Mission Accomplished!

Finally, I have managed to update every single song in my iPod with its respective album art!

Right now, my iPod looks like this.

Take a look at the most left cover art, that is one of Air's albums, Pocket Symphony. Just a random observation. :)

All I can say is Yay!

My New Mission

It's been more than a month! I've always been telling myself to update and update but I always don't do it.

I am currently on a mission.

My mission is: To put good quality and well done up album cover art on every song in my iPod.

It's a very tedious thing to do and people keep saying "so free ah?" to me. Why I am doing this is because my laptop has revived! I bought a 120GB IDE hard disk from my friend. Since now I have more space, why not include the album art? It gives me a sense of satisfaction when I browse through the Cover Flow filled with many pictures. It allows me to fake that all my songs were bought too! I also get to know more about the band when I look for the pictures.

Rare!

Scary looking!

Nice.

I really like the last album cover art by Audio Adrenaline. It's the nicest among all their album covers. Once I'm done with my iPod, it's on to the 9k+ songs that Mark sent me. How long do you think it is going to take!?!

Commission loh!

Yes it's a week late! Anyway, I am cadet no more! Trainee no more! One year of listening to instructions has gone and now it's my turn to give the instructions. Commissioning parade went well. A few hiccups on my part and a few around the parade. I'm very sure everyone put in their best performance. There is no point in brooding over it and should just take it as a lesson and move on.

Everyone at this point of time was 'ahm chio-ing'.


"We're proud to present to you the newly commissioned... officers!!"

The commissioning parade is third in order of precedence with National Day Parade coming in first followed by SAF Day Parade. The rehearsals started 2 weeks before the actual event. Afternoon rehearsals were the worst because the sun would shine right on top of us! School Sergeant Major was a very inspiring person. He knew how to push us and when to give us water breaks. The commissioning parade has silent drills in it. Everyone moves accordingly without any word of command but just the sound of the bass drum. My heart beats faster everytime we execute that move. The 14, 1, 2 was also very nice after looking at the video posted up on facebook.

I would do the commissioning parade again if I had the chance. Now I'm posted to Khatib camp as an instructor. I hope my cadets will learn as much as they can and be excellent artillery officers. Likewise myself, be a good example to them and instruct them well.

My First Sewing Project

I bought an iPod Classic online recently with the help of Guan You. Initially, I rejected Apple from the beginning. It was stylish but I wondered if it really had the substance. I also felt that Apple products were made of lousy quality because almost everyone who owns an Apple product has gone to the customer service centre for servicing! I decided to take a more open approach at first impressions and decided to get the iPod. I am also going to test if product failure is caused by poor handling by the owner or the product is just lousy.

The iPod came and I realised I do not have a cover for it. Melanie has an iPod sleeve made from velvet if I am not wrong and is the nicest cover I saw. I do not like the chunky plastic ones or the rubber condoms. I think a simple cloth is enough to prevent scratches. I know it does not cover the impact of drops but if you protect it so much like how the plastic ones do, your iPod becomes so big and it won't look sleek and nice.

So I wanted to get one but the Apple online store did not have it. Even if it did, it would cost a bomb. I tried a few shops in Junction 8 but to no avail. Finally I decided to sew one myself!

Focus focus!

I used leftover cloth from my mother's Ikea curtains and made
this!

Happy happy! :) Following Kathryn's footsteps! Haha!

Finale

Man it's great to be back to the hot and wet Singapore. I enjoyed the Thailand weather. It was cold at night but scorching hot from 12am to 3pm. I got a helmet tan line just working under the sun while cleaning the gun!To sum it up, the whole trip was like this.

Sleep sleep sleep.

Haha. That's obviously not true. It was entirely the opposite! We did not get much sleep and every night there was sentry duty to guard our equipment and frequent night displacements. Adding to not much sleep comes irregular sleep. Some could only sleep start sleeping at 2am, waking at 4am for an hour sentry and then sleep for another hour before the day starts. Displacing from one location to another can take an hour to go. The journey from our last deployment ground to camp took a whopping 3 hours! People like him enjoyed.


I got to execute my role in coordinating fire from the command post which was my choice of appointment since nearing the end of common phase. Felt nervous at first because when you say fire, they really fire! The key is to stay cool even when everyone is rushing you. Just do not let it bother you but of course, do not take your time. Working in the command post has its perks too. All the ration comes to you so there is always extras. Goody for me but bad for me tummy. Best is to spam the fruits or give all away to the gun sites.

The firepower coming from the 155mm Howitzer is awesome! You can feel the shockwave through your body everytime the round is shot. When we fired a higher charge, I couldn't stare at the barrel anymore! Imagine firing the highest charge, it might feel like a knockout punch who knows! After seeing such a magnificent sight, I don't want to be laughing or playing around when artillery fire comes. You don't want to mess with the King of the Battlefield!
Hot baby!

In the end, I believe everyone enjoyed themselves. We were all smiles. Many lessons learnt and more to come. It was a fantastic experience for me. Maybe I'll write little stories of what happened in between the trip when I have more time. :)

Big Feet Small Shoes

I've been thinking of getting a pair of shoes. Preferably a canvas one. First brand that came to mind was Converse. I went down to Junction 8 a couple of times to check it out and soon found a colour that I liked. So I asked the lady about sizes and she said the biggest was 11! Turned out that only grey, off-white, white had size 12. I was disappointed.

Back then, many said that being big, having big feet is good because when sale comes, the weird sizes are left. But that is so not true! Now sales cater to the common sizes. Why like that. Have a size 12 at least in your inventory leh. :( Now everytime I see a shoe that I like, I will just ask if they have size 12 and if they don't I can stop thinking about it already. Maybe if I really really want to buy the shoe I'll try to fit size 11. Ha!

Not For The Faint Hearted

Recently, McDonald's and Burger King have come up with very very appealing promotions. Definitely (read title).

Ooh yea! :)


Now that's what I'm talking about! :D

When both came out, I was really excited about it! I wanted to try it as soon I as could. Opportunity came one Saturday when I met my parents at Central. We were thinking where to eat and I initiated to go BK for dinner. My parents were not really hungry since they just came from a high tea celebration. However, they didn't mind going. From the advertisement, the BK Quad Stacker looked like it could challenge Carl's Jr.'s burgers in size or even beat it. I had to try it!

So I ordered the meal which cost $10.45 and I upsized it as well. I felt the price was steep because the Mega Mac meal only costs $7.45. That's a plate of char sao sao rou fan (Char Siew with Roasted Pork Rice) more! When the worker placed my burger on the tray, I got a surprise because it wasn't as big as I thought it would be! Even my father's Whopper was larger in diameter but lost in height. It was roughly 10-11cm wide. Putting that dissappointment aside, I gave my first bite. Mmm, a lot more meatier. :)

After chowing down till 1/4 of the burger left, I just did a count of the number of patties and I got a 2nd surprise! There were only 3 patties! Could I have eaten 1 whole patty? Maybe, but not likely because the melted cheese would have glued them together. Could the maker have placed the patty in an offset postion? Not possible because the wrapping was not jutting out. My father wanted to have some action so he complained about it to the manager and they gave me a whole new one! This time after unwrapping, the patty count was correct and I chowed it down. :D

I tried both Mega Mac and Mega McSpicy as well and to me, the winner among the 3 is the Mega McSpicy. It had the oomph and 'fill the stomach' factor. It even comes with a sticker on the box which I took it with me. Haha.

Standby

Readers I'm really sorry for the lack of entries! I haven't got the focus and time to sit down to type out a post. Just to keep you updated, I'm doing fine in the army. Exams are just next week so I need to study real hard! I want to put up something interesting soon! :)

炮!

Service term is ending and Professional term is just around the corner! Three white chocolate bars on our shoulders, more responsibility! I want to thank God so much for blessing me so much in OCS. Till now, I have not suffered injuries, I did get a minor foot rot but it has healed. I'm also very thankful to be posted to the Singapore Artillery! 

King of the Battlefield!

I will be shifting my stuff over to Khatib Camp the following week. There will be no more 2 cadets to a bunk but 10 instead. Since I am in a unit, PSPs, DSs, MP3s, and the electrical gadgets are not allowed. I hope chargers are! Khatib camp is much nearer compared to SAFTI MI. We can go down to Casuarina Curry and enjoy a kosong or two with teh halia during nights out! Morven is going to artillery as well and that's fantastic news! We will meet again!

Artillery involves a lot of calculation (Finally the brain can exercise). Some say it is slack but I do not know how true that is since it is a unit, I'm pretty sure regementation is strictly enforced. I pray that I will get good instructors and also pray that I will complete pro term without complications! :)

In Oriente Primus! (Latin: "First in the East")

Route/Fast March Theory

Fact: The shortest man's widest stride cannot match the tallest man's widest stride because of the difference in length of their legs.


Just an illustration

During my time in BMT when I did my route marches, I never walked in step. We did walk in step at the start but all followed their own timing after a while. I felt it was good because everyone can walk at their own happy timing.

After coming to OCS, all the route/fast marches conducted had to be done in step. That is everyone walks to the count of one timer. It is really tiring keeping up with the timing. The timer comes from the middle and it's very fast. Most of the time, I am controlling and limiting my steps and not able to stretch fully. No one can fully stride as well. So I asked the conducting officer why do we have to march in step and wouldn't it be better and more efficient if everyone marched their own pace. He told me it was for the sake of compromise. Fair enough. Then, I came up with the theory.

Having the shortest at the front to the tallest at the back, the first 3 cadets will open their strides wider than normal walking but at the same time, at a comfortable pace. Then everyone behind will follow the first 3's timing.

Conclusion: The pace will be slower, the distance covered will be the same, everyone will be less tired, everyone marches in step. Efficient.

Readers, what do you think about this? Does it make sense? :)