Hectic Week (edited)

Even though I came back only on Monday night (instead of the usual Sunday night), the week felt like a full-fledged 5 day week.

I was blissfully ignorant of the fact that I had to take part in the UIP (see previous post) until the very last minute. I was told to be a station 2IC in the line-laying station. At that moment, I felt very much like Alvin Ong in outfield, complete with a field chair and picnic lantern.

Spent the night in the training shed. Can never have a proper sleep on the concrete floor. Though my eyelids felt heavy, tired as I was, I could not sleep. And I also hated reeling back loose cables and seizing them back into the reel itself. With the dim luminence of the lantern and my sleepiness, baring the wires and doing seizing were almost impossible. I was amazed when the next group managed to establish telephone connection using the hastily adjoined reel.

It all ended in the morning. Finally. I must admit that I admire the resilience of the new men, sergeants and officers. They had to complete six gruelling stations throughout the night, get punished and somehow be on the ball all the time.

Slept for only a few hours the next day. Lo and behold, I have guard duty in the evening! Dragged my weary self to the armoury to draw my M16. Geez. Thankfully, the guard commander is my 2SG, so there is no fear of a turnout. Ate my night snack outside. The same puppy (white body with black spots) that followed us looked at me with sad-looking eyes. Took pity on it and fed it with the last bits of my fruitcake. In return, the hungry puppy licked my hands profusely, which I am too tired to move away.

The day after, (on Friday), I just slept for only a few hours (do I sense a deja vu), when I need to wake myself up for the (lame) SAF day. In which we had to assemble in the multi-purpose hall to take a pledge and swear allegience to the President, Singapore, Army, etc etc. Damn. And afterwards, I had to settle the guard duty forecast for next month (how ironic, I just did one yesterday), before rearranging my store for mock LRI inspection, in which RSM will attempt to bring down my B2IC (read=wayang). Grrrrrr. And the worst part was that after all the preparation, it was cancelled. Played Magic:the Gathering (a card game) with my storeman friends until last parade.

UIP (Unit Induction Program)

The bane of all new men, sergeants and officers. It's back to BMT, boys! Cannot believe that such an antiquated ideal still exists in the (going to be) 3G army. What with the discipline and treating men like ignorant fools that deserved to be punished....-.-' On that day when I celebrated my freedom from Tekong, I swore that I would never want to touch foot on that island again.

Just when I thought and contend with the idea that no other Rafflesians would come to my unit, Abba threw in a couple of surprises! One of the new guy was from my batch, and the other a junior.

"Learning in school sucks, but not learning is even worse". How true.

Cohesion Week

HQ Armour celebrated its anniversary at Punggol Marina on Thursday. Coupled with community service at the Villa Francis Old folks home, we managed to obtain a day off! 1/2 day off on thursday, plus 1/2 day off on Friday=1 day off. "...You save 1/2 a day off here, and you save 1/2 a day off there, you get 1 day off...", a certain Chinese.

Photo Shoot was ultra lame, what with RSM trying to make the whole battalion pose in front of two broncos; forming a letter V and attempting to form a "23". Not to mention we were sweating vigourously under our black berets.

Received our new arms and formation badges, which we were told to sew on our uniforms. 3G Army and its effort to make soldiers look more professional...heh. The formation badge looks like an eyesore.

As I was doodling with my left hand and eating Korean noodles with my right, I realised that we had less than 100 (working)days left to ORD! Yipee! What an encouraging thought.

Recall

Managed to collect back my heroes III collection from Eddie Cai; now I am left with Ginway and Alvin Ong, who owe me a driving manual and yi tian tu long ji dvd respectively. I wonder if I can get back the $30 that I lend my friend out of goodwill since last year. Maybe he has conveniently forgotten the debt.

Bought a pack of deck protectors for my army friend, who is an avid Magic player. It is strange how I used to see Damien playing it during sec 2; and now, my group of army friends are engrossed in it. Beats having nothing to do I suppose.

Waiting to somehow procure my photos from Taiwan, before I can post them here.

My offs are now sparsely separated in the year of 2006, all thanks to "orders from the top". National Day seems far away, especially if there is no holiday in July.

Changelog again 2.

Version 1.07

• Can't seem to locate Yan Fen's blog.
• Added two new blogs.
  

LAN and overnight stay

Had a LAN session with Eddie and Alvin Ong at Speedy. Later, we all went to Eddie's house together with Thng.

Maybe I am too obstinate, refusing to feel the winds of change. Under the presence of so many stellar achievers, I feel like a coarse and common man. Damn sad, I am like a pig wallowing in the mud of self-pity. What Ivan had said during our bus trip to our camps still echo in my mind.

Perhaps I should explore new options....

Internet Woes

Saturday, 6pm. Teck Beng was happily fiddling around on MSN, lazing at home as usual. He was perplexed over an old problem; about why his router refuses to give him a static ip, which is a prerequisite for hosting games like DoTA. With free time on his hands, he decided to tinker around and play smart. "Ah, this looks quite idiot-proof", he remarked. Little did he realise that he did an irreversible change when he clicked on Easy Setup.

Saturday, 7pm. By the time he realised his folly, it was too late. He had lost contact with the outside world! Stupid MSN could not sign in; always giving the 8700e27 error code message. It even advises the anxious TeckBeng that he can go to the Internet to check it out. "How the @#$% do I go Internet to check when I can't even go to Google?!", he thought in exasperation. Time ticked by as the increasingly desperate Teck Beng tried every single move, not realising that he was making the situation worse by every wrong mouseclick.

"Beng beng, time for dinner" "Rrrrawwwrrr," he roared out in anger and anxiety. His stomach could not take it. Pride and ego were at stake. By meddling with the unknown world of bits and bytes, he had dragged the whole family down into the IT abyss of no return. It took an angry father and worried mother to drag the vicious beast out of his seat for family. Gloomily, he went for dinner reluctantly, eating food to quell his Internet problems, temporarily.

Saturday 10pm. Back at home. TeckBeng tried again. And again. And again. In the end, he decided to look for external help. He picked up the phone and called the router helpdesk. "Sorry, we are currently not available. Our working hours is from Monday to Friday. 8am to 5pm". An expletive was immediately heard in the silent room of Teck Beng. "Wah @@#$, how come outside companies are also like SAF!!!Where are they when I need them the most???", exclaimed the increasingly feral TeckBeng in disgust. "By then, I would already be in camp..."Tormented by the lack of access, he swallowed and tried again. And again. And again....

Sunday 2am. Unfortunately, even without coffee, TeckBeng was quite persistent. Guard duties had an unusual benefit of giving him extra vitality to work through the night. Internet options, check. DNS, check. DHCP, check. Manually typing in IP, check and etc. "This is worse than I thought", said the crestfallen Beng. "I still got 6 more months before Singnet service is terminated. I would DIE without DoTA, email, MSN and blogs like an Indian chick, Pinkie, ladybug, purple, youwei,fmrgene,paradox....ARRRRRRGHHHH," screamed Beng in frustration.

Sunday 3am. Desperate means call for desperate measures. He had tried every single method, including digging up his Signal notes and trying his best to resolve IP address and subnet mask; finding his router MAC address, etc "And what the hell are DNS, proxy server and key ports supposed to mean??" as he glanced through the pop-up error messages of MSN ad nauseum. His last desperate measures include reinstalling the router ten times and pleading with God twenty times, but that, sadly did not work out. Teck Beng did not feel so isolated in his room before. "Noooooooooooooo!". The only thing separating a beast from Beng was that the latter has no fangs and tails, but both possess bloodshot eyes.

Sunday 4am. At last, exhaustion gave in and Beng managed to sleep uneasily, with an angry feeling of being so helpless, and tired mind. The only thing he remembered before he knocked out is his 26 alphanumeric encryption key, which he had keyed in ten times during reinstallation. "2588B23422342424323ADD...zzZ"

Sunday 10am. TeckBeng tried a novel method. He called Eddie Cai, since he felt that the latter is more knowledgeable in computer stuffs. After two hours of talking (alternating between a screwed up handphone and a housephone), sadly, Eddie also could not resolve his unusual problem. The wireless connection was ok, but somehow, the error comes from the remote end. "What?!You mean I aged a zillion years and gained white hair just because of a remote error?!" Beng exclaimed. (though he reluctantly admitted that it was his own folly that caused the fiasco in the first place). Beng also observed that bad things come in clumps. Like a @#$#ed up phone to boot as well. In the end, the only useful thing that Eddie provided was the Singtel number. Beng decided to ask for directions, after countless hours of useless self-effort. "Press one for password reset, press two for....press * to repeat" "Damn, I hate those recorded messages," as TeckBeng pressed the * button the fifth time.

"Welcome, how can I help you?" the Singnet operator offered his help. After an hour of explanation, password reset and trying to translate an Indian accent, the thorny problem was finally resolved. Like a huge burden lifted off his chest, TeckBeng managed to relax in those tense twelve hours.

Sunday, 4pm. Teck Beng manages to see his favourite blogs and MSN. And is quite contented with the outside world...for now. "Must change those temper of mine" he quietly thought to himself. "It's no good to feel so impatient and angry in the long run. Damn. Don't want me high blood pressure"

And so, TeckBeng won't be tinkering with the router settings for a very long time.

Sungei Gedong Amusement Park

Tuesday. Was drearily slacking in the company office, doing my part of protecting the nation by being the duty clerk. Just as I was shaking my head in resignation, my platoon commanders squinted at the windows and jumped. The curious cat in me arose, so I dragged my feet to see the commotion.

Lo and behold. Busloads of teachers graduating from NIE came. Suddenly, the parade square was breathed with life and colour...ful shirts. :D. Simulators were set up; tanks and armoured vehicles became the Army version of Duckie Tours. "Queue up for tank simulator". Special ladders were set up for the teachers to go up to the turrets.

My friend cheekily went down posing as a photographer, scoring a few photos. Sadly, the heavy downpour in the middle of the event dampened the lively spirit. This event is probably one of the few that SAF never need to rehearse (a million times).

Excerpt from the daily routine order---Quote of the day:"You know your lunch sucks when the most appetising dish displayed is the slice of papaya. "----unknown corporal.

Block Leave

How coincidental. Just when I was about to shift my off to 16th June, the army has done me a favour by forcing us to go on block leave.

Depending on whether the glass is half-empty or half-full, I am ambivalent about the decision. On the one hand, it feels like the June holidays all over again (one week instead of one month) during schooling days. On the other hand, I gripe and complain about how I have fewer off days to play around (aka to combo) before my ORD.

Looks like I have to plan what to do during the one week. Can't waste my leave for nuts.

stupid dream

Dreamt that I was in a dilapidated building looking outside. Lo and behold, I saw Zhengxian in his blue beret (more like UN colour), commanding his men to sing Majulah Singapura!?! -.-''''Like wth. "What the heck is Zhengxian doing here??", I thought to my dreamself. After the men had finished singing, he dismissed the men and walked back. Somehow, I wasn't moving and only saw the back of his beret....

Went back to reality after a 7 hour sleep at 10 am. Suddenly remembered that I had an unfinished business of teaching functions to my little sis. Apparently, my mind went blank when I am trying my best to think.... in the middle of shooting zombies. Interesting map I must say. Night of the Dead: Aftermath uses the concept of army and killing zombies. A refreshing change from DoTA.

Some semblance of Miss Lui's teachings came back to me in the morning. Sadly, most of the guys had missed her wedding. =( Wonder what she is called now. Mrs ??

Bleach, Naruto and Negima

Thoroughly enjoy the last remnants of my Pinnacle Offs, by lazing at home and watching the 3 anime series. Unfortunately, all three have deviated from the manga. Often force myself to endure stupid episodes.

Raring to buy Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project. The hero of lame one-liners is back! And the best part is that it costs less than $20.

Nothing inspirational to write. Just that I am alarmed to find myself getting used to camplife. I wonder why I do not miss home as much as during my BMT days.

Met Ken Toh on a bus towards Sungei Gedong. It is always good to meet old friends, on a dreary journey like mine.

Sarcasm has become my double-edged sword; wit my helmet and humour my breastplate. 5 more months. Now that new people are coming, I can a backseat in taking care of stores.

Attempting to study is akin to starting a car engine during winter. Damn.