Bersama Lima 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
I had some shots in mind to take already for this last trip, and one of them was of the anchor shackles located at the forecastle of the ship. Here I wanted to go for a selective focus. I realised I had to deal with rapid condensation quite often, since moving from the air conditioned confines of the ship to the humid weather outside often adversely affected the camera. I checked up a solution online and found all I had to do was keep it inside a plastic bag and wait for acclimatisation.
The next shot of the MISTRAL, or SAM launcher was one that suprisingly needed little retouching. The light was nicely dramatic, and all I wanted of the silhouette was granted naturally. The launcher, located on both sides of the ship, are meant to defend the ship against aerial attack should our escort ships fail to screen attack aircraft successfully.
My workplace is among those areas most classified on ship, and so I hesitated to put it up on facebook, even when only my Navy acquaintances can view the photos. Here's the console I work on when I close up. I had to bring up the ISO to 1000 for most all the indoor shots.
Helo ops was scheduled after some days, when we had to embark some important personnel on board. This Chinook came all the way from Singapore, I had no idea just how far a helicopter's range could extend to. Being quite senior, I had the privilege of not being the Helo Ops party, hence I was free to take this shot.
It was either later in the afternoon, or the day after, when another helicopter was expected, this time an Australian Sea Sprite. Pictured is my ship's Buffer and a flight deck officer before the Helo Ops commenced.
I was egged by the ME2 to venture beyond the safety of the flight deck shutters, and was really grateful for the chance to get photos from a much better angle. If not for the fact that my ship has quite a few people interested in taking photographs, including the ME2 himself, I might not have had the chance to go further with my camera.
The most heavily edited photo in the collection. The Sea Sprite struck an odd impression of something between oddly shaped and yet definitely deadly.
Here the flight controller motions for the Helo Ops crew to return to the hanger once the helicopter has been untethered to the flight deck.
We fast forward a few days to our few Replenishment at Sea operations, where we shifted to the West side of Tioman to refuel a number of RSN vessels in the span of a few days. Some took place in the day, others in the night and early morning. Large imposing fenders had to be lowered from our flight deck to the side of the ship in preparation, and on one occasion, we suffered an incident due to poor sea state.
The Major in the photo has posted out since this sailing, a few months shy of ORDing. His farewell warranted quite a celebration, and there was quite a lot of booze that went around. That was also in part due to one of our ship crew striking the lottery and winning cash in the zone of five figures.
Dauntless arrives for her fuel as rain clouds start to gather over the sky. Ever single time we refuelled her, it rained. Many said it was due to the large number of female sailors she had on board.
Yellow helmets and red Cherry fenders in preparation for the A/S.
The sky cleared up after the rain, and I was lucky to get a shot of the parting rain clouds. They almost seem to move aside for the protruding upper mast of the MCV.
This is perhaps my favourite shot of the sailing, with the depth clearly accentuated here. I realised all of my outdoor shots were just a slight bit too blue, so I had them tweaked.
I fast forward many more days now, in part because there wasn't much else to our role there but those operations for the next few days. Many realised that I had been logging on nearly everyday for updates on BF3 online, and indeed in the days running up to the game's release, I couldn't stop thinking about it. After some point in time though, time seemed to speed up considerably, and the sailing was over pretty soon.
The pictures here were taken on our first and only shore leave, lasting for about 5 hours on Tioman Island, a place that seemed to have taken East Coast Park and Pulau Ubin, and meshed them into a much bigger island. Leaving the ship on a fast beaching craft was truly something that I had been yearning for for a long time, and on the 29th, I had that curious wish fulfilled.
That day, we had to pick up other RSN personnel from various ships all anchored in our vicinity, for it was the end of the exercise and they were enjoying their shore leave too. Like a bus on it's daily route, we powered our way to different ships, five in total, picking up passengers along the way before heading for the beach. Sadly, we didn't beach on the island, but simply went alongside the small jetty where Australian shore leave personnel were already awaiting their return.
Men, ready weapons! Quite a few of us gamely posed for our D-Day stances as we came even nearer to the beach. You can see the speed of the craft accentuated by the motion blur of the surrounding water.
"Pillbox! There on the hillcrest! We take that objective, men!"
"Mm... I don't like the sound of that mission, sergeant..."
"Sustaining heavy fire! Push forward, men! Drive them back to Berlin!
Anyway, here's what the island more or less looked like. There were quite a few lodges for tourists, and apparently almost the whole population works in the tourist industry.
The whole island is a duty-free shopping area, so beers were as cheap as canned drinks, and the first thing we did was to get ourselves some Hoegaarden to drink while walking around. A nice one, I must say. I kept both bottle caps. We also drank some more at the eatery we stopped at, which was more or less all we had time for. Tiger cans littered the whole of our table, as you can see.
Stefan, the CBA (Chinese Born American) was glued to Fruit Ninja for most of the trip. He was quite upset when, during a previous sailing, the Buffer I mentioned earlier beat his high score in one try, scoring about 1300.
Nothing special about this photo, except that the sign board invites you to eat at a 'Shady Bakery'. Heh, not my cup of tea.
Here my camera was hijacked by the CBA dude, who showed me a light motion technique that produces pretty interesting results. Pictured is my Weapons specialist PO.
The reluctant Corporal made it up the hillcrest to take the pillbox that day. He's actually a regular, though. Weapons.
Here we chance upon a stall selling Ramlee burgers. It took some time, and apparently other shore leave personnel had to cook their own burgers because the islanders simply idled too long when cooking the burgers, and invited them to be the cook. Ours was fine, they apparently have Supermarket-packaged Ramlee burger patties ready to cook there.
The last shot of the sailing, taken in the ship's briefing room. The distortion here is accentuated by the lens and angle. The two in the photo are part of the Flotilla's 20th Anniversary team that I'm in, and we got some things done during the slow-paced sailing.
In the far corner is the Resolution Lighthouse, something I came up with and constructed for the ship. It was perhaps the most arduous effort I put in for the ship. It did get me an artfriend membership though I guess. And one duty off.
Until the next update, then.
posted by joseph at 4:09 PM
Friday, September 16, 2011
This was my initial entry. I saw one other entry that had waves and an anchor, and looked quite like the IMOS (The training institute we used to stay at) logo. Didn't get to see the other one, but I was just happy when mine was selected. I got a day off for this, which was unprecedented given how stingy my Coxn was with offs when I did things for him in the past. He said something along the lines of, 'good eh? One day of off for five minutes of work.' I nodded and laughed heartily (my heart wasn't really there though) and walked off before he could change his mind.
Truth is, I didn't put in 5mins of work in that. I put quite a lot of effort into thinking something up, much more than it took to execute it. I believe logos are difficult things to design, trying to make something simple and yet having to represent so much. Furthermore, anything with the Navy has been done to death with anchors, ship bows and wave crests. I thought about it for some time, even asking for a deadline extension.
On the other hand, my junior who studied at Lasalle with graphic design, was totally lackadaisical about the task he had been assigned with. I was told prior to this that his designs were of the whacky sort, which brought to mind those oddly drawn animals kind of designs I can't appreciate. When I told him he had been arrowed for the job, his first response was, "Oh, eh ask you ah, when you do this sort of thing for ship, would you get paid?" To which I laughed heartily (really, this time) and educated him to the sad job that was carrying out an arrow. Obviously, he responded by saying there's no point in putting effort into it if you're not going to get paid.
Anyway, after I got my off 'handed' to me that day, (I had actually been waiting for the verdict for some time as to the verdict that awaited the three designs) I went back and did a re-look at the design, like I told myself I'd do if my design got selected. This is because I didn't put in my all to the design, having been bogged down by other commitments. Here's the second draft, to which my Coxswain also felt was better than the previous one.
Regarding the other design I had done for the 20th Anniversary, it was also an arrowed job from my Chief, (WO equivalent) who had seen some of my previous efforts. He was put in charge of publicity for the event, and roped me in despite knowing the event's scheduled date was three days after my ORD. It has now been revised to a whole month after my ORD, on the 5th of June.
20 years in the making made me opt for a nostalgic, old school approach. Yet what was intended was for both old and new to be encapsulated, and I had to change tact and go for this. More posters are to come, but that'll be for the future.
posted by joseph at 9:39 PM
trailer surfing
Saturday, July 30, 2011
1. Restless
It seems like an interesting movie in the trailer, but I'm thinking it would be draggy and slower than I'd like in the cinemas.
2. Battleship
This one's just veiled ship porn, in my opinion. The first thought that came to mind when I saw this was to watch it with my Navy friends, but I'll be a free citizen by then! The name is indeed in reference to the board game, to which the movie apparently does reference heavily. You can see this makes some sense when, all of a sudden, the humans have lost all radar capabilities.
3. Apollo 18
I don't know why, but I hate it when movie synopses state 'actual footage blah blah" when clearly, that can't be the case. Still, this does remind me quite a bit of Transformers. Seems slightly promising, possibly something I'd download and get people over to watch. Nothing more, haha...
4. Winnie The Pooh
I know I've put this here before, but this one's a clip from the movie whose art style I find simply awesome. The rich 2D, the seemingly old school style of cartoon film, the pastel colours and all seem to draw me in, for some reason. I want to watch this movie even though I've never actually seen any series or movie on it.
5. The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Yet another movie with an interesting art style. This one, created by the same people behind Wallace and Gromit and Chicken run, has that interesting play-doh effect. It also can't hurt that the pirate theme made me think of the Navy the moment I saw it. What I really like is seein the play-doh mouth movement. Heh, damn funny.
6. The Devil's Double
The premise of this movie is really interesting, and I think it'd be something perhaps worth watching in cinemas. Reminds me of those slightly more obscure movies that my parents like to watch on Friday nights. Heh, unofficial movie night. It might have been any other cheesy body-double movie plot, but the premise makes it much more intriguing, I believe.
Wanna watch?
posted by joseph at 12:01 PM
navynews
Saturday, July 16, 2011
I only recently brought it up to the relevant people again because I was tired of waiting around for a break from ship that I really wanted. Man, I can't believe something they can grant so easily, something they just have to agree to, is so difficult to get. I got quite ticked that time I heard Jake talking about how efforts for going beyond one's job scope is often rewarded in the Air Force. Maybe the Navy just has a dire lack of manpower, off is so hard to come by. By the way, we're about 5000 strong.
This poster chronicles the hardware aspect of the ship's history. From the county class LST that was leased to us at US$1 for ships that saw action in WW2, to the new Endurance class LST's (or LPD's) that were all built around 1997. One of the black and white pictures show the old Resolution receiving visitors on Open House day. We apparently garnered a public strength of 300 000 coming to see our ship!
Below, we see Dr Tony Tan announcing the construction of new LST's. The photo next to him is a fisheye of the ship in Benoi Yard, being built by ST Marine.
Lastly, I just did this design, meant to be A4 sized, for the Minister to sign when he visits the ship in a few weeks' time. I like the name of the exercise. I was thinking of a design for this one, and recalled this photo, for which I couldn't find anything else more apt for the purpose. The sky is actually part of another picture, because the original photo of the ship didn't have enough of it.
I read before in Digital SLR that there are photographers who dedicate themselves to magazine photography. That is, they take photographs with concepts of where to put text boxes and how to position them in mind. Sounds quite interesting. We've all seen that before, but never really put much thought into it.
posted by joseph at 4:18 PM
rtb
Monday, February 14, 2011
posted by joseph at 10:00 PM
to go, or not to go.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Operation Blue Sapphire is a four month long mission that the RSN undertakes to demonstrate it's ability and willingness to secure vital shipping lanes, deter piracy and maintain sea lines of communication, all of which are linked to it's own livelihood via it's ports.
Sailing to the gulf of Aden, the participating LST will observe for any hostile activity within it's radar vicinity and if possible, act on suspected threats to merchant ships.
This year, RSS Endeavor, '210' will be representing Singapore in the yearly mission. The normal ship strength of around 90 will be augmented by a further hundred plus naval personnel, from shipwrights to divers and seamen to boarding party specialists. Eaech crew, regardless of NS status, is offered regular pay on top of a risk and ship bonus that can add up to 10k. And it seems that this year, they're willing to recruit NSFs.
Ever since I talked to the L Comms of 210 during my duty last Saturday, the thought of joining (or actually signing on, since they require NSFs to sign a short term regular contract for the mission) the ship for the mission has been one I'd been toying with. Their deployment, ending before Christmas this year and lasting four months excluding preparation time, seems highly tempting. But I can't decide.
The ship's already opened it's doors to volunteers, but the issue is mainly with my own ship, where movement tends to be more restrictive. Still, if I were convincing enough that I have strong desires to go for the trip, there's a chance I could be posted for the mission. And it's one that earns the volunteer a medal. I haven't been able to make up my mind, though, so I thought I should make a whole list of pros and cons to try and work things out.
Benefits derived from OBS participation
1. Experience
There's not going to be another opportunity like this ever in my lifetime. Four months out at sea, doing something that the newspapers all over the world talk about at some point or other. Four months thousands of kilometers away from home, in an environment many don't ever get to visit. Visiting places I'd probably never visit even if I had the money, and having friendly boardings on coalition ships from navies around the world. The capacity for new experiences seems quite large indeed. It will be something definitely out of the ordinary when it comes to sharing NS stories in future.
2. Monetary rewards
Given that there's a rough gauge of around 15k to be earned at the end of the 4 months, that's close to 4k monthly pay, something I'm not sure I'll be able to attain in the years to come. With this money, I could not only spend holidays before enlisting with much less concern for the origins of the budget, I could even ease a part of the burden on my parent's parts with University fees. Creature comforts would be much less out of reach, too!
3. The Medal
I know many would be contented with serving their time in the SAF and moving on, but surely you know by now I'm not one headed down that same school of thought, I've always said that I enjoy being where I am in the Navy, knowing it's niche in the armed forces. The mission that rewards all volunteers with an actual medal would be the ultimate ORD gift for myself, something like a one-of-a-kind, can't-be-bought souvenir. Priceless.
4. Time
The mission would largely be within my last year of NSF duty, save a week or two of ORD extension. Still, everything will end before Christmas, because everyone wants to spend that back home. I'll essentially be ORDing the moment I disembark from the mission, into the welcoming arms of awaiting friends and family. (Yes, there is a returning home party for the ship crew) This more or less means my time in NS is kept intact, with me not needing to go the extra mile in terms of time spent in the armed forces. What more could I ask for?
And yet, there still remains a number of concerns should I go for the trip.
Drawbacks arising from OBS participation
1. Boredom
I've been asking around for a long time, even before I finished my term in IMOS and got posted to ship. the tasks that the RSN undertakes during the mission are apparently highly routine, and highly unlikely to have anything happen that's out of the ordinary. Day in and day out, it's more or less the same drills and actions, and as the only overstaffed ship that the RSN sends out, we have a right to be kiasee- and hence tend to avoid the dirty work that the USN so likes to carry out. Things can get pretty dull save the few routine changers like friendly ship to ship boardings, or shore leave to friendly Middle East countries that don't offer as vibrant a shore leave as other ports in the world. With four months out at sea having such a lifestyle, I'm not sure I'll be able to take it.
2. Time
Back at home, while I may still be serving my NS stint, I can still stay out everyday save duty days. I have weekends to myself, and with this, I've got time to pursue other things. One important such thing is driving lessons, which I've told myself time and again that I'll start after these two long sails are over. I wanted to make it a goal to finish learning driving before I ORDed, but should I go on this trip, that's one thing I'll be unable to accomplish. One saving grace is that I've still got a great many months before the August University matriculation, and in that time, I can still try to finish learning how to drive, while at the same time (hopefully) holding down a job I like and still being able to enjoy my freedom. Still, the four months and the preparation time before that will essentially be blotted out should I go for the trip
3. Murphy's Law
As I mentioned earlier, our role in the anti-piracy mission is one that is largely incident free. Even with the more active navies, casualties out at sea tend to be very low. Either that or they're not reported. In any case, there is always an off-chance something might happen. In a previous year, the Destroyer USS Cole suffered quite some damage to its infrastructure when a suicide dinghy came alongside it's hull while in harbor and detonated itself. In recent times, freak weather occurrences have made themselves known around the world, and while our ship might be big and relatively stable, in the high seas accidents can happen during highly adverse weather conditions. It does not necessarily have to be that the whole ship encounters a dramatic incident with large loss of lives, it could simply be a few unlucky ship crew who bear the brunt.
To put myself in harm's way for four months will present its risks, no matter how tiny. And to let my parents worry over my safety for the entire duration is also another matter.
4. Future plans
Going for this trip will also mean I'll be unable to have a hand in the planning process for an OCIP trip that's been in the rough stages of formulation for a few weeks now. Slated for the early start of next year, a large group of Navy friends and I have thoughts on going overseas for said trip, and should I volunteer for OBS, I can't possibly be part of the planning process. This has some degree of importance, because I admittedly already have some reservations to the idea of OCIP, and I wouldn't want to be part of something that I don't believe is helping others while attempting to make it so on the surface.
***
So far, these are the few points I've come up with, but even assessing them now will make little use. I'll eventually find out through this MSTD sail the next week whether I feel suited for the slow life of long sails, then my judgement should be better in some aspects. Meanwhile, perhaps others could give their input on this.
posted by joseph at 10:02 PM
this feels awfully familiar...
Monday, November 22, 2010
posted by joseph at 8:35 PM
Friday, November 4, 2011
If everything goes as planned, the two-week sailing that I just came back from will be the last time I join my ship out to sea. There are quite a few small sailings coming up from Exercise Northstar, but I have been able to clear leave on all those days, effectively giving me an eight day work month, give or take a day. I'm about to ORD, and I'm still mixed over whether to celebrate or feel slightly disappointed.
This post is more about the sailing, though. My last opportunity to enjoy the Navy experience, if you will. Also my last chance to take any photos that I want on and off the ship in the Navy, and here they are.
It nearing the monsoon season, there were only a handful of days at the beginning where the light was good and weather dry. We got there in around twelve hours (Tioman Island is located to the central east of Malaysia) and promptly dropped anchor East of Tioman. This would be where we'd fulfill our role as an overwatch for diving operations, and activate fast craft to rescue divers in danger should the need ever arise. We had the company of Malaysian, Australian and New Zealander divers on our way there, but once we reached Tioman, they left for the beach.
The seaboats that we had to launch from the very stern of our stern ramp got us soaked to the waist with incoming seawater that poured in rhythmically, and it made an impression on me how strong a force the waves could be. The rougher sea states had yet to come, though.
Our role the first few days was pretty insignificant, and we didn't do much each day but to laze around, completing watches on the bridge and finding things to do the next. This first shot I took was during Dogwatch, from 1630-1730, where people are free to exercise should they have a permitting schedule. Running around the flight deck is a staple for some, despite the small route and repetitious cycles. It offers good views but often harsh sunlight. See the small black ball next to the upper mast? It indicates that our ship is at anchor, and on which side the anchor has been dropped.
I had some shots in mind to take already for this last trip, and one of them was of the anchor shackles located at the forecastle of the ship. Here I wanted to go for a selective focus. I realised I had to deal with rapid condensation quite often, since moving from the air conditioned confines of the ship to the humid weather outside often adversely affected the camera. I checked up a solution online and found all I had to do was keep it inside a plastic bag and wait for acclimatisation.
The next shot of the MISTRAL, or SAM launcher was one that suprisingly needed little retouching. The light was nicely dramatic, and all I wanted of the silhouette was granted naturally. The launcher, located on both sides of the ship, are meant to defend the ship against aerial attack should our escort ships fail to screen attack aircraft successfully.
My workplace is among those areas most classified on ship, and so I hesitated to put it up on facebook, even when only my Navy acquaintances can view the photos. Here's the console I work on when I close up. I had to bring up the ISO to 1000 for most all the indoor shots.
Helo ops was scheduled after some days, when we had to embark some important personnel on board. This Chinook came all the way from Singapore, I had no idea just how far a helicopter's range could extend to. Being quite senior, I had the privilege of not being the Helo Ops party, hence I was free to take this shot.
It was either later in the afternoon, or the day after, when another helicopter was expected, this time an Australian Sea Sprite. Pictured is my ship's Buffer and a flight deck officer before the Helo Ops commenced.
I was egged by the ME2 to venture beyond the safety of the flight deck shutters, and was really grateful for the chance to get photos from a much better angle. If not for the fact that my ship has quite a few people interested in taking photographs, including the ME2 himself, I might not have had the chance to go further with my camera.
The most heavily edited photo in the collection. The Sea Sprite struck an odd impression of something between oddly shaped and yet definitely deadly.
Here the flight controller motions for the Helo Ops crew to return to the hanger once the helicopter has been untethered to the flight deck.
We fast forward a few days to our few Replenishment at Sea operations, where we shifted to the West side of Tioman to refuel a number of RSN vessels in the span of a few days. Some took place in the day, others in the night and early morning. Large imposing fenders had to be lowered from our flight deck to the side of the ship in preparation, and on one occasion, we suffered an incident due to poor sea state.
The Major in the photo has posted out since this sailing, a few months shy of ORDing. His farewell warranted quite a celebration, and there was quite a lot of booze that went around. That was also in part due to one of our ship crew striking the lottery and winning cash in the zone of five figures.
Dauntless arrives for her fuel as rain clouds start to gather over the sky. Ever single time we refuelled her, it rained. Many said it was due to the large number of female sailors she had on board.
Yellow helmets and red Cherry fenders in preparation for the A/S.
The sky cleared up after the rain, and I was lucky to get a shot of the parting rain clouds. They almost seem to move aside for the protruding upper mast of the MCV.
This is perhaps my favourite shot of the sailing, with the depth clearly accentuated here. I realised all of my outdoor shots were just a slight bit too blue, so I had them tweaked.
I fast forward many more days now, in part because there wasn't much else to our role there but those operations for the next few days. Many realised that I had been logging on nearly everyday for updates on BF3 online, and indeed in the days running up to the game's release, I couldn't stop thinking about it. After some point in time though, time seemed to speed up considerably, and the sailing was over pretty soon.
The pictures here were taken on our first and only shore leave, lasting for about 5 hours on Tioman Island, a place that seemed to have taken East Coast Park and Pulau Ubin, and meshed them into a much bigger island. Leaving the ship on a fast beaching craft was truly something that I had been yearning for for a long time, and on the 29th, I had that curious wish fulfilled.
That day, we had to pick up other RSN personnel from various ships all anchored in our vicinity, for it was the end of the exercise and they were enjoying their shore leave too. Like a bus on it's daily route, we powered our way to different ships, five in total, picking up passengers along the way before heading for the beach. Sadly, we didn't beach on the island, but simply went alongside the small jetty where Australian shore leave personnel were already awaiting their return.
Men, ready weapons! Quite a few of us gamely posed for our D-Day stances as we came even nearer to the beach. You can see the speed of the craft accentuated by the motion blur of the surrounding water.
"Pillbox! There on the hillcrest! We take that objective, men!"
"Mm... I don't like the sound of that mission, sergeant..."
"Sustaining heavy fire! Push forward, men! Drive them back to Berlin!
Anyway, here's what the island more or less looked like. There were quite a few lodges for tourists, and apparently almost the whole population works in the tourist industry.
The whole island is a duty-free shopping area, so beers were as cheap as canned drinks, and the first thing we did was to get ourselves some Hoegaarden to drink while walking around. A nice one, I must say. I kept both bottle caps. We also drank some more at the eatery we stopped at, which was more or less all we had time for. Tiger cans littered the whole of our table, as you can see.
Stefan, the CBA (Chinese Born American) was glued to Fruit Ninja for most of the trip. He was quite upset when, during a previous sailing, the Buffer I mentioned earlier beat his high score in one try, scoring about 1300.
Nothing special about this photo, except that the sign board invites you to eat at a 'Shady Bakery'. Heh, not my cup of tea.
Here my camera was hijacked by the CBA dude, who showed me a light motion technique that produces pretty interesting results. Pictured is my Weapons specialist PO.
The reluctant Corporal made it up the hillcrest to take the pillbox that day. He's actually a regular, though. Weapons.
Here we chance upon a stall selling Ramlee burgers. It took some time, and apparently other shore leave personnel had to cook their own burgers because the islanders simply idled too long when cooking the burgers, and invited them to be the cook. Ours was fine, they apparently have Supermarket-packaged Ramlee burger patties ready to cook there.
The last shot of the sailing, taken in the ship's briefing room. The distortion here is accentuated by the lens and angle. The two in the photo are part of the Flotilla's 20th Anniversary team that I'm in, and we got some things done during the slow-paced sailing.
In the far corner is the Resolution Lighthouse, something I came up with and constructed for the ship. It was perhaps the most arduous effort I put in for the ship. It did get me an artfriend membership though I guess. And one duty off.
Until the next update, then.
Labels: interesting, jolly pirates, navy, photography, thoughts
posted by joseph at 4:09 PM
Friday, September 16, 2011
I've just finished doing more design work for two new projects that I was tasked with by the ship. One is a small job, designing an emblem for the Best Sailor award given by our Squadron. The other is for a 20th anniversary event for the Flotilla. But first, the award.
This award is something new introduced by the Squadron, and it follows closely behind what our ship also introduced at the start of the year. As to whose idea it was, I have no clue.
Every season, or every three months, about five ratings (as in ME1, whose equivalent would be 3SG - 2SG in the old scheme, as well as NSFs) would be singled out from the Ship's Company by the Officers and Chiefs of Departments. What they'd look out for, I imagine, are qualities such as being hardworking, reliable, and simply doing above and beyond others. Subsequently, they'd be subjected to a mass vote by the rest of the ship's company, open to everyone, on a sheet of paper pasted in a passageway. The Best Sailor gets a nice plaque, a not-so-nice certificate, and a yet-to-be-finalised one day off.
So far, there've only been two seasons worth of sailors nominated. I kid you not, I was on the list for the very first season. And I was the only NSF on that list. I got kicked off that list when my iPod incident came to light. That, and my 14 extras.
But I digress. This squadron's one aimed to have an emblem to boot, and it goes that they had delegated the job to some clerk to design something. I was told the design was an anchor with an 'S' overlaid on it. Suffice to say, they felt it wouldn't do. Our Coxswain, or CSM equivalent, happened to be chummy with the Squadron Coxswain, and said he'd get his crew to do it. Two other guys and I were arrowed, of which verdict was left to the Sqn Coxn to decide whose to pick.
Truth is, I didn't put in 5mins of work in that. I put quite a lot of effort into thinking something up, much more than it took to execute it. I believe logos are difficult things to design, trying to make something simple and yet having to represent so much. Furthermore, anything with the Navy has been done to death with anchors, ship bows and wave crests. I thought about it for some time, even asking for a deadline extension.
On the other hand, my junior who studied at Lasalle with graphic design, was totally lackadaisical about the task he had been assigned with. I was told prior to this that his designs were of the whacky sort, which brought to mind those oddly drawn animals kind of designs I can't appreciate. When I told him he had been arrowed for the job, his first response was, "Oh, eh ask you ah, when you do this sort of thing for ship, would you get paid?" To which I laughed heartily (really, this time) and educated him to the sad job that was carrying out an arrow. Obviously, he responded by saying there's no point in putting effort into it if you're not going to get paid.
Anyway, after I got my off 'handed' to me that day, (I had actually been waiting for the verdict for some time as to the verdict that awaited the three designs) I went back and did a re-look at the design, like I told myself I'd do if my design got selected. This is because I didn't put in my all to the design, having been bogged down by other commitments. Here's the second draft, to which my Coxswain also felt was better than the previous one.
The Helms is actually the same model I had traced out earlier, backed by another copy and edited here and there to give it a slight three dimensional feel. The crocodile is not all the same; I spliced another photograph of a croc with it's mouth open. I also deviated from the source picture to make both the creature and object have a more intertwined feeling. The banner was redone as I felt the previous one looked too detached.
***
Regarding the other design I had done for the 20th Anniversary, it was also an arrowed job from my Chief, (WO equivalent) who had seen some of my previous efforts. He was put in charge of publicity for the event, and roped me in despite knowing the event's scheduled date was three days after my ORD. It has now been revised to a whole month after my ORD, on the 5th of June.
20 years in the making made me opt for a nostalgic, old school approach. Yet what was intended was for both old and new to be encapsulated, and I had to change tact and go for this. More posters are to come, but that'll be for the future.
Labels: design, drawing, jolly pirates, navy, NS, thoughts
posted by joseph at 9:39 PM
trailer surfing
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Without design tasks to do for ship, I suddenly find myself slipping into a dangerous desire of surfing online aimlessly. Comixed, facebook, Cracked and Apple trailers are some of my haunts. I saw a bumper crop of new movie trailers this time around though, and I thought I'd share some which I found were more interesting.
1. Restless
It seems like an interesting movie in the trailer, but I'm thinking it would be draggy and slower than I'd like in the cinemas.
2. Battleship
This one's just veiled ship porn, in my opinion. The first thought that came to mind when I saw this was to watch it with my Navy friends, but I'll be a free citizen by then! The name is indeed in reference to the board game, to which the movie apparently does reference heavily. You can see this makes some sense when, all of a sudden, the humans have lost all radar capabilities.
3. Apollo 18
I don't know why, but I hate it when movie synopses state 'actual footage blah blah" when clearly, that can't be the case. Still, this does remind me quite a bit of Transformers. Seems slightly promising, possibly something I'd download and get people over to watch. Nothing more, haha...
4. Winnie The Pooh
I know I've put this here before, but this one's a clip from the movie whose art style I find simply awesome. The rich 2D, the seemingly old school style of cartoon film, the pastel colours and all seem to draw me in, for some reason. I want to watch this movie even though I've never actually seen any series or movie on it.
5. The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Yet another movie with an interesting art style. This one, created by the same people behind Wallace and Gromit and Chicken run, has that interesting play-doh effect. It also can't hurt that the pirate theme made me think of the Navy the moment I saw it. What I really like is seein the play-doh mouth movement. Heh, damn funny.
6. The Devil's Double
The premise of this movie is really interesting, and I think it'd be something perhaps worth watching in cinemas. Reminds me of those slightly more obscure movies that my parents like to watch on Friday nights. Heh, unofficial movie night. It might have been any other cheesy body-double movie plot, but the premise makes it much more intriguing, I believe.
Wanna watch?
Labels: Apple, jolly pirates, movie trailers
posted by joseph at 12:01 PM
navynews
Saturday, July 16, 2011
I've been doing more designs for ship, this time for the heritage board that's being revamped. Both posters below are meant to be A1 size. I enjoy doing them, it forces me to think of new ideas on how to package a design and the information. However, they do take up my weekends, with me burning hours sitting in front of the computer. So I was quite disappointed when, months after I had done them, I didn't get any word on a reward for my efforts. I got 'thank you's" and "nicely done", but that was it.
I only recently brought it up to the relevant people again because I was tired of waiting around for a break from ship that I really wanted. Man, I can't believe something they can grant so easily, something they just have to agree to, is so difficult to get. I got quite ticked that time I heard Jake talking about how efforts for going beyond one's job scope is often rewarded in the Air Force. Maybe the Navy just has a dire lack of manpower, off is so hard to come by. By the way, we're about 5000 strong.
This poster chronicles the hardware aspect of the ship's history. From the county class LST that was leased to us at US$1 for ships that saw action in WW2, to the new Endurance class LST's (or LPD's) that were all built around 1997. One of the black and white pictures show the old Resolution receiving visitors on Open House day. We apparently garnered a public strength of 300 000 coming to see our ship!
Below, we see Dr Tony Tan announcing the construction of new LST's. The photo next to him is a fisheye of the ship in Benoi Yard, being built by ST Marine.
On the other hand, this poster is a mash-up of photographs from start to beginning, but not in order. Some show our assets, others to where we've been overseas, and so on. The original poster had them all in colour, but an officer advised me that there were too many colours to focus on, so I made them all black and white, with a slight sepia tinge. It's amazing how the slight tinge makes the photo so much better than a flat black and white.
As for the background picture, it was with a blue sky in the original white balance. I turned it around to make it look more aged and graceful. I particularly like the Singapore flag. It's called the Sea Ensign, flown when we're out at sea. The black ball on the left hand side of the mast indicates the ship is anchored, and on which side we've let go the anchor. It's important because even when the ship is anchored, the direction of tide can swing the whole ship around, pivoted about the anchor chain. This arc, or safety swinging circle, can be dangerous for other ships to cut into.
Lastly, I just did this design, meant to be A4 sized, for the Minister to sign when he visits the ship in a few weeks' time. I like the name of the exercise. I was thinking of a design for this one, and recalled this photo, for which I couldn't find anything else more apt for the purpose. The sky is actually part of another picture, because the original photo of the ship didn't have enough of it.
I read before in Digital SLR that there are photographers who dedicate themselves to magazine photography. That is, they take photographs with concepts of where to put text boxes and how to position them in mind. Sounds quite interesting. We've all seen that before, but never really put much thought into it.
Labels: design, jolly pirates, navy, NS
posted by joseph at 4:18 PM
rtb
Monday, February 14, 2011
Being kept busy was the agenda for today, with our late securing time of 7:30 surely irking at least some ship crew with dinner plans with their significant other. Yet through all the hustle and bustle and perhaps also because we were secured late, I found my mind drifting to thoughts I might soon find myself thinking more of- home, family, friends and familiar territory.
It dawned on me today, what with the fact that this would be my last day of normal routine for a while, that it isn't so easy to just pack up and leave for a long trip. Especially not one that you've willingly signed up for. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suddenly hating the sail, neither am I getting cold feet, but I did feel a bit too much of pre-emptive longing for 'home' today.
Leaving for six weeks, coming back for less than two and then setting off for four more is something new to me, and it clearly shows me it's much easier to talk the talk than to walk it. Now I know that four months is anything but easy when I consider my thoughts on OBS... And I don't think I'm being overly sentimental here. It's hard to see it from my perspective, and I know because I didn't even feel this way as late as Sunday, where my thoughts on this was just the usual 'hmm what else should I be getting ready". Ultimately, I guess it comes down to how much you enjoy your surroundings and the people who fill your life. They're things our generation will probably never stop taking for granted.
Labels: jolly pirates, navy, Singapore, thoughts
posted by joseph at 10:00 PM
to go, or not to go.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Operation Blue Sapphire is a four month long mission that the RSN undertakes to demonstrate it's ability and willingness to secure vital shipping lanes, deter piracy and maintain sea lines of communication, all of which are linked to it's own livelihood via it's ports.
Sailing to the gulf of Aden, the participating LST will observe for any hostile activity within it's radar vicinity and if possible, act on suspected threats to merchant ships.
This year, RSS Endeavor, '210' will be representing Singapore in the yearly mission. The normal ship strength of around 90 will be augmented by a further hundred plus naval personnel, from shipwrights to divers and seamen to boarding party specialists. Eaech crew, regardless of NS status, is offered regular pay on top of a risk and ship bonus that can add up to 10k. And it seems that this year, they're willing to recruit NSFs.
Ever since I talked to the L Comms of 210 during my duty last Saturday, the thought of joining (or actually signing on, since they require NSFs to sign a short term regular contract for the mission) the ship for the mission has been one I'd been toying with. Their deployment, ending before Christmas this year and lasting four months excluding preparation time, seems highly tempting. But I can't decide.
The ship's already opened it's doors to volunteers, but the issue is mainly with my own ship, where movement tends to be more restrictive. Still, if I were convincing enough that I have strong desires to go for the trip, there's a chance I could be posted for the mission. And it's one that earns the volunteer a medal. I haven't been able to make up my mind, though, so I thought I should make a whole list of pros and cons to try and work things out.
Benefits derived from OBS participation
1. Experience
There's not going to be another opportunity like this ever in my lifetime. Four months out at sea, doing something that the newspapers all over the world talk about at some point or other. Four months thousands of kilometers away from home, in an environment many don't ever get to visit. Visiting places I'd probably never visit even if I had the money, and having friendly boardings on coalition ships from navies around the world. The capacity for new experiences seems quite large indeed. It will be something definitely out of the ordinary when it comes to sharing NS stories in future.
2. Monetary rewards
Given that there's a rough gauge of around 15k to be earned at the end of the 4 months, that's close to 4k monthly pay, something I'm not sure I'll be able to attain in the years to come. With this money, I could not only spend holidays before enlisting with much less concern for the origins of the budget, I could even ease a part of the burden on my parent's parts with University fees. Creature comforts would be much less out of reach, too!
3. The Medal
I know many would be contented with serving their time in the SAF and moving on, but surely you know by now I'm not one headed down that same school of thought, I've always said that I enjoy being where I am in the Navy, knowing it's niche in the armed forces. The mission that rewards all volunteers with an actual medal would be the ultimate ORD gift for myself, something like a one-of-a-kind, can't-be-bought souvenir. Priceless.
4. Time
The mission would largely be within my last year of NSF duty, save a week or two of ORD extension. Still, everything will end before Christmas, because everyone wants to spend that back home. I'll essentially be ORDing the moment I disembark from the mission, into the welcoming arms of awaiting friends and family. (Yes, there is a returning home party for the ship crew) This more or less means my time in NS is kept intact, with me not needing to go the extra mile in terms of time spent in the armed forces. What more could I ask for?
And yet, there still remains a number of concerns should I go for the trip.
Drawbacks arising from OBS participation
1. Boredom
I've been asking around for a long time, even before I finished my term in IMOS and got posted to ship. the tasks that the RSN undertakes during the mission are apparently highly routine, and highly unlikely to have anything happen that's out of the ordinary. Day in and day out, it's more or less the same drills and actions, and as the only overstaffed ship that the RSN sends out, we have a right to be kiasee- and hence tend to avoid the dirty work that the USN so likes to carry out. Things can get pretty dull save the few routine changers like friendly ship to ship boardings, or shore leave to friendly Middle East countries that don't offer as vibrant a shore leave as other ports in the world. With four months out at sea having such a lifestyle, I'm not sure I'll be able to take it.
2. Time
Back at home, while I may still be serving my NS stint, I can still stay out everyday save duty days. I have weekends to myself, and with this, I've got time to pursue other things. One important such thing is driving lessons, which I've told myself time and again that I'll start after these two long sails are over. I wanted to make it a goal to finish learning driving before I ORDed, but should I go on this trip, that's one thing I'll be unable to accomplish. One saving grace is that I've still got a great many months before the August University matriculation, and in that time, I can still try to finish learning how to drive, while at the same time (hopefully) holding down a job I like and still being able to enjoy my freedom. Still, the four months and the preparation time before that will essentially be blotted out should I go for the trip
3. Murphy's Law
As I mentioned earlier, our role in the anti-piracy mission is one that is largely incident free. Even with the more active navies, casualties out at sea tend to be very low. Either that or they're not reported. In any case, there is always an off-chance something might happen. In a previous year, the Destroyer USS Cole suffered quite some damage to its infrastructure when a suicide dinghy came alongside it's hull while in harbor and detonated itself. In recent times, freak weather occurrences have made themselves known around the world, and while our ship might be big and relatively stable, in the high seas accidents can happen during highly adverse weather conditions. It does not necessarily have to be that the whole ship encounters a dramatic incident with large loss of lives, it could simply be a few unlucky ship crew who bear the brunt.
To put myself in harm's way for four months will present its risks, no matter how tiny. And to let my parents worry over my safety for the entire duration is also another matter.
4. Future plans
Going for this trip will also mean I'll be unable to have a hand in the planning process for an OCIP trip that's been in the rough stages of formulation for a few weeks now. Slated for the early start of next year, a large group of Navy friends and I have thoughts on going overseas for said trip, and should I volunteer for OBS, I can't possibly be part of the planning process. This has some degree of importance, because I admittedly already have some reservations to the idea of OCIP, and I wouldn't want to be part of something that I don't believe is helping others while attempting to make it so on the surface.
***
So far, these are the few points I've come up with, but even assessing them now will make little use. I'll eventually find out through this MSTD sail the next week whether I feel suited for the slow life of long sails, then my judgement should be better in some aspects. Meanwhile, perhaps others could give their input on this.
Labels: jolly pirates, navy, NS, opinion, thoughts
posted by joseph at 10:02 PM
this feels awfully familiar...
Monday, November 22, 2010
I was tasked to scrub down the upper deck today together with my shipmates in the hot Singapore sun. While I did use a hardy broom-brush to do the task, as opposed to getting on my fours and using a rough sponge, I felt at some point like just singing 'hi ho, hi ho, a pirate's life for me!'
Labels: jolly pirates, navy
posted by joseph at 8:35 PM