Sign Language

How do you communicate with the hearing impaired and those without the ability to speak?

A few months back, while we were flying kite at ZX's house void deck, a guy came to us and watch us fly. Later, he attempted to communicate with us, and that's when we realise that he is one such fellow.

At first, he makes lots hand movement, which we could not understand at all. Its like a duck talking to a cow, which the duck goes "quack," and the cows replied "Mooooo???"

So, we tried to understand him. Its like a game... He is doing the actions, and we need to guess the sentence, without the time limit.

Finally, we understood. He is trying to tell us that he plays RC toys also. And our kite is beautiful, with all the LED lights on it.

It mark the start of a friendship. Every time we are at ZX's void deck, be it playing cards (UNO cards), be it talking cock, be it flying kite he would always stop to have a "chat" with us when he returns home before going back.

But one thing still remains. Barrier in communication. So much so that, yesterday night, he use his mobile to type out the message that he wants to convey to us.

But its better than the first time. This time, the duck and the cow goes something like "muack, and qoo" respectively, but sometimes, there's still difficulty in understand what he is trying to say.

Just imagine us yesterday, arms frailing away, the 4 of us... And if you are passing by, you will think there's 4 nutcases sitting at the void deck, not chatting, but arms waving away violently, and laughing suddenly at the same time.

Perhaps, its time for us to learn sign language. So far, i only know the sign language for number 1 - 10. Not to mention the internationally, universal sign lauguage, the one which everyone understood instantly, internationally, and comes together with a sound that sounds like "Nah!"

If you do not know what is the international sign laguage, don't ask. If you have to ask, then you are too young to know.

What does duty siaos reply in E mail

Previously, i did mentioned in one of my old post, about the ST John Duty Siaos family, and how fun could it be when we are our chionging duty together.

Well, give you some ideas about how crazy we can be, from the E mails that we sent to EVERYONE!!!

Duty siaos, please do not mind this hor... Its just that we are all crazy!!!

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Story started when JH E mail to everyone if they can commit to NDP duties this year.

DT replied that he might be moving house during that time, and well, just put his name in first.

SQ chipped in "If you need help to move house, just blow your whistle."

I added in the next e mail " Hahaha.. Make it a SJRU outing?? Help DT move house!"

SQ replied "Good idea, that's what i call teamwork!"

JH in the next E mail " Okie, that will be good. All expense on DT. Thanks in advance, DT"

I replied " Okie. We dun ask for much... 10 course dinner at fullerton can liao".

Another E mail, now from R " Come on you guys... You should help him lighten his load, not burden him!! The most decent thing to do is to take what he does not want in his new house... like TV, mini stereo system, fridge, sofa set, kitchen cabinet, bedroom set furniture... get the idea, i am sure DT only wants new items for his house.

I replied. " I do not need his furniture or electrical devices, i only want all his books!"

R commented " That's a start!"

Then EC (he cannot stand it liao, must join in the fun liao, i guess) shoot back to R " thought you only work for goodie bag?"

R replied " I still do. Only this time round it has to be a really big goodie bag, more like Ali baba (duffel bad). Good enough?"

And i just replied to R " R, knowing you, duffel bag is not enough. My van can be hired at a cheap rate. Do consider."

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Ain't we a brunch of crazy fellows? Imagine doing it over E MAIL!!! We are after all, duty siaos!!!

Music, Songs

What will you do when you are feeling down, got lots of things on your mind, want to forget the stuffs that's bothering you, and you badly need a distraction? Or when you need to think things out?

Do you just cry it out? Munch away? Workout till totally exhausted? Go for a vacation? Or will you drink till drunk, party? Gets violent and start looking for trouble?

For me, the best way is to listen to some music, songs, relax in a lone, relaxing environment.

I have been feeling quite down these few days. Could not sleep the whole night, (that's why i am still blogging at 4.30am in the morning, at my second home, NHQ.)

Got some stuffs to think about, to sort them out, needs a distraction.

I switched on the TV. Nothing interesting. Not to say the TV programs sucks, (there's a nice movie showing), but i just does not have the mood to watch it, laugh when its funny... In fact, there's a character in the show that pisses me off.

I turn on the radio. Tuned to FM 97.2...

They are playing retro songs. Songs which i had listen in the 80s and 90s. And it was during that that period (80s and 90s) which i was like the teenagers nowadays, listening to the hip hop songs. Songs that i can recognize the singer and the title. (I admit that i am getting old liao. My radio is always tuned to Love 972, Class 95.)

It reminds me of the old days, when the music accompany my studies, my traveling time on buses, my sleeping time and even my part time jobs that i took up. Basically, i am listening to the radio the whole day, frequently to the extend that i can memorize the lyrics by just listening to it long enough. Believe me, i did not attempt to memorize at all!

Listening to the music, i felt a total sense of relaxation coming over me. I just relax. Singing along to the music also helps. I started to think back to the past. I recalled how my parents smashed my radio when i was studying for my Os, just because they cannot believe the fact that i can study better with songs.

My eyes fell on my police peak cap and some old photos displaying on my desk. I started to recall my NPCC days. Days as a cadet in secondary school. The good times and the bad times. How we trained for the campcraft competition, and got into the finals, a record in the history of that school unit. How we trained for the footdrill competition, and beat the rest of the UGs and emerge champions.

I think back on my CI (Cadet Inspector) course, (i was from the Dec 94 batch), my days at CCKSS, and Fajar sec as an instructor. The other instructors (BW, JL, ZX, Nazir, JW, CM, CX, GW, and Ms Phang, Mr Lim, Mr Solehan, and Ms Esther (Teachers in charge of FSS NPCC unit.)

I think back a lot of things. I could not sleep at all.

The troubled stuffs disappeared.

So, next time, when you are down, you think no one cares about you, you got lots of things on your mind, want to forget the stuffs that's bothering you, and you badly need a distraction? Or when you need to think things out? And you don't have a effective way to relax and chill down?

Try listening to some songs that you like. If it does not works for you, then you have to find a better way to forget your troubles.

Let me continue the story. I realize that the trill of music and rain and doing some ridiculous actions really soothes me.

I was thinking about NPCC days, when the thunder struck. "Kaboom!!!"

Bathed and scuttled out of the house before it pours. Drove in the heavy rain. Wanting to go for a rounding, i passed by HQ and turned into nicole highway. At the bridge, there's a build up of water puddles (continuous puddles) on the extreme left side of the road. I drove over those puddles, causing the water to be sprayed onto the pavement.

At a traffic light leading to geylang, there's a puddle of water there also, and i sped over it, causing water to be sprayed over the unfortunate car next to mine. Basically, we are spraying water on each other. That was fun.

And i go back to nicole highway again, and dove over those puddles again, at a higher speed, till my left rear tyre started to skid, twice, and my brakes got wet. Drove slowly after that to dry my brakes.

I admit, that's a bit dangerous. But then, as i was driving back to HQ (Enough liao), i was telling myself aloud...

"Man, that was fun!!!"

Lessons learned the hard way

The disappointment feeling did continue yesterday. And i thought it was over... Wrong.

I always knew i am not cut out to teach. I cannot be a teacher. Somehow one way or another, i always learn from my mistakes. Some stupid, careless mistake which i always overlook, some finer point of details which i always missed out.

Take First Aid for example. Ask me to do, and i can do it. Ask me to teach some members (who has the basic foundation of First Aid) and i still can do it, but there's always some points which i will miss out, and ask me to teach a group of people who has not absolute idea of what the hell first aid is, and i will "strumble".

I always believe teaching is to allow the students to have a complete understanding of the principles of "why do we need to do that", "why do we have to be careful of that" stuff. Telling them the procedures of doing for example, CPR, and they will just do CPR. But tell them why do they need to follow the procedures, i believe they will be able to remember the procedure better.

Yesterday night is Vincent's first flight of flying RC kite. AF and Viper was not around. Only me and ZX was around.

I took the task of teaching Vincent how to fly and the tricks of flying. ZX came and join us later.

Vincent was into RC stuffs since young. He played RC heli before, and now, he is playing RC cars (those type that runs on liquid fuel, not batteries, mind you), and he is now going into RC kites. In a way, he will learn faster and better, coz of his RC foundation.

I was so engrossed into telling him the tricks of controlling the kite, to allow it to stay in the air, till i miss out something very important. Trimming his kite on the transmitter. You can actually trim a kite till it is very "floatable" in the air. ZX later trimmed the kite and Vincent actually finds it easiler to fly.

Lesson learned. Next time when there's a need "which i don't think so" for me to teach new flyers on the tricks of kite flying, i must trim the kite first.

Why must i always learn the lesson the hard way??

Post from talkingcock website

Hahaha... This is funny!!! From the talkingcock website!!!

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SDP Nearly Bags EU Membership for Singapore
Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2007
Topic: International News
by Cockmaster

In a very bold and audacious move, the SDP secretly filed for Singapore to become a member of the European Union and almost succeeded.

The unauthorized application was only discovered when Dr. James Gonzo, a Spanish lawyer in charge of filing the application documents failed to include a required form on the rights of minority groups in Singapore.

Dr. Gonzo had been requested to help file the application by a Spanish-Singaporean medical practitioner – one “Dr. Chee San Juan” – who told him that no senior SDP members are currently allowed to leave Singapore and the documents had to be filed in Brussels by a representative of the state.

While admitting that the application was a fraud, Dr. Gonzo did not accept that he forgot to file the document on minorities, but video surveillance cameras revealed that instead of handing over the partially completed form, he had put it in his briefcase and left.

When asked why no-one in the EU headquarters reacted when a Spanish citizen filed the documents on behalf of the Singaporean Government, Mr. Jürgen Müller, a spokesman of the EU, explained, “they forgot to check his ID. Hhe claimed to be speaking something he called Singlish but no one really understood what he was saying, so they assumed he said ‘Spanish’.”

Mr. Müller continued, “In hindsight, it is remarkable that the approval process was almost completed before the fraud was discovered, I mean, Singapore isn’t exactly a part of Europe. Apparently no-one in the office ever heard about Singapore, we got so many applications lately, the secretary thought it was one of the small city states in Italy or the Alps, like Monaco or San Marino.”

Prof. Ralph Johnson, an expert on European Union Law, calls the incident unprecedented and highlights an intriguing fact about EU membership, “the thing about EU is that you cannot cancel your membership, no state has ever left the Union and there simply are no laws regarding this matter, it is not an option. In other words, had Dr. Gonzo succeeded there is no way that the Singaporean Government could have cancelled the membership, not even by force.”

Prof. Johnson continued, “The Singaporean Government would have been forced to break down all the state monopolies, abolish the death penalty, cut back on censorship, allow street protests, independent trade unions, anonymous elections and strikes. They would have to give up many of the highly regarded “Asian values” but in return they would have gotten unlimited access to the world’s biggest market and the protection of European armies, which admittedly didn’t work out very well last time for Singapore.”

Finally, he added, “According to the logic of Minister Mentor Lee, joining the EU would also make it okay not to have astronomical Ministerial salaries, so lucky for them the application was caught in time.”

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There's why i like that website. www.talkingcock.com

Never fails to bring a smile or some laugher to me...

Activity postponed

Kinda disappointing today...

Took leave from work, had a good night's sleep, woke up, spend the morning watching cartoons on Kid's central. Misses the cartoons... Well, there's a kid in everyone of us right?

Went to HQ early. Had a long long chat with ST, to trash out all the things between me and him. Kinda work out a system between him and zone 3. Got some e mails to sent to the teachers to finalise the duty hours.

Went to TP for a duty with Rafi, Venod. AP was due to join us later. It started to rain on our way there.

Alas! Due to the heavy downpour, the event was postponed to next friday. Need to take leave again. Heng (luckily), i stop production for next week, due to the coming Labour day (1st May). Its also a good chance for us (me and my colleagues) to take a breather from the hectic work schedules.

So, feeling kinda disappointed and sian. Its still raining, and i am still in my second home, (SJ HQ), and i have no plans to go back yet. Going back got also nothing to do, except jioing Vincent out to fly kite. AF went overseas, and Viper is still sick. Have not called ZX yet, but chances are, he might not be free to fly. My batteries are still with ZX, charging.

Worried about my battery. Yesterday night, went to riverside point to fly. Overdischarged one of my new battery. Hope nothing goes wrong. Batteries are not cheap. I already had one new battery damaged after some crashes.

Only thing that can make my mood worse if the electricity trips while i am in HQ while i am taking a nap (in HQ) later.

Another lame chinese poem

Hmmm.. just realised that my office computer (new one) does not have any input for chinese characters...

I was driving WC and Lam back yesterday, when i came to a t junction. The light just flash green in my direction, and so, i signal left and turn left.

At the same time, a taxi U-turn and cut into my lane. That taxi had beat the red light. (Too bad, there's no red light cameras). I high beamed him.

And at the same time, i was cursing at that taxi driver for beating the red light and cut into my lane... Then it click!

So, i began chanting.

Zai ban ye san geng
Taxi chuan hong deng
Lai zhuo ge U turn
Bi wo kai da deng

Translation:
In the middle of the night
Taxi beat red light
to make a U turn
Force me to flash high beam

Weather

It's the end of April. It should be spring, going to summer soon by now, ain't it?

But the weather is miserable. It has been raining practically everyday, with thunderstorms, bright dazzles of lighting that most motorist thought they were being photographed for speeding, and beating the red light.

For the past few days, its scorching hot in the morning and afternoon till you can get a tan by just driving, and in the late afternoon / evening, it start to pour. Timing is always very "zhun" (accurate). It will rain during the evening peak hour.

Yesterday was no different. It rained at about 1530 hours, and there, the difference comes in.

The rain was what the chinese called "chang ming yu" (Long life rain). It rained and stopped from yesterday evening till this morning. And because of the weather, i was struck in a miserable jam, and was awfully late for work.

Everyone is miserable at the hot scorching sun, and the wet weather that follows, and the side-effects of raining. Long traffic jams, packed bus, and there are friends around me who are falling sick mainly coz of the weather.

And in Thailand, the weather is different. They have hot scorching weather, to a point the ammunition in a army depot exploded. (Wow!!! interesting!!)

Somehow, one can see that the climate is changing, to more extreme. When its bright and sunny, you can feel your skin being baked if you stand under the sun for a moment too long, and when it rains continuously, it can be so cold that one will not be surprise if it actually starts snowing!!

We like to go to the extreme, do extreme sports, extreme fashion, and now, it seems the weather is also going into the extreme. Beware!!!

Potentially habitable planet found

Potentially habitable planet found By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer.

The planet is named 581 c, which circles a red dwarf star Gliese 581. Man, this sounds like some triller friction movie script.

As quoted, "The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away".

Lets do our maths. 120 trillion miles = 120,000 billion miles = 120,000,000 million miles = 120,000,000,000,000 miles, and 1 mile = 1.609 344 kilometer, calculate yourself. My calculator showed me the "E" sign.

If you are seeing too many zeros, i can simply put it this way... 20.5 light years away from earth, meaning to say, if you are travelling at the speed of light, it would take you 20.5 years to reach 581 c. You would prob said "Are we there yet" trillions of times.

Me? i would not want to go there. Couple of reasons.

1) I will die before i reach there. (There's no such thing as a transport system that allows you to travel at the speed of light, and even there is, i would not want to spend 20.5 years on travelling)

2) I am already very heavy. I don't want to be heavier, as the gravity is 1.6 times the earth.

3) I don't want to buy birthday presents once every 13 days to my friends, since it orbits its star every 13 days. I will be dead broke.

But still, its interesting. Who knows? ET is from that planet!!!

"Sick of it all" Live in concert!!!

A friend enlist my help in helping to advertise a upcoming concert, by the band, "SICK OF IT ALL"

Alright.... Don't get excited and start jumping in warming up to the music.

Band shot. Too bad, i cannot download better quality pictures of them.

If you have never heard of this band, its a nice chance to go to their website to take a look.
http://www.sickofitall.com/

Details as below:

Type of Music: Hardcore Rock. (What do you expect from a Hardcore Rock Band?)
Date / Time: 25th May 2007 / 1700hours
Venue: Far East Square Pavilion, 28 China Street
Ticket prices: S$60 (at the door), S$50 (presale)

However if you are a bit tight in your wallet, i have just the lobang for you. S$40. Just contact this person, Alvin Ang. E mail: alphaowen@msn.com Mobile: 81339481

Enjoy the hardcore rock concert!!! The one that gets you jumping!!

Movie, Fracture

How would you convict a person, who shot his wife, but the weapon (a gun recovered from the scene) was proven never been fired before and 4 rounds was missing, the key witness was sleeping with that person's wife?

Ah... a real triller, with a twist at the end. No frills court room case. If this happens in Singapore, that case would have driven the media frenzy, just like sharks who have scented blood.

Too bad. This happens in the movies.

Went for a show with WC, Viper, AF and CS. Title of the show is "Fracture". This fracture does not involve immobilizing the affected parts of a broken bone.

Not bad... I like the plot and the smartness of the guy (Anthony Hopkins) who shot his wife.


This movie is not action-based. To those who wanna see lots shots being fired, and only the bad guy dies, forget it. But to those who are into plots with a twist, investigation work, ahhh... this is the one.

Man who crashed car in test drive charged

Man who crashed car in test drive charged,
Tuesday April 24, 12:17 PM, Channel Newsasia

I recalled a storm raising about that guy, who crashes a Mazda MX-5 convertible, during a test drive, killing a 22 year-old lady.

Status of the car after the accident. It's smashed beyond repair, and has to be scrapped before its even sold!!!!

If i am not wrong, (please correct me if i am wrong), from the papers (Straits Times, forum section, if i am not wrong), that same guy wrote in his blog about thinking to purchase another sports car, after that incident, and he's still under investigation about the accident which involves a life.

Other bloggers shoot back, saying he shouldn't be looking at other sports car. Instead he should live in regret, being responsible of a young lady's life lost.

And yesterday, he's being charged, and if found guilty, he will faces a maximum 5 year jail term. He's out on $10,000 bail. And he's also facing civil suits beside the criminal suit, from the other parties that is involved in the accident.

If he's remorseful about the accident, (living in guilt is never easy, you have to live with it your whole life), i got nothing to say. The living with guilt is enough sentence to him. But, less then 2 years after the accident, he's thinking about buying another sports car, and wrote in his blog, he does not deserve to be forgiven.

Has he not learn his lesson? Such a big "fall" and he still does not feel remorseful and repent... And in this way, he deserves the maximum punishment.

I shall follow this case closely.

Jokes

Some Jokes in here to keep your Monday Blues away!!!

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College Degrees
The graduate with a Science degree asks, "Why does it work?"
The graduate with an Engineering degree asks, "How does it work?"
The graduate with an Accounting degree Asks, "How much will it cost?"
The graduate with a Liberal Arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"

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The psychology instructor had just finished a lecture on mental health and was giving an oral test.

Speaking specifically about manic depression, she asked, "How would you diagnose a patient who walks back and forth screaming at the top of his lungs one minute, then sits in a chair weeping uncontrollably the next?"

A young man raised his hand and answered, "A basketball coach?"

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Love Potion
An old man goes to the Wizard to ask him if he can remove a curse he has been living with for the last 40 years.

The Wizard says, "Maybe, but you will have to tell me the exact words that were used to put the curse on you."

The old man says without hesitation, "I now pronounce you man and wife."

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The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), The FBI, and the CIA are all trying to prove that they are the best at apprehending criminals. The President decides to give them a test. He releases a rabbit into a forest and each of them has to catch it.

The CIA goes in. They place animal informants throughout the forest. They question all plant and mineral witnesses. After three months of extensive investigations they conclude that rabbits do not exist.

The FBI goes in. After two weeks with no leads they burn the forest, killing everything in it, including the rabbit, and they make no apologies. The rabbit had it coming.

The LAPD goes in. They come out two hours later with a badly beaten bear. The bear is yelling: "Okay! Okay! I'm a rabbit! I'm a rabbit!"

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A tourist asks a man in uniform, "Are you a policeman?"
"No, I am an undercover detective."
"So why are you in uniform?"
"Today is my day off."

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An old man was on his death bed. He wanted badly to take some of his money with him. He called his priest, his doctor and his lawyer to his bedside. "Here's $30,000 cash to be held by each of you. I trust you to put this in my coffin when I die so I can take all my money with me."

At the funeral, each man put an envelope in the coffin. Riding away in a limousine, the priest suddenly broke into tears and confessed, "I had only put $20,000 into the envelope because I needed $10,000 for a new baptistery."

"Well, since we're confiding in each other," said the doctor, "I only put $10,000 in the envelope because we needed a new machine at the hospital which cost $20,000."

The lawyer was aghast. "I'm ashamed of both of you," he exclaimed. "I want it known that when I put my envelope in that coffin, it held my personal check for the full $30,000."

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The parents were very disappointed in the grades that their son brought home. "The only consolation I can find in these awful grades," lamented the father, "is that I know he never cheated during his exams."

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What's the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons.
Civil engineers build targets.

History of Singapore

Ask any Singaporean about the history of Singapore.

Chances are that they don't know about the history of Singapore, or know partially about it.

I was doing a duty on Sat morning. Its a heritage trail organised to mostly senior citizens. Venue is at Istana Kampong Glam. Went in into the museum for a free and easy tour of the Malay heritage.

Met an New Zealander (staying in Singapore) there. SQ and me had a nice friendly chat with him. Started when he recognise our 8 pointed stars, and mentioned that SJAB is a good organisation.

The topic went to the history of Singapore.

Amazingly, he knew the orgins of Singapore... Even before Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore!!! How the British went for a alternate way to get "control" of Singapore, by recognizing the Sultan's brother as the rightful Sultan of Singapura (Singapore), signing a treaty with him and change the name of the island to Singapore.

Istana Kampung Glam is the residence of the Sultan of Singapore, located along Sultan Gate.

After signing the treaty, Sir Raffles left Singapore and let Mr William Farquhar to do the administration of the island. (Sad to say, Sir Stamford Raffles is so well-known in Singapore, but not William Farquhar and Dr John Crawford, who replaced Mr William Farquhar.)

Imagine a New Zealander knows about the history of Singapore, and we, Singaporeans does not know!!! (Luckily, i still can recall my secondary school history lessons, or i would have embarrass myself and the all the Singaporeans.)

Interestingly, there's a controversy over who is the founder of Singapore. You can read about the debate over here.

Frankly speaking, I am not very familiar about Singapore history before the British came. I am more well-versed (not an expert) on the happenings after the British came. How they develop the island, how they surrender Singapore to the Japanese after only 10 days of fighting on Singapore soil on Feb 1942, how the Japanese surrender to the Allied forces on Sept 1945, how the MPAJA (Malayan People Anti-Japanese Army) changed to MPABA (Malayan People Anti-British Army).

Not forgetting about the riots, the Mac donald house bombing, how Singapore gain internal independance, how Singapore become part of Malaysia, and how Singapore gain independence on the 9th Augest 1965.

It's all about history of the soil you call your home.

Story on Monkeys and Management

Let me tell you a story on Monkeys and Management. The story was told to me by our forever funny guy... He's none other than (Drum rolls...) MR RAFI!!!

Imagine you take 10 monkeys, put inside a cage. Then you hang a banana on the top, with a ladder leading to it.

Its a matter of time when a monkey spots the banana, and climb up a ladder to it. Halfway up, you spray some water on all the monkeys. (Imagine all the monkeys does not like being sprayed on). Continue doing it until none of the monkeys will climb up the ladder to the banana.

Now, you take out one monkey, and replace it with a new monkey (one that have not been sprayed before).

Now, the new monkey notices the banana on the top, and started climbing up the ladder to the banana. The other 9 monkeys will pull that new monkey down (no more spraying of water liao), and hamtam (wack) that new monkey up.

Take another "old" monkey out, and replaced with another new monkey. (8 "sprayed" monkeys and 2 "unsprayed before" monkeys).

The new monkey will see the banana and start climbing up the ladder. The other 9 monkeys (including the previous new monkey) will pounce on the new monkey and hamtam him up.

Replace another old monkey with a new monkey, and continue to do so until the 10 monkeys in the cage had not been sprayed before.

The same thing will happen. At the end, even all the 9 monkeys who had not been sprayed before will hamtam the latest addition monkey when he tries to climb up the ladder. They does not understand how come the ladder cannot be climbed (all has never been sprayed before) to the banana. All knows that its their "duty" to hamtam any monkeys that tries to climb up the ladder.

Link that to the management in any organisation.

Moral of the story?

Sometimes, you need to think what the hell are you doing, and why are you doing it. Ideas that does not work in the past does not mean it will not work now. Move out from your "comfort zone" and attempt some risks. Be creative and think out of the box.

If it does not work the first time, try again. It is not necessary that it will not work the second time, third, fourth, or even fifth time. Of course, be reasonable in your quest, and always look at what went wrong, and try to correct it. Do not be afraid to make mistakes, coz the road to glory is littered with f*** ups. Learn from your mistakes and try not to repeat the mistakes.

As what the world's greatest inventor, Edison commented when asked about if he is tired of using so many materials for the filament of the light bulb..... (He tried using, let's say 1000 materials to be the filament of the light bulb before succeeding) "I had learnt 999 ways of unsuitable materials of making the light bulb work".

"He who only gets thing right the first time, only learns one thing. He who fails 100 times before succeeding will learn 101 things."

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Back in my second home. Another duty later, and i am dead tired now. Going to "faint" on the bed now.

-The End-

News on dieting

Hmmm... some interesting news for all. Especially for the females.

Its something to do with dieting. But to those who are really really slim, do not further go on a diet. Its ain't healthy.

"Glycemic load" of diet has no effect on weight loss

Its the calories, not the type pf carbohydrate that is necessary in weight loss. So, those on a diet, watch the calorie, not carbohydrates! Read the article! I am too tired now to write about any summary of the article. (More like lazy).

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And once again, i am spending the night at my second home. Got a duty later.

BYOBD (II)

Every month's first Wednesday
is bring your own bag day,
don't throw those plastic bags away,
just recycle it, okie?

Aim of bring your own bag day
to keep the pollutants at bay,
save the enviroment in a way,
as claimed by the NEA.

Population have lots to say
about bring your own bag day
Need new plastic bag you must pay
10 cents is a lot leh

Others say dun pray pray
They wanna see sunlight ray
If's too much pollution, they say
into coffins we all lay

So, every month's first Wednesday
is bring your own bag day,
Need new plastic bags, you must pay
then its really a bad day!

BYOBD

BYOBD.... Does it sound like just another some boy-band name, raising from the dust to some new-found fame?

Or does it sound like some cheap hollywood trill of a movie or drama names, where the names is sometimes so "cheem" that you can never guess the story line, like "Ugly Betty"? (I never realised that someone would put "ugly" as her first name.)

Wrong. Wrong. ALL WRONG!

BYOBD = Bring Your Own Bag Day.

In Singapore, just like where everything is fineable, everything got a campaign. And with the campaign, comes a price. BYOBD is set at every first Wednesday of the month, whereby shoppers are encouraged to bring along their own shopping bags, when they go shopping, to cut down on plastic bags usage. The campaign is organised by the NEA, National Enviroment Agency.

If you forget to bring your plastic bags, be prepared to fork out extra money for the plastic bags!

And the best part is... I wasn't even aware of it! Yesterday is the starting of BYOBD!

Channel newsasia reports that yesterday's BYOBD got mixed reactions from the public. Some are happy, some are sad, some are angry, some are surprised. Some feel its unfair to fork out 10 cents for a plastic bag, even when the money is going to be donated to "help in the enviromental cause". No further details.

What is the "enviromental cause"? Can it be made to be more transparent? What does my 10 cents do? Where does it goes? Can someone answer me that please? I certainly does not want to see another NKF, or even the mention of "peanuts" over a sum of money, no matter how small is the amount.

Another view. The average Singaporean household does recycle plastic bags! The plastic bags that we took from our shopping at NTUC, Giant, Shop and Save etc, we keep it. And we use it to contain our rubbish, before throwing down the rubbish chute!

And now, the NEA is restricting us (in a way, unless you want to fork out 10 cents for each plastic bag), and imagine if we start using recycled bags (which cost less than a dollar), there would be no plastic bags to contain our rubbish. Unless we fork out extra money to buy the bags.

Isn't it back to square one?

Or we can be forced to throw our rubbish without the benefit of plastic bags to make it cleaner. Rats, cockroaches, and even birds will fourish. (More exposed food for them). And won't it go back to a huge problem for town councils and NEA?

And what will they do then? Ask us to pack up rubbish in plastic bags and throw? Or increase the conservatory charges, citing an increase in charges in pest control of the housing estate?

Does they ever put their feets into our shoes? Haiz~~~

BYOBD to me is more like "Bring Your Own BAD Day".

2 movies.

Watched 2 crap movies. One on last friday (reaping), and one yesterday (breach).

Reaping is more religious. Basically, to us (AF, Viper, CS and me), its kinda crap. Maybe to a christian, it means something. Everything written in the bible is happening in a town.

What i cannot figure it out is that the town is looking for a professor to kill a little girl in a town that has many "christian" happenings, and that professor does no longer believe in that religion.

Funny.

Not worth spending 9 bucks to watch.

===============================================

Actually, we (WC, Viper, AF, Jolin and me) were supposed to watch "Sunshine" yesterday. But i received comments that that movie is not worth it.

And yesterday, Viper met up with some friends over at cineleisure. They too, commented that "sunshine" is crap. And Viper was like "oh shit... what have we bought."

And i was like telling him... I rather watch breach than sunshine. So, we changed the tickets to breach, and AF was surprised.

Its based on a true incident, with regarding to the most serious breach in FBI. The whole movie is about how the FBI gather evidence and pin the spy down.

The plot is simple, the storyline is flat. The whole thing is before your eyes. What a bad suggestion on my side... Damm.

But the psychology of the story is good. It got me and Viper into a long discussion while enroute to pick CS up after the movie. If you are into the packed action type of movies, this is not the one to you.

In conclusion, to me, both of these movies are not even worth buying the DVD to keep.

Ice-cream

Happy Birthday to DC and QZ!!!

Hope that this year will be a fullfillful one for you all... Hmmm... both are still single and avaliable wor... hmmm... (evil grin...)

Today is the Ben and Jerry's free cone day... Anyone got extra free cone? Can deliver it to my office?

Okie, that's a wasteful wish of mine... I am struck in office, with no Ben and Jerry's outlet near me, and i think i have to forgo the free ice-cream this time... (sob, sob...), and i never taste Ben and Jerry's ice cream before!!! (sobs louder)...

Talking about ice-cream... How it had grown... When i was a kid, an normal ice-cream cost 20 cents. Those are normal fruit favour, no chocolate, stick type... No brand somemore... it's wrapped in transparent plastic bag. The "branded" ice cream cost 50 cents. I remember going downstairs to the mama shop, (clementi), graze at the ice-cream, drooling.

Those were the time, ice-cream has been classified as "restricted" food by my parents. You only gets to eat it if you been good and your spelling is 100 out of 100.

And i was a kid, i read up that ice-cream is made mainly from milk. So, i took some fresh milk and placed it into the freezer, to solidify it. Failure big time... It became ice-milk, instead of ice-cream.

School canteen sells it too. But i have been warned by my mother not to buy it, otherwise, if i fall sick, she will not take me to the doctor.

As time passes, with these kind of restrictions, i become someone who does not "gian" ice-cream types. See ice-cream must eat types, though i may be tempted to ingest one every now and then...

One exception. You know the ice-cream that was sold by the van, that goes around the neighbourhood, a dollar cube ice-cream types. When i pass by one, i will buy one, chocolate please... That, when i come across one, i will buy one.

I remember a time, when i was with CY. I saw that ice-cream van, driving around my neighbourhood, i gave chase. Followed that ice-cream van all the way till it stopped, and i purchased my ice-cream.

So much so that i knew most of the ice-cream sellers in my neighbourhood. Everytime they see me, they know what i want. I will buy them, upon seeing them, be it day or night, sun or rain, warm or cold.

So, when you are selling ice-cream in a van, and wants to boost your business, can always let me know.

Inspirations for poems, rap, whatever you call it

Was not myself today. Time passes super duper slow, and i am real sian (bored).

Was chatting online with SL again, and i was mentioning to her that i was pretty sian, and was not myself today. In a way, i was moodless. The conversation went something like this...

Me: last time, you like that (moody), and i was not... now, i am like that and you are not(moody). what happens when both of us become like that?

SL: haha!! the whole world crashes??

Good one!!! managed to get me laughing... Hahaha... the whole world crashes. Not that serious bah!!

Then an inspiration hit me (ouch!!!). And i came up with this poem... or rap... whatever you call it...

It's ain't tough
to make ppl laugh
when you talk trash
like the world crash

=============================================

Was chatting with AP also. She's having the first day of school at poly.

She was complaining to me that she has forgotten her SP password. and when she finally remembered it, she was saying some thing like this...

AP: I so happy, never see properly.

Another inspiration hit me (Ouch!!!! Pain leh!!!). So, i replied back...

I so happy,
Never see properly
It's stated d,
but i see b.

The end.

Another monday.

Monday. Another monday. Another blue monday. Another stupid blue monday. Another stupid, sleepy, tired, blanking-blankety-blanker monday.

Am aching all over, especially my hand and leg. Right hand, left leg. Become a "pai car", "pai chu" liao.

Yesterday, Sunday. Spend the Dawn and the morning sleeping at my second home. Second home is the SJAB HQ. EC came later, and we ended up eating "C" rations after i woke up, and ordering Mac delivery.

Orientation driving on that day. Pretty cock-up. No proper lesson plans, no notes. But we did our best to convey about ambulance driving to the would-be new drivers. Hell, i was not even notified to go down. I knew about the course, and i called up SQ and volunteered my time.

Together with DC, TS, SQ and HH, we convey the finer points of driving the ambulance, siern and the beacon lamp systems to them, the proper way of using the siern system.

And we took them for a orientation drive.

I felt like a driving instructor, sitting in the VC seat. They are driving licence holders, and they know their stuff. So, in a way, its miller time for me. I just sit there, telling them about the lenght of the vehicle, give more allowance when turning, turning radius and turning speed.

And i demostrate about parking the 313 model vehicles in the garage. The parking used to be the most headache for me, coz it is so cramped. The allowance you need to park is less then 30cm combined at the front and back of the ambulance.

It is that tight.

After the orientation, went back to RU office to Nua. Surfing net, senting E mails, doing duty plannings, till its evening, and i went back.

A day at HQ. Its been some time since i did that. And looking at the duty forecast, it will not be a long wait till i do that again. My second home.

Sporting

My arms are tired. Started aching. Needs to raise up my right wrist with difficulty.

Ouch!!! Typing is also a difficult for me...

What had happened?

Its a combination of a few factors. Borrowed rackets from a couple of strangers and play badminton with Viper. Had not been play badminton fir a long time liao.Supposed to be a friendly match, but i smack when the time is perfect. Never warm up, stretching and cooling down also plays an important part in contributing to the ache.

Serves me right. I should have known better.

All those lessons, talks during RT did not really migrate and become a PR of a lesson of my stupid mind.

Warm-ups, cooling down and progressive training is always preached (but not necessary practised) during my NS days. But then, that badminton session is not a competition, its just a normal "workout" game for me. And my right hand is starting to ache.

Have i progressed too low in my muscle workout and stamina?

In my case, its the usual excuse of not free and too lazy. I don't like running and jogging for a fact. Jio me out for a jogging session, i would prob look away, hestitating, or even give you a straight no for an answer.

That explains my size.

But i dun really consider myself a failure in working out. Foremost, i chiong. Duties. Or you can try asking me out for a swim... I love swimming. Throw me into the pool, ask me to relax in the water, and i will feel uneasy. I need to swim, and resting when i need it.

Jio me out to shoot basketball into the net. I will prob agree. I don't play matches, even if its a friendly game. Badminton wise, i will prob agree too. Anything that does not involve much running or jogging, i don't mind. And, no golf please. I would prob end up throwing your club into the water obstacle when i take a swing, or i will shout "fore" multiple times, till, it's better to pre-record it and play it over the PA system everytime i take a swing.

The only sports i had taken part in as a competitor is swimming, bowling and shooting (air-pistol and revolver). That's all. Nothing else. See the similar side of it? All does not involve running or jogging.

Sports, especially competitions are nice. When i am a watching it. And the most popular sports in Singapore? Soccer, i presume. You can see youngster playing soccer everywhere. Soccer fields, Street soccer court, basketball court, Badminton court, void decks and even multi storey carparks!!!

And everytime when the FIFA world cups comes, the lights in most household are on, the noise pollution is terrible when someone scores, the amount of betting dollars goes way up off the scale and the doctors got better business. As someone had mentioned that the FIFA world cup is something like this...

"Its 20 idiots running after a ball, 2 idiots catching the ball, 3 idiots running around, but cannot touch the ball, and billions of ppl over the world watching 20 idiots running after a ball, 2 idiots catching the ball and 3 idiots running around, but cannot touch the ball."

Dilemma

Should i or should i not?

That is the question..... Need to consider carefully... Lots of factors to weight in...

But if i should, the time is now...

So, should i or should i not??

Headache siah..... ARGHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Duties season

Duties, duties and more duties.

Nah. I am not complaining. It just that duties, like rain, does have seasons. But unlike rain, it does have several seasons in a year, and each seasons can stretch all the way up to 5 months, and its definitely have up to 3 - 5 seasons per year, depending on the organisers.

Confused? Well, let me explain.

1st peak duty season is the beginning of the year, which involves the Chinese New Year Period, the light-up, the Countdown and the Yuan Xiao.

And that season will stretch over to March / April, whereby the Tertiary Institution (NUS and Temasek Poly in particular) will start organising all the various sporting event, from Rock Climbing, to Tri / Bi-athlon, to Bordering to Dragonboating.

In April / May, we usually have a brief respite, despite one or 2 sneakers (who managed to sneak past the peak season) and 2 major duties annually (New Paper Big Walk in May) and the NS Home Team Real Run.

Thank god there's no New Paper Big Walk this year (2007).

2nd Peak duty season will start from June and will last till Augest. Major events for this season is the National Day Parade (NDP) medical cover over National Education (NE) Shows, NDP Family day, NDP preview and the NDP actual day.

And in June, usually, during the school holidays period, its where the organisers of activities will be the most busy. In fact for this year, all my weekends in june are booked for duties. (NUS Silat Competition and TP Rockamania). There's even a tarkwando tourament coming our way.

After NDP, we will all take a breather. No question. NDP drains you. Especially the co-ordinator, which usually is held by JH.

3rd Peak duty season will be the end of the year. There will be a super major duty, the most siong, (terrible, horrible and vegetable) duties of all time. The marathon. It will drain all the drivers and the ambulance crews, as well as the hospital staff.

After the super tiring marathon duty, next is all the festive holidays coming in. Countdowns for Christmas (recent years does not have anymore), New year countdown. That period is the most relaxed for us, as we were, afterall in the festive holiday mood also.

And then, its back to the 1st peak duty season, and so on, so forth etc....

Duty?? Chiong ahhhH!!!!

More updates on Civil Service pay hike

Hmmm.... Seems that a paragraph of my blog got someone's attention.

He or she is the editor of the Asia Observer. I felt honoured. First time i got to know that my blog got the attention of someone which is not in my circle of friends.

You can read what is quoted on here. http://www.asiaobserver.com/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,435/p,39/#more-39

On the updates of the goverment pay hike. Last night, i got to know that PM Lee decided to freeze his pay for 5 years and donate pay hikes

Well, some might speculate that he did that for PR, to squell the cries of "not fair" of the public voices. To the others, he did that to boost his publicity.

To me, be it the first or the latter, i got nothing against it. In fact, its a good thing. He's killing 2 birds with one stone.

Lets give him the benefit of the doubt, and he really wants to help out the charities in terms of donation, to help the poor and the unfortunate, and by doing so, he would in a way, cool off the rising debate of the pay hike.

If you are encountering the same situation as him, and you can kill 2 birds with a stone, hell, why not? As what Nike has said, "JUST DO IT!"

Interestingly, so far only him and another MP, Miss Lily Neo also donated her increase in MP allowances to the Public Assistance recipients in her constituency, and no more. I do not have the right to ask the others MP or Ministers to follow the leader's example (if they do, there be a hell lots of donations, and the charities will be very happy!)

But i cannot exclude the possibility that the other people in the goverment did help the charities, by donation or other way, and don't want any publicity, and wishes that i remains a private affair. Its up to individual, and its not for me to comment.

In an unrelated post....

3 more days to file your income tax returns. Have you done it? If you have not, better do it fast or face the wrath of the IRAS.

A Tribute to SK.

A friend of mine recently passed away. He is Tan Swee Kiang.

I got to know him through SJAB, thought i never did work with him on SJ projects before. And to be frank, it is not easy working with SK on SJ projects.

My first impression on him is that he is a prefectionist. From what i heard of him, he demands that work is to be done, to his satisfaction, and if you think you cannot do it, he will push you to do it, and you will realised that there you can go something more then a 100% effort.

He does not spoon-feed you. He gives you a job and leaves you alone. If you encountered a problem, he will not solve it for you, instead, he will offer you advice and let you solve the problem yourself.

He is also a helpful guy. There's one i mentioned to him about my finanical woes, and he recommand me a part-job as a First Aid Lecturer, and giving me infomation about where to teach at night etc... I never took up the First Aid Lecturer post, as i feel that i do not yet qualify to become one.

He does listen to your problems, and he will help in whatever way he can. He's a mentor to me, in terms of First Aid knowledge.

Indeed, he has made a big impact on lots of others. So much so that a close friend of his had setup a blog as a tribute for him. Tribute to Tan Swee Kiang .

May you rest in peace, SK. We will never forget you.

Pay raises

Hot topic in Singapore now, i can hear a podcast about it, i can hear the aunties gossip about it in the market, the uncles chatting about it in the coffeeshop, as they sat, slurping their beer and sipping their coffee, and even youngsters, teenagers discussing about it on the net....

Its all about pay raise. Yes, pay raise for the civil servents in Singapore.

PM, ministers to get pay rise of between 14% and 33% Tuesday April 10, 6:17 PM, CNA.

Starting salaries in civil service to increase by 16% Tuesday April 10, 10:17 PM, CNA.

Woah!!! That's hell a lot of increase!!! First, the goverment increase the GST by 2% and gave themselve a raise of 14% - 33%!!!

That means to say, Prime Minister will draw $3.1 million this year.

President of the Republic of Singapore will get $3.2 million dollars, this is up from the current $2.5 million while both Senior Minister and Minister Mentor who earned $2.7 million each last year, will now get paid $3.04 million each.

No wonder Mrs Senior Minister mentioned the S$1.8 million that TT Durai got was peanuts. What is 1.8 million bucks over 3 years compared to 3.04 million annually that her husband got?

Reason given is that the pay must be attractive to retain top talent in the civil service, and to form a stable goverment. The goverment says that they are losing top talent of the civil service personnal to the private sector, but to the others like me, can we go into the civil service instead? The pay is more, the work is more relaxed, the benefits are better.

I remember my parents telling me to study hard when i was very young, and grow up to become a lawyer, or a doctor or an engineer and earn big bucks and live comfortably in a big house, a big car and a big swimming pool outside the house.

At the rate i am going, i think i will be living in a big house, surrounded by cars and with some swimming pools outside the house. You will find me living at a void deck of a HDB flat, which has a public swimming complex just across the road.

Times had changed. I think i shall tell my future sons and daughters to study hard to become a Minister when they grow up. They can earn more bucks than lawyer, doctor and engineer easily.

But one thing is that, minister future is uncertain also!

They face general election every five years!!! They worried losing their job once every five years! That's lots of stress for them!

But as i recall, General Elections are meant to elect the Members of Parliament, not the Ministers. Ministers are appointed by the Prime Minister. So, what worries does the Ministers have?

MRT services disrupted, once again

Another man fell on to the MRT track.

Train services disrupted after injured man found on MRT track, reported by CNA.

Has anyone keep track of all the numbers of incidents where ppl fell into the track, be it by accident or suicide?

Has anyone keep track of the numbers of commuters that has been affected by the disruption of train services? The economic loss suffered by those disrupted?

Its been sometime since i kept quiet about all those incidents. Since the incident at Clementi MRT station, the public has been asking the goverment, or SMRT / SBS Transit to put up barriers (like the underground stations) to prevent those incidents from happening again.

That time, if i never recall wrongly, the reply was that it is not justified to put up the barriers. But since that reply, i have seen more ppl falling into the MRT track, causing loss of lives, disruption of train services, inconviences etc, and what does SMRT / SBS Transit do?

They just apologise for the inconviences caused. But did they make an effort to prevent the same incidents from happening in the future, besides more vocal warning over the PA system, which i suspect, to commuters, is more irriational than informative.

Something must be done, otherwise, you will keep seeing ppl falling into the tracks, dying and disruption.

Ben & Jerry's free cone day!!

Good news to all Ben and Jerry's ice cream lovers!!!

NExt Tuesday, is free cone day!!! Limited time!!! If you are able, go and enjoy a free cone of ice-cream!!!

See poster below for details!


Yummy!!! Too bad, most prob I do not have the chance to have a cone of ice-cream on that day... (sob, sob)

A walk to remember

Last Saturday night, before we went down to riverside point, i was at AF's house.

ZX and AF was modifying our transmitter box, Jolin was playing PS 2 games. I was pretty bored, the room was pretty cramped, so i went out to the living room and turned on the telly.

CS came later. And both of us sat down in front of the telly. I was surfing the channels, and when i came to channel 5, there's a movie showing. It looked like a nice movie, and so, i stopped surfing.

Absent-mindly, i asked CS what's the movie.

"A walk to remember", was her reply. "Its a romantic, touching movie, and the soundtrack is very nice."

I was not really one for a romantic movie. But since the other channels are showing crap, that movie seems like the best choice.

And so, i watched.

Indeed. Its a nice movie. Its about this gal, who is suffering from cancer, fell in love with a guy, who loves her also. In a way, she is prepared to die from her disease, and is able to let go of everything, until that guy comes along. And that guy did lots of things for her.

They got married and the gal died.

. It's a touching movie, all right.

As i said, its a movie. But in real life, does it happen this way? Imagine a gal dying of cancer, can her bf spend the last few months or years to make her happy? Or will he dump her faster than you can say "hello" and go after some other pretty young skirts?

What will you do, when someone you loves is dying of an uncurable disease?

The song in my blog is the OST of the movie, "A walk to remember", only hope, by Mandy Moore.

Enjoy.

Long weekend

A long long weekend had passed... And its now, back to Monday, suffering from Monday blues.

You may be thinking... Where got long long weekend?? Its only Friday, Sat and Sun!!!

To me, this weekend seems long. And fast in a certain way. Why is that? Its a weekend where there's nothing on at all!! Its a weekend of no duties, the 3 days were spend relaxing, catching up on sleep, outings.

And in a way, i feel funny. Funny when the whole weekend is so free, without any duties. Funny that i did not go to HQ on weekends, be it duties, slacking or sleeping... wahahah... In a way, I miss HQ, and the "bo liao" ppl who like to gather there on weekends just for the sake of nothing.

Friday.

Went back to work. Surprising is that, my boss came back to office to work also. So, its macham like a normal office day, with all the staff returing to office and factory to work. But the hours are darn short. Once i finish my stuffs, (1400 hours) i left.

Afternoon. Went to suntec. Tried jioing ppl eariler, but no one is free. In the end, saw MS online and jio her out. Primary Target of going suntec. "Buy darts". Secondary Target "go walk walk".

Missed primary target. No one is selling darts at suntec! Can you believe it? Finally, can find something that is not sold at Suntec!! Secondary target successful, though.

Friday night. We went for a movie. "Shooter".

Interesting plot. Collateral Damage. Politicians playing dirty politics. But as the saying goes, "Don't mess around with the wrong man." And as what Richard Marcinko had describle his niece (i think). This is something what he had describled. (Cannot remember the exact words).

"She will swallow all the shit that is being thrown at her, and she will gather all the shit and spit it back... WITH AIM..."

But the most interesting thing in the movie is that the lead guy can hit a flying chopper (defender series, i think) with a 0.5 inch barrett M95 sniper rifle . WOW!!! Fantestic. Can it be done really?

Satuarday.

Woke up in the afternoon. Met up with AF, ZX and Jolin for dinner. (Its a breakfast, lunch and dinner for me in one go). Finally bought my darts at Greenridge Shopping Center. A small shopping center in the heartlands of Bukit Panjang got something which a very large shopping mall in the city does not have. Shame on you, Suntec. What a disgrace.

Night. We went to Riverside point to fly kite, and ended up playing darts instead. (I got a dart board in my van).

Sunday.

Went to Tiong Bahru for breakfast. The infamous loh mee stall at Tiong Bahru. It was very yummy!!! Who wants to go the next time??

Ended up walking around in Tiong Bahru Plaza, buying some CDs. After which its home (sleeping) time, and met up again at night for dinner and much laugher. Everyone got into the mood of folding dollar notes into 2 cranes and a star.

What a relaxing, revitalising weekend!!!

But in a way, i missed SJ HQ.

Pictures!!

Sorry for the long long delay folks, but the photos are finally uploaded.

Remember i mentioned in a post about the outrageous carpark at Bukit Timah Market on Weekend mornings? Here are the pictures...

Chaotic huh? Vehicles are trying to go in and out, and you get to see lots of funny assholes character who are that inconsiderate to park in such a manner that blocks the traffic, go against the flow of traffic, etc...

Talking about stopping their vehicles that block the flow of traffic... The black merc (2 door) is a very good example.

Still as choatic as ever... We are sitting upstairs, Viper, CS and me... Enjoying every minute of it... hahahaha...

=================================================

Look at the photo below and tell me what is wrong with it.... Take a good look.

Figured it out?

What's your answer?? Is your answer that there's an vehicle which is an odd one out? There's 3 ambulances and a van?

Wrong answer!!!

All 4 vehicles are ambulances... The only difference is, one of them is an undercover ambulance!!!

Gotcha!!!

"he real team" Richard Marcinko

Talking about Richard Marcinko once again, i had bought another one of his books a few years ago.

Title is "The Real Team".

This book talks totally about how you manage a team. And it does apply to everywhere, be it business world, management world, Uniformed groups, Armed forces....

Here's the summery.

===========================================================

The Rogue Warrior’s Ten Commandments of SpecWar

10 FOR THE MEN

- I am the Warlord and the wrathful God of Combat and I will always lead you from the front, not the rear.

- I will treat you all alike – just like shit.

- Thou shall do nothing I will not do first, and thus will you be created Warriors in my deadly image.

- I shall punish thy bodies because the more thou sweatest in training, the less thou bleedest in combat.

- Indeed, if thou hurteth in thy efforts and thou suffer painful dings, the thou art Doing It Right.

- You hast not to like it – thou just to do it.

- Thou shalt Keep It Simple, Stupid.

- Thou shalt never assume.

- Verily, thou art not paid for thy methods, but for thy results, which meaneth thou shalt kill thine enemy by any means available before he killeth you.

- Thou shalt, in thy Warrior’s Mind and Soul, always remember My ultimate and final Commandment: There Are No Rules – Thou Shalt Win at All Costs.

========================================================

SEVEN FOR THE LEADER

- I will test my theories on myself first. I will be my own guinea pig.

- I will be totally committed to what I believe, and I will risk all that I have for these beliefs

- I will back my subordinates all the way when they take reasonable risks to help me achieve my goals.

- I will not punish my people for making mistakes. I’ll only punish them for not learning from their mistakes.

- I will not be afraid to take action, because I know that almost any action is better than inaction. And I know that sometimes not acting is the boldest action of all.

- I will always make it crystal clear where I stand and what I believe.

- I will always be easy to find: I will be at the center of the battle.

=====================================================

Rogue’s Warrior’s Rules of Engagement

- Aim before you shoot, because the “Fire, aim, ready” method is bull shit.

- Breaks the rules before they break you.

- Have character, but don’t be a character.

- Lead from the front, where your troops can always see you.

- Don’t confused planning with training, or talking with kicking ass.

- Honor your boundary breakers as much your boundary makers, because they’re your point men.

- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, because the path to glory is littered with fuck-ups.

- Serve a greater cause than your own good, or you’ll be a one-man army.

- Take risks – and more risks.

- Never be satisfied.

=====================================================

Dwell on it, dwell on the blankety-blanking-blanker messages.

A little poem

Was chatting with SL thr MSN just now...

And i got a little inspiration pver a couple of message that we had type.

Its a poem, and it goes something like this...

If you are bored,
can go read my blog.
And be entertained,
Coz it's really lame!!!

SL mentioned that if i post this up, she will laugh till she cry...

I cannot wait to see her do that... Laugh till cry.

Book titled "Rogue Warrior".

This is going to be a long long long long post... Bear with it... Lolx...

Last week, I finally purchase a book. It took me years to search (inactively) for it. Finally found it at West mall sometime last year, and finally bought it a year later.

My first contact with the book was during my poly days. I was at the National Library, looking for some books to borrow to spend my time. (I was always at the same asle, looking at the books that i am interested in).

Then i came across it. Over the years, i had borrow it lots and lots times. I dunno if the National Library keeps records of the books that a borrower had borrowed, but i am interested to find out how many times had i borrowed that book.

In case you are wondering what is that book, its "Rogue Warrior" by Richard Marcinko. That book is his autobiography, his life.

Richard Marcinko was a US Navy Man. From an enlisted man, he graduated from UDT (Underwater Demolition Team), went on to OCS (Officer Candidate School), commissioned as an officer, and he pass his quals and became a SEAL (SEa, Air, Land, the most elites of the US Navy), became a platoon commander, besides other appointments, he became the CO (Commanding Officer) of SEAL Team 2. He created SEAL Team 6 (doing counter-terrorism work), and become the first CO of SEAL 6. He also created the Ultra-Secret, (now declassified), Red Cell (doing terrorist work on US Navy bases). Finally, the US Navy threw him into jail.

From that book, i learnt lots of things. Good and bad, but nevertheless, its all interesting.

Lets talk about the good things first.

I learn about his style of leadership. How he stress about UNIT INTEGRITY. He expects his men to back him up, and he BACKS HIS MEN UP. Or how he gets things done, his way, overriding his immediate superior.

Or how he enforce his rules, and stick to it. Friends and foes alike. He treats them all the same. Just like shit.

How he passes his knowledge around, when he learned new things. He dares to do things differently, especially when fighting a battle.

Okie... i admit, the most interesting part is the "bad" things that i had learned.

His experience with lauguage was fantestic. let me quote you some examples. If you feel uncomfortable reading it half-way, please do stop. Kids, do not copy this at home. I had "directly-quoted" the passage from the book.

You had been warned.

1) Barrett to Marcinko: "Marcinko, you bleeping motherblanker, get your blankety-blanking scrawny ass over here.",

2) Try reading this aloud.

Barrett to Marcinko: "You will blankety-blank have that blankety-blank blanking radio blankety-blankety-blank bleeping blanking fixed by the time we bleeping climb into the blanking boat tomorrow, or i will bleeping kick your blankety-blank-blank-bleeping blankety ass into blanking next blanking week.

3) Barrett:" Just bleeping do it and shut the bleep up!"

4) The best of all This contains some vagularies. If you think you cannot take it, stop here now... If not, please continue.

Barrett to himself, when during HALO (High Attitude, Low Opening) parachute jump, and Marcinko decided to pull very very low (super high risk stuff): "You asshole, you fucking asshole, you fucking dipshit asshole. Pull the fucking goddamm cord. Marcinko, you motherfucking cocksucking cuntbreath shit-eating turd-faced dipshit pencil-dicked pus-nuts shit-for-brains asshole geek. PULL THE FUCKING CORD!!!"

Interesting right? This is the blankety first blankety-blanking time that i see some blankety-scrawny-blanker asshole use those blanking-blankety words.

Cool.

Clinic fees guidlines withdrawn by SMA

Recently, the SMA (Singapore Medical Assocation) withdraw its guildlines on the doctor's consultation fees, giving the doctors to charge their own fees. Reason for SMA to withdraw the guildline is coz of the "competition act" which was enacted last year.

Hmmm... Interesting... It has certainly caught a lot of us by surprise.

So, is it good news or bad news to us? What about the GPs?

So, i can imagine what when i am sick, i go to the doctor. First question you are going to ask to person is not "how long must i wait?" it is "How much is the fee?" If the fees are too high, i just go over to the other clinic, being sick and all that.

And if a certain clinic charges a very low fee, which needs some traveling time, will the general population go there to see?

Personally, i do not know, i seldom see doctors, unless i am really sick. My defination of really sick is when i need an transport to go to get medical attention, usually the hospital. I only go and see a doctor when i need a MC, which is seldom also.

Doctors will learn to hate ppl like me.

What about the GPs point of view? Will they start over charging? Will they get into the competition mood and start slashing their prices? Will we see another price war happening in Singapore, just like the petrol companies?

A lot of things can happen. So, lets just sit back, and watch the show, laughing at comical sights, munching on an apple. Makes no sense to eat popcorn now, as now may not be the ideal period to fall sick. As the saying goes, " An apple a day keeps the doctor away", and " Laugher is the best medicine."

So, when you are sick, and you do not know which clinic charges the lowest rate, just laugh your head off.

No life

Was chatting aimlessly with the usual ppl yesterday night, when suddenly someone spoke about the term "no life", and i just added on that people like us are "no life".

Upon saying that, i suddenly got a jolt. Its like an electric current running through me suddenly. I got a shock.

I have been using the words "no life", saying it out, screaming it out, just like when i use profanities when i was a NSF. For ladies, you will be amazed by the amount of vagularies that we used when we wear green. We use them as a verb, adverb, noun, adjective, etc etc. We started our sentences with one, add a few more when carrying our message across, and finish our talking with yet another one.

But yesterday, the word "no life" set me thinking, pondering...

What is "no life"?

Take me for example. I always chiong duties. To my neighbourhood friends, i got "no life".

But chionging duties is what i like. Especially when i am with the Duty Siaos ppl. Its certainly not a "no life" to me, when we are either laughing over a joke, bitching over someone's actions, complaining about the things done by the organiser, chionging when a case is reported.

To the others, my hanging out nightly with the usual group of ppl is "no life". But that's how i spend my time. If i go home and do nothing else, to me, that is "no life".

Chionging discos, night spots to me is considered "no life", but to the chiongsters, is it a life?

So, to me, no life is a term you say to someone when they always go for some activities which you have no interest in.

Someone had mentioned to me before that writing blogs is also considered "no life".

So, how do you get a life??

List of RTAs

I had complied a list of RTAs that i had helped out with and that i can recall. So far, the tally is 16.

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1) Sungei Tenah Road (2002), outside Tenah Airbase. A collision between taxi and a bike. 2 Casualties, both from motorbike. Amputated leg and deep cuts/lacarations injuries. Medical Officer, SAF medic and me assisting. No first aid kit avaliable.

2) Clementi Road (????), towards Woodlands besides Ngee Ann Poly. 2 predestians was knocked down by a car while they are crossing the road. A male and a female. Suspect fractures, spinal injuries on the female casualties while the male was in a state of shock. One doctor and me assisting.

3) Beach Road (2002), Traffic junction outside SJAB HQ. A collision between car and bike. One casualty, the motorcyclist. No major injuries. Derek, Taufiq and me assisting.

4) Bukit Batok (????), Outside Esso petrol station. A side collision between a car and a bike. One casualty, the motorcyclist. Multiple cuts and lacerations on hands and legs. Kailing and me assisting.

5) PIE (????) towards jurong, after Stevens Road exit. Hit and Run (as claimed by the driver) Car overturned. One driver and 3 passengers. No injuries. Only me assisting.

6) PIE (????) towards jurong, before Eng Neo Exit. Car and bike. One casualty (motorcyclist). Multiple cuts and lacerations on the hands, legs and face. Suspect fractures. Taufiq and me assisting.

7) PIE (2006) towards Changi, at Adam Road exit. Collision between Taxi and bike. One casualty, biker. Suspect fractures at his legs and multiple cuts and lacerations on his hands and legs. While treating the casualty, a bus skidded and crashed into the stationary taxi. No casualties. Me assisting with Joshua and Zhi Xiang helping.

8) Bukit Panjang Ring Road (2006) outside BP NPC. Car overturned. 4 passenger, 1 casualty. Cuts on her finger and a foreign body embedded on her back. Driver was charged with speeding, drink driving, destroying goverment property and driving without a licence. Me assisting with some BP WLNY Supper CLub members helping.

9) PIE (2005) towards jurong, after clementi road exit. Car and bike. One casualty, biker. Fractures on legs and suspect spinal injuries. Multiple cuts on head, face, hands and legs. Raining. Me assisting.

10) PIE (????) towards jurong. Before Eng Neo exit. Bike (hit and run). Cannot recall much about this RTA.

11) Orchard Road (????) Predestian and van. Predestian was jaywalking when hit by a van. Windscreen cracked. Predestian suffer deep cuts on her head. Some members of public and me assiting. No First aid kit avaliable.

12) Bukit Panjang Road (2006) entry into BKE (PIE). Motorcycle skidded. Pillion okie, rider suffered cuts on his face. Drifting in and out of consicous. Me assisting.

13) Yishun (2006) Taxi and Bike. Was senting Shu Yan back when i saw the RTA. No casualties seen. However as i go back HQ, saw the casualty. Stopped and assist. Biker was very near the kerb. Left leg fracture. SCDF paramedic does not know how to TOC the casualty. I settled the problem for them.

14) Yishun (2006) Traffic light junction outside Khadit Camp. Bike and car. 1 casualty. No major damage. SCDF paramedic, Enrolled nurse (SGH) off-duty police officer and me assisting.

15) AYE (2006) towards Jurong, outside NUH. Van crashed into road border. Casualty trapped in van. Stopped 2 passerbys from pushing the van out, as it is causing more pain to the casualty. Access and monitor the casualty's condition by climbing up the front of the van. Need SCDF to extract the casualty. Me assisting.

16) PIE (2007) towards changi, before Eunos exit. Car, van and bike. Biker suspected left ankle fracture. Car VC got air-bag impact injuries. Could not open her eyes.
Enoch Chan, Jun Jie, Jackie and me assisting.

===============================================================

How's that?? I seen lots RTA, and most of them are involving motorbikes. So riders out there, please be extra alert and extra careful when you are riding bikes.

Monday after ICT

Finally it's monday, back to work day...

After a week (3 1/2 days, more like it) in ITI for my ICT, i relish this time round, when i no need to wake up at 0600 hours, walk to cookhouse to scan your IC for breakfast, after which return to bunk and wait in queue in the toilet to shit.

It's back to my old routine of waking up late (for work), not consuming breakfast, and the avaliability of the toilet to me when i want to shit.

It's back to the office, only to be faced with a huge headache...

After a week's absence from work, the amount of work to be done was huge. Lots and lots of things have to be done. And i will be very busy, especially during this period when my company changed name from APN P/L to APN P/L.

Thinking back. ICT is fun. It's a break from work, a chance to gather the platoon of ppl who had once stayed under the same roof, doing the same shit, cursed and sweared together for over 2 years. And judging from this ICT, no one has changed. Only that most ppl had grown... Horizontally...

Uniforms had changed also. Now, when i put on the uniform and wherever i go, the whole world knows that i am in the infantry under 2 PDF Command, and that i am from Singapore. The uniform seems heavier with all those patches sewed in. It looks kinda "funny". You even have to sew the rest of the stuff on yourself, at your own cost! @*#&@#^$%!&

I still prefer the old uniforms where no one knows where you from and what you do. And you can start smoking everyone around and having a whale of a time to yourself.