Can’t believe I ORDed 12.5 years ago

There is a blog entry over at Mr. Brown titled “You know you are getting old, if during your NS days..”.  Below are my reflections on each item, and as you can see, I answered positive to most of them, implying that I am getting old.

1. You were trained to use M16 and have no idea what SAR21 is.  [dkl - Check.]
2. You used an AR-15 before.  [dkl - Didn't use this.]
3. You used a metal tray for meals, and you had to wash them after use.  [dkl - Check.]
4. You were “served” by army regulars (who will show you a f**k face and scold you for not holding your tray properly) during mealtimes in cookhouse.  [dkl - Mixture of regulars and NSFs.]
5. You joked about having ice cream for lunch in the cookhouse… and now they do.  [dkl - Didn't have ice cream but didn't think much of it.]
6. Your cookhouse food was cooked by actual army cooks.  [dkl - Check.]
7. Your sergeant was simply known as “Sergeant”, and had only 3-stripes.  [dkl - There were already 3rd, 2nd, 1st sergeants.]
8. You did not hear of any NSman “dying suddenly”.  [dkl - Not sure what this means.]
9. You were known as the “second-generation thinking soldiers”.  [dkl - I think I remember hearing of this name.]
10. You had to do “area cleaning” every morning.  [dkl - Check.]
11. You were ferried from one place to another in 3-tonners, not air-con buses.  [dkl - Yeap, Mercedes-Benz 3-tonners from the '70s.]
12. Your 3-tonners sat more than 30 people.  [dkl - Of course, we wouldn't have it any other way.]
13. You had to queue to use the public phone whenever you have to make a call.  [dkl - Check.]
14. Your combat rations consisted of “dog biscuits” + canned sardines + canned pork cubes.  [dkl - Luckily I didn't have to eat much of this.]
15. You wore dog-tags because you were told to do so and had no choice; not because it was “fashionable”.  [dkl - Had them and wore them.]
16. You were issued those cheapo China-made black PT shoes (and yet you were able to pass IPPT using them).  [dkl - I once ran 2.4 in those, would never do it again.]
17. You ogled at the canteen Ah Soh with lust because she was the only woman in the camp.  [dkl - No canteen Ah Soh at all.]
18. You even found the Chief Clerk attractive.  [dkl - Neh.]
19. You carried the same made-in-China plastic mug for brushing the teeth, drinking tap water, cooking instant noodles, drinking some lame diluted beverage from the chow line, and slurping up night snack.  [dkl - I saved that mug for years after ORD.]
20. You wore No. 4 uniform that was meant for colder climate and had a rubbery inner lining which caused heatstroke during a 10k run.  [dkl - Are the uniforms different now?]
21. You wore a WW2 American helmet.  [dkl - Only during BMT.]
22. Your Skeleton Battle Order (SBO) was called “the bra”.  [dkl - I just called it SBO.]
23. Your stand-by-bed had safety pins all under the bedsheet.  [dkl - Didn't think of using pins at all.]
24. Your S1 office had typewriters.  [dkl - Check.]
25. You wore green PT t-shirts that expanded after a few washings.  [dkl - I think mine shrunk.]
26. Your made-in-China PT shorts were all blue and made of very thin material.  [dkl - My PT shorts weren't that bad, I think.]
27. Your swimming trunks were black and look like tight shorts.  [dkl - Check.  Don't think I used those trunks much.]
28. Your Ali Baba bag had no wheels.  [dkl - Those bags have wheels now??]
29. Your Ali Baba bag was a long khaki sack.  [dkl - Do they come in any other way now??]
30. Your boots had to be polished till you could see your reflection in it.  [dkl - At first.]
31. You used a heated metal spoon and kiwi to polish your boots.  [dkl - Neh.]
32. You know what a Change Parade is.  [dkl - Check.]
33. Your name tag was handwritten with a black marker and a stencil.  [dkl - Only during BMT.]
34. Your bedsheets had a funky smell even when they were newly washed.  [dkl - Don't think so.]
35. You got $20 for acing your IPPT, not $400.  [dkl - I got S$200 for each silver.]
36. You zeroed your weapon with a Canadian bull (or k*-n*-n*-b*) instead of an electronic oscilloscope.  [dkl - Electronic oscilloscope??]
37. You were part of butt parties during range.  [dkl - Oh yeah, "target... up!"]
38. You don’t know what ORD is, but you know what ROD is.  [dkl - It was during my time that ROD became ORD.]

Politicians and their words

Over the years I have witnessed enough not to expect much from politicians, but I certainly didn’t expect Lee Kuan Yew to blame the Singapore people for fugitive Mas Selamat Kastari’s escape from prison. I can’t find the original Straistimes’ article, but it’s quoted in entirety by many Singaporeans’ blogs, two of which are from Mr. Brown and The Daily Trackback.

“Cruel Lift Hogs”

It’s a beautiful world we live in:

An elderly woman, 60, collapses in a crowded shopping centre. She is seriously ill and needs to get to the hospital urgently.

Paramedics rush to the scene, place her on a stretcher, and get into a lift to take her downstairs to the ambulance.

But to the horror of the anxious family members, some shoppers refuse to give way. Instead, they decide to squeeze into the lift.

That’s not all. They then press the buttons for all the other floors where they want to get off.

Here is the full New Paper article.

[via SingaporeSurf]

Mahathir Bush

This is from ex-Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed:

…(the) MIGs are given, are sold to us without any condition, if you feel like bombing Singapore, for example, the Russians are not going to object…

…But this great aircraft called F-18, which we bought from America, after buying it, after several months, I got to know that this aircraft cannot be used for any attacks against any country, even if this is not Singapore.

View video here.

I like this expressive comment: “Every country has its Bush.”

[via mrbrown and My Very Own Glob]

NKF, continued

I thought the NKF stories were over, but that’s just not the case. Some lines from the full article:

Two out of every three Singaporeans have contributed to NKF, including many lowly-paid workers who pledge monthly contributions from their pay.

They’ve become bitter and distrusting because they’ve just learned that only 10 cents of every S$1 (RM2.22) of their donations was spent on the patients, not 51% as Durai had told them.

Durai last earned an annual salary of S$300,000 (RM667,300) but was also raking in a large fortune during his tenure by regularly paying himself, through creative accounting, overtime pay, converted leave and bonuses – backdated. In 16 months before leaving, he had made 16 overseas trips on first class tickets.

His executives, especially two lady directors, came in for special treatment. One of them had several pay increases a year, barely one or two months after the previous one.

丑陋的人性。

Cellphones during army exercise

Funny stuff. Shows the high level of discipline in army:

When we were out in the field for the 10 days (out of 18) we were at Shoalwater Bay, Central Queensland, the optimistic among us took out our mobile phones to check for any semblance of a GSM signal.

Not much luck until one day, somewhere in the western sector of the middle of nowhere, 3SG Gerard Tan, Bravo Company 84mm Carl Gustav Recoilless Rifle Specialist, took out his mobile, turned it on, and yelled, ‘Signal!’

This prompted a mad scramble, and I’ve never seen soldiers move so quickly, whipping out their phones and turning them on faster than they can reload their rifles.

Lame driver

Why can’t drivers just obey the traffic rules? Why can’t they just drive or park their cars the way they must have learned in order to get their driver licenses? Is that too much to ask for?

Well, apparently it is for this guy who illegally parked his car and caused a traffic jam for more than a hour.

I get ticked off just reading this article.

Michael Fay on Wikipedia

About two days ago my manager sat with us during lunch. One of the things that came up during the conversations was Michael Fay. To get to the point, both my manager, whom I believe is American, and I agreed that the punishment was befitting of the crime. It’s interesting how today I independently came across this link about Michael Fay on Wikipedia.

NKF福建民谣

Found this folk song/poem on the net. It’s about the NKF saga (my post 1, post 2, post3).

有个杜莱真老兰
六十万元作无兰
被判不对还兰兰
样子不知西密兰
踢他出去干那兰
如今不敢再怪兰
名字改成真度兰
最好改行去甘兰

[via mrbrown.com]

NKF board and CEO resigned

As a result of the hoo-ha from previous days (my entries here and here), NKF board and CEO have resigned from their posts.

Now I am truly impressed (without quotes like in my prior post), I thought things would drag on for a while.

[update @ 2005-07-14T18:55:04] Here is a fun NKF inspired Internal Affairs (无间道) spoof.

[update @ 2005-07-15 01:51:47] Ah Beng style commentary here.