Farewell 2007... Hello 2008

Well 2007 has been a good year for me in terms of my results, my voluntary work in The Organisation, CCA and relationship. :)

Results wise, I have seen a slight improvement in my grades and hopefully will maintain or push even higher.

For my voluntary work 2007 is the year I have been promoted to a mid ranked Zone Staff Officer, and not only that, have had the opportunity to mount parades on two occasions. Once as colour ensign and once as Parade Commander. There'll be more to come i'm sure as there seems to be shortage of mid-ranked officers to take up important parade appointments...

As for the other Organisation... well yet another of the instructors has called it a day citing academic committments. Well, his committment these 2 years is appreciated, after all it's understood that studies has got to come first. My committment remains a question mark there...

As for CCA wise (referring to Raffles Hall) it's been a good year of exposure. The most important thing which being part of the JCRC team has taught me is to manage expectations from the hall residents and SCRC which can be quite daunting and challenging at times. But it has also given me a new perspective when being at the upper management level (not top management yet - that distinction belongs to the SCRC), there are challenges and obstacles that those at the middle or lower management does not see.

Most importantly the end of 2007 was a time when I underwent a paradigm shift. Once which helped me see challenges such as academics and relationships in a new light.

Especially after my camp in dR forest, I realised that there are still many things I want to do in life, like someone once said "There are many things in this world to see and to marvel."

And for relationship.. hehe that's for another post!

Happy New Year everyone!

Obituary

A respected SJAB officer, Mr. Stephen Khit Joong Khee, O.St.J. , former Area 3 Commissioner and NHQ Staff Officer (Grade I), passed away on 22 December 2007. He was 74.

Perhaps what my fellow officer wrote about him sums up pretty well:

"Mr Stephen Khit, as far as I remember, was a very nice man. Despite having stroke, he continued to work. The last time I saw him, was probably when he was manning the St John Supplies Shop at HQ.."

I first got to know him in 1998 when I was in Secondary 2. Back then it was because of buying uniform accessories for my Corps. He always had his breadth of experiences to share with all of us from his experience in the British Army and after that, the SAF. Needless to say we had many things to talk about and he kind of inspired me to continue on as an officer after graduation.

I just returned from bidding my last farewell to him. His wife recounted fondly his association and passion for SJAB, and the many wreaths from SJAB members spoke volumes.

Here is a great officer whom many look up to, and his loss is a great loss to all within the Organisation.

Goodbye, Sir, and rest in peace.

Aaron's wedding, SinMal Camp and more!

Been a long time since my last update which was when my exams were still totally not finished yet. Since that post, a lot of things happened... too busy to update... anyway I will do that now...

Immediately after exams I had to pack the stuff in my room for preparation to move out. Lucky one of my friends was staying for vacation so can park my stuff in his room, LOL! It took two days to pack my stuff...

I also wanted to collect my stamps from NPCC HQ and I did confirm with my cousin that the person in charge was around. Then when I reached there (and waited half an hour for him), he said that he was only in charge of the stamps for the UG conference participants. Mine was under another person who was overseas at the moment :P) Looks like I have to get him to mail me the stamps soon as I have no intention of making another trip down.

8 Dec was my friend Aaron's big day, so we went to his place the day before to stay over. And no we did not have a bachelor's party the night before, he still had quite a lot of stuff to settle and was up till late at night. Anyway, it was a fun experience not to mention I got to know a few of his wife's friends as well.. Not to mention that I observed for the first time a Catholic mass and its differences from the Protestant practices which I grew up in.

Congratulations to the newlyweds and wish you many years of wedded bliss!!!

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The following week was NTU Hall XI exchange on Wednesday 12 Dec. They have a canteen in the hall itself which means that the residents don't have to venture out for their meals (and unlike NUS, not all halls have meal plans.) The following day was the highlight of the whole holiday which was my SinMal Camp (Singapore-Malaysia Combined Camp, held at Malacca) which I will write about in another post, too long for one blog post haha.

Something interesting.

It is better to deserve honours and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.

- Mark Twain

Something which I find particularly true in light of my voluntary work with The Organisation, and the fact that there are people who will fight tooth and nail just for the particular honour.

Nick Vujicic

I met Nick Vujicic last Sunday at Faith Community Baptist Church and am truly inspired by his testimony. Here we have a man with every reason to give up on life but he refuses to, and in spite of his circumstances he lives his life to the fullest potential!

I daresay I had a paradigm shift after listening to him. All the 'challenges' which we face daily are nothing compared to what he has had to go through. Coupled with the fact that he is only 25, pretty young but in spite of that, he is making an impact on the world by sharing his story and motivating others to rise above their circumstances and live life without limits.

Above that, he's also a pretty humorous speaker and one who takes his disability light-heartedly (you've got to see the video, i shan't spoil it for you)! I think NUS should get him to speak to the students one of these days...

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Something to share:

Nick is the epitome of 'courage' and positive thinking.


Part 1:
Great motivational speaker This is a MUST WATCH !!!
Part 2:
click here
Part 3: click here

This shows snippets of how he copes with some of his daily routine :click here

Exams.. the end is almost in sight

Alrighty it's the end of another week and i have but one paper left (and it's open-book) so i can take some time off before the final push.

My take on the papers so far:

HR2002 - Pretty okay, as it's quite open ended... hope i answered the questions well
ME3122 (Heat transfer) - 'nuff said. Total screwup.
ME2151 (Materials engineering) - I found the paper quite ok but i hope that my answers are correct...

Argh, this sem has been super busy and not as productive as i hoped it will be! But next sem will be better!

Been clearing some miscalleneous JCRC work yesterday and catching up with friends. Then tomorrow will go to FCBC to listen to Nick Vujivic... a guy born without limbs.. and he's just a couple of years older than me. Amazing how God can use people in such a mighty way... but as for me still got some way to go ba...

I received an SMS today inviting me to take up Parade Commander for the Zone Presentation at the end of this month. Wow.. my pleasure and honour it shall be.

Just had a conversation with my colleague who left The Organisation and he is thinking of making a comeback. Well, good, we need you and look forward to serving alongside with you once again.

One of my colleagues from my workplace left after 2 years of service. Well, all I can say is at least I managed to say a proper goodbye to him... We'll meet again for lunch or something.

And, to you: thank you for lending that listening ear when it mattered the most, I really appreciate it.

Exam.

Ok, i just screwed up my first paper. Heat transfer. What I spent so much time on the last few days, in the end never came out. My all time worst paper in NUS so far. Now just to cross my fingers and hope that I get a decent grade for it.

Still got 2 more to go.

Career options

I got a rejection letter yesterday.

Guess I have to bear the consequences of some wrong decisions made during my JC.

But then again, there are better jobs out there than this. There has got to be.

The NS Song

NS is for everyone, NS is a crime,
NS is a must for all, NS waste of time,
Civil Defence and Police, don’t forget Army,
We cannot escape and we don’t wanna go DB!

Listen fellow Singapore, Listen carefully
Want to share something with you, don’t worry it’s free!
I served NS for two years, This is my story
Who is singing out of tune? The name’s Evil Bunny!

Some of them ayam sakit, Some are super on,
Some like to angkat Encik, Some are plain moron,
Mess boy, Provost and Medic, All have taste the whip,
But at the end of the day we’re nothing but conscripts!

Kena tortured day and night: this is BMT,
All your friends working fulltime You have no money
Everybody likes to keng Rub some soap in eyes,
Whack your knees with metal pipe And get MC as prize!

NS is for everyone, NS is a crime,
NS is a must for all, NS waste of time,
Civil Defence and Police Don’t forget Army,
We cannot escape and we don’t wanna go DB!

I tell you two years is no joke Tahan all the way
Grit my teeth and clench my fist They’ll free me one fine day
Difficult to find a job but I’m an optimist
Finally got interview but clash with reservist!

Unemployed for 3 long years Girlfriend dumped me too
Suddenly the news say ‘war’ Expect me fight for you
Listen fellow Singapore Listen carefully
I’m not against NS now Hope you not blind to see

I know of a better way Sign some peace treaty
Cut down on the arrogance Show humility
Lend a hand when they need help Deliver some aid too
God forbid we’ll burn in flames And friends to the rescue!

And who knows they’ll sell us sand Play soccer with Malaysia,
Sell us cheap water Majulah Singapura!

NS is for everyone, NS is a crime,
NS is a must for all, NS waste of time,
Civil Defence and Police Don’t forget Army,
We cannot escape and we Don’t wanna go DB!

La-la-la-la-la... Dee-dee-dee-dee-dee...

exams are here.

Just had my first paper yesterday. quite alright as HR2002 is pretty open-ended. Convinced me that i am more suited to take arts related modules but anyway... Now I'm left with three more which are all next week and the following. Getting in the mood too, just finished one section of heat transfer...

Earlier I attempted to play simul against the three apple laptops in IT Co-op. I now realise that the chess engine had been souped up, with a wider opening book (it's not always 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 now... or French Defence when I open 1.e4) and I lost all three games :(

I received an email today inviting me to a First Aid seminar in JB organised by SJA Malaysia. It seems that the Superintendent there is actually based in Singapore as he gave a local HP and fax number. Sounds really cool. Too bad it's still within my exam period, and moreover i agreed to conduct lecture for the kids on administration so I got to give it a miss...

Last Saturday I went for SJA's annual banquet (quite a few other NUS/NTU students were there too... tsk tsk...exams leh..) Just catch up a bit with my friends from other zones and met the new TIC of RVHS. Overall quite alright, the food also quite ok (considering the budget).

It occured to me that when we do things sometimes we tend to be taken for granted especially in the context of a voluntary orgnaisation... Worse still some others demand things as though they are automatically entitled to it and the worst thing is, they don't lift a finger to contribute to the organisation at all and expect to be recognised for just 'being there' for the past 5 years.

I leave the preceding statement open to interpretation by my readers. Nevertheless, the focus at the very end is to run the zone's admin properly and also help the cadets in their achievement of the prestigious CPBS awards (and NYAA too.. LOL).

After exams got to get my NYAA booklet and logbook in order, before submitting it up to achieve the pinnacle NYAA award!