• awarded platoon best in BMT
• dropped out of OCS to pursue a civilian posting while serving out my duty (see below for clarification)
• posted to a stay-out signal battalion up north and
• posted to an active signal battalion in the west of Singapore

So I can say I do know how it feels like to perform well in the SAF, but also how to protect yourself from life-long injury and the in worst case scenario – death. I have seen enough how different units carry out their punishments and procedures, and there is nothing to be afraid of as long as you are clear of the rules.

In light of a higher number of deaths, I just hope I can help more people stay alive and injury-free. The way the SAF conducts its investigations regarding such incidents is not transparent and therefore it is important to take a stance of self-preservation. My advice is meant to help you stay alive and injury-free.

Firstly, staying alive is more important than being an officer or sergeant. I have seen more friends get injured (torn meniscus, ligament, slipped discs etc) during training in OCS than in any other training institution. Obviously, vocations in places like SISPEC, commandos, guards and infantry would have similar levels of risk.

Is the slightly higher allowance worth it? Definitely not and hence my first advice.

Advice 1: Do not over-perform in BMT, just be normal.

Do you have asthma, damaged eardrums or generally just a low sense of self-confidence? Do not be garang and chiong. Because the first penguin into the ocean never survives.

For example, lung related illnesses (like bronchitis or asthma) have a recurrence rate during the use of smoke grenades.

If some activity makes you think twice about doing it, don’t do it. If anyone forces you to do it, ask them if they will take responsibility for your life if anything goes wrong.

Advice 2: All past illnesses are considered serious, do not overlook them. Report them and protect yourself from risky activities.

Heavy objects – unless your civilian profession is a weightlifter, do not act garang. Rather appear weak and protect your erector spinae and spine. That refers to your lower back region. Remember that muscles heal but structure does not. If you injure your spine, you are screwed for life.

DO NOT THINK that lifting heavy things will make you stronger. In the gym, we do it in a controlled environment with a sound training plan, good diet and proper rest. In the army, you do it with little sleep, carbs rich food with limited protein and under undue pressure.

WAIT FOR HELP to lift heavy stuff. It would include universal power supply(s), artillery shells and generally anything bulky and above 20kg.

Advice 3: Avoid heavy objects.

Superiors are just doing their job. On a daily basis, they encounter NSFs who are perfectly fine but would keng their way out of duty. You have to play the same game, but play it even better. Make sure to sound worse than you actually are. If you feel feverish, say you feel like fainting. Seriously. But remember to be consistent in your “act”, all the way till you reach your doorstep.

A lot of mistakes happen during military exercises or route marches, where your logical mind is put to a rest and you just try to push through. As an athlete, I know the importance of telling the conscious to shut it and push through the discomfort.

In the field, do this with extreme care, with the hot sun or cold rain, it is easy to fall sick or get heat stroke! During safety briefing, the safety officer would say safety first but the officer or sergeant would shout at you to push on during the exercise itself. Don’t be stupid lah, just act tired.

Advice 4: Superiors are not as scary as they appear. They are bounded by the same rules as you.

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At this point, many readers would be sniggering and wondering if I am serious.

Yes, I am dead serious.

30 years from now when you are nursing a slipped L4 L5 disc or a torn knee ligament, the only person suffering is yourself. And your momentary contribution to some make-belief military exercise is all but forgotten in the annals of SAF history.

Worse, if you died, no AVIVA will be able to cover the pain felt by your family and friends.

The place to prove your strength and mental fortitude is not in the army because in the worst case scenario, you are only sent to a government hospital 1.5 hours after the incident. This is because of the needless process of an inexperienced medic trying to treat you, then sending you to a medical officer in the medical centre who tries again to revive you and finally sending you to a proper doctor where more often than not, that doctor has the thankless task of pronouncing you dead.

I have been through the process of going to medic to MO to government hospital before, yes it takes 1.5 hours at the least. Thankfully, it was for a much less serious incident. I got my MC though.

In the real world where you try to bust personal records, you get sent to a proper doctor in 30 minutes max. Get it? If you get seriously ill or injured in the army, you have little chance.

As I end this post, remember the quote by Charles Darwin,

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

I was not the best soldier in the army, but I did stay alive and injury free.

EDIT 1: I was away for the past 4 days for a mini getaway in HuangShan. Beautiful place. People with no command of language other than hurling vulgarities should go there to gain some good energy.

EDIT 2: Which brings me to the next point, I hate deleting comments, but those who resort to name-calling would be deleted.

EDIT 3: I understand there’s a note by Cpt Choy disparaging my use of “flawless logic”. Just remember he is a professional soldier and it is in his interest to make his organization look good. It is not my prerogative to do so. I am watching out for the reader’s best interests. He mentions about “making noise” on social media to make the nationalistic point of view stronger. Seriously? Anyway, to clear things up, in the event of war, I would fight alongside everyone else. I just wanted people to know not to push themselves beyond the point of extreme fatigue where death and injuries occur.

EDIT 4: I am really shocked at the amount of shares my humble little blogpost has. I did not expect so many views and it was meant for friends to learn from my experience.

Some clarifications. I had a choice midway through OCS to choose between working in a civilian posting as a project manager for the NDP website team or continue in OCS. The civilian posting would mean reporting in civilian clothes to an office in Tiong Bahru and working normal office hours. I chose my own path.

Secondly, the part about holding up your “act” till the doorstep is that if you look “well” while on the way back, you can potentially be charged for malingering even though you are still sick. So this is just helpful advice. There are plenty of evil superiors who will nitpick on every small detail to charge you for malingering. There are nice superiors for sure, but there are also evil ones.

Finally, I am not discouraging anyone from serving with honour and fighting for glory in the SAF, but do so with your eyes wide open. The organization only provides medical subsidy for your injury, that’s all. And that’s only if you can prove you sustained a life-long injury while in the course of duty.

My friend who got a hamstring tear in BMT and ord-ed more than 3 years ago still cannot get his specialist at a government hospital and the MO to agree on the condition. This is not a one-off incident and more common than you think. You can ask your friends who are in similar conditions.

For those who say deaths and injuries are part and parcel of soldiering and for the protection of the nation, would you say it straight in the face to the family of the dead person? You wouldn’t. You would say he was a good soldier blah blah blah. That means you are being a hypocrite. No one wants anyone to die or get seriously injured. Yet, you willingly push good men to the risk of injury.

I note there are many others who disagree with my point of view. But these same people agree with my point about medics’ incompetency. Therefore, how can I in good faith encourage my friends to train to full abandonment in service for the country and organization, knowing at the back of my head if they get seriously injured, they have a high chance of permanent disability or fatality?

The entire point of my article, was to prevent it.

Local bus drivers will not be able to survive with this amount of salary. Plus, if I could drive well in Singapore, I would rather earn more and be a taxi-driver.

So for transport companies to pay adequately to attracted local drivers, their operating expenses would increase by at least 20%.

But, I also believe it is no coincidence that there is an increased spate of accidents on the roads of Singapore involving bus drivers.

If anyone has ever taken the public bus in China, they would know how they operate. If you are the lone passenger boarding the bus, you barely have time to tap your card to the reader and get a firm footing before the bus driver floors the accelerator to the next bus stop.

I am not judging how they drive or operate in China, I know they have a tight schedule to follow. The trouble starts when they bring such practices to Singapore.

But SBS Transit and SMRT, please, if you are hiring drivers from China, the least you could do is to teach them road courtesy is unlike that of China, and also, some basic English would be nice.

This flash application was written particularly for Kettlebell Sport but can also be used for any other purpose.

Traditionally in Kettlebell Sport Competition

Traditionally, such events are counted with a simple LCD display which has one facing the audience / judge and one facing the lifter. It makes sense if you are organizing in Russia where competitions are aplenty, hence it will be used often. However, where the sport is still new, it does not make sense. In Singapore, it cost around $1000 to make 1 set. Multiply it by 3 times and the price becomes prohibitive.

Therefore, my application uses something which is more commonly available – computers and laptops. In this example, you can see that using a laptop,

• the judge has his own screen
• the audience can look at the big TV
• while the lifter looks at the monitor.

Therefore, all equipment is readily available or can be borrowed at low cost.

The equipment that will need to be purchased would be a VGA-splitter (SGD$10) and 10m long VGA cable (SGD$25) for each platform.

How a VGA Splitter looks like

Application Controls

To control the program, these are the keys.

• “Enter” – starts countdown timer from 10mins.
• “A” – adds a repetition
• “D” – minus a repetition
• Clicking on “Reset” will reset respective fields.

To display the application optimally, open the application in “Google Chrome” and press F11 for full screen.

Download Application: timer_jeremyko_free

Pictorial Guide (click for high-res version)

This can be printed and placed next to laptop / keyboard.

Donate

If you think this application has helped you saved costs, please donate!

Donation Amount

Donate $2.00 USD Donate $5.00 USD Donate $10.00 USD

Australian Kettlebell Club using it at their competition. Photo from Facebook.

 
Also, if you do not donate, at least “Share!”

My current build is a Samsung Galaxy S running Ice Cream Sandwich built by onecosmic.

First, make sure to root your phone. It makes many things easier in Android. Depending on your device, a quick search would show you how to root it.

Next, go to this link.

Download the “maps6.1.1-ownhere-SignFile.apk” and copy it to your phone. Then follow these instructions.

1. In Titanium Backup, select Maps and make a backup. (this is for safety)
2. Select Maps and wipe data, then uninstall.
3. Select Street View and wipe data, then uninstall
4. Install Google Maps6.1.1-ownhere-SignFile.apk
5. Go to market, and reinstall street view
6. Make sure to uncheck automatic updating on Market.

There’s also the non-root version on the same link but I have not tried it hence will not be able to advise you.

I was pissed at Samsung for dropping such a great product. The official line is that it is not possible to support TouchWiz (Samsung’s own UI) on top of ICS. So? We would like the vanilla version please.

Thankfully, the good guys known as onecosmic and team has developed a version for us. To be honest, it is ridiculously simple to set up. The Galaxy S is now blazing fast, much faster than it was on GB.

The simplified steps are:

1. “Root” your phone. [link]
2. Download Titanium Backup and copy everything out into somewhere else just in case. [link]
3. Remove microSD card to prevent confusion of internal memory.
4. Copy the set up file into your Galaxy S. [instructions more suitable for experienced people here] [step by step instructions available here for those who need more guidance]
5. Reboot into ClockworkMod (Press the Volume-Up, Centre Button and Power Button at the same time)
6. Select file and you are done! (as long as there is no screw up)

These are the simplified steps but I have attached links to make it easier along the way. I am by no means a techie just someone who can follow instructions very well. Good luck to you!

Also, I recommend donating a small sum to the great guys! RC3.1 (RC stands for release candidate) is extremely stable for me!

I’m heading to Shanghai, China on February 16th and I can say I am more or less done.

When I started, information was spotty and hard to find. When they are found, they are not clear.

I want to put up information and also a place for people to ask questions if they are unsure. Rather than bore you with the troubles I took before I got the final answer, I will just let you know what to do.

1. Language Proficiency – HSK Test

The official line I received from Fudan University was that regardless of your A or O Level results, they require you to take the HSK Level 6 test. It is a written test. There is also a Oral Test but this is not needed.

However, even before we received the test results from the HSK Test, I received my acceptance letter stating I’m accepting to read modules conducted in Chinese. Seriously, wtf?

So if you are willing to wing it, don’t need to take HSK.

2. Inability to take Modules

For Fudan, their system does not really allow you to take modules beyond their (2011) year. This means you are effectively being treated like Year 1 students, which is pointless because it means you won’t learn anything useful. Email the China people and tell them your problems, they usually can manually add it in from you on their side.

3. VISA

For those wanting to visit the beautiful land of smooth skin Taiwan or try their luck gambling in Macau, you can’t! The visa you can apply for is only the f-visa, because your period of stay is less than 6 months. Hence, they can’t grant you the x-visa even if you begged them earnestly.

But the best you can do is to apply for the 2-entry f-visa. This visa allows you to enter China twice with the maximum length each time being 90 days. So you could go on one trip outside mainland China if you make sure you are able to leave within 90days.

Don’t bother applying for VISA within China, I read the rates if success is very low.

Also, this means you do not need the medical report from SGH or Raffles Hospital. It cost me $230 for nothing.

4…. to be updated if more questions come in.

It is a shame that while The Straits Times is suing Yahoo! News for copyright infringement, it does not conduct proper citation or image attribution in its very own backyard.

You don’t need your attorney to advise you it is not acceptable to cite from a search engine.

At the very least, throw some mock up images from the PR company that serves the SAF.

I’m sure they worked very hard to try to get this piece of information in the news.

It can be upper body specific like rock climbing or balance specific like slacklining or weights based like compound barbell movements and kettlebells or aerobic training like running or swimming. I also like Strongman-style training. I mix and match my own types of training without getting too specialized because I am not a competitive athlete where specificity would matter.

It is also part of the reason I picked up a CrossFit Level 1 Certification is also to understand what it means to be non-specific in training.

If I choose to enter the fitness industry, it would be to help people who have lost their way and would like a helping hand to get back on track. Fitness for civilians is not rocket science. To fight for Olympic glory is one matter, but to lose weight is a simple matter of tweaking your diet towards natural non-processed foods and ensuring you are exercising correctly.

Photo sent to me by Mehdi of Stronglifts.com

For example, look at a child who squats naturally, the lumbar is neutral and strong, the buttocks easily touch the ground and the weight is on the heels etc. Everyone is born with an ability to squat with proper posture, but over the years of sedentary lifestyle, many have lost their ability to do so due to lack of strength or hip flexibility.

Every day, there are new tools put out in the media shouting in your face to try it for an “easier” way. Barbells, calisthenics and a lil bit of cardio works. By tools, I mean stupid equipment like the Shake Weight, T-Core or ViPR. If you do not have space for a rack, kettlebells are a superb alternative.

There is no perfect tool or nutrition plan for everyone. It is about being observant to your own body. How do you feel 2 hours post-meal? How long do you feel your delayed onset muscle syndrome for? What is your body fat content over a period of time? What is the circumference of your thighs/arms in comparison to last month? In this aspect, though any person could self-monitor, a personal trainer comes in to keep track of progress.

Yet, being “friends” with many fitness people on Facebook, I cannot help but grimace at the politics present in an inherently “positive” industry. The office and business world is full of politics, but fitness is supposed to be a place to build good karma, help people, earn a decent income and be contented about it. Instead, I see trainers belittling others in an indirect manner. Seriously, what gives?

If you are the best in the industry, there is no need to be a keyboard warrior. Prove it with results through your clients or on the platform, field, court, pool, wall or line.

Life is short, enjoy the ride while it lasts. Play nice, live long and prosper.

Other than the obvious benefits of healthier food, more protein in my diet at half the price and the much more sane use of salt and spices, there’s a more important reason for waking up every morning to prepare my own meals.

It is much simpler to enjoy an hour more of sleep instead of waking up earlier to cook up meals. It is hard work and takes discipline every single time.

The mere act of doing so gives me a sense of empowerment that I am starting my day right. There is a psychological boost that comparatively, I am already doing better than others who are still sleeping.

Start your morning by doing something meaningful, it gives your life a sense of purpose.

Disclaimer: Use at own risk, will not be held responsible for any mistakes though I did try my best to stick to the materials but sometimes I referred online for more concrete examples.

First of all, thanks to Junjie for his granting permission for me to based mine on his notes. Mine is a reedited version with some added details of his notes found here.

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Map of Human Relations

One problem I found with the course is that there were too many Caucasian names which were really hard to visualize. Hence I came out with a map which helps connect the human relations till William Schramm. Click on it for the bigger version.

Notes (thus far)

1. Charles Darwin

2. Karl Marx

3. Sigmund Freud

4. Harold Lasswell and Walter Lippmann