June 2011
2 posts
24
It’s been a crazy fast 8.5 weeks and here we are exactly 1 week from the POP of my 2nd 1st batch of recruits. The title merely describes the figure epitomising the very last hurdle to clear before my recruits officially become privates. It’s not been an easy time. Obviously. I’m physically (or at least my melanin count’s off the charts) and mentally burnt, but it’s...
Trial by fire
Searching for answers on why it’s so hard to be a christian in a military organisation, especially as a junior NCO. Command is a wonderful experience that teaches you lifelong lessons, but when the upper hierachy values black and white deliverables to the extreme it gets difficult to remain focused on the means by which you achieve those deliverables and in creeps the temptation to...
May 2011
3 posts
Microcosm
Was formally welcomed into the Zion Family today. Now entitled to crackers and ribena every first Sunday of the month :) On other thoughts of the day, sociology’s a pretty interesting and rather scientific field of study. Actually its not really a field of study, more like a subset of the general field of economics. Perhaps in the same way that chemistry comes under physics? Perhaps I...
Standstill
I am 20 years old. I lack inspiration, motivation and drive in my life. Is this what they refer to as cynicism as people grow out of their teenage years? The giving in to the constant pressures applied upon me this past couple of weeks speaks like an emotional barometer. Among other things, the lack of things happening in my life is taking a toll on me. God, I need your direction to guide me...
More musings.
“It’s not that I’m particular naive or ignorant all the time, sometimes I just choose not to let such things bother me.” “Stop searching for the right person to be your soulmate. Ask yourself if you can be the right soulmate for that person. If your confidence shrinks and you drop your guts that means you’re not ready yet.” Anyway, batch incoming....
April 2011
6 posts
Setting The Stage
1 year soldier. And its one week to the next intake of recruits. Time to scrap the SME mentality of, well, throwing smoke ;) heh and get into the zone, so to speak. What kind of commander do I want to be and what image do I want to portray to my men? But before that, Switchfoot.http://retrospection.posterous.com/setting-the-stage in retrospect
Taking Personal Inventory
Reading an old friend’s blog from the past led me to ponder a little about myself. You know, many years ago (okay just 3) there was a little bit of craze over personality profiling. Looking back in 20/20 hindsight, it seems now that those days were filled with that classic psychological condition where one reads about something supposed to describe oneself, likes it and reinforces his...
Stuff
iPod Hi-Fi Dock ‘06
iPod 30GB ‘06
MacBook ‘08
iPhone 3G ‘09
iPod Touch 64GB ‘10
iPhone 4 ‘11
Forgotten Sony IEM ‘05
Another Forgotten Sony IEM ‘06
Aurvana ‘07
EP-635 ‘08
AH-C551 ‘09
Onstage Micro ‘10
SR80i ‘11
E5 ‘11
DBA-02 ‘11
Damn that’s quite a lot of gear. Time to start saving for...
Blabbermouth
For the times when you realised too late that you opened your mouth for far too long than you should have.http://retrospection.posterous.com/blabbermouth in retrospect
Mirrors And Smoke
“Love’s a contradiction Many mirrors and smoke Love will keep you wishing My heart will keep me broke” http://retrospection.posterous.com/mirrors-and-smoke in retrospect
Scripted
Have you ever caught yourself alternating between a happy-go-lucky, even immature and naive state of mind and suddenly transitioning to a really contemplative mood thinking about life and relationships before? Just a little thought. I’m stuck in a rut.http://retrospection.posterous.com/scripted in retrospect
March 2011
5 posts
Clarity
I must come across as a pretty strange person. I enjoy uncertainty but crave predictabilities. Time to book in soon and hopefully all comes clear this week. I still don’t wanna don’t wanna don’t wanna move out of SME bunk gah. In other news, I’m greatly enjoying my new second-hand pair of headphones. Kinda ironic, innit? The sound signature and sonic resolution make it an...
It's official.
What a week. The outlook of the rest of my NSF life took a drastic turn today. Just last week, we were joking to the seniors in our understrength 5 man team about Number 6 and the batch after the current one, now thats all gone to dust and here we are 3 of the 5, have been unceremoniously dumped by the higher ups to join the company lines. Sigh, so much for the hope of continuity. It’s...
Gradophile
So the big news this week was when I got myself on a second hand pair of these: The sound quality is truly amazing. Even more so, I got a pretty decent bargain for them since they were second hand. New life to my tracks, but unfortunately it makes all those downloaded mp3s sound like dead trash. Lossless is the way to go from here on. I fear the path upon which I tread. That said, the...
359 days to ORD whoohoo.
So its been nearly a blasted month, so much stuff has come and gone. Congratulations to the juniors who did pretty decently, congratulations to myself for the founder’s day award which I wasn’t able to get in person. Not so much congratulations to me when I found out it was only a certificate and a $50 Kino voucher… Bummer that was. If you’re clueless about movies these...
February 2011
3 posts
Work beckons
This coming week marks the real ramp up of my work as a specialist. From here out till April, I’ll be burning weekends like free to support the recruits’ basic military training, which obviously kinda sucks. In other news, it’s v-day tomorrow. Though I’ve never been attached or anything, it’s still a little weird that I won’t have any crush to think about....
Our future demands that we go BETA
JC kiddos, do check out http://beta.sg/ It’s a competition organised by Xinyan’s firm on the major issues of 2030, such as sustainability. Not only is it excellent food for thought for GP purposes, it’s an awesome way to boost your portfolio. I wish I had participated in something like that back as a student, maybe I won’t be worrying about what scholarships to apply for...
030211
Oh Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy. And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lamb, and sloths, and carp, and anchovies, and orangutan, and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats… You’ve just got to love Monty Python and their epic works of the 70s. +1 for all the awesome dry humour and fake...
January 2011
4 posts
When sick be awesome instead
It was an epic week of doing nothing. At any case, work beckons. The incoming batch of recruits are coming in a matter of days, one of my sergeants in my BMT platoon is now addressing and liaising with me as a fellow colleague, it’s weird. February will be fine, but March is gonna be one hell of a month. At this stage I just hope I can celebrate my birthday out of camp. And yeah, it...
Incendiarism: Cables →
areyouflammable:
Cables by natebakescakes
Hey friends,
So this is my first full song solely by me. I hope you guys like it! I put quite a bit of effort into producing and engineering (if you can call that engineering) it. 1 month of toiling into a 5 minute track. But yeah, I know it’s a…
nice song nate!
Odi Acoustic →
Discovered this German musician whilst trawling the internets. Highly recommend, one of the best acoustic covers/arrangements I’ve ever heard… One up!
December 2010
1 post
November 2010
2 posts
Goodbye World!
Am moving to matthaeus.posterous.com retrospection.posterous.com :D geeks will recognise the paragraph font straightaway heh.
Incepted
Finally watched Inception, and yeah the richness of the plot and its possibilities blew me away. And it got me thinking, about reality, fantasy as a whole. These kinds of questions are really addictive and appealing secular food for thought with religious applications.
What are dreams for? Can they be manipulated in such a manner? Chris Nolan’s made a masterpiece here, for this film goes...
October 2010
5 posts
Grand Slammed.
So yes I’m back from my 5d4n Singapore slamfest. Went all over the place, spent lots of unplanned-for time in the tonner due to, uh, mechanical problems. But I finally did get to ride the Chinook and oh yeah it was AWESOME. Decided not to wear earplugs too, got my ears hammered but was worth every ringing bit hah.
So anyhow time has really flown, infantcui still sucks (even some officer...
Grand Slam
Hi guys, if anyone reads, pray for:
-Safety
-Health
-Sustenance from God
-Faith
-Patience
Will be back after getting slammed. Bye world.
“I watched you put on a dress I’d never seen
Something that begged for...”
– Evidence by Jimmy Eat World (2010)
Just a thought...
Can’t hold a candle to her Cause all the moths get in the way And they’ll begin to chew her Entire attire until it frays For she outshines anyone whoever might Dare to bask in the same candlelight
Week 23
Time flies, nearly a quarter of full time NS has passed already. It still sucks to be in infantry but I guess the pain has slowly numbed away these past 2 weeks, mainly at my elation at clearing SOC and achieving marksman, or at least according to the computer system.
Weekend burn seriously. Sucks. Now so out of touch with everyone in the outside world, totally no life, nothing better to do than...
September 2010
1 post
Infantcui
Even though everyone says just suck it up, do and make the most out of it, it’ll never change the fact that I don’t want to be here and seriously can’t see myself putting my heart into it.
This is so unbecoming, totally not living out the testimony that I should be. Should I even be considered to be a Christian?
August 2010
2 posts
Another Weekend Bites the Dust.
And once again, the book in blues have struck. 2 hours to book in, dealing with this temporary depression that just seems to come every Sunday even though life here in SCS is probably the best out of all the combat postings.
Time flies. Tomorrow’s the dawn of the 7th week in Pasir Laba, the 17th in the SAF proper. Next week, a full 4 months out of 22 will have been completed. I’m...
Hotel Coy
So yes, life has been pretty good these past 4 weeks at SCS. We have laptops, admin time, canteen breaks, macdonalds and whatever not for the price of 3km runs every morning.
With the enciks running the show instead of commisioned officers, things are conducted quite differently, but I don’t know how to put my finger on it.
At any case, 1 more month and then hopefully I’ll get posted...
July 2010
2 posts
ePosting
Your Posting Order is listed below:
1. You are posted to SCS & SWAS.
2. Your vocation is INF LDR(TRAINEE).
3. Your are to report to: Pasir Laba Camp,BLK 276,Pasir Laba Road,637901,Singapore,SG. Reporting Date/Time: 12/07/2010 at 080000 hrs. Person to report to: Chief Clerk Contact Number: 64105597/5594/5533 You are required to report in smart no.4 uniform (PES E recruits to be in...
“Did I get lost while I was gone?
I traveled space for much too long
But...”
– Space Travel - Yellowcard
June 2010
4 posts
Want To List:
x Buy an iPad
x Buy an iPod Touch
x Buy a Mac Mini
One of the above if I get posted as a man, two if I get myself into SCS and all three if I can get into OCS.
Dream on.
Attend B
It really does suck sometimes to be on medical status, even though this was my first time. One times lengthy 5 day attend B due to flu and low blood pressure…
Am pretty screwed now cause I have to attend re-situational test on tuesday. Unfortunately, it overlaps with my final IPPT, thus I’ll probably be down for another RT this coming weekend. And of course, I’ve missed the 200,...
RT Warrior
Home Sweet Home after Week 5 of BMT. Of all the high keys, the last remaining is sit test, which I will not be allowed to attend with my company thanks to falling out during the 8km route march. So I guess I’m down for re-sit test where I’ll join Quebec. Not too bad though, the re-sit test is gonna be during the weekdays.
And so the main sian-ness and order for the day is my sian-ness...
May 2010
2 posts
Nothing to do, high kneel.
Boy, field camp’s over. Oh sorry, I meant, the Raven Field Camp is over.
To be honest it was quite a lot of hell and rather unpleasant although of course there were tons of the usual hilarious scenes and talk cock sessions. The rain was killer though it was always very miserable at night and the mud got everywhere. Seriously.
Anyway, thankfully it was only 5 days and 4 nights and when we...
Raven!
Well yeah so I’m back for my first bookout. Plenty of memories from the company reputed to be the second most ‘shiong’ one after the infamous ninja company. At any case, got to mentally prepare myself for field camp which is this coming week, so ridiculously early. The commanders promise that we will never ever forget it in our entire life. Hmm.
At any case, really have to thank...
April 2010
10 posts
Of Housekeeping
Today whilst clearing my room of all the piles of shit JC school work, I nearly threw away my 2008 A Level Cert. Whilst I might have forgiven myself for throwing it away if it wasn’t required for any application down the road, it was a reminder of God’s grace to me throughout the years.
See, that particular cert had shit grades. Okay, so C for Chinese was actually better than...
@makethislove
Eh Elyssa I dunno how to reply you on tumblr, it’s a little too sleek in features. Anyway it’s cause Sam and Laura always kept bullying me to do all the things for ushering like taking bullentins, setting up the tables and other stuff. Justin Low was the fairy godmother -_-“
Stepsisters (:
Thanks Samantha and Laura for that Billabong cap as a gift for my going into army :)
Lazy to put a photo and how it sorta matches my case for my new pair of army glasses lol. Thanks for that long note too Samantha :)
Cinderella’s going off to the army soonnnnnnn.
lmaozedong
Oh yes, I’m back. And time to make a rather late note about my trip in the land where facebook, twitter, tumblr, parts of wikipedia and even opera mini is blocked.
Anyway, the trip went rather fine. Pretty awesome scenery and yes, I agree Zhangjiajie’s mountains do seem alot like the floating mountains in Avatar. Accommodations and food were for the most part excellent, language was...
Referrals
On a different note, I realise that I am pretty screwed when it comes to asking referrals from my teachers in order to facilitate scholarship applications.
It doesn’t help that my form teacher is a Chinese teacher and therefore only taught me for a year. The same goes for my H1 Math, GP and H2 Chemistry tutors who have only taught me in my J2 year. My H1 PW tutor unfortunately passed away.
...