I have realised...

that I am special.

Today, I went to NUS together with mum to settle some admin stuff. Since it was on the way, I got her to pop by the place where I work part time and introduced to my colleagues.

And two days ago, during the promotion interview with the Commissioner he expressed his appreciation for my dedication to The Organisation thus far. He commented that "it is hard to find officers like me now"... and alluded briefly to one of my outstanding, dedicated colleagues who decided to move on. A loss to The Organisation... At the end of the interview I knew that I would be getting the promotion. But the feelings are bittersweet. Because my colleague, my mentor, has left. Because now I am technically on par with the "Long Term Captains".

And I have realised that there are people out there who appreciate who I am and what I do. My dedication to the organisations I have been in, going beyond the call of duty to ensure that things get done. This, at the expense of being liked / being popular with my peers, many of whom do not understand why I am doing certain things certain way. But, like I have mentioned before, MINDSET... i mentioned in another post a long while back that i am not going to conform to stupid conventions. And like one of my hall friends said, we must discard old mindsets, old ideas and embrace change as the only constant in life.

The Commissioner also asked me if I wish to go for the SinMal combined camp this year. Well, it's where most of my friends from the Organisation (Malaysia) are, and I met a few of them the previous weekend when we went up there. They still remember me after all these years!

But there are certain people best avoided attending the camp. And if my fellow officers are not going to attend, i quite doubt that I will...

A question was posed to me (again) on why I am still so dedicated to the Organisation after all these years (apart from a brief hiatus during my NS days). After all, we are not paid to do the job... and the answer is basically to help the cadets during their most impressionable years... currently, it's by rewarding the officers who dedicate their time to develop the cadets by applying for their service awards. And with my new portfolio, I can begin to impact the lives of the cadets by improving on, or designing new programmes for them, such as the NYAA.

I'll be getting the NYAA Gold myself (one more category to go) soon and I hope to be able to blaze a trail for others to follow. Hey, after all others have followed in my footsteps after I was the first Chief Commissioner Badge holder from my Corps... and on another note, at last I have observed other officers wearing the badge too!

This is my hobby.

Update and some pics...

Thanks to all for the best wishes for my health and all, well i've recovered and hopefully can start to hit the pool again after a hiatus... one step closer to my NYAA Gold too!

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Well, it's now Week 6. How time flies! Soon it will be the recess week. Time to focus my efforts on what is truly important.

In the same vein, I have decided to cut down to 5 modules, thus reducing my workload and better enabling me to concentrate more on my 5 remaining modules... 2 of them are projects...

[blockquote]Nobody cares what class degree one gets nowadays, except for some really backward sleepy government offices. Money making companies are more interested in whether the graduate can deliver. That’s why the private sector is doing so much better than the public sector. The former got their priorities right.[/blockquote]

Coming from an NUS associate professor, indeed very encouraging. though of course we still must focus and try to score well but it's not necessary to be too hung up on it.

Interesting to note that the SAF also don't really focus too much on grades as compared to other civil service organisations.. Of course 2nd upper will have a different pay scheme, but after that competence and performance is what matters most.

Now if i can get the USB hub door gift to work...

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Oh, the E1 Lab TA rocks! Crisp, clear explanation leaving no doubt at all on the concepts that we are required to take home from this lab.

Week 4...

So 4 weeks of the new academic year have just flown past..
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Oh, and may I categorically state thaat I have never written to the press before, much less about the recent incident involving a certain soldier who absconded with a rifle.

uncomfortable

urgh... been having runny nose these few days and now sore throat...
guess all the late nights are getting to me...

or... i guess my body decided to 'dong' until after AGI before 'it'
happens..

so.. now to give this time to blow over, hope by Fri it will be
fine!!! Sun is walkathon...

Exhausted

Endless cycle of meetings, so many things to settle, in the end no time to study, lagging hopelessly behind.

Must manage the expectations, expectations from my fellow committee members, expectations from the hall residents.

Must prioritise too, which is to come first, we've been getting our priorities all wrong there.

Again comes to the point about mindsets which need to change. People generally resistant to changes, and it's not just in my Organisations.