the ostentatious glory

Sunday, October 29, 2006
A meaningful experience at the NCC HQ

It's been long since i experienced that feeling in my heart---the nice feeling of knowing that you just made someone's day. For me on the 26th of October, it was not just making someone's day, but rather the smiles of the 20 boys and girls from the Balestier Special School which makes my day.

Strictly speaking, since being enrolled in RJC, i have done little community work which caters to the less fortunate. My CIP hours before Thursday all came from helping out in South East CDC, RJC Open House, Canoeing and other work which doesn't exactly benefit the less fortunate. Yesterday's experience has therefore appeared much more significant in my life.

On the morning of 26th October 2006 (a school-day!), i started feeling compassion and seeing kind acts in the NCC HQ. This is exceptionally unusual, because in the NCC HQ, the daily things we see all day long are Cadet Lieutanants, SAF Sergeants, and occasionally the Lieutanants and Captain scolding the lower ranks using all sorts of "styles" available under the Earth. (Hey, don't take this to heart ok? It's James' own "exaggerated" view.. heh.) So, what happened first in the campus on that day was Captain Leong, our District Commander, buying sets of McDonalds' Big Breakfast meals and sausage Muffins with Eggs for each of his staff working in his office and the cadet lieutanants helping out on that day, which includes me! What a wonder! Just imagine! Eating McDonalds as breakfast in an army camp! And this Captain, hmmm, can be really really fierce if he wants to at times.. Scary..

But the most dramatic was not yet to come.

Soon after our breakfast, settling of logistics, and the 20 Special kids coming in, Captain Leong literally evolved from the stern-face Commander into a fatherly character full of smiles and love for children. Trust me, any EAST CLT who might be there would get a total shock. Captain Leong, with unlimited energy, went about from point to point, interacted with the children and their teachers, and attempted to make all of them laugh by carrying them, saying funny things, and doing all sorts of things you can do to make these children aged from around 6 to 9 years old giggle.

Well, seeing such enthusiasm sprouting out from our top leader, the CLTs started getting friendly and followed our leader's example too.. Now, that's what i called lead-by-example. The kids from Balestier Special School who came to our NCC HQ are different from normal children and they do not have the chance to go for National Service (NS), unlike perfectly healthy youths like us. Yet, when they are being given the army camouflage uniform to wear, their faces revealed a state of happiness and the pride of being a soldier. (Shame on the healthy ones who dread NS at all costs man! =p) But well, although soldiers must be faced with tough training and sharpening of skills regularly, it was our purpose to let them enjoy themselves the most they can since they were the special guests of the NCC HQ. So, through fun games and team-building exercises, we did our best to bring joy to them, as well as to relate to them. Captain Leong, by lowering his status to mingle around with the kids and removing any social barriers there might be, has shown us an excellent example of the things we can and should do in this camp and how we can do it well. Hey, come to think of it, you can't tell another person to go act like a clown to impress the kids when you, as a leader, wash your hands off the matter and use "eye-power" only! Captain Leong is a good leader. However, it's rather sad that he is stepping down at the end of this year to return to his teaching career again.. Hopefully, the new District Commander would be a nice guy on par with or even better than him...

Oh! And talking about his, would buying Big Breakfast in the morning for all his staff and CLTs be a final publicity campaign to leave a lasting good impression in our hearts before he leaves the NCC?=p haha, just a wild thought... Captain Leong isn't like this, i hope? Heh.

Anyway, back to the main track, the things we did for the kids in NCC HQ included the standard obstacle course in the HQ, low elements, paint-ball, a display of aeromodelling by the Air District CLT, and even showing them videos of Hi-5 when it was raining and no outdoor actvities could be done! 1-2-3-4-hi-5!!

Of course, the route on Thursday was not a bed of roses. Dealing with children, the playfulness and noise were existent all the time. You can constantly see some random kids running about and screaming, sometimes into the danger zones (like the paint-ball area), which absolutely took your guts out of you. You can also see some "dao-kia", who would not talk at all costs, amongst those who wouldn't not talk at all costs too! What a wonderful mix.=p

But nothing beats the overall nice feeling of knowing that u are helping people who are less fortunate than you and definitely, the smiles of these children when u played with them and give them gifts.

The most funny and joyful moment would be the Certificate Presentation Ceremony. Down there, i was the one giving out the Camp Feast Certificate to these cute little children while another CLT was in-charge of calling out their names. Now, before i continue to share these experiences, i must state clearly that this was the most hilarious certificate ceremony ever and i definitely enjoyed myself a lot. Haha. Just thinking of it makes me laugh. In this ceremony, we have children who do not response to thier names and require lots of prompting, children who response over-enthusiastically to thier names (one ran to me at light-speed and fell face-down with extreme-light-speed.. haha i know that's super bad, but i found it funny..haha.sadist-.-), children who response to every name (one came out to receive certificate 4 out of 5 times other people's names were called), children who gave strange responses when their names were being called out (one knelt and crawled on the floor when receiving his cert!), and children who posed for photographs by taking the cert and then going to a corner without me! Haha imagine a scholar doing this at a scholarship presentation ceremony!

Anyway, to sum up, I liked the feeling of heping these kids and they certainly brightened up my life despite me having a tired day and having to pon school (heh..). I felt my strongest emotions when we were waving goodbye to each other as they left the NCC campus on their chartered bus. The smiles, faces, thanks, and everything... That night, i even dreamt of them. Hmmm.. These poor children may face further difficulties in their process of growing up, but they do enjoy something which we normal humans often fail to appreciate. That is, the simplicity of things. It's simple to please these little innocent souls, and easy to see their smiles, in the most pure state. These people are also the ones who will feel contented with life easily. But for us humans living in this competitive society, we have evolved to become such complicated creatures that material needs, and sometimes spiritual needs are no longer able to fill up those desires in the heart. We are never satisified and we always seek for more and more and more.. Our relationships are complicated too. Love triangles, rivalry, dysfunctional families.. All these often reflect the ugly side of human nature, how each person for his own selfish gains, tries to eliminate others.

Actually, many things can be made more bearable and many hearts satisfied just by thinking things in a simpler manner. If you're forever concerned about personal things such as whether the girl u have a crush on would like you back, or you die-die also must have an i-pod, think about those kids. There are much more meaningful things in the world for you to think and do about. Some people are starving, others are facing abuse, and nations are in conflict with each other... These issues certainly pose a bigger problem to the human race than your crush or i-pod. I have thus decided to work hard and delicate myself to helping others and making Earth a better place.

Others-above-Self!

thankful-and-Inspired-James
1252hrs
31/10/2006

P.S. Lots of thanks to NCC for opportunities. And hopefully i can go Exercise Thunder Warrior in New Zealand next year Feb. Stupid RJC already caused me cannot go Australia this year..:(

9:43 PM
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Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Now, the much awaited Results!

OK, here are the updates for James' results for the Promotional Examinations 2006. Cheers to those caring friends who's always asking me for my results!=p

Common Test Promos
General Paper B D
Chinese B B
Physics S B
Chemistry S A
Economics E C
Mathematics B A

(Chart 1: Results' summary)
Source: Exam Scripts verified by teacher's marking and James' sight
(statement of results to be out on 1st Nov)

Solution:
As can be seen from chart 1, James' results have generally improved (1m) with most of his subjects obtaining improved grades ranging from 1 to 5 grade differences. For example, in the case of Chemistry, James has improved by 5 grades from the S-grade in the Common Test to an A grade in Promos (1m).

However, there are subjects which did not follow this upward trend too (1m), such as General Paper and Chinese. In the case of General Paper, his grade has actually fell from a B-grade in Common Test to a D-grade in Promos (1m), and for the subject Chinese, his grade has remained stagnant at B-grade.

To conclude, despite these differences, James has made a significant improvement in his academic work as there has been an improvement in grades in 4 out of his 6 subjects, and only a drop in grade for one one subject(1m).

Total: 5/5 marks!

Continue striving James!

HAppy Deepavali to all Hindus and Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all Muslims!

Preparing-for-Holiday-James
24-10-2006 (hmmm this date is appraching some special day for me this year...)
2241hrs

10:26 PM
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Saturday, October 21, 2006
Ben Cao Gang Mu MV!!! =D

Haha this song from Jay Chou's latest album is super cute.. and the Music Video is even cuter and cooler!! Check this out! =D

love-Jay-James
1327hrs
21/10/2006

1:29 PM
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Friday, October 20, 2006
Money isn't everything!

adapted from http://www.ahajokes.com/crt106.html =)

"Kind"-James
2252hrs
20/10/2006

10:55 PM
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Updates after an eon...><

Hey folks! It's been a long time since you hear from James! And for those who send me messages to ask if i'm still alive, rest assured i'm still alive and kicking. Just feeling lazy to blog though for the past few weeks just after Promotional Examinations.. (haha you know...how one can loses his momentum to do something after not doing it for a long period of time.. and yup, an eon is a long period of time!)

Now, one must have wondered. What the heck in the world made James blog again?!

Well, it's infuriating to be reminded of it again, but the key cuprit behind this revival of my momentum (p=mv?) is due to me passing my General Paper by just one point only!!! it's a 51% percent this time!!! A "D" grade!! A-R-G-H!!! Well, it wasn't that bad last time during the common test where i've gotten a "B" grade. What exactly has resulted in this undesirable result?
Any normal human being would inevitably be compelled to reflect under this kind of circumstances. And as for me, under my half-deep-half-shallow thoughts, i linked this phenomenon to the reduction in blogging during the pre-promos period. And well, with a decline in blogging, my usage of the English language would decrease linearly along with it, and it is assumed that this subsequently caused the deterioration of General Paper abilities and hence the lower grade. So well, it's back to blogging again, more usage of English, and hopefully a "B" grade or better the next time! (Crazy idea!)

SOOOO...Expect to see more entries coming up, including debatable issues such as the one on piracy which i have done in July or August (i can't remember) as well as stories both virtual and authentic regarding life~~...(yeah man..)

Probably will start with a summary of my days during the M.I.A. period or the super unwanted haze!!! Let me start gathering ideas first haha..

Back-to-blogging-James
2212hrs
20/10/2006

9:45 PM
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