Rejected

After much deliberation, I have decided to turn down the new job offer and my biggest reason is in the fact that I don't think the pay I have asked for is high enough.

Even though I have requested for a higher salary than my current job, it really isn't enough to warrant the kind of stress I will eventually experience again as an Interior Designer. The opportunity to learn from the company is definitely there and that was really what made me consider joining the company during the second interview, just the fact that I could be mentored along the way and really learn how to handle big landed and commercial projects, but a $300 increment to have to go through all that anxiety of being a Project Manager again is just not an increment that I feel is worth it.

The stress I got from my phone buzzing due to messages, and then seeing the notifications...

" Photo"

"Photo"

"Photo"

"Photo"

"Photo"

... as the phone just continues buzzing and buzzing because the clients are sending in a billion photos of a thousand defects they have spotted that requires your immediate attention for rectification works. I just cannot.

And then when you forward those issues to the sub-cons, they tell you it's normal and not considered a defect, so you inform your customer that the sub-con doesn't deem those as defects, but then the customer get suspicious and angrily informs you that they feel like the sub-con is denying responsibility, that they need to fix it because the results are disappointing and they can't accept those "defects", and the sub-con tells you nothing can be done because even if they redo it again, it will end up the same, so since you are stuck in the middle and you are such a people pleaser, you agree with the sub-con and then tell the customer you will give them a discount because of that "defect", the customer ends up calling you to complaint about it, you end up having a chat with them and they finally agree to it begrudgingly, so you end up losing a few hundred dollars from your commission.

To go through that kind of stress is going to have to be more than a $300.00 monthly increment from my current salary range. If I have to go through that kind of shit, I should be asking at least $4,000.00 per month to justify the anxiety I will be putting myself through again, and this is just for the work related stress, this doesn't include the travelling I will have to do, the longer working hours, and the additional 0.5 day that I have to work in a week even though it's deemed as optional.

This ringtone is trauma inducing. When I hear it at work now because some of our delivery movers have this as their ringtone for their Samsung phone, it triggers my fight or flight response. 

So of course, another reason is the 5.5 days work week, after working a 6 day work week at the bakery back in 2014, I now strictly adhere to a 5 day only work week policy whenever I look for a new job, anything that is more than 5 days, even if the additional day is considered optional, is way too much. An additional 0.5 days is still considered 6 days to me because you are already ruining my off day by requiring me to report to work, whether it's only for 4 hours or for the full 9 hours.

And then the weekly grind of having to report to work from Monday - Friday, 8.30am - 6pm, and Saturday from whatever half day timing to whatever half day timing, I don't think I can revert back to that kind of work schedule, all that build up towards your day off, and then it's back to work again the next 6 days. 

Plus having an 8.30am - 6pm working hours feels a bit long for an office job, that is the same working hours as my current job, but at least I don't have to go through 5 days straight of work before I get to enjoy my off day. 

The other con to this position is the location, which is located all the way at Tai Seng, which is pretty much considered East side, to commute daily from the West to the East, if I had a car, it wouldn't be so painful, but to have to take public transport during the peak hour rush in the morning and then to have to go through that again in the evening every weekday, to be fighting for a squeeze in the train, that's something I haven't done that in a very long time and it's an experience I don't plan to do again anytime soon. 

This is the second proper job offer I have turned down since working at my current company, third if I also include this ID firm but I don't really consider this full commission based job as a proper job offer because literally anyone can join them. 

As much issues as I have with my current job, there is still a certain level of comfort that I enjoy from it because it is less stressful than my previous positions, and that is very difficult for me to simply let go of. That is why I was hoping during the my weekend shift that something will trigger me and piss me off enough to leave the company, but nothing did, everything went as smoothly as weekend shifts can go and I even made a $10,000 sales on Saturday.

At this rate, I feel like I am probably going to be stuck here for a while longer. 

.

.

.

.

.

fuck.

For now, I will just focus on doing my current job properly and also look forward to my solo Taiwan trip in May, just slightly more than a month left! 

Looking for a new job will probably commence at the end of the year or beginning of next year after my final Reservist cycle is over because that was something that concerned me as well, the final cycle is going to be 3 weeks along and I really do not want to relive that 3 weeks worth of anxiety inducing moment again! To be stuck in camp, unable to do anything while shit is going on at my project site, no thanks.

Termination, Offer & Mechanical

A few days ago, my Supervisor was informed by the Upper Management that they are terminating him.

It wasn't something that came out of the blue for me because this decision is something Upper Management has discussed with my Manager before and since I am relatively close to my Manager, it is information that had been divulged to me months ago.

At that time, when my Manager shared this information with me, nothing had been set in stone yet, she had just submitted her resignation at that time and  one of the many counter offers Upper Management offered in an attempt to make her stay was to let her decide who she wanted to keep and who she wanted kicked out of the team. She told me that Upper Management threw our Supervisor's name into the hat as an example and that sort of hinted at what Upper Management was thinking. My supervisor has a bit of an attitude problem, so he isn't really someone the company can fully control, and as such, they don't like him, but because he is doing his job, they didn't really have a solid reason to get rid of them, plus he is really needed because he plays quite an important role in keeping the store team functioning and usually plays the bad cop to my manager's good cop. 

Unfortunately, my Supervisor threw a bit of a tantrum due to Upper Management fiddling into one of his sales and pissing his customer off, so he ended up just not attending to a lot of the meetings that he is required to attend, and that ended up giving company a very solid reason to get rid of him, the problem about his termination however is simply in the fact that they didn't think about his function in the team, the role he plays to keep the store running, all they could think about was...

"He fucked up, this is the perfect moment to get rid of him."

.. and I believe that thought really clouded their judgment, and I will say this, Upper Management has a tendency to make pretty bad judgment calls, so they called him for a meeting one day and told him that they are going to be terminate him on the spot.  

I wasn't there, but when my Supervisor told me what had transpired during this meeting, he said he was really calm when that decision was shared with him and that he was able to convince the Upper Management to let him "resign" instead of "getting terminated" to give him a graceful exit on the account that he has been with the company for almost 4 years. So now he is currently serving his 2 months notice period and coming June, he will no longer be part of the company.

This is not a decision I am agreeable with and it is not a decision any of my colleagues are agreeable with because I don't think it is right to just terminate someone without giving them a chance to change first. I was so happy when my Manager decided she was going to stay with the company, but now that they are firing my Supervisor, all that joy has left.

As much as I would like to stay for my Manager's sake, I feel like she is now being made to steer a sinking ship, even my Customer Service colleague is also intending to thrown her letter at the beginning of next month, so with her gone as well, the company is definitely going to become crippled, and I honestly feel bad for my Manager because there is no doubt the company will throw her a bunch to shit to cover while they try and find a replacement, which god knows will take how long. 

Hiring new blood is so difficult because the position is not enticing, you are looking for people to Sales, but then you leave out the main thing that will motivate a sales person to get more sales, a commission, no Sales person one in their right mind will apply for this position. The ones that they have hired so far to do sales, they have all been conned into this position.

The company recently hired another Manager and he made his first appearance in the store yesterday, my current Manager immediately had a disdain towards him because of how uppity he is. Literally on the first day, he is already pointing out issues he has with the store, from the messy front counter, to our dress code, down to the lack of any proper greeting from my Customer Service colleague when he entered the store. My Customer Service colleague was so irritated by that that she texted me to complaint about it. I get that you are at a  Managerial level, so you need to showcase a bit of leadership, but coming across as someone who has a stick stuck right up his ass is not the kind of first impression you want to be making with your colleagues at work. 

If he continues with this kind of approach, I really don't think he can last long because no matter how much you impress Upper Management, the ones who will make your life at work memorable is the colleagues that you are working with directly, not the ones who are tucked away in the office and assuming they know how things work in the store. So many of my colleagues right now are constantly thinking of leaving, and if this new Manager keeps up with this type of attitude, the only thing he will be known for in the company will probably be causing everyone's resignation

Anyways, update on life.

I just went for my 2nd round of interview with the company I had blogged about previously and my goal going into the interview was really to just go for the sake of going because I'm bored. I had zero intention to actually join the company, but the whole idea of actually quitting and being in a different work environment is what is so enticing about this current job offer. They were essentially calling me back to offer me the job.

I told them that I still need some time to think about it, but that I am 90% in, that was my mentality when I was in the office with them, they then asked me what I needed to think about and I just told them I needed time to process the offer.

Just to list out what I like about the job scope...

1. Stable Salary

I am not commission based, so there will be financial stability. The pay is slightly higher than what I am making now, but only by very slightly.

2. Team Work

We will be handling projects together, so that means anything that I am unsure of about the renovation works, there will always be someone else who will be able to come in and immediately understand the issue and rectify the problem for me. This also presents a very good opportunity to learn the ropes, especially when it comes to dealing with landed property projects. 

The problem I had when I was working at ID4 was the fact that I was pretty much always constantly on my own, I had no tutelage, so there were a lot of moments where I would have to hit a wall before I will learn how certain works are done. My manager couldn't offer much assistance in that regard because his renovation knowledge is also severely limited, by the end of my stint there, I daresay I was even more knowledgeable than him about renovation works.

This is a reason why I have never touched commercial projects or landed property, because there is no one there to guide me through it and messing up those projects could be a very expensive mistake. 

3. The Staff

They are generally quite friendly, I asked the interviewer today if he was related to the main boss and thankfully he told me he isn't, and then went on to explain to me that the reason why there is a baby in the office is because the boss's neighbor is currently undergoing some home renovations, so it is too noisy for the baby to actually get sleep.

I am comfortable talking to them and thankfully, they didn't start talking about their religious stuff today.

Moving on to what I don't like about the job...

1. Team Work

As nice as this whole "team work" idea sounded as the interviewer explained to me the way their company operates, I can also foresee a lot of problems that could potentially happen as a result of having too many hands in the pot, especially when it comes to very subjective matters like design aesthetics. 

 2. 5.5 Days Work Week

I really cannot get around the idea of a 5.5 day work week, it was explained to me that this is just something that is written on paper but not really enforced, so I am not required to come in on Saturdays unless absolutely necessary, but still not great in terms of work life balance.

3. Distance

The office is located in Tai Seng, travelling time takes about 1 hour, as compared to now whereby I can reach the Showroom at Orchard within 40 minutes. Plus it will be a 8.30am -6pm job, that means I will constantly have to deal with the peak hour crowd.

 ... I told them to give me until Monday to think about the offer and they have agreed. It was such an easy "No" a few weeks ago, but now it's such a difficult choice to make. There are good and bad and right now, the good is winning the bad, so I am really really tempted to accept the offer and just try it out.

One reason why it is so difficult for me to say Yes is really because my current role as the store's Visual Merchandiser is not a position that comes very easily, it's one of those positions that is so rare, I may never ever get a chance to be in a similar position ever again if I leave now, but if I keep having that mentality, then it will also bind me to the position and make me never leave the company, which I really want to because being in my current position and having to attend meetings with Upper Management every other week, Upper Management is just filled with individuals who are really very clueless about how things really work in the store, but then think they do and likes to stick their fingers in to fiddle around, which does nothing except make our life more difficult, like unintentionally pissing our customers off. This is the reason why my Supervisor got pissed off and threw a tantrum that ultimately got him terminated.

Another reason why it's difficult to say Yes immediately is because my Manager decided to stay with the company, if she had resigned as she said she would, my decision would have been much easier, but she took back her resignation letter, so I just feel bad to have to leave her alone,  and now the one that is leaving is my Supervisor and very likely my Customer Service colleague as well, she is going to be put in an even more difficult situation because those 2 colleagues of mine plays very huge roles in the company, if all 3 of us leave at the same time, the store is definitely going to be crippled for a while and the one who has to hold up the crumbling walls will be my Manager.

If it comes to that, I can already foresee a lot of my newer colleagues also throwing in their resignation letter because they don't plan to stay long, all of them were hired as designers but then got tricked into doing sales. The job is not hard, but it's also extremely unfulfilling, so if it were to get hard, then there really isn't any reason to stay.

Upper Management did constantly talk about wanting to replace the entire team with new guys, so maybe by having us seniors leaving, we would be doing them a favor to actually start from scratch.  

Anyways.

After my 2nd interview, I headed over to Suntec City because I wanted to get a Mechanical Keyboard from this shop called Mash, but it's not because I needed a new keyboard, I just wanted to spend money on something and figured it would be a good idea to splurge on a keyboard.  I was trying to get a keyboard that makes what is called "creamy" sounds and I think I was able to get one that fulfilled my requirements.

I did do a bit of research before I actually went to the store, so I roughly knew the type of switches I was looking for, I was pretty lucky when I went there and the keyboard with the exact sound I was looking for happened to be one of the first few keyboards I started playing with.

My first impression of the staff there was not great, I was left alone for a good 5 minutes until I eventually had to ask for help and honestly, I cannot complaint too much because this is the kind of service I would render to customers at my workplace as well, whereby I don't approach, I only get approached, as a customer, I have to admit it sucks, especially because I am a serious customer who is there to buy and really needed help, but at the same time, I can also understand their hesitation to approach because after I was assisted (and they were really quite helpful when that help was finally rendered) and was in the midst of building my keyboard, I can see people coming into the store to just play with the keyboards and not actually buy anything, even on an off peak hour at 2.30pm on a weekday.

 

Total damage was $250.00, manage to offset about $100 using my NS Excellence Award, so my own personal damage to my wallet was about $150, which isn't too bad considering I was going to budget about $200 for it.

The keyboard was really heavy though, I was really trying to avoid getting the one I got because it's a metal body, but in order to get the sound I wanted, I really had no choice, the plastic ones just weren't making the same sounds, so I ended up leaving the store with a 2kg worth of goods. I am however very happy with the sound of the keyboard so it was worth the trouble.

Update :

I just found out the the keyboard has RGB lighting, the staff didn't bother to go beyond and fully introduce the keyboard to me, so minus points to their service for that. 

1st Job Interview of the year....

I attended a job interview yesterday and I am not sure how I feel about it.

This job opening wasn't one that I had applied for, but one that I was shortlisted by the company for. Initially my plan was just to go there to listen to what they had to offer because it is for an Interior Designer position, but it was a full salaried job and based on the call, didn't require me to do project management if I didn't want to. 

I was doing my Reservist when the company called me up about the job opening, and as most people around me are aware, I am getting tired of my current company, not because the job is boring but because upper management is just a mess, so I figured, since a lot of boxes are being ticked and I am in fact constantly looking for a new job at the moment, why not just go take a look.

The day arrives and I head over to the office, the travelling was really long, located all the way in Tai Seng, travelling took me close to an hour, and when I stepped into the office, I am immediately turned off by the office's design, you can tell just based on the choices of laminates and detailing work that design is not the company's forte, but since I was already there, I can't just walk off, so I stayed on and notice there were maybe 4 - 5 employees working I went ahead and started to fill up the application form, and as I was filling the form up, I could hear a baby crying and the employees were talking to each other with this impatience in their tone that was more akin to how a typical Singapore family would converse with one another.

For some reason, after making the connection that this is a family owned and run business, I was suddenly reminded of one of my ex-colleagues' past  job experience that she had shared with me wherein she used to work in a family business, and that there was always a lot of biasness involved because of the familial relationship in the professional setting, it was really quite toxic to work in because the family members would get into arguments and bring personal issues into the professional setting. 

I was immediately worried that this could potentially have the same environment, so as I was filling up the final part of the form, I had already made up my mind that I wasn't going to be part of the company. 

Once the form was done, the employee who had contacted me for the interview brought me over and introduced me to the big boss and he is your typical Uncle, very friendly and talkative, seemed to have a good temper as well, so I sat down and we started talking and sharing our experiences in the industry. 

I will admit, the boss was very likeable, and so was his employee (whom I assume is probably his son-in-law) , but there were a few red flags about the position that worried me...

1. This is a 5.5 day work week job. 

I am not interested in working more than 5 days a week, I have done 5.5 days at ID1, it sucked, I have done 6 days at the bakery, that sucked even more. Whether you put it as 5.5 days or 6 days, to me, it will still be 6 days because you are still disturbing one of my weekends whether you require me to come in for 4 hours or 8 hours.  

So I expressed my disdain at the 5.5 day work week and they tell me that it's an additional 0.5 days because clients may want to meet on the weekend, so they need me to be available, I then countered and say if that is the case, then why not you just make me work 5 days, but have me clock all the required hours within that 5 days, since this is a salaried job, I also understand that you are paying me for the hours I work.

They did not want to do that and the boss's concern with that is that I might end up getting really calculative with my hours, which honestly I don't see the problem with because that is my rights as a salaried employee, but to him, I guess he doesn't really want to have to keep track because it's too much of a hassle.

His son-in-law then chimes in and tells me that if I listen carefully to what the boss is saying, what he means is that the 0.5 days is not fixed and that I am only required to come in should a client request to meet on the weekend. They are only putting the 0.5 days down in paper, and that he usually only comes in 5 days a week instead of 5.5 days as most clients are very understanding.

I'm a bit unsure about this, there is too many grey areas in this part of the job requirement for me to be comfortable with.

Also, based on my personal experience, clients will always prefer to meet on a weekend or weekday evening, so that weekday 9am-6pm is definitely not going to be a realistic working hours.

2. You are required to do everything, but it will be a team effort. 

All projects will be handled by at least 3 people, what I had initially thought was that meant 1 person will be the designer, 2 person will be the project manager.

Nope, that's not the case.

Everyone in the team will share the role of designer and project manager, so everyone will wear the same hat. I really cannot see how having multiple designer in a project is going to be smooth sailing. Design is subjective, everyone has their own style, I don't want to come into a project with a design proposal that is going to be tainted by another designer, and based on how their office looks, it will very likely get tainted.

Design is subjective and I have a certain style that I am strong, so if I am expected to work with another designer who has a completely different style, we will definitely clash because too many hands in the pot will spoil the sauce. I have never liked doing Group Project in Poly when it came to design related assignments, and I sure as hell won't enjoy it at work.

Also, so much for not having to do Project Management. I asked the son-in-law over the phone if I could avoid doing Project Management and he said this was something that could be discussed, but during the interview, it was presented as part of the many job scopes I will have to undertake, which brings me to my next point...

3. Full salaried job

I am all for a full salaried job, I enjoy the stability it offers. But having been in the Industry working on a commission system, I know how much a single project can get me and I know that in this line of work, if you are expect to do everything from design work to project management, you are much better of on a commission scheme because the earnings will be higher.

For this position, I put my expected salary only slightly higher than what I am getting paid now because I was under the assumption that it was going to be a design only position, but after being told that I also have to do project management, that salary just feels grossly underpaid. The boss even ask me if the price I have stated is non-negotiable and I told him it was what I was roughly getting now, so I was not going to go any lower, in fact, I would actually like to increase it after hearing the full job scope.

Also, because this is a full salaried job, expecting me to be "flexible" with my timing for the 5.5 day work scheme is honestly not something I am comfortable with, this could just potentially lead to a lot of unpaid OT. 

I have to admit, after the interview yesterday, the idea of quitting my current company almost blinded me to those red flags that were flapping in my face. But ultimately, I still don't think it is a right choice to quit my current one just because I can see the potential of the new company becoming a lot worst, just in a different way.

The search for a new job continues, although I would prefer to only continue it after May once I have returned from my solo Taipei trip. 

9th Cycle - Complete

 And with that, I have officially completed all my Guard Duties for the 9th Cycle. I didn't particularly enjoy the driving experience this time around, it was no doubt very convenient and definitely a need for me for my upcoming cycle in September, but it felt so exhausting having to drive from the West to the East and back to the West again on an almost daily basis for the past 2 weeks.

After my 2nd last duty yesterday, I decided to just take a hyper lapse video of the drive home from camp, it took me almost 50 minutes because it was evening peak hour and there was slow traffic along the expressway....

 .....but this is how the trip is like in general, and I had to do this 24 times. 

I also realized how shit the rental car really is after sitting in my Dad's car when we were sending my sister off to the airport, it was just so much smoother and so much quieter, I couldn't feel any bumps, when he was driving at 80km/h, it was silent whereas with the Kia Picanto, driving at the speed already sounds like I am pushing the car to it's limit and anything beyond will mean the whole car just completely breaking apart. That being said, I will probably still rent it in September, just because it's cheaper and gets the job done. 

Anyways, the last few duties were alright, my last third one was pretty good, it was on Sunday evening, so there was very little activity that night, I spend most of the time just chatting with the xin jiao, I got him a box of Oreos because he had requested for it, we listen to podcast and watched some Youtube videos, out of all the Guard Duties I have done throughout my ICT journey, that was probably one of the more memorable ones.

Nothing really significant happened after that, it was just the same ole same ole, reported for duty, did my duty, end my duty, come home and then repeat. I did chauffer 2 of the actives out of camp today though because they were leaving early, dropped one guy off at the main bus stop outside the camp and then another near my place because he wanted to take a direct bus from that bus stop, he asked me if the bus he wanted to take was available and I told him that that bus will come through thee bus stop I was going to drop him off at, I later went to google once I got home and realized that bus had changed it's route since 2018, which means that guy probably had to do a few transfers. Didn't have his number so I couldn't message him to apologize about the miscommunication.

All that's left now is my Out-Pro, which will be happening tomorrow at SAFRA Tampines, where we will be forced to play a few rounds of bowling and catered lunch. I'm sure a lot of us will be having a lot of negative feedback regarding this cycle's duty arraignments tomorrow.

Update : Out-Pro-ed

Just got back from the Cohesion for our Out Pro, did not bother to take part in the bowling at all, just read a sample of Dune Messiah on the Kindle to decide if I actually want to get the book and the answer is no. 

As much as I would like to get immersed into the story of Dune, it's just not really my cup of tea, I was actually quite bored most of the time when I am reading it in camp because of how slow pace it was, and I was looking forward to completing it just for the sake of completing it and not because I wanted to know what happens next in the story,  the pacing was only at an acceptable pace for me towards the end, but if the second books' pacing is going to similar to the first, whereby it's so slow for the first 90% and then catches up at the last 10%, then I don't really see myself being able to enjoy the 2nd book or any other books after that. Also now that my Reservist is over, I will probably not be in a reading mood again until September when I have to go back for my final cycle.

Anyways, everyone else did take part in the bowling, but within 20 minutes all of them just stopped playing and when back to either chit chatting or playing with their phones, I played a bit of Mobile Legend once I decided Dune Messiah was not for me anymore. 

Our encik also visited us and had a de-briefing with everyone, none of the higher ups came because they were probably all hiding in their office, afraid of the backlash that they will no doubt be getting from us for not doing anything about our complaints we had brought up to them if they appear.

We also had lunch catered for us, but the caterers went to the wrong SAFRA at Yishun, so they ended up coming about an hour late, I was quite hungry by the time they arrive, so I did take quite a healthy portion of food, but then as I was 70% through with my food, my friend who was seated across form me ended up choking on his dessert and coughed out his grass jelly onto my plate, so I didn't end up finishing it because it was gross. 

Once the meal was done, we were finally released and so I drove my last proper drive home in my rental car. The next time I will be driving it again will be to send it back to the shop for return tomorrow. Will most likely see it again in September if I decide not to splurge a bit more, the last time I decided to splurge a bit more, I ended up getting Covid and wasting all that money, so now I am a bit wary of that.

Song(s) of the Moment - 

The Great War - Taylor Swift

Generation - tripleS

Rising - tripleS

9th Cycle - Half Way There

So I have just found out that ICT MC did not use Night Blindness as an excuse for his medical condition, all he did was tell our Commanders that he has sensitive eyes, so the natural Sunlight that shines into the sentry emplacement in the daytime and the spotlight that are turned on at night are too strong for his eyes. 

Before my duty started this morning, I notice he was in the pantry having his breakfast, so I greeted him and as I was filling up my water bottle, just casually asked him how his eye was, out of curiosity and also just to jab him a little to see if it was a lie. He claimed he had an operation before the start of his ICT, thus the sensitivity, then apologize for causing us to get the short-end of the stick because of it, telling me he had no intention of actually making things difficult for his fellow ICTs.  

Did I believe him about his eye sensitivity issue? Not completely, maybe is was sensitive to the spot light at night because the lights that the camp uses is extremely bright if you were to stare directly at it, but for it to be sensitive even in natural sunlight is a bit of a stretch. 

Did I believe him about not wanting to make things difficult for the ICTs? I did. I guess he had assumed the active soldiers will fill his role because that was what we were told before we started doing duties, that if we were to get MC, our duties for that MC period will be covered by the active soldiers. Unfortunately for us, his wasn't an MC, his was an excuse to completely forgo all his sentry duties at the main gate, the active soldiers can only cover his duties to a certain extent, I am sure the active commander also wasn't going to just let this slide and allow their own guys to be "taken advantage" of by this turn of events, so they made us pay by swapping emplacements internally between the ICTs as well and have the rest of us pay for ICT MC's shortcomings.

So I experienced the short-change this morning, ICT MC went to do the aircon emplacement and I did his main gate emplacement, thankfully the weather this morning was relatively cooling, there was a constant breeze so I didn't feel as bitter as I thought I would be about the whole situation. However, I will have to experience this short-change again for my very last duty as well, so I hope the weather then will also be as good as today to minimize the bitter taste in my mouth. 

I am now done with 5 duties, now to have a long break ( a full day) before having to go back again at the end of the week to complete the next 5. Hopefully I can complete my Dune novel by then so I can fully enjoy the movie when I finally watch it.

9th Cycle - Night Blindness?

My Guard Duty with the next platoon has come and gone and I am vey happy to report that the active Commander is thankfully not a big dickhead like I was led to believe that I had based from the conversation my Reservist Commander had with him.

This way this other platoon work right now is they will send the newbies along with an active spec or active "lao jiao" to do 3 hour rotations, the spec and "lao jiao" will stay for an hour before leaving the newbies alone and I only really got into the mood of initiating conversation with the newbies after the other 2 guys left.

I had my own entertainment in the form of my Kindle, so conversating to kill time isn't my top choice, I will only actively start one if I see the newbies suffering from boredom because they themselves still cannot bring along their phones to the emplacement yet and all they are really able to do if I don't talk to them is either walk around the emplacement or stare into space.

The 6 hours didn't feel too long, I was reading my Kindle 60% of the time, the Dune novel is finally starting to get interesting because the first 30% of it was just a lot of political build up. 

Anyways, after my duty, I was supposed to be replaced by another ICT, my cycle this time round included a local celeb and that local celeb was supposed to my replacement, but for some reason, an active solider replaced me instead. I didn't think too much of it and assumed he had maybe gotten an MC, so I returned my rifled and headed home. 

Had to stop by the petrol station to top up some gas on the way, and once I was done with the top up and was making my way out of the station, I almost got into an accident with a motorcycle. 

The road outside the Petrol Station has 4 lanes, when I was on my way out, I was checking to see if my lane was empty, I noticed that there was a bunch of headlights and they all seemed to be quite far away, figured based on the distant of all the lights, I could turn out before they arrive just in time, so I did, but I failed to notice that there was a single motorcycle coming towards the lane I was turning out to, the cyclist starts honking when he sees my car popping out, I jam break as this motorcyclist drives past me, I can see him just lifting one hand in the air very angrily. 

It was a really close call, I drove really slowly afterwards and was waiting for him to make a turn before I sped up again to a regular driving speed because I really didn't want to drive pass him for him to get a good look at me or to potentially get confronted by him. I really need to clean the car's side mirrors.

Reached home, went to sleep pretty quickly after that and at about 6am just now, I got a text from one of the ICT and he told me another ICT whom I shall refer to as MC has apparently gotten a Doctor Memo that is preventing him from doing night duty due to some medical condition, I assume it's night blindness, so now MC is doing the same duty timing as him.

Just a bit of background with our emplacements, after our Reservist Commander went to negotiate with the Active Commanders, they made a small compromise and gave us a slightly better emplacement to cover in the morning, this means our main emplacement will be covered by their active soldiers instead. Both emplacements are still Sentry, but one is in an air-conditioned room and the other is out in the open. 

That air-conditioned emplacement is like the one duty that we can really just relax a little, but because MC went to report of his "night blindness" shit, he claims he cannot do any night duties, so now, all his night duties will be done by the active soldiers and he will cover all their morning duty, but instead of covering their morning schedule in the non-airconditioned emplacement, he will instead take over our duty in that air-conditioned emplacement whilst the rest of us have to do the non air-conditioned emplacement. 

What's so infuriating about his shit is not just the fact that he denied the rest of us our air-con emplacement, he was also the very first one to decide which duty timings he wanted, and despite having this night blindness condition, he still went ahead and chose the one with the most midnight duties before we officially started our Guard Duty. The other ICT that is doing the duty with him now is essentially complaining about him to me.

My 2 morning duties in the coming days are now going to be affected because of this fucker, this guy has essentially given himself the easy way out and indirectly sabotaged the rest of us. He doesn't even have an official Medical Letter, all he has to show was the appointment schedule he made with the clinic.

Oat Milk Addiction and 9th Cycle Updates.

Lately, I have started really getting into Oat Milk in my coffee and I can finally understand what the hype is all about. It eliminates the bitterness in my coffee and gives it this nutty taste, which is really nice, so there goes my plan of trying to eliminate coffee from my diet, at least until I get bored of the Oat Milk, which might happen quite quickly at the rate I am drinking it.

Also, report from my 2nd round of Guard Duty last afternoon, it was very uneventful, we had the new guys join for the first 3 hours of the shift, I did not interact with the first active soldier who was doing the emplacement with me at all because he was busy talking to the new guys, so I started reading my Kindle and I was planning to start conversing with him when the new guys leave, but before that could happen, he got swapped out and another person took over, that person is most likely a senior "lao jiao" and the new guys started chatting with him for the next hour.

One way to tell if someone is a "lao jiao" is in the way they are dress, their uniform always looks very loose and messy, the way they walk when they have to open the main gate for vehicles to enter lacks any sort of urgency and the very obvious sign that someone is a "lao jiao" is in the way they choose to entertain themselves during their duty, which is through the blatant use of their phone. 

There were times I wanted to approach him to try and initiate a conversation, but because of how long it had already been, attempting to start one 4 hours into my duty just feels forced, he himself also didn't seem very receptive to starting one and he also didn't make any attempts to start one, so we both just did our own thing, I read my Kindle, he used his phone, at least we both had something to keep us entertained. 

But this sort of awkward quietness is the reason why I actually prefer working with newbies "xin jiao", because they are always much friendlier, they still haven't develop that bitterness that "lao jiaos" usually develop after months of doing the exact same shit, so they are much friendlier and sociable to having conversations, which in turn makes them more proactive in starting one, like what happen with the first guy I did my duty with. He was actively conversing with me, and so I reciprocated by also having conversations with him, also because the newbies are still very regimented from BMT, they will use their phone very sparingly, which means their main source of entertainment will be talking to whomever is doing duty with them. 

Anyways, my next duty will start at 6pm, so I have quite some time to rest before needing to report back to camp again, this time it will be with a different shift, I am not sure how strict their active commander will be, I am under the assumption that he could potentially be a dickhead based on the experience my Reservist Commander had with him when it came to discussing our schedule.

Fingers crossed he will actually not try and find trouble with the ICTs because I would very much like to continue reading my Dune novel and attempt to finish it by the end of this cycle. The active commanders from my past cycle don't touch the ICTs at all unless we did something out of line, like maybe sleeping during our duty or smoking in the emplacement in full view of the CCTVs, but smaller acts like eating whilst on duty or sitting down when we are suppose to stand up is something they tend to ignore, so hopefully, this active commander will do the same and just leave us be.