Furor

Well, it's been kinda of a long week, since i last entered Duty last week. Been quite a while, cos I have been rather tied down with work and other stuffs. Like from Monday to Wednesday, I stayed back late at work cos my boys were going OT to prep for the LRI. (Logistics Readiness Inspection, for the uninitiated). And I must really say that although a lot of the work done was somewhat last minute, it was worth it, since the Staff Sergeant from the team said we were deinitely not going to get a D grading, which is the lowest possible grading. Kudos also to my Dy FM, Gerald, for helping with alot of the admin work, and being so focused, something i find very hard to do... Yup, without him, I can safely say we prob would have gotten a D.

Anyway, the Inspectorate came over on Wed, and checked and checked. We almost failed a portion, but just barely scraped through by the skin of our teeth (heh... army term which I picked up in BB).

Anyway, there wasn't much else that happened during working hours, 'cept that Monday stayed back late, Tuesday stayed back late, Wednesday stayed back late ( which was why i couldn't go over to Cheryl's place). Thursday had class in church with Yoko-sensei and gang, Friday went running and took care of the kiddies.

Saturday morning, went to meet Frankie, Father Chai and Josh for badminton in the morning. Couldn't get a spot at Gombak, so we went up to Woodlands, and managed to play for awhile. I must admit, that to call my playing atrocious, would be a gross understatement, but that is not something you need to know.

We headed over to church after that, to engage in martial conflict in Emily's Wild War Wet... Wasn't too bad. It ws a hot day, and I guess most of the youth had a great time running all over the field in a typical Youth Min game i.e. one that involves lots of waterbombs.

Then this was where my temper flared back up. One of the guys from one of the other teams came over to attack out HQ. Which is the object of the whole game, so that was pretty normal. However, as he ran off after using up his ammo, he saw our waterbombs on the floor, and purposely stepped on one. Then he looked up and saw me staring at him, before he ran away. Since I'm a rather phlegmatic sort of guy, I just let it slip.

Then a while later, he came back again. This time, he threw his waterbombs, then promptly grabbed two of ours. Angela of course saw it, and told him in a firm voice that those were our waterbombs. By that point of time, he had already thrown one at one of our team mates. Angela then continued, and told him to return the waterbomb.He obliged by hurling it back at us. Of course the bomb exploded, what with such good waterbomb manufacturers in my group... Anyway, that totally pissed me off. It wasn't that red blinding rage that came over, more of a sort of cold calculation that he needed to be taught a lesson. So as he ran away, I broke into a run after him, and hammered one waterbomb right into his back. He shouted back, "Pain lah! What, you think you playing basketball ah?" (I had jumped and thrown, sort of like in handball? Ya.) So anyway, I just ignored him, and walked away. Sort of like telling him, "Don't screw around with me."

Anyway, the point of the whole narrative above is not about the punk. It was about me, losing my cool, and taking matters into my own hand. The punk needed to be taught a lesson, I shouldn't have given it to him like that. I mean, I could have just grabbed him and made a scene, like what my father does sometimes, really embarassess the heck out of the target. Or something like that. The violence I exhibited would not have been edifiying to anybody, God the least of all. I mean, what if the guy was a prebeliever or something? One more soul lost due to a rash action on my part. Once again, letting my temper go unchecked could have had a really bad consequence.

Also, I realized that after I entered the army, it's easier to become angry. Like today, almost lost my temper, this time on a friend. He's a great guy, knowledgable in God's Word, and he can be really encouraging when you need encouragement. Unfortunately, this time, I almost broke my frinedship with him. (Spiritual attack perhaps? He had just shared with me some stuff that was really edifying.) Anyway, what happened was that I was sitting with him, and two other friends. One of these other friends is the kind that is fun to make fun of. So anyway, I was teasing her, then she hit me, and then you know, we just started to 'ka chiao' each other, then I flicked my finger at her, and she complained loudly, as she usually does. :) Then the guy told me, I shouldn't hit a girl, which is normal. Then of course, in my whiny voice, I complained that she started it. I mean, this sort of bantering goes on in Youth all the time, so it was still a normal situation. However, the guy continued, saying that even so, I still shouldn't hit a girl. And he was serious about it. Like as if I did something really bad. I mean, come on man, it's not like I was abusing her or anything. Then we entered into a sort of theological debate, 'cept that I was always wrong.

Of course, apart from the fact that I don't like losing in a debate, he had blown the whole situation totally out of proportion. So by that time, I was in that cold fury mode again. And I guess Sulwyn realized I was not exactly in a happy mood, and she pulled me away with a really lame excuse, but for which I am still deeply grateful.

Anyway, I think my temper is going to be another major problem in the future. I mean, if you read some of my older posts, you will realize that some of them are also dealing with anger management. Which is gonna be hard, since in the army, we were trained to be aggressive. Must've unlocked the hot-headed part of me. And I realize that I am getting angry alot easier. Used to be that I was a really laid-back guy. Dunno if it's good or bad. If it goes overboard, it would hardly be a good testimony to Christ, now would it?

Cheerio