Since my 6 months' excuse (given thanks to a certain MO) has ended, I have run SOC twice - once in clean fatigues and the second with everything on, under test conditions. My regression since last October or so is clear - my balance, confidence and fitness are all much worse now, resulting in greatly magnified agony, and greatly decreased performance when throwing myself against this figurative brick wall. Hell hath no fury like my Ops Sergeant when confronted with a definite IPPT/SOC failure with no way to exclude him from the rankings. I trust that fate will lead me to the prophesied Final Solution. As do the Powers That Be - for some reason, they scheduled me for the SOC test -before- I'd passed IPPT, even though it is definitely harder to pass the former.

Being a cheapskate in some areas and not really caring about how my hair looks, I risked the 42 SAR barber again. Only this time, I caught him napping. Now, I wouldn't have wanted to wake him, but a drill lesson was scheduled later in the week, and I had no care to trudge up to his shop again, so I woke him up as gently as I could. He shaved around my ears and trimmed a little slope at the back of my head, then proclaimed the job finished. Feedback from someone: "A bit wai1... Here a bit short, here a bit flat". Now, even for my wretchedly low standards, this sort of haircut is unacceptable, so in my disgust, I did not tip him $2 as I was about to do, more out of pity than anything else.

I am surprised that MINDEF came clean to the public about 1st Commandos being disqualified for this year's Best Unit Competition (one of the worst ideas to sprout in the SAF ever). Actually, on a closer reading of the tell-all article, one can intuit why - the Defence Correspondent heard the rumour on an internet chat room and then queried MINDEF, which didn't have the heart or the wherewithal to stonewall. I wonder how many more open "secrets" are going to leak out next! Considering that everything is given a security classification one level above what is sensible, it probably wouldn't be much of a loss. As a reservist told me, "Restricted stuff will embarass the SAF if it is leaked". Or as I put it, "Restricted stuff is just classified for the heck of it".

Ever since moving bunk, we've had the same number of people in fewer bunks, with fewer toilets and corridors. Infuriatingly, however, our area cleaning chores have multiplied like the heads of a Hydra. We now have to clean all sorts of odd, faraway areas. For example, I (and I alone) got saddled with the canteen and the corridor above the squash courts which is shrouded in darkness in the morning, so nowadays I might as well go for breakfast.

It seems there are 2 Inet terminals in my canteen and 1 in my cookhouse, but they're never open. Tut tut. In other news, the food stall at my canteen - All Ranks Canteen - has opened again, in anticipation of the new recruits. I wonder how long it'll be before the recruits realise that the 42SAR canteen definitely isn't the best canteen to spend your canteen breaks in.

My cookhouse served "Spanish Omelette" one day. Intrigued, I tried to make enquiries, but no one had anything useful to tell me, the most I got out of the SFI staff being, "The Spanish Omelette was cooked by Spanish people". (...)

I bought, for $1, an artificial potted plant to brighten up my Docu Table. Now we know how $1 shops make money. Meanwhile, I came to work one day only to find that my trusty fly swatter was broken! I assume people were hitting each other with it too often. Oh well, it's only $1. At the same time, the pin of my fragile and lousy Number 3 "Agagooga" nametag fell out, so I can't pin it to my black slingbag anymore. Gah.

Our ceiling fans were spirited away one day, leaving us with only 2 standing fans that our CSM kindly acquired for us. As such, the bunk was a furnace at night. Yet, someone could still sleep with a blanket on. Argh. Thank god for my Secret Garden.

Some time ago, I meditated and got a revelation about the Holy Trinity, the Holy Trinity that keeps all of us safe, protected and out of trouble. Simply, no one Knows, no one Checks and no one Cares. May it always be that way :)


Irritating quotes seen inside a toilet in my unit:

"The significance of a man lies in not what he attains but rather what he longs to attain" : In that case, madmen and megalomaniacs would be very significant. Or how about if I aspire to be a god? Ahh, then I would have lots of significance, wouldn't I?

"The thoughtless are rarely wordless" - Howard W Newton : So by implication, those who speak the most are the most daft. How about those who have a "meaningful" or "inspirational" quote for every situation, and then some?


Melvin and I finally saw one of Ban Xiong's unspecified friends! He went off with her for half an hour, then came back looking pleased - a "quickie", according to the former. At least one of them is now specified. Unfortunately, he will continue to shroud his actions in an impenetrable cloak of secrecy, meeting unspecified friends in unspecified locations at unspecified times for unspecified periods of time doing unspecified things (Ooh, delicious line).

It seems RI has changed their PE T-Shirt again. Not satisfied with giving all the boys left nipple abrasions with the ironed on crest (as opposed to the former printed one), it seems that the Powers That Be have now decreed that the word "Raffles" on the back of the T-shirt, with the black bars be moved higher to be near the neck of the wearer. Eech!

I was killing time in Choa Chu Kang Community Library and I noticed that it was awfully noisy. I think the former RJ librarians should be sent there - they'll go nuts.

I was playing Dungeons and Dragons, Shadow Over Mystara for the first time since I completed it with Marc at Segaworld Sydney (free play is the -only- way to go for this sort of game unless you're filthy rich!), and I realised that it's more complex than I thought. For example, you can whack enemies who are prone on the floor. And I found out how to Turn Undead! Only problem is that there's some key jamming problem - sometimes when one player presses his magic/use item button, the other player's magic is activated. Oh, and Synn has this cheapskate move where, in dragon form, she can deplete your full health bar, and she does it 2-3 times.


Quotes:

[Me to an RP: Do you want to see my camp pass?] No, I want to eat your Long John's

[Fellow medic to me: Where is the coastal margin?] Let me see... Costal margin. 'Coastal' is by the sea

[Someone on the Documentation Room: All the other tables, don't have zhar bor {pinned underneath the glass}] Wang cannot. Wang put there, jialat. Everyday sit there and wank. Grab the table.