My First Badge

Unless you count IPPT Silver that is. Not being at a true combat posting and being physically mildly limited means no CSB and other opportunities for other interesting badges. Nevertheless, I got my marksman badge! Just on the dot too — 29/36 shots. It's been some time sice I wore the SBO and I guess it feels great to be in it again like a true soldier.

I'm also approaching 600 live rounds fired (lifetime). Yeah I keep track of it. You don't get to do that much throughout your lifetime see? Cherish every round fired!

Anyway, for the night shoot, we were given 2 lanes each, and 12 shots. I managed to hit 13 targets, and I missed 1 target too. Heh. Some nei gong (internal energy) at work here! (no, the others didn't cross fire into my lane.) Apparently some shock must have reached the adjacent lane target board thus causing each of the two of my rounds to hit 2 targets simultaneously. Awesome eh? I don't personally count those into my score, but if I did, I would have scored 31/36 which is rather good considering this is ATP.

I really love to go to the range if it wasn't for spending so much time there... I don't care what others say. Shooting stuff with real rounds always gives me a kick.

Sleep Paralysis

This is an extremely interesting find! For today, I had managed to complete all needed tasks early in the morning. The battalion hadn't returned from the field yet and weren't due to till after lunch, so thus I took a nap at the lounge. I was pretty sleepy of course (having only abt 5 hrs sleep per night and today being wednesday already).

After the initial hour or so, my sleep became lighter as expected, considering only a semi-comfortable position (I tend to have problems sleeping in chairs). Some short bursts of REM sleep followed, but dreams were rather fuzzy, and consist more of thoughts than other things. Here's the catch though:

Towards the end of the dream, some sounds from people entering the room permeated my sleep, and I heard them. The lounge was empty before that, so I wanted to wake up to look at who was entering. Only thing was I couldn't. Yes! I tried to open my eyes and it only half opened. I saw my hands still clasped together, fingers interlocked, but I couldn't see much past my knees since my eyelids REFUSED to open up fully, and my head was tilted down. I tried to move my hands, no use. I was paralysed! I thought, "hey this is something, lemme try to say something!" (In some violent dreams I've had, on purpose, I ever ended up shouting the last line out before I woke up because I failed to remain calm enough. This was some test along that line) So I tried. "Hey!" my mind said. "..." was what came from my mouth which was a little open as usual when I sleep. I was like "What the...!? Ok this is strange! And yet awesome!" I tried again, "Hello!", "..." something like a little grunt. Alright, how bad is this? Could I overpower it? "HELP!" (I didn't know what else better to shout, since it would seem strange if I actually did shout out anything other than for help). *sigh*. I actually sighed! Audiable I think... but no words. The cleaning woman who was mopping the floor not far away continued, and she didn't seem to respond, so I presume I must have sounded like a normal person who was sleeping. I closed my eyes again and concentrated. Then suddenly my feet moved! It was then I realised my body was numb, and my tactile senses were regaining myself, like flowing through my body from my feet up! I could move again! WOW!

"That was interesting!" I thought, "Maybe I should try it again!" So I fell back asleep. Somewhere somehow, I kinda gained consciousness like in a lucid dream. My mind was awake again. "Hey let's try that again!" So my eyelids shot open! Except only halfway... "Hey! This is it again!" I attempted to observe what I could see. The cleaner was gone now. There were some people behind me at the computers talking. "Come on!" I told myself, "Just give your best strength!" It was like I was fighting against myself, and yet I was thoroughly enjoying this. I tried to punch, kick, stir in my chair, shout (and the usual sigh came out). It was no use! Paralysed. Totally! Worse than stun spore! So I gave up. "Just go back to sleep" I thought. I closed my eyes, and amazingly, I managed to move my arm. Again, my tactile senses flooded through my body. This time from my arms. WOW!

After those two tries, I stopped. That was enough. I had experimented all I could. No point trying it again. Get some rest now. And so I woke at 1130 later for lunch...

Gotta Watch 'em All!

Yeah, I started watching Pokémon again. About 2 months ago I guess, with the first season, after thinking of playing the game over again. You see, while it appears to be a game for kids, the original Pokémon Red and Blue were far more complicated than they actually appear to be and I actually thought it was. I remember getting to know this around 2006-2007 and I thought, "One day I shall try it again". So, when Klow introduced me to Bulbapedia, I started playing Pokémon Blue again, thinking of going on to Pokémon Crystal (since those are the only two console games I have, not counting emulators on the PC.

For those of you who still don't know and wonder how complicated Pokémon can get even for just the first generation, here's what you didn't know:
Besides normal levels and types, there are quite a number of pokémon which are dual-type, and this means that the damage multipliers for type weaknesses are multiplied together to result in minimum of 25%, or max of 400%. Some of these pokémon have moves not relating to their own type, which means they could be use as effective battlers for their own type. E.g. (though impossible) a charmander knowing water gun would battle really well against another charmander, since it receives less damage from fire type moves. Some pokémon can be taught moves not of their own type, while some cannot, adding to a little complication. The main thing that most don't know exist however, is the IVs or EVs (effort values) that pokémon gain when winning a battle against another pokémon. E.g. Battling a geodude will increase your pokémon's defense EV which after reaching a certain value will increase your pokémon's defense stat upon the next level up. This means that training is ALWAYS better than rare candy-ing. But you can never max out your pokémon's stat values this way since EVs are quite small compared to exp. So it's a tough choice on which stat you should build for your pokémon. Then, I bet not many people know about STAB (same type attack bonus). A butterfree using a psybeam will cause 66.7% (rounded) less damage than a kadabra, simply because psybeam is not butterfree's pokémon type while it is kadabra's.
Along with these, there's also programming flaws in the first generation that is responsible for the many bugs in the game which I'm also sure most will not know how to actually glitch in a mew or any other type of pokémon they want for that matter. The way the glitch works is quite interesting, and let's me know more about how the game programming works.

So along with playing the game, I decided I might as well watch the anime. That's when my focus changed. While the game is rather short and fixed (i.e. standard battle, and sort of mathematical), the anime which follows the protagonist is more varied, calling in, e.g. more than 4 different types of moves for some pokémon which is impossible to do so in the game. There are also many improvised stuff like drenching onix with water, grounding pikachu with it's own tail, and etc. Level's don't seem to matter so much, and instead experience and training. But besides all the plot details, literature has taught me to notice other stuff as well. The characterisation of the protagonists, antagonists, and they do show a little more depth now that I watch the show again, as previously taught. I also thought I picked up some hints at the possible romantic relationship between Ash and Misty. That's when I discovered PokéShipping, and now am a fan (or shipper) of that too... Besides, the fanart that comes with it is incredibly cute!

So on I go, hopefully to make it right through the many episodes (500+) and catch up with the current airings. (91 watched and counting)

Why I Got New Spectacles

For those of you wondering, yes, I did change spectacles recently, but it was unintentional. You see, it was all because of gravity. No, I didn't lose it! I would never lose something as important as my spectacles that has a titanium frame and photochromic lenses lasting me over 4 years. No way! Now if you would care to listen and — no it didn't break either. Titanium remember? — stop jumping to conclusions, this is how I had to change spectacles:

Capturing photons in particular orders and patterns for people to appreciate is my hobby. I prefer to do mine one instance at a time though, compared to my other overzealous counterparts who do it at least 30 times faster than me. Greedy pigs... Well anyway, so I'm at the southern area of my country preparing to capture some more photons from fireworks this time released from an annual celebration that keeps deluding reminding us that we are a free country. Unfortunately, this celebration takes a long time, as usual, being delayed by people who walk in synchronisation in boring square formations, that one person who shouts at everyone else in a language that most can't understand, a small group of people who are dressed in bleached clothing waving their arms, and that old man who rides a jeep to 21 timed explosions because he's too tired to walk anymore.

Well, after much delay, the celebration actually starts! And here I am watching it on a portable TV to get ready for the moment they start blasting fireworks into the sky. Aim, focus, adjust exposure, trial shots, zoom, tilt, pan, filter, and I'm all ready. Bam! A first volley of fireworks light up the sky and sure enough I steal some of it's photons eagerly, except, there is something in my way. So I take off my spectacles and hang them from my shirt. Makes it easier to look through the viewfinder see? A second volley of fireworks go off! Another thing in my way! Camera strap, *sigh*. Okay flip that over.

At that very moment, the Marina Bay Land Reclamation Project was initiated. I shut that project down immediately, for the government had not sanctioned it, and it wouldn't be in their interests to do so anyway, I decided. Nevertheless, it had begun and could not be undone save for halting the project in it's tracks before it did anymore damage to my assets. As a result, Marina Bay now stands with extra 1cm³ of land reclaimed by a mixture of titanium and plastic. So, I had to get replacement optics.

A Close Shave

Continuing on déjŕ vus, as posted before in here and here, as I mentioned, I would take note of every "vision" that I receive be it wandering thoughts, dreams (both night and day). But unfortunately, that's quite impossible considering how my dream recall ability has slipped significantly and with the little amount of sleep I have now comparably (i.e. no chance to practice good dream recall). Nevertheless, I can still recognise such possible premonitions and I usually make the best effort to write them down. And yes, I do have a small collection of them. No, I will not tell anyone about it since it is possible that my actions will affect the outcome, and produce the equivelent of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So, since the last post, I have had one rather close shave of proving that it's possible to see into the future...

Justin had spontaneously called me to suggest we take a trip to Melbourne to visit Jarrel to which I agreed immediately. We wanted to ask more people to come along, but unfortunately, either their parents were not comfortable with that or they were busy during those dates. Well, in anyway, this was about a week before the trip.

During that week leading up to the trip, I had to settle some of my own stuff. NS was coming soon, so I got my NS spectacles from the optician at Peoples' Park Centre in Chinatown. On the way there, or back (I can't clearly remember now), I was taking the NL (purple) line and allowing my mind to wander, thinking of the trip to Melbourne. It was definitely going to be an awesome trip (which it did turn out to be!). Suddenly, in the middle of it all, my thoughts were interrupted by a snapshot which I recognised was a possible premonition. This is what it looked like:

I am in the plane with Justin. We are standing next to the aircraft door, diagonally opposite each other, with Justin at the corner between the door and a wall. He is wearing a black polo t-shirt (plain. No designs), with long khaki/light-brown pants. The small window through the door is rather bright, and I can't see anything prominent. We are both leaning against some support. Justin is leaning against the wall.

Some parts of the vision are extra data that come from nowhere. It's like I just know these things:
I'm leaning against the back of an isle seat, and facing the back of the aircraft. This places us on the right side of the aircraft.

Inference from the scene:
Daytime. Plane's at cruising altitude. We are flying towards or from Melbourne (this could be wrong...) Most probably, we are talking towards each other or we wouldn't be standing there.

Checking with the flight schedule, the scene was perfectly possible since we would be flying during the day at some point of time during the flight. So I noted that all down, and put it aside until the day itself.

At the airport, on the day of our outbound flight, events that would lead up to that scene started to take place. Before I go on, I must say I did not let anyone know about the premonition yet. First, Justin WAS wearing a black polo t-shirt AND the khaki/light-brown pants. I do not know whether it was a mistake or not, but I decided to tell him that it was the first thing that led up to the scene.
Next, when we checked in, I opted for window seats since I always do that, and I like to look out of the window of the aircraft. There weren't many window seats left, and she put us towards the tail of the aircraft (which you should know, has a door).
After we boarded the aircraft, I realised that we were seated on the right side of the aircraft, and (I forgot) either directly in front of the door, or a seat or two further front. This made it even more probable that the scene could happen, since we would not choose to go over to the right side of the aircraft if we were seated on the left.

So there it was! Everything that could lead up to the scene was in place already! Unfortunately, the scene itself did not happen. Ours was a night flight into the morning, and it so happened that Justin was still sleeping in his seat in the morning till the plane made its final approach. The flight back had him wearing other clothing, and so I did not bother checking further. No "click" experience. But it's really really close...

No Sweat

So I'm two weeks into my new posting, and so far things have been going pretty ok I guess. I'd love to say it's perfect, but I can't. The job is perfect yes, but there's always the people, and until I get to know them better and until after one of them leaves, I'll just say they're ok for the moment.

It's been nice so far though. The SAF administration side seems to have a wealth of things; quite a number of which I personally manage. So there's some opportunity for making use of them too. And of course, you get to see the result of screw-ups where stuff are bought and then end up being used as a dust collector or space filler. Some of these stuff are still pretty useful though, so while no one else uses them, at least I do...

Then there was outfield on Tuesday to Wednesday. No choice, stay in. Or out, depending on how you look at it. But, thanks to many OUVs around, all we had to do was hop in, get to the place, hop out, disturb the reservists a bit by playing as the media while other trainers played as civilians, film all these for AAR, and repeat the process. And when I returned to the office on Wednesday afternoon, I checked. My uniform still smelled fine. We didn't sweat at all despite going outfield!

So, because it has been apparently quite slack so far, I've alot of time to myself, my thoughts, and my plans. This has led me to become more of myself again before I entered army. You know how they say army kills your brain? It's definitely true, and thank god I'm having a chance to revive it! I've been reading up on science stuff, computer stuff, planning for a post-ORD pre-uni trip to Japan, and planning for uni applications. Yes, I do need to plan for the last item you read. There must be some way I can show them that MIT is for me... hmm... Oh nvm, you're probably not really interested in that.

And oh yea! My iPod Touch has never been as useful to me as it is now. Notes function and PDF reader ftw. I'm picking up some japanese too! (memorising the hiragana "alphabets" now)