bruised battered and torn

real men cry...

So this is it, my first ever blog/post! I have finally succumbed to the phenomenom that is blogging.

A little about myself: Born in Canberra, Australia. I've spent much of my life in Singapore and am currently a Singapore Armed Forces national serviceman (because my parents are Singaporean and I've benefited from the local govt education subsidies). Which sucks really, because it's a pathetic waste of time. Anyway, I currently have NO LIFE thanks to the SAF and my weekends are basically spent detoxing (i.e. normal things like going to the movies that civilian folk take for granted) from strict regimentation and camouflage overdose. Still, much of what I'll talk about will be about my life in the army, since I spend 5 days a week locked away in camp. (yes, a sad existence I know).

So anyway, I like music ALOT. I prefer rock, indie, folk, blues and country stuff, but I do listen to all kinds of stuff. I love reading and movies like most boring folk. Do I have any unique hobbies? Nope. Do I have any particular quirks? Nope. so there. that's me. I play the guitar. Now isn't that so cool? haha.

Ok, enough about that. Let's get on to the "highlights" of my week so far ending Friday:

Mon- Wed: Nothing to note. ( read "same old shit, different day")

Thursday: We had a chemical defense practical where we stuffed ourselves into a chemical defense suit and put a gas mask on. We then subjected ourselves to tear gas in a smoke chamber. Needless to say, the conc. of the tear gas was very low, but it was enough to induce painful reactions from the majority of us once we were forced to remove the damn masks. One guy in my platoon removed his mask first and he choked bad, real bad. It was quite a spectacle that scared the bejesus outta me I tell ya, but it wasn't so bad when it got to my turn. At least I didn't scream like some pussy. I couldn't stop tearing though and my face felt like it was being grazed with sandpaper (that lasted an agonising 10 minutes). Kinda traumatizing, and I can't begin to imagine people caught in riots getting a face-load of higher conc. tear gas. I think I would die of just pain alone, being the big wuss that I am. So there ya go, my first and hopefully last experience with tear gas.

Friday: Booked out at 4pm, which is earlier than usual. Yay. Oh the simple pleasures in life!! Was urged by platoon mate Gideon to go to Zouk tonight but I think I'm just waaaay to broke to afford such extravagances. So here I am sitting here at 7.50pm on a Friday evening, feeling too damn lazy to go out and live life like normal sane folk. See what the SAF does to people. It's a recluse-generating factory.

posted by Irving @ 4:34 AM