Saturday, March 31, 2007
persecution at home!
later on in an hour's, we're gonna have a judah derby! basically judah 1-4 vs 5-8, a high intensity, clash-of-the-titans amateur kick about. haha. since i recently made the transition from j2 to j8, this apparently qualifies me to play for 5-8 and not 1-4. so it was all good, until recently, like last night, when i received this chilling message on my door.
yes i know, i thought i was dwelling amongst friends when i shifted in here. unfortunately, tensions are rising as lines are being drawn on all fronts! i thought nothing of it until lemuel and ivan appeared at my door, weilding a random book/home telephone and broom respectively. they meant business, and i had to resort to coddling techniques to convince them that whatever happens, it'll be for the good of wotever it is that happens .. uhm, right you get the idea.
well think j1-4 are lacking players, and 5-8 have plenty, so i may end up playin for my former "club", haha. but in the end, it doesn't even matter, i tried to fall, to lose it all .......... hmm that's just bollocks ok hmm well i'll end off with yummy news. i just got back from a great lunch, it was authentic tom yam soup with pork stew done by the lovely pei yin and michelle! went to their place for collective QT, and boy, they can cook. haven't had either dish in soooooooooooo long especially pork stew. i think not since my dear aunty marie was around in singapore did i get to eat nice homecooked pork stew.
so seein as i have all the love in my tummy i hope to have a great match later! cheers mates.
paN!cker lost it at 12:35 pm
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
bad bad chris
you have been found to be naughty in the eye of thyself, and thus are duly punished with an appropriate level 1 (only 1 level for now) restriction on jogging. away with you!
paN!cker lost it at 3:02 pm
singapore goes to war, from an air-con office
last night i had the strangest weirdest dream. this can be attributed to my sleeping at 1930 through to this morning 0600 haha.
i dreamt singapore was at war, with i'm not too clear either the canadians or australians. haha! that's not the best part.
the war was to start in an air-con office. there was this central room in the middle of the office, and somehow we were stuck inside there for the start of war. the opposition was outside, near the outer perimeters of the office, behind some not-too-clear barriers, getting ready as well. i was under the impression there was a pre-fixed time for war to start, and everyone was just preparing. so there i was milling around, moving in and out of the room, even catching glimpses of the "unseen" enemy. it struck me how frightening it was to be going into a REAL war. so many times in army you have these exercises and tactical movement drills and those seem a lot more fun than the real thing. i really had the "this is it i'm gonna die in a horrible way" feeling, because it felt like there were a lot of them out there. and so there was a sombre mood to it all.
i remembered(during the dream) how one night lemuel, me, and jiajun were doing nonsense tactical movements along the street after walkin the girls back to their block one night, and that was pretty funny, us darting from tree to tree and throwing hand signals only we ourselves understood. it ended with us physically "beating up" marcus i think, who wasn't taking part because he's malaysian (hahahahah). well then i thought to myself in the dream, "pfft you think that's funny aye, this is the real thing goodbye chris. have fun with tactical movements this time". think we were all doing equipment checks or stuff like that, and proning in our central air-con room (which is just ridiculous) in preparation for war. we were basically pointing our weapons at the room partition which had blinds drawn, so basically we were pointing at the wall, and the enemy was beyond.
the highlight of this dream/nightmare (i can't decide which) was when a commander came in to brief us like we were schoolkids. the lights in the room were dimmed and (ironically) he was using a laser pointer to point out THEIR laser scopes trained on our drawn blinds. i assume it was a safety briefing which may have covered stuff like "it is generally not an enviable thing to have lasers trained on your body", or "try not to stand up excessively during the fight". and so when the lights were dimmed, in exactly movie style i realised there were like tonnes of laser scopes trained on the blinds from the other side already, all moving around randomly. that didn't really make me feel much better, and at the back of my half conscious mind i was wondering whether they would just lob a few grenades in, killing the entire singapore infantry (altho i don't know how the entire infantry can fit into a room 20 by 10 metres)
as the time approached for me to wake up, i think the time for war arrived and nothing happened. both sides were hesitant to start war in such a strange environment, and so they didn't. weiiiird.
THE END
paN!cker lost it at 6:23 am
Friday, March 23, 2007
i'm a christian
mum mailed me this.
When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not shouting, "I'm clean living'." I'm whispering, "I was lost, Now I'm found and forgiven." When I say... "I am a Christian" I don't speak of this with pride. I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide. When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not trying to be strong. I'm professing that I'm weak And need His strength to carry on. When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not bragging of success. I'm admitting I have failed And need God to clean my mess. When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not claiming to be perfect, My flaws are far too visible But, God believes I am worth it. When I say... "I am a Christian" I still feel the sting of pain. I have my share of heartaches So I call upon His name. When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not holier than thou, I'm just a simple sinner Who received God's good grace, somehow!
paN!cker lost it at 10:44 pm
Thursday, March 22, 2007
hide me now
hello you
paN!cker lost it at 8:37 pm
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
take hold, don't give up
there is no hope up in your eyes,
as if the blue had left your skies,
the sadness fills you cheeks of stone,
maybe you believe you are alone.
your face is shone with quiet despair,
as if this was what you chose to wear,
your sin you strap upon your chest,
as if there was no longer rest, longer rest.
take hold, don't give up.
you gotta make the best of what you got,
give it all your best shot,
take hold, don't give up.
take hold, don't give up.
you gotta make the best of what you got,
give it all your best shot,
take hold, don't give up.
your heart seems to have hit the floor,
but i do believe you're meant to soar,
the enemy's wounds, they must go deep,
but i pray the Lord your soul to keep.
there is no taking back those days a gone,
but now it's your chance just to move on.
make the best of the life you live,
'cause before Him you soon will give, you soon will give.
take hold, don't give up.
you gotta make the best of what you got,
give it all your best shot,
take hold, don't give up.
take hold, don't give up.
you gotta make the best of what you got,
give it all your best shot,
take hold, don't give up.
shawn mcdonald - take hold
paN!cker lost it at 8:45 pm
Saturday, March 17, 2007
when the cows come home
today, i was at toowong bus-stop, waiting to go meet lem in town. it was a long wait. suddenly i discerned distinct 'jurng jurng jurng jurng' sounds behind me. oh right! that sounds like the train. i turned around and behold, there indeed was a train passing by. it wasn't a passenger train for sure (if it was it was lacking a roof). there were sack like things loaded in the carriages i noticed. after a short period, i also noticed the 'sack-like things' moving around! since there were so many carriages flying by, i had time to realise that they were really moomoos in there! hahaha really huge and rather docile looking cows they were ... and uhm they were standing around inside the carriages. there really wasn't much else they could do; it was rather cramped. each carriage had only space for like 4-5 cows, and the carriage walls were right in their faces. so there they were, just ... being, like hundreds of them passing me by. some inquisitive ones had their heads up and were peering around outside their lil cage. i was fascinated by dear beefcakes. if not for their rather inhibitive size, i wouldn't mind keeping one as a pet. free milk!
anyway i related this incident to lem later on, and he blew me away with his
"maybe they were looking at toowong village knowing they're gonna end up in coles or woolies"
respect.
paN!cker lost it at 10:23 pm
Friday, March 16, 2007
udon
i had a packet of udon in the fridge. i wondered wot i'd do wit it. i decided to cook it. i didn't know wot to cook it with. i opened the cupboard. there were many sauces. i pulled some out after deciding i would use them. i used the sauces i had pulled out not long ago to cook the udon.
paN!cker lost it at 3:21 pm
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
yours fitfully
i learnt something new today. i shan't "bless" people with any more "rest fitfully"s. haha i did that to wern jing and she went like "is that a sing curse". thaannnnks ehhh i'll show you hmmpff! so i went to dictionary.com and looked it up. and lo and behold
fit·ful (fĭt'fəl)
adj. Occurring in or characterized by intermittent bursts, as of activity; irregular.
adverb in a fitful manner; "he slept fitfully"
that's just funny cos i've always thought resting fitfully sounds so peaceful and serene and ...... good. apparently not. darnit. which is even funnier if you take the time to think about what FIT and FULL mean. well at least this shady chapter is now at a close. let's move on to more uplifting things, like my dinner today and the weather!
the weather was brilliant, overcast and REALLY cold compared to yesterday's 35 degrees. all hinges on the sun. dinner was the same as the weather eh hemmmm, i roasted my chicken today! i marinated the chicken yesterday with honey, teriyaki, misc. herbs and spices and pepper. i think it turned out great! think i shall start doing this quite often, marinate a buncha jokers at once and just pop em in the oven when i need to eat. you can't really see my mixed veges cos i microwaved em first before dumping the mountain of rice and lastly chikin on top.
marcus commented that it smelt like KFC. top marks to you brother, you are THE man. apart from shan of course, but then again, maybe i shan't go into that. =)
paN!cker lost it at 10:36 pm
Monday, March 12, 2007
don't look back in anger
Today pull up the little weeds,
The sinful thoughts subdue,
Or they will take the reins themselves
And someday master you. - Anon.
pull up thy socks, there ain't no place for regrets here.
i need to devote more time to study. i've been falling behind in the readings and preparations for lectures, and it irritates the heck outta me. the ol' habits well and truly die hard. they tempt me, cause me to fall, and make me lose focus. the familiar words which bound me long ago come back to haunt, and Procrastination lurks just round the corner, her long needly fingers and pointy teeth ever on the ready to consume and grab at my every slip-up. indeed, now is the time for the weeds to be uprooted.
step outside, summertime's in bloom.
paN!cker lost it at 2:09 pm
Sunday, March 11, 2007
warriors of the night, assemble!
it is with great joy that i bring to you news! news that the rather nice but expensive ikea table has been setup successfully! it took really almost a whole day, but jon the builder helped out a substantial amount as well(like when i went to play soccer heh) and yay, it is done.
presenting the finished product!
really happy bout the desk, though i don't know how i'm supposed to take it with me if i ever move house. oh anyway, i played field soccer yesterday! it felt pretty good, except that there were some really good players on the pitch! my team was really strong, and we got somewhat into a 6-1 lead. then some players left, and suddenly people just switched sides! it felt like we became 7v11 or something. and our players were relatively laopok comparatively, so we were practically pinned down in our half. we conceded like 4-5 goals straight before scoring 2 more and so i guess we kinda won 8-6, lol.
man, i really had a good runabout, and now i'm starting to FEEEEL the effects of the runabout, my left bum(don't ask me why i don't know) and hamstrings and shin and ankle are starting to hurt argh. however it does look like field soccer is looking to become a regular feature of my saturdays here! it's really fun and chaotic.
after soccer, it was more chaos as we were catching a movie at 9pm. i met the rest of the guys at home after their captain's ball game, we went to grab a bite opposite, then rushed back to take a shower, hoping to make the 8:04pm ferry but nooo we missed it cus of *ehheemmm* unforeseen circumstances. we waited and took the 8:30pm one, got to southbank in good time still, and got tickets to letters from iwo jima. can you believe student rate is AUS$5.70 a ticket? so cheap compared to singapore! that's like S$6.84 only! it was a good movie, though pretty gory(rated 15+, think they left out a few extra +s), and showed the futile attempts of the japs to defend their beloved iwo jima island from the invading americans. plenty of action, emotion, and people blowing themselves up in the name of 'honour'. i enjoyed it. er no not the blowing up part, the movie on the whole.
after the movie, we decided not to try and catch the 12am bus, and instead wait till 1am. so we walked cassey home, stormed her house for a while(beautiful view from her balcony), then went to hungry jacks @ queen st mall to get some food before headin home sweet home. outstanding.
paN!cker lost it at 7:44 am
Thursday, March 08, 2007
beginnings
this is how i've been spending my excellent evening.
that's right, filling up 7 pages of worksheets teaching me to use the internet to find information and use the library online search functions. It feels just like primary school. It's dumb, but it's a welcome respite. the brain may be a sponge, but mine is rock solid after 6 yrs of non-utilization. always good to have a respite from thinking.
this photo somehow makes me feel like an astronaut making contact with earth through ..........wot else, MSN Webcam. glad to see they're still keeping it together in my absence and not fluffing things up. i heard from mum that percie has a new friend now, a skinny black companion. so that's how it is ehh buddy, i leave and you get someone new. i hope he eats all yor food!
ANYWAY, gabriel invited me over to dinner at david's tonight. gab cooked wanton mee with ban mian kinda soup! haha it was good. looks not too difficult to prepare. i'm torn between two care groups at the moment, and i'll have to make a decision soon. Judah2 is my current/default group, while the other(J8) has john ong and many other really nice people. i'm attending J8 for a few weeks and i'll prolly decide then. may i hear clearly from God the path to take!
btw i missed a 1-hr lecture today la! arghhhh that's unexcusable, my lecture was at 9 and i woke at 9. thank God all she did was revise the previous lectures. i'm already thinking she's going a tad too fast and needs to slow down. if she did cover new ground today that would be the ultimate pat on my back, pfft well done kiddo. anyway i panicked and rushed to school by 930, and then just outside the door i hesitated, then i decided not to walk in, cos it was rather quiet in there and comin in half an hour late for a 1 hr lecture sure makes you stand out, like the kind of stand out that outstanding students deserve.
we had the first bio prac today! it was on osmosis and involved taking sheep's blood and putting it in different concentrations. learnt how to use a micropipette, centrifuge, spectrophometer and other stuff. discovered the aussie kids were just as clueless as i was on how to use the stuff. there's this girl, who's singaporean, and doing her bachelor's in food and nutrition, so we're in just this same course. i don't quite know how to describe her, but she's ..... sad to say slightly irritating. i can barely stand her. to her, apparently the student tutors are only out to get free money and they don't teach like they should teach, only asking people to draw mind maps and i don't know what. since she already covered most of what we're doing now, in poly last time, she comes across as a little boastful, like yea she knows already, just needs to refresh and it's all good. that REALLLY isn't a healthy learning attitude to adopt. she's tried explaining concepts to me in chinese(my ultra strong language) in a very fast tone(her usual tone) argh, and i don't catch much of wot she says but i nod anyway. hehe. she didn't like the kids we did our prac with today cos they were clueless and gave her the impression they were fooling around. they were indeed clueless but they definitely weren't fooling around. it wasn't their fault either that there was a minor screwup, just one of those unforeseen circumstances, and she gets on my nerves. she changed prac group just so that she'd be in my prac! doubleargh, i think it's just so she can team up with me for the e-conference project and she gets her wish to research transfats. i wonder how she would work with a local. i also wonder if it's such a good idea to do my project with her. btw, her work is -slightly- messy. she scribbled like ... phrases for her answers in un-neat handwriting and was surprised when the tutor told her she had to structure some sentences in her answers and stuff. like .... duh. and she told me she did this in singapore, no problemo, her style. right, i don't know wot school you went to, but oh i guess niao tutor likes to pick on you. on the contrary i thought prasad is by far the nicest tutor for human bio yet. he's quite funny, and passionate about what he's doing, and always more than happy to teach and explain stuff. he was gawna teach us about the spectrophometer, and dear sg girl thought she didn't need to come over cos she learnt about it before. he called her over and got her to explain to the group how the thang works, before posing her(and us) a question that all of us got wrong. ouchouch for the ego. toughtoughtough to shine the light of Christ in the lab ehh. i never -ever- -EVER- thought i would ever feel it would be an unfortunate thing to meet new singaporeans, especially in my program, where we are few and far between.
i don't know how it's gawna work out, or if this is God's way of pushing me to get to know the aussies better. oh yea, apart from her, there IS a singaporean in my program itself! name's gary, he did ITE, army, then came over and spent last year doing foundation. he actually knows rachel mok! whoopy, in stark contrast i really thanked God when i got to know him in one lecture. so far, it's just the two of us. the other 'asians' are pseudo asians haha, they seem like naturalised aussies, or canadians. why didn't we end up in the same prac! blehh.
anyway we all got our 1% grade for prac today, so YES, 1/400% down! pure pwnage. take care all and may you be found wanting as you try to rely on your own strength to do stuff, thereby turning to God to solve the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in your way, like, sg girl. =)
paN!cker lost it at 10:24 pm
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
memories of old
i was sitting here in the bioscience library, using wikipedia to aid me in my laopok knowledge of biological terms, when my new found friend shan min told me i could probably find fairfield in wikipedia. so i tried, and by golly! a whole writeup on the school. just tickled me so! there were even photos la! here's one. awww warm fuzzy feeling.
brings back tonnes of memories this. and the bright sunshine certainly brought some warmth to me bones(prolly 20 degrees in this library), felt like i was back there for a moment. and just check out the children, resplendent in their innocent grins. except last time when i was there the names weren't sewn on, we had name tags. i went on to lookup victoria school, and there was an even longer writeup, but no pictures. good stuff, good break from the brain freeze. so many teknikal terms, so lil time.
paN!cker lost it at 3:43 pm
Monday, March 05, 2007
friend of the night
last night, as my housemates were discussing something to do with clothes and whatnot, i remembered i had 2 pieces of underwear that needed to be brought in. upon arriving at the balcony, i quickly realised the rack was empty. ok, so someone brought the clothes in. i was thinking, 'there must be a common clothes basket or something!' i knew jon had washed and hung up his clothes before this, so he was probably the one who brought the clothes in.
chris: "jon, you brought the clothes in?"
jon: "oh yea, my clothes dried so i brought em in"
chris: "er, how about my underwear?"
jon: "!! oh sorry sorry must have packed it away"
chris: ".....!"
*scurries to his suitcase to retrieve my undies*
*hands me one of my underwears, and another unknown pair of boxers*
chris: "er, these aren't mine"
jon: "oh ok then they must be mine then"
chris "............!!????!?!!!???!?!!"
the night ended on a good note. i got my undies back safe and sound.
on another note, the work begins to pile up. and it's up to me to unpile it.
fact of the day: did you know our growth is affected by seasons? studies show people grow faster in summer than winter. must be all that heat and humidity speeding up our biological clocks.
paN!cker lost it at 7:34 pm
Saturday, March 03, 2007
will you defeat them, your demons?
i spent this saturday chugging on down in a coach to gold coast, just spending a day chilling and seeing places. on the way, we dropped by harbour town, this nice big place which has a huge bunnings warehouse and a lottt of warehouse-type shops. the prices there are lower than elsewhere, but still, i bought nothing. on a shoe-string budget here, and nothing below 10 bucks so hmmmpf, my money stays with me. not pasar malam price, no deal. i had a lamb kebab for A$6.90, which was quite big, and lem's fries as well, which he couldn't finish, and i couldn't finish before we got back on the bus.
we then moved on down to carrara market, which IS like a flea market .. kinda, a lot of stalls out in the open, a very slight bugis village feel to it, but more spacious of course. we walked around aimlessly, looking and touching many random things. we came across this stall selling very very nice art paintings on papyrus, the oldest form of paper, and this very very VERY enthusiastic young boy started explaining to us how they make the papyrus with his mother(i assume) watching on proudly. apparently they boil the stuff for TWO WEEKS straight, before taking it out and it's this brown colour. the grains go in different directions on both sides as well, quite cool! i guess it helps ensure the integrity of the papyrus over time haha, so it doesn't fall apart the moment you pick it up or something. all the paintings were of egyptian kings and princes and queens and this boy was telling us of queen nefertiti the prettiest woman in the land, and her son tutankhamun and many other fondly remembered egyptian dudes. it was a little difficult not to buy after they took the time out to explain and sell the stuff to us so well(i was thoroughly impressed with the kid, i think no older than 12), but ohh well i'm not touristing so spending 20-35 bucks on nice-looking papyrus in a frame is way out.
FINALLY, at 2:15pm, we made our way back to the coach and went to our destination, gold coast! upon arriving, everyone went to the beach and took group photos, before it was OTOT(own time own target) till 5pm. group of us walked to the shops to get a milkshake(i had a VERY rich and yummy macadamia/caramel one), then i realised they weren't going back to the beach and they were going shopping! basically only lemuel was going shopping la, haha, the rest of us were just the entourage, there to make astute comments on the stuff he was thinking of buying, or if lacking any fashion sense at all, simply to carry his options around for him. hahahahaha ok not really la, but none of us thought the quiksilver and reefs and whatnot were as affordable as lem did.
cut a long story short, ivan and i eventually made our way back to the beach by 4:40pm(after getting waylaid by another group of J8 people who gave their green tea frapps to us lol). yay, right, so i got in a good errr 15 minutes of captains ball before heading back to the bus! haha ohh well, should have gone there earlier, but i think they had those activities because the sun is too strong in the early arvo anyway to play anything for a substantial amount of time without getting fried to a crisp. wot a day.
anyway me's been a thinkin, cos like in the discussion boards in our e-learnin site, lotsa people have been posting bout how hard it is to get back to school after a THREE month break, ONE year break, and stuff. and how hard it is to stick to a 9-5 schedule, or wake up early, and whatnot. so i posted about my SIX YEAR hiatus from study(i don't count poly, too slack) to hopefully raise their spirits, or give them a chance to collectively take a laugh at me. for someone who's been away that long, i don't think i'm doing too shabbily, but definitely not enough. i've been consciously making effort to pay attention in lectures(which *gasp* EVERY SINGLE PERSON attends and does not sleep through, unlike in poly eh hemm) and for once, i gotta chart my path. i gotta set goals, and methods to achieve em. i can't just go wit da flow, cos the flow will take me straight to the dead sea. many of em wanna get into physio or occupational therapy next year, and that requires a 6-7 gpa average. that means my program is -extremely- competitive. every decision i make daily, will contribute to my end result. and so it is with a strange feeling that i start to sit down and think and plan. i've got chem to catch up on, cheem bio to flip through, and aussie friends to make.
a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and crap grades shall come upon thee like thee deserveths.
ok, put GOD FIRST! and these things shall follow.
meet Nike the insecure ball.
and just as was foretold, the great multitude crossed the carpark
small bunch of Judah 2s today
paN!cker lost it at 6:09 pm
Thursday, March 01, 2007
irritating birds of australia ep. 1
as you've probably heard me rant before, the birds here are a different breed from those you find in singapore. they're bigger, noisier, and more in-your-face. this issue covers one such bird which caught my eye today after it started jumping on tables in the refectory, pulling meats and bread out of the garbage, and making a meal out of things.
endtroducing .... the
australian white ibis
here are some reasons why some people don't take well to these weirdos.
- When they forage in flocks in the vicinity of air fields, ibises pose a theat to aeroplanes, as their large size means that they are able to break windshields, or damage engines.
- Ibises roost communally and a moderate-sized colony produces a lot of droppings. If they roost in a public area of a city, such as Darling Harbour in Sydney, their droppings can make the area unusable, and might be a problem for human health (though this has not been demonstrated).
- Ibises that become accustomed to people sometimes feed in garbage bins and steal food from picnic areas. While they are quite harmless, some people find their large size, and particularly their beak, intimidating.
- Ibis droppings can modify the environment so that it can no longer sustain particular plants. This means they can be a problem in botanical gardens and some reserves. For example, in Fairfield Local Government Area, Sydney, Australian White Ibises may be destroying the roosting habitat for a threatened population of the Grey-headed Flying Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus ).1
meanwhile check out my referencing 5k1||5 ! haha. damn mafan man..
_______________________
1Australian Museum (2007). Birds Behaving Badly - Australian White Ibis. Retrieved March 01, 2007, from http://birdsinbackyards.net/feature/birds-behaving-badly-ibis.cfm
paN!cker lost it at 7:37 pm
chef chris hits town
today i cooked my first er, simple, proper meal! whooopy, actually i was gonna do udon, but my housemate cooked like rice for about 6439 people, so i decided to just fry the ingredients, namely, assorted frozen veges/two meatballs/two crabsticks/onions in dark sweet sauce(that was a gamble from the cupboard), and my satay sauce pre-marinated chicken! i will say that apart from the blackened pot, it's a perfect start! haha nothing is overcooked/undercooked, and everything tastes pretty good actually.. MmMmMmm !! actually -slightly- raw inside la, but oh so slightly only. it's out of fear for the pot that i stopped frying. heh.
so....... SUCCESS! *pats self on back* Thank God!
paN!cker lost it at 5:06 pm
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