Monday, June 29, 2009
Picture taken from CR1, 200609. Featuring gun 5 of the PGS team firing off one blank round.Standstill.....
I think i have stood on the same spot for too long...
While being confused by all the distractions beside me, time has left me standstill and continued its relentless march forward.
yes, a lot of happened to me.
yet, i wonder what has actually changed, what has i actually achieved.
while always complaining about how life is unfair for myself, what has i really learned?
'becoming stronger from losing, yielding even though its unfair, not running away even though its shameful, and overcoming a weak self-confidence over time.....'
9:15 PM
Thursday, June 18, 2009
First ever Presidential Gun Salute on water...
Look out for the pgs on the last one and a half minute of the video!
Yup. Its featured on the news, newspapers, even on the mrbrown show! though the spotlight seems to be more concentrated on my female commanding officer lol. Today is the day when my unit, or rather my battery, made history by firing the PGS on marina waters for ndp. Five shots were fired instead of the full twenty one shots, which is enough to demostrate the coolness of firing the pgs visible to the audience instead of hiding in some grass field somewhere. The glory of it is shown for the Two Minutes plus on the youtube video link on the post. But....behind the scene is Five hours of preparation for the day itself, and Five months of preparation for the whole procedure to be drafted out, carried out, troubleshooted and rehearsed for the show.
The tough part for this year's pgs is not for the performance itself, but rather the process in which the guns are loaded up to the platform, action-fronted and prepared for safety. All we got from the start is a platform operated by engineers, five guns, and the idea was that the guns were to be fired on this platform. But what wasnt told to us was how the guns were to be put into 'ready' position since the space on the platform itself is so restricted, with any wrong move means either the personnel involved or the guns itself will 'dived' into the water. It was only with two months of trial and error den we come up with the procedure for setting up the gun on the platform.
My battery woke up on 4am for this day. It was a long and sleepy ride from camp to marina since there is a speed limit for vehicle towing the gun. The fun part is that there are 'escorts' to ensure we reach our destination without slowing down. However this means that we slowed down the entire expressway...oh well too bad =p For about 3 hours, preparations were made before we sailed down to marina on the river from our harbouring point on the platform, enjoying the view that most probably no other tourist seaboats were provide. Changed to No.1 uniform for the first, took loads of pictures before we began our show. Honestly i have totally no idea what happened on the platform as i have earplugs on and my back were facing the stage (floating platform). What we did was to fire 5 rounds in sequence before proceeding back to the harbouring point. The shockwave that came whenever one round is fired is not something i look forward to very much -.-, but its really kinda worth experiencing once.
Many more rehearsals to come before the actual day....
11:28 PM
Saturday, June 06, 2009
requires anti-blur medicine..and give many apologies
it seems like i have a simple appointment in my battery and yet i made a total flop out of it, oh and probably increase the sourness by many times. my appointment is duty planning, and it involves assigning both specs and men to guard duties and orderly duties. if i plan the duties well, the best case scenario i will get is zero complains. no one will feel grateful for me since im giving them extra work to do or maybe even burn their weekends. if i plan even one duty wrongly, everyone will become my enemy since most probably at least two person will be involved. thats what happened today.zz.
11:40 PM
Friday, June 05, 2009
One tough week has passed, leaving many tough weeks to go before all the major events are cleared and i get my pink ic. Surprisingly there are much room for reflection despite the hectic times in which includes Why i have chosen to become a freaking underpaid and overworked 3rd sgt and how come the relationships between my normally thot-to-be-good friends turned sour.seriously many people has told me how awkward the position specialists are in in the saf. they are although above the men but below the officers. officers can play as the good guy in front of the men by trying hard not to tax them too much when they have done some work, thus when there is really extra work needed to be done late at night (due to lack of foresight of some people), specialists will have to do the extra remaining work, as though being a specialist means that they are superhuman. Officers can promise a lot of things, but who will ensure things are actually done in the first place? On the men level, some will not empthatise with the predicament specialists are in when they are tasked with extra work, as they feels that the extra pay (specs have slightly higher pay den men) deems the extra work. Afterall, the more pay you get, the more you should do right? Ya right, den officers should be 24 hour slaves in camp and not be the stay-out personnel they are currently as since their pay is double of that of men.
perhaps its the attitude that is always be in me, but i really hate to be wrongly-faulted for mistakes that i never commit. the biggest bane of myself has always be dumb-stupid-freaking-careless. now im quite man-marked by the battery for dumb mistakes which i really do not want to commit. it has become quite depressing to the point that i have made a resolution to myself, that i will do and complete my work the best i can and i would not care about what others think about me.
bah. procrastinations. lousy entry but yet it must be written.