National Service Final Roundoff (Part 2)

Hello there, it's been awhile since I last posted anything on my blog. There were several reasons for this, i've been very busy since i've last posted, homework, school hours and all other silly stuffs, and the other reason for plain being lazy. Anyway, this is part 2 of my National Service experience.
After being selected as vice-company leader, i've endured a lot of hardship, being tossed around by my trainers all the time, getting reprimanded, scolded, yelled at, punished, jeered by mates, and everything you can expect to happen to a leader. Throughout the two months time, I've suffered alot, living in fear constantly as fear of being overrun by the other trainees. Things didn't go very smoothly and there was no one who understood my pain, until something happened, probably the best that has happened to me, I've met some really nice friends, they shared my thoughts, listened to my every grumbling, they can understand me, and weirdest of all, they're girls. I know what you're thinking, but seriously it ain't what you think it is, but sometimes i doubted this stance as well.
During my time there, there were many fun activities, there was the creative sports and the one i liked most was "Tangki Bocor" which stands for Leaking Tank. The rules are simple, fill a small barrel with water and then transfer the water to another big barrel with dozens and dozens of tiny holes in it. We were competing with other companies. The only catch was, there will be "Aliens" obstructing you, constantly looking for opportunities to sabotage you. Our company, Charlie won both the men and women category of the game. I've also managed to see it with my own eyes, how vicious and violent girls can be when it comes to winning. I could Alpha and Bravo girls sabotaging each other while the rules clearly stated they're not allowed to sabotage one another, but it was a fun outing as in the end, everybody had fun.
In the camp, there were religious classes which we have to attend every Thursday and Friday night according to individual's religious views. I was a free thinker at first, but then i thought, i can't survive out here, without someone to guide me, and so i've decided to join the Christian fellowship and see out for myself. It turned out to be a very very wise decision, as while others whine when it's time for the classes, i've been waiting anxiously for the day to arrive, as after stressful hours during daytime, i could really need some time to enjoy myself. We played games, we sang songs worshiping God and get to eat snacks after the sessions. I've went to church every Sunday with the guys and have to say, has been the most wonderful time of my life, a lot of friendly faces instead of the stoic faces of our trainers.
Let me refresh my memories before i continue to part 3 okay?
Think that's all i can remember right now, so long for now.

A final National Service roundoff....(part 1)

Applause, applause, it's me again...What do you mean you don't know who am I? No kidding, seriously, do you really have no single idea about me? Not a tiny microscopic piece of your jagged memory reminds you of me? That settles it, you're so dead...!!

Don't mind the goofy self-talks i had with myself, it really is something i'd like to start off my blog with. Anyways, I think i ought to do a proper round-off with my National Service experience, and ladies and gentlemen, may you brace yourself for the longest single post in Dawson's Journal.

To start off, i actually found out that i was selected for National Service last year, and the government had done a really good job in concealing my future destination or rather, which batch i was in. I was actually quite relieved that I'm in the second batch, that meant that i could spend the whole Chinese New Year with my family. Then again, i was actually cursing my luck, WHY ME, i asked God, why me of all people. And then there was this wretched message :" Tahniah, anda telah dipilih untuk menyertai PLKN Siri 6." My world turned upside down, it was torturous, I've heard enough negative feed backs on NS to detest it so much. But it's either the chicken or the egg, i had to make a tough choice, of course, it was not about choosing to bring a chicken or an egg to the camp, it was rather, go for it or spend 3 years in jail, your call. DUH, the option's obvious right??
And there i was on the 20th of May, making last minute checks on the brings and don't brings, i actually didnt even bring a cellphone to the camp for the first 2 weeks, but then upon seeing others texting and calling, i ought to ask my parents to bring it to me on the third week, it was dreadful. Anyway, i boarded an air-conditioned school bus (DUH, i wouldn't want to be spending the next 2 hours on a filthy ran-down school bus).
The trip was quite short although it took us almost an hour to get out of the Stadium Hoki Sultan Azlan Shah, the wait was annoying, but i enjoyed the companion of my classmate, which i was very lucky to have one in the same camp.
Upon arriving, guess what, it was on a sun-scorched barren tarmac, with little shade around it, I was like, okay, maybe the facilities aint that bad. Then, we hauled down all of our stuffs from the bus. AND the majestic sight of the flour factory just beside the camp just "fascinated" me, that means we have to live with dirty and polluted air for 3 months, yuck!!
If you think the marching field which was basically a barren run of tarmac was dreadful, wait till you go into the mess hall. First of all, it's a mess as i was jam packed with people, with little air circulation and even less fans, the air-cond units were running but it hardly made a difference. It was dreadfully stuffy and hot, you won't stop sweating as your eat your petty, lousy and equally dreadful meal.
I didn't really run into any trouble on the first day, in fact, everything went on smoothly, i proceeded to picking up my new clothes (thats the fun part), and headed back to my dorm. There i was happy to see Alex, a strictly English speaking Indian with some knowledge in Cantonese(for some reason, he's really good in Canto-abusive languages), and there was Penguin, which we called by the name as he ran like a penguin strutting on ice.(chuckles)And then there was Tok Wan, Syafeq, Vincent(the boss), Jun Xiang, Thesigan, and many other, we all lived under one roof for the next 2 months. Can't say it's trouble free tho.
I was assigned to my company, the Charlie company. I've heard alot about the company, how the team failed to win more than an event in the camp during the tenure of the 1st batch, BUT, that's about to change. During the first few days, we had Tai Ko, a Camerons guy who was tall and big, tho i'm taller, as our stand-in leader, immediately, i found out something amiss, THAT poor guy didnt know nothing about marching orders, and i practically slapped my head. Luckily he didnt last long, phew, what a relief, then there was Penguin stepping up and he marginally did his job well for the first 2 weeks. His assistant, Shahrul was a pain in the ass, not only he's a jackass and an asshole, he knew nothing about marching. No wonder he got booted out during the first marching session between leaders.
And finally, my tenure as a leader began, the Charlie trainer asked if anyone was involved in uniform units before, you know, to replace the exiled Shahrul. I raised my arm and was surprise that no one besides me volunteered. He asked me to give an order, and to his disbelief, how loud was my voice that even the birds on the trees flew away, and there you have it, a permanent Charlie leader.
Thats all folks for the day, i'll continue my story in part II in the next few days, keep and eye for it.
Now, a photo of my beloved company, Charlie, i was not in it sadly.....

Michael Jackson's special memorial post...

Well, Michael Jackson died almost 2 weeks ago. The King of Pop finally put the curtain down on his well illustrated but troubled life. He sacrificed his childhood, to give us his moment of magic. His troubled childhood played a major part in his downfall from glory, they say that although he's a well and matured man outside the frame, inside he's still a small child trying desperately to grab hold of his long-departed childhood.
I can't say Michael Jackson played a major role in my life like some fan would've said, but he did lighted up some sparks of fire in my heart with his soothing productions like Billy Jean, Heal the World, We are the world, I'll be there, Beat it, and of course, You are not alone. With these tunes, he made fame and fame ultimately led to his downfall. 13 Grammy awards and the title King Of Pop just ain't enough to salvage MJ's life, he had a Neverland Ranch but it was closed due to his heavy debt. His brick brown skin gradually transformed to the white pale skin of his that we know today, yet he still gave us magical moments. Some may say he bleached his skin, and did complicated cosmetic surgeries to change the fact that he's African American, but who cares. All i cared about is his music and i'm not the kind who would bothered with his looks or whatever.
So, Michael Jackson, may you find peace in heaven, sitting side by side with God and our Lord Jesus. Rest in peace MJ, you've suffered enough in this cruel world.

ARGH...

It's been very unusually tiring for me this week as days went by. I've been dozing off unintentionally in class, and i don't know what's wrong, but oh well, guess that can't be helped. I've been selected as the president of the Badminton club in my school, although i'm honored, i don't think i'm ready to take such huge responsibility, perhaps a role as vice president would suit me more.
I've watched the recent transformers movie, Transformers: The revenge of the fallen.
Well first of all, i have to give credit once again to the special effects team because they've put up a wonderful job in doing the effects which i watched in awe, it was flawless. Apart from the special effects, the sound effects were awesome and the giant robots were very lifelike, credit to the design team. The movie was alright, some brilliant performances from Shia Le Bouf. Sad to say, Megan Fox didnt really live up to her hype as the heroine in the film, she looked totally passive and her face was stoical. Although Bay ought to be given credit for managing yet another great film, the story plot was pretty much flawed and there wasn't too much excitement in it. The storyline was pretty much predictable and there was too many scenes with slow motion which was an anti-climax.
The movie was not that fast paced, and the big robots fighting scenes were not exciting enough. In conclusion, bravo to the special,sound effects and the design crew but the movie just didn't quite live up to it's expectation. I still enjoyed the movie tho.
I think i might have a career in film critic.

This is hectic lifestyle...

Hi there everybody, it's been a week since the new system of form 6 was implemented. As far as i can see, this system is worthless. This is due to the fact that we well form sixers will have less time to study and many tuition classes had to be rescheduled or canceled once and for all. I was beginning to wonder why did our government have to make our life so difficult. Is this a way to discourage people to enter form 6, i wonder. I don't know what will our juniors feel in the next 2 years. Perhaps they will actually like this stupid system. We are being treated like test subjects, don't we all possess rights? I have to make a statement here, WE FORM SIXERS ARE NOT LAB RATS FOR YOU TO TOY AROUND WITH, WE DO NOT DESERVE THIS KIND OF TREATMENT FROM THE MINISTRY.
On the bright side of my life so far, i'm starting to like the subjects, especially Mathematics, this is a drastic change in my life as i've always detest mathematics once and for all. My teacher has given me great encouragement and enforced my knowledge with tonnes of exercises every day. Her attitude towards her students will actually make me feel guilty when i did not manage to complete her homework, so in general i'll finish up my homework, except when i got stuck. She even told me that, let the past be past, and work hard now to redeem yourself. Her words made me recover from my SPM heartbreak when i got a 7D for additional Mathematics.
So long for today, i urge all Form sixers to try to bear the burden and not backing off that easily, we'll show them we're no push-overs. Continue to voice your displeasure because we have our rights and not ones to be toyed around with.
Now a photo for you guys to check out



MY DORMITORY MATES FROM NATIONAL SERVICE(IM THE ONE SECOND FROM 3RD ROW, FROM THE RIGHT)

National Service Memories

THESE PEOPLE WILL POSE ANYTIME ANYWHERE, EVEN WHEN LIGHT'S OFF



OOPS, BUSTED, JUST KIDDING~

THE FEMALE COUNTER-PARTS

GIRLS FROM PLKN SEGARI,LEFT TO RIGHT:QIU NING,YEE LING, JIEN MAY, JOANNE, SKY

LEADERS OF SEGARI CAMP

ORIGINAL LEADERS OF KEM PLKN SEGARI

Sharing time~(perkongsian terbuka)

Well, my hands are getting itchy, so i guess i could share some of my NS experiences in NS with you guys. Well, my experience in National Service wasn't particularly that relaxing. Well first of all, i was a Leader in my camp, you know, the ones with ranks. I had tonnes and tonnes of work to do, like waking up those jackasses who won't wake up, spying, conducting line-ups, scheduling, and so much more. Besides those pressure in doing your work well, i was proud to be chosen to lead my company and get along with the others. Although i had a feeling of my work not getting appreciated enough, i won't regret even a single second of it.
Well, leaders were supposed to get a certificate at the end of National Service but i didn't get mine which yours truly deserved. It's a very painful feeling when I realized that my work in close to two months won't get appreciated.
I've had my rough times and good times in the camp, a very particularly good thing i've got from my time in the camp, is friends. This is a priceless reward.


Two of my very best friends in the camp, Jien May and Joanne Tan



Alex and Zoey, Alex, obviously the guy is from my class

And it goes on..~~and on~~

Hmm, just finished another hectic school week. So far i've had it easy but when the new system is being implemented, we're gonna lament about it every single day. Just imagine, classes and teachings as usual in the morning, then after normal school periods end at 1.05 we get an hour break to figure out what to do, have lunch, or whatever. And then, by 2pm we will all be in our school uniforms, and either we do co-curriculum activities or R and D until 3.20pm, how annoying~~..!!! This is forced slavery on the students and teachers, we're forced to stay until 3.20pm every single day except Fridays. And do you know what the ministry said? "This is a transition plan to prepare all form sixes for university life. So starting from this year, you all are gonna be lab rats in our experiments in our goal to implement this system fully by the year 2011."( The above statement may be altered and differ from reality but it's almost the same and all copyright goes to me).
The worst thing about this, is not the long school hours or whatever, it's the fact that we still have to sit for STPM and not semester exams, how cruel. We're forced to stomach this wretched policy and we don't get to stomach the only little tiny slice of good bits about this. This is a classic case/example of denying human rights!!!

Walla~!, School reopens

Finally after 2 weeks of holiday, schools are reopening. Well, during my holiday, i basically followed the same schedule day after day. I'll do a lot of stupid stuffs in the morning, like playing computer games. It's stupid, because i was supposed to study hard this year, but oh well, guess the temptation was too hard to resist, In the afternoon, sometimes I'll go out for badminton games, which meant i had to cycle 4 kilometers just to reach the court and I won't get home before 8 because I'd be following up with a game of football. Quite active huh, that ought to keep my body fit.
Ah well, things aren't going as bad as i would've thought in form 6. I can relatively keep up with my studies tho not taking tuition classes at the moment.
I managed to go back to my NS camp and met my dear old friends who were still there and even met my fellow trainers. Although it's a short meet, i was still satisfied with it.
Oh yeah, one of my newly met friend just got accepted into matriculation upon appeal, tho would like to congratulate him, but I was pretty much dissatisfied with the ministry because he only got 4 As in SPM while my friends who got 8-9As didn't get it. All because of our racial identity, hope something can be done in the future.

Pronto to anyone's looking at this blog, first of all I'd like to say welcome and hope you can share my thoughts and experiences in my blog entry here. Since coming back from National Service, alot has been going on around me. I've finally got into an English speaking school which is St.Michaels Institution in Ipoh. My new school is truly fantastic, you can actually see building structures like the ones you've seen in Harry Potter movies. We even have our own food court, unlike the plain old canteen in my secondary school years, this one has alot of stalls, and that usually means more selection of food. Sadly the lack of space and tables, chairs to sit on is the only downside to this wonderful part of the school. Well I won't talk too much about my school for now, i've only been there for like a week. Form 6 is not honeymoon year as i was told by my teachers and fellow seniors. I hope what they've said were only half true because to be honest, i'm not really a brainy kid and i'm quite lazy. I'm planning on taking engineering courses in the future, maybe in the aeronautics field. That's why i'm taking physics in Science stream. The only down side is, we can't drop Maths in Science stream and that kinda made me tremble because since my primary school years i have not been good in my Maths so i don't think i'm gonna be any good at it. They say practice makes perfect, but hell not in my case, I don't really understand how maths works and that really made me sweat in exams. Well enough of my personal problems here and hopefully i will have time to put in new posts in the near future. Au revoir and gracias guys.....

Homecoming

SEGARI CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

Hi there, it's been like 1 and a half month since I entered National Service. Alot of people will actuall think that NS is like military conscripts but actually it's not. Military conscripts can be alot tougher than what I've went thru in NS. Anyways, i've met alot of new friends, alot of friendly trainers, sadly didnt bring a camera, if not i'd have uploaded tonnes and tonnes of photos to share with ya all. It's not actually a good feeling leaving all your friends behind in the camp while you get an early release, but hey, as the say, you gain some, you lose some, can't have it all. Spent almost 2 months speaking Malay and my English is geting rusty, but i'm still trying to type in perfect Queen's English here. This is also the first time i try my hands on blogging, so hope that it aint as bad as it looks XD.
By the way, to all Malaysians who still have a chance to go into NS, I'd say, just accept the challenge an go for it, it'll be a very nice expericne for you all. Exercise every morning, classes, then physical activities every afternoon, under the scorching sun(actually this is the only part that i don't like, but i can take it by the chin), and then sports during th evening and sometimes assemblies at nightime.
My camp in Segari is the best, we have our own radio channel, SEGARI FM, nice huh?
I'm on early release to resume my studies, that is Form 6, but i wish all fellow NS trainees who havent completed their trainings all the best and take care, ADIOS!!