Alive And Kickin'

It has been a long week and yes - it did rain like fuck during field camp.

I consider it a miracle that I could survive all four days, wearing and sleeping in soggy clothes, shoes, socks and underwear is truly not fun. Washing it isn't either though I passed all the washing to my mother. I really owe her big time for this due to the intense smell, mud, dirt and soil debris from the items. Field camp is indeed the biggest exam for BMT because it tests your sanity, endurance and strength. Not surprisingly, loads of people reported sick on the first day.

The worst part was the food and digging of shellscrapes. Rations are hard to eat especially during such damp weather. Digging was crap too because of the soil structure, position and once again - weather. Mud is basically the constituent for everything in the jungle, though technically we're using an old rubber tree plantation for the field camp site.

We also had to really take good care of our equipment lest it gets 'stolen'. Some of the sergeants were really hyped in stealing our rifles, my buddy got target not only once but twice; thus resulting in guard duty (which I had to do as well because I'm his buddy). Overall, as my PC puts it, it's a very good experience. You bring back a lot of stories, experiences along with mud, rashes and extreme grueling forms of non-sanitary living conditions.

I'm so tired, I'm not even bothered to check if I left out anything. The good thing is that only about one week plus till Passing Out Parade...

Soggy

I'm pretty sure the weather is messing with me badly.


You have got to be pulling my leg, continuous jackpot of rain through the field camp monotony? It was never this generous when I actually wanted rain at Tekong. I love the rain...


...in the urban life, but not when I have to brave the elements. Nothing's more unpleasant than living in the rain with wet clothes, eating soggy meals and sleeping in the rain.


Is it too hard to ask what we want? Ironically in the weeks before, Tekong had pretty wonderful weather though the rain only comes 1/5 of the time and it's usually pretty light showers. But otherwise the weather was so brilliant that it's a sunbather's dream (but a torture for us in uniform).

It's only August for crying out loud, more sun over the rain. Why are things always finally on track when you don't want them to be for once? Another one of life's laments through nature, jeez...

Ston

The title, sounds odd but it has never occurred to me that someone would suggest reversing my nickname to the last part of name instead of the first half. Someone from my bunk said it might actually sound cooler and more original. I'm still wondering how much of a hit it might turn out to be.

"Hi, my name is Ston."

Might need some getting used to though.

I finally felt the need to purchase a MP3 player and became a proud owner of a 8GB iPod Nano.


I'm just using pictures to elaborate my point that it's awesome and considering I'm not an apple fan - it's already a hit with me. I'm using the 4th generation iPod Nano so it doesn't exactly look like that but it is still flat. At least now I can chug out tunes while being trapped on Tekong.

Speaking of which, I'm absolutely dreading the next week - it's finally field camp season. Literally, we're going to be braving the jungle for 4D/3N; it also means:

• Praying that it doesn't rain
• Making sure that bowel movements are kept minimum to none
• No wild boar encounters
• No encounters of the third kind
  

Not being able to bathe will be the worry for many since everyone sweats like buckets, and we have to lug along some dead weight and be permanently on camouflage creme until the field camp is over. Apparently, I'm told the powder SAF issued is supposed to keep your body dry - hence we have powder baths.

I haven't tried it personally but someone who experimented feedbacked it doesn't work as well as it claims...

Army life has been fun and somewhat rewarding, I'm actually thankful for some changes I see in myself and more importantly I hope it stays because I really want it that way. Although there are strict rules but they are there for a reason although some of them makes me rather paranoid.

In a nutshell, it's the image one has to uphold while wearing the smart No. 4 uniform. We're not supposed to "misbehave" while wearing that since it's supposed to be smart and we're representing the army's image as well. Sometimes I let it go to my head I simply become a rampant mess of worry.

An example would be losing count the number of people I tried to avoid bumping into while just hanging around my nearby mall. More or less I can say I almost got a heart attack and I'm thankful for my good reflexes.

Blog Improvement

It just hit me that trying to establish a unique blog with the proper blogskins and tabs is no less hectic as compared to home improvement and house hunting. All in all, it's horribly hectic and if you did a shabby job; just as you probably don't want to write in the blog, you wouldn't want to live in a half-assed renovated house either.

I just gone through phase one of my blog improvement, at least I managed to settle down with a blogskin I'm caught dead to. But everything else remains a problems and while slapping the blog with a new face, I forgot to save my links which effectively wiped out all my links to my other friends' blogs.

That's another into the list of the stupid things we do.

So for a while, just ignore the incomplete stuff, they're still in the works though it really irks me. It's like seeing those paint buckets, new furniture, belongings and stuff jammed all over your new home. But it should be worth it in due time, I would be compelled at least to want to update more often.

Life After

It's already been three weeks, BMT is passing through faster than I thought but the biggest problem is the hectic time and schedule I have planned for myself whenever I book out of Tekong.

Unpacking and packing, slacking, eating, sleeping (insert personal activities and etc here), the list is horrendously disgustingly long. BMT has been harsh but still enjoyable although the food sucks. field camp is coming soon, and everyone's worst nightmare is being in full battle order and braving the days in the jungle. I also have to worry about slip-ups that can land me in confinements or etc penalties. In fact, I think I'm due for a confinement because my number has just been taken when my sergant spotted remnants of my camouflage creme on my face due to not washing my helmet clearly.

Sucks, I have to bring extra clothing and such I guess to spend the extra day or two.

Another interesting thing is that I finally made a Facebook account, I suddenly got compelled to create an account after seeing my friends' email on Facebook for the upteenth time. I also decided to get rash and posted this blog's URL up there which means this secret blog isn't exactly serious anymore.

I got to be really discreet in what I write now, so much for being out of the box. I'm in a mess now, trying to do things here and there, I'll be lucky to even get another entry done soon before fatigue kills me. At least that's another check off my list...

Fragile

Humans being can be demonstrate great acts and series of determined and probably once thought impossible feats but yet at the same time, the human life is as fragile as a slip of paper. Once torn it can never be put back as the same as it was before.

It's really sad that I chanced upon this in the news today - Link

The mildly surprising thing was the male victim is actually a close friend of my cousin. For what reasons did they decide to do what they did which led to their demise I am unsure, but I'm sure it hurt a lot of their loved ones.

Life is certainly unpredictable, well today and possibly gone tomorrow. This brings to mind of a song, September, by Daughtry:

"Yeah we knew we had to lose this time
But we never knew when, and we never knew how
We would end up where we are
Yeah we knew we had to leave this town
But we never knew when, and we never knew how
Never knew anything"

We don't know what lies ahead, whether it's another tomorrow or an end - but the important lesson here is to treasure and appreciate what you have instead of thinking of what you lack. Otherwise when things happen, it becomes past tense and there's no going back.

My sincere condolences to the victims and their families and friends out there.

Been there and back

The first day and the last day is always the longest.

Two weeks really blazed through like it was nothing, I'm finally back home again after spending some time in Tekong serving my National Service. Of course, I'm required to go back again this coming Sunday which is why I'm saving sleep for later because there's always time for those. Army changed me a bit, I won't say it gave me a 360 degree turnover but it has changed some aspect of things of me. The discipline, the responsibility, following rules and knowing the reasons for their existence somethings like that. If going to a Polytechnic meant you had to grow up fast, going to NS probably meant you had to grow up immediately.

It's a brand new environment and experience for me as guys like me have to deal with strict rules and training, albeit reasonable. My section is a fun bunch and I have pretty much gotten used to all except my buddy, which is ironic. One side of me wished to know him more while the other just dreaded it. He looks and acts serious, and strongly takes his buddy role seriously. He's not exactly a conversation starter either, in fact - I could say I know little or nothing about him and vice versa.

Awkward I know, but eventually I want this weird relationship to restart and get on with it. The ice between is still hard and I can't seem to break through.

And then there's the hardships, the physical fatigues, the "horrible" food, having to pick up new and vital lessons fast. This is especially another barrier of mine considering I'm a slow learner. I would still get there, just slower, but I can't afford to stop just yet. I really hope I can quicken my pace too, and I think I have at least shared this issue with my Platoon Commander.

Speaking of superiors, as long you don't cross the line or step on their tails, they can be pretty cool and funny people. Respect is also the main lesson I had to remember here, there can be actually a myriad of ways where you can unknowingly show disrespect to someone, something I found out during my stay there.

But despite the minor setbacks here and there, I'm pretty confident that I can breeze through this seven weeks, after all two weeks have already flown by. Booking out is an odd experience too, when you haven't seen home for a while, familiar sights seem totally out of place. I took an MRT home bewildered at my sights, it was pretty amusing for me.

This Sunday my section has to do guard duty, I'm actually looking forward to it. I'm a night owl anyway and it'll be pretty cool to stay up the night walking around of course, I can't totally slack.

After all - this is the army.