Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Tonight, my syndicate waited for 3 hours, from 8 to 11, for a neighbouring syndicate to finish their orders just so that the instructor that was with them could give us a 1 minute brief about tomorrow's programme.
It's stuff like this that gets me counting down the days once again to ORD..
What am I gonna do after I ORD?:
1. Learn to drive.
2. Learn to invest. (In stocks, bonds and shares.. please dont ask me to have ANYTHING to do with MLM)
3. Fly to the US (Philly! UPenn! Please?) to check out the place with my family.
4. Go on holiday with my beloved 25th Student Council. Anywhere, anytime.. just away from any jungles.
5. Learn to cook.
6. Spend days at the library/borders/kino reading and reading and reading.
7. Learn to play a musical instrument.
8. Check if SIA needs me to intern before heading over to the US.
9. Dance with the SA Dance Alumni.
10. Read up all I can about the US, because I'm absolutely clueless about its politics, structure and everything else.
11. Shop for stuff I need to study overseas.
12. Exercise to get those abs I promised someone. (Probably my hardest task)
Sounds like a lotta stuff to do in 5 months aint it? Lionel never rests..
17.5 more weeks to ORD!
he rocked the party at 7:47 AM |
Sunday, November 20, 2005
I wrote this on my syndicate room's whiteboard the other day out of sheer boredom:
is damn yandao
2 hours later, someone had changed it to:
is damn yandao
Oh well, at least we agree on something.
A totally irrelevant point: Today my girlfriend helped to convert my pigsty of a room into a place where people can actually live in by tidying, throwing and wiping away all the dust to reveal, in her words, "gleaming" floor and surfaces!
So sweet right. I'm the luckiest guy in the world.
he rocked the party at 8:26 AM |
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Call me a nitpicker, but I just cant help pointing out discrepencies such as these.
Consumer rights are at stake here!
At Long John Silvers, the price breakdown is..
Combo 1: 2 pc chicken + fries = $3.60
Combo 2: 1 pc chicken + 1 pc fish + fries = $5.60
Combo 4: 2 pc fish + fries = $5.95
So if you had 2 people who wanted a Combo 2 each, their total cost would be:
$5.60 x 2 = $11.20
However, the equivalent of two Combo 2s, which is 2 pcs of chicken + 2 pcs of fish + fries, can be achieved by adding Combo 1 and Combo 4.
Total cost of Combo 1 and 4: $3.60 + $5.95 = $9.55
Thus, by buying one Combo 1 and one Combo 4, you save a total of ($11.20 - $9.55 = $1.65), as compared to if you buy two Combo 2s, even though they are essentially made up of the same thing! Gasp.
Anyone who wants to sue long john's and use this as evidence needs to seek prior clearance from me first.
he rocked the party at 9:12 AM |
In true spirit of my previous post, allow me to update everyone on my (horribly disgustingly busy yet boring) military life for the next 18 weeks!
Intention of Higher HQ: To ORD from active military service.
Concept of Operations: The central idea is to maintain my sanity during the following 18 weeks before ORD-Day. This is achieved by participating and excelling in various military exercises, supported by the girlfriend, friends and family in the following phases:
Phase I (211105 - 021205)
- Completing the Assessment/Summary phase of the Basic Intelligence Officer Course and obtaining a decent set of marks to save me from embarrassment.
Phase II (051205 - 231205)
- Participating in (the notoriously tough) Exercise Falcon, prep exercise for ATEC.
- Breaking in my understudy DyS2, who will have the (dubious) honour of taking over my post after I ORD
Phase III (271205 - 190106)
- Co-ordinating the build-up training for ATEC stage 1 for the Battalion.
- Co-ordinating/Participating in ATEC stage 1 (local)
Phase IV (230106 - 050306)
- Final administration of peacetime saikang (including bloodyshittydisgusting WITS)
- Final build up training for ATEC stage 2
- Speculated 1 or 2 weeks of leave (if time and bosses allow)
Phase V (060306 - 310306)
- ATEC Stage 2 (Overseas)
Phase VI (310306 onwards)
- ORD LOH!!!!
he rocked the party at 8:55 AM |
Friday, November 18, 2005
Oh wait, i DO have a little gripe.
Ok, the background info is that I'm attending an intelligence officer course, one that is pretty challenging and braindraining. Aha, so for all you "chiong sua" soldiers who think that staff officers have it easy, you are oh-so-wrong. Try staying up till 3am to come up with strategies and draw our plans on talc, only to wake up at 7 the next day for the cycle to begin again. Now multiply that everyday for 8 weeks. (Coming back on public holidays included.) Ohh-ho yea. I'll take fighting in the jungle anytime. A platoon has pretty much everything planned out for them, and at such a small level things get really simple. As in, really.
Ok, i digress. Anyway, the "int community", as int officers and specialists throughout the saf affectionately term ourselves, are really proud of our so-called gift of the gab. There's a certain language used during presentations and analysis of information, which sounds re-eally technical and professional, but its really just a cool way to present your argument.
Anyways, the gripe comes when that language and military tactics come into the context of everyday life, as in the following examples:
"The presence of free Harry Potter tickets compels me to exploit the tickets so as to enable us to dominate the cinema."(laughs at own lame joke)
"Shall we conduct a course night assault on Park Lane tonight, holding 1 x syndicate as reserve for the subsequent capture of Plaza Singapora?" (laughs at own lame joke)
"Now gentlemen, the EEI for tonight is 'What is the size, composition and disposition of the pool place at Papa Lima, with emphasis on its opening hours and number of pretty ladies there?' We shall need to send our scouts out to recce.." (laughs at own lame joke)
Ohhhhh gaawwrrsshh. You know we've hit rock bottom when we start babbling nonsense like this when talking about non-military things. Save us. Please.
he rocked the party at 10:23 AM |
I'm suddenly hit with a sense of goodwill and happiness, which made me feel like blogging, though I dont know why.
I came home today, looked in the mirror (vain habits die hard) and thought to myself, "Damn, it's good to be alive!"
One day, I'm gonna be young, tall, dark and handsome with a flashy car and ray bans cruisin down the highway, tie fluttering in the wind and hip-hop blasting on the stero.
Oooohhhhh yea.
he rocked the party at 10:11 AM |
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
I'm so friggin' lucky.
So here's the story: I'd done up the preparations for my 2-hour 2nd biggie test in my intelligence course, one which required us to write a whole bunch of stuff and use markers to draw on 'talc' (several sheets of plastic used as overlays on maps) to portray our plan.
While preparing for a biggie-iest 6 hour test last night, i realised to my absolute horror that i'd been using NON-PERMANENT OHP markers all this time! There's a high liklihood that my drawings could have been rubbed off, especially on talc. Couldnt sleep all through last night.
Thankfully, after gingerly received the test scripts back today i discovered that my drawings were still relatively legible, though a little was rubbed off. I spent the subsequent half hour jumping around in jubilation. (In private, of course.)
I shall always, always, check before I do anything.
he rocked the party at 7:23 AM |
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Ok, so i dont have cable so forgive me if this is a little outdated cause i just saw the last eipsode of the APPRENTICE (easily my favourite reality tv show) on channel 5..
but KENDRA won!!!
Hooray for Book Smarts and College students around the world!
:)
he rocked the party at 7:03 AM |
Saturday, November 12, 2005
A night on the town with
1)The girlfriend
2)My beloved 25TH STUDENT COUNCIL (cheers to merrilyn for organising tonight's highly successful outing!)
and, most of all,
3)Fish and Co's SEAFOOD PLATTER FOR 2 with fried calamari and Passion Fruit soda.
Ahhhhh.. pure bliss.
he rocked the party at 9:13 AM |
Friday, November 11, 2005
Signs that i've been spending waaay to much time up at night during my military intelligence course:
1) I fall asleep during lessons and am advised to stand up at the back so I can concentrate.
2) I fall asleep while standing up.
3) I can hear my alarm clock ring but cant find the strength to turn it off.
4) I have dreams of me falling asleep. (figure that one out yourself)
5) I have evolved from eating sweets to Nescafe 3 in 1 for lessons. (which has proven very effective actually)
6) My styrofoam coffee cup (which always gets misplaced), now reads: "LIONEL'S CUP. Whoever steals this cup or throws it away without prior consent of Lionel Yeo, is cursed with fungus on your balls for life!"
7) I fell asleep while thinking of how to end this blog post. (as in, really)
he rocked the party at 11:15 AM |
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Oh take me away from the tactics, the markers, the talc, the squiggly military symbols, the inflexible "correct" language, the structured lessons and the jokes with military innuendos.
Take me away from the sacrificing of weekends and public holidays.
Take me away from the silly hierarchal system and stifling rules and restrictions.
I delve into planning and perfecting, drawing and deciding, not because I care about the army, but because it's the only way i foresee myself being able to survive for the next 19.5 weeks. I immense myself in work not to escape from the outside world, but to help my group members, to give them direction and instruction, even though i'm the most junior member of the group. I constantly ask questions not because I'm interested, but because i want to cultivate that same habit in university. I study till 3am for the next day's test, not because I want to do well, but because I'm afraid i'd be embarrassed if others do better than me.
It's a painful, mind numbing, brain juice draining experience, and i hate it. Even though it doesnt look that way.
19 more weeks.
he rocked the party at 9:10 AM |
Saturday, November 05, 2005
To all the people I know:
Forgive me when I'm impatient
Forgive me when I become too demanding
Forgive me when I judge you
Forgive me when I agree to help but complain about the sacrifice.
Forgive me when I agree to meet but commit to work instead.
Forgive me when I shun your presence because I dont know how to communicate.
Forgive me when I bitch.
Forgive me when I whine.
Forgive me when I am not open to your way of doing things.
Forgive me when I have no time for you.
Forgive me when I want to do what's "in" and fun instead of being with you.
But most of all, forgive me when I don't live my life the way God wants me to.
To my girlfriend/friend/colleague: I'll do better next time.
he rocked the party at 4:54 PM |
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
I think the best interval between clubbing trips is around 2 months. More than that and you get out of touch with the songs the DJ spins or where the bathroom is. Less than that leaves you wasted, broke and disillusioned that everything isnt as glamourous as it looks when the lights are still off.
So it was a pretty good absence of around 2 months before yesterday's newsroom bar escapade. Had a blast, thanks to the great jon and ed, my ever reliable clubbing khakis to indulge in alcohol binging, drunken laughter, r&b grooving, and ladykilling. (the latter involving good clean fun, mind you.. we are decent gentlemen)
But there are just some things which I cant help complaining about.
Pet peeve #1 was the underaged crowd, especially the sight of guys trying to gain entry with someone else's driving licence and holding up the queue. And the girls you're too afraid to talk to because their mums and dads might be waiting for them outside.
Pet peeve #2 was the worst DJ I've ever seen. You know how its irritating when DJs talk in the midst of songs? Well, this one didnt just talk, he screamed stuff like "Everybody put your hands in the air!!" or the classic: "Everybody make some NOOIIISSEEE!!" That aside, he SANG along to the songs, and even stopped the party halfway to play some dumb game where he auctioned off french kisses from unsuspecting girls in the crowd! Ugh. DJs should just do what they do best: Spin.
Pet peeve #3 connects with #1, when a fight between two guys (who were probably underaged) erupted on the dance floor, undoubtedly over some underaged girl. (Because guys only fight over two things: money and girls.) The lights turned on, the music stopped, and everyone was treated with the drama of bouncers tearing apart 2 wild-eyed, finger gesturing, testosterone-filled guys. Forgive the condescending tone, but ugh.. how childish! Who the heck would pay 20 bucks to get punched, booed by the crowd, dragged out and (hopefully) arrested?
Ah, there's nothing more telling about human nature than a good clubbing trip.
he rocked the party at 7:28 AM |
