Countdown
POSTED AT 10:30 AM

I guess something is disturbingly wrong when you start counting down the hours till the time when you're back in camp.

Till the weekend.

Flavour of the season
POSTED AT 11:35 PM

I have been seized with a sudden book-craze; suddenly there are so many books that I want to read. If Kinokuniya or Borders gave me a 50% discount card, I think I would run out there tomorrow and spend my entire month's pay on fresh, crisp new books that I would spend the rest of my life reading.

Of course, that is not going to happen, so with what limited finances I have, I plan to hit the bargain shelves instead in search of hidden gems. The recent Popular Warehouse Sale proved quite fruitful in itself, allowing me to dig out and snap up Maxine Hong Kingston's The Fifth Book of Peace and Pierre Boulle's The Bridge on the River Kwai at mouth watering discounts, no less. I'm hoping the scattering of second hand bookstores that I'm planning to visit will yield similar results.

I guess this is a adverse reaction to the general literary and intellectual inactivity that I've subjected myself to over the last year or so. Now that I have so much time on my hands especially during those long weekday nights, I might as well start getting out those subjects which I've always wanted to read up on, and finally find out for myself what it was that fascinated me so much before.

Perhaps a little ill-matching to the kind of surrounding that I'm in, but that's essentially what excites me. No point letting everything go to seed now that I'm out of school and don't have anything forced upon me for the time being.

I must say, the recent email from Duke is probably the catalyst of all this new-found interest. Somehow, being buried deep within camp all the way to the far east has distanced me somewhat from who I am and what I had hoped to achieve. Now, suddenly, I've been put back in my place. Hopefully I haven't wasted too much time already. I've always intended to put these two years to extremely good use, and I'm afraid I haven't really started to make good on that promise.

Thinking about it, I can't wait to get out there. I can only imagine what it'll be like; certainly I hope it'll turn out to be everything that I hoped for, and more. I think it's more or less settled that nothing short of a miracle will allow me to book my air tickets this year, so this time now is for me to level up while I can.

That said, I don't know if this is really passion fuelling my words, or whether I'm just trying to distract myself from more acute matters at hand.

THE SUNS LIVE IN CONCERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
POSTED AT 12:26 AM

OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can someone say supercalifragilisticamazingfantasticsuperunbelievable????!!!

Oh, and Electrico were pretty good too. And I never knew Ronin was that popular.

Etymology
POSTED AT 11:44 PM

Anyway, I decided to check up on how exactly one spells Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. It is, of course, spelled as Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

I got a bit curious at this point. What, exactly does it mean? I knew that it came from Mary Poppins, but I didn't have the faintest idea what it meant. So I consulted wikipedia.org, which has proved to be extremely handy, to get an accurate and more "official" definition.

That then led to a bit of research on the longest words in English. At 34 letters, I must say that Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a bit of a junior, what with mammoth elephants like Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis and Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk rampaging around the icy plains of alphabet Siberia.

Not to be outdone, a hill in New Zealand presented itself as Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, while a lake in Massachussetts decided that it was best described by the name Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. Imagine:

Taxi driver: So, where to, Ma'am?
Passenger: Oh, just down the road to the little cottage off the shores of Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.
Taxi driver: What? Did you say Chearghoggegiggmancheuggagiggchaubunnagaengamaugg?
Passenger: No, Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.
Taxi driver: Ahh.... yes, of course. I knew that.

Anyway, there's no point arguing... because the longest word in the English language surely has to be the word that comes after the sentence "And now, a word from our sponsors". Hands down.

5 day week
POSTED AT 01:27 AM

I can't believe I'm going to work on a Saturday. And it isn't even DO duty or range or field camp. I'm braving the one and a half hour ride all the way to camp to attend a meeting, which will probably last all of one hour, and brave the one and a half hour ride to wherever I choose to go next. Such an utter waste of time.

And I really should be sleeping now because I need to wake up early tomorow (EVEN IF IT IS A SATURDAY!!!!!) to embark on my long journey to the land where the sun rises (the East, of course). But instead I'm still up, doing stupid internet quizzes like this. I managed to score 9. Paltry. I guess that means I need to watch more movies?

Been feeling rather down lately with regards to work. There are always people around you can't stand. At least I'm not in it for the long haul. I think I have problems with authority.

Niggling Ambiguities
POSTED AT 09:37 PM

Somehow I'm not looking forward to the week ahead. I don't know whether it's because of the pressure of impending deadlines, or because of the extremely physical demanding schedule we have coming up, or because of the fact that I'm solely in charge next week to make sure everything goes along properly, or simply a weariness of routine and a simulacrum of fulfillment. I can't quite put my finger on it, but this feeling is extremely unsettling.

At least this weekend was a pretty decent one - despite that accursed Saturday morning meeting that dragged on for almost 3 hours, I still managed to squeeze in my weekly sports fix (volleyball with juniors), a movie with friends, a fulfilling supper, a good measure of gaming, and caught up with some people as well.

Sometimes I catch myself wishing this would just get itself over and done with. Of course, I'm always looking forward to November when this phase of my life ends and the next will begin. But I've also discovered and decided that it's extremely unhealthy for me to go through life with that kind of attitude. Sure, looking ahead is a good thing, but then I tend to lose sight of the present, and before I know it, I find myself on that long awaited November day, but with no knowlege or memory of time well and meaningfully spent between now and that hypothetical present.

It's better to enjoy each day for what it is. But I can't shake off that niggling feeling in the back of my head. Is this what spider-sense feels like?

Hair tears
POSTED AT 08:47 PM

Over the course of the last week, I decided that I would never want to work with military personnel when I finally get out into the real working world. I say real because what I do now hardly counts; I feel that the kind of environment that we have here is too sheltered, too contrived, too myopic and too artificial to count as an accurate picture of reality.

Of course, with no knowledge of what it actually is like outside I certainly am in no position to comment.

I was thinking about this the other night. What characterises the military working environment the most, and sets it apart from, say office politics or cutthroat entrepreneurship is the rank system. It lends structure and adds stability. There is a distinct chain of command at all times, which ensures that issues flow properly from top down.

And yet it also means that there is absolute rule. Even though there are appropriate channels of feedback and support, as a ranking superior, you will always be able to get your way when in the company of your subordinates. When you don't, there is always the rule book, the military court and the informal punishment system to back you up.

Fine and good, I don't deny that this system is highly beneficial - essential, even - for the army to fight a war. I mean, when you want to send your men to accomplish the mission, at the cost of their lives, you need to be able to order them to do so, without question, right?

But I feel that what this system leads to in the context of the real world - a world of real people, real relationships and real feelings - is a very poor superior-subordinate relationship. A ranking superior demands so much respect befitting his rank that often, he loses the same respect for his subordinates. After all, with rank on your side, there's no need to think of your subordinates as people; they are mere subjects under command. There's no need to treat them with the same self-respect you would treat a peer or equal rank.

You will find this phenomena manifesting itself on many occasions. It's not pretty. I know because I am in a position of command, as well as obeisance. It's both sides of the coin, and I can see it happening.

More and more often we find more top level officers moving out the military to find work in the civilian work sectors. I certainly wouldn't want one as my boss.

I've had a pretty bad week.

Johari Window
POSTED AT 11:05 PM

A friend sent me to do hers, and I thought it looked pretty interesting.

The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingram in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up.

Click here to contribute to mine!

Work Ethic
POSTED AT 10:31 PM

Because I'm so junior, and because I can get things done properly, people have a knack for delegating work to me, in the confidence that they would not have to worry about the issue anymore. Today, I've decided that it is time to put a stop to this. It is an extremely unhealthy phenomenon, because I end up doing all sorts of work that, honestly, is way out of my portfolio. And then I start to get very annoyed at myself and at everything in general.

It's not about being nasty or selfish; I think it's merely about protecting myself. I tend to get very involved in my work, and when things start to pile up or when things start to bog down, I can get very agitated and unsettled. And I hate that feeling, because it signifies that I am not in control, and that time is not being spent efficiently.

I've tried to project myself at work as a sort of helpful person, always ready to help his fellow man with his work. Enough is enough. Sometimes it is not so much the work itself that worries me, because some of this outsourcing actually involves relatively simple tasks. Rather, I don't want to be associated with the burden of ensuring that everything goes smoothly. I mean, I can help you do this, but if it doesn't turrn out right, I don't want to be held accountable. But I am, because I did the work.

I don't know if it's like this outside as well. Hopefully it isn't, but something tells me that it is a pretty universal trend.

Miscomm
POSTED AT 12:47 AM

My grandfather's in hospital. For now he's still ok, but I don't know what might come.

Because he was warded at a hospital in JB, my family decided to drive across the causeway to visit him on Wednesday night. I don't usually leave camp so early, but we didn't want to get caught in the jam, so I prepared to leave at around 5.

There is a lot of paperwork to be done to allow us NSF to go overseas on a weekday, and since I was probably only going to be spending less than four hours across the causeway, I decided to dispense with applying for overseas leave, because that would deduct leave from my precious 14 days.

Just to be safe, I thought I'd better tell my boss that I'll be going to Malaysia. So just before I left, I popped by into his office and mentioned that I would be going to Malaysia that night to see my grandfather, who was in hospital. With that, I left.

On Thursday, I spent a fruitful morning outside of camp attending an external NDP meeting. When I finally made my way back to camp around lunchtime, my colleague was extremely surprised to see me back.

"Eh, how come you're back? I thought you wouldn't be coming back for the next few days?"

Apparently, there was some major miscommunication, because my boss had somehow misunderstood that my grandfather had passed away (which of course isn't true!!!), and had taken the initiative to apply 2 days of Compassionate Leave for me.

WTF.

I had to make haste to cancel the leave and clear up matters with everyone.

Afterwards, my PS joked with me that since the leave was already applied, no point wasting it, and asked me why I didn't want to just go home and rest for the next few days.

Thing is, I might really be needing that CL.

Hopefully not.

*PLUG*
POSTED AT 02:06 AM

Hey kids! I have some good stuff to share with all of you. There's this new local band that has proved to be pretty promising, as yet unestablished on the local scene, but perhaps destined for bigger things one day!

Check out their live streaming songs here, and don't forget to give them all the positive feedback they deserve!