Sunday, August 28, 2005

Big Brother's Watching

This post has been reposted, with images edited in a coward attempt to safeguard my own ass, as I do not wish to land my butts behind bars.

Ok.. In 'Enemy of the State' fashion... I'm feeling jittery all over. One reason is becos I am already running late meeting my bunkmates, another reason is the revelation that I am about to give. Although I AM late.. but this is something which I simply CANNOT hold back even 1 second longer. This discovery is just simply overwhelming!! I simply MUST blog it NOW.

The images below can be extremely disturbing to some. View with caution.

Take a deep breathe in...
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Ready?
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NOW!

The 'White House', home of SAF Bands

I came across this software called Google Earth from Weng's blog... in which he said Chris was the one who stumbled upon it. Apart from the cool factor of this Google Earth thingey, I was literally blown over by the immense power of this supposedly geeky online toy. I mean.. look, this is no ordinary map that I have posted above. It is the White House.. home to SAF Bands. It's a military building belonging to the SAF... situated deep within the huge Nee Soon Camp, which happens to be an ARMY camp, for goodness sake. And what is this?? I can simply zoom in and see EVERY GOD DAMN THING IN IT?!?! I mean.. seriously.. doesn't this pose some serious security issues??? Look, I can even NAME EVERY GOD DAMN ROOM!! If this is not a breach of security, I don't know what is.

True enough, you may argue that Nee Soon camp is not that important afterall, but I used this becos I work in that place everyday and I know it inside out. If anyone of you is from some camps of higher security level, do try and see if you can spot EVERYTHING in your camp. I seriously think you will. I have personally seen satellite images of the Istana, the MINDEF headquarters, the naval bases and all the airbases... And if the image above is not enough to convince you, here's more.

Route taken by foot in camp

The path in red is the route one will usually take to and fro White House, the bunk and the Cookhouse. Does this convince you now? (Who says bandsmen are pampered lucky people? See how far we have to go just to get some food in out mouth for every meal??? And if we need to change attire... $#%&@!)

Initially, I have posted the original images from Google Earth, totally unedited except for the labeling... And when my army mates heard of it... they gave me the are-you-sure-it-is-ok kind of look... which kinda made me think twice of wat I did. Ok, I'm sure I'm no Xiaxue or watever.. and my blog readership definitely isn't that awesome. But they do have a point that this is still an army camp afterall... and my revealing of what's inside, together with the coordinates, isn't that good a thing to do. Well, I dun want to take the risk too, though I do not know of any military law that prohibits one from exhibiting what he knows online, with regards to camp issues that do not have the word 'classified' or 'confidential' sprawled across it. In this case, the knowledge of bearings and directions... and also, I wun want to walk up to White House one fine day to see SIB, MP or RPs there waiting for me, handcuffs in hands.

Thus, after much contemplation, I decided to censor the coordinates.

And as we discuss this discovery in bunk.. and I argued dat it's seriously something the SAF, or any military organisation can't run away from. That is, satellite images of their camps from being shown. I mean, you can't stop technology from advancing. You cannot stop people from using binoculars, CCTV or wat have you, even if it invades YOUR privacy.. and you can't stop people from expression their views... cos dat is the 'freedom of speech'( so hot a topic when they came up with the 'Speaker's Corner', some pooty white elephant that it is now). And you can't stop people from bringing in devices which supposedly pose a threat to security, like cameras, phones and camera phones. Haha~

Which brings me to another thing. What the hell do SAF pose restrictions to prohibit camera phones in camps?? Almost every god-damn phone now is boasting of camera functions. Surely you cannot stop everyone from bringing one to camp, using 'security concerns' as a justification. You simply CANNOT stop technology from advancing! If anyone were to have ideas of taking photos of sensitive stuff in camp, I am very sure they will have ways to do that, with something even more advanced den a camera phone. Like a 500 times tele-photo zoom camera with 1000 mega pixels... k k.. too exaggerating. The point is, if anyone were to have ill-intentions of bringing the camp down or leaking sensitive documents, a camera phone will definitely not be the tool of choice. And they will have access to tools that are way more advanced den a lousy VGA or 1+ megapixels phone. Surely the authority should spend more time educating army personnel on the responsible use of camera phones and the moral and ethical issues when handling sensitive military information, and not simply restricting the use of certain geeky gadgets (which people will still find loopholes and smuggle them into camps anyway).

And there's the Catch-22 behind the Google Earth images. Government bodies all over the world simply have no rights over the images owned by Google Earth. And requests to obscure certain areas within their countries will be as good as announcing to the whole world (and to all the terrorists) where to aim their next missile.

As such, one can only wait with fingers crossed that Google Earth will not be the next geeky choice of tool for the terrorists out there.

Cre8tivesparks at 8/28/2005 07:09:00 PM

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Reunion

It was a night of nostalgia... a night that is simple, yet awfully sweet and heart-warming. It leaves a tingling sweet sensation and it will stay etched in one's memory for time to come.

It was the night of Jianyun's surprise Birthday celebration.. carefully organised by the awfully sweet gal of his, Nengduan. She wanted to give him a surprise and painstakingly got the contacts of Jianyun's different groups of friends by drawing links here and there between the few she knows of, and liaising with them to spread the details of the Birthday Surprise to other friends of Jianyun.

The efforts she put in touched me greatly, especially so when she does not really know some of us.. and yet, she took the trouble to find means of contacting us, and invited the whole lot of us... and she did all these without 'stealing' the contacts in Jianyun's hp! Can tell from Jianyun's expression that he was visibly touched by Nengduan. And it sortta made me a tad guilty for not putting in much effort to keep in contact with some of my friends, including Jianyun too.

Haven't really interacted with Jianyun for a long long time... I can't use the word 'seen' cos I DID see him at his Commissioning Parade, and all the rehearsals before that, where he got his Sword of Honour.. But becos of regimental regulations, I can't just walk up to a friend in the middle of the parade square and slap him on his back and chat rite? I must say I am damn proud of having Jianyun as a friend/senior. Sword of Honour can?? I mean.. how zai is dat?

Anyway, during the Birthday BBQ, amidst the good food (Jianyun mum's Spare ribs rox!! And the pork chop, satay, otar etc... Best BBQ food I've eaten!!) and wine.. I had the rare chance to catch up with friends like Wenjie and Lynette, both whom I have also not seen for a very long time too. It's a pity that Yucheng, Ping'an and Melvin couldn't make it. I must really really thank Nengduan and Jianyun for this.. it's like, somehow the feelings of all the years that'd gone by just suddenly came back in torrents.. We reminisced about petty events that took place eons ago.. the little funny incidents back when we were all still very much bonded to one another.. and the feeling is overwhelming. It's like, although we haven't seen each other for so long, there is no distance between us. And it seems like it's just yesterday when all those funny things took place.

At the back of my mind, I saw the familiar images of HCCO's cosy little CO room... the jigsaw we did.. the little pencil souvenirs.. the dinners at Cute Chicken/KAP... the CO camps.. the chalets.. the Beijing trip. Everything is just so heart-warming... so full of nostalgia. Those were the happiest years of my life in school... and I truly want to thank the friends that wove such sweet memories for me. Lynette, Kaiyang, Yucheng, Jianyun, Melvin, Ping'an, Wenjie just to name a few.

On our way back.. I chatted with Lynette. Much like the way we would when she still don the yellow-ochre HC uniform, with her hair tied up in the casual ponytail with a Burberry-look 'scrungey' How the hell do you spell that? And somehow... I felt a sudden longing for all my friends.

How are you guys doing?

Cre8tivesparks at 8/28/2005 04:29:00 PM

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Saturday, August 20, 2005

Masitna Showdown

Well, pretty dramatic episode in camp this week. The subject of Masitna, which is none other den Mas himself, finally realises that more and more people seems to be pretty intolerant of his actions. And so, he confides in Ryan, who out of kindness, assumed the role of a mediator and tried to reconcile things between Mas and the ever-growing Masitna Society. And dat took place in the form of, the 'Masitna Showdown'.

Just in case you are aware of the existence of the online sanctuary of Masitna, and begin to think that the revelation of its existence to the subject itself has taken place, fear not. Negoki wun allow his fun to stop. The holy grail of Masitna remains hidden from 'the one'... and what happened was merely a talk between 5 Masitna warriors, the mediator (Ryan) and the subject, Mas himself.

If you think I am going to delve deeper into what happened during the talk, you are to be disappointed. I will not. Reason being the talk was solely meant to give 'the subject' a chance to know what majority really feels about him (though I know many will be more interested in all the itsy bitsy juicy content of the talk,) and thus giving him a chance to change. Hopefully, this will bring about a change in him, and we all know changes take time. Therefore, time is what we're giving him, and we'll not discuss the details of the talk, at least not until the time is appropriate, that is after an agreed 2 weeks grace period...

Putting the subject itself aside, this 'Showdown' which was originally intended for the good of the subject itself, turns out to bring much more good then originally intended, or expected. It gave a rare chance for me to see a different side to the people that I see everyday, and thought I knew well enough of. The truth is, even if 'the subject' does not change or check his behavior thereafter, I believe some good has already come out of this 'Showdown'.

For the first time, I see how the people of my band actually come together as one, discuss, and attempt to resolve conflicts and differences in an extremely civil and cohesive manner. And how when faced with such a tricky situation, everyone handled it with such grace and effectively and objectively conveyed their message across. How well 'the subject' receives what was given to him, that really solely depends on him.

Having so many people come together, and for the first time, put down in words how they felt about each another really warmed my heart. It gave us a rare chance to say things we feel about one another, which otherwise will seem awkward to be openly discussed. Our initial 'impressions' of one another... the respect for one another.. the concern of how each other felt etc. And it suddenly dwelled on me how much this means to me.. and that how much we have bonded with each other as fellow bandsmen. And it made me realise too how fast all these might come to an end.

For instance, Ryan, whom I only barely started to know better, is going to ORD soon.. in 2 weeks time to be exact. What he did to try help 'the subject' seek reconcilation with the rest in our band is truly admirable in every sense. His genuine kindness and goodwill really touched me.. although it's more to help the subject den anything, yet I feel that what he has taken the time and effort to do is what many others will not have the capacity or capability or compassion to achieve. And this speaks volumes of his character which definitely left a deep impression in me.

I hope that after this incident, all of us can realise how much it takes for us, us fellow bandsmen, to come so far.. and not to take things for granted, and that our friendship will continue to flourish for whatever time we have left with one another.

As for now, I've got to get my bags packed. Will have to go meet my fellow bunkmates soon, to top up groceries that'll last the week (IPPT, GOHs, CODs... have to stay-in everyday) Right now, my bunk's cupboard is pretty devoid of comestibles.. after being savagely attacked by scavenging friends from other bunks. No thanks to Jansen and Thomas.. (Haha.. joking lar~)

Will end for now.

Cre8tivesparks at 8/20/2005 03:27:00 PM

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Monday, August 15, 2005

Bunk Outing to Ubin!!

As the title suggest.. the whole lot of us (it's only 4, namely ChenGuo, Yeowmun, Junwei and me) set out to Ubin, on what Yuanqin termed as a 'self-inflicted fatigue.' Watever it is, at least we're not sinfully rotting and stoning at home, working on fl-abs. Nonetheless, the trip was pretty fun. Long story short, here's letting the pictures speak for themselves. Go click on the Flickr badge in my navigational bars on the right. Must read the description.. there's a photo-story in it!

After the trip, we all headed home, and den met up again for supper. This time, Yuanqin decides he'll join us. See the trend here? Physical outdoor activities = Yuanqin's not going. Makan/indoor entertainment = Yuanqin's going.

We went to this 'Bedok Blk 85 market', where there's really a kaleidoscopic variety of mouth-watering local hawkerfare; we're literally spoilt for choices!! Bah chor mee, BBQ chicken, stingray, fried oysters, carrot cake... the list is never-ending! Stop swallowing your saliva now.. Oh my god.. I'm sounding like some Bedok 85 Ambassador or sth.. But seriously, you guys must go there to see and taste for yourselves!! Nice nice!! Yanxin.. when you're free to drive, let's go there for supper with the gang! Hee hee. I treat you!

The sinful makan-session is followed by movie-marathon at Yeowmun's humble abode. Well, sort of movie marathon lah.. but that's after other stuff like uploading of the Ubin trip's photos, the Ipod people kopping mp3s (so much for honoring intellectual property), surfing a bit, chatting a bit. By the time we really got to watching the movies, everyone was dozing off. Ha~

To sum up, it was quite a neat outing cum gathering. I mean, which bunk is as cohesive as ours??? Ha!~ Looking forward to the next outing where more will join us!!

Cre8tivesparks at 8/15/2005 12:56:00 AM

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Saturday, August 13, 2005

New Layout~!

Phew~ Finally! A change to my layout.

The old layout, which I am still pretty fond of, is deemed 'cumbersome', 'irritating' and 'difficult to read' by a few others. Largely due to the presence of tables and the use of the small fonts. And so, I set out to change my layout, to appease the said few, and also to better reflect my current mood. (Haa... cos my prev layout, as you all shd know, is pretty gloomy. Largely due to the mood I was in when I created that.)

Additions to my blog includes a Blogroll that Negoki recommended; and also, a pretty neat looking clock which I have looted from Weng. And this is roughly what I sent him via sms:

News flash!!
A burglar has been spotted lotting from what is commonly known as "Room 9."(Shouldn't it be 22??) He was last seen, carrying off with him, a small classic black and white clock; and currently, the loot is said to be somewhere in his virtual online hide-out. It is believed that he'll most likely get away scot-free for this.

Anyway, hope this new layout appeals to you guys.

Tata for now!

Cre8tivesparks at 8/13/2005 07:17:00 PM

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Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Love of our bunk~

The Love of Our Bunk

Well, this entry is purely devoted to the love of our bunk that, sad to say, has inevitably moved on to where it was meant to be... right in the tender loving care of Snailz.

Ok… I know, I know. I'm being super ambiguous here. I dunnoe why, but somehow I like being ambiguous. Anyway, that aside, I shall now unveil the object that had mesmerized almost each and everyone in my bunk (Well, nothing just seem to interest Gideon, so, wth~) For the past few otherwise dull and boring days in camp, the ultra cool object of desire that has earned itself such a prestige is none other then wat is known as: *drum roll* Antworks!!

This is how the Antworks looks like.

Ok, so just what is this concaved piece of plastic container with some alien-looking gel thingey inside? And why the hell is it oh-so-intriguing about it that it has captured the mind and soul of so many people in and around my bunk?

Well, for one, the gel is, as you can see, just some gel. So it is not very interesting at all. Unless you are some weirdos who DO actually find it interesting and even bothered to taste some of it. *Eeww!!* But the cool thing about it is, you can actually put ants into it and watch them work their magic with the gel! Seriously, how cool is dat? This thing puts Sims to shame!! Now, who will want to stay glued to their computers watching a bunch of pixels chat, flirt, give back rubs, f#*K, slap, fight with each other (in whatever order) when they can actually watch ants do all the incredible stuff they do live! Talk about reality tv! Talk about real voyeurism!!

It started out with a few ants from batch 01. Ryan, being the ardent insect lover, helped me a bit... and Yuanqin, the fellow accomplice in all things lame helped me out too. Went to the garbage collection point of the White house to collect some of the huge number of ants there. Sad to say, they din last the night. Most died. Some escaped. One died while escaping thru one of the 2 air-holes located on the lid. Well, we won't let one failure put us down.

Let me digress for a while. Seriously, we realise how stupid the manufacturers are to include 'tools' that aren't exactly tools since they're extremely useless in the fine art of catching ants. Why bother to include a stupid stick to just poke 4 holes into the gel when seriously, the ants DO NOT start burrowing from them. (This is verified by many other Antworks fanatics out there that all their Antworks burrows do not start with the said 4 holes.) And what use is a stupid little dumb container with cumbersome-to-remove magnifying glass cover? Wtf is that stupid thing for? One thing good is the magnifying glass though. Not so much as to help catch ants, but definitely great to burn things with. (Read: Converging the sun's rays to one fine fiery dot that'll burn whatever you want to burn. And hence the term 'magni-burn' that I've coined.)

The stupid useless tools with the great useful magnifying glass.

And ants are darn smart creatures if you ask me. If you were to put them in a strange, new environment, they all go super hyperactive and will be running all over, waiting for any and every chance to escape. So, if you caught like, 4 ants, and you wish to put in 1 new ant, 3 might just escape when you open the lid for 1/4 of a second to put the new ant in. (K, dat was a little too exaggerated. But you get the idea.)

Having said so, me and my fellow ants-catchers (Ryan, Yuanqin, Yeowmun and Arthur) devised an ingenious way to catch these little creatures, although it may seem a tad cruel. But, wth. It works, and that itself said it all.

First, you just need to understand certain facts.

Ants DO NOT suffer from brain concussion, and any apparent physical harm, even though they have been violently shook for a prolonged period of time. (If the ant is the size of a man, it has withstood being thrown about in a space of about 3 basketball courts, with tremors reaching at least a 10 on the Richter scale. N.B. Richter scales do not exceed 9.)
A continuous shake on the container render the ants helpless to catch hold onto any surface. Thus they wun be crawling all over.
Ants will take about 10s to recover from the trauma immediately after you stop shaking.

That said, all you need is some practice to counter possible psycho-motor problem and viola~! You are an Expert Ants Catcher in no time! Ants will not be running all over!! You wun be wasting precious time catching and re-catching ants!

Back to the ants. Batch 02 are of the red kind similar to those that Jude suggested catching in the toilet outside Studio E. But this batch comes from the grass patch right in front, and to the right of the area where trainees fall-in. This batch too, can escape from the 2 air-holes as their physical size is not much different from batch 01, and also, they have darn high fatality rate. Which basically meant it's another failure.

Can't really recall when the giant "Queen" ant came into the picture. All I can remember is Weising and Joshua telling me of a giant flying ant in their bunk. And so, the first permanent resident of the Antworks is born. It lived for a relative long period of time, and burrowed quite a bit. Until it finally dug its own gel-ly grave and passed on to the world beyond. To this date, it can still be seen in Snailz' Antworks, resting in eternal peace right smack in the middle of the Antworks. !@#^$!* Can't get rid of it's dead body now. Nice.

Now is where things get interesting. The 2 new species that came after are relative large, but still only about 1/3 the size of the Queen. And the best thing is, one of these species actually burrowed!! (The other species merely attacked others, tear them to shreds and eat them up, much to the delight of Yuanqin.) And it's tunnels I'm talking about!~ Imagine the thrill when only 2 of the correct species completed a short tunnel with 2 openings in 2 days! That really gave great encouragement when all previous attempts failed miserably. And so, after this great leap forward, Arthur, Yeowmun and I set out to find new additions to our pathetic army of TWO good ants... and finally, a good collection of at least 30 is added!! (The horrifically nasty cannibalistic ant is magni-burnt out of the tunnel that it has taken over as it laid in ambush for unsuspecting burrowing ants, and thus faced justice as Yuanqin magni-burnt it to death after it's been removed.

On and off, people like Albert and Zhihan kept lamenting on how obsessed I am with the ants. But little did they know this obsession is shared amongst many others in and out of the bunk. This is evident when the people I meet changed their daily greetings to: "Eh Keith! How's your ants?" And also, closeted ants fanatics like Yeowmun and Junwei were spotted going to Raymonia's cupboard (I kept the Antworks there) to gaze at the ants first thing in the morning!! That's even before they brush their teeth!! And people like ChenGuo and Weiye are also known to spent hours gazing at ants and lamenting on why they are doing that! Ha~!

Ok, shall end here, although the amazing Antworks definitely still full of life and vigour, except that it is in the hands of Snailz the Slow now. Really beginning to miss the dear addition to the bunk. They are as dear to my bunk mates as pets are to humans now, and I'm sure my fellow ant-complices feel the same, just like a precious part of them is being ripped away from their very body. Oh ants, I hope you're doing fine with Snailz...

P.S. Snailz, do update ur blog with some pictures of how the dear ants are doing yah???

Cre8tivesparks at 8/09/2005 08:49:00 PM

1 gave a piece of their mind

Just for Laughs

Ha~ Decided to post these pictures, just for laughs! Oh hail the power of Photoshop!!~

N.B. Anyone who does not wish for his/her photo to be shown here, just leave a tag and I'll remove it asap. :)

Cheerios!!

These pictures should be enough to speak up for how much time and effort that is required to make a nice photo in any publication. Hope you guys enjoy the laughs!!

Cre8tivesparks at 8/09/2005 08:36:00 PM

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Saturday, August 06, 2005

The thing about tau-pok

The thing is, when bandsmen are left with too much free time with absolutely nothing to do, they'll come up with the weirdest activities to keep themselves entertained. One such typical activity is what we affectionately call a 'taupok' session.

K, for the benefit of those who are clueless about what 'taupok' means, it's an activity which involves the squashing of individuals, with the use of nothing else but sheer bodyweight of many individuals.

Usually, the main victim is decided in split seconds, and the first assailant will pounce on his prey with great viciousness without any warning (much like how a tigress or a lioness will pounce on its prey), pinning him either to a bed or the floor, or whatever is accessible. With the main assailant sprawled over his prey, he will place all his bodyweight down onto the victim, usually stunning the victim rendering him immobile, pinned, squashed and breathless. This is done simultaneously with the war cries of "taupok!!" to alert fellow assailants of the pinned prey, after which interested participants will den join in the fun, piling themselves on top of one another, rendering the main victim more immobile, more squashed and more breathless then ever. N.B. I say 'main victim' becos the ones at the bottom of the stack are also equally squashed, don't you think?

As one will be wondering, what a mere humble local comestible has got to do with the activity, first, we must picture how taupoks look like... maybe not now in squeaky clean air-conditioned supermarkets where they lay comfortably side by side in nice little styrofoam boxes with shrink-wrap around them, but definitely so in times when the policemen still wore shorts. They are squashed and stacked on top of one another, strung together on strings and hanged up for sale then. Get it?

'Taupok' usually requires a relatively large number of participants, and must be relatively spontaneous to achieve maximum effect; reason being the larger the number of people involved, the greater the 'impact' and the greater the spontaneity, the greater the element of surprise is for the main victim. And the interesting thing to note is: nobody ever gets angry in a 'taupok' session. Not even the main victim, or the ones at the bottom of the stack, or anyone else for that matter. Why??? Cos 'taupok' is all done in the name of fun, and it's done only amongst friends. I mean, who will want to 'taupok' someone you really hate? I mean... ewww... Imagine letting your body come into contact with the highly detestable Singapore Arts Museum.. or Smelly-Ol' You-know-who. I mean, get a life man, seriously.

So when I got to know that certain highly detestable individual made a remark, which goes something like: "Ha! This is not enough. He deserves more then that", coupled with sneer and scorn during a recent 'taupok' session where I got 'taupok-ed', it really got to me. I mean, seriously, wtf?!? Don't you get it? Don't you know why no one will ever 'taupok' you?? It's becos you ARE that detestable!! And that you’ve got no friends!! Like I said before, 'taupok' is a friendly gesture, though violent it may seem, and that is precisely why no one should, or will ever get angry when he is being 'taupok-ed', or gets 'taupok-ed' while 'taupok-ing' someone else.

Hopefully, this certain individual will get to read this, and consequentially realise how sad and sorry his life is. How he is putting people off and getting on everyone's nerves. And does he know that there's already a society dedicated to him? No... (Read: The Masitna Society. Read it backwards if you don't get it. And if you still don't get it, then probably you're not smart enough to be part of it.) I hope Yuanqin is free and bored enough to do up a site for the society; and that Weng can find the weird scissors and set up the Un-SAM Salon next to Jumari's Barber shop.

Have you had your 'taupok' today?

Cre8tivesparks at 8/06/2005 04:12:00 PM

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