This was what we saw when we arrived early in the morning, a shit building that had been neglected for over 40 years / a team was sent to clean the building before inserting sensors.
Several broken windows had to be replaced / loose windows realigned and structure rivetted - Trajan and Kadjal. They seem to work very well together; for some reason each of them seems to know what the other is thinking and the way they climb is intuitive. I wish, I could climb with such confidence.
After 3 rounds of rotating shift work, it looks new again. We had to clean it at least 4 times and you will be amazed how much dirt was removed.
Before / notice the white deposit on the clading / that stuff is cancer to buildings.
After cleaning and treatment...cavers were sent in for this section as only they have the experience for this type of narrow climbs - Pumpman & KOHO shift....it's brand new again.
Can you make out the zebra crossing and street lamp in the upper hand corner?..that's how high it is...working on the third shift. We drew the short straw. No one seems to talk very much, only hand signals were used and the team is slowly gelling find that line when they can work effectively and safely - there is plenty of fear, loads of it, but everyone seems to be dealing with it in their own way, no one talks about it, but it is always there / Darkness & Harphoon shift (I belayed, Darkness told me in the last minute not to come down with him. I have no idea why usually I will question him, but on this occasion, I think he knows best - hence the additional safety rope; I also helped him with a torch light from above to shine the way as his head lamp isn't powerful enough).
Everyone is responsible for his own kit / usually, it is layed out pasar malam style like so all the time, so in the event of an emergency, if some needs to be rescued / those who are resting can prep up in a flash and go down / those of you who have alpine experience will wonder why I (Harphoon) tied it off fireman style, that's a long story - basically each man has 5 sets of rope - two rappel / two emergency / one set for rescue transverse. This is the standard kit for one climber.
We thank our Malaysian friends for bearing with us and showing us such warm hospitality - many of our Malaysian channel partners came with offers to help (this was politely declined / some even brought us tasty food - terima kasih/ The work seems to go on and on and after 3 rotating shifts - the various sub teams are finally finding their line three - I can understand why Darkness ONLY insisted on mature climbers for this mission / broken glass is slices through kermantle rope like butter / we had a few of these incidences - for the most part the work is ceaseless and grinding as Darkness rightly pointed and it seems to require alot of mindfulness; as from what I see since there are no foot holds there is no where to really rest and even gather your nerves - its just one very long climb on a sheer vertical rock face like El Cap / earlier during the second shift, we had an incident with Trajan, he got snagged and found himself upside down, but Trajan is a skilled climber, he didn't panic and calmly tied a prussik / as safety officer I signalled a rescue team; they rappeled down; head first (commando style) and belayed him down apart from that one single incident, it was quiet uneventful, except for rope burns and the occasional nicks - everyone is in still in one piece ( I wished I had captured the episode and posted it on up tube / it was very dramatic all done in less than 30 seconds flat! / we are slowing but surely transforming our new gaming server farm into a crystal palace / my only regret is this gaming server farm should have been sited in Singapore - but for some reason many who make up the guilds do not consider it a stable locale to site such an important facility - Tmr a new team will arrive to start drilling / they will also begin to rewire the building to interface many of our new servers / we are all exhausted except Darkness - he told me this is only the beginning as there and the next phase would be to finalize the terms and conditions of the rental with the owner - the owner seems impressed; it is as though he has walked into a time machine and gone back to another age when he first built the building - he is requesting us to rehabilitate a 40 metric ton sign board that sits on top of this building - Darkness says he will do it for free but all rental will be ours (again they shook hands - this is a strange way to do business, but to these people, it seems almost normal) - this is premium space right in the heart of bukit bintang - it would be good if we could get the Singapore tourism board to consider renting it - I told Darkness, we could set up a pair of green eyes to advertize for night safari and leave a mark of Singapore here - he smiled and told me, "that we have already done that; the trick is to allow the Malaysians to believe they were the ones who did it." He keeps telling me this is a diplomatic mission at many levels as he believes, "Mahatir has psychoed so many Malaysians we are a bunch of greedy folk." This mentality must be stamped out not by politicians, but by ordinary folk.
I am the youngest in this mission; I don't know what he meant by that, but there was glimmer in his eyes when he stared as the sun began to peak over the forest of highrises in KL - "it was another beautiful day."
Part II - the rubber band brigade
Today will be a very interesting day for me - our climbing team will be meeting up with the "rubber band" brigade for the very first time - we have never ever seen them before in the flesh as all of them are anon and they all seem to be very shy - to cut a long story short, one reason why they are called the rubber band brigade is whenever Darknesss runs into technical problems - he will usually go to their forum and discuss stuff with this group of boffins and they seem to be able to get stuff done with lots of rubber band, super glue and duct tape - they are the make do people who the brotherhood usually go too when we run into technical difficulties - one thing about the brotherhood is its a very big network where someone knows someone and it's a linkage not so different from a spider web - it just goes on and on, something like a village where there are people who have skill sets in every conceivable field of expertise that if used rightly can produce extraordinary results - from what little I know, they are all geeks who like to tinker with stuff in their spare time, most of it the built in garages, sheds and rooms where clothes go to die.
The rubber brigade will be responsible for mapping the entire structure of the building - we need a 3D engineering perspective to map out every inch of the structure before injecting our magic foam concrete into strengthen the structure - a robot has already been constructed mounted with specialized sensors this will be used for the main task of surveying the clading - the best thing about it is, it uses a black and decker commercial suction to cling to the surface so it can be remotely controlled and can scale up walls like spider man (though it drops sometimes, I am told - so we tie it off with a cable) - generally how it works is not so different from world war 2 radar / it sends out a ping at regular intervals and then registers the resonance; this runs through a program and eventually we will be able to build up an X-ray image of what is actually inside structurally - something like a sonar used to detect fishes or X-ray - though the robot is a toy; many of the sensors are hand built and the project was funded entirely by the guilds at an exorbitant cost.
So far the rubber brigade has tested it only on industrial chimney stacks in the US / galvanize steel / if it looks like a toy that's because most of the components come from some place where remote control stuff go and die - so it was put together cheapy cheap - but it is operated by a joy stick and there is even a remote link that relays images to a laptop.
This new tool will save us alot of leg work and it is very unlikely that we need to climb out ever again (phew!) as the robot will be able to do most of the tedious work of X-raying the cladding and giving us all a very accurate impression of the condition of the building - I asked Darkness why the rubber brigade were willing to finally show their face and come out into the open this time - he just said to me, if you create the right conditions which pique the interest of people and package the proposition as irrestible then dont be surprise if even shy thinking folk will simply say that its not worth hiding behind some moniker - they will eventually come out from their shells - the trick is to never to force people to do something that they may not want to do by insinuating they may suffer for some character flaw because they prefer to cling to their anon status - what must be understood is folk remain anonymous for a million and one reasons ranging from bad skin, BO to simple things like they just dont feel comfortable coming out into the open as they value their privacy (real or imagined) - if its important to them, then a good place to start is to send out a clear message, that is important to us as well - every relationship needs to be built on trust, respect and mutual dignity; some things in life you make it happen with the hammer - other things just happens by itself when reason and season intercepts - this is the latter- as most intelligent folk know some things in life require face to face interaction / there are limits discussing serious stuff in second life dressed as some alien - the trick is to make it so irrrestible and it is not so different from wooing someone you love.
Darkness went on to say, if the Singapore Government spent 1/1,000 of its energy pursuing this one strategy alone; online anonymity would be mere commentary and all Vivian's problems will disappear very quickly - but instead all they seem to do is scold people, talk down to them, threaten them, cut off the electric supply, call them funny names and pigeon hole them as freaks and give bandwidth to windbags like Yawning Bread (who has as much brain as a pin head - result: most people these days dont see the internet as the great hope, its a wasteland), is it such a wonder they're going nowhere and Singapore has the highest anon rate in the internet on this planet - they have no one to blame but themselves as what they are ineffect doing is reinforcing failure on the scale of the pyramids - he went on to say, these people are brainless and have no imagination that is why they can never harvest the latent talent in the internet; all they can really do is play bla bla bla black sheep like Philip Yeo or like Cheong Yip Seng insist that the world must be flat - now you know why all these clowns are chasing their own tails and going in big and small circles - and when you do that on an institutional scale, then you have to be a grand fool as it demonstrates you have no idea how to manage yourself and others effectively in the age of the internet.
Coming back to the robot - like I said, it looks dorky. But I am looking forward to getting to grips with it / We found recently, the rubber band brigade happens to be a co-ed team with only one guy - we will be dealing girls. Today most of us have started to clean up the upper floor and even do our laundry for the first time (fortunately someone brought alone some after shave) and put on some office clothes to give them all a good first impression - Darkness bought a boquet of plastic flowers - I told him that may come across as tacky and cheap; he replied curtly, that's why we have decided you will be the one presenting this gift to them.
The rest laughed. I didnt find that funny.
Work site report by safety officer Harphoon.
Read More →
Podcasts didn't decide GE2025 I refer to the CNA’s Commentary: Podcasts didn't decide GE2025, but they changed how Singaporeans engage with politics (May 9).
The 2025 General Election has several features/characteristics that deserve our attention, discussion and
reflection:
In today era, technological revolution, innovation and advancement...
This is not a game of cards I can appreciate parties wanting to hold their cards close to their chest, but the smoke and mirrors games on nominations day, the shuffling of the DPM from a seat he had openly been declared to be defending, and other ministers shuffling constituencies leaves one feeling the PAP thinks it is playing a game of cards.
Constituency...
Is a Parliament full of PAP MPs really better for Singaporeans? I refer to The Online Citizen GE2025 news report, “Lee Hsien Yang: Is a Parliament full of PAP MPs really better for Singaporeans?” - (April 14), and “The Straits Times’ report, “GE2025: Singaporeans will go to the polls on May 3, Nomination Day on April 23” (April 15), and The Online Citizen GE2025 report,...
𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝... Is the PAP of today exceptional, with unmatched competence and delivery? Afterall, that is their justification for the highest salaries in the world. Let’s look at its more recent track record.
Large numbers of NRIC numbers were recently unmasked, leaving Singaporeans exposed to identity theft, fraud, abuse and scams....
GE2025: Red Dot United to contest in Holland-Bukit Timah I refer to the CNA news, “GE2025: Red Dot United to contest in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC but may make way for Singapore Democratic Party” (April 10),
“More opposition 'star catches' are emerging. Is Singapore's political scene maturing?” (April 10) and “PSP says government response to Trump tariffs 'overblown',...
How the end of Ukraine war could be secured, even with waning... I refer to the CNA’s commentaries, “How the end of Ukraine war could be secured, even with waning US support” (Mar 4), “Lessons from the Trump-Zelenskyy meltdown- for friends and foes” (Mar 1) and “Will Trump tariffs push China to change economic tack?” (Mar 3).
Foremost, we need to recognise the reality...
Singapore Army Recruits Deserve a Minimum Wage Singapore Army Recruits Deserve a Minimum Wage: National Service Should Not Come at the Expense of Opportunity Costs
Singapore’s National Service (NS) has long been a cornerstone of the nation’s defense, requiring young men to dedicate two years of their lives to military, civil defense, or police service. While...
Trump-Putin deal on Ukraine will be Europe’s moment of... I refer to the CNA’s Commentaries, “Trump-Putin deal on Ukraine will be Europe’s moment of reckoning” (Feb 20) and “Ukraine can survive with the ‘least worst’ peace” (Feb 22).
Now, In the eyes of European Union, they have lost trust and confidence in the United States, it is solely due to the flip flop...
From Deepseek to Huawei, US tech restrictions on China are... I refer to the CNA’s Commentary, “From Deepseek to Huawei, US tech restrictions on China are backfiring” (Jan 31).
Would it be practical, useful and effective for the United States to continually pursue an aggressive containment strategy to hobble China’s tech push? Undoubtedly, the answer is obviously not.
There...
Putin escalates Ukraine war I refer to The CNA’s Commentary: “Putin escalates Ukraine war by a step, not a leap, with missile experiment” (Nov 23).
Foremost, Zelenskyi’s intention to join Nato has greatly threatened the security and survival of Russia. Hence, Zelenskyy has offended Putin and Putin has no choice but to launch a war with...
Will PM Wong address the astronomical ministerial salaries? I refer to The TR-Emeritus opinion article, “Will PM Wong address the astronomical ministerial salaries” (June 14) by Mr Yoong Siew Wah.
It has always been a controversial topic which concerns about our top political leaders who receive their salaries that are many times higher than those foreign political leaders.
Our...
