10th ICT Day 8 & 9

Woke up late on day 8, cos we slept reallll late the night before... there was nothing much for us to do really, the main event of the day was the MR "Dinner" in the night. So much so we were called to clean the company's SAR21's just to kill time. In between the visits to Emart and the Canteen, it was soon after lunch, which was followed by the normal NSman survey thing, and also the presentation of certificates of appreciation to those who had MR'ed.

The performance in the nite for the MR "dinner" ( It was actually more like finger food, and there wasn't enough to go around, sad ), was by MDC.... man, they actually DO have some hot chicks wearing too short skirts on top of the usual ahguas. Singapore Idle Sezari Sezali was there to sing emo songs too... most got bored by this, and left for the mess.

The last day was a blur of things, as it was only half a day, and the RSM wanted to outpro us by 1.30pm. There was IPPT that morning (amazing, seeing how in my 10 year cycle i've NEVER seen IPPT conducted on the last day!), and i got up early just to soak in the last few hours of camp.

It was a bittersweet feeling waiting to be outpro'ed; thinking how you'd never experience the quiet of the bunk and the corridors, the smell of cigarette's wafting into the bunk. You feel a bit sentimental after having spent the last good portion of your life with these same few people. Many of us have dropped out, but the core group is always there for each other, cheering each other on in the dreary confines of the camp.

Will i miss ICT? I'd say for certain reasons yes. :) There cameraderie will always be there for those of us who toiled in the mud, rain and sun of Simpang.

10 Year Service Medal

This is what you get for serving the Imperium of Man for 10 years, a watch, a.... oh wait wrong universe. :p

After serving 10 years of in camp training (7 High key is compulsory with 10 years in total), this is what you get; a limited edition HAMILTON watch with the SAF logo on the watchface. A medal and a lapel pin... your rank and name will also be etched on the back of the watch and medal...

Huh, best thing was S1 screwed up my astep, apparently i was supposed to be in C Coy, but i've been serving D Coy all this time... well, that's the SAF for you!

Games and storytelling

What makes a good/compelling story that would want you to actually play through the single player portion of a game? The trend recently seems to be games being about 5-8 hrs long for the SP portion of the game. Couple of games played recently had me thinking about this.

Most recent would of course be Battlefield 3; whereas the previous versions had a relatively interesting SP portion, the SP campaign for BF3 seemed to be tagged on to the Multiplayer portion of the game. Every other clichè used in other games also are present here, flashforwards, jumping in different characters shoes, plot twists etc.... PLUS making a game more difficult does NOT mean making the AI snipers! Shame on you lazy programmers. Not to mention infinite spawning enemies, and portions of the game where you can't advance unless your squad mates go ahead first. (how nice of them to remind you about this during the loading screen).

On the other hand, you have a game like Gears of War 3 (should have been called 'Emo steroid warriors with big guns 3'), granted this universe has very rich/deep storyline, there must be a line drawn before everything gets too convoluted; seriously i'm playing it now just to get it over with.

It's not that the graphics are not good, although the gameplay mechanics are a bit tiresome already. It's just that the gameplay is too linear, and adding in the dearth of fetch this and fetch that missions, plus a dragggggyyy story, the whole game seems so much longer than it should be.

So what makes a good game? I believe one that gives you a sense of deep satisfaction when you complete it, and which you'd care to go back to replay it all over again.

10th ICT Day 7

The 10km route march was to commence at 8pm in the nite, we were to leave camp at 6pm and reach Simpang by 7pm; not too great an idea, since it was at peak traffic period AND it was raining cats and dogs!

We got there slightly after 7pm, and got into order for a 'rehersal' for the stand down parade that was to occur after the march. It was still drizzling pretty heavy, so we were all standing in the rain, getting soaking wet even before the darn march started. :p

Once we went off though, the pace was not too bad. Worse thing about the whole affair was that the terrain kinda sucked; walking on gravel and mud when it's raining ain't fun. Luckily there were breaks every 2.5km walked. It kinda brought back memories trudging in the dead of the nite through simpang. I can remember VERY well the few times we were there doing defense excercises. No fun!

Definately a sigh of relief for the last few clicks; feet were beginning to kill me, and super uncomfortable from the wet uniform. After a break waiting for the other companies to come back ( D Coy led the way! ), we had the 'symbolic' ceremony for the unit to stand down. It was "Survivor" like as the CO put out a tiki-torch flame (The tribe has spoken!) after which our OC had the presence of mind the get us out of there ASAP rather than stay back for 'light refreshments'.

By time we got back to camp, it was almost 1am. There we sat in the loading bay cleaning our drenched SAR21's while other platoon's sent in their arms and went back to the comfort of their bunks... some things don't change after 10 years...

Anyway, after all that hoohah, we were back up in bunk and clean by 2am... we actually ordered Macs... supposed to come in a 3am but it came in at 4am... what can i say? :P

10th ICT Day 6

First task of the day was a Bn group photo by a Lobo SP coy poseur with a Canon DSLR with L Lens.... shiok man, i want his vocation. :p After was a Matador TH session followed by some BM and lunch. Think i was pretty hungry as i ate most of the chicken rice they served in the cookhouse. :P

Afternoon was spent in the audit for the perviously cancelled safety briefing, after which was the usual NSMAN Feedback session... at least now they're using the clickers to get feedback instead of the pencil/form method!

Lunch was early cos most of the Bn was let off for nite's off today; gonna book in tomolo morning!

10th ICT Day 5

Day 5 started with a PT session conducted for the Bn by the Div Comd; he just took office in Feb, and seems quite a nice guy, but also quite siao on about fitness! He led us through a relaxed regimen of excercises... own pace, but a LOT to do.. definately worse than RT. Ended with Buddha claps too. :P (Body still aches)

Afternoon was supposed to be a Cohesion program, but they cancelled it for some reason? So it was BM until lunch.... then the briefing in the afternoon was cancelled too... so more BM! :p Can't complain there. It go Sooooo monotonous that we drew arms to clean just for the heck of it! Then it was nites off again (Oh, lunch and dinner were pretty good, western for both). Booked out for nites off and took a ride to tfh where i met my buddy for a quick powwow. For some reason, last nite was as hot as sin, so kept tossing and turning!

10th ICT Day 4

Saturday was IPPT day for D Coy; didn't take anyway cos have not cleared my FFI yet! So was kinda lazing around till about 10am when there was a CnS briefing... nothing much and i think the trainers know we're like, kinda not interested. :p

Anyway, the highlight of the day was the SAR21 Fam shoot in the afternoon. Only 7 details and 2 mags, so was not too bad. Shoot was at Nee Soon Range and weather was hot as sin! Well, better smell the cordite while i can, don't think have many other chances anymore. Other than 1 REALLY bobo shooter, it went pretty smoothly, we left before the other company there, and everyone was dashing out of the place to the buses waiting for us.