Bookout post:
Restored Post
So this week, promised to be "one of the most fun and also one of the most siong weeks" of our course, was neither very fun nor very siong. At least not so much that it killed us. Luckily, we are still learning paramedical stuff, so we have time to recuperate from combat medic training. Due to the combat phase starting, we're getting more and more water parades. Methinks I'll stealthily fill my water bottle with some cranberry juice next time!
That said, stretcher carrying sucks. Even with light casualties, it's very tiring, and after monday's exertion, my shoulders and lower-arms-just-below-the-elbows hurt till Thursday. We were actually supposed to carry a casualty-less stretcher for a time on Monday, but Kumar -had- to go find a casualty. And stretcherless carrying is even worse. I was so shagged that on Tuesday morning I couldn't walk straight for 5 mins after getting up.
I think repeated sightings of uncovered Malay male genitalia are driving me crazy! Help! It wouldn't be so bad if it were confined to the toilet, but they like to walk around in the bunk in their birthday suits for extended periods of time. Luckily it's largely confined to the Malays. If all the others decided to follow suit (up from the 1 or 2 who do it infrequently now), I'd probably dig out my eyes. What a change from Aliff, who wore shorts under his pants because he didn't like to show off his underwear. But then many of the Malays don't even *wear* underwear. At least they bathe a lot, presumably because they like to be clean.
We had no nights off this week, not even one. We were actually due to have one on Wednesday actually, but NTUC Income -had- to come and talk to us to try to con us to buy their 'Pioneer Policy' (which they'd tried to do to all of us in BMT already!). SAF is probably happy to let all these companies come in to sell us things because they get a healthy share of the proceeds.
Another irritating thing people like to do: When numbering off, the person who's supposed to give the final tally ('x and x blank files') sometimes likes to mumble. Incidentally, it's always a Malay (Ed: On the issue of racism, be assured that this is an observation borne out by repeated trials :) There are nice Malays around. And non-Indians do irritating things too. Like the lame '9 and 2 blanks, 1 in SBO' thing that some people liked to do.)
I saw 2 Staff Sergeants using m100 series Palms. So much for no palmtops in SAF camps.
Apparently one person in another platoon is excused IV (being poked, that is) because he is a national snooker or billiards player. Gah.
Raffi tried to trick me by claiming that he was a Zoroastrian. Imagine his surprise when I called his bluff! Aww :)
Apparently there's a way to stop one's subscription to Pioneer Magazine. But the price is not worth the trouble of unsubscribing, and besides, I want to support Kairen! :)
Jason Lau doesn't believe I didn't cry the last 2 IVs :)
Apparently the SAF, following everything else in Singapore, is kiasu. They're the only military in the world that uses the stupid 16g Yakult Straws that leave permanent scars for IVs.
Some guy haram-ed his Nasi Lemak. He went to the food stall and got a piece of Luncheon Meat put on the packet. Luncheon Meat is nice with Nasi Lemak (sans chili of course).
I'm surprised. The margarine they gave us for breakfast one day was made from Soyabean Oil and not Palm. Wah. And we got "Chicken Chasseur" again. Only this Chasseur (pepperish brown sauce) was different from the last (slightly sweet tomato-ey sauce). Gasp, horror.
Because of the days with Combat Medic training and rain on Tuesday, we had only 1 morning 5BX, but boy was it a tough one. Relatively at any rate. We ran 6 rounds around the parade square and did jumping jacks - 10 counts of 8 and alternate leg thrusts - 10 counts of 4. Not to count pushups for being late. Oh well.
Often when we fall in for 5BX in the morning, we will see the MOCC trainees running. I wonder how early they wake up. Must be tough.
Roy used paramedical scissors to clean his toenails. Eee.
We were sitting around in the nursing room waiting for our break to end. Being bored, most of them decided to play Taupok. Except it was rather unprofessionally done - there was a big space in the middle of the room and everyone was seated in a circle around the space, and when people entered the room they were asked to sit down. Ahh if they'd take lessons from the people in RI and RJ... It was rather violent though - one Bruneian jumped onto the writhing mass from a chair!
It's very sad. About 15 of us were loading the store tonner for the river crossing, when Joshua spotted 2 girls (maybe middle sec in age) in sports attire across the road. The rest became excited when they started up the overhead bridge, and they stopped loading the tonner to take up positions by the side of the road, some standing, some squatting and those on the tonner leaning out to peer. When I pointed out that what they were doing was very obvious, someone shouted "Contacted!" and proned. Finally the sergeant got us to fall in facing him (ie the overhead bridge). Everyone rushed to be in the first two rows, and I was one of only 2 or 3 in the last row.
On Friday we went to Seletar Camp, a gigantic camp with colonial era (or at least colonial style) buildings, with many sections, each with their own guardhouses, for our "river crossing". Except that it was more of a pond - it was not even 50m across. And we never entered the water except to test our lifejackets due to Cat 1 (Lightning Alert). And because we didn't wear garters, my pants kept getting caught on my boots and got torn. We actually had to learn a jettison drill, where we have to throw off our helmet, rifle and webbing in 6 seconds if we're drowning. However, I think that the rush and the panic from having to meet the timing will more likely get you entangled and decrease your chances of survival. At least the food we got from there was much better than that at SMM. And we had PORK! It's been so long since I've had pork in an SAF camp, and luncheon meat doesn't count (tis nice, but more squishy meat). So SFI -can- cook good food.
Some of my bunk mates call one sergeant Sergeant Fei2 Rou4. Not only is this an approximation to his name, it does describe him somewhat :)
I'm sick of people, especially the "garang" sergeant, making bad polar bear jokes! Grr. Maybe I'll bring in my pig next week.
Next week, on Tuesday night I believe, we will have our OC night, a night for us to relax and have "fun". Now every platoon has to put up 2 items, a song and something else. For our second item, we were going to do skipping, with some people performing nifty tricks. As a backup plan, we had Comical Bodybuilding (Well, I was slotted to be one of the contestants. And probably the winner). However, our sergeant wants us to do a sketch. Since the dawn of time, when groups of people have been made to put up performances for events, with relatively short periods of time to prepare, they have chosen to fall back on the time honoured fallback of the sketch. So we will probably have all 4 platoons doing sketches now. And the sketches will invariably be on army life. This is ridiculously staid and boring, going down the well trodden route. Supposedly sketches earn more points, but what's the point?
We are planning to have a chalet on the 8th of June. Someone wrote on the whiteboard, "***** Girls compulsory". When I mused to Joshua how many girls would want to go to a party with army boys and get ravished (with eyes, verbally or otherwise), he replied, "More than you think". On second thought, I agree. Which means it'll be all the lians and party girls.
My sleeping patterns have changed slightly. Instead of spending the whole night on the nice, cool (albeit a touch dirty even after sweeping) floor, I now wake at 4+ and go to my bed. Weird.
Quotes:
"[On Steven] If he's She Man who are the Masters of the Universe?"
"[ICQ msg on the Detention Barracks] We live next to DB. It looks like a chalet wif 2 layers of barbed wire fence."
"[On Pioneer magazine] How come ah, I don't subscribe but I also have [it]? Damn it man, I don't want it."
"I don't possess any of this. L-U-S-T."
"[To me referring to him and Kumar] I think you have a more active social life than us"
"[On there being no night snack and our desire to order pizza] 2353535. Add up, sign 26 extra... [Remembers to put a 6 in front] 32."
"[NTUC Pioneer Policy form] For you and your parents
Take a policy to protect yourself. Do this for your parents who have put in much effort to bring you up... It is important for every person to have life insurance."
"Indian Thaipusam. Vasu put all the IV... Put the 10g, then all the blood come out. (?)"
"[On the cookhouse's cream soups] It's either cream of nothing or cream of water."
"Just in case, the moment you see thunder, you run (lightning)"
"[While marching] Jeebye, don't dig your boots. Drag your boots... That's the way I like it."
"[Khairul to me, coveting my food] What is buddies for? [Me: All you do is take my food and show me your cock.] (are)"
"[On the planned chalet] Gabriel, you drink or not? [Me: Ahh, no] You will learn. [Platoon mate: Gabriel, you smoke or not?] [Me: Ah? No!] [Mate: You will learn]"
L'origine de Bert
Sunday, May 26, 2002
Haha. Someone on the arts scene:
"yeah they're really annoying. they all think damn highly of themselves, believe that the country is screwed up, can be saved by freedom of speech, and of course fuss about the whole thing ad nauseum. of course, if freedom of speech existed we could tell all of them how boring their poetry readings were"
And more interesting stuff.
"yeah they're really annoying. they all think damn highly of themselves, believe that the country is screwed up, can be saved by freedom of speech, and of course fuss about the whole thing ad nauseum. of course, if freedom of speech existed we could tell all of them how boring their poetry readings were"
And more interesting stuff.
Post ID: 76984431
I think I will change my impression of Rachmaninoff's music being horrible. It's just some of the terrible piano pieces.
3:10pm:
My sister's made Prawn Toast. Yummy!
I was searching for a Power Rangers logo for my phone, after my earlier find of a ringtone to manually program in. Unfortunately, my valiant efforts failed so I went to draw an "Air!" one manually.
Later I completed my Little Fugue (BWV 578) ringtone. After difficulties that day, I finished the last flourish effortlessly. It does end awkwardly though, but then, it's a fugue. I want dotted notes to be available for Nokia ringtones! My brother in law wonders why I'm so good at it :)
Now I'm doing 'All Things Bright And Beautiful' for my sister
3:10pm:
My sister's made Prawn Toast. Yummy!
I was searching for a Power Rangers logo for my phone, after my earlier find of a ringtone to manually program in. Unfortunately, my valiant efforts failed so I went to draw an "Air!" one manually.
Later I completed my Little Fugue (BWV 578) ringtone. After difficulties that day, I finished the last flourish effortlessly. It does end awkwardly though, but then, it's a fugue. I want dotted notes to be available for Nokia ringtones! My brother in law wonders why I'm so good at it :)
Now I'm doing 'All Things Bright And Beautiful' for my sister
Post ID: 76980144
Went for an outing with my BMT section earlier. Attendance was dismal - 4/13 of us turned up.
We went to watch 'Mean Machine' but we had to kill an hour. So we went to Ubar to drink their expensive drinks. And the other 3 played Taiti and drank syrup-water as a forfeit. And I read the pretentious gibberish on their wall!
Quoth I:
"Squeeze
The Juice Zone
Look beyond and see a territory that reconceptualizes urban space, abandon the search for the static soul of traditional urbanism and seek instead the city's transitional realms here at the Juice Zone. Conventional notions of metropolitan forms have characterized this bar as a squeeze center and periphery model, initially established as a core of relatively uniform intensity surrounded by radial zones of decreasing density that dissipates to an inevitable edge. Seek solace in the Juice Zone."
Interestingly, past and present met for a fleeting moment as I met my current platoon mate Joshua with 2 JC classmates watching the same movie.
We went to watch 'Mean Machine' but we had to kill an hour. So we went to Ubar to drink their expensive drinks. And the other 3 played Taiti and drank syrup-water as a forfeit. And I read the pretentious gibberish on their wall!
Quoth I:
"Squeeze
The Juice Zone
Look beyond and see a territory that reconceptualizes urban space, abandon the search for the static soul of traditional urbanism and seek instead the city's transitional realms here at the Juice Zone. Conventional notions of metropolitan forms have characterized this bar as a squeeze center and periphery model, initially established as a core of relatively uniform intensity surrounded by radial zones of decreasing density that dissipates to an inevitable edge. Seek solace in the Juice Zone."
Interestingly, past and present met for a fleeting moment as I met my current platoon mate Joshua with 2 JC classmates watching the same movie.
Post ID: 76961085
Saturday, May 25, 2002
Some subversive stuff:
Why it might be difficult for the government to withdraw from business
Conversion and Subversion: Religion and the Management of Moral Panics in Singapore
Some funny stuff:
What are the pros and cons of becoming a eunuch?
And some sad stuff (excerpted from the latest This Is True):
THIS WEEK'S HONORARY UNSUBSCRIBE goes to Dave Berg. A cartoonist, Berg is best known for his work in MAD Magazine, where he was an artist since 1956. His feature "The Lighter Side of..." began in the magazine in 1961 and has been drawn by him since. His strips often featured the pipe-smoking "Roger Kaputnik" -- his own alter-ego observer to help make Berg's points. "He was not a cynic at all," said MAD co-editor Nick Meglin. It was just vignettes that he personally witnessed and did variations on of everyday life wherever it occurred." His last "Lighter Side" feature will be in MAD's 50th Anniversary issue in September. Berg died May 16 from cancer in Marina del Rey, Calif. He was 81.
Why it might be difficult for the government to withdraw from business
Conversion and Subversion: Religion and the Management of Moral Panics in Singapore
Some funny stuff:
What are the pros and cons of becoming a eunuch?
And some sad stuff (excerpted from the latest This Is True):
THIS WEEK'S HONORARY UNSUBSCRIBE goes to Dave Berg. A cartoonist, Berg is best known for his work in MAD Magazine, where he was an artist since 1956. His feature "The Lighter Side of..." began in the magazine in 1961 and has been drawn by him since. His strips often featured the pipe-smoking "Roger Kaputnik" -- his own alter-ego observer to help make Berg's points. "He was not a cynic at all," said MAD co-editor Nick Meglin. It was just vignettes that he personally witnessed and did variations on of everyday life wherever it occurred." His last "Lighter Side" feature will be in MAD's 50th Anniversary issue in September. Berg died May 16 from cancer in Marina del Rey, Calif. He was 81.
Post ID: 76954367
Thursday, May 23, 2002
Now that I'm back, my tech related stuff is back too :)
Firstly: This is an illegal post. If you have high morals, stop reading this post now.
Reuters, Yahoo, and CNN have all broken the law () by posting the news on how to defeat the new Sony copy protection using your everyday marker (I hear that maybe they'll ban markers) or even an innocuous post-it note. Read about the news agency violations here:
Newsforge Article I love the way this article ends.
And the offending article from yahoo itself here:
Sony's new CD-protection defeated by a marker.
Yours truly feels that fighting piracy is a good thing.
However, when that fight starts by using technology that is a hassle to consumers (the protection crashes Apple computers, among other things) something is out of hand. AND the fact that the copy protection works by adding imperfections to the quality of the music doesn't help either. Maybe record labels should make originals cheaper to encourage consumers to buy them instead- it's not like the stamping of a silver + packaging cost actually cost them a lot.
Firstly: This is an illegal post. If you have high morals, stop reading this post now.
Reuters, Yahoo, and CNN have all broken the law (
Newsforge Article I love the way this article ends.
And the offending article from yahoo itself here:
Sony's new CD-protection defeated by a marker.
Yours truly feels that fighting piracy is a good thing.
However, when that fight starts by using technology that is a hassle to consumers (the protection crashes Apple computers, among other things) something is out of hand. AND the fact that the copy protection works by adding imperfections to the quality of the music doesn't help either. Maybe record labels should make originals cheaper to encourage consumers to buy them instead- it's not like the stamping of a silver + packaging cost actually cost them a lot.
Post ID: 76878275
Tadaima! (I'm back!)
Haven't posted here for ages and it seems like Andrew ~~~ (three tildes! no less!) has taken it over. It sounds like you're having fun where you're at though, Andrew :)
And all the while, yours truly going through what gabriel likes to call slavery- but I don't think so, i'm fulfilling my duty to my country. Yeah! That's it! At least I'm not getting poked every day by yakult / vitagen straws- but you'll have to ask gabriel about that.
I wouldn't know about providing doctors with more info... usually, I say: "I feel sick", which seems to sum up how i'm feeling pretty well. Maybe I should start telling the doctor in more detail _how_ I feel. Maybe "I don't feel as well as I usually do" is a good start. I'm going to try harder next time I see a doctor (determination).
Mmm.... that's about all i have to say for now. Be nice to this poster, ok? ^^
Haven't posted here for ages and it seems like Andrew ~~~ (three tildes! no less!) has taken it over. It sounds like you're having fun where you're at though, Andrew :)
And all the while, yours truly going through what gabriel likes to call slavery- but I don't think so, i'm fulfilling my duty to my country. Yeah! That's it!
I wouldn't know about providing doctors with more info... usually, I say: "I feel sick", which seems to sum up how i'm feeling pretty well. Maybe I should start telling the doctor in more detail _how_ I feel. Maybe "I don't feel as well as I usually do" is a good start. I'm going to try harder next time I see a doctor (determination).
Mmm.... that's about all i have to say for now. Be nice to this poster, ok? ^^
Post ID: 76878013
Albert suggested i make a list of things i'd want to bring back from singapore, so i'll start:
1) Computer with printer (the latter being v. important in the light of high printing costs) ... hmm windows 98/XP .... desktop. Plus extra printer cartridges.
2) Handphone. Hrm, cross that out since i'd be able to get a free one on a plan here.
2) textbooks. Rhoades and pflanzer? Dorland's medical dictionary?
3) Clothes- all my funky tops and berms at home
4) Photos!!
5) song scores? Bulky, may not be much use- for mcfarland's and med choir.
6) keyboard. No, scratch that, too bulky for this trip.
7) Rice cooker/related kitchenware if there's space
8) CDs!! Oh... most of my cd collection is here already ...albert's gonna burn the JOC albums for me. and i can go to gramaphone to get some more (=
9) Stationery- pens and things, plus those clear folders i'm addicted to.
And i'll have to make a list of pple to buy things for, and what to get them... it would simplify things a lot if you would just tell me what you'd like... seriously. Email me or icq or something. especially if you're a nougat or nut fan.
1) Computer with printer (the latter being v. important in the light of high printing costs) ... hmm windows 98/XP .... desktop. Plus extra printer cartridges.
2) Handphone. Hrm, cross that out since i'd be able to get a free one on a plan here.
2) textbooks. Rhoades and pflanzer? Dorland's medical dictionary?
3) Clothes- all my funky tops and berms at home
4) Photos!!
5) song scores? Bulky, may not be much use- for mcfarland's and med choir.
6) keyboard. No, scratch that, too bulky for this trip.
7) Rice cooker/related kitchenware if there's space
8) CDs!! Oh... most of my cd collection is here already ...albert's gonna burn the JOC albums for me. and i can go to gramaphone to get some more (=
9) Stationery- pens and things, plus those clear folders i'm addicted to.
And i'll have to make a list of pple to buy things for, and what to get them... it would simplify things a lot if you would just tell me what you'd like... seriously. Email me or icq or something. especially if you're a nougat or nut fan.
Post ID: 76876831
http://www.geocities.com/newsintercom/index.html
The "new sintercom" whose existence is highly poseur-ly imho.
Qian xi is interviewed there on her views of the singapore government!
Remember, you heard it from Balderdash .
translation for below: smoko's a party with drinks, Ron's a bangladeshi kid who is sponsored by the college student body. And "gold coin donations" is an obligatory donation towards Ron. Why bangladesh? Why why?
Ron's Birthday Party Smoko - Sunday night - Latest News
Posted by Ben Sturmfels on Thursday May 23 2002 @ 12:54AM EST
'Haaaappy B'day to Ron, Haaaapy B'day to Ron...'
Last Smoko for the semester!
When? Sunday 26th @ 8pm in the Quad.
Who's Ron? A child in Bangledesh sponsored by the Students' Club. We are raising $$ for good cause by gold-coin donation at
the door.
Dress? Come like your Mummy dressed you... ;)
Party food
Games
Face painting
Fairy floss
Lucky dip
1st keg of night - Hahn Premium
Fantastic costume prizes
Schnapps punch for first hour
Please remember your donation for Ron!
The "new sintercom" whose existence is highly poseur-ly imho.
Qian xi is interviewed there on her views of the singapore government!
Remember, you heard it from Balderdash .
translation for below: smoko's a party with drinks, Ron's a bangladeshi kid who is sponsored by the college student body. And "gold coin donations" is an obligatory donation towards Ron. Why bangladesh? Why why?
Ron's Birthday Party Smoko - Sunday night - Latest News
Posted by Ben Sturmfels on Thursday May 23 2002 @ 12:54AM EST
'Haaaappy B'day to Ron, Haaaapy B'day to Ron...'
Last Smoko for the semester!
When? Sunday 26th @ 8pm in the Quad.
Who's Ron? A child in Bangledesh sponsored by the Students' Club. We are raising $$ for good cause by gold-coin donation at
the door.
Dress? Come like your Mummy dressed you... ;)
Party food
Games
Face painting
Fairy floss
Lucky dip
1st keg of night - Hahn Premium
Fantastic costume prizes
Schnapps punch for first hour
Please remember your donation for Ron!
Post ID: 76876679
Message
/Classes/Semester_1_2002_Discussions_and_Announcements/Discussion/Medical Course Discussion/Open Discussion/Rant: Issues with
communication skills
From:
Chih Kiat Gan (ckagan)
To:
Semester_1_2002_Discussions_and_Announcements (Semester_1_2002_Discussions_and_Announcements)
Date:
21/5/2002 6:57:36
Subject:
Rant: Issues with communication skills
(Personal gripe)
I have issues. I have issues with the imparting of *communication skills* as is taught in the medical field worldwide. There is an unspoken rule
(akin to the zeroth law of thermodynamics) that the more information, the better for the doctor, and the *ideal* consultation would involve the
patient telling all to the doctor, within the time available. Patient background is important, but this implicit assumption is intimidating to patients.
Would I be more comfortable with this if the assumption is clearer? Scarcely.
I recognise the importance of contextual history, of snippets of background that confirms a diagnosis or identifies a genetic predisposition to
some disease (yes, genetics the tool of choie of our era). But I maintain that the expectation (by the doctor), that the patient should share
everything, is flawed. The patient has the right to withold information, as the patient has the liberty to accept or reject forms of treatment. And
the pedantry of bedside manner should recognise this.
As patients have a right to autonomy, they should have the right to refuse (or withold) information they are not comfortable with sharing with
their doctor, particularly if such action could put the doctor in a position whereby he is obliged to conduct a breach of confidentiality. An
individual who admits to homicidal thoughts and pre-meditated murder will be turned in by his doctor; a paedophile may be requested by his GP
to see another doctor in the future, for fear that the former may harass the GP's other clients.
(I draw a distant (and possibly irrelevant) parallel to the US army's "don't ask, don't tell" policy with regards to sexual orientation amongst its
recruits. Okay, so that wasn't so relevant after all)
As a medical student, I struggle to cope with the paradigm of a profession which holds more respect, more influence, more responsibility, more
expectations, than I had expected. That we would enter this profession providing maximal care, support and dignity to every patient is
impropable, but it is something to aspire towards.
(Actually, I also maintain all medical students should undergo coursework in medical humanities- people are not just flesh and bone- as well as
training in counselling. )
-- andrew --
/Classes/Semester_1_2002_Discussions_and_Announcements/Discussion/Medical Course Discussion/Open Discussion/Rant: Issues with
communication skills
From:
Chih Kiat Gan (ckagan)
To:
Semester_1_2002_Discussions_and_Announcements (Semester_1_2002_Discussions_and_Announcements)
Date:
21/5/2002 6:57:36
Subject:
Rant: Issues with communication skills
(Personal gripe)
I have issues. I have issues with the imparting of *communication skills* as is taught in the medical field worldwide. There is an unspoken rule
(akin to the zeroth law of thermodynamics) that the more information, the better for the doctor, and the *ideal* consultation would involve the
patient telling all to the doctor, within the time available. Patient background is important, but this implicit assumption is intimidating to patients.
Would I be more comfortable with this if the assumption is clearer? Scarcely.
I recognise the importance of contextual history, of snippets of background that confirms a diagnosis or identifies a genetic predisposition to
some disease (yes, genetics the tool of choie of our era). But I maintain that the expectation (by the doctor), that the patient should share
everything, is flawed. The patient has the right to withold information, as the patient has the liberty to accept or reject forms of treatment. And
the pedantry of bedside manner should recognise this.
As patients have a right to autonomy, they should have the right to refuse (or withold) information they are not comfortable with sharing with
their doctor, particularly if such action could put the doctor in a position whereby he is obliged to conduct a breach of confidentiality. An
individual who admits to homicidal thoughts and pre-meditated murder will be turned in by his doctor; a paedophile may be requested by his GP
to see another doctor in the future, for fear that the former may harass the GP's other clients.
(I draw a distant (and possibly irrelevant) parallel to the US army's "don't ask, don't tell" policy with regards to sexual orientation amongst its
recruits. Okay, so that wasn't so relevant after all)
As a medical student, I struggle to cope with the paradigm of a profession which holds more respect, more influence, more responsibility, more
expectations, than I had expected. That we would enter this profession providing maximal care, support and dignity to every patient is
impropable, but it is something to aspire towards.
(Actually, I also maintain all medical students should undergo coursework in medical humanities- people are not just flesh and bone- as well as
training in counselling. )
-- andrew --
Post ID: 76861365
Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Did my first paid student service today- wonder if i could negotiate with victoria to count it towards my actual student service again =p (Student service is an obligation in most colleges/or hostels as gabriel understands. It's a mandatory contribution to the college community- and comes in the form of kitchen work, serving in the dining hall, office work- and that's in the order of desirability, starting with the least desirable. It's a great time to interact with other pple, and i never see it as a chore- there's a gotong-royong spirit or atmosphere about doing everything which is sooo warm and fuzzy)
And not only was it my first paid, it was my first time serving in the hall! (First time Not scrubbing stainless steel in the kitchen- allegedly the worst student service job of all)
And not only was it my first paid, it was my first time serving in the hall! (First time Not scrubbing stainless steel in the kitchen- allegedly the worst student service job of all)
http://ocsc.ormond.unimelb.edu.au/ss/ss.php3
And landmark: Jiaming and albert and chenyi have visited my blog! (darn, they didn't leave comments) And they found it highly amusing!!
Post ID: 76840088
This freaked me out QUITE A LOT earlier this evening (internet connection was down!!):
Unimelb network outage - Information Technology
Posted by Iain McLaren on Wednesday May 22 2002 @ 08:50PM EST
The Ormond link to the internet has gone down due to a problem at Melbourne University. This is the second time that this has happened today. As soon as the connection at Melbourne Uni is reestablished, access to the internet should become available again.
Apologies for the inconvenience.
--
Iain McLaren writes on Wednesday May 22 2002 @ 10:48PM EST: [ reply | parent ]
Unimelb has fixed things at their end. Please email help@ormond.unimelb.edu.au if you are still
experiencing problems.
Post ID: 76839138
Tuesday, May 21, 2002
Sunday, May 19, 2002
Been thinking about two things the whole week: ralph's condition and college choir. And ranting about both.
~
I hate how everyone has to be shallow And deep- about anything and everything. And my life is mine- think very carefully before you tell me how to run it.
~
Why doesn't anyone pick up the phone when i call?? (*cries eyes out*)
~
I can't stand people who misquote "Mark 8:36- What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? ". I have issues with people who use the Holy Book out of context and for their own purposes.
~
Message today at the 7pm service was about conflict and conflict resolution as detailed in Matthew 18:15 to 19. And i have a grudge to resolve with the music co-ordinator in SJSM in singapore- one that is giving me issues with serving in music ministry here. I just don't want to be hurt again and treated as if i didn't matter- oh wait, the latter was with the whole thing in general. One realizes that i wasn't perceived much as a member when the pastor calls all those going to study in in australia by name and conveniently leaves me out.
~
I'd just Languish if i was confined to the ormond chapel service. Or any other service run along those lines. It's just... as my confirmation classes teacher Pierre leong (there i remembered his name!) said- in his opinion the only legitimate reason for leaving a church was if one didn't think one was learning from the teachings. Yes, i'm not happy with the teachings there. And i'm not comfortable with the way the service is structured.
~
If i ever get in the college choir my sundays will be hectic as anything... rushing to a church service outside ormond, grabbing a bite from brunch, and choir prac starting at 3. Noo way will the chapel be my primary church.
~
And what abt swanston st? I like it a lot. A lot. But to be involved in church, to be in circumstances where i'm not looking for the odd melb-uni-OCFer or so to say hi to .. c.f. sjsm.
~
And all this conflicts with the reason my parents gave for leaving chapel of the holy spirit- that of power play and people they had conflicts with.
~
I'm very grateful for the affirmations of all of u around me .... including abt my chances for the choir, and li ming's mentioning of a non-cell grp ocf-er who noticed me.
~
(goes back to cry into his pillow)
Post ID: 76722051
My brother in law and sister, after having seen Star Wars II on the opening day at 12:30am in the morning, and where everyone clapped when the movie started and when Yoda appeared, no handphones rang and some girl came dressed as Padme (with white skin tight jumpsuit), went to see it a second time and brought me.
Luckily, this time the crowd was 'normal'! Yeh. None of the crazy fans who will queue for weeks for tickets or who make fan films. And I bet none of them have watched any of the films more than 10 times, unlike this boy who proudly told Alec Guiness that he'd watched the original 100 times and was promptly scolded.
Assorted scribblings:
- Why is everyone the apprentice of everyone else?
- The Maori couldn't suppress hid down under accent. Pity. Lucky all his progeny were not trained to speak like him.
- It's very obvious who Sidious is. When I first saw his hologram in Episode I, I knew straightaway.
- The level of technology went down in the 20 or so years between Episodes I and II and IV-VI. The stormtroopers lost their nice gunships and AT-AT transports. Of course, this has nothing to do with the 20 or so years that passed in real life between the making of these 2 trilogies.
- I hope Jar Jar dies a horrible death in Episode 3
- How come there are so few Jedi? And then they all got killed. How sad.
- Making C3PO Anakin's creation was not a good idea. Breaks the continuity, as neither show any signs of recognition in the 2nd trilogy
- What did they have Kenny Baker around for? Isn't R2D2 now fully non-human? Unless he makes the electronic noises himself
- If the Jedi let the Sith creep up on them like that, they deserved to have been exterminated!
- Political correctness is so evident. The new (Elected - bah) Queen of Naboo is Indian. Jango's a New Zealander. And some people have the cheek to complain about racism! But then they're species-ist. Aliens are all humanoid except for one guy with no legs but a snake's tail instead. Better than Babylon 5.
Why is Star Wars so popular? Even Not So Screwed Up Girl, who professes to hate it - "i think star wars is the most overrated, tacky bundle of scifi movies to spawn a following. i find the effects distasteful, the plots cheesey and characters ridiculous.", says she will watch it if she has the time.
My brother-in-law kept calling me his Padawan during lunch, so I poked him in the tummy. At other times, he's been scratching me on the nape of my neck like I'm some cat. The next time, if he treats me like a cat, I'll treat him like I was a cat (ignoring him, scratching him and hissing at him)!
I saw Dr Pepper in Liberty Plaza Singapore. And Dr Diet Pepper too. Ugh. And Diet Mug Root Beer! Wonder how the last tastes.
Luckily, this time the crowd was 'normal'! Yeh. None of the crazy fans who will queue for weeks for tickets or who make fan films. And I bet none of them have watched any of the films more than 10 times, unlike this boy who proudly told Alec Guiness that he'd watched the original 100 times and was promptly scolded.
Assorted scribblings:
- Why is everyone the apprentice of everyone else?
- The Maori couldn't suppress hid down under accent. Pity. Lucky all his progeny were not trained to speak like him.
- It's very obvious who Sidious is. When I first saw his hologram in Episode I, I knew straightaway.
- The level of technology went down in the 20 or so years between Episodes I and II and IV-VI. The stormtroopers lost their nice gunships and AT-AT transports. Of course, this has nothing to do with the 20 or so years that passed in real life between the making of these 2 trilogies.
- I hope Jar Jar dies a horrible death in Episode 3
- How come there are so few Jedi? And then they all got killed. How sad.
- Making C3PO Anakin's creation was not a good idea. Breaks the continuity, as neither show any signs of recognition in the 2nd trilogy
- What did they have Kenny Baker around for? Isn't R2D2 now fully non-human? Unless he makes the electronic noises himself
- If the Jedi let the Sith creep up on them like that, they deserved to have been exterminated!
- Political correctness is so evident. The new (Elected - bah) Queen of Naboo is Indian. Jango's a New Zealander. And some people have the cheek to complain about racism! But then they're species-ist. Aliens are all humanoid except for one guy with no legs but a snake's tail instead. Better than Babylon 5.
Why is Star Wars so popular? Even Not So Screwed Up Girl, who professes to hate it - "i think star wars is the most overrated, tacky bundle of scifi movies to spawn a following. i find the effects distasteful, the plots cheesey and characters ridiculous.", says she will watch it if she has the time.
My brother-in-law kept calling me his Padawan during lunch, so I poked him in the tummy. At other times, he's been scratching me on the nape of my neck like I'm some cat. The next time, if he treats me like a cat, I'll treat him like I was a cat (ignoring him, scratching him and hissing at him)!
I saw Dr Pepper in Liberty Plaza Singapore. And Dr Diet Pepper too. Ugh. And Diet Mug Root Beer! Wonder how the last tastes.
Post ID: 76718260
Bookout post:
Restored Post
This past week passed very fast, perhaps because it was very slack except for some unnameble activity. Which some guy, a lucky disruptee, elsewhere has seen fit to write about, so I'll just link you there :)
During our Patient Assessment Model (PAM) test, people were very bored, so they started catching insects and other lifeforms in a ziploc bag. I saw a giant centipede, a worm and a giant spiders in the bag the first time. A while later, the spider was out of the bag and lying on a stone platform, unable to move. Apparently it'd been stung by the centipede and was paralysed. Later, the giant centipede was given company by a lizard, more spiders and smaller centipedes.
The people I was sitting with, however, chose to spend out time less destructively. We discussed cartoons, of the 80s especially (ahh, the joy of nostalgia). And for some reason Power Rangers came into the picture, and some of them liked Kimberly, my nickname-sake.
We had a big spring cleaning, which we should have done when we first moved in. The amount of dust we cleaned out was unbelievable. During the activity, I very cleverly smashed my handphone screen by holding the phone in the same hand as a brush and whacking the brush on the floor to get rid of the dust. Increasing my level of euphoria, my father sent it in for servicing already and I can't find my guarantee card, so I'll probably have to fork out $150 for the repair. Oh well, at least my slave pittance increases by at least $110 from July 1st.
In response to Folie's appeals for material to pin on the noticeboard, somebody brought a 2002 Pullout Calender from an asian edition of Penthouse magazine (with no nudity though). Attempts to cover the word "Penthouse" with liberal application of a black marker proved futile, however, and even if anything else had been put up on the board - it lies bare to this day, Saturday May 18th 2002, I'm not sure if the calender would have gone up.
Sargunan blasted Indian music through some speakers and within minutes, 2-3 Indians had come down from the upper floors and were grooving along.
We're supposed to do pullups before lunch and dinner, but for 3 weeks, we hadn't done any. Until Saturday lunch, when my pathetic attempts were as futile as ever.
Zhang's wife gave birth on sunday night/monday morning and the SAF gave him 3 days paternity leave, usable within 8 weeks. I suggested taking 1 of them on stretcher carrying day and one on river crossing day :)
Willie is the darling of the Bruneian girls so we all make fun of him :) He also brought in a Gameboy Colour which he plays at night. Actually I've also seen a Gameboy Advance, but I'm not sure whose it is.
People seem to have a FHM library - the American edition, the Malaysia edition (which I'm told sucks and is uninteresting) and back issues of the Singapore edition. Competition to loan from this library is intense.
A kitten got run down by some guy. As I was marching, I saw it on the road - the eyeballs were bulging out, the skin at the back was split and the internal organs were visible. And there was meat on the road. Ugh. The mother was mewing loudly for a few days after that. So much for cats being smart.
5 people ordered supper from Daniel Ng who was coming back from Attn C. His bag was full, so he carried the booty in his hands, and was promptly caught. All of them signed extra duties. Oh well.
Someone brought a CD in and it's been playing all week. I've tentatively called it "The most irritating dance music of all time". Ahhhh!
During our field camp we won't need to wear camo, it's 4 days and 3 nights but effectively ~72 hours as we arrive in the afternoon and depart in the afternoon, it's held on flat land and best of all we will get portable toilets (those plastic structures you see at outdoor functions)!.
Our company quartermaster is only PES B! And he sometimes puts a funky hairband in his hair. Oh, and he's Tony Tan's son. Or at least he said that he was. Whether he was joking or was trying to trick gullible looking me is the question.
For a change, during Tuesday's night off, I went to eat dinner with Steven and Daniel, at Pastamania at Scotts. It's very good for the price!
Joshua was reading FHM and he happened to mention that the girl there was the Yellow Ranger (and commented that she was hot). Looking at the article, who did I see but Cerina Vincent, whom you can see on Power Rangers Lost Galaxy on weekends on Channel i at 6:30, playing an buxom native of Mirinoi. Ooo, from Power Rangers to FHM :)
We were discussing our camp and apparently it was a World War II hospital, as can be told from the architecture. For one, the plumbing was apparently obsolete by 1975.
Apparently SAF canteens are supposed to serve health food. What a joke, look at ours! The noodles ooze oil as you pick them from the plate.
I realise that I've been free of the flu for quite a while! I think I've finally shaken off the Tekong Flu virus - and it *is* a virus, because SMM is a hell of a lot dirtier and older than Tekong. Either that or it's a curse placed by the malay villagers who used to live there.
The cookhouse food may suck but one thing they're reasonably competent in making is omelettes. Yum. Also, we had a superb nightsnack on monday night - puff pastry filled with red bean paste. However, the fish is apparently so bad that even the cats will not deign to touch it. Newest euphemism - "Mutton Bombay". Not as bad as "Chicken Kleo", served during Joshua's TSS time though :) Someone said that SISPEC has the best food in the SAF because the people there train hard. Which explains why our food is so sucky :)
Someone played "My Heart Will Go On" over the speakers and everyone started singing along. It was so bad, I took the earplugs from my webbing and wrapped a towel around my head.
While I was sleeping, some bloody bastard hanged my polar bear from a hanger with transpore tape. The result being that when I removed the tape, however carefully, some of the fur from around the neck came out. I don't mind if they "play" with me, but only scum bully soft toys! When the previously mentioned "garang" sergeant found out (he happened to ask after the polar bear), he knocked everyone down and said he didn't want this sort of thing happening in his platoon so I think we're not going to sabotage each other anymore. Much.
The Medical Officer Conversion Course (MOCC) trainees have an interesting way of singing their marching songs - not very loud, but clipped and precisely.
Looking through my sms inbox, I found that 2 of them have been there rather long. One dates from 26/3 and contains advice on downgrading from Filbie :) The other was from Andrew, sent before he left (16/2), an extract from Psalms 27:
"The Lord is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid?"
Actually I prefer Psalm 23.
One of the malays in my bunk came up to me and said that he felt that calling "Canadian 2 for 1 Pizza" "Malay 2 for 1 Pizza" was rather racist. I don't actually see why - 90% of the people who work there are Malay, so what's wrong with an affectionate name (even if they do burn their pizzas)? If I called it "Long Haired Blondes' Pizza", no one'd be offended.
Latest people to pop up in SMM: Matthew Seah, who's recovering from some ligament op (ouch! My condolences!) and is due to be a service medic (lucky guy!) and Mr Kamal, my history teacher for the latter half of J2, who'd returned for reservist!
Mr Kamal: "Your website still running, with all your teachers' slipups?"
Me: "... All my sergeants' slipups"
Some woman from NUH came down to talk to us to urge us to donate blood so they could extract platelets to save the life of this 22 year old Chinese girl. This is all well and good, but what I don't understand is why they came down specially just to save 1 person - shouldn't this come under a more general blood donation drive which would save more than 1 person?
The new camp will have 8 trainees to each bunk. That's 1/4 the load of my bunk now! Oh well, they've an SOC ground nearby.
Apparently now some A level people also go to the pest buster vocation ("Public Health Assistant"), which entails undergoing a 5 week course, and where the instructors are Lance Corporals. I want also!
Everytime my platoon mates talk about female instructors or, hell, any female, the first thing they will mention or discuss is whether she looks good, whether she "can make it". This is very sad, and it just shows how screwed up the male gender is. I only hope that it's because slavery exacerbates their primal instincts, and normally they won't behave that way.
Our IV this week was interrupted by something unusual - there was a snake in the training shed, coiled around the roofbeams. It was green and rather long and had black rings along its length. The last I saw before going down to the mess tentage, the sergeants were posturing with a stick. I don't think they're actually trained in snake catching :) After that little scare, we had to resume practice (unfortunately). This week the Yakult Straw (1.77mm thick if I remember right) was inserted into me by my buddy. And he's really good, as in other aspects of the medic vocation. I didn't even *cry* this time. Of course, not being poked at the wrist did help :) As did the support from friends around and my mumbling and singing. I must learn more songs suitable to be sung acapella by only 1 part, and memorise longer tracts. I'm blessed :)
Next week is going to be very tiring. Monday - transportation of casualties with and without stretchers. Wednesday - loading onto vehicles and helicopters. Friday - crossing of water obstacles. Ugh! No wonder our book in timing's 9:30pm.
Some of my platoon mates thought I looked like a golfer. Wth.
Every saturday morning we fall in to go for breakfast, and every saturday morning, without fail, the sergeants will not be around because they are all sleeping! Grr. Anyhow we took advantage of their absence and half of us (including me) ran back to our bunk to sleep (advisable especially considering the length of the queue).
Zhang brought in food for us to thank us for being so supportive of him during the time of his baby's birth - Old Chang Kee Curry Puffs and Polar Egg Tarts. Interestingly, there were "Nutrition Facts" on the side of the Curry Puff boxes, which rather amused me.
Heard: One guy who's now in Gryphon was raped by another recruit. The rapist went to jail. Also heard: "apparently DB is quite nice now. relatively. they don't carry sandbags anymore. its more like jail with PT every few days. eat sleep. fun."
Seeing my scribblings, someone said my writing was messy and I could become a doctor. Gah.
Quotes:
"[Muslim on the tudung issue] Next time I start my own religion. Go to school wear underwear. (I'll, They'll go, wearing)"
"[On the 4th Batman movie] The latest one was Batman and Friends right."
"I think normal guys' hands are not big enough for her top... [Someone else: She's an E, she's an E. She's 32E]... It's natural... [SOmeone else: This is called saggy breasts] (???)"
"[Greeting a Second Sergeant] Good evening Sir... Good evening Staff... Good evening Sergeant. [Sergeant: Call me Mister. Good morning mister.] Good evening Mister. [Sergeant: Good evening, carry on.] [Other sergeant: ORD personnel]"
"Your earlobes. I love your earlobes, Gabriel."
"[On sports medicine and the Bruneians] You see, now they are starting to catch mosquito, very boring. (mosquitoes, the lesson's)"
"Like acupuncture, you use the needle to poke the nerves (pressure points)"
"[On playing with a lighter] Roy, what are you doing? Before we move, [you] try to burn the camp down."
"It's better to have a rifle than not to have a rifle. Otherwise you look so cock standing by the side of the road doing this. [Mimes pointing rifle]"
"Combat rations is nice to eat one. I like to eat combat rations... [But the] Course Commander force me to eat fresh rations. (are, eat, will force)"
"[On bra pulling] The girls in my secondary school used to do that to each other. [Mimes pulling someone's shirt and letting go] After PE lesson they'll come back and do that, in front of the guys."
"What is the first [method of disease] prevention?... Wear clean clothes everyday. How many days you wear your uniform already?... Just now in the company audit I almost fainted. I don't know how the 2 ladies can stand it. (have you worn)"
"Other than certain people, I'm sure our Bruneian friends bathed before the lecture. [Trainee: Standing order{s say we cannot bathe during office hours}]... When I was a trainee you know how many times a day I bathe?"
"The medic is always very well liked, because if he earns the trust of the PC, if he earns the trust of the sect com, then he has the authority to say, this soldier is not feeling well [and should not train]"
"[On behaviour modification] It's up to you to encourage them not to smoke. And not to get non-smokers to smoke."
"[On our reluctance to hang clothes on the lines] Monkey will not steal your clothes lah (The monkey)"
"[On unhygienic food] You want to get MC, go and take canteen food"
"[On fake sore eyes, pretended conjunctivitis, faked by rubbing soapy water into the eys] Some cases, they will isolate you in the sick bay, until you recover, then they send you back. These are for the cases like fake sore eyes. They go and IV you, let the medic practice his IV. IV won't kill you one, just don't flush."
"[On me] Not to say you, but you don't have the attitude to keng one"
Restored Post
This past week passed very fast, perhaps because it was very slack except for some unnameble activity. Which some guy, a lucky disruptee, elsewhere has seen fit to write about, so I'll just link you there :)
During our Patient Assessment Model (PAM) test, people were very bored, so they started catching insects and other lifeforms in a ziploc bag. I saw a giant centipede, a worm and a giant spiders in the bag the first time. A while later, the spider was out of the bag and lying on a stone platform, unable to move. Apparently it'd been stung by the centipede and was paralysed. Later, the giant centipede was given company by a lizard, more spiders and smaller centipedes.
The people I was sitting with, however, chose to spend out time less destructively. We discussed cartoons, of the 80s especially (ahh, the joy of nostalgia). And for some reason Power Rangers came into the picture, and some of them liked Kimberly, my nickname-sake.
We had a big spring cleaning, which we should have done when we first moved in. The amount of dust we cleaned out was unbelievable. During the activity, I very cleverly smashed my handphone screen by holding the phone in the same hand as a brush and whacking the brush on the floor to get rid of the dust. Increasing my level of euphoria, my father sent it in for servicing already and I can't find my guarantee card, so I'll probably have to fork out $150 for the repair. Oh well, at least my slave pittance increases by at least $110 from July 1st.
In response to Folie's appeals for material to pin on the noticeboard, somebody brought a 2002 Pullout Calender from an asian edition of Penthouse magazine (with no nudity though). Attempts to cover the word "Penthouse" with liberal application of a black marker proved futile, however, and even if anything else had been put up on the board - it lies bare to this day, Saturday May 18th 2002, I'm not sure if the calender would have gone up.
Sargunan blasted Indian music through some speakers and within minutes, 2-3 Indians had come down from the upper floors and were grooving along.
We're supposed to do pullups before lunch and dinner, but for 3 weeks, we hadn't done any. Until Saturday lunch, when my pathetic attempts were as futile as ever.
Zhang's wife gave birth on sunday night/monday morning and the SAF gave him 3 days paternity leave, usable within 8 weeks. I suggested taking 1 of them on stretcher carrying day and one on river crossing day :)
Willie is the darling of the Bruneian girls so we all make fun of him :) He also brought in a Gameboy Colour which he plays at night. Actually I've also seen a Gameboy Advance, but I'm not sure whose it is.
People seem to have a FHM library - the American edition, the Malaysia edition (which I'm told sucks and is uninteresting) and back issues of the Singapore edition. Competition to loan from this library is intense.
A kitten got run down by some guy. As I was marching, I saw it on the road - the eyeballs were bulging out, the skin at the back was split and the internal organs were visible. And there was meat on the road. Ugh. The mother was mewing loudly for a few days after that. So much for cats being smart.
5 people ordered supper from Daniel Ng who was coming back from Attn C. His bag was full, so he carried the booty in his hands, and was promptly caught. All of them signed extra duties. Oh well.
Someone brought a CD in and it's been playing all week. I've tentatively called it "The most irritating dance music of all time". Ahhhh!
During our field camp we won't need to wear camo, it's 4 days and 3 nights but effectively ~72 hours as we arrive in the afternoon and depart in the afternoon, it's held on flat land and best of all we will get portable toilets (those plastic structures you see at outdoor functions)!.
Our company quartermaster is only PES B! And he sometimes puts a funky hairband in his hair. Oh, and he's Tony Tan's son. Or at least he said that he was. Whether he was joking or was trying to trick gullible looking me is the question.
For a change, during Tuesday's night off, I went to eat dinner with Steven and Daniel, at Pastamania at Scotts. It's very good for the price!
Joshua was reading FHM and he happened to mention that the girl there was the Yellow Ranger (and commented that she was hot). Looking at the article, who did I see but Cerina Vincent, whom you can see on Power Rangers Lost Galaxy on weekends on Channel i at 6:30, playing an buxom native of Mirinoi. Ooo, from Power Rangers to FHM :)
We were discussing our camp and apparently it was a World War II hospital, as can be told from the architecture. For one, the plumbing was apparently obsolete by 1975.
Apparently SAF canteens are supposed to serve health food. What a joke, look at ours! The noodles ooze oil as you pick them from the plate.
I realise that I've been free of the flu for quite a while! I think I've finally shaken off the Tekong Flu virus - and it *is* a virus, because SMM is a hell of a lot dirtier and older than Tekong. Either that or it's a curse placed by the malay villagers who used to live there.
The cookhouse food may suck but one thing they're reasonably competent in making is omelettes. Yum. Also, we had a superb nightsnack on monday night - puff pastry filled with red bean paste. However, the fish is apparently so bad that even the cats will not deign to touch it. Newest euphemism - "Mutton Bombay". Not as bad as "Chicken Kleo", served during Joshua's TSS time though :) Someone said that SISPEC has the best food in the SAF because the people there train hard. Which explains why our food is so sucky :)
Someone played "My Heart Will Go On" over the speakers and everyone started singing along. It was so bad, I took the earplugs from my webbing and wrapped a towel around my head.
While I was sleeping, some bloody bastard hanged my polar bear from a hanger with transpore tape. The result being that when I removed the tape, however carefully, some of the fur from around the neck came out. I don't mind if they "play" with me, but only scum bully soft toys! When the previously mentioned "garang" sergeant found out (he happened to ask after the polar bear), he knocked everyone down and said he didn't want this sort of thing happening in his platoon so I think we're not going to sabotage each other anymore. Much.
The Medical Officer Conversion Course (MOCC) trainees have an interesting way of singing their marching songs - not very loud, but clipped and precisely.
Looking through my sms inbox, I found that 2 of them have been there rather long. One dates from 26/3 and contains advice on downgrading from Filbie :) The other was from Andrew, sent before he left (16/2), an extract from Psalms 27:
"The Lord is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid?"
Actually I prefer Psalm 23.
One of the malays in my bunk came up to me and said that he felt that calling "Canadian 2 for 1 Pizza" "Malay 2 for 1 Pizza" was rather racist. I don't actually see why - 90% of the people who work there are Malay, so what's wrong with an affectionate name (even if they do burn their pizzas)? If I called it "Long Haired Blondes' Pizza", no one'd be offended.
Latest people to pop up in SMM: Matthew Seah, who's recovering from some ligament op (ouch! My condolences!) and is due to be a service medic (lucky guy!) and Mr Kamal, my history teacher for the latter half of J2, who'd returned for reservist!
Mr Kamal: "Your website still running, with all your teachers' slipups?"
Me: "... All my sergeants' slipups"
Some woman from NUH came down to talk to us to urge us to donate blood so they could extract platelets to save the life of this 22 year old Chinese girl. This is all well and good, but what I don't understand is why they came down specially just to save 1 person - shouldn't this come under a more general blood donation drive which would save more than 1 person?
The new camp will have 8 trainees to each bunk. That's 1/4 the load of my bunk now! Oh well, they've an SOC ground nearby.
Apparently now some A level people also go to the pest buster vocation ("Public Health Assistant"), which entails undergoing a 5 week course, and where the instructors are Lance Corporals. I want also!
Everytime my platoon mates talk about female instructors or, hell, any female, the first thing they will mention or discuss is whether she looks good, whether she "can make it". This is very sad, and it just shows how screwed up the male gender is. I only hope that it's because slavery exacerbates their primal instincts, and normally they won't behave that way.
Our IV this week was interrupted by something unusual - there was a snake in the training shed, coiled around the roofbeams. It was green and rather long and had black rings along its length. The last I saw before going down to the mess tentage, the sergeants were posturing with a stick. I don't think they're actually trained in snake catching :) After that little scare, we had to resume practice (unfortunately). This week the Yakult Straw (1.77mm thick if I remember right) was inserted into me by my buddy. And he's really good, as in other aspects of the medic vocation. I didn't even *cry* this time. Of course, not being poked at the wrist did help :) As did the support from friends around and my mumbling and singing. I must learn more songs suitable to be sung acapella by only 1 part, and memorise longer tracts. I'm blessed :)
Next week is going to be very tiring. Monday - transportation of casualties with and without stretchers. Wednesday - loading onto vehicles and helicopters. Friday - crossing of water obstacles. Ugh! No wonder our book in timing's 9:30pm.
Some of my platoon mates thought I looked like a golfer. Wth.
Every saturday morning we fall in to go for breakfast, and every saturday morning, without fail, the sergeants will not be around because they are all sleeping! Grr. Anyhow we took advantage of their absence and half of us (including me) ran back to our bunk to sleep (advisable especially considering the length of the queue).
Zhang brought in food for us to thank us for being so supportive of him during the time of his baby's birth - Old Chang Kee Curry Puffs and Polar Egg Tarts. Interestingly, there were "Nutrition Facts" on the side of the Curry Puff boxes, which rather amused me.
Heard: One guy who's now in Gryphon was raped by another recruit. The rapist went to jail. Also heard: "apparently DB is quite nice now. relatively. they don't carry sandbags anymore. its more like jail with PT every few days. eat sleep. fun."
Seeing my scribblings, someone said my writing was messy and I could become a doctor. Gah.
Quotes:
"[Muslim on the tudung issue] Next time I start my own religion. Go to school wear underwear. (I'll, They'll go, wearing)"
"[On the 4th Batman movie] The latest one was Batman and Friends right."
"I think normal guys' hands are not big enough for her top... [Someone else: She's an E, she's an E. She's 32E]... It's natural... [SOmeone else: This is called saggy breasts] (???)"
"[Greeting a Second Sergeant] Good evening Sir... Good evening Staff... Good evening Sergeant. [Sergeant: Call me Mister. Good morning mister.] Good evening Mister. [Sergeant: Good evening, carry on.] [Other sergeant: ORD personnel]"
"Your earlobes. I love your earlobes, Gabriel."
"[On sports medicine and the Bruneians] You see, now they are starting to catch mosquito, very boring. (mosquitoes, the lesson's)"
"Like acupuncture, you use the needle to poke the nerves (pressure points)"
"[On playing with a lighter] Roy, what are you doing? Before we move, [you] try to burn the camp down."
"It's better to have a rifle than not to have a rifle. Otherwise you look so cock standing by the side of the road doing this. [Mimes pointing rifle]"
"Combat rations is nice to eat one. I like to eat combat rations... [But the] Course Commander force me to eat fresh rations. (are, eat, will force)"
"[On bra pulling] The girls in my secondary school used to do that to each other. [Mimes pulling someone's shirt and letting go] After PE lesson they'll come back and do that, in front of the guys."
"What is the first [method of disease] prevention?... Wear clean clothes everyday. How many days you wear your uniform already?... Just now in the company audit I almost fainted. I don't know how the 2 ladies can stand it. (have you worn)"
"Other than certain people, I'm sure our Bruneian friends bathed before the lecture. [Trainee: Standing order{s say we cannot bathe during office hours}]... When I was a trainee you know how many times a day I bathe?"
"The medic is always very well liked, because if he earns the trust of the PC, if he earns the trust of the sect com, then he has the authority to say, this soldier is not feeling well [and should not train]"
"[On behaviour modification] It's up to you to encourage them not to smoke. And not to get non-smokers to smoke."
"[On our reluctance to hang clothes on the lines] Monkey will not steal your clothes lah (The monkey)"
"[On unhygienic food] You want to get MC, go and take canteen food"
"[On fake sore eyes, pretended conjunctivitis, faked by rubbing soapy water into the eys] Some cases, they will isolate you in the sick bay, until you recover, then they send you back. These are for the cases like fake sore eyes. They go and IV you, let the medic practice his IV. IV won't kill you one, just don't flush."
"[On me] Not to say you, but you don't have the attitude to keng one"
Post ID: 76699281
Saturday, May 18, 2002
The Legend of Agagooga / On Blogging, and Slavery / Family Life / How not to set people off
Crys asked me what "Agagooga" was, and since I took the trouble to type it out, I present her for the first time, The Legend of Agagooga!
"Agagooga is a name I came up with for Mrs Lim Yau. She's the wife of Mr Lim Yau, an orchestra conductor, who's quite famous and has funny hair. Well, no one knows her real name. They only know her as Mrs Lim Yau.
If you probe a bit you'll find out she's Mrs Lim Soo Hiang. Removing even more of the mist, the name 'Quek Soo Hiang' appears.
However, this is but a facade! beneath this normal sounding name is one so hideous and horrible that the mere uttering of it will cause the seas to boil! The discoverer will be blasted with the power of the seals (Sub-saharan African in nature, from her homeland) that lock that name in its hiding place, never to be found, which is why I've never found out the rest of the name.
Agagooga is a code name for that, and part of that hideous name is indeed Agagooga. I fear to find out more.
RJ found out about this terrible secret in 1998, so it fired her as their choir conductor. HCJC found out in 2000 and she was booted out too. Li Hua Secondary School (He2 Gu3 Zhong1 Xue2) found out sometime and got rid of her too.
Ahh, woe is her.
Over time I grew fond of the name and adopted it for myself :)"
Updated YACCS commenting.
When people post to weblogs, it tends to be when they're feeling depressed. Consequently, reading the weblog tends to give the impression that the writer is terminally depressed and sits around all day dressed in murky colours sighing, reflecting and pontificating about the un-finer things in life and going to slash his or her wrists (or whatever exotic ways of suicide you can think of) anytime soon.
The bulk of my posts tend to be my bookout posts, which are not a good measure of my angst-quotient due to their covering of a week. They are ultra-long, which does deter people reading them, but, well, I've a lot to say. So my essays will continue. But if it says something about my mental state, people in camp ask me why I like to smile and laugh silently a lot, apparently at nothing.
Guan Hong today (Saturday): Why are you so quiet?
Me: Mood swings
Guan Hong: ... Your period.
Well, I think I'm getting more angsty nowadays. My sister always makes me and my brother in law do her dirty work and run errands for her, for example, dropping and picking up stuff and picking her up. My brother in law acquiesces because she cooks for him (the way to a man's heart is through his stomach!), and he lets her dominate him with her domineering personality (okay, so that's not the best of phrasing) as his submissive tendencies kick in. However, I'm not so readily made use of.
Today, after lunch, they woke me from my slumber (or half-slumber, as the case may be) in the back seat of the car to drop and pick up books from the Central Lending Library. My sister refused to get down, and tried to bribe me with a bubble tea. When that didn't work, she cited her knee pain (so you can walk all the way down to S-11 from the porch of the library, but you can't go up the significantly shorter distance to the library to drop and pick up books) because she was just too lazy to do it herself. My brother in law was driving, so he couldn't go and do it himself, so after repeated platitudes, he finally burst with a "You want me to hit you?" whereupon I exited the car with my bag (I came straight from camp) and took the 85 home. Well, as with last week, when I waited 1 1/2 hrs for her at her dinner party and took the taxi back myself, when we were home it was as if nothing had happened.
This is why my mother says: "Never ever get a woman like your sister." Not that one would ever want me, I'm very disobedient :) Hell, I defy even conventional norms like holding girls' bags.
I've finally told Screwed Up Girl to stop complaining to me about not having a boyfriend (being attached is neither a necessary nor sufficient precondition to lead a meaningful life) because it was starting to affect me and screw me up to. Yeh.
In other news, I committed a horrifying embarrassing faux pas earlier this week. Ugh. It's almost laughable in its idiocy and no, don't bother asking. I trust that the one who knows about it will keep mum *sheepish smile* Irritating people for fun and profit is never a waste of time!
GAH I was so distracted typing this entry that I forgot to watch Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. Lucky my brother in law reminded me 7 minutes into the show.
"Agagooga is a name I came up with for Mrs Lim Yau. She's the wife of Mr Lim Yau, an orchestra conductor, who's quite famous and has funny hair. Well, no one knows her real name. They only know her as Mrs Lim Yau.
If you probe a bit you'll find out she's Mrs Lim Soo Hiang. Removing even more of the mist, the name 'Quek Soo Hiang' appears.
However, this is but a facade! beneath this normal sounding name is one so hideous and horrible that the mere uttering of it will cause the seas to boil! The discoverer will be blasted with the power of the seals (Sub-saharan African in nature, from her homeland) that lock that name in its hiding place, never to be found, which is why I've never found out the rest of the name.
Agagooga is a code name for that, and part of that hideous name is indeed Agagooga. I fear to find out more.
RJ found out about this terrible secret in 1998, so it fired her as their choir conductor. HCJC found out in 2000 and she was booted out too. Li Hua Secondary School (He2 Gu3 Zhong1 Xue2) found out sometime and got rid of her too.
Ahh, woe is her.
Over time I grew fond of the name and adopted it for myself :)"
Updated YACCS commenting.
When people post to weblogs, it tends to be when they're feeling depressed. Consequently, reading the weblog tends to give the impression that the writer is terminally depressed and sits around all day dressed in murky colours sighing, reflecting and pontificating about the un-finer things in life and going to slash his or her wrists (or whatever exotic ways of suicide you can think of) anytime soon.
The bulk of my posts tend to be my bookout posts, which are not a good measure of my angst-quotient due to their covering of a week. They are ultra-long, which does deter people reading them, but, well, I've a lot to say. So my essays will continue. But if it says something about my mental state, people in camp ask me why I like to smile and laugh silently a lot, apparently at nothing.
Guan Hong today (Saturday): Why are you so quiet?
Me: Mood swings
Guan Hong: ... Your period.
Well, I think I'm getting more angsty nowadays. My sister always makes me and my brother in law do her dirty work and run errands for her, for example, dropping and picking up stuff and picking her up. My brother in law acquiesces because she cooks for him (the way to a man's heart is through his stomach!), and he lets her dominate him with her domineering personality (okay, so that's not the best of phrasing) as his submissive tendencies kick in. However, I'm not so readily made use of.
Today, after lunch, they woke me from my slumber (or half-slumber, as the case may be) in the back seat of the car to drop and pick up books from the Central Lending Library. My sister refused to get down, and tried to bribe me with a bubble tea. When that didn't work, she cited her knee pain (so you can walk all the way down to S-11 from the porch of the library, but you can't go up the significantly shorter distance to the library to drop and pick up books) because she was just too lazy to do it herself. My brother in law was driving, so he couldn't go and do it himself, so after repeated platitudes, he finally burst with a "You want me to hit you?" whereupon I exited the car with my bag (I came straight from camp) and took the 85 home. Well, as with last week, when I waited 1 1/2 hrs for her at her dinner party and took the taxi back myself, when we were home it was as if nothing had happened.
This is why my mother says: "Never ever get a woman like your sister." Not that one would ever want me, I'm very disobedient :) Hell, I defy even conventional norms like holding girls' bags.
I've finally told Screwed Up Girl to stop complaining to me about not having a boyfriend (being attached is neither a necessary nor sufficient precondition to lead a meaningful life) because it was starting to affect me and screw me up to. Yeh.
In other news, I committed a horrifying embarrassing faux pas earlier this week. Ugh. It's almost laughable in its idiocy and no, don't bother asking. I trust that the one who knows about it will keep mum *sheepish smile* Irritating people for fun and profit is never a waste of time!
GAH I was so distracted typing this entry that I forgot to watch Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. Lucky my brother in law reminded me 7 minutes into the show.
Post ID: 76690330
One of the reasons why I'm glad to be in Australia- it exports its "talent" to America.
(Taken from the Dame Edna Everage FAQ)
"Born Edna May Beazley, in the small outback town of Wagga-Wagga,
Dame Edna Everage started her career on December 19th in 1955, an
ordinary Australian housewife from Moonie Ponds, a Melbourne suburb,
sharing stories about her everyday life with small audiences.
Since then, she has become a Superstar and finally a global jet-setting
Megastar, hosting huge television and theatre shows with a gallimaufry
of very famous international guests, invariably ending with the
ritualistic grand finale of flying, waving and trembling gladioli.
~
Blessed with natural wisteria hair from birth, and impeded by her
ill (now late-) husband Norman Stoddard Everage, she continues to
bring her "priceless gifts of caring and sharing" to a global audience,
in what has been called "a riot of green spangles and diamante-trimmed
flyaway spectacles". For moral support she usually brings along her
old friend and bridesmaid, Madge Allsop.
~
Dame Edna has a dysfunctional family with three grown-up children:
Bruce, Valmai and Kenneth, and at least one grandchild, Bruce's
daughter Jasmin. According to her gynaecologist, Dame Edna is
"perfectly healthy and still able to have grandchildren".
With a flair for humble self-deification which surpasses even that
of Michael Jackson, Dame Edna lists "taking tea with Stephen Hawking"
as one of her hobbies."
~
http://www.xs4all.nl/~alife/dameedna.htm
~
http://hometown.aol.com/dameednapossum/
(Taken from the Dame Edna Everage FAQ)
"Born Edna May Beazley, in the small outback town of Wagga-Wagga,
Dame Edna Everage started her career on December 19th in 1955, an
ordinary Australian housewife from Moonie Ponds, a Melbourne suburb,
sharing stories about her everyday life with small audiences.
Since then, she has become a Superstar and finally a global jet-setting
Megastar, hosting huge television and theatre shows with a gallimaufry
of very famous international guests, invariably ending with the
ritualistic grand finale of flying, waving and trembling gladioli.
~
Blessed with natural wisteria hair from birth, and impeded by her
ill (now late-) husband Norman Stoddard Everage, she continues to
bring her "priceless gifts of caring and sharing" to a global audience,
in what has been called "a riot of green spangles and diamante-trimmed
flyaway spectacles". For moral support she usually brings along her
old friend and bridesmaid, Madge Allsop.
~
Dame Edna has a dysfunctional family with three grown-up children:
Bruce, Valmai and Kenneth, and at least one grandchild, Bruce's
daughter Jasmin. According to her gynaecologist, Dame Edna is
"perfectly healthy and still able to have grandchildren".
With a flair for humble self-deification which surpasses even that
of Michael Jackson, Dame Edna lists "taking tea with Stephen Hawking"
as one of her hobbies."
~
http://www.xs4all.nl/~alife/dameedna.htm
~
http://hometown.aol.com/dameednapossum/
Post ID: 76678907
Thursday, May 16, 2002
Uh. So much of my time is spent lurking on balderdash and other blogs.
~
Uh. I just got asked for a quote on the Ormond ball- "Uhh, it's very funky ... (anything else?) i'm at a loss for words." (buries face in hands).
~
Got asked about crushes for the 4th time in the last 2 days. This is weird.
~
Uh. I just got asked for a quote on the Ormond ball- "Uhh, it's very funky ... (anything else?) i'm at a loss for words." (buries face in hands).
~
Got asked about crushes for the 4th time in the last 2 days. This is weird.
Post ID: 76618248
Wednesday, May 15, 2002
From children of the moon
The sun gives us light, but the moon provides inspiration.
If you look at the sun without shielding your eyes,
you'll go blind. If you look at the moon without
covering your eyes, you'll become a poet.
--Serge Bouchard
The sun gives us light, but the moon provides inspiration.
If you look at the sun without shielding your eyes,
you'll go blind. If you look at the moon without
covering your eyes, you'll become a poet.
--Serge Bouchard
Post ID: 76573260
Problem-based learning... our fifth case and it's an introduction to skin cancer. Helloooooo Australia!
~
This is interesting. The children in "the others" who were sensitive to sunlight had xeroderma pigmentosum , as does the kid in my problem-based learning. And there i was rattling on and on about sunscreen during tutorial. Almost makes me feel guilty for trying to get a tan before coming here.
~
This is interesting. The children in "the others" who were sensitive to sunlight had xeroderma pigmentosum , as does the kid in my problem-based learning. And there i was rattling on and on about sunscreen during tutorial. Almost makes me feel guilty for trying to get a tan before coming here.
Post ID: 76573124
Just finished introduction to clinical medicine tutorial- unofficial, we practised taking medical histories based on the stimulated cases for next week's assessment. I'm going thru a pile of PBL stuff and where is everyone?? Don't wish to drag the books back to ormond.
I think i'm spending too much time on the net. Must mug must mug must mug!!
Oh no... just got a bad foreboding... if i get into ormond college choir and am on duty as backup singer in Swanston st. church of christ i'll literally spend the whole sunday singing.... saturday nites SSCoC practise, worship service in SSCoC- practise begins at 8am, services 9am and 11am, then ormond choir practises from 3pm thru to the chapel service at 7 to 8pm. Thankfully i'm a bass.
Everytime i go to grace chua's blog netscape crashes. Is it just me or what?
Sang the whole of yesterday (= (= (= =p
I think i'm spending too much time on the net. Must mug must mug must mug!!
Oh no... just got a bad foreboding... if i get into ormond college choir and am on duty as backup singer in Swanston st. church of christ i'll literally spend the whole sunday singing.... saturday nites SSCoC practise, worship service in SSCoC- practise begins at 8am, services 9am and 11am, then ormond choir practises from 3pm thru to the chapel service at 7 to 8pm. Thankfully i'm a bass.
Everytime i go to grace chua's blog netscape crashes. Is it just me or what?
Sang the whole of yesterday (= (= (= =p
Post ID: 76557675
Studied malay language elective in sec 1-sec 2. In retrospect, i liked it quite a lot, because it was something i could actively use in singapore and when i went back to malaysia, and because i liked learning malay and it was sorta like a cultural studies program, which made it all the more interesting. And i learnt a lot- much more than emm oh ee can hope to achieve with their "multi-ethnic cohesiveness tutorials" . Only One lesson was held out of the classroom- this hands-on cooking nasi lemak thingy. And i liked my classmates and distinctly remember cheng zhan gabbing all the recent gossip to me during classes. And Puan Rosenah and Cikgu Rizal and the other cikgu who looks fierce and has a monosyllabic name.
And rushing from school to the place near newton mrt (which wasn't so inconvenient, and there were those lovely kapok trees that rained seeds in cottony fibres in kapok pods) until it moved to the ugly bishan place. And running to and fro from ri boarding to moelc too!
And i had to go back to moelc to withdraw from malay in sec 3 when cikgu rizal cornered me- he had discovered to his dismay that only 2 ri guys were left studying malay in sec 3.
And rushing from school to the place near newton mrt (which wasn't so inconvenient, and there were those lovely kapok trees that rained seeds in cottony fibres in kapok pods) until it moved to the ugly bishan place. And running to and fro from ri boarding to moelc too!
And i had to go back to moelc to withdraw from malay in sec 3 when cikgu rizal cornered me- he had discovered to his dismay that only 2 ri guys were left studying malay in sec 3.
Post ID: 76557449
Monday, May 13, 2002
Sunday, May 12, 2002
Lyrics to Rebecca St. James' God (ref. Psalm 100 i think).
God
He made the night, he made the day;
Spread the earth upon the waters,
Made the heavens and the rain.
Look at the sky, see its design;
The very same Creator is the one who gave us life.
And what is man that He's mindful of us? We're merely clay in His hands.
And what am I that He loves me so much He would die? You know all i can say is...
(chorus)
It's God, truly God, can you see, can you hear, can you touch, can you feel?
It is God, truly God, I can't explain any other way 'cause it's God!
Inside us all there is a void; all mankind is searching for the one who fills the soul.
In Him there's hope, in Him there's life.
The world cries for a Saviour that's right before their eyes.
And what is man that He takes us in as His children to be His own?
And what are we that He wants to be our Father?
All that I can say is...
(chorus)
God
He made the night, he made the day;
Spread the earth upon the waters,
Made the heavens and the rain.
Look at the sky, see its design;
The very same Creator is the one who gave us life.
And what is man that He's mindful of us? We're merely clay in His hands.
And what am I that He loves me so much He would die? You know all i can say is...
(chorus)
It's God, truly God, can you see, can you hear, can you touch, can you feel?
It is God, truly God, I can't explain any other way 'cause it's God!
Inside us all there is a void; all mankind is searching for the one who fills the soul.
In Him there's hope, in Him there's life.
The world cries for a Saviour that's right before their eyes.
And what is man that He takes us in as His children to be His own?
And what are we that He wants to be our Father?
All that I can say is...
(chorus)
Post ID: 76458032
I'm resolving not to watch Chicago hope, ER, or any medical drama. It's bad enough that the field i'm intending to enter is one renown for *talking shop*, no waaay will overrun other things. (Hrmmm. Frasier shouldn't count. )
Some caramel-lers think i should redo my page, add images and do away with the black text on white background. Maybe.
I'm auditioning for the ormond college choir this tuesday afternoon!!
Sarah thinks I should get my ugly BCG scar removed. It's almost 2 cm in diameter and i blame its size on my swimming and my cousins peeling off the scabs =p . What do you think?
Some caramel-lers think i should redo my page, add images and do away with the black text on white background. Maybe.
I'm auditioning for the ormond college choir this tuesday afternoon!!
Sarah thinks I should get my ugly BCG scar removed. It's almost 2 cm in diameter and i blame its size on my swimming and my cousins peeling off the scabs =p . What do you think?
Post ID: 76457980
Yesterday, my brother in law had to get a new handphone (Nokia 5210, for an active [ahem] lifestyle. With "Extras" [read: Frills] which he'll never use), because the previous one'd corroded when my sister, not liking the smell of the car's air freshener, had placed it in the glove compartment, right beside the handphone, with the vent facing the phone. The silly things they do.
Went to House of Mao for lunch. They gave away our table so we were left waiting a while. It's very funny because they actually have a TV showing the propaganda films that were made during the Communist era, and the antics performed are really hilarious. And the waitresses with long hair all tie it up in silly looking pigtails.
Went to House of Mao for lunch. They gave away our table so we were left waiting a while. It's very funny because they actually have a TV showing the propaganda films that were made during the Communist era, and the antics performed are really hilarious. And the waitresses with long hair all tie it up in silly looking pigtails.
Post ID: 76453807
Bookout post:
Restored Post
When we last left our beleaguered heroes, they were smouldering under a regimen of late bookouts, early bookins, enforced wearing of prisoners' uniform when entering and exiting the prison and numerous other restrictions. On Sunday, we got a Lights Off timing of 10pm. More serious, though, was an attempt to remove our canteen and smoking breaks (so smoking would only be permitted before and after Office Hours) for the week. However, the canteen vendors protested, as it would mean the loss of more than half their customers. Furthermore, if they'd closed for the week, the officers would not be able to have their breakfast and would become miffed. So after a day and a half, these 2 privileges were restored (though I see not how smoking has anything to do with the canteen vendors). Actually I think the withdrawal of all our privileges/rights (however you see them) might've disqualified them from the ISO certification, but then none of us would be able to tell ISO, or we'd be charged. How deliciously ironic. However, all restrictions are lifted as of Sunday night, and we don't need to book in the verify MCs anymore. Best of all, we can now bring handphones in! Took them 2 1/2 weeks but it's finally done. Tis the end of an era! SMM is the last SAF camp to allow the lowest of the low (trainees in this case) to bring in handphones. No chargers though. In Tekong they explained that away by claiming that they didn't want to overload the generators, blowing them and causing a prolonged blackout but now their true colours are revealed! They just want to save money.
When we're milling around waiting to go to the parade square for our first parade, we always see schoolgoers who are late for school. Due to its proximity, RJ students are the most common sight. Interestingly, so far we've not seen any RJ boys - it's all RJ girls. However, as I recall, girls did not make an overwhelming proportion of the latecomer crowd at RJ. Then again, it's probably because those people we see are -so- tardy that they'll miss even the last bits of morning assembly.
The lectures we get are mostly shit. The lecturers are uninteresting, conduct lectures uninterestingly (there's a difference), speak badly (both in method of delivery and English) but worst of all, they teach the wrong material! One lecturer was going on about how humans can store starch. Wth. We're not plants.
What a dispatch rider told Joshua and Guan Hong when they were living in "Heaven" (Headquarters, Medical Corp - near Gleneagles), on being a slave: "You pay me peanuts, you get a monkey".
The ever efficient SAF has finally given us our E-mart credit. Actually I was beginning to think it wouldn't come till our 1 year anniversary (of the beginning of our servitude). Now I can get new socks.
My bunk mates find it hard to believe that I hold a junior black belt in Taekwando. Hell, even I find it hard to believe.
Someone uses a New Town Secondary School exercise book, and I saw that the school song talks about Queenstown in Queensway. Now that they've moved, I wonder if they've changed the school song.
Some people ignore bothersome insects and other menacing organisms (Seeing a giant spider during area cleaning, I urged Kumar to kill it since he was wearing boots and I was in PT shoes. He just sweeped it into the grass. One more giant spider to torment us in the bunk!). Some people kill them. And some people use their lighters to burn them. The stench is unbearable!
Folie's attempts to imitate my yelps (uttered when I trip, am poked or the like) are pathetic. As are (in a different sense) people's attempts to elicit the yelps from me.
Some people came to sell us Newsweek, again, at a "SAF" price. This coming barely 2 weeks after Time tried, I have to wonder about the intelligence of the scheduling. Anyhow, everybody was very happy because they got to ogle the 2 women whom the company sent down (the man was just there to hand out pens and forms). Later I was forced to listen to their descriptions and revelations, because they were talking so loudly, I couldn't help but overhear. Apparently they thought one had a good figure and wide breasts, and the other was wearing a G-string, which could be seen because of their tight pants. Gosh, they're bored and really too deprived. I'd have thought FHM and Maxim would satisfy them, but apparently lot. Actually I suspect Righteous International sent those 2 women on purpose, and I think more people subscribed to Newsweek and the other periodicals on offer than subscribed to Time (and this considering Time had attacked first).
I think my platoon's quite lucky. We have the most reasonable sergeants, and we're not punished for little or no reason. And our bunks can be locked to keep out prying eyes! :)
Because of the scare of last week, I noticed a significantly greater number of people using the public phone (Yes, the most God forsaken one in the camp, even). I got profuse thanks from this guy who was calling his girlfriend as I let him chatter on while I was content to sit on the steps and meditate on life (Not anticipating the high demand for the phone, I'd neglected to bring along the Economist to read while waiting).
The nicest and smartest Malay in my bunk drinks beer! The transcript of the exchange will reveal more than any tract of reported speech I could write so:
"[Malay after eating Mee Goreng] Do you know what would be good now? A beer. [Me: I thought beer's Haram.] You know what is Haram? Haram is raping women. [Me: Then how about pork? Is eating pork Haram?] That's up to the individual, when you die, you answer to God. [Me: So same thing with beer.]"
Apparently, in real life, you don't shock people with the Automatic External Defibrilator (AED - I hope I got the spelling correct, also known as the machine with the 2 metal pads which in movies and TV shows, you place on the chests of patients with no pulse to shock their hearts), if they indeed have no pulse. And their bodies do not jerk. So much for the accuracy of the media!
Some people actually want to bring in food, but they're scared that the food will be ravaged by a certain group of people - "[On how to safeguard their food if they bring any in] I take a blue pen, I write, extra ingredient: pork. [Other: I put a sticker on everything. 'Babi' {Malay for pig}]."
Section 9 has a kettle, so they can drink hot drinks and eat instant noodles. Yeh.
My monthly pittance has gone up by $37.50. I wonder how much they managed to deduct in miscellaneous fees this time.
The pseudo-on-the-ball sergeant gave us his version of morning exercise again. It is tough in the extreme. Supposedly it's based on what Navy Seals do, except that they do 10 sets and we do only 3. But that's bad enough, erk. One set consists of: Burpees, 10 counts of 10 (2 counts doing a jumping jack, 2 counts doing a pushup and 2 counts thrusting the legs outwards and then back in after you've come up from the pushup) It does say something that he just stands at the side and shouts, "down", "change" or "not loud enough". I wouldn't mind doing the exercises all that much if he actually *did* them with us.
We were asked to write what we wanted to be displayed on our nametags in future. I contemplated "Agagooga" but this is supposed to be for my future work, so. Damn.
When people go to the canteen, they always buy the same old drinks. Sometimes, just for the heck of it, I decide to sample the less tried ones. So far, I'm the only one I've seen so far drinking F&N Orange, Soursop and Coconut. Pokka Carrot Juice has been bought by only one person (not me, I hate carrot juice!). However, this policy backfired on me when I decided to try 'Oldenlandia Water', which was highly recommended by the Uncle and was supposed to be very "cooling". It was horrible, and when I let other people try it, no one liked it either. The only reason why he still keeps it in stock is because he drinks it! Apparently he had a flu that morning and drank 2 cans. By the afternoon he was alright.
The Malays were ogling at Maxim's 100 Sexiest Women supplement one night. I thought that was Haram and they liked their women wrapped up! :)
As if the smoke from the smoking corner at the corner of the bunk wasn't enough, one night the Malays set up another smoking corner in the middle of the bunk. I don't mind that much if they (the smokers, not just the Malays) smoke in the day, if they have no smoking break, and if they keep to the existing smoking corner which is at the very corner of the bunk, concealable by opening the cupboard door and beside the window besides. However, smoking in the mornings/evenings or after lights off, when they can just walk outside to smoke in the former case, and when they could've smoked a few minutes earlier, is just infuriating. Not to mention hazardous to health - before lights off I can go outside to breathe uncontaminated air, but after I am forced to become a passive smoker for a few hours. And coupled with the LOUD, BAD, MALAY music (that's 3 strikes against it :0), which was on until 3am, and the incessant loud chatter and laughing, it was very hard to sleep that night. But at least my bunk mates do not smoke in the toilet (that I know of), not only choking the others but occupying the cubicle - we have 3 cubicles for about 60 people.
For the second week in a row, IV was on a Thursday. It was our first 16 gauge needle live practice. The needles are the sizes of Yakult straws, and apparently the 16g leaves a permanent scar. Oh thank you, SAF, for mutilating me! I just hope the scars aren't too visible, and are just light spots on darker skin at most. I think they should ship in pigs or cows for us to do our IV practice. Or better yet, use the very-free TSS! Well this time, I was poked by the previously mentioned sergeant. However, the professional poking was balanced by the fact that he poked me at my wrist (because he couldn't find the vein elsewhere, he said). Maybe I should try putting on some weight at my wrists to reduce the pain. He actually tried to trick me that he was using a 20g on me, but feeling the pain, and seeing the hole left after withdrawal, the truth was evident :) 1 down, 6 to go...
Kumar was asked to go for a MOE Local Teaching Scholarship interview. He tells us he wants to teach in RGS because the girls are "mature mentally and physically". Right. He should have gone for his interview in his smelly uniform, which he again wore the whole week. He even wore it to bookout. The people on the bus must have died.
More disgusting tales: Khairul went out one night to pee. Only thing is, his toilet was hte grass patch beyond the stairs beside our bunk. Yuck.
During our immensely boring (in terms of waiting) Patient Assessment Model (PAM) test, one guy got a scenario involving menstrual cramps. Well done!
Roe was flabbergasted at seeing my snack bag. There's actually a lot more at home but I think the quantity I have at camp is more than sufficient to last a week, especially since the wolverines have stopped attacking!
Someone brought a guitar in, and people were playing and singing badly. As someone else put it, their acapella singing is bad enough, but when coupled with bad playing.
Every night, Iskandar will walk up to me and ask, "Do you want to pump iron or do you want to run tonight?". And everytime my answer will be "What do you think?". I wonder if he'll ever give up.
Some people have really disgusting toilet habits - toilet bowls are left unflushed, and people don't lift up the toilet seat before shooting, leaving urine all over the seat! I think before I use the seated toilet the next time, I'll jet the seat first.
As I walked out of camp, I saw this guard at the gate whose nametag said 'Mohammad'. Well done. What's the distinguish him from the other 75% of Muslim males named Mohammad?
Quotes:
"[On my proclivity to bring in Marks and Spencer food] Your mother works at Marks and Spencer ah? Or your father owns the shop?"
"[On Chris' drill commands, issued in a professional-sounding tone] Eh, this is not National Day Parade lah"
"I want to get an M16. How much does it cost at the E-mart?"
"[To someone entering the lecture] Yes? Which planet are you from?... By the way, don't call me 'Sergeant Major' ever again. [Call me 'Staff']... You'll remind me of my time in infantry and I'll get upset."
"Who here smokes?... Roy, you don't smoke meh?... The face tells it all."
"[Zhang on me talking to Kumar, Vasu and Sargunan] Why are you intruding into this black gathering?"
"[On Entonox] If the guy is a laughing stock, he will laugh non-stop. (laughs easily)"
"[On SMM] This school, they charge people very easily. Come up with all the excuses to charge people one. (charges, They come, people)"
"Government fucked up, sergeant. That's why we're in [the] SAF (The government is fucked)"
"[On the contraband inspection] But I'm very impressed with [you know] what? [Mimes handphone]... [Claps from trainees] Serious... Nobody from my platoon got caught?... At least I train, thinking soldier, not idiots (soldiers)"
"[On many people not bringing their water bottles for Last Parade] Nevermind, later go down and drink 2 cups of Milo."
"[Malay after eating Mee Goreng] Do you know what would be good now? A beer. [Me: I thought beer's Haram.] You know what is Haram? Haram is raping women. [Me: Then how about pork? Is eating pork Haram?] That's up to the individual, when you die, you answer to God. [Me: So same thing with beer.]"
"[On Islam] Fucked up, stupid religion."
"[On the drinks vendor] Even Alan, everytime I see him, complain... 'Why never let them come for canteen break?' [He] Call up CSI. Don't know where he get the number from. (he complains, called, got)"
"[On the cookhouse's small portions] [If] They want to be so niao, I [will] go and put a weighing scale there."
"[On the cookhouse's high receptivity ratings, in the high 90s] I don't know why leh, I also put poor... I always put poor one (poor)"
"[On how to safeguard their food if they bring any in] I take a blue pen, I write, extra ingredient: pork. [Other: I put a sticker on everything. 'Babi' {Malay for pig}]. (will take, and I will, will put)"
"[On my anger at 16g scars] You're not going to be a model right... Don't worry, they can hide it, digital imagery... Photoshop."
"After lights off, don't use your handphones. I say again, don't use your handphones. Especially those cockenadens with the flashing antennas."
"[Mock command] Platoon, suka suka [Anyhow, cf normal use of 'cepat' - quickly] jalan [walk]"
"[On me] Don't be like a wolverine [and eat all his food]... You think he what, refrigerator ah?"
Restored Post
When we last left our beleaguered heroes, they were smouldering under a regimen of late bookouts, early bookins, enforced wearing of prisoners' uniform when entering and exiting the prison and numerous other restrictions. On Sunday, we got a Lights Off timing of 10pm. More serious, though, was an attempt to remove our canteen and smoking breaks (so smoking would only be permitted before and after Office Hours) for the week. However, the canteen vendors protested, as it would mean the loss of more than half their customers. Furthermore, if they'd closed for the week, the officers would not be able to have their breakfast and would become miffed. So after a day and a half, these 2 privileges were restored (though I see not how smoking has anything to do with the canteen vendors). Actually I think the withdrawal of all our privileges/rights (however you see them) might've disqualified them from the ISO certification, but then none of us would be able to tell ISO, or we'd be charged. How deliciously ironic. However, all restrictions are lifted as of Sunday night, and we don't need to book in the verify MCs anymore. Best of all, we can now bring handphones in! Took them 2 1/2 weeks but it's finally done. Tis the end of an era! SMM is the last SAF camp to allow the lowest of the low (trainees in this case) to bring in handphones. No chargers though. In Tekong they explained that away by claiming that they didn't want to overload the generators, blowing them and causing a prolonged blackout but now their true colours are revealed! They just want to save money.
When we're milling around waiting to go to the parade square for our first parade, we always see schoolgoers who are late for school. Due to its proximity, RJ students are the most common sight. Interestingly, so far we've not seen any RJ boys - it's all RJ girls. However, as I recall, girls did not make an overwhelming proportion of the latecomer crowd at RJ. Then again, it's probably because those people we see are -so- tardy that they'll miss even the last bits of morning assembly.
The lectures we get are mostly shit. The lecturers are uninteresting, conduct lectures uninterestingly (there's a difference), speak badly (both in method of delivery and English) but worst of all, they teach the wrong material! One lecturer was going on about how humans can store starch. Wth. We're not plants.
What a dispatch rider told Joshua and Guan Hong when they were living in "Heaven" (Headquarters, Medical Corp - near Gleneagles), on being a slave: "You pay me peanuts, you get a monkey".
The ever efficient SAF has finally given us our E-mart credit. Actually I was beginning to think it wouldn't come till our 1 year anniversary (of the beginning of our servitude). Now I can get new socks.
My bunk mates find it hard to believe that I hold a junior black belt in Taekwando. Hell, even I find it hard to believe.
Someone uses a New Town Secondary School exercise book, and I saw that the school song talks about Queenstown in Queensway. Now that they've moved, I wonder if they've changed the school song.
Some people ignore bothersome insects and other menacing organisms (Seeing a giant spider during area cleaning, I urged Kumar to kill it since he was wearing boots and I was in PT shoes. He just sweeped it into the grass. One more giant spider to torment us in the bunk!). Some people kill them. And some people use their lighters to burn them. The stench is unbearable!
Folie's attempts to imitate my yelps (uttered when I trip, am poked or the like) are pathetic. As are (in a different sense) people's attempts to elicit the yelps from me.
Some people came to sell us Newsweek, again, at a "SAF" price. This coming barely 2 weeks after Time tried, I have to wonder about the intelligence of the scheduling. Anyhow, everybody was very happy because they got to ogle the 2 women whom the company sent down (the man was just there to hand out pens and forms). Later I was forced to listen to their descriptions and revelations, because they were talking so loudly, I couldn't help but overhear. Apparently they thought one had a good figure and wide breasts, and the other was wearing a G-string, which could be seen because of their tight pants. Gosh, they're bored and really too deprived. I'd have thought FHM and Maxim would satisfy them, but apparently lot. Actually I suspect Righteous International sent those 2 women on purpose, and I think more people subscribed to Newsweek and the other periodicals on offer than subscribed to Time (and this considering Time had attacked first).
I think my platoon's quite lucky. We have the most reasonable sergeants, and we're not punished for little or no reason. And our bunks can be locked to keep out prying eyes! :)
Because of the scare of last week, I noticed a significantly greater number of people using the public phone (Yes, the most God forsaken one in the camp, even). I got profuse thanks from this guy who was calling his girlfriend as I let him chatter on while I was content to sit on the steps and meditate on life (Not anticipating the high demand for the phone, I'd neglected to bring along the Economist to read while waiting).
The nicest and smartest Malay in my bunk drinks beer! The transcript of the exchange will reveal more than any tract of reported speech I could write so:
"[Malay after eating Mee Goreng] Do you know what would be good now? A beer. [Me: I thought beer's Haram.] You know what is Haram? Haram is raping women. [Me: Then how about pork? Is eating pork Haram?] That's up to the individual, when you die, you answer to God. [Me: So same thing with beer.]"
Apparently, in real life, you don't shock people with the Automatic External Defibrilator (AED - I hope I got the spelling correct, also known as the machine with the 2 metal pads which in movies and TV shows, you place on the chests of patients with no pulse to shock their hearts), if they indeed have no pulse. And their bodies do not jerk. So much for the accuracy of the media!
Some people actually want to bring in food, but they're scared that the food will be ravaged by a certain group of people - "[On how to safeguard their food if they bring any in] I take a blue pen, I write, extra ingredient: pork. [Other: I put a sticker on everything. 'Babi' {Malay for pig}]."
Section 9 has a kettle, so they can drink hot drinks and eat instant noodles. Yeh.
My monthly pittance has gone up by $37.50. I wonder how much they managed to deduct in miscellaneous fees this time.
The pseudo-on-the-ball sergeant gave us his version of morning exercise again. It is tough in the extreme. Supposedly it's based on what Navy Seals do, except that they do 10 sets and we do only 3. But that's bad enough, erk. One set consists of: Burpees, 10 counts of 10 (2 counts doing a jumping jack, 2 counts doing a pushup and 2 counts thrusting the legs outwards and then back in after you've come up from the pushup) It does say something that he just stands at the side and shouts, "down", "change" or "not loud enough". I wouldn't mind doing the exercises all that much if he actually *did* them with us.
We were asked to write what we wanted to be displayed on our nametags in future. I contemplated "Agagooga" but this is supposed to be for my future work, so. Damn.
When people go to the canteen, they always buy the same old drinks. Sometimes, just for the heck of it, I decide to sample the less tried ones. So far, I'm the only one I've seen so far drinking F&N Orange, Soursop and Coconut. Pokka Carrot Juice has been bought by only one person (not me, I hate carrot juice!). However, this policy backfired on me when I decided to try 'Oldenlandia Water', which was highly recommended by the Uncle and was supposed to be very "cooling". It was horrible, and when I let other people try it, no one liked it either. The only reason why he still keeps it in stock is because he drinks it! Apparently he had a flu that morning and drank 2 cans. By the afternoon he was alright.
The Malays were ogling at Maxim's 100 Sexiest Women supplement one night. I thought that was Haram and they liked their women wrapped up! :)
As if the smoke from the smoking corner at the corner of the bunk wasn't enough, one night the Malays set up another smoking corner in the middle of the bunk. I don't mind that much if they (the smokers, not just the Malays) smoke in the day, if they have no smoking break, and if they keep to the existing smoking corner which is at the very corner of the bunk, concealable by opening the cupboard door and beside the window besides. However, smoking in the mornings/evenings or after lights off, when they can just walk outside to smoke in the former case, and when they could've smoked a few minutes earlier, is just infuriating. Not to mention hazardous to health - before lights off I can go outside to breathe uncontaminated air, but after I am forced to become a passive smoker for a few hours. And coupled with the LOUD, BAD, MALAY music (that's 3 strikes against it :0), which was on until 3am, and the incessant loud chatter and laughing, it was very hard to sleep that night. But at least my bunk mates do not smoke in the toilet (that I know of), not only choking the others but occupying the cubicle - we have 3 cubicles for about 60 people.
For the second week in a row, IV was on a Thursday. It was our first 16 gauge needle live practice. The needles are the sizes of Yakult straws, and apparently the 16g leaves a permanent scar. Oh thank you, SAF, for mutilating me! I just hope the scars aren't too visible, and are just light spots on darker skin at most. I think they should ship in pigs or cows for us to do our IV practice. Or better yet, use the very-free TSS! Well this time, I was poked by the previously mentioned sergeant. However, the professional poking was balanced by the fact that he poked me at my wrist (because he couldn't find the vein elsewhere, he said). Maybe I should try putting on some weight at my wrists to reduce the pain. He actually tried to trick me that he was using a 20g on me, but feeling the pain, and seeing the hole left after withdrawal, the truth was evident :) 1 down, 6 to go...
Kumar was asked to go for a MOE Local Teaching Scholarship interview. He tells us he wants to teach in RGS because the girls are "mature mentally and physically". Right. He should have gone for his interview in his smelly uniform, which he again wore the whole week. He even wore it to bookout. The people on the bus must have died.
More disgusting tales: Khairul went out one night to pee. Only thing is, his toilet was hte grass patch beyond the stairs beside our bunk. Yuck.
During our immensely boring (in terms of waiting) Patient Assessment Model (PAM) test, one guy got a scenario involving menstrual cramps. Well done!
Roe was flabbergasted at seeing my snack bag. There's actually a lot more at home but I think the quantity I have at camp is more than sufficient to last a week, especially since the wolverines have stopped attacking!
Someone brought a guitar in, and people were playing and singing badly. As someone else put it, their acapella singing is bad enough, but when coupled with bad playing.
Every night, Iskandar will walk up to me and ask, "Do you want to pump iron or do you want to run tonight?". And everytime my answer will be "What do you think?". I wonder if he'll ever give up.
Some people have really disgusting toilet habits - toilet bowls are left unflushed, and people don't lift up the toilet seat before shooting, leaving urine all over the seat! I think before I use the seated toilet the next time, I'll jet the seat first.
As I walked out of camp, I saw this guard at the gate whose nametag said 'Mohammad'. Well done. What's the distinguish him from the other 75% of Muslim males named Mohammad?
Quotes:
"[On my proclivity to bring in Marks and Spencer food] Your mother works at Marks and Spencer ah? Or your father owns the shop?"
"[On Chris' drill commands, issued in a professional-sounding tone] Eh, this is not National Day Parade lah"
"I want to get an M16. How much does it cost at the E-mart?"
"[To someone entering the lecture] Yes? Which planet are you from?... By the way, don't call me 'Sergeant Major' ever again. [Call me 'Staff']... You'll remind me of my time in infantry and I'll get upset."
"Who here smokes?... Roy, you don't smoke meh?... The face tells it all."
"[Zhang on me talking to Kumar, Vasu and Sargunan] Why are you intruding into this black gathering?"
"[On Entonox] If the guy is a laughing stock, he will laugh non-stop. (laughs easily)"
"[On SMM] This school, they charge people very easily. Come up with all the excuses to charge people one. (charges, They come, people)"
"Government fucked up, sergeant. That's why we're in [the] SAF (The government is fucked)"
"[On the contraband inspection] But I'm very impressed with [you know] what? [Mimes handphone]... [Claps from trainees] Serious... Nobody from my platoon got caught?... At least I train, thinking soldier, not idiots (soldiers)"
"[On many people not bringing their water bottles for Last Parade] Nevermind, later go down and drink 2 cups of Milo."
"[Malay after eating Mee Goreng] Do you know what would be good now? A beer. [Me: I thought beer's Haram.] You know what is Haram? Haram is raping women. [Me: Then how about pork? Is eating pork Haram?] That's up to the individual, when you die, you answer to God. [Me: So same thing with beer.]"
"[On Islam] Fucked up, stupid religion."
"[On the drinks vendor] Even Alan, everytime I see him, complain... 'Why never let them come for canteen break?' [He] Call up CSI. Don't know where he get the number from. (he complains, called, got)"
"[On the cookhouse's small portions] [If] They want to be so niao, I [will] go and put a weighing scale there."
"[On the cookhouse's high receptivity ratings, in the high 90s] I don't know why leh, I also put poor... I always put poor one (poor)"
"[On how to safeguard their food if they bring any in] I take a blue pen, I write, extra ingredient: pork. [Other: I put a sticker on everything. 'Babi' {Malay for pig}]. (will take, and I will, will put)"
"[On my anger at 16g scars] You're not going to be a model right... Don't worry, they can hide it, digital imagery... Photoshop."
"After lights off, don't use your handphones. I say again, don't use your handphones. Especially those cockenadens with the flashing antennas."
"[Mock command] Platoon, suka suka [Anyhow, cf normal use of 'cepat' - quickly] jalan [walk]"
"[On me] Don't be like a wolverine [and eat all his food]... You think he what, refrigerator ah?"
Post ID: 76453542
NB: In response to some comments posted for an earlier entry-
mannikin
n 1: a woman who wears clothes to display fashions; "she was too fat to be a mannequin" [syn: mannequin, manikin, manakin, fashion model, model] 2: a life-size dummy used to display clothes [syn: mannequin, manikin, manakin, form]
Source: WordNet � 1.6, � 1997 Princeton University
mannikin
n 1: a woman who wears clothes to display fashions; "she was too fat to be a mannequin" [syn: mannequin, manikin, manakin, fashion model, model] 2: a life-size dummy used to display clothes [syn: mannequin, manikin, manakin, form]
Source: WordNet � 1.6, � 1997 Princeton University
Post ID: 76443593
Finally tried Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust Pizza. This one had cheese baked on the crust itself too. The cheese overload is affecting my system! My brother in law says he'll never eat Pizza Hut again :) There was this Malay family which apparently didn't have enough - they were eating Burger King and KFC food at the same time too.
Later we went to pick my sister up from a dinner party. And we ended up waiting 1 1/2 hours. I was so pissed, I just got up and left at the end. It cost me $9.60 to take the cab home, but it was worth it. And I found a rather full pack of cigarettes on the back seat of the cab. The driver didn't smoke either, but he took the pack, maybe as a door gift of sorts for customers.
Later we went to pick my sister up from a dinner party. And we ended up waiting 1 1/2 hours. I was so pissed, I just got up and left at the end. It cost me $9.60 to take the cab home, but it was worth it. And I found a rather full pack of cigarettes on the back seat of the cab. The driver didn't smoke either, but he took the pack, maybe as a door gift of sorts for customers.
Post ID: 76433249
Saturday, May 11, 2002
Lyrics from Rebecca St. James' "Abba (Father)". I've been listening to her stuff on my Wow collection- powerful.
Abba (father)
Feeling like the eagle that rises
Flies above the earth and its troubles
Oh yes he knows that there are valleys below
But under his wings there's a stronger power
Oh Father - You are my strength
On you I wait upon
(Chorus)
You make the road rise up to meet me
You make the sun shine warm upon my face
The wind is at my back and the rain falls soft
God I lift You high -- You are my Abba
Running in this race to the finish line
The only road for me is the narrow
Not gonna stop or even look to the side
When I fix my eyes on You Jesus
Oh Father - You are my strength
Now more than ever
(Chorus)
When you've run too far - and the road is long
Can't walk another mile - He is waiting
Hope in Him again - He'll renew you
Then you will rise gather up your wings and fly...
(Chorus)
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
He gives strength to the wary
To those who hope in Him
They will soar like eagles.
---
Feeling like the eagle that rises
Flies above the earth and its troubles
Oh yes he knows that there are valleys below
But under his wings there's a stronger power
Oh Father - You are my strength
On you I wait upon
(Chorus)
You make the road rise up to meet me
You make the sun shine warm upon my face
The wind is at my back and the rain falls soft
God I lift You high -- You are my Abba
Running in this race to the finish line
The only road for me is the narrow
Not gonna stop or even look to the side
When I fix my eyes on You Jesus
Oh Father - You are my strength
Now more than ever
(Chorus)
When you've run too far - and the road is long
Can't walk another mile - He is waiting
Hope in Him again - He'll renew you
Then you will rise gather up your wings and fly...
(Chorus)
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
He gives strength to the wary
To those who hope in Him
They will soar like eagles.
---
Post ID: 76423073
Ooh. Problem-based learning tutorial (case study of an old dehydrated lady who fell, broke her hip and was lying on the floor for 24 hours): I never knew sunken eyes was a symptom of dehydration- i'd always associated them with blackbirds who'd "been waiting for this moment to arise". (wry grin)
Aside, i left a message at 2am yesterday apologising to Ben for missing the birthday celebration (am on my way to find the birthday girl now- got Bradley Trevor Greive's "The meaning of life" for her) and he replied back with a cute message. I'll type it up here next time.
Aside, i left a message at 2am yesterday apologising to Ben for missing the birthday celebration (am on my way to find the birthday girl now- got Bradley Trevor Greive's "The meaning of life" for her) and he replied back with a cute message. I'll type it up here next time.
Post ID: 76423016
Wednesday, May 08, 2002
http://www.postcardgalaxy.com/cards/76950011.html
This is odd, to say the least. Speak about a greeting-for-all.
This is odd, to say the least. Speak about a greeting-for-all.
Post ID: 76267804
Tuesday, May 07, 2002
Dilemma on Friday. Birthday celebration of an ormondian (probably dinner at Chinatown) clashes with OCF, which as i have just found out, will be held in Janice's house in South Yarra. And if i miss su's birthday william will kill me. Arrrrggghh!!!
Details:
Birthday celebration in chinatown (middle of city): probably starts at 8pm, till late.
OCF cell group: Meet at uni tram stop at 5.30pm, proceed to house from there. Potluck dinner from 6 to 8-ish. Games from 8 to 8.30, then cell bible study and sharing from 8.30 to 10. More makan and chatting after 10.
Details:
Birthday celebration in chinatown (middle of city): probably starts at 8pm, till late.
OCF cell group: Meet at uni tram stop at 5.30pm, proceed to house from there. Potluck dinner from 6 to 8-ish. Games from 8 to 8.30, then cell bible study and sharing from 8.30 to 10. More makan and chatting after 10.
Post ID: 76256983
(wrt the photo below) grins, so there -are- persons of wider girth than i, after all!
thanks for succumbing the dollar-fifty for my mango smoothie, gabriel. but the stench didn't just stem from female rafflesians; there were the sweaty, predominantly male soccer/basketball/softball players as well, yknow!
ps. jamin introduced me to this rj girl selling second-hand books at ora who looked a remarkable lot like you, andrew. (:
thanks for succumbing the dollar-fifty for my mango smoothie, gabriel. but the stench didn't just stem from female rafflesians; there were the sweaty, predominantly male soccer/basketball/softball players as well, yknow!
ps. jamin introduced me to this rj girl selling second-hand books at ora who looked a remarkable lot like you, andrew. (:
Post ID: 76254325
Sunday, May 05, 2002
This is ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS!!!
http://ocsc.ormond.unimelb.edu.au/ow/gallery/Day_Three/DSCN1150.JPG
[Ed: This post has been edited to remove the image on Ormond College's servers to prevent page loading problems]
Ormond college. During orientation they were like, "Freshers! Jump into the river!" and all of us were stripping to our swimwear. Then after all that they told us it was illegal to swim in the river. So we had to wear everything again.
Is this offensive? Should i take it down?
http://ocsc.ormond.unimelb.edu.au/ow/gallery/Day_Three/DSCN1150.JPG
[Ed: This post has been edited to remove the image on Ormond College's servers to prevent page loading problems]
Ormond college. During orientation they were like, "Freshers! Jump into the river!" and all of us were stripping to our swimwear. Then after all that they told us it was illegal to swim in the river. So we had to wear everything again.
Is this offensive? Should i take it down?
Post ID: 76183039
After 6 years in a Raffles School, I've finally gone to an ORA games day! As usual, for reasons unknown, I was terribly amused.
My amusement was increased by my finding, standing behind Shiming, none other than Yaodong! And with his hair intact. Isn't he in BMT already?
Jamin and Aravind were hanging around. I also bumped into 2 of my J4 RI GEP seniors. I brushed past them and realised that they looked familiar. For some reason, they were incredibly amused on finding out that I was at SMM.
The mannikin in the RGS museum wearing the RGS uniform looks terribly freaky without hair, but worse, the sleeves are not folded!
I left after barely an hour there, both because wandering around alone was too sad even for the likes of me, and the overpowering stench of smelly girls in the canteen!
[NB: In response to some comments posted-
mannikin
n 1: a woman who wears clothes to display fashions; "she was too fat to be a mannequin" [syn: mannequin, manikin, manakin, fashion model, model] 2: a life-size dummy used to display clothes [syn: mannequin, manikin, manakin, form]
Source: WordNet � 1.6, � 1997 Princeton University]
My amusement was increased by my finding, standing behind Shiming, none other than Yaodong! And with his hair intact. Isn't he in BMT already?
Jamin and Aravind were hanging around. I also bumped into 2 of my J4 RI GEP seniors. I brushed past them and realised that they looked familiar. For some reason, they were incredibly amused on finding out that I was at SMM.
The mannikin in the RGS museum wearing the RGS uniform looks terribly freaky without hair, but worse, the sleeves are not folded!
I left after barely an hour there, both because wandering around alone was too sad even for the likes of me, and the overpowering stench of smelly girls in the canteen!
[NB: In response to some comments posted-
mannikin
n 1: a woman who wears clothes to display fashions; "she was too fat to be a mannequin" [syn: mannequin, manikin, manakin, fashion model, model] 2: a life-size dummy used to display clothes [syn: mannequin, manikin, manakin, form]
Source: WordNet � 1.6, � 1997 Princeton University]
Post ID: 76179508
Saturday, May 04, 2002
Bookout post:
Restored Post
Whenever people ask me how SMM is, I respond that it is good, relative to life elsewhere in the army, except for:
1) The no handphone rule
2) The bedbugs, mosquitoes and other monsters
3) The horrible food (the worst slop in the SAF probably goes to my camp)
and of course:
4) The weekly IVs
Well, it seems that we've finally tested the patience of our Company Senior Instructor for the last time / something bad, unrelated to us, happened to him that made him angry and crack.
Tuesday, we got hints of it. We had the usual talk about how the younger generation takes our security and prosperity for granted. Blah blah. Been there, done that.
On Friday, somebody lost his wallet, and still hadn't realised, after going through BMT at the very least, that in the SAF, if you lose something, you're never going to get it back. So he reported the loss, and on the pretext of searching for the wallet, the instructors turned our bunks upside down and took the opportunity to look for contraband (Mostly handphones, but a portable TV was found!). This served the dual purposes of deterring us from reporting lost items the next time, saving them loads of trouble, and getting people to do guard duties, saving them trouble choosing others, and satisfying their sadistic tendencies. Also, thanks to Mr Ass Man (as some of us call him), we did jumping jacks - 25 counts of 8, to weed out those who'd put their phones in their underwear. Of course, everyone had tucked them in tightly, so among the whole lot, only one Nokia battery fell out. And Mr Ass Man, ever considerate, gave us an lights off timing half an hour earlier - 10pm, for us to recover from our exertion. Nobody in my platoon got caught for contraband, though something much worse was discovered on someone (Hush!). Ahh, the kindness our instructor showed to us, giving us advance notice of the inspection by telling us they were checking for "bunk damages" (ahem). And Bruneians are very useful. They buy food back for you when they have a night off, you can hide in their bunk when you're pretend you're at Friday prayers but actually want to sleep and you can let them take care of your handphones! And in the end, the person probably didn't get his wallet back too. On a personal note, mine own personal communications device (just my luck. I bring it in on May Day and they check us. I'm jinxed!) was hidden in a place most ingenious. If I say so myself.
On Saturday, they went even crazier. They'd inspected the bunks in the morning, and some bunks' rubbish hadn't been brought down, and the bunks were generally not in standby condition. So they messed our bunks up themselves. My bunk was locked, so they vented their frustration by dumping a garbage bag full of garbage (and some mud, besides) at our door. On the pretext of that, and other miscellaneous things like people not coming back to endorse their MCs (those gotten over the weekend or during a night off) before going off for their sick rest (that policy is rather dumb, we all think), we had a mild torture session, many stand-by-beds, a bookout delayed till 2:10, a bookin brought up to 9pm (up from 10:30pm - in Units it's 11:59pm, and that means the time you enter the camp and not the time you report in a platoon in army T-shirt, shorts and shoes with a full waterbottle) and a withdrawal of our "privileges" - booking in/out is in Smart 4 from now on and we've no more nights off. They've probably lost their ISO certification by now! :) I wonder how many people are going to take an MC over this weekend.
And now, back to the roughly chronological narrative.
When I returned, there were the expected jibes about my hair. I got called "recruit". Bah. It's not that much shorter than Zhang's, and *he* doesn't get teased, though he does regret cutting his as short as it is too.
On Monday, I almost brought in my phone, but I backed out at the last minute. Other people bring theirs to Guard Duty and lectures, and I don't even bring mine in. Ahh, I think, if for nothing else, I'll bring mine in to spite the SAF.
The cookhouse likes to give fancy names to the food, probably to distract us from the bad taste. Seen on the menu before are dishes like: "Tasty Tientsin Cabbage" and "Imported Celery With Carrot". But pseudo-Western food takes the cake. On Friday we had "Chicken Chasseur" (Tomato sauce chicken), "Fish fillet ala Meuniere" (Lemon sauce deep fried fish) and "Vichy carrot" (Steamed carrots). This reminds me of the restaurant owner in Plaak who introduced one dish to us as "Tu2 Er3 Qi2 Bao1 Qing1 Cai4" (Turkey ? Green Vegetables). Anyhow, the receptivity ratings for April are out. There's been a total plunge of 6% across the 4 meals. Gasp. We've been speculating about the definition of receptivity recently, actually, and I think we have the answer - it measures the percentage of people who bother to collect their food (no matter how many throw all or most of it away later). So the rest hate the food so much that they go on a hunger strike, or refuse to collect the food, risking getting charged. The food's that bad! *Grin* On Monday the cookhouse boss had a bright idea, that of giving us peanut porridge for our night snack. Most people didn't take any, and when we went back to the bunk, I offered people a real nightsnack - the rest of my Carte d'Or Hazelnut Chocolate! And on Saturday, we got "Egg Mayonnaise" for breakfast. Not only was it hot, there was probably more butter than Mayo in the damn thing.
It's freaky. Yew Jin's heart is so close to his skin that, when he removes his shirt and looks straight ahead, you can see his heart beating.
When the Bruneians have a night off, they can come back at 2-3am. Gah.
I was marching by the training sheds on my way up from the most god-forsaken public phone in the camp on monday when I heard somebody playing the trumpet. Going up, I chatted a bit with the player. Turns out his bunk mates were complaining about his playing, so he moved to that relatively secluded spot.
On Tuesday, which was mega-lecture day (10 lectures in all!), Zhang and I were discussing computer games and it turns out we've played many of the same games. From the days of the computers with no hard disks and only 5.25 floppy drives, we've both played Alley Cat (well, who hasn't?), Way of the Bushido and Ninja. Pity he didn't have enough RAM for Darksun: Shattered Lands.
On Tuesday, one person liked shorts so much that he booked out in pants, then took them off to reveal the shorts once he was out of the gate.
Iskandar's modified dismissal cheer: Seek safe sex. Magic [Johnson]! [Cf original: Seek, save, serve. Medic!]
For a while, Folie was given to repeatedly singing, "You're wasting my time". Irritating. Lucky he's tired of it.
Guard duty on Wednesday was incredibly boring. And it was Labour Day too. Better than a weekend, though. Luckily, we'd all prepared ourselves suitably by starving our bodies of sleep the night before. I thought I'd clocked a respectable time by sleeping at 1:30am, but Guan Hong hit 2am and Yew Yew took the prize with a mind-shattering 4:00am. Again, I got the post of sentry. It's boring, but at least you don't have to walk. And I got a chair for 3 hours! The food was terrible - lunch was totally hot, and since the canteen wasn't open I couldn't satiate my hunger there. We had 2 sets of turnouts, the first consisiting of 4 turnouts and latter 3. And all this while, the fire picket people got to sleep, except for a brief spate of camp cleanup in the morning. Especially Steven, who was asleep almost all the time.
When you've nothing to do while on guard duty, you muse. So now I've recalled some stuff to add to my already overly long About Me page. While sitting at the guard post, I saw this guy across the road, riding on a motorised bicycle. You don't see many of those around: I can probably count the number I've seen on one hand, let alone the number of appendages on my body.
It seems Mr Kamal and Mr Lim are Combat Medics too. Ooo. They must be much better than inept me.
The HQ platoons have walkie talkies that look like handphones. I've no idea why.
On Thursday, the Medical Officer trainees came in, in the OCS Waiter attire, and they were issued with laptop bags. They looked rather odd marching in the white top and black pants, carrying their "laptops". And their drill wasn't very good either :) But their course is not as relaxed as some of us were led to believe - they've done some running, and we've seen them marching and running in long 4 with rifles high ported.
Hospitals all use the 20g needles (the one we've been using to practice IVs with), it's only the SAF which uses the 16g ones. Gah.
The Bruneian girls suggested giving me Entonox (pain relieving gas, 50% oxygen and 50% nitrous oxide) before IV to dull my pain. Heh.
I really suck at IV. I hate injections so much, yet I am so lousy at administering IVs. Of 4 attempts, I passed but 2, and the first 3 were on my dear buddy Guan Hong. And for the last, I had to jiggle in Joshua's flesh to find the vein. But I think I know why I'm so lousy - it's the anxiety factor, so if I calm down, I should be able to achieve a higher accuracy rate. I almost missed getting shot, but I was spotted in time. Wonder of wonders, I didn't even *cry* (a first!). There was just some leg movement and much heavy breathing. This amazing feat can be attributed to the very on-the-ball sergeant who was there all the time, employing the usual psyching tactics, like distracting me by talking to me, giving me a packet of Wide Open weave (WOW) to grasp in my left hand and trying to extract promises that I'd not make a sound or shed a tear. Of course, it didn't hurt that he took over from Kumar once the needle went in, so it was less painful. But for all his troubles, he still couldn't find my vein and had to withdraw without hitting blood. He's actually very nice, and he fights for welfare for us when he's around, but I still have a bad feeling about the combat phase.
Seeing the miracle of the soundless IV, my platoon mates commented that I "didn't scream". Well, if they thought my strangled cries of the previous weeks were screams, then they obviously had not heard me in my prime, like when:
- I had my BCG in Primary 6
- Jeremy whacked my festering BCG wound in Secondary 1 while Cheah Kum Lim was showing us around the RI Design Centre Art Gallery
- I was in the New Block in Sec 2 when Yong Chin stole my pencil case and ran off
- Wei Ling brought us to some installation dealing with lasers and Sanje pulled my hanky off my nose (Hey, I was weird even then, ok?)
Some of the Malays caught a giant spider and kept it for a while. It was as long as the distance between the tip of my middle finger and the area just past my wrist.
The smokers have started smoking in the bunk. And since my bed's near to the end where they smoke, I've to flee very often. The amount of smoking breaks they get seems more than adequate actually, but then I don't smoke, so.
Guan Hong likes my Marks And Spencer Honey Roast Ham flavour Crisps. Hehe.
Iskandar is also a fan of Sunny Bookshop. Mmm.
The canteen woman is very smart, she charges high prices for the items people want to eat. A hashbrown'll set you back $0.50, and a chicken wing $1!
Some of the female SAF uniformed staff come to camp in civilian clothes. Gah.
Chris' been proud of wearing 1 set of uniform per week, but the sergeant found out and he was told to change his set or sign one extra duty. Haha.
I kept wondering, on Friday, why I kept smelling Kumar and his indian smell. It turned out he'd been wearing the same set of uniform since Monday, through guard duty.
Something very disgusting happened on Friday. Fortunately, I did not witness it as I was slumbering, but from what I was told, Khairul, who always likes to parade naked in the bunk, went in front of Steven and started spanking his monkey. Steven proceeded to spray his anti-blister spray on Khairul's genitals and buttocks. Apparently they wanted to do it to me, but were sure that I'd cry and complain to the CO.
My food is always plundered by everyone else, because they're too lazy to bring in their own food. On Friday, I went to wash my ziploc back, and munificently let my bunk mates take some of my Ruffles, but when I returned, the packet had disappeared. Running outside, I was just in time to see the 6 Malays (the 8 in my bunk minus Iskandar and Raffie) finishing the chips, and I only got a few crumbs. And Saturday morning, I woke to Kumar apologising, giving me $5 and promising that they'd bring food in next week, as they had consumed my Wise Cottage Fries the night before. Because they had the decency to give me recompense, I'll not hoard my food. And this is all good stuff. As Chris remarked, the stuff I bring in can't be found in supermarkets. At least those that he goes to.
Apparently one of the instructors at SMM gained weight just to escape normal BMT. Hmm.
One thing I don't understand is why I always see RJ people around SMM. It's rather far to walk, and I'm not sure that they gain access to any new bus services.
Tim passed by my camp and he agrees it looks like a dump!
Quotes:
"[On my handphone] Just bring it in lah"
"Gabriel, I think you need to wear [a] bra already."
"[On my scribbling] Later [when you] ORD, you [can] go and write a comic. Confirmed funny one. (It'll definitely be funny)"
"Army, no need to be so garang one... I've learnt the art of slacking. See, now I also don't tie my boot lace already. (I don't, laces anymore)"
"[On my attempt at Mozart's Lacrymosa] Gabriel, you've such a sweet voice."
"[Khairuldin sings:] Tomorrow is my bookout day, loolah, loolah. Tomorrow is my bookout day, loolah loolah lay. [Someone else sings: No more Khairuldin!]"
"[On how to avoid getting my food stolen] All you need to do is bring a big bag of groceries and put pork in the centre."
"[On an instructor cursing] Use vulgar language. No more ISO already."
"[On a war] The regulars are behind. When all of you die, then we come out. (Only when, will)"
"[On a war] When the enemy invades, you're going to go, 'I'm [PES] C9, please do not shoot me."
"[On someone who was very bitter] I think he doesn't have a girlfriend. I think he can't get into the U, that's why he's so disappointed."
"[On 2 RJ girls we saw outside SMM] Judging by the tits, not more than 12 years old."
"[On starting IVs with a 20g needle] No, we just want you to get comfortable. [Trainee: Then next time start with 100 {gauge}]... Poke mosquito."
"[On the Medical Officer Conversion Course trainees] Bloody hell, they look like Waiters' Association like that. (the Waiters' Association)"
"[On our 10pm lights off timing] Primary school kids sleep later than us."
I've decided to remove "Slave" from my icq info to avoid being picked up by BDSM aficionados.
I wonder if they still have those gimmicky vending machines where you can "dial a drink" and which is an utter waste of money, both to install and to use, with no discernable benefits for either producer or consumer.
Restored Post
Whenever people ask me how SMM is, I respond that it is good, relative to life elsewhere in the army, except for:
1) The no handphone rule
2) The bedbugs, mosquitoes and other monsters
3) The horrible food (the worst slop in the SAF probably goes to my camp)
and of course:
4) The weekly IVs
Well, it seems that we've finally tested the patience of our Company Senior Instructor for the last time / something bad, unrelated to us, happened to him that made him angry and crack.
Tuesday, we got hints of it. We had the usual talk about how the younger generation takes our security and prosperity for granted. Blah blah. Been there, done that.
On Friday, somebody lost his wallet, and still hadn't realised, after going through BMT at the very least, that in the SAF, if you lose something, you're never going to get it back. So he reported the loss, and on the pretext of searching for the wallet, the instructors turned our bunks upside down and took the opportunity to look for contraband (Mostly handphones, but a portable TV was found!). This served the dual purposes of deterring us from reporting lost items the next time, saving them loads of trouble, and getting people to do guard duties, saving them trouble choosing others, and satisfying their sadistic tendencies. Also, thanks to Mr Ass Man (as some of us call him), we did jumping jacks - 25 counts of 8, to weed out those who'd put their phones in their underwear. Of course, everyone had tucked them in tightly, so among the whole lot, only one Nokia battery fell out. And Mr Ass Man, ever considerate, gave us an lights off timing half an hour earlier - 10pm, for us to recover from our exertion. Nobody in my platoon got caught for contraband, though something much worse was discovered on someone (Hush!). Ahh, the kindness our instructor showed to us, giving us advance notice of the inspection by telling us they were checking for "bunk damages" (ahem). And Bruneians are very useful. They buy food back for you when they have a night off, you can hide in their bunk when you're pretend you're at Friday prayers but actually want to sleep and you can let them take care of your handphones! And in the end, the person probably didn't get his wallet back too. On a personal note, mine own personal communications device (just my luck. I bring it in on May Day and they check us. I'm jinxed!) was hidden in a place most ingenious. If I say so myself.
On Saturday, they went even crazier. They'd inspected the bunks in the morning, and some bunks' rubbish hadn't been brought down, and the bunks were generally not in standby condition. So they messed our bunks up themselves. My bunk was locked, so they vented their frustration by dumping a garbage bag full of garbage (and some mud, besides) at our door. On the pretext of that, and other miscellaneous things like people not coming back to endorse their MCs (those gotten over the weekend or during a night off) before going off for their sick rest (that policy is rather dumb, we all think), we had a mild torture session, many stand-by-beds, a bookout delayed till 2:10, a bookin brought up to 9pm (up from 10:30pm - in Units it's 11:59pm, and that means the time you enter the camp and not the time you report in a platoon in army T-shirt, shorts and shoes with a full waterbottle) and a withdrawal of our "privileges" - booking in/out is in Smart 4 from now on and we've no more nights off. They've probably lost their ISO certification by now! :) I wonder how many people are going to take an MC over this weekend.
And now, back to the roughly chronological narrative.
When I returned, there were the expected jibes about my hair. I got called "recruit". Bah. It's not that much shorter than Zhang's, and *he* doesn't get teased, though he does regret cutting his as short as it is too.
On Monday, I almost brought in my phone, but I backed out at the last minute. Other people bring theirs to Guard Duty and lectures, and I don't even bring mine in. Ahh, I think, if for nothing else, I'll bring mine in to spite the SAF.
The cookhouse likes to give fancy names to the food, probably to distract us from the bad taste. Seen on the menu before are dishes like: "Tasty Tientsin Cabbage" and "Imported Celery With Carrot". But pseudo-Western food takes the cake. On Friday we had "Chicken Chasseur" (Tomato sauce chicken), "Fish fillet ala Meuniere" (Lemon sauce deep fried fish) and "Vichy carrot" (Steamed carrots). This reminds me of the restaurant owner in Plaak who introduced one dish to us as "Tu2 Er3 Qi2 Bao1 Qing1 Cai4" (Turkey ? Green Vegetables). Anyhow, the receptivity ratings for April are out. There's been a total plunge of 6% across the 4 meals. Gasp. We've been speculating about the definition of receptivity recently, actually, and I think we have the answer - it measures the percentage of people who bother to collect their food (no matter how many throw all or most of it away later). So the rest hate the food so much that they go on a hunger strike, or refuse to collect the food, risking getting charged. The food's that bad! *Grin* On Monday the cookhouse boss had a bright idea, that of giving us peanut porridge for our night snack. Most people didn't take any, and when we went back to the bunk, I offered people a real nightsnack - the rest of my Carte d'Or Hazelnut Chocolate! And on Saturday, we got "Egg Mayonnaise" for breakfast. Not only was it hot, there was probably more butter than Mayo in the damn thing.
It's freaky. Yew Jin's heart is so close to his skin that, when he removes his shirt and looks straight ahead, you can see his heart beating.
When the Bruneians have a night off, they can come back at 2-3am. Gah.
I was marching by the training sheds on my way up from the most god-forsaken public phone in the camp on monday when I heard somebody playing the trumpet. Going up, I chatted a bit with the player. Turns out his bunk mates were complaining about his playing, so he moved to that relatively secluded spot.
On Tuesday, which was mega-lecture day (10 lectures in all!), Zhang and I were discussing computer games and it turns out we've played many of the same games. From the days of the computers with no hard disks and only 5.25 floppy drives, we've both played Alley Cat (well, who hasn't?), Way of the Bushido and Ninja. Pity he didn't have enough RAM for Darksun: Shattered Lands.
On Tuesday, one person liked shorts so much that he booked out in pants, then took them off to reveal the shorts once he was out of the gate.
Iskandar's modified dismissal cheer: Seek safe sex. Magic [Johnson]! [Cf original: Seek, save, serve. Medic!]
For a while, Folie was given to repeatedly singing, "You're wasting my time". Irritating. Lucky he's tired of it.
Guard duty on Wednesday was incredibly boring. And it was Labour Day too. Better than a weekend, though. Luckily, we'd all prepared ourselves suitably by starving our bodies of sleep the night before. I thought I'd clocked a respectable time by sleeping at 1:30am, but Guan Hong hit 2am and Yew Yew took the prize with a mind-shattering 4:00am. Again, I got the post of sentry. It's boring, but at least you don't have to walk. And I got a chair for 3 hours! The food was terrible - lunch was totally hot, and since the canteen wasn't open I couldn't satiate my hunger there. We had 2 sets of turnouts, the first consisiting of 4 turnouts and latter 3. And all this while, the fire picket people got to sleep, except for a brief spate of camp cleanup in the morning. Especially Steven, who was asleep almost all the time.
When you've nothing to do while on guard duty, you muse. So now I've recalled some stuff to add to my already overly long About Me page. While sitting at the guard post, I saw this guy across the road, riding on a motorised bicycle. You don't see many of those around: I can probably count the number I've seen on one hand, let alone the number of appendages on my body.
It seems Mr Kamal and Mr Lim are Combat Medics too. Ooo. They must be much better than inept me.
The HQ platoons have walkie talkies that look like handphones. I've no idea why.
On Thursday, the Medical Officer trainees came in, in the OCS Waiter attire, and they were issued with laptop bags. They looked rather odd marching in the white top and black pants, carrying their "laptops". And their drill wasn't very good either :) But their course is not as relaxed as some of us were led to believe - they've done some running, and we've seen them marching and running in long 4 with rifles high ported.
Hospitals all use the 20g needles (the one we've been using to practice IVs with), it's only the SAF which uses the 16g ones. Gah.
The Bruneian girls suggested giving me Entonox (pain relieving gas, 50% oxygen and 50% nitrous oxide) before IV to dull my pain. Heh.
I really suck at IV. I hate injections so much, yet I am so lousy at administering IVs. Of 4 attempts, I passed but 2, and the first 3 were on my dear buddy Guan Hong. And for the last, I had to jiggle in Joshua's flesh to find the vein. But I think I know why I'm so lousy - it's the anxiety factor, so if I calm down, I should be able to achieve a higher accuracy rate. I almost missed getting shot, but I was spotted in time. Wonder of wonders, I didn't even *cry* (a first!). There was just some leg movement and much heavy breathing. This amazing feat can be attributed to the very on-the-ball sergeant who was there all the time, employing the usual psyching tactics, like distracting me by talking to me, giving me a packet of Wide Open weave (WOW) to grasp in my left hand and trying to extract promises that I'd not make a sound or shed a tear. Of course, it didn't hurt that he took over from Kumar once the needle went in, so it was less painful. But for all his troubles, he still couldn't find my vein and had to withdraw without hitting blood. He's actually very nice, and he fights for welfare for us when he's around, but I still have a bad feeling about the combat phase.
Seeing the miracle of the soundless IV, my platoon mates commented that I "didn't scream". Well, if they thought my strangled cries of the previous weeks were screams, then they obviously had not heard me in my prime, like when:
- I had my BCG in Primary 6
- Jeremy whacked my festering BCG wound in Secondary 1 while Cheah Kum Lim was showing us around the RI Design Centre Art Gallery
- I was in the New Block in Sec 2 when Yong Chin stole my pencil case and ran off
- Wei Ling brought us to some installation dealing with lasers and Sanje pulled my hanky off my nose (Hey, I was weird even then, ok?)
Some of the Malays caught a giant spider and kept it for a while. It was as long as the distance between the tip of my middle finger and the area just past my wrist.
The smokers have started smoking in the bunk. And since my bed's near to the end where they smoke, I've to flee very often. The amount of smoking breaks they get seems more than adequate actually, but then I don't smoke, so.
Guan Hong likes my Marks And Spencer Honey Roast Ham flavour Crisps. Hehe.
Iskandar is also a fan of Sunny Bookshop. Mmm.
The canteen woman is very smart, she charges high prices for the items people want to eat. A hashbrown'll set you back $0.50, and a chicken wing $1!
Some of the female SAF uniformed staff come to camp in civilian clothes. Gah.
Chris' been proud of wearing 1 set of uniform per week, but the sergeant found out and he was told to change his set or sign one extra duty. Haha.
I kept wondering, on Friday, why I kept smelling Kumar and his indian smell. It turned out he'd been wearing the same set of uniform since Monday, through guard duty.
Something very disgusting happened on Friday. Fortunately, I did not witness it as I was slumbering, but from what I was told, Khairul, who always likes to parade naked in the bunk, went in front of Steven and started spanking his monkey. Steven proceeded to spray his anti-blister spray on Khairul's genitals and buttocks. Apparently they wanted to do it to me, but were sure that I'd cry and complain to the CO.
My food is always plundered by everyone else, because they're too lazy to bring in their own food. On Friday, I went to wash my ziploc back, and munificently let my bunk mates take some of my Ruffles, but when I returned, the packet had disappeared. Running outside, I was just in time to see the 6 Malays (the 8 in my bunk minus Iskandar and Raffie) finishing the chips, and I only got a few crumbs. And Saturday morning, I woke to Kumar apologising, giving me $5 and promising that they'd bring food in next week, as they had consumed my Wise Cottage Fries the night before. Because they had the decency to give me recompense, I'll not hoard my food. And this is all good stuff. As Chris remarked, the stuff I bring in can't be found in supermarkets. At least those that he goes to.
Apparently one of the instructors at SMM gained weight just to escape normal BMT. Hmm.
One thing I don't understand is why I always see RJ people around SMM. It's rather far to walk, and I'm not sure that they gain access to any new bus services.
Tim passed by my camp and he agrees it looks like a dump!
Quotes:
"[On my handphone] Just bring it in lah"
"Gabriel, I think you need to wear [a] bra already."
"[On my scribbling] Later [when you] ORD, you [can] go and write a comic. Confirmed funny one. (It'll definitely be funny)"
"Army, no need to be so garang one... I've learnt the art of slacking. See, now I also don't tie my boot lace already. (I don't, laces anymore)"
"[On my attempt at Mozart's Lacrymosa] Gabriel, you've such a sweet voice."
"[Khairuldin sings:] Tomorrow is my bookout day, loolah, loolah. Tomorrow is my bookout day, loolah loolah lay. [Someone else sings: No more Khairuldin!]"
"[On how to avoid getting my food stolen] All you need to do is bring a big bag of groceries and put pork in the centre."
"[On an instructor cursing] Use vulgar language. No more ISO already."
"[On a war] The regulars are behind. When all of you die, then we come out. (Only when, will)"
"[On a war] When the enemy invades, you're going to go, 'I'm [PES] C9, please do not shoot me."
"[On someone who was very bitter] I think he doesn't have a girlfriend. I think he can't get into the U, that's why he's so disappointed."
"[On 2 RJ girls we saw outside SMM] Judging by the tits, not more than 12 years old."
"[On starting IVs with a 20g needle] No, we just want you to get comfortable. [Trainee: Then next time start with 100 {gauge}]... Poke mosquito."
"[On the Medical Officer Conversion Course trainees] Bloody hell, they look like Waiters' Association like that. (the Waiters' Association)"
"[On our 10pm lights off timing] Primary school kids sleep later than us."
I've decided to remove "Slave" from my icq info to avoid being picked up by BDSM aficionados.
I wonder if they still have those gimmicky vending machines where you can "dial a drink" and which is an utter waste of money, both to install and to use, with no discernable benefits for either producer or consumer.
Post ID: 76153273
The word of the day is: "bonistic"
I want to be the amygdala. Or the sylvan fissure. For you anatomy students, the amygdala may seem an obvious choice for me, but why the sylvan fissure? Perhaps this litle snippet will enlighten:
"It is well-known that electrical stimulation of the right temporal lobe (above the right ear and specifically in the sylvan fissure or laterus sulcus) produces visions of God, hearing beautiful music, seeing dead friends and relatives, even panoramic life reviews."
Yesterday, at work, the assistant manager launched into a three minute imploration during morning briefing. He waved his hands in the air and made his oratory in striding, mellifluous cadences. He concluded with: "... and as bankers and as human beings, PLEASE STOP TAKING THE PENS OFF MY DESK!"
I've lost a bit of weight, which sounds surprising, given that my physical regimen, rather sedentary to start with, has deteriorated further. I only go swimming about once a week these days, if at all lucky. However, the loss of weight may be attributed to stress, lighter meals(too fatigued to binge), and having to run back and forth from my desk to the photocopying machine. Not that my physique has(or ever will, methinks) shows any sign of Greek-godhood. Not even Greek-satyr or Greek-philosopher(some of whom had pretty good bods, if those statues at old Hellenic digs are accurate:) bod, damn it.
Most of the time, I actually have heavy breakfasts and dinners, and light lunches so that I don't get sleepy in the day. In addition, i don't have a fixed lunch time, and one in a while, NO lunch time, so generally it's better to get used to keeping things light.
During a bout of acutely neurotic introspection, I realise that I - invariably - eat either one of three things:
a) The exact same yong tau foo combination at the exact same stall in the hawker center. i eat this about 75% of the time.
(For those who really really *really* want to know - it's two fishballs, two fu pei(the fried crispy doufu skin thing), one liang dou fu,
three tau fu pok, and two fish-cakes, in curry soup.)
b) two chappatis and a garlic naan, at another stall in the hawker center. i eat this about 20% of the time
c) once in a rare while, i'll walk to another cornershop instead and have a chao kuay teow. 5% of the time
And for some reason, when I try to make myself eat something different, I can't bring myself to spend the mental energy needed to conceive of an alternative, make a decision, and actually carry it out. A sign of my increasing degeneration.
Lots of chio chicks at my bank this week, for some reason. Am mildly gratified at being able to ask them questions like, "How much do you want to withdraw?"
or(for some foreigners) "Is this a multiple-entry visa?", or, in the case of joint accounts, "Your husband can place a deposit with you."
I want to be the amygdala. Or the sylvan fissure. For you anatomy students, the amygdala may seem an obvious choice for me, but why the sylvan fissure? Perhaps this litle snippet will enlighten:
"It is well-known that electrical stimulation of the right temporal lobe (above the right ear and specifically in the sylvan fissure or laterus sulcus) produces visions of God, hearing beautiful music, seeing dead friends and relatives, even panoramic life reviews."
Yesterday, at work, the assistant manager launched into a three minute imploration during morning briefing. He waved his hands in the air and made his oratory in striding, mellifluous cadences. He concluded with: "... and as bankers and as human beings, PLEASE STOP TAKING THE PENS OFF MY DESK!"
I've lost a bit of weight, which sounds surprising, given that my physical regimen, rather sedentary to start with, has deteriorated further. I only go swimming about once a week these days, if at all lucky. However, the loss of weight may be attributed to stress, lighter meals(too fatigued to binge), and having to run back and forth from my desk to the photocopying machine. Not that my physique has(or ever will, methinks) shows any sign of Greek-godhood. Not even Greek-satyr or Greek-philosopher(some of whom had pretty good bods, if those statues at old Hellenic digs are accurate:) bod, damn it.
Most of the time, I actually have heavy breakfasts and dinners, and light lunches so that I don't get sleepy in the day. In addition, i don't have a fixed lunch time, and one in a while, NO lunch time, so generally it's better to get used to keeping things light.
During a bout of acutely neurotic introspection, I realise that I - invariably - eat either one of three things:
a) The exact same yong tau foo combination at the exact same stall in the hawker center. i eat this about 75% of the time.
(For those who really really *really* want to know - it's two fishballs, two fu pei(the fried crispy doufu skin thing), one liang dou fu,
three tau fu pok, and two fish-cakes, in curry soup.)
b) two chappatis and a garlic naan, at another stall in the hawker center. i eat this about 20% of the time
c) once in a rare while, i'll walk to another cornershop instead and have a chao kuay teow. 5% of the time
And for some reason, when I try to make myself eat something different, I can't bring myself to spend the mental energy needed to conceive of an alternative, make a decision, and actually carry it out. A sign of my increasing degeneration.
Lots of chio chicks at my bank this week, for some reason. Am mildly gratified at being able to ask them questions like, "How much do you want to withdraw?"
or(for some foreigners) "Is this a multiple-entry visa?", or, in the case of joint accounts, "Your husband can place a deposit with you."
Post ID: 76150682
Thursday, May 02, 2002
Yaaaaaaay!!! My mum's here! My mum and my friends went out to shanghai dumpling kitchen for delicious variety of dumplings and noodles. Then went shopping at bridge road, mum bought a nice polyester waterproof jacket for A$70 for me.
(during lunch)
Albert: Did you know, there's a special knot they use when sewing cadavers?
Andrew (deadpans): I thought they just used a dead knot.
Albert: No, i don't think so... (attempts to describe how to tie the knot)
Andrew: Oh-uh-ohhh-oooh bad pun baaaaaaad pun......
Gabriel's gonna have a fit when he sees my obi-wan "you are xxx" quiz... =p
(Anonymous: The girls in SMU all dress up like they're going clubbing one!!)
(during lunch)
Albert: Did you know, there's a special knot they use when sewing cadavers?
Andrew (deadpans): I thought they just used a dead knot.
Albert: No, i don't think so... (attempts to describe how to tie the knot)
Andrew: Oh-uh-ohhh-oooh bad pun baaaaaaad pun......
Gabriel's gonna have a fit when he sees my obi-wan "you are xxx" quiz... =p
(Anonymous: The girls in SMU all dress up like they're going clubbing one!!)
Post ID: 76074493
Wednesday, May 01, 2002
*Wheeeee* I've always wanted to be Ewan McGregor as Obi-wan Kenobi. Isn't he soooo cooool!!!
Okay, so I tweaked 1 question after i got anakin skywalker the brat. So. Don't u dare say i'm a loser ... even if i am!! Hahahahahahahhaa
Which Star Wars character are you?
Okay, so I tweaked 1 question after i got anakin skywalker the brat. So. Don't u dare say i'm a loser ... even if i am!! Hahahahahahahhaa
Which Star Wars character are you?
Post ID: 76038774
Welcome dom! Honoured by your participation.
My mum just came .... so glad! But she's sick. But we're going out with my bunch for lunch tomorrow! I'm very excited! And using so many exclamation marks doesn't bug me at all now!!!
Who wants to be temporal lobe?
I think the 4-lettered S word qualifies as vulgarity. I have enough of a dilemma just using "crap" (wince).
(wince wince wince) trying to feel better ... strangely sports helps (= . I feel like such an unfit blob, just running a couple of rounds after touch rugby and my calves started to cramp up.
My mum just came .... so glad! But she's sick. But we're going out with my bunch for lunch tomorrow! I'm very excited! And using so many exclamation marks doesn't bug me at all now!!!
Who wants to be temporal lobe?
I think the 4-lettered S word qualifies as vulgarity. I have enough of a dilemma just using "crap" (wince).
(wince wince wince) trying to feel better ... strangely sports helps (= . I feel like such an unfit blob, just running a couple of rounds after touch rugby and my calves started to cramp up.
Post ID: 76038195
Tuesday, April 30, 2002
Quizzes / Guard Duty
Ahhhhhhhhh! It's the invasion of the "you are xxx" quizzes. Evil! Evil!
I've guard duty tomorrow. Joy. My aim is to sleep a maximum of 4 hours tonight.
I've guard duty tomorrow. Joy. My aim is to sleep a maximum of 4 hours tonight.
Post ID: 75998262
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