At least that's what it says on the badge.
Exciting week. Posted to Armour from SCS last week, was to report to Sungei Gedong camp. Met Shun Xiang and Charles there, my good friends from BMT and SCS, and we all lamented on becoming armour infantry. Went to reception to sign against our names. First clue, my name wasn't there. We jokingly brushed it aside and continued on. Getting to the form up point, we notice a lone figure standing off to the side with a piece of paper. He's asking those passing by if their name was on the paper. Most people look curiously and leave. I break off from my group to check it out, and surprisingly, my name was on it. I'm immediately pushed into a lecture theater with a few other bored people. There's a nominal roll going around. The vocation title is Tank Ldr, second clue. When everyone arrives, the staff sergeant tells us we're going to be Tank Commanders. Strike three. At this point, it seemed like a surreal dream.
So they sent us over to do some psychomotor tests. There were 24 of us there. The tests were actually somewhat challenging, even for all my years of video games. The instructors' faces could be craved from stone, this was clearly serious business. 3 failed, 2 nearly so. Those who failed went back to Armour Infantry with a memory, in exchange for 3 others. With that, we were officially tankees, armour's elite. Joined the Tank Commander Wing.
Our training is gonna be 20 weeks, including an overseas operation and CAT term in SCS. The schedule is super packed. The lessons, actually quite difficult, almost NUS High standard. Our accommodations are pretty nice, working washing machine, a recreation room with TV, 8 people per bunk. The showers are kinda warm too, not hot, but not ice cold either.
Unfortunately, no one else whom I know made it. For the first time, no NUSHS, no BMT, no SCS. I'm completely on my own now. My buddy is a pretty nice guy though. He's a regular, done infantry pro term already lol, he's gonna be a 3SG next friday. He's going through TCC too. He was a pilot drop out, so he's pretty good at everything. Rivals me in technical skill and knowledge haha.
The Leopard tank is still a pretty new thing, not many Leopard tank crews out there, so a lot of the training is secret, so I can't write too much about it here. Very easy to get confined in TCW. Even just dozing off is confinable, so is failing any tests. Ms Sie's house next week, so must try my very best not to get confined XD Not easy when next week, we're learning to drive the 55 ton behemoth. Bloody hell. Not even a basic theory test here, just get right in and drive the damn thing.
Feeling pretty guilty right now. Everyone's birthdays are coming and going, and I haven't even started present shopping yet. Oh well. Hopefully I'll get some time to go next week.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Block leave is really the best. It lets you completely forget about NS, eat ice cream and watch funny videos on youtube. We should have 2 days of block leave every 8 weeks. I think that's the optimum.
16 weeks. The year is actually passing pretty fast. It seems almost too soon that I'm being whisked away from SCS and into a new alien unit. I was starting to really enjoy my bunk mates this time. Couldn't say the same about Lima company though. In BMT, there are Kestrel, Ninja and Taurus survivors. In SCS, there are Delta and Lima survivors. I'm just glad we were out of there before it got too crazy. I guess when you pass through the week as an unconscious blur, like wake up training sleep rinse and repeat, and look forward to every bookout which passes by waayyyy too fast, the weeks pass by like a flash.
Foundation term. Hmmmmm.... I guess it was pretty good. The sergeants in Tekong were right though, nothing is better than BMT. Seriously, guys in BMT, TREASURE EVERY DAMNED MOMENT. Everywhere else in the SAF can't get better than BMT. I guess the most alien thing about SCS at first was the tempo. It was a ridiculous mess of a tempo. On some days, a slow mournful march of cleaning rifles and playing dota and sleeping at 9pm. On other days, a chaotic symphony of SECTION CHARGE and sleeping in hastily dug shellscrapes at 1am. Another thing about BMT, you always get your 7 hours of sleep. Everywhere else, you can get 6 hours of sleep in 3 days, or 12 hours of sleep in 1 day. Training is hard, but fun. You learn all sorts of cool stuff and actually feel like you have a fighting chance in a war now. Can't post much about this in here, but needless to say, Modern Warfare 3 is going to get a lot easier.
Armor Training Institute. My new home for the next 6 months. Hope its nice. Lima company was bloody far from the cookhouse. But the cookhouse had a canteen and gift shop on top, so we could have a canteen break anytime we wanted. The food at the cookhouse was crap though, so we got sambal fried rice and cheese fries every chance we got. People say Armor infantry is pretty tough, but I guess I'm quite ok with that. I usually don't volunteer for tough things, but when the tough thing comes my way, I usually surprise myself by getting though it quite well. I guess I think too much. That's what a trainer told me once. "All you JC kids are the same, you think about how many more rounds, or how much more difficult than my last time. Sometimes, all you need is to do is stop thinking and focus on the task at hand." Some part of me wishes I stayed in Infantry though, go back to Tekong to take care of the recruits.
Block leave! Not much I'm afraid, other than NEW VEGAS. All the way. Finally got the last 2 DLCs, Lonesome Road and Old World Blues. Really saved myself the best for last. Old World Blues > Lonesome Road > Honest Hearts > Dead Money.
Dead Money was, ehh. The Villa seriously creeped me out with the Ghost People and the environment itself, being on par with Amnesia and Bioshock. But inside the Sierra Madre Casino, things were bleh. The cloud actually discouraged exploration, contrary to a Fallout game. Only redeeming things were the gold bars in the safe and the HOLORIFLE+, the most game breaking weapon ever.
Honest Hearts was ok. The map was beautiful. The Grand Canyon was rendered beautifully and the park was wonderful to walk and explore. The story was alright, rather black and white unfortunately, but furthering Nevada's story a lot more. But a moral dilemma whether to stand your ground and fight, losing your innocence, or flee your home but keep your morals. I fought, obviously. More exp in there XD Crap weapons though. Oh oh. Really touching story of Randall Clark, I really felt for him when he finally died, even though I only knew him from holotapes.
Lonesome Road. The map, as suggested by the title, is quite linear, but quite refreshing. Ruined buildings, like really ruined, on its side and tilting, all fully explorable, very satisfying break from the flat emptiness of the Mojave. The weapons are huge and unwieldy, but bloody fun to use. Ulysses as an antagonist was, interesting. His speech pattern was a bit annoying at first but grew on me later. Really useful stuff in here, lots of money too. Made a 100,000 caps on weapons alone. This DLC promised an origin story for The Courier, but we didn't really see that at all. Ulysses just said "Oh you used to live here." and that's it. "Who are you, who does not know your history?" Et tu Courier? Oh and you get radio reception here, full playlist of Mojave Music. YES.
Old World Blues. Really the best. I remember exploring the Vaults of Fallout, all of them were ruthless experiments on living people. Stepping cautiously into the vault, discovering its secrets, and the nature of its experiments. Take that multiplied by 50 and that's Old World Blues. The characters are likeable, and memorable. The plot actually surprised me at the end, many games don't do that anymore. Weapons and armor are awesome, and really well designed. Has its own soundtrack! 5 new tracks of really good jazz.
Not much to do after all the DLC. I think I'll try a new playthough, this time, a Caesar's Legion stealth assassin, melee weapons and unarmed only. Playthough number 5 haha. Maybe some Rollercoaster Tycoon after that.
Booking in tomorrow at 0745. Hopefully I'll bookout on Friday. Hopefully.
16 weeks. The year is actually passing pretty fast. It seems almost too soon that I'm being whisked away from SCS and into a new alien unit. I was starting to really enjoy my bunk mates this time. Couldn't say the same about Lima company though. In BMT, there are Kestrel, Ninja and Taurus survivors. In SCS, there are Delta and Lima survivors. I'm just glad we were out of there before it got too crazy. I guess when you pass through the week as an unconscious blur, like wake up training sleep rinse and repeat, and look forward to every bookout which passes by waayyyy too fast, the weeks pass by like a flash.
Foundation term. Hmmmmm.... I guess it was pretty good. The sergeants in Tekong were right though, nothing is better than BMT. Seriously, guys in BMT, TREASURE EVERY DAMNED MOMENT. Everywhere else in the SAF can't get better than BMT. I guess the most alien thing about SCS at first was the tempo. It was a ridiculous mess of a tempo. On some days, a slow mournful march of cleaning rifles and playing dota and sleeping at 9pm. On other days, a chaotic symphony of SECTION CHARGE and sleeping in hastily dug shellscrapes at 1am. Another thing about BMT, you always get your 7 hours of sleep. Everywhere else, you can get 6 hours of sleep in 3 days, or 12 hours of sleep in 1 day. Training is hard, but fun. You learn all sorts of cool stuff and actually feel like you have a fighting chance in a war now. Can't post much about this in here, but needless to say, Modern Warfare 3 is going to get a lot easier.
Armor Training Institute. My new home for the next 6 months. Hope its nice. Lima company was bloody far from the cookhouse. But the cookhouse had a canteen and gift shop on top, so we could have a canteen break anytime we wanted. The food at the cookhouse was crap though, so we got sambal fried rice and cheese fries every chance we got. People say Armor infantry is pretty tough, but I guess I'm quite ok with that. I usually don't volunteer for tough things, but when the tough thing comes my way, I usually surprise myself by getting though it quite well. I guess I think too much. That's what a trainer told me once. "All you JC kids are the same, you think about how many more rounds, or how much more difficult than my last time. Sometimes, all you need is to do is stop thinking and focus on the task at hand." Some part of me wishes I stayed in Infantry though, go back to Tekong to take care of the recruits.
Block leave! Not much I'm afraid, other than NEW VEGAS. All the way. Finally got the last 2 DLCs, Lonesome Road and Old World Blues. Really saved myself the best for last. Old World Blues > Lonesome Road > Honest Hearts > Dead Money.
Dead Money was, ehh. The Villa seriously creeped me out with the Ghost People and the environment itself, being on par with Amnesia and Bioshock. But inside the Sierra Madre Casino, things were bleh. The cloud actually discouraged exploration, contrary to a Fallout game. Only redeeming things were the gold bars in the safe and the HOLORIFLE+, the most game breaking weapon ever.
Honest Hearts was ok. The map was beautiful. The Grand Canyon was rendered beautifully and the park was wonderful to walk and explore. The story was alright, rather black and white unfortunately, but furthering Nevada's story a lot more. But a moral dilemma whether to stand your ground and fight, losing your innocence, or flee your home but keep your morals. I fought, obviously. More exp in there XD Crap weapons though. Oh oh. Really touching story of Randall Clark, I really felt for him when he finally died, even though I only knew him from holotapes.
Lonesome Road. The map, as suggested by the title, is quite linear, but quite refreshing. Ruined buildings, like really ruined, on its side and tilting, all fully explorable, very satisfying break from the flat emptiness of the Mojave. The weapons are huge and unwieldy, but bloody fun to use. Ulysses as an antagonist was, interesting. His speech pattern was a bit annoying at first but grew on me later. Really useful stuff in here, lots of money too. Made a 100,000 caps on weapons alone. This DLC promised an origin story for The Courier, but we didn't really see that at all. Ulysses just said "Oh you used to live here." and that's it. "Who are you, who does not know your history?" Et tu Courier? Oh and you get radio reception here, full playlist of Mojave Music. YES.
Old World Blues. Really the best. I remember exploring the Vaults of Fallout, all of them were ruthless experiments on living people. Stepping cautiously into the vault, discovering its secrets, and the nature of its experiments. Take that multiplied by 50 and that's Old World Blues. The characters are likeable, and memorable. The plot actually surprised me at the end, many games don't do that anymore. Weapons and armor are awesome, and really well designed. Has its own soundtrack! 5 new tracks of really good jazz.
Not much to do after all the DLC. I think I'll try a new playthough, this time, a Caesar's Legion stealth assassin, melee weapons and unarmed only. Playthough number 5 haha. Maybe some Rollercoaster Tycoon after that.
Booking in tomorrow at 0745. Hopefully I'll bookout on Friday. Hopefully.
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