Wednesday, July 25, 2007
another one bites the dust
Sigh. Honestly ....... SIGH oh never mind! So here goes....
Rules of the game:
Each player of this game starts off with ten weird things or habits or little known facts about yourself.
People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly.
At the end, you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names.
No tagbacks.
1. I only started living with my parents when I was 3. Talk about independence. *indignant nod*
2. My maid fed me a fish bone once (also somewhat near 3 .. maybe ... 5 ?!!) which I promptly swallowed and which got stuck in my throat. This got me shot to hospital to remove. Once there, I very calmly retched out everything except the bone, which had somehow managed to dislodge itself and move along.
2. Last time, my mum managed to fake me into thinking that the finger prick blood test thingy was actually a container containing(haha doh) an ant trained to bite fingers. -_- No comments there.
3. I used to harbour secret hopes of making it into a top clan and representing Singapore at the WCG for CS. HAHA.
...
..
I still do. ..
NOT.
4. I used to be very picky about my food. And I ate really slow. Nowadays, I down most anything. Except ... nasty stuff, like ...... uh, bitter gourd.
5. My -greatest- GREATEST (no joke) fear used to be swallowing tablets. I would take EONS to get convinced to down one tablet. I was afraid I'd choke and then ..like ... die.
6. I used to be rather paranoid of bird's nest as well. Somehow, the idea of eating soup made with saliva of bird didn't appeal to my young mind. Not even the fact that brave, young, strange men risked their lives to harvest saliva of bird for me could convince me to eat it. Thankfully, I have realised the folly of my ways....... so give me saliva of bird anytime.
7. I love to kiap kiap my nose when there's some kind of blockage somewhere. It makes a weird sound and irritates the heck out of my mum.
8. My nose has a hollow (NO please don't go "well that's called the nostril"dammit!) and the soft bone can be depressed there but it always pops up when I release it. HAHAH ok shit I just lost like half my "friends". TRUE FRIENDS STICK EVEN THROUGHOUT DUBIOUS NOSE STRUCTURAL DISCREPANCIES! Hmmm ...... make that three quarters.
9. I -love- to smell stuff, especially new stuff, new books, stationery, materials, food.
10. I'm damn shy. Even though I've got a lot better (what this just makes me sound like I have some illness), talking to strangers or people I don't know well is just ...... TOUGH.
Thy holy arrow shooteth at
1. Adam
2. Rachel
3. Bryner
4. Shao Wei
5. June
6. Lemuel
because you guys got the cool, got the cool shoeshine. ;) OR, just perhaps, you've been naive enough to -own blogs- AND tag me and hope to get away with it! Muahahaha I am just so evil it hurts. Hmm .. it hurts no wait .. not quite right....
ANYWAY, perhaps it's time to start working for the semester.
paN!cker lost it at 6:28 pm
Monday, July 23, 2007
the songs we had last only in our heads
You know folks, good people you, I accidentally stumbled upon my history and started reading choice "excerpts" of posts I made like 3 years ago, and, I gotta admit, I chuckle silently inside. I've come a long way...... heck, we all have, and, it's, surreal. I imagine myself last time saying those words imprinted and stored away in cyberspace forever, and I have to nod. Yep, that's me alright. So, this begs the question. Who am I -NOW-? Have I moved on? Results seem to show that. I realise now that in spite of my uber slackness with regards to my work, I never really flunked. I always did average with poo effort. God has blessed me with brains that... WORK. God never let me go, and maybe that has prevented me from learning my lessons for so long. Sometimes He lets us slip and fall down an abyss so deep we think we are dead, and sometimes He just keeps being merciful.
I had that close shave (I really thought I was deadmeat) when I woke up late for the Biophysics paper. It wasn't like, oh, you're late. I was a -WHOLE HOUR- late. My paper was 2 hours, and being an hour late doesn't quite stir up many positive vibes within me. YET, YET, God fished me out of my own vomit and placed me on a high place. What areas have I reciprocated? Close to none. Why? Has he spared the rod and spoilt the child? Nevertheless, writing and thinking these thoughts makes me determined to not let history repeat itself. Procrastination has been doggedly tailing me my whole life, and it's eviiiiiiiiil. Everyone's a work in progress, but just what kind of progress is mine? While people catch the flame and run, I've been watching from the sidelines, wondering what it would be like to run in step with the Father. People are DOING THINGS. Let me come back to His side and cry Holy, because You are Holy Lord. On bended knee, in humility, God makes strong the weak, the oh so weak. Our fragile and naive dreams and ambitions cannot save us from emptiness. Am I ready? w00t.
Shao Wei barbecued for us that night, and we loved it.
paN!cker lost it at 10:07 pm
my first day of school
Seems like something you would find in a primary school essay innit? And I'm sure many a kid has penned that very line down, all over the world. I started school at a very very wrong time of 8am today, having slept at 3am. Thank God that I managed to set my phones at ring tone 8, and the chaos that ensued left me with no choice but to get out and smack them round a bit. Eventually, I managed to meet Edwin outside my place and shuffle to school and lecture in good time. The lecture was pretty interesting, and it covered stuff like the extremes to which humans would obey others in causing hurt to "subjects", through erm, electric shocks. Surprisingly, though very reluctant, most people continued to increase the voltage amidst the "cries" of the "victim". What a sorry buncha animals we all really are. Other than that, we had our first anatomy lab session which was arghhhhhhh there were so many bones and joints to cover that we didn't have enough time and most of it, we will have to learn on our own. There really just isn't that much time in 2 hours to cover a gazillion parts of our body and how they all work and interact.
After school knocked off at 5, Gabriel, Hanggo, Edwin, Ramesh and I went jogging! We ran my 'ol route of 2 rounds around the campus, before finishing with pull-ups at the Guyatt Park playground and some ab-crunching/scrunching at Gabriel's place. It was good! THEN, we feasted. HAHA. Well not really but I felt full enough after dinner at Jackpot's.
Then THE highlight of the evening happened. I went running without my keys and phone, and as uber yayness would have it, the door was locked when I got back. GREAT. Even though a lot of lights were on, they do that ALL the time and after a period of knocking on the front door, I knew I wasn't getting in. I went downstairs, peering into the kitchen and living area, to no avail. Just as hope was going to desert me, I heard a familiar sound. The sound of a MARCUS. He was singing his heart out in his room! With joy, I called out to him from below. ................... .. ..
*no response*
I called out, again and again, each time slightly louder (you don't want all your neighbours joining you downstairs), but, no, nothing worked. So, I decided to act on a little idea I'd been toying with in my head. It'd been done before by someone before my time, so why not me? If others can break into my house, dammit, I'd better be able to at least do the same! After a few hesitant jumps, I finally got firm hold of the balcony floor, then the railings, then I pulled like some madman (i see the relevance of pull-ups now!) and managed to get my left foot on the balcony. I clambered up and prayed that the balcony door was not locked and it WASN'T hooray so I made my way in. I've learnt my lesson. Phone ok, at least take key la. -_-
Anyway, here's something to take you all right back.
And yes, there's more where that came from. Be afraid, be very afraid.
paN!cker lost it at 7:09 pm
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Byron Bay
It's a very beautiful place, the most eastern point in Australia. At 3am, we up and took an almost 2 hour drive east to spend time with JJ catching the sunrise before his imminent departure this Sunday. It's..... gosh ..... breathtaking, but being winter, so VERY VERY COLD! That's all due to the wind, but wow we photowhored a good deal and enjoyed breakfast on that little piece of heaven. I didn't bring my camera but when the sun up and rose I had enough light to take some decent pics.
a tad of sun, sea, and lighthouse
did I mention the beach magnifique?
quaint lil shops line the small town of Byron
Ta!
paN!cker lost it at 10:38 am
Friday, July 20, 2007
bittersweet hello goodbye
Hello! I well and truly have arrived. Indeed, it is with great joy that I bring news of my safe landing on the now-familiar soil of Brisbane! Here's the evidence (lest you closet PIs think I'm hiding out at home or something).
Of course, this one could just be photoshopped.
This is me in the plane. You can tell that we've almost/just landed by the time stamped. Of course, there are a variety of other places I could have taken this picture, judging from the noticeable lack of aeroplaney elements in the photo.
Immediately, I was whisked away by Pei Yin home (thank you thank you!!) to dump me stuff before going for cell and psycho'ing everyone to take a group picture. Ok, not really, it was JJ's last cell meeting. He leaves for Singapore this Sunday, and he's a special man who deserves a special mention and special shot.
On the more heartwarming front (collective awwwwww), Duffy the veteran and Chappie the novice are feeling rather at home on my bed! Yes it's the same bed that Tiger and Duffy were used to all sem last sem. The only thing that's different is that I've -changed my beddings- completely. Hurray for hygiene! I shall wash the icky yucky soiled beddings tomorrow.
Anyway, the flight on SQ was really nice, and the difference in quality between SQ and Qantas is noticeable. The legroom is more, aircon more powerful, and food rather nice. The service is comparable though, but generally the experience was bettah. I'm happy to be on SQ for the flight home! =)
And so it is that I shall spend the next 4 months here eeking out a living and trying to live the glorious life that Christ has called all of us to. Lest we forget.
paN!cker lost it at 11:13 pm
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Pain
why? change has to start with me don't it? if not this will never go away. i'm the cause. or at least the catalyst. so ugly inside.
Change my heart oh God,
make it ever true.
Change my heart oh God,
may I be like You.
You are the potter,
I am the clay,
mold me and make me,
this is what I pray.
paN!cker lost it at 12:29 pm
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Lifesong through Outbox
Haha. I was just deleting my sms' from outbox since it's clogging up my handphone. I think i sent more than triple the number of sms' I sent all semester in Brisbane. Just reading all the messages sent out sort of gives me a storyboard of sorts in my mind, replaying the things I did before even leaving for Australia! How things move so quickly and there's no time for regrets. We'd do well to carpe diem, capture the moment, seize the day :)
So quickly and it's down to my last two complete days in Singapore. Despite the short time I've been here, thanks everyone for the catching up we did (or hmm, didn't do). Everyone (except poly students) should be in a cheerier frame of mind come end November. We'll do the soccer, chap teh (yes this time I'll wear shoes Wei Liang), stayovers, fitness camps (which is covered in stayovers) amd other stuff. Things I was just mulling over to do:-
1. Random Bus Day - Armed with a bus guide, take random buses all day and tour the remote parts of Singapore we never get to see, while continuously making fools of ourselves on board ... NOT.
2. Rent a Car Day - Rent a car and armed with a Singapore food guide, go to only THE best and cheapest places to grab good food all day. Heck, people are doing that on TV and earning money! Maybe we'd get talent spotted for Mediacorp or something ...*distant look*. Right.
3. Mission Trip - Yep, I haven't been on one overseas before and that's something I wanna do! Mum suggested Philippines, then we can visit aunty Marie too. Haha, I'm wonderin' how many kids she has already.
Hmm, still a lot of stuff to get done before departure. And the hurrier I am, the behinder I become. This reminds me of the power of prayer and meditation. We have so much to do and accomplish we seriously need to be coming to God in prayer and drawing strength from Him alone. But, does even that in itself require divine strength from God? Sorta like a kickstart to our engines ... Seems that way for me anyway. And I don't want a rude kick in the bum in order to wake up. mMmmm
paN!cker lost it at 11:58 pm
Saturday, July 14, 2007
The Chiseled Christian
What does it mean to lead a disciplined Christian life? Am I chiseled .. like awesomely rock-hard chiseled inside? Ok, so not many people are really, but many have that desire and are in fact well on their way. Outwardly, I cannot have any complaints (though inevitably on occasion i still do). God's blessed me with good health, and a sporty side. But, am I rotting inside? Does my inner ehemmm "beauty" reflect my outward appearance? I think not.
Discipline needs to be seen in all aspects of our lives, and strangely enough I think typing everything in small letters seems quite slipshod. When I started my blog, I actually thought to myself "hmm let's just type everything in small". After reading many other blogs and thinking about it, it's just that much easier on the eyes when you see people actually type full sentences, replete with appropriate punctuation and capitals. Therefore, I've decided to return to normal conventions. Another area which actually I LISTED down for my new year's resolution was punctuality! Terrible terrible punctuality; half a year has passed and nothing has been done about it. Dying to yourself is well and truly, -dying- in almost the full sense of the word. It hurts and you feel so arghhhhhhhh but you gotta do it for there to be change. How to be on time? Only time can tell. I'm one of those barely on time kinda people, and that has to change!
I feel out of control if I don't have control mechanisms like journals, diaries, notebooks to keep me in check. Those are tangible things I can look at and know if I'm on or off track. I just wish I could zap thoughts in my head into my diary and not lose em. Anyway, you can prolly tell I haven't been doing very well in the chronicle-your-things-done-and-things-to-do department.
Holidays are the bane of me I conclude! I had a list in my head of A LOT of things I wanted to do back here, but I feel like I didn't accomplish anything much this short break, and this Friday I'm returning to the cold land of Brisbane. Of course, a lot of it has to do with this period -not- being holidays for almost everyone (except uni students), so you only have big options on the weekends. Regardless, I'm really thankful for this break and being away just makes you appreciate the goodness of Singapore that much more. After hearing the Europe horror stories, you cannot help but feel damn safe every time you step out of your house knowing the chances of you getting mugged or pickpocketed or kidnapped or killed is extremely low. Apart from that, QT for me at least, goes out the window when I wake up at like the 10am-1pm range haha.
The massive elite socialite supper club got back into gear in style last night as we had at least 8 people coming down to Bukit Timah Market to chill. The fei-lo-ship was great, and i enjoyed it. We've got the do-silly-things-to-and-with-each-other part going very well. However, I think for the full value of supper club fei-loship to be realised, we must move into more so-called "deeper" topics like wot we've been up to ALLL these many many marrny months. After being away for a while, you wanna know what stuff everyone's been up to (some silly, others well, extremely silly) and what stuff they've learnt, how they've grown, and basically what makes em tick as different people created by the same God. Anyway, yes I know I owe a tonne of pics to a tonne of people, and I'm gonna start working feverishly to accomplish that aiights? There's so much backlot I'm feeling overwhelmed by pictures! Some more my mum has some copies in her folder and I have some and goshhh haaalpz0rs. I cannot stand double copies! Hang in there dorks! The good and just will prevail! Or something along those lines.
On another note, apparently the NDP will be telecast LIVE online. Ultra wheeeeeeee. I'm uber happy. I'll be able to catch it all the way from Australia! By God's grace I have not missed any NDP for a long time LIVE and I guess this time and for the next 3 times after I will miss it live but the internet shall provide me solace, even if I'm viewing it from far far away yaaaaar. If only we could translate our unity as one and that spirit of togetherness in the stadium into graciousness towards one another in our society.
Short CAT update! Ever since I left for Australia, Percy's been feeling down and out, and even hunted by some (yes it's true exterminators were brought in with TRAPS). Some quick-thinking residents quickly bought him a collar so that he wouldn't be caught, but he never was anyway, the sly furball that he is. Anyway, loneliness brought him a new companion in the form of Sunshine (my mother named one, don't look at me), this BLACK BLACK skinny fella of a cat. Now, they hang out regularly, having coffeeshop talks and scratching each other's backs. I'm glad they've found each other in these times of testing and hardship <3<3. hahaha. It's cool to have two cool kids on the block now instead of one. I've taken plenty photos of them, sleeping in parallel formations and stuff like that.
Bleh, when I go back there's stuff that has to be ironed out. God granted me the stuffing to deal with the first semester, and by golly He has provided the fuel for the next sem. Let's see:-
1. Eat proper meals (as often as possible la).
2. READ non-course related books.
3. Be punctual for ALL manner of lessons.
4. Prepare in advance for all lectures/tuts/labs.
5. Please please please no more last minute. Inspire Gary to do well with me.
6. Finally, get to know more Aussies? God help (or force) me with this one, hehe.
7. Be more involved with cell and it's growth and the lives of ma cell mates .. sounds kinda prison-y to me.
8. Brainwash my house mates to be house-proud and take pride in dish-washing and rubbish-throwing and floor-sweeping and table-cleaning and... ok you get the picture.
Oh, and end of year will be exciting! Does anyone wanna jump on the Stanchart 21.1km bandwagon? So far I think Sue-ann, Josh, Edwin, Vicky, Elaine, Jessene are interested. It's on 2nd December, which means I gotta train in Brisbane with Edwin. Hopefully he doesn't outrun me too much! Or at least, not for too long! I wanna train up for end of year IPPT (if they don't already realise I'm disrupting reservice yet gunning for their 400 bucks every year... hahhaha).
Gahhhh, for now, organise songs and photos on hard disk and be prepared for the arduous (i really mean enjoyable, enjoyable, repeat after me, enjoyable!) journey to the end of the year. And, finally, lest I forget, mail me your address if you possibly would like some snail mail arriving in your Singapore mailbox freshly flown from Australia, with fresh ink from pen-of-Chris. right............ what am I saying?!?! arghhhhhh but seriously, no guarantees, but I think you can judge how much I'm on top of things based on the number of mails I send out, since they are low priority on my list (yes you guys ... all low priority, sorry. truth hurts innit, deal with it). DISCIPLINE.
*breathes in
paN!cker lost it at 3:54 pm
Sunday, July 08, 2007
live earth!
i was in the dark, but now am in the light. i was wondering what the heck this live earth thing is all about today, and i didn't know until i stumbled upon ......... LIVEEARTH!
"Live Earth will use the global reach of music to engage people on a mass scale to combat our climate crisis."
and what a mission it is, to save the very land that God granted us to live, love, work, and serve Him in. to me, it's an impossible task to actually mobilise enough people to make such a difference, especially when it comes to things like environmental awareness (judging from history, we're steamrolling in only one direction). we seem to be damning our planet so fast that to me, the end is inevitable, and though yes, the Bible says the end really IS inevitable, a mission like this warms the heart and it's always good to know that this armageddon of sorts is being slowed by something that some people felt passionate enough to stir up globally.
looks like i'm wearing green later!
just listened to wolfmother, and they certainly have that wow! factor. hailing from sydney, NSW, their sounds range from hard rock to neo-psychedelia to heavy metal and stoner metal. though from just catchin em live, they were playing quite a fair bit with electronic sounds as well! Stoner music is typically slow-to-mid tempo, with a low-tuned, bassy guitar sound and psychedelic jams (says wiki (:)
www.liveearth.msn.com
paN!cker lost it at 1:49 am
Thursday, July 05, 2007
whirlwind
howdy! it's been a blast from the past here in singapore! whoooopeeeeeee. i'm just glad to be home, and just, wasting time. though i did waste a lot of time there in brisbane, but erm, wasting time here has less guilt attached to it. however, i'm raring to make a change to that. been doin not much and quite a bit at the same time, but i gotta be more purposeful with the time that God has given me.
let's see, first major thing i did when i got back was to within hours of landing, attend my cousin roanna's 21st birthday! they held it earlier because her sis frances is going away to hongkong to work! i'm glad that her career's going well and hongkong will be QUITE an experience at that (good or bad, i leave that for you the reader to decide .... prolly bit of both).
we had church the next day and seeing everyone and .. shocking everyone with such a sneaky appearance was cool. that really affirmed the "good to be home" spirit of things. i played soccer in the arvo with maverick's team as well and despite playing with arguably the best bunch of people i've ever played with, we lost 0-2. perhaps maverick can add some insight into the reason for that loss *clears throat*. hehe but it was a miracle of sorts really that we lost. we were playing a weak team comparatively, faith methodist church, and we just could not put the ball in the net. it went everywhere except the back of the net.
the week that followed was cool as well, mostly hanging out with mum resupp'ing for the trip back to brisbane. saturday was awesome! i caught singapore's very very very last match at the national stadium against the aussies! the ex-internationals match really provided me many laughs (really you should see some of the old foggies who were out there!). ok i'm just a bad person aren't i? anyway, singapore played excellent football against australia, but as always, quality tells. there has to be some sort of difference between EPL and S-league players. mark viduka netted twice despite being shown the love all night by precious, and kewell was ........ simply kewell. kudos to the singapore team for bringing the match right to the australians though, for indeed it should have been us going into half-time 2 to 3 up instead of 0-0. we played a good match and the 0-3 scoreline wasn't reflective of our efforts.
sunday came and there was cell and more people are going overseas! nicole and fabs are leaving september to the far far away lands of ireland and UK to study, leaving benedict all alone in singapore. i had soccer with linus and maverick's team again, this time against a much stronger team who were still marginally weaker than us, but due to a slight offside trap muck up and a slightly harsh penalty call for handball, we drew with them 2-2. still, much better than having 0-2 to show for all the effort. maverick's team lacks a finisher, which is actually what mathan was for our church team back in the day (which incidentally is just last year). say, what ever became of mathan? hmmm haven't seen him in a long while.
mundane stuff like cleaning teeth, then had really awesome worship prac with pei shan, daniel, adrian, angie and cross-generational members for friday's family prayer meet on tuesday. today, or rather, YESTERDAY, was spent meeting up with kunal in the afternoon, and TRANSFORMERS at night! lucky peep's gonna be chillin' in the US of A in august! he'll make an awesome pilot no doubt about that. transformers was MINDBLOWING stuff. fully sick, wicked, whatever adjective you use, it was that. wow, it was even funny! so many cheesy one-liners that make you laugh, cry, and cringe, in different orders for different people. the graphics and sound effects were world class.
the highlight of the day though belongs to the Almighty God! He's got me in His hands, and He sure is taking care of me. looking through next semester's work just causes me to worry and be anxious, but i must remember, wasn't that how i felt at the start of this semester? no matter how insurmountable the task seems, God is right in the thick of it if i let Him. He greatly encouraged me to press on, and in a way confirmed the path that i'm on is the right one, for now at least. darn, i'm having thoughts of actually trying to prepare for next semester right NOW, which is not half bad an idea, except that it's supposed to be the hols for me, you know, the time where you rest and relax and do NON-WORK related stuff. but it's not really work if you enjoy it, is it? i'm also feeling lazy and wanna not do work, haha.
that's quite enough for now. anyway, today we have the manic street preachers taking centre stage. they're a welsh rock group oft' associated with alternative, indie, glam punk and britpop and became popular in the late 1990s. i just listened to their latest release today and they're not half bad. Therefore, good night. (=
paN!cker lost it at 1:08 am
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