which children's storybook character are you?
this quiz was made by colleen
L'origine de Bert
Monday, April 29, 2002
The word of the day is: "hamartia"
The schizophrenia deepens. Hello Dominic.
Gabriel and I had an argument the other day about whether "shit" was an expletive or not. Gabriel maintains that it isn't, and hence his justified use of it does not render his moral stance against vulgarity null and void. Personally, I feel "shit" would pass the reasonable test as a form of low-grade vulgarity, and hence his self-righteous aversion to profanity is undermined. Gabriel said that he uses it in a literal sense of the word(ie. as a colloquialism for feces), to which I countered that other synonyms exist such as doodoo, turd, mist, poop, duenge, kuso, guano, or caca which no one would consider vulgar.
We continue to exchange arguments of like mettle inside the one brain. Fellow lobes, join in the fight!
Today my senior took sick leave, and my relief officer was on study leave(for some banking certification). As a result, I had to wade through hordes of customers for 7 non-stop hours of hard-core banking. The marauding armies surged at me, threatening to overwhelm my meager defenses. It was us, the few, the proud, the non-malingering(1/3rd of our staff was out on leave of one kind of another, leaving us desperately short-handed). Us against the damn public!(Almost like being in government) Finally, I stood triumphant over a pile of steaming specimen cards and account passbooks! Ah, the sweet pyrrhic taste of victory, dampened only by having to lick and seal 150 letters to customers informing them about the massive savings to be made through our mortgage refinancing packages.
(I hope the glue on those envelopes isn't toxic)
My subscription to the Economist finally came through! Woohoo! I can now have something to read at lunch!(on the days I actually *have* lunch)
Profound insights elude me, so pretension is all I have in place of a life.
*slaps face, in the timed, futile hope that the nerves transmit the pain signals to other parts of our shared brain*
Gabriel, you shouldn't be too hard on those lobes of ours who decide to do things elsewhere. The collective approach to blogging has its drawbacks, and some people like to actually have *lives*(whatever those are). Either that, or maybe the medication's working on them better than it is for us.
To quote from my (real) diary: "I've given my life to a set of obsessions I'm no longer sure are noble; I might be willing to trade in my patented eccentricities for a normal life if there was anything about a normal life I could stand. I live an existence with no resources, allies, or goals, only an acute sense of everything wrong with the world."
If one of our personalities commits suicide, does it bring down the others with him? interesting moral dilemma. That would be one way to prove the matter one way or the other. Shotgun is handy, it leans temptingly at my desk. Albeit heavy, and difficult to cock. Mitiated only by the terrible embarrassment suicide is these days.
Guy Pearce: "How can I heal if I can't feel time?"
But then again, Doris Day: "If life gives you lemons, grab a tequila and make margaritas."
THOUGHTS CAN POP INTO YOUR HEAD INVOLUNTARILY. Like the occasional warped impulse to tear a baby's limb off. Or the sudden desire to do the Macarena *and* the funky monkey at the same time. (it's possible, although it's a reflection of poor planning)
Today, the phone at my desk kept playing the tune from Bridge over the River Kwai. I don't know why. It wouldn't stop. And other people could hear it, so I'm not entirely crazy.I hit every button on it, but it kept playing the tune. For 3 hours. Another officer suggested using a hammer. In the end, I ripped the phone from the line and threw it into the dustbin in a fit of rage, only to have my assistant manager berate me for poor anger control(seriously). I had to fish it out and plug it back in. Thankfully, mercifully, it remained silent. I almost believe in miracles now.
I'm male. Sort of. And army talk doesn't do anything for uniting me, other than my needing to learn it to communicate with some of you warheads.
Schumacher won the Spanish Grand Prix! (erm, was anyone expecting anyone else?)
Post ID: 75958917
Updated my homepage with newly scanned pix: http://www.geocities.com/marshmall0w/
The obstinate 3rd person Andrew just had to put this in after taking the quiz, it's so cuuuuute!
which children's storybook character are you?
this quiz was made by colleen
which children's storybook character are you?
this quiz was made by colleen
Post ID: 75957003
Sunday, April 28, 2002
in a fit of typical feminine peevishness, i'm going to whine about how i'm being termed "a load of inactives". i'm working on the celery stick diet, ok?
don't think you should worry too much about it, gabby. mannerisms reflect one's current environment, i expect you'll slough the uncouth/ill-mannered alter-ego once you leave ns. consider: how often does one get the chance to spout such digit-curling, stomach-roiling expletives with such wild abandon, anyway? ;)
don't think you should worry too much about it, gabby. mannerisms reflect one's current environment, i expect you'll slough the uncouth/ill-mannered alter-ego once you leave ns. consider: how often does one get the chance to spout such digit-curling, stomach-roiling expletives with such wild abandon, anyway? ;)
Post ID: 75923844
*Points out that one inactive has her own blog, and a couple of others are in NS and don't spend as much time as u do online*
WooO! It's like having a new housemate!! *Bakes muffins and distributes them all round*
And u should know my stance on vulgarities. And no it isn't "use the phrase `rabbit killer` as little as possible".
WooO! It's like having a new housemate!! *Bakes muffins and distributes them all round*
And u should know my stance on vulgarities. And no it isn't "use the phrase `rabbit killer` as little as possible".
Post ID: 75920167
I just went for a haircut and the idiot cut my hair almost as short as the Tekong barber would.
"female cadets are very.. unfeminine." - Yong Chin :)
Tze Li on my unhappiness about the taint of unclean thoughts:
"well i pride myself on not using vulgarities but that doesn't mean vulgarities hasn't popped up in my mind before. we can't really control our thoughts to perfection.
yea thoughts often just pop into our heads involuntarily. the best we can do to stay on the moral side of the line is not to act by those thoughts or speak them out. as long as we shove them away and not use them to hurt others, i guess it's good enough."
Words of wisdom :) And Engineer thinks they're okay if you don't vocalise them. Though Yaoi Girl points out that it's the intent behind the words, rather than the words themself. But then I never curse while having an image of flaming meteors raining into the person while his legs are be... Nevermind :)
They're getting more and more annoying and frequent, but I think I'll cope... Fuzzirat says it happens to him too, but it's getting better in his new camp. The SAF is evil, corrupting us so! Oddly enough, Charmian claims that guys become gentlemen once they come out of the army.
If all goes well, by the end of the day we'll have one more guest star on this blog! *Prods the load of inactives*
"female cadets are very.. unfeminine." - Yong Chin :)
Tze Li on my unhappiness about the taint of unclean thoughts:
"well i pride myself on not using vulgarities but that doesn't mean vulgarities hasn't popped up in my mind before. we can't really control our thoughts to perfection.
yea thoughts often just pop into our heads involuntarily. the best we can do to stay on the moral side of the line is not to act by those thoughts or speak them out. as long as we shove them away and not use them to hurt others, i guess it's good enough."
Words of wisdom :) And Engineer thinks they're okay if you don't vocalise them. Though Yaoi Girl points out that it's the intent behind the words, rather than the words themself. But then I never curse while having an image of flaming meteors raining into the person while his legs are be... Nevermind :)
They're getting more and more annoying and frequent, but I think I'll cope... Fuzzirat says it happens to him too, but it's getting better in his new camp. The SAF is evil, corrupting us so! Oddly enough, Charmian claims that guys become gentlemen once they come out of the army.
If all goes well, by the end of the day we'll have one more guest star on this blog! *Prods the load of inactives*
Post ID: 75919121
Bookout post:
Restored Post
The creepy crawlies are very irritating. We have bees flying around the ceiling lights in the morning. Grr.
Even after I'd handed over the post of Platoon I/C, I still had to do some of the work of the post. This week's i/c didn't know the Medic's Pledge, so I had to lead the company *again* on monday. Luckily it was raining on Friday morning, so I didn't have to strain my voice again. But apparently I was visibly joyful at not being the i/c anymore - people kept saying I looked very happy because of the load lifted off my shoulders.
This week's platoon i/c caused me a lot of trouble last week, making plenty of snide remarks from within the file and generally being a noisy nuisance. As a platoon mate puts it, "he either f***s you from the front of f***s you from the file". Being the i/c this week, he was a bit subdued but his glorious character still shone through. Next week he'll be back to normal and since we're all familiar with each other by now, he'll be busily making the i/c's life difficult again. Anyhow he wasn't that great as an i/c - for one, he dismissed us ('keluar baris') when we were lined in 3 long columns, as opposed to 3 long rows as it should be. But despite that and several other foul ups, few complained, at last not in front of him, probably due to the fact that the biggest complainers normally are him and his friend (who happens to have a shortened version of his name).
Because of my neglecting to secure a copy of my Hep B documentation, I had to go to Maju Camp for Hep B screening :( On monday, we all loaded up a tonner, and sat comfortably (there were only 12 or 13 people to the tonner, as opposed to the usual 20-30) for the ride to Maju. And when we arrived we were told, "Don't ask why, we're going back". Well done, efficient and well-run SAF.
During last Friday's guard duty, the rest of the company had a talk by the Course Commander. Apparently he told them that the Commanding Officer would be signing an indemnity form "in a few days", then we would all be able to bring mobile phones in. However, since the SAF has a warped sense of time (my ~$200 credit for buying SAF goods still hasn't arrived), and is ever efficient and well-run, we still haven't been given the green light (so they can stop hiding their phones in their dirty clothes and underwear) and might not till the end of the course!
Even after my 20kg net weight loss since enslavement, my veins are still invisible. Makes for jolly blood drawing sessions and IV practices. Well anyhow it's not due to fat, at least not solely or mainly - my sister has beautiful veins, according to a nurse who poked her before.
The drinks vendor at the canteen earns so much that he has a car. Gah.
I brought in my leopard Beanie Baby, "Sneaky" at the start of week 2. When I woke up on Tuesday morning, I found that some guy with nothing better to do had mummified him with Wide Open Weave (WOW) and Transpore Tape. So I had to use my Paramedic Scissors to cut him loose. (...) I've since brought Sneaky back, but I hope nothing happens to the polar bear which I brought in Wednesday.
It's alleged I have a silly smile, like Teo Shiyi. Ahh!
Another advantage of sleeping on the floor - no bedbugs! Yes, I've experienced what, hitherto, was reserved for cautionary tales during Health Education lessons (or was it History lessons on our suffering forefathers?). Horrible. I've never seen them, but the bump is very big, and it itches horribly. Must be the foam mattresses we are given. So I'm marginally safer in this respect. But then, as someone pointed out, on the floor you've every other thing except bedbugs... Hope my polar bear doesn't get infected with any insects.
Someone who is a contract slave says that the food is about the same standard as when the SAF had NSmen cooks. So we're not that much removed from that generation's culinary sufferings.
On Tuesday, we waited again for our transport to Maju to be poked. While waiting, I bought a drink from the vending machine, and when I was done, I followed the instructions given on this sign:
"Go Green!
Recycle!
1) Please crush your cans and dispose them here
2) Do your bit to save Earth
3) Thanks for the good deed"
For my trouble, I was scolded by a corporal, who asked if I wanted him to pick the can up for me.
On reaching Maju camp, I was shocked to see the TSS (Temporary Support Staff) "YX Lau" (Jason Lau) and "G Yong" (Yong Gen) grinning at me, and saying "we'll be poking you [all] later". Though they weren't too thrilled at the prospect of having to hold me down while they worked. They and their lot gathered around me, but couldn't find any veins (as is usual), so luckily they let the real medic draw my blood. The rest of them were unfortunate, however, and most were poked at least twice, as the inept TSS "topo-ed" a lot. Steven, with very prominent veins, came out with 3 plasters, and we all chuckled.
There was a weighing scale at Maju Medical Centre, so I took the opportunity to weigh myself. 91.8kg with Boots, wallet and No 4. Not bad. And apparently my peripheral equipment weighs just under 2kg.
A thought that struck me on the way back from Maju: If a Malay or Indian illegitimate child is born, and they don't know the father's name, what do they call him/her?
After we came back from Maju, we had IV. Yeh, so I was poked twice in one day. Steven poked me in the left wrist. The left wrist, dammit, with little flesh to reduce the pain. It still hurts a little as I am typing this. But I feel quite bad myself because I failed 2 IVs on 2 people, the first through no fault of my own - no backflow came out even with the instructor's ministrations, and the second because I dislodged the catheter by pulling the needle out instead of pushing the catheter in. Now I'll do 2 next week. Oh well.
Tan Yew Yew's guide to picking oranges: Choose those with a big "navel" and preferably, the growth from the navel must extend outside it.
On Tuesday, our night off was burned when this guy from Time Magazine came down to try to sell us Time Magazine, at $0.90 off the subscription price. He offered us a choice of gifts. One was a Pooh Bear in fatigues (Eee!!!). Another was an overstock of a Life book - "Our Call to Arms", on Pearl Harbor. And the last was leftover phonecards from Time's 75th Anniversary (3 years haven't been enough to get rid of them apparently).
The Bruneians came back from one (of the millions) night off, and they had prata for the malays! Gah.
I've found a third person in my platoon who doesn't shave. Yeh!
After a canteen break, I was hiding behind the training shed and singing latin songs. Apparently I freaked some of the people out, as they thought that there was a little girl singing.
Every time we have a canteen break, I see the Malays eating Nasi Lemak. It seems they don't get tired of it, even after 3 weeks. I wonder if they'll still be eating it after another 8 weeks.
[Some of] The Malays also like to walk around naked in the bunk. It's really disgusting, the nonchalent way they do it - they've no sense of shame. And it led to someone making fun of their "peanuts" (ahem).
The food at SMM really "cannot make it", which is why you often see permstaff buying food back from outside (like Burger King). When it comes to survey time, some people put 2 chips in the "poor" slot. I think the workers have given up on us - one of them told the other, "bu4 yao4 kan4 le4. Ta1 men2 suo1 bu4 hao3 jiu4 shi4 bu4 hao3" - "Don't look [at what slot they're putting the chips into], if they think we're bad, we're bad". So we know why we've so many cats over there. Also, the vegetables at the cookhouse are perenially undercooked. Perhaps this is to make up for the overcooked vegetables at Tekong. At least we've had one good meal so far - Nasi Lemak on Tuesday night, with a chicken wing with pineapple and raisins (wah), and large onion omelette. We can't count on good food, though and so I brought in copious quantities of food in. I suspect one of my giant Carte d'Or Hazelnut bars got stolen, though. I'll have to lock everything in the cupboard next time!
The people who pop up. Arvindren OOCed from OCS and popped up in SMM as a TSS. He's to join the July course as a combat medic. Yeh.
I feel really silly. I'm the only idiot who didn't bring in a handphone, and no one's been caught yet (and indeed, may ever be).
It's quite sad, people were holding forth a discourse in the bunk on the breasts of the girls in FHM. Oh well.
I think slavery lowers our standard for jokes - even really crappy and lousy jokes elicit at least a chuckle from the lot of us.
They squeeze so much into us in just 5-6 weeks. Someone claims that we're actually doing a compressed 8 month course, but even if that isn't true, it is a great deal to study and absorb in such a short time. And we've a casualty aid test on monday, which may cause me to necessitate burning a weekend for a retest.
A female Bruneian cut the canteen queue and wasn't forcibly ejected. Gah. The Bruneians all have 5 digit army serial numbers, like slaves, and apaprently they all own cars.
We only have 2 compulsory water parades a day - before 5BX and during the last parade, and sometimes these are "drink beyond your point of thirst" affairs. Less water torture!
It was quite disgusting - 4 people were seated on a bed, gathered around this guy who was playing Muzak ringtones on his Samsung polyphonic ringtone phone, and some of them were shaking their heads with the music.
Our course is certified by the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Paramedic Academy. Unfortunately, the certificates have expired. Aww.
The sergeant who projects his "garang" aspirations on us (not fulfilling them himself, whether due to physical inability or something else) has given us bad feelings and deep fears about the combat phase and our future unit life. Ugh.
My bunk, bunk 1, is transformed into a gym at night! Dave puts on his black gloves and becomes a personal trainer, training people with pushups and dips. Ah, but that's not it. He brought in dumbbells and barbells. Woo.
Zhang and I were discussing the insidious effect that the army environment has, and we concur that: everytime something bad happens, the vulgarities spring unbidden to mind.
Quotes:
"[During Stand By Bed] This glove. For what? Sell chicken rice?"
"Why [did] you sign on? [Commando: I love my country.] You love the pay, don't bullshit."
"[Trainee while marching: Good afternoon Sir] Good afternoon, carry on, enjoy yourselves."
"[On me] Do all RJ people give that stupid smile?... Because both you and Teo Shiyi give that stupid smile."
"[To someone] Fuck you, don't talk to me about SISPEC. I hate that place."
"Everyday, the breakfast lunch and dinner here, cannot make it."
"Is it really that nice to smoke? Why does everyone like to smoke?"
"[On me copying the sign urging us to recycle our cans] What are you copying?... Eh, don't be stupid eh. Copy my boot size also!... 'Today, I followed instructions on the board. Then I kenna fucked. The guy asked me, the can, waiting for him to throw?' (was I waiting for him to throw the can away)"
"[To Steve] Everyday, see you, never bathe... Jee bye, come back bunk, put some powder then sleep. You think field camp ah? (I never see you bathing, you come back to the, and then, this is field)"
"Hope that you have Hep B. Serious. Then you're excused IV, that means you can poke your buddy, [but] your buddy cannot poke you... Get AIDS. You cannot poke your buddy, your buddy cannot poke you."
"[On Hep B screening by TSS] That's the guy. It's this guy, fucking hell. That's the fucker who missed my vein."
"[On Hep B screening by TSS] They poke, draw blood. Three quarters full. Then, no blood... 'Sorry ah, sorry ah.' Then the other guy, 'Don't worry, it's not our blood.' (poked and drew, Till it was three, there was no more blood, guy said)"
"[On Hep B screening by TSS] We should bring [our] MOP here and shoot IOV here. Shoot on them. (MOPs)"
"[To me during Hep B screening] Fuck, how [do] you take IV? Next time [during] IV lessons [they] must tie you to a stretcher."
"[On not minding IVing someone, but not liking being IVed himself] It's like when you rape someone, you feel shiok, but when you kenna raped, you don't feel shiok."
"But Gabriel, seriously, I've never seen you with a hard on... It makes you wonder. [Goes on to make some comment about when I had wet underwear on and he couldn't see any outline]"
"[On specifics in bandaging of wounds] In your course, you must know this. In real life, I tell you, nobody cares."
"Next is the clavicle. You know where's the clavicle? It's this bone here. All the girls have this, very sexy."
"[Handphone rings] Na beh, all these girls. [Trainees protest] It's a guy lah, 'Desmond'."
"[On people in Units] They bastard you, they see the catheter, they scared already. You just whack one time... sadistic ah. (If they treat you badly, once)"
"Don't go and take the rectal thermometer and put it in the mouth."
"[On my polar bear] Gabriel, you gay ah?"
"I didn't know Nanyang Girls' School looks so nice, sia... Look at the clock. [Me: You're referring to the building right.] The building, not the girls - forget it."
"[On his drawing of a heart] Testicle, what? Take out yours and put it up here."
"[On dinner] Stayout personnel, if you all are not eating, make a motion of going down and coming back up."
"[On a blood donation drive] I donate sperm."
"Last batch, we had no female trainees, but the Miss CMC. Wah."
"In Singapore, you know why? All these people, they study too much already. You punish them too much, they write letter to minister to complain, then you're in trouble. (study, If you, they will, letters to the)"
"Why do you think the girls join army? [They're] Hopeless, can't find jobs outside."
Barry has just told me what the other letters of SISPEC stand for! So far I've only heard it referred to as "Suffer In Silence" but now I know it stands for "Suffer in Silence Plus Extra Confinement". Ahh. Yeah I'm slow.
Restored Post
The creepy crawlies are very irritating. We have bees flying around the ceiling lights in the morning. Grr.
Even after I'd handed over the post of Platoon I/C, I still had to do some of the work of the post. This week's i/c didn't know the Medic's Pledge, so I had to lead the company *again* on monday. Luckily it was raining on Friday morning, so I didn't have to strain my voice again. But apparently I was visibly joyful at not being the i/c anymore - people kept saying I looked very happy because of the load lifted off my shoulders.
This week's platoon i/c caused me a lot of trouble last week, making plenty of snide remarks from within the file and generally being a noisy nuisance. As a platoon mate puts it, "he either f***s you from the front of f***s you from the file". Being the i/c this week, he was a bit subdued but his glorious character still shone through. Next week he'll be back to normal and since we're all familiar with each other by now, he'll be busily making the i/c's life difficult again. Anyhow he wasn't that great as an i/c - for one, he dismissed us ('keluar baris') when we were lined in 3 long columns, as opposed to 3 long rows as it should be. But despite that and several other foul ups, few complained, at last not in front of him, probably due to the fact that the biggest complainers normally are him and his friend (who happens to have a shortened version of his name).
Because of my neglecting to secure a copy of my Hep B documentation, I had to go to Maju Camp for Hep B screening :( On monday, we all loaded up a tonner, and sat comfortably (there were only 12 or 13 people to the tonner, as opposed to the usual 20-30) for the ride to Maju. And when we arrived we were told, "Don't ask why, we're going back". Well done, efficient and well-run SAF.
During last Friday's guard duty, the rest of the company had a talk by the Course Commander. Apparently he told them that the Commanding Officer would be signing an indemnity form "in a few days", then we would all be able to bring mobile phones in. However, since the SAF has a warped sense of time (my ~$200 credit for buying SAF goods still hasn't arrived), and is ever efficient and well-run, we still haven't been given the green light (so they can stop hiding their phones in their dirty clothes and underwear) and might not till the end of the course!
Even after my 20kg net weight loss since enslavement, my veins are still invisible. Makes for jolly blood drawing sessions and IV practices. Well anyhow it's not due to fat, at least not solely or mainly - my sister has beautiful veins, according to a nurse who poked her before.
The drinks vendor at the canteen earns so much that he has a car. Gah.
I brought in my leopard Beanie Baby, "Sneaky" at the start of week 2. When I woke up on Tuesday morning, I found that some guy with nothing better to do had mummified him with Wide Open Weave (WOW) and Transpore Tape. So I had to use my Paramedic Scissors to cut him loose. (...) I've since brought Sneaky back, but I hope nothing happens to the polar bear which I brought in Wednesday.
It's alleged I have a silly smile, like Teo Shiyi. Ahh!
Another advantage of sleeping on the floor - no bedbugs! Yes, I've experienced what, hitherto, was reserved for cautionary tales during Health Education lessons (or was it History lessons on our suffering forefathers?). Horrible. I've never seen them, but the bump is very big, and it itches horribly. Must be the foam mattresses we are given. So I'm marginally safer in this respect. But then, as someone pointed out, on the floor you've every other thing except bedbugs... Hope my polar bear doesn't get infected with any insects.
Someone who is a contract slave says that the food is about the same standard as when the SAF had NSmen cooks. So we're not that much removed from that generation's culinary sufferings.
On Tuesday, we waited again for our transport to Maju to be poked. While waiting, I bought a drink from the vending machine, and when I was done, I followed the instructions given on this sign:
"Go Green!
Recycle!
1) Please crush your cans and dispose them here
2) Do your bit to save Earth
3) Thanks for the good deed"
For my trouble, I was scolded by a corporal, who asked if I wanted him to pick the can up for me.
On reaching Maju camp, I was shocked to see the TSS (Temporary Support Staff) "YX Lau" (Jason Lau) and "G Yong" (Yong Gen) grinning at me, and saying "we'll be poking you [all] later". Though they weren't too thrilled at the prospect of having to hold me down while they worked. They and their lot gathered around me, but couldn't find any veins (as is usual), so luckily they let the real medic draw my blood. The rest of them were unfortunate, however, and most were poked at least twice, as the inept TSS "topo-ed" a lot. Steven, with very prominent veins, came out with 3 plasters, and we all chuckled.
There was a weighing scale at Maju Medical Centre, so I took the opportunity to weigh myself. 91.8kg with Boots, wallet and No 4. Not bad. And apparently my peripheral equipment weighs just under 2kg.
A thought that struck me on the way back from Maju: If a Malay or Indian illegitimate child is born, and they don't know the father's name, what do they call him/her?
After we came back from Maju, we had IV. Yeh, so I was poked twice in one day. Steven poked me in the left wrist. The left wrist, dammit, with little flesh to reduce the pain. It still hurts a little as I am typing this. But I feel quite bad myself because I failed 2 IVs on 2 people, the first through no fault of my own - no backflow came out even with the instructor's ministrations, and the second because I dislodged the catheter by pulling the needle out instead of pushing the catheter in. Now I'll do 2 next week. Oh well.
Tan Yew Yew's guide to picking oranges: Choose those with a big "navel" and preferably, the growth from the navel must extend outside it.
On Tuesday, our night off was burned when this guy from Time Magazine came down to try to sell us Time Magazine, at $0.90 off the subscription price. He offered us a choice of gifts. One was a Pooh Bear in fatigues (Eee!!!). Another was an overstock of a Life book - "Our Call to Arms", on Pearl Harbor. And the last was leftover phonecards from Time's 75th Anniversary (3 years haven't been enough to get rid of them apparently).
The Bruneians came back from one (of the millions) night off, and they had prata for the malays! Gah.
I've found a third person in my platoon who doesn't shave. Yeh!
After a canteen break, I was hiding behind the training shed and singing latin songs. Apparently I freaked some of the people out, as they thought that there was a little girl singing.
Every time we have a canteen break, I see the Malays eating Nasi Lemak. It seems they don't get tired of it, even after 3 weeks. I wonder if they'll still be eating it after another 8 weeks.
[Some of] The Malays also like to walk around naked in the bunk. It's really disgusting, the nonchalent way they do it - they've no sense of shame. And it led to someone making fun of their "peanuts" (ahem).
The food at SMM really "cannot make it", which is why you often see permstaff buying food back from outside (like Burger King). When it comes to survey time, some people put 2 chips in the "poor" slot. I think the workers have given up on us - one of them told the other, "bu4 yao4 kan4 le4. Ta1 men2 suo1 bu4 hao3 jiu4 shi4 bu4 hao3" - "Don't look [at what slot they're putting the chips into], if they think we're bad, we're bad". So we know why we've so many cats over there. Also, the vegetables at the cookhouse are perenially undercooked. Perhaps this is to make up for the overcooked vegetables at Tekong. At least we've had one good meal so far - Nasi Lemak on Tuesday night, with a chicken wing with pineapple and raisins (wah), and large onion omelette. We can't count on good food, though and so I brought in copious quantities of food in. I suspect one of my giant Carte d'Or Hazelnut bars got stolen, though. I'll have to lock everything in the cupboard next time!
The people who pop up. Arvindren OOCed from OCS and popped up in SMM as a TSS. He's to join the July course as a combat medic. Yeh.
I feel really silly. I'm the only idiot who didn't bring in a handphone, and no one's been caught yet (and indeed, may ever be).
It's quite sad, people were holding forth a discourse in the bunk on the breasts of the girls in FHM. Oh well.
I think slavery lowers our standard for jokes - even really crappy and lousy jokes elicit at least a chuckle from the lot of us.
They squeeze so much into us in just 5-6 weeks. Someone claims that we're actually doing a compressed 8 month course, but even if that isn't true, it is a great deal to study and absorb in such a short time. And we've a casualty aid test on monday, which may cause me to necessitate burning a weekend for a retest.
A female Bruneian cut the canteen queue and wasn't forcibly ejected. Gah. The Bruneians all have 5 digit army serial numbers, like slaves, and apaprently they all own cars.
We only have 2 compulsory water parades a day - before 5BX and during the last parade, and sometimes these are "drink beyond your point of thirst" affairs. Less water torture!
It was quite disgusting - 4 people were seated on a bed, gathered around this guy who was playing Muzak ringtones on his Samsung polyphonic ringtone phone, and some of them were shaking their heads with the music.
Our course is certified by the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Paramedic Academy. Unfortunately, the certificates have expired. Aww.
The sergeant who projects his "garang" aspirations on us (not fulfilling them himself, whether due to physical inability or something else) has given us bad feelings and deep fears about the combat phase and our future unit life. Ugh.
My bunk, bunk 1, is transformed into a gym at night! Dave puts on his black gloves and becomes a personal trainer, training people with pushups and dips. Ah, but that's not it. He brought in dumbbells and barbells. Woo.
Zhang and I were discussing the insidious effect that the army environment has, and we concur that: everytime something bad happens, the vulgarities spring unbidden to mind.
Quotes:
"[During Stand By Bed] This glove. For what? Sell chicken rice?"
"Why [did] you sign on? [Commando: I love my country.] You love the pay, don't bullshit."
"[Trainee while marching: Good afternoon Sir] Good afternoon, carry on, enjoy yourselves."
"[On me] Do all RJ people give that stupid smile?... Because both you and Teo Shiyi give that stupid smile."
"[To someone] Fuck you, don't talk to me about SISPEC. I hate that place."
"Everyday, the breakfast lunch and dinner here, cannot make it."
"Is it really that nice to smoke? Why does everyone like to smoke?"
"[On me copying the sign urging us to recycle our cans] What are you copying?... Eh, don't be stupid eh. Copy my boot size also!... 'Today, I followed instructions on the board. Then I kenna fucked. The guy asked me, the can, waiting for him to throw?' (was I waiting for him to throw the can away)"
"[To Steve] Everyday, see you, never bathe... Jee bye, come back bunk, put some powder then sleep. You think field camp ah? (I never see you bathing, you come back to the, and then, this is field)"
"Hope that you have Hep B. Serious. Then you're excused IV, that means you can poke your buddy, [but] your buddy cannot poke you... Get AIDS. You cannot poke your buddy, your buddy cannot poke you."
"[On Hep B screening by TSS] That's the guy. It's this guy, fucking hell. That's the fucker who missed my vein."
"[On Hep B screening by TSS] They poke, draw blood. Three quarters full. Then, no blood... 'Sorry ah, sorry ah.' Then the other guy, 'Don't worry, it's not our blood.' (poked and drew, Till it was three, there was no more blood, guy said)"
"[On Hep B screening by TSS] We should bring [our] MOP here and shoot IOV here. Shoot on them. (MOPs)"
"[To me during Hep B screening] Fuck, how [do] you take IV? Next time [during] IV lessons [they] must tie you to a stretcher."
"[On not minding IVing someone, but not liking being IVed himself] It's like when you rape someone, you feel shiok, but when you kenna raped, you don't feel shiok."
"But Gabriel, seriously, I've never seen you with a hard on... It makes you wonder. [Goes on to make some comment about when I had wet underwear on and he couldn't see any outline]"
"[On specifics in bandaging of wounds] In your course, you must know this. In real life, I tell you, nobody cares."
"Next is the clavicle. You know where's the clavicle? It's this bone here. All the girls have this, very sexy."
"[Handphone rings] Na beh, all these girls. [Trainees protest] It's a guy lah, 'Desmond'."
"[On people in Units] They bastard you, they see the catheter, they scared already. You just whack one time... sadistic ah. (If they treat you badly, once)"
"Don't go and take the rectal thermometer and put it in the mouth."
"[On my polar bear] Gabriel, you gay ah?"
"I didn't know Nanyang Girls' School looks so nice, sia... Look at the clock. [Me: You're referring to the building right.] The building, not the girls - forget it."
"[On his drawing of a heart] Testicle, what? Take out yours and put it up here."
"[On dinner] Stayout personnel, if you all are not eating, make a motion of going down and coming back up."
"[On a blood donation drive] I donate sperm."
"Last batch, we had no female trainees, but the Miss CMC. Wah."
"In Singapore, you know why? All these people, they study too much already. You punish them too much, they write letter to minister to complain, then you're in trouble. (study, If you, they will, letters to the)"
"Why do you think the girls join army? [They're] Hopeless, can't find jobs outside."
Barry has just told me what the other letters of SISPEC stand for! So far I've only heard it referred to as "Suffer In Silence" but now I know it stands for "Suffer in Silence Plus Extra Confinement". Ahh. Yeah I'm slow.
Post ID: 75896995
Saturday, April 27, 2002
Lyric quiz!!
I learnt to play this song a long, long time ago .... beautiful. Don't remember it on the airwaves in singapore though... maybe i was too young. And there's a key change in the song within these lyrics!
"A cold and friendless tide has found you
Don't let the stormy darkness pull you down
I'll paint a ray of hope around you
Circling in the air, lighted by a prayer"
And no it's not Take 5 boyband stuff!
I learnt to play this song a long, long time ago .... beautiful. Don't remember it on the airwaves in singapore though... maybe i was too young. And there's a key change in the song within these lyrics!
"A cold and friendless tide has found you
Don't let the stormy darkness pull you down
I'll paint a ray of hope around you
Circling in the air, lighted by a prayer"
And no it's not Take 5 boyband stuff!
Post ID: 75889935
Thursday, April 25, 2002
The word of the day is: "litote"
*primly*
Andrew, I'm glad that I inhabit the part of our brain that avoids boy-band songs like the plague. Although, frankly speaking, I hope the host body looks better than any of us.
How come all you other lobes of our multifurcated brain have fans?
History lesson.
a) Anzac Day is the Australian and New Zealand way of commemorating for themselves and the world that they can send young people to die in needless, mindless conflict like any other nation; although it's particularly embarrassing when your *first* major world conflict with heaps of casualties happens at the behest of a fat aristocrat sitting in Westminster(Gallipoli and Churchill, respectively)
b) It wasn't a war.. it was a Konfrontasi - as Sukarno so charismatically put it during a speech in Singapore - in front of C.K. Tang in the 60s. Indon commandos with bombs were captured off Changi and in Johor, for one, and Australian troops went in to carry out some recon and anti-insurgency work.. at behest of the Singaporean and Malaysian governments.
And finally, what have you got against the "dingy-cargo-pants-worn-out-moccassin-crusty-windbreaker" school of university dressing? Worked pretty well for me/us and I/we were there?:)
*primly*
Andrew, I'm glad that I inhabit the part of our brain that avoids boy-band songs like the plague. Although, frankly speaking, I hope the host body looks better than any of us.
How come all you other lobes of our multifurcated brain have fans?
History lesson.
a) Anzac Day is the Australian and New Zealand way of commemorating for themselves and the world that they can send young people to die in needless, mindless conflict like any other nation; although it's particularly embarrassing when your *first* major world conflict with heaps of casualties happens at the behest of a fat aristocrat sitting in Westminster(Gallipoli and Churchill, respectively)
b) It wasn't a war.. it was a Konfrontasi - as Sukarno so charismatically put it during a speech in Singapore - in front of C.K. Tang in the 60s. Indon commandos with bombs were captured off Changi and in Johor, for one, and Australian troops went in to carry out some recon and anti-insurgency work.. at behest of the Singaporean and Malaysian governments.
And finally, what have you got against the "dingy-cargo-pants-worn-out-moccassin-crusty-windbreaker" school of university dressing? Worked pretty well for me/us and I/we were there?:)
Post ID: 75809931
Identify the lyrics anyone? They came from a highly mortifying source (shudder)
http://www.teridianshadow.com Travis ho and linus tan have been working on this, it's terrific! Just caught the fabulous trailer!
Rudely awakened at 1.30pm by a call from tiffany that julia's birthday celeb (planned in a park) was called off due to the weather. Uh-oh, now everyone will think i'm a pig and spend all my time sleeping! I didn't sleep that much, woke up at 10.30 and read pratchett's witches abroad, then started on pier anthony's geis of a gargoyle ( imo PA sucks compared to TP ) and fell asleep reading it.
Also Trying to suppress gagging after today's lunch- sundried tomato and mushroom risotto. The alternatives were: sandwich bar (i already eat sandwiches every school day!), fries, pizza square, lasagna (anything has to be better than pasta here!), and unidentified greasy brown-black chunk of meat. Sushi looked tempting but I'd much rather walk down to a takeaway jap place to eat sushi.
Was very down on tuesday after my feedback interview with problem-based learning tutor... on the verge of skipping rest of the afternoon classes. Went to pig out- got a hot chocolate from Plush Sushi (it has a jap chef who specialises in good sushi/handrolls and it serves pretty good coffee/chocolate too!) and requested funky Paprika Powder! It really gives a boost to the flavour- and gave jiaming a shock when she tried it!
Want to go shopping for cool clothes down in melbourne central, plus more dressy stuff around there, and fleece things and raincoats and sports accessories down in smith street where the warehouses are. Then i keep on thinking how much i'm supposed to spend a week... and realise I usually blow it on weekends at one shot. Have got to reserve some money for a decent haircut this week. Am resolving not to degenerate into a perpetually cap-donning, dingy trackpants-dirty-sneakers-smelly-clothes campus lurker.
Just discovered computer terminals in the student union library are available for playing computer games!!! Now i'll have yet another distraction! But friday... maybe friday i'll go play badminton again.
I'm supposed to start on my next assignment. oh well, i shouldn't put it off.
Andrew gan
Post ID: 75798607
Gabriel Bus 165 is marginally more regular than 61. If i were you i'd probably just take a cab since i wouldn't be spending the measly allowance on anything else anyway.
I think i have a couple of those big pitchers that languish unused at home.. i'll have a look when i'm back.
And i'm working on the assumption that anything i blog would register on a very limited number of people (of whom I am obliged to add *swinging on a star apologies again!!!)
Today's Anzac day, national public holiday. It's a "bloody" holiday to commemmorate the violence committed by Australian and New Zealand armies- in world war 1 and 2, several regional conflicts and last in East Timor "peacekeeping".
Intrigued to learn a little about australian soldiers involved in a war between indon-esia and ma-laysia- "There was very little press coverage in Australia at the time, because of the sensitivity of the operations and the cross-border activities. The Australian troops were all sworn to secrecy about having entered Indonesian territory, and it was not until 1996 that the �invasion� was publicly admitted"
If we do turn out to be an MPD I volunteer to be host body!!
Post ID: 75797159
Wednesday, April 24, 2002
Andrew: it's spelled "jelak", not "gelak"
Pedantry satisfied.
The word of the day is: "encopresis"
Firstly, before I launch into the usual self-involved tirade, I would like to share something that a friend of mine pointed out; namely, that it was somewhat bizarre to have three separate diarists going into three separate narrative threads, with barely any recognition of each other's existence, other than an occasional footnote or aside.
As Gabriel points out, we're not trying to pad it out, we're just cohabiting a "platform for diversely deprived people". Still, in this day and age, everyone with net access can construct his or her own goddamned platform, complete with angsty pastel colours, and tasteful abstract images. What does it say about the three of us, with little in common, and under completely different lifestyle circumstances, crowding out our separate lives on one diary? To some uninitiated observer, we could very well be three aspects of a multiple personality disorder - who just happen to congregate on the same page. It's certainly plausible, although, from what I know of Andrew and Gabriel, I seriously hope that if we ARE an MPD, the host body isn't mine. [NB: The Associate and I have some history about multiple personalities]
As my friend puts it, "It's like sharing the house with a partially mobile piano bench with a nose for table scraps. It's like sharing a subway car with some derelict who you think is passed out, until you notice that his eyes are open, staring right at you, and you don't like what's lurking behind the pupils - then the lights go out. "
Hm. These metaphors a bit too cheem for me.
Anyway, the replacement security guard also bought it today. He was caught sleeping at the job, with his rifle next to him, which an observant customer noted to a teller(the armed guard sits in a chair just by the door to the back office behind the tellers section, which customers get a fairly clear view off through the transparent screen). My assistant manager was incensed by this, and the fact that it wasn't the first time this bastard had been chided for sleeping on the job in plain view, which, obviously wasn't good for our bank's public image. The security company sent a senior officer over to haul his somnambulant ass off, and he was replaced by the first garrulous armed guard in my tenure to date... this crusty old veteran who normally does CIT routine, rather than static building guard. (CIT: Cash-In-Transit - ie. escorting armoured vehicles on cash runs). He fits in perfectly with all the classic fantasy archetypes: think of David Gemmell's Druss or the classic grizzled veteran mercenary - with the seamed features, wiry, shoulder-set look of capability.. and the shotgun;) He's actually killed a robber before(shotgun blast to the head), and was quite cheerful about it, and having to be shipped out of Johor following the incident(as a necessary matter of policy against aggrieved vengeance-seekers, security guards who actually take a life in the course of duty are immediately reassigned outside the state). This bugger is the second person I know to have taken another human life(funnily enough, that makes both the people I know who've taken another human life Muslims - which I hope doesn't indicate something. *wryly*)
The new guard gave Hasan(the other garrulous security guard, and who has turned out over the months to be someone I can really talk to. Some day I shall dedicate a rant to his fascinatingly storied existence) a highly amusing lecture. It reminded me of something straight ouf of an old John Ford war movie, or some hard-core grilling shit. It went along these lines:
(The veteran) "So how long have you been a guard?"
(Hasan) "Three months"
"And how long more do you want to be a guard?"
"Don't know.. maybe a few more months"
"Why?"
"Well.. because I'm scared.. so many robberies now... not safe to be a guard"
"WHY??? DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO DIE???" (delivered in this stentorian, Voice-From-Above thundering denunciation of Hasan's manliness, or lack thereof.)
This was followed by an incredibly learned lecture on security awareness, the importance of gut instinct, how to spot for tell-tale gun imprints underneath clothing, some thoughful abstract musing on the role of man in this uncertain, tumultous world, and culminating in an earthy conclusion about having seen it all in 23 years as a security guard.
Perhaps I should shift the focus of my future workplace rants away from security-guard related incidents:)
Oh, and in a final aperitif - the other male in my position within all of XXX bank's branches in the Klang Valley resigned. That means I'm the sole male PFC(Personal Financial Consultant) in the Klang Valley region(encompassing KL and Selangor). My assistant branch manager suggests the branch put up a plaque designating me an endangered species.
As my senior aptly puts it: "You are now The Last Panda."
Pedantry satisfied.
The word of the day is: "encopresis"
Firstly, before I launch into the usual self-involved tirade, I would like to share something that a friend of mine pointed out; namely, that it was somewhat bizarre to have three separate diarists going into three separate narrative threads, with barely any recognition of each other's existence, other than an occasional footnote or aside.
As Gabriel points out, we're not trying to pad it out, we're just cohabiting a "platform for diversely deprived people". Still, in this day and age, everyone with net access can construct his or her own goddamned platform, complete with angsty pastel colours, and tasteful abstract images. What does it say about the three of us, with little in common, and under completely different lifestyle circumstances, crowding out our separate lives on one diary? To some uninitiated observer, we could very well be three aspects of a multiple personality disorder - who just happen to congregate on the same page. It's certainly plausible, although, from what I know of Andrew and Gabriel, I seriously hope that if we ARE an MPD, the host body isn't mine. [NB: The Associate and I have some history about multiple personalities]
As my friend puts it, "It's like sharing the house with a partially mobile piano bench with a nose for table scraps. It's like sharing a subway car with some derelict who you think is passed out, until you notice that his eyes are open, staring right at you, and you don't like what's lurking behind the pupils - then the lights go out. "
Hm. These metaphors a bit too cheem for me.
Anyway, the replacement security guard also bought it today. He was caught sleeping at the job, with his rifle next to him, which an observant customer noted to a teller(the armed guard sits in a chair just by the door to the back office behind the tellers section, which customers get a fairly clear view off through the transparent screen). My assistant manager was incensed by this, and the fact that it wasn't the first time this bastard had been chided for sleeping on the job in plain view, which, obviously wasn't good for our bank's public image. The security company sent a senior officer over to haul his somnambulant ass off, and he was replaced by the first garrulous armed guard in my tenure to date... this crusty old veteran who normally does CIT routine, rather than static building guard. (CIT: Cash-In-Transit - ie. escorting armoured vehicles on cash runs). He fits in perfectly with all the classic fantasy archetypes: think of David Gemmell's Druss or the classic grizzled veteran mercenary - with the seamed features, wiry, shoulder-set look of capability.. and the shotgun;) He's actually killed a robber before(shotgun blast to the head), and was quite cheerful about it, and having to be shipped out of Johor following the incident(as a necessary matter of policy against aggrieved vengeance-seekers, security guards who actually take a life in the course of duty are immediately reassigned outside the state). This bugger is the second person I know to have taken another human life(funnily enough, that makes both the people I know who've taken another human life Muslims - which I hope doesn't indicate something. *wryly*)
The new guard gave Hasan(the other garrulous security guard, and who has turned out over the months to be someone I can really talk to. Some day I shall dedicate a rant to his fascinatingly storied existence) a highly amusing lecture. It reminded me of something straight ouf of an old John Ford war movie, or some hard-core grilling shit. It went along these lines:
(The veteran) "So how long have you been a guard?"
(Hasan) "Three months"
"And how long more do you want to be a guard?"
"Don't know.. maybe a few more months"
"Why?"
"Well.. because I'm scared.. so many robberies now... not safe to be a guard"
"WHY??? DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO DIE???" (delivered in this stentorian, Voice-From-Above thundering denunciation of Hasan's manliness, or lack thereof.)
This was followed by an incredibly learned lecture on security awareness, the importance of gut instinct, how to spot for tell-tale gun imprints underneath clothing, some thoughful abstract musing on the role of man in this uncertain, tumultous world, and culminating in an earthy conclusion about having seen it all in 23 years as a security guard.
Perhaps I should shift the focus of my future workplace rants away from security-guard related incidents:)
Oh, and in a final aperitif - the other male in my position within all of XXX bank's branches in the Klang Valley resigned. That means I'm the sole male PFC(Personal Financial Consultant) in the Klang Valley region(encompassing KL and Selangor). My assistant branch manager suggests the branch put up a plaque designating me an endangered species.
As my senior aptly puts it: "You are now The Last Panda."
Post ID: 75769534
!@#$%^&*()
I come back and I start griping. Argh.
I come back and find that the straw for my gigantic Dunkin Donuts drink pitcher (bought in 1994 when I was in the USA) , useful for pouring copious amounts of drink to sip slowly and complete with insulation, is *still* missing. On inquiry, I find that the straw had been the one given to me to consume the Thai coconut my mother gave me (which was very good, by the way). And it was reasonable to assume that the straw was disposable. So now my pitcher is useless without the straw. Argh. I wonder if they sell this sort of gigantic pitchers (preferably with insulation) over here. Oh Powers That Be, do leave a comment here if you can help me in my predicament!
[Update: I have plundered my Disneyfest straw. It's a bit too long and it's ridged, so orange pulp gets stuck in it, but it's better than nothing!]
The cab fare back was $7.90 including surcharge, and I saved at most half an hour. I think maybe I'll take the bus next time, and try my luck with the 165 instead of the 61. My brother in law has just kindly given me another $5, so I'll get to ride back tonight.
And lastly, I got poked twice yesterday. Because I neglected to acquire a copy of the documentation for my 1989 Hep B jab, I had to go for screening. On arriving at Maju, who should I find grinning at me but the likes of Yong Gen and Jason Lau. Wonderful. Luckily the real medic took my blood, as my vein was hard to locate. The Temporary Support Staff (TSS) like the aforementioned were horrible and kept "topo-ing", and most people had to be shot at least twice. Steven, the last, with beautifully prominent veins, was missed twice, sadly. And after that I had IV (I think Tuesday is the official IV day), and I got poked in the wrist by Steven, who had no one left to poke. The wrist, where flesh is scarce and consequently, injections hurt a lot. Ugh. And I failed my own attempt, so I've to do 2 next week.
And my parents are arguing about inconsequential things again.
On the bright side, even after my rant, I have 2 solid hours at home to slack. Yeh. Daniel and Steven asked me to go to a LAN shop to play counterstrike, but I think they'll gleefully ravish the food I will bring in later.
I come back and I start griping. Argh.
I come back and find that the straw for my gigantic Dunkin Donuts drink pitcher (bought in 1994 when I was in the USA) , useful for pouring copious amounts of drink to sip slowly and complete with insulation, is *still* missing. On inquiry, I find that the straw had been the one given to me to consume the Thai coconut my mother gave me (which was very good, by the way). And it was reasonable to assume that the straw was disposable. So now my pitcher is useless without the straw. Argh. I wonder if they sell this sort of gigantic pitchers (preferably with insulation) over here. Oh Powers That Be, do leave a comment here if you can help me in my predicament!
[Update: I have plundered my Disneyfest straw. It's a bit too long and it's ridged, so orange pulp gets stuck in it, but it's better than nothing!]
The cab fare back was $7.90 including surcharge, and I saved at most half an hour. I think maybe I'll take the bus next time, and try my luck with the 165 instead of the 61. My brother in law has just kindly given me another $5, so I'll get to ride back tonight.
And lastly, I got poked twice yesterday. Because I neglected to acquire a copy of the documentation for my 1989 Hep B jab, I had to go for screening. On arriving at Maju, who should I find grinning at me but the likes of Yong Gen and Jason Lau. Wonderful. Luckily the real medic took my blood, as my vein was hard to locate. The Temporary Support Staff (TSS) like the aforementioned were horrible and kept "topo-ing", and most people had to be shot at least twice. Steven, the last, with beautifully prominent veins, was missed twice, sadly. And after that I had IV (I think Tuesday is the official IV day), and I got poked in the wrist by Steven, who had no one left to poke. The wrist, where flesh is scarce and consequently, injections hurt a lot. Ugh. And I failed my own attempt, so I've to do 2 next week.
And my parents are arguing about inconsequential things again.
On the bright side, even after my rant, I have 2 solid hours at home to slack. Yeh. Daniel and Steven asked me to go to a LAN shop to play counterstrike, but I think they'll gleefully ravish the food I will bring in later.
Post ID: 75764050
Tuesday, April 23, 2002
Hallo everyone!!!!
I would like to imagine aaaaall of my friends in singapore are reading this and following my activities and life here closely, but i know this is as far away from the truth as possible ... i can probably count the bloggers on balderdash like the dear owner gabriel, uh oh, i better use their nicks "the associate", "aureate", "flippant", kai ren. If you Are reading this and you're not mentioned here, do post or post a comment or tell me!!
Anyway on Saturday i was rudely awakened when albert called me about getting a present for julia, turned out to be eleven o'clock already. DId some study and met him (he was late as usual) to go shopping... eventually bought a big stuffed doggy (almost a metre in length). I bought bubble solution from toys r' us! Went down to crown, originally supposed to eat the buffet but it was a little more expensive than eating main courses from cafe grekko's so we went to the latter. Very fun, took lots of pictures, got to meet more chinese international/local students.
After dinner we went walking down the river to burn off the jelak food. Stopped by a street accordion player and asked her to play a few favourite songs, and gave some money. Then went to starbuck's for coffee stop. Thinking of going clubbing but apparently they need ID like driving licence or passport. All of us didn't have either so we couldn't, anyway some weren't very keen on clubbing. Went home.
Sunday morning I went horseriding with wanyan in ponylands under the uni horseriding club. It was drizzling, and i had to borrow this stinking dirty coat - wanyan said it reminded her of this exotic culinary expression she had just read in a book- "leather soup". Quite fun, i learnt how to control the horse, how to "rise to the trot"- basically adopting standing position then sitting then standing, by pushing off with yr toes in the stirrups. This is so you can stay in rhythm with the horse when it starts to trot. And my horse went into an almost-canter. She had a lovely name- "Pearl".
I went to sleep after the ride, had a headache because i had a helmet that was too small and compressing my temples.
At night I talked to my brother for 2 hours, then went to jiaming's house- she decided to cook dinner- all the asian food i never got to eat. The oddest mix of shows were on TV- notting hill, american pie (with all the explicit scenes), a period drama. Just managed to catch the last tram back down elizabeth street.
I can't remember doing anything special on monday.
And i told my brother and albert about gabriel's posting to medics... they want to know how you find having to inject other people.
I heard people in 1st yr med in monash uni already know how to draw blood.
I would like to imagine aaaaall of my friends in singapore are reading this and following my activities and life here closely, but i know this is as far away from the truth as possible ... i can probably count the bloggers on balderdash like the dear owner gabriel, uh oh, i better use their nicks "the associate", "aureate", "flippant", kai ren. If you Are reading this and you're not mentioned here, do post or post a comment or tell me!!
Anyway on Saturday i was rudely awakened when albert called me about getting a present for julia, turned out to be eleven o'clock already. DId some study and met him (he was late as usual) to go shopping... eventually bought a big stuffed doggy (almost a metre in length). I bought bubble solution from toys r' us! Went down to crown, originally supposed to eat the buffet but it was a little more expensive than eating main courses from cafe grekko's so we went to the latter. Very fun, took lots of pictures, got to meet more chinese international/local students.
After dinner we went walking down the river to burn off the jelak food. Stopped by a street accordion player and asked her to play a few favourite songs, and gave some money. Then went to starbuck's for coffee stop. Thinking of going clubbing but apparently they need ID like driving licence or passport. All of us didn't have either so we couldn't, anyway some weren't very keen on clubbing. Went home.
Sunday morning I went horseriding with wanyan in ponylands under the uni horseriding club. It was drizzling, and i had to borrow this stinking dirty coat - wanyan said it reminded her of this exotic culinary expression she had just read in a book- "leather soup". Quite fun, i learnt how to control the horse, how to "rise to the trot"- basically adopting standing position then sitting then standing, by pushing off with yr toes in the stirrups. This is so you can stay in rhythm with the horse when it starts to trot. And my horse went into an almost-canter. She had a lovely name- "Pearl".
I went to sleep after the ride, had a headache because i had a helmet that was too small and compressing my temples.
At night I talked to my brother for 2 hours, then went to jiaming's house- she decided to cook dinner- all the asian food i never got to eat. The oddest mix of shows were on TV- notting hill, american pie (with all the explicit scenes), a period drama. Just managed to catch the last tram back down elizabeth street.
I can't remember doing anything special on monday.
And i told my brother and albert about gabriel's posting to medics... they want to know how you find having to inject other people.
I heard people in 1st yr med in monash uni already know how to draw blood.
Post ID: 75720981
Monday, April 22, 2002
Sunday, April 21, 2002
Ooh, I feel so warm and fuzzy (really!) in a wunnerful sense inside, like poohbear on a honey high or uh cookie monster with a cookie jar....
Ann posted on caramel:
You know, Andrew, you were at Artists' Jam, on spiritual wings. Someone wrote, on the whiteboard:
Ack.--Andrew Gan (in spirit)
Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!
Ann posted on caramel:
You know, Andrew, you were at Artists' Jam, on spiritual wings. Someone wrote, on the whiteboard:
Ack.--Andrew Gan (in spirit)
Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!
Post ID: 75649902
I bought a SMAC (Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri) novel from the EMF in Holland Village. I just wonder if I'll ever get down to reading it, or if I'll ever see the other books in the series (this one is book 1 of 3).
More weird stuff.
Hope I get at least 2 nights off so I can come home and bum for 2 hours each time! Am I not sad? :) Hot nights on the town never appealed to me anyway, nor did pool. And it's too short for a movie.
More weird stuff.
Hope I get at least 2 nights off so I can come home and bum for 2 hours each time! Am I not sad? :) Hot nights on the town never appealed to me anyway, nor did pool. And it's too short for a movie.
Post ID: 75647176
The word of the day is: "threnody"
Spent weekend vegetating at home bonding over my large stack of "to-play" computer games and catching up on some VCDs an animes. Thankfully, my father is away in Australia this weekend, so I have been able to avoid the usual weekend-wasting sessions of family bonding, family lunches, family outings which cut into my valuable entertainment/privacy time. (Some might say my priorities are a little in(per)verted. Gruthokk to you all.) Managed to finish up Freedom Force, and am now in that terrible, ennui-pervasive period where I have to make the leap into another game - it's hard for me these days to really get immersed into a new game per se, and I find myself having to make the effort to actually pick one up, trudge through the learning curve, etc etc. Currently have reduced the pack down to Incoming Forces(light, mindless graphics-heavy shooter), Jedi Knight 2(extremely looong but good game, with funky lightsaber battles), Heroes of Might and Magic IV(although as a long-time HOMM purist, I find the new design revamp a tad.. unsettling) or Might and Magic IX(old-school RPG with new-school graphics). Either way, I have to get into one soon, otherwise I'll degenerate into another week of coming home, not having a game to eagerly anticipate continuing, and wasting a night staring at ICQ or news websites.
Shall make a final decision by tonight, after finishing Death to Smoochy(Edward Norton and Robin Williams; a "poisoned yet delectable bon bon of a movie that will appeal only to the darkest and most jaundiced of hearts"), and possibly Changing Lanes(Morgan Freeman, a good character actor, and Ben Affleck, who turns out to be capable of good character acting, in this movie). Maybe I should start in on Full Metal Panic as well, although once it's irrtiating to start on an anime series knowing that you haven't got the complete run(13 episodes to go). Also the *last* time I started a new anime series(last week, Vandread Second Stage); I somehow ended up watching all 26 episodes in an 11 hour marathon orgy of viewing. Perhaps I should go easy on my stimulation centers this weekend, and instead go for a one-shot movie, such as the Cowboy Bebop movie or Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.
Basically, these days, I'm trying to find a compromise between my life, the all-pervasive sense of failure and my original stated philosophy of little victories and little stimulations - a simple job, simple pleasures, and the use of entertainment as a soporific against the shards of failed ambition and failed expectations. Also, they keep the recurring suicidal thoughts at bay. That, plus my inability to escape the visceral feeling that suicide these days has really gone out of fashion as a statement of intent - it seems to be less of an extreme, intense life-changing(or ending) action/emotional throb of suffering, but more of a ubiquitous cultural norm, like Levi's blue jeans and Sony Walkmans. The same goes for nihilism, Goth, Christianity, conservatism, liberalism, and wearing black.
After all, I need something to keep my inadequacies at bay, and what better way to buttress off depression, frustration and angst than by using sloth, indolent gratification, and media-generated self-indulgence? Using one weakness to compensate for another. Reminds me of the interesting moral paradox from Aristotle's Ethics(I think..) - imagine a person who is both misguided and indolent - he is misguided and thus has confused wrong and right, but is too indolent to perform his "moral duty"; ie, what he thinks is right. Hence, a good outcome is achieved since his indolence prevents him from acting misguidedly. Two wrongs DO make a right:)
And there; I've fulfilled the customary "angsting-on-a-blog" genuflection for the week.
"Anytime you can give the appearance of being a team player while making your co-workers look bad, you have done your job."
Spent weekend vegetating at home bonding over my large stack of "to-play" computer games and catching up on some VCDs an animes. Thankfully, my father is away in Australia this weekend, so I have been able to avoid the usual weekend-wasting sessions of family bonding, family lunches, family outings which cut into my valuable entertainment/privacy time. (Some might say my priorities are a little in(per)verted. Gruthokk to you all.) Managed to finish up Freedom Force, and am now in that terrible, ennui-pervasive period where I have to make the leap into another game - it's hard for me these days to really get immersed into a new game per se, and I find myself having to make the effort to actually pick one up, trudge through the learning curve, etc etc. Currently have reduced the pack down to Incoming Forces(light, mindless graphics-heavy shooter), Jedi Knight 2(extremely looong but good game, with funky lightsaber battles), Heroes of Might and Magic IV(although as a long-time HOMM purist, I find the new design revamp a tad.. unsettling) or Might and Magic IX(old-school RPG with new-school graphics). Either way, I have to get into one soon, otherwise I'll degenerate into another week of coming home, not having a game to eagerly anticipate continuing, and wasting a night staring at ICQ or news websites.
Shall make a final decision by tonight, after finishing Death to Smoochy(Edward Norton and Robin Williams; a "poisoned yet delectable bon bon of a movie that will appeal only to the darkest and most jaundiced of hearts"), and possibly Changing Lanes(Morgan Freeman, a good character actor, and Ben Affleck, who turns out to be capable of good character acting, in this movie). Maybe I should start in on Full Metal Panic as well, although once it's irrtiating to start on an anime series knowing that you haven't got the complete run(13 episodes to go). Also the *last* time I started a new anime series(last week, Vandread Second Stage); I somehow ended up watching all 26 episodes in an 11 hour marathon orgy of viewing. Perhaps I should go easy on my stimulation centers this weekend, and instead go for a one-shot movie, such as the Cowboy Bebop movie or Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.
Basically, these days, I'm trying to find a compromise between my life, the all-pervasive sense of failure and my original stated philosophy of little victories and little stimulations - a simple job, simple pleasures, and the use of entertainment as a soporific against the shards of failed ambition and failed expectations. Also, they keep the recurring suicidal thoughts at bay. That, plus my inability to escape the visceral feeling that suicide these days has really gone out of fashion as a statement of intent - it seems to be less of an extreme, intense life-changing(or ending) action/emotional throb of suffering, but more of a ubiquitous cultural norm, like Levi's blue jeans and Sony Walkmans. The same goes for nihilism, Goth, Christianity, conservatism, liberalism, and wearing black.
After all, I need something to keep my inadequacies at bay, and what better way to buttress off depression, frustration and angst than by using sloth, indolent gratification, and media-generated self-indulgence? Using one weakness to compensate for another. Reminds me of the interesting moral paradox from Aristotle's Ethics(I think..) - imagine a person who is both misguided and indolent - he is misguided and thus has confused wrong and right, but is too indolent to perform his "moral duty"; ie, what he thinks is right. Hence, a good outcome is achieved since his indolence prevents him from acting misguidedly. Two wrongs DO make a right:)
And there; I've fulfilled the customary "angsting-on-a-blog" genuflection for the week.
"Anytime you can give the appearance of being a team player while making your co-workers look bad, you have done your job."
Post ID: 75645813
ah... i was posted to hq 4sab, signal company =) supposed to be a storeman... and now under training (by my upper-studies) to become the next store ic..
supposedly, ill be going for the storeman course in june or so, but at that time id noe almost everything bout storemanship (hehe actually now i already do more or less)..
my typical work day is quite nice..
0620: wake up
0630: breakfast parade (take attendence)
0650: go back bunk for area cleaning (sleep)
0745: first parade in no4
0800: start work
1000: canteen break
1030: continue work
1130: lunch break
1330: continue work
1500: canteen break
1530: continue work
1700: dinner break
1710: last parade
and thats it! mwahahahah =)
the work itself is pretty minimal too usually.. just loaning stuff, checking eq, maintainance etc..
the only prob now is that my unit is handling ndp (national day parade) this year, so got a LOT of work coming up..
and then shifting camp soon too! UGH. more work..
and another top secret activity that i cant say much about... =) just a lot of work..
handphones can be used all the time (silent mode during parades), and i charge my phone all over (in bunk or store usually)... =P
my company quite cool, got 4 platoons or so, but each platoon is roughly the size of a section in bmt =) (at least my store platoon and the hq platoon)..
my bunk overall is ok, but thats cos the fridge, tv and playstation makes up for the lousy cupboard, sponge matresses and lousy fans.. lucky we'r shifting soon hehehe =)
ah, takes me 45 min or more to reach an mrt station, so travelling out is a big bother.. i get 2 nights off a week (tues and thurs) but they only start next week since newcomers' first month cant take nights off, leave or off supposedly..
next week, i start a 2-week run of being duty storeman, meaning i wake up early, end late, do area cleaning for the store, stay in store during meals etc.. =(
oh well, i already have 1 day off (i think) credited cos we all worked very hard recently, and i heard our oc is going to give us another 3-5 days off for our efforts..!
ah, i like my unit a lot more than bmt!
being c9l2 is great too, during the brigade's live runs (on tues and thurs mornings), i dont need to run, warm-up is selective (i do if i want), and exercises all no need.. then cant do pushup, situp etc, ex guard duty, and a LOT of things.. as my upper-study said, everything i dont wanna do, no need to do. if they force u, just say ur back pain, then they cant do anything to u.. whee =)
[Ed:
I say you chao keng, you say I chao keng.
Actually, only Somchaya chao keng chao keng, hey!]
supposedly, ill be going for the storeman course in june or so, but at that time id noe almost everything bout storemanship (hehe actually now i already do more or less)..
my typical work day is quite nice..
0620: wake up
0630: breakfast parade (take attendence)
0650: go back bunk for area cleaning (sleep)
0745: first parade in no4
0800: start work
1000: canteen break
1030: continue work
1130: lunch break
1330: continue work
1500: canteen break
1530: continue work
1700: dinner break
1710: last parade
and thats it! mwahahahah =)
the work itself is pretty minimal too usually.. just loaning stuff, checking eq, maintainance etc..
the only prob now is that my unit is handling ndp (national day parade) this year, so got a LOT of work coming up..
and then shifting camp soon too! UGH. more work..
and another top secret activity that i cant say much about... =) just a lot of work..
handphones can be used all the time (silent mode during parades), and i charge my phone all over (in bunk or store usually)... =P
my company quite cool, got 4 platoons or so, but each platoon is roughly the size of a section in bmt =) (at least my store platoon and the hq platoon)..
my bunk overall is ok, but thats cos the fridge, tv and playstation makes up for the lousy cupboard, sponge matresses and lousy fans.. lucky we'r shifting soon hehehe =)
ah, takes me 45 min or more to reach an mrt station, so travelling out is a big bother.. i get 2 nights off a week (tues and thurs) but they only start next week since newcomers' first month cant take nights off, leave or off supposedly..
next week, i start a 2-week run of being duty storeman, meaning i wake up early, end late, do area cleaning for the store, stay in store during meals etc.. =(
oh well, i already have 1 day off (i think) credited cos we all worked very hard recently, and i heard our oc is going to give us another 3-5 days off for our efforts..!
ah, i like my unit a lot more than bmt!
being c9l2 is great too, during the brigade's live runs (on tues and thurs mornings), i dont need to run, warm-up is selective (i do if i want), and exercises all no need.. then cant do pushup, situp etc, ex guard duty, and a LOT of things.. as my upper-study said, everything i dont wanna do, no need to do. if they force u, just say ur back pain, then they cant do anything to u.. whee =)
[Ed:
I say you chao keng, you say I chao keng.
Actually, only Somchaya chao keng chao keng, hey!]
Post ID: 75624171
Bookout post:
Restored post
2 weeks down, 10 to go (with the last being a 2 day week)!
I was the Platoon I/C this week. Boy. Oh boy. Command, especially of the military sort, is just not for me - I'm too soft. My platoon mates (and even the Bruneians) commented that I often looked very mentally stressed. For some reason, the platoon was amused when I "hushed" them, and some decided to shout "hush" at various times, and mutter "hush puppies" at others. I don't really get it. They also said I'm longwinded. Also, "You're very comical as an i/c, although you don't know that" - Daniel. On the bright side, I was on MC for one day, had an off pass the next and was on guard duty one night, so I didn't have to be the i/c for that long :) Marching at the side of the platoon is cooler as you don't have hot bodies around, but you've to look out for superiors to greet.
We're starting to get into the rhythm of our course, but there's simply too much to study, in both theory and practical aspects. I missed the lesson on Bandaging of Wounds on Monday due to my MC, and wonder if I'll ever catch up. And I'm horrible with my hands, so I'm terrible at tying bandages and tourniquets.
I really do sweat a lot, and quite a few people have commented. Maybe it was the stress of being Platoon I/C this week. A sizeable number of people have been wearing just one set of Number 4 for the whole week - ugh - but I refuse to do that. Right now I think I'm going to go with 2 sets a week. Sounds disgusting, but such are our circumstances. And I hate wearing my jockey cap all the time!
I've been making do with public phones all week. As I predicted, no one bothers to march all the way down to the godforsaken one that I use (one of the 2-3 working phones there) - so far I've seen at most one other person on each day, so I've been able to chat merrily, for at least half an hour each day. Time to stock up on phonecards!
To this date, I've not actually drawn any of my slave (pittance) allowance. And prior to Tuesday night, I'd only gotten $200 from my parents since enlistment, so I've been living on hongbao money all the way :) When I casually mentioned this to my parents, I got $50 from each. Heh.
Lately, I've taken to sleeping on the floor. It's actually much cooler, though all manner of insects may crawl over you as you sleep.
On Tuesday, I went down for the PSC LMS (T) (I cannot be bothered to spell that out) scholarship interview. And I saw Kam Zhiming. Hahahaha. After the interview, I went down to RJ (yet again), in Number 4 for the first time, to get some stuff for the GP Application Question from Mrs Chan. I wonder how many people stared at me. Even though I took that little side trip, I still managed to finish everything and have lunch and booked in an hour earlier than I had to.
After I came back, we had our first IV (Intravenous Infusion). Erk. The catheter still hurts when it is embedded in the vein, so it's not just a quick "ant bite" (as injections are usually described - but what sort of ant?). For the first 3 IVs, we will be using the smaller needles (luckily). Because of the smaller needles, my response was quite muted - some strangled cries (not full voiced), no screaming and controlled writhing. I'm quite happy about my performance actually. And my buddy was very nice about it (for his trouble, I accidentally poked him in the wrist with the needle...). I just dread the larger needles, and it's terribly unfair - female trainees get to use the small needles for all their IVs.
We were finally knocked down - of all reasons, for some people making comments on how some of the permstaff were playing basketball while we were waiting for our computer lessons 2 storeys above.
A popular place to hide handphones is in your underwear - while you're wearing it. Ugh.
My brother in law gave me $10 as a taxi subisdy for my next night off! :)
Ever since I brought in my "Off!" insect repellent to spray every night, my sleep has not been interrupted by leg scratching sessions (though it has by wheezing and coughing bouts). However, some of the hardcore blood addicts still bite even if the repellent has been sprayed. Bloody buggers.
I saw and talked to my sec 4 classmate Tan Yong Chye Charles! Seems people pop up everywhere. He's learning to be a storeman in SMM. It's ironic - all the fit sportsmen get downgraded because of their injuries.
I think that the Recruits' Messes in BMTC are better furnished than the Officers, Warrant Offciers and Specialists' Mess here. Aww.
Kumar says the AJC uniform is thick, waterproof and fireproof as well. And he was surprised when I asked if the supplier was "Finest Fashion".
On Wednesday, Kumar and I were in the second shift of people guarding the MOPs and Fieldpacks in the training shed during lunch time. In the end, nobody relieved us so we spent 1 1/2 hr there while everyone else slept in the bunk.
It's really disgusting - I'd brought my singlet out to the drain to wring, and presumably as I wrung it, a giant spider crawled on. When I returned to the bunk, it crawled down my leg until I flicked it off with the singlet, whereupon it crawled under the bed. I thought I'd lost it, but later when I took my boots out to put on, it was lying motionless there. Daniel then came and stepped on it. And on the same day, our ceiling lights, for some reason, started attracting not only the usual flying insects but new guests - honeybees. Go figure. Stupid monsters.
We were supposed to have another night off on Thursday, but the whole of my bunk did not get to have it because apparently in the other bunks during area cleaning, many people were lying on the beds and complaining of chest pains. Our bunk only had 2 non-bunk cleaners present - one had just returned from the toilet, and I was cleaning up the ichor of the giant spider. Oh well. Later that day, before the night off, we saw one platoon get pumped in civvies - is that allowed?
Our latest computer lesson had a survey programmed in, with a box to collect comments. I doubt anyone reads what we might type in, though.
During Stand By Bed, some people didn't have any soap, so they split their buddy's bar into two and took one half. Too bad they got caught!
The whole of Friday was spent doing CPR. Suspiciously, all the mannikins in the CPR centre are female. The tests for CPR were rather hard, and I think quite a few people will have to come back on a future Sunday to retake the tests after failing. After CPR, I went off guard duty. No more carrying of rifles! Instead, prowlers walk around with truncheons and a searchlight (and don't need to don webbing either). Much help the truncheon will be against intruders. I had the sentry position, so I got to be blown by a powerful fan during each of my two 2 hour shifts. I got scolded for sitting down, while Frank on the previous shift got away with sleeping - flat on the ground with legs sticking out of the sentry post. Anyhow, Detail 3, the one I was in, is the worst as you get the least sleep: Before 10pm, they hold frequent turnouts to prevent you from sleeping so the only time you can sleep is after 10pm, but that is when detail 3 starts its work. So detail 3 gets a maximum of 4 hours of sleep while the other 2 details get up to 6 hours of sleep.
Someone bought a prawn cake (the fried dough fritter with a unshelled prawn stuck on top) and threw away the whole prawn, not just the shell. What a waste.
Quotes:
"Go back to bunk and tactically use your handphone."
"Why, today, all very excited? IV?"
"[On IV] Remember to put off your handphones before you start. [Trainee: Sergeant, no handphone] Don't bluff. (turn)"
"[On IV] Because of this, you want to AWOL?"
"We come here learn medic skill, not medic song (to learn, skills, not a)"
"[At 9:55am] Section 8, go for a 20 minute break. Come back at 10:45. How long is your break? [Trainees: 20 minutes]"
"[On the double decker beds] Please, those who sleep on top, don't fall off the bed"
"You know, you like unit man already. Everytime, [you want to go to the] 'bunk'. (you're like a)"
"Your POP... 24km route march, full battle order, stretcher and MOP... No lah."
"Saturday lunch is usually very nice one (nice)"
Restored post
2 weeks down, 10 to go (with the last being a 2 day week)!
I was the Platoon I/C this week. Boy. Oh boy. Command, especially of the military sort, is just not for me - I'm too soft. My platoon mates (and even the Bruneians) commented that I often looked very mentally stressed. For some reason, the platoon was amused when I "hushed" them, and some decided to shout "hush" at various times, and mutter "hush puppies" at others. I don't really get it. They also said I'm longwinded. Also, "You're very comical as an i/c, although you don't know that" - Daniel. On the bright side, I was on MC for one day, had an off pass the next and was on guard duty one night, so I didn't have to be the i/c for that long :) Marching at the side of the platoon is cooler as you don't have hot bodies around, but you've to look out for superiors to greet.
We're starting to get into the rhythm of our course, but there's simply too much to study, in both theory and practical aspects. I missed the lesson on Bandaging of Wounds on Monday due to my MC, and wonder if I'll ever catch up. And I'm horrible with my hands, so I'm terrible at tying bandages and tourniquets.
I really do sweat a lot, and quite a few people have commented. Maybe it was the stress of being Platoon I/C this week. A sizeable number of people have been wearing just one set of Number 4 for the whole week - ugh - but I refuse to do that. Right now I think I'm going to go with 2 sets a week. Sounds disgusting, but such are our circumstances. And I hate wearing my jockey cap all the time!
I've been making do with public phones all week. As I predicted, no one bothers to march all the way down to the godforsaken one that I use (one of the 2-3 working phones there) - so far I've seen at most one other person on each day, so I've been able to chat merrily, for at least half an hour each day. Time to stock up on phonecards!
To this date, I've not actually drawn any of my slave (pittance) allowance. And prior to Tuesday night, I'd only gotten $200 from my parents since enlistment, so I've been living on hongbao money all the way :) When I casually mentioned this to my parents, I got $50 from each. Heh.
Lately, I've taken to sleeping on the floor. It's actually much cooler, though all manner of insects may crawl over you as you sleep.
On Tuesday, I went down for the PSC LMS (T) (I cannot be bothered to spell that out) scholarship interview. And I saw Kam Zhiming. Hahahaha. After the interview, I went down to RJ (yet again), in Number 4 for the first time, to get some stuff for the GP Application Question from Mrs Chan. I wonder how many people stared at me. Even though I took that little side trip, I still managed to finish everything and have lunch and booked in an hour earlier than I had to.
After I came back, we had our first IV (Intravenous Infusion). Erk. The catheter still hurts when it is embedded in the vein, so it's not just a quick "ant bite" (as injections are usually described - but what sort of ant?). For the first 3 IVs, we will be using the smaller needles (luckily). Because of the smaller needles, my response was quite muted - some strangled cries (not full voiced), no screaming and controlled writhing. I'm quite happy about my performance actually. And my buddy was very nice about it (for his trouble, I accidentally poked him in the wrist with the needle...). I just dread the larger needles, and it's terribly unfair - female trainees get to use the small needles for all their IVs.
We were finally knocked down - of all reasons, for some people making comments on how some of the permstaff were playing basketball while we were waiting for our computer lessons 2 storeys above.
A popular place to hide handphones is in your underwear - while you're wearing it. Ugh.
My brother in law gave me $10 as a taxi subisdy for my next night off! :)
Ever since I brought in my "Off!" insect repellent to spray every night, my sleep has not been interrupted by leg scratching sessions (though it has by wheezing and coughing bouts). However, some of the hardcore blood addicts still bite even if the repellent has been sprayed. Bloody buggers.
I saw and talked to my sec 4 classmate Tan Yong Chye Charles! Seems people pop up everywhere. He's learning to be a storeman in SMM. It's ironic - all the fit sportsmen get downgraded because of their injuries.
I think that the Recruits' Messes in BMTC are better furnished than the Officers, Warrant Offciers and Specialists' Mess here. Aww.
Kumar says the AJC uniform is thick, waterproof and fireproof as well. And he was surprised when I asked if the supplier was "Finest Fashion".
On Wednesday, Kumar and I were in the second shift of people guarding the MOPs and Fieldpacks in the training shed during lunch time. In the end, nobody relieved us so we spent 1 1/2 hr there while everyone else slept in the bunk.
It's really disgusting - I'd brought my singlet out to the drain to wring, and presumably as I wrung it, a giant spider crawled on. When I returned to the bunk, it crawled down my leg until I flicked it off with the singlet, whereupon it crawled under the bed. I thought I'd lost it, but later when I took my boots out to put on, it was lying motionless there. Daniel then came and stepped on it. And on the same day, our ceiling lights, for some reason, started attracting not only the usual flying insects but new guests - honeybees. Go figure. Stupid monsters.
We were supposed to have another night off on Thursday, but the whole of my bunk did not get to have it because apparently in the other bunks during area cleaning, many people were lying on the beds and complaining of chest pains. Our bunk only had 2 non-bunk cleaners present - one had just returned from the toilet, and I was cleaning up the ichor of the giant spider. Oh well. Later that day, before the night off, we saw one platoon get pumped in civvies - is that allowed?
Our latest computer lesson had a survey programmed in, with a box to collect comments. I doubt anyone reads what we might type in, though.
During Stand By Bed, some people didn't have any soap, so they split their buddy's bar into two and took one half. Too bad they got caught!
The whole of Friday was spent doing CPR. Suspiciously, all the mannikins in the CPR centre are female. The tests for CPR were rather hard, and I think quite a few people will have to come back on a future Sunday to retake the tests after failing. After CPR, I went off guard duty. No more carrying of rifles! Instead, prowlers walk around with truncheons and a searchlight (and don't need to don webbing either). Much help the truncheon will be against intruders. I had the sentry position, so I got to be blown by a powerful fan during each of my two 2 hour shifts. I got scolded for sitting down, while Frank on the previous shift got away with sleeping - flat on the ground with legs sticking out of the sentry post. Anyhow, Detail 3, the one I was in, is the worst as you get the least sleep: Before 10pm, they hold frequent turnouts to prevent you from sleeping so the only time you can sleep is after 10pm, but that is when detail 3 starts its work. So detail 3 gets a maximum of 4 hours of sleep while the other 2 details get up to 6 hours of sleep.
Someone bought a prawn cake (the fried dough fritter with a unshelled prawn stuck on top) and threw away the whole prawn, not just the shell. What a waste.
Quotes:
"Go back to bunk and tactically use your handphone."
"Why, today, all very excited? IV?"
"[On IV] Remember to put off your handphones before you start. [Trainee: Sergeant, no handphone] Don't bluff. (turn)"
"[On IV] Because of this, you want to AWOL?"
"We come here learn medic skill, not medic song (to learn, skills, not a)"
"[At 9:55am] Section 8, go for a 20 minute break. Come back at 10:45. How long is your break? [Trainees: 20 minutes]"
"[On the double decker beds] Please, those who sleep on top, don't fall off the bed"
"You know, you like unit man already. Everytime, [you want to go to the] 'bunk'. (you're like a)"
"Your POP... 24km route march, full battle order, stretcher and MOP... No lah."
"Saturday lunch is usually very nice one (nice)"
Post ID: 75621810
Saturday, April 20, 2002
I was just at Ikea to support (or laugh if you prefer) at the people taking part in the 24hr playwriting competition organised by Theatreworks. Those I knew were sitting in a large clique - 5 people, and didn't have much to show after 5 hours, with the most being 2 pages of stuff written :) They'll probably do as people usually do with homework - slack till the last hour and then go into overdrive.
I'm told that the J2 Humanz people call me "Emperor Penguin". What comes around goes around! :)
Burger King's reduced the price of their "King Size" to 30 cents. I doubt anyone'll bite, though - even I can't finish a King Sized meal.
Andrew, you should ask all your Uni friends to read your posts. Then I get get even more hits. Muahaha.
My trust IIIc's screen finally gave up the ghost, so I'm now reduced to going around with pen and paper. Oh well, palmtops aren't allowed in SAF camps anyway.
I wonder if I'll ever get the RJ 2001 Yearbook. It's taking an awfully long time. As is the Raffles Guys one. Tripod's reducing the free disk space quota soon, so I'm going to have to move. Lazy though. Bleah.
I got a weird email:
"Hey I used to be from ACS. Do you know any girls from RGS?? Maybe you can maje an introduction"
I'm told that the J2 Humanz people call me "Emperor Penguin". What comes around goes around! :)
Burger King's reduced the price of their "King Size" to 30 cents. I doubt anyone'll bite, though - even I can't finish a King Sized meal.
Andrew, you should ask all your Uni friends to read your posts. Then I get get even more hits. Muahaha.
My trust IIIc's screen finally gave up the ghost, so I'm now reduced to going around with pen and paper. Oh well, palmtops aren't allowed in SAF camps anyway.
I wonder if I'll ever get the RJ 2001 Yearbook. It's taking an awfully long time. As is the Raffles Guys one. Tripod's reducing the free disk space quota soon, so I'm going to have to move. Lazy though. Bleah.
I got a weird email:
"Hey I used to be from ACS. Do you know any girls from RGS?? Maybe you can maje an introduction"
Post ID: 75620694
Got to know chris a bit ... he hung around as we ate our Intersection dinner in lygon court.... going to tif's place was called off since it was so late and everyone was tired.
I was a little worried about dissection prac on friday... then sarah found out and was telling me about how it would go, and that they wouldn't start flinging limbs and sawing up things... put me at ease (thanks loads sarah!! u rock!!)
We had quite an informative workshop before going into the lab... tutor explained lots of things clearly to us. Then we walked into this cold (air-con's kept colder than usual in the anat labs because of special requirements) and saw lots of tables with white sheets draped over them. First thing we saw was a leg... not a face. Then we were introduced to an arm, finally face, trunk, and a full body. The smell of formalin (especially when a lot of it comes out when exposing body cavities) is somewhat overwhelming... but nobody in first yr med fainted that day. After touching the various parts, my gloves stank... i thought they would just smell strongly of formalin, but i was very wrong.
Struggled to remove my gloves without touching any actual part of it. I had been commenting earlier that i would probably throw my clothes into the laundry immediately... gleefully forgot abt doing that, kept everything on thru OCF.
And brought jiaming and tiffany to ormond dinner (fish, chicken, chips) cherlynn and her friend crashed from trinity, were on their *second* dinner. And OCF afterward. I was quite disappointed with the word, maybe it's just that it didn't live up to last week's power message on the Kingdom of God. This week, he glanced thru "the kingdom of god is within you. Within you!" and practical applications of the passage in Matthew. I think i fell asleep thru it.
Lu-fee has a cool organiser! It has a metal cover, a microchip thingy with capacitors and grooves and lines and things like that!
In OCF word time brought up definition of hell as an eternity spent apart from God.... which sparked off lots of opinions and discusssion... As vyu kien described it, any form of bible study or learning has no warm-fuzzy or academic purpose other than its original one, to change lives- the wesleyan "the only eternal things are the Word of God and the souls of men". Adjective for the bible- "rhema"(sp?) Living, Breathing Word of God- that Wisdom, defined as knowledge of God, can be increased and our relationship with God will grow and deepen.
Oh and gabriel the premise you put that the catholic church believes in good works before faith, and the protestant church believing faith before good works, does not hold by the Gospels. It is soundly defeated in Romans- 8 i think. [Ed: I said no such thing! :) I just said the Catholics believe both are needed and Protestants just believe faith is needed]
And gabriel your premise is flawed, according to the bible those who are in the kingdom of God should have the faith that automatically prompts good works. And this is common to all.
Getting late, and i gotta wake up at 7 tomorrow... will blog more.
Post ID: 75619929
I've been neglecting blogging...... suppose i could blame it on the tests.
But i've been having a lot of good times after the tests, right after the test I met up with Janice to prepare bible study- Ephesians 2:1-10; on salvation by grace. The BS stuff's easy to go through, except for the odd question or two with awkward phrasing.
Though i get sick of hearing "exceptions to the rule". Anatomy's full of them - like this principle should hold EXCEPT for the cases where they don't.
Anyway, yea i was talking abt bs prep- started branching out, and i brought up what crystal told me abt the first part of John relating how Jesus was present at creation and how the world was created "through him". Following that train of thought..... after a while janice got a bit panicky and asked how we started talking abt creation. I reminded her i brought it up because my friend had told me about it and she was quite relieved. And later she went to consult emily and vyu kien about all the unanswered questions.
And after that we went to paper chase for dinner (janice thanks for giving me lifts every where! But there's practically no chance you're reading this, so i'll just have to say it in person) bak kut teh... with bits of pigs' spare parts in them! Yum! And i was hearing about how ocf is full of gossip... and how many couples in OCF started purely because third parties started rumours of attached couples ... which sounds so sad.... well not exactly sad if they're happy together, just that they won't have a particularly romantic beginning to look at but what are beginnings anyway?
And I think messy, awkward break-ups are the hardest things to handle... i mean, there are the ones that end on bad notes and neither party really wants to communicate with the other (which makes it so awkward socially) and there are those that sorta leave things hanging.... with the expectation that one party doesn't want it to end and that there's still hope some time in the future. I guess they pop up when new relationships start. And there are the ones that end on a better note ... but there's always hurt, pain and abandonment, and distrust.
Anyway, back to my life. Med seniors were telling me more about med in college square, met tiffany again in the corridor, and vyu kien gave a lesson on ephesians derived from watchmannee's "Sit, walk and Stand". Good, but i had trouble catching up, and he kept glancing at me with worried looks at my confused expression. I was in lecture mode, copying as much as I could register, and putting big question marks next to lots of things. Went thru them again slowly the following day, and it all fitted together very well and made sense. Janice drove me home ( =
Thursday was... quite a day. Played badminton, albert said i was improving. But i should stop jumping to hit high ones, I keep missing every time. And i managed to smash once. Then I forgot all about my feedback interview while playing badminton, felt terrible about it, but it got better when i found out 2 others had missed theirs. Will have to apologise profusely next week and try to contact my tutor. I think i'm subconsciously avoiding it knowing it'll bring bad news- since I turned up 5 minutes late for 2 tutorials (it's the first lesson on tuesday mornings!) and hardly prepared for either of the 1st two tutorials- leastways I did my reading, but didn't cover all the topics, or didn't present them as they should have been.
Quite-boring tutorial on enzyme- testing enzyme action (an enzyme in glycolysis in cellular respiration) by measuring accumulation of of a metabolic product, NADP+, by its ability to absorb, erm, light of wavelength 390nm or thereabouts. Waiting for albert- to go shopping for birthday present, then realised all shops were closed by 5 or 6.
Since it was still part of the Chenyi's 5-day birthday celebration, we were supposed to go down to tiffany's apartment. Girls were still having baseball training, so we went to watch for a while and i showed tiffany and albert around ormond. Who pointed out i messed around with much more toiletries stuff than a normal guy should. Baseball looks so fun.... passing balls to your team players, the victorious contact of bat and ball, and the impact of ball on glove. injuries though.
In the end we went to intersection for the half price pizza and pasta, waited there for over an hour (but it came out to $3 per person!). Jiaming and i started talking about geppers/RGSers/NYPSers which must have bored chris and tif stiff ... and of all people we met 2 nanyang teachers there, they were working for postgrad qualifications, masters in education. Apparently it's mostly the dissertation, their contact hours are like 2 early evenings a week and otherwise it isn't like going back to school at all.
I think I come from a very sheltered background/surroundings. Chris thinks my way of thinking is too school-centred, and I replied that for 6 years, school Was practically all my life. I suppose except for church... but in conflicts between school activities and church activities school almost always came first. And that was part of my self-indulgent post-prelims-depressive-state last year ... and someone had the cheek to twist it as a reason why I shouldn't consider going for a relief teaching stint in RI. I mean, i seriously think i would have done a better job than other unnamed people who went there (but i would say from what i heard, my seniors did it well).
Andrew gan
Post ID: 75618673
The word of the day is "preterit"
Yesterday, Silent bought it in a motorcycle accident on his way to a Dikir Barat cultural show. As he took his motorcycle along a hairpin turn at approx 100km/hr, he slid off and the bike landed on his thigh, fricasseeing it. Apparently, he's on accident leave for a month or so, and it's unlikely he'll regain full bipedal mobility, according to the other guard.
His replacement is Clarence, a Dyak Catholic from one of the quasi-government-reserved areas for the indigenous East Malaysians. When I entered the branch on Thursday morning, he was seated in front of the storeroom casually reloading his pump-action Remington shotgun with 12 gauge buckshot. It's one of those old style shotguns where you reload from under the breech, and manually pump it into the chamber. No auto or semiauto unlike the lovely Franchi SPAS 15. While lugging a new shipment of signature specimen cards into the room, I paused, examined one of the rounds, with all their nasty buckshot pellets being a promise of excruciating pain - and asked: "How many rounds does the shotgun hold?"
(In Malay) "Five."
"What do you do if there are six robbers?"
"Reload."
The conversation ended abruptly there.
Coda: "Whenever playing Cowboys and Indians, I was always the Chinese railroad worker."
Yesterday, Silent bought it in a motorcycle accident on his way to a Dikir Barat cultural show. As he took his motorcycle along a hairpin turn at approx 100km/hr, he slid off and the bike landed on his thigh, fricasseeing it. Apparently, he's on accident leave for a month or so, and it's unlikely he'll regain full bipedal mobility, according to the other guard.
His replacement is Clarence, a Dyak Catholic from one of the quasi-government-reserved areas for the indigenous East Malaysians. When I entered the branch on Thursday morning, he was seated in front of the storeroom casually reloading his pump-action Remington shotgun with 12 gauge buckshot. It's one of those old style shotguns where you reload from under the breech, and manually pump it into the chamber. No auto or semiauto unlike the lovely Franchi SPAS 15. While lugging a new shipment of signature specimen cards into the room, I paused, examined one of the rounds, with all their nasty buckshot pellets being a promise of excruciating pain - and asked: "How many rounds does the shotgun hold?"
(In Malay) "Five."
"What do you do if there are six robbers?"
"Reload."
The conversation ended abruptly there.
Coda: "Whenever playing Cowboys and Indians, I was always the Chinese railroad worker."
Post ID: 75614707
Friday, April 19, 2002
"Primum non nocere" which the associate flaunts is "first, do no harm" as he patiently explained to me. The basis of the doctor-patient relationship (as explained by my last lecturer) should be regulated by the following 4 principles:
1) Do no harm.
2) Benefit the patient.
(Here it may seem dumb to hav 1) but apparently 1) takes precedence over 2) so yadda yadda yadda)
3) Respect Confidentiality.
In the health care field all salacious gossip about patients is heartily exchanged, as long as it stays within the field of health care professionals. According to popular opinion, It's only a breach of confidentiality if it leaks outside of this group.
4) Ensured informed consent of the patient is obtained in treatment.
Ah hah hah. Personally i think this is not always necessary... i mean as a patient I would trust that my doctor would automatically choose the most appropriate treatment/ tests for me. Providing information is important of course....
Chenyi's birthday dinner is tomorrow!!! So exciting, looking forward to it. And going to ponylands on sunday too! And Jiaming will cook dinner on sunday nite!!
Andrew gan
1) Do no harm.
2) Benefit the patient.
(Here it may seem dumb to hav 1) but apparently 1) takes precedence over 2) so yadda yadda yadda)
3) Respect Confidentiality.
In the health care field all salacious gossip about patients is heartily exchanged, as long as it stays within the field of health care professionals. According to popular opinion, It's only a breach of confidentiality if it leaks outside of this group.
4) Ensured informed consent of the patient is obtained in treatment.
Ah hah hah. Personally i think this is not always necessary... i mean as a patient I would trust that my doctor would automatically choose the most appropriate treatment/ tests for me. Providing information is important of course....
Chenyi's birthday dinner is tomorrow!!! So exciting, looking forward to it. And going to ponylands on sunday too! And Jiaming will cook dinner on sunday nite!!
Andrew gan
Post ID: 75586910
Wednesday, April 17, 2002
My, so many medical people. "Primum non nocere"
Personally, I never saw the benefit in prolonging suffering(ie. life), but I guess I'd feel differently if I was suffering from Asperger Syndrome, lissencephaly or Wegener's granulomatosis.
I got most of those names from loyally subscribing to Reader's Digest over the last 15 years:) Only kidding. Here - pick a nice one for yourself or your next of kin at http://www.hon.ch/HONselect/RareDiseaseAB.html
Come to think of it, I already might have Asperger Syndrome....:
"A childhood disorder predominately affecting boys and similar to autism (AUTISTIC DISORDER). It is characterized by severe, sustained, clinically significant impairment of social interaction, and restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior. In contrast to autism, there are no clinically significant delays in language or cognitive development."
Ah well. Today, as part of a staff stress relief programme to enhance productivity, the manager at my branch herded us all into the vault where we spent 20 minutes rolling around in wads of cash, throwing notes at one another, and fanning ourselves with huge bundles of hundreds. Reminded me of all those viewings of Scrooge McDuck in Duck Tales when I was younger.
(If you actually believed that, then I've achieved my stress reduction exercise for the day:)
It gets very lonely and despondent attending to mothers opening 200k trust accounts for their two-year-old toddlers.
Personally, I never saw the benefit in prolonging suffering(ie. life), but I guess I'd feel differently if I was suffering from Asperger Syndrome, lissencephaly or Wegener's granulomatosis.
I got most of those names from loyally subscribing to Reader's Digest over the last 15 years:) Only kidding. Here - pick a nice one for yourself or your next of kin at http://www.hon.ch/HONselect/RareDiseaseAB.html
Come to think of it, I already might have Asperger Syndrome....:
"A childhood disorder predominately affecting boys and similar to autism (AUTISTIC DISORDER). It is characterized by severe, sustained, clinically significant impairment of social interaction, and restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior. In contrast to autism, there are no clinically significant delays in language or cognitive development."
Ah well. Today, as part of a staff stress relief programme to enhance productivity, the manager at my branch herded us all into the vault where we spent 20 minutes rolling around in wads of cash, throwing notes at one another, and fanning ourselves with huge bundles of hundreds. Reminded me of all those viewings of Scrooge McDuck in Duck Tales when I was younger.
(If you actually believed that, then I've achieved my stress reduction exercise for the day:)
It gets very lonely and despondent attending to mothers opening 200k trust accounts for their two-year-old toddlers.
Post ID: 75502032
Tuesday, April 16, 2002
Yeh, I've a night off. Reached the SMM bus stop at 7:02 or 7:12 (I forget which) and reached home around 8. Which gives me 1hr 40 mins or so at home.
Didn't feel like a night on the town, so I went home. Like a few of the rest.
I'll save most stuff for the weekend post, but just one note:
We had our First Live Infusion today. Ugh. Not as bad as I thought it might be (both the pain and the response). Strangled cries, controlled writhing. The lot. One down, 9 to go. The rest were very nice, I got offered a Sarsaparilla sweet and a can of Coke.
Hope we get to go off earlier on the next night off!
Ever since I got posted to SMM, my mother's been trying to convince me to take Medicine. Bah.
Didn't feel like a night on the town, so I went home. Like a few of the rest.
I'll save most stuff for the weekend post, but just one note:
We had our First Live Infusion today. Ugh. Not as bad as I thought it might be (both the pain and the response). Strangled cries, controlled writhing. The lot. One down, 9 to go. The rest were very nice, I got offered a Sarsaparilla sweet and a can of Coke.
Hope we get to go off earlier on the next night off!
Ever since I got posted to SMM, my mother's been trying to convince me to take Medicine. Bah.
Post ID: 75461456
Hahahaa...... of all things priapism came up on my problem-based learning (PBL) tutorial... thanks gabriel.
PBL's a new concept being implemented in medical schools everywhere to complement traditional learning... every week or so we're presented with a case of a patient with something wrong. It may be in the form of the information presented during interview with a doctor, or a description of the activities prior to the illness, a medical history or description of the person, a report on the vital stats of the person, more commonly a combination of these. Then we discuss what are the presenting problems, and create hypotheses abt what could have caused all this. Then we come up with a list of learning issues, and before the next tute we read up on the various things in the learning issues (e.g. this week we had a daredevil who dived into the yarra river and hit his head and spine and has lost some muscular control and can't feel any sensation below his neck.... so learning issues were nervous system, anatomy of spine/spinal nerves, stuff like that) And during the next tute we present what we've found and everyone chips in and summarizes what we've learnt. Conclude with a proper diagnosis (and maybe mention of treatment/consequences)
Anyway, priapism came up as a symptom of this poor guy- i assume he had a stroke, something to do with his nerves being all screwed up- absence of anal tone but he had an enlarged bladder.
Anyway, i've heard "waking life" is good, gotta catch it sometime. And yes i still have a pbs test tomorrow.. have other things to look forward too. Like someone who just had her birthday today (but there's gonna be, like, a 5-day extended celebration/festive activity in her honour) and goes around (jokingly) asking for presents.
Andrew gan
PBL's a new concept being implemented in medical schools everywhere to complement traditional learning... every week or so we're presented with a case of a patient with something wrong. It may be in the form of the information presented during interview with a doctor, or a description of the activities prior to the illness, a medical history or description of the person, a report on the vital stats of the person, more commonly a combination of these. Then we discuss what are the presenting problems, and create hypotheses abt what could have caused all this. Then we come up with a list of learning issues, and before the next tute we read up on the various things in the learning issues (e.g. this week we had a daredevil who dived into the yarra river and hit his head and spine and has lost some muscular control and can't feel any sensation below his neck.... so learning issues were nervous system, anatomy of spine/spinal nerves, stuff like that) And during the next tute we present what we've found and everyone chips in and summarizes what we've learnt. Conclude with a proper diagnosis (and maybe mention of treatment/consequences)
Anyway, priapism came up as a symptom of this poor guy- i assume he had a stroke, something to do with his nerves being all screwed up- absence of anal tone but he had an enlarged bladder.
Anyway, i've heard "waking life" is good, gotta catch it sometime. And yes i still have a pbs test tomorrow.. have other things to look forward too. Like someone who just had her birthday today (but there's gonna be, like, a 5-day extended celebration/festive activity in her honour) and goes around (jokingly) asking for presents.
Andrew gan
Post ID: 75456122
Monday, April 15, 2002
Someone pointed out that my earlier comments on I Not Stupid were as disjointed and contradictory as the movie - and I'm ashamed to confess that it's true, on hindsight!!!! ARGH!!!
Spent a day chasing non-performing loans at the bank. Funny how people who can willingly let a few months of home loan instalments slide sans embarrassment get so worked up when you pleasantly remind them about their account arrears.
Blue cheese is good. I wish they had cheap Stilton here, instead of this lacklustre Danish import crap.
Spent a day chasing non-performing loans at the bank. Funny how people who can willingly let a few months of home loan instalments slide sans embarrassment get so worked up when you pleasantly remind them about their account arrears.
Blue cheese is good. I wish they had cheap Stilton here, instead of this lacklustre Danish import crap.
Post ID: 75421785
Myo Li : "but u seem to be on mc most of the time..."
Gah.
The evil of Cold Storage:
1 and a half hours before I set out for camp again. Sigh.
6:33pm - Hiho, hiho, it's off to camp we go. Tomorrow I get to tell PSC that thank you, but no thank you, I do not want to teach Physics and Mathematics after a term in NUS.
If we're lucky we'll get a night off this week :) Maybe even 2. Ooo.
Gah.
The evil of Cold Storage:
1 and a half hours before I set out for camp again. Sigh.
6:33pm - Hiho, hiho, it's off to camp we go. Tomorrow I get to tell PSC that thank you, but no thank you, I do not want to teach Physics and Mathematics after a term in NUS.
If we're lucky we'll get a night off this week :) Maybe even 2. Ooo.
Post ID: 75417472
Hello
Am breaking my long period of silence, because I have just had an amusing experience watching I Not Stupid. Would write a full-blown review,
but shall just cut and paste several edited ICQ messages I sent to Gabriel.
Well, i'm writing an involuted post criticising I Not Stupid quite severely for your blog - maybe i can discuss it with you a bit before i release it.
Basically, the thing that irritated me about the show is its extremely contradictory thematic structure - on one hand it has the whole anti-government, anti-control liberal agenda, delivered in VERY heavy-handed, unsubtle ways - witness the ad people smoking and bitching in the toilet, the various government-citizen analogies drawn between Terry's sister and his mom(such as angpow money/CPF and the general control issue) , and yet it also throws in the whole "mother punishes you for your own good because she loves you and works very hard to see you succeed" sub-text... on one hand it exhorts you to throw off your shackles, and on the other hand, it tells you to blindly submit to paternalistic bribery(witness the use of sports shoes) "for your own good", as the final stirring message of the show reminds us.
i just think that ultimately it fails as a parody, fails to develop the most interesting elements and characters. For instance, particularly with regards to the third kid - the hawker beng-in-training who wants to study hard and finally scores well at his maths test despite being in EM3, putting him on the degree path so that no one will look down on him in the future. Doesn't this kind of contradict the whole "it's okay to be a zhai artist or a fat spoiled bastard" theme?
Also, no one who speaks hokkien so crudely and colourfully(Terry's father) can avoid swearing in a confrontation.
And for secondstance, i find it horribly difficult to believe that a father working in an advertising agency doesn't know what to do with a talented artist son.
And the fat guy's sister is REALLY REALLY bitchily irritating as well as being in a wooden actress in a terribly cliched role - the whole adolescent going against overbearing mom who objects to room decor and dress sense has been done to death everywhere - and BETTER - from Jane Austen to Sweet Valley High. Although this is one of the rare few times that the adoelscent surrenders to parental domination after coming home from the police station and being bribed into submission with a pair of Nikes.
The message is: "If your child is delinquent and has to be bailed out of police station, buy their loyalty and subservience."
I actually agree with the trenchant point made that singaporeans talk a lot but ultimately jump when coerced or bribed to - but it goes against the thrust of the storyline, you get what i mean? It's self-defeating, and fails as a social commentary in that sense. Not to mention the extremely irritating Young and Dangeous chewing ba gua act.
I also find it amusing how the guy in the ad agency who's lambasting the death of chinese culture and how the overpaid expatriates are stealing qualified jobs speaks only in pretty cultured english. Not to mention the inherent hypocrisy of having the evil expatriate use an (apparently) all-Singaporean creative support team. Although I did admire the nod to harsh reality when the expat "won". And note also how the creatively skilled artist kid was offered an educational opportunity in the US. What's wrong with LaSalle? :)
Cliches CAN be fun, but not when they're poorly developed and crammed in excess into a movie that doesn't develop them well
I stand by my assertion - parodies have a message - which can only be delivered with straight-faced, wry underplaying(Wag the Dog, Glengarry Glen Ross, Brazil, Gosford Park), or over-the-top excess(Boogie Nights, Drop Dead Gorgeous).
It also suffers from trying to stuff in too many dramatic cliches.. dying mother, benevolent bone marrow donor, business failing, rising from the ashes, enemies who keep meeting who become friends, a kidnapping, divine justice from guanyin for unkindness, a near-suicide, a barely-adolescent lian-in-training potential-UWC/international school/chinese-with-an-accent bitch who has problems with her parents over her room's decor - frankly, I don't see how adolescently subversive it is having a metal wire decorative wall hanging as opposed to a cane/raffia basket(not to mention her being a horribly wooden actress, to boot), schoolyard injustice(the REAL bully always gets away), anti-elitist sub-text(EM1 achievers and their ilk are all elitist bastards), patient and loving Dead Poets' Society teacher who sticks up for failure students despite the horrifically injust faculty, xenophobic anti-expatriate ranting, anti-anti-Singlish campaign(note the unsubtle touch of having an ang moh being the one defending sinaporean patois as a source of identity), and terrible send-ups of classic archetypes. It only works with singaporean audiences because of crude surface sympatico and humour, but fails on technical and deeper narrative and thematic levels.
I have to admit the dialogue has good touches, and some individual performances are well done(particularly terry's father, although that's more due to the naturally unique humour element in having hokkien being spoken on the silver screen:); and there are some particularly well-done technical tricks(by singaporean standards) - particularly the amusing jump-cut as Jack Neo's Spacewagon pulls into the petrol kiosk and the dreamy, hand-held jittering camera down the void-deck corridor during the suicide scene.
I might also mention the fact that there's definite audience empathy - mainly because this is one of the few really hard-core satires out there sending up Singaporean culture since Army Daze,at least until the Talking Cock movie, so the emotional resonance isn't dulled by repetition or post-postmodern "seen-it-all"-ism, such as which hampers potentially good shows like Death to Smoochy. Shows like Scary Movie and Wag the Dog are proof, as i said, that satires work best when they focus either on being entirely absurd or deadly serious - I Not Stupid suffers from being trying to being both extremes.
I see the movie as a mish mash, a cut and paste of disjointed criticisms, linked by a flimsy plot.It wants to be a critique without going too deep, and fundamentally fails because of hypocritical, contradictory subtexts and an unwillingness to develop any narrative thread in depth, instead milking them for crude emotional impact or shallow, one-off-laugh humour. Which is a shame because there are really good performances by a few actors(the kidnappers, Terry's father, Jack Neo himself), and a few insightful lines, some genuinely good moments, such as www.guanyinma.com:) As a friend of mine pointed out though, ultimately, "Punches were pulled, and the gloves padded.
It's biting everywhere and nowhere at once. In the show, their criteria of success for the students and the characters are still in line with the gov's....." - such as the homegrown Singaporean entrepeneur beating off Taiwanese competitor with the use of mindlessly flashy product placement and the use of vapid, wordless Hong Kong/Taiwanese celebs to sell their products(which says a lot about what the moviemakers think of Singaporean consumers)
Gabriel's commentary: "oh! the sister. her English is really weird, it irks me. Her accent too. And this is supposed to be the epitome of S'pore English? Please. Then again, we are damn pathetic in English. The family was like divided into 2 halves, the chinese speaking one and the english speaking one. I find that hard to believe. Usually there'll be a dominant language, having 2 co-existing is just not feasible. I don't believe the Chinese godmother could brainwash terry all that much." Not to mention how Terry's mother who speaks virtually nothing but English and appears to be a major consumer of her family's product, actually speaks Hokkien way more naturally at the temple.
So as far as I can tell, the show defends being a fat, pampered, landed-property-owning spineless coward; it tries to be pro-ITE/alternative education whilst still glorifying(albeit only obliquely) academic achievement; it's pro-Chinese-culture and nationalistic whilst urging you to throw off the oppressive shackles of government control; and it defends the need for greater creativity while rejecting Western influences; it tells you to think for yourself and not blindly listen to your parents, even though they only care for you and are working hard for your own good and have made such noble sacrifices for you.
Am breaking my long period of silence, because I have just had an amusing experience watching I Not Stupid. Would write a full-blown review,
but shall just cut and paste several edited ICQ messages I sent to Gabriel.
Well, i'm writing an involuted post criticising I Not Stupid quite severely for your blog - maybe i can discuss it with you a bit before i release it.
Basically, the thing that irritated me about the show is its extremely contradictory thematic structure - on one hand it has the whole anti-government, anti-control liberal agenda, delivered in VERY heavy-handed, unsubtle ways - witness the ad people smoking and bitching in the toilet, the various government-citizen analogies drawn between Terry's sister and his mom(such as angpow money/CPF and the general control issue) , and yet it also throws in the whole "mother punishes you for your own good because she loves you and works very hard to see you succeed" sub-text... on one hand it exhorts you to throw off your shackles, and on the other hand, it tells you to blindly submit to paternalistic bribery(witness the use of sports shoes) "for your own good", as the final stirring message of the show reminds us.
i just think that ultimately it fails as a parody, fails to develop the most interesting elements and characters. For instance, particularly with regards to the third kid - the hawker beng-in-training who wants to study hard and finally scores well at his maths test despite being in EM3, putting him on the degree path so that no one will look down on him in the future. Doesn't this kind of contradict the whole "it's okay to be a zhai artist or a fat spoiled bastard" theme?
Also, no one who speaks hokkien so crudely and colourfully(Terry's father) can avoid swearing in a confrontation.
And for secondstance, i find it horribly difficult to believe that a father working in an advertising agency doesn't know what to do with a talented artist son.
And the fat guy's sister is REALLY REALLY bitchily irritating as well as being in a wooden actress in a terribly cliched role - the whole adolescent going against overbearing mom who objects to room decor and dress sense has been done to death everywhere - and BETTER - from Jane Austen to Sweet Valley High. Although this is one of the rare few times that the adoelscent surrenders to parental domination after coming home from the police station and being bribed into submission with a pair of Nikes.
The message is: "If your child is delinquent and has to be bailed out of police station, buy their loyalty and subservience."
I actually agree with the trenchant point made that singaporeans talk a lot but ultimately jump when coerced or bribed to - but it goes against the thrust of the storyline, you get what i mean? It's self-defeating, and fails as a social commentary in that sense. Not to mention the extremely irritating Young and Dangeous chewing ba gua act.
I also find it amusing how the guy in the ad agency who's lambasting the death of chinese culture and how the overpaid expatriates are stealing qualified jobs speaks only in pretty cultured english. Not to mention the inherent hypocrisy of having the evil expatriate use an (apparently) all-Singaporean creative support team. Although I did admire the nod to harsh reality when the expat "won". And note also how the creatively skilled artist kid was offered an educational opportunity in the US. What's wrong with LaSalle? :)
Cliches CAN be fun, but not when they're poorly developed and crammed in excess into a movie that doesn't develop them well
I stand by my assertion - parodies have a message - which can only be delivered with straight-faced, wry underplaying(Wag the Dog, Glengarry Glen Ross, Brazil, Gosford Park), or over-the-top excess(Boogie Nights, Drop Dead Gorgeous).
It also suffers from trying to stuff in too many dramatic cliches.. dying mother, benevolent bone marrow donor, business failing, rising from the ashes, enemies who keep meeting who become friends, a kidnapping, divine justice from guanyin for unkindness, a near-suicide, a barely-adolescent lian-in-training potential-UWC/international school/chinese-with-an-accent bitch who has problems with her parents over her room's decor - frankly, I don't see how adolescently subversive it is having a metal wire decorative wall hanging as opposed to a cane/raffia basket(not to mention her being a horribly wooden actress, to boot), schoolyard injustice(the REAL bully always gets away), anti-elitist sub-text(EM1 achievers and their ilk are all elitist bastards), patient and loving Dead Poets' Society teacher who sticks up for failure students despite the horrifically injust faculty, xenophobic anti-expatriate ranting, anti-anti-Singlish campaign(note the unsubtle touch of having an ang moh being the one defending sinaporean patois as a source of identity), and terrible send-ups of classic archetypes. It only works with singaporean audiences because of crude surface sympatico and humour, but fails on technical and deeper narrative and thematic levels.
I have to admit the dialogue has good touches, and some individual performances are well done(particularly terry's father, although that's more due to the naturally unique humour element in having hokkien being spoken on the silver screen:); and there are some particularly well-done technical tricks(by singaporean standards) - particularly the amusing jump-cut as Jack Neo's Spacewagon pulls into the petrol kiosk and the dreamy, hand-held jittering camera down the void-deck corridor during the suicide scene.
I might also mention the fact that there's definite audience empathy - mainly because this is one of the few really hard-core satires out there sending up Singaporean culture since Army Daze,at least until the Talking Cock movie, so the emotional resonance isn't dulled by repetition or post-postmodern "seen-it-all"-ism, such as which hampers potentially good shows like Death to Smoochy. Shows like Scary Movie and Wag the Dog are proof, as i said, that satires work best when they focus either on being entirely absurd or deadly serious - I Not Stupid suffers from being trying to being both extremes.
I see the movie as a mish mash, a cut and paste of disjointed criticisms, linked by a flimsy plot.It wants to be a critique without going too deep, and fundamentally fails because of hypocritical, contradictory subtexts and an unwillingness to develop any narrative thread in depth, instead milking them for crude emotional impact or shallow, one-off-laugh humour. Which is a shame because there are really good performances by a few actors(the kidnappers, Terry's father, Jack Neo himself), and a few insightful lines, some genuinely good moments, such as www.guanyinma.com:) As a friend of mine pointed out though, ultimately, "Punches were pulled, and the gloves padded.
It's biting everywhere and nowhere at once. In the show, their criteria of success for the students and the characters are still in line with the gov's....." - such as the homegrown Singaporean entrepeneur beating off Taiwanese competitor with the use of mindlessly flashy product placement and the use of vapid, wordless Hong Kong/Taiwanese celebs to sell their products(which says a lot about what the moviemakers think of Singaporean consumers)
Gabriel's commentary: "oh! the sister. her English is really weird, it irks me. Her accent too. And this is supposed to be the epitome of S'pore English? Please. Then again, we are damn pathetic in English. The family was like divided into 2 halves, the chinese speaking one and the english speaking one. I find that hard to believe. Usually there'll be a dominant language, having 2 co-existing is just not feasible. I don't believe the Chinese godmother could brainwash terry all that much." Not to mention how Terry's mother who speaks virtually nothing but English and appears to be a major consumer of her family's product, actually speaks Hokkien way more naturally at the temple.
So as far as I can tell, the show defends being a fat, pampered, landed-property-owning spineless coward; it tries to be pro-ITE/alternative education whilst still glorifying(albeit only obliquely) academic achievement; it's pro-Chinese-culture and nationalistic whilst urging you to throw off the oppressive shackles of government control; and it defends the need for greater creativity while rejecting Western influences; it tells you to think for yourself and not blindly listen to your parents, even though they only care for you and are working hard for your own good and have made such noble sacrifices for you.
Post ID: 75392231
Sunday, April 14, 2002
Minor tidbit before I get back to typing bookout post while coughing (damn SMM flu. I actually didn't want an MC but the doctor insisted):
"you're in the army man.. how can u not even be a little horny!" - Christopher Lin on my sending him a picture that wasn't porn
The Web Page From Hell
Information about the new RJ campus - It will have 7 storeys, 2 lifts, possibly escalators, 14 labs, 4 LTs, with one being a 900 seater, a dance studio and a drama theatre. The library will have glass cubicles, apparently noiseproof, so students can shout all they want while pretending to study. However, there will not be schoolwide air-conditioning, so the students will still get more pimples than those in ACJC. Aww.
They move 4th Quarter, 2003. RJ students will finally be free of the malfunctioning fire alarm! Or is it deliberate, to wake sleeping students?
I went to my favourite clinic, Serene Family Clinic in Margaret Drive today to get something for my SMM Flu. The doctor insisted I take an MC even though I declined :) And he also recognised my handphone ring tone: "... violin concerto".
I am informed that the S Cube Seminar is to be held on Tuesday at NTU. I wonder if anyone will follow in my footsteps and piss the guy off :)
Male school students are not particularly enamored of walking around - on Saturday, I went to Holland Village for lunch with my sister and I only saw 1 schoolboy, and he was sitting at a bus stop.
"you're in the army man.. how can u not even be a little horny!" - Christopher Lin on my sending him a picture that wasn't porn
The Web Page From Hell
Information about the new RJ campus - It will have 7 storeys, 2 lifts, possibly escalators, 14 labs, 4 LTs, with one being a 900 seater, a dance studio and a drama theatre. The library will have glass cubicles, apparently noiseproof, so students can shout all they want while pretending to study. However, there will not be schoolwide air-conditioning, so the students will still get more pimples than those in ACJC. Aww.
They move 4th Quarter, 2003. RJ students will finally be free of the malfunctioning fire alarm! Or is it deliberate, to wake sleeping students?
I went to my favourite clinic, Serene Family Clinic in Margaret Drive today to get something for my SMM Flu. The doctor insisted I take an MC even though I declined :) And he also recognised my handphone ring tone: "... violin concerto".
I am informed that the S Cube Seminar is to be held on Tuesday at NTU. I wonder if anyone will follow in my footsteps and piss the guy off :)
Male school students are not particularly enamored of walking around - on Saturday, I went to Holland Village for lunch with my sister and I only saw 1 schoolboy, and he was sitting at a bus stop.
Post ID: 75384721
Bookout post:
Yet another bookout, yet another post.
Restored post
On reaching the School of Military Medicine (SMM) on Monday, we were made to wait until about 4pm to be assigned to our individual platoons and such, because the SAF, "an efficient and well run organisation", had sent too many people for the medic courses, such that some (like Jason Lau and Yong Gen, who applied for Medicine) had to be made Temporary Support Staff (with 8 to 5 jobs!) and about 60 others are now in the NDP marching contingent for the Medic wing, and also get to go home at 5pm.
SMM is located tantalisingly close to the Civilian World. That makes it both better and worse. One of these days I'll spend a good half an hour gazing longingly past the token barbed wire tipped fence.
Perhaps the most irking thing about being a trainee at SMM is that you are not allowed to bring in handphones. The given reason is that they may be stolen since most of the cupboards can't be locked (mine's one of the few that can!), but that should be the trainee's own problem. I suspect they just want to torture us, or force us to read our notes and medical books or die of sheer boredom (since anything more expensive than a Discman is prohibited too). Especially since there are 3-4 public phones for probably 200 people. At this stage, I am like one of the 3 people who are -not- going to smuggle in a handphone. This is because I am lousy at doing illegal things :) and don't want to risk signing for extra duties. A weekend duty'd probably drive me madder than going without contact with the outside world. I think I agree with Kairen that the thing that keeps you going while you're a slave is the company and comfort of the others. Though I was commended by some bunk mates on my "cover and concealment" - hanging clothes to block myself while chatting on my mobile. So we shall see how the endless game plays out, with trainees bringing and having brought handphones for years immemorial and instructors alternately trying to catch them or closing an eye.
I'd been warned by many that the facilities and amenities at SMM were very bad, but it was even worse than I expected. Or maybe it's just that, coming from spanking BMTC, everything seems pithy in comparison. The bunks are very dirty and run down, though our beds are quite new. Though we get pathetic looking foam mattresses, they're actually okay to sleep on, because the area the mattress rests on is formed from lines of metal, which are very springy. And the fans blow wind to the bottom bed, which I sleep on, so the only bad thing about the double bunk bed is that my buddy steps on my stuff on the way down in the morning. It's the mosquitoes that trouble our sleep the most - 4 nights out of 5 I was frantically scratching my legs through the night. The place is also accursedly dirty - the Health Inspector did a check and found it too dirty. Which is one reason why I got the SMM Flu. The thing I mind most is the shower facilities. There are no walls in the shower area, so you shower like you're in prison - naked with the others! So I went from he-who-comes-from-the-shower-with-a-towel-around-his-chest to he-who-bathes-in-underwear. Though on Friday night I decided to bathe in the squatting toilet cubicle with the pipe that the Malays use to wash up after doing their business. Some of the Malays decided to be disgusting and bathe outside the shower area - in front of the washbasins. Ugh. Most of our appraisals of the conditions - "cannot make it". It sometimes seems like BMT with fewer privileges and fewer amenities. We're the last batch to be schooled in this campus, though. The new camp should have better conditions (and allow handphones, having lost the skimpy pretext for banning them). However, it is rumoured that passing IPPT and SOC will be a requirement to pass the course after the shift.
The School is surrounded by thick jungle terrain, which means the wind cannot blow. So we all sweat more than usual. Oh, and we all have to wear Smart 4 all the time. One day, squeezing my handkerchief resulted in rivulets of water dripping down. I miss the days of running around in admin attire!
Our first 5 weeks in SMM will be spent mostly studying and doing practicals - the paramedic phase. After that, the last 6 weeks will be the Combat phase. Erk.
There were a lot of people in blue outfits running around (or more accurately, sitting around) on monday. They look like Aircon Technicians.
One Malay who'd gone for the MDC auditions too recognised me and cursed them for rejecting him.
Ken was posted to "Public Health Assistant". His job is to supervise the mosquito foggers.
Because the place is too small to support 2 cookhouses, all the food in the cookhouse is Halal. Oh well. The food is worse than Tekong, if that can be imagined, though I'm told most SAF food -is- worse than Tekong. The receptivity ratings are suspiciously high for all the meals, and I suspect they are made up - two being 96% and two 98%. Probably it's because of their cunning - to indicate that you've consumed a meal, you drop a pink chip into a box, and for surveys you drop the chip into one of 3 holes labelled "Good", "Satisfactory" and "Poor". One day, they'd turned the container around such that where you expected the "Poor" slot to be, you found the "Good" slot, so you'd inadvertently give them the wrong rating. Another time, I went to cover the first two holes with the chip containers, but when I was eating I noticed they'd shifted the containers so they covered the last two holes. Cunning! Rather distressingly, the vegetarian menu one day had a dish cooked with Oyster Sauce! There've been some meals with all or most of the dishes containing chilli, but luckily I brought in chocolate covered digestives (which were attacked by the hyper sensitive ants!), and we got a canteen break a day from tuesday to friday (with 2 on friday!), so I was alright. The only saving graces are that we've 2 choices for breakfast, so I'm not forced to consume Mee Rebus, and that the pseudo-Western food is more interesting than that at Tekong, at least from the sole experience I've had. On the menu was 'Irish Stew' (Creamy lamb stew), 'Fish a la "Orly' (Deep fried fish with lemon sauce) and 'Corn O Brien' (Just corn on the cob). At least we can't fault them for having no imagination.
Many people in my platoon are OOCs from SISPEC. Eheh. And our platoon is cut into half - 2 sections bunk at one block and the last at another. Makes morning movement irritating.
Our school is rather small, yet we are required to march from place to place. And sing the silly songs too. This is ridiculous.
There are an inordinate and disproportionate number of cats in SMM, around the cookhouse. Irritating.
We've 8 Bruneians in our platoon. They've diplomatic immunity and get to take shortcuts and have all sorts of other privileges. Maybe we should go to Brunei to train.
Apparently there're many snakes around SMM and snakes are often seen around. School of Many Monsters!
We are not allowed to sing songs with vulgarities and which imply or explictly describe sexual acts or feelings. This means, of course, that 90% of Army Songs are proscribed. Perhaps this odd rule, and the relative scarcity of vulgarity use, is because of the fact that we are very near to the civilian world, and that we have female instructors around. Anyhow, having exited BMT and being bored with the normal army songs, we've started modifying them.
Examples:
Down by the river, we took a little walk.
Ran into some teletubbies, we had a little talk.
We kiss them! [Platoon: Yah!] Hug them! [Platoon: Yah!] Kiss them hug them! [Platoon:Yah, yah!]
Pull off their antennas.
Smash their TV screens...
Training to be soldiers, wasting our time.
Once in a life, lucky it's not twice.
Have you ever wondered, why we must serve?
Because we all bo pian...
Far far away in the South China Sea yah,
I left a pack of Malboro
I must go for my smoking break yah
A smoker has to smoke even he has to die...
*end examples*
We only have to sing songs from 7am to 7pm though, what a relief.
The anatomy and physiology lectures which we've been getting are basically what I learned in Upper Secondary Biology, so it was like Low Mei Choo redux. Ooo, "phalanges".
Those with driving licences can drive into camp and park there! Wah.
Now we only wear the green socks. Makes you wonder why the SAF issued us white socks in the first place.
The smokers are very happy, because they can smoke 500 sticks a day. They get frequent smoking breaks, and before the first parade and after the last, they smoke outside the bunk as if there were no tomorrow. Too bad the smoking hut, where they must smoke during office hours, looks like a cage.
Someone else also commented, as I have, that if all those ranked 3rd Sergeant and below decided to rebel, the SAF wouldn't be able to do anything. Oh well, timing's the issue.
I was rather depressed on Tuesday and Wednesday, about as bad as during the first days of BMT. Argh, 26 months to ORD... I miss the days of throwing 1 cent coins at Huimei during lectures to wake her up. But my mood swang back to one which, if not exactly exuberant, was at least partially joyous.
We don't get newspapers. Argh. Back to the Economist. We could get the Stayout personnel to procure them, of course, but it'd be too troublesome.
My platoon mate doesn't shave either. Yeh!
Apparently Saturday guard duty's counted as weekday guard duty, even though it steals more bookout time than Sunday duty. Grr.
One C9L2 guy is in my platoon. Weird. I thought such don't qualify.
I hear signals is quite slack. Except they have homework, and it's like Electrical Engineering mixed with Telephony.
One person was proclaiming that he'd try to get out of course and join the September batch.
Seeing that there are quite a few stayout personnel, and that they can afford to give many Nights Off, I think that actually they -can- afford to let us go home everyday, it's just that we have the status of 'trainee' and they want to torment us. I just hope the Nights Off come in abundance!
The Medic School has no Medical Centre. Yeh.
I see varicose veins popping out on my feet again. Gah.
Generally, the regimentation is less strict than in BMT, though after a week's block leave, it didn't feel that way. Our sergeants are all quite nice (I believe we're the only platoon that has not been knocked down as a whole yet), but there's one who's very enthusiastic, the proverbial "xiao on". He made us do pullups before lunch on Friday and breakfast on Saturday, the only platoon to do so, and he hinted ominously about various tortures during the combat phase, which is starting week 6. Ironically, he warned us to beware snakes, but got bitten himself and had 3 days medical leave.
One thing good about being on the Island of Doom is that bookout times are not easily delayed due to the indented boats, whereas on the mainland, they can let you off as late as they like.
To aid us in our learning, we have Computer Aided Instuction lessons, which are somewhat useful. However, the programs were programmed in 1991, have numerous bugs and always crash.
Many or most people are, as in BMT, very religious about brushing their teeth at night and in the mornings, but so far, since December 13th, I'm the only one I've seen flossing (though I do not brush my teeth as often).
My glasses went through a lot of strain - one morning my buddy stepped on them as he came down from the top bed, and later that day I left them under my mattress and proceeded to sleep on them. Luckily, I've wrenched them back into shape.
BMT for females has only 6 obstacles (the low wall is not one of them) and I think they don't wear helmets. Unfair!
During out lecture on shock and the symptoms of it, I was the only one who knew what priapism meant. That's what comes from knowing your Greek mythology!
We're to be allowed to fold our mattresses from tuesdays to saturdays - no pulling of bedsheets! Welfare, man.
We're required to wear our headgear all the time when we're not under shelter. It's quite uncomfortable, but we've to make do. One sergeant major saw that I hadn't put on my cap yet, and he advised me to put in on lest the birds shit on my head :) Heh.
Quotes:
"[On SMM] This place, you look at the buildings. Looks like [a] mental hospital."
"Practically, you will shed blood and tears here."
"Make sure your song is loud and clean."
"[On good buttocks being a sign that a woman is good for child earing] Like me, I don't have... Have ah? Why are you all so... nevermind."
"There's no way you're going to get out of this place, unless you kill yourself."
"The standing order here is, you all cannot IV an instructor."
"Stupid. Medic school no medical centre. (has no)"
"By the end of the course, last 3, 4 weeks, some of you will be volunterring to shoot 3, 4 times. (be shot)"
"[On the theory tests for the course] Past year papers got or not?"
"Don't think that, the tests here you will surely pass, just like all the other tests in the SAF (you will surely pass all the tests here)"
"Everytime you [say] 'Yes Sergeant', like want to fight... Very irritating you know."
"My helmet makes me look like a chipmunk."
"[Me on our bunk: Why are there grilles on the windows?] It's to make this place look like a prison, understand?"
"[To me] Has anyone called you Harry Potter because of that scar?"
"This is the so-called WOW. [Trainees: Wow!] Corny lah, I hear that every batch."
"[You want to bring in an] icebox? For what? You think [this is a] chalet ah?"
"[On SAF tests] They teach you a lot, but they test you little. It's just for show."
"[On my not eating chilli] No wonder you always go back to bunk and eat biscuits.. That's why you sleep so much (slept so much during BMT)"
"[Me: I swear, 75% of Muslim males have 'Mohammad' in their names] I think it's more."
"You know what the IV [needle] is good for? Poking pimples."
"This book, 'Human Body in Health and Disease". Don't just turn to the reproductive system... There are not many pictures there."
"[On us massaging each other after 3 long lectures in 3 hours] 'Ahh!', mass orgy, ah, 'Ahh!'"
"[On priapism] This only occurs in male patients... When he has a spinal injury. So don't think that he's trying to be funny with you."
Stanley Huang is going to the police at the end of the month, where he'll meet lots of Malays!
Yet another bookout, yet another post.
Restored post
On reaching the School of Military Medicine (SMM) on Monday, we were made to wait until about 4pm to be assigned to our individual platoons and such, because the SAF, "an efficient and well run organisation", had sent too many people for the medic courses, such that some (like Jason Lau and Yong Gen, who applied for Medicine) had to be made Temporary Support Staff (with 8 to 5 jobs!) and about 60 others are now in the NDP marching contingent for the Medic wing, and also get to go home at 5pm.
SMM is located tantalisingly close to the Civilian World. That makes it both better and worse. One of these days I'll spend a good half an hour gazing longingly past the token barbed wire tipped fence.
Perhaps the most irking thing about being a trainee at SMM is that you are not allowed to bring in handphones. The given reason is that they may be stolen since most of the cupboards can't be locked (mine's one of the few that can!), but that should be the trainee's own problem. I suspect they just want to torture us, or force us to read our notes and medical books or die of sheer boredom (since anything more expensive than a Discman is prohibited too). Especially since there are 3-4 public phones for probably 200 people. At this stage, I am like one of the 3 people who are -not- going to smuggle in a handphone. This is because I am lousy at doing illegal things :) and don't want to risk signing for extra duties. A weekend duty'd probably drive me madder than going without contact with the outside world. I think I agree with Kairen that the thing that keeps you going while you're a slave is the company and comfort of the others. Though I was commended by some bunk mates on my "cover and concealment" - hanging clothes to block myself while chatting on my mobile. So we shall see how the endless game plays out, with trainees bringing and having brought handphones for years immemorial and instructors alternately trying to catch them or closing an eye.
I'd been warned by many that the facilities and amenities at SMM were very bad, but it was even worse than I expected. Or maybe it's just that, coming from spanking BMTC, everything seems pithy in comparison. The bunks are very dirty and run down, though our beds are quite new. Though we get pathetic looking foam mattresses, they're actually okay to sleep on, because the area the mattress rests on is formed from lines of metal, which are very springy. And the fans blow wind to the bottom bed, which I sleep on, so the only bad thing about the double bunk bed is that my buddy steps on my stuff on the way down in the morning. It's the mosquitoes that trouble our sleep the most - 4 nights out of 5 I was frantically scratching my legs through the night. The place is also accursedly dirty - the Health Inspector did a check and found it too dirty. Which is one reason why I got the SMM Flu. The thing I mind most is the shower facilities. There are no walls in the shower area, so you shower like you're in prison - naked with the others! So I went from he-who-comes-from-the-shower-with-a-towel-around-his-chest to he-who-bathes-in-underwear. Though on Friday night I decided to bathe in the squatting toilet cubicle with the pipe that the Malays use to wash up after doing their business. Some of the Malays decided to be disgusting and bathe outside the shower area - in front of the washbasins. Ugh. Most of our appraisals of the conditions - "cannot make it". It sometimes seems like BMT with fewer privileges and fewer amenities. We're the last batch to be schooled in this campus, though. The new camp should have better conditions (and allow handphones, having lost the skimpy pretext for banning them). However, it is rumoured that passing IPPT and SOC will be a requirement to pass the course after the shift.
The School is surrounded by thick jungle terrain, which means the wind cannot blow. So we all sweat more than usual. Oh, and we all have to wear Smart 4 all the time. One day, squeezing my handkerchief resulted in rivulets of water dripping down. I miss the days of running around in admin attire!
Our first 5 weeks in SMM will be spent mostly studying and doing practicals - the paramedic phase. After that, the last 6 weeks will be the Combat phase. Erk.
There were a lot of people in blue outfits running around (or more accurately, sitting around) on monday. They look like Aircon Technicians.
One Malay who'd gone for the MDC auditions too recognised me and cursed them for rejecting him.
Ken was posted to "Public Health Assistant". His job is to supervise the mosquito foggers.
Because the place is too small to support 2 cookhouses, all the food in the cookhouse is Halal. Oh well. The food is worse than Tekong, if that can be imagined, though I'm told most SAF food -is- worse than Tekong. The receptivity ratings are suspiciously high for all the meals, and I suspect they are made up - two being 96% and two 98%. Probably it's because of their cunning - to indicate that you've consumed a meal, you drop a pink chip into a box, and for surveys you drop the chip into one of 3 holes labelled "Good", "Satisfactory" and "Poor". One day, they'd turned the container around such that where you expected the "Poor" slot to be, you found the "Good" slot, so you'd inadvertently give them the wrong rating. Another time, I went to cover the first two holes with the chip containers, but when I was eating I noticed they'd shifted the containers so they covered the last two holes. Cunning! Rather distressingly, the vegetarian menu one day had a dish cooked with Oyster Sauce! There've been some meals with all or most of the dishes containing chilli, but luckily I brought in chocolate covered digestives (which were attacked by the hyper sensitive ants!), and we got a canteen break a day from tuesday to friday (with 2 on friday!), so I was alright. The only saving graces are that we've 2 choices for breakfast, so I'm not forced to consume Mee Rebus, and that the pseudo-Western food is more interesting than that at Tekong, at least from the sole experience I've had. On the menu was 'Irish Stew' (Creamy lamb stew), 'Fish a la "Orly' (Deep fried fish with lemon sauce) and 'Corn O Brien' (Just corn on the cob). At least we can't fault them for having no imagination.
Many people in my platoon are OOCs from SISPEC. Eheh. And our platoon is cut into half - 2 sections bunk at one block and the last at another. Makes morning movement irritating.
Our school is rather small, yet we are required to march from place to place. And sing the silly songs too. This is ridiculous.
There are an inordinate and disproportionate number of cats in SMM, around the cookhouse. Irritating.
We've 8 Bruneians in our platoon. They've diplomatic immunity and get to take shortcuts and have all sorts of other privileges. Maybe we should go to Brunei to train.
Apparently there're many snakes around SMM and snakes are often seen around. School of Many Monsters!
We are not allowed to sing songs with vulgarities and which imply or explictly describe sexual acts or feelings. This means, of course, that 90% of Army Songs are proscribed. Perhaps this odd rule, and the relative scarcity of vulgarity use, is because of the fact that we are very near to the civilian world, and that we have female instructors around. Anyhow, having exited BMT and being bored with the normal army songs, we've started modifying them.
Examples:
Down by the river, we took a little walk.
Ran into some teletubbies, we had a little talk.
We kiss them! [Platoon: Yah!] Hug them! [Platoon: Yah!] Kiss them hug them! [Platoon:Yah, yah!]
Pull off their antennas.
Smash their TV screens...
Training to be soldiers, wasting our time.
Once in a life, lucky it's not twice.
Have you ever wondered, why we must serve?
Because we all bo pian...
Far far away in the South China Sea yah,
I left a pack of Malboro
I must go for my smoking break yah
A smoker has to smoke even he has to die...
*end examples*
We only have to sing songs from 7am to 7pm though, what a relief.
The anatomy and physiology lectures which we've been getting are basically what I learned in Upper Secondary Biology, so it was like Low Mei Choo redux. Ooo, "phalanges".
Those with driving licences can drive into camp and park there! Wah.
Now we only wear the green socks. Makes you wonder why the SAF issued us white socks in the first place.
The smokers are very happy, because they can smoke 500 sticks a day. They get frequent smoking breaks, and before the first parade and after the last, they smoke outside the bunk as if there were no tomorrow. Too bad the smoking hut, where they must smoke during office hours, looks like a cage.
Someone else also commented, as I have, that if all those ranked 3rd Sergeant and below decided to rebel, the SAF wouldn't be able to do anything. Oh well, timing's the issue.
I was rather depressed on Tuesday and Wednesday, about as bad as during the first days of BMT. Argh, 26 months to ORD... I miss the days of throwing 1 cent coins at Huimei during lectures to wake her up. But my mood swang back to one which, if not exactly exuberant, was at least partially joyous.
We don't get newspapers. Argh. Back to the Economist. We could get the Stayout personnel to procure them, of course, but it'd be too troublesome.
My platoon mate doesn't shave either. Yeh!
Apparently Saturday guard duty's counted as weekday guard duty, even though it steals more bookout time than Sunday duty. Grr.
One C9L2 guy is in my platoon. Weird. I thought such don't qualify.
I hear signals is quite slack. Except they have homework, and it's like Electrical Engineering mixed with Telephony.
One person was proclaiming that he'd try to get out of course and join the September batch.
Seeing that there are quite a few stayout personnel, and that they can afford to give many Nights Off, I think that actually they -can- afford to let us go home everyday, it's just that we have the status of 'trainee' and they want to torment us. I just hope the Nights Off come in abundance!
The Medic School has no Medical Centre. Yeh.
I see varicose veins popping out on my feet again. Gah.
Generally, the regimentation is less strict than in BMT, though after a week's block leave, it didn't feel that way. Our sergeants are all quite nice (I believe we're the only platoon that has not been knocked down as a whole yet), but there's one who's very enthusiastic, the proverbial "xiao on". He made us do pullups before lunch on Friday and breakfast on Saturday, the only platoon to do so, and he hinted ominously about various tortures during the combat phase, which is starting week 6. Ironically, he warned us to beware snakes, but got bitten himself and had 3 days medical leave.
One thing good about being on the Island of Doom is that bookout times are not easily delayed due to the indented boats, whereas on the mainland, they can let you off as late as they like.
To aid us in our learning, we have Computer Aided Instuction lessons, which are somewhat useful. However, the programs were programmed in 1991, have numerous bugs and always crash.
Many or most people are, as in BMT, very religious about brushing their teeth at night and in the mornings, but so far, since December 13th, I'm the only one I've seen flossing (though I do not brush my teeth as often).
My glasses went through a lot of strain - one morning my buddy stepped on them as he came down from the top bed, and later that day I left them under my mattress and proceeded to sleep on them. Luckily, I've wrenched them back into shape.
BMT for females has only 6 obstacles (the low wall is not one of them) and I think they don't wear helmets. Unfair!
During out lecture on shock and the symptoms of it, I was the only one who knew what priapism meant. That's what comes from knowing your Greek mythology!
We're to be allowed to fold our mattresses from tuesdays to saturdays - no pulling of bedsheets! Welfare, man.
We're required to wear our headgear all the time when we're not under shelter. It's quite uncomfortable, but we've to make do. One sergeant major saw that I hadn't put on my cap yet, and he advised me to put in on lest the birds shit on my head :) Heh.
Quotes:
"[On SMM] This place, you look at the buildings. Looks like [a] mental hospital."
"Practically, you will shed blood and tears here."
"Make sure your song is loud and clean."
"[On good buttocks being a sign that a woman is good for child earing] Like me, I don't have... Have ah? Why are you all so... nevermind."
"There's no way you're going to get out of this place, unless you kill yourself."
"The standing order here is, you all cannot IV an instructor."
"Stupid. Medic school no medical centre. (has no)"
"By the end of the course, last 3, 4 weeks, some of you will be volunterring to shoot 3, 4 times. (be shot)"
"[On the theory tests for the course] Past year papers got or not?"
"Don't think that, the tests here you will surely pass, just like all the other tests in the SAF (you will surely pass all the tests here)"
"Everytime you [say] 'Yes Sergeant', like want to fight... Very irritating you know."
"My helmet makes me look like a chipmunk."
"[Me on our bunk: Why are there grilles on the windows?] It's to make this place look like a prison, understand?"
"[To me] Has anyone called you Harry Potter because of that scar?"
"This is the so-called WOW. [Trainees: Wow!] Corny lah, I hear that every batch."
"[You want to bring in an] icebox? For what? You think [this is a] chalet ah?"
"[On SAF tests] They teach you a lot, but they test you little. It's just for show."
"[On my not eating chilli] No wonder you always go back to bunk and eat biscuits.. That's why you sleep so much (slept so much during BMT)"
"[Me: I swear, 75% of Muslim males have 'Mohammad' in their names] I think it's more."
"You know what the IV [needle] is good for? Poking pimples."
"This book, 'Human Body in Health and Disease". Don't just turn to the reproductive system... There are not many pictures there."
"[On us massaging each other after 3 long lectures in 3 hours] 'Ahh!', mass orgy, ah, 'Ahh!'"
"[On priapism] This only occurs in male patients... When he has a spinal injury. So don't think that he's trying to be funny with you."
Stanley Huang is going to the police at the end of the month, where he'll meet lots of Malays!
Post ID: 75361801
Kairen just sent me Yaodong's ICQ contact. In "About" it says:
Hi,everyone.
I'm Clarence from Rjc.
May those who see this note have a good day.
Quote of the day:
If u wan someone,go for him/her..if not you'll regret for life..care for him/her..to show ur care n concern..
be sincere n honest..
Hi,everyone.
I'm Clarence from Rjc.
May those who see this note have a good day.
Quote of the day:
If u wan someone,go for him/her..if not you'll regret for life..care for him/her..to show ur care n concern..
be sincere n honest..
Post ID: 75361796
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