Saturday, July 28, 2007

Anaticulae

So S was complaining to me earlier on today. See, he had gone for his reservist ICT, and he had just gone through the combat shoot at the range, where he missed out on getting his $200 bonus by a single shot.

"One bullet!" he was saying. "That stupid duck!"

Yes, it is a little known fact that the SAF uses ducks for target practice. I mean, the pop-up targets are useful for practice and all, but for the real training, we need to use ducks to simulate the random movements that would usually happen during actual combat.

So what happens during the test is that there will be some guys down at the butt end of the range who will release like 6 ducks at a go, and each of the troopers have to pop one duck each. This is why Singapore still maintains a couple of duck farms in the LCK area. It's government funded for shooting practice. After the whole range is over, they'll go and collect the ducks that are still in large enough pieces, and eat them for dinner. The rest of the remains are left at the range to attract other small scavenger birds. This is to allow the NCOs, officers, and people who want to improve their shooting to engage smaller targets that are harder to hit.

So quite naturally, a common misconception during inter-national army training is when a Singaporean soldier screams "DUCK!!" at his section mates. He isn't telling them to hit the dirt and watch out for incoming fire; rather, he's telling them that he's spotted a live target and telling them to shoot it, as well as warning them of the possibility of more enemies in the immediate vicinity.

So anyway, S was complaining, because he's not eligible for the IPPT, so the only way, as he puts it, to get back his taxpayer's money, is to score in the range. But he missed it by a single shot. Poor S.



Went through VCF's FOC a couple of weeks back. Made some new friends, even though my group was kinda depleted cos there were seniors who were working, and there were freshmen who needed to do admin stuff. But generally, the camp was really well done, and I certainly did not feel there were any major hiccups, except maybe SP's rope during the tug-of-war that broke just about every time we played and which ended up a third shorter due to the number of knots that had to be used to conect it back. The other great thing is that once again, the committee felt that group cheers were unnecessary, which is definitely a major plus in my book. Co-leader D was really quite fun to be with. He gave us like Church History 101 in 45 mins.

The speaker was pretty good too. The theme of the camp was of our Foundation of Christ, and he also reminded us of our Unity in Christ, and encouraged us to be Foolish for Christ. I can't really remember everything, but think these 3 points are really easy to remember, and useful for application.

Other than that, nothing much else happened. Helped in some matric stuff, as well as IFG things, had ISO, and passed my advanced theory test. Oh and I managed to get my 3 history pre-allocated modules, so that's one less worry.

Yup, that's about it. Maybe update again soon, if I get inspiration.

Cheerio!

P.S. If you really believed that whole thing about the ducks, I've really got nothing to say.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Valeas

When a whole bunch of my friends graduated last year, it didn't seem like a very big thing, from my perspective. I mean, it's not like they weren't close friends or anything; after all I did get to know some of them really well, especially my ALLO buddy Ad (who regularly steals food from others and who's greeting is now well known to arts people). But this year, after I went down to the UCC to say hi to some of the graduating peeps (today), it seemed so much different. Like it's a whole new beginning for them, to finally finish their university studies, and to start their working life, but at the same time, I can almost sense as if a whole generation of my friends left school.

It's really curious, because the feeling I got today was the sort I felt like after leaving OCS, or after I graduated from Sec. School. Except this time, I'm not the one graduating. And I'm guessing it's because I guess I have in the two years I've been at NUS, I have grown really close to this particular batch of seniors. And also I guess cos about half these people are also my age.

And I know for certain I will really miss them. People like my ex-CGL MS; when I first met her, I thought she was a Chinese exchange student, and who usually gets teased by us, who has made famous phrases like, "Wat!", "Laugh laugh", and "I'm gonna strangle you by the neck!".

Or Sh, who is smart enough to get first class honors, but whom we all watch to see if she trips over herself.

Like Wi, of whom I shall always remember the rides to school in the morning during exam time, and our hare-brained attempts to catch the Great Central Library Rush on video.

And whenever I'm in the library or at the green tables, there's C who will always come and say hi by clapping me on the shoulder.

Like Ad, who was the one who psyched (psychoed) me into joining CF.

Of P, who did her very best to push my proficiency of Japanese up just before my oral tests.

And of YF, whom I met in JC cos we both kept on failing our Chinese, and I regularly run into on campus.

Of course, there are so many more whom I have gotten to know (like Es, Ev, HS, SD, R, T, Ch, Eu, Be, J, eh really got alot, sorry if missed you out hor), and who will not be coming back to school next semester, and I definitely don't have the space (or time, since FOC is tmr and I haven't packed) to list all of them out. And I really regret not being able to see all of them one last time before they finally leave NUS. But I guess it's sufficient to say that I will remember you (at least, I'll do my best to), and that in Singapore, it's almost a given that I'll bump into you sooner or later.

Farewell friends



Kaoz.. so emo sia... almost as if this was an orbituary or something. Biang eh, show so much emotion, must be getting old...

Oh, and I thought this would be a good representation of F, since she has become a dino:



Haha. She wanted to bish me after that. Oh well