a little insight to SJI NPCC cadets...

this is just how i saw SJI NPCC since a sec 1, and how i see our cadets seeing it nowadays. when they first enter as cadets... after just leaving primary school, where all CCAs were taken by teachers and never by senior students, they tend not to respect the older students, as in primary school they never had to. i feel that teachers should be present right at the beginning of the trainings for sec 1s, so that the feeling of having a teacher watching over them still exists.

when they hit sec 2, they finally start to perform better, because the idea that they've got juniors hits them. and just the basic ego of performing worst than your juniors helps them improve i guess. still playful as usual, but the general squad discipline improves. mainly because they've been together for a year, so the squad chemistry is there. unfortunately this is the year where it gets kind of boring, mainly because there is nothing big really happening at this point of time for them.

sec 3, the time when the word leader comes into play. they hear it alot more times than the previous 2 years. they mature more as the environment not only at training, but also during school hours is more "leader" crazy. they see their classmates and schoolmates getting positions that grant them greater authority over the juniors and even their peers, and they eventually understand what is required of them and what the school and their seniors expect. this is also the time when intensive training really begins, but not really on the body, more like on the mind. pushing them to the limit mentally, seeing if they can really make it, and making them stronger. of course on the training side, more is expected of them, as it is with every advancing year. eventually some of them start to act, giving off false images of themselves just so that they can get the position that they want. what some of them do not realise is that the outstanding ones... have been spotted since early on, even in sec 1. past experiences have shown that those who do well since sec 1, eventually become even greater leaders in the future! but on the other hand, some become even more reserved, fearing the amount of work that they might have to do in the future. they shudder at the thought of becoming leaders, and are afraid that they'll screw up. rarely are there cadets that remain the same during this period of time.

at sec 4, hohoho the show really begins. finally they become the "bosses", and some of them shine in these circumstances. however there are a select few who become, in a way, engrossed with all this power available to them. they become egotistical, ignore their peers, try to suck up and act smart. some merely do what is required of them, but as long as it is done well there are usually little or no complaints towards them. if they seize the opportunity, they will really grow from the experience of being an NCO. they get thrown into all sorts of situations... problem cadets, planning functions and normal trainings, meeting teachers after school almost everyday of the week, basically having to do alot of other things on top of normal school work. if they let the time slip by and not do anything, they would overall have wasted their time as a sec 4, and might as well have just stayed in sec 3, where they are forced to learn.

well that's a look through of SJI NPCC life... of course it varies from cadet to cadet, but that's just an overview. it gets more interesting when u look deeper into it. Cheers.

NPCC Area 15 sec 2 ATC 2004...

basically i'll just leave statistics here again, because if i were to type out all my thoughts... you'll probably get bored and die!

number of days - 3
number of hours of sleep - 6 (buay tahan ah!!!)
number of cadets - 144
number of CIs - 19
number of TOs - never got down to counting all of them :p
number of jerry cans - 70
number of puddings eaten - about 15 i guess...
number of sets of tents - 25
number of pegs - 350
number of dowel poles bought - 120
cost of dowel poles - $72
number of candle 6-packs bought - 20
cost of candle 6-packs - $38
number of balls of twine bought - 20
amount of money ta hoong owes me - $6.80 (MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!)
number of pushups in the ENTIRE camp - 70 (during PT only...)
number of josephians who fell out BEFORE my PT - 4
number of josephians who fell out AFTER my PT - 10 (don't know what's wrong with them)

well a few first time experiences for me...
1. raising flag
2. bringing cadets on walk about ubin (i actually knew where to go!!! hahaha)
3. spending a whole hour holding tripods in a stupid game called candle warfare (thanks kah wee!!! :p )
4. sleeping on a BED at a camp...
5. bringing such a small bag for ATC (never imagined that i would one day bring such a small bag to ubin :p )

oh wellz that's all i can remember with the current amount of braincells in my head... see if i can muster the discipline to start studying this week. right now the only thing on my mind is sleep... in about 60 hours, i've only slept 6 hours. so shiok man... such shiokness until i could just fall asleep on my keyboard now, but i won't because i might end up drooling all over, which would cause problems for many people. i'm making typo errors and grammatical errors everywhere, got to keep backspacing... damn it i need braincells.

over the last 2 days been discussing with comrades the prospect of someone working with me next year... to be honest the idea of it is just scary in itself. nobody... and i mean NOBODY likes him... out of nowhere this person suddenly thinks that he can be where he wants to be, and know everything that is required of this job? i don't think so... his entire working style is wrong, and i can anticipate that he won't be able work well with ANYBODY at all...

oh lookie... mosquito bites are beginning to show and itch. hahaha... oh well surprisingly not THAT many. 1 on my leg... and 3 on my right arm. probably more will show up later, just see how lah. bed... i... need... my... bed... che... *snore*

out of reach...

won't be in Singapore (well mainland at least) until wednesday... don't bother sms-ing either... coz u might just end up sms-ing to malaysia. wonder how it will go... hopefully it goes fine... getting thrown into the heat of things rather quickly i feel, not too sure if i've got absolute control over whatever it is i'm supposed to do. don't intend to snap or go berserk... shall stay calm and focused for the benefit of the cadets. cya'll on wednesday... Cheers!!!

SJI NPCC UTC 2004...

well i'm almost to the end of my "xiong" week. 4 more days only... anywayz first time in UTC in such a free moving role. could go where i wanted when i wanted, so felt rather different for me. some of the more "exciting" and "interesting" events that i went through.

Day 1:
first day... was overseeing drills with the sec 1s... then suddenly huishan and shu fang show up for judo, and they start laughing at me :( johnsten pointed out to me coz my back was towards them. then soon my dear ronald and johnsten were going "marcus where are your gfs?" then i just gave them the diao look lah... nothing more to say. before that gave the sec 3s a planning lecture. HOPEFULLY it helped them, have no idea about that, gotta get some feedback. in the evening gave the sec 2s their PT. all stationary for them... 130 pushups, 130 situps, 100 knee ups, and 32x8 jumping jacks. did some sprints and some jumping lah... quite a number of them fell out... don't know if they're really injured or what, maybe they just cannot push themselves. anyway i think they enjoyed it. at night 4 hours of interviews... about 12.30 to 4.30. slept for 1 hour and 50 minutes that night.

Day 2:
woke up at 6.30 the next morning... dear NCOs overslept, so did the rest of the unit. anyway PT started late... wanted to whack them already. anyway left to CJ for lesson at about 9. couldn't stay awake in either chinese or econs lesson. no matter how hard i tried. once i leaned back i fell asleep... when i leaned forward my hand naturally found my head and i was falling asleep again :p rushed back once lessons ended, and i mean rushed! had my lecture on leadership and 7 core values to the sec 3s... they more or less know about the core values already lah... read the cadets manual can already. ian, chew yi, brian, ben, shawn and inami came along for the campfire. good to see that some of my squadmates still band together for outings and stuff... don't see that with other squads before mine. campfire wasn't as long as i expected, as NCOs wanted to have more times for other activities. sec 3s took their sergeant test at 11.13... was invigilating them and stuff. well all of them passed, but those i expected to do well didn't do THAT well. but well enough i guess... slept at around 2 that night.

Day 3:
got up at 5.30 for a meeting with the NCOs, jack went through some stuff that i found extremely relevant. after the meeting, absolutely could stay awake so fell asleep on the LT floor. 1 hour later i woke up when the sec 3s came. when i stood up my right leg suddenly went numb and i collapsed!!! hahaha luckily the LT chairs were there otherwise i'd have been on the floor already. sat through the lecture... HO's new system for NCOs, going to affect me greatly next year as i'll be one of the older CIs in the unit then. after that went down to our room... brian, shem, inami and shawn playing cards with a packet of chips... i gulped up quite alot of it hahaha. but it was only after tt tt i realised that breakfast was waiting on the table :p the rest of the day was rather subtle and mellow for me.

some figures for you in indulge in...
number of CITs - 1
number of PCIs - 3
number of CIs - 2
number of ex-CIs - 1
number of HIs - 1
number of times i bathed - 1
number of times i brushed my teeth - 2
number of days of camp - 3
number of hours i slept in 3 days - 8
number of CCAs having camp at the same time - 3 (hockey and SJAB too)

any other details you'd like to know... just tag me hahaha! most probably goin to NY tomorrow for last day of NCOTC, that's if i can wake up tomorrow morning lah. Cheers.

4 days down... 8 more to go...

days saturday to tuesday of my "tiring 1.5 weeks" are over. yesterday and today, lessons in the morning... really quite sian lah. felt the same level of fatigue as before the holidays, but felt more like just falling asleep. many many people in class were lying on table falling asleep. guess the words holidays mean rest, but we can't get it. physics and maths lectures on both days were... informative yet boring. fell asleep during maths lecture on both days, but somehow managed to stay awake during physics.

volleyball training on monday was ok i guess... hot and extremely windy day. digging balls was a hassle lah, go too high and they fly everywhere :p kept receiving spikes and services from coach in the cave. and just kept digging as usual. both days did more or less the same thing lah. coach taught us how to hit balls backwards... could be better i guess. did some PT right at the ends... ok lah been through worse i guess. actually to date almost any PT is better than mass PE :p hopefully my sec 2s can survive my PE during UTC... should be interesting to see how far they can push themselves... hopefully my first proper training session with them since January goes ok.

hopefully can fulfill my probation requirements by the end of next week. going to get my 50 hours in less than 3 days, and most probably going with jay jay to PK course... that means i'll be done!!! YAY!!! i want my rank by July!!! :)

still got to prepare my lectures, get ready my stuff for 2 camps, prepare my uniform, and get my bag back from cindy. somehow i think i've offended her though... ain't replying smses or msn msgs... sounds rather familiar... hmmmmm...

8 more days to go!!! after that back to books... as glenn so elegantly put it.. CHIONG SUA!!! Cheers!