Back To Camp

I'm going back to the army tomorrow. For two whole weeks, I'll be in camouflage and hanging with a bunch of guys I only see once a year. I have met a few of them in 'real life' but those fleeting moments don't amount to much. I use 'real life' because in the army, it's not quite what people are used to. I tell people that going back mostly means using a part of my brain that I don't use at work. Or sometimes not use my brain at all. It's the army, so you just follow instructions. It can be as simple as that. Tomorrow I need to report in uniform with my field pack at 0730. Step 1. What happens next is purely up to my officers and sergeants. I'm in the logistics side of things and we're meant to support the big guns heading out to battle. Water, food, ammo and medical. It isn't as exciting as it sounds. Usually there's quite a bit of prep, a lot of waiting, some confusion, then a flurry of action, and then it's over. There's lots of cookhouse and sometimes canteen food consumed in between.  Out in the field, we'll have rations. I usually consume too many oversweet fruit bars. I also have a tendency to come back injured or diseased. The injury is back related and the last disease I picked up was a fungal infection around my toes. It happens. In addition to all these, there's a lot of silly conversation. I am looking forward to chatting about government issues, housing prices, car troubles, wife and kid problems, holiday plans, stock market options, people we don't like in camp, the old ways of doing things, the new gadgets we have, and whatever else the newspaper flipping throws up. I am not looking forward to waking up at 5am, the long journeys to camp or the work emails that'll pile up. This is the Singaporean life.  

Stuff You Learn From The Walking Dead

Lessons from watching three seasons of The Walking Dead over two weekends:

1. Tie up loose ends - When you've got the chance to sort things out, do it. If you miss the chance it may not only not come around again, it may literally bite you, kill you and have you resurrect as a zombie. Carl didn't kill the zombie who was stuck in the mud outside the farm and what did that walker do? Attack Dale. Morgan didn't whack his zombified wife wgo later ate her son Duane. One may be afraid to deal with the problem at the right time, but you gotta just pick up that rifle or steak knife, pluck up some courage and stare the problem in the eye before fixing it. Andrea should have whacked Philip's one good eye when she had the chance. Fewer people would have died and she wouldn't need to go through all that drama.  

2. Accept what cannot be changed - whatever it is, if you can't fix it, don't waste your time, effort, tears and energy to change it. Unlike a clogged sink, there are some inevitabilities one must simple accept and move on with. Like Herschel who kept his zombie wife, stepson and friends in the barn thinking there's be a cure coming. Nosirreebob. Just let them go or shoot them in the noggin. 

3. A zombie apocalypse changes people - It's an emotional roller coaster that's takes a mental toll regardless how strong you may be. Poor Rick started seeing his dead wife, his kid Carl became a stoic psycho in the making, Carol grew well hardened. Herschel's kid wanted to end it with a dinner knife and asked her sister Maggie to join her. Unfortunately, therapists aren't really readily available during the end of the world. So look out for the signs and talk to one another. 

People can also change for the better in times of crisis. I am speaking about Daryl. From redneck sonofabitch, he became a trusted champ at camp. He tried his darndest to find Sophia, and he whack so many walkers with his trusty bow and arrows. He just needed the right leadership to straighten him out. And when he had to choose between his asshole misguided brother and his new family, he eventually returned to his friends. 

4. There's almost always a way out - You gotta keep looking and figuring out the possibilities. You never know what ingenious solution that grey matter of yours comes up with when put to the test. It may mean ripping off a zombie's arm and using the sharp edge of bone to pierce same said zombie's brain. Daryl started hallucinating about his brother taunting him when he fell off Nervous   Nelly into the ravine, got pierced in his sides by his own arrows, and attacked by two ugly walkers, but that didn't stop him from trying to save himself. 

There are probably more insights but this is all the writing there's time for on this train ride to work.