BenLow's blog

Hey guys... Not really feeling up to doing much nowadays while at home. Mostly waiting for my file converting software and playing a little dota here and there. Being home for only a short amount of time, and being really really busy is draining quite a lot from me. Thinking of just spending some time at home myself soon, not going out at all for anything. SYC Christmas Party yesterday was good, but tiring cos of the early reveille time in the morning, boring theory lessons after, and the late afternoon book out. No energy... Managed to get some Christmas presents for some people, hope you guys like them. Thursday was a pretty good day thanks to the service. It did make me a bit more happier, remembering that the greatest gift was given to me on that very day many years ago. Back to Sembawang Camp... Have an important test on tuesday, and really want to pass it on the first attempt (though the passing rate is very very low). But whatever happens happens. See you all on New Years Eve.

321 days to ORD! It may seem kinda redundant to count down day by day, but to us ns people it really means a lot. And considering the speed that everything is passing by... It may help us feel a lot better. Apologies to all... Doesn't feel like Christmas to me at all. Yup there are parties being thrown here and there, theres a church service to attend. But I'm totally not in the mood. I couldn't even get a chance to get decent presents for anyone. You could even say I didn't even take any initiative to do so. I could give a couple of excuses saying I've got little time cos of book in timings and such, but the fact is I could've just rushed out one of the days and just bought some simple gifts of chocolates from west mall or something. This time, money isn't the issue, I'm just not feeling like it. *** Went to my mom's side aunt's funeral. Liver cancer. Yeah, thats what took her. For the first time in a long time I felt a tinge of sadness. NS kind

Somethings been bothering me... But its pretty trivial hahaha. Is my blood type B, or O? Since young my blood type's been registered as B, since both my parents are B, but recently I've come to realise that maybe its not that straightforward... After all, after my pre ns check, the blood type on my 11B has come to be registered as O+. I thought that was a typo, but didn't say anything. Recently I went to donate blood, and a letter came back to me, telling me my blood type is O as well. Eh??? It took me 19 years to discover my true blood type? So what is my blood type? Really curious about it. Maybe I'll go for a check or something. This incident has led me to do some research on blood type personalities, as skeptical I was about it. Here is what I found. O type person is characterized by three key words: assertiveness, companionship, and concentration. B type person is characterized by three key words: flexibility, independence, and absorption in his interest. And so...

400th post! 11 months to ORDDDDD! (Congrats to aniki who just ORDed =)) The previous week's been difficult... Into my first official week of driving course, and as predicted, the only tough part about it is the instructors scolding you all the time, and thats the part where the day seems especially long. Theory, parking and simulator lessons are pretty easy. So far I've passed my highway code and landrover assessments, which certify me to drive on public roads... Next tuesday you may see me around the east of Singapore driving lol. Accomodation, food and the quality of facilities here seem pretty poor in comparison to Stagmont camp... To think that so many people in Stagmont are complaining about the food. From now on I'll select very good everytime a food survey turns up back at Stagmont camp. *** YM Camp... Well, initially because of driving course I didn't want to go at all. Cos it would mean instantly coming for camp after book out, as well as booking in later in th

Next post is the 400th! Well... Don't have any time on my hands at all at this point of time. Its gonna be a hectic couple of weeks for me, with little time for me to spend with myself, let alone others. I guess I'll make the next post a big one since it'll be 400, but please bear with me, because it'll take more than a week or so to come up with it given my tight schedule. Ok so I'm going to driving course soon. Honestly I was quite pleased when I was initially chosen (although by right there are other more suitable candidates). But as the date of the course drew closer and closer I realised that the bond that I've built with my friends in camp was way too strong. I couldn't bear to leave, that plus my hate of change made the last few days in Stagmont kinda sad and unbearable. Now that I've left... It feels that a part of me still is there. Of course the bonus from all that is I'll be able to attend every YE session (not that theres much of em at th

Ahh... Back from Japan. Well, didn't take many pics cos my phone always runs out of batt too fast. So the next post will be a pictured one to let you guys see all the cool stuff in Hokkaido. Mostly went there to eat eat eat eat and eat. Play a bit, onsen a bit, shop a bit, and see the scenery. Thats almost about everything I did. Covered quite a portion of Hokkaido including Chitose, Sapporo, Asahikawa, Biei, Sounkyo, Noboribetsu, Jigokudani, Furano. At least thats what the itinerary said. But I think we didn't go to Sounkyo because of the cold... Night time in Japan starts at 4:30pm in the afternoon, a bit weird huh. In terms of jap... I could read most of the things I saw except for kanji, but some times I didn't understand what I read uh. The most commonly seen kind of japanese used would be katakana, which I learnt just in time before the trip. I managed to translate some stuff such as flavors of ice cream, chocolate, curry, ramen etc lol. All in all it was a great lear

On to Japan! Wheee...

4 posts to 400! Ahaha going out with the young uns showed me just how old I was getting. No stamina bleh. I used to be able to stay out for long periods of time, but now 8 hours makes me pretty tired. Pool, dinner, trying the furniture at ikea were some of the things included in the itinerary for the day. But its a good thing they asked me out lol. Means I'm still young at heart and they know it hahahaha. The age difference between me and some of them is about 3 or 4 or 5 years yet we can still talk about stuff. My pool is power the maaaa. Beating my bro thrice effortlessly is something that I haven't done in quite some time. He probably deteoriated during the exam period, but thats just an excuse lol cos I haven't been playing either lololol. Dominated in the card game pool thing as well whee. Hmm have finished AMG, now going on to a new anime, Kaleido Star. I must say for the first time in ages I've finally watched an anime that got me really touched on many occasions

I wrote this post specially to say... 1 YEAR TO ORDDDDDD!!!!!!! Whee I'm practically doing cartwheels in my mind. So this means I'm 2 months away from a corporal rank, and I'm excited

6 posts to 400! 3 days to 1 year left in NS! Blood... Everywhere... That was what I saw on wednesday when I went with some of my company mates to donate blood in the mph. Of course, it involved quite a bit of needles, but it was no biggie. I ended up donating about 500ml of my blood. There was no apparent soreness after that, so it was no big deal. Finally get to do something good for others. Have a mini conspiracy theory that vampires are indeed alive, but are kept under control and given blood, in exchange for them behaving themselves. Its possible right? Just joking. Oh anyway, if any of you are thinking of donating but are scared of the pain, no worries! Its really quite ok. The people in my duty team are getting guitar fever, every single day they take my guitar and many other assorted people's guitars to play. Some of them ask me for advice, and others ask me to show them stuff. Overall they are really quite impressed, especially when I tell them I was classically, then acous

Got a new hobby: Shogi! Also known as japanese chess. So far I've learnt all the piece movements, and gotten used to the drop system, and finally I've beaten the comp once in it. Whee when I go to Japan I'll get myself a set. Ok so updates on my previous week in camp. Range was on tuesday, and I shot a respectable 24 out of 36. Had to redo a few times to get the score though hahaa. If only I could use a SAR instead. Then it'd be a lot easier. But had lots of fun mingling with the newly graduated UIP initiates. They're all really nice people. Everyone got a soapy bath during the weekend, cos it was the ORD peeps last duty, and we started off by filling buckets with cold water + soap and then pouring it on them. Then of course everyone got it, even the newbies going through their first duty. Of course since I was the nice guy they removed everything I was carrying from my hands (my phone and jap book) and then proceeded. Not everyone was that fortunate haha. So at the

Today's leaders retreat made me think about how I could better help in the youth worship min. How to make things better and stuff like that. And I kinda regret not being a better help to Rach. With all those things uni throws at you its not that easy for her. I've gotta step up. Always letting her decide on things, letting her do almost all of the stuff, and leading BS makes me really guilty. I should start helping out. Thinking about how to expand my service as well. A possible place would be BCG, as a guitarist, in order to bridge the gap between both of us. Leading worship in YM is ok too. Main worship min guitaring is possible as well. Its not cos I'm in COGS that I wanna do all this... Its because I love Him so so so much. Totemo totemo suki des. My Lord and God. Watashi no Kami-sama. *** We're all growing up so fast, its a pretty scary thing. Knowing that our peaks may have already passed, and that everything is going downhill from there. Its difficult to fathom,

10 posts to 400! Newcastle 2 West Brom 1 Aston Villa 3 Blackburn 2 Fulham 2 Wigan 0 Hull 0 Chelsea 3 Stoke 1 Sunderland 0 Bolton 0 Everton 1 Man U 2 West Ham 0 Liverpool 1 Portsmouth 0 Middlesbrough 2 Man City 0 Arsenal 4 Tottenham 4 *** Listening to anime oldies gives me a sense of nostalgia. Tunes from You're Under Arrest, Boys Be, Ah My Goddess, Ayashi No Ceres, Akazukin Chacha, Ninku, Grander Musashi, Flame of Recca etc etc remind me of my childhood. Ah the days of AXN anime. Next post: In camp antics!

Whoo military driving course from 5th Dec onwards. Which means I'll have more off, but also means I'll miss 1 and a half days of camp. Looking forward to spending less on private lessons for driving heh. I think after the driving course I'll be a really really really good driver. Yay. Yesterday (actually more like today) I had a good time of prayer by torchlight. Maybe I should do it more often. Working on the 2nd chapter of my story. I'll be done by bookout. Here ends my short post. =)

Ok new updates to my links list, namely my friends from 8 SIG. Alvin aka Stifler, Yun Fun aka Fishz, and Selwyn aka R. All of us are pretty close thanks to anime and dota. And Stifler is the one who posts Tsukihime on onemanga. Yun Fun is sorta my brother. I call him nii-san. I think he can call me Kagebunshin or something. Right so on to confirmation. Its been awhile since I was reminded of it, ever since my bros had it. But this time helping out took me back to the good old days of sec 3 when I got confirmed. Pastor Joseph was talking about gifts given by the holy spirit, and looking back that was around then my talent in guitaring truly came out in full force. I attribute my guitar prowess to none other than the holy spirit who guides me. Yup and allow me to say a huge congratulations to all those getting confirmed. May the power of the holy spirit and its gifts allow you to bring God the glory he so deserves! *** So on saturday, I got activated. It was actually quite pre-empted, an

Thank God the exercise well. It wasn't perfect, but it showed the new OC our abilities and our hard work put into our training. I think I did rather well, handling the pressure and I was able to troubleshoot most of the problems happening in the comps and the server. A big thanks goes to my duty team for helping out and everyone supporting each other. I'm pretty stoked cos in a months time I'll be a soldier with one year of ns left, and everything is going pretty smoothly. In the past I wanted a posting without weekends burnt so badly, but one thing that God reminds me over and over again is the fact that everything happens for a reason. Thinking back I was a fool to think that everything would happen as I wanted it if I asked God sincerely. Now I know better. And now I'm a much more mature person. Once again, I've changed for the better. I thought that nothing good would come out of ns, and it was just a transition period into my next portion of life. But, once aga

Here I am in camp wondering how Ernest's doing in Brunei. Went around looking at blogs of those signal pals in Brunei, and even asked Yen Shan whether he knew any people were coming. And it seems like there are two camps in Brunei, one in some rural area (where the signallers are), and a different one in a slightly more populated area. (Which is where Ernest will most likely end up.) The news I've heard is that it'll be insanely boring, so I'm hoping and praying Ernie will still have a good time there. Reminds me about the section in 2 Tim 2 about soldiers, farmers and athletes. How they persevere and are focused on whatever they do, no matter how hard. Hope Ernie will be able to do the same! Anyways, here in camp theres quite a bit to do in terms of entertainment this week. They'll be screening a Pirates marathon in the office, and I've got a new game in my PSP: Valhalla Knights 2. Not to mention anime and manga to read/watch. My second exercise in 8 SIG is com

Its been ages since I've wanted to learn a song on guitar... But inspired by my RJGE roots, memories of yzyz and a huge anime song downloading frenzy I've come across one that I've always wanted to learn. Life - Yui (translation) Verse 1 It’s full of mud, that city I can’t get used to I can’t smile in the same way again I was looking down as I walked Fast-paced, the people who walk past each other “Has my dream come true?” I’m still struggling Pre-Chorus Rather than returning to my childhood days, I want to try to live well now Being afraid is human nature Chorus Come out into the place hit by sunlight If you tried to extend both hands I wonder if you could cross over that sky? I thought about something like that The wings used for flying away I still can’t see those yet Because I can’t go easily, I can keep on living Verse 2 Just by picking up the puppy that got wet For a little while, I could laugh until tears came out I want to love I only want to love I was saying that,

Heya everyone. Well theres nothing much for me to do now, since I've allocated this week to be a rest week. As little outings as possible. Last weeks duty was pretty dreary cos of F1; we had to stay in office till quite late with only limited sources of entertainment. Inadequate sleep. Nevertheless, managed to start work on my story, as well as finish Tsubasa, learn half of katakana, and learn to recognise various English names/nouns translated into Japanese. As always, starting on a new anime. (Well I won't say new cos it existed pretty long ago...) Realising that I've only watched small bits of it on AXN, I've chosen Ah! My Goddess. It seems theres a second season now as well. Looking forward to the feeling of nostalgia... Went to play boardgames + lan with the SYC peoples. Played a couple of nice funny games. Well I've been thinking what jobs I'd get after ORDing before I go to uni... And working at a board game cafe will be first choice! Second would be pian

Hello am in camp once again! Nothing much noteworthy to mention. Except perhaps my BTT has to be rescheduled cos silly me forgot to bring his 11B to BBDC to register for it. And Hazel's belated Bday dinner treat, and visiting Kenny at King Edward VII hall. Pics for the dinner will be in the next post. Planning to finish Tsubasa Chronicle with a marathon this weekend! Until I get back. =)

This shall be my prayer for the sunday: Pray that when I speak: 1. It does not spring from error or impure motives 2. I will speak as a man approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel 3. I will please God 4. I will be gentle, not a burden, affectionate 5. I will work all day and night on it 6. I will be encouraging, comforting, yet urging 7. It will be backed by holy living 8. I will be successful Just like Paul... EPL/Champs League results: Liverpool 2 Man U 1 Blackburn 0 Arsenal 4 Fulham 2 Bolton 1 Newcastle 1 Hull 2 Portsmouth 2 Middlesbrough 1 West Brom 3 West Ham 2 Wigan 1 Sunderland 1 Man City 1 Chelsea 3 Stoke 2 Everton 3 Tottenham 1 Aston Villa 2 Chelsea 4 Bordeaux 0 Marseille 1 Liverpool 2 Man U 0 Villarreal 0 Dynamo Kiev 1 Arsenal 1

Well in front of the office comp now blogging as usual. My duty team nakama just left, leaving me behind. Booking out tomorrow instead to ensure that I will only have to book in on monday, so I can enjoy the company of church peoples and my relatives! Wonder how Paul's doing in BMT? Lol. Feeling quite lonely since I'm the only one in front of the comp in the office at this time, and after blogsurfing and reading about random friends and outings and whatnot, can't help but feel like that. Oh well no matter. Book out loh! (tomorrow) This week watched a couple of movies: 2Fast2Furious, Iron Man and Ghost Game. Also continued reading my manga and anime from Tsubasa Reservior Chronicles. Played quite a bit of PSP, training my Monster Hunter Skills while using a sword and shield/dual swords. Starting to learn Katakana already for jap. And of course, mugging for my BTT. Not forgettng QT and worship. Colossians has a pretty nice verse about worship that I can't remember. Still

I was honestly thoroughly impressed by the facilities at FASS. The nice canteen, the exhibition area, the library... But most of all, the thing I was most excited about was the manga collection in the co-op (as in the book store which sells almost everything a uni person needs). Wahaha. To top it all off, I've got 3 Christian organisations to choose from when I get in. Thanks for showing me around Sherine. Finally got my PSP... A piano black one at 270. Only missing one last game which I want: Monster Hunter Portable 2 G whee. Wonder if I've got enough space? I've been trying to memorise scripture verses... I'm really impressed by Isaac, aunty K and all those people out there who can recite passages or refer to certain areas pertaining to a certain topic really quickly. It'll be really useful for me I guess. Currently trying some verses from Philippians that really touched me. But usually it lasts only a couple of days and I'll have to review it. I'll keep t

Ok as usual... Schedule: Thurs - Gym, Meet QQ & Sherine, Buy PSP, Cook Fri - Run, Meet Aunty K, Cook, Prep Stress Talk Sat - Gym, Sign Lang, Synthesis?, BTT Prep Sun - Church, grandma's house, meet Andrew Mon - Gym, Prep for book in: get shampoo and toothpaste, pack field pack, get snacks, anime spree Ok this week I'm starting on a new anime: Tsubasa Chronicles. Haven't gotten down to watching it yet, but have a little inkling on what its about. Thinking about putting it in the memory card to watch as well. Soccer results... Bolton 0 West Brom 0 Everton 0 Portsmouth 3 Hull 0 Wigan 5 Middlesbrough 2 Stoke 1 West Ham 4 Blackburn 1 Arsenal 3 Newcastle 0 Chelsea 1 Tottenham 1 Sunderland 0 Man City 3 Aston Villa 0 Liverpool 0 Woot Robinho has joined Man City... This season's gonna be even more surprising I guess.

=( =( =( Its been a boring weekend... No PSP, Facebook is down, anime website is down. So all I have is the pokemon gold in the office comp, guitar, my jap book and onemanga. Too little entertainment for the 32 hours of weekend that I'll be spending in camp. Jap's going along really well. Have been learning lots of conversational stuff, as well as some characters of kanji. And it does help when you know how to read the difficult version of chinese. Still got a long way to go, cos next up comes Katakana, which I think is one step above in difficulty from Hiragana. Well without facebook and anime, the main source of entertainment has been in reading Ouran High School Host Club manga. And I'm really surprised that the manga is really much deeper than it is made out to be. I'm really envious of the way the characters are able to tell each other's deepest thoughts and emotions just by observing each other. That is something I can't do. Up till now I've always tho

And so my first long weekend comes to a close. Shall give a couple of higlights! #1 Put $20 in BBDC account #2 Bought my LCP rank and sewed it on #3 Got my PSP memory card... Gonna put games in it soon. #4 Started on Ouran High School Host Club #5 Met Marcus for Spiritual Dicsiplines #6 Went for worship prac #7 Went to play pool with Paul, lost all games #8 Revised sign language alphabet #9 Went for AHM... (Pics coming soon) #10 Went for YE, service, then syc 2 meeting #11 Managed to book BTT on 16th Sep (Where did I leave my BTT book hm?) Things to plan over next week: #1 Meeting people #2 Spiritual disciplines with JS and Andrew #3 Stress Talk Games to put in PSP memory card: #1 Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness #2 Monster Hunter 2 Portable G #3 Yugioh GX Tagforce 2 #4 Medievil Resurrection Ok enough of listing stuff. Shall start with Ouran. Its seriously one of the funniest I've ever seen. Better than Clannad IMO. The interaction between characters is the highlight of the show, as

Well... Good news good news! Ben Low is now a Lance Corporal! Although its actually no biggie I'm actually glad my rank has been upped. Kinda feels like you've completed a quest or something. So I've added something to my to do list for the week. Reminders to self: Top up BBDC account Start asking people out Cooking Go learn more sign language Get lots of snacks and bring guitar into camp Get new PSP memory card Sew on IPPT and Rank on No.4 Yup so my first duty officially ended today. Its been great. Especially the weekends where we got to do anything that we wanted. Over the week quite a few exciting things happened... Such as the sergeants moving to our bunk, a new set of UIP signallers coming in, playing soccer, playing PSP, doing the laundry, AHM Briefing, watching Blood+ on the company comp, singing and playing songs to God at the balcony etc etc. Off count: 4.5 Leave count: 7 Total rest days: 11.5 Excited about this coming weekend and the next duty weekend. Lots of in

And so... My duty has finally started. This week of all weeks. Not too bad, but had some things to do over the weekend which I had to cancel. Sorry to Sarah for at first agreeing to lead bs for faith, then backing out. Sorry also to Andrew and Marcus for postponing our spiritual disciplines thing. And SYC! Oh no... Seems like I can't go for any sessions if the week isn't switched. Aite... So list of dates I'm free for this month: Thursday 21st Aug Morning Afternoon Evening Friday 22nd Aug Morning Evening Saturday 23rd Aug Morning Afternoon Sunday 25th Aug Morning Afternoon Please feel free to book me. =) SMS or Email would be a good way to contact me since I'm too lazy to get a tagboard. Reminders to self: Top up BBDC account Start asking people out Cooking? Go learn more sign language Get lots of snacks and bring guitar into camp Get new PSP memory card Upcoming things: AHM 10 km run on 24th morning Spiritual Disciplines with Marcus & Andrew on 22nd afternoon Synth

=( My comp caught a weird virus... Took out Daryl's old CPU to use. Woo. Well NDP this year was really an eye opener for me. Especially because I was involved behind the scenes, in a place where no one would expect me to be. It wasn't very fun, but it was interesting being part of security ops. I understood a lot more about what goes into a seemingly simple celebration. Its more than just fireworks, airplanes, and parachuters... Heading back to camp soon... A little update before I go. Not sure when my 8 SIG duty officially starts, but I know a lot of exciting things will be happening for me, including driving, meeting random acquaintances, cooking, gymming, spiritual disciplines, preparing for talks and worships, going for synthesis, more anime/facebook/manga/dota etc etc. Also, there are a couple of interesting and funny clans within my company, like the Jap and anime loving group, the MvC & KoF group, the Thai song listening group, the PSP players, the MP3 listeners, the

Well had actually planned to blog on monday or tuesday... But got hold the comp in the office way too late to actually concentrate. So tried penning my thoughts down on a random NS issued book. Saturday and Sundays were days filled with many many many many many thoughts. Some happy, some sad. Just thought I'd share some of them here. A couple of those thoughts were from FOP. A quote from aunty KF: "The best teaching unsettle the comfortable and comfort the unsettled." Well, I think Mark Connor did exactly that for me. He got me thinking about responsibility. For way too long I've been trying to impose myself on those who are out of my zone of responsibility. It has led to uncomfortable situations, misunderstandings and conflict. And those times are those that I really regret. Well, perhaps I am responsible to help others walk the righteous path, but I'm not responsible for them, as Mark Connor said. Instead, they are responsible for themselves. So its time I st

In an ultra good mood now. Ops off on monday and tuesday, then leave on thursday and friday. And the day I was back at camp I was enjoying my new anime in the manning office and soccer in the afternoon. Talk about slack. Speaking about new anime... I've now done with all FMP episodes. A special mention goes to FMP Fumoffu: its one of the most hilarious I've ever seen. So now my newest anime would be Blood+, another vampire story (sort of). I seem to like that a lot, after all I enjoyed Trinity Blood, Hellsing etc. Darren... That inconsiderate dude passed me his feverless flu. Kept on coming to my room over the past few days purposely coughing in my face. Coughing, sneezing, running (my nose) and hiccuping have been taking turns tormenting me. Not that I mind actually... It would've been better without, but I heal fast anyways. Well thanks to all those who gave me a birthday shout out for today. Kinda made me guilty cos I haven't been birthday shouting for a long long ti

Before I start on anything else... Here comes some BtD pics! First up... Guess where this is? Thats right its the newly constructed, really cool... Hodge Lodge at RJC! Equipped with a Wii, PS2or3?, Karaoke System, many many * boardgames and a theater system at the back. Cool or what? As you can see karaoke was the highlight of the day. They're even snatching the mic from each other. Lol. And a happy birthday to Tabby! Well, have a video of the class singing I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing by Aerosmith. But won't post it up. *** As some of you know my ops has been terminated (or at least scaled down) prematurely. As a result, I'm now freeeeee! One problem I have with that is... I'm not sure whether I'll be free on my birthday! Cos they'll recall me to 8 Sig any time. Ahh... After I had everything planned and ready. If the ops had gone on, I would've had a day of off on that special day. Oh wells. Suck thumb. My visits back to church have been really fruitful.

Well a couple of exciting things happened the past few days: 1. Avatar the Last Airbender movie/finale! 2. Before the Diffusion 3. Sunday duty finally over! 4. Cut (most of) my hair... I'm getting more and more white hair... =( *** Have been studying the difference between the 4 gospels... And after reading some material it kinda made some sense why there had to be 4 gospels. Each gospel portrays Christ in some way, and is targetted at a group of people. Matthew: to the Jews, portrays Christ as King of the Jews A big source of evidence is in the genealogy that is traced to Abraham, the forefather of all the Israelites/Jews. The phrase "to fufill what the Lord had said through the prophet" is repeated 29 times in the book, which is a reference to texts only Jews knew. Mark: to the Romans, portrays Christ as a powerful servant In Mark the majority of it consists of Jesus doing miracles, twenty of them in total. A lot... Also, Mark left out many things... Like Mary's vir

Its funny how I suddenly see a lot of old acquaintances around OVL... It started last week when my observation post was suddenly changed, and I was paired with someone else. And the person I was paired with was Jon Goh, a nice senior from RJGE. He was quite happy that we'd won gold, he said it was enough. Reminded me of my disappointment in the past and how I was so clueless about our achievements that I found it to be an unhappy experience. I was that immature last time hah. But now I understand, failure is never a sign of weakness. Something beautiful will spawn from every failure, and thats the bonus if you dare to fail. The next person I met was Law Chun Fung, ex RI classmate! Surprise surprise. Have no idea why he was there but saw him at a distance and said hi. The last person was Wai Lun, my friend from BMT... He looked a little sad. I think I understand... He was in SISPEC but dropped out and now he's in the ATI. And he wanted to be an officer so bad. The world can let

I've gotta cherish my friends much better than I do now. The fear is a lot bigger than I imagined... So I'm glad I'll get to go for 3H's final class outing. I... Just can't imagine how much more damage NS will do. Once I'm in the official duty system I'm gonna cherish the 5 day weekend. I can't just bum around and watch anime everyday. My new goal is to meet at least 3 different friends of mine every other week by any means possible. Anybody willing to take up my offer? Anyways I've posted the Youth Sunday vid on my multiply. Anyone interested please do go watch it to see what my youth group is like!

I absolutely hate tearful goodbyes. Although I show absolutely no hint of emotion don't be decieved, I understand exactly what it means to leave so many people you love, to be apart from them for 6 years because of studies. After all, I've thought about taking that route before. Honestly I respect Amanda for her courage. Not only to leave for such a long duration, not only to leave for some place foreign, but also to leave her friends. I've been thinking. I don't fear many things. But my greatest fear of all is not of death or suffering, but the loss of my friends, even if it were just for 6 years. I don't have the same courage she does to face that fear. I don't wanna miss a thing... But on the other hand... I've thought a lot about how people would react if I left. How powerful would the bonds between me and others around me be? I've already lost contact with so many people till the point that I believe that there wouldn't be many people who would

Back from my first shift of OVL. Just slept so not very tired. In fact this time we did only one shift of 3hrs each out of the 12hrs, mine was at 3am to 6am. Ok shall desribe the process of OVL I've been through so far. On wednesday we got our uniforms which were soaked in permethrin back. Permethrin's a pretty strong mosquito repellent that apparently does not work very well. Anyways brought home a lot of stuff that I didn't want to leave to rot in Stagmont Camp for a month or so. On thursday was OVL parade, some sort of a commisioning parade to send you off into official ops. So stood in the sun for a couple of minutes then proceeded for the briefing. After the briefing we were taken to Sungei Gedong camp to report for our duty. Stoned around for a couple of hours before finally leaving for our OPs at around 8. My OP is called SW5. A pretty neat place. It was quite windy and cool at night. The trip there was a headbanging ride. Lots of rock and roll and heavy metal. Took

Heya guys blogging for the first time from the com in the battalion office. Got my OVL schedule... And the good thing is... I only miss 1 out of 4 church sessions during the duration on the 20th July. And also, I'm free on my birthday! =) My first shift starts on Thursday on 9pm. Hope I don't get bitten much by mozzies. Its too bad I can't go for Amanda's farewell dinner. All the best to you and Kim! Have fun in Australia and may God be with you always. Germany 0 Spain 1! Long time since I've posted on soccer but here goes. My take on Euro 2008 was that some steady attacking side would win. So my picks for finalists were Croatia, Holland and Czech Republic. Unfortunately, Euro isn't very predictable. Also I expected Spain to win by 2 goals but that didn't happen. Oh wells. Finished watching Basilisk, now going on to Full Metal Panic, which my anime friend Edward-kun says is really good. Getting him to help me put the vids into Darren's iPod for viewing.

Ok so NUS has rejected my appeal. Not that it matters anymore. To be honest I'm quite glad where I am now, and I've already made preparations for it. The release of the results was nothing more than a form of release, and I mean it in a good way. Now its time to relax for about 6 more months before I make my next move. And 6 months is a lot of time to do the things I want to do before uni. (Now that unit life is slacky =P) I suppose a certain Daughtry song kinda sums it up. Although it sounds like its written towards a certain person (looking at the forums this song kinda reminds people of their ex bfs or gfs lol). Its pretty applicable to my situation. Well I never saw it coming, Shoulda started running a long long time ago And I'd never thought I'd doubt you I'm better off without you More than you more than you know. I'm slowly getting closure I guess its really over I'm finally getting better I'm picking up the pieces Spending all of these years Putt

Yup I'm finally done with it, that means all the privileges start coming back. I can go up to bunk early, buy stuff from the vending machine, use MP3s and what not already. Its been a tough experience, but after the whole thing you'll feel an enormous sense of achievement. Especially when the OC of the company finally pins the unit badge on your shirt, marking your operational readiness. Ok I'm now quite attached to my new unit, which is 8 Signal Battalion if you don't know. Its a pretty new battalion, so you can't find much about it online. Can't tell you anything else about it I'm afraid. But the people there are really nice, and the battalion is run like a professional organisation IMO. Which means there's none of the infantry style of getting into big trouble and getting many many extra. Whats more the higher ups want the best for their soldiers and take real good care of them. I'm in Alpha Company, and my platoon is called the GS Tac Platoon. Ca

Right now I have a tingly exciting feeling which I don't know how I got. Its quite an interesting emotion running through me. This week we have finally been seperated into our specialisations within the company, and mine is based on the servers that we use. Other people got satellite, network or radio specialisations. Mine is pretty special IMO. Get to learn things that other people don't know, even those in the same company as me don't really know as well. Have a sense of power because of the knowledge I have. And the greatest thing about this week is that I finally found a sense of satisfaction in what I do. Seeing all the people work together showed me that every single person is an important cog in an important piece of machinery for the SAF. For the first time I feel proud of what I'm doing and have been through. Its been tough, but only one week remains before we graduate from UIP. Just finished my last ever guard duty I'll ever do. And after this coming week

Its been an exceptionally tiring week. As in physically tiring. The life of a signaller usually involves ample rest, but inclusive of last friday and saturday, I've had 6 days of less than 6 hours of sleep. Thats basically the reason why it was a lot more tiring than usual. RSM parade coming up next week, as well as the all important SOP test and guard duty stint. Besides that nothing more to update. The leaders meeting today went well... I'm glad. I feared for the worst after talking with Gerald yesterday over a drink at M Hotel. Thats all for this week. Nothing much huh.

I'll Be Ok - McFly When everything is going wrong And things are just a little bit strange It's been so long now You've forgotten how to smile And overhead the skies are clear But it seems to rain on you And your only friends All have better things to do Chorus: When you're down and lost And you need a helping hand When you're down and lost Along the way Oh just tell yourself I'll, I'll be ok! Now things are only getting worse And you need someone to take the blame When your lover's gone There's no one to share the pain You're sleeping with the tv on And lying in an empty bed All the alcohol in the world Would never help me to begin Bridge: Just try a little harder And try your best to make it Through the day Oh just tell yourself I'll, I'll be ok Just a little song for everyone to smile at. =)

Here are some of the photos from Hillsongs! Most of them were taken outside cos there was no flash photography allowed during the performances. In the back row: Cheryl Lin, Christine, Hazel. Front row: Shaunald and Daryl. From left to right: Mark, Aaron and Darren. Darren's wearing my shirt. =S Ok they were on the hill calling out random names to see if anybody from the crowd responded. *** I'm quite unhappy the tagboard was deleted without prior warning. I thought they'd have sent an email when the tagboard was inactive. Gah. Unhappy about many other things. 1. Firstly missing out on church camp, and another extra guard duty on 14th June, a saturday of all days. 2. Secondly I've been feeling that all my other friends have gone ahead of me. They're all walking their paths much faster than me while I stagnate. Examples: Shu getting her driving license, all the gals accepting their unis etc etc. I've got a year and 6 months to wait. Which is incredibly painful. 3.

As promised, a couple of pics from the alpha weekend. Here's Prem and Gerald. And here's Daniel coordinating the games. A friend from another church, Gordon (on left) with Martin (on right). Last but not least, Sarah. *** Ok so the past week has been considerably good. With new operators coming in, we've got more people to talk to and new people to share our circumstances with. I'll be going back to Alpha, which will be xiong. But one thing I've come to realise about Alpha is that its people are really much nicer than the people in an infantry battalion. (After recieving lots of complaints from Wen Qin) Just tahan another month or so and it'll be done. Some activities this week included CO's Parade on tuesday, Alpha Company Workplan Seminar on wednesday and attending the Army Pride and Safety Day at SAFTI MI on friday. For next week I think there are a couple of exciting things around the corner, but not sure what they are. Update you guys further next week

Ever since I was in secondary two, my ambition was to be a forensic pathologist. I was impressed by books read about the medical profession, hence I aspired to be a doctor since young. After much deliberation and research, I believed that pathology was one of the major fundamentals of medicine, and forensics was the way to put the concepts in pathology to full use. To make such a informed and serious decision at that stage of my life shows my resolve, passion and dedication to this field of study, and it is my life's dream to walk this path. But here most people ask: Why not take a forensic science course? Why not go abroad? Forensic science and Forensic Pathology are two totally different things. One makes you a Crime Scene Investigator, which is not what I want. The other allows you to deal with corpses, find out the cause of death, and right the wrongs in society one case at a time. That is what I desire deeply. Thus medicine, not forensic science, is the only path for me. Here

Its pretty interesting how being in med puts me in such situations involving major dilemmas. The 1 SIR and guard duty fiascos were just two of the few, and well... Here comes another one. So far what I've been going through is the Alpha Company UIP, supposedly the most xiong UIP out of the 5 branches within 8 SIG. Usually when people enter a new unit they'll first go through a battalion UIP, which we will be going through the next week. But since we came early, they made us do the company UIP first. Heres where things start to get interesting. Although we've been doing company UIP, we can only be sorted out into our respective companies after battalion UIP. But because of my medicine apps (gah everyone there's calling me MO already) there is only a small possibility I'll be posted back to Alpha Company, which I've been studying about for the past week and a half. Thats because Alpha Company is the only 24/7 operationally ready company. If I leave halfway (by dis

I've been posted to a new unit: 8th Signal Battalion. What we do there is quite a big secret, so I'm in no position to reveal anything. But knowing military secrets makes me feel very comfortable haha. Right now I'm in a phase of unit life called the Unit Induction Programme. Its the toughest part of unit life, where you learn all the chim equipment and procedures, and your privileges like walking to cookhouse, eating extra food from the vending machines, listening to MP3s and going to bunk early get cancelled. Because of the studying till late hours, while feeling very bored it gets quite tough on your mind. However, my current unit life isn't all that bleak: after I finish UIP I'll have access to the computers, be able to bring all sorts of things to camp, go to bunk early to rest, play soccer, go to the gym, use the vending machines and what not. *** Alpha weekend was very very good for me. It was a time of renewal, a time of obtaining the peace of the holy spiri