If you're curious

Yes, I did close my facebook account. I'll reopen it after Wednesday.

How am I blogging?

Yes, you're probably wondering how I'm able to blog at a time like this.

The truth is, I don't. Blogging stimulates my thinking and imagination to an extent. The other blog allows me to converse with myself, which is rather interesting.

This week's will be short. Goodbye.

This week sucks ass

That's right folks. This week officially sucks ass. The EE can go die in a hole. The TOK Essay can go die in a hole. The Lear crap can go die in a hole. The Emma essay can go die in a hole. University can go die in a hole. Except no hole can hold them all. Goddamn.

This month is the month of hell. The month of mocks. The month of judgement. The month where universities accept you. The month where predicted grades come out. The month of music fest. The month of my birthday. What? My birthday? Yes. My birthday. If you send me any presents, I will burn them. I think I'm going to temporarily shut down my fb account on my birthday so people can't wish me anything. Yes, I think I will.

In other news, it took me several hours to come up with an Emma/Fifth Business thesis. Goddamn. And it's taking me several days to come up with the rest of the body paragraphs. Shitdicks.

Master Ye's theory of "everyone's gone mad" is applying quite hard right now. What the hell is going on, why can't I have a month of break and relaxation? This IB business needs to stop now. This is bullcrap. Have I been pushed past the edge? Not yet. But the sense of burnout is especially strong nowadays; there is no motivation to study for any tests. This isn't good. Not in this month.

The only thing keeping me through all this? NEEEESSSSUUUUNNNNN DOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRMMMAAAAAAA! (neeeeeessssssuuuuuuunnnnn doooorrrrrrrmmmmmmaaaaa!)

Seriously, we should play that song again in band. And get someone on vocals.

The Melancholy of Soviet Yo Momma-stan

So here we are, on the verge of finishing IB. My viewpoint's been changed dramatically these past 2 years. I watched a whole slew of people change as well; some for the worse, some for the better. I do not know how some people came to become their current self, and I often wonder if they will expand or contract on their personality. Why am I writing about this? I have no idea, actually. Thank you, brain, for reminding me that I don't know what I'm writing about or thinking about.

Anyways, that title you see at the top is some random thing that keeps popping up in my head from time to time. "Soviet Yo Momma-stan" is the name of the country in which yo momma originated from, while "The Melancholy" part is meant to be a parody on "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". If you don't know anything about that, please go watch. If you do not watch, please go shove a pineapple up your anus and twist.

There is no significance in that previous paragraph either. This paragraph doesn't have any significance as well. What does have significance is my 2 minutes of amnesia the other day. Or morning. I dunno, it's probably considered morning.

Essentially, I woke up one morning to the ringing of my watch. I had no idea why it was ringing, and what I was doing in a bed. I did not know who I was, where I was, and what I had to do. As I slowly opened my eyes, I took a look around the room and quietly remarked to myself about how colourful and girlish it was. I then saw the bible quote on the wall and hypothesized that this must belong to some religious girl. I got out of my bed and walked around, looking at various things that I found quite peculiar to have in a room; a stuffed Pikachu, a stuffed polar bear, a camera on top of a box of video games. As I looked through the window, I saw a backyard covered in snow and I realized that this was winter, probably in December or January. At this point, I started getting a nagging feeling that I had to go somewhere later that day. I tried to find out who I was, but nothing popped up until I took another look at the camera. It was at that point that I realized that I had to go brush my teeth, which went to do. On my way to the door of the room, every memory started flooding back to me. I had to stop just before I got to the door to take in what had just happened.

In that 2 minutes of forget, I was completely free. I had no worries, I had no knowledge of any assignments, I felt calm and relaxed. I also felt bored, as I had nothing to do. There must be something philosophical about all this, but I do not know what that is. Why?

Because storytime's over. I need to get to work. Bye.

the business level is over 9000

oh, EE, Math IA, what shall i do without you

Nothing

These posts will remain short, as long as my workload persists. GLHF, all.

After Actions Report

I had stated that I would post my after actions report. Here it is.

After Actions Report – Night Game

FSgt. Ben Liu

1. PURPOSE:

On the weekend of October 26 and 27, 211 Squadron participated in a field training exercise (FTX) at Limerick Forest. The cadets participated in a night game on the night of the 26^th. This report addresses issues regarding the night game, and not the overall FTX.

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

On the morning of the 26^th, an area beyond sight range of the chalet was selected and prepared as the location of a crime scene as part of a scare prank by the seniors during the night game. Various posters were put up in the area, and caution tape was used to identify the area. Throughout the rest of the day, the activity CPI briefed each of the seniors on their roles in the activity individually. Rain started to fall later in the day, soaking many of the posters. Throughout the day, various other supplies were obtained and prepared to be brought to the activity area. The activity CPI and activity cadet 2IC did a check on the area after lunch, and right before the commencement of the activity at around 1920Hrs. Both cadets judged the area to be too far from the chalet and the forest was too dark at night. On their return, they decided to cancel the majority of the scare-portion of the activity, change the activity area, and concentrate solely on the Downed Pilot game. The activity CPI quickly briefed the other seniors and OPI of the situation, and briefed the rest of the cadets on the situation. The activity CPI led all the seniors and cadets around the boundaries, and allowed the game to commence once the tour of the area concluded. At 2130Hrs, the activity concluded, with no reports of lost cadets or serious injuries.

3. LESSONS LEARNED

The level of darkness was a considered throughout the planning phase of the activity. By the time night came, it was obvious that the forest was too dark for proceeding beyond visual range of the chalet. The original location selected for the night game was also placed in an off-road location; someone could easily get lost searching for that place. For future activities of this kind, more scouting is needed to find the best location. However, had we selected a closer location the cadets may find it an unconvincing coincidence of having the FTX right beside a murder scene. To mitigate this, a less gruesome backstory would be required.

The night game, Downed Pilot, turned out to be quite fun for the cadets, who were a bit disappointed in not being able to rescue a single pilot. This was most likely caused by the limited number of pathways to the pilots, the large size of each rescue group, and the relatively small activity area. Similar to above, finding a better spot, or simply extending the original perimeters would have balanced the game out a bit better. In addition, splitting the rescue groups into smaller groups would have also helped, though this complicates safety as each group must be issued a compass and map.

While wandering around as the chief scaring guy, I realized the difficulty in stalking a group of cadets, but maintaining such a distance as to not get caught. There really is no solution to this, except just practicing the art of stalking.

4. COMMENTS

The elephant in the room is the lack of cadets. The FTX of the 26^th and 27^th was probably one of the smallest FTX’s 211 has hosted. The reasons for this are unclear, and may have been caused by the weather forecast of rain for the 26^th.

The uncooperative weather did not help in the morale of the cadets; however the cadets did not appear to be overly affected. The weather did soak many of the posters that the seniors had put up, but this was not a large issue in terms of the scare since the scare didn’t actually happen.

The cadets seemed legitimately interested in the character of the “scary masked man” and the crime scene. Some of the cadets were genuinely trying to connect the posters and masked man on the bus ride home, which makes me think that a properly designed mystery-based activity occurring on an FTX would be a great idea and make the FTX more interesting.

There was a lack of radios, which hindered communications. If radios were available, the activity area could be greatly expanded with the seniors being spread farther apart. This would have allowed a much fairer chance for the cadets to rescue a downed pilot.

A list of the participating cadets would have been helpful in coordinating and planning out roles for the activity.