Broken

Initially, I was non-chalant about the news. But as I thought more and more about it, maybe I have been living in denial all this while. Maybe it is just a juvenile crush of sorts, maybe more. I will never know now.

Had a short chat with a close friend about this.

But, it was probably never meant to be. And if it is to be, it will be so in the end.

"Love lifts us up where we belong.
Where eagles fly,
On a mountain high.
Love makes us act like we are fools.
Throw our lives away,
For one happy day."
-Moulin Rouge

Ops

I'm back from Brunei.

In short, Brunei :-

-has nothing to see
-has nothing to do
-has nothing to buy
-has pedestrian crossings instead of traffic lights
-has roundabouts instead of junctions
-sells petrol at 53 cents a litre

I have been activated for ops deployment. So I would be away for a while. Still contactable by my mobile.

Hello

I'm in Brunei now. Can't say too much here.

Will be back on the 9th of June.

And my Section IC has just blocked my leave.

And you guys can SMS me all you want. Its free for both you and me. Hahas

Rants

I have been accepted into NUS Faculty Of Science. Now I need to choose.

Go Devils Go.

You...take care.

Dreams

Late at night when all the world is sleeping
I stay up and think of you
And I wish on a star that somewhere you are
Thinking of me too

Cause I'm dreaming of you tonight
Till tomorrow I'll be holding you tight
And there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be
Than here in my room dreaming about you and me

Had some pretty weird dreams recently. Won't elaborate on them. But I feel that they have been affecting how I function.

Champions

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -

Yes. Once again, Sir Alex proves that he is still relevant in todays footballing world.

Champions '07-'08 by two points.

Now that we have a major, and I say again MAJOR, psychological advantage over Chelsea, maybe a double is in store...

Champions Of Europe '07-'08?

Lancer

My gunner trades course has finished and I have been "un-attached" from Archer Company in 40SAR and posted back to HQ Armour. Now i'm a stay-out personnel. Wonder what life has in store for me now.

It was quite hard to leave Archer Company. No doubt the place had bad food and reeked of cigarette smoke all the time, but the gunners were fantastic. They really made us feel welcomed there.

Anyway, I am going over to Brunei for a period of 12 days, between 28th May and 8th June. Will be bringing my laptop there so I will still be contactable through email and MSN. You can ask me more but no guarantee that I will say anything.

Pictures

Acceptance

Shows that my bullshitting skills are still there. Interview was a piece of cake. Works in my favour that they are selective about the people they take into this course. From my estimate, only about 80 were selected for the interview.

Choices

Well. I'm back in training.

Went for my NTU interview yesterday. Now i'm in a dilemma as to what to choose. NTU Chemistry & BioChemistry or NUS Faculty Of Science. I much rather do life sciences in NUS, but employment will definitely be a problem in Singapore. Then there comes the issue of me not getting the course I want in NUS. There is a possibility that I may get into Faculty of Science, but not get the course of choice.

NTU also has its advantages. The largest of which is that it is a 4-year direct honours program. But i'm also slightly concerned about the employment options. Also many of the better lecturers in NUS have moved over to NTU. The lab also looks mighty impressive.

So many choices to make. Hope I don't make a mistake.

Rest

I'm at home at the moment. Just came back from SGH where I had a wedge resection done on my big toe on the right foot. Was given local anesthetic. As the procedure was carried out, I begun to think about how local anesthetic works. Thought it may have been related to blockage of transmission of an action potential. Came back to wiki and I was right.

Local anesthetic works by inhibiting the influx of sodium ions through the membrane, preventing depolarisation from taking place and as such, the action potential cannot be propagated.

I also begun to think about pain. Often, people think of pain as a bad thing. I on the other hand, think of pain as a good thing,

"Pain is your best friend. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger"

These words were drilled into me by one of my favourite teachers, Mr. See Teck Hock.

However, pain has a very elementary function. It serves to warn the individual of danger. This story will show that pain is essential.

Pain is my best friend....

Pictures

Went shooting today.



















Would you eat this?

Tankee

Life as a tankee has been good so far. Less tiring physically than i've expected, but way more tiring mentally.

Swift And Decisive.

Presently, i'm attached to Archer Company at 40 SAR. Not too bad. Nothing compared to Ninja though.

Armour

Tomorrow, I will begin life as a man in the SAF. I wanted to go to command school, but that is what life has for me. Like what 2LT Benjamin said "In the SAF, you will go to where you belong." So I guess I belong in armour. However, deep down inside, I will always be a Ninja. Never will I forget the times in Ninja, nor the lessons learnt.

Duty, Honour, Country. Ninja Company

Organisation

I've stumbled on a freeware program called Taskbar Reshuffle. Its a program that allows you to re-order windows on the taskbar. Its a Windows-only program and sadly, only 32-bit. This is a great program especially for a neat freak like me. It really improves productiveness and visual appeal of Vista.

Pictures

Was walking towards Plaza Singapura from the National Library when I saw the most amazing looking sky yet. Here are some pictures.







And this last photo looks like I isolated the red colour either in-camera or through a post processing program, but I swear that it was taken as is. No post processing done apart from resizing.

Random

Nine weeks passed really quickly

The original "Apologize" is much nicer than the Remix-ed Timberland one

I watched a video of a C-section this morning

To you...take care

Memories

P.O.P is over. Like OC said, "After POP, BMT will just be echos and memories". Echos and memories that really stay with you.

Memories like,
-ZhengRong and his mirror.
-Rifle over head during fast march
-POP in the rain
-Platoon party
-Cotton buds

And the list goes on.....

Bittersweet experience it has been.

Well......it certainly helped that I had a very united and strong platoon. Not to mention an OUTSTANDING section. If I had to redo BMT again, I wouldn't have changed a thing.

"Shit happens. Just so happens you're in it"

Results

Well, I can't say that i'm thrilled with my results but i'm not disappointed either. I just hope that I can go to the course of my choice.

P.O.P

1.5 weeks left to POP. It will be a bittersweet experience.

Anyway, Happy Founders Day to all....

Updates

Haven't blogged in a while due to my sickness. Recovering but still down.

This past week has got to be the most tiring BMT week till now due to SITest and route marches.

Field camp and SITest are both over. Now for my re-range, IPPT and SOC. After that, we all wait for 110308 to arrive.

R.I.P

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster. The brutal crash that took the footballing world by storm. The one single error that crippled one of the footballing giants, bringing it to its knees. The world stood still.

It killed some of United's greatest players such as Eddie Colman, Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne and the great Duncan Edwards. Today, as we prepare for Chinese New Year, lets take a minute to think of the Busby Babes, and wonder, what might have been. What success they could have achieved.

Sick

Yesterday I was not feeling well since the morning. Constantly took my temperature. It was constantly hovering around 38.4 until just before dinner when it hit 38.9. My section mates then got me to tell the officer. I was then sent to the MO and then got Attend C till wednesday.

So ya. I'm home and have to take a concoction of 7 different types of drugs for my throat infection.

BMT

Life has been reasonably good in BMT, apart from my knee which has been giving me problems and my strained right wrist and left bicep. Recently tweaked my left calf also. The training has become tougher and the commanders have come down harder on us.

Oh. And now we have no nightsnack. Super sad man.

And I still have problems on the SOC. Just cannot pass the swing trainer. No idea why.

On a much brighter note, I am now able to do three pull ups. By no means will I pass the IPPT diagnostics on CNY eve, but at least there is improvement. Hopefully the PS will allow food in soon.

Oh. And I got marksman at IMT. Now to replicate my results for range.

Will update more on CNY eve which would be my next book out.

NS

Well. I'm back from 17 days of confinement. Can't say it was easy, but can't say it was terribly tough either. Good times enjoy, bad times endure. Of course, it helped that Nat is in my platoon and there were two AC peeps in my section. My section is damn cool. Some of us do chin-ups every night and some do squats every night. I do both. If not how to get huge legs.

Anyway, my platoon is quite a fun loving bunch of people. Of course, like one of my officers said, "There is a time to play and a time to have fun". And I think I talk to the floor a lot.

The status list from my platoon is quite long I must say. However, some of the injuries are plain stupid. Like getting a sprained ankle during 5BX. Bloody stupid right Nat?

SOC is damn fun. Like a huge playground. But I just can't cross the swing trainer. No idea why. Jacob's ladder is where the pussies appear, according to my Sergeant.

And it is in Tekong where the effects of global warming can be fully felt. Try doing 30:60 with a WBGT of 37.2. Its no joke man.

Booking in on monday.

Looking all around us.
People everywhere.
Children having fun.
While we are holding guns.
Have you every wondered?
Why must we serve?
Because we love our land.
And we want it to be free, to be free. YA!

Farewell

This would be my last post before I enlist. 17 days of pure NS training without any external distractions. But it will also be 17 days without my com and my dear camera.

So here I post my final photos before I enlist. Till we meet again....

Change

Went back to MJ to take some pictures. Didn't take a lot and my square crop was ruined by about a couple of centimeters. Still pisses me off.

Anyway, MJ has changed a lot. The field. or should I say grass patch, bounded by the C block, E block, spiral staircase and the LT's is being converted into a fountain.



Hell, even the vision (or is it mission) is changed. They say "A picture speaks a thousand words"
The first picture was taken about nine months back in March 2007 and the second one was taken yesterday.





I also took a series of pictures using a tripod and stitched them together to for this panorama of the gallery. its a little distorted due to the relative distance of the railing and circular panning motion of the tripod, but here goes.



Lastly, Happy New Year! Courtesy of Zong Ming.

Pictures

Well, I was asked to put up some cute pictures. So here goes.

Pictures

Have not been doing much lately. Notable events include going out with some 4.4 guys, Eggy/Ash/Kangs and sending Yingqi off to Tekong.

I also went shooting with Alison recently, and she brought up a point that I never noticed before. She said that AC guys love to talk about the past. It really struck me. Thinking back, there has never been a outing of sorts without us talking about past events that have affected us in one way or the other.

And here are some photos that I took. Comments and criticism are welcomed.

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Flashbacks

Well, these few days I have been meeting up with old friends, reminiscing about the days gone by. Had loads of fun with the ventures and with Eggy, talking about primary school days.

Later tomorrow, will be meeting up with Nat and gang. Hope it will be fun.

Anal

Today i found out that i'm really anal about super small matters. Something to take note of in future. Maybe i'm too picky about the small stuff.

But hey, once Steve Jobs once spent half an hour nit-picking on the font, font size and location of three words on a prototype of the iTMS (iTunes Music Store). Maybe that is a sign of things to come.

Anyway, I feel that the iTMS is a very good concept. Who would have thought that Apple would become one of the music powerhouses in the new digital music age. No one could conceive the idea of selling singles instead of albums. Now i believe that iTMS is making as much revenue as the iPods. Wonder when it is coming to Singapore.

Fatigue

Sitex is finally over.

Honed my skills at the art of lying with a straight face. Blatant lying about what I own and what I do with a computer.

Anyway, i'm feeling quite confused at the moment. Talked to someone about it and got my thoughts straightened out a little. We'll wait and see. Maybe I should just take things one step at a time.

Pictures

Here are some pictures. Comments and criticism are welcomed.

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