28th Birthday report 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah.. like what the title said.

5th semester exams

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

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.