sMyle's experiment

28th Birthday report 2011

2011-11-07T12:00:00.001+08:00

I'm not sure who reads this anymore. But here goes anyway.

Birthday celebrations started early this year as my actual birthday fell on a Monday.
Thursday 27 Oct
Elena, Esther, Sam, HR and I met up at Paragon to make dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. HR gave me more cat related stuff as usual lol.

Saturday, 29 Oct.
There were about 20 of us furs hanging out at SAFRA Yishun for a bowling meet. It started out with Jeremy meeting me earlier in the morning to help pick up my suit. We then proceeded to go down to the meeting point. I was greeted by several furs and other friends. Julian and Kevin give me their presents, followed by Chong Han. He surprised me by recreating a plush version of Mik, idea co-owned by Marko from Finland. He then told me there's a v2 of it coming my way too. I happily accepted it. I played 2 games of bowling. Helped Jeremy get in suit. Pics were taken. Crashed a Halloween party that SAFRA was organising and spotted for Jeremy. Wrapped up about 8.45pm. Walked to Northpoint for dinner. Had Pastamania. Proceeded to cut cake under the void deck of the neighbouring HDB block. Crashed Kevin 's hotel room for a bit afterwards too.

Thanks to Samuel, Hanrong, Elena, Esther for gracing my birthday dinner.

Thanks to Hanrong, Thomas, Vincent and Clara for the presents.

Thanks also to Elena, Samuel, Suzanne, Jackson, Esther and Hanrong for dropping me birthday SMS-es.

Thanks also to Siti and Jemuel, my friends at work for sending birthday wishes through SMS too.

I really appreciate all of it. Thank you so very much!

1-month-late 27th birthday report

2010-11-30T22:42:00.000+08:00

Yeah… I’ve been rather tardy in getting this up. Let’s see…….

My birthday celebrations started early. I had been going over to Alexia’s place on a regular basis to help with his toy packing. We had almost finished up the bulk of the packing, and decided to head home as it was getting late and I didn’t sleep very well the night before. I had already asked him for one of his sharks and he agreed to let me have it, and then when I stepped out of the gate, Alexia asked me to hold on, and he passed me another box wrapped up. Whilst on my way home, I had already figured out what was inside the wrapped box. Soon, I spotted a huge smile. It contained another toy and 2 other drawings he did and printed on photographs. It wasn’t because of the toy he gave me, but it was the huge successful bluff he pulled off, and the effort he put in to make it all happen. Earlier, I offered to quickly sort through his remnants of toys in boxes, but he insisted that it was okay. The wrapped gift was supposed to be in one of the boxes. He also knew I’d get very curious if I did not see it when I expected it to be there, spoiling the surprise. So, he called my bluff and showed me another box. He managed to hide the nervousness very well too. It wasn’t very elaborate overall, but that’s one birthday surprise I will always want to remember.

I also had another awesome gift art from Silverfox. Popper and shark cake FTW.

Friday was dinner with 4 of my good friends, one of them whose birthday was just days before mine. We went to a restaurant which allowed us to doodle on the tables. It was fun.

Saturday was the day of the barbeque. Whole bunch of furs visited from neighbouring Malaysia and the event itself had even more furs. Nothing elaborate, good times were had. Signage on a 48” beach ball and barbequed eggplants were an unexpected success.
The actual birthday was on Sunday. Thank you all there for gracing the event.
I am really glad my 27th birthday is so memorable. Did I mention 27 is my favourite number too?

Shoutout to those who remembered my birthday and gave me wishes: Brother, Suzanne, Hanrong, Esther, and Elena, and Junquan

Coming back for a visit

2010-05-24T16:53:00.002+08:00

Yeah, I know this blog's been pretty bare recently. I don't find very much to put on here anyway. I could talk a lot about my other side of life for me.... but nah~ ;)

I got out of my contract school as of 2010. I made it to NIE despite immense pressure, so it's all good. I really appreciated all the relatively more free time that I'm having in NIE. I just hate all the deadlines for assignments.

I just received my posting for my practicum and final school. I don't really know. I might have slipped into (mild?) depression after finding out. Lots of things have been said about it, and I'm not too crazy about going there either. Anyway, that aside. I think God spoke to me today in regards to this situation.

After screwing up my microteaching big time (I don't really care about how badly I did anyway), I casually told my tutor about my posting and how unsettled I was. A fellow classmate came up to me and said the school wasn't too bad at all. She also gave me tips to cope, not that I really needed those tips, but it gave me a glimmer of hope at least.
Then I felt a little lazy taking public transport back, so I decided to hop into a cab. I told the cab driver I was posted to that school. Guess what? My cab driver was from that school too! He then went on to talk about aspects of teaching as a career, and the lifestyle (his wife is one), which I had forgotten.

All in all, it was kinda sobering and I thank God for these small insignificant events. I don't really understand it either. I thought I was more resilient than this - to be defeated by something so minor as a school's posting. But somehow, I still let it get to me. Part of me is kicking myself for being so weak, the other side of me is just sitting back and taking it all in that God chose to intervene in my weakness, putting me back on the right track. Perhaps, this is another confirmation that He really wants me in this line of work.

I should really be better than this. But I suppose no matter how hard I try with my own effort, something somewhere sometime will give, and I have to look up to call for help, and He will answer.

Thank You God.

Love,
Mattathias

Way way overdue birthday post and life update

2009-12-10T23:32:00.002+08:00

24/10:
Thank you to Thomas who organised a post birthday party after Sam, Clara and Sarah's baptism. Thank you to the rest of the cell group who were there to celebrate along with me and Hanrong. It was really a very nice gesture. :)

31/10:
Local fursuiting meet in the spirit of Halloween. I only arrived in the evening while the rest started earlier on the the afternoon. I helped play spotter and got spotted by my students X3. I really enjoyed myself too, and it made my day all the more special.

Some pics can be found here: http://www.anthroasia.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1419

Thank you to Jackson, Jasper, Hanrong who SMS-ed me their birthday greetings.
Also, wanna thank Ashley, NCH, Guorong, Junquan, Viperone and Samuel for their birthday greetings over MSN.
And of course all the other furries who wished me happy birthday.

-----------

Work:
Lessons over -> end-of-year examinations conducted -> end-of-year examination scripts marked -> student comments given -> parents met (spoke barely passable Mandarin) -> said goodbyes to both students and colleagues -> curriculum planning for next year -> supervising the school's badminton team.

Career advancement woes: First was go, then no-go, now maybe go?

2008 review

2008-12-31T19:41:00.002+08:00

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Mascot-ing

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions?
Didn't make any, but did achieve all of my goals for the year.

3. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
At home, online.

4. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
More financial freedom.

5. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I think a record number of times this year. I'd have to blame myself for not drinking enough water when everyone else was sick.

6. Where did most of your money go?
Insurance and paying off university loans. :P

7. What songs did you obsess over in 2008?
Lifehouse - Everything, and Broken
Boys Like Girls - Hero/Heroine
Chris Brown - Forever
Onerepublic - Say All I Need
Nickelback - Gotta Be Somebody
Paramore - That's What You Get, and Decode
Linkin Park - Shadow of the Day, and Leave Out All the Rest
Simple Plan - Your Love Is A Lie
Flyleaf - All Around Me
Hillsong - Hosanna and Where the Love Lasts Forever (Trance remix)
Daphne Khoo - Desperate
Caramelldansen

8. What was your favorite TV program?
In Search of Perfection (Heston Blumenthal's cooking show)

9. What series did you catch from Youtube?
Digimon Savers, Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen Seasons 2, 3 and 4 and Kitchen Nightmares Season 2.

10. What was your top 3 favorite films of this year?
Bolt, Iron Man, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

11. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Quarter of a century old

12. What kept you sane?
God.

13. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
"When you get involved in something, it shouldn't be a means to an end. You're in it to do or learn something more." -Jayne Chang

-----------

Church - I stepped down from both cell ministry and sound ministry leaderships.
- New friendship bonds built although not close.
- Audio ministry are a crazy bunch, but in a good way.
- In the presence of a potential head chef.

Birthday Shout-outs

2008-11-18T17:24:00.003+08:00

It's been about half a month past since my birthday. But nevertheless, I want to give an acknowledgment to those who remembered it one way or another.

Firstly, Jackson, who organised the dinner. The place was was very good. Good ol' Chinese food, food as even made more delicious with the company I had. Also thank you for the new back pack. Oh~ and also the treat :D.

Xinyi, Esther, Elena, Chiman, Christina, Amber, Samuel, Vincent, Hanrong, Suzanne, Gabriel, Wenzheng, Marcus. Thank you all for coming to my birthday dinner. Hope you enjoyed the food and fellowship too.

Also want to acknowledge Ashley and Linfeng for the brithday greetings too.

Until now, I don't know what to think of the turn out that night. It was quite a nice feeling.

Take care everyone and thanks once again :)

-Matt

Oh, and one more thing. Shout-out also goes out to Benjamin (my bro from WDL) who still remembers my birthday after so long (and making me feel rather guilty for not reciprocating) and Junquan, another 'stubborn' friend from SAJC. Thanks for dinner too.

1st post for 2008

2008-05-28T23:49:00.002+08:00

It's Wednesday, 28th May 2008 and here I am making this post at 11.50pm when I should really be asleep by now.

But I should really post this so as to get this off my chest and just maybe, ease the fears from some of the ppl in M'kk.

Here's the situation right now:
Next week from the 2nd-7th of June, I'll be back in ICT. I mean... no big deal right? It's only a week. But these are a list of things I need to complete before I head off (convenient note to self).
1) Haircut;
2) Receive package on behalf of a friend from Japan;
3) Go back on NIE on Friday to pick up correct data;
4) Finish the work before I go back for reservist on Monday;
5) Job interview at TTSH (again... lol);
6) Bowling on Saturday;
7) Sound duty over the weekend;
8) Meet with another online acquaintance from Indonesia after church;
9) Come home and pack my army gear.

Lol... busy eh? Well, there's more.

In the midst of all this busyness, some of you might have noticed I did throw a silent fit over the past weekend. Datelines aren't the only concern.
I recently came out of a situation that caused me to have this huge emotional baggage. This was concerning the local furs (or initial online acquaintances, however you want to call it.) And ironically, when I thought it was over, there is another impending emotional baggage coming from the inflatable side of the community. It is tough playing middleman/counsellor/friend/grapevine (from the information perspective)/who knows what else in these 2 communities. What I can say is that it definitely taking a lot of energy out of me, and another irony is that I don't even hold a full time job yet! ;) But, if you know me, duty is duty. I'd prob work myself dead before I give up... :3

All in all, I'm daily seeking God's strength to carry me through each day, lifting all these situations into His hands and asking for wisdom, time management and strength.

There's this song that has been stuck in my head after last Sunday that I just simply love and find encouraging in the midst of all these hectic-ness:

Find me here
And speak to me
I want to feel You
I need to hear You
You are the light
That's leading me
To the place
Where I'll find peace
Again

You are the strength
That keeps me walking
You are the hope
That keeps me trusting
You are the light
To my soul
You are my purpose
You're everything

And how can I stand here with You and not be moved by You
Would You tell me how could it be any better than this

You calm the storms
And You give me rest
You hold me in Your hands
You won't let me fold
You still my heart
And You take my breath away
Would You take me in
Take me deeper now

Coz You're all I want
You're all I need
You're everything, everything

-Everything by Lifehouse *nudge nudge wink wink at Wenzheng* :3
(Interestingly enough, before Lifehouse was born, they were known as Blyss, a Christian rock band. A record company took note of them and decided their music was good and gave them a chance to break into mainstream. They changed their band lineup since then too. Info taken from Wikipedia)

This has been your update from your retreat commandant '08, who is feeling very feline now and wants to curl up in someone's lap and wants to be petted, releasing all his stresses. :3 *purr*

(x-post to M'kk blog)

Overdue 2007 report

2008-01-10T23:07:00.000+08:00

1st half of the year
- studying.

- being carried along by whatever the circumstances that were around me.

2nd half of the year
- sudden graduation! (as I did not meet the requirements to do the honours year, and did not appeal either)

- 2nd time ICT I had to go back to the army for a 13 days.

- taking up various reponsibilities such as being on the committees of several areas in church. eg. cell retreat committee, sound retreat committee, sharing word and Christmas eve outreach audio supervisor (or Ninja Overlord)

- my father being posted to my church.

- when I began to immerse myself more into furry, which would include the following events in chronological order.
1. Changing my fursona from a elemental-morphic dragon to a Singapura cat.
2. Free time, not spent studying, used to search for vids taken during furry conventions. Sources include BBF's archive and Youtube.
3. Even more time spent looking up Wikifur and fursuits and fursuiters.
4. Plucked up the courage to go to local furmeets.
5. Subscribed to Anthrochat IRC server, and eventually inducted to be a moderator of a small, up and coming channel.

Hopes for 2008:
- Get a job. (somewhat fulfilled really... starting something like a contract job tomorrow for 3 months maybe)
- Overhaul my old computer.
- Read up more on Singapuras and have a list of things of what I want my fursona to look like, so that finally I can be drawn.

24th Birthday report

2007-11-01T18:36:00.000+08:00

I'm going to acknowledge those who did wish me a Happy birthday or some other similar greeting this year again. :3 This time my phone wasn't as busy as last year.

Parents and my brother's family;
Benjamin, from WDL;
Hanming, Junquan from SAJC (I appreciate the thought of wanting to hang out but this week is just meh);
Sarah Teo from NUS VCF;

Elena, Nicholas, Suzanne, Christina, Linfeng, Alvin, Samuel, Marcus Wong and Guorong.

Elena and Samuel treated me lunch, which was followed by a meeting later. Thank you so much. ^^

And last but not least my bro Silverfox. :)

Thanks all once again.

Quick update

2007-07-15T20:26:00.000+08:00

I'm now in the midst of my ICT. This is my second one and it's a high key. It has been rather busy and hectic thus far.

Every day ends no later than 9pm during the training and I miss my sleep too, although I don't really feel it until the weekend because there's just so much to do.

As you probably might have heard, something unfortunate happened on Wednesday night. On the the day of his in-process, Kenny Tay on that same evening took the night off to get his civilian clothes. He met with an accident on the way home and was killed while on his motorbike. Nobody knew what exactly happened and only speculations has arisen from the whole ordeal.
On the Sunday after the death, I was tasked to be one of the participants to give a 3 shot gun salute to send him off in a military funeral. I was dressed in No. 1, the smartest uniform in the army and my weekend was partially burnt to train for and conduct the whole procession.

Some after thoughts: I would consider Kenny to be one of the closer ones I've interacted in the army. In fact, me and 3 other closer ones didn't want to look into the coffin as the rest proceeded around it. Honestly, I was numb at the wake and may attribute it to the hectic-ness by the training in camp. The news didn't really sink in and I suppose there's no point to think about it now that he's already been cremated. All the while after hearing the news, I asked for God for covering over the family and the entire battalion commanders for comfort, protection and peace. And I thank God for fulfilling that request.

Well, with all that's said and done, I suppose the last thing I wanna say is: See you in heaven, Kenny. You will be missed by those close to you in this lifetime~

Life after graduation

2007-07-08T00:20:00.000+08:00

As from my previous entry, I have graduated earlier than I would have wanted to. My graduation ceremony was on the 4^th July. The graduation attire was so uncomfortable. As such, I only had one picture of me and my parents in that gown, and then immediately took it off afterwards.

Aside from graduation, I’ve been rather busy ever since receiving my grades. Apart from the administration of applying for the graduation ceremony, I kick started off certain things such as committee planning for two retreats, cleaning up my toys, catching up with people on the Net, postponing overseas trips to meet friends, trying to get myself a proper break… all in the midst of my parents subtly telling me to get my resume done and get a job.

As for now, I got my resume done, after much delay, most of my toys have finally been packed away, the graduation stuff is over and done with, been to on average one meeting every week in regards to the retreat stuff. Lastly, I’m currently making preparations to go back to the army for 2 weeks starting Monday.

And yeah, I’ll be away from the internetz for 2 weeks. I’ll be fine, nothing too dangerous, it’s not like I’m going on a peacekeeping mission or something… although the vehicles I’m using looks a lot like Devastator/Brawl~… Nah :p. Anyway, don’t miss me too much while I’m away. Take care all.

Results - Irony

2007-06-18T14:11:00.000+08:00

Okay, so I received my results... Turns out I couldn't qualify for honours. I really wanted to do the 4th year, as I'd have 1 less year of working. Seems like God has other plans for me.

The irony in all of it:
1) Remember my last post where I said I was going to be screwed because I didn't finish half of the paper? Well... I got an A- for that, which is like the best grade I've ever had in my 3 years of study.

2) Instead of that subject, I worried so much for, I got screwed by 2 C+, which is the worst grades I've ever received in my 3 years of studies. Figures, huh? And what's the best part is that the papers for both that modules were on the same day.

For the curious ppl, a little fyi...
To qualify for honours year, there must be a minimum of 3.5 (equivalent to an average B)
My result: 3.48 (equivalent to also an average B + 1 out of the 30 modules having a B-)

Right now, due to hindsight, I'm at a loss of what to do. Little to no job experience, little to no clue on resume writing, no clue of the current job market, no clue on what to do next.
It's almost like inviting for the world to come screw me :S.

Rhetorical questions and other emo-ish banter

2007-05-03T13:21:00.000+08:00

Ever had parents giving you $8K in preparation for you to do honours, and then watch that chance just slip through your hands after sitting for a final exam paper?

Just like that, my lecturer decided to screw all 6 of us during the final. Literally, a slaughterfest. For one, I don't think he actually did try out his own paper that he set. Too much math and calculations for so little marks. It didn't matter how well one was prepared for the paper, everyone was just stunned at what we were expected to accomplish within 2 hours.

"For such as small class, there's no need for a grade curve," everyone said. So what happens if all 6 fail the finals? Is there no reprieve?

I dunnoe... maybe something might happen that will pull up my grade for that module. Maybe, the lecturer would do something about everyone's grades.

I hope to do my honours year. Or maybe God has a different plan for me. Whatever it is, things don't look certain when I've barely completed half the paper.

It's amazing how uncertainty can kill the holiday mood too. Maybe, I should prepare to return the 8K to my parents, and start sending out resumes during the next upcoming job fair. Maybe.....

6th semester in NUS

2007-03-09T12:29:00.000+08:00

Advanced Experiments in Inorganic and Organic Chemistry
Quantum Chemistry and Molecular Thermodynamics
Instrumental Analysis II
Mechanical Properties of Materials
Ceramic Materials

These are the modules I’m taking this semester. The first 3 are Chemistry modules and the last 2 are material science ones.

The first module is similar to what I had last semester. The only difference is that I get to synthesise stuff in the lab but otherwise, the same requirements as the module last semester. A little side note, in one experiment, I got to make a variant of the stuff that supposedly makes up our red blood cells (for the chemically inclined people, I got to make a porphyrin, the stuff that surrounds the iron(II) centre). Science fiction has it that werewolves and vampires are that way because of a change in structure in that porphyrin molecule.

Quantum chem… I bet it’ll put off a whole lot of people from that title of that module. (Btw, there are only 6 of us taking this module out of a possible 150 or so ppl in my cohort). I’m grateful that my lecturer is able to break it down for us in a simple manner. I don’t know… he seems kind of flustered each time he lectures us too. Another science fiction thingy from this module here: I learnt how the whole theory of multiple universes (Sliders is a good TV show to illustrate this) was generated from ideas of quantum theory.

For the material modules, they provide a much better learning environment, rather than chemistry. And a point of note, I don’t know of any lecturers in this department that are out to screw students either. In the earlier part of this semester, I had to do the lab experiments required for this module, and that took a huge proportion of time in my schedule. But, now, that time is all freed up to slack more. *rant* if not for a certain lecturer in IA2 who had to drop a last minute bomb on us about submitting a project like out of the blue~… grr. */rant*

Part 3 - 2006 reflections and the new year ahead

2007-02-07T21:17:00.000+08:00

I know this is very very late, but here goes anyway. I’ll start off by listing some small yet significant things that happened in 2006.

- 1st job experience in a private organisation,

- Having the house (and my room too) repainted and getting more toy storage space,

- The opportunity to sample self-composed music
from this fella

In the area of university and studies, I’m glad to have had the opportunity to have studied a bit of Japanese, albeit it being a time consuming subject, and sociology. Also, I’m on track studying a little bit more about my interest, namely polymers, through modules either in chemistry or material science. I intend to further my knowledge about polymers by taking more of these types of modules that will somehow tip the balance towards getting employed in a polymer related industry. At this point in time, doing a masters in polymer chemistry looks very appealing after thinking about it for half a semester, and now I have a good reason to study and not just blindly studying whatever comes my way. Also, last semester I tried an old method to study for my finals, and it seems to be paying off again after seeing how my grades are the best out of all the semesters I had so far.

Another area I saw a huge improvement in is in the area of decision making. Previously, I used to be a wishy-washy person, living a carefree life and stuff. There were certain stuff that I stubbornly did not want to change at all. But, a bit of that has changed. I’ve improved a bit, though there are certain issues that have yet to resurface and have not yet been resolved. I do want to continue to improve on it though. I guess that all part of growing up I guess.

In my previous post, I mentioned something about a bomb just waiting to go off. Well, I’ll explain it here. During my pre-Net days, I used to be very active in church, holding quite a few responsibilities too. Then in 2000, I hung up everything and ‘ran away’ to another church and lied low for 6 years. During that time, at the back of my mind, I knew that God would ‘haunt’ (pardon the failure for a better word) me for it, hence the bomb waiting to go off. Now, God decided that I’ve been stuck at this crossroads for long enough and wanted me to move on. I understand the commitments, the responsibility and most dreadfully, the cost. I’ve already made up my mind already, so there’s pretty much no turning back. I’ve also pretty much seen the end… how I’ll get there is another issue altogether. So now I’ll just have to listen for his direction and I’m pretty much prepared for how God wants to place me in.

Sometime after Christmas 2006, I received news that a very good online pal had passed away. It was Jon Denning aka Pongo(136). Pongo was _the_ authority to look up if ever anyone had a question in regards to any inflatable toy. He also had acquired quite a bit of toys over the years too. In a way, he inspired me to start my own wealth of “inflatable knowledge” starting with the modern (post-2003?) toys. But overall, he was a very person to chat with. Never did sense a bit of pride in his tone.

The news came all too suddenly. One of our friends grew concerned that Pongo hadn’t appeared online for about 3 months already, and decided to snail mail to check how he was doing. It turned out however that Pongo’s brother sent the reply and said he had passed away about a month earlier during a heart operation. The feeling was awkward, at first. This was the first time my fears was founded, which is the only time you know something bad happened to anyone would be that they didn’t appeared online for a long time. This is a sad but inescapable truth. Another thing was how, in a sense, unprepared I was for this piece of news. I knew all along that Pongo had a congenital heart condition through casual chats that I used to have with him. But, he seemed to belittle it, shrugging it off as it’d became pretty much normal to him. He always seemed fine after taking his medication or the regular hospital checkups. But looking back, I realised that each time I talked with him, his health seemed to be deteriorating, albeit not at a drastic rate. Pongo always had a cheerful disposition around his convos.

When the news sunk in, I still felt numb. I just talked with other friends who knew him well. Like just... be there. I suppose it helped both the party over the other side and myself deal with the loss.

Ultimately, I suppose the people that made 2006 for me were my online friends. And I’d like to state for the record that I enjoyed each and every bit of your company. You guys are the best.

Part 2 - After semester thoughts testimony

2007-01-01T19:12:00.000+08:00

http://smyle83.blogspot.com/2006/10/mid-5th-semester-thoughts.html

I just got back my results for it not too long ago on Boxing Day. I got 4 ‘B+’s, and 1 ‘B’.

Am I grateful? Hell yeah. First things first. Thank You God for giving me these grades! I’ve been meaning to pull my CAP (GPA equivalent) back up to 3.5 minimum. And it was done. Truly, He is in control of all things and I’ve been blessed. I can’t be anymore happier that that. Period. I’m on track to a 2nd lower class honours again. :D Thank God for do-able final exam papers too.

With the results, 2 records hold. 1) My grades are still either a B+, B or a B- for the 5th consecutive semester. No ‘C’s, no ‘A’s either; 2) My CAP increased for the first time… finally after dropping for 3 consecutive times.

The Experimental module – This was a bit of an enigma. I’m grateful that I didn’t get anything lower than a B+, since all my lab reports, which accounted for 60% of the final grade, seemed to show that I was heading in that direction. I thought I aced the exam, rather I thought the exam was fairly do-able. However, I’ve got a friend who took this module with me. He said that he got fair grades for his lab reports and got an A+ in the end. Either he’s BS-ing me, or the results are rigged >_> <_<

Organometallics – Granted I was average, if not lower than, compared to the rest of the cohort during my mid-semester tests, getting B+ was actually a bonus in itself. The module turned out to be pretty much straight forward.

Organic Synthesis… - I thought I had screwed up this paper. I had left too many questions unanswered on my answer script to my liking. Honestly, I only had myself to blame since I didn’t practise enough for this paper. Concepts were simple, yet it’s one of those modules that will screw you over if one lacked practice. Very good lecturer too and friendly.

Structure of Materials – Bad n00b lecturer, didn’t think he completed the syllabus, little to test about. The exam was a comprehension paper. Most of the people that came out of the exam weren’t sure what they had written down in their scripts. My theory was since everyone didn’t know what they were doing, but I had somewhat of an idea, I’d probably get a B+. Wrong… end result B. I need to re-work that theory.

Thremodynamics – On one hand, I had a lot of background in the things that were covered, nothing too much to learn. On the other hand, a lot of math I had to pick up from scratch. Both balanced out and the end result was a B+. Not forgetting to mention that it was a module to score, or at least the lecturer made it that way. Excellent lecturer too.

I also tried a new revision method this time round. It was a more organized revision, re-writing down the key concepts for each module once again and it seems to be working, or at least it’s helping me improve my grades. I must remember to keep this up, to be responsible for the things I study.

(to be continued…)

part 1 - What I’ve been up to last month

2007-01-01T18:11:00.000+08:00

After the exams were over on the 1st December (5 papers in 4 days mind you), it was the weekend. Weekends are always busy for me, no matter what. I had 1 day of just staying at home doing nothing, then the rest of the week I had to attend either meetings or meet up with Alex, a good friend I haven’t seen in ages, and the cell group. In the midst of doing that, I was preparing my stuff to go back into the army for 5 days reservist training the week after. Over the weekend, one of my leaders dropped a timer on a bomb that was waiting to blow. I’ll explain the bomb in the other part of this 2 part mini-series.

On the second week of December, I lugged what felt like 30-40kg of stuff into a secluded part of Singapore. To cover my back, I won’t go into detail so much what I did back in camp. Basically, I caught up with my old mates during my previous 2.5 year stint, and met some new people who’ve been inserted into the unit. I found out my new vocation too. Luckily for me, during my 5-day in camp training, I didn’t once get too dirty by going out into the field because they had a different programme lined up for me. Overall, I thought it was fun, meeting everyone once again with the exception of this one person I felt bashing his face in for pestering me continuously. I was like “Get the *bleep* away from me!”, but of course that wouldn’t be nice, though I did shove my finger in front of his face on the very first day of the training *blush*. Not my fault, this guy was really just pushing his luck.

After the training ended, I decided to have one day of rest before heading for another camp XP. This youth camp was over the weekend (Friday to Monday) and officially started on the very last day of the army training, but I only went on the second day afternoon. Yes, I was insane and will never ever do it again. I was so tired on Saturday night that I had an early night. Nevertheless, the camp itself was fun and fruitful. I suppose I needed the time away from home and other distractions to just interact with others, which I don’t get to do very often either. Also, I thought more about the bomb that was going to explode >_>. After the camp was over, I spent the day checking through my flooded email and other stuff I regularly checked.

The next day was spent at home resting and recovering from all the activity. On Wednesday, I went to the new location where the Intex distributors were housed for their clearance sale. It was disappointing for the most part but I still picked up a miniature whale, a globe beach ball and another sea lion. I got to see the catalog for next year too… nothing too impressive though. The rest of the week was spent online catching up with chats, especially with those from UK, who are so hard to catch during the normal semester period due to time differences. The chats were very fruitful. Then next thing I knew, it was Christmas.

On Christmas day itself, I woke up late. And I decided not to go for Christmas service too. Reason being parents had invited guests to come over for visitation, so decided to stay back and help parents out with the food, furniture and other small tasks. However, during the actual visitation, I closed myself up inside the room and continued chatting >_> figures…

On Boxing Day, I went out with NCH to go see Eragon, the movie and at the same time send a leopard off to Reinhardt. The movie wasn’t too impressive but it was good to see NCH again. My results were released on Boxing Day too. After that, the initial plans were to go to Batam, Indonesia for a short holiday. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it had been very wet the past few days, and our holiday destination was flooded. So on Wednesday, I went to watch Night and the Museum with Mum. The show was a blast by the way, a highly recommended watch, followed by dinner later on in the evening. On Thursday, I went to see Charlotte’s Web with Dad (Nickelodeon movies will forever suck :P) Friday the 29th was spent at home figuring out my next semester’s modules… Which would leave the weekend again and then 2007 arrives :/

(to be continued…)

Warning: 3 part mini series ahead

2007-01-01T18:03:00.000+08:00

Yeah.. like what the title said.

5th semester exams

2006-11-22T23:42:00.000+08:00

It's Wednesday night here, and it's exam period for me. Starts next monday actually, so that leaves... zomg 5 more days. Eep >_<

But I'm okay, I think... I'm slightly behind studying schedule but I think I'm okay. Never mind... go by faith XP

Lots of buts in the previous statement. Anyhow, I'll still be on MSN, but mostly busy status. And, if I'm happily chatting with you as if I've got no exams, do remind me by giving me that friendly nudge to hit the books. (Actually, I don't have any books. All the notes are in the computer itself XD)

23rd Birthday report

2006-11-06T18:17:00.000+08:00

It's been almost a week since my birthday was over. It was different from other birthdays I've ever had. I was swamped with SMS... you guys depleted my handphone battery in one day, lol. Not really complaning but, I didn't expect it.. Thx XD. Just want to acknowledge those who did wish me a Happy birthday or some other similar greeting.

Dad. May seem trivial, but he is beginning to use utilising technology;
Wesley Chong from CHR;

Benjamin, Farhan, Hongwen from WDL (Blast from the past lol!);
Hanming, Junquan from SAJC (Blast from the... not so past? :P);
Seow Junjie, PQ from army/current NUS;
Sky, Kailing, Aini from NUS SOW 05 Batman;

Sien, Sarah Teo from NUS VCF;

Elena, Nicholas, Suzanne, Esther, Xinyi, Vincent Wang, Wenzheng, Christina who greeted me with the SMS-es and email greeting cards.
Linfeng, Dallas, Elena, Suzanne, Weiting, Thomas, Alvin, Jackson, Royston, Samuel, Guorong and Vincent Teo who came later (in sitting order at the dinner buffet). Thanks for the dinner treat and the sneakers... :D

And last but not least my bro Silverfox. :) Thx for the chat.

I hope I didn't leave anyone out. Thanks all once again.

2nd post for today

2006-10-11T14:10:00.000+08:00

Yeah, to make up for the past 2 months of not blogging. No lah... just totally different topic, apart from boring studies that's all.

So, apart from mugging for reports ever so often, what have I been up to?

A quick line up:
- I took my 2nd non-ICT IPPT (fitness test thingy as I'm still under the country's National service obligations). Failed. Saw Singapore Idol Season 1 runner up Sylvester Sim waiting for RT. :P

- Cell group and church has treated me kindly, although I haven't been exactly returning the favours well.

- MSN chats have died down significantly, and it's not just because I've been busy too. Some friends have gotten new jobs and can't be on the Net too often now. Another has gotten busier lately. The ppl over in UK are still as difficult to reach becasue of timezones. Mundane-ness of life taking over another. NCH is in NS and another has got a bad Net connection and not forgetting to mention he's always itching to play Maple Story whenever he comes online. I ahte to admit it but I'm starting to miss the company on the Net. It was fun before life started to drag us back into it again.

- Toys wise, collection still growing, very slowly but still growing. Still scouting for toys, esp Toys R Us for any updates to their inventory. A couple of nights ago, I suddenly had the urge to fill my bed up with toys again. And so I did, filled up with 5 beach balls of varying sizes, my shark, sealion and big black whale. Madness.

One of my cell group mates asked me this question last Saturday, and now have to wreck my brain to come up with an answer. But I seriously doubt I'll ever find the answer. I live too carefree a life already. Maybe becasue I'm too sheltered in this studying lifestyle, no worries just being in school at the right time, completing assignments and reports. Nothing really to challenge or require me to make a major decision etc. I'm kinda impartial to live this sort of life, other ppl telling me what to do *grinz*. I don't mind it, but it does get a little mundane, after a while, then it would be time to get a little spontaneous and try out something I never tried before, especially toy-wise. Like piccies... ^^

I'm actually at the NUS computer lab typing this out, when I actually brought other things to work on, but lost the mood to do them. XP... Oh well. Oh yes, just now after an impromptu tutorial, I went to the new built Vivo City to have a look see. They opened another Toys R Us outlet there. And I agree that place is huge. But I find something odd. The shops are given one whole big chunk of square space. I'm more used to narrow shops with things lined up at the ends and maybe a middle aisle. But in Vivo City is just open space, the shops have with lots and lots of aisles in the middle as how the owners wants it, or it's just empty space in the middle. They say inside there's space for 300 shops. I dunnoe, looks less than that to me, all I know that the shop space is very big.

Gee... I actually scarificed my sleep to actually go out for a walk, and now am feeling very sleepy as I type this out. Think I'll stop here for now before I start to sound even more incoherent.

And looking forward to you coming over a visit, you know who you are... even though it's just before my exams... :P

Mid 5th semester thoughts

2006-10-11T13:45:00.000+08:00

Oops, suddenly realised how long I never update this already. Partially thanks to my brother, Silverfox :P. He said he'll never update his blog anymore. Oh well *shrugs*

Righty then... as usual I'm taking 5 modules. 3 Chemistry and 2 Material Science modules.

Advance Experts in Analy/ Phy Chemistry - A module by itself and in a nutshell, up to 8 possible hours in the laborotary just on a Monday.... literally 9-5. I know for somw people, thye would consider this module I'm doing as madness. But seriously, I don't mind doing this forever (like as a job in the future sort of thingy). The good thing is that that typically I would leave around 2pm latest, unless I screwed experiment was screwed up. The downside: I'm really not too fond of these 2 areas of chemistry... requires a different sort of BS-ing in the report writing. Also, this module has a final exam, nobody knows what stuff they'll test on. It's open book though, but nevertheless, the examiners can really test us on anything. Awesome~

Organometallics - Chemistry module with a lecturer from Hong Kong. He can make the most corniest of jokes. Stephen Chow (HK comedian) must have rubbed off him lots. It's relatively all right. Lots of reactions to remember for an inorganic chemistry module, but nevertheless still an inorganic module (read: module to practise BS-ing) :P

Organic Synthesis and Spectroscopy - Probably the only pure Chemistry module has focus on a favourite topic of mine in one part of the module - polymers. ^^ I've always wanted to study more about the stuff my toys are made of, and am happy to learn whatever that's being taught. Downside: the other part of the modules that just the same old stuff coming back to haunt me... enolate chemistry, a little bit of mechanisms, oxidation, reduction, NMR spectro etc

Introduction to Structure of Materials - Material Science module. This module is .......... I really don't know how to describe this module. The lecturer is just plain bad. Half the time, the students taking this module have no idea what in the world is going on. Nothing else much to say for this module, am doing it because it's a compulsory requirement for my minor. Just gotten my test back, and apparently, he marked it quite leniently. Got a 70/100. Average was a 79.something. So this module is one of those that hangs in the balance. *shrugs*

Thermodynamics and Phase Diagrams - the other Mat Sci module. Why wasn't this module offered before I took any of the physical chemistry modules? Argh!~ It makes learning physical chemistry so much more easier if the department actually took on his approach. Anyway, for me, this module is more like revision as I already know most of the concepts taught in this module. Just that I have to learn a bit more math to tackle the problem, no biggie on that. I catch up quick.... I think.

New beginnings

2006-08-15T22:03:00.000+08:00

It's almost 10pm while I type this. And I've finished the first day of the new semester in the university. I'm currently doing my third year btw. Today's relatively okay, 4 hours of back to back Chemistry lectures, 2 hours each. And I must say, going back again to study after 3 months is quite tiring. Yeah, I'm a tired and sleepy dragon. I miss those afternoon naps... >_>

My room has been cleared a bit. I still haven't touched my toys. the mess from the cupboard has been cleared and placed back in the same cupboard, but I did throw out some things though. Last semester stuff has also been cleared a bit. I'm going to try to clear more before this week is over.

Oh yeah, I forgot... sleeeeeeeppp.

Messy thoughts

2006-08-08T22:21:00.000+08:00

I was never good at writing titles. A lot of times I find them a hassle to fill in.

Anyhow, on with my post. I think many of you can tell I'm a procrastinator especially with my blog. Let's see... updates.

My entire house has been repainted, not one part of the house is single coloured now. My room has 3 colours - light green, white with a slight hint of blue and yellow (What?! yellow for a guy's room?! *shrugs*) Oh well... looks nice :) It was blue previously by the way. Along with the renovations, I've decided to do a little spring cleaning too. And now, with my procrastination, my room is cluttered with stuff from the spring cleaning. I'm still deciding on what stuff to throw out, what to keep plus the cluttter I've accumulated since the past year in the university. Bottom line, lots of stuff makes for a very messy room.

Another good that has come out from this renovation is that Dad decided to clear out some stuff he thinks he doesn't need anymore. What this means to me is that I've now doubled the storage space for my toys ^^. He gave me the cupboard beside mine to store more stuff. I needed this space badly becuase my original cupboard was already full.

Another thing would be I officially have my very own alternate character. Mostly for role-play, fun stuffs. My brother over in Miri, Malaysia help me create it. Anyway, I'm a dragon, vinyl and inflatable too. I have got 5 different interchangable forms too. First is a pure white dragon with wings, second is an earth form complete with spikes, third is a water form with fins and gills, fourth is a fire form with kickass tatoos and the last is a poison form complete with detachable claws. Props to my bro for coming up with the designs because I actually didn't give him anything to work on, it was fully his own inspiration. I can't say that I've got a favourite, the fire and poison forms are so bad-ass *grinz*, I've got a bias towards the earth form, but the original and water forms is what I'll use the most often I think since they look so cute :D.

Oh, after 1 month, after the finale event, I left the temp job. Surpringly, I didn't know how much media attention it garnered. Oh well, so much for experience. 'nuff said.

Lastly, school's gonna start in a week. It sucks. After 3 months of slacking off, here I am thinking I have to go back to school again. Basically, I'm not prepared, meh. Want to get rid of as much clutter as possible, sorta like starting afresh again. Maybe tomorrow... hmm... Memories, studies, and toys, all packed away. I'll be happy to see a relatively empty room again. :)

Well, that all for now. Until the next time... *squeak* (byeeee)

Thoughts and a blatant Christian plug

2006-07-07T17:54:00.000+08:00

1 Corinthians 13:1-2

“If I speak in the tongues of men… but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I… can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge… but have not love, I am nothing.”

The following are thoughts about stuff after having several conversations I have had with my Net friends. You know who you are. The above verse was taken from the Bible and it will encompass most of the entry.

First of all, I want to say that with love and knowledge, there must be action that succeeds it. There is no point in having lots of head knowledge, but nothing is still done about it. It may be tough trying to follow the right path, but I want to encourage you that it will all be worth it at the end of the struggle.

Secondly, I think by having knowledge, one also needs to act responsibly. I suppose after coming out from the army, I’ve learnt several things in regards to information. There are various security levels across the board on who is able to access different types of information. And even so, not one single person will even see all the information there is out there. I think one of the reasons, even though it might not be the primary one, is to protect others from having otherwise passed useless information. I admit that I personally am a curious person and like to be in the know about things around me and my friends. But, I choose what sort of information comes out from me, mostly it’s because I’ve been entrusted in keeping it private, or maybe because, the other party asking doesn’t really need to know. It wouldn’t make a difference if I told the person or not. But, then again, much evaluation must go into whether or not, the person would be at a disadvantage when he is not told of certain things. I think (and I do hope that I did) that everything I say, or not say, would have a reason behind it. Also, I want to request if there was something I do not want to say, that there was a reason behind it, and trust me enough for not revealing that info to the person that asks it.

This brings me onto the next point. Another recent conversation I had with yet another friend was about openly revealing a secret that I thought I would be able to keep from him until such a time I would be able to surprise him. At the end of the conversation, I typed something that went like “in this time and age where we spend so much time of our lives on the computer (information age), a tangible gift becomes ever more so precious”. I have had the privilege of being on the receiving end when gifts were sent to me. It touched me deeply. I wished I could express the elation much better, but my vocabulary fails me. I think what makes an ultimate gift is this: Given not because of merit, not because the person deserved it, it’s all about giving just because. Or if there’s a slightest reason it’s because of a simple reason as “You are my friend”. Then, after all of that, when the gift arrives into the recipient’s hands, with no expectation at all the gift was being sent, that, makes it so much more satisfying.
While I laid on my bed after the conversation ended, I was somehow reminded that this was exactly what Jesus did by dying on the cross for us. He died simply because He loved us so much, not because we deserved it, but it was His gift to us. That thought put a smile on my face and I drifted off to sleep not long after.

Well, I hope you did enjoy the read. Comments are appreciated. And umm, I will be away for a while, as soon as you are reading this, will only be back a few days later. Therefore, I won’t be able to access the Net for the next few days. So I hope you guys take care while I’m away.

Long awaited update

2006-06-14T08:17:00.000+08:00

Lol... I just love the irony, I just decided to update my blogspot blog, I remembered my password but I forgot my user ID. I'm also updating from the office and not at home, since my home computer remembered both entries... *shrugs* XD. Anyway, here goes.

First, a summary of my previous semester. I managed to survive it, but only with the help of God. One of the most hectic periods of time ever (explanations can be found in my previous post). It's actually amazing I managed to not go crazy. Schedules were so hectic. As for the results, I got 2 Bs and 2 B-s out of it, and I did another module but I only had to pass it, which I did.

Church: Cell group wise, an initiative has been started where some of us start to get know each other better, since our cell group is huge. And I think I've been inducted to this small group which I know as the impromptu going out group.
I've also become even more busier now. Strange I didn't mention this earlier but I've been partially inducted into the sound ministry. As such, I'm somewhat part of the sound core. I'm heading a team of 3, all of which are in the core group itself. *rolls eyes* not that that is a bad thing either. Anyway, I'm can never be too particular about such matters anyway.

Work (?!!): Yeah, you might be thinking why I'm working when I'm still a student. Well, basically, Mum wanted me to get out of the house during the school holidays. This job that I'm at, only reason why I'm carrying on is because my boss (Esther) is nice. Otherwise, there isn't any other incentive. I'm only getting $25 a day for a 9-5 job. The pay's disgusting. My sub-boss, who I get my tasks come from, let's just say she doesn't know how to work my character sort of people (For those that did DISC, she's an I, and I'm a C... battle's brewing) okay, enough of bitching about her. :P
Anyway, about this job I'm taking. This company I'm working for, is this non-profit organization that was set up to deal with bullying among children and youth, and has organised this upcoming international conference to talk about such issues and how to solve them.
Where to do I fit into all this you might ask. When I first started off, I was compiling this survey from school (read: data entry). Each survey alone had like 50+ different type of entries to be keyed into the system. (initial software sux btw, reverted back to excel after compiling the info xD) It was kinda fun because there were certain sections which they had some free response. A lot of answers were amusing because either they didn't make sense like not answering the question, they were errors in some words and had to try to figure out what they were trying to mean, or some of those well thought out answers that you never thought would come out from these kids.
Right now, I'm in charge of the registration and payment for the conference. This admin thing has to be updated once in a while so there's never a dull moment too.

More importantly, it feels like school hasn't ended for me. Here I am, again feeling I have to be on my toes everytime, and I can't let down my guard ever. My chats with my dear (I really mean it) friends online are still suffering. There are times I wish to just be in front of the computer chatting the whole day again XD. Also, there's lots of stuff I planned to do during the holidays, that hasn't been touched yet. I'm sleep deprived *rolls eyes*... then again, I'm always sleep deprived XP. Right now, I can't wait for the conference to end on Tuesday, then it's goodbye b*tches and bullsh*t (read: I never really believed in the aim the company was working towards anyway) At least I have an idea what sort of working environment I do NOT want to have in the future.

Part 2 in the works. I think there's more to write on.... Have to think about it, I'm sure there more to pen down. okay okay, type down, you happy now?

NB to readers: (*rant alert* - BEST LEFT IGNORED)

PS. Jaslin, you want to borrow my Mum's "da chang jin", well you can go and !@#$%^&*() (best left censored), you wait long long before I lend you ar for treating me like I'm some kind of slave to you at work. Hypocrite and Two-faced ... Poooooi. Good riddance to you when the conference end. :P

Stressed... Trapped

2006-03-16T19:38:00.000+08:00

Yeah yeah I know it’s been 2 months since I last updated this blog of mine… so sue me already. Lol

Let’s see, since the last time I last updated, the semester is now in full swing with me and my studies. In the first part of my semester, I thought I did okay. Maybe a bit of screwups here and there, but nothing major. Luck’s somewhat improved too, I think… I managed to change that tutorial I was talking about previously to a better time slot. :)

Regarding Japanese, I’ve haven’t missed a test once before and I don’t think that’ll be a problem as long as I keep waking up at the correct time, so no problem there. There are these little quizzes that come ever so often during the Jap tutorials, which I don’t put much effort in. My grades there are like so-so, I have yet to fail one though… me thinks… but then again I’m not doing exceptionally well on them either. I think I did okay on my mid-term exam too. So that’s Jap for you.

Here’s the down side: it’s because I’ve been focusing so much time on my Jap, I’ve more or less entirely neglected my core modules, namely Chemistry, which sucks in itself because I’m supposed to be a Chem major for crying out loud.

CM2132 - Physical Chemistry status: Bad overall, tests are bad, barely making it through tests, failed miserably for my mid-term test. I haven’t got a clue how to apply stuff.
CM2142 – Analytical Chemistry status: Clueless… in both ways, I’ve skipped 3 of her lectures already, not too sure what’s going on in class now. The major mid semester test is coming up fast and I’ve haven’t studied for it yet. The tutorials are entirely based from what I know and learnt from previous lessons. Another thing is that I think this module is meant to be a scoring module, but I’m just not motivated to do anything about it.
CM2111 - Inorganic Chemistry status: I got 32/35 for my first test. As for the second test, I would literally describe it as “crash and burn”. And I’m not just talking about just failing by a few marks either. And guess what, I just got an email from my prof to go for a tutorial on Saturday because he singled me out as one of the failures of the test.

The final module is called Making Sense of Society. Don’t get me started on describing it. All I wanna say is that it’s a bitch and I’m glad that I declared that I did not want to it to be graded.

Yeah, just by looking at the above description, I’m really not doing well this semester. After receiving the email from my prof, I finally think I really wanna do something about it. But… it’s tough. How tough you might ask, because after all it’s relative.
At this point in time, I basically declare myself to have no life. Previously, I used to have lots of time chatting with you guys that are probably reading this right now. But, my modules this semester have snatched that away from me completely. All I get now is probably no more than 30 mins of online time. I really like spending time talking to everyone of you guys lots and this shortened amount of time doesn’t cut it. Another thing is energy, there are times I try to stay on just a bit longer just to chat with some ppl, and I suffer physically for it. Nowadays, I don’t stay on MSN for more than 15 mins because I’m just dead tired to do so. Sometimes, I doze off during lectures too. I feel I need more sleep, and for that, another reason why I cut back on chatting time.
Now, the consequence. I’m beginning to feel apathetic about everything around me. Here I am in this vicious cycle of waking up, go school, come back from school, do homework and sleep almost every day. There’s no more room for caring for those I care for anymore. I read about their life on LJ and I feel compelled to be there for them. But then again, I don’t have the luxury of having time to do so anymore. It’s really drudgery to continue on like this. I can’t even describe how badly I want to break out of this cycle and do the things I enjoy doing like chatting. Right now, I feel like a robot doing the same old same old. I want to be there for people again.

Is this a plea for help? I dunnoe. I’m just feeling so alone now. It’s bad, I don’t even find any enjoyment in hugging my toys now too… :(

New year, new semester

2006-01-12T14:35:00.000+08:00

Wow, what can I say... it's exactly as I feared when I mentioned that I wouldn't have a proper break during the holidays.

Let's see, where shall we begin?
Timetable's a mess because I didn't plan it properly. First off, I bidded for Japanese 1, a basic course in Japanese. Little did I realise that it would require 7 hours of lessons per week (2-2-2-1). Yay for me! In another words, as a Science student, I have to squeeze my tutorials in between some odd timing. (FYI, I have a 7 hour straight laboratory class every week too) And guess what, my lecturer told everyone of us that the first 10 mins of each 2-hour tutorial would be a test, so if I'm late, no marks for me. Bad for me too because I have a feeling I have to put one of the timeslots during a 8-10am slot. Puh...
Second, did I mention before that I wasn't prepared to start off this new semester? Anyway, yeah, so I didn't really bother to pay attention to what my lecturer had to say. Analytical Chemistry, a core module I have to take. On Monday, she told every one of us that tutorial bidding would begin on the next day. And, yes, I didn't pay attention to that. I just went to register for it on Thursday, and there was only 1 slot that was available for me... the down side to that class is that I'll have to wait for 6 hours for the next lesson...

What else? Mechanical pencil has completely broke (embarrassing myself trying to fix it next to this girl beside who is like wondering at all the funny actions I'm trying to do), I lost my concession public transport pass, umm... failed my first test of the semester, and there's no sign of the rain ever letting up. Starting to feel distant from my online friends (all except Reinhardt and Silverfox5213). A loved one was just admitted to hospital on Tuesday for observation too.

But... NOOOOOOOOooooo!!!! I'm not trying letting all of these get me down. No way nuh-uh, NEV-AH :p (*turns around* You better stay the hell away from me you... you bad luck invisible-thingy you)
Yeah, my positivity isn't going to last very long if this keeps up. This isn't the first time that when bad things (empahasises on the plural) happen, they rush in like they assume I'm immune to it or something. Right now, I'm super 'sian' (think taking a bit of disappointment, boredom and depression of each and putting them together). I'm so tempted to 'sa jiao' (think whining in a bitching sort of way) but I won't... must keep sane >_>.

Well, ending on a good note,
1) a tiger (3rd one now) has arrived and NCH asked me to keep it. :D
2) an 1985 classic Intex orca was given to me by my M'sian other online brother Fox (same fella I mentioned above)... thank you so much once again *glomps*. Can't thank you enough really. :DD
3) A Merek dragon has arrived in Singapore and is now in his possession. :DDD

Well, hmm.. yeah... *smugs*

Feelings now

2006-01-03T18:09:00.000+08:00

For starters, it's been quite a relief that December 2005 is over given the hectic schedule that I posted 2 entries before. So... more time to blog, Yay! :P

Secondly, as I write this, I have somewhat officially left TDF. I would like to think that a lot of people was concerned for me when I left that place. But I won't post the reasons here why I left TDF though since I do know that some people reading this do come from TDF themselves. Nevertheless, I do still keep in contact with most of them via MSN/Yahoo Messenger.

Thirdly, as for making more friends in terms of church/cell group wise, I suppose December 2005 was quite helpful for me. There were 3 major events: Tanglin Halt Camp, Youth Camp and Christmas service. In regards to the Tanglin Halt camp and the youth camp, I decided to come out of my shell I've been hiding in for 5 years and mingle around with other people from church. I got to know more people and also felt like I've been an encouragement to those that attended those 2 camps. From the Youth Camp, I suppose my relationship with God has been taken to another level. The camp in particular help me learn to take risks, especially in terms of prayer. As for the Christmas service, I was put in publicity and worked with Guorong and Xinyi from M'kk closely. I guess through the experience, I had gotten to know 2 more ppl from my cell group better.
But, more importantly, I guess these 3 events helped me change my whole perspective about my role as a Christian in the body of Christ. That indeed I too can play as big a role as I when I was back in TDF, it was just a matter of making that choice. Hmm... as for the previous issue of finding security in a non-Christian environment or otherwise, I don't think I've resolved that yet. The whole spontaneity issue come to play again. Right now, there's no preference who I'd rather be with. I welcome every friend with open arms.

Next up is something I want to get off my chest. Last month marked the 1 year anniversary since NCH and I got to know each other. We've done some stuff together, mostly related to our common hobby of collecting inflatables. And when he was about to enlist, I was simply just being there for him to give him support and stuff. Then this SMS came in on my handphone 26 Dec 2005 23:52:13
"Smyle, I just really want to tell you that you are my only closest friend to know...(cut short)" Honestly, I was stunned speechless after I received that. Personally, I didn't feel like I had done a lot for him. I guess after this, I've realized the power of friendship once again. One that I lost my belief in when I was much younger.

Lastly, I caught Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. I really enjoyed the show. But there's one character in the movie I want to point out - Susan. As the story develops, Susan's character is shown to be one that is not a risk taker, instead she pretty much relies on circumstances and consequences around her that affects her decision. Although that may not necessarily be a bad thing altogether, it impairs her totally when called forth to make a major decision. My eyes were affixed on her character, simply because I see so much of myself in her. And I think I'd do exactly the same things as her just because there's too much risks in front of me, to the point of discouraging someone who wants to press on further (cf Peter). I'd be safe in making that decision, but I'd miss out on an adventure of a lifetime.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it'd be better for me to work in a group. I guess sometimes, I will need that someone who will encourage me to continue in whatever that I'm doing, especially when it seems like the road ahead of me is unknown or filled with obstacles.
Strangely enough, this isn't the first time I've asked myself this question. I started it ever since I started watching Digimon Adventure (Season 1). Yamato (or Matt... >_>) had the same character/problems, while Taichi (Tai) was the one who had courage to press on despite the bleak road in front of him.

Wow... long post huh? Thanks for reading whoever you are. Yeah... these are some of my thoughts now.

Feelings then (back on 6/10/2005)... bit messy

2006-01-03T12:32:00.000+08:00

*sigh* I can't believe I started thinking on those heart issues again. As a C person I'm not supposed to think so much. I should have put a sock in it when I started to talk to Grace about CG and stuff. It had me think about what I treasure and where my priorities are. Then, she went on and asked the ultimate question: How's my spiritual walk?

That's it man... think think think.

This is what I came up with:
I didn't realise how much inflatables really took up in my life and not so much God. I mean previously, I was constantly walking into walls as I tried to explain to others about my hobby. But, during the end of JC, I finally made up my mind to start to open up to the Yahoo groups. And look where it led me: TDF(Toy Dragon Forum) and the ppl in there. Everyday after school, I would get back home and go on MSN, guess what, the only ppl that talked to me everyday are the TDF-ers. At least one will strike up a chat without fail.

Maybe, it's the availability of MSN and the Internet that somehow have made me have easy access to my inflatable friends. And since my Christian friends have me on MSN too and they don't initiate conversations, I don't seem to bother too. Christian friends! By right, I should be talking with them more often, after all it's supposed to be more healthy! *shrugs* Oh well, I can't really blame them though, the M'kk ppl don't use MSN often. Yeah... messed up.

It's kinda weird too, but grateful. All this time, God has been looking out for me, showing me stuff and revealing more of Himself to me. So in a sense, I don't think I feel my walk with God has been compromised. The basics are still there, I still love Him (I really do, *wants to give Him hugs at times ^^*), I try not to sin and let him down, and he's been speaking to me and stuff, but I do sense He wants more from me. Ironically, he has given me so much motivation to press in further, but I'm not grabbing it. I think it's just me. What's wrong with me?! I've got a good thing going for me and I'm just not grabbing it.

During my conversation with Grace, I finally realised why I was so hesistant about committing to CG. I didn't feel committed because there was no genuine concern. I mean, reflecting from what I said above, it's true that each time I came home, there was always somebody to talk to. I gave a bit, and got back a lot in return, both tangible and intangible. There's the same sense of reciprocation there from that time I went to join Science Orientation Week. Interaction. Heh... it's funny. Heck, I don't even know whether these guys are genuine since I have yet to meet them in real life. Ironically, I'm willing to give up my time and energy for them.

I told Grace that I was only started to open to my own cell group M'kkadesh about my life, and adding one more CG is a lot to handle. Before that, my whole 17 years as a Christian, I wasn't really thinking about it that much about having to be accountable to others. In fact, I would say all these while, I haven't found anybody to be accountable to Christian wise. And guess what, here I am being accountable to this forum, most of them non-Christians. Messed up? I don't know.

After thinking about it, I realised another thing about myself. When I meet a new group of ppl, I try to open up. If I feel ignored, I don't think about it too much and just 'go on with my life', and play by ear for the rest of my time I will know them for. It just ends there. I don't bother to actually ask people how they're doing, or show care to be more exact, anymore. The TDF-ers have really given me a reason to be online every single time I'm free, even a simple hi will do since I know they're busy, yet still fully aware that I'll have a good conversation with them in the near future.

Perhaps on a more selfish note, I really think I need to be pushed along in a friend manner. After more reflection, I realized that I've been doing it all along, even through the way I lead. Yes, they are many occasions where I don't get back anything in return, but it's ok, at least I've tried. Again back to the TDF-ers, it's probably because of them that have caused my knowledge and amount of inflatables to keep growing, and also because I see them at every available chance I get. Perhaps, if my Christian peers could have given me something similar, the constant push and prodding, just maybe I would learn to look forward to knowing God even more.

Ultimately, I think it's messed up that I started off being close to what others brand as 'wrong people' since not all of them are Christians to begin with. I really do not want to impose on anyone. I know I didn't impose anything on the TDF-ers, but they just gave me back so much. That is what makes me think their care and concern is genuine. I feel a sense of belonging there compared to any Christian community I've come across.

I also figured, I guess that too is probably an excuse why I haven't been leading anyone to Christ. Time and again, I've heard stories of ppl leaving church because they don't feel belonged. I don't want the new Christian to be left like a fish out of water and nobody to guide them CONSTANTLY, and I don't want to be the only person doing it either.

Busy.... x_x

2005-12-15T21:10:00.000+08:00

Yeah, you heard me right. I'm busy... and to think 1) I'm having my holidays, 2)I'm not even holding a part time job.

Here's brief rundown to explain what happened/happening this month of December which definitely will put my blogging on hold.

30/11: exams end;
30/11-2/12: Tanglin Halt camp as a volunteer (yes, immediately after my paper);
3: Sound ministry retreat at my place;
4: Sunday church;
5: Sent parents and a friend off to the airport, then discussed Xmas trailer;
6: NCH's POP; 7: Day of rest; 8: NCH brings tiger over to be repaired, more meeetings for the Xmas trailer;
9: Dallas house warming; 10: Tiger repair continues, sound setup for following day's service;
11: Confirmation service, packing up sound equipment for move over to SAV;
12: 2nd Day of rest; 13-15: Filming and editing of Xmas trailer;

16-19: Youth camp; 20-22: Xmas newsletter brainstorming, printing;
23: Helping my mum's friend out with stocktaking as a favour for my mum;
24: Collection of print materials, tying of ribbon etc, Xmas prep; 25: Xmas;
26: Another day break? I hope; 27-30: Desaru holiday; 31: New Year's Eve, keeping fingers crossed I won't get called out.

Then the next year starts... there you have it... my entire December holiday is burnt and the things I wanted to finish up, i'll never have the chance to even touch them... *sigh*... oh well. *screams out loud to relieve stress* @_X

Entry on well... look at the date below

2005-11-07T09:55:00.000+08:00

Haha, with the help of a friend, I finally don't need to keep changing the time and date each time I want to post a comment. Yes, to some of you bloggers that read this I'm a bit slow can? Besides, I don't blog often too... So, that means I ned to come up with a new title each time I want to post something... hmm...

Anyway, it's exam month for me. So the 2 things that I want to blog down might take quite some time. It's actually on a draft format now, but firstly, it's incomplete and secondly, it's very disorganised. Therefore, it's not made public just as yet.

Until the next time.

Entry on 19/10

2005-10-20T14:54:00.000+08:00

Ok, so I haven't been posting much lately... But really, I've actually been thinking through some stuff lately, it's just that I haven't got time lately, either that or I just got caught up with other stuff. How typical right?

Anyway, like I said, I actually have been thinking about stuff, and I need time to blog a full entry. 2 actually, the first one's about learning more about myself and how I tick >_<. the second one is about my Net friends. Well, till I find time then, I promise that I'll be alright unless something bad affects my physical body >_>

Entry on 6/10

2005-10-07T11:32:00.000+08:00

Funny, I only took noticed of the song lyrics recently...

"Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It’s hard to say
It’s time to say it
Goodbye, Goodbye
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say
It’s time to say it
Goodbye, Goodbye"

from Nickelback - Photograph.

How apt. I guess this will be the last evening chatting with NCH for a long while after he enlists. Take care, brother.

Entry on 30/9

2005-10-01T14:41:00.000+08:00

*sigh*

Following up onto what I posted on 8/9, it seems that these secrets have come back to haunt me. Due to many unforseen circumstances, I think I might have made someone very unhappy about one of these secrets. He expressed his disappointment in me after he found out about it... about that I didn't trust enough to tell him about him. Nevertheless, I don't intend to make up for it due to various reasons too. I know this may sound a little sketchy and vague, but I rather not list them down here.

Anyway, that aside, all my major tests are all over, so I can sleep more peacefully and probably get a little more sleep. So, that's a relief. On the other hand, what a way to end the day too. *sulks*

Oh well...

Entry on 22/9

2005-09-23T14:06:00.000+08:00

Heh, the mid-semester break is almost over and guess what?! I didn't touch my studies at all. No motivation... *sigh*

That aside, I received another gift again on Tuesday. ^^ 1 life size tiger, well almost life size. I'm sure the real thing looks bigger. Personally, I think the tiger is a little too big for me. I'm 5' 7" 124 lbs for the non-metric users that read my blog. Yeah, so big tiger, small me. But, it's true the fella makes a good couch.
The tiger was actually one of my distractions why I didn't touch my books. ><

Also, renovations on my house have begun. They drilled up the whole balcony floor, and both the bathrooms' tiles. Not all of the bathroom tiles are gone though. So they're going to continue tomorrow. The noise was deafening. Had to dig out my army earplugs to stuff them into my ears. @_X. Also, the house is kinda dusty. Thus, the tiger and the zebra are currently deflated for the moemnt until the whole renovation process is over.

Oh, before I go. Thank you again Talapis and Max for the tigers. *tackle glomps both of them to the ground* XD

Entry on 16/9

2005-09-17T08:37:00.000+08:00

Finally, it's the semester break for NUS. But, it's only for 4 days. Weird huh? Anyway, basically I don't need to go to school for 4 days. That in itself is a consolation for me. But, for those of you that regularly chat with me via MSN, don't expect to see a lot of me. I need this time to catch up on my studies badly.

Just a brief overview of the stuff I'm studying:

Principles of Spectroscopy (Module related to my Major):
The THEORY behind various spectroscopies on a molecular level. It is very much detailed, but so far it's manageable... I think. The problem I have with this is whether I'll be able to solve a numerical related question when it's thrown at me.
Probable solution: Need more numerical problems to practise on.

Spectroscopic Applications (Another module related to my major and yes you're not reading it double... I've got 2 modules just on Spectroscopy):
The APPLICATIONS of the various spectroscopy. It's much easier to understand as compared to the earlier module. But, this module requires more memory work. Also, the downside to this module is its 8am-10am lectures.
Probable solution: Sleep earlier on nights before I have these lectures. Also, spend more time on memory work.

Organic Chemistry (Module related to my Major):
Basically, give me any organic (mostly carbon containing or even simpler any naturally occurring molecule), and I'll have to figure out how to form the molecule from ordinary reagents I can find in the laboratory. It was just my folly to slack off the module that was the pre-requisite to do this module. Thus, my foundations to do this module are not there. Therefore, need to spend more time revising my previous basic organic chemistry module to do this one.
Solution: 1)Revise Basic organic chemistry, especially Epoxides and Enolate Chemistry .
2)Practise the method of seeing synthons and their equivalents.

Introductory Materials Science and Engineering (Compulsory module for INTENDED minor):
Emphasised on the word INTENDED. If there is a word to describe this module, it would be WOAH!!! No kidding, this module is just overwhelming. Lots an lots of 3D imagination. Facts after facts are being thrown at you, and you're expected to grasp everything. What's more, nothing's related and it just keeps coming. It's almost like if you can't catch one thing, then that's the end of you... (or at least your understanding of the module). I feel inferior to the rest of the guys doing this module. Also, I'll see whether I want to do the minor, given the grade I get at the end of this sem.
Solution: Read through whatever that has been covered and try doing the problems on my own time.

Terrestial and Coastal Environments (Elective/Breadth):
Physical geography focused on landforms, rocks, tectonic processes, weathering etc. I think it's a relatively light module to handle. No project *gasp*... it's amazing. But, the lecturer seems to be talking a lot of stuff not found in the lecture notes and she keeps saying to read the textbook. One problem: I didn't buy the textbook because I'm not majoring in geography and it's $60. I'm not going to spend that amount of money just for your one module. >_< My other worry is that her final exam will come out some stuff not covered in the lectures.
Solution: Pray! XD

Well, some rundown huh? Well, happy reading. Will blog another time.

Entry on 10/9

2005-09-11T11:05:00.000+08:00

Saturday morning, I woke up and chat a little. Today's Pokemon episode saw a double evolution, a Loudred and Ash's Treecko. >_< Anyway, after geting off the chat, I took a little nap. It was around 12.30pm and I had the full intention of going down to cell afterwards. After a while, I woke up to check the time. It was already 3.25pm. GREAT! I'm late... Lazily, I flopped on my parents bed. And I dozed off AGAIN! Next thing I knew, it was 5.30pm. Man, I felt tired, but I didn't realise I was that sleep-deprived. Guess I caught up with all those hours of lost sleep just now. Oh well... time to do other stuff.

Entry on 8/9

2005-09-09T03:40:00.000+08:00

Anyway, so I'm here in the Science Library hammering this entry out. Man, I'm quite tired from last night's chat. But anyhow, here's my rant.

There are so many things in my life that have new developments, and it's sort of draining to keep up with everyone one of them. One in particular is from the inflatable community on my MSN list. Don't get me wrong they are nice people. But there's this thing that's been bugging me lots. I just feel that there are so many secrets I've had to keep from various people. It's hard to juggle who's who and who not to tell and stuff. I wish I could confide in someone about all these secrets (Fox, you mind? lol). It's just amazing regarding the recent developments, but unfortunately, they can't all be shared openly because I've been sworn to secrecy.
What triggered this off was last night during a chat. A local guy suddenly IM-ed me about 2 tigers being sent to Singapore. I was totally caught off guard and didn't know how to reply. I was so afraid of spilling the beans. What I'm more afraid of, is that once it's spilt, it might lead on to revealing even more stuff. Then I'll make a lot of people unhappy.

Oh well, yeah... just a rant. Right now, I'm a bit fuzzy in my mind due to the lack of sleep, but I had a great time chatting with another friend. It sort of gave me time to rest and reflect about being swarmed by new developments, even if it was for that short moment.

(Hmm, I wonder which lecture I'll fall asleep in later? lol)

Entry on 5/9

2005-09-05T13:38:00.000+08:00

Finally, the hectic week is over.

27/8: NCH dropped the unexpected gift on me... and later had to rush off to the dinner and Dance.

28/8: Had to do sound duty, so I had to wake up real early. I didn't join my friends for lunch, because I was too tired. It was one of my only 2 days of not having late night programs.

29/8: After 8am-6pm lessons @_X, I went to celebrate somebody's 21st birthday at a karaoke bar of sorts. Had fun but I left early too.

30/8: The day started of with a tutorial in which I never did... then followed by a lab session with a super strict lab instructor. (Prof Harrison) Someone didn't dress properly and the nagging went on and on. Later on, I wished 2 other people happy birthdays, Kiyo and Vincent via msn.

1/9: After the 8-10am lesson, I met up with NCH at Harbourfront to go for the photoshoot of the sealions. He didn't like it there, it was too dirty he complained and had a lot of insects. Later had CG back in school.

2/9: Another 8am-6pm lesson day. (@_X take 2). The day didn't end there, I had to give tuition to a Secondary 3 boy... A Maths.

3/9: Lessons from 10am-2pm, After that I hung around in school bumming around mostly. I was waiting for time to pass and later headed down to cell group with Amber. I had a good chat with her about what it means to sacrifice on the way there. SO another long day.

4/9: Weekend right? nothing to do... Wrong. Woke up in the morning, had a good chat with the msn folks. Later I took a short nap and started on my lab report. It took me all the way until the time I had to go off for this college reunion dinner. Again, I didn't come back till late.

5/9: Grand finale. I left house early to buy a cake for Jianxiong. Then headed down to church for service. Celebrated his birthday after that. Stayed back later to pray for an upcoming event. If that's not enough, after that, I went to join my fellow SOW seniors at NYDC Wheelock for dinner. There were only 7 of us there. After dinner, I again decided to leave early to do my report. But, in the end I didn't finish it until Monday.

Yeah... rough week. Oh well, at least it's finally over.

Entry on 28/8

2005-08-29T13:26:00.000+08:00

27/8: ok, so I'm overdue on this post but anyhow.

Saturday morning, I woke up, and got on MSN chat (again.....). I was chatting away with Max and Deko, when all of a sudden, the doorbell was ringing like crazy. "What's going on? Why so urgent I thought to myself?" Anyway, Mum was in front of me as both of us walked towards the door. The door opened and there was someone from Singapore Post, and he was holding a parcel in his hand. My eyes fell on a piece of paper I've seen somewhere before. First thing that came to my mind was "*a certain name*!!!". I was too shocked to even sign for the package, and my Mum had to do it. "He did it again?" I thought to myself. The first thing I did was to pull out the invoice slip from the side of the box to check what was inside the box. "1 Life size Zebra New style" Then, I started to tear a little. It was definitely a surprise. I wasn't expecting anything like this at all.
Then I saw something a little different. There was something on the receipt that wasn't there before the last time. I thought to myself, "I thought I told NCH specifically not to tell *a certain name* I really loved the zebra". So I gave NCH a call, who apparently hadn't woken up yet. So... he picked up the phone, and he told to me to wait, and he hung up! Oh well, I just waited at the computer to see if he shows up. Then he drops the bomb on me. The zebra was HIS present to me!!! I was stunned speechless.
It was definitely hard to swallow. Besides the fact that the present would have cost him a lot, I've never experienced such generousity before. I'm not a person that accepts free gifts too... it's just not... me. (Some reasoning huh?) But, somehow, I think God lately has been teaching me to learn how to accept things. As I continued to chat with NCH, I accepted his gift to me with joyful tears. I was really touched.

Thank you again, NCH. It is really generous of you. *hugs*

-------------

Later on in the evening, I went for Science D&D 2005. By then, I very much calmed down from the shock. Anyway, there were 13 of us from Batman OG who turned up. Yuhan was the only one that came dressed up in our OG. So we ate, and watched vids from the previous FOP that passed. Good memories... To me, this was sort of a closure to all the fun things that happened the past few weeks or so.

Entry on 21/8

2005-08-22T11:55:00.000+08:00

Ok ok... I know it has been 1 week since I last posted, but I've been really busy.

Week 3 of my semester in a certain university doing a certain course (you're not getting anything out of me you stalkers!!!), is going to start tomorrow. It sort of sucks because I've been really busy. I've haven't got time to chat with my MSN chat aka my fellow inflatable collectors (esp. Max) the way that I've used to during my semester break.

My schedule is kinda screwed up too. For 3 of the days, lessons start at 8am @_X (sorry to steal this from you Kiyo). What's even worse is that I've got at least 3 days in which I don't get home till 9pm +. This leaves me with very little time to msn, lest time studying. Why the late nights? It's because 1 of the days is due to giving tuition, and the other 2 due to extra curricular activities after school hours.

Oh yes, on Friday, I took this DISC personality test. For those that know about it or have taken it, I'm a C!!! with a bit of S, and I thrown in for good measure. I heard about the description of a C and it totally describes me perfectly. Finally, I understand more about myself and the reason why the way I do the things I do.

Part 4

2005-08-15T08:31:00.000+08:00

Ok ok, so I don't have time to really finish it off at one go, sue me.

Anyway, as we were walking towards the toilet I knew off at the other beach, we happened to pass by one temporary toilet. I opened the door and guess what? It was empty. The toilet had 6 cubicles with showering facilities. We figured no one would turn up in the toilet until the rain stopped, so we decided to have a takeover. Muahahahaha. >_<. At least the toilet didn't smell as bad, so we could wait it out in the toilet and wait for the 'storm' to subside.

Whilst in the toilet, I hung up my wet stuff to dry in front of the fan - my towel, trunks, shirt, shorts (from getting wet in the rain). Also, I took the opportunity to hang my whales to dry and let all the excess water drain off. NCH also did the same. Also, we had a shower and got into our spare chnage of clothes.

....................................

For the life of me, I can't remember what I talked to NCH about during our 2+ hours in the toilet. It was just him and me only, trying to come up with anything to talk about to keep ourselves occupied, with once in a while checking on our stuff. One thing for sure was that we were much better off staying in the sheltered toilet than to be left outside to the mercy of the elements.
The only thing I remembered was that I helped him deflate his final Bestway whale, and that when the rain subsided, I started packing up and teased that I would leave immediately when the rain completely stopped. XD Oh yes, remember I said that this was done during SOW right? Well, I called the guys that was supposed to come over to Sentosa for beach games, but apprently the weather put them off and they headed back to school to plan for talent night.

Finally, the rain stopped, both of us packed up and decided to have lunch at Burger King. On our way out, I met the guys who were from Enigineering O-week (namely my ex-JC classmate Eugene). Obviously, I was dodgy with what I was doing before I met him. After lunch at Burger King, I changed back to my still wet shoes because I hadn't got any space to put them. Then back on the main island, I sent NCH off at Harbourfront and I too headed home. It was already 2pm by then.

Part 3 - The saga continues XD

2005-08-13T08:03:00.000+08:00

We took several runs to manage to get all our stuff under the shelter, but even being under the shelter didn't help very much as the wind continued to pound us. I couldn't take it anymore and decided to wear back my shirt. And then, it poured heavily. The lashing of the sand turned into lashing of rain onto us.
Max tried the best as he could to help arrange all of our stuff, and packing at the same time. We also pushed our stuff as far back into the corner as possible to avoid or stuff from getting wet. NCH was at one corner holding down his 5 whales from being blown away by the strong winds. While I was continuing to get the all the remaining air out of the last 3 remaining whales.
Minutes passed, Max didn't find the weather too promising and decided to leave, since he had to rush off and do some packing at home. And boy did he run, under the pounding rain and wind. Now, only NCH and I were left.
NCH was trying his best to deflate 3 of his whales at once, which was a very slow process. I was starting to soak in all the strong wind and rain blowing into our shelter, so I decided to take off my shirt again. This wasn't really a good idea as I soon found out. It was awfully cold from the wet weather and it affected NCH badly. He was shivering and was starting to get numb from the rain. I could see little progress from the inflated size of his whales. I asked him to hang on and hoped the rain would stop soon. Then I thought of an idea to rinse/fold my whales in the rainwater that blew into our shelter, doing my best to hide my shivering from NCH.
After 10 minutes or so, I noticed that NCH had curled up into a ball with his almost deflated whales, and it looked like he wasn't moving. I asked him again if he was alright, and he was complaining feeling very cold. Then I decided, it was time to go. We couldn't stay in the shelter any longer as I also couldn't take it, otherwise the next day sure fall sick. I told NCH that it was time to go to the nearest toilet where we could finish off packing, but NCH just wanted to stay there. After much encouragement, he finally budged. I wrapped 2 whales around me to shield me from the rain and helped NCH to carry some of his stuff. (To be continued again)

Part 2

2005-08-12T01:58:00.000+08:00

4/8 (Yes, am guilty for doing this during the SOW itself but it wasn't as bad as I will explain later).

The plan was to meet at Harbourfront MRT station at 6.45am and leave for Sentosa to take the whale shots. Then at 6.45am itself, NCH called me on my handphone and told me he just woke up. I could tell Max was quite peeved *sigh*. Anyway, Max and I went to have breakfast and went to meet NCH at 7.15am. We headed straight to Tanjung Beach where we continued to inflate our whales (5+5+1). I also slipped into my flip-flops. This time, I got Max to take all the shots, while NCH and me went into the water to move the whales around. Yup, it was my turn to join in the fun of riding and playing with the whales on the water since no one was around.
Suddenly, the sky from afar turned very dark, and it was closing on us fast. I already had enough of fun and began to deflate my whales, and so did Max, while NCH wanted to grab more shots of his collection. Then it just hit us. The wind was very strong, either that or the sand was too light. It seemed there was a sandstorm on the beach, and being bare-bodied didn't help as the sand literally pounded on my back. OUCH! All 3 of us grabbed our stuff and ran into the nearest shelter we could find..... (to be continued)

Entry on 11/8

2005-08-12T01:43:00.000+08:00

It's been too long since I last wrote in this. So I'll try my best to pen down the many exciting things that has happened. It's not that nothing's happened in my life. I'm just lazy to pen it down that's all...

First off, 28/7 - 06/08, Science Orientation Week. Amazing period of time. Lots have happened and lots of new friendships have been made.
Batman OG seniors: Sky, Yuhan, Zhihui, Kar Heng, Peiyi, and me.
Members: Aini, Jiahui, Felix, BengHwa, Kailing, Kaiting, Anni, Johann, Peiying, Zhonghong, Alvin, Shaokai, Nisha, Rachel, Sarah.
Throughout these 1+ week, there was so much... insanity lol. It was so fun, so much better compared to last year's orientation week. Our OG clinched Best Sound (noisiest OG lol), Best house (Hero), and Sci fac won the Chancellors Shield and I was there to witness it all. The whole experience was indeed overwhelming.
Apart from all the hype and fun, I was reflecting on the events gone past. This was indeed something I felt for the first time - a sense of belonging. The atmosphere created just made you want to give more even though I was physically tired. I even told my parents: all we needed was to show a bit of enthusiasm, and the way the freshies reciprocated the energy was enough to keep us going even though we were physically and mentally exhausted.
Oh oh, I even told myself that I was bound to get sick after this SOW, but it would be worth it... and sure enough I did fall sick... oh well...hehe...
Dad even replied that this sort of scene was something like the tower of Babel, where all of humanity once bonded together towards a common goal. I wonder whether God was afraid of humanity's bonding that he scattered mankind.

Entry on 2/7

2005-07-03T12:24:00.000+08:00

I think it is essential that I put this down today. SO much has been said about my life as a Christian.

READING THE WORD OF GOD IS IMPORTANT!!!

It is so important that I don't know why I can't bring myself to read it often enough, that's way I need to put it down here. Someone said that the reason why there's so much confusion between the choices we make, or why we don't hear from God, is because God is changing the principles we have made ourselves and does not answering the question directly. It's almost as if my decision that I will never do honours may not necessarily be a good thing either, as this might stifle God's plan for me.

I digress here: Lately, I've come to realise that maybe the whole 80's "flower power" and "free love" has not totally died, but instead, it has evolved. I would dare say that it has now manifested into what the world know as the FURRY lifestyle. Indeed, the Furry lifestyle has a lot of grey areas that one can continue to wallow in. But, is that really all necessary? The confusion of what's right and what's not? What has God have to say about this? More importantly, is it worth it to continue this debate? Maybe the answers will all be revealed when I start acknowledging Him first. I've been receiving prompting that the reason why God is using me is because He is using me as a vessel to get what He wants to say, through to others. But, I'm not there yet as to why I can't fully understand the gravity of the matter and, thus unable to help fully.

Seeking God's direction and purpose is of utmost importance too. Someone even mentioned going to extent that every thought and action be committed to God, or ask his permission to seek His will.

Entry on 24/6

2005-06-25T11:53:00.000+08:00

Now that everyone's read their part, it's time to move on to other stuff. It's been a busy week about a fortnight ago (hence the delay in reply). The day finally came where I did the ultimate stunt when my parents weren't around and I had the whole house to myself.
12/6. Pre-preparation day. I moved out all of the furniture in my house, except for my cupboard and bed (for obvious reasons)
13/6. I inflated all my animals and someone else brought along his collection too.
14/6. Another friend came along and we took the necessary pics. Later on in the evening when the second friend left, I inflated more stuff, which was most of my beach balls and filled up 4/5 of my entire room. I couldn't really sleep in such a pile, but since I can't stay awake through a night for nuts, I still eventually KO'ed at 3 am.
15/6. Woke up at around 8 am, and started to help my friend deflate his toys. Then, prepared this pool of water to wash his toys with. At the same time, I was deflating all the beach balls. We finished washing his toys at around 2 pm, then took a taxi at 3 pm to his place so as to beat his parents back home. I returned home and started washing the smaller beach balls. Later, my friend dropped by again too help out.
16/6. Woke up early again, took more pics, and then deflated and washed all the animals and bigger beach balls, which were already deflated the night before.

This event was a definitely not one would forget easily: being squashed by inflatable toys all around you to the extent of literally pushing the toys away to get from one end of the room to the other. Alas, after the event, I was thinking it wasn't really worth it. For the simple fact that the ratio of the time taken to play with the toys to the time taken inflating/deflating/washing was too little. I doubt this would be done again anytime soon. But, the whole event was still memorable (I can't stress this enough)

Also, to mark the end of the event, I gave away 1 of my 36" Looney Tunes Beach ball (the older more colourful version) to my friend. *edit* *edit2*

Entry on 7/6

2005-06-08T12:01:00.000+08:00

Let's continue from where we left off yesterday. This should be quite long, as this would describe the people I've chatted with on MSN. MSN has been taking up a lot of my time.. hehe.

First off... (if you're reading this), welcome back Fox aka silverfox-5213. Indeed, you have been dearly missed. It doesn't really matter how bad your connection is, so long as I get to chat with you, bro. ^^.... Hmm, take good care of yourself, k?
Ric, all the best to you starting your new semester and your life in KL again.

Srmaedis, we haven't been talking much, but all the best to your studies. You're lucky to have friends like Moth and Sno.
Moth, wished we could chat more often, but I guess it's kinda difficult given the timezones. You've really got a lot of friends there to support you and give you hugs too. Smile more, it helps.
Sno(blissea), (hmm.. where to begin)... It's been real nice chatting with you, even if it's like for an hour or so. I confess I have been following your blog closely, and feel your pain each time you post something sad. Cheer up, and remember those who care for you whenever you're feeling down, especially your other half, Shema. She really seems to be a nice girl... lucky you. May I suggest that you continue to stay strong and don't let circumstances get you down, so that you can better support Shema through her tough times. I also hope you will get along better with your parents, I'm sure they want the best for you.

Kiyo, I can't thank you enough for the joint setting up of TDF with Ceralor. Hope we can chat more often too, though the thought of adopting an inflatable character hasn't yet crossed my mind. Digimon rulez!

K'hast, it's been quite sometime already, but I want to thank you again for that long chat about furs. It made me understand more about your world. Hope everything stays well over your side.

Pongo, thank you for bearing with me as I bombard you with the many questions. It still amazes me until this day with the number of toys you have in your possession. Indeed, a true collector you are. It's been fun chatting with you too... ^^

Wolf(gang), formerly known as coloweirdo. *sigh... What can I say, dude? You and your increasing furry instinct. It's just disturbing... honestly lol. You've made some biggy decisions, but remember where your true priorities lie okay? I wish you all the best with her,..... and nice artwork again... you're getting there.

Deko, (soon to be formerly known as SSTI). It's really been great to have known you. Thanks for the randomness, hardware info, randomness, constant contributions to the inflatable community, randomness, lively chats, and did I forget to mention randomness? :P Hope you manage to get over your sleep problems too... lol

Back to Singapore,
IMJ, it's nice to have a friend like you and local too. Though sometimes what you say can really be chat-halting (because dotted), you're still fun to have around. Remember to take care and not fall ill because of work-related stress.

NCH, NCH, NCH... what can I say chat buddy? I see you online every night without fail, and the best thing is that we can always find something to chat about most of the time... (omg, is that normal?) I just love your artwork, it leaves me in awe without fail each time. Your flash elements too. Here's to the one of the most prolific artists on DA and NG. Cheers! Thanks for joining me in this project. Don't think I need to say anymore, since I still see you often. :P

Wow, this was long, and to think I wanted to post something else here. Well, guess I'll leave it till tomorrow.

Entry 6/6

2005-06-07T04:00:00.000+08:00

Hmm... interesting day to post again after such a long time. It reminds me of eyesight, which I don't have - 6/6 vision.

Let's see... a lot happened within a span of a month plus. But I really don't know whether I should post everything here though.

For one, I'm glad I'm still alive and kicking... gotta be grateful for that, otherwise I won't be able to experience whatever that is that's coming.

Studies wise: I'm having my holidays now, quite relaxed. I'm not working although I have a 3 month break, because I want to feel what it's like to have a 3 month break doing practically nothing.
Also, my results for last semester just came in not too long ago. B+ for Physical Chemistry - this is the 3rd time already that I scored this grade for something I thought I'd do well in... oh well *shrugs*. I got B- for 3 other subjects. Organic Chem (didn't study so the grade was expected... my area of interest too... '-_-), the S'pore studies mod (was quite a surprise... guess I've got a lot to improve on essay writing), Geog level 1000 (it was quite a relief actually given the lousy CA). I cleared my other GEM and English too. All in all, my CAP dropped, but I'm not complaining... (the power of a positive outlook to life... *thinks of Pat Mok in My Sassy Neighbour and cringes*... no no no... I'm not that lame... I hope)

Music wise: This might a shocker for some but I bought a Jap album, called "Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Complete Best". I was addicted to the cartoon, and I also fell in love with the music. I sort of bought this album for the fun of it :P, also because of keepsake... I own a piece of Gundam Seed fandom XD. I'm beginning to change my perception of non-English music, but the progress is still slow. Chinese music is still the last thing on my mind now.

Hmm.. that's all for now... it's too long for a post already.. :)

Entry on 28/4

2005-04-29T05:35:00.000+08:00

Wow, the second last paper already... Time has flown past real quick. All the better for me, cause that means my exams are going to be over soon. Yay!
Weather's been extremely hot these few days, hope the sun will be kinder on Singapore soon, because of the upcoming photoshoots.
Oh well, just now, I was studying until I was giddy. Also, this feeling was something like what I felt last semester during my study break. It makes me wonder whether I'm still cut out for university education. Then again, I should probably rely more on paying attention in class, so that I don't spend too much time mugging at home. And to think that while I was studying just now, I didn't put in maximum effort, and I'm beginning to feel tired already. I've stopped studying for today's paper... cannot take it anymore.
Hmm, I think I need to use my hands more. I just inflated (pump) my black killer whale and my hands are starting to shake already (symptom of tiredness)

Second one today

2005-04-28T07:32:00.000+08:00

I'm out from my 4th exam... apparently, it wasn't all that good. Was quite pissed off with today's paper. I was thinking what in the world is this paper trying to ask.... oh well... All is not lost. By some divine intervention, I actually declared that this module will not count towards my overall grade. *Phew* for me.

Off to study for my next paper....

Thoughts....

2005-04-27T23:27:00.000+08:00

I do not know why I was a bit crazy to think of the collaborative project I'm having with my Internet friends last night. I mean, I'm having a paper today... Probably I'm too excited to start on the photoshoots already.
Anyway, here are just some thoughts I thought about last night. I can't fully remember all of them though, but will continue to write them down here as and when I remember them.

- Check with xydexx whether his website is a personal and paid account to manage it (host).
- Check whether xydexx and ebertsoft wouldn't mind hosting popping related stuff.
- Check various hosting sites about limit of info allowed (pics take up a lot of space)
- Check with lelola.net about the scripting (her links are 'hidden' unless you hover over it).
- Approach a friend to help (Jon Lin) with HTML stuff over the holidays (cross fingers he's won't be working)
- Ask whether nch would have the time to do up a flash intro? (Hahaha... I know nch you're reading this)

As for the actual photos, I'm most probably heading to Labrador Park after my paper on Friday. And I'll go check out the place. According to a source (IMJ), the place is quite rocky. But then it just hit me, why not move the sealion scenes there instead of the pool... after all, there are fewer animals to handle, and therefore lesser chances of injuring our toys, rather than say, our whales. But I'll go check out the place first. BTW, I got this rad idea about going to Labrador Park because IMJ, said it's secluded... heck, so why not?

Oh oh, and another thing, I figured out some other stuff that I'll just write here for the fun of it, as a form of remembrance. First, I figured out that popping isn't necessarily a bad thing. This story is something part thriller, so actually the general public would just see the popping as a thriller scene. But I guess out of courtesy, I'll put it on a separate page, and put a warning for those who are anti-popper.
Second, I know this maybe a stupid idea, but why not have a pending prequel in the works. Reasons for having this include the introduction of new toys in my collection in the future (?), or something else to backup the story to this. Anyway, a lot of websites suffer the fate of non-visitation anymore because there isn't anything new left to see. This could be a buffer... *shrug*....
That's all for now, need to get back to studying... can't wait for Friday's paper to end, am so excited about finishing the picture story.

Second one

2005-04-27T01:47:00.000+08:00

Hey, you can't really blame me right? I mean look, I'm in the midst of exams now... but guess I'm doing fine... must be someone up there who's watching over me...
Anyway yah, tomorrow's the start of the 3 day and consecutive papers. It ends off with my core module too... oh well...
Me ar, I also don't know why I'm haven't got the mood to study. Also, I'm not the only one who feels this way either...
Oh well, time to pick one of my animals you see in the pic, and snuggle it...

2005-04-23T16:00:00.000+08:00

wow?

Test 1

2005-04-23T14:47:00.000+08:00

Ooh... what do we have here? *starts to fiddle around with buttons... what does this do... Ah... ic..
Oh well, will try to post something everyday... hee