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Month: September 2009

Weekly Tweets

  • "And that's what you lesbians are missing out on" RT @patlaw: Never seen anything that big before. #
  • Testing twitterberry! #
  • Buying stuff at a surprisingly busy Novena Square #
  • Omg I think I'm gonna get a blister on my thumb #
  • RT @ladyironchef: Oh My God! foie gras macaron http://bit.ly/KEGEG #
  • The new Tweetdeck rocks! #
  • RT: @victortan I like tat ans! RT @preetamrai: #snwf person asks if am I a broadcaster. I reply I hv a YouTube channel. #
  • Is on ubertwitter http://myloc.me/IXJK #
  • Taking Taiwanese mother-in-law to Din Tai Fung. Bracing for backlash. #
  • Mac Portable gets a 20th anniversary vivisection http://viigo.im/0XwA #
  • We survived dinner with just one comment on how one dish is not Taiwanese. She blamed the Singapore palate for pressuring the restaurant. #
  • Kai has his thumb to soothe him to bed. I have my Blackberry Bold. #
  • RT @nanyate: IE6, please die already. You're like that village hag that has overstayed her welcome. #
  • F1 drivers should be made to drive through the traffic chaos the event causes. Great lead up event. #
  • Arrrrgh traffic! Damn you Formula 1! #
  • RE: Good luck! And have fun at camp! http://disq.us/d9o3 #
  • Here we are complaining about a slight haze. RT @torvaanser: 1st pictures of the Sydney Sandstorm http://is.gd/3BqcN #
  • I think the Sydney sandstorm blew into Singapore: http://bit.ly/1vyexG #
  • Instead of having floodlights to make the F1 race look like day, why not have the race in the day to save electricity? #
  • RT @gurms: One of the tips on the "help prevent the spread of h1n1 on public transport" poster is 'avoid taking public transport'. #
  • Arrrrrgh F1 traffic! http://pic.gd/a3548 #
  • FB RT: Lindsay Lohan is in da house! #
  • Rain arrives for F1 Rocks… so how? Cancel lah? http://skitch.com/t/ssg #
  • ''Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.'' – Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll'' #
  • "This year's fashion is preezon stripes, but I can still wear the leopard prince beginee inside" #rislow http://bit.ly/YO2GN #
  • RT @msglitzy: wow! I need monee to buy preezon stripes. becuz i oni have bigini and they are all boomz. #
  • Bluff! Watching F1! RT @sgtraffic: 09:39 Vehicle breakdown on ECP towards City near Benjamin Sheares Bridge. #
  • First right answer wins a pair of tickets to THE HOSSAN LEONG SHOW: Who are Hossan's co-stars in the show? #
  • You have just won a pair of tickets to the Hossan Leong Show! RT @niqkelodean: @miyagi chua enlai, celine rosa tan and karen tan? #
  • "I support the yellow ribbon project by putting black spots on it so it become leopard prince! Vooms!" #rislow #
  • Because it's F1 weekend, I got tyrepac.com to come change mum-in-law's tyres. #
  • Orh, I thought F1 cancelled. RT @singapore_news: GP suspended over Subutex http://sn.im/s3wez #
  • F1 is such an interesting sport. RT @nadnut: waiting for someone to buang or something. #
  • RT @skinnylatte: It transpires that Josie's new boss is TSM's husband! RT @sgnews [CNA] Josie Lau leaves DBS http://snipurl.com/s4syb #
  • Via Australia too. RT @angelamay_: American cheese burger in singapore looks surprisingly like Gaines Burgers http://twitpic.com/j6lxd #
  • Where's a good mall to go to with lotsa baby shops? #
  • Thanks for suggestions. We're at Paragon now. http://pic.gd/a7d78 #
  • the 'chicken dance song' is 'the duck dance song' in french. #
  • RT @joannchance: who will bring spanner and hammer to F1 race…..the list of prohibited things lists make me laugh *LOL* #
  • If you're not interested in the race, tonight's a good night to go to that popular restaurant that's always fully booked. #

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Water displacement formula, 40th attempt

Back when I was in full time NS, the cleaning of weapons was a mundane, time-consuming, daily chore. Between the 7 troopers in a combat section, we’d have around seven small arms (M16S1), couple of grenade launchers (M203), couple of light automatics (Ultimax100), two GPMGs, and a heavy machine gun (Browning .5 HMG).

Carbon residue would get stuck in the crevices and barrels of the weapons, which is the real reason why we were really really reluctant to fire our weapons during training. Of course, this was marketed as ‘ammunition conservation discipline’.

Every day when we were in camp, we’d be cleaning our weapons. When we were in the field, we’d clean our weapons. Nothing to do? Clean weapons. If there were to be a war, it’d have to have been put on hold because we were cleaning our weapons.

One of the hardest, and somehow most satisfying part of cleaning a weapon was the barrel pull through. This entailed putting a folded piece of flannelette (variously mispronounced as flannel-lite, fannelite and fantalite) in the eye of the pull through rod, and pulling the rod through the barrel of the weapon.

The thicker the flannelette, the more carbon residue it extracted. But the thicker the folded piece of flannelette, the harder it was to pull the entire thing through. Sometimes, you had to recruit your buddy to help hold your weapon while you pulled the rod through.

Four or five pulls, then another one with a new piece of flannelette usually did the trick, but not without a considerable amount of elbow grease.

Then one day, a platoon mate came to camp with a can of WD-40. He said it would work wonders with the weapons cleaning. Of course, we tried it. It worked. It cut down cleaning time by about 10 million years. We were free.

Queues at the canteen and payphones became longer. We spent more time and money on snacks, cigarettes and contact with the outside world. It was obvious that the fragile fabric of soldierly cohesion and solidarity was being threatened.

They banned the use of WD-40 in weapons cleaning. They then spread such disinformation as “WD-40 will cause barrel explosions and blow your pretty face off when you fire the weapon. Your buddy standing nearby will get it too”. Of course, that didn’t work, because one or two foolhardy troopers went ahead to try it, risking life, limb and the pretty face of their buddy standing nearby, firing their weapons uninhibitedly, knowing that they’d either die or have a lot of free time on their hands because they never had to spend so much time cleaning any more.

I had my car radio tuned to the BBC World Service yesterday morning, and listened to the most interesting story about WD-40, and how it evolved from a rocket scientist’s solution against missile corrosion, into one of the world’s most ubiquitous brands, but at the same time remaining unchanged as a product that always delivered beyond expectations.

I did not know that 20 years ago. Now I do.

Boldly going

I’m blogging in bed using my brand new Blackberry Bold.

It’s slow going cos I’m sleepy, so it’s a case of smartphone dumbuser.

It also doesn’t help that the Blackberry Internet Service isn’t activated yet.

Apparently it takes 2 to 3 working days on Starhub. It would’ve sucked a lot more if not for the pleasant surprise I got from the Starhub shop representative who whittled down the cash committment to just $88.

Even without the internet service, (I’m on wifi) I’ve already blistered my thumb from using the trackball.

Ok that’s it.

Weekly Tweets

  • Myanmar's military has transferred billions of dollars from a gas project into two banks in Singapore http://bit.ly/z29rn #
  • RT @mrbrown: Banks deny holding Myanmar cash RT @agbullet: @mrbrown DBS and OCBC have denied the allegations. http://is.gd/3fBcH #
  • Can you hear that? They are sounding my superhero signal. Now where's my costume?! Mum! Where you put my cape? #
  • RT @tinkertailor: if i wanna bomb singapore, i'd do it on SCDF day so nobody will be alarmed. #
  • RT @angelamay_: The doggie went out to howl with the bomb warning system. It was so cute I've never seen her do that before. All's safe … #
  • Not happy. Blog hacked. Files corrupted. Nabeh WordPress. #
  • All's good. Blog fixed. #
  • RT @mrbrown: http://twitpic.com/hsucl Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a "jackass" (via @Mashable ) http://bit.ly/odQxC #
  • RT @mrbrown: http://bit.ly/15O8y7 Ho Ching charged with molesting a 14-year-old girl and indecent exposure. via @siewkumhong #
  • THE HOSSAN LEONG SHOW opening titles! http://bit.ly/18vPFO #
  • Vale, Keith Floyd & Patrick Swayze #
  • I rated a YouTube video (5 out of 5 stars) — THE HOSSAN LEONG SHOW! http://bit.ly/eR4nm #
  • RT @stephietan: Nice one ST, I download your app and the first thing that pops up? "s'poreans are upbeat abt the recession, says AC Niel … #
  • http://twitpic.com/hx3qh – No Outside Food. #
  • Is in the midst of rehearsals for The Hossan Leong Show. #
  • DJ Shigeki is in the house! #
  • Singapore's OK because Malaysia is more cock than us: http://bit.ly/D4dHX #
  • Got Sunday off! Sunday off right? Wait I check schedule RT @HossanLeong: It's er..FRIDAY!!!! but it's a working weekend AGAIN for me… #
  • Health Alert: For those still in NS (includes reservists) if they give you Permethrin to soak your uniforms in, don't. http://bit.ly/ZBYex #
  • RT @HossanLeong: Today is last day for early bird discount for Paul Carr's Executive Voice Course (30 Sept) http://bit.ly/3MLslH #
  • #followfriday @HossanLeong cos got The Hossan Leong Show. @angelamay_ because is hottest travel show host. #
  • RT @HossanLeong: Read this fab interview of Catherine Lim with NY Times. Love her! http://bit.ly/qT4JB #
  • How about that rain! #
  • http://twitpic.com/i9rr5 – Baby Kai enjoys the cool weather at Grandma's house. #
  • RT @gssq: Citizenship classes should teach – 'Singapore is hot and humid. Please bathe everyday' #
  • fiddling with my brand new bold #

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