The 6th Mono-Intake has come to the Cutting Edge (my unit)! It's time for all of us to practise uttering the sentence: "Never mind, whole lot knock it down!", or variants of the above. Some time before they came in, 2 posters went up on 2 facing walls. One says: "BMT. It's not what you leave behind. It's what you gain in the days ahead". Below, you see this forlorn guy and his sad-looking girl friend. So I suppose the message is you lose your girlfriend, and you get a bad haircut, courtesy of the 42SAR barber and friends. The other poster says "Welcome to 42SAR". I think a good subtext for that poster would be: "You die. All die." People say that BMT at a unit is more slack than at the Isle of Doom, and this seems to be borne out by the fact that the recruits aren't confined at the start of BMT!

We've gotten 10 new medics. This unexpected generosity has us overwhelmed. For once we will be at (sorta) full strength. Unfortunately, none of them are my juniors. All of them are privates, so the 2 1/2 year soldiers (most of them) will get to go through everything with the just-enlisted recruits, and ORD together with them. Joy! Meanwhile, people like me will get to skip ATEC :)

Now that the recruits have come, life has gotten worse for us. Perhaps it's to set the standards for the recruits, or so that they don't complain. For one, we can't sleep in bunk during lunch time anymore. So one of the few advantages of having a bunk is now gone, and we have even less reason to leave our work places.

I returned from NCC cover to discover that my Secret Garden had been desecrated! Argh. It took me all of a few minutes to re-sanctify it and re-consecrate it, so now it's back to normal.

The promising initiative whereby we could choose what meals to eat in order to save taxpayers' money has been killed in its prime. People will continue not to eat, regardless. More's the pity.

We've been made to purchase these "Free Singapore From SARS" combination lucky draw/scratch and win tickets issued by Singapore Pools at $3 each. The top prize is $1 million - maybe it's what they decided to do with the surfeit money is the Courage Fund. Now, how buying lucky draw tickets is supposed to kill SARS is a mystery. I don't think throwing yet more money at this particular problem is going to make it go away any faster. Anyhow, the tickets proclaim that all proceeds will go to "SARS-related community causes". This is a marvelously vague term. I suppose it could mean that the money is used to subsidise the purchase of floor disinfectant bought by Community Centres. Or maybe it goes to helping MOE and MINDEF pay for the thermometers that all pupils and soldiers got :) Now, all of this wouldn't bother me all that much, but for the fact that we've been -forced- to buy these tickets. Now, I remember that, a few weeks ago, some guy wrote in to the Straits Times forum asking why his son was forced to collect money for the Army Half Marathon. Colonel Bernard Toh, Director of Public Affairs at Mindef, naturally wrote in to assure everyone that no, servicemen are not forced to collect money for AHM. They're just given "targets". So now, with this dirty business made public, I assume that all servicemen are no longer forced to reach a target for AHM collections - hell, it came out on my unit's Routine Orders. The trouble is that, while AHM donations are no longer compulsory (unlike last year), the "Free Singapore From SARS" tickets are still being forced down our throats. Now, I could be a jolly chap and write in, like the father of that serviceman, and complain to Colonel Bernard Toh, and shame the SAF again. However, seeing my history of having letters rejected by the ST, and how, if they're feeling nasty, they'll invoke the Official Secrets Act and throw me into DB, I suppose that might not be such a wise course of action. Maybe I should just call the SAF Hotline :) 1800-6278-0022.

I felt a sudden urge to opine on Singapore's own Day of Infamy (a la Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941), while my feet were collapsing during the SAF Day parade rehearsal, but I find that it isn't really suitable.


The SAR-vivor rap is so bad that it will forever be seared into my mind, causing my untold horrific nightmares for all eternity.

I really should be careful when deleting CLSIDs from my Registry. I've had to re-install Windows twice already because I cocked something up.


Travelling on the new North East line gives me a feeling of deja vu. The stations are massive, multi-levelled and cavernous and you have to walk a lot to get to and from it from the old MRT lines. In the trains, you have signs reading "Mind The Gap". The air in the trains and stations isn't very cold, and smells slightly stale, with a little of the tunnel about it. And to complete it all, you have the Circle Line coming up in a few years.

One of the stated aims of the Circle Line is to let commuters bypass the crowded city. Somehow, I don't think building a new line will have much effect. For one, the stations bypassed by the new line aren't very many. Also, looking at the North East line and how much you have to walk to transfer to it, it is likely that any time saved by bypassing the City stations will be lost both to walking and waiting for the connecting trains.

I saw this device to give you a flashing belly button. It was advertised as being "for girls of all ages". Wth.

I finally saw a Scarlet Ibis (after which a short story I did in Sec 1 for Lit was named after) at the Zoo/Bird Park exhibit in Orchard.

In Korea, getting a tattoo gets you out of their conscription. People also try other ways of getting downgraded. Looks like Singaporeans aren't the only ones who detest being slaves.

Patriotism is, among other things, an urge to do what is best for one's country. However, in Singapore, the country is inextricably bound up with the government. To criticise or distrust the government is almost to be unpatriotic. In fact, the paper that people are forced to sign upon enlistment, and the oath that they swear (invalid, of course, under duress), contain copious references to the Government. So the question is: what happens when the Government is not acting in the interests of the country, and true patriots will be obliged to defy it?


I look into a crystal ball, and I see nothing. That's bad.


Quotes:

[On my observation that his hair had gained in volume during his ORD leave] You know why you're so fat? It's because you're so full of shit.

Only Ah Bengs like to go to Pasar Malams. Then they can buy their "No Fear" shirts.