I'm moving there. I feel that Blogger is not keeping up with the times, and that its functionality is very limited.
Updates stopped for this blog. Last post 20 August 2013.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Man that itch to write is coming up. No idea why. In order to try to satisfy that itch, I racked my brain on what to write about. Game reviews? It's been a while, but nah, I haven't played a good game for a looooooooong time, and the last good game I've played is too long ago for me to remember enough to write a review. An article about "My Take: ____"? I don't really have anything to critique. So, well, since I usually write a bloody long post every time a chapter of my life is coming to a close, I shall do one.It is almost ending. Possibly the two most horrible years of my life. I know I really shouldn't be complaining that it's horrible. Compared to others, my life has been pretty awesome.
So it all started on 6th March 2010, where I got thrown into a horrible, horrible place called Pulau Tekong. People keep saying that BMT is the best time that you will have in the Army. I hated that place with a vengeance. I never want to go back there, and I never want to experience what I experienced there again. I don't want to meet the people I've met there, I don't want to know what's going on with the people I met there. Life was hell, and the people were all superficial, fake, and self-righteous. Their attitudes irked me.
Even then, I still had to be thankful that I got into the welfare company. There were two PTP companies during my enlistment date, and I got the welfare one. It didn't feel like it was a welfare company, but when I got out and heard the stories from the others, I realized how good my life really was.
I managed to chill out quite often during BMT, and one factor is the placement of my bed in the bunk. There's this wall dividing my side of the bunk from the main area with the door, so people can't see what I'm doing unless they walk into my section of the bunk. Took a lot of naps by sleeping on the floor beside the bed this way. I never really did much during BMT, never became the platoon IC, never did guard duty, never got any sort of duty. I was part of the toilet cleaner team, but I never really did much. I can't even remember what I did.
Time passed, field camp was hell, grenades were an awesome experience, and I said no to command school.
Then I went to AI next. Artillery Institute. My first reaction was "OMG YES AWESOME". I mean, dude, artillery is like, the slackest combat vocation out there. Be support? Hey, that's what I do, even in video games. And less chance of getting killed as artillery. So came the briefing on the first day, and we were told we were gonna be Gunnery Assistants. Sit in the vehicle, get ferried around, do calculations for projectiles. We were chosen for our brains (that's what he said), and we were a group of a lucky 40+ out of the thousand that passed-out for that cohort.
Life was damned awesome compared to BMT. 6am reveilles, 5BX done without supervision, no time limit for breakfasts, then a break till usually 8am. Lessons are usually done in air-conditioned lecture rooms or the computer room. Even if there was fieldwork, it's done on an open field in camp, no jungle nonsense. The day usually ended by 6pm, after which we're free to do our own stuff. There wasn't really much we could do, there were only books and board/card games to play with. We got introduced to our first nights out here. I usually went to play LAN at the shops opposite, playing DoTA and CS.
The first outfield came, and we ate cookhouse outrations and slept in the training shed. Oh man.
But gah, it was all a lie. Only 10 people in the course could continue to live that life. The rest would still be gunnery assistants, but a different kind. We would be gunnery assistants to the forward observers. We would carry field packs, walk on foot, use camo cream on our faces, do route marches, be subject to the prone position, high kneeling, carry signal sets, all that crap.
Soon enough, life at AI ended, I was pretty sad to leave that place. I got separated with most of my friends I made in AI, off to a new place with people who I barely spoke to. For the next few months in the new place, I never really became happy with where I was. The place was old and horribly dirty, and I got posted to the company line, presumably the worse of the two possible places to go in the unit.
Life in the company wasn't good. I had a horribly unreasonable sergeant major, regimentation was... equal or worse than my time in AI. There was a lot of crap and maintenance to do, even though I wasn't trained at all in those things. I went to the garage to sweep the floor. Gah.
So life continued that way, and the company had lots of interesting people and politics. Very interesting indeed. I have to say it opened my eyes to the world outside. I've never experienced such politics and treachery before in my other 18 years, so it's a real eye opener. Thankfully, I was spared such involvement, and I only watched as a bystander.
Apparently there's this thing where my commanders have to visit my house and parents on one of the days. So they did, and there begins my route to downpes. I guess I have to be thankful that my commanders bothered to put in the effort to help me downpes. I was really lucky as well, since the unit MO at that time was a really lenient and kind one.
I managed to downpes in 2-3 months after the house visit. Really quick. But before that, there was a period of time in January where we had an awesome life because most of the unit went overseas for exercise. Wake up anytime, free do to anything in the day, and the day ended early.
Soon after that, the sergeant major changed (thank God). Many people didn't really look forward to the new one, since he has a rather bad reputation of giving people extras very freely. But things are different with me, since he made me his personal assistant. I got special treatment, so to speak. I didn't have to do much everyday, my work lasted at most 1 hour or so each day. I spent the rest of the day sitting around, reading books, surfing the forums, looking through the photo gallery. I was never involved in any maintenance work any more, not even area cleaning or rifle cleaning. I just stayed in the office.
Eventually, I got rather sick of sitting around in the office doing absolutely nothing. I had no vocation for 3 months. Furthermore, I was worried about what might happen to me and 2 (?) other people who were left in the company once the rest ORD. Duty to be shared among 3 people only? I didn't want to know (FYI it did happen - shared among those 2). Besides, I still wanted to go back to HQ. People kept telling me that the grass always seemed greener on the other side. Maybe, but I was willing to take a risk. I didn't even mind doing a bit of work, I've been idle for half a year already.
My commander told me that he could let me continue my current life of doing absolutely nothing all the way till ORD, or he could get me posted out. As much as I was rather sick of doing nothing, it was a very tempting choice. But I still decided to get out. I was likely to go to S1 branch.
One day, while I was at S1 branch applying for my ISAC card, I overheard a conversation between the chief clerk and S1. I had overlooked the fact that I was an FO GA, and the place I was currently in isn't my home unit. I was merely attached here. I had a chance of getting posted out of the unit entirely back to my home unit, and I'm not sure if I wanted that. My home unit is a rather inaccessible camp that's not near civilisation, and I'm not sure of the people there. I raised this up to my commander. I can't remember what he said.
One normal day at camp, my commander asked to see me. Then, he asked me if I wanted to be the CO PA. I said, "okay". He said I would have to know CO's schedule, answer phone calls, talk to people, etc. I said, "okay".
One normal day at camp, one of my bunkmates said that I was to go to CO's office. So I went. So CO asked me if I'm fine with being his PA. I said, "okay". He said all I needed was the right attitude, and I'll be fine. I said, "okay". And so I was the CO PA.
Interesting huh? I was a FO GA, then a SM PA, then now a CO PA.
Another interesting fact: this was my first proper appointment. I never did anything pertaining to an FO GA except for one radio lesson, and one route march. Being an SM PA, I just bought food from the canteen, made phone calls (I hate this, I'm never getting an HR/PR job in the future), and did up powerpoint slides. Sounds substantial, but do note that these jobs came in like maybe once a week.
Life as a CO PA was good. I had my own internet terminal (which doesn't work now because some idiot plugged in the internet cable to the OA, and no one wants to activate the internet), my own OA for forum surfing and discussion, and I wasn't disturbed by anyone other than CO, RSM and S1.
Many people ask what I do as a CO PA. I never really have a definite, solid answer for this. Well, I answer phone calls, print stuff for CO, fill his water bottle in the morning, get a set of newspapers for him, muster documents for him, attend to the people who enter the office if CO is busy, and pass documents here and there.
So life has been like that since I was a CO PA. My busiest day was the day before the change of command parade. The items in the office had to be handed over to the incoming CO, so there was a lot of paperwork and checking of inventory to do. In fact, it was pretty much one of the very few days where I barely had any time to myself.
I'm currently on my last 30+ absolute days. I have to be thankful for the good commanders who have helped me in the unit. I have received a lot of help ever since I came into this unit with regards to quality of life, my medical status, my posting, my job.
Do I still hate being in this unit? Not really. Heck, I don't hate it at all. It has given me a very good life, with no overstepping superiors. Sure, I still wish I can be with most of my friends, but the people here are great too. It's also one of the more accessible camps, though a 15-20 minute walk between camp and the MRT is rather annoying.
The last few months before ORD is excruciatingly long. Now that it's near, you start to anticipate it, and that's what makes the wait even worse. Some people get the luxury of clearing their off and leave to the point where they can disappear for a whole month, but I only get to disappear for six days. It's one of the disadvantages of having a job where you don't really do anything. There's no rewards. Still, even if you asked me if I would rather pick a job with rewards, I would say no, because a stable and peaceful life is a life that's good to have while you're serving your time. I'm sure many would agree with me.
I've completed my dental FFI, medical FFI, blood taking, my ORD quiz, and I'm only left with 2 signatures for my clearance form. All I'm left with now is to wait 5 weeks.
posted @ 12:55 am
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
posted @ 12:51 am
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
posted @ 12:50 am
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
posted @ 12:47 am
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
So I'm not sure if you've seen my tweet 2 days ago. I came home to a new computer. The thing is, my old one was still working, kinda. If you've been following my tweets, I've mentioned somewhere in the last month that an overheating graphics card was the cause of all the problems I had in the last 2 years. It took 2 freakin' years for me to figure out the problem. Sigh. Even then, I'm still not very sure if that's really the problem. I only figured out the problem when my CPU fan starting spinning like there's no tomorrow. Soooo, a new problem, or not?The problems stopped immediately once I kept the temperature cool, but the fan never slowed down. Ah heck, who cares.
I never knew I was going to have a new computer, neither did I ask for one.
There it is, my new computer.
Here are the important specifications:
Intel i5-2320 @ 3GHz
12GB RAM
1TB HDD
Nvidia GeForce GT 520
I'm rather disappointed with the graphics card that comes with this. It's more or less similar in power and speed to my previous card, the GeForce 220. The main improvement is the support for Directx 11.
According to http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html, it's an decrease from 445 to 341? Why is there a benchmark for GT 220 and GeForce GT 220? Pfft.
Anyway, the processor upgrade is definitely an awesome one. I currently sit at 6043. My previous one, an Intel Core2 Quad Q9400, sits at 3821. So yes, it's a rather substantial increase. An increase of 5GB RAM to 12GB is indisputably a substantial increase as well.
I wonder what's the swappable hard disk bay is about? And I seriously hate the new keyboard that comes with it. They compressed all the keys together, there's no spacing between F4 and F5, F7 and F8, the arrow keys, the insert/home/delete/end/page up/page down section, and the numpad. ALL the keys are beside another key. So hard to feel what I'm pressing.
posted @ 12:44 am
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Sunday, January 15, 2012
Oh heck, I'll try to post some updates.ORD: 5 March 2012
Well what do you know, a month and a half left.
After considering my offs and leaves, I have slightly under 30 working days left. For the 2 weeks after the CNY week, almost the whole battalion will be off for exercise overseas, so those 2 weeks will be pretty chill with nothing to do.
My boss changed on the 4th of January, and thankfully, the new one is pretty good as well. He's more or less the same as the previous one, and I'm really thankful for that. I can have peace for my last 2 months.
On a side note, the internet in my unit has been down for almost 3 months. Someone plugged the internet cable into an OA, and I have no idea what's going on now. I bet they're purposely not enabling it. After all, it's been enabled for the commanders. Well, at least I have the MINDEF Forums. It's an awesome place.
I'm pretty damn scared of going to University after 2 years of inactivity. My brain is really rusty. I better go start revising soon. Not sure if I'll have the mood to do so though, I'm even having a bit of trouble reading fiction books in camp. Really sleepy and lethargic. Even after almost 2 years of this, I'm still not used to waking up at 6am in the morning. I can't wait to stop waking up so early.
Anyway, I've started playing WoW again. I never actually intended to pick it up again. I just decided to log in one fine day, to sell items that I guessed would be worthless when Cataclysm hits (I'm on a private server). Then I got a whisper from a guildmate from a guild I joined in October last year. And well, damn, I started playing it again.
Well, I would say I'm having fun, definitely better than the experience in a previous guild I was in. They're much better in terms of skill, and it's a Singaporean guild, so it's a pretty nice place to be.
Amazingly I managed to strike off many games from my "to complete" list. I never completed Dawn of War 2 and Space Marine. It's just horrible, and I'm contemplating getting rid of War In The North as well. It's very similar to Space Marine - draggy, repetitive, no real purpose other than story.
Sounds like so many other games out there. Just make a damn movie if you want to make your game like that.Gosh.
So I'm really left with Skyrim and Shogun 2. Shogun 2 isn't exactly a completable game, so I'm not sure if that's on the list. Skyrim? Well, I've been playing it for a long time already, and it seems like I'm barely a third through the game. I'm not sure if I have the willpower to carry on. The game doesn't exactly get better as you progress, and I'm getting rather sick of running around and whacking things over and over again.
Sigh.
Games are really starting to suck nowadays.
posted @ 12:43 am
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
posted @ 12:42 am
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