Thai Coup
Published Thursday, September 28, 2006 by Robin.
I got this from readme, a satire magazine run by students from my school. Found it very cute.
Thai Coup
Thaksin, populist
Falls --- for government welfare;
A bloodless class war.
Handouts, free health care,
Democratic dictator,
Shinawatra weeps.
Bangkok demonstrates,
Center of Asian sex trade
And protest rallies.
Freedom, tasty rice
Ripples, not waves from Thai coup
With high heat level.
To United States,
A large non-NATO ally
Provides tranny hos
Bush condemns the coup;
To govern provisionally:
Boonyarakalin.
Top 10 Memories from NS
Published Tuesday, September 19, 2006 by Robin.This is for Transmission’s international audience: ORD stands for Operationally Ready Date. ORD is, without a doubt, one of the most momentous and liberating events in the life of every male Singaporean. It marks the date the countdown ends, and we are finally discharged from 2 years of military service. In the words of the English hymn-writer Charles Wesley, ‘My chains fell off, and I was free’.
National Service is not a bad idea, but it is way too long.
Here are my Top 10 memories from my NS days.
1. Serving in the same company with the guys from my Bridging Pioneer Commanders Course (BPCC). From them, I learnt what RI and VJC can never teach me. It opened my eyes to the segments of Singapore beyond the society that I had been used to, and taught me to appreciate their humility, leadership, optimism and maturity.
2. My buddy during the BPCC, Eugene. I accidentally slammed a 550kg ramp on to the road while he was holding one end of it. The ram was pivoted when it fell, so he wasn’t hurt. However, he was stunned, shocked, petrified, terror-stricken and panic-stricken. Since then, we have had a rather comedic history of accidents that involved, among other things, rolling barbed wires and a bed that collapsed.
3. Speeding my boat through the waters off Northeast Singapore during sea navigation. Lights from the HDB flats that overlooked the sea, from the ports, the vessels and from all across the shore painted the night sky with a glow. Much have been said about how banal our landscape seems, each HDB flat being the crude carbon copy of another, but the view from my boat that night was amazing.
4. The night my rig’s drain plug came loose and my pontoon’s pumps were churning out a lot of water.
I had gotten someone to tighten the drain-plugs, but I did not do a check to ensure that they were in place and tight. This came just after Te Zhong’s 14-day SOL (Stoppages of Leave) for forgetting to put on his rig’s drain-plugs.
I was super worried. I was worried about sinking the rig, worried about not being able to de-launch the rig, and worried about being sent to DB (detention barracks). There was nothing I could have done, other than jumping into the water and snorkeling under the pontoon to tighten the drain-plugs. I prayed really hard throughout that night and thankfully the rig got back to the reservoir safely the next morning.
5. A group of us from 35SCE were sent to Pulau Tekong to work with a company of Construction Engineers to help them with the construction of a new campsite. A team of us took an entire morning to lay two bricks; we made more progress in the afternoon, but only to find that the measurements had been taken wrongly. Consequently, the wall was knocked down with a kick.
The Tekong Project was fun. A typical day went like this: 0800hrs, Company roll-call. – 0900hrs, arrive at worksite. – 0945hrs, after taking 45 minutes to put on our helmets and select our tools, we proceed to the worksite. Work involved plenty of observing. – 1100hrs, self-declared break. – 1200hrs, lunch. – 1245hrs, nap. – 1345hrs, work. – 1630hrs, self-declared break. – 1700hrs, work day ends. We board the lorry back to our air-conditioned bunks for dinner and a night of R&R.
6. Doing traffic marshalling at the late minister, S Rajaratnam’s funeral. A hush fell over the entire city when his cortège passed by. As I saluted the flag-draped coffin, something that struck me was how small his coffin looked. The smallness had nothing to do with size; it jarred against my impression of him as a member of the Old Guard, someone who had defined his times, shaped lives and made a huge positive difference.
7. Ops Bassinet. I was shifted to be stationed on Jurong Island every other two days. Protecting one of our country’s most vital installations involved sleeping in the bunk for 12 hours, followed by more sleep at the sentry posts. Someone told me that he could see a sleeping SAF soldier when he Google-earthed Jurong Island.
8. Not bathing for a week during Field Camp.
9. Was running a slight fever after Field Camp but was still made to leopard-crawl across the field because my rifle was not clean enough for the sergeant. His name is Sergeant Daryl, and I was from Hawk Company Platoon 1 (March 2004).
10. Mambo nights with platoon mates at a veritable Singapore institution. Navigating through the mass of bodies, executing fire movements and honing in on strategic objectives.
National Service is not a bad idea, but it is way too long.
Here are my Top 10 memories from my NS days.
1. Serving in the same company with the guys from my Bridging Pioneer Commanders Course (BPCC). From them, I learnt what RI and VJC can never teach me. It opened my eyes to the segments of Singapore beyond the society that I had been used to, and taught me to appreciate their humility, leadership, optimism and maturity.
2. My buddy during the BPCC, Eugene. I accidentally slammed a 550kg ramp on to the road while he was holding one end of it. The ram was pivoted when it fell, so he wasn’t hurt. However, he was stunned, shocked, petrified, terror-stricken and panic-stricken. Since then, we have had a rather comedic history of accidents that involved, among other things, rolling barbed wires and a bed that collapsed.
3. Speeding my boat through the waters off Northeast Singapore during sea navigation. Lights from the HDB flats that overlooked the sea, from the ports, the vessels and from all across the shore painted the night sky with a glow. Much have been said about how banal our landscape seems, each HDB flat being the crude carbon copy of another, but the view from my boat that night was amazing.
4. The night my rig’s drain plug came loose and my pontoon’s pumps were churning out a lot of water.
I had gotten someone to tighten the drain-plugs, but I did not do a check to ensure that they were in place and tight. This came just after Te Zhong’s 14-day SOL (Stoppages of Leave) for forgetting to put on his rig’s drain-plugs.
I was super worried. I was worried about sinking the rig, worried about not being able to de-launch the rig, and worried about being sent to DB (detention barracks). There was nothing I could have done, other than jumping into the water and snorkeling under the pontoon to tighten the drain-plugs. I prayed really hard throughout that night and thankfully the rig got back to the reservoir safely the next morning.
5. A group of us from 35SCE were sent to Pulau Tekong to work with a company of Construction Engineers to help them with the construction of a new campsite. A team of us took an entire morning to lay two bricks; we made more progress in the afternoon, but only to find that the measurements had been taken wrongly. Consequently, the wall was knocked down with a kick.
The Tekong Project was fun. A typical day went like this: 0800hrs, Company roll-call. – 0900hrs, arrive at worksite. – 0945hrs, after taking 45 minutes to put on our helmets and select our tools, we proceed to the worksite. Work involved plenty of observing. – 1100hrs, self-declared break. – 1200hrs, lunch. – 1245hrs, nap. – 1345hrs, work. – 1630hrs, self-declared break. – 1700hrs, work day ends. We board the lorry back to our air-conditioned bunks for dinner and a night of R&R.
6. Doing traffic marshalling at the late minister, S Rajaratnam’s funeral. A hush fell over the entire city when his cortège passed by. As I saluted the flag-draped coffin, something that struck me was how small his coffin looked. The smallness had nothing to do with size; it jarred against my impression of him as a member of the Old Guard, someone who had defined his times, shaped lives and made a huge positive difference.
7. Ops Bassinet. I was shifted to be stationed on Jurong Island every other two days. Protecting one of our country’s most vital installations involved sleeping in the bunk for 12 hours, followed by more sleep at the sentry posts. Someone told me that he could see a sleeping SAF soldier when he Google-earthed Jurong Island.
8. Not bathing for a week during Field Camp.
9. Was running a slight fever after Field Camp but was still made to leopard-crawl across the field because my rifle was not clean enough for the sergeant. His name is Sergeant Daryl, and I was from Hawk Company Platoon 1 (March 2004).
10. Mambo nights with platoon mates at a veritable Singapore institution. Navigating through the mass of bodies, executing fire movements and honing in on strategic objectives.
ORD loh
Published Sunday, September 10, 2006 by Robin.Congratulations to all my ORD-ing course-mates from the 01/05 Bridging Pioneer Commander's Course. 
Click the link to check out Te Zhong's tribute to Seletar Camp.
ORD loh.
Huat ah!
Click the link to check out Te Zhong's tribute to Seletar Camp.
ORD loh.
Huat ah!
My Room
Published Monday, September 04, 2006 by Robin.
I live in New House, room 301. For those of you who want to send some love over, my address is:
Carnegie Mellon University
SMC 3232,
5032 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15289- 3232
United States of America
Carnegie Mellon University
SMC 3232,
5032 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15289- 3232
United States of America
First Week of School
Published Sunday, September 03, 2006 by Robin.The first week of school did not turn out to be the jolt that I had expected from going back to school after nearly three years. There is quite a lot of homework and all of them count towards the final grade, but thankfully I have found a group of very conscientious friends to study with.
Wen is from Singapore and he lives two doors away. The other three are from Hong Kong. I wonder what my mum will think of me trying harder at Cantonese here in the States than I ever had attempting to speak to my grandmother. While studying with them, I also found out that ‘Hum-pah-lung’ and ‘Kan Cheong’ has Cantonese origins. News has traveled here that our Prime Minister said ‘mee siam mai hum’, that was what got me started on ‘Hum-pah-lung’.
I think I have unintentionally given my friends from Hong Kong a rather comedic impression of Singapore politics. It’s strange how many conversations start with small talk about politics, perhaps you just can’t help it when you are talking about Singapore. Ivy (a friend from Hong Kong) mentioned how they rarely talk about Tung Chee Hwa, and Kishore replied by explaining that in Singapore there is ‘a lot of government’. Perhaps it is the feeling that comes to everyone once they are out of a country that is as serious as Singapore, the need to laugh at the humor in the Four Million Smiles campaign, the bar-top dancing policy, PM Lee going to Zouk and MOS, National Day Parades and the GEMS (Go the Extra Mile for Service) campaign. You need space to realize the humor in all this and laugh it off (and what better way than to share the laugh with people from other countries).
Schoolwork is tough although a big part of the challenge lies in getting back to the studying mode after all that time in the army. I transferred out of my previous calculus course into a tougher one, and I had to go through all the calculus I had learnt in one night just to start on my homework; notes from JC came in very handy. I’ve cramped all my required humanities courses into this semester, so I’ve got quite a lot of readings; hope to get all the essays over and done with as soon as possible. My schedule is pretty okay, I’ve got lessons at 8.30am everyday but I don’t mind it since I prefer to start early and end early. Furthermore, I’ve got enough breaks in between to grab a bite or to do last minute work. Food here is horrible, it is either cold (uncooked) or too oily (cooked).
I’ll talk more about food in another post. Up to this point, everything is so far so good.
Everyone should check out Hossan Leong’s rendition of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’.
Wen is from Singapore and he lives two doors away. The other three are from Hong Kong. I wonder what my mum will think of me trying harder at Cantonese here in the States than I ever had attempting to speak to my grandmother. While studying with them, I also found out that ‘Hum-pah-lung’ and ‘Kan Cheong’ has Cantonese origins. News has traveled here that our Prime Minister said ‘mee siam mai hum’, that was what got me started on ‘Hum-pah-lung’.
I think I have unintentionally given my friends from Hong Kong a rather comedic impression of Singapore politics. It’s strange how many conversations start with small talk about politics, perhaps you just can’t help it when you are talking about Singapore. Ivy (a friend from Hong Kong) mentioned how they rarely talk about Tung Chee Hwa, and Kishore replied by explaining that in Singapore there is ‘a lot of government’. Perhaps it is the feeling that comes to everyone once they are out of a country that is as serious as Singapore, the need to laugh at the humor in the Four Million Smiles campaign, the bar-top dancing policy, PM Lee going to Zouk and MOS, National Day Parades and the GEMS (Go the Extra Mile for Service) campaign. You need space to realize the humor in all this and laugh it off (and what better way than to share the laugh with people from other countries).
Schoolwork is tough although a big part of the challenge lies in getting back to the studying mode after all that time in the army. I transferred out of my previous calculus course into a tougher one, and I had to go through all the calculus I had learnt in one night just to start on my homework; notes from JC came in very handy. I’ve cramped all my required humanities courses into this semester, so I’ve got quite a lot of readings; hope to get all the essays over and done with as soon as possible. My schedule is pretty okay, I’ve got lessons at 8.30am everyday but I don’t mind it since I prefer to start early and end early. Furthermore, I’ve got enough breaks in between to grab a bite or to do last minute work. Food here is horrible, it is either cold (uncooked) or too oily (cooked).
I’ll talk more about food in another post. Up to this point, everything is so far so good.
Everyone should check out Hossan Leong’s rendition of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’.