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.