The system admins in the e-learning centre are evil. Instead of going around saying "guan1 dian4 le4" (We're closing shop), they have thought up a nefarious way of chasing us out without much effort on their part. After posting on Friday I was merrily twiddling my thumbs, when an ominous dialog box came up, saying "Self destruct sequence has been initiated. 5... 4..." Oops. Wrong message. The one I actually saw went something like, "Automated shutdown has been initiated. You've 30 seconds to save your work". !@#$%^&*()
Mr Au-Yong (Kelvin) thinks that he can get away with not displaying his Corporal rank. I hope someone catches him before his ORD date (in 8 months time!)
Deployment at the SAF Ferry Terminal was very boring. I got to catch up on my reading (after sifting through the current affairs magazines available, and reading Ger's GP stuff, I had no stomach for Donald Kagan's "On The Origins Of War And The Preservation Of Peace", though, so I fell back on the reliable salve of 'Mistress of the Empire') and got enough beauty sleep for a week :) Luckily it's going to be for only 3, or at most 4 days at a time. The poor platoon commander and platoon sergeant will be there for the whole 2 weeks though :) I hear they're bringing in a TV too, though I predict it'll be tuned to Channel U most of the time.
I hate Malay food, and not only because of the chili and no pork (though I brought along some bak kwa for solace). The food that I had to eat while at SFT was all from the Malay cookhouse on the Island of Doom. Of the 6 lunch/dinner meals, apart from 1 pseudo-Western meal of Fish and Chips (with much more rice than chips, of course, and with smelly fish to boot), each looked the same and all included a Chicken Wing. From this I conclude that Malays have a love affair with the humble chicken wing. Which explains why all Malay food stalls sell chicken wings. In addition, we got black sauce mutton 3 times. Maybe they cook one huge vat every month and give it out every other day. Suspiciously, for 2 consecutive meals we had sotong balls. Must've cooked too much the first time. Lastly, every meal was drenched in coconut milk. So now we know why, in BMT, the people eating Muslim food lost less weight than those eating non-Muslim food :)
At least we got the more varied selection of drinks that NTUC Foodfare provides.
Luckily, the monotony was broken on Saturday night, when some of us ordered Malay 2 for 1 Pizza (Intensely misleading in its advertising, for a pizza from them costs nearly twice as much as one from another company, so). Naturally, both the person answering the phone and the person delivering the pizza were Malays. I swear I've only seen 1 Chinese employee - the guy delivering it to the RV Alumni chalet in a private car. Oh wait, maybe that's the boss.
We also had some visits from Angels of Mercy - S3 showed up on Saturday with 24 cans of Coke and some magazines. Later that day, S2 came with BBQ Chicken Wings (which those of us who had eaten Malay 2 for 1 Pizza had no stomach for), and the next day with Durian Puffs and on yet another occasion, curry puffs and sausage rolls. Hehe.
Singtel is very evil. They have a micro station on the Island of Doom. No wonder reception there is so good!
I was reading SAF hair regulations. Apparently dyed or bleached hair is illegal, and females have to tie their hair up - and with black hair accessories too. Sounds like Raffles Guys ;) Beards are illegal too. Too bad for (Warning: Trite and hackneyed reference coming up) Osama.
On Monday, someone left a walkie-talkie in the Ops Room, so all throughout the day we were treated to Mat Radio - 9 hours of music sung by Malays, non-stop chatter and commentary. Among the topics covered were: How to find child porn on Kazaa (You must use version 2.0 and you must search 'underage', not 'lolita'), the relative merits of females walking by and the necessity of getting the police to arrest some schoolboys walking by at about 12pm for truancy. We were also treated to the latest chart toppers in Malay and English both. The 'DJs' also whispered disturbing things, like "Come and play with me... Let your body take control... Come and play with me", and entertained their (small) audience with quips such as, "For 5 dollars an hour, for 5 dollars an hour, I will give up my life for this place! This pathetic place". I wonder how they can keep it up. Now I know how RPs can stand the boredom, and why most of them are Malays, the race being of the gregarious sort and more able to entertain themselves such.
1 possible reason why my Unit has no Muslims - they don't want to take the chance of placing Muslims into "Kaffir" Company ('Kaffir' means 'unbelievers' in Arabic)
As a 'parting' gift for me before I booked out, I got a bout of SOC training - running in Standard Battle Order with dummy rifle, 9 dummy loaded magazines (including the one on the rifle) and 3 water bottles. It was so siong, my webbing straps fell out. And my shoulders still hurt to the high heavens.
Yaoi Girl and Jiamin are trying to convert Geraldine to Yaoi. On hearing that, I let forth a torrent of giggles comparable only to that belted out when I see the Asian Prince website.
Had dinner with Tim at Sizzler (which has rock melon, which is surprisingly good too) on Tuesday. The idiot peeked at my ATM pin and had to repeat it, for which he got a kick.
Just what is Boysenberry Swirl swirled with? I can't taste what's in the white base in which the berry flavour is swirled.
Quotes:
You're in NS, of course you're sex deprived
I'm not 154[cm], I'm 155[cm]
[On why I don't want her to join "Yourself?"] You're just afraid I'll tell everyone about your gay tendencies
[On deployment at the SAF ferry terminal] Why, Gabriel, afraid to see me? [Me: No, Sir] Don't worry. I won't make you run here.
I'm sick and tired of chinese schools. Loads or [Ed: sic] rubbish they are (sms)
I think [John] Cage should be shot.
[On the MGS motto] To Master boys and Serve yourself
Saturday, obese recruits... 'Armour good what, wash tanks'. Fuck you lah, wash tanks.
[On Mat Radio] Now I know why RP can survive. Because they love to talk cock. (how RPs)
[Opinions of the RSM] Face like Super Mario... Everytime walk like that... It took me a month to understand what he was saying [NB: Battalion, Watch Your Front. Battalion - Keep Still There]
Gabriel, I always see you smile
[On people trying to convert her to Yaoi reading] I'd rather read Hentai than Yaoi, but don't tell them that
[Me: My friend was trying to play with me] Play with you? [Me: He has a rifle with 30 rounds] Oh. I thought you meant... [Me: No]
[On why Geraldine is a good match for Yechao] You're both short, you're both scrawny and you both have a bad sense of humour
[A damning indictment of CAP] It's just a little club where people pretend that they're the only ones in the world with inspiration and humour in them
[On 'Krusty the Klown'] Is his hair really green? (No, but he laughs like him, makes bad jokes and laughs at them, has a paunch and stubble aplenty, so.)
Newsweek had an interview with Abu Bakar Bashir, and I was astounded by the depth of his ignorance and the level of his sheer bull headedness. He lives in his own world, really. And besides, he used circular logic, so that's another strike against him. It's a wonder anyone believes the rubbish he's spewing.
"What is your opinion of Megawati Sukarnoputri�s performance as president of Indonesia?
Megawati is a Muslim woman who doesn�t really defend Islam. Her leadership will not be successful because, according to the Prophet Mohammed, a nation led by a woman�nothing personal against women�will not succeed. In Islam, women have their own place. They can lead, but in these places only. Not at the top. "
Bah. How come everyone gets to quote Mohammed? I should quote him too.
I'm accused of being fond of making "puerile anti-islamic tudung snipes". I meditated some upon this and I think that the reason why tudung related matters have become a pet topic of mine recently, leading many to accuse me of being mildly anti-Islamic, is that I share some of the late and lamented Pim Fortuyn's views on Islam and libertarianism.
Quoth I: "In Holland, homosexuality is treated the same way as heterosexuality. In what Islamic country does that happen?... Christianity and Judaism have gone through the laundromat of humanism and enlightenment, but that is not the case with Islam. Modern society places an emphasis on individual responsibility, whereas Islam places an emphasis on collective responsibility and the family. We have a separation of state and church. The laws of the country are not subject to the Koran. We have equality of men and women in western society, whereas in Islamic culture women are inferior to men" - Pin Fortuyn
Though, unlike him, I do not "see Islam as an extraordinary threat, as a hostile society", I do think that the dictates of demographics will lead to it becoming the dominant religion in a few decades.
"I don't hate Islam. I consider it a backwards culture. I have travelled much in the world. And wherever Islam rules, it's terrible. All the hypocrisy. It's a bit like those old Reformed Protestants. The Reformed lie all the time. And why is that? Because they have norms and values that are so high that you can't humanly maintain them. You also see that in Muslim culture. Look at the Netherlands. In what land could a leader of such a large movement as mine be openly homosexual? It's fantastic that that's possible. That's something that we can be proud of. And I want to keep it that way." - Pim Fortuyn
Not having travelled as much as he had, I am not in as unassailable a position to comment.
Oh, and I'd like to state categorically that I support immigration.
I realise that, if I wanted to make my entries a lot more tidy and disciplined, I should use the invention known as "Footnotes". Too much trouble though.