Sunday, June 20, 2010 . 8:46 AM

So I'm back, and I'll be gone again for another 5.5 days. Packing my field pack now to get ready to book in later. Can't really say much about Tekong life other than its pretty good (surprisingly). I wish I could share with you guys about what goes on in there, but that would mean serious consequences on my side. Ouch.

Got to use my iPhone for a couple of days though...and hung out with Hazzy for a while. It can get really lonely there in camp especially when you're stuck with 14 other sexually deprived guys. But fear not, gay I shall not become, as I have armed myself for the return visit with my trusty Zen and a brand new pair of X-Mini Max II speakers!

I'll be doing my very best to aim for an IPPT pass by the end of the month because there's a huge incentive for me.

Train hard and don't leave your fellow men behind.

Friday, June 4, 2010 . 12:11 PM

To whom it may concern (those who are bothered to read my blog):

As of now I have 17 hours left before I have to report to Changi Ferry Terminal. I'm a little nervous/excited yet disappointed that my freedom is coming to an end. For the next 5 months anyway.

Time passes so quickly doesn't it? It just seemed like yesterday when I was in Secondary school with my buddies discussing NS. O and N levels are so far behind me now. I feel old.

I have no idea what's in store for me so I've decided to try my best to remember the important details and blog about the first two weeks there for the benefit of other guys waiting for NS too.

Life isn't short. Life is restricted and difficult and that's why it seems short. Choices are always limited and the many consequences behind them always puts us off from making a choice; instead we procrastinate and hope someone else carries the burden.

Most of us including myself often think of 'what if' situations. What if I didn't do that? What if I had saved the money? What if I studied harder? This eventually leads to us fantasizing about time travel and going back into the past and undoing what we did wrong or making the correct decisions. Trust me, I've had my fair share of time travel fantasies but everytime I'm done fantasizing, I tell myself that if time could be reversed and altered, I would never experience regret and life lessons. Of course, if everyone could live in a world where regret and wrong decisions could be eliminated, that would be fabulous. But the key to this is feeling that pain in our minds and our hearts - that is what makes us human.

The soul to any physical body is not a ghost or spirit - not in my opinion anyway. I don't believe in going to heaven (because honestly, who in the world is eligible for heaven? I'm betting that even Mother Theresa and the Popes of the Vatican have committed sins before no matter how trivial. ) and I don't believe in going to hell and being damned for all eternity. Hell would be pretty packed and over populated seeing that Earth is pretty old as it is.

I don't believe in reincarnation because of two things: Firstly, who/what chooses what you're going to be in the next life? A dog? Moth? Fish? Human again? Who decides that? Who has the right to have such power? Secondly, to be reincarnated you have to believe that the soul is a physical entity that can possess other physical bodies in another life. Sort of like a driver buying a new car and driving it.

To me, the soul is what makes a person unique. I believe that soul comprises mostly of the heart of the person - and I don't mean the actual beating heart. But deep down within an individual of which defines the person. How a person laughs or what he laughs at. The split second decision to save or not to save a person about to be run over on the road. The amount of good and evil within him. How far he's willing to go to be generous and help others. You might notice that I'm using alot of "good and evil" and "kind and selfish" examples here but this extends way further than this spectrum of measuring the soul. Even things like how someone can be annoyed easily while others are not is part of the soul. It's not wrong to have "bad" soul and you don't score points for having a "good" soul. You are just what you are. This is why you're unique.

When a person dies, he/she dies. Period. The body decays and you no longer exist and you're now some biowaste mixed with the earth. Dead people do not come back to life and souls die with the body, because the soul cannot live without the body and vice versa.

Some of you are probably either really bored right now or you're even more confused. Let me put it this way shall I?

Let's start with birth. You were born a certain number of years ago. When you were born, your soul was a shapeless form (for those of you that require a visual aid ). It had some shape because you inherited some things from your parents/grandparents/ancenstors. You cannot deny this fact. I'm sure many of you have encountered people who have behavioural traits which have been passed down from generation to generation. It can't be helped, it's genetics.

Now, as you grow older, you encounter friends, situations in life and make difficult desicions. Your friends influence you and your soul becomes a little more defined. You go through situations in life; perhaps you were threatened with severe violence when you were young or treated with love and respect. Depending on what it is, your soul is defined further. Maybe you don't trust people with shifty looking faces or you tend to trust and be overly faithful to everyone. This goes on and on and on until you reach adulthood where your soul is pretty much solid now. It isn't unchangeable but it would take a great deal of persuasion or a catastrophic event in your life to change the soul again. You might call it metal now where you have to really melt it at high temperatures to change the shape whereas when you were younger, your soul was more like plasticine which was much easier to mould.

To sum it up, the soul is a mixture of personality and genetics. But to get to the very root of it, deep down within that mysterious void, we need keep very quiet and listen from within. The soul speaks through the heart and many a time we refuse to listen to it because logic opposses it.

Listen to your heart because your soul is trying to talk to you. Be quiet for a while and listen carefully. Your soul will always be the only raw, stripped, uncorrupted entity in your life and only you are able to intepret it.