Paintball - a reflection

Top gun paintball was where I spent my morning today. Skirmish! Something I had only ever heard about but never done before. The rumours I had heard were:

- It feels like the army, yet not
- The paintballs hurt
- It's extremely fun

And I'm here to tell you today that those rumours are completely 100% right. As most of you would know, I spent 2 years in the SAF where I was trained as an infantry officer. Great times, though I'm glad they're over. But it was for this reason too that it felt extremely weird putting on an Australian army uniform (part of the provided attire). To be honest, I felt like a traitor! :p

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Then ............................................................................ Now

It didn't fit well, it was rankless, and it was really unfamiliarly patterned. The day started with briefing by experienced instructors/referees on the game play for the morning. Face goggles on at all times, how to use the paintball guns, etc. So the 40+ of us in total loaded our guns, split into the red and blue teams, and the shooting began.

Game 1 was an ambush. One team walks down a defended location and the fighting starts once the other team (already in hiding) fires the first shot. Aim: Capture the flag.

Game 2's aim was to capture a nuclear device (cleverly disguised as a netball) and bring it to the opponents' end. Playing field was a long mini-gully, with heaps of trees and bushes. And fantastic hiding spots.

Game 3 was slightly urban. We had to capture the flag, but this time there were numerous wooden huts you could hide inside along the way, with open windows. And open spaces, where you couldn't even be seen for 2 seconds without getting shot.

Game 4 was capture the flag too, but this time from a fort (with a maze-like entrance) right in the middle of a playing field. And both sides of the field were littered with little barricade-like structures which you could hide behind. A nightmare.

Things were terribly disorganised at first, but after a while we started getting better at planning. We stuck to groups of 4 within our teams, and basically covered each others backs. We had some great moments.

Me: We need to secure that hut for best coverage to defend our flag.
Friend: There are two guys hiding in it, shooting towards our far right, plus another two on the left, aiming at us.
Me: If you can sprint to the hut and get the guys inside, I'll give you supporting covering fire from here.
Friend: Ok, I'm ready.
Me: I'm covering you, GO GO GO!!
BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!!

We managed to clear the hut, take it over as a mini defence post, and then advanced to another hut, where we had a brilliant advantage in terms of arc of fire. Man it was awesome.

You'd think that I'd be a pro at this, thanks to years of army training, but it wasn't exactly like the army. In the SAF, we'd plan and prepare for missions HEAPS in advance, till every single guy knew their exact role and position at any time. This morning, we were just all over the place. BUT, today brought to life so many of the principles I had learnt in the army. See, we only used blanks (fake bullets) in the army, when on exercises where we actually went into combat with 'enemy' platoons/companies. They made a loud noise, but you had no idea whether you 'shot' the guy, or what effect it actually had. And you couldn't get 'shot' either. But with paintballs...man. There's a whole new reason to take cover.

Those paintballs stung. They'd hit you at crazy speeds and explode into a little splat. Worse still if they didn't explode on you, cos they just hurt like mad! And being able to see where you paintball(bullet) was going, plus the very real possibility of getting hit if you stuck your head out from your cover for more than 2 seconds...it made warfare so real. The whole concept of 'covering fire' just came to life today for me. It's hard to explain, but let's just say that it really works! And if only we had had a strategy, and more than just 10 seconds of planning before each game...man, we would have nailed the other team!

The rifle was pretty light, but it shot nicely. Quite like a real gun, I suppose. I took a few good shots to the head myself, plus quite a few randoms over my body. Some left pretty awesome bruises which I suspect aren't going to fade for a little while... (I don't think they're this severe for everyone; I just happen to have sensitive skin.)

Two conclusions from today. Firstly, I really wonder why we didn't do this in the army. It would have made so many things clearer, and made combat so much more realistic. I suppose it isn't really a safe thing to do. It's an extreme sport, apparently. And the SAF didn't just focus on close battle training (within like 200m) - much of today's warfare occurs at huge distances.

Secondly, I was reminded again today that war is a terrible thing. It was scary today, not knowing whether you should stick your head out from behind your barricade cos the last time you did, you got shot right between the eyes. But if you didn't, you couldn't defend yourself, or your friend, or do anything, really. And I just thought - man, what if these bullets were real? It wouldn't be a matter of paint or just a bruise, it'd be life and death. Imagine the bravery of all the soldiers who've ever gone to war. No wonder they come back with post-traumatic stress disorders. War is such a horrible thing, and we should pray hard that countries can come to agreements without having to resort to it.

The most important meal of the day

At uni today they were giving out free breakfast food! I should have taken a picture. A huge tent with people in casual uniforms (i think), serving a buffet arranged array of healthy breakfast foods - cereals, juices, muffins, breads, fruit, fresh milk...all totally free! Naturally, there was a huge queue. I didn't bother lining up (not that I've lost my Singaporean-ness), but a nice friend did and got a muffin for me. Slightly doughy, but still good! More importantly (perhaps) was a little green slip of paper I got with the muffin, telling me all about eating right for breakfast. I'm not sure how much of it is true, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. As a public service, I'll type out the whole pamphlet here for your benefit. Heed what it says!



Breakfast...The Most Important Meal of the Day

Starting your day with a good breakfast is one of the best health decisions you can make. Breakfast liteally means "breaking your overnight fast". Remember it could be a least 10 hours since your last meal, so it is important to re-fuel your body ready for another day.

Enjoying breakfast can help lift your mood and has been shown to help with improving concentration levels, behaviour and learning abilities in university students.

Breakfast and weight control

Although many people skip breakfast in an effort to reduce their food intake and lose weight, research shows that enjoying a high fibre breakfast may lead to eating less food later in the day. This is probably because high fibre meals can be quite filling, so you are less likely to snack on high fat and sugary foods mid-morning. In fact, eating breakfast is strongly associated with successful, well-maintained weight loss maintenance.

What makes a good breakfast?

It is important to make the most of your breakfast meal by including highly nutritious foods such as wholegrain breads and cereals, fruits, low-fat dairy or fortified soy products and nuts and seeds. Avoid foods high in fat, sugar and salt (such as takeaway options) as these will simply take up the space (and provide more calories!) of more nutritious foods. People who skip breakfast also generally find it difficult to achive their daily nutrient requirements, so best to start packing in those nutrients early!

* * *

Heard that kids? EAT YOUR BREKKIE!!!

Although I need to listen to this advice too. I don't normally skip breakfast, but although I usually have cereals or bread, every now and then I eat really weird stuff for breakfast. Like leftovers from dinner. Which may include (but is not exclusive to) pasta, burritoes, stir frys and fried rice. Hmm. I'll try to avoid that from now.

An adventurous run

It's funny, but I sleep soo much better when I've exercised. Ok, that may not be that shocking, but you'd think that after a long run, you'd wake up tired and sore the next day. It's the opposite for me - I sleep very soundly after a day with exercise, and wake up the next morning refreshed! And sore still, but that's besides the point.

I went running today, and decided to be adventurous (my wish came true). I found a nice nearby park on a map, and decided to check it out. It was very cool. Found myself a beautiful big oval where I'm going to run around from now on (400-500m laps, i estimate). Anyway, the adventure came when I decided to come home. The oval was right next to a highway, and I was quite sure if I followed it, it would bring me home quicker (dunno where that idea came from, really). I crossed the highway (underground, there was a underpass), and ran along a road that ran parallel to it. Then I came to a bridge crossing the highway, and I knew something was amiss. It shouldn't be there, if I was heading home. I crossed the bridge, and tried looking down either side of the highway to recognise any landmarks. Didn't work. Then I noticed a huge sign about 100m away, for oncoming traffic, but it wasn't facing me. I found my way down to the bike track next to the highway (I was safe, it was still separated by a fence) and checked out the sign. Ipswich ahead, it read. Ok, I obviously don't want to be heading that way (south), so I started running the opposite direction. But after a while, I still didn't recognise anything. I thought again. Of course! Silly me, I do want to head south! I turned around, but decided not to run along the bike tracks anymore, and ran southwards along another road parallel to the highway. And before I knew it, I was back in familiar territory. Whew.

Quite an experience, was slightly scary cos it was a bit dark by the time I got back, but it was worth it! Now for that good night's sleep... ;)

Psalm 13

How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

link

Relief and Information. Lots of it.

It's SUCH a great feeling to get an assignment done. The relief is immense. It's seriously like a huge burden being fully taken off you. Although this could be due to my bad attitude towards them. But I suspect I'm not the only one who feels this way.

It seems to me that we were made to work. We were made for labour of all sorts, and to find accomplishment through it. What a peculiar trait that God built into us. It does make sense though. From the very beginning, God made man and gave him a job - to tend the garden and look after all the creatures (in a sense). And so we are fulfilled when we finish a job, although nowhere near as fulfilled as you would be if you're doing exactly what God wants you to do.

You may have noticed that I'm just rambling thinking out loud here. So...maybe don't take what I'm saying too far.

Something else I want to ramble about...our bodies are incredible!!!!! There I was dissecting some mesenteric arteries this morning (they're the vessels that provide blood to the intestines) and the thought crossed my mind (as it often does, while I dissect) - man, our bodies are complex. They're incredibly complex. But the thing which I find really mindboggling is the amount of information that's involved.

The computer desk that I'm using at the moment, I bought from Ikea, and it came with a TWENTY page manual on how to assemble it. And that's just a BASIC desk from a company who prides itself in being simple. Now let's move to humans...but start simple - just with a single cell. Cells are our building blocks, and for centuries scientists thought that they were just little globs of homogenous gooey stuff. You know, like a jelly bean that's made of the same stuff at every point of it.

Then we found out that they were a bit more complex than that...they contained a mini control station, and little energy-producing bits.

Then we discovered machines inside it that can fight and eat bad stuff, and bits that recycle or degrade stuff, and even a whole transport system (taxis, railway lines and all) within it.

Then we found out there were many types of messengers all about the cell, telling every part what to do at the right time and right place, and even communicating with neighbouring cells.

And then we discovered that the surface of the cell is stuffed full of little gates that completely control what goes in and out in terribly complex ways.

The little glob has turned out to be quite a handful, and most scientists today would still say that we've barely dug beneath the surface. There's so much more going on that we don't know! All in the wee little human cell, far smaller than this fullstop.

Many people liken the cell to a city. And in many ways, it is! Much like Brisbane City (with very elaborate town planning). Now imagine, just imagine, writing down all the instructions on how to build Brisbane City so that some guys far away (who have unlimited money & resources) can replicate it fairly identically. Firstly, you'd need several lifetimes to even get started on the instructions, and secondly, your instructions would be EXTREMELY long. The amount of information involved would be overwhelming.

And guess what?

The humble human cell does this replication virtually perfectly, over and over, without you even knowing. Think about it. ALL the information the cell (an entire city!) needs to, well, build itself, is completely contained within its DNA, all 3 billion letters of it.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg lettuce. Our bodies aren't just made up of one cell type only - we have hair cells and liver cells and brain cells and skin cells and blood cells...the list goes on and on. And each cell has the EXACT same DNA copy in it. How does it know what type of cell it should be?

And wait a minute, how does the body even know how to grow in the first place? A sperm and egg fuse, and it divides over and over, until suddenly you get an entire human body! Stop a while with me and think - how much information would be needed to tell the developing bunch of cells exactly where the head should be, the arms, the legs, every organ...? There's no one using his fingers (as we would with playdoh) prodding and moulding the little embryo into its proper shape (or is there?). In fact, this blows the building-brisbane analogy out of the water, cos now we're talking about needing enough information to create a self-assemblying city! Imagine HOW MUCH information you need just to do that!!!

It's NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I'm reminded of that every time I look into the human body. I mean, how do the mesenteric arteries know where they should branch off from, and where they should go to...ok, I'm not going to get started again.

Of course, you know why I'm going on about this so much, and it's cos I believe God did all this. And you know what, it actually isn't that crazy an idea. Evolution theoretically does have its way of arriving at order, but we've given it WAY too much credit. There's only so much 'controlled' blind chance can achieve. Why do we try so hard to subvert God's credit to our man-made theory?

Ok, my thinking out loud ends here. If you managed to read this far, know that I really do appreciate it. Bed time now. Mmm...it's so good finishing assignments, don't you think...

Spelling Chequer

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee four two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong

Eye have run this poem threw it
am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

- Sauce unknown

Wedding bells are ringing

Is it just me, or does 2007 seem to be the year of weddings? Last year, I heard of a total of maybe...2 weddings? Of which I attended 1. This year so far (and it's only April), I've heard of at least 12! And will probably be attending 4, not including my own! Incredible. You know how sometimes you just happen to notice stuff more when you're kinda interested in it? I thought it was that at first, but after a while, it was just a bit too uncanny. Claire and I decide to get married, and all of a sudden, so does the entire world. Well, not really, but you know what I mean. The funny thing too is that our wedding is the latest of them all (Dec 07 Brisbane, Jan 08 Singapore), even though we've probably been going out the longest. Oh well. Not complaining!

Anyway, preparations have been underway! So far (for the Brisbane wedding), we've confirmed the bride and groom :p, the ministers, the bridesmaids and groomsmen, reception venue, bride's dress, groom's suit, and have a rough idea about colour scheme and other random stuff. In fact, just on sunday, Claire and I went to a Wedding Expo organised by Queensland Brides!

It was quite something. There were stalls there about anything and everything wedding related! Wedding cakes, wedding invitations, flowers, bridal gowns, bridesmaids dresses, suits, jewellery, shoes, ceremony venues, reception venues, honeymoon planning, gift registeries, wedding cars, music, entertainment, food, and more. There were even shops specialising in gowns for the mother-of-the-bride or mother-of-the-groom! What a huge commercial industry weddings are.

But all in all, it was an afternoon well spent, and Claire and I left the expo with a stack of helpful brochures, and (definitely the find of the day) a bunch of bridal magazines!

We got those 6 magazines above for $7 altogether (they're normally like $13 each). And they're actually quite fun to read :p Chock full of wedding ideas, which is exactly what we need.

8 more months till the end of my unmarried life, and how I can't wait ;) In terms of logistical preparation, it's really not very long, but in terms of what Claire and I have had as our goal from the very start - it couldn't come any sooner!

Caution: Breakdance ahead III

And so it continues. Ever since I posted Caution: Breakdance ahead part one and two, several people have told me that they can't look at those slippery signs normally again.

Good!

I mean, you must agree that they're kinda weird. What really puzzles me is how ubiquitous they are. I mean, they're everywhere! And they're very international too, I've found out. You never see a caution-slippery-floor sign without the picture of the unfortunate guy slipping.

I spotted this one on the left in a BP station. A pink slippery sign! A first for me, that's for sure. What was even more amusing was the little sign attached on top (yes, a slippery sign above another slippery sign!)...

What on earth is below that man? Tar? An evil shadow? Whatever it is that I'm supposed to look out for, it sure doesn't look like water.

But I don't really have to go around looking for these signs anymore, because some friends from uni (Steph & Dave) gave me one for my birthday this year :) It's now stuck up in my apartment (on the door of my toilet, of course) where I admire it daily.

This guy thought he could avoid the slipperiness by wearing shoes, but alas, it failed. He looks a lot like me in an ice-skating rink, come to think of it.

And last of all, a badge which Michelle Tng gave me in Singapore, which she apparently just chanced across one day! (I still can't believe it)

How cool is that ;)