Weird dogs.

An eye-opening experience it was and also fortunate in the sense I've reduced phobia of dogs.
I was mingling with my colleagues and shortly they showed me their dogs, weird ones.
The 2 most impressionable ones were the crying dog and the horny dog, real horny.

The crying dog has a sad history of being starved to reduce weight and thus also a considerable trigger in which why it can cry so easily. The owner teased him with a slice of bread, refusing to let it eat. Dog start bawling. Like a baby, it really sounded like one.

Now, this's the weirdest one. For I thought they only do it to their kind.
Kenneth commanded, " UP ! *slaps thigh 2 times* "
After a repeat of command, the dog hugged his leg and started.... mating.
And clearly with some under-chassis inspection, you can witness its powerful sex-drive.
And Kenneth was not the only one whom it tried to mate with.
A little trivia here : Someone jested that if it didn't mate with you for a single day, you'll strike 4-D. True enough for Kenneth, it happened. He noted the date on which abstinence was observed. One of the 24 permutations of the date came up as top prize!
Too bad, he overslept and forgot to buy it. Haha.

Repeat mode.

Been repeating and repeating the same old song till my mum screams at me, " Wei ! Ni Yi Zhi Ting Na Shou Ge Bu SIAN AH ?! ".
Personally, it's like drinking tea, man.
Gotta keep on smelling, sipping to appreciate the elegance and unique qualities of the tea.
When the tea runs out, I'll just add more hot water.
It's a bad listening habit, now that I understand.
Michael Buble on repeat mode really sounds like moaning after her violent reminder.
I've spoilt jazz's acceptance in my house.
Whenever that jazzy sound comes on, mum will scream. Haha.
Conversely, Dad feels that it's soothing.
It's a clash of Fei Yu Qing VS Jazz here.

Seb sent me a video on two 15 yr olds doing extreme soloing in Mediterranean Sundance and it's very inspiring, yet again.
Flamenco makes me hyper, Paco De Lucia tempts me to imitate him, though maybe 50 years later.

Trees shed.

The trees shed leaves for the young to grow.
It has a vague meaning but it was what I've gotten after contemplating on human frailty.
I was thinking what piece of advice I'd give at a funeral for friends or for myself eventually.
I'm sure most importantly my parents would want me to really grow up and be simply contented, happy and safe.
Social status, wealth, fame, prestige, assets are merely directional goals which we think and believe leads to eventual or temporal bliss and comfort.
I believe living life with passion, morality and loving-kindness. A peaceful and fruitful life.
Hope that's sufficient to keep me beaming and set their mind at ease.
So when they really have to go, I hope to confidently tell them to be truely at ease, I can handle it.


Don't worry.

Addict.

First my nose was thoroughly blocked, second, the guy in my bunk is sucking his cigarette, adding woe unto my sad state. Even flixonase couldn't clear the nose.
So I sat outside the bunk, clearly enjoying the cool, bird-chirping morning, exchanging greetings with the civilians in my base while feeling just right for a short surge of meditation.
But I still couldn't help but sneak into the HQ and just blog, surf or something. Haha.
I was reading mr brown again and this academic-sounding kinda made sweeping statements about 'infantile' bloggers.
Let's not take life too seriously. For you might have been seriously pursuing a misdirected path of thought and conception. What's infantile in the first place ?
Silly and humourous might be more apt. Apt in the sense that it describes reality much better and not just politically correct to say.
And... Maturity is more about thinking life through, experiencing more to understanding it better and improving oneself according to understanding. Right ?
Anyway, it's certainly a matter of taste for what it seems. You are inclined to academic revelations of insights, so people who present ideas like journalists and debaters appeal don't they ?
Just chilllllllll...

It was an evening of hope and night of slight disappointment. Our group was holding the second highest score for the combat day shoot, closing in to the Platoon commanders' and sergeants'. But the night shoot was horrible. I couldn't even see the target. I have to get out of the aiming sight and extrapolate the position of the target before squeezing off. Every shot was filled with uncertainty. Maybe missing 4 or 5 out of 15 was a consolation. Anyway, we missed our marksmanship award. By how much we don't know.

Pre-Tekong woes.

SAF must hate me for I've shown different realities for this pre-enlistee about to enter tomorrow.
Another friend and I brought up scenarios and hidden rules for this green horn to grasp and be surprised by them. The interesting part would have to be whether 'boys become men' do happen but those related to NSFs would see changes in them, a mixture of + and -ves.
I've been ruminating over why NS seems to show such a different view of reality. I think it's the lack of girls. I'm darn serious man. Haha.
It has less to do with attraction, but the quality of life that comes about with the presence of the girls. Simply put, we might have hope of seeing gentlemanly attitudes surfacing. =X
Well, that's for the instructors... I guess they're trained to be mean.

There's always hope for a good time in Tekong. Someone will just touch your heart with his character and integrity.

3 left standing.

I never thought something this silly would ever happen.
When they saw me approaching, they giggled and said, " Eh Shaomin ! The grasscutters came and cut away your sunflowers! ".
" FWAH. "
" I saw 2 remaining there. "
*saunters over to the nursery with resigned acceptance*
" Hah! There's still 3. "

Anyway... I'm gonna transplant the poor growing sunflower to the valiant deceased's spot. Never shall it face the blade.

I was reading about Authentic Happiness (google it) and something about 24 character strengths that are linked to happiness. I found passion particularly important and fundamental in generating daily life happiness. I applied it to the individual marksmanship and squash today and it seems to have a much more positive effect.
This striked me in that I realised I've lost passion, the persistent type, in doing things.
I think it's NS (again). Haha.
Partly because I've adopted the 'stay-low' mentality throughout the past year and that I really don't see much incentives and/or get motivated to do things.
I just live from day to day, in camp that is.
The thing that pushes me would be the morning games where I learn tips from encik and have a good time with them. And maybe for evening to come, for after a sleep, the sun's rays sweeps across the camp and I know it's time to get a proper rest at home and be seated right here reading new things and going out to experience more.

Fresh feeling.

This new monitor just somehow made things smoother.
Modem startup's a crisp 2 seconds from login.
Program loading's faster too.
Seems like the old monitor had some negative influence on the programs here. Haha.
Anyway, it's a Philips 170B5, I think it's a nice buy for those who, like me, do not game, simply chats and reads online.
It has zero bright dot defect (they said, though I can't spot any), in-built power supply and in-built speakers.

Squash matches' coming up and I wonder why my performance dwindles at times.
Inconsistency has always been in the game, perhaps I'd shamelessly say that I dream while in court. Haha. I need real motivation man !

Urbanbees.

Well... I just signed up for as a mentor for this Urbanbees thing. I'm supposed to coach P1 to P6 kids academically and build their self-esteem. I'm to expect them to come from a myriad of family backgrounds from moderate to disastrous types.
The coordinator said my 'assignment' would probably be this 9 yr old boy with leukaemia who currently lags behind in Maths and Chinese.
My mum shook her head when she heard I'm tutoring someone in Chinese and I guess I have to agree with her too. Haha.
I think the best combi would be Maths and Science as they are easier to teach (in my opinion), languages need some detouring and just unjustifiably tougher. Haha.

For daredevils who want to swim in chlorinated water for extended periods, heed my advice.
Never do it.
I'm just silly enough to feel it's ok for my eyes cos it tasted like tap water the last time round.
After half an hour, shit happened.
There was this grey fog surrounding everything I see.
" Nick, is the incense smoke very thick here ?"
" No ? "
" Shit man. My eyes are seeing things. "
" Your eyes are damn red. Haha. "
" Oh no. Haha. "
" When I went for the 2 weeks Lifeguard course, I didn't have any goggles and things looked grey too. "
" That's comforting. "

I shut my eyes for a while and voila! Things turned better. Though it still feels sore now.
Lemme introduce the sanitizing stuff in the water : Calcium Hypochlorite
: Trichloroisocyanuric Acid ( This thing is a bactericide and prevents algae growth pretty well)

Swimming pools are quite interesting aren't they ? Especially when you learn about water management in pools.

BMT.

Haha. It's your turn now.
Finally Dan is enlisting, 9th June 2005.

I happened to recall how Allan, now 2LT Allan, used to be such a touching nice guy.
Horror Jeff was tekanning us all with those horrendous bouts of push-ups and crunches and I tak boleh tahan and appeared really frail and about to die. This fella, instead of the usual ' Hey, press on! ' encouragements others give, sticked out his thick arm and lend support for me. Another fella did so too, I think his name is Yao Hui (I didn't really speak much to him after BMT).
That scene will always replay whenever Allan is mentioned. I wish him a fruitful term in his service as an officer and may all his men be touched by his sincerity and look up to him as a true officer and leader.

Speaking about fitness, I doubt I've improved by leaps and bounds but still reasonable enough given status quo. But when I play with Encik, I usually start to die at the second match, it's torturing to pick up his so deadly accurate drops and drives. I see many squash players do sprints, maybe I should too. Or should I torture myself with freestyle swimming ?

Monday Blues.

It ain't Monday yet.... but I'm feeling the blues... the negative blues.......
I think I'm getting bored of doing the same routine thing again like everyone else (I strongly believe so!).
Maybe that's the driving force for me to make my dismount day more interesting other than sleep sleep sleep.

I was walking along a super dark pavement of a closed down complex. If I were to think about freaky stuffs, the walk will be tainted with it. I'd start to walk faster or run, in animal world terms, escape. Some might stop and hide, in animal world terms, camouflage. It might not work, but we just give in to some primal subconscious directing us to run and hide.

Marina Square's open and it looks much more classy in design and they have a live performance restaurant too. BUt that's just one small part of what I saw. Dressed in singlets and shorts and coming close to 9 p.m. I didn't explore much.

I think Jack Neo needs a specialist for his tongue. Uh-huh. And why are there people laughing ?

Harvest euphoria.

I can't justify this but I felt elated to see some agricultural produce being dug out from the ground, plucked from the branches and trees. Perhaps it's a natural joy, a certain joy that kept the agriculturally active ancestors working in the fields and forests. In this concrete jungle, how many of us has the chance to witness the unearthing of tapioca and potato, the plucking of rambutans, durians, mangos and papayas ?
I've never been failed to be amazed and joyed by such events. Though the rambutan tree was tall and dangerous to attempt, I still vividly recall hitting off rambutans for the ground crew to pick up, fellow friends too returned from the harvesting with a great laugh and lighted mind.
Watching tapioca being unearthed by the encik, I was equally thrilled.
At times it's the uniqueness of the fruit and the surprises it gives that enthralls people. I remembered a few days back when this particular papaya was plucked and I sniffed the dripping sap. To my surprise it smelled splendid! It'd be a hit in the ladies perfume market!
It's more of a citrus, fruity nature by the way, surprising enough for a papaya. Haha.

Anyway, I was glad Care Corner replied. Now I need to make a visit to the centre to familiarise then I'd be mentoring kids! Oddly enough, I ponder over how I can cultivate self-esteem in them when after 19 years of living, my perception of self-confidence waivers. Perhaps at times I get too masked by external markers and happenings.

I have PMS.

The depressive period has set in, unsure of how to relate it I decidedly call it PMS.
It started off with the inability of finding a certain song I heard at 6 a.m. this morning on Class 95, then personal vendetta between my shift mate who blatantly accused me of giving him extra duty a week back who is currently behaving crudely which I personally find it irritating and offensive. Can you stand someone who spouts CB and KNNB as most of his opening sentences and punctuations ? The situation can be sensed as both parties think they're right. Whatever.

I agreed to tag along my mum to PS to buy groceries, hoping to buy some clothes after that. I lost appetite somehow. We saw Michelle Chia, the Lux Super Rich celeb, which my mum went, " Wah, so katek (short) ! So thin also. ", followed by a brief exchange of giggles and non-verbal comments with passerbys who too noticed her.

Anyway, most things felt coarse and ugly. Hard to understand why, but I hope after releasing this pented up feeling, things get a better light.

The cows at the Bras Bersah (think so) Park near Dhoby came as a surprise. Haha. Cows scattered on an idyllic grass patch. I think it's on the news too.

.noitomorteR

Nick and I tried out something new while jogging around base and it really felt good.
Nothing gay actually, haha. It's simply jogging backwards for a good 500+ m with some side striding later.
When we started reverse motion, it felt funny and there was a certain amount of elation which I hypothesize to the release of inhibition, just imagine jogging backwards in front of vehicles and passing technicians. Haha.
5 minutes into it, I felt tired, but my legs were automatically striding and faster and faster it went !

I would definitely recommend it for calf training cos my calfs were near the brink of cramping. Haha.

Adam's getting smarter and smarter. I just played war games with him.
We took up toy golf clubs and held it like a rifle and approached rooms slowly and cautiously and he's a great sport ! I flipped open the cupboard and shouted, "Bang bang ! ", Adam covered me and shot into it too. Haha.
The bad thing was that he obviously got too addicted to it and I'd inevitably get drained.
You know... " Kor kor come !!! ", in which I bo bian and followed him to shoot every corner, underneath my bed and the sofa. =\

My little penchant...

It was brought to my attention that I do have this insatiable appetite for explicit description of a morbid and gross nature. I feel incomplete without it, it's just ecstacy to liberate them from my mind to others and it's uncontrollable. It feels great to hear people screaming EEE YUCKS, STOP IT !.
Fortunately, it's an overstatement. Haha.
Gross, morbid, pleasant, mundane etc, I'd probably love to state them all.
I guess it's an old habit cultivated in School, especially during Science practicals where answers demand precision and observations.

Anyway, Nick, the slackest NSF in Singapore, showed me a skate video from the Globe team.
It feels rusty trying to recall what trick is what, what a fakie and stuff is, but nevertheless, the board flipping just keeps me entertained and impressed. Skateboarding legend, Rodney Mullen never ceases to amaze people with his fusion of old skool and modern tricks plus his array of incredibly hard but sleek moves. He's simply born with a board on his feet, never a tinge of fear revealed on his face and always filled with calm and equanimity. He's simply relishing every trick executed with that deep satisfaction look.

It ain't wrong to say it's the beauty of the sport that keeps him on, even in his forties.
And the same applies for anything for anyone.

Haiyo, Army ah.

The newly empowered Dy OC was hiding somewhere doing work while I was doing pull-ups. As I jumped down from it, turned around, I saw him.
" Eh, you gimme 20 first. "
" HUH ? "
" YOu jump down lidat injured how ? I don't know how to write report and answer to higher management for you. "
" Ok ok. relac... Bye bye. ".

Escaped the 20. Haha.
But it's dumb. We're soldiers, dude!

Super Volcano.

If you have read ST, the last time Toba blew its top was 75,000 years ago and it was the largest in 2 million years.
In light of recent tremors, someone just said that maybe.... maybe Toba might squirt big time again.
http://www.andaman.org/book/app-r/textr.htm

Here's a good read about Toba if you want. Quite devastating this thing is.

In a blink of the eye...

As cliche as it goes, it's hard to adequately describe the passing year, time passes fast and slow at times. From the start of NS, 2.5 years felt like a big bowl of shit that's so hard to swallow. 1 day was long enough. 1 week ? You get the whole company of recruits charging down the jetty to the fast craft, utterly eager to meet loved ones.
The route I took was weird and fortunate.
Having deviated from the normal stream flow to SISPEC and OCS, I ended up at Tengah as a Regimental Policeman. It turned out to be a nightmare for most of us at Tengah. It wasn't thaaaaaat bad after a few weeks when our punishments and training endowed us with 'curvaceous' arms and legs. Punishments were staple food, really.
I was blessed to be picked as a driver after training and entered driving school where it really worked my numbed brain of 5 months. It was quite a sad period, those whom I've aunt agonied to and bitched to would know. Getting the license was a ticket away from hell.
It's been about........ Nov....... April.... 5 months since I came back. As of today, I've reached the final rank of a slack soldier. Commemorating one year in the service. *salutes national flag*

Regards

CPL Huang.