Another day at home....

The idea of waking itself was quite dreadful this morning. Another day spent at home just looking at the walls and doing more Statistics for CFA. I just hope I get a job to do after the 20th of August, at least now I can console myself that I'm sitting here doing almost nothing because of some policies. However, after that I'll be just unemployed and I doubt my ego (which is about thrice the size of my head) can take such a bashing. The thought that I'm going to be 25 and still not working sucks in itself, especially when I think of my galfriends from jc who have already been working for 2years.

Last night I just had to go out somewhere so at 11.30pm, I took my dad's car and drove all the way to paya lebar airbase, which is just down the road, made a u-turn and came back home. It was a means to keep my sanity I guess. At least today I'll be going to novena and then for dinner, so there's something to look forward to. I am still waiting for that call from GE Money but if it doesn't come that's fine. I come from the school of thought where there's always something better ahead so if I don't get something its cos something better is coming ahead.

I truly understand the sentiments of unemployed men, it just eats into u when u start to think how u are just sitting and doing nothing. Contributing nothing to yourself and others......Well I found a quote to make me feel better for the next 3 weeks, I'm sure many would agree....

'All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.'
-Aristotle

Off Day

Today is the first day of my long block off. I'll be the last batch that would be able to clear in such a manner since I planned before the directive was out. Since I can't work now, I've got to sit home and slack the whole time. Just studied for my CFA and I guess that's what I would be doing for the rest of day besides going for a run in the evening.

Victor edited one of the convo pics which I thought was pretty good so putting it up here. The rest of the pics are on the Picasa site and the link is on one of the previous postings.

Last working day...

Yesterday, was finally my last working day. The day was spent slacking around the office as there was really nothing to do. Anyway, told staff ridzwan that it was last working day and all. While in camp, cpl edmund (part of the ORD cpl quartet) showed me this video of 3 very talented kids. I have the video on my computer but found it on youtube and am posting it here for u guys to see it.



Got more convo pics from Daniel yesterday and I've finally put them all up on Picasa. This is the url:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rsvignesh82

Just got back from temple not too long ago and its raining like mad so I just feel like sleeping. I think going back to the army has made me more lazy, at any given chance, I just want to slack around or sleep. Got to plan my study plan during the block leave so that i'll finish a considerable portion of my CFA stuff.

Post convo..

It was almost 10pm when I got home yesterday after the convo, was too tired to post an entry after all that. Convo went fine and I think the ntu staff should be given credit for the way they organised the whole affair. It was so smooth with no hiccups at all. It was almost 2hours and by the end I was fidgeting like hell. I haven't gotten all the photos from the covo yet as some of it are on Cpl(NS) Victor Tan's camera and he's currently on ICT. A sure way to ensure some stupidity remains by making u wear your beret, helmet, jungle cap etc. I'd probably put the photos up on Picasa or something. The only pic I'm posting is with srikanth, the guy with whom I'm going to Sydney for my masters.

Yesterday afternoon, I got an email with the confirmed acceptance for the Masters. So I'm confirm going to Sydney in Feb 2008. At least something concrete in my life. I look forward to the change in life and being independent without my family or maid to depend on. I'll surely miss home and definitely my gf but at least she's supportive of me going and wants the best for me.

Had to rush to camp at 7am this morning cos we were the conducting band for ippt. Anyway after the muster parade, cpl albert and i went for breakfast and then went to seek the ninja. Ninja is the call sign of the store woman whom we were supposed to meet today for dekitting. Anyway, I have no no.1 or instrument so I can't be deployed for anything, technically at least.

Pre-covo...

Yesterday, I had an interview at GE Money for the position of direct sales officer. The lady who was supposed to interview me had to go off somewhere urgently and the guy who did interview me was reading my resume for the first time. So I had to tell him all I knew about GE Money while he read up. Thank goodness I did my research. Anyway it was pretty OK lets just see if I get called for the next round.

Well today is convocation. After 4years of working like a dog today is the day. Anyway, I don't feel any great sense of excitement just want to get over and done with it. Some relative of mine pulled some strings with big shots in NTU to get 2 extra tickets. I feel damn fucking screwed about it especially since all my friends are dying to just get 1 ticket for their bro or sis.

I guess the next post of mine would be with all the convo pics. I'm yet to iron my stuff so I shall go and do that.

ORD function

Today, I had my ORD function. I was the oldest guy to ORD and staff jeanny had to emphasise "posted to the band on 18 June 2001 and ORD on the 19 August 2007". Anyway got the plaque from the CO and then had to give my ORD speech, which I wasn't planning to do.

Since I hardly know the people around, I just thanked the current management and then thanked all the people who were running the band back in 2001-2003. After university and all, I am totally convinced that the happiest years and most memorable days in my life were those 2 years I spent in Band B at TAB. Any former TAB personnel reading this would surely agree with me. It was a pity that staff ridzwan wasn't able to attend cos some supplier had come. He's the epitome of the 7th SAF core value, CARE FOR SOLDIERS. Always treated us like equals instead of pulling rank with us and he always had a way to make sure we all respected him and did any work that he wanted us to do. I still remember being scolded by him for not collecting library scores from someone, I really had the daylights blasted out of me for that. If there's something I learnt as an NSF that would be useful in my working life, it would be have to be the tact staff ridzwan has in getting people to work for him. He's so good at it that I've got to admire him for it. Its a pity that people don't get the recoginition they deserve just cos they dun want to carry balls to all the big shots.

Got an interview tomorrow evening so lets see how it goes. I'm just one day away from convocation. I just want to get through it actually, I think its my parents who are more excited not me.

After 3 days...

Its been 3 days since I've posted anything, just busy and sian to post anything. On Thursday and Friday, I had my last parade. We did a change of command parade. The parade was about 45 mins and quite alright, especially since there were cute dogs on parade too so I just entertained myself by watching them. Got an investment banking operations offer on Friday while I was driving to my Audiometry test and then the agent told me that I can't work while clearing leave and this was something that I didn't know. Upon returning to camp I checked it out with Encik and found out its true. I was damn disappointed by it and felt misearble all Friday and was just bitching about it. So I'll be home for sometimes just slacking but it'll be a good opportunity to study for my CFA exams. I'm still not through the first book and there are 6 in total.

On Saturday, my dad's new car was being delivered so went with him to collect it. He got the Honda CRV instead of another continental car mainly because we have stopped travelling to KL that often. It was nice driving an SUV but there was the blind spot problem which my brother indicated about in the showroom itself. He's in ns and now on course to be a transport sup. so he's spent countless hours driving the Landrover Defender and the 5 tonne trucks up and down the expressways. After the merc and BMW, this car feels very light to drive and though it has a 2.4liter engine the power isn't as good as the 520's 2 liter engine. But it was time for the 520 to go, the maintenance in 2006 alone cost my dad $14k. Anyway, I've posted some pics of the car taken with my hand phone.

Tomorrow is my ORD function, so for the countless hours I spent under the sun doing parades I'll get a small medallion looking thing. There's supposed to be a speech but I don't intend to give one because I hardly know anyone. Probably the only person I'd really want to thank for these few weeks would be staff tham and for the 2 years in TAB would be staff ridzwan.

Mid-Week

Finally got my ORD planner settled today, for those who haven't had a chance to become stupid by wearing a combat helmet, ORD planner is just a calender where u plan all your off and leave so that the management knows for how long you won't be around.

There was the hair cut saga today with the 2nd biggest man in the unit(the one whom we can't salute cos he's not commissioned). He refused to sign Donn's clearance form cos his hair was not short enough. Being the man in charge of the regimentation in the unit he said that he can't have a person leaving his unit with such long hair. He signed mine though thanks to the jarhead haircut I got a few weeks back. Everyone at the smoking point, where this incident happened was shocked to the core. Donn is a Batch 43 guy like myself is the last of the disruptees from TAB to come back into band b and he has just 7days to ORD. Some 15 minutes later, the big man walks back and calls Donn aside and signs his clearance. So what caused the change? The ORD corporals are still discussing about the factors which might have caused this sudden change in his state of mind. Perhaps, tomorrow I'll put up the 10 most probable factors which might have caused this change.

Was on afternoon off today and spent the day sending out resumes and catching up on some sleep. I was supposed to go out for dinner but because of some family stuff she couldn't make it.

I am contemplating buying a mac book and would like some feedback from mac users. I hardly play games and I'm buying it for my studies and would only require office for it. Anyway, with the Intel core windows can be installed so I would do that. Leave me your feedback on the comments.

Donn was telling me about this Indian thriller video on youtube...quite funny....its in Telugu....

Ego Bashing....

This afternoon I got a call from a recruitment agent offering me a job at Citibank in consumer banking. She even wanted me to come down for the interview and perhaps sign the contract today. Then she dropped the bomb that the contract was for 1 year which I couldn't fulfil. How sad is that???

So the cycle continues....calling agents asking them the same thing "is this opening for fresh grads?" and then sending them my resume. I have sent almost 40++ applications but yet to get anything....

Now I understand the psychology of unemployed men....its a damn sad and depressing feeling. What an ego bashing.....

PhD.....

It has been almost 5 months since i applied to NTU to do my PhD and got no response, the website always said 'Application under consideration'. So I was all set about going to Sydney hoping that I'll be the next Head of Investment Banking at GS or something.

Then I get a missed call this afternoon and it says A/P Ooi. When I returned his call he was all ecstatic and went, "Vignesh, can u start on yr PhD this August?". I was stunned and told him that I still haven't been accepted and that's when he told me that he held back my application due to the lack of funding and went "its a fully paid scholarship plus u'll be a TA and get a stipend for that. We can work on something else not necessarily two-phase flow*". I had no choice to tell him that I was having second thoughts about the PhD and wanted to do something else. But this is so good that its making me think twice, doesn't Dr.R S Vignesh sound good?? But it would mean having to spend the rest of my life working in some university doing research and teaching punks who'd rather be in their hostel room nailing their gf than listening to me talk about Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer or Fluid Mechanics.

I'm in a fix now. As soon as he got the funding from the HOD he called me immediately and he had lots of hope and spent lots of time grooming me into what he called a student with 'outstanding research potential' but now I'm just walking away. I feel a moral delimma now as if i've turned my back on someone who believed in me greatly.

So what should I do? Will the opportunity cost of turning the phd or the masters be greater in 10years?? I wish i could see the future.

*Two-phase flow was what I did for my FYP. Two-phase i.e. gas in liquid or solid in liquid flow. People have spent their entire lifetime researching stuff like this.

More off!!!

Just got home from the Turf Club performance. Nothing too great compared to the SIA cup. There were just some ang moh gals in the owners stand but nothing too great. For the first time I saw some north indian gals but they were with their husbands and all had this real stuck up face. Anyway 1 day of off in the pocket.

The great news came when staff told us (referring to the ORD corporals) that there's 3 days of incentive off for those who had 100% attendance for the big parade held on the 1st of July. Encik also gave us another half day off since we have to go for audiometry on Friday and then work late. So I have another 3.5days of off to squeeze into my ORD planner. As an NSF, off is the only thing in life that is really worth looking forward to....

ORD LOH!!!

Sunday....

I haven't posted anything the last two days mainly bcos I haven't done much the last 2 days. Friday the 13th was an off day which I spent slacking at home and then went to temple in the evening as it was my Brother's birthday. Saturday was spent slacking as well.

While looking through youtube this morning I came across this video. For those who aren't from NTU, this is the 'great' university where I got my education from. For the record, I was part of that bunch who rushed into the library every morning at 0830hrs to book the table with all my books. I hated that self centered behaviour many students showed and these are supposed to be civilised and educated people. Sometimes you wonder what have they really gained out their education besides the grades.



Got to leave to camp in a while for my Turf Club performance. It would be the last time I'll get to wear the No.1 for the rest of my life. Having mixed feelings about it, on one hand I'm happy that I'm going to ORD but on the other wearing No.1 is something not many get a chance at.

Weekend is here....

Today was another slack day at camp. Just spent the entire morning studying for CFA and the afternoon was spent slacking with the other 2 chao corporals. Since most people were off for the day there were just 6 of us around.

Got a new pair of formal shoes as my old one just tore. Got it from India for Rs3500 so I guess it was pretty worth it considering it lasted 3 years. Well this was the first time I'm wearing a size 7 shoe, I guess Italians have huge feet. Since GSS is on there was 40% off so it was good deal. Dinner was at Thai Express but the one at Raffles City is damn packed but the food was nice. There were 2 really cute gals in the family beside us, they looked between 3-5 years old and they were playing scissors, paper, stone while waiting for the food....really damn cute!

Tomorrow is off-in-lieu for the big day on the 1st of July so it'll be a good chance to send out resumes and study for CFA. Haven't gone to Novena this week as well so tomorrow I'll have to go there as well.

A change in the daily routine...

This morning I was on off so that I could go back to school to collect my certificate, transcript, invitation cards to the convocation and my gown. The sales woman for the gown tried to confuse the daylights out of me by trying her best to talk me into getting one of their packages. Anyway,I decided not to get any of those and just go at a later date to take the photo.

It was great going back to school after such a long time. Finally, I got to see gals in short skirts and tank tops (something local unis are famous for) this was a stark contrast to the 'gals' in camp. 'Gals' here reffering to the confused people whom I happen to spend my days with in camp, people who are confused about their sexuality.

Vincent passed me the beautiful Green Tara Thangka which he got for me from Tibet. I'll post the picture when I get down to taking its photo. Then Vincent, Ajith and I had lunch at Quad. It was great having the chicken udon after a long long time. I miss school.

Afternoon was spent in camp playing soccer from 1330-1600hrs, towards the end it was a chore to even run after the ball.

Countdown: 13 working days left

One of those days in Band B....

Today was a highly dramatic day in Band B. First, it started out with Encik opening the office which anyone of that rank wouldn't be too happy about. Hence, he had his first Monday morning inspection in Band B, I guess to vent his frustrations but it was laced with politically correct reasons in typical army fashion. Of course now there are people who don't iron their uniform or even brush their shoes compared to my era (2001-2003).

Then some Duty Officer who didn't have much to do went to check if the bunks were locked and found 3 bunks unlocked. One of the bunks had a spoilt lock which they never reported, don't ask why. Probably the bunk I/C was too busy modifying his Honda Jazz. So we all had a long lecture for that.

Then came the grand finale of all. We found out the 'confidential' reason behind the no.1 inspection this morning. We had to support Band A in their anniversary parade because some big shot felt the band was too small, by the way this never happened in my era too cos we had more than enough people. Maybe the Bands need foreign talent too, like the rest of Singapore to make do for the lack of manpower. So 13 'lucky' guys were given then 'option' of going down for the parade to support Band A.

All of this happened at the morning muster parade. Then of course in typical bandsmen style everyone was bitching away over breakfast which was followed by full band for Turf Club. Same old Thunderer and Obladi its a matter of time before they ask for the band to play new stuff. The full band was followed by a talk by our beloved Staff who decided they'll be area cleaning and bunk inspection so as to knock the 'sing cheows' (new birds or juniors) out of their honeymoon. Anyway that's all the day was about.

Tomorrow is D-Day for all the bunks as there is bunk inspection, the last time we had that at TAB, Staff Radin (now Master) was more interested in seeing my collage of FHM gals on the wall that he never bothered inspecting the bunk. Bunk 11 was famous for that...free flow of FHM, PS and the only smoker friendly bunk. Of course at night we had visitors from the other dimension who visited us too....

Sunday

Its another Sunday, a day before the whole cycle of going back to camp starts. Just got back from the market....saw this 'cool' dude who found Tekka market too bright and so he had to wear shades to protect his eyes.

At least I don't have to go back to camp today. Last Sunday was SAF Day, an entire day spent waiting at SAFTI-MI. The parade started at 1700hrs but we had to report at 0800hrs, went to SAFTI for one rehearsal which the parade RSM said was going to be a "truncated full round" (anyone can make sense of this? wear your beret and then think you might figure it out). Me being the ORD Corporal just collected ration on behalf of a Sergent who was too busy attending to other more 'important' matters.

Next Sunday, we've got to perform at the Turf Club. We get paid $40 per performance (high by NSF standards) and typically would do two performance. Our holding area is beside the punters, where you see low income Singaporeans blow their money away on a testosterone raged horse while smoking their lungs away. However, on the other side is the owners stand. This is where the stable owners are seated while their horses are racing and of cos where there are men with money there are hot babes. Babes in their little sundresses and hats, you wonder if such beautiful women do really exist in the world. Anyway, I might not have to play for it because Staff Tham knows very well that I am not going to come back for some dinner that they'll have to use this money. Well the policy is that the cash cannot be paid out to us but has to be used on things like food or going to Sentosa (that's what we did back in 2002 when I was in Band B).

First Post

This is something that I have resisted doing for a long time...yes blogging. However, now as an NSF (again after 4 years) my mind is totally void of anything except how to earn off and how to be reserve in the next parade, so I thought I'll record these wasteful thoughts in the annals of history.

When previous disruptees said that after coming back from uni NS life seems different, I always thought its a load of crap but now I have begun to subscribe to that chain of thought. It is different especially when you find it hard to 'click' with 20 year olds. I've stopped thinking of Newton's 2nd law anymore, now its about when is the next parade and how many rehearsals there are. Luckily, there are the 4 ORD Corporals of Band B, the infamous 4 whom Staff Tham sees as a sign of trouble whenever go to him as a group. These guys are close to my age and there's Albert who's been 'lucky' enough to go through the 'great' NTU brand of education.

After quite sometime, there is a weekend without work. All I look forward to is the 31st of July, which is my last working day.

Countdown: 16 working days left