2010年3月3日星期三

a BIG surprise!

I know I could count on my roommate Zhi to come up with creative names for this blog… (or for anything for that matter. Except this time it’s a bit too late! haha… maybe I will change it, but I don’t think I can change the URL) Here are some possibilities:

-Boys N Guns (Okay…)

-Boys N Toys (hmm… nah… it rhymes though!)

-Guns N Toys (like Guns N Roses)

So if you have any [creative] ideas or suggestions, please let me know!

*****end of public service announcement*****


Alright. So one of the first things I found out about Civilian Substitute Servicemen (CSS) when I went back to TW is that even though there’s a boot camp for CSS, there’s no weapons training involved!!! What the heck?! No guns, not even knives! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Seriously, what kind of soldier is this? (who doesn’t know how to fire a gun or doesn’t know how to use weapons?) Just as I was starting to look forward to this CSS thing, I felt all gypped and ripped off – hey, if I’m going to serve in the military, I want at least some weapons training, OK? I want to at least do something manly and violent, OK? So what do CSS do? Run laps? Push-ups and sit-ups? Man… seriously disappointing to find out from my friend (who has been through). Worse yet, we don’t even get camouflage! All CSS get is something a uniform like this: (I don’t know these guys… just found the photo online)

I also told my friend that I have some chronic physical condition that may prevent me from serving in the regular army, but what about CSS? He assured me there wouldn’t be any problem as the CSS are full of “incapable” soldiers like us. In Chinese it’s 老弱殘兵 (“old, weak, disabled soldiers”). People with worse conditions than mine – like heart diseases and diabetes are serving in CSS. Darn, there’s no way I can avoid military duty I guess.

Actually there may still be a possibility that I only need to take part in the boot camp, men who were born in 1980 or earlier whose physical conditions is less than a “grade A” (haha… like Grade A meat?) may only need to take part in the boot camp. This is unconfirmed, however. Guess in what year I was born? Bingo. 1980. But no matter what, I’m going to proceed with this application process and see what happens. Physical checkup is not until way later down the road. I guess I’ll find out when I get that far.

After this conversation with my friend back in TW, my thought is – is my country for reals? Are you serious? (I still can’t believe no weapons training for “military service”)

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