NE tour on Friday

About thirty of us NSFs from 23SA went for our half-annual (?) National Education trip, on a Friday morning.

This time, it was revisit the war memorials and history of mainly two places: Labrador Battery site (kinda related to artillery), and Pasir Panjang battle site. I was actually rather excited to go on the outing, not because it was a half-day for us, but it was those rare times I get to go on a guided tour to places in Singapore I won't likely be bothered to visit on my own.

Oh, and I didn't have to pay for anything... except for that fried rice I ordered midway for S$3. =(

I had no camera in my possession, so no luck with photos on my side. There were photos taken by the escorting 2LT in the group, but those photos are a little "hard" for me to access.
Anyway, I won't go into my experience during the trip - though all I would like to say that it was quite the interesting tour. Ahh, a pity it ended so quickly.

Though, what really stood out for me was this:

That was one of the many heritage tablet thingie (or whatever they call it) situated around the island. It marks the location of existing historical sites. Very interesting - reminds me of some relic you go searching around in a sidequest for a role-playing video game. =P

Speaking of rpgs, here is something to rock the socks out of Persona 3 fans!!



^Persona 3 Portable, coming soon 01/11/09, Japan, for the PSP!

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Army Half Marathon '09

For the Marathon last year, I participated as a helper and rotted for one night over at East Coast Park. This year however, I went as a runner - though only for the 6km section.


The reporting time for 6km was 8am, but the 23SA dudes wanted to be kiasu a little, and had us turn up one hour earlier. After some "stoning", the 6km run finally commenced, and off we ran... or walk actually. I brisk-walked all the way, achieving a quick 1-hr completion time! I was so pumped at that time, I felt I could take on the actual 21km too.

Serious. ~_~

So all we got was a half-day off on the following Monday. Cheapskate. The 21km runners got the whole day off though - I should have so participated for that. Blah.

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MC coming to an end...

Today marks the last day of my 14 days medical off. My first MC in the army, and probably the last one I will ever be getting. XP

I should have mentioned that the MC was given to me to let me recover from a minor toe injury I had two weeks ago. Something to do with forcefully plucking out my big toenail and other details.

I am definitely not all happy and looking forward to returning to camp, but my superior have been calling me like almost everyday to ask me when I can go back and resume work. Bleh.

I even went back on three separate days to work on my own initiative, though I don't know if anyone actually appreciates that. I am not bragging about myself, but seriously, where the hell can you find such a responsible and hardworking (aka stupid) worker? Haha~

Oh and, yay for me! Ten more months to my ORD!! Now I can finally count the months with my two hands *glee*

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Got me an iMAC!

So I finally made the switch from intel/windows to mac about two weeks ago.

Had to buy a new computer because both my desktop and laptop finally broke down for the very last time. That was the very last straw, for both my old coms, and my hopes of windows too.

With an installment plan for two years, totaling to a price of S$1977, this was the 20inch iMac I quickly purchased:

Although the cheapest (and smallest) model of the range currently available, the monitor's size is still much significantly wider than my previous 17" screen. Setting up was as painless as possible, and it took a hardware-idiot like me only ten minutes. I switched the apple mouse for my razer model though - the former felt too small for my large hand. =P

Like what everyone else with a mac told me, the interface is pretty smooth to use, and applications are as user-friendly as it gets. Though, for a windows user of ten years, it took me quite some time for me to get use to.

^I learned how to print screen, something I took for granted when using windows

Spent a lot of time recovery a portion of my MP3 collection too; including sourcing album art and information. The album picture is somewhat important in a nifty way though, after all it will be reflected in my iPod when I browse through the song library.

Overall, I have been happy with my new iMac. However to be honest, the iMac isn't for everyone. There are many reasons NOT to get a mac (as windows is still the superior OS imo), but screw that, the mac's OS-X is good enough for me~

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Farewell, Nicky...

This is a post dedicated to the unfortunate incident on 030709 which took the life of a particular NSF: article link.

I would have typed this a lot earlier, if my acer laptop didn't just break down for shit.

The late 2LT was my closest cousin's cousin. Almost no blood relation here, but I heard so much stories about him from my relatives in the past years, that it made me felt I knew him a little.

Just a year younger than me, Nicholas (or, Nicky) was in Temasek Polytechnic while I was studying there. He even enlisted around the same time as I did into the army. Alas, our paths were distinctly different. And of all that, my first real meeting with him would actually be on his very deathbed.

So I saw him face to face at his wake last sunday; two days after the ill-fated incident. I had visualized the look of a suave young man, as shown on his funeral portrait, taken while he had his proud no.1 uniform on.
However, reality was an ungracious beast, leaving the poor dude an awkwardly swollen head - due to all the blood that rushed to his head when he was crushed by the rover.

Yep. Went over by a land rover. Probably his first out-camp assignment as a 2LT too. The only child of the family. Leaving behind his parents, and faithful girlfriend too, who continued to stay by his side throughout his funeral.

A guy with so much dreams and potentials, but all robbed from him from a single freak accident.

Our meeting may have been insignificant, however, rest well in my memories, for I shall never forget you...

...Farewell, dear Nicky.

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