It may be unavoidable, but it doesn't mean I have to like it

The title says it all. Its basically my attitude to National Service.

Not that any foreigners (or anyone for that matter) reads this blog, but in Singapore all boys once he passes age 16 and graduate from secondary schooling must go through 2 years of National Service in the Singapore Armed Forces. He can defer the thing for a few years for tertiary schooling, but after that must enlist. Must, Mandatory, by Law.

To many of previous generations it is a tenet of Singapore society. One of the pillars that uphold what being a Singaporean is about, a sense of pride, a rite of manhood. In my 19-soon-to-be-20 year old eyes, though, this is nothing but an utter waste of two years of my precious life. I have no doubts it'll teach me survival skills, dicipline, and all sorts of other skills that would prove completly and utterly useless in life.

2 years. Imagine what can i do within them? I can get a degree. I can get a job that pays around 2k a month. I can get an advanced diploma in game development, while enhancing my portfolio, in preperation for my entrance into the game development industry. Instead, I am being forced into serving into serving National Service, where I am paid less then a part-time worker cleaning the floors in the arcade underneath Parco Bugis Junction, do weather all kinds of shit my superior can throw at me.

Sure, my dad, uncles and even my colleagues at the company where I am interned right now says we are much more fortunate then them, with all the new facilities and catered food and all the shiny stuff. But to me, being forced to serve NS is simply so .. so... utterly farked up that it cancels any perks that stem from it. Who cares I'm wearing a better boot? who cares that my food in there will be chicken rice? I'm being pressed to enlist in the army of a country i dont give a rats ass about. For a guy who values FREEDOM as much as me, this is hell. "Adopt a positive attitude"? Your robbing us blind through GST and ERP and taxes, then you take 2 years off my life? I'll adopt a positive attitude when i have the launch codes for some nukes on ICBMs that i can use to wipe the smug faces off you damn politicians.


... sorry about this post. had to get it off me.

...

fuck you Singapore.

A test of will and endurance.

Thats what internship is about.
The eternal fight against boredom and sleep. i swear, it doesn't get much worse then this. (i hope National Service proves me wrong)
Blogging in the office is not exactly the right thing to do, but i'm trying to keep myself awake here, so taking 5-10 mins off to do this doesn't seem too bad.

Anyway so yea, been busy this week. Finally too. Although working on testing and wikis and Sharepoint is not my idea of fun work but I guess i can't be picky when thats pretty much all I can do in a work environment that doesn't use tools i'm familiar with. They use C#, .NET and Flash while i use Java, C++ and 3d. Figures.

I've finally just got myself the Freedom Gundam model kit i've been ranting on about. Will post more about it once i start building and taking some pictures. Hope to paint it after i get the next injection of cash. Cant spend anymore right now, muneys not gonna last if I keep splurging. Hope to build a good looking Diorama involving Eva01 versus Freedom evantually.

Well thats it. Back to work!

edit: I just realized this is my first post for the new year! A little slow from all the computer work and a good lunch heehee. Anyway, I wish any readers the best for 2008!

its hard to overstate my satisfaction~

i guess not everyone who reads it will 'get' the title. oh well. Portal

What am I so satisfied you ask? I passed my Basic Theory Test for Driving XD.

...

I can hear the derisive snorts already. I guess for some of you it was a breeze, after all, all you had to do was remember all the facts from the book right? Well its not as easy for me as it is for some of you. My brain basically rejects whatever I try to cram forcibly inside it. Luckily, there are trial question websites out there (i didn't have the wisdom to get the question book...), that let me learn thru trial and error. Now thats an effective learning tool. Stupid book. =P

So yea, thats stage one for driving done, another half a dozen more.



In other news...

Remember that cube i got? Look what i did:

Okay, so maybe buying the cube wasn't the brightest idea i had. I'm getting sheets the first chance i get. Meanwhile, i'll busy myself with a no-grade Gundam i just got to practice painting on. Hope that experiment works better then this one =/

I must be crazy...

When i started out doing the Eva, I thought i'll just fix it up and do some panel lines... now i'm thinking about painting it and creating a sort of display for it. Will this interest flare up like the Sun or will it sputter out like all the other short lived hobbies i had over my 19 years of life? Time will tell.

Anyway:

I went and got myself a styrofoam cube to play around with, plus some sandpaper for both the foam and future model kits (i'm not gonna try pulling apart the Eva again now.. its loose as it is...), plus an ULTRASMALL paintbrush with a brand new palette. yay.

On non-modelkit news, my project at work launched! Even though its been completed for awhile now i felt a huge sigh of relief as my boss thought its good enough to launch, so its a wieght off my back. Now I can concentrate on working with Phase 2. I do wish the company I'm working at does some stuff in Java or C++. Its fustrating to be trained in all those skills like programming and modelling, only to not be able to use them in this oh-so-relevant (NOT!) attachment. Not that i resent the company, but still, this would be the answer to why I look so bored at work, boss. After working on a game and a CG animation (however crappy it is), working on sharepoint is like being forced to play pacman after experiencing Mario...

I think i've broken the ice between my colleagues (wait.. are they colleagues? =/ but i'm only an intern!) after all these weeks. At least I can converse with them and joke semi-normally. What can I say I'm a shy.. make that really shy kid. *laughs* oh well.

Taking my Basic Theory Test for driving this Friday. I know this is supposed to be really easy, but i can't help but feel nervous. My brain always rebels when I try to cram information in it through memorising. bleh. I guess I can only wait and see and hope and dream and etc etc....

Thats all for today I guess? Oh yea, almost forgot. Gonna introduce a new part into my posts from today on :

Link of the Day! ~ http://www.armorama.com/ A delicious wesite chock full of beautifully crafed and painted Tanks, Planes, and Ships. Includes lots of useful tutorials and stuff for those interested =D

Signing off, Souledgar~