Sunburnt on Monday, November 29, 2004
What makes someone a commander? HIs ability to lead or his ability to make wise sound decisions?
Today is a day i would not wan to remember. Having posted to unit for roving from tekong, i was kinda anticipating a fresh experience from the mundane life in tekong. As a matter of fact, being in a mainland unit disallows you to panic for catching the ferry in time, allows you get out of the gate, and phew, you are out of camp.
Today is a day of diasappointment. A disappointment at the amount of effort my men put in ever since the day they got enlisted. They had chosen to rebel and go against orders, or should i say one guy.
We had ability group run today and the majority of them had actually compromised on the standards of the training by skipping some rounds while running for endurance. I was nonplussed. Nonplussed at the kind of attitude that soldiers nowadays are developing.
The rest of my counterparts were running with them all this while and yet they had betrayed our trust to commit such an incredible deceptive act of shame.
Expectedly they were punished by my superior. They were immediately changed to full battle order while my superior himself also do so. My superior never gave them any timing at all.
My superior was the first to come down in his full battle order while the rest of the men dilly dally took their own sweet time to come down. That was probably the last straw for we commanders.
Things seem to get out of control with all the shoutings.
Sequents of events occurred which had me believed that those men were immmature to point of extremity. One of them actually refused to go up and change back to PT kit, claiming that we can't do that to him coz this punishment is a change parade, something that is banned. Oh really?
I was infuriated. I was about to pump him when the rest of my counterparts step in to deal with him. I walked away, feeling sad. Sad at someone who gave up that easily.
The fact that timing wasn't given, my superior also changed up to FBO, so is that a change parade? Hardly so. Wat a joke he had made of himself.
Never before had a recruit spoken to me in that adamant tone b4. My platoon sarge fk him upside after hearing about the incident.
I simply can't be bothered with these ppl.
Punishments in this age is no longer punishments. They are merely exercise. If monointake recruits can't take this kind of corrective exercises they are bound to sufffer for the rest of their nsf career.
Having gone thru sispec, commanders deserve the respect they earn in the training we received. We are qualified to lead, qualified to make decisions, and having to shoulder any responsibilty with those decisions.
Nick was out in the sun at
Sunburnt on Saturday, November 13, 2004
Wat is satisfaction? Enjoying the accompaniment of your frens, working out some self-fulfilling dreams, or to be in love?
I derive happiness from simple things in life. I enjoy cracking lame jokes, who knows some gals out there might appreciate them. I enjoy listening to cds of my favourite album, enjoy watching movies after movies, running, swimming, singing....
Movies can change a person's point of view of certain things, or even re-highlight some of the issues u have forgotten in the society.
The movie "I am Sam" touches my heart, the brilliant performances of Sean Penn and the little girl, tell of the love between a disabled father and the daughter. The constant struggle for her custody make the disable sean penn even stronger in his conviction to take good care of his daughter.
Along my life, movies depict certain periods of my life which i can identify with the scenes.
I realise i dun like to give support to HK movies, or for that matter, Koreanjap movies. The horror shows from there are getting lamer than ever, with no spine-chilling scenes, nor presenting any phenomenal acts with reality.
U sometimes need to go out with the correct person to watch a movie. You wun wan to watch a movie with someone who snores beside you, or worse still, keep blabbering to you about how he/she feel about the show. Its nice when u can hold the hands of someone u love and watch with her. The feeling is great, the feeling is rejuvenating and invigorating.
Some movies are disturbing. 2 days ago went to catch a show with vin, the show was "SAW". The plot was thrilling and freaky. There is no allusion to any supernatural entity but some pyschology is being involved in the film. I feel pretty disturbed after watching that movie. First of all the ending was a cliffhanger, second, the last part of the show when the guy saw off his own leg was damn gross.
Some of the movies brought to life some of the cartoon characters u have always adored. The Wolverine and Cyclops in the X-men, not to mention Storm too.
Some ppl say that watching movies can be an extravagant way of living, but i guess, this is some of the things that i enjoy doing, especially at times when u feel so void of pleasure in life.
Nick was out in the sun at
Sunburnt on Friday, November 05, 2004
Monday till Thursday, i was in tekong island for a field camp for my men. I guess it was a revitalising experience to be back on this island. The rain had poured down in torrents for these days in the jungle. I was in Permatang, the land of rubber trees. The soil there was really muddy enough for colonies of mud skipper to live there. The heavy mud that stuck to my boots made me feel like an astronaut walking on an eccentric planet. All these are not new to me. It was a sad coincidence that i am back to this particular camp site where my last batch of men had their field camp. There was no training shed, we have to build our own tentage. I believe my men suffered even more under the hands of someone as cruel and sadistic like me. Making them leopard crawl in the mud, stealing their weapons, punishing them, raving and pressurising them to maintain field discipline, occasionally knock the sense out of them.
This particular field camp is slighly different from my past few batches. I was a unit spec, taking monointake "kids" who are rash and nonsensical. Kids who quarrelled and fought over things u can never imagine. Instead of taking up the role as a disciplinarian, i ended up being coerced to become a babysitter, a ferocious babysitter.
This field camp allowed me to see the other side of my men, whether they can survive under demanding situtation when commanders keep pressurising them, keep pushing them for standards to be achieved.
At the end of the day, i know that there are ppl there who will hate me, loath me for my way of disciplining them, or training them for that matter. It doesn't really matter to me.
ORD lor.
Nick was out in the sun at
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