I think many people have already heard of this seminar. It's called Super Achievers by the High Achievers Consultancy. Quite a number of schools had this seminar already, and according to the organisers at Cat High, St. Nicks had theirs last year and apparently their results sky-rocketed, so they decided to implement it in Cat High now. I was still apprehensive about such seminars ever since P6 with the horror Adam Khooone and the disaster it melted into. Apparently, he DOES throw a wine glass at every seminar at least once to create an impact, and he makes all students put their heads down and close their eyes and visualise themselves walking down long dark corridors and meeting their crying parents saying how disappointed they were in us and making the whole auditorium turn into a sobbing symphony. So I was rather reluctant and rejected this course when it was offered. But Mr. Leong came to weed me out, strongly recommending me to go for it for I was a high risk student. So yea, pay by Edusave? Fantastic :D
And I'm glad! The course wasn't a total disaster like I thought it would have been resembling that of A.Khoo's four years ago. In fact, it was actually kinda fun and they teach study techniques :D They weren't just teaching about short term success, but put across quite a number of life lessons through games. Alot of the videos of games (for forfeits) are up on Facebook with Jeremy who was taking away with his iPhone. There was a classic mix of characters in the Coaches as well, and the lead coach Sabrina was super hyper and could actually relate to us, even Mr Tan agreed on that point when I spoke to him during breaks.
Yea, so I'm starting to apply things that I've learnt at the course. My DISC personality changed from last year, anyone care to try and guess what it is? :D
I'm getting the blogging syndrome. Maybe it was Super Achievers and the time management component - blogging should be under 4th quadrant of un-urgent and unimportant issues. So either I become like Liyana (who leaves her blog there to rot though its still is very nice to drop by and read for fun) or like D (who blogs in pictures!) or maybe Joel (who blogs in short paragraphs). Hmm.
Happy 16th birthday Mandy!
Start of another week. Let not the horrid mock HCL marks put me down :)
Balthus
I sing myself to sleep, and hoping my dreams bring you close to me :D
I've had endless teasing from so many people about this day that my terms of service to NCC would finally cease.
I know I shouldn't be dreading, but there was that...draggy feeling that trailed my footsteps throughout Friday as I went about my lessons, especially with Zong Da and Don (during Double Chinese) who kept poking at me about it.
Finally, after Geog ended I rushed down to the store (I'm gonna miss doing that) to change into full no.3 and to meet Yuk Tim to mark the parade grounds. Thank you Ken and Daniel for coming to help as well. One full rehearsal for the parade followed after. I had quite abit to say to each part just before the real parade (I lost my script! It's somewhere in the store now.) but there was a time constrain, so yea, I'd say what I wanna say a little later on this post.
Then the parade started. In D's words, pictures paint a thousand words: (There are a whole lot more photos up on our Facebooks in albums, go check it out there.)
These are the most significant moments to me during the parade:
Taking over the parade from the 2IC Wei Kit
All four contigents of CHS NCC (air) 2009 ready for the commencing of Passing Out Parade 2009.
Handing over the pacestick to the next Company Sergeant Major: Tsang Yuk Tim
And the sash with the CSM post tag follows. At that moment I was thinking how alike it was with Sir Warren and myself a year ago.
The change of command of the CSM.
The new Parade Commander giving his first commands to the entire unit.
The Guard of Honour of Part D'09 Seniors.
-then follows the hentataki cheer-
At the final stomp, I braced myself to conclude my NCC career in the same fashion as the many batches before us. Alot was going through my mind as I threw my beret upwards, I really don't know how to put it in words.
Then followed everybody's high spirits as we took photos :D Here are the new batch of NCOs with the Seniors (Wei kit, Myself, Wei Xuan, Yong Hwee, Yu Cheng, Jared) and Sir SP. Nicholas Wee what do you think you're doing :O
And the Part Bs with all the respective seniors as well! Where is Hui Yang looking? :O
This is my favorite photo from the whole lot. With all our great teacher officers, Mr. Jeffrey Goh, Mr. Julian Teo (where is he looking?), Mdm. Valerie Chua and Mr. Joshua Chan. And of course, the last time us Part Ds will be in one photo together in uniform. I'm going to miss them so much conducting trainings and camps together.
This was the evening sky right after the parade. I wonder if it means something. We had cake in the middle of the field!
I know I wasn't at my best during the buffet and waterbomb, there really was alot going through my mind about leaving the CCA. Never in my life have I put so much time, effort and stressed over an organization. I'm sorry if I seemed abit...unresponsive in the evening after dinner. I watched as the Part Ds went wild with dropping beret, throwing water bombs at one another, cutting the flag pole for the fun of it. Thanks everyone who comforted and talked to me while I was feeling down that night, like Sir Anthony, Stef and many others. And those who talked to me on the phone, especially my dear niece =)
The sec 3s got me a pencilbox from 77th Street, thanks guys =D it's really nice. And the sec 2s learnt that I draw (stalkers :O) and got me a sketchbook! And there was a card that came with it. Someone wrote in the card, translated from chinese: "A teacher to me for a day, A father to me forever." :O May I know who wrote that su yu?
I'm very thankful towards everything that NCC has given and taught me. Truth to be told, like how some of you already know, NCC (air) wasn't my first choice when I was in Sec 1. Mr Goh K.Y. suggested that I did not continue with table tennis, as the school team has already been filled with DSA players. He suggested I went for my 2nd choice, NCC (air), and he felt that I'd do well in it, who knows. Taking his advice, I joined the unit and have come this far. I really have to thank him for guiding me onto my right path at the moment of decision.
I spent my first year in NCC struggling to understand the concept and system of how NCC runs. Training after training with our Part A UDI (omg I cannot remember what he's name. But I remember his face very clearly as he spoke to us before his POP to do our best.) and screwing up our initiation parade like crazy. Then came Senior Wei Liang (thank you for coming down to our POP!) who was strict, and he used alot of mental punishments. I realised that psychological punishment hurts more than physical. Friday after friday of learning new drills, giving it all during PT and spending the weekends aching. Our very first Hell Night. Wei Liang, Si Chuan and the joker Qian Sheng. There was also the ASM Daryl who talked and taught me alot as well. I was surprised when I was chosen to received Best Part A Cadet. I'd always remember being a Part A fondly.
Then followed the next batch of NCOs. Under Senior John, everything became a whole lot harder. Many began to dread training as things took a turn to become super tough. Many of us viewed John as a terror, scolding us like crazy for every little thing, endless pumping and running like bad. We had many setbacks then as a unit, even resulting in one of us leaving as a CPL. I still recall Hell Night no.2. This is the year where we participated in alot of competitions and honed our leadership skills.
Then came the POP, where the 10th batch of cadets stepped down and the 11th stepped up. I took over as Company Sergeant Major and I admit - I felt really lost. Everything is so different in the viewpoint of an NCO, there is so much more to training and behind the scenes stuff that must be done. From a cadet's point of view I never knew there was so many details to take of such a simple activity such as drawing rifles. I really don't think I would have been able to conduct many trainings without the support of many of the NCOs, everyone of them who willing offered to help in any way they can. All the camps we organised and went through, nevermind the screwups, they were all stepping stones and lessons to learn from.
To the Part As: Best of luck, for now your NCC life really starts as you will learn all the basics of being a NCC cadet. It may be simple to learn, but difficult to master, but I'm sure you all will do your best. I have faith in Toh Hong to0 to maximise your capabilities, but only if you'all cooperate fully with him as well. And remember to greet out of respect for someone more experienced than you are, and not because you were forced to. Someday, you too would want your juniors to greet you'all out of respect as well.
To the Part Bs: Things are gonna get tougher and you know it. Being the most senior non-NCOs now, training will be more advanced and harder. You'd be participating in many competitions this year as well, so do your best in them all and make us proud. Learn as much as you can from the Part Cs, and guide the Part As as they begin their career.
To the Part Cs: Now being the NCOs of CHS NCC (air) 2009, you guys will be leading our unit to greater heights. Juniors will look up to you in direction, and much decisions will lie on your shoulders. Don't be afraid to make mistakes and ask for direction, you'd learn as you go along. I have much faith in your abilities to not only bring the unit up to getting Gold in BUC or top Air district unit, but to also maximise the potential of the juniors under your charge. Remember, Serve with Dedication, Lead with Pride.
To the Part Ds: I cannot thank you all enough for everything you guys have done for the unit. I won't forget all the endless Hell nights we went through, under different commands and how we push each other to attend trainings on Fridays. Then as NCOs, you guys carried out your duties willingly, even going out of the way to make things right for one another. The many camps we planned out and stayed through the night just for the heck of it, and all the sentry duties, playing the piano in the darkness, etc. All these photos of us are memories to keep, but I hope we can stay close friends forever :D Onward to great O level results!
To the officers: Thank you Mr Jeffrey Goh for all your guidance towards leading the unit, and Mr. Teo for all his constant reminders to eat lunch because I need to :O and about discipline. Mdm. Chua and Mr. Chan as well. And Sir Anthony, for his guidance in Sec 1, than again in Sec 2 leadership camp and mainly in Sec 3 as NCOs, and for talking to me after POP. And Sir Warren and Sui Peng as well for their guidance. There is also Sir Qin Zheng who gave much valuable advice during Leadership camp that I'd never forget.
A Part A cadet asked if he could buy my badges during the buffet dinner. I'm not amused. Seriously, working for and earning them is far more worthwhile. I wish all juniors a fulfilling NCC career ahead of them.
Well, this is from 3 and 1/2 years in NCC. Each and everyone of them holds a memory dear to myself. The one I treasure the most is actually the Swimming badge, which was a gift from Hui Yang because he knew I qualified to wear the badge but there was no stock in the store so he went to get it for me :)
This concludes my NCC career as an NCO. Primus Inter pares :)
Balthus The best choice in my life.
Friday, April 10, 2009,
10:26 PM
Weekends again.
Wednesday's training was odd. For me it was mainly going through the POP plan and admin duties for passing over. Opening and closing parade had to be held twice by the sec 3s, odd. I don't wanna POP, but I know I have to D: For the sake of O levels, and it's high time sec 3s got to go through what we did as well.
Li and I went to watch this yesterday. In my opinion, don't watch the movie 'Knowing'. You'd know how it's going to end halfway through the movie.
Spoilers ahead! Don't read if you intend to watch it D:
I didn't like how they tried to merge science fiction with horror. Sure, supernatural as it may be that this one child prophesied all the major disasters in the world for the next 50 years, stating the number of people who died and the exact location of the disaster. [Is it me, or do I always see Nicholas Cage starring in supernatural movies as such?] And well, the protagonist found this letter written by a girl 50 years ago full of numbers (which he accidentally found out it's a prophecy) and he attempted to stop the next 2 disasters (which he failed of course. Because they are bound to happen, and no one listens to him.) The movie sure was right about disturbing scenes, like Lucifer (the little girl who prophesied) writing numbers on the door in blood and scratching her nails into them in the opening scene, people running about burning in flames after a plane crash and another bunch being run over by a train gone off rails (the predicted disasters).
And eventually, apocalypse is going to come into the picture. Somehow. This time, he found at the end of the letter was the words 'EE', which later he found out stood for 'Everyone Else'. In this movie it was in the form of a nova blast from the nearest star (the sun) which was going to deep fry the earth. And Nicholas thought there was something he could do (by going to the place Lucifer tried to scratch on the door) but he got interrupted as usual. And he had to give up his child (who was being salvaged by these creepy looking angels) and while hugging his family in the middle of their living room, the world blew up.
Like -boom-. Kind of like volcanoes under every patch of earth erupted simultaneously. That's it. Everyone died. No twist, no struggle for survival, they all just stood there accepting it.
What I didn't like was the attempt of making it freaky yet holding back. Like all those creepy, pale faced silent people who apparently whisper to the children (and turns out these people were celestial beings). They kept appearing, disappearing, leaving stones everywhere, and eventually bring capsules down and salvaging Chosen ones around the world before the apocalypse.
In my opinion, maybe it's worth watching on TV, but really worth the money spent in the theatres because of the storyline. The special effects showing all the climatic scenes were great though. I prefer the other Cage movie "Next" where he could see into the near future and it seemed like they failed in the end until there was a twist right at the last moment that I rememebered made the whole theatre go 'AWWW.' Another nice supernatural sci-fi movie would be The Day The Earth Stood Still. There was still a apocalypse, but there was a struggle to go against it, a twist, and the world pulled through. And everybody learnt a lesson that violence wasn't the solution to everything. Happy endings are nicer, yes?
I just don't wanna know what's going to happen at the end half way through the movie D:
OMGOMGOMG WHEELOCK PLACE FIGURINE SHOP HAS DISSIDIA FIGURINE :DDD I saw a Warrior of Light figurine there for $20! :D Was staring at it for so long until Li came again and we had dinner there. Will miss her, have a safe flight back D:
When the next week comes, all I can think of is POP. Sigh, it'd be a closure to our NCC career. Lemme try and remember all the NCC camps:
Camp FEAST - [Stitch 2] Nothing spectacular. Only I remember getting scolded for sitting straight and diam-ing while waiting for things to happen because it was supposed to be a 'fun camp'.
Spec Course - [Hurricane 2] Where things got serious. Mutual lessons, teaching and teaching, Madam Fateha yelling at us. Meeting David :D Sir Taufiq yelling "SERGEANT CHAN." when I made a mistake :X hmm. Celeste yelling right in my face as soon as she became IC, and her shouting for me to get the broom. And RGS air taking like 75% of the awards, dominating the Air Spec Course. And Sir Taufiq taking his time and questioning me as he presented my 2SG with the RSAF-NCC badge. Running down the HQ road yelling YYYYEEEESSSS.
National Camp - [Alpha!] The most awesome camp. I'm so glad I was sent to it, where we made so many new friends over the course of 4 days. Well, technically this was a NPCC camp. And our sirs and madam and CO were all NPCCers, they put in so much effort to make it fun! :D I still have my loved cap from Sir Rizwan. And without this camp I wouldn't have met people like Li, Bryan,Xinhui, Jeffrey,Lizzie, Lingesh,D, and so many many more :D
Senior Spec Course - [Echo 2] Gah separated from all CHS guys. But I met Jeffrey and Joel who made my SSC really, really crazy. Take one nutty person and put him inbetween two equally crazy people, and you get chaos :D All the lessons, the teasing in the bunks, the chanting of 'Lanyard, lanyard, lanyard, lanyard' at the graduation ceremony, Sir Alfred donning my lanyard :D And yes putting the rank on our left and going 'SSOO HHEEAAVVYY".
Camp Pinnacle - [Hotel 2] Where everyone was so bored we went high. It was 5 whole draggy days of visiting military institutions, hardly anything physical but more of exposure to a military career. Where boredom comes nuttiness, put Joel + Me = whole platoon twiddling their thumbs at every waiting opportunity. Training thumb muscles! There came the 'rubber-band' art as well as everyday we eat packet meals and there is so many rubber band everywhere people start making rubber band balls and tying nets with them. We Alaka-Bonto-ed our way through the performance too :D This is where I too met Mandy while the Air cadets were grouped together. Joel and I were chanting 'Badge, badge, badge, badge' when they were presenting us the Camp Pinnacle badge :D
4th Advanced Drill Course - [Platoon 1 - Nighthawks!] Well, I did blog about this camp recently. It's still fresh in my mind, all the scolding and all the fun while learning :D
Ahh, and now they are all memories to keep. POP seems so near now.
Balthus
They assert our individually, for memories are truly of our own.
Something happened today that was totally hilarious, I'm still laughing in the inside :D
I met Clarence at recess on the way back to class and shouted out "CHIA."Clarence took one look at me and bolted. Confused, I gave chase and we ran down the corridor until he turned into the staircase. I ran after him and up the steps, until my classmate said Clarence was seen running down. Sly him :O I ran back down and caught him! =D
I wanted to talk to him about his probational training, then I realised he ran because he's scared I'd whack him...for forgetting to bring the contact lists to distribute during training. Again. I'm gonna kill you :D
Geography quiz on Tuesday was quite fun :D We went to ACJC and sat at the LT to take a 30 MCQ test on East Asia Geog. Turns out to be a game of luck - I have no idea about the facts question like names of tribes! Dawn was there for her school as well :) Gah, we didn't even advance to the 2nd round. But watching the other schools on stage (and the defending champions fffaaaiilllliinnnggg :D) was rather entertaining and educational. And I was betting for ACSI to win, while Zong Da was like "NANYANGNANYANG". Nutter. It's a good experience, my first inter-school quiz!
Something is seriously wrong with Kua Choon Searn. He is the most. amazing. sleeper. He can drink water and snooze in the middle of a lit poem test with the bottle on his lips. He can dig his bag for notes and fall asleep in that position. He can fall asleep while writing on his paper. I won't be surprised if he was sleeping during his 2.4km run. Maybe he sleeps in drama. Won't it be so cool if he falls asleep while saying a line of his? :D
Oh god, the new CMC shirt is....oh god. It's yellow. That's it. Just bright, SUPER BLINDINGLY bright YELLOW. Apparently it's suppose to show our 'energy' (trying finding some in me :D) and represent our badge colour. Why. WHY YELLOW? All the Sec 4 chairmans were like commenting on how we look like bananas or people in trenchcoats somewhere in London. Great. There goes $12 on a shirt you'd never catch me wearing for no good reason.
The Affirmation ceremony for the Sec 1s was a success :D Have to thank many guys who made it smooth and possible: Ernest and Kun Liang for Emcee-ing it, Ernest for his superb IT skills, Yong Liang and the Sec 3 Part B UDI and Specs to be (Toh Hong,Jacob,Daniel and Ken) for helping me teach the Sec 1s how to do pledge taking in such a short time. Keefe, De Sheng and other NCC land NCOs for their support to help :D We sang the NCC song, then viewed the NCC Corporate Video, Mrs Chua gave her speech, I conducted the NCC pledge (feels weird to shout in the LT o.o), they signed themselves in, we had the national anthem, and done :D Welcome, new Part As to the NCC family. heh heh ^^
Sir Anthony visited us and Sir Sui Peng kept making fun of his REC rank XD Gosh, the new no.4 is D: the pixelised uniform looks odder at close up, especially the little flap where you place your rank on the centre of the uniform o.o Not looking forward to it, seriously.
I spent most of the rest of the training speaking to Yuk Tim about his duties and taking over. He's going to be a great USM :)
Li is in town~! :DDD
rainbowrainbow rainbow. It came, high above over our heads, clear to all :D
Benedict -- Balthus
Cat High since 2006 - 2009
4-3 '09
NCC (air) cadet since '05 - C/OFFR
CHS NCC (air) USM '08 - '09
A NCC Supernumerary
Member of the CMC since '07 - '09
The star of the Cancer
Stars to favour
People around me who care =)
Symbolism, the deeper meaning
CHS NCC (air)
CHS CMC board
Figurines I like =D
Improvement, no matter how minor
Pencils, colour pencils, paper
Traditional Art and CG
Drawing =D
Piano (:
Raindrops to catch
For my unit to flourish
For my grades to catch up - L1R5 of <8!
To choose my path in life
To improve my skill with the pencil Watercolour colourpencils! Thank you :)
To learn digital art XD Become a first aider =D OH YEA.
To play the piano (:
Taking over the parade from the 2IC Wei Kit
And the sash with the CSM post tag follows. At that moment I was thinking how alike it was with Sir Warren and myself a year ago.
The change of command of the CSM.
The new Parade Commander giving his first commands to the entire unit.
Then followed everybody's high spirits as we took photos :D Here are the new batch of NCOs with the Seniors (Wei kit, Myself, Wei Xuan, Yong Hwee, Yu Cheng, Jared) and Sir SP. Nicholas Wee what do you think you're doing :O
Beautiful :D