A Tired Person

don’t know why are these happening to me but they are keeping my day to day morale lower and lower. I had made quite a few mistakes this year and they are very careless mistakes.

First, I was so eager to finish a work that I did not double check whether I had keyed in the correct data. Second, while in a meeting, I fell asleep partly due to the warm office and also I have not had enough sleep for the past week. Thirdly and many more, I did not get the background information of any situation and went into conclusion. I think 2006 is not my year at all.

I almost got extra duties for the mistake in the documents and sleeping in the meeting. It was a close shave. I hope that for the 1 month in operation from tomorrow onwards, I will not make any more silly and unforgivable mistakes.

I am too tired and had less than 5 hours of sleep each day for the past week. I think my brain is not able to work fully.

tata…

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Selfless or Selfish

You know, there are some people who are such a slacker, and there are some people who are so loyal about their job. I guess I am one of the stupid person who unrelentingly reach out to help my friend in his duty. But it all means responsibility and good relationship built up from helping those who needs it.

There isn't any duty for me this month but I took over his duty as he has to go for range today. Furthermore, I was to take over the duty from the previous DOO who also needs to go for range early in the morning. So, I stayed in yesterday night and woke up early. As I was suppose to be a Chamber Safety Officer in tomorrow's range, I requested my friend who is taking over on Sunday to do the same as I did this morning. The respond was not good.

He told me to pass the keys, card, and pager to my GA so that he do not need to come early. It is a bad idea as the safe key is in the bunch. I told him it is impossible. Impolitely, he replied me that if I want him to take over early, I am to pay for his taxi fare. Where is his responsibility? In fact, I do not think he has. Since posted to the unit, I had only seen him a total of about 1 month even though our offices are on the same level. He is always in his bunk sleeping or doing something which I have no idea.

Why can't he stayed in camp for the night?I can do it, why can't him? Another of my friend is kind enough to offer me the help to stand-in for the slacker until he reach camp, I suppose at 8am, the official taking over time. Well, no choice, I had to leave camp at 6.30am.

It just came to my mind that I was reading XiaXue's blog. I cannot believe that she is a friend of one of my friend. How did Wendy get so many supporters? Her recent entries were a shock to me. Just a small matter, she writes it as if it wants her life. Hmm... I think she is always like that? Well, to my opinion, she is one of those busybody aunties who likes to make things big, and gossip around.

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Feverish

Ah… I think I am getting sick after the past few hectic days in camp. I had not get enough rest even though I had almost 7 hours of sleep each night. I am feeling a bit feverish bit giddiness now.

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The almost detailed boring events

Back at last.

Ever since I commissioned as an Officer, I had never stayed in camp without going home for more than 1 consecutive day. But on Wednesday and Thursday, I broke that record. I had a long day on Wednesday, not as long as Thursday though. I was so busy that afternoon, going for a recce at a place for the next day’s GPMG Fam shoot. Fam stands for Familiarization in short. We recce the place for so long and got lost in the training area. We were going in circles. Each turn into a road, we end up in the same place where we came from. It is just like what you see in the TV shows. Round and round we go and in the end, we gave up and head back to camp. I had a very late dinner, almost 7.30pm. I did not go home after that; stayed in my bunk watching TV, reading a manual, and The Chronicles of Narnia book.

On Thursday, before lunch was hectic work. I tested the serviceability of a night device which is going to used for the night shoot, checked on the Medic’s equipments, and was delayed by my CO for some mistakes in the documents done by my conducting officer. The delay also caused a delay in drawing the guns. Well, someone did not do his job and I had to resolve the problem for him. But everything went well and we set off almost 45 minutes late.

I was the only officer at the range who knows how to use the night vision device. Even though the rest of the officers are infantry trained once, they did not come across that device. I thought the men and some officers how to use them and was co-coordinating and rectifying problems arose during the night shoot. Having my CO sitting just behind me watching, I was stressed but very soon, it went off. The first round shot out was not that good. I was then told to fire and realign the night vision to the correct alignment. It had being 1 year since I fired live rounds from a GMPG.

Never ever since in my “career” started, I am so involved in my work. I felt such a great achievement and that everything went so smoothly even though there are a few hiccups in the day time.

Next week, it will be a more hectic week for me and most of the people in my unit. It will be the last week before we goes into operation.

tata…

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The Flight to the Future

More and more people are leaving for Australia for their studies. Just yesterday, Shuyi, Tricia and Qiuhua flew off for their future over at Tasmania. Mid this year, Anthony and Laney are also going to Melbourne. As for me, 1 year more to go. Next year February will be my turn.

I was thinking, am I prepared to go overseas and spend 3 years of my life without my family with me. Is Architecture a good course to pursue taking in consideration that that line is very saturated.

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The Tale of a Handicapped

Handicapped in army is also known as pikachu, pai ka pai cui in hokkien.

I had completed the FO Challenge at 7.15am. It was a long journey from the start point, lower Mandai to the end point back to camp. It all started at 2.57pm and it started to rain since we reached the start point. Before we started, we were already quite drenched. Our boots are starting to “flood” and the moral is getting lower. We kicked off with a slight drizzle. Hopes are in the air.

But soon later I reached my first check point, it started to rain heavily again. I had difficulties writing the codes of the check point. My notebook got very wet even if I covered myself with my raincoat. It was a very bad day to do navigation and at the same time one have to write the codes of the check points on paper which is rain unfriendly.

Walking with flooded boots, we continued on to stage 2 at about 8pm. We walked “along” Bukit Timah Expressway, BKE and had a few test stations along it. All of us stated to have blisters and abrasions. Then stage 3 in Marsiling training area at about midnight. By then, we were all tired and had difficulties to walk but we still pushed on. Using our GPS, we navigate to 4 test stations at different places. I felt like they purposely place the test station in difficult locations. They were all on top of the high ground and we had to walk a very long distance up. We even had to walked a long distance and make a U turn in order to get to one of the stations.

We took a lot of unnecessary routes which we had wasted a lot of time and energy in. Stage 4 is Homerun at about 5am. We walked along Mandai Avenue and Mandai Road back to camp. We took our time to walk back. We were not tired actually. The whole challenge is not difficult. The difficult part is that it rained. It caused our boots and clothing to be wet and caused our feet to crumple and resulted in blisters and abrasions on any other parts of the body. Even a not trained up soldier can take part in that challenge. Yoyo told us that we have to go for the 16km road march and 10km endurance run to built up our body. It is in fact not necessary for most officers ad we already had the kind of physical fitness. My friend who had not gone for any can complete the challenge, so why can’t anyone?

Finally, we got our jungle hat and a certificate to signify us completing the first FO Challenge. There are a lot of things to improve. The stations have not enough equipment as a result people have to wait for a long time for their turn. We almost got the wrong way because there is no light sticks to demarked the routes as we are not given the exact route in paper.

All is over. Yesterday, it took me a few minutes to take out my boots and socks, another few minutes to walk to the toilet, and back to bunk. I had so much difficulties walking around that I sometimes had to walk against the wall or hold the railings of the stairs.

It will be a long recovery before I can run again.

tata…

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Rest In Peace

At last I had successfully submitted my scholarship application to the Statutory Board Online after several attempts a few days ago. The form today looks different and is now completed in a few pages. I choose to apply for a few departments, Building and Construction Authority (BCA), Housing & Development Board (HDB), National Parks Board, Singapore (NParks) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). I think there is no harm applying for more, than just 1 with 50-50 percent hope.

Yesterday, I was like a person sitting in the office doing nothing while looking at others busy with their work. I was staring blanking on my email client on the monitor the whole afternoon not knowing what I am waiting for. I played a game of Mario until 4.30pm and walked back to bunk, getting ready to meet my secondary school friends at Tiong Bahru.

Before that, I went to Bugis, meeting one of my polytechnic school friends to get back my a CD. While waiting, I went to Kinokuniya bookstore to buy the book, The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. There are several publishers to choose from. One of them had a special box containing all 7 separate books which cost over $60. I thought, it was too expensive and it looks rather kiddy. Then, there were 7 books sold individually at $7.88 each. It is still quite expensive. When I was about to leave, I came upon a book, thick, with a big gold printed Narnia word on its side. I picked it up, reading the back summary and it is a edition with all 7 stories in 1 book at $38.75. Reasonably priced, I went over to the counter.

At Tiong Bahru, we had our dinner at Griller, if Lay Lay had remembered correctly. Haha... They do not serve iced water for free, only mineral water for $1. All of us were gathered there with a purpose, a general meeting. Kar Foong had decided to organize a 10 years anniversary for us in a few months time. It will signify all of us being friends since secondary 1 for 10 years. Even though 3 of my friends present that night were less than 10 years, we seems like we had known each other longer. And also, there are also a few friends who I know for more than 10 years.

It is indeed refreshing of that idea. Most importantly is the kind of friendship we had that can last till now. It is all thanks to technology which makes it easier to get contact with each other.

Tomorrow is the arrival of FO Challenge, the day I dread it to come. I hate it but I had no choice but to complete it with pride and honor. I still have not studied for my planning test.

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The Lost Battle

Failure is a path which every one has to go through. Either it is a small failure or a great fall, we still have to face it and carry on with our lives with a better prospective.

Hopelessly sad, I met a great failure this afternoon. My 10 years of waiting, “though in the middle there is a change”, had suddenly lost. I lost a battle which I held for so long. I had just been KIA, Killed In Action.

A phoenix will reborn after every death, so will I. But when will that happen to me, I seriously do not know. It seems like all hopes of recovery had vanished into thin air.

I felt very difficult for me to let this long years of waiting go. How can I do it? Why is this happening to me? Maybe it is the word “Love”

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The War Begins

Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, is a very nice magically fantasized story into movie. I have neither watched BBC’s version of the chronicles nor the animated versions, but I would like to get my hands on either one of them. Also, I would get all 7 books of the chronicles to read, just like reading Harry Potter.

Yesterday, I went to Sim Lim Square to join the usual crowd there. I went around looking at cameras and wanted to find out the status of Konica Minolta. Minolta is planning to withdraw from its photography business. But it seems like the brand is still available. Other rivals like Nikon, Canon and others are strong in their sales partly because of their strong advertisements. Konica Minolta is a one of the good producer of SLR and DSLR cameras.



Which one do you like? I think I still prefer Minolta’s function and easy accessible buttons.

I tested out Nikon’s D70s’s handle and feel, and it was nicely designed. Though I did not get a hands-on on Minolta’s Dynax 7D, but I tried the Dynax 5D. 5D’s body is not as nice to grip as the D70s and its lens is not as good to handle. Harvey Norman sells 5D at about $1400 with standard 18-70mm lens, if I remember correctly, and throws in a free 75-300mm lens for free. What I like about Minolta is its Anti-Shake CCD technology called, CCD Shift Anti-Shake System, which is a very plus point in digital cameras. It integrates anti-shake into its CCD whereas other competitors do it in their lens which is much costly.

Nikon’s D70s is a good camera, cheaper than 7D, at about $1488. I was so tempted to get my hands on the camera and it would be a very good investment. I could trade in my A200 camera or keep my A200 and get a Nikon. If budget allows, I might even want to get 7D, which is a lot better than D70s.

Photography can be a expensive and at the same time cheap hobby. The accessories for a SLR can range for a few hundred dollars to over thousand. By the time a serious photographer completes his collections, he will have an assets of close to $10k or more on photography kits and accessories alone.



By end of this year, I might get a new camera. Maybe by then a newer D70s will be out and that will be my target.

tata…

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Double Trouble

I think we are getting into trouble soon. Hee… Today, my CO was asking why are all the officers (those who did not go for the overseas exercise) on off today. I think he is getting impatient with us already for our disappearing act.

What are we suppose to do when there are nothing for us to do? Sitting in the office and face the computer pretending we are doing work but actually we are playing games. We close the game’s window when he approaches our terminal and we just act busy reading our emails.

What in the world is that?! We people, who stay in the office during their overseas exercise, did not get any benefits, while the men can easily get 1 day off for 1 day of “sai kang”. And we are not able to take any off, not even half a day? No compensations, not even a word of thank you for doing duties throughout the whole month of January, and you can’t even give us some air to breathe? Who are the people who is in camp doing duties during the holiday seasons while the rest happily celebrating outside in the civilian world? We are just a bunch of people who work for nothing in return, or are we suppose to? This is army.

Life is tough nowadays. Everyone are trying to survive with any cost it takes. Even in the army. Every single person in the army had eyes staring at them every second. One wrong step, you are dead.

What am I writing? How does it sounds? Didn’t realize that I wrote about army again. Boring.

I cannot believe that my body is aching again. All thanks to the past 2 lessons of ICCT, Intermediate Close Combat Training. Tomorrow morning’s lesson is cancelled. Wahoo! I can take a break and let my body recover.

tata…

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Last New Year?

It could be my last Lunar New Year. 2007 year of boar, my year, will start on 18 February. I might have flown to Australia for my studies.

This year, my new year isn’t fun. I did my visiting on the first day and that is it. It is over. Day 2, I went back to camp early in the morning, taking over duty and feeling demoralized. I could not believe that I am sitting in the office back in camp doing my duty. In-fact, it was the worst day of my life, worst than doing duty during weekends.

The camp was so quiet, like a ghost town. And small pockets of Little India and Malay Village was scattered around the camp. Not I racist ar… sorry if I offend anyone.

The next day after I hand over my duty, I did not had much rest and went out with my friends to celebrate. We went to Miss Tam’s house, whom is my secondary school Geography teacher. But she was not at home. Duh… We had sent emails to each other and arranged to meet her that afternoon, but she did not check the last email I sent her and SMS. Apparently, we made a few arrangements with her but in the end, it was called off because we had some broken communication links. Hard to explain in words.

Made our own arrangements and we went for a drink at TCC. Then later, we watch Memoirs of a Geisha. It was a good movie. I never know what a true Geisha is until I watched the story. I might consider buying the book to read in detail. The movie was well expressed and I believe the book surely will even more. Good movie, 4 ½ stars. If Harry Potter movies are like that, it will be great.

tata…

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