Week 6
We started on our BCCT (Basic Close Combat Training) on Monday, which is basically unarmed combat, kung-fu fighting, martial arts, or whatever you want to call it. The primary distinction, which we were reminded again and again by the instruction, from traditional martial arts is that while the various forms of martial arts are usually governed by rules on where to or where not to hit, no rules apply for BCCT. The objective for us to fight to disable or kill, not to score points. It was one of the rare lessons that I enjoyed, because it’s something that would be beneficial too in civilian life. It never hurts to be able to defend one’s self.
The distance covered by the route march took a step up too, we’re now marching 6 km instead of the 4 km previously. The increase is rather minor though and I barely had any issues with it, with the exception of my arms going numb as per normal due the load of the field back crushing down on both my shoulders. Furthermore, we were rewarded with an unexpected break when the safety rover that was trailing us broke down at the 5 km mark and we had to wait for it to be fixed. Safety rules dictate that during the route march, a safety rover has to be present in the event that someone needs to be evacuated for medical attention.
Right after the route march, a huge cleaning campaign was launched. There has been a number of people falling ill, first due to water contamination issues, which although the problem was rectified, the number of sick kept rising. The upper echelon didn’t have a clue as to what was going on, so the blame fell on us for not keeping the barracks clean.
We were introduced to the SOC (Standard Obstacle Course) this week too. The SOC comprises of 11 items, but we were only taught 6 thus far. There’s a video here on YouTube if you’re wondering what it’s like. So far we’ve covered the low wall, parallel bars, stepping board, low rope, horizontal beam and the swinging bridge. The low rope is the only one I can’t clear so far.
We received two days off instead instead of the usual one this weekend because Monday is Deepavali, which is a public holiday here in Singapore. Hardly matters though, it’s equally lonely in or out of camp.
Enlistment Date
12 September 2008.
It seems that I’m going in much later than most of my friends who are in the June/July intake due to me failing my physical test. Maybe I’ll get to try Warhammer Online before I get sent of. I’m considering if I should heed my parent’s advise and take up a job meanwhile, but I don’t see too many options available and I’m not too keen on a “do you want fries along that?” job. If I’m to get employed, I’d want a skilled job that lets me apply the things that I’ve learnt in school.
Patches, patches, and the worst possible schedule
Frostfell (EQ2’s version of Christmas) is finally here, when the servers go up that is. I’m really excited since this would be the first Frostfell season I’ll celebrate here on the AB server, and I can’t wait to get a hold of all the fancy clothing and house items - both old ones from Frostfell 2006 and the newly introduced ones this year. Finally, I’ll have something in EQ2 to do again. Oh, the best thing about GU41 - there’s going to be tableware furniture items! Dishes and cups!
Lineage 2’s expansion, The 1st Throne, goes live today. One thing I love about L2 is that expansions are absolutely free. I’m not sure if my account is active, I’ll have to check it later. I’m excited too, but between this and Frostfell, I’ll have to say I’m more enthusiastic about Frostfell sadly. I really don’t see myself playing L2 full time again. I really do want to be on the moment it goes up however, as there’s almost guarantees that fights will occur the new err… whatever, clan hall or fortress I think it was, haven’t quite been following the patch notes.
But oh, before I get myself even more hyped up, remember my post about having to miss the MMIS raid due to midterms? Probabilty couldn’t be more against me than to place both the MMIS raid and L2’s expansion launch on the same day where I can’t attend either. I’m pretty upset over it.
Anyway, Office 2007 SP1 is being released also, so grab it here if you’re running Office 2007. I really should be studying, but I can hardly concentrate at all. I love my course, I love what I’m studying, but studying for a test, which is based on nothing but pure memory work really kills any enjoyment I would otherwise have.
This ain’t my life’s schedule
I’m getting annoyed by some of my lecturers calling me up after referencing my school timetable, and then demanding that I meet them during a lot which I don’t have class. They make the assumption that I’ve nothing else outside of the allocated class hours. I do have a life outside of school.
Anyway, I’ve finally recovered from my throat infection, which caused all kinds of other trouble such as flu and random fevers, and I now seems to have been bestowed with a huge appetite after barely eating but porridge and salt eggs for the past week. Back to all that junk food! You must think that I weigh 500 pounds after that last statement, but you can’t be more mistaken, I’m only 183 138 pounds (oops for the typo, thanks to Richie for spotting it), and I often dip below the underweight line.
My EQ2 character, Calreth, finally hit 70 Provisioner and can now make his own drinks, saving quite a substantial sum on overhead costs. It’s one of the nice things of a having a tradeskill class that directly supports the character. 3 gold per 5 hour drink might not sound much, but it adds up. One of the other nice tradeskill classes I would like to have would be an alchemist too, but I’m not too huge a fan of crafting and would probably never get down to it.
School is starting to pickup into the ‘rushing for next deadline’ phrase, which means I’ll have to moderate my play time. I’ve been so engrossed with EQ2 lately that I totally missed something else I’ve been waiting for - the expansion to Neverwinter Nights 2, Mask of the Betrayer. The local online store here doesn’t seem to stock it, so I would have to head down to the island’s geek complex, aka Sim Lim Square, to grab it. However, with EQ2’s own expansion right around the corner, it’s doubtful that I’ll actually play much of it.
Other than that, life has been rather uneventful.
Watch out for the MP3 chomping worm
There’s a new virus, or worm, to be exact, that goes around deleting MP3 files and it’s aptly named W32.Deletemusic by Symantec. It propagates by manual contact (eg. thumb drives and other removal media) and does not seem internet aware at this point, and copies itself to the root of every drive on the system. However, I’m not sure if it would be capable of spreading via local networks with mapped drives.
Just a heads up to you guys, especially my fellow class and schoolmates. The school is a playground for malware, as you all have undoubtedly experienced multiple times.
At least it won’t wipe out my music files that are encoded in FLAC :D!
Original article here: http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41448
More on the virus: http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2007-073010-4123-99
A Week of Harry Potter
It’s impossible to walk down the street without observing individuals fanatically reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The atmosphere has been more or less similar in my school lab, and I’m a contributer to it.
I picked my copy up on the official date of the launch, along with the previous 2 that I didn’t own, The Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince. All the major bookshops were still well stocked by late afternoon, which makes you wonder why anyone pre-ordered to begin with.
Anyway, I couldn’t quite remember the plot in The Half-Blood Prince, since I’ve only read it once previously, along with The Order of the Phoenix. The latter however, had a theatrical release not long ago which I caught, and hence, was adequately familiar with it. Therefore, to ensure I would be able to grasp and fully comprehend whatever awaits me in the final installment, I had to reread the 2nd last.
An in-house internship is in many ways, relaxed, as long as you are able to meet deadlines, or provide an excuse for not doing so. What I’ve learnt so far is that those administrative apparatchiks are more interested in paperwork than the actual project itself, which allows for plenty of senseless excuses as long as it’s lengthly documented.
For the past 3 days, I’ve been allocating about an hour’s work of work per day and zealously reading the famed book for the rest. Now that I’ve finally caught up the 7th book, it seems that tomorrow and the day after next will be hardly any different.
In Soviet Russia, you pay to work!
Replace “Soviet Russia” with “Temasek Polytechnic”. In case you’re not familiar with the title, see Russian reversal.
Students in my school have to undergo a period of internship and/or complete a major project for the first semester of their final year. In my case, both were lumped together in one huge chuck. Its been about 6 weeks since I started, so now would be a fair time to review my experience.
Once again, the czarist school planners fouled up and the company my group was supposed to be attached to pulled out after our initial meeting, claiming they had too many students. Good foresight by the management right there. However, we inherited the original proposed project anyway. I’ll skip the technical mumbo jumbo associated with the actual project.
The objective of the entire semester is to simulate a working environment. Thus far, the only thing they got right is the dull looking work cubicle and stiff hours.
Reading nerfbat.com on my laptop
Other than the fact that my group wasn’t attached to a company to begin with, and hence no pay (you don’t get any even if you were attached anyway), we had to fork out an additional $4.80 for a stack of paper with horizontal and vertical lines across it and a formally dressed up page smacked right on top of that, otherwise known as the log book, intended for some apparatchik to gloss over and penalize you for leaving out the minor of all details. As of now, 6 weeks in, I’ve written zero things in it.
Time management is of utmost importance. When you spend your entire day locked in a cubicle, you have to make the most out of it. Therefore, I allocated the entire chuck before lunch for perusing through all my RSS feeds. Now that I’m updated with the intricate happenings of the world, great! Time for lunch!
Despite my rants, I genuinely enjoy working on my project, something that not everyone can agree with.
Vista hits me, again
Quite literally this time.
Last Tuesday, Microsoft held a Vista and Office 2007 launch down at my school, reiterating all the marketing slogans you’ve seen and love to hate everywhere. Little did I expect myself to walk away with a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate Retail.
There was a series of talks held at the Auditorium which showcased various technologies and innovations, two of which were the recently introduced Popfly and Silverlight. Before concluding the session, 5 volunteers (6 went up actually) were asked to summarize the entire presentation, and the most comprehensive version walked away with copy of Vista Ultimate. I guess my daily readings of technology news from The Inquirer and ArsTechnica helped me out here as I was able to highlight the details (and probably more) of each presentation just by glancing at the schedule, even though I might have neglected to pay my utmost attention during some of them.
I’m not going to sell it on eBay like most would. Even if I end up not using it before the next version of Windows gets released, who cares? I cherish the memories associated with the item, the rare occasion of me actually winning something, much more than its financial value. Don’t forget, I’m a gnome too!
PS: Remember the bear with a copy of Windows Vista Business OEM? Here is the same bear, pleased with his upgrade.
Beaten the IRL game
I’ve beat the IRL game, for now at least. Its been a few weeks in to my holidays and I received my results for this semester today, and I performed beyond my expectations. Probability is once again, on my side. Officially, the results are to be released tomorrow, but the czarist calender of the school is to never be trusted.
Holidays have been pretty uneventful, but not boring by any means. Quite the contrary, I appreciate this slow and democratic pace of life, instead of being dictated by some timetable issued by an institution. The past weeks have spent mostly replaying Neverwinter Nights, watching Battlestar Galactica which I just picked up recently and have an entire 3 seasons to catch up, or reading my pile of books which I previously never had the chance to.
Some of my peers have already been issued their major projects and are required to report to school for them, but I am thankful I’ve not. If we were workers, that would be violating some sort of labor rights. Of course, that last statement would be from my fantasy and what is a “holiday” is pretty much determined by them.
Back to watching Battlestar Galactica.
Myanmar? Lol?
An invitation to Myanmar was extended to a member of my SIP/MP group yesterday and he is still shuffling back and forth on his decision as of this moment. Many other such invitations have been sent out to students in my diploma all over the place. Other than the obvious displeasure I felt as a result of the poor management and organization on the school’s behalf, extending such offers after the SIP selection instead of before, I would support his decision either way.
On the other hand, why anyone would choose to do his/her internship in Myanmar is beyond me. Myanmar, wedged between India and China, is a third world country, inheriting all the problems a third world country face such as poverty, a less than efficient transportation system, a poor social system and hygiene issues (diseases). Those are not the only issues. Under the military junta that runs the country, it faces a whole plethora of problems ranging from inflation to oppression of free speech and outright violation of human rights. As far the city is concerned, living conditions are way below Singapore’s standards. In fact, a draft resolution was proposed to the UN Security Council by the US and UK early this year on the issues of virtually non existant human rights this year, although it got vetoed somewhere along the path. To be perfectly honest, it sounds like a hell hole, no offense to all you Burmese.
This hardly sounds like a land of opportunities that one usually looks for outside of Singapore. If you choose to leave Singapore, be it temporary or permanently, you would choose a destination superior to Singapore, not worst.
The only positive outcome of this entire adventure is that it’ll look good on your portfolio. Personally, I wouldn’t accept such an invitation if I was going to live in such conditions. You choose to do something because you enjoy and love it, not just because it looks good. And no, I don’t buy the “it builds character” reason either.
If you do go, watch your words and pray that you don’t end up like Aung San Suu Kyi, or I won’t be seeing you for a very long time.
