God.
Comfort.
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Have we not lifted up your heart and relieved you of the burden which weighed down your back?
Have We not given you high renown?
With every hardship there is ease. With every hardship there is ease.
When your prayers are ended resume your toil, and seek your Lord with all fervour.
94:1, Al-Inshirah, Comfort.

Today.
Faith. Never under-estimate the power of prayers.
I’m grateful for everything.
Thank YOU.
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Way to go! Finally, some form of recognition for the specialists of the Singapore Armed Forces. Yeah, we don’t have anything glamourous, prestigious, fancy presidential parades, commisioning balls, swords, or even the so-called “honour and pride” that the rank is tagged to, unlike the officers, however, I believe some form of initiative to improve the stature of the specialists is important, in the SAF’s transformation towards a 3rd Generation Armed Forces.

I have always been, and will continue to be proud of being a specialist. Contrary to popular belief that a spec is nothing more but the group of leaders that are constantly being trapped in between the orders of their superiors and the demands of their men, we play a much more important and crucial role. We connect, we bridge the relationships of the two. Not always an easy task, but we do it still, and sometimes for a hefty cost of extras and confinements. Hence the abbreviation, SISPEC: Suffer In Silence, Plus Extra Confinements. Although it was meant for – School of Infantry Specialists.

It is the less prestigious and glamourous SAFTI – where they train the officers. Well, what the general community do not know is that we do the exact same stuff, we learn from the same manual, we were taught by experienced leaders of the SAF and we worked just as hard to get the chevrons. Was it easy? A walk in the park? Nah. Certainly not.

But the level of recognition pegged to being a specialist is somewhat not justified. Why? It is because, we are a society that thirst for ranks and stature. For one thing, previously, there was no clear distinction, while we were in SISPEC – bslc, aslc and astw - about us being trainees. The officers had the OCT rank while we have the similar corporal ranks that anyone, outside of sispec wears on their shoulders. So, nothing pretty much special. Only those who worked hard and strive for it will be able to experience it, silently, among themselves of the struggles and challenges that they face.

After a long year of ord-ing, I’m truly glad that I was informed of the introduction of the new cadet specialist ranks. It may seem to be a small, what’s-so –special-about-it step, but for those who were once part of it all, trying very hard to uphold and elevate the reputation of the specialists core, it is certainly a significant move.

The specialist cadet rank reflects the expanded scope and influence of section commanders. It also recognises the intensive training they go through and the greater demands expected of them as they lead men into battle. (CNA)

Being a specialist is a truly rewarding experience, satisfying and fulfilling experience. But it’s really too bad that society in general have yet to see and acknowledge the responsibilities and tasks that we do, beyond the ranks that we wear on our sleeves. Nonetheless, we still do lead with pride.



the new Cadet Specialist Rank
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If I remember correctly, I think I was overly excited when I pointed out the constellation, orion (for real, without any pretence!) while we were having the BBQ that day. So yeah, now I’m back to give further explanations to that, because I was pretty sure most, if not all of them present didn’t even managed to locate the constellation. Here are the explanations with pictures!

Alright, for starters, the orion happens to be among one of the many constellations (leo, aries, taurus, gemini and etc) that line the galaxy and that it is actually a possible task to locate them by the unaided eye. However, due to Singapore’s brightly lit city landscape, locating these constellations could prove to be quite a headache. Nonetheless, it is still possible, if you happen to be in an area that is reasonably dark.

Basically, orion, according to Greek Mythology, was a gigantic hunter of primodial times. One of the myths suggest that orion was killed by this pretty huge scorpion, while another mentioned that orion was actually chasing after Pleiades - the seven sisters , the daughters of some renowned Greek gods who were kind of drop dead gorgeous. But then again, that’s besides the point. Coincidentally, these seven sisters were represented in the night sky by a cluster, dominated by hot blue stars, otherwise known as the AKA M45 - Pleiades. Another trivia to this: The seven sisters are rather popular these days because they embrace the logos of modern cars, SUBARU - the japanese name for Pleiades. Apparently too, old texts such as the Bible, Quran and others did mentioned the existence of such a constellation. In the Quran, according to the Islamic Scholars, refered the Pleiades as At-Thuraiya, Star of Najm.


The SUBARU logo depicts the 6 stars that are visible by the unaided eye. However, in reality, it is really quite possible to see all 7 of them. The small 5 stars in the logo represent the 5 smaller companies that merged to become one large company.


So why is orion a popular constellation? From what I’ve gathered, there are 2 general reasons. Firstly, from the orion constellation, we’re able to locate, with the use of the telescope of course, the home of the famous nebulae – the Horsehead Nebula. You have to zoom towards the Alnitak star of the orion belt in the constellation to see that horse head. Below is a picture of the renowed Horsehead nebula as well as the star Alnitak.



Secondly, the constellation orion – a very prominent sight in the night sky, allows the identification of other celestial objects. Among them, is the winter triangle, as shown below.


I’m pretty sure, one might ask, why in the world do 3 stars in a line, enclosed by a rectangle represent a Greek individual – orion. How does it even represent a human figure? what more a hunter with a sword and a belt! Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense initially to me at first but I guessed, it was the creativity of the old, really old people back then, that allowed us to have a clearer vision of what was seen in the night sky. They needed to relate it to something so that it could be translated to the children of future generations. These “really old” guys really do have a talent for coming up with complex images by drawing lines that joined the dots in the sky. It can be quite a headache to attempt to visualise something so abstract, in say an image of 6 dots!


Nonetheless, we owe their creative minds, curiosity and surprisingly detailed observational studies of the sky for the modern day science, we call astronomy.

That’s something new, we can learn today!
Waiting for a star to fall :)
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Heyy!

So, yes. It seems I’m pretty much disgusted by the actions of some people. But, let’s just move to happy thoughts. I have to admit, I can’t sleep early anymore. My biological clock is somewhat affected by episodes of FRIENDS, Brothers & Sisters as well as Grey’s Anatomy. So yeah, here I am all awake at 3 in the morning. Results wll be out in a few hours and the wait hasn’t been fun at all. I was never good at dealing with results – not specifically to academics, but basically to everything. Well, i hope it will be fine.

The hols have been rather less interesting than I envisioned it to be while I was preparing for my exams but I guessed it turned out okay – not overly enjoyable or interesting, but decently well. Meeting with army /school friends/cousins for meals were great, as I get to learn a little more about how their lives have changed or have been. Nonetheless, I still wanna meet up with some more people – my JC friends, as well as the guards people - shawn, hao wei, gerald, tee, yangjie, ben and the list goes on. Yeah, I’m still working on our free slots but hopefully it could happen before twenty-o-nine.

+++

Well, the BBQ last Saturday went well and I must say, it was quite a success. Planning was rather crazy but the execution was smooth. Almost all the cousins, well at least those that were invited & wanted them to attend did, so it wasn’t awkward – the company was great. Met “new additions” like pumpkin ( I don’t really know why the term pumpkin, because.. despite all that veggie code that they seem to be having, pumpkin doesn’t seem at all that flattering, especially for a girl.) Nonetheless, she appears to be quite an interesting person to chat with, pleasant and very cousin-in-law material: goody, smarty pants, not at all wild, pleasant personality, courteous and polite. Yeah, good stuff going on there hariz. Anyways, I wish you guys all the best :)

Relationship chats were not gossipy, surprisingly – well at least among the few cousins who have nothing to hide and see no harm in discussing stuff publicly. And as it appears, the sharing of ideologies and commitment took center stage for conversations. It was intriguing.

One of them mentioned this – people whom you date are usually those that you don’t really envision being married to. It’s like you date this hot girl, but the one you are marrying is the decent one. Well, honestly when they were discussing about it, I somewhat agree. Hahaha. Yeah, come to think about it, it seems quite true. However, it is still open to discussions.

Ilyas has been mentioning several times that my list of must-haves of a girlfriend is in reality not possible. But then again, it doesn’t hurt to search! Whatever it may be, it will happen when it happens. Wait.

Embracing singlehood! :)
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i rarely, in fact, i don't post things like this. but i think i have to pen it down somewhere and get it out of my system.


yes. i'm totally disgusted.
its like, in a really disgusting way. gosh. wth, just what is going on in ur heads? respect.
probably i am freaking out, but here's the deal - i'm truly shocked and disgusted.

seriously. spare me the awkwardness.
and if it does eventually happens, which seems highly probable, it will take me a while to be supportive and accepting of your decisions. and, one more thing, i don't care how or what you look like, but here's it - i'm just disturbed and astounded by YOUR actions.

c'mon, stop the suggestive photos and get a room.
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“It is not a religious story at all,” she said of Muallaf. “It’s about coping with a difficult past, how we all have crap in our lives. It’s about how different people cope with it differently. Some cope by being hateful and shutting themselves in. Some cope by forgiving, others by being brave. This is about how the brave help draw out those who shut themselves in and help them reconcile with their ghosts.” Yasmin Ahmad.


i've watched it.
i've watched the youtube videos of her press conference at cathay two weeks ago.
and, i loved it.


a story about humanity, more than anything else.
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"..At the end of the day, when it comes down to it, all we really want is to be close to somebody. So this thing, where we all keep our distance and pretend not to care about each other, is usually a load of bull. So we pick and choose who we want to remain close to, and once we've chosen those people, we tend to stick close by. No matter how much we hurt them, the people that are still with you at the end of the day - those are the ones worth keeping. And sure, sometimes close can be too close. But sometimes, that invasion of personal space, it can be exactly what you need.."


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for some strange reason, i think i've lost the cam-whoring spirit in me! LOL. i think it is all thanks to FACEBOOK! it's like nowadays, we are faced with the immense pressure of taking THE FACEBOOK WORTHY pictures. pictures that make people go: woah. i'm jealous. let's do this. wth?! what were they thinking. yes, i know you having a lot of fun idiot. yes, you love yourself. yes, i totally know what message you are trying to put across. OMG, she/he did that? gosh, get a life. those shots are so 90s. they are damn lame. WHAT?! i can't believe it. they are so bloddy rich. they are so pretending to have fun. luckily, i didn't attent that event and be part of the trying-hard-not-to-make-it-very-loserish-shots.

the fun of taking pictures and cam-whoring is no longer fun.
because of the expectations.
it's like as though we are living our personal tabloid lives. how much lower can we go as a society! HAHAH. you know what, i think we should post sad pictures, miserable photos, angry people, disappointed people and fighting people for a change. at least we all could get a break from the fake smiles and picture "perfect shots".

Nontheless, it's not all that bad for uploading pictures on facebook. sometimes, people are really happy with their lives and not being overly pretencious. Hence, they deserve every right to display their happiness and joy on their profiles for all to see! it makes me happy somehow (although at times envious - like how carol's snow angel photos appeared on my homepage feed!) HAHAHA. yeah, but i'm fine carol! LOL. i'm happy that you are really truly enjoying yourselves cos you are an inspiration for all of us, especially dunearnites! LOL.

anyhows, i was browsing my iphotos, and found a couple of pretty shots, displaying the antics of few of my friends.


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