's full troop exercise next week; bad news is that I am no longer going to Taiwan in October. The reason why they are good and bad respectively is the same: anything beats staying in unit.

Two hopes from me: One, hope that the green flashing man does not come on. Two, hope that I can be scheduled for marshalling at Marina after next week, because as mentioned, anything beats staying in unit.

开天窗

一只鲸鱼 要怎么放进冰箱
打开门 然后用力关冰箱
然后呢 如果你还想要 放一只大象
一份希望 要怎么放进心脏
如果你 活的有一点悲伤
答案是 用力丢掉鲸鱼 用力甩悲伤

是谁说半夜不能吃便当
是谁说彩虹不能长头上
是谁说蓝色就等于忧伤
你看看天空和海洋
顺风时就展开双翅飞翔
逆风时就当成在冲浪
没有风的时候那就让我
开开天窗

一句歌词 怎么让你很难忘
方文山 林夕和我都在想
想破头 也钻不进一个 紧闭的心房
一个难题 要用多少的智商
多少泪 还有多少的盼望
多少人 变成紧闭门窗 孤独的国王

the alarm clock that wakes everyone up except the setter himself

Not as xiong as had anticipated; only a 6.4km run on Monday and a 8km today, where Wednesday's run was cancelled because there was no safety rover coverage. [The above statement is to let everyone know that our military views safety as a top priority!]

The National Education trip on Thursday, could well by far be one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting, excursions I ever had. The trip took us to the Singapore Crocodile Farm and the temple opposite it, as part of explanation of the history of Serangoon and the economy status of olden day Singapore.

The trip also took us to the Japanese cemetery, where the tomb of the man all grandfathers and grandmothers hated and war memorials for Japanese soldiers who died during and after the war were located. Actually I do wonder if the Japanese soldiers had been glorified for all that they had done, but I suppose one can put oneself in a German's shoes and wonder why the Allied soldiers were glorified after they had killed so many German soldiers, many his friends and brothers.

The last part of the half-day trip took us for a look at our sand stockpile, where the construction industry tapped into after Indonesia banned sand exports to us a couple of years back. As the tour guide said, Singapore is probably the only country in the world to stockpile sand. Actually there was really nothing much to see other than sand and more sand, but that was just about the only time in my life that I could physically be in there.

Unfortunately just like all other National Education trips this one was laced with heavy propaganda and brainwashing, saying how important it is to defend our country blah blah. I think I have enough of that.

Kiwi - the substance one turns to for turning anything black, everything black. From boots to rifles to helmets to vehicle tracks.

As preparations for the one big wayang show continues, this week saw us kiwi-ing our vehicle tracks, which were too, full of dried mud from Sapper Trail and could not be washed off, so the entire company was activated, with kiwi cans and brushes the size of my handphone [yes you guessed it; my handphone is in front of me and I am not a geek.] in hand, and turned the brown tracks into black.

Together with the new coat of paints the drivers gave to the vehicles earlier on, now they really looked as if they were brand new.

Early book out today for platoon cohesion! After the 8km run the entire platoon went down to 湘城酒楼 for a rather expensive lunch dim sum buffet! Food was good, though we underestimated the small size of the various foods and ordered a little too much haha. Ended the day with a walk around Funan IT Mall and Marina Square.

If there is one thing that Microsoft's products does better than open source products, it will be compatibility with Microsoft's Windows >.<. There were two instances this week where OpenOffice gave weird problems I have never seen before; I couldn't solve them even if I wanted to.

Careless me stepped on one side of my earphones one fine day and broke the external shell, although it still worked because the wiring was still intact. Today I bought a new pair of earphones which I thought was the exact same model as the pair I broke, only to realise when I returned home that it wasn't. Worse, the sound quality of the new pair doesn't match up to the broken pair. So now I am getting my father to glue the broken shells back together. I am blaming Creative for making all earphones and their packaging look so similar to each other, and also myself for buying without making sure first.

Haix.

Upcoming next week: more runs, more preparations for the one big wayang show, and keeping ourselves 'on the ball' as the green flashing man draws near.

6km + 6km + 6km

That was just about the main highlight of the week as training for the run that we are not going for continued.

Friday guard duties were thrown to us at the last minute, and I decided to switch my duty on the 29th with someone who could not do it yesterday, simply because there were five other friends joining me yesterday; if I were to do my 29th duty I would be doing it alone. Besides it doesn't seem to make a difference that I spend another night away in camp.

The biggest boss to rule us all is changing, and a change-of-command parade is upcoming soon. Part of this one big wayang show is to have our vehicles participate in the parade as well, so for the past few days we had to clean the interiors of the various vehicles which were choked full of sand, mud, oil and rubbish from previous exercises. Unlike the exteriors we could not simply turn on a tap and spray water into them; we had to use sponges no bigger than a hard disk [No i'm not that geeky. Its just that a hard disk happens to be lying in front of me now to do the comparison haha] and wipe them off inch by inch.

Came home this morning to be greeted with a blank screen when my Vista refused to boot up. Fixed it by plugging out the hard disk cable and plugging in again, but hell what went wrong I have no idea. Hopefully this thing doesn't crash fatally on me.

Received a red-and-black shoebag for my unit's 38th anniversary, which I thought was more suitable for use during Chinese New Year because of the overwhelming red. I should count my lucky stars its the 38th and not the 35th or worse the 40th, or definitely there would be more shit than just a shoebag and watching Hancock. You know how this world loves multiples of five.

Had lunch with a smart geek, a super smart geek, and a super smart half geek, in one of our annual meetups as the super smart geek returned to Singapore for his summer vacation. Just like the days of VJC where we would had lunch at Parkway Parade every Saturday after our programming, our conversations still never deviated too far away from computers hahaha.

Money is the root of all evil, as everyone says. One may be a kind person who sets up charities to help the less previlged, but when one sees the huge amounts of money flowing in one still can't help but falls for the temptation.

Went down to National Library's old book sale at Expo. Bought four rather random books in two days; either I couldn't find the books I wanted or the entire area was so messy I missed them out. Good thing was both days I went in the evening, so they were selling the books at two for the price of one.

This year's E3 just concluded, and one game that has caught my attention is Tom Clancy's EndWar. So far it looks good, so together with World in Conflict: Soviet Assault and Red Alert 3 [which actually looks a little disappointing, but oh well.], coming few months got games to play lor!

Upcoming next week, 8km runs on alternate days, getting my systems up and running, and woohoo a National Education trip!

One of the many kopi-tiams opposite my house just finished its renovation; I don't know whether its still the same shop and I never noticed its name in the past, or its a new one, the shop name reads:

Jurong Cafe @ Tampines.

what's new

After a month of Ops this week marked the first back in unit since Sapper Trail. Like what a friend said, no longer used to staying in camp for five days in a row haha. Daily physical training in the past week left me aching all over and a half-sprained ankle, after one month of zero PT, and apparently its just the beginning of what is to come, because the instruction passed down is that we will still train for Army Half Marathon even though we are the organisers, albeit not the full 21km.

A bunch of new birds just came in! And a couple of them are damn zai, holding diplomas in network programming and IT and whatnot. Which means I can switch myself to ORD mode sooner than usual loh!

Had a peek at ST Electronics when we went down there. Not a bad place to work in, but I don't really want to work on the same things I have worked on for the past year.

Staying in camp for five days makes me carve for the computer and the Internet, but whenever I turn it on on weekends I realise, I don't know what to do with it.

vroom

Grid's multiplayer has one of the most idiotproof interfaces among games that I have came across. No network configuration required, no port to forward, no IP to set. Just create an account, and the game throws you lists of sessions in play which you can join, easily fulfilling those with adrenaline rushes.

Too bad multiplayer games does not come with artificial intelligence, so you either play a rather lonely game with one or two other friends of yours, or you play with strangers from around the world.

The downsides are the lag which can sometimes spoil the game, and that you get to meet @#$%! people who do everything except do a proper race. They remain stationary when the green light goes off, so cars behind crash into them. Or they drive the opposite direction and crash into those who are really trying to race properly. And they laugh happily [in the chatbox] at the damage they have caused.

But otherwise, damn fun ah! Everyone should go get the game so we can all race together!

Of course for now in terms of entertainment value no game can come close to that being provided by our neighbour and her politics =X

Thank you for all the lunches you allowed me to have with you.

Hopefully the coming week will be a good one.

anniversary

Celebrated my unit's anniversary today at the Grand Cathay, which I thought was quite a good way to end my off with.

Speech, cut birthday cake, redeem our coke and popcorn, then Hancock.

I'm quite happy they decided on a simple movie instead of some elaborate activity which might just involves us pasting white tape on the floor or packing hundreds of water bombs. Past experiences included a supposedly half-a-day "amazing race" which became a one day navigation exercise. I was, fortunately, absent from it.

Spent the rest of the day gaming away with friends at a LAN centre, something I have not done for quite a long time and really enjoyed. As I [still] firmly believe, games are best played against friends, not some dumb artificial intelligence.

Two more days before I return to normal unit life. Although the stint was a waste of my life it also meant booking out and seeing the outside world every two days, no guard duties and no saikang for one full month, and OTOT eat lunch and dinner in singlet, shorts and slippers haha. Normal unit life means a return of all that I dread, but finally some personal time to do what I need to do.

***

Link

Strictly only for geeks.

sierra november zero niner,

kampung now forever, over!

Absence of entries for the past two weeks was because, well, there was simply nothing to say.

And so my one month life rotting, youth wasting extraordinary stint has finally ended. To be more positive, it has been a "National Geographic" for many of us, like seeing seabirds and eagles grabbing fishes off water surfaces and catfishes feasting on dead fishes, admiring magnificent intercloud lightning storms, having close encounters with crabs, dogs, cats, rats and mosquitoes[haha], among others. Some got away knowing others better[Twelve hours of no PSP, no handphone, no MP3 and no book meant the only thing you can do is talk to your buddy] But otherwise all we got were screwed up biological clocks.

I cannot describe the happiness I felt when I finally returned my security armband and the weapon, for the last time.

Hopefully.

I got to enjoy the privileges and the 'privileges' of being a commander, and I think I prefer being a man. Ha.

July apparently will not be as free as what the very big boss claimed to be. News of a traffic control job is coming up, sounds very, very dumb. But for now I just sit back and enjoy my off.

***

Link

And I thought I saw a huge banner hanging down from their building commemorating 100 years in Singapore.